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
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
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
for mutual Condescension and Sympathy Upon all these grounds it is evident that the Holy Spirit is in the Scripture proposed to us as a Person under whose Oeconomy all the various Gifts Administrations and Operations that are in the Church are put The Second Particular relating to this Article is the Procession of this Spirit from the Father and the Son The Word Procession or as the Schoolmen term it Spiration is only made use of in order to the naming this Relation of the Spirit to the Father and Son in such a manner as may best answer the sense of the word Spirit For it must be confessed that we can frame no explicite Idea of this matter and therefore we must speak of it either strictly in Scripture-Words or in such Words as arise out of them and that have the same Signification with them It is therefore a vain Attempt of the Schoolmen to undertake to give a reason why the Second Person is said to be generated and so is called Son and the Third to proceed and so is called Spirit All these Subtilties can have no Foundation and signify nothing towards the clearing this matter which is rather darkned than cleared by a pretended Illustration In a word as we should never have believed this Mystery if the Scripture had not revealed it to us so we understand nothing concerning it besides what is contained in the Scriptures And therefore if in any thing we must think soberly upon those Subjects The Scriptures call the Second Son and the Third Spirit so Generation and Procession are words that may well be used but they are words concerning which we can form no distinct Conception We only use them because they belong to the words Son and Spirit The Spirit in things that we do understand is somewhat that proceeds and the Son is a Person begotten we therefore believing that the Holy Ghost is a Person apply the word Procession to the manner of his Emanation from the Father though at the same time we must acknowledge that we have no distinct Thought concerning it So much in general concerning Procession It has been much controverted whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father only or from the Father and the Son In the first Disputes concerning the Divinity of the Holy Ghost with the Macedonians who denied it there was no other Contest but whether he was truly God or not When that was settled by the Council of Constantinople it was made a part of the Creed but it was only said that he Proceeded from the Father And the Council of Ephesus soon after that fixed on that Creed decreeing that no Additions should be made to it Yet about the end of the Sixth Century in the Western Church an Addition was made to the Article by which the Holy Ghost was affirmed to proceed from the Son as well as from the Father And when the Eastern and Western Churches in the Ninth Century fell into an humour of quarrelling upon the account of Jurisdiction after some time of Anger in which they seem to be searching for matter to reproach one another with they found out this difference The Greeks reproached the Latins for thus adding to the Faith and corrupting the Ancient Symbol and that contrary to the Decree of a General Council The Latins on the other hand charged them for detracting from the Dignity of the Son And this became the chief Point in Controversy between them Here was certainly a very unhappy Dispute inconsiderable in its Original but fatal in its Consequences We of this Church though we abhor the Cruelty of condemning the Eastern Churches for such a difference yet do receive the Creed according to the usage of the Western Churches And therefore though we do not pretend to explain what Procession is we believe according to the Article That the Holy Ghost proceeds both from the Father and the Son Because in that Discourse of our Saviour's that contains the Promise of the Spirit and that long Description of him as a Person Christ not only says That the Father will send the Spirit in his name but adds That he will send the Spirit Joh. 14.26 and though he says next who proceedeth from the Father yet since he sends him Joh. 15.26 and that he was to supply his room and to act in his Name this implies a Relation and a sort of Subordination in the Spirit to the Son This may serve to justify our adhering to the Creeds as they had been for many Ages received in the Western Church But we are far from thinking that this Proof is so full and explicite as to justify our Separating from any Church or condemning it that should stick exactly to the first Creeds and reject this Addition The Third Branch of the Article is That this Holy Ghost or Person thus proceeding is truly God of the same Substance with the Father and the Son That he is God was formerly proved by those Passages in which the whole Trinity in all the Three Persons is affirm'd But besides that the lying to the Holy Ghost by Ananias and Saphira is said to be a lying not unto men Act. 5.34 but to God His being called another Comforter his teaching all things his guiding into all truth his telling things to come his searching all things even the deep things of God his being called the Spirit of the Lord in opposition to the spirit of a man his making intercession for us his changing us into the same image with Christ are all such plain Characters of his being God that those who deny that are well aware of this That if it is once proved that he is a Person it will follow that he must be God therefore all that was said to prove him a Person is here to be remembred as a Proof that he is truly God So that though there is not such a variety of Proofs for this as there was for the Divinity of the Son yet the Proof of it is plain and clear And from what was said upon the First Article concerning the Unity of God it is also certain that if he is God he must be of one Substance Majesty and Glory with the Father and the Son ARTICLE VI. Of the Sufficiency of Holy Scriptures for Salvation Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation So that whatsoevet is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any Man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation In the Name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament of whose Authority was never any doubt in the Church Of the Names and Number of the Canonical Books Genesis The First Book of Samuel The Book of Hester Exodus The Second Book of Samuel The Book of Iob Leviticus The First Book of Kings The Psalms Numbers The Second Book of Kings The Proverbs
Sacraments  MS. the Injunctions also lately set forth  Pr. the Injunctions also set forth  MS. and serve in the Wars  Pr. and serve in lawful Wars Art 38. MS. every man oughteth of such things  Pr. every man ought of such things Art 39. Edw. 6. qui sequuntur non sunt in MS. WE Th' archbishops and Bishops of either Province of this Realm of England lawfully gathered together in this Provincial Synod holden at London with Continuations and Prorogations of the same do receive profess and acknowledge the xxxviii Articles before written in xix Pages going before to contain true and sound doctrine and do approve and ratify the same by the subscription of our hands the xi â—h day of May in the year of our Lord 1571. and in the year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lady Elizabeth by the Grace of God of England France and Ireland Queen Defender of the Faith c. the thirteenth Matthue Cantuar. Rob. Winton Jo. Heref. Richarde Ely Nic. Wigorn. Jo. Sarisburien Edm. Roffen N. Bangor Ri. Cicestren Thom. Lincoln Willhelmus Exon. From these Diversities a great difficulty will naturally arise about this whole Matter The Manuscripts of Corpus Christi are without doubt Originals The hands of the Subscribers are well known they belonged to Archbishop Parker and were left by him to that College and they are Signed with a particular care for at the end of them there is not only a Sum of the number of the Pages but of the Lines in every Page And though this was the Work only of the Convocation of the Province of Canterbury yet the Archbishop of York with the Bishops of Duresme and Chester Subscribed them likewise and they were also Subscribed by the whole Lower House But we are not sure that the like care was used in the Convocation Anno 1571. for the Articles are only Subscribed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Ten Bishops of his Province nor does the Subscription of the Lower House appear These Articles were first Printed in the Year 1563. conform to the present Impressions which are still in use among us So the Alterations were then made while the thing was fresh and well known therefore no Fraud nor Artifice is to be suspected since some Objections would have been then made especially by the great Party of the Complying Papists who then continued in the Church They would not have failed to have made much use of this and to have taken great advantages from it if there had been any occasion or colour for it and yet nothing of this kind was then done One Alteration of more Importance was made in the Year 1571. Those words of the 20 th Article The Church hath power to Decree Rites or Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies of Faith were left out both in the Manuscripts and in the Printed Editions but were afterwards restored according to the Articles Printed Anno 1563. I cannot find out in what Year they were again put in the Printed Copies They appear in two several Impressions in Queen Elizabeth's Time which are in my hands It passes commonly that it was done by Archbishop Laud and his Enemies laid this upon him among other things That he had corrupted the Doctrine of this Church by this addition but he cleared himself of that as well he might and in a Speech in the Star-Chamber appealed to the Original and affirmed these words were in it The true account of this difficulty is this When the Articles were first setled they were Subscribed by Both Houses upon Paper but that being done they were afterward Ingrossed in Parchment and made up in Form to remain as Records Now in all such Bodies many Alterations are often made after a minute or first Draught is agreed on before the matter is brought to full Perfection so these Alterations as most of them are small and inconsiderable were made between the time that they were first Subscribed and the last Voting of them But the Original Records which if extant would have cleared the whole matter having been burnt in the Fire of London it is not possible to Appeal to them yet what has been proposed may serve I hope fully to clear the difficulty I now go to consider the Articles themselves ARTICLE I. Of Faith in the Holy Trinity There is but one living and true God everlasting without bodie parts or passions of infinite power wisdom and goodness the maker and preserver of all things both visible and invisible and in the unity of this godhead there be three persons of one substance power and eternity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost THE Natural Order of Things required That the First of all Articles in Religion should be concerning the Being and Attributes of God For all other Doctrines arise out of this But the Title appropriates this to the Holy Trinity because that is the only part of the Article which peculiarly belongs to the Christian Religion since the rest is Founded on the Principles of Natural Religion There are Six Heads to be Treated of in order to the full opening of all that is contained in this Article 1. That there is a God 2. That there is but One God 3. Negatively That this God hath neither Body Parts nor Passions 4. Positively That he is of Infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness 5. That he at first Created and does still Preserve all things not only what is Material and Visible but also what is Spiritual and Invisible 6. The Trinity is here Asserted These being all Points of the highest consequence it is very necessary to state them as clearly and to prove them as fully as may be The First is That there is a God This is a Proposition which in all Ages has been so universally received and believed some very few Instances being only assigned of such as either have denied or doubted of it that the very consent of so many Ages and Nations of such different Tempers and Languages so vastly remote from one another has been long esteemed a good Argument to prove that either there is somewhat in the Nature of Man that by a secret sort of Instinct does dictate this to him or that all Mankind has descended from one common Stock and that this belief has passed down from the first Man to all his Posterity If the more Polite Nations had only received this some might suggest that wise men had introduced it as a mean to govern human Society and to keep it in order Or if only the more barbarous had received this it might be thought to be the effeâ—t of their Fear and their Ignorance but since all Sorts as well as all Ages of men have received it this alone goes a great way to assure us of the Being of a God To this Two things are Objected 1 st That some Nations such as Sâ—ldania Formosa and some in America have been discovered in these last Ages that seem to acknowledge no
Holy Ghost it must be understood of the Father for when the Father is named with Christ sometimes he is called God simply and sometimes God the Father This Argument from the Threefold Salutation appears yet stronger in the Words in which St. Iohn addresses himself to the Seven Churches in the beginning of the Revelations Rev. 1.4 5. Grace and Peace from him which is which was and which is to come and from the seven Spirits which are before his Throne and from Iesus Christ. By the Seven Spirits must be meant one or more Persons since he wishes or declares Grace and Peace from them Now either this must be meant of Angels or of the Holy Ghost There are no where Prayers made or Blessings given in the Name of Angels This were indeed a worshipping them against which there are express Authorities not only in the other Books of the New Testament but in this Book in particular Nor can it be imagined that Angels could have been named before Iesus Christ So then it remains that Seven being a Number that imports both Variety and Perfection and that was the Sacred Number among the Iews this is a Mystical Expression which is no extraordinary thing in a Book that is all over mysterious And it imports one Person from whom all that variety of Gifts Administrations and Operations that were then in the Church did flow And this is the Holy Ghost But as to his being put in order before Christ as upon the supposition of an Equality the going out of the common order is no great matter so since there was to come after this a full Period that concerned Christ it might be a natural way of Writing to name him last Against all this it is objected That the Designation that is given to the first of these in a Circumlocution that imports Eternity shews that the Great God and not the Person of the Father is to be meant But then how could St. Iohn writing to the Churches wish them Grace and Peace from the other Two A few Verses after this the same Description of Eternal Duration is given to Christ and is a strong Proof of his Eternity and by consequence of his Divinity So what is brought so soon after as a Character of the Eternity of the Son may be also here used to denote the Eternal Father These are the Chief Places in which the Trinity is mentioned all together I do not insist on that contested Passage of St. Iohn's Epistle There are great doubtings made about it 1 Joh. 5.7 The main ground of doubting being the Silence of the Fathers who never made use of it in the Disputes with the Arians and Macedonians There are very considerable things urged on the other hand to support the Authority of that Passage yet I think it is safer to build upon sure and undisputable grounds So I leave it to be maintained by others who are more fully persuaded of its being Authentical There is no need of it This matter is capable of a very full Proof whether that Passage is believed to be a part of the Canon or not It is no small Confirmation of the Truth of this Doctrine that we are certain it was universally received over the whole Christian Church long before there was either a Christian Prince to support it by his Authority or a Council to establish it by Consent And indeed the Council of Nice did nothing but declare what was the Faith of the Christian Church with the addition only of the Word Consubstantial For if all the other Words of the Creed settled at Nice are acknowledged to be true that of the Three Persons being of one Substance will follow from thence by a just consequence We know both by what Tertullian and Novatian writ what was the Faith both of the Roman and the African Churches From Irenaeus we gather the Faith both of the Gallican and the Asiatick Churches And the whole proceedings in the Case of Samosatenus that was the solemnest business that past while the Church was under Oppression and Persecution give us the most convincing Proof possible not only of the Faith of the Eastern Churches at that time but of their Zeal likewise in watching against every Breach that was made in so Sacred a part of their Trust and Depositum These things have been fully opened and enlarged on by others to whom the Reader is referred I shall only desire him to make this Reflection on the state of Christianity at that time The Disputes that were then to be managed with the Heathens against the Deifying or Worshipping of Men and those extravagant Fables concerning the Genealogies of their Heroes and Gods must have obliged the Christians rather to have silenced and supprest the Doctrine of the Trinity than to have owned and published it So that nothing but their being assured that it was a Necessary and Fundamental Article of their Faith could have led them to own it in so publick a manner since the Advantages that the Heathen would have taken from it must be too visible not to be soon observed The Heathens retorted upon them their Doctrine of a Man's being a God and of God's having a Son And every one who engaged in this Controversy framed such Answers to these Objections as he thought he could best maintain This as it gave the Rise to the Errors which some brought into the Church so it furnishes us with a Copious Proof of the common Sense of the Christians of those Ages who all agreed in general to the Doctrine though they had many different and some very Erroneous ways of explaining it among them I now come to the special Proofs concerning each of the Three Persons But there being other Articles relating to the Son and the Holy Ghost the Proofs of these Two will belong more properly to the Explanation of those Articles Therefore all that belongs to this Article is to prove that the Father is truly God but that needs not be much insisted on for there is no dispute about it None deny that he is God many think that he is so truly God that there is no other that can be called God besides him unless it be in a larger sense of the word And therefore I will here conclude all that seems necessary to be said on this first Article on which if I have dwelt the longer it was because the stating the Idea of God right being the Fundamental Article of all Religion and the Key into every part of it this was to be done with all the Fulness and Clearness possible In a word to recapitulate a little what has been said The liveliest way of framing an Idea of God is to consider our own Souls which are said to be made after the Image of God An attentive Reflection on what we perceive in our selves will carry us further than any other thing whatsoever to form just and true Thoughts of God We perceive what Thought is but
with that we do also perceive the advantage of such an easy Thought as arises out of a Sensation such as Seeing or Hearing which gives us no trouble we think without any trouble of many of the Objects that we see all at once or so near all at once that the progression from one Object to another is scarce perceptible but the labour of Study and of pursuing Consequences wearies us though the Pleasure or the Vanity of having found them out compensates for the Pain they gave us and sets men on to new Enquiries We perceive in our selves a love of Truth and a vexation when we see we are in Error or are in the dark and we feel that we act the most perfectly when we act upon the clearest Views of Truth and in the strictest pursuance of it and the more present and regular the more calm and steady that our Thoughts of all things are that lye in our compass to know present past or to come we do plainly perceive that we do thereby become perfecter and happier Beings Now out of all this we can easily rise up in our Thoughts to an Idea of a Mind that sees all things by a clear and full Intuition without the possibility of being mistaken and that ever acts in that Light upon the surest Prospect and with the perfectest Reason and that does therefore always rejoice in every thing it does and has a constant Perception of all Truth ever present to it This Idea does so genuinely arise from what we perceive both of the Perfections and the Imperfections of our own Minds that a very little Reflection will help us to form it to a very high degree The Perception also that we have of Goodness of a desire to make others good and of the pleasure of effecting it of the joy of making any one wiser or better of making any one's Life easy and of raising his Mind higher will also help us in the forming of our Ideas of God But in this we meet with much difficulty and disappointment So this leads us to apprehend how diffusive of it self Infinite Goodness must needs be and what is the Eternal Joy that Infinite Love has in bringing so many to that exalted state of endless Happiness We do also feel a Power issuing from us by a Thought that sets our Bodies in motion The Varieties in our Thoughts create a vast Variety in the state of our Bodies but with this as that Power is limited to our own Bodies so it is often check'd by Disorders in them and the Soul suffers a great deal from those painful Sensations that its Union with the Body subjects it to From hence we can easily apprehend how the Supreme Mind can by a Thought set Matter into what Motions it will all Matter being constantly subject to such Impressions as the Acts of the Divine Mind give it This Absolute Dominion over all Matter makes it to move and shapes it according to the Acts of that Mind and Matter has no Power by any Irregularity it falls into to resist those Impressions which do immediately command and govern it nor can it throw any uneasy Sensations into that Perfect Being This conduces also to give us a distinct Idea of Miracles All Matter is uniform and it is only the variety of its Motions and Texture that makes all the variety that is in the World Now as the Acts of the Eternal Mind gave Matter its first Motion and put it into that Course that we do now call the Course of Nature so another Act of the same Mind can either suspend stop or change that Course at pleasure as he who throws a Bowl may stop it in its Course or throw it back if he will this being only the altering that Impulse which himself gave So if one Act of the Infinite Mind puts things in a regular Course another Act interposed may change that at pleasure And thus with Relation to God Miracles are no more difficult than any other Act of Providence They are only more amazing to us because they are less ordinary and go out of the Common and Regular Course of Things By all this it appears how far the Observation of what we perceive concerning our selves may carry us to form livelier and clearer Thoughts of God So much may suffice upon the First Article ARTICLE II. Of the Word or Son of God which was made very Man The Son which is the Word of the Father begotten from Everlasting of the Father the very and Eternal God of One Substance with the Father took Man's Nature in the Womb of the Blessed Uirgin of her Substance so that two whole and perfect Natures that is the Godhead and Manhood were joined together in one Person never to be divided whereof is one Christ very God and very Man who truly suffered was dead and buried to reconcile his Father to us and to be a Sacrifice not only for Original guilt but also for actual Sins of Men. THERE are in this Article Five Heads to be Explained I. That the Son or Word is of the same Substance with the Father begotten of him from all Eternity II. That he took Man's Nature upon him in the Womb of the Blessed Virgin and of her Substance III. That the Two Natures of the Godhead and Manhood both still perfect were in him joined in one Person never to be divided IV. That Christ truly suffered was Crucified Dead and Buried V. That he was our Sacrifice to Reconcile the Father to us and that not only for Original Guilt but for Actual Sins The first of these leads me to prosecute what was begun in the former Article And to prove That the Son or Word was from all Eternity begotten of the same Substance with the Father It is here to be noted That Christ is in Two respects the Son and the only begotten Son of God The one is As he was Man the Miraculous overshadowing of the B. Virgin by the H. Ghost having without the ordinary course of Nature formed the first beginnings of Christ's Human Body in the Womb of the Virgin Thus that Miracle being instead of a Natural begetting he may in that respect be called the begotten and the only begotten Son of God The other sense is That the Word or the Divine Person was in and of the Substance of the Father and so was truly God It is also to be considered That by the Word one Substance is to be understood that this second Person is not a Creature of a Pure and Excellent Nature like God Holy and Perfect as we are called to be but is truly God as the Father is Begetting is a term that naturally signifies the Relation between the Father and the Son But what it strictly signifies here is not possible for us to understand till we comprehend this whole Matter nor can we be able to assign a Reason why the Emanation of the Son and not that of the H. Ghost likewise is called begetting In
an Argument for it from our Saviour's Example He begins with the dignity of his Person expressed thus That he was in the form of God and that he thought it no robbery to be equal with God Then his Humiliation comes That he made himself of no reputation but took on him the form of a servant the same Word with that used in the former Verse after which follows his Exaltation and a Name or Authority above every Name or Authority is said to be given him so that all in Heaven Earth and under the Earth which seems to Import Angels Men and Devils should bow at his Name and confess that he is the Lord. Now in this Progress that is made in these words it is plain That the Dignity of Christ's Person is represented as Antecedent both to his Humiliation and to his Exaltation It was that which put the value on his Humiliation as his Humiliation was rewarded by his Exaltation This Dignity is expressed first That he was in the Form of God before he humbled himself He was certainly in the form of a Servant that is really a Servant as other Servants are He was obedient to his Parents he was under the Authority both of the Romans of Herod and of the Sanhedrim Therefore since his being really a Servant is expressed by his being in the form of a Servant his being in the form of God must also import That he was truly God But the â—ollowing words That he thought it not robbery to be equal or be held equal for so the word may be rendred with God carry such a natural Signification of his being neither a Made nor Subordinate God and that his Divinity is neither precarious nor by concession that fuller words cannot be devised for expressing an entire Equality Those who deny this are aware of it and therefore they have put another sense on the words in the form of God They think That they signify his appearing in the World as one sent in the Name of God representing him Working Miracles and delivering a Law in his Name and the words rendred he thought it no robbery they render he did not catch at or vehemently desire to be held in equal honour with God And some Authorities are found in Eloquent Greek Authors who use the words rendred he thought it not robbery in a figurative sense for the earnestness of desire or the pursuing after a thing greedily as Robbers do for their Prey This rendring represents St. Paul as Treating so sacred a Point in the Figures of a high and seldom-used Rhetorick which one would think ought to have been expressed more exactly But if even this sense is allowed it will make a strange Period and a very odd sort of an Argument to enforce Humility upon us because Christ though Working Miracles did not desire or snatch at Divine Adorations in an Equality with God The Sin of Lucifer and the cause of his Fall is commonly believed to be his desire to be equal to God and yet this seems to be such an extravagant piece of pride that it is scarce possible to think That even the Sublimest of Created Beings should be capable of it To be next to God seems to be the utmost heigth to which even the Diabolical Pride could aspire So that here by the Sense which the Socinians put on those words they will import That we are persuaded to be humble from the Example of Christ who did not affect an Equality with God The bare repeating of this seems so fully to expose and overthrow it that I think it is not necessary to say more upon this place Acts 20.28 1 Joh. 3.16 1 Joh. 5.20 Tit. 2.13 Jam. 2.1 The next head of Proof is made up of more particulars All the Names the Operations and even the Attributes of God are in full and plain words given to Christ. He is called God his Blood is said to be the Blood of God God is said to have laid down his life for us Christ is called the true God the great God the Lord of Glory the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and more particularly the Name Iehovah is ascribed to him in the same word in which the LXX Interpreters had Translated it throughout the whole Old Testament Rev. 1.8 Rev. 19.16 So that this constant Uniformity of Stile between the Greek of the New and that Translation of the Old Testament which was then received and was of great Authority among the Iews and was yet of more Authority among the first Christians is an Argument that carries such a weight with it that this alone may serve to determine the Matter The Creating the Preserving and the Governing of all things is also ascribed to Christ in a variety of placâ—s but most remarkably when it is said That by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth Visible and Invisible Whether they be Thrones Col. 1.16.17 â—ohn 2.25 Mat. â—1 27. Mat. 9.6 Joh. 15.26 Joh. 14.13 Joh. 5 25 26. Joh. 6.39 40. or Dominions or Principalities or Powers all things were created by him and for him And he is before all things and by him all things consist He is said to have known what was in man to have known mens secret thoughts and to have known all things That as the Father was known of none but of the Son so none know the Son but the Father He pardons Sin sends the Spirit gives Grace and Eternal Life and he shall raise the dead at the last day When all these things are laid together in that variety of Expressions in which they lie scattered in the New Testament it is not possible to retain any reverence for those Books if we imagine that they are writ in a Stile so full of approaches to the Deifying of a mere Man that without a very Critical studying of Languages and Phrases it is not possible to understand them otherwise Idolatry and a Plurality of Gods seem to be the main things that the Scriptures warn us against and yet here is a pursued Thread of Passages and Discourses that do naturally lead a man to think that Christ is the True God who yet according to these men only acted in his Name and has now a high Honour put on him by him This carries me to another Argument to prove that the Word that was made Flesh was truly God Nothing but the True God can be the proper Object of Adoration This is one of those Truths that seems almost so evident that it needs not to be proved Adoration is the humble Prostration of our selves before God in Acts that own our dependance upon him both for our Being and for all the Blessings that we do either enjoy or hope for and also in earnest Prayers to him for the continuance of these to us This is testified by such outward Gestures and Actions as are most proper to express our Humility and Submission to God All this has
all impure Desires being enjoined as indispensably necessary for without holiness no man can see the Lord. And thus every thing relating to this Article is considered and I hope both explained and proved ARTICLE VIII Of the Three Creeds The Three Creeds Nice Creed Athanasius Creed and that which is commonly called the Apostles Creed ought throughly to be received and believed for they may be proved by most certain Warrants of Holy Scripture ALthough no doubt seems to be here made of the Names or Designations given to those Creeds except of that which is ascribed to the Apostles yet none of them are named with any exactness Since the Article of the Procession of the Holy Ghost and all that follows it is not in the Nicene Creed but was used in the Church as a part of it for so it is in Epiphanius In Anchoreto before the Second General Council at Constantinople and it was confirmed and established in that Council Only the Article of the Holy Ghost's proceeding from the Son was afterwards added first in Spain Anno 447. which spread it self over all the West So that the Creed here called the Nice Creed is indeed the Constantinopolitan Creed together with the Addition of Filioque made by the Western Church That which is called Athanasius's Creed is not his neither â—or as it is not among his Works so that great Article of the Christian Religion having been settled at Nice and he and all the rest of the Orthodox referring themselves always to the Creed made by that Council there is no reason to imagine that he would have made a Creed of his own besides that not only the Macedonian but both the Nestorian and the Eutychian Heresies are expresly condemned by this Creed and yet those Authorities never being urged in those Disputes it is clear from thence that no such Creed was then known in the World as indeed it was never heard of before the Eighth Century and then it was given out as the Creed of Athanasius or as a Representation of his Doctrine and so it grew to be received by the Western Church perhaps the more early because it went under so great a Name in Ages that were not Critical enough to judge of what was genuine and what was spurious There is one great difficulty that arises out of several Expressions in this Câ—â—ed in which it is said That whosover will be saved must believe it That the Belief of it is necessary to Salvation and that such as do not hold it pure and undefiled shall without doubt perish everlastingly Where many Explanations of a Mystery hard to be understood are made indispensably necessary to Salvation and it is affirmed That all such as do not so believe must perish everlastingly To this two Answers are made 1. That it is only the Christian Faith in general that is hereby meant and not every Period and Article of this Creed so that all those severe Expressions are thought to import only the necessity of believing the Christian Religion But this seems forced for the words that follow And the Catholick Faith is do so plainly determine the sâ—gnification of that word to the Explanation that comes after that the word Catholick Faith in the first Verse can be no other than the same word as it is defined in the third and following Verses so that this Answer seems not natural 2. The common Answer in which the most Eminent Men of this Church as far as the Memory of all such as I have known could go up have agreed is this That these Condemnatory Expressions are only to be understood to relate to those who having the Means of Instruction offered to them have rejected them and have stifled their own Convictions holding the Truth in Unrighteousness and chusing darkness rather than light Upon such as do thus reject this great Article of the Christian Doctrine concerning One God and Three Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost and that other concerning the Incarnation of Christ by which God and Man were so united as to make one Person together with the other Doctrines that follow these are those Anathâ—maes denounced Not so as if it were hereby meant that every man who does not believe this in every tittle must certainly perish unless he has been furnished with sufficient means of conviction and that he has rejected them and hardned himself against them The Wrath of God is revealed against all sin and the wages of sin is Death So that every Sinner has the Wrath of God abiding on him and is in a state of Damnation yet a sincere Repentance delivers him out of it even though he lives and dies in some sins of Ignorance which though they may make him liable to damnation so that nothing but true Repentance can deliver him from it yet a general Repentance when it is also special for all known sins does certainly deliver a man from the guilt of unknown sins and from the Wrath of God due to them God only knows our hearts the degrees of our knowledge and the measure of our obstinacy and how far our Ignorance is affected or invincible and therefore he will deal with every man according to what he has received So that we may believe that some Doctrines are necessary to Salvation as well as that there are some Commandments necessary for Practice and we may also believe that some Errors as well as some Sins are exclusive of Salvation all which imports no more than that we believe such things are sufficiently revealed and that they are necessary Conditions of Salvation but by this we do not limit the Mercies of God towards those who are under such darkness as not to be able to see through it and to discern and acknowledge these Truths It were indeed to be wished that some express Declaration to this purpose were made by those who have Authority to do it But in the mean while this being the Sense in which the Words of this Creed are universally taken and it agreeing with the Phraseology of the Scripture upon the like occasions this is that which may be rested upon And allowing this large Explanation of these severe words the rest of this Creed imports no more than the Belief of the Doctrine of the Trinity which has been already proved in treating of the former Articles As for the Creed called the Apostles Creed there is good reason for speaking so doubtfully of it as the Article does since it does not appear that any determinate Creed was made by them None of the first Writers agree in delivering their Faith in a certain Form of Words every one of them gives an Abstract of his Faith in Words that differ both from one another and from this Form From thence it is clear that there was no common Form delivered to all the Churches And if there had been any Tradition after the Times of the Council of Nice of such a Creed composed by the Apostles the Arians
by the Prayer of St. Paul for the Ephesians who had already heard the Gospel preached and were instructed in it That the eyes of their understanding being enlightened they might know what was the hope of his calling Eph. 1.17 18 19. and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints and what was the exceeding greatness of his power towards them that believed This seems to be somewhat that is both Internal and Efficacious Christ compares the Union and Influence that he communicates to Believers to that Union of a Head with the Members and of a Root with the Branches which imports an Internal a Vital and an Efficacious Influence And though the outward means that are offered may be and always are rejected when not accompanied with his overcoming Grace yet this never returns empty These outward means coming from God the resisting of them is said to be the resisting God the grieving or quenching his Spirit Act. 7.51 Eph. 4.30 Jam. 1.17 18. Joh. 13.1 Heb. 13.5 and so in that sense we resist the Grace or Favour of God But we can never withstand him when he intends to overcome us As for Perseverance it is a necessary consequence of Absolute Decrees and of Efficacious Grace For since all depends upon God and that as of his own will he begat us so with him there is neither variableness nor shadow of turning Whom he loves he loves to the end and he has promised That he will never leave nor forsakâ— those to whom he becomes a God We must from thence conclude That the purpose and calling of God is without Repentance And therefore though good Men may fall into grievous Sins to keep them from which there are dreadful things said in Scripture against their falling away or Apostacy yet God does so uphold them that though he suffers them often to feel the weight of their Natures yet of all that are given by the Father to the Son to be saved by him none are lost Upon the whole Matter They believe that God did in himself and for his own Glory foreknow such a determinate Number whom he pitched upon to be the persons in whom he would be both Sanctified and Glorified That having thus foreknown them he predestinated them to be holy conformable to the Image of his Son That these were to be called not by a General Calling in the Sense of these words Many are called but few are chosen but to be called according to his purpose Matth. 20 16. Rom. 8.29 30. Rom. 9.18 And those he justified upon their obeying that Calling and he will in conclusion Glorify them Nor are these words only to be limited to the Sufferings of good Men they are to be extended to all the effects of the love of God according to that which follows That nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ. The whole Reasoning in the 9 th of the Romans does so plainly resolve all the acts of God's Mercy and Justice his hardning as well as his pardoning into an Absolute Freedom and an Unsearchable Depth that more express words to that effect can hardly be imagined It is in general said That the children being yet unborn neither having done good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of work but of him that calleth Iacob was loved and Esau hated ver 11. ver 17. ver 20. ver 22. That God raised up Pharaoh that he might shew his power in him and when an Objection is suggested against all this instead of Answering it it is silenced with this Who art thou O Man that repliest against God And all is illustrated with the Figure of the Potter and concluded with this solemn Question What if God willing to shew his wrath and to make his power known endured with much long-suffering the Vessels of wrath fitted to destruction This carries the Reader to consider what is so often repeated in the Book of Exodus concerning God's hardning the heart of Pharaoh Exod. 4.21.10.18.11.10.14.8 Prov. 16.4 Acts 1.48 Rev. 13.8.3.5.20.12.21.27 Rom. 1.26 28. so that he would not let his people go It is said That God has made the wicked man for the day of evil as it is written on the other hand That as many believed the Gospel as were appointed to eternal life Some are said to be written in the book of life of the lamb slain before the foundation of the world or according to God's purpose before the world began Vngodly Men are said to be of old ordained to condemnation and to be given up by God unto vile affections and to be given over by him to a reprobate mind Therefore they think that Reprobation is an absolute and free act of God as well as Election to manifest his Holiness and Justice in them who are under it as well as his Love and Mercy is manifested in the Elect. Nor can they think with the Sublapsarians That Reprobation is only God's passing by those whom he does not elect this is an act unworthy of God as if he forgot them which does clearly imply Imperfection And as for that which is said concerning their being fallen in Adam they argue That either Adam's Sin and the Connexion of all Mankind to him as their Head and Representative was absolutely decreed or it was not If it was then all is absolute Adam's Sin and the Fall of Mankind were decreed and by consequence all from the beginning to the end are under a continued Chain of Absolute Decrees and then the Supralapsarian and the Sublapsarian Hypothesis will be one and the same only variously expressed But if Adam's Sin was only foreseen and permitted then a conditionate Decree founded upon Prescience is once admitted so that all that follows turns upon it and then all the Arguments either against the Perfection of such Acts or the Certainty of such a Prescience turn against this for if they are admitted in any one Instance then they may be admitted in others as well as in that The Sublapsarians do always avoid to answer this and it seems they do rather incline to think that Adam was under an Absolute Decree and if so then tho' their Doctrine may seem to those who do not examin things nicely to look more plausible yet really it amounts to the same thing with the other For it is all one to say that God decreed that Adam should sin and that all Mankind should fall in him and that then God should chuse out of Mankind thus fallen by his Decree such as he would save and leave the rest in that lapsed state to perish in it as it is to say That God intending to save some and to damn others did in order to the carrying this on in a method of of Justice decree Adam's Fall and the Fall of Mankind in him in order to the saving of his Elâ—ct and the damning of the rest All that the Sublapsarians say in this
were to deliver him up â— Sam. 23. â—1 12. and yet both the one and the other was upon the condition of his staying there and he going from thence neither the one nor the other ever happen'd Here was a Conditionate Prescience Such was Christ's saying That those of Tyre and Sidon Sodom and Gomorrah would have turned to him Matth. 11. â—1 22. if they had seen the Miracles that he wrought in some of the Towns of Galilee Since then thisPrescience may be so certain that it can never be mistaken nor misguide theDesigns orProvidence of God and since by this both the Attributes of God are vindicated and the due Freedom of the Will of Man is asserted all difficulties seem to be easily cleared this way As for the giving to some Nations and Persons the Means of Salvation and the denying these to others the Scriptures do indeed ascribe that wholly to the Riches and Freedom of God's Grace but still they think that he gives to all Men that which is necessary to the state in which they are to answer the Obligations they are under in it And that this Light and common Grace is sufficient to carry them so far that God will either accept of iâ— or give them further degrees of Illumination From which it must be inferâ—â—d That all Men are inexcusable in his sight and that God is always just and clear when he judges Psal. 51.4 since every Man had that which was sufficient if not to save him yet at least to bring him to a state of Salvation But besides what is thus simply necessary and is of it self sufficient thâ—râ—â—re innumerable Favours like Largesses of God's Grace and Goodness these â—od gâ—ves freely as he pleases And thus the great Designs of Providence go on according to the Goodness and Mercy of God None can complain tho' some have more cause 〈◊〉 rejoice and glory in God than others What happens to Nations in a Body may also happen to Individuals some may have higher Privileges â—e put in happier Circumstances and have such Assistances given them as God foresees will become effectual and not only those which though they be in their nature sufficient yet in the Event will be ineffectual Every Man ought to complain of himself for not using that which was sufficient as he might have done and all good Men will have matter of rejoycing in God for giving them what he foresaw would prove effectual After all they acknowledge there is a depth in this of God's not giving all Nations an equal measure of Light nor putting all Men into equally happy Circumstances which they cannot unriddle but still Justice Goodness and Truth are saved tho' we may imagine a Goodness that may do to all Men what is absolutely the best for them And there they confess there is a difficulty but not equal to those of the other side From hence it is that they expound all those Passages in the New Testament concerning the Purpose the Election the Foreknowledge and the Predestination of God so often mentioned All those they say relate to God's design of calling the Gentile World to the knowledge of the Messias This was kâ—pt secret tho' Hints of it are given in several of the Prophets so it was a Mystery but it was then revealed when according to Christ's Commission to his Apostles to go and teach all Nations they went Preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles This was a Stumbling-block to the Iews and it was the chief Subject of Controversy betwixt them and the Apostles at the time when the Epistles were writ So it was necessary for them to clear this very fully and to come often over it But there was no need of amusing People in the beginnings of Christianity and in that first infancy of it with high and unsearchable Speculations concerning the Decrees of God Therefore they observe that the Apostles shew how that Abraham at first Isaac and Iacob afterwards were chosen by a discriminating Favour That they and their Posterity should be in Covenant with God And upon that occasion the Apostle goes on to shew that God had always designed to call in the Gentiles though that was not executed but by their Ministry With this Key one will find a plain coherent sense in all St. Paul's Discourses on this Subject without asserting antecedent and special Decrees as to particular Persons Things that happen under a permissive and directing Providence may be also in a largeness of expression ascribed to the Will and Counsel of God for a permissive and directing Will is really a Will though it be not antecedent nor causal The hardning Pharaoh's heart may be ascribed to God though it is said that his heart hardned it self Exod. 7.22 Exod. 8.15 19 32. because he took occasion from the stops God put in those Plagues that he sent upon him and his People to encourage himself when he saw there was a new Respite granted him And he who was a cruel and bloody Prince deeply engaged in Idolatry and Magick had deserved such Judgments for his other Sins so that he may be well considered as actually under his final Condemnation only under a Reprieve not swallowed up in the first Plagues but preserved in them and raised up out of them to be a lasting Monument of the Justice of God against such hardned Impenitency Whom he will he hardneth Rom. 9.18 must be still restrained to such Persons as that Tyrant was It is endless to enter into the discussion of all the Passages cited from the Scripture to this purpose this Key serving as they think it does to open most of them It is plain these Words of our Saviour concerning those whom the Father had given him are only to be meant of a Dispensation of Providence and and not of a Decree since he adds And I have lost none of them Joh. 17.12 Phil. 2.12 Acts 13.48 except the son of Perdition For it cannot be said that he was in the Decree and yet was lost And in thâ— same Period in which God is said to work in us both to will and to do we are required to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling The Word rendered ordained to eternal life does also signify fitted or predisposed to Eternal Life That Question Who made thee to differ 1 Cor. 4.7 seems to refer to those Gifts which in different degrees and measures were poured out on the first Christians in which Men were only passive and discriminated from one another by the freedom of those Gifts without any thing previous in them to dispose them to them Christ is said to be the Propitiation for the sins of the whole world 1 Joh. 2.2 2 Pet. 2.1 and the wicked are said to deny the Lord that bought them and his Death as to its extent to all men is set in opposition to the Sin of Adam so that as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men
to condemnation so by the righteousness of one Rom. 5.18 the free gift came upon all men to justification of life The all of the one fide must be of the same extent with the all of the other So since all are concerned in Adam's Sin all must be likewise concerned in the Death of Christ. This they urge further with this Argument That all Men are obliged to believe in the Death of Christ but no Man can be obliged to believe a Lye therefore it follows that he must have died for all Nor can it be thought that Grace is so efficacious of it self as to determine us otherwise why are we required not to grieve God's Spirit Why is it said Acts 7.51 Matth. 23 37. Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did so do ye How often would I have gathered you under my wings but ye would not What more could I have done in my vineyard that has not been done in it These seem to be plain Intimations of a Power in us Isa. 5.4 by which we not only can but often do resist the Motions of Grace If the determining Efficacy of Grace is not acknowledged it will be yet much harder to believe that we are efficaciously determined to Sin This seems to be not only contrary to the Purity and Holiness of God but is so manifestly contrary to the whole Strain of the Scriptures that charges Sin upon Men that in so copious a Subject it is not necessary to bring Proofs Hos. 13.9 Joh. 5.40 Ezâ—k 33.14 O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy help And ye will not come unto me that ye may have life Why will you dye O house of Israel And as for that Nicety of saying That the Evil of Sin consists in a Negation which is not a positive Being so that though God should determine Men to the Action that is sinful yet he is not concerned in the Sin of it They think it is too Metaphysical to put the Honour of God and his Attributes upon such a Subtilty For in Sins against Moral Laws there seems to be an Antecedent Immorality in the Action it self which is inseparable from it But suppose that Sin consisted in a Negative yet that Privation does immediately and necessarily result out of the Action without any other thing whatsoever intervening So that if God does infallibly determine a Sinner to commit the Action to which that Guilt belongs tho' that should be a Sin only by reason of a Privation that is dependent upon it then it does not appear but that he is really the Author of Sin since if he is the Author of the sinful Action on which the Sin depends as a Shadow upon its Substance he must be esteemed say they the Author of Sin And though it may be said That Sin being a Violation of God's Law he himself who is not bound by his Law cannot be guilty of Sin yet an Action that is Immoral is so essentially opposite to Infinite Perfection that God cannot be capable of it as being a contradiction to his own Nature Nor is it to be supposed that he can Damn Men for that which is the necessary result of an Action to which he himself determined them As for Perseverance the many Promises made in the Scriptures to them that overcome Rev. 2 3. that continue stedfast and faithful to the death seem to insinuate that a Man may fall from a good state Those famous Words in the Sixth of the Hebrews Heb. 6. do plainly intimate That such men may so fall away that it may be impossible to renew them again by repentance And in that Epistle Heb. 10. where it is said The just shall live by faith it is added but if he draw back any man is not in the Original my Soul shall have no pleasure in him And it is positively said by the Prophet Ezek. 18.24 When the righteous turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity all his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned in his sin that he hath sinned shall he dye These Suppositions with a great many more of the same strain that may be brought out of other places do give us all possible reason to believe that a good Man may fall from a good state as well as that a wicked Man may turn from a bad one In conclusion the End of all things the Final Judgment at the Last Day which shall be pronounced according to what Men have done whether good or evil and their being to be rewarded and punished according to it seems so effectually to assert a Freedom in our Wills that they think this alone might serve to prove the whole Cause So far I have set forth the Force of the Argument on the side of the Remonstrants As for the Socinians they make their Plea out of what is said by the one and by the other side They agree with the Remonstrants in all that they say against Absolute Decrees and in urging all those Consequences that do arise out of them And they do also agree with the Calvinists in all that they urge against the possibility of a certain Prescience of future Contingents So that it will not be necessary to set forth their Plea more specially nor needs more be said in opposition to it than what was already said as part of the Remonstrants Plea Therefore without dwelling any longer on that I come now to make some Reflections upon the whole Matter It is at first view apparent That there is a great deal of weight in what has been said of both Sides So much that it is no wonder if Education the constant attending more to the Difficulties of the one side than of the other and a Temper some way proportioned to it does fix Men very steddily to either the one or the other Persuasion Both Sides have their Difficulties so it will be natural to chuse that Side where the Difficulties are least felt But it is plain there is no reason for either of them to despise the other since the Arguments of both are far from being contemptible It is further to be observed That both Sides seem to be chiefly concerned to assert the Honour of God and of his Attributes Both agree in this That whatever is fixed as the primary Idea of God all other things must be Explained so as to be consistent with that Contradictions are never to be admitted but things may be justly believed against which Objections may be formed that cannot be easily answered The one Side think That we must begin with the Idea of Infinite Perfection of Independency and Absolute Soveraignty And if in the Sequel Difficulties occur which cannot be cleared that ought not to shake us from this primary Idea of God Others think That we cannot frame such clear Notions of Independency Soveraignty and Infinite Perfection as we can do of Justice Truth Holiness Goodness and
We must be then well assured in whom this great Privillege is vested before we can be bound to acknowledge it or to submit to it So here a great many things must be known before we can either argue from or apply those Passages of Scripture in which it is pretended that Infallibility is promised to the Church And if private Judgment is to be trusted in the Inquiries that arise about all these particulars they being the most important and most difficult matters that we can search into then it will be thought reasonable to trust it yet much further It is evident by their proceeding this way that both the Authority and the Sense of the Scriptures must be known antecedently to our acknowledging the Authority or the Infallibility of any Church For it is an Eternal Principle and Rule of Reason never to prove one thing by another till that other is first well proved Nor can any thing be proved afterwards by that which was proved by it This is as impossible as if a Father should beget a Son and should be afterwards begotten by that Son Therefore the Scriptures cannot prove the Infallibility of the Church and be afterwards proved by the Testimony of the Church So the one or the other of these must be first settled and proved before any use can be made of it to prove the other by it The last way they take to find out this Church by is from some Notes that they pretend are peculiar to her such as the Name Catholick Antiquity Extent Bellar. Contr. Tom 2. l. 4. Duration Succession of Bishops Vnion among themselves and with their Head Conformity of Doctrine with former times Miracles Prophecy Sanctity of Doctrine Holiness of Life Temporal Felicity Curses upon their Enemies and a constant Progress or Efficacy of Doctrine together with the Confession of their Adversaries And they fancy that wheresoever we find these we must believe that Body of Men to be Infallible But upon all this endless Questions will arise so far will it be from ending Controversies and settling us upon Infallibility If all these must be believed to be the Marks of the Infallible Church upon the account of which we ought to believe it and submit to it then two Enquires upon every one of these Notes must be discussed before we can be obliged to acquiesce in the Infallibility First Whether that is a true Mark of Infallibility or not And next Whether it belongs to the Church which they call Infallible or not And then another very intricate Question will arise upon the whole Whether they must all be found together or How many or which of them together will give us the entire Characters of the Infallible Church In discussing the Questions Whether every one of these is a true Mark or not no use must be made of the Scriptures for if the Scriptures have their Authority from the Testimony or rather the Decisions of the Infallible Church no use can be made of them till that is first fixed Some of these Notes are such as did not at all agree to the Church in the best and purest Times for then she had but a little Extent a short-liv'd Duration and no Temporal Felicity and she was generally reproached by her Adversaries But out of which of these Topicks can one hope to fetch out an Assurance of the Infallibility of such a Body Can no Body of Men continue long in the constant Series and with much Prosperity but must they be concluded to be Infallible Can it be thought that the assuming a Name can be a Mark Why is not the Name Christian as solemn as Catholick Might not the Philosophers have concluded from hence against the First Christians That they were by the confession of all Men the true Lovers of Wisdom since they were called Philosophers much more unanimously than the Church of Rome is called Catholick If a Conformity of Doctrine with former times and a Sanctity of Doctrine are Notes of the Church these will lead men into Enquiries of such a nature that if they are once allowed to go so far with their private Judgment they may well be suffered to go much further Some Standard must be fixed on by which the Sanctity of Doctrine may be examined they must also be allowed to examine what was the Doctrine of former times and here it will be natural to begin at the first times the Age of the Apostles It must therefore be first known what was the Doctrine of that Age before we can examine the Conformity of the present Age with it A Succession of Bishops is confessed to be still kept up among corrupted Churches An Union of the Church with its Head cannot be supposed to be a Note unless it is first made out by some other Topicks That this Church must have a Head and that he is Infallible For unless it is proved by some other Argument That she ought to have a Head she cannot be bound to adhere to him or to own him and unless it is also proved that he is Infallible she cannot be bound absolutely and without restrictions to adhere to him Holiness of Life cannot be a Mark unless it is pretended that those in whom the Infallibility is are all holy A few holy men here and there are indeed an Honour to any Body but it will seem a strange Inference That because some few in a Society are eminently holy that therefore others of that Body who are not so but are perhaps as eminently vicious should be Infallible Somewhat has been already said concerning Miracles The pretence to Prophecy falls within the same Consideration The one being as wonderful a Communication of Omniscience as the other is of Omnipotence For the Confession of Adversaries or some Curâ—es on them these cannot signifie much unless they were Universal Fair Enemies will acknowledg what is good among their Adversaries But as that Church is the least apt of any Society we know to speak good of those who differ from her so she has not very much to boast as to others saying much good of her And if Signal Providences have now and then happened these are such things and they are carried on with such a depth that we must acquiesce in the Observation of the wisest Men of all Ages That the race is not to the swift nor the battel to the strong Eccl. 9.11 But that time and chance happeneth to all things And thus it appears That these pretended Notes instead of giving us a clear Thread to lead us up to Infallibility and to end all Controversies they do start a great variety of Questions that engage us into a Labyrinth out of which it cannot be easy for any to extricate themselves But if we could see an end of this then a new set of Questions will come on When we go to examine all Churches by them Whether the Church of Rome has them all And if she alone has them so that no
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
probably to belong to this so from these Warrants we find in the earliest Writings of Christianity mention of a Confirmation after Baptism which for the greater Solemnity and Awe of the Action and from the precedent of St. Peter and St. Iohn was reserved to the Bishop to be done only by him Upon these Reasons we think it is in the Power of the Church to require all such as have been baptized to come before the Bishop and renew their Baptismal Vow and pray for God's Holy Spirit to enable them to keep their Vow and upon their doing this the Bishop may solemnly pray over them with that ancient and almost natural Ceremony of laying his Hands upon them which is only a Designation of the Persons so prayed over and blest that God may seal and defend them with his Holy Spirit in which according to the nature of the New Covenant we are sure that such as do thus Vow and Pray do also receive the Holy Spirit according to the Promise that our Saviour has made us In this Action there is nothing but what is in the Power of the Church to do even without any other Warrant or Precedent The doing all things to Order and to Edifying will authorize a Church to all this especially since the now universal Practice of Infant Baptism makes this more necessary than it was in the first times when chiefly the Adult were baptized It is highly reasonable that they who gave no actual Consent of their own should come and by their own express Act make the Stipulations of Baptism It may give greater impressions of awe and respect when this is restrained to the highest Order in the Church Upon the sincere Vows and earnest Prayers of Persons thus Confirmed we have reason to believe that a proportioned degree of God's Grace and Spirit will be poured out upon them And in all this we are much confirmed when we see such warrants for it in Scripture A thing so good in it self that has at least a probable Authority for it and was certainly a practice of the first Ages is upon very just grounds continued in our Church Would to God it were as seriously gone about as it is lawfully established But after all this here is no Sacrament no express Institution neither by Christ nor his Apostles no Rule given to practise it and which is the most essential there is no matter here for the laying on of Hands is only a gesture in Prayer nor are there any federal Rites declared to belong to it it being indeed rather a Ratifying and Confirming the Baptism than any new Stipulation To supply all this the Church of Rome has appointed Matter for it The Chrism which is a mixture of Oil Olive and Balm Opobalsamum the Oil signifying the clearness of a good Conscience and the Balm the savour of a good Reputation This must be peculiarly blessed by the Bishop who is the only Minister of that Function The Form of this Sacrament is the applying the Chrism to the Forehead with these words Signo te signo crucis confirmo te chrismate salutis in Nomine Patris Filii Spiritus Sancti I sign thee with the sign of the Cross and confirm thee with the Chrism of Salvation in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost They pretend Christ did Institute this but they say the Holy Ghost which he breathed on his Disciples being a thing that transcended all Sacraments he settled no determined Matter nor Form to it And that the succeeding Ages appropriated this Matter to it We do not deny but that the Christians began very early to use Oil in Holy Functions The Climates they lived in making it necessary to use Oil much for stopping the Perspiration that might dispose them the more to use Oil in their Sacred Rites It is not to be denied but that both Theophilus and Tertullian in the end of the Second Theophil l. 1. ad Autolyc Tert. de Bapt. c. 7 8. de Resur caâ— c. 8. Cypr. Ep. 70. and the beginning of the Third Century do mention it The frequent mention of Oil and of Anointing in the Scripture might incline them to this It was Prophesied of Christ That he was to be anointed with the oil of joy and gladness above his fellows And the Names of Messias and Christ do also import this but yet we hold all that to be Mystical and that it is to be meant of that fulness of the Spirit which he received without measure Upon the same account we do understand those words of St. Paul in the same mystical Sense he that establisheth us with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts 2 Cor. 1.21 22. 1 John 2.20 27. As also those words of St. Iohn but ye have an Vnction from the holy one and ye know all things The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you all things These words do clearly relate to somewhat that the Christians received immediately from God and so must be understood figuratively For we do not see the least hint of the Apostles using of Oil except to the sick of which afterwards So that if this Use of Oil is considered only as a Ceremony of a natural Signification that was brought into the Rituals of the Church it is a thing of another Nature But if a Sacrament is made of it and a divine Vertue is joined to that we can admit of no such thing without an express Institution and Declaration in Scripture The Invention that was afterwards found out by which the Bishop was held to be the only Minister of Confirmation Con. Araus c. 1 2. Cod. Affr. Can. 6. Con. Tol. c. 20. even tho' Presbyters were suffered to Confirm was a piece of Superstition without any colour from Scripture It was settled that the Bishop only might consecrate the Chrism and tho' he was the ordinary Minister of Confirmation yet Presbyters were also suffered to do it the Chrism being consecrated by the Bishop Presbyters thus Confirming was thought like the Deacons giving the Sacrament tho' Priests only might consecrate the Eucharist In the Latin Church Ierom tells us Hieron ad Lucifer that in his Time the Bishop only Confirmed and tho' he makes the Reason of this to be rather for doing an Honour to them than from any necessity of the Law yet he positively says the Bishops went round praying for the Holy Ghost on those whom they Confirmed It is said by Hilary that in Egypt the Presbyters did Confirm in the Bishops absence So that custom joined with the distinction between the Consecration Hilar. in cap. 4. ad Ephes. ut Supra and the applying of the Chrism grew to be the universal Practice of the Greek Church The greatness of Diocesses with the
that imports the Designation of the Person so prayed over In the Greek Church there is indeed a different Form for though there are Prayers in their Office of Ordination Haberti pontif Graecum Morinus de Ordinat Sacâ—is yet the words that do accompany the Imposition of Hands are only Declaratory The Grace of God that perfects the feeble and heals the weak promotes this Man to be a Deacon a Priest or a Bishop let us therefore pray for him By which they pretend only to judge of a divine Vocation All the ancient Rituals and all those that treat of them for the first Seven Centuries speak of nothing as Essential to Orders but Prayer and Imposition of Hands It is true many Rites came to be added and many Prayers were used that went far beyond the first Simplicity But in the Tenth or Eleventh Century a new Form was brought in of delivering the Vessels in ordaining Priests and Words were joined with that giving them Power to offer Sacrifices to God and to celebrate Masses and then the Orders were believed to be given by this Rite The delivering of the Vessels look'd like a Matter and these Words were thought the Form of the Sacrament and the Prayer that was formerly used with the Imposition of Hands was indeed still used but only as a Part of the Office no Hands were laid on when it was used And tho' the Form of laying on of Hands was still continued the Bishop with other Priests laying their Hands on those they Ordained yet it is now a dumb Ceremony not a word of a Prayer being said while they lay on their Hands So that tho' both Prayer and Imposition of Hands are used in the Office yet they are not joined together In the conclusion of the Ofsice a new Benediction was added ever since the Twelfth Century The Bishop alone lays on his Hands saying Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins ye remit they are remitted and whose sins ye retain they are retained The number Seven was thought to sute the Sacraments best so Orders were made one of them and of these only Priesthood where the Vessels were declared to be the Matter and the Form was the delivering them with the words Take thou Authority to offer up Sacrifices to God and to Celebrate Masses both for the Living and the Dead In the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost The Schoolmen have taken a new way of explaining this whole matter borrowed from the Eucharist that is made up of Two parts the Consecration of the Bread and of the Wine both so necessary that without the one the other becomes void So they teach that a Priest has Two Powers of Consecrating and of Absolving and that he is Ordained to the one by the delivery of the Vessels and to the other by the Bishop's laying on of Hands with the words Receive the Holy Ghost and they make the Bishop and the Priest's laying on Hands jointly to be only their declaring as by a Suffrage that such a Person ought to be Ordained So totally have they departed from the Primitive Forms If this is a Sacrament and if the Sacrament consists in this Matter and Form by them assigned then since all the Rituals of the Latin Church for the sirst Ten Centuries had no such Form of Ordaining Priests this cannot be the Matter and Form of a Sacrament otherwise the Church had in a course of so many Ages no true Orders nor any Sacrament in them Nor will it serve in answer to this to say that Christ Instituted no special Matter nor Form here but has left the specifying those among the other Powers that he has given to his Church For a Sacrament being an Institution of applying a Matter designed by God by a particular Form likewise appointed to say that Christ appointed here neither Matter nor Form is plainly to confess that this is no Sacrament In the first Nine or Ten Ages there was no Matter at all used nothing but an Imposition of Hands with Prayer So that by this Doctrine the Church of God was all that while without true Orders since there was nothing used that can be called the Matter of a Sacrament Therefore though we continue this Institution of Christ as he â—nd his Apostles settled it in the Church yet we deny it to be a Sacrament we also deny all the inferior Orders to be Sacred below that of Deacon The other Orders we do not deny might be well and on good reasons appointed by the Church as steps through which Clerks might be made to pass in order to a stricter examination and trial of them like Degrees in Universities But the making them at least the Subdiaconate Sacred as it is reckoned by Pope Eugenius is we think beyond the Power of the Church for here a Degree of Orders is made a Sacrament and yet that Degree is not named in the Scripture nor in the first Ages It is true it came to be soon used with the other Inferior Orders but it cannot be pretended to be a Sacrament since no Divine Institution can be brought for it And we cannot but observe that in the definition that Eugenius has given of the Sacraments which is an Authentical piece in the Roman Church where he reckons Priests Deacons and Subdeacons as belonging to the Sacrament of Orders he does not Name Bishops though their being of Divine Institution is not questioned in that Church Perhaps the Spirit with which they acted at that time in Basil offended him so much that he was more set on depressing than on raising them In the Council of Trent in which so much Zeal appeared for recovering the Dignity of the Episcopal Order at that time so much eclipsed by the Papal Usurpations when the Sacrament of Orders was Treated of they reckoned Seven Degrees of them the highest of which is that of Priest So that though they Decreed that a Bishop was by the Divine Institution above a Priest yet they did not Decree that the Office was an Order or a Sacrament And the Schoolmen do generally explain Episcopate as being a higher Degree or Extension of Priesthood rather than a new Order or a Sacrament the main thing in their Thoughts being that which if true is the greatest of all Miracles the wonderful Conversion made in Transubstantion they seem to think that no Order can be above that which qualifies a Man for so great a Performance I say nothing in this place concerning the power of Offering Sacrifices pretended to be given in Orders for that belongs to another Article The Fourth Sacrament here rejected is Marriage which is reckoned the last by the Roman Account In the Point of Argument there is less to say here than in any of the other but there seems to be a very express warrant for calling it a Sacrament from the Translation of a passage in St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians Ephes. 5.32 in which he makes an allusion while he
unless we do thus believe It were not suteable to the Truth and Holiness of the Divine Nature to void a Covenant so solemnly made and that in favour of wicked men who will not be reformed by it So Faith is the certain and necessary Mean of our Salvation and is so put by Christ since upon our having it we shall be saved as well as damned upon our not having it On the other hand the nature of a Ritual Action even when commanded is such that unless we could imagine that there is a Charm in it which is contrary to the Spirit and Genius of the Gospel which designs to save us by reforming our Natures we cannot think that there can be any thing in it that is of it self effectual as a Mean therefore it must only be considered as a Command that is given us which we are bound to obey if we acknowledge the Authority of the Command But this being an Action that is not always in our power but is to be done by another it were to put our Salvation or Damnation in the power of another to imagine that we cannot be saved without Baptism and therefore it is only a Precept which obliges us in order to our Salvation and our Saviour by leaving it out when he reversed the words saying only he that believeth not without adding and is not Baptized shall be damned does plainly insinuate that it is not a Mean but only a Precept in order to our Salvation As for the Ends and Purposes of Baptism St. Paul gives us two the one is that we are all baptized into onâ— body we are made members one of another 1 Cor. 12.13 We are admitted to the Soâ—â—â—ty of Christians and to all the Rights and Priviledges of that Body which is the Church And in order to this the outward action of Baptism when regularly gone about is sufficient We cannot see into the sincerity oâ— mens Hearts Outward Professions and regular Actions are all that fall under mens Observation and Judgment But a second End of Baptism is Internal and Spiritual Of this St. Paul speaks in very high terms when he says that God has saved us according to his mercy Tit. 3.5 by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost It were a strange perverting the design of these words to say that somewhat Spiritual is to be understood by this washing of regeneration and not Baptism when as to the word save that is here ascribed to it St. Peter gives that undeniably to Baptism and St. Paul elsewhere in two different places Rom. 6. Col. 2. makes our Baptism to represent our being dead to sin and buried with Christ and our being risen and quickned with him and made alive unto God which are words that do very plainly import Regeneration So that St. Paul must be understood to speak of Baptism in these words here then is the inward effect of Baptism It is a death to sin and a new life in Christ in imitation of him and in conformity to his Gospel So that here is very expresly delivered to us somewhat that rises far above the Badge of a Profession or a Mark of difference That does indeed belong to Baptism it makes us the visible Members of that one Body into which we are Baptized or admitted by Baptism but that which saves us in it which both deadens and quickens us must be a thing of another nature If Baptism were only the receiving us into the Society of Christians there were no need of saying I Baptize thee in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost It were more proper to say I Baptize thee in the Name or by the Authority of the Church Therefore these august words that were dictated by our Lord himself shew us that there is somewhat in it that is Internal which comes from God that it is an admitting men into somewhat that depends only on God and for the giving of which the authority can only be derived by him But after all this is not to be believed to be of the nature of a Charm as if the very act of Baptism carried always with it an inward Regeneration Here we must confess that very early some Doctrines arose upon Baptism that we cannot be determined by The words of our Saviour to Nicodemus were expounded so as to import the absolute necessity of Baptism in order to Salvation for it not being observed that the Dispensation of the Messias was meant by the Kingdom of God but it being taken to signifie Eternal Glory that expression of our Saviour's was understood to import this that no Man could be saved unless he were Baptized so it was believed to be simply necessary to Salvation A natural consequence that followed upon that was to allow all Persons leave to Baptize Clergy and Laity Meâ— and Women since it seemed necessary to suffer every Person to do that without which Salvation could not be had Upon this these hasty Baptisms were used without any special Sponsion on the part of those who desired it of which it may be reasonably doubted whether such a Baptism be true in which no Sponsion is made and this cannot be well answered but by saying that a general and an implied Sponsion is to be considered to be made by their Parents while they desire them to be Baptized Another Opinion that arose out of the former was the mixing of the outward and the inward effects of Baptism It being believed that every Person that was born of the Water was also born of the Spirit and that the renewing of the Holy Ghost did always accompany the washing of Regeneration And this obliged St. Austin as was formerly told to make that difference between the regenerate and the predestinated for he thought that all who were Baptized were also regenerated St. Peter has stated this so fully that if his words are well considered they will clear the whole matter He after he had set forth the miserable state in which Mankind was under the figure of the Deluge in which an Ark was prepared for Noah and his Family says upon that The like figure whereunto even Baptism doth also now save us 1 Pet. 3 21. Upon which he makes a short digression to explain the nature of Baptism not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer or the Demand and Interrogation of a good conscience towards God by the Resurrection of Iesus Christ who is gone into Heaven The meaning of all which is that Christ having risen again and having then had all power in heaven and in earth given to him he had put that vertue in Baptism that by it we are saved as in an Ark from that miserable state in which the world lies and in which it must perish But then he explains the way how it saves us that it is not as a Physical action as it washes away the filthiness of the flesh