10.

ARTICLE XIV.

Of Works of Supererogation.

Boluntary Works, belides, ovez and above God's Commandments, which they call works of Supererogation, cannot be taught without Arrogancy and Impiety. For bp them men do declare, That they do not only render unto God as much as thep aze bound to do: but that then do moze for his fake, than of bounden Duty is required. Where= as Chilk faith plainly, when ye have done all that are commanded to you, fay, We are unprofitable. Servants.

THERE are two points that arife out of this Article to

be confidered, ift. Whether there are in the New Teftament counfels of perfection given; that is to fay, fuch rules which do not oblige all men to follow them, Luke xvii. under the pain of fin; but yet are useful to carry them on to a fublimer degree of perfection, than is neceffary in order to their falvation. 2d. Whether men by following thefe do not more than they are bound to do, and by consequence, whether they have not thereby a stock of merit to communicate to others. The firft of thefe leads to the fecond; for if there are no fuch counfels, then the foundation of Supererogation fails.

Matt. xxii. 36 to 40.

We deny both upon this ground, that the great obligations of loving God with all our heart, foul, firength, and mind, and our neighbour as ourselves, which are reckoned by our Saviour the two great Commandments, on which hang all the Law and the Prophets, are of that extent, that it feems not poffible to imagine, how any thing can be acceptable to God, that does not fall within them. Since if it is acceptable to God, then that obligation to love God fo entirely muft bind us to it; for if it is a fin not to love God up to this pitch, then it is a fin not to do every thing that we imagine will please him: and by confequence, if there is a degree of pleafing God, whether precept or counfel, that we do not ftudy to attain to, we do not love him in a manner fuitable to that. It feems a great many in the Church of Rome are aware of this confequence, and therefore they have taken much pains to convince the world that we are not bound to love God at all, or, as

others

XIV.

others more cautiously word it, that we are only bound to ART. value him above all things, but not to have a love of fuch a vaft intention for him. This is a propofition that, after all their foftening it, gives so much horror to every Chriftian, that I need not be at any pains to confute it.

I.

20.

We are farther required in the New Teftament, to 2 Cor. vii. cleanfe ourselves from all filthiness both of the flesh and fpirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God: and to reckon ourfelves his, and not our own, and that we are bought with a 1 Cor. vi. price; and that therefore we ought to glorify him both in our bodies, and in our Spirits, which are his. These and many more like expreffions are plainly precepts of general obligation, for nothing can be fet forth in more pofitive words than these are: and it is not eafy to imagine, how any thing can go beyond them; for if we are Chrift's property, purchafed by him, then we ought to apply ourselves to every thing in which his honour, or the honour of his religion, can be concerned, or which will be pleafing to him.

Our Saviour having charged the Pharifees fo often, for adding fo many of their ordinances to the laws of God, teaching his fear by the precepts of men, and the Apostles condemning a fhew of will-worship and voluntary humility, Coloff. ii. feem to belong to this matter, and to be defigned on pur- 18. pose to repress the pride and fingularities of affected hypocrites. Our Saviour faid to him that asked, What he Matt. xix. Should do that he might have eternal life? Keep the Com- 16, 17. mandments. Thefe words I do the rather cite, because they are followed with a paffage, that, of all others in the New Teftament, feems to look the likeft a counsel of perfection; for when he, who made the queftion, replied upon our Saviour's anfwer, that he had kept all thefe from Ver. 20, 21. his youth up, and added, what lack I yet? to that our Saviour answered, If thou wilt be perfect, go fell all that thou haft, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treafure in heaven; and come and follow me: and by the words that follow, of the difficulty of a rich man's entering into the kingdom of heaven, this is more fully explained. The meaning of all that whole paffage is this; Chrift called that perfon to abandon all, and come and follow him, in fuch a manner as he had called his Apoftles. So that here is no counsel, but a pofitive command given to that particular perfon upon this occafion. By perfect is only to be meant complete, in order to that to which he pretended, which was eternal life. And that alfo explains the word in that period, treafures in heaven, another expreffion for eternal life, to compenfate the lofs which he would have made by

the

ART. the fale of his poffeffions. So that here is no counsel, but XIV. a fpecial command given to this perfon, in order to his own attaining eternal life.

Luke xii.

33.

Nor is it to be inferred from hence, that this is proposed to others in the way of a counfel; for as in cafes either of a famine or perfecution, it may come to be to fome a command, to fell all in order to the relief of others, as it was in the firft beginnings of Christianity; fo in ordinary cafes to do it, might be rather a tempting of Providence than a trufting to it, for then a man fhould part with the means of his fubfiftence, which God has provided for him, without a neceffary and preffing occafion. Therefore our Saviour's words, Sell that ye have, and give alms, as they are delivered in the ftrain and peremptorinefs of a command, fo they must be underftood to bind as pofitive commands do not fo conftantly as a negative command does, fince in every minute of our life that binds: but there is a rule and order in our obeying pofitive commands. We must not reft on the Sabbath-day, if a work of neceffity or charity calls us to put to our hands: we must not obey our parents in difobeying a public law: fo if we have families, or the neceffities of a feeble body, and a weak conftitution, for which God hath supplied us with that which Prov. xxx. will afford us food convenient for us, we must not throw up thofe provifions, and caft ourselves upon others. Therefore that precept must be moderated and expounded, fo as to agree with the other rules and orders that God has fet

8.

us.

A diftinction is therefore to be made between those things that do univerfally and equally bind all mankind, and those things that do more fpecially bind fome forts of men, and that only at fome times. There are greater degrees of charity, gravity, and all other virtues, to which the Clergy for inftance are more bound than other men; but thefe are to them precepts, and not counfels. And in the first beginnings of Chriftianity there were greater obligations laid upon all Chriftians, as well as greater gifts were bestowed on them. It is true, in the point of marCor. vii. riage St. Paul does plainly allow, that fuch as marry well, but that fuch as marry not do better. But the meaning of that is not as if an unmarried life were a state of perfection, beyond that which a man is obliged to: but only this; that as to the course of this life, and the prefent diftrefs; and as to the judgment that is to be made of men by their actions, no man is to be thought to do amifs who marries; but yet he who marries not, is to be judged to do better. But yet inwardly and before God

38.

do

this matter may be far otherwife: for he who marries not ART. and burns, certainly does worse than he who marries and XIV. lives chaftely. But he who finding that he can limit himfelf without endangering his purity; though no law reftrains him from marrying, yet feeing that he is like to be tempted to be too careful about the concerns of this life if he marries, is certainly under obligations to follow that course of life in which there are fewer temptations, and greater opportunities to attend on the fervice of God.

With relation to outward actions, and to the judgments that from vifible appearances are to be made of them, fome actions may be faid to be better than others, which yet are truly good: but as to the particular obligations that every man is under, with relation to his own ftate and circumstances, and for which he must answer at the last day, thefe being fecret, and so not fubject to the judgments of men, certainly every man is ftrictly bound to do the best he can; to choose that course of life in which he thinks he may do the best services to God and man: nor are these free to him to choose or not: he is under obligations, and he fins if he fees a more excellent thing that he might have done, and contents himself with a lower or lefs valuable thing. St. Paul had wherein to glory; for whereas it was lawful for him as an Apoftle to fuffer the Corinthians to fupply him in temporals, when he was ferving them in fpiritual things; yet he chofe rather for the honour of the Gofpel, and to take away all occafion of cenfure from those who fought for it, to work with his A&ts xx. 34. own hands, and not to be burdenfome to them. But in that 1 Cor. ix. ftate of things, though there was no law or outward ob- 1 Cor. xii. ligation upon him to fpare them; he was under an inward 13. law of doing all things to the glory of God: and by this law he was as much bound, as if there had been an outward compulsory law lying upon him.

This diftinction is to be remembered, between fuch an obligation as arifes out of a man's particular circumftances, and fuch other motives as can be only known to a man himself, and fuch an obligation as may be faftened on him by ftated and general rules: he may be abfolutely free from the latter of these, and yet be fecretly bound by thofe inward and ftronger conftraints of the love of God, and zeal for his glory. Enough feems to be faid to prove that there are no counfels of perfection in the Gofpel; that all the rules fet to us in it are in the style and form of precepts; and that though there may be fome actions of more heroical virtue, and more fublime piety, than others, to which all men are not obliged by equal or ge

neral

18.

ART. neral rules; yet fuch men, to whofe circumftances and ftaXIV. tion they do belong, are strictly obliged by them, so that they thould 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 counfels 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. First, every man not only has finned, but has ftill 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 unless 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 score, 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 Testament 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 Christ, 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 ranfom for his brother's foul: the words of Chrift cited in the Article are full and express 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 flefb, for his body's fake, which is the Church, is, as appears by the words that follow, whereof