t 1. YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY From the COLLECTION OF OXFORD BOOKS made by FALCONER MADAN Bodley's Librarian AN EXPOSITION OF THE XXXIX ARTICLES OF THE PHURCH OF ENGLAND. WRITTEN BY i'-, GILBERT.BISHOP OF SARUM. 3 A A OXFORD: PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS* Mpccxcvr. TO THE KING, SIR, TH E title of Defender of the Faith, the nobleft of all thofe which belong to this imperial Crown, that has received a new luftre by Your Majesty's carrying it, is that which You have fo glorioufly acquired, that if Your Majestt had not found it among them, what You have done, muft have fecured it to Your- felf by the bell of all claims. We Ihould be as much alhamed not to give it to Your MAjESTr, as we were to give it to thofe who had been fatally led into the defign of overturning that, which has been beyond all the examples in hif- tory preferved and hitherto maintained by Your Majesty. The Reformation had its greateft Support and ftrength from the Crown of England ; while two of Your renowned Anceftors were the chief Defenders of it in forei^ parts. The blood of England mixing fo happily with theirs, in your Royal Perfon, feemed to give the world a fure prognoftic of what niight be looked fof a 2, from Vr EPISTLE DEDICATORY. from fo great a conjundion. Your Majesty has outdone all expeftations ; and has brought matters to a ftate far beyond all our hopes. But amldft the laurels that adorn You, and thofe applaufes that do every where follow You, fuffer me. Great Sir, in all humility to tell You, that your work is not yet done, nor your glory complete, till You have employed that power which God has put in your hands, and before which nothing has been able hitherto to ftand, in the fupporting and fecuring this Church, in the bearing dov^n Infidelity and Im piety, in the healing the wounds and breaches that are made among thofe who do in common profefs this Faith, but are unhappily disjointed and divided by fome differences that are of lefs importance : and above all things, in the ralfing the power and efficacy of this Religion, by a fuitable reformation of our lives and manners. How much foever men's hearts are out of the reach of human authority, yet their lives and all outward appearances are governed by the example and influences of their Sovereigns. The effedlual purfulng of thefe defigns, as it is the greateft of all thofe glories of which mor tals are capable ; fo it feems to be the only thing that is now w^anting, to finifh the brighteft and perfed;eft charaftcr that will be in hiftory. It was in order to the promoting thefe ends, that I undertook this work ; which I do now moft humbly lay before Your Majesty, with the profoundeft refped and fubmiffion. May EPISTLE DEDICATORY. May God preferve Your Majesty, till You have glorioufly finiflied what You have fo won derfully carried on. All that You have hitherto fet about, how fmall foever the beginnings and hopes were, has fucceeded in your hands, to the amazement of the whole world : the moft defperate face of affairs has been able to give You no ftop. Your Majesty feems born under an afcen- dant of Providence ; and therefore how low fo ever all our hopes are, either of raifing the power of Religion, or of uniting thofe who profefs it ; yet we have often been taught to defpair of nothing that is once undertaken by Your Majesty. This will fecure to You the bleffing of tho prefent and of all fucceeding ages, and a full re ward in that glorious and immortal ftate that is before You : to which, that Your Majesty may have a flare, though a late admittance, is the daily and moft earneft prayer of, May it pleafe Your MAJESTY, Your Majefty's moft loyal, moft obedient, and moft devoted Subjed and Servant,"! GI. SARUM, C G, immni mi i iiiiiwniii ii iiiiiiniji PREFACE, IT has been often reckoned among the things that were wanting, that we had not a full and clear explanation of the Thirty-nine Articles, which are the fum of our dodtrine, and the confeffion of our faith. The modefty of fome, and the caution of others, may have obliged them to let alone an under taking, that might feem too affuming for any man to venture on, without a command from thofe who had authority to give it. It has been likewife often fug- gefted, that thofe Articles feemed to be fo plain a tranfcript of St. Auftin's dodtrine, in thofe much dif- puted points, concerning the Decrees of God, and the Efficacy of Grace, that they were not expounded by our Divines for that very reafon ; fince the far greater number of them is believed to be now of a different opinion. I fhould have kept within the fame bounds, if I had' not been firft moved to undertake this work, by that 9-reat Prelate who then fate at the helm : and after that, determined in it by a command that was facred to me by refpedt, as well as by duty. Our late Primate hved long enough to fee the defign finifhed. He read it over with an exadtnefs that was peculiar to him. He employed fome weeks wholly in perufing it, and he corredted it with a care that defcended even to the fmalleft matters ; and was fuch as he thought became the importance of this work. And when that was done, he returned it to me with a letter, that as a 4 ¦ ijt ViU PREFACE. it was the laft I ever had from him, fo it gave the whole fuch a charadter, that how much foever that_ might raife its value with true judges, yet in decency it muft be fuppreffed by me, as being far beyond what any performance of mine could deferve. He gave fo fa vourable an account of it to our late bleffed Queen, that fhe was pleafed to tell me, fhe would find leifure to read it : and the laft time that I was admitted to the honour of waiting on her, Ihe commanded me to bring it to her. But Ihe was foon after that car ried to the fource, to the fountain of life, in whofe light fhe now fees both light and truth. So great a breach as was then, made upon all our hopes, put a ftop upon this, as well as upon much greater defigns. This work has lain by me ever fince : but has been often not only reviewed by myfelf, but by much bet ter judges. The late moft learned Bifhop of Worcefter read it very carefully. He marked every thing in it that he thought needed a review ; and his cenfure was in all points Submitted to. He expreffed himfelf fo well pleafed with it, to myfelf, and to fome others, that I do not think it becomes me to repeat what he faid of it. Both the moft reverend Archbilhops, with fe- veral of the Bifhops, and a great many learned Divines have alfo read it. I muft, indeed, on many accounts own, that they may be inclined to favour me too much, and to be too partial to me ; yet they looked upon this work as a thing of that importance, that I have reafon to believe they read it over feverely : and if fome fmall corredlions may be taken for an indica tion that they faw no occafion for greater ones, I had this likewife from feveral of them. Yet after all thefe approbations, and many repeated defires to me to publifh it, I do not pretend to im- pofe this upon the reader as the work of authority. For even our mofi reverend Metropolitans read it only as private divines, without fo fevere a canvaffing of all particulars as muft have been expedted, if this had been intended to pafs for an authorifed work under a public Ibmp. Therefore my defign in giving this re- ; Iation PREFACE. IX Iation of the motives that led me firft to compofe, and now to publifh this, is only tojuftify myfelf, both in the one and in the other, and to fliew that I was not led by any prefumption of my own, or with any defign to dldtate to others. In the next place, I will give an account of the me thod in which I executed this defign. When I was a ProfefTor of Divinity thirty years ago, I was then obliged to run over a great many of the fyftems and bodies of divinity, that were writ by the chief men of the feveral divifions of Chriftendom. I found many things among them that I could not like : the ftiffnefs of method, the many dark terms, the niceties of lo gic, the artificial definitions, the heavinefs as well as the Iharpnefs of ftyle, and the diffufive length of them, difgufted me : I thought the whole might well be brought into lefs compafs, and be made fhorter and more clear, lefs laboured, and more fimple. I thought many controverfies might be cut off, fome being only difputes about words, and founded on miftakes ; and others being about matters of little confequence, in "which errors are lefs criminal, and fo they may be more eafily borne with. This fet me then on compofing a great work in divinity : but I ftayed not long enough in that ftation, to go through above the half of it. I entered upon the fame defign again, but in another method, during my ftay at London, in the privacy that I then enjoyed, after I had finilhed the hiftory of our Reformation. Thefe were advantages which made this performance much the eafier to me : and perhaps the late Archbifhop might, from what he knew of the progrefs I had made in them, judge me the more proper for this undertaking. For after I have faid fo much to juftify my own engaging in fuch a work, I think I ought to fay all I can to juftify, or at leaft to excufe, his making choice of me for it. When I had refolved to try what I could do in this method, of following the thread of our Articles, 1 con- fidered, that as I was to explain the Articles of this Church, fo I ought to examine the writings of the chief SI TREFACE. chief Divines that lived, either at the time in which they were prepared, or foon after it. When I was about the hiftory of our Reformation, I had laid out tor all the books that had been writ within the time compre hended in that period : and I was confirmed in my having fucceeded weU in that colledion, by a printed catalogue, that was put out by one Manfel in the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign, of all the books that had been printed from the time that printing-prefTes were firft fet up in England to that year. This I had fronj -the prefent Lord Archbifhop of York ; and I faw by it, that very few books had efcaped my fearch. Thofe that I had not fallen on, were not writ by men of name, nor upon important fubjedts. I refolved, in or der to this work, to bring my enquiry further down. The firft, and indeed the much beft writer of Queen Elizabeth's time, was Bifhop Jewel ; the lafting honour of the fee in which the providence of God has put me, as well as of the age in which he lived; who had fo great a fhare in all that was done then, par ticularly in compiling the fecond book of Homilies, that I had great reafon to look on his works as a very fure commentary on our Articles, as far as they led mc. From him I carried down my fearch through Reynolds, Humphreys, Whitaker, and the other great men of that time. Our Divines were much diverted in the end of that reign from better enquiries, by the difciplinarian con troverfies; and though what Whitgift and Hooker writ on thofe heads, was much better than all that ¦came after them ; yet they neither fatisfied thofe againft whom they writ, nor ftopt the writings of their own fide. But as waters gufli in, when the banks are once broken, fo the breach that thefe had made, proved fruitful. Parties were formed, fecular interefts were grafted upon them, and new quarrels followed thofe that firft began the difpute. The contefts in Hol land concerning predefiination, drew on another fcene of contention among us as well as them, which was managed with great heat. Here was matter for angry men PREFACE. »» toen to fight it out, till they themfelves and the whole nation grew weary of it. ' The queftion about the morahty of the Fourth Commandment, was an un happy incident, that raifed a new ftrife. The contro verfies withithe Church of Rome were for a long while much laid down. The Archbifhop of Spalata's works had appeared with great pomp in King James's time, and they drew the obfervation of the learned world much after them ; though his unhappy relapfe, and fatal cataftrophe, made them tobe lefs read afterwards, than they well deferved to have been. When the progrefs of the houfe of Auftria began to give their neighbours great apprehenfions, fo that the fvroteftant religion feemed to come under a very thick cloud, and upon that jealoufies began to rife at home, in King Charles's reign, this gave occafion to two of the beft books that we yet have : the one fet out by Archbifhop Laud, writ with great learning, judgment, and exadlnefs : the other by Chillingworth, writ ¦ with fo clear a thread of reafon, and in fo lively a ftyle, that it was juftly reckoned the beft book that had been writ in our language. It was about the niceft point in Popery, that by which they had made the moft profelytes, and that had once impofed on himfelf, concerning the infallibility of the Church, and the motives of credibility. Soon after that, we fell into the confufions of civil war, in which our Divines fufFered fo much, that while they were put on their own defence againft thofe that had broke the peace of the Church and State, few ¦books were written, but on thofe fubjedts that were then in debate among ourfelves, concerning the go vernment of the Church, and our Liturgy and cere monies. The difputes about the decrees of God were again managed with a new heat. There were alfo great abftradtions fet on foot in thofe times, concerning y'?^ tification by faith, and thefe were both fo fubtile, and did feem to have fuch a tendency not only to antino- mianifm, but to a libertine courfe of life, that many books were writ on thofe fubjedts. That noble work of ¦^ P R fi F A 0 fi. of the Polyglot Bible, together with the colledtion of the critics, fet our Divines much on the ftudy of the Scriptures, and the oriental tongues, in which Dr. PocockandDr. Lightfoot were Angularly eminent ._ In all Dr. Hammond's writings one fees great learning, and a folid judgment ; a juft temper in managing controverfies ; and above all, a fpirit of true and primi tive piety, with great appfication to the right under- ftanding of the Scriptures, and the diredling of all to pradtice. Bifliop Pearfon on the Creed, as far as it goes, is the perfedteft work we have. His learning was profound and exadt, his method good, and his ftyle clear : he was equally happy both in the force of his arguments, and in the plainnefs of his ex- preffions. Upon the reftoratlon of the Royal Family, and the Church, the firft fcene Of writing was naturally laid in the late times, and with relation to conformity. But we quickly faw that Popery was a reftlefs thing, and was the ftanding enemy of our Church : fo foon as that fhewed itfelf, then our Divines returned to thofe controverfies, in which no man bare a greater fhare, and fucceeded in it with more honour, than Bifhop StUlingfleet, both in his vindication of Archbifhop Laud, and in the long-continued difpute concerning the idolatry of the Church of Rome. When the dangers of Popery came nearer us, and became fenfible to all perfons, then a gi'eat number of our Divines engaged in thofe controverfies. They writ fhort and plain, and yet brought together in a great variety of fmall tradts, the fubftance of all that was contained in the large vo lumes, writ both by our own Divines and by foreigners. There was in thefe a folidity of argument mixed with an agreeablenefs in the way of writing, that both pleafed and edified the nation ; and did very much confound, and at laft filence the few and weak writers that were of the Romifh fide. The inequality that was in this conteft was too vifible to be denied, and therefore they who fet it firft on foot, let it fall : for they had other methods to which they trufted more, than PREFACE. XM than to that unfiiccefsful one of writing. In thofe treatifes, the fubftance of all our former books is fo fully contained, and fo well delivered, that in them the dodtrines of our Church, as to all controverted points, are both clearly and copioufly fet forth. The perufing of all this was a large field : and yet I thought it became me to examine all with a due meafure of exadlnefs. I have taken what pains I could, to digeft every thing in the cleareft method, and in tlie fhorteft compafs, into which I could poflibly bring it. So that in what I have done, I am, as to the far greateft part, rather an hiftorian and a colledtor of what others have writ, than an author myfelf. This I have performed faithfully, and I hope v/ith fome meafure of diligence and exadtnefs : yet if, in fuch a variety, fome important matters are forgot, and if others are miftaken, I am fo far from reckoning it an injury to have thofe difcovered, that I will gladly re ceive any advices of that kind : I will confider them carefully, and make the beft ufe of them I can, for the undeceiving of others, as foon as I am convinced that I have miffed them. If men feek for truth in the meeknefs of Chrift, they will follow this method in thofe private and brothetly pradtices recommended to us by our Saviour. But for thofe that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, I fhall very little regard any oppofition that may come from them. I had no other defign in this work, but firft to find out the truth myfelf, and then to help others to find it out. If I fucceed to any de gree in this defign, I will blefs God for it : and if I fail in it, I will bear it with the humility and patience that becomes me. But as foon as I fee a better work of this kind, I fhall be among the firft of thofe who fhall recommend that, and difparage this. There is no part of this whole work, in which I have 'iboured with more care, and have writ in a more uncommon method, than concerning predefiination. For, as my fmall reading had carried me further in that controverfy, than in any other whitfoever, both with. relation xiv PREFACE. relation to ancients and moderns, and to the tnoft efteemed books in all the different parties ; fo I weighed the Article with that impartial care that I thought be came me ; and have taken a method, which is, for aught I know, new, of ftating the arguments of all fides with lb much fairnefs, that thofe who knew my own opinion in this point, have owned to me, that they could not difcover it by any thing that I had written. They were inclined to think that I was of another mind than they took me to be, when they read my arguings of that fide. I have not in the explanation of that Article told what my own opinion was ; yet here I think it may be fitting to own, that I follow the dodtrine of the Greek Church, from which St. Auftin departed, and formed a new fyftem. After this declaration, I may now appeal both to St. Auftin's difciples and to the Calvinifts, Vi^hether I have not ftated both their opinions and arguments, not only with truth and candour, but with all poffible advan tages. One reafon among others, that led me to follow the method I have purfued in this controverfy, is to offer at the beft means I can for bringing men to a better underftanding of one another, and to a mutual forbearance in thefe matters. This is at prefent the chief point in difference between the Lutherans and the Calvinifts. Expedients for bringing them to an union in thefe heads, are projedts that can never have any good effedt : men whofe opinions are fo different, can never be brought to an agreement : and the fettling on fome equivocal formularies, will never lay the con tention that has arifcn concerning them : the only pof fible way of a found and lafting reconciliation, is to pofTefs both parties with a fenfe of the force of the arguments that lie on the other fide ; that they may fee they are no way contemptible ; but are fuch as may prevail on wife and good men. Here is a foundation laid for charity : and if to this, men would add a juft fenfe of the difficulties in their own fide, and confider that the ill confequences drawn from opinions, are not to PREPACK. ^ "Xf to be charged on all that hold them, unlefs they do likewife own thofe confequences ; then it would be more ealy to agree on fome general propofitions, by which thofe ill confequences might be condemned, and the dodtrine in general fettled ; leaving it free to the men of the different fyftems to adhere to their own opinions ; but withal obliging them to judge charita bly and favourably of others, and to maintain commu nion with them, notwithftanding that diverfity. It is a good ftep even to the bringing men over to an opinion, to perfuade them to think well of thofe who hold it. This goes as it were half way ; and if it is not poffible to bring men quite to think as we do, yet a great deal is done" both towards that, and towards the healing thofe wounds in which the Church lies a bleeding, when they come to join in the fame com munion, and in fuch adts of worfhip as do agree with their different perfuafions. For as in the facrament of the Eucharift, both Lutherans and Calvinifts agree ing in the fame devotions and adts of worfliip, a mere point of fpeculation concerning the manner in which Chrift is prefent, ought not to divide thofe who agree in every thing elfe that relates to the facrament ; every one may in that be left to the freedom of his own thoughts, fince neither opinipn has any influence on pradtice, or on any part either of pubHc worfliip, or of fecret devotion. Upon the fame account it may be alfo fuggefted, that when all parties acknowledge that God is the fo- vereign Lord of the univerfe ; that he governs it by a providence, from which nothing is hid, and to which nothing can refift ; and that he is likewife holy and juft, true and faithfiil, merciful and gracious- in all his ways ; thofe who agree about all this, fhould not dif fer, though they cannot fall into the fame methods of reconciling thefe together. And if they do all agree to blefs God for all the good that they either do, or receive, and to accufe themfelves for all the ill that they either do or fuffer : if they agree that they ought to be humble, and to miftruft their own ftrength, to pray XVI PREFACE. pray eameftly to God for affiftance, and to depend on him, to truft to him, and likewife to employ their own faculties with all poffible care and diligence, in the cleanfing their hearts, and governing their words and adtions ; here the great truths of both fides are fafe ; every thing that has an influence on pradtice is agreed on .: though neither fide can meet in the fame ways of joining all thefe together. In the Church of Rome the difference is really the fame between St. Auftin's difciples, and the followers of Molina : and yet how much foever they may differ and difpute in the fchools, their worfliip being the fame, they do aU join in it. We of this Church are very happy in this refpedt ; we have all along been much divided, and once almoft broken to pieces, while we difputed concerning thefe matters : but now we are much happier ; for though we know one another's opinions, we live not only united in the fame worfliip, but in great friendfliip and love with thofe of other perfuafions. And the boldnefs of fome among us, who have refledled in fermons, or otherwife, on thofe who hold Calvin's fyftem, has been much blamed, and often cenfured by thofe who, though they hold the fame opinions with them, yet are both more chari table in their thoughts, and more difcreet in their ex- preffions. But till the Lutherans abate of their rigidity in cen- furing the opinions of the Calvinifts, as charging God with all thofe blafphemous confequences that they think follow the dodtrine of abfolute decrees ; and till the Calvinifts in Holland, Switzerland and Geneva, abate alfo of theirs, in charging the others as enemies to the grace of God, and as guilty of thofe confequences that they think follow the dodtrine of conditionate decrees, it is not poffible to fee that much wifhed for agreement come to any good effedt. He who believes that an ill confequence is juftly drawn from any opinion, is in the right, when he is by that determined againft it. But becaufe he thinks he fees that the confequence is clear, and cannot be avoided « PREFACE. Xvil avoided ; he ought not for that to judge fo Ifl of thofe who hold the opinion, but declare at the fame time that- they abhor the confequence; that they prevari cate in that declaration ; and that they both fee the confequence, and own it ; though for decency's fake they difclaim it. He ought rather to think that either they do not fee the confequence, but fatisfy themfelves with fome of thofe diftindtions with which it is avoid ed ; or that though they do fee it, yet they look on -that only as an objedtion which indeed they cannot weU anfwer. They may think that a point of doc trine may be proved by fuch convincing arguments, that they may be bound to believe it, though there lie objedtions againft it which they cannot avoid, and con fequences feem to follow on it which they abhor, and are fure cannot be true, though they cannot clear the matter fo well as they wifli they could do. In that cale, when a man is inclined by ftrong arguments to an opinion, againft which he fees difficulties which he cannot refolve, he ought either to fufpend his affent ; or if he fees a fuperiority of argument of one fide, he may be determined by that, though he cannot fa tisfy even himfelf in the objedtions that are againft it : in that cafe he ought to refledl on the weaknefs and defedts of his faculties, which cannot rife up to full and comprehenfive ideas of things, efpecially in that which relates to the attributes of God, and to his counfels or adts. If men can be brought once to ap prehend this rightly, it may make propofitions for peace and union hopeful and pradticable ; and till they are brought to this, all fuch propofitions may well be laid afide ; for men's minds are not yet prepared for that which can only reconcile this difference, and heal this breach. I fhall conclude this preface with a reply, that a very eminent Divine among the Lutherans in Ger many made to me when I was preffmg this matter of union with the Calvinifts upon him, with all the to pics with which I could urge it, as neceffary upon many accounts, and more particularly with relation to b the '^^"l PREFACE. the prefent ftate of affairs. He faid, he wondered much to fee a Divine of the Church of England prefs that fo much on him, when we, notwithftanding the danger we were then in (it was in the year 1686) could not agree our differences. They differed about im portant matters, concerning the attributes of God, and his providence ; concerning the guilt of fin, whe ther it was to be charged on God, or on the finner ; and whether men ought to make good ufe of their fa culties, or if they ought to truft entirely to an irre- fiftible grace .'' Thefe were matters of great moment : but, he faid, we in England differed only about forms of government and worfliip, and about things that were of their own nature indifferent ; and yet we had been quarrelling about thefe for above an hundred years ; and we were not yet grown wifer by all the mifchief that this had done us, and by the imminent danger we were then in. He concluded, Let the Church of England heal her own breaches, and then all the reft of the reformed Churches will with great refpedt admit of her mediation to heal theirs. I will not prefume to tell how I anfwered this : but I pray God to enlighten and diredt all men, that they may confider well how it ought to be anfwered. ARTICULI ARTICULI RELIGIONIS. Anno 1562. ^HE Articles of our Church were at the fame time pfepared both in Latin and Englifh ; fo that both are equally authentical : it is therefore proper to give them here in Latin, fince the Englifli of them is only inferted in the following work. This is the more ne ceffary, becaufe many of the collations fet down at the end of the introdudtion, relate to the Latin text. ARTICULI de quibus convenit inter Archiepifcopos et Epifcopos utriufque Proviitci^, et Clerum Univerfum in Synodo, Londini, Anno 1562. fecundum computationem Ecclefia /^nglicana, ad toUendam opinionum dijfentionem., et confenfum in vera Religione frmandum. Editi Au- thoritate ferenijfima Regina. Londini, apud Johan- nem Day, 1571. De fide infacro-fanilam Trlnitatem. T TNUS efl vivus, et varus Deus, aeternus, incorporeus, im- j^ ^ partibilis, impaffibilis, immenfEe potentiae, fapientiae ac bo- nitatis, creator et confervator omnium, turn vifibilium, turn invifibilium. Et in unitate hujus divinae naturte, tres funt perfonse, ejufdem effentiae, potentije ac aeternitatis, Pater, Filius, et Spiritus fanftus. De verbo,five Filio Dei., qui verus homofailus efi. TTlLIUS, qui eft verbum patris, ab aeterno a patre genitus, 2, ^ verus et aeternus Deus, ac patri confubftantialis, in utero beata; virginis, ex illius fubftantia naturam humanam aflump- fit : ita ut duffi naturae, divina et humana, integre atque per- fecSte in unitate perfonae fuerint infeparabiliter conjundtse, ex quibus eft unus Chriftus, verus Deus et verus homo, qui vere paffus eft, crucifixus, mortuus, et fepultus, ut patrem nobis re- conciliaret, effetque hoftia, non tantum pro culpa orignis, ve rum etiam pro omnibus a<5lualibus hominum peccatis. i b 2 De XX ARTICULI RELIGIONIS. Q! De defcenfu Chrifii ad Inferos. UEMADMODUM Chriftus pro nobis mortuus eft, et fepultus, ita eft etiam credendus ad Inferos defcendifle. De refurre£llone Chrifii. /^HRISTUS vere a mortuls refurrexit, fuumque corpus ^ cum carne, oflibus, omnibufque ad integritatem humanae naturas pertinentibus, recepit : cum quibus in ccelum afcendit, ibique refidet, quoad extremo die ad judicandos homines rever- furus fit. De Spiritu fanifo. CPIRITUS fanftus, a patre et filio procedens, ejufdem eft cum ^ patre, et filio eflentiae, majeifatis, et glorix, verus ac aeter nus Deus. , De divinis Scripturis, quod fufiiciant ad falutem. OCRIPTURA facta continet omnia, quae ad falutem funt neceffaria, ita ut quicquid in ea nee legitur, neque inde pro- bari poteft, non fit a quoquam exigendum, ut tanquam articulus fidei credatur, aut ad falutis neceiTitatem requiri putetur. Sacrae Scripture nomine, eos Canonicos libros veteris, et novi Teftamenti intelligimus, de quorum authoritate, in Ec- clefia nunquam dubitatum eft. De nominibus, et numero librorum facra Canonica Scriptura veteris Tefiamenti. Genefis. Exodus. Leviticus. Numeri.Deuteron. Jofus. Judicum. J /^ENERALIA Concilia, fine juflTu, et voluntate Principum ^-'^ congregar! non poiTunt; et ubi convenerint, quia ex homini bus conftant, qui non omnes fpiritu, et verbo Dei, reguntur, et - errare poffunt, et interdum errarunt etiam in his quae ad Deum pertinent : ideoque quae ab illis conftituuntur, ut ad falutem neceffaria ; neque robur habent, neque authoritatem, nifi of- tend! poffint e facris Uteris effe defumpta. De Purgatorio. 22. TSOCTRINA Romanenfium de purgatorio, de indulgentiis, -*-^ de veneratione, et adoiatione, tum imaginum, tum reli- quiarum, nee non de invocatione fandl:orum,reseft futilis, inaili- ter confidta, et nullis Scripturarum teftimoniis innititur : immo verbo Dei contradicit. De minifirando in Ecclefia. 23. XTON licet cuiquam fumere fibi munus publice praedicandi, "'¦^ aut adminiftrandi Sacramenta in Ecclefia, nifi prius fuerit ad haec obeunda legitime vocatus et mifius. Atque illos legi time vocatos et miflbs exiftimare debemus, qui per homines, quibus poteftas vocandi miniftros, atque mittendi in vineam Domini, publice conceffa eft in Ecclefia, cooptati fuerint, et adfciti in hoc opus. De loquendo in Ecclefia lingua quam populus intelligit. 24. T INGUA populo non intelledta, publicas in Ecclefia preces -^^ peragere,aut Sacramenta adrainiitrare, verbo Dei, et primi- tivae Ecclefiae confuetudini plane repugnat. De Sacramentis. 25- CACR AMENTA a Chrifto inftituta, non tantum funt notse profeffionis Chriftianorum, fed certa quxdam potius tefti- monia, et cfficacia figna gratiae atque bonae in nos voluntatis Dei, ARTICULI RELIGIONIS. XXV Dei, per quae invifibiliter ipfe in nos operatur, noftramque fi dem in fe non folum excitat, verum 6tiam confirmat. Duo a Chrifto Domino noftro in Evangelic Inftituta funt Sa cramenta : fcilicet, Baptifmus, et Coena Domini. Quinque ilia vulgo nominata Sacramenta : fcilicet, confir- matio, pjtnitentia, ordo, matrimonium, et extrema undtio, pro Sacramentis Evangelicis habenda non funt, ut quae, partim a prava Apoftolorum imitatione profluxerunt, partim vitae ftatus funt in Scripturis quidem probat! : fed facramentorum eandem cum Baptifmo et Ccena Domini rationem non habentes, ut quae fignum aliquod vifibile, feu cxremoniam, a Deo inftitutam, non habeant. Sacramenta non in hoc inftituta funt a Chrifto ut fpedlaren- tur, aut circumferrentur, fed ut rite illis uteremur, et in his dun- taxat qui digne percipiunt falutarem habent effedtum : Qui vero indigne percipiunt, damnationem (ut inquit Paulus) fibi ipfis acquirunt. ' De vi infiitutionum divinarum, quod eam non tollat malitia Mi- nifirorum, QUAMVIS in Ecclefia vifibili, bonis mali femper funt ad- 26. , mixti, atque interdum minifterio verb!, et Sacramentorum adminiftrationi praefint, tamen cum non fuo, fed Chrifti nomine agant, ejufque mandato, et authoritate miniftrent, illorum mi nifterio uti licet, cum in verbo Dei audiendo, tum in Sacra mentis percipiendis. Neque per illorum malitiam, efFedlus in- ftitutorum Chrifti tollitur, aut gratia donorum Dei minuitur, quoad eos qui fide, et rite fibi oblata percipiunt, quae propter inftitutionem , Chrifti, et promiffionem efficacia funt, licet per malos adminiftrentur. Ad Ecclefiae tamen difciplinam pertinet, ut in malos minif tros inquiratur, accufenturque ab his, qui eorum flagitia no- verint, atque tandem jufto convidti judicio deponantur. De Baptifmo. BAPTISMUS non eft tantum profeflionis fignum, ac dif- 27.- criminis nota, qua Chriftiani a non Chriftianis difcernantur, fed etiam eft fignum regenerationis, per quod, tanquam per in- ftrumentum, reSe baptifmum fufcipientes, Ecclefise inferuntur, promiffiones de remiffione peccatorum, atque adoptione noftra in filios Dei per Spiritum fanftum vifibiliter obfignantur, tides confirmatur, et vi divinae invocationis gratia augetur. Baptifmus parvulorum omnino in Ecclefia retinendus eit, ut qui cum Chrifti inftitutione optime congruat. De XXVI ARTICULI RELIGIONIS. De Coena Domini. 28. /^CENA Domini non eft tantum fignum mutuae benevolen- ^ tiae Chrift.anorum inter fefe, verum potius eft Sacramen- tuni noftrae per mortem Chrifti redemptionis. Atque adeo, rite, digne, et cum fide fumentibus, panis quem frangimus eft communicatio corporis Chrifti : fimiliter poculum benedidtionis, eft communicatio fanguinis Chrifti. Panis et vini tranfubftantiatio in Euchariftia ex facris Uteris probari non poteft. Sed apertis Scripturae verbis adverfatur, Sa- cramenti naturam evertit, et multarum fuperftitionum dedit occafionem. Corpus Chrifti datur, accipitur, et manducatur in Coena, tantum coelefti et fpirituali ratione. Medium autem quo cor pus Chrifti accipitur, et manducatur in Coena, fides eft. Sacramentum Eucharifti;^, ex inftitutione Chrifti non ferva- batur, circumferebatur, elevabatur, nee adorabatur. 29. De manducatione corporis Chrifii., et impios illud non manducare. i MPII, et fide viva deftituti, licet carnaliter, et vifibiliter (ut ^ Auguftinus loquitur) corporis, et fanguinis Chrifti Sacra mentum, dentibus premant, nullo tamen modo Chrifti participes efficiuntur. Sed potius tantae rei Sacramentum, feu Symbolum, ad judicium fibi manducant, et bibunt. De utraque fpecie. 30. /^ ALIX Domini laicis non eft denegandus, utraque enim pars ^^ Dominici Sacramenti, ex Chrifti inftitutione, et praecepto, omnibus Chriftianis ex aequo adminiftrari debet. De unica Chrifii oblatione in cruce perfe3ia. 31. /^BLATIO Chrifti femel fadla, perfcdla eft redemptio, pro- pitiatio, et fatisfadtio pro omnibus peccatis totius mundt, tam originalibus, quam adlualibus. Neque praster illam unicam, eft uUa alia pro peccatis expiatio, unde mifl'arum facrificia, qui bus, vulgo dicebatur, facerdotem offerre Chriftum in remiffio- nem pcEnae, aut culpa?, pro vivis et defundlis, blafphema fig- menta funt, et perniciofie impofturae. De conjugio Sacerdotum. 32. jgPISCOPIS, prefbyteris, et diaconis nullo mandato divino prasceptum eft, ut aut ccelibatum voveant, aut a matrimo- nio abftineant. Licet igitur etiam illis, ut casteris omnibus Chriftianis, ubi hoc ad pietatem magis facere judicaverint, pro fuo arbitratu matrimonium contrahere. De AUTICULI RELIGIONIS. XXvIl De excotnmunicatis vitandis. r\ U I per publicam Ecclefiae denunciationem rite ab unitate 33. ^"Sw-^*^'^l^fi* pra;cifus eft, et excommunicatus, is ab univerfa fidelium multitudine (dqnec per poenitentiam publice reconci- liatus fiierit arbitrio Judicis competentis) habendus eft tanquam ethnicus et publicanus. De traditionibus Ecclefiafiicis. 'TpRADITIONES atque caeremonias eafdem, non omnino ne- 34. -*¦ ceffarium eft effe ubique, aut prorfus confimiles. Nam ut variae femper fuerunt, et mutari poffunt, pro regionum, tempo- rum, et morum diverfitate, modo nihil contra verbum Dei infti- tuatur Traditiones, et caeremonias ecclefiafticas, quae cum verbo Dei non pugnant, et funt authoritate publica inftitutae, atque probatae, quifquis private confilio volens, et data opera, publice violaverit, is ut qui peccat in publicum ordinem Ecclefiae, qui- que laedit authoritatem Magiftratus, et qui infirmorum fratrum confcientias vulnerat, publice, ut caeteri timeant, arguendus eft. Quaelibet Ecclefia particularis, five nationalis, authoritatem habet inftituendi, mutandi, aut abrogandi caeremonias, aut ritus ecclefiafticos, humana tantum authoritate inftitutos, modo om nia ad aedificationem fiant. De Homiliis. 'irOMUS fecundus Homiliarum, quarum fingulos titulos huic 35'. -*¦ articulo fubjunximus, continet piam et falutarem dodtri- nam, ethis temporibus neceffariam, non minus quam prior To- mus Homiliarum, quae editae funt tempore Edwardi fexti : Ita- que eas in-Ecclefiis per miniftros diligenter, et clare, ut a po pulo intelligi poffint, recitandas effe judicavimus. De nominibus Homiliarum. Of the right ufe of the Church. Againfi peril of Idolatry. Of repairing and keeping clean of Churches. Of good Works. Firft^Of Fafiing. Againfi Gluttony andDrunken- nefs. Againfi excefs in Apparel. Of Prayer. Of the place and time of Prayer. Ihat common Prayers and Sa craments ought to he minifired in a known Tongue. Of the reverent efiimation of God's Word Of Alms-doing. Of the Nativity of Chrifi„ Of the Paffton ofChrifi. Of the Refurreiiion ofChrifi. Of the worthy receiving of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood ofChrifi. Of the Gifts of the Holy Ghofi. xxviii ARTICULI RELIGIONIS. Of the Rogation-days. \ Againfi Idlenefs. Of the State of Matrimony. Againfi Rebellion. Of Repentance, De Epifcoporum et Minifirorum confer atione. 36. T tBELLUS de confecratioiie Archiepifcorum, et Epifcopo- ¦*-' rum,et de ordinatione Preft)yterorum et Diaconorum, editus nuper temporibus Edwardi VL et authoritate Parliament! illis jpfis temporibus confirmatus, omnia ad ejufmod! confecratio- nem, et ordinationem neceffaria continet, et nihil habet, quod ex fe fit, aut fuperftitiofum, aut impium : itaque quicunque juxta ritus illius libri confecrati, aut ordinat! funt, ab anno fecundo praedidli regis Edwardi, ufque ad hoc tempus, aut in pofterum juxta eofdem ritus confecrabuntur, aut ordinabuntur, rite atque ordine, atque legitime ftatulmus effe, et fore confecratos et or- dinatos. De civilibus Magifiratibus. VJ, "n EGIA Majeftas in hoc Angliae regno, ac cxteris ejus do- ¦'^ miniis, fummam habet poteftatem, ad quam omnium fta- tuum hujus regni, five illi ecclefiaftici fint, five civiles, in om nibus caufis, fuprema gubernatio pertinet, et null! externae ju- rifdidtioni eft fubjedla, nee effe debet. Cum Regiae Majeftati fummam gubernatlonem tribuimus, quibus titulis intelligimus animos quorundam calumniatorum offend!, non damus Regibus noftris, aut verb! Dei, aut Sacra mentorum adminiftrationem, quod etiam Injundliones ab Eli- iabetha Regina noftra, nuper edita, apertiflime teftantur. Sed cam tantum praerogativam, quam in facris Scripturis a Deo ipfo, omnibus piis Princip!bus,videmus femper fuiffeattributam: hoc eft, ut omnes ftatus, atque ordines fide! fuae a Deo com- miffos, five ill! ecclefiaftici fint, five civiles, in officio conti- neant, et contumaces ac delinquentes gladio civil! coerceant. Romanus pontifex nullam habet jurifdidtionem in hoc regno Anglias. Leges regni poffunt Chriftianos propter capitalia, et gravia crimina, morte punire. Chriftianis licet, ex mandato Magiftratus, arma portare et jufta bella adminiftrare. De illicita bonorum communicatione. 38. ¦p'ACULTATES et bona Chriftianorum non funt commu- ^ nia, quoad jus et pofleflionem (ut quidam Anabaptiftx falfo jadtant) debet tamen quifque de his quae poffidet, pro facultatum ratione, pauperibus eleemofynas benigne diftribuere, De ARTICULI RELIGIONIS. XXIX De jurejurando. /~\UEMADMODUM juramentum vanum et temerarium a 30, ^N^JDomino noftro Jefu Chrifto, et Apoftolo ejus Jacobo, Chriftianis hominibus interdidlum effe fatemur : Ita ChrifHano- rum Religionem minime prohibere cenfemus, quin jubente magiftratu in caufa fidei et charitatis j urate liceat, modo id fiat juxta Prophetae dodtririam, in juftitia, in judicio, et veritate. Confirmatio Articulorum. T_TIC liber antedidlorum Articulorum jam denuo approbatus 40. eft, per aflenfum et confenfum Sereniifimae Reginae Eliza- bethae Dominae noftrae, De! gratia Angliae, Franciae, et Hi- berniae Regins, defenforis fidei, &c. retinendus, et per totum regnum Angliae exequendus. Qui Articuli, et ledii funt, et denuo confirmat!, fubfcriptione D. Archieplfcopi et Epifcopo rum fuperioris domus, et totius Cleri inferioris domus, in Con- vocatione Anno Domini, 1571. CON TENTS, CONTENTS. TNTRODUCTION, Page i ¦^ Herefies gave the Rife to larger Articles, ibid. A Form of Doitrine fettled by the Apofiles, 2 Bifhops fent round them a Declaration of their Faithy 3 Thefe were afterwards enlarged, ibid. This done at the Council o/'Nice, ibid. Many wild Se£ls at the beginning of the Reformation, 5 And many complying Papifis put them on framing this Colle£iiony ibid. The Articles fet out at firfi hy the King's Authority, 6 A ^efiion vjhether they are only Articles of Peace or DoSlrine, 7 They bind the Confciences of the Clergy, ibid. The Laity only bound to Peace by them, ibid. The Subfcription to them imports an affent to the/n, and not only an acquiefcing in them, g But the Articles may have different Senfes ; and if the Words •will bear them, there is no Prevarication in fubfcribing themfo, ibid. This illufirated in the Third Article, IO The various Readings of the Articles collated with the MSS. II An Account of thofe various Readings, 1 5 A R T I C L E L 21 That there is a God, proved by the Confent of Mankind, ibid. Obj. I. Some Nations do not believe a Deity. This is anfwered, 2? Obj. 2. It is not the fame belief among them all. This is an fwered, ibid. The vifible World proves a Deity, 23 Time XXXU CONTENTS. Time nor Number cannot be eternal nor infinite, _ 24 Moral Arguments to prove that the World had a Beginning, Such a regular Frame could not be fortuitous, ibid. ObjeBion from the ProduUion of InfeBs anfwered, 26 Argument from Miracles well attefied, 27 Argument from the Idea of God examined, > ibid. God is eternal, and neceffctrily exijls, 28 The Unity of the Deity', 29 God is without Body, 3° Outward Manifefiations only to declare his Prefence and Autho rity, 31 Nofucceffive ABs in God, _ 32 ^uefiion concerning God's immanent ABs, ibid. ¦God has no Paffions, 33 Phrafes in Scripture of thefe explained, ibid. Some Thoughts concerning the Power and Wifdom of God, 34 True Ideas of the Goodnefs of God, 35 €)f Creation and Annihilation, 37 Of the Providence of God, 38 ObjeBions againfi it anfwered, 39 Whether God does immediately produce all Things, 40 Thought and Liberty not proper to Matter, 41 ¦Whether Beafis think, or are only Machines, 42 H-ow Bodies and Spirits are united, 43 The DoBrine of the Trinity, 44 Whether revealed in the Old Tefiament, or not, 45 The DoBrine fiated, 46 Argument from the Form of Baptifm, 47 Other Arguments for it, ibid. This was received in the firfi Ages of Chrfiianity, 49 Some Attempt to the fating true Ideas of God, 50 A R T I C L E II. 53 Chrifi, how the Son of God, ibid. ' Argument from the Beginning of St. John's Gofpel, 54 RefieBions on the State of the World at that Time, 55 Arguments from the Epifile to the Philippians, 56 Other Arguments complicated, 57 Argument from Adoration due to him, 59 The Silence of the Jews proves this was not then thought to be Idolatry by them, 60 Argument from the Epifile to the Hebrews, 61 God and Man in Cljrfi made one Perfon, 63 An Account ^Neftorius's DoBrine, 64 Chrifi was to us an Expiatory Sacrifice, 65 An CONTENTS. XXxiil m Account of Expiatory Sacrifices^ 6? The Agonies of Chrifi explained, 67 ARTICLE m. 69 RufRn firfi publifhed this in the Creed, ibid. Several Senfes put on this Article, yo A local Defcent into Hell, ibid. What may be the true fenfe of the Article, yj A R T I C L E. IV. 73 The Proof of Chrifi' s RefurreBion, ibid. The Jews in that Time did not difprove it, 75 Several Proofs of the Incredibility of a Forgery in this matter.^ ibid. The Nature and Proof of a Miracle, nn What miifi be afcribed to good or evil Spirits, n^ The Apofiles could not be impofed on, ibid. Nor could they have impofed on the World, 70 Of Chrifi^ Afcenfiion, ^o Curiofity in thefe matters taxed, 8i The Authority with which Chrifi is now vefied, 82 A R T I C L E V. 84 Thefenfes of the word. Holy Ghoft, ibid. Jtjiands oft for a Perfon, 85 Curiofities to be avoided about Proceffion, ibid. Tin Holy Ghofi is truly God, 87 A R T I C L E VI. 88 The Contriver^ about Oral Tradition, 89 That was foon (irrupted, 90 Guarded againfi-hy Revelation, gi Tradition corrupted among the Jews, ^2 The Scripture appealed to hy Chrifi and the Apofiles, ibid. What is well proved from Scripture, 94 ObjeBions from the darknefs of Scripture anfwered, 95 No fure guard againfi Error, nor againfi Sin, 97 The Proof of the Canon of the Scripture, 98 Particularly of the New Tefiament, 99 Thefe Books -Were early received, 1 01 The Canon of the Old Tefiament proved, 102 Concerning the ^cnt3.tiw.<^, 103 ObjeBions againfi the Old Tefiament anfwered, 104 Concerning the various Readings, I ©5 The nature and degrees of Infpiration, ie6 c Concerning XXXIV CONTENTS. Concerning the Hifiorical Parts of Scripturct lO'-' Concerning the Reafonings in Scripture, ^^9 Of the Apocryphal Books, I ^ 0 ARTICLE VIL 113 No difference between the Old and New Tefiament, ibid. Proofs in ihe Old Tefiament of the Meffias, I14 In the Prophets ; chiefiy in Daniel, I \^ The Proofs all fummed up, H 8 ObjeBions of the ^tsKS anfwered, II9 The hopes of another Life in the Old Tefiament, 121 Our Saviour proved the RefurreBion from the words to Mofes, 122 Expiation of Sin tn the Old Difpenfation, 123 Sins then expiated by the Blood of Chrifi, I24 Of the Rites and Ceremonies among the Jews, 125 Of their Judiciary Laws, 126 Of the Moral Law, 127 The Principles of Morality, 128 Of Idolatry, ibid. Concerning the Sabbath, X 20 Of the Second Table, !•»! Of not coveting what is our Neighbour's, ibid, ARTICLE VIIL 133 Concerning the Creed of hth.zn?i{\us, ibid. And the condemning Claufes in it, ibid. Of the Apofiles Creed, 13 j A R T I C L E IX. 136 Different Opinions concerning Original Sin, " 1 97 All Men liable to Death by it, ibfj. A Corruption fpread through the whole Race of Adam, 1 38* Of the State of Innocence, |oq Of the EffeBs s/ Adam's Fall, 140 God's fufiice vindicated, j j_I O/" the Imputation a/'Adam's Sin, ' 14.2 St. Auftin's DoBrine in this Point, I40 This is oppofed by tnany^ others, jA Both Sides pretend their DoBrines agree with the Article, 147 A R T I C L E X. 149 The true Notion of Liberty, jbjd The Feeblenefs of our prefent State, i rg Inward Afffiances promifed in the New Covenant^ 1 5,1 Tht CONTENTS, XXXV The EffeB that thefe have on Men, I53 Concerning Preventing-Grace, 1 54 Of its b^ing efficacious or univerfal, 155 A R T I C L E XL 157 Concerning Jufiification, _ ibid. Concerning Faith, ' 159 The difference between the Church of England and the Church ^/¦Rome in this Point, 160 Tlie Conditions upon %uhich Men arejuflified^ 163 The Ufe to be made of this DoBrine, 164 ARTICLE XII. 165 The Neceffity of Holinefs, ibid. Concerning Merit, 1 67 Of the DefeBs of good Works, ibid, ARTICLE XIIL 169 ABions in themfelves good, yet may be Sins in him who does them, ibid. Of the Seventh Chapter io the Romans, 170 Thif is not a total Incapacity, . ' 1 7 1 ARTICLE XIV. 172 Of the great Extent of our Duty, ibid. No Counfels of PerfeBion, 173 ^any L>uties which do not hind at all Times, 1 74 // is not poffible for Man to fupererogate, 175 ObjeBions againfi this anfwered, 17^ The Steps by which that DoBrine prevailed, 177 A R T I C L E XV. 179 Chrifi' s fpotlefs Holinefs, ibid. Of the ImperfeBions of the befi of Men, 180 ARTICLE XVL 182 Concerning Mortal and Venial Sin, ibid. Of the Sin againfi the Holy Ghofi, 183 Of the Pardon of Sin after Baptifm, _ 184 That as God forgives, the Church ought alfo to forgive, 185 Concerning Apofiacy, and Sin unto Death, 186 ARTICLE XVIL 188 Tht State of the ^efiion, 189 c 2 Tlie XXXVI CONTENTS. The DoBrine of the Supralapfarlans and Sublapfarians, I90 the DoBrine of the Remonftrants and the Socinians, Jbid. Tliis is a Controverfy that arifes out of Natural Religion, 191 The Hiftory of this Controverfy both in ancient and modern Times, _ »b"J' The Arguments of the Supralapfarlans, 19° Tlie Arguments of the Sublapfarians, 200 The Arguments of the Remonftrants, 207 'I hey affirm a certain Prefcience, 211 The Socinians Plea, ¦ 215 General RefieBions on the whole Matter, »l6 The Advantages and Difadvantages of both Sides, and the Faults of both, 217 In what both do agree, 219 The Scnfe of the Article, 220 Tlie Cautions added to it, 7.11 Paffages in the Liturgy explained, 222 ARTICLE XVIIL 224 Philofophers thought Men might be faved in all Religions, ibid. So do the Mahometans, ibid. None are faved but by Chrifi, 225 Whether fome may not be faved by him, who never heard of him, 226 None are in Covenant with God, but through the knowledge of Chrifi, 227 . But for others, we cannot judge of the extent of the Mercies of God, _ 228 Curiofity is to be refirained, ibid. . ARTICLE XIX. 230 We ought not to believe that any are infallible, without good Authority, ibid. Jufi prejudices againfi fome who pretend to it, 231 No Miracles brought to prove this, 232 Proofs brought from Scripture, 23? Things tobe fuppofed previous to thefe, ibid. A Circle is not to be admitted. The Notes given of the true Church, jbij. Thefe are examined, -_J And whether they do agree to the Church of Rome, 2^6 The Truth of DoBrine mufi he firfi fettled, ibfd. A Society that has a true Baptifm, is a true Church, %vi Sacraments are not annulled by every Corruption, 238 CONTENTS. XXXVU We own the Baptifm and Orders given in the Church ofRoms, 239 And yet jufiify our feparating from them, ibid. ObjeBions againfi private judging, ibid. Our Reafons are given us for that End, 240 Our Minds are free as our Wills are, 241 The Church is fiill Vifible, but not Infallible, 242 Of the Pope's Infallibility, 243 That was not pretended to in the firfi Ages, ibid. The Dignity of Sees rofefrom the Cities, 244 Popes have fallen into Herefy, ibid. Their Ambition and Forgeries, 245 Their Cruelty, ibid. The Power of depofing Princes claimed hy them as given them by God, 246 This was not a Corruption only of Difcipline, hut of DoBrine, Arguments for the Pope's Infallibility, 248 No foundation for it in the New Tefiament, 249 St. Peter never claimed it, ibid. Chrifi' s words to him explained, 250 Of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, ibid. Of binding and loofing, 251 ARTICLE XX. 253 Of Church Power in Rituals, ibid. The PraBice of the Jewifh Church, 254 Changes in thefe fometimes neceffary, 255 The PraBice of the Apofiles, ^ ibid. SubjeBs mufi obey in lawful things, 256 But Superiors mufi not impofe too much, _ 257 The Church has Authority, though not Infallible, 858 Great RefpeB due to her Decifions, 259 But no abjolute Submiffion, >bid. The Church is the Depofitary of the Scriptures, ibid. The Church «/'Rome run in a Circle, 260 ARTICLE XXL 261 Councils cannot be called, but hy the Confent of Princes, ibid. The firfi were called by the Roman Emperors, ibid. Afterwards the Popes called them, 262 Then fome Councils thovght on Methods to fix thur Meeting, •' ibid. What makes a Council to he general, 263 What numbers are neceffary, J°|°' Hew mufi they be cited, '»'«• c 3 ^^ XXXVUl CONTENTS. No Rules given in Scripture concerning their Conflitution, loi^ Nazianzen's Complaints of Councils, . . Councils have been contrary to one another, ibid. Diforders and Intrigues in Councils, 265 They judge not by Infpiration, ibid. The Churches may examine their Proceedings, and judge of them, 266 Concerning the Pope's Bull confirming them, ibid. Tljey have an Authority, but not abfolute, ibid. Nor do they need the Pope's Bulls, _ ibid. The feveral Churches know their Traditions befi, 267 Tlie Fathers do argue for the truth^ofthe decifions, but not from their authority, ibid. NoprofpeB of another General Council, ibid. Popes are jealous of them, 268 And the World expeBs Uttle from them, ibid. Concerning the Words, Tell the Church, ibid. How the Church is the Pillar and Ground of Truth, ibid. Chrifi s Promife, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world, 269 Of that. It feemed good to the Holy Ghoft, and to us, ibid. Some General Councils have erred, 270 ARTICLE XXIL 272 The DoBrine of Purgatory, ibid. Sins once pardoned are not punifhed, 273 Unlefs with chafiifements in this Life, 274 Nofiate of fatisfaBion after Death, ibid. No mention made of that in Scripture, 276 • But it is plain to the contrary, ibid. Different opinions among the Ancients, 277 The Original of Purgatory, 278 A paffage in Maccabees confider ed, ibid. Apaffage in the Epifile to the Corinthians confider ed, 28Q The progrefs of the belief of Purgatory, 281 Prayers for the Dead among the Ancients, ibid. Endowments for redeeming out of Purgatory, 283 Whether thefe ought to he facred, or not, 285 The DoBrine of Pardons and Indulgences, ibid. It is only the excufing from Penance, 286 No Foundation for it in Scripture, 287 General Rules concerning Idolatry, 288 Of the Idolatry of Heathens, ibid. Laws given to the Jews againfi it, 289 The Expofiulations of the ProphetSy 290 Gmcerning the Golden Calf, 291 And CONTENTS. XXXIX And the Calves at Dan <7«i Bethel, 291 The Apofiles oppofed all Idolatry, 292 St. Paul at Athens, and to the Romans, 293 The fenfe of the primitive Fathers upasi it, 294 The firfi ufe of Images among Ch rifiians, 295 PiBures in Churches for InfiruBion, ibid. Were afterivards worfhipped, ibid. Contefis about that, 296 Images of the Deity and Trinity, 297 On what the Worfhip of Images terminates 298 The due Worfhip fettled by the Council at Trent, ibid. Images confecrated, and how, 299 Arguments for worfhipping them anfwered, ibid. Arguments againfi the ufe or worfhip of Images, 300 Tlie worfhip of Relic ks, 301 A due regard to the Bodies of Martyrs, 302 The progrefs of Superfiition, ibid. No warrant for this in Scripture, ibid. Hezekiah broke the.Brazet Serpent, . 303 The memorable paffage concerning the Body of St, Polycarp, ibid. Fables and forgeries prevailed, 304 The Souls of the Martyrs believed to hover about their Tombs, 305 Nothing of this kind objeBed to the firfi Chrifiians, ibid. Difputes between Vigilantius and St. Jerom, 306 No Invocation of Saints in the Old Tefiament, 3O7 The Invocating Angels condemned in the New Tefiament, 309 No Saints invocated, Chrifi only, ibid. No mention of this in the three firfi ages, 310 In the fourth. Martyrs were invocated, ibid. The progrefs that this made, 31 1 Scandalous Offices in the Church o^Rome, 312 Arguments againfi this invocation, 313 An Apology for thofe who began it, ibid. The Scandal given by it, 3^5 Arguments for it arifwered, 316 Whether the Saints fee all things in God, ibid. Tins no part of the Communion of Saints, ibid. Prayers ought to be direBed only to God, 317 Revealed Religion defigned to deliver the World from Idolatry, ibid. ARTICLE XXUL 319 ASucceffion of Pafiors ought to be in the Churchy ibid. This was fettled by the Apofiles, 320 And mufi continue to the end of the World, ibid. // was fettled in the firfi age of the Church, 321 c 4 tht Xl CONTENTS. The danger of Men's taking to themfelves this authority •without a due vocation, 3^* The difference between means of Salvation, and Precepts for Or der's fake, _3?3 What is lawful Authority, ibid. What may be done upon extraordinary Occafions, _3?4 Neceffity is above Rules of Order, ibid. The High Priefis in our Saviour's time, 3?^ Baptifm by Women, ibid. ARTICLE XXIV. 328 The chief end of worfhipping God, ibid. The praBice of the Jews, 329 Rules given by the Apofiles, ibid. The PraBice of the Church, ¦ 330 Arguments for Worfhip in an unknown Tongue anfwered, 331 ARTICLE XXV. 333 Difference between Sacraments and Rites, 334 Sacraments do not imprint a CharaBer, ibid. But are not mere Ceremonies, 33^ What is neceffary to confiitute a Sacrament, 337 That applied to Baptifm, 338 And to the Eucharifi, ibid. No mention offeven Sacraments before Peter Lombard, ibid. Confirmation no Sacrament, 339 How praBifed among us, ibid. The ufe ofChrifm in it, is new, 340 ' Oil early ufed in Chrifiian Rituals, ibid. Bifhops only confecrated the Chrifm, 341 In the Greek Church Prefbyters applied it, ibid. This ufed in the Weftern Church, but condemned by the Popes, Difputes concerning Confirmation, ibid. Concerning Penance, ibid. The true Notion of Repentance, 343 Confeffion not the matter of a Sacrament, 344 The ufe of Confeffion, ibid. The Priefi's Pardon minifierial, 345 And refirained within bounds, ibid. Auricular Confeffion not neceffciry, 346 Not commanded in the New Tefiament, 347 The beginnings of it. in the Church, ibid. Many Canons about Penance, 348 Confeffion forbid at Conftantinople, _ 349 The ancient difcipline fiachenei, ' ^ ibid. Confeffion CONTENTS. Confeffwn may he advifed, but not commanded, 35© The good and bad effeBs it may have, 351 ^ Contrition and Attrition, 352 The ill effeBs of the DoBrine of Att'-'tiony ibid. Of doing the Penance or SatisfaBioJif 353 Concerning Sorrow for Sin, 354 Of the ill effeBs of hafiy Abfolution, 355 OfFafiing and Prayer, ibid. Of the Form, I abfolve thee, 356 Of Holy Orders, 357 Of the ancient Form of Ordinations, ibid. Of delivering the Veffel, 358 Orders no Sacrament, 359 Whether Bifhops and Priefis are of the fame Order, 360 Of Marriage, ibid. It can be no Sacrament, 361 Intention not neceffary, ibid. How Marriage is called a Myfiery or Sacrament, 362 Marriage diffolved hy Adultery, 363- The PraBice of the Church in this matter, 364 Of Extreme UnBion, ibid. St. James's Words explained, 365 Oil much ufed in ancient Rituals, 367 Pope Innocent's Epifile confidered. Ibid. Anointing ufed in order to Recovery, 369 Afterwards as the Sacrament of the dying, ibid. The Sacraments are to be ufed, 37 O And to be received worthily, ibid. ARTICLE XXVI. 372 Sacraments are not effeBual as Prayers are, ibid. Of the DoBrine of Intention, 374 The ill Confequences of it, ibid. Of a jufi Severity in Difcipline, 375 Particularly towards the Clergy, 376 ARTICLE XXVIL 377 Concerning St. John's Baptifm, ibid. The Jews ufed Baptifm, ibid. The Chrifiian Baptifm, 37^ The eUfference between it and St. John's, 379 The neceffity of Baptifm, ibid. It is a Precept, but not a mean of Salvation, 380 Baptifm unites us to the Church, 3^ ^ It alfofaves us, ibid. St, Peter's Words explained, 383 St, xii )dil CONTENTS. St. Auftin's DoBrine of Baptifm, 383 Baptifm is a Falderal Stipulation, ibid. In what fenfe it was of more Value to preach than to baptize, 384 Of Infant Baptifm, ibid. It is grounded on the Law if Nature, 385 And the Law of Mofes, and warranted in the Neiv Tefiament, 385 In what fenfe Children can be holy, ibid. It is alfo very expedient, 387 ARTICLE XXVIIL 388 The change maJe in this Article in ^ueen Elizabeth's time, ibid. The explanation of our DoBrine , "^(^ Of the Rituals in the Paffover, 390 0/"f/;^ /Far^j-, This ismy Body, ibid. And, This Cup is the New Teftament in my Blood, 391 Of the Horror the Jews had at Blood, 392 In what fenfe Only the Difciples could underfiand our Saviour's Words, ibid. 5^e Dijcourfe (John vi.) explained, 393 It can only be underfiood fpiritually, 354 Bold Figures much underfiood in the Eaft, 395 A plain thing needs no great proof, 396 Of unworthy Receivers, and the effeB of that Sin, 397 Of the effeBs of worthy receiving, 398 Of Feeder al Symbols, 399 Of the Communion of the Body and Blood ofChrifi, ibid. Of the like Phrafes in Scripture, 400 Of our fenfe of the Phrafe, Real Prefence, . 401 Tranfubfiantiation explained, 402 Of the Words of Corifecration, 403 Of the Confequences of Tranfubfiantiation, ibid. The Grounds upon which it was believed, 404 This is contrary to the Tefiimony of all our Faculties, both Senfe and Reafon, 4.OC We can be fure of nothing, if our Senfes do deceive us, 406 • The objeBionfrom believing Myfieries, anfwered, 407 The end of all Miracles confidered, ibid. Our DoBrine of a Myfiical Prefence is confeffed by thofe of the Church ^/¦Rome, 408 St. Auftin's Rule about Figures, 40Q Prefumptions concerning the belief of the ancients in this matter, ibid. They had not that Philofiphy which this DoBrine has forced on ihe Chur-eh of R ome, 4 1 0 This was not objeBed by Heathens, 412 CONTENTS. Xliii No Herefies or Difputes arofe upon this, as they did on all other , Points, _ '413 ^any ne%v Rituals unknown to them, have fprung out of this DoBrine, 414 In particular, the adoring the Sacrament, 415 Prayers in the Maffes of the Saints inconfifient with it, ibid. . They believed the Elements were Bread and Wme after Confecra- tion, ibid. Many Authorities brought for this, 416 Eutychiansjfa/i, Chrifi' s Humanity was fwallowed of his Divi nity, _ _ 417 The Fathers argue againfi this from the DoBrine of the Eucha rifi, ibid. The Force of that argument explained, 418 The Fathers fay our Bodies are nourifhed by the Sacrament, 419 They call it the Type, Sign, and Figure of the Body 'and Blood of Chrifi, 42a The Prayer of Confecration calls itfo, 422 That compared with the Prayer in the Miffal, ibid. The progrefs of the DoBrine of the Corporal Prefence, 423 RefieBion on the Ages in which it grew, 424 The occafion on which it was advanced in the Eaftern Church, 425 Pafchafe Radbert taught it firfi, 426 But many wrote againfihim, i/lj Afterwards Berengarius oppofed it, 428 The Schoolmen defcanted on it, ibid. Philofophy was corrupted to fupport it, 429 Concerning Confubfiantiation, 43 O // is an opinion that may be borne with, ibid. The Adoration of the Eucharifi is Idolatry, 431 The Plea againfi that confidered, ibid. Chrifi is not to be worfhipped, though prefent, 432 Concerning referving the Sacrament, jbid. Concerning the Elevation of it, 434 ARTICLE XXIX. 435 The wicked do not receive Chrifi, ibid. The DoBrine of the Fathers in this point, 436 More particularly St. Auftin's, ibid. ARTICLE XXX. 438 The Chalice was given to all, ibid' Not CO the Difciples as Priefis, 439 ?)& I? breaking of Bread explained, ibid. Sacraments mufi be given according to the Infiitution, 440 No Arguments from ill Confequences to be admitted, unlefs in cafes fif Neceffity^ ibid. Concomitance Xliv CONTENTS. Concomitance a new notion, 44" Univerfal PraBice for giving the Chalice, 44^ The Cafe of the Aquarii, ibid. The firfi beginn ng of taking away the Cup, 44* The Decree of the Council of Conftance, 443 ARTICLE XXXI. 445 The Term ?)Z.cnfizs of a large fignification, _ ibid. The Primitive Chrifiians denied that they had any Sacrifices, ibid. The Eucharifi has no Virtue, but as it is a Communion, _ 447 StriBly fpeaking there is only one Priefi and one Sacrifice in the Chrifiian Religion, _ _ ibid. The Fathers did not think the Eucharifi was a Propitiator j Sa crifice, 448 But call it a Sacrifice in a larger fenfe, 449 Maffes without a communion not known then, 450 None might be at Mafs, who did not communicate, 45 1 The importance of the Controverfies concerning the Eucharifi, ibid. ARTICLE XXXII. 452 .A^ divine Law againfi a married Clergy, ibid. Neither in the Old or New Tefiament, but the contrary, 453 The Church has not Power to make a perpetual Law againfi it, ibid. The ill confequences of fuch a Law, 454 No fuch Law in the firfi Ages, 455 When the Laws for the Celibate began, ibid. The PraBice of the Church not uniform in ii, 456 The Progrefs of thefe Laws in England, 457 The good and the bad of Celibate balanced, 458 It is not lawful to make Vows in this matter, ibid. Nor do they bind when made, 459 Oaths ill mads are worfe to be kept, 460 ARTICLE XXXIII. 461 A Temper to be obferved in Church -Difcipline, ibid. The Neceffity of keeping it up, 1 462 Extremes in this to be avoided, 463 Concerning the delivering any to Satan, ibid. The importance of an Anathema, 464 Of the EffeB of Church-Cenfures, ibid. What it is when they are wrong applied, 465 T^he caufelefs jealoufy of Church-Power, ibid. How the Laity was once taken into the Exercift of it, 466 The Pafiors of the Church have Authority, 467 DefeBs in this no jufi Caufe of Separation, 468 CONTENTS. Xlv JUl thefe brought in by Papery, 468 A CorreBion of them intended at the Reformation, 469 ARTICLE XXXIV. 470 The Obligation to obey Canons and Laws, ibid. The great Sin of Schifin and Difobedience, 47 r The true Notion of Scandal, 472 The fear of giving Scandal, no warrant to break efiablifhed Laws, 473 Human Laws are not unalterable, ibid. The RefpeB due to ancient Canons, 474 The Corruptions of the Canon Law, ibid. Great Varieties in Rituals, 475 Every Church is a complete Body-, ibid, ARTICLE XXXV. 476 The occafion of compiling the Homilies, ibid. We are not bound to every thing in them, 477 But only to the DoBrine, ibid. This illufirated in the Charge of Idolatry, ibid. What is meant by their being neceffary for thofe times, 478 ARTICLE XXXVL 479 The occafion of this Article, ibid. An Explanation of the Words, Receive ye the Holy Ghoft, 480 ARTICLE XXXVII. 482 Queen Elizabeth's InjunBion concerning the Supremacy, 483 The Pope's univerfal JurifdiBion not warranted by any of th Laws of Chrifi, ibid. Nor acknowledged in ihe firfi Ages, 484 Begun on the Occafion of the Arian Controverfy, 485 Contefied in many places, 486 The Progrefs that it made, ^ ibid. The Patriarchal Authority founded on the divifion of the Roman Empire, ya«/f with it, 487 The Power exercifed by the Kings o/" Judah in Religious Matters, 488 That is founded on Scriptures, ibid. PraBifed in all Ages, 489 And particularly in England, ibid. Methods ufed by Popifh Princes to hep the Ecclefiafiical Autho rity under the Civil, 49O The Temporal Power is over all Perfons, 491 And in all Caufes, 492 The importance of the Term Head, 493 The Neceffity of Capital Punifhments^ ibid, - Tht pimonsi, anH foF tU tta&lidjing of Confent toucfiing tim Eeligion. ^ut fortb bp tBe liueen'gi ;autBoritie. T "^ H E Title of thefe Articles leads me to confider, I ft, The time, the occafion, and the defign of compiling them. 2dly, The authority that is ftamped upon them both by Church and State, and the obligation that lies upon all of our communion to aflent to them, and more particularly the importance of the fubfcrip- tion to which the clergy are obliged. As to the ift, it may feem fomewhat ftrange to fee fuch a coUedlion of tenets madq the ftandard of the dodtrine of a Church, that is defervedly valued by reafon of her moderation : this feems to be a de parting from the fimplicity of the firft ages, which yet we pretend to fet up for a pattern. Among them, the owning the belief of the Creeds then received was thought fufficient; and when fome herefies had occafioned a great enlargement to be made in the Creeds, the third General Council thought fit to fet a bar ag3in,ft all further additions ; and yet all thofe , B Creadsj, 2 THE INTRODUCTION, Creeds, one of which goes far beyond the Ephefine ftandard, make but «ne Article of the Thirty-nine of which this book confifts. Many of thefe do alfo relate to fubtile and abftrufe , points, in which it is not eafy to form a clear judgment ; and much lefs can it be convenient to impofe fo great a colledlion of tenets upon a whole Church, to excommunicate fuch as affirm any of them to be erroneous, and to rejedt thofe from the fervice of the Church, who cannot aflTent to every one of ¦ thefe. The negative Articles of No Infallibility, No Supremacy in the Pope, No Tranfubftantiation, No Purgatory, and the like, give yet a farther colour to exceptions ; fince it may feem that it was enough, not to have mentioned thefe, which implies a tacit rejedling of thera. It may therefore appear to be too rigorous, to require a pofitive condemning of thofe points : for a very high degree of certainty is required, to affirm a nega tive propofition. In order to the explaining this matter, it is to be confefled, that in the beginnings of Chriftianity, the declaration that was required even of a Bifliop's faith was conceived in very general terms. There was a form fettled very early in moft Rom.vi. 17. Churches : this St. Paul in one place calls, the form of iTim.iv. doBrine that was delivered; in another place, ihe form of -Tim^ i found words, which thofe who were fixed by the Apoftles 13. in particular Churches had received from them. Thefe words of his do import a ftandard, or fixed formulary, by which all dodtrines were to be examined. Some have infer red from them, that the Apoftles delivered that Creed which goes under their name, every where in the fame form of words. But there is great reafon to doubt of this, fince the firft apologifts for Chriftianity, when they deliver a fliort ab- ftradt of the Chriftian faith, do all vary from one another, both as to the order and as to the words themfelves j which they would not have done, if the Churches had all received one fettled form from the Apoftles. They would all have ufed the fame words, and neither more nor lefs. It is more pro bable, that in every Church there was a form fettled, which was delivered to it by fome Apoftle, or companion of the Apoftles, with fome variation : of vlrhich at this diftance of time, confidering how defedtive the hiftory of the firft ages of Chriftianity is, it is not poffible, nor very nfcceflary for us to be able to give a clear account. For inftahce ; in the whole extent or neighbourhood of the Roman empire, it was at firft of great ufe to have this in every Chrlftiah's mouth, that our Saviour fuffer ed under Pontius Pilate j becaufe this fixed the time, and carried in it an appeal to records and evi dences, that might then have been fearched for. But if this religion went at firft far to the eafiward, beyond all com merce THE INTRODUCTION. merce with the Romans, there is not that reafon to think that this fliould have been a part of the fliorteft form of this doc trine ; it being enough that it was related in the Gofpel. Thefe forms of the feveral Churches were preferved with that facred refpedt that was due to them : this was efteemed the depofitum or truft of a Church, which was chiefly committed to the keeping of the bifliop. In the firft ages, in which the bifliops or clergy of the feveral Churches could not meet together in fynods to examine the dodtrine of every fiew bifliop, the method upon which the circum ftances of thofe ages put them, was this : the new biftiop fent round him, and chiefly to the biftiops of the more eminent fees, the profeffion of his faith, according to the form that was fixed in his Church : and when the neighbouring bifliops were fatisfied in this, they held cotn- munion with him, and not only owned him for a biSiop, but maintained fuch a commerce with him, as the ftate of that time did admit of. But as fome herefies fprung up, there were enlargements made in feveral Churches, for the condemning thofe, and for excluding fuch as held them, from their communion. The Council of Nice examined many of thofe Creeds, and out of them they put their Creed in a fuller form. The addition made by the Council of Conftantinople was put into the Creeds of fome particular Churches, feveral years before that Council met. So that though it received its authority from that Coun cil, yet they rather confirmed an Article which they .found in the Creeds of fome Churches, than made a new one. It had been an invaluable bleffing, if the Chriftian religion had been kept in its firft fimplicity. The Council of Ephefus took care that the Creed by which men profefs their Chriftianity, fliould receive no new additions, but be fixed according to the Con- ftantinopolitan ftandard ; yet they made decrees in points of faith, and the following Councils went on in their fteps, add ing ftill new decrees, with anathematifms againft the contrary dodtrines ; and declaring the aflTertors of them to be under an anathema, that is, under a very heavy curfe of being totally excluded from their communion, and even from the commu nion of Jefus Chrift. And whereas the new bifliops had for merly only declared their faith, they were then required, be- fides that, to declare, that they received fuch councils, and re- jedted fuch dodtrines, together with fuch as favoured them ; who were fometimes mentioned by name. This increafed daily. We have a full account of the fpecial declaration that a bifliop was .obliged to make, in the firft Canon of that which paffed for the fourth Council of Carthage. But while, by rek- fon of new emergencies, this was fwelling to a vaft bulk, ge neral and more implicit formularies came to be ufed, the bi- B 2 ihops THE INTRODUCTION. fhops declaring that they received and would obferve all the decrees and traditions of holy Councils and Fathers. And the papacy coming afterwards to carry every thing before it, a formal oath, that had many loofe and indefinite words in it, which were very large and comprehenfive, was added to all the declarations that had been formerly eftabliflied. The enlarge ments of Creeds were at firft occafioned by the prevarications of heretics ; who having put fenfes favouring their opinions, to the fimpler terms in which the firft Creeds were propofed, therefore it was thought neceflTary to add more exprefs vvords. And this was abfolutely neceffary as to fome points ; for it be ing neceffary to fliew that the Chriftian religion did not bring in that idolatry which it condemned in heathens, it was alfo iieceffary to ftate this matter fo, that it fliould appear that they worfliipped no creature ; but that the perfon to whom all agreed to pay divine adoration was truly God : and it being found that an equivocation was ufed in all other words except that of \he fame fubfiance, they judged it neceffary to fix on it, befides (ome other words that they at firft brought in, but which were afterwards corrupted by the gloffes that were put on them. At all times it is very neceffary to free the Chrif tian religion from the imputations of idolatry ; but this was never fo neceffary, as when Chriftianity was engaged in fuch a ftruggle with Paganifm : and fince the main article then in j-dilpute with the heathens was idolatry, and the lawfulnefs of worfliipping any befides the great and eternal God, it was of the laft importance to the Chriftian caufe, to take care that the heathens might have no reafon to believe that they wor fliipped a creature. There was therefore juft reafon given to fecure this main point, and to put an end to equivocation, by eftablifliing a term, which by the confeffion of all parties did not admit of any. It had been a great bleffmg to the Church, li a ftop had been put here ; and that thofe nice defcantings that were afterwards fo much purfued, had been more effedtu- ally difcouraged than they were. But men ever were and ever will be men. Fadtions were formed, and interefts were fet up. Heretics had fliewed fo much diffimulation when they were ^ow, and fo much cruelty when they prevailed, that it was thought neceffary to fecure the Church from the difturbances that they might give them : and thus it grew to be a rule to enlarge the doftrines and decifions of the Church. So that in ftating the doftrines of this Church fo copioufly, our re- tormers followed a method that had been ufed in a courfe of many ages. c\I^^a '^^''^? ^^["^" *•''' common praftice, two particular arcumftances in tiiat time, that made this feem to be the more neceffary. One was, that at the breaking out of that Jigbt, THE INTRODUCTION- light, there fprang up with it many impious and extravagant fedts, which broke out into moft violent exceffes. This was no extraordinary thing, for we find the like happened upon the firft fpreading of the Gofpel ; many deteftable fedts grew up with it, which tended not a little to the defaming of Chrif tianity, and the obftrudting its progrefs. I fhall not examine what influence evil fpirits might have both in the one and the other : but one vifible occafion of it was, that by the firft preaching of the Gofpel, as alfo upon the opening the Refor mation, an enquiry into the matters of religion being then the fubjedt of men's ftudies and difcourfes, many men of warm and ill-governed imaginations, prefuming on their own talents, and being defirous to fignafize themfelves, and to have a name in the world, went beyond their depth in ftudy, without the neceflary degrees of knowledge, and the yet more neceffary difpofitions of mind for arriving at a right underftand ing of divine matters. This happening foon after the Re formation was firft fet on foot, thofe whofe corruptions were ftruck at by it, and who both hated and perfecuted it on that account, did not fail to lay hold of and to improve the advan tage which thefe fedts gave them. They faid, that the fedta- ries had only fpoke out what the reft thought ; and at laft they held to this, that all fedts were the natural confequences of the Reformation, and of fliaking off the dodtrine of the in fallibility of the Church. To ftop thofe calumnies, the pro- teftants in Germany prepared that Confeffion of their Faith ¦Which they offered to the diet at Aufburg, and which carries , its name. And, after their example, all the other Churches, which feparated from the Roman communion, publifhed the Confeffions of their Faith, both to declare their dodtrine for the inftrudtion of their own members, and for covering them from the flanders of their adverfaries, A.nother reafon that the firft reformers had for their de- fcending into fo many particulars, and for all thefe negatives that are in their Confeffions, was this : they had fmarted long under the tyranny of popery, and fo they had reafon to fe cure themfelves from it, and from all thofe who were leavened with it. They here in England had feen how many had com plied with every alteration both in King Henry and King Ed ward's reign, who not only declared themfelves to have been all the while papifts, but became bloody perfecutors in Queen Mary's reign : therefore it was neceffary to keep all fuch out cf their body, that they might not fecretly undermine and be tray it. Now fince the Church of Rome owns all that is pofi tive in our dodtrine, there could be no difcrimination made, but by condemning the moft important of thofe additions, that they have brought into the Chriftian religion, in exprefs B 3 words; THE INTRODUCTION. words : and though in matters of faft, or in .theories of nature, it is not fafe to affirm a negative, becaufe it is leldom poffible to prove it; yet the fundamental article upon which the whole Reformation and this our Church depends, is this, that the whole doarines of the Chriftian religion are con- tained in the Scripture, and that therefore we are to admit no article as a part of it till it is proved from Scripture. This be ing laid down, and well made out, it is not at all unreafonable to affirm a negative upon an examination of all thofe places of Scripture that are brought for any dodtrine, and that feem to favour it, if they are found not at all to fupport it, but to bear a different, and fometimes a contrary fenfe, to that which is offered to be proved by them. So there is no vyeight in this cavil, which looks plaufible to fuch as cannot diftinguifli com mon matters from points of faith. This may ferve in gene ral to juftify the largenefs and the particularities of this Confef fion of our Faith. There were fome fteps made to it in King Henry's time, in a large book that was then publifhed under the title of The Neceffary Erudition, that was a treatife fet forth to inftrudt the nation. Many of the errors of popery were laid open and condemned in it : but none were obliged to af fent to it, or to fubfcribe it. After that, the worfliip was re formed, as being that which preffed moft ; and in that a foun dation was laid for the Articles that came quickly after it. How or by whom they were prepared, we do not certainly know ; by the remains of that time it appears, that in the alterations that were made, there was great precaution ufed, fuch as matters of that nature required, queftions were framed relating to them, thefe were given about to many bifhops and divines, who gave in their feveral anfwers, that were collated and exa mined very maturely, all fides had a free and fair hearing be fore conclufions were made. In the fermentation that was working over the whole nation at that time, it was not poffible that a thing of that nature could have paffed by the methods that are more neceffary in regular times : and therefore they could not be offered at firft to fynods or convocations. The corruptions complained of were fo beneficial to the whole body of the clergy, that it is juftly to be wondered at, that fo great a number was prevailed v/ith, to concur in reforming them: but without a miracle they could not have been agreed to by the major part. They were prepared, as is moft probable, by Cranmer and Ridley, and pubhflied by the regal authority. Not as if our kings had pretended to an authority to judge in points of faith, or to decide controverfies : but as every private man muft choofe for himfelf, and believe according to the conviaions of his rea fon and confcience (which is to be exaniined and proved in ifs proper THE INTRODUCTION. t proper place); fo every prince or legiflative power muft- give the public fanftion and authority according to his own perfua- fion ; this makes indeed fuch a fanftion to become a law, but does not alter the nature of things, nor oblige the confciences of the fubjeas, unlefs they come under the fame perfuafions. Such laws have indeed the operation of all other laws ; but the doarines authorized by them have no more truth than they had before, without any fuch publication. Thus the part that our princes had in the Reformation was only this, that they be ing fatisfied with the grounds on which it went, received it themfelves, and enaaed it for their people. And this is fo plain and juft a confequence of that liberty which everyman has of believing and aaing according to his own conviaions, that when this is well made out, there can be no colour to queftion the other. It was alfo remarkable, that the law which ' ftood firft in Juftinian's Code, was an edidt of Theodofius's ; who finding the Roman empire under great diftraaions, by the diverfity of opinions in matter of religion, did appoint that doarine to be held which was received by Damafus bifliop of Rome, and Peter bifhop of Alexandria ; fuch an edia as that being put in fo confpjcuous a part of the law, was a full and foon obferved precedent for our princes to aa according to it. The next thing to be examined is the ufe of the Articles, and the importance of the fubfcriptions of the clergy to them. Some have thought that they are only Articles of Union and Peace ; that they are a ftandard of doBrine not to be contra- diaed, or difputed; that the fons of the Church are only bound to acquiefce filently to them; and that the fubfcription binds on ly to a general compromife upon thofe Articles, that fo there may be no difputing nor wrangling about them. By this means they reckon, that though a man fhould differ in his opinion from that which appears to be the clear fenfe of any of the Ar ticles ; yet he may with a good confcience fubfcribe them, if the Article appears to him to be of fuch a nature, that though he thinks it wrong, yet it feems not to be of that confequence, but that it may be borne with, and not contradiaed. I fhall not now examine whether it were more fit for leaving men to the due freedom of their thoughts, that the fubfcription did run nohigher, itbeinginniany cafes a great hardfhip to exclude fome very deferving perfons from the fervice of the Church, by requir ing a fubfcription to fo many particulars, concerning fome of which they are not fully fatisfied. I am only now to confider what is the importance of the fubfcriptions now required among us, and not what might be reafonably wifhed that it fhould be. As to the laity, and the whole body of the people, certain ly to them thefe are only the Articles of Church-Commu nion ; fo that every perfon who does not think that there is B 4 fome 8 THE INTRODUCTION. fome propofition in them that is erroneous to fo high a de gree, that he cannot hold communion with fuch as hold it, may and is obliged to continue in our communion : for cer tainly there may be many opinions held in matters of reli gion, which a man may believe to be falfe, and yet may etteem them to be of fo little importance to the chief defign of reli gion, that he may well hold communion with thofe whom he thinks to be fo miftaken. Here a neceffary diftinaion is to be remembered between Articles of Faith, and Articles of Doc trine : the one. are held neceffary to falvation, the other are only believed to be true ; that is, to be revealed in the Scrip tures, which is a fufficient ground for efteeming them true. Articles of Faith are dodtrines that are fo neceflary to falva tion, that without believing them there is not a foederal right to the covenant of grace : thefe are not many, and in the eftablifliment of any doarine for fuch, it is neceffary both to prove it frOm Scripture, and to prove its being neceffary to fal vation, as a mean I'ettled by the covenant of grace in order to it. We ought not indeed to hold communion with fuch as make doarines that we believe not to be true, to pafs for Ar ticles of Faith 5 though we may hold comniunion with fuch as do think them true, without ftamping fo high an authority upon them. To give one inftance of this in an undeniable par ticular. In the days of the Apoftles there were Judaifers of two forts : fome thought the Jewifh nation was ftill obliged to obferve the Mofaical law ; but others went further, and thought that fuch an obfervation was indifpenfably neceffary to falvation : both thefe opinions were wrong, but the one was tolerable, and the other was intolerable ; becaufe it pretended to make that a neceffary condition of falvation, which Ged had not commanded. The Apoftles complied I Cor. i». with ^he Judaifers of the firft fort, as they became all 19.1023. things to alj men, that fo they might gain fome of every foTt of men : yet they declared openly againft the other, and faid, that if men were circumcifed, or were willing to come under fuch a yoke, Chrifi profited them nothing ; and upon that fup- pofition he had died in vain. From this plain precedent we fee what a difference we ought to make between errors in doarinal matters, and the impofing them as Articles of Faith. We may live in communion with thofe who hold errors of the one fort, but muft not with thofe of the other. This alfo fhews the tyranny of that Church, which has impofed the behef of every one of her doarines on the confciences of her votaries, under the higheft pains of anathema's, and as Articles of Faith. But whatever thofe at Trent did, this Church very carefully avoided the laying that weight upon even thofe dodtrines which flie receives as true ; and therefore though flie THE INTRODUCTION. {he drew up a large form of doarine ; yet to all her lay-fons, tliis is only a ftandard of what fhe teaches, and they are no mpre to them than Articles of Church-Communion. The citations that are brought from thofe two great primates. Laud and Bram- hall, go no further than this : they do not feem to relate to the clergy that fubfcribe them, but to the laity and body of the people. The people who do only join in communion with us, may well continue to do fo, though they may not be fully fatisfied with every propofition in them : unlefs they fhould think that they ftruck againft any of the Articles, or foundations of Faith ; and, as they truly obferve, there is a great difference to be obferved in this particular between the imperious fpirit of the Church of Rome, and the modeft freedom which ours allows. But I come in the next place to confider what the clergy is bound to by their fubfcriptions. The meaning of every fub fcription is to be taken from the defign of the impofer, and from the words of the fubfcription itfelf. The title of the Articles bears, that they were agreed upon in convocation, yir the avoiding of diverfities of Opinions, and for the fiablifh- ing confent touching true Religion. Where it is evident, that a confent in opinion is defigned. If we in the next place confider the declaration that the Church has made in the Canons, we fhall find, that though by the fifth Canon, which relates to the whole body of the people, fuch are only declared to be ex communicated ipfofaBo, who fhall affirm any of the Articles to be erroneous, or fuch as he may not with a good confcience fub fcribe to ; yet the 36th Canon is exprefs for the clergy, requir ing them to fubfcribe willingly, and ex animo; and acknowledge all and every Article to be agreeable to the word of God: upon which Canon it is that the form of the fubfcription runs in th^fe words, which feem exprefsly to declare a man's own opinion, and not a bare confent to an Article of Peace, or an engagement to filence and fubmiffion. The ftatute of the 1 3th of Queen Eli zabeth, cap. 12, which gives the legal authority to our requiring fubfcriptions, in order to a man's being capable of a benefice, requires that every clergyman fhould read the Articles in the Church, with a declaration of his unfeigned affent to them. Thefe things make it appear very plain, that the fubfcriptions of the clergy muft be confidered as a declaration of their own opinion, and not as a bare obligation to filence. There arofe in King James the Firft's reign, .great and warm difputes con cerning the decrees of God, and thofe other points that were fettled in Holland by the fynod of Dort againft the Remonftrants; divines of both fides among us appealed to the Articles, and pretended they were favourable to them : for though the firft ap pearance of them feems to favour the doarine of abfolute de crees, ID THE INTRODUCTION. crees, and the irrefiftibility of grace ; yet there are many ex- preffions that have another face, and fo thofe of the other per- fuafion pleaded for themfelves from thefe. Upon this a royal declaration was fet forth, in which after mention is made of thofe difputes, and that the men of all fides did take the Articles to be for them; order is given for fiopping thofe difputes for the future ; and for Jhutting them in God's promifes, as they be ge ner all) fet forth in the holy Scriptures, and the general meaning of the Articles of the ..hurch of England, according to themi ond that no man thereafter fhould put his own fenfe or comment to be the meaning of the Article, but fhould take it in the literal and grammatical fenfe. In this there has been fuch a general ac quiefcing, that the fiercenefs of thefe difputes has gone ofF, while men have been left to fublcribe the Articles according to their literal and grammatical fenfe. From which two things are to be inferred : the one is, that the fubfcription does import an affent to the / rticle ; and the other is, that an Article being conceived in fuch general words, that it can admit of different literal and grammatical fenfes, even when the fenfes given are plainly contrary one to another, yet both may fubfcribe the Ar ticle with a good confcience, and without any equivocation. To make this more fenfible, I fhall give an inftance of it in an Ar ticle concerning which there is no difpute at prefent. The third Article concerning Chrift's defcent into hell is ca pable of three different fenfes, and all the three are both literal and grammatical. The firft is, that Chrift defcended locally into hell, and preached to the fpirits there in prifon ; and this has one great advantage on its fide, that thofe who firft pre pared the Articles in King Edward's time were of this opinion ; for they made it a part of it, by adding in the Article thofe words of St. Peter as the proof or explanation of it. Now though that period was left out in Queen Elizabeth's time ; 3 ct no declaration was made againft it ; fo that this fenfe was once in poffeffion, and was never exprefsly rejeaed : befides that, it has great fupport from the authority of many fathers, who underftood the defcent into hell according to this explanation. A fecond fenfe of which that Article is capable, is, that by hell is meant the grave, according to the fignification of the original word in the Hebrew; and this is fupported by the words of ChrifPs defending into the lower parts of the earth ; as alfo by this, that feveral Creeds that have this Article, have not that of Chrift's being buried ; and fome that mention his burial, have not this of his defcent into hell. A third fenfe is, that by hell, according to the fignification of the Greek word, is to be meant the place or region of fpirits feparated from their bodies : fo that by Chrift's defcent into bed is only to be meant, that his loul was really and entirely difunited from his body, not lying dead THE INTRODUCTION. ' H dead in it as in an apopleaical fit, not hovering about it, bbt that it was tranflated into the feats of departed fouls. All thefe three fenfes differ very much from one another, and yet they are all fenfes that are literal and grammat cal ; fo that in which of thefe foever a man conceives the Article, he may fubfcribe it, and he does no way prevaricate in fo doing. If men would therefore underftand all the other Articles in the fame largenefs, and with the fame equity, there would not be that occafion given for unjuft cenfure that there has been. Where then the Articles are conceived ;in large and general words, and have not more fpecial and reftrained terms in them, we ought to take that for a fure indication, that the Church does not intend to tie men up too feverely to particular opinions, but that fhe leaves all to fuch a liberty as is agreeable with the purity of the faith. And this feems fufficient to explain the title of the Articles, and the fubfcriptions that are required of the clergy to them. The laft thing to be fettled is the true reading of the Articles ; for there being fome fmall diverfity between the printed edi tions and the manufcripts that were figned by both houfes of Convocation ; I have defired the affiftance both of Dr. Green, the prefent worthy mafter of Corpus Chrifti College in Cam bridge, and of fome of the learned fellows of that body ; that they would give themfelves the trouble to collate the printed editions, and their manufcripts, with fuch a fcrupulous exaa- nefs as becomes a matter of this importance : which they were pleafed to do very minutely. I will fet dov/n both the colla tions as they were tranfmitted to me ; beginning with that which I had from the fellows four years ago. ARTICLE III. Of the going down of Chrifi into Hell. Thefe words, faid to be left f\ §> Cfittlf Uzh fot U0> out, are found in the original £\^ gnlj \j3a0 tJUriEtl ; fo Articles, figned by the chief g{fg jj j0 (g {,,, tjgliejjej^ clergy of both provinces, now ^^^^ g^ ^^^^^ j,^^,^ ^^^^^ extant in the manucript libra- ,:: „ r,, y. r -^ Ki~ ^ i ries of a C a d. in the hook ^^11- [" i?Ot 8l0 »&? lap f«&/ Synodaiia : but difiin- " in t&e(25rai)e ttl! gig ^e= guifhedfrom the refi with lines " fucreaion; tlUt gi0 §)aul ofmxmnm; which Unes plain- " {jEJijg fepatate fjom ftigi If appear to have been done af- cc BoDj7,remain8S!toit& tgC terwards,beca.ufe the leaves and c. gjatj-^jg ^ftjjj^ jjj^.j jj^; % t:X':^':fr.z - ».¦.»»(..»*„.. t8<.. « which number tvithout thefe " tO fap, lU fell, ant! t&ete lines were manifefilyfalfi. " pteat&eUuntO tgem."] IS THE INTRODUCTION. ARTICLE VI. In the original thefi words Cfip £DIl> Ctlfamcnt tjf only are found, Teftamfcntum not tO he rejettetl 80 tf it vetus novo contrarium npn eft, ^^j-g tonttai'P tO t%t flttO, quandoquidem, ^c. ^^^ j^ j,^ retaintD. J^Otaji^ mutg a0, Sec, The Latin of the original is, Et quanquam renatis et creden- tibus nulla propter Chriftum eft condemnatio. Tliis Article is Hot found in the original. ARTICLE IX. anti altfiougg tgeie i0 no Con&emnationtotbem tgat fieliefte, anD are baptij'D, &c. ARTICLE X. Of Grace. Cge derate of Cfiriff, oj tSe !^olp ©Boff, togicg i$ giDen t3p Bim, tiotB, &c. This is not found. This is not found. This Article agrees with the original; but thefe words, i^gg CBurtB BatB potoej to ise^ freelRite0 anti€ernnonie0, ant) autBoiitp in Contto= ijerCee of J^aitB, fuppofed to begin the Article, are not found in any part thereof. ARTICLE XVI. Blafphemy againfi the Hoh Ghofi, %f)t BlarpBemp agatnff tBe I^olp (DBoff i0t8en tom-- wttteti, toBtn, &c. ARTICLE XIX. 311 men arefaounti tofeeep tBe ^retept0 of tBe «^otal 3Lato,altBougB tBe JLato gi^ ben from dDoO, &c. ARTICLE XX. Of the Authority of the Church, 3t i0 not latoful for tfic CBurtB to ortiain anp tBing tBat i0 tontrarp to (0o&'0 Wnvi}& toritten, &c. /« THE INTRODUCTION* '-3 In the fourteenth line of this ARTICLE XXVI. Article, immediately after thefi q. ^j^^ Sacraments. words (But pet Babe not , ^ lifee nature toitB Baptifm &aci^ament0 iDjUam'ti anti tBe liorti'0 Supper) o^ "^iJ^tt, &c. follows, quomodo nee peniten- tia, which being marked under neath with minium, is left out in the tranfiation. c,- s -, VAW ARTICLE XXIX, This Article agrees with the original, as far as thefe words Of the Lord's Supper. (antiBatBgibenoctaaonto ^f,e§>upperof tBe3Lor& manp ^aiperttitions^^^r. -^ ^^^^ j,„, ^ ^^ ^^ g^^_ follows, Chriitus in ccelum af- Cendens, corpori fuo immortal itatem dedit, naturam non abftu- lit, humanae enim naturae veritatem (juxta Scripturas) perpetuo • retinet, quam uno et definito loco effe, et non in multa vel omnia iimul loca diffundi oportet; quum igitur Chriftus in ccelum fub- latus, ibi ufque ad finem fseculi fit permanfurus,- atque inde, non •iliunde (ut loquitur Auguftinus) venturus fit, ad judicandum vivos et mortuos, non debet quifquam fidelium, carnis et ejus et fanguinis realem, et corporalem (ut loquuntur) prasfentiam in Euchariftia vel credere vel profiteri. Thefe words are marked and fcrawled over with minium, and the words immediately fol lowing, (Corpus tamen Chrifti datur, accipitur, et manducatur in coena, tantum coelefti et fpirituali ratione) are inferted in a different hand jufi before them, in a line and a half left void; which plainly appears io be done afterwards, by reafon the fame hand has altered ihe firfi number of lines, and for viginti quatuor, made quatuordecem. The three lafi Articles, viz. the 'i()th. Of the RefurreBion of the Dead ; the \Oth, that the Souls of Men do neither perifh with their bodies (neque otiofi dormiant is added in the ori ginal) ; and the ^id, that all fhall not be faved at lafi, are found in the original, difiinguifhed only with a marginal line of mi nium : but the \{fi. Of the Millenarians, is ivhoUy left out. The number of Articles does not exaBly agree, by reafon fome are inferted, which are found only in King Edward'f Articles^ but none are wanting that are found in the original. Corpus H' THE INTRODUCTION, Corpus Chrifti Col, Feb. ^th, 1695-6. UPON examination we judge thefe to be all the material differences, that are unobferved, between the original manufcripts and the B. of Saliflsury's printed copy. Witnefs our hands. fo. faggard, "^ Rob. Moffe, VFellows of the faid College. Will.Lunn, j After I had procured this, I was defirous likewife to have the printed editions collated with the fecond publication of the Articles in the year 157 1; in which the Convocation reviewed thofe of 1562, and made fome fmall alterations : and thefe were very lately procured for me by my reverend friend. Dr. Green, which I will fet down as he was pleafed to communicate them to me. [Note, MS.fiandsfor Manufcript, and Yt. for Print.] Art. 1. MS. and true God, and he is everlafting, without body, Pr. and true God, everlafiing, without body. Art, 2. MS. but alfo for all aaual fins of men. Pr. hut alfo for aBualfins of men. Art. 3. MS, fo alfo it is to be believed. Pr. fo alfo is it to be believed. Art. 4. MS. Chrift did truly arife again. Pr. Chrifi did truly rife again. MS. until he return to judge all men at the laft day, Pr. until he return to judge men at the lafi day. Art. 6. MS. to be believed as an Article of the Faith, Pr. to be believed as an Article of Faith. MS. requifite as neceffary to falvation. Pr. requifite or neceffary to falvation. MS. in the name of holy Scripture. Pr. in the tiame of the holy Scripture. MS. but yet doth it not apply. Pr. but yet doth not apply. MS. Baruch. Pr. Baruch the prophet. MS. and account them for canonical. Pr. and account them canonical. Art. 8. MS. by moft certain warranties of holy Scripture, Pr. by mofi certain warrant of holy Scripture Art. 9. MS. but it is the fault. Pr. but is the fault. MS. THE INTRODUCTION. Ijl MS. whereby man is very far from his original righ* teoufnefs. Pr. whereby man is far .gone from original righteouf- nefs. MS. in them that be regenerated. Pr. in them that are regenerated. Art. De Gratia, non habetur in MS. Art. 10, MS. a good will and working in us. Pr. a good will and working with us. Art. 14. MS. cannot be taught without arrogancy and im piety. Pr. cannot be taught without arrogancy and ini quity. MS. we be unprofitable fervants. Pr. we are unprofitable fervants. Art. 15. MS. fin only except. Pr. fin only excepted. MS. to be the Lamb without fpot. Pr. to be a Lamb without fpot. MS. but we the reft, although baptized, and born again in Chrift, yet we all offend. Pr. but all we the refi, although baptized, arid if born in Chrifi, yet offend. Art. De Blafphemia in Sp, SanB. non efi in MS. Art. 16. MS. wherefore the place for penitence. Pr. wherefore the grant of repentance. Art. 17. MS. fo excellent a benefit of God given unto them, be called according. Pr. fo excellent a benefit of God, be called according, MS, as becaufe it doth fervently kindle their love. Pr. as becaufe it doth frequently kindle their love. Art. Omnes Obligantur, (^c. non efi in MS. Art. 18. MS. to frame his life according to the law and the light of nature. Pr. to frame his life according to that law, and the light of nature. Art. 19. MS, congregation of faithful men in the which the pure Word. fr. congregation of faithful men in which the pure Word. ^Art. l6 THE INTRODUCTION. Art, 20. MS, The Church hath power to decree rites or ce remonies, and authority in controverfies of faith. And yet. Thefe words are not in the iriginal MS. MS. ought it not to enforce any thing. Pr. it ought not to enforce any thing. Art. 21. MS. andvohen they be gathered together (forafmuch, Pr. and when they be gathered (forafmuch. Art. 22. MS, is a fond thing vainly invented. Pr. is a fond thing vainly feigned. Art, 24. MS, in a tongue not underftanded of the people. Pr. in a tongue not underfiood of the people. Art. 2^, MS, and effeaual figns of grace and God's good will towards us. Pr. and effeBual figns of grace and God's will towards us, MS. and extream annoyling. Pr. and extream unBion, Art, 26. MS, in their own name, but do minifter by Chrift's commiffioii and authority. Pr. in their own name, but in Chrift's, and do minifier by his commiffion and authority, MS. and in the receiving of the Sacraments, Pr. and in the receiving the Sacraments. MS. and rightly receive the Sacraments. Pr. and rightly do receive the Sacraments. Art, 27. MS, from others that be not chriftned, but is alfo a fign. Pr. from others that be not chrifined, but it is alfo a fign, MS. forgivenefs of fin, and of our adoption. Pr. forgivenefs of fin, of our adoption. Art, aS. MS. to have amongft themfelves. Pr. to have among themfelves. partaking MS. the bread which we break is a communion of the body of Chrift. Pr. the bread which we break is a partaking of the body of Chrifi, Partaking MS. and likewife the cup of bleffing is a commu nion of the blood of Chrift. Pr. and likewife the cup of bleffing is a partaking of the blood of Chrifi. "^ ^ ^ ^ J MS, THE INTRODUCTION. ^7 MS. or the change of the fubftance of bread and wine into the fubftance of Chrift's body and blood cannot be proved by holy writ, but is repugnant. Pr. or the change of the fubftance of bread and wine in the f upper of the Lord cannot be proved by holy writ, but it is repugnant. MS. but the mean whereby the body of Chrift is received. Pr. and the mean whereby the body of Chrifi is re~< ceived. MS. lifted up or worfhipped, Pr. lifted up and worfhipped. Art. 31. MS. is the perfea redemption. Pr. is that perfeB redemption, MS. to have remiffion of pain or guilt were forged fables. Pr. to have remiffton of pain and guilt were blaf phemous fables. Art. 33. MS, that hath authority thereto. Pr. that hath authority thereunto. Art. 34. MS. diverfityofcountries,times, and men's manners. Pr. diverfity of countries and men' s manners. MS. and be ordained and appointed by common authority. Pr. and be ordained and approved by common au^ thority. MS. the Confciences of the weak brethren. Pr. the confciences of weak brethren. Art. •^^, ylfiS. of homilies, the titles whereof we have joined under this article, do contain. Pr. ofhomiUes, the feveral titles whereof wC haVe joined under this article, doth contain. MS. wholefome doarine, and neceffary for this time, as doth the former book which was fet forth. Pr. wholefome doBrine, neceffary for thefe times, as doth the former book of homilies which were fet forth. MS, and therefore are to be read in our churches by the minifters, diligently, plainly, and dif- tinaiy, that they may be underftanded of the people. Pr. and therefore we judge them to be read in churches by the minifier s, diligently and dif- ilnBly, that they may be underfiood of tht people. .- f C MS. l8 THE INTRODUCTION. MS, miniftred in a tongue known. Pr. . minifired in a known tongue. Art. De Libro Precationum, isfc. non efi in MS, Art. 36. MS, in the time of the moft noble K, Edward the Sixth, Pr. in the time «/" Edward the Sixth, MS, fuperftitious or ungodly. Pr. fuperfiitious and ungodly. Art, 37. MS. whether they be ecclefiaftical or not. Pr. whether they be ecclefiafiical or civil. MS. the minds of fome flanderous folks to be of fended. Pr. ihe minds of fome dangerous folks to bt offended, MS. we give not to our princes. Pr. we give not our princes, MS. or of facraments. Pr. or of the facraments. MS. the injunaions alfo lately fet forth. Pr. the injunBions alfo fet forth. MS. and ferve in the wars. Pr. and ferve in lawful wars. Art. 38. MS. every man oughteth of fuch things, Pr, every man ought of fuch things. Art. 39. Edw, 6. y qui fequuntur, non funt in MS, Jff/'E Th' Archbifhops and Bifhops of either Province of this Realm of England, lawfully gathered together in this Provincial Synod holden at London, with Continuations and Prorogations of the fame, do receive, profefs and acknowledge the xxxviii Articles before written in xix Pages going before, is contain true and found DoBrine, and do approve and ratify the fame by the fubfcription of our Hands the xi'" Day of May in the rear of our Lord 1571. and in the Tear of the Reign of our Sovereign Lady Elizabeth by the Grace of God of England France and Ireland, ^ueen. Defender of the Faith, Sec, the thirteenth. Matthue Cantuar, N. Bangor. Rob. Winton. Ri. Ciceftren, Jo, Herefk Thorn. Lincoln. Richarde Ely. Wilhelmus Exon. Nic. Wigorn. Jo. Sarifburien. Edm. RoiFen. From THE INTRODUCTION. 19 From thefe diverfities a great difficulty will naturally arife about this whole matter. The manufcripts of Corpus Chrifti are without doubt originals. The hands of the fubfcribers are well known ; they belonged to Archbifhop Parker, and were left by him to that college, and they are figned with a particular care ; for at the end of them there is not only a fum of the number of the pages, but of the lines in every page. And though this was the work only of the Convocation of the province of Canterbury ; yet the Archbifliop of York, with the Bifhops of Durefme and Chefter, fubfcribed them likewife, and they were alfo fubfcribed by the whole Lower Houfe. But we are not fure that the like care was ufed in th^ Convocation, anno 1571. for the Articles are only fubfcribed by the Archbifhop of Canterbury, and ten Bifhops of his province ; nor does the fubfcription of the Lower Houfe appear. Thefe Articles were firft printed in the year 1563, conform to the prefent impreffions which are ftill in ufe among us. So the alterations were then made while the thing was frefh and well known, therefore no fraud nor artifice is to be fufpeaed, fince fome objeaions would have been then made, efpecially by the great party of the complying papifts, who then continued in the Church : they would not have failed to have made much ufe of this, and to have taken great ad vantages from it, if there had been any occafion or colour for it ; and yet nothing of this kind was then done. One alteration of more importance was made in the year 1571. Thofe words of the 20th Article, The Church hath power to decree rites or ceremonies, and authority in contro verfies of faith, were left out both in the manufcripts, and in the printed editions, but were afterwards reftored according to the Articles, printed anno 1563. I cannot find out in what year they were again put in the printed copies. They appear in two feveral impreiEons in Queen Elizabeth's time, which are in my hands : it pafles commonly that it was done by Archbifhop Laud ; and his enemies laid this upon him among other things, that he had corrupted the doarine of this Church by this addition : but he cleared himfelf of that, as well he might, and, in a fpeech in the Star-Chamber, appealed to the original, and affirmed thefe words were in it. The true account of this difficulty is this. When the Articles were firft fettled, they were fubfcribed by both Houfes upon paper ; but that being done, they were afterward ingrof- fed in parchment, and made up in form to remain as re cords. Now in all fuch bodies, many alterations are often made after a minute or firft draught is agreed on, before the matter is brought to frill perfeaion ; fo thefe alterations, as moft of them are fmall and inconfiderable, were made between C 2 the io THE INTRODUCTION. the time that they were firft fubfcribed, and the laft voting of them. But the original records, which if extant would have cleared the whole matter, having been burnt in the fire of London, it is not poffible to appeal to them ; yet what has been propofed, may ferve, I hope, fully to clear the difficulty. I now go to confider the Articles themfelves. [ ^I 1 ARTICLE I. Of Faith In the Holy Trinity. CBtte 10 Iiut one lining anli true Coti, eberlalf ing, toitB« out faotiie,pajt0 or paffion0, of iuBnite potoer, toilbom, anti gootinef0, tBe mafetr anti pjeferijer of all tBing0 botB uiKble anti intiCble; anti in tBe unitp of tBi0 ©oti« Bead tBeje be tBree pejfon0 of one fubttante, potoer, anti eternity, tBe#atBcr, tBe ^on, anti tBe li^olp (©Boff • TH E natural order of things required, that the firft of all Articles in Religion fhould be concerning the Being and Attributes of God : for all other doarines arife out of this. But the title appropriates this to the Holy Trinity ; be caufe that is the only part of the Article which peculiarly be longs to the Chriftian Religion j fince the reft is founded on the principles of natural Religion, There are fix heads to be treated of, in order to the full opening of all that is contained in this Article, I. That there is a God. 2, That there is but one God. 3. Negatively, That this God hath neither body, parts, nor paffions. 4. Pofitively, That he is of infinite power, wifdom, and goodnefs. 5. That he at firft created, and does ftill preferve all things, not only what is material and vifible, but alfo what is fpiritual and invifible. 6. The Trinity is here afl^erted. Thefe being all points of the higheft confequence, It is very neceffary to ftate them as clearly, and to prove them as fully, as may be. The firft is, Tliat there is a God. This is a propofitioi], which, in all ages, has been fo univcrfally received and be lieved, fome very few inftanceS being only affigned of fuch as either have denied or doubted of it, that the very confent of fo many ages and nations, of fuch different tempers and languages, fo vaftly remote from one another, has been long efteemed a good argument, to prove that either there is fomewhat in the nature of man, that by a fecret fort of in- ftina does diaate this to him ; or that all mankind has de fcended from one common ftock; and that this belief has C 3 paffed 22 AN EXPOSITION OF paffed down from the firft man to all his pofterity. If the more polite nations had only received this, fome might fuggeft, that wife men had introduced it as a mean to govern human fociety, and to keep it in order : or, if only the more barbarous had received this, it might be thought to be the effea of their fear, and their ignorance : but fince all forts, as well as all ages of men have received it, this alone goes a great way to affure us of the being of a God. To this two things are objeaed, ift. That fome nations, fuch as Soldania, Formofa, and fome in America, have been difcovered in thtfe laft ages, that feem to acknowledge no Deity. But to this, two things are to be oppofed: ift. That thofe who firft difcovered thefe countries, and have given that account of them, did not know them enough, nor underftand their language fo perfeaiy as was neceffary to enable them to comprehend all their opinions : and this is the more probable, becaufe others, that have writ after them, affure us, that they are not without all fenfe of religion, which the firft difcover- ers had too haftily affirmed: fome prints of religion begin to be obferved among thofe of Soldania, though it is certainly one of the moft degenerated of all nations. But a fecond anfwer to this is. That thofe nations, of whom thefe reports are given out, are fo extremely funk from all that is wife or regular, great and good in human nature, fo rude and untrac- table, and fo incapable of arts and difcipline, that if the reports concerning them are to be believed, and if that weakens the argument from the common confent of mankind of the one hand, it ftrengthens it on another, while it appears that human nature, when it wants this impreffion, it wants with it all that is great or orderly in it ; and fhews a brutality almoft as low and bafe as is that of beafts. Sbme men are born without fome of their fenfes, and others without the ufe of reafon and memory : and yet thofe exceptions do not prove that the imperfeaions of fuch perfons are not irregularities againft the comrr.on courfe of things : the monftroufnefs as well as the miferies of perfons fo unhappily bora, tend to recommend more effeaually the perfeaion of human nature. So if thefe nations, which are fuppofed to be without the belief of a God, are fuch a low and degenerated piece of human nature, that fome have doubted whether they are a perfea race of men or not, this does not derogate from, but rather confirms the force of this argument, from the general confent of all nations. A fecond exception to this argument is. That men have not agreed in the fame notions concerning the Deity : fome believing two Gods, a good and a bad ; that are in a perpetual conteft together: others holding a vaft number of Gods, ei ther all equal or fubaltern to one another : and fome believing God THE XXXIX ARTICLES, 23 God to be a corporeal being, and that the fun, moon, and ART. ftars, and a great many other beings, are Gods : fince then, i^Jl.^ though all may acknowledge a Deity in general, they are yet ^"^"^^^ fubdivided into fo many different conceits about it, no argu- , ment can be drawn from this fuppofed confent ; which is not fo great in reality, as it feems to be. But in anfwer to this, we muft obferve, that the conftant fenfe of mankind agreeing in this, that there is a fuperior Being that governs the world, fliews, that this fixed perfuafion has a deep root : though the weaknefs of feveral nations being praaifed upon by defigning men, they have in many things corrupted this notion of God. That might have a,rifen from the tradition of fome true doarines vitiated in the conveyance. Spirits made by God to govern the world by the order and under the direaion of the Supreme Mind, might eafily come to be looked on as fubordinate i3eities : fome evil and lapfed fpirits might in a courfe of fome ages pafs for evil Gods, The apparitions of the Deity under fome figures might make thefe figures to be adored : and God being con fidered as the fupreme Light, this might lead men to worfhip the fun as his chief vehicle : and fo by degrees he might pais for the fupreme God, Thus it is eafy to trace up thefe mif takes to what may juftly be fuppofed to be their firft fource and rife. But ftill the foundation of them all, was a firm belief of a fuperior nature that governed the world. Mankind agreeing in that, an occafion was thereby given to bad and de figning men to graft upon it fuch other tenets as might feed fuperftition and idolatry, and furhilh the managers of thofe impoftures with advantages to raife their own authority. But how various foever the feveral ages and nations of the world may have been as to their more fpecial opinions and rites ; yet the general idea of a God remained ftill unaltered, even amidft all the changes that have happened in the particular forms and doarines of religion. Another argument for the being of God is taken from the vifible world, in which there is a vaft variety of beings cu- rioufly framed, and that feem defigned for great and noble ends. In thefe we fee clear charaaers of God's eternal power and wifdom. And that is thus to be made out. It is certain, that nothing could give being to itfelf; fo the things which we fee, either had their being from all eternity, or were made in time : and either they were from all eternity in the fame ftate, and under the fame revolutions of the heavens, as they .are at prefent, er they fell into the order and method in which they do now roll, by fome happy chance; out of which all the beauty and ufefulnefs of the creation did arife. But if all thefe fuppofitions are manifeftly falfe, then it will remain, that if things neither were from all eternity as they now are, nor ^ C4 feU H AN EXPOSITION OF ART. fell into their prefent ftate by chance, then there is a fuperior ^- Effence that gave them being, and that moulded them as we ^'^'''^^^'^ fee they now are. The firft branch of this, that they were not as now they are from all eternity, is to be proved by two forts of arguments ; the one intrinfical, by demonftrating this to be impoffible ; the Qther moral, by faewing that it is not at all credible. As to the firft, it is to be confidered, that a fucceffive duration made up of parts, which is called Time, and is meafured by a fucceffive rotation of the heavens, cannot poffibly be eternal. For if there were eternal revolu tions of Saturn in his courfe of thirty years, and eternal re volutions of days as well as years, of minutes as well as hours, then the one muft be as infinite as the other ; fo that the one muft be equal to the other, both being infinite ; and yet the lat ter are fome millions of times more than the other ; which is impoffible. Further; of every paft duration, as this is true, that once it was prefent; fo this is true, that once it was to come ; this being a neceffary affeaion of every thing that ex- ifts in time : if then all paft durations were all once future, or to be, then we cannot conceive fuch a fucceffion of du rations eternal, fince once every one of them was to come. Nor can all this, or any part of it, be turned againft us, who believe that fome beings are immortal, and fhall never ceafe to be ; for all thofe future durations have never aaually been, but are ftill produced of new, and fo continued in being. This argument may feem to be too fubtile, and it will require fome attention of mind to obferve and difcover the force of it; but after we have turned it over and over again, it will be found to be a true demonftration. The chief objedtion that lies againft it is, that in the opinion of thofe who deny that there are any indivifible points of matter, and that believe that matter is infinitely dividble, it is no^ abfurd to fay, that one infi nite IS more than another : for the fmalleft crum of matter is infinite, as well as the whole globe of the earth : and therefore tne revolutions of Saturn may be infinite, as well as the re volutions of days, though the one be vaftly more numerous than the other. But there is this difference betwixt the fuc ceffion of time, and the compofition of matter; that thofe who deny indivifibles, fay, that no one point can be affigned : for If points could be affigned or numbered, it is certain that they could not be infinite ; for an infinite number feems to be a contradiaion : but if the feries of mankind were infinite, fince this IS vifiMy divided into fingle individuals, as the units of uIJT'V^T^''\''''^''^'' '"^"i^^ ""-"ber compofed be fa a f '"'^'""^"^'^ 'hat can be affigned. The fame is to Lid with .n^'^'^'V^"";^' ^^y^' ^"^ y'^''-- "°r '^^^ it be faid w.tn equal reafon, that every portion of time is divifible to THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 25 to infinity, as well as every parcel of matter. It feems evi- art. dent, that there is a prefent time ; and that paft, prefent, and to come, cannot be faid to be true of any thing all at once : therefore the objeaion againft the affigning points in matter, does not overthrow the truth of this argument. But if it is thought that this is rather a flight of metaphyficks that entan gles one, than a plain and full conviaion, let us turn next to fuch reafonings as are more obvious, and that are more eafily apprehended. The other moral arguments are more fenfible as well as they are of a more complicated nature ; and proceed thus : The hiftory of all nations, of all governments, arts, fciences, and even inftituted religions, the peopling of nations, the progrefs of commerce and of colonies, are plain indications of the novelty of the world ; no fort of trace remaining by which we can believe it to be ancienter than the books of Mofes reprefent it to be. For though fome nations, fuch as the Egyptians and the Chinefes, have boafted of a much greater antiquity ; yet it is plain, we hear of no feries of hiftory for all thofe ages ; fo that what they had relating to them, if it is not wholly a fiaion, might have been only in aftronomi- cal tables, which may be eafily run backwards as well as for ward. The very few eclipfes which Ptolemy could hear of is a remarkable inftance of the novelty of hiftory ; fince the obferving fuch an extraordinary accident in the heavens, in fo pure an air, where the fun was not only obferved, but adored, muft have been one of the firft effeas of learning or induf- try. All thefe charaaers of the novelty of the world have been fo well confidered by Lucretius, and other atheifts, that they gave up tlie point, and thought it evident that this prefent frame of things had certainly a beginning. The folution that thofe men who found themfelves driven from this of the world's being eternal, have given to this dif ficulty, by faying that all things have run by chance into the combinations and channels in which we fee nature run, is fo abfurd, that it looks like men who are refolved to believe any thing, how abfurd foever, rather than to acknowledge reli gion. For what a ftrange conceit is it, to think that chance could fettle on fuch a regular and ufeful frame of things, and continue fo fixed and ftable in it ; and that chance could do fo much at once, and fhould do nothing ever fince ? The conftancy of the celeftial motions ; the obliquity of the zo- diack, by which different feafons are affigned to different cli mates ; the divifions of this globe into fea and land, into hills and vales ; the produaions of the earth, whether latent, fuch as mines, minerals, and other foffils ; or vifible, fuch as grafs, grain, herbs, flowers, fiirubs, and trees ; the fmall begin nings, 26 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. nings, and the curious compofitions of them : the variety and ^- curious ftruaure of infeas ; the difpofition of the bodies of ^'¦'"^^'-^ perfeaer animals ; and, above all, the fabrick of the body of man, efpecially the curious difcoveries that anatomy and mi- crofcopes have given us ; the ftrange beginning and progrefs of thofe ; the wonders that occur in every organ of fenfe, and the amazing ftruaure and ufe of the brain, are all fuch things, fo artificial, and yet fo regular, and fo exaaiy fhaped and fit ted for their feveral ufes, that he who can believe all this to be chance, feems to have brought his mind to digeft any ab- furdity. That all men fhould refemble one another in the main things, and yet that every man fhould have a peculiar look, voice, and way of writing, is neceffary to maintain order and diftinaion in fociety: by thefe we know men, if we either fee them, hear them fpeak in the dark, or receive any writing from them at a diftance ; without thefe, the whole commerce of life would be one continued courfe of miftake and con- fufion. This, I fay, is fuch an indication of wifdom, that it looks like a violence to nature to think it can be otherwife. The only colour that has fupported this monftrous conceit, that things arife out of chance, is, that it has long paffed cur rent in the world, that great varieties of infeas do arife out of corrupted matter. They argue, that if the fun's fhining on a dunghill can give life to fuch fwarms of curious creatures, it is but a little more extraordinary, to think that animals and men might have been formed out of weli-difpofed matter, un der a peculiar afpea of the heavens. But the exaaer obfer- vations that have been made in this age by the help of glaffes, have put an end to this anfwer, which is the beft that Lucre tius and other atheifts found to reft in. It is now fully made out, that the produaion of all infeas whatfoever is in the way of generation : heat and corruption do only hatch thofe cggSj that infeas leave to a prodigious quantity every where. So that this, which is the only fpecious thing in the whole plea for atheifm, is now given up by the univerfal confent of all the enquirers into nature. And now to bring the force of this long argument to a head: If this world was neither from all eternity in the ftate in which it is at prefent, nor could fall into it by chance or accident, then it muft follow, that it was put into the ftate in which we now fee it, by a Being of vaft power and wifdom. This is the great and folid argument on which Re ligion refis ; and it receives a vaft acceffion of ftrength from this, that we plainly fee matter has not motion in or of itfelf : every part of it is at quiet till it is put in motion, that is not natural to it ; for many parts of matter fall into a ftate of reftand THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 27 and quiet ; fo that motion muft be put in them by fome Im- ART. pulfe or other. Matter, after it has paffed through the higheft ^• refinings and reftifyings poffible, becomes only more capable ^^^"^/""^ of motion than it was before ; but ftill it is a paffive princi ple, and muft be put in motion by fome other being. This has appeared fo neceflary even to thofe who have tried their ut- moft force to make God as little needful as poffible in the ftruaure of the univerfe, that they have yet been forced to own, that there muft have been once a vaft motion given to matter by the Supreme Mind. A third argument for the being of a God, is, that upon fome great occafions, and before a vaft number of witnefles, fome perfons have wrought miracles : that is, they have put nature out of its courfe, by fome words or figns, that of themfelves could not produce thofe extraordinary effeas : and therefore fuch perfons were affifted by a Power fuperior to the courfe of nature ; and by confequence there is fuch a Being, and that is God. To this the atheifts do firft fay, that we do not know the fecret virtues that are in nature : the load- ftone and opium produce wonderful effeas j therefore, unlefs we knew the whole extent of nature, we cannot define what is fupernatural and miraculous, and what is not fo. But though we cannot tell how far nature may go, yet of fome things we may, without hefitation, fay they are beyond natural pow ers. Such were the wonders that Mofes wrought in Egypt and in the wildernefs, by the fpeaking a few words, or the ftretch- ing out of a rod. We are fure thefe could not by any natu ral efficiency produce thofe wonders. And the like is to be faid of the miracles of Chrift, particularly of his raifing the dead to life again, and of his own refurreaion. Thefe we are fure did not arife out of natural caufes. The next thing atheifts fay to this, is, to difpute the truth of the faas : but of that I fhall treat in another place, when the authority of re vealed religion comes to be proved from thofe faas. All that is neceffary to be added here, is, that if faas that are plainly fupernatural, are proved to have been really done, then here is another clear and full argument, to prove a Being fuperior to nature, that can difpofe of it at pleafure : and that Being muft either be God, or fome other invifible Being, that has a ftrength fuperior to the fettled courfe of nature. And if in vifible Beings, fuperior to nature, whether good or bad, are once acknowledged, a great ftep is made to the proof of the Supreme Being. There is another famed argument taken from the idea of God ; which is laid thus : that becaufe one frames a no tion of infinite perfeaion, therefore there muft be fuch a Be ing, from whom that notion is conveyed to us. This argu ment 28 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. ment is alfo managed 'by other methods, to give us a demon- ^- ftration of the being of a God. I am unwilling to fay any ^^•''"^^"^ thing to derogate from any argument that is brought to prove this conclufion ; but when he, who infifts on this, lays all other arguments afide, or at leaft flights them as not ftrong enough to prove the point, this naturally gives jealoufy, when all thofe reafons, that had for fo many ages been confidered as folid proofs, are negleaed, as if this only could amount to a demonftration. But, befides, this is an argument that cannot be offered by any to another perfon, for his conviaion ; fince if he denies that he has any fuch idea, he is without the reach of the argument. And if a man will fay that any fuch idea, which he may raife in himfelf, is only an aggregate that he makes of all thofe perfeaions, of which he can form a thought, which he lays together, feparating from them every imper- feaion that he obferves to be often mixed with fome of thofe perfeaions : if, I fay, a man will affirm this, I do not fee that the inference from any fuch thought that he has formed within himfelf, can have any great force to perfuade him that there is any fuch Being. Upon the whole, it feems to be fully proved, that there is a Being that is fuperior to matter, and that gave both being and order to it, and to all other things. This may ferve to prove the being of a God : it is fit in the next place to confider, with all humble modefty, what thoughts we can, or ought to have of the Deity. That Supreme Being muft have its effence of itfelf neceffarily and eternally ; for it is impoffible that anything can give itfelf being ; fo it muft be eternal. And though eternity in a fuc ceffion of determinate durations was proved to be impoffible, yet it is certain that fomething muft be eternal ; either matter, or a Being fuperior to it, that has not a duration defined by fucceffion, but is a fimple effence, and eternally was, is, and fhall be the fame. There is nothing contradiaory to itfelf in this notion : it is indeed above our capacity to form a clear thought of it ; but it is plain it muft be fo, and that this is only a defea in our nature and capacity, that we cannot diftindly apprehend that which is fo far above us. Such a Being mull have alfo neceffary exiftence in its notion ; for whatfoever is infinitely perfea, muft ne^ffarily exift ; fince we plainly per ceive, that neceffary exiftence is a perfeaion, and that contin gent exiftence is an imperfeaion, which fuppofes a being; that IS produced by another, and that depends upon if : and as this fuperior Being did exift from all eternity, fo it is impoffible it ihouid ceafe to be ; fince nothing that once has aaually a being, can ever ceafe to be, but by an aa of a fuperior Being annihl! i !?&'*V ' *"^^«i"g nothing fuperior to the Deityt it is im poffible that It fliould ever ceafe to be : what was felf-exiftent from all THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 29 all eternity, muft alfo be fo to all eternity ; and it is as impoffi- art. ble that a fimple effence can annihilate itfelf, as that it can make ^" itfelf. ^-^^^^ So much concerning the firft and capital article of all reli gion, the exiftence and being of a God ; which ought not to be proved by any authorities from Scripture, unlefs from the recitals that are given in it concerning miracles, as was already hinted at. But as to the authority of fuch paffages in Scrip ture, which affirm, that there is a God, it is to be confidered, that before we can be bound to fubmit to them, we muft believe three propofitions antecedent to that; I. That there is a God. 2. That all his words are true. 3. That thefe are his words. What therefore muft be believed before we acknowledge the Scriptures, cannot be proved out of them. It is then a ftrange affertion, to fay, that the being of a God cannot be proved by the light of nature, but muft be proved by the Scriptures ; fince our being affured, that there is a God, is the firft principle up on which the authority of the Scriptures depends. The fecond propofition in the Article is. That there is but one God. As to this, the comrrion argument by which it is proved, is the order of the world ; from whence it is inferred, that there cannot be more Gods than one, fince where there are more than one, there muft happen diverfity and confufion. This is by fome thought to be no good reafon; for if there are more Gods, that is, more beings infinitely perfea, they will al ways think the fame thing, and be knit together with an entire love. It is true, in things of a moral nature this muft fo hap pen : for beings infinitely perfea muft ever agree. But in phyfical things, capable of no morality, as in creating the world fooner or later, and the different fyftems of beings, with a thoufand other things that have no moral goodnefs in them, different beings infinitely perfea might have different thoughts. So this argument feems ftill of great force to prove the unity of the Deity. The other argument from reafon to prove the unity of God, is from the notion of a Being infinitely perfea. For a fuperiority over all other beings comes fo natu rally into the idea of infinite perfeaion, that we cannot feparate it from it. A Being therefore, that has not all other beings inferior and fubordinate to it, cannot be infinitely perfea ; whence it is evident, that there is but one God. But befides all this, the unity of God feems to be fo frequently and fo plainly aflerted in the Scripture, that we fee it was the chief defign of the whole Old Teftament, both of Mofes and the prophets, to eftablifh it, in oppofition to the falfe opinions of the heathen, concerning a diverfity of Gods. This is often repeated in the moft folemn word?, as. Hear O Ifrael, the Lord our God is one Deut. vi.4. God, It is the firft of the Ten Commandments, Thou fi,alt have 30 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. no other Gods but me. And all things in heaven and earth are I- often faid to be made by this one God. Negative words are ^-^'V^alfo often ufed, There is none other God but one: befides me there lla. xhv. 6,^.^ ^^^^ Jj.^^ ^^^ jj^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ . ^jjg g^jj^g ^fjg^ Pjl^gr Qods is reckoned the higheft, and the moft unpardonable aft of idolatry. The New Teftament goes on in the fame ftrain. Chrift fpeaks johnxvii.^.of the only true God, and that he alone ought to be worfliipped Mat. iv. icand ferved; all the Apoftles do frequently affirm the fame thing: ] Cor. viii. j,j^ ^^^^ jl^g believing of one God in oppofition to the many ¦' ¦ Gods of the Heathens, the chief article of the Chriftian re ligion ; and they lay down this as the chief ground of our obli- Eph. iv. 4, gation to mutual love and union among ourfelves. That there 5, 6. is one God, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptifm. Now fince we are fure that there is but one Meffias, and one doarine de livered by him, it will clearly follow, that there muft be but one God. So the unity of the divine effence is clearly proved both from the order and government of the world, from the idea of infinite perfeaion, and from thofe exprefs declarations that are made concerning it in the Scriptures ; which laft is a fufl proof to all fuch as own and fubmit to them. The third head in this Article is that which is negatively ex preffed. That God is without Body, Parts, or Paffions. In gene ral, all thefe are fo plainly contrary to the ideas of infinite per feaion, and they appear fo evidently to be imperfeaions, that this part of the Article will need little explanation. We do plainly perceive that our bodies are clogs to our minds : and all the ufe that even the pureft fort of body in an eftatc conceived to be glorified, can be of to a mind, is to be an inftrument of local motion, or to be a repofitory of ideas for memory and imagination : but God, who is every where, and is one pure and fimple aa, can have no fuch ufe for a body. A mind dwelling in a body is in many refpeas fuperior to it ; yet in fome refpeas is under it. We who feel how an aa of our mind can fo direa the motions of our body, that a thought fets our limbs and joints a going, can from thence conceive, how that the whole extent of matter fhould receive fuch motions as the aas of the Supreme Mind give it : but yet not as a body united to it, or that the Deity either needs fuch a body, or can receive any trouble from it. Thus far the apprehenfion of the thing is very plainly made out to us. Our thoughts put fome parts of our body in a prefent motion, when the organization is regular, and all the parts are exaa ; and when there is no ob- ftrudlion in thofe veffels or paffages through which that heat and thofe fpirits do pafs, that caufe the motion. We do in this perceive, that a thought does command matter; but our minds are limited to our bodies, and thefe do not obey them, but THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 3* but as they are in an exaa difpofition and a fitnefs to be fo moved. Now thefe are plain imperfeaions, but removing them from God, we can from hence apprehend that all the matter in the univerfe may be fo entirely fubjea to the divine Mind, that it fhall move and be whatfoever and wherefoever he [will have it to be. This is that which all men do agree in. But many of the philofophers thought that matter, though it was moved and moulded by God at his pleafure, yet was not made by him, but was felf-exiftent, and was a paffive princi ple, but co-exiftent to the Deity, which they thought was the aaive principle : from whence fome have thought, that the belief of two Gods, one good and another bad, did fpring : though others imagine that the belief of a bad God did arife from the corruption of that tradition concerning fallen an gels, as was before fuggefted. The philofophers could not apprehend that things could be made out of nothing, and therefore they believed that matter was co-eternal with God. But it is as hard to apprehend how a mind by its thought fhould give motion to matter, as how it fhould give it be ing. A being not made by God is not fo eafily conceiv able to be under the aas of his mind, as that which is made by him. This conceit plainly deftroys infinite perfeaion, which cannot be in God, if all beings are not from him, and under his authority ; befides that fucceffive duration has been already proved inconfiftent with eternity. This opinion of the world's being a body to God, as the mind that dwells in it, and aauates it, is the foundation of atheifm : for if it be once thought that God can do nothing without fuch a body, then as this deftroys the idea of infinite perfeaion, fo it makes way to this conceit, that fince matter is vifible, and God invifible, there is no other God, but the vaft extent of the univerfe. It is true, God has often fhewed himfelf in vifible ap pearances ; but that was only his putting a fpecial quantity of matter into fuch motions, as fhould give a great and afto- nifhing idea of his nature, from that appearance : which was both the effea of his power, and the fymbol of his prefence. And thus what glorious reprefentations foever were made either on mount Sinai, or in the pillar of the cloud, and cloud of glory, thofe were no indications of God's having a body ; but were only manifeftations, fuited to beget fuch thoughts in the minds of men, that dwelt in bodies, as might lay the principles and foundations of religion deep in them. The language of the Scriptures fpeaks to the capacities of men, and even of rude men in dark times, in which moft of the Scriptures were writ ; but though God is fpoke of as having a face, eyes, ears, a fmelling, hands and feet, and as coming down to view things on earth, all this is expreffed after the manner of men, and 3» AN EXPOSITION OF and is to be underftood in a way fuitable to a pure Spirit. For' the great care that was ufed, even under the moft imperfea ftate of Revelation, to keep men from framing any image or fimi- litude of the Deity, fhewed that it was far from the meaning of thofe expreffions, that God had an organized body. Thefe do therefore fignify only the feveral varieties of Providence. When God was pleafed with a nation, his face was faid to fhine upon it ; for fo a man looks towards thofe whom he loves. The particular care he takes of them , and the anfwering their prayers, is expreffed by figures borrowed from eyes and ears : the pe culiar difpenfations of rewards and puniftiments are expreffed by his hands ; and the exaanefs of his juftice and ivifdom is expreffed by coming down to view the ftate of human affairs. Thus it is clear that God has no body : nor has he parts, for we can apprehend no parts but of a body : fo fince it is certain that God has no body, he can have no parts : fomething like parts does indeed belong to fpirits, which are their thoughts diftina from their being, and they have a fucceffion of them, and do oft change them. But infinite perfeaion excludes this from the idea of God; fucceffive thoughts, as well as fucceffive duration, feem inconfiftent both with eternity, and with infinite perfeaion. Therefore the effence of God is one perfea thought, in which he both views and wills all things : and though his tranfient aas that pafs out of the divine effence, fuch as creation, providence, and miracles, are done in a fuc ceffion of time; yet his immanent aas, his knowledge and his decrees, are one with his effence, Diftina thoughts are plainly an imperfeaion, and argue a progrefs in knowledge, and a deliberation in council, which carry defea and infirmity in them. To conceive how this is in God, is far above our ca^ pacity: who, though we feel our imperfeaion in fucceffive aas, yet cannot apprehend how all things can be both feen and de termined by one fingle thought. But the divine Effence being fo infinitely above us, it is no wonder if we can frame no inftina aa concerning its knowledge or will. There is indeed a vaft difficulty that arifes here ; for thofe aas of God are fuppofed free ; fo that they might have been otherwife than we fee they are: and then it is not eafy to ima gine how they fhould be one with the divine Effence ; to which neceffary exiftence does certainly belong. It cannot be faid that thofe aas are neceffary, and could not be otherwife : for fince all God's tranfient aas are the certain effeas of his immanent ones, if the immanent ones are neceffary, then the tranfient muft be fo likewife, and fo every thing muft be neceffary : a chain of neceffary fate muft run through the whole order of things: and God himfelf then is no free being, but aas by a neceffity of nature. This fome have thought was no abfur- dity : THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 33 dity: God is neceffarily juft, true and good, not by any extrin- fic neceffity, for that would import an outward limitation, which deftroys the idea of God ; but by an intrinfic necef fity, that arifes from his own infinite perfeaion. Some have from hence thought that, fince God aas by infinite wifdom and goodnefs, things could not have been otherwife than they are : for what is infinitely wife or good cannot be altered, or made either better or worfe. But this feems on the other hand very hard to conceive : for it v/ould follow from thence, that God could neither have made the world fooner nor later, nor any other way than now it is : nor could he have done any one thing otherwife than as it is done. 'I'his feems to eftablifh fate, and to deftroy induftry and all prayers and endeavours. Thus there are fuch great diffi.culties on all hands in this mat ter, that it is much the wifeft and fafeft courfe to adore what is above our apprehenfions, rather than to enquire too curioufly, or determine too boldly in it. It is certain that God aas both freely and perfeaiy : nor is he a Being fubjea to change, or to new aas ; but he is what he is, both infinite and incompre- henfible : we can neither apprehend how he made, nor how he executes his decrees. So we muft leave this difficulty, with out pretending that we can explain it, or anfwer the objeaions that arife againft all the feveral ways by which divines have endeavoured to refolve it. The third thing under the head I now confider, is, God's being without paffions. T'hat will be foon explained. Paf- fion is an agitation that fuppofes a fucceffion of thoughts, together with a trouble for what is paft, and a fear of mif fing what is aimed at. it arifes out of a heat of mind, and produces a vehemence of adiion. Now all thefe are fuch nianifeft imperfeaions, that it does plainly appear they cannot confift with infinite perfeaion. Yet after all this, there are feveral paffions, fuch as anger, fury, jealoify, and revenge, hozuels of mercy, compaffton and pity, joy and J'orroiv, that are afcribed to God in the common forms of fpeech, that oc cur often in iicripture, as v/as formerly obferved, with rela tion to thofe figures that are taken from the parts of a human body. Paffion produces a vehemence of aaion : fp when there is in the providences of God fuch a vehemence as accord ing to the manner of men would import a paffion, then that paffion is afcribed to God : wlien he punifhes men for fin, he is faid to be angry : when bedoes that by fevere and redoubled ftrokes, he is faid to be full of fury and revenge : when he punifhes for idolatry, or any difhonour done himfelf, he is fiid to be jealous : vi'hen he changes the courfe of his proceedings, he is faid to repent : when .his difpenfations of providence are ¦ very gentle, and his judgments come flowly from him, he is D laid 34 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. faid to have bowels. And thus all the varieties of Providence ^- come to be expreffed by all that variety of paffions, which ^-^""v^ among men might give occafion to fuch a variety of pro ceeding. The fourth head in this article is concerning the power, wifdom, and goodnefs of God, that he is infinite in them. If he can give being to things that are not, and can alfo give all the poffibilities of motion, fize and fhape, to beings that do ex- ilt, here is power without bounds. A power of creating muft be infinite, fince nothing can refift it. If fome things are in their own nature impoffible, that does not arife from the want of power in God, which extends to every thing that is poffible. But that which is fuppofed to be impoffible of its own nature, cannot aaually be : otherwife a thing might both be and not lif ; and it is perceptible to every man that this is impoffible. It is not want of power in God that he cannot lie nor fin: it is the infinite purity of the divine nature that makes this impof fible, by reafon of his infinite perfeaion. Nor is it a want of power in God, that the truth of propofitions concerning things that are paft, as that yefterday once was, is unalterable. Among impoffibilities, one is, to take from any being that which is eflential to it. God can annihilate every being at his pleafure ; for as he gave being with a thought, fo he can deftroy it with another : and this does fully affert the infinite power of God. But if he has made beings with fuch peculiar effences, as that matter muft be extended and impenetrable, and that it is capable of peculiar furfaces and other modes, which are only its different fizes and fhapes, then matter cannot be and yet not be extended ; nor can thefe modes fubfift, if the matter of which they are the modes is withdrawn. The in finite power of God is fully believed by thofe who acknowledge both his power of creating and annihilating ; together with a power of difpofing of the whole creation, according to the poffibilities of every part or individual of it; though they cannot conceive a poffibility of feparating the effential properties of any being from itfelf ; that is to fay, that it may both be, and not be, at the fame time ; fince an eflential property is that which can not be without that fubftance to which it belongs. The wifdom of God confifts firft in his feeing all the pof fibilities of things, and then in his knowing all things that ei ther are, or ever were, or ftiaU be :.-the former is called tile knowledge of fimple intelligence or apprehenfion ; the other is called the knowledge of vifion. The one arifes from the per fection of the Divine Eflbnce, by which he apprehends what ever is poffible ; the other ariffes from his own decrees, in which the whole order of things is fixed. But befides thefe two ideas that THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 35 that we can frame of the knowledge of God, fome have ima gined a third knowledge, which, becaufe it is of a middle or der betwixt intelligence and vifiion, they have called a middle knowledge ; which is the knowing certainly how, according to all the poffibilities of circumftances in which free agents might be put, they fhould choofe and aa. Some have thought that this was a vain and needlefs conceit ; and that it is impoffible that fuch knowledge fhould be certain, or more than conjeaural ; and fince conjeaure implies doubt, it is an imperfea aa, and fo does not become a Being of infinite perfeaion. But others have thought that the infinite perfeaion of the Divine Mind muft go fo far as to forefee certainly what free creatures are to do ; fince upon this forefight only they imagine that the juftice or goodnefs of God in his providence can be made out or de fended. It feemed fit to mention this upon the prefent occa fion ; but it will be then proper to enquire more carefully about it, when the zxixcle of predefiination is explained. It is neceffary to ftate the idea of the goodnefs of God moft carefully ; for we naturally enough frame great and juft ideas of power and wifdom ; but we eafily fall into falfe con ceits of goodnefs. This is that of all the divine perfeaions in which we are the moft concerned, and fo we ought to be the moft careful to frame true ideas of it : it is alfo that, of all God's attributes, of which the Scriptures fpeak moft copioufly. Infinite goodnefs is a tendency to communicate the divine perfeaions to all created beings, according to their feveral ca pacities. God is original goodnefs, all perfea and happy in himfelf, aaing and feeing every thing in a perfea light ; and he having made rational beings capable of fome degrees of his light, purity, and perfeaion, the firft and primary aa of goodnefs is to propofe to them fuch means as may raife them to thefe, to furnifh them with them, to move them oft to them, to accept and to affift their fincere endeavours after them. A fecond aa of goodnefs, which is but in order to the firft, is to pity thofe miferies into which men fall, as long as there is any principle or poffibility left in them of their be coming good ; to pardon all fuch fins as men have committed, who turn to the purpofes of becoming ferioufly good, and to pafs by all the frailties and errors of thofe who are truly and upon the main good, though furprife and ftrong temptations prove often too hard for them. Thefe two give us as full an idea as we can have of perfea goodnefs ; whofe firft aim muft be the making us good, and like to that original good nefs ; pity and pardon coming in but in a fubfidiary way, to carry on the main defign of making men truly good. Therefore the chief aa and defign of goodnefs, is the mak ing us truly good ; and when any perfon falls below that pof- D 2 fibility, 3^ AN EXPOSITION OF ART. fibility, he is no more the objea of pity or pardon, becaufe he is ^' no more capable of becoming good. Pardon is offered on defign ^'""^^'^"^ to make us really good ; fo it is not to be fought for, nor refted in, but in order to a further end, which is the reforming our natures, and the making us partakers of the divine nature. We are not therefore to frame ideas of a feeble goodnefs in God, that yields to importunate cries, or that melts at a vaft degree of mifery. Tendernefs in human nature is a great ornament and perfeaion, neceflary to difpofe us to much benignity and meicy: but in the common adminiftration of juftice, this tendcrnel^ muft be refirained ; otherwife it would flacken the rigour of punifliment too much, which might dif- folve the order and peace of human focieties. But fince we cannot fee into the truth of men's hearts, a charitable difpo fition and a compaffionate temper arc neceffary, to make men fcciable and kind, gentle and humane. God, who fees our hearts, and is ever aflifting all our endeavours to become truly good, needs not this tendernefs, nor is he indeed capable of it; for after all its beauty with relation to the ftate wherein we are now pur, yet in itfelf it implies imperfeaion. Nor can the mi- Icrics and bowlings of wicked beings, after all the feeds and poffibilities of goodnefs are utterly extinguifbed in them^ give any pity to the Divine Being. Thefe are no longer the ob jea of the primary aa of his goodnefs, and therefore they cannot come under its fecondary aas. It is of fuch great confequence to fettle this notion right in our minds, that it well deferves to be fo copioi'fly opened ; fince we now fee in what refpeas God's goodnefs is without bounds, and infinite; that is, it reaches to all men, after all fins whatfoever, as long as they are capable of becoming good. It is not a limitation of the divine goodnefs to fay, that fome men and fome ftates are beyond it; no more than it is a limitation of his power, to fay, that he cannot fin, or cannot do impoffibilities : for a goodnefs towards perfons not capable of becoming good, is a goodnefs that does not agree with the infinite purity and holi- nels of God. It is fuch a goodnefs, that if it were propofed to the world, It would encourage men to live in fin, and to think th.t a few acLS of homage offered to God, perhaps in our laft extremities, could fo far pleafe him, as to bribe and corrupt fnrS'l''^^^^ which makes idolatry fo great a fin, fo often forbid by God, and fo feverely punifliedt not only as it is Hijurious to the majefty of God, but becaufe it corrupts the tllfc '^^''°"^«^^ <-"'^- Thofe Ideas rightly formed are the bans upon wnich all Religion is built. l%e feeds and prin- c pie of a new and godhke nature fpring up in us as we form ourfelves upon die ti ue ideas or notions of God. Therefore when God IS THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 37 God is propofed to be adored by us under a vifible fhape or ART. image, all the adts of Religion offered to it are only fo many '¦ pieces of pageantry, and end in the flatterings and the mag- ' nifyings of it with much pomp, cruelty, or lafcivioufnefs, ac cording to the different genius of feveral nations. So the forming a falfe notion of the goodnefs of God, as a tender nefs that is to be overcome with importunities and bowlings, and other fubmiffions, and not to be gained only by becoming like him, is a capital and fundamental error in religion. The next branch of this article is, God's creating and pre- fcrvlng of ali things ; and that both material fubftances, which are vifible, and immaterial and fpiritual fubftances, which are invifible. God's creating all things has been already made out. If matter could neither be eternal, nor give itfelf a being, then it muft have its being from God. Creating does naturally im port infinite power ; for that power is clearly without bounds, that can make things out of nothing : a bounded power, which can only fhape and mould matter, muft fuppofe it to have a being, before it can work upon it. We cannot indeed form a diftina thought of creation, for we cannot apprehend what nothing is. The neareft approach we can bring our felves to a true idea of this, is, the confidering our own thoughts ; efpecially our ideas of mathematical proportions, and the other affeaions of bodies : thofe ideas are the modes of a fpiritual fubftance; and there is no likenefs nor refemblance between them and the modes of material fubftances, which are only the occafions of our having thofe ideas, and not in any wife the matter out of which they are formed. Here feems to be a fort of beings brought out of nothing ; but, after all, this is vaftly below creation, and is only a faint refemblance ¦ of it. With the power of creating we muft alfo join that of an nihilating, which is equal to it, and muft neceffarily be fup pofed to be in God, becaufe we plainly perceive it to be a per feaion. The recalling into nothing a being brought out of nothing, is a neceffary confequence of infinite power, when it thinks fit fo to exert itfelf. There is a common notion in the world, that things would fall back into nothing of them felves, if they were not preferved by the fame infinite Power that made them : but without queftion it is an aa of the fame infinite Power to reduce a being to nothing, that it is to bring a being out of nothing : fo whatever has once a being, muft of its nature continue ftill to be, without any new caufality or influence. This muft be acknowledged, unlefs it can be faid, that a tendency to annihilation is the confequent of a created being. But as this would make the prefervation of the world to be a continued violence to a natural tendency that is in all D 3 things. 38 AN EXPOSITION OF things • fo there is no more reafon to imagine that beings have a endency to annihilation, than that nothing had a tendency to creation. It is abfurd to think that any thing can have a ten dency to that which is effentially oppofite to itfelf, and is de- ^'^rprefervation of things, is the keeping the frame of nature and the order of the univerfe in fuch a_ ftate as is fuitable to the purpofes of the Supreme Mind. It is true, na tural agents muft ever keep the courfe m which they are once put ; and the great heavenly orbs, as well as all fmaller motions, muft ever have rofled on in one conftant channel, when they were once put into it ; fo in this refpea it may feem that confervation by a fpecial aa is not neceffary. But we perceive a freedom in our own natures, and a power that our minds have, not only to move our own bodies, but by them, and by the help of fuch engines as we can invent, we make a vaft change in this earth from what it would be, if it were left unwrought. In a courfe of fome ages, the whole world, by the natural progrefs of things, would be a foreft : both earth and air are very much different from what they would be, if men were not free agents, and did not cultivate^ the earth, and thereby purify the air. The working of mines, minerals, and other foffils, makes alfo a great change in its bowels ; it gives vent to fome damps which might much affeft the air, and it frees the earth from earthquakes. Thus the induftry of man has in many refpeas changed both earth and air very fenfibly from v/hat it would have been, if the world had not thofe inhabitants in it. Nor do we know what natural force other fpirits inhabiting in or about it, or at leaft ufing fubtiller bodies, may have, or in what influences or opera tions they may exert that force on material fubftances. Up on all thefe accounts it is, that the world could not be pre ferved in a conftant and regular ftate, if the Supreme Mind had not a direaion both of men's wills and aaions, and of the courfe of nature: for unlefs it is thought that man is really no free agent, but aas in a chain as certainly as other natural agents do, it muft be acknowledged, that by the inter- pofition of men's minds, together with their power over matter, the courfe of the firft motion that was given to the univerfe is fo changed, that if there is not a conftant providence, the frame of nature muft go out of the channel into which God did at firft put it. Tiie order of things on this earth takes a great turn from the wind, both as to the fruitfulnefs of the earth, and to the operations on the fea, and has likewife a great influence on the purity of the air, and, by confequence, on men's good or ill health; and the wind, or the agita tion of the air, turns fo often and fo quick, that it feems to be THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 39 be the great inftrument of Providence, upon which an uncon- ART. ¦ceiVable variety of things does naturally depend. I do not ^" deny, but that it may be faid, that all thofe changes in the air ^¦^''V^^ arife from certain and mechanical, though to us unknown caufes ; which may be fupported from this, that between the Tropics, where the influence of the heavenly bodies is ftronger, the wind and weather are more regular ; though even that admits of great exceptions : yet it has been the common fenfe of mankind, that, befides the natural caufes of the alterations in the air, they are under a particular in fluence and direaion of Providence : and it is in itfelf highly probable, to fay no more of it. This may either be managed immediately by the aas of the Divine Mind, to which nature readily obeys, or by fome fubaltern mind, or angel, which may have as natural an efficiency over an extent of matter propor tioned to its capacity, as a man has over his own body, and over that compafs of matter that is within bis reach. Which way foever God governs the world, and what influence fo ever he has over men's minds, we are fure that the governing and preferving his own workmanfhip is fo plainly a perfec tion, that it muft belong to a Being infinitely perfea: and there is fuch a chain in things, thofe of the greateft confequence arifing often from fmall and inconfiderable ones, that we cannot imagine a Providence, unlefs we believe everything to be with in its care and view. The only difficulty that has been made in apprehending this, has arifen from the narrownefs of men's minds, who have meafured God rather by their own meafure and capacity, than by that of infinite perfeaion, which, as foon as it is confidered, will put an end to all further doublings about it. When we perceive that a vaft number of objeas enter in at our eye by a very fmall paffage, and yet are fo little jumbled in that crowd, that they open themfelves regularly, though there is no great fpace for that neither; and that they give us a diftina ap prehenfion of many objeas that lie before us, fome even at a vaft diftance from uf, both of their nature, colour and fize ; and by a fecret geometry, from the angles that they make in our eye, we judge of the diftance of all objeas both from us, and from one another. If to this we add the vaft number of figures that we receive and retain long and with great order in our brains, which we eafily fetch up either in our thoughts or in our difcourfes ; we fhall find it lefs difficult to apprehend how an infinite mind fhould have the univerfal view of all things ever prefent before it. It is true, we do not fo eafily conceive how free minds are under this Providence, as how natural agents fhould always move at its direaion. But we perceive that one mind can work upon another. A man rajfes a found of words, D 4 which 40 AX EXPOSITION OF which carry fuch figns of his inward thoughts, that by this motion in the air another man's ear is fo ffruck upon, that thereby an impreffion is made upon his brain, by which he not only conceives what the other man's thought was, but is very powerfully inclined to confent to it, and to concur v/ith it. All this is a great way about, and could not be eafily apprehended by us, if we had not a clear and conftant perception of it. Now fince all this is brought about by a motion upon our brains, ac cording to the force with v/hich we are more or lefs affeaed, it is veryreafonableforus to apprehend that the Supreme Mind can, bofides many other wjys to us lefs known, put fuch motions in our brain, as may give us all fuch thoughts as it intends to im- prcfs upon us, in as ftrong and effeaual a manner as may fully anfwer all its purpofes. The great objeaion that lies againft the power and the goodnefs of Providence, from all that evil that is in the world, which Cjod is either not willing or not able to hinder, will be more properiy confidered in another place ; at prefent it is enough la jjeneral to obferve, that God's providence muft carry 0:1 every thing according to its nature ; and fince he has made fome free beings capable of thought, and of good and evil, we muft believe, that as the courfe of nature is not oft put out of its channel, unlefs when fome extraordinary thing, is to be done, in order to fome great end ; fO in the o-overn- meiit of free agents, they muft be generally left to their tiberty, a.nd not put too or't off of their bias : this is a hint to refolve that difficulty by, concerning all the moral evil, which is, o-e- r,:rally fpeaking, the occalion of moft of the phyfical evil that is in the world. A providence thus fettled, that extends itlelf to all things both natural and free, is neceffary to preferve religion, to engage us to prayers, praifes, and to a depfen- dence on it, and a fubmiffion to it. Some have thought it was neceffary to carry this further, and fo they make God to be the firft and immediate caufe of every aaion or motion. This lome modern writers have taken from the fehools and have di-e,t It in new phrafes of general laws, particular wills, and cccafional caufes; and fo they exprefs or explain God's pro ducing every motion that is in matter, and his raifing every feniation, and by the fame parity of reafon, every cogitation in minds : this they think arifes out of the idea of infinite perfeaion. and fully anfwers thefe words of the Scriptures, that in God we Lfffi.^nove, and have our being. To others all this feems firft un- neceflaiy ; for if God has made matter capable of motion, and nfe'ce of m.'tT"""^' " ''T- '^' '^'''^' "" '"'P^^""- '^at another piece of matter g.v.s ,t; this comes as truly from God, as if he I feen r/-"-? "'"">' "^°''°" ''^ ^" ^'' ^^ ^is Own wifl. Itfeen.smorefuitaDle to the beauty of his workmanfliip, to think n THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 4-T think that he has fo framed things that they hold on in that courfe ART. in which he has put them, than to make him perpetually produce '• every new motion. And the bringing God immediately into eve- '-OO*^ ry thing, may, by an odd reverfe of elFeas, make the world think that every thing is done as much without him, as others are apt to imagine that every thing is done by him. And though it is true that we cannot diftinaiy apprehend how a motion in our brain fhould raife fuch a thought as anfwers to it in our minds ; yet it feems more reafonable to think that God has put us under fuch an order of being from which that does naturally follow, than that he himfelf fhould interpofe in every thought. The difficulty of apprehending how a thing is done, can be no pre judice to the belief of it, when we have the infinite power of God in our thoughts, who may be as eafily conceived to have once for all put us in a method of receiving fuch fenfations, by a general law or courfe of nature, as to give us new ones at every minute. But the greateft difficulty againft this is, that it makes God the firft phyfical caufe of afl the evil that is in the world : which as it is contrary to his nature, fo it abfolutely deftroys all liberty; and this puts an end to all the diftinaions between good and evil, and confequently to all religion. And as for thofe large expreffions that are brought from Scripture, every word in Scripture is not to be ftretchcd to the utmoft phyfical fenfe to which it can be carried : it is enough if a fenfe is given to it, that agrees to the fcope of it : which is fully anfwered by acknowledging, that the power and providence of God is over all things, and that it direas every thing to wife and good ends, from which nothing is hid, by which nothing is forgot, and to which nothing can refift. This fcheme of pro vidence fully agrees with the notion of a Being infinitely per fea, and with all that the Scriptures affirm concerning it ; and it lays down a firm foundation for all the afts and exercifes of religion. As to the power and providence of God with relation to invifible beings, we plainly perceive that there is in us a prin ciple capable of thought and liberty, of which, by all that ap pears to us, matter is not at all capable : after its utmoft re- finings by fires and furnaces, it is ftill paffive, and has no felf- motion, much lefs thought, in it. Thought feems plainly to arife from a fingle principle, that has no paits, and is quite another thing than the motion of one fubtle piece of matter upon another can be fuppofed to be. If thought is only mo tion, then no part of us thinks, but as it is in motion; ib that only the moving particles, or rather their furfaces, that ftrike upon one another, do think: but fuch a motion muft end quickly, in the diffipation and evaporation of the whole think ing fubftance ; nor can any of the quiefcent parts have any perception 42 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. perception of fuch thoughts, or any refleaion upon them. ^•^ And to fay that matter may have other affeaions unknown to ^-^>f^ us befides motion, by which it may think, is to affirm a thing without any fort of .reafon : it is rather a flying from an ar gument, than an anfwering it : no man has any reafon to af firm this, nor can he have any. And befides, all our cogita- rions of immaterial things, proportions, and numbers, do plainly fliew that we have a being in us diftina from matter, that rifes above it, and commands it : we perceive we have a freedom of moving and aaing at pleafure. All thefe things give us a clear perception of a being that is in us diftina from matter, of which we are not able to form a complete idea : we having only four perceptions of its nature and opera tions. I. That it thinks. 2. That it has an inward power of choice. 3. That by its will it can move and command the body. And, 4. That it is in a clofe and intire union with it, that it has a dependence on it, as to many of its aas, as well as an authority over it in many other thino-s. • Such a being that has no parts muft be immortal in Its nature, for every fingle being is immortal. It is only the union of parts that is capable of being diffolved ; that which has no parts is indiffoluble. To this two objeaions are made : one IS, that beafts feem to have both thought and freedomj though 111 a lower order : if then matter can be capable of this in any degree how low foever, a higher reaification of matter may be capable of a higher degree of it. It is therefore certain, that either beafts have no thought or liberty at all .ind are only pieces of finely organifed matter, capable of many lubtile motions, that come to them from objeas without them, but that they have no fenfation nor thought at all about them or, fince how prettily foever fome may have dreffed up this notion, It IS that which human nature cannot receive or bear; there being fuch evident indications of even high degrees of reafon among the beafts; it is more reafonable to imagine, ha there may be fpirits of a lower order in beafts, that have m them a capacity of thinking and choofing ; but that fo en tirely under the impreffions of liatter, that the'y are not c palle ?arv to map ".f ' '"''"if *°"Sht or libert/, that is necef- PuniflimTnt them c ble of good or evil,' of rewards and punifhments; and that therefore they may be perpetuallv roll- hef:f7aZZ •'•IV^r^*^^- A/other^obpSol the pend foenulT i ^"A^'"" '" "^' '^ ^^at we feel it de- dforder a vann^ °" '^u ^'^"' '"'^ ^^'^ °f ^« brain, that a our memorv^an!^ °' ^"'"°"'' ^" ^^' ^'^'''' all our thoughts, we cTl S fil 'rg'"=^^'°"5 ^nd fince we find that which may be rSlhl . ^7 "P°'^ " ^'^°"^'' °f the body, it maybe reafonable to believe, that it evaporates, and is quite diffipated THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 43 diffipated upon the diffolution of our bodies : fo that the foul ART. is nothing but the livelier parts of the blood, called the ani- '• mal fpirits. In anfwer to this, we know that thofe animal '^'V^^ fpirits are of fuch an evanid and fubtile nature, that they are in a perpetual wafte, new ones always fucceeding as the former go off: but we perceive at the fame time that our foul is a fta ble and permanent being, by the fteadinefs of its aas and thoughts ; we being for many years plainly the fame beings, and therefore our fouls cannot be fuch a loofe and evaporat ing fubftance as thofe fpirits are. The fpirits are indeed the inward organs of the mind, for memory, fpeech, and bodily motion ; and as thefe flatten or are wafted, the mind is lefs able to aa : as when the eye or any other organ of fenfe is weakened, the fenfations grow feeble on that fide : and as a man is lefs able to work when all thofe inftruments he makes ufe of are blunted ; fo the mind may fink upon a decay or diforder in thofe fpirits, and yet be of a nature wholly dif ferent from them. How a mind fhould work on matter, can not, I confefs, be clearly comprehended. It cannot be denied by any that is not a direa atheift, that the thoughts of the Supreme Mind give impreffions and motions to matter. So our thoughts may give a motion, or the determination of motion to matter, and yet rife from fubftances wholly dif ferent from it. Nor is it inconceivable, that the Supreme Mind fhould have put our minds likewife under fuch a fubor- dination to fome material motions, that out of them peculiar thoughts fhould arife in us. And though this union is that which we cannot diftinaiy conceive ; yet there is np difficulty in it, equal to that of our imagining that matter can think or move itfelf. We perceive that we ourfelves and the reft of mankind have thinking principles within us ; fo from thence it is eafy enough to us to apprehend, that there may be other thinking beings, which either have no bodies at all, but aa purely as intelleaual fubftances ; or if they have bodies, that they are fo fubtilized as tobe capable of a vaft quicknefs of mo tion, fuch in proportion as we perceive to be in our animal fpirits, which, in the minute that our minds command them, are raifing motions in the remoteft parts of our bodies. Such bodies may alfo be fo thin as to be invifible to us; and as among men fome are good and fome bad, and of the bad fome feem to be determinedly, and, as to all appearance, incurably bad ; fo there may have been a time and ftate of liberty, in which thofe fpirits were left to their choice, whether they would continue in their innocency, or fall from it ; and fuch as con tinued might be for ever fixed in that ftate, or exalted to higher degrees in it : and fuch as fell from it might fall irre coverably into a ftate of utter apoftacy from God, and of re bellion 44 AX EXPOSITION' OF ART. bellion againft him. There is nothing in this theory that is '• incredible : therefore if the Scriptures have told us any thing ^^'''V"'^ concerning it, we have no reafon to be prejudiced againft them upon that account: befides that, there are innumerable hifto. ries in many feveral countries and ages of the world, of ex traordinary apparitions, and other unaccountable performances, that could only have been done by invifible powers. Many of thofe are fo well attefted, that it argues a ftrange pitch of ob- itinacy, to refufe to believe a matter of faa when it is well vouched, and when there is nothing in reafon to oppole it, but an unwillingnefs to believe invifible beings. It is true, this is an argument in which a fabulous humour will go far, and in which fome are fo credulous as to fwallow down every thing ; therefore all wife men ought to fufpend their belief, and not to go too faft : but when things are fo undeniably attefted, that there is no reafon to queftion the exaanefs or the credit of the witnefles, it argues a mind unreafonably prepofleffed to re- jea all fuch evidence. All thofe invifible beings were created by God, and are not to be confidered as emanations or r,iys of his eflence, which was a grofs conceit of fuch philofophers as fancied that the Deity had parts. They are beings created by him, and are ca pable of paffing through various icenes, in bodies more or lefs refined. In this life the ftate of our minds receives vaft al terations from the ftate of our bodies, which ripen gradually : and after they are come to their full growth, they cannot hold ill that condition long, but fink down much fiifter than they grew up ; fome humours or difeafes difcompofing the brain, which is the feat of the mind, fo entirely, that it cannot ferve it, at leaft fo far as to reflex afls. So 'in the next ftate It is poffible that we may at firft be in a lefs perfea condition by reafon of this, that we may have a lefs perfed body, to which v/e may be united between our death and the o-eneral rciurreaion ; and there may be a time in which we may re ceive a vaft addition and exaltation in that ftate, by the raifing up of our former bodies, and the reuniting us to them, which may give us a greater compafs, and a higher elevation. Thefe things are only propofed as fuppofitions, that have no abfurdity m them : fo that if they fliould happen to be the parts of a revealed religion, there is no reafon to doubt of it, or to reject It, on fuch an account. The laft branch of this Article is, the affertion of that great doarine of the Chriftian Religion concerning the Trinity, or Three Perfons in one divine effence. It is a vain attempt to go about to prove this by reafon : for it muft be confelfed, that we fliould have had no caufe to have thought of any fuch thing, if the Scriptures had not revealed it to us. There are indeed THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 45 indeed prints of a very ancient tradition in the world, of three in the Deity ; called the Word, or the Wifdom, and die Spirit, or the Love, befides the fountain of both thefe, God : this was believed by thofe from whom the moft ancient philo fophers had their doftrines. The author of the Book of Wif dom, Philo, and the Chaldee paraphrafts, have many things that fhew that they had received thofe traditions from the former ages; but it is not fo eafy to determine what gave the firft rife to them. It has been much argued, whether this was revealed in the Old Teftament or not ; fome from the plural termination of Elohim, which is joined to fingular verbs, and from that of the Lord raining fire from the Lord upon Sodom [ffehovah from fehcvah) ; from fhe defcription of the Wifdom of God in the Bth of the Proverbs, as a perfon with God from all eternity; and from the mention that is often made of the Spirit, as well as the Word of God that came to the Prophets ; they have, I fay, from all thefe places, and fome others, concluded, that this is contained in the Old Teftament. Others have doubted of this, and have faid that the name Elohim, though of a plural ter mination, being often joined to a fingular verb, makes it rea fonable to think it was a fingular : which by fomewhat peculiar to that language might be of a plural termination. Nor have they thought, that fince angels carry the name cf God, when they went on fpecial deputations from him, the angels being called Jehovah, could be very confidently urged : that fub- liine defcription of the Wifdom of God in the Proverbs, feems not to them to be a full proof in this matter : for the Wifdom there mentioned feems to be the Wifdom of creation and providence, which is not perfonal, but belongs to the effence ; nor do they think that thofe places in the Old Teftament, in which mention is made of the Word, or of the Spirit of God, can fettle this point; for thefe may only fignify God's revealing himfelf to his prophets. Therelore whatever fecret tradition the Jews might have had among them concerning this, from V/hom perhaps the Greeks might have alfo had It ; yet many do not pretend to prove this from paflages in the Old Tefta ment alone : though the expofitloiis given to fome of them in the New Teftament prove to us who acknowledge it, what was the true meaning of thofe paffages ; yet take the Old Teftament in itfelf without the New, and it muft be confelfed that it will not be eafy to prove this Article from it. But there are very full and clear proofs of it in the New Teftament ; and they had need be both full and clear before a doarine of this nature can be pretended to be proved by them. In order to the making this myfte.'-y to be more diftinaiy intel ligible, different methods have been taken. By one Subfiance many 46 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. many do underftand a numerical or individual unity of fub- ^' ftance ; and by Three Perfons they underftand three diftindl ^"'^''^ Subfiftences in that effence. It is not pretended by thefe, that we can give a diftina idea of Perfon or Subfifience, only they hold it imports a real diverfity in one from another, and even fuch a diverfity from the fubftance of the Deity itfelf, that fome things, belong to the Perfon which do not belong to the Subftance: for the Subftance neither begets, nor is be gotten ; neither breathes, nor proceeds. If this carries in it fomething that is not agreeable to our notions, nor like any thing that we can apprehend ; to this it is faid, that if God has revealed that in the Scripture which is thus expreffed, we are bound to believe it, though we can frame no clear appre henfion about it. God's eternity, his being all one fingle aft. Ills creating and preferving all things, and his being every v.'here, are things that are abfolute riddles to us : we cannot bring our minds to conceive them, and yet we muft believe that they are fo ; becaufe we fee much greater abfurditles muft follow upon our conceiving that they fhould be otherwife. So if God has declared this inexplicable thing concerning himfelf to us, we are bound to believe it, though we cannot have any clear idea how it truly is. For there appear as ftrange and un- anfwerable difficulties in many other things, which yet we know to be true; fo if we are once well affured, that God has revealed his doarine to us, we muft filence all objeaions againft it, and believe it : reckoning that our not underftanding it, as it is in itfelf, makes the d'lfficukies feem to be much greater than otherwife they would appear to be, if we had light enough about it, or were capable of forming a more perfeft idea of it while we are in this depreffed ftate. Others give another view cf this matter, that is not indeed fo hard to be apprehended : but that has an objeaion againft it, that feems as great a prejudice againft it, as the difficulty of ap prehending the other way is againft that : it is this ; they do hold, that there are three Minds ; that the firft of thefe three, who is from that called the Father, did from all eternity by an emanation of effence beget the Son, and by another emanation that was from eternity likewife, and was as effential to him as the former, both the firft and the fecond, did joint- Jy breathe forth the Spirit; and that thefe are three diftinft Minds, every one being God, as much as the other: ''"yj.h^.F.a"^" IS the fountain, and is only felf-originated. All this IS III a good degree intelligible : but it feems hard to reconcile it both with the idea of unity, which feems to belong to a lieing of inhnite perfeaion ; and with the many exprefs dec arations that are made in the Scriptures concerning the unity of God. Inftead of going farther into explanations of that THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 47 that which is certainly very far beyond all our apprehenfions, ART. and that ought therefore to be let alone, I fhall now confi- '" der what declarations are made in the Scriptures concerning ^-""V^^ this point. The firft and the chief is in that charge and commiffion which our Saviour gave to his Apoftles to go and make dif ciples to him among all Nations, baptizing them in the name of Mat. xxvii!. the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghoft. By name is meant '9- either an authority derived to them, in the virtue of which all nations were to be baptized : or that the perfons fo baptized are dedicated to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghofi, Either of thefe fenfes, as it proves them all to be Perfons; fo it fets them in an equality, in a thing that can only belong to the Divine Nature. Baptifm is the receiving men from a ftate of fin and wrath, into a ftate of favour, and into the rights of the fons of God, and the hopes of eternal happinefs, and a calling them by the name of God. Thefe are things that can only be offered and affured to men in the name of the great and eternal God ; and therefore fince, without any diftinaion or note of inequality, they are all three fet together as perfons in whofe name this is to be done, they muft be all three the true God ; otherwife it looks like a juft prejudice againft our Saviour, and his whole Gofpel, that by his exprefs direaion the firft entrance to it, which gives the vifible and foederal right to thofe great bleffings that are offered by it, or their initiation into it, fhould be in the name of two created beings (if the one can be cafled pro perly fo much as a being, according to their hypothefis) and that even in an equality with the Supreme and increated Be ing. The plainnefs of this charge, and the great occafion upon which it was given, makes this an argument of fuch force and evidence, that it may juftly determine the whole matter. A fecond argument is taken from this, that we find St. Paul begins or ends moft of his Epiftles with afalutation in the form of a with, which is indeed a prayer, or a benediaion, in the name of thofe who are fo invocated ; in which he wifhes the churches Grace, Mercy, and Peace, from God the Father, and the Lord Jefus Chrifi * ; which is an invocation of Chrifi in conjunaion with the Father, for the greateft bleffings of favour and mercy : that is a ftrange ftrain, if he was only a creature ; which yet is delivered without any mitigation or foft- ening in the moft remarkable parts of his Epiftles. This is carried farther in the conclufion of the fecond Epiftle to the Corin- • Rom. i. 7- Rom. xvi. 20, 24. I Cor. xvi, 23. I Cor. i. 3. 2 Cor. i. 3. Gal. i. 3. Gal. vi. 18. Epli. i. 2,. Eph. vi. 25. Phil. i. 2. Phil. iv. 23. Col. i. 2. I Theff. i. i. i ThefT. v. 28. 2 Theff. i, 2. a Theff. iii. ig. iT>m, i, J. 2 Tiro, i. 2, Tit. i. 4, Philcm. iij. 25. 2 John i, 3. thians ; Rev. i. 4, 5 48 AN EXPOSITION OF thians ; The Grace of the Lord Jefus Chrifi, the Love of God, and the Felloiufhip of the Holy Ghofi be with you. It is true, this is expreffed as a with, and not in the nature of a prayer, as the common falutations are : but here three great bleffings are wifhed to them as from three fountains, which imports that they are three different Perfons, and yet equal: for though in order the Father is firft, and is generally put firft.; yet here Chrift is named, which feems to be a ftrange re- verfing of things, if they are not equal as to their eflence or fubftance. It is true, the fecond is not named here, The Fa ther, as elfewhere, but only God ; yet fince he is mentioned as diftina from Chrift and the Holy Ghoft, it muft be un derftood of the Father ; for when the Father is named with Chrift, fometimes he is cafled God fimply, and fometimes God the Father. This argument from the threefold falutation appears yet ftronger in the words in which St. John addreffes himfelf to ,thc feven Churches in the beginning of the Revelations : Grace and peace from bi?n which is,zuhich was, and which is to come; and from the j'cvcn Spirits which are before his throne : and from Jefus Chrifi. By the feven Spirits muft be meant one or more perfons, lince he wiflies or declares grace and peace from them : now either this muft be meant of angels, or of the Holy Ghoft. There are no where prayers made, or bleffings given, in the name of angels : this were indeed a worfhip ping them ; againft which there are exprefs authorities, not only in the other books of the New Teftament, but in this book in particular. Nor can it be imagined that angels could have been named before Jefus Chrifi : fo then it remains, that feven be ing a number that imports both variety and perfeaion, and that was the facred number among the Jews, this is a myftical expreffion ; which is no extraordinary thing in a book that is all over myfterious : and it imports one perfon from whom afl that variety of gifts, adminiftrations, and operations that were then in the Church, did flow : and this is the Holy Ghofi. But as to his being put in order before Chrift, as upon the fuppofition of an equality, the going out of the com mon order is no great matter ; fo fince there was to come after this a full period that concerned Chrift, it might be a natural way of writing, to name him laft. Againft afl this it is ob jeaed, that the defignation that is given to the firft of thefe in a circumlocution that imports eternity, fhews that the great God, and not the perfon of the Father, is to be meant : but then how could St. John, writing to the churches, wifli them grace and peace from the other two? A few verfes af ter this, the fame defcription of eternal duration is given to Chrift, and is a ftrong proof of his eternity, and by confe quence THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 49 quence of his divinity : fo what is brought fo foon after as a art. charaSer of the eternity of the Son, may be alfo here ufed to ^* denote the eternal Father. Thefe are the chief places in which '.•''V^ the Trinity is mentioned all together. I do not infift on that contefted paffage of St. John's Epiftle: i John v. 7. there are great doubtings made about it : the main ground of doubting being the filence of the Fathers, who never made ufe of it in the difputes with the Arians and Macedonians. There are very confiderable things urged on the other hand, to fupport the authority of that paffage ; yet I think it is fafer to build upon fure and indifputable grounds : fo I leave it to be main tained by others who arc more fully perfuaded of its being au thentical. There is no need of it. This matter is capable of a very full proof, whether that paffage is believed to be a part of the canon, or not. It is no fmall confirmation of the truth of this doarine, that we are certain it was univerfally received over the whole Chriftian church long before there was either a Chriftian prince to fupport it by his authority, or a council to eftablifh it by confent : and indeed the council of Nice did nothing but de clare what was the faith of the Chriftian church, with the ad dition only of the word confubfiantial : for if all the other words of the Creed fettled at Nice are acknowledged to be true, that of the Three Perfons being of one fubftance will follow from thence by a juft confequence. We know, both by what TertuUian and Novatian writ, what was the faith both of the Roman and the African churches. From Irenaeus we gather the feith both of the Galilean and the Afiatic churches. And the whole proceedings in the cafe of Samofatenus, that was the folemneft bufinefs that paffed while the church was un der oppreffion and perfecution, give us the moft convincing proof poffible, not only of the faith of the Eaftern churches at that time, but of their zeal likewife in watching againft every breach that was made in fo facred a part of their truft and depofitum. Thefe things have been fully opened and enlarged on by others, to whom the reader is referred : I fhall only defire him to make this refleaion on the ftate of Chriftianity at that time: the difputes that were then to be managed with the Heathens, againft the deifying or worfhipping of men, and thofe extra vagant fables concerning the genealogies of their Heroes and Qods, muft have obliged the Chriftians rather to have filenced and fuppreffed the doaruie of the Trinity, than to have owned and publifhed it : fo that nothing but their being affured that it v/as a neceffary and fundamental article of their faith, could have led them to own it in fo public a manner ; fince the ad vantages that the Heathen would have taken from it, muft be £ too 5° AN EXPOSITION OF ART. too vifible not to be foon obferved. The Heathens retorted ^" upon them their doarine of a man's being a God, and of ^'•'^^f'^ God's having a Son : and every one who engaged in this con troverfy framed fuch anfwers to thefe objeaions, as he thought he could beft maintain. This, as it gave the rife to the errors which fome brought into the Church, fo it furnifhes us with a copious proof of the common fenfe of the Chriftians of thofe agef, who all agreed in general to the doarine, though they had many different, and fome very erroneous ways of explaining it among them. I now come to the fpecial proofs concerning each of the Three Perfons : but there being other articles relating to the Son and the Holy Ghoft, the proofs of thefe two will belong more properly to the explanation of thofe articles : therefore all that belongs to this article is to prove that the Father is truly God ; but that needs not be much infifted on, for there is no difpute about it: none deny that he is God; many think that he is fo truly God, that there is 'no other that can be called God befides him, unlefs it be in a larger fenfe of the word : and therefore I will here conclude all that feems neceflary to be faid on this firft article ; on which if I have dwelt the longer, it was becaufe the ftating 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 fulnefs and clearnefs poffible. In a word, to recapitulate a litde what has been faid : the livelieft way of framing an idea of God, is to confider our own fouls, which are (aid to be made after the image of God. An attentive refleaion on what we perceive in ourfelves, will carry us further than any other thing whatfoever, to form juft and true thoughts of God. We perceive what thought IS, but with that we do alfo perceive the advantage of fuch an eafy thought as arifes out of a fenfation, fuch as feeing or hearing, which gives us no trouble : we think without any trouble of many of the objeas that we fee all at once, or fo near all at once, that the progreffion from one objea to another Is fcarce perceptible; but the labour of ftudy and of purfulng confequences wearies us ; though the pleafure or the vanity of having found them out compenfates for the pain they gave us, and fets men on to new enquiries. We perceive in ourfelves a love of truth, and a vexation when we fee we are in error, or are in the dark: and we feel that we aa the moft perfeaiy, when we aa upon the cleareft views of truth, and in the ftriaeft purfuance of it ; and the more prefent and regular, the more calm and fteady that our thoughts of all things are, that lie in our compafs to know, prefent, paft, or to come, we do plainly perceive that we do thereby THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 5^ thereby become perfeaer and happier beings. Now out of A R T. all this we can eafily rife up in our thoughts to an idea of a '• mind that fees all things by a clear and full intuition, with- ^-'"V"'^ out the poffibility of being miftaken ; and that ever aas' in that light, upon the fureft profpea, and with the perfeaeft reafon ; and that does therefore always rejoice in every thing it does, and has a conftant perception of all truth ever pre fent to it. This idea does fo genuinely arife from what we perceive both of the perfeaions and the imperfeaions of our own minds, that a very litde refleaion will help us to form it to a very high degree. The perception alfo that we have of goodnefs, of a de- fire to make others good, and of the pleafure of effeaing it ; of the joy of making any one wifer or better, of making any one's life eafy, and of raifing his mind higher, will alfo help us in the forming of our ideas of God. But in this we meet with much difficulty and difappointment. So this leads us to apprehend how diffufive of itfelf infinite goodnefs muft needs be; and what is the eternal joy that infinite love has, in bring ing fo many to that exalted ftate of endlefs happinefs. We do alfo feel a power iffuing from us by a thought, that fets our bodies in motion : the varieties in our thoughts create a vaft variety In the ftate of our bodies ; but with this, as that power is limited to our own bodies, fo it is often checked by diforders in them, and the foul fuffers a great deal from thofe painful fenfations that its union with the body fubjeas it to. From hence we can eafily apprehend how the Supreme Mind can by a thought fet matter into what motions it wiU, all matter being conftantly fubjea to fuch impreffions as the aas of the Divine Mind give it. This abfolute dominion over all matter makes It to move, and fhapes It according to the aas of that Mind ; and matter has no power, by any irre gularity it falls into, to refift thofe impreffions which do imme diately command and govern it ; nor can it throw any uneafy fenfadons into that perfea Being. This conduces alfo to give us a diftina idea of miracles. All matter is uniform : and it is only the variety of Its motions and texture, that makes all the variety that is in the world. Now as the aas of the Eternal Mind gave matter its firft mo tion, and put it into that courfe that we do now call the courfe of nature ; fo another aa of the fame Mind can either fufpend, ftop, or change that courfe at pleafure, as he who throws a bowl may ftop it in its courfe, or throw it back if he will ; this being only the altering that impulfe which himfelf gave : fo if one zA of the infinite Mind puts things in a regular courfe, another aa interpofed may change that at pleafure. And thus with relation to God, miracles are no E 2 more 5* AN EXPOSITION OF ART, mors difficult than any other aft of Providence : they are ^ only more amazing to us, becaufe they are lefs ordinary, and '"'""^''^^go out of the common and regular courfe of things. By all this it appears how far the obfervation of what we perceive concerning ourfdves, may carry us to form liveUer and clearer thoughts of God. So much may fuffice upon the firft Article. ARTICLE THE XXXIX ARTICLES. S3 ART. ARTICLE II. t^v^ Of the Word or Son of God, which was made very Man. CBe &on toBicfi f^ tSe OTorD ot tge JFatgcr, 6cgcjttni from (!l5{)0rlaffing of tfie jFatger; tge tjerp anti Ctec* nal dDoii, of one &ublfante toitS tge jTatger, toofe #an'0 jRature in tge «omb of tge IBMtti mivm of gej jubilance; To tgat ttoo tofioie anD perfea jRature0, tBat i0, tSc ©otigeaS anti ^anBoob, toere /otmt! togetBei' in one perfon ; netier to be tiiui&eD t iuBeteof i0 one CBtif, tterp (Doti ana aerp ^ant 4»Bo ttulp fuffereti, toa0 tieati antJ burieti, to recon cile Big i?atBer to u0, ana to fee a g>atriate not onlp iov Original him. Of the angels he faith. Who maketh his angels fpirits, and 8, his minifier s a fiame of fire. But unto the Son he faith. Thy ID, throne, O God, is for ever and ever. And, Thou, Lord, in the be ginning hafi laid the foundation of the earth : and the heaveni 12, are the works of thy hands. Thou art the fame, and thy years zT„ fhall not fail. But to which of the angels faid he at any time. Sit 14. on my right hand, till I >make thine enemies thy footfiool ? Are they not all minifiering fpirits, fent forth to minifier for them who fhall be heirs of falvation ? This oppofition is likewife carried on through the whole fecond chapter ; one paffage in it being moft exprefs to fhew both that his nature had a fubliftence before his incarnation, and that it was not of an angelical order of Chap. ij.i5. things, fince he took not on him the nature of angels, but the feed cf Abraham. Thus in a great variety of expreffions, the conceit of Chrift's being of an angelical nature is very fully condemned. From that the writer goes next to the notion of his being to be honoured, becaufe he was an eminent prophet ; on v/hich he enters with a very folemn preface, inviting them to Chap. Iii. ..eonfider the Apofile and High-priefi of our profeffion: then he compares Mofes to him, as to the point of hemg faithful to him who had appointed him. But how eminent foever Mofes was above all other prophets, and how harfhly foever it muft have founded to the Jews to have ftated the difference in terms fo diftant as that THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^3 that of a fervant and a fin, of one who built the houfe, and «/" A R T, ihe houfe ttfelf; yet we fee the Apoftle does not only prefer ^^• Chrift to Mofes, but puts him in another order and rank ; ^-''"V^^ which could not be done according to the Socinian hypothefis. From all which this conclufion naturally follows, that if Chrift is to be worfhipped, and that this honour belongs to him neither as an angel, nor as a prophet, that then it is due to hini becaufe he is truly God. The fecond branch of this Article is, that he took man's nature upon him in the womb of the bleffed Virgin, and of her fubfiance. This will not need any long or laboured proof, fince the texts of Scripture are fo exprefs, that nothing but wild extravagance can withftand them. Chrift was In all things like unto us, except his miraculous conception by the Vir gin : he was the Son of Abraham and of David. But among the frantic humours that appeared at the Reformation, fome, in oppofition to the fuperftition of the Church of Rome, ftudied to derogate as much from the blefled Virgin on the one hand, as fhe had been over-exalted on the other : fo they faid, that Chrift had only gone through her. But this impiety funk fo foon, that it is needlefs to fay any thing more to refute it. The third branch of the Article is, that thefe two natures were joined in one Perfon, never to be divided. What a per fon is that refults from a clofe conjunttion of two natures, we can only judge of it by confidering man, in whom there is a material and a fpiritual nature joined together. They are two natures as different as any we can apprehend among all created beings ; yet thefe make but one man. The matter of which the body is compofed, does not fubfift by itfelf, is not under aU thofe laws of motion to which it would be fubjea, if it were mere inanimated matter ; but by the indwefling and aauatlon of the foul, it has another fpring within it, and has another courfe of operations. According to this then, to fubfift by another, is when a being is aaing according to its natural pro perties, but yet in a conftant dependance upon another being ; fo our bodies fubfift by the fubfiftence of our fouls. This may help us to apprehend how that as the body is ftill a body, and operates as a body, though it fubfifts by the indwefling and ac tuation of the Soul j fo in the perfon of Jefus Chrift the human nature was entire, and ftill aaed according to its own charac ter ; yet there was fuch an union and inhabitation of the eternal Word in it, that there did arife out of that a communication of names and charaaers as we find in the Scriptures. A man is caUed tall, fair, and healthy, from the flate of his body; and learned, wife, and good, from the qualities of his mind : fo Chrift is called holy, harmlefs, and undefiled; is faid to have died, rifen and afcended up into heaven, with relation to his H AN EXPOSITION OF I his human nature : he is alfo faid to be in the form of God, t» have created all things, to be the brightnefs of the Father's glory, and the exprefs image of his perfon, with relation to his divine nature. The ideas that we have of what is material and what is fpiritual, lead us to diftlngulfh in a man thofe defcriptions that belong to his body, from thofe that belong to his mind ; fo the different apprehenfions that we have of what is created and uncreated, muft be our thread to guide us into the refolution of thofe various expreffions that occur in the Scriptures con cerning Chrift. The defign of the definition that was made by the Church concerning Chrift's having one perfon, was chiefly to diftinguifh the nature of the indwelling of the Godhead in him, from all prophetical infpirations. The Mofaical degree of prophecy was in many refpeas fuperior to that of all the fubfequent prophets : yet the difference is ftated between Chrift and Mofes, in terms that import things quite of another nature; the one being mentioned as a fervant, the other as the Son that built the houfe. It is not faid that God appeared to Chrift, or that he fpoke to him ; but God was ever with him, and in him ; and Job. i. 14. while the Word was made flefh, yet ftill his glory was as the glory of the only begotten Son of God. The glory that Ifaiah faw, was called his glory ; and on the other hand, God is faid to have purchafed his Church with his own blood. If Neftorius, in oppofing this, meant only, as fome think it appears by many citations out of him, that the bleffed Virgin was not to be called fimply the Mother of God, but the Mother of him that was God; and if that of making two perfons in Chrift was only faftened on him as a confequence, we are not at all concerned in the matter of faa, whether Neftorius was mifunderftood and hardly ufed, or not; but the doarine here afferted is plain in the Scriptures, that though the human nature in Chrift aaed ftlU according to its proper charaaer, and had a peculiar wiU ; yet there was fuch a conftant prefence, indwelling, and aauation on it from the eternal Word, as did conftitute both human and divina nature one Perfon. As thefe are thus fo entirely united, fo they are never to be feparated. Chrift is now exalted to the higheft degrees of glory and honour ; and the charaaers of Bleffmg, Honour, and Glory, are reprefented in St. John's vi- Rev.v. i3.fions, as offered to the Lamb for ever and ever. It is true, St. Paul fpeaks as if Chrift's mediatory office and kingdom were to ceafe after the Day of Judgment, and that then he was to de liver up all to the Father. But though, when the fufl number of the elea fhall be gathered, the full end of his death wiU be attained ; and when thefe faints ftiall be glorified with him and by him, his office as Mediator will naturally come to an end ; yet his own perfonal glory fhall never ceafe: and if every faint fliall inherit THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^5 inherit an everlafting kingdom, much more fhafl he who has ART. hierited all that to them, and has conferred it on them, be for "' ever poffeffed of his glory. O-y^'N./ The fourth branch of the Article is concerning the truth of Chrift's crucifixion, his death and burial. The matter of faa concerning the death of Chrift Is denied by no Chriftian ; the Jews do all acknowledge it ; the firft enemies to Chriftianity did all believe this, and reproached his followers with it. This was that which afl Chriftians gloried in and avowed ; fo that no queftion was made of his death, except by a fmall number called Doceta, who were not efteeme.d Chriftians, till Mahomet denied it in his Alcoran, who pretends that he was withdrawn, and that a Jew was crucified in his ftead. But this corruption of the hiftory of the Gofpel came too late afterwards, to have any fhadow of credit due to It ; nor was there any fort of proof offered to fupport It. So this doarine concerning the death of Chrift is to be received as an unqueftlonable truth. There is no part of the Gofpel writ with fo copious a particularity, as the hiftory of his fufferlngs and death; as there was indeed no part of the Gofpel fo important as this is. The fifth branch of the Article is, That he was a true fa crifice to reconcile ihe Father io us, and that not only for original, but for aBual fins. The notion of an expiatory facrifice, which was then, when the New Teftament was Writ, well underftood all the world over, both by Jew and Gentile, was this, that the fin of one perfon was transferred on a man or beaft, who was upon that devoted and offered up to God, and fuffered in the room of the offending perfon j and by this oblation the punlfhment of the fin being laid on the facrifice, an expiation was made for fin, and the finner was believed to be reconciled to God. This, as appears through the whole book of Leviticus, was the defign and effea of they7n and trefpafs-offerings among the Jews, and more particularly of the goat that was offered up for the fins of the whole people on the day of atonement. This was a piece of religion well knov/n both to Jew and Gentile, that had a great many phrafes belong ing to it, fuch as the facrifices being offered for, or infiead of fin, and in the name, or on the account of the finner ; its bearing of fin, and becoming fin, or fhe fin-offering; its being the reconciliation, the atonement, and the redemption of the finner, by which the fin was no more imputed, hni forgiven, and for which the finner was accepted. When therefore this whole fetof phrafes, in its utmoft extent, is very often, and in a great variety, ap plied to the death of Chrift, it is not poffible for us to preferve any reverence for the New Teftament, or the writers of it, fo far as to think them even honeft men, not to fay infpired jnep, if we can imagine, that in fo- facred andimportant amat- F ter ^^ AN EXPOSITION OF ter they could exceed fo much as to reprefent that to be our facrific* which is not truly fo: this Is a point which wifl not bear figures and amplifications; it muft be treated of ftriaiy, and with a juft John i. 2g. exaanefs of expreffion. Chrift is cafled the Lamb of God that propitiation for the fins of the whole world; and that we have ¦edemption through his blood, even the remiffton of our fins. It is ^^^¦"¦'^^- taketh away the fims of the world; he is faid to have borne our 2,. ¦ " fins on his own body; to have been made fin for us; it is faid, Matth. XX. that he gave his fife a ranfom for many ; that he was the Rom. ijohnii. 2.faid, that he hath reconciled us to his Father in his crofs, and Eph. i. 7. /„ fij^ lufiy of his flefh through death : that he by his own blood 20 l\ ^zL entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal re- Hcb. ix. iifiemption for us : that once in the end of the world hath he ap- 12, i^, i4,peared io put away fin, by the facrifice of himfelf : that he was Hch „ 10 ""''' offered to bear the fins of many : that we are fanBified by 12, M, 19''''^^ offering of the body of Chrifi once for all: and that, after 29- he had offered one facrifice for fin, he fat down for ever on the 12 'io" ^'S''^ ^"^'^ "f ^'"^- ^^ '* ^^''^' '^^'^ ^^ f«f^r into the holiefi by I Pet. i. 19. the blood ofChrifi, that is the blood of the new covenant, by which J Pet.ii. 24. we are fanBified : that he hath fanBified the people with his Jg i^t- "!¦ o'l^n IIqqiI ; ayi^ ,nj^^ ill great fhepherd of his people, through the blood of the everlafiing covenant : that we are redeemed with the precious blood of Chrifi, as of a Lamb without blemifh and without fpot ; and, that Chrifi fuffered once for fins, the jufi for the unjufi, that he might bring us to God, In thefe and in a great many more paffages that lie fpread In afl the parts of the New Teftament, It is as plain as words can make any thing, that the death of Chrift is propofed to us as our facrifice and reconciliation, our atonement and redemption. So it is not poffible for any man that confiders all this, to imagine, that Chrift's death was only a confirmation of his Gofpel, a pattern of a holy and patient fuffering of death, and a neceffary pre paration to his refurreaion ; by which he gave us a clear proof of a refurreaion, and by confequence of eternal life, as by his doarine he had fhewed us the way to it. By this all the high commendations of his death amount only, to this, that he by dying has given a vaft credit and authority to his Gof pel, which was the powerfulleft mean poffible to redeem us from fin, and to reconcile us to God : but this is fo contrary to the whole defign of the New Teftament, and to the true importance of that great variety of phrafes, in which this mat ter IS fet out, that, at this rate of expounding Scripture, we can never know what we may build upon, efpecially when the great importance of this thing, and of our having right no tions concerning it, is well confidered. St. Paul does, in his foXe.!' /'^u f *^! I^omans, ftate an oppofition between the death • of Chrift, and the fin of Adam ; the ill effeas of the one being removed THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^7 removed by the other : but he plainly carries the death of Chrift ART, much further, than that it had only healed the wound that was ^'l, given by Adam's fm; for as the judgment was of one (fin) to^'^"^^^ condemnation, the free gift is of many offences to jufiification. But in the other places of the New Teftament, Chrift's death is fet forth fo fully, as a propitiation for the fins of the whole world, that it Is a very falfe way of arguing to infer, that be caufe in one place that is fet in oppofition to Adam's fin, that therefore the virtue of It was to go no farther, than to take away that fin. It has indeed removed that, but it has done a great deal more befides. Thus it is plain, that Chrift's death was our facrifice : the meaning of which is this, that God, intending to reconcile the world to himfelf, and to encourage finners to repent and turn to him, thought fit to offer the pardon of fin, together with the other bleffings of his Gofpel, in fuch a way as fhould de- monftrate both the guilt of fin, and his hatred of it ; and yet with that, his love of finners, and his compaffions towards them. A free pardon without a facrifice had not been fo agreeable nei ther to the majefty of the great Governor of the world, nor the authority of his laws, nor fo proper a method to oblige men to that ftrianefs and holinefs of life that he defigned to bring them to: and therefore he thought fit to offer his pardon, and thofe other bleffings through a Mediator, who was to de liver to the world this new and holy rule of life, and to con firm it by his own unblemifhed life : and in conclufion, when the rage of wicked men, who hated him for the holinefs both of his life and of his doarine, did work them up into fuch a fury as to purfue him to a moft violent and ignominious death, he, in compliance with the fecret defign of his Father, did not only go through that difmal feries of fufferlngs, with the moft entire refignation to his Father's will, and with the higheft charity poffible towards thofe who were his moft unjuft and malicious murderers ; but he at the fame time underwent great agonies in his mind ; which ftruck him with fuch an amaze ment and forrow even to the death, that upon it he did fweat great drops of blood, and on the crofs he felt a withdrawing of thofe comforts, that till then had ever fupported him, when he cried out. My God, my God, why hafi thou forfaken me ? It is not eafy for us to apprehend In what that agony confifted : for we underftand only the agonies of pain, or of confcience, which laft arife out of the horror of guilt, or the apprehenfion of the wrath of God. It is Indeed certain, that he who had no fin could have no fuch horror in him ; and yet It is as cer tain, that he could not be put into fuch an agony only through the apprehenfion and fear of that violent death, which he was to fuffer next day : therefore we ought to conclude, that F 2 there 68 AN EXPOSITION 0? there was an Inward fuffering in his mind, as well as an but- ward vifible one in his body. We cannot diftinaiy apprehend what that was, fince he was fure both of his own fpotlefs in nocence, and 'of his Father's unchangeable love to him. We can only imagine a vaft fenfe of the heinoufnefs of fin, and a deep indignation at the difhonour done to God by it, a melt ing apprehenfion of the corruption and miferies of mankind by reafon of fin, together with a never-before-felt withdraw ing of thofe confolations that had always filled his foul. But what might be further In his agony, and in his laft dereliaion, we cannot diftinaiy apprehend ; only this we perceive, that our minds are capable of great pain as well as our bodies are. Deep horror, with an inconfolable fliarpnefs of thought, is a very intolerable thing. Notwithftanding the bodily or fubftan- tial indwefling of the fulnefs of the Godhead in him ; yet he was capable of feeling vaft pain in his body : fo that he might become a complete facrifice, and that we might have from his fufferlngs a very full and amazing apprehenfion of the guilt of fin ; afl thofe emanations of joy with which the in dwelling of the eternal Word had ever till then filled his foul, might then when he needed them moft be quite withdrawn, and he be left merely to the firmnefs of his faith, to his patient re fignation to the will of his heavenly Father, and to his willing readlnefs of drinking up that cup which his Father had put in his hand to drink. There remains but one thing to be remembered here, though it will come to be more fpecially explained, when other Arti cles are to be opened ; which is, that this reconciliation, which is made by the death of Chrift, between God and man, is not abfolute and without conditions. He has eftabliflied the cove nant, and has performed all that was incumbent on him, as both the prieft and the facrifice, to do and to fuffer ; and he offers this to the world, that it may be clofed with by them, on the terms on which it is propofed ; and if they do not ac cept of it upon thefe conditions, and perform what is enjoined them, they can have no fliare in it. ARTICLE THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^ ART. ARTICLE III. !"• Of the going down of Chrift into Hell. M CBilff tiiEb for m mt toa0 huiitii, fo alfo i& it to bt btUtbtii, tSat f)t toent tioton into ^ell. THIS was much fuller when the Articles were at firft pre pared and publifhed in King Edward's reign : for thefe words were added to it, thai the body of Chrifi lay in the grave until his refurreBion ; but his fpirit, which he gave up, was with the fpirits which were detained in prifon, or in hell, and preached to them, as the place in St. Peter tefiifieth. Thus a determined fenfe was put upon this Article, which is now left more at large, and is conceived in words of a more general fignification. In order to the explaining this, it is to be pre mifed, that the Article in the Creed, of Chrift's defcent into Hell, is mentioned by no writer before Ruffin, who in the be ginning of the fifth century does indeed fpeak of it : but he teUs us, that it was neither in the fymbol of the Roman, nor of the Oriental Churches ; and that he found it in the fymbol ef his own Church at Aquilela. But as there was no other Article in that fymbol that related to Chrift's burial ; fo the words which he gives us, defcendit ad inferna, he defcended to the lower parts, do very naturally fignify burial, according to thefe words of St. Paul, he afcended ; what is it, but that he Eph. iv. 9. alfo defcended firfi to the lower parts of the earth ? And Ruffin himfelf underftood thefe words in that fenfe. None of the fathers in the firft ages, neither Irenaeus, Ter tuUian, Clemens, nor Origen, in the fliort abftraas that they give us of the Chriftian faith, mention any thing like this : and in all that great variety of Creeds that was propofed by the many councils that met in the fourth century, this is not in any one of them, except in that which was agreed to at Arimini, and was pretended, though falfely, to have been made at Sirmium : in that it is fet down in a Greek word that does exaaiy anfwer Ruffin's Inferna, Yia-rax^ovia, : and it ftood there inftead of iJUrieJj. when it was put in the Creed that carries Atha- nafius's name, though made in the fixth or fev^nth century, the word was changed to ^h;, or ^ell : but yet it feems to have been underftood to fignify Chrift's burial, there being no other word put for it in that Creed. Afterwards it was put into the fymbol of the Weftern Church ; that was done at firft in the words in which Ruffin had expreffed it, as appears by fome ancient copies of Creeds which were publifhed by the F 3 great 70 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. great primate Uftier. We are next to confider, what the im- "I- portance of thefe words in themfelves Is ; for it is plain that ^¦^>r^ the ufe of them in the Creed is not very ancient nor univerlai. We have a moft unqueftlonable authority for this, that our Sa viour's foul was in Hell. In the Aas of the Apoftles, St Peter in the firft fermon that was preached after the wonderful ettu- fion of the Spirit at Pentecoft, applies thefe words of David concerning God's not leaving his foul in HeU, nor fuffering Ins Holy One to fee corruption, to the refurreaion of Chrift. rviow fince, in the compofition of a nan, there is a body and a pint, and fince It Is plain that the raifing of Chrift on the third day was before that his body in the courfe of nature was corrupted ; the other branch feems to relate to his foul ; though it is not to be denied, but that In the Old Teftament Joul in fome places ftands for a dead body. But If that were the fenfe of the word, there would be no oppofition In the two parts of this period ; the one will be only a redundant repetition of the other: therefore It is much more natural to think, that, this other branch concerning Chrift's foul being left in Hell, muft relate to that which we commonly underftand by foul. If then his foul was not to be left in Hell, then from thence it plainly follows, that once It was in Hell, and by confequence that Chrift's foul defcended into HeU. Some very modern writers have thought, that this Is to be underftood figuratively of the wrath of God due for fin, which Chrift bore in his foul, befides the torments that he fuffered in his body : and they think, that thefe are here mentioned by them felves, after the enumeration of the feveral fteps of his bodfly fufferlngs : and this being equal to the torments of Hell, as it is that which delivers us from them, might in a large way of expreffion be called a defcending into Hell. But as neither the word defend, nor Hell, are to be found in any other place of Scripture in this fenfe, nor In any of the ancients, among whom the fignification of this phrafe is more likely to be found, than among moderns ; fo this being put after buried, it plainly fhews that it belongs to a period fubfequent to his burial: there is therefore no regard to be had to this notion. Others have thought, that by Chrift's defcent into Hell, is to be underftood his continuing in the ftate of the dead for fome time : but there is no ground for this conceit neither, thefe words being to be found in no author in that fignification. Many of the fathers thought, that Chrift's foul went lo cally into Hell, and preached to fome of the fpirits there in J Pet. iii p''iJon ; that there he triumphed over Satan, and fpoiled him, 19. and carried fome fouls with him into glory. But the account ^hat the Scriptures give us of the exaltation of Chrift, begins it al A'ays at his refurreaion : nor can it be imagined, that fo THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 7,'^ fo memorable a tranfaaion as this would have been paffed ART. over by the three firft Evangellfts, and leaft of all by St. John, .-^ -1, who coming after the reft, and defigning to fupply what was wanting in them, and intending particularly to magnify the \ glory of Chrift, could not have palfed over fo wonderful an In ftance of it. We have no reafon to think, that fuch a matter would have been only infinuated in general words, and not have been plainly related. The triumph of Chrift over prin cipalities and powers is afcribed by St. Paul to his Crofs, and was the effea and refult of his death. The place of St. Peter feems to relate to the preaching to the Gentile world, by virtue of that infpiration that was derived from Chrift ; which was therefore called his Spirit; and the fpirits in prifon were the ^P'' ''; ^• Gentiles, who were Ihut up in idolatry as in prifon, and fo [j-_ I'xi.'il*' were under the power of the Prince of the power of the air, who is called the God of this world; that is, of the Gentile world : it being one of the ends for which Chrift was anointed of his Father, to open the prifons to them that were bound. So then, though there is no harm in this opinion, yet it not being founded on any part of the hiftory of the Gofpel, and it being fupported only by paffages that may well bear another fenfe, we may lay It afide, notwithftanding the reverence we bear to thofe that afferted it ; and that the rather, becaufe the firft fathers that were next the fource, fay nothing of it. Another conceit has had a great courfe among fome of the lateft fathers and the fchoolmen : they have fancied that there was a place to which they have given a peculiar name, Limhus Patrum, a fort of a partition in Hell, where all the good men of the old difpenfation, that had died before Chrift, were detained ; and they hold that our Saviour went thither, and emptied that place, carrying afl the fouls that were in it, with him Into Heaven. Of this the Scriptures fay nothing ; not a word either of the patriarchs going thither, or of Chrift's de livering them out of it : and though there are not in the Old Teftament exprefs declarations and promifes made concerning a fiHure ftate, Chrifi having brought life and immortality to light through his Gofpel; yet all the hints given of it, fhew that they looked for an immediate admiffion to bleflednefs after death. So David, thou wilt fhew me the path of life, in thy prefence is Pfal. xvi. fulnefs of joy, and at thy right hand are pleafures for evermore. "' Thou fhalt guide me here by thy counfel, and afterwards receive Afts ii. 31. me to glory, Ifaiah fays, that the righteous when they die enter P*^'- '''='"'• into peace. In the New Teftament there is nota hint given jj^'l^;; j_ of this ; for though fome paffages may feem to favour Chrift's delivering fome fouls out of Hell, yet there is nothing that by any management can be brought to look this vray. F 4 There 72 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. There is another fenfe of which thefe words [defended initt I"- Hell] are capable : by HeU may be meant the invifible place to ^^Q'C!^ which departed fouls are carried after death : for though the Pearfon on Greek word fo rendered does now commonly ftand for the the Creed, place of the damned, and for many ages has been fo under ftood ; yet at the time of writing the New Teftament it was among Greek authors ufed indifferently for the place of aU de parted fouls, whether good or bad ; and by it were meant the invifible regions where thofe fpirits were lodged : fo If thefe words are taken In this large fenfe, we have In them a clear and literal account of our Saviour's foul defcending Into HeU; it imports that he was not only dead in a more common accepta tion, as it is ufual to fay a man Is dead, when there appear no figns of life in him ; and that he was not as in a deep ecftafy or fit that feemed death, but that he was truly dead ; that his foul was neither in his body, nor hovering about it, afcending and defcending upon it, as fome of the Jews fancied fouls did for fome time after death ; but that his foul was reafly moved out of his body, and carried to thofe unfeen regions of departed fpirits, among whom it continued till his refurreaion. That the regions of the bleffed were known then to the Jews by the name of Paradife, as Hell was known by the name of Gehenna^ Liikt xxiii. jj very clear from Chrift's laft words. To-day thou fhalt be with *^' * • me in Paradife; and Into thy bands do I commend my fpirit. This is a plair> and full account of a good fenfe that may be well put on the words ; though, after all, it is ftill to be remem bered, that in the firft Creeds that have this Article, that of Chrift's burial not being mentioned in them, it follows from thence, as well as from Ruffin's own fenfe of it, that they un derftood this only of Chrift's burial. ARTICLE THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 73 ART, IV. ARTICLE IV. ^?¦V^ Of the Refurreaion of Chrift. C&riff bitjtrulp rife agaiti from IDeatg, ant! toofe again 8i0 51Boti|?, toitg /^Icfi), 115one0, anO all tfiing0 apper taining to tgc pe?feftion of spm'0 jSature, togerc^ ioitf) Se aftenticti into i^eatien, ajiD tgere Ottetfi, until ge return to juuge all ifen at tgc 3Latt E»ap. THERE are four branches of this Article: the firft is- concerning the truth of Chrift's Refurreaion. The fe cond concerning the completenefs of it. That he took to him again his whole body. The third Is concerning his Afcenfion and continuance in heaven. And the fourth is concerning his returning to judge afl men at the laft day. Thefe things are all fo exprefsly affirmed, and that in fo particular a manner, in the New Teftament, that if the authority of that book is once well proved, little doubting will remain concerning them. It is punauaUy told in it, that the body of Chrift was laid in the fepulchre : that a ftone was laid to the mouth of it : that it was rofled away, and upon that Chrift arofe and left the death-clothes behind him : that thofe, who viewed the fe pulchre, faw no body there : that in the fame body Chrift fhewed himfelf to his difciples, fo that they all knew him; he talked with them, and they did eat and drink with him, and he made Thomas feel to the print of the nafls and fpear. It is as jplainly told, that the Apoftles looked on, and faw him af- ceftd up to heaven, and that a cloud received him out of their fight. It is alfo faid very plainly, that he fhall come again at the laft day, and judge all men both the quick and the dead. So that if the truth of the Gofpel is once fully proved, it will not be neceffary to infift long upon the fpecial proof of thefe parti culars : fomewhat will only be neceffary to be faid in expla nation of them. The Gofpel was firft preached, and foon after put in writ ing ; in which thefe particulars are not onlydelivered, but are fet forth with many circumftances relating to them. The credit of the whole is put on that iffue concerning the truth of Chrift's refurreaion ; fo that the overthrowing the truth of that, was the overturning the whole Gofpel, and ftruck at the credit of it all. This was tranfaaed as well as firft publifh ed at Jerufalem, where the enemies of it had all poffible advan- tagesj 74 AN EXPOSITION OF tages in their hands ; their intereft was deeply concerned, as wefl as their malice was much kindled at it. They had both power and wealth in their hands, as well as credit and au thority among the people. The Romans left them at fufl li berty, as they did the other nations whom they conquered, to order their own concerns as they pleafed. And even the Ro mans themfelves began quickly to hate and perfecute the Chriftians : they became the objeas of popular fury, as Ta citus tells us. The Romans looked upon Chrift as one that fet on the Jews to thofe tumults that were then fo common among them, as Suetonius affirms : which fhews both how ig norant they were of the doarine of Chrift, and how much they were prejudiced againft it. Yet this Gofpel did fpread it felf, and was believed by great multitudes both at Jerufalem and In all Judea ; and from thence it was propagated in a very few years to a great many remote countries. Among all Chriftians the article of the Refurreaion and, Afcenfion of Chrift was always looked on as the capital one upon which all the reft depended. This was attefted by a con fiderable number of men, againft whofe credit no objeaion was made ; who affirmed, th-.t they all had feen him, and con- verfed frequently with him after his refurreaion ; that they faw him afcend up into heaven ; and that, according to a pro mife he had made them, they had received extraordinary pow ers from him to work miracles in his name, and to fpeak in di vers languages. This laft was a moft amazing charaaer of a fupernatural power lodged with them ; and was a thing of fuch a nature, that it muft have been evident to every man whe ther it was true or falfe : fo that the Apoftles relating this fo pofitively, and making fuch frequent appeals to it, that way of proceeding carries a ftrong and undeniable evidence of truth in it. Thefe wonders were gathered together in a book, and publifhed in the very time in which they were tranfaaed : the ABs of the Apofiles were writ two years after St. Paul was carried prifoner to Rome ; and St. Luke begins that book with the mention of the Gofpel that he had formerly writ, as that Gofpel begins v/ith the mention of fome other Gofpels that were writ before it. Almoft all the Epiftles fpeak of the Tem ple of Jerufalem as yet in being ; of the Jews as then in peace and profperity, hating and perfecuting the Chriftians every where : they do alfo frequently intimate the affurance they had of a great deliverance that was to happen quickly to the Chrif tians, and of terrible judgments that were to be poured out on the Jews ; which was foon after that accomplifhed in the moft fignal manner of any thing that is recorded in hiftory. Thefe things do cleariy prove, that all the writings of the New Teftament were both compofed and publifhed in the age TifE XXXIX ARTICLES. 75 age in which that matter was tranfaaed. The Jews, who ART. from afl the places of their difperfion went frequently to Jeru- ^^• falerti, to keep the great feftivitles of their religion there, had ^'^'""^ occafion often to examine upon the place, the truth of the re furreaion and afcenfion of Chrift, and of the effufion of the Holy Ghoft: yet even in that infancy of Chriftianity, In which it had fo little vifible ftrength, no proof was fo much as ever pretended in oppofition to thofe great and effential points ; which being matters of faa, and related with a great variety of circumftances, had been eafily confuted, if there had been any ground for It. The great darknefs at the time of Chrift's death, the rending the vail of the Temple in two, as well as what was more public, the renting of the rocks at his death : his being laid in a new fepulchre, and a watch being fet about it; and the watchmen reporting, that while they flept, the bo dy of Chrift was carried away : the Apoftles breaking out all of the fudden into that variety of tongues on Pentecoft ; the mi racles that they wrought, and the proceedings of the Sanhedrim with them, were all things fo publicly done, that as the difeo- very of falfehood in any one of thefe was in the power of the Jews, if any fuch was ; fo that alone had moft effeauafly de- ftroyed the credit of this religion, and ftopt its progrefs. The writings of the New Teftament were at that time no fecrets, they were In all men's hands, and were copied out freely by-every one that defired it. We find within an hundred years after that time, both by the Epiftle of the church of Smyrna, by Juftin, and Irenaeus, not to mention Clemens of Rome, who lived in that time, or Ignatius and Polycarp, who lived very near it, that the authority of thefe writings was early re ceived and fubmitted to ; that they were much read, and well known; and that they began very foon to be read at the meet ings of the Chriftians for worfhip ; and were efteemed by the feveral churches as the great truft and depofitum that was lodg ed with them. So that though, by the negligence of copiers, fome fmall variations might happen among fome of the copies; yet as they do all agree in the main, and moft fignally in thofe particulars that are mentioned in this Article ; fo it was not poffible for any that fhould have had the wickednefs to fet about it, to have- corrupted the New Teftament by any addi tions or alterations ; it being fo early fpread into fo many hands, and that in fo many different places. When , afl this matter is laid together, it appears to have as full an evidence to fupport it, as any matter of faa can pof fibly have. The narration gave great fcope to a variety of en quiries ; It raifed much difputing, oppofition, and perfecution ; and yet nothing was ever pretended to be proved that could fubvert its credit : great multitudes received this dodtrine, and 76 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. and died for it in the age in which the matters of fafl upoij IV. which its credit was built, were well attefted, and in whjch '^V-^ the truth or falfehood of them might have been eafi y known ; which it is reafonabfe to believe that afl men would caretuUy examine, before thev embraced and affented to that which was like to draw on them fufferlngs that would probably end in death. Thofe who did fpread this doarine, as well as thofe who firft received it, had no intereft befide that of truth to en gage them to it. They could expea neither wealth nor great., nefs from it: they were obliged to travel much, and to labour hard ; to wreftle through great difficulties, and to endure ma ny indignities. They faw others die on the account of it, and had reafon to look for the like ufage themfelves. The doarine that they preached related either to the faas concerning the perfon of Chrift, or to the rules of life which they delivered. Thefe were all pure, juft, and good; they tended to fettle the worid upon the foundations of truth and fincerlty, and that fublime pitch of righteoufnefs, of doing as they would be done by ; they tended to make men fober and temperate, chafte and modeft, meek and humble, merciful and chiiritable ; fo that from thence there was no colour given for fufpeaing any fraud or defign in it. The worfliip of God in this religion was pure and fimple, free from coftor pomp, from theatrical fliews, as wefl as idolatrous rites, and had in it all poffible charaaers becoming the purity of the Supreme Mind. When therefore fo much concurs to give credit to a religion, there ought to be evident proofs brought to the contrary, before it can be difbelieved or rejeaed. So many men forfaking the religion in which they were born and bred, which has always a ftrong Influence even upon the greateft minds ; and there be ing fo many particular prejudices both upon Jews and Gen tiles, by the opinions in which they had been bred, and the im preffions which had gone deep in them, it could be no flight matter that could overcome all that. The Jews expeaed a conqueror for their Meffias, who fliould have raifed both the honour of their law and their na tion, and fo were much pofl'effed againft one of a mean appear ance ; and when they faw that their law was to be fuperfeded, and that the Gentiles were to be brought into equal privileges with themfelves, they could not but be deeply prejudiced both againft the perfon and doarine of Chrift. The Philofophers defplfed divine infpiration, and fecret affiftances, and had an ill opinion of miracles : and the herd among the Gentiles were fo accuftomed to pomp and fhew in their religious performances, that they muft have naufeated the Chriftian fimplicity, and the corruption of their morals muft have made them uneafy at a religion of fo much ftrianefs. All TfiE XXXIX ARTICLES. 77 Afl forts of men lay under very ftrong prejudices againft this ART. religion; nor was there any one article or branch of it, that '^- , flattered any of the interefts, appetites, paffions, or vanities of ^'"'^'^ men, but afl was very much to the contrary. They were warned to prepare for trials and croffes, and in particular, for a fevere and fiery trial that was fpeedlly to come upon them. There was nothing of the way or manner of Impoftors that appeared in the methods in which the Gofpel was propagated. When the Apoftles faw that fome were endeavouring to leffen them and their authority, they took no fawning ways : they neither flattered nor fpared thofe Churches that were under their care : they charged them home with their faults, and afferted their own charaaer in a ftrain that fhewed they were afraid of no difcoveries. They appealed to the miracles that they had wrought, and to thofe gifts and divine virtues of which they were not only poffeffed themfelves, but which were by their miniftry conferred on others. The demonftration a/*! Car. ii.4, the Spirit, or infpiration that was in them, ajl/peared in the power, that is, in the miracles which accompanied it, and thofe they wrought openly in the fight of many witneffes. An un- contefted miracle is the fulleft evidence that can be given of a divine commiffion. A miracle is a work that exceeds all the known powers of nature, and that carries in it plain charadters of a power fupe rior to any human power. We cannot indeed fix the bounds of the powers of nature ; but yet we can plainly apprehend what muft be beyond them. For inftance, we do not know what fecret virtues there may be in plants and minerals : but we do know that bare words can have no natural virtue in them to cure difeafes, much lefs to raife the dead : we know not what force imagination or credulity may have in critical difeafes ; but we know that a dead man has no imagination : we know alfo, that bllndnefs, deafnefs, aind an inveterate palfy, cannot be cured by conceit : therefore fuch miracles as the giving fight to a man born blind, fpeech to the deaf and dumb, and ftrength to the paralytick ; but moft of all, the giving life to the dead, and that not only to perfons laid out as dead, but to one that was carried out to be buried, and to another that had been four days dead, and in his grave ; all this was done with a bare word, without any fort of external application : this, I fay, as it is clearly above the force of ima gination, fo it is beyond the powers of nature. Thefe things were not done in tlie dark, nor in the pre fence of a few, in whom a particular confidence was put ; but in fufl day-light, and in the fight ©f great numbers, enemies as wefl as friends, and fome of thofe enemies were both the moft enraged, and the moft capable of making all poffible ex ceptions ¦jS AN EXPOSITION OF ceptlons to what was done. Such were the rulers of the fyna- gogues, and ^he pharifees in our Saviour's time : and yet they could neither deny the faas, nor pretend that there was any deceit <5r juglary in them. We have in this afl poffibfe reafon to conclude, that both the things were truly done as they are related, and that no juft exception was or could be made to them. If it is pretended, that thofe wonderful things were done by the power of an evil fpirit, that does both acknowledge the truth of the relation, and alfo its being fupernatural. This anfwer taken from the power of evil fpirits, is fometimes to be made ufe of, when extraordinary things are well attefted, and urged in proof of that which upon other reafons we are affured is falfe. It Is certain, that as we have a great power over vaft quantities of grofs and heavy matter, which by the motion of a very fubtile body, our animal fpirits, we can maf ter and m.anage : fo angels, good or bad, may, by virtue of fubtile bodies, in which they may dwefl, or which upon occa fion they may affume, do many things vaftly above either our force to do, or our Imagination to apprehend how it is done by them. Therefore an aaion, that exceeds all the known pow ers in nature, may yet be done by an evil fpirit that is in re bellion againft its Maker, and that defigns to impofe upon us by fuch a mighty performance. But then the meafure, by which we muft judge of this, is by confidering what is the end or defign driven at in fuch a wonderful work : if it is a good one, it it tends to reform the manners of men, and to bring them off from m.agic, idolatry and fuperftition, to the wor fhip of one pure and eternal Mind : and if it tends to reform their aaions, as well as their fpeculations and their worfhip ; to turn them from immorality,falfehood, and malice, to a pure, a fincere, and a mild temper ; if it tends to regulate fociety, as well as to perfedt the nature and faculties of every fingle man; then we may well conclude, that no evil fpirit can fo far depart from its own nature, as to join its forces, and co-operate in Matt. xii. fuch a defign : for then the kingdom of Satan could not fiand, 25»2S. if he were thus divided againfi himfelf ; according to what our Saviour faid, when this was obje6ted againft the miracles that he wrought. Thefe are all the general confiderations that concur to prove the truth of the hiftory of the Gofpel, of which the Refurreaion and Afcenfion of Chrift are the two main arti cles ; for they being wefl proved, give authority to all the reft. As to the Refurreaion in particular, it is certain the Apoftles could not be deceived in that matter : they faw Chrift fre quently after he rofe from the dead ; they met him once with a great company of five hundred with them : they heard him talk THE XXXIX ARTICLES, 79 talk and argue with them ; he opened the Scriptures to them ART. with fo peculiar an energy, that they felt their hearts fet on ^^¦ fire, even when they did not yet perceive that It was he himfelf: ^^^"^^^^ they did not at firft either look for his refurreaion, nor believe thofe who reported him rifen : they made all due enquiry, and fome of them went beyond all reafonable bounds in their doubting : fo far were they from an eafy and foon-impofed-on credulity. His fufferlngs and their own fears had fo amazed them, that they were contriving how to feparate and difperfe themfelves, when he at firft appeared to them. Men fo full of fear, and fo far from all hope, are not apt to be eafy In believ ing. So it muft be concluded, that either the account which the Apoftles gave the world of Chrift's refurreaion is true, or they were grofs impoftors ; fince it is clear, that the circum ftances and numbers mentioned in that hiftory fhew there could be no deception in it. And it is as little poffible to conceive, that there could be any impofture in it : for not to repeat again, what has been already faid, that they were un der no temptations to fet about any fuch deceit, but very much to the contrary; and that there is no reafon to think they were either bad enough to enter upon fuch a defign, or capable and fkilful enough to manage it ; they being many of them il literate fifliermen of Galilee, who had no acquaintance at Jeru falem, to furnifh them with that which might be neceffary for executing fuch a contrivance : the circumftances of that tranf aaion are to be well examined, and then it will appear, that no number of bold and dexterous men, furnlfhed with all ad vantages whatfoever, could have effeaed this matter. Great numbers had been engaged in the procuring our Saviour to be crucified : the whole Sanhedrim, befides multi tudes of the people, who upon all occafions are eafily drawn in to engage in tumultuary commotions : all thefe were con cerned to examine the event of this matter. He was buried in a new fepulchre lately hewed out of a rock, fo that there was no coming at it by any fecret ways : a watch was fet ; and afl this at a time, In which the full-moon gave a great light all the night long : and Jerufalem being very full of people, who Were then there in great numbers to keep the Paffover, that being the fecond night of fo vaft a rendezvous, it is rea fonable to think, that great numbers were walking in the fields, or at leaft might be fo, fome later, and fome eariier. Now if an impofture was to be fet about, the guard was to be frighted or maftered, which could not be done without giving the alarm, and that muft have quickly brought a multitude upon them. Chrift's body muft have been difpofed of: fome other tomb was to be looked for to lodge it in : the wounds that *0 AN EXPOSITION OF that were in it would have made it to be foofl knotvn it found. Here a bold attempt Was to be undertaken, by a company of poor irrefolute men, who muft truft one another entirely, otherways they knew all niight be foon difcovered. One of their number had betrayed Chrift a few days before ; another had forfworn him, and all had forfaken him : and yet thefe men are fuppofed all of the fudden fo firm in themfelves, and fo fure of one another, as to venture on the moft daring thing that was ever undertaken by men, when not a circumftance could ever be found out to fix upon them the leaft fufpicion. The Priefts and the Pharifees muft be thought a ftrange ftu- pid fort of creatures, if they did not examine where the Apoftles were all that night : befides many other particulars which might have been a thread to lead them into ftria en quiries, unlefs it was becaufe they believed the report that the watch had brought them of Chrift's rifing again. When they had this certain reafon to believe it, and yet refolved to oppofe it, the only thing they could do, was to feem to negfea the matter, and only to decry it in general as an impofture, without going into particulars ; which certainly they would not have done, if they themfelves had not been but too fure of the truth of it. When all this is laid together, it is the moft unreafonable thing imaginable, to think that there was an impofture in this matter, when no colour nor fhadow of it ever appeared, and when all the circumftances, and not only probabilities, but even moral poffibilIties,'arefo fufl to the contrary. The Afcenfion of Chrift has not indeed fo full a proof; nor is it capable of it, neither does it need it ; for the refurreaion well proved, makes that very credible. For this we have only the teftimony of the Apoftles, who did afl atteft that they faw it, being afl together in an open field : when Chrift was walking and difcourfing with them, and when he was bleffing them, he was parted from them : they faw him afcend, till a cloud received him, and took him out of their light. And then two angels appeared to them, and affured them, that he fhould come again in like manner as they had feen him afcend. Here is a very particular relation, with many circumftances in it, in which it was not poffible for the Apoftles tobe miftak en: fo that there being no reafon to fufpea their credit, this refts upon that authority. But ten days after, it received i much clearer proof; when the Holy Ghoft was poured out on them in fo vifible a manner, and with moft remarkable effeas. Immediately upon it they fpoke with divers tongues, and wrought many miracfes, and afl in the name of Chrift, They did often and fdemnly difelaim their doing any of thofe wonderful things /.at THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^^ things by any power of their own : they owned that all they ART. had or did was derived to them from Jefus of Nazareth, of '^" whofe refurre6tIon and afcenfion they were appointed to be the ^^^Xi^ witnefles. i6. Chrift's coming again to judge the world at the laft day, is fo often affirmed by himfelf in the Gofpel, and is fo frequently mentioned In the writings of his Apoftles, that this is a main part of his doarine: fo that his Refurreaion, Afcenfion, together with the effufion of the Holy Ghoft, having in general proved his miffion, and his whole doarine, this Is alfo proved by them. Enough feems to be faid in proof of all the parts of this arti cle ; it remains only that fomewhat fliould be added in expla nation of them. As to the Refurreaion, it Is to little purpofe to enquire, whether our Saviour's body was kept all the while in a complete organization, that fo by this miracle It might be preferved in a natural ftate for his foul to re-enter It : or whether by the courfe of nature the vaft number of the Inward conveyances that were In the body were ftopt ; and If all of a fudden, when the time of the refurreaion came, all was again put in a vital ftate, fit to be animated by his foul. There muft have been a miracle either way : fo it is to little purpofe to enquire Into It. The former, though a continued miracle, yet feems to agree more fully to thefe words, Thou wilt not fuffer thy Holy One to fee corruption. It is to as little purpofe to enquire how our Sa viour's new body was fupplied with blood, fince he had loft the greateft part of it on the Crofs : whether that was again by the power of God brought back into his veins; or whether, as he himfelf had formerly faid, that man lives not by bread alone, but by every word thai proceeds out of the mouth of God, blood was fupplied by miracle : or whether his body, that was then of the nature of a glorified body, though yet On earth, needed the fupplies of blood to furnifh new fpirits, for ferving the natural funaions ; he eating and drinking fo feldom, that we may well believe it was done rather to fatisfy his Apoftles, than to anfwer the neceffities of nature : thefe are curiofities that fignify fo little, if we could certainly refolve them, that it is to no purpofe to enquire about them, fince we cannot know what to determine in them. This in general is certain, that the fame foul returned back to the fame body ; fo that the fame man who died, rofe again ; and that is our faith. We need not trouble ourfelves with enquiring how to make out the three days of Chrift's being In a grave ; days ftand, in the common acceptation, for a portion of a day. We know the Jews were very exait to the reft on the Sabbath, fo the body was without queftion laid in the grave before the fun- fet on Friday ; fo that was the firft day : the Sabbath was a G complete 82 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. complete one ; and a good part of the third day, that is, the ^^- night, with which the Jews began to count the day, was over ^''''^f'^ before he was raifed up. As for his ftay on earth forty days, we cannot pretend to give an account of it ; whether his body was paffing through a flow and phyfical purification, to be meet for afcending ; or whether he intended to keep a proportion between his Gofpel and the law of Mofes ; that as he fuffered at the time of their killing the Paflover, fo the effufion of the Holy Ghoft was fix ed for Pentecoft, and that therefore he would ftay on earth, till that time was near, not to put his Apoftles upon too long an expeaation without his prefence ; which might be neceffary to animate them, till they fhould be endued with power from on high. As to the manner of his afcenfion, it is alfo quef- tioned whether the body of Chrift, as It afcended, was fo won- -derfully changed, as to^^put on the fubtilty and purity of an ethereal body ; or whether it retains ftill the fame form In heaven that it had on earth ; or if it put on a new one : It • is more probable that it did ; and that the wonderful glory that appeared in his countenance and whole perfon at his transfigu ration, was a manifeftation of that more permanent glory to which it was to be afterwards exalted. It feems probable from I Cor. XV. what St. Paul fays, (that fiefh and blood fhall not inherit the 5°' kingdom of God, which relates to our glorified bodies, when we fhall bear the image of the fecond and the heavenly Adam) that Chrift's body has no more the modifications of flefh and blood in it ; and that the glory of the celeftial body is of ano- Ver. 40. ther nature and texture than that of the terreftrial. It is eafily imagined how this may be, and yet the body to be numerically the fame : for all matter being uniform, and capable of all fort of motion, and by confequence of being either much grofler or much purer, the fame portion of matter that made a thick and heavy body here on earth, may be put into that purity and finenefs as to be no longtr a fit inhabitant of this earth, or to breathe this air, but to be meet to be traufplanted Into ethereal regions. Chrift as he went up into heaven, fo he had the whole go vernment of this worid put Into his hands, and the whole mi niftry of Angels put under his command, even in his human J Cor. !tv. nature. So that aU things are now in fubjeBion to him. Afl pow- 27»iS. er and authority is derived from him, and he does whatfoever he pleafes both in heaven and earth. In him aU fulnefs dwells. And as the Mofaical tabernacle being filled with glory, the emanations of it did by the Urim and Tbummim enlighten and direa that people; fo out of that fulnefs that dwelt bodily in Chrift, there is a conftant emanation of his grace and fpirit de- fcending on his Church. He does alfo intercede for us at his Father's THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 83 Father's right-hand, where he is preparing a place for us. The ART. meaning of all which is this, that as he is vefted with an un- ^"^• conceivably high degree of glory, even as man, fo the merit '-'''V^ of his death is ftill frefh and entire; and In the virtue of that, the fins of afl that come to God through him, claiming to his death as to their facrifice, and obeying his Gofpel, are pardon ed, and they are fealed by his Spirit until the day of redemption. In conclufion, when all God's defign with this worid is accom- ' pllfhed. It fhall be fet on fire, and all the great parts of which it is compofed, as of elements, fliall 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, fhall be fo far refined and fixed, as to become both incorruptible and irrimortal, then they fhall be made meet for the fouls that for merly animated them, to re-enter every one Into his own body, which fhall be then fo moulded as to be a habitation fit to give it everlafting joy or everlafting torment. Then fhall Chrift appear vifibly in fome very confpicuous place, in the clouds of heaven, where every eye fhall fee him: he fhall appear in his own glory, that is, in his human glorified Lukeix.iS. body : he fhall appear in the glory of his Angels, having vaft numbers of thefe about him, attending on him : but which is above all, he fhall appear in his Father's glory ; that is, there fhall be then a moft wonderful manifeftation of the eternal Godhead dwelling In him ; and then fhall he pafs a final fen- tence 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 fliall afcend as he did, and fhall meet him in the clouds, and be for ever with him ; and the wicked fliall fink into a ftate of darknefs and mifery, of unfpeakable horror of mind, and everlafting pain and torment. G s A R T I- 4 AN EXPOSITION OF ART.^„^ ARTICLE V. Of the Holy Ghoft. CFic Illclp Ci;t!& pjoccEiiing from tgc ji^atijcj: auD tge S>on, 10 of one aaiblf ante, ;|,'atcltp, anti dDlovp Vvitg tge fi-ithiv am t\jt pan, ucrp anO ettrnal CDoti. IN order to the explaining this Article, we muft confider, firft, the importance of the term Spirit, or Holy Spirit: fecondly, his Proceffion from the Father and the Son : and, thirdly, that he Is truly God, of the fame fubfiance with the Father and the Son. Spirit fignifies wind or breath, and in the Old Teftament it ftands frequently in that fenfe : the Spirit of God, or Wind of God, ftands fometimes for a high and ftrong wind; but more frequently it fignifies a fecret impreffion made by God on the mind of a prophet : fo that the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of Prophecy are fet in oppofition to the vain ima ginations, the falfe pretences, or the diabolical illufions of thofe who afllimed to themfelves the name and the authority of a pro phet, without a tt-ue miffion from God. But when God made reprefentations cither in a dream, or In an ecftafy, to any per- f n, or imprinted a fenfe of his will on their m.Inds, together w ith luch neceflary charaaers as gave It proof and authority, t'lis v/ar, an illapfe from God, as a breathing from him on the foul of the prophet. In the I'.ew Teftament this word Holy Ghofi ftands moft commonly for that wonderful effufion of thofe miraculous vir tues that was poured out at Pentecofi on the Apoftles; by which their ipirits were not only exalted with extraordinary degrees of zeal and courage, of authority and utterance, but they were furnifhed with the gifts of tongues and of miracles. And be fides that firft and great effufion, feveral Chriftians received particular talents and iufpirationf, which are moft commonly exprefled by the word Spirit or Infpiration. Thofe inward affiftances by which the frame and temper of men's minds are changed and renewed, are likewife cilled the Spirit, or the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghofi. So Chrift faid to Nicodemus, that John iii. 3, except a man xvas born of JVater and of the Spirit, he cannot fee Liviii.i} ^'^^ kingdom of God; and that his heavenly Father would give ¦ the Holy Spirit to every one that afked him. By thefe it is plain, that extraordinary or miraculous inipirations are not meant, for thefe are not every Chriftian's portion ; there is no queftion made of all this. The THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^5 The main queftion is, whether by Spirit, or Holy Spirit, ART. we are to underftand one perfon, that Is the fountain of afl. ^' thofe gifts, and operations ; or whether by one Spirit is only ^-'^r^'*-' to be meant the power of God flowing out and fhewing itfelf in many wonderful operations. The adverfaries of the Trinity will have the Spirit or Holy Spirit to fignify no perfon, but only the divine gifts or operations. But in oppofition to this Joh. x^v. it is plain, that in our Saviour's laft and long difcourfe to his 16,16. difciples, in which he promifed to fend them his Spirit, he calls him another Comforter, to be fent in his ftead, or to fupply his abfence ; and the whole tenor of the difcourfe runs on him as a Perfon : He fhall abide with you : he fhall guide you into all joh. xvi. truth ; and fhew you things to come. He fhall bring all things *> '3- into your remembrance : he fhall convince the world of fin, of righteoufnefs, and of judgment. In all thefe places he is fo plainly fpoken of, not as a quality or operation, but as a Per fon ; and that without any key or rule to underftand the words otherwife, that this alone may ferve to determine the matter now in difpute. Chrift's commiffion to preach and baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghofi, does plainly make him a Perfon, fince it cannot be faid that we are to be called by the name of a virtue or operation. St. Paul i Cor. xii. does alfo, in a long difcourfe upon the diverfity of gifis, z.d-\' ''^'^^' miniftrations, and operations, afcribe them all to one Spirit, as their author and fountain ; of whom he fpeaks as of a Perfon, diftributing thefe In order to feveral ends, and in different meafures. He fpeaks of the Spirit's fearching all things, of his ' Cnr. ii. interceding for us, of our grieving the Spirit, by which we are n^^' fealed. This is the language ufed concerning a Perfon, not a 26. ' quality. AU thefe, fays he, worketh that one and the felf-fame Eph. iv. 30. Spirit, dividing to every man feverally as he will. Now it is not to be conceived, how that both our Saviour and his Apof tles fnould ufe the phrafe of a Perfon fo conftantly In fpeaking cf the Spirit, and fhould fo critically and in the way of argu ment purfue that ftrain, if he is not a Perfon: they not only in fift on it, and repeat it frequently, but they draw an argument from it for union and love, and for mutual condefcenlion and fympathy. Upon all thefe grounds it is evident, that the Holy Spirit Is in the Scripture propofed to us as a Perfon, under whofe ceconomy all the various gifts, adminiftrations, and operations that are in the Church, are put. The fecond particular relating to this Article, is the Procef fion of this Spirit from the Father and the Son'. The word Proceffion, or, as the fchoolmen term it, Spiration, is only made ufe of In order to the naming this relation of the Spirit to the Father and Son, In fuch a manner as may beft anfwer the fenfe of the word Spirit : for it muft bs confefled that we G 3 can ^^ AN EXPOSITION OF ART. can frame no explicit idea of this matter : and therefore we 'V- muft fpeak of it either ftriaiy in Scripture-words, or In fuch ^•^"^Z"*^ words as arife out of them, and that have the fame fignificarion with them. It is therefore a vain attempt of the fchoolmen, to undertake to give a reafon why the fecond perfon is faid to be generated, and fo is called Son, and the third to proceed, and fo is called Spirit. All thefe fubtlliies can have no foundation, and fignify nothing towards the clearing this matter, which is rather darkened than cleared by a pretended Illuftration. In a word, as we fhould never have believed this myftery if the Scripture had not revealed it to us, fo we underftand nothing concerning it, befides what is contained in the Scriptures: and therefore, If in any thing, we muft think foberly upon thofe fubjeas. The Scriptures call the fecond, Son, and the third. Spirit; fo ge neration and proceffion are words that may well be ufed, but they are words concerning which we can form no diftina con ception. We only ufe them becaufe they belong to the words Son and Spirit. The Spirit, in things that we do underftand, is fomewhat that proceeds, and the bon is a perfon begotten; we therefore believing that the Holy Ghoft is a Perfon, apply the word Proceffion to the manner of his emanation from the Fa ther ; though at the fame time we muft acknowledge that we have no diftina thought concerning It. So much in general concerning Proceffion, It has been much controverted whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father only, or from the Father and the Son. In the firft difputes concerning the divinity of the Holy G/;ff/? withthe Macedonians, who denied it, there v/as no other conteft, but whether he was truly God, or not. When that was fettled by the council of Conftantinople, it was made a part of the Creed ; but it was only faid that he proceeded from the Father : and the council of Ephefus foon after that fixed on that Creed, decreeing that no additions fhould be made to it : yet about the end of the fixth century, in the Weftern Church an addition was made to the Article, by which the Holy Ghoft was affirmed to proceed from the Son, as well as from the Father. And when the Eaftern and Weftern Churches in the ninth cen tury fell into an humour of quarrelling upon the account of ju- rifdiaion, after fome time of anger, in which they feem to be fearching 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 fymbol, and that contrary to the decree of a general council. The Latins, on the other hand, charged them for detraaing from the dig nity of the Son: and this became the chief point in controverfy between them. , Here was certainly a very unhappy difpute ; inconfiderable in THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^7 in its original, but fatal in its confequences. We of this Church, ART. though we abhor the cruelty of condemning the Eaftern Churches '^¦ for fuch a difference, yet do receive the Creed according to the '-'~V*^ ufage of the Weftern Churches : and therefore, though we do not pretend to explain what Proceffion is, we believe according to the Article, that the Holy Ghofi proceeds both from the Father and the Son : becaufe in that difcourfe of our Saviour's that contains the promife of the Spirit, and that long defcription of him as a Perfon, Chrift not only fays, that the Father will Joh. xiv., fend the Spirit in his name, but adds, that he will fend the Spi- '^fi rit ; and though he fays next, who proceedeth from the Father, ^° ' "^^ * ' yet fince he fends him, and that he was to fupply his room, and to aa in his name, this implies a relation, and a fort of fubor- dination in the Spirit to the Son. This may ferve to juftify our adhering to the Creeds, as they had been for many ages received in the Weftern Church : but we are far from thinking that this proof is fo full and explicit, as to juftify our feparating from any Church, or condemning It, that fhould ftick exaaiy to the firft Creeds, and rejea this addition. The third branch of the Article is, that this Holy Ghoft or Perfon thus proceeding, is truly God, of the fame fubftance with the Father and the Son. That he is God, was formerly proved by thofe paffages In which the whole Trinity in all the three Perfons is affirmed : but befides that, the lying to the Afls v. 34. Holy Ghofi by Ananias and Sapphira, is faid to be a lying not unto men, but to God : his being called another Comforter ; his teaching all things ; his guiding into all truth ; his telling things to come ; his fearching aU things, even the deep things of God ; his being cafled the Spirit of the Lord, in oppofition to the Spi rit of a man ; his making interceffton for us ; his changing us into the fame image with Chrifi, are all fuch plain charaaers of his being God, that thofe who deny that, are well aware of this, that if it is once proved that he is a Perfon, it will follow that he muft be God ; therefore all that was faid to prove him a Perfon, Is here to be remembered as a proof that he Is truly God. So that though there Is not fuch 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 faid upon the firft Article con cerning the Unity of God, It is alfo certain, that if he is God, he muft be of one Subfiance, Majefiy, and CAory, with the Father and the San. Gt ART I- ^8 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. VI. ARTICLE VL Of the Sufficiency of Holy Scriptures for Salvation. ?^olp Scripture tontainetb all tgingg neceCarp to S)al= bation : fj tfiat togatfoebej i$ net rcai3 tlieicin, nor map be pjcbeJi tgcrebp, is not to be requirrn of anp ipan, tfiat Jt fijoula be belieijco as an article of faitf), or to be tljougbt jequifite or nccellarp to Valuation. 3n tf)t name of tfie i^olp M>t?ipture toe Do unDerttanU t&ofe Canointal IBoofes of tge £)ID anb Ji^eto €^effa» ment, of togofc ilutfioritp toa0 neber anp Donbt in t&e CBarcl). Of the Names and Number of the Canonical Books. Genefis Exodus Leviticus NumbersDeuteronomy JofhuaJudges Ruth The Firft Book of Samuel i The Second Book of Samuel The Firft Book of Kings The Second Book of Kings The Firft Book of Chronicles The Second Book of Chronicles The Firft Book of Efdras The Second Book of Efdras The Book of Eft her The Book of Job 'J'he Pfalms The Proverbs Ecclefiafies or Preacher , Cantica or Song of Solomon Four Prophets the greater Twelve Prophets the lefs. anti t§e otger Boo^s; (aiJ Hierom faitg) tSe CfturtB botS reaa for Cyample of Ult, anb anffruaton of tpan^ ners ; but pet it bot& not applp tljem to elf ablift anp 2Doarine. §>nc8 are tfiefe follofemg : The Third Book of Efdras The Fourth Booli of Efdras The Book of Tobias The Book of Judith The reft of the Book of Efiher The Book cf Wifdom Jefus the Son of Syrach Baruch the Prophet The Song of the ThreeChfldren The Hiftory of Sufanna Of Bell and the Dragon The Prayer of Manaffes The Firft Book of Maccabees The Second Book of Maccabees, m tge llBoofes of tge jBcto ^eff ament as tSep are com* monlp receibeb,toe boreteibe, anb account tfiem Ca nonical. IN, THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 89 IN this Article there are two important heads, and to each of art. them a proper confequence does belong. The firft is, ^^¦ that the holy Scriptures do contain all things neceffary to fal-^ vation: the negative confequence that arifeth out of that, is, that no article that is not either read in It, or that may not be proved by It, Is to be required to be believed as an article of faith, or to be thought neceflary to falvation. The fecond is, the fettling the canon of the Scripture both of the Old and New Teftament ; and the confequence that arifes out of that, is, the rejeaing the books commonly called Apocryphal, which though they may be read by the Church, for example of life, and infiruBion of manners ; yet are no part of the canon, nor is any doarine to be eftaWifhed by them. After the main foundations of religion in general, in the belief of a God, or more fpecially of the Chriftian religion in the doarine of the Trinity, and of the Death, Refurreaion, and Afcenfion of Chrift, are laid down ; the next point to be fettled, is, what is the rule of this faith, where is it to be found, and with whom is it lodged ? The Church of Rome and we do both agree, that the Scriptures are of divine infpiration t thofe of that communion acknowledge, that every thing which is contained in Scripture is true, and comes from God; but they add to this, that the books of the New Teftament were occafionally written, and not with the defign of making them the full rule of faith, but many things were delivered orally by the Apoftles, which if they are faithfully tranfmitted to us, are to be received by us with the fame fubmiffion and refpea that we pay to their writings : and they alfo believe, that thefe traditions are conveyed down infallibly to us, and that to diftinguifh betwixt true and falfe doarines and tradi tions, there muft be an infallible authority lodged by Chrift with his Church. We on the contrary affirm, that the Scrip tures are a complete rule of faith, and that the whole Chrif tian religion is contained in them and no where elfe ; and al though we make great ufe of tradition, efpecially that which is moft ancient and neareft the fource, to help us to a clear underftanding of the Scriptures; yet as to matters of faith we rejea all oral tradition, as an incompetent mean of conveying down doarines to us, and we refufe to receive any doarine, that is not either exprefsly contained in Scripture, or clearly proved from it. Li order to the opening and proving of this, it is to be con fidered, what God's defign in firft ordering Mofes, and after him all infpired perfons, to put things in writing, could be : it could be no other than, to free the world from the uncertainties and impoftures 9° A^' EXPOSITION OF impoftures of oral tradition. All mankind being derived from one common fource, it feems it was much eafier in the firft ages of the worid, to preferve the tradition pure, than it could poffibly be afterwards : there were only a few things then to be delivered concerning God ; as. That he was one fpiritual Being, that he had created all things, that he alone was to be worfhipped and ferved ; the reft relating to the hiftory of the worid, and chiefly of the firft man that was made in it. There were alfo great advantages on the fide of oral tradition, the firft men were very long-lived, and they faw their own families fpread extremely, fo that they had on their fide both the authority which long life always has, parti cularly concerning matters of faa, and the credit that parents have naturally with their own children, to fecure tradition. Two perfons might have conveyed it down, from' Adam to Abraham ; Methufelah lived above three hundred years while Adam was yet alive, and Sem was almoft an hundred when he died, and he lived much above an hundred years in the fame time with Abraham, according to the Hebrew. Here is a great period of time filled up by two or three perfons : and yet in that time the tradition of thofe very few things in which reli gion was then comprehended, was fiuinlverfally and entirely cor rupted, that It was neceffary to correa it by immediate re velation to Abraham : God intending to have a peculiar people to himfelf out of his pofterity, commanded him to forfake his kindred and country, that he might not be corrupted with an idolatry, that we have reafon to believe was then but ' beginning among them. We are fure his nephew Laban Was an idolater: and the danger of mixing with the reft of mankind was then fo great, that God ordered a mark to be made on the bodies of all defcended from him, to be thefeal cf the Covenant, and the badge and cognlfance of his pofterity: by that diftiiaaion, and by their living in a wandering and un fixed manner, they were preferved for fome lime from idolatry ; God intending afterwards to fettle them in an inftituted reli gion. But though the beginnings of it, I mean the prqmul- gation of the law on Mount Sinai, was one of the moft amaz ing things that ever happened, and the fitteft to be orally con veyed down, the law being very fhort, and the circumftances in the delivery of It moft aftonilhing ; and though there were many rites, and feveral feftivitles appointed chiefly for the carry ing down the memory of It ; though there was alfo in that diipenfatioii, the greateft advantage imaginable for fecuring this tradition, all the main aas of their religion being to be performed in one place, and by men of one tribe and family; as they were alfo all the inhabitants of a fmafl traa of ground, of one language, and by their conftltutions obliged to main tain a conftant commerce among themfelves : they having fur ther THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 9» ther a continuance of fignal charaaers of God's miraculous ART. prefence among them, fuch as the operation of the water of ^'• jealoufy, the plenty of the fixth year to fupply them all the '¦.^''>/'"**-' Sabbatical year, and till the harveft of the following year : together with a fucceffion of Prophets that followed one ano ther, either in a conftant courfe, or at leaft foon after one ano ther ; but above all, the prefence of God which appeared in the cloud of glory, and in thofe anfwers that were given by the Urim and 'rhummim; all which muft be confefled to be ad vantages on the fide of tradition, vaftly beyond any that can be pretended to have been in the Chriftian Church : yet not withftanding all thefe, God commanded Mofes to write all their Law, as the Ten Commandments were, by the immediate power or finger of God, writ on tables of ftone. When all this is laid together and well confidered, it will appear, that God by a particular ceconomy intended then to fecure revealed religion from the doubtfuhu-fs and uncertainties of oral tradition. It is much more reafonable to believe, that the Chriftian- religion, which was to be fpread to many remote regions, among whom there could be little communication, fhould have been fixed in its firft beginnings by putting it in writing, and not left to the loofenefs of reports and ftories. We do plain ly fee, that though- the methods of knowing and communi cating truth are now furer and better fixed than they have been in moft of the ages which have paffed fince the beginnings of this religion ; yet in every matter of faa fuch additions are daily made, as it happens to be reported, and every point of doarine is fo varloufly ftated, that if religion had not a more affured bottom than tradition, it could not have that credit paid to It that it ought to have, if we had no greater certainty for religion, than report, we could not believe it very firmly, nor venture upon it : fo in order to the giving this doarine fuch authority as is neceffary for attaining the great ends propofed in it, the conveyance of it muft be clear and unqueftlonable ; otherwife as it would grow to be much mixed with fable, fo It would come to be looked on as all a fable. Since th"a oral tradition, when it had the utmoft advantages p.J- fible of its fide, failed fo much in the conveyance both of natural religion, and of the Mofaical, we fee that it cannot be relied on as a certain method of preferving the truths of revealed religion. In our Saviour's time, tradition was fet up on many occa fions againft him, but he never fubmitted to it : on the con trary he reproached the Jews with this, that they had made the laws of God of no effeB by their traditions ; and he told Mat. xv. y them, that they worfhipped God in vain, when they taught for *» 9- doBrines ihe commandments of men. In all his difputes with the 9^ AX EXPOSTTIOX OF the Pharifees, he appealed to Mofes and the Prophets, he bade them fearch the Scriptures ; for in them, faid he, ye think ye have eternal life, and they tefiify of me. Te think is, by the phrafeology of that time, a word that doss not refer to any par ticular conceit of theirs ; but imports, that as they thought, (o in them they had eternal life. Our Saviour juftlfies himfelf and his doarine often by words of Scripture, but never once by tradition. We fee plainly, that in our Saviour's time, tlie tradition of the Refjrreaion was fo doubtful among the Jews, that the Sadducees, a formed party among them, did openly deny it. The authority of tradition had likewife Im pofed two very mifchievous errors upon the ftriaeft fea of the Jews, that adhered the moft firmly to it : the one was, that they underftood the prophecies concerning the Meflias fit ting on the throne of David literally : they thought that, in imitation of David, he was not only to free his own country from a foreign yoke, but that he was to fubdue, as David had done, all the neighbouring nations. This was to them a ftone cf ftumbling, and a rock of offence ; fo their adhering to their traditions proved their ruin in all reipeas. The other error, to which the authority of tradition led them, was their preferring the rituals of their religion to the moral precepts that it contained: this not only corrupted their own manners, while they thought that an exaanefs of performing, and a Kcal In afferting, not only the ritual precepts that Mofes gave their fathers, but thofe additions to them which they had from tradition, that were accounted hedges about the law : that this, I fay, might well excufe or atone for the moft heinous vio lations of the rules of juftice and ir.ercy : but this had yet another worfe effea upon them, while it poilefli^d them with fuch pre judices againft our Saviour andhis Apoftles, when they came to fee, that they fet no value on thofe praaices that were recom mended by tradition, and that they preferred pure and fub- hme morals even to Mofaical ceremonies themfelves, and fet the Gentiles at liberty from thofe obfervances. So that the ruin of the Jews, their rejedting the Meffias, and their per fecuting his followers, arofe chiefly from this principle that had got in among them, of believing tradition, and of being guided by it. The Apoftles, In all their difputes with the Jews, n^ake their appeals conftantly to the Scriptures ; they fet a high cha- ^iSs xvii. raaer on thofe of Berea for examining them, 'and comparing '• the doctrine that they preached, with them, in the Epiftles to the Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews, in which they purfue a thread of argument, with relation to the prejudices that the Jews had taken up againft Chriltiaiilty, they never once argue from tradition, but always from the Scriptures ; they do not pretead .13 THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 93 ptetend only to difparage modern tradition, and to fet up that vvhich was more ancient : they make no fuch diftinaion, but hold clofe to the Scriptures. When St. Paul fets out the advantages that Timothy had by a religious education, he men tions this, that of a child he had known the holy Scriptures, ^ Tim. ia. •which luere able to make himwife unto falvation, through faith 'i',, "J. which was in Chrifi Jefus : that is, the belief of the Chriftian religion was a key to give him a right underftanding of the Old Teftament; and upon this occafion St. Paul adds, all Scripture (that Is, the whole Old Teftament) is given by divine infpiration ; or (as others render the words) all the divinely in fpired Scripture is profitable for doBrine, for reproof, for cor- reBion, for infiruBion in righteoufnefs, that the man of God may be perfeB, throughly furnijhed unto all good works. The New Teftament was writ on the fame defign with the Old ; that, as St. Luke exprefles it, we might know the certainty ofiVrAx i. 4. thofe things tuherein ive have been infiruBed : Thefe things were]°^'^ '"• written, faith St. John, that ye might believe, that Jefus is the^'' Chrifi, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name. When ot. Peter knew by a fpecial reve lation that he was near his end, he writ his fecond Epiftle, that they might have that as a mean of keeping thofe things 2. Pet. j, always in remembrance after his death. Nor do the Apoftles give 15. : us any hints of their having left anything with the Church, ' to be conveyed down by an oral tradition, which they them felves hadnot put in writing : they do fometimes refer themfelves to fuch things as they had delivered to particular Churches; but by tradition in the Apoftles' days, and for fome ages after, it is very clear, that they meant only the conveyance of the faith, and not any unwritten doarines : they reckoned the ¦ faith was a facred depofitum which was committed to them ; and that was to be preferved pure among them. But it were very eafy to fhew In the continued fucceffion of all the Chrif- 'tian vn-iters, that they ftill appealed to the Scriptures, that they argued from them, that they condemned all doftrines ;that were not contained in them; and when at any time they 'brought human authorities to juftify their opinions or expref fions, they contented themfelves with a very few, and thofe 'very late authorities : fo that their defign in vouching them feems to be rather to clear themfelves from the imputation of ;having innovated anything In the doarine, or in the ways of expreffing it, than that they thought thofe authoriries were necef fary to prove them by. For in that cafe they muft have taken ;a great deal more pains than they did, to have followed up, and (proved the tradition much higher than they went. We do alfo plainly fee that fuch traditions as were not found ed on Scripture, were eafily corrupted, and on that account were 94 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. were laid afide by the fucceeding ages. Such were the opi. ^'- nion of Chrift's reign on earth for a thoufand years ; the ^^''V^ fajnts not feeing God till the refurreaion ; the neceffity oi' giving infants the Eucharift ; the divine infpiration of the fe- venty Interpreters ; befides fome more important matters,' which in refpea to thofe times are not to be too much de. fcanted upon. It is alfo plain, that theGnofticks, the Valen- tinians, and other hereticks, began very early to fet up a pre- tenfion to a tradition delivered by the Apoftles to fome parti cular perfons, as a key for underftanding the fecret meanings that might be in Scripture ; In oppofition to which, both Ire- nieus, TertuUian, and others, make ufe of two forts of ar. Ircn.l. 3. c. guments: The one is the authority of the Scripture itfelf, by 1, 2, ?, 4) 5- vvhich they confuted their errors. The other is a point of Preic. cap. f^*^) ^^^^ there was no fuch tradition. In afferting this, 10, 2t, 25, they appeal to thofe Churches which had been founded by the ~7, »S. Apoftks, and In which a fucceffion of Bifliops had been con tinued down. They fay. In thefe we muft fearch for apoftoli- cal tradition. This was not faid by them as if they had de figned to eftablifh tradition, as an authority diftina from, or equal to the Scriptures : but only to fhew the falfehood of that pretence of the heretlcks, and that there was no fuch tradi tion for their herefies as they gave out. When this whole matter is confidered In all its parts, fuch as, ift. That nothing is to be believed as an article of faith, unlefs it appears to have been revealed by God. 2dly, That oral tradition appears, both from the nature of man, and, the experience of former times, to be an incompetent con veyer of truth. 3dly, That fome books were written for the conveyance of thofe matters, which have been in afl ages care fully preferved and efteemed facred. 4thly, That the writers of the firft ages do always argue from, and appeal to thefe books : And, fthl) , 1 hat what they have faid without authority from them has been rejeaed in fucceeding ages; the truth of this branch of our Article Is fuUymade out. If what is contained in the Scripture in exprefs words, is die objea of our faith, then It will follow, that whatfoever may be proved from thence, by a juft and lawful confequence, Is alfo to be believed. Men may indeed err in framing diefe confequences and deduaions, they may miftake or itretch t:iem too far : but though there is much fophiftry in the world, yet there is alfo true logick, and a certain thread of reafon- ing. And the fenfe of every propofition being the fame, whe ther expreiied alv.ays in the fame or in different words ; thea v.hatfoever appears to be cleariy the fenfe of any place of Scrip ture, is an objea of faith, though it fliould be otherwife ex prefled than as it is in Scripture,- and every juft inference from THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 95 it muft be as true as the propofition itfelf Is r therefore it Is a vain cavil to afk exprefs words of Scripture for every Article. That was the method of all the ancient heretlcks : Chrift and his Apoftles argued from the words and paffages In the Old Teftament, to prove luch things as agreed with the true fenfe of them, and fo did all the fathers ; and therefore fo may we do. The great objeaion to this is, that the Scriptures are dark, that the fame place is capable of different fenfes, the literal and the myftical : and therefore, fince we cannot un derftand the true fenfe of the Scripture, v^e muft not argue from it, but feek for an Interpreter of It, on whom we may depend. Afl feas argue from thence, and fancy that they find their tenets in it : and therefore this can be no fure way of finding out facred trutli, fince fo many do err that follow it. In anfwer to this, it is to be confidered, that the Old Tef tament was delivered to the whole nation of the Jews ; that Mofes was read in the Synagogue, in the hearing of the women and children ; that whole nation was to take their doarine and rules from it : all appeals were made to the Law and to the Prophets among them : and though the prophecies of the Old Teftament were in their ftyle and whole contexture dark, and hard to be underftood ; yet when fo great a queftion as this, who was the true Meflias .' came to be examined, the proofs urged for it, were paffages In the Old Teftament. Now the queftion was, how thefe were to be underftood ? No appeal was here made to tradition, or to church-authority, but only by the enemies of our Saviour. Whereas he and his Difciples urge thefe paffages in their true fenfe, and in the confequences that arofe out of them. They did in that ap peal to the rational faculties of thofe to whom they ipoke. The Chriftian religion was at firft delivered to poor and fimple multitudes, who were both illiterate and weak ; the Epiftles, which are by much the hardcft to be underftood of the whole New Teftament, were addrell'ed to the whole Churches, to all the Faithful or Saints ; that is, to all the Chriftians in thofe Churches. Thefe were afterwards read in afl their affem- blies. Upon this It may reafonably be afked, were thefe writings clear in that age, or were they not ? If they were not, it Is unaccountable why they were addreiTed to the whole body, and how they came to be received and entertained as tliey were. It is the end of fpeech and writing, to make things tobe underftood; and it is not fuppofable, that men infpired by the Holy Ghoit, either could not or would not exprefs themfelves fo as that they fhould be dearly underftood, It is alfo to be obferved, that the new difpenfation is op pofed to the old, as light is to darknels, an open face to a vailed,. 96 AN EXPOSITION OF vailed, and fubftance to fliadows. Since then the Old Tefta- ment was fo clear, that David both in the 19th, and moft co pioufly In the 119th Pfalm, fets out very fully the light which the laws of God gave them In that darker ftate, we have much more reafon to conclude, that the new difpen fation ftiould be much brighter. If there was no need of a certain expounder of Scripture then, there is much lefs now. Nor is there any provifion made in the new for a fure guide ; no intimations are given where to find one : from afl which we may conclude, that the books of the New Teftament were clear in thofe days, and might well be underftood by thofe to whom they were at firft addreffed. If they were clear to them, they may be likewife clear to us : for though we have not a full hiftory of that time, or of the phrafes and cuf- toms, and particular opinions of that age ; yet the vaft in duftry of the fucceeding ages, of thefe two laft in particular, has made fuch difcoveries, befides the other collateral advan tages which learning and a nicenefs In reafoning has given us, that we may juftly reckon, that though fome hints in the Epiftles, which relate to the particulars of that time, may be fo loft, that we can at beft but make conjeaures about them ; yet upon the v/hole matter, we may well underftand all that Is neceflary to falvation in the Scripture. We may indeed fall into miftakes as well as into fins: and into errors of Ignorance, as well as Into fins of ignorance. God has dealt with our underftandings as he hath dealt with our wills : he propofes our duty to us, with ftrong motives to obedience; he ixomlfes us inward affiftances, and accepts of our fincere endeavours : and yet this does not hinder many from perifhing eternally, and others from falling into great fins, and fo running great danger of eternal damnation ; and all this is becaufe God has left our wills free, and does not conftrain us to be good. He deals with our underftandings In the fame manner ; he has fet his will and the knowledge of falvation before us, in writings that are framed in a fimple and plain ftyle, in a language that was then common, and is ftill well underftood, that v/ere at firft defigned for common ufe; they are foon read, and it muft be confefled that a great part of them is very clear : fo we have reafon to conclude, that if a man reads thefe carefully and with an honeft mind ; if he prays to God to direa him, and follows fincerely what he apprehends to be true, and praaifes diligently thofe duties that do unqueftionably appear to be bound upon him by them, that then he fhall find out enough to fave his foul; and that fuch miftakes as lie ftill upon him, fliafl either be cleared up to him by fome happy providence, or fhall be forgiven him ky that infinite mercy, to which his fincerity and diligence- is THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 97 is well known. That bad men fhould fall into grievous errors, ART. is no more ftrange, than that they fhould commit heinous fins: ^^* and the errors of good men, in which they are neither wilful '-''"V^' nor infolent, will certainly be forgiven, as well as their fins of infirmity. Therefore all the ill ufe that is made of the Scrip ture, and all the errors that are pretended to be proved by it, do not weaken Its authority or clearnefs. This does only fhew us the danger of ftudying them with a biaffed or corrupted mind, of reading them too carelefsly, of being too curious in going farther than as they open matters to'us ; and in being too im plicit in adhering to our education, or in fubmitting to the diaates of others. So far I have explained the firft branch of this Article. The confequence that arifes out of it Is fo clear, that it needs not be proved : That therefore nothing ought to be efieemed art Article of Faith, but what may be found in it, or proved from it. If this is our rule, our entire and only rule, then fuch doarines as are not in it ought to be rejeaed ; and any Church that adds to the Chriftian religion, is erroneous for making fuch additions, and becomes tyrannical if fhe im- pofes them upon all her members, and requires pofitive de clarations, fubfcriptions, and oaths, concerning them. In fo doing fhe forces fuch as cannot have com.munlon with her, but by affirming what they believe to be falfe, to withdraw from that which cannot be had without departing from the truth. So all the additions of the five Sacraments, of the invocation of angels and faints, of the worfhipping of images, croffes, and relicks ; of the corporal prefence in the Eucharift; of the facrifice offered in it for the dead as well as for the living, together with the adoration offered to it, with a great many more, are certainly errors, unlefs they can be proved from Scripture ; and they are intolerable errors, if as the Scripture is exprefs in oppofition to them, fo they defile the worfhip of Chrifiians with idolatry: but they become yet moft intolerable, if they are impofed upon afl that are in that communion, and if creeds or oaths in which they are affirmed, are required of all in their communion. Here is the main ground of juftifying our forming ourfelves into a diftina body from the Roman Church, and therefore it is well to be confidered. The further difcuffing of this will come properly in, when other particulars come to be examined. From hence 1 go to the fecond branch of this Article, which fives us the Canon of the Scripture. Here I fhafl begin with the few Teftament ; for though in order the Old Teftament is before the New, yet the proof of the one being more diftinaiy made out by the concurring teftimonies of other writers, than can poflibly be pretended for the other, and the New giving an H authority 98 AN EXPOSITION Of A VI. R T. authority to the Old, by afferting it fo exprefsly, I fhall there- ¦^J- fore prove firft the Canon of the New Teftament. I will not ^^"V""^ urge that of the teftimony of the Spirit, which many have had recourfe to ; this is only an argument to him tliat feels it, if it is one at all; and therefore it proves nothing to another per fon : befides, the utmoft that with reafon can be made of this, is, that a good man feeling the very powerful effeas of the Chriftian religion on his own heart, in the reforming his na ture, and the calming his confcience, together with thofe com forts that arife out of it, is convinced in general of the whole of Chriftianity, by the happy effeas that it has upon his own mind : but it does not from this appear how he fhould know that fuch books and fuch paffages in them fhould come from a divine original, or that he fhould be able to diftinguifh what is genuine in them from what is fpurious. To come there fore to fuch arguments as may be well infifted upon and main tained. The Canon of the New Teftament, as we now have it, is fully proved from the quotations out of the books of the New Teftament, by the writers of the firft and fecond centuries j fuch as Clemens, Ignatius, Juftin, Irenaeus, and feveral others. Papias, who converfed witii the difciples of the Apoftles, is Lib. iii. cited by Eufebius in confirmation of St. Matthew's Gofpel, Hift. c. 39. Y/hich he fays was writ by him in Hebrew : he is alfo cited to c. 25. prove that St. Mark writ his Gofpel from St. Peter's preach ing ; which is alfo confirmed by Clemens of Alexandria ; not to Euf. I. I'l. mention later writers. Irenaeus fays St. Luke writ his Gofpel Hiii. t. 15. according to St. Paul's preaching; which is fupported by fome words in St. Paul's Epiftles that relate to paffages in that Gofpel ; yet certainly he had likewife other vouchers ; thofe who from the beginning were eye-witneffes and minifier s of ihe Word; though the whole might receive its full authority from St. Paul's ap probation. St. John writ later than the other three ; fo the teftimonies concerning his Gofpel are the fulleft and the moft Lib. Iii. cap. particular. Irenjeus has laboured the proof of this matter with !'• much care and attention: he lived within an hundred years of St. John, and knew Polycarp that was one of his difciples : Tert. X. iv. after him come TertuUian and Origen, who fpeak very co- cont. Mar. pioufiy of the four Gofpels ; and from them all the eccle- Orig.'apud fiaftical writers have without any doubting or controverfy ac- Euf. lib. vi, knowledged and cited them, without the leaft fhadow of any tap- »S< oppofition, except what was made by Marcion and the Mani- chces. Next to thefe authorities we appeal to the catalogues of the books of the New Teftament, that are given us in the third and fourth centuries, by Origen, a man of great in duftry, apd that had examined the ftate of many churches} by THt XXXIX ARTICLES. 99 by St. Athanafius, by the council of Laodicea and Carthage ; A R T. and after thefe we have a conftant fucceffion of teftimonies, ^^" that do deliver thefe as the Canon univerfally received. All this 'iT'''"^"''^ laid together, does fully prove this point; and that the more clear- synopf. ly, when thefe particulars are confidered. i. That the books Conc. Can. of the New Teftament were read in all their churches, and at ?.?• *^*"^^- all their affemblies, fo that this was a point In which it was not eafy for men to miftake. 2dly, That this was fo near the foun tain, that the originals themfelves of the Apoftles were no doubt fo long preferved. 3dly, That both the Jews, as appears from Juftin Martyr, and the Gentiles, as appears by Celfus, knew Dial, cum that thefe were the books in which the faith of the Chriftians was Trypho. contained. 4thly, That fome queftion was made touching fome of them, becaufe there was not that clear or general know ledge concerning them, that there was concerning the others ; yet upon fuller enquiry all acquiefced in them. No doubt was ever made about thirteen of St. Paul's Epiftles ; becaufe there were particular churches or perfons to whom the originals of them were direaed : but the ftrain and defign of that to the Tertul. de Hebrews being to remove their prejudices, that high one which '^^''' '^^P* they had taken up againft St. Paul as an enemy to their nation, ^ was to be kept out of view, that it might not blaft the good ef feas which were intended by it ; yet it is cited oftener than once by Clemens of Rome : and though the Ignorance of many of the Roman Church, who thought that fome paffages in it favoured the feverity of the Novatians, that cut off apoftates from the Orig. Ep. ad hopes of repentance, made them queftion it, of which mention African. is ma V both by Origen, Eufebius, and Jerome, who frequently ^/Martyr! affirm, that the Latin Church, or the Roman, did not receive it; Eufeb. Hift. yet Athanafius reckons both this and the feven general Epiftles lib- vi.c.zo. among the canonical writings. Cyril of Jerufalem, who had ^'p^j^/." occafion to be well informed about it, fays, that he delivers his cy^.Catcch. catalogue from the Church, as fhe had received it from the iv. Apoftles, the ancient bifhops, and the governors of the Church ; and reckons up in it both the feven general Epiftles, and the fourteen of St. Paul. So does Ruffin, and fo do the councils of Laodicea and Carthage*; the canons of the former beings re ceived into the body of the f Canons of the Univerfal Church. Ire- na;us, Origen, and Clemens of Alexandria J, cite the Epiftle to the Hebrews frequently. Some queftion was made of the Epiftle of St. James, the fecond of St. Peter, the fecond and third of St. John, and St. Jude's Epiftle. But both Clemens of Rome ||, * Apud Hieron. f Can. 60. Can. 47. 1 Iren. 1. iii. c. 38. Grig. 1. iii. et vii. cont. Celf. Dial. con. Marc, et Ep. ad Afric. Clem. Alen. I Ignat. Ep. ad Ephe. Orig. Horn. 13. in Genef. H 2 Ignatius, 100 AN EXPOSITION OF Ignatius, and Origen, cite St. James's EPJ?'«.5..E"<"5}?\f *5* it^was known to moft, and read in moft Chriftian Churches: the hke is teftified by St. Jeromf. St. Peter s fecond Epiftle is' cited by Origen and FirmilianJ; and Eufebius 1| fays it was held very ufeful even by thofe who held it not canomcal: but fince the firft Epiftle was never queftioned by any, the fecond that carries fo many charaaers of its genuinenefs, fuch as St. Peter's name at the head of it, the mention of the transfiguration, and of his being an eye- witnefs of it, are evident proofs of its being writ by him. The fecond and third Epiftles of St John are cited by Irenaeus, Clemens, and Dennis of Alex andria, and by TertuUian §. The Epiftk of St. Jude is alfo cited by Tertufllan. Some of thofe general Epiftles were not addreffed to any particular body, or Church, that might have preferved the originals of them, but were fent about in the nature of circular letters ; fo that it is no wonder if they were not received fo early, and with fuch an unanimity, as we find concerning the four Gofpels, the Aas of the Apoftles, and thirteen of St. Paul's Epiftles. Thefe being firft fixed upon by an unqueftioned and undifputed tradition, made that here was a ftandard once afcertained to judge the better of the reft : fo when the matter was ftriaiy examined, fo near the fountain that it was very poffible and eafy to find out the certainty of It, then in the beginning of the fourth century the Canon was fettled, and univerfafly agreed to. The ftyle and matter of the Revelation, as wefl as the defignation of Divine given to the author of it, gave occafion to. many Clem. in Ep. queftlons about it: Clemens of Rome cites it as a propnetical sd Cot. book: Juftin Martyr fays it was writ by John, one of Chrift's juibn cont. twelve Apoftles ; Irenaeus calls it the Revelation of St. John, lten''i°"! the difciple of our Lord, writ almoft in our own age, in the «. 30. end of Domitiari's reign. Melito writ upon it : Theophflus of El. Hift. Antioch, Hippolytus, Clemens and Dennis of Alexandria, Ter- ^^ff ' ^'^' tullian, Cyprian, and Origen do cite it. And thus the Canon L V. c. 18. of the New Teftament feems to be fiifly made out by the 1. ni.c. »;. concurrent teftimony of the feveral Churches immediately after the Apoftolical time. Here it is to be obferved, that a great difference is to be made between all this and the oral tradition of a doarine, in which there is nothing fixed or permanent, fo that the whole is only report carried about and handed down. Whereas here^ • Euf. Hift. 1. ii. c. 22. 1. iii. c. 24, 45. -f Hieron. Ptef. in Ep. Jac. t Orig. cont. Marcion. Firmil. Ep. 75. ad Cypr. ; II Euf. Hift. 1. iii. c. 3. § Iren. 1. i. c. 13, Clem. Alex. Strom, a. Tettul. d: Cwne Ch». fl. 14. Euf. Hift. l.Ti. s. 24. Tertul, de cultii feni. is THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 101 is a book, that, was only to be copied out and read publickly, and by all perfons, between which the difference is fo vaft, that it is as little poflible to imagine how the one fhould con tinue pure, as how the other fhould come to be corrupted. There was never a book of which we have that reafon to be affured that it is genuine, that we have here. There hap pened to be conftant difputes among Chriftians from the fecond century downward, concerning fome of the moft important parts of this doarine; and by both fides thefe books were appealed to : and though there might be fome variations in readings and tranflations, yet no queftion was made concerning the Canon, or the authentlcalnefs of the books themfelves ; unlefs it were by the Manichees, who came indeed to be called Chriftians, by a very enlarged way of fpeak ing ; fince it is juftly ftrange how men who faid that the author of the univerfe, and of the Mofaical difpenfation, was an evil God ; and who held that there were two fupreme Gods, a good and an evil one ; how fuch men, I fay, could be called Chriftians. The authority of thofe books is not derived from any judg ment that the Church made concerning them ; but from this, that it was known that they were writ, either by men who were themfelves the Apoftles of Chrift, or by thofe who were their affiftants and companions, at whofe order, or under whofe direaion and approbation, it was known that they were written and publifhed. Thefe books were received and known for fuch, in the very apoftolical age itfelf; fo that many of the apofto lical men, fuch as Ignatius and Polycarp, lived long enough to fee the Canongenerally received and fettled. The fuffering and depreffed ftate of the firft Chriftians was alfo fuch, that as there is no reafon to fufpea them of impofture, fo it is not at all credible that an impofture of this kind could have paffed upon all the Chriftian Churches. A man in a corner might have forged the Sibyfline oracles, or fomeother pieces which were not to be generally ufed ; and they might have appeared foon after, and credit might have been given too eafily to a book or writ ing of that kind : but it cannot be imagined, that in an age in which the belief of this doarine brought men under great troubles, and in which miracles and other extraordinary gifts were long continued in the Church, that, I fay, either falfe books could have been fo early obtruded on the Church as true, or that true books could have been fo vitiated as to lofe their original purity, while they were fo univerfally read and ufed ; and that fo foon ; or that the writers of that very age and of the next, fhould have been fo generally and fo grofsly impofed upon, as to have cited fpurious writings for true. Thefe are things that could not be believed in the hiftories or records of any H 3 nation : 102 AN EXPOSITION OF nation: though the value that the Chriftians fet upon thefe books, and the conftant ufe they made of them, reading a parcel of them every Lord's day, make this much lefs fuppofablc in the Chriftian religion, than it could be in any other fort of hiftory or record whatfoever. The eariy fpreading of the Chriftian religion to fo many remote countries and pro vinces, the many copies of thefe books that lay in countries fo remote, the many tranflations of them that were quickly made, do all concur to make the impoflibility of any fuch im pofture the more fenfible. Thus the Canon of the New Tef tament is fixed upon clear and fure grounds. From thence, without any further proof, we may be con vinced of the Canon of the Old Teftament. Chrift does fre quently cite Mofes and the Prophets ; he appeals to them ; and though he charged the Jews of that time, chiefly their teachers and rulers, with many diforders and faults, yet he never ohce fo much as infinuated that they had corrupted their law, or other facred books ; which, if true, had been the greateft of all thofe abufes that they had put upon the people. Our Saviour cited their books according to the tranflation that was then iri credit and common ufe amongft them. When one afked him which was the great commandment, he anfwered, How readefi thou ? And he proved the chief things relating to himfelf, his Death and Refurreaion, from the prophecies that had gone before; which ought to have been fulfilled in him : he alfo cites the Lukexxiv, Old Teftament, by a threefold divifion of the Law of Mofes, 44- the Prophets, and the Pfalms ; according to the three orders of books into which the Jews had divided it. The Pfalms, which was the firft among the holy writings, being fet for Rem. iii. 2. that whole volume, St. Paul fays, that to the Jews were committed the oracles of God: he reckons that among the chief of their privileges, but he never blames them for being unfaith ful in this truft ; and it is certain that the Jews have not cor rupted the chief of tkofe paffages that are urged againft them to prove Jefus to have been the Chrift. So that the Old Tef tament, at leaft the tranflation of the LXX Interpreters, which was in common ufe and in high efteem among the Jews in our Saviour's time, was, as to the main, faithful and uncorrupted. This might be further urged from what St. Paul fays concern ing thofe Scriptures which Timothy had learned of a child; thefe could be no other than the books of the Old Teftament. Thus if the writings of the New Teftament are acknowledged to be of divine authority, the full teftimony that they give to the books of the Old Teftament, does fufficiently prove their authority and genuinenefs likewife. But to carry this matter yet further : Mofes THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^03 Mofes wrought fuch miracles both in Egypt, in paffing art. through the Red Sea, and in the wildernefs, that if thefe are ^^• acknowledged to be true, there can be no queftion made of his '-'''^''^^ being fent of God, and authorifed by him to deliver his will to the Jewifh nation. The relation given of thofe miracles reptefents them to be fuch in themfelves, and to have been adled fo publicly, that it cannot be pretended they were tricks, or that fome bold afferters gained a credit to them by afiirming them. They were fo publicly tranfaaed, that the relations given of them are either downright fables, or they were clear and uncontefted charaaers of a prophet authorifed of God. Nor is the relation of them made with any of thofe arts that are almoft neceffary to impoftors. The Jewifh na tion is all along reprefented as froward and difobedient, apt to murmur and rebel. The laws it contains, as to the political part, are calculated to advance both juftice and compaflion, to awaken induftry, and yet to reprefs avarice. Liberty and au thority are duly tempered ; the moral part is pure, and fuitable to human nature, though with fome imperfeaions and tole rances which were connived at, but yet regulated : and for the religious part, idolatry, magic, and all human facrifices were put away by ift When we confider what remains are left us of the idolatry of the Egyptians, and what was afterward among the Greeks and Romans, who were polite and well con- ftituted as to their civil laws and rules, and may be efteemed the moft refined pieces of heathenifm, we do find a fimplicity and purity, a majefty and gravity, a modefty with a decency in the Jewifh rituals, to which the others can in no fort be compared. In the books of Mofes, no defign for himfelf appears ; his pofterity were but in the crowd, Levltes without any cha raaer of diftinaion ; and he fpares neither himfelf nor his bro ther, when there was occafion to mention their faults, no more than he does the reft of his countrymen. It is to be further confidered, that the laws and policy appointed by Mofes fettled many rules and rites that muft havfe perpetuated the re membrance of them. The land was to be divided by lot, and every fhare was to defcend in an inheritance ; the frequent affemblies at Jerufalem on the three great feftivals, the fab- baths, the new moons, the fabbatical year, and the great ju bilee, the law of the double tythe, the facrifices of fo many different kinds, the diftinaions of meats, the prohibition of eating blood, together with many other particulars, were all founded upon it. Now let it be a little confidered, whether the foundation of all this, I mean the five books of Mofes, could be a forgery or not. If the Pentateuch was delivered by Mofes himfelf to the Jews, and received by them as the rule H 4 both 104 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. both of their religion and policy, th,:n it is not poffible to con- VI. ceive, but that the recital of all that is contained from the book ^^"V""""*^' of Exodus to the end of Deuteronomy, was known by them to be true ; and this eftablilhes the credit of the whole. But if this is not admitted, then let it be confidered in what time it can poffibly be fuppofed that this Impofture could have appeared. There is a continued feries of books of their hiftory, that goes down to the Babylonifh captivity; fo if there was an impofture of this fort fet on foot in that time, all that hiftory muft have been made upon it, and an account muft have been given of the difcovery of thofe books ; otherwife the Impofture muft have been too weak to have gained credit. Whereas, on the contrary, the whole thread of their hiftory reprefents thefe books to have been always amongft them. The difcovery made in the reign of Jofias, cannot be fup pofed to be of this fort ; fince how much diforder foever the long and wicked reign of Manaffes might have brought them under, and what havock foever might have been made of the writings that were held facred among them, yet it was impof fible that a feries of forged laws and hiftories could have been put upon them ; of which there was ftill a continued memory preferved among them ; and that they could be brought to be lieve that a book and a law full of fo much hiftory, and of fo many various and unufual rites founded upon it, had been held facred among them for many ages ; if it was but a new in vention. Therefore this is an extravagant conceit : fo that the a Chron. book that was then found in the Temple, was either the original xxxiv. 14. of the Law written by Mofes's own hand ; for fo the words 16 " toThe ^^y ^^ rendered ; or it may be underftood of fome of the laft end of Deut. chapters of Deuteronomy, which feem by the tenor of them to have been at firft a book by themfelves, though afterwards joined to the reft of Deuteronomy ; arid in the cofleaion that Jofias Deut.xxv^ii. was making, thefe might be wanting at firft; and in thefe there from 36, to are fuch fevere threatnings, that it was no wonder If a heart fo the end. tender as Jofias's was very much affeaed at the reading them. Upon the whole matter there is no period in the whole hiftory of the Jews, to which any fufpicion of fuch an im pofture can be faftened before the Babylonifh captivity : fo it muft be laid either upon the times of the captivity, or foon after their return out of It. Now, not to obferve that men in fuch circumftances are feldom capable of things of that nature, can it be imagined that a feries of books, that run through many ages, could have been framed fo particulariy, and yet fo exaaiy, that nothing in any concurrent hiftory could ever be brought to difprove any part of it ? That fuch a thing could pafs in fo fhort a time upon a whole nation, while fo many men remem bered, or might well remember, what they had been before the THE XXXIX ARTICLES. '°S the captivity, if they had not all known that it was true, is a ART. moft inconceivable thing. Thefe books were fo far from being V- difputed, though we fee their neighbours the Samaritans were '~^' inclined enough to conteft every thing with them, that all ac quiefced in them, and in that fecond beginning of their being a ftate, as it is opened in the books of Efdras and Nehemiah, and in Daniel, and the three prophets of the fecond Temple, all the other books were received among them without difpute : and their law was in fuch high efteem, that about two hundred years after that, the king of Egypt did with much intreaty, and at a vaft charge, procure a tranflation of it to be made in Greek. The Jewifh nation, as they live much within themfelves, where it is fafe for them to profefs their religion, fo they have had the divine authority of their books fo deeply infufed in them from age to age, that now above fixteen hundred years, though it is not poflible for them to praaife the main parts of their religion, and though they fuffer much for profefflng it, yet they do ftill adhere to it, and praaife as much of it as they can by the law itfelf, which ties the chief performances of that religion to one determinate place. This is a firmnefs which has never yet appeared in any other religion befides the Jewifh and the Chriftian : for all the feveral fhapes of Hea thenifm have often changed, and they all went off as foon as . the government that fupported them fell, and that another came in its place. Whereas thefe have fubfifted long, not only without the fupport of the civil power, but under many fe vere perfecutions : which is at leaft a good moral argument to prove, that thefe religions had another foundation, and a deeper root than any other religion could ever pretend to. "Yet after all, it is not to be denied, but that in the colleaion that was made of the books of the Old Teftament after the captivity, by Ezra and others, or after that burning of many of the books of their law under Antlochus Epiphanes, mentioned in the book of Maccabees, that fome diforder might happen ; , Maccab, that there might be fuch regard had to fome copies, as not to •• 56. alter fome manifeft faults that were in them, but that inftead of that, they might have marked on the margin that which was the true reading : and a fuperftitious conceit might have after wards crept in, and continued in after-ages, of a myftery in that matter, upon their firft letting thefe faults continue in the text with the marginal annotation of the correaion of them. There might be alfo other marginal annotations of the modern names of places fet againft the ancient ones, to guide the reader's judgment ; and afterwards the modern name might have been writ inftead of the ancient one. Thefe are things that might na turaUy enough happen: and will ferve to refolve many objeaions againft the texts of the Old Teftament. All the nnmbers of per fons X06 AN EXPOSITION OF fons as wefl as of years might alfo have been writ in numerical letters, though afterwards they came all to be fet down in words at large : and while they were in letters, as fome might ¦ have been worn out, and loft in ancient copies, fo others were, by the refemblance of fome letters, very like to be miftaken : nor could men's memories ferve them fo well to correa mif takes in numbers as in other matters. This may fhew a way to reconcile many feeming differences between the accounts that are varloufly ftated In fome of the books of the Bible, and between the Hebrew and the Septuagint. In thefe matters our Church has made no declfion ; and fo divines are left to a juft freedom in them. In general we may fafely rely upon the care and providence of God, and the induftry of men, who are naturally apt to preferve things of that kind entire, which are highly valued among them. And therefore we conclude, that the books of the Old Teftament are preferved pure down to us, as to afl thofe things for which they were written; that is, in every thing that is either an objedl of faith, or a rule of life ; and as to leffer matters which vifibly have no relation to either of thefe, there is no reafon to think that every copier was fo di vinely guided that no fmall error might furprife him. In faa, we know that there are many various readings, which might have arifen from the hafte and careleffnefs of copiers, from their gueffing wrong that which appeared doubtful or im perfea in the copy, and from a fuperftitious adhering to fome apparent faults, when they found them in copies of a venerable antiquity. But when all thofe various readings are compared together, it appears that as they are inconfiderable, fo they do not concern our faith, nor our morals ; the fetting which right was the main end of revelation. The moft important diver fity relates to chronology : but the account of time, efpecially in the firft ages, is of no confequence to our believing right, or to our living v/efl : and therefore if fome errors or miftakes fhould appear to bq among thofe different readings, thefe give no juft caufe to doubt of the whole. And indeed, confidering the many ages through which thofe books have paffed, we have much more reafon to wonder, that they are brought down to us fo entire, and fo manifeftly genuine in all their main and important parts, than that we fhould fee fome prints of the frailty of thofe who copied and preferved them. It remains only upon this head to confider what infpira tion and an infpired book is, and how far that matter is to be carried. When we talk with one another, a noife is made in the air that ftrikes with fuch vibrations on the ears of others, that by the motion thereby made on the brain of another, we do convey our thoughts to another perfon : fo that the im preffion THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^^7 preflion made on the brain is that which communicates our ART. thoughts to another. By this we can eafily apprehend how ^^¦ God may make fuch impreffions on men's brains, as may convey '¦'^^^"^ to them fuch things as he intends to make known to them. This is the general notion of infpiration ; in which the manner and degree of the impreffion may make it at the leaft as certain that the motion comes from God, as a man may be certain that fuch a thing was told him by fuch a perfon, and not by any other. Now there may be different degrees both of the objeas that are revealed, and of the manner of the re velation. To fome it may be given in charge to deliver rules and laws to men : and becaufe that ought to be expreffed in plain words without pomp or ornament, therefore upon fuch occafions the imagination is not to be much agitated ; but the impreffion muft be made fo naked, that the underftanding may clearly apprehend it ; and by confequence that it may be plainly expreffed. In others, the defign may be only to employ them in order to the awakening men to obferve a law already received and owned ; that muft be done with fuch pompous vifions of judgments coming upon the violation oT thofe laws, as may very much alarm thofe to whom they are fent : both the reprefentations and the expreffions muft be fit ted to excite men, to terrify, and fo to reform them. Now becaufe the imagination, whether when we are tranfported in our thoughts being awake, or in dreams, is capable of hav ing thofe fcenes aaed upon it, and of being fo excited by them, as to utter them with pompous figures, and In a due rapidity; this is another way of infpiration that is ftriaiy called prophecy in the Old Teftament. A great deal of the ftyle ufed in this muft relate to the particulars of the time to which it belongs : many allufions, hints, and forms of fpeech muft be ufed, that are lively and proverbial ; which cannot be un derftood, unlefs we had all thofe concurrent helps which are loft even in the next age, if not preferved in books, and fo they muft be quite loft after many ages are paft, when no other memorials are left of the time in which ^hey were tranfaaed. This muft needs make the far greater part of all the prophetic writings to be very dark to us ; not to infift upon the peculiar genius of the language in which the Prophets wrote, and on the common cuftoms of thofe climates and nations to this day, that are very different from our own. A third degree of infpiration might be, when there were no difcoveries of future events to be made : but good and holy men were to be inwardly excited by God, to compofe fuch poems, hymns, and difcourfes, as fhould be of great ufe both to give men clearer and fuller apprehenfions of divine things, and alfo infenfibly to charm them with a pleafant and exalted way 10* AN EXPOSITION OF way of treating them. And if the providence of God fliould fo order them in the management of their compofures, that it may afterwards appear that prediaions were intermixed with them ; yet they are not to be called Prophets, unlefs God had revealed to them the myftical intent of fuch prediaions: fo that though the Spirit of God prophefied in them, yet they themfelves not underftanding it, are not to be accounted Pro phets. Of this laft fort are the books of the Pfalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclefiaftes, &c. According to the different order of thefe infpirations was the Old Teftament divided into three volumes. The Infpi ration of the New Teftament Is all to be reduced to the firft fort, except the Revelation, which is purely and ftriaiy prophe tical. The other parts of the New Teftament are writ after a fofter and clearer illumination, and In a ftyle fuitable to it. Now becaufe enthufiafts and impoftors may falfely pretend to divine commlffions and infpirations, it is neceffary (both for the undeceiving of thofe who may be mifled by a hot and ungo- verned imagination, and for giving fuch an authority to men truly infpired, as may diftinguifh them from falfe pretenders) that the man thus infpired fhould have fome evident fign or other, either fome miraculous aaion that Is vifibly beyond the powers of nature, or fome particular difcovery of fomewhat that is to come, which muft be fo expreffed, that the accom- plifhment of it may fhew it to be beyond the conjeaures of the moft fagacious : by one or both of thofe a man muft prove, and the world muft be convinced, that he is fent and direaed by God. And if fuch men deliver their meffage in writing, we muft receive fuch writings as facred and in fpired. In thefe writings fome parts are hiftorlcal, fome doarinal, and fome elenchtical or argumentative. As to the hlftorical part, it is certain that whatfoever is delivered to us, as a mat ter truly tranfaaed, muft be indeed fo : but it is not neceffary, when difcouifes are reported, that the Individual words fhould be fet down juft as they were faid ; it is enough if the effea of them is reported : nor is It neceffary that the order of time fhould be ftriaiy obferved, or that all the conjunaions In fuch relations fhould be underftood feverely according to their grammatical meaning. It is vifible that all the facred writers write in a diverfity of ftyle, according to their. different tem pers, and to the various impreffions that were made upon them. In that the infpiration left them to the ufe of their fa culties, and to their previous cuftoms and habits : the defign of revelation, as to this part of its fubjea, is only to give fuch reprefentations of matters of fadt, as may both work upon and guide our belief; but the order of time, and the ftria words having THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^°9 having no influence that way, the writers might difpofe them, ART. and exprefs them varloufly, and yet all be exaaiy true. For ^^' the conjunaive particles do rather import that one paffage '-''"V^^ comes to be related after another, than that it was really tranf^ aaed after it. As to the doarinal parts, that is, the rules of life which thefe books fet before us, or the propofitions that are offered to us in them, we muft entirely acquiefce in thefe, as in the voice of God who fpeaks to us by the means of a perfon, whom he, by his authorizing him in fo wonderful a manner, obliges us to hear and believe. But when thefe writers come to explain or argue, they ufe many figures that were well known in that age : but becaufe the fignification of a figiire is to be taken from common ufe, and not to be carried to the utmoft extent that the words themfelves will bear, we muft therefore enquire, as much as we can, into the manner and phrafeology of the time in which fuch perfons lived, which with relation to the New Teftament will lead us far : and by this we ought to go vern the extent and importance of thefe figures. As to their arguings, we are further to confider, that fome times they argue upon certain grounds, and at other times they go upon principles, acknowledged and received by thofe with whom they dealt. It ought never to be made the only way of proving a thing, to found it upon the conceffions of thofe with whom we deal ; yet when a thing Is once truly proved, it is a juft and ufual way of confirming it, Or at leaft of filenclng thofe who oppofe it, to fhew that it follows naturally from thofe opi nions and principles that are received among them. Since therefore the Jews had, at the time of the writing of the New Teftament, a peculiar way of expounding many prophecies and paffages in the Old Teftament, it was a very proper way to convince them, to alledge many places according to their key and methods of expofition. Therefore when divine wri ters argue upon any point, we are always bound to believe the conclufions that their reafonings end in, as parts of divine reve lation : but we are not bound to be able to make out or even to affent to all the premifes made ufe of by them in their whole extent ; unlefs it appears plainly that they affirm the premifes as exprefsly as they do the conclufions proved by them. And thus far I have laid down fuch a fcheme concerning infpiration and infpired writings, as will afford, to fuch as ap prehend It aright, a folution to moft of thefe difficulties with which we are urged on the account of fome paffages in the facred writings. The laying down a fcheme that afferts an immediate infpiration which goes to the ftyle, and to every tittle, and that denies any error to have crept into any of the copies, as it feems on the one hand to raife the honour of the Scriptures IIO AN EXPOSITION OF ¦ART. Scriptures very highly, fo it lies open on the other hand to great "^^- difficulties, which feem infuperable in that hypothefis ; whereas ^•^"^^"^ a middle way, as it fettles the divine infpiration of thefe writ ings, and their being continued down genuine and unvitiated to us, as to all that, for which we can only fuppofe that infpi ration was given ; fo it helps us more eafily out of all difficul ties, by yielding that which ferves to anfwer them, without weakening the authority of the whole. I come in the laft place to examine the negative confe quence, that arifes out of this head, which excludes thofe books commonly called Apocryphal, that are here rejeaed, from being a part of the Canon : and this will be eafily made out. The chief reafon that preffes us Chriftians to acknowledge the Old Teftament, is the teftimony that Chrift and his Apoftles gave to thofe books, as they were then received by the Jewifh Church ; to whom were committed the oracles of God. Now it Is not fo much as pretended, that ever thefe books were re ceived among the Jews, or were fo much as known to them. None of the writers of the New Teftament cite or mention them ; neither Philo nor Jofephus fpeaks of them . Jofephus on the contrary fays, they had only twenty-two books that deferved belief, but that thofe which were written after the time of Ar- taxerxes, were not of equal credit with the reft : and that in that period they had no prophets at all. The Chriftian Church was for fome ages an utter ftranger to thofe books. Melito, Bifhop of Sardis, being defired by Onefimus to give him a perfea ca talogue of the books of the Old Teftament, took a journey on purpofe to the Eaft, to examine this matter at its fource : and having, ai he fays, made an exaa enquiry, he fent him the names of them juft as we receive the Canon ; of which Eufebius Eufeb. Hift. fays, that he has preferved it, becaufe it contained all thofe books i.jv. C.2 . ^hich the Church owned. Origen gives us the fame catalogue according to the tradition of the Jews, who divided the Old In Pfal. i. Teftament into twenty-two books, according to the letters of In Synop. their alphabet. Athanafius reckons them up in the fame man- InEp.pafch, rier to be twenty-two, and he more diftinaiy fays, " that he " delivered thofe, as they had received them by tradition, and " as they were received by the whole Church of Chrift, becaufe " fome prefumed to mix apocryphal books with the divine " Scriptures : and therefore he was fet on it by the orthodox " brethren, in order to declare the canonical bool. j delivered as " fuch by tradition, and believed to be of divine infpiration. " It is true," he adds, " that befides thefe there were other " books which were not put Into the Canon, but yet were ap- " pointed by the fathers to be read by thofe who firft come to " be inftruaed in the way of piety : and then he reckons up *' moft of the apocryphal books." Here is the firft mention we THE XXXIX ARTICLES. m we find of them, as indeed it is very probable they were made at art. Alexandria, by fome of thofe Jews who lived there in great VL numbers. Both Hilary and Cyril of Jerufalem give us the ^^^"V^ fame catalogue of the books of the Old Teftament, and affirm that they delivered them thus according to the tradition of the ancients. Cyril fays, that all other books are to be put in a Catech. 4; fecond order. Gregory Nazianzen reckons up the 21 books, and adds that none befides them are genuine. The words that are in the Article are repeated by St. Jerom in feveral of his pre faces. And that which fhould determine this whole matter, is, that the council of Laodicea by an exprefs canon delivers the can. 95, catalogue of the canonical books as we do, decreeing that thefe and 60. only fhould be read in the Church. Now the canons of this council were afterwards received into the code of the Canons of the univerfal Church ; fo that here we have the concurring fenfe 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 detraa from its authority : but it was already proved, that that book was received much earlier into the Canon of the Scriptures, fo the defign of this Canon being to eftablifh the authority of thofe books that were to be read in the Church, the darknefs of the Apocalypfe making it ap pear reafonable not to rea!d it publickly, that may be the rea fon why it is not mentioned in it, as well as in fome later ca talogues. Here we have four centuries clear for our Canon, in ex- clufion to all additions. It were eafy to carry this much further down, and to fhew that thefe books were never by any exprefs definition received into the Canon, till it was done al Trent : and that in all the ages of the Church, even after they came to be much efteemed, there were divers writers, and thofe generally the moft learned of their time, who denied them to be a part of the Canon. At firft many writings were read in the Churches, that were in high reputation both for the fake of the authors, and of the contents of them, though they were never looked on as a part of the Canon : fuch wf re Clemens's Can. 47. Epiftle, the books of Hermas, the Aas of the Martyrs, befides feveral other things which were read in particular Churches. And among thefe the apocryphal books came alfo to be read, as containing fome valuable books of inftruaion, befide feve ral fragments of the Jewifh hiftory, which were perhaps too eafily befleved to be true. Thefe therefore being ufually read, they came to be reckoned among canonical Scriptures ; for this is the reafon affigned in the third council of Carthage, for calling them canonical, becaufe they had received them from their Fathers as books that were to be read in Churches : and the word Canonical was by fome in thofe ages ufed in a large fenfe, '^* AN EXPOSITION OF ART. fenfe, in oppofition to fpurious ; fo that it fignified no more ^'' than that they were genuine. So much depends upon this Ar ticle, that it feemed neceffary to dwell fully upon it, and to ftate it clearly. It remains only to obferve the diverfity beween the Articles now eftablifhed, and thofe fet forth by King Edward. In the latter there was not a catalogue given of the books of Scrip ture, nor was there any diftinaion ftated between the Canoni cal and the Apocryphal books. In thofe there is hkewife a paragraph, or rather a parenthefis, added after the.words proved thereby, in thefe words. Although fometimes it may be admitted hy God's faithful people as pious, and conducing unto order and decency : which are now left out, becaufe the authority of the Church as to matters of order and decency, which was only intended to be afferted by this period, is more fully explained and ftated in the 35th Article. ARTICLE TH£ XXXIX ARTICLE*. "^^ ART. ARTICLE VIL vii. Of the Old Teftament. '^ge £)Iti '^ettament is not contrail to tfie |5eto : i'^ot botg in tgc £Dli3 auu jBcVd ^t^atntm C&erlaHiug 5Ltfe 10 ofEevcD to i^anfeinti fap Cgcifl, togo ig tgs onlp ^etiiatci* faettoecn (BoQ auS #a5i, being &ot& dDot! and ^an, Wgercfore tgep are not to hz gcai'tJ, tnSitft feign tgat tgc £)ID iFat6er0 tiiD loofe onlp for '^rau* atorg promife0. aitfiougg tfielLato gitjen fyom dJoti bp Mofes, a$ ttiutfi<: ing Ceremonies anti iflites, tso not fainti CSjjiffian Spen, nor tSe Cihil ^jecepts tgereof ouggt of necefit^ tp to be receiljE& in anp Commontoealtg, pet not» it)it&!f anting no Cfiriffian #an tefiatfoeDer is free from tBe £)beijience of tge Commantiments tofiicg are talleb ^ojal. 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 thefe words after Moral : Wherefore they are not to be heard, which teach that the Holy Scriptures were given io none hut to the weak ; and brag con tinually of the Spirit, by which they do pretend that all what^ foever they preach is fuggefied to them; though manifefily con" trary to the Holy Scriptures, This whole Article relates to the Antinomians, as thefe laft words were added by reafon of the extravagance of fome enthufiafts at that time; but that madnefs having ceafed in Queen Elizabeth's time, it feems it was thought that there was no more occafion for thofe words. There are four heads that do belong to this Article : Firft, that the Old Teftament is not contrary to the New. , Secondly, that Chrift was the Mediator in both difpenfations, fo that falvation was offered in both by him. Thirdly, that the ceremonial and the judiciary precepts in the Law of Mofes do not bind Chriftians. Fourthly, that the Moral Law does ftifl bind all Chriftians. To the firft of thefe. The Manichees of old, who fancied that there was a bad as well as a good God, thought that thefe two great Principles were in a perpetual ftruggle ; and they believed the Old Difpenfation was under the bad one, which was taken away by the New, that is the work of the good God. But they who held fuch monftrous tenets, muft needs rejea the whole New Teftament, or very much corrupt it : 1 fince *U JLN EXPOSITION OF ART. fince there is nothing plainer, than that the Prophets of the . V". Old foretold the New, with approbation ; and tjie writers of ^¦''''^''^^ the New prove both their commiffion and their doarine rom paffages of the Old Teftament. This therefore could not be affirmed without rejeaing many of the books that we own, and corrupting the reft. So this deferves no more to be con fidered. , Upon this occafion it will be no improper digreffion, to confider wli^t revelation thofe under the Mofaical Law, or that lived before it, had of the Meffias : this- is an important matter : it is a great confirmation of the truth of the Chrif tian Religion, as it wifl furnifh us with proper arguments againft the Jews. It is certain they have long had, and ftill have an expeaation of a Meffias : now the charaaers and prediaions concerning this perfon muft have been fulfilled long ago, or the prophecies will be found to be falfe ; and if they do meet and were accomplifhed in our Saviour's perfon, and if no other perfon could ever pretend to this, then that which is un dertaken to be proved, will be fully performed. The firft pro mife to Adam after his fin, fpeaks of an enmity between the feed Cen. iii. 15. of the Serpent and the feed of the Woman : It fhall bruife thy head, and thou fhalt bruife his heel. The one might hurt the other in fome leflier inftances, but the other was to have an intire viaory at laft ; which is plainly fignified by the figures of bruifing the heel, and brulfing the head, which was to be performed by one who was to bear this charaaer of being the Ccn. xii. 3. woman's feed. The next promife was made to Abraham, In Gen. xiii. thee fhall all ihe families of the earth be bleffed : this was Gen. xxvi. 'o'^g^'^ '"^ ^'S feed or pofterity, upon his being ready to offer 24. up his fon Ifaac : that promife was renewed to Ifaac, and Gen. xxviii. after him to Jacob : when he was dying, it was lodged by him Gen. xlix. "' ^^ ^'"'''^ °^ Judah, when he prophefied, that ihe fceptre 10. fiould not depart from Judah, nor the lawgiver from between his feet, till Shiloh fhould come ; and the gathering of ihe people^ that is, of the Gentiles, was to be to him. It is certain the Ten Tribes were loft in their captivity, whereas the tribe of Judah was brought back, and continued to be a political body under their own laws, till a breach was made upon that by the Romans 'firft reducing them to the form of a province, and foon after that deftroying them utterly : fo that either that prediaion was not accomplifhed, or the Shiloh, the Sent, to whom the Gentfles were to be gathered, came before they loft their fceptre and laws. Deal, xviii. Mofes told the people of Ifrael, that God was to raife up IS- among them a Prophet like unto him, to whom they ought to hearken, otherwife God would require it of them. The charaaer of Mofes was, that he was a lawgiver, and the author of an intire body of inftituted religion, fo they were to look for fuch a one. Balaam prophefied darkly of one whom THE XXXIX ARTICIES. '^S «?hom he faw as at a great diftance from his own time ; ART. and he fpoke of a Star that fhould come out of Jacob, and a ^^^•. Sceptre out of Ifrael: fome memorial of which was proba- !f~^^^ bly preferved among the Arabians. In the book of Pfalms "'"" * there are many things faid of David, which feem capable of a much auguftcr fenfe than can be pretended to be anfwered by any thing that befel himfelf. What is faid in the 2d, the i6th, the 22d, the 45th, the i02d, and the iioth Pfalms, afford us copious inftances of thefe. Paflages in thefe Pfalms muft be ftretched by figures that go very high, to think they were all fulfilled in David or Solomon : but in their literal and largeft fenfe they were accomplifhed in Chrift, to whom God faid. Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. In him that was verified, Thou wilt not leave my foul in hell, neither wilt thou fuffer thy Holy One io fee corruption. His hands and his feet were pierced, and lets were eafi upon his vefiure. Of him it may be ftriaiy faid. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. To him that belonged. The Lord faid unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footfiool. And, The Lord fware and will not repent. Thou art a priefi for ever after the order of Melchifedeck, The Prophets gave yet more exprefs prediaions concerning the Meffias. Ifaiah did quiet the fears of Ahaz, and of the houfe of David, by faying. The Lord himfelf fhall give you a Ifa. viii, 14; ftgn. Behold, a Virgin fhall conceive and bear a fon. It was certainly no fign for one that was a Virgin, to conceive after wards and bear a fon ; therefore fhe fign or extraordinary thing here promifed as a fignal pledge of God's care of the houfe of David, muft lie in this, that one ftfll remaining a Virgin, fhould conceive and bear a fon ; not to infift upon the ftria fignifica tion of the word in the original. The fame Prophet did alfo foretel, that as this Meffias, or the Branch, fhould fpring lfa.xi.i,ii from the ftem of Jeffe, fo alfo he was to be full of the Spirit of the Lord ; and that the Gentiles fhould feek to him. In Ver. 10. another place he enumerates many of the miracles that fhould be done by him : he was to give fight to the blind, make the Ifa. xxxv, ;, deaf to hear, the lame to walk. He does further fet forth his ^• charaaer ; not that of a warrior or conqueror ; on the con trary. He was not to cry nor firive, nor break the bruifed reed, ifa. xiii, i. or quench the fmoking fax ; he was to bring forth judgment to the Gentiles, and the ifies were to wait for his law. There ver. 8. is a whole chapter in the fame Prophet, fetting forth the mean appearance that the Meffias was to make, the contempt Ka. liiU he was to fiaU under, and the fufferings he was to bear ; and that for the fins of others, which were to be laid on him ; fo that bis foul or life was to be made an offering for fin, in reward of which he was to be highly exalted. In another Ifa. 1x5, place his miffion is fet forth, not in the ftrains of war, or of I 2 conqueft, Ii6 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. conqueft, but of preaching to the poor, fetting the prifonerS' VII. free as in a year of jubilee, and comforting the affliaed and '•^'V^ fuch as mourned. In the two laft chapters of that Prophet mention is made more particularly of the Gentiles that were to be called by him, and the ifles that were afar off, out of whom God was to take fome for Priefis and Levites : which fhewed plainly, that a new difpenfation was to be opened by him, in which the Gentiles were to be Priefis and Levites, which could not be done while the Mofaical Law ftood, that had tied- thefe funaions to the tribe of Levi, and to the houfe of Aaron. Jeremy renewed the promife to the houfe of David, Jer. xxiii. 5- pf a King that fhould reign and profper ; in whofe days Judah and Ifrael were to dwell fafely, whofe name was to he, Tht Lord our Righteoufnefs. It is certain this promife was never hterally atcomplifhed ; and therefore recourfe muft be had to a Jer. xxxi, myftlcal fenfe. The fkme Prophet gives a large account of a 3'' new covenant that God was to make with the houfe of Ifrael, not according to the covenant that he made with their Fathers, when he brought them out of Egypt, We have alfo two cha raaers given of that covenant : one is, that God would put his laiu in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts j that he would be their God, and that they fhould all be taught of him : the other is, that he would forgive their iniquities, and remember their fin no more. One of thefe is in oppofition to their Law, that confifted chiefly in rituals, and had no pro mifes of inward affiftances } and the other is in oppofition to the limited pardon that was offered in that difpenfation, on the condition of the many facrifices that they were required to offer. Ezek.xxxvi. There Is a prediaion to the fame purpofe in Ezekiel. Joel pro- ^5- .. pheficd of an extraordinary effufion of the Spirit of God on Joe 11.2 . great numbers of perfons, old and young, that was to happen before the great and terrible day of the Lord, that is, before Micahv.i. the final deftruaion of Jerufalem. Micah, after he had fore told feveral things of the difpenfation of the Meffiah, fays that Hag. ii. 6, he was to come out of Bethlehem Ephratah. Haggai encouraged ?> ^> 9- thofe who were troubled at the meannefs of the Temple which they had raifed after their return out of the captivity. It had neither the outward glory In its fabrick that Solomon's Temple had, nor the more real glory of the Ark, with the Tables of ihe Law ; of fire from heaven on the altar ; of a fucceffion of prophets ; of the IJrim and Tbummim, and the- cloud between the cherublms; which laft, ftriaiy fpeaking, was the glory; ajl which had been In Solomon's I'emple, but were wanting in that. In oppofition to this, the Prophet in the name of God promifed, that he would in a little while fhake the heavens and the earth, and fhake aU nations ; words that import fome furprifing and . great change ; upon which the defire. of THE XXXIX ARTICLES. *^7 %f all nations fiyould come, and God would fill ihe houfe with ART. his glory ; and the glory of this latter houfe fhould exceed the ^''• glory of the former, for in that place God would give peace, ^-^"^t"^ Here is a plain prophecy, that this Temple was to have a glory, not only equal but fuperior to the glory of Solomon's Temple : thefe words are too auguft to be believed to have been accomplifhed, when Herod rebuilt the Temple with much magnificence ; for that was nothing in comparifon of the real glory, of the fymbols of the prefence of God, that were want ing in it. This carmot anfwer the words, that the defire of all nations was to come, and that God would give peace in that place, ^o that either this prophecy was never fulfilled, or fomewhat muft be affigned during the fecond Temple, that will anfwer thofe folemn expreffions, which are plainly applicable to our Saviour, who was the expeaation of the Gentiles, by whom peace was made, and in whom the eternal Word dwelt in a manner infinitely more auguft than in the cloud of glory. Zechary prophefied, that their King, by which they under- Zech. ix. 9. ftood the Meffias, was to be meek and lowly, and that he was to make his entrance In a very mean appearance, riding on an afs ; but yet under that, he was to bring falvation io them, and they were to rejoice greatly in him. Malachi told them, that Mal. iii. », ihe Lord whom they fought, even the meffenger of the covenant in whom they delighted, fhould fuddenly come into his Temple ; and that the day of his coming was to be dreadful ; that he was to refine and purify, in particular, the Sons of Levi; and a terrible deftruaion is denounced after that. One charaaer of his coming was, that Elijah ihe prophet was to come before Mal. iv. j. that great and dreadful day, who fhould convert many, 6ld and young. Now it is certain that no other perfon came, during the fecond Temple, to whom thefe words can be ap plied ; fo that they were not accomplifhed, unlefs it was in the perfon of our Saviour, to whom all thefe charaaers do well agree. But to conclude with that prophecy which of all others is the moft particular : when Daniel at the end of feventy Dan. ix. 24, years captivity was interceding for that nation, an angel was 251 26, 17. fent to him to tell him, that they were to have a new period of feventy weeks, that is, feven times feventy years, 490 years ; and that after fixty-two vi ^eks, Mefftah the Prince was to come, and to be cut off; and that then the people of a prince fhould defiroy the city and the fanBuary ; and the end of thefe was to be as with a flood or inundation, and defolations were determined to the end of the war. They were to be deftroyed by abominable armies, that is, by idolatrous armies : they were to be made defolate, till an utter end or confummation fliould be made of them. The pomp with which this deftruc- I 3 tion Xl8 AN EXPOSITION OP ART. tion is fet forth, plainly fhews, that the final ruin of the VII. Jews by the Roman armies is meant by it. From which it is V.^"V^ juftly inferred, not only that if that vifion was really fent from God by an angel to Daniel, and in confequence to that was fulfifled, then the Meffiah did come, and was cut off during the continuance of Jerufalem and the Temple ; but that ithap- pened within a period of time defigned in that vifion. Time was then computed more certainly than it had been for many ages before. Two great meafures were fixed ; one at Baby lon by Nabonaffer, and another in Greece in the Olympiads. Here a prediaion is given almoft five hundred years before the accompliflimeiit, with many very nice reckonings in it. I will not now enter upon the chronology of this matter, on which fome great men have beftowed their labours very happily. Archblfligp Uflier has ftated this matter fo, that the interval of time is cleariy four hundred eighty-fix years. The covenant was to be confirmed with many for one week, in the midft of which God was to caufe the facrifice and oblation for fin to ceafe ; which feems to be a myftical way of de- fcribing the death of Chrift, that was to put an end to the virtue of the Judaical facrifices ; fo fixty-nine weeks and a half make juft four hundred eighty-fix years and a half. But without going further into this calculation, it is evident, that during the fecond Temple, the Meffias was to come, and to be cut off, and that foon after that a prince was to fend an army to deftroy both city and fanauary. The Jews do not fo much as pretend that during that Temple the Meffias thus fet forth did come, or was cut off; fo either the prediaion failed in the event, or the Meffias did come within that period. And thus a thread of the prophecies of the Meffias being carried down through the whole Old Teftament, it feems to be fully made out, that he was to be of the feed of Abraham, and of the pofterity of David: that the tribe of Judah was to be a difiina policy, till he fhould come : that he fliould work many miracles : that he was to be meek and lowly : that his funaion was to confift in preaching to the affliaed, and in comforting them : that he was to call the Gentiles, and even the remote iflands, to the knowledge of God : that he was to be born of a virgin, and at Bethlehem : that he was to be a new lawgiver, as Mofes had been : that he was to fettle his followers upon a new covenant, different from that made by Mofes : that he was to come during the fecond Temple : that he was to make a mean, but a joyful entrance to Jerufalem : that he was to be cut off : that the iniquities of us all were to be laid on him ; and that his life was to be made an offer ing for fin i but that God was to give him a glorious reward for THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 1^9 for thefe his fufferings; and that his doarine was to be internal* art. accompanied with a free offer of pardon, and of inward af" Vll. fiftances ; and that after his death the Jews were to fall unde'" ^-O/"*^ a terrible curfe, and an utter extirpation. When this is al^ fummed up together ; when it appears, that there was never any other perfon to whom thofe charaaers did agree, but that they did all meet in our Saviour, we fee what light the Old Teftament has given us In this matter. Here a nation that hates us and our religion, who are fcattered up and down the world, who have been for many ages without their tem ple, and without their facrifices, without priefts, and without their genealogies, who yet hold thefe books among them in a due veneration, which furnifh us with fo full a proof, that the Meffiah whom they ftill look for, is the Lord Jefus whom we worfhip. We do now proceed to other matters. The Jews pretend, that it is a great argument againft the authority of the New Teftament, becaufe it acknowledges the Old to be from God, and yet repeals the far greater part of the laws enaaed In it ; though thofe laws are often faid to be laws for ever, and throughout all generations. Now they feem to argue with fome advantage, who fay, that what God does declare to be a law that fliall be perpetual by any one Pro phet, cannot be abrogated or reverfed by another, fince that otheir can have no more authority than the former Prophet had : and if both are of God, it feems the one cannot make void that which was formerly declared by 'the other in the name of God. But it is to be confidered, that by the phrafes of a Jiatute for ever, or throughout all generations, can only be meant, that fuch laws were not tranfient laws, fuch as i^were only to be obferved whilft they marched through the wilder nefs, or upon particular occafions ; whereas fuch laws which were conftantly and generally to be obferved, were to them perpetual. But that does not import that the Lawgiver him felf had parted with all the authority that naturally belongs to him, over his own laws. It only fays, that the people had no power over fuch laws to repeal or change them : they were to bind them always, but that puts no limitation on the Lawgiver himfelf, fb that he might not alter his own conftl tutions. Pofitive precepts, which have no real value in them felves, are of their own nature alterable : and as in human laws the words of enaaing a law for all future times do only make that to be a perpetual law for the fubjeas, but do not at afl limit the legiflative power, which is as much at liberty to abrogate or alter it, as if no fuch words had been in the law j there are alfo many hints in the Old Teftament, which fhew that the precepts of the Mofaical law were to be altered : ma ny plain intimations are given of a time and ftate, in which I 4 the 120 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. the knowledge of God was to be fpread over all the earth: ^"- and that God was every where to be worfhipped. Now this '^'V''^ vvas impoffible to be done without a change in their law and rituals : it being impoffible that all the world fhould go up thrice a year to worfhip at Jerufalemj or could be ferved by priefts of the Aaronlcal family. Circumcifion was a dif tinaion of one particular race which needed not to be conti nued after all were brought under one denomination, and with in the fame common privileges. Thefe things hitherto mentioned belong naturafly to this part of the Article : yet in the intention of thofe who framed it, thefe words relate to an extravagant fort of enthufiafts that lived in thofe days ; who abufing fome ifl-underftood phrafes concerning Juftification by Chrift without the works of the Law, came to fet up very wild notions, which were bad in themfelves, but much more pernicious in their confequences. They therefore fancied that a Chriftian was tied by no law, as a rule or yoke ; all thefe being taken away by Chrift : they faid Indeed, that a Chriftian by his renovation became a law to himfelf; he obeyed not any written rule or law, but a new inward nature : and thus as it is faid that Sadocus miftook his mafter Antlgonus, who taught his difciples to ferve God, not for the hope of a reward, but without any expec tations, as if he by that affeaation of fublimlty had denied that there was any reward, and from thence fprung the fea of the Sadducees : fo thefe men, perhaps at firft miftaking the meaning of the New Teftament, went wrong only in their notions ; and ftill meant to prefs the neceffity of true holinefs, though in another fet of phrafes, and upon other motives; yet from thence many wild and ungoverned notions arofe then, and were not long ago revived among us : all which flowed from their not un derftanding the Importance of the word Law in the New Tef tament, in which It ftands moft commonly for the complex of the whole Jewlfli religion, in oppofidon to the Chriftian ; as the word Law, when it llands for a book, is meant of the five Books of Mofes. The maintaining the whole frame of that difpenfation, in oppofition to that liberty which the Apoftles granted to the Gentfles, as to the ritual parts of it, was the controverfy then in debate between the Apoftles and the Judaizing Chriftians. The ftating that matter aright Is a key that will open afl thofe difficulties, which with It will appear eafy, and without it infuperable. In oppofition to thefe, who' thought then that the Old Teftament, having brought the world on to the know^ ledge of the Meffias, was now of no more ufe, this Article was framed, Tbe THE XXXIX ARTICLES. I2« The fecond part of the Article relates to a more intricate ART. matter ; and that is, whether in the Old Teftament there were ^"• any promifes made, other than tranfitory or temporal ones, '-^'^O*' and whether they might look for eternal falvation in that dif penfation, and upon what account ? Whether Chrift was the Me diator in that difpenfation, or if they were faved by virtue of their obedience to the laws that were then given them. Thofe who deny that Chrift was truly God, think that in order to the raifing him to thofe great charaaers in which he is propofed in the New Teftament, it is neceffary to affert that he gave the firft affurances of eternal happinefs, and of a free and full pardon of afl fins, in his Gofpel : and that in the Old Tefta ment neither the one nor the other were certainly and diftina iy underftood. It is true, that if we take the words of the covenant that Mofes made between God and the people of Ifrael ftrl£tly and as they ftand, they import only temporal bleffings : that was a covenant with a body of men and with their pofterity, as they were a people engaged to the obedience of that law. Now a national covenant could only be eftablifhed in temporal pro mifes of public and vifible bleffings, and of a long continuance of them upon their obedience, and in threatnings of as fignal judgments upon the violation of them : but under thofe gene ral promifes of what was to happen to them colkaively, as they made up one nation, every fingle perfon among them might, and the good men among them did, gather the hopes of a fu ture ftate. It Is clear that Mofes did all along fuppofe the being of God, the creation of the world, and tlie promife of the Meffias, as things fully known and carried dow.i by tradition to his days : fo it feems he did alfo fuppofe the knowledge of a future ftate, which was then generally believed by the Gen tfles as well as the Jews ; though they had onl/ dark and con- fufed notions about it. But when God was el a'jllfliing a co venant with the Jewifh nation, a main part cf which was his giving them the land of Canaan for an inheritance, It was not ' neceflary that eternal rewards or punlfhmen s fliould be then propofed to them : but from the tenor of the promifes made to their forefathers, and from the general principles of natural religion, not yet quite extingulfhed among them, they might father this, that under thofe carnal promlfs, bleffings of a igher nature were to be underftood. And fo we fee that Da vid had the hope of arriving at the prefence of God, and at his right hand, where he believed there was a fulnefs of joy, and pleafures for evermore : and he puts himfelf in this oppofition Pf. xvi. n. to the wicked, that whereas their portion was in this life, and ^ '• ¦""'• *4» they left their fubfiance to their children ; he fays, that as for '' ' him, he fliould behold God's face in righteoufnefs, and fhould be 122 AN EXPOSITION O'F ART. he fatisfied when he awaked with his likenefs ; which feems ^"' plainly to relate to a ftate after this life, and to the refurrec- ^•^"^^^^ tion. He carries this oppofition further in another Pfalm, where after he had faid, that men in honour did not continue, but were TCxax. n, like the beafis that perifhed: that none of them could purchafe •5' immortality for his brother, that he fhould fiill live for ever and not fee corruption : they all died and left their wealth io others, and Uke fheep they were laid in the grave, where death fhould feed on them : in oppofition to which he fays, that the upright fhould have dominion over them in the morning : which is clearly a poetical expreffion for another day that comes after the night of death. As for himfelf in particular, he fays, that GodJhaU redeem my foul (that is, his life, or his body, for in thofe fenfes the word foul is ufed in the Old Teftament) from the power of the grave : that is, from continuing in that ftate of death ; for he fhall receive me. This does very clearly fet forth David's belief, both of future happinefs, and of the re- Pf. l«x!v. furreaion of his body. To which might be added fome other ''• .. , paffages in the Pfalms, Ecclefiaftes, Ifaiah, and Daniel : in all ,"*^.' ' which it appears, that the holy men in that difpenfation did «cvi. 13. underftand, that under thofe promifes in the Books of Mofes Eccl. XI. 9. jjjjj feemed literally to belong to the land of Canaan, and other Ifa. IXT. 8. temporal bleffings, there was a fpiritual meaning hid, which it »xTi. 19. feems was conveyed down by that fucceffion of Prophets, that Dan. xii. ». yj^g among them, as the myllical fenfe of them. It is to this that our Saviour feems to appeal, when the Sad ducees came to puzzle him with that queftion of the feven bre- Matt. xxii. thren, who had all married one wife : he firft tells them, they »9» erred, not knowing the Scriptures; which plainly imports, that the doarine which they denied, was contained in the Scriptures : and then he goes to prove it, not from thofe more exprefs paf fages that are in the Prophets and holy writers, which as fome think the Sadducees rejeaed ; but from the Law, which being the fource of their religion, it might feem a juft prejudice againft any doarine, efpecially If it was of great confequence, that it was not contained in the Law. Therefore he cites thefe words that are fo often repeated, and that were fo much con fidered by the Jews, as containing in them the foundation of God's love to them ; that God faid upon many occafions, par- Ver. 31,3s. ticulariy at his firft appearance to Mofes, / am the God of Abra ham, the God of Ifaac, and the Gad of Jacob, Which words imported, not only that God had been their God, but ftifl was their God : now when God is faid to be a God to any, by that Exod. iii. 6. is meant, that he is their benefaaor, or exceeding rich reward, as was promifed to Abraham. And that therefore Abraharn, Ifaac, and Jacob ^lived unto God, that is, were not dead ; but were dien in a happy ftate of life, in which God did reward them, TftE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^^1 Aem, and fo was their God. ^ Whether this argument refts art. here, our Saviour defigning only to prove againft the main error ^^^' of the Sadducees, that we have fouls diftina from our bodies, ^¦^''^r^/ that fhall outlive their feparation from them ; or if it goes -fur ther to prove the rifing of the body itfelf, I fhall not determine. On the one hand our Saviour feems to apply himfelf particularly to prove the refurreaion of the body; fo we muft fee how to find here an argument for that, to anfwer the fcope of the whole difcourfe : yet on the other hand it may be 'faid, that he having proved the main point of the foul's fubfifting after death, which is the foundation of all religion ; the other point, which was chiefly denied, becaufe that was thought falfe, would be more eafily both acknowledged and believed. As for the refurreaion of the body, all that can be brought from hence as an argument to prove it, is, that fince God was the God of Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, and by confe quence their benefaaor and rewarder, and yet they were pil grims on this earth, and fuffered many toflings and troubles, that therefore they muft be rewarded in another ftate ; or be caufe God promifed that to them he would give the land of Canaan, as well as to their feed after them, and fince they never had any portion of it in their own poffeffion, that there fore they fhall rife again, and with the other faints reign on earth, and have that promife fulfilled in themfelves. From all this the affertion of the Article is as to one main point made good, that the old fathers looked for more than tranfitory promifes : it is alfo clear, that they looked for a fur ther pardon of fin, than that which their law held forth to them in the expiation made by facrifices. Sins of ignorance, or fins of a lower fort, were thofe only for which Sin or Trefpafs- Offerings were appointed. The fins of a higher order were punifhed by death, by the hand of heaven, or by cutting off; Heb. i, »S.' fo that fuch as finned in that kind were to die without mercy : yet when David had fallen into the moft heinous of thofe fins, pfai. li. i, he prays to God for a pardon, according to God's loving- »> '^j '7. kindnefs, and the multitude of his tender mercies : for he knew that they were beyond the expiation by facrifice. The Prophets do often call the Jews to repent of their idolatry and other crying fins, fuch as oppreffion, injuftice, and murder; with the promife of the pardon of them ; even though they were of the deepeft dye, as crimfon and fcarlet. Since then Ifa. i, i8. for leffer fins an expiation was appointed by facrifice, befides their confeffing and repentlngof it ; and fince it feems, by St. Paul's way of arguing, that they held it for a maxim, that without fhedding of blood there was no remiffion of fins ; this 'might naturally lead them to think that there was fome other confideration that was interpofed in order to the pardoning of thofe »*4- AN EXPOSITION OF thofe more heinous fins ; for a greater degree of guilt feem; hv a natural proportion to demand a higher degree of facrifice and 'expiation. But after all, whatfoever ifaiah, Daniel, or any other Prophet might have underftood or meant by thf.fe facrifi- catory phrafes that they ufe in fpeaking of the Meffiah, yet it cannot be faid from the Old Teftament, that in tijt dlfptnfa- tion it was clearly revealed that the Meffias was to die, and 'a become a facrifice for fin: the Meffias w^t indeed pro/. lifed under general terms; but there was not then a full and ex plicit revelation of his beihg to die for the redeiiiption of mankind ; yet fince the moft heinous fins were then pardoned, though not by virtue of the facrifices of that covenant, nor by the other means prefcribcd in it, we have good realon to af&i;m, that, according to this Article, life was offered to mankind in the old difpenfation by Chrift, who was with relation to ob taining the favour of God, and everlafting life, the Mediator of that as well as of the new difpenfation. In the New Tefta ment he Is fet In oppofition to the old Adam, that as in the one ell diedyj'o in the other all were made alive : nor Is it any way incongruous to fay, that the merit of his death fhould by an an ticipation have faved thofe who died before he was born: for that being In the view of God as certain, before, as after it was done, it might be in the divine intention the facrifice for the old, as well as it is exprefsly declared to be the facrifice for the new difpenfation. And this being fo, God might have pardoned fins in confideration of it, even to thofe who had no diftina apprehenfions concerning It. for as God applies the death of Chrift, by the fecret methods of his grace, to many perfons whofe circumftances do render them Incapable of the exprefs aas of laying hold on It, the want of thofe (for Inftance, in infants and Ideots) being fupplied by the goodnefs of God: fo though the revelation that was made,of the Meffias to the fa thers under the old difpenfation, was only in general and pro phetical terms, of which they could not have a clear and dif tina knowledge ; yet his death might be applied to them, and their fins pardoned through him, upon their performing fuch aas as were proportioned to that difpenfation, and to the re velation that was then made : and fo they were reconciled to God even after fins, for which no facrifices were appointed by their difpenfation, upon their repentance and obedience to the. foederal aas and conditions then required, which fupplied the want of more exprefs a6ts with relation to the death of Chrift, not then diftinaiy revealed to them. But though the old fathers Jiad a conveyance of the hope^ of eternal life made to them, with a refiirreaion of their bodies, and a confidence in tiie mercy of God, for pardoning the moft heinous fins ; s Pet. i. 19. yet it cannot be denied, but that it was as a light thatfhined in a dark THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^25; ''dark place, tiU theDay-fiar did arife, and that ChnMroUght ART. ife and immortality to light by his Gofpel ; giving us fuller and ^''• Jearer difcoveries of it, both with relation to our fouls and '-'"V^i' bodies ; and that by him alfo God has declared his righteoufnefs Ron1.iii.24, for the remiffion of fins, through the forbearance of God, through *S- the redemption that is in Chrifi Jejus, and through faith in his Hood. The third branch of this Article wfll not need much expla nation, as It will bear no difpute, except with Jews, who do not acknowledge the Nev/ Teftament. The ceremonial parts of the Mofaical Law, which comprehends all both the negative and the pofitive precepts, were enjoined the Jews either with relation to the worfhip of God and fervice at the Temple, or to their perfons and courfe of life. That which is not moral of its own nature, or that had no relation to civil fociety, was commanded them, to feparate them not only from the idolatrous and magical praaices of other nations, but to diftinguifli them fo entirely as to all their cuftoms, even In the rules of eating and of cleannefs, that they might have no familiar commerce with other nations, but live within and among themfelves ; fince that was very likely to corrupt them, of which they had very large experience. Some of thofe rituals were perhaps given them as punifhments for their frequent revolts, and were as a yoke upon them, who were fo prone to idolatry. They were as rudiments and re membrances to them : they were as it were fubdued by a great variety of precepts, which were matter both of much charge and great trouble to them : by thefe they were alfo amufed ; for it feems they did naturally love a pompous exteriour in religion; they were alfo, by all that train of "performances which were laid on them, kept in mind both of the great blef fings of God to them, and of the obligations that lay on them towards God ; and many of thofe, particularly their facrifices and wafhings, were ty,:ical. All this was proper and neceffary to reftrain and govern them, while they were the only people in the world that renounced idolatry, and worfhipped the true God : and therefore fo foon as that of which they had an em blem in the ftruaure of their Temple (of a court of the Gen- tltes feparated with a middle wall of partition, from the place in which the Ifraelites worfhipped) was tobe removed, and that the houfe of God was to become a houfe of prayer to all na tions, then afl thofe diftinaions were to be laid afide, and all that fervice was to determine and come to an end. The Apoftles did declare that the Gentiles were not to be brought under that heavy yoke, which their fathers were not able to bear; yet the Apoftles themfelves, as born Jews, and while they lived among the Jews, did continue in the obfervance of |26 AN EXPOSITION OP of their rites, as long as God feemed to be waiting for thft remnant of that nation that was to be faved, before his wrath came upon the reft to the uttermoft. They went to the Temple, they purified themfelves ; and in a word, to the Jewt they became Jews ; and in this compliance, the firft converts of the Jewifh nation continued tiU the deftruaion of Jerula- lem ; after which, it became impoffible to obferve the greateflr part of their moft important rituals, even all thofe that were tied to the Temple. But that nation lofing it's genealogies, and all the other charaaers that they formerly had of a na tion under the favour and proteaion of God, could no more know after a few ages, whether they were the feed of Abra ham or not, or whether there were any left among them cf the tribe of Levi, or of the family of Aaron. So that now all thofe ceremonies are at an end ; many of them are become impoffible, and the reft ufelefs ; as the whole was abrogated by the authority of the Apoftles, who being fent of God, ' and proving their miffion by miracles, as well as Mofes had done his, they might well have loofed and diflblved thofe precepts upon earth, upon which, according to our Saviour's words, they are to be efteemed as loofed in heaven. The judiciary parts of the Law were thofe that related to them as they were a fociety of men, to whom God by a fpe cial command gave authority to drive out and deftroy a wicked race of people, and to poffefs their land; which God ap pointed to be divided equally among them, and that every por tion fhould be as a perpetuity to a family ; fo that though it might be mortgaged out for a number of years, yet it was afterwards to revert to the family. Upon this bottom they were at firft fet ; aind they were ftill to be preferved upon it ; fo that many laws were given them as they were a civil fociety, which cannot belong to any other fociety : and there fore their whole judiciary law, except when any parts of it are founded on moral equity, was a complicated thing, and can belong to no other nation, that is not in its firft and effen tial conftjtutlon made and framed as they were. For inftance ; the prohibition of taking ufe for money, being a mean to preferve that equality which was among them, and to keep any of them from becoming exceffively rich, or others from becoming miferably poor, this is by no means to be applied to other conftltutions, where men are left to their induftry, and neither have their inheritance by a grant from heaven, nor are put by any fpecial appointment of God all upon a level. So that it is certain, and can bear no debate, that the Mofai cal difpenfation, as to all the parts of it that are not of their own nature moral, is determined and abrogated by the Gof pel. The decifions which the Apoftles made in this matter are THE XXXIX ARTICLES. '*? are fodear, and for the proof of them, the whole tenor of art. the Epiftles to the Galatians and the Hebrews is fo full, that vll. no doubt can reft concerning this, with any man who reads V^V""^ them.^ The laft branch of this Article that remains to be con- / fidered, is concerning the Moral Law, by which the Ten J Commandments are meant, together with all fuch precepts as do belong to them, or are corollaries arifing out of them. By Moral Law is to be underftood, in oppofition to Pofitive, a law which has an antecedent foundation in the nature of things, that arifes from eternal reafon, is fuitable to the frame and powers of our fouls, and is neceffary for main-, • taining of human fociety. All fuch laws are commanded, becaufe they are in themfelves good, and fuitable to the ftate in which God has put us here. The two fources out of which all the notions of morality flow, are firft the confideration of ourfelves as we are fingle individuals, and that with rela tion both to foul and body ; and next the confideration of human fociety, what is neceflary for the peace and order, the lafety and happinefs of mankind. There are two orders of moral precepts ; fome relate to things that of their own nature are inflexibly good or evil, fuch as truth and falfehood j whereas other things, by a variety of circumftances, may fo change their nature, that they may be either morally good or evil : a merciful or generous temper is- always a gopd moral quality, and yet it may run to exceffes : there may be many things that are not unalterably moral in themfelves, which yet may be fit fubjeas of perpetual laws about tl\^. For in ftance ; in the degrees of kindred with relation to marriage, there are no degrees but direa afcendants or defcendants, that' is, parents and children, that by an eternal reafon can never marry ; for where there is a natural fubordination, there can never be fuch an equality as that ftate of life requires: but collateral degrees, even the neareft, brothers and fifters, are not by any natural law barred marriage, and therefore in a cafe of neceffity they might marry : yet fince their inter marrying muft be attended with vaftincpnveniencies, and would tend to the defilement of afl families, and hinder the conjunaion of mankind by the. intermixture of different fa milies ; it becomes therefore a fit fubjea for a perpetual law, to ftrike a horror at the thought of fuch commixtures, and fo to keep the world pure ; which, confidering the freedoms in which thofe of the fame family do live, could not be pre ferved without fuch a law. It is alfo the intereft of man kind, and neceffary for the careful education of the rifing ge neration, that marriages fhould be for life ; for if it were free for married perfons to feparate at pleafure, the iffue of marriages >i5 AN EXPOSITION OF ^ ART. marriages fo broken would be certainly much neglefled : and V" fince a power to break a marriage would naturally inflame fuch ^''^^''^''¦^ little quarrelllngs as may happen among all perfons that live together, which will on the contrary be certainly repreffed, when they know that the marriage cannot be diffolved, and when, by fuch a diffolution of marriages, the one half of the human fpecies, I mean woman-kind, is expofed to great mi feries, and fubjea to much tyranny, it is a fit fubjea for a perpetual law ; fo that it is moral in a fecondary order. It were eafy to give inftances of this in many more particulars, and to fhew, that a precept may be faid to be moral, when there is a natural fultablenefs in it to advance that which is moral in the firft order, and that it cannot be weU preferved without fuch a fupport. It will appear what occa fion there is for this dlftindtion, when we confider the Ten Commandments ; which are fo many heads of morality, that are inftanced in the higheft aa of a kind ; and to which are to be reduced all fuch aas as by the juft proportions of mo rality belong to that order and feries of aaions. The foundation^ of morality is religion. The fenfe of God, that he is, and that he is both a rewarder and a pu- nifher, is the foundation of religion. Now this muft be fup pofed as antecedent to his laws, for we regard and obey them from the perfuafion that is formed in us concerning the being and the juftice of God : the two firft commandments are againft the two different forts of Idolatry ; which are, the wor fhipping of falfe Gods, or the worfhipping the true God in a corporeal figure : the one is the giving the honour of the true God to an idol, and the other is the depreffing the true God to the refemblance of an idol. Thefe were the two great branches of Idolatry, by which the true ideas of God were corrupted. Religion was by them corrupted in its fource. No body can queftion but that it is immoral to wor fhip a falfe God ; it is a transferring the honour which be longs immediately and fingly to the great God, to a creature, or to fome imaginary thing which never had a real exift ence. This is the robbing God of what is due to him, and the exalting another thing to a degree and rank that cannot be long to It. Nor is it lefs immoral to propofe the great and true God to be worfliipped under appearances that are dero gatory to his nature, that tend to give us low thoughts of him, and that make us think him like, if not below our- ielves. 1 his way of worfliipping him is both unfultable to his natiire, and unbecoming ours ; while we pay our adorations to that which IS the work of an artificer. 1 his is confirmed by thole niany exprefs prohlbirions in Scripture, to which rea sons are added, which fhew that the thing is immoral in its own THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^^g own nature: it being often repeated, that no fimilitude of ART. God was ever feen : and to whom wiU ye Uken me P All things ^^'' in heaven and earth are often called the work of his hands : '""^ ^ which are plain indications of a moral precept, when ar guments are framed from the nature of things to enforce obedience to it. The reafon given In the very command It felf, is taken from the nature of God, who Is jealous ; that is, fo tender of his glory, that he will not fuffer a diminution of It to go unpunlfhed ; and if this precept is clearly founded upon natural juftice, and the proportion that ought to be kept between afl human aas and their objeas, then it muft be perpetual ; and that the rather, becaufe we do plainly fee that the Gofpel is a refining upon the Law of Mofes, and does exalt it to a higher pitch of fublimlty and purity : and by confequence the ideas of God, which are the firft feeds and principles of religion, are to be kept yet more pure and unde filed in it, than they were in a lower difpenfation. The third precept is againfi: falfe Swearing : for the word Ex. xxiii. i. vain is often ufed in the Scripture in that fenfe : and fince ^"- =''^' in all the other Commandments, the fin which is named Is not j^^^ one of the loweft, but of the chief fins that relate to that head ; there is no reafon therefore to think, that vain or idle fwearing, which is a fm of a lower order, fhould be here meant, and not rather falfe fwearing, which is the higheft fin of the kind. The morality of this command Is very apparent ; for fince God is the God of truth, and every oath is an ap peal to him, , therefore it muft be a grofs wickednefs to ap peal to God, or to call him to vouch for our lies. The fourth Commandment cannot be called moral in the firft and higheft fenfe ; for from the nature of things no rea fon can be affigned, why the feventh day, rather than the fixth, or the eighth, or any other day, fhould be feparated from the common bufinefs of life, and applied to the fervice of God. But it is moral that a man fhould pay homage to his Maker, and acknowjedge him in all his works and ways : and fince our fenfes and fenfible objeas are apt to wear bet ter things out of our thoughts, it is neceffary that fome fo lemn times fhould be feti apart for full and copious meditations on thefe fubjeas : this fhould be univerfal, left, if the time were not the fame every where, the bufinefs of fome men niight interfere with the devotions of others. It ought to have fuch an eminent charaaer on It, like a ceffatlon from bufinefs : which may both awaken a curiofity to enquire into the rea fon of that ftop, and alfo may give opportunity for meditations and difcourfes on thofe fubjeSs. It is alfo clear, that fuch days of reft muft not return fo oft, that the neceffary affairs of life fhould be ftopt by them, nor fo feldom that the im- K preffions 13° AN EXPOSITION OF preffions of religion fhould weir out, if they were too feldom awakened : but what is the proper proportion of time, that can beft agree both with men's bodies and minds, is only known to the great Author of nature. Howfoever, from what has been faid, it appears that this is a very fit matter to be fixed by fome facred and perpetual law, and that from the firft creation; becaufe there bt;ing then noothermethodfor conveying down knowledge, befides oral tradition, it feems as highly congruous to that ftate of mankind, as it is agreeable to the words in Genefis, to believe that God fhould then have ap pointed one dr.y in feven for commemorating the creation, and for acknowledging the great Creator of all things. But though it feems very clear, thar here a perpetual law was given the world for the feparating the feventh day; yet it was a mere circumftance, and uoes not at all belong to the ftanding ufe of the law, In what end of the week this day was to be reckoned, whether the firft or the laft: fo that even a lefs authority than the Apofiles, and a lefs occafion than the refurreaion of Chrift, might have ferved to have transferred the day. There being in this no breach made on the good and moral defign of this law, which is all in it that we ought to reckon iacxd and unalterable : the degree of the reft might be alfo more feverely urged under the Mofaical Law, than either before it or after It. Our Saviour having given plain intimations of an abatement of that rigour, by this general rule, that the Sabbath was ?nade for man, and not man for the Sabbath. We v.ho are called to a ftate of freedom, are not under fuel' a ftrianefs as the Jews were. Still the law ftands for feparat ing a feventh day from the common bufinefs of life, and ap ply. ng it to a religious reft, for acknowledging at firft the CrL.itor, and now, by a higher relation, the Redeemer of the wo;ld. Thefe four Commandments make the firft Table, and were generally reckoned ?.s four diftiiicc Commandments, till the Roman Church having a mind to make the fecond dif- appcar, threw it in as an appendix to the firft, and then left it quite out in her catechifms : though it Is plain that thefe Commandments relate to two very different matters, the one being in no fort included in the other. Certainly they are much more different than the coveting the neighbour's wife is from the coveting any of his other concerns : which are Exod. XX. plainly tv/o different ads of the fame fpecies: and the houfe Dcu:. V. ^''^S '^'^ heiore the vjife In Exodus (though it comes after it in 2 1. Deuteronomy, which being a repetition, is to be governed by Exodus, and not Exodus by it) ftands for the whole feb- ftance, which is afterwards branched out in the particulars ; and fo it is dear that there is no colour for dividing this in two: but M, THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^3^ but the firft two Commandments relating to things of fuch a A R T. different fort, as is the worfhipping of more Gods than one, and the worfhipping the true God in an Image, ought ftill to be reckoned as different : and though the reafon given for the jealoufy and juftice of God, may relate equally to both, yet that does not make them otherwife one, than as both might be reduced to one common head of idolatry, fo that both were to be equally punifhed. In the fecond Table this order is to be obferved. There are four branches of a man's property to which every thing that he can call his own may be reduced : his perfon, his wife and children, his goods, and his reputation : fo there isa negative precept given to fecure him In every one of thefe, againft killing, committing adultery, ftealing, and bearing falfe witnefs : to which, as the chief aas of their kind, are to be reduced all thofe aas that may belong to thofe heads : fuch as injuries to a man in his perfon, though not carried on nor defigned to kill him ; every temptation to uncleannefs, and all thofe exceffes that lead to It ; every aa of Inj.uftice; and every lye or defamation. To thefe four are added two fences ; the one exterior, the other interior. The exterior is the fettling the obedience and order that ought to be ob ferved in families, according to the law of nature : and, by a parity of reafon, if families are under a conftitution, where the government Is made as a common parent, the eftablifli ing the obedience to the civil powers, or to fuch orders of men who may be made as parents, wlth-relation to matters of religion: this is the foundation of peace and juftice, of the fecurity and happinefs of mankind. And therefore it was_ very proper to begin the fecond Table, and thofe laws that relate to human fociety, with this ; without which the world would be like a foreft, and mankind, like fo many favages, running wildly through it. - The laft Commandment is an inward fence to ,,the Law : it checks defires, and reftrains the thoughts. If free fcope fhould be given to thefe, as they would very often carry men to unlawful aaions, for a man is very apt to do that which he defires, fo they mull give great difturbance to thofe that are haunted or overcome by them. And therefore as a mean both to fecure the quiet of men's minds, and to preferve the worid from the ifl effeas which fuch defires might naturally have, this fpecial law Is given ; Thou fhalt not covet. It will not be eafy to prove It moral In the ftriaeft fenfe, yet in a fecondary order It may be wefl called moral : the matter of it being fuch both with relation to ourfelves and others, that it is a very proper fubjea for a perpetual law to be made about it. And yet, as St. Paul fays, he had not known it tobe a fin, if Rom', vii. 7. K 2 it ^32 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. it had not been for the law that forbids it ; for after all ^^'- that can be faid, it wifl not be eafy to prove it to be of its ^•^'^^^"^ own nature moral. Thus, by the help of that diftinaion, of what is moral in a primary and in a fecondary order, the morality of the Ten Commandments is demonftrated. That this law obliges Chriftians as well as Jews, Is evi dent from the whole fcope of the New Teftament. Inftead of derogating from the obligation of any part of that law, Mat. V. 17, our Saviour after he had affirmed, that he came not to diffolve ' • the Law, but to fulfil it, and that heaven and earth might pafs aivay, but that one tittle of the Law fhould not pafs away ; he went through a great many of thofe laws, and fhewed how far he extended the commentary he put upon thern, and the obligations that he laid upon his Difciples, be yond what was done by the Jewifh Rabbles : all the reft of his Gofpel, and the writings of his Apoftles agree with this, in which there is not a tittle that looks like a flackening of it, but a great deal to the contrary : a ftrianefs that reaches to idle words, to paffionate thoughts, and to all impure defires, being enjoined as indifpenfably neceffary ; for without holinefs no man can fee the Lord. And thus every thing relating to this Article is confidered, and I hope both explained and proved. ARTICLE THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 133 ARTICLE VIIL ^vnu' K^^T"^ Of the Three Creeds. "Cfie ^gtte CltCti^, Nice Cltet!, Athanafius Cvwtl, an& t&at VolntS 10 commonlp callcD tge Apoftles C?eei), ougSt tljvaugfslp to be itccibeli anfi fadieiieSi ; foe tgcp map be probcD bp moil certam Stnptiu'E. ALTHOUGH no doubt feems to be here made, of the names or defignations given to thofe Creeds, except of that v.'hich is afcribed to the Apoftles, yet none of them are named with any exaanefs : fince the article of the Proceffion of the Holy Ghoft, and all that follows It, Is not in the Nicene Creed, in Ancho- but was ufed in the Church as a part of it ; for fo It is in Epi- r^to. phanius, before the fecond General Council at Conftantinople; and it vras confirmed and eftablifhed in that Council : only the article of the Holy Ghoft's proceeding from the Son, was af terwards added firft in Spain, anno 447, which fpread itfelf over all the Weft : fo that the Creed here called the Nice Creed, is indeed the CortftantinopoHtan Creed, together with the addition of fiUoque made by the Weftern Church. That which Is cafled Athanafius's Creed Is not his neither ; for as it Is not among his works, fo that great article of the Chriftian religion having been fettled at Nice, and he and all the reft of the orthodox referring themfelves always to the Creed made by that Council, there is no reafon to imagine that he would have made aCreed of his own ; befides, that not only the Macedonian, but both the Neftorian and the Eutychian herefies are exprefsly condemned by this Creed ; and yet thofe authorities never being urged in thofe difputes, it is clear from thence, that no fuch Creed was then knov/n in the world ; as indeed it was never heard of before the eighth century ; and then it was given out as the Creed of Athanafius, or as a reprefentation of his doarine, and fo it grew to be re ceived by the Weftern Church ; perhaps the more early, becaufe it went under fo great a name, in ages that were not cridcal enough to judge of what was genuine, and what was fpurious. There is one great difficulty that arifes out of feveral ex preffions in this Creed, In which it is faid, that whofoever will be faved, 7nufi beUeve it ; that the belief of it is neceffary to falvation ; and that fuch as do not hold it pure and undefiled, fliall without doubt perijh everlafiingly : where many expla nations of a myftery hard to be underftood, are made Indif penfably neceflary to falvation; and it is affirmed, that all K 3 fuch *34 AN EXPOSITION OF fuch as do not fo believe, muft perlfli everlaftingly. To this two anfwers are made : I. That it is only the Chriftian faith in general that Is hereby meant, and not every period and article of this Creed ; fo that all thofe fevere expreffions are th:)ught to im.port only the neceffity of believing the Chriftian religion: but this feems forced; for the words that follow, and the CfithoUck faith is, do fo plainly determine the fignifi cation of that word to the explanation that comes after, that the word CntboUck faith, in the firft verfe, can be no other than the fame word, as It Is defined in the third and foflowing verfes ; fo that this anfwer feems not natural. 2. The com mon anfwer in which the moft eminent men of this Church, as far as the memory of all fuch as I have known, could go up, have agreed, Is this, that thefe condemnatory expref fions are only to be underftood to relate to thofe who having the means of inftruaion offered to them, have rejeaed them, and have ftifled their own convi£fions, holding the truth in unrighteoufnefs, and choofing darknefs rather than light : up on fuch as do thus rejea this great article of the Chrif tian doarine, concerning one God and Three Perfons, Fa ther, Son, and Holy Ghoft, and that other concerning the Incarnation of Chrift, by which God and man was fo united as to make one perfon, together with the other doc trines that follow thefe, are thofe anathemas denounced : not fo as if it were hereby meant, that every man who does not believe this In every tittle muft certainly perifh, unlefs he has been furnifhed with fufficient means of conviaion, and that he has rejeaed them, and hardened himfelf againft them. The wrath of God is revealed againfi all fin, and tbe wages of fin is death : fo that every finner has the wrath of God abiding on him, and is in a ftate of damnation : yet a fincere repentance delivers him out of it, even though he lives and dies in lome fins of ignorance ; which though they may make him liable to damnation, fo that nothing but true repentance can deliver him from it ; yet a general repentance, when it Is alfo fpecial for all known fins, does certainly deliver a man fro.Ti the guilt of unknown fins, and from the wrath of God due to them. God only knows our hearts, the degrees of our knowledge, and the meafure of our obftlnacy, and how far our ignorance is affedted or invincible ; and therefore he wifl deal with every man according to what he has received. So that we may believe that fome doarines are neceffary to fal vation, as well as that there are ibme commandments neceffary for praaice ; and we may alfo believe that fome errors as well as fome fins are excluhve of falvation; afl which imports no more than that we believe fuch things are fufficiently re vealed, and that they are neceffary conditions of falvation ; but THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^35 but by this we do not limit the mercies of God towards thofe who are under fuch darknefs as not to be able to fee through It, and to difcern and acknowledge thefe'truths. it were indeed to be wifhed, that fome exprefs declaration to this purpofe were made by thofe who have authority to do it : but in the mean while this being the fenfe in v/hich the words of this Creed are univerfally taken, and It agreeing with the phra feology of the Scripture upon the like occafions, this is that which may be refted upon. And allowing this large expla nation of thefe fevere words, the reft of this Creed imports no more than the belief of the doarine of the Trinity, which has been already proved, in treating of thefciormer Articles. As for the Creed cafled the Apoftles Creed, there is good reafon for fpeaking fo doubtfully of it as the Article does, lince it does not appear that any determinate Creed was made by them: none of the firft writers agree in delivering their faith in a certain form of words ; every one of them gives an ab- ftraa of his faith, in words that differ both from one ano- the>r, 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 Coun cil of Nice, of fuch a Creed compofed by the Apoftles, the Arians had certainly put the chief ftrength of their caufe on this, that they adhered to the Apoftles Creed, in oppofition to the innovations of the Nicene Fathers : there is therefore no reafon to believe that this Creed was prepared by the Apo ftles, or that it was of any great antiquity, lince Ruffin was the firft that publifhed it : it is true, he publifhed it as thi Creed of the Church of Aqufleia ; but that was fo late, that neither this nor the other Creeds have any authority upon their own account. Great refpea Is indeed due to things of fuch an tiquity, and that have been fo long In the Church ; but after all, we receive thofe Creeds, not for their own fakes, nor for the fake of thofe who prepared them, but for the fake of the doc trine that is contained in them ; becaufe we believe that the doarine which they declare is contained in the Scriptures, and chiefly that which is the main intent of them, which is to af fert and profefs the Trinity, therefore we do receive them ; though we muft acknowledge that the Creed afcribed to Athana fius, as It was none of his, fo it was never eftablifhed by any General Council. K4 ARTICLE 13"^ AN EXPOSITION OF ARTICLE IX. Of Original or Birth-Sin. jbTriginal &in Sfan&crfi not in ttt following of Adam (a^^Be Pelagians Da Jjrtisilp taits) hut it i& tge fault or formpttoii of tlie nature of elserp man, tfiat na= turallp 10 £ngEn5erei3 of tge £Dffgpring of Adam, taij^Eiebjt man 10 bcrp far gone from £)riginal iRig8t= eoufnefg, anD t0 of 610 oton nature intUneti to euil, fo tfiat tfte j^Iei!) Initttl} altoap0 tont?arp to tJie &>pi= rtt, anu tSjnrfoire in etjtjp ^e^fon born into t&e CS'orlEi it BefcrbEtS (iEcti'0 Klratg antr ^Damnation ; 5lnti tl)i0 31nfcitiau of j^atare tiotg remain, pea in t&em tfuxt are regencrateis, togejebp tfte %nft of tJie j^ietl], caUeD m Greek (p^ovniJ.x o-ajKof, \X)f)itf) fome to ejcpounij tlje Si ifiscm, fome S>enfuaUtp, fome t&e affeaion, fome tlie SDefirc of tlie #lefl3, i0 not fubjea to tiie lato of (ii3oa. 2aD tfeougft t8ere.i0 no Ccn-- bcmnatia!! for t!)tm tiiat btfieiie anti a?e baptiseO, Vtt tlie apollle Ootiiconfef0, ''^gat Contupifcente auD 3LuiI Sat!) of itfdf tfje nature of §>in. AFTER the firft principles of the Chriftian religion are ftated, and the rule of faith and life was fettled, the next thing that was to be done, was to declare the fpe cial dodtrines of this religion ; and that firft with rela tion to all Chriftians, as they are fingle Individuals, for the direaifig every one of them in order to the working out his own falvation ; which is done from this to the nineteenth Ar ticle : and then with relation to them as they compofe a fo ciety called the Church ; which is carried on from the nine teenth to the end. In all that has been hitherto explained, the whole Church of England has been all along of one mind. In this and in fome that follow, there has been a greater diverfity of opi nion ; but both fides have ftudied to prove their tenets to be at leaft not contrary to the Articles of the Church. Thefe dif.. ferent parties have difputed concerning the decrees of God, and thofe affiftances which purfuant to his decrees are afforded to us. But becaufe the foundation of thofe decrees, and the ne ceffity THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^37 teffity of thofe affiftances, are laid in the fin of Adam, and in A R T. the effeas It had on mankind, therefore thefe controverfies ^^* begin on this head. The Pelagians and the Socinians agree ^-^^v^'^-' in faying, that Adam's fin was perfonal : that by it, as being the firfl: fin, it Is faid that fin entered into the world : but that as Rom, v. 12. Adam was made mortal, and had died whether he had finned or not ; fo they think the liberty of human nature is ftill entire; and that every man is punifhed for his own fins, and not for the fin of another ; to do otherwife, they fay, feems contrary to juftice, not to fay, goodnefs. In oppofition to fh\'s., judgment is faid to have come upon many Ver. 15. to condemnation through one (either man or fin). Death is faid io have reigned, by one, and by one man's offence ; and many are faid to be dead through the offence of one. All thefe paffages do intimate that death is the confequence of Adam's fin ; and that in him, as well as In all others, death was the wages of '^ fin, fb alfo that we die upon the account of his fin. We are faid to bear the image of tbe firfi Adam, as true Chriftians bear i Cor. xv. the image of the fecond : now we are fure that there is both a 49. derivation of righteoufnefs, and a communication of in ward holinefs transferred to us through Chrift : fo it feems to follow from thence, that there is fomewhat both transferred to us, and conveyed down through mankind, by the firft Adam ; and particularly that by it we are all made fubjea to death ; from which we fhould have been freed, if Adam had continued in his firft ftate, and that by virtue of the Tree a/" Gen, iii. 22. Life : in which fome think there was a natural virtue to cure all difeafes, and relieve againft all accidents, while others do afcribe it to a divine bleffing, of which that tree was only the fymbol or facrament ; though the words faid after Adam's fin, as the reafon of driving him out of Paradife, left he put forth his hand and take of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live for ever, feem to Import that there was a phyfical virtue in the tree, that could fo fortify and reftore life, as to give immor tality. Thefe do alfo think that the threatning made to Adam, that upon his eating the forbidden fruit, he ihouid furely die, is to be taken literally, and is to be carried no further than to a natural death. 1 his fubjeaion to death, and to the fear of it, brings men under a flavlfh bondage, many terrors, and other paffions and miferies that arife out of Ir, which they think is a great punlfhment ; and that it is a condemnation and fen- tence of death paffed upon the whole race ; and by this they are made finners, that is, treated as guilty perfons, and fevere ly punifhed. This they think is eafily enough reconciled with the no tions of juftice and goodnefs in God, fince this is only a temporary punifliment relating to nien's perfons : and we fee 13^ AN EXPOSITION OF ART. in the common methods of Providence, that children are in '^- this fort often punifhed for the fins of their fathers ; moft men ^•^'"^^"'^ that come under a very ill habit of body, tranfmit the feeds of difeafes and pains to their children. They do alfo think that the communication of this llablenefs to death Is eafily accounted for ; and they Imagine that as the Tree of Life might be a plant that furnifhed men with an univerfal medicine, fo the forbidden fruit might derive a flow poifon into Adam's body, that might have exalted and inflamed his blood very much, and might, though by a flower operation, certainly brought on death at the laft. Our being thus adjudged to death, and to all the miferies that accompany mortality, they think may be wefl 'Called the wrath of God, and damnation : fo temporary judg ments are often expreffed in Scripture. And to this they add, that Chrift has entirely redeemed us from this, by the promife he has given us of raifing us up at the laft day : and that there fore when St. Paul is fo copioufly difcourfing of the Refurrec- 1 Cor. XV. tion, he brings this In, that as wel have borne the image of inE^^'ad ^be firjl Adam, who ivas earthly, fo we fliall alfo bear the image Rom.'paf- rfthe heavenly ; and fince by man came death, by man came alfo Jim. the refurreBion from the dead ; and that as in Adam aU die, fo in Chrifi fhall aU be made alive ; and that this is the univerfal redemption and reparation that all mankind fliall have in Chrift Jefus. All this thefe divines apprehend is conceivable, and no more ; therefore they put original fin in this only, for which they pretend they have all the Fathers with them before St. Auftin, and particulariy St. Chryfoftom and Theodoret, from whom all the later Greeks have done little more than copied out their words. This they do alfo pretend comes up to the words of the Article ; for as this general adjudging of all men to die, may be called, according to the ftyle of the Scriptures, God's wrath and damnation ; fo the fear of death, which arifes out of it, coirupts-men's natures, and inclines them to evil. Others do fo far approve of all this, as to think that it Is a part of original fin, yet they beheve it goes much farther ; and that there is a corruption fpread through the whole race of mankind, which is born with every man. This the expe rience of all ages teaches us but too evidently ; every man feels it in himfelf, and fees it in others. The Philofophers, who were fenfible of it, thought to avoid the difficulty that arifes from it, when it might be urged, that a good God could not make men to be originally depraved and wicked ; they therefore fan cied that afl our fouls pre-exifted in a former.and a purer ftate, from which they fell, by defcending too much into corporeal pleafure, and fo both by a lapfe and for a punifliment, they funk into grofler bodies, and fefl differently according to the different degrees of the fins they had committed in that ftate : , and THE XXXIX ARTICLES. '39 and they thought that a virtuous life did raife them up to their former pitch, as a vicioiis one would fink'them lower Into more depraved and more miferable bodies. All this may feefn plaufible : but the beft that can be faid for it, is, thatit is an hypothefis that faves fome difficulties ; but there is no fort of proofs to make It appear to be true. We neither perceive in ourfelves any remembrances of fuch a ftate, nor have we any warning given us either of our fall, or of the means of reco vering out of It : fo fince there is no reafon to affirm this to be true, we m.uft feek for fome other fource of the corruption of human natiire. The Manichees imputed it to the evil God, and thought it was his work, which fome fay might have fet on St. Auftin the more eameftly to look for another hypothefis to reconcile all. But before we go to that, it is certain, that In Scripture this general corruption of our nature is often mentioned. Tbe Gen. vi. 5, imaginations of man's thoughts are only evil continually : What '^' ''¦''¦: man is be that liveth and finneth not ? The jtfi man falletb ^j;;^ ^^T feven times a day : The heart of man is deceitful above all Prov. xxiv. things, and dej'per ately tvicked, who can know it ? All that are ^^• in Chrifi mufi become new creatures, old things mufi be done ffcffiffif away, and every thing mufi become nezu. God made man upright, Eccl. vii. but he fought out to hi?nfelf many inventions. The fiefh is weak ; ^°- 7 he fief}] lufieth againfi the J'pirit ; The carnal mind is enmity RomJviu''.' to the law of God, and is not fuhjeB to the law of God, neither j, %. indeed can he : and they that are in the flefi cannot pleafe God : John iii. 6. where by fiefh is to be meant the natural ftate of mankind, according to thofe words, That which is born of the flefh, is flefl) ; and that which is born of the fpirit, is fpirit. Thdfe, with many other places of Scripture to the fame purpofe, when they are joined to the univerfal experience of all mankind con cerning the corruption of our whole race, lead us to fettle this point, that in faa it has over-run our whole kind, the contagion is fpread over aU. Now this being fettled, we are next to enquire, how this could happen : we cannot think that God made men fo : for it is exprefsly faid, that God made man Gen. i. 27. after his own image. The fureft way to find out what this image was at firft, Eph. iv. 22, is to confider, what the New Teftament fays of it, when we ^4. come to be reftored to It. We muft put on the new man, after the image of him that created him ; or as elfewhere, the 7iew man in righteoufnefs and true holinefs. This then was the image of God, m which man was at firft made. Nor ought the image of God to be confidered only as an expreffion that im ports only our reprefenting him here on earth, and having do- rninion over the creatures : for in Genefis the creation of man Cen. i. 27, in the image of God, is expreffed as a thing different from his 28. dominion 14" AN EXPOSITION OF ART. dominion over the creatures, which feems to be given to him ^^* as a confequent of It. The image of God feems to be this, ^¦^"""^'""^ that the foul of man was a being of another fort and order than all thofe material beings till then made, which were nei ther capable of thought nor liberty, in which refpea the foul was made after the image of God. But Adam's foul being put in his body, his brain was a tabula rcfa, as white paper, had no impreffions in it, but fuch as either God put in It, or fuch as came to him by his fenfes. A man born deaf and blind, newly come to hear and fee, is not a more ignorant and amazed-like creature than Adam muft have been, if God had not conveyed fome great impreffions into him; fuch as firft the acknowledg ing and obeying him as his Maker, and then the managing his body fo as to make It an Inftrument, by which he could make life of and obferve the creation. There is no reafon to think that his body was at firft inclined to appetite, and that his mind was apt to ferve his body, but that both were reftrained by fu pernatural affiftances. It is much more natural and more agree able to the words of the wife man, to think that God made man upright, that his body craved modeftly, and that his mind was both judge and mafter of thofe cravings; and if a natural hypothe fis may be offered but only as an hypothefis, it may be fuppofed, that a man's blood was naturally low and cool, but that it was capable of a vaft inflammation and elevation, by which a man's powers might be exalted to much higher degrees of know ledge and capacity : the animal fpirits receiving tlieir quality from that of the blood, a new and a ftrong fermentation in the blood might raife them, and by confequence exalt a man to a much greater fublimlty of thought : but with that It might dif pofe him to be eafily inflamed by appetites and paffions; it might put him under the power of his body, and make his body much more apt to be fired at outward objeas, which might fink all fpiritual and pure ideas in him, and raife grofs ones with much fury and rapidity. Hereby his whole frame might be much corrupted, and that might go fo deep In him, that afl thofe who defcended from him, might be defiled by it, as we fee madnefs and fome chronical difeafes pafs from parents to their children. All this might have been natural, and as much the phyfical effea of eating the forbidden fruit, as it feems immortality would have been that of eating the fruit of the Tree of Life : this might have been in its nature a flow poifon, which muft end in death at laft. It may be very eafy to make all this appear probable from phyfical caufes. A very fmall accident may fo alter the whole mafs of the blood, that in a very few minutes it may be totally changed : fo the eating the forbidden fruit might have, by a natural chain of things, produced all this. But this is on ly an hypothefis, and fo is left as fuch. Afl the affiftance that revealed THE XXXIX ARTICLES. M' revealed religion can receive from philofophy, is to fhew, that ART. a reafonable hypothefis can be offered upon phyfical principles, to ^^* fhew the poffibility, or rather probability of any particulars that are contained in the Scriptures. This is enough to ftop the mouths of delfts, which is all the ufe that can be made of fuch fchemes. To return to the main point of the fall of Adam : He himfelf was made liable to death : but not barely to ceafe to live ; for death and life are terms oppofite to one another in Scripture. In treating upon thefe heads. It is faid, that theKom.m. wages of fin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. And^3- though the addition of the word eternal, makes the fignification of the one more exprefs, yet where it is mentioned with out that addition, no doubt is to be made, but that it is to be fo meant : as where it is faid, that to be carnally minded is Rom. viii. death, but to be fpiritually minded is life and peace : and believ- %' , ing, we have life, through his name : Te will not come unto me, 31. that ye may have life. So, by the rule of oppofites, death Joh. v. 40. ought to be underftood as a word of a general fignification, which we, who have the comment of the New Teftament to guide us in underftanding the Old, are not to reftrain to a natural death ; and therefore when we are faid to be the fervants of fin unto death, we underftand much more by it than a natural death : fo God's threatening of Adam with death, ought not to be reftrained to a natural death. Adam being thus defiled, all emanations from him muft partake of that vitiated ftate to which he had brought himfelf. But then the queftion remains, how came the fouls of his pofterity to be defiled ; for if they were created pure, it feems to be an unjuft cruelty to them, to condemn them to fuch an union to a defiled body, as fhould certainly corrupt them ? All that can be faid in anfwer to this, is. That God has fettled it as a law in the creation, that a foul fhould inform a body according to the texture of it, and either conquer it, or be maftered by it, as it fhould be dif ferently made : and that as fuch a degree of purity in the texture of it, might make it both pure and happy ; fo a contrary de gree of texture might have very contrary effeas. And if, with this, God made another general law, that when all things were duly prepared for the propagation of the fpecies of man kind, a foul fhould be always ready to go into, and ani mate thofe firft threads and beginnings of life ; thofe laws being laid down, Adam, by corrupting his own frame, corrupt ed the frame of his whole pofterity, by the general courfe of things, and the great law of the creation. So that the fuf fering this to run through all the race, is no more (only differ ent in degrees and extent) than the fuffering the folly or mad nefs of a man to infra his pofterity. In thefe things God aas as the Creator of the world by general rules, and thefe muft not 14^ AN EXPOSITION OP A Tl T. not be altered becaufe of the fins and diforders of men : but ¦"^' they are rather to have their courfe, that fo fin may be Its own ^^V'^'"^ punlfhment. The defilement of the race being thus ftated, a queftion remains, whether this can be properly called a fin, and fuch as deferves God's wrath and damnation ? On jhe one hand an oppofition of nature to the Divine nature muft cer tainly be hateful to God, as it is the rbot of much maUgnity and fin. Such a nature cannot be the objea of his love, and of itfelf it cannot be accepted of God : now fince there Is no mean in God, between love and wrath, acceptation and dam nation, if fuch perfons are not in tbe firft order, they muft be in the fecond. Yet It feems very hard, on the other hand, to apprehend, how perfons, who have never aaually finned, but are only un happily defcended, fhould be, in coniequence to that, under fo great a mifery. To this feveral anfwers are made : fome have thought that thofe who die before they commit any aaual fin, have indeed no fhare in the favour of God, but yet that they pafs unto a ftate in the other world, in which they fuffer little or nothing. The ftating this more clearly, will belong to an other opinion, which fhall be afterwards explained. There Is a further queftion made^ whether this vicious inclination is a fin, or not .? Thofe of the Church of Rome, as they believe that original fin is, quite taken away by baptifm, fo finding that this corrupt difpofition ftifl remains In us, they do from thence conclude, that It Is no part of original fin ; but that this is the natural ftate in which Adam was made at firft, only it Is in us without the reftraint or bridle of fupernatural affiftances, which was given to him, but loft by fin, and re ftored to us in baptifm. But, as was faid formerly, Adam in his firft ftate was made after the image of God, fo that his bodily powers were perfeaiy under the command of his mind ; this revolt that we f;el cur bodies and fenfes are always in, cannot be fuppofed to be God's original v/orkmanfhip. There are great difputings raifed concerning the meaning of a long dif courfe of St. Paul's in the feventh of the Romans, concerning a conftant ftruggle that he felt within himfelf; which fome, ar guing from the fcope of the whole Epiftle, and the begin ning of that chapter, underftand only of the ftate that St. Paul reprefents himfelf to have been in, while yet a Jew, and before his converfion : whereas others underftand it of him in his converted and regenerated ftate. Very plaufible things have been faid on both fides, but without arguing any thing from words, the fenfe of w^hich is under debate; there are other places which do manifeftly exprefs the ftruggle that is in a good Gal. V. 17. man -The fief, is iveak, though tbe fpirit is willing : the fiejh Kom.v.n. lufieth againfi the fpirit, as tbe fpirit lufieth againfi the flejh : we THE XXXIX ARTICLES. Hi we ought to be ftfll mortifying the deeds of tbe body ; and we A R T. feel many fins that dofo eafily befet us, that from thefe things we ^¦'^• have reafon to conclude, that there is a corruption in our ^"^'"^ nature, which gives us a bias and propenfity to fin. Now there Is no reafon to think that baptifm takes away all the branches and effeas of original fin : It is enough if we are by it delivered from the wrath of God, and brought into a ftate of favour and acceptation : we are freed from the curfe of death, by our being entitled to a bleffed refurreaion : and If we are fo far freed from the corruption of our nature, as to have a foederal right to fuch affiftances as will enable us to refift and reptcfs it, though it is not quite extina in us, fo long as we live in thefe frail and mortal bodies, here are very great effeas of our admiffion to Chriftianity by baptifm ; though this fhould not go fo far as to root all inclinations to evfl out of our nature. The great difpofition that is In us to appetite and paffion, and that great heat w'th which they inflame us ; the averfion that we naturally have to all the exercifes of re ligion, and the pains that muft be ufed to work us up to a tolerable degree of knowledge, and an ordinary meafure of virtue, fhews that thefe are not natural to us : whereas floth and vice do grow on us without any care taken about them : fo that it appears, that they are' the natural, and the other the forced growth of our fouls. Thefe ill difpofitions are fo univerfally fpread through all mankind, and appear fo early, and in fo great a diverfity of ill inclinations, that from ' henfe It feems reafonable and juft to infer, that this corruption is fpread through our whole nature and fpecies, by the fin and difobedience of Adam. And beyond this a great many among ourfelves think that they cannot go, in afferting of original fin. But there is a farther ftep made by all the difciples of St. Auftin, who believe that a covenant was made with all man kind in Adam, as their firft parent : that he was a perfon con- ftituted by God to reprefent them all ; and that the covenant was made with him, fo that if he had obeyed, all his pofterity fhould have been happy, through his obedience ; but by his difobedience they were all to be efteemed to have finned in him, his aa being imputed and transferred to them all. St. Aufiin confidered all mankind as loft in Adam, and in that he made the decree of ekaion to begin : there being no other reprobation afferted^ by him, than the leaving men to continue in that ftate of damnation, in which they were by reafon of Adam's fin; fo that though by baptifm all men were born again, and recovered out of that loft ftate, yet unlefs they vvere within the decree of ekaion, they could not be faved, but would certainly fall from that ftate, and perifh in a ftate of fin ; but '44 AN EXPOSITION OF but fach as were not baptized were fhut out from all hope. Thofe words of Chrift's, Except ye be born again of water and of the Spirit, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of God, being expounded fo as to import the Indifpenfable neceffity of bap tifm to eternal falvation ; all who were not baptized, were reckoned by him among the damned : yet this damnation, as to thofe who had no aaual fin, was fo mitigated, that it feem ed to be little more than an exclufion out of heaven, without any fuffering or mifery, like a ftate of fleep and inaaivlty. This was afterwards dreffed up as a divifion or partition in hell, cafled the Limbo of Infants ; fo by bringing it thus low, they took away much of the horror that this doarine might other- wife have given the world. It was not eafy to explain the way how this was propagated : they wifhed well to the notion of a foul's propagating a foul, but that feemed to come too near creation ; fo It was not received as certain. It was therefore thought, that the body being pro pagated defiled, the foul was created and infufed at the time of conception : and that though God did not create It impure, yet no time was interpofed between its creation and infufion : fo that it could never be faid to have been once pure, and then to have become Impure. AU this, as It afforded an eafy foun dation to eftablifh the doarine of abfolute decrees upon it, no care being taken to fhew how this fin came into the world, whether from an abfolute decree or not, fo it feemed to have a great foundation In that large difcourfe of St. Paul's ; where, in the fifth of the Romans, he compares the bleffings that we receive by the death of Chrift, with the guilt and mifery that was brought upon us by the fin of Adam. Now it is confeffed, that by Chrift we have both an imputation or com munication of the merits of his death, and likewife a purity and holinefs of nature conveyed to us by his doarine and fpirit. In oppofition then to this. If the comparifon is to be clofely purfued, there muft be an imputation of fin, as well as a corruption of nature, transfufed to us from Adam. This is the more confiderable as to the point of imputation, becaufe the chief defign of St. Paul's difcourfe feems to be levelled at that, fince It Is begun upon the head of reconciliation and ^^^^•J^;^'^' atonement : upon which it fellows, that as hy one man fin entered into the world, arid death by fin, and death paffed upon all men, for that (or, as others render it, in whom) alf have finned. Now they think it is all one to their point, whether It be rendered, for that, or in ivhom : for though the latter words feem to deliver their opinion more precifely, yet it being af- firm.ed, that, according to the other rendering, all who die, have finned ; and it being certain, that many infants die who have THE XXXIX ARTICLES, '45 have never aaually finned, thefe muft have finned in Adam, they could fin no other way. It is afterwards faid by St. Paul, that by tbe offence of one many were dead: that tbe judg ment was hy one to condemnation : that by one man's offence death reigned by one. That by tbe offence of one, judgment came upon all men -to condemnation : and that by one man's difobedience many were made finners. As thefe words are pofitive, and of great importance in themfelves, fo all this is much the ftronger, by the oppofition in which every one of them is put to the effeas and benefits of Chrift's death; particularly to our juf tification through him, in which there is an imputation of the merits and effeas of his death, that are thereby transferred to us ; fo that the whole effea of this difcourfe is taken away, if the imputation of Adam's fin is denied. And this explication does certainly quadrate more entirely to the words of the Article, as it Is known that this was the tenet of thofe who prepared the Articles, it having been the generally-received Opinion from St. Auftin's days downward. But to many other divines, this feems a harfh and uncon ceivable opinion; It feems repugnant to the juftice and good nefs of God, to reckon men guilty of a fin which they never committed, and to punifh them in their fouls eternally for that which is no aa of theirs : and though we eafily enough con ceive how God, in the riches of his grace, may transfer merit ' and bleffing from one perfon to many, this being only an ceconomy of mercy, where all is free, and fuch a method is taken as may beft declare the goodnefs of God : but in the imputation of fin and guilt, which are matters of ftria juftice, it is quite otherwife. Upon that head God is pleafed often to appeal to men for the juftice of all his ways : and therefore no fuch doarine ought to be admitted, that carries in It an Idea of cruelty, beyond what the blackeft tyrants have ever In vented, liefides that In the Scripture fuch a method as the punifhing children for their fathers' fins, Is often difclaimed, jer. xxii. and it is pofitively affirmed, that every man that fins is punifh- 20. ed. Now though, In articles relating to the nature of God, ^ ¦""""' they acknowledge it is highly reafonable to beheve, that there ' may be myfteries which exceed our capacity ; yet In moral matters. In God's fcederal dealings with us, It feems unreafon able and contrary to the nature of God, to believe that there may be a myftery contrary to the cleareft notions of juftice and goodnefs ; fuch as the condemning mankind for the fin of one man, in which the reft had no fhare ; and as contrary to our ideas of God, and upon that to fet up another myftery that fhall take away the truth and fidelity of the promifes of God; juftice and goodnefs being as infeparable from his na ture, as truth and fidelity can be fuppofed to be. This feems L to t46 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. to expofe the Chriftian religion to the feoffs of its enemies, ^^- and to objeaions that are much fooner made th^n anfwered : '^¦'"V"^ and fince the foundation of this is a fuppofed covenant with Adam as the reprefentative head of mankind, it is ftrange that a thing of that great confequence fhould not have been more plainly reported In the hiftory of the creation ; but that men fhould be put to fetch out the knowledge of fo great and fo ex traordinary a thing, only by fome remote confequences. It is no fmafl prejudice againft this opinion, that it was fo long be fore it firft appeared In the Latin Church ; that It was never re ceived In the Greek ; and that even the Weftern Church, though perhaps for fome ignorant ages it received it, as it did every thing elfe, very implicitly, yet has been very much di vided both about this, and many other opinions related to it, or arifing out of It. As for thofe words of St. Paul's, that are its chief, if not its only foundation, they fay many things upon them. Firft, it is a fingle proof. Now when we have not a variety of places proving any point, in which one gives light, and leads us to a fure expofition of another, we cannot be fo fure of the meaning of any one place, as to raife a theory, or found a doc trine upon It. They fay farther, that St. Paul feems to argue, from that opinion of our having finned in Adam, to prove that we are juftified by Chrift. Now It is a piece of natural logick not to prove a thing by another, unlefs that other is more clear of itfelf, or at leaft more clear by its being already received and believed. This cannot be faid to be more clear of itfelf, for it is certainly lefs credible or conceivable, than the reconciliation by Chrift. Nor was this clear from any fpecial revelation made of it in the Old Teftament: therefore there is good reafon to believe, that It was then a doarine re ceived among the Jews, as there are odd things of this kind to be found among the Cabbalifts, as if all the fouls of aU mankind had been in Adam's body. Now when an argu ment is brought in Scripture to prove another thing by, though we are bound to acknowledge the conclufion, yet we are not always fure of the premlffes ; for they are often founded upon received opinions. So that it is not certain that St. Paul meant to offer this doarine to our belief as true, but only that he Intended by it to prove our being reconciled to God through the death of Chrift; and the medium by which he proved it, might be, for aught that appears from the words therhfelves, only an opinion held true among thofe to whom he writes. For he only fuppofes it, but fays nothing to prove It : which it might be expeaed he would have done, if the Jews had made any doubt of it. But farther they fay, that when comparifons or oppofitions, fuch as this, are made In Scripture, THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^47 Scripture, we are not always to carry them on to an exaa ART. equality ; we are required not only fo be holy as God is holy, but ^^: to be PerfeB as he is perfeB : vyhere by the as is not to ^-^p*"^ be meant a true equality, but fome fort of refemblance and J g^^'''' "5' conformity. Therefore, thofe who believe that th^re is no-Mat. v. 48. thing Imputed, to Adam's pofterity on the account of his fin, but this temporary punlfhment of their being made liable to death, and to all thofe miferies that the fear of it, with our other concerns about it, bring us under, fay that this is enough to juftify the comparifon that is there ftated : and that thofe who wfll carry it on to be an exaa parallel, make a ftretch be yond the phrafeology of the Scripture, and the ufe of parables, and of the many comparifons that go only to one or more points, but ought not to be ftretched to every thing. Thefe are the things that other great divines among us have oppofed to this opinion. As to its confonancy to the Article, thofe who oppofe it do not deny, but that it comes up fully to the higheft fenfe that the words of the Article can im port : nor do they doubt, but that thofe who prepared the Ar ticles, being of that opinion themfelves, might perhaps have had that fenfe of the words in their thoughts. But they add, that we are only bound to fign the Articles in a- literal and grammatical fenfe : fince therefore the words, God's wrath and'Ex. xxxii. damnation, v/h'ich are the higheft In the Article, are capable of a '"• lower fenfe, temporaryjudgments being often fo expreffed in the °/^' 4)/"/f Scriptures, therefore they believe the lofs of the favour of oUTefta- God, the fentence of death, the troubles of life, and the ^l"'- ... corruption of our faculties, may be well called God's wrath , xheff. ii.' and damnation. Befides, they obferve, that the main point of 16. the imputation of .Adam's fin to his pofterity, and its being Luke xxiii. confidered by God as their own aa, not being exprefsly ^^'^^.^ j;_ taught in the Article, here was that moderation obferved, 29. which the compilers of the Articles have fhewed on many ' P'^f'^i?. other occafions. It is plain from hence, that they did not ^ """¦ ^"'* intend to lay a burthen on men's confciences, or oblige 2 Cor. vii. them to profefs a dodtrine that feems to be of hard digeftion 3- to a great mlany. The laft prejudice that they offer againft l^'^-J^'"' that opinion, is, that the foftening the terms of God's ivrath Rom, iiv, and damnation that was brought in by the followers of St. 23. Auftin's doarine to fuch a moderate and harmlefs notion, as to be only a lofs of heaven, with a fort of unaaive fleep, was an effea of their apprehending that the world could very ill bear an opinion of fo ftrange a found, as that afl mankind were to be damned for the fin of one man : and that there fore, to make this pafs the better, they mitigated damnation far below the reprefentation that the Scriptures generally give of it, which propofe it as the being adjudged to a place of torment, and a ftate of horror and mifery. L 2 Thus H8 an EXPOSITION OF ART. Thus I have fet down the differbnt opinions in this point, I'f • with that true indifference that I intend to obferve on fuch other '-O/'^-' occafions, and which becomes one who undertakes to explain the doarines of the Church, and not his own ; and who is obliged to propofe other men's opinions with all fincerity, and to fhew what are the fenfes that the learned men, of different perfuafions in thefe matters, have put on the words of the Article. In which one great and conftant rule to be obferved, is, to reprefent men's opinions candidly, and to judge as fe- vourably both of them and their opinions as may be : to bear with one another, and not to difturb the peace and union of the Church, by infifting too much and too peremptorily upon matters of fuch doubtful difputation; but willingly to leave them to all that liberty, to which the Church has left them, and which fhe ftifl allows them. ARTICLE THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^49 ART. A R T I C L E X. ^_ , Of Free-Will. %f)t dontiition of S0m aftcj; tfie i^all of Adam 10 fut& tgat St cannot tmn anti prepare fiimrcK bp Si0 oton natural ttrtngtS ant> gooa toorfejjto #aitBant> calUng upon dDoO. MfiereforetoeSatJC no potocr to tso gooti toorfeiS pleafant an& acceptable to (©oa, toitfiout tge dDjate of (Bob fap Cgritt preUenting 110, t&at toe map liabe a goob toill, anb toorfeing toitlj u0 toficn toe Sabe tgat goob toill. WE fhall find the fame moderation obferved in this Ar ticle, that was taken notice of in the former ; where all difputes concerning the degree of that feeblenefs and corrup tion under which we are fallen by the fin of Adam, are avoided, and only the neceffity of a preventing and a co-operating grace is afferted, againft the Semipelagians and the Pelagians. But before we enter upon that, it is fitting firft to ftate the true notion of free-will, in fo far as it is neceffary to all rational agents, to make their aaions morally good or bad ; llncc it is a principle that feems to rife out of the light of na ture, that no man is accountable, rewardable or punifhable, but for that in which he aas freely, without force or compulfion ; and fo far all are agreed. Some imagine, that liberty muft fuppofe a freedom to do, or not to do, and to aa contrarlwlfe at pleafure. To others it feems not neceffary that fuch a liberty fhould be carried to denominate aaions morally good or bad : God certainly aas in the perfeaeft liberty, yet he carinot fin. Chrift had the moft exalted liberty in his human nature, of which a creature was capable, and his merit was the higheft, yet he could not fin. Angels and glorified faints, though no more capable of rewards, are perfea moral agents, and yet they cannot fin : and the devils, with the damned, though not ca pable of farther punlfhment, yet are ftill moral agents, and can not but fin : fo this indifferency to do, or not to do, cannot be the true notion of liberty. A truer one feems to them to be this, that a rational nature is not determined as mere matter, by the impulfe and motion of other bodies upon it, but is ca pable of thought, and, upon confidering the objeas fet before it, makes refleaion, and fo choofes. Liberty therefore feems L3 .to ^5^ AN EXPOSITION OF ART. to confift in this inward capacity of thinking, and of aaing ^- and choofing upon thought. The clearer the thought is, and ^"''"^'i^'^^ the more conftantly that our choice is determined by it, the more does a man rife up to the higheft aas, and fublimeft exercifes of liberty. A queftion arifes out of this, whether the will is not always determined by the underftanding, fo that a man does always choofe and determine himfelf upon the account of fome idea or other ? If this is granted, then no liberty will be left to our faculties. We muft apprehend things as they are pro pofed to our underftanding ; for If a thing appears true to us, we muft affent to it ; and If the will is as blind to the un derftanding, as the underftanding Is determined by the light in which the objea appears to it, then we feem to be con cluded under a fate, or neceffity. It is, after all, a vain at tempt to argue againft every man's experience : we perceive in ourfelves a liberty of turning our minds to fome ideasj or from others ; we can think longer or fhorter of thefe, more exaaiy and fteadlly, or more flightly and fuperficially, as we pleafe ; and in this radical freedom of direaing or diverting our thoughts, a main part of our freedom docs confift : often objeas as they appear to our thoughts do fo affea or heat them, that they do feem to conquer us, and carry us after them; fome thoughts feeming as it were to intoxicate and charm us. Appetites and paffions, when much fired by ob jeas apt to work upon them, do agitate us ftrongly ; and, on the other hand, the impreffions of religion come often into our minds with fuch a fecret force, fo much of terror and fuch fecret joy mixing with them, that they feem to mafter us ; yet in all this a man aas freely, becaufe he thinks and choofes for himfelf: and Aough perhaps he does not feel himfelf fo- entirely balanced, that he is indifferent to both fides, yet he has ftifl fuch a remote liberty, that he can turn himfelf to other objeas and thoughts, fo that he can divert, if not all of the fudden refift the prefent impreffions that feem to mafter him. We do alfo feel that in many trifles we do aa with an entire liberty, and do many things upon no other account, and for no other reafon, but becaufe we will do them ; and yet more important things depend on thefe. Our thoughts are much governed by thofe Impreffions that arc made upon our brain : when an objea proportioned to us, appears to us with fuch advantages as to affea us much. It makes fuch an impreffion on our brain, that our animal fpirits move much towards it ; and thole thoughts that an- iwer It, anfe oft and ftrongly upon us, till either that im preffion IS worn out and flatted, or new and livelier ones are made THE XXXIX ARTICLES. I5I made on us by other objeas. In this depreffed ftate in which we now are, the ideas of what is ufeful or pleafant to our bo dies are ftrong ; they are ever frefh, being daily renewed ; and, according to the different conftruaion of men's blood and their brains, there arifes a great variety of inclinations in them. Our animal fpirits that are the immediate organs of thought, being the fubtfler parts of our blood, are differently made and fhaped, as our blood happens to be acid, fait, fweet, or phlegmatick : and this gives fuch a bias to afl our inclina tions, that nothing can work us oft" from it, but fome great ftrength of thought that bears it down : fo learning, chiefly in mathematical fciences, can fo fwallow up and fix one's thought, as to poffefs it entirely for fome time ; but when that amufement Is over, nature will return and be where it was, being rather diverted than overcome by fuch fpeculations. The revelation of religion, is the propofing and proving many truths of great importance to our underftandings, by which they are enlightened, and our wills are guided ; but thefe truths are feeble things, languid and unable to ftem a tide of nature, efpecially when it is much excited and heated : fo that in faa we feel, that, when nature is low, thefe thoughts may have fome force to give an inward melancholy, and to awaken in us purpofes and refolutions of another kind ; but when nature recovers Itfelf, and takes fire again, thefe grow lefs powerful. The giving thofe truths of religion fuch a force that they may be able to fubdue nature, and to govern us, is the defign of both natural and revealed religion. So the queftion comes now according to the Article to be, whe ther a man by the powers of nature and of reafon, with out other inward affiftances, can fo far turn and difpofe his own mind, as to believe and to do works pleafant and acceptable to God. Pelagius thought that man was fo entire in his liberty, that there was no need of any other grace but that of pardon, and of propofing the truths of religion to men's knowledge, but that the ufe of thefe was in every man's power. Thofe who were called Semipelagians thought that an affifling inward grace was neceffary to enable a man to go through all the harder fteps of religion ; but with that they thought that the firft turn or converfion of the v/ill to God, was the effea of a man's own free choice. In oppofition to both which, this Article afferts both an af- fifting and a preventing grace. That there are inward af fiftances given to our powers, befides thofe outward bleffings of Providence, is firft to be proved. In the Old Teftament, it is true, there were not exprefs promifes made by Mofes of fuch affiftances ; yet it feems both David and Solomon had L 4 a full 15^ AN EXPOSITION OF A R T. a full perfuafion about It. David's prayers do every where re- ^- late to fomewhat that is internal : he prays God to open and Y'V"**^ turn his eyes ; to unite and incline bis heart ; to quicken him ; ^f "I''".. ^„ ,,r,nh, h'lm tn an • to vuide and lead him ; to create in him a .to make him io go ; to guide and lead him ; 35' ' 'clean heart, and renew a rtght fpirit within him. Solomon fays, Vi. li. 10, ^Yizt God gives wifdom ; that be direBs men's paths, and giveth "¦ grace to the lowly. In the promife that Jeremy gives of a Ter. xxxi. new covenant, this is the charaaer that is given of it; I wiU 33, 34- put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts: They fhaU aU knoiu me from the leaf of them unto the greatefi. Ezek.xxxvi. Like to that Is what Ezekiel promifes ; A new heart alfo wiU I '¦^' ^7-' give, an^ a new fpirit wiU I put within you ; and I wiU take away the fiony heart out of your flefh; and I wiU give you an heart of flefto ; and I will put my fpirit within you, and caufe you to walk in my fiatutes, and ye fhaU keep my judg ments and do them. That thefe prophecies relate to the new difpenfation, cannot be queftioned, fince Jeremy's words, to which the other are equivalent, are cited and applied to it in the Epiftle to the Hebrews. Now the oppofition of the one difpenfation to the other, as it is here ftated, confifts in this, that whereas the old difpenfation was made up of laws and ftatutes that were given on tables of ftone, and in writ ing, the new difpenfation was to have fomewhat in it befide that external revelation, which was to be internal, and which fhould difpofe and enable men to obferve it. A great deal of our Saviour's difcourfe concerning the Spirit which he was to pour on his Difciples, did certainly belong to that extraordinary effufion at Pentecoft, and to thofe wonderful effeas that were to follow upon it : yet as he had formerly given this as an encouragement to all men to pray, Lukexi. \T^.Th-i.t his heavenly Father vjould give the Holy Spirit to every one that afied him, fo there are many parts of that his laft dif courfe, that feem to belong to the conftant neceffities of all Chriftians. It Is as unreafonable to limit all to that time, as Jch. xiv. 2.ths firft words of It, I go to prepare a place for you ; and be caufe I live, ye fhall live alfo. The prayer which comes after that difcourfe, being extended beyond them to afl that fhould believe in bis name through their word, we have no reafon to limit thefe words, / will manifejl myfelf to him ; My Father and I will make our abode with him ; In me ye fhall have peace ; to the Apoftles only; fo that the guidance, the conviaion, the comforts of that Spirit, feem to be promifes which In a Rom. V. {.lower order belong to all Chriftians. St. Paul fpeaks of the love of God fhed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghofi : when he was under temptation, and prayed thrice, he had 2 Cor. xii. this anfwer. My grace is fifficient for thee, my firength is made 9- perfeB in weaknefs. He prays often for the Churches in his Epiftles THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^S3 Epiftles to them, that God would fiablifh, comfort, and perfeB art. them, enlighten and firengthen them ; and this in all that variety ¦'^• of words and phrafes that import inward affiftances. This EfTliTi^ is alfo meant by Chrifi' s living and dwelling in us, and by our x cor. vi. ' being rooted and grounded in him ; our being the temples of God, i6. a holy habitation to him through his Spirit ; our hexng fealed by ^^^' '._'¦'"• ihe Spirit of God to the day of redemption ; by afl thofe direc- \ joh.iif.'o, tions to pray for grace to help in time of need, and to afl wifdom of God that gives liberally to all men ; as alfo by the phrafes of being born of God, and the having his feed abiding in us, Thefe and many more places, which return often through the New Teftament, feem to put it beyond all doubt, that there are inward communications from God, to the powers of our fouls ; by which we are made both to apprehend the truths of religion, to remember and reflea on them, and to confider and follow them more effeaually. How thefe are applied to us, is a great difficulty indeed, but it is to little purpofe to amufe ourfelves about it. God may convey them immediately to our fouls, if he will ; but it is more intelligible to us to imagine that the truths of religion are by a divine direaion imprinted deep upon our brain ; fo that naturally they muft affea us much, and be oft In our thoughts : and this may be a hypothefis to explain rege neration or habitual grace by. When a deep impreffion is once made, there may be a direaion from God, in the fame Way that his Providence runs through the whole material world, given to the animal fpirits to move towards and ftrike upon that impreffion, and fo to excite fuch thoughts as by the law of the union of the foul and body do corre- fpond to it : this may ferve for a hypothefis to explain the con veyance of aaual grace to us : but thefe are only propofed as hypothefes, that is, as methods, or poffible ways how fuch things may be done, and which may help us to apprehend more diftinaiy the manner of them. Now as this hypothefis has no thing in it but what is truly philofophical, fo It is highly con gruous to the nature and attributes of God, that if our fa culties are fallen under a decay and corruption, fo that bare inftruaion is not like to prevail over us, he fhould by fome fe cret methods reaify this in us. Our experience tells us but too often, what a feeble thing knowledge and fpeculation is, when it engages with nature ftrongly affaulted ; how our beft thoughts fly from us and forfake us ; whereas at other times the fenfe of thefe things lies with a due weight on our minds, and has another effc6t upon us. The way of conveying this is invifible ; our Saviour compared it to the wind that blowetb John iii. 8. where it lifi,eth ; no man knows whence it comes, and whither it 154 AN EXPOSITION OJ ART. it goes. No man can give an account of the fudden changes of X. the wind, and of that force with which the air Is driven by '^'¦^^"'^ it, which is otherwife the moft yielding of all bodies ; to which he adds, fo is every one that is born of the Spirit. This he brings to Illuftrate the meaning of what he had faid, that except a man was born again of water and of tbe Spirit, be could not enter into the kingdom of God : and to fhew how real and internal this was, he adds, that which is born of the fiefh is flefl] ; that is, a man has the nature of thofe parents from whom he is defcended, by flefl] being underftood the fabrick of the human body, animated by the foul : In oppofition to which, he fubjolns, that which is born of tbe Spirit is Spirit ; that is to fay, a man thus regenerated by the operation of the Spirit of God, comes to be of a fpiritual nature. With this I conclude all that feemed neceffary tobe proved, that there are inward affiftances given to us in the new dif penfation. I do not difpute whether thefe are fitly aiWed grace, for perhaps that word will fcarce be found in that fenfe in the Scriptures ; it fignifying more largely the love and favour of God, without reftraining It to this aa or effea of it. The next thing to be proved is, that there is a preventing grace, by which the will is firft moved and difpofed to turn to God. It is certain that the firft promulgation of the Gofpel to the Churches that were gathered by the Apoftles, is afcribed v/hol- ly to the riches and freedom of the grace of God. This is fully done in the Epiftle to the Ephefians, in which their for mer ignorance and corruption Is fet forth under the figures of Eph. ii.2, blindnefs, of being without hope, and without God in the world, IS- and dead in trefpaffes and fins, they following the courfe of this world, and tbe prince of tbe power of the air, and being by na ture children of wrath ; that is, under wrath. I difpute not here concerning the meaning of the word by nature, whe ther it relates to the corruption of our nature in Adam, or to that general corruption that had overfpread Heathenifm, and was become as it were another nature to them. In this fin gle inftance we plainly fee, that there was no previous difpofi tion to the firft preaching of the Gofpel at Ephefus: many expreffions of this kind, though perhaps not of this force, are in the other Epiftles. St. Paul, In his Epiftle to the Romans, puts Rom. IV. z. God's choofing of Abraham upon this, that It was of grace mt of debt, otherzuife Abraham might have bad whereof to glory. And when he fpeaks of God's cafting off the Jev/s, and graft ing the Gentiles upon that ftock from which they were cut oft; he afcribes it wholly to the goodnefs of God towards them, Rom.x,.2o. and charges them not to be high minded, but to fear. In his 1 Cor.i. 26. Epiftle to the Corinthians, he fays, that not many wife, might], THE XXXIX ARTICLES. '55 mighty, nor noble, were - chofen, but God had chofen the foolifb, ART. the weak, and the bafe things of this world, fo that no fiefh ^¦ fhould glory in his prefence : and he urges this farther, in words '-^'V'V that feem to be as applicable to particular perfons, as to com munities or churches : Who maketh thee to differ from another? i Cot. iv.7. and what hafi thou, that thou didfi not receive ? Now if thou didfi receive it, why dofi thou glory as if thou hadfi not received it ? From thefe and many more paffages of the like nature, it is plain, that in the promulgation of the Gofpel, God was Jfa. Ixv. i, found of them that fought not to him, and heard of them that called not upon him ; that is, he prevented them by his fa vour, while there was no previous difpofitions in them to invite it, much lefs to merit it. From this It may be inferred, that the like method fhould be ufed with relation to particular perfons. We do find very exprefs inftances in the New Teftament of the converfion of fome by a preventing grace: It Is faid, that God opened the heart of Lydia, fo that fhe attended to the Afts xvi. things that were fpoken of Paul. The converfion of St. Paul '4- himfelf was fo clearly from a preventing grace, that if it had not been miraculous in fo many of its circumftances, it would have been a ftrong argument in behalf of it. Thefe words of Chrift feem alfo to affert it; Without me ye can i/u job. i. 13, nothing ; ye have not chofen me, but I you ; and no man can iff- v. 16. come to me, except the Father which has fent me draw him, "'^'^' Thofe who received Chrift weVe born not of blood, nor of the will of the fiefh, nor of the will of man, but of the zbill of God. God is faid to work in us both to will and to do of his own good pleafure : the one feems to import the firft begin nings, and the other the progrefs of a Chriftian courfe of life. So far afl among us, that I know of, are agreed, though perhaps not as to the force that is in all thofe places to prove this point. . There do yet remain two points in which they do not agree ; the one is the efficacy of this preventing grace ; fome think that it Is of its own nature fo efficacious, that It never fails of converting thofe to whom it is given ; others think that it only awakens and difpofes, as well as It enables them to turn to God, but that they may refift it, and that the greater part of mankind do aaually refift it. The examining of this point, and the ftating the arguments on both fides, will be long more properly to the feventeenth Article. The other head, in which many do differ, is concerning the extent of this preventing grace ; for whereas fuch as do hold It to be efficacious of itfelf, reftrain it to the number of thofe who are efeaed and converted by it; others do believe, that as Chrift ^5^ AN EXPOSITION OF ART. Chrift died for all men, fo there is an univerfal grace which ^' is given in Chrift to all men, in fome degree or other, and ^^'"^^^^ that it is given to all baptized Chriftians in a more eminent degree ; and that as all are corrupted by Adam, there is alfo a general grace given to all men in Chrift. This depends fo much on the former point, that the difcuffing the one is indeed the difcuffing of both ; and therefore it fhall not be farther entered upon in this place. ARTICLE THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 157 A R T I C L E XI. "" xi.^' Of the Juftification of Man. 5ile are actounteb iR.iggteou0 before dUob onlp for tBe S^tiit of our ilorb anb §>abiour 3efu0 (Efiritt, bp i^aitg, anb not for our oton MovH or H)eferbmg0. MBcrcfo?e tgat toe are jufttficb bp iFauB onlp, t0 a moft togolefomeSDoanne, anb berpfuU of Comfo?t,a«t morelargelp 10 eyprelleb tntfie l^omtlp of luff iScation. IN order to the right underftanding this Article, we muft firft confider the true meaning of the terms of which it is made up ; which are Juftification, Faith, Faith only, and Good Works ; and then, when thefe are rightly ftated, we will fee what judgments are to be paffed upon the queftions that do arife out of this Article. Jufi, or jufiified, are words ca pable of two fenfes ; the one is, a man who is in the favour of God by a mere aa of his grace, or upon fome confidera tion not founded on the holinefs or the merit of the perfon himfelf. The other is, a man who is truly holy, and as fuch is beloved of God, The ufe of this word in the New Tefta ment was probably taken from the term Chafidim among the Jews, a defignation of fuch as obferved the external parts of the law ftriaiy, and were believed to be upon that account much in the favour of God ; an opinion being generally fpread among them, that a ftria obfervance of the external parts of the Law of Mofes, did certainly put a man in the favour of God. In oppofition to which, the defign of a great part of the New Teftament Is to fhew, that thefe things did not put men in the favour of God. Our Saviour ufed the word faved in oppofition to condemned; and fpoke of men who Joh. ii!. iS. were condemned already, as well as of others who were faved, St. Paul enlarges more fully into many difcourfes ; in which our being jufiified and the righteoufnefs of God, or his grace towards us, are all terms equivalent to one another. His defign in the Epiftle to the Romans, was to prove that the obfervance of the Mofaical Law could not jufiify, that is, could not put a man under the grace or favour of God or the righteoufnefs of God, that is, into a ftate of acceptation with him, as that is oppofite to a ftate of wrath or condemnation : he upon that fhews that Abraham was in the favour of God before he was circumcifed, upon the account of his trufting to the promifes of God, and obeying his commands ; and that God reckoned up on thefe aas of his, as much as if they had been an entire courfe of obedience ; for that is the meaning of thefe words. And 158 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. And it was imputed to him for righteoufnefs. Thefe promifes ^'- were freely made to him by God, when by no previous works ^^fff^P^ of bis he had made them to be due to him of debt ; therefore Rom.^il'. 3. that covenant which was founded on thofe promifes, was the 22. juftifying of Abraham freely by grace. Upon which St. Paul, in a variety of inferences and expreffions, affumes, that R0m.iii.24. we are in like manner jufiified freely by grace through the redemption in Chrifi Jefus. That God has of his own free goodnefs offered a new covenant, and new and better pro mifes to mankind in Chrift Jefus, which whofoever believe as Abraham did, they are juftified as he was. So that whofo ever wfll obferve the fcope of St. Paul's Epiftles to the Ro mans and Galatians, will fee that he always ufes jufiification in a fenfe that Imports our being put in the favour of God. The Epiftle to the Galatians was indeed writ upon the occa fion of another controverfy, which was, whether, fuppofing Chrift to be the Meffias, Chriftians were bound to obferve the Mofaical Law, or net : whereas the fcope of the firft part of the Epiftle to the Romans is, to fliew that v/eare not juftified nor faved by the Law of Mofes, as a mean of its own nature capable to recommend us to the favour of God, but that even that Law v/as a difpenfation of grace, in which it was a true faith like Abraham's that put men in the favour of God ; yet In both thefe Epiftles, In which jufiification Is ful ly treated of, it ftands always for the receiving one into the favour of God. In this the confideration upon which it is done, and the condition upon v/hich it is offered, are two very different things. The one is a difpenfation 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 fuch a manner, that it may have fuch ends as are both perfeaive of human na ture, and fuitable to an infinitely holy Being to purfue. We are never to m.ix thefe two together, or to imagine that the condition upon which juftification is offered to us, is the con fideration that moves God ; as if our holinefs, faith, or obe dience, were the moving caufe of our juftification ; or that God jufiifies us, becaufe he fees that we are truly jufi : for though it is not to be denied, but that, in fome places of the Nev/ Teftament, jufiification may ftand in that fenfe, becaufe the word in its true fignification will bear it; yet In thefe two Epiftles, in which It is largely treated of, nothing Is plainer, than that the defign is to fhew us what it Is that brings us to the favour of God, and to a ftate of pardon and accepta tion : fo that jufiification in thofe places ftands in oppofition to accufation and condemnation. The THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 159 The next term to be explained is faith ; which In the ART. New Teftament ftands generally for the complex of Chrlftia- ^^ nity, in oppofition to the Law, which ftands as generally for '^'"V"^ the complex of the whole Mofaical difpenfation. So that the faith of Chrifi is equivalent to this, the Gofpel of Chrifi; becaufe Chriftianity is a foederal religion, founded on God's part, on the promifes that he has made to us, and on the rules he has fet us ; and on our part, on our believing that revela tion, our trufting to thofe promifes, and our fetting ourfelves to follow thofe rides ; the believing this revelation, and that great article of it, of Chrift's being the Son of God, and the true Meffias that came to reveal his Father's will, and to offer himfelf up to be the facrifice of this new covenant, is often reprefented as the great and only condition of the covenant on our part ; but ftill this faith muft receive the whole Gofpel, the precepts as well as the promifes of it, and receive Chrift as a Prophet to teach, and a King to rule, as well as a Prieft to fave us. By faith only, is not to be meant faith as it is feparated from the other evangelical graces and virtues ; but faith, as it is oppofite to the rites of the Mofaical Law : for that was the great queftion that gave occafion to St. Paul's writing fo fully upon this head ; fince many Judaizing Chriftians, as they acknowledged Chrift to be the true Meffias, fo they thought that the Law of Mofes was ftill to retain its force : In oppofition to whom St. Paul fays, that we are jufiified by Rom.;iI.2g. faith, zvithout the works of the Law, It is plain that he Oal. ii._ i6. means the Mofaical difpenfation, for he had divided all man- ^o""-"-"- kind Into thofe who were in the Law, and thofe who were vjithout the Law : that is, into Jews and Gentiles. Nor had St. Paul any occafion to treat of any other matter in thofe Epiftles, or to enter into nice abftraaions, which became not one that was to inftrua the world in order to their falva tion : thofe metaphyfical notions are not eafily apprehended by plain men, not accuftomed to fuch fubtilties, and are of very little value, when they are more critically diftinguiflied : yet when it feems fome of thofe expreffions were wrefted to an ill fenfe and ufe, St. James treats of the fame matter, but with this great difference, that though he fays exprefsly, that a man is jufiified by his tvorks, and not by faith only ; jamesii.24. yet he does not fay, by the works of the Law ; fo that he does not at all contradia St. Paul ; the works that he men tions not being the circumcifion or ritual obfervances of Abra ham, but his oftering up his fon Ifiac, which St. Paul had reckoned a part of the faith of Abraham : this fliews that he did not intend to contradia the dodtrine delivered by St. Paul, but only to give a true notion of the faith ih.xt jufiifies ; that itis 'l6o AN EXPOSITION OF is not a bare believing, fuch as devfls are capable of, but fuch a believing as exerted itfelf in good works. So that the faith mentioned by St. Paul is the complex of afl Chriftianity ; whereas that mentioned by St. James is a bare believing, with out a life fuitable to it. And as it is certainly true, that we are taken into the favour of God, upon our receiving the whole Gofpel, without obferving the Mofaical precepts ; fo it is as certainly true, that a bare profeffing or giving credit to the truth of the Gofpel, without our living fuitably to it, does not give us a right to the favour of God. And thus it appears that thefe two pieces of the New Teftament, when rightly underftood, do in no wife contradia, but agree well with one another. In the laft place, we muft confider the fignification of good works : By them are not to be meant fome voluntary and affumed pieces of feverity, which are no where enjoined in the Gofpel, that arife out of fuperftition, and that feed pride and hypocrify : thefe are fo far from deferving the name of good works, that they have been in all ages the methods of impofture, and of impoftors, and the arts by which they have gained credit and authority. By good works therefore are meant aas of true holinefs, and of fincere obedience to the laws of the Gofpel. The terms being thus explained, I fhall next diftinguifh between the queftions arifing out of this matter, that are only about words, and thofe that are more material and im portant. If any man fancy that the remiffion of fins is to be confidered as a thing previous to jufiification, and dlftinft from it, and acknowledge that to be freely given in Chrift Jefus ; and that in confequence of this there is fuch a grace infufed, that thereupon the perfon becomes truly juft, and is confidered as fuch by God : this, which muft be confeffed to be the doarine of a great many in the Church of Rome, and vvhich feems to be that eftablifhed at Trent, is indeed very vifibly different from the ftyle and defign of thofe places of the New Teftament, in which this. matter is moft fufly opened : but yet after all it is but a queftion about words ; for If that which they call remiffion of fins, be the fame with that which we C'AX jufiification ; and if that which they caSS. jufiification, be the fame with that which we czW fanBification, then here is only a ftrife of words : yet even in this we have the Sci'iptures clearly of our fide ; fo that we hold the form of found words, from which they have departed. The Scripture fpeaks of fanBification, as a thing different from and fubfequent to jufiification. Now ye are wafhed, ye are fanBified, ye are jufiified. And fince juftification, ^d the being in the love and favour of God, are in the New Teftament one and the fame thing, the remiffion of fins muft be I Cor. vi. II. THE XXXIX ARTICLES. l6r be an aft of God's favour : for we cannot imagine a middle art. ftate of being neither accepted of him, nor yet under his ^^• wrath, as if the remiffion of fins were merely an extinaion ^-O/*"^ of the guilt of fin, without any fpecial favour. If therefore this remiffion of fins Is acknowledged to be given freely to us through Jefus Chrift, this is that which we affirm to he juf tification, though under another name : we do alfo acknow ledge that our natures muft be fanaified and renewed, that fo God may take pleafure In us, when his image is again vifible upon us ; and this we call fanBification ; which we acknow ledge to be the conftant and infeparable effea of jufiification : fo that as to this, we agree in the fame doarine, only we differ in the ufe of the terms ; in which we have the phrafe of the New Teftament clearly with us. But there are two more material differences between us : it is a tenet in the Church of Rome, that the ufe of the facraments, if men do not put a bar to them, and if they have only imperfea aas of forrow accompanying them, does fo far complete thofe weak aas, as to jufiify us. This we do utterly deny, as a doarine that tends to enervate all reli gion ; and to make the facraments, that were appointed to be the folemn aas of religion, for quickening and exciting our piety, and for conveying grace to us, upon our coming de voutly to them, become means to flatten and deaden us: as if they were of the nature of charms, which if they could be come at, though with ever fo flight a preparation, would make up afl defeas. The doarine of Sacramental Juftifi cation is juftly to be reckoned among the moft mifchievous of all thofe praaical errors that are in the Church of Rome. Since therefore this is no where mentioned, in all thefe large difcourfes that are in the New Teftament concerning juftification, we have juft reafon to rejea it : fince alfo the natural confequence of this doarine is to make men reft contented In low im perfea aas, when they can be fo eafily made up by a facrament, we have juft reafon to deteft it, as one of the depths of Satan ; the tendency of it being to make thofe ordinances of the Gofpel, which were given us as means to raife and heighten our faith and repentance, become engines to encourage floth and impenitence. There is another doarine that is held by many, and is' ftifl taught in the Church of Rome, not only with approbation, but favour ; that the inherent holinefs of good men is a thing of its own nature fo perfea, that, upon the account of it, God is fo bound to efteem them juft, and to jufiify them, that he were unjuft if he did it not. They think there is fuch a real condlgnity in it, that it makes men God's adopted children. Whereas we on the otlier hand teach, that God is indeed M pleafed l52 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. pleafed with the inward reformation that he fees in good men, ^^' in whom his grace dwells ; that he approves and accepts of ^^'''^^f^ their fincerity ; but that with this there is ftill fuch a mixture, and In this there is ftifl fo much imperfeaion, that even upon this account, if God did ftraltly mark iniquity, none could ftand before him : fo that even his acceptance of this is an aa of mercy and grace. This doarine was commonly taught In the Church of Rome at the time of the Reformation, and, together with it, they reckoned that the chief of thofe works that did juftify, were either great or rich endow ments, or exceffive devotions towards images, faints and re- licks ; by all which, Chrift was either forgot quite, or remem bered only for form fake, efteemed perhaps as the chief of faints ; not to mention the impious comparifons that' were made bctv/een him and fome faints, and the preferences that were given to them beyond him. In oppofition to all this, the reformers began, as they ought to have done, at the laying down this as the foundation of all Chriftianity, and of all our hopes, that we were reconciled to God merely through his mercy, by the redemption purchafed by Jefus Chrift ; and that a firm believing the Gofpel, and a claiming to the death of Chrift, as the great propitiation for our fins, according to the terms on ivhich it is offered us in the Gofpel, was that which united us to Chrift ; that gave us an intereft in his death, and there by juftified us. If, in tlje management of this controverfy, there was not fo critical a judgment made of the fcope of feveral paffages of St. Paul's Epiftles ; and if the difpute be came afterwards too abftraaed and metaphyfical, that Was the effea of the Infelicity of that time, and was the natural confe quence of much difputing : therefore though we do not now ftand to afl the arguments, and to all the citations and ifluftra- tions ufed by them ; and though we do not deny but that many cf the writers of the Church of Rome came infenfibly off from the moft praaical errors, that had been formeriy much taught, and more praaifed among them ; and that this matter was fo ftated by many of them, that, as to the main of it, we have no juft exceptions to it : yet after all, this beginning of the Refor mation was a great bleffing to the world, and has proved fo, even to the Church of Rome ; by bringing her to a jufter fenfe of the atonement made for fins by the blood of Chrift ; and by takmg men off from external aaions, and turning them to confider the inward aas of the mind, faith and repent- aiice, as the conditions of our juftification. And therefore the approbation given here to the homily, is only an appro bation of the doarine aflbrted and proved in it; which ought not to be carried to every particular of the proofs or explana- tions that are in it. To be jufiified, and to be accounted righteous, THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^^3 righteous, ftand for one and the fame thing in the Article : ART. and both import our being delivered from the guilt of fin, and ^'» entitled to the favour of God. Thefe differ from God's in-*""'^" ~^ tending from all eternity to fave us, as much as a decree differs from the execution of it. A man Is then only jufiified, when he is freed from wrath, and is at peace with God : and though this is freely offered to us in the Gofpel through Jefus Chrift, yet it is applied to none but to fuch as come within thofe qualifications and conditions fet before us in the Gofpel. That God pardons fin, and re ceives us into favour only through the death of Chrift, is fo fully expreffed in the Gofpel, as was already made out upon the fecond Article, that it is not poffible to doubt of It, If one does firmly believe, and attentively read the New Teftament. Nor is it lefs evident, that it is not offered to us abfolutely, and without conditions and limitations. Thefe conditions are. Repentance, with which remiffion of fins is often joined; andcal. v. 6. Faith, but a Faith that worketh by love, that purifies the heart, Luk= xxiv. and that keeps the commandments of. God ; fuch a faith as '^^^ jj g (hews itfelf to be alive by good works, by aas of charity, and every aa of obedience ; by which we demonftrate, that we truly and firmly believe the divine authority of our Sa viour and his doarine. Such a faith as this jufiifies, but not as it is a work or meritorious aaion, that of its own nature puts us in the favour of God, and makes us truly juft ; but as it is the condition upon which the mercy of God is offered to us by Chrift Jefus ; for then we correfpond to his defign of coming Into the world, that he might redeem us from a// Tit. ii. 14. iniquity, that is, juftify us : and purify unto himfelf a pecuUar people, zealous of good works; that is, fanaify us. Upon our bringing ourfelves therefore under thefe qualifications and con ditions, we are aaually in the favour of God ; our fins are pardoned, and we are entitled to eternal life. Our faith and repentance are not the valuable confide rations for which God pardons and juftifies ; that is done merely for the death of Chrift ; which God having out of the riches of his grace provided for us, and offered to us, juftification is upon thofe accounts faid to be free; there hexng nothing on our part which either did or could have procured it. But ftill our faith, which includes our hope, our love, our repent ance, and our obedience, is the condition that makes us ca pable of receiving the benefits of this redemption and free grace. And thus it is clear, in what fenfe we believe, that ¦ive are jufiified both freely, and yet through Chrift ; and alfo through Jaith, as the condition indifpenfably neceffary on our part. M2 In 1^4 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. In ftrianefs of words, we are not jufiified till the finaj ^'- fentence is pronounced ; till upon our death we are, folemnly ^'''"^^'^^ acquitted of our fins, and admitted into the prefence of God; this being that which is oppofite to condemnation : yet as a man, who is in that ftate, that muft end In condemnation, is Tohniil. iS- faid to be condemned already, and the wrath of God is faid tt abide upon him ; though he be not yet adjudged to it : fo, on the contrary, a man In that ftate, which muft end in the fufl en joyment of God, Is faid now" tobe jufiified, and to be at peace with God; becaufe he not only has the promifes of that flat* now belonging to him, when he does perform the conditions required in them; but is likewife receiving daily marks of God's favour, the proteaion of his providence, the miniftry of Angels, and the inward affiftances of his grace and Spirit. Tl)is is a doBrine full of comfort; for if we did believe that our juftification was founded upon our inherent juftice, or fanaificatlon, as the confideration on which we receive it, we fhould have juft caufe of fear and dejeaion ; fince we could not reafonably promife ourfelves fo great a bleffing, upon fo poor a confideration : but when we know that this is only the condition of it, then when we feel it is fincerely received and believed, and carefully obferved by us, we pay conclude that ¦we are jufiified : but we are by no means to think, that our certain perfuafion of Chrift's having died for us in particular, or the certainty of our falvation through him, is an aa of faving faith, much lefs that we are juftified by it. Many things have been too crudely faid upon this fubjea, which have given the enemies of the Reformation great advantages, and have furnifhed them with much matter of reproach. We ought to believe firmly, that Chrift died for all pe- ¦ nitent and converted finners ; and when we feel thefe cha raaers in ourfelves, we may from thence juftly infer, that he died for us, and that we are of the number of thofe who fhall be faved through him : but yet If we may fafl from this ftate, in which we do now feel ourfelves, we may and muft likewife forfeit thofe hopes; and therefore we 'muft work out our falvation with fear and trembling. Our be lieving that we ftiall be faved by Chrift, is no aa of divine faith; fince every aa of faith muft be founded on fome divine revelation : it is only a cofleaion and inference that we may make from this general propofition, that Chrift Is the propitiation for the fins of thofe who do truly repent and believe his Gofpel; and from thofe refleaions and obfervations that we make on ourfelves, by which we conclude, that we do truly both repent and believe. ARTICLE THE XXXIX ARTICLES. *^5 ART. ARTICLE XIL xii. Of Good Works. albeit t&at dDoob movl&, toSttS a?e tljt f ruttt. John faitB, toajt not in Bint. 2lBut all toe tBe rett (altBougB baptiseb anb born again in CBrill) pet offenb in manp tBingg; anb if toe fap toe Babe no Cin, toe beceibe ourfelbe0, anb tBe trutB i0 not in u0. THIS Article relates to the former, and is put here as another foundation againft all works of fupererogation : for that doarine, with the confequences of it, having given the firft occafion to the Reformation, it was thought necef fary to overthrow it entirely : and becaufe the perfeaion of the faints muft be fuppofed, before their fupererogating can be thought on, that was therefore here oppofed. That Chrift was holy, without fpot and blemijh, harmlefs, Heb. vii. .undefiled, and feparate from finners ; that there was no guile in ^^• his mouth ; that he never did amifs, but went about always doing good, and was as a lamb without fpot, is fo oft affirmed in the i Pet. i. 19. New Teftament, that It can admit of no debate. This was not only true in his rational powers, the fuperior part called the Spirit, in oppofition to the lower part, but alfo in thofe appe tites and affeaions that arife from our bodies, and from the union of our fouls to them, called the Flefh. For though in thefe Chrift having the human nature truly in him, had the appetites of hunger in him, yet the devfl could not tempt him by that to diftruft God, or to defire a miraculous fupply fooner than was fitting : he overcame even that neceffary ap petite whenfoever there was an occafion given him to do the ]oh.n\i.n. will of his heavenly Father : he had alfo in him the averfions to pain and fuffering, and the horror at a violent and ignomi nious death, which are planted in our natures : and in this it was natural to him to wifh and to pray that the cup might pafs from him. But in this his purity appeared the moft emi nently, that though he felt the weight of his nature to a vaft degree, he did, notwithftanding that, limit and conquer it fo . N 2 entirely, l80 AN EXPOSITION Of ART. entirely, that he refigned himfelf abfolutely to his Father's will: ^^' Not my will, but thy wiUbe done. ^""^''"^^ Befides all that has been already faid upon the former Ar ticles, to prove that fome taint and degree of the original cor ruption remains in all men ; the peculiar charaaer of Chrift's holinefs fo oft repeated, looks plainly to be a diftinaion proper to him, and to him only. We are called upon to follow him, to learn of him, and to imitate him without reftriaion ; where- 1 Cor. »i. 1. as we are required to folloub ihe Apofiles, only as they were the iV^^-i-^S- followers of Chrifi : and though we afe commanded /a ^* Wy as he was holy in all manner of converfation ; that does no more prove that any man can arrive at that pitch, than our being corn- Matt, v. 48. manded to be perfeB as our heavenly Father is perfeB, will prove that we may become as perfea as God is : the importance of thefe words being only this, that we ought in afl things to make God and -Chrift our patterns ; and that we ought to en deavour to imitate and refemble them all we can. There feems to be a particular defign in the contexture and writing of the Scriptures, to reprefent to us fome of the Luke i. 6. failings of the beft men: for though Zacharlas and Elizas b::th are faid to have been blamelefs, that muft only be meant cf the exterior and vifible part of their converfation, that it was free from blame, and of their being accepted of God ; but that is not to be carried to import a finlefs purity before Ver. 20. God : for we find the fame Zachary guilty of mifbelieving the meffage of the Angel to him, to fuch a degree, that he was punifhed for It with a dumbnefs of above nine months con tinuance. Perhaps the Virgin's queftion to the Angel had no- thirg blame-worthy in it ; but our Saviour's anfwers to her, Luke II. 49. jjoti^ when fhe came to him in the Temple, when he was twelve years old, and more particulariy when fhe moved him, John il. 4. at the marriage in Cana, to furnifh them with wine, look like a reprimand. The contentions among the Apoftles about the pre-eminence, and in particular the ambition of James and John, cannot be excufed. St. Peter's diffimulation at Antioch Matt. XX. in the judaizing controverfy, and the fbarp contention that hapr Ga'i.M! II P^"^'^ between Paul and Barnabas, are recorded in Scripture, and 12, 13', 14' tfiey are both charaaers of the fincerity of thofe who penned A ^' tance, thofe who fall away, after they bad been once enlightened and had tafied of the heavenly gift, had been made partakers of the Holy Ghofi, and had tafied the good word of God, and the powers ef tbe world to come. Upon thefe expreflions and fome others, though not quite of their force, it was, that in the primitive Church, fome that fefl after baptifm, were eaft 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 reftored to the peace of the Church ; this was done in Ter- tullian's time, if what he fays on this fubjea is not to be reckoned as a piece of his Montanifm. But foon after, there were great contefts upon this head, while the Novatians withdrew from the communion of the Church, and believed it was defiled by the receiving of apoftates into it : though that was not done fo eafily as fome propofed, but after a long feparation and a fevere courfe of penance, Upon this followed all thofe penitentiary Canons concerning the feveral meafures and degrees of penance, and that not only for aas of apoftafy from the Chriftian religion, but for afl other crying fins. According to what has been already faid upon the former Articles, it has appeved that the fanaificatlon of THE XXXIX ARTICLES. i8s of regenerated men is not fo perfeaed in this life, but that ^y.^' there is ftill a mixture of defeas and imperfeaions left in them : , ' ^ and the ftate of the new covenant is a continuance of re pentance and remiffion of fins ; for as oft as one fins, if he repents truly of it, and forfakes his fins, there is a ftanding offer of the pardon of all fins ; and therefore Chrift has taught us to pray dally. Forgive us our fins. If there were but one general pardon offered in baptifm, this would fignify httle to thofe who feel their infirmities, and the fins that do fo eafily befet them, fo apt to return upon them. It was no wonder if the enter taining this conceit brought in a fuperftitious error in praaice among the ancient Chriftians, of delaying baptifm till death ; as hoping that all fins were then certainly pardoned : a much more dangerous error than even the fatal one of trufting to a death-bed repentance. For baptifm might have been more eafily compaffed ; and there was more offered in the way of argument for building upon it, than has been offered at for a death-bed repentance. St. Peter's denial, his repentance, and his being reftored to his apoftolical dignity, feem to be recorded, partly on this ac count, to encourage us, even after the moft heinous offences, to return to God,, and never to reckon our condition defperate, were our fins ever fo many, but as we find our hearts hardened in them into an obftinate impenitency. Our Saviour has made our pardoning the offences that others commit againft us, the meafure upon which we may expea pardon from God ; and he being afked, what limits he fet to the number of the faults that we were bound to pardon, by the day, if feven was not enough, he carried it up to feventy times feven, a vaft number, far beyond the number of offences that any man will in all probability commit againft another in a day. But if they fhould grow up to all that vaft number of 490, yet if our brother ftill turns again and repents, we are ftill bound to forgive. Now Luke xvii. fince this Is joined with what he declared, that if we pardoned''- our brother his offences, our heavenly Father would alfo forgive Mate, xviii, us, then we may depend upon this, that according to the fin- 35- cerlty of our repentance, our fins are always forgiven us. And if this is the nature of the new Covenant, then the Church, which is a fociety formed upon it, muft proportion the rules both of her communion and cenfure, to thofe fet in the Gofpel : a heinous fin muft give us a deeper forrow, and higher degrees of repentance ; fcandals muft alfo be taken off and forgiven, when the offending perfons have repaired the offence that was given by them, with fuitable degrees of forrow. St. Paul in the beginnings of Chriftianity, in which it being yet tender and not wefl known to the world, was more apt to be both bfe" inifhed and corrupted, did ye't order the Corinthians to receive ^ ^^^^ ^ 5, back l86 AN EXPOSITION OF A R T. back into their communion the inceftuous perfon, whom by '^^^^ his own direaions they haJd delivered to Satan, they had excom- ^ '5- that they may be afhamed : yet not fo as to hate fuch a one, or count him as an enemy, but to admonifh him as a brother. Into what negka or proftltution foever any Church may have fallen in this great point of feparating offenders, of making them afhamed, and of keeping others from being corrupted with their ill ex ample and bad Influence, that muft be confeffed to be a very great defea and blemifh. The Church of Rome had flackened afl the ancient rules of difcipline, and had perverted this matter in a moft fcandalous manner ; and the world is now funk into fo much corruption, and to fuch a contempt of holy things, that it is much more eafy here to find matter for lamentation, thaii to fee how to remedy or correa it. ARTICLE X88 AN EXPOSITION or If^iJ- ARTICLE XVII. ^^""^^"^ Of Predeftination and Eledbion. p^ebeffination to life i0 tBe eberlaffing purpofe of (Bob, toBerebp (before tBe founbation0 of tBe OTorlb toere laib) Be BatB conffantlp betreeb fap B»0 Counfel, fetret to us, to beliber from curfe anb bamnation, tBofe toBom Be BatB tBofen tn CBritt out of manfeinb, anb to bring tBem bp CBrift unto eberlafting fealbation a0 beircl0 mabe to Bonour. ClBerefore tBep toBicB be enbueb toitB fo ertellent a benefit of (Eob, be talleb atcorbing to (115ob'0 purpofe, bp Bi0 Spirit toorfeing in bue fcafon. "iS^Bcp tBrougB grate obep tfie tailing, tBep be juftifieb freclp, tBep be mabe feon^of Cabbp aboption, tBep be mabe lifec tBt Simage of Bi0 onlp begotten a>on 3eru0 CBriff : '©B^P toalfe religiouOp in goob toorfe0, anb at lengtB fap CDob'0 mertp tBep attain to cuerlaffing felicitp. 30 tBe goblp confiberation of |@rebeffination anb *out CEleaion in (EBritt is full of ftoeet, pleafant, anb mu fpeafeafale comfort to goblp perfon0, anb futB 80 feel in tBcniirelbe0 tBe tooi^ng of tBe Spirit of iJDBriff, mor= tifpnig tf,t toorfe0 of tBe flefl^, anb tBeir eartBip mem bers, anb bratoingup tBeir minb to BigB anbBeabenlp tBings, a0 toell becaufe it botB greatlp effablift anb confirm tBeir i^aicB of eternal &albation tobeenjoptb tBrougB CBrift, a0 becaufeitbotB ferbentlp feinbletBeir lobe tDtoarbS (©ob: §>o for tujious anb carnal per^ fons, lacfeing tBe §>pijit of (£Britt,to Babecontinuallp faefo?c tBeir ©pes tBe fentence of (!I5ob'0 ^rebelfination, 10 a moff batigerou0 botonfall, tofierebp tBe JDcljii botB tBruit tBem eitBer into befpejation, or into toretcrilenicf0 of moll unclean libing, no Ier0 petilouji tBan btfpejation^ #urtBermare, Mt muft reteibe (©ob'0 promire0 in futB toife, as tBep be generallf fet fortB to u0 infiolp S>tppture : anb in our boing0, tBat W.ill of (Sob i0 to be foltotoeti, toBicB toe Babe ej;pref0lp beclar?ti unto us in tBe saRorb of CDob. THERE are many things in feveral of the other Articles which depend upon this ; and therefore I wifl explain it more fully ; for as this has given occafion to one of the longefti THE 3iXXIX ARTICLES. ^^? longeft, the fubtileft, and indeed the moft intricate of all the ART. queftions in divinity ; fo it will be neceffary to open and ex- '^'^''• amine it as fufly as the importance and difficulties of it do re- ^¦^v^' quire. In treating of it, I fhall, Firft, State the queftion, together with the confequences that arife out of it. Secondly, Give an account of the differences that have arifea upon it. Thirdly, I fhafl fet out the ftrength of the opinions of the contending parties, with all poffible impartiality and exaanefs. Fourthly, I fhafl fee how far they agree, and how far they differ ; and fhall fhew what reafon there is forbearing with one another's opinions in thefe matters ; and In the Fifth and laft place, I fhall confider how far we of this Church are determined by this Article, and how far we are at liberty to follow any of thofe different opinions. The whole -controverfy may be reduced to this fingle point as its head and fource : Upon what views did God form his purpofes and decrees concerning mankind .? Whether he did it merely upon a defign of advancing his own glory, and for manlfefting his own attributes, in order to which he fet tled the great and univerfal fcheme of his whole creation and providence ? Or whether he confidered all the free motions of thofe rational agents that he did Intend to create, and ac cording to what he forefaw they would choofe and do, in all the various circumftances In which he might put them, formed his decrees ? Here the controverfy begins ; and when this Is fettled,- the three main queftions that arife out of it, will be foon determined. The firft is, Whether both God and Chrift intended that Chrift fhould only die for that particular number whom God intended to fave ? Or whether it was intended that he fliould die for all, fo that every man that would, might have the be nefit of his death, and that no man was excluded from it, but becaufe he willingly rejeaed it ? The fecond is. Whether thofe affiftances that God gives to men to enable them to obey him, are of their own nature fo efficacious and irrefiftible, that they never fail of producing the effea for which they are given ? Or, whether they are only fufficient to enable a man to obey God ; fo that their efficacy comes from the freedom of the wifl, that either may co-operate with them, or may not, as it pleafes .' The third is. Whether fuch perfons do, and muft certainly perfevere, to whom fuch grace is given ? Or, whether they may not fafl away both entirely and finally from that ftate ? There are alfo other queftions concerning the true notion of liberty, concerning the feeblenefs of our powers In this lapfed ftate, with feveral leffer ones ; all which do neceffarily take ^9Q . AN EXPOSITION OF take their determination from the decifion of the firft and main queftion ; about which there are four opinions. The firft is, of thofe commonly called Supralapfarlans, who think that God does only confider his own glory in all that he does : and that whatever is done, arifes as from its firft caufe, from the decree of God : that in this decree, God confidering only the manifeftation of his own glory, intended to make the world, to put a race of men in it, to conftitute them under Adam as their fountain and head : that he de creed Adam's fin, the lapfe of his pofterity, and Chrift's death, together with the falvation or damnation of fuch men as fhould be moft for his own glory : that to thofe who were to be faved, he decreed to give fuch efficacious affiftances, as fhould cer tainly put them in the way of falvation ; and to thofe whom he rejeaed, he agreed to give fuch affiftances and means only as fhould render them inexcufable : that all men do continue in a ftate of grace, or of fin, and fhall be faved or damned, according to that firft decree : fo that God views himfelf only, and in that view he defigns all things fingly for his own glory, and for the manlfefting of his own attributes. The fecond opinion is of thofe called the Sublapfarians ; who fay, that Adam having finned freely, and his fin being imputed to all his pofterity, God did confider mankind, thus loft, with an eye of pity ; and having defigned to refcue a great number out of this loft. ftate, he decreed to fend his Son to die for them, to accept of his death on their account, and to give them fuch affiftances as fhould be effe6tual both to convert ihem to him, and to tnake them perfevere to the end : but for the reft, he framed no pofitive aa about them, only he left them in that lapfed ftate, without Intending that they fhould have the be nefit of Chrift's death, or ofefficacious and perfevering affiftances. The third opinion Is of thofe who are called Remonftrants, Armlnlans, or Univerfallfts, who think that God intended to create all men free, and to deal with them according to the ufe that they fhould make of their liberty : that therefore hp forefeeing how every one would ufe It, did upon that decree all things that concerned them in this life, together with their fal vation and damnation in the next: that Chrift died for all men -, that fufficient affiftances are given to every man, but that all men may choofe whether they will ufe them, and per fevere in them, or not. The fourth opinion is of the Socinians, who deny the certain prefcience of future contingencies ; and therefore they think the decrees of God from all eternity were only general; that fuch as believe and obey the Gofpel fhall be faved, and that fuch as live and die in fin fhafl be damned : but that there were no fpecial decrees made concerning particular perfons, thefe being THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^9^. teing only made in time, according to the flate in which they ART. are: they do alfo think that man is by nature fo free and ¦''^"• fo entire, that he needs no inward grace ; fo they deny a ^-'^y^^ fpecial predeftination from all eternity, and Ao alfo deny inward affi.ftances. ' This is a controverfy that arifes out of natural religion S for if it is believed that God governs the world, and that the wflls of men are free ; then it is natural to enquire which of thefe is fubjea to the other, or how they can be both main tained : whether God determines the wifl ? or if his Provi dence follows the motions of the will ? Therefore all thofe fhat believed a Providence have been aware of this difficulty. The Stoicks put all things under a fate ; even the Gods them felves : if this fate was a neceffary' feries of things, a chain of matter and motion that was fixed and unalterable, then it was plain and downright atheifm. The Epicureans fet all things at liberty, and either thought that there was no God, or at leaft that there was no Providence. The Philofophers knew not how to avoid this difficulty,' by which we fee Tully and others were fo differently moved, that it is plain they de- fpaired of getting out of it. The Jews had the fame queftion Jofcph. among them; for they could not believe their Law, without ,^"'- J."'*- acknowledgingaProvidence : and yet the Sadducees among them 2.1.drBelL afferted liberty in fo entire a manner, that they fet it free Jud. lib. ii. from all reftralnts : on the other hand, the Effens put afl things '^' ?• under an abfolute fate : and the Pharifees took a middle way ; they afferted the freedom of the will, but thought that afl things were governed by a Providence. There are alfo fubtle difputes concerning this matter among the Mahometans, one fea afferting liberty, and another fate, which generally prevails among them. In the firft ages of Chriftianity, the Gnofticks fancied that Iren. adv. the fouls of men were of different ranks, and that they fprang ^"- ''''• '• from different principles, or Gods, who made them. Some were Epip'h. carnal, that were devoted to perdition; others were fpiritual, Her. 31. and were certainly to be faved ; others were animal of a mid- p'^T"',.^'' die order, capable either of happinefs or mifery. It feems ;. 5' that the Marcionites and Manichees thought that fome fouls Orig. Peri- were made by the bad God, as others were made by the good. ^^^^^°"- '• 3- In oppofition to all thefe, Origen afferted, that all fouls were ^_ ^j" ' by nature equally capable of being either good or bad ; and Expian. that the difference among men arofe merely from the freedom "¦¦ ^P* *'' of the will, and the various ufe of that freedom : that God °™' left men to this liberty, and rewarded and punlflied them ac cording to the ufe of it : yet he afferted a Providence, but as he brought in the Platonlcal doarine of pre-exiftence into the government of the world ; and as he explained God's loving '9* AN EXPOSITION OF ART. loving Jacob, and his hating of Efau, before they were born, ^^^^ "^ and had done either good or evil, by this of a regard to ''^^f^^ what they had done formerly ; fo he afferted the fell of man in Adam, and his being recovered by grace ; but he ftill main tained an unreftrained liberty in the will. His doarine, though much hated in Egypt, was generally followed over all the Eaft, particularly in Palettine and at Antioch. St. Gregory Nazi anzen and St. Bafil drew a fyftem of dIviHity out of his works, in which that which relates to the liberty of the will is very fully fet forth : that book was much ftudied in the Eaft, Orig. Pl^i. Chryfoftom, Ifidore of Damiete, and Theodoret, with afl their locaiia. followers, taught it fo copioufly,, that it became the received dodtrine of the Eafterh Church. Jerome was fo much in love with Origen, that he tranflated fome parts of him, and fet Ruffin on tranflating the reft. But as he had a fharp quarrel with the bifhops of Paleftlne, fo that perhaps difpofed him to change his thoughts of Origen : for ever after that, he fet himfelf much to dil'grace his doarine ; and he was very fevere Ruffin. on Ruffin for tranflating him : though Ruffin confeffes, that, Pcrcr.^n Jn tranflating his works, he took great liberties in altering Orig. in ' feveral paffages that he difliked. One of Origen's difciples was Ep. ad Pelagius, a Scotrifli monk. In great efteem at Rome, both for Ch*"? E ^'*' ^^^'¦"'"S' ^"'^ tl'is g^'e^' ftrianefs of his life. He car- ^^ ¦ ''' ried thefe doarines farther than the Greek Church had done ; ciymp. fo that he was reckoned to have fallen into great errors both by "b' i*^'/' ^^'¦y'o^o'n ^"d Ifidore, (as It is reprefented by Janfenius, though 514'. '' *"' ^^^^ 'S denied by others, who think they meant another of the fame name. ) He denied that we had fuffered any harm by the fall of Adam, or that there was any need of inward af fiftances; and he afferted an entire liberty in the wifl. St. Auftin, though in his difputes with the Manichees he had faid many things on the fide of liberty, yet he hated Pelagius's doarine, which he thought aflerted a facrileglous liberty, and he fet himfelf to beat down his tenets which had been but feebly attacked by Jerom. Caffian, a difciple of St. Chry- foftom's, came to Marfeilles about this time, having left Con ftantinople perhaps v/hen his mafter was banifhed out of it. He taught a middle doarine, afferting an Inward grace, but fub jea to the freedom of the will : and that all things were both decreed and done, according to the prefcience of God, in which all future contingents were forefeen : he alfo taught, that the firft converfion of the foul to God, v/as merely an effea of its free choice ; fo that afl preventing grace was denied by him ; which came to be the peculiar diftinaion of thofe who were afterwards called the Semi-Pelagians. Profper and Hilary gave an account of this fyftem to St. Auftin, upon which he vmt againft it, and his opinions were defended by Profper, Fulgentius, THE XXXIX ARTICLES. '93 fulgentius, .'Orofitis, and others, as Caffian's were defended by A R T. Fauftus, Vincentius, and Gennadius. In conclufion, St. Au- ^^ii- ilin's opinions did generally prevail in the Weft ; only Pela- ^''"V^ gius, it feems, retiring to his own country, he had many fol lowers among the Britains : but German and Lupus being fent over once and again from France, are faid to have conquered them fo entirely, that they were all freed from thofe errors : whatever they did by their arguments, the writers of their legends took care to adorn their miffion with many very won derful miracles, of which the gathering all the pieces of a calf, fome of which had been dreft, and the putting them to gether in its fkin, and reftorlng it again to life, Is none of the leaft. The ruin of the Roman Empire, and the diforders that. the Weftern Provinces fell under by their new and bar barous mafters, occafioned in thofe ages a great decay of learn ing : fo that few writers of fame coming after that time, St. Auftin's great labours and piety, and the many vaft volumes that he had left behind him, gave him fo great a name, that few durft conteft what had been fo zealoufly and fo copioufly defended by him : and though it is highly probable, that Celeftlne was not fatisfied with his doarine ; yet both he and ¦the other Bifhops of Rome, together with many provincial fy nods, have fo often declared his doarine In thofe points to be the doarine of the Church, that this is very hardly got over by thofe of that communion. The chief, and indeed the only material difference that Is be tween St. Auftin's doarine and that of the Sublapfarians, Is, that he, holding that with the facrament of baptifm there was joined an inward regeneration, made a difference between the regenerate and the predefiinate, which thefe do not: he "thought perfons thus regenerate might have all grace, befides that of per fever ance ; but he thought that they not being pre- deftlnated, were certainly to fall from that ftate, and from the grace of regeneration. The other differences are but forced ftrains, to reprefent him and the Calvinifts as of dif ferent principles : he thought, that overcoming dekaation, in which he put the efficacy of grace, was as irrefiftible, though he ufed not fo ftrong a word for it as the Calvinifts do ; and he thought that the decree was as abfolute, and made without any , regard to what the free-will would choofe, as any of thefe do. So In the main points, the abfolutenefs of the decree, the ex tent of Chrift'? death, the efficacy of grace, and the certainty of perfeverance, their opinions are the fame, though their ways of expreffing themfelves do often differ. But if St, Au ftin's name arid the credit of his books went far, yet no book was more read in the follov/Ing ages, than Caffian's Collations. There was In them a clear thread of good fenfe, O and *9+ AN EXPOSITION OF ART. and a very high ftrain of piety that run through them ; and ^^''" they were thought the beft Inftitutions for a monk to form his ^?¦v-^ mind, by reading them attentively : fo they ftill carried down, among thofe who read them, deep Impreffions of the doarine of the Greek Church. This broke out In the ninth century, in which Godefcalcus, a monk, was feverely ufed by HIncmar, and by the Church of Rhemes, for afferting fome of St. Auftin's doarines ; againft which Scotus Erigena wrote ; as Bertram, or Ratramne, wrote for them. Remigius bifliop of Lyons, with his Church, did zealoufly affert St. Auftin's doarine, not without great fharp- nefs againft Scotus. After this, the matter flept, till the fchool- dlvinlty came to be in great credit : and Thomas Aquinas be ing accounted the chief glory of the Dominican order, he not only aflerted all St. Auftin's doarine, but added this to it; that whereas formeriy it was In general held, that the pro vidence of God did extend itfelf to all things whatfoever, he thought this was done by God's concurring immediately to the produaion of every thought, aaion, motion, or mode; fo that God was the firft and immediate caufe of every thing that was done : and in order to the explaining the joint produaion of every thing by God as the firft, and by the creature as the fecond caufe, he thought, at leaft as his followers have un derftood him, that by a phyfical influence the will was pre determined by God to all things, whether good or bad ; fo that the will could not be faid to be free in that particular in ftance in fenfu compofito, though it was In general ftill free in all Its aaions in fenfu divifo : a diftinaion fo facred, and fo much ufed among them, that I choofe to give it In their own terms rather than tranflate them. To avoid the confequence of making God the author of fin, a diftinaion was made be tween the pofitive aa of fin, which was faid not to. be evil, and the want of its conformity to the law of God, which be ing a negation, was no pofitive being, fo that It was not pro duced. And thus, though the aaion was produced jointly by God as the firft caufe, and by the creature as the fecond, yet God was not guilty of the fin, but only the creature. This doarine paffed down among the Dominicans, and continues to do fo to this day. Scotus, who was a Francifcan, denied this predeterminarion, and afferted the freedom of the will. Du- randus denied this immediate concourfe ; in which he has not had many followers, except Adola, and fome few more. When J_uther began to form his opinions ^nto a body, he cleariy faw, that nothing did fo plainly deftroy the doarine of merit and juftification by works, as St. Auftin's opinions : he found alfo in his works very exprefs authorities againft moft of the corruptbns of the Roman Church : and being of an THE XXXIX ARTICLES, ^95 an order that carried his name, and by confequence was ac- A R T. cuftomed to read and reverence his works, it was no wonder ^ ^^ if he, without a ftria examining of the matter, efpoufed all his opinions. Moft of thofe of the Church of Rome who wrote againft him, being of the other perfuafions, any one reading the books of that age, would have thought that St. Auftin's doarine was abandoned by the Church of Rome : fo that when Michael Baius, and fome others at Louvain, began to revive it, that became a matter of fcandal, and they were condemned at Rome : yet at the Council of Trent the Domi nicans had fo much credit, that great care was taken, in the penning their decrees, to avoid all refleaions upon that doc trine. It was at firft received by the whole Jefult order, fo that Bellarmlne formed himfelf upon It, and ftill adhered to it: but foon after, that order changed their mind, and left their whole body to a full liberty in thofe points, and went all quickly over to the other hypothefis, that differed from the Semipela gians only in this, that they allowed a preventing-grace, but fuch as was fubjea to the freedom of the will. Molina and Fonieca invented a new way of explaining God's forefeeing future contingents, which they cafled a middle, or mean fcience ; by which they taught, that as God fees all things as poffible in 'his knowledge of fimple apprehenfion, and all things that are certainly future, as prefent in his knowledge of vifion ; fo by this knowledge he alfo fees the chain of all conditionate futurities, and all the conneaions of them, that is, whatfoever would follow upon fuch or fuch conditions. Great jealoufies arifing upon the progrefs that the order of the Jeiults was malcing, thefe opinions were laid hold on to mortify them ; fo they were complained of at Rome for de parting from St. Auftin's doarine, which in thefe points was generally received as the doarine of the Latin Church : and many conferences were held before Pope Clement the Eighth, and the Cardinals ; where the point in debate was chiefly. What was the doarine and tradition of the Church ? The advantages that St. Auftin's followers had, were fuch, that before fair judges they muft have triumphed over the other: Pope Clement had fo refolved ; but he dying, though f^ope Paul the Fifth had the fame Intentions, yet he happening then to be engaged in a quarrel with the Venetians about the ecclefiafti cal- immunities, and having put that republick under an in- terdiB, the Jefuits who were there chofe to be banifhed, rather than to break the interdiB : and their adhering fo firm ly to the Papal authority, when moft of the other orders for- fook It, was thought fo meritorious at Rome, that it faved them the cenfure : fo, inftead of a decifion, all fides were commanded to be filent, and to quarrel no more upon thofe heads. O 2 About 196" AN EXPOSITION OF ART. About forty years after that, Janfenius, a doadr of Lou- _ XVII. yain^ being a zealous difciple of St. Auftin's, and feeing the ^^^^^f"^ progrefs that the Contrary doarines were making, did with great -induftry, and an equal fidelity, publifh a voluminous fyftem of St. Auftin's doarine in all the feveral branches of the controverfy: and he fet forth the Pelagians and the Se mipelagians in that work under very black charaaers ; and, not content with that, he compared the doarines of the mo dern innovators with theirs. 'Ihis book was received by the whole party with great applaufe, as a work that had decided the controverfy. But the Author having writ with an ex traordinary force againft the French pretenfions on Flanders, which recommended him fo much to the Spanifh Court, that he was made a Bifhop upon It ; all thofe in France who followed St. Auftin's doarine, and applauded this book, were repre fented by their enemies as being in the fame interefts with him, and by confequence as enemies to the French greatnefs; fo that, the Court of France profeeuted the whole party. This book was at firfl: only prohibited at Rome, as a violation of that filence that the Pope had enjoined ; afterwards articles were picked out of it, and condemned, and all the Clergy of France were required to fign the condemnation of them. Thefe articles were certainly in his book, and were manifeft confe quences of St. Auftin's doarine, which was chiefly driven at ; though it was ftill declared at Rome, that nothing was Intended to be done in prejudice of St. Auftin's doarine. Upon this pretence his party have faid, that thofe articles being capable of two fenfes, the one of which was ftrained, and was here tical, the other of which was clear, and according to St. Au- ffin's doarine, It muft be prefumed it was not in that fe cond, but In the other fenfe, that they were condemned at Rome, and fo they figned the condemnation cf them: but then they faid, that they were not in Janfenius's book in the fenfe In which they condemned them. Upon that, followed a moft extravagant queftion concerning the Pope's infallibility in matters of fadt : It being faid on the one fiue, that the Pope having condemned them as Janfe nius's opinions, the belief of his infaflibflity obliged them to conclude tiiat they mu.ft be in his book : whereas the others with great truth affirmed, that it had never been thought that in matters of tact either Popes or Councils were Infallible. At laft a new Cefliitioii of hoftilltles upon thefe points was re- (olved on ; yet the hatred continues, and the war goes ou, though more covertly and more Indireaiy than before. Nor are the Reformed more of a piece t.han the Church of Rome upon thefe points. Luther went on long, as he at firft fet outj vvith fo little difguife, that whereas all parties had always pretended THE XXXIX ARTICLES. '92 firetended that they afferted the freedom of the will, he plainly ART. poke out, and faid the will was not free but enfiaved : yet XVII. before he died, he is reported to have clianged his mind ; for ^"-^"^f^^ though he never owned that, yet Melanahon, who had been of the fame opinion, did freely retraa it ; for which he was never blamed by Luther. Since that time afl the Lutherans have gone into the Semlpelaglan opinions fo entirely and fo eagerly, that they will neither tolerate nor hold communion with any of the other perfuafion. Calvin not only taught St. Auftin's doarine, but feemed to go on to the Supralapfarian way ; which was more openly taught by Beza, and was generally followed by the Reformed ; only the difference between the Supralapfarlans and the Sublapfarians was never brought to a decifion ; divines being in all the Calvinifts Churches left to their freedom as to that point. In England the firft Reformers were generally in the Sublap- farian hypothefis : but Perkins and others having afferted the Supralapfarian way, Armlnius, a profcflbr in Leyden, writ againft him : upon this Gomarus and he had many difputes ; and thefe opinions bred a great diftraaion over all the United Pro vinces. At the fame time another political matter occafioning a divifion of opinion, whether the war fhould be carried on with Spain, or if propofitions for a peace or truce fhould be entertained ? It happened that Arminius's followers were all for a peace, and the others were generally for carrying on the war ; which being promoted by the Prince of Orange, he joined to them : and the Arminians were reprefented as men, whofe opinions and affeaions leaned to Popery : fo that this, from bring a doarinal point, became the diftinaion of a party, and by that means the differences w.;re -inflamed. A great fynod met at Dort ; to which the divines were fent from hence, as well as from other Churches. The Arminian te nets were condemned ; but the difference between the Supra lapfarlans and Sublapfarians was not meddled with. The di vines of this Church, though very moderate in the way of propofing their opinions, yet upon the main adhered to St. Auftin's dodtrine. So the breach was formed in Holland : but when the point of ftate was no more mixed with it, thelb queftions were handled with lefs heat. Thofe difputes quickly croffed the feas, and divided us : the Abbots adhered to St. Auftin's dodtrine ; wiiile Bifliop Overal, but chiefly Archblftiop Laud, efpoufed the Arminian tenets. All divines were by proclamation required not to preach upon thofe heads : but thofe that favoured the new opi nions were encouraged, and the others were depreffed. And unhappy difputes falling in at that time, concerning the extent of the royal prerogative beyond law, the Arminians having O 3 declared 19"^ AN EXPOSITION OF ART. declared themfelves highly for that, they were as much favoured ^^'^" at Court, as they were cenfured In the Parliament: which ^•^''"^/"^ brought that doarine under a very hard charaaer over all the nation. Twiffe carried it high to the Supralapfarian hypothefis, which grew to be generally followed by thofe of that fide : but that founded harfhly ; and Hobbes's grafting afterwards a fate and abfolute neceffity upon It, the other opinions were again revived ; and no political interefts falling In with them, as all prejudices againft them went off, fo they were more calmly debated, and became more generally acceptable than they were before. Men are now left to their liberty in them, and afl anger upon thofe heads is now fo happily extingulfhed, that diverfity of opinions about them begets no alienation nor ani- mofity. So far have I profeeuted a fhort view of the hiftory of this controverfy. I come now to open the chief grounds of the different parties : and firft, for the Supralapfarlans. They lay this dov/n for a foundation, that God is effen- tiafly perfedf and independent In all his aas : fo that he can confider nothing but himfelf and his own glory : that there fore he defigned every thing in and for himfelf; that to make him ftay his decrees till he fees what free creatures wifl do, is to make him decree dependently upon thern ; which feems to fafl fhort of infinite perfeaion: that he himfelf can be the only end of his counfels ; and that therefore he could only confider the manifeftation of his own attributes and perfec tion ; that infinite wifdom muft begin its defigns at that which is to come laft in the execution of them ; and fince the con clufion of all things at the laft day will be the manifeftation of the wifdom, goodnefs, and juftice of God, we ought to fuppofe, that Ciod in the order of things defigned that firfi:, though in the order of time there is no firft nor fecond in God, this being fuppofed to be from all eternity. After this great defign v/as laid, all the means in order to the end were next to be defigned. Creatures in the fight of God are as no thing, and by a ftrong figure are faid to be lefs than nothing, and \anity. Now if we in our defigns do not confider ants or infeas, not to fay ftraws, or grains of fanti and duft, then what lofty thoughts foever our pride may fiiggeft to uf, we muft be confeffed to be very poor and inconfiderable creatures before God ; therefore he himfelf and his own glory can only be his own end In afl that he defigns or does. This IS the chief bafis of their doarine,/ and fo ought to be wefl confidered. They add to this, that there can be no certam prelcience of future contingents. They fay It Involves a contradiaion, that things which are not certainly to be, dould THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^99 fliould be certainly forefeen ; for if they are certainly forefeen, art. they muft certainly be : fo while they are fuppofed to be con- XVII. tingent, they are yet affirmed to be certain, by faying that they ^-^^/"^ are certainly forefeen. When God decrees that any thing fhall be, it has from that a certain futurition, and as fuch it is cer tainly forefeen by him : an uncertain forefight is an aa of its nature imperfea, becaufe it may be a miftake, and fo is incon fiftent with the divine perfeaion. And It feems to imply a contradiaion to fay that a thing happens freely, that is, may be, or may not be, and yet that it is certainly forefeen by God. God cannot forefee things, but as he decrees them, and fo gives them a futurition, and therefore this prefcience antecedent to his decree, muft be rejeaed as a thing impoffible. They fay farther, that conditionate decrees are imper fea in their nature, and that they fubjea the will and aas of God to a creature : that a conditionate decree is an aa in fufpenfe, whether it fhall be or not ; which is inconfiftent with infinite perfeaion. A general will, or rather a wifling that all men fhould be faved, has alfo plain charaaers of im perfeaion in it : as if God wifhed fomewhat that he could not accomplifh, fo that his goodnefs fhould feem to be more extended than his power. Infinite perfedtlon can wifh no thing but what it can execute; and if it is fit to wifh it, it is fit alfo to execute it. Therefore all that ftyle, that afcribes paf fions or affeaions to God, muft be underftood in a figure ; fo that when his providence exerts itfelf in fuch aas as among us men would be the effeas of thofe paffions, then the paf fions themfelves are in the phrafe of the Scripture afcribed to God. They fay we ought not to meafure the punifhments of fin by our notions of juftice : God affiias many good men very feverely, and for many years in this life, and this only for the manifeftation of his ov/n glory, for making their faith and patience to fhine ; and yet none think that this is unjuft. It is a method in which God will be glorified In them: fome fins are puhifhed with other fins, and likewife with a courfe of fevere miferies: If we transfer this from time to eternity, the whole will be then more conceivable ; for if God may do for a litde time that which is Inconfiftent with our notions, and with our rules of juftice, he may do if for a longer durarion; fince It Is as impoffible that he can be unjuft for a day, as for all eternity. As God does every thing for himfelf and his own glory, fo the Scriptures teach us every where to offer up all praife and glory to God ; to acknowledge that all is of him, and to humble ourfelves as being nothing before him. Now if we were ekaed not by a free aa of his, but by what he forefaw that we would be, fo that his grace is not efficacious })y its own O 4 force, 20* AlJ EXPOSITION OF ART. force, but by the good ufe that We make of it, then the glorf ^^^^- and praife of all the good we do, and of God's purpofes to usy ^~~ -' were due to ourfelves : he defigns, according to the other doc trine, equally well to all men ; and afl the difference among them will arife neither from God's intentions to them, nor from his affiftances, but from the good ufe that he forefaw they would make of thefe favours that he was to give in common to afl mankind : man fhould have whereof to glory, and he might fay, that he himfelf made himfelf to differ from others. The whole ftrain of the Scriptures in aferlbing all good things to God, and in charging us to offer up the honour of all to him, feems very exprefsly to favour this doarine ; fince if all our good is from (jod, and is particularly owing to his grace, there good men have fomewhat from God that bad men have not ; for which they ought to praife him. T he ftyle of afl the prayers that are ufed or direaed to be ufed in the Scripture, is for a grace that opens our eyes, that turns our hearts, that makes us to go, that leads us not into temptation, but delivers us from evil. All thefe phrafes do plainly Import that we defire more than a power or capacity to aa, fuch as is giVen to afl men, and fuch as, after we have received it, may be ftill ineffedtual to us. For to pray for fuch affiftances as are always given to all men, and are fuch that the whole good of them fhall wholly depend upon ourfelves, would found very oddly ; whereas we pray for fomewhat that is fpecial, riid that we hope fliafl be efteaual. We do not and cannot pray ear- neftly for that, which we know all men as wefl as we ourfelves have at all times. Humility and earneftnefs in prayer feem to be among the chief means of working in us the image of Chrift, and of deriving to us all the bleflings of heaven. That doarine which blafts both, which fwells us up with an opinion that afl comes from ourfelves, and that we receive nothing from God but what is given In common with us to all the worid, is^ certainly contrary both to the fpirit and to«:he defign of the Gofpel. To this they add obfervatjons from Providence. The worid v^as for many ages delivered up to idolatry ; and fince the Chriftian religion has appeared, we fee vaft tradfs of coun tries which have continued ever fince in idolatry : others are Men under Mahometanifm ; and the ftate of Chriftendom is in the Eaftern parts of it under fo much ignorance, and the greateft part of the Weft is under fo much corruption, that we muft confefs the far greateft part of mankind has been In all ages left deftitute of the means of grace, fo that the promul gating the Gofpel to fome nations, and the denying it to others, muft be afcribed to the unfearchable ways of God, that are paft finding THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^°' findingi out. If he thus leaves whole nations in fuch darknefs ART. and corruption, and freely choofes others to communicate the xvil. knowledge of himfelf to them, then we need not wonder If '-'^'^^' he ftiould hold the fame method with Individuals, that he does with whole bodies : for the rejeaing of whole nations by the lump for fo many ages, is much more unaccountable than the fefeaing of a few, and the leaving others in that flate of igno rance and brutality. And whatever may be faid of his ex tending mercy to fome few of thofe who have made a good ufe of that dim light which they had ; yet it cannot be. denied but their condition is much more deplorable, and the con dition of the others is much more hopeful ; fo that great num bers of men are born in fuch circumftances, that it is morally impoffible that they fhould not perifh in them ; whereas others are more happily fituated and enlightened. This argument taken from common obfervation becomes much ftronger, when we confider what the Apoftle fays, par ticularly in the Epiftles to the Romans and the Ephefians, even Rom.ix.ii. according to the expofition of thofe of the other fide : for if God loved Jacob, fo as to choofe his pofterity to be his people, and rejeaed or haled Efau and his pofterity, and if that was according to the purpofe and defign of his eleaion; if by the fame purpofe the Gentiles were to be grafted upon that ftock, from which the Jews were then to be cut off; and if the counfel or purpofe of God had appeared In par ticular to thofe of Ephefus, though the moft corrupted both in magick, idolatry, and immorality of any in the Eaft ; then it is plain, that the applying the means of grace, arifes merely from a great defign that was long hid in God, which did then break out. It is reafonable to believe, that there Is a propor tion between the application of the m'eans, and the decree it felf concerning the end. The one Is refolved into the un fearchable riches of God's grace, and declared to be free and abfolute. God's choofing the nation of the Jews in fuch a diftinaion beyond all other nations, is by Mofes and the Pro phets frequently faid not to be on their ov/n account, or on the account of any thing that God faw in them, but merely from the goodnefs of God to them. From all this, it feems, fay they, as reafonable to believe that the other is likewife free, according to thofe words of our Saviour's, / thank thee, O Matt. xi. Father, Lord of heaven and earth, becaufe thou hafi hid thefe '^^'''¦°' things from the wife and prudent, and hafi revealed them unto babes : the reafon of which is given in the following words. Even fo. Father, for it feemed good in thy fight. What goes be- ibid. 21, fore, of Tyre and Sidon, and the land of Sodom, that would 2?j 2.3. have made a better ufe of his preaching, than the towns of Galilee had done, among whom he lived, confirms this, that the ^^^ AN EXPOSITION OF ART. the means of grace are not beftowed on thofe of whom it XVII. vvas forefeen that they would have made a good ufe of them ; ^¦'''V''"^-' or denied to thofe who, as was forefeen, would have made an ifl ufe of them : the contrary of this being plainly afferted in thofe words of our Saviour's. It is farther obfervable, that he feems not to be fpeaking here of different nations, but of the different forts of men of the famie nation : the more learned of the Jews, the wife and prudent, rejeaed him, while the fimpler, but better fort, the babes, received him : fo that the difference between individual perfons feems here to be refolved into the good pleafure of God. It is fartlier urged, that fince thofe of the other fide confefs, that-God by his prefcience forefaw what circumftances might be happy, and what affiftances might prove efficacious to bad men; then his not putting them in thofe circumftances, but giving them fuch affiftances only, which, how effeaual foever they might be to others, he faw would have no efficacy on them, and his putting them In circumftances, and giving them affift ances, which he forefaw they would abufe, if It may feem to clear the juftice of God, yet it cannot clear his infinitj holinefs and goodnefs : which muft ever carry him, according to our notions of thefe perfeaions, to do all that may be done, and that in the moft effeaual way, to refcue others from miferv, to make them truly good, and to put them In a way to be happy. Since therefore this is not alv/ays done, according to the other opinion, it is plain that there is an unfearchable depth In the ways of God, which we are not able to fathom. Therefore it muft be concluded, that fince all are not aauafly good, and fo put in a way to be faved, that God did not Intend that it Rom.ix. fl^'^"ld be fo; for who hath refefied his will? The counfel of the ,5. Lordfiandeth fafi, and the thoughts of his heart to aU genera- Pf. xxxiii. tians. It is true, his laws are his will in one refpea: he re- >»• quires all to obey them : he approves them, and he obliges all men to keep them. All the expreffions of his defires that all men fhould be faved, are to be explained of the will of re velation, commonly cafled the fign of his wiU. When It is Ifa. V. 4. faid. What more could have been done ? that Is to be underftood of outward means and bleffings : but ftifl God has a fecret wifl of his good pleafure. In which he defigns afl things ; and this can never be fruftrated. From this they do alfo conclude, that though Chrift's death was to be offered to all Chriftians ; yet that intentlon- afly and aaually he only died for thofe whom the Father had choien and given to him to be faved by him. They cannot think Gal.ii. 21. that Chrift could hwe died in vain, which St. Paul fpeaks of as a vaft abfurdity. Now fince, if he had died for all, he ftiould have died in vain, with relation to the far greater part of mankind, THE XXXIX ARTICLES. *°3 mankind, who are not to be faved by him ; they from thence ART. conclude, that all thofe for whom he died are certainly faved XVII. by him. Perhaps with relation to fome fubaltern bleffings, ^"V^ which are through him communicated, if not to all mankind, yet to all Chriftians, he may be faid to have died for all : but as to eternal falvation, they believe his defign went no farther than the fecret putpofe and efeaion of God, and this they think is implied in thefe words, all that are given me of my Fa- Tf,hnxvii. ther : thine they were, and thou gavefi them me. He alfo limits 9, 10. his interceffion to thofe only ; I pray not for the world, but for thofe that thou hafi given me ; for they are thine, and all thine are mine, and mine are thine. They believe that he alfo limited to them the extent of his death, and of that facrifice which he offered in it. It is true, the Chriftian religion being to be diftlngulfhed from the Jewifh in this main point, that whereas the Jewifh was reftrained to Abraham's pofterity, and confined within one race and nation, the Chriftian was to be preached to every creature ; univerfal words are ufed concerning the death of Chrift : but as the words, preaching to every creature, and to Mark xtw all the world, are not to be underftood in the utmoft extent, '5- for then they have never been verified ; fince the Gofpel has never yet, for aught that appears to us, been preached to every nation under heaven ; but only are to be explained generally of a commiffion not limited to one or more nations ; none being excluded from it : the Apoftles were to execute it in go ing from city to city, as they fhould be inwardly moved to it by the Holy Ghoft : fo they think that thofe large words, that are applied to the death of Chrift, are to be underftood in the fame qualified manner ; that no nation or fort of men are ex cluded from It, and that fome of all kinds and forts fhafl be faved by him. And this Is to be carried no farther, without an imputation on the juftice of God: for if he has received a fufficient oblation and fatisfaaion for the fins of the whole world, it is not reconcileable to juftice, that all fhould not be faved by it, or fhould not at leaft have the offer and promulga tion of it made them ; that fo a trial may be made whether they will accept of it or not. The grace of God is fet forth in Scripture by fuch figures and expreffions as do plainly intimate its efficacy ; and that it does not depend upon us to ufe it, or not to ufe it at pleafure. It is faid to be a creation; we are created unto good works, and Eph. ii. 10. we become new creatures : It is called a regeneration, or a new p^!"^-'.'''^' birth ; it is called a quickening and a refurreaion ; as our pf.'c'x''/.^' former ftate Is compared to a feeblenefs, a blindnefs, and a jer. xxxi. death. God is faid to work in us both to will and to do : His 33> 34- people fhaU be willing in the day of bis power : He will write fg^^ j'"'""' his Rom, lx,ii. *04 AN EXPOSITION OF his laws in their hearts, and mak-e ihem to walk in thent. Mankind Is compared to a mafs of clay in the hand of the pot^ ter, who of the fame lump makes at his pleafure veffels of ho nour or of difhonour, Thefe paffages, this laft in particular, do infinuate an abfolute and a conquering power in grace ; and that the love of God conftrains us, as St. Paul fpeaks exprefsly. All outward co-aaion is contrary to the nature of liberty, and afl thofe inward Impreffions that drove on the Prophets, fo that they had not the free ufe of their faculties, but felt themfelves carried they knew not how, are inconfiftent with it ; yet when a man feels that his faculties go in their method, and that he affcnts or choofes from a thread of iqward convic tion and ratiocination, he ftill aas freely, that is, by an In ternal principle of reafon and thought. A man aas as much according to his faculties, when he affents to a truth, as when he choofes what he is to do : and if his mind were fo enlightened, that he faw as clearly the good of moral things, as he per ceives fpeculative truths, fo that he felt himfelf as little able to refift the one as the other, /he would be no lefs a free and a rational creature, than If he were left to a more unlimit ed range : nay, the more evidently that he faw the true goo:' of things, and the more that he were determined by it, he fhould then aa more fuitably to his faculties, and to the ex- ceflence of his nature. For though the faints in heaven being made perfea in glory, are no more capable of farther re wards yet it cannot be denied but they aa With a more ac- compliflieJ liberty, becaufe they fee all things in a true light. Pf.MXTi.9. according to that, in thy light wefhaUfee light : and therefore they conclude that fuch an overcoming degree of grace, by which a man is made wifling through the illumination of his underftanding, and not by any blind or violent impulfe, is no way contrary to the true notion of liberty. After all, they think, that if a debate falls to be between the foverelgnty of God, his aas and his purpofes, and the free- dom of man's will, it is modeft 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 befides the outward en lightening of a man by knowledge, there is an inward enlight ening of the mind, and a fecret forcible conviaion ftamptonit; otherwife what can be meant by the prayer of St, Paul for the Ephefians, who had already heard the Gofpel preached, and 18,19, '"' '^"^ '"^'¦"=^«'l in 't ; that the eyes of their underfianding being enlightened, they might know what was tbe hope ef his calUng, and what the riches of the glory of bis inheritance in the faints, andwhot •OJasthe exceeding greatnefi of his power towards them that believed. This feems to be fomewhat that Is both internal and efficacious. Chrift THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 20S Chrift coriVparesthe union and influehte, that he communicates art, to believers, to that union of a head widi the members, and <^f Xvll. 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 rejeaed, when not ac companied with this overcoming grace, yet this never returns empty: thefe outward means coming from God, the r«fifting of them is faid tobe therefifiing God, the grieving or quenching his Aasvu.^t. Spirit ; and fo in that fenfe we refift the grace or favour of God : ^?^- *'• 3°» but we can never withftand him when he intends to overcome us. As for perfeverance, it is a neceffary confequence of abfolute decrees, and of efficacious grace : for fince all depends upon God, and that as of his own will be begat us, fo with him there ]im, i. 17, is neither variablenefs nor fhadow of turning : whom he loves be^^- loves to ihe end; and he has promifed, that he will never leave John iui.-tt nor forfake thofe to whom he becomes a God : we muft from thence conclude, that the purpofe and calling of God is with-Hih.xin.Cf, out repentance. And therefore though good men may fall Into grievous fins, to keep them from which there are dreadful things faid in Scripture, againft their falling away, or apoftafy ; yet God does fo uphold them, that though he fuffers them often to feel the weight of their natures, yet of all that are given by the Father to the Son to be faved by him, none are loft. Upon the whole matter, they believe that God did in himfelf and for his own ^ory foreknow fuch a determinate number, whorti he pitched upon, to be the perfons in whom he would be both fanaified and glorified : that having thus foreknown them, hepredefiinated them to be holy , conformable to the image of his Son : that thefe were to be called not by a general call ing in the fenfe of thefe words, many are called, but few are Mat. xx,i6, chofen ; but to be called according to his purpofe : and thofe he '^°'"' ^'"• jufiified upon their obeying that calling ; and he wifl in conclu- ^^' ^°' fion glorify them. Nor are thefe words only to be limited to the fufferings of good men, they are to be extended to all the effeas of the loveofGod, according to that which follows, that nothing can feparate us from th.e lov? of God in Chrifi. The whole reafoning In the gth of the Romans does fb plain- Rom.ix.iS. ly refolve all the z.Sl-, of God's mercy and juftice, his hardening as well as his pardoning, into an abfolute freedom, and an un fearchable depth, that more exprefs words to that effea can hardly be imagined. It is in general faid, that tbe children being yet unborn, nei-Vti. n. ther having done good, or evil ; that the purpofe of God according to eleBion might fiand, not of works, but of him that collet h ; Ja cob was loved, and Efau hated : that God raifed up Pharaoh, Ver. 17. that he might ftiew his power in him ; and when an objeaion is fuggefted againft all this, inftead of anfwering it, it is filenced with 206 AN EXPOSITION OF with this, WIjo art thou, O man, that repUefi againfi God? And all Is illuftrated with the figure of the potter : and concluded' y^ Q withthis folemn queftion. What if God, willing to Jhew his wrath, Kom.ix.zz. and to make bis power known, endured ivith much long-Juffering, the veffels of wrath fitted to defiruBion ? This carries the rea- derto confider what is fo often repeated in the book of Exodus, Exod.iv.2i. concerning God's hardening the heart of Pharaoh, fo that he X. ¦'¦o-^ujQuld not let his people go. It is faid, that God has made the f^., % wicked man for the day of evil; as it is written on the other Prov. xvi. 4. hand, that as many believed the Gofpel, as were appointed to eter- Afts xiii. j^gi iijg^ Some are faid to be written in the book of life, of the Rev, xiii. 8. Lamb,fiain before the foundation of the world,ot according to God's iii. 5. purpofe before the ivorld began. Ungodly men are faid to be of XX. ^zold ordained to condemnation, and to be given up hy God unto vile H„J^"^^^ affeBions, and to be given over by him to a reprobate mind. 28. 'Iherefore they think that reprobation is an abfolute and free aa cf God, as well as eledtion, to manifeft his holinefs and juftice In them who are under it, as well as his love and mer cy is manifefted in the elcdt. Nor can they think with the Sublapfarians, that reprobation Is only God's paffing by thofe whom he does not eka ; this is an aa unworthy of God, as If he forgot them, which does clearly imply imperfeaion. And as for that which is faid concerning their being fallen In Adam, they argue, that either Adam's fin, and the conneaion of all mankind to him as their head and reprefentative, was abfo lutely decreed, or it was not : if it v/as, then all is abfolute; Adam's fin and the fall of niankind were decreed, and by confequence all from the beginning to the end are under a con tinued chain of abfolute decrees; and then the Supralapfarian and the Sublapfarian hypothefis will be one and the fame, only varioufly exprefled. But if Adam's fin was only forefeen and permitted, then a conditionate decree founded upon prefcience is once admitted, fo that all that follows turns upon It ; and then all the argum.ents either againft the perfeaion of fuchaas, or the certainty of fuch a prefcience, turn againft this ; for if they are admitted in any one inftance, then they may be ad mitted in others as well as in that. The Sublapfarians do always avoid to anfwer this ; and It feems they do rather incline tothink that Adam was under an abfolute decree ; and If fo, then though their doarine may feem to thofe, who do not examine things nicely, to look more plau fible ; yet really It amounts to the fame thing with the other. For it is all one to fay, that God decreed that Adam fhould fin, and that all mankind, fliould fall in him, and that then God fhould choofe out of mankind, thus fallen by his decree, fuch as he would fave, and leave the reft in that lapfed ftate to perlfli in it i as it is to fay, that God intending to fave fome, and to damii THE XXXIX ARTICLES. idi dimn others, did, in order to the carrying this on in a method of art. juftice, decree Adam's fall, and the fall of mankind in him, XVII. in order to the faving of his eka, and the damning of the '¦^'V"^ reft. All that the Sublapfarians fay in this particular for them selves is, that the Scripture has not declared any thing concern ing the fafl of Adam, in fuch formal terms, that they can affirm any thing concerning it. A liberty of another kind feems to have been then In man, when he wus made after the Image of God, and before he was corrupted by fin. And therefore though it is not eafy to clear all difficulties in fo intricate a mat ter, yet It feems reafonable to think, that man In a ftate of innocency was a purer and a freer creature to good, than now he is. But after all, this feems to be only a fleeing from the difficulty, to a lefs offenfive way of talking of it ; for if the pre fcience of future contingents cannot be certain, unlefs they are decreed, then God could not certainly foreknow Adam's fin, without he had made an abfolute decree about it ; and that, as was juft now faid, Is the fame thing with the Supralapfarian hypothefis ; of which I fhall fay no more, having now laid to gether In a fmall compafs, the full ftrength of this argument. 1 go next to fet out with the fame fidelity and exaanefs the Remonftrants arguments. They begin v/ith this, that God Is juft, holy, and merci ful : that, in fpeaking of himfelf in the Scripture with relation to thofe attributes, he is pleafed to make appeals to men, to call them to reafon with him : thus his Prophets did often be- fpeak the Jewifh nation ; the meaning of which Is, that God aas fo, that men, according to the notions that they have of thofe attributes, may examine them, and will be forced to juf tify and approve them. Nay, in thefe God propofes himfelf to us, as our pattern ; we ought to imitate him in them, and by confequence we may frame juft notions of them. We are required to be holy and merciful as he Is merciful. What then can we think of a juftice that fliafl condemn us for a faft that we never committed, and that was done many years be fore we were born ? as alio that defigns firft of all to be glori fied by our being eternally miferable, and that decrees that we fliall commit fins, tojuftify the previous decree of our reproba tion ? If thofe decrees are thus originafly defigned by God, and are certainly effeauated, then it Is inconceivable how there fhould be a juftice in puniflilng that which God himfdf appoint ed by an antecedent and irreverfible decree fhould be done : fo this feems to lis hard upon juftice. It is no lefs hard upon infinite holinefs, to Imagine that a Being of purer eyes than Hab. i. ij. that it can behold iniquity, fhould by an antecedent decree fix our committing fo many fins, in fuch a manner that it is not *0S AN EXPOSITION OF ART. not poffible for us to avoid them : this is to make us to- be ^^'^' born indeed under a neceffity of fin ; and yet this neceffity is ^•"'^"^y"^ faid to flow from the aa and decrees of God : God reprefents Exod.xxiiv. himfelf always in the Scriptures as gracious, merciful, fiow to ^' ... anger, and abundant in goodnefs and truth. It is often faid, Ik" xvin *^^'- ^^ defires that no man fhould perifh, but that aU fhould come ja. xxxiii. 'to the knowledge of tbe truth : And this is faid fometimes with »'• the folemnity of an oath ; As I live, faith the Lord, I take no pleafure in the death of finners. They afk, what fenfe canfuch words bear, if we can belleVe that God did by an abfolute de cree reprobate fo many of them ? If all things that happen do arife out of the decree of God as its firft caufe, then we muft telleve that God takes pleafure both in his own decrees, and in the execution of them ; and, by confequence, that he takes plea fure in the death of finners, and that in contradiaion to the •moft exprefs and moft folemn words of Scripture. Befides, what can we think of the truth of God, and of the fincerity of thofe offers of grace and mercy, with the obteftatlons, the exhorta tions, and expoftulatlons upon them, that occur fo often In Scrip ture, If we can think that by antecedent aas of God he deter mined that all thefe fhould be Ineffeaual ; fo that they are only fo many folemn words that do Indeed fignify nothing, if God in tended that all things fhould fall out as they do, and if they do fafl out only becaufe he Intended It ? The chief foundation of this opinion lies in this argument as Its bafis, that nothing can be be lieved, that contradidts the juftice, holinefs, the truth, and purity of God ; that thefe attributes are in God according to our notlohs concerning them, only they are in him infinitely more perfea; fince we are requi.'-ed to imitate them. Whereas the doarine of abfolute decrees does manifeftly cOntradia the cleareft ideas that we can form of juftice, holinefs, truth and goodnefs. From the nature of God they go to the nature of man ; and they think that fuch an inward freedom by which a man is the mafter of his own aaions, and can do or not do what he pleafes, is fo neceffary to the morality of our aaions, that with out It our aaions are neither good nor evil, neither capable of rewards or punifhments. Mad men, or men afleep, are not to be charged with the good or evil of what they do ; therefore at leaft fome degrees of liberty muft be left with us, other- wife why are we praifedor blamed for any thing that we do? If a man thinks that he is under an Inevitable decree, as he will have little remorfe for all the evil he does, while he Im putes It to that Inevitable force that conftrains him, fo he will naturally conclude that it is to no purpofe for him to ftruggle with impoffibilities : and m.en being inclined both to throw afl blame off from themfelves, and to indulge themfelves in iazinefs and floth, thefe praSices arc too natural to mankind to THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^°9 to be encouraged by opinions that favour thera. Allj^irtue and religion, all difcipline and Induftry, muft arife from this as their firft principle ; that there Is a power in us to govern our own thoughts and aaions, and to raife and improve our faculties. If this is denied, all endeavours, all education, all pains either on ourfelves or others, are vain and fruitlefs things. Nor is it poffible to make a man believe other than this ; for he does fo plainly perceive that he is a free agent ; he feels him felf balance matters In his thoughts, and deliberate about them fo evidently, that he certainly knows he is a free being. This is the image of God that Is ftampt upon his nature ; and though he feels himfelf often hurried on fo Impetuoufly, that he may feem to have loft his freedom in fome turns, and upon fome occafions ; yet he feels that he might have reftrained that heat in its firft beginning ; he feels he can divert his thoughts, and mafter himfelf in moft things, when he fets himfelf to it : he finds that knowledge and refleaion, that good company and good exercifes do tame and foften him, and that bad ones make him wild, loofe, and irregular. From all this they conclude that man is free, and not under inevitable fate, or irrefiftible motions either to good or evil. All this they confirm from the whole current of the Scripture, that is full of perfuafions, exhortations, reproofs, expoftulatlons, en couragements, and terrors ; which are all vain and theatrical things, if there are no free powers in us to which they are ad dreffed : to what purpofe Is it to fpeak to dead men, to perfuade the blind to fee, or the lame to run ? If we are under an impotence till the irrefiftible grace comes, and if, when it comes, nothing can withftand It, then what occafion is there for all thofe fo lemn difcourfes, if they can have no effea on us ? They can not render us inexcufable, unlefs it were In our power to be bet tered by them ; and to imagine that God gives light and blef fings to thofe whom he before intended to damn, only to make them inexcufable, when they could do them no good, and they will ferve only to aggravate their condemnation, gives fo ftrange an idea of that infinite goodnefs, that it is not fit to exprefs it by thofe terms which do naturafly arife upon it. It Is as hard to fuppofe two contrary wills in God, the one commanding us our duty, and requiring us with the moft fo lemn obteftatlons to do it, and the other putting a certain bar in our way, by decreeing that we fhall do the contrary. This makes God look as if he had a will and a wiU ; though a heart and a heart import no good quality, when applied to men : the one will requires us to do our duty, and the other makes It impoffible for us not to fin : the wiU for the good is ineffeaual, while the wfll that makes us fin is infallible. Thefe P things 210 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. things feem very hard to be apprehended ; and whereas the root XVII. pf j^yg religion is the having right and high ideas of God and of his attributes, here fuch ideas arife as naturafly give us ftrange thoughts of God ; and if they are received by us as originals, upon which we are to form our own natures, fuch nouons may make us grow to be fpiteful, Imperious, and with out bowels, but do not feem proper to infpire us with love, mercy, and compaffion ; though God Is always propofed to us in that view. All preaching and inftruaion does alfo fuppofe this : for to what purpofe are men called upon, taught and en deavoured to be perfuaded, if they are not free agents, and have not a power over their own thoughts, and if they are not to be convinced and turned by reafon ? The offers of peace and par don that are made to all men, are delufory things, if they are by an antecedent aa of God reftrained only to a few, and all others are barred from them. It is farther to be confidered, fay they, that God having made men free creatures, his governing them accordingly, and making his own adminiftration of the world fuitable to it, is no diminution of his own authority: it Is only the carrying on of his own creation according to the feveral natures that he has put in that variety of beings of which this world Is compofed, and with which it is diverfified : therefore If fome of the ads of God, with relation to rnan, are not fo free as his other afls are, and as we may fuppofe neceffary to the ultimate perfeaion of an independent Being, this arifes not from any defea In the aas of God, but becaufe the nature of the creature that he in tended to make free, is inconfiftent with fuch aas. The Divine Omnipotence is not leffened, when we obferve fome of his works to be more beautiful and ufeful than others are ; and the irregular produaions of nature do not derogate from the order In which all things appear lovely to the Divine Mind. So if that liberty, with which he intended to endue thinking beings, is incompatible with fuch pofitive adts, and fo pofitive a Providence as governs natural things and this mate rial world, then this is no way derogatory to the foverelgnty of his mind. This does alfo give fuch an account of the evil that Is in the world, as does no way accufe or lefl'en the purity and holinefs of God ; fince he only fuffers his creatures to go on in the free ufe of thofe powers that he has given them i about which he exercifes a fpecial Providence, making fome men's fins to be the immediate punifhments of their own or of other men's fins, and reftraining them often in a great deal of that evil that they do defign, and bringing out of it a great deal of good that they did not defign ; but all is done in a way fuitable to their natures, without any violence to them. It THE XXXIX ARTICLES, 211 It is true, it is not eafy to fhew how thofe future tontin- art. gencies, which depend upon the free choice of the will, fhould XVII. be certain and infafllble. But we are on other accounts certain ^"^^^^^ that it is fo ; for we fee through the whole Scriptures a thread of very pofitive prophecies, the accomplifhment of which de pended on the free will of man ; and thefe prediaions, as they Were made very precifely, fo they were no lefs punaually ac complifhed. Not to mention any other prophecies, all thofe that related to the death and fufferings of Chrift were fulfilled by the free aas of the priefts and people of the Jews : they finned in doing it, which proves that they aaed in it with their natural liberty. By thefe and all the other prophecies that are in both Teftaments, it muft be confeffed, that thefe things were certainly foreknown ; but where to found that certainty, can not be eafily refolved ; the Infinite perfeaion of the Divine Mind ought here to filence all objeaions, A clear Idea, by which we apprehend a thing to be plainly contrary to the at tributes of God, Is Indeed a juft ground of rejeaing It; and therefore they think that they are in the right to deny all fuch to be in God, as they plainly apprehend to be contrary to juf tice, truth, and goodnefs : but if the objeaion againft any thing fuppofed to be In God, les only againft the manner and the unconceivablenefs of it, there the infinite perfeaion of God anfwers all. It is farther to be confidered, that this prefcience does not make the efiias certain, becaufe they are forefeen ; but they are forefeen, becaufe they are to be; fo that the certainty of the prefcience is not antecedent or caufal, but fubfequent and eventual. Whatfoever happens, was future before it happen ed ; and fince it happened, it was certainly future from all eter nity ; not by a certainty of fate, but by a certainty that arifes out of Its being once, from which this truth, that it was fu ture, was eternally certain : therefore the Divine Prefcience being only the knowing all things that were to come, that does not infer a neceffity or caufality. The Scripture plainly fhews on fome occafions a condition ate prefcience : God anfwered David, that Saul was come to 'Sam. xxii;. Kellah, and that the men of Keilah were to deliver him up ; "> ^*- and yet both the one and the other was upon the condition of his ftaying there ; and he going from thence, neither the one nor the other ever happened : here was a conditionate pre fcience. : Such was Chrift's faying, that thofe of Tyre and Si- Mat. n. 2, don, Sodom and Gomorrah, would have turned to him, if they ^^¦ had feen the miracles that he wrought in fome of the towns of Galilee. Since then this prefcience may be fo certain, that it can never be miftaken, nor mifguide the defigns or provi dence of God ; and fince by this both the attributes of God P 2 are ' 2i2 AN EXPOSITION OF AUT. are vindicated, and the due freedom of the will of man is af- XVII. ferted, all difficulties feem to be eafily cleared this way. " ~ As for the giving to fome nations and perfons the means of falvation, and the denying thefe to others, the Scriptures do Indeed afcribe that wholly to the riches and freedom of God's grace ; but ftill they think, that he gives to all men that which is neceffary to the ftate in which they are, to an fwer the obligations they are under in it : and that this light and common grace is fufficient to carry them ib far, that God will either accept of It, or give them farther degrees of ifluml- natlon : from which It mult be inferred, that all men are in- Pfei. II, 4. excufabk in his fight ; and that God is always jufi and clear when he judges ; fince every man had that which was fuffi cient, if not to fave him, yet at leaft to bring him to a ftate of falvation. But befides what is thus fimply neceffary, and is of Itfelf fufficient, there are innumerable favours, like largeffes of God's grace and goodnefs ; thefe God gives freely as he pleafes. And thus the great defigns of Providence go on according to the goodnefs and mercy of God. None can complain, though fome have more caufe to rejoice and glory In God than others. What happens to nations in a body may alfo happen to individuals ; fome may have higher privfleges, be put in happier circumftances, and have fuch affiftances given them *s God forefees will become effeBual, and not only thofe which though they be In their ns-ture fufficient, yet in the event will be ineffcBual : every man ought to complain of himfelf for not ufing that which was fufficient, as he might have done; and all good men will have matter of rejoicing in God, for giving them what he forefaw would prove effeaual. After all they acknowledge there is a depth in this, of God's not giv ing all narions an equal meafure of light, nor putting all men into equally happy circumftances, which they cannot un riddle ; but ftifl juftice, goodnefs, and truth are faved; though we may imagine a goodnefs that may do to all men what is ab folutely the beft for them: and there they confefs there is a difficulty, but not equal to thofe of the other fide. From hence it is that they expound all thofe paffages in the New Teftament, concerning the purpofe, the eleBion, the foreknowledge, and the predefiination of God, fo often men tioned. All thofe, they fay, relate to God's defign of calling the Gentile world to the knowledge of the Meffias : this was kept fecret, though hints of it are given in feveral of the Pro phets ; fo it was a myftery ; but it was then revealed, when ac cording to Chrift's commiffion to his Apoftles,/o go and teach all nations, they went preaching the Gofpel to the Gentiles. This was THE XXXIX ARTICLES 213 was a ftumbling-block to the Jews, and It was the phlef fub- ART. jea of controverfy betwixt them and the Apoftks at the rime ''^^"• when the Epiftles were writ : fo it was neceffary for them to ^-''"V**»^ clear this very fufly, and to come often over it. But there was no need of amufiiig people in the beginnings of Chriftianity, and in that firft infancy of It, with high and unfearchable fpecula tions concerning the decrees of God : therefore they obferve, that the Apoftles fhew how that Abraham at firft, Ifaac and Jacob afterwards, were chofen by a difcrimlnating favour, that they and their pofterity fliould be in covenant with God : and upon that occafion the Apoftle goes on to fhew, that God had always defigned to call In the Gentiles, though that was not executed but by their miniftry. With this key one will find a plain coherent fenfe in all St. Paul's difcourfes on this fubjea, without afferting antece dent and fpecial decrees as to particular perfons. Things that happen under a permiffive and direaing Providence, may be alfo in a largenefs of expreffion afcribed to the will and counfel of God ; for a permiffive and direaing will is really a will, though it be not antecedent nor caufal. The hardening Exod. vii. Pharaoh's heart, may be afcribed to God, though it is faid "• that his heart hardened itfelf; becaufe he took occafion from fif .^f\l^ the ftops God put in thofe plagues that he fent upon him and his people, to encourage himfelf, when he faw there was a new refpite granted him : and he who was a cruel and bloody prince, deeply engaged in idolatry and magic, had deferved fuch judgments for his other fins, fo that he may be well con fidered as aaually under his final condemnation, only under a reprieve, not fwallowed up In the firft plagues, but preferved in them, and raifed up out of them, to be a lafting monument of the juftice of God againft fuch hardened impenitency. Whom Rom.ix. iS. he will, he h'ardeneth, muft be ftill reftrained to fuch perfons as that tyrant was. It is endlefs to enter into the difcuffion of all the paffages cited from the Scripture to this purpofe ; this key ferving, as they think it does, to open mofi of them. It is plain thefe words of our Saviour concerning thofe whom the Father bad Jotin xviii. given him, are only to be meant of a difpenfation of Provi- '^• dence, and not of a decree ; fince he adds. And I have lofi none of them, except the fon of perdition : for it cannot be faid, that he was in the decree, and yet was loft. And in the fame period in which God is faid to work in us both to zvill phil. ii. 12. and to do, we are required to work out our own falvation with fear and trembling. The word rendered, ordained to eternal Afls xiii. life, does alfo fignify, fitted or predlfpofed to eternal life. That 48- queftion. Who made thee differ? feems to refer to thofe gifts jCor. iv.7. which in different degrees and meafures were poured out on the P3 firft 214 AN EXPOSITION OP ART. firft Chriftians ; in which men were only paffive, and difcri- ^"^"- minated from one another by the freedom of thofe gifts, with- ^""^^ ^out any thing previous in them to difpofe th'-m to tlieni. ijolin. ii.2. Chrift i? faid to lie the propitiation for the fins of ihe whole 2 Pet. ii, I. world; and the wicked are faid to deny the Lord that bought them ; and his death, as to its extent to afl men. Is fet In oppo- Rom.v. i8. fition to the fin of Adam: fo that as by the offence of one, judgment came upon aU men to condemnation, fo by the ^-ighteouf- nefs of one, the free gift came upon all men to jn/tification of life. The aU of the one fide muft be of the fame extent with the ad of the other : fo fince aU are concerned In Adam's fin, aU muft be likewife concerned in the death of Chrift. This they urge farther, with this argument, that all men are obliged to believe in the death of Chrift, but no man can be obliged to believe a lye ; therefore it follows that he muft have died for aU. Nor can It be thought that grace is fo efficacious of itfelf, as to determine us; otherwife why are .^asrii.si we required not to grieve God's Spirit? Why is it faid, Te dt Mjtr. ^^'»- (,iy^ays refifi the Holy Ghofi; as your fathers did, fo do ye. ^^' How often zvould I have gathered you under my wings, but ye Ifa.v. 4. would not? What more could I have done in my vineyard, that has not been done in it ? Thefe feem to be plain intimations of a power In us, by which we not only can, but often do refift the motions of grace. If the determining efficacy of grace is not acknowledged. It wfll be yet much harder to believe that we are efficacloufly de termined to fin. This feems to be not only contrary to the purity and holinefs of God, but is fo manifeftly contrary to the whole ftrain of the Scriptures, that charges fin upon men, that Hof. xiii. 9. in fo copious a fubjea it is not neceflary to bring proofs. 0 Ifrael, thou hafi dejlroyed thyfelf, but in me is thy help : and, Joyi.^.Ao. ye will not come unto me, that ye may have life: why will you ^f^^f"""- die, O houfe of Ifrael? And as for that nicety of faying, that the evil of fin confiffs In a negation, which is not a pofitive being, fo that though God fhould determine men to the aSion that Is finful, yet he Is not concerned In the fin of It : they think it Is too metaphyfical, to put the honour of God and his attributes upon fuch a fubtilty : for In fins againft moral laws, there feems to be an antecedent imm.orallty in the aaion Itfelf, which Is infeparable from it. But fuppofe that fin confifted in a negative, yet that privation does imraediately and neceffarily rc-fult out of the aftion, without any other thing whatfoever intervening : fo that if God does infallibly determine a finner to commit the aaion to which that guilt belongs, though that fhould be a fin only by reafon of a privation that is dependent upon it, then it docs not appear but that he Is reafly the author of fill ; fince if he is the author of the finful aaion, on which THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 215 which the fin depends as a fhadow upon its fubftance, he muft be efteemed, fay they, the author of fin. And though it may be faid, that fin being a violation of God's law, he himfelf^ who is not bound by his law, cannot be guilty of fin ; yet an aaion that Is immoral, is fo effen tially oppofite to infinite perfeaion, that God cannot be ca- ' pable of it, as being a contradiaion to his own nature. Nor is it to be fuppofed that he can damn men for that, which is the neceffary refult of an aaion to which he himfelf determined them. As for perfeverance, the many promifes made in the Scrip tures to them that overcome, that contnwxefiedfafi and faithfully- "• >n^ to ihe death, feem to Infinuate, that a man may fall from a"'* good ftate. Thofe famous words in the fixth of the He brews do plainly intimate, tha.t fuch men may fo fall away,iie\>.M\. that it may be impoffible to renew them again by repentance. And in that Epiftle where it is faid, Tbe jufi fhall live by faith ;'^e,h. i. it is added, but if he draw back (any man is not In the ori ginal), my Soul fhall have no pleafure in him. And It is pofitive ly faid by the Prophet, When tbe righteous turneth away from'^^'^^-ii'^<^^ his righteoufnefs, and committeth iniquity, all his righteoufnefs'''^' that he bath done fhall not be mentioned; in his fin that he hath finned fhall he die. Thefe fuppofitions, with a great many more of the fame ftrain that may be brought out of other places, do give us afl poffible reafon to believe that a good man may fall from a good ftate, as well as that a wicked man may turn from a^iad one. In conclufion, the end of afl things, the final Judgment at the laft day, which fhall be pronounced accord !j ing to what men have done, whether good or evil, and their being to be rewarded and punifhed according to it, feems fo ef feaually to affert a freedom in our wills, that they think this alone might ferve to prove the whole caufe. So far I have fet forth the force of the argument on the fide of the Remonftrants. As for the Socinians, they make their plea out of what is faid by the one and by the other fide. They agree with the Remonftrants in all that they fay againft abfolute decrees, and In urging all thofe confequences that do arife out of them : and they do alfo agree with the Calvinifts in afl that they urge againft the poffibility of a certain prefcience of future contingents : fo that it will not be neceffary to fet forth their plea more fpecially, nor needs more be faid in oppofition to it, than what was already faid as part of the Remonftrants plea. Therefore, without dwelling any longer on that, 1 come now to make fome refleaions upon the whole matter. ' It is at firft view apparent, that there is a great deal of weight in what has been faid of both fides ; fo much, that P4 it 2x6 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. it is no wonder if education, fhe conftant attending more to XVII. the difficulties of the one fide than of the other, and a temper ^-^^^"-^ fome way proportioned to it, docs fix men very fteadlly to either the one or the other perfuafion. Both fides have their difficulties, fo it will be natural to choofe that fide where the difficulties are leaft felt : but It is plain there is no reafon for either of them to defpife the other, fince the arguments of both are far from being contemptible. It Is farther to be obferved^ that both fides feem to be chiefly concerned to affert the honour of God, and of his attributes. Both agree In this, that whatever is fixed as the primary idea of God, all other things muft be explained fo as to be confiftent with that. Contradiaions are never to be ad mitted ; but things may be juftly believed, againft which ob jeaions may be formed that cannot be eafily anfwered. The one fide think, that we muft begin with the idea of infinite perfeaion, of independency and abfolute foverelgnty : and if in the fequel difficulties occur which cannot be cleared, that ought not to fliake us from this primary idea of God. Others think, that we cannot frame fuch clear notions of independency, foverelgnty, and infinite perfeaion, as we ¦ can do of juftice, truth, holinefs, goodnefs, and mercy: and fince the Scripture propofes God to us moft frequenfly under thofe ideas, they think that we ought to fix on thefe as the primary ideas of God, and then reduce all other things to them.Thus both fides feem zealous for God and his glory ; both lay down general maxims that can hardly be difputed; and both argue juftly from their firft principles. Thefe are great grounds for mutual charity and forbearance in thefe mat ters. It is certain, that one who has long interwoven his thoughts of infinite perfeflion, with the notions of abfolute and un changeable decrees, of carrying on every thing by a pofitive will, of doing every thing for his own glory, cannot appre hend decrees depending on a forefeen free-will, a grace fub jea to it, a merit of Chrift's death that is loft, and a man's being at one time loved, and yet finally hated of God, without horror. Thefe things feem to carry in them an appearance of feeblenefs, of dependence, and of changeablenefs. On the other hand ; a man that has accuftomed himfelf to think often on the infinite goodnefs and mercy, the long- fufferlng, patience, and flownefs ' to anger that appears in God ; he cannot let the thought of abfolute reprobation, or of determining men to fin, or of not giving them the grace neceffary to keep them frorti fin and damnation, enter into bis THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 217 his mind, without the fame horror that another feels in the ^ t^ t. reverfe of all this. XVii,' So that the fource of both opinions being the different ideas C^v'>»-» that they have of God, and both thefe ideas being true ; men only miftaking in the extent of them, and in the confe quences drawn from them ; here are the cleareft grounds ima ginable for a mutual forbearance, for not judging men impe- rioufly, nor cenfuring them feverely upon either fide. And thofe who have at different times of their lives been of both opinions, and who upon the evidence of reafon, as It has appeared to them, have changed their perfuafions, can fpeak more affirmatively here ; for they know, that in great fince rity of heart they have thought both ways. Each opinion has fome praaical advantages of its fide. A Calvinift is taught, by his opinions, to think meanly of him felf, and to afcribe the honour of all to God; which lays in him a deep foundation for humility : he is alfo much inclined to fecret prayer, and to a fixed dependence on God ; which naturafly both brings his mind to a good ftate, and fixes it in it : and fo though perhaps he cannot give a coherent account of the grounds of his watchfulnefs and care of himfelf; yet that temper arifes out of his humility, and his earneftnefs in prayer. A Remonftrant, on the other hand. Is engaged to awaken and improve his faculties, to fill his mind with good notions, to raife them in himfelf by frequent refleaion, and by a conftant attention to his own aaions : he fees caufe to reproach himfelf for his fins, and to fet about his duty to pur pofe : being affured. that it is through his own fault if he mif- carries : he has no dreadful terrors upon his mind ; nor is he tempted to an undue fecurity, or to fwell up In (perhaps) an imaginary conceit of his being unalterably in the favour of God. Both fides have their peculiar temptations as well as their advantages : the Calvinifi is tempted to a falfe fecurity, and floth : and the Arminian may be tempted to truft too much to himfelf, and too littie to God : fo equally mny a man of a calm temper, and of moderate thoughts, balance this mat ter between both the fides , and fo unreafonable it is to give way to a pofitive and diaating temper in this point. If the -Arminian is zealous to affert liberty, it is becaufe he cannot fee, how there can be good or evil in the world without it : he thinks it is the work of God, that he has made for great ends ; and therefore he can allow of nothing that he thinks de ftroys it. If on the other hand a Calvinift feems to break in upon liberty, it is becaufe he cannot reconcile it with the fo verelgnty 2l8 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. vereignty of God, and the freedom of his grace: and he XVII. grows to think that it is an aa of devotion to offer up the one *-''"V^"^ to fave the other. The common fault of both fides Is, to charge one another with the confequences of their opinions, as if they were truly their tenets. Whereas they are apprehenfive enough of thefe confequences, they have no mind to them, and they fancy that by a few diftincHons they can avoid them. But each fide thinks the confequences of the other are both worfe, and more certainly faftened to that doarine, than the confequences that are urged againft himfelf are. And fo they think they muft choofe that opinion that Is the leaft per plexed and difficult : not but that Ingenuous and learned men of all fides confefs, that they feel themfelves very often pinched in thefe matters. Another very indecent way of managing thefe points. Is, that both fides do too often fpeak very boldly of God. Some petulant wits, In order to the reprefenting the contrary opinion as abfurd and ridiculous, have brought In God, reprefenting him, with indecent expreffions, as aaing or decreeing, accord ing to their hypothefis. In a manner that is not only unbe coming, but that borders upon blafphemy. From which, though they think to efcape by faying, that they are only fhew ing what muft follow if the other opinion were believed ; yet there is a folemnity and gravity of ftyle, that ought to be moft religloufly obferved, when we poor mortals take upon us to fpeak of the glory or attributes, 'the decrees or ope rations of the great God of heaven and earth : and every thing relating to this, that is put in a buriefque air. Is intolera ble. It is a fign of a very daring prefumption, to pretend to affign the order of all the aas of (rod, the ends propofed in them, and the methods by which they are executed. We, who do not know how our thoughts carry our bodies to obey and fecond our minds, fhould not Imagine that we cart con ceive how God may move or bend our wills. The hard thing to digeft In this whole matter, Is reprobation: they who think it neceffary to affert the freedom of ekaion, would fain avoid it : they feek foft words for It, fuch as the paffing by or leaving men to perifti : they ftudy to put that on Adam's fin, and they take all the methods they can to foften an opi nion that feems harfh, and that founds ill. But howfoever they wfll bear all the confequencfes of it, rather than let the point of abfolute ekaion go. , On the other fide, thofe who do once perfuade themfelves that the doarine of reprobation is falfe, do not fee how they can THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 219 can deny it, and yet afcribe a free ekaion to God. They A R T. are once perfuaded that there can be no reprobation but what xvii. is conditionate, and founded on what Is forefeen concerning '".''V^' men's fins : and from this they are forced to fay the fame thing of ekaion. And both fides ftudy to begin the controverfy with that which they think they can the moft eafily prove; the one at the eftablifhing of ekaion, and the other at the overthrowing of reprobation. Some have ftudied to feek out middle ways : for they obferving that the Scriptures are writ in a great diverfity of ftyk, in treating of the good or evil that happens to us, afcribing the one to God, and imputing the other vo ourfelves, teaching us to afcribe the honour of all that is good to God, and to eaft the blame of all that is evfl upon ourfelves, have from thence concluded, that God muft fiave a different influence and caufality 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 choofe to bear thefe rather than to involve themfelves in thofe equally great, if not greater difficulties, that are in either of the other opinions. They wrap up afl in two general afl'ertions, that are great prac tical truths. Let us arrogate no good to ourfelves, and impute no evil to God, and fo let the whole matter reff. This may be thought by fome the lazier, as well as the fafer way : which avoids difficulties, rather than anfwers them ; whereas they fay of both the contending fides, that they are better at the fiart- ing of difficulties than at the refolving of them. Thus far I have gone upon the general. In making fuch refleaions as will appear but too well grounded to thofe who have with any attention read the chief difputants of both fides. In thefe great points afl agree: that mercy is freely offered to the world in Chrift Jefus : that God did freely offer his Son to be our propitiation, and has freely accepted the facri fice of his death in our ftead, whereas he might have con demned every man to have perifhed for his own fins : that God does, in the difpenfation of his Gofpel, and the promul gation of It to the feveral nations, aa according to the free dom of his grace, upon reafons that are to us myfterious and paft finding out : that every man is inexcufable in the fight of God : that all men are fo far free as to be praife-worthy or blame-worthy for the good or evil they do : that every man ought to employ his faculties all he can, and to pray and de pend eameftly upon God for his proteaion and affiftance : that no man in praaice ought to think that there is a fate or decree hanging over him, and fo become flothful in his duty, 220 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. duty, but that every man ought to do the beft he can, as if XVII. ti^gj-g ^ere no fuch decree, fince, whether there is or is not, ^-^^^/"'^ it Is not poffible for him to know what it is : that every man oui^ht to be deeply humbled for his fins In the fight of God, without excufing himfelf by pretending a decree was upon him, or a want of power in him : that all men are bound to obey the rules fet them in the Gofpel, and are to expea nei ther mercy nor favour from God, but as they fet themfelves diligently about that: and finally, that at the laft day all men fhall be judged, not according to fecret decrees, but ac cording to their own works. In thefe great truths, of which the greater part are praaical, all men agree. If they would agree as honeftly in the praaice of them, as they do in con feffing them to be true, they would do that which is much more important and neceflary, than to fpeculate and difpute about niceties ; by which the world would quickly put on a new face, and then thofe few, that might delight In curious fearches and arguments, would manage them with more mo defty and lefs heat, and be both lefs pofitive and lefs fuper- cilious. I have hitherto infifted on fuch general refleaions as feemed proper to thefe queftions. I come now In the laft place to examine how far our Church hath determined the matter, ei ther in this Article or elfewhere : how far fhe hath reftrained her fons, and how far fhe has left them at liberty. For thofe different opinions being fo intricate in themfelves, and fo apt to raife hot difputes, and to kindle lafting quarrels, it wifl not 'be fuitable to that moderation which our Church hath obferved in all other things, to ftretch her words on thefe heads beyond their ftria fenfe. The natural equity or reafon of things ought rather to carry us, on the other hand, to as great a comprehen- fivenefs of all fides, as may well confift with the words in which our Church hath expreffed herfelf on thofe heads. It is not to be denied, but that the Article feems to b« framed according to St. Auftin's doarine : it fuppofes men to be under a curfe and damnation, antecedently to predefii nation, from which they are delivered by it ; fo it Is direaiy againft the Supralapfarian doarine : nor does the Article make any mention of reprobation, no, not In a hint ; no de finition is made concerning it. The Article does alfo feem to affert the efficacy of grace : that in which the knot of the whole difficulty lies, is not defined ; that is, whether God's eternal purpofe or decree was m.ade according to what he forefaw his creatures would do, or purely upon an abfolute will, in order to his own glory. It is very probable, that thofe THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 221 thofe who penned it, meant that the decree was abfolute ; but yet fince they have not faid it, thofe who fubfcribe the Ar ticles do not feem tQ be bound to any thing that is not expreffed in them : and therefore fince the Remonftrants do not deny but that God having forefeen what all mankind would, ac cording to all the different circumftances in which they fhould be put, do or not do, he upon that did by a firm and eternal decree lay that whole defign In all its branches, which 'he executes in time ; they may fubfcribe this Article without re nouncing their opinion as to this matter. On the other hand, the Calvinifts have lefs occafion for fcruple ; fince the Article does feem more plainly to favour thern. The three cautions, that are added to it, do likewife intimate that St. Auftin's doc trine was defigned to be fettled by the Article : For tbe danger ef men's having the fentence of God's predefiination always be fore their eyes, which may occafion either defperation on the one hand, or the wretchlefnefs of mofi unclean living on tbe other, belongs only to that fide ; fince thefe mifchiefs do not arife out of the other hypothefis. The other two, of taking tbe pro mifes of God in the fenfe in which they are fet forth to us in holy Scriptures ; and of following that wiU of God that is ex prefsly declared to us in tbe word of God, relate very vifibly to the ^me opinion : though others do infer from thefe cau tions, that the doarine laid down in the Article muft be fo underftood as to agree with thefe cautions ; and therefore they argue, that fince abfolute predeftination cannot confift with ftbem, that therefore the Article is to be otherwife explained. They fay the .natural confequence of an abfolute decree, is either prefumption or defpair ; fince a man upon that bottom reckons, that which way foever the decree Is made, it muft certainly be accomplifhed. They alfo argue, that becaufe we muft receive the promifes of God as conditional, we muft alfo believe the decree to be conditional ; for abfolute decrees exclude conditional promifes. An offer cannot be fuppofed to be made in earneft, by him that has excluded the greateft number of men from it by an antecedent aa of his own. And if we muft only follow the revealed will of God, we ought not to fuppofe that there is an antecedent and pofitive will of God, that has decreed our doing the contrary to what he has commanded. Thus the one fide argues, that the Article as it lies, In the plain meaning of thofe who conceived it, does very exprefsly eftablifh their doarine : and the other argues, from thofe cau tions that are added to it, that it ought to be underftood fo as that it may agree with thefe cautions : and both fides find in the Article itfelf fuch grounds, that they reckon they dp not renounce 222 AN EXPOSITION OF renounce their opinions by fubfcribing It, The Remonftfaht fide have this farther to add, that the univerfal extent of the death of Chrift feems to be very plainly affirmed in the moft folemn part of all the offices of the Church : for in the office of Communion, and in the Prayer of Confecration, we own, that Chrift, by the one oblation of himfelf once offered, made there a full, perfeB, and fufficient facrifice, oblation, and fa tisfaBion for the fins of the whole world. Though the others fay, that by full, perfeB, and fufficient. Is not to be under ftood that Chrift's death was intended to be a complete facri fice and fatisfaaion for the zvhole world, but that in its own value It was capable of being fuch. This is thought too great a ftretch put upon the words. And there are yet more exprefs words In our Church-Catechifm to this purpofe; which is to be confidered as the moft folemn declaration of the fenfe of the Church, fince that is the doarine in which fhe inftruas afl her children : and In that part of it which feems to be moft important, as being the fhort fummary of the Apoftles Creed, it is faid, God the Son, zuho hath redeemed me and all mankind ; where aU muft ftand in the fame extent of unirerfallty, as in the precedent and in the following words ; The Father who made me and all the world ; the Holy Ghofi who fanBifieth me and aU the eleB people of God ; which being to be underftood feverely, and without exception, this muft alfo be taken in the fame ftrianefs. There is another argument brought from the office of Baptifm, to prove that men may fall from a ftate of grace and regeneration ; for In the whole office, more particu larly In the Thankfgiving after the Baptifm, It Is affirmed, that the perfon baptized is regenerated by God's Holy Spirit, and Is received for his own child by adoption : now fince it is certain that many who are baptized, fall from that ftate of grace, this feems to import, that fome of the regenerate may fall away: which though It agrees well with St, Auftin's doarine, yet it does not agree with the Calvinifts opinions. Thus I have examined this matter in as fhort a compafs as was poffible ; and yet I do net know that I have forgot any im portant part of the whole controverfy, though it is large, and has many branches. 1 have kept, as far as I can perceive, that Indifference which I propofed to myfelf in the profecuting of this matter ; and have not on this occafion declared my own opinion, though I have not avoided the doing it upon other oc cafions. Since the Church has not been peremptory, but that a latitude has been left to different opinions, I thought it be came me to make this explanation of the Article uich : and therefore I have not endeavoured to poffefs the reader with that THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 223 -that which is my own fenfe in this matter, but have laid the art. force of the arguments, as well as the weight of the diffi- XVII, culties of both fides before him, with all the advantages that^^"'''^^ I had found in the books either of the one or of the other perfuafion And 1 leave the choice as free to my reader, as the Church has done. A RTICLE 224 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. XVIII. ARTICLE XVIII. Of obtaining Eternal Salvation only by the Name of Chrift. Z,f)tp alfo a?e to be acturrEti,tgat prefume to ^ap,%tat cue?p man ftall be fabeti bp tfie ILato o? §>ea tofiitg f)t pjofefletfi ; fo tgat fie be tiiligent to f?ame fitiS %ik accoutring to tbat ILato, anO tfic iLagJit of JI5a« tuje. i^or ^^olp &tjiptu?e tiotb fet out unto m on^ Ip tfie jRame of lefug €Ui^, togejebp men mutt be fabeb. TH E impiety, that is condemned in this Article, was firft taught by fome of the Heathen orators and philofophers in the fourth century, who, in their addreffes to the Chriftian emperors for the tolerance of paganifm, flatted this thought, that how lively foever it may feem, when well fet off in a piece of eloquence, will not bear a fevere argument : that God is more honoured by the varieties and different methods of wor fhipping and ferving him, than if afl fhould fall into the fame way : that this diverfity has a beauty in it, and a fultablenefs to the infinite perfeaions of God ; and it does not look fo like a mutual agreement or concert, as when all men worfhip him one way. But this is rather a flafh of wit than true rea foning. The Alcoran has carried this matter farther, to the aflerting, that all men in all religions are equally acceptable to God, if they ferve him faithfufly in them. The infufing this into the world, that has a fhew of mercy in it, made men more eafy to receive their law ; and they took care by their extreme feverity to fix them in it, when they were once engaged : for though they ufe no force to make men Muffelmans, yet they punifh with all extremity every thing that looks like apoftafy from it, if it is once received. The doarine of Leviathan, that makes law to be religion, and religion to be law, that is, that obliges fubjeas to believe that religion to be true, or at leaft to follow that which is enaaed by the laws of tiieir country, muft be built either on this foundation, that there THE XXXIX ARTICLES 245 is no fuch thing as revealed religion, but that it is, only a political ART. contrivance ; or that all religions are equally acceptable to ^"^^• God. 1/1- <^-v-v^ Others having obferved that it was a very fmall part of mankind that had the advantages of the Chriftian religion, have thought it too cruel to damn in their thoughts all thofe who have not heard of it, and yet have lived morally and virtuoufly, according to their light and education. And fome, to make themfelves and others eafy. In accommodating their religion to their fecular interefts, to excufe their changing, and to quiet their confciences, have fet up this notion, that feems to have a largenefs both of good nature and charity in it ; looks plaufible, and is calculated to take in the greateft numbers : they therefore fuppofe that God in his infinite goodnefs will accept equally the fervlces that all his crea tures offer to him, according to the beft of their fkill and ftrength. In oppofition to all which, they are here condemned, who think that every man fhall be faved by the Law or SeB which he profeffeth : where a great difference is to be obferved be tween the words faved by the Law, and faved in the Law ; the one is condemned, but not the other. To be faved by a Law or SeB, fignifies, that by the virtue of that Law or SeB fuch men who follow it may be faved : whereas to be faved in a Law or SeB, imports only, that God may extend his compaffions to men that are engaged in falfe religions. The former is only condemned by this Article, which affirms nothing concerning the other. In fum; if we have fully proved that the Chriftian religion was delivered to the world in the name of God, and was attefted by miracles, fo that we be lieve its truth, we muft believe every part and tittle of it, and by confequence thofe paffages which denounce the wrath and judgments of God againft Impenitent finners, and that promife mercy and falvation only upon the account of Chrift and his death : We mufi believe with our hearts, and confefs Rom. x, 9, it with our mouth t : we mufi not be afhamed of Chrifi, or of^^^.^^^^ his words, left he fhould he afhamed of us, when he comes tn ^g^ the glory of his Father, with his holy angels. This, I fay, being a part of the Gofpel, muft be as true as the Gofpel it felf is ; and thefe rules muft bind all thofe to whom they are propofed, whether they are enaaed by Law or not : for if we are aflured that they are a part of the Law of the King of Kings, we are bound to believe and obey them, whether human laws do favour them or not ; it being an evident thing, that no fubordinate authority can derogate from that which is Q_ fuperior 226 AN EXPOSITION OF ART, fuperior to it : fo if the laws of God are clearly revealed, and I - ^-^" , certainly conveyed down to us, we are bound by them, and • "no human law can diffolve this obligation. If God has de clared his will to us, it can'never be fuppofed to be free to us to choofe whether we will obey it or not, and ferve him under that or under another form of religion, at our pleafure and choice. We are limited by what God has declared to us, and we muft not fancy ourfelves to be at liberty after he has revealed his will to us. As to fuch to whom the Chriftian religion is revealed, there no queftion can be made, for it is certain they are under an indifpenfable obligation to obey and follow that which is fo gracloufly revealed to them : they are bound to follow it ac cording to what they are In their confciences perfuaded Is Its true fenfe and meaning. And if for any fecular intereft they choofe to comply with that which they are convinced Is an im portant error, and is Condemned in the Scripture, they do plainly fhew that they prefer lands, houfes, and life, to the authority of God, in whofe will, when revealed to them, they are bound to acquiefce. The only difficulty, remaining, is concerning thofe who. never heard of this religion ; whether, or how can they be faved .' St. Paul having divided the world into Jews and Gen tiles, called by him thofe who were in the Law, and who ,^^'"' "• were without Law; he fays, thofe who finned without Law, that is, out of the Mofaical difpenfation, JhaU be judged with out Law, that is, upon another foot. For he adds, when ihe Gentiles, which have not tbe Law, do by nature the things contained in the Law, (that is, the moral parts of it) thefe having not the Law, are a Law unto themfelves; (that is, their confciences are to them inftead of a written Law;) which fhew the work of the Law written in their hearts, their confcience alfo bearing witnefs, and their thoughts tbe mean while accufing or elfe excufing one another. This implies that there are either feeds of knowledge and virtue laid in the nature of man, or that fuch notions pafs among them, as RoiB. X. 14. are carried down by tradition. The fame St. Paul fays, How can they caU on him in whom they have not believed? and how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how can they bear without a preacher ? Which feems plainly to intimate, that men cannot be bound to believe, and by con- fequence cannot be puniflied for not believing, unkfs the Gof- A«.)t.34, pel IS preached to them. St. Peter faid to Cornelius, Of a truth I perceive that God is no refpeBer of perfons; but in every nation he that feareth God, and worketh righteoufnefs, is , accepted THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 22; etccepted of him. Thofe places feem to import, that thofe who A R T. make the beft ufe they can of that fmall meafure of light^ XVIII. ^ that Is given them, fhall be judged according to it; and that * God wifl not require more of them than he has given them. This alfo agrees fo well with the ideas which we have both of juftice and goodnefs, that this opinion wants not fpecial colours to make it look well. But on the other hand, the pardon of fin, and the favour of God, are fo pofitively li mited to the believing in Chrift Jefus, and it is fo exprefsly faid, that, there is no falvation in any other; and that there "Aftsiv. la. none other name (or authority) under heaven given among men, * whereby we mufi be faved; that the diftinaion which can only be made in this matter, is this, that it is only on the account, and in the confideration of the death of Chrift, that fin is > pardoned, and men are faved. This is the only facrifice in the fight of God ; fo that who foever are received into mercy, have it through Chrift as the channel and conveyance of it. But it is not fo plainly faid, that no man can be faved, unlefs he has an explicit know ledge of this, together with a belief in it. Few in the old difpenfation could have that ; infants, and innocents, or ideots have it not ; and yet it were a bold thing to fay, that they may not be faved by it. So It does not appear to be clearly re vealed, that none fhould be faved by the death of Chrift, unlefs they do explicltiy both know it, and beheve in It : fince it is certain, that God may pardon fin only upon that fcore, without obliging all men to believe in it, efpecially when it is not revealed to them. And here another diftinaion is to be made, which wifl clear this whole matter, and all the diffi culties that arife out of It. A great difference is to be made between a fcederal certainty of falvation, fecured by the promifes of God, and of this new covenant in Chrift Jefus, and the extent to which the goodnefs and mercy ofrGod may go. None are in the fcederal ftate of falvation but Chriftians: to them is given the covenant of grace, and to them the pro mifes of God are made and offered ; fo that they have a certainty of it upon their performing thofe conditions that are put in the promifes, All others are out of this promife to whom the tidings of it were never brought; but yet a great difference is to be made between them, and thofe who have been invited to this covenant, and admitted to the outward profeffion, and the common privileges of it, and that yet have in effea rejeaed it : thefe are under fuch pofitive denun ciations of wrath and judgment, that there is no room left 0^2 for *28 AN EXPOSITION OE ART. for any charitable thoughts or hopes concerning them : fo XVIII. ti^2t [f any part of the Gofpel is true, that muft be alfo true, Vf'y*'^ that they are under condemnation, for having loved darknefs J° ° ^' ^^' fnore than light, when the light fhone upon them, and vifited them. But as for them whom God has left in darknefs, they are certainly out of the covenant, out of thofe promifes and declarations that are made in it. So that they have no fce deral right to be faved, neither can we affirm that they fhall be faved : but on the other hand, they are not under thofe po fitive denunciations, becaufe they were never made to them : therefore fince God has not declared that they fhall be damned, no more ought we to take upon us to damn them. Inftead of ftretching the feverity of juftice by an Inference, we may rather venture to ftretch the mercy of God, fince that is the attribute which of all others Is the moft magnifi- centiy fpoken of in the Scriptures : fo that we ought to think of it in the largeft and moft comprehenfive manner. But In deed the moft proper way Is, for us to ftop where the revelation of God ftops ; and not to be wife beyond what is written ; but to leave the fecrets of God as myfteries too far above us to examine, or to found their depth. We do certainly know on what terms we ourfelves fhall be faved or damned; and we ought to be contented with that, and rather ftudy to work out our own falvation with fear and trembling, than to let our minds run out into uncertain fpeculations concerning the mea fures and the conditions of God's uncovenanted mercies : we ought to take all poffible care that we ourfelves come not Into condemnation, rather than to define pofitively of others who muft, or who muft not, be condemned. It is therefore enough to fix this according to the defign of the Article, that It is not free to men to choofe at pleafure what religion they will, as if that were left to them, or fliat all religions were alike ; which ftrikes at the foundation, and undermines the truth of all revealed religion. None are within the covenant of grace but true Chriftians ; and all are excluded out of it, to whom It is offered, who do not receive and believe it, and live according to It. So in a word, all that are faved, are faved through Chrift ; but whether all thefe fhafl be called to the explicit knowledge of him, is more than we have any good ground to affirm. Nor are we to go into that other queftion ; whether any that are only in a ftate of nature, live fully up to its light ? This Is that about which we can have no certainty, no more than whether there may be a common grace given to them all, proportioned to their ftate, and to the obligations of it. This in general may THE XXXIX ARTICLES, ^^9 may be fafely believed, that God will never be wanting to A R T. fuch as do their utmoft endeavours in order to the faving of ^VIII, their fouls : but that, as in the cafe of Cornelius, an angel ^'^"^f"^ will be fent, and a miracle be wrought, rather than fuch a perfon fhaU be left to perifh. But whether any of them do ever arrive at that ftate, is more than we can determine ; and it is a vain attempt for us to endeavour to find it out. Q^j ARTICLE 530 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. XIX. ARTICLE XIX. Of the Church. Zht Vifible €Mt\) of Cfi?tff ig a Congjcgation of f aitfiful if cn, in tfie toljulj tfie pu?e Mo?b of ODoti is pjeacgeb, anb tl5c &at?amcntfii be bulp abminiffereb flttojbing to Clj?ia's £)jbina!tte, in all tfiofe tfiingss tgat of nctcffitp arc icquifitc to tfie fame. 30 tjje ^Lfiujcl) of Jerufalem, Alexandria, anb Antioch fiabe cvvcb, fo alfo tfie Cgurtlj of Rome Ijatjj emb, not onlp in tJjci? libing anb manner of Cejemonicj!, but alfo tn mattecgi of faitij. THIS Article, together with fome that foflow It, relates to the fundamental difference between us and the Church of Rome: they teaching that we are to judge of doarines by the authority and the decifions of the Church ; whereas we affirm, that we are firft to examine the doarine, and ac cording to that, to judge of the purity of a Church. Some what was already faid on the fixth Article relating to this mat ter : what remains Is now to be confidered. The whole queftion is to be reduced to this point, whether we ought to examine and judge of matters of religion, ac cording to the light and faculty of judging that we have ; or if we are bound to fubmit in all things to the decifion of the Church .' Here the matter muft be determined againft private judgment, by very exprefs and clear authorities, otherwife the other fide proves itfelf. For we having naturally a faculty of judging for ourfelves, and ufing It in afl other things, this freedom being the greateft of all our other rights, muft be ftill afferted, unlefs it can be made appear that God has in fome things put a bar upon it by his fupreme authority. That authority muft be very exprefs, if we are required to fubmit to it in a point of fuch vaft importance to us. We do alfo fee that men are apt to be miftaken, and are apt like- wife willingly to miftake, and to miflead others; and that particularly in matters of religion the world has been fo much impofed upon and abufed, that we cannot be bound to fubmit to any fort of perfons implicitly, without very good and clear grounds that do affure us of their infaUibillty : otherwife we have juft reafon to fufpea that in matters of religion, chiefly in points in which human interefts are concerned, menmay THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ' 23' may either through ignorance, and weaknefs, or corruption, and on defign, abufe and miflead us. So that the authorities or proofs of this infallibility muft be very exprefs ; fince we are fure no man nor body of men can have it' among them, but by a privilege from God; and a privilege of fo extraordinary a nature muft be given, if at all, in very plain, and with very evident charadters; fince without thefe, human nature cannot and ought not to be fo tame as to receive it. We mutt not draw it from an inference, becaufe we think we need it, and cannot be fafe without it, that therefore it muft be fo, becaufe, if it were not fo, great diforders would arife from the want of it. This is certainly a wrong way of arguing. If God has clearly revealed it, we muft ac quiefce in it, becaufe we are fure, if he has lodged infafllbi- lity any where, he will certainly maintain his own work, and not require us to believe any one implicitly, and not at the fame time preferve us from the danger of being deceived by him. But we muft not prefume, -from our notions of things, to give rules to God, It were, as we may think, very ne ceflary that miracles fhould be publicly done from time to time, for convincing every age and fucceffion of men ; and that good men fhould be fo affifted as generally to live without fin : thefe and feveral other things may feem to us extremely convenient, and even neceffary; but things are not fo ordered for all that. It Is alfo certain, that if God has lodged fuch an infaflibillty on earth, it ought not to be in fuch hands as do naturally heighten our prejudices againft it. It will go againft the grain to believe it, though all outward appearances looked ever fo fair for it : but it will be an inconceivable me thod of Providence, if God fhould lodge fo wonderful an au thority in hands that look fo very unlike it, that of all others we fliould the leaft expea to find It with them. , If they have been guflty of notorious impoftures, to fup port their own authority, if they have committed great vio lences to extend it, and have been for fome ages together en gaged in as many falfe, unjuft, and cruel praaices, as are perhaps to be met with in any hiftory; thefe are fuch pre judices that at leaft they muft be overcome by very clear and unqueftlonable proofs : and finally, if God has fettled fuch a power in his Church, we muft be diftinaiy direaed to thofe in whofe hands it is put, fo that we may fall into no mif take in fo important a matter-. This will be the more neceffary, if there are different pretenders to It : we cannot be fuppofed to be bound to believe an infallibiUty in general, unlefs we have an equal evidence direaing us to thofe with whom it tefts, and who have the difpenfing of it, Thefe general con- 0.4 fiderations 132 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. fiderations are of great weight in deciding this queftion, and XIX. vvifl carry us far into fome preliminaries, which wIU appear to *^^>/^'*^ be indeed great fteps towards the conclufion of the matter. There are three ways by which it may be pretended that infaflibflity can be proved : the one is, the way of Mofes and the Prophets, of Chrift and his Apoftles, who by clear and unqueftlonable miracles publicly done and wefl attefted, or by exprefs and circumftantlated prophecies of things to come, that came afterwards to be verified, did evidentiy demonftrate that they were fent of God : wherefoever we fee fuch charac ters, and that a miracle is wrought by men who fay they are fent of God, which cannot be denied nor avoided ; and if what fuch perfons deliver to us Is neither contrary to our ideas of God, and of morality, nor to any thing already revealed by God ; there we muft conclude that God has lodged an infafllble authority with them, as long and as far as that charaaer is ftampt upon It. That is not pretended here : for though they ftudy to perfuade the world that miracles are ftifl among them, yet they do not fo much as fay that the miracles are wrought by thofe with whom this infallibility is lodged, and that they are done to prove them to be infallible. For though God fhould beftbw the gift of miracles upon fome particular per fons among them, that Is no more an argument that their Church is infallible, than the miracles that Elijah or Elifha wrought, were arguments to prove that the Jewifh Church was infafllble. Indeed the public miracles that belonged to the whole body, fuch as the cloud of glory, the anfwers by the Urim and Tbummim, the trial of jealoufy, and the conftant plenty of the fixth year, as preparatory to the iiib- batical year, feem more reafonably to infer an infallibilfty ; becaufe thefe were given to that whole church and nation. But yet the Jewifh Church was far from being infallible afl that while ; for we fee they fell all in a body into idolatry upon feveral occafions : thofe public miracles proved nothing but that for which they were given, which was, that Mofes was fent of God, and that his law was from God, which they faw was ftill attefted in a continuance of extraordinary charaaers. If infallibility had been promifed by that law, then the continuance of the miracles might have been urged to prove the continuance of the infaflibillty ; but that not being promifed, the miracles were only a ftanding proof of the au thority of their law, and of God's being ftill among them. And thus though we fhould not difpute the truth of the many le gends that fome are daily bringing forth, which yet we may well do, fince they are believed to be true by few among themfelves,, they being confidered among the greater part of the knowing men THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 23J men of that Church, as arts to entertain the credulity and ART. devotion of the people, and to work upon their fears and '^'^• hopes, but chiefly upon their purfes : all thefe, I fay, when ^•^'''^'^^ confeffed, will not ferve to prove that there is an infallibility among them, unlefs they can prove that thefe miracles are wrought to prove this Infallibility, The fecond fort of proofs that they may bring, is from fome paffages in Scripture, that feem to import that it was given by Chrift to the Church. But though in this difpute all thefe paffages ought to be well confidered and anfwered, yet they ought not to be urged to prove this infallibility, tifl feve ral other things are firft proved ; fuch as, that the Scriptures are the word of God ; that the book of the Scriptures is brought down pure and uncorrupted to our hands ; and that we are able to underftand the meaning of It : for before we can argue from the parts of any book, as being of divine autho rity, all thefe things muft be previoufly certain, and be well made out to us : fo that we muft be well affured of all thofe particulars before we may go about to prove any thing by any paffages drawn out of the Scriptures. Further, thefe paffages fuppofe that thofe to whom, this infallibility belongs, are a Church : we muft then know what a Church is, and what makes a body of men to be a Church, before we can be fure that they are that fociety to whom this Infaflibillty Is given : and fince there may be, as we know that In faa there are, great differences among feveral of thofe bodies of men cafled Churches, and that they condemn one another as guilty of error, fchlfm, and herefy ; we are fure that all thefe cannot be infallible : for contradiaions cannot be true. So then we muft know which of them Is that fociety where this infafli billty is to be found. And if in any one fociety there fhould be different opinions about the feat of this infallibility, thofe cannot be all true, though It Is very poffible that they may be all falfe : we muft be then well affured In whom this great privilege Is vefted, before we can be bound to acknowledge It, or to fubmit to it. So here a great many things muft be known, before we can either argue from, or apply thofe paffages of Scripture in which it is pretended that infallibility is promifed to the Church : and if private judgment is to be trufted in the enquiries that arife about all thefe particulars, they being the moft important and moft difficult matters that we can fearch into,, then it will be thought reafonable to truft it yet much further. It is evident, by their proceeding this way, that both the authority and the fenfe of the Scriptures muft be known ante cedently to our acknowledging the authority or the infalli bility of any Church. For it is an eternal principle and rule, of Eel! 234- AN EXPOSITION OF of reafon, never to prove one thing by another, till that othef is firft well proved : nor can any thing be proved afterwards by that which was proved by it. This is as impoffible, as if a father fhould beget a fon, and fhould be afterwards begotten by that fon. Therefore the Scriptures cannot prove the infaUibi-' lity of the Church, and be afterwards proved by the teftimony of the Church, So the one or the other of thefe muft be firft fettled and proved, before any ufe can be made of it to prove the other by it. The laft way they take to find out this Church by, is fron^ fome notes that they pretend are peculiar to her, fuch as the Tom'^'2 name catholic ; antiquity ; extent ; duration ; fucceffion of 1, 4. bifhops ; union among themfelves, and with their head ; con formity of doBrine with former times ; miracles ; prophecy ; fanBity of doBrine ; holinefs of life ; temporal felicity ; curfes upon their enemies ; and a confi ant progrefs or efficacy of doc trine ; together with the confeffion of their adverfaries : and they fancy, that wherefoever we find thefe, we muft believe that body of men to be infallible. But upon all this, end lefs queitions will arife, fo far wifl it be from ending con troverfies, and fetding us upon infallibility. If all thefe muft be believed to be the marks of the infallible Church, upon the account of which we ought to believe it, and fubmit to it, then two enquiries upon every one of thefe notes muft be difcuffed, before we can be obliged to acquiefce in the infafli- billty : Firft, whether that Is a true mark of infaflibillty, or not ? And next, whether it belongs to the Church which they . call infallible, or not ? And then another very intricate queftion will arife upon the whole, whether they muft be all found toge ther ? or, how many, or which of them together, will give us the entire charaaers of the infallible Church ? In difcuffing the queftions, whether every one of thefe is a true mark, or not, no ufe muft be made of the Scriptures; for if the Scriptures have their authority from the teftimdny, or rather the decifions of the infallible Church, no ufe can be made of them tifl that is firft fixed. Some of thefe notes are fuch as did not at all agree to the Church In the beft and pureft times ; for then flie had but a litde extent, a fhort-lived dura- tion, and no temporal felicity; and fhe was generally re proached by her adverfaries. But out of w4iich of thefe to- pks can one hope to fetch out an affurance of the infallibi lity of fuch a body ? Can no body of men continue long in a conftant feries, and with much profperity, but muft they be concluded to be infallible ? Can it be thought that die af fuming a name can be a mark ? Why is not the name Chrif tian as folemn as Catholic ? Might not the Philofophers have concluded from hence againft the firft Chriftians, that they were, THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^3$ were, by the confeffion of all men, the truf lovers of wifdom ; A R T. fince they were called Philofophers much more unanlmoufly ^-L . than the Church of Rome is called Catholic ? '-"v^v.' If a conformity of doarine with former times, and a fanc- tlty of doarine, are notes of the Church, thefe will lead men into enquiries of fuch a nature, that If they are once allowed to go fo far with their private judgment, they may well be fuffered to go much further. Some ftandard muft be fixed on, by which the fanaity of doarine may be examined ; they muft alfo be allowed to examine what was the .doarine of former times : and here It wifl be natural to begin at the firft times, the age of the Apoftks. It muft therefore be firft known what was the doarine of that age, before we can exa mine the conformity of the prefent age with it. A fucceffion of bifhops is confeffed to be ftill kept up among corrupted Churches. An union of the Church with Its head cannot be fuppofed to be a note, unlefs It is firft made out by fome other topics, that this Church muft have a head ; and that he is infallible : for unlefs it is proved by fome other argument, that fhe ought to have a head, flie cannot be bound to ad here to him, or to own him ; and unlefs It Is alfo proved that he is infallible, fhe cannot be bound abfolutely, and without reftriaions, to adhere to him. Holinefs of life cannot be a mark, unlefs it is pretended that thofe in whom the infallibility is, are all holy. A few holy men here and there is indeed an honour to any body ; but it will feem a ftrange inference, that becaufe fome few in a fociety are eminently holy, that therefore others of that body who are not fo, but are perhaps as eminendy vicious, fhould be infallible. Somewhat has been already faid concerning rniracles : the pretence to prophecy falls within the fame confideration ; the one being as won derful a communication of omnifclence, as the other is of omnipotence. For the confeffion of - adverfaries, or fome curfes on them ; thefe cannot fignify much, unlefs they were univerfal. Fair enemies will acknowledge what is good among their adverfaries : but as that Church is the leaft apt of any fociety we know, to fpeak good of thofe who differ from her, fo fhe has not very much to boaft as to others faying much good of her. And if fignal providences have now and then happened, thefe are fuch things, and they are carried on with fuch a depth, that we muft acquiefce in the obfervation of the wifeft men of all ages, that tbe race is not to the fwift, narEcd. ix, n, the battle to thefirong : but that time and chance bappeneth io all things. And thus it appears, that thefe pretended notes, inftead of giving us a clear thread to lead us up to infallibility and Ita end all controverfies, they do ftart a great variety of queftions, 13^ AN EXPOSITION OF ART. queftions, that engage us into a labyrinth, out of which it ^^^" cannot be eafy for any, to extricate themfelves. But if we 'could fee an end of this, then a new fet of queftions wifl come on : when we go to examine all Churches by them : whether the Church of Rome has them all ? And if (he alone has them, fo that no other Church has them equally with her or beyond her ? If all thefe muft be difcuffed before we can fetde this queftion, which is the true infallible Church ? a man muft ftay long ere he can come to a point In It. Therefore there can be no other way taken here, but to examine firft, what makes a particular Church ? And then, fince the Catholic Church is an united body of all particular Churches, when the true notion of a particular Church is fixed, it will be eafy from that to form a notion of the Ca tholic Church. It would feem reafonable by the method of all Creeds, in particular of that called the Apoftles Creed, that we ought firft to fetde our faith as to the great points of the Chriftian reli gion, and from thence go to fettle the notion of a true Church: and that we ought not to begin with the notion of a Church, and from thence go to the doarine. The doarine of Chriftianity muft be firft ftated, and from this we are to take our meafures of all Churches ; and that chiefly with refpea to that doarine, which every Chriftian is bound to believe : here a diftinaion is to be made between thofe capital and fundamental Articles, without which a man cannot be efteemed a true Chriftian, nor a Church a true Church ; and other truths, which being delivered in Scripture, all men are indeed obliged to believe them, yet they are not of that nature that the ignorance of them, or an error in them, can exclude from falvation. To make this fenfible ; it is a propofition of another fortj that Chrift died for finners, than this, that he died at the third or at the fixth hour. And yet if the fecond propofition is exprefsly revealed in Scripture, we are bound to believe it, fince God has faid it, though it is not of the fame nature with the other. Here a controverfy does naturally arife that wife people are nnwllling to meddle with, what Articles are fundamental, and what are not ? / The defining of fundamental Articles feems on the one hand to deny falvation to fuch as do not receive them all, which men are not willing to do. And on the other hand, it may feem a leaving men at fib«tty, as to all other particulars that are not reckoned up among the fuadamentals. But THE XXXIX ARTICLES^ i«37 But after all, the covenant of grace, the terms of falva- art. tion, and the grounds on which we expea it, feem to be ''^^• things of another nature than all other truths, which, though ^"'"^''''''"^ revealed, are not of themfelves the means or conditions of falvation. Wherefoever true baptifm is, there it feems the cflcntlals of this covenant are preferved : for if we look on baptifm as a fcederal admiffion into Chriftianity, there can be no baptifm where the effence of Chriftianity is not pre ferved. As far then as we believe that any fociety has pre ferved that, fo far we are bound to receive her baptifm, and no further! For unlefs we confider baptifm as a fort of a charm, that fuch words joined with a wafhing with water make one a Chriftian ; which feems to be exprefsly contrary to what St. Peter fays of It, that it is not the wajhing away the ' f^*' '"• filth of the flejh, but the anfwer of a good confcitnce towards*^' God thai faves us ; we muft conclude, that baptifm is a foe deral thing, in which after that the fponfions are made, the feal of regeneration is added. From hence it will follow, that all who have a true bap tifm, that makes men believers and Chriftians, muft alfo have the true faith as to the effentials of Chriftianity ; the fundamentals of Chriftianity feem to be all that is neceffary to make baptifm true and valid. And upon this a diftinaion is to be made, that will difcover and deftroy a fophifm that is often ufed on this occafion. A true Church is, in one fenfe, a fociety that preferves the effentials and fundamentals of Chriftianity : in another fenfe it ftands for a fociety, all whofe doarines are true, that has corrupted no part of this religion, nor mixed any errors with it. A true man is one who has a foul and a body that are the effential conftituents of a man : whereas in another fenfe, a man of fincerity and candour is called a true man. Truth in the one fenfe imports the effen tial conftitution, and In the other it imports only a quality that is accidental to it. So when we acknowledge that any fociety is a true Church, we ought to be fuppofed to mean no other, than that the covenant of Grace in its effential conftltuent parts is preferved entire in that body ; and not that it is true in all its doarines and decifions. The fecond thing to be confidered in a Church, is their affociatlon together in the ufe of the facraments. For thefe are given by Chrift to the fociety, as the rites and badges of that body. That which makes particular men believers, is their receiving the fundamentals of Chriftianity ; fo that which conftltutes the body of the Church, is the profeffion of that faith, and the ufe of thofe facraments which arc the rites and diftinaions of thofe who profefs it. In 23B AN EXPOSITION OP ART. In this likewife a diftinaion is to be made between what i» ^'^ effential to a facrament, and what is the exaa obfervance of it ^^'^'^^""^ according to the Inftitution. Additions to the facraments do not annul them, though they corrupt them with that adulterate ml.xture. Therefore where the fponfions are made, and a wafhing with water is ufed with the words of Chrift, there we own that there Is a true baptifm : though there may be a large addition of other rites, which we rejeO. as fuperftitious, though we do not pretend that they null the baptifm. But if any part of the inftitution is cut off, there we do not own the facrament to be true : becaufe it being an Inftitution of Chrift's, it can no more be efteemed a true facrament, than as it retains all that, which by the inftitution appears to be the main and effential parts of the aaion. Upon this account it is, that fince Chrift appointed bread and wine for his other facrament, and that he not only bleffed both, but diftributed both, with words appropriated to each kind, we do not efteem that to be a true facrament, in which either the one or the other of thefe kinds is withdrawn. But in the next place, there may be many things neceffary in the way of precept and order, both with relation to the facraments, and to the other public aas of worfhip, in which though additions or defeas are erroneous and faulty, yet they do not annul the facraments. We think none ought to baptize but men dedicated to the fervice of God, and ordained according to that conftitution that was fettied In the Church by the Apoftles ; and yet baptifm by laicks, or by women, fuch as Is moft commonly praaifed in the Roman Church, is not efteemed null by us, nor is it repeated : becaufe we make a difference between what is effen tial to a facrament, and what is requifite in the regular way of ufing It. None can deny this among us, but thofe who will queftion the whole Chriftianity of the Roman Church, where the mid- wives do generally baptize : but if this Invalidates the baptifm, then we muft queftion all that Is done among them : perfons fo baptized, if their baptifm Is void, are neither truly ordained, nor capable of any other aa of Church-communion. There fore men's being In orders, or their being duly ordained, is not neceffary to the effence of the facrament of baptifm, but only to the regularity of adminiftering it : and fo the. want of ft does not void it, but does only prove fuch men to be under fome defeas and diforder in their conftitution. Thus I have laid down thofe diftinaions that will guide usitt the right underftanding of this Article. If we believe that any fociety retains the fundamentals of Chriftianity, we do from that conclude it to be a true Church, to have a true baptifm, and THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^39 and the members of it to be capable of falvation. But we are not upon that bound to affociate ourfelves to their com munion : for if they have the addition of falfe doarines, or -any unlawful parts of worfhip among them, we are not bound to join in that which we are perfuaded is error, idolatry, or fuperftition. If the facraments that Chrift has appointed are obferved and miniftered by any Church as to the main of them, accord ing to his inftitution, we are to own thofe for valid aaions ; but we are not for that bound to join in communion with them, if they have adulterated thefe with many mixtures and additions. Thus a plain difference is made between our owning that a Church may retain the fundamentals of Chriftianity, a true baptifm, and true orders, which are a confequent upon the former, and our joining with that Church in fuch aas as we think are fo far vitiated, that they become unlawful to us to do them. Purfuant to this, we do neither repeat the baptifm, nor the ordinations of the Church of Rome : we acknowledge that our forefathers were both baptized and ordained in that communion : and we derive our prefent Chriftianity or bap tifm, and our orders from thence : yet we think that there were fo many unlawful aaions, even in thofe rituals, befides the other corruptions of their worfhip, that we cannot join in fuch any more. The being baptized in a Church does not tie a man to every thing in that Church ; it only ties him to the covenant of Grace. The ftipulations which are made in baptifm, as well as in ordination, do only bind a man to the Chriftian faith, or to the faithful difpenfing of that Gofpel, and of thofe facraments, of which he is made a minifter : fo he who being convinced of the errors and corruptions of a Church, departs from them, and goes on In the purity of the Chriftian reli gion, does purfue the true effea both of his baptifm, and of his ordination vows. For thefe are to be confidered as ties upon him only to God and Chrift, and not to adhere to the other diaates of that body, in which he had his birth, baptifm, and ordination. The great objeaion againft all this is, that it fets up a private judgment, it gives particular perfons aright of judging Churches : whereas the natural order Is, that private perfons ought to be fubjea and obedient to the Church. This muft needs feed pride and curiofity, it muft break all order, and eaft all things loofe, If every fingle man, according to his reading and prefumption, will judge of Churches and Com munions. On *40 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. On this head it is very eafy to employ a great deal of po- XIX. pular eloquence, to decry private men's examining of Scrip-' ^•^"^Z"*^ tures, and forming their judgments of things out of them, and not fubmitting all to the judgmeiit of the Church. But how abfurd foever this may feem, afl parties do acknowledge that it muft be done. Thofe of the Church of Rome do teach, that a man born in the Greek Church, or among us, is bound to lay down his error, and his communion too, and to come over* to them ; and yet they allow our' baptifm, as well as they do the ordinations of the Greek Church. Thus they allow private men to judge, and that in fo great a point, as what Church and what Communion ought to be chofen or forfaken. And it is certain, that to judge of Churches and Communions, Is a thing of that intricacy, that if private judgment is allowed here, there is no reafon to deny it its fufl fcope as to all other matters, God has given us rational faculties to guide and direa us ; and we muft make the moft of thefe that we can : we muft judge with our own reafons, as well as fee with our own eyes : neither can wc, or ought we to refign up our under- ftandings to any others, unlefs we are convinced that God has impofed this upon us, by his making them infafllble, fo that we are fecured from error if we follow them. All this we muft examine, and be well affured of it, otherwife it will be a very rafh, unmanly, and bafe thing in us, to muffle up our own underftandings, and to deliver our reafon and, faith over to others blindfold. Reafon Is God's image in us; and as the ufe and application of our reafon, as well as of the freedom of our wills, are the higheft excellencies of the rational nature ; fo they muft be always claimed, and ought never to be parted with by us, but upon clear and certain autho rities In the name of God, putting us imphcitiy under the dic tates of others. We may abufe the. ufe of our reafon, as wefl as the li berty of our will ; and may be damned for the one as well as the other. But when we fet ourfelves to make the beft ufe we can of the freedom of our willsj we may and do upon that expea fecret affiftances. We have both the like promifes, direaion to the like prayers, and reafon to expea the fame iUuminatlon, to make us fee, know, and comprehend the truths of religion, that we have to expea that our powers fliall be inwardly ftrengthened to love and obey them. David Pf.cxix. prays that God may open his eyes, as well as that he may i8, 35> make him to go in his ways. The promifes in the Prophets concerning the Gofpel-difpenfation carry in them the being taught THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 241 feiught of God, as well as the being made to walk in his ways; ART. and the enlightening the mind, and the eyes of tbe mind to know, ^^^¦ is prayed for by St. Paul, as well as that Chrijl may dwell in ^'''^^^^'7*^ their hearts, iLiii. 17, Since then there is an affiftance of the Divine grace given to fortify the underftanding, as well as to enable the will, it foUows that our underftanding is to be employed by us in or der to the finding out of the truth, as well as our wifl in order to the obeying of it. And though this may have very ill confequences, it does not follow from thence, that it Is not true. No confequences can be worfe than the corruption that is In the world, and the damnation that follows upon fin j and yet God permits it, becaufe he has made us free creatures. Nor can any reafon be given why we fhould be lefs free in the ufe of our underftanding, than we are in the ufe of our will ; or why God fhould make it to be lefs poffible for us to fall into errors, than it is to commit fins. The wrath of God is as much denounced againft men that hold the truth in Rom. i. ig, unrighteoufnefs, as againft other fms ; and It is reckoned among 24» ^^^ the heavieft of curfes, to be given up to firong delufions, io i^-zTbcff. ij, lieve a lie. Upon all thefe reafons therefore it feems clear, ". that our underftandings are left free to us as wefl as our wills j and If we obferve the ftyle and method of the Scriptures, we fhall find in them all over, a conftant appeal to a man's reafon, and to his intelkaual faculties. If the mere diaates of the Church, or of infallible men, had been the refolution or foundation of faith, there had been no need of fuch a long thread of reafoning and difcourfe, as both our Saviour ufed while on earth, and as the Apoftles ufed in their writings. We fee the way of authority is not taken, but explanations are offered, proofs and Illuftrations are brought to convince the mind ; which (hews that God, in the cleareft manifeftation of his wifl, would deal with us as with reafonable creatures, who are not to believe but upon per fuafion; and are to ufe our reafons in order to the attain ing that perfuafion. And therefore upon the whole matter We Ought not to believe doarines to be true, becaufe the Church teaches them; but we ought to fearch ihe Scriptures, and then, according as we find the doarine of any Church to be true in the fundamentals, we ought to believe her to be a true Church ; and if, befides this, the whole extent of the doarine and worfhip, together not only with the effential parts of the facraments, but the whole adminiftration of them and the other rituals of any Church, are pure and true ; then we ought to account fuch a Church true in the largeft extent of the word true ; and by confequence we ought to hold communion with it. R Another 242 AN EXPOSITION OP Another queftion may arife out of the firft words of this Article, concerning the vifibillty of this Church; Whether It irruft be ab.vays vifible ? According to the diftinaion hitherto made ufe of, the refolution of this will be foon made. There feem to be promifes In the Scriptures, of a perpetual duration of the Chriftian Church : I will be with you always, even to the endof the world : and, the gates of hell fhall not prevail againfi the Church. The Jewifli religion had a period prefixed, In which it was to come to an end : but the prophecies that are among the prophets, concerning the new difpenfation, feem to import not only Its continuance, but its being continued ftill vifible in the world. But as the Jewifh difpenfation was long continued, after they had fallen generally into fome very grofs errors ; fo the Chriftian Church may be vifible ftill, though not infallible. God may preferve the fucceffion of a true Church as to the ef fentials and fundamentals of faith, in the world, even though this fociety fliould fall into error. So a vifible fociety of Chriftians In a true Church, as to the effentials of our faith, is not controverted by us. We do only deny the Infallibility of this true Church : and therefore we are not afraid of that quef tion, IVhere was your Church before Henry the Eighth ? We anfwer. It was where it is now, here in England, and In the other kingdoms of the world : pnly it was then corrupted, and it Is now pure. There is therefore no f<5rt of inconvenience in own ing the conftant vifibillty of a conftant fucceffion and Church of true Chriftians ; true as to the eflentials of the covenant of grace, though not true in all their doarines. This feems to be a part of the glory of the Meffias, and of his kingdom, that he fhall be ftill vifibly worfhipped in the world by a body of men called by his name. But when vifibillty is thus fepa rated from infaflibillty, and it is made out that a Church may be a true Church, though flie has a large allay of errors and corruptions mixed In her conftitution and decifions ; there will be no manner of inconvenience in owning a conftant vifibillty, even at the fame time that we charge the moft eminent part of this vifible body with many errors, and vvith much cor ruption. So far has the firft part of this Article been treated of: from it we pafs to the fecond, which affirms, that as the otiier Patri archal and Apoftolical Churches, fuch as Jerufalem, Alexandria, and Antioch, have erred, fo the Church of Rome has likewife erred, and that not only in their living, and manner of fere- Oionles, but alfo in matters of faith. It is not queftioned but that the other Patriarchal Churches have erred ; both that where our Saviour himfelf firft taught, and which was governed by two of the Apoftles fucceffively, and thofe which were founded by St. Peter ia perfon, or by proxy, as iTHE XXXIX Articles. ^43 lis Church-hiftory reprefents Alexandria and Antloqh to have ART. been. Thofe of the Church of Rome, by whom they are at this. _ _1 i day condemned both of herefy and fchlfm, do not difpute this. Nor do they difpute that many of their Popes have led bad and flagitious lives: they deny not that the canons, ceremonies, and government of the Church are very much changed by the influence and authority of their Popes : but the whole queftion turns upon this. Whether the See of Rome has erred in matters of faith, or not ? In this thofe of that communion are divided : fome, by the Church or See of Rome, mean the Popes perfon- ally ; fo they maintain^ that they never have, and never can fall Into error : whereas others, by the See of Rome, mean that whole body that holds communion with Rome, which they fay cannot be tainted with error ; and thefe feparate this from the perfonal infallibility of P(j/)«.- for ifa Pope fhould err, they think that a General Council has authority to proceed againft him, and to deprive him : and thus, though he fhould err, the See might be kept free from error. I fhafl upon this Article only confider the firft opinion, referving the confideration of the fe cond to the Article concerning General Councils. As to the Popes their being fubjea to error, that muft be confeffed, unlefs it can be proved, that, by a clear and exprefs privilege granted them by God, they are excepted out of the comrrion condition of human nature. It is further highly pro bable that there is no fuch privilege^ fince the Church conti nued for many ages, before it was fo much as pretended to; and that in a time when that See was not only claiming all the rights that belonged to it, but challenging a great many that were flatly denied and rejeaed : fuch as the right of receiving appeals from the African Churches ; in which reiterated in ftances, and a bold claim upon a fpurious canon, pretended to be of the Council of Nice, were long purfued : but thofe Churches afferted their authority of ending all matters within themfelves. In all this conteft infallibility was never claimed ; no more than it had been by Viaor, when he excommunicated' the Afian Churches for obferving Eafter on the fourteenth day ef the moon, and not on the Lord's-day after, according to the cuftom of the Roman, as well as of other Churches, When Pope Stephen quarrelled with St, Cyprian about the ^"'^''- '^''^• rebaptizing of hereticks, Cyprian and firmilian were fo fir, ,. „. from fubmitting to his authority, that they fpake of him~ with aCypr. Ep. freedom ufed by equals, and with a feverity that fhewed they 7-i> et75- were far from thinking him infallible. When the whole Eaftg^^'J;'^™" was dlftraaed with the difputes occafioned by the Arian con-ety. troverfy, there was fo much partiality in all their councils, that it was decreed, that appeals fhould be made to Pope JuHus, and afterwards to his fucceffors ; though here was an occafion R 2 given 244 AN EXPOSITION OF • ART. given to affert this infallibility, if it had been thought on, yet ^^^- none ever fpoke of it. Great reverence was paid to that ^'•^'^^'^ Church, both becaufe they believed it was founded by St. Peter and St. Paul, and chiefly becaufe it was the im perial city ; for we fee that all other fees had that degree of dignity given them, which by the conftitution of the Roman empire was lodged in their cities : and fo when Byzance was made the imperial city, and called New Rome, though more commonly Conftantinople, it had a patriarchal dignity beftow ed on it; and was In all things declared equal to Old Rome, only the point of rank and order excepted. This was decreed Coil. Confl. in two General Councils, the fecond and the fourth, in fo ex- Can. 3. prefs a manner, that it alonebeforeequitabk judges would fully wTc'^'Ts' ^ewthe fenfe of the Church in the fourth and fifth century upon this head. When Pope LIberlus condemned Athanafius, and fubfcribed to Seml-Arlanifm, this was never confidered as a new decifion in that matter, fo that it altered the ftate of it. No ufe was made of it, nor was any argument drawn from It. LIberlus was univerfally condemned for what he had done; and when he repented of it and retraacd it, he was again owned by the Church. We have In the fixth century a moft undeniable inftance of the fenfe of the whole Church In this matter. Pope Honorlus was by the Sixth General Council condemned as a Monothellte; and this In the prefence of the Pope's legates, and he waS' anathematized by feveral of the fucceeding Popes. It is to no purpofe here to examine whether he was juftly or unjuftly condemned ; It is enough that the fenfe both of the Eaftern and Weftern Church appeared evidentiy In that age upon thefe c,.n..sinu- two points ; that a Pope might be a heretick ; ^nd that, being ci^ An. Cuch, he might be held accurfed for it: and in that time there — Tcm. I. was not any one that fuggefted, that either he could not fafl t.nc. Into herefy, fince our Saviour had prayed that St. Peter's faith might n-A fail; or that, if he had fallen into it, he muft be left to the judgment of God ; but that the holy See (accord ing to the fable of P. Marcellln) could be judged by no body. The confufions that followed for fome ages in the weftern parts of Europe, more particulariy in Italy, gave occafion to the bi fhops of Rome to extend their authority. The emperors of Conftantinople, and their exarchs at Ra venna, ftudied to make them fure to their interefls, yet ftill afferting their authority over them. The new conquerors iludled alfo to gain them to their fide ; and they managed their matters fo dextroufly, that they went on ftill increafing and extending their authority ; tifl being much ftraltened by the kings of the Lombards, they were proteaed by a new con quering family, that arofe in France in the eighth century; who, THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^45 who, to give credit both to their ufurpation of that crown, ART. and to the extending their dominions into Italy, and the af- ^'i^ fuming the empire of the Weft, did both protea and enrich ^-^V^*-' them, and enlarged their authority ; the greatnefs of which they reckoned could do them no hurt, as long as they kept the confirmation of their ekaion to themfelves. That family became quickly too feeble to hold that power long, and then an impofture was publifhed, of a volume of the Decretal Epifiles of the Popes of the firft ages, In which they were re prefented as aaing according to thofe high claims to which they were then beginning to pretend. Thofe ages were too blind and too ignorant, to be capable of fearching critically in to the truth of this colkaion ; it quickly paffed for current; and though fome in the beginning difputed it, yet that was foon borne down, and the credit of that work was eftablifhed. It furnifhed them with precedents that they were careful enough not only to follow, but to outdo. Thus a work, which is now as univerfally rejeaed by the learned men of their own body as fpurious, as it was then implicitly taken for ge nuine, gave the chief foundation during many ages to their unbounded authority : and this furnifhes us with a very juft prejudice againft it, that it was managed with fo much fraud and impofture ; to which they added afterwards much cruelty and violence ; the two worft charaaers poffible, and the leaft likely to be found joined with infallibility : for It Is reafonable enough to apprehend, that, if God had lodged fuch a privi lege any where, he would have fo influenced thofe who were the depofitaries of It, that they fliould have appeared fomewhat like that authority to which they laid claim ; and that he would not have forfaken them fo, that for above eight hun dred years the Papacy, as it is reprefented by their own writers, is perhaps the worft fucceffion of men that is to be found in hiftory. But now to come more clofe, to prove what Is here af ferted In this part of the Article. If all thofe doarines which were eftablifhed at Trent, and that have been confirmed by Popes, and moft of them brought into a new Creed, and made parts of it,' are found to be grofs errors ; or if but any one of them fhould be found to be an error, then there is no doubt to be made but that the Church of Rome hath erred : fo the proof brought againft every one of thefe, is likewife a proof againft their infallibility. But I fhall here give one in ftance of an error, which will not be denied by the greater part of the Church of Rome. I hey have now for above fix hundred years afferted, that they had an authority over princes, not only to convia and condemn them of herefy, and to proceed againft them with Church-cenfures; but that R 3 they 24& An exposition of O-V^O ART, they had a power to depofe them, to abfolve their fuhjefll ^^^- from their oaths of allegiance, and to transfer their dOmh nions to fuch perfons as fhould undertake to execute their fen- tences. This they have often put in execution, and have con ftantly kept up their claim to it to this day. It will not ferve them to get clear here, to fay, that theie were the violent praaices of fome Popes : what they did in many particular inftances may be turned off, and left as a blemifh on the me mories of fome of them. But the point at prefent in quef tion, is, whether they have not laid claim to this, as a r-ia.Papa->Tight belonging to their See, as a part of St. Peter's authority [• '• defcended to them .'' Whether they have not founded it on y.^pcftEp. his being Chrifi' s Vicar, who was the King of kings, and 55. Lord oj lords; to whom all power in heaven^and in earth was '^'^rr' "' given? Whether they have not founded It on Jeremy's ^«/«^ et cic . ' ft over nations and kingdoms, to root out, pluck down, and to c. J. defiroy? and on other places of Scripture ; not forgetting, that the firft words of the Bible are, In the beginning, and not In the beginnings ; from which they inferred, that there is but r.ne principle, from whence all power Is derived : and that God made tzvo great lights, tbe San to rule by day ; which they applied to themfelves. This, I fay, is the queftion : Whether they did not affume this authority as a power given them by God i As for the ap plying it to particular Inftances, to thofe kings and emperors whom they depofed, that is, indeed, a perfonal thing, whether- they were guilty of herefy, or of being favourers of it, or not ? And whether th- Popes proceeded againft them with too much violence or not ? The point now in queftion, is, Whether they declared this to be a dochine, that there was an authority lodged with their See for doing fuch things, and whether they alkdged Scripture and Tradition for It ? Cone. Lat. fSowthiswIfl appear evident to thofe who wifl read their 3. cap. 27. bufls : in the pieamblcs of which thofe quotations wifl be Con.^Lar found, as fome of them are in the body of the Canon Law: Con. Lug.' and it is decreed In it, that the belief of this is abfolutely necef fary to falvation. This v/as purfued In a courfe of many ages. General Councils, as they are efteemed among them, have concurred with the Popes bath in general decrees afferting this power to be in them, and in fpecial fentences againft Princes : this l^ltJ"l7J°^^-^"^^ ^^^ uiiiverlally received doarine of thofe ages: No tkisMl^" ""^"^^^fiy. ']°^ nation declaring againfi it; not fo much as one divine, civiUan, canonifi, or cafuifi writ againfi it, as Card. Perron truly faid. It was fo certainly believed, that thofe writers, whom the depofed Princes got to undertake their de. fence, THE XXXIX ARTICLES. M? fence, do not in any of their books pretend to call the doarine art. in general in queftion. ^''^• Two things were difputed : one was. Whether Popes had a direa power in temporals over Princes ; fo that they were as much fubjea to them as feudatory Princes were to their fupe rior Lords ? This, to which Boniface the Vlllth laid claim, was indeed contradiaed. The other point was, 'VYhether thofe particulars for which Princes had been depofed, fiich as the giving the inveftiture to bifhopricks, were herefies or not ? This was much contefted : but the power, in the cafe of ma^ nifeft herefy, or of favouring it, to depofe Princes, and tranf- fer their crowns to others, was never cafled in queftion. This was certainly a definition made In the chair, ex cathedra : for it was addreffed to all their community, both Laity and Clergy : plenary pardons were beftowed with it on thofe who executed it: the Clergy did generally preach the Croifades upon it. Princes that were not concerned in him that was depofed, gave way to the publication of thofe bulls, and gave leave to their fubjeas to take the Crofs, in order to the executing of them : and the people did in vaft multi tudes gather about the ftandards that were fet up for lead ing on armies to execute them ; while many learned men writ in defence of this power, and not one man durft write againft it. This argument lies not only againft the infallibility of Popes, but againft that of General Councils likewife ; and al fo againft the authority of oral tradition : for here. In a fucceffion of many ages, the tradition was wholly changed from the doarine of former times, which had been, that the Clergy were fubjea to Princes, and had no authority over them, or their crowns. Nor can it be faid, that that was a point of difcipline; for it was founded on an article of doc trine, whether there was fuch a power in the Popes or not ? The prudence of executing or not executing it, is a point of difcipline and of the government of the Church : but it is a point of doarine, whether Chrift has given fuch an authority to St. Peter and his foUowers ? And thofe points of fpeculation, upon which a great deal turns as to pradtice, are certainly fo important, that in them, if in any thing, we ought to expea an infaflibillty ; for in this cafe a man is diftradted between two contrary propofitions : the one is, that he muft obey the civil powers, as fet over him by an ordinance of God; fo that if he refifts them, he fhall receive in himfelf damnation: the other is, that the Pope being Chrift's Vi car, is to be obeyed when he abfolves him from his former oath and allegiance ; and that the new Prince fet up by him, is to be obeyed under the pain of damnation likewife. R 4 Here 44^ AN EXPOSITION OF ART. Here a man is brought into a great ftrait, and therefore ^^' he muft be guided by Infallibility, if in any thing. ''"V"*'-' So the whole argument comes to this head ; that we muft either believe that the depofimg power is lodged by Chrift in the See of Rome; or we muft conclude, with the Article, that they have erred ; and by confequence, that they are not infallible : for the erring in any one point, and at any one time, does quite deftroy the claim of infallibility. Before this matter can be concluded, we muft confider what is brought to prove it : what was laid down at firft muft be here remembered, that the proofs brought for a thing of this nature muft be very exprefs and clear. A privilege of fuch a fort, againft which the appearances and prejudices are fo ftronw, muft be very fully made out, before we can be bound to betieve it : nor can it be. reafonable to urge the autborlty of any paffages from Scripture, till the grounds are fhewn • for which the Scriptures themfelves ought to be believed. Thofe who think that it is in general well proved, that there muft be an infallibility In the Church, conclude from thence, that it muft be in the Pope ; for if there muft be a living fpeaking judge always ready to guide the Church, and to decide controverfies, they fay this cannot be in the dif fufive body of Chriftians ; fr)r thefe cannot meet to judge. Nor can it be In a General Council, the meeting of which depends upon fo many accidents, and on the confent of fo many Princes, that the infallibility will lie dormant for fome ages, if the General Council is the feat of it. Therefore they conclude, that fince it is certainly in the Church, and can be no where elfe but in the Pope, therefore it Is lodged in the See of Rome. Whereas we, on the other hand, think this is a ftrong argument againft the infaflibillty In general, that it do s not appear In whom it is vefted : and we think that every fide does fo effeaually confute the other, that we believe them all as to that ; and think they argue much ftronger when they prove where it cannot be, than when they pretend to prove where it rnuft be^ This, in the point now in hand, concerning the Pope, feems as evident, as any thing can poffibly be. It not appear ing, that after the words of Chrift to St. Peter, the other Apoftles thought the point was thereby decided, who among them fhould be the greateft? For that debate was ftifl on foot, and was c^nvaffed among them In the very, night In which our Saviour was b..trayed. Nor does It appear, that after the eftulion of the Holy Ghoft, which certainly infpired them with the full underftanding of Chrift's words, that they thc'ight there was any thing peculiarly given to St. Peter be yond the reft. He was queftioned upon his baptizing Cor nelius : THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^9 Melius : he was not fingly appealed to in the great queftion ^^^-f^" of fubjeaing the Gentfles to the yoke of the Mofaical Law ; ^y^.^j,'^ he delivered his opinion as one of the Apoftles : after which St. James fummed up the matter, and fettled the decifion of it. He was charged by St. Paul as guilty of diffimulation in that matter, for which St. Paul wiihftood him to his face: and he juftifies that, in an Epiftle that is confeflijd to be writ by divine Infpiration. St. Paul does alfo in the fame Epiftle plainly affert 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 appeakd to in any of the points that appear to have been difputed in the times that the Epiftles were written. So that we fee no charaaers of any fpecial infallibility that was in him, befides that which wa^ the effea of the infpiration, that was in the other Apoftles as well as in him : nor is there a tittle in the Scripture, not fo much as by a remote intimation, that he was to derive that authority, whatfoever it was, to any fucceffor, or to lodge it in any particular city or fee. The filence of the Scripture In this point feems to be a full proof, that no fuch thing was intended by God: other- wife we have all reafon to believe that it would have been clearly expreffed. St. Peter himfelf ought to have declared this: and fince both Alexandria and Antioch, as well as Rome, pretend to derive from him, and that the fucceffion to thofe fees began in him, this makes a decifion in this point fo much the more neceffary. When St. Peter writ his fecond Epiftle, in which he ^ p^t, ;. 17. mentions a revelation that he had from Chrift, of his ap proaching diffolution, though that was a very proper occafion for declaring fuch an important matter, he fays nothing that relates to it, but gives only a new atteftation of the truth of Chrift's divine miffion, and of what he himfelf had been a witnefs to in the Mount, when he faw the excellent glory, and heard tbe voice out of it. He leaves a provifion in writing for the following ages, but fays nothing of any fucceffion or fee : fo that here the greateft of afl privileges Is pretended to be lodged in a fucceffion of bifhops, without any one paf fage in Scripture importing It. Another fet of difficulties arife, concerning the perfons who have a right to choofe thefe Popes in whom this right is vefted, and what number is neceflary for a canonical elec tion ? How far fimony voids it, and who is the competent judge of that ; or who fhall judge in the cafe of two differ ent ekaions, which has often happened ? We muft alfo have a certain rule to know when the Popes judge as private per fons, and when they judge infallibly \ With whom they muft confult. iS° AN EXPOSITION OF confult, and what folemn ities are neceflary to make them fpeak ex cathedra, or infallibly? For if this infallibility comes as a privilege from a grant made by Chrift, we ought to, ex pea, that afl thofe neceffary circumftances to direa us, in order to the receiving and fubmitting to it, fhould be fixed by the fame authority that made the grant. Here then arc very great difficulties : let us now fee what is offered to make out this great and important claim, l^he chief proof is brought from thefe words of our Sa- Matth, xv-:. viour, Vv'hen upon St. i eter's confeffing, that he was the i6, 17, 1^, Chrijl, the fon of the living God; he faid to him, Thou, art '*' Peter, anti upon this Rock I vjill build my Church, and the gates of hell JhaU not prevail againjl it. I wiU give unto thee the k.ys of the kingdom of heaven ; and whatfoever thou Jhalt hvr.d on earth fliall be bound in heaven, and zvhatfoever thou fhalt loofe on earth flail he loofed in heaven. This begins with an allufion to his name ; and difcourfes built upon fuch al lufions are not to be underffood ftridlly or grammatically. By the Rock upon which Chrift promifes to build bis Church, many of the Fathers have underftood the perfon of Chrifi, others have underftood the cofeffionof him, or faith in him, vvhich indeed is but a different way of expreffing the fame thing. And it Is certain that, ftridfly fpeaking, the Church can only be faid to be founded upon Chrift, and upon his doarine. But In a fecondary fenfe it may be faid to be founded upon the Apoftle.^, and upon St, Peter as the firft in order ; which is not to be difputed. Now though this is a fenfe which was not put on thefe words for many ages ; yet when it fhould be allowed to be their true fenfe, it will not prove any thing to have been granted to St. Peter, but what was common to the other r.|>h. ii. 2c. Apoftks ; who are all called the foundations upon which the Kev, xxj. Church is buiU. That which follows, of the gates of hell not being able to prevail ajrainfi the Church, may be either underftood of death, which is often called the gate to the grave; which is the fenfe of the word that is rendered hell: and then the meaning of thefe words will be, that the Church, which Chrift was to raife, fhould never be extingulfhed, nor die, or come to a period, as the Jewifh religion then did : or, according to the cuftom of the Jews, of holding their courts and councils about their gates, by the gates of hell may be underftood, the defions and contrivances of the powers of darknefs, which fhould never prevail over the Church to root It out, and deftroy It ; for the v/ord rendered prevail, does fignify an entire vidtory : this only imports,' that the Church fhould be ftill preferved againft all the attempts of hell, but does not intimate that no error was ever to get into it. 34. TITE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^S^ By the words kingdom of l)eaven, generally through the ART. Vvhole Gofpel, the difpenfation of the Meflias Is underftood. ^^'^' This appears evidently from the words with which both St, [f^^""^ T 1 T> ^-n. 1 .^ • , 1 - 1 . r, Mat. HI. 2. John Baptift and our Saviour begun their preaching, Kcpcnt, ^^j. i^,. j,. for the kingdom of heaven is at hand : and the many ; ir.ra- ¦ bles and comparifons that Chrift gave of the kingdom of hea ven, can only be underftood of the preaching of the Gofpel. This being then agreed to, the m.oft natural and the leaft forced expofition of thofe words muft be, that St, Retcr was to open the difpenfation cf the Gofpel, The proper ufe of a key is to open a door : and as this agrees with thefe words, be that hath the key of the houfe of David, that openeth and^cv. iii. j, no man fhutteth, and fhutteth and no man openeth; and vvith ^"'""i- 5*- the phrafe of the key of knowledge, by which the lawyers are defcribed ; for they had a key with v/riting-tables given them, as the badges of their profeffion : fo it agrees with the accomplifhment of this promife in St. Peter, who firft opened the Gofpel to the Jews, after the wonderful effufion of the Holy Ghoft : and more eminendy when he firft opened the door to the Gentiles, preaching to Cornelius, and baptizing him, and his houfhold, to which the phrafe of the kiiigdoin of heaven feems to have a more particular relation, 'I'his difpenfation was committed to St. Peter, and feems to be claimed by him as his peculiar privilege in the council at Jerufalem, This is a clear and plain fenfe of thefe words. For thofe who would carry them further, and underftand by the kingdom of heaven our eternal happinefs, muft ufe many diftinaions ; otherwife, if they expound them literally, they will afcribe to St, Peter that which certainly could only belong to our Saviour himfelf. Though at the fame time it is not to be denied, but that, under the figure of keys, the power of difcipline, and the condua and management of Chriftians, may be underftood. But as to this, all the paftors of the Church have their fhare in it ; nor can it be appropriated to any one perfon. As for that of binding and loojmg, and the confirming in heaven what he fliould do in earth, whatever it may fignify, it is no fpecial grant to St, Peter : for the fame words are fpoken by our Saviour elfewhere to all the Apoftks : fo this is given equaUy to them all. The words, binding and loofing, are ufed by the Jewifh writers, in the fenfe of affirming or denying the obligation of any precept of the Law that might be in difpute. So according to this common form of fpeech, and the fenfe formeriy given to the words, kingdom of heaven, the meaning of thefe v/ords muft be, that Chrift committed to the Apoftks the difpenfing his Gofpel to the world, by which he authorifed them to dillblve (fhe obligation of the Mofaical Lav/s j and to give other Laws to 252 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. to the Chrifiian Church, which they fhould do under fuch XIX. vifible charaaers of a divine authority, impowering and con- ^^'^^^"^ duaing them in it, that it fhould be very evident, that what they did on earth was alfo ratified in heaven. Thefe words, thus underftood, carry in them a clear fenfe, which agrees with the whole defign of the Gofpel. But whatfoever their fenfe may be, it is plain that there was nothing given peculi arly to St. Peter by them, which was not likewife given to the reft of the Apoftles. Nor do thefe words of our Saviour to St. Peter import any thing of a fucceffive infaflibillty, that was to be derived from him with any diftinaion beyond the other Apoftles : unkfs It were a priority of order and dignity; and whatever that was, there is not fo much as a hint given, that it was to defcend from him to any fee or fucceffion of Biftiops. Lnke xxii. ^g fgj. Q^^y SavIour's praying that St. Peter's faith might not John xxi. fail} and his reftorlng him to his apoftolical funaion, by a 15, j6, 17. thrice repeated chsitge, feed my Jheep, feed my lambs, that has fuch a vifible relation to his fafl, and to his denying him, that it does not feem neceffary to enlarge further on the making it out, or on fhewing that thefe words are capable of no other fignification, and cannot be carried further. The importance of this argument, rather than the diffi culty of it, has made it neceflary to dwell fully upon It : fo much depends upon it, and the miffionaries of the Church of Rome are fo well inftruaed In it, that it ought to be well confidered; for how littie ftrength foever there may be in the arguments brought to prove this infallibility, yet the colours are fpecious, and they are commonly managed both with much art, and great confidence. ARTICLE THE XXXIX ARTICLES. «53 ARTICLE XX. Of the Authority of the Church. Cfic Cgurtb 8at& ^oMctv to bttttt IRite^ or Cercmo-- nusJ, aiiti autfioritp iit i|)attejji of i^aitg* anti pet it i0 not latoful for tgc €f)mtf) to ortiain anp tging tfiat i0 tontrarp to dDoD'g m'orti tojitten -, ntitgeu map it fo tjrpouno one plate of S>triptuje, tgat it he repugnant to anotgej* Mifierefore altfiougg tfie Cfiurcfi be a ®[llitnef0 and J^eeper of l^olp Writ, pet 00 it ouggt not to tietjee anp tging againft tge fame, fo beOitie0 tfie fame ougfit it not to enforce anp tfiing to be beliebeO for neciffitp of ^albation, THIS Article confifts of two parts ; the firft afferts a ART, power in the Church both to decree rites and ceremo- XX. nies, and to judge In matters of faith-: the fecond limits V^'V'XiP this power over matters of faith to the Scriptures : fo that it muft neither contradia them, nor add any articles as ne ceflary to falvation to thofe contained In them. This is fuit able to fome words that were once in the Fifth Article, but were afterwards left out ; inftead of which the firft words of this Article were put in this place, according to the printed editions ; though they are not In the original of the Article figned by both Houfes of Convocation, that are'yet extant. As to the firft part of the Article, concerning the power of the Church, cither with relation to ceremonies or points of faith, the difpute lies only with thofe who deny all Church power, and think that Churches ought to be in afl things li mited by the rules fet in Scripture; and that where the Scrip tures are filent, there ought to be no rules made, but that all men fhould be left to their liberty; and in particular, that the appointing new ceremonies, looks like a reproaching of the Apoftles, as if their conftltutions had been fo defeaive, that thofe defeas muft be fupplied by the inventions of men : which they oppofe fo much the more, becaufe they think that all the corruptions of Popery began at fome rites which feemed at firii not only innocent, but pious ; but were after wards abufed to fuperftition and idolatry, and fwelled up to that bulk as to opprefs and ftifle true religion with their number and weight. A great «S-f An EXPOSITION Of A great part of this is in fome refpea true; yet that ifli m.ay examine the matter methodically, we fhall firft confider^ what power the Church has in thofe matters ; and then, what rules Ihe ought to govern herfelf by in the ufe of that power* It is very vifible, that in the Gof])e!s and Epiftles there are but few rules laid down as to ritual matters : in the Epiftles there are fome general rules given, that muft take In Rom. xiv. a great many cafes ; fuch as, Let aU things be done to edifi- »9- cation, to order, and to peace : and in the Epiftles to Timothy I Cor. xiv. ^j.^j Titus, many rules are given in fuch general words, as. Lay hands fuddenly on no man, that in order to the guiding of particular cafes by them, many diftinaions and fpecialities were to be interpofed to the making them praaicable and ufe ful. In m.atters that are merely ritual, the ftate of mankind in different climates and ages is apt to vary ; and the fame things that in one fcene of human nature may look grave, and feem fit for any fociety, may in another age look light, and diffipate men's thoughts. It is alfo evident that there is not a AlVm of rules given In the New Teftament about afl thefe ; and yet a due method in them Is neceffary to maintain the order and decency that become divine things. This feemS Gal. ii. 4. to be a part of the Gofpel liberty, that it is not a law of or- iv. 9. dinances ; thefe things being left to be varied according to the """'¦ '¦ diverfities of mankind. The Jewifh religion was delivered to one nation, and the main parts of it were to be performed In one place ; they were alfo to be limited in rituals', left they might have taken fome praaices from their neighbours round about them, andfoby the ufe of their rites have rendered Idolatrous pracSIces more familiar and acceptable to them: and yet they had many rites among them in our Saviour's time, which are not mentioned in any part of the C'ld Teftament ; fuch was the whole con ftitution of their fynagoguc-s, with all the fervice and officers that belonged to them : they had a Baptifin among themj befides feveral rites added to the Pafchal fervice. Our Sa viour reproved them for none of thefe ; he haflowed fome of them to be the foederal rites of his new difpenfation; he went to their fynagogues ; and though he reproved them for overvaluing their rites, for preferring tiiem to the laws of God, and making thefe void by their traditions, yet he does not condemn them for the ufe of them. And while of the Matt, xxiii.greater precepts he fays, Thefe things ye ought to have done; he ^3 adds concerning their rites and lefl'er matters, and not to have left tbe other undone. If then fuch a liberty was allowed In fo limited a rellgloHj it feems highly fuitable to the fublimer ftate of the Chriftian liberty, that there fiiould be room left for fuch appointment* or The XXXIX articles. ^55 Ifcr alterations as the different ftate of times and places fhould require. In hotter countries, for Inftance, there is no danger in dipping ; but if it is otherwife in colder climates, then fince mercy is better than evrn facrifice, a more fparing ufe may be Hnf. vi, 6, made of water ; afperfion may anfwer the true end of bap- '*'''^"' ^"' ?¦ tifm. A ftriaer or gentler difcipline of offenders muil be alfo proportioned to what the times will bear, and what men can be brought to fubmit to. The dividing of Chriftians into fuch diftria?, that they may have the beft conveniencies to affembk themfelves together for \\orfhip, and for keeping up of order: the appointing the times as well as the places of worfhip, are certainly to be fixed with the beft regard to pre fent circumftances that may be. The bringing Chriftian af- femblies into order and method, is neceffary for their folem nity, and for preventing that diflipation of thought that a di verfity of behaviour might occafion. And though a kifs of peace, and an order of deaconefl'es, were the praaices of the apoftolical time ; yet when the one gave occafion to raillery, and the other to fcandal, all the world was, and ftifl is, fatisfied with the reafons of letting both fall. Now if Churches may lay afide apoftolical praaices In matters that are ritual, it is certainly much eafier to juftify their making new rules for fuch things; fince it is a higher attempt to alter what was fettled by the Apoftks themfelves, than to fet up new rules in matters which they left untouched. Habits and pdftures are the neceffary circumftances of all publick meetings : the times of faffing and of prayer, the days of thankfgiving and communions are all of the fame nature. The publick confeffion of fins by fcandalous per fons ; the time and manner of doing it ; the previous fteps that fome Churches have made for the trial of thofe who were to be received into holy orders, that fo by a longer in- fpeaion into their behaviour, while in lovi'er orders, they might difcover how fit they were to be admitted Into the facred ones ; and chiefly the prefcribing ftated forms for the feveral aas of religious worfhip, and not leaving that to the capacities or humours, to the inventions, and often to the extravagancies of thofe who are to officiate : all thefe things, I fay, fall within thofe general rules given by the Apoftles to the Churches in their time: where we find that the Apofiles had their cufioms, i Cor. xij. as well as the Churches of God; which were then oppofed to '^' . the innovating and the contentious humours of fome faaious igto'z-.' men. And fuch a pattern have the Apoftles fet us of comply ing with thofe things that are regularly fettled, wherefoever we are, that we find they became all things^ to all men : to tbe Jeius they became Jews ; though that was a religion then extingulfhed in its obligation, by the promulgation of the Gofpel; and was then 25^ AN EXPOSITION OF ART, then fallen under great corruption: yet, in order to the galntnr XX. of fome of them, fuch was the fpirit of charity and edifi- ^^^^^/"^ cation with which the Apoftles were aaed, that while they were among them, they complied in the praaice of thofe abro gated rites ; though they aflerted both the liberty of the Gen tiles, and even their own, in that matter : it was only a com pliance, and not a fubmiffion to their opinions, that made them obferve days, and diftinguifh meats, while among them. If then fuch rites, and the rites of fuch a Church, were ftfll com plied with by Infpired men, this Is an Infallible pattern to us ; and lets us fee, upon how much ftronger reafons, we, who are under thofe obligations to unity and charity with all Chriftians, ought to maintain the unity of the body, and the decency and order that is neceffary for peace, and mutual edification. Therefore fince there is not any one thing that Chrift has enjoined more folemnly and more frequently than love and cha rity, union and agreement amongft his difciples ; fince we are alfo required to aflembk ourfelves together, to conftitute our- Mcb,x.25, felves in a body, both for worfhipping God jointly, and for maintaining of order and love among the fociety of Chriftians, we ought to acquiefce in fuch rules as have been agreed on by common confent, and which are recommended to us by long praaice, and that are eftablifhed by thofe who have the lawful authority over us. Nor can we affign any other bounds to our fubmiflion in this cafe, than thofe that the Gofpel has limited. Afl5 V. 29. We mufi obey God, rather than man ; and we muft In the firft Matt.xxii. place render to God the things that are God's, and then ^w? /j; Cafar the things that are Cafar's. So that if either Church or State have power to make rules and laws In fuch matters, they muft have this extent given them, that tifl they break In upon the laws of God and the Gofpel, we muft be bound to obey them. A mean cannot be put here ; either they have no power at all, or they have a power that muft go to every thing that is not forbid by any law of God. This is the only mea fure that can be given In this matter. But a great difference is here to be made between thofe rules that both Church and State ought to fet to themfelves in their enaaing of fuch matters, and the meafures of the obedience of fubjefts : the only queftion in the point of obe dience, muft be lawful or unlawful. For expedient or in expedient ought never to be brought into queftion, as to the point of obedience ; fince no inexpediency whatfoever can ba lance the breaking of order, and the dlffol'ving the conftitution and fociety. This is a confideration that arifes out of a man's apprehenfions of the fitnefs or ufefulnefs of things ; in which though he might be in the right as to the antecedent fitnefs of them, and yet even there he may be la the wrong, and in common THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 257 common modefty every man ought to think that it is more art. likely that he fhould be in the wrong, than the governors and XX, rulers of the fociety ; yet, I fay, allowing afl this. It is certain ^-y^/^KJ that order and obedience are, both in their own nature, and in their confequences, to be preferred to all the particular con fiderations of expediency or inexpediency. Yet ftifl thofe in whofe hands the making of thofe rules Is put, ought to carry ' their thoughts much further : they ought to confider well the genius of the Chriftian religion, and therefore they are to avoid every thing that may lead to Idolatry or feed fuperftition ; every thing that Is apt to be abufed to give falfe ideas of God, or to make the world think that fuch inftituted praaices may balance the violation of the laws of God. They ought not to Overcharge the worfhip of God with too great a number of them : the rites ought to be grave, fimple, and naturally ex- preffive of that which is intended by them. Vain pomp and indecent levity ought to be guarded againft ; and next to the honour of God and religion, the peace and edification of the fociety ought to be chiefly confidered. Due regard ought to be had to what men can bear, and what may be moft fuitable to the prefent ftate of the whole ; and finally, a great refpea is due to ancient and eftablifhed praaices. Antiquity does generally beget veneration ; and the very changing of what has been long in ufe, does naturally ftartle many, and difcompofe a great part of the body. So afl changes, unlefs the expediency of making them is upon other accounts very vifible, labour under a great prejudice with the more ftald fort of men; for this very reafon, becaufe they are changes. But In this matter, no certain or mathematical rules can be given : every one of thefe that has been named, is capable of that variety, by the diverfity of times and other circumftances; that fince prudence and difcretion muft rule the ufe that is to be made of them, that muft be left to the confcience and prudence of every perfon who may be concerned in the management of this au thority. He muft aa as he wifl anfwer it ta God and to the Church ; for he muft be at liberty in applying thofe general rules to particular times and cafes. And a temper muft be obferved : we muft avoid a fullen adhering to things becaufe they were Once fettled, as if points of honour were to be main tained here ; and that it looked like a reproaching a conftitu tion, or the wifdom of a former age, to alter what they did ; fince it is certain that what was wifely ordered in one time, may be as wifely changed in another : as, on the other hand, all men ought to avoid the imputations of a defultory levity ; as if they loved changes for changes fake. This might give occafion to our adverfaries to triumph over us, and might alio fill the minds of the weaker among ourfelves with apprehenfions and fcruples. S The 258 AN EXPOSITION OE ART. The next particular afferted in this Article, is, TIjat the X^- Church hath authority in matters of faith. Here a diftinaion is ^^^V^ to be made between an authority that is abfolute and founded on infaflibillty, and an authority of order. The former is very formally difclaimed by our Church ; but the fecond may be wefl maintained, though we affert no unerring authority. Every fingle man has a right to fearch the Scriptures, and to take his faith from them ; yet it is certain that he may be miftaken in it. It is therefore a much furer way for numbers of men to meet together, and to examine fuch differences as happen to arife ; to confider the arguments of all hands, with the import ance of fuch paffages of Scripture as are brought into the con troverfy ; and thus to enquire into the whole matter ; in which as it Is very natural to think that a great company of men fhould fee further than a lefs number ; fo there Is all reafon to expeft a good iffue of fuch deliberations, if men proceed in them with due fincerity and diligence ; If pride, fa6tion, and Intereft, do not fway their councils, and if they feek for truth more than for viaory. But what abufes foever may have crept fince into the public confultatlons of the Clergy, the Apoftles at firft met and con- fulted together upon that controverfy which was then moved concerning the impofing the Mofaical Law upon the Gentiles: Titus ;. 9. they ordered the paftors of the Church to be able to convince ¦ '"•"• gainfayers, and not to rejea a man as a heretick, tifl after a firft and a fecond admonition. The moft likely method both to find out the truth, and to bring fuch as are in error over to it. Is to confult of thefe matters in common ; and that openly and fairly. For if every good man, that prays earneftly to God for the affiftance and direaion of his fpirit, has reafon to look for It ; much more may a body of paftors, brought together to feek out the truth. In any point under debate, look for it, if they bring with them fincere and unprejudiced minds, and do pray earneftly to God. In that cafe, they may expea to be direaed and affifted of him. But this depends upon the purity of their hearts, and the earneftnefs of their endeavours and prayers. When any fynod of the Clergy has fo far examined a point, as to fittle their opinions about it, they may certainly decree that fuch is tlieir doarine : and as they judge it to be more or lefs Important, they may either reftrain any other opinion, or may require pofitive declarations about it, either of afl in their communion, or at leaft of all whom they admit to minifter in holy things. This is only an authority of order for the maintaining of union and edification : and in this a body does no more as it is a body, than what every fingle individual has a right to do for himfelf. He examines a doarine that is laid before him, he forms his own opinion THE XXXIX ARTICLES, 259 Opinion upon it, and purfuant to that he muft judge with whom he can hold communion, and from whom he muft feparate. When fuch definitions are made by the body of the paftors of any Church, all perfons within that Church do owe great refpea to their decifion, Modefty muft be obferved in defcant- ing upon it, and in difputing about it. Every man that finds his own thoughts differ from it, ought to examine the matter over again, with much attention and care, freeing himfelf all he can from prejudice and obftlnacy; with a juft diftruft of his own underftanding, and an humble refpea to the judgment of his fuperiors. This is due to the confiderations of peace and union, and to that authority which the Church has to maintain It, But if, after all poffible methods of enquiry, a man cannot mafter his thoughts, or make them agree with the publick decifions, his confcience is not under bonds : fince this authority is not ab folute, nor grounded upon a promife of infallibility. This is a tenet that, with relation to national Churches and their decifions, Is held by the Church of Rome, as well as by us : for they place infaflibflity either in the Pope, or in the univerfal Church : but no man ever dreamt of infaflibflity in a. particular or national Church : and the point in this Article is only concerning particular Churches ; for the head of General Councfls combs in upon the next. That no Church can add any thing as neceffary to falvation, has been already confidered upon the fixth Article. It is certain, that as we owe our hopes of falvation only to Chrift, and to what he has done for us ; fo alfo it can belong only to him who procured it to us, to fix the terms upon which we may look for it: nor can any power on earth clog the offers that he makes us in the Gofpel, with new or other terms than thofe which we find made there to us. There can be no dif pute about this: for unlefs we believe that there is an infallible authority lodged in the Church, to explain the Scripture, and to declare tradition; and unlefs we believe that the Scrlpture^s are both obfcure and defeaive, and that the one muft be help ed by an infafllble commentary, and the other fupplied by an authentical declarer of tradition ; we cannot afcribe an autho rity to the Church, either to contradia the Scripture, or to add neceffary conditions of falvation to It. We own, after afl, that the Church Is the depofitary of the whole Scriptures, as the Jews were of the Old Teftament : but in that inftance of the Jews, we may fee that a body of men may be faithful in the copying of a book exaaiy, and in the handing it dpwn without corrupting it ; and yet they may be miftaken in the true meaning of that which they preferve fo faithfully. They are exprefsly called the Keepers of tbe oracles Rom. Hi. S 2 */ 26o x"^ EXPOSITION OF ART. of God : and are no where reproved for having attempted upon ^^- this Depofitum : and yet for all that fidelity they fefl into great """"^ ' errors about fome of the moft important parts of their religion; which expofed thejn to the rejedtlng the Meffias, and to their utter ruin. The Church's being called the witnefs of holy writ, is not to be refolved Into any judgment that they pafs upon It as a body of men that have authority to judge and give fentence, fo that the canonicaliiefs, or the uncanonicalnefs of any book fhall depend upon their teftimony : but Is refolved into this, that fuch fucceffions and numbers of men, whether of the laity or clergy, have in a courfe of many ages had thefe books preferved and read among them ; fo that It was not poffible to corrupt that upon which fo many men had their eyes, in all the corners and ages of Chriftendom, And thus we believe the Scriptures to be a book written by infpired men, and delivered by them to the Church, upon the teftimony of the Church that at firft received It ; knowing that thofe great matters of faa, contained and appealed to in It, were true : and alfo upon the like teftimony of the fucceeding ages, who preferved, read, copied, and tranflated that book, as they had received it from tiie firft. The Church of Rome is guilty of a manifeft circle in this matter : for they fay they believe the Scriptures upon the au thority of the Church, and they do again believe the authority of the Church, becaufe of the teftimony of the Scripture con cerning it. This Is as falfe reafoning as can be Imagined : for nothing can be proved by another authority, till that authority is firft fixed and proved : and therefore if the teftimony of the Church is believed to be facred, by virtue of a divine grant to it, and that from thence die Scriptures have their credit and authority, then the credit due to the Church's teftimony is antecedent to the credit of the Scripture ; and fo muft not be proved by any paffages brought from it ; otherwife that is a manifeft circle. But no circle is committed In our way, who do not prove the Scriptures from any fuppofed authority In the Church, that has handed them down to us : but only as they are vaft companies of men, who cannot be prefumed to have been guilty of any fraud in this matter ; it appearing further to be morally impof fible for any that fliould have attempted a fraud in it, to have executed it. When therefore tiie Scripture itfelf is proved by moral argumerits of this kind, we may, according to die ftriaeft rules of reafoning, examine, what authority the Scripture gives to the paftors of the Church met in leffer or greater Councils. ARTICLE THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 261 ARTICLE XXI. of the Authority of General Councils. THERE are two particulars fettied in this Article : the one art. is, the power of calling of Councils, at leaft, an affer- xxi. tion that they cannot be called without the will of Princes : the * other is, the authority 'of General Councils, that they are not infallible, and that fome have erred : and therefore the inference is juftly made, that whatever authority they may have in the rule and government of the Church, their decifions in matters neceffary to falvation ought to be examined by the word of God, and are not to be fubmitted to, unkfs it appears that they are conform to the Scripture. The firft of thefe is thus proved: Clergymen are fubjea to their Princes, according to thefe words. Let every foul be fub- ^^ jeB to ihe higher powers : if they are then fubjea to them, they i. cannot be obliged to go out of their dominions upon the fum- mons of any other ; their perfons being under the laws and authority of that country to which they belong. This is plain, and feems to need no other proof. It is very vifible how much the peace of kingdoms and ftates is concerned in this point : for if a foreign power fhould call their Clergy away at pleafure, they might be not only left in a great deftitu- tion as to religious performances, but their Clergy might be praaifed upon, and fent back to them with fuch notions, and upon fuch defigns, that, chiefly fuppofing the immunity of their perfons, they might become, as they often were, in dark and ig norant ages, the incendiaries of the world, and the difturbers and betrayers of their countries. This is confirmed by the praaice of the firft ages, after the Church had the proteaion of Chriftian raaglftrates ; in thefe the Roman Emperors called S3 the 26a AN EXPOSITION OF the firft General Councils, which is exprefsly mentioned not only in the Hiftories of the Councils, but in their Aas, where we find both the writs that fummoned them, and their letters fometimes to the Emperors, and fometimes to the Churches, which do all fet forth their being fummoned by the facred au thority of their Emperors, without mentioning any other. In calling fome of thefe Councils, it does not appear that the Popes were much confulted : and in others we find Popes in deed fupplicating the Emperors to call a Council, but nothing that has fo much as a fhadow of their pretending to an autho rity to fummon it themfelves. This Is a thing fo plain, and may be fo foon feen into by any perfon who will be at the pains to turn to the editions of the firft four General Councils made by themfelves, not to mention thofe that followed In the Greek Church, that the confidence with which it has been aflerted, that they were fummoned by the Popes, is an Inftance to fhew us that there is nothing at which men, who are once engaged, will ftick when their caufe requires It, But even fince the Popes have got this matter Into their own hands, though they fummon the Council, yet they do not pretend to it, nor expea that the world would receive a Council as general, or fubmit to it, unlefs the Princes of Chriftendom fhould allow of it, and confent to the publication of the bull. So that, by reafon of this, Councils are now be come almoft unpra6ticable things. When all Chriftendom was included within the Roman em pire, then the calling of a Council lay in the breaft and power of one man ; and, during the ages of ignorance and fuper ftition, the world was fo fubjeaed to the Pope's authority, that Princes durft feldom oppofe their fummons, or deny their Bifhops leave to go when they were fo called. But after the fcandalous fchlfm in the Popedom, in which there were for a great while two Popes, and at laft three at a time, Councfls began to pre tend that the power of governing the Church, and of cenfuring, depriving, and making of Popes, was radically in them, as re prefenting tbe univerfal Church : fo they fefl upon methods to have frequent Councils, and that whether both Popes and Princes fhould oppofe it or not ; for they declared both the one and the other to be fallen from their dignity, that fhould attempt to hin der it. Yet they carried the claim of the freedom of ekaions, and of the other ecclefiaftical immunities, fo high, that all that followed upon this, was, that the Popes being terrified with the attempts begun at Conftance, and profeeuted at Bafil and Pifa, took pains to have Princes of their fide, and then made tiargains and concordates with them, by which they divided aU the rights of the Church, at leaft the pretenfions to them, be tween themfelves and the Princes. Matters of gain and ad vantage THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 263 Vantage were referved to the See of Rome ; but the points of ART. power and jurifdiaion were generafly given up to the Princes. ^ The temporal authority has by that means prevailed over the '¦^'"V^^ fpiritual, as much as the fpiritual authority had prevailed over the temporal for feveral ages before. Yet the pretence of a General Council is ftill fo fpecious, that all thofe in the Roman communion that do not acknowledge the infallibility of their Popes, do ftill fupport this pretenfion, that the infaflibillty is given by Chrift to his Church ; and that in the interval of Councils it is in the community of the Bifhops and Paftors of the Church ; and that when a Council meets, then the infallibi lity is lodged with it ; according to that. It feemed good to the ^^^ *V' ^S- Holy GhoJi and to us. The firft thing to be fettled in every queftion, Is the meaning of the terms : fo we muft begin and examine what makes a General Council ; whether all the Bifhops muft be prefent in perfon, or by proxy ? And what fhare the laity, or the Princes that are thought to reprefent their people, ought to have in a Council ? It is next to be confidered, whether a general citation is enough to make a Council general, were the ap pearance of the Bifhops ever fo fmafl at their firft opening ? It is next to be confidered, whether any come thither and fit there as reprefenting others; and if votes ought to be reckoned ac cording to the numbers of the Bifhops, or of the others who depute and fend them ? And whether nations ought to vote In a body as integral parts of the Church ; or every fingle Biftiop by himfelf ? And finafly, whether the decifions of Councils muft be unanimous, before they can be efteemed infafllble f or whe ther the major vote, though exceeding only by one, or if fome greater inequality is neceflary ; fuch as two thirds, or any other proportion ? That there may be juft caufe of raifing fcruples upon every one of thefe, is apparent at firft view. It is certain, a bare name cannot qualify a number of Bifhops fitting toge ther, to be this General Council. The number of Bifhops does it not neither. A hundred and fifty was a fmall number at Conftantinople: even the famous three hundred and eighteen at Nice were far exceeded by thofe at Arimini. Afl the firft General Councils were made up for the moft part of Eaftern Bi fhops ; there being a very inconfiderable number of the Weftern among any of them ; fcarce any at all being to be found In fome. If this had been the body to whom Chrift had left this infallibility, it cannot be imagined but that fome definition or defcription of the conftitution of it, would have been given us in the Scrip ture : and the profound filence that is about it, gives juft occa fion to think, that how wife and how good foever fuch a con ftitution may be, if wefl purfued, yet it is not of a divine infti- S 4. tution ; ^64- AN EXPOSITION OF Vy-V^^ ART, tution ; otherwife fomewhat concerning fo important a head as ^^^' this is, muft have been mentioned in the Scripture, The natural idea of a General Council, is a meeting of afl the Bifhops of Chriftendom, or at leaft of proxies inftruaed by them and their Clergy. Now if any wifl ftand to this defcrip tion, then we are very fure that there was never yet a true Ge neral Council : which will appear to every one that reads the fubfcriptions of the Councils. Therefore we muft conclude, that General Councfls are not conftituted by a divine autho rity; fince we have no direaion given us from God, by which we may know what they are, and what is neceffary to their conftitution. And we cannot fuppofe that God has granted any privileges, much lefs infaflibillty, which is the greateft of afl, to a body of men, of whom, or of whofe conftitution, he has faid nothing to us. For fuppofe we fhould yield that there were an infallibility lodged In general In the Church diffufive, fo that the Church In fome part or other fhall be always preferved from error ; yet the reftraining this to the greater number of fuch Bifhops as fhall happen to come to a Council, they living per haps near it, or being mpre capable and more forward to un dertake a journey, being healthier, richer, or more aaive than others ; or, which is as probable, becaufe it has often fallen out, they being picked out by parties or princes to carry on cabals, and manage fuch intrigues as may be on foot at the Councfl : the reftraining the infallibility, I fay, to the greater number of fuch perfons, unlefs there is a divine authority for doing It, Is the transferring the Infallibility from the whole body to afelea number of perfons, who of themfelves are the leaft likely to confent to the engroffing this privilege to the majority of their body, it being their Intereft to maintain their right to it, free from intrigue or management. We need not wonder if fuch things have happened In the lat ter ages, when Nazianzen laments the corruptions, the ambi tion, and tiie contentions that reigned in thofe affemblies in his own time ; fo that he never defired to fee any more of them. He was not only prefent at one of the General Councils, but he himfelf felt the effeas of jealoufy and violence in It, Further, it will appear a thing incredible, that there is an in faflibflity in Councils becaufe they are called General, and are af- fembled out of a great many kingdom^s and provinces ; when we fee them go backward and forward, according to the Influ ences of courts, and of interefts direaed from thence. We know how differentiy Councils decreed in the Arian controver fies ; and what a variety of them Conftantius fet up againft that at Nice. So it was In the Eutychian herefy, approved in the fecond Councfl at Ephefus, but foon after condemned at Chalce- don. THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 265 don. So it was in the bufinefs of images, condemned at Con- A R t- ftantinople in the Eaft ; but foon after upon another change at -'^¦'^'• court maintained in the fecond at Nice ; and not long after con- ^''''^Z'*^ demned in a very numerous Council at Francfort. And in the point in hand, as to the authority of Councils, it was afferted at Conftance and Bafil ; but condemned in the Lateran; and was upon the matter laid afide at Trent. Here were great numbers of all hands ; both fides took the name of General Councfls. It will be a further prejudice againft this, if we fee great violence and diforders entering into the management of Ibme Councils ; and ' craft and artifice into the condua of others. Numbers of faaious and furious monks came to fome Councils, and drove on matters by th'eir clamours : fo it was at Ephefus. We fee grofs fraud in the fecond at Nice, both in the perfons fet up to reprefent the abfent patriarchs ; and in the books and au thorities that were vouched for the worfhip of images. The intrigues at Trent, as they are fet out even by Cardinal Pallavi- cini, were more fubtile, but not lefs apparent, nor lefs fcan dalous. Nothing was trufted to a feffion, tifl it was firft can- vaffed in congregations ; which were what a committee of the whole houfe is in our Parliaments ; and then every man's vote was known ; fo that there was hereby great occafion given for praaice. This alone, if there had been no more, fhewed plainly that they themfelves knew they were not guided by the fpirit of God, or by infallibility ; fince a feffion was not thought fafe to be ventured on, but after a long previous canvaffing. 1 Another queftion remains yet to be cleared, concerning their manner of proceeding ; whether the infaflibflity is affixed to their vote, whatfoever their proceedings may be .'' Or whether they are bound to difcufs matters fully? The firft cannot be faid, unlefs it is pretended that they vote by a fpecial Infpiration. If the fecond is allowed, then we muft examine both what makes a full difcuffion ; and whether they have made it ? If we find opinions falfely reprefented ; if books that are fpu rious have been relied on; if paffages of Scripture, or of the Fathers on which It appears the ftrefs of the decifion has turned,* have been manifeftly mifunderftood and wrefted, fo that in a more enlightened age no perfon pretends to juftify the autho rity that determined them, can we imagine that there fhould be more truth in their conclufions, than we do plainly fee was in the premifes out of which they were drawn ? So it muft either be faid, that they vote by an immediate infpiration, or all per fons cannot be bound to fubmit to their judgment till they have examined their methods of proceeding, and the grounds on which they went : and when all is done, the queftion comes, concerning the authority of fuch decrees after they are made, whether it follows immediately upon their being made, or muft ftay 266 AN EXPOSITION OF ftay for the confirmatory bulls ? If it muft ftay for the bull, then the infallibility is not in the Council : and that is only a more folemn way of preparing matters in order to the laying them before the Pope. If they are Infallible before the confirm ation, then the Infaflibflity is wholly in the Council; and the fubfequent bull does, infterd of confirming their decrees, dero gate much from them : for to pretend to confirm them, im ports that they wanted that addition of authority, which deftroys the fuppofition of their infallibility, fince what is infallible can not be made ftronger : and the pretending to add ftrength to it, implies that it is not infallible. Human conftltutions may be indeed fo modelled, that there muft be a joint concurrence before a law can be made : and though it is the laft confent that fettles the law, yet the previous confents were neceffary fteps to the giving it the authority of a law. And thus it is not to be denied, but that, as to the matters of government, the Church may eaft herfelf into fuch a model, that as by a decree of the Council of Nice, the Bifhops of a province might conclude nothing without the confent of the Me tropolitan; fo another decree might even limit a General Coun cil to flay for the confent of one or more Patriarchs. But this muft only take place in matters of order and government, which are left to the difpofal of the Church, but not in decifions about matters of faith. For if there is an infaflibillty in the Church, it muft be derived from a fpecial grant made hy Chrift to his Church : and it muft go according to the nature of that grant, unlefs it can be pretended that there is a claufe in that grant, empowering the Church to difpofe of it, and model it at pleafure. For if there is no fuch power, as it is plain there Is not, then Chrift's grant is either to a fingle perfon, or to the whole community : if to a fingle perfon, then the infaflibflity is wholly in him, and he is to manage it as he thinks beft : for if he calls a Council, it is only an aa of his humility and con- defcenfion, to hear the opinions of many in different corners of the Church, that fo he may know all that comes from afl quarters : it may alfo feem a prudent way to make his autho rity to be the more eafily borne and fubmitted to, fince what is gentiy managed Is beft obeyed : but after all, thefe are only prudential and difcreet methods. The infallibility muft be only In him, if Chrift has by the grant tied him to fuch a fuc ceffion. Whereas on the other hand, if the infaflibflity is granted to the whole community, or to their reprefentatlves, then all the applications that they may make to any one See, muft only be in order to the execution of their decrees, like the addreffes that they make to Princes for the civil fanaion. But ftill the infallibility is where Chrift put it. It refts whofly in their decifion, and belongs only to that; and any other confirmr ation THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 267 stion that they defire, unlefs it be reftrained fingly to the ex- ART. ecution of their decrees, is a wound given by themfelves to ^^i- their own infaflibflity, if not a direa difclaiming of it. ^^y^/"^ When the confirmation of the Council is over, a new diffi culty arifes concerning the receiving the decrees : and here it may be faid, that if Chrift's grant is to the whole community, fo that a Council is only the authentical declarer of the tradi tion, the whole body of the Church that is pofleffed of the tra dition, and conveys it down, muft have a right to examine the decifion that the Council has made, and fo is not bound to re ceive it, but as it finds it to be conformable to tradition. Here it is to be fuppofed, that every Bifhop, or at the leaft all the Bifhops of any national Church, know beft the tradition of their own Church and Nation : and fo they will have a right to re-examine things after they have been judged in a General Council. This will entirely deftroy the whole pretenfion to Infallibility : and yet either this ought to have been done after the Councils at Arimini, or the fecond of Ephefus, or elfe the world muft have received Semi-Arianifm, or Eutychianlfm, implicitly from them. It is alfo no fmall prejudice againft this opinion, that the Church was conftituted, the Scriptures were received, m.any herefies were rejeaed, and the perfecutions were gone through in a courfe of three centuries ; In all which time there was no thing that could pretend to be cafled a General Council, And when the ages came in which Councils met often, neither the Councils themfelves, who muft be fuppofed to underftand their own authority beft, nor thofe who wrote in defence of their decrees, who muft be fuppofed to be inclined enough to mag nify their authority, being of the fame fide ; neither of thefe, I fay, ever pretended to argue for their opinions, from the infal libility of thofe Councils that decreed them. They do indeed fpeak of them with great refpea, as of bo dies of men that were guided by the fpirit of God : and fo do we of our reformers, and of thofe who prepared our Liturgy : but we do not afcribe infaflibflity to them, and no more did they. Nor did they lay the ftrefs of their arguments upon the authority of fuch decifions ; they knew that the objeaion might have been made as ftrong againft them, as they could put the argument for them ; and therefore they offered to wave the point, and to appeal to the Scripture, fetting afide the definitions that had been made in Councils both ways. To conclude this argument. If the infaflibflity is fuppofed to be in Councfls, then the Church may juftly apprehend that fhe has loft it : for as there has been no Council that has pretended to that title, now during one hundred and thirty yearsj fo there is no great probability of our a68 AN EXPOSITION OP ART. our ever feeing another. The charge and noife, the Cxpei^tionJ ^'^^- and difappointments of that at Trent, has taught the world to ex- ^^^y/'"^ pea nothing from one : they plainly fee thatthe management from Rome muft carry every thing In a Council : neither princes nor people, no nor the bifhops themfelves, defire or expea to fee one. The claim fet up at Rome for infallibility, makes the de mand of one feem not only needlefs there, but to imply a doubt ing of their authority, when other methods are looked after, which will certainly be always unacceptable to thofe who are In ' poffeffion, and aa as If they were infallible : nor can it be ap prehended, that they wifl defire a Council to reform thofe abufes in difcipline, which are all occafioned by that abfolute and uni verfal authority of which they are now poffeffed. So by afl the judgments that can be made from the ftate of things, from the interefts of men, and the laft management at Trent, one may without a fpirit of prophecy conclude, that, un lefs Chriftendom puts on a new face, there will be no more General Councils. And fo here infaflibflity is atan end, and has left the Church at leaft for a very long interval. It remains that thofe paffages fhould be confidered that are Matth. brought to fupport this authority. Chrift fays, Ted the xviii. 17. Church ; and if he negleBs to hear the Church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man, and a publican, Thefe words in themfelves, and feparated from all that went before, feem to fpeak this matter very fully : but when the oc cafion of them, and the matter that is treated of in them, are confidered, nothing can be plainer than that our Saviour is fpeaking of fuch private differences as may arife among men, and of the praaice of forgiving injuries, and compofing their differences. If thy brother fin againfi thee ; firft, private en deavours were to be ufed, then the interpofition of friends was to be tried ; and finafly, the matter was to be referred to the body, or affembly, to which they belonged: and thofe who could not be gained by fuch methods, were no more to be efteemed brethren, but were to be looked on as very bad men, like heathens. They might upon fuch refraaorinefs be ex communicated, and profeeuted afterwards in temporal courts, fince they had by their perverfenefs forfeited afl fort of right to that tendernefs and charity that is due to true Chriftians. This expofition does fo fully agree to the occafion and fcope of thefe words, that there is no colour of reafon to carry them further. The charaaer given to the Church of Ephefus, in St. 1 Tim. ;ii. Paul's Epiftle to Timothy, that it was the pillar and ground of truth, is a figurative expreffion : and it is never fafe to build upon metaphors, much lefs to lay much weight upon them. The THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^^9 The Jews defcribed their fynagogues by fuch honourable art. charaaers, in which it is known how profufeall the Eaftern na- xxi. tions are : thefe are by St. Paul applied to the Church of Ephe- ^•^^/''•^ fus : for he there fpeaks of the Church where Timothy was then, in which he inftruas him to behave himfelf well. It has vifibly a relation to thofe infer! prions that were made on pillars which refted upon firm pedeftals : but whatfoever the ftria im portance of the metaphor may be. It Is a metaphor, and therefore it can be no argument. Chrift's promife of the Spirit to his Apoftles, thztjhouldlead them into all truth, relates vifibly to that joh. xvi. extraordinary infpiration by which they were to be aaed, and that 13- was to Jhew them things to come ; fo that a fucceffion of prophecy may be inferred from thefe words, as well as of infallibility. Thofe words of our Saviour, with which St, Matthew con cludes his Gofpel, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of Matth. the world, infer no infallibility, but only a promife of affiftance "*"'"• »<>, and proteaion : which was a neceffary encouragement to the Apoftles, when they were fent upon fo laborious a commiffion, that was to involve them In fo much danger. God's being ^ Cor. »i. with any, bis walking with them, his being in the midfi of them, '6. his never leaving nor forfaking them, are expreffions often ufed ^ *'"* in the Scripture, which fignify no more but God's watchful providence, guiding, fupporting, and proteaing his people: all this is far from infallibility. The laft objeaion to be propofed, is that which feems to re late moft to the point in hand, taken from the decree made by a Council at Jerufalem, which begins. It feemed good to tbe Holy Afls xv. GhoJi, and to us : from which they infer, that the Holy Ghoft z8. is prefent with Councils, and that what feems good to them is alfo approved by the Holy Ghoft, But it will npt be eafy to prove that this was fuch a Council, as to be a pattern to fucceed ing ones to copy after it. We find brethren are here joined with the Apoftles themfelves : now fince thefe were no other than the laity, here an Inference will be made, that will not go eafily down. If they fate and voted with the Apoftles, it will feem ftrange to deny them the fame privilege among Bifhops. By Elders here it feems Preflyters 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 tim.e given to afl Churches to fend their Bifhops or proxies : it was an occafional meeting of fuch of the Apoftles as happened to be then at Jerufalem, who cafled to them the Elders or Prefbyters, and other Chriftians at Jerufa lem : for the Holy Ghoft was then poured out fo plentifully Oft fo many, that no wonder if there were then about that truly mother Church, a great many of both forts, who were of fuch eminence. %'JO AN EXPOSITION OP eminence, that the Apoftles might defire them to meet and t* join with them. The Apoftles were divinely affifted in the delivering that com miffion which our Saviour gave them in charge. To preach to every creature ; and fo were infallibly affifted in the executing of it ; yet when other matters fell in, which were no parts of that commiffion, they, no doubt, did as St. Paul, who fometimes writ by permiffwn, as well as at other times by commandment : of which he gives notice, by faying, It is I, and not the Lord : he fuggefted advices, which to him, according to his prudence and experience, feemed to be well founded ; and he offered them with great fincerity ; for though he had fome reafon to think that Ver. 40. -what he propofed, flowed from the Spirit of tbe Lord, from that infpiration that was aaing in him ; yet becaufe that did not ap pear diftinaiy to him, he fpeaks with referves, and fays, he Ver, 25. gives bis judgment as one that had obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. So the Apoftles here, receiving no infpiration to direa them in this cafe, but obferving well what St. Peter put them In mind of, concerning God's fending him by a fpecial vifion to preach to the Gentiles, and that God had poured out the Holy Ghoft on them, even as he had done upon the Apoftles, who were Jews by nature, and that he did put no difference in 5- that between Jews find Gentiles ; purifying the hearts of the Gentiles by faith : they upon this did by their judgment con clude from thence, that what God had done in the particular inftance of Cornelius, was now to be extended to afl the Gen tiles. So by this we fee that thofe words, feemed good to the Holy Ghofi, relate to the cafe of Cornelius ; and thofe words, feemed good to us, import that they refolved to extend that to be a general rule to afl the Gentiles. This gives the words a clear and diftina fenfe, which agrees. with all that had gone before ; whereas it will otherwife look very ftrange to fee them add their authority to th?.t of the Holy Ghoft ; which is too abfurd to fuppofe : nor wilLit be eafy to give any other confifting fenfe to thefe words. Here is no precedent of a Council, much lefs of a General one : but a decifion is made by men that were in other things divinely Infpired, which can have no relation to the judgments of other Councils. And thus it appears that none of thofe places which are brought to prove the infallibility of Councils, come up to the point : for fo great and fo important a matter as this is, muft be fuppofed to be either exprefsly declared in the Scrip tures, or not at all. The Article affirming, that fome General Councils hove er- red, muft be underftood of Councils that pafs for fuch ; and that may be called General Councils, much better than many others that Aas XV. >rHE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^1^ that go by that name : for that at Arimini was both very nu merous, and was drawn out of many different provinces. As to the ftria notion of a General Council, there is great reafon to believe that there was never any affembly to which it will be found to agree. And for the four General Councfls, which this Church declares fhe receives, they are received only becaufe we are perfuaded from the Scriptures that their decifions are made according to them: that the Son is truly God, of the fame fub ftance with the Father. That the Holy Ghoft Is alfo truly God. That the divine nature was truly united to the human in Chrift; and that in one perfon. That both natures remained diftina ; and that the human nature was not fwallowed up of the divine. Thefe truths we find in the Scriptures, and there fore we believe them. We reverence thofe Councils for the fake of their doarine ; but do not believe the doarine for the au thority of the Councils. There appeared too much of human frailty in fome of their other proceedings, to give us fuch an implicit fubmiffion to them, as to believe things only becaufe they fo decided them. ARTICLE 27^ AN EXPOSITION OF ARTICLE XXII. Of Purgatory. (>^, ^9. that fequeftered ftate before the laft day, upon the account of (^""^ fome of their paft fins, and that by degrees they might arife prima. up to their confummation. All thefe contefts were propofed very doubtfully before Gregory the Great's days; and even then fome doubts feem to have been made : but the legends were fo coplouflyplayed upon all thofe doubts, that this remnant of paganifm got at laft into the Weftern Church, It was no won- Tertul. de der, that the opinions formerly mentioned, which began to ^^''- '^''^ ^• appear in the fecond age, had produced iH the third the praaice \' f ^ "^" of praying for the dead ; of which we find fuch fufl evidence Ep. 34, 37. in Tertufllan and St, Cyprian's writings, that the matter of faa Epiph-Hir. is not to be denied. This appears alfo in all the ancient Litur- "^fi " ^" "" gies : and Epiphanlus charges Aerius with this of rejeaing all prayers for the dead, afking why were they prayed for ? The opinions that they fell into concerning the ftate of departed fouls, inthe interval between their death and the day of judg ment, gave occafion enough for prayer ; they thought they were capable of making a progrefs, and of having. an early refurrec- tion. They alfo had this notion among them ; that it was the peculiar privilege of Jefus Chrift to be above all our prayers ; but that no men, not excepting the Apoftles, nor the bleffed Virgin, were above the prayers of the Church. They thought this was an aa of church-communion, that we were to hold even with the faints in v heaven, to pray for them. Thus in the apoftolical conftitutions, in the books of the ecclefiaftical hierarchy. Dion, de 282 AN EXPOSITION OF hierarchy, and in the Liturgies that are afcribed to St. Bafil and St. Chryfoftom, they offer unto God thefe prayers, which they thought their reafonable fervice, for thofe who were at reft in Ecd. nler. the faith, their forefathers, fathers, patriarchs, prophets, and cap. 7. apoftles, preachers, evangellfts, martyrs, confeffors, reli gious perfons, and for every fpirit perfeaed in the faith ; efpe cially for our moft holy, immaculate, moft bleffed Lady, the mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary. Particular inftances Aug.Conf. might alfo be given of this, out of St. Cyprian, St. Ambrofe, 1.9. 1. 19. Nazianzen, and St. Auftin; who in that famous and much cited paffage concerning his mother, Monica, as he fpeaks no thing of any temporal pains that fhe fuffered, fo he plainly inti mates his belief that God had done all that he defired. Thus it will appear to thofe, who have examined all the paffages which are brought out of the Fathers, concerning their prayers for the dead, that they believed they were then in heaven, and at reft; and by confequence, though thefe prayers for the dead did very probably give the chief rife to the doarine of Purga tory ; yet, as they then made them, they were utterly inconfift- Supra. ent with that opinion. Tertufllan, who is the firft that is cited for them, fays, we make oblations for the dead, and we do It for that fecond nativity of theirs (Natalitia) once a year. The fignification of the word Natalitia, as they ufed it, was the Saint's day of death, in which they reckoned he was born again to heaven : fo, though they judged them there, yet they offered up prayers for them : and when Epiphanlus brings In Aerius afliing, why thofe prayers were made for the dead ? though it had been very natural, and indeed unavoidable, if he had believed Purgatory, to have anfwered, that it was to deliver them from thence : yet he makes no fuch anfwer, but only af ferts, that It had been the praaice of the Church fo to do. The Greek Church retains that cuftom, though fhe has never admitted of Purgatory, Here then an objeaion may be made to our conftitution, that in this of praying for the dead, we have departed from the praaice of the ancients : we do not deny it, both the Church of Rome and we in another praaice of equal antiquity, of giving the Eucharift to infants, have made changes, and let that cuftom fafl. The curiofitks in the fecond century feem to have given rife to thofe prayers in the third ; and they gave the rife to many other diforders in the following centuries. Since, therefore, God has commanded us, while we are on earth, to pray for one another, and has made that a main aa of our charity and church-communion, but has no where dlre£ted us to pray for thofe that have finiflied their courfe ; and fince the only pretence that is brought from Scripture, of St. Paul's praying, that Onefiphorus might find mercy m the day of the Lord, cannot be wrought up' into an argument, THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 283 argument, for it cannot be proved that he was then dead ; and fince the Fathers reckon this of praying for the dead only as one of their cuftoms, for which they vouch no other warrant but praaice ; fince, alfo, this has been grofsly abufed, and has been applied to fupport a doarine totally different from theirs, we think that we have as good a plea for not following them in this, as we have for not giving infants the facrament, and there fore we think it no imputation on our Church, that we do not in this follow a groundkfs and a much abufed precedent, though fet us in ages which we highly reverence. The greateft corruption of this whole matter comes in the laft place to be confidered; which is, the methods propofed for redeeming fouls out of Purgatory. If this doarine had refted in a fpeculation, we muft ftifl have confidered it as derogatory to the death of Chrift, and the truth of the Gofpel : but it ralfes our zeal a litde more, when we confider the ufe that was made of it ; and that fears and terrors being by this means in fufed into men's minds, new methods were propofed to free them from thefe. The chief of which was the faying of maffes for departed fouls. It was pretended, that this being the high eft aa of the communion of Chriftians, and the moft fublime piece of worfhip, therefore God was fo well pleafed with the frequent repetition of it, with the prayers that accompanied it, and with thofe that made provifions for men, who fliould be conftantly employed in it, that this was a moft acceptable facri fice to God. Upon this followed all thofe vaft endowments, for faying maffes for departed fouls. Though in the inftitution of that facrament, and in all that is fpoken of it in the Scripture, there is not an hint given of this. Sacraments are pofitive pre cepts, which are to be meafured oifly by the inftitution, in which there is not room left for us to carry them further. We are to take, eat and drink, and thereby fhew forth ihe Lord's death till his fecond coming : all which has no relation to the applying this to others who are gone off the ftage ; therefore If we can have any juft notions either of fuperftition, or of will- worfhip, they are applicable here. Men will fancy that there is a virtue in an aaion, which we are fure it has not of itfelf, and we can not find that God has put in it ; and yet they, without any au- ¦ thority from God, do fet up a new piece of worfhip, and ima gine that God will be pleafed with them in every thing they do or afk, only becaufe they are perverting this piece of worfhip, clearly contrary to the inftitution, to be a folltary mafs. In the Primitive Church, where all the fervice of the whole affembly ended in a communion, there was a roll read, in which the names of the more eminent faints of the Cathoflck Church, and of the holy bifliops, martyrs, or confeffors of every particular Church, were regiftered. This was an honourable remem brance *84' AN EXPOSITION OF brance that was kept up of fuch as had died in the Lord. When the foundnefs of any perfon's faith was brought In fufpicion, his name was not read till that point was cleared, and then either his name continued to be read, or it was quite dafhed out. This was thoughtan honour due to the memory of thofe who Cypr. had died in the faith : and In St. Cyprian's time, in the Infancy Epift. I. ^f j,j^jj praaice, we fee he counted the leaving a man's name Oion. ad '^ , . ' , iir ii^ i-i^ pieb. Fur- out as a thing that only left a blot upon him, but not as a nit. thing of any confequence to his foul ; for when a prieft had died, who had by his laft will named another prieft the tutor (or guardian) of his children, this feemed to him a thing of fuch ifl example, to put thofe fecular cares upon the minds of the clergy, that he appointed that his name fhould be no more read in the dally facrifice ; which plainly fhews, unlefs we will tax St. Cyprian with a very unreafonable cruelty, that he con fidered that only as a fmall cenfure laid on his m.emory, but not as a prejudice to his foul. This gives us a very plain view of the fenfe that he had of this matter. After this roll was read, then the general prayer followed, as was formerly acknowledged, for all their fouls ; and fo they went on in the Communion Service. This has no relation to a mafs faid by a fingle prieft to deliver a foul out of Purgatory. Here, without going far in tragical expreffions, we cannot Maikxi. hold faying what our Saviour faid upon another occafion. My 17, houfe is a houfe of prayer, but ye have made it a den ef thieves, A trade was fet up on this foundation. The world was ma^e believe, that by the virtue of fo many maffes, which were to be purchafed by great endowments, fouls were redeemed out of Purgatory; and fcenes of vifions and apparitions, fometimes of the tormented, and fometimes of the delivered fouls, were pub lifhed in all places ; which had fo wonderful an e.ffe£t, that In two or three centuries endowments increafed to fo vaft a de gree, that if the fcandals of the clergy on the one hand, and the ftatutes of mortmain on the other, had not reftrained the profufenefs that the world was wrought up to upon this' ac count, it is not eafy to Imagine how far this might have gone; perhaps to an entire fubjedting of the temporalty to the fpiri- tualty. The praaices by which this was managed, and the ef feas that foflowed on it, we can call by no other name than downright impoftures ; worfe than the making or vending falfe coin ; when the world was drawn In by fuch arts to plain bar gains to redeem their own fouls, and the fouls of their ancef tors and pofterity, fo many maffes were to be faid, and for feitures were to foflow upon their not being faid : thus the maffes were reafly the price of the lands. An endowment to a religious ufe, though mixed with error or fuperftition In the ruks of it, ought to be held facred, according to the decifion given TITE XXXlX ARTICLES. ^85 given concerning the cenfures of thofe that were In the rebellion of Corah : fo that we do not excufe the yiolation of fuch from facrikge ; yet we cannot think fo of endowments, where the only confideration was a falfe opinion firft of Purgatory, and g" then of redemption out of it bv mafles ; this being expreffed In the very deeds themfelves. By the fame reafons, by which private perfons are obliged to reftore what they have drawn from others by bafe praaices, by falfe deeds, or counterfeit coin ; bodies are alfo bound to reftore what they have got into their hands by fuch fraudulent praaices ; fo that the ftates and princes of Chriftendom were at fufl liberty, upon the difcovery of thefe impoftures, to void all the endowments that had followed upon them; andeitherto apply them to better ufes, or to reftore. them to the families from which they had been drawn. If that had been praaicable, or to convert them to any other ufe. This was a crying abufe, which thofe who have obferved the progrefs that this matter made from the eighth century to the twelfth, cannot reflea on without both amazement and indig nation. We are fenfible enough that there are many political reafons and arguments for keeping up the doarine of Purga tory, But we have not fo learned Chrifi. We ought not to lye even for God, much lefs for ourfelves, or for any other pre tended ends of keeping the world in awe and order ; therefore all the advantages that are faid to arife out of this, and all the mifchief that may be thought to follow on the rejeaing of it, ought not to make us prefume to carry on the ends of religion by unlawful methods. This were to call In the affiftance of the Devil to do the work of God : if the juft apprehenfions of the-wrath of God, and the guilt of fin, together with the fear of everlafting burnings, will not reform the world, nor reftrain finners, we muft leave this matter to the wife and unfearchable judgments of God, The next particular in this Article is, the condemning the Romifh doarine concerning Pardons : that Is founded on the diftinaion between the temporal and eternal punlfhment of fin ; and the Pardon is of the temporal puiiifhment, which is believed to be done by a power lodged fingly In the Pope, de rived from thofe words, Feed my fheep, and To thee wiU I give tbe keys of the kingdom of heaven. This may be by him de rived as they teach, not only to Bifliops and Priefts, but to the- inferior orders, to be difpenfed by them ; and It excufes from penance, unlef^ he who purchafes it thinks fit to ufe his pe nance in a medicinal way as a prefervative againft fin. So the virtue of indulgences, is the applying the treafure of the Church upon fuch terms as Popes fhall think fit toprefcribe, in order to the redeeming fouls from Purgatory, and from all other tem poral puniftiments, and that for fuch a number of years as fhall be fpecified in the bufls ; fome of which have goriC to thou- fanJ.s 286 AN EXPOSITION OF fands of years; one I have feen to ten hundred thoufand: and as thefe indulgences are fometimes granted by fpecial tickets, like tallies ftruck on that treafure ; fo fometimes they are af fixed to particular churches and altars, to particular times, or days, chiefly to the year of jubilee ; they are alfo affixed to fuch things as may be carried about, to Agnus Dei's, to medals, to rofaries and fcapularles ; they are alfo affixed to fome prayers, the devout faying of them being a mean to procure great In dulgences. The granting thefe is left to the Pope's difcre tion, who ought to diftribute them as he thinks may tend moft to the honour of God, and the good of the Church, and he ought not to be too profufe, much lefs to be too fcanty in dif penfing them. This has been the received doarine and praaice of the Church of Rome fince the twelfth century ; and the Council of Trent in a hurry, in its laft feffion, did in very general words approve of the praaice of the Church in this matter, and de creed that indulgences fhould be continued; only they reftrained fome abufes, in particular that of felling them ; yet even thofe reftralnts were wholly referred to the Popes themfelves : fo that this crying abufe, the fcandal of which had occafioned the firft beginnings and progrefs of the Reformation, was upon the mat ter eftablifhed; and the correaing the exceffes in it, was trufted to thofe who had been the authors of them, and the chief gainers by them. This point of their doarine is more fully opened than might perhaps feem neceffary, i^ it were not that a great part of the confutation of fome dodtrines, is the expofing of them. For though in ages and places of ignorance thefe things have been, and ftill are praaifed, with great affurance, and to very extravagant exceffes ; yet in countries and ages of more light, when they come to be queftioned, they are difowned with an affurance equal to that with which they are praaifed elfewhere. Among us fome will perhaps fay, that thefe are only exemptions from penance ; which cannot be denied to be within the power of the Church ; and they argue, that though it is very fit to make fevere laws, yet the execution of thefe muft be foftened in praaice. This is all that they pretend to juftify, and they give up any further indulgences as an abufe of corrupt times. Whereas at the fame time a very different doarine is taught among them, where there is no danger, but much profit, in owning it. All this is only a pretence ; for the epifcopal power, in the infiiaing, abating, or commuting of penance, is ftated among them as a thing wholly different from the power of Indulgences. They are derived from differ ent originals ; and defigned for ends totally different from one another. The one is for the outward difcipline of the Church, and the other is for the inward quiet of confciences ; and in order to their future ftate. The one is in every Biftiop, and the THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 287 the other is afferted to be peculiar to the Pope. Nor will they efcape by laying this matter upon the ignorance and abufes of former times. It was publifhed in bulls, and received by the whole Church : fo that if either the Pope, or the diffufive body of the Church are infallible, there mufl: be fuch a power- in the Pope ; and the decree of the Council of Trent, confirming and approving the praaice of the Church In that point, muft bind them all. For if this doarine is falfe, then their infallibility muft go with it ; for in every hypothefis in which infaflibflity is faid to be lodged, whether In the Pope or in the Councils, this doarine has that feal to It. As for the doarine itfelf, all that has already been faid againft the diftinaion of temporal and eternal punlfhment, and againft Purgatory, overthrows it ; fince the one is the founda tion on which it is built, and the other is that which it pretends to fecure men from ; and therefore this falls with thofe. All that was faid upon the head of the Sufficiency of the Scriptures comes alfo in here : for If the Scriptures ought to be our rule in any thing, it muft be chiefly in thofe matters which relate to the pardon of fin, to the quiet of our confciences, and to a future ftate. Therefore a doarine and praaice that have not fo much as colours from Scripture in a matter of fuch confe quence, ought to be rejeaed by us upon this fingle account. If from the Scripture we go to the praaice and tradition of the Church, we are fure that this was not thought on for above ten centuries ; all the indulgences that were then known, being only the abatements of the feverity of the penitentiary canons : but in the ages in which afplring and infolent Popes impofed on ignorant and fuperftitious multitudes, a jumble was made of in dulgences formerly granted, of Purgatory, and of the papal au thority, that was then very impllcitiy fubmitted to ; and fo out of all that mixture this arofe ; which was as ifl managed as it was ill grounded. The natural tendency of it is not only to relax all publick difcipline, but alfo all fecret penance, when fhorter methods to peace and pardon may be more eafily pur chafed. ' The vaft application to the executing the many trifling performances to which indulgences are granted, has brought in among them fuch a proftltution of holy things, that either it muft be faid that thofe are publick cheats, and that they were fo from the beginning, or that their virtue is now exhaufted, though the bulls that grant them are perpetual : or elfe a man may on very eafy terms preferve himfelf and redeem his friends out of Purgatory. If the faying a prayer before a privileged altar, or the vifiting fome churches in the time of jubflee, with thofe fligh t devotions that are then enj oined, have fuch efficacy in them, it is fcarce poffible for any man to be in danger of Purgatory. The a88 AN EXPOSITION OP ART. The third head rejeaed in this Article is the Worfliipping of XXII, Images. Here thofe of the Church of Rome complain much of ' — «~-^ the charge of idolatry, that our Church has laid upon them, fo fully and fo feverely in the homilies. Some among ourfelves have alfo thought that we muft either renounce that charge, or that we muft deny the poffibility of falvation In that Church, and in confequence to that conclude, that neithgr the baptifm nor the orders of that Church are valid : for fince idolaters are excluded from the kingdom of heaven, they argue, that if there can be no falvation where idolatry is committed by the whole body of a Church, then that canbe no Church, and in it there is no falvation. But here we are to confider, before v/e enter upon the fpecialities of this matter, that Idolatry is a gene ral word, which comprehends many feveral forts and ranks of fins under it. As lying is capable of many degrees, from an officious lye to the fwearing falfely againft the life of an inno cent man, in judgment : the one is the loweft, and the other is the higheft aa of that kind ; but all are lying : and yet it would appear an unreafonable thing to urge every thing that is faid of any aa in general, and which belongs to the higheft aas of it, as If afl the inferior degrees did neceffarily involve the guilt of the higheft. There Is another diftinaion to be made between aaions, as they fignify either of themfelves, or by the publick conftruaions that are put on them, by thofe who autho- rife them. ; and thofe fame aaions as they may be privately in tended by particular perfons. We, In our weighing of things, are only to confider what aaions fignify of their own nature, or by publick authority, and according to that we muft form our judgments about them, and in particular in the point of Ido latry : but as for the fecret thoughts or intentions of men, we muft leave thefe to the judgment of God, who only knows them, and who being infinitely gracious, flow to anger, and ready to forgive, will, we do not doubt, make all the abatements in the weighing men's aaions that there is reafon for. But we ought not to enter into that matter ; we ought neither to ag gravate, nor to mollify things too much : we are to judge of things as they are in themfelves, and to leave the cafe of men's intentions and fecret notions to that CJod who is to judge them. As for the bufinefs of Images, we know that the Heathens had them of feveral forts. Some they believed were real refem- blances of thofe Deities that they worfhipped : thofe Divinities had been men, and the ftatues made for them refembled them. Other images they believed had a divine virtue affixed to them, perhaps from the ftars, which were believed to be Gods; and it was thought that the influences of their afpeas and pofitions were by fecret charms called down and faftened to fome figures. Other images were confidered as emblems and. reprefentations THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^^9 ,» of their deities : fo that they only gave them occafion to'repf e- fent them to their thouglits. Thefe images, thus of different forts, were all worfhipped; fome more, fome lefs: they kneeled before them ; they prayed to them, and made many ob lations to them ; they fet lights before them, and burnt incenfe to them ; they fet them in their temples, market-places, and highways ; and they had them in their houfes : they fet them off with much pomp, and had many proceffions to their honour. But in all this, though it Is like the vulgar among them might have grofs thoughts of thofe images, yet the philofophers, not only after the Chriftian religion had obliged them to confider wefl of that matter, and to exprefs themfelves cautioufly about it ; but even while they were in the peaceable pofl'effion cf the world, did believe that the Deity was not in the image, but was only reprefented by it : that the Deity was worfhipped in the image, fo that the honour done the image did belong to the Deity itfelf. Here then were two falfe opinions : the one was concerning thofe Deities themfelves ; the other was concerning this way of worfhipping them; and both were blamed: not only the worfhipping a falfe God, but the worfhipping that God by an image. If Idolatry had only confifted in the acknow ledging a falfe God, and if the worfhipping the true God in an image had not been Idolatry, then all the fault of the Heathen- ifli idolaters fhould have confifted in this, that they worfhipped a falfe God, but their worfhipping images fhould not of itfelf have been an additional fault. But In oppofition to this, what can we think of thofe full and copious words. In which God did not only forbid the having of falfe Gods, but the making of a graven image, or the likenefs of any thing in heaven, in Deut. iv. earth, or under the earth : tbe bowing down to it, and the wor- 12, 15,23. fhipping it are alfo forbid. Where, befides the coploufnefs cf thefe words, we are to confider, that Mofes, In the rehearfal of that law in Deuteronomy, does over and over again add and in fift on this, that they faw no manner offimiUtude,vihen God fpoke to them, left they fhould corrupt themfelves, and make to them a graven image ; an enumeration is made of many different like- neffes ; and after that comes another -fpecies of Idolatry, their worfliipping tbe bofi of heaven ; and therefore Mofes charges them in that chapter again and again, to take heed, to take good Verfe 23. heed to themfelves, lefi they fliould forget tbe covenant of the Lord Deut. xii. their God, and make them a graven image : and he lays thefattie |_°\^_ ^^^; charge a third time uponthem in the fame chapter. A fpecial j. law is alfo given againft 'the moft innocent of all the images Deut. xvi. that could be made: they were required not only not to have *^- idols, nor graven images, but not to rear up a fianding image or pillar; nor to fet up any image of fione, or any carved fione ; fuch were the Baitulia ; the leaft tempting or en- U fnaring 29° AN EXPOSITION OF fnaring of all idols : they were not to bow down before it ; and the reafon given is, For I am the Lord your God, The Im portance of thofe laws will appear clearer, if they are com pared with the praaice of thofe times, and particularly in thofe fymbolical Images, which were facred emblems and hlero- gly,'-hicks, that were not meant to be a true reprefentation of the Divine Being, but were a combination of many fym bols, intended to reprefent at once to the thoughts of the wor- fliipper many of the perfeaions of God : thefe were moft par ticulariy praaifed in Egypt, and to them the coploufnefs of the Second Commandment feems to have a particular refpea, fuch having been the images which they had lately feen, and which feem the moft excufabk of all others ; when, I fay, all this is laid together, with the Commandment Itfelf, and with thofe other laws th-^t accompany and explain it, nothing feems more evident, than that God intended to forbid all outward repre fentations, that fhould be fet up as the objeas of worfhip. It is alio very plain, that the prophets expoftulated with the people of Ifrael for their carved and molten images, as well as for their filfe Gods : and among the reafons given againft images, one is often repeated. To whom will ye liken me ? vvhich feems to import, that by thefe Images they reprefented If 'uh xl. the living God. And Ifnias often, as alio both Jeremiah and xliv" 'm Habakkuk, when they fet forth the folly of making an image, 21. of praying to it, and trufting In It, bring in the greatnefs and Jer. X. to glory of the living God, in oppofition to thefe images. Now Hab.'ii' 18 though It is poffible enough to apprehend, how that the Jews 19, 20. ' might make images in imitation of the Heathen, to reprefent that God whom they ferved, yet It Is no way credible that they could have fallen Into fuch a degree of ftupldlty, as to fancy that a piece of wood, which they had carved into fuch a figure, was a real Deity. They might think it a God by reprefenta tion, as the Heathens thought their idols were ; but more than this cannot be eafily apprehended. So that it is moft reafonable to think, that they knew the God they had thus made, and prayed to, was only a piece of wood ; but they might well fall into that corruption of many of the Heathen, of thinking that they honoured God by ferving him in fuch an image.. If the fin of the Jews was only their having other Gods ; and if the worfhipping an image was only evil, becaufe a falfe Deity was honoured by It, why Is image-worfhip condemned, with rea fons that will hold full as ftrong againft the images of the true God, as of falfe Gods, If it had not been intended to condemn fimply afl image-worfhIp ? Certainly, If the Prophets had in tended to have done it, they could not have expreffed them felves more clearly and more fully than they did. To THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 29I ^ To this It Is to be added, that it feems very clear from fhe hiftory of the golden calf, that the Ifraelites did not Intend, by fetting it up, to eaft off the true Jehovah, that had brought them out of Egypt, They plainly faid the contrary, and ap pointed a feaft to Jehovah. It is probable they thought Mofes was either burnt or ftarved on Mount Sinai, fo they defired fome vifible reprefentations of the Deity to go before them ; they in tended ftill to ferve him ; but fince they thought they had loft their prophet and guide, they hoped that this fliould have been perhaps-as a teraphim to them; yet for afl this, the calf Is Aasvii.4.1. called an Idol; and they are faid to have changed their glory into P'^'- "'¦ the fimilitude of an ox that eateth grafs. So that here an '^' ^°' emblem of the Deity is cafled an Idol. 'Ihey could take the calf for no other, but as a vifible fign or fymbol in which they intended to worfhip their God or Elohim, and the Lord or Jehovah. Such very probably were alfo the calves of Dan and i Kings xii. Bethel, fet up by Jeroboam, who feemed to have no defign to ^7 '« *= change the objea of their worfhip, or the nature of their rell- " ' gion; but only to divert them from going up to Jerufalem, and to i Kings xvi. furnifh them with conveniencies to worfhip the living God '^^^- nearer home. His defign was only to eftablifh the kingdom to ^g, ^n" himfelf; and in order to that, we muft think that he would ven ture on no more than was neceffary for his purpofe. Befides, we do clearly fee an oppofition made between the calves fet up by Jeroboam, and the worfhip of Baal brought from I'yrus by Ahab. Thofe who hated that idolatry, fuch as Jehu and his fa mily, yet continued in the fin of Jeroboam ; and they are repre fented as zealous for Jehovah, though they worfliipped the calves at Dan and Bethel. Thefe are called Idols by Hofea, From all Kofca viii. which It feems to be very evident that the ten tribes ftill feared 4^ 5- and worfhipped the true Jehovah. This appears yet more clear from the fequel of their hiftory, when they were carried away by the kings of Affyria ; and new Inhabitants were fent to people the country, who brought their idols along with them, and did not acknowledge Jehovah the true God; but upon their being plagued with lions, to prevent this, the king of Affyria ^ Kinps fent one of the priefts, that had been carried out of the coun- xvii. 28, try, who taught them how they fhould fear the Lord : out of 3^^ 4i' which that mixture arofe, that they feared tbe Lord, and ferved their own images. This proves, beyond all contradiaion, that the ten tribes did ftill worfhip Jehovah in thofe calves that they had at Dan and Bethel : and thus it appears very clear, that, through the whole Old Teftament, the ufe of all images in worfhip was exprefsly forbid ; and that the v/orfhipping them, even when the true God was worfhipped by them, was cafled Idolatry. The words in which this matter is exprefled are copious and full, and the reafons given for the precept, are U 2 taken 29^ AN EXPOSITION OF taken from the nature of God, who could be likened to nothing, and who had fhewed no fimilitude of himfelf when he appeared to their fathers, and delivered the law to them. The New DiipenLtion does in all refpeas carry the ideas of God and of true religion much higher, and ralfes them much above thofe compliances that were In the Old, to men's fenfes, and to fenfitive natures ; and It would feem to contradia the whole defign of it, if we could Imagine that fuch things were allowed in it, which were fo exprefsly forbid in the Old. Upon this occafion It is remarkable, that the two fulleft paffages in the New Teftament concerning images, are written upon the occafion of the moft refined idolatry that was then in the world, which was at Athens, When St, Paul was there, his fpirit was moved within him, when he faw that city full of idols : he Afls xvii. upon that charges them for thinking that the Godhead zxias like ' > 25 to unto gold or filver, or fione graven by art or man's device: he ^ argues from the majefty of God, who made the world and all things therein, and was the Lord of heaven and earth, and therefore was not to be worfhipped by men's hands (that Is, images made by them), who needed nothing, fince he gives uslife^ breath (or the continuance of life), and all things. He there fore condemns that way of worfhip as an effea of ignorance, and tells them of a day in which God will judge the world. It is certain that the Athenians at that time did not think their Cic. de Nat. Images were the proper refemblances of the Divinity, Tully, Deor. K i. ^jjg knew their theology well, gives us a very different ac- ^^' ^' ¦ count of the notion that they had of their images r Some images were of no figure at all, but were only ftones and pillars that had no particular fhape ; others were hleroglyphlcfcs made up of many feveral emblems, of which fome fignified one perfeaion of the Deity, and fome another ; and others were indeed the figures of men and women ; but even in thefe the wifer among them faid, they worfhipped One Eternal Mind, and under him fome inferior beings, demons, and men; who they believed were fubordinate to God, and governed this world. So it could not be faid of fuch worfhippers, that they thought that the Godhead was like unto their images ; fince the beft writ ers among them tell us plainly that they thought no fuch thing. St, Paul therefore only argues in this againft image-worftiip in Itfelf, which does naturally lead men [to thefe lovit thoughts. of God ; and y/hich is a very unreafonable thing in all thofe who do not think fo of him. It is contrary to the nature and perfeaions of God : few men can think God is like to thofe images, therefore that is a very good argument againft all worfliipping of them. And we may upon very fure grounds fay, that the Athenians had fuch elevated notions both of God and of their images, that whatfoever was a good argument againft THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ' 293 , againft image-worfhip among them, will hold good againft all image-worfhip whatfoever. But as St. Paul ftald long enough at Athens to underftand their opinions wefl, and that no doubt he learned their doarine very particularly from his convert Dionyfius, fo at his coming to Corinth from thence, when he had learned from Aquila and Prifcilla the ftate of the Church In Rome, and no doubt had learned among other things thatthe Romans admired the Greeks, and made them their patterns; he in the beginning of his Epiftk to them, having ftifl deep impreffions upon his fpirit of what he had feen and known at Athens, arraigns the whole Greek philo fophy ; and efpecially thofe among them who profeffed them- Rom. i. :o, felves wife, but became fools ; who though they knew God, yet '° '^^ '^'"^• glorified him not as God, nor were thankful ; but became vain in their imaginations, fo that their foolifh heart was darkened. They had high fpeculations of the unity and fimplicity of the Divine Effence; but they fet themfelves to find fuch excufes for the idolatry of the vulgar, that they not only continued to com ply with them in the groffeft of all their praaices, but they ftu died more laboured defences for them, than the ruder multi tudes could ever have faflen upon. They knew the true God ; for God had fhewed to them that which might be knozvn of him ; but they held the truth in unrighteoufnefs, and changed the glory ef tbe incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds and four-footed bgafis, and to creeping things : which feems to be a defcription of hieroglyphick figures ; the moft excufabk of all thofe images by which they reprefented the Deity, This St. Paul makes to be the original of all the cor ruption and immorality that was fpread over the Gentile world, which came in, partiy as the natural confequence of idolatry, . of its debafing the ideas of God, and wounding true religion and virtue in its fource and firft feeds, and partly as an effea of the juft judgments of God upon thofe who thus difhonoured him, that was to a very monftrous degree fpread over both Greece and Rome. Of thefe St. Paul gives us fome very enormous inftances, with a catalogue of the vices that fprang from thofe vitiated principles, Thefe two paffages, the one of St, Paul's preaching, and the other of his writing, being both applied to thofe who had the fineft fpeculations among the Hea then, do evidentiy demonftrate how contrary the Chriftian doc trine is to the worfhipping of Images of afl fort3,^how fpecioufly foever that m^y be difguifed. If thefe things wanted an explanation, we find It given us very fully in all the v/rltings of the Fathers during their difputes with the Heathens. They do not only charge them with the falfe notions that they had of God, the many Deities they worfhipped, the abfurd legends that they had concerning them ; but in par- U j ticular 294 AN EXPOSITION OF ticular they dwell long upon this of the worfhipping God in or by an Image, with arguments taken both from the pure and fpiritual nature of God, and from the plain revelation he made of his will in this matter. Upon this argument many long citations might be gathered from Juftin Martyr, from Clemens* of Alexandria, Origen, TertuUian, Cyprian, Arnobius, Mlnu- tius Felix, Laaantius, Eufebius, Ambrofe, and St, Auftin. Their reafonings are fo clear and fo full, that nothing can be more evident, than that they condemned all the ufe of Images in the worfhip of God : and yet both Celfus, Porphyry, Maximus Tyrius, and Julian, told them very plainly, that they did not believe that the Godhead was like their images, or was fhut up within them ; they only ufed them as helps to their imagination and apprehenfion, that from thence they might form fuitable thoughts of the Deity, This did not fatisfy the fathers, who infifted on It to the laft, that all fuch images as were made the objeas of worfhip, were Idols ; fo that If in any one thing we have a very full account of the fenfe of the whole Church for the firft four centuries. It is in this matter. They do not fpeak of it now and then only by the way, as In a digreffion ; In which the heat of argument, or of rhetorick, may be apt to carry men too far: they fet themfelves to treat of this argu ment very nicely ; and they were engaged in It with philofophers, who were as good at fubtieties and diftinaions as other men. This was one of the main parts of the controverfy; fo if in any head whatfoever, they writ exaaiy upon thofe fubjeas. They attacked the eftablifhed religion of the Roman empire ; and this was not to be done with clamour, nor could they offer at it in a plain contradldtlon to fuch principles as are confiftent with the Chriftian religion, if the dodtrine of the Roman Church is true. Here then we have not only the Scripture but tradition fully of our fide. Some pretended Chriftians, it Is true, did very early worfhip images ; but thofe were the Gnofticks, held in deteftation by all Iren. I. i. the opthodox. Irenasus, Epiphanlus, and St. Auftin tefl us, ip\X- *-*^^'- ^^^y worfliipped the images of Chrift, together with Pytha- HErer. 27. goras, Plato, and Ariftotie : nor are they only blamed for wor- i^Lfr'c! ^'PP'"g *^ images of Chrift, together with thefe of the phflo- ^-.^r. . cap. fophej.5^ but they are particularly blamed for having feveral forts of Images, and worfliipping thefe as the Heathens did; and that * Juft. Mart. Apol. 2. Clem. Alex. E'rrom, l.i. 5. Protr. Orig. cont. Celf. l.ii. 3. 5. 7- Tcrtull. Apol. Cypr. de Idol. Vanitate. Arnob. lib. v. Minut. Felix OS. Eufeb. Prxp. Evang. 1. iii. Ljftan. 1. ii. ^. i. Ambrof. Refp. ad Sym. Auguft, ie Civitate Dei, 1. vii. c. 5. Orig. con. Celf. l.vii. Eufeb. Pr^p. Ev. 1. iii. c. 7. Max, Tyr. difl". 3S. Jul. Fidg. Ep. Eukb, Ptaep, Evang. 1. iv. c. 1. among THE XXXJX ARTICLES. 295' among thefe, there was an image of Chrift, which they pre tended to have had from Pilate. Befides thefe corrupters of Chriftianity, there were no others among the Chriftians of the firft ages that worfhipped Images. This was fo well known to the Heathens, that they bring this, among other things, as a reproach againft the Chriftians, that they had no' images: which the firft apologifts are fo far from denying, that ihey anfwered them, that It was Impoffible for him who knew God, to worfhip images. But as human nature is Inclined to vifible objeas of worfhip, fo it feems fome began to paint the walls of their Churches with piaures, or at leaft moved for it. in the beginning of the fourth century this was condemned by the Council of Eliberls, Can, 36, It pleafes us to have no piBures in Churches, lefi that which is zvorjhippej Jhould be painted upon the walls. Towards the end of that century, we have an account given us by Epiphanlus, of his indignation occafioned by a piaure that he faw upon a veil at Anablatha. He did not Epiph. Ep. much confider whofe pldture It was, whether a piaure of Chrift, ad Joan. or of fome Saint; he pofitively affirms it was againft the autho- ^¦*'"°^* rity of the Scriptures, and the Chriftian religion, and there fore he tore it, but fupplied that Church with another veil. It feems private perfons had ftatues of Chrift and the Apoftks ; which Eufebius cenfures, where he re'^ort%\t?,.'s, -i. remnant of hea- Eufeb. thenifm. It is plain enough from fome paffages in St. Auftin, ^^^,: ^"^' that he knew of no images in Churches in the beginning of the ' ^"' '^' ' fifth century. It is true, they began to be brought before that p^]. cx'u'i time into fome of the Churches of Pontus and Cappadocia, de Moribus which was done very probably to draw the Heathens, by this ^'^'^'- ''^'''" piece of conformity to them, to like the Chriftian worfliip the ^' '^'^' better. . For that humour began to work, and appeared in many inftances of other kinds as well as in this. It was not poffible that people could fee piaures in their Churches long, without paying fome marks of refpea to them, which grew in a little time to the downright worfhip of them. A famous Inftance we have of this in the fixth century : Serenus Bifhop of Marfeilles, finding that he could not reftrain his people from the worfhip of images, broke them in pieces ; upon which Pope Gregory writ to him, blaming him Indeed for breaking Greg. Epift. the Images, but commending him for not allowing them to '• '^- Ep- gj be worfhipped : this he profecutes in a variety of very plain ex preffions ; It is one thing to worfhip an image, and another thing to learn by it, what is to be worfhipped : he fays they were fet up not to be worfliipped, but to inftrua the ignorant, and cites our Saviour's words. Thou fhalt worfhip the Lord thy God, and him only fhalt thou ferve, to prove that it was not lawful to wor fhip the work of men's hands. We fee by a fragment cited in the fecond Nicene Council, that both Jews and Gentiles took U 4 advantages 29^ AN EXPOSITION OF ART. advantages from the worfhip of Images, to reproach the Chrif- ¦^-^^'- tians foon after that time. The Jews were fcandallzed at ^"^'""'^ their worfhipping images, as being exprefsly againft the com mand of God. The Gentiles had alfo b_y It great advantages of turning back upon the Chriftians all that had been written againft their Images in the former ages. At laft, in the beginning of the eighth century, the famous controverfy about the having or breaking of images grew hot. The Churches of Italy were fo fet on the worfhipping of them, that Pope Gregory the Second* gives this for the reafon of their rebelling againft the Emperor, becaufe of his oppofition, to images. And here in littie more than an hundred years, the fee of Rome changed its doarine. Pope Gregory the Second being as pofitive for the worfhipping them, as the firft of that name had been againft it. Violent contentions arofe upon this head. The breakers of images were charged with Judaifm, Samarltanifm, and Manicheifm ; and the worfhippers of them were charged with Gentilifm and Idolatry, One General Coun cil at Conftantinople, confifting of about three hundred and thirty-eight Bifhops, condemned the worfhipping them as idolatrous : but another at Nice, of three hundred and fifty Bifhops, though others fay, there were only three hundred, afferted the worfhip of them. Yet as foon as this* was known In the Weft, how aaive foever the fee of Rome was for eftablifh-; ing their woifhip, a Council of about three hundred Bifhops met at Francfurt, under Charles the Great, which condemned the Nicene Council, together with the worfhip of images. The Gallican Church infifted long upon this matter; books were publifhed in the name of Charles the Great againft them. A Council held at Paris under his fon did alfo condemn image- worfhip as contrary to the honour that is due to God only, and to the commands that he has given us in Scripture. The Ni cene Council was rejeaed here in England, as our hiftorians tell us, becaufe it aflerted the adoration of images, which the Church of God abhors. Agobard Bifhop of Lions, and Claud of Turin, writ againft It; the former writ with great vehemence : the learned men of that communion do now acknowledge, that what he writ was according to the fenfe of the Gallican Church In that age : and even Jonas of Orleans, who ftudied to moderate the matter, and to reconcile the Gafllcan Bifliops to the fee of Rome, yet does himfelf declare againft the worfliip of images. * This is owned by all the hiftorians of that age, Anaftafius, Zonaras, Ceirenus, Glycas, Theophanes, Sigebett, Otho, Frif. Urfpergenfis, Sigonius, Rubens, and Ciaconius, We THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 297 We are not concerned to examine how It came that all this vigorous oppofition to image-worfnip went off fo foon. It is enough to us, that it was once made ib refolutely ; let thofe who think it fo incredible a thing, that Churches fhould depart from their received traditions, anfwer this as they can. As for the ^aa Con. methods then ufed, and the arguments that were then brought Nic. 2. to infufe this dodtrine into the world, he who will read the A'aion4,5, hiftory and aas of the Nicene Council, wifl find enough to In- ^' ^' cllne him to a very bad opinion, both of the men and of their dodtrine ; though he were ever fo much inclined to think well of them. After afl, though that Council laid the foundation of Aquln. image-worfhip, yet the Church of Rome has made great im- To. i. provements in it fince. Thofe of Nice expreffed a deteftation ^"*'** ^5- "cf an image made to reprefent the Deity; they go no higher fea."!'.^*' than the images of Chrift and the Saints ; whereas fince that time the Deity and the Trinity have been reprefented by images and piaures ; and that not only by connivance, but by authority in the Church of Rome. BeUarmine *, Suarez, and others, prove the lawfulnefs of fuch images fr-om the general praaice of the Church. Others go further, and from the cau tion given in the decree of the Council of Trent, concerning the images of God, do infer, that they are allowed by that Council, provided they be decently made. Direaions are alfo given concerning the ufe of the Image of the Trinity in pub lick offices among them. In a word, all their late doaors agree, that they are lawful, and reckon the calling that in queftion to be not only rafhnefs, but an error ; and fuch as have held it unlawful to make fuch images, were efpecially con demned at Rome, December 17, 1690. The varieties of thofe images, and the boldnefs of them, are things apt to give horror to modeft minds, not accuftomed to fuch attempts. It muft be acknowledged, that the old emblematical images of the Egyptians, and the groffer ones now ufed by the Chinefes, are much more inftruaing, and much lefs fcandalous figures. As the Roman Church has gone beyond the Nicene Councfl Con. Nic. in the images that they allow of, fo they have alfo gone beyond -¦ ^^- 7- them in the degrees of the worfliip that they offer to them. At Nice the worfhip of images was very pofitively decreed, with anathema's againft thofe who did it not : a bare honour they reckoned was not enough. They thought it was a very valua ble argument, that was brought from thofe words of Chrift to the Devil, Thoujbalt worjhip the Lord thy God, and him only Con. Kic. fhalt thou ferve ; that here fervice is only appropriated to God, Aa. 5. * Bellarm. de Imag. 1. ii. t. 8. Suarez. M. 3. Yfambert de Mift. Incarn. ad ijueft. 25. dif. 3, Vafquez in 3 Aquin. difp. 103. c. 3. Cajetan. in 3 Aquin, queft. 25. A. 3, but 29^ AN EXPOSITION OP but not worfhip. Among the aas of worfhip they reckon the oblation of incenfe and lights ; and the reafon given by them for all this, is, becaufe the honour of the Image, or Type, paffes to the Original, or Prototype : fo that plain and direa worfliip was to terminate on the image itfelf: and Durandus paffed for littie lefs than a heretick, becaufe he thought that images were worfliipped only improperly and abufively, becaufe at their pre fence we call to mind the objea reprefented by them, which we worfhip before the image, as if the objea itfelf were be fore us. The Council of Nice did plainly affert'the direa worfhip of images, but they did as pofitively declare, that they meant only that it fhould be an honorary adoration, and not the true La- tria, which was only due to God. And whatever fome mo dern reprefenters and expofitors of the Roman doarine may fay, to foften the harfhnefs of the worfhip of images, it Is very copioufly proved, both from the words of the Council of Con. Nic. Nice, and from afl the eminent writers in that communion, Aa. 2. even from the time of Aquinas *, and of the modern fchoolmen, and writers of controverfy, that direa worfhip ought to be offered to the Image itfelf. This referve of the Latria to God, being an evident proof, that all inferior aas of worfhip were allowed them. But this referve does no way pleafe the later writers ; for Aquinas, and many from him, do teach, that the fame aas and degrees of worfhip which are due to the original, are alfo due to the Image ; they think an image lias fuch a relation to the original, that both ought to be wor fhipped by the fame aa, and that to worfhip the image with any other fort of aas, is to worfhip it on its own account, which they think is Idolatry. Whereas others adhering to the Nicene doarine, think that the Image Is tobe worfhipped with an inferior degree, that otherwife Idolatry muft foflow. So here the danger of Idolatry Is threatened of both fides ; and fince one of them muft be chofen, thus it will follow, that let a man do what he can, he muft commit Idolatry, according to the opinion of fome very fubtle and learned men among them. Con. Trid. The Council of Trent did indeed decline to give a clear de- Seff. 25. cifion In this matter, and only decreed, that due worfhip fliould be given to images ; but did not determine what that due wor fhip was. And though it appears by the decree, that there were abufes committed among them in that matter, yet they only appoint fome regulations, concerning fuch images as were to be fuftered, and that others were to be removed ; but they left the divines to fight out the matter concerning the due worjliip * Aquin. 2. p. q. 15. Art. 3. See to the fame {furpofe, Alex, Hales, Bcnaventure, Ricardus de Media villa palud. Almanf, Eiel Sumir.a Angelica, and many mote citid by Bifliop Stillingfieei's Defence tf the Charge of Idolatry, Part II, Chap. 2. that THE XXXIX ARTICLES. '299 that ought to be given to images. They were then In hafte, ART. and Intended to offend no party ; and as they would not juftify ^-^''• afl that had been faid or done concerning the worfliip ' of j^TBilhT' images, fo tiiey would condemn no part of it; yet they confirmed stillingfleet, the Nicene Council, and In particular made ufe of that maxim ut fupra. of theirs, that the honour of the Type goes to the Prototype ; and p^n,, ro^,, thus they left it as they found it. So that the difpute goes on Ordo ad Re- ftlll as hot as ever. The praaice of the Roman Church is ex- ^': • l"'!'". prefs for the Latria to be given to images : and therefore all that write for it, do frequently cite that hymn, Crux Ave fpes uni ca, auge piis jufiitiam, reifque donaveniam. It is exprefsly faid in the Pontifical, Cruci debetur Latria, and the prayers ufed in the confecration of a erofs ; It is prayed *, that the bleffing of that crofs on which Chrijl hung, may be in it, that it may be a healthful remedy to mankind, a firengthener of faith, an in- cr eafier of good works, the redemption of fouls, and a comfort, proteBion, and defence againfi the cruelty of our enemies. Thefe with all the other aas of adoration ufed among them, feem to favour thofe who are for a Latria to be given to all thofe images, to the originals of which it is due ; and in the like proportion for Dulia and Hyperdulia to other images. It Is needlefs to profecute this matter further. It feemed neceffary to fay fo much, to juftify our Church, which has in her Homilies laid this charge of Jdolatry very fe verely on the Church of Rome ; and this is fo high an imputa tion, that thofe who think it falfe, as they cannot, with a good confcience, fubfcribe, or require others to fubfcribe the Article, concerning the Homilies, fo they ought to retraa their own fub fcriptions, and to make folemn reparations in juftice and ho nour, for laying fo heavy an imputation unjuftly upon that whole communion. There is nothing that can be brought from Scripture, that has a fhew of an argument for fupporting image-worfhip, un lefs it be that of the Cherublms that were in the holiefi of all; and that as Is fuppofed were worfhipped, at leaft by the High- Prieft when he went thither, once a year, if not by the whole people. But firft there Is a great difterence to be made be tween a form of worfhip immediately prefcribed by God, and another form that not only has no warrant for it, but feems to * In benediaione novse Crucis. Rogamus te Doip'ine, fanae Pa{er, omnipotens fempiterne Deus, ut digneris bene- dicere hoc lignum Ciucis tuar, ut fit Rerr.ediuni falutare generi humano, fit Soliditas fidei, profeaus boncrum operum, redcraitio animarum, fit folamen et proteaio ac tutela contra fa:va jacula Inimicorum. Per Dom. Santlificeturiignum irtud in nomine Patiis et Filii, et Spiritus Sanai, el bene- diaio illius ligni in quo membra far.aa Salvatoris fufpenfa funt fit in ifio ligno ut orantes inclinantefque fe propter Deum ante iftam crucem inveniant corporis et ani- pi* fa.iitatena ppr euiidcm, be Heb. ix 300 AN EXPOSITION OF be very exprefsly forbidden. It Is plain, the Cherubims were not feen by the people, and fo they could be no vifible objea of worfhip to them. They were fcarce feen by the High-Prleft himfelf, for the holleft 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 con cerning the High-Prleft's worfhipping, either the Ark, or the Cherubim. It is true, there is a place in the Pfalms that feems Pnlm xcix. to favour this ; as it is rendered by the vulgar, vjorfhip hisfoot- ^' 3' fiool, for it is holy ; but both the Hebrew and the Septuagint have it, as it is in our tranflation, worfhip at his footfiool, for he is holy ; and afl the Greek Fathers cite thefe words fo. Many of the Latin Fathers do alfo cite them according to the Greek ; and the laft words of the Pfalm, in which the fame words are repeated, make the fenfe of it evident : for there it is thus varied, Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worfhip at his holy hill, for the Lord our God is holy. Thefe words coming fo foon after the former, are a paraphrafe to them, and deter mine their fenfe. No doubt the High-Prieft worfhipped God, who dwelt between the Cherublms, in that cloud of glory in which he fhewed himfelf vifibly prefent in his temple ; bujt there Is no fort of reafon to think, that In fo majeftick a pre fence, adoration could be offered to any thing elfe ; or that af ter the High-Prieft had adored the divine eflence fo manifefted, he would have fallen to worfhip the Ark and the Cherubims. This agrees ill with the figure that Is fo much ufed in this mat ter of a king and his chair of ftate ; for in the prefence of the king, afl refpeas terminate in his perfon, whatfoever may be done in his abfence. And thus, this being not fo much as a precedent, much lefs an argument, for the ufe of images ; and there being no thing elfe brought from Scripture, that with any fort of wrefting can be urged for it, and the fenfe and praaice of the whole Church being fo exprefs againft it, the progrefs of it having been fo long and fo much difputed, the tendency of it to fu perftition and abufe being hy their own confeffion fo vifible ; the fcandal that it gives to Jews and Mahometans being fo appar rent, and it carrying In its outward appearances fuch a confor mity (to fay at prefent no more) to Heathenifli Idolatry, we think we have all poffible advantages in this argument. We adhere to that purity of worfliip which is in both Teflaments fo much infifted on ; we avoid all fcandal, and make no ap proaches to heathenifm, and follow the pattern fet us by the pri mitive Church. And as our fimplicity of worfhip needs not be defended, fince it proves itfelf; fo no proofs are brought for the other fide, but only a pretended ufefulnefs in outward figures, to raife the mind by the fenfes to juft apprehenfions of fpiritual w objeas ; TflE ,XXXIX -ARTICLES. 3°* tohjeas J which allowing it true, will only conclude for the A R T. hlftorical ufe of Images, but not for the direaing our worfliip XXII. towards them. But the" effea is quite contrary to the pretence ; '^'.-¦-' for, inftead of raifing the mind by the fenfes, the mind is rather funk by them into grofs ideas. The bias of human nature lies to fenfe and to form grofs imaginations of incorporeal objeas ; and therefore, inftead of gratifying thefe, we ought to wean our minds from them, and to raife them above them all we can. Even men of fpecula tion and abftraaion feel nature in this grows too hard for them ; but the vulgar is apt to fall fo headlong into thefe con ceits, that it looks like the laying of fnares for them, to furnifh them with fuch methods and helps for their having grofs thoughts of fpiritual objeas. The fondnefs that the people have for images, their readlnefs to believe the moft incredible ftories concerning them, the expence they are at to enrich and adorn them, their proftrations before them, their confidence in them, their humble and tender embracing and kiffing of them, their pompous and heathenifh proceffions to do them honour, the fraternities ereaed for particular images, not to mention the more univerfal and eftablifhed praaices of direaing their prayers to them, of fetting lights before them, and of incenf- ing them ; thefe, I fay, are things too well known, to fuch as have feen the way of that religion, that they fhould need to be much enlarged on ; and yet they are not only allowed of, but encouraged. Thofe among them who have too much good fenfe that they fliould fink into thofe foolifh apprehenfions themfelves, yet muft not only bear with them, but often comply with them to avoid the giving of fcandal, as they call it ; not confidering the much greater fcandal that they give, when they encourage others by their praaice to go on in thefe follies. The enlarging into all the corruptions occafioned by this way of worfhip would carry me far ; but it feems not neceffary, the thing is fo plain in itfelf. The next head in this Article is a full inftance of it, which is, the Worfliip of Reflcks. It is no wonder that great care was taken in the beginnings of Chriftianfty, to fliew afl poffible refpea and tendernefs even to the bodies of the martyrs. There is fomething of this planted fo deep in human nature, that though the philofophy of it cannot be fo well made out, yet it feems to be fomewhat more than an univerfal cuftom ; hu manity is of its fide, and is apt to carry men to the profufions of pomp and coft : all religions do agree in this, fo that we need not wonder if Chriftians, in the firft fervour of their re ligion, believing the refurreaion fo firmly as they did, arid having a high fenfe of the honour done to Chrift and his reh gion by the fufferings of the martyrs ; if, I fay, they ftudied 3°* AN EXPOSITION OP ART. to gather their bones and afhes together, and bury them decently. XXII. They thought It a fign of their being joined with them in one ^"T"^ ' body, to hold their aflemblles at the places where they were Smirn. apud buried : this might be alfo confidered as a motive to encourage Eufeb. 1. iv. others to follow the example that they had given them, even to ^- '5- martyrdom : and therefore all the marks of honour were put Cyril, fib. even upon their bodies that could be thought on, except wor- Ti. lib. X. fhip. After the ages of perfecution were over, a fondnefs of ¦^•""^tiV having and keeping their relicks began to fpread Itfelf in many places. Monks fed that humour by carrying them about. We Aug. de find In St. Auftin's works, that fuperftition was making a great opere mo- progrefs In Africk upon thefe heads, of which he complains nac .c. 2 . fj.gqygj^t]y Vigilantius had done it more to purpofe in Spain; and did not only complain of the exceffes, but of the thing In Hieron. adv. Itfelf St. Jctom fell unmercifully upon him for it, and fets a Vigilant, jjjgjj value upon relicks, yet he does not fpeak one word of worfhipping them ; he denies and difclalms it, and feems only to allow of a great fondnefs for them ; and with moft of that age, he was very apt to believe, that miracles were oft wrought by them. When fuperftition is once fuffered to mix with re.' ligion, It will be ftill gaining ground, and it admits of no bounds : fo this matter went on, and new legends were in vented ; but when the controverfy of image-worfhip began, it followed that as an acceffary. The enfhrlning of reflcks occafioned the moft excellent fort of images ; and they were thought the beft prefervatives poffible both for foul and body ; no prefents grew to be more valued than relicks ; and it was an eafy thing for the Popes to furnifh the world plentifully that way, but chiefly fince the difcovery of the catacombs, which has furnifhed them with ftores not to be exhaufted. The Council of Trent did in this, as in the point of images ; it ap pointed reUcks to be venerated, but did not determine the de- gree; fo It left the worid in poffeffion of a moft exceffive do tage upon them. They are ufed every where by them as fa- credcharms, klffed and worfhipped, they are ferved with lights and incenfe. In oppofition to all this, we think, that all decent honours are indeed due to the bodies of the Saints, which were once the 1 Cor. vi. tempUs of the Holy Ghofi : but fince it Is faid, that God took Deut.xxxiv. ^^^^ '^^''^ °^ *^ ^"'^y °f ^"fe^-, fo as to bury it in fuch a man- g. ¦ ¦ ner that no man knew of his fepulchre, there feems to have been in this a peculiar caution guarding againft that fuperftition, which the Jews might very probably have fallen into with rela tion to his body. And this feems fo clear an Indication of the will of God in this matter, that we reckon we are very fafe when we do no further honour to the body of a Saint, than to bury it. And though that Saint had been ever fo eminent, not only THE XXXIX ARTICLES. P2 fenly for his holinefs, but even for miracles wrought by him, by art. his fhadow, or even by looking upon him ; yet the hiftory of i^'j. the Brazen Serpent fhews us, that a fondnefs even on the in- ^ j^- ftruments, that God made ufe of to work miracles by, degenerates xviii. 4- eafily to the fuperftition of burning incenfe to them ; but when that appears, it is to be checked, even by breaking that which was fo abufed. Hezekiah is commended for breaking in pieces that noble remain of Mofes's time till then preferved ; neither its antiquity, nor the fignal miracles once wrought by it, could balance the ill ufe that was then made of it : that good king broke it, for which he might have had a worfe name than an Iconoclafi, If he had lived in fome ages. It is true, miracles were of old wrought by Aaron's rod, by Elifha's bones after his 2 Kings death, and the one was preferved, but not worfhipped ; nor was ^'"' *'" there any fuperftition that followed on the other. Not a word of this fondnefs appears in the beginnings of Chriftianity ; though it had been an eafy thing at that time to have furnifhed the world with pieces of our Saviour's garments, hair, or nails; and great ftore might have been had of the Virgin's and the Apoftles relicks : St. Stephen's and St. James's bones might have been then parcelled about: and if that fpirit had then reigned in the Church, which has been In the Roman Church now above a thoufand years, we fhould have heard of the re licks that were fent about from Jerufalem to all the Churches- But when fuch things might have been had in great abundance, and have been known not to be counterfeits, we hear not a word of them. If a fondnefs for relicks had been In the Church upon Chrift's afcenfion, what care would have been taken to have made great colkaions of them 1 Then we fee no other care about the body of St. Stephen but to biu-y it; and not long after that time upon St, Polycarp's martyrdom, when the Jews, who had fet on the profecutlon againft him, fuggefted, that, if the Chriftians could gain his body, they would perhaps forfake Chrift and worfhip him; they rejeaed the accufation with horror; for In the epiftle which the Church of Smyrna writ upon his martyrdom, after they mention this infi- Buatlon, they have thofe remarkable words, which belong both to this head and to that which foflows it of the invocation and worfhip of Saints. Thefe men know not that we can neither Ep. Eufeb. forfake Chrifi, who fuffered for the falvation of aU that are '• '^' "¦ ^5- faved, the innocent for the guilty, nor worfhip any other ; Him truly being the Son of God we adore : but the martyrs, and dif ciples, and followers of tbe Lord, we jufily love, for that ex traordinary good mind, which they have expreffed toward their King and Mafier, of luhofe happinefs God grant that we par take, and thai we may learn by their examples. The Jews had fo perfuaded the Gentiles of Smyrna of this matter, that they burnt 304i AN EXPOSITION OF burnt St. Polycarp's body ; but the Chriftians gathered up lil« bones with much refpea, fo that It appeared how they ho noured them, though they could not worfhip them ; and they buried them in a convenient place, which they intended to make the place where they fhould hold, by the bleffmg of God, ihe yearly commemoration of that birth-day of his martyrdom, with much joy and gladnefs, both to bonour the memory of thofe who had overcome in that glorious engagement, and to infiruB and confirm aU others by their example. This Is one of the moft valuable pieces of true and genuine antiquity; and it fhews us very fully the fenfe of that age both concerning the relicks, and the worfhip of the Saints. In the foflowing ages, we find no charaaers of any other regard to the bones or bodies of the Saints, but that they burled them very decently, and did an nually commemorate their death, calling it their Birth-Day. And it may incline men ftrongly to fufpea the many miracles that were publifhed in the fourth century, as wrought at the tombs, or memories of the martyrs, or by their relicks, that we hear of none of thofe in the former three centuries; for it feems there was more occafion for them during the perfecution, than after It was over ; it being much more neceffary than to furnifh Chriftians with fo ftrong a motive as this muft have been, to refifi even to blood, when God was pleafed to glorify himfelf fo fignally in his Saints. This, I fay, forces us to fear, that credulity and imagination, or fomewhat worfe than both thefe, might have had a large fhare in thofe extraordinary things that are related to us by great men in the fourth century. He muft have a great difpofition to believe wonderful things, that can dl- BafiI.in4o geft the extraordinary relations that are even in St. Bafil, St. Martyr, in Ambtofe, and St. Auftin ; and moft fignally in St. Jerom, for Ma™a^^''" inftance, that after one had ftolen Hflarion's body out of Cy- Paui, in vita prus, and brought It to Paleftine, upon which Conftantia, that A.n,brof. went Conftantly to his tomb, was ready to have broke her heart; God took fuch pity on her, that as the true body wrought Aug. de great miracles in Paleftine, fo likewife very great miracles con- Civit. Dei, tinned ftill to be wrought at the tomb, where it was firft laid. ^b. xxii. c. One, in refpea to thofe great men, is tempted to fufpea that many things might have been foifted into their writings in the following ages. A great many praaices of this kind have been made manifeft beyond contradiaion. Whole books have been made to pafs for the writings of fathers, that do evidentiy bear the marks of a much later date, where the fraud was carried too far not to be difcovered. At other times parcels have been laid In among their genuine produaions, which cannot befo eafily diftlngulfhed ; they not being liable to fo many critical enqui ries, as may be made on a larger work. It Is a little unaccount able how fo many marvellous things fliould be publiflied*in that agej TIIE XXXIX ARTICLES. 3°5 »ge ; and yet that St. Chryfoftom, who fpent his whole life be- 'A R t. tween two of the publickeft fcenes of the worid, Antioch and ¦'^^"' Conftantinople, and was an aaive and inquifitive man, fhould cfJTTiT"' not fo nduch as have heard of any fuch wonderful ftories ; but Hon-,." 6. in fhould have taken pains to remove a prejudice out of the minds i ad Cor. ii, of his hearers, that might arife from this, that whereas they heard of many miracles that were wrought in the times of the Apoftles, none were wrought at that time ; upon which, he gives very good reafons why it was fo. His faying fo pofitively, That none were wrought at that time, without fo much as a , falvo for what he .might have heard from other parts, fhews plainly, that he had not heard of any at all. For he was ora tor enough to have made even loofer reports look probable. This does very much fhake the credit of thofe atnazing relations that we find in St. Jerom, St. Ambrofe, and St, Auftin, It is true, there feems to have been an opinion very generally received both in the Eaft and the Weft, at that time, which muft have very much heightened the growing fuperftition for relicks. It Was a remnant both of Judaifm and Gentilifm, that the fouls of martyrs hovered about their tombs, called their memories ; E."id that therefore they might be called upon, and fpoke to there. This appears even in the Council of Elllberls, where the fu perftition of fighting candles about their tombs in day-light is forbidden; the reafon given is, becaufe the fpirits were not to be difquieted. St. Bafil, and the other Fathers, that do fo often Bafil. in 40 mention, the going to their memories, do very plainly Infinuate Martyr, their being prefent at them, and hearing themfelves cafled upon. This may be the reafon why among afl the faints that are fo much magnified in that age, we never find the bleffed Virgin fo much as once mentioned. They knew not where her body was laid, they had no tomb for her, no nor any of her relicks or utenfils. But upon the occafion of Neftorius's denying her to be the Mother of God; and by carrying the oppofition tb that too far, a fuperftition for her was fet on foot, it made a pro grefs fufficient to balance the flownefs of its beginning ; the whole world was then filled with very extravagant devotions for her. The great noife we find concerning relicks in the end of the fourth century, has all the charaaers of novelty poffible in it; for thofe who fpeak of it, do not derive it- from former times. One circumftance in this is very remarkable, that neither Trypho, Celfus, Lucian, nor Cecflius, do objea to the Chriftians of their time, their fondnefs for dead bodies, or praying about their tombs, which they might well have al- ledged in oppofition to what the Chriftians charged them with, if there had been any occafion for it. Whereas this cuftom was no fooner begun, than both Julian and Eunapius reproach X the 3-6 AN EXPOSITION OP ART the Chriftians for it. Julian, it is true, fpeaks only of thel!? xxii. calling on God over fepulchres: Eunapius writ after him ; and „ it feems, In his time, that which Julian fets forth as a calling i b. io! con. upon God, was advanced to an Invocation of them. He fays; juiinn. Ej- they heaped together the hones and fiulls of men that had been ^fi-f" ''"^ punifhed for many crimes, (it was natural enough for a fpiteful f-feathen to give this reprefentation of their martyrdom) hold-- ing them for Gods : and after fome fcurrilous Inveaives againft them, he adds, they are called Martyrs, and made tbe minifiers and meffengers of prayer to the Gods. This feems to be a very evident proof of the novelty of this matter. As for the adoring them, when Vigilantius afked. Why dofi thou kifs and adore a little 'dufi put up in fine linen ? St. Jerom, though exceffively fond of them, denies this very pofitively, and that in very In- iurious terms, being offended at the injuftice of the reproach. "^"et as long as the bodies of the martyrs were let He quietly in their memories, the fond opinion of their being prefent, and hearing what was faid to them, made the invocating them look like one man's defiring the affiftance of another good man's prayers ; fo that this ftep feemed to have a fair colour. But when their bodies were pufled afunder, and carried up and down, fo that It was believed miracles abounded every where about them ; and when their bones and relicks grew to in- creafe and multiply, fo that they had more bones and limbs than God and nature had given them ; then new hypothefes were to be found out to juftify the calling upon them every where, as their relicks were fpread. St, Jerom, in his careleis Hirrnn. ad way, fays, they followed the Lamb whiiherfoever he went, and '^' ¦ feems to make no doubt of their being, if not every where, yet Aug cura in feveral places at once. But St. Auftin, who could follow pro mortuis, ^ coiifequence much further in his thoughts, though he doubted not but that men were much the better for the prayers of the martyrs, yet he confeffes that it paffed the ftrength of his un derftanding to determine, whether they heard thofe who called upon them at their memories, or wherefoever elfe they were believed to have appeared, or not ? But the devotions that are fpoken of by all of that age, are related as having been offered at their memories ; fo that this feems to have been the general opinion, as wefl as it was the common praaice of that age, though It is no wonder if this conceit, once giving fome colour and credit to the invocating them, that did quickly i.ncreafe it felf to a general invocation of them every where. And thus a fondnefs for their relicks, joined with the opinion of their relation and nearnefs to them, did in a fhort time grow up to adirect worfliipping of them; and, by the fruitfulnefs that always follows fuperftition, did fpread itfelf further, to their clothes, uteniils, and every thing elfe that had any relation to them. There THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 3^7 There Xvas caufe given in St. Auftin's time to fufpea that ART. many of the bones which were carried about by monks, were j^^"' none of their bones, but impoftures, which very much fhakes j^ ^^ the credit of the miracles wrought by them, fince we have no opere Mo- reafon to think that God would fupport fuch impoftures with nach. c. 28. miracles; as, on the other hand, there Is no reafon to think that falfe relicks would have paffed upon the world, If miracles had been believed to accompany true ones, unlefs they had their miracles likewife to atteft their value : fo let this matter be turned which way it may, the credit both of relicks, and of the miracles wrought by them, is not a little fhaken by it. But in the following ages we have more than prefumptions,, that there was much of this falfe coin that went abroad In the world. It was not poffible to diftinguifli the falfe from the true. The frefhnefs of colour and fmeU, fo often boafted, might have been eafily managed by art ; the varieties of thofe relicks, the different methods of difcovering them, the fhinlngs that were faid to be about their tombs, with the fmells that broke out of them, the many apparitions that accompanied them, and the fignal cures that were wrought by them, as they grew to fill the world with many volumes of legends, many more lying yet in the manufcripts in many Churches, than have been publifhed : all thefe, a fay, carry in them fuch cha raaers of fraud and impofture on the one hand, and of cruelty and fuperftition on the other; fo much craft, and fo much folly, that they had their full effea upon the world, even in contradiaion to the cleareft evidence poffibk* The fame faints having more bodies and heads than one, in different places, and yet all equally celebrated with miracles. A great profufion of wealth and pomp was laid out in honouring them, new de votions were ftifl Invented for them : and though thefe things are too palpably falfe to be put upon us now, in ages of more light, where every thing will not go down becaufe It is con fidently affirmed ; yet as we know how great a part of the devotion of the Latin Church this continued to be for many ages before the Reformation, fo the fame trade is ftill carried on, where the fame Ignorance, and the fame fuperftition, does ftill continue. I come now to confider the laft head of this Article, which is the Invocation of Saints^ of which much has been already faid by an anticipation: for there is that conneaion between the worfhip of relicks and the invocation of faints, that the treat ing of the one, does very naturally carry one to fay fomewhat of the other. It is very evident that faints were not invocated in the Old Teftament. God being cafled fo oft, the God of Abraham, Ifaac and Jacob, feems to give a much better warrant for it, than any thing that can be afledged from the New Tefta- X 2 ment. 3o8 AN EXPOSITION OF • ART. ment. Mofes was their Lawgiver, and their Mediator and In* XXII. terceffor with God ; and his interceffion, as it had been very ef- ' '" ' feaual for them, fo it had fhewed itfelf In a, very extraordinary Exod, xxxii. inftance of his defiring that his name might be blotted out of the 3*- book zvbich he had written, rather than the people fhould perifli 5 when God had offered to him, that he would raife up a new nation to hi-,nfelf, out of his pofterity. God had alfo made many pro mifes to that nation by him : fo that it might be natural enough, confidering the genius of fuperftition, for the Jews to have cal led to.him in their miferies, to obtain the performance of thofe promifes made by him to them. We may upon this refer the matter to every man's judgment, whether Abraham and Mofes might not have been much more reafonably invocated by the Jews according to what we find in the Old Teftamentj than any faint can be under the New : yet we are fure they were not prayed to, Elijah's going up to heaven in fo miraculous a man ner, might alfo have been thought a good reafon for any to have prayed to him : but nothing of that kind was then praaifed. They underftood prayer to be a part of that worfhip which they owed U^ God only : fo that the praying to any other, had been to a certain degree the having another God before, or befides the true Jehovah. They never prayed to any other, they called upon him, and made mention of no other : the rule was with- ?fal. 1. 15. out exception. Call upon me in the time of trouble, I will hear thee, and thou JhaU glorify mc. Upon this point there is no difpute. - In the New Teftament, we fee the fame method followed, with this only exception, that Jefus Chrift Is propofed as our Mediator : and that not only in the point of redemption, which is not denied by thofe of the Church of Rome, but even in the point of Interceffion ; for when St. Paul is treating con cerning the prayers and fupplications that are to be offered for J Tim. ii. 5. all men, he concludes that direaion in thefe words : For there is one God and one Mediator between God and man, the man • Chrifi Jefus. We think the filence of the New Teftament might be a fufficient argument for this : but thefe words go farther, and Imply a prohibition to addrefs our prayers to God by any other Mediator. All the direaions that are given us of trufting In God, and praying to him, are upon the matter pro hibitions of trufting to any other, or of calling on any other. Rom. X. 14. Invocation and faith are joined together; How JhaU they caU on him in whom they have not believed? So that we ought only to John xiv. I. pray to God, and to Chrift, according to thofe words, Te be lieve in God, beUeve ye alfo in me. We do alfo know that it was a part of heathenifli idolatry to invocate either demons, or departed men, whom they confidered as good beings fubordi nate to the Divine Effence, and employed by God in the go vernment THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 3°9 vernment of tiie worid ; and they had almoft the fame fpecu lations about them, that have been fince introduced into the Church, concerning angels and .faints. In the condemning all idolatry, no referve is made In Scripture for this, as being faulty, only becaufe it was applied wrong ; or that it might be fet right when direaed better. On the contrary, when fome men, un der the pretence of humility and of will-worfiip, did, according Col. ii. iS. to the Platonick notions, offer to bring In the worfhip of an gels into the Church of Coloffe, pretending, as Is probable, that thofe fpirits who were employed by God in the miniftry of the Gofpel, ought, in gratitude for that fervice, and out of refpea to their dignity, to be worfhipped : St. Paul condemns all this, without any referves made for lower degrees of worfhip ; he charges the Chriftians to beware of that vain philofophy, and not to be deceived by thofe fhews of humility, or the fpeculations Verfe S, 9, of men, who pretended to explain that which they did not '°" know, as intruding into things which they had not feen, vainly puffed up by their fiefhly mind. If any degrees of invocating faints or angels had been confiftent with the Chriftian reli- * gion, this was the proper place of declaring them : but the condemning that matter fo abfolutely, looks as a very exprefs prohibition of all fort of worfhip to angels. And when St. John fell down to worfhip the angel, that had made him fuch glorious difcoveries upon two feveral occafions, the anfWer he had, was. See thou do it not: worfliip God: I am thy fel- 'S.^v.x'ix.io, low fervant. It is probable enough, that St. John might ima- R^^'-'""'. 9. gine, that the angel who had made fuch difcoveries to him, was Jefus Chrifi : but the anfwer plainly fhews, that no fort of wormip ought to be offered to angels, nor to any but God. The reafon given excludes all forts of worjhip, for that cannot be among fellow-fervants. As angels are thus forbid to be worfhipped, fo no mention Is made of worfhipping or invocating any faints that had died for the faith, fuch as St, Stephen and St, James, In the Epif tle to the Hebrews, they are required to remember them Heb. xiii, 7 . which bad tbe rule over them, and to follow their faith ; but not a word of praying to them. So that if either the filence of the Scriptures on this head, or if plain declarations to the contrary could decide this matter, the controverfy would be foon at an end. Chrift is always propofed to us as the onlv perfon by whom we come unto God : and when St, Paul fpeaks againft the worfliipping of angels, he fets Chrift out in his glory in oppofition to it. For in him dzvelleth aU the Col.ii. 9, fulnefs of the Godhead bodily ; and ye are complete in him, ^°- which is the head of all principality and povjcr ; purfuing that reafon in a great many particulars. X 3 From 3IO AN EXPOSITION OF A R T. XXII. Clem.Prorrep. Tertul.Apol. L, Au^. con. Ecrm. Ar. ¦: . 7,0. con. -Mas. 1. 13 c. 4. Aug. de C)'. Uci, i. 2 1. S From the Scriptures, If we go to the firft ages of Chriftiani ty, we find nothing that favours this, but a great deal to the contrary, Irenxus difclalms the invocation of angels. The memorable paffage of the Church of Smyrna, formerly cited, Is a full proof of their fenfe in this matter. Clemens Alexandrinus and Tertufllan do often mention the worfhip that was given to God only, by prayer ; and fo far were they at that time from praying to faints, that they prayed for them, as was formerly ex plained: they thought they were not yet in the prefence of God, fo they could not pray to them as long as that opinion conti nued. That form of praying for them is in the Apoftolical Conftitutions, In all that colkaion, which feems to be a work of the fourth or fifth century, there is not a word that intimates their praying to faints. In the Council of Laodicea*, there is an exprefs condemnation of thofe who invocated an gels ; this is cafled a fecret idolatry, and a forfaking of our Lord Jefus Chrifi. The firft apologifts for Chriftianity do arraign the worfhip of demons, a^nd of fuch as had once lived on earth, in a ftfle that fhewed they did not apprehend that the argume.nt could be turned againft them, for their wforfhipping either an gels or departed faints. When the Arian controverfy arofe, the invocation of Chrift is urged by Athanafius, Bafil, Cyril, and other Fathers, as an evident argument that he was neither made nor created ; fince they did not pray to angels, or any other creatures, from whence they concluded that Chrift was God. Thefe are convincing proofs of the doarine of the three firft, and of a good part of the fourth century. It is true, as was confeffed upon the former head, they be gan with martyrs in the end of the fourth century. They fancied they heard thofe that cafled to them ; and upon that it was no wonder, If they invocated them, and fo private prayers to them began, But as appears both by the Conftitutions, and feveral of the writers of that time, the publick offices were yet preferved pure. St, Auftin fays plainly, Tbe Gentiles buiU temples, raifed z\t?Lr?, ordained priefts, and offered fzcr'ifices to their Gods ; but we do not ereB temples to our martyrs, as if they were Gods ; but memories as to dead men, whofe fpirits live with God; nor do we ereB ^ftars, itpon which i/ue facrifice 10. ' Con Laud. c. 3;. Juft. Marti Apol, 2. Iren. 1. -z.. c. 35. Orig. con. Celf. 1. %. Tert. de Orjt. c. i. Athanrf. cont. Arian. Orat. 1, 3, 4. Gng. N'a/ianz. Orat. 40. Gret- NilH in Bafil. cont. Eunap. Bafil. Horn. 27. cont. Eunom. 1. 4. Ppipl). Ha:rer. i>^, 69, 78, 79. Theod. de Ha:r. Fabul. L'5. c. 3. Chnfoft. de Tni.it. u THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 3'^ tp martyrs ; but to one God only do zve offer, to the God of mar tyrs, and our God ; at which facrifice they are named in their place and order, as men of God, who in confeffing him have overcome tbe world, but they are not invocated by tbe priefi that facrifices. It feems the form of praying for the faints mentioned in the Conftltutions, was not ufed in the Churches of Africk in St. Auftin's time : . he fays very pofitively, that they did not pray for them, but did praife God for them : and he fays in exprefs words, Let not the worfhip of dead men be any part of Aug. de vera our religion ; ihey ought fo to be honoured, that we may imitate ^"^'^ '^•5S> them, but not worfhipped, God was indeed prayed to. In the fifth century, jo hear the interceffion of the faints and mar tyrs ; but there is a great difference between praying to God to favour us on their account, and praying Immediately to them to hear us. The praying to them imports either their being everywhere, or their knowing all things ; and as it is a blafphemous piece of idolatry to afcribe that to them without a divine communica tion ; fo it is a great prefumption in any man to fancy that they may be prayed to, and to build fo many parts of worfhip upon it, barely upon fome probabilities and inferences, without an exprefs revelation about It. For the faints may be perfeaiy hap py In the enjoyment of God without feeing all things in him ; nor have we any reafon to carry that farther than the Scripture has done. But as the Invocating of martyrs grew from a calling to them at their memories, to a general calling to them in all places ; fo from the Invocating martyrs, they went on to pray to other faints ; yet that was at firft ventured on doubtfiilly, and only In funeral orations ; where an addrefs to the dead perfon to pray for thofe that were then honouring his memory, might, perhaps, come in as a figure of pompous eloquence ; in which Nazianzen, one of the firft that ufes it, did often give himfelf a very great compafs ; yet he and others foften fuch figures with this. If there is any fenfe or knowledge of what we do below. From prayers to God to receive the interceffions of martyrs and faints, it c?me in later ages to be ufual to have Litanies to them, and to pray immediately to them ; but at firft this was only a defire to them to pray for thofe who did thus invocate them, Ora pro nobis. But fo Impoffible is jt to reftrain fuper ftition when It has once got head, and has prevailed, that in con clufion afl things that were aflced either of God or Chrift, came to be afked from the faints in the fame humility both of gefture and expreffion ; In which if there was any difference made, it feemed to be rather on the fide of the blefled Virgin and the faints, as appears by the ten Ave's for one Pater, and that hum ble proftration in which all fall down everyday to worfhip her : the prayer ufed conftantiy to her, Maria, Mater gratia:, Ma- X 4 ter 312 AN EXPOSITION OF ter mifericordia, tu nos ab hofie protege, et bora mortis fufcipe, is an immediate acknowledgment of her as the giver of thefe things ; fuch are. Solve vincla rcis, profer lumen crscis ; with many others of that nature. The collection of thefe fwefls to a huge bulk, Jure Matris impera Redemptori, Is an allowed addrefs to her ; not to mention an infinity of moft fcandalous ones, that are not only tolerated, but encouraged in that Church. Altars are confecrated to her honour, and to the ho nour of other faints ; but which is more, the facrifice of the mafs is offered up to her honour, and to the honour of the faints : and in the form of abfolution, the pardon of fins, the Increafe of grace, and eternal life, are prayed for to the penitent by the virtue of the paffion of Chrift, and the merits of the blefled Virgin, and of all the faints. The pardon of fins and eternal life are alfo prayed for from angels, Angelo., rum concio facra, arch-angelorum turma inclyta, nofira diluant jam peccata, prafiando fupernam casU gloriam. Many ftrains of this kind are to be found In the hymns and other publick offices of that Church : and though in the late correaions of their offices, fome of the more fcandalous are left out, yet thofe here cited, with a great many more to the fame purpofe, are ftifl preferved. And the Council of Trent did plainly intend to connive at all thefe things, for they did not reftrain the invo cation of faints, only to be an addrefs to them to pray for us, which is the common difguife with which they ftudy to cover this matter : but by the decree of the Council, the flying to their help and affifiance, as well as to their interceffion, is en couraged : which fhews that the Council would not limit this part of their devotion to a bare Ora pro nobis; that might have feemed flat and low, and fo It might have difcouraged it; there fore they made ufe of words that wifl, go as far as fuperftition can carry them. So that if the invocating them, if the making vows to them, the dedicating themfelves to them ; if the flying to them in all diftreffes, in the fame aas and in the fame words that the Scriptures teach us to fly to God with ; and if all the ftudied honours of proceffions, and other pompous rites towards their images, that are invented to do them honour ; if, I fay, all this does amount to idolatry, then we are fure Roin. i. 25. they are guilty of it ; fince they honour the Creature not only befides (but in the f\fA extent of that phrafe more than) tht Creator. And now let us fee what is the foundation of all thefe de votions, againft which we bring arguments, that, to fpeak mo deftly of them, are certainly fuch that there fhould be matters of great weight in the other fcale to balance them. Nothing is pretended from Scripture, nor from any thing that Is genuine, for above three hundred and fifty years after Chrift. In ^ word, THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 3^3 word, the praaice of the Church, fince the end of the fourth century, and the authority of tradition, of Popes and Coun cils, muft bear this burthen. Thefe are confequences that do not much affea us ; for though we pay great refpea to many great men that flourifhed in the fourth and fifth centuries, yet we cannot compare that age with the three that went before it. Thofe great men give usa fad account of the corruptions of that time, not only among the Laity, but the Clergy ; and their being fo flexible in matters of faith, as they appeared to be In the whole courfe of the Arian controverfy, gives us very juft reafon to fufpea the praaices of that age, in which the proteaion and encouragements that the Church received from the firft Chriftian Emperors, were not Improved to the beft advantage. The jufteft abatement that we can offer for this corruption, which is too manifeft to be either denied or juftified, is this, they were then engaged with the Heathens, and were much fet on bringlng'them over to the Chriftian religion. In order to that it was very natural for them to think of all methods poffible to accommodate Chriftianity to their tafte. It was, perhaps, obferved how far the Apoftles complied with the Jews that they might gain them. St. Paul had faid, that to the Jez,us he became i Cor. ix, a Jew ; and to them that were zvithout Law, that Is, the Gen- ^^' ^' tiles, as_ one without Law ; that hy all means be might gain fome. They might think that if the Jews, who had abufed the light of a revealed religion, who had rejeaed and crucified the Meffias, and perfecuted his foflowers, and had in aft refpeas both their doarine and their morals, were waited on and complied with, in the obfervance of that very Law which was abrogated by the death of Chrift, but was ftill infifted on by them as of perpetual obligation ; and yet that after the Apoftks had made a folemn decifion in the matter, they con tinued to conform themfelves to that Law ; all this might be applied with fome advantages to this matter. The Gentiles had nothing but the light of nature to govern them ; they might feem willing to become Chriftians, but they ftifl defplfed the nakednefs and fimplicity of -that religion. And it js reafonable enough to think that the Emperors" and other great men might in a political view, confidering the vaft ftrength of heathenifm, prefs the Bifliops of thofe times to ufe all imaginable ways to adorn Chriftianity with fuch an exterior form of worfhip as might be moft acceptable to them, and might moft probably bring them Over to it. The Chriftians had long felt the weight of perfecution from them, and were, no doubt, much frightened with the danger of a relapfe in Julian's time. Jtis natural to all men to - " " defire 3^4 AN EXPOSITION OF defire to be fafe, and to weaken the numbers of their impla cable enemies. In that ftate of things we do plainly fee they began to comply in leffer matters : for whereas in the firft ages, the Chriftians were often reproached with this, that they had no temples, altars, facrifices, nor priefts, they changed their diaka In all thofe points, fo we have reafon to believe that this was carried further. The vulgar are more eafily wrought upon in greater points of fpeculation, than in fome fmafl ritual mat ters : becaufe they do not underftand the one, and fo are not much concerned about It: but the other is more fenfible, and lies within their compafs. We find fome In Paleftine kept images in their houfes, as Eufebius tells us ; others began in Spain to light candles by day light, and to paint the walls of their churches : and though thefe things were condemned by the Council of Elliberis ; yet we fee by what St. Jerom has cited out of Vigilantius, that the fpirit of fuperftition did work ftrongly among them : we hear of none that writ againft thofe abufes befides Vigilantius ; yet Jerom tefls us, that many Bifhops were of the fame mind with him, with whom he Is fo angry as to doubt, whether they deferved to be called Bifhops. Moft of thefe abufes had alfo fpecious beginnings, and went on infen fibly : where they made greater fteps, we find an oppofition Epipli. to them. Epiphanlus is very fevere upon the Collyridians, for Heief. 79. (jjgjj. worfhipping the bleffed Virgin. And though they did it by offering up a cake to her, yet if any will read all that he, fays againft that fuperftition, they will clearly fee, that no prayers were then offered up to her, by the orthodox ; and that he rejeas the thought of it with Indignation. But the refpea paid the martyrs, and the opinion that they were ftill hovering about their tombs, might make the cafling to them for their prayers, feem to be like one man's defiring the prayers of other good men ; and when a thing of this kind is once begun. It naturafly goes on. Of afl this we fee a particular account in a difcourfe writ on purpofe on this argument, of Tlieod de Curing the affeaions and inclinations of the Greeks, by Theo- ^ia^'i 8. ^"""f^ .who may be juftly reckoned among the greateft men of de Martyr.' antiquity, and in it he infifts upon this particular of propofing to them the faints and martyrs, inftead of their Gods. And there is no doubt to be made, but that they found the effeas of this compliance ; many Heathens were every day coming ovei;' to the Chriftian religion. And It might then perhaps be in tended to lay thofe afide, when the Heathens were once brought over. To all which this muft be added, that the good men of that time had not the fpirit of prophecy, and could not forefee what progrefs this might make, and to what an excefs it might grow j they THE XXXIX ARTICLES. Z^^S they had nothing of that kind in their view : fo that between. charity and policy, between a defire to bring over multitudes to their faith, and an inclination to fecure themfelves, it is not at all to be wondered at, by any who confiders all the circum ftances of thofe ages, that' thefe corruptions fliould have got into the Church, and much kfs, having once go^ in, they fhould have gone on fo faft, and be carried fo far. Thus I have offered all the confiderations that arife from the ftate of things at that time, to fhew how far we do ftill pre ferve the refpea due to the fathers of thofe ages, even when we confefs that they were men, and that fomething of human nature appeared in this piece of their condua. This can be made no argument for later ages, who having no Heathens among them, are under no temptations to comply with any of the parts of heathenifm, to gain them. And now that the abufe of thefe matters is become fo fcandalous, and has fpread itfelf fo far, how much foever we may excufe thofe ages, in which we difcern the firft beginnings, and as It were the fmall heads of that which has fince overflowed Chriftendom : yet we can by no means bear even with thofe beginnings, which have had fuch difmal effeas ; and therefore we have reduced the worfhip of God to the fimplicity of the Scripture times, and of the firft three centuries : and for the fourth, we reverence it fo much on other accounts, that for the fake of thefe we are unwilling to reflea too much on this. Another confideration urged for the Invocation of Saints, is, tl|at they feeing God, we have reafon to believe that they , fee in him, if not all things, yet at leaft all the concerns of the Church, of which they are ftill parts ; and they being in a m.oft perfea ftate of charity, they muft certainly love the fouls of their brethren here below : fo that if faints on egrth, whofe charity is not yet perfea, do pray for one another here on earth, they In that ftate of perfeaion do certainly pray moft fervently for them. And as we here on earth do defire the prayers of others, it may be as reafonable and much more ufeful to have recourfe to their prayers, who are both in a higher ftate of favour with God, and have a more exalted charity : by which their Interceffions will be both more earneft, and more pre valent. They think alfo that this honour paid the faints, is an honour done to God, who is glorified in them : and fince he is the acknowledged fountain of all, they, think that all the worfhip offered to them ends and terminates in God. They think, as princes are come at by the means of thofe that are in favour with them ; fo we ought to come to God by the inter ceffion of the faints : that all our prayers to them are to be underftood to amount to no more than a defire to them, to In tercede 3l6 AN EXPOSITION OF •tercede for us ; and finally, that" the offering of facrifice is an aa of worfhip, that can Indeed be made only to God, bu,t that all other aas of devotion and refpea, may be given to the faints : and the fublimeft degrees of them may be offered to the bleffed Virgin, as the mother of Chrift In a peculiar rank by herfelf. For they range the order of worfhip into Latria, that is due only to God ; Hyperdulia, that belongs to the bleffed Virgin; and Dulia, that belongs to the other Saints. It were eafy to retort all this, by putting it into the mouth of a Heathen ; and fhewing how well it would fit all thofe parts of worfhip, that they offered to demons or intelligent fpirits, and to deified men among them. This is obvious enough to fuch as have read what the firft apologifts for Chriftianity have writ upon thofe heads. But to take this to pieces; we have no reafon to believe that the faints fee all the concerns of the Church. God can make them perfeaiy happy without this; and if we think, the feeing them Is a neceffary ingredient of perfea happinefs, we muft from thence conclude, that they do alfo fee the whole chain of Providence : otherwife they may feem to be In fome fufpenfe, which, according to our notions,' is not confiftent with perfea happinefs. For if they fee the per fecutions of the Church, and the miferies of Chriftians, with out feeing on to the end, in what all that will iffue, this feems to be a ftop to their entire joy. And if they fee the final iffue, and know what God is to do, then we cannot imagine that they can Intercede againft It, or indeed for it. To us, who know not the hidden counfels of God, prayer is neceffary and com manded : but It feems inconfiftent with a ftate in which all thefe events are known. This which they lay for the founda tion of prayers to faints, is a thing concerning which God has revealed nothing to us ; and in which we can have no certainty. God has commanded us to pray for one another, to join our prayers together, and we have clear warrants for defiring the interceffion of others. It Is a high aa of charity, and a great inftance of the mutual love that ought to be among Chriftians: it is a part of the communion of the faints : and as they do certainly know, that thofe whofe affiftance they deftre, under ftand their wants when they fignify them to them ; fo they are fure that God has commanded this mutual praying one for ano ther. It is a ftrange thing therefore to argue from what God has commanded, and which may have many good effeas, and can have no bad one, to that which he has not commanded; on the contrary, againft which there are many plain intimations In Scripture, and which may have many bad effeas, and we are not fure that it can have any one that is good. Befide, thatthe folemnity ' THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 5^1? folemnity of devotion and prayer, is a thing very different from our defiring the prayers of fuch as are alive : the one is as vifibly an aa of religious worfhip, as the other is not. God has called himfelf a jealous God, that will not give his glory to^^^' ^'"- ^* another. And through the whole Scripture, prayer is repre fented as a main part of the fervice due to him ; and as that In which he takes the moft pleafure. It is a facrifice, and is fo called; and every other facrifice can only be accepted of God, pfal.cx.'i.i. as It is accompanied with the internal aas of prayers and Hof, xiv, 2. praifes ; which are the fpiritual facrifices with which God is well pleafed. The only thing which the Church of Rome re ferves to God, proves to be the facrifice of tbe Mafs : which, Pf.il. Ixv.z. as fhall appear upon another Article, is a facrifice that they have invented ; but which is no where commanded by God ; fo that if this is wefl made out, there will be nothing referved to God to be the aa of their Latria : though it is not to be forgotten, that even the Virgin and the Saints have a fhare in that fa crifice. The excufing this, from the addreffes made to princes by thofe that are in favour with them. Is as bad as the thing itfelf; it gives us a low idea of God, and of Chrift, and of that good nefs and mercy, that is fo often declared to be infinite, as if he were to be addreffed to by thofe about him, and might not be come to without an interpofition : whereas the Scriptures fpeak always of God, as a bearer of prayer, and as ready to accept of and anfwer the prayers of his people : to feek to other affiftances, looks as if the mercies of God were not infinite, or the inter ceffions of Chrift were not of infinite efficacy. This is a cor rupting of the main defign of the Gofpel, which is to draw our affeaions wholly to God, to free us from all low notions of him, and from every thing that may incline us to idolatry or fu perftition. Thus I have gone through all the heads contained in this Ar ticle. It feemed neceffary to explain thefe with a due coplouf nefs ; they being not only points of fpeculation, in which errors are not always fo dangerous, but praaical things ; which enter into the worfhip of God, and that run through it. And certain ly it is the wifl of God, that we fhould preferve it pure, from being corrupted with heathenifh or idolatrous praaices. It feems to be the chief end of revealed Religion to deliver the World from idolatry : a great part of the Mofaical Law did confift of rites of which we can give no other account, that is fo like to be true, as, that they were fences and hedges, thaft Were intended to keep that nation in the greateft oppofition, and at the utmoft diftance poffible from idolatry ; we cannot therefore think that in the Chriftian Religion, in which we are carried 3'^ AN EXPOSITION OF Carried to higher notions of God, and to a more fpiritual way of worfhipping him, that there (hould be fuch an approach to fome of the worft pieces of Gentilifm ; that it feems to be out done by Chriftians, in fome of its moft fcandalous parts : fuch as the worfhip of fubordinate Gods, and of images. Thefe are the chief grounds upon which we feparate from the Roman communion : fince we cannot have fellowfhip with them, un lefs we will join in thofe aas, which we look on as dlreft violations of the Firft and Second Commandment. God Is a jealous Gcd, and therefore we muft rather venture on their wrath, how burning foever it may be, than on his, who is a confumingfire. ARTICLE THE- XXXIX ARTICLES. 3^9 ARTICLE XXIII. Of Miniftering in the Congregation. %t i& not latoful foj anp S^m to talt njjon fiim tge iDaite of public p?eat8mg oi- S^iniUvinQ tge a>a= ti-amcm0 in tfie Cong^egctrion ; tscfoje ge be laVt)= fullp tallcti ant) fent to eyftnte tfte fame, anti tgofe toe ongfit to jutige la^tifuUp callctJ anb ftnt, txigici) be cfiofen anti talleti to tU& Sfojfe t)p {pen, togo galje public autSojitp Qtfjen unto tficm, in tge Congjtga-- tion, to call anti fent) ^iniftti^ into tge 3lo?ti'g"t3line» pa^Q. WE have two particulars fixed in this Article : the firft is againft any that fhall affume to themfelves, without a lawful vocation, the authority of difpenfing the things of God : the fecond is, the defining, in very general words, what it is that makes a lawful call. As to the firft, it will bear no great difficulty : we fee in the Old Difpenfation, that the fa mily, the age, and the qualifixations of thofe that might ferve in the priefthood, are very particularly fet forth. In the New Teftament our Lord called the twelve Apoftks, and fent them out : he alfo fent out upon another occafion feventy Difciples : and before he left his Apoftles, he told them, that as bis Father had fent him, fo he fent them: which feems to Joh. xx.zi, import, that as he was fent into the world with this, among other powers, that he might fend others in his name ; fo he likewife empowered them to do the fame : and when they went planting Churches, as they took fome to be companions of la bour with themfelves, fo they appointed others over the parti cular Churches in which they fixed them : fuch were Epaphras or Epaphrodltus at Coloffe, Timothy at Ephefus, and Titus in Crete. To them the Apoftles gave authority : otherwife it was a needlefs thing to write fo many direaions to them ; in order to their condua. They had the depofitum of the faith, with a Tim. i. which they were chiefly intrufted: concerning the fucceffion '3- in which that was to Ije continued, we have thefe words of St. Paul: The things which thou hafi heard of me, among many 2 Tim. ii.2. witneffes, the fame commit thou to faithful ?nen, who JhaU be iTim.ii.i, able to teach others alfo. To them direaions are given, con- ^'^: cerning all the different parts of their worfhip ; fupplications, j^. prayers, interceffions and giving of thanks : , and alfo the keeping up the decency of the worfhip, and the not fuffering of wo men to teach ; like the women priefts among the Heathens, who I Tim. ¦VI. ao. 2 Tim. , ii. 15- 2. Tim. iv. =. 5- Tit, i. 5>9 '3- 32a AN EXPOSITION OP A R T. who were believed to be filled with a Bacchick fury. To theirt XXIII. are direaed afl the qualifications of fuch as might be made, '~T^~~:^ either Bijhops or Deacons : they were to examine them accord- jTim. HI. .^^^ ^^ thefe, and either to receive or rejea them. All this was' direaed to Timothy, that he might know how he ought to he 's Tim. iii. have himfelf in the houfe of God. He had authority given him IS-. to rebuke and entreat, to honour and to 'cenfure. He was to J iim.y. I, Qj.jjgj. yfh.i^t widows might be received into the number, and 22. ' ' who fhould be refufed. He was to receive accufations againfi Elders, or Prefljyters, according to direaed methods, and was either to cenfure fome, or to lay hands on others, as fhould agree with the rules that were fet him : and in conclufion, he is very folemnly charged, to keep that which was committed.to his trufi. He is required rightly to divide tbe zvord of truth, to preach tbe zvord, to be injlant in feafon and out of fcafon, to re prove, rebuke and exhort, and to do the work of an Evangelifi, and to make full proof of his minifiry. Some of the fame , 9, things are charged upon Titus, whom St. Paul had left in Crete, to fet in order the things that were wanting, and to ordain Elders in every city : feveral of the charaaers by which he was to try them are alfo fet down : he is charged to rebuke the peo-- pie fharply, and to fpeak the things that became found doBrine : he is inftruaed concerning the doarines which he was to teach, and thofe which he was to avoid ; and alfo how to cenfure an Tit. iii. 10. heretick : he was to admonijh him tzvice, and If, that did not prevail, he was to rej^B him, hy fome public cenfure. Thefe rules given to Timothy and Titus do plainly import, that there was to be an authority in the Church, and that no man was to affume this authority to himfelf ; according to that maxim, that feems to be founded on the light of nature, as well as it is fet down in Scripture, as a ftanding rule agreed to Heb. v. 4, Ji^ all times and places : no man taketh this bonour to him felf, but be that is called of God, as was Aaron. Rom. xii. St, Paul, in his Epiftles to the Romans and Corinthians, did *'co/'xii ''^^''^°" "P *'^^ feveral orders and funaions that God had fet in aS. ' ' his Church, and in his Epiftle to the Ephefians, he fhews that Iph. iv. II, thefe were not tranfient but lafting conftitutions; for there, as »z, 13, 16. jjg j-eckons the Apofiles, Prophets, Evangelifis, Pafiors, and Teachers, as the gifts which Chrift at his afcenfion had given to men ; fo he tells the ends for which they were given : fir the perfeBing the faints, (by perfeaing feems to be meant the initiating them by holy myfteries, rather than the compaaing or putting them in joint ; for as that is the proper fignification of the word, fo it being fet firft, the other things that come after it make that the ftria fenfe of perfeBing ; that is, com pleting does not fo well agree with the period) /or tbe work of the Minifiry, (the whole ecclefiaftical or facred fervices)/«r the edifying THE XXXIX iiRTICLES. 3^1 tdifying the body of Chrifi (to which inftruaing, exhorting, comforting, and afl the other parts of preaching may well be reduced), and then the duration of thefe gifts Is defined, TiU we all come in the unity of tbe faith, and of tbe knowledge of tbe Son of God unto a perfeB man, Thisfeems to import the whole ftate of this life. We cannot think that all this belonged only to the Infancy of the Church, and that It was to be laid afide by her when fhe was further advanced : for when we confider that In the be ginnings of Chriftianity there was fo liberal an effufion of the Holy Spirit poured out upon fuch great numbers, who had very extraordinary credentials, miracles, and the gift of tongues, to prove their miffion; it does not feem fo neceffary in fuch a time, or rather for the fake of fuch a time only, to have fettled thofe funaions in the Church, and that the Apoftles fhould have ordained Elders in every Church. Thofe extraordinary gifts ^^^ "'''¦ that were then, without any authoritative fettlcraent, might ^^" have ferved in that time to have procured to men fo qualified all due regards. We have therefore much better reafon to conclude, that this was fettled at that time, chiefly with refpea to the following ages, which as they were to fall off from that zeal and purity that did then reign among them, fo they would need rule and government to maintain the unity of the Church, and the order of facred things. And for that reafon chiefly we may conclude, that the Apoftles fettled order and government in the Church, not fo much for the age in which they themfelves lived, as once to eftablifh and give credit to conftitutions, that they forefaw would be yet more neceflary to -the fucceeding ages. This is confirmed by that which is in the Epiftk to the Hebrews, both concerning thofe who had ruled o-ver them, and ^'^^' '""¦ thofe who were then their guides. St. Peter gives dlredtions ''/p/t v- to the Elders of the Churches to whom he writ, how they ^^ 3. ought both to feed and govern the fiock ; and his charging them not to do it out of covetoufnefs, or with ambition, infinuates that either fome were beginning to do fo, or that, In a fpirit of prophecy, he forefaw that fome might fall under fuch corrup tions. This is hint enough to teach US, that, though fuch things fhould happen, they could furnifh no argument againft the funaion. Abufes ought to be correaed, but upon that pretence the funaion ought not to be taken away. If fromjhe Scriptures we go to the firft writings of Chrif tians, we find that the main fubjea of St, Clemens' and St. Ig natius' Epiftles, is to keep the Churches in order and union, in fubjeaion to their Paftors, and in the due fubordination of afl the memhers of the body one to another. After the firft- age the thing grows too clear to need any further proof. The Y argument 3" AN EXPOSITION OF argument for this from the ftanding rules of order, of decency, of the authority in which the holy things ought to be mlaln- tained, and the care that muft be taken to reprefs vanity and in- folence, and all the extravagancies of light and ungoverned fancies, is very clear. For if every man may affume autho rity to preach and perform holy funaions, it is certain religion muft fall into diforder and under contempt. Hot-headed men of warm fancies and voluble tongues, with very litde know ledge and difcretion, would be apt to thruft themfelves on to the teaching and governing others, if they themfelves were under no government. This would foon make the public fervice of God to be loathed, and break and diffolve the whole body. A few men of livelier thoughts, that begin to (et on foot fuch ways, might for fome time maintain a little credit ; yetfo many others would follow In at that breach which they had once made on publick order, that it could pot be poffible to keep the fociety of Chriftians under any method, if this were once allowed. And therefore thofe who in their heart hate the Chriftian religion, and defire to fee it fall under a more gene ral contempt, know well what they do, when they encourage all thofe enthufiafts that deftroy order ; hoping, by the credit which their outward appearances may give them, to compafs that which the others know themfelves to be too obnoxious to hope that they can ever have credit enough to perfuade the world to. Whereas thofe poor deluded men do not fee what properties the others make of them. The morals of infidels fhew that they hate all religions equally, or with this differ ence, that the ftriaer any are, they muft hate them the more; the root of their quarrel being at all religion and virtue. And it is certain, as it is that which thofe who drive it on fee well, and therefore they drive it on, that if once the publick order and national conftitution of a Church Is diffolved, the ftrength and pov/er, as well as the order and beauty, of all religion will foon go after it ; for, humanly fpeaking, it cannot fubfift without it. I come In the next place to confider the fecond part of this Article, which is the definition here given of thofe that are lawfully called and fent : this is put in very general words, far from that magifterial ftiffnefs in which fome have taken up on them to diaate in this matter. The Article does not re folve this into any particular conftitution, but leaves the matter open and at large for fuch accidents as had happened, and fuch as might ftifl happen. They who drew it had the ftate of the feveral Churches before their eyes that had been differeptiy re formed ; and although their own had been lefs forced to go out of the beaten path than any other, yet they knew that all things among THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 2^3 among themfelves had not gone according to thofe rules that ought to be facred in regular times : neceffity has no law, and is a law to itfelf. This is the difference between thofe things that are the means of falvation, and the precepts that are only neceffary, becaufe they are commanded. Thofe things which are the means, fuch as faith, repentance, and new obedience, are indifpenfable ; they oblige all men, and at all times alike ; be caufe they have a natural influence on us, to make us fit and capable fubjeas of the mercy of God : but fuCh things as are neceffary only by virtue of a command of God, and not by vir tue of any real efficiency which they have to reform our na tures, do indeed oblige us to feek for them, and to ufe all our endeavours to have them. But as they of themfelves are not neceflary in the fame order with the firft, fo much lefs are all thofe methods neceflary in which we may come at the regular ufe of them. This diftinaion fhall be more fufly enlarged on when the Sacraments are treated of. But to the matter in hand. That which is fimply neceffary as a means to preferve the order and union of the body of Chriftians, and to maintain the reverence due to holy things. Is, that no man enter upon any part of the holy miniftry, without he be chofen and called to it by fuch as have an authority fo to do; that, I fay, is fixed by the Article : but men are left more at liberty as to their thoughts concerning the fubjea of this lawful au thority. That which we believe to be lawful authority. Is that rule which the body of the Paftors, or Bifhops and Clergy of a Church, fhall fettie, being met in a body under the due refpea to the powers that God Ihall fet over them : rules thus made, being in nothing contrary to the word of God, and duly exe cuted by the particular perfons to whom that care belongs, are certainly the lawful authority. Thofe are the Paftors of the Church, to whom the care and watching over the fouls of the people Is committed ; and the Prince, or fupreme power, com prehends virtually the whole body of the people in him : fince, according to the conftitution of the civil government, the wifls of the people are underftood to be concluded by the fu preme, and fuch as are the fubjea of the legiflative authority. When a Church is in a ftate of perfecution under thofe who have the civil authority over her, then the people, who receive the faith, and give both proteaion and encouragement to thofe that labour over them, are to be confidered as the body that is governed by them. The natural effea of fuch a ftate of things. Is to fatisfy the people In afl that is done, to carry along their confent with it, and to confult much with them in it. y 2 This 3H AN EXPOSITION OP This does not only arife out of a neceffary regard to their pre^ fent circumftances, but from the ruks given in the Gofpel, of not ruling as the kings of the feveral nations did ; nor lording it, or carrying it with a high authority over God's heritage (which may be alfo rendered over their feveral lots or portions.) But when the Church is under the proteaion of a Chriftian magiftrate, then he comes to be In the ftead of the whole peo ple; for they are concluded in and by him; he gives the pro teaion and encoura2;ement, and therefore great regard is due to him In the exercife of his lawful authority, in which he has a great fhare, as fhall be explained in its proper place. Here then we think this authority i^ rightiy lodged, and fet on Its proper bafis. And in this we are confirmed, becaufe, by the decrees of the firft General Councils, the concerns of every province were to be fettled in the province itfelf: and it fo continued tifl the ufurpations of the papacy broke In every where, and difordered this conftitution. Through the whole Roman communion the chief jurifdiaion Is now in the Pope ; only Princes have laid checks upon the extent of it ; and by appeals the fecular court takes cognizance of all that is done, either hy the Pope or the Clergy. This we are fure is the effea of ufurpation and ty ranny : yet fince this authority Is in faa fo fettled, we do not pretend to annul the aas of that power, nor the miffions or orders given in that Church ; becaufe there Is among them an order infaB, though not as it ought to be in right. On the other hand, when the body of the Clergy comes to be fo cor rupted that nothing can be trufted to the regular decifions of any fynod or meeting, called according to their conftitution, then if^ the Prince fhall feka a peculiar number, and commit to their care the examining and reforming both of doarine and worfliip, and fhall give the legal fanaion to what they fhall offer to him ; we muft confefs that fuch a method as this runs contrary to the eftabliflied rules, arid that therefore it ought to be very feldom put in praaice ; and never, except vvhen the greatnefs of the occafion will balance this irregula rity that is in it. But ftifl here is an authority both infaB and right; for if the Magiftrate has a power to make laws in facred matters, he may order thofe to be prepared, by whom, and as he pleafes. Finally, if a company of Chriftians find the public worfliip where they live to be fo defiled that they cannot with a good confcience join in it, and if they do not know of any place to which they can convenlentiy go, where they may worfliip God purely and in a regular way; if, I fay, fiich a body finding lome that have been ordained, though to the lower funaions, fliould THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 325 fliould fubmit itfelf intirely to their condua, or finding none of thofe, fhould by a common confent defire fome of their own number to minifter to them in holy things, and fliould upon that beginning grow up to a regulated conftitution, though we are very fure that this Is quite out of all rule, and could not be done without a very great fin, unlefs the neceffity were great and apparent ; yet if the neceffity is real and not feigned, this is not condemned or annulled by the Article ; for when this grows to a conftitution, and when it was begun by the confent of a body, who are fuppofed to have an authority in fuch an extraordinary cafe, whatever fome hotter fpirits have thought of this fince that time ; yet we are very lure, that not only thofe who penned the Articles, but the body of this Church for above half an age after, did, notwithftanding thofe irregula rities, acknowledge the foreign Churches fo conftituted to be true Churches as to all the effentials of a Church, though they had been at firft irregularly formed, and continued ftill to be in an imperfea ftate. And therefore the general words in which this part of the Article is framed, feem to have been defigned on purpofe not to exclude them. Here it is to be confidered, that the High Prieft among the Jews was the chief perfon in that difpenfation; not only the chief in rule, but he that was by the Divine appointment to officiate in the chief aa of their religion, the yearly expiation for the fins of the whole nation ; which was a folemn renewing their covenant with God, and by which atonement was made for the fins of that people. Here It may be very reafonably fuggefted, that fince none befides the High-Prieft might make this atonement, then no atonement was made, if any other befides the High-Prieft fliould lb officiate. To this it is to be added, that God had by an exprefs law fixed the high-prieft- hood in the eldeft of Aaron's family ; and that therefore, though that being a theocracy, any prophets empowered of God might have transferred this office from one perfon or branch of that family to another ; yet without fuch an authority no other perfon might make any fuch change. But after all this, not to mention the Maccabees, and all their fucceffors of the Afmonean family, as Herod had begun to change the high-priefthood at pleafure; fo the Romans, not only continued to do this, but in a moft mercenary manner they fet this facred funaion to fale. Here were as great nullities In the High-Priefts that were In our Saviour's time, as can be well Imagined to be: for the Jews keeping their genealogies fo exaa as they did, It could not but be well known in whom the right of this office refted ; and they all knew that he who had it, purchafed it, yet thefe were in faa High-Priefts; and fince the people could have no other, th2 Y 3 atone- 3^6 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. atonement was ftfll performed by their miniftry. Our Saviour XXiil. owned Calphas the facrileglous and ufurping High-Prieft, and ' — •-; — ' a.s fuch he prophefied. This fhews that where the neceffity was jjhnxi. 51. ^g^j ^^j unavoidable, the Jews were bound to think that God -3. " ' did, in confideration of that, difpenfe with his own precept. This may be a juft inducement for us to believe, that whenfo ever God by his providence brings Chriftians under a vifible neceffity of being either without afl order and joint worfhip, or of joining in an unlawful and defiled worfhip, or finafly, of breaking through rules and methods in order to the being united in worfhip and government ; that of thefe three, of which one muft be chofen, the laft is the leaft evil, and has the feweft in- conveniencies hanging upon it, and that therefore it may be chofen. Our Reformers had alfo in view two famous Inftances in church-hiftory of laymen that had preached and converted nations to the faith. It is true, they came, as they ought to have done, to be regularly ordained, and were fent to fuch as had authority fo to do. So Frumentius preached to the Indians, and was afterwards made a Prieft and a Bifhop by Athana fius, The King of the Iberians, before he was baptized him felf, did convert his fubjeas ; and, as fays the hiftorian, he be came the Apoftle of his country before he himfelf was initiated. It is Indeed added, that he fent an embaffy to Conftantlne the Emperor, defiring him that he would fend Priefts for the fur ther eftablifhment of the faith there, Thefe were regular praaices ; but if It ftiould happen that princes or ftates fhould take up fuch a jealoufy of their own authority, and fhould apprehend that the fuffering their fubjefts to go elfewhere for regular ordinations, might bring them under fome dependance on thofe that had ordained them, and give them fuch influence over them, that the Prince of fuch a neigh bouring and regular Church fhould by fuch ordinations have fo many creatures, fpies, or inftruments in their own domini ons ; and if upon other political reafons they had juft caufe of being jealous of that, and fhould thereupon hinder any fuch thing in that cafe, neither our Reformers, nor their fucceffors for near eighty years after thofe Articles were publifhed, did ever queftion the conftitution of fuch Churches. We have reafon to believe that none ought to baptize but perfons lawfully ordained ; yet fince there has been a^praaice fo univerfally fpread over the Chriftian Church, of allowing the baptifm not only of laicks, but of women, to be lawful, though we think that this is direaiy contrary to the rules given by the Apoftles ; yet fince this has been in fea fo generally received and pradtifed, v.'e do not annul fuch baptifms, nor rebaptize perfons THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 3^7 perfons fo baptized ; though we know that the original of this bad praaice was from an opinion of the indifpenfable neceffity of baptifm to falvation. Yet fince it has been fo generally re ceived, we have that regard to fuch a common praaice, as not (o annul it, though we condemn it. And thus what thought foever private men, as they are divines, may have of thofe irre gular fteps, the Article of the Church is conceived in fuch large and general words, that no man, by fubfcribing it, is bound up from freer and more comprehenfive thoughts. Y 4 ARTICLE 328 AN EXPOSITION OF ARTICLE XXIV. Of fpeaking in the Congregation in fuch a Tongue as the People underftandeth. 5t i0 a tBing plainlp repugnant to tSct^ojti of ©otr, anH tSe Culfom of tfic ^nmitiUc (JCfiiircfi, to fiatie ?3ubUcfe ^?apcf in tfie CSurcg, o? to miniftcc tU giacramcntg in a tongue not untJEtttantieti of tSe %^' CO pic. This Article, though upon the matter very near the fame, yet was worded much lefs pofitively in thofe at firft fet forth by King Edward, Jt i« moff fit, an& molf agreeable to tfie Mo?ti of (Dob, tijat notljing be rea& oj rEgcarfeii in tfie (Congregar tion in a "EonguE not fenoton unto tge |3coplE ; itifticf) &>t. Paul gatj) fojbiJjDen to be bonf, unlefsf fame be pjcfmt to intcrpretf In King Edward's Articles they took in preaching v/ith prayer, but in the prefent Article this is reftrained to prayer. The former only affirms the ufe of a known tongue, to be moft fit and agreeable to the word of God ; the latter denies the worfhip in an unknown tongue to be lawful, and affirms it to be repugnant to the Word of God; to which it adds, and the cufiom of the Primitive Church. THIS Article feems to be founded on the law of nature. The worfliip of God is a chain of aas by which we acknowledge God's attributes, rejoice in his goodnefs, and lay claim to his mercies. In all which the more we raife out thoughts, the more ferloufnefs, earneftnefs, and affeaion that animates our mind, fo much the more acceptably do we ferve John iv. God, who is z fpirit, and will be worfhipped in fpirit and in ^3) M- truth. All the words ufed in devotion are intended to raife In us the thoughts that naturally belong to fuch words. And the various aas, which are as it were the breaks in the fervice, are intended as refts to our minds, to keep us the longer without wearinefs and wandering In thofe exercifes. One great end of continuance in worfhip is, that, by the frequent repeating and often going over of the fame things, they may come to be deeply THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 329 deeply rooted In our thoughts. The chief effea that the wor fhip of God has by its own efficiency, is the Infixing thofe things, about which the branches of It are employed, the deeper on our minds ; upon which God gives his bleffing as we grow to be pre pared for It, or capable of it. Now all this is loft, if the wor fhip of God is a thread of fuch founds, as makes the perfon who officiates, a barbarian to the reft. They have nothing but noife and fliew to amufe them, which how much foever they may ftrike upon and entertain the fenfes, yet they cannot affea the heart, nor excite the mind : fo that the natural effea of fuch a way of worfhip Is to make religion a pageantry, and the public fervice of God an opera. If from plain fenfe, and the natural confequences of things, we carry on this argument to the Scriptures, we find the whole praaice of the Old Teftament, was to worfhip God, not only in a tongue that was underftood, for it may be faid there was no occafion then to ufe any other ; but that the expreffions ufed in the prayers and pfalms that we find in the Old Teftament, fhew they were intended to affea thofe who were to ufe them ; and if that is acknowledged, then it will clearly follow, that all ought to underftand them ; for who can be affeaed with that which he does not underftand ? So this fhews that the end of publick de votion, is the exciting and inflaming thofe who bear a fhare in it. When Ezra and Nehemiah were inftruaing the people out Neh.vili.s. of the Law, they took care to have It read difiinBly, one giving Neh. ix. 5. the fenfe of it. After they were long in captivity, though it had not worn out quite the knowledge of the Hebrew, yet the Chaldee was more familiar to them, fo a paraphrafe was made of the Hebrew into that language, though it was rather a different dlafea than another language; and by the forms of their prayers, we fee that one cried with a loud voice, Stand up, and blefs tbe Lord your God for ever and ever; which fhews, that all did underftand the fervice. When the Syriac tongue became more familiar to them, the Jews had their prayers in Syriac; and they did read the Law in their fynagogues in Greek, when that language was more familiar to them ; when they read the Law in Greek, we have reafon to believe that they prayed likewife in it. In the New Teftament, we fee the gift of tongues was granted to enable the Apoftles, and others, to go every where preaching the Gofpel, and performing holy funaions in fuch a language as might be underftood ; the world was amazed when every man heard them fpeak in his own language. One of the general ruks given by St. Paul with relation to the worfhip of God, is, Let every thing be done to edification. Since then the fpeaking either to God in the name of the peo ple, or to the people in the name of God, in an unknown tpngue, can edify no perfon ; then by this rule, it is to be un derftood 33*^ AN EXPOSITION OF derftood to be forbidden. When fome who had the gift of tongues did indifcreetly fhew It In the Church of Corinth, St. Paul was fo offended at that, and thought it would appear to the worid fo undecent, as well as unfruitful, that he beftows a whole chapter upon It ; and though a great part of the difcourfe is againft the pretending to teach the people In an unknown tongue, which yet is not near fo bad as the reading the word of God to them in a tongue not underftood by them, it being much more important that the people fhould underftand the words of the living God than the expofitions of men ; yet there are many paflages in that chapter that belong to prayer : the reafon of the thing is common to both, fince, unlefs the words were underftood, they who uttered them fpoke only to the air ; and how fhould It be known, what was fpoken ? For if the meaning of the voice was not known, they would be bar- 1 Cor. xiv. barians to one another. As to prayer, he fays. If I pray in an **¦ unknown tongue, my fpirit (that is, the infpiration or gift that is in me) prayeth ; but my underfianding (that is, my rational Verfe 15. powers) is unfruitful; and therefore he concludes that he will both pray and give thanks with the fpirit, and with the under fianding alfo ; he will do It in fuch a manner that the infpiration with which he was aaed and his rational powers fhould join together. The reafon given for this feems evident enough to Verfe 16, determine the whole matter: Elfe when thou fhalt blefs with the fpirit, bow fhall he that occupieth ihe room of ihe unlearned fay Amen at thy giving of thanks, feeing he underftandeth not what thou fay efi ? For thou verily givefi thanks well, but the other is not edified. In which words it is plain that the people, even the moft unlearned among them, were to join in the prayers and praifes, and to teftlfythat by faying Amen at the conclufion of them : and in order to their doing this as became reafonable creatures, it was neceffary that they fhould underftand what that was which they were to confirm by their Amen. It is alfo evident that St, Paul judged, that the people ought to be edified by all that was faid In the Church ; and fo he fays a litde after Verfe 26, this. Let aU things be done to edifying. After fuch plain autho rities from Scripture, fupporting that Which feems to be founded on the light of nature, we need go no further to prove that which is mainly defigned by this Article. The cuftom of the primitive Church Is no lefs clear in this point. As the Chriftian religion was fpread to different na tions, fo they all worfhipped God in their own tongue. The Syriac, the Greek, and the Latin, were indeed of that extent, that we have no particular hiftory of any Churches that lay be yond the compafs of thofe languages ; but there was the fame reafon for putting the worfhip of God in other languages, that there was for thefe : that which is drawn from the three languages, THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 33' languages, in which the titie on our Saviour's crofs vras writ- art, ten, is too trifling a thing to deferve an aiffwer : as if a hu- XXIV. mour of Pilate's were to be confidered as a prophetical war- ' — '~~' rant ; what he did being only defigned to make that titie to be underftood by all who were then at Jerufalem. There are Cont. Gel- very large paffages both in Origen and St. Bafil, which men- ^^"^ '• ^• tion every tongue's praifing of God ; and that the Gofpel being £^^6*3". ad fpread to many nations, he was in every nation praifed In the Neocet language of that nation. This continued fo long to be the praaice even of the Latin Church, that in the ninth century, when the Slavons were converted. It was confidered at Rome Johan. 8. by Pope John VIII. in what language they fhould be allowed f/' *.y* to worfhip God. And as is pretended, a voice was heard, Let (onug. every tongue confefs to God ; upon which that Pope wrote both to the Prince, and to the Bifhop gf the Slavons, allowing them to- have their public fervice in tiieir own tongue. But In the other parts of the Weftern Church, the Latin tongue continued to be fo univerfafly underftood by almoft all forts of people, till the tenth or eleventh century, that there was no occafion for changing it; and by that time the Clergy were affeaing to keep the people in ignorance, and in a blind dependance upon themfelves ; and fo were willing to make them think that the whole bufinefs of reconciling the people to God lay upon them, and that they were to do it for them. A great part of the fervice of the mafs was faid fo low, that even they who un derftood fome Latin could not be the better for it, in an age in which there was no printing, and fo few copies were to be had of the public offices. The Scriptures were likewife kept from the people, and the fervice of God was filled with many rites, in all which the Clergy feemed to defign to make the people believe that thefe were facred charms, of which they only had the fecret. So that all the edification which was to be had in the public worfhip was turned to pomp and fhew, for the di- verfion and entertainment of the fpeaators. In defence of this worfhip in an unknown tongue, the main argument that is brought, is the authority and infallibility of the Church which has appointed it ; and fince fhe ought to be fuppofed not to have erred, therefore this muft be believed to Con. Trid. be lawful. We are not much moved with this, efpecially with ^^^' the authority of the later ages ; fo the other arguments muft be confidered, which indeed can fcarce be cafled arguments. The modern tongues change fo faft, that they fay, If the wor fhip were in them, it muft either be often changed, or the phrafes would grow old and found harfhly. A few alterations once in an age will fet this matter right; befides, that the ufe cf fuch forms does fix a language, at leaft as to thofe phrafes that are ufed in it, which grow to be fo familiar to our ears by conftant 33* AN EXPOSITION OF conftant ufe, that they do not fo eafily wear out. It is above eighty years fince the prefent tranflation of the Bible was made, and above one hundred and forty fince our Liturgy was com piled, and yet we perceive no uncouthnefs in the phrafes. The fimplicity in which fuch forms muft be drawn, makes them not fo fubjea to alteration as other compofures of rhetoric or poetry ; but can it be thought any inconveniency now and then to alter a littie the words or phrafes of our fervice .? Much lefs, can that be thought of weight enough to balance the vafter prejudice of keeping whole nations In ignorance, and of ex- tinguifhlng devotion by entertaining It with a form of worfhip that is not underftood ? Nor can this be avoided by faying that the people are fur nifhed with forms in their own language, into which the greateft part of the public o^ces are tranflated : for as this is not done but fince the Reformation began, and in thofe nations only where the fcandal that is given by an unknown language^ might have, as they apprehend, ill effeas ; fo it is only an ar tifice to keep thofe ftill in their communion, whom fuch a grofs praaice, if not thus difguifed, might otherwife drive from them. But ftill the publick worfhip has no edification in It; nor can thofe who do not underftand it fay Amen, according to St. Paul. Finally, they urge the communion of Saints, in order to which tiiey think it is neceffary that Priefts, wherefo ever they go, may be able to officiate, which they cannot do if every nation worfhips God in its own language. And this was indeed very neceffary in thofe ages in which the See of Rome did by provifions, and the other inventions of the Ca- nonlfts, difpofe of the beft benefices to their own creatures and fervants. That trade would have been fpoiled, if ftrangers might not have been admitted till they had learned the language of the country ; and thus, inftead of taking care of the people that ought to be edified by the public worfliip, provifion was made at their coft for fuch vagrant Priefts as have been in all ages the fcandals of the Church, and the reproaches of Reli' gion. ARTICLE THE XXXIX ARTICLES. SSj ARTICLE XXV. Of the Sacraments. facraments ojtsaineb bp eCBjia be not onlp Babgejs 0? ^oRenss of Cfijiffian i|)en'0 pjofefRon, but ratler tBep be certain fure TOitneffeg, anb effeaual §)ign& of CDjace, anti (iDob'sS Mlill totoari30 m, fap tijt i»gici) fie Ootfi toojU inbifiblp in u0, and tH3tfi not onlp quicfeen, but alfo ftvengtfien ana confirm our ifaitlj in fiim. •Stfiere arc Ctoo &>acrament0 ortsaincti of Cfijitt our 3L0J& in tfie CDofpel ; tfiat i0 to fap, 25aptifm, anil tfie Supper of tlje Ho^G. 'SCfiofc fibe commonlp calleb facraments, tfiat is to fap, Confirmation, penance, £)ji3ers, ^atrimonp, ant) extreme tClnaion, are not to be counteti fo? §>a- craments of tfie CDofpel ; being fucfi as fiabe gjotoit jBartlp of tfie corrupt foUotoing of tfie apottles, partlp are §>tates of llife allotoeti in tfie S>crip» tures, but pet fiabe not lifee jRatuye of g>acram£nts8 toitfi ]l5apttfm, and tfie ILojb'S §)upper ; fo? tfiat tfiep fiabe not anp bifible §>ign oj Ceremonp ojbaineb of CDoti. %tt facraments toeie not orbaineb of Cfijiff to ht gascb upon, oj to be carrieb about, but tfiat Vce ftoulb bulp ufe tficm. 5lnb in futfi onlp tnfio too?* tfiilp reccibe tfie fame tfiep fiabe a t»fiolefome CDffcit 0? ;©peration ; but tfiep tfiat receibe tfiem nntoo?* tfiilp, purcfiafe to tfiemfelbcs ^Damnation, as ^t. Paul faitfit THERE is a great diverfity between the form of this Ar- ART. tick, as it is now fettied, and that publifhed by King xxv. Edward, which begun in thefe words : Our Lord Jefus Chrift *" " ^ gathered his people into a fociety by Sacra?nents, very few in number, mofi eafily to be kept, and of mofi excellent fi.gnification ; that is to fay, Baptifm, and the Supper of the Lord. There is nothing in that edition inftead of the paragraph concerning the other five pretended Sacraments. Next comes the paragraph which is here the laft, only with the addition pf thefe words, after operation : Not as fome fay, ex opere operato, which terms, as they arefirange and utterly unknozvn to tbe Holy Scripture, Jo 334^ AN EXPOSITION OF fo do they yield a fenfe which favoureth of little piety, but of much fuperfiition: and in conclufion, the paragraph comes with which the Article does now begin ; fo that in afl this diverfity there is no real difference : for the virtue of the Sacraments being put in the worthy receiving, excludes the doarine of opus operatum, as formally as if it had exprefsly been con demned ; and the naming the two Sacraments inftituted by Chrift, is upon the matter the rejeaing of afl the reft. It was moft natural to begin this Article with a defcription of Sacraments in general. I'his difference is to be put between Sacraments and other ritual aaions ; that whereas other rites are badges and diftinaions by which the Chriftians are known, a Sacrament is more than a bare matter of form ; and as in the Old Teftament, circumcifion and propitiatory facrifices were things of a different nature and order from all the other ritual precepts concerning the cleanfings, the diftinaions of days, places, and meats. Thefe were indeed precepts given them of God, but they were not federal aas of renewing the covenant, or reconciling themfelves to God. By circumcifion they re ceived the feal of the covenant, and were brought under the obligation of the whole law : they were by it made debtors to it, and when by their fins they had provoked God's wrath, they were reconciled to him by their facrifices, with which atone ment was made, and fo their fins were forgiven them. The nature and end of thofe was to be federal aits, in the offering of which the Jews kept to their part of the covenant, and In the accepting of which God maintained it on his part ; fo we fee a plain difference between thefe and a mere rite, which, though commanded, yet muft pafs only for the badge of a profeffion, as the doing of it is an a6t of obedience to a divine law. Now, in the New Difpenfation, though our Saviour has eafed us of that law of ordinances, that grievous yoke, and thofe beggarly elements which were laid upon the Jews ; yet, fince we are ftill in the body fubjea to our fenfes, and to fenfible things, he has appointed fome federal aaions, to be both the vifible ftipula tions and profeffions of our Chriftianity, and the conveyances to us of the bleffings of the Gofpel. There are two extremes to be avoided in this matter. The one is of the Church of Rome, that teaches, that as fome Sa craments imprint a charaaer upon the foul, which they define to be a phyfical quality, that Is, fupernatural and fpiritual, fo they do all carry along with them fuch a divine virtue, that by the very receiving them (the opus operatum) it Is conveyed to the fouls of thofe to whom they are applied ; unlefs they them felves put a bar in the way of it by fome mortal fin. In con fequence of this, they reckon that by the Sacraments given to a man in his agonies, though he is very near paft all fenfe, and fo THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 335 fo cannot join any lively aas of his mind with the Sacraments, yet he is juftified ; not to mention the common praaice of giving extreme unaion in the laft agony, when no appearance of any fenfe is left. This we reckon a doarine that is not only without all foundation in Scripture, but that tends to de ftroy afl religion, and to make men live on fecurely in fin, trufting to this, that the Sacraments may be given them when they die. The conditions of fhe New Covenant are, repent ance, faith, and obedience ; and we look on this as the cor rupting the vitals of this religion, when any fuch means are propofed, by which the main defign of the Gofpel Is quite overthrown. The bufinefs of a charaaer is an unintelligible notion. We acknowledge baptifm is not to be repeated, but that is not by virtue of a charaaer imprinted in it, but becaufe it being a dedication of the perfon to God in the Chriftian religion, what is once fo done, is to be underftood to con tinue ftill in that ftate, till fuch a perfon falls into an open apoftafy. In cafe of the repentance of fuch a perfon, we finding that the primitive Church did reconcile, but not rebap tize apoftates, do imitate that their praaice; but not becaufe of this late and unexplicabk notion of a charaaer. We look on all facramental aaions as acceptable to God only with re gard to the temper and the inward aas of the perfon to whom they are applied, and cannot confider them as medicines or charms, which work by a virtue of their own, whether the perfon to whom they are applied co-operates with them or not. Baptifm is faid by St. Peter to fave us, not as It is an aaion that i pet. i wafhes us ; not the putting away the filth of the fiefh, but the anfwer ^J- of a good confcience towards God. And therefore baptifm without this pi-ofeffion Is no baptifm, but feems to be ufed as a charm ; unlefs it is faid that this anfwer or profeffion is implied, when foever baptifm is defired. When a perfon of age defires bap tifm, he muft make thofe anfwers and fponfions, otherwife he is not truly baptized ; and though his outward making of them being afl that can fall under human cognizance, he who does that muft be held to be truly baptized, and all the outward pri vileges of a baptized perfon muft belong to him ; yet as to the effedt of baptifm on the foul of him that is baptized, without doubt that depends upon the fincerity of the profeffions and vows made by him. The wflls of infants are by the law of nature and nations in their parents, and are transferred by them to their fureties ; the fponfions that are made on their behalf are confidered as made by themfelves ; but there the outw^.'J aa is fufficient ; for the inward aas of one perfon cannot be fuppofed neceflary to give the Sacrament its virtue in another. In the Eucharift, by our fhewing forth our Lord's death till he comes, we are admitted to the communion of his body and ' Cor. blood: "'¦ 33^ ' AN EXPOSITION OF hlood : to a fhare in partnerfhip with other Chriftians in thtf effeas and merits of his death. But the unworthy receiver Is guilty of his body and blood, and brings thereby down judgments upon himfelf; fo that to fancy a virtue In Sacraments that works on the perfon to whom they are applied, without any inward aas accompanying it, and upon his being only paffive, Is a doarine 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 difpofition of mind that he knows us to be In when we go about it. Our prayers and facrifices are fo 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 effeaual to them when they are next to a ftate of paf- fivity, not capable of any fenfible thoughts of their own, Is a fure way to raife the credit of the Clergy, and of the Sacra ment ; but at the fame time it will moft certainly difpofe men to live In fin, hoping that a few rites, which may be eafily pro cured at their death, will clear all at laft. And thus we rejea, not without great zeal againft the fatal effeas of this error, all that is faid of the opus operatum ; the very doing of the Sacra ment: we think it looks more like the incantations of Heathen ifm, than the purity and fimplicity of the Chriftian religion. But the other extreme that we likewife avoid, is that of fink ing the Sacraments fo low, as to be mere rites and ceremo nies. St, Peter fays, Baptifm faves us. St Paul calls It, the Tif. iii. 5. laver of regeneration ; to which he joins tbe renezving of the ^larkxv]. Holy Ghofi, Our Szviour faith. He that beUeveth, and is bap'^ John iii, tized, flail be faved; and except ye are born again of water and 2> S- of the fpirit, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of God, Thefe words have a fenfe and fignification that rifes far above a mere ceremony done to keep up order, and to maintain a fettied form. The phrafe communion of the body and blood of Chrifi, is above the nature of an annlverfary or memorial feaft. This opinion we think is very unfultable to thofe high expreffions ; and we do not doubt but that Chrift, who inftituted thofe Sa craments, does ftill accompany them with a particular prefence in them, and a bleffing upon them ; fo that we coming to them with minds wefl prepared, with pure affeaions and holy refolu tions, do certainly receive in and with them particular largeffes of the favour and bounty of God. They are not bare and naked remembrances and tokens ; but are aauated and ani mated by a divine bleffing that attends upon them. This is what we believe on this head, and thefe are the grounds upon which we found It. A Sacrament is an inftitution of Chrift, in which fome ma terial thing Is fanaified by the ufe of fome form or words, in and by which federal aas of this religion do pafs on both fides i THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 337 fides ; on ours by ftipulations, profeffions, or vows ; and on ART. God's by his fecret affiftances : by thefe we are alfo united to ^^V. the body of Chrift, which is the Church. It muft be inftituted ' — '' ^ by Chrift, for though ritual matters that are only the expref fions of our duty, may be appointed by the Church ; yet fe deral aas, to which a conveyance of Divine grace is tied, can only be inftituted by him who Is the Author and Mediator of this New Covenant, and who lays down the rules or con ditions of it, and derives the bleffings of it by what methods and in what channels he thinks fit. Whatfoever his Apoftles fettied, was by authority and commiffion from him; therefore it is not to be denied, but that if they had appointed any facra mental aaion, that muft be reckoned to be of the fame au thority, and is to be efteemed Chrift's inftitution, as much as if he himfelf, when on earth, had appointed It. Matter is of the effence of a Sacrament ; for words with out fome material thing, to which they belong, may be of the nature of prayers or vows, but they cannot be Sacraments : receiving a Sacrament is on our part our faith plighted to God in the ufe of fome material fubftance or other : for In this con fifts the difference between Sacraments and other aas of worfhip. The latter are only aas of the mind declared by words or gefture, whereas Sacraments are the application of a material fign, joined with aas of the mind, words, and geftures. With the matter there muft be a form, that is, fuch words joined with it as do appropriate the matter to fuch an ufe, and feparate it from all other ufes, at leaft in the aa of the Sacrament. For in any piece of matter alone, there cannot be a proper fultablenefs to fuch an end, as feems to be defigned by Sacraments, and therefore a form muft determine and apply it ; and it is highly fuitable to the nature of things, to believe that our Saviour, who has Inftituted the Sacrament, has alfo either inftituted the form of It, or given us fuch hints as to lead us very near it. The end of Sacraments is double j the one Is by a folemn federal aaion, both to unite us to Chrift, and alfo to derive a fecret bleffing from him to us ; and the other is to join and unite us by this publick profeffion, and the joint partaking of it, with his body, which is the Church. This is, in general, an account of a Sacrament. This, it is true, is none of thofe words that are made ufe of in Scripture, fo that it has no determined fignification given to it in the word of God ; yet it was very early applied by Pliny Lib. x. . to tiiofe vows by which the Chriftians tied themfelves to their Ep- 97- religion, taken from the oaths by which the foldiery among the Romans were fworn to their colours or officers ; and from that time this term has been ufed in a fenfe confecrated Z ^t© 33^ AN EXPOSITION OF to the federal rites of religion. Yet if any v/fll dlfpote about words, we know how much St, Paul condemns all thofe cu rious and vain queftions, which have in them the fubtilties and oppofitions of fcience falfely fo called. If any will call every rite ufed In holy things, a Sacrament, we enter into no fuch contentions. The rites therefore that we underftand when we fpeak of Sacraments, are the conftant federal rites of Chriftians, which are accompanied by a divine grace and benediaion, being in ftituted by Chrift to unite us to him, and to his Church ; and of fuch we own that there are two, Baptifm, and the Supper ef our Lord. In Baptifm there is matter, water; there is a .¦vijtrh. form, the perfon dipped or wafhed, with words, 7 baptize xicviu. 19. ^1^^^ -^ ^j^^ name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Gbojl. There is an Inftitution, Go preach and baptize; there I Pet. iii. is a federal fponfion, The anfwer of a good confcience ; there is ?f • .a bleffing conveyed with it, Baptifm faves us ; there is one Bap- ,g I- ' tifm, as there is one body and one fpirit; zve are all baptized into one body. So that here all the conftituent and neceffary parts of a Sacrament are found in Baptifm. In the Lord's Supper, there Is bread and zvine for the matter. The giving it to be eat and drunk, with the words that our Saviour ufed in the 1 Cor, xi. firft fupper, are the form : Do this in remembrance of me, is '3) 'J ^7- the Inftitution. Te fhew forth the Lord's death tifl he come again, is the declaration of the federal aa of our part : it is alfo the communion of the body, and of tbe blood of Chrift, that Is, the conveyance of the bleffings of our partnerfhip in the ^1 Cnr. », eftbas of the death of Chrift. And we being many, are one ' ' '?¦ bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread; this fhews the union of the Church in this Sacrament. Here then we have In thefe two Sacraments, both matter, form, inftitution, federal aas, bleffings conveyed, and the union of the body in them. All the charaaers which belong to a Sa crament agree fully to them. In the next place we muft, by thefe charaaers, examine the other pretended Sacraments. It is no wonder, If the word Sa crament being of a large extent, there fhould be fome paffages in ancient writers, that call other aaions fo befides Baptifm and the Lord's Supper ; for in a larger fenfe every holy rite may be fo called. But It Is no fmall prejudice againft the num ber of Seven Sacraments, that Peter Lombard, a writer In the twelfth century, is the firft that reckons Seven of thera: from that myllical expreffion of the Seven Spirits of God, there came a conceit of the fevenfold operation of the Spirit ; Lib i;i. and it looked like a good ifluftration of that to affert Seven Sa- I irt 2. craments. This Pope Eugenius put in his inftrudion to the Arme- THE XXXIX AK^TICLES. 339 Armenians, which is publlflied with the Council of Florence ; and afl was finally fettied at Trent. Now there might have been fo many fine allufions made on the number Seven, and fome of the ancients were fo much fet on fuch allufions, that finceiwe hear nothing of that kind from any of them, we may wefl conclude, that this Is more than an ordinary negative ar.- gument againft their having believed, that there were Seven Sa craments. To go on in order with them : The firft that we rejea, which is reckoned by them the fecond, is Confirmation. But to explain this, we muft con fider In what refpea our Church receives Confirmation, and upon what reafons it is that fhe does not acknowledge It to be a Sacrament, We find that after Philip, the Deacon and Aasvli! Evangelift, had converted and baptized fome in Samaria, 12, 14, ij, Peter and John were fent thither by the Apoftles, who laid '^' '7 their hands on fuch as were baptized, and prayed that they might receive the Holy Ghofi ; upon which it Is faid, that they received tbe Holy Ghoft, Now though ordlnaryfunaions, when performed by the Apoftles, fuch as their laying on of hands on thofe whom they ordained or confirmed, had extraordinary effeas accompanying them ; but when the extraordinary ef feas ceafed, the end for which thefe were at firft given being Heb, vi. a. accomplifhed, the Gofpel having been fully attefted to the worid, yet the funaions were ftill continued of confirmation as well as ordination : and as the laying on of hands, that Is reckoned among the principles of the Chriftian doarine, after Repentance and Faith, and fubfequent to Baptifm, feems very probably to belong to this ; fo from thefe warrants, we find in the earlieft writings of Chriftianity, mention of a Confirmation after Baptifm, which for the greater folemnity and awe of the aaion, and from the precedent of St. Peter and St, John, was referved to the Bifhop, to be done only by him. Upon thefe reafons we think it is in the power of the Church to require all fuch as have been baptized, to come be fore the Bifhop and renew their baptlfmal vow, and pray for God's Holy Spirit to enable them to keep their vow; and upon their doing this, the Bifliop may folemnly pray over them, with that ancient and almoft natural ceremony of laying his hands upon them, which is only a defignation of the perfons fo prayed over, and bleffed, that God may feal and defend them with his Holy Spirit; In which, according to the nature of the New Covenant, we are fure that fuch as do thus vow and pray, do alfo receive the Holy Spirit, according to the promife that our Saviour has made us. In this aaion 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 Z 2 to 34° AN EXPOSITION OF to edifying, will authorize a Church to all this ; efpecially, fince the now univerfal praaice of Infant Baptifm, makes this more neceffary than It was in the firft times, when chiefly the Adult were baptized. It Is highly reafonable that they Who gave no -aaual confent of their own, fhould come, and by their own exprefs aa make the ftipulations of Baptifm. It may give greater impreffions of awe and refpea, when this is re ftrained to the higheft order in the Church. Upon the fincere vows and earneft prayers of perfons thus confirmed, we have reafon to believe that a proportioned degree of God's grace and fpirit will be poured out upon them. And In all this we are much confirmed, when we fee fuch warrants for it In Scripture. A thing fo good in itfelf, that has at leaft a probable authority for it, and was certainly a praaice of the firft ages, is upon very juft grounds continued In our Church. Would to God It were as ferioufly gone about, as it is lawfully eftablifhed. But after all this, here is no Sacrament, no exprefs inftitu tion, neither by Chrift nor his Apoftles ; no rule given to prac- tlfe it, and which is the moft effential, there is no matter here; for the laying on of hands is only a gefture in prayer ; nor are there any federal rites declared to belong to it; it being indeed rather a ratifying and confirming the Baptifm, than any new ftipulatioii. To fupply all this, the Church of Rome has ap pointed matter for it. The chrifm, which is a mixture of «//-olive and balm, [opobalfamum) the oil fignifying the clearnefs of a good confcience, and the balm the favqur of a good reputation. This muft be peculiarly bleffed by the Bi fhop, who is the only minifter of that funaion. The form of this Sacrament is the applying the chrifm to the forehead ,with thefe words, Signo te fiigno crucis, et confirmo te chrifmate fa lutis, in nomine Patris, Filii, et Spiritus SanBi : I fign thee with the fign of the crofs, and confirm thee with the chrifm cf falvation, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghoft. They pretend Chrift did inftitute this; but they fay the Holy Ghoft which he breathed on his Difciples, being a thing that tranfeended all Sacraments, he fettied no determined matter nor form to it ; and that the fucceeding ages appropriated this matter to it. We do not deny, but that the Chriftians began very eariy to ufe oil in holy funaions ; the climates they lived in making TI, v\ ^* neceffary to ufe oil much, for ftopping the perfplration, that l! i.'°ad Au- '"'g^'^ '^''Po^ tl^em the more to ufe oil in their facred rites. It toiyc. Tert. JS not to be denied, but that both Theophflus and Tertufllan, In s'deRefuV ^^ ^"^^ °^ ^^^ fecond, and the beginning of the third century, Or.^. 8.""^' ^° mention it. The frequent mention of oil, and of anointing Cypr. Ep. in the Scripture, might incline them to this : it was prophefied 70- of Chrift, that he was to be anointed with the oil of joy and glad" THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 34^ gladnefs above his fellows : and the names of Meffias and Chrijt do alfo import this ; but yet we hold all that to be myfti cal, and that it is to be meant of that fulnefs of the Spirit which he received zvithout meafure. Upon the fame account we do underftand thofe words of St. Paul in the fame myftical fenfe : He that efiablifheth us with you in Chrifi, and bath anointed 2 Cor. i. us, is God; who hath alfo fealed us, and given the earnejl of tbe ^'' ^2-.. Spirit in our hearts : as alfo thofe words of St, John : But ye ^f'fl "' have an unBion 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 fame anointing teach- eth you all things. Thefe words do cleariy relate to fomewhat thatthe Chriftians received immediately from God ; and fo muft be underftood figuratively : for we do not fee the leaft hint of the Apoftles ufing of oil, except to the fick ; of which after wards. So that if this ufe of oil Is confidered only as a cere mony of a natural fignification, that was brought into the ri tuals of the Church, it is a thing of another nature : but if a Sacrament is made of it, and a divine virtue Is joined to that, we can admit of no fuch thing, without an exprefs inftitution and declaration, In Scripture. The invention that was afterwards found out, by which the Con. Arauf. Bifliop was held to be the only minifter of confirmation, even "=• '> ^^¦ ' though Prefbyters were fuffered to confirm, was a piece of fu- q^^^ g_ '' perftition without any colour from Scripture. It was fettied, Con. Tol. that the Bifhop only might confecrate the chrifm ; and though ¦- 20. he was the ordinary minifter of confirmation, yet Prefbyters were alfo fuffered to do it, the chrifm being confecrated by the Bifhop : Prefbyters thus confirming, was thought like the Dea cons giving the Sacrament, though Priefts only might confecrate the Eucharift. In the Latin Church Jerom tells us, that in his Hieron. ad time the Bifhop only confirmed ; and though he makes the rea- L""'='- fon of this, to be rather for doing an honour to them, than from any neceffity of the law, yet he pofitively fays, the Bi fhops went round praying for the Holy Ghoft on thofe whom they confirmed. It is faid by Hilary, that in Egypt the Prefly- Hilar, in ters did confirm in the Bifhops abfence: fo that cuftom joined ^"^P; 4- ^'^* with the diftinaion between the confecration, and the applying fupra.' of the chrifm, grew to be the univerfal praaice of the Greek Church. The greatnefs of diocefes, with the increafing num bers of the Chriftians, made that both in France, in the Coun cils of Orange ; and in Spain, in the Council of Toledo, the fame rule was laid down that the Greeks had begun. In Spain fome Priefts did confecrate the chrifm, but that was feverely forbid in one of the Councils of Toledo : yet at Rome the ancient cuftom was obferved, of appropriating the whole bufinefs of q^^^ 5^. confirmation to the Bifhop , even in Gregory the Great's time : 1. ui . Ep. 97 Z 3 there- 34!i AN EXPOSITION OF therefore he reproved the Clergy of Sardinia, becaufe among them the Priefts did confirm, and he appointed it to be referved to the Bifh jp. Biit when he underftood that fome of them were offended at this, he writ to the Bilhop of Carali, that though his former order was made according to the ancient praaice of * the Church of Kome, yet he confented that for the future the Prieft might confirm in the Bifhop's abfence. But Pope Nlcho- ks in the ninth century preffed this with more rigour : for the Bul. and in a more peculiar manner before we go to the holy Com munion. We do alfo, as we are a body that may be offended with the fins of others, forgive the fcandals committed againft the Church ; and that fuch as we think die Ina ftate of repent ance, may die in the full peace of the Church, we join both abfolutions In one; in the laft office likewife praying to our Sa viour that he would forgive them, and then we, as the officers of the Church, authorized for that end, do forgive all the of fences and fcandals committed by them againft the whole body. This is our doarine concerning Repentance ; in afl which we find no charaaers of a Sacrament, no more than there is in Z 4 prayer 344- AN EXPOSITION OF prayer or devotion. Here is no matter, no application of that matter by a peculiar form, no inftitution, and no peculiar fede ral aas. The fcene here is the mind, the aas are internal, the effea is fuch alfo ; and therefore we do not reckon It a Sa crament, not finding in it any of the charaaers of a Sacra ment. The matter that is affigned In the Church of Rome, are the aas of the penitent ; his confeffion by his mouth to the Prieft, the contrition of his heart, and the fatisfaaion of his work, in doing the enjoined penance. The aggregate of all thefe is the matter ; and the form, are the words, Ego te abfolvo. Now befides what we have to fay from every one of thefe par ticulars, the matter of a Sacrament muft be fome vifible fign ap- innoc. 3. in plied to him that receives It. It is therefore a very abfurd thing, 4La-er. to Imagine that a man's owu thoughts, words, or aaions, can Cor Tr'i" ^^ '¦^^ matter of a Sacrament : how can this be fanaified or Seff, 14, applied to him ? It will be a thing no kfs abfurd to make the «•• 5. form of a Sacrament to be a pradtice not much elder than four hundred years ; fince no ritual can be produced, nor author cited for this form, for above a thoufand years after Chrift; afl the ancient forms of receiving penitents having been by a bleffing in the form of a prayer, or a declaration; but none of them in thefe pofitive words, / abfolve thee. We think this want of matter, and this new invented form, being without any Inftitution in Scripture, and different from fo long a praaice of the whole -Church, are fuch reafons that we are fufly juftified in denying Penance to be a Sacrament. But becaufe the doc trine of Repentance is a point of the higheft importance, there arife feveral things here that ought to be very carefully exa.. mined, Matth. iii. As to Confeffion, we find in the Scriptures, that fuch as de fired St, John's baptifm, came confeffing their fins, but that was previous to baptifm. We find alfo that fcandalous perfons I Tim. V. were to be openly rebuked before aU, and fo to be put to fharne, IO- in which, no doubt, there was a confeffion, and a publica tion of the fin : but that was a matter of the difcipline and or-. ' Their, iii. der of the Church ; which made it neceffary to note fuch per- iCor 7 I -^""^ "^ walked diforderly, and to have no fellowfhip with them, or. 7. II. fometimes notfo much as to eat with them, who being Chriftians, and fuch as were called Brothers, were a reproach to their pro feffion, But befides the power given to the Apoftles of binding and loofing, which, as was faid on another head, belonged to other matters ; we find that when our Saviour breathed on his John XX. Apoftles, and gave them the Holy Ghoft, he with tiiat told them, 23- that whofe foever fins they remitted, they were remitted; and whofe foever fins they retained, they were retained. Since a power of remitting or retaining fin was thus given to them, tiiey ipfer, 6 23. THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 34S infer, that it feems reafonable, that In order to their difpenfing it with a due caution, the knowledge of all fins ought to be laid open to them. Some have thought that this was a perfonal thing given to the Apoftles with that miraculous effufion of the Holy Ghoft ; with which fuch a difcerning of fpirits was communicated to them, that they could difcern the fincerity or hypocrify of thofe that came before them. By this St. Peter difcovered the fin of Ananias and Saphira ; and he alfo faw that Simon of Samaria AQs v. was in the gall of bitternefs, and in the bond of iniquity : fo they 3i 9- conclude that this was a part of that extraordinary and miracu lous authority which was given to the Apoftles, and to them only. But others, who diftinguifli between the full extent of this power, and the minlfterlal authority that is ftill to be con tinued In the Church, do believe that thefe words may in a lower and more limited fenfe belong to the fucceffors of the Apoftles ; but they argue very ftrongly, that if thefe words are to be underftood in their full extent as they lie, a Prieft has by them an abfolute and unlimited power in this matter, not re ftrained to conditions or ruks ; fo that if he does pardon or re tain fins, whether in that he does right or wrong, the fins muft be pardoned or retained accordingly : he may Indeed fin in ufing it wrong, for which he muft anfwer to God ; but he feems, by the literal meaning of thefe words, to be clothed with fuch a plenipotentiary authority, that his aa muft be valid, though he may be puniflied for employing it amifs. An Ambaffador that has full powers, though limited by fecret inftruaions, does bind him that fo empowered him, by every aa that he does, purfuant to his powers, how much foever it may go beyond his inftruaions ; for how obnoxious foever that may render him to his mafter, it does not at all leffen the au thority of what he has done, nor the obligation that arifes out cf it. So thefe words of Chrift's, if applied to all Priefts, muft belong to them in their full extent ; and if fo, the falvation or the damnation of mankind Is put abfolutely in the Prieft's power. Nor can it be anfwered, that the conditions of the pardon' of fin that are expreffed in the other parts of the Gof pel, are here to be underftood, though they are not expreffed ; as we are faid to be faved If we believe, which does not imply that a fingle aa of believing the Gofpel, without any thing elfe, puts us in a flate of falvation. In oppofition to this, we anfwer, that the Gofpel having fo defcribed /azV/j to us, as the root of all other graces and vir tues, as that which produces them, and which is known by them, all that is promifed upon our faith, muft be underftood of a /fl;V/j fo qualified as the Gofpel reprefents it; and there fore that cannot be applied to this cafe, where an unlimited au thority 34^ AN EXPOSITION OP ART. thority is fo particulariy expreffed, that no condition feems to be ^^^- implied in it. If any conditions are elfewhere laid upon us, in *'-'y-~'' order to our falvation, then, according to their doarine, we may fay that of them which they lay of contrition upon this oc cafion, that they are neceflary when we cannot procure the Prieft's pardon ; but that by it the want of them all may be fupplied, and that the obligation to tiem all Is fuperfeded by it: and if any conditions are to be undt rftood as limits upon this power, why are not aU the conditions of the Gofpel, faith, hope, and charity, contrition and new obedience, made necef- fery. In order to the lawful difpenfing of it, as well as contri tion, attrition, and the doing the penance enjoined ? Therefore fince no cundition is here named as a reftraint upon this gene ral power, that is pretended to be given to Priefts by thofe words of our Saviour, they muft either be underftood as fimple and unconditional, or they muft be limited to all the conditions that are exprefled In the Gofpel; for there is not the colour of a reafon to reftrain them to fome of them, and to leave out the reft : and thus we think we are fully juftified by faying, that by thefe words our Saviour did indeed fufly empower the Apoftles to publifh his Gofpel to the world, and to declare the terms of falvation, and of obtaining the pardon of fin, in which they were to be Infaflibly affifted, fo that they could not err in dlf- charglng their commiffion ; and the terms of the Covenant of Grace being thus fettled by them, all who were to fucceed them were alfo empowered to go on with the publication of this par don and ofthofe glad tidings to the worid : fo that whatfoever they declared in the name of God, conform to the tenor of that which the Apoftles were to fettle, fhould be always made good. We do alfo acknowledge, that the Paftors of the Church have, in the way of cenfure and government, a minifterial authority to remit or to retain fins, as they are matters of fcandal or offence ; though that indeed does not feem to be the meaning of thofe words of our Saviour ; and therefore we think that the power of pardoning and retaining Is only declaratory, fo that afl the exercifes of it are then only efteaual, v hen ihe declara tions of the pardon are made conform to tiie conditions of the Gofpel. This doarine of ours, how much foever decried of late in the Roman Church, as ftriking at the root of the prieftly authority, yet has been maintained by fome of the beft Au thors, and fome of the greateft of their Schoolmen. Thus we have feen upon what reafon it Is that we do not conclude from hence, that auricular confeffion is neceffary ; in which we think that we are fully confirmed by the praaice of many of the ages of the Chriftian Church, which did not un derftand thefe words as containing an obligation to fecret con feffion. It is certain, that the praaice and tradition of the Church THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 347 Church muft be relied on here, if in any thing, fince there was nothing that both Clergy and Laity were more concerned both to know, and to deliver down faithfufly, than this, on which the authority of the one, and the falvation of the other, depended fo much. Such a point as this could never have been forgot or miftaken ; many and clear rules muft have been given about it. It is a thing to which human nature has fo much repugnancy, that it muft, in the firft forming of Churches, have been Infufed Into them as abfolutely neceffary in order to pardon and falvation. A Church could not now be formed, according to the doc trine and praaice of the Church of Rome, without very fufl and particular inftruaions, both to Priefts and People, concerning confeffion and abfolution. It is the moft intricate part of their divinity, and that which the Clergy muft be the moft ready at. In oppofition to all this, let it be confidered, that though there is a great deal faid in the New Teftament concerning forrow for fin, repentance, and remiffion of fins, yet there is not a word faid, nor a rule given, concerning confeffion to be made to a Prieft, and abfolution to be given by him. There is indeed a paffage in St. James's Epiftle relating to confeffion ; but it is James v, to one another ; not reftrained to the Prieft ; as the word ren- ^^• dered faults feems to fignify thofe offences by which others are wronged ; in which cafe confeffion is a degree of reparation, and fo is fometimes neceffary: but whatever may be in this, it is certain, that the confeffion which is there appointed to be made, is a thing that was to be mutual among Chriftians ; and it is not commanded in order to abfolution, but in order to the procuring the interceffions of other good men ; and therefore it is added, and pray for one another. By the words that follow, that ye may be healed, joined with thofe that went before con cerning ^efick, it feems the direaion given by St. James be longs principally to fick perfons ; and the conclufion of the whole period fhews that it relates only to the private prayers of good men for one another ; tbe effeBual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much : fo that this place does not at all belong to auricular confeffion or abfolution. Nor do there any prints appear, before the apoftacles that happened in the perfecution of Decius, of the praaice even of confeffing fuch heinous fins as had been publicly committed. Then arofe the famous contefts with the Novatians, concern ing the receiving the lapfed Into the communion of the Church again. It was concluded not to exclude them from the hopes of mercy, or of reconciliation ; yet it was refolved not to do that tifl they had been kept at a 'diftance for fome time from the holy communion; at laft they were admitted to make their confeffion, and fo they were received to the communion of 34^ AN EXPOSITION OF of the Church. This time was fhortened, and many things were paffed over, to fuch as fliewed a deep and fincere repent ance ; and one of the characters of a true repentance upon which they were always treated with a great diftinaion of fa vour, was, if they came and firft accufed themfelves. This fhewed that they were deeply affeaed with the fenfe of their fins, when they could not bear the load of them, but became their own accufers, and difcovered their fins. There are feve ral canons that make a difference in the degrees and time of the penance, between thofe who had accufed themfelves, and thofe againft whom their fins were proved. A great deal of this ftrain occurs often in the writings of the Fathers, which plainly fliews that they did not look on the neceffity of an enumeration of all their fins as commanded by God ; otherwife it would have been enforced with confiderations of another nature, than that of fhortening their penance. The firft occalion that was given to the Church to exercife this difcipline, was from the frequent apoftacies, into which many had lapfed during the perfecutions; and when thefe went oft', another fort of diforders began to break In upon the Church, and to defile it. Great numbers followed the example of their Princes, and became Chriftians ; but a mixed multitude came among them, fo that there were many fcandals amongft that body, which had been formerly remarkable for the purity of their morals, and the flri£tnefs of their lives. It was the chief bufinefs of all thofe Councils that met In the fourth and fifth centuries, to fettle many rules concerning the degrees and time of penance, the cenfures both of the Clergy and Laity, the orders of the Penitents, and the methods of receiving them to the com munion of the Church. In fome of thofe Councfls they de nied reconciliation after fome fins, even to the laft, though the Daiia-j'; dc general praaice was to receive all at their death ; but while ContLihoiie. tfiey ^£j.g in a good ftate of health, they kept them Ion? in pe- Panitcntij. "^nce, in a public ieparation from the common privileges of Chriftians, and chiefly from the holy Sacrament, and under fevere ruks, and that for feveral years, more or fewer, accord ing to the nature of their fins, and the charaaers of their re pentance ; of which a free and unextorted confeffion being one of the chief, this made many prevent that, and come In of their own accord to confefs their fins, which was much encouraged and magnified. Confeffion was at firft made publickly; but the inconvenien- cies of that appearing, and particularly many of thofe fins being capital, inftead of a publick, there was a private confef fion praaifed. The Bifhops either attended upon thefe them felves, or they appointed a penitentiary Prieft to receive them : all was in order to the executing the canons, and for keeping up THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 349 up the difcipline of the Church. Bifhops were warranted by the Councfl of Nice to excufe the feverity of the canons, as the occafion fhould require. The penitents went through the penance impofed, which was done publickly ; the feparation and penance being vifible, even when the lin was kept fecret; and when the time of the penance was finifhed, they received the penitents by prayer and impofition of hands, intp tbe com munion of the Church, and fo they were received. This was all the abfolution that was known during the firft fix cen turies. Penitents were enjoined to publifh fuch of their fecret fins, as the penitentiary Prieft did prefcribe. This happened to give great fcandal at Conftantinople, when Neaarius was Bi- Socr. Hift, fhop there ; for a woman being in a courfe of penance, con- '¦ '' *^" '9' feffed publickly that fhe had been guilty of adultery, commit ted with a Deacon in the Church. It feems, by the relation that the hiftorian gives of this matter, that fhe went beyond the injunaions given her; but whether the fault was in her, or in the penitentiary Prieft, this gave fuch offence, that Neaa rius broke that cuftom. And Chryfoftom, who came foon af- Thirteen ter him to that fee, fpeaks very fufly againft fecret confeffion, ^u/fj-him and advifes Chriftians to confefs only to God ; yet the praaice cited and of fecret confeffion was kept up elfewhere. But it appears by a explained by vaft number of citations from the Fathers, both in different conf'^Mv, ages, and in the different corners of the Church, that though t. 25. ' they preffed confeffion much, and magnified the value of it highly, yet they never urged it as neceffary to the pardon of fin, or as a Sacrament; they only preffed it as a mean to complete the repentance, and to give the finner an intereft in the prayers of the Church. This may be pofitively affirmed concerning all the quotations that are brought In this matter, to prove that auricular confeffion is neceffary in order to the Prieft's pardon, and that it Is founded on thofe words of Chrift, Whofe fins ye remit. Sac, that they prove quite the contrary; that the Fathers had not that fenfe of it, but confidered it, either as a mean to help the completing of repentance, or as a mean to maintain the purity of the Chriftian Church, and the rigour of difcipline. In the fifth century a praaice begun, which was no fmall ftep to the ruin of the order of the Church. Penitents were fufFered, inftead of the publick penance that had been for meriy enjoined, to do it fecretiy in fome monaftery, or in any other private place, in the prefence of a few good men, and that at the difcretion of the Bifhop, or the Confeffor; at the end of which, abfolution was given in fecret. This was done to draw what profeffions of repentance they could from fuch perfons who would not fubmit to fettied ruks : this temper was 35^ AN EXPOSITION OF was found neither to lofe' them quite, nor to let their fins pafs without any cenfure. But In the feventh century, all publick penance for fecret fins was taken quite away. Theodore, Archbifhop of Canterbury, Is reckoned the firfl of all the Bi- {hops of the Weftern Church, that did quite take away all pub lick penance for fecret fins. Another piece of the ancient feverity was alfo flackened, for they had never allowed penance to men that had relapfed into any fin; though they did not cut them off from afl hope of the mercy of God, yet they never gave a fecond abfolution to the relapfe. This the Church of Rome has ftill kept up in one point, which is herefy ; a relapfe being dehvered to the fecu lar arm, without admitting him to penance. The ancients did indeed admit fuch to penance, but they never reconciled them. Yet In the decay of difcipline, abfolution came to be granted to the relapfe, as wefl as to him that had finned but once. About the end of the eighth century, the commutation of penance began ; and, inftead of tf^e ancient feverlties, vocal prayers came to be all that was enjoined ; fo many Paters ftood for fo many days of fafting, and the rich were admitted to buy off their penance under the decenter name of giving alms. The getting many mafles to be faid, was thought a de votion by which God was fo much honoured, that the com muting penance for mafles, was much praaifed. Pilgrimages and wars came on afterwards ; and in the twelfth century, the trade was fet up of felling indulgences. By this it appears, that confeffion came by feveral fteps into the Church ; that in the firft ages it was not heard of; that the apoftacles In time of perfecution gave the firft rife to it; all which demonftrates that the primitive Church did not confider it as a thing appointed by Chrift to be the matter of a Sacrament. It may be in the power of the Church to propofe confeffion, as a mean to direa men in their repentance, to humble them deeper for their fins, and to oblige them to a greater ftrianefs. But to enjoin it as necefiary to obtain the pardon of fin, and to ma'«;e it an indifpenfable condition, and indeed the moft indifpenfable of all the parts of repentance, is beyond the power of the Church; for fince Chrift is the Mediator of this New Covenant, he alone muft fix the neceffary conditions of it. In this, more than In any thing elfe, we muft conclude that the Gofpel Is exprefs and clear ; and therefore fo hard a condi tion as this Is, cannot be Impofed by any other authority. The obligation to auricular confeffion, is a thing to which man kind is naturafly fo litde difpofed to fubmit, and it may have fuch confequences on the peace and order of the world, that wc have reafon to believe, that if Chrift had intended to have made THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 35* made it a neceffary part of repentance, he would have de clared it in exprefs words, and not have left it fo much in the dark, that thofe who aflert it, muft draw.it by Inferences from thofe words, Whofe fins ye remit, &c. Some things are of fuch a nature, that we may juftly conclude, that either they are not at all required, or that they are commanded in plain terms. As for the good or evil effeas that may follow on the oblig ing men to a ftrianefs in confeffion, that does not belong to this matter : if it is acknowledged to be only a law of the Church, other confiderations are to be examined about it ; but if it is pretended to be a law of God, and a part of a Sacra ment, we muft have a divine inftitution for it ; otherwife ail the advantages that can poffibly be imagined in it, without that, are only fo many arguments to perfuade us, that there is fome what that is highly neceffary to the purity of Chriftians, of which Chrifi has tiot faid a word, and concerning which his Apoftks have given us no direaions. We do not deny, but it may be a means to ftrike terror in people, to keep them under awe and obedience ; it may, when the management of it is in good hands, be made a mean to keep the world in or der, and to guide thofe of weaker judgm.ents more fteadlly and fafely, than could be well done any other way. In the ufe of confeffion, when propofed as our Church does, as matter of ¦advice, and not of obligation, we are very fenfible many good ends may be attained ; but while we confider thofe, we muft likewife reflea on the mifchief that may arife 'out of it ; efpe- clafly fuppofing the greater part both of the Clergy and Laity to be what they ever were, and ever will be, depraved and cor rupted. The people wifl grow to think that the Prieft Is in God's fiead to them; that their telling their fins to him, is as if they confeffed them to God; they will expea to be eafily ¦ difcharged for a gentle penance, with a fpeedy abfolution ; and this will make them as fecure, as if their confciences were clear,- and their fins pardoned ; fo the remedy being eafy and always at hand, they will be encouraged to venture the more boldly on fin. It is no difficult matter to gain a Prieft, efpecially if he himfelf Is a bad man, to ufe them tenderly upon thofe occafions. On the other hand, corrupt Priefts will find their account in the difpenfing this great power, fo as to ferve their own ends. They wifl know all people's tempers and fecrets ; and how ¦ftria foever they may make the feal of confeffion, to draw the world to truft to it; yet in bodies fo knit together, as com munities and orders are, it is not poflible to know what ufe they may make of this. Still they know all themfelves, and fee into the weaknefs, the paffions, and appetites of their people. This muft often be a great fnare to them, efpecially in the fup- , pofitlon 352 AST EXPOSITION OF pofition that cannot be denied to hold generally true, of their being bad men themfelves : great advantages are hereby given to infufe fears and fcruples into people's minds, who being then in their tendereft minutes, will be very much fwayed and wrought on by them. A bad Prieft knows by this whom he may tempt to any fort of fin : and thus the good and the evil of confeffion, as It is a general law upon all men's confciences, being weighed one againft the other ; and it being certain that the far greater part of mankind is alv/ays bad, we muft con clude, that the evil does fo far preponderate the good, that they bear no comparifon nor proportion to one another. The mat ter at prefent under debate is only; whether it is one of the laws of God, or not ? And it is enough for the prefent pur pofe to fliew, that it Is no law of God ; upon which we do alfo fee very good reafon why it ought not to be made a law of the Church ; both becaufe it is beyond her authority, which can only go to matters of order and difcipline, as alfo be caufe of the vaft inconveniencies that are like to arife out of it. The next part of repentance Is Contrition, which is a for row for fin upon the motives of the love of God, and the hatred of fin joined with a renovation of heart. This is that which we acknowledge to be neceffary to complete our re pentance ; but this confifting in the temper of a man's mind, and his inward aas, it feems a very abfurd thing to make this the matter of a Sacrament, fince it is of a fpiritual and in vifible nature. But this Is not all that belongs to this head. The cafuifts of the Church of Rome have made a diftlnc- tlon between a perfea and an Imperfea Contrition; the imper fea they call Attrition ; which is any forrow for fin, though upon an Inferior motive, fuch as may be particular to one aft of fin, as when it rifes from the lofs or fhame It has brought with it, together with an aa formed In deteftation of it, with out a refolution to fin any more. Such a forrow as this is they teach does make the Sacrament effeaual, and puts a man in a ftate of juftification, though they acknowledge that with out the Sacrament, it is not fufficient to juftify him. ' Trid. SefT. This was fettled by the Council of Trent. We think it J4. t. 4. ftrikes at the root of all religion and virtue, and is a reverfing of the defign for which Sacraments were inftituted, which was to raife our minds to a high pitch of piety, and to exalt and pu rify our aas. We think the Sacraments are profaned when We do not raife our thoughts as high as we can, in them. To teach men how low they may go, and how fmall a meafure wifl ferve turn, efpecially when the great and chief Commandment, the confideration of the love of God, is left out, feems to be one of the greateft corruptions in praaice, of which any ¦ Church can be guilty: a flacknefs in doarine, efpecially in fo great THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 253 great a point as this, in which human nature is under fo fatal a a R t. bias, wifl always bring with it a much greater corruption in xxv, praaice. This will indeed make many run to the Sacrament, ' — """^ and raife its value ; but it wifl rife upon the ruins of true piety arid holinefs. There are few men that can go long on In very great fins, without feeling great remorfes ; thefe are to them rather a hurthen that they cani^ot fhake off, than a virtue. Sor row lying long upon their thoughts may be the beginning of a happy change, and fo prove a great bleffing to them ; all which is deftroyed by this doarine : for if under fuch uneafy thoughts they go to confeffion, and are attrlte, the Sacrament is valid, and they are juftified : then the uneafinefs goes off, and is turned Into joy, without their being any thing the better by it. They return to their fins with a new calm and fecurity, becaufe they are taught that their fins are pardoned, and that all fcores are cleared. Therefore we conclude, that this dodtrine wounds religion in its vitals ; and we are confirmed in all this by what appears in praaice, and what the beft writers that have lived in that communion have faid of the abufes that fol low on the methods In which this Sacrament Is managed among them, which do arife mainly out of this part of their doarine concerning attrition. All that they teach concerning thofe aas of attrition, or even contrition. Is alfo liable to great abufe in praaice : for, 'as a man may bring forth thofe aas In words, and not be the better for them ; fo he may force himfelf to think them, which is nothing but the framing an Inward dif courfe within himfelf, upon them ; and yet thefe not arifing ge nuinely from a new nature, or a change of temper, fuch aas can be of no value in the fight of God : yet the whole praaice of their Church runs upon thefe aas, as if a man's going through them and making himfelf think them, could be of great value in the' fight of God. The third branch of the matter of this Sacrament is the Sa- tisfaBion, or the doing the penance ; which, by the conftant praaice of the Church for above twelve centuries, was to be performed, before abfolution could be given ; except in extra ordinary cafes, fuch as death, or martyrdom : but In thefe lat ter ages, In which the neceffity of confeffion is carried higher, the obligation to fatisfaaion or the doing of penance is let fafl lower, A diftinaion is invented', by which confeffion and contrition, attrition at leaft, are made effential parts of the Sacrament, without which there is no Sacrament ; as foul and body are effential to the being of a man : and fatisfaaion is . confidered only as an integral part ; fuch as an eye or a limb in a man, which is neceflary to the order of It, but not to Its being. If fatisfaaion is confidered as that which deftroys the habits of fin, and introduces the habits of virtue : if it is pur- A a > gative 354 AN EXPOSITION OF gatlve an! medicinal, and changes a man's principles and na ture, then it ought to be reckoned the principal and leaft dif- penfab'e thing of all repentance. For our confeffing paft fins, and forrowi.g for them, is only enjoined us as a mean to re form and purify our nature. If we imagine that our aas of repentance are a difcounting with God, by fo many pious thoughts which are to be fet againft fo many bad ones, this will introduce a fort of a mechanical religion; which will both corrupt our ideas of God, and of the nature of good and evil. The true and generous notion of religion, is, that It is a fyftem of many truths, which are of fuch efficacy, that if we receive them into our minds, and are governed by them, they will reaify our thoughts, and purify our natures ; and by making us like God here, tiiey will put us in a fure way to enjoy him eternally hereafter. Sorrow for paft fins, and all re fleaions upon them, are enjoined us as means to make th« fenfe of them go fo deep In our minds, as to free us from all thofe bad habits that fin leaves in us, and from thofe ill inclinations that are in our nature. If we therefore fet up a forrowing for fin as a merchandize with God, by fo many aas of one kind to take off the aas of another, here the true defign of out forrow Is turned into a trafficking, by which how much foever Priefts may gain, or the value of Sacraments may feem to rife, religion wilt certainly lofe In its main defign ; which is the planting a new nature in us, and the making us become like God, Confeffion and contrition are previous aas, that lead to this reformation, which, as they teach, is wrought by the fatiFfaaion; therefore we mufl needs condemn that doarine which makes it lefs neceffary and more difpenfable than the other. In the cafe of death we confefs all the rights of the Church v/ith relation to a man's fcandals, and his obligations to make publick penance, may and ought to be then forgiven him : but we think it one of the moft fatal errors that can creep into any Church, to encourage men to rely on a death-bed repentance. The nature of man lean=: fo much this way, that it is neceffary to bend the point as ftrong as may be to the other hand. The promifes of the Gofpel run afl upon the condition of repentance ; which imports a renovation of the inner man and a purity of life : fo that no repentance can be efteemed true, but as we perceive that it has purified our hearts, and changed our courfe of life. What God may do with death-bed peni tents, in the infinite extent and abfolutenefs of his mercy, be comes not us to define : but we are fure he has given no pro mifes to fuch perfons In his Gofpel; and fince the funaion of Clergymen is the difpenfing of that, we cannot go beyond the limits THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 355 limits fet us in it : fo there Is no reafon to make this part of re pentance kfs neceffary or obligatory .than the other, but very much to the contrary. Another exception that we have to the allowed praaice of that Church, is the giving abfolution be fore the fatisfaaion is made ; upon its being enjoined, and ac cepted by the penitent. This is fo contrary to all ancient rules, that It were a needlefs labour to go to prove It; the thing being confefled by all : and yet the praaice is fo totally changed among them, that fuch as have blamed it, and have at tempted to revive the ancient method, have been cenfured as guilty of an innovation, favouring of herefy : becaufe they condemn fo general a praaice, that It would render the infalli bility of the Church very doubtful, if it fliould be pretended to have erred In fo univerfal a praaice. Hafty abfolutions, contrary both to the whole defign of the Gofpel, and to the conftant praaice of the Church, for at leaft twelve centuries, are now the avowed methods of that Church; to which In a great meafure all that corruption of morals that Is among them, owes its rife and continuance : for who can be fuppofed to fet himfelf againft thofe inclina tions to fin, that are deeply rooted in his nature, and are powerfully recommended by the pleafure and gain that arifes out of vicious praaices, if the way to pardon is eaft fo wide open, that a man may fin as long and as fecurely as he will, and yet all at once, upon a few aas that he makes himfelf go through, he may get into a ftate of grace, and be pardoned and juftified. The power that is left to the Prieft to appoint the penance. Is a truft of a high nature, v/hich yet is known to be univerfally ill applied; fo that abfolution is generafly pro- ftituted among them. The true penance enjoined by the Gofpel Is the forfaking of fin, and the doing aas of virtue. Fafting, prayers and alms-giving are aas that are very proper means to raife us to this temper. If fafting is joined with prayer, and if prayer arifes out of an inward devotion of mind, and is ferious and fervent, then we know that it has great efficacy ; as being one of the chief aas of our religious fervice of God, to which the greateft promifes are made, and upon which the beft bleffings do defcend upon us. Alms-giving is alfo a main part of charity : which, when done from a right principle of loving God and our neighbour, is of great value in his fight. But if fafting is only an exercife of the body, and of abftaining fo long, and from fuch things, this may perhaps trouble and pain the body; but bodily exercife profiteth nothing ; fo not to mention the mockery of fafting, when it is only a delay of eating, after which all liberties are taken, or an abftinence which is made up with other deflcious and inflaming nutritives, thefe are of no A a 2 value. 356 AN EXPOSITION OF value, being only Inventions to deceive men, and to expofe religion to mockery. But even fevere and affliaing fafting, if done only as a punilhment, which when it Is over, the pe nance is believed to be completed, gives fuch a low idea of God and religion, that from thence men are led to think very flightiy of fin, when they know at what price they can carry it off. Such a continuance in fafting in order to prayer, as humbles and deprefies nature, and ralfes the mind. Is a great means to reform the worid ; but fafting as a prefcribed taflt to expiate our fins, is a fcorn put upon religion. Prayer, when it arifes from a ferious heart that Is earneft in it, and when It becomes habitual, is certainly a moft effec tual m\;aiis to reform the world, and to fetch down Divine af fiftances. But to appoint fo many vocal prayers to be gone through as a tafk ; and then to tell the world, that the running through thefe, with few or no inward aas accompanying them, is contrition or attrition, this is more like a defign to root out all the impreffions of religion, and all fenfe of that repentance which the Gofpel requires, than to promote It, This may be a tafk fit to aecuftom children to; but It is contrary to the true genius of religion, to teach men, inftead of that reafona ble fervice that we ought to offer up to God, to give him only the labour of the lips, which Is the facrifice of fools. Prayers gone through as a tafk can be of no value, and can find no 1 Cor. xiii. acceptation In the fight of God. And as St. Paul faid, that if '' ¦'¦ he gave all his goods to the poor, and had not charity, he was nothing: fo the greateft profufion of alms- giving, when done in a mercenary way, to buy off and to purchafe a pardon, is the turning of God's houfe from being a houfe of prayer, to be a den of thieves. Upon all thefe reafons we except to the whole doarine and praaice of the Church of Rome, as to the fatisfaaion made by doing penance. And in the laft place we except to the form of abfolution In thefe words, / abfolve thee. We of this Church, who ufe it only to fuch as are thought to be near death, cannot be meant to underftand any thing by It, but the full peace and pardon of the Church : for if we meant a par don with relation to God, we ought to ufe it upon many other occafions. The pardon that we give In the name of God is only declaratory of his pardon, or fuppllcatory in a prayer to him for pardon. In this we have the whole praaice of the Church till the twelfth century univerfally of our fide. Afl the Fathers, all the ancient Liturgies, afl that have writ upon the offices, and the firft Schoolmen are fo exprefs in this matter, that the thing in faa cannot be denied. Morinus has publifhed fo many of their old rituals, that he has put an end to afl doubting about it. TIIE XXXIX ARTICLES. 357 it. In the twelfth century fome few began to ufe the wor.Js, ART. I abfolve thee: yet, to foften this expreflion, that feemed new ^^'^^ and bold, fome tempered It with thefe words, in fo far as it is ^-~~r~-'* granted to my frailty ; and others with thofe words, as far as the accufation comes from thee, and as the pardon is in me. Yetthfi form was but littie praaifed : fo that William, Bifhop of Paris, fpeaks of the form of abfolution as given only In a prayer, and not as given in thefe words, / abfolve thee. He lived in the beginning of the fourteenth century ; fo that this praaice, though begun In other places before that time, yet was not known long after In fo publick a city as Paris, But, fome Schoolmen began to defend it, as implying only a decla ration of the pardon pronounced by the Prieft : and this hav ing an air of more authority, and being once juftified by learned men, did fo univerfally prevail, that in little more than fixty years time, it became the univerfal praaice of the whole La tin Church, So fure a thing is tradition, and fo impoffible to be changed as they pretend, when within the compafs of one age,, the new form, / abfolve thee, was not fo much as generally known, and before the end of it the old form of doing it in a prayer with impofition of hands, was quite worn out. The idea that arifes naturally out of thefe words, is, that the Prieft pardons fins ; and fince that Is fubjea to fuch abufes, and has let in fo much corruption upon that Church, we think we have reafon not only to deny that Penance is a Sacrament, but like- wife to affirm, that they have corrupted this great and important doarine of repentance, in all the parts and branches of it : nor Is the matter mended with that prayer that follows the ab folution. The paffion of our Lord Jefus Chrifi, the merits of the ^^^^^ ^°- bleffed Virgin and aU the Saints, and all the good that thou hafi J^j'"™ ^f, done, and the evil that thou hafi fuffered, be to thee for the ten. remiffion of fins, the increafe of grace, and the reward of eternal life. The third Sacrament rejeaed by this Article, is Orders ; which is reckoned the fixth by the Church of Rome, We af firm, that Chrifi appointed a fucceffion of Paftors in different ranks, to be continued In his Church for the work of the Gof pel, and the care of fouls ; and that, as the Apoftles fettled the Churches,. they appointed different orders of Bifliops, Priefis, and Deacons : and we believe, that all who are dedicated to ferve in thefe miniftrles, after they are examined and judged worthy of them, ought to be feparated to them by the impofition of hands and by prayer. Thefe were the only rites that we find prac- tifed by the Apoftles. For many ages the Church of God ufed no other ; therefore we acknowledge that Bifhops, Priefis, and Deacons ought to be bleffed and dedicated to the holy mi niftry by Impofition of hands and prayer ; and that then they A a 3 are. 3SS Habcrti pontif. Gis cum. Mori nus de Oi- dinat. Sa- AN EXPOSITION OF are received according to the order and praaice fettied by the Apoftles to ferve In their refpeaive degrees. Men thus fepa rated have thereby authority to perfea the Saints or Chriftians, that is, to perform the facred funaions among them, to mi nifter to them, and to build them up in their moft holy faith. And we think no other perfons, without fuch a feparation and confecration, can lawfully touch the holy things. In all which we feparate the qualifications of the funaion, from the in ward qualities of the perfon ; the one not at all depending on the other ; the one relating only to the order and the good government of the fociety, and the other relating indeed to the falvation of him that officiates, but not at all to the vali dity of his office or fervice. But in all this we fee nothing like a Sacrament : here Is neither matter, form, nor infiitution ; here Is only prayer : the laying on of hands Is only a gefture In prayer, that imports the defignation of the perfon fo prayed over. In the Greek Church - there is indeed a different form ; for though there are prayers ¦ in their office of Ordination, yet the words that do accompany the Impofition of hands are only declaratory, The grace of God, that perfeBs the feeble and heals the weak, promotes this man to be a deacon, a priefi, or a bifhop ; let us therefore pray for him : by which they pretend only to judge of a divine vocation: all the ancient rituals and all thofe that treat of them for the firft feven centuries, fpeak of nothing as effential to orders but prayer and impofition of hands. It Is true, many rites came to be added, and many prayers were ufed that went far beyond the firft fimplicity, but in the tenth or eleventh century a new form was brought in, of delivering the veffels, in ordaining Priefts ; and words were joined with that, giving them power to offer facrifices to God, and to celebrate maffes, and then the orders were believed to be given by this rite. The delivering of the veffels looked like a matter, and thefe words were thought the form of the Sacrament ; and the prayer that was formerly ufed v/ith the Impofition of hands, was indeed ftill ufed, but only as a part of the office ; no hands were laid on when It was ufed : and though the form of laying on of hands was ftifl continued, the Bifliop with other Priefts laying their hands on thofe they ordained, yet it is now a dumb ceremony, not a word of a prayer being faid while they lay on their hands. So that though both prayer and Impofition of hands are ufed in the office, yet they are not joined together. In the conclufion of the office a new benediction was added ever fince the twelfth century. The Bifhop alone lays on his hands, faying, Receive tbe Holy Ghofi ; whofe fins ye remit, they are remitted, and whofe fins ye retain, they are retained. The number Seven was thought to fuit the Sacra- TIIE XXXIX ARTICLES. 359 Sacraments beft, fo Orders were made one of them, and of thefe, only Priefthood ; where the veffels were declared to be the matter, and the form was the delivering them with the words. Take thou authority to offer up facrfices to God, and to celebrate maffes, both for the living and the dead ; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghofi, The Schoolmen have trken a new way of explaining this whole matter, borrowed from the Eucharift, that is made up of two parts, the confecration of the bread and of the wine ; both fo neceflary, that without the one, the other becomes void : fo they teach that a Prieft has two .powers of confecrating and of ahjolving ; and that he is ordained to the one by the deli very of the veflels, and to the other by the Bifhop's laying on cf hands, with the words, Receive the Holy Gbft ; and they make the Bifhop and the Prieft's laying on of hands jointly, to be only their declaring as by a fuffrage, that fuch a perfon ought to be ordained : fb totally have they departed from the primitive forms. If this is a Sacrament, and if the Sacrament confifts In this matter and form by them affigned, tjhen fince all the rituals of the Latin Church for the firfl ten centuries had no fuch form of ordaining Priefts, this cannot be the matter and form of a Sacrament : otherwife the Church had in a courfe of fo many ages no true Orders, nor any Sicrament in them. Nor will It ferve In anfwer to this to fay, that Chrift inftituted no fpecial matter nor form here, but has left the fpecifying thofe among the other powers that he has given to his Church : for a Sacrament being an inftitution of applying a matter de figned by God, by a particular yirw likewife appointed ; to fay that Chrift appointed here neither matter nor form, is plainly to confefs that this is no Sacrament. In the firft nine or ten ages there was no matter at all ufed, nothing but an impofition of hands with prayer : fo that by this doarine the Church of God was all that while without true orders, fince there was nothing ufed that can be called the matter of a Sacrament. Therefore though v/e continue this inftitution of Chrift, as he and his Apoftles fettied it in the Church, yet we deny jt to be a Sacrament ; we alfo deny all the inferior orders to be facred, below that of Deacon, The other orders we do not deny might be well, and on good reafons, appointed by the Church as fteps through which Clerks might be made to pafs, in order to a ftriaer examination and trial of them; hke degrees In Univerfitles : but the making them, at leaft the fubdiaconate, facred, as it is reckoned by Pope Eugenius, is, we think, beyond the power of the Church ; for here a degree of orders is made a Sacrament, and yet that degree is not named in the Scripture, nor in the firft ages. It is true, A a 4 it 360 AN EXPOSITION OF it came to be foon ufed with the other inferior orders ; but it cannot be pretended to be a Sacrament, fince no divine inftim- tlon can be brought for It. And we cannot but obferve, that in the definition that Eugenius has given of the Sacraments, which is an authentical piece in the Roman Church, where he reckons Priefis, Deacons, and Subdeacons, as belonging to the Sacra ment of Orders, he does not name Bifhops, though their being of divine Inftitution is not queftioned in that Church. Perhaps the fpirit with which they aaed at that time in Bafil, offended him fo much, that he was more fet on depreffing than on raifing them. In the Councfl of Trent, in which fo much zeal ap peared for recovering the dignity of the epifcopal order, at that time fo much eclipfed by the papal ufurpations, when the Sacrament of Orders was treated of, they reckoned feven de grees of them, the higheft of which is that of Priefi, So that though they decreed that a Bifhop was by the divine inftitu tion above a Prieft, yef they did not de<^ree that the office was an Order, or a Sacrament. And the SchocJmen do generally explain epifcopate, as being a higher degree or extenfion of priefthood, rather than a new Order, or a Sacrament; the main thing in their thoughts being that which, if true. Is the greateft of all miracles, the wonderful converfion made in tranfubftan tiation, they feem to think that no order can be above that which quaflfies a man for fo great a performance. I fay nothing in this place concerning the power of offering facrifices, pretended to be given in orders; for that belongs to another Article. The fourth iiacrament here rejeaed Is Marriage; which Is reckoned the laft by the Roman account. In the point of ar gument there is lefs to fay here than in any of the other; but there feems to be a very exprefs warrant for calling It a Sacra- Ephef.v. 32. ment, from the tranflation of a paffage in St. Paul's Epiftle to the Ephefians, in which he makes an allufion, while he treats of Marriage, to the mutual relation that is between Chrift and his Church, from that ftate of life, and fays, There is a great, myfiery here ; the Vulgar has tranflated the word Myfiery by Sacrament. So though the words Immediately foflowing feem to turn the matter another way, but I fpeak concerning Chrifi and the Church; yet from the promlfcuous ufe of thofe two words, and becaufe Sacraments were called the Myfteries of the Chrif tian religion, the Tranflator, it feems, thought that all myfteries might be cafled Sacraments, But It is fo very hard here to find matter, form, a minifier and a facramental effeB, that though Pope Eugenius, in that famous decree of his, is very punaual In affigning thefe, when he explains the other Sacraments ; yet he wifely paffed them all over when he came to this, and only. makes a true confent neceffary to the making the Sacrament. We THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 3^^ We do not deny marriage to be an ordinance of God ; but we think that as it was at firft made In the ftate of innocence, fo it is ftifl founded on the law of nature ; and though the Gofpel give rules concerning .the duties belonging to this ftate of life, a,s It does concerning the duties of parents and children, which is another relation founded on the fame law of nature, yet we cannot call it a Sacrament ; for we find neither matter, form, infiitution, nor federal aBs, nor effeBs affigned to it in the Gofpel, to make us efteem It a Sacrament, The matter- affigned by the Roman doaors is the inward confent, by which both parties do mutuafly give themfelves to one another : the form they make to be the words or figns, by whicl^ this is expreffed. Now * it feems a ftrange thing to make the fecret thoughts of men the matter, and' their words fhe form of a Sacrament ; all mutual compacts being as much Sacraments as this, there being no vifible material things applied to the parties who receive them ; which is neceffary to the being of a Sacrament, It is alfo a very abfurd opinion, which may have very fatal confequences, and raife very affliaing fcruples, if any fhould imagine that the inward confent is the matter of this Sacrament ; here Is a foundation laid down for voiding every marriage. The parties may, and often do marry againft their wills ; and though they profefs an outward con fent, they do inwardly repine againft what they are doing. If after this they grow to like their marriage, fcruples muft arife, fince they know they have not the Sacrament ; becaufe it is a doarine in that Church, that as intention is neceffary in every' Sacrament, fo here that goes further, the intention being the only matter of this Sacrament ; fo that without it there is no marriage, and yet fince they cannot be married again to com plete, or rather to make the marriage, fuch perfons do live only in a ftate of concubinage. On the other hand, here Is a foundation laid down for break ing marriages as often as the parties, or either of them, wifl fo lemnly fwear that they gave no Inward confent, which Is often praaifed at Rome. All contrails are facred things ; but of them all, marriage is the moft facred, fince fo much depends upon it. Men's words, confirmed by oaths and other folemn aas, muft either be binding according to the plain and acknow ledged fenfe of them, or afl the fecurity and confidence of mankind is deftroyed. No man can be fafe if this principle is * Upon the whole doflrrine of the Church of Rome, concerning tbe Sacraments, as it is explained by the Schoolmen, I have followed the account given by Honoratus Fabri, in his Suipma Theologica, who is dead within thefe ten years. I kjiew him at Rome, anno 1685. He was a true philofopher, beyond the liberties alipwed by. his order, and ftudied to reduce tlieir fchool-divinity to as clear ideas as it was capa- tle of. So that in following him I have given the beft, and not the worft face of tJi?ir doilrine, His book was printed at Lyons, anno 1669. once 3^2 XN EXPOSITION OF once admitted ; that a man Is not bound by his promifes and oaths, unlefs his inward confent went along with them : and If fuch a fraud^L'nt thing may be applied to marriages, In which fo many perfons are concerned, and upon which the order of the worid does fo much depend, it m.ay be very juftly applied to all other contraas whatfoever, fo that they may be voided at plea- fure. A man's words and oaths bind him by the eternal laws of fidelity and truth ; and it is a juft prejudice againft any re ligion whatfjever, if it fhould teach a dodtrine in which, by the fecret referves of not giving an inward confent, the faith which is folemnly given may be broken. Here fuch a door is opened to perfidy and treachery, that the world can be no longer fafe while it is allowed ; hereby lewd and vicious perfons may entan gle others, and in the mean while order their own thoughts fo, that they fhall be all the while free. Next to matter and form, we muft fee for the inftitution of this Sacrament, The Church of Rome think that is ftrong here, though they feel it to be hardly defenfible in the other points that relate to it. They think that though marriage, as It is a mu tual contraa, fubfifts upon the law of nature, yet a divine virtue is put In it by the Gofpel, expreffed In thefe words, This is a great Myfiery or Sacrament ; fo the explaining thefe words determines this controverfy. The chief point in dif pute at that time was, whether the Gentiles were to be received to equal privileges with the Jews, In the difpenfation of the Meffias. The Jews do not to this day deny, but that the Gentiksmay be admitted to It; but ftill they think that they are to be confidered as a diftina body, and In a lower order, the chief dignity being to be referved to the feed of Abraham. Now St. Paul had in that Epiftle, as well as In his otherEpIftles, afferted, that all were equal In Chrift ; that he had taken away the middle wall of partition; that he had abolifhed the ground Eph. ii. 15, of the enmity, which was the Mofaical Law, called the Law of 36, 20, 21. Commandments contained in ordinances ; that he might make both Jew and Gentile one new man ; one entire body of a Church ; be being the chief corner-fione, in whom the whole building was , fitly framed together : and fo became a holy habitation to God. Thus he made ufe of the figure of a body, and of a temple, to illuftrate this matter ; and to fhew how all Chriftians were to make up but one body, and one Church. So when he came to fpeak of the rules belonging to the feveral ftates of human life, he takes occafion to explain the duties of the married ftate, by comparing that to the relation that the Church has to Chrift : and when he had faid that the married couple make but one body, and one flefti ; which declares that according to the firft inftitution every man was to have but one wife ; he adds upon that, this is a great Myfiery ; that is, from hence another THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 3^3 another myftical argument might be brought, to fhew that Jew and Gentile muft make one body ; for fince the Church was the fpoufe of Chrift, he muft, according to that figure, have but one wife ; and by confequence the Church muft be one : other- wife the figuie will not be anfwered ; unlefs we fuppcle Chrift to be in a ftate anfwering a polygamy, rather than a iingle mar riage. Thus a clear account of thefe words is given, v/hich does fully agree to them, and to what foflows, but I fpeak con cerning Chrifi and the Church. This, which is all the foundation of making marriage a Sacrament, being thus cleared, there remains notliing to be faid on this head, but to examine one confequence, th.it has been drawn from the making it a Sacrament, which is, that the bond is indiflblubk; and that even adultery does not void it. The law of nature or of nations feems very clear, that adultery, at leaft, on the wife's part, fhould diffolve it : for the end of marriage being the afcertalning of the Iffue, and the contraa itfelf being a mutual transferring the right to one another's per fon, in order to that end ; the breaking this contraa and de ftroying the end of marriage does very natually infer the dif folution of the bond : and in this both the Attic k and Roman laws were fo fevere, that a man was infamous who did not di vorce upon adultery. Our Saviour, when he blamed the Jews for their frequent divorces, eftablifhed this rule, that whojoever Matth. t. puts away his wife, except it be for fornication, and flail marry J^^^ ^. another, committeth adultery. Which feems to be a plain and g, full determination, that in the cafe of fornication, he may put her away and marry another. It is true, St. Mark and S-t, Markx. n. Luke repeat thefe words, without mentioning this exception ; ^"''^ ='"• fo fome have thought that we ought to bring St. Matthew to ' " them, and not them to St. Matthew. But it is an univerfal rule of expounding Scriptures, that when a place is fully fet down by one infpired writer, J^nd lefs fully by another, that the place which is lefs full is always to be expounded by that which is more full. So though St. Mark and St, Luke report our Saviour's words generafly, without the exception, which is twice mentioned by ISt, Matthew, the other two are to be underftood, to fuppOfe it; for a general propofition is true when It holds generafly; and ex ceptions may be underftood to belong to it, though they are not named. The Evangelift that does name them muft be confi dered to have reported the matter more particulariy, than the others that do it not. Since then our Saviour has made the ex ception, and fince that exception is founded upon a natural equity, that the innocent party has againft the guilty, there can be no reafon why an exception fo juftly grounded, and fo cleariy made, fliould not take place. Both 3^4 AN EXPOSITION OF ART, Both TertuUian, Bafil, Chryfoftom, and Epiphanlus, allow xxv. of a divorce in cafe of adultery ; and In thofe days they had no ^ — "¦ — -^ ether notion of a divorce, but that it was the diffolution of ¦'•^'cont ' ^^ ^O"^ ' ^^^ '^'^ notion of a feparation the tie continuing, WaiciJn. not being known till the Canonifts brought it in. Such a di- <:¦ 3!- vorce was allowed by the Council of Elliberis. The Council of An.'hu'' ^^ Arks did indeed recommend it to the huftiand, whofe wife wks c. o guilty of adultery, not to marry ; which did plainly acknow- Ch'ryfof. ledge that he might do It. It was, and ftill is the conftant ¦'^"Ma'th' praaice of the Greek Church ; and as both Pope Gregory and Epijh. hs- Pope Zachary allowed the innocent perfon to marry, fo in a ref. 50. Svnold held at Rome in the tenth century. It was ftill allowed. Cnth. c^ne. \,vf,gj^ [j.jg Greeks were reconciled to the Latins in the Council c,,' i.ArJ. of Florence, this matter was paffed over, and the care of it was c. 10. only recommended by the Pope to the Emperor. It Is true, Cni c. Afnc. jTygenius put it in his inftruaion to the Armenians ; but though Caufa '32. that pafles generafly for a part of the Council of Florence, yet q. 7. the Council was over and up before that was given out. indecr. Eug. Xhis doatlue of the indiffolubknefs of marriage, even for ri,j,. ' ' adultery, was never fettled in any Council before that of Trent. Erafm. in The Canonifts and Schoolmen had indeed generally gone into J Ep. .id (fj3(. opinion; but not only Erafmus, but both Cajetan and Ca- Caietan.'in therinus declared themfelves for the lawfulnefs of it : Cajefanin- Matth. xix. deed ufed a falvo, in cafe the Church had otherwife defined, ^9- . which did not then appear to him. So that this is a doarine 7 Ep. ad very lately fettied inthe Church of Rome, Our Reformers here Cor. vii. 1.5. had prepared a titie in the new body cf the Canon Law, which Annot. they had dlgefted, allowing marriage to the Innocent party; and upon a great occafion then In debate, they declared it to be lawful by the law of God : and if the opinion that marriage is a Sacrament, falls, the conceit of the abfolute indiffqluble- nefs of marriage will fall with it. The laft Sacrament which is rejeaed by this Article, that Is, the fifth, as they are reckoned up in the Church of Rome, Is Extreme UnBion. In the commiffion that Chrift gave his Apo ftles, among the other powers that were given them to confirm it, one v/as to curedijeofes and heal the fick ; purfuant to which Mark vi. St, Mark tellf, that they anointed with oil- many that were fick, »3- and healed them. The Prophets ufed fome fymbolical adtions when they wrought miracles ; fo Mofes ufed his rod often ; Eliflia ufed Elijah's mantle; our Saviour put his finger into the deaf man's ear, and made clay for the blind m^n ; and oil being upon almoft all occafions ufed in the Eaftern parts, the Apo ftles made ufe of it: but no hint Is given that this was a facra mental aaion. It was plainly a miraculous virtue that healed the fick, in which oil was made ufe of as a fymbol accompa nying it. It was not prefcribed by our Saviour, for any thing that THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 3^5 . that appears, as it was not blamed by him neither. It was no vvonder. If, upon fiich a precedent, thofe who had that extraor dinary gift, did apply It with the ufe of oU ; not as if oil was the facramental conveyance ; it was only ufed with it. The end of it was miraculous, it was In order to the recovery of the fick ; and had no relation to their fouls, though with the cure wrought on the body, there mlgfit fometimes be joined an ope ration upon the foul ; and this appears cleariy from St, James's words. Is any fick among you, let him caU for the Elders of tbe James v. Church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in "^' '5' the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith fliaU fave the fick, and the Lord fhall raife him up. All hitherto is one period, which is here clofed. The following words contain new mat ter quite of a different kind ; and if he have committed fms, they fhall he forgiven him. It appears clearly that this was in tended for the recovery of the fick perfon, which is the thlno- that is pofitively promifed ; the other concerning the pardon of fins, comes in on the bye, and feems to be added only as an acceffary to the other, which is the principal thing defigned by this whole matter. Therefore fince anointing was in order to healing, either we muft fay that the gift of healing is ftill depofited with the Elders of the Church, which no body affirms; or this oilwd.s only to be ufed by thofe who had that fpecial gift ; and therefore if there are none now who pretend to have it, and if the Church pretends not to have it lodged with her, then the anointing with oil cannot be ufed any more ; and therefore thofe who ufe It not in order to the recovery of the perfon, delaying it till there is little or no hope left, ufe not that unaion mentioned by St. James, but another of their own devlfing, which they call the Sacrament of tbe dying. It Is a vain thing to fay, that becaufe faving and raifing up lire fome times ufed in a fpiritual fenfe, that therefore the faving the fick here, and that of the Lord's raifi.ng him up, are to be fo meant. For the forgivenefs of fin, which is the fpiritual bkfling, comes afterwards, upon fuppofition that the fick perfon had committed fins. The faving and raifing up muft ftand in oppofition to the ficknefs : fo fince all acknowledge that the one is literal, the other muft be fo too. The fuppolition of fin is added, be caufe fome perfons upon whom this miracle might have been Wrought, might be eminenriy pious ; and if at any time it was to be applied to ill men who had committed fome notorious fins, perhaps fuch fins as had brought their ficknefs upon them, thele were alfo to be forgiven. In the ufe of miraculous powers, thofe to whom that gift was given, were not empowered to ufe it at pleafure ; they were to feel an inward impulfe exciting them to it, and they were 366 AN EXPOSITIOiST OF ART. were obliged upon that firmly to believe, that God, who had xxv. given them the Impulfe, would not be wanting to them in the ' — ¦' — ' execution of it. This confidence in God was the faith of mi- Matth. xxi. racks, of which Chrift faid. If ye have faith as a grain of 21- mujiar.l-fc'-d, ye fhall fay to this mountain, remove hence to yonder place, and nothing fhall be impoffible unto you. Of this 1 Cor. xi. alfo St. Paul meant, when he fr.id, If I have aU faith. So from -'¦¦ this we may gather the meaning of the prayer of faith, and the anoir.ting zvith oil; that if the Elders of the Church, or fuch others with whom this power was lodged, felt an inward Im- pull'e moving them to call upon God, in order to a miraculous cure of a fick perfon, then they were to anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord : that is, by the authority that they had from Chrift, to heal afl manner of difeafes : and they were to pray, believing firmly, that God would make good that inward motion which he had given them to work this miracle ; and in that cafe the effea was certain, the fick perfon would certainly rcLL'-. er, for that Is abfolutely promifed. Everyone that was fick was not to be anointed, unkfs an authority and motion from Chrift had been fecretiy given for doing It; but every one that was anointed was certainly healed. Chrift had promifed John xiv. tii.it zvhatfoever they fhould aft in his name, he would do it. His *^" name muft be reltr-iined to his authority, or purfuant to fuch fecret motions as they fhall receive from him. This isthe prayer of faith here mentioned by St, James ; it being an ear neft application to God to join his omnipotent power to perform a wonderiul wfik, to which a perfon fo divinely qualified felt himfelf inwardly moved by the fpirit of Chrift. The fuppofi tion of the fick perfons having committed fins, v/hich Is added, fhews that fometimes this virtue was applied to perfons of that eminent piety, that though all men are guilty In the fight of Goc', yet they could not be faid to have committed fins, in the fenfe in which St, John ufes the phrafe ; fignifying by It, either that they had lived in the habits of fin, or that they had com mitted fome notorious fin : but if fome fhould ha[)pen to be fick, who hid been eminent finners, and thofe fins had drawn down the judgments of God upon them, which feems to be the natural meaning of thefe words, if he have committed fins ; then, with his bodily health, he was to receive a much greater bleffing, even the pardon of his fins. And thus the anointing mentioned by St. James was in order to a miraculous cure, and the cure did conftantly follow it : fo that it can be no pre cedent for an extreme un6tion, that is never given till the re covery of the perfon Is defpaired of, and by which it is not pre tended that any cure is wrought. The THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 3^7 The matter of it is oil-oUve bleffed by the Bifhop, the ART. form is the applying it to the five fenfes, with thefe words, ¦'^^^• Per banc facram unBionem, et fuam piiffimam mifericordiam in- jJITk dulgeat tibi Deus quicquid peccafii, per vifum, auditum, olfac- Rom. Con. turn, gujlum, et taBum. The proper word to every fenfe Trid. Sefl". being repeated as the organ of that fenfe is anointed. It is ad- "^" miniilered by a Prieft, and gives the final pardon, with all ne ceffary afliftances in the laft agony. Plere is then an inftitu tion, that, if warranted, is matter of great comfort ; and if not warranted, is matter of as great prefumption. In the firft ages Conf. Apoft. we find mention is made frequently of perfons that v/ere cured '¦ ''.'.¦ '^- '*• by an anointing with oil : oil was then much ufed in all their ' J"' '' '^^' rituals, the Catechumens being anointed with oil before they Tertul. de were baptized, befides the chrifm that was given after it. Oil b^pt. c. lo. grew alfo to be ufed in ordinations, and the dead were anointed '''"^' ^" in order to their burial: fo that the ordinary ufe of oil on Clem. Alex. other occafions, brought It to be very frequently ufed in their pa=dag. facred rites ; yet how cuftom.ary foever the pradtice of anoint- r,-"'' ^ ^' ing grew to be, we hnd no mention ot any unction of the lick Areop. de 'before the beginning of the fifth century. This plainly fhews Ecclef. that they underftood St. James's words as relating to a miracu- '^"^'" "¦¦ 7' ^' lous power, and not to a funaion that was to continue' in the Church, and to be efteemed a Sacrament. That earlieft mention of it by Pope Innocent the Firft, how Innocent. much foever it is infifted on, is really an argument that proves if' '¦ againft it, and not for it. For not to enlarge on the many idle things that are in that Epiftle, which have made fome think that it could not be genuine, and that do very rliuch fink the credit both of the teftimony and of the man ; for It feems to be well proved to be his : the paffage relating to this matter is in anfwer to a demand that was made to him by the Bifhop of Eugubium, whether the fick might be anointed with the oil of the chrifm ? and whether the Bifhop might anoint with it ? To thefe he anfv/ers, that no doubt is to be made but that St. James's words are to be underftood of the faithful that were fick, who may be anointed by the - chrifm ; which may be ufed not only by the Priefts, but by afl Chriftians, not only in their own neceffities, but in the ne ceffities of any of their friends : and he adds, that it was a needlefs doubt that was made, whether a Bifhop might do It ? for Prefbyters are only mentioned, becaufe the Bifhop could not go to all the fick ; hut certainly he who made the chrifm itfelf, might anoint with It. A Bifhop afliing thefe queftions of another, and the anfwers which the other gives him, do plainly fhew that this was no Sacrament pradtifed from the beginnings of Chriftianity ; for no Bifliop could be ignorant of 3^8 AN EXPOSITION OF of thofe. It v.'as therefore fome newly begun cuftom, in which the world was not yet fufficiently inftruaed. And fo It was in deed, for the fubjea of thefe queftions was not pure oil, fuch as now they make to be the matter of extreme unaion ; but the oil of chrifm, which was made and kept for other occafions ; and it feems very clear, that the miraculous power of healing having ceafed, and none being any more anointed in order to that ; fome began to get a portion of the oil of chrifm, which the Laity, as well as the Priefts, applied both to themfelves and to their friends, hoping that they might be cured by it. Nothing elfe can be meant by all this, but a fu perftitious ufing the chrifm, which might have arifen out of the memory that remained of thofe who had heen cured by oil, as the ufe of bread in the Eucharift brought in the holy bread, that was fent from one Church to another ; and as from the ufe of water in baptifm fprung the ufe of holy water. This then being the clear meaning of thofe words, it is plain that they prove quite the contrary of that for which they are brought ; and though in that Epiftle the Pope calls chrifm a kind of Sacra ment, that turns likewife againft them ; to fhew that he did not think it was a Sacrament, ftrldlly fpeaking. Befides, that the ancients ufed that word very largely, both for every myfte rious doarine, and for every holy rite that they ufed. In this very Epiftle, when he gives direaions for the carrying about that bread, which they bleffed and fent about as an emblem of their communion with other Churches ; he orders them to be fent about only to the Churches within the city, becaufe hd conceived the Sacraments were not to be carried a great way off; fo thefe loaves are called by him not only a kind of Sa- crament, but are fimply reckoned to be Sacraments. We hear no more of anointing the fick with the chrifm, among all the ancients; which fliews, that as that praaice was newly begun, fo it did not fpread far, nor continue long. No mention is made of this neither in the firft three ages, nor in the fourth age; though the writers, and particularly the Councils of the fourth age are very copious in rules con cerning the Sacraments. Nor in all their penitentiary canons, when they define what fins are to be forgiven, and what not, when men were In their laft extremities, is there fo much as ahint given concerning the laft unaion. The Conftitutions, and the pretended Dionyfius, fay not a word of it, though they ate very full upon all the rituals of that time in which thofe 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 unaion, though their deaths are fometimes very particularly related, and their re ceiving THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 3% ceiving the Eucharift is oft mentioned. Nor was there any queftion made in all that time concerning the pe/fons, the time, and the other circumftances relating to this unaion ; which could not have been omitted, efpecially when almoft afl that was thought on, or writ of, in the eighth and ninth cen tury, relates to the Sacraments and the other rituals of the Church. It is true, from the feventh century on to the twelfth, they Lib.Sacram. began to ufe an anointing of the fick, according to that men- GiegonMe- tlonedby Pope Innocent, and a peculiar office was made for It; °^' ' but the prayers that were ufed in it, fliew plainly that it was all intended only in order to their recovery. Of this anointing many paffages are found in Bede, and in l''atfament0. jReitfiej ig tfie effcit of (Cfijift's £)jdinantetafeen atoap ftp tfieij U itfecot'.efc t i^o? tfie (©rate of dSoO'g d&iftg tiimi« niftco f jom fucfi ag bv faitfi anti rigfitlp tio reteifte tl e §>at?amEnt0 miniff ?eO unto tfiem, tofiitfi be CDf^ fcctu.il becaufe of Cfijift'sJ Inftitution anO ^jomife, altfiougfi tfiep be miuiUjeb bp Cbil if em jaebcjtfielefsi it appejtainetfi to tfie SDiftipline of tfie eDfiujtfi, tfiat dDnquiip be mabe of dtbil ^inifteysi ; ano tfiat tfiep be attufeO bp tfiofc tfiat fiabe finoto« lebgc of t%m ^Jffenceg, anb finallp being foimb guiU V,:, bji juU- SluOgmcnt be Dcpofeb. TH E occafion that was given to this Article, was the heat of fome in the beginnings of the Reformation ; who being -much offended at the publick fcandal which was given by the enormous vices, that were without any difguife praaifed by the Roman Clergy, of all ranks, did from thence revive the conceit of the Donatifts, who thought that not only herefy and fchlfm did invalidate facred fuiiaions, but that perfonal fins did alfo make them void. It cannot be denied but that there are many paffages in St. Cyprian that look this way; and which feem to make the Sacra ments depend as much on the good ftate that he was in who ad mlniftered them, as the anfwer of their other prayers did. . In the progrefs of the controverfy with the Donatifts, they carried this matter very far ; and confidered the effea of the Sacraments as the anfwer of prayers : fo fince the prayers of a wicked man are abomination to God, they thought the virtue of thefe aaions depended wholly on him that officiated. Againft this St. Auguftin fet himfelf very zealoufly; he anfwered THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 373 anfwered aU that was brought from St. Cyprian, in fuch amnri- ner, that by it he has fet us a pattern, how we ought to feparate the juft refpea, that we pay the Fathers, from an implicit re ceiving of all their notions. If this conceit were allowed of, it muft go to the iecret thoughts and inward ftate in which he is -who officiates ; for If the Sacraments are to be confidered pnly as prayers offered up by hirn, then a man can never be fure that he receives the.n ; fince It is Impoffible to fee Into the hearts, or know the fecrets of men. Sacraments therefore are to be con fidered only as the publick aas of the Church : and though the effea of them as to him that receives them depends upon his temper, his preparation and application; yet it cannot be ima gined that the virtue of thofe federal aas, to which Chriftians are admitted, in them, the validity of them, or the bleffings that follow them, can depend on the fecret ftate or temper of him that officiates. Even In the cafe of publick fcandals, though they may make the holy things .to be loathed by the averfion that wifl naturally follow upon them ; yet after all, though that aver fion may go too far, we muft ftill diftinguifh between the things that the Minifters of the Church do as they are publick officers, and what they do as they are private Chriftians. Their prayers and every tning elfe that they do, as they are private Chriftians, have their effea only according to the ftate and temper that they are in when they offer them up to God : but their publick funaions are the appointments of Chrift In which they offi ciate ; they can neither make them the better nor the worfe by any thing that they join to them. And if miraculous virtues may be in bad men, fo that In the great day fome of thofe, to whom Chrift fhall fay, / never knew you ; depart from me ye that Mattli, work iniquity, may yet fay to him. Lord, Lord, have we not pro- 2.2- phefiedin thy name, and in thy name have eaft out Devils, and in thy name have done many wonderful works ? then certainly this may be concluded much more concerning thofe ftanding func tions and appointments that are to continue in the Church, Nor can any difference be made in this matter between publick fcan dals and fecret fins ; for if the former make void the Sacraments, the latter muft do fo too. The only reafon that can be pre tended for the one, will alfo fall upon the other : for if the vir tue of the Sacraments is thought to be derived upon them as an anfwer of prayer ; then fince the prayers of hypocrites are as litde effeaual as the prayers of thofe Vi^ho are openly vicious, the inference Is good, that If the Sacraments adminiftered by a fcandalous man are without any effeft, the Sacraments admini ftered by a man that Isinwardly corrupted, though that can be only known to God, will be alfo of no effea ; and therefore this opinion that was taken up, perhaps from an Inconfiderate zeal againft the fins and fcandals of the Clergy, is without all foun- B b 3 dation, 374- AN EXPOSITION OF dation, and muft needs eaft all men into endlefs fcruples, which can never be cured. The Church of Rome, though they rejea this opinion, yet have brought in another very like ir, which muft needs fifl the minds of men with endlefs diftraaions and fears; chiefly confidering of what neceffity and efficacy they make the Sacra. ments to be. They do teach that the intention of him that gives the Sacrament Is neceflary to. the effence of It, fo that without it no Sacrament can be adminiftered. This was exprefs ly affirmed by Pope Eugenius in his decree, and an anathema paffed at Trent againft thofe that deny it. They do indeed de fine it to be only an intention of doing that which the Church intends to do ; and though the fureft way they fay is to have an aaual intention, yet it Is commonly taught among them, that an habitual or virtual Intention will ferve. But they do all agree in this, that. If a Prieft has a fecret intention not to make a Sacrament, in that cafe no Sacrament is made ; and this is Miff. Ron), carried fo far, that in one of the rubricks of the Miffal It is given Ruhr, de de- ^s a ruk, that If a Prieft who goes to confecrate twelve «rt."i. " ™ Hoftles, (hould have a general Intention to leave out one of them from being truly confecrated, and fhould not apply that to any one, but let it run loofely through them afl, that in fuch cafe he fhould not confecrate any one of the twelve; that loofe exception falling upon them all, becaufe it is not re ftrained to any one particular. And among the Articles that were condemned by Pope Alexander the Eighth, the 7th of De cember 1690, the 28th runs thus; Valet baptifmus collatus a Minifiro, qui omnem ritum externum formamque baptifandi ob-, fervat, intus vero in corde fuo apud fe refolvit, non intendo quod fadt Ecclefia. And thus they make the fecret aas of a Prieft's mind enter fo far Into thofe Divine appointments, that by his malice, irreligion, or atheifm, he can make thofe Sacraments, which he vifibly bkffes and adminifters, to be only the outward Ihews of Sacraments, but no real ones. We do not pretend that the Sacraments are of the nature of charms ; fo that If a man fhould In a way of open mockery and profanation go about them, that therefore, becaufe matter and form are ob ferved, they (hould be true Sacraments. But though we make the ferious appearances of a Chriftian aaion to be neceffary to the making it a Sacrament; yet we carry this no further, to the inward and fecret aas of the Prieft, as if they were effential to the being of it. If this is true, no man can have quiet in his mind. It is a profanation for an unbaptized perfon to receive the Eucharift ; fo if baptifm is not true when a Prieft fets his inten tion crofs to It, then a man in orders muft be in perpetual doubts, whether he is not living in a continual ftate of facrflege ia THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 375 in adminiftering the other Sacraments whfle he Is not yet bap- ART. tized ; and if baptifm be fo neceffary to falvation, that no man -"^xvi. who is not baptized can hope to be faved, here a perpetual feru- ' — "^'~-' pie muft arife, which can never be removed. Nor can a man be fure but that, when he thinks he is worfhipping the true body of Jefus Chrift, he is committing idolatry, and worfhipping only a piece of bread ; for it is no more according to them, if the Prieft had an intention againft confecrating It. No orders are given if an intention lies againft them, and then he who paffes for a Prieft is no Prieft ; and all his conlecrations and abfolu tions are fo many invalid things, and a continued courfe of fa crflege. Now what reafon foever men may have in this cafe to hope for the pardon of thofe fins, fince it Is certain that the igno rance is invincible ; yet here ftrange thoughts muft arife con cerning Chrift and his Gofpel ; if in thofe aaions that are made neceffary to /alvation, it fhould be in the power of a falfe Chrif tian, or an atheiftical Prieft or Bilhop, to make them all void ; fo that by confequence it fhould be in his power to damn them : for fince they are taught to expea grace and juftification from the Sacraments, if thefe are no true Sacraments which they take for fuch, but only the fhadows and the phantafms of them, then neither grace nor juftification can follow upon them. This may be carried fo far as even to evacuate the very being of a Church ; for a man not truly baptized can never be in orders ; fo that the whole ordinations of a Church, and the fucceffion of it, may be broke by the impiety of any one Prieft. This we look on as fuch a chain of abfurdlties, that if this doarine of intention were true, it alone might ferve to deftroy the whole credit of the Chriftian religion ; in which the Sacraments are taught to be both fo neceffary and fo efficacious, and yet all this is made to depend on that which , can neither be known nor prevented. The laft paragraph of this Article is fo clear, that it needs no explanation, and is fo evident, that it wants no proof Eli i Sam. iii. was feverely threatened for fuffering his fons to go on in their "• vices, when by their means the facrifice of God was abhorred. God himfelf ftruck Nadab and Abihu dead, when they offered ftrange fire at his altar ; and upon tiiat thefe vvords were ut tered, / will be fanBified in them that come nigh me, and be- Lcvit. x. 3, fore aU the people wiU I be glorified. Timothy was required to receive an accufation of an Elder, when regularly tendered to him; and to rebuke before all, thofe that finned; and he was iTim.v.t, charged to withdraw himfelf from thofe Teachers who confented i?' ^o.vi. not to wholefome words, and that made a gain of godlinejs. A ^' ' ^' main part of the difcipline of the primitive Church lay heavieft on the Clergy i and fuch of them as either apoftatized, or fell B b 4 into 37^ ' AN EXPOSITION OF into fcandalous fins, even upon their repentance, were indeed received Into the peace of the Church, but they were appointed to communicate among the Laity, and were ne.ver after that admitted to the body of the Clergy, or to have a fhare in their privileges. Certainly there is nothing more Incumbent on the whole body of the Church, than that all poffible care be taken to difcover the . bad praaices that may be among the Clergy ; which will ever raife ftrong prejudices, not only againft their perfons, but even againft their profeffion, and againft that re- ligon which they feem to advance with their mouths, while In their works, and by their lives, they detraa from it, and feem to deny its authority. But after all, our zeal muft go along with juftice and difcretion: fame may be a juft ground to enquire upon ; but a fentence cannot be founded on It. The Laity mufi difcover what they know, that fo thefe who have pal, T, 12. authority may be able to cut off thofe that trouble the Church. Difcretion will require that things which cannot be proved, ought rather to be covered than expofed, when nothing but clamour can follow upon it. In fum, this is a part of the go- vernment of the Church, for which God will reckon feverely with thofe, who from partial regards, or other feeble or car nal confiderations, are defeaive in that, which Is fo great a part of their duty, and in which the honour of God, and of religion, and the good of fouls, as well as the order and unity of the Church, are fo highly concerned. ARTICLE THE XXXIX ARTICI.es, ' 377 ARTICLE XXVII, Of Baptifm. IPaptifm i0 not onlp a fe>ign of IBjofefffon an& mtk of 2Dtfferente, tofierebp Chyiftianipm aje I5!fce?neti from otfiers tfiat be not CfivitTencb ; but it ig a!fo a Qji&\ of IRegeneration or fitw Bijtfi, tofiejebp, a0 bp an Inffjument, tfiep tfiat teteibc Baptifm rigfitlp, are Srafteo into tfie *a:fiuacfi[. -Cfie promifes of tfie #or> - jiibenefji of &in, of ou? atiopttou to be tfie fe>on0 of CDoa bp tfie l^olp dDfiofi-, are bttiblp g>ignel3 anb ^eal^ eb, #ait& iiS tomljmcb anb dBrace inireafeb bp bj?tue of praper to C-3b. -^fie IBaptifm of poimg Cfiiiaren 10 in anp toife to be retained in tfie Cfiu?cfi, a$ molf agjeeable toitfi tfie Inltitution of Cfi?iU. WHEN St. John Baptift began firft to baptize, we do A R t. plainly fee by the firft chapter of St, Jyhn's Gofpel, xxvii. that the Jews were not furprifed at the novelty of the rite ; ' — '~ — ' for they fent to afk who he zvas ? And when he faid he vvas not the Meffias, nor Elias, nor that Prophet, they afked. Why John i. 25, baptizefi thou then ? Which fliews, not only that they had clear notions of Baptifm, but in particular' that they thought that if he had been the Meffias, or Elias, or that Prophet, he might then have baptized, St, Paul does alfo fay, that the Jews ivere i Co all baptized unto Mofes in' the cloud, and in the fea; which feems to relate to fome opinion the Jews had, that by that cloud, and their paffing through the fea, they were purified from the Egyptian defilements, and made meet to become Mofes's difciples. Yet in the Old Teftament we find no clear Warrants for a praaice that had then got among the Jev/s, which is ftill taught by them, that they were to receive a pro- felyte, if a male, by Baptfm, Circumcifion and Sacrifice ; and if a female, only by Baptifm and Sacrifice, Thus they reckoned, that when any came over from heathenifm to their religion, they were to ufe a wafhing ; to denote their purifying them felves from the uncleannefs of their former idolatry, and their entering into a holy religion. And as they do ftill teach, that when the Meffias comes, they are all bound to fet themfelves to r^ent of their formter fins ; fo It feems they then thought, or at leaft It would have been no ftrange thing to them, if the Meffias had received fuch as came to him by Baptifm. St. John, by baptizing thofe who came -or. X. z.. 37^ AN EXPOSITION OF came to him, took them obliged to enter upon a courfe of re pentance, and he declared to them the near approach of the Meffias, and that the kingdom of God was at hand; and It Is very probable, that thofe who were baptized by Chrift, that Is, by his Apoftles ;- for though it Is exprefsly faid, that he bap tized none, yet what he did by his Dlcipks he might in a more general fenfe be faid to have done himfelf ; that thefe, I fay, were baptized upon the fame fponfions, and with the fame declarations, and with no other ; for the difpenfation of the Meffias was not yet opened, nor was it then fully declared that he was the Meffias ; howfoever this was a preparatory ini tiation of fuch as were fitted for the coming of the Meffias ; by it they owned their expeaatlons of him, as then near at hand, and they profeffed their repentance of their fins, and their pur pofes of doing what fhould be enjoined them by him. Water was a very proper emblem, to fignify the paffing from a courfe of defilement to a greater degree of purity, both in doarine and praaice. ' Our Saviour in his ftate of humiliation, as he was fubjea to the Mofaical Law, fo he thought fit to fulfil all the obligations that lay upon the other Jews ; which by a phrafe ufed among them he expreffes thus, to fulfil all righteoufnefs. For though our Saviour had no fins to confefs, yet that not being known, he might come to profefs his belief of the difpenfation of the Mef fias, that was then to appear. But how well foever the Jews might have been accuftomed to this rite, and how proper a preparation foever it might be to the manifeftation of the Mef fias; yet the inftitution of Baptifm, as It is a federal aa of the Chriftian religion, muft be taken from the commiffion that Matth. our Saviour gave to his Difciples ; to go preach and make difci- xxviu, jj. pi^^ fg /^-^ 1^ ^^ nations, (for that is the ftria fignification of the word) baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghofi ; teaching ihem to obferve all things whatfoever I have commanded you. By the firft teaching or making of difciples, that muft go before Baptifm, is to be meant the convincing the world, that Jefus is the Chrift, the true Meffias, anointed of God, with a fulnefs of grace and of the Spirit without meafure ; and fent to be the Saviour and Redeemer of the world. And when any were brought to acknowledge this, then they were to baptize them, to initiate them to this religion, by obliging them to renounce all idolatry and ungodllnefs, as well as all fecular and carnal lufts, and then they led them into the water ; and with no other garments but what might cover nature, they at firft laid them down in the water, as a man is laid in a grave, Rom, vi. 3, and then they faid thofe words, / baptize or wafh thee in the *> S- name of the Father.^ Son^ and Holy Ghofi ; then they raifed them THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 379 diem up again, and clean garments were put on them : from art. whence came the phrafes of being baptized into Chrifi' s death ; XXVII. of being buried with him by baptifm, into death ; of our be- ^fTy~~^ tng rijen with Lhrtft, and of our putting on the Lord Jefus col. iii. i Chrifi 5 of putting off the Old Man and putting on the New. lo. After Baptifm was tiius performed, the baptized perfon was to ^"'°* *'"* be ferther inftruaed in all the fpecialtles of the Chriftian reli- '*' gion ; and in afl the rules of life that Chrift had prefcribed. This was plainly a different Baptifm from St. John's ; a profeffion was made in it, not in general of the belief of a Meffias foon to appear, but in particular, that Jefus was the Meffias. The ftlpulation in St. John's Baptifm was repentance ; but here it is the belief of the whole Chriftian religion. In St. John's Baptifm they indeed promifed repentance, and he re ceived them into the earnefts of the kingdom of the Meffias ; but it does not appear that St. John either did promife them remiffton of fins, or that he had commiffion fo to do : for repentance and remiffion of fins were not joined together till after the refurreaion of Chrift ; that he appointed that- repent- Luke xx\ri ance and remiffion of fins fhould be preached in his name among all 47- nations, ¦ beginning at Jerufalem, In the Baptifm of Chrift, I mean that which he appointed, after his refurreaion (for the Baptifm of his Difciples before that time was, no doubt, the fame with St. John's Baptifm) there was to be an inftruaion given in that great myftery of the Chriftian religion concerning the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghoft ; which thofe who had only received St. John's Baptifm knew not : they did notfo much as know that there was Aas x'xj a Holy Ghofi ; that is, they knew nothing of the extraordinary ^> 3» 4> 5. effufion of the Holy Ghoft. And it is exprefsly faid, that thole of St. John's Baptifm, when St. Paul explained to them the difference between the Baptifm of Chrift, and that of St. John, that they were baptized in ihe name of ihe Lord Jefus. For St. John in his Baptifm had only initiated them to the be lief of a Meffias ; but had not faid a word of Jefus as being that Meffias, So that this muft be fixed, that thefe two Bap tifms were different j the one was a dawning or iipperfea be ginning to the other, as he that adminiftered the one was like the Morning Star before the Sun of Righteoufnefs. Our Saviour had this ordinance (that was then imperfea, and was to be afterwards completed when he himfelf had fi niflied all that he came into tiie worid to do)— he had, I fay, this vifibly in his eye, when he fpake to Nicodemus, and told him, that except a man were born again, he could not fee (or johniii. 3, difcern) the kingdom of God: by which he meant that entire 5, 6. change and renovation of a man's mind, and of all his powers, * through 380 AN EXPOSITION OF throuo-h which he muft pafs, before he could difeern the trut charaaers of the difpenfation of the Meffias ; for that is the fenfe in which the kingdom of God does ftand, almoft unlver- fiUv through the whole G. fpd. When Nicodemus was amazed ar this odd" expreffion, and feemed to take it literally, our Sa viour arffwered more fully, Verily, verily, I fay unto thee, ex. cept a man be born of vja'ter, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. The meaning of v.hich feems to be " this, that except a man came to be renewed, by an abfolution like the Baptifm which the Jews ufed, that Imported the outward profeflion of a change of doarine and of heart; and with that, except he were, inwardly chai. ged by a fecret power called the o;.i-/'r, that fhould transform his nature, he could not be come one of Ji.is Difciples, or a tn^e Chriftian ; which is meant by his entering into the kingdom of God, or the difpenlation of th; iMcd.as. Upon this Inftitution and commiffion given by Chrift, we fee the Apoftks ucit; up and down preaching and baptizing. And fo far were they from confidering Baptifm only as a carnal rite, or a low element, above which a higher difpenfation of the Spirit was to raife them, that when St. Peter faw the Holy Ghoft vifibly defcend upon Cornelius and his friends, he Arts X. 44, upon that immediately baptized them ; and faid, Can any man 47,48, friul (or deny) water, that thfc Jhould not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghofi as zvell as we? Our Saviour has alfo made Daptlfm one of the precepts, though not one of the 7iu\ms, neceiiLry to falvation. A mean is that which does fo CL-rtainly procure a thing, that it being had, the thing to which it is a certain and neceffary mean, is alfo had ; and without it the thing cannot be had; there being a natural conneaion between it and the end. Whereas 2l precept is an inftitution, In which there is no fuch natural efficiency; but it is pofitively commandjd ; fo that the negkaing It, is a con tempt of the authority that commanded it : and therefore In obeying the precept, the value or virtue of the aaion lies only in the obedience. This diftinaion appears very clearly l>'jrk xiv. in what our Saviour has faid both of Faith and Baptifm. He lb. that bclit'jeth, and is baptized, fiiall be faved; and he that be lieveth not flail be damned'. Whei'e it appears that Faith Is the mean of falvation with wh;ch it is to be had, and not without it ; fince fuch a believ ing as makes a man receive the v/hole Gofpel as true, and fp firmly to depend upon the promifes that are made in it, as to ot ferve .all the laws and rules that are prefcribed by it; fuch a . Faith as this gives us fo fure a title to all the bleffings of this New Covenant, that it is impoffible that v/e fhould continue In ;his ftate, aiid up: partake of them ; and it is no lefs impoffible that THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 3^^ that we fhould partake of them, unkfs we do thus believe. It were not fuitable to the truth and holinefs of the Divine na ture, to void a covenant fo folemnly made, and that in fivour of wicked men, who will not he reformed by it : fo Faith is the certain and neceffary mean of our f J vation ; and is fo put by Chrift, fince upon our having it we fhafl be faved, as well as damned upon our not having it. On the other hand, the nature of a ritual aaion, even 'when commanded, is fuch, that unlefs we could imagine that there is a charm in it, which is contrary to the fpirit and ge- -nius of the Gofpel, which defigns to fave us by reforming our natures, we cannot think that diere can be any thing in it, that Is of itfelf effeaual as a mean ; therefore it mult only be confidered 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 ai:tion that is not always in our power, but is to be done by another, it were to put our falvation or dam nation In the pov/er of another, to Imagine that we cannot be faved without Baptifm ; and therefore it is only a precept which obliges us in order to our falvation ; and our Saviour, by leaving it out when he reverfed the words, faying only, be that beUev- eth not, without adding, and is not baptized, (hall be damned, does plainly Infinuate that It is not a mean, but only a precept in order to our falvation. As for the ends and purpofes of Baptifm, St, Paul gives us two : the one is, that we are all baptized into one body, we i Cor. xii. are made members one of another : we are admitted to the fo- ^S- ciety of Chriftians, and to all the rights and privileges of that .body, which is the Church. * And in order to this, the out- ¦ward aaion of Baptifm, when regularly gone about, is fuffici ent. We cannot fee into the fincerity of men's hearts ; out ward profeffions and regular aaions are all th.it fall under men's obfervation and judgment. But a fecond end of BaptiYm is internal and fpiritual. Of this St. Paul fpeaks in very high terms, when he , fays that God has faved us according to his Tit. iii. j, mercy, by the wafliing of regeneration, and the renewing of the .Holy Ghofi. It were a ftrange perverting the defign of thefe words, to fay, that fomewhat fpiritual is to be underftood by this wafliing of regeneration, . and not Baptifm ; when as to the word fave, that is here afcribed to it, St. Peter gives that un deniably to Baptifm ; and St. Paul elfewhere, in two different places, makes our Baptifm to reprefent our being dead to fin, .^^.^ ,^ and buried with Chrifi ; and our being rifen and quickened with Col. ii. him, .and made alive unto God; which are words that do very plainly import regeneration. So that St. Paul muft be unde- , ftood to fpeak of Baptifm ih thefe words : here then is the In- Ward effea of Baptifm ; it is a death to fin, and a new life in Chrift, 3^2 A.N EXPOSITION OP ART. Chrift, in imitation of him, and in confortnity to his Gofpeli XXVII. go that here is very exprefsly delivered to us, fomewhat that ^"^ — ' rifes far above the badge of a profeffion, or a mark of difference. That does indeed belong to Baptifm, it makes us the vifible members of that one body, into which we are baptized, or admitted by Baptifm ; but that which faves us in it, which both deadens and quickens us, muft be a thing of another nature. If Baptifm were only the receiving us into the fociety of Chrif tians, there were no need of faying, / baptize thee in ihe name of ihe Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghofi. It were more proper to fay, / baptize thee in the name or by ihe au- thority of the Church. Therefore thefe auguft words, that were diaated by our Lord himfelf, fhew us that there is fome* what in it that is internal, which comes from God ; that it is an admitting men into fomewhat 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 aa of Baptifm carried al ways with it an inward regeneration. Here we muft confefs, that very early fome doarines arofe upon Baptifm that we cannot be determined by. The words of our Saviour to Ni codemus were expounded fo as to import the abfolute neceffity of Baptifm in order to falvation ; for it not being obferved that the difeenfation of the Meffias was meant by the kingdom of God, but it being takert to fignify eternal glory, that expref fion of our Saviour's was underftood to import this, that no man could be faved unlefs he were baptized ; fo it was believed to be fimply neceffary to falvation. A natural confequence that followed upon that, was to allow all perfons leave to bap tize, clergy and laity, men and women, fince it feemed ne ceffary to fuffer every perfon to do that without which falvation could not be had. Upon this, thefe hafty Baptifms were ufed, without any fpecial fponfion on the part of thofe who defired it; of which it may be reafonably doubted whether fuch a Baptifm be true. In which no fponfion is made ; and this cannot be well anfwered, but by faying, that a general and an implied fponfion is to be confidered to be made by their parents while they defire them to be baptized. Another opinion that arofe out of the former, was the mixing of the outward and the inward effeas of Baptifm ; it being believed that every perfon that was born of the water, was alfo born of tbe Spirit ; and that the renewing of ihe Holy Ghofi, did always accompany the wafhing of regeneration. And this obliged St. Auftin (as was formerly told) to make that dif ference between the Regenerate and the Predeftinaied; for he thought that all who were baptized, were alfo regenerated. St. Peter has ftated this fo fully, that if his words are wefl confi dered, THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 3^3 dered, they wiU clear the whole matter. He, after he had fet ART. forth the miferable ftate in which mankind was, under the ^xvn. figure of the deluge, in which an ark was prepared for Noah * — " ^ and his family, faysupon that, the Uke figure whereunto even i Pet. iii. Baptifm doth alfo now fave us. Upon which he makes a fhort *'• digreffion to explain the nature of Baptifm, not the putting away the filth of tbe fieJh, but the anfwer (or the demand and interrogation) of a good confcience towards God; by the refur reBion of Jefus Chrifi, who is gone into heaven. The meaning of all which is, that Chrift having rifen again, and having then had all power in beazien and in earth given to him, he had put tiiat virtue in Baptifm, that by it we are faved, as in an ark, from that miferable ftate in which the world lies, and in which it muft perifh. But then he explains the way how it faves us; that it is not as a phyfical aaion, as it wafhes away the filthi nefs of the flefh or of the body, like the notion that the Gen tiles might have of their februations ; or, which is more natu ral, confidering to whom he writes, like the opinions that the Jews had of their cleanfings after their legal impurities, from which their wafhings and bathings did abfolutely free them. The falvation that we Chriftians have by Baptifm, is efteaed by that federation into which we enter, when upon the de mands that are made of our renouncing the Devil, the world, and the fieJh, and of our believing in Chrift, and our repent ance towards God, we make fuch anfwers from a good con fcience, as agree with the end and defign of Baptifm ; then by our thus coming Into covenant with God, we are faved in Baptifm. So that the falvation by Baptifm is given by reafon of the federal compaa that is made in it. Now this being made outwardly, according to the rules that are prefcribed, that muft make the Baptifm good among men, as to afl the outward and vifible effeas of it : but fince it is the anfwer of a good confcience only that faves, then an anfwer from a bad confcience, from a hypocritical perfon, who does not inwardly think or purpofe, according to what he profeffes outwardly, cannot fave, but does on the contrary aggravate his damnation. Therefore our Article puts the efficacy of Baptifm, in order to the forgivenefs of our fins, and to our adoption and falvation, upon the virtue of prayer to God ; that is, upon thofe vows and other aas of devotion that accompany them : fo that when the ferloufnefs of the mind accompanies the regularity of the aaion, then both the outward and inward effeas of Bap tifm are attained by it ; and we are not only baptized into one body, but are alfo faved by Baptifm. So that upon the whole matter, Baptifm is a federal admiffion into Chriftianity, in which, on God's part, all the bleffings of the Gofpel are made ever to the baptized j and, on the other hand, the perfon bap- j^2e4 3^4 AN lEXPOSlTION OF tized takes on him, by a folemn profeffion and vow, to obfervfe and adhere to the whole Chriftian religion. So it is a very na tural diftinaion to fay, that the outward effeas of Baptifm follow it as outwardly performed '; but that the inward effeas of it follow upon the Inward aas: but this difference is ftifl to be obferved between Inward aas and outward aaions, that when the outward aaion is rightiy performed, the Church muft reckon the Baptifm good, and never renew it : but If one has been wanting in the inward aas, thofe may be afterwards re newed, and thnt want maybe made up by repentance. Thus all that the Scriptures have told us concerning Bap tifm, feems to be fufficiently explained. There remains only one place that may fern fomewhat ftrange. St. Paul fays, iCor.i. 17. th.it Chrifi fait him not to baptize, but to preach; which fome have carried fo far as to infer from thence, that preaching is of more value than Baptifm. But it is to be confidered, that the preaching of the Apoflk-s was of the nature of a promulgation ni.;J- by heralds ; it was an aa of a fpecial authority, by which he in particular was to convert the world from Idolatry Afl-^vili.ie. and Judaifm, to acknowledge J fus to be the true Meffias, to the end. Now v/hen men, by the preaching of the Apoftks, and by the miracles that accompanied it, were fo wrought on, as to believe that Jefus was the Chrifi ; then according to the praaice Afts xvi. of Philip towards the Eunuch of Ethiopia; and of St, Paul to 3'»3-;33- his Jailor at Philippi, they might immediately baptlz* them; yet moft commonly there was a fpecial inftruaion to be ufed, before perfons were baptized, who might In general have fome conviction, and yet not be fo fully fatisfied, but that a great deal of more pains was to be taken to carry them on to that fufl affijrance of faith which was neceffary. This was a work of much time, and was to be managed by the Paftors or Teachers of the feveral Churches ; fo that the meaning of what St, Paul fays was this, that he was to publifh the Gofpel from city to city, but could not defcend to the particular labour of prepar ing and inftruaing of the perfons to be baptized', and to the baptizing then? when fo prepared. If he had entered upon this Work, he could not have made that progrefs, nor have founded thofe Churches that he did. All this is therefore mifunderftood, when it is applied to fuch preaching as is ftill continued In the Church ; which does not fucceed the apoftolical preaching, that was infpired and infallible, but comes in the room of that in ftruaion and teaching which was then performed by the Paftors of the Church, The laft head In this Article relates to the Baptifm of In fants, which Is fpoken of with that moderation which appears very eminentiy through the whole Articles of our Church. ' On this head, it Is only faid to be moft agreeable with the inftitu tion THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 3^5 tion of Chrift, and that therefore it is to be in any ways retained in the Church. Now to open this, it Is to be confidered, that though Baptifm and Circumcifion do not in every particular come to a paraflel, yet they do agree In two things :' the one Is, that both were the rites of admiffion into their refpeaive co venants, and to the rights and privileges that did arifs out of them ; and the other is, that in them both there was an obli gation laid on the perfons to tiie obfervance of that whole law to which they were fo initiated. St. Paul arguing againft cir cumcifion, lays this down as an uncontefted maxim, that if a man was circumcifed, be became thereby a debtor td'the whole taw, Galat. v. 3. Parents had, by the Jewifh conftitution, an authority given them to conclude their children under that obligation ; fo that the foul and will of the child was fo far put in the power of the parents, that they could bring them under federal obliga tions, and thereby procure to them a fhare in federal bleffings. And it is probable, that from hence it was, that when the Jews made profelytes, they confidered them as having fuch authority over their chfldren, that they baptized them firft, and then circumcifed them, though infants. Now fince Chrift took Baptifm from them, and appointed it to be the federal admiffion to his religion, as Circumcifion had been in the Mofaical difpenfation, it is reafonable to be lieve, that except where he declared a change that he made in it, in all other refpeas it was to go on and to continue as before ; efpecially when the Apoftles in their firft preaching told the Jews, that the promifes were made to them and to Afls ii. 39,; their children ; which the Jews muft have underftood accord ing to what they were already in poffeffion of, that they could initiate their children into their religion, bring them under the obligations of it, and procure to them a fhare in thofe bleffings that belonged to it. The law of nature and na tions puts children in the power of their parents ; they are naturally their guardians ; and if they are entitled to any thing, their parents have a right to tranlka about it, becaufe of the weaknefs of the child ; and what contraas foever they make, by which the child does not lofe, but is a gainer, thefe do cer tainly bind the child. It is then fuitable both to the confti tution of mankind, and to the difpenfation of the Mofaical covenant, that parents may dedicate their children to God, and bring them under the obligations of the Gofpel ; and if they may do that, then they certainly procure to them with It, or in lieu of it, a fliare in the bleffings and promifes of the Gofpel. So that they may offer their children either them felves, or by fuch others of their friends, to whom for that occafion they transfer that right which they have, to tranfaa for and to bind their children. , - C c A^ ' ,i 86 AN EXPOSITION OP ART. All this receives a great confirmation from the decifion XXVII. •which St. Paul makes upon a cafe that muft have happened com- ^""^^ — ' monly at that time ; which was, when one of the parties in a married flate, hufband or wife, was converted, while the other continued ftill In the former ftate of idolatry, or infide lity: here then a fcruple naturally arofe, whether a Believer or Chriftian might ftill live in a married ftate with an Infidel. Befides the Ifl ufage to which that diverfity of religion might give occafion ; another difficulty might be made, whether a perfon defiled by Idolatry, did not communicate that impurity to the Chriftian, and whether the children born In fuch a mar riage, were to be reckoned a holy feed, according to the Jewifh phrafe, or an unholy, unclean children, that Is Heathenifli children ; who were not to be dedicated to God, nor to be ad mitted into covenant with him : for unclean In the Old Tefta ment, and uncircumcifed, fignify fometimes the fame thing; and fo St, Peter faid that in the cafe of Cornelius God had fhewed him, that he fhould cafl no man common or unclean ; in J Cor. vii, allufion to all which St. Paul determines the cafe, not by an '4- immediate revelation, but by the inferences that he drew from what had been revealed to him ; he does appoint the Chriftian to live with the Infidel, and fays, that the Chriftian is fo far from being defiled by the Infidel, that there Is a communication of a bL'ffing that paffes from the Chriftian to the Infidel; the one being the better for the prayers of the other, and Iharlng In thebleffings bellowed on the other : the better part was accepted of God, in whom ?nercy rejoices over judgment. There was a communication of abkffing that the Chriftian derived to the Infidel ; which atleaft went fo far, that their children were not unclean ; that Is, fhut out from being dedicated to God, but were holy. Now it is to be confidered that in the New Teftament Chrifiians, and Saints, or Holy, ftand all promifcuoufly. The purity of the Chriftian doarine, and the dedication by which Chriftians offer up themfelves to God, makes them Holy, In Scripture Holinefs ftands In a double fenfe, the one Is a true and real purity, by which a man's faculties and aaions become holy; the other is a dedicated holinefs, when any thing Is appro priated to God ; in which fenfe it ftands moft commonly In the Old Teftament. So times, places, and not only perfons, but even utenfils applied to the fervice of God, are called Holy, In the New Teftament, Chrifiian and Saint are the fame thing ; fo the faying that children are Holy when one of the parents Is a Chriftian, muft import this, that the child has alfo a right to be made Holy, or to be made a Chriftian ; and by confequence that hy the parents dedication that child may be made Holy, or a Chrifiian, Upon THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 3^/ Upon thefe reafons we conclude, that though there is no ex- ART. prefs precept or ruk given in the New Teftament for the Baptifm xxvii. of Infants, yet It is moft agreeable to the inftitution of Chrift, ^ — """^ fince he conformed his inftitutions to thofe of the Mofaical Law, as far as could confift with his defign ; and therefore in a thing of this kind, in which the juft tendernefs of the human na ture does difpofe parents to fecure to their children a titie to the mercies and bjeffings of the Gofpel-, there is no reafon to think that this being fo fully fet forth and affured to the Jews In the Old Teftament, that Chrift fhould not have Intended to give parents the fame comforts and aflurances by his Gofpel, that they had under the Law of Mofes : . fince nothing Is faid againft it, we may conclude from the nature of the two difpenfations, and the proportion and gradation that is between them, that children under the New Teftament are a holy feed, as well as they were under the Old ; andby confequence that they maybe now baptized as well as they were then circumcifed. If this may be done, then it is very reafonable to fay what is faid in the Article concerning it, that it ought in any wife to be retained in the Church : for the fame humanity that obliges pa rents to feed their children, and to take care of them while they are in fuch a helpkfs ftate, muft didtate, that it is much more incumbent on them, and Is as much more neceffary, as the foul is more valuable than the body, for them to do all that in them lies for the fouls of their children, for fecuring to them a fhare in the bleffings and privileges of the Gofpel, and for dedicating them early to the Chriftian religion. The office for baptizing infants is In the fame words with that for perfons of riper age ; becaufe infants being then in the power of their parents, who are of age, are confidered as in them, and as binding themfelves vl by the vows that they make in their name. Therefore the of fice carries on the fuppofitiori of an internal regeneration ; and in that helpkfs ftate the infant Is offered up and dedicated to God ; and provided, that when he comes to age he takes thofe vows on himfelf, and lives like a perfon fo in covenant with God, then he ftiall find the full effeas of Baptifm ; and if he dies in that ftate of incapacity, he being dedicated to God, is certainly accepted of by him ; and by being put in the fecond Adam, all the bad effects of his having defcended from the firft Adam, are quite taken away: Chrift, when on earth encouraged thofe who brought little children to him, he took them in hisMM.xlx. arms, and laid his bands on them, and bleffed^ them, and faid, i3> M- Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not ; for of fuch is the. kingdom of God. Whatever thefe words may i fignify myftically, the literal meaning of them is, that little children may be admitted Into the difpenfation of the Meffias, and by confequence that thev may be baptized. ' ^ 'C c X ARTICLE 388 AN EXPOSITION OF ARTICLE XXVIII. Of the Lord's Supper. CSc ^nvm of tSc ILojtJ 10 not onlp a §>isn of tfie lobe tljat CJjriffiand ougfitto fiaUe among tfifmftlUeg one to nnotficr ; but latfiev it 10 a S>atromettt of out je= Demption bp «Lgriff'0 ^eatfit Infomutfi tfiat to fiitD a0 ligfitlp, toovtfiilp, anti toitfi i'^aitfi, reteibe tfie fame, tfie loreati tofiitfi toe fatcafi i0 a partaking of tfie iootip of Cfiriff, anti lifeetoifetfie Cup of Bleffing is a partafeing of tfie 5Blooti of Cfirift. 'Craufubffan= tiation (ov tfie Cfiangeof tfie &>ubffaufeof Bjeati and mint) in tfie ^uppei* of tfie IlojD, tannot be prob* ci3 bp I^olp ^tit, but it i0 repugnatit to tfie plain ?.oioi&0 of §)tripture, obertfirotoetfi tfie jl^atute of a g>atrament, anb fiatfi giben £)ttaaon to manp ^n-- pcjftition0. Cfie ilEobp of Cfiritt i0 giben, tafeen, anb eaten in tfie S>itppc? onlp after a I^eabenlp anb §)pi= ritual il^anner, anb tfie mean tofierebp tfie 3Bobp of Cfiritt x0 reteibeb anb eaten in tfie S>uppe?j is JFaitfi. Cfie £>atrament of tfie 5Lovb'0 §>upper toae not bp Cfiritt'$ £Drbinante refcjbebj tarrieb about, lifteb up anb toorlljippeb. In the Edition of thefe Articles in Edward VI's Reign, there was anodier long Paragraph againft Tranfub ftantiation added in thefe words : jT=ojafmutfi a0 tfie '2:rutfi of ^*an'0 jl^ature requiretfi tfiat tfie llBobp of one anb tfie felf-fame i^an tannot be at one time in t)itier0 plates, but muflf neeb0 be inone tejtain ^late ; tfieref oje tfie 515obp of Cfiriff tannot be prefent at one time in manp anb biberg ^late0 x anb bctaufe, aji ^olp ^tjipture botfi teatfi, Cfijitt toa0 tafeen up into ^eaben, anb tfiere fljall tontinue unto tfie Ctnb of tfie WorIb ; a #aitfif ul i^an ougfit not eitfiej to fae= liebr, or openlptonfefg tgelRealaub Bobilp pjefente, fl0 tfiep term it, of Cfiriff '0 JFletft anb JlSloob in tfie ^atjament of tfie 3Lorb'0 §>uppe?* ART. "\/\7'^'^^ ^^^^^ Articles were at firft prepared by the con- XXVIII. VV vocation in Queen Elizabeth's reign, this paragraph '-— v~«' was made apart of them; for the original fubfcription by both houfes THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 389 houfes of convocation, yet extant, fliews this. But the de- ART. fign of the government was at that time much turned to the xxviii. drawing over the body of the nation to the reformation, In ^~~^ — ' whom the old leaven had gone deep ; and no part of it deeper than the belief of the corporeal prefence of Chrift In the Sacra ment; therefore It was thought not expedient to offend them by fo particular a definition in this matter; in which the very word Real Prefence was rejeaed. It might, perhaps, be alfo fug gefted, that here a definition was made that went too much up on the principles of natural philofophy; which how true foever, they might not be the proper fubjedt of an Article of Religion. Therefore it was thought fit to fupprefs this paragraph; thouoh it was a part of the Article that was fubfcribed, yet It was not publifhed, but the paragraph that follows. The Body ofChrifi, he. was put in its ftead, and was received and publifhed by the next convocation ; which upon the matter was a full explanation of the way of Chrift's prefence in this facrament ; that be is prefent in a heavenly and fpiritual manner, and that faith is tbe mean by which he is received. This feemed to be more theological ; and it does indeed amount to the fame thing. But howfoever we fee what was the fenfe of the firft convocation In Queen Eliza beth'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 fure it was their opi nion : fince they fubfcribed It, though they did not think fit to publifh it, at firft ; and though it was afterwards changed for another, that was the fame in fenfe. In the treating of this Article, I fhall firft lay down the doarine of this Church, with the grounds of it ; and then I fhall examine the doarine of the Church of Rome, which muft be done copioufly : for next to the doarine of Infafli bflity, this is the moft valued of afl their other tenets ; this is the moft important in itfelf, fince It Is the main part of their worfhip, and the chief fubjea of all their devotions. There is not any one thing in which both Clergy and Laity are more concerned; which is more generally ftudied, and for which they pretend they have more plaufible colours, both from Scripture and the Fathers : and if fenfe and reafon feem to prefs hard upon it, they reckon, that as tiiey underftand the words of St. Paul, every thought mufi be captivated into the ^Cor.x.^t obedience of faith. In order to the expounding our doarine, we muft confider the occafion and the inftitution of this facrament. The Jews were required once a year to meet at Jerufalem, in remem- ,hrance of the deliverance of their fathers out of Egypt. .Mofes appointed that every famfly fhould kfll a lamb, whofe Exod. xli.n. blood was to be fprinkled on their door-pofts and lintels, C c J and 2^0 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. and whofe flefli they were to eat ; at the fight of which blooif XXVIII. jj^yj fprinkled, the deftroying Angel th,at was to be fent out ' — ' — ' to kill the firft born of every family In Egypt, was to pafs ever all the houfes that were fo marked : and from that paffing by or over the Ifraelites, the lamb was called the Lord's paffo ver, as being then the facrifice, and afterwards the memorial of that peiffivcr. The people of Ifrael were required to keep up the memorial of that tranfaaion, by flaying a lamb be fore the pl.ice where God fhould fet his name ; and by eating it up that nio-ht : they were alfo to eat with it a fallad of bit ter herbs and unleavened bread ; and when they went to eat of the lamb, they repeated thefe words of Mofes ; that it was the Lord's paffover. Now though the firft lamb that was killed in Egypt, was indeed the facrifice upon which God promifed to pafs over their houfes ; yet the lambs that were afterwards offered, were only the memorials of It ; though they ftill carried that 'name, which was given to the firft ; and were called the Lord's paffover. So that the Jews were In the pafchal fupper accuftomed 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 reprefentation of that greater deliverance, that we I Cor. V, 7. .^yerc to have by the Meflias, the firft lamb being the facrifice Com are' of that deliverance, and the fucceeding lambs the memorials Mjtt. xxvi.of it; fo in order to this new and greater deliverance Chrift **• . himfelf was our paffover that was facrificed for us: He ^^arkxiv. ^^^ ^^ Lamb of God tSxzt was both to take away the fins of the world, and was to lead captivity captive : to bring us out of the bondage of fin and Satan into the obedience of his Gofpel. He therefore chofe the time of the paffover, that he might be then offered up for us; and did Inftitute this memorial of it, tuke xxii. while he was celebrating the Jewifh pafch a with his Difciples, '?; . who were fo much accuftomed to the forms and phrafes of that ^'^^''''^fupper, in which every mafter of a family did officiate among his houfliold, that it was very natural to them to underftand all that our Saviour faid or did, according to thofe forms with which they were acquainted. There were after fupper, upon a new covering of the ta ble, loaves of unleavened bread, and cups of wine fet on it; in which though the bread was very unacceptable, yet they drarflc liberafly of the wine : Chrift took a portion of that bread, and brake it, and gave It to his Difciples, and faid, This is my body which is broken for you : Do this in remembrance ef me. He did not fay only, this is my body, but this is my body broken ; fo that his body muft be underftood to be there, in its broken ftate, if the words are to be expounded literally.. And no reafon can be affigned why the word broken fhould l?e (9 THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 39^ l^lllfeparated from body; or that the bread fliould be literally cAS body, and not literally his body broken: the whole period muft be either literally true, or muft be underftood myftically. And If any wifl fay, that his body cannot be there but In the fame ftate in which it Is now in heaven ; and fince it is not now broken, nor is the blood flied or feparated from- the body there, therefore the words muft be underftood thus; This is my body which is to be broken. But from thence we argue, that fince all Is one period. It muft be all underftood in the fame man ner: and fince it Is Impoffible that broken and flied ca.n be un derftood llterafly of the body and blood, that therefore the whole js to be myftlcafly underftood ; and this appears more evident fince the Uifcipks, who were naturally flow at underftanding the eafieft myfteries, that he opened to them, muft naturally have underftood thofe words as they did the other words of the pafchal fupper. This is the Lord' s paffover ; that is, this is the memorial of it : and that the rather, fince Chrift added thefe words, Do this in remembrance of me. If they had underftood them in any other fenfe, that muft have furprifed them, and naturally have led them to alk him many queftions : which we find them doing upon occafions that were much lefsfur- prifing, as appears by the queftions In the 14th of St. John, that difcourfe coming probably Immediately after this inftitu tion : whereas no queftion was afked upon this ; fo it is rea fonable to conclude that they could underftand thefe words. This is my body, no other way, but as they underftood that of the lamb, This is the Lord's paffover. And by confequence, as their celebrating the pafcha was a conftant memorial of the deliverance out of Egypt, and was a fymbolical aaion by which they had a titie to the bleffings of the covenant that Mofes made with their fathers ; It was natural for them to conclude, that after Chrift had made himfelf to be truly that, which tiie firft lamb was In a type, the true facrifice ^ of a greater and better paffover ; they were to commemorate it, and to commu nicate In the benefits and effeas of it, by continuing that aaion ot^aking, bleffing, breaking and diftributing of bread : which was to be the memorial and the communion of his death in afl fucceeding ages. This will yet appear more evident from the fecond part of this inftitution; he took the cup and bleffed It, and gave it to them, faying, This cup is tbe New Tefiament, or New Cove nant, in my blood: drink ye aU of it. Or, as the other Gof pels report it, This is my hlood of the New Tefiament, which is fhed for many for the remiffion of fins. As Mofes had enjoined the fprinkllno- of the blood of the lamb, fo he himfelf fprinkled both the book of the law, and all the people, with the blood of calves and of goats, faying. This is the blood of tbe Ncfu Heb. w. 20, C c 4 Te^a- 1 4 39^ An EXPOSITION oE ART, Teftament (or Covenant) which God bath enjoined you. 'kita XXVIII. blood of the pafchal lamb was the token of that covenant w. 't, ' ' — ' God made then with them. The Jews were under a very ftria prohibition of eating no r:'a!. cxvi. blood at all : but it feems by the Pfalms, that when they paid their vows unto God, they took in their hands a cup of falvation, that IS, of an acknowledgment of their falvation, and fo were to rejoice before the Lord. Thefe being the laws and cuftoms of the Jews, they could not without horror have heard Chrift, when he gave them the cup, fe.v, This is my blood: the prohibition of blood was given Lcvit. vii. in fuch fevere terms, as that God zvouldfct bis face againfi him 26, 27. _ tIjat did cat blood, and cut him off from among his people* Levit. xvil. p^^^ ji^Ij .^^,gg f^ ^f^gj^ repeated in the books of Mofes, that be fides the natural horror which humanity gives at the mention of drinking a man's blood, it was a fpecial part of their re ligion to make no ufe of blood ; yet after all this, the Difciples were not ftartied at it: which fhews that they muft have under ftood it in fuch a way as was agreeable to the law and cuftoms of their country: and fince St. Luke and St. Paul report the words that our Saviour faid when he gave it, differentiy from what is reported by St, Matthew and St, Mark, it is moft probable that he fp.ake both the one and the other ; that he firft faid, This is my blood, and then, as a clearer explanation of it, he faid, This cup is tbe New Tefiament in my blood : the one being a more eafy expreffion, and in a ftyle to which the Jews had been more accuftomed. They knew that the blood of the lamb was fprinkled ; and by their fo doing they entered into a covenant with God : and though the blood was never to be fprinkled after the firft paffover ; yet it was to be poured out before the Lord, in remembrance of that fprlnkling in Egypt: in remembrance of that deliverance, they drank of the cup of bkfling and falvation, and rejoiced before the Lord. So that they could not underftand our Saviour otherwife, than" triat the cup fo bleffed, was to be to them the affurance of a New Tefiament or Covenant, which was to be eftablifhed by the blood of Chrift ; and which was to be fhed : in lieu of which they were to drink this cup of bleffmg and praife. According to their cuftoms and phrafes, the Difciples could underftand our Saviour's words in this fenfe, and in no other. So that if he had intended that they fhould have under ftood him otherwife, he muft have exprefled himfelf in another manner ; and muft have enlarged upon it, to have correaed thofe notions, into which it was otherwife moft natural for Jews to have fallen. Here Is alfo to be remembered that which was formeriy obferved, upon the word broken, that if the Vi^ords are to be expounded literally, then if the cup is lite- i rally THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 393 taWythe blood of Chrifi, It muft be his blood ^^J, poured out of his veins, and feparated from his body. And if It is impoffi ble to underftand it fo, we conclude that we are in the right to underftand the whole period in a myftical and figurative fenfe. And thert fore fince a man born and bred a Jew, and more particularly accuftomed to the pafchal ceremonies, could not have underftood our Saviour's words, chiefly at the time of that feftlvlty, otherwife, than of a new covenant that he was to make, in which his body was to be broken, and his blood fhed for the remiffi.on of fins; and that he was to fubftitute bread and wine, to be the lafting memorials of it; in the repeating of which, his Difciples were to renew their covenant with God, and to claim a fhare in the bleffings of it : this, I fay, was the fenfe that muft naturally have occurred to a Jew ; upon all this, we muft conclude, that this Is the true fenfe of thefe words : or, that otherwife our Saviour mult have enlarged more upon them, and expreffed his meaning more particularly. Since therefore he faid no more than what, according to the ideas and cuftoms of the Jews, muft have been underftood as has been explained, we muft conclude, that it, and it only, is the true fenfe of them. But we muft next confider the importance of a long dif courfe of our Saviour's, fet down by St. John, which feems John vi. 3?,. fuch a preparation of his Apoftks to underftand this inftitution 33- literally, that the weight of this argument muft turn upon the meaning of that difcourfe. The defign of that was to fliew, that the doarine of Chrift was more excellent than the law of Mofes; that though Mofes gave the Ifraelites manna from heaven, to nourifh their bodies, yet notwithftanding that they died in the wildernefs : but Chrift was to give his followers fuch food that it fhould give them life ; fo that if they did eat of it, they fhould never die : where it is apparent, that the bread and nourifhment muft be fuch as the life was; and that being eternal and fpiritual, the bread muft be fo underftood: for it is clearly expreffed how that food was to be received; he that ^zx. Afl. believeth on me, bath everlafiing life. Since then he had formeriy faid, that the bread which he was to give, fhould make them live for ever ; and fince here it is faid, that this life is given by faith; then this bread muft be his doarine: for, this is that which faith receives. And when the Jews defired him to give them evermore of that bread, he anfwered, I am tbe bread of life, he that cowzw ver. 47, 4S, to me fhall never hunger; and he that believeth on me, fhall never S'- tbirfi. In thefe words he tells them that they received that bread by coming to him, and by believing on him. Chrift calls him felf that bread, and fays, that a man mufi eat thereof which - ¦ is 394- AN EXPOSITION OF is plainly a figure; and if figures are confeffed to be in fome parts of their difcourfe, there is no reafon to deny that they run quite through it, Chrift fays, that this bread was bis flefli which he was to give for the life of the world; which can only be meant of his oftering himfelf up upon the crofs tor the fins of the world. The Jews murmured at this, and faid, How can this man give us his fiefh to eat? To vvhich our Saviour anfwers, jihnvi. 53, that except they did eat the fiejb and drink the blood of the Son of 547 55- Man, they had no life in them. Now if thefe words are to be underftood of a literal eating of his flefh In the Sacrament, then no man can be faved that does not receive it : it was a natural confequence of the expounding thefe words of the Sacrament, to give It to chfl dren, fince It is fo exprefsly faid, that life is not to be had without it. But the words that come next, carry this matter farther ; whofo eateth my flefh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life. It Is plain that Chrift is here fpeaking of that without which no man can have life, and by which all who receive It have life; if therefore this Is to be expounded of the Sacra ment, none can be damned that does receive it, and none can be faved that receives it not. Therefore fince eternal life does always follow the eating of ChrijVs flefl, and the drinking bis blood, and cannot be had without it; then this muft be meant of an internal and fpiritual feeding on him : for, as none are faved without that, fo all are faved that have it. This Is yet clearer from the words that follow, my fiefh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed: it may well be inferred, that Chrift's flefh is eaten in the fame fenfe, In which he fays it is meat ; now cer tainly it is not literally meat : for none do fay that the body is nourifhed by it; and yet there is fom.ewhat emphatical in this, fince the word indeed is not added in vain, but to give weight to the expreflion. Tcr, 56. It Is alfo faid, he that eats my flefh and drinks my blood, dzvells in me and I in him. Here the defcription feems to be made of that eating and drinking of his flefh and blood; that It is fuch as the mutual Indwelling of Chrift and believers is. Now that is certainly only Internal and fpiritual, and not carnal or literal ; and therefore fuch alfo muft the eating and drinking be. All this feems to be very fully confirmed from the conclufion of that difeourfe,"which ought to be confidered as the key to it all; for when the Jews were offended at the hardnefs of -er 61, Chrift's difcourfe, he faid, It is the fpirit that quickeneth; the fiefh profiteth nothing: the words I fpeak unto you, they are fpirit and they are life: which do plainly import, that his former difcourfe was to be underftood in a fpiritual fenfe, that THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ^ 39S It was a divme fpirit that quickened them, or gave them that , a R T. eternal life, of which he had been fpeaking : and that the flefh, xxviii. his natural body, was not the conveyer of it. ' — '' ^ Afl that is confirmed by the fenfe in which we find eating and drinking frequentiy ufed in the Scriptures, according to what is obferved by Jewifli writers; they ftand for wifdom, learning, and all intelkaual apprehenfions through whicj;i the foul of man is preferved, by the perfe£tion that is in them, as the body is preferved by food : So buy and eat, eat fat of things, drink of wine well refined. Maimonldes alfo obferves, that whenfoever eating and Marc Ne« drinking are mentioned in the Book of Proverbs, they are »°'^'"'^* to be underftood of wifdom and the law : and after he has brought feveral places of Scripture to this purpofe, he con cludes, that becaufe this acceptation of eating, occurs fo often, and is fo manifefi, as if it were the primary and mofi proper fenfe of the word; therefore hunger and thir ft fiand for a privation of wifdom and underfianding. And the Chaldee Para- phraft turns thefe words, ye fliall draw zvater out of the wells ifa. xll. 3. of falvation ; thus, ye fhafl receive a new doBrine with joy from fome feleB perfons. Since then the figure of eating and drinking was ufed among the Jews, for receiving and imbibing a doarine; it was no wonder If our Saviour purfued it in a difcourfe, in which there are feveral hints given to fhew us that it ought to be fo underftood. It is fuBther obfervable, that our Saviour did frequently fol- loVvthat common way of inftruaion among the Eaftern na tions, by figures that to us would feem ftrong and bold, Thefe were much ufed in thofe parts, to excite the attention of thei hearers; and they are not always to be feverely expounded ac cording to the full extent that the words will bear. The pa rable of the unjuft judge, of the unjuft fteward, of the ten . virgins, of plucking out the right eye, and cutting off the right hand or foot, and feveral others, might be inftanced. Our Saviour In thefe confidered the genius ofthofe to whom he fpoke: fo that thefe figures muft be reftrained only to that particular, for which he m.eant them ; and muft not be ftretched to every thing to which the words may be carried. We find our Saviour compares himfelf to a great many things ; to a vine, a door, and a way : ' and therefore when the fcope of a difcourfe does plainly run in a figure, we are not to go and defcant on every word of it; much kfs may any pretend to fay, that fome parts of it are to be underftood literally, and fome parts figuratively. For inftance, if that chapter of St, John is to be underftood ~ literally, then Chrift sfiefli and blood muft be the nourifhment of li 3^'^ AN EXPOSITION OF ART, of our bodies, fo as to be meat indeed; and that we fhall XXVIII, never hunger any more, and never die after we have cat of it. If *— "V — ' therefore all do confefs that thofe expreflions are to be under ftood figuratively, then we have the fame reafon to conclude that the whole is a figure : for, it Is as reafonable for us to make all of it a figure, as it Is for them to make thofe parts of it a figure, which they cannot conveniently expound in a literal fenfe. From afl which it is abundantly clear that nothing can be drawn frorn that difcourfe of our Saviour's, to make it rea fonable to believe, that the words of the inftitution of this Sa crament ought to be literally underftood: on the contrary, our Saviour himfelf calls the wine, after thofe words had been ufed by him, the fruit of the vine, which Is as ftria a form of fpeech as can well be imagined, to make us underftand that the nature of the wine was not altered : and when St. Paul treats of it In thofe two chapters, in which all that is left us be fides the hiftory of the Inftitution concerning the Sacrament is to be found, he calls it five times bread, and never once the ''f'°'- '^^ ^"dy of Chrijl. In one place he calls it the communion of the body, as the cup is (he communion of tbe blood of Chrifi. Which Is rather a faying, that It Is In fome fort and after a man ner the body and the blood of Chrift, than that it is fo ftriaiy fpeaking. If this Sacrament had been that myfterious and unconceiva ble thing which it has been fince believed to be; we cannot imagine, but that the books of the New Teftament, the ABs of the Apoftks, and their Epifiles, fliould have contained fuller explanations of it, and larger inftruaions about it. There is enough indeed faid in them to fupport the plain and natural fenfe, that we give to this Inftitution ; and becaufe no nore is faid, and the defign of it is plainly declared to be to re member Chrift's death, and to fliew it forth tiU he come, we reckon that by this natural fimplicity, in which this matter is delivered to us, we are very much confirmed in that plain and eafy fignification, which we put upon our Saviour's words. Plain things need not be infifted on : but if the moft fublime and wonderful thing in tiie world feems to be delivered in words that yet are capable of a lower and plainer fenfe, then unkfs there Is a concurrence of other circumftances, to force us to that higher meaning of them, we ought not to go into it; for fimple things prove themfelves: whereas the more ex traordinary that any thing is, it requires a fulnefs and evidence in the proof proportioned to the uneafinefs of conceiving or be lieving it. We do therefore underftand our Saviour's inftitution thus, that as he was to give his body to be broken and his blood to be fhtdfor our fins, fo he intended that this his death and fuffer- THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 397 ing fliould be ftill commemorated by all fuch as look for re miffton of fins by it, not only In their thoughts and devotions, but in a vifible reprefentation : which he appointed fhould be done in fymbols, that fhoUld be both very plain and fimple, and yet very expreffive of that which he intended fhould be remem bered by them. Bread is the plalneft food that the body of man can receive, and wine was the common nourifhing liquor of that country; fo he made choice of thefe materials, and in them appointed a reprefentation and remembrance to be made of his body broken and of his blood fhed ; that is, of his death and fufferings till his fecond coming : and he obliged his followers to repeat this frequently. In the doing of it according to his inftitution, they profefs the belief of his death, for the remiffion of their fins, and that they look for his fecond coming. This does alfo import, that as bread and wine are the fim- pleft of bodily nourifhments, fo his death Is that which reftores the fouls of thofe that do believe in him : as bread and wine con vey a vital nourifhment to the body, fo the facrifice of his death conveys fomewhat to the foul that is vital, that fortifies and exalts it. And as water in Baptifm is a natural emblem of the purity of the Chriftian religion, bread and wine in the Eucharift are the emblems of fomewhat that is derived to us, that raifes our faculties, and fortifies all our powers. St. Paul does very plainly tell us, that unworthy receivers that did neither examine nor difcern themfelves, nor yet difcern the Lord's body, were guilty of the body and blood of the Lord ; and ' ^'"¦- ''' did eat and drink their own damnation : that is, fuch as do re- ^''' ^^' ceive It without truly believing the Chriftian religion, without a grateful acknowledgment of Chrift's death and fufferings, without feeling that they are walking fuitably to this religion that they profefs, and without that decency and charity, which becomes fo holy an aaion ; but that receive the bread and wine only as bare bodily nourifliments ; without confidering that Chrift has inftituted them to be the memorials of his death ; fuch perfons are guilty of the body and blood of Chrift : that is, they are guilty either of a profanation of the Sacrament of his body and blood, or they do in a manner crucify him again, and put him to an open fhame ; when they are fo faiilty as the Corinthians were. In obferving this holy inftitution with fo littie reverence, and with fuch fcandalous diforders, as thofe were for which he reproached them. Of fuch as did thus profane this inftitution, he fays farther, that they do eat and drink their own damnation or judgment ; that is, punlfhment ; for the word rendered damnation fignifies fotnetlmes only temporary punifliments, W it is faid, that judgment (the word is the fame) mufi be- I Pet. iv. '7- 398 AN EXPOSITION OF ART- gin at the houfe of God : Go^l had fent fuch judgments Upon the XXVIII. Corinthians for thofe diforderly praaices of theirs, that fome had fallen fick and others had died, perhaps by reafon 'of their drinking to excefs in thofe feafts : but as God's judgments had come upon them ; fo the words that foflow fh^ew that thefe judg ments were only chaftifements, in order to the delivering them from the condemnation, under which the world lies. It being I Cor. xi. faid, that when we are judged zve are chajlened of the Lord, that V-- we Jhould not be condemned with tbe world. Therefore though God may very juftly and even in great mercy punifh men who profane this holy ordinance; yet it is an unreafonable terror, and contrary to the nature of the Gofpel covenant, to carry this fo far, as to think that it Is an impardonable fin ; which is punifhed with eternal damnation. We have now feen the ill effeas of unworthy receiving, and from hence according to that gradation, that is to be obferved in the mercy of God in the Gofpel, that it not only holds a proportion with his juftice, but rejoiceth over it, we may well conclude that the good effeas upon the worthy receiving of it, are equal If not fuperior to the bad effeas upon the unworthy receiving of it : and that the nourifhment which the types the bread and the wine give the body are anfwered in the effeas, that the thing fignified by them has upon the foul. % In explaining this there Is fome diverfity : fome teach that this memorial of the death of Chrift, when ferioufly and de- voutiy gone about, when it animates our faith, increafes our repentance, and Inflames our love and zeal, and fo unites us to God and to our brethren, that I fay when thefe follow it, which it naturally excites in all holy and good minds, then they dravv down the returns of prayer, and a farther Increafe of grace in us ; according to the nature and promifes of the New Covenant : and In this they put the virtue and eflacacy of this Sacrament. But others think that all this belongs only to the inward ads of the mind, and Is not facramental : and therefore they think that the Eucharift is a federal aa, in which as on the one hand we renew our baptlfmal covenant with God, fo on the other hand we receive in the Sacrament a vifible confignation, as in a tradition by a fymbol or pledge, of the bleffings of the New Covenant, wliich they think is fomewhat fuperadded to thofe returns of our prayers or of other inward aas. This they think anfwers the nourifhment which the body receives from the fymbols of bread and wine ; and ftands in op pofition to that of the unworthy receivers, being guilty of //;^ body and blood of the Lord; and their eating and drinking that which v.'lll bring fome judgment upon themfelves. This they alfo found on thefe words of St. Paul, The cup of bleffing that we blefs. THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 399 Uefs, is it not the communion of the blood of Chrifi ? tbe bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Chrijl ? St. Paul confiders the bread which was offered by the people, as an emblem of their unity, that as there was one loaf, fo they were one body ; and that they were all partakers of that one loaf: from hence it is inferred, that fince the word rendered communion, fignifies a communication in fellowjhip, or partner- flilp, that therefore the meaning of it is, that in the Sacr.iment there is a diftribution made in that fymbolical aaion of the death of Chrift, and of the benefits and effeas of It. Tbe communion of the Holy Ghofi, is a common fharing in the eftu- » Cor. xiii. fion of the Spirit ; the fame is meant by that,, if there is any p|'*.7'^; fellowjhip of the Spirit; that is, if we do all partake of the Epii.iii. 9] fame Spirit, we are faid to have a fellowfliip in the fufferings «/"i^hil.ui.io, Chrifi, in which every one muft take his fhare. Tbe commu nication, or fellowfhip, o/"^/;^ myfiery of the Gofpel, was its being fhared equally among both Jev^s and Gentiles ; and the feflow- flilp In which the firft converts to Chriftianity lived, was their* liberal diftribution to one another, they holding afl things in common. In thefe and fome other places it is certain, that com munion fignifies fomewhat that Is more real and effeaual, than merely men's owning themfelves to be joined together in a fo ciety ; which it is true it does alfo often fignify ; and therefore they conclude that as In bargains or covenants, the ancient me thod of them before writings were invented, was the mutual clellvering of fome pledges, v.hich were the fymbols of that falfh, which was fo plighted : inftead of which the fealing and delivering of writings is now ufed among us ; fo our Saviour in ftituted this in compliance with our frailty, to give us an out ward and fenfible pledge of his entering into covenant with us, of which the bread and wine are conftituted the fymbols. Others think, that by the communion of the body and blood of Chrift can only be meant, the joint owning of Chri'ft and of his death, in the receiving the Sacrament; and that no communication nor partnerfhip can be Inferred from it : becaufe St. Paul brings it in to fhew the Corinthians, how deteftable a thing it was for a Chriftian to join in the idols feafts : that it was to be a partaker with Devils : fo they think that the fel lowfliip or communion of Chriftians in the Sacrament, mufl be of the fame nature with the fellowfhip of Devils in aas of ido latry : which confifted only in their affociating themfelves with thofe that worfliipped idols ; for that upon the matter was the Worfliipping of Devils: and this feems to be confirmed by that which is faid of the Jews, that they who did eat of the facriflces i Cor. x. were partakers of tbe altar ; which It feems can fignify no more J^- 2° but that they profeffed that religion of which the altar was the chief inftrument ; the facrifices being offered there. TQ 400 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. To all this it may be replied, that it is reafonable enough td XXVIII. believe, that according to the power which God fuffered the ^"^ — '""'' Devil to exercife over the idolatrous world, there might be fome inchantment in the facrifices offered to idols ; and that the De vil mi;^ht have fome power over thofe that did partake of them; and ill order to this St, Paul removed an objeaion that migh have been made, that there could be no harm in their joining to the Idol feafts ; for an idol was nothing ; and fo that which was offered to an idol could contraa no defilement from the idol, It being nothing. Now If the meaning of their being par takers with Devils Imports only their joining themfelves in aas of fellowfhip with Idolaters, then the fin of this v/ould have eafily appeared, without fuch a re-inforcing of the matter; for though an idol was nothing, yet it was ftill a great fin to join in the aas that were meant to be the worfhip of this nothing : this w.is a diflionouring of God and a debafing of man. But St. Paul feems to carry the argument farther ; that how true foever it was that the idol was nothing ; that is, a dead and Ufe lefs thing that had no virtue nor operation ; and that by con fequence could derive nothing to the facrifice that was offered to it : yet fince thofe idols were the Inftruments by which the De vil kept the world in fubjeaion to him, all fuch as did partake in their facrifices might come under the eft'eas of that magick, that might be exerted about their temples or facrifices : by which the credit of idolatry was much kept up. ^ And though every Chriftian had a fure defence againft the powers of darknefs, as long as he continued true to his reh gion, yet if he went out of that proteaion Into the empire of the Devil, and joined in the aas that were as a homage to him, he then fell within the reach of the Devil, and might juftly fear his being brought into a partnerjhip of thofe magical poffefllons or temptations that might be fuffered to fall upon fuch Chriftians, as fliould affociate themfelves in fo deteftable a fervice. J Cor. X, _ In the fame fenfe It was alfo faid, that aU the Ifiaelltes who li. did eat of the facrifices were partakers of the altar : that is, that all of them who joined In the aas of that religion, fuch as the oftering their peace-offerings, for of thofe of that kind they might only eat, all thefe were partakers of the altar : that is, of all the bleffings of their religion, of all the expiations, the burnt-offerings and fin-offerings, that were offered on the altar, for the fins of the whole congregation: for that as a great ftock went In a common dividend among fuch as ob ferved the precepts of that law, and joined in the aas of worfliip prefcribed by it : thus it appears, that fuch as joined in the aas of idolatry became partakers of all that influence that Devfls might have over thofe facrifices ; and afl that con tinued THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 4°! tinued in the obfervances of the Mofaical Law, had thereby a partnerfhip In the expiations of the altar ; fo likewife all Chrif tians who receive this facrament worthily, have by their fo doing a fhare in that which is reprefented by it, the death of Chrift, and the expiation and other benefits that follow it. This feemed neceffary to be fully explained : for this matter, how plain foever in itfelf, has been made very dark, by the ways in which fome have pretended to open it. With this I conclude all that belongs to the firft part of the Article, and that which was firft to be explained of our doarine concerning the facrament : by which we affert a real prefence of the body and blood of Chrift ; but not of his body as it is now glorified in heaven, but of his body as it was broken on the crofs, when his blood was fhed and feparated from it : that is, his death, with the merit and effeas of it, are in a vifible and federal aa, offered in this facrament to all worthy believers. By real we underftand true, in oppofition both to fiaion and imagination : and to thofe fhadovi^s that were in the Mo faical difpenfation, in which the manna, the rock, the brazen ferpent, but moft eminently the cloud of glory, were the types and fhadows of the Meffias, that was to come : with whom came grace and truth ; that is, a moft wonderful manifeftation of the mercy or grace of God, and a verifying of the promifes made under the Law: In this fenfe we acknowledge a real pre fence of Chrift in the facrament : though we are convinced that our firft Reformers judged right, concerning the ufe of the phrafe real prefence, that It were better to be let fall than to be continued, fince the ufe of it and that Idea which does na turally arife from the common acceptation of it, may ftick deeper, and feed fuperftition more, than all thofe larger expla nations that are given to it can be able to cure. But howfoever in this fenfe, it is innocent of itfelf, and may be lawfufly ufed ; though perhaps it were more cautioufly done not to ufe it, fince advantages have been taken from it, to urge it farther than we intend it ; and fince it has been a fnare to, fome : I go in the next place to explain the doarine of the Church of Rome, concerning this facrament, Tranfubftantiation does ex prefs it In one word : but that a full idea may be given of this part of their doarine, I fhall open it in all its branches and confequences. The matter of this facrament Is not bread and wine : for they are annihilated when the facrament is made. They are only the remote matter, out of which it is made : but when the facranjent is made, they ceafe to be ; and inftead of them their ; outward appearances or accidents do only remain : which though , they are no fuhfiances, yet are fuppofed to have a nature and , ' D d • effence 4'* AN EXPOSITION OF effence of their own, feparabk from matter : and thefe ap pearances with the body of Chrift under them, are the matter of the facrament. Now though the natural and vifible body of Chrift could not be the facrament of his body, yet they think his real body being thus veiled under the appearances of bread and wine, may be the facrament of his glorified body. Yet, it feeming fomewhat ftrange to make a true body the facrament of itfelf^ they would willingly put the facrament in the appearances ; but that would found very harfh, to make accidents which are not matter, to be the matter of the facrament : therefore fince thefe words. This is my body, muft be literally underftoood, the matter muft be the true body of Chrift ; fo that Chrift's body Is the facrament of his body, Chrift's body, though now in heaven, is, as they think, pre fented In every place where a true confecration is made. And though it is In heaven in an extended ftate, as all other bodies are, yet they think that extenfion may be feparated from matter, as well as the other appearances or accidents are believed to be feparated from It, And whereas our fouls are believed to be fo in our bodies, that though the whole foul is in the whole body, yet all the foul Is believed to be in every part of it ; but fo that if any part of the body is feparated from the reft, the foul is not divided ; being one fingle fubftance, but retires back into the reft of the body : they apprehend that Chrift's body is pre fent after the manner of a fpirit, without extenfion or the filling of fpace ; fo that the fpace which the appearances poffefs Is ftfll a vacuum, or only fifled by the accidents : for a body without extenfion, as they fuppofe Chrift's body to be, can never fifl up an extenfion. Chrift's body in the facrament is denominated one, yet ftill as the fpecies are broken and divided, fo many new bodies are divided from one another ; every crumb of bread and drop of wine that is feparated from the whole. Is a new body, and yet without a new miracle, all being done In confequence of the firft great one that was all at once wrought. The body of Chrift continues In this ftate, as long as the accidents remain In theirs ; but how it fhould alter is not eafy to apprehend : the corruption of all other accidents - arifes from a change In the common fubftance, out of which new accidents do arife, while the old ones vanifh ; but accidents without a fubjea may feem more fixed and ftable : yet they are not fo, but are as fubjea to corruption as other accidents ere : howfoever, as long as the alteration is not total ; though the bjead fhould be both mufty and mouldy, and the wine both dead and four, yet as long as the bread and wine are ftill fo far pre ferved, or rather that their appearances fubfift, fo long the body of THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 4OJ of Chrlfl; remains : but when they are fo far altered, that they art. feem to be no more bread and wine, and that they are corrupted ^XViir. either in part or In whole, Chrift's body is withdrawn, either ' — '"-' in part or in whole. It is a great miracle to make the accidents of bread and wine fubfift without a fubjea ; yet the new accidents that arife upon thefe accidents, fuch as mouldinefs or fournefs, come on with out a miracle, but they do not know how. When the main accidents are deftroyed, then the prefence of Chrift cedfes : and a new mirack muft be fuppofed to produce new matter, for the filling up of that fpace which the fubftance of bread and wine did formerly fill ; and which was all this while pofleffed by the accidents. So much of the matter of this facrament. The form of It is in the words of confecration, which though they found declarative as if the thing were already done ; This is my body and This is my blood : yet they believe them to be produaive. But whereas the common notion of the form of a facrament, is that it fanaifies and applies the matter; here the former matter Is fo far from being confecrated by it, that it is annihilated, and new matter is not fanaified, but brought thi ther or produced : and whereas whenfoever we fay of any thing, this is, we fuppofe that the thing is, as we fay it is, before we fay it ; yet here all the while that this Is a faying till the laft fyllabk is pronounced. It is not that which it is faid to be, but in the minute In which the laft fyflabk is uttered, then the change is made : and of this they are fo firmly perfuaded, that they do prefendy pay all that adoration to it, that they would pay to the perfon of Jefus Chrift if he were vifibly prefent : though the whole virtue of the confecration depends on the intention of a Prieft : fo that he with a crofs intention hinders all this feries of miracles, as he fetches it all on, by letting his intention go along with It. If it may be faid of fome doarines, that the bare expofing them is a moft effeaual confutation of them; certainly that is more applicable to this, than to any other that can be imagined : for though I have in ftating it confidered fome of the moft im portant difHculties, which are feen and confeffed by the School men themfelves, who have poifed all thefe with much exaanefs and fubtilty ; yet I have pafled over a great many more, with which thofe that deal in fchool-divinity wfll find enough to ex ercife both their thoughts and their patience. They run out ill many fubtilties, concerning the accidents both primary and fe condary; concerning the ubication, the produdiion and repro- duaion of bodies ; concerning the penetrabflity of matter, and the organization of a penetrable body ; concerning the way of the deftruaion of the fpecies ; concerning the words of con fecration; concerning the water that is mixed with the wine, D d 2 whether 4®4 AN EXPOSITION OF whether it Is firft changed by natural caufes into wine ; and fince nothing but wine is tranfubftantiated, what becomes of fuch particles of water that are not turned into wine i' What is the grace produced by the facrament, what is the effea of the prefence of Chrift fo long as he is in the body of the com municant; what is got by his prefence, and what Is loft by his abfence ? In a word, let a man read the fhorteft body of fchool-divinity that he can find, and he will fee In it a vaft number of other difficulties in this matter, of which their own authors are aware, which I have quite paffed over. For when this doarine fell into the hands of nice and exaa men, they were foon fenfible of all the confequences that muft needs follow upon it, and have purfued all thefe with a clofenefs far beyond any thing that is to be found among the writers of our fide. But that they might have a falvo for every difficulty, they framed a new model of philofophy; new theories were in vented, of fubftances and accidents, of matter and of fpirits, of extenfion, ubication and impenetrability ; and by the new definitions and maxims to which they accuftomed men in the ftudy of philofophy, they prepared them to fwallow down all this more eafily, when they fhould come to the ftudy of divi nity. The Infallibility of the Church that had exprefsly defined It, was to bear a great part of the burden : if the Church was in fallible, and If they were that Church, then it could be no longer doubted of. In dark ages miracles and vifions came in abundantiy to fupport it : In ages of more light the infinite power of God, the words of the inftitution, it being the tef tament of our Saviour then dying, and foon after confirmed with his blood, were things of great pomp, and fiich as were apt^to ftrike men that could not diftinguifh between the fhews and the ftrength of arguments. But when afl our fenfes, all our ideas of things rife up fo ftrongly againft every part of this chain of wonders, we ought at leafl to expea proofs fuita ble to the difficulty of believing fuch a flat contradiaion to our reafons, as well as to pur fenfes . We have no other notion of accidents, but that they are the different fhapes or modes of matter ; and that they have no being diftliia from the body in which they appear : we have no other notion of a body, but that it is an extended fubftance, made up of impenetrable parts, one without another ; every one of which fills its proper fpace : we have no other notion of a body's being in a place, but that it fiUs it, and is fo in it, as that it can be no where elfe at the fame time : and though we can very eafily apprehend that an infinite power can both create and annihilate beings at pleafure ; yet we cannot apprehend that God THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 405 God does change the effences of things, and fo make them to ART, be contrary to that nature and fort of being of which he has XXViil, made them. '^ — v— ' Another argument againft Tranfubftantiation Is this ; God has made us capable to know and ferve him : and, in order to that, he has put fome fenfes In us, which are the conveyances of many fubtile motions to our brains, that give us apprehen fions of the objeas, which by thofe motions are reprefented to us. When thofe motions are lively, and the objea is in a due diftance ; when we feel that neither our organs nor our facul ties are under any diforder, and when the impreflion is clear and ftrong, we a're determined by it ; we cannot help being fo. When we fee the fun rifen and all Is bright about us, it Is not poffible for us to think that it is dark night; no authority can impofe it on us ; we are not fo far the mafters of our own thoughts, as to force ourfelves to think it, though we would ; for God has made us of fuch a nature, that we are determined hy fuch an evidence, and cannot contradia it. When an ob jea is at too great a diftance, we may miftake; a weaknefs or an ill difpofition in our fight may mifreprefent it ; and a falfe medium, water, a cloud or a glafs, may give it a tinaure or eaft, fo that we may fee caufe to correa our firft apprehen fions, in fome fenfations : but when we have duly examined every thing, when we have correaed one fenfe by another, we grow at laft to be fo fure, by the conftitution of that nature that God has given us, that we cannot doubt, much lefs believe in contradiaion to the exprefs evidence of our fenfes. It is by this evidence only that God convinces the world of the authority of thofe whom he fends to fpeak In his name ; he gives them a power to work miracles, which is an appeal to the fenfes of mankind ; and it is the higheft appeal that can be made ; for thofe who ftood out againft the conviaion of Chrift's miracles, had no cloak for their fins. It is the ut moft conviaion that God offers, or that man can pretend to : from all which we muft infer this, that either our fenfes in their cleareft apprehenfions, or rather reprefentations of things, muft be infallible, or we muft throw up all faith and certain ty; fince it is not poffible for us to receive the evidence that is given us of any thing but by our fenfes ; and fince we do na turally acquiefce in that evidence, we muft acknowledge that God has fo made us, that this is his voice in us ; becaufe it is the voice of thofe faculties that he has put in us ; and Is the only way by which we can find out truth, and be led by it : and if our faculties fail us in any one thing, fo that God fhould reveal to us any thing, that did plainly contradia our faculties, he fhould thereby give us a right to diflbelieve them for ever. D d 3 If 4^6 AN EXPOSITION OF If they can miftake when they bring any objeft to us with the fufleft evidence that they can give, we can never depend upon them, nor be certain of any thing, becaufe they fliew it. Nay, we are not, and cannot be bound"Ttrhelieve that, nor any other revelation that God may make to convince us. We can only receive a revelation by hearing or reading, by our ears or 'our eyes. So if any part of this revelation deftroys the certainty of the evidence, that our fenfes, our eyes or our ears, give us, it deftroys itfelf: for we cannot be bound to believe It upon the evidence of our fenfes, If this is a part of it that our fenfes are not to be trufted. Nor will this matter be healed, by faying, that certainly we muft believe God more than our fenfes : and therefore. If he has revealed any thing to us, that is contrary to their evidence, we muft as to that par ticular believe God, before our fenfes : but that as to afl other things v/here we have not an exprefs revelation to the contrary, we muft ftill believe our fenfes. There is a difterence to be made between that feeble evi dence that our fenfes give us of remote objeas, or thofe loofe inferences that we may make from a flight view of things, and the fufl evidence that fenfe gives us ; as when we fee and fmell to, we handle and tafte the fame objea : this Is the voice of God to us ; he has made us fo that we are determined by it : and as we fhould not believe a prophet that wrought ever fo many miracles, if he fhould contradia any part of that which God had already revealed; fo we cannot be bound to be lieve a revelation contrary to our fenfe ; becaufe that were to believe God in contradiaion to himfelf; which is impoffible to be true. For we fliould believe that revelation certainly upon an evidence, which itfelf tells us is not certain ; and this is a contradiaion. We believe our fenfes upon this foundation, becaufe we reckon there is an Intrinfick certainty In their evi dence ; we do not believe them as we believe another man, upon a moral prefumption of his truth and fincerity; but we believe them, becaufe fuch is the nature of the union of our fouls and bodies, which is the work of God, that upon the full impreffions that are made upon the fenfes, the foul does neceffarily produce, or rather feel thofe thoughts and fenfations arife with a full evidence that correfpond to the motions of fenfible objeas, upon the organs of feiife. The foul has a fagacity to examine thefe fenfations, to correa one fenfe by another; but when fhe has ufed all the means fhe can, and the evidence Is ftill clear, fhe is perfuaded, and cannot help being fo ; flie naturally takes all this to be true, becaufe of the neceffary connexion that fhe feels between fuch fenfations, and her affent to them. Now, if fhe fhould find that fhe could be miftaken in this, even though fhe fhould know this, by a divine revel^tioiij( THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 4^7 revelation, aU the intrinfick certainty of the evidence of fenfe, and that connexion between thofe fenfations and her affent to them, fhould be hereby diffolved. ^ To all this another objeaion may be made from the myfte ries of the Chriftian religion : which contradia our reafons, and yet we are bound to believe them ; although reafon is a fa culty much fuperior to fenfe. But afl this is a miftake ; we cannot be bound to believe any thing that contradias our rea fons ; for the evidence of reafon as well as that of fenfe is the voice of God to us. But as great difference Is to be made, between a feeble evidence that fenfe gives us of an objea that is at a diftance from us, or that appears to us through a falfe medium ; fuch as a concave or a convex glafs ; and tfie full evidence of an objea that is before us, and that is clearly apprehended by us : fo there is a great difference to be made, between our reafonings upon difficulties that we can neither un derftand nor refolve, and our reafonings upon clear principles. The one may be falfe, and the other muft be true : we are fure that a thing cannot be one and three in the fame refpea ; our reafon affures us of this, and we do and muft believe it ; but we know that in different refpeas the fame thing may be one and three. And fince we cannot know all the poffibflities of thofe different refpeas, we muft believe upon the authority of God revealing It, that the fame thing is both one and three; though if a revelation fhould affirm that the fame thing were one and three In the fame refpea, we fhould not, and indeed could not believe it. This argument deferves to be fully opened ; for we are fure cither it is true, or we cannot be fure that any thing elfe what foever is true. In confirmation of this we ought alfo to con fider the nature and ends of miracles. They put nature out of its channel, and reverfe its fixed laws and motions ; and the end of God's giving men a power to work them, is that by them the world may be convinced, that fuch perfons are commiffionated by him, to deliver his pleafure to them in fome particulars. And as it could not become the infinite wifdom of the great Creator, to change the order of nature (which is his own workmanfhip) upon flight grounds; fo we cannot fuppofe that he fhould work a chain of extraordinary miracles to no purpofe. It is not to give credit to a revelation that he is making ; for the fenfes do not perceive it ; on the contrary, they do rejea and contradia it ; and the revelation, inftead of getting credit from it, is loaded by it, as introducing that which deftroys all credit and certainty. In other miracles our fenfes are appealed to; but here they muft be appealed ftom ; nor is there any fpiritual end ferved D d 4 in 408 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. in working this miracle : for it is acknowledged, that the ef- XXVIII. fg£js of this facrament are given upon our due coming to it, '^"^ ' independent upon the corporal prefence : fo that the grace of the facrament does not always accompany it, fince unworthy receivers, though, according to the Rortiifh doarine, they receive the true body of Chrift, yet they do not receive grace with it : and the grace that is given in it to the worthy receivers, ftays with them after that, by the deftruaion of the fpecies of the bread and wine, the body of Chrift is withdrawn. So that It is acknowledged, that the fpiritual effea of the facra ment does not depend upon the corporal prefence. Here then It is fuppofed, that God is every day working a great many miracles, in a vaft number of different places ; and that of fo extraordinary a nature, that it muft be confeffed, they are far beyond all the other wonders, even of omnipotence ; and yet all this is to no end, that we can apprehend ; neither to any fenfible and vifible end, nor to any Internal and fpiritual one. This muft needs feem an amazing thing, that God fliould work fuch a miracle on our behalf, and yet fhould not acquaint us with any end for which he fhould work it. I'o conclude this whole argument, we have one great ad vantage in this matter, that our doarine concerning the facra ment, of a myftical prefence of Chrift in the fymbols, and of the effeas of It on the worthy and unworthy receivers, is all acknowledged by the Church of Rome ; but they have added to this the wonder of the corporal prefence : fo that we need bring no proofs to them at leaft, for that which we teach con cerning it ; fince it is all confeffed by them. But as to that which they have added, it Is not neceflary for us to give proofs againft it; it Is enough for us, If we fhew that all the proofs that they bring for It are weak and unconcludlng. They muft be very demonftrative if it is expeaed, that upon the authority and evidence of them, we fhould be bound to believe a thing which they themfelves confefs to be contrary both to our fenfe and reafons. We cannot by the laws of reafoning be bound to give arguments againft it ; it is enough if we can fhew that neither the words of the inftitution, nor the difcourfe in the fixth of St. John do neceffarfly infer it ; and If we fhew that thofe paffages can well bear another fenfe, which is agreeable both to the words themfelves, and to the ftyle of the Scriptures, and more particularly to the phrafeology to which the Jews were accuftomed, upon the occafion on which this was infti tuted, and if the words can well bear the fenfe that we give them, then the other advantages that are in it, of its being fim ple and natural, of its being fuitable to the defign of a facra ment, and of its having no hard confequences of any fort de- pendmg THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 409 pending upon it ; then, I fay, by all the rules of expounding art. Scripture, we do juftly infer, that our fenfe of thofe words ought ^xviii. to be preferred. ^; — y~-~' This is according to a rule that St. Auguftin gives to judge Doa.'chric what expreffions in Scripture are figurative, and what not; '^If c 16, " any place feems to command a crime or horrid aaion, it is " figurative : and for an inftance of this he cites thofe " words, except ye eat tbe flefli and drink the blood of the Son " of Man, you have no life in you : which feems to command " a crime and an horrid aaion ; and therefore it is a figure " commanding us to communicate in the paflion of our Lord, " and to lay up in our memory with delight and profit, that " his flefh was crucified and wounded for u,s." As this was given for a rule by the great doaor of the Latin Church, fo the fame maxim had been delivered almoft two ages before him, by the great doaor of the Greek Church, Origen, who fays, " that the underftanding our Saviour's words of eating Hom. y.ja "his flefli and drinking his blood, according to the letter, is Levit. *' a letter that kills." Thefe paffages I cite by an anticipa tion, before I enter upon the enquiry into the fenfe of the an cient Church, concerning this matter ; becaufe they belong to the words of the inftitution, at leaft to the difcourfe in St. John : now if the fenfe that we give to thefe words is made good, we need be at no more pains to prove that they are ca pable of no other fenfe : fince this muft prove that to be the only true fenfe of them. So that for all the arguments that have been brought by us againft this doarine, arifing out of the fruitfulnefs of the matter, we were not bound to ufe them : for, our doarine being confeffed by them, it wants no proof; and we cannot be bound to prove a negative. Therefore though the coploufnefs of this matter has afforded us many arguments for the nega tive, yet that was not neceffary : for, as a negative always proves itfelf; fo that holds more efpecially here, where that which is denied is accompanied with lb many and fo ftrange ab furditles, as do follow from this doarine. The laft topick in this matter is the fenfe that the ancient Church had of it: for, as we certainly have both the Scriptures and the evidence of our fenfes and reafon of our fide, fo that will be much fortified, if it appears that no fuch doarine was received In the firft and beft ages : and that it came in not all at once, but by degrees. I fhall firft urge this matter by fome general prefumptions ; and then I fhafl go to plain proofs. But though the prefumptions fhall be put only as prefumptions; yet if they appear to be violent, fo that a man cannot hold giving his affent to the conclufion that follows from them, then though they are put in the form of prefumptivc arguments, yei; 4^'^ AN EXPOSITION OF ART. yet that will not hinder them from being confidered as con-» jcxviii. eluding ones. ^"""''¦^ By the ftating this doarine it has appeared how many diffi culties there are involved in It : theie are difficulties that are obvious and foon feen : they are not found out by deep en quiry and much fpeculation : they are foon felt, and are very hardly avoided : and ever fince the time that this doarine has been received by the Roman Church, thefe have been much In fifted on ; explanations have been offered to them all ; and the whole principles of natural philofophy have been eaft into a new mould, that they might ply to this doarine : at leaft thofe who have ftudied their philofophy in that fyftem, have had fuch notions put in them, while their minds were yet ten der and capable of any Impreffions, that they have been there by prepared to this doarine before they came to it, by a train of philofophical terms and diftinaions, fo that they were not much alarmed at It, when It came to be fet before them. They are accuftomed to think that ubication, or the being in a place, is but an accident to a fubftance : fo that the fame bodies being in more places, is only its having a few more of thofe accidents produced in it by God : they are accuftomed to think that accidents are beings different from matter : like a fort of clothing to it, which do indeed require the having of a fubftance for their fubjea : but yet fince they are believed to have a being of their own, God may make them fubfift : as the fkin of a man may ftand out in its proper fhape and colour, though there were nothing but air or vacuity within it. They are accuftomed to think, that as an accident may be without its proper fubftance, fo fubftance may be with out its proper accidents ; and they do reckon extenfion and impenetrability, that is, a body's fo filling a fpace, that no other body can be in the fame fpace with it, among its acci dents : fo that a body compofed of organs and of large dlmen- fions, may be not only all crowded within one wafer, but an entire diftina body may be In every feparabk part of this wa fer ; at leaft in every piece that carries in it the appearances of bread. Thefe, befides many other leffer fubtilties, are the evident refults of this doarine : and it was a natural effea of its being received, that their philofophy fhould be fo transformed as to agree to it, and to prepare men for it. Now to apply this to the matter we are now upon, we find none of thefe fubtilties among the ancients. They feem to apprehend none of thofe difficulties, nor do they take any pains to folve or clear them. They had a philofophical genius, and fliewed it in all other things : they difputed very nicely concerning the attributes of God, concerning his effence, and the THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 41* the Perfons of the Trinity : they faw the difficulties concerning art. the incarnation of the Eternal Word, and Chrift's being both XXViii. God and man : they treat of original fin, of the power of grace, ^~~^' * and of the decrees of God. They explained the refurreaion of our bodies, and the dif ferent fl:ates of the bleffed and the damned. They faw the difficulties in all thefe heads, and were very copious in their explanations of them : and they may be rather thought by fome too full, than too fparing in the canvaffing of difficulties : but all thofe were mere fpeculative matters, in which the difficulty was not fo foon feen as on this fubjea: yet they found thefe out, and purfued them with that fubtilty that fhewed they were not at all difpkafed, when occafions were offered them to fhew their fkill In anfwering difficulties : which, to name no more, appears very evidently to be St. Au- guftin's charaaer. Yet neither he nor any of the other Fa,- thers feem to have been fenfible of the difficulties in this matter. They neither ftate them nor anfwer them ; nor do they ufe thofe referves when they fpeak of philofophical matters, that men muft have ufed who were poffeffed of this doarine : for a man cannot hold it without bringing himfelf to think and fpeak otherways upon all natural things than the reft of man kind do. They are fo far from this, that, on the contrary, they deli ver themfelves in a way that fhews they had no fuch apprehen fions of things. They thought that all creatures were limited to one place : and from thence they argued againft the heathens, who be lieved that their deities were in every one of thofe ftatues which they confecrated to them. From this head they proved the Divinity of the Holy Ghoft; becaufe he wrought in many different places at once : which be could not do if he were only a creature. They affirm, that Chrift can be no more on earth, fince he " is now in heaven, and that he can be but in one place. They fay, that which hath no bounds nor figure, and that can neither be touched nor feen, cannot be a body : that bodies are extended in fome place, and cannot exift after the manner 'of fpirits.They argue againft the eternity of matter, from this, that nothing could be produced, that had a being before it was pro duced ; and on all occafions they appeal to the teftimony of our fenfes as infafllble. They fay, that to believe otherwife tended to reverfe the \vhok ftate of life, and order of nature, and to rep.oach the providence of God; fince it muft be faid, that he has given the ^ know- 412 an EXPOSITION OF knowledge of all his works to lyars and deceivers, if our fenfes may be falfe : that we muft doubt of our faith, if the teftimony of hearing, feeing and feeling could deceive us. And in their contefts with the Marcionites and others, con cerning the truth of Chrift's body, they appeal always to the teftimony of the fenfes as infallible : and even treating of the facrament, they fay, without limitation or exception, that it was bread, as their eyes witneffed, and true wine that Chrift did confecrate to be the memorial of his body and blood ; and they tell us in this very particular, that we ought not to doubt of the teftimony of our fenfes. Another prefumptivc proof, that the ancients knew nothing; of this doarine, is, that the Heathens and the Jews, who charged them, and their doarine, with every thing that they could In vent to make both it and them ridiculous, could never have paffed over this, in which both fenfe and reafon feemed to be fo evidentiy on their fide. They reproach the Chriftians for believing a God that was born, a God of flefli that was crucified and buried: they laughed at their belief of a judgment to come, of endlefs flames, of a heavenly paradife, and of the refurreaion of the body. Thofe who writ the firft apologies for the Chriftian religion, Juftin Martyr, Tertufllan, Origen, Arnobius and Minutius Felix, have given us a large account of the blafphemies both of Jews and Gentiles, againft the doarines of Chriftianity. Cyril of Alexandria has given us Julian's objeaions in his own words ; who having been not only initiated into the Chrif tian religion, but having read the Scriptures in the Churches, and being a philofophical and inquifitive man, muft have been well inftruaed concerning the doarine and the facraments of this religion : and his relation to the Emperor Conftantine muft have mad^the Chriftians concerned to take more than or dinary pains on him. When he made apoftacy from the faith, he reproached the Chriftians with the doarine of Baptifm, and laughed at them for thinking that there was an ablution and fanaificatlon in it, conceiving it a thing impoffible that water fhould wafh or cleanfe a foul : yet neither he nor Porphyry, nor Celfus before them, did charge this religion with the ab furditles of tranfubftantiation. It is reafonable to believe, that if the Chriftians of that time had any fuch doarine among them. It muft have been known. Every Chriftian muft have known in what fenfe thofe words. This is my body and This is my blood, were underftood among them. Afl the apoftates from Chriftianity muft have known It, and muft have publifhed it, to excufe or hide the fhame of their apoftacy ; fince apoftates are apt to fpread lyes of them whom they forfake, but not to conceal fuch truths as afe to their pre judice. THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 4^3 judice. Julian muft have known it; and if he had ktlown it, his judgment was too true, and his malice to the Chriftian re ligion too quick, to overlook or negka the advantages which this part of their doarine gave him. Nor can this be carried off by faying, that the eating of human flefli and the Thyefiean fuppers, which were objeaed to the Chriftians, relate to this: when the Fathers anfwer that, they tell the Heathens that it was a downright calumny and lye ; and do not offer any expla nations or diftinaions taken from their doarine of the Sacra ment, to dear them from the miftalce and malice of this ca lumny. The truth is, the execrable praaices of the Gno fticks, who were called Chriftians, gave the rife to thofe as well as to many other calumnies : but they were not at all founded on the doarine of the Eucharift, which is never once mentioned as the occafion of this accufation. Another prefumption from which we conclude that the ancients knew nothing of this doarine, is, that we find here fies and difputes arifing concerning all the other points of re ligion: there were very few of the doarines of the Chriftian religion, and not any of the myfteries of the faith, that did not fall under great objeaions : but there was not any one herefy raifed upon this head : men were never fo meek and tame as eafily to believe things, when there appeared ftrong evi dence, or at leaft great prefumptions, againft them In thefe laft eight or nine centuries, fince this doarine was received, there has been a perpetual oppofition made to It, even In dark and unlearned ages ; in which implicit faith and blind obedience have carried a great fway. And though the fecular arm has been employed with great and unrelenting feverlties to extirpate afl that have oppofed it ; yet all the while many have ftood out againft it, and have fuffered much and long for their rejeaing it. Now it is not to be imagined that fuch an oppofition fhould have been made to this doarine, during the nine hundred years laft paft, and that for the former eigh',; hundred years ther& ihouid have been no difputes at all concerning it : and that while afl other things were fo much queftioned, that feveral Fa thers writ, and councils were called to fettie the belief of them, yet that for about eight hundred years, this was the fingle point that went down fo eafily, that no treatife was all that while writ to prove it, nor council held to eftablifh it. Certainly the reafon of this will appear to be much ra ther, that fince there have been contefts upon this point thefe laft nine ages, and that there were none the firft eight, this doarine was not known during thofe firft ages ; and that the great filence about it for fo long a time, is a very ftrong pre fumption that in afl that time, this doarine was not thought of. The laft of thofe cpnfiderations that I fhall offer, which are or 414 AN EXPOSITION OP of the nature of prefumptivc proofs, is, that there are A great many rites and other praaices, that have arifen out of this doarine as its natural confequences, which were not thought of for a great many ages ; but that have gone on by a perpetual progrefs, and have increafed very fruitfully, ever fince this doc trine was received. Such are the elevation, adoration, and proceffions, together with the doarine of concomitance, and a vaft number of rites and rubricks ; the firft occafions and beginnings of which are well known. Thefe did afl arife from this doarine ; it being natural, efpecially in the ages of Igno rance and fuperftition, for men upon the fuppofition of Chrift's being corporally prefent, to run out into all poffible Inventions of pomp and magnificence, about this facrament ; and it is very reafonabk to think, that fince thefe things are of fo late and fo certain a date, that the doarine upon which they are founded is not much ancienter. The great fimplicity of the primitive forms, not only as they are reported by Juftin Martyr and Tertufllan in the ages of the poverty and perfecutions of the Church, but as they are repre fented to us in the fourth and fifth centuries by Cyril of Jeru falem, the Conftitutions, and the pretended Areopagite, have no thing of that air that appears in the latter ages. The facra ment was then given in both kinds, it was put in the hands of the faithful ; they referved fome portions of it : it was given to chfldren for many ages : the laity and even boys were em ployed to carry it to dying penitents ; what remained of it was burnt in fome places, and confumed by the clergy, and by chil dren in other places ; the making cataplafms of it, the mixing the wine with ink, to fign the condemnation of heretlcks, are very clear prefumptions that this doarine was not then known. But above all, their not adoring the facrament, which is not done to this day In the Greek Church, and of which there is no mention made by all thofe who writ of the offices of the Church in the eighth and ninth centuries fo copioufly ; this, I fay, of their not adoring it, Is perhaps more than a prefumption, that this doarine was not then thought on. But fince it was eftabhflied, all the old forms and rituals have been altered, and the adoring the facrament is now become the main aa of devotion and of religious worfhip among them. One ancient form is indeed ftill continued, which is of the ftrongeft kind of prefumptions that this doarine came in much later than fome other fuperfti- tions which we condemn in that Church. In the maffes that are appointed on Saints-days, there are fome colkas in which it is faid, that the facrifice is offered up in honour to the Saint; and it is prayed, that it may become the more valuable arid acceptable, by tbe merits and interceffions of tbe Saint. Now when a prac tice wifl well agree with one opinion, but not at all with ano ther. THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 41S Aef, we hiave aU poffible reafon to prefume at leaft, that at firft it came in under that opinion with which It wifl agree, and not under another which cannot confift with it. Our opinion Is, that the facrament is a federal aa of our Chriftianity, in which we offer up our higheft devotions to God through Chrift, and receive the largeft returns from him : it is indeed a fuperftitious conceit to celebrate this to the honour of a Saint ; but howfo ever upon the fuppofition of Saints hearing our prayers, and in terceding for us, there Is ftifl good fenfe In this : but if it Is be lieved that Chrifi Is corporally prefent, and that he is offered up in it, it is againft all fenfe, and it approaches to blafphemy, to do thre to the honour of a Saint, and much more to defire that this, which is of infinite value, and is the foundation of all God's bleffings to us, fhould receive any addition or increafe In Its value or acceptation from the merits or interceffion of Saints. So this, though a late praaice, yet does fully evince, that the doarine of the corporal prefence was not yet thought on, when it was firft brought into the office. So far I have gone upon the prefumptions that may be offered to prove that this doarine was not known to the ancients. They are not only juft and lawful prefumptions, but they are fo ftrong and violent, that when they are well confidered, they force an affent to that which we infer from them. I go next to the more plain and direa proofs that we find of the opinion of the ancients in this matter. They call the elements bread and wine after the confecra tion. Juftin Martyr calls them bread and wine, and a nourifh- Apolog. a- ment which nourifhed : he indeed fays it is not common bread and wine ; which fhews that he thought it was ftill fo In fub ftance : and he Illuftrates the fanaificatlon of the elements by the incarnation of Chrift, in which the human nature did not lofe or change its fubftance by Its union with the divine : fo the bread and the wine do not, according to that explanation, lofe their proper fubfiance, when they become the flcih and blood of Chrift. Iraeneus calls it that bread over which thanks are given, Lib. iv. de and fays, it is no more common bread, but the Eucharifi confifiing iff'-'^'}'^' of two things, an earthly and a heavenly. Marcion. Tertufllan, arguing againft the Marcionites, who held f; 14- Lib. two Gods, and that the Creator of this earth was the bad God ; ^^^^^^ff^' butthat Chrift was contrary to him ; argues againft them this, ^. ig." ' that Chrift made ufe of the creatures : and fays, he did not re- jeB bread by which he reprefents his own body : and in ano ther place he ficys, -Chrift calls bread his body, that from thence you may underftand, that he gave the figure of his body to the bread. Origen 4i6 AN EXPOSITION OF Ijb.viii.con- tra Celfum, Ip. 76, Ep, 63. In Ancho- In orat, de Baptif.Chrifti. Origen fays, we eat of the loaves that are {et before us : Which by prayer are become a certain holy body, that fanBifies thofe who ufe them with a found purpofe. St. Cyprian fays, Chrifi calls the bread that was compounded of many grains, his body : and ihe wvke that is preffid out of many grapes, his blood, io fhew ihe union of his people. And in another place, writing againft thofe who ufed only water, but no wine, in the Eucharift, he fays, we cannot fee the blood by which we are redeemed, when wine is not in the chalice; by which the blood of Chrifi is fhewed. Epiphanlus being to prove that man may be faid to be made after the image of God, though he is not like him, urges this. That the bread is not like Chrifi, neither in his invifible Deity, nor in bis incarnate likenefs, for it is round and without feeling as to its virtue. Gregory Nyffen fays, tbe bread in tbe beginning is common ; but after the myfiery has confecrated it, it is faid to be, and is the body of Chrifi : to this he compares the fanaificatlon of the myftical oil, of the water in baptifm, and the ftones of an altar or church dedicated to God. DeBenedia. St. Ambtofe Calls it ftill bread j and fays this bread is made Patriarch, the food of the Saints. H.m 21 in ^*" Chryfoftom on thefe words, tbe bread that we break, fays, Ep. adCor. What is the bread? The body of Chrifi : What are they made to be who take it ? The body of Chrift. Which fhews that he confidered the bread as being fo the body of Chrlftj as the worthy receivers became his body ; which is done, not by a change of fubftance, but by a fanaificatlon of their natures. St. Jerom fays, Chrifi took bread, that as Melchifedeck had in the figure offered bread and wine, be might alfo reprefent tbe truth (that is in oppofition to the figure) of his body arid blood. St. Auguftin does very largely compare the facraments being Folgent. de called the body and blood of Chrift, with thofe other places in Bapufmo. ^^^^^ ji^g Church is called his body, and all Chriftians are his members: which fhews that he thought the one was to be underftood myftically as well as the other. He calls the Eucha rift frequentiy our daily bread, and the facrament of bread and wine. All thefe call the Eucharift bread and wine in exprefs words : but when they call it Chrifi' s body and blood, they call it fo after a fori, or that it is faid to be, or with fome other mollifying expreffion. St. Auguftin fays this plainly, after fome fort the facrament of the body of Chrifi is his body, and the facratnent of his blood is the blood of Chrifi ; he carried himfelf in his own hands in fome fort, when he faid. This is my bd'dy. Comm. in St. Matt. c z6. Cit apud Aug.Ep, 23 ad Bonit'ac. Serm. 2. in Piil, 33, St. The XXXIX ARTICLES. '4if; ¦ St. Chryfoftom fays, the bread is thought worthy to be called art the body of our Lord : and in another place, reckoning up the Xxviif. improper fenfes of the word fieJh, he fays, the Scriptures ufe ' — • — ' to cafl the myfieries (that is, the facrament) by the name of^f^-f^' flefl, and fometimes the whole Church is faid to be tbe body of \nComm. Chrifi. in Ep. ad So Tertufllan fays, Chrifi calls the bread his body, and names S"'' I" .^•, the bread by his body. - Z"fi, The Fathers do not only call the confecrated elements bread Marc. l. 40. and wine ; they do alfo affirm, that they retain their proper na ture and fubftance, and are the fame thing as to their nature, that they were before. And the occafion upon which the paf fages, that I go next to mention, are ufed by them, does prove this matter beyond contradiaion. Apoflinaris did broach that herefy which was afterwards put in full form by Eutyches ; and that had fo great a party to fup port it, that as they had one General Council (a pretended one at leaft) to favour them, fo they were condemned by another. Their error was, that the human nature of Chrift was fwallowed up by the divine, if not while he was here on earth, yet at leaft after his afcenfion to heaven. This error was confuted by feveral writers who lived very wide from one another, and at a diftance of above a hundred years one from another. St. Chryfoftom at Conftantinople, Theodoret in Afia, Ephrem Pa triarch of Antioch, and Gelafius Bifhop of Rome. All thofe write to prove, that the human nature did ftill remain in Chrift, not changed, nor fwallowed up, but only fanaified by the divine nature that was united to it. They do all fall into one argu ment, which very probably thofe who came after St, Chryfo- Epift. ad ftom took from him : fo that though both Theodoret and Ge- Ccfanum. lafius's words are much fuller, yet becaufe the argument is the fame with that which St. Chryfoftom had urged againft Apol- linaris, I fhall firft fet down his words. He brings an illuftration from the doarine of the Sacrament, to fhew that the human nature was not deftroyed by its union with the divine ; and has upon that thefe words. As before the bread is fanBified, we call it bread; but when the divine grace has fanBified it by the means of the Priefi, it is freed from the name of bread, and is thought worthy of the nam.e of the Lord's body, though the nature of bread remain in it: and yet it is not faid there are two bodies, but one body of tbe Son : fo the divine nature being joined to the body, both thefe make one Son and one Perfon. Ephrem of Antioch fays, Tbe body of Chrift received ^jiinPhoti. the faithful, does not depart from its fenfible fubfiance : fo bap-'^'>^^'^-^°i> tifm, fays he, does not lofe its own fenfible fubfiance, and does not *^3- lofe that which it was before. Ee Theo- bus nat, Chrift. 418 AN EXPOSITION OF Theodoret fays, Chrift does honour the fymbols with the name of his body and blood; not changing the nature^ but ad" ding grace to nature. In another place, purfulng the fame ar- Tnd 2d ' gument, he fays. The myfiical fymbols after the fanBification da cent. Eu- not depart from their own fiature : for they continue in their tycb. former fubfiance, figure and form, and are vifible and palpable as they were before: but they are underfiood to be that which they are made. Lib.dedua. Pope Gelafius fays. The facraments of the body and blood of *" Chrifi are a divine thing ; for which reafon zve become by them partakers of the divine nature : and yet the fubfiance of bread and wine does not ceafe to exifi : and the image and likenefs of the body and blood of Chrift are celebrated in holy myfieries. Upon all thefe places being compared with the defign with which they were written, which was to prove that Chrift's hu man nature did ftifl fubfift, unchanged, and not fwallowed up by its union with the Divinity, fome refleaions are very obvious: Firft, if the corporal prefence of Chrift in the facrament had been then received In the Church, the natural and unavoidable argument in this matter, which muft put an end to It, with all that believed fuch corporal prefence, was this : Chrift has cer tainly a natural body flifl, becaufe the bread and the wine are turned fo It; and they cannot be turned to that which is not. In their writings they argued againft a poffibfllty of a fubftan- tial change of a human nature into the divine ; but that could not have been urged by men who believed a fubftantlal muta tion to be made in the facrament: for then the Eutychlans might have retorted the argument'with great advantage upon them. The Eutychlans did make ufe of fome expreffions, that were ufed by fome in the Church, which feemed to import that they did argue from the facrament, as Theodoret reprefents their ob jeaions. But to that he anfwers as we have feen, denying that any fuch fubftantlal change was made. The defign of thofe Fathers was to prove that things might be united together, and continue fo united, without a change of their fubftances, and that this was true in the two natures in the perfon of Chrift : and to make this more fenfible, they bring in the matter of the Sacrament, as a thing known and confeffed : for in their ar guing upon It they do fuppofe it as a thing out of difpute. Now, according to the Roman doarine, this had been a very odd fort of an argument, to prove that Chrift's human nature was not fwaflowed up of the divine ; becaufe the myfteries or elements in the facrament are changed into the fubfiance of Chrifi's body, only they retain the outward appearances of bread and wine. To THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 4^9 To this an Eutychian might readily have anfwered, that then the human nature might be believed to be deftroyed : and though Chrift had appeared in that likenefs, he retained only the acci dents of human nature; but that the human nature itfelf was deftroyed, as the bread and the wine were deftroyed in the eucharift. This had been a very abfurd way of arguing- in the Fathers, and had Indeed delivered up the caufe to the Eutychlans : whereas thofe Fathers make it an argument againft them, to prove, that notwithftanding an union of two beings, and fuch an union as did communicate a fanaificatlon from the one to the other, yet ^e two natures mi^t remain ftill diftlngulfhed; and that it was fo in the euchariji: therefore it might be fo In the perfon of Chrift. This feems to be fo evident an indication of the doarine of the whole Church in the fourth and fifth centuries, when fo many of the moft eminent writers of thofe ages do urge it fo home as an argument in fo great a point, that we can fcarce think it poffible for any man to confider It fufly without being determined by it. And fo far we have con fidered the authorities from the Fathers, to fhew that they be lieved that the fubftance of bread and wine did ftill remain in the facrament. Another head of proof is, that they affirm, that our bodies are nourifhed by the facrament ; which fhews very plainly that they had no notion of a change of fubftance made in it. > Juftin Martyr calls the eucharift. That food by which our fieJh Apol. z. and blood through its tranfmutation into them are nourifhed, Irenaeus makes this an argument for the refurreaion of Lib. v. adv. our bodies, that they are fed by the body and blood of Chrift : ^^^^•^^^ '• '¦¦ When the cup and the bread receives the word of God, it be comes the eucharift of the body and blood of Chrifi, by which the fubfiance vf our flefl] is increafed andfubfijls : and he adds, that the flefh is nourifhed by the body and blood of Chrijl, and is made his member. TertuUian fays. The flefli is fed with the body and blood of^i^^f^' Chrifi. rr^x.-n.^" '^^¦''- •=• Origen explains this very largely on thofe words of Chrift, 15. It is not that which enters within a man that defiles the man: he fays, if every thing that goes into the belly, is eaft into the draught, then that food which is fanBified by the word of God, and by prayer, goes alfo into the belly, as to that which is material in it, and goes from thence into the draught. And a littie after he adds, It is not the matter of the bread, but the word that is pronounced over it, zvbich profits him that eats it, in fuch a way as is not unworthy of the Lord. The Biftiops of Spain, In a council that fat at Toledo in the Con. To!. feventh century,condemned thofe that began to confecrate round '^^- *^'"'- ^• E e 2 ' wafers, 4^3 AN EXPOSITION OF wafers, and did not offer one entire loaf In the eucharift, and appointed that for fo much of the bread as remained after the communion, that either it fhould be put in fome b-ig, or If it was needful to eat It up, shat it might not opprefs tbe belly of him that took it with an overcharging burden, and that it might not go into the digefiion ; they fancying that a lefl'er quantity made no digeftion, and produced no excrement. In the ninth century both Rabanus Maurus and Herlbald believed, that the facrament was fo dlgefted, that fome part of it turned to excrement ; which was alfo held by divers writers of the Greek Church, whom their adverfaries called by way of reproach Stercoranifis. Others indeed of the ancients did think that no part of the facrament became excrement, but that it was fpread through the whole fubftance of the communicant, Cyvii.Ca- for the good of body and foul. Both Cyril of Jerufalem, St. "^'^ch'^'^'^' Chryfoftom, and John Damafcene, fell into this conceit ; but foft. Horn, ft'll they thought that it was changed into the fubftance of our in Euch. bodles, and fo nourifhed them without any excrement coming '^°- "'.P^' from any part of It. de Ortho. The Fathers do call the confecrated elements fhe figures, the fide, c. 14. figns, fhe fymbols, the types and antitypes, the commemoration, the reprefentation, the myfieries, and the facraments of the body and blood, which does evidently demonftrate that they could not think, that they were the very fubftance of his body and blood. Lib. iv. adv. Tertufllan, when he Is proving that Chrift had a true body, and ».. 40'™ ^^^ '^°'- ^ phantafm, argues thus. He made bread to be bis body ; faying. This is my body ; that is, the figure of my body : from which he argues, that fince his body had that for its figure, it was a true body; for an empty thing, fuch as a phantafm is, cannot have z. figure. It is from hence clear that it was not then believed that Chrift's body was literally in the facrament; for otherwife the argument would have been much clearer and fhorter : Chrift has a true body, becaufe we believe that the fa crament is truly his body ; than to go and prove it fo far about, as to fay a phantafm has no figure : but the Sacrament is the figure of Chrift's body, therefore it is no phantafm. Comm. in St. Auftin fays, He commended and gave to bis Difciples the figure of his body and blood. And when the Manicheans ob jeaed to him, that blood is called in the Old Teftament the life ox foul, contrary to what is faid in the New ; he anfwers, that blood was not the foul or life, but only the fign of it; and that the ¦ fign fometimes bears the name of that of which it is Lib. cont. the fign : fo fays he, Chrifi did not doubt to fay. This is my I. I'zT"^' ^"^J ^^•'^" ^^ "^"^^ giving the fign of his body. Now that had been a very bad argument, if the bread was truly the body of Chrift, it had proved that the fign muft be one with the thing fignified. The THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 4^1 The whole ancient liturgies, and all the Greek Fathers do a R T. fo frequentiy ufe the words type, antitype, fiign, and myfiery, XXViii. that this is not fo much as denied; it is their conftant ftyle. ' • — ^ Now it is apparent that a thing cannot be the type and fymbol of Itfelf. And though they had more frequent occafions to fpeak of the eucharift, than either of baptifm, or the chrifm ; yet as they called the water and the oil, types and myfieries, fo they beftowed the fame defcriptions on the elements in the eucharift ; and as they have many ftrong expreffions concern ing the water and the oil, that cannot be literally underftood ; fo upon the fame grounds it wifl appear reafonabk, to give ¦the fame expofition to fome high exprefllions, that they fell into concerning this facrament. Facundus has fome very full dif courfes to this purpofe : he is proving that Chrift may be caUed the adopted Son of God, as well as he is trniy bis Son; and that becaufe he was baptized. The facrament of adoption, that is, Defcn. baptifm, may be called baptifm; as the facrament of his body'^^'i- and blood, which is in the confecrated bread and cup, is called ' '' bis body and blood: not that the bread is properly bis body, or the cup properly his blood; but becaufe they contain in than the myfiery of his body and blood, St. Auftin fays. That facra ments mufi have fome refemblance of thofe things of which they are ihe facraments : fo the facrament of the body of Chrifi is after fome manner his body; and the facrament of fis blood is after fome manner his blood. And fpeaking of the eucharift as a facrifice of praife, he fays, Tbe flefli and blood of this facri-'Ep.^p^ fice was promifed before the coming of Chrifi, by the facrifices^ omac., that were the types of it. In the paffion the facrifice was truly offered; and after his afcenfion it is celebrated by the facrament of the remembrance of it. And when he fpeaks of the mur muring of the Jews, upon our Saviour's fpeaking of giving his flefh to them to eat it ; he adds. They fooliflily and carnally Lib. xx,^ thought, that he was to cut off' fome parcels of his body, to ^^c°2,. "" ' given to them : hut be fhews that there was a facrament hidin Pfal. there. And he thus paraphrafes that paffage. The words that^"'^'-''- S- I have fpoken to you, they are fpirit and life : underfiand fpi- rJtually that which I have faid, for it is not this body which you fee, that you are to eat, or to drink this blood which they ftiall fhed, who crucify me. But I have recommended a facrament ta you, which being fpiritually underfiood, fliaU quicken you : and though it be neceffiary that it be celebrated vifibly, yet it mufi be underfiood rnvifiibly. Primafius compares the facrament to a pledge which aComm^. U. dying man leaves to any one whom he loved. But that which ^^^p- " is more important than the quotation of any of the words of the Fathers, is that the author of the books of the facra-Lib.iv.de ment, which pafs under the name of St. Amhrofe, though it is^^"^-"- E e 3 generally 422 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. generally agreed that thofe books were writ fome ages after his XXVIIL death, gives us the prayer of confecration, as it was ufed In his v*^^'"^ time: he caWs it the heavenly words, and fets it down. The offices of the Church are a clearer evidence of the doarine of that Church, than all the difcourfes that can be made by any doaor in it; the one is the language of the whole body, whereas the other are only the private reafonings of particular men : and of all the parts of the office the prayer of confecra tion is that which does moft certainly fet out to us the fenfe of that Church that ufed it. But that which makes this remark the more Important, is, that the prayer, as fet down by this pretended St. Ambrofe, is very near the fame with that which is now In the canon of the Mafs ; only there Is one very important varia tion, which will beft appear by fetting both down. That of St, Ambrofe is, Fac nobis banc oblationem, afcriptam, rationabilem, accept abilem, quod efi figura corporis ^ fanguinis Domini nofiri Jefu Chrifii, qui pridie quam pater etur, &c. That in the canon of the Mafs is, ^am oblationem tu Deus in omni bus qua fumus benedlBam, afcriptam, ratam, rationabilem, ac- ceptabilemque facere digneris : ut nobis corpus l^ fanguis fiat dileBiffimi filii tui Domini nofiri Jefu Chrifii. We do plainly fee fo great a refemblance of the latter to the former of thefe two prayers, that we may well conclude, that the one was begun in the other ; but at the fame time we ob ferve an effential difference. In the former this facrifice Is called the figure of the body and blood of Chrifi. Whereas In the latter it is prayed, that it may become to us the body and blood of Chrifi. As long as the former was the prayer of confecration, it is not poffible for us to imagine, that the doarine of the cor poral prefence could be received ; for that which was believed to be the true body and blood ofChrifi, could not be called, efpe cially in fuch a part of the office, the figure of his body and hlood; and therefore the change that was made in this prayer was an evident proof of a change in the doarine ; and If we could tefl in what age that was done, we might then upon greater certainty fix the time, in which this change was made, or at leaft in which the inconfiftency of that prayer with this doarine was obferved. I have now fet down a great variety of proofs reduced under different heads, from which it appears evidentiy that the Fathers did not beheve this doarine, but that they did affirm the con trary very exprefsly. This facrament continued w be fo long confidered as the figure or Image of Chrift's body, that the fe venth General Council, which met at Conftantinople in the year 754, and confifted of above three hundred and thirty Bifhops, when It condemned the worfliip of images, affirmed that tills was" the only imaz,e that we might lav/fully have of Chrift; and • that THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 4^3 that he had appointed us to offer this image of his body, to wit, Xhefubfiance of the bread. That was Indeed contradiaed with much confidence by the fecond Council of Nice, in which, in oppofition to what appears to this day in all the Greek litur gies, and the Greek Fathers, they do pofitively deny, thatthe facrament was ever called the iynage of Chrifi; and they affirm it to be the true body of Chrifi. In conclufion, I fhafl next fhew how this doarine crept into the Church; for this feems plaufible, that a doarine of this nature could never have got Into the Church in any age, if thofe of the age that admitted it, had not known that it had been the doarine of the former age, and fo upwards to the age of the Apoftles. It is not to be denied, but that very early both Juftin Martyr and Irenaeus thought, that there was fuch a fanaifica tlon of the elements, that there was a divine virtue in them : and in thofe very paffages which we have urged from the argu ings of the Fathers againft the Eutychlans, though they do plainly prove that they believed that the fubfiance of bread and wine did ftifl remain ; yet they do fuppofe an union of the elements to the body of Chrift, like that of the human nature's being united to the divine. Here a foundation was laid for afl the fu- perftruaure that was afterwards raifed upon it. For though the liturgies and public offices continued long in the firft fimpli city, yet the Fathers, who did very much ftudy eloquence, chiefly the Greek Fathers, carried this matter very far in their fermons and homilies. They did only apprehend the profanation of the facrament, from the unworthinefs of thofe who came to it ; and being much fet on the begetting a due reverence for fo holy an aaion, and a ferloufnefs in the performance of it, they urged all the topicks that fublime figures or warm expreffions could help them with : and with this exalted eloquence of theirs we muft likewife obferve the ftate that the world fell in, in the fifth century: vaft fwarms out of the North over-run the Roman empire, and by a long continued fucceffion of new in vaders afl was facked and ruined. In the Weft, the Goths were followed by the Vandals, the Alans, die Gepldes, the Franks, the Sweves, the Huns, and the Lombards, fome of thefe na tions ; but in conclufion the Saracens and Turks in the Eaft made havock of all that was polite or learned, by which we loft the chief writings of the firft and beft times; but inftead of thefe, many fpurious ones were afterwards produced, and they paffed eafily in dark and ignorant ages. All fell under much oppreffion and mifery, and Europe was fo over-run with barbarity and ig norance, that it cannot be eafily apprehended, but by fuch as have been at the pains to go through one of the ungratefulkft pieces of ftudy that can be well imagined, and have read the produaions ofthofe ages. The underftanding the Scriptures E e 4 or 424 AN EXPOSITION OP or languages, or hiftory were not fo much as thought on^ Some affeaed homilies or defeantlngs on the rituals of the Church, full of many very odd fpeculations about them, are among the beft of the writings of thofe times. They were eafily impofed on by any new forgery; witnefs the reception and authority that was given to the Decretal Epifiles of the Pope^ of the firft three centuries, which for many ages maintained its credit, though It was plainly a forgery of the eighth century, and was contrived with fo littie art, that there is not in thera, colour enough to excufe the ignorance of thofe that were de ceived by it. As it Is an eafy thing to miflead ignorant muU titudes, fo there is fomewhat in incredible opinions and ftories, that is fuited to fuch a ftate of mankind ; and as men are apt to fancy that they fee fprlghts, efpecially in the night; fo the more of darknefs and unconceivablenefs that there is in art opinion, it is the more properiy calculated for fuch times. The ages that fucceeded were not only times of ignorance, but they were alfo times of much corruption. The writers of the fourth and fifth centuries give us difmal reprefenta.- tions of the corruptions 'of their times; and the fcandalous un- conftancy of the councils of thofe ages, is too evident a proof of what we find faid by the good men of thofe days: but things fell lower and lower in the fucceeding ages. It is ar^ amazing thing that in the very office of confetrating bifhops, examinations are ordered concerning thofe crimes, the very mention of which give horror j De Coitu cum Mafculq l^ cun^ ^jadrupedibus. The Popes more particulariy were fuch a fucceffion of men, that, as their own hiftorians have defcribed them, nothing in any hiftory can be produced that is like them. The charaaers they give them are fo monftrous, that nothing under the autho-i rity of unqueftioned writers, and the evidence of the fafts themfelves, could make them credible. But that which makes the introduaioh of this doarine appear the more probable, is that we plainly fee the whole body of the Clergy was every where fo influenced by the ma nagement of the Popes, that they generally entered into com binations, to fubjea the temporalty to the fplrltualty; and there fore every opinion that tended to render the perfons of the Clergy facred, and to raife their charaaer high, was fure to receive the beft entertainment, and the greateft encouragement poffible. Nothing could carry this fo far as an opinion that reprefented the Prieft as having a charaaer by which, with a, few words, he could make a God. The opinion of Tranfub fiantiation was fuch an engine, that it being once fet on foot, could not but meet with a favourable reception from thofe who were tiien feeking all poffible colours to giye credit to their au thority. THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 42^5 \hority, and to advance it. The numbers of the Clergy were art. then fo great, and their contrivances were fo well fuited to the xxviii' credulity and fuperftition of thofe times, that, by vifions and '— v~-d wonderful ftories confidentiy vouched, they could eafily infufe any thing into weak and giddy multitudes. Befides, that the genius of thofe times led them much to the love of pomp and fliew; they had loft the true power and beauty of religion, and were willing, by outward appearances, to balance or compen fate for their great defeas. But befides all thofe general confiderations which fuch as are acquainted with the hiftory of thofe ages know, do belong to them in a much higher degree than Is here fet forth ; there are fome fpecialities that relate to this doarine in particular, which will make the introdudtion of it appear the more praaica ble. This had never been condemned in any former age : for as none condemn errors by anticipation or prophecy ; fo the promoters of it had this advantage, that no formal decifion had been made againft them. It did alfo in the outward found agree with the words of the inftitution, and the phrafes generally ufed, of the elements being changed into the body and blood of Chrift: outward found and appearance was enough in igno rant ages to hide the change that was made. The ftep that is made from believing any thing In general, with an indiftina and confufed apprehenfion, to a determined way of explaining jt, is not hard to be brought about. The people in general believed that Chrift was in the facra ment, and that the elements were his body and blood, without troubling themfelves to examine in what manner all this was. done : fo it was no great ftep in a dark age to put a particular explanation of this upon them : and this change being brought in without any vifible alterations made in the worfhip, it muft needs have paffed with the world the more eafily : for In all times vifible rites are more minded by the people, than fpecu lative points ; which they confider very little. No alterations were at firft made in the worfhip; the adoration of the hoft, and the proceffions Invented to honour it, came afterwards. Honorius the IVth, who firft appointed the adoration, does Greg. De- not pretend to found it on ancient praaice : only he commands "^"i, .'''''¦ the priefts to tell the people to do it: and he at firft enjoined "ap. jV.'^^' only an inclination of the head to the facrament. But his fuc- ceflor Gregory the IXth did more refolutely command it, and ordered a bell to be rung at the confecration and elevation, to give notice of it, that fo all thofe who heard it might kneel and join their hands, and fo worfhip the hoft. The firft controverfy about the manner of the prefence arofe incidentally upon the controverfy of images : the Council at Conftantinople 426 AN EXPOSITION OF Conftantinople decreed, that the facrament was the image of Chrifi', in which the fubfiance of bread and wine remained. Thofe of Nice, how furloufly foever they fell upon them, for call ing the facrament the image of Chrifi, yet do no where blame them for faying that the fubfiance of bread and wine remained in it : for indeed the opinion of Damafcene, and of moft of the Greek Church, was, that there was anaffumption of the bread and wine into an union with the body of Chrijl. The Council of Con ftantinople brought in their decifion occafionally, that being confidered as the fettied dodtrine of the Church; whereas thofe of Nice did vifibly innovate and falfify the tradition : for they affirm, as Damafcene had done before them, that the elements were called the antitypes of Chrifi's body, only before they were confecrated, but not after it : which they fay none of the Fathers had done. This is fo notorioufly falfe, that no man can pretend now to juftify them in it, fince there are above twenty of the F"athers that were before them, who in plain words call the ele ments after confecration, the figure and antitype of Chrifi's body: here then was the tradition and praaice of the Church falfified, which is no fmafl prejudice againft thofe that fupport fhe doc trine, as well as againft the credit of that Council. About thirty years after that Council, Pafchafe Radbert, Abbot of Corby In France, did very plainly aflert the corporal prefence in the eucharift : he is acknowledged both by Bellarmlne and Sirmondus, to be the firft writer, that did on purpofe advance and explain that doarine : he himfelf values his pains in that matter ; and as he laments the flownefs of fome in believing It, fo he pretends that he had moved many to affent to it. But he confeffes, that fome blamed him for afcribing a fenfe to the words of Chrift, that was not confonant to truth. There was but one book writ in that age to fecond him ; the name of the author was loft, till Mablllon difcovered that it was writ by one Herlgerus, Abbot of Cob. But all the eminent men and the great writers of that time wrote plainly againft this doarine, and affirmed, that the bread and wine remained In the facrament, and did nourifh our bodies as other meats do. Thofe were Rabanus Maurus, Archbifhop of Mentz ; Amalarius Arch bifhop of Triers ; Heribald, Bifhop of Auxerre; Bertram, or Ratramne; John Scot Erigena; Walafrldus Strabus ; Florus, and Chriftian Druthmar. Three of thefe fet themfelves on purpofe to refute Pafchafe. Rabanus Maurus, in an epiftle to Abbot Egflon, wrote againft Pafchafe for faying, that it was that body that was born of the Virgin, that was crucified and raifed up again, which was daily offered up. And though that book is loft, yet as he himfelf refers his reader to it in his Penitential, fo we THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 427 we have an account given of it by the anonymous defender of a R t Pafchafe. xxviii', Ratramne was commanded by Charies the Bald, tiien ' — '""-' Emperor, to write upon that fubjea ; which he in the begin ning of his book promifes to do, not trufting to his own fenfe, but foflowing the fteps of the holy Fathers. He tells us, that there were different opinions about it : fome believlno- that the body of Chrift was there without a figure : others laying that it was there in a figure, or myfiery : upon which he ap prehended that a great fchifm muft foflow. His book is very fhort, and very plain : he alferts our doarine as exprefsly as we ourfelves can do : he delivers it In the fame words, and proves It by many of the fame arguments and authorities, that we bring. Raban and Ratramne were, without difpute, reckoned among the firft men of that age. John Scot was alfo commanded by the fame Emperor to write on the fame fubjea : he was one of the moft learned and the moft ingenious men of the age ; and was in great efteem both with the Emperor, and with our King Alfred. He was reckoned both a faint and a martyr. He did formally refute Pafchafe's doarine, and affert ours. His book is in deed loft ; but a full account of it is given us by other writers of that time. And it is a great evidence, that his opinion in this matter was not then thought to be contrary to the gene ral fenfe of the Church in that age : for he having writ againft St. Auftin's doarine concerning Predeftination, there was a very fevere cenfure of him and of his writings, publifhed under the name of the Church of Lions : in which they do not once reflea on him, for his opinions touching the Eucharift. It appears from this, that their doarine concerning the Sacra ment was then generally received ; fince both Ratramne and he, though they differed extremely in the point of Predeftination, yet both agreed in this. It Is probable that the Saxon homily, that was read in England on Eafter-day, was taken from Scot's book; which does fully rejea the corporal prefence. This is enough to fhew that Pafchafe's opinion was an innovation broached in the ninth century, and was oppofed by all rhe great men of that age. The tenth century was the blackeft and moft ignorant of afl the ages of the Church : there is not one writer in that age that gives us any clear account of the doarine of the Church : fuch remote hints as occur do ftill favour of Ratramne's doc trine. All men were then afleep, and fo it was a fit time for the tares that Pafchafe had fown to grow up In it. The Popes of that age were fuch a fucceffion of monfters, that Baronius cannot forbear to make the faddeft exclamations poffible againft their 428 AN EXPOSITION OF ART, their debaucheries, their cruelties, and their other vices. About XXVIII, the middle of the eleventh century, after this difpute had flept ^— »~~' almoft two hundred years, It was again revived, Bruno, Bifliop of Anglers, and Berengarius his Archdea con, maintained the dodtrine of Ratramne, Littie mention is made of the Bifhop; but the Archdeacon is fpoken of as a man of great piety; fo that he paffed for a faint, and was a man of fuch learning, that when he was brought before Pope Nicolaus, no man could refift him. He writ againft Pafchafe, and had many followers : the hiftorians of that age tefl us, that his dodtrine had overfpread all France. The books writ againft him by Lanfranc and others, are filled with an impudent cor rupting of all antiquity : many councils were held upon this matter ; and thefe, together with the terrors of burning, which was then beginning to be the common punlfhment of herefy, made him renounce his opinion : but he returned to it again ; yet he afterwards renounced it : though Lanfranc re proached him, that it was not the love of truth, but the fear of death, that brought him to it. And his final retraaing of that renouncing of his opinion Is lately found in France, as I have been credibly informed. Thus this opinion, that in the ninth century was generally received, and was condemned by neither Pope nor Council, was become fo odious in the eleventh century, that none durft own it : and he who had the courage to own it, yet was not refolute enough to ftand to It : for about this time the doarine of extirpating heretics, and of de pofing fuch princes as were defeaive in that matter, was uni verfally put in praaice : great bodies of men began to feparate from the Roman communion in the fouthern parts of France ; and one of the chief points of their doarine, was their believing that Chrift was not corporafly prefent in the eucharift; and that he was there only in a figure or myfiery. But now that the contrary doarine was eftablifhed, and that thofe who de nied it were adjudged to be burnt, it is no wonder if it quickly gained ground, when on the one hand the priefts faw their intereft- in promoting it, and all people felt the danger of de nying it. The anathema's of the Church, and the terrors of burning, were infallible things, to filence contradiaion at leaft, if not to gam affent. Soon after this doarine was received, the Schoolmen be- Lib. iv. gan to refine upon it, as they did upon every thing elfe. The Dift. II, mafter cf the fentences would not determine how Chrift was prefent ; whether formaUy or fubftantiafly, or fome other way. Some Schoolmen thought that the matter of bread was de ftroyed ; but that the form remained, to be the /arm of Chrift's body, that was the matter of it. Others thought that the matter of the elements remained, and that the form only was de ftroyed; THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 429 ftroyed : but that to which many Inclined, was the affumption ef the elements into an union with the body of Chrift, or a hypoftatical union of the Eternal Word to them, by which they became as truly a body to Chrift, as that which he has in hea ven: yet it was not the fame, but a different body. Stephen Bifliop of Autun was the firft that fell on the De Sacram. word of Tranfubfiantiation. Amalric in the beginnino- of the ^''^"^> ''• thirteenth century denied in exprefs words the corporal pre- '^' fence : he was condemned in the fourth Council of the Late ran as an heretick, and his body was ordered to be taken up and burnt : and in oppofition to him Tranfubftantiation was decreed. Yet the Schoolmen continued to offer different ex planations of this for a great while after that : but in conclu fion afl agreed to explain it as was formerly fet forth. It appears, by the crude way in which it was at firft explained, that it was a novelty ; and that men did not know how to mould and frame it : but at laft it was licked into fhape ; the whole philo fophy being eaft into fuch a mould as agreed with it. And therefore in the prefent age, in which that philofophy has loft its credit, great pains are taken to fupprefs the new and freer way of phflofophy, as that which cannot be fo eafily fubdued to fup port thIS' doarine, as the; old one was. And the arts that thofe who go into the new philofophy, take to reconcile their fcheme to this doarine, fhew that there is nothing that fubtile and un- fincere men will not venture on : for, lince they make ex tenfion to be of the effence of matter, and think that accidents are only the modes of matter, which have no proper being of themfelves, it is evident, that a body cannot be without its ex tenfion, and that accidents cannot fubfift without their fubjea ; fo that this can be In no fort reconciled to Tranfubftantiation : and therefore they would wifllngly avoid this fpecial manner of the prefence, and only in general affert that Chrift Is corporally prefent. But the decrees of the Lateran and Trent Coun cils make it evident, that Tranfubfiantiation is now a doarine that is bound upon them, by the authority of the Church and of tradition ; and that they are as much bound to believe it, as to believe the corporal prefence itfelf. Thus the going ofF from the fimplicity in which Chrift did deliver the facrament, and in which the Church at firft received it, into fome fublime expreffions about it, led men once out of the way, and they fiill went farther and farther from it. Pious and rhetorical figures purfued far by men of heated imaginations, and of inflamed affeaions, were followed with explanations invented by colder and more defigning men afterwards, and fo it increafed tifl it grew by degrees to that to which at laft it fettied on. But after all, if the doarine of the Corporal Prefence had arefted only in a fpeculation, though we fhould have judged thofe who 43° AN Exposition op who held It, to be very bad philofophers, and no good criticks } yet we could have endured it, if it had refted there, and had not gone on to be a matter of praaice, by the adoration and pro ceffions, with every thing elfe of that kind, which followed upon it ; for this corrupted the worfhip. The Lutherans believe a Confubftantiatlon, and that both Chrift's body and blood, and the fubftance of the elements, are together in the facrament : that fome explain by an ubiquity, which they think Is communicated to the human nature of Chrift, by which his body is every where as well as in the facra ment : whereas others of them think that fince the words of Chrift muft needs be true in a literal fenfe, his body and blood is therefore in the facrament, but in, with, and under the bread and wine. All this we think is ifl grounded, and is nei ther agreeable to the words of the inftitution, nor to the na ture of things, A great deal of that which was formerly fet forth in defence of our dodtrine falls likewife upon this. The ubiquity communicated to the human nature, as it feems a thing in itfelf impoffible, fo It gives no more to the facrament than to every thing elfe. Chrift's body may be faid to be in every thing, or rather every thing may be faid to be his body and blood, as well as the elements In the facrament. The Impof- fibility of a body's being without extenfion, or in more places at once, lie againft this as well as againft Tranfubftantiation. But yet, after all, this is only a point of fpeculation, nothing follows upon it in praaice, no adoration is offered to the ele ments; and therefore we judge that fpeculative opinions may be borne with, when they neither fafl upon the fundamentals of Chriftianity, to give us. falfe ideas of the effential parts of our religion, nor aftea our praaice, and chiefly when the worfhip of God Is maintained in Its purity, for which we fee God has expreffed fo particular a concern, giving it the word which of all others raifes In us the moft fenfible and the ftrongeft ideas, cafling it jealoufy ; that we reckon, we ought to watch over this with much caution. We can very well bear with fome opinions, that we think ill grounded, as long as they are only matters of opinion, and have no Influence neither on men's morals, nor their worfhip. We ftill hold communion with bodies of men, that, as we judge, think wrong, but yet do both live wefl and maintain the purity of the worfhip of God. We know the great defign of religion is to govern men's lives, and to give them right ideas of God, and of the ways of wor fhipping him. All opinions that do not break In upon thefe, are. things in which great forbearance is to be ufed ; large allowances are to be made for men's notions in all orfier things ; and therefore we think that neither Confubfiantiation nor Tranfubfiantiation, hovy ifl grounded foever we take both to be, Hi TBE XXXIX ARTICLES. 43' fee, ought to diffolve the union and communion of Churches : AR t. but it is quite another thing, if under either of thefe opinions ^XVili, an adoration of the elements is taught and praaifed. <—%«-» This we believe is plain idolatry, when an infenfible piece of matter, fuch as bread and wine, has divine honours paid it : when It is believed to be God, when it is called God, and is in all refpeas worfliipped with the fame adoration that is of fered up to Almighty God. This we think is grofs idolatry. Many writers of the Church of Rome have acknowledged that if Tranfubfiantiation is not true, their worfhip is a ftrain of idolatry beyond any that is praaifed among the moft depraved of all the heathens. The only excufe that Is offered in this matter, is, that fince the declared objea of worfhip Is Jefus Chrift, believed to be there prefent, then, whether he is prefent or not, the worfhip terminates in him ; both the fecret aas of the worfhippers and the profeffed doarine of the Church do lodge it there. And therefore it may be faid, that though he fhould not be aaually prefent, yet the aa of adoration being direaed to him, muft be accepted of God, as right meant, and duly direaed, even though there fhould happen to be a miftake in the outward ap plication of it. In anfwer to this, we do not pretend to determine, how far this may be pardoned by God; whofe mercies are infinite, and who does certainly confider chiefly the hearts of his creatures, and is merciful to their infirmities, and to fuch errors as arife but of their weaknefs, their hearts being fincere before him. We ought to confider this aaion as It is in itfelf, and not ac cording to men's apprehenfions and opinions about it. If the conceits that the ancient idolaters had both concerning their Gods, and the Idols that they worfhipped, will excufe from idolatry, it will be very hard to fay that there were ever any idolaters in the world, Thofe who worfhipped the Sun, thought that the great Divinity was' lodged there, as In a ve hicle or temple; but yet they were not by reafon of that mif- conception excufed from being idolaters. If a falfe opinion upon which a praaice Is founded, taken up without any good authority, will excufe men's fins. It will be eafy for them to find apologies for every thing. If the wor fhip of the elements had been commanded by God, then an opinion concerning it might excufe the carrying of that too far : but there being no command for It, no hint given about it, nor any infinuatlon given of any fuch praaice in the begin nings of Chriftianity ; an opinion that men have taken up can not juftify a new pradtice, of which neither the firft, nor a great many of the following ages knew any thing. An opinion can not juftify men's pradtice founded upon it, if that proves to be falfe. 43* AN EXPOSITION 0# ART. falfe. Afl the foftening that can be given it, is, that it is a firt XXVIIL of ignorance; but that does not change the nature of the ac- ' — V — ' tion, how far foever it may go with relation to the judgments of God : if the opinion is raflily taken up and ftlffly maintained, the worfhip that is Introduced upon it, is aggravated by the ill foundation that it is built upon. We know God by his ef fence is every where ; but this wifl not juftify our worfhipping any material objea upon this pretence, becaufe God is in it; we ought never to worfhip him towards any vifible objea, un lefs he were evidently declaring his glory In it ; as he did to Mofes in the flaming-bufh ; to the Ifraefltes on mount Sinai, and in the cloud of glory ; or to us Chriftians in a fubflmer manner in the human nature of Jefus Chrift. But by this parity of reafon, though we were fure that Chrift were In the elements, yet fince he is there invifible, as God Is by his effence every where, we ought to direa no ado ration to the elements ; we ought only to worfhip God, and his Son Chrift Jefus, in the grateful remembrance of his fufferings for us ; which are therein commemorated. We ought not to fuffer our worfhip to terminate on the vifible elements : becaufe if Chrift is in them, yet he does not manifeft that vifibly to us : fince therefore the opinion of the Corporal Prefence, upon which this adoration is founded, is falfe, and fince no fuch worfliip is fo much as mentioned, much lefs commanded in Scripture; and fince there can fcarce be any Idolatry in the world fo grofs, as that it fhall not excufe itfelf by fome fuch doarine, by which all the aas of worfhip are made to termi nate finally In God ; we muft conclude that this plea cannot ex cufe the Church of Rome from idolatry, even though their doc trine of the Corporal Prefence were true ; but much lefs if it is falfe. We do therefore condemn this worfhip as idolatry, without taking upon us to define the extent of the mercies of God towards all thofe who are involved in it. If all the premifes are true, then It is needlefs to infift lon ger on explaining the following paragraph of the Article ; that Chrifi's body is received in the facrament in a heavenly and fpi ritual manner, and that tbe mean hy which it is received is faith : for that Is fuch a natural refult of them, that it appears evident of itfelf, as being the conclufion that arifes out of thofe premifes. The laft paragraph is againft the referving, carrying about, ihe lifting up, or tbe zvorjhipping the facrament. The point concerning the worfhip, which is the moft effential of them, has been already confidered. As for the referving or carrying the facrament about ; it is very vifible, that the inftitution Is, Take, eat, and drink ye aU of it: which does import, that the confuming the elements, is a part of the inftitution; andby confe- THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 433 confequence, that tiiey are a facrament only as they are diftrl- A R t. buted and received. It is true, the praaice of referving or fend- xxviii. ing about the elements began very early ; the ftate of things ""^ — ' at firft made it almoft unavoidable. When there were yet but a few converted to Chriftianity, and when there were but few Priefts to ferve them, they neither could nor durft meet all to gether, efpecially in the times of perfecution ; fo fome parts of the elements were fent to the abfents, to thofe in prifon, and particulariy to the fick, as a fymbol of their being paits of the body, and that they were in the peace and communion of the Church. The bread was fent with the wine, and it was fent about by any perfon whatfoever ; fometimes by boys ; as appears in the famous ftory of Serapion in the third century. Euf. Hift. So that the condition of the Chriftiaris in that time, made that lib. vi.i.44. neceffary to keep them all in the fenfe of their obligation to union and communion with the Church ; and that could not well be done In any other way. But we make a great differ ence between this praaice, when taken up out of neceffity, though not exaaiy conform to the firft Inftitution; and the continuing it out of fuperftition, when there Is no need of It. Therefore inftead of confecrating a larger portion of elements than is neceffary for the occafion, and the referving what is over and above ; and the fetting that out with great pomp on the altar, to be worfhipped, or the carrying it about with a vaft magnificence in a proceffion, Invented to put the more honour on it ; or the fending it to the fick with folemnity ; we choofe rather to confecrate only fo much as may be judged fit for the number of thofe who are to communicate. And when the facrament is over, we do, in imitation of the praaice of fome of the ancients, confume what is left, that there may be no occafion given either to fuperftition, or irreverence. And for the fick, or the prifoners, we think it Is a greater mean to "quicken their devotion, as well as it is a clofer adhering to the words of the Inftitution, to confecrate In their prefence : for though we can bear with the praaice of the Greek Church, of referving and fending about the eucharift, when there is no ido latry joined with it; yet we cannot but think that this is the continuance of a pradtice, which the ftate of the firft ages in troduced, and that was afterwards kept up, out of a too fcrupu lous Imitation of that time ; without confidering that the dif ference of the ftate of the Chriftians, in the former and in the fucceeding ages, made that what was at firft innocently prac- tjfed (fince a real neceffity may wefl excufe a want of exaa nefs, in fome matters that are only pofitive) became afterwards an occafion of much fuperftition, and in conclufion ended in idolatry. Thofe ill effeas that it had, are more than Is ne- F f ceflary 434 Germi Conft. in Theor. Tit. II. Bibl. patr. Ivo. Carn. Ep. de Sacr Miflk. T. ii Eibl. pat, Dur. Rat. div. ofHc. Jib. iv. de fexta parte Can. AN EXPOSITION OP ceffary to juftify our praaice in reducing this ftriaiy to the firft inftitution. As for the lifting up of the eucharift, there is not a word of it in the Gofpel ; nor is it mentioned by St. Paul: neither Juftin Martyr, nor Cyril of Jerufalem fpeaJc of it ; there is no- thing concerning it neither in the Conftitutions, nor in the Areo pagite. In thofe firft ages all the elevation that is fpoken of, is the lifting up their hearts to God. The elevation of the fa crament began to be praaifed in the fixth century ; for it is mentioned in the Liturgy called St. Chryfoftom's, but befleved to be much later than his time. German, a writer of the Greek Church of the thirteenth century, is the firft that def- cants upon it ; he fpeaks not of it as done, in order to the ado ration of it, but malces it to reprefent both Chrift's being lifted up on the crofs, and alfo his refurreaion. Ivo of Chartres, ' who lived in the end of the eleventh century, is the firft of all the Latins that fpeaks of it ; but then it was not commorJy praaifed ; for the author of the MIcrologus, though he writ at the fame time, yet does not mention It, who yet is very mi nute upon all particulars relating to this facrament. Nor does Ivo fpeak of it as done in order to adoration, but only as a form of fhewing it to the people. Durand, a writer of the thirteenth century, is the firft that fpeaks of the elevation as done in order to the adoration. So it appears that our Church, by cutting off thefe abufes, has reftored this facrament to its primitive fimplicity, according to the inftitution and the prac, tice of the firft ages. ARTICLE THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 435 ARTICLE XXIX. Of the Wicked which eat not the Body of Chrift in the ufe of the Lord's Supper. CBe MitlKtU anti fucg a0 bt tioiti of a Ubtlp JFaitg, al= tfiougS tfiep fio tarnallp anti ftiCblp pref0 toitfi tfiev Ceetfi (a? §>t. Auftin faitfi) tfie §>atramem of tfie JlBotip anti llBIoot! of CCfijiff, pet in no toife are tfiep partafeer^ of Cfi?i(f ; but ratfier, to tfieir €onoem= nation, tjo eat anti tijtnfe tfie ^ign or facrament of fo gjeat a '^fiing. THIS Article arifes naturally out of the former, and de- art, pends upon it : for, if Chrifi's body is corporally prefent xxiX. in the facrament, then all perfons good or bad, who receive the ' — "^'"'^ facrament, do alfo receive Chrift : on the other hand, if Chrift is prefent only in a fpiritual manner, and if the mean that re ceives Chrift, is faith, then fuch as believe not, do not receive him. So that to prove that the wicked do not receive Chrift's body and blood, is upon the matter the fame thing with the proving, that he is not corporally prefent : and it is a very con fiderable branch of our argument, by which we prove that the Fathers did not believe the corporal prefence, becaufe they do very often fay, that the wicked do not receive Chrift in the fa crament. Here the fame diftinaion is to be made, that was mentioned upon the article of Baptifm, The facraments are to be confi dered either as they are aas of church-communion, or as they are federal aas by which we enter into covenant with God. With refpea to the former, the vifible profeffion that js made, and the aaion that is done, are all that can fall un der human cognlfance : fo a facrament muft be held to be good and valid, when as to outward appearance all things are done according to the inftitution : but as to the internal effea and benefit of it ; that turns upon the truth of the profeffion that is made, and the fincerity of thofe aas which do accom pany it : for if thefe are not ferioufly and fincerely performed, God is difhonoured and his inftitution Is profaned. Our Sa viour has exprefsly faid, that whofoever eats bis fieJh and drinks his blood, has eternal life. From thence we conclude, that no man does truly receive Chrift, who does not at the fame jime receive, with him, both a right to eternal life, and like- F f 2 wife 43^ AN EXPOSITION OF wife the beginnings and earnefts of It, The facrament ieing a federal aa, he who difhonours God, and profanes this inftitu tion, by receiving it unworthily, becomes highly guflty before God, and draws down judgments upon himfelf: and as It Is confeffed on all hands, that the inward and fpiritual effeas of the facrament depend upon the ftate and difpofition of him that communicates, fo we, who own no other prefence but an in ward and fpiritual one, cannot conceive that the wicked who believe not in Chrift do receive him. In this point feveral of the Fathers have delivered themfelves very plainly. Comment. Origen fays, Chrifi is the true food, whofoever eats him flail in Matth. c. U^g for ever ; of whom no wicked perfon can eat ; for if it were ¦'¦'' poffible that any who continues wicked, fhould eat the word that was made fiefh, it had never been written, whofo eats this bread fhall live for ever. This comes after a difcourfe of the facra ment, which he calls the typical and fymbolical body, and fo it can only belong to it. In another place he fays, Tbe good eat the living bread which came down from heaven ; but ihe wicked eat dead bread, which is death. Tom. ii. Zeno bifhop of Verona, who is believed to have lived near ^p"''- ^'^"- Origen's time, has thefe words : There is caufe to fear that "^ "^' he in luhom the Devil dwells, does not eat the flefh of our Lord, nor drink his blood; though he feems to communicate with the faithful : fince our Lord has faid, he that eats my fiefh, and drinks my blood, dwells in me, and I in him. In cap. 66. St. Jerom fays, They that are not holy in body and fpirit, do neither eat the fiefh of Jefus, nor drink his blood ; of which he faid, be that eats my fiefh, and drinks my blood, bath eternal life. Traa. 26. St. Auguftin expreffes himfelf in the very words that are in Joan, cited In the Article, which he introduces with thefe words : He that does not abide in Chrifi, and in whom Chrifi does not abide, certainly does not fpiritually eat his flefh, nor drink his blood, though he may vifibly and carnally prefs with his teeth the fa crament of the body and blood of Chrifi : but he rather eats and drinks the facrament of fo great a matter to his condemna- Civ dT ^^^''"'' •^"'^ '" another place he fays, neither are they (fpeaking 2j_ ¦ ' ' of vicious perfons ) to be faid to eat the body of Chrift, becaufe they are not his members : to which he adds. He that fays, whofo eats my fleJh, and drinks my blood, abides in me, and I in him, Jhews what it is not only in a facrament, but truly to eat tbe body of Chrifi, and to drink his blood. He has upon another occafion thofe frequently cited words, fpeak ing of the difference between the other Difciples and Judas, Trafl. 54. In receiving this facrament : Thefe did eat tbe bread that was tn Joan. ^/,^ Lord(panem Dominum) ; but he the bread of the Lord againfi tht THE XXXIX ARTICLES. , 437 the Lord (panem Domini contra Dominum). To all this a great deal might be added, to fhew that this was the doarine of the Greek Church, even after Damafcene's opinion con cerning the affumption of the elements into an union with the body of Chrift, was received among them. But more needs not be faid concerning this, fince it wfll be readily granted, that, if we are in the right in the main point of denying the Corporal Prefence, this wfll fall with it. F f 3 ARTICLE 43^^ AN EXPOSI'TION OF ARTICLE XXX. Of both Kinds. 'Zfit Cup of tfie ILojli 10 not to 6e benieti to JLap |0eo« pie. i^or botfi parts of tfie facrament, bp Cfirift'? £)rlsinante ana Commantiment, ougfit to be miniO t?el3 to all Cfijiffian S^tn alifee. THERE is not any one of all the controverfies that we have with the Church of Rome, in which the decifion feems more eafy and fhorter than this. The words of the inftitution are not only equally exprefs and pofitive as to both kinds, but the diverfity with which that part that relates to the cup is fet down, feems to be as clear a demonftration for us, as can be had In a matter of this kind ; and looks like a fpecial direaion given, to warn the Church againft any corruption that might arife upon this head. To all fuch as acknowledge the imme diate union of the Eternal Word with the human nature of Chrift, and the Infpiration by which the Apoftles were conduaed, it muft be of great weight to find a fpecialty marked as to the chaflce : of the cup it is faid. Drink ye all of it; whereas of the bread it is only faid. Take, eat; fo we cannot think the word all was fet down without defign. It is alfo faid of the cup, and they all drank of it; which is not faid of the bread : we think it no piece of trifling nicety to obferve this fpecialty. The words added to the giving the cup, are very particularly . emphatical. Take, eat. This is my body which is given for you. Is not fo full an expreffion, as. Drink ye all of ihis, for this is my blood of the New Tefiament which is fhed for many, for the remiffton of fins. If the fureft way to judge of the extent of any precept, to which a reafon is added, is to confider the extent of the reafon, and to meafure the extent of the pre cept, by that ; then fioce all that do communicate, need the remiffion of fins, and a fhare in the New Covenant, the rea fon that our Saviour joins to the diftribution of the cup, proves that they ought all to receive It. And if that difcourfe in St. John concei-nIng the eating Chrift's flefli, and the drinking his blood, is to be underftood of the facrament, as moft of the Roman Church affirm, then the drinking Chrifi's blood is as ne ceffary to eternal life, as the eating his flefh; by confequence, it is as neceffary to receive the cup as the bread. And it is not eafy to apprehend, why It fliould ftill be neceffary to con fecrate in both kinds, and not likewife to receive in both kinds. It THE XXXIX ARTICLES. -439 It cannot be pretended, that fince the Apoftles were all of the facred order, therefore their receiving in both kinds is no pre cedent for giving the laity the cup ; for Chrift gave them both kinds as they were finners, who were now to be admitted into covenant witii God by the facrifice of his body and blood. They were m that io fliew forth his death, and were to take, eat, and drink in remembrance of him. So that this inftitution was delivered to them as they were finners, and not as they were priefis. They were not conftituted by Chrift the paftors and governors of his Church, till after his refurreaion, when he breathed on them, and laid his hands on ihem, and bleffed ]oh.xyi..zt. them. So that at this time they were only Chrift's difciples and witneffes ; who had been once fent out by him on an ex traordinary commiffion ; but had yet no ftated charaaer fixed upon them. To this it is faid, that Chrift, by faying, Do this, conftituted y them priefis; fo that they were no more of the laity, when they received the cup. This is a new conceit taken up by the Schoolmen unknown to all antiquity : there is no fort of tra dition that fupports this expofition ; nor is there any reafon to imagine, that I>o this, fignifies any other than a precept to con tinue that inftitution, as a memorial of Chrift's death ; and Do this, takes in all that went before, the taking, the giving, as well as the bleffing, and the eating the bread; nor is there any reafon to appropriate this to the bleffing only, as if by this the confe crating and facrlficing power were conferred on the Priefts. From all which we conclude both that the Apoftles were only difciples at large, without any fpecial charaaers conferred on them, when the eucharift was inftituted, and that the eucha rift was given to them only as difciples, that is, as laymen. The mention that is made in fome places of the New Tefta ment, only of breaking of bread, can furnifh them with no argument; for it is not certain that thefe do relate to the facra ment ; or If they did, it is not certain, that they are to be un derftood ftriaiy ; for, by a figure common to the Eaftern na tions, bread ftands for all that belongs to a meal ; and If thefe places are applied to the facrament, and ought to be ftriaiy underftood, they will prove too much, that the facrament may be confecrated in one kind ; and that the breaking of bread, without the cup, may be underftood to be a complete facra ment. But when St. Paul fpoke of this facrament, he does fo diftinaiy mention the drinking the cup as well as eating the bread, that it is plain from him how the Apoftks underftood the words and intent of Chrift, and how this facrament was re ceived in that time. From the inftitution and command which are exprefs and pofitive, we go next to confider the nature of facramental ac- F f 4 tions. 440 AN EXPOSITION OE ART, tions. They have no virtue in them, as charms tied either to XXX. elements, or to words; they are only good becaufe command- * — '^ ' ed. A different ftate of things may indeed juftify an altera tion as to circumftances : the danger of dipping In cold cli mates, may be a very good reafon for changing the form of Baptilm to fprinkling ; and if climates were inhabited by Chrif tians to which wine could not be brought, we fhould not doubt but that whenfoever God makes a real neceffity of de parting from any inftitution of his, he does thereby aflow of iuch a change, as that neceffity muft draw after it: fo we do not condemn the licence that Is faid to have been granted by Pope Innocent the Eighth, to celebrate without wine in Nor way ; nor fhould we deny a man the facrament who had a na tural and unconquerable averfion to wine, or that communl- ' cated being near his laft agonies, and that fhould have the like averfion to either of the elements. When thofe things are real and not pretended, mercy is better than facrifice. The punaual obfervance of a facramental inftitution, does only oblige us to the effential parts of it, and in ordinary cafes : the pretence of what may be done, or has been done upon extraor dinary occafions, can never juftify the deliberate and unnecef- fary alteration of an effential part of the facrament. The ¦vvhok inftitution fliews very plainly, that our Saviour meant that the cup fhould be confidered every whit as effential as bread ; and therefore we cannot but conclude from the nature of things, that fince the facraments have only their effeas from their inftitution, therefore fo total a change of this facrament does plainly evacuate the Inftitution, and by confequence deftroy the eftedt of it. All reafoning upon this head Is an arguing againft the infti tution ; as if Chrift and his Apoftles had not well enough con fidered it; but that 1200 years after them, a confequence fhould be obferved that till then had not been thought of, which made it reafonable to alter the manner of it. The Concomitance is the great thing that is here urged ; fince it is believed that Chrift is intirely under each of the elements; and therefore it is not neceffary that both fhould be received, becaufe Chrift Is fully received In any one. But this fubfifts on the doarine of Tranfubfiantiation ; fo If that Is falfe, then here, upon a controverted opinion, an uncontroverted piece of the In ftitution is altered. And if Concomitance is a. cert?Lin confequence of- the doarine of Tranfubfiantiation, then It is a very ftrong argument againft the antiquity of that doarine, that the world was fo long without the notion of Concomitance; and therefore, if Tranfubfiantiation had been fooner received, the Concomitance would have been more eafily obferved. The in ftitution of the facrament feems to be fo laid down, as rather to make THE XXXIX ARTICLES. '44^ make us confider the body and blood as in a ftate of feparation, than of concomitance ; the body being reprefented apart, and the blood apart ; and the body as broken, and the blood as fhed. Therefore we confider the defign of the facrament is, to re prefent Chrift to us as dead, and in his crucified, but not In his glorified ftate. And If the opinion be true, that the glorified bodies are of another texture, than that of flefh and blood, which feems to be very plainly afferted by St. Paul, in a dif courfe intended to defcribe the nature of the glorified bodies, then this theory of concomitance will fail upon that account. But whatfoever may be in that, an inftitution of Chrift's muft not be altered or violated, upon the account of an inference that is drawn to conclude it needlefs. He who Inftituted It knew beft, what was moft fitting and moft reafonable ; and we muft choofe rather to acquiefce in his commands, than in our own reafonings. If, next to the inftitution and the theory that arifes from the nature of a facrament, we confider the praaice of the Chriftian Church in afl ages, there is not any one point in which the tradition of the Church is more exprefs, and more univerfal, than in this particular, for above a thoufand years af ter Chrift. All the accounts that |We have of the ancient ri tuals, both in Juftin Martyr, Cyril of Jerufalem, the Confii- Ap°I- 2- tutions, and the pretended Areopagite, do exprefsly mention both ^^^_ ^^^_ kinds as given feparately in the facrament. All the ancient 11^ Conii. turgies, as well thefe that go under the names of the Apoftles, Apoft. 1. ii. as thofe which are afcribed to St. Bafil and St. Chryfoftom, do ^J^-^. mention this very exprefsly; afl the offices of the Weftern Hiera.'c. 3- Church, both Roman and otiiers ; the miffals of the latter ages, I mean down to the twelfth century, even the Ordo Roma nus, believed by ibme to be a work of the ninth, and by others of the eleventh century, are exprefs in mentioning the diftribution of both kinds. All the Fathers, without except ing one, do fpeak of it very cleariy, as the univerfal praaice of their time. They do not fo much as give a hint of any difference about it. So that from Ignatius down to Thomas Aquinas, there is not any one writer that differs from the reft Aquin. in this point ; and even Aquinas fpeaks of the taking away the Com.^m ^ chalice as the praaice only of fome Churches ; other writers j'^Jj^ 3";^ of his time had not heard of any of thefe Churches ; for they ^a. par, 9, fpeak of both kinds as the univerfal praaice. q'^eft. 80. But befides this general concurrence, there are fome fpe- "' • '^• claltles in this matter : in St. Cyprian's time fome thought it was not neceffary to ufe wine in the facrament, they there fore ufed water only; and were from thence called Aquarii. It feems they found that their morning affemblies were fmelled out by the wine ufed in tiie facrament ; and Chriftians might •' be 442 AN EXPOSITION OF be known by the fmell of wine that was ftill about them ; they therefore intended to avoid this, and fo they had no wine among them, which was a much weightier reafon, than that of Cyp.Ep.es. the wine fticking upon the beards of the laity. Yet St. Cy- ad Ceci'. pjian condemned this very feverely, in a long epiftle writ upon that occafion. He makes this the main argument, and goes over it frequently, that we ought to follow Chrift, and do what he did : and he has thofe memorable words. If it be not lawful to loofe any one of the leafi commands of Chrifi, how much more is it ttnlaiuful to break fo great andfo weighty a one; that doesfo very hearly relate to the facrament of tur Lord's paffiton, and of our redemption ; or by any human infiitution io change it, into that which is quite different from the divine inftitution. This is fo full, that we cannot exprefs ourfelves more plainly. Among the other profanations of the Manicheans, this was one, that they came among the affemblies of the Chriftians, and did receive the bread, but they would not take any wine : Lco?;erm.4. this is mentioned by Pope Leo in the fifth century, upon which in Qi^adrag. Pope Gelafius hearing of it in his time, appointed that afl per- Decret. de -f^j^g fhould either communicate in the facrament intirely, or be ^on ecr. . j^^ij^^iy excluded from it ; for that fuch a dividing of one and the fame facrament might not be done without a heinous facri kge. In the feventh century a praaice was begun of dipping the bread in the wine, and fo giving both kinds together. This Decret. do was condemned by the Councfl of Bracara, as plainly contrary Confccr.dift. to the Gofpcl : Chrifi gave bis body and blood to his Apoftles ^' difiinBly, the bread by itfelf, and the chalice by itfelf. This is, by a miftake of Gratian's, put in the Canon-Law, as a de cree of Pope Julius to the Bifhops of Egypt. It is probable, that it was thus given firft to the fick, and to infants ; but though this got among many of the Eaftern Churches, and was, it feems, praaifed in fome parts of the Weft ; yet in the end of the ek- Conci). Cla- venth century. Pope Urban in the Council of Clermont decreed, lamont. (]jj( j^gjjg fljould communlcatc without takine the body apart. Can. 28. J ^L Ll J rr- °, ¦ 1 ¦' • and the blood apart, except upon neceffity, and with caution ; to which fome copies add, and thai by reafon of the herefy of Berengarius, that was lately condemned, which faid that ihe fi gure was completed by one of tbe kinds. We need not examine the importance or truth of thefe laft words ; it is enough for us to obferve the continued prac tice of communicating in both kinds tifl the twelfth centu ry ; and even then, vvhen the opinion of the corporal prefence begot a fuperftition towards the elements, that had not been known in former ages, fo that fome drops fticking to men's beards, and the fpilling fome of it, its freezing or becoming four, grew to be more confidered than the inftitution of Chrift; yet THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 443 yet for a while they ufed to fuck it up tiirough fmall quills or ART. pipes (called Fifiules, in die Ordo Romanus), which anfwered ^^^• the objeaion from the beards. ^ — ¦'-^ In the twelfth century, the bread grew to be given generally dipt in wine. The writers of that time, though they juftify this praaice, yet they acknowledge it to be contrary to the inftitu tion. Ivo of Chartres fays, the people did communicate with dipt bread, not by authority, but by neceffity, for fear of fpilling the blood of Chrift. Pope Innocent the Fourth faid that all might have the chaUce who were fo cautious, that nothing of it fliould be fpilr. In the ancient Church, the inftance of Serapion is brought Euf. rjift. to fhew that the bread alone was fent to the fick, which he '• "'¦ "¦ 4+- that carried it was ordered to moifien before he gave it him. Apoi.'^,"'^" Juftin Martyr does plainly infinuate that both kinds were fent to the abfents ; fo fome of the wine might be fent to Serapion with the bread ; and It is much more reafonable to believe this, than that the bread was ordered to be dipt in water ; there be ing no fuch inftance in all hiftory; whereas there are inftances brought to fhew that both kinds were carried to the fick. St. Ambrofe received the bread, but expired before he received the Paulinusln cup : this proves nothing but the weaknefs of the caufe that "itaAmbiof. needs fuch fupports. Nor can any argument be brought from fome words concerning the communicating of the fick, or of infants. Rules are made from ordinary, and not frOm extraordi nary praaices. The fmall portions of the facrament that fome carried home, and referved to other occafions, does not prove that they communicated only in one kind. They received in both, only they kept (out of too much fuperftition) fome frag ments of the one, which could be more eafily and with lefs ob fervation faved and preferved, than of the other: and yet there are inftances that they carried oft' fome portions of both kinds. The Greek Church communicates during moft of the days in Lent in bread dipt in wine; and in the Ordo Romanus, there is mention made of a particular communion on Good Friday; fome of the bread that had' been formerly confecrated, was put into a chalice with unconfecrated wine : this was a praaice that was grounded on an opinion that the unconfecrated wine Was fanaified and confecrated by the contaa of the bread: and though they ufed not a formal confecration, yet they ufed other prayers, which was all that the primitive Church thought was neceffary even to confecration ; it being thought, even fo late as Gregory the Great's time, that the Lord's Prayer was at firft the prayer of confecration. Thefe are all the colours which the ftudies^ and the fub tilties of this ao-e have been able to produce for juftifying the decree of the Council of Conftance j that does acknowledge, that 4H AN EXPOSITION OF that Chrift did inftitute this facrament in both kinds, and that tbe faithful in ihe primitive Church did receive in both kinds : yet a praBice being reafonably brought in to avoid fome dangers and fcandals, they appoint ihe cuftom io continue, of confecrating in both kinds^ and of giving to ihe laity only in one kind: fince Chrifi was entire and truly under each kind. They eftablifhed this praaice, and ordered that it fliould not be altered without the authority of the Church. So late a praaice and fo late a decree cannot make void the command of Chrift, nor be fet in oppofition to fuch a clear and univerfal praaice to the contrary. The wars of Bohemia that followed upon that de9ree, and all that fcene of cruelty which was aaed upon John Hus and Jerom of Prague, at the firft eftablifhment of it, fliews what op pofition was made to it even in dark ages ; and by men that did not deny Tranfubftantiation. Thefe prove that plain fenfe and clear authorities are fo ftrong, even in dark and corrupt times, as not to be eafily overcome. And this may be faid concerning this matter, that as there is not any one point in which the Church of Rome has aaed more vifibly, contrary to the Gofpel, than in this ; fo there is not any one thing that has raifed higher prejudices againft her, that has made more forfake her, and has poffeffed mankind more againft her, than this. This has coft her dearer than any other. ARTICLE THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 445 ARTICLE XXXI. Of the one Oblation of Chrift finiflied upon the Crofs. Cfie £)ffe?tng of Cfirift once mabe, i& tfiat perfe-t IRe= bemption, propitiation anb §>atisifaaion for all tfie ^in0 of tfie tofiole ^laHorlb, botfi j©rioinal anb 2t' tual X anb tfiere i& none otfier &ati0faaion for ^in but tfiat alone: aKHfiereforc in tfie S>atrig£e0 of 5pafle0, in tfie tofiitfi it toa0 commonlp faib, tfiat tfie prieft bib offer Cfirift for tfie quicli anb tfie beab, to fiabe iRemidion of pain anb dlJuilt, toere blalpfiemoug ^ab\t§ anb bangeronss JIDeteit0. IT were a mere queftion of words to difpute concerning the term facrifice, to confider the extent of that word, and the many various refpeas in which the eucharift may be called a facrifice. In general, all aas of religious worfhip may be called facrifices : becaufe fomewhat is in them offered up to God : Lei my prayer be fet forth before thee as incenfe, and ihe P&r. dxi. lifting up of my hands as the evening facrifice. Tbe facriflces J" . of God are a broken fpirit : a broken and a contrite heart, O j_ ' God, thou wilt not defpife. Thefe fhew how largely this word Hebr. xiii. was ufed in the Old Teftament : fo In the New we are exhorted ^5- by him (that is, by Chrift) to offer the facriflce of praife to God continually, that is, ihe fruit of our lips, giving thanks io his name. A Chriftian's dedicating himfelf to the fervice of God, is alfo expreffed by the fapie word of prefenting our bo- Rom. xi!. dies a living facriflce holy and acceptable to God. All aas of ^• charity are alfo called facriflces, an odour of a fweet fmell, a phil. iv, iS. facrifice acceptable, well pleafing to God. So in this large fenfe we do not deny that the eucharift is a facrifice 'of praife and thankfgiving : and our Church calls it fo in the office of the Communion. In two other refpeas it maybe alfo more ftriaiy Called 2i facrifice. One is, becaufe there is an oblation of bread and wine made in it, which being fanaified are confumed in an aa of religion. To this many paffages in the writings of the Fathers do relate. This was the oblation made at the altar by the people : and though at firft the Chriftians were reproach ed, as having a ftrange fort of a religion, in which they had neither temples, altars, nor facrifices, becaufe they had not thofe things 44-^ AN EXPOSITION OF ART. things in fo grofs a manner as the Heathens had; yet both Cle- XXXI. mens Romanus, Ignatius, and afl the fucceeding writers of the ""^ — "^^ Church, do frequently mention the oblations that they made : and in the ancient limrgies they did with particular prayers offer the bread and wine to God, as the great Creator of all things ; thofe were called the gifts or offerings which were offered to God, in imitation of Abel, who offered the fruits of the earth, in a facrifice to God, Both Juftin Martyr, Ire naeus, the Confiitutions, and all the ancient liturgies have very exprefs words relating to this. Another refpea in which the eucharifi Is called z facrifice, is becaufe it is a commemoration and a reprefentation to God of the facrifice that Chrift offered for us on the crofs : in which we claim to that, as to our ex piation, and feaft upon it as our peace-offering, according to that ancient notion, that covenants were confirmed by a facri fice, and were concluded in z-feafi on the facrifice. Upon thefe accounts we do not deny but that the eucharifi may be well called 2. facrifice : but ftill it is a commemorative ^crz^f^, and not propitiatory : that is, we do not diftinguifh the facrifice from ^e facrament; as If the Prieft's confecrating and confum ing the elements, were in an efpecial manner a facrifice any other way, than as the communicating of others with him is one : nor do we think that the confecrating and confuming the elements. Is an aa that does reconcile God to the quick and the dead: we confider it only as a federal aa of profeffing our belief in the death of Chrift, and of renewing our baptlfmal covenant with him. The virtue or effeas of this are not ge neral ; they are limited to thofe who go about this piece of wor fhip fincerely and devoutly ; they, and they only, are concerned in it, who go about It : and there, is no fpecial propitiation made by this fervice. It is only an aa of devotion and obedience in thofe that eat and drink worthily; and though in it they ought to pray for the whole body of the Church, yet thofe their prayers do only prevail with God, as they are devout interceffions; but not by any peculiar virtue in this aaion. On the other hand, the doarine of the Church of Rome is, that the eucharifi is the higheft aa of homage and honour that creatures can offer up to the Creator, as being an oblation of the Son to the Father ; fo that whofoever procures a mafs to be faid, procures a new piece of honour to be done to God, with which he is highly pleafed ; and for the fake of which he will be reconciled to all that are concerned in the procuring fuch maffes to be faid ; whether they be ftill on earth, or if they are now in purgatory : and that the Prieft, in offering and confuming thIS facrifice, performs a true aa of priefthood by reconciling fin ners to God. Somewhat was already faid of this on the head of Purgatorv. It THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 447 , , It feems very plain by the inftitution, that our Saviour, as he bleffed the facrament, faid. Take, eat : St, Paul calls it a com munion of the body and blood of ihe Lord; and a partaking of the Lord's table: and he, through his whole difeourfe of it, fpeaks of it, as an aaion of the Church and of all Chriftians; but does not fo much as by a hint intimate any thing peculiar to the Prjeft : fo that aU that die Scripture has delivered to us con cerning it, reprefents it as an aaion of the whole body, in which riie Prieft has no fpecial fhare but that of officiating. In the Epiftle to the Hebrews there is a very long difcourfe concerning Sacrifices and Priefis, in order to the explaining of Chrift's be ing bodi Priefi and Sacrifice. There a Prieft ftands for a perfon called and confecrated to offer fome living facrifice, and to flay it, and to make reconciliation of finners to God by the fhed ding, offering, or fprinkling the blood of the facrifice. This Was the notion that the Jews had of a Prieft ; and the Apoftle defigning to prove that the death of Chrift was a true facrifice, brings this for an argument, that there was to be another prieft hood after the order of Melchifedech. He begins the fifth chap- Heb. v. lo, ter with fettling the notion of a Prieft, according to the Jew ifh ideas : and then he goes on to prove that Chrift was fuch a Prieft, called of God and confecrated. But in this fenfe he appropriates the priefthood of the New Difpenfation fingly to Chrift, in oppofition to the many Priefts of the Levitical Law : and they truly were many Priefts, becaufe they zvere not fuffered cli. vii. S4. to continue, by reafon of death : but this man, becaufe he conti- Tiueth ever, hath an unchangeable priefihood. It is clear from the whole thread of that difcourfe, that, in the ftriaeft fenfe of the word, Chrift himfelf is the only Priefi under the Gofpel ; and it is alfo no lefs evident that his death is the only Sacrifice, in oppofition to the many oblations that were under the Mofaical Law, to take away fin ; which appears very plain from thefe words. Who needeth not daily as thofe liigh- v, 27. Priefis to offer up facrifice, firfi for his own fins, and then for tbe people ; for this he did once when he offered up himfelf. He oppofes that to the annual expiation made by the Jewifh High- Prieft, Chrifi entered in once to ihe holy place, having made re demption for us by his own blood: and having laid down that general maxim, that without fhedding of blood there was no re- ^h- 'Jf- 22. miffion, he fays, Chrifi was offered once to bear the fins of many : ». 28. he puts a queftion to fhew that ?&. facrifices were now to ceafe ; When the worfhippers are once purged, then would not facriflces '^'^- *• (eafe to be offered? And he ends with this, as a fufl conclu- *¦" ^'" fion to that part of his difcourfe : Every Priefi fiands daily mi- v, 12, rtiftering and offering oftentimes the fame facrifices, which can ne ver take away fin : but this man, after he had offered up one fa~ criflce 44^ AN EXPOSITION OF ART. orifice for fins, for ever fat down on the right hand of God. XXXI. Here are not general words, ambiguous expreffions, or remote ^-— ^""^ hints, but a thread of a fufl and clear difcourfe, to fliew that, in the ftria fenfe of the words, we have but one Priefi, and likewife but one Sacrifice under the Gofpel : therefore how largely foever thofe words of Priefi or Sacrifice may have been ufed; yet, according to the true idea of a propitiatory Sacrifice, and of a Priefi that reconciles finners to God, they cannot be applied to any aas of our worfhip, or to any order of men upon earth. 'r«or can the value and virtue of any inftituted aa of religion be carried, by any inferences or reafonings, be yond that which is put In them by the inftitution : and therefore fince the inftitution of this facrament has nothing in it, that gives us this idea of It, we cannot fet any fuch value upon it : and fince the reconciling finners to God, and the pardoning of fin, are free aas of his grace, it is therefore a high prefumption in any man, to imagine they can do this by any aa of theirs, without powers and warrants for it from Scripture. Nor can this be pretended to without affuming a moft facrileglous fort of power over the attributes of God: therefore afl the virtue that can be in the facrament, is, that we do therein gratefully commemorate the facrifice of Chrift's death, and, by renewed aas of faith, prefent that to God as our facrifice, in the memorial of it, which he himfelf has appointed : by fo doing we renew our covenant with God, and fhare in the effeas of that death which he fuffered for us. Afl the ancient liturgies have this as a main part of the office, that being mindful of the death of Chrift or commemorating it, they offered up the gifts. This Is the language of Juftin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertul- lian, Cyprian, and of afl the following writers. They do com pare fhixs facrifice to that of Melchifedeck, who offered bread and wine : and though the text imports only his giving bread and wine to Abraham and his followers, yet they applied that ge nerally to the oblation of bread and wine, that was made on the altar : but this fhews that they did not think of any facri fice made by the offering up of Chrift. It was the bread and the wine only which they thought the Priefts of the Chriftian religion did offer to God. And therefore it is remarkable, that when the Fathers anfwer the reproach of the Heathens, who charged them with irreligion and impiety for having no facrifices among them, they never anfwer it by faying, that they offered up a facriflce of ineftlmabk value to God ; which muft have been the firft anfwer that could have occurred to a man poffeffed Apol. a, with the ideas of the Church of Rome. On the contrary, Juftin Martyr, in his Apology fays, They had no other facriflces but prayers THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 449 prayers and praifes : and in his Dialogue with Trypho he con- A R t- fefles, that Chrifiians offer to God oblations, according to Ma- ^^^l- lachi's prophecy, when they celebrate the eucharift, in which they ^^ '~~-' commemorate the Lord's death. Both Athenagoras and MInu- chtiii™ tins Felix juftify the Chriftians for having no other facrifices but Minut. in pure hearts, clean confciences, and a ftedfaft faith. Origen ^^f'^Y;. and Tertufllan refute the fame objeaion In the fame manner : 5eiw ""' they fet the prayers of Chriftians in oppofition to all the facri- Tert. Apol. fices that were among the Heathens. Clemens of Alexandria "^-Bo- and Arnobius write in the fame ftrain ; and they do afl make strom. l.vii. ufe of one topick, to juftify their oftering no facrifices, that Amob'. God, who made afl things, and to whom all things do belong, '¦''• ^'''• needs nothing from his creatures. To multiply no more quo tations on this head, Julian in his time objeaed the fame thing to the Chriftians, which fhews that there was then no idea of a facrifice among them ; otherwife he who knew their doarine and rites, had either not denied fo pofitively as he did, their having facrifices ; or at leaft he had fhewed how improperly the eucha rift was called one. When Cyril of Alexandria, towards the Cyr. AI. middle of the fifth century, came to anfwer this, he infifts only '¦''¦*• upon the inward and fpiritual facrifices that were offered by Chriftians ; which were fuitable to a pure and fpiritual effence, fuch as the Divinity was to take pleafure in ; and therefore he fets that in oppofition to tbe facrifices of beafis, birds, and of all other things whatfoever : nor does he fo much as mention, even in a hint, the fecrifice of the eucharift; which fhews that he did not confider that as a facrifice that was propitiatory. Thefe things do fo plainly fet before us the ideas that the firft ages had of this lacrament, that to one who confiders them duly, they do not leave fo much as a doubt in this matter. All that they may fay in homilies, or treatifes of piety, concern ing the pure-offering that, according to Malachi, all Chriftians offered to God in the facrament, concerning the facrifice, and the unbloody facrifice of Chriftians, muft be underftood to re late to the prayers and thanlcfglvlngs that accompanied it, to the commemoration that was made in it of the facrifice offered once upon the crofs, and finally to the oblation of the bread and wine, which they fo often compare both to Abel's facri fice, and to Melchifedeck's offering bread and wine. It were eafy to enlarge further on this head, and from all the rituals of the ancients to fhew, that they had none of thofe ideas that are now in the Roman Church, They had but one altar in a church, and probably but one in a city : they had but one communion .in a day at that altar : fo far were they from the many altars in every church, and the many maffes at every altar, that are now in the Roman Church, They did not o-a, G g knew 450 ji^KT EXPOSITION OF know what folltary maffes were without a communion. AH the liturgies and all the writings of the ancients are as exprefs in this matter as is poffible. The whole conftitution of their worfliip and difcipline fhews it. Their worfhip concluded always with the eucharift : fuch as were not capable of it, as the catechumens, and thofe who were doing publick penance ' for their fins, affifted at the more general parts of the worfhip; and fo much of It was called their mafs, becaufe they were dlf- miffed at the conclufion of it. When that was done, then the faithful ftald, and did partake of the eucharift ; and at the con clufion of it they were likewife difmiffed ; from whence it came to be called the mafs of tbe faithful. The great rigour of penance was thought to confift chiefly in this, that fuch peni tents might not ftay with the faithful to communicate. And though this feems to be a praaice begun in the third century, yet both from Juftin Martyr and Tertufllan it Is evident, that Cin. 9. all the faithful did conftantly communicate. There is a canon, ^P°*' among thofe which go under the name of the Apoftles, againft fuch as came and affifted in the other parts of the fervice, and did not partake of the eucharift : the fame thing was decreed Con. An- by the Council of Antioch : and it appears by the Conftitutions, uocti. Can. (.[^^j ^ Deacon was appointed to fee that no man fhould go out, Conft. A- and a Subdeacon was to fee that no woman fhould go out poft. 1. viii. during the oblation. The Fathers do frequently aflude to the ^F- II- vvord communion, to fhew that the facrament was to be common Ep. adEp'h". *^° ^"- ^^ '^ '^'¦^^j '" St. Chryfoftom's time, the zeal that the lib. ii, Chriftians of the former ages had to communicate often, began to flacken ; fo that they had thin communions, and few com municants : againft which that Father ralfes himfelf with his pathetick eloquence, in words which do fhew that he had no notion of folltary maffes, or of the lawfulnefs of them : and it is very evident, that the negka of the facrament in thofe who came not to it, and the profanation of It by thofe who came un worthily, both which grew very fcandalous at that time, fet that holy and zealous Bifhop to many eloquent and fublime ftrains concerning it, which cannot be underftood, without making thofe abatements that are due to a copious and Afiatick ftyle, when much inflamed by devotion. In the fucceeding ages we find great care was taken to fuffer none that did not communicate to ftay in the church, and to fee Dialog. the myfteries. There Is a rubrick for this in the office men- gunL Can.' ^^°^^^ ^7 Gregory the Great. The writers of the ninth cen- 43. tury go on in the fame ftrain. It was decreed by the Councfl of Mentz, in the end of Charles the Great's reign, that no Prieft fhould fay mafs alone ; for how could he fay. The Lord be with you; or, lift up your hearts, if there was no other perfon there befide; THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 45^ feefides himfelf? This fliews that the praaice of folltary maffes was then begun, but that it was difliked. Walafridus Strabus fays, that to a lawful mafs it was neceffary that there fhould be . a Prieft, together with one to anfwer, one to offer, and oife to Strab.'de communicate. And the author of MIcrologus, who is believed R^^us Ec- to have writ about the end of the eleventh century, does con- ''''='^'"- ^^^ demn folltary communions, as contrary both to the praaice of the ancients, and to the feveral parts of the office : fo that till the twelfth century it was never allowed of in the Roman Church ; as to this day it is not praaifed in any other commu nion. _ But then with the doarine of Purgatory and Tranfubftantia tion mixt together, the faying of maffes for other perfons, whe ther alive or dead, grew to be confidered as a very meritorious thing, and of great efficacy; thereupon great endowments were made, and it became a trade. Maffes were fold, and a fmafl piece of money became their price ; fo that a profane fort of fimony was fet up, and the holleft of all the infiltutions of the Chriftian religion was expofed to fafe. Therefore we, in cut ting off all this, and In bringing the facrament to be according to its firft inftitution, a communion, have followed the words of our Saviour, and the conftant praaice of the whole Church for the firft ten centuries. So far afl the Articles that relate to this facrament have been confidered. The variety of the matter, and the important con troverfies that have arifen out of It, has jsade it neceffary to en large with fome coploufnefs upon the feveral branches of it. Next to the infallibility of the Church, this is the deareft piece of the doarine of the Church of Rome ; and is that in which both priefts and people are better inftruaed, than in any other point whatfoever ; and therefore this ought to be ftudied on our fide with a care proportioned to the importance of it : that fo we may govern both ourfelves and our people aright, In a matter of fuch confequence, avoiding with great caution the extremes on both hands, both of exceffive fuperftition on the one hand, and of profane negka on the other. For the nature of man is fo moulded, that It is not eafy to avoid the one, without fall ing into the other. We are now vifibly under the extreme of negka, and therefore we ought to ftudy by afl means poffible to infpire our people with a juft refpea for this holy inftitution, and to animate them to defire earneftly to partake often of it ; and in order to that, to prepare themfelves ferioufly to fet about it with the reverence and devotion, and with thofe holy pur pofes and folemn vows that ought to accompany it. G g S ARTICLE 452 XTH EXPOSITION OF article: xxxii. Of the Marriage of Priefts. JlBiflbops, ^riEll0, anis JDeatong, a?c not tomman&et bp (115oi3'0 ILato eitfier to bote tfie (Effate of Cngle ILifc, or to abttain fjom iparriaget 'SDfiercfore it is latoful for tficm, as tocll a0 for all lEfiriffian t^en, to nta??p at tfieir oton SDiftjttion, a& tfiep fljall jutige tfie fame to fejije better to dDoUlinefs. ART. 'T^ H E firft period of this Article, to the word (Therefore) xxxii. _|_ was all that was publifhed In King Edward's time. They «— v—-" were content to lay down the affertion, and left the inference to be made as a confequence that did naturally arife out of it. There was not any one point that was more feverely examined at the time of the Reformation than this : for, as the Irregular praaices and diffolute lives of both feculars and regulars had very much prejudiced the world againft the celibate of the Ro man Clergy, which was confidered as the occafion of all thofe diforders ; fo, on the other hand, the marriage of the Clergy, and alfo of thofe of both fexes who had taken vows, gave great offence. They were reprefented as perfons that could not maf ter their appetites, but that indulged themfelves In carnal plea fures and interefts. Thus, as the fcandals of the unmarried Clergy had alienated the world much from them ; fo the mar riage of moft of the Reformers was urged as an ill charaaer both of them and of the Reformation ; as a doarine of liber- tinifm, that made the Clergy look too like the reft of the world, and involved them in the common pleafures, concerns, and paflions of human life. The appearances of an aufterlty of habit, of a feverity of life in watching and fafting, and of avoiding the common plea- flires of fenfe, and the delights of life that was on the other fide, did ftrike the world, and inclined many to think, that what ill confequences foever celibate produced, yet that thefe were much more fupportable, and more eafy to be reformed, than the ifl confequences of an unreftrained permlffion of the Clergy to marry, fn treating this matter, we muft firft confider celibate with relation to the laws of Chrift and the Gofpel ; and then with relation to the laws of the Church, It does not feem contrary to the purity of the worfhip of God, or of divine performances, that married perfons fhould officiate In them ; fince by the law of Mcfef, Priefts not only might marry, but the Priefthood was tied to defcend as an inheritance In a certain family. And even the High-Prieft, who was to perform the great funaion of the annual XIX. IO, II, 11. THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 453 annual atonement that was made for the fins of the whole Jew ifh nation, was to marry, and he derived to his defcendants that facred office. If there was fo much as a remote unfuit- abknefs between a married ftate and facerdotal performances, we cannot imagine that God would by a law tie the Priefthood to a family, which by confequence laid an obligation on the Priefts to marry. When Chrift chofe his twelve Apoftles, fome of them were married men ; we are fure, at leaft, that St, Peter was ; fo that he made no diftinaion, and gave no preference to the unmarried: our Saviour did no where charge them to forfake their wives; nor did he at all reprefent celibate as neceffary to the kingdom of Heaven, or the difpenfation of the Gofpel, He fpeaks indeed of fome that brought themfelves to the ftate of eu nuchs for ihe fake of the Gofpel; but in that he left afl men at fullM.ntli liberty, by faying, Lei him receive it that is able to receive it; fo " that in this every man muft judge of himfelf by what he finds himfelf to be. That is equally recommended to afl ranks of men, as they can bear it. St. Paul does affirm, that Marriage is ho- Heb. »iii.4. murable in all: and to avoid uncleannefs, he fays, It is better ^aiCor. ni.9. marry than io burn; and fo gives it as a rule, that every man fhould have his own wife. Among all the ruks or qualifications of Bifhops or Priefts, that are given in the New Teftament, particularly in the Epiftles to Timothy and Titus, there Is not a ' '^™- '"¦ word of the celibate of the Clergy, but plain intimations to the*' ''¦' 5' "• contrary, that they were, and might be married. That of the hufband of one wife i% repezted in different places : mention is alfo made of the wives and children of the Ckrgy, ruks being given concerning them : and not a word Is fo much as Infinu ated, importing that this was only tolerated In the beginnings of Chriftianity, but that it was afterwards to ceafe. On the contrary, the forbidding to marry is given as a charaaer of the apoftafy i Tim. iv. of the later times. We find Aquila, when he went about preach- 3- ing the Gofpel, was not only married to Prifcilla, but that he carried her about with him : not to infift on that privflege that St. Paul thought he might have claimed, of carrying about zvith i Cor. \x. him afifier and a wife, as weU as the other Apofiles, And thus 5- the firft point feems to be fufly cleared, that by no law of God the Clergy are debarred from marriage. There is not one word in the whole Scriptures that does ib much as hint at it; whereas there is a great deal to the contrary. Marriage being then one of the rights of human nature, to which fo many reafons of different forts may carry both a wife and a good man, and there being no pofitive precept In the Gofpel that forbids it to the Ckrgy; the next queftion is. Whe ther it is in the power of ihe Church to m.ike a perpetual law, reftraining the Ckrgy from marriage ? It is certain that no age gf the Church can make a law to bind fucceeding ages ; for Q g 3 whatfoever 454 AN EXPOSITION OF whatfoever power the Church has, fhe is always in poffeffion of it ; and every age has as much power as any of the former ages had. Therefore If any one age fhould by a law enjoin celi bate to the Ckrgy, any fucceeding age may repeal and alter that law. For ever fince the infpiration that conduaed the Apoftles has ceafed, every age of the Church may make or change laws in afl matters that are within their authority. So it feems very clear, that the Church can make no perpetual law upon this fubjea. In the next place it may be juftly doubted, whether the Church can make a law that fhafl reftrain afl the Clergy in any of thofe natural rights In which Chrift has left them free. The adding a law upon this head to the laws of Chrift, feems to affume an authority that he has not given the Church. It looks like a pretending to a ftrain of purity, beyond the rules fet us in the Gofpel ; and is plainly the laying a yoke upon us, which muft be thought tyrannical, fince the Author of this religion, who knew beft what human nature is capable of, and what it may well bear, has not thought fit to lay it on thofe whom he fent upon a commiffion that required a much greater elevation of foul, and more freedom from the entanglements of worldly or domeftick concerns, than can be pretended to be neceffary for the ftanding and fettled offices in the Church. Therefore we conclude, that it were a great abufe of Church-power, and a high aa of tyranny, for any Church, or any age of the Church, to bar men from the fervlces in the Church, becaufe they either are married, or intend to keep themfelves free to marry, or not, as they pleafe : this does indeed bring the body of the Clergy more into a combination among themfelves; it does take them in a great meafure off from having feparated interefts of their own ; It takes them out of the civil fociety, in which they have lefs concern, when they give no pledges to it. And fo In ages In which the Papacy intended to engage the whole Priefthood Into Its interefts againft the civfl powers, as the immunity and exemptions of the Ckrgy made them fafe In their own perfons, fo it was neceffary to free them from any fuch incumbrances or appendages by which they might be in the power or at the mercy of fecular princes. This, joined with the belief of their making God with a few words, by the virtue of their charaaer, and of their forgiving fin, was hke armour of proof, by which they were invulnerable, and by confequence capable of undertaking any thing that might be committed to them. But this may well recommend fuch a rule to a crafty and defigning body of men, in which it is not to be denied, that there is a deep and refined policy ; yet we have not fo learned Chrifi, nor to handle tbe word of God, or the autho* ritv th^t be has trufted to us, deceitfully, A* THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 455 As for the confequences of fuch laws, inconveniences are a R t on both hands : as long as men are corrupt themfelves, fo long XXXii." they wifl abufe all the liberties of human nature. If not only ' — - — ' common lewdnefs In all the kinds of It, but even brutal and unnatural lufts, have been the vifible confequences of the ftria law of celibate; and if this appears fo evident in hiftory that It cannot be denied, we think it better to truft human nature with the lawful ufe of that in which God has not reftrained it, than to venture on that which has given occafion to abomina tions that cannot be mentioned without horror. As for the temptation to covetoufnefs, we think it Is neither fo great, nor fo unavoidable upon the one hand, as thofe monftrous ones are on the other. It is more reafonable to expea divine affiftances to preferve men from temptations, when they are ufing thofe liberties which God has left free to them, than when, by pre- tending to a purity greater than that which he has commanded, they throw themfelves into many fnares. It is alfo very evident, that covetoufnefs is an effea of men's tempers, rather than of their marriage ; fince the inftances of a ravenous covetoufnefs, and of a reftlefs ambition. In behalf of men's kindred and fami lies, hath appeared as often and as fcandaloufly among the un married, as among the married Clergy, From thefe general confiderations, concerning the power that the Church has to make either a perpetual or an univer fal law in a thing of this kind ; I fhall in the next place con fider in fhort, what the Church has done In this matter. In the firft ages of Chriftianity, Bafilldes and Saturnlnus, and af ter them, both Montanus and Novatus, and the feSk of the En- cratites, condemned marriage as a ftate of libertinifm that was unbecoming the purity required of Chriftians, Againft thofe we find the Fathers afferted the lawfulnefs of marriage to all Chriftians, without making a difference between the Clergy and the Laity. It is true, the appearances that were in Montanus and his followers, feem to have engaged the Chriftians of that age to ftrain beyond them in thofe things that gave them their re putation : many of Tertulllan's writings, that criticks do now fee were writ after he was a Montanift, which feems not to have been obferved In that age, carry the matter of cekbate fo high, that it is no wonder, if,- confidering the reputation that he had, a bias v^as given by thefe to the following ages in favour of celibate: yet it feemed to give great and juft prejudices againft the Chriftian religion, if fuch as had come Intd the fervice of the Church fhould have forfaken their wives. It is vifible how much fcandal this might have given, and what matter of reproach it would have furniflied their enemies with, if they could have charged diem with this, that men, to get rid of their wives, and of the care of their families, went into orders; that fo, under G g 4 2 pretence I. c. 12, 456 AN EXPOSITION OF a pretence of a higher degree of fanaity, they might abandon their famflies. Therefore great care was taken to prevent this. They were fo far from requiring Priefts to forfake their wives, that fuch as did it, upon their entering into orders were feverely condemned by the Canons that go under the name of the Apofiles. They were alfo condemned by the Council of Gangra in the fourth century, and by that in Trullo in the feventh age. There are fome Inftances brought of Bifhops and Priefts, who are fup pofed to have married after they were ordained ; but as there are only few of thofe, fo perhaps they are not well proved. It muft be acknowledged, that the general praaice was, that men once in orders did not marry : but many Bifhops in the beft ages lived ftill with their wives. So did the Fathers both of Gre gory Nazianzen and of St. Bafil. And among the works of Hilary of Poiaiers, there is a letter writ by him in exile to his daughter Abra, in which he refers her to her mother's inftruc- tion in thofe things which fhe, by reafon of her age, did not then underftand ; which fhews that fhe was then very young, and fo was probably born after he was a Bifhop. Socr. Hift. Some propofed In the Council of Nice, that the Clergy fhould Eccl. lib. depart from their wives; but Paphnutlus, though himfelf un married, oppofed this, as the laying an unreafonably heavy yoke upon them. Hellodorus, a Bifhop, the author of the firft of thofe love- fables that are now known by the name of Romances, being upon that account accufed of too much levity, did, in order to the clearing himfelf of that imputation, move that Clergymen ftiould be obliged to live from their wives. Which the hiftorian fays they were not tied to before ; for tfll then Bifhops lived with their wives. So that in thofe days the liv ing In a married ftate was not thought unbecoming the purity of the facred funaions. A fingle marriage was never objeaed in bar to a man's being made Bifliop or Prieft. They did not indeed admit a man to orders that had been twice married; but even for this there v/as a diftinaion : if a man had been once married before his baptifm, and was once married after his baptifm, that was reckoned only a fingle marriage ; for what had been done when in Heathenifm went for nothing. And Jc? rome, fpeaking of Bifhops who had been twice married, but by this nicety were recko.ned to be the hufiands of one wife, fays, the number of thofe of this fort in that time could not be reckon ed; and that more fuch Bifliops might be found, than were at the Council of Arimini, Canons grew to be frequently made againft the marriage of tiiofe In holy orders ; but thefe were pofitive laws made chiefly In the Roman and African Synods ; and fince thofe canons were fo often renewed, we may from thence con clude that they were not well kept. When Synefius was or dained Prieft, he tells in an epiftle of his, that he declared openly. THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 4S7 openly, that he would not live fecretiy with his wife, as fome did ; but that he would dwell publickly with her, and wifhed that he might have many children by her. In the Eaftern Church the Priefts are ufually married before they are ordained, and continue afterwards to live with their wives, and to have children by them, without either cenfure or troiibk. In the Weftern Church we find mention made, both in the Gallican and Spanifti Synods, of the wives both of Bifhops and Priefts; and they are called Epifcopa and Prefbytera, In the Saxon times the Clergy in moft of the cathedrals of England were openly married ; and when Dunftan, who had engaged King Edgar to favour the Monks, in oppofition to the married Clergy, preffed them to forfake their wives, they refufed to do it, and fo were turned out of their benefices, and Monks came in their places. Nor was the celibate generally impofed on all the Cler gy, before Gregory the Seventh's time, in the end of the ele venth century. He had great defigns for fubjeaing all temporal princes to the papacy; and in order to that, he intended to bring the Clergy into an entire dependance upon himfelf: and to feparate them wholly from all other interefts, but thofe of the ecclefiaftical authority : and that he might load the mar ried Ckrgy with an odious name, he called them all Nicolai- tans ; though the accounts that the ancients give us of that fea, fay nothing that related to this matter ; but a name of an ni found goes a great way In an ignorant age. The wri ters that lived near that time, condemn this feverity againft the married Clergy, as a new and a rafti thing, and contrary to the mind of the holy Fathers, and they tax his rigor in turn ing them all out. Yet Lanfranc among us did not impofe the celibate generally on all the Clergy, but only on thofe that lived at cathedrals and in towns ; he connived at thofe who ferved in viflages. Anfelm carried it farther, and Impofed it on afl the Clergy without exception : yet he himfelf laments that unnatural lufts were become then both common and publick j of which Petrus Damiani made great complaints in Gregory the Seventh's time. Bernard, in a fermon preached to the Clergy of France, fays it was common in his time, and then ^ven Bifliops with Bifl>ops lived in it. The obfervation that Abbot Panormitan made of the progrefs of that horrid fin, led him to wifti that it might be left free to the Clergy to marry as they pleafed. Pius the Second faid that there might have been good reafons for impofing the celibate oxi the Clergy ; but he- believed there were far better reafons for leaving them to their liberty. As a remedy to thefe more enormous crimes, dif penfations fonconcubinate became fo common that inftead of giving fcandal by them, they were '^^''^'' ^''i^'^'iZruhin^v Faaersof modefty and temperance; m fitch concubinag 458 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. Priefts the world judged themfelves fafe from praaices on their XXXII. own families. '^ '-f When we confider thofe effeas that followed on the impof ing the celibate on the Clergy, we cannot but look on them, as much greater evils than thofe that can follow on the leaving it free to them to marry. It is not to be denied but that, on the other hand, the effefts of a freedom to marry may be likewife bad : that ftate does naturally Involve men in the cares of life, in domeftick concerns, and it brings with It temptations both to luxury and covetoufnefs. It carries with It too great a dif pofition' to heap up wealth, and to raife families : and in a •word, it makes the Ckrgy both look too like, and live too like the reft of the world. But when things of this kind are duly balanced, ill effeas will appear on both hands : thofe arife out of the general corruption of human nature, which does fo Ipread itfelf, that It will corrupt us in the moft innocent, and in tbe moft neceffary praaices. There are exceffes committed in eating, drinking, and fleeplng. Our depraved inclinations will infinuate themfelves into us in our beft aaions : even the publick worfhip of God and all devotion receive a taint from them. But we muft not take away thofe liberties, in which God has left human nature free, and engage men to rules and methods, that put a violence upon mankind : this is the lefs excufabk, when we fee, in faa, what the confequences of fuch reftralnts have been for many ages. Yet after all, though they who marry, do well; yet thofe who marry not, do better, provided they live chafte, and do not burn. That man, who fubdues his body by fafting and prayer, by labour and ftudy, and that feparates himfelf from the concerns of a family, that he may give himfelf wholly to the mi niftry of the word, and to prayer, that lives at a diftance from the levities of the world, and In a courfe of native modefty and unaffeaed feverity. Is certainly a burning and fhining light: he is above the world, free from cares and defigns, from afpirings, and afl thofe reftlefs projeas which have fo long gi ven the worid fo much fcandal : and therefore thofe, who al low themfelves the liberty of marriage, according to the laws of God and the Church, are indeed engaged in a ftate of many temptations, to which If they give way, they lay themfelves open to many cenfures, and they bring a Icandal on the reform ation for allowing them this liberty, if they abufe it. It remains only to confider how far this matter Is altered by vows ; how far it Is lawful to make them ; and how far they bind when they are made. It feems very unreafonable and ty rannical to put vows on any, in matters in which it may not be in their power to keep them without fin. No vows ought to be made, but in things thalt are either abfolutely in our power, or in Afis vi. THE XXXIX ARTICLES. «tS9 in things in which we may procure to ourfelves thofe affift. art ances that may enable us to perform them. We have a foederal xxxiL right to the promifes that Chrift has made us, of inward affift- *— v~-» ances to enable us to perform thofe conditions that he has laid on us ; and therefore we may vow to obferve them, becaufe we may do that which may procure us aids fufficient for the exe cution of them. But if men wifl take up refolutions, that are not within thofe neceffary conditions, they have no reafon to promife themfelves fuch affiftances : and if they are not fo abfo lutely mafters of themfelves, as to be able to ftand to them with out thofe helps, and yet are not fure that they fhall be given them, then they ought to make no vow, in a matter which they cannot keep by their own natural ftrength, and in which they have not any promife in the Gofpel, that affures them of divine affiftances to enable them to keep It. This is, therefore, a tempting of God, when men pretend to ferve him, by affum ing a ftriaer courfe of life than either he has commanded, or they are able to go through with. And it may prove a great fnare to them, when by fuch rafh vovvs they are engaged into fuch a ftate of life, in which they live in conftant temptations to fin, without either command or promife, on which they can reft as to the execution of them. This is to lead themfelves into temptation, in oppofition to that which our Saviour has made a petition of that prayer which he himfelf has taught us. Out of this, great diftraaions of mind, and a variety of different temptations may, and pro bably will arife ; and that the rather, becaufe the vow Is made ; there being fomewhat in our natures that will always ftruggle the harder, becaufe they are reftrained. It is certain that every man, who dedicates himfelf to the fervice of God, ought to try, if he can dedicate himfelf fo entirely to it, as to live out of afl the concerns and entanglements of life. If he can main tain his purity in it, he will be enabled thereby to labour the more effeaually, and may expea both the greater fuccefs here, and a fuller reward hereafter. But becaufe both his temper and his circumftances may fo change, that what is an advantage to him in one part of his life, may be a fnare and an incumbrance to him in another part of it, he ought therefore to keep this matter ftill in his own power, and to continue in that Uberty, in which God has left him free, that fo he may do, as he fliall find it to be moft expedient for himfelf, and for the work of the Gof pel, Therefore it Is to be concluded, that it is unlawful either to impofe, or to make fuch vows. And, fuppofing that any have been engaged in them, more, perhaps, out of the importu nity or authority of others, than their own choice ; then though it is certainly a charaaer of a, mm that fhall dwell in God's holy 4^0 AN EXPOSITION OF A R T. holy hiU, that though he fivears to his own hurt, yet he changes XXXII. ,2j^ . j,g Js to confider, whether he can keep fuch a vow, without Vp ' breaking the commandments of God, or not : if he can, then, '"'¦ *' certainly, he ought to have that regard to the name of God, that was called upon in the vow, and to the fokmnlties of it, and to the fcandals that may follow upon his breaking it, that if he can continue in that ftate, without finning againft Gody he ought to do it, and to endeavour all he can to keep his vow, and preferve his purity. But If, after he has ufed both fafting and prayer, he ftifl finds that the obligation of his vow is a fnare to him, and that he cannot both keep it, and alfo keep the commandments of God ; then the two obligations, that of the law of God, and that of his vow, happening to ftand in one another's way, certainly the leffer muft give place to the greater. Herod's oath was ill and rafhly made, but worfe kept, Matth. xiv. when, for his oath's fake, he ordered the head of John the 9. Baptift to be cut off. Our Saviour condemns that praaice Matth. XV. among the Jews, of vowing that to the Corban or treafure of -'' the Temple, which they ought to have given to their parents, and imagining that, by fuch means, they were not obliged to take care of them, or to fupply them. The obligation to keep the commandments of God is indifpenfibk, and antecedent to any aa or vow of ours, and therefore it cannot be made void by any vow that we may take upon us : and if we are under a vow, which expofes us to temptations that do often prevail, and that probably will prevail long upon us, then we ought to repent of our rafhnefs in making any fuch vow, but muft not continue in the obfervation of it, if it proves to us like the taking fire into our bofom, or the handling of pitch. A vow that draws many temptations upon us, that are above our ftrength to refift them, is, certainly, much better broken and repented of, than kept. So that, to conclude, celibate is not a matter fit to be the fubjea either of a law, or a vow; every man muft confider himfelf, and what he is able to receive : He that marries does well, but he that marries not does better. ARTICLE THE XXXIX ARTICLES, 461 ARTICLE XXXIII. Of Excommunicate Perfons, how they are to be avoided. Cgat l[0e?fon togicii, bp open IDmunriatton of tSe Cfiurcg, 10 jigStlp tut off f jom tBc tKnitp of tSc Cgutfg, a«ti CDjrtommumtatc, ougSt to bt taUn of tU tofiole #ultitutie of tge iFaitljful, agi a Heathen anti a Publican : oantil fie be openip retontileD ftp laenante, an& tie?eteibeti into tfie Cfiuttfi bp a Sutige tfiat fiatfi ^utfioritp tfiereunto. AL L Chriftians are obliged to a ftria purity and holinefs of life : and every private man is bound to avoid all un- neceffary familiarities with bad and vicious men ; both becaufe he may be infenfibly corrupted by thefe, and becaufe the world wifl be from thence difpofed to think, that he takes pleafure in fuch perfons, and in their vices. What every fingle Chriftian ought to fet as a rule to himfelf, ought to be likewife made the rule of all Chriftians, as they are conftituted in a body under guides and paftors. And as, in general, fevere denunciations ought to be often made of the wrath and judgments of God againft finners ; fo if any that is called a Brother, that Is, a Chriftian, lives in a courfe of fin and fcandal, they ought to give warning of fuch a perfon, to all the other Chriftians, that they may not fo much as eat with him, but mzy feparate them- 1 Cor. v. felves from him. !'• In this private perfons ought to avoid the morofenefs and af feaation of faying. Stand by, for I am holier than thou : if one Gal. vi. r. is overtaken in a fault, then thofe who are fpiritual ought to re fiore fuch a one, in the fpirit of meeknefs : every one confider ing himfelf, lefi he be alfo tempted. Exceffive rigor will be al ways fufpeaed of hypocrify, and may drive thofe on whom it falls either into defpair on the one hand, or into an unmanage able licentioufnefs on the other. The nature of all focieties muft import this, that they have a power to maintain themfelves according to the defign and rules of their fociety. A combination of men, made upon any bottom whatfoever, muft be fuppofed to- have a right to exclude out of their number, fuch as may be a reproach to it, or a mean to diffolve it : and It muft be a main part of the office and duty of the paftors of the Church, to feparate the good from the bad, to \varn the unruly, and to put from among ihem JfiZ AN EXPOSITION OF ART. them wicked perfons. There are feveral confiderations ^hat XXXIII. fhew not only the lawfulnefs, but the neceffity of fuch a prac- *"~'^' ' tice. Firft, that the contagion of an ill example and of bad prac tices may not fpread too far to the corrupting of others ; Evil a Tim. ii. communications corrupt good manners. Their doBrines wiU 17. eat and fpread as a gangrene : and therefore, in order to the a Their, iii. preferving the purity of thofe, who are not yet corrupted, it may '*' be neceffary to note fuch perfons, and to have no company with them, A fecond reafon relates to the perfons themfelves, that are fo feparated, that they may be afhamed : that they may be thus Tode 23. pulled out of the fire, by the terror of fuch a proceeding, which I Cor. V. ought to be done by mourning over them, lamenting their fins, ^'c'r'n. ^^^ praying for them. \^ ff,^. ' The Apoftles made ufe even of thofe extraordinary powers iTim. 5. that were given to them, for this end. St. Paul delivered Hy- *''• menaeus and Alexander unto Satan, that they might learn not to blafpheme. And he ordered that the inceftuous perfon at Corinth fhould be delivered to Satan for the defiruBion of the flefh, that the fpirit might be faved in the day of tbe Lord Jefus. Cer tainly a vicious indulgence to finners is an encouragement to them to live in fin ; whereas when others about them try all methods for their recovery, and mourn for thofe fins in which they do perhaps glory, and do upon that withdraw thenifelves from afl communication with them, both in fpirituals, and as much as may be in temporals likewife : this is one of the laft means that can be ufed, in order to the reclaiming of them. Another confideration is the peace and the honour of the pal, „ 12. fociety. St. Paul wifhed that they were cut off that troubled the Churches : great care ought to be taken, that ihe name of God and his doBrine be not blafphemed, and to give no occafion to the enemies of our faith to reproach us ; as if we defigned to make parties, to promote our own interefts, and to turn reli gion to a faaion ; excufing fuch as adhere to us in other things, though they fhould break out into the moft fcandalous violations of the greateft of all the commandments of God. Such a be haviour towards excommunicated perfons, would alfo have this further good effea ; it would give great authority to that fen tence, and fill men's minds with the awe of it, which muft be taken off, when it is obferved that men converfe familiarly with thofe that are under it. Thefe rules are all founded upon the principles of focieties, which as they affociate upon fome common defigns, fo in order to the purfuing thofe, muft have a power to feparate themfelves from thofe who depart from them. In THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 4^3 In this matter there are extremes of both hands to be avoided : art. fome have thought, that becaufe the Apoftles have, in general, XXXIJL declared fuch perfons to be accurfed, or under an Anathema, who " — '"-^ preach another Gofpel, znd fuch as love not the Lord Jefus, to be 1^°''"'' Anathema Maranatha, which is generally underftood to be a total cutting off, never to be admitted tifl the Lord comes ; that therefore the Church may ftifl put men under an Anathema, for holding fuch unfound doarines, as they think make the Gofpel to become another, in part at leaft, if not in whole, and that fhe may thereupon, in imitation of another praaice of the Apo ftles, deliver them over unto Satan, cafting them out of the pro teaion of Chrift, and abandoning them to the Devil : reckon ing that the cutting them off from the body of Chrift, Is really the expofing them to the Devil, who goes about as a roaring lion feeking whom he may devour. But with what authority foever the Apoftles might, upon fo great a matter, as the changing the Gofpel, or the not loving the Lord Jefus, denounce an Anathema, yet the applying this which they ufed fo feldom, and upon fuch great occafions, to every opinion, after a decifion Is made in it, as it has carried on the notion of the infallibility of the Church, fo it has laid a foundation for much uncharitabknefs, and many animofities : it has widened breaches, and made them incurable. And unlefs it is certain that the Church which has fo decreed cannot err, it is a bold affuming of an authority to which no fallible body of men can have a right. That deli very unto Satan was vifibly an aa of a miraculous power lodged with the Apoftles : for as they ftruck fome blind or dead, fo they had an authority of letting loofe evil fpirits on fome to haunt and terrify, or to punifh and plague them, that a defperate evil might be cured by an extreme remedy. And therefore the Apoftles never reckon this among the ftanding funaions of the Church ; nor do they give any charge or direaions about it. They ufed it themfelves, and but feldom. It is true, that St. Paul being carried by a juft zeal againft the fcandal, which the inceftuous perfon at Corinth had eaft upon the Chriftian reli gion, did adjudge him to this fevere degree of cenfure: but he judged it, and did only order the Corinthians to publifli it, as coming from h\m, with tbe power of our Lord Jefus Chrifi: that fo the thing might become the more publick, and that the effeas of it might be the more confpicuous. The primitive Church, that being neareft the fountain, did beft underftand the nature of Church-power, and the effeas of her cenfures, thought of nothing, in this matter, but cf denying to fuffer apoftates, or rather fcandalous perfons, to mix with the reft in the facrament, or in the other parts of worfliip. They ad mitted them upon the profeffion of their repentance, by ari impofition of hands, to fhare in fome of the more general f parts 464 AN EXPOSITION OF parts of the worfhip ; and even in thefe they ftood by themfelves and at adiflance from the reft : and when they had paffed through feveral degrees in that ftate of mourning, they were by fteps received back again to the communion of the Church. This agrees well with all that was faid formerly, concerning the na- 2 Cor. i. S. ture and the ends of Church-power : which was given for edi fication, and not for defiruBion. This is fuitable to the de figns of the Gofpel, both for preferving the fociety pure, and for reclaiming thofe who are otherwife like to be carried away by the Devil in his fnare. This Is to admonifh finners as brethren, and not to ufe them as enemies : whereas the other method looks like a power that defigns defiruBion, rather than edifi cation, efpecially when the fecular arm is called in, and that princes are required, under the penalties of depofition, and- lof ing their dominions, to extirpate and deftroy, and that by the cruelleft fort of death, all thofe whom the Church doth fo ana thematize. We do not deny but that the form of denouncing or de claring Anathemas againft herefies and hereticks is very ancient. it grew to be a form expreffing horror, and was applied to the dead as well as to the living. It was underftood to be a cutting fuch perfons off from the communion of the Church : if they were ftill alive, they were not admitted to any aa of worfhip ; if they were dead, their names were not to be read at the altar among thofe who were then commemorated. But as heat about opinions increafed, and fome leffer matters grew to be more valued than the weightier things both of Law and Gofpel, fo the adding Anathemas to every point, in which men differed from one another, grew to be a common praaice, and fwelled up at laft to fuch a pitch, that, in the Council of Trent, a whole Body of Divinity was put into Canons, and an Anathema was faftened to every one of them. The delivering to Satan was made the common form of excommunication; an aa of apo- ft:olIcal authority being made a precedent for the ftanding prac tice of the Church. Great fubtilties were alfo fet on foot con cerning the force and effea of Church-cenfures : the ftraln- ing 'this matter too high, has given occafion to extremes on the other hand. If a man is condemned as an heretick, for that which is no herefy, but is an article founded on the word of God, his confcience is not at all concerned in any fuch cenfure: great modefty and decency ought indeed to be fhewed by pri^ vate perfons, when they difpute againft publick decifions : but unlefs the Church Is infaflibk, none can be bound to implicit faith, or blind fubmiffion. Therefore an Anathema ifl founded, cannot hurt him againft whom it is thundered. If the doarine, upon which the cenfures and denunciations of the Church are grounded, is true, and if it appears fo to him, that fets himfelf againft THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 465 againft it, he who thus defpifes the paftors of the Churcji^ defpifis Chrift : in whofe name, and by whofe authority, they are act ing. But if he is ftifl under conviaions of his being in the right, when he is indeed in the wrong, then he Is in a ftate of ignorance, and his fins are fins of ignorance, and they will be judged by that God, who knows the fincerity of all men's hearts, and fees into their fecreteft thoughts, how far the Ig norance is wilful and affeaed, and how far it is fincere and in~ vincible. And as for thofe cenfures, that are founded upon the proofs that are made of certain faas that are fcandalous, either the perfon on whom they are charged, knows himfelf to be really guilty of them, or that he is wronged, either by the witneffes, or the paftors and judges : if he is indeed guilty, he ought to confider fuch cenfures as the medicinal provifions of the Church againft fin : he ought to fubmit to them, and to fuch rebukes and admonitions, to fuch publick confeffions, and other aas of felf-abafement, by which he may be recovered out of the % Tim. ii, fnare of the Devil; and may repair the publick fcandal that he ^^• has brought upon the profeffion of Chriftianity, and recover the honour of it, which he has bkmilhed, as far as lies in him. This is the fubmitting to thofe that are over him, and the Heb. xiii, obeying them as thofe that watch for his foul, and that mufi give '?¦ an account of it. But if, on the other hand, any fuch perfon is run down by falfehood and calumny, he muft fubmit to that difpenfation of God's providence, that has fuffered fuch a load to be laid upon him : he muft not betray his integrity ; he ought to commit his way to God, and to bear his burden patiently. Such a cenfure ought not at all to give him too deep an Inward concern : for he is fure it is ill founded, and therefore it can have no effea upon his confcience. God, who knows his inno cence, will acquit him, though all the world fhould condemn him. He mufl indeed fubmit to that feparation from the body of Chrifiians : but he is fafe in his fecret appeals to God, who fees not as man fees, but judges righteous judgment : and fuch a cenfure as this cannot be bound In heaven. In the pronouncing the cenfures of the Church, great care and tendernefs ought to be ufed ; for men are not to be rafhly cut o^from the body of Chrift ; nothing but a wilful obftl nacy in fin, and a deliberate contempt of the ruks and or ders of the Church, can juftify this extremity. Scandalous fin ners may be brought under the medicinal cure of the Church, and the offender may be denied afl the privileges of Chriftians, till he has repaired the ofi'ence that he has given. _ Here another extreme has been run into by men, who being jealous of the tyranny of the Church of Rome, have thought that the worid could not be fafe from that, unlefs afl Church-power were de- H h ftroyed: 466 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. ftroyed : they have thought that the ecclefiaftical order is a XXXIII. body of men bound by their office to preach the Gofpel, and to ^-T-v — -> offer the facraments to afl Chriftians ; but that as the Gofpel is a doarine equally offered to all, in which every man muft take the particular application of the promifes, the comforts, and the terrors of it to himfelf, as he will anfwer it to God ; fo they Imagine, that the facraments are in the fame promlfcuous manner to be offered to all perfons ; and that every man is to try and examine himfelf, and fo to partake of them ; but that the Clergy have no authority to deny them to any perfon, or to put marks of diftinaion or of infamy on men : and that therefore the ancient difcipline of the Church did arife out of a mutual compromife of Chriftians, who. In times of mifery and perfecution, fubmitted to fuch rules, as feemed neceffary in that ftate of things ; but that now afl the authority that the Church hath, is founded only on the law of the land, and is ftill fubjea to it. So that what changes or alterations are appointed by the civil authority muft take place, in bar to any laws and cuftoms of the Church, how ancient or how unlVerfal foever they may be. In anfwer to this, it is not to be denied, but that the de grees and extent of this authority, the methods and the ma nagement of it, were at firft framed by common confent : In the times of perfecution, the Laity, who embraced the Chriftian religion, were to the Church inftead of the magiftrate. The whole concerns of religion were fupported and proteaed by them ; and this gave them a natural right to be confulted with in all the decifions of the Church. The Brethren were called to join with the Apofiles and Elders in that great debate con"- cerning the circumcifion of the Gentiles, which was fettled at Jerufalem ; and of fuch praaices we find frequent mention in St. Cyprian's Epiftles : the more eminent among the Laity were then naturally the patrons of the Churches : but when the Church came under the proteaion of Chriftian princes and maglftrates, then the patronage and proteaion of it fell to them, upon whom the peace and order of the world depend ed. Yet though all this is acknowledged, we fee plainly, that in the New Teftament there are many general rules givenj for the government and order of the Church. Timothy and Titus were appointed to ordain, to admonifh, and rebuke, and that before aU. The body of the Chriftians is required to fubmit themfelves to them, and to obey them ; which is not to be carried to an indefinite and boundlefs degree, but muft be limited to that doarine which they were to teach, and to fuch things as depended upon It, or tended to its eftablifhment and propagation. From thefe general heads we fee juft grounds to affert fuch a power in the paftors of the Church, as is for ediflcationi THE XXXIX ARTICXES, -» 46; edification, but not for defiruBion; and, therefore, here is a foundation of power laid down; though it is not to be 'de nied but that, in the application of it, fuch prudence and dif. cretion ought to be ufed, as may make it moft likely to at tain thofe ends for which it is given, A general confent, in time of perfecution, was neceffary ; otherwife too Indifcreet a rigour might have pulled down that which ought to have been built up, if in a broken ftate of things a common confent ought to be much endeavoured and ftaid for, this Is much more neceffary in a regular and fetd^d time, with relation to the civil authority, under whom the whole fociety is put, accordyig to Its conftitution. But it can never be fuppofed that the authority of the Pafiors of the Church, is no other than that of a lawyer or a phyfician to their clients, who are ftifl at their liberty, and are in no fort bound to follow. their direaions. In particular advices, with relation to their private concerns, where no general rules are agreed on, an au thority is not pretended to ; and thefe may be compared to all other advices, only with this difference, that the Pafiors of the Church watch over the fouls of their people, and mufi give an account of them. But v/hen things are grown into method, and general rules are fettled, there the confideration of edifi cation and unity, and of maintaining peace and order, are fuch facred obligations on every one that has a true regard to reli gion, that fuch as defpife all this may be well looked on as Hea thens and Publicans ; and they are fo much worfe than they, as a fecret and well-difguifed traitor is much more dangerous than an open profeffed enemy. And though thefe words'of our Saviour, of telling the Church, may, perhaps, not be fo ftri£tly Matth. applicable to this matter, in their primary fenfe, as our Saviour ''^''"" '^* firft fpoke them ; yet the nature of things, and the parity of reafon, may well lead us to conclude, that though thofe Vyords did immediately relate to the compofing of private dif ferences, and of delating intraaabk perfons to the fynagogues, yet they may be wefl extended to all thofe pubfick offences, which are injuries to the whole body; and may be now applied to the Chriftian Church, and to the paftors and guides of it, though they related to the fynagogue, when they were firft fpoken. It is therefore highly congruous both to the whole defign of the Chriftian religion, and to many paffages in the New Teftament, that there fhould be ruks let for cenfuring offend ers, that fo they may be reclaimed, or at leaft afiiamed, and that others may fear : and, as the final fentence of every aur thority whatfoever, muft be the cutting off from the body all fuch as continue in a wilful difobedience to the laws of the fociety ; fo If any, who- call themfelves Chriftians, will live fo as to be a H h 2 reproach 4^8 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. reproach to that which they profefs, they muft be cut ofi, XXXIII. gjjj j,^^ Qy(. . for if there is any fort of power in the Church, ^¦'""^ ^ it muft terminate in this. This is the laft and higheft aa of their authority ; it is like death or banlfhment by the civil power, which are not proceeded to but upon great occafions, in which milder cenfures will not prevail, and where the general good of the fociety requires it : fo cafting out being the laft aa of Church-power, like a parent's difinheriting a child, it ought to be proceeded in with that flownefs, and upon fuch con fiderations, as may well juftify the rigour of it. A wilful con tempt of order and authority carries virtually in It every other irregularity ; becaufe it diffolves the union of the body, and de ftroys that refpea, by which all the other ends of religion are to be attained ; and when this is deliberate and fixed, there is no other way of proceeding, but by cutting «^ thofe who are fo refraaory, and who fet luch an ill example to others. If the execution of this fhould happen to fall under great diforders, fo that many fcandalous perfons are not cenfured, and a promlfcuous multitude is fuffered to break in upon the moft facred performances, this cannot juftify private perfons, who upon that do withdraw from the communion of the Church: for after all that has been faid, the divine precept is to every man, to try and examine himfelf, and not to try and cenfure others. All order and government are deftroyed, if private perfons take upon them to judge and cenfure others ; or to feparate from any body, becaufe there are abufes in tbe ufe of this authority. Private confeffion In the Church of Rome had quite de ftroyed the government of the Church, and fuperfeded all the ancient penitentiary canons ; and the tyranny of the Church of Rome had fet many Ingenious men on many fubtle contri vances, either to evade the force of thofe canons, to which fome regard was ftill preferved, or to maintain the order of the Church in oppofition to the appeals that were made to Rome: and while fome pretended to fubjea all things to the Papal authority, others ftudied to keep up the ancient rules. The encroachments that the temporal and fpiritual courts were making upon one another, occafioned many difputes; which being managed by fuch fubtle men as the Civilians and Cano nifts were, all this brought In a great variety of cafes and rules into the courts of the Church : fo that, inftead of the firft fim plicity, which v/as evident in the conftitution of the Church, not only for the firft three centuries, but for a great many more that came afterwards, there grew to be fo much praaice, and fo many fubterfuges in the rules and manner of proceeding of thofe courts, that the Church has long groaned under it, and has wifhed to fee that effeaed, which was defigned in the be ginnings THE XXXIX ARTICLES. A^9 ginnings of the Reformation. The draught of a reformation of tiiofe courts is ftill extant ; that fo inftead of the intricacies, delays, and other diforders that have arifen from the canon law, we might have another fhort and plain body of ruks ; which might be managed, as anciently, by Bifhops, with the affiftance of their Clergy. But though this is not yet done, and that, by reafon of it, the tares grow up with the wheat, we ought to let them grow together, till the great harveft comes, or at leaft, till a proper harvefi may be given the Church by the providence of God ; in which the good may be diftinguifhed and feparated from the bad, without endangering the ruin of all J which muft certainly be the effed of people's fafling m- ^lifcreetiy to this, before the time. H h 3 ARTICLE ^ya. AN EXPOSITION OT ARTICLE XXXIV. Of the Traditions of the Church. 3it is not ncceKajp tfiat ^jatjittons anti deremomeg bt in all ^latc0 one, or uttejlp Ult, for at all times tfiep fiatje been iiibe^fe, anD map be tfiangea accortiing to tfie Dibejfitp of (J[;ount?ie0 anti ^tn'» if anncj0,ra tfiat notfiing be otbaineiJ againft Coti'0 Moin, Wfiofocuc? tfirougfifiisptibatelutigmEnt, toillinglp ant! purpofelp tsotfi openlp breafe tfie Cjatiition^ anti Ce^emontfss of tfie Cfiurtfi, i»fiitfi be not repugnant to tfie Wojti of dDoti, anD be o^Daineti anb appjofteti bp common Eutfiojitp, ougfit to be rcbufeeb openlp (tfiat otfier0 map fear to Do tfie lifec) a0 one tfiat of» fentietfi agaiuff tfie common £D?tier of tfie Cfiujtfi, anb fiu?tctB tfie autfio?itp of tfie i^agittrate, and toountsetfi tfie Confciences! of toeafe 315retfi?en. Cberp particular o? national Cfiujtfi fiatfi autfioritp to orijain, cfiange, anb aboliltj Cejemonieg or IRiteji of tfie Cfinrcfi, ojbaineb onlp bp # en'si ^utfioritp ; fo tfiat all tfiing0 fac bone to ebifping. THIS Article confifts of two branches : the firft is, that the Church hath power to appoint fuch rites and cere monies as are not contrary to the word of God ; and that pri vate perfons are bound to conform themfelves to their orders. The fecond is, that it is not neceffary that the whole Church fhould meet to determine fuch matters ; the power of doing that being In every national Church, which is fully empowered to take care of itfelf; and no rule made in fuch matters is to be held unalterable, but may be changed upon occafion. As to the firft, it hath been already confidered, when the firft words of the twentieth Article were explained. There the authority of the Church in matters indifferent was ftated and proved. It remains now only to prove, that private perfons are bound to conform themfelves to' fuch ceremonies, efpecially when they are alfo enaaed by the civfl authority. It is to be confidered, that the Chriftian religion was chiefly defigned to raife and purify the nature of man, and to make human fo ciety perfea : now brotherly love and charity does this more than any one virtue whatfoever: it ralfes a man to the like nefs of God; it gives him a divine heavenly temper within himfelf, and creates the tendereft union ^nd firmeft happinefs poffible THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 47' poffible among afl the.fockties of men : our Saviour has fo enlarged the obligation to it, as to make it, by the extent he has given it, a great and new commandment, by which all the worid may be able to know and diftinguifli his followers from the reft of mankind : and as all the Apoftles infift much upon this in every one of their Epiftles, not excepting the fliorteft of them ; fo St. John, who writ laft of them, has dwelt more fufly upon it than upon any other duty whatfoever. Our Saviour did particulariy intend that his followers fhould be affoclated into one bqdy, and join together in order to their keeping up and inflaming their mutual love ; and therefore he delivered his prayer to them aUin the plural, to fhew that he intended that they fliould ufe it in a body : he appointed Baptifm as the way of receiving men into this body, and the Eucharift as a joint memorial that the body was to keep up that of his death. For this end he appointed Paftors to teach and keep his followers in a body : and in his laft and longeft prayer to the Father, he repeats this, that they might be one; that they might be kept in Joh. xvii. one (body) and made perfeB in one, in five feveral expreffions ; ii-^.', i^j which fhews both how neceffary a part of his religion he meant ^'^" this fhould be, and likewife intimates to us the danger that he forefaw, of his followers departing from it; which made him intercede fo earneftly for it. One expreffion that he has of this union, fhews how entire and tender he Intended that it fhould be ; for he prayed that the union might be fuch as that between ihe Father and himfelf was. The Apoftles ufe the figure of a body frequently, to exprefs this union ; than which nothing can be imagined that is more firmly knit together, and in which all the parts do more tenderly fympathize with one another. Upon all thefe confiderations we may very certainly gather, that the diffolving this union, the diflocating this body, and the doing any thing that may extinguifh the love and charity by which Chriftians are to be made fo happy In themfelves, and fo ufeful to one another, and by which the body of Chriftians grows much the firmer and ftronger, and fhines more In the world ; that, I fay, the doing this upon flight grounds, muft be a fin of a very high nature. Nothing can be a juft reafon either to carry men to It, or to juftify them in it, but the im pofing on them unlawful terms of communion ; for in that cafe it is certain, that we mufi obey God rather than man ; that we Afts xxiv, m\i^ feek truth and peace together; and that the rule of keep- 16. ing a good confidence- in all things, is laid thus, to do It firft towards God, and then towards man. So that a fchlfm that is occafioned by any Church's impofing unlawful terms of com munion, lies at their door who impofe them, and the guilt is whofly theirs. But without fuch a neceffity, it is certainly, both ifl its oy/H nature, and iri its confequences, one of thft; greateft H h 4 of 47^ AN EXPOSITION OF of fins, to create needlefs difturbances in a Church, and to give occafion to all that alienation of mind, all thofe rafh cenfures, and unjuft judgments, that do arife from fuch divifions. This receives a very great aggravation, if the civil .authority has concurred by a law to enjoin the obfervance of fuch indifferent things ; for to all their lawful commands we owe an obedience, Rom,xi)i.5. not only for fear, but for confcience fake ; fince the authority of the magiftrate is chiefly to be employed in fuch matters. As to things that are either commanded or forbidden of God, the ma giftrate has only the execution of thefe in his hands ; fo that in thofe, his laws are only the fanaions and penalties of the laws of God. The fubjea matter of his authority is about things which are of their own nature indifferent ; but that may be made fit and proper means for the maintaining of order, union, and decency In the fociety : and therefore fuch laws as are made by him In thofe things, do certainly bind the confcience, and oblige the fubjeas to obedience. Difobedience does alfo give fcandal to the weak. Scandal is a block or trap laid in the way of another, by which he is made to ftumble and fafl. So this figure of giving fcandal, or the laying a ftumbling- block in our brother's w3.y, is applied to our doing of fuch ac tions as may prove the occafions of fin to others. Every man, according to the Influence that his example or authority may have over others, who do too eafily and implicitly foflow him, becomes thereby the more capable of giving them yea Wa/; that is, of drawing them after him to commit many fins : and fince men are under fetters, according to the perfuafions that they have of things, he who thinks a thing finful, does fin if he does it, as long as he is under that apprehenfion ; becaufe he deliberately ventures on that which he thinks offends God; even Rom, xiv, while he doubts of it, or makes a difiiiiBion between meats, *3- (for the word rendered doubts, fignifies alfo the making a dif ference') be is damned, (that is, felf-condemned, as aaing againft his own fenfe of things) if he does it. Another man, that has larger thoughts and clearer Ideas, may fee that there is no fin in an aaion, about which others may be ftfll in doubt, and fo upon his own account he may certainly do It : but If he has reafon to believe that his doing that may draw others, who have not fuch clear notions, to do it after his example, they being ftifl in doubt as to the lawfulnefs of it, then he gives fcandal, that is, he lays a ftumbling-block in their way, if he does it, unlefs he lies under an obligation from fome of the laws of God, or of the fociety to which he belongs, to do it. In that cafe he is bound to obey ; and he muft not then confider the confequences of his aaions ; of which he is only bound to take care, when he is left to himfelf, and is at full liberty to do, or jiot to do, as be pleafes. This THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 473 This explains the notion of fcandal, as it Is ufed in the Epifiles : for there being feveral doubts raifed at that time, con cerning the lawfulnefs or obligation of obferving the Mofaical Law, and concerning the lawfulnefs of eating meats offered to idols, no general decifion was made, that went through that matter ; the Apoftles having only decreed, that the Mofaical Law was not to be impofed on the Gentfles ; but not having condemned fuch as might of their own accord have obferved fome parts of that Law, fcruples arofe about this ; and fo here they gave great caution againft the laying a fiumbling -block in the ver. 13, way of their brethren. But it is vifible from this, that the fear of giving fcandal, does only take place where matters are free, and may be done or not done. But when laws are made, and an order is fettied, the fear of giving fcandal, lies afl on the fide of obedience : for a man of weight and authority, when he does not obey, gives fcruples and jealoufies to others, who wfll be apt to colka from his praaice, that the thing Is un lawful : he who does not conform himfelf to fettled orders, gives occafion to others who fee and obferve him, to imitate him in it ; and thus he lays a fcandal or ftumbling-block in their way ; and all the fins which they commit through their exceffive refpea to him, and imitation of him, are in a very high degree to be put to his account, who gave them fuch oc cafion of falling. The fecond branch of this Article is againft the unalterable- nefs of laws made in matters indifferent ; and it afferts the right of every national Church to take care of itfelf. That the laws of any one age of the Church cannot bind another, is very evident from this, that all leglflature is ftifl entire in the hands of thofe who have it. The laws of God do bind all men at all times ; but the laws of the Church, as well as the laws of every ftate, are only provifions made upon the prefent ftate of things, from the fitnefs or unfitnefs that appears to be in them, for the great ends of religion, or for the good of mankind, All thefe things are fubjea to alteration, therefore the power of the Church is in every age entire, and is as great as it was in any one age fince the days In which fhe was un der the condua of men immediately infpired. So there can be no unalterable laws in matters indifferent. In this there neither is nor can be any controverfy. An obftinate adhering to things, only becaufe they are ancient, when all the ends for which they were at firft introduced, do ceafe, is the limiting the Church in a point in which fhe ought ftill to preferve her liberty : fhe ought ftifl to purfue thofe great rules in all her orders, of doing all things to edification, with decency, and for peace. The only queftion that can be made in this matter, is, whether fuch general laws as have been made 474 AN EXPOSITION OF ART. made by greater bodies, by General Councils for inftance, or ---XXIV. by thofe Synods whofe canons were received into the body of the '"¦¦"¦^- — ' canons of the Catholick Church ; whether thefe, I fay, may be altered by National Churches : or whether the body of Chriftians is fo to be reckoned one body, that all the parts of it are bound to fubmit, in matters indifferent, to the decrees of the body in general ? It is certain, that all the parts of the Ca tholick Church ought to hold a communion one with another, and mutual commerce and correfpondence together: but this difference is to be obferved between the Chriftian and the Jewifh religion, that the one was tied to one nation, and to one place, whereas the Chriftian religion is univerfal, to be fpread to all nations, among people of different climates and languages, and of different cuftoms and tempers ; and therefore, fince the power In indifferent matters Is given the Church only in order to edification, every nation muft be the proper judge of that within Itfelf. The Roman empire, though a great body, yet was afl under one government ; and therefore all the councfls that were held while that empire ftood, are to be confidered only as national fynods, under one civil policy. The Chriftians of Perfia, India, or Ethiopia, were not fubjea to the canons made by them, but were at full liberty to make rules and ca nons for themfelves. And in the primitive times we fee a vaft diverfity in their rules and rituals. They were fo far from impofing general rules on all, that they left the Churches at full liberty: even the Council of Nice madg very few rules ; that of Conftantinople and Ephefus made fewer : and though the abufes that were growing in the fifth century, gave occa fion to the Council of Chalcedon to make more canons, yet the number of thefe is but fmall ; fo that the tyranny of fubjeaing particular Churches to laws that might be i^iconvenient fqr them, was not then brought into the Church. The corruptions that did afterwards overfpread the Church, together with the papal ufurpations, and the new Canon Lam that the Popes brought in, which was totally different frOm the old one, had worn out the remembrance of all the ancient canons ; fo it is not to be wondered at, if they were not much regarded at the Reformation. They were quite out of praaice, and were then fcarce known. And as for the fubordination of Churches and Sees, together with the privileges and exemptions of them, thefe did all flow from the divifions of the Roman em pire into diocefes and provinces, out of which the dignity and the dependencies of their cities did arife. But now that the Roman empire is gone, and that all the laws which they made are at an end, with the authority that made them ; it is a vain thing to pretend to keep up the ancient dignities of Sies ; fince the foundation upqn which that was built, THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 47S built, is funk and gone. Every empire, kingdom, or ftate, is an entire body within itfelf. The magiftrate has that au thority over all his fubjeas, that he may keep them all at home, and hinder them from entering into any confultations or com binations, but fuch as fhall be under his direaion : he may re quire the paftors of the Church under him to confult together about the beft methods for carrying on the ends of religion ; but neither he nor they can be bound to ftay for the concurrence of other Churches, In the way of managing this, every body of men has fomewhat peculiar to itfelf; and the paftors of that body are the propereft judges in that matter. We know that the feveral Churches, even Vifhlle under one empire, had great varieties in their forms, as appears in the different praaices of the Eaftern and Weftern Churches : and as foon as the Roman empire was broken, we fee this variety did increafe. The Gallican Churches had their miffals different from the Roman ; and fome Churches of Italy followed the Ambrofian. But Charles the Great, in compliance with the defires of the Pope, got the Gallican Churches to depart from their own miffals, and to receive tne Roman ; which he might the rather do, intending to have raifed a new empire ; to which a conformity of rites might have been a great ftep. Even in this Church there was a great variety of ufages, which perhaps were begun under the Heptarchy, when the nation was fubdivided into feveral king doms. It is therefore fuitable to the nature of things, to the autho rity of the magiftrate, and to the obligations of the paftorgj care, that every Church fhould aa within herfelf as an entire and independent body. The Churches owe not only a friendly and brotherly correfpondence to one another ; but they owe to their ov/n body, government and direaion, and fuch provifions and methods as are moft likely to promote the great ends of religion, and to preferve the peace of the fociety both in Church and State. Therefore we are no other way bound by ancient canons, but as the fame reafon ftill fubfifting, we may fee the fame caufe to continue them, that there was at firft to make them, Of all the bodies of the world, the Church of Rome has the worft grace to reproach us for departing in fome particulars from the ancient canons, fince it was her ill condua that had brought them all into defuetude : and it is not eafy to revive again antiquated rules, even though there may be good reafon for it, vvhen they fall under that tacit abrogation, which arifes Qut of a long and general difufe of them. ARTICL? 47^ AN EXPOSITION OE ARTICLE XXXV, Of Homihes. Cfie ^etonti IBoo^ of !^omilie0, tfie feberal Citle? tofiereof toe fiaUe jomcD unber tfii0 article, botfi con* tain a goblp anb tofiolefome l)oartne, anb neceaa?p iai tfiefe Cime0 ; a0 botfi tfie fojmer Boofe0 of f o= milieu, tofiitfi toe^e fet fortfi m tfie 'iS^ime of Edward tfie ^ijftfi ; anb tfierefore toe judge tfiem to be reab in (2;fiu^cfic0 fap tfie *|)iniffc?0, biligentlp anb biff inctlp, tfiat tfiep map be unberffanbeb of tfie people. The Names of the Homilies. ART. XXXV. I. OftherightUfeofthe Church. 2. Againfi peril of Idolatry. 3. Of repairing and keeping clean of Churches. 4. Of good Works. Firfi, of Fafiing. 5. Againfi Gluttony and Drunk- ennefs. 6. Againfi Excefs of Apparel. 7. Of Prayer. 8. Of the Place and Time of Prayer. 9. That Common Prayers and Sacraments ought to be mini fired in a known Tongue. 10, Of the reverent Efiimation ¦ of God's Word. AT the time of the Reformation, as there could not be found at firft a fufficient number of preachers to inftrua the whole nation ; fo thofe that did comply with the changes which Were then made, were not all well-affeaed to them ; fo that it was not fafe to truft this matter to the capacity of the one fide, and to the integrity of others ; therefore to fupply the de feas of fome, and to oblige the reft to teach according to the form ef found doBrine, there were two books of Homilies pre pared ; the firft was publifhed in King Edward's time ; the fecond was not finifhed till about the time of his death ; fo it was i^ot publifhed before Queen Elizabeth's time. The de fign II. Of Alms-doing. IX. Of the Nativity of Chrifi. 13. Of the Paffion ofChrifi. I if Of ihe RefurreBion of Chrifi. 15. Of the worthy receiving of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Chrifi,. 16, Of the Gifts of the Holy Ghoft. 17. For ihe Rogation- Days. 18. Of the State of Matrimony, IO. Of Repentance. 20. Againft Idlenefs. 21. Againft Rebellion. THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 477 lign of them was to mix fpeculative points with praaical mat- ART. ters; fome explain the doarine, and others enforce the rules X'^-'iV. of hfe and manners. Thefe are plain and fliort difcourfes, *— '-^ chiefly calculated to poffefs the nation with a fenfe of the pu rity of the Gofpel, in oppofition to the corruptions of Popery ; and to reform it from thofe Wing fins that had been fo much connived at under Popery, wnik men knew the price of them, how to compenfate for them, and to redeem themfelves from the guilt of them, by maffes and facraments, by indulgences and abfolutions. In thefe Homilies the Scriptures are often applied as they were then underftood ; not fo crincally as they have been explained fince that time. But by this approbation of the two books of Homilies, it Is not meant that every paffage of Scripture, or ar gument that is made ufe of in them, is always convincing, or that every expreffion is fo feverely worded, that it. may not need a little correaion or explanation : afl that we profefs about them, is only that they contain a godly and wholfome doBrine. This rather relates to the main Importance and defign of them, than to every paffage in them. Though this may be faid con cerning them, that confidering the age they were written in, the imperfeaion of our language, and fome lefier defeas, they are two very extraordinary books. Some of them are better writ than others, and are equal to any thing that has been writ upon thofe fubjeas fince that time. Upon the whole matter, every one who fubfcribes the Articles, ought to read them, otherwife he fubfcribes a blank ; he approves a book implicitly, and binds himfelf to read it, as he may be required, v.'ithout knowing any thing concerning it. This approbation Is not to be ftretched fo far, as to carry in It a fpecial affent to every par ticular in that whole volume ; but a man muft be perfuaded of the main of the doarine that is taught in them. To inftance this in one particular ; fince there are fo many of the Homilies that charge the Church of Rome with idolatry, and that from fo many different topicks, no man v^ho thinks that Church is not guilty of idolatry, can with a good confcience fubfcribe this Article, that the Homilies contain a good ana wholfome doBrine, and neceffary for thefe times ; for according to his fenfe they contain a falfe and an uncharitable charge of idolatry againft a Church that they think is not guilty of it ; and he will be apt to think that this was done to heighten the aver fion of the nation to it : therefore any who have fuch favoura ble thoughts of the Church of Rome, are bound, by the force of that perfuafion of theirs, not to fign this Article, but to de clare againft it, as the authorizing of an accufation againft a Church, which they think is ill grounded, and is by confequence ,both unjuft and uncharitable. •* By 47S AN EXPOSITION^ OF • By neceffary for thefe times, is not to be meant, that this was a book fit to ferve a turn ; but only that this book was ne- ceffary at that time, to inftrua the nation aright, and fo was of great ufe then : but though the doarine in it, If once true, muft be always true, yet It will not be always of the fame ne ceffity to the people. As for inftance ; there are many dif courfes in the Epiftles of the Apoftles, that relate to the contro verfies then on foot with the Judalzers, to the engagements the Chriftians then lived in with the Heathens, and to thofe cor rupters of Chriftianity that were in thofe days. Thofe doc trines were neceffary for that time ; but though they are now as true as they were then, yet fince we have no commerce either with Jews or Gentiles, we cannot fay that it is as neceffary for the prefent time to dwell much on thofe matters, as it was for that time to explain them once well. If the nation fhould come to be quite out of the danger of falling back into Popery, it would not be fo neceffary to infift upon many of the fubjeas of the Homilies, as it was when they were firft prepared. ARTICLE THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 47^ ARTICLE XXXVL Of Confecration of Bilhops and Minifters. ¦Cfie Boofe of aConfecr ation of Srtfibifi&opg ar.ti llBillions, anb orbejing of iBrieif 0 anb aDcacous, iattk fet fortfi tn tfie Cime of Edward tfie ^iytfi, anb conSrmeb at tfie fame time bp 0utfiojitp of pailiamenr, botfi contain all '«S^fiing0 nccellarp to futfi (Eon&c^ation anb £Drbering ; ncitfie? fiatfi it anp ^fiing tfiat of itfelf i0 fupejffitiou0 anb ungoblp. .anb tfiejefore tofiofocber a?e Confecrateb anb £)rbErcb accojbing to tfie lilite0 of tfiat HBoofe fince tfie &econb f eaj oftfie afojenameb !^ing Edward unto tfii0 time, or fiejeafte? iftall be Confecrateb or £Drbereb accarbing to tfie fame 3i!litE0, toe becree all futfi te be rigfitlp, orberlp, anb latofullp Confecrateb anb £)rberEb. As to the moft effential parts of this Article, they were al- A R T. ready examined, when the pretended Sacrament of Orders ^'X^^'- was explained ; where it was proved, that^r^^.;?' and impofition ' '^ of hands was all that was neceflary to the giving of orders ; and that the forms added in the Roman Pontifical are new, and cannot be held to be neceffary, fince the Church had fubfifted for many ages before thefe were thought on. So that either our ordina tions without thofe additions are good, or the Church of God was for many ages without true orders. There feems to be here infinuated a ratification of orders that were given before this Article was made ; which being done (as the Lawyers phrafe it) ex pofifaBo, it feems thefe orders v/erfe unlawful, when given, and that error was Intended to be correaed by this Article. The opening a part of the hiftory of that time will clear this matter. There was a new form of ordinations agreed on by the Bifhops in the third year of King Edward; and when the Book of Common-Prayer, with the laft correaions of it, was authorized by aa of parliament in the fifth year of that reign, the new Book of Ordinations was alfo enaaed, and was appointed to be a part of the Common-Prayer-Book. In Queen Mary's time thefe aas were repealed, and thofe books were condemned by name. When Queen Elizabeth came to the crown, King Edward's Common-Prayer-Book was of new enaaed, and Queen Mary's aa was repealed. But the Book of Ordination was not exprefsly named, it being confidered as a part of the Common- Prayer.- 480 AN EXPOSlTioN OE ART. Prayer-Book, as it had been made in King Edward's time ; fo x.\)sivi. jj .^^g thought no more neceffary to mention that office by name, ' — ' ^ than to mention all the other offices that are in the book. Bi fhop Bonner fet on foot a nicety, that fince the Book of Ordi nations was by name condemned in Queen Mary's time, and was not by name revived in Queen Elizabeth's time, that there fore it was ftifl condemned by law, and that by confequence ordinations performed according to this book, were not legal. But it is vifible, that whatfoever might be made out of this, ac cording to the niceties of our law, it has no relation to the validity of ordinations, as they are facred performances, but only as they are legal aaions, with relation to our conftitution. Therefore a declaration was made in a fubfequent parliament, that the Book of Ordination was confidered as a part of the Book of Common-Prayer : and, to clear all fcruples or difputes that might arife upon that matter, they by a retrofpea declared them to be good ; and from that retrofpea in the aa of parlia ment, the liice claufe was put in the Article. The chief exception that can be made to the form of giving orders amongft us, Is to thofe words, Receive ye the Holy Ghofi ^ which as it is no ancient form, it not being above five hun dred years old, fo it is taken from words of our Saviour's, that the Church in her beft times thought were not to be applied to this. It was proper to him to ufe them, who had the fulnefs of the Spirit to give it at pleafure: he made ufe of it in conftituting his Apoftles the governors of his Church in his own ftead ; and therefore it feems to have a found in It that is too bold and af fuming, as if we could convey the Holy Ghoft. To this it is to be anfwered, that the Churches both in the Eaft and Weft have fo often changed the forms of ordination, that our Church may well claim the fame power of appointing new forms, that others have done. And fince the feveral funaions and admi niftrations that are in the Church, are by the Apoftle faid to flow from one and the fame Spirit, all of them from the Apofiles down to the Pafiors and Teachers, we may then reckon that the Holy Ghofi, though in a much lower degree, is given to thofe who are inwardly m.oved of God to undertake that holy office. So that though that extraordinary effufion that was poured out upon the Apoftks, v/as In them In a much higher degree, and was accom panied with moft amazing charaaers; yet ftill fuch as do fin cerely offer themfelves up, on a divine motion, to this fervice, receive a lower portion of this Spirit. That being laid down, thefe words. Receive the Holy Ghofi, may be underftood to be of the nature of a wifh and prayer ; as if it were faid, May thou receive the Holy Ghofi ; and fo it will better agree with what follov/s. And he thou a faithful difpenfer of the word and facra ments. Or it may be obferved, that ih thofe facred miffions the THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 4S1 the Church and Churchmen confider themfelves 2& aaing in the ART. name and perfon of Chrift. In baptifm it is exprefsly faid, / XXXVI. baptize in the name of the Father, &c. In the eucharift we '"¦"'-' repeat the words of Chrift, and apply them to the elements, as faid by him. So we confider fuch as deferve to be admitted to thofe holy funaions, as perfons called and fent of God ; and therefore the Church in the name of Chrift fends them ; and be caufe he gives a portion of his fpirit to thofe whom he fends, therefore the Church in his name fays. Receive ihe Holy Ghoft. And in this fenfe, and with this refpea, the ufe of thefe words may be well juftified. I i ¦ ARTICLE ^^^' AN EXPOSITION OF ARTICLE XXXVIL Of Civil Maglftrates. Cfie ©uten'0 i^aieffp fiatfi tfie tfiief ^otoer in t%i0 IRealm of England, anb otfier fier 3Dominion0, un» bertofiom tfie cfiief ©obernmentof all C'ffate0 of tfiig 9Realm, tofietfier tfiep be CEccleaaffical or Cifail, in all Caufe0 botfi appertain, anb i0 not, nor ougfit to be fubjea to anp iForeign iurilbiaion. Mfiere toe attribute to tfie ©ueen'0 ipajeffp tfie tfitef dDobernment, fap tofiitfi '3title0 toe unberffanb tfie minb0 of fome Oanba'ous #01^0 to beoSfenbeb: mt gibe not to our ^rinte0 tfie miniffring eitfier of (IDob'0 SSorb or of tfie a>acrament0 ; tfie tofiitfi tfiing tfie 3In|unrtion0 a!fo latelp fet fortfi fap Elizabeth our ^uecn, bo moff plainlp teffifp ; but tfiat onlp |Sre-. rogatine tofiitfi toe fee to fiabe been giben altoapg to all goblp princes in t^olp §>cripture0 fap CDob fiim-- lelf, tfiat i0, 'Cfiat tfiep Iboulb rule all 2^* mother of James and John made, in which It is evident, that they likewife concurred with her, fhews that they did not ap prehend that Chrift had made any declaration In favour of St. Peter, as by our Saviour's anfwer it appears that he had not done ; otherwife he would have referred them to what he had already faid upon that occafion. By the whole hiftory of the Aas of the Apoftles, it appears, that the Apoftles aaed and confulted in common, without confidering St. Peter as having any fuperiority over them. He was called to give an account of his baptizing Cornelius ; and he delivered his opinion in the Afts xi. 2, council of Jerufalem, without any ftrain of authority over the /as XV 7 ''^^" ^'•' ^^"^ '^°^^ exprefsly deny, that the other Apoftles had 14, 19. any fuperiority or jurifdiaion over him ; and he fays in plain Cal. ii. 7,8, words, that he was the Apofile of the uncircumcifion, as St. Pe- ¦"¦ ter was the Apofile of the circumcifion ; and in that does rather claim an advantage over him ; fince his was certainly the much wider province. He withftood St. Peter to his face, when he thought that he deferved to be blamed ; and he fpeaks of his own Une and fliare, as being fubordinate in it to none : and by his z Cor. X. faying, that he did not firetch himfelf beyond his own meafure, ^'^ he plainly infinuates, that within his own province he was only accountable to him that had called and fent him. This was alfo the fenfe of the primitive Church, that all Bifhops were Bre thren, Colleagues, and Fellow-Biflops : and though the dignity of that city, which was the head of the empire, and the opi nion of that Church's being founded by St. Peter and St. Paul, created a great refpea to the Bifhops of that fee, which was fupported and increafed by the eminent worth, as well as the frequent martyrdoms of their Bifliops ; yet St. Cyprian in his time, as he was againft the fuffering of any caufes to be car ried in the way of a complaint for redrefs to Rome, fo he does De Unit, in plain vvords fay, that aU the Apofiles were equal in power ; '^'^ "^ • and that all Bifliops were alfo equal ; fince the whole office and epifcopate^was one entire thing, of which every Bifhop had a complete THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 4^5 complete and equal fliare. It Is true, he fpeaks of the unity of the Roman Church, and of the union of other Churches with it ; but thofe words were occafioned by a fchifin that Novatian h-ad made then at Rome; he being ekaed In oppofition to the rightful Bifliop : fo that St. Cyprian does not Infinuate any thing concerning an authority of the fee of Rome over other fees, but fpeaks only of their union under one Bifliop ; and of the other Churches holding a brotherly communion with that Bi fhop. Through his v/hole epiftles he treats the Bifhops of Rome as his equals, with the tities of Brother and Colleague. In the firft General Council, the authority of the Bifhops of Cone. the great fees is ftated as equal The Biftiops of Alexandria and ^''=- '^^"• Antioch are declared to have, according te cufiom, the fame au thority over the Churches fubordinate to them, that the Bifhops of Rome had over thofe that lay about that city. This autho rity is pretended to.,be derived only from cufiom, and Is confi dered as under the limitations and decifions of a General Coun cil. Soon after that, the Arian herefy was fo fpread over the Ep. 12. ad Eafi, that thofe who adhered to the Nicene faith, were not fafe ^''^S* in their numbers ; and the wefiern Churches being free from that contagion (though St. Bafil laments that they neither un derftood their matters, nor were much concerned about them, but were fwelled up with pride) Athanafius and other oppreffed Bifliops fled to the Bifhops of Rome, as wefl as to the other Bifhops of the IVefi ; it being natural for the oppreffed to feek proteaion wherefoever they can find it: and fo a fort of ap peals was begun, and they were authorized by the Council of Sardica. But the ill effeas of this, if it fhould become a pre- Con. Sard. cedent, were apprehended bv the fecond General Council ; in ,, ""l' ''' 1 ¦ 1 • 1 11 • /7 ; 7 I 1 } Con. Con- Which It was decreed, that every province Jhould be governed by ij-^ut. ^an. its own fynod; and that afl Bifhops fhould be at fii ft judged by 3- the Bifhops of their ovjn province ; and from them an appeal was allowed to the Bifhops of the diocefe ; whereas by the ca nons of Nice no appeal lay from the Bifhops of the province. But though this canon of Conftantinople allows of an appeal to the Bifliops of every fuch divifion of the Roman empire as was known by the name of diocefe ; yet there is an exprefs prohibi tion of any other or further appeal; which is a plain repealing of the canon at Sardic;!. And in that fame Council it appears upon what the dignity of the fee of Rome was then believed to be founded : for Conftantinople being made the feat of the em pire, and called new Rome, the rrifhops of that fee had the fame privileges given them, that the Bifhops of old Rome had ; ex cept only the point of rank, which was preferved to old Rome, becaufe of the dignity of the city. This was alfo confirmed at c„^ chal- Chalcedon in the rniddle of the fifth century. This fliews, cjd. Can. that the authority and privileges of the Bifhops of Rome were ^8. I i 3 then 486 AN EXPOSITION Ot A R,T. then confidered as arifing out of the dignity of that city, and XXXVII. tjjg^t the order of them was fubjeft to the authority of a General *""'"^*'~' Council. Conc. Afric. The African Churches in that time knew nothing of any cap. loi. & fuperiority that the Bifhops of Rome had over them : they con- Epift. ad demned the making of appeals to them, and appointed that fuch Bonifac. & as made them fhould be excommunicated. The Popes, who laid Ccleft. that matter much to heart, did not pretend to an univerfal ju rifdiaion as St. Peter's fucceffors by a divine right ; they only pleaded a canon of the Council of Nice ; but the Afi-icans had heard of no fuch canon, and fo they juftified their independence on the fee of Ro.me. Great fearch was made after this canon, and it was found to be an impofture. So early did the fee of Rome afpire to this univerfal authority, and did not ftick-at forgery in order to the compaffing of it. In the fixth century, when the Emperor iVIauritius continued a praaice begun by Greg. Ep. fome former Emperors, to give the Bifhop of Conftantinople Lib. iv. Ep. tjje tide of Univerfal Bifhop ; Pelage, and after him Gregory III It' ^ ' ^^^ Great, broke out into the moft patherical expreffions that Lib. vi. Ep. could be invented againft it ; he compared it to the pride of 24, 28, Lucifer ; and faid, that he who affumed it, was the forerunner L°b.^vii. rf Aniichrift ; and as he renounced all claim to it, fo he af- Ep 70. firmed, that none of his predeceffors had ever afpired to fuch a power. This Is the more temarkable, becaufe the Saxons being con verted to the Chriftian religion under this Pope's direaion, we have reafon to believe, that this doarine was infufed into this Church at the firft converfion of the Saxons : yet Pope Grego ry's fucceffor made no exceptions to the giving himfelf l?!at tide, againft which his predeceffor had declaimed fo much : but then the confufions of Italy gave the Popes great advantages to make all new invaders or pretenders enlarge their privfleges ; fince it was a great acceffion of ftrength to any party, to have them of their fid^. The Kings of the Lombards began to lie heavy on them ; but they called in the Kings of a new conquering family from France, who were ready enough to make newconquefts ; and when the nomination of the Popes was given to the Kings of that race, it was natural for them to raife the greatnefs of one who was to be their creature ; fo they promoted their au thority; which was not a little confirmed by an impudent for gery of that time, of the Decretal Epifiles of the firft Popes ; in which tiiey were reprefented as governing the world with an univerfal and unbounded authority. This book was a little dif puted at firft, but was quickly fubmitted to, and the Popes went on upon that foundation, ftifl enlarging their pretenfions. Soon after that was fubmitted to, it quickly appeared, that the _ pretenfions of that fee were endlefs. They THE' XXXIX ,ARTICLES. 487 They went on to claim a power over Princes and their do- art minions ; and that firft with relatioiTto fpiritual matters. They xxxvii. depofed them, If they were either hereticks themfelves, or if they ^— ^ — * favoured herefy, at leaft fo far as not to extirpate It. From de pofing they went to difpofing of their dominions to others : and at laft Boniface the Eighth completed their claim ; for he de creed, that ii was neceffary for every man to be fubjeB to the Pope's authority: and he afferted a direa dominion over Princes as to their temporals, that they were all fubjea to him, and held their dominions under him, arid at his courtefy. As .for the jurifdiaion that they claimed over the fplrltualty, they exercifed It with that rigour, with fuch heavy taxes and Impo- fitions, fuch exemptions and difpenfations, and fuch a viola tion of all the ancient canons, thafas it grew infupportably grievous, fo the management was grofsly fcandalous, for every thing was openly fet to fale. By thefe praaices they difpofed the world to examine the grounds of that authority which was managed with fo much tyranny and corruption. It was fo fll founded, that it could not be defended but by force and '¦ artifices. Thus it appears, that there is no authority at all in the Scripture, for this extent of jurifdiaion that the Popes af fumed : that it was not thought on in the firft ages : that a vigorous oppofition was made to every ftep of the progrefs that it made : and that forgery and violence were ufed to bring the world under it. So that there is no reafon now to fubmit to it.As for the patriarchal authority which that fee had over a great part of the Roman empire, that was only a regulation made conform to the conftitution of that empire : fo that the empire being now diffolved into many different fovereigntles, the new Princes are under no fort of obligation to have any re gard to the Roman conftitution : nor does a nation's receiving the feith by the miniftry of men fent from any fee, fubjea them to that fee; for then afl muft be fubjea to Jerufalem, fince the Gofpel came to afl the Churches from thence. There was a decifion made in the third General Council In the cafe of Cypriotick Churches, which pretended, that they had been always compkte Churches within themfelves, and independent; therefore they ftood upon this privilege, not to be fubjea to appeals to any patriarchal fee : the Council judged in their fa vour. So fince the Brltannick Churches were converted long before they had any commerce with Rome, they were originally independent ; which could not be loft by any thing that was afterwards done among the Saxons, by men fent over from Rome. This is enough to prove the firft point, that the Biftiops of Rome had no lawful jurifdiaion here among us. The fecond is, that Kings or Queens have an audiority I i 4 over +88 AN EXPOSITION OF over their fubjeas in matters ecclefiaftical. In the Old Tefta ment, the Kings of Ifrael Intermeddled In all matters of reli gion : Samuel acknowledged Saul's authority; and Ablmelech, 1 am. XV. though the High-Prieft, when called before Saul, appeared and xxii. 14. anfwered to fome things that were objeaed to him, that related to the worfhip of God. Samuel faid in exprefs words to Saul, XV. 17. that he was made the head of all tbe tribes ; and one of thefe was the tribe of Levi. David made many laws about facred matters, fuch as the orders of the courfes of the Priefts, and the time of their attendance at the public fervice. When he died, and was informing Solomon of the extent of his authority, 1 Chron. he told him, that the courfes of the Priefis and all the people xxiii. 6. Tjuere to be wholly at bis commandment. Purfuant to which, So lomon did appoint them their charges in the fervice of God ; and 2 Chron. both the Priejls and Levites departed not from his commandment viii. 14, 15. in any matter. He turned out Abiathar from the High-Prieft's office, and yet no complaint was made upon it, as if he had aflumed an authority that did not belong to him. It is true, both David and Solomon were men that were particularly In fpired as to fome things ; but It does not appear, that they aaed in thofe matters by virtue of any fuch infpiration. They were aas of regal power, and they did them in that capacity. Je- 2 Chron. hofhaphat, Hezekiah, and Jofiah, gave many direaions and chap, x'.'' orders in facred matters : but though the Priefts withftood Uz- s. to the ziah when he was going to offer incenfe in the holy place, yet ^'^- they did not pretend privilege, or make oppofition to thofe or- \e^'iyfi%\ ders that were iffued out by their Kings. Mordecai appointed 19. the feaft of Purim, by virtue of the authority that King Aha- fuerus gave him : and both Ezra and Nehemiah, by virtue of commlffions from the Kings of Perfia, made many reforma tions, and gave many orders in facred matters. Under the New Teftament, Chrift, by faying. Render io Ca- jar the things which are Cafar's, did plainly fhew, that- he did net intend that his religion fhould In any fort leffen the tempo- Rom, xiii. ral authority. The Apoftles writ to the Churches to obey ma fs- gifirates, to fubmit to- them, and to pay taxes : they enjoined Ver. i. obedience, whether to the King^ as fupreme, or to others that 1 et. M. 13. ^^^^ j^^f yy j^-^^ . ^^^^y j-^^i^ without exception, is charged to be fubjeB to the higher pozuers. The magiftrate is ordained of God, and is his minifier to encourage them to do well, and to punifh the evil doers. If thefe paffages of Scripture are to be interpreted according to the common confent of the Fathers, Churchmen are included within them, as well as other perfons. There was not Indeed great occafion to confider this matter be fore Conftantine's coming to the empire ; for till then, the Em perors did not confider tiie Chriftians otherwife than either as enemies, or at beft as tiieir fubjeas at large : and therefore though THE XXXIX ARTICLES. ' 489 though the Chriftians made an addrefs to Aurellan in the mat- ART. ter of Samofatenus, and obtained a favourable and juft anfwer xxxvii. to it ; yet in Conftantine's time, the proteaion that he gave to ' — '~~' the Chriftian religion, led him and his fucceflors to make many laws in ecclefiaftical matters, concerning the age, the qua lifications, and the duties of the Clergy. Many of thefe are to be found in Theodofius and Juftinian's Code : Juftinian added many more in his Novels. Appeals were made to the Emperors againft the injuftice of fynods : they received them, and ap pointed fuch Bifhops to hear and try thofe caufes, as happened to be then about their courts. In the Council of Nice, many complaints were given to the Emperor by the Bifhops againft one another. The Emperors called general Councils by their fummons ; they fate in them, and confirmed their decrees. This was the conftant praaice of the Roman Emperors, both in the Eafi and In the Wefi : when the Church came to fall under many leffer fovereigntles, tiiofe Princes continued ftill to make laws, to name Bifhops, to give inveftitures into bene fices, to call fynods, and to do every thing that appeared ne ceflary to them, for the good government of the Church in their dominions. When Charles the Great was reftorlng thofe things that had fallen under much diforder in a courfe of fome ignorant and barbarous ages, and was reviving both learning and good go vernment, he publifhed many Capitulars, a great part of them relating to ecclefiaftical matters ; nor was any exception taken to that in thofe ages : the fynods that were then held, were for the greateft part mixed affemblies, in which the temporalty and the fpiritualty fate together, and judged and decreed of all matters in common. And it is certain, that fuch was the San hedrim among the Jews in our Saviour's time ; it was the fu preme court both for fpiriruals and temporals. In England our Princes began early, and continued long to maintain this part of their authority. The letters that are pre tended to have paffed between King Lucius and Pope Eleuthe- rius, are very probably forgeries ; but they are ancient ones, and did for many ages pafs for true. Now a forgery is gene rally calculated to the fenfe of the age in which It is made. _ la the' Pope's letter, the King Is called God's Vicar in his king doms ; and it is faid to belong to his office, to bring bis fubjeBs to the holy Church, and to maintain, proteB, and govern them in it. Both Saxon and Danifli Kings made a great many laws , about ecclefiaftical matters ; and after the Conqueft, when the nation grew into a more united body, and came to a more fettied conftitution, many laws were made concerning thefe matters, particulariy in oppofition to thofe praaices that fa voured the authority that the Popes were then affuming ; fuch 49<' AN EXPOSITION OF as appeals to Rome, or Bifhops going out of the kingdom with out the King's leave. King Alfred's laws were a fort of a text for a great while ; they contain many laws about facred matters. The exempting of monalteries from epifcopal jurif diaion, was granted by fome of our Kings at firft. William the Conqueror, to perpetuate the memory of his viaory over Harold, and to endear himfelf to the Clergy, founded an abbey in the field where the battle was fought, called Battle-Abbey : and in the charter of the foundation, in imitation of what for mer Kings had done In their endowments, this claufe was put j It fhall be alfo free and quiet for ever from all fubjeBion to Bi fhops, or tbe dominion of any other perfons. This is an aft that does as immediately relate to the authority of the Church, as any one that we can imagine. The Conftitutions of Claren don were afferted by both King and Parliament, and by the whole body of the Clergy, as the ancient cufioms of the king dom. Thefe relate to the Clergy, and were fubmitted to by them all, Becket himfelf not excepted, though he quickly went off from it. It is true, the papacy got generally the better of the tem poral authority, in a courfe of feveral ages; but at laft the Popes living long at Avignon, together with the great fchifm that followed upon their return to Rome, did very much fink in their credit, and that ftopped the progrefs they had made be fore that time ; which had probably fubdued all, if it had not been for thofe accidents. Then the Councils began to take heart, and refolved to aflert the freedom of the Church from the papal tyranny. Pragmatick fanBions were made in feve ral nations to affert their liberty. That in France was made with great folemnity : in thefe the Bifhops did not only affert their own jurifdiaion, independent in a great meafure of the papacy, but they likewife carried it fo far as to make themfelves independent on the civil authority, particularly in the point of ekaions. This difpofed Princes generally to enter into agree ments with the Popes ; by which the matter was fo tranfaaed, that the Popes and they made a divifion between them of all the rights and pretenfions of the Church. Princes yielded ^ great deal to the Popes, to be proteaed by them in that which they got to be referved to themfelves. Great reftralnts were laid both on the Ckrgy, and likewife on the fee of Rome, by the appeals that were brought into the fecular courts, from the ordinary judgments of the ecclefiaftical courts, or from the bulls or powers that legates brought with them. A diftinaion was found that feemed to fave the ecclefiaftical authority, at the fame time that the fecular court was made the judge of it. The appeal did lie upon a pretence that the ecclefiaftical judge had committed fome abufe in the way of proceeding, or in his fentence. THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 49» fentence. So the appeal was fi-om that abufe, and the fecular ART. court was to examine the matter according to the rules and xxxvu. laws of the- Church, and not according to the principles or rules *— "v— J of any other law : but upon that they did either confirm or re verfe the fentence. And even thofe Princes that acknowledge the papal authority, have found out diftinaions to put fuch ftops to it as they pleafe ; and fo to make it an engine to go vern their people by, as far as they think fit to give way to it ; and to damn fuch bulls, or void fuch powers as they are afraid of. Thus it is evident, that both according to Scripture, and the praaice of all ages and countries, the Princes of Chriftendom have an authority over their fubjeas in matters ecclefiaftical. The reafon of things makes alfo for this ; for if any rank of men are exempted from their jurifdiaion, they muft thereby ceafe to be fubjeas : and if any fort of caufes, fpiritual ones in particular, were put out of their authority, it were an eafy thing to reduce almoft every thing to fuch a relation to fpirituals, that if this principle were once received, their authority would be very precarious and feeble. Nothing could give Princes ftronger and jufter prejudices againft the Chriftian religion, than if they faw that the effea of their receiving it muft be the withdrawing fo great a part of their fubjeas from their authority; and the put ting as many checks upon it, as thofe that had the management of this religion fhould think fit to reftrain it by. In a word, all mankind muft be under one obedience and one authority. It remains that the meafures and the extent of this power be right ftated. It is certain,^ firft," that this power does not depend upon the Prince's religion ; whether he is a Chriftian, or not ; or whether he is of a true or a falfe religion ; or Is a good or a bad man. By the fame tenure that he holds his foverelgnty, he holds this likewife. Artaxerxes had it as well as either David or Solomon, when the Jews were once lawfully his fubjeas ; and the Chriftians owed the fame duty to the Emperors whfle Hea-' then, that they paid them when Chriftian. The relations of na ture, fuch as that of & parent and child, hufiand Z-nd wife, con tinue the fame that they were, whatfoever men's perfuafions in matters of religion may be : fo do alfo civil relations, mafier and fervant, prince ^nd fubjeB ; they are neither increafed nor dimi- nifhed by the truth of their fentiments concerning religion. All perfons are fubjea to the Prince's authority, and liable to fuch punifhments as their crimes fall under by law. Every foul is fubjeB to the higher powers : neither is treafon kfs treafon, be caufe fpoke in a pulpit or in a fermon : it may be more treafon for that than otherwife it would be ; becaufe It is fo publick -and deliberate, and is delivered in the way in which it may probably have 492' AN EXPOSITION OF 'A R T. ^^^^ *^s worft effea. So that as to perfons, no great difficulty XXXVII. can lie in this, fince every foul is declared to be fubjeB to the ^-» — ' higher powers. As to ecclefiaftical caufes, It is certain, that as the magi ftrate cannot make void the laws of nature, fuch as the autho rity of parents over their children, or of hufbands over their wives, fo neither can he make void the law of God : that is from a fuperior authority, and cannot be diffolved by him. Where a thing is pofitively commanded or forbid by God, the magiftrate has no other authority hut that of executing the laws of God, of adding his fanaions to them, and of ufing his utmoft Induftry to procure obedience to them. He cannot alter any part of the doarine, and make it to be either truer or falfer than It is in it felf; nor can he either take away or alter the facraments, or break any of thofe rules that are given in the New Teftament about them ; becaufe in all thefe the authority of God Is exprefs, and is certainly fuperior to his. The only queftion that can be made, is concerning Indifferent things : for inftance, in the ca nons or other rules of the Church, how far they are in the ma- glftrate's power, and In what cafes the body of Chriftians, and of the pafiors of the Chufch, may maintain their union among themfelves, and aa In oppofition to his laws. It feems very clear, that in all matters that are indifferent, and are determined by no law of God, the magiftrate's authority muft take place, and is to be obeyed. The Church has no authority that fhe can maintain in oppofition to the magiftrate, but in the executing the laws of God and the ruks of the Gofpel : in all other things, as flie aas under his proteaion, fo it Is by his permlf fion. But here a great diftinaion Is to be made between two cafes that may happen : the one is, when the magiftrate aas / like one that intends to preferve religion, but commits errors and aas of Injuftice in his management: the other Is, when he aas like one that intends to deftroy religion, and to divide and diftraa thofe that profefs it. In the former cafe every thing that is not finful of Itfelf, is to be done. In compliance with his authority; not to give him umbrage, nor provoke him to with draw his proteaion, and to become, inftead of a nurfing father, a perfecutor of the Church. But on the otiier hand, when he declares, or it is vifible that his defign is to deftroy the faith, lefs regard is to be had to his aaions. The people may adhere to their pafiors, and to every method that may fortify them in their religion, even in oppofition to his Invafion. Upon the whole matter, the power of the King in ecclefiaftical matters among us, is expreffed In this Article under thofe referves, and v/Ith that moderation, that no juft fcruple can lie againft it; and it IS that which all the Kings even of the Roman communion do affume, and n fome places with a much more uidimited autho rity. THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 493 rity. The methods of managing it may differ a little ; yet the art. power is the fame, and is buik upon the fame foundations. And ^^xvil. though the term head is left out by the Article, yet even ' '~~' that is founded on an expreffion of Samuel's to Saul, as was formerly cited. It is a figure, and all figures may be ufed either more loofely or more ftriaiy. In the ftriaeft fenfe, as the head communicates vital influences to the whole body, Chrift is the only head of his Church ; he only ought to be in all things obeyed, fubmitted to, and depended on ; and from him all the funaions and offices of the Church derive their ufefulnefs and virtue. But as head may in a figure ftand for the fountain of order and government, of proteaion and condua, the King or Queen may well be called, the head of the Church, The next paragraph in this Article Is concerning the law fulnefs of capital punifhments in Chriftian focieties. It has an appearance of compaffion and charity, to think that men ought not to be put to death for their crimes, but to be kept alive, that they may repent of them. Some, both ancients and moderns, have thought that there was a cruelty in all capital punifli ments, that was inconfiftent with the gentlenefs of the Gofpel : but when we confider that God, in that law which he himfelf delivered to the Jews by the hand of Mofes, did appoint fo many capital punifhments, even for offences againft pofitive precepts, we cannot think that thefe are contrary to juftice or true good nefs ; fince they were diaated by God himfelf, who is eternally the fame, unalterable in his perfeaions. This fliews that God, who knows moft perfeaiy our frame and difpofition, knows that the love of life is planted fo deep in our natures, and that it has fuch a root there, that nothing can work fo power fully on us, to govern and reftrain us, as the fear of death. And therefore, fince the main thing that Is to be confidered In government, is the good of the whole body ; and fince a fee ble indulgence and impunity may fet mankind loofe into great diforders, from which the terror of feverer laws, together with fuch examples as are made on the incorrigible, will na turafly reftrain them, It feems neceffary, for the prefervatiori of mankind and of fociety, to have recourfe fometimes to capital punifhments. The precedent that God fet in the Mofaical Law feems a full juftification of fuch puniftiments under the Gofpel. The charity, which the Gofpel prefcribes, does not take avvay the ruks of juftice and equity, by which we may maintain our poffeffions, or recover them out of the hands of violent ag- greffors : only it obliges us to do that in a foft and gentie man ner, without rigour or refentment. The fame^charity, though it obliges us, as Chriftians, not to keep up hatred or anger in our hearts, but to pardon, as to our own parts, the wrongs that 49^ AN EXPOSITION OP ART. are done us ; yet it does not oblige us to throw up the order xxxvii. and peace of mankind, and abandon it to the injuftice and •"-v-^ violence of wicked men. We owe to human fociety, and to the fafety and order of the world, our endeavours to put a ftop to the wickednefs of men ; which a good man may do with great inward tendernefs to the fouls of thofe whom he profecutes. It is highly probable, that as nothing befides fuch a method could ftop the progrefs of injuftice and wickednefs, {o nothing is fo likely a mean to bring the criminal to repent of his fins, and to fit him to die as a Chriftian, as to condemn him to die for his crimes : if any thing can awaken his confcience, and ftrike terror in him, that will do it. Therefore, as capital punifhments are neceffary to human fociety, fo they are often real bleffings to thofe on whom they fafl ; and it may be affirmed very pofitively, that a man who can harden himfelf againft the terrors of deatii, when they come upon him fo folemnly, fo flowly, and fo certainly, he being in full health, and well able to reflea on the confequences of it, is not like to be wrought cn by a longer continuance of life, or by the methods of a na tural death. It is not poffible to fix rules, to which capital punifhments ought to be proportioned. It Is certain, that in a fufl equality, life only can be fet againft life : but there may be many other crimes, that muft end in the ruin of fociety, and in the diffo lution of all order, and all the commerce that ought to be among men, if they go unpunlfhed. In this all princes and ftates muft judge, according to the real exigencies and neceffi ties that appear to them. Nor can any general rule be made, fave only this, that fince man was made after the image of God, and that the life of man is precious, and when once ex tingulfhed, it ceafes for ever more ; therefore all due care and tendernefs ought to be had in preferving it ; and fince the endof government is the prefervation of mankind, therefore the lives of men ought not to be too lightly taken, except as it appears to be neceffary for the prefervation and fafety of the fociety. Under the Gofpel, as well as under the Law, the magi- Rom, xiii. ftrate is the minifier of God, and has the fword put in his hand; *' which he beareth not in vain, for he is appointed to be a re venger, to execute wrath on him thai doth evil. The natural fignification of his carrying the fword, is, that he has an au thority for punifhing capitally ; fince it is upon thofe occafions oidy that he can be faid to ufe the fword as a revenger. Nor can Chriftian charity oblige a man, whom the law has made to be the avenger of blood, or of other crimes, to refufe to comply with that obligation, which is laid upon him by the conftitution under which he his born : he can only forgive that of which he is the mafter, but the other is a debt which he owes THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 49S owes the fociety ; and his private forgiving of die wrong done art. himfelf, does not reach to that other obligation, which is not xxxvir, in his own power to give away. »¦ -v ..j The laft paragraph in this Article, is concerning the law fulnefs of wars. Some have thought all wars to be contrary to Chriftian charity, to be inhuman and barbarous ; and that therefore men ought, according to the rule fet us by our Sa viour, not to refift evil; but when one injury is done, not Matth. r. only to bear it, but to fliew a readlnefs rather to receive new ^^' onps ; turning ihe other cheek io him that fmites us on the one ; going two miles with him that JhaU compel us to go one with him; and giving our cloak to him that JhaU take away our coat. It 40. feems juft, that, by a parity of reafon, focieties fhould be under the fame obligations to bear from other focieties, that fingle perfons are under to other fingle perfons. This muft be ac knowledged to be a very great difficulty ; for as, on the one hand, the words of our Saviour feem to be very exprefs and fufl ; fo, on the other hand, if they are to be underfiood literally, they muft eaft the world loofe, and expofe it to the injuftice and infolence of wicked perfons, who would not fail to take ad vantages from fuch a compliance and fubmiffion. Therefore thefe words muft be confidered, firft, as addreffed to private perfons ; then, as relating to fmaller injuries, which can more eafily be borne; and finally, as phrafes and forms of fpeech, that are not to be carried to the utmoft extent, but to be conflrued with that foftening, that is to be allowed to the ufe of a phrafe. So that the meaning of that feaion of our Saviour's fermon is to be taken thus ; that private perfons ought to be fo far from purfuing injuries, to the equal retaliation of an eye for an eycy er a tooth for a tooth, that they ought in many cafes to bear in juries, widiout either refifting them, or making returns of evil for evil ; fliewing a patience to bear even repeated injuries, when the matter is fmall, and the wrong tolerable. Under all this, fecret conditions are to be underftood, fuch as when by fuch our patieitce we may hope io overcome evilwith good; or at leaft to fliew to die worid the power that religion has over us, to check and fubdue our refentments. In this cafe certainly we ought to facrifice our juft rights, either of de fence or of feeking reparation, to the honour of religion. and to the gaining of men by fuch an heroical inftance of vir^ tue. But it cannot be fuppofed tiiat our Saviour meant that good men fliould deliver themfelves up to be a prey to be devoured. bybad men; or to oblige his foflowers to renouce their claims to die proteaion and reparations of law and juftice. _ In this St. Paul gives us a clear commentary on our Saviour s words : He reproves the Corinthians forgoing to law with one another, and that' before unbelievers; when it was fo |reat^ 49^ AN EXPOSITION OF ART. fcandal to the Chriftian religion in its firft infancy. He fays, XXXVII. Wliy do not ye take wrong ? Why do not ye fuffer yourfelves to be " — ^~y defrauded? Yet he does not deny, but that they might claim 1 Cor. VI. ^jjgji. j-ights, and feek for redrefs ; therefore he propofes their do- * ^" ing It by arbitration among themfelves, and only urges the fcandal of fulng before Heathen maglftrates ; fo that his reproof did not fall on their fuing one another, but on the fcandalous man ner of doing it. Therefore men are not bound up by the Gofpel from feeking relief before a Chriftian judge, and, by confe quence, thofe words of our Saviour's are not to be urged In the utmoft extent of which they are capable. If private per fons may feek reparation of one another, they may alfo feek reparations of the wrongs that are done by thofe who are un der another obedience ; and every Prince owes a proteaion to his people in fuch cafes ; for he beareth not the fword in vain ; he is their avenger. He may demand reparation by fuch forms as are agreed on among nations ; and when that is not granted, he may take fuch reparation from any that are under that obe dience, as may oblige the whole body to repair the injury. Much more may he ufe the fword to protea his fubjedts, if any other comes to invade them. For this end chiefly he has both the fword given him, and thofe taxes paid him, that may enable him to fupport the charge to which the ufe of it may put him. And as a private man owes, by the ties of humanity, affiftance to a man whom he fees in the hands of thieves and murderers ; fo Princes may affift fuch other Princes as are un juftly faflen upon ; both out of humanity to him who is fo ifl ufed, and to reprefs the infolence of an unjuft aggreffor, and alio to fecure the whole neighbourhood from the efreas of fuc cefs in fuch unlawful conquefts. Upon all thefe accounts we do not doubt but that wars, which are thus originally as to the firft occafion of them defenfiVe, though in the progrefs of them they muft be often offenfive, may be lawful. God aflowed of wars in that policy which he himfelf con ftituted ; in which we are to make a great difference between thofe things that were permitted by reafon of the hardnefs of their hearts, and thofe things which were exprefsly commanded of God. Thefe laft can never be fuppofed to be immoral, fince commanded by God, whofe precepts and judgments are altoge- l,ukeiii.i4. ther righteous. When the foldiers came to be baptized of St. John, he did not charge them to relinqulfh that courfe of life, Afts X. but only to do violence to no man, to accufe no man falfely, and to be content with their wages. Nor did St, Peter charge Cor nelius to forfake his poft when he baptized him. The primitive Chriftians thought they might continue in military employments, in which they preferved tiie purity of their religion entire ; as appears both from Tertullian's works, and from the hiftory of Julian's THE XXXIX ARTICLElS. 497 Julian's fhort reign. But though wars that are iri their own nature only defenfive, are lawful, and a part of the proteaion that princes .owe; their people; yet unjuft wars defigned for making conquefts, for the enlargement of empire, and the raifing the glory of princes, are certainly public robberies, and the higheft aas of inju|lice and violence poffible; jn which. men facrifice to their pride or humour, the peace of the world, and the lives of all thofe that die in the quarrel, whofe blood God wfll require at their hands. Such princes become account able to God ii}, the higheft degree imaginable, for all the rapine and bloodftjed, that is occafioned by their pride and Injuftice. When it is vifible that a war is unjuft, pertalifly no man of confcience can ferve Iri,it, unlefs It be in the defenfive part: for though no ihaii can owe that to his prince, to go and murder other perfons at his command, yet he may owe It to his country to affift towards its prefervation, from being over-run even>by thofe whom his prince has provoked by making war on thern unjuftly. For even in fuch a war, though it is unlawful to ferve in the attacks that are made on others, it is ftill lawful for the people of every nation to defend themfelves againft fo reigners: There is no caufe of war more unjuft, than the propaga ting the true religion, or the deftroying a falfe one. That is to be left to the providence of God, who can change the hearts of men, and bring them to the knowledge of the truth, when he will, Ambition, and the defire of eriipire, muft never pre^ tend to carry on God's work. The wrath of man worketh not out the righteoufnefs of God, And, it were better barefacedly to own, that men are fet on by carnal motives, than to pro- -fane religion, and the name of God, by making it the prc-^ tence. K k ARTICLE 49^ AN EXPOSITION OF ARTICLE ^XXXVIII. Of Chrifiian Men's Goods, which are not common. ^fic iHicge^ anti dDootisi of CfitiflfiansJ are itdt tommoii, a0 towcging tijt IRigfit, %itlt anU ^^QpOion of tfie famc; a& tevtain Slnabaptitt^ tio falflii faoaff. fiot-- toitfiUanUing, cDcrp ^m otigfit of futfi ^fiingsi ag fie poMetfi, lifafrallp to gibe illms to tSe i^o^r, ac= totQiJig to fitss ;3failitie0. TH E R E Is no great difficulty In this Article, as there is no danger to be apprehended thatthe opinion condemned by it is like to fpread. Thofe may be for it, who find it for them; The poor may lay claim to it, but few of the rich will ever go into It. The whole charge that is given in the Scripture for charity and almfgiving; all the rules that are, given to the rich, and to mafiers, to whom their fervants were then pro perties and flaves, do clearly demonftrate that the Gofpel was not defigned to introduce a community of goods. And even that fellowfhip or community, which was praaifed in the firft beginnings of it, was the eSeSt of particular men's charity, Afls iv. and not of any law that was laid on them. Barnabas having 36, 37. land, fold it, and laid the price of it at the Apofiles' feet. And when Sti Peter chid Ananias for having vowed to give in the whole price of his land to that diftribution, and then with drawing a part of it, and, by a lie, pretending that he had brought It all in ; he affirmed that the right was ftifl in him, till he by a vow had put it out of his power. When God fed his people by miracle with the manna, there was an equal diftribution made; yet when he brought them into the pro mifed land, every man had his property. The equal divifion ' of the land was the foundation of that conftitution ; but ftill every man had a property, and might improve it by his in duftry, either to the increafing of his ftock, the purchafing houfes in towns, or buying of eftates, till the redemption at the ju bilee. '^ It can never be thought a juft and equitable thing, that the fober and induftrious fhould be bound to fhare the fruits of their labour with the Idle and luxurious. This would be fuch an encouragement to thofe whom all wife governments ought to difcourage, and would fo difcourage thofe who ought to be encouraged, THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 499 encouraged, ^hat all the order of the worid muft be diffolved, if io extravagant a conceit fliould be entertained. Both the rich and the poor have rules given them, and there are vir tues fuitable to each ftate of Hfe. The rich ought to be fober and thankful, modeft and humble, bountiful and charitable, out of the abundance that God has given them, and not to fet their hearts upon uncertain riches, but to truft in the living God, and to make the beft ufe of them that they can. 7 he poor ought to be patient and induftrious, tp fubmit to the pro vidence of God, and to ftudy to make fure of a better portion in another ftate, than God has thought fit to give ihem in this world. It will be much eafier to perfuade the world of the truth of the firft part of this Article, than to bring them up to the praaice of the fecond branch of it. We fee what particular care God took of the poor in the old difpenfation, and what variety of provifion was made for them ; all which muft cer tainly be carried as much higher among Chriftians, as the laws of love and charity are raifed to a higher degree in the Gofpel. Chrift reprefents the effay, that he gives of the day of judg ment, in this article of charity, and expreffes it in the moft emphatical words poffible ; as if what is given to the poor were to be reckoned for, as if it had been given perfonafly to Chrift himfelf: and In a great variety of other paffages this matter is fo oft infifted on, that no man can refift it who reads them, and acknowledges the authority of the New Teftament. It is not poffible to fix a determined quota, as was done under the Law, in which every family had their peculiar aflot- ment, which had a certain charge fpecified in the Law, that was laid upon it. But under the Gofpel, as men may be under greater inequalities of fortune than they could have been under the old difpenfation; fo that vaft variety of men's circumftances makes that fuch proportions as would be intolerable burthens upon fome, would be too light and difproportloned to the wealth of others. Thofe words of our Saviour come pretty near the marking out every man's meafure. Thefe have of their Luke xxi, abundance eafi into the offerings of God ; but fhe of her penury 4- hath eafi in aU the living that Jbe had. Abundance is fuper- fluity in the Greek ; which imports that which is over and above the food that is convenient; that which one can wefl fpare and Prov. xxx. lay afide. Now, by our Saviour's defign, it plainly appears S, that this is a low degree of charity, when men give only out of this; though, God knows, it is far beyond what is done by the greater part of Chriftians. Whereas thkt which is fo pecullariy acceptable to' God, is when men give out of their penury, that is, out of what is neceffary to them ; when they ^ K k 2 are 5®0 AN EXPOSITION OP ART. are ready, efpecially upon great and cry;ng occafiohs, even to XXXVIII. pinch nature, and flralten themfelves within what upon other *¦'"''" — ' occafions they may allow themfelves ; that fo they may diftribute to the neceffities of others, who are more pinched, and are, in great extremities. By this every may ought to judge himfelif, as knowing that he muft give a moft particular account to God, of that which God hath referved to himfelf, and ordered the dif tribution of it to the poor, out of afl th?.t abundance with whiph he has bleffed fome far beyond others. ' ARTICLE THE, XXXi:^ AUTICLps. 5°! ARTICLE XXXIX. Of a Chri.ftian Man's Oath. 00 toe toitfefsj tfiat fiatn anti ratfe ^tocartng i& f ot&ibJjen Cfijttttan .^en bp our 3Lor& Mu^ Cfi?iff, am James m ^poffle ; fo toe juDge tfiat ^Dljiifftan IReligion iiotj& not |>?ofiifait, tint tfiat a tfan map toeat tofien tfie i|)agiatate requiretfi, tn a Caufe of jFaitfi ana Cfiatitp, Co it be tione accortiing to tfie ^lopfietg teacfiing, in Suffice, 31uiigmettt, anti '^mth AN oath is an appeal to God, either upon a teftimony ART. that is given, or a promife that is made, confirming the ^xxix. truth of the one, and the fidelity of the other. It is an ap- '~'~'~"~* peal to God, who knows all things, and will judge all men : fo it Is an aa that acknowledges both his omnifclence and his being the governor of this world, who will judge all at the laft day, according to their deeds, and muft be fuppofed to have a more inmediate regard to fuch aas, in which men made him a party. An appeal, truly made, is a committing the matter to God ; a falfe one is an aa of Open defiance, which' muft either fuppofe a denial of his knowing all things, or a belief that he has forfaken the earth, and has no regard to the aaions of mortals : or finally, it is a bold venturing on the juftice and wrath of God, for the ferving fome prefent end, or the gain ing pf fome prefent advantage : and which of thefe foever gives a man that brutal confidence of adventuring on a falfe oath, we muft conclude it to be a very crying fin ; which muft be expiated with a very fevere repentance, or will bring down very terrible judgments on thofe who are guilty of it. , Thus, if we confider the matter upon the principles of na tural religion, an oath is an aa of worfhip and homage done to God ; and is a very powerful mean for preferving the juftice and .order of the world. -All decifions in juftice muft he founded upon evidence; two muft be befleved rather than one ; therefore the more terror that- is ftruck into the minds of men, either when they give their teftimony, or when they biri^d themfelves by promifes', and the deeper that this goes, it will both Oblige them to the greater caution in what they fiiy, and to the greater ftrianefs in what they promife. Since there fore truth and fidelity are fo neceffary to the fecurity and K k 3 commerce 532 AN EXPOSITION OP commerce of the world, and fince an appeal to God is the greateft mean that can be thought ori^tp bind men to an exaa nefs and ftria'nefs In every thing with which that appeal is joined ; therefore, the ufe of an oath is fully juftified upon the principles of natural rehgion. This has fpread itfelf fo uni verfally through the world, and began fo early, that It may well be reckoned a branch of the law and light of nature. We. find this was praaifed by the Patriarchs : Abimelech reckoned that he was fafe, if he could perfuade Abraham to Cm. xxi. fwear to him by God, that he would nqt deal falfely with him ; 23. ^^' ^^' and Abraham confented fo to fwear. Either the fame Abimelech, or another of that name, defired that an oath might be be tween Ifaac and him ; and they fware one to another. Jacob did alfo fwear to Laban. Thus we find the Patriarchs praaifing this before the Mofaical Law. Under that Law we find many covenants fealed by an oath ; and that was a facred bond, as appears from the ftory of the Gibeoriites. There was alfo a fpe cial conftitution in the Jewifh religion, by which one in au thority might put others under an oath, and adjure them either to do fomewhat, or to declare fome truth. The law was. Lev. V. 1. that when any foul (i. e. man) finned, and heard the voice of fwearing (adjuration), and was a witnefs whether he hath feen it, or known it, if he do not utter it, then he fhall bear his ini quity ; that is, he fhall be guilty of perjury. So the form then was, the judge or the parent did adjure all perfons. to declare their knowledge of any particular. They charged this upon them with an oath, or curfe, and all perfons were then bound judg. xvii. by that oath to tefl the truth. So Micah came and confefled, s- upon his mother's adjuration, that he had the eleven hundred fhekels, for which he heard her put all under a curfe ; and I Sam. xiv. upon that fhe bleffed him. Saul, when he was purfulng the 24. 1 . 44- pijiliftines, put the people under a curfe, if they fliould eat any food till night ; and this was thought to be fo obligatory, that the violation of it was capital, and Jonathan was put in Matth.xxvi. hazard of his life upon it. Thus the High-Prieft put our Sa- 63. 64- viour under the oath of curfing, when he required him to tell, whether he was the Meffias or not ? Upon which our Sa viour was, according to that law, upon his oath ; and though he had continued fiknt till then, as long as it was free to him to fpeak or not, at his pleafure, yet then he was bound to fpeak, and fo he did fpeak, and owned himfelf to be what he truly was. This was the form of that conftitution; but if, by prac tice, it were found that men's pronouncing the words of the oath themfelves, when required by a perfon in authority to do it J and that fuch aftions, as their lifting up their hand to hea ven. THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 503. ven, or their laying it on a Bible,, as importing their fenfe of A R t. the terrors contained in that book, were like to make a deeper xxxix'. impreffion on them, than barely the judges charging them with ^— '— ' the oath or curfe, it feems to be within the compafs of human authority, to change the rites and manner of this oath, and to put it in fuch a method as might probably work rnoft on the minds of thofe who were to take it. The inftitution in gene ral is plain, and the making of fuch alterations feems to be clearly in the power of any ftate, or fociety of men. In the New Teftament we find St. Paul profecuting a dif courfe concerning the oath, which God fware to Abraham, Heb. vi. 13, who not having a greater to fwear by, fwore by himfelf ; and to '^'^' '5- inforce the importance of that, it is added, an oath for con-Ver. 16. firmation (that is, for the affirming or affuring of any thing) is the end of all controverfy. Which plainly fhews us what notion the author of that epiftle had of an oath ; he did not confider it as an impiety or profanation of the name of God. In St. John's vifions an angel is reprefented, as lifting k^Rcv. x. 6. his hand, and fwearing by him that liveth for ever and ever ; and the Apoftles, even in their epiftles, that are acknowledged Rom- '• 9. to be writ by divine infpiration, do frequently appeal to God^aLi. 20. in thefe words, God is witnefs ; which contain the whole ef fence of an oath. Once St. Paul carries the expreffion to az Cor. i. s^. form of imprecation, when he calls God to record upon (or againft) his foul. Thefe feem to be authorities beyond exception, juftifying the ufe of an path upon a great occafion, or before a compe tent authority ; according to that prophecy quoted in the Arti cle, which is thought to relate to the times of the Meffias : And thou fhalt fwear, the Lord liveth, in truth, in judgment, j^r. iv.- 2. and in righteoufnefs ; and the nations fhall blefs themfelves in him, and in him fhall they glory. Thefe laft words feem evi dentiy to relate to the days of the Meffiah : fo here an oath re ligloufly taken, is reprefented as a part of that worfhip, which all nations fhall offer up to God under the new difpenfa tion. Againft afl this, the great objeaion is, that when Chrift is correaing the gloffes that the Pharifees put upon the law, whereas they only taught that men fhould not forfiwear them felves, hut perform iheir oaths unto the Lord ; our Saviour fays. Swear not at all; neither hy the heaven, nor the earth, nor ^^^ Matth. v. Jerufalem, nor by the head; hut let your communication be _y«<7, 34. 35) 3**' yea, and nay, nay ; for whatfoever is more than thefe, cometh of^'^' evil. And St. James, fpeaking of the enduring affliaions, and of the patience of Job, zdds. But above aU things, my bre-j^mesw.iz. K k 4 thren, ^4- A-l^ EXPOSITION OF thren; fwear ¦not; neither by the heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any otiier oath ; but lei youf' yea be yea, and yoiir nay nay, lefi je fall into condeinridtlon. It muft be cOnfei^d that thefe -words feem to be fo exprefs '4nd' pofitive, that great re gard Is "to be liad to a fcrUpk that ife founded on ah authority that feemS to be' fo fiill. But according to what was fbrroerly obferved of the manner'of the judiciary oaths among the Jews, fhefe words cannot belong tti th'em. Thofe oaths Were bound upon the party by the authority of the judge ; in vvhich he was paffive, and fo could riot help hiS' being put uiidet^ ^ oath : whereas ou'r Saviour's words relate Oifly to thofe dathS Vvhich a rnan took vAltititarily oh himfelf, but hot to tfcMe urtder which he was bouncj, According to the laiv of God-. If our Saviour had interlded to have forbidden all judiciary oaths, he muft have Annulled' that jiar't of the aiithdfity of maglftrittes and parents, and have forbid them to put others under oaths. The word communication, that comes afterwards, feems to be a key to our Saviour's words, tp fhew that they ought only to be applied to their communication or commferce ; to thofe dif courfes that pafs among men, In which It is but too caftomary to giv'e Oaths a very large fhare. ' Or fince the words that went before, concerning 'the perfdfming pf vows, 'fee'rti to limit the difcourfe to them, the meaning of fwedr not at ad, may be thl-s ; be riot ready,'as the Jews were, toln^ke Vo-ws on air occafions, to devote themfelves or others-; inftead of thdfe, he requires them to ufe a greater fimplicity In their communica tion. And St. Jslrnes's -ft^oi-ds may be alfo very 'fitly applied to this, fince men in their affliaions are apt 'to make very In difcreet vows, without confidering whether -they either iian, or probably will pay them ; as if they wOuW'fireteihd by fuch pro fufe vows to overcome or corrupt God. This fenfe V/ill well agree both to our 'Sa\/i6dr's words and to St. James's; and itfeenis moft reafonabletobelieve that this is their true fenfe, for it agrees with every thirtg 'elfe'-; whereas, if we underftand tbemin '^hat -ftrta fenfe 'of con demning all oaths, Ve cannot tell' what' to riiake of thoie oaths which occur in feveral paffages of St. Paul's epiftles : and leaft of all, what to fay to our Savidiir's own -anfwering upon path, when ^djured. Therefore all fafh and Vain fwearing, all fwearing in' the communication or intercourfe of mankind, is certainly condemned, as well as all Imprecatory vPv^s; But fince we hayefo great authorities fr6m the Scriptures inboth 1 eftaments for other oaths ; andfinpe that agrees fo evidently with th6 principles of natural religion^ we may conclude with the Article, that a biati may fwear when the-riiagiftrate re- ^uireth it, It is added, in (i caufe of faith and chastity; for, pertainly^ THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 5®S certainly, in trifling matters, fuch reverence is due to the holy name of God, that fwearing ought to be avoided : but, when it is neceffary. It ought to be fet about with thofe regards that are due to the great God, who is appealed to. A gravity of deportment, and an exaanefs of weighing the truth of what we fay, are highly neceffary here : certainly, our words ought to be few, and our hearts full of the apprehenfions of the ma jefty of that God, with whom we have to do, before whom we ftand, and to whom we appeal, who knows all things, and will bring every work to judgment, with every fecret things ivhether it be good, or whether it be evil. INDEX, INDEX. A. ABRAHAM, the poffibility of a tradition from Adam to him, 90. The occafion and "^'='^' ^^c^"•£'"' 3 H- INDE x; Epiftles, why the general ones were not fo early and univerfally re ceived, as the reft of the New Teftament, loo. Erudition, a book publiffied, called the Neceffary Erudition, a pre liminary to compiling the Articles, 6. Eternity, in a fucceffion of determinate durations impoffible, 24. Of the world difproved, 25. See World. Eucharift, in what fenfe it may be called a facrifice, 44^. The vir tue of it, to whom limited, 446. The doftrine of the Church of Rome conceming- it, ibid. Wherein the virtue of it confifts, 448. The importance of the controverfy concerning it, 4 j t . See Lord's Supper. Eugenius, Pope, does not mention Biffiops as belonging to the fa crament of orders, 360. Evil, whether God is the author of it, 40. The being of it in the world, how accounted for by the Remonftrants, a I o. Liberty can not be afferted without it, 217. Evil Ipirits, what fort of miracles they can perform, 78. Eunapius, his fpiteful reprefentation of the primitive martyrs, 396. Eutychian herefy was condemned by the Athanafian Creed, 133. What it was, 417. Was confuted by feveral ancient writers, ibid. The force of their argument explained, 419. Excommunication, the nature of it, and its neceffity in fome cafes, 461 — 468. Ought not to be done raffily, 468. Extreme Unftion no Sacrament, 364. A paflage in St. James, which feems to favour it, explained, 36^. 'The defign and effefts of the anointing by the Apoftles and Elders, 366. The matter and form of it ufed in the Church of Rome, 367. Was not reckoned a Sacrament in the firft ages of Chriftianity, 3 69. When, and by whom decreed to be one, ibid. Argument for it anfwered, ibid. FABRI HONORATUS, the doftrines of the Church of Rome examined in this book, chiefly taken from him, 361. His charafter, ibid. Faith, the Scriptures the only and complete rule of it, 89. No ar ticles of it to be allowed, but what are proved from Scripture, 94, An objeftion againft this anfwered, 95. What is meant by it in the New Teftament, 159. How it juftifies, 163. Is indifpenfa bly neceffary to falvation, ibid. 380. The nature of juftifying faith, 164. Fall of Adam, of its confequences to him, and his pofterity, 137 — 147. See Sin. Fafting, times of fafting, appointing them in the power of the Church, 255. When joined with prayer, its efficacy, 3^5. In what cafes of no avail, ibid. The abfurdity of pretending to ex piate fins by it, 3^6. Fate, the Stoicks put all things, even the Gods themfelves, under it, 191. This downright atheifm, ibid. Was maintained by the Effenes, INDEX. menes, ibid. Is a prevailing opinion among the Mahometans, ^Z'^dJltiTr!"""! '° ^' ^'^P^^^"^^' '°9. Were frequently t^em, 409 ^ ' ^'•5- ^"S^fti^^"^ n^le for explaining Fire of purgatory, the proof alledged for It examined, 280. forgiving injuries, the neceffity and extent of it, 18^ Forms were fettied very early in moft Churches, 3. Thefe not all in the lame words, ibid. See Creed. Francfort, Council, condemned the Nicene Council, together with the worffiip oi images, 296. Free-will, wherein it confifts, 149. See Liberty. Frumentius preached to the Indians before he was ordained, 326 Future ftate was looked for under the Old Teftament, 123. But is brought to a much clearer light by the Gofpel, 124. G. GEHENNA, Hell known by that name among the Jews, 72. Gelafius, Pope, condemns the communicating in one kind only as facrilege, 442. General Council. See Council. Gentiles, their prejudices againft Chriftianity, 76. German and Lupus reform Britain from Pelagianifm, 193. A le gendary miracle faid to be wrought by them, ibid. Gnofticks pretended to traditions from the Apoftles, 94. Their opi nion concerning the foul, 191, Were detefted by all Chriftians for idolatry, 394. God, his exiftence proved from the univerfal confent of mankind, 31. Objeftions, that fome nations do not believe a Deity, and that it is not the fame belief amongft them all, anfvvcred, 22. The vifible world and hiftory of nations, prove a Deity, 33 — 26. ' Whence the notion of a plurality of Gods might take its rife, 23, The argument from miracles confidered, 27. And from the idea of God, ibid. This not the moft conclufive, 28. Muft be eter nal, and neceffarily exifts, ibid. His exiftence ought not to be proved from Scripture, 29. His unity proved from the order of the world, and from the idea of infinite perfeftion, ibid. From the Scriptures, ibid. Is without body or parts, 30. The origin of the notion of a good and bad God, 3 1 . The world not a body to God, ibid. The outward manifeftations and bodily parts afcribed to God in Scripture, how to be underftood, ibid. No fucceffive afts in God, 32. Queftion concerning his immanent afts, ibid. Is without paffions, 33. The meaning of Scr ptures, which afcribe thefe to him, ibid. Is of infinite power, 34. Ob jeftions to this anfwered, ibid. Wherein his wifdom confifts, and a twofold diftinftion of it, ibid. True ideas of his goodnefs of great importance, 35. Wherein it confifts, ibid. And how li mited, 36. Has a power of creating and annihilating, 35, 37. I. 1 4 Is i N IB fi X. Is the preferver of all things, 38. This a confequence of his being infinitely perfeft, 39. Objaftion againft his providence anfwered, 40. Whether he. ,does immediately produce all things, 43. Or is the author of evil, ibid. All agree that the Father is truly God, ^o. Juft notions of him the fundamental article of all religion, ibid. 126. The beft manner of framing an idea of him, ibid; Is the only proper objeft of adoration, 59. In what fenfe called the God of Abraham, &c. long after they were dead, 122. Image of God in which man was created, wherein it confifted, 139. Diftinftion between the methods of his goodnefs. and the ftriftnefs of his juftice, 169. The doftrine of the Church of Rome concerning our love of God, 172. His view in forming his decrees, 189. What meant by his hardening Pharaoh's heart, 2x3. The impiety of fpeaking too boldly of him, 2x8. Goods, the unreafonablenefs of a community of them, 498. Good works. See Works. Gofpel condemns all idolatry, 59. The defign of it, 76, Refines upon the law of Mofes, 129. Government was fettled in the Church by the Apoftles, 321. The neceffity of Church-Government, 322. Grace, affifting and preventing grace afferted and proved from Scripture, iji — 15^ . A probable conjefture concerning the conveyance of aftual grace, l_53. The efficacy and extent of it> 155, 200, 203, 214. G«-eek Church, wherein they differed from the Latins, 86. Gregory I. Pope, condemns worffiipping of images, 39J. The Ud. declares for them, 296. The IXth firft ordered the adoration of the Hoft as now praftifed, 42 j. Gregory the Great, his violent oppofition to the title of Univerfal Bilhop, 486. H. HEAD of the Church, in what fenfe Chrift is the only head of the Church, 493. And in what fenfe the King is cafled the Head, ibid. Hebrews, why the authority of the Epiftle to them was doubted, 99. Proofs of its authority, ibid. Hellodorus, a Bifliop, author of the firft romance, 456. Propofed that Clergymen fhould live from their wives, ibid. Hell, three diff'erent fenfes of it, 10. Of Chrift's defcent into Hell, 6g. See Chrift. The gates of Hell fliall not prevail againft the Church, the meaning of this, 2^0. Henry VIII._ feveral fteps towards reformation, and the foundation , of the Articles were laid in his time, 6. Herefies occafioned the enlargement of Creeds, 14.'' Hereticks, feveral of them pretended to traditions from the Apoftles, ¦ 94. _ When the doftrine of extirpating them took place, 428. Hezekiah commended for breaking the Brazen Serpent, 303. Hilarion, S N D E X. SSi?' ^ ff ."'?' ^°'y °^^'= ^^y ^"d tomb, 304. ''h;;:thCi98" ^^' ^^^-^^^ --^^'>^ onlhe^upralapfari^ "^SSi^^f^'S ^;:T;^t ""' ^¦"- ^ -°^'^ ^"^ ^°Tef™°8?''; ^P'"'' r'^^^ "--t by it in the Old and New I eltanient, 64. Is properly a diftinft perfon in the Trinity, 8 K thecL?h fp' r'^ Councils about It, ibid. The doftrine of the Church of England concerning it, 87. Is truly God, ibid. His teftimony not a fufficient argument to prove the canon of the Scriptures, 98. Of the fin againft the Holy Ghoft, 183, 186. It feemed good to the Holy GboJi, and to us, the meaning of this, 309. Ut the form. Receive ye tbe Holy Ghoft, in Ordination, Homilies of the Church of England, their names, 476. When and on what account they were compofed, ibid. The meaning of the approbation of them, 477. Ought to be read by all who fub fcribe them, ibid. The meaning of their being faid to be necef fary for thefe times, 478. Honorius, Pope, was condemned as a Monothellte, 344. The IVth firft appointed the adoration of the Hoft, 435. Hoft, adoration of it, by whom firft introduced, 425. Is plain ido latry, 43 1. Argument for it anfwered, ibid.' Referving, carry ing It about, and the elevation of it witi-iout foundation in Scrip ture, or primitive praftice, 43 2, 434. Hufs, John, met with great cruelty from the Church of Rome, 444- i. JAMES I. King, his declaration concerning the fubfcription of the Articles, 10. Janfenius publifhed a fyftem of St. Auftin's doftrine, 196. On what account his book was condemned at Rome, ibid. Iberians were converted by their King before he was baptized, 336. Idolatry, the necelfity of guarding againft it at the eftabliffiment of Chriftianity, 4. What makes it a great fin, 36,^ 128. The Jews were particularly jealous of every thing that favoured of it, 55. The defign both of the Jewiffi and Chriftian religion to banilh it, ^g. By what means the feed of Abram were preferved from it, 90. The nature and immorality of it, 128, 289. General rules concerning it, 388. Several kinds of it among the heathens, ibid. Was very ftriftly prohibited among the Jews, 389. This Pwing chiefly to the Egyptian idolatry, 290. The expoltulationa of the Prophets againft it, ibid. How praftifed by the Ifraelites, 391. Is contrary to the nature and perfeftion s of God, 392. St. Paul condemns the idolatry of the Greeks and Romans. 393. The r(?fined notions of the Athenians concerning it, ibid. 'Was niuch condemned by the writers of the firft four centuries, ^94. Idol% INDEX. 1 Idols, inchantment in facrifices offered to them, 400, Chriflian'i not to partake of them, ibid. Jehu rewarded, though aftingwith a bad defign, 169. Jerom, St. once admired, but afterwards oppofed Origen's doftrine, 192. Maintained that no Chriftian would finally periffi, 280. Set a high value on relicks, 302. But difclalms the worffiipping of them, ibid. Said that the fouls of the faints might be in feveral places at once, 306. Jerom of Prague fuff'ered cruelly by the Roman Catholicks, 444. Jefuits, wherein they differed from the Semipelagians, 19^5. What gave them great merit at Rome, ibid. Jev/s, their averfion to idolatry and Chriftianity, 55. Did not charge Chriftianity with idolatry, 60. Their notions of God, 61. Their notion of the Itate of the foul after death, 72, 278. Expefted the Meffias to be a conqueror, 76, 92. Were always rebellious, 103. Wherein the Jewiffi and Chriftian religions dilfered from thofe of the heathen, loj. Their objeilions againft the authority of the New Teftament, 119. Looked for more than tranfitory promifes, 123. Believed that fome fins cannot be expiated by facrifices, ibid. Of their ceremonial, judi ciary and moral laws, 12^, 126, 127. Imagined that the fouls of all mankind were in Adam's body, 146. The diftinguiffiing point of the Jewiffi from the Chriftian religion, 203. Their religion had a period fixed to it, 242. Had many rites not men tioned in the Old Teftament, 254. Fell into great errors, though the keepers of the oracles of God, 260. Believe that every Jew ffiall have a ffiare in the world to come, 278. They prayed only to God, 308. Of the office of their High Prieft, 325. Had their worffiip in a known tongue, 329. Their authority over their children, 385. Were ftriftly prohibited the eating of blood, 393. Their objeftions to Chriftianity, 413. Images, the worffiipping even the true God by them exprefsly for bidden, 391. In Churches when Introduced, 395. Great de bates about them, 296. Foundation of image worffiip laid by the Council of Nice, 397. Is carried much farther by the modern Church of Rome, ibid. Thofe of the Egyptians and Chinefes lefs fcandalous, ibid. The decifion of the Councfl of Trent in this matter, 298. -Reafon for enlarging on this lubjeft, 299. The argument in favour of them drawn from the Cherubims anfwered, ibid. The fum of the arguments againft them, 300. The cor ruptions occafioned by worffiipping them, 301. Immaterial fubftance, proof of its being in us, 42. Its nature and operations, ibid. Objeftions againft it anfwered, ibid. There may be other intelleftual fubftances which have no bodies, 43. Thefe beings were created by God, and are not rays of his effence, 44. Impofition of hands, a neceffary rite in giving orders, 3^7. Indulgences, the doftrine and praftice of the Church of Rome con cerning them, 38_5. When introduced and eftabliffied, 286. The abule of them gave rife to the Reformation, ibid. The pretences for them examined, ibid. No fcundation for them in Scripture or in INDEX. in the firft ten centuries, 287. The natural ill tendency of then,, ibid. See Pardons. Induftry of man, of great advantage to the earth and air, 38. Infallibility, proofs of it ought to be very exprefs, 230. Is not to be inferred from the neceffity of it, 23 1. General confiderations againft it, ibid. Miracles, though neceffary, not pretended to fupport it, 232. The Jewiffi had a better claim to it than the I^oman Church, ibid. Reafons why it cannot be proved from Scripture, 233. A circle not to be admitted, 234. Notes of the Church no proof of it, ibid. ' Argument againft the infallibility both of Popes and General Councils, 247. Proofs from Scripture anfwered, 350. The importance of this controverfy, 3j3. No determination where it is fixed, 265. Infants are by the law of nature and nations in the power of their' parents, 181. Argument from circumcifion for infant Baptifm, ibid. This agreeable to the inftitution of Chrift, 386, 387. Infinite, time nor number cannot be infinite, 24. Difference be twixt an infinite fucceffion of time, and compofition of matter, ibid. Injuries, our Saviour's words concerning them explained, 495. Innocent I. Pope, his Epiftle advanced to favour the chrifm, does not prove it, 367. The Vlllth granted licenfe to celebrate the Lord's Supper without wine in Norway, 440. The IVth faid that all might have the cup who were cautious that none of it was fpilt, 443. Infefts, the argument for chance from the produftion of them con fidered, 36. Infpiration, a general notion of it, 106. Several kinds and degrees of it, 107. Different ftyles in thofe degrees, ibid. Diftinguiffied from euthufiafm and impofture by miracles and prophecy, 108. Of individual words, or ftrift order of time, not neceffary, ibid. John, St. the paffage concerning the Trinity in his firfl Epiftle doubt ful, 49. The beginning of his Gofpel explained, 54. This con • firmed by the ftate of the world at that time, ^5. Jonas of Orleans wrote againft image worffiip, 296. Jofephus, his account of the books of the Old Teftament, 110. Jofias, what thofe books of the law were which were difcovered in his time, 104. Irenaeus, his care to prove the authority of the Gofpel, 98. Judgment, private, ought to be allowed in religious matters, 240. Julian the Apoftate, though be reproaches the Chriftians for Bap tifm, does not charge them with the abfurdities of Tranfubftan tiation, 412. Objefted that the Chriftians had no facrifices, 449. Juft, orjuftified, two fenfes of thefe words, 157. Juftification, feveral miftaken notions of it, 120. Whence they proceeded, ibid. The law of Mofes not fufficient to juftify, 15-7. The condition of our juftification, 1^8, 161. The difference be tween St. Paul and St. James on this fubjeft explained, 159. In herent •we INDEX. herent holinefs not the caufe of juftification, i6i. What ought to believe concerning it, and the proper ufe to be made of this doftxine, 164. K. KEYS, of the power of them committed to St, Peter, 251. Kingdom of Heaven, what meant by it in the Gofpel, 2ji. Kings, their authority founded on Scripture, 488. And praftice of the primitive Church, 489. This does not depend on their re ligion, 491. Cannot make void the laws of God, 492. King of England declared head of the Church, 482. This claimed very early by them, 489. Kifs of Peace, a praftice of the apoftolic times, why let fall, 2^55. L. LAITY, were of great ufe to the Church in times of perfecution, 466. Had a right to be confulted in the decifions of the primi tive Church, ibid. How far required to fubmit to the Clergy, ibid. 467. Languages, the gift of them to the Apoftles, a ftrong proof of Chrif tianity, 74. Laodicea Council, their catalogue of the canonical books, in. Why the book of the Revelation was not in it, ibid. Condemned thofe who invocated angels, 310. Latria, a degree of religious worffiip, the doftrine and praftice of the Church of Rome concerning it, 298, 299. Laud, Archbiffiop, falfely accufed with corrupting the doftrine of the Church, 19. Efpoufed the Arminian tenets, 197. Law, not binding the confciences of thofe of a different perfuafion, 7. In what fenfe the laws of the Jews are faid to be ftatutes for ever, 119. Why not always obferved, 120. Errors that flowed from miftaking the word Law in the New Teftament, ibid. The defign of the ceremonial law, 125. It is now abrogated, 126. Judiciary laws of the Jews belonged only to them, ibid. What is meant by the moral law, 127. Laws of the Church in matters indifferent are not unalterable, 473. Lay- Adminiftrations in the Church not lawful, 319 — 322. Lay- Baptifm, how introduced, 382. Liberius, Pope, condemned Athanafius, and fubfcribed to Semiarian- ifm, 244. Liberty, feveral opinions about it, 149. Wherein it confifts, ijo. The notions of the Stoicks, Epicureans, Philofophers, and Jews concerning it, 191. That of the Fathers, ibid. 192. What coac- tion is confiftent with it, 204. The Remonftrants notion of it, 209. Several advantages and temptations that attend the different opi nions, 217. See Predeftination. Limbus Infantum, a fuppofed partition in hell for children that die without Baptifm, 144. Limbus INDEX. Limlms Patrum, what, 71. Without foundation In Scripture, Lombard, Peter, the firft that reckons feven facraments, 338. VV ^'PP"' "" "^"""Se made in the Article concerning it in Queen Elizabeth s re.g-n, 3 88. The importance of the controverfy with the Church of Rome concerning it, 3 89, 40 1 . The words of the inltitution explained, 39o_3p_5. The defign of it, 396. Who are unworthy receivers of it, 397. The danger of this, 398, 435. Ut the good effefts of worthy receiving, 398. What meant by the communion of the body and bkodof Chrift, 309. Of receiv ing It in both kinds, 438. Lucifer, the common notion of his fin, 57. Lucretius owns that the worid had a beginning, 35. His argu* ment for chance from the produftion of infefts, anfwered, 26."^ Luther, what determined him to embrace St. Auftin's opinions, 194. Whether he afferted free-will, 197. Lutherans have univerfally gone into the Semipelagian opinions, 197, Their doftrine of Confubftantiatlon, 430. Wherein it differs from Tranfubftantiation, ibid. Lye, what is the loweft, and what the hiffheft aft of that kind. M. MACCABEES, the firft book commended, 378. The fecond of little authority, ibid. The argument in favour of purga tory taken from this book confuted, 279. Macedonians denied the Divinity of the Holy Ghoft, 86. This herefy condemned by the Athanafian Creed, 133. Mahomet denied the death of Chrift, 65. Mahometans, one feft affert liberty, but the generality fate, 191. Maintain that men of all religions are equally acceptable to God, 334. Magiftrate, the extent of his authority in facred things, 470, Man, though all refemble one another, yet each have their peculiar difference, no. Manichees denied the authority of the Gofpels, 98. Scarce deferved the name of Chriftians, loi. Their abfurd opinions, ibid. Con cerning the Old and New Teftament, 113. Of original fin, 139. Did not ufe wine in the Sacrament, 442. Marcionites, their opinions, 98, 191. Are oppofed by Origen, ibid. Marriage, in what degrees, and why, unlawful, 127. Why it ought -to be for life; ibid. The meaning of that paffage. Such as marry, do tvell, but fuch as marry not do better, 174, 458. Is no facra ment, 360. In v/hat fenfe a myftery, ibid. The bad confe quences of the Romiffi doftrine on this fubjeft, 361. Is diflblved by adultery, 363. The praftice of the Church in this matter, 364. Whether a Chriftian may marry an Infidel, 386. That of the Cleroy lawful, 4^2, Is recommended equally to all ranks of "' men. INDEX. men, 4^3. Is one of the rights of human nature, ibid. Se veral of the Apoftles and Fathers of the primitive Church were married, ibid. Martyrs, the regard due to their bodies, 30 r. This being carried too far degenerates Into fuperftition, 302. Mafs, the abfurdity of faying maffes for the dead, 283. This was the occafion of great endowments, 384. As praftifed in the Church of Rome not known in the primitive ages, 449. What was underftood by it in the primitive Church, 450. Solitary mafles not known to them, ibid. The bad effefts of them, 384, 451- Matter, of the divifibility of it, 24. A difference between the fucceffion of time, and the divifibility of matter, ibid. Is a paffive principle, 27, ^i. Is not capable of thought, 41. Ob jeftions to this anfwered, 42. How the mind afts on it, we can not diftinftly conceive, 43. Had its firft motion from the Eter nal Mind, 51. The great influence of the animal Ipirits on it, St. INIatthew's and St. Mark's Gofpel, Papias, his account of them, 98. Maurus Rabanus wrote againft the Corporal Prefence, 426. Melito, Bifliop of Sardis, his account of the books of the Old Tefta-" ment, no. Memories of the Martyrs, what, 304, 30J. Merit of Congruity, what meant by it, 170. There is no fuch merit, ibid. See Works. Meffias, the revelation thofe before and under the law had of one, 114. Jews have long had, and ftill have an expeftatioh of him, ibid. Proofs of the Meffias from the Old Teftament, ibid. 117. Daniel very exprefs in this matter, ibid. The proofs fummed up, 118. The objeftions of the Jews anfwered, ug. Metaphor, no good foundation for argument, 269, 27_5. Middle Knowledge, what meant by it, 35, 19J. Millennium, an account of it, 277. Mind. See Soul. Minifters, their unworthinefs hinders not the effeft of the facra ments, 372. Their intention not neceffary to the effence of a lacrament, 374. Ought to be cenfured for their faults, 375. Miracles well attefted a proof of the being of a God, 27. A dif tinft idea of them, 51. The nature and defign of them, 77, 407. How to know if they are performed by good or evil fpirits, 78, Ofthofe wrought by Mofes, 103. The fpiteful conftruftion put upon thofe of our Saviour by the Jews, 1 83 . Are neceffary to prove infallibility, 23 1. The inftruments of them not to be fu- perftitioufly ufed, 303. Were not to be attempted without an in- ward impulfe, 366. Are an appeal to our fenfes, 405. Thole that are contrary to our fenfes not to be believed, 406. The ab furdity of thofe pretended in the Church of Rome, 402, 408, Miffals, thofe of the GaUican Church different from the Roman, 475- Molina IJ INDEX. Molina and Fonfeca invented the middle or mean fcience, sot. What meant by it, ibid. ^'^ Moral evil, how reconciled with providence, 40. The occafion of phyfical evil, ibid. Moral Law. See Commandments. Morality, the fources of it, 127. Two orders of moral precepts. Ibid. Religion the foundation of it, 12S. Mofes, the defign of the Mofakal religion, 59. God's defign in ordering him to put things in writing, 89. His miracles a proof of his divme million, 103. The defign and authority of his writings, ibid. His laws not unalterable, 119. Of the cove nant he made between God and the Ifraelites, 121. The feveral things he fuppofed known, ibid. The Jews had better reafon to invoke him, than Chriftians have any faint under the Gofpel, 308. Myfteries that contradift reafon are not to be believed, 407. N. NATALITIA, the day of a faint's death, fo called, 382. Na ture, though we cannot fix the bounds of it, we can know what goes beyond it, 77. Nazianzen, his complaints of Councils, 264. Neceflary, whether God's afts are fo, 32. Neceffary Erudition, the title of a book, publiffied at the beginning of the Reformation, 6. Neceffary exiftence muft belorfg to God, 38, Neceffity juftifies breaking through rules of worffiip, 326. Neftarius, Biffiop of Conftantinople, what occafioned him to forbid confeffion, 349. Negative, why to be maintained in points of faith, and not in mat ters of faft, or theories of nature, 6. Neftorius, his doftrine concerning the perfon of Chrift, 64. Con cerning the Bleffed Virgin, 305. His herefies are condemned in the Athanafian Creed, 133. Nice, Council, compofed their Creed out of many former ones, 3. J What they determined concerning the Trinity, 49. Afferted the worffiip of images, 396. Was rejefted in England on that ac count, ibid. The hiftory and afts of that Council give a bad opinion of them, 297. "The nature of that worffiip they allowed to images, 398. Nicene Creed, an account of it, 1^3. Nkolaitans, a name of reproach given tothe married Clergy, 4_57. Notes, the pretended ones of the true Church examined, 234. Novatians oppofed the receiving the lafped into the Church, 184, .347- O. ATHS, ni and raffily made, ought not to be kept, 460. What an oath is,