ART. XII. that they can endure the feverity of God's judgment, fo 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 fo fully fatisfied the law of God, according to the state of this life, that nothing is wanting to them. The second point is, whether thefe good works are of their own nature meritorious of eternal life, or not? The Council of Trent has decreed that they are: yet a long foftening is added to the decree, importing, That none ought to glory in himself, but in the Lord; whose goodness is fuch, 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 confider the justice and feverity, as well as the mercy and goodness of God; and not to judge bimself, even though he should know nothing by bimfelf. 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 affifted by his grace and fpirit to do them: fo that the real goodness that is in them flows from thofe affiftances 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 be unrighteous to forget our labour of love. So the favour of God and eternal happiness is the reward of good works. Mention Mat. x. 41, is also made of a full reward, of the reward of a righteous man, and of a propbet's reward. 3. That this reward is promised in the Gofpel, and could not be claimed without that, by any antecedent merit founded upon equality: 2 Cor. iv. Since our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 42. 17. The points in which we differ are, J. Whether the good works of holy men are fo perfect, that there is no defect in them; or whether there is ftill fome fuch defect mixed with them, that there is occafion for mercy, to pardon fomewhat even in good men? Thofe 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 fin. Whereas we, according to the Article, believe that human nature is fo weak and fo degenerated, that as far as our natural powers concur in any action, there is ftill fome allay in it; and that a good work is confidered by God according to the main, both of the action and of the intention of him that does it; and as a father pitics his children, fo God paffes over the defects of those who serve him Gen. vi. 5. fincerely, though not perfectly. The imaginations of the Jam. iii. 2. beart of man are only evil continually: In many things we offend XII. offend all, fays St. James: and St. Paul reckons that ART. be bad not yet apprehended, but was forgetting the things bebind, and reaching to thofe before, and still preffing Phil. iii. 13, forward. Phil.iii. 14. We fee in fact, that the best men in all ages have been complaining and humbling themfelves even for the fins of their holy things, for their vanity and defire 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 defpair, if they thought that no action could please God, in which they were confcious to themfelves of fome imperfection or fin. The midwives of Egypt feared God, yet they excused themselves by a lye: but God accepted of what was good, and paffed over what was amifs in them, and built them boufes. St. Auftin urges this Exod. i. 21. frequently, that our Saviour, in teaching us to pray, has made this a standing petition, Forgive us our trefpaffes, as well as that, Give us this day our daily bread; for we fin daily, and do always need a pardon. Upon these reasons we conclude, that fomewhat of the man enters into all that men do: we are made up of infirmities, and we need the interceffion of Chrift, to make our best actions to be accepted of by God: For if be fhould flraitly mark iniquity, Pfal. cxxx.. who can stand before him? but mercy is with him, and 3,4. forgiveness. So that with Hezekiah we ought to pray, that though we are not purified according to the purification of 2 Chr. xxx. the fanctuary, yet the good Lord would pardon every one that 18, 19. prepareth his heart to feek God. The fecond question arifes out of this, concerning the merit of good works; for upon the fuppofition of their being completely good, that merit is founded; which will be acknowledged to be none at all, if it is believed that there are fuch defects in them, that they need a pardon; fince where there is guilt, there can be no pretenfion to merit. The word merit has alfo a found that is fo daring, fo little fuitable to the humility of a creature, to be ufed towards a Being of infinite majesty, and with relation to endless rewards, that though we do not deny but that a fenfe is given to it by many of the Church of Rome, to which no juft exception can be made, yet there feems to be fomewhat too bold in it, especially when condignity is added to it: and fince this may naturally give us an idea of a buying and felling with God, and that there has been a great deal of this put in practice, it is certain that on many refpects this word ought not to be made ufe of. There is fomewhat in the XII. ART. nature of man apt to fwell and to raise itself out of measure, and to that no indulgence ought to be given, in words that may flatter it; for we ought to fubdue this temper by all means poffible, both in ourselves and others. On the other hand, though we confefs that there is a diforder and weakness that hangs heavy upon us, and that fticks close to us, yet this ought not to make us indulge ourfelves in our fins, as if they were the effects of an infirmity that is infeparable from us. To confent to any fin, if it were ever fo small in itself, is a very great fin: 2 Cor. vii. 1. we ought to go on, ftill cleanfing ourselves more and more, from all filthiness both of the flesh and of the fpirit, and perfecting bolines in the fear of God. Our readiness to fin fhould 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 fin, and of abfolute perfection, yet there are many degrees both of purity and perfection, to which we may arrive, and to which we must conftantly afpire. So that we must keep a juft temper in this matter, neither to afcribe fo much to our own works as to be lifted up by reafon of them, or to forget our daily need of a Saviour both for pardon and interceffion; nor on the other hand fo far to neglect them, as to take no care about them. The due temper is to make our calling and Phil. ii. 12. election fure, and to work out our own salvation with fear and Col. iii. 17. trembling; but to do all in the name of the Lord Jefus, ever trusting to him, and giving thanks to God by bim. ARTICLE ARTICLE XIII. Of Works before Juftification. Works done before the Grace of Chrift, and the Inspiration of his Spirit, are not pleasant to God; fozalmuch as they spring not of Faith in Jesus Christ, neither do they make men meet to receive Grace, or (as the School-Authors (ap) desezve Grace of Congruity: ea rather, for that thep aze not done as God hath commanded and willed them to be done, we doubt not but that they have the nature of Sin. HERE is but one point to be confidered in this Ar Tticle, which is, whether men can without any in ward affiftances from God do any action that shall be in all its circumftances fo good, that it is not only acceptable to God, but meritorious in his fight, though in a lower degree of merit. If what was formerly laid down concerning a corruption that was fpread over the whole race of mankind, and that had very much vitiated their faculties, be true, then it will follow from thence, that unaffifted nature can do nothing that is fo good in itself, that it can be pleasant or meritorious in the fight of God. A great difference is here to be made between an external action as it is confidered in itself, and the fame action as it was done by such a man. An action is called good, from the morality and nature of the action itself; fo actions of juftice and charity are in themselves good, whatfoever the doer of them may be but actions are confidered by God with relation to him that does them, in another light; his principles, ends, and motives, with all the other circumftances of the action, come into this account; for unless all these be good, let the action in its own abstracted nature be ever fo good, it cannot render the doer acceptable or meritorious in the fight of God. Another diftinction is alfo to be made between the methods of the goodness and mercy of God, and the ftrictness of juftice: for if God had fuch regard to the feigned humiliation of Ahab, as to grant him and his fa- 1 Kingsxxi. mily a reprieve for fome time from thofe judgments that 29. had been denounced against them and him; and if Jehu's 2 Kings x. executing the commands of God upon Ahab's family, 30, 31. XIII. AN EXPOSITION OF ART. and upon the worshippers of Baal, procured him the bleffing of a long continuance of the kingdom in his family, though he acted in it with a bad defign, and retained ftill the old idolatry of the calves fet up by Jeroboam; 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 affiftances, that is making the moft of his faculties, and doing the beft that he can; but that he who is faithful in his little, fhall be made ruler over more. 12, 13. The question is only, whether fuch actions can be fo pure, as to be free from all fin, 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 fupernatural order. To eftablish the truth of this Article, befide what was faid upon the head of original fin, we ought to confider what St. Paul's words in the 7th of the Romans do import: Nothing was urged from them on the former Articles, because there is juft ground of doubting whether St. Paul is there fpeaking of himself in the ftate he was in when he writ it, or whether he is perfonating a Jew, and fpeaking of himself as he was while yet a Jew. But if the words are taken in that loweft fenfe, they prove this, that an unregenerate man has in himself fuch a principle of corruption, that even a good and a holy law revealed to him, cannot reform it; but that, on the contrary, it Rom. vii. will take occafion from that very law to deceive him, and to flay bim. So that all the benefit that he receives even from that revelation is, that fin in bim becomes exceeding finful; ás being done against such a degree of light, by which it appears that he is carnal, and fold under fin; and that though his understanding may be enlightened by the revelation of the law of God made to him, fo that he has fome inclinations to obey it, yet he does not that which he would, but that which he would not: and though 16, his mind is fo far convinced, that he confents to the law that it is good, yet be ftill does that which he would not; which was the effect of fin that develt in him; and from 18, hence he knew, that in bim, that is in bis flefb, in his carnal part, or carnal ftate, there dwelt no good thing; though to will, that is, to refolve on obeying the law, was prefent, yet be found not a way bow to perform that subich was good; the good that he wished to do, that he did not; but he did the evil that he wifhed not to do; which he imputed to the fin that dwelt in him. He found then Ver. 14. 17, for a law, |