meritorious of themselves; That they are not sinful, but sometimes foolish; these men rather looking at the follies, which hath accompanied the superstition of some few, than the virtuous perfection, which attendeth upon the thing itself. Nay, there is none of any sound judgment in our Church, which doth not think, that willing poverty, humble obedience, and true chastity, are things very commendable, and do bring with them great advantage, to the true perfection of a Christian life; not that we can supermerit, by these, more than we ought;* but that by these, we do more, than without these we should: for nature, commonwealths, and religion, as they have a being, so they refuse not a perfection, and a being well. ARTICLE IX. NONE FREE FROM ALL SIN. It cannot choose but seem strange, that this should be an act of many, which, in the most favourable construction, cometh far short of that wisdom which should be in one. But it may be peradventure (that as it falleth out in things natural) actions are then best done, when one doth but one; distraction being a let to a finite power, and usually arising from diversity of judgments. For all not looking with the same eyes, nor following the like principles of understanding, though they agree in the general to reprehend, yet, for the most part, they fail in a particular resolution of what they think worthy to be reprehended. And therefore, as in elections, whilst two of the worthiest are competitors, stiff factions unite themselves in allowance of a third inferior to both. It seemeth that you have dealt so in this article, wherein either all your consents made a hinderance to what you meant; or, a division made you agree to mislike a thing of the least importance. Wherein if you had not discovered a weakness to be pitied, you might justly have expected an answer of more learning; but as men failing, even in those things wherein it is no great virtue not to fail, add little unto any man that shall direct them (because it is small praise to teach that which is a shame not to know), so to omit our direction, even where we wonder that any man should need it, must needs be esteemed, in a high degree, an unexcusable neglect of a necessary duty. No man I think (not of those that are thought to be out of the compass of the Church) maketh a doubt whether all men sin; leaving the redemption of man, and so the freedom from sin, to him only who was eternally the Son of God. It was as necessary that he should be without sin, as it is certain that (except him) in many things we offend all. This is our frailty, That all of us do amiss, which we know; and the best of us do offend, when we * "Proficientem coronabo, non proficientem non punio." CHRYSOST. know not; and therefore David with an humble heart, desired to be cleansed, from his "secret faults;" making that even a step, to keep him from "presumptuous sins."* As it is, therefore, an infirmity, that we do amiss in many things; so it is a virtue, that we would do amiss in nothing; this being the perfection of our country, and that the desire of our way: which, because (clothed with corruption) we cannot attain, we say daily (as we are taught) "Forgive us our trespasses." And they pray in vain to have sin pardoned, which seek not also by prayer to have sin prevented; yea every particular sin, except men can have some transgression wherewith they ought to have truce. "For although (saith Master Hooker) we cannot be free from all sin collectively" (that is in general, for so none was free saving only Christ) "in such sort that no part thereof shall be found inherent in us, yet distributively, at the least, all great and grievous actual offences, as they offer themselves one by one, both may, and ought by all means to be avoided; so that in this sense, to be preserved from all sin, is not impossible." This assertion seemeth in your opinions to be untrue; and for proof, you allege, "that we which are baptized, and regenerated, in many things do offend all;" did ever Master Hooker deny this? Nay in the very same place, are not these his words, "In many things we do all amiss?" But say you, if that be so, how can we avoid all great and grievous sins? Or, if we can, why may we not be preserved also, from all "small" sins; and so being free from both small and great, preserve our robe pure, to the coming of our Saviour Christ?" In these few words, in my opinion, are three of the most strange and most violent conclusions that I have ever read; and those which are by no means agreeable to any Church. First, we say, "In many things we offend all;" therefore say you, In all things we offend all. Secondly, we say, we may "avoid some particular great and grievous sins;" therefore say you, why not less also? as if it were all one, not to sin all, and not to sin at all. Thirdly, we say, that we are to pray, and hope to be preserved from any and "every special sin;" therefore, say you, "we may keep our robe pure, to the coming of Christ." I would be loath to make evil arguments worse by repeating; and therefore I have used a direct sincerity in rehearsing your own words; wherein I shall not need to bestow any labour to overthrow a ruinous building of such weakness; but only to tell you, in these points, what is the judgment and sentence of the whole Church. First, no man doubteth but that all men are sinners; for "all the imaginations of the thoughts of man's heart are only evil continually." In "iniquity are we born, and in sin are we conceived;"§ "who can understand his faults?"|| Vol. II. p. 164. Psalm xix. 12, 13. § Psalm li. 5. Psalm xix. 12. Gen. vi. 5. For "the heart is deceitful, and wicked above all things, who can know it?"* For "unless a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." And "we are all by nature, the children of wrath." In one word, none are free from sin, but he whom the blessed Virgin conceived, without the law of the flesh rebelling against the law of the mind; as St. Austin proveth most learnedly, by a cloud of witnesses of the ancient Fathers against Julian the Pelagian.§ Nay even they of the Church of Rome, shew by their exorcising before baptism, that they think none to be without sin; where we do not now dispute of the lawfulness of that use, but by that conclude that, in this point, they hold a truth. So that the main thing which you so seem to mislike, is a thing not holden or defended (saving in some particular case, as the Virgin Mary) by any that I know; for even that stream of original sin, hath overflowed all mankind, out of which daily proceed those great and innumerable multitudes of actual sins. Your three false conclusions seem to esta blish a threefold error, contrary to the doctrine of all Churches that are accounted Christian. First, that all sin is but one sin. Secondly, that all sins are equal. Thirdly, that all sins are united. The first, making no division of the kinds of sin; the second, no distinction of the qualities of sin; and the third, no difference in committing sin. Against these, we say (and we hope warranted by truth), That sins are of divers kinds; of divers degrees; of divers natures; and that all are not, where one is. Sins then may be distinguished-in respect of the object against whom; God, our neighbour, ourself;-of the matter wherein; in the soul, ignorance, heresy; in the body, as the desires of the flesh;-from the manner of committing; of ignorance, infirmity, malice;—from the action itself; or our duty; of omission, of commission.||-From the degrees, by which they rise; in the heart only; in the tongue, in the hands, or the work itself.-From the qualities of the persons; of Saints, which are venial, not imputed; of the wicked, mortal, for which they shall be condemned.-From the guilt; not pardonable, as the sin against the Holy Ghost; pardonable, not crying, or crying-sins;¶ as the shedding of innocent blood; the afflicting of the fatherless, or widow, the sin of Sodom; and last of all, the denying the labourers' wages: these are called crying-sins because, for their greatness, they call aloud for a great punishment. Others make a distinction of the seven Capital, or deadly-sins; which as we have no great reason to admit, so we have as little reason to disallow; knowing * Jer. xvii. 9. + John iii. 5. Eph. ii. 3. § Lib. i. et ii. Irenæus, Cyprian, Ræticius, Olympius, Hilarius, Ambros. Innocent, Greg. Naz. Basil, Chrysost. Hieron. || Delicta a delinquendo, facinora a faciendo. Lam. v. 4. that even those are the heads and fountains of all sins of the second table. The second assertion which we hold is, That all sins are not equal; this was an opinion of the Stoics, who desirous to seem unwilling to commit the least, held an opinion that they were equal to the greatest; a good care, grounded upon an evil reason. If a pilot (say they) overturned a ship full of gold, he sinned no more than if he overturned a ship full of straw; for although there be a difference in the loss, yet the unskilfulness or negligence is all one. Or if two err from the scope, even he that misseth a little, as well erreth, as he that misseth a great deal. But as in the former, of shipwreck, the fault was greater, because he had greater reason to make him circumspect; reason telling us that where we have mo [more] and stronger motives to do any thing, there we have less excuse, and the sin greater if we do it not: for the latter, he erreth as well, but not as much; seeing both shooting at one mark, it is not all one, to be a foot and a rod wide. And therefore, that Law that forbad but one thing (“Thou shalt not kill") forbad three things, as Christ expoundeth it; anger to thy brother; to call him fool; to offer him violence; these having every one as their several degrees, so their several punishment. For who will say that the first is as great a fault as the second; or the third as small as the first; for doubtless, things, that are all forbidden, do in their own nature admit more or less. And howsoever, in some sort, virtues are called equal; yet vices are not: for all virtues, from the vanity of the world, tend but to one perfection (either to reason, as the Philosophers thought; or, to say better, to the revealed will of God, which is the rule of good and evil); but sins departing from this lead unto divers vanities, in divers kinds. Neither are virtues all equal simply, but by a kind of proportion; because they all proceed from the love of God, and all tend unto his glory: otherwise, in itself, faith is better than temperance, and one virtue may, in the same man, be far more excellent than in many others; as faith in the Centurion; obedience in Abraham; patience in Job. The consideration of this inequality of sin, as it acquainteth us with those steps that sin maketh in us; so it causeth us not to despair that we have committed some, but to hope and to be thankful, that we have escaped greater: assuring ourselves (if we be not ourselves wanting) that though we cannot avoid all sins; yet we may and shall avoid all great and presumptuous sins. This heresy, then, we leave to his [its] first Authors,* Jovinian, and the rest; and so come to the last point: Because St. James saith, "he that keepeth the whole law, and offendeth in one, is guilty of all;" some thought, all sins to be imputed unto him that committed any one; but St. James only telleth us, that God exacteth 66 66 a keeping of them all. The Schoolmen, they interpet this place thus— In all sin, are two things; a departure from God, and a coming to the creature; which made St. Austin call sin, an using of that which we ought to enjoy, and an enjoying of that, which we ought but to use."* So that in respect of the departure, it is true that St. James saith, he departeth as well from God, that committeth but one sin, as he that committeth many, but not so far. Therefore, to impose this upon us, were to add, even to those that are oppressed already, a burthen far greater, than the Law doth; for by obedience of the divine law, we tend from many to one; but by disobedience, from one to many; and those divers: and therefore, though virtues have, amongst themselves, their union and consent; yet vices have their dissent, nay their opposition. So that this, then, is the conclusion; That though no man be without all sin, yet many are without many presumptuous sins: which because through prayers and good means they avoid; it followeth not, an utter exclusion of all sin; nor, because they commit the least, it followeth not, that they offend equally, as if they committed all. ARTICLE X. OF PREDESTINATION. LEST you should be like those whose humility ye are loath to imitate, ye have drawn your readers, in this Article, to a serious consideration of a deep point; letting them understand that ye are able, not only to advise sobriety to such rash presumers (as in your opinions Mr. Hooker is), but also to direct them in those points wherein, in your judgments, they are much deceived. That there is no man, how excellent soever, but without humility may easily err; I can as willingly confess it, as I commend such whom I see careful to give advice unto those that have gone astray. The one being the punishment of pride, to teach sobriety; the other the power of their learning, to shew humility; but that either he hath done the one, or you the other, in this Article, it is more than (as yet) I see any just inducements to believe. And I am sorry, that things of principal excellency should be thus bitten at, by men whom, it is like, God hath endued with graces, both of wit and learning, to better uses. For if all men had that indifferency of mind, that the greatest part of their forces were employed for the enlarging of that kingdom whereof all of us desire to be subjects; we should easily discern that a curious searching into that Will which is not revealed, serveth but to breed a contempt of that which is revealed unto us. Man desireth rather to know than to do; nay to know even those things which do not concern him, rather * "Peccatum est utendis frui, et fruendis uti." |