tination, and our election in Christ, is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly persons, and such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ, "mortifying the works of the flesh, " and their earthly members, and drawing their mind to high and heavenly things, as well because it doth greatly establish and confirm their faith of eternal salvation, up p though now we see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory. 1 Eph. iii. 20. According to the power that worketh in us. m Rom. viii. 13. If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.—Gal. v. 24. n Col. iii. 5. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth. • Phil. iii. 20. Our conversation is in heaven.-Col. iii. 1, 2. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God, &c. P Rom. viii. 33, 34, 35, 38, 39. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ?-I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.— 2 Tim. i. 12. q to be enjoyed through Christ, as because it doth fervently kindle their love towards God: So for curious and carnal persons, lacking the spirit of Christ, to have continually before their eyes the sentence of God's predestination, is a most dangerous 'downfal," whereby the devil doth thrust them either into desperation, or into * wretchlessness of unclean living, no less perilous than desperation. y Furthermore, we must receive God's q 1 John iv. 19. We love him because he first loved us. * Col. ii. 18. Intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up in his fleshly mind. $ Jude 19. These are sensual, not having the Spirit.Rom. viii. 9. The Latin word is præcipitium, (a precipice,) which seems better to describe the dangerous situation in which such persons are placed. u 2 Pet. iii. 15, 16. Account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you. As also in all his epistles speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do other Scriptures, to their own destruction. x That is, carelessness. y Deut. xxix. 29. Secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things that are revealed belong unto us, and to our children.-Is. lv. 7. Let the wicked forsake promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture. And in our doings, that will of God is to be followed, which we have expressly declared unto us in the Word of God. his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.-Rev. xxii. 17. Let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.Matt. xi. 28. Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. z Mic. vi. 8. He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. Predestination is with reason considered as one of the most abstruse doctrines of theology; and it has, in different ages of the Christian Church, been the fruitful source of a great variety of controversies. This Article upon it is drawn up with great caution and judgment. In the former part of it, which relates to the meaning of the terms Predestination and Election, the words of Scripture are chiefly used; and the latter part is obviously designed to guard against the evils which might arise from mistaken ideas upon these intricate subjects. The truth of this whole Article will sufficiently appear from the texts annexed; but the reader must observe, that only the grace of election is asserted in it, and that the severity of reprobation is left wholly untouched upon. "And here," says Archdeacon Welchman, "I would advise him to stop, and restrain his curiosity; for the doctrine of predestination is a profound abyss, in sounding which it is but to little purpose for young men to busy themselves." The doctrine of absolute election and reprobation, as maintained by those called Supralapsarians and Calvinists, is, "that God has selected a determinate number of men, on whom he will bestow eternal happiness, while he consigns all the rest to eternal punishment." The Sublapsarians maintain the absolute election of some, but think that God does not reprobate the rest, but passes them over as unworthy his regard and attention. Arminius opposed these doctrines, but not till after our Articles were compiled. Calvin nearly followed the opinions of Austin and the Latin Church; and Arminius those of Chrysostom and the Greek Church. It is to be observed, as we said before, that reprobation is not mentioned in this Article; and it cannot be said that our Church favours absolute predestination, as in the preceding Article it is asserted, that we may fall from grace given for if we be not absolutely predestinated to persevere in grace, we cannot be absolutely predestinated to salvation: and in the Catechism of our Church it is said, that : God the Son redeemed ALL mankind; which is not consistent with the doctrine of absolute election and reprobation: and in the Communion Service it is said, that Christ, by the one oblation of himself once offered, made there a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the WHOLE world. seems The last branch of this Article, beginning with the words, "As the godly, &c." to have been directed against a set of profligate enthusiasts, who, at the time of the Reformation, urged the will of God as an excuse for their vices. The impiety and mischief of such a principle, which is a most unjustifiable perversion of the doctrine of predestination, are equally obvious. a ARTICLE XVIII. Of obtaining eternal Salvation only by the " THEY also are to be had accursed, that presume to say, that every man shall . a It was a custom in the primitive church to condemn errors in this form: If any one holds such an error, anathema sit; which we translate, let him be accursed. This practice seems to have been derived from some expressions of Scripture.-Rom. ix. 3; 1 Cor. xvi. 22; Gal. i. 8. This Anathema excluded persons from com munion with the Church of Christ. b Rom. iii. 9. Both Jews and Gentiles are all under |