the design and effect of the Sin and Trespass-Offerings among the Iews and more particularly of the Goat that was offered up for the Sins of the whole People on the day of Atonement This was a piece of Religion well known both to Iew and Gentile that had a great many Phrases belonging to it such as the Sacrifices being offered for or instead of Sin and in the name or on the account of the Sinner it s bearing of Sin and becoming Sin or the Sin-offering it s being the Reconciliation the Atonement and the Redemption of the Sinner by which the Sin was no more imputed but forgiven and for which the Sinner was accepted When therefore this whole set of Phrases in its utmost extent is very often and in a great variety applied to the Death of Christ it is not possible for us to preserve any Reverence for the New Testament or the Writers of it so far as to think them even honest men not to say Inspired men if we can imagine That in so Sacred and Important a Matter they could exceed so much as to represent that to be our Sacrifice which is not truly so This is a Point that will not bear Figures and Amplifications it must be treated of strictly and with a just exactness of Expression Christ is called the lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world he is said to have born our sins on his own body to have been made sin for us John 1.29 1 Pet. 2.24 2 Cor. 5.21 Matth. 20.28 Rom. 3.25 1 Joh 2.1 Eph 1.7 Col. 1.14 20 21. Heb. 9.11 12 13 14 26 28. it is said That he gave his life a ransom for many That he was the propitiation for the sins of the whole world and that we have redemption through his blood even the remission of our sins It is said That he hath reconciled us to his Father in his cross and in the body of his flesh through death That he by his own blood entred in once into the Holy place having obtained Eternal Redemption for us That once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself That he was once offered to bear the sins of many That we are sanctified by the offering of the body of Christ once for all And That after he had offered one sacrifice for sin he sate down for ever at the right hand of God It is said That we enter into the holiest by the blood of Christ That is the blood of the New Covenant Heb. 10.10 12 14 19 29. Heb. 13.12.20 1 Pet. 1.19 1 Pet. 2.24 1 Pet. 3.18 by which we are sanctified That he hath sanctified the people with his own blood and was the great shepherd of his people through the blood of the everlasting Covenant That we are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot And That Christ suffered once for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God In these and a great many more passages that he spread in all the parts of the New Testament it is as plain as words can make any thing That the Death of Christ is proposed to us as our Sacrifice and Reconciliation our Atonement and Redemption So it is not possible for any man that considers all this to imagine That Christ's Death was only a Confirmation of his Gospel a Pattern of a holy and patient suffering of Death and a necessary preparation to his Resurrection by which he gave us a clear proof of a Resurrection and by consequence of Eternal Life as by his Doctrine he had shewed us the way to it By this all the high commendations of his Death amount only to this That he by dying has given a vast Credit and Authority to his Gospel which was the powerfullest mean possible to redeem us from Sin and to reconcile us to God But this is so contrary to the whole design of the New Testament and to the true Importance of that great variety of Phrases in which this Matter is set out that at this rate of Expounding Scripture we can never know what we may build upon especially when the great Importance of this thing and of our having right Notions concerning it is well considered St. Paul does in his Epistle to the Romans state an opposition between the Death of Christ Rom 5.12 to the end and the Sin of Adam the ill effects of the one being removed by the other but he plainly carries the Death of Christ much further than that it had only healed the Wound that was given by Adam's Sin for as the judgment was of one sin to Condemnation the free gift is of many offences to justification but in the other places of the New Testament Christ's Death is set forth so fully as a Propitiation for the Sins of the whole World that it is a very false way of arguing to inferr That because in one place That is set in opposition to Adam's Sin that therefore the virtue of it was to go no further than to take away that Sin It has indeed removed that but it has done a great deal more besides Thus it is plain That Christ's Death was our Sacrifice The meaning of which is this That God intending to reconcile the World to himself and to encourage Sinners to repent and turn to him thought fit to offer the pardon of Sin together with the other Blessings of his Gospel in such a way as should demonstrate both the Guilt of Sin and his Hatred of it and yet with that his love of Sinners and his compassions towards them A free Pardon without a Sacrifice had not been so agreeable neither to the Majesty of the Great Governor of the World nor the Authority of his Laws nor so proper a method to oblige men to that strictness and holiness of Life that he designed to bring them to And therefore he thought fit to offer his Pardon and those other Blessings through a Mediator who was to deliver to the World this new and holy Rule of Life and to confirm it by his own unblemisht Life And in conclusion when the Rage of Wicked men who hated him for the Holiness both of his Life and of his Doctrine did work them up into such a fury as to pursue him to a most Violent and Ignominious Death he in compliance with the secret design of his Father did not only go through that dismal series of Sufferings with the most intire Resignation to his Father's Will and with the highest Charity possible towards those who were his most Unjust and Malicious Murderers but he at the same time underwent great Agonies in his Mind which struck him with such an Amazement and Sorrow even to the Death that upon it he did sweat great drops of Blood and on the Cross he felt a withdrawing of those comforts that till then had ever supported him when he cried out
capable of a vast Inflammation and Elevation by which a man's powers might be exalted to much higher degrees of Knowledge and Capacity The Animal Spirits receiving their Quality from that of the Blood a new and a strong Fermentation in the Blood might râ—ise them and by consequence exalt a man to a much greater sublimity of Thought But with that it might dispose him to be easily inflamed by Appetites and Passions it might put him under the power of his Body and make his Body much more apt to be fired at outward Objects which might sink all Spiritual and pure Ideas in him and raise gross ones with much Fury and Rapidity Hereby his whole frame might be much corrupted and that might go so deep in him that all those who descended from him might be defiled by it as we see Madness and some Chronical Diseases pass from Parents to their Children All this might have been natural and as much the Physical effect of Eating the forbidden Fruit as it seems Immortality would have been that of Eating the Fruit of the Tree of Life This might have been in its nature a slow poison which must end in Death at last It may be very easy to make all this appear probable from Physical Causes A very small Accident may so alter the whole Mass of the Blood that in a very few Minutes it may be totally changed so the Eating the forbidden Fruit might have by a natural chain of things produced all this But this is only an Hypothesis and so is left as such All the Assistance that Revealed Religion can receive from Philosophy is to shew That a reasonable Hypothesis can be offered upon Physical Principles to shew the possibility or rather probability of any particulars that are contained in the Scriptures This is enough to sâ—op the mouths of Deists which is all the use that can be made of such Schemes To return to the main Point of the Fall of Adam He himself was made liable to Death But not barely to cease to live for Death and Life are terms opposite to one another in Scripture In Treating upon these Heads it is said That the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life Rom. 6.23 And though the addition of the word Eternal makes the Signification of the one more express yet where it is mentioned without that addition no doubt is to be made but that it is to be so meant As where it is said That to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace And believing we have life through his Name Rom. 8.6 Joh. 20.31 Joh. 5.50 Ye will not come unto me that ye may have life So by the rule of Opposites Death ought to be understood as a word of a general Signification which we who have the Comment of the New Testament to guide us in understanding the Old are not to restrain to a natural Death and therefore when we are said to be the servants of sin unto death we undersâ—and much more by it than a natural Death So God's threatning of Adam with Death ought not to be restrained to a natural Death Adam being thus defiled all Emanations from him must partake of that vitiated State to which he had brought himself But then the Question remains How came the Souls of his Posterity to be defiled for if they were created pure it seems to be an unjust Cruelty to them to condemn them to such an Union to a defiled Body as should certainly corrupt them All that can be said in Answer to this is That God has setled it as a Law in the Creation That a Soul should inform a Body according to the Texture of it and either conquer it or be mastered by it as it should be differently made and that as such a degree of Purity in the Texture of it might make it both pure and happy so a contrary degree of Texture might have very contrary effects And if with this God made another general Law that when all things were duly prepared for the propagation of the Species of Mankind a Soul should be always ready to go into and animate those first Threads and Beginnings of Life those Laws being laid down Adam by corrupting his own frame corrupted the frame of his whole Posterity by the general course of Things and the great Law of the Creation So that the suffering this to run through all the Race is no more only different in degrees and extent than the Suffering the folly or madness of a man to infect his Posterity In these things God acts as the Creator of the World by general Rules and these must not be altered because of the Sins and Disorders of men But they are rather to have their course that so Sin may be its own punishment The defilement of the Race being thus stated a Question remains Whether this can be properly called a Sin and such as deserves God's Wrath and Damnation On the one hand an opposition of Nature to the Divine Nature must certainly be hateful to God as it is the root of much malignity and sin Such a Nature cannot be the Object of his Love and of it self it cannnot be accepted of God Now since there is no mean in God between Love and Wrath Acceptation and Condemnation if such persons are not in the first order they must be in the second Yet it seems very hard on the other hand to apprehend how persons who have never actually sinned but are only unhappily descended should be in consequence to that under so great a misery To this several answers are made Some have thought that those who die before they commit any actual Sin have indeed no share in the favour of God but yet that they pass unto a state in the other World in which they suffer little or nothing The stating this more clearly will belong to another Opinion which shall be afterwards Explained There is a further Question made Whether this Vicious Inclination is a Sin or not Those of the Church of Rome as they believe that Original Sin is quite taken away by Baptism so finding that this corrupt Disposition still remains in us they do from thence conclude that it is no part of Original Sin but that this is the Natural State in which Adam was made at first only it is in us without the restraint or bridle of Supernatural Assistances which was given to him but lost by Sin and restored to us in Baptism But as was said formerly Adam in his first state was made after the Image of God so that his bodily powers were perfectly under the command of his mind This Revolt that we feel our Bodies and Senses are always in cannot be supposed to be God's Original Workmanship There are great Disputings raised concerning the meaning of a long Discourse of St. Paul's the 7th of the Romans concerning a constant struggle that he felt within himself which some arguing
Such a Faith as this justifies but not as it is a Work or meritorious Action that of its own nature puts us in the Favour of God and makes us truly just But as it is the Condition upon which the Mercy of God is offered to us by Christ Jesus For then we correspond to his design of coming into the World that he might redeem us from all Iniquity Tit. 2.14 that is justify us And purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works that is sanctify us Upon our bringing our selves therefore under these Qualifications and Conditions we are actually in the Favour of God Our Sins are pardoned and we are entitled to Eternal Life Our Faith and Repentance are not the valuable Considerations for which God pardons and justifies that is done meerly for the Death of Christ which God having out of the Riches of his Grace provided for us and offered to us Justification is upon those accounts said to be free There being nothing on our part which either did or could have procured it But still our Faith which includes our Hope our Love our Repentance and our Obedience is the Condition that makes us capable of receiving the benefits of this Redemption and Free Grace And thus it is clear in what sense we believe that we are justified both freely and yet through Christ and also through Faith as the Condition indispensably necessary on our part In strictness of words we are not justified till the final Sentence is pronounced Till upon our Death we are solemnly acquitted of our Sins and admitted into the Presence of God this being that which is opposite to Condemnation Yet as a Man who is in that state that must end in Condemnation is said to be condemned already Joh. 3.18 and the wrath of God is said to abide upon him tho' he be not yet adjudged to it So on the contrary a Man in that state which must end in the full Enjoyment of God is said now to be justified and to be at peace with God because he not only has the Promises of that state now belonging to him when he does perform the Conditions required in them but is likewise receiving daily Marks of God's Favour the protection of his Providence the Ministry of Angels and the inward Assistances of his Grace and Spirit This is a Doctrine full of comfort for if we did believe that our Justification was founded upon our Inherent Justice or Sanctification as the Consideration on which we receive it we should have just cause of Fear and Dejection since we could not reasonably promise our selves so great a Blessing upon so poor a Consideration but when we know that this is only the Condition of it then when we feel it is sincerely received and believed and carefully observed by us we may conclude that we are justified But we are by no means to think that our certain persuasion of Christ's having died for us in particular or the certainty of our Salvation through him is an Act of saving Faith much less that we are justified by it Many things have been too crudely said upon this Subject which have given the Enemies of the Reformation great Advantages and have furnished them with much matter of Reproach We ought to believe firmly That Christ died for all Penitent and Converted Sinners and when we feel these Characters in our selves we may from thence justly infer That he died for us and that we are of the Number of those who shall be Saved through him But yet if we may fall from this state in which we do now feel our selves we may and must likewise forfeit those hopes and therefore we must work out our Salvation with fear and trembling Our believing that we shall be Saved by Christ is no Act of Divine Faith since every Act of Faith must be founded on some Divine Revelation It is only a Collection and Inference that we may make from this general Proposition That Christ is the propitiation for the Sins of those who do truly repent and believe his Gospel and from those Reflections and Observations that we make on our selves by which we conclude That we do truly both repent and believe ARTICLE XII Of Good Works Albeit that Good Works which are the fruits of Faith and follow after Iustification cannot put away our Sins and endure the severity of God's Iudgment yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively Faith insomuch that by them a lively Faith may be as evidently known as a Tree discerned by the fruit THat Good works are indispensably necessary to Salvation that without holiness no man shall see the Lord is so fully and frequently exprest in the Gospel that no doubt can be made of it by any who reads it And indeed a greater disparagement to the Christian Religion cannot be imagined than to propose the hopes of God's Mercy and Pardon barely upon Believing without a Life suitable to the Rules it gives us This began early to corrupt the Theories of Religion as it still has but too great an influence upon the Practice of it What St. Iames writ upon this Subject must put an end to all doubting about it and whatever Subtilties some may have set up to separate the consideration of Faith from a holy Life in the point of Iustification yet none among us have denied that it was absolutely necessary to Salvation And so it be owned as necessary it is a nice curiosity to examine whether it is of it self a Condition of Justification or if it is the certain distinction and constant effect of that Faith which justifies These are Speculations of very little consequence as long as the main Point is still maintained That Christ came to bring us to God to change our Natures to mortify the Old man in us and to raise up and restore that Image of God from which we had fallen by Sin And therefore even where the Thread of Men's Speculations of these Matters may be thought too fine and in some Points of them wrong drawn yet so long as this Foundation is preserved that every one who nameth the name of Christ does depart from iniquity 2 Tim. 2.19 so long the Doctrine of Christ is preserved pure in this Capital and Fundamental Point There do arise out of this Article only two Points about which some Debates have been made 1st Whether the Good Works of Holy Men are in themselves so perfect that they can endure the severity of God's Judgment so that there is no mixture of imperfection or Evil in them or not The Council of Trent has decreed That Men by their Good Works have so fully satisfied the Law of God according to the state of this Life that nothing is wanting to them The second Point is Whether these Good Works are of their own nature meritorious of Eternal Life or not The Council of Trent has decreed that
Grace of Christ and the Inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God forasmuch as they spring not of Faith in Iesus Christ neither do they make men meet to receive Grace or as the School-Authors say deserve Grace of Congruity Yea rather for that they are not done as God hath commanded and willed them to be done we doubt not but that they have the nature of Sin THere is but one Point to be considered in this Article which is Whether Men can without any inward Assistances from God do any Action that shall be in all its circumstances so good that it is not only acceptable to God but meritorious in his sight though in a lower degree of merit If what was formerly laid down concerning a Corruption that was spread over the whole Race of Mankind and that had very much vitiated their Faculties be true then it will follow from thence That unassisted Nature can do nothing that is so good in it self that it can be pleasant or meritorious in the sight of God A great difference is here to be made between an external Action as it is considered in it self and the same Action as it was done by such a Man An Action is called good from the Morality and Nature of the Action it self so Actions of Justice and Charity are in themselves good whatsoever the Doer of them may be But Actions are considered by God with relation to him that does them in another light his Principles Ends and Motives with all the other circumstances of the Action come into this Account for unless all these be good let the Action in its own abstracted nature be ever so good it cannot render the Doer acceptable or meritorious in the sight of God Another distinction is also to be made between the Methods of the Goodness and Mercy of God and the strictness of Justice For if God had suchregard to the feigned Humiliation of Ahab 1 Kings 21.29 as to grant him and his Family a Reprieve for some time from those Judgments that had been denounced against them and him and if Iehu's executing the Commands of God upon Ahab's Family and upon the Worshippers of Baal procured him the Blessing of a long continuance of the Kingdom in his Family though he acted in it with a bad design 2 Kings 10.30 31. and retained still the old Idolatry of the Calves set up by Ieroboam then we have all reason to conclude according to the Infinite Mercy and Goodness of God that no Man is rejected by him or denied inward Assistances that is making the most of his Faculties and doing the best that he can but that he who is faithful in his little shall be made Ruler over more The Question is only Whether such Actions can be so pure as to be free from all sin and to Merit at God's hand as being Works naturally perfect for that is the formal Notion of the Merit of Congruity as the Notion of the Merit of Condignity is That the Work is perfect in the Supernatural Order To establish the Truth of this Article beside what was said upon the Head of Original Sin we ought to consider what St. Paul's words in the 7 th of the Romans do import Nothing was urged from them on the former Articles because there is just ground of doubting whether St. Paul is there speaking of himself in the state he was in when he writ it or whether he is personating a Iew and speaking of himself as he was while yet a Iew. But if the words are taken in that lowest sense they prove this That an Unregenerate Man has in himself such a Principle of Corruption that even a good and a holy Law revealed to him cannot reform it but that on the contrary it will take occasion from that very Law to deceive him and to slay him Rom. 7.12 13. So that all the benefit that he receives even from that Revelation is Ver. 14. that sin in him becomes exceeding sinful as being done against such a degree of Light by which it appears that he is carnal and sold under sin and that though his Understanding may be enlighten'd by the Revelation of the Law of God made to him so that he has some Inclinations to obey it yet he does not that which he would but that which he would not And though his Mind is so far convinced 16 17 18 that he consents to the Law that it is good yet he still does that which he would not which was the effect of sin that dwelt in him and from hence he knew that in him that is in his flesh in his carnal part or carnal state there dwelt no good thing for though to will that is to resolve on obeying the Law was present yet he found not a way how to perform that which was good the good that he wished to do that he did not but he did the evil that he wished not to do which he imputed to the sin that dwelt in him He found then a Law a Bent and Biass within him 21 that when he wished resolved and endeavoured to do good evil was present with him it sprung up naturally within him for though in his rational Powers he might so far approve the Law of God as to delight in it yet he found another Law arising upon his Mind from his Body 23 which warred against the law of his mind and brought him into captivity to the law of sin which was in his members 24 25. All this made him conclude that he was carnal and sold under sin and cry out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death For this he thanks God through our Lord Iesus Christ And he sums all up in these words So then with the mind I my self serve the Law of God but with the flesh the Law of Sin If all this Discourse is made by St. Paul of himself when he had the Light which a Divinely-inspired Law gave him he being educated in the exactest way of that Religion both zealous for the Law and blameless in his own observance of it we may from thence conclude how little reason there is to believe that a Heathen or indeed an unregenerated Man can be better than he was and do Actions that are both good in themselves which it is not denied but that he may do and do them in such a manner that there shall be no mixture nor imperfection in them but that they shall be perfect in a Natural Order and be by consequence meritorious in a Secondary Order By all this we do not pretend to say That a Man in that state can do nothing or that he has no use of his Faculties He can certainly restrain himself on many occasions he can do many good works and avoid many bad ones he can raise his Understanding to know and consider things according to the Light that he has he can put
For so great and so important a Matter as this is must be supposed to be either expresly declared in the Scriptures or not at all The Article affirming That some General Councils have erred must be understood of Councils that pass for such and that may be called General Councils much better than many others that go by that Name For that at Arimini was both very Numerous and was drawn out of many different Provinces As to the strict Notion of a General Council there is great Reason to believe that there was never any Assembly to which it will be found to agree And for the Four General Councils which this Church declares she receives they are received only because we are persuaded from the Scriptures that their Decisions were made according to them That the Son is truly God of the same Substance with the Father That the Holy Ghost is also truly God That the Divine Nature was truly united to the Human in Christ and that in One Person That both Natures remain distinct and that the Human Nature was not swallowed up of the Divine These Truths we find in the Scriptures and therefore we believe them We reverence those Councils for the sake of their Doctrine but do not believe the Doctrine for the Authority of the Councils There appeared too much of Human Frailty in some of their other Proceedings to give us such an Implicite Submission to them as to believe things only because they so Decided them ARTICLE XXII Of Purgatory The Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory Pardons Worshipping and Adoration as well of Images as of Relicks and also Invocation of Saints is a fond thing vainly invented and grounded upon no warrant of Scripture but rather repugnant to the Word of God THERE are two small Variations in this Article from that published in King Edward's Reign What is here called the Romish Doctrine is there called the Doctrine of School-men The plain reason of this is that these Errors were not so fully espoused by the Body of the Roman Church when those Articles were first published so that some Writers that softened matters threw them upon the School-men and therefore the Article was cautiously worded in laying them there But before these that we have now were published the Decree and Canons concerning the Mass had passed at Trent in which most of the Heads of this Article are either affirmed or supposed though the formal Decree concerning them was made some Months after these Articles were published This will serve to justifie that diversity The second difference is only the leaving out a severe word Perniciously repugnant to the Word of God was put at first but perniciously being considered to be only a hard word they judged very right in the Second Edition of them that it was enough to say repugnant to the Word of God There are in this Article five Particulars that are all Ingredients in the Doctrine and Worship of the Church of Rome Purgatory Pardons the Worship of Images and of Relicks and the Invocation of Saints that are rejected not only as ill grounded brought in and maintained without good warrants from the Scripture but as contrary to it The first of these is Purgatory concerning which the Doctrine of the Church of Rome is that every Man is liable both to Temporal and to Eternal Punishment for his Sins that God upon the Account of the Death and Intercession of Christ does indeed pardon Sin as to its Eternal Punishment but the Sinner is still liable to Temporal Punishment which he must expiate by Acts of Pennance and Sorrow in this World together with such other Sufferings as God shall think fit to lay upon him but if he does not expiate these in this Life there is a State of Suffering and Misery in the next World where the Soul is to bear the Temporal punishment of its Sins which may continue longer or shorter till the Day of Judgment And in order to the shortening this the Prayers and Supererogations of Men here on Earth or the Intercession of the Saints in Heaven but above all things the Sacrifice of the Mass are of great Efficacy This is the Doctrine of the Church of Rome asserted in the Councils of Florence and Trent What has been taught among them concerning the Nature and the Degrees of those Torments though supported by many pretended Apparitions and Revelations is not to be imputed to the whole Body and is indeed only the Doctrine of Schoolmen though it is generally preached and infused into the Consciences of the People Therefore I shall only examine that which is the established Doctrine of the whole Roman Church And first as to the Foundation of it that Sins are only pardoned as to their Eternal Punishment to those who being justified by faith have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ. Rom. 5.1 There is not a colour for it in the Scriptures Remission of Sins is in general that with which the Preaching of the Gospel ought always to begin and this is so often repeated without any such reserve that it is a high assuming upon God and his Attributes of Goodness and Mercy to limit these when he has not limited them but has expresly said that this is a main part of the New Covenant Jer. 31.34 Heb. 8.12 that he will remember our sins and iniquities no more Now it seems to be a Maxim not only of the Law of Nations but of Nature that all offers of Pardon are to be understood in the full extent of the Words without any secret Reserves or Limitations unless they are plainly expressed An Indemnity being offered by a Prince to persuade his Subjects to return to their Obedience in the fullest Words possible without any reserves made in it it would be lookt on as a very perfidious thing if when the Subjects come in upon it trusting to it they should be told that they were to be secured by it against Capital Punishments but that as to all Inferior Punishments they were still at Mercy We do not dispute whether God if he had thought fit so to do might not have made this distinction nor do we deny that the Grace of the Gospel had been infinitely valuable if it had offered us only the Pardon of Sin with relation to its Eternal Punishment and had left the Temporal Punishment on us to be expiated by our selves but then we say this ought to have been expressed The Distinction ought to have been made between Temporal and Eternal and we ought not to have been drawn into a Covenant with God by words that do plainly import an intire Pardon and Oblivion upon which there lay a limited Sense that was not to be told the World till it was once well engaged in the Christian Religion Upon these Reasons it is that we conclude that this Doctrine not being contained in the Scriptures is not only without any warrant in them but that it is contrary to those full offers of
the Word baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you By the first Teaching or making of Disciples that must go before Baptism is to be meant the Convincing the World that Iesus is the Christ the true Messias anointed of God with a fulness of Grace and of the Spirit without measure and sent to be the Saviour and Redeemer of the World And when any were brought to acknowledge this then they were to Baptize them to initiate them to this Religion by obliging them to Renounce all Idolatry and Ungodliness as well as all secular and carnal Lusts and then they led them into the Water and with no other Garments but what might cover Nature they at first laid them down in the Water as a Man is laid in a Grave and then they said those words I baptize or wash thee in the Name of the Father Rom. 6.3 4 5. Son and Holy Ghost Then they raised them up again and clean Garments were put on them From whence came the Phrases of being baptized into Christ's death Col. 2.12 Col. 3.1 10. Rom. 13.14 of being buried with him by baptism into death Of our being risen with Christ and of our putting on the Lord Iesus Christ of putting off the Old Man and putting on the New After Baptism was thus performed the baptized Person was to be farther instructed in all the Specialities of the Christian Religion And in all the Rules of Life that Christ had prescribed This was plainly a different Baptism from St. Iohn's a Profession was made in it not in general of the Belief of a Messias soon to appear but in particular that Iesus was the Messias The Stipulation in St. Iohn's Baptism was Repentance but here it is the Belief of the whole Christian Religion In St. Iohn's Baptism they indeed promised Repentance and he received them into the earnests of the Kingdom of the Messias but it does not appear that St. Iohn either did promise them Remission of Sins or that he had Commission so to do For Repentance and Remission of Sins were not joined together till after the Resurrection of Christ Luke 24.47 that he appointed that Repentance and Remission of Sins should be preached in his Name among all Nations beginning at Ierusalem In the Baptism of Christ I mean that which he appointed after his Resurrection for the Baptism of his Disciples before that time was no doubt the same with St. Iohn's Baptism there was to be an Instruction given in that great Mystery of the Christian Religion concerning the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost which those who had only received St. Iohn's Baptism knew not They did not so much as know that there was a Holy Ghost Acts 19.2 3 4 5. That is they knew nothing of the extraordinary Effusion of the Holy Ghost And it is expresly said that those of St. Iohn's Baptism when St. Paul explained to them the difference between the Baptism of Christ and that of St. Iohn that they were baptized in the Name of the Lord Iesus For St. Iohn in his Baptism had only initiated them to the belief of a Messias but had not said a word of Iesus as being that Messias Joh. 3.3 5 6. So that this must be fixed that these two Baptisms were different the one was a dawning or imperfect beginning to the other as he that administred the one was like the Morning Star before the Sun of Righteousness Our Saviour had this Ordinance that was then imperfect and was to be afterwards compleated when he himself had finished all that he came into the World to do he had I say this visibly in his eye when he spake to Nicodemus and told him that except a man were born again he could not see or discern the Kingdom of God By which he meant that entire change and renovation of a man's mind and of all his powers through which he must pass before he could discern the true Characters of the Dispensation of the Messias for that is the sense in which the Kingdom of God does stand almost universally through the whole Gospel When Nicodemus was amazed at this odd expression and seemed to take it literally our Saviour answered more fully Verily verily I say unto thee except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God The meaning of which seems to be this that except a man came to be renewed by an ablution like the Baptism which the Iews used that imported the outward profession of a change of Doctrine and of Heart and with that except he were inwardly changed by a secret power called the Spirit that should transform his nature he could not become one of his Disciples or a true Christian which is meant by his entring into the Kingdom of God or the Dispensation of the Messias Upon this Institution and Commission given by Christ we see the Apostles went up and down Preaching and Baptizing And so far were they from considering Baptism only as a carnal Rite or a low Element above which a higher Dispensation of the Spirit was to raise them that when St. Peter saw the Holy Ghost visibly descend upon Cornelius and his Friends he upon that immediately Baptized them and said Acts 10.44 47 48. Can any man forbid or deny water that these should not be baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we Our Saviour has also made Baptism one of the Precepts tho' not one of the Means necessary to Salvation A Mean is that which does so certainly procure a thing that it being had the thing to which it is a certain and necessary Mean is also had and without it the thing cannot be had there being a natural connexion between it and the End Whereas a Precept is an Institution in which there is no such natural efficiency but it is positively commanded so that the neglecting it is a contempt of the Authority that commanded it And therefore in obeying the Precept the value or vertue of the action lies only in the obedience This distinction appears very clearly in what our Saviour has said both of Faith and Baptism Mark 16.16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned Where it appears that Faith is the Mean of Salvation with which it is to be had and not without it since such a believing as makes a man receive the whole Gospel as true and so firmly to depend upon the Promises that are made in it as to observe all the Laws and Rules that are prescribed by it such a Faith as this gives us so sure a title to all the Blessings of this New Covenant that it is impossible that we should continue in this state and not partake of them and it is no less impossible that we should partake of them
given either to Superstition or Irreverence And for the Sick or the Prisoners we think it is a greater Mean to quicken their Devotion as well as it is a closer adhering to the Words of the Institution to Consecrate in their Presence for tho' we can bear with the practice of the Greek Church of reserving and sending about the Eucharist when there is no Idolatry joyned with it yet we cannot but think that this is the continuance of a practice which the state of the first Ages introduced and that was afterwards kept up out of a too scrupulous imitation of that time without considering that the difference of the state of the Christians in the former and in the succeeding Ages made that what was at first innocently practised since a real necessity may well excuse a want of exactness in some matters that are only positive became afterwards an occasion of much Superstition and in conclusion ended in Idolatry Those ill effects that it had are more than is necessary to justifie our practice in reducing this strictly to the first Institution As for the lifting up of the Eucharist there is not a word of it in the Gospel nor is it mentioned by St. Paul Neither Iustin Martyr nor Cyril of Ierusalem speak of it there is nothing concerning it neither in the Constitutions nor in the Areopagite In those first Ages all the Elevation that is spoken of is the lifting up their Hearts to God The Elevation of the Sacrament began to be practised in the Sixth Century for it is mentioned in the Liturgy called St. Chrysostome's but believed to be much latter than his time â—erm Const. in Theor. Tit. 12. Bibl. patr Ivo Carn Ep. de Sacr Missae T. 2. Bibl. pat German a Writer of the Greek Church of the Thirteenth Century is the first that descants upon it he speaks not of it as done in order to the Adoration of it but makes it to represent both Christ's being lifted up on the Cross and also his Resurrection Ivo of Chartres who lived in the end of the 11 th Century is the first of all the Latins that speaks of it but then it was not commonly practised for the Author of the Micrologus tho' he writ at the same time yet does not mention it who yet is very minute upon all particulars relating to this Sacrament Nor does Ivo speak of it as done in order to Adoration but only as a form of shewing it to the People Dur. Rat. div offic lib. 4. de Sexta parte Can. Durand a Writer of the 13 th Century is the first that speaks of the Elevation as done in order to the Adoration So it appears that our Church by cutting off these Abuses has restored this Sacrament to its Primitive Simplicity according to the Institution and the practice of the first Ages ARTICLE XXIX Of the Wicked which eat not the Body of Christ in the Use of the Lord's-Supper The wicked and such as be void of a lively Faith altho they do carnally and visibly press with their Teeth as St. Austin saith the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ yet in no wise are they partakers of Christ but rather to their condemnation do eat and drink the Sign or Sacrament of so great a thing THIS Article arises naturally out of the Former and depends upon it For if Christ's Body is corporally present in the Sacrament then all Persons good or bad who receive the Sacrament do also receive Christ On the other hand if Christ is Present only in a Spiritual Manner and if the Mean that receives Christ is Faith then such as believe not do not receive him So that to prove that the Wicked do not receive Christ's Body and Blood is upon the Matter the same thing with the proving that he is not corporally Present And it is a very considerable Branch of our Argument by which we prove that the Fathers did not believe the corporal Presence because they do very often say That the Wicked do not receive Christ in the Sacrament Here the same distinction is to be made that was mentioned upon the Article of Baptism The Sacraments are to be considered either as they are Acts of Church-Communion or as they are federal Acts by which we enter into Covenant with God With respect to the Former the visible Profession that is made and the Action that is done are all that can fall under human cognisance So a Sacrament must be held to be good and valid when as to outward appearance all things are done according to the Institution But as to the internal Effect and Benefit of it that turns upon the Truth of the Profession that is made and the sincerity of those Acts which do accompany it For if these are not seriously and sincerely performed God is dishonoured and his Institution is prophaned Our Saviour has expresly said that whosoever eats his Flesh and drinks his Blood has eternal Life From thence we conclude that no Man does truly receive Christ who does not at the same time receive with him both a Right to eternal Life and likewise the beginnings and earnests of it The Sacrament being a federal Act he who dishonours God and prophanes this Institution by receiving it unworthily becomes highly guilty before God and draws down Judgments upon himself And as it is confessed on all hands that the inward and spiritual Effects of the Sacrament depend upon the State and Disposition of him that Communicates so we who own no other Presence but an inward and spiritual one cannot conceive that the Wicked who believe not in Christ do receive him In this Point several of the Fathers have delivered themselves very plainly Origen says Christ is the true Food whosoever eats him shall live for ever of whom no wicked Person can eat Comment in Matth. c. 15. for if it were possible that any who continues Wicked should eat the Word that was made Flesh it had never been written Whoso eats this Bread shall live for ever This comes after a Discourse of the Sacrament which he calls the typical and symbolical Body and so it can only belong to it In another place he says The Good eat the living Bread which came down from Heaven but the Wicked eat dead Bread which is Death Tom. â— Spiâ—il Sacr. d' Achâ—ry Zeno Bishop of Verona who is believed to have lived near Origen's time has these words There is cause to fear that he in whom the Devil dwells does not eat the Flesh of our Lord nor drink his Blood though he seems to communicate with the Faithful since our Lord has said He that eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood dwells in me and I in him St. Ierom says They that are not Holy in Body and Spirit do neither eat the Flesh of Iesus nor drink his Blood In cap. 66. Isaiae of which he said He that eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood hath eternal Life Tract