XIV.

ART. neral rules; yet fuch men, to whofe circumftances and ftation they do belong, are ftrictly obliged by them, so that they should fin, if they did not put them in practice.

This being thus made out, the foundation of works of fupererogation is deftroyed. But if it fhould be acknowledged that there were fuch counsels of perfection in the Scripture, there are ftill two other clear proofs, to fhew that there can be no fuch thing as fupererogating with God. Firft, every man not only has finned, but has still fo much corruption about him, as to feel the truth of that James iii. 2. of St. James, in many things we offend all. Now unlefs it can be fuppofed that, by obeying thofe counfels, a man can compenfate with Almighty God for his fins, there is no ground to think that he can fupererogate. He muft firft clear his own fcore, before he can imagine that any thing upon his account can be forgiven or imputed to another and if the guilt of fin is eternal, and the pretended merit of obeying counfels is only temporary, no temporary merit can take off an eternal guilt. So that it must first be fuppofed, that a man both is and has been perfect as to the precepts of obligation, before it can be thought that he fhould have an overplus of merit.

:

The other clear argument from Scripture against works of fupererogation is, that there is nothing in the whole New Teftament that does in any fort favour them; we are always taught to truft to the mercies of God, and to the Phil. ii. 12. death and interceffion of Chrift, and to work out our own falvation with fear and trembling: but we are never once directed to look for any help from faints, or to think that we can do any thing for another man's foul in this way. Pf. xlix. 7. The Pfalm has it, No man can by any means give a ransom for bis brother's foul: the words of Chrift cited in the Article are full and exprefs against it.

The words in the parable of the five foolish virgins and the five wife, may feem to favour it, but they really contradict it; for it was the foolish virgins that defired the wife to give them of their oil; which if any will apply to a fuppofed communication of merit, they ought to confider that the propofition is made by the foolish, and Matt. xxv. the answer of the wife virgins is full against it; Not fo, left there be not enough for us and you. What follows, of bidding them go to them that fell, and buy for themselves, is only a piece of the fiction of the parable, which cannot enter into any part of the application of it. What St. Col, i, 24, Paul fays of his filling up that which was behind of the afflictions of Chrift in his flesh, for his body's fake, which is the Church, is, as appears by the words that follow, whereof

I made a minifter, only applicable to the edification ART. that the Church received from the fufferings of the XIV. Apostles; it being a great confirmation to them of thetruth of the Gofpel, when those who preached it fuffered fo conftantly and fo patiently for it; by which they both confirmed what they had preached, and fet an example to others, of adhering firmly to it. And fince Chrift is related to his Church, as a head to the members, it is in fome fort his fuffering himfelf, when his members fuffer: and that conformity which they ought to exprefs to him as their head was neceffary to make up the due proportion, that ought to be between the head and the members. So St. Paul rejoiced in his being made conformable to him: and this, as it is a fenfe that the words will well bear, fo it is certain they are capable of no other fenfe; for if the fufferings of the Apoftles were meritorious in behalf of the other Chriftians, fome plain account muft have been given of this in the New Teftament, at least to do honour to the memory of fuch Apoftles as had then died for the faith. If it is fuggefted, that the living Apoftles were too modeft to claim it to themfelves, that will not fatisfy; all runs quite in a contrary ftyle: the mercies of God and the blood of Chrift being always repeated, whereas thefe aro never once named. Now to imagine that there can be any thing of fach great ufe to us, in which the Scripture fhould be not only filent, but fhould run in a strain totally different from it, is not conceivable for if in any thing, the Gospel ought to be full and explicit in all that which concerns our peace and reconciliation with God, and the means of our escaping his wrath, and obtaining his favour.

There is another doctrine that does alfo belong to this head, which is Purgatory, that is not to be entered on here, but is referred to its proper place. Thus it appears, how ill this doctrine of works of fupererogation is founded; and upon how many accounts it is evidently falfe; and yet upon it has been built not only a theory of a communication of those merits, and a treafure in the Church, but a practice of fo foul a nature, that in it the words of our Saviour spoken to the Jews, My boufe is a boufe of prayer, Mark xi. but ye bave made it a den of thieves, are accomplished in a 17. high and most scandalous manner. It has been pretended that this was of the nature of a bank, of which the Pope was the keeper; and that he could grant fuch bills and affignments upon it as he pleased: this was done in fo base and fo crying a manner, that all who had any fenfe of probity in their own Church were ashamed of it.

ART.

XIV.

In the primitive Church there were very fevere rules made, obliging all that had finned publicly (and they were afterwards applied to fuch as had finned fecretly) to continue for many years in a ftate of feparation from the Sacrament, and of penance and difcipline. But because all fuch general rules admit of a great variety of circumftances, taken from men's fins, their perfons, and their repentance, there was a power given to all Bishops by the Council of Nice to fhorten the time, and to relax the feverity of thofe Canons; and fuch favour as they faw cause to grant, was called indulgence. This was just and neceffary, and was a provifion without which no conftitution or fociety can be well governed. But after the tenth century, as the Popes came to take this power in the whole extent of it into their own hands, fo they found it too feeble to carry on the great defigns that they grafted upon it.

They gave it high names, and called it a plenary remiflion, 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 ftrangely 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 thofe merits, was fet up; and to that this was added, that a treasure made up of these, was at the Pope's difpofal, and in his keeping. The ufe that this was put to, was as bad as the forgery itfelf. Multitudes were by these 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 heretics 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 almost with the fame methods, that mountebanks use in the venting of their fe

crets.

This was fo grofs even in an ignorant age, and among the ruder fort, that it gave the firft rife to the Reformation and as the progrefs of it was a very fignal work of God, fo it was in a great meafure owing to the fcandals that this fhameless practice had given the world. And upon this fingle 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 difficulty in it.

ARTICLE

ARTICLE XV.

Of Chrift alone without Sin.

Chrißk in the truth of our nature was made like unto us in all things (lin only except) from which he was clearly void both in his fleth and in spirit. He came to be a Lamb without spot, who, by fa, crifice of himself once made, should take away the ans of the World : and fin, as St. John faith, was not in him. But all we the reft (although baptized and born again in Christ) per offend in many things; and if we lap we have no lin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

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 firft occafion to the Reformation, it was thought neceffary to overthrow it entirely: and because the perfection of the faints must be fuppofed, before their fupererogating can be thought on, that was therefore here opposed.

That Chrift was holy, without fpot and blemish, barmless, Heb. vii. undefiled, and feparate from finners; that there was no 26. guile in his mouth; that he never did amifs, but went about always doing good, and was as a lamb without fpot, is fo 1 Pet. i. 19. oft affirmed in the 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 thofe appetites and affections that arife from our bodies, and from the union of our fouls to them, called the Flefb. For though in these Christ, 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 necellary appetite, whenfoever there was an occafion given him to do John iv. 34. the 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 with 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

XV.

ART. of his nature to a vaft degree, he did, notwithstanding that, limit and conquer it fo entirely, that he refigned himself abfolutely to his Father's will: Not my will, but thy will be done.

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 holinefs fo oft repeated, looks plainly to be a diftinction proper to him, and to him only. We are called upon to follow him, to learn of him, and to imitate him without reftriction; whereas we are required to 1 Cor. xi. 1. follow the Apoflles, only as they were the followers of Chrift: 1 Pet. i. 15 and though we are commanded to be holy as he was holy in all manner of conversation; 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 resemble 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 some of the failings of the beft men: for though Zacharias and Luke i. 6. Elizabeth are faid to have been blamelejs, that muft only be meant of the exterior and visible part of their converfation, that it was free from blame, and of their being accepted of God; but that is not to be carried to import a finless purity before God: for we find the fame Zachary guilty of misbelieving the meffage of the Angel to him, to fuch a degree, that he was punifhed for it with a dumbness of above nine months continuance. Perhaps the Virgin's queftion to the Angel had nothing blameworthy in it; but our Saviour's anfwers to her, both Luke ii 49. when the came to him in the Temple, when he was twelve years old, and more particularly when the moved him, at John ii. 4. the marriage in Cana, to furnish them with wine, look like a reprimand. The contentions among the Apoftles about the preeminence, and in particular the ambition of James and John, cannot be excufed. St. Peter's diffimulation at Antioch in the judaizing controversy, and Gal. ii. 11, the harp contention that happened between Paul and A Barnabas, are recorded in Scripture, and they are both characters of the fincerity of thofe who penned 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,

Matt. xx.

20, 24.

12, 13, 14.

Acts xv. 39.

are