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and Damnation; yet (fuch was the Tenderness of his Nature) God could not but provide Means of Salvation for us. For we deferv'd his Wrath and Damnation, only because we were Sinners; and as long as we continued so depraved, Happiness was impoffible to us. But fince our Nature could be renew'd, and the Dominion of Sin could be rooted out (the contrivance and perfecting of which glorious Change was the Effect of Divine Wisdom) therefore we became Objects of Pity, that is (for infinite Goodness can't restrain it felf) of fervent Love.

I shall make no farther Enlargements at prefent; because any Person of ordinary Understanding may improve what I have briefly suggested.

The Third Proposition (God help us) is evidently true, as daily Experience teaches us. But see the Eleventh Question of Turretin's Locus Nonus, Numb. 21. p. 70ς.

The Fourth Proposition. See the Third Paragraph of Bishop Pearson on the Tenth Article, and the Two first Questions of the Locus Nonus of Turretin's System.

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The TENTH ARTICLE.

Of Free Will.

HE condition of man after the fall of Adam is such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself by bis own natural strength and good works to faith and calling upon God: wherefore we have no power to do good works pleaSant and acceptable to God, without the Grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us when we have that good will.

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For the better understanding of this and some following Articles, 'tis necessary to observe, that the Phrafe good works may be used and taken in very different Senses.

Those Works which have no Degree of Imperfection in them, are in their own nature strictly good, and may well bear the Severity of God's Judgment; it being impossible for him to impute Guilt, where there is no Defect. And fuch Works as these, such strictly good Works, 'twas poffible for our first Parents to perform before their Fall: And it had been also possible for us in like manner to perform strictly good Works, had we been preferved in our primitive Integrity.

But alas! by reason of our Original Corruption and Depravity of Nature, 'tis become impoffible for us, in our present Circumstances, to perform any Works thus strictly good. For in spite of our utmost Endevors, some Degree of Imperfection does and will cleave even to our best Actions; and consequently all our present Works are in their own Nature, in some Respect or Degree, strictly evil; according to the known Rule of the Moralifts, Bonum ex caufa integra, malum ex quolibet defectu. And therefore none of our present Works can in themselves bear the Severity of God's Judgment, who must needs impute Guilt, where there is notorious Defect. For in a Moral Confideration all Defect is materially finful.

But then those Persons, who can claim a Share in our Savior's Merits by the Terms of the Gospel Covenant, that is, fuch as are justified by Faith in him, may perform such Works, as are, tho' not Strictly, yet imputatively good; that is, fuch Works as God is pleased to regard, accept and reward as good

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good for the fake of Christ, by whose all-perfe& Righteousness the Defects of justified Persons are supplied, and by whose most precious Blood their Guilt is washed away.

As for the Works of others, viz. those who are not in a State of Justification by Faith (either because they are not so much as enter'd into Covenant with God by Baptifm; or because, tho' they have been baptiz'd, yet they have not a justifying Faith, viz. a Faith working by Love) they do, and muft of Neceffity continue in their own Nature Strictly Evil; and confequently they are Sins. So that even those Works which are good in Appearance, such as the Relief of the Oppressed, Temperance, Justice, &c. and which we may call, either (for the Reason above mention'd) speciously good Works, or Works comparatively good (because they are less Evil, and approach nearer to the Rule of Action) those very Works, I say, those speciously or comparatively good Works, which either an Infidel, or a bare formal Profeffor of Christianity may perform, are in Reality splendida peccata, Acts of Vice under the Disguise of Virtue. For fince none of our Actions can be strictly good; and Actions perform'd by fuch Persons cannot be imputatively good; therefore tho' they are speciously or comparatively good, yet by reason of that Imperfection which muft needs cleave to them, because 'tis not done away thro' Christ, they are strictly evil, that is, Sins.

I hope, I have express'd my self so clearly, that the Reader throughly understands the foregoing Diftinctions and Terms, upon which a great deal depends. I proceed therefore to the Confideration of the Article it felf.

This Article contains Two Propositions. 1. The Condition of Man after the Fall of Adam is such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural Strength and good Works to Faith and Calling upon God.

2. We have no Power to do good Works pleasant and acceptable to God, without the Grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good Will, and working with us, when we have that good Will.

The First Proposition. The Phrase good works does in this Proposition manifestly denote Works that are only speciously or comparatively good. This being premised, see the Fourth Question of the Locus Decimus of Turretin's System.

In the Second Proposition, tho' the good Works are faid to be pleasant and acceptable to God, yet the Church does not mean that they are strictly good, and confequently pleasant and acceptable to him in their own Nature: but she manifestly means Works imputatively good, towards the Performance of which God's preventing and assisting Grace is undoubtedly neceffary. This being premised, the SecondProposition(whichisthenecessary Consequence of the First, and is therefore connected by the illative Particle wherefore) is treated of by Limborch in the Eleventh and Twelfth Chapters of his Fourth Book, and Dr. Whitby in his Appendix to the Sixth Chapter of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, down to Secondly, to explain as far, &c.

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The

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The ELEVENTH ARTICLE.

Of the Justification of Man.

E are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Chrift by faith, and not for our own Works or deservings. Wherefore that we are justified by Faith only, is a most wholsom Doctrine, and very full of comfort, as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Fuftification,

This Article contains Four Propositions,

1. We are not accounted righteous before God for our own Works or Deservings.

2. We are accounted righteous before God only for the Merit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Chrift.

3. We are accounted righteous before God, only for the Merit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Chrift by Faith.

4. That we are justified by Faith only, is a most wholsom Doctrin, and very full of Comfort, as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification.

Our Church exprefly refers to the Homily of Justification for a more full Explication of the Doctrin of this Article. And what the Church cals the Homily of Juftification, is the Third Homily in the First Book, entituled, Of the Salvation of all Mankind. For in the said Homily the Do&rin of Justification is declared and established; nor is there any other Homily which bears the Title of Justification. That Homily of Salvation there

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