Remission of Sins is acknowledged to be given freely to us through Jesus Christ this is that which we affirm to be Iustification though under another name We do also acknowledge that our Natures must be sanctified and renewed that so God may take pleasure in us when his Image is again visible upon us and this we call Sanctification which we acknowledge to be the constant and inseparable effect of Iustification So that as to this we agree in the same Doctrine only we differ in the use of the Terms in which we have the Phrase of the New Testament clearly with us But there are two more material differences between us It is a Tenet in the Church of Rome That the Use of the Sacraments if Men do not put a bar to them and if they have only imperfect Acts of Sorrow accompanying them does so far compleat those weak Acts as to justify us This we do utterly deny as a Doctrine that tends to enervate all Religion and to make the Sacraments that were appointed to be the solemn â—â—ts of Religion for quickning and exciting our Piety and for conveying Grace to us upon our coming devoutly to them becomes means to flatten and deaden us As if they were of the nature of Charms which if they could be come at tho' with ever so slight a preparation would make up all defects The Doctrine of Sacramental Justification is justly to be reckoned among the most mischievous of all those Practical Errors that are in the Church of Rome Since therefore this is no where mentionâ—d in all these large Discourses that are in the New Testament concerning Justification we have just reason to reject it Since also the natural consequence of this Doctrine is to make Men rest contented in low imperfect Acts when they can be so easily made up by a Sacrament we have just reason to detest it as one of the depths of Satan The Tendency of it being to make those Ordinances of the Gospel which were given us as means to raise and heighten our Faith and Repentance become Engines to encourage Sloth and Impenitence There is another Doctrine that is Held by many and is still Taught in the Church of Rome not only with Approbation but Favour That the inherent Holiness of good Men is a thing of its own nature so perfect that upon the account of it God is so bound to esteem them just and to justify them that he were unjust if he did not They think there is such a real condignity in it that it makes Men God's adopted Children Whereas we on the other hand Teach That God is indeed pleased with the inward Reformaâ—â—on that he sees in good Men in whom his Grace dwells that he approves and accepts of their Sincerity but that with this there is still such a mixture and in this there is still so much Imperfection that even upon this account if God did straitly mark Iniquity none could stand before him So that even his acceptance of this is an Act of Mercy and Grace This Doctrine was commonly Taught in the Church of Rome at the time of the Reformation and together with it they reckoned that the chief of those Works that did Justify were either great or rich Endowments or excessive Devotions towards Images Saints and Relicks by all which Christ was either forgot quite or remembred only for form-sake esteemed perhaps as the chief of Saints not to mention the impious Comparisons that were made between him and some Saints and the Preferences that were given to them beyond him In opposition to all this the Reformers began as they ought to have done at the laying down this as the Foundation of all Christianity and of all our hopes That we were reconciled to God meerly through his Mercy by the Redemption purchased by Jesus Christ And that a firm believing the Gospel and a claiming to the Death of Christ as the great Propitiation for our Sins according to the Terms on which it is offered us in the Gospel was that which united us to Christ that gave us an Interest in his Death and thereby justified us If in the management of this Controversy there was not so critical a Judgment made of the Scope and several Passages of St. Paul's Epistles and if the Dispute became afterwards too abstracted and metaphysical that was the effect of the Infelicity of that Time and was the natural consequence of much disputing Therefore tho' we do not now stand to all the Arguments and to all the Citations and Illustrations used by them and tho' we do not deny but that many of the Writers of the Church of Rome came insensibly off from the most practical Errors that had been formerly much taught and more practised among them and that this matter was so stated by many of them that as to the main of it we have no just Exceptions to it Yet after all this beginning of the Reformation was a great Blessing to the World and has proved so even to the Church of Rome by bringing her to a juster sâ—nse of the Atonement made for Sins by the Blood of Christ and by taking Men off from external Actions and turning them to consider the inward Acts of the Mind Faith and Repentance as the Conditions of our Justification And therefore the Approbation given here to the Homily is only an Approbation of the Doctrine asserted and proved in it Which ought not to be carried to every particular of the Proofs or Explanations that are in it To be Iustified and to be accounted Righteous stand for one and the same thing in the Article And both import our being delivered from the Guilt of Sin and entitled to the Favour of God These differ from God's intending from all Eternity to save us as much as a Decree differs from the Execution of it A Man is then only Iustified when he is freed from Wrath and is at peace with God And tho' this is freely offered to us in the Gospel through Jesus Christ yet it is applied to none but to such as come within those Qualifications and Conditions set before us in the Gospel That God pardons Sin and receives us into favour only through the Death of Christ is so fully expressed in the Gospel as was already made out upon the second Article that it is not possible to doubt of it if one does firmly believe and attentively read the New Testament Nor is it less evident that it is not offered to us absolutely and without Conditions and Limitations These Conditions are Repentance with which remission of sins is often joined and Faith Gal. 5.6 Luke 24.47 Acts. 2.38 but a faith that worketh by love that purifies the heart and that keeps the â—ommandments of God Such a Faith as shews it self to be alive by Good Works by Acts of Charity and every Act of Obedience by which we demonstrate that we truly and firmly believe the Divine Authority of our Saviour and his Doctrine
they are Yet a long softening is added to the Decree importing That none ought to glory in himself but in the Lord whose goodness is such that he makes his own gifts to us to be merits in us And it adds That because in many things we offend all every one ought to consider the justice and severity as well as the mercy and goodness of God and not to judge himself even tho he should know nothing by himself So then that in which all are agreed about this Matter is 1. That our Works cannot be good or acceptable to God but as we are assisted by his Grace and Spirit to do them So that the real Goodness that is in them flows from those Assistances which enable us to do them 2. That God does certainly reward Good Works He has promised it and he is faithful and cannot lie nor is he unrighteous to forget our labour of love So the Favour of God and eternal Happiness is the reward of Good Works Mention is also made of a full reward of the reward of a righteous Man and of a Prophet's reward Matth. 10.41 42. 2 Cor. 4.17 3. That this Reward is promised in the Gospel and could not be claimed without that by any antecedent Merit founded upon equality Since our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory The Points in which we differ are 1. Whether the Good Works of holy Men are so perfect that there is no defect in them or whether there is still some such defect mixed with them that there is occasion for Mercy to pardon somewhat even in Good Men Those of the Church of Rome think that a Work cannot be called good if it is not entirely good and that nothing can please God in which there is a mixture of Sin Whereas we according to the Article believe that Human Nature is so weak and so degenerated that as far as our Natural Powers concur in any Action there is still some Allay in it and that a Good work is considered by God according to the main both of the Action and of the Intention of him that does it and as a Father pities his Children so God passes over the defects of those who serve him sincerely though not perfectly Gen. 6.5 Jam. 3.2 Phil. 3.13 The imaginations of the heart of man are only evil continually In many things we offend all says St. Iames And St. Paul reckons that he had not yet apprehended but was forgetting the things behind and reaching to these before and still pressing forward We see in fact that the best Men in all Ages have been complaining and humbling themselves even for the sins of their Holy Things for their Vanity and Desire of Glory for the distraction of their Thoughts in Devotion and for the Affection which they bore to Earthly things It were a Doctrine of great Cruelty which might drive Men to despair if they thought that no Action could please God in which they were conscious to themselves of some Imperfection or Sin The Midwives of Egypt feared God yet they excused themselves by a Lye But God accepted of what was good and passed over what was amiss in them and built them houses Exod. 1.21 St. Austin urges this frequently That our Saviour in teaching us to pray has made this a standing Petition Forgive us our Trespasses as well as that Give us this day our daily Bread for we sin daily and do always need a Pardon Upon these Reasons we conclude that somewhat of the Man enters into all that Men do We are made up of Infirmities and we need the Intercession of Christ to make our best Actions to be accepted of by God For if he should straitly mark iniquity who can stand before him Psal. 130.3 4. 2 Chron. 30.18 19. but mercy is with him and forgiveness So that with Hezekiah we ought to pray That though we are not purified according to the purification of the sanctuary yet the good Lord would pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek God The Second Question arises out of this concerning the Merit of Good Works for upon the supposition of their being compleatly good that Merit is founded which will be acknowledged to be none at all if it is believed that there are such Defects in them that they need a Pardon since where there is Guilt there can be no pretension to Merit The word Merit has also a sound that is so daring so little suitable to the humility of a Creature to be used towards a Being of Infinite Majesty and with relation to endless Rewards that though we do not deny but that a sense is given to it by many of the Church of Rome to which no just exception can be made yet there seems to be somewhat too bold in it especially when Condignity is added to it And since this may naturally give us an Idea of a buying and selling with God and that there has been a great deal of this put in practice it is certain that on many respects this Word ought not to be made use of There is somewhat in the Nature of Man apt to swell and to raise it self out of measure and to that no Indulgence ought to be given in words that may flatter it for we ought to subdue this Temper by all means possible both in our selves and others On the other hand though we confess that there is a Disorder and Weakness that hangs heavy upon us and that sticks close to us yet this ought not to make us indulge our selves in our sins as if they were the effects of an Infirmity that is inseparable from us To consent to any Sin if it were ever so small in it self is a very great sin We ought to go on still cleansing our selves more and more 2 Cor. 7.1 from all filthiness both of the flesh and of the spirit and perfecting holiness in the fear of God Our readiness to sin should awaken both our diligence to watch against it and our humility under it For though we grow not up to a pitch of being above all sin and of absolute Perfection yet there are many degrees both of Purity and Perfection to which we may arrive and to which we must constantly aspire So that we must keep a just Temper in this Matter neither to ascribe so much to our own Works as to be lifted up by reason of them or to forget our daily need of a Saviour both for Pardon and Intercession nor on the other hand so far to neglect them as to take no care about them The due Temper is to make our calling and election sure Phil. 2.12 Col. 3.17 and to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling but to do all in the name of the Lord Iesus ever trusting to him and giving thanks to God by him ARTICLE XIII Of Works before Justification Works done before the
Doctrine as to note those who obey not the Gospel 2 Thess. 36.14 15. and to have no company with them that they may be ashamed yet not so as to hate such a one or count him as an Enemy but to admonish him as a Brother Into what neglect or prostitution soever any Church may have fallen in this great point of separating Offenders of making them ashamed and of keeping others from being corrupted with their ill Example and bad Influence that must be confessed to be a very great defect and blemish The Church of Rome had slackned all the ancient Rules of Discipline and had perverted this matter in a most scandalous manner and the World is now sunk into so much corruption and to such a contempt of holy things that it is much more easy here to find matter for lamentation than to see how to remedy or correct it ARTICLE XVII Predestination and Election Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the foundations of the World were laid he hath constantly decreed by his Counsel secret to us to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind and to bring them by Christ unto everlasting Salvation as vessels made to honour Wherefore they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of God be called according to God's purpose by his Spirit working in due season They through grace obey the calling they be justified freely they be made Sons of God by Adoption they be made like the Image of his only begotten Son Iesus Christ they walk religiously in good works and at length by God's mercy they attain to everlasting felicity As the godly consideration of Predestination and our Election in Christ is full of sweet pleasant and unspeakable comfort to godly persons and such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ mortifying the works of the flesh and their earthly members and drawing up their mind to high and heavenly things as well because it doth greatly establish anâ—â—â—â—firm their Faith of eternal Salvation to be enjoyed through Christ as because it doth fervently kindle their love towards God So for curious and carnal persons lacking the Spirit of Christ to have continually before their eyes the sentence of God's Predestination is a most dangerous downfall whereby the Devil doth thrust them either â—nto desperation or into wrechlesness of most unclean living no less perillous than â—esperation Furthermore We must receive God's promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture and in our doings that Will of God is to be followed which we have expresly declared unto us in the Word of God THere are many things in several of the other Articles which depend upon this and therefore I will explain it more fully For as this has given occasion to one of the longest the subtilest and indeed the most intricate of all the Questions in Divinity so it will be necessary to open and examine it as fully as the Importance and Difficulties of it do require In treating of it I shall First State the Question together with the consequences that arise out of it Secondly Give an account of the differences that have arisen upon it Thirdly I shall set out the strength of the Opinions of the Contending Parties with all possible Impartiality and Exactness Fourthly I shall see how far they agree and how far they differ and shall shew what reason there is for bearing with one another's Opinions in these matters and in the Fifth and last place I shall consider how far we of this Church are determined by this Article and how far we are at liberty to follow any of those different Opinions The whole Controversy may be reduced to this single Point as its head and source Upon what Views did God form his Purposes and Decrees concerning Mankind Whether he did it merely upon a design of advancing his own Glory and for manifesting his own Attributes in order to which he setled the great universal Scheme of his whole Creation and Providence Or whether he considered all the free motions of those rational Agents that he did intend to create and according to what he foresaw they would chuse and do in all the various circumstances in which he might put them formed his Decrees Here the Controversy begins and when this is setled the three main Questions that arise out of it will be soon determined The First is Whether both God and Christ intended that Christ should only dye for that particular number whom God intended to save Or whether it was intended that he should dye for all so that every Man that would might have the benefit of his Death and that no Man was excluded from it but because he willingly rejected it The Second is Whether those Assistances that God gives to Men to enable them to obey him are of their own nature so efficacious and irresistible that they never fail of producing the Effect for which they are given or Whether they are only sufficient to enable a Man to obey God so that their Efficacy comes from the freedom of the Will that either may co-operate with them or may not as it pleases The Third is Whether such persons do and must certainly persevere to whom such Grace is given or Whether they may not fall away both entirely and finally from that State There are also other Questions concerning the true Notion of Liberty concerning the Feebleness of our Powers in this lapsed State with several lesser ones all which do necessarily take their determination from the decision of the first and main Question About which there are four Opinions The First is of those commonly called Supralapsarians who think that God does only consider his own Glory in all that he does and that whatever is done arises from its first Cause from the Decree of God That in this Decree God considering only the Manifestation of his own Glory intended to make the World to put a Race of Men in it to constitute them under Adam as their Fountain and Head That he decreed Adam's Sin the lapse of his Posterity and Christ's Death together with the Salvation or Damnation of such Men as should be most for his own Glory That to those who were to be saved he decreed to give such efficacious Assistances as should certainly put them in the way of Salvation And to those whom he rejected he decreed to give such Assistances and means only as should render them inexcusable That all Men do continue in a state of Grace or of Sin and shall be saved or damned accâ—rding to that first Decree So that God views Himself only and in that View he designs all things singly for his own Glory and for the manifesting of his own Attributes The Second Opinion is of those called the Sublapsarians who say That Adam having sinned freely and his Sin being imputed to all his Posterity God did
Such a Faith as this justifies but not as it is a Work or meritorious Action that of its own nature puts us in the Favour of God and makes us truly just But as it is the Condition upon which the Mercy of God is offered to us by Christ Jesus For then we correspond to his design of coming into the World that he might redeem us from all Iniquity Tit. 2.14 that is justify us And purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works that is sanctify us Upon our bringing our selves therefore under these Qualifications and Conditions we are actually in the Favour of God Our Sins are pardoned and we are entitled to Eternal Life Our Faith and Repentance are not the valuable Considerations for which God pardons and justifies that is done meerly for the Death of Christ which God having out of the Riches of his Grace provided for us and offered to us Justification is upon those accounts said to be free There being nothing on our part which either did or could have procured it But still our Faith which includes our Hope our Love our Repentance and our Obedience is the Condition that makes us capable of receiving the benefits of this Redemption and Free Grace And thus it is clear in what sense we believe that we are justified both freely and yet through Christ and also through Faith as the Condition indispensably necessary on our part In strictness of words we are not justified till the final Sentence is pronounced Till upon our Death we are solemnly acquitted of our Sins and admitted into the Presence of God this being that which is opposite to Condemnation Yet as a Man who is in that state that must end in Condemnation is said to be condemned already Joh. 3.18 and the wrath of God is said to abide upon him tho' he be not yet adjudged to it So on the contrary a Man in that state which must end in the full Enjoyment of God is said now to be justified and to be at peace with God because he not only has the Promises of that state now belonging to him when he does perform the Conditions required in them but is likewise receiving daily Marks of God's Favour the protection of his Providence the Ministry of Angels and the inward Assistances of his Grace and Spirit This is a Doctrine full of comfort for if we did believe that our Justification was founded upon our Inherent Justice or Sanctification as the Consideration on which we receive it we should have just cause of Fear and Dejection since we could not reasonably promise our selves so great a Blessing upon so poor a Consideration but when we know that this is only the Condition of it then when we feel it is sincerely received and believed and carefully observed by us we may conclude that we are justified But we are by no means to think that our certain persuasion of Christ's having died for us in particular or the certainty of our Salvation through him is an Act of saving Faith much less that we are justified by it Many things have been too crudely said upon this Subject which have given the Enemies of the Reformation great Advantages and have furnished them with much matter of Reproach We ought to believe firmly That Christ died for all Penitent and Converted Sinners and when we feel these Characters in our selves we may from thence justly infer That he died for us and that we are of the Number of those who shall be Saved through him But yet if we may fall from this state in which we do now feel our selves we may and must likewise forfeit those hopes and therefore we must work out our Salvation with fear and trembling Our believing that we shall be Saved by Christ is no Act of Divine Faith since every Act of Faith must be founded on some Divine Revelation It is only a Collection and Inference that we may make from this general Proposition That Christ is the propitiation for the Sins of those who do truly repent and believe his Gospel and from those Reflections and Observations that we make on our selves by which we conclude That we do truly both repent and believe ARTICLE XII Of Good Works Albeit that Good Works which are the fruits of Faith and follow after Iustification cannot put away our Sins and endure the severity of God's Iudgment yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively Faith insomuch that by them a lively Faith may be as evidently known as a Tree discerned by the fruit THat Good works are indispensably necessary to Salvation that without holiness no man shall see the Lord is so fully and frequently exprest in the Gospel that no doubt can be made of it by any who reads it And indeed a greater disparagement to the Christian Religion cannot be imagined than to propose the hopes of God's Mercy and Pardon barely upon Believing without a Life suitable to the Rules it gives us This began early to corrupt the Theories of Religion as it still has but too great an influence upon the Practice of it What St. Iames writ upon this Subject must put an end to all doubting about it and whatever Subtilties some may have set up to separate the consideration of Faith from a holy Life in the point of Iustification yet none among us have denied that it was absolutely necessary to Salvation And so it be owned as necessary it is a nice curiosity to examine whether it is of it self a Condition of Justification or if it is the certain distinction and constant effect of that Faith which justifies These are Speculations of very little consequence as long as the main Point is still maintained That Christ came to bring us to God to change our Natures to mortify the Old man in us and to raise up and restore that Image of God from which we had fallen by Sin And therefore even where the Thread of Men's Speculations of these Matters may be thought too fine and in some Points of them wrong drawn yet so long as this Foundation is preserved that every one who nameth the name of Christ does depart from iniquity 2 Tim. 2.19 so long the Doctrine of Christ is preserved pure in this Capital and Fundamental Point There do arise out of this Article only two Points about which some Debates have been made 1st Whether the Good Works of Holy Men are in themselves so perfect that they can endure the severity of God's Judgment so that there is no mixture of imperfection or Evil in them or not The Council of Trent has decreed That Men by their Good Works have so fully satisfied the Law of God according to the state of this Life that nothing is wanting to them The second Point is Whether these Good Works are of their own nature meritorious of Eternal Life or not The Council of Trent has decreed that
Grace of Christ and the Inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God forasmuch as they spring not of Faith in Iesus Christ neither do they make men meet to receive Grace or as the School-Authors say deserve Grace of Congruity Yea rather for that they are not done as God hath commanded and willed them to be done we doubt not but that they have the nature of Sin THere is but one Point to be considered in this Article which is Whether Men can without any inward Assistances from God do any Action that shall be in all its circumstances so good that it is not only acceptable to God but meritorious in his sight though in a lower degree of merit If what was formerly laid down concerning a Corruption that was spread over the whole Race of Mankind and that had very much vitiated their Faculties be true then it will follow from thence That unassisted Nature can do nothing that is so good in it self that it can be pleasant or meritorious in the sight of God A great difference is here to be made between an external Action as it is considered in it self and the same Action as it was done by such a Man An Action is called good from the Morality and Nature of the Action it self so Actions of Justice and Charity are in themselves good whatsoever the Doer of them may be But Actions are considered by God with relation to him that does them in another light his Principles Ends and Motives with all the other circumstances of the Action come into this Account for unless all these be good let the Action in its own abstracted nature be ever so good it cannot render the Doer acceptable or meritorious in the sight of God Another distinction is also to be made between the Methods of the Goodness and Mercy of God and the strictness of Justice For if God had suchregard to the feigned Humiliation of Ahab 1 Kings 21.29 as to grant him and his Family a Reprieve for some time from those Judgments that had been denounced against them and him and if Iehu's executing the Commands of God upon Ahab's Family and upon the Worshippers of Baal procured him the Blessing of a long continuance of the Kingdom in his Family though he acted in it with a bad design 2 Kings 10.30 31. and retained still the old Idolatry of the Calves set up by Ieroboam then we have all reason to conclude according to the Infinite Mercy and Goodness of God that no Man is rejected by him or denied inward Assistances that is making the most of his Faculties and doing the best that he can but that he who is faithful in his little shall be made Ruler over more The Question is only Whether such Actions can be so pure as to be free from all sin and to Merit at God's hand as being Works naturally perfect for that is the formal Notion of the Merit of Congruity as the Notion of the Merit of Condignity is That the Work is perfect in the Supernatural Order To establish the Truth of this Article beside what was said upon the Head of Original Sin we ought to consider what St. Paul's words in the 7 th of the Romans do import Nothing was urged from them on the former Articles because there is just ground of doubting whether St. Paul is there speaking of himself in the state he was in when he writ it or whether he is personating a Iew and speaking of himself as he was while yet a Iew. But if the words are taken in that lowest sense they prove this That an Unregenerate Man has in himself such a Principle of Corruption that even a good and a holy Law revealed to him cannot reform it but that on the contrary it will take occasion from that very Law to deceive him and to slay him Rom. 7.12 13. So that all the benefit that he receives even from that Revelation is Ver. 14. that sin in him becomes exceeding sinful as being done against such a degree of Light by which it appears that he is carnal and sold under sin and that though his Understanding may be enlighten'd by the Revelation of the Law of God made to him so that he has some Inclinations to obey it yet he does not that which he would but that which he would not And though his Mind is so far convinced 16 17 18 that he consents to the Law that it is good yet he still does that which he would not which was the effect of sin that dwelt in him and from hence he knew that in him that is in his flesh in his carnal part or carnal state there dwelt no good thing for though to will that is to resolve on obeying the Law was present yet he found not a way how to perform that which was good the good that he wished to do that he did not but he did the evil that he wished not to do which he imputed to the sin that dwelt in him He found then a Law a Bent and Biass within him 21 that when he wished resolved and endeavoured to do good evil was present with him it sprung up naturally within him for though in his rational Powers he might so far approve the Law of God as to delight in it yet he found another Law arising upon his Mind from his Body 23 which warred against the law of his mind and brought him into captivity to the law of sin which was in his members 24 25. All this made him conclude that he was carnal and sold under sin and cry out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death For this he thanks God through our Lord Iesus Christ And he sums all up in these words So then with the mind I my self serve the Law of God but with the flesh the Law of Sin If all this Discourse is made by St. Paul of himself when he had the Light which a Divinely-inspired Law gave him he being educated in the exactest way of that Religion both zealous for the Law and blameless in his own observance of it we may from thence conclude how little reason there is to believe that a Heathen or indeed an unregenerated Man can be better than he was and do Actions that are both good in themselves which it is not denied but that he may do and do them in such a manner that there shall be no mixture nor imperfection in them but that they shall be perfect in a Natural Order and be by consequence meritorious in a Secondary Order By all this we do not pretend to say That a Man in that state can do nothing or that he has no use of his Faculties He can certainly restrain himself on many occasions he can do many good works and avoid many bad ones he can raise his Understanding to know and consider things according to the Light that he has he can put
himself in good methods and good circumstances he can Pray and do many Acts of Devotion which though they are all very imperfect yet none of them will be lost in the sight of God who certainly will never be wanting to those who are doing what in them lies to make themselves the proper Objects of his Mercy and fit Subjects for his Grace to work upon Therefore this Article is not to be made use of to discourage Mens Endeavours but only to encrease their Humility to teach them not to think of themselves above measure but soberly to depend always on the mercy of God and ever to fly to it ARTICLE XIV Of Works of Supererogation Uoluntary Works besides over and above God's Commandments which they call Works of Supererogation cannot be taught without Arrogancy and Impiety For by them men do declare That they do not only render unto God as much as they are bound to do but that they do more for his sake than of bounden Duty is required Whereas Christ saith plainly when ye have done all that are commanded to you say We are unprofitable Servants THERE are Two Points that arise out of this Article to be considered 1 st Whether there are in the New Testament Counsels of Perfection given that is to say such Rules which do not oblige all Men to follow them under the pain of Sin Luke 17.10 but yet are useful to carry them on to a sublimer Degree of Perfection than is necessary in order to their Salvation 2 d. Whether men by following these do not more than they are bound to do and by consequence Whether they have not there by a Stock of Merit to communicate to others The First of these leads to the Second for if there are no such Counsels then the Foundation of Supererogoation fails We deny both upon this Ground That the great Obligations of loving God with all our Heart Soul Strength and Mind and our Neighbour as our selves which are reckoned by our Saviour Matth. 22.36 to 40. the two great Commandments on which hang all the Law and the Prophets are of that extent that it seems not possible to imagine How any thing can be acceptable to God that does not fall within them Since if it is acceptable to God then that Obligation to love God so entirely must bind us to it for if it is a Sin not to love God up to this pitch then it is a Sin not to do every thing that we imagine will please him And by consequence if there is a Degree of pleasing God whether Precept or Counsel that we do not study to attain to we do not love him in a manner suitable to that It seems a great many in the Church of Rome are aware of this consequence and therefore they have taken much pains to convince the World that we are not bound to love God at all or as others more cautiously word it that we are only bound to value him above all things but not to have a love of such a vast intension for him This is a proposition that after all their softning it gives so much horror to every Christian that I need not be at any pains to confute it We are further required in the New Testament to cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of the Flesh and Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God And to reckon our selves his and not our own 2 Cor. 7.1 1 Cor. 6.20 and that we are bought with a price and that therefore we ought to glorify him both in our Bodies and in our Spirits which are his These and many more like Expressions are plainly Precepts of general Obligation for nothing can be set forth in more positive words than these are And it is not easie to imagine How any thing can go beyond them for if we are Christ's Property purchased by him then we ought to apply our selves to every thing in which his honour or the honour of his Religion can be concerned or which will be pleasing to him Our Saviour having charged the Pharisees so often for adding so many of their Ordinances to the Laws of God Coloss. 2. teaching his fear by the Precepts of men and the Apostles condemning a shew of Will-worship and voluntary humility seem to belong to this matter and to be designed on purpose to repress the Pride and Singularities affected Hypocrites Our Saviour said to him that asked Matth. 19.16 17. What he should do that he might have eternal life keep the Commandments These words I do the rather cite because they are followed with a passage that of all others in the New Testament seems to look the likest a Counsel of Perfection for when he who made the Question replied upon our Saviour's Answer That he had kept all these from his youth up and added what lack I yet To that our Saviour Answered If thou wilt be perfect V. 20 21. go sell all that thou hast and give to the Poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come and follow me And by the words that follow of the difficulty of a rich Man's entring into the Kingdom of Heaven this is more fully Explained The meaning of all that whole passage is this Christ called that person to abandon all and come and follow him in such a manner as he had called his Apostles So that here is no Counsel but a positive Command given to that particular person upon this occasion By Perfect is only to be meant compleat in order to that to which he pretended which was Eternal Life And that also explains the word in that period Treasures in Heaven another Expression for Eternal Life to compensate the loss which he would have made by the Sale of his Possessions So that here is no Counsel but a Special Command given to this person in order to his own attaining Eternal Life Nor is it to be inferred from hence That this is proposed to others in the way of a Counsel for as in Cases either of a Famine or Persecution it may come to be to some a command to sell all in order to the relief of others as it was in the first beginnings of Christianity so in ordinary cases to do it might be rather a tempting of Providence than a trusting to it for then a Man should part with the means of his Subsistence which God has provided for him without a necessay and pressing occasion Therefore our Saviour's words Luke 12.33 Sell that ye have and give Alms as they are delivered in the strain and peremptoriness of a Command so they must be understood to bind as positive Commands do Not so constantly as a Negative Command does since in every minute of our Life that binds but there is a Rule and Order in our obeying positive Commands We must not rest on the Sabbath-day if a Work of Necessity or Charity calls us to put to our hands We must not obey our Parents in disobeying
Controversy with that which they think they can the most easily prove the one at the Establishing of Election and the other at the overthrowing of Reprobation Some have studied to seek out middle-ways For they observing that the Scriptures are writ in a great diversity of Stile in Treating of the Good or Evil that happens to us ascribing the one to God and imputing the other to our selves teaching us to ascribe the honour of all that is Good to God and to cast the blame of all that is Evil upon our selves have from thence concluded That God must have a different Influence and Causality in the one from what he has in the other But when they go to make this out they meet with great Difficulties yet they chuse to bear these rather than to involve themselves in those equally great if not greater Difficulties that are in either of the other Opinions They wrap up all in Two General Assertions that are great Practical Truths Let us Arrogate no good to our selves and impute no evil to God and so let the whole matter rest This may be thought by some the lazier as well as the safer way which avoids Difficulties rather than answers them whereas they say of both the Contending Sides That they are better at the starting of Difficulties than at the resolving of them Thus far I have gone upon the general in making such Reflections as will appear but too well grounded to those who have with any Attention read the chief Disputants of both Sides In these great Points all agree That Mercy is freely offered to the World in Christ Jesus That God did freely offer his Son to be our Propitiation and has freely accepted the Sacrifice of his Death in our stead whereas he might have Condemned every Man to have perished for his own Sins That God does in the Dispensation of this Gospel and the Promulgation of it to the several Nations act according to the Freedom of his Grace upon Reasons that are to us mysterious and past finding out That every Man is inexcusable in the sight of God That all Men are so far free as to be praise-worthy or blame-worthy for the Good or Evil that they do That every Man ought to employ his Faculties all he can and to pray and depend earnestly upon God for his Protection and Assistance That no Man in Practice ought to think that there is a Fate or Decree hanging over him and so become slothful in his Duty but that every Man ought to do the best he can as if there were no such Decree since whether there is or is not it is not possible for him to know what it is That every Man ought to be deeply humbled for his Sins in the sight of God without excusing himself by pretending a Decree was upon him or a want of Power in him That all Men are bound to obey the Rules set them in the Gospel and are to expect neither Mercy nor Favour from God but as they set themselves diligently about that And finally That at the Last Day all Men shall be Judged not according to secret Decrees but according to their own Works In these great Truths of which the greater part are Practical all Men agree If they would agree as honestly in the Practice of them as they do in Confessing them to be true they would do that which is much more important and necessary than to speculate and dispute about Niceties by which the World would quickly put on a new Face and then those few that might delight in curious Searches and Arguments would manage them with more Modesty and less Heat and be both less positive and less supercilious I have hitherto insisted on such general Reflections as seemed proper to these Questions I come now in the last place to examine how far our Church hath determined the Matter either in this Article or elsewhere How far she hath restrained her Sons and how far she hath left them at liberty For those different Opinions being so intricate in themselves and so apt â—o raise hot Disputes and to kindle lasting Quarrels it will not be suitable to that Moderation which our Church hath observed in all other things to sâ—retch her Words on these Heads beyond their strict sense The natural equity or reason of things ought rather to carry us on the other hand to as great a Comprehensiveness of all sides as may well consist with the Words in which our Church has expressed herself on those Heads It is not to be denied but that the Article seems to be framed according to St. Austin's Doctrine It supposes Men to be under a Curse and Damnation antecedently to Predestination from which they are delivered by it so it is directly against the Sâ—pralapsarian Doctrine Nor does the Article make any mention of Reprobation no not in a hint no Definition is made concerning it The Article does also seem to assert the Efficacy of Grace That in which the Knot of the whole Dfficulty lies is not Defined that is Whether God's Eternal Purpose or Decree was made according to what he foresaw his Creatures would do or purely upon an Absolute Will in order to his own Glory It is very probable that those who Penned it meant that the Decree was Absolute but yet since they have not said it those who subscribe the Articles do not seem to be bound to any thing that is not expressed in them And therefore since the Remonstrants do not deny but that God having foreseen what all Mankind would according to all the different Circumstances in which they should be put do or not do he upon that did by a firm and Eternal Decree lay that whole Design in all its Branches which he Executes in time they may subscribe this Article without renouncing their Opinion as to this matter On the other hand the Calvinists have less occasion for Scruple since the Article does seem more plainly to favour them The Three Cautions that are added to it do likewise intimate that St. Austin's Doctrine was designed to be settled by the Article For the danger of Mens having the sentence of God's Predestination always before their eyes which may occasion either desperation on the one hand or the wretchlesness of most unclean living on the other belongs only to that side since these Mischiefs do not arise out of the other Hypothesis The other Two of taking the Promises of God in the sense in which they are set forth to us in Holy Scriptures and of following that Will of God that is expresly declared to us in the Word of God relate very visibly to the same Opinion Though others do infer from these Cautions That the Doctrine laid down in the Article must be so understood as to agree with these Cautions and therefore they argue That since Absolute Predestination cannot consist with them that therefore the Article is to be otherwise explained They say the natural Consequence of an Absolute
Mercy Peace and Oblivion that are made in the Gospel it is contrary to the Truth and Veracity and to the Justice and Goodness of God to affirm that there are Reserves to be understood for Punishments when the Offers and Promises are made to us in such large and unlimited Expressions Thus we lay our Foundation in this matter which does very fully overthrow theirs We do not deny but that God does in this World punish good Men for those Sins which yet are forgiven them through Christ Psal. 99.8 according to these words in the Psalm Thou wast a God that forgavest them though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions But this is a consideration quite of another nature God in the Government of this World thinks fit by his Providence sometimes to interpose in visible Blessings as well as Judgments to shew how he protects and favours the Good and punishes the Bad and that the bad Actions of good Men are odious to him even though he has recieved their Persons into his favour He has also in the Gospel plainly excepted the Government of this World and the secret Methods of his Providence out of the Mercy that he has promised by the Warnings that are given to all Christians to prepare for Crosses and Afflictions in this Life He has made Faith and Patience in Adversities a main Condition of this New Covenant he has declared that these are not the Punishments of an Angry God but the Chastisements of a Kind and Merciful Father who designs by them both to shew to the World the Impartiality of his Justice in punishing some crying Sins in a very signal manner and to give good Men deep Impressions of their odiousness to oblige them to a severer Repentance for them and to a greater Watchfulness against them as also to give the World such Examples of Resignation and Patience under them that they may edify others by that as much as by their Sins they may have offended them So that upon all these Accounts it seems abundantly clear that no Argument can be drawn from the Temporal Punishments of good Men for their Sins in this World to a reserve of others in another State The one are clearly mentioned and reserved in the offers of Mercy that are made in the Gospel whereas the others are not This being the most plausible thing that they say for this Distinction of those twofold Punishments it is plain that there is no foundation for it As for those words of Christ's Matth. 5.26 Ye shall not come out till ye have paid the uttermost farthing from which they would infer that there is a State in which after we shall be cast into Prison we are paying off our Debts this if an Argument at all will prove too much that in Hell the Damned are clearing Scores and that they shall be delivered when all is paid off For by Prison there that only can be meant as appears by the whole Contexture of the Discourse and by other Parables of the like nature It is a Figure taken from a Man Imprisoned for a great Debt and the continuance of it till the last Farthing is paid does imply their perpetual Continuance in that State since the Debt is too great to be ever paid off From a Phrase in a Parable no Consequence is to be drawn beyond that which is the true Scope of the Parable which in this particular is only intended by our Saviour to shew the severe Punishment of those who hate implacably which is a Sin that does certainly deserve Hell and not Purgatory Our Saviour's Words concerning the Sin against the Holy Ghost That it is neither forgiven in this Life nor in that which is to come Matth. 12.32 is also urged to prove that some Sins are pardoned in the next Life which are not pardoned in this But still this will seem a stronger Argument against the Eternity of Hell-Torments than for Purgatory and will rather import that the Damned may at last be pardoned their Sins since these are the only Persons whose Sins are not pardoned in this World for of those who are justified it cannot be said that their Sins are not forgiven them and such only go to Purgatory Therefore either this is only a general way of speaking to exclude all hopes of Pardon and to imply that God's Judgments will pursue such Blasphemers both in this Life and in the next or if we will understand them more critically by this Life or this Age and the next according to a common Opinion and Phrase of the Iews which is founded on the Prophecies are to be understood the Dispensation of the Law and the Dispensation of the Messias the Age to come being a common Phrase for the times of the Messias according to those Words in the Epistle to the Hebrews Heb. 2.5 He hath not put in subjection to Angels the world to come By the Mosaical Law Sacrifices were only received and by consequence Pardon was offered for Sins of a less heinous Nature but those that were more heinous were to be punished by Death or by cutting off without Mercy whereas a full promise of the Pardon of all Sins is offered in the Gospel So that the meaning of these words of Christ's is that such a Blasphemy was a Sin not only beyond the Pardon offered in the Law of Moses which was the Age that then was but that it was a Sin beyond that Pardon which was to be offered by the Messias in the Age to come that is in the Kingdom of Heaven that was then at hand But these Words can by no means be urged to prove this Distinction of Temporal and Eternal Punishment therefore we must conclude that since Repentance and Remission of Sins are joyned together in the first Commission to Preach the Gospel â—uk 24.47 and since Life Peace and Salvation are promised to such as believe that all this is to be understood simply and plainly without any other Limitation or Exception than that which is expressed which is only of such Chastisements as God thinks fit to exercise good Men with in this Life In the next place we shall consider what reason we have to reject the Doctrine of Purgatory as we have already seen how weak the Foundation is upon which it is built The Scripture speaks to us of Two States after this Life of Happiness and Misery and as it divides all Mankind into good and bad into those that do Good and those that do Evil into Believers and Unbelievers Righteous and Sinners so it proposes always the end of the one to be everlasting Happiness and the end of the other to be everlasting Punishment without the least hint of any Middle State after Death So that it is very plain there is nothing said in Scripture of Men too good to be Damned but not so good as to be immediately Saved Now if there had been yet a great deal to be suffered after Death and