scandalous Parts Such as the Worship of subordinate Gods and of Images These are the chief Grounds upon which we separate from the Roman Communion Since we cannot have fellowship with them unless we will join in those Acts which we look on as direct violations of the First and Second Commandment God is a jealous God and therefore we must rather venture on their Wrath how burning soever it may be than on his who is a consuming Fire ARTICLE XXIII Of Ministring in the Congregation It is not lawful for any Man to take upon him the Office of publick Preaching or Ministring the Sacraments in the Congregation before he be lawfully called and sent to execute the same And those we ought to judge lawfully called and sent which be chosen and called to this work by Men who have publick Authority given unto them in the Congregation to call and send Ministers into the Lord's Uineyard WE have two particulars fixed in this Article The First is against any that shall assume to themselves without a lawful Vocation the authority of dispencing the things of God The Second is the defining in very general Words what it is that makes a lawful Call As to the First it will bear no great difficulty We see in the old Dispensation that the Family the Age and the Qualifications of those that might serve in the Priesthood are very particularly set forth In the New Testament our Lord called the Twelve Apostles and sent them out He also sent out upon another occasion Seventy Disciples And before he left his Apostles He told them that as his Father had sent him so he sent them John â—â— 2â— Which seems to Import that as he was sent into the World with this among other Powers that he might send others in his Name so he likewise empowered them to do the same And when they went planting Churches as they took some to be Companions of Labour with themselves so they appointed others over the particular Churches in which they fixed them Such were Epaphras or Epaphroditus at Colosse Timothy at Ephesus and Titus in Crete To them the Apostles gave Authority Otherwise it was a needless thing to write so many directions to them in order to their conduct They had the Depositum of the Faith 2 Tim. 1.13 with which they were chiefly entrusted Concerning the succession in which that was to be continued we have these Words of St. Paul The things which thou hast heard of me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful Men 2 Tim. 2.2 1 Tim. 2.1 2 3. 1 Tim. 2.12 1 Tim. â— c. who shall be able to teach others also To them directions are given concerning all the different Parts of their Worship Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of thanks and also the keeping up the decency of the Worship and the not suffering of Women to Teach like the Women Priests among the Heathen who were believed to be filled with a Bacchick Fury To them are directed all the Qualifications of such as might be made either Bishops or Deacons They were to examine them according to these and either to receive or reject them All this was directed to Timothy that he might know how he ought to behave himself in the house of God 1 Tim. 3.15 1 Tim. â— 1 3 17 19 22. He had Authority given him to Rebuke and Entreat to Honour and to Censure He was to Order what Widows might be received into the Number and who should be refused He was to receive Accusations against Elders or Presbyters according to directed Methods and was either to Censure some or to lay Hands on others as should agree with the Rules that were set him And in conclusion he is very solemnly charged 1 Tim. 6.20 2 Tim. 2.15 2 Tim. 4.2 5. to keep that which was committed to his Trust. He is required rightly to divide the word of truth to preach the word to be instant in season and out of season to reprove rebuke and exhort and to do the work of an Evangelist and to make full proof of his ministry Some of the same things are charged upon Titus whom St. Paul had left in Crete to set in order the things that were wanting Tit. 1.5 9 13. and to ordain Elders in every City Several of the Characters by which he was to try them are also set down He is charged to rebuke the people sharply and to speak the things that became sound doctrine He is instructed concerning the Doctrines which he was to Teach and those which he was to Avoid and also how to Censure an Heretick He was to admonish him twice Tit. 3.10 and if that did not prevail he was to reject him by some publick Censure These Rules given to Timothy and Titus do plâ—inly Import that there was to be an Authority in the Church and that no Man was to assume this Authority to himself according to that Maxim that seems to be founded on the Light of Nature as well as it is set down in Scripture as a standing Rule agreed to in all Times and Places No Man taketh this honour to himself Heb. 5.4 but he that is called of God as was Aaron St. Paul in his Epistles to the Romans and Corinthians did reckon up the several Orders and Functions Rom. 12.6 7 8. 1 Cor. 12.28 Eph. 4.11 12 13 16. that God had set in his Church and in his Epistle to the Ephesians he shews that these were not transient but lasting Constitutions For there as he reckons the Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers as the Gifts which Christ at his Ascension had given to Men so he tells the Ends for which they were given For the perfecting the Saints by Perfecting seems to be meant the initiating them by Holy Mysteries rather than the compacting or putting them in joint For as that is the proper Signification of the Word so it being set first the other things that come after it make that the strict Sense of Perfecting that is Compleating does not so well agree with the Period for the work of the Ministry the whole Ecclesiastical or Sacred Services for the edifying the Body of Christ to which instructing exhorting comforting and all the other Parts of Preaching may well be reduced and then the duration of these Gifts is defined 'Till we all come in the Vnity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect Man This seems to Import the whole State of this Life We cannot think that all this belonged only to the Infancy of the Church and that it was to be laid aside by her when she was farthâ—r advanced For when we consider that in the Beginnings of Christianity there was so liberal an Effusion of the Holy Spirit poured out upon such great Numbers who had very extraordinary Credentials Miracles and the Gift of Tongues to prove their Mission it does not seem so necessary in such a
Tell the Church Ibid. Hâ—w the Church is the Pillar and Ground of Truth 206 Christ's Promise I am with you alway even to the end of the world Ibid. Of that It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us Ibid. Some Generâ—l Councils have ereed 207 ARTICLE XXII 217 THE Dâ—ctrine of Purgatory Ibid. Sins once pardâ—ned are not punished 218 Vnlâ—ss with chastisements in this life 219 No state of satisfaction aftâ—r death Ibid. No mention made of that in Scripture 220 But it is plain to the contrary 221 Different Opinions among the Ancients Ibid. The Original of Purgatory 222 A pâ—ssâ—ge in Maccabees considered Ibid. A pâ—ssâ—ge in the Epistle to the Corinthians câ—nsidered 223 The prâ—gress â—f the â—elief of Purgatory 2â—4 Prayers for the dead among the Ancients 225 Endâ—wments for redeeming out of Purgâ—toâ—y 226 Whether these ought to be sacred or nâ—t 227 The Doctrine of Pardons and Indulgences 228 It is only the excusing from Penance 229 Nâ— Foundation for it in Scripâ—ure Ibid. General Rules concerning Idolatry 230 Of the Iâ—olatry of Hâ—athens 231 Laws given to the Jews against it Ibid. The Expostulâ—â—ions of the Prophets 232 Concerning the Golden Calf Ibid. And The Calves at Dan and Bethel 233 The Ap stles opposed all Idolatry Ibid. St. Paul at Athens and to the Romans 334 The sense of the Primitive upon it 235 The first use of Images among Christians Ibid. Pictures in Churches for Instruction 236 Were afterwards worshipped Ibid. Contests abâ—ut that Ibid. Images of the Deity and Trinity 237 On what theWorship of Images terminates 238 The due Worship settled by the Council at Trent Ibid. Images consecrated and how 239 Arguments for worshipping them answered Ibid. Arguments against the use or worship of Images 240 The worship of Relicks 241 A due regard to the Bodies of Martyrs Ibid. The progress of Superstition Ibid. No warrant for this in Scripture 242 Hezekiah broke the Brazen Serpent Ibid. The memorable passage concerning the Body of St. Polycarp 243 Fables and Forgeries prevailed Ibid. The Souls of the Martyrs believed to hover about their Tombâ— 244 Nothing of this kind objected to the first Christians Ibid. Disputes between Vigilantius and St. Jerom 245 No Invocation of Saints in the Old Testament 246 The Invocating Angels condemned in the New Tâ—stament 247 No Saints invocated Christ only Ibid. No mention of this in the three first Ages 248 In the Fourth Martyrs invocated Ibid. The progrâ—ss that this made 249 Scandalous Offices in the Church of Rome Ib. Arguments against this Invocation 2â—0 An Apology for those who begun it Ibid. The Scandal given by it 251 Arguments for it ansâ—ered 252 Whethâ—r the Saints see all things in God Ib. This no part of the Communion of Saints 253 Prayers ought to be directed only to God Ib. Revealed Religion designed to deliver the World from Idolatry 254 ARTICLE XXIII 255 A Succâ—ssiâ—n of Pastors ought to be in the Church Ibid. 〈◊〉 was settlâ—d by the Apostles 256 And must continue to the end of the World Ibid. It was settlâ—d in the first Age of the Church 257 The danger of mâ—ns taking to themselves this Authority without a due Vocation Ibid. The difference between means of Salvation and precâ—pts for orders sake 258 What is lawful Authority Ibid. What may be done upon extraordinary occasions 259 Necessity is above Rules of Order Ibid. The High Priests in â—ur Saviour's time 260 Baptism by Women 261 ARTICLE XXIV 262 THE chief end of worshipping God Ib. The Practice of the Jews 263 Rules given by the Apostles Ibid. The Prâ—ctice â—f the Church 264 Arguments for Worship in an unknown Tongue answered Ibid. ARTICLE XXV 266 DIfference between Sacraments and Rites Ibid. Sacraments do not imprint a Character 267 But are not mere Ceremâ—nies 268 What is necessary to constitute a Sacrament 269 That applied to Baptism Ib. And to the Eucharist 270 No meâ—tion of seven Sacraments before Peter Lombard Ibid. Confirmation no Sacrament Ibid. How practised among us Ibid. The use of Chrism in it is new 271 Oyl early used in Christian Rituals Ibid. Bishops only consecrated the Chrism 272 In the Greek Church Presbyters appliâ—d it Ibid. This used in the Western Church but condemned by the Popes Ibid. Disputes concerning Confirmation 273 Concerning Penance Ibid. The true Notion of Repentance Ibid. Confâ—ssion not the matter of a Sacrament 274 The use of Confession Ibid. The Priâ—st's Pardon Ministerial 275 And restrained within bounds Ibid. Auricular Confâ—ssion not necessary 276 Not commanded in the New Testament Ibid. The beginnings of it in the Church 277 Many Canons about Penance Ibid. Confession forbid at Constantinople 278 The ancient Dâ—scipline slâ—ckâ—n'd Ibid. Confâ—ssion may be advised but not commanded 279 The good and bad effâ—cts it may have Ibid. Of Contrition and Attrition 280 The ill effects of the Doctrine of Attrition Ibid. Of doing the Penance or Satisfaction 281 Concerning sorrow for sin Ibid. Of the ill effects of hasty Absolutions 282 Of Fasting and Prayer Ibid. Of the Form I absolve thee 283 Of Hâ—ly Orders 284 Of the ancient Form of Ordinations Ibid. Of delivering the Vessels 285 Orders no Sacrament Ibid. Whether Bishops and Priests are of the same Order 286 Of Marriage Ibid. It can be no Sacrament 287 Intention not necessary Ibid. How Marriage is called a Mystery or Sacrament 288 Marriage dissolved by Adultery Ibid. The Practice of the Church in this matter 289 Of Extreme Vnction Ibid. St. James's words explained 290 Oyl much used in ancient Rituals 291 Pope Innocent's Epistle considered Ibid. Anointing used in order to Recovery 292 Afterwards as the Sacrament of the dying 293 The Sacraments are to be used Ibid. And to be received worthily 294 ARTICLE XXVI 295 SAcraments are not effectual as Prayers are Ibid. Of the Doctrine of Intention 296 The ill consâ—quences of it 297 Of a just Severity in Discipline Ibâ—d Particularly towards the Clergy 298 ARTICLE XXVII 299 COncerning St. John's Baptism Ibid. The Jews used Baptism Ibid. The Christian Baptism 300 The difference between it and St. John's Ib. The necessity of Baptism 301 It is a Precept but not a Mean of Salvation Ibid. Baptism unites us to the Church 302 It also saves us Ibid. St. Peter's words explained 303 St Austin's Doctrine of Baptism Ibid. Baptism is a Foederal Stipulation 304 In what sense it was of more value to preach than to baptize Ibid. Of Infant-Baptism 305 It is grounded on the Law of Nature Ibid. And the Law of Moses and warranted in the New Testament Ibid. In what sense Children can be holy 306 It is also very expedient Ibid. ARTICLE XXVIII 308 THE change made in this Article in Queen Elizabeth's time Ibid. The Explanation of our Doctrine 309 Of the Rituals in the Passover Ibid. Of the words This is my Body 310 And This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood Ibid. Of the horror the Jews had at Blood 311 In what sense only the Disciples could understand our
an Oral Tradition which they themselves had not put in writing They do sometimes refer themselves to such things as they had delivered to particular Churches but by Tradition in the Apostles days and for some Ages after it is very clear that they meant only the conveyance of the Faith and not any unwritten Doctrines They reckoned the Faith was a sacred depositum which was committed to them and that was to be preserved pure among them But it were very easy to shew in the continued Succession of all the first Christian Writers That they still Appealed to the Scriptures That they Argued from them That they Condemned all Doctrines that were not contained in them and when at any time they brought human Authorities to justify their Opinions or Expressions they contented themselves with a very few and those very late Authorities So that their design in vouching them seems to be rather to clear themselves from the Imputation of having innovated any thing in the Doctrine or in the ways of expressing it than that they thought those Authorities were necessary to prove them by For in that case they must have taken a great deal more pains than they did to have followed up and proved the Tradition much higher than they went We do also plainly see that such Traditions as were not founded on Scripture were easily corrupted and on that account were laid aside by the succeeding Ages Such were the Opinion of Christ's Reign on Earth for a Thousand years The Saints not seeing God till the Resurrection The necessity of giving Infants the Eucharist The Divine Inspiration of the 70 Interpreters besides some more important Matters which in respect to those Times are not to be too much descanted upon It is also plain That the Gnosticks the Valentinians and other Hereticks began very early to set up a Pretension to a Tradition delivered by the Apostles to some particular persons as a Key for understanding the secret meanings that might be in Scripture in opposition to which both Irenaeus Tertullian and others Iren. I. 3. c. 1 2 3 4 5. Tertul. de presc Cap. 20 21 25 27 28. make use of Two sorts of Arguments The one is the Authority of the Scripture it self by which they confuted their Errors The other is a Point of Fact That there was no such Tradition In asserting this they appeal to those Churches which had been founded by the Apostles and in which a Succession of Bishops had been continued down They say in these we must search for Apostolical Tradition This was not said by them as if they had designed to establish Tradition as an Authority distinct from or equal to the Scriptures But only to shew the falshood of that pretence of the Hereticks and that there was no such Tradition for their Heresies as they gave out When this whole Matter is considered in all its parts such as 1 st That nothing is to be believed as an Article of Faith unless it appears to have been Revealed by God 2 dly That Oral Tradition appâ—ars both from the Nature of Man and the Experience of former Times to be an incompetent conveâ—er of Truth 3 dly That some Books were written for the conveyance of those Matters which have been in all Ages carefully preserved and esteemed sacred 4 thly That the Writers of the First Ages do always Argue from and Appeal to these Books And 5 thly That what they have said without Authority from them has been rejected in succeeding Ages the Truth of this Branch of our Article is fully made out If what is contain'd in theScripture in express words is theObject of our Faith then it will follow That whatsoever may be proved from thence by a just and lawful consequence is also to be believed Men may indeed Err in framing these Consequences and Deductions they may mistake or stretch them too far but though there is much Sophistry in the World yet there is also true Logick and a certain Thread of Reasoning And the sense of every Proposition being the same whether expressed always in the same or in different words then whatsoever appears to be clearly the sense of any place of Scripture is an Object of Faith tho it should be otherwise expressed than as it is in Scripture and every just Inference from it must be as true as the Proposition it self is Therefore it is a vain cavil to ask express words of Scripture for every Article That was the Method of all the Anciâ—nt Hereticks Christ and his Apostles Argued from the words and passages in the Old Testament to prove such things as agreed with the true sense of them and so did all the Fathers and therefore so may we do The great Objection to this is That the Scriptures are dark That the same place is capable of different Senses the Literal and the Mystical And therefore since we cannot understand the true Sense of the Scripture we must not Arguefrom it but seek for an Interpreterofit on whom we may depend All Sects Argue from thence and fancy that they find their Tenets in it And therefore this can be no sure way of finding out sacred Truth since so many do err that follow it In Answer to this it is to be considered That the Old Testament was delivered to the whole Nation of the Iews that Moses was read in the Synagogue in the hearing of the Women and Children that whole Nation was to take their Doctrine and Rules from it All Appeals wâ—re made to the Law and to the Prophets among them And though the Propâ—â—cies of the Old Testament were in their Stile and whole Contexture dark and hard to be understood yet when so great a Question as this Who was the true Messias came to be examined the proofs urged for it were Passages in the Old Testament Now the Question was How these were to be understood No Appeal was here made to Tradition or to Church-Authority but only by the Enemies of our Saviour Whereas he and his Disciples urge these passages in their true sense and in the consequences that arose out of them They did in that Appeal to the rational Faculties of those to whom they spoke The Christian Religion was at first delivered to poor and simple Multitudes who were both illiterate and weak the Epistles which are by much the hardest to be understood of the whole New Testament were Addressed to the whole Churches to all the Faithful or Saints that is to all the Christians in those Churches These were afterwards read in all thâ—ir Assemblies Upon this it may reasonably be asked Were these Writings clear in that Age or were they not If they were not it is unaccountable why they were addressed to the whole Body and how they came to be received and entertained as they were It is the End of Speech and Writing to make things to be understood and it is not supposable That Men Inspired by the Holy Ghost either could not or would
had certainly put the chief strength of their Cause on this That they adhered to the Apostles Creed in opposition to the Innovations of the Nicene Fathers There is therefore no reason to believe that this Creed was prepared by the Apostles or that it was of any great Antiquity since Ruffin was the first that published it It is true he published it as the Creed of the Church of Aquileia but that was so late that neither this nor the other Creeds have any Authority upon their own account Great Respect is indeed due to things of such Antiquity and that have been so long in the Church but after all we receive those Creeds not for their own sakes nor for the sake of those who prepared them but for the sake of the Doctrine that is contained in them because we believe that the Doctrine which they declare is contained in the Scriptures and chiefly that which is the main Intent of them which is to assert and profess the Trinity therefore we do receive them tho we must acknowledge that the Creed ascribed to Athanasius as it was none of his so it was never established by any General Council ARTICLE IX Of Original or Birth-Sin Original Sin standeth not in the following of Adam as the Pelagians do vainly talk but it is the fault or corruption of the nature of every man that naturally is engendred of the Offspring of Adam whereby man is very far gone from Original Righteousness and is of his own nature inclined to evil so that the Flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit and therefore in every Person born into the World it deserveth God's Wrath and Damnation And this Infection of Nature doth remain yea in them that are regenerated whereby the Lust of the Flesh called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some do expound the Wisdom some Sensuality some the Affection some the Desire of the Flesh is not subject to the Law of God And though there is no Condemnation for them that believe and are baptized yet the Apostle doth confess That Concupiscence and Lust hath of it self the nature of Sin AFter the First Principles of the Christian Religion are stated and the Rule of Faith and Life was setled the next thing that was to be done was to declare the special Doctrines of this Religion and that first with relation to all Christians as they are single Individuals for the directing every one of them in order to the working out his own Salvation which is done from this to the Nineteenth Article And then with relation to them as they compose a Society called the Church which is carried on from the Nineteenth 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 some that follow there has been a greater diversity of Opinion but both sides have studied to prove their Tenets to be at least not contrary to the Articles of the Church These different Parties have disputed concerning the Decrees of God and those Assistances which pursuant to his Decrees are afforded to us But because the Foundation of those Decrees and the Necessity of those Assistances are laid in the Sin of Adam and in the Effects it had on Mankind therefore thâ—se Controversies begin on this Head The Pelagians and the Socinians agree in saying That Adam's Sin was Personal That by it as being the first Sin it is said that Sin entred into the World But that as Adam was made mortal â—om 5 1â— and had died whether he had sinned or not so they think the liberty of Human Nature is still entire and that every man is punished for his own sins and not for the sin of another to do otherwise they say seems contrary to Justice not to say Goodness In opposition to this Iudgment is said to have come upon many to condemnation through one either Man or Sin ver 1â— Death is said to have reigned by one and by one man's offence and many are said to be dead through the offence of one All these Passages do intimate that death is the consequence of Adam's Sin and that in him as well as in all others Death was the Wages of Sin so also that we dye upon the account of his Sin We are said to bear the Image of the first Adam as true Christians bear the Image of the second Now we are sure that there is both a derivation of Righteousness 1 Cor 15.49 and a Communication of Inward Holiness transferred to us through Christ So it seems to follow from thence that there is somewhat both transferred to us and conveyed down throughMankind by the first Adam and particularly that by it we are all made subject to Death from which we should have been freed if Adam had continued in his first state and that by virtue of the Tree of Life Gen. 3.22 in which some think there was a natural Virtue to cure all Diseases and relieve against all Accidents while others do ascribe it to a Divine Blessing of which that Tree was only the Symbol or Sacrament through the words said after Adam's sin as the reason of driving him out of Paradise lest he put forth his hand and take of the Tree of Life and eat and live for ever seem to import that there was a Physical Virtue in the Tree that could so fortify and restore Life as to give Immortality These do also think that the Threatning made to Adam That upon his eating the forbidden Fruit he should surely dye is to be taken literally and is to be carried no further than to a Natural Death This Subjection to Death and to the Fear of it brings men under a slavish Bondage many Terrors and other Passions and Miseries that arise out ofit which they think is a great Punishment and that it is a Condemnation and Sentence of Death passed upon the whole Race and by this they are made sinners that is treated as guilty Persons and severely punished This they think is easily enough reconciled with the Notions of Justice and Goodness in God since this is only a Temporary Punishment relating to mens Persons And we see in the common methods of Providence that Children are in this sort often punished for the sins of their Fathers most men that come under a very ill habit of Body transmit the Seeds of Diseases and Pains to their Children They do also think that the Communication of this liableness to death is easily accounted for and they imagine that as the Tree of Life might be a Plant that furnished men with an Universal Medicine so the forbidden Fruit might derive a slow Poyson into Adam's Body that might have exalted and inflamed his Blood very much and might though by a slower operation certainly brought on death at the last Our being thus adjudged to Death and to all the Miseries that accompany Mortality they think may be well called the wrath of
not true No consequences can be worse than the Corruption that is in the World and the Damnation that follows upon sin and yet God permits it because he has made us free Creatures Nor can any reason be given why we should be less free in the use of our understanding than we are in the use of our Will or why God should make it to be less possible for us to fall into Errors than it is to commit Sins The Wrath of God is as much denounced against Men that hold the Truth in unrighteousness as against other Sins Rom. 1.18 24 26. 2 Thes. 2.11 and it is reckoned among the heaviest of Curses to be given up to strong delusions to believe a lye Upon all these reasons therefore it seems clear that our Understandings are left free to us as well as our Wills and if we observe the Stile and Method of the Scriptures we shall find in them all over a constant Appeal to a Man's Reason and to his Intellectual Faculties If the mere dictates of the Church or of Infallible Men had been the resolution or foundation of Faith there had been no need of such a long Thread of Reasoning and Discourse as both our Saviour used while on Earth and as the Apostles used in their Writings We see the way of Authority is not taken but Explanations are offered Proofs and Illustrations are brought to convince the Mind which shews that God in the clearest Manifestation of his Will would deal with us as with reasonable Creatures who are not to believe but upon Persuasion and are to use our Reasons in order to the attaining that Persuasion And therefore upon the whole matter we ought not to believe Doctrines to be true because the Church teaches them but we ought to search the Scriptures and then according as we find the Doctrine of any Church to be true in the Fundamentals we ought to believe her to be a true Church and if besides this the whole Extent of the Doctrine and Worship together not only with the essential parts of the Sacraments but the whole Administration of them and the other Rituals of any Church are pure and true then we ought to account such a Church true in the largest Extent of the word true and by consequence we ought to hold Communion with it Another question may arise out of the first words of this Article concerning the Visibility of this Church Whether it must be always Visible According to the distinction hitherto made use of the resolution of this will be soon made There seem to be Promises in the Scriptures of a perpetual Duration of the Christian Church I will be with you always Matth. 28.20 Matth. 16.18 even to the end of the world And the gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church The Iewish Religion had a Period perfixed in which it was to come to an end but the Prophecies that are among the Prophets concerning the new Dispensation seem to import not only its Continuance but its being continued still Visible in the World But as the Iewish Dispensation was long continued after they had fallen generally into some very gross Errors so the Christian Church may be Visible still though not Infallible God may preserve the Succession of a true Church as to the Essentials and Fundamentals of Faith in the World even though this Society should fall into Error So a Visible Society of Christians in a true Church as to the Essentials of our Faith is not controverted by us We do only deny the Infallibility of this true Church And therefore we are not afraid of that Question Where was your Church before Henry the Eighth We Answer It was where it is now here in England and in the other Kingdoms of the World only it was then corrupted and it is now pure There is therefore no sort of Inconvenience in owning the constant Visibility of a constant Succession and Church of true Christians true as to the Essentials of the Covenant of Grace though not true in all their Doctrines This seems to be a part of the Glory of the Messias and of his Kingdom That he shall be still visibly worshipped in the World by a Body of Men called by his Name But when Visibility is thus separated from Infallibility and it is made out that a Church may be a true Church though she has a large Allay of Errors and Corruptions mixed in her Constitution and Decisions there will be no manner of Inconvenience in owning a constant Visibility even at the same time that we charge the most eminent part of this Visible Body with many Errors and with much Corruption So far has the first part of this Article been treated of From it we pass to the second which affirms That as the other Patriarchal and Apostolical Churches such as Ierusalem Alexandria and Antioch have erred so the Church of Rome has likewise erred and that not only in their living and manner of Ceremonies but also in matters of Faith It is not questioned but that the other Patriarchal Churches have erred both that where our Saviour himself first taught and which was governed by two of the Apostles successively and those which were founded by St. Peter in Person or by Proxy as Church History represents Alexandria and Antioch to have been Those of the Church of Rome by whom they are at this day condemned both of Heresy and Schism do not dispute this Nor do they dispute that many of their Popes have led bad and flagitious Lives They deny not that the Canons Ceremonies and Government of the Church are very much changed by the Influence and the Authority of their Popes But the whole question turns upon this Whether the See of Rome has erred in matter of Faith or not In this those of that Communion are divided Some by the Church or See of Rome mean the Popes personally so they maintain That they never have and never can fall into Error Whereas others by the See of Rome mean that whole Body that holds Communion with Rome which they say cannot be tainted with Error and these separate this from the Personal Infallibility of Popes for if a Pope should err they think that a General Council has Authority to proceed against him and to deprive him And thus though he should err the See might be kept free from Error I shall upon this Article only consider the first Opinion reserving the Consideration of the second to the Article concerning General Councils As to the Popes their being subject to Error that must be confessed unless it can be proved that by a clear and express Privilege granted them by God they are excepted out of the common condition of Human Nature It is further highly probable that there is no such Privilege since the Church continued for many Ages before it was so much as pretended to and that in a time when that See was not only claiming all the Rights that
Courts and Councils about their Gates by the Gates of Hell may be understood the Designs and Contrivances of the Powers of Darkness which should never prevail over the Church to root it out and destroy it for the Word rendred prevail does signify an intire Victory This only imports That the Church should be still preserved against all the Attempts of Hell but does not intimate that no Error was ever to get into it Mat. 3.2 Mat. 4.17 By the words Kingdom of Heaven generally through the whole Gospel the Dispensation of the Messias is understood This appears evidently from the words with which both St. Iohn Baptist and our Saviour begun their Preaching Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand And the many Parables and Comparisons that Christ gave of the Kingdom of Heaven can only be understood of the Preaching of the Gospel This being then agreed to the most natural and the least forced Exposition of those words must be that St. Peter was to open the Dispensation of the Gospel The proper use of a Key is to open a Door And as this agrees with these words He that hath the Key of the House of David that openeth and no man shutteth Rev. 3.7 Luk. 11.51 and shutteth and no man openeth and with the Phrase of the Key of Knowledge by which the Lawyers are described for they had a Key with Writing-Tables given them as the Badges of their Profession So it agrees with the accomplishment of this promise in St. Peter who first opened the Gospel to the Iews after the wonderful Effusion of the Holy Ghost And more eminently when he first opened the Door to the Gentiles preaching to Cornelius and Baptizing him and his Houshold to which the Phrase of the Kingdom of Heaven seems to have a more particular relation This Dispensation was committed to St. Peter and seems to be claimed by him as his peculiar Privilege in the Council at Ierusalem This is a clear and plain sense of these words For those who would carry them further and understand by the Kingdom of Heaven our Eternal Happiness must use many distinctions otherwise if they Expound them literally they will ascribe to St. Peter that which certainly could only belong to our Saviour himsâ—lf Though at the same time it is not to be denied but that under the figure of Keys the power of Discipline and the Conduct and Management of Christians may be understood But as to this all the Pastors of the Church have their share in it nor can it be appropriated to any one Person As for that of binding and loosing and the confirming in Heaven what he should do in Earth whatever it may signify it is no special Grant to St. Peter For the same words are spoken by our Saviour elsewhere to all the Apostles So this is given equally to them all The words binding and loosing are used by the Iewish Writers in the sense of affirming or denying the Obligation of any Precept of the Law that might be in dispute So according to this common Form of Speech and the sense formerly given to the words Kingdom of Heaven the meaning of these words must be That Christ committed to the Apostles the Dispensing his Gospel to the World by which he Authorized them to dissolve the Obligation of the Mosaical Laws and to give other Laws to the Christian Church which they should do under such visible Characters of a Divine Authority impowering and conducting them in it that it should be very evident that what they did on Earth was also ratifyed in Heaven These words thus understood carry in them a clear sense which agrees with the whole Design of the Gospel But whatsoever their sense may be it is plain that there was nothing given peculiarly to St. Peter by them which was not likewise given to the rest of the Apostles Nor do these words of our Saviour to St. Peter import any thing of a Successive Infallibility that was to be derived from him with any distinction beyond the other Apostles Unless 〈◊〉 were a Priority of Order and Dignity and whatever that was there is 〈◊〉 so much as a hint given that it was to descend from him to any See or Succession of Bishops As for our Saviour's praying that St. Peter's Faith might not fail And his restoring him to his Apostolical Function by a thrice repeated charge Feed my sheep feed my lambs that has such a visible Relation to his fall Luk. 22.31 John 21.15 16 17. and to his denying him that it does not seem necessary to enlarge further on the making it out or on shewing that these words are capable of no other Signification and cannot be carried further The Importance of this Argument rather than the Difficulty of it has made it necessary to dwell fully upon it So much depends upon it and the Missionaries of the Church of Rome are so well Instructed in it that it ought to be well considered for how little strength soever there may be in the Arguments brought to prove this Infallibility yet the colours are specious and they are commonly managed both with much Art and with great Confidence ARTICLE XX. Of the Authority of the Church The Church hath Power to decree Rights or Ceremonies and Authority in Matters of Faith And yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to God's Word written neither may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another Wherefore although the Church be a Witness and Keeper of Holy Writ yet as it ought not to decree any thing against the same so besides the same ought it not to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation THIS Article consists of Two parts The first asserts a Power in the Church both to decree Rites and Ceremonies and to judge in matters of Faith The second limits this Power over matters of Faith to the Scriptures so that it must neither contradict them nor add any Articles as necessary to Salvation to those contained in them This is suitable to some Words that were once in the Fifth Article but were afterwards left out instead of which the first words of this Article were put in this place according to the Printed Editions tho they are not in the Original of the Articles signed by both Houses of Convocation that are yet extant As to the first part of the Article concerning the Power of the Church either with relation to Ceremonies or Points of Faith the dispute lies only with those who deny all Church-Power and think that Churches ought to be in all things limited by the Rules set in Scripture and that where the Scriptures are silent there ought to be no Rules made but that all Men should be left to their Liberty And in particular That the appointing new Ceremonies looks like a reproaching of the Apostles as if their Constitutions had been so defective that those defects
increasing Numbers of the Christians made that both in France in the Councils of Orange and in Spain in the Council of Toledo the same Rule was laid down that the Greeks had begun In Spain some Priests did consecrate the Chrism but that was severely forbid in one of the Councils of Toledo Yet at Rome the ancient Custom was observed of appropriating the whole business of Confirmation to the Bishop Greg. Ep. l. 3. Ep. 9. even in Gregory the Great 's time Therefore he reproved the Clergy of Sardinia because among them the Priests did Confirm and he appointed it to be reserved to the Bishop But when he understood that some of them were offended at this he writ to the Bishop of Carali that tho' his former Order was made according to the ancient Practice of the Church of Rome yet he consented that for the future the Priests might Confirm in the Bishops absence But Pope Nicholas in the IX Century pressed this with more rigor For the Bulgarians being then converted to the Christian Religion and their Priests having both Baptized and Confirmed the new Converts Pope Nicholas sent Bishops among them with Orders to Confirm even those who had already been Confirmed by Priests Upon which the contest being then on foot between Rome and Constantinople Photius got it to be decreed in a Synod at Constantinople That theChrism being hallowed by a Bishop it might be administred by Presbyters And Photius affirmed that a Presbyter might do this as well as Baptize or Offer at the Altar But Pope Nicholas with the confidence that was often assumed by that See upon as bad grounds did affirm that this had never been allowed of And upon this many of the Latins did in the Progress of their Disputes with the Greeks say that they had no Confirmation This has been more enlarged on than was necessary by the designed shortness of this Work because all those of â—he Roman Communion among us have now no Confirmation In decr Con. Florent unless a Bishop happens to come amongst them And therefore it is now a commonDoctrine among them that tho' Confirmation is a Sacrament yet it is not necessary About this there were fierce Disputes among them about Sixty years ago whether it was necessary for them to have a Bishop here to Confirm according to the ancient Custom or not The Jesuites who had no mind to be under any Authority but their own opposed it for the Bishop being by Pope Eugenius declared to be the ordinary Minister of it from thence it was inferred that a Bishop was not simply necessary This was much censured by some of the Gallican Church If Confirmation were considered only as an Ecclesiastical Rite we could not dispute the power of the Church about it but we cannot allow that a Sacrament should be thus within the power of the Church or that a new Function of Consecrating Oil without applying it distinct from Confirmation and yet necessary to the very essence of it could have been set up by the power of the Church for if Sacraments are federal conveyances of Grace they must be continued according to their first Institution The Grace of God being only tied to the Actions with which it is promised We go next to the Second of the Sacraments here rejected which is Penance that is reckoned the Fourth in order among them Penance or Penitence is formed from the Latin Translation of a Greek word that signifies a change or renovation of Mind which Christ has made a necessary condition of the New Covenant It consists in several acts all which when joined together and producing this real change we become then true Penitents and have a right to the Remission of Sins which is in the New Testament often joined with Repentance and is its certain consequent The first act of this Repentance is Confession to God before whom we must humble our selves and confess our Sins to him upon which we believe that he is faithful and true to his Promises and just to forgive us our sins and if we have wronged others 1 John 1.9 or have given publick offence to the Body or Church to which we belong we ought to confess our faults to them likewise and as a mean to quiet Mens Consciences James 5.16 to direct them to compleat their Repentance and to make them more humble and ashamed of their Sins we advise them to use secret Confession to their Priest or to any other Minister of God's Word leaving this matter wholly to their discretion When these acts of sorrow have had their due effect in reforming the natures and lives of Sinners then their Sins are forgiven them In order to which we do teach them to Pray much to give Alms according to their Capacity and to fast as often as their Health and Circumstances will admit of and most indispensably to restore or repair as they find they have sinned against others And as we teach them thus to look back on what is past with a deep and hearty sorrow and a profound shame so we charge them to look chiefly forward not thinking that any acts with relation to what is past can as it were by an account or compensation free us from the guilt of our former Sins unless we amend our Lives and change our Tempers for the future The great design of Repentance being to make us like God Pure and Holy as he is Upon such a Repentance sincerely begun and honestly pursued we do in general as the Heralds of God's Mercy and the Ministers of his Gospel pronounce to our People daily the offers that are made us of Mercy and Pardon by Christ Jesus This we do in our daily Service and in a more peculiar manner before we go to the Holy Communion We do also as we are a Body that may be offended with the sins of others forgive the Scandals committed against the Church and that such as we think die in a state of Repentance may die in the full Peace of the Church we join both Absolutions in one in the last Office likewise praying to our Saviour that he would forgive them and then we as the Officers of the Church authorised for that end do forgive all the Offences and Scandals committed by them against the whole Body This is our Doctrine concerning Repentance in all which we find no Characters of a Sacrament no more than there is in Prayer or Devotion Here is no Matter no application of that Matter by a peculiar Form no Institution and no peculiar federal acts The Scene here is the Mind the acts are Internal the effect is such also and therefore we do not reckon it a Sacrament not finding in it any of the Characters of a Sacrament The matter that is assigned in the Church of Rome are the acts of the Penitent his Confession by his Mouth to the Priest the Contrition of his Heart and the satisfaction of his Work in doing the enjoined
not err in discharging their Commission and the Terms of the Covenant of Grace being thus settled by them all who were to succeed them were also empowered to go on with the Publication of this Pardon and of those glad Tidings to the World So that whatsoever they declared in the Name of God conform to the Tenor of that which the Apostles were to settle should be always made good We do also acknowledge that the Pastors of the Church have in the way of Censure and Government a Ministerial Authority to remit or to retain Sins as they are Matters of Scandal or Offence tho' that indeed does not seem to be the meaning of those Words of our Saviour and therefore we think that the power of pardoning and retaining is only declaratory so that all the exercises of it are are then only effectual when the Declarations of the Pardon are made conform to the Conditions of the Gospel This Doctrine of ours how much soever decried of late in the Roman Church as striking at the Root of the Priestly Authority yet has been maintained by some of their best Authors and some of the greatest of their School-men Thus we have seen upon what reason it is that we do not conclude from hence that Auricular Confession is necessary in which we think that we are fully confirmed by the Practice of many of the Ages of theChristian Church which did not understand these words as containing anObligation to Secret Confession It is certain that the Practice and Tradition of the Church must be relied on here if in any thing since there was nothing that both Clergy and Laity were more concerned both to know and to deliver down faithfully than this on which the Authority of the one and the Salvation of the other depended so much Such a Point as this could never have been forgot or mistaken many and clear Rules must have been given about it It is a thing to which Humane Nature has so much repugnancy that it must in the first forming of Churches have been infused into them as absolutely necessary in order to Pardon and Salvation A Church could not now be formed according to the Doctrine and Practice of the Church of Rome without very full and particular Instructions both to Priests and People concerning Confession and Absolution It is the most intricate Part of their Divinity and that which the Clergy must be most ready at In Opposition to all this let it be considered that though there is a great deal said in the New Testament concerning Sorrow for Sin Repentance and Remission of Sins yet there is not a Word said nor a Rule given concerning Confession to be made to a Priest and Absolution to be given by him There is indeed a Passage in St. Iames's Epistle relating to Confession but it is to one another not restrained to the Priest James 5.16 as the Word rendred Faults seems to signify those Offences by which others are wronged in which case Confession is a degree of Reparation and so is sometimes necessary but whatever may be in this it is certain that the Confession which is there appointed to be made is a thing that was to be mutual among Christians and it is not commanded in order to Absolution but in order to the procuring the Intercessions of other good Men and therefore it is added and Pray for one another By the words that follow that ye may be healed joyned with those that went before concerning the Sick it seems the Direction given by St. Iames belongs principally to Sick Persons and the conclusion of the whole Period shews That it relates only to the private Prayers of good Men for one another The effectual fervent Prayer of a righteous man availeth much So that this place does not at all belong to Auricular Confession or Absolution Nor does there any Prints appear before the Apostacies that happened in the Persecution of Decius of the Practice even of confessing such heinous Sins as had been publickly committed Then arose the famous contests with the Novatians concerning the receiving the lapsed 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 resolved not to do that till they had been kept at a distance for some time from the Holy Communion at last they were admitted to make their Confession and so they were received to the Communion of the Church This time was shortned and many things were past over to such as shewed a deep and sincere Repentance and one of the Characters of a true Repentance upon which they were always treated with a great distinction of Favour was if they came and first accused themselves This shewed that they were deeply affected with the Sense of their Sins when they would not bear the load of them but became their own Accusers and discovered their Sins There are several Canons that make a difference in the degrees and time of the Penance between those who had accused themselves and those against whom their Sins were proved A great deal of this strain occurs often in the Writings of the Fathers which plainly shews that they did not look on the necessity of an Enumeration of all their Sins as commanded by God Otherwise it would have been enforced with Considerations of another nature than that of shortning their Penance The first occasion that was given to the Church to exercise thisDiscipline was from the frequent Apostacies into which many had lapsed during the Persecutions and when these went off another sort of Disorders began to break in upon the Church and to defile it Great numbers followed the Example of their Princes and became Christians but a mixed Multitude came among them so that there were many Scandals amongst that Body which had been formerly remarkable for the purity of their Morals and the strictness of their Lives It was the chief business of all those Councils that met in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries to settle many Rules concerning the degrees and time of Penance the Censures both of the Clergy and Laity the Orders of the Penitents and the Methods of receiving them to the Communion of the Church In some of those Councils they denied Reconciliation after some sins even to the last though the general Practice was to receive all at their Death Dallaeus de Confessione Morinus de Poenitentia but while they were in a good state of Health they kept them long in Penance in a publick Separation from the Common Priviledges of Christians and chiefly from the Holy Sacrament and under severe Rules and that for several Years more or fewer according to the Nature of their Sins and the Characters of their Repentance of which a free and unextorted Confession being one of the chief this made many prevent that and come in of their own accord to confess their sins which was much encouraged and magnified Confession was at first made
Marriage of most of the Reformers was urged as an ill Character both of them and of the Reformation as a Doctrine of Libertinism that made the Clergy look too like the rest of the World and involved them in the common Pleasures Concerns and Passions of Human Life The Appearances of an Austerity of Habit of a Severity of Life in watching and fasting and of avoiding the common Pleasures of Sense and the Delights of Life that was on the other side did strike the World and inclined many to think that what ill consequences soever Celibate produced yet that these were much more supportable and more easy to be reformed than the ill consequences of an unrestrained Permission of the Clergy to marry In treating this matter we must first consider Celibate with relation to the Laws of Christ and the Gospel and then with relation to the Laws of the Church It does not seem contrary to the Purity of the Worship of God or of Divine Performances that Married Persons should officiate in them since by the Law of Moses Priests not only might marry but the Priesthood was tied to descend as an Inheritance in a certain Family And even the High-Priest who was to perform the great Function of the Annual Atonement that was made for the Sins of the whole Iewish Nation was to marry and he derived to his Descendants that Sacred Office If there was so much as a remote unsutableness between a Married State and Sacerdotal Performances we cannot imagine that God would by a Law tie the Priesthood to a Family which by consequence laid an Obligation on the Priests to marry When Christ chose his Twelve Apostles some of them were married men we are sure at least that St. Peter was so that he made no distinction and gave no preference to the unmarried Our Saviour did no where charge them to forsake their Wives nor did he at all represent Celibate as necessary to the Kingdom of Heaven or the Dispensation of the Gospel He speaks indeed of some that brought themselves to the state of Eunuchs for the sake of the Gospel Matth. 19.10 11 12. but in that he lest all men at full liberty by saying Let him receive it that is able to receive it so that in this every man must judg of himself by what he finds himself to be That is equally recommended to all Ranks of men as they can bear it St. Paul does affirm That Marriage is honourable in all and to avoid Uncleanness he says It is better to marry than to burn and so gives it as a Rule Heb. 13.4 1 Cor. 7.9 That every man should have his own Wife Among all the Rules or Qualifications of Bishops or Priests that are given in the New Testament particularly in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus there is not a word of the Celibate of the Clergy but plain Intimations to the contrary 1 Tim. 3.2 4 5 12. That they were and might be married That of the Husband of one Wife is repeated in different places Mention is also made of the Wives and Children of the Clergy Rules being given concerning them and not a word is so much as insinuated importing that this was only tolerated in the beginnings of Christianity but that it was afterwards to cease On the contrary the forbidding to marry is given as a Character of the Apostacy of the later times 1 Tim. 4.3 1 Cor. 9.5 We find Aquila when he went about preaching the Gospel was not only married to Priscilla but that he carried her about with him Not to insist on that Privilege that St. Paul thought he might have claimed of carrying about with him a Sister and a Wife as well as the other Apostles And thus the first Point seems to be fully cleared That by no Law of God the Clergy are debarr'd from Marriage There is not one word in the whole Scriptures that does so much as hint at it whereas there is a great deal to the contrary Marriage being then one of the Rights of Human Nature to which so many reasons of different sorts may carry both a wise and a good man and there being no positive Precept in the Gospel that forbids it to the Clergy the next question is Whether it is in the Power of the Church to make a perpetual Law restraining the Clergy from Marriage It is certain that no Age of the Church can make a Law to bind succeeding Ages for whatsoever Power the Church has she is always in possession of it and every Age has as much Power as any of the former Ages had Therefore if any one Age should by a Law enjoin Celibate to the Clergy any succeeding Age may repeal and alter that Law For ever since the Inspiration that conducted the Apostles has ceased every Age of the Church may make or change Laws in all matters that are within their Authority So it seems very clear that the Church can make no perpetual Law upon this Subject In the next place it may be justly doubted Whether the Church can make a Law that shall restrain all the Clergy in any of those Natural Rights in which Christ has left them free The adding a Law upon this Head to the Laws of Christ seems to assume an Authority that he has not given the Church It looks like a pretending to a strain of Purity beyond the Rules set us in the Gospel and is plainly the laying a Yoke upon us which must be thought Tyrannical since the Author of this Religion who knew best what Human Nature is capable of and what it may well bear has not thought fit to lay it on those whom he sent upon a Commission that required a much greater Elevation of Soul and more Freedom from the Entanglements of Worldly or Domestick Concerns than can be pretended to be necessary for the standing and settled Offices in the Church Therefore we conclude That it were a great Abuse of Church-Power and a high Act of Tyranny for any Church or any Age of the Church to bar men from the Services in the Church because they either are married or intend to keep themselves free to marry or not as they please This does indeed bring the Body of the Clergy more into a Combination among themselves it does take them in a great measure off from having separated Interests of their own it takes them out of the Civil Society in which they have less concern when they give no Pledges to it And so in Ages in which the Papacy intended to engage the whole Priesthood into its Interests against the Civil Powers as the Immunity and Exemptions of the Clergy made them safe in their own Persons so it was necessary to free them from any such Incumbrances or Appendages by which they might be in the Power or at the Mercy of Secular Princes This joined with the belief of their making God with a few words by the virtue of their Character and of their forgiving
says Receive the Holy Ghost And in this sense and with this respect the use of these Words may be well justified ARTICLE XXXVII Of Civil Magistrates The Queen's Majesty hath the chief Power in this Realm of England and other her Dominions unto whom the chief Government of all Estates of this Realm whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil in all Causes doth appertain and is not nor ought to be subject to any Foreign Iurisdiction Where we attribute to the Queen's Majesty the chief Government by which Titles we understand the minds of some slanderous Folks to be offended we give not to our Princes the ministring either of God's Word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Injunctions also lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testify but that only Prerogative which we see to have been given always to all godly Princes in Holy Scriptures by God himself that is That they should rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil-doers The Bishop of Rome hath no Iurisdiction in this Realm of England The Laws of the Realm may punish Christian Men with Death for heinous and grievous Offences It is lawful for Christian Men at the Commandment of the Magistrate to wear Weapons and serve in the Wars THIS Article was much shorter as it was published in King Edward's time and did run thus The King of England is Supreme Head in Earth next under Christ of the Church of England and Ireland Then followed the Paragraph against the Pope's Jurisdiction worded as it is now To which these Words were subjoined The Civil Magistrate is ordained and allowed of God wherefore we must obey him not only for fear of Punishment but also for Conscience sake In Queen Elizabeth's time it was thought fitting to take away those Prejudices that the Papists were generally infusing into the minds of the People against the term Head which seemed to be the more incongruous because a Woman did then reign therefore that was left out and instead of it the words chief Power and chief Government were made use of which do signify the same thing The Queen did also by her Injunctions offer an Explanation of this matter for whereas it was given out by those who had complied with every thing that had been done both in her Father and in her Brother's time but that resolved now to set themselves in opposition to her That she was assuming a much greater Authority than they had pretended to She upon that ordered that Explanation which is referred to in the Article and is in these words For certainly Her Majesty neither doth nor ever will challenge any Authority other than that was challenged and lately used by the said Noble Kings of famous Memory King Henry the Eighth and King Edward the Sixth which is and was of antient time due to the Imperial Crown of this Realm that is under God to have the Sovereignty and Rule over ail manner of Persons born within these her Realms Dominions and Countries of what Estate either Ecclesiastical or Temporal soever they be so as no other Foreign Power shall or ought to have any Superiority over them And if any Person that hath conceived any other sense of the said Oath shall accept the same Oath with this Interpretation Sense or Meaning Her Majesty is well pleased to accept every such in that behalf as her good and obedient Subjâ—cts and shall acquit them of all manner of Penalties contained in the said Act against such as shall peremptorily and obstinately refuse to take the same Oath Thus this matter is opened as it is both in the Article and in the Injunctions In order to the treating regularly of this Article it is First To be proved That the Pope hath no Jurisdiction in these Kingdoms 2 dly That our Kings or Queens have it And 3 dly The Nature and Measures of this Power and Government are to be stated As for the Pope's Authority though it is now connected with the Infallibility yet it was pretended to and was advanced for many Ages before Infallibility was so much as thought on Nor was the Doctrine of their Infallibility ever so universally received and submitted to in these Western Parts as was that of their Universal Jurisdiction They were in possession of it Appeals were made to them They sent Legates and Bulls every where They granted Exemptions from the ordinary Jurisdiction and took Bishops bound to them by Oaths that were penned in the Form of Oaths of Fealty or Homage This was the first Point that our Reformers did begin with both here and every where else that so they might remove that which was an insuperable Obstruction till it was first taken out of the way to every step that could be made toward a Reformation They laid down therefore this for their Foundation That all Bishops were by their Office and Character equal and that every one of them had the same Authority that any other had over that Flock which was committed to his Care And therefore they said that the Bishops of Rome had no Authority according to the Constitution in which the Churches were settled by the Apostles but over the City of Rome And that any further Jurisdiction that any Antient Popes might have had did arise from the Dignity of the City and the Customs and Laws of the Empire As for their deriving that Authority from St. Peter it is very plain that the Apostles were all made equal to him and that they never understood our Saviour's Words to him as importing any Authority that was given to him over the rest since they continued to the last while our Saviour was among them disputing which of them should be the greatest The Proposition that the Mother of Iames and Iohn made Mat. 20.21 ver 24. ver 26. in which it was evident that they likewise concurred with her shews that they did not apprehend that Christ had made any Declaration in favour of St. Peter as by our Saviour's Answer it appears that he had not done otherwise he would have referred them to what he had already said upon that occasion By the whole History of the Acts of the Apostles it appears that the Apostles acted and consulted in common without considering St. Peter as having any Superiority over them He was called to give an account of his Baptizing Cornelius and he delivered his Opinion in the Council of Ierusalem without any strain of Authority over the rest Acts 11.2 3. Acts 15.7 ver 14 19. Gal. 2 7 8. ver 11. St. Paul does expresly deny that the other Apostles had any Superiority or Jurisdiction over him and he says in plain words that he was the Apostle of the Vncircumcision as St. Peter was the Apostle of the Circumcision and in that does rather claim an advantage over him since his was certainly the much wider Province He
Magistratibus REgia Majesâ—as in hoc Angliae regno ac caeteris ejus dominiis summam habet potestatem ad quam omnium statuum hujus regni sive illi Ecclesiastici sint sive civiles in omnibus causis suprema gubernatio pertinet nulli externae jurisdictioni est subjecta nec esse debet Cum Regiae Majestati summam gubernationem tribuimus quibus titulis intelligimus animos quorundam calumniatorum offendi non damus Regibus nostris aut verbi Dei aut Sacramentorum administrationem quod etiam Injunctiones ab Elizabetha Regina nostra nuper editae apertissime testantur Sed eam tantum praerogativam quam in sacris Scripturis a Deo ipso omnibus piis Principibus videmus semper fuisse attributam hoc est ut omnes status atque ordines fidei suae a Deo commissos sive illi Ecclesiastici sint sive civiles in officio contineant conâ—umaces ac delinquentes gladio civili coerceant Romanus pontifex nullam habet jurisdictionem in hoc regno Angliae Leges Regni possunt Christianos propter capitalia gravia crimina morte punire Christianis licet ex mandato Magisâ—ratus arma portare justa bella administrare De illicita bonorum communicatione FAcultates bona Christianorum non sunt communia quoad jus possessionem ut quidam Anabaptisâ—ae falso jactant debet tamen quisque de his quae possidet pro facultatum ratione pauperibus eleemosynas benigne distribuere De jure jurando QUemadmodum juramentum vanum temerarium a Domino nostro Jesu Christo Apostolo ejus Jacobo Christianis hominibus interdictum esse faâ—emur 〈◊〉 â—hrisâ—ianorum Religionem minime prohibere censemus quin jubente magistratu in causa fidei charitatis jurare liceat modo id fiat juxta Prophetae doctrinam in justitia in judicio veritate Confirmatio Articulorum HIC liber antedictorum Articulorum jam denuo approbatus est per assensum consensum Serenissimae Reginae Elizabethae Dominae nostrae Dei gratia Angliae â—raâ—ciae Hiberniae Reginae defensoris fidel c. retinendus per totum Regnum Angliae exequendus Qui Articuli lecti sunt denuo confirmati subscriptione D. Archiepiscopi Episcoporum superioris domus totius Cleri inferioris domus in Convocatione Anno Domini 1571. THE TABLE of the Contents INâ—roduction Page 1 Hâ—resies gave the Rise to larger Articles Ibid. A Form of Doctrine settled by the Apostles 2 Bâ—shops sent râ—und them a Declaration of their Faith Ibid. These were afterwards enlarged 3 This dâ—ne at the Council of Nice Ibid. Mâ—ny wild Sects at the beginning of the Reformation 4 And many complying-Papists put them on framing this Collection Ibid. The Articles set out at first by the King's Authority 5 A Question whether they are only Articles of Peace or of Dâ—ctrine 6 They bind the Consciences of the Clergy Ibid. The Laity only bound to Peace by them 7 The Subscription to them imports an Assent to them and not only an acquiescing in them 8 But the Articles may have different Senses and if the Words will bear them there is no Prevâ—rication in subscribing them so Ibid. This illustrated in the Third Article 9 The various Readings of the Articles collated with the MSS. Ibid. An Account of those various Readings 16 ARTICLE I. 17 THat there is a God proved by the Consent of Mankind Ibid. Oâ—j 1. Some Nations do not believe a Deity This is answered 18 Obj. 2. It is not the same Belief among them alâ— This is answered Ibid. The Visible World proves a Deity 19 Time nor Number cannot be Eternal nor Infinite Ibid. Moral Arguments to prove that the World had a Beginning 20 Such a Regular Frame could not be fortuitâ—us Ibid. Objection from the Production of Insects answered 21 Argument from Miracles well attested 22 Argument from the Idea of God examined Ibid. God is Eternal and necâ—ssarily exists 23 The Vnity of the Deity Ibid. God is without Body 24 Outward Manifâ—stations only to declare his Presence and Authority 25 No successive Acts in God 26 Question concerning God's immanent Acts Ibid. God has no Pâ—ssions 27 Phrases in Scripture of these explained Ibid. Some Thoughts concerning the Power and Wisdom of God 28 True Ideas of the Goodness of God Ibid. Of Creation and Annihilation 30 Of the Providence of God 31 Objections against it answered 32 Whether God does immediately produce all things 33 Thought and Liberty not proper to Matter 34 Whether Beasts think or are only Machines Ibid. How Bodies and Spirits are united 35 The Doctrine of the Trinity 36 Whether revealed in the Old Testament or not 37 The Doctrine stated Ibid. Argument from the Form of Baptism 38 Other Arguments for it 39 This was received in the First Ages of Christianity 40 Some Attempt to the stating true Ideas of God 41 ARTICLE II. 43 CHrist how the Son of God Ibid. Argument from the Beginning of St. John's Gospel 44 Reflections on the state of the World at that time 45 Arguments from the Epistle to the Philippians Ibid. Other Arguments complicated 46 Argument from Adoration due to him 47 The Silence of the Jews proves this was not then thought to be Idolatry by them 49 Argument from the Epistle to the Hebrews 50 God and Man in Christ made one Person 51 An Account of Nestorius's Doctrine 52 The Truth of Christ's Resurrection Ibid. Christ was to us an Expiatory Sacrifice 53 An Account of Expiatory Sacrifiâ—eâ— 54 The Agonies of Christ explained 55 ARTICLE III. 56 RUffin first published this in the Creed Ibid. Several Senses put on this Article 57 A Local Descent into Hell Ibid. What may be the true sense of the Article 58 ARTICLE IV. 59 THE Proof of Christ's Resurrection Ibid. The Jews in that Time did not disprove it 60 Several Proofs of the Incredibility of a Forgery in this matter 61 The Nature and Proof of a Miracle 62 What must be ascribed to good or evil Spirits 63 The Apostles could not be imposed on Ibid. Nor could they have imposed on the World 64 Of Christ's Ascension 65 Curiosity in these matters taxed Ibid. The Authority with which Christ is now vested 66 ARTICLE V. 68 THE senses of the word Holy Ghost Ibid. It stands oft for a Person 69 Curiosities to be avoided about Procession Ibid. The Holy Ghost is truly God 70 ARTICLE VI. 71 THE Controversy about Oral Tradition 72 That was soon corrupted Ibid. Guarded against by Revelation 73 Tradition corrupted among the Jews 74 The Scripture appealed to by Christ and the Apostles 75 What is well proved from Scripture 76 Objections from the darkness of Scripture answered 77 No sure guard against Error nor against Sin 78 The Proof of the Canon of the Scripture 79 Particularly of the New Testament 80 These Books were early received 81 The Canon of the Old Testament proved 82 Concerning the Pentateuch 83 Objections against the Old
full and clear proofs of it in the New Testament And they had need be both full and clear before a Doctrine of this Nature can be pretended to be proved by them In order to the making this Mystery to be more distinctly Intelligible different Methods have been taken By one Substance many do understand a Numerical or Individual Unity of Substance and by Three Persons they understand Three distinct Subsistences in that Essence It is not pretended by these that we can give a distinct Idea of Person or Subsistence only they hold it imports a real diversity in one from another and even such a diversity from the Substance of the Deity it self that some things belong to the Person that do not belong to the Substance For the Substance neither begets nor is begotten neither breathes nor proceeds If this carries in it somewhat that is not agreeable to our Notions nor like any thing that we can apprehend to this it is said That if God has Revealed that in the Scripture which is thus expressed we are bound to believe it though we can frame no clear apprehension about it God's Eternity his being all one single Act his Creating and Preserving all things and his being every where are things that are absolute riddles to us We cannot bring our Minds to conceive them and yet we must believe that they are so because we see much greater Absurdities must follow upon our conceiving that they should be otherwise So if God has declared this inexplicable thing concerning himself to us we are bound to believe it though we cannot have any clear Idea how it truly is For there appear as strange and unanswerable difficulties in many other things which yet we know to be true so if we are once well assured that God has Revealed this Doctrine to us we must silence all Objections against it and believe it Reckoning that our not understanding it as it is in it self makes the difficulties seem to be much greater than otherwise they would appear to be if we had light enough about it or were capable of forming a more perfect Idea of it while we are in this depressed State Others give another view of this Matter that is not indeed so hard to be apprehended But that has an Objection against it that seems as great a prejudice against it as the difficulty of apprehending the other way is against that It is this They do hold That there are Three Minds That the first of these Three who is from that called the Father did from all Eternity by an Emanation of Essence beget the Son and by another Emanation that was from Eternity likewise and was as Essential to him as the former both the first and the second did jointly breathe forth the Spirit and that these are Three distinct Minds every one being God as much as the other Only the Father is the Fountain and is only self-originated All this is in a good degree Intelligible but it seems hard to reconcile it both with the Idea of Unity which seems to belong to a Being of Infinite Perfection and with the many express Declarations that are made in the Scriptures concerning the Unity of God Instead of going farther into Explanations of that which is certainly very far beyond all our apprehensions and that ought therefore to be let alone I shall now consider what Declarations are made in the Scriptures concerning this Point The First and the Chief is in that Charge and Commission which our Saviour gave to his Apostles to go and make Disciples to him among all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Mat. 28.19 By Name is meant either an Authority derived to them in the virtue of which all Nations were to be Baptized Or that the Persons so Baptized are Dedicated to the Father Son and Holy Ghost Either of these Senses as it proves them all to be Persons so it sets them in an equality in a thing that can only belong to the Divine Nature Baptism is the receiving Men from a State of Sin and Wrath into a State of Favour and into the Rights of the Sons of God and the Hopes of Eternal Happiness and a calling them by the Name of God These are things that can only be offered and assured to Men in the Name of the Great and Eternal God and therefore since without any Distinction or Note of Inequality they are all Three set together as Persons in whose Name this is to be done they must be all Three the True God otherwise it looks like a just Prejudice against our Saviour and his whole Gospel That by his express Direction the first entrance to it which gives the Visible and Foederal Right to those great Blessings that are offered by it or their Initiation into it should be in the Name of Two Created Beings if the one can be called properly so much as a Being according to their Hypothesis and that even in an equality with the Supream and Increated Being The plainness of this Charge and the great occasion upon which it was given makes this an Argument of such Force and Evidence that it may justly determine the whole Matter A Second Argument is taken from this That we find St. Paul begins or ends most of his Epistles with a Salutation in the Form of a Wish Rom. 1.7 Rom. 16.20 24. 1 Cor. 16.23 1 Cor. 1.3 2 Cor. 1.3 Gal. 1.3 Gal 6.18 Eph. 1.2 Eph. 6.23 Phil. 1.2 Phil. 4.23 Col. 1.2 1 Thes. 1.1 1 Thes 5.28 2 Thes. 1.2 2 Thes. 3 18. 1 Tim. 1.2 2 Tim. 1.2 Tit. 1.4 Philem. 3.25 2 John 1.3 which is indeed a Prayer or a Benediction in the Name of those who are so Invocated in which he wishes the Churches Grace Mercy and Peace from God the Father and the Lord Iesus Christ which is an Invocation of Christ in conjunction with the Father for the greatest Blessings of Favour and Mercy That is a strange Strain if he was only a Creature which yet is delivered without any mitigation or softning in the most remarkable parts of his Epistles This is carried further in the Conclusion of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians The Grace of the Lord Iesus Christ the Love of God 2 Cor. 13.14 and the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with you It is true this is expressed as a Wiâ—h and not in the nature of a Prayer as the common Salutations are But here Three great Blessings are wished to them as from Three Fountains which imports that they are Three different Persons and yet equal For though in order the Father is first and is generally put first yet here Christ is first named which seems to be a strange reversing of things if they are not equal as to their Essence or Substance It is true the Second is not named here The Father as elsewhere but only God yet since he is mentioned as distinct from Christ and the
those Particulars that are mentioned in this Article so it was not possible for any that should have had the wickedness to set about it to have corrupted the New Testament by any Additions or Alterations it being so early spread into so many hands and that in so many different places When all this matter is laid together it appears to have as full an Evidence to support it as any Matter of Fact can possibly have The Narration gave great scope to a variety of Enquiries it raised much Disputing Opposition and Persecution and yet nothing was ever pretended to be proved that could subvert its Credit Great Multitudes received this Doctrine and died for it in the Age in which the Matters of Fact upon which its Credit was built were well attested and in which the Truth or Falshood of them might have been easily known which it is reasonable to believe that all men would carefully examine before they embraced and assented to that which was like to draw on them Sufferings that would probably end in Death Those who did spread this Doctrine as well as those who first received it had no Interest beside that of Trutâ— to engage them to it They could expect neither Wealth nor Greatness from it They were obliged to Travel much and to Labour hard to wrestle through great Difficulties and to endure many Indignities They saw others die on the account of it and had reason to look for the like usage themselves The Doctrine that they preached related either to the Facts concerning the Person of Christ or to the Rules of Life which they delivered These were all pure just and good they tended to settle the World upon the Foundations of Truth and Sincerity and that sublime Pitch of Righteousness of doing as they would be done by they tended to make men Sober and Temperate Chaste and Modest Meek and Humble Merciful and Charitable so that from thence there was no Colour given for suspecting any Fraud or Design in it The Worship of God in this Religion was Pure and Simple free from Cost or Pomp from Theatrical Shews as well as Idolatrous Rites and had in it all possible Characters becoming the Purity of the Supreme Mind When therefore so much concurs to give Credit to a Religion there ought to be evident Proofs brought to the contrary before it can be disbelieved or rejected So many men forsaking the Religion in which they were born and bred which has always a strong Influence even upon the greatest Minds and there being so many particular Prejudices both upon Iews and Gentiles by the Opinions in which they had been bred and the Impressions which had gone deep in them it could be no slight matter that could overcome all that The Iews expected a Conqueror for their Messias who should have raised both the Honour of their Law and their Nation and so were much possessed against one of a mean Appearance and when they saw that their Law was to be superseded and that the Gentiles were to be brought in to equal Privileges with themselves they could not but be deeply prejudiced both against the Person and Doctrine of Christ. The Philosophers despised Divine Inspiration and secret Assistances and had an ill Opinion of Miracles And the Herd among the Gentiles were so accustomed to Pomp and Shew in their Religious Performances that they must have nauseated the Christian Simplicity and the corruption of their Morals must have made them uneasy at a Religion of so much strictness All sorts of men lay under very strong Prejudices against this Religion nor was there any one Article or Branch of it that fâ—attered any of the Interests Appetites Passions or Vanities of Men but all was very much to the contrary They were warned to prepare for Trials and Crosses and in particular for a severe and fiery Trial that was speedily to come upon them There was nothing of the way or manner of Impostors that appeared in the Methods in which the Gospel was propagated When the Apostles saw that some were endeavouring to lessen them and their Authority they took no fawning ways They neither flattered nor spared those Churches that were under their care They charged them home with their faults and asserted their own Character in a strain that shewed they were afraid of no discoveries They appeal'd to the Miracles that they had wrought and to those Gifts and Divine Virtues of which they were not only possessed themselves but which were by their Ministry conferred on others The demonstration of the Spirit or Inspiration that was in them appeared in the power that is 1 Cor. 2.4 in the Miracles which accompanied it and those they wrought openly in the sight of many Witnesses An uncontested Miracle is the fullest Evidence that can be given of a Divine Commission A Miracle is a Work that exceeds all the known Powers of Nature and that carries in it plain Characters of a Power Superior to any Human power We cannot indeed fix the bounds of the Powers of Nature but yet we can plainly apprehend what must be beyond them For Instance We do not know what secret Virtues there may be in Plants and Minerals But we do know that bare words can have no Natural Virtue in them to cure Diseases much less to raise the Dead We know not what force Imagination or Credulity may have in Critical Diseases but we know that a Dead man has no Imagination We know also That Blindness Deafness and an Inveterate Palsey cannot be cured by Conceit Therefore such Miracles as the giving Sight to a Man born Blind Speech to the Deaf and Dumb and Strength to the Paralytick but most of all the giving Life to the Dead and that not only to Persons 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 sort of External Application This I say as it is clearly above the Force of Imagination so it is beyond the Powers of Nature These things were not done in the dark nor in the presence of a few in whom a particular confidence was put but in full day-light and in the sight of great Numbers Enemies as well as Friends and some of those Enemies were both the most enraged and the most capable of making all possible Exceptions to what was done Such were the Rulers of the Synagogues and the Pharisees in our Saviour's Time And yet they could neither deny the Facts nor pretend that there was any Deceit or Juglary in them We have in this all possible reason to conclude That both the things wâ—re truly done as they are related and that no just Exception was or could be made to them If it is pretended That those wonderful things were done by the Power of an Evil Spirit That does both acknowledge the Truth of the Relation and also its being Supernatural This Answer
that very credible For this we have only the Testimony of the Apostles who did all attest that they saw it being all together in an open Field When Christ was Walking and Discoursing with them and when he was Blessing them he was parted from them They saw him Ascend till a Cloud received him and took him out of their sight And then Two Angels appeared to them and assured them Acts 1. â—1 That he should come again in like manner as they had seen him Ascend Here is a very particular Relation with many Circumstances in it in which it was not possible for the Apostles to be mistaken So that there being no reason to suspect their Credit this rests upon that Authority But Ten days after it received a much clearer Proof When the Holy Ghost was poured out on them in so visible a manner and with most remarkable effects Immediately upon it they spoke with divers Tongues and wrought many Miracles and all in the Name of Christ. They did often and solemnly disclaim their doing any of those wonderful things by any power of their own They owned that all that they had or did was derived to them from Iesus of Nazareth Acts 3.12 16. of whose Resurrection and Ascension they were appointed to be the Witnesses Christ's coming again to judge the World at the last day is so often affirmed by himself in the Gospel and is so frequently mentioned in the Writings of his Apostles that this is a main part of his Doctrine So that his Resurrection Ascension together with the Effusion of the Holy Ghost having in general proved his Mission and his whole Doctrine this is also proved by them Enough seems to be said in Proof of all the parts of this Article it remains only that somewhat should be added in Explanation of them As to the Resurrection it is to little purpose to Enquire whether our Saviour's Body was kept all the while in a compleat Organisation that so by this Miracle it might be preserved in a Natural State for his Soul to re-enter it Or whether by the Course of Nature the vast Number of the inward Conveyances that are in the Body were stopt and if all of a sudden when the time of the Resurrection came all was again put in a vital State fit to be animated by his Soul There must have been a Miracle either way So it is to little purpose to enquire into it The former though a continued Miracle yet seemes to agree more fully to these words Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see corruption It is to as little purpose to enquire how our Saviour's new Body was supplied with Blood Since he had lost the greatest part of it on the Cross. Whether that was again by the power of God brought back into his Veins or whether as he himself had formerly said That Man lives not by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God Blood was supplied by Miracle Or whether his Body that was then of the Nature of a Glorified Body though yet on Earth needed the supplies of Blood to furnish new Spirits for serving the natural Functions He Eating and Drinking so seldom that we may well believe it was done rather to satisfy his Apostles than to answer the Necessities of Nature These are Curiosities that signify so little if we could certainly resolve them that it is to no purpose to enquire about them since we cannot know what to determine in them This in general is certain that the same Soul returned back to the same Body so that the same Man who died rose again and that is our Faith We need not trouble our selves with enquiring how to make out the Three Days of Christ's being in the Grave Days stand in the common acceptation for a Portion of a Day We know the Iews were very exact to the Rest on the Sabbath so the Body was without question laid in the Grave before the Sun-set on Friday so that was the First day the Sabbath was a compleat one and a good part of the Third day that is the Night with which the Iews began to count the day was over before he was raised up As for his stay on Earth forty days we cannot pretend to give an account of it whether his Body was passing through a slow and Physical Purification to be meet for Ascending or whether he intended to keep a proportion between his Gospel and the Law of Moses that as he suffered at the time of their killing the Passover so the Effusion of the Holy Ghost was fixed for Pentecost and that therefore he â—ould stay on Earth till that time was near not to put his Apostles upon too long an expectation without his Presence which might be necessary to animate them till they should be endued with Power from on high As to the manner of his Ascension it is also questioned whether the Body of Christ as it ascâ—nded was so wonderfully changed as to put on the Subtility and Purity of an Ethereal Body or whether it 〈…〉 same Form in Heaven that it had on Earth or iâ— it puâ— on a new one It is more probable that it did and that the wonderful Glory that appeared in his Countenance and whole Person at his Trâ—â—sâ—â—gurâ—tion was a manifestation of that more permanent Glory to which it was to be afterwards exalted It seems probable from what St. Paul says 1 Coâ— 15.50 That flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God which relates to our glorified Bodies when we shall bear the Image of the second and the heavenly Adam that Christ's Body has no more the modifications of Flesh and Blood in it and that the Glory of the Celestial Body is of another Nature and Texture than that of the Terrestrial It is easily imagined how this may be and yet the Body to be numerically the same Ver. 40. For all Matter being uniform and capable of all sort of Motion and by consequence of being either much grosser or much purer the same Portion of Matter that made a thick and Heavy Body here on Earth may be put into that Purity and Fineness as to be no longer a fit Inhabitant of this Earth or to breath this Air but to be meet to be transplanted into Ethereal Regions Christ as he went up into Heaven so he had the whole Government of this World put into his hands and the whole Ministry of Angels put under his Command even in his Human Nature So that all things are now in subjection to him All Power and Authority is derived from him 1 Cor. 15.27 28. and he does whatsoever he pleases both in Heaven and Earth In him all fulness dwells And as the Mosaical Tabernacle being filled with Glory the Emanations of it did by the Urim and Thummim enlighten and direct that People so out of that Fulness that dwelt Bodily in Christ there is a constant Emanation of his
Grace and Spirit descending on his Church He does also intercede for us at his Father's Right-hand where he is preparing a place for us The meaning of all which is this That as he is vested with an unccnceivable high degree of Glory even as Man so the Merit of his Death is still fresh and entire and in the virtue of that the Sins of all that come to God throâ—gh him claiming to his Death as to their Sacrifice and obeying his Gospel are pardoned and they are sealed by his Spirit until the day of Redemption In conclusion when all God's design with this World is accomplished it shall be set on Fire and all the great Parts of which it is composed as of Elements shall be melted and burnt down and then when by that Fire probably the Portions of Matter which was in the Bodies of all who have lived upon Earth shall be so far refined and fixed as to become both Incorruptible and Immortal then they shall be made meet for the Souls that formerly animated them to re-enter every one into his own Body which shall be then so moulded as to be a Habitation fit to give it everlasting Joy or everlasting Torment Then shall Christ appear visibly in some very conspicuous Place in the Clouds of Heaven where every Eye shall see him He shall appear in his own glory that is in his Human glorified Body Luk. 9.26 He shall appear in the glory of his angels having vast Numbers of these about him attending on him But which is above all he shall appear in his Father's glory that is there shall be then a most wonderful Manifestation of the Eternal Godhead dwelling in him and then shall he pass a final Sentence upon all that ever lived upon Earth according to all that they have done in the Body whether it be good or bad The Righteous shall ascend as he did and shall meet him in the Clouds and be for ever with him and the Wicked shall sink into a state of Darkness and Misery of unspeakable Horror of Mind and everlasting Pain and Torment ARTICLE V. Of the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son is of one Substance Majesty and Glory with the Fathei and the Son very and Eternal God IN order to the explaining this Article we must consider First The Importance of the Term Spirit or Holy Spirit Secondly His Procession from the Father and the Son And Thirdly That he is truly God of the same Substance with the Father and the Son Spirit signifies Wind or Breath and in the Old Testament it stands frequently in that Sense The Spirit of God or Wind of God stands sometimes for a high and strong Wind but more frequently it signifies a secret Impression made by God on the Mind of a Prophet So that the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Prophecy are set in opposition to the vain Imaginations the false Pretences or the Diabolical Illusions of those who assumed to themselves the Name and the Authority of a Prophet without a true Mission from God But when God made Representations either in a Dream or in an Extasy to any Person or imprinted a sense of his Will on their Minds together with such necessary Characters as gave it Proof and Authority this was an Illapse from God as a Breathing from him on the Soul of the Prophet In the New Testament this word Holy Ghost stands most commonly for that wonderful Effusion of those Miraculous Virtues that was poured out at Pentecost on the Apostles by which their Spirits were not only exalted with extraordinary degrees of Zeal and Courage of Authority and Uâ—terance but they were furnished with the Gifts of Tongues and of Miracles And besides that first and great Effusion several Christians received particular Talents and Inspirations which are most commonly expressed by the word Spirit or Inspiration Those inward Assistances by which the Frame and Temper of Mens Minds are changed and renewed are likewise called the Spirit or the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost So Christ said to Nicodemus John 3.3 5 6 Lu. 11.18 That except a man was born of water and of the Spirit he cannot see the kingdom of God and that his heavenly Father would give the Holy Spirit to every one that asked him By these it is plain that extraordinary or miraculous Inspirations are not meant for these are not every Christian's Portion there is no question made of all this The main question is Whether by Spirit or Holy Spirit we are to understand one Person that is the Fountain of all those Gifts and Operations or whether by One Spirit is only to be meant the Power of God flowing out and shewing it self in many wonderful Operations The Adversaries of the Trinity will have the Spirit or Holy Spirit to signify no Person but only the Divine Gifts or Operations But in opposition to this it is plain that in our Saviour's last and long Discourse to his Disciples John 14.16 26. in which he promised to send them his Spirit he calls him another Comforter to be sent in his stead or to supply his Absence and the whole Tenor of the Discourse runs on him as a Person John 16. â— 13. He shall abide with you He shall guide you into all truth and shew you things to come He shall bring all things into your remembrance He shall convince the world of sin of righteousness and of judgment In all those places he is so plainly spoken of not as a Quality or Operation but as a Person and that without any Key or Rule to understand the Words otherwise that this alone may serve to determine the matter now in dispute Christ's Commission to Preach and Baptize in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost does plainly make him a Person since it cannot be said that we are to be called by the Name of a Virtue or Operation St. Paul does also in a long Discourse upon the Diversity of Gifts 1 Cor. 12.4 8 9 11 13. Administrations and Operations ascribe them all to one Spirit as their Authoâ— and Fountain of whom he speaks as of a Person distributing these in order to several Ends and in different Measures 1 Cor. 2.10 Rom. 8.26 Eph. 4.30 He speaks of the Spirit 's searching all things of his interceeding for us of our grieving the Spirit by which we are sealed This is the Language used concerning a Person not a Quality All these says he worketh that one and the self-same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will Now it is not to be conceived how that both our Saviour and his Apostles should use the Phrase of a Person so constantly in speaking of the Spirit and should so critically and in the way of Argument pursue that Strain if he is not a Person They not only insist on it and repeat it frequently but they draw an Argument from it for Union and Love and
there must be a living speaking Judge always ready to guide the Church and to decide Controversies they say this cannot be in the diffusive Body of Christians for these cannot meet to judge Nor can it â—e in a General Council the meeting of which depends upon so many accidents and on the consent of so many Princes that the Infallibility will lie dormant for some Ages if the General Council is the Seat of it Therefore they conclude That since it is certainly in the Church and can be no where else but in the Pope therefore it is lodged in the See of Rome Whereas we on the other hand think this is a strong Argument against the Infallibility in general That it does not appear in whom it is vested And we think that every side does so effectually Confute the other that we believe them all as to that and think they argue much stronger when they prove where it cannot be than when they pretend to prove where it must be This in the Point now in hand concerning the Pope seems as evident 〈◊〉 thing can possibly be It not appearing That after the words of Christ 〈…〉 the other Apostles thought the Point was thereby decided Who 〈…〉 should be the greatest For that Debâ—â—e was still on foot and was 〈◊〉 among them in the very Night in which our Saviour was betrayâ—d Nor does it appear That after the Effusion of the Holy Ghost which certainly Inspired them with the full understanding of Christ's words that thâ—y thought there was any thing peculiarly given to S. Peter beyond the â—â—st He was questioned upon his Baptizing Cornelius He was not singly appealed to in the great Question of Subjecting the Gentiles to the Yoke of the Mosaical Law he delivered his Opinion as one of the Apostles After which St. Iames summed up the Matter and setled the Decision of it He was charged by St. Paul as guilty of dissimulation in that matter for which St. Paul withstood him to his Face And he justifies that in an Epistle confessed to be writ by Divine Inspiration St. Paul does also in the same Epistle plainly assert the equality of his own Authority with his And that he received no Authority from him and owed him no Dependance Nor was he ever Appealed to in any of the Points that appear to have been Disputed in the times that the Epistles were written So that we see no Characters of any special Infallibility that was in him besides that which was the effect of the Inspiration that was in the other Apostles as well as in him Nor is there a Tittle in the Scripture not so much as by a remote Intimation that he was to derive that Authority whatsoever it was to any Successor or to lodge it in any particular City or See The Silence of the Scripture in this Point seems to be a full proof that no such thing was intended by God Otherwise we have all reason to believe that it would have been clearly expressed St. Peter himself ought to have declared this And since both Alexandria and Antioch as well as Rome pretend to derive from him and that the Succession to those Sees began in him this makes a decision in this Point so much the more necessary When St. Peter writ his 2d Epistle in which he mentions a Revelation that he had from Christ of his approaching dissolution though that was a very proper occasion for declaring such an important Matter 2 Pet. 1 1â— he says nothing that relates to it but gives only a new Attestation of the truth of Christ's Divine Mission and of what he himself had been a witness to in the Mount when he saw the excellent glory and heard the voice out of it He leaves a Provision in Writing for the following Ages but says nothing of any Succession or See So that here the greatest of all Privileges is pretâ—nded to be lodged in a Succession of Bishops without any one Passage in Scripture importing it Another set of difficulties arise concerning the Persons who have a right to chuse these Popes in whom this Right is Vested and what number is necessary for a Canonical Election How far Simony voids it and who is the competent Judge of that or who shall judge in the Case of two different Elections which has often happened We must also have a certain Rule to know when the Popes judge as private Persons and when they judge Infallibly With whom they must consult and what Solemnities are necessary to make them speak ex Cathedra or Infallibly For if this Infallibility comes as a Privilege from a Grant made by Christ we ought to expect that all those necessary Circumstances to direct us in order to the receiving and submitting to it should be fixed by the same Authority that made the Grant Here then are very great difficulties Let us now see what is offered to make out this great and important Claim The chief Proof is brought from these Words of our Saviour when upon St. Peter's confessing That he was the Christ the Son of the living God Mat. 16. 16 17 18 19. He said to him Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven This begins with an Allusion to his Name and Discourses built upon such Allusions are not to be understood strictly or Grammatically By the Rock upon which Christ promises to build his Church many of the Fathers have understood the Person of Christ others have understood the Confession of him or Faith in him which indeed is but a different way of expressing the same thing And it is certain that strictly speaking the Church can only be said to be founded upon Christ and upon his Doctrine But in a Secondary sense it may be said to be founded upon the Apostles and upon St. Peter as the first in order which is not to be Disputed Now though this is a Sense which was not put on these Words for many Ages yet when it should be allowed to be their true sense it will not prove any thing to have been granted to St. Peter but what was common to the other Apostles who are all called the Foundations upon which the Church is built That which follows of the gates of hell not being able to prevail against the Church may be either understood of Death Eph. 2.20 Rev. 21.2 14. which is often called the gate to the grave Which is the sense of the Word that is rendred Hell And then the meaning of these Words will be That the Church which Christ was to raise should never be extinguished nor die or come to a period as the Iewish Religion then did Or according to the Custom of the Iews of holding their
Whatsoever his Apostles settled was by Authority and Commission from him therefore it is not to be denied but that if they had appointed any Sacramental Action that must be reckoned to be of the same Authority and is to be esteemed Christ's Institution as much as if he himself when on Earth had appointed it Matter is of the Essence of a Sacrament for Words without some 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 use of some material Substance or other for in this consists the difference between Sacraments and other Acts of Worship The latter are only Acts of the Mind declared by Words or Gesture whereas Sacraments are the Application of a material Sign joyned with Acts of the Mind Words and Gestures With the Matter there must be a Form that is such Words joyned with it as do appropriate the Matter to such an use and separate it from all other uses at least in the Act of the Sacrament For in any piece of Matter alone there cannot be a proper suitableness to such an end as seems to be designed by Sacraments and therefore a Form must determine and apply it and it is highly suitable to the nature of Things to believe that our Saviour who has Instituted the Sacrament has also either Instituted the Form of it or given us such hints as to lead us very near it The end of Sacraments is double the one is by a Solemn Federal Action both to unite us to Christ and also to derive a secret Blessing from him to us And the other is to joyn and unite us by this publick Profession and the joynt 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 those Words that are made use of in Scripture so that it has no determined Signification given to it in the Word of God yet it was very early applied by Pliny to those Vows by which the Christians tied themselves to their Religion Lib. 10. Ep. 97. taken from the Oaths by which the Soldiery among the Romans were sworn to their Colours or Officers and from that time this Term has been used in a Sense consecrated to the Federal Rites of Religion Yet if any will dispute about Words we know how much St. Paul condemns all those curious and vain Questions which have in them the Subtilties and Oppositions of Science falsly so called If any will call every Rite used in Holy Things a Sacrament 1 Tim. 6.20 we enter into no such Contentions The Rites therefore that we understand when we speak of Sacraments are the constant Federal Rites of Christians which are accompanied by a Divine Grace and Benediction being instituted by Christ to unite us to him and to his Church and of such we own that there are Two Baptism and the Supper of our Lord. In Baptism there is Matter Water there is a Form the Person Dipped or Washed with words I baptize thee in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Matth. 28.19 There is an Institution Go preach and baptize there is a Federal Sponsion 1 Pet. 3.21 Matth. 26.26 27. The answer of a good Conscience there is a Blessing conveyed with it Baptism save us there is one baptism as there is one body and one spirit we are all baptized into one body So that here all the constituent and necessary Parts of a Sacrament are found in Baptism In the Lord's Supper there is Bread and Wine for the Matter The giving it to be Eat and Drunk with the Words that our Saviour used in the first Supper are the Form Do this in remembrance of me is the Institution Ye shew forth the Lord's death till he come again 1 Cor. 11.23 to 27. is the Declaration of the Federal Act of our part It is also the Communion of the body and of the blood of Christ that is the conveyance of the Blessings of our Partnership in the Effects of the Death of Christ. 1 Cor. 10.16 17. And we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread this shews the Union of the Church in this Sacrament Here then we have in these two Sacraments both Matter Form Institution Federal Acts Blessings conveyed and the Union of the Body in them All the Characters which belong to a Sacrament agree fully to them In the next place we must by these Characters examine the other pretended Sacraments It is no wonder if the word Sacrament being of a large extent there should be some Passages in Ancient Writers that call other Actions so besides Baptism and the Lord's Supper for in a larger Sense every Holy Rite may be so called But it is no small prejudice against the number of Seven Sacraments that Peter Lombard a Writer in the Twelfth Century is the first that reckons Seven of them From that Mystical Expression of the Seven Spirits of God there came a conceit of the sevenfold Operation of the Spirit Lib. 3. Dist. 2. and it looked like a good Illustration of that to assert Seven Sacraments This Pope Eugenius put in his Instruction to the Armenians which is published with the Council of Florence and all was finally settled at Trent Now there might have been so many fine Allusions made on the number Seven and some of the Ancients were so much set on such Allusions that since we hear nothing of that kind from any of them we may well conclude that this is more than an ordinary Negative Argument against their having believed that there were Seven Sacraments To go on in order with them The first that we reject which is reckoned by them the second is Confirmation But to explain this we must consider in what respect our Church receives Confirmation and upon what reasons it is that she does not acknowledge it to be a Sacrament We find that after Philip the Deacon and Evangelist had converted and baptized some in Samaria Peter and Iohn were sent thither by the Apostles Acts 8.12 14 15 16 17. who laid their hands on such as were baptized and prayed that they might receive the Holy Ghost upon which it is said that they received the Holy Ghost Now though ordinary Functions when performed by the Apostles such as their laying on of Hands in those whom they Ordained or Confirmed had extraordinary Effects accompanying them but when the extraordinary Effects ceased the end for which these were at first given being accomplished the Gospel having been fully attested to the World yet the Functions were still continued of Confirmation as well as Ordination And as the laying on of Hands Heb. 6.2 that is reckoned among the Principles of the Christian Doctrine after Repentance and Faith and subsequent to Baptism seems very
Penance The Aggregate of all these is the Matter and the Form are the words Ego te Absolvo Now besides what we have to say upon every one of these particulars the Matter of a Sacrament must be some visible Sign applied to him that receives it Innoc. 3. in 4. later Can. 21 22. Conc. Trid. Sess. 14. c. 5. It is therefore a very absurd thing to imagine that a Man 's own Thoughts Words or Actions can be the Matter of a Sacrament How can this be sanctified or applied to him It will be a thing no less absurd to make the Form of a Sacrament to be a practice not much elder than Four hundred Year since no Ritual can be produced nor Author cited for this Form for above a Thousand Years after Christ. All the ancient Forms of receiving Penitents having been by a Blessing in the Form of a Prayer or a Declaration but none of them in these positive words I Absolve thee We think this want of Matter and this new invented Form being without any Institution in Scripture and different from so long a practice of the whole Church are such reasons that we are fully justified in denying Penance to be a Sacrament But because the Doctrine of Repentance is a point of the highest importance there arise several things here that ought to be very carefully examined As to Confession we find in the Scriptures that such as desired St. Iohn's Baptism Matt. 3.6 came confessing their sins but that was previous to Baptism We find also that scandalous Persons were to be openly rebuked before all and so to be put to shame 1 Tim. 5.10 in which no doubt there was a Confession and a publication of the Sin but that was a matter of the Discipline and Order of the Church which made it necessary to note such persons as walked disorderly 2 Thess. 3.14 1 Cor. 5.11 and to have no fellowship with them sometimes not so much as to eat with them who being Christians and such as were called Brothers were a reproach to their Profession But besides the Power given to the Apostles of binding and loosing which as was said on another Head belonged to other matters we find that when our Saviour breathed on his Apostles and gave them the Holy Ghost he with that told them That whose soever sins they remitted John 20.23 they were remitted and whose soever sins they retained they were retained Since a Power of remitting or retaining sin was thus given to them they infer that it seems reasonable that in order to their dispensing it with a due caution the knowledge of all sins ought to be laid open to them Some have thought that this was a Personal thing given to the Apostles with that Miraculous effusion of the Holy Ghost with which such a discerning of Spirits was communicated to them that they could discern the sincerity or hypocrisy of those that came before them by this St. Peter discovered the sin of Ananias and Saphira Acts 5.3 9. and he also saw that Simon of Samaria was in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity So they conclude that this was a part of that extraordinary and miraculous Authority which was given to the Apostles and to them only Acts 8.23 But others who distinguish between the full extent of this Power and the Ministerial Authority that is still to be continued in the Church do believe that these Words may in a lower and more limited Sense belong to the Successors of the Apostles but they argue very strongly that if these Words are to be understood in their full extent as they lie a Priest has by them an absolute and unlimited Power in this Matter not restrained to Conditions or Rules so that if he does Pardon or retain sins whether in that he does right or wrong the sins must be pardoned or retained accordingly He may indeed sin in using it wrong for which he must answer to God but he seems by the literal meaning of these Words to be cloathed with such a Plenipotentiary Authority that his Act must be valid though he may be punished for imploying it amiss An Ambassador that has full Powers though limited by secret Instructions does bind him that so empowered him by every Act that he does pursuant to his Powers how much soever it may go beyond his Instructions for how obnoxious soever that may render him to his Master it does not at all lessen the Authority of what he has done nor the Obligation that arises out of it So these words of Christ's if applied to all Priests must belong to them in their full extent and if so the Salvation or the Damnation of Mankind is put absolutely in the Priest's Power Nor can it be answered That the Conditions of the Pardon of sin that are expressed in the other parts of the Gospel are here to be understood though they are not expressed As we are said to be saved if we believe which does not imply that a single Act of believing the Gospel without any thing else puts us in a state of Salvation In Opposition to this we Answer That the Gospel having so described Faith to us as the Root of all other Graces and Virtues as that which produces them and which is known by them all that is promised upon our Faith must be understood of a Faith so qualified as the Gospel represents it and therefore that cannot be applied to this Case where an unlimited Authority is so particularly exprest that no Condition seems to be implied in it If any Conditions are elsewhere laid upon us in order to our Salvation then according to their Doctrine we may say that of them which they say of Contrition upon this occasion That they are necessary when we cannot procure the Priest's Pardon but that by it the want of them all may be supplied and that the Obligation to them all is superseded by it And if any Conditions are to be understood as limits upon this Power why are not all the Conditions of the Gospel Faith Hope and Charity Contrition and New Obedience made necessary in order to the lawful dispensing of it as well as Confession Attrition and the doing the Penance enjoyned Therefore since no Condition is here named as a restraint upon this General Power that is pretended to be given to Priests by those words of our Saviour they must either be understood as simple and unconditional or they must be limited to all the Conditions that are expressed in the Gospel For there is not the colour of a reason to restrain them to some of them and to leave out the rest And thus we think we are fully justified by saying that by these Words our Saviour did indeed fully empower the Apostles to publish his Gospel to the World and to declare the Terms of Salvation and of obtaining the Pardon of Sin in which they were to be infallibly assisted so that they could
these are of no Value being only Inventions to deceive Men and to expose Religion to Mockery But even severe and afflicting Fasting if done only as a Punishment which when it is over the Penance is believed to be compleated gives such a low Idea of God and Religion that from thence Men are led to think very slightly of Sin when they know at what price they can carry it off Such a continuance in Fasting in order to Prayer as humbles and depresses Nature and raises the Mind is a great mean to reform the World but Fasting as a prescribed Task to expiate our Sins is a scorn put upon Religion Prayer when it arises from a serious Heart that is earnest in it and when it becomes habitual is certainly a most effectual mean to reform the World and to fetch down Divine Assistances But to appoint so many vocal Prayers to be gone through as a Task and then to tell the World that the running through these with few or no inward Acts accompanying them is Contrition or Attrition this is liker a Design to root out all the Impressions of Religion and all sense of that Repentance which the Gospel requires than to promote it This may be a Task fit to accustom Children to but it is contrary to the true Genius of Religion to teach Men instead of that reasonable Service that we ought to offer up to God to give him only the Labour of the Lips which is the Sacrifice of Fools Prayers gone through as a Task can be of no value and can find no acceptation in the sight of God And as St. Paul said that if he gave all his goods to the poor and had not Charity he was nothing 1 Cor. 13 1 2. So the greatest profusion of Alms-giving when done in a mercenary Way to buy off and to purchase a Pardon is the turning of God's House from being a house of prayer to be a den of thieves Upon all these Reasons we except to the whole Doctrine and Practice of the Church of Rome as to the Satisfaction made by doing Penance And in the last place we except to the Form of Absolution in these Words I Absolve thee We of this Church who use it only to such as are thought to be near Death cannot be meant to understand any thing by it but the full Peace and Pardon of the Church For if we meant a Pardon with relation to God we ought to use it upon many other occasions The Pardon that we give in the Name of God is only declaratory of his Pardon or supplicatory in a Prayer to him for Pardon In this we have the whole Practice of the Church till the Twelfth Century universally of our side All the Fathers all the ancient Liturgies all that have writ upon the Offices and the first Schoolmen are so express in this Matter that the thing in Fact cannot be denied Morinus has published so many of their old Rituals that he has put an end to all doubting about it In the Twelfth Century some few began to use the Words I Absolve thee Yet to soften this Expression that seemed New and Bold some tempered it with these Words in so far as it is granted to my frailty and others with those Words as far as the accusation comes from thee and as the pardon is in me Yet this Form was but little practised So that William Bishop of Paris speaks of the Form of Absolution as given only in a Prayer and not as given in these Words I Absolve thee He lived in the beginning of the Fourteenth Century so that this Practice though begun in other Places before that Time yet was not known long after in so publick a City as Paris But some Schoolmen begun to defend it as implying only a declaration of the Pardon pronounced by the Priest And this having an air of more Authority and being once justified by Learned Men did so universally prevail that in little more than sixty Years time it became the universal Practice of the whole Latin Church So sure a thing is Tradition and so impossible to be changed as they pretend when within the compass of one Age the new Form I Absolve thee was not so much as generally known and before the end of it the old Form of doing it in a Prayer with Imposition of Hands was quite worn out The Idea that arises naturally out of these words is that the Priest pardons Sins and since that is subject to such abuses and has let in so much corruption upon that Church we think we have reason not only to deny that Penance is a Sacrament but likewise to affirm that they have corrupted this great and important Doctrine of Repentance in all the Parts and Branches of it Nor is the matter mended with that Prayer that follows the Absolution The Passion of our Lord Iesus Christ Rituale Romanum de sacr poeniten the Merits of the Blessed Virgin and all the Saints and all the good that thou hast done and the evil that thou hast suffered be to thee for the remission of Sins the increase of Grace and the reward of eternal Life The third Sacrament rejected by this Article is Orders which is reckoned the sixth by the Church of Rome We affirm that Christ appointed a Succession of Pastors in different Ranks to be continued in his Church for the Work of the Gospel and the Care of Souls and that as the Apostles setled the Churches they appointed different Orders of Bishops Priests and Deacons And we believe that all who are dedicated to serve in these Ministries after they are examined and judged worthy of them ought to be separated to them by the Imposition of Hands and by Prayer These were the only Rites that we find practised by the Apostles For many Ages the Church of God used no other therefore we acknowledge that Bishops Priests and Deacons ought to be blest and dedicated to the HolyMinistry by Imposition of Hands and Prayer And that then they are received according to the Order and Practice setled by the Apostles to serve in their respective Degrees Men thus separated have thereby Authority to perfect the Saints or Christians that is to perform the Sacred Functions among them to minister to them and to build them up in their most Holy Faith And we think no other Persons without such a Separation and Consecration can lawfully touch the Holy Things In all which we separate the Qualifications of the Functions from the inward Qualities of the Person the one not at all depending on the other The one relating only to the Order and the good Government of the Society and the other relating indeed to the Salvation of him that Officiates but not at all to the Validity of his Office or Service But in all this we see nothing like a Sacrament Here is neither Matter Form nor Institution here is only Prayer The laying on of Hands is only a gesture in Prayer
the Ancients as the only Viaticum of Christians in their last Passage With them we give that and no more Thus it appears upon what Reason we reject those Five Sacraments though we allow both of Confirmation and Orders as Holy Functions derived to us down from the Apostles and because there is a visible Action in these though in strictness that cannot be called a Sacrament yet so the thing be rightly understood we will not dispute about the Extent of a Word that is not used in Scripture Marriage is in no respect to be called a Sacrament of the Christian Religion tho' it being a State of such Importance to Mankind we hold it very proper both for the Solemnity of it and for Imploring the Blessing of God upon it that it be done with Prayers and other Acts of Religious Worship But a great difference is to be made between a pious Custom begun and continued by publick Authority and a Sacrament appointed by Christ. We acknowledge true Repentance to be One of the great Conditions of the New Covenant but we see nothing of the Nature of a Sacrament in it And for Extreme Unction we do not pretend to have the Gift of Healing among us and therefore we will not deceive the World by an Office that shall offer at that which we acknowledge we cannot do Nor will we make a Sacrament for the Good of the Soul out of that which is mentioned in Scripture only as a Rite that accompanied the curing the Diseases of the Body The last Part of this Article concerning the Use of the Sacraments consists of Two Parts the First is Negative that they are not ordained to be gazed on or to be carried about but to be used And this is so Express in the Scripture that little Question can be made about it The Institution of Baptism is go preach and baptize And the Institution of the Eucharist is take eat and drink ye all of it Which Words being set down before those in which the Consecrating them is believed to be made This is my body And this is my blood and the Consecratory Words being delivered as the Reason of the Command take eat and drink nothing can be more clearly exprest than this that the Eucharist is consecrated only that it may be used that it may be eat and drunk The Second Part of this Period is that the Effect of the Sacraments comes only upon the Worthy receiving of them of this so much was already said upon the first Paragraph of this Article that it is not necessary to add any more here The pretending that Sacraments have their Effect any other way is the bringing in the Doctrine and Practice of Charms into the Christian Religion And it tends to dissolve all Obligations to Piety and Devotion to a Holiness of Life or a Purity of Temper When the being in a Passive and perhaps Insensible State while the Sacraments are applied is thought a Disposition sufficient to give them their Vertue Sacraments are federal Acts and those visible Actions are intended to quicken us so that in the use of them we may raise our inward Acts to the highest Degrees possible but not to supply their Defects or Imperfections Our Opinion in this Point represents them as means to raise our Minds and to kindle our Devotion whereas the Doctrine of the Church of Rome represents them as so many Charms which may heighten indeed the Authority of him that Administers them but do extinguish and deaden all true Piety when such helps are offered by which the worst Men living and dying in a bad State may by a few faint Acts and perhaps by none at all of their own be well enough taken care of and secured But as we have not so learned Christ so neither dare we corrupt his Doctrine in its most vital and essential Parts ARTICLE XXVI Of the Unworthiness of the Ministers which hinder not the Effect of the Sacraments Altho in the Uisible Church the Evil be ever mingled with the Good and sometime the Evil have chief Authority in the Ministration of the Word and Sacraments yet for as much as they do not the same in their own Name but in Christ's and do Minister by his Commission and Authority we may use their Ministry both in hearing the Word of God and in receiving the Sacraments Neither is the Effect of Christ's Ordinance taken away by their Wickedness Nor the Grace of God's Gifts diminished from such as by Faith and rightly do receive the Sacraments ministred unto them which be Effectual because of Christ's Institution and Promise although they be ministred by Evil Men. Nevertheless it appertaineth to the Discipline of the Church that enquiry be made of Evil Ministers and that they be accused by those that have knowledge of their Offences and finally being found Guilty by just Iudgment to be deposed THE occasion that was given to this Article was the heat of some in the beginnings of the Reformation who being much offended at the publick Scandal which was given by the enormous Vices that were without any Disguise practised by the Roman Clergy of all Ranks did from thence revive the conceit of the Donatists who thought that not only Heresy and Schism did invalidate Sacred Functions but that personal Sins did also make them void It cannot be denied but that there are many Passages in St. Cyprian that look this Way and which seem to make the Sacraments depend as much on the good State that he was in who administred them as the Answer of their other Prayers did In the Progress of the Controversy with the Donatists they carried this Matter very far and considered the Effect of the Sacraments as the Answer of Prayers So since the Prayers of a wicked Man are Abomination to God they thought the Vertue of these Actions depended wholly on him that officiated Against this St. Augustin set himself very zealously He answered all that was brought from Cyprian in such a manner that by it he has set us a Pattern how we ought to separate the just Respect that we pay the Fathers from an Implicite receiving of all their Notions If this Conceit were allowed of it must go to the secret Thoughts and inward State in which he is who officiates for if the Sacraments are to be considered only as Prayers offered up by him then a Man can never be sure that he receives them Since it is impossible to see into the Hearts or know the Secrets of Men. Sacraments therefore are to be considered as the publick Acts of the Church and though the Effect of them as to him that receives them depends upon his Temper his Preparation and Application yet it cannot be imagined that the Vertue of those federal Acts to which Christians are admitted in them the Validity of them or the Blessings that follow them can depend on the secret State or Temper of him that Officiates Even in the case of publick Scandals though
or the body like the Notion that the Gentiles might have of their Februations or which is more natural considering to whom he writes like the Opinions that the Iews had of their Cleansings after their Legal Impurities from which their Washings and Bathings did absolutely free them The Salvation that we Christians have by Baptism is effected by that Federation into which we enter when upon the Demands that are made of our renouncing the Devil the World and the Flesh and of our believing in Christ and our Repentance towards God we make such Answers from a good Conscience as agree with the end and design of Baptism then by our thus coming into Covenant with God we are saved in Baptism So that the Salvation by Baptism is given by reason of the federal compact that is made in it Now this being made outwardly according to the Rules that are prescribed that must make the Baptism good among Men as to all the outward and visible effects of it But since it is the answer of a good Conscience only that saves then an answer from a bad Conscience from a hypocritical Person who does not inwardly think or purpose according to what he professes outwardly cannot save but does on the contrary aggravate his Damnation Therefore our Article puts the efficacy of Baptism in order to the forgiveness of our sins and to our Adoption and Salvation upon the vertue of Prayer to God that is upon those Vows and other acts of Devotion that accompany them So that when the seriousness of the mind accompanies the regularity of the action then both the outward and inward effects of Baptism are attained by it and we are not only Baptized into one Body but are also saved by Baptism So that upon the whole matter Baptism is a federal admission into Christianity in which on God's part all the Blessings of the Gospel are made over to the Baptized And on the other hand the Person Baptized takes on him by a solemn Profession and Vow to observe and adhere to the whole Christian Religion So it is a very natural distinction to say that the outward effects of Baptism follow it as outwardly performed but that the inward effects of it follow upon the inward acts but this difference is still to be observed between inward acts and outward actions that when the outward action is rightly performed the Church must reckon the Baptism good and never renew it But if one has been wanting in the inward acts those may be afterwards renewed and that want may be made up by Repentance Thus all that the Scriptures have told us concerning Baptism seems to be sufficiently explained There remains only one place that may seem somewhat strange St. Paul says that Christ sent him not to Baptize but to Preach 1 Cor. 1.17 Which some have carried so far as to infer from thence that Preaching is of more value than Baptism But it is to be considered that the Preaching of the Apostles was of the nature of a Promulgation made by Heraulds It was an act of a special Authority by which he in particular was to convert the World from Idolatry and Iudaism to acknowledge Iesus to be the true Messias Acts 8.26 to the end Now when Men by the Preaching of the Apostles and by the Miracles that accompanied it were so wrought on as to believe that Iesus was the Christ Acts 16.31 32 33. then according to the practice of Philip towards the Eunuch of Ethiopia and of St. Paul to his Jayler at Philippi they might immediately Baptize them yet most commonly there was a special Instruction to be used before Persons were Baptized who might in general have some Conviction and yet not be so fully satisfied but that a great deal of more pains was to be taken to carry them on to that full assurance of Faith which was necessary This was a work of much time and was to be managed by the Pastors or Teachers of the several Churches So that the meaning of what St. Paul says was this that he was to publish the Gospel from City to City but could not descend to the particular labour of preparing and instructing of the Persons to be Baptized and to the Baptizing them when so prepared If he had entred upon this Work he could not have made that progress nor have founded those Churches that he did All this is therefore misunderstood when it is applied to such Preaching as is still continued in the Church which does not succeed the Apostolical Preaching that was inspired and infallible but comes in the room of that Instruction and Teaching which was then performed by the Pastors of the Church The last Head in this Article relates to the Baptism of Infants which is spoken of with that moderation that appears very eminently through the whole Articles of our Church on this Head It is only said to be most agreeable with the Institution of Christ and that therefore it is to be in â—ny ways retained in the Church Now to open this it is to be considerâ—d that tho' Baptism and Circumcision do not in every particular come to a Parallel yet they do agree in two things The one is that both were the Rites of admission into their respective Covenants and to the Rights and Privileges that did arise out of them and the other is that in them both there was an Obligation laid on the Persons to the observance of that whole Law to which they were so initiated St. Paul arguing against Circumcision lays this down as an uncontested Maxim That if a Man was Circumcâ—â—â—d he became thereby a debtor to the whole law Parents had by the Iewish Constitution Gal. 5.3 an Authority given them to conclude their Children under that Obligation so that the Soul and Will of the Child was so far put in the power of the Parents that they could bring them under federal Obligations and thereby procure to them a share in federal Blessings And it is probable that from hence it was that when the Iews made Proselytes they considered them as having such Authority over their Children that they Baptized them first and then Circumcised them though Infants Now since Christ took Baptism from them and appointed it to be the federal Admission to his Religion as Circumcision had been in the Mosaical Dispensation it is reasonable to believe that except where he declared a change that he made in it in all other respects it was to go on and to continue as before especially when the Apostles in their first Preaching told the Iews that the Promises were made to them and to their Children Acts 2.39 which the Iews must have understood according to what they were already in possession of that they could initiate their Children into their Religion bring them under the obligations of it and procure to them a share in those Blessings that belonged to it The Law of Nature and Nations puts Children in the Power
delivered Hymenaeus and Alexander unto Satan that they might learn not to blaspheme And he ordered that the incestuous person at Corinth should be delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the Spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Iesus Certainly a Vicious indulgence to Sinners is an encouragement to them to live in Sin whereas when others about them try all methods for their Recovery and Mourn for those Sins in which they do perhaps Glory and do upon that withdraw themselves from all Communication with them both in Spirituals and as much as may be in Temporals likewise this is one of the last means that can be used in order to the reclaiming of them Another Consideration is the Peace and the Honour of the Society S. Paul wished that they were cut off that troubled the Churches Gal. 5.12 Great care ought to be taken that the Name of God and his Doctrine be not blasphemed and to give no occasion to the Enemies of our Faith to reproach us as if we designed to make Parties to promote our own Interests and to turn Religion to a Faction Excusing such as adhere to us in other things though they should break out into the most scandalous Violations of the greatest of all the Commandments of God Such a behaviour towards Excommunicated persons would also have this further good Effect It would give great Authority to that Sentence and fill mens minds with the Awe of it which must be taken off when it is observed that men converse familiarly with those that are under it These Rules are all founded upon the Principles of Societies which as they associate upon some common designs so in order to the pursuing those must have a power to separate themselves from those who depart from them In this Matter there are Extremes of both hands to be avoided Some have thought that because the Apostles have in general declared such persons to be accursed 1 Cor. 16.22 or under an Anathema who preach another Gospel and such as love not the Lord Iesus to be Anathema Maranatha which is generally understood to be a total cutting off never to be admitted till the Lord comes that therefore the Church may still put men under an Anathema for holding such unsound Doctrines as they think make the Gospel to become another in part at least if not in whole and that she may thereupon in imitation of another practice of the Apostles deliver them over unto Satan casting them out of the protection of Christ and abandoning them to the Devil Reckoning that the cutting them off from the Body of Christ is really the exposing them to the Devil who goes about as a Roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour But with what Authority soever the Apostles might upon so great a matter as the changing the Gospel or the not loving the Lord Iesus denounce an Anathema yet the applying this which they used so seldom and upon such great occasions to every Opinion after a Decision is made in it as it has carried on the Notion of the Infallibility of the Church so it has laid a Foundation for much Uncharitableness and many Animosities It has widened Breaches and made them incurable And unless it is certain that the Church which has so decreed cannot err it is a bold assuming of an Authority to which no fallible Body of men can have a Right That delivery unto Satan was visibly an act of a miraculous Power lodged with the Apostles For as they struck some blind or dead so they had an Authority of letting loose Evil Spirits on some to haunt and terrify or to punish and plague them that a desperate Evil might be cured by an extreme Remedy And therefore the Apostles never reckon this among the Standing Functions of the Church Nor do they give any Charge or Directions about it They used it themselves and but seldom It is true that S. Paul being carried by a just zeal against the Scandal which the incestuous person at Corinth had cast upon the Christian Religion did adjudg him to this severe degree of Censure But he judged it and did only order the Corinthians to publish it as coming from him with the power of our Lord Iesus Christ That so the thing might become the more publick and that the effects of it might be the more conspicuous The Primitive Church that being nearest the Fountain did best understand the Nature of Church-Power and the Effects of her Censures thought of nothing in this matter but of denying to suffer Apostates or rather scandalous persons to mix with the rest in the Sacrament or in other parts of Worship They admitted them upon the profession of their Repentance by an imposition of Hands to share in some of the more general parts of the Worship and even in these they stood by themselves and at a distance from the rest And when they had passed through several Degrees in that state of Mourning they were by steps received back again to the Communion of the Church This agrees well with all that was said formerly concerning the Nature and the Ends of Church-Power Which was given for edification and not for destruction 2 Cor. 10.8 This is suitable to the designs of the Gospel both for preserving the Society pure and for reclaiming those who are otherwise like to be carried away by the Devil in his snare This is to admonish Sinners as Brethren and not to use them as Enemies Whereas the other method looks like a power that designs Destruction rather than Edification especially when the Secular Arm is called in and that Princes are required under the Penalties of Deposition and losing their Dominions to extirpate and destroy and that by the cruellest sort of Death all those whom the Church doth so Anathematize We do not deny but that the form of denouncing or declaring Anathemas against Heresies and Hereticks is very Antient. It grew to be a Form expressing horror and was applied to the Dead as well as to the Living It was understood to be a cutting such Persons off from the Communion of the Church if they were still alive they were not admitted to any Act of Worship if they were dead their Names were not to be read at the Altar among those who were then commemorated But as heat about Opinions encreased and some lesser matters grew to be more valued then the weightier things both of Law and Gospel so the adding Anathemas to every point in which men differed from one another grew to be a common practice and swelled up at last to such a pitch that in the Council of Trent a whole Body of Divinity was put into Canons and an Anathema was fastened to every one of them The delivering to Satan was made the common Form of Excommunication an Act of Apostolical Authority being made a Precedent for the standing practice of the Church Great Subtilties were also set on foot concerning the force and