had certainly put the chief strength of their Cause on this That they adhered to the Apostles Creed in opposition to the Innovations of the Nicene Fathers There is therefore no reason to believe that this Creed was prepared by the Apostles or that it was of any great Antiquity since Ruffin was the first that published it It is true he published it as the Creed of the Church of Aquileia but that was so late that neither this nor the other Creeds have any Authority upon their own account Great Respect is indeed due to things of such Antiquity and that have been so long in the Church but after all we receive those Creeds not for their own sakes nor for the sake of those who prepared them but for the sake of the Doctrine that is contained in them because we believe that the Doctrine which they declare is contained in the Scriptures and chiefly that which is the main Intent of them which is to assert and profess the Trinity therefore we do receive them tho we must acknowledge that the Creed ascribed to Athanasius as it was none of his so it was never established by any General Council ARTICLE IX Of Original or Birth-Sin Original Sin standeth not in the following of Adam as the Pelagians do vainly talk but it is the fault or corruption of the nature of every man that naturally is engendred of the Offspring of Adam whereby man is very far gone from Original Righteousness and is of his own nature inclined to evil so that the Flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit and therefore in every Person born into the World it deserveth God's Wrath and Damnation And this Infection of Nature doth remain yea in them that are regenerated whereby the Lust of the Flesh called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some do expound the Wisdom some Sensuality some the Affection some the Desire of the Flesh is not subject to the Law of God And though there is no Condemnation for them that believe and are baptized yet the Apostle doth confess That Concupiscence and Lust hath of it self the nature of Sin AFter the First Principles of the Christian Religion are stated and the Rule of Faith and Life was setled the next thing that was to be done was to declare the special Doctrines of this Religion and that first with relation to all Christians as they are single Individuals for the directing every one of them in order to the working out his own Salvation which is done from this to the Nineteenth Article And then with relation to them as they compose a Society called the Church which is carried on from the Nineteenth to the End In all that has been hitherto explained the whole Church of England has been all along of one mind In this and in some that follow there has been a greater diversity of Opinion but both sides have studied to prove their Tenets to be at least not contrary to the Articles of the Church These different Parties have disputed concerning the Decrees of God and those Assistances which pursuant to his Decrees are afforded to us But because the Foundation of those Decrees and the Necessity of those Assistances are laid in the Sin of Adam and in the Effects it had on Mankind therefore thâ—se Controversies begin on this Head The Pelagians and the Socinians agree in saying That Adam's Sin was Personal That by it as being the first Sin it is said that Sin entred into the World But that as Adam was made mortal â—om 5 1â— and had died whether he had sinned or not so they think the liberty of Human Nature is still entire and that every man is punished for his own sins and not for the sin of another to do otherwise they say seems contrary to Justice not to say Goodness In opposition to this Iudgment is said to have come upon many to condemnation through one either Man or Sin ver 1â— Death is said to have reigned by one and by one man's offence and many are said to be dead through the offence of one All these Passages do intimate that death is the consequence of Adam's Sin and that in him as well as in all others Death was the Wages of Sin so also that we dye upon the account of his Sin We are said to bear the Image of the first Adam as true Christians bear the Image of the second Now we are sure that there is both a derivation of Righteousness 1 Cor 15.49 and a Communication of Inward Holiness transferred to us through Christ So it seems to follow from thence that there is somewhat both transferred to us and conveyed down throughMankind by the first Adam and particularly that by it we are all made subject to Death from which we should have been freed if Adam had continued in his first state and that by virtue of the Tree of Life Gen. 3.22 in which some think there was a natural Virtue to cure all Diseases and relieve against all Accidents while others do ascribe it to a Divine Blessing of which that Tree was only the Symbol or Sacrament through the words said after Adam's sin as the reason of driving him out of Paradise lest he put forth his hand and take of the Tree of Life and eat and live for ever seem to import that there was a Physical Virtue in the Tree that could so fortify and restore Life as to give Immortality These do also think that the Threatning made to Adam That upon his eating the forbidden Fruit he should surely dye is to be taken literally and is to be carried no further than to a Natural Death This Subjection to Death and to the Fear of it brings men under a slavish Bondage many Terrors and other Passions and Miseries that arise out ofit which they think is a great Punishment and that it is a Condemnation and Sentence of Death passed upon the whole Race and by this they are made sinners that is treated as guilty Persons and severely punished This they think is easily enough reconciled with the Notions of Justice and Goodness in God since this is only a Temporary Punishment relating to mens Persons And we see in the common methods of Providence that Children are in this sort often punished for the sins of their Fathers most men that come under a very ill habit of Body transmit the Seeds of Diseases and Pains to their Children They do also think that the Communication of this liableness to death is easily accounted for and they imagine that as the Tree of Life might be a Plant that furnished men with an Universal Medicine so the forbidden Fruit might derive a slow Poyson into Adam's Body that might have exalted and inflamed his Blood very much and might though by a slower operation certainly brought on death at the last Our being thus adjudged to Death and to all the Miseries that accompany Mortality they think may be well called the wrath of
capable of a vast Inflammation and Elevation by which a man's powers might be exalted to much higher degrees of Knowledge and Capacity The Animal Spirits receiving their Quality from that of the Blood a new and a strong Fermentation in the Blood might râ—ise them and by consequence exalt a man to a much greater sublimity of Thought But with that it might dispose him to be easily inflamed by Appetites and Passions it might put him under the power of his Body and make his Body much more apt to be fired at outward Objects which might sink all Spiritual and pure Ideas in him and raise gross ones with much Fury and Rapidity Hereby his whole frame might be much corrupted and that might go so deep in him that all those who descended from him might be defiled by it as we see Madness and some Chronical Diseases pass from Parents to their Children All this might have been natural and as much the Physical effect of Eating the forbidden Fruit as it seems Immortality would have been that of Eating the Fruit of the Tree of Life This might have been in its nature a slow poison which must end in Death at last It may be very easy to make all this appear probable from Physical Causes A very small Accident may so alter the whole Mass of the Blood that in a very few Minutes it may be totally changed so the Eating the forbidden Fruit might have by a natural chain of things produced all this But this is only an Hypothesis and so is left as such All the Assistance that Revealed Religion can receive from Philosophy is to shew That a reasonable Hypothesis can be offered upon Physical Principles to shew the possibility or rather probability of any particulars that are contained in the Scriptures This is enough to sâ—op the mouths of Deists which is all the use that can be made of such Schemes To return to the main Point of the Fall of Adam He himself was made liable to Death But not barely to cease to live for Death and Life are terms opposite to one another in Scripture In Treating upon these Heads it is said That the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life Rom. 6.23 And though the addition of the word Eternal makes the Signification of the one more express yet where it is mentioned without that addition no doubt is to be made but that it is to be so meant As where it is said That to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace And believing we have life through his Name Rom. 8.6 Joh. 20.31 Joh. 5.50 Ye will not come unto me that ye may have life So by the rule of Opposites Death ought to be understood as a word of a general Signification which we who have the Comment of the New Testament to guide us in understanding the Old are not to restrain to a natural Death and therefore when we are said to be the servants of sin unto death we undersâ—and much more by it than a natural Death So God's threatning of Adam with Death ought not to be restrained to a natural Death Adam being thus defiled all Emanations from him must partake of that vitiated State to which he had brought himself But then the Question remains How came the Souls of his Posterity to be defiled for if they were created pure it seems to be an unjust Cruelty to them to condemn them to such an Union to a defiled Body as should certainly corrupt them All that can be said in Answer to this is That God has setled it as a Law in the Creation That a Soul should inform a Body according to the Texture of it and either conquer it or be mastered by it as it should be differently made and that as such a degree of Purity in the Texture of it might make it both pure and happy so a contrary degree of Texture might have very contrary effects And if with this God made another general Law that when all things were duly prepared for the propagation of the Species of Mankind a Soul should be always ready to go into and animate those first Threads and Beginnings of Life those Laws being laid down Adam by corrupting his own frame corrupted the frame of his whole Posterity by the general course of Things and the great Law of the Creation So that the suffering this to run through all the Race is no more only different in degrees and extent than the Suffering the folly or madness of a man to infect his Posterity In these things God acts as the Creator of the World by general Rules and these must not be altered because of the Sins and Disorders of men But they are rather to have their course that so Sin may be its own punishment The defilement of the Race being thus stated a Question remains Whether this can be properly called a Sin and such as deserves God's Wrath and Damnation On the one hand an opposition of Nature to the Divine Nature must certainly be hateful to God as it is the root of much malignity and sin Such a Nature cannot be the Object of his Love and of it self it cannnot be accepted of God Now since there is no mean in God between Love and Wrath Acceptation and Condemnation if such persons are not in the first order they must be in the second Yet it seems very hard on the other hand to apprehend how persons who have never actually sinned but are only unhappily descended should be in consequence to that under so great a misery To this several answers are made Some have thought that those who die before they commit any actual Sin have indeed no share in the favour of God but yet that they pass unto a state in the other World in which they suffer little or nothing The stating this more clearly will belong to another Opinion which shall be afterwards Explained There is a further Question made Whether this Vicious Inclination is a Sin or not Those of the Church of Rome as they believe that Original Sin is quite taken away by Baptism so finding that this corrupt Disposition still remains in us they do from thence conclude that it is no part of Original Sin but that this is the Natural State in which Adam was made at first only it is in us without the restraint or bridle of Supernatural Assistances which was given to him but lost by Sin and restored to us in Baptism But as was said formerly Adam in his first state was made after the Image of God so that his bodily powers were perfectly under the command of his mind This Revolt that we feel our Bodies and Senses are always in cannot be supposed to be God's Original Workmanship There are great Disputings raised concerning the meaning of a long Discourse of St. Paul's the 7th of the Romans concerning a constant struggle that he felt within himself which some arguing
AN EXPOSITION OF THE Thirty-nine Articles OF THE CHURCH of ENGLAND Written by GILBERT Bishop of SARVM The Second Edition Corrected LONDON Printed by R. Roberts for RI. CHISWELL at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCC AN EXPOSITION OF THE Thirty-nine Articles TO THE KING SIR THE Title of Defender of the Faith the Noblest of all those which belong to this Imperial Crown that has received a New Lustre by Your MAJESTY's carrying it is that which You have so Gloriously acquired that if Your MAJESTY had not found it among them what You have done must have sâ—cured it to Your Self by the Best of all Claims We should be as much ashamed not to give it to Your MAJESTY as we were to give it to Those who had been fatally led into the Design of Overturning That which has been beyond all the Examples in History preserved and hitherto maintained by Your MAJESTY The Reformation had its greatest Support and Strength from the Crown of England while Two of Your Renowned Ancestors were the Chief Defenders of it in Foreign Parts The Blood of England mixing so happily with Theirs in Your Royal Person seemed to give the World a sure Prognostick of what might be look'd for from so Great a Conjunction Your MAJESTY has outdone all Expectations and has brought Matters to a State far beyond all our Hopes But amidst the Lawrels that adorn You and those Applauses that do every where follow You Suffer me GREAT SIR in all Humility to tell You That Your Work is not yet done nor Your Glory compleat till You have employed that Power which God has put in Your hands and before which nothing has been able hitherto to stand in the supporting and securing This Church in the bearing down Infidelity and Impiety in the healing the Wounds and Breaches that are made among those who do in common profess this Faith but are unhappily disjointed and divided by some Differences that are of less Importance And above all things in the raising the Power and Efficacy of this Religion by a suitable Reformation of our Lives and Manners How much soever mens Hearts are out of the Reach of Human Authority yet their Lives and all outward Appearances are governed by the Example and Influences of their Sovereigns The effectual pursuing of these Designs as it is the greatest of all those Glories of which Mortals are capable so it seems to be the only thing that is now wanting to finish the Brightest and Perfectest Character that will be in History It was in order to the Promoting these Ends that I undertook This Work which I do now most humbly lay before Your MAJESTY with the Profoundest Respect and Submission May God Preserve Your MAJESTY till You have gloriously finished what You have so wonderfully carried on All that You have hitherto set about how small soever the Beginnings and Hopes were has succeeded in Your Hands to the Amazement of the whole World The most desperate Face of Affairs has been able to give You no Stop Your MAJESTY seems Born under an Ascendant of Providence and therefore how low soever all our Hopes are either of raising the Power of Religion or of Vniting those who profess it yet we have often been taught to despair of nothing that is once undertaken by Your MAJESTY This will secure to You the Blessing of the present and of all succeeding Ages and a full Reward in that Glorious and Immortal State that is before You To which That Your MAJESTY may have a Sure though a Late Admittance is the Daily and most Earnest Prayer of May it please Your MAJESTY Your Majesty's most Loyal most Obedient and most Devoted Subject and Servant GI SARUM C. G. THE PREFACE IT has been often reckoned among the things that were wanting That we had not a full and clear Explanation of the Thirty-nine Articles which are the Sum of our Doctrine and the Confession of our Faith The Modesty of some and the Caution of others may have obliged them to let alone an Undertaking that might seem too assuming for any man to venture on without a Command from those who had Authority to give it It has been likewise often suggested That those Articles seemed to be so plain a Transcript of S. Austin's Doctrine in those much disputed Points concerning the Decrees of God and the Efficacy of Grace that they were not expounded by our Divines for that very reason since the far greater Number of them is believed to be now of a different Opinion I should have kept within the same bounds if I had not been first moved to undertake this Work by that Great Prelate who then sate at the Helm And after that determined in it by a Command that was Sacred to Me by Respect as well as by Duty Our Late Primate lived long enough to see the Design finished He read it over with an Exactness that was peculiar to him He imployed some Weeks wholly in perusing it and he correctâ—d it with a Care that descended even to the smallest matters and was such as he thought became the Importance of this Work And when that was done he returned it to me with a Letter and that as it was the last I ever had from him so gave the Whole such a Character that how much soever that might raise its Value with true Judges yet in Decency it must be suppressed by me as being far beyond what any Performance of mine could deserve He gave so favourable an account of it to our Late BLESSED QUEEN that She was pleased to tell me She would find leisure to read it And the last time that I was admitted to the honour of waiting on Her She commanded me to bring it to Her But She was soon after that carried to the Source to the Fountain of Life in whose Light she now sees both Light and Truth So great a Breach as was then made upon all our hopes put a stop upon this as well as upon much greater Designs This Work has lien by me ever since But has been often not only reviewed by my self but by much better Judges The late most Learned Bishop of Worcester read it very carefully He marked every thing in it that he thought needed a review and his Censure was in all points submitted to He expressed himself so well pleased with it to my self and to some others that I do not think it becomes me to repeat what he said of it Both the Most Reverend Archbishops with several of the Bishops and a great many Learned Divines have also read it I must indeed on many accounts own That they may be inclined to favour me too much and to be too partial to me yet they looked upon this Work as a thing of that Importance that I have reason to believe they read it over severely And if some small Corrections may be taken for an Indication that they saw no occasion for greater ones I had this likewise from several
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