9.

X.

Heb. iv. 16.

ART. the Apostles only; fo that the guidance, the conviction, the comforts of that Spirit, feem to be promises which in a lower order belong to all Chriftians. St. Paul speaks of Rom. v. 5. the love of God fhed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghoft: when he was under temptation, and prayed 1 Cor. xii. thrice, he had this answer, My grace is fufficient for thee; my ftrength is made perfect in weakness. He prays often for the Churches in his Epiftles to them, that God would ftablifh, comfort, and perfect them, enlighten and ftrengthen them; and this in all that variety of words and phrases that Eph. iii. 17. import inward affiftances. This is alfo meant by Chrift's 2 Cor.vi. 16. living and dwelling in us, and by our being rooted and grounded in him; our being the temples of God, a holy habitation to him through his Spirit; our being fealed by the Spirit of God to the day of redemption; by all thofe directions to pray for grace to help in time of need, and to ask wifdom of God, that gives liberally to all men; as alfo by the phrases of being born of God, and the having his feed abiding in us. Thefe and many more places, which return often through the New Teftament, feem to put it beyond all doubt, that there are inward communications from God, to the powers of our fouls; by which we are made both to apprehend the truths of religion, to remember and reflect on them, and to confider and follow them more effectually.

Jam. i. 5.

1 Joh. iii. 9.

How thefe are applied to us is a great difficulty indeed, but it is to little purpofe to amufe ourselves about it. God may convey them immediately to our fouls, if he will; but it is more intelligible to us to imagine that the truths of religion are by a divine direction imprinted deep upon our brain; fo that naturally they muft affect us much, and be oft in our thoughts: and this may be an hypothefis to explain regeneration or habitual grace by. When a deep impreffion is once made, there may be a direction from God, in the fame way that his Providence runs through the whole material world, given to the animal fpirits to move towards and ftrike upon that impreffion, and fo to excite fuch thoughts as by the law of the union of the foul and body do correfpond to it: this may ferve for an hypothefis to explain the conveyance of actual grace to us: but these are only propofed as hypothefes, that is, as methods, or poffible ways how fuch things may be done, and which may help us to apprehend more diftinctly the manner of them. Now as this hypothefis has nothing in it but what is truly philofophical, fo it is highly congruous to the nature and attributes of God, that if our faculties are fallen under a decay and corruption,

corruption, fo that bare inftruction is not like to prevail ART. over us, he fhould by some secret methods rectify this in us. X. Our experience tells us but too often, what a feeble thing knowledge and fpeculation is, when it engages with nature ftrongly affaulted; how our best thoughts fly from us and forfake us; whereas at other times the fenfe of these things lies with a due weight on our minds, and has another effect upon us. The way of conveying this is invifible; our Saviour compared it to the wind that bloweth where it John iii. 8. lifteth; no man knows whence it comes, and whither it goes. No man can give an account of the fudden changes of the wind, and of that force with which the air is driven by it, which is otherwise the most yielding of all bodies; to which he adds, fo is every one that is born of the Spirit, This he brings to illuftrate the meaning of what he had faid, that except a man was born again of water and of the Spirit, he could not enter into the kingdom of God and to fhew how real and internal this was, he adds, that which is born of the flesh is flesh; that is, a man has the nature of thofe parents from whom he is defcended, by flesh being understood the fabric of the human body, animated by the foul: in oppofition to which he fubjoins, that which is born of the Spirit is fpirit; that is to fay, a man thus regenerated by the operation of the Spirit of God, comes to be of a spiritual nature.

With this I conclude all that feemed neceffary to be proved, that there are inward affiftances given to us in the new difpenfation. I do not difpute whether these are fitly called grace, for perhaps that word will fcarce be found in that fenfe in the Scriptures; it fignifying more largely the love and favour of God, without restraining it to this act or effect of it. The next thing to be proved is, that there is a preventing grace, by which the will is first moved and difpofed to turn to God. It is certain that the firft promulgation of the Gofpel to the Churches that were gathered by the Apoftles, is afcribed wholly to the riches and freedom of the grace of God. This is fully done in the Epistle to the Ephefians, in which their former ignorance and corruption is fet forth under the figures of blindness, of being without hope, and without Eph. ii. 2, God in the world, and dead in trefpaffes and fins, they follow- 3, 12. ing the course of this world, and the prince of the power of the air, and being by nature children of wrath; that is, under wrath. I difpute not here concerning the meaning of the word by nature, whether it relates to the corruption of our nature in Adam, or to that general corruption that had overspread Heathenifm, and was become as it were another

M 3

ART. another nature to them. In this fingle inftance we plainX. ly fee, that there was no previous difpofition to the first preaching of the Gospel at Ephefus: many expreffions of this kind, though perhaps not of this force, are in the other Epiftles. St. Paul, in his Epiftle to the Romans, Rom. iv. 2. puts God's choofing of Abraham upon this, that it was of grace, not of debt, otherwife Abraham might have had whereof to glory. And when he speaks of God's cafting off the Jews, and grafting the Gentiles upon that stock from which they were cut off, he afcribes it wholly to Rom.xi.zo. the goodnefs of God towards them, and charges them not

27, 29.

to be high minded, but to fear. In his Epiftle to the Corin1 Cor. i. 26, thians he fays, that not many wife, mighty, nor noble, were chofen, but God had chofen the foolish, the weak, and the bafe things of this world, fo that no flesh fhould glory in his prefence: and he urges this farther, in words that feem to be as applicable to particular perfons, as to communities or 1 Cor. iv. 7. churches: Who maketh thee to differ from another? and what haft thou, that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didft receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? From thefe and many more paffages of the like nature Ifa. lxv. 1. it is plain, that in the promulgation of the Gofpel, God was found of them that fought not to him, and heard of them that called not upon him; that is, he prevented them by his favour, while there were no previous difpofitions in them to invite it, much lefs to merit it. From this it may be inferred, that the like method should be used with relation to particular perfons.

14.

We do find very exprefs inftances in the New Testament of the converfion of fome by a preventing grace: it Acts xvi. is faid, that God opened the heart of Lydia, fo that fhe attended to the things that were spoken of Paul. The converfion of St. Paul himfelf was fo clearly from a preventing grace, that if it had not been miraculous in fo many of its circumftances, it would have been a strong argument in behalf of it. Thefe words of Christ seem alfo to affert it; John i. 13. Without me ye can do nothing; ye have not chofen me, but I you; and no man can come to me, except the Father which has fent me draw him. Thofe who received Chrift were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of the will of God. God is faid to work in us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure: the one feems to import the firft beginnings, and the other the progrefs of a Christian course of life. So far all among us, that I know of, are agreed, though perhaps not as to the force that is in all thofe places to prove this point.

XV. 5, 16.

Phil. ii. 13.

There do yet remain two points in which they do not

agree;

agree; the one is the efficacy of this preventing grace; ART. fome think that it is of its own nature fo efficacious, that X. it never fails of converting those to whom it is given; others think that it only awakens and difpofes, as well as it enables them to turn to God, but that they may refift it, and that the greater part of mankind do actually refift it. The examining of this point, and the stating the arguments on both fides, will belong more properly to the feventeenth Article. The other head, in which many do differ, is concerning the extent of this preventing grace; for whereas fuch as do hold it to be efficacious of itself, reftrain it to the number of those who are elected and converted by it; others do believe, that as Chrift died for all men, fo there is an univerfal grace which is given in Chrift to all men, in fome degree or other, and that it is given to all baptized Chriftians in a more eminent degree; and that as all are corrupted by Adam, there is also a general grace given to all men in Chrift. This depends fo much on the former point, that the difcuffing the one is indeed the difcuffing of both; and therefore it shall not be farther entered upon in this place.

ARTICLE XI.

Of the Juftification of Man.

We aze accounted Righteous before God only for the Mezit of our Lozd and Saviour Jesus Chriff, by Faith, and not for our own Works or Deservings. Wherefore that we aze juffified by Faith only, is a molk wholesome Doazine, and veip full of Comfort, as moze largely is exprelled in the Homily of Juftification.

IN

N order to the right understanding this Article, we muft first confider the true meaning of the terms of which it is made up; which are Juftification, Faith, Faith only, and Good Works; and then, when thefe are rightly ftated, we will fee what judgments are to be paffed upon the queftions that do arife out of this Article. Juft, or juflified, are words capable of two fenfes; the one is, a man who is in the favour of God by a mere act of his grace, or upon fome confideration not founded on the holinefs or the merit of the perfon himfelf. The other is, a man who is truly holy, and as fuch is beloved of God. The use of this word in the New Teftament was probably taken from the term Chafidim among the Jews, a defignation of fuch as obferved the external parts of the law ftrictly, and were believed to be upon that account much in the favour of God; an opinion being generally spread among them, that a ftrict obfervance of the external parts of the Law of Mofes did certainly put a man in the favour of God. In oppofition to which, the defign of a great part of the New Teftament is to fhew, that these things did not put men in the favour of God. Our SaJoh. iii. 18. viour used the word faved in oppofition to condemned; and fpoke of men who were condemned already, as well as of others who were faved. St. Paul enlarges more fully into many difcourfes; in which our being juftified and the righteoufnefs of God, or his grace towards us, are all terms equivalent to one another. His defign in the Epifle to the Romans was to prove that the obfervance of the Mofaical Law could not justify, that is, could not put a man under the grace or favour of God, or the righteoufnefs of God, that is, into a state of acceptation with him, as that is oppofite to a ftate of wrath or condemnation: he upon that fhews that Abraham was in the favour

of