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neceffary to falvation; and that fuch as do not hold it pure ART. and undefiled, fhall without doubt perish everlastingly: where many explanations of a mystery hard to be under-ftood are made indifpenfably neceflary to falvation; and it is affirmed, that all fuch as do not fo believe must perifh everlastingly. To this two anfwers are made: 1. That it is only the Chriftian faith in general that is hereby meant, and not every period and article of this Creed; fo that all thofe fevere expreflions are thought to import only the neceffity of believing the Chriftian religion : but this feems forced; for the words that follow, and the Catholic faith is, do fo plainly determine the fignification of that word to the explanation that comes after, that the word Catholic faith, in the firft verfe, can be no other than the fame word, as it is defined in the third and following verfes; fo that this anfwer feems not natural. The common answer in which the most eminent men of this Church, as far as the memory of all fuch as I have known could go up, have agreed, is this, that these condemnatory expreflions are only to be understood to relate to thofe who, having the means of inftruction offered to them, have rejected them, and have ftifled their own convictions, holding the truth in unrighteoufnefs, and choofing darknefs rather than light: upon fuch as do thus reject this great article of the Chriftian doctrine, concerning one God and Three Perfons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, and that other concerning the Incarnation of Chrift, by which God and man was fo united as to make one perfon, together with the other doctrines that follow these, are thofe anathemas denounced: not fo as if it were hereby meant, that every man who does not believe this in every . tittle muft certainly perish, unless he has been furnished with fufficient means of conviction, and that he has rejected them, and hardened himself against them. The wrath of God is revealed against all fin, and the wages of fin is death: fo that every finner has the wrath of God abiding on him, and is in a state of damnation : yet a fincere repentance delivers him out of it, even though he lives and dies in fome fins of ignorance; which though they may make him liable to damnation, fo that nothing but true repentance can deliver him from it; yet a general repentance, when it is alfo fpecial for all known fins, does certainly deliver a man from the guilt of unknown fins, and from the wrath of God due to them. God only knows our hearts, the degrees of our knowledge, and the meafure of our obftinacy, and how far our ignorance is affected or invincible; and therefore he will deal with.

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ART. every man according to what he has received. So that we may believe that fome doctrines are neceffary to falvation, as well as that there are fome commandments neceffary for practice; and we may alfo believe that fome errors as well as fome fins are exclufive of falvation; all which imports no more than that we believe fuch things are fufficiently revealed, and that they are neceffary conditions of falvation; but by this we do not limit the mercies of God towards those who are under fuch darkness as not to be able to see through it, and to difcern and acknowledge thefe truths. It were indeed to be wished, that fome exprefs declaration to this purpose were made by those who have authority to do it: but in the mean while, this being the fenfe in which the words of this Creed are univerfally taken, and it agreeing with the phrafeology of the Scripture upon the like occafions, this is that which may be refted upon. And allowing this large explanation of these fevere words, the reft of this Creed imports no more than the belief of the doctrine of the Trinity, which has been already proved, in treating of the former Articles.

As for the Creed called the Apoftles' Creed, there is good reafon for speaking fo doubtfully of it as the Article does, fince it does not appear that any determinate Creed was made by them: none of the first writers agree in delivering their faith in a certain form of words; every one of them gives an abftract of his faith, in words that differ both from one another, and from this form. From thence it is clear that there was no common form delivered to all the Churches and if there had been any tradition, after the times of the Council of Nice, of fuch a Creed compofed by the Apoftles, the Arians had certainly put the chief ftrength of their caufe on this, that they adhered to the Apoftles' Creed, in oppofition to the innovations of the Nicene Fathers: there is therefore no reason to believe that this Creed was prepared by the Apoftles, or that it was of any great antiquity, fince Ruffin was the first that publifhed it: it is true, he published it as the Creed of the Church of Aquileia; but that was fo late, that neither this nor the other Creeds have any authority upon their own account. Great refpect is indeed due to things of fuch antiquity, and that have been fo long in the Church; but, after all, we receive thofe Creeds, not for their own fakes, nor for the fake of thofe who prepared them, but for the fake 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

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main intent of them, which is to affert and profefs the ART. Trinity, therefore we do receive them; though we must acknowledge that the Creed afcribed to Athanafius, as it was none of his, fo it was never established by any General Council.

ARTICLE IX.

Of Original or Birth-Sin.

Driginal Sin ftandeth 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 engendered of the Dffspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from Driginal Righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the Flech luffeth always contrary to the Spirit, and therefore in every Person born into the World it delezveth God's Wrath and Damnation: And this Infection of Nature doth remain, pea in them that aze regenezated, whezebp the Luft of the Flesh, called in Greek opóvnμa cxpuòs, which some do expound the Wiloom, fome Sensuality, fome the Affeaion, fome the Delire of the Flesh, is not fubject to the Law of Cod. And though there is no Condemnation for them that believe and are baptized, per the Apostle doth confels, That Concupifcence and Luft hath of itself the nature of Sin.

A

FTER the first principles of the Chriftian religion are stated, and the rule of faith and life was fettled, the next thing that was to be done, was to declare the fpecial doctrines of this religion; and that firft with relation to all Chriftians, as they are fingle individuals, for the directing every one of them in order to the working out his own falvation; which is done from this to the nineteenth Article: and then with relation to them as they compofe a fociety 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 fome that follow there has been a greater diverfity of opinion; but both fides have ftudied to prove their tenets to be at least not contrary to the Articles of the Church. These different parties have difputed concerning the decrees of God, and those affiftances which pursuant to his decrees are afforded to us. But because

the

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the foundation of thofe decrees, and the neceffity of thofe af- ART. fiftances, are laid in the fin of Adam, and in the effects it had on mankind, therefore these controverfies begin on this head. The Pelagians and the Socinians agree in faying, that Adam's fin was perfonal: that by it, as being the first fin, it is faid that fin entered into the world: but Rom. v. 12. that as Adam was made mortal, and had died whether he had finned or not; so they think the liberty of human nature is still entire; and that every man is punished for his own fins, and not for the fin of another; to do otherwise, they fay, feems contrary to juftice, not to fay, goodness.

In oppofition to this, judgment is faid to have come upon Ver. 15. many to condemnation through one (either man or fin). Death is faid to have reigned by one, and by one man's of fence; and many are faid to be dead through the offence of one. All these paffages do intimate that death is the confequence of Adam's fin; and that in him, as well as in all others, death was the wages of fin, fo alfo that we die upon the account of his fin. We are faid to bear the image of the first Adam, as true Chriftians bear the image of 1 Cor. xv. the fecond: now we are fure that there is both a deriva- 49. tion of righteousness, and a communication of inward holinefs transferred to us through Chrift: fo it seems to follow from thence, that there is fomewhat both tranfferred to us, and conveyed down through mankind, by the first Adam; and particularly that by it we are all made fubject to death; from which we thould have been freed, if Adam had continued in his firft ftate, and that by virtue of the Tree of Life: in which fome think there was Gen. iii. 22. a natural virtue to cure all difeafes, and relieve against all accidents, while others do afcribe it to a divine blefling, of which that tree was only the fymbol or facrament; though the words faid after Adam's fin, as the reafon of driving him out of Paradife, left 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 phyfical virtue in the tree, that could fo fortify and reftore life, as to give immortality. Thefe do alfo think that the threatening made to Adam, that upon his eating the forbidden fruit he thould furely die, is to be taken literally, and is to be carried no further than to a natural death. This fubjection to death, and to the fear of it, brings men under a flavish bondage, many terrors, and other paffions and miferies that arise out of it, which they think is a great punishment; and that it is a condemnation and fentence of death paffed upon the whole race; and by this they are made finners, that is, treated as guilty perfons, and feverely punished.

L. 2

This