ART. XIV. They gave it high names, and called it a plenary remiffion, and the pardon of all fins: which the world was taught to look on as a thing of a much higher nature, than the bare excufing of men from difcipline and penance. Purgatory was then got to be firmly believed, and all men were trangely poffeffed with the terror of it: fo a deliverance from purgatory, and by confequence an immediate admiffion into heaven, was believed to be the certain effect of it. And to fupport all this, the doctrine of counfels of perfection, of works of fupererogation, and of the communication of those merits, was fet up; and to that this was added, that a treasure made up of thefe, was at the Pope's difpofal, and in his keeping. The ufe that this was put to, was as bad as the forgery itself. Multitudes were by thefe means engaged to go to the Holy Land, to recover it out of the hands of the Saracens : afterwards they armed vaft numbers against the hereticks to extirpate them: they fought alfo all thofe quarrels which their ambitious pretenfions engaged them in with emperors and other princes, by the fame pay; and at laft they fet it to fale with the fame impudence, and almoft with the fame methods that mountebanks use in the venting of their fecrets. This was fo grofs even in an ignorant age, and among the ruder fort, that it gave the first rife to the Reformation: and as the progrefs of it was a very fignal work of God, so it was in a great measure owing to the fcandals that this fhameless practice had given the world. And upon this single reafon it is that this matter has been more fully examined than was neceffary; for the thing is fo plain, that it has no fort of diffi culty in it. ARTICLE ART. 'XV. ARTICLE XV. Of Chrift alone without Sin. Christ in the truth of ouz nature was made like unto us in all things (lin only except) from which He was clearly void both in his flesh and in fpirit. He came to be a Lamb without spot, who by facrifice of himself once made, should take away the lins of the World: and ûn, as St. John faith, was not in him. But all we the reßk (although baptized and born again in Chriff) pet offend in many things; and if we fap we have no lin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. TH HIS Article relates to the former, and is put here as another foundation against all works of fupererogation: for that doctrine, with the confequences of it, having given the first occafion to the Reformation, it was thought neceffary to overthrow it entirely and because the perfection of the faints must be supposed, before their fupererogating can be thought on, that was therefore here oppofed. i. 19. That Chrift was holy, without fpot and blemish, harmless, Heb. vii. undefiled, and feparate from finners; that there was no guile in 26. his mouth; that he never did amifs, but went about always doing good, and was as a lamb without fpot, is fo oft affirmed in the 1 Pet. i. New Teftament, that it can admit of no debate. This was not only true in his rational powers, the fuperior part called the Spirit, in oppofition to the lower part, but also in those appetites and affections that arife from our bodies, and from the union of our fouls to them, called the Flesh. For though in these Chrift having the human nature truly in him, had the appetites of hunger in him, yet the devil could not tempt him by that to diftruft God, or to defire a miraculous fupply fooner than was fitting: he overcame even that neceffary appetite whenfoever there was an occafion given him to do the John iv. 34. will of his heavenly Father: he had alfo in him the averfions to pain and fuffering, and the horror at a violent and ignominious death, which are planted in our natures: and in this it was natural to him to wifh and to pray that the cup might pafs from him. But in this his purity appeared the most eminently, that though he felt the weight of his nature to a vast degree, he did, notwithstanding that, limit and conquer it fo entirely, N 2 ART. entirely, that he refigned himself abfolutely to his Father's will: Not my will, but thy will be done. XV. Befides all that has been already faid upon the former Articles, to prove that fome taint and degree of the original corruption remains in all men; the peculiar character of Chrift's holiness so oft repeated, looks plainly to be a distinction proper to him, and to him only. We are called upon to follow him, to learn of him, and to imitate him without reftriction; where1 Cor. xi. 1. as we are required to follow the Apoftles, only as they were the 1 Pet. i. 15. followers of Chrift: and though we are commanded to be holy as he was holy in all manner of converfation; that does no more prove that any man can arrive at that pitch, than our being comMatt. v. 48. manded to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect, will prove that we may become as perfect as God is: the importance of these words being only this, that we ought in all things to make God and Chrift our patterns; and that we ought to endeavour to imitate and refemble them all we can. Ver. 20. There feems to be a particular defign in the contexture and writing of the Scriptures, to reprefent to us fome of the Luke i. 6. failings of the best men: for though Zacharias and Elizabeth are faid to have been blameless, that must only be meant of the 'exterior and visible part of their conversation, that it was free from blame, and of their being accepted of God; but that is not to be carried to import a finlefs purity before God: for we find the fame Zachary guilty of mifbelieving the meffage of the Angel to him, to fuch a degree, that he was punished for it with a dumbnefs of above nine months continuance. Perhaps the Virgin's queftion to the Angel had nothing blame-worthy in it; but our Saviour's answers to her, Luke ii. 49. both when the came to him in the Temple, when he was twelve years old, and more particularly when he moved him, John ii. 4. at the marriage in Cana, to furnish them with wine, look like a reprimand. The contentions among the Apoftles about the pre-eminence, and in particular the ambition of James and John, cannot be excufed. St. Peter's diffimulation at Antioch Matt. xx. in the judaizing controversy, and the sharp contention that happened between Paul and Barnabas, are recorded in Scripture, and they are both characters of the fincerity of those who penned Acts xv. 39. them, and likewife marks of the frailties of human nature, even in its greatest elevation, and with its higheft advantages. So that all the high characters that are given of the best men, are to be understood either comparatively to others whom they exceeded, or with relation to their outward actions, and the vifible parts of their life or they are to be meant of their zeal and fincerity, which is valued and accepted of God; and, as it was to Abraham, is imputed to them for righteoufnefs. 20, 24. 12, 13, 14. Yet XV. Yet this is not to be abused by any to be an encouragement ART. to live in fin; for we may carry this purity and perfection certainly very far, by the grace of God. In every fin that we commit, we do plainly perceive, that we do it with so much freedom, that we might not have done it; here is still juft matter for humiliation and repentance. By this doctrine our Church intends only to reprefs the pride of vain-glorious and hypocritical men, and to ftrike at the root of that filthy merchandise that has been brought into the house of God, under the pretence of the perfection, and even the over-doing or supererogating of the faints. ART. ARTICLE XVI. Of Sin after Baptifm. Not every deadly in willingly committed after Baptifm is the ẩn again& the Holy Ghoff, and unpardonable. Wherefore the grant of Repentance is not to be denied to fuch as fall into ûn after Baptism. After we have received the Holy Gholf, we may depart from grace given, and fall into fin, and by the grace of God we may arise again and amend our Lives. And therefore they are to be condemned, which lay they can no more fin as long as they live heze, or deny the place of forgiveness to fuch as truly repent. TH HIS Article, as it relates to the fect of the Novatians of old, fo it is probable it was made a part of our doctrine, upon the account of fome of the enthufiafts, who at that time, as well as fome do in our days, might boaft their perfection, and join with that part of the character of a Pharifee, this other of an unreasonable rigour of cenfure and punishment againft offenders. By deadly fin in the Article, we are not to understand fuch fins, as in the Church of Rome are called mortal, in oppofition to others that are venial: as if some fins, though offences against God, and violations of his law, could be of their own nature fuch flight things, that they deferved only temporal punishment, and were to be expiated by fome piece of penance or devotion, or the communication of the merits of others. The Scripture no where teaches us to think fo flightly of the majefty of God, or of his Law. There is a curfe Gal. iii. 10. upon every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them: and the fame curfe must have been on us all, if Chrift had not redeemed us from it: The wages of fin is death. And St. James afferts, that there is fuch a complication of all the precepts of the Law of God, both with one another, and with the authority of the Jam. ii. 10, Lawgiver, that he who offends in one point, is guilty of all. So fince God has in his word given us fuch dreadful apprehenfions of his wrath, and of the guilt of fin, we dare not foften these to a degree below the majefty of the eternal God, and the dignity of his moft holy laws. But, after all, we are far from the conceit of the Stoicks, who made all fins alike. We acknow ledge |