them any place in the Synod and finally dismiss them in a furious Oration made by Boyerman without any hearing 11. The Synodists indulgent to the damnable Doctrines of Macorius and as unmercifull in the banishment and extermination of the poor Remonstrants 12. Scandalously defamed to make them odious and those of their perswasions in other places ejected persecuted and disgraced CHAP. VI. Objections made against the Doctrine of the Remonstrants the Answers unto all and the retorting of some of them on the Opposite Party 1. AN Introduction to the said Objections 2. The first Objection touching their being enemies to the grace of God disproved in generall by comparing the Doctrine with that of St. Augustine though somewhat more favourable to Free-will then that of Luther 3. A more particular Answer in relation to some hard expressions which were used of them by K. James 4. The second charging it as introductive of Popery begun in Holland and pressed more importunately in England answered both by Reason and Experience to the contrary of it 5. The third charge of filling men with spirituall pâ—ide first answered in Relation to the testimony from which it was taken and then retorted on those who object the same 6. The fourth Charge making the Remonstrants a furious and seditious People begun in Holland prosecuted in England and answered by the most Religious Bishop Ridley 7. What moved K. James to think so ill of the Remonstrants as to exasperate the States against them 8. The Remonstrants neither so troublesome nor so chargeable to the States themselves as they were made by the Objector the indirect proceedings of the Prince of Orange in the death of Bannevelt and the injustice of the Argument in charging the practises of his Children against the Prince of Orange upon all the party 9. Nothing in the Arminian Doctrine that may incline a man to factious and seditious courses as is affirmed and proved to be in that of Calvin 10. The Recrimination further proved by a passage in the Conference of the Lord Treasurer Burleigh with Queen Eliz in a letter of some of the Bishops to the Duke of Buckingham and in that of Dr. Brooks to the late Archbishop 11 More fully prosecuted and exemplified by Campneys an old English Protestant 12. A Transition to the Doctrine of the Church of England CHAP. VII An Introduction to the Doctrine of the Church of England in the Points disputed with the removall of some Rubs which are laid in the way 1. THe Doctrine of the Homilies concerning the endowments of man at his first Creation 2. His miserable Fall 3. And the promised hopes of his restitution in the Lord Christ Jesus 4. A general Declaration of the judgment of the Church of England in the points disputed exemplified in the story of Agillmond and Lamissus Kings of Lombardy 5. The contrary judgment of Wickleff objected answered and applyed to all modern Heresies 6. The general answer of the like Argument pretended to be drawn from the writings of Frith Tyndall and Barns but more particularly 7. The judgment of Dr. Barns in the present Points and the grounds on which he builded the same 8. Small comfort to be found from the works of Tyndall in favour of the Calvinian Doctrin 9. The high flyings of John Frith and others in the Doctrine of Predestination reproved by Tyndall 10. A parallel between some of our first Martyrs and the blind man restored to his â—ight in the 8. of St. Mark CHAP. VIII Of the Preparatives to the Reformation and the Doctrin of the Church in the present Points 1. THe danger of ascribing too much to our ancient Martyrs exemplified in the parity of Ministers and popular Elections unto Benefices allowed by Mr. John Lambert 2. Nothing ascribed to Calvins judgment by our first Reformers but much to the Augustan Confession the writings of Melancthon and 3. unto the Authority of Erasmus His paraphrases being commended to the use of the Church by King Edward 6. and the Reasons why 4. The Bishops book in order to the Reformation called The Institution of a Christian man commended by King Henry 8. 1537. corrected afterwards by the Kings own hand examined and allowed by Cranmer approved by Parliament and finally published by the name of A necessary Doctrin c. Anno 1543. 5. The Doctrine of the said two books in the Points disputed agreeable unto that which after was established by King Edward 6. 6. Of the two Liturgies made in that Kings time and the makers of them the testimony given to the first and the alterations made in the second 7. The first book of Homilies by whom made approved by Bucer and of the Arguments that may be drawn from the method of it in the points disputed 8. The quality and condition of those men who principally concurred to the book of Articles with the harmony or concent in judgment between Archbishop Cranmer Bishop Ridly and Bishop Hooper c. 9. The Doctrin delivered in the book of Articles touching the Five Controverted points 10. An answer to the objections against these Articles for the supposed want of Authority in the making of them 11. An objection against King Edwards Catechism mistaken for an objection against the Articles refelled as to that late Schisme by John Philpot Martyr and of the delegating of their powers by the Convocation to a choice Committee 12. The Articles not drawn up in comprehensive or ambiguous termes to please all parties but to be understood in the Restrictive letter and Grammatical sense and the Reasons why CHAP. IX Of the Doctrin of Predestination delivered in the Articles the Homilies the publick Liturgie and the writings of some of the Reformers 1. THe Articles differently understood by the Calvinian party and the true English Protestants with the best way to finde out the true sense thereof 2. The definition of Predestination and the most considerable points contained in it 3. The meaning of those words in the Difinition viz. Whom he hath châ—sen in Christ according to the exposition of St. Ambrose St. Chrysostom and St. Jerom as also of Archbishop Cranmer Bishop Latimer and the book of Homilies 4. The absolute decree condemned by Bishop Latimer as a means to licentiousness and carnall living 5. For which and making God to be the Author of sin condemned as much by Bishop Hooper 6. Our election to be found in Christ not to be sought for in Gods secret Councels according to the judgment of Bishop Latimer 7. The way to finde out our Election delivered by the same godly Bishop and by Bishop Hooper with somewhat to the same purpose also from the book of Homilies 8. The Doctrin of Predestination delivered by the holy Martyr John Bradford with Fox his glosse upon the same to corrupt the text 9. No countenance to be found for any absolute personal and irrespective Decree of Predestination in the publick Liturgy 10. An answer to such passages out of the said Liturgy as seem to
favour that opinion as also touching the number of Gods elect CHAP. X. The Doctrine of the Church concerning Reprobation and Universal Redemption 1. THE absolute Decree of Reprobation not to be found in the Articles of this Church but against it in some passages of the publick Liturgy 2. The cause of Reprobation to be found in a mans self and not in Gods Decrees according to the judgement of Bishop Latimer and Bishop Hooker 3. The Absolute Decree of Election and Reprobation how contrary to the last Clause in the 17. Article 4. The inconsistency of the absolute Decree of Reprobation with the Doctrine of Universal Redemption by the death of Christ 5. The Universal Redemption of mankinde by the death of Christ delivered in many places of the publick Liturgy and affirmed also in one of the Homilies and the Book of Articles 6. A further proof of it from the mission of the Apostles and the prayer used in the Ordination of Priests 7. The same confirmed by the writings of Archbishop Cranmer and the two other Bishops before remembred 8. A generality of the Promises and an universality of Vocation maintained by the said two godly Bishops 9. The Reasons why this benefit is not made effectual unto all sorts of men to be found in themselves CHAP. XI Of the Heavenly influences of Gods Grace in the conversion of a sinner and Man's cooperation with those Heavenly influences 1. THE Doctrin of Deserving Grace ex congruo maintained in the Roman Schools before the Councel of Trent rejected by our antient Martyrs and the book of Articles 2. The judgement of Dr. Barnes and Mr. Tyndall touching the necessary workings of Gods Grace on the Will of man not different from the Church of England 3. Universal Grace maintained by Bishop Hooper and proved by some passages in the Liturgy and book of Homilies 4. The offer of Universall Grace made ineffectual to some for want of Faith and to others for want of Repentance according to the judgement of Bishop Hooper 5. The necessity of Grace preventing and the free cooperation of mans will being so prevented maintained in the Articles in the Homilies and the publick Liturgy 6. The necessity of this Cooperation on the part of man defended and applyed to the exercise of a godly life by Bishop Hooper 7. The Doctrin of Irresistability first broached by Calvin and pertinaciously maintained by most of his Followers and by Gomarus amongst others 8. Gainsaid by Bishop Hooper and Bishop Latimer 9. And their gainsaying justified by the truth Article of King Edwards book and 10. the book of Homilies CHAP. XII The Doctrin of Free-will agreed upon by the Clergie in their Convocation Anno 1543. 1. OF the Convocation in the year 1543. in order to the Reformation of Religion in points of Doctrin 2. The Article of Free-will in all the powers and workings of it agreed on by the Prelates and Clergy of the Convocation agreable to the present Doctrine of the Church of England 3. An answer to the first objection concerning the Popishnesse of the Bishops and Clergy in that Convocation 4. The Article of Free-will approved by King Henry the 8. and Archbishop Cranmer 5. An answer to the last objection concerning the Conformity of that Article to the present established Doctrine in the Church of Rome CHAP. XIII The Doctrin of the Church of England concerning the certainty or uncertainty of Perseverance 1. THe certainty of Grace debated in the Councel of Trent and maintained in the affirmative by the Dominicans and some others 2. The contrary affirmed by Catarinus and his adherents 3. The doubtful Resolution of the Councell in it 4. The Calvinists not content with certainty of Grace quoad statum praesentem presume upon it also quoad statum futurum 5. The bounds and limits wherewith the Judgment in this point ought rationally to be circumscribed 6. The Doctrin of the Church of England in the present Article 7. Justified by the testimony of Bishop Latimer Bishop Hooper and Mr. Tyndall 8. And proved by several Arguments from the publick Liturgy 9. The Homily commends a probable stedfast hope but 10. allowes no certainty of Grace and Perseverance in any ordinary way to the sons of men CHAP. XIV The Plain Song of the second Homily touching the falling from God and the Descants made upon it 1. MOre from some other Homilies touching the possibility of falling from the Grace received 2. The second Homily or Sermon touching Falling from God laid down Verbatim 3. The sorry shifts of Mr. Yates to illude the true meaning of that Homily plainly discovered and confuted 4. An answer to his objection touching the passages cited from the former Homily in Mr. Mountague's Appeal 5. The judgement of Mr. L. Ridley Archdeacon of Canterbury in the points of Election and Redemption 6. As also touching the Reasons why the Word was not preached unto the Gentiles till the coming of Christ the influences of Grace the Co-working of man and the possibility of Falling from the faith of Christ CHAP. XV. Of the Author and Authority of K. Edwards Catechism As also of the judgement of Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr in the Points disputed 1. THe Catechism published by the Authority of K. Edward 6 1553. affirmed to have been writ by Bishop Poynet and countenanced by the rest of the Bishops and Clergy 2. Several passages collected out of that Catechism to prove that the Calvinian Doctrins were the true genuine and ancient Doctrins of the Church of England 3. With a discovery of the weakness and impertinency of the Allegation 4. What may most probably be conceived to have been the judgement of Bishop Poynet in most of the Controverted points 5. An answer to another objection derived from M. Bucer and P. Martyr and the influence which their Auditors and Disciples are supposed to have had in the Reformation 6. That Bucer was a man of moderate Counsels approving the first Liturgie of K. Edward 6. assenting to the Papists at the Dyet of Ratisbone in the possibility of Falling from Grace and that probably P. Martyr had not so far espoused the Calvinian quarrels when he lived in Oxon as after his return to Zurick and Calvins neighbourhood 7. The judgement of Erasmus according as it is delivered in his Paraphrases on the Four Evangelists proposed first in the generall view 8. And after more particularly in every one of the poynts disputed CHAP. XVI Of the first breakin gs out of the Predestinarians and their Proceedings in the same 1. THe Predestinarians at the first called by the name of Gospellers 2. Campneys a professed enemy to the Predestinarians but neither Papist nor Pelagian 3. The common practises of the Calvinists to defame their Adversaries the name of Free-will-men to whom given and why 4. The Doctrine of John Knox in restraining all mens actions whether good or evill to the determinate will and Councell of God 5. The like affirmed by the Author of the Table of
Predestination in which and the Genevian Notes we finde Christ excluded from being the foundation of mans Election and made to be an inferiour cause of salvation only 6. God made to be the Author of sin by the Author of a Pamphlet entituled Against a Privy Papist and his secret Councells called in for the proof thereof both by him and Knox with the mischiefs which ensued upon it 7. The Doctrine of Robert Crawley imputing all mens sins to Predestination his silly defences for the same made good by a distinction of John Verons and the weaknesse of that Distinction shewed by Campneys 8. The Errors of the former Authors opposed by Campneys his book in Answer to those Errors together with his Orthodoxie in the point of Vniversall Redemption and what he builds upon the same 9. His solid Arguments against the imputing of all actions either good or evill to Predestination justified by a saying of Prosper of Aquitain 10. The virulent prosecutions of Veron and Crowley according to the Genius of the Sect of Calvin CHAP. XVII Of the Disputes amongst the Confessors in Prison in Queen Maries dayes and the resetling of the Church on her former Principles under Queen Eliz. 1. THe Doctrine of Predestination disputed amongst the Confessors in Prison in Queen Maries dayes 2. The Examination of John Carelesse before Dr. Martin 3. Considerations on some passages in the said Conference 4. A review made of the publick Liturgy by the command of Queen Eliz. and the Paraphrases of Erasmus commended to the reading both of Priests and People 5. The second Book of Homilies how provided for and of the liberty taken by the Gospellers and Zuinglian Sectaries before the reviving and confirming of the Book of Articles by the Queens Authority 6. Of the reviving and authority of the Book of Articles An. 1562. and what may be thence inferred 7. An Answer to the Argument drawn from omitting the ninth Article of King Edwards Book the necessity of giving some content to the Zuinglian Gospellers and the difficulties wherewith they were induced to subscribe the Book at the first passing of the same 8. The Argument taken from some passages in the English Catechisme set forth by Mr. Alexander Nowell and the strength thereof 9. Considerations made on the said Catechisme and the rest of that Authors making and what his being Prolocutor in the Convocation might adde to any of them in point of Orthodoxy 10. Nothing to be collected out of the first passage in Mr. Nowels Catechisme in favour of the Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination and the points depending thereupon and less then nothing in the second if it be understood according to the Authors meaning and the determination of the Church CHAP. XVIII A Declaration of the Doctrine in the Points disputed under the new Establishment made by Queen Eliz. 1. THe Doctrine of the second Book of Homilies concerning the wilfull Fall of Adam the miserable estate of man the restitution of lost man in Jesus Christ and the universall Redemption of all Mankinde by his Death and Passion 2. The Doctrin of the said second Book concerning Universal Grace the possibility of a totall and finall Falling and the cooperation of mans will with the grace of God 3. The judgment of Reverend Bishop Jewell touching the universal Redemption of Mankinde by the Death of Christ Predestination grounded upon faith in Christ and reached out unto all them that believe in him by Mr. Alexander Nowell 4. Dr. Harsnet in his Sermon at Pauls Crosse 1584. sheweth that the absolute decree of Reprobation tâ—rneth the truth of God into a lye and makes him to be the Author of sin 5. That it deprives man of the naturall freedome of his will makes God himself to be double-minded to have two contrary wills and to delight in mocking his poor creature Man 6. And finally that it makes God more cruel and unmercifull then the greatest Tyrant contrary to the truth of Scripture and the constant Doctrin of the Fathers 7. The rest of the said Sermon reduced unto certain Heads directly contrary to the Calvinian Doctrines in the points disputed 8. Certain considerations on the Sermon aforesaid with reference to the subject of it as also to the time place and person in and before which it was first preached 9. An answer to some Objections concerning a pretended Recantation affirmed to have been made by the said Mr. Harsnet 10. That in the judgment of the right learned Dr. King after Bishop of Reading the alteration of Gods denounced Judgements in some certain cases infers no alteration in his Councels the difference between the changing of the will and to will a change 11. That there is something in Gods decrees revealed to us something concealed to himself the difference between the inferiour and superiour causes and of the conditionality of Gods Threats and Promises 12. The accommodating of the former part of this discourse to the case of the Ninivite 13. And not the case of the Ninivites to the case disputed CHAP. XIX Of the first great breach which was made in the Doctrine of the Church by whom made and what was done toward the making of it up again 1. GReat Alteration made in the face of the Church from the return of such Divines as had withdrawn themselves beyond Sea in the time of Queen Mary with the necessity of imploying them in the publick service if otherwise of known zeal a gainst the Papists 2. Severall examples of that kinde in the places of greatest Power and Trust in the Church of England particularly of Mr. Fox the Martyrologist and the occasion which he took of publishing his opinion in the point of Predestination 3. His Notes on one of the Letters of Mr. John Bradford martyr touching the matters of Election therein contained and his perverting of the Text on which he writeth 4. The difference between the Comment and the Text and between the Author of the Comment and Bishop Hooper 5. Exceptions against some passages and observations upon others in the said Notes of Mr. Fox 6. The great breach made hereby in the Churches Doctrin made greater by the countenance which was given to the Acts and Monuments by the Convocation 1571. 7. No argument to be drawn from hence touching the approbation of his Doctrine by the Convocation no more then for the approbation of his Marginal Notes and some particular passages in it disgracefull to the Rites of the Church Attire of the Bishops 8. A Counter-ballance made in that Convocation against Fox his Doctrines and all other Novelismes of that kinde CHAP. XX. Of the great Innovation made by Perkins in the Publick Doctrine the stirs arising thence in Cambridge and Mr. Barrets carriage in them 1. OF Mr. Perkins and his Doctrine of Predestination with his recitall of the 4 Opinions which were then maintained about the same 2. The sum and substance of his Doctrin according to the Supralapsarian oâ— Supracreatarian way 3. The severall
forth according to a Statute in that behalf provided might be well said to be done in the Synod of London though such as were of the house had no notice thereof before the promulgation And thereupon he did infer That the setters forth of the Catechism did not slander the House as they went about to perswade the world since they had the Authority of the Synod unto them committed to make such Spiritual Laws as they thought convenient and necessary for the good of the Church In which discourse we may observe that there was not one word which reflects on the Book of Articles all of it being made in reference to the Catechism before remembred though if the Objection had been made as indeed it was not against the Articles themselves the defence of that learned man and godly Martyr would have served as fully for the one as it did for the other But whatsoever may be said in derogation to the Authority of the Book of Articles as it was published in the time of King Edward the sixth Anno Dom. 1552. certain I am that nothing can be said unto the contrary but that they were received and the far greater part of them agreed upon in full Convocation Anno 1562 And therefore for avoiding of all disputes I am resolved to take them in this last capacity as they were ratified by Queen Elizabeth Anno 1563. confirmed by King James Anno 1604. and finally established by the late King Charls with his Majesties Royal Declaration prefixt before them Anno 1628. 12. Less doubt there is concerning the intent of this Convocation in drawing up the Articles in so loose a manner that men of different judgements might accommodate them to their own opinions which I finde both observed and commended in them by the former Author by whom we are informed that the Articles of the English Protestant Church in the infancy thereof were drawn up in general terms foreseeing that posterity would grow up to fill the same meaning that these holy men did prudently discover that differences in judgement would unavoidably happen in the Church and were loth to unchurch any and drive them off from an Ecclesiastical communion for petty differences which made them pen the Articles in comprehensive words to take in all who differing in the branches meet in the root of the same Religion This hath been formerly observed to have been the artifice of those who had the managing of the Council of Trent and is affirmed to have been used by such men also as had the drawing up of the Canons at the Synod at Dort But the Composers of the Articles of the Church of England had not so little in them of the Dove or so much of the Serpent as to make the Articles of the Church like an upright shoe which may be worn on either foot or like to Therancâ—nes shoe as the Adage hath it fit for the foot of every man that was pleased to wear it and therefore we may say of our first Reformers in reference to the present Book of Articles as was affirmed of them by Dr. Brancroft then Bishop of London in relation to the Rubrick in private Baptism that is to say that those reverend and learned men intended not to deceive any by ambiguous terms for which see Conf. at Hampton Court p. 15. And to this supposition or imagination it is also answered That the first Reformers did not so compose the Articles as to leave any liberty to dissenting judgements as the said Author would fain have it in some words preceding but did not binde men to the literal and Grammatical sense they had not otherwise attained to the end they aimed at which was ad tollendam Opinionum Dissentionem consensum in vera Religione firmandum that is to say to take away diversity of opinions and to establish an agreement in the true Riligion Which end could never be effected if men were left unto the liberty of dissenting or might have leave to put their own sense upon the Articles as they list themselves For where there is a purpose of permitting men to their own opinions there is no need of definitions and determinations in a National Church no more than is of making Laws to binde the Subjects in an unsettled Common-wealth with an intent to leave them in their former liberty either of keeping or not keeping them as themselves best pleased Which said we shall enquire into the meaning of the Articles as before laid down whether they speak in favour of the Melancthonian or Calvinian way so far forth as the meaning of them can be gathered from the publique Liturgie and Book of Homilies or from the Writings of those men who either had a hand in the making of them or dyed in the Religion here by Law established CHAP. IX Of the Doctrine of Predestination delivered in the Articles the Homilies the publique Liturgies and the Writings of some of the Reformers 1. THe Articles differently understood by the Calvinian party and the true English Protestants with the best way to finde out the true seâ—se thereof 2. The definition of Predestination and the most considerable points contained in it 3. The meaning of those words in the Definition viz. Whom he hath chosen in Christ according to the Exposition of S. Ambrose S. Chrysostome S. Jerome as also of Archbishop Cranmer Bishop Latimer and the Book of Homilies 4. The Absolute Decree condemned by Bishop Latimer as a means to Licentiousness and Carnal living 5. For which and making God to be the Author of sin condemned as much by Bishop Hooper 6. Our Election to be found in Christ not sought for in Gods secret Counsels according to the judgement of Bishop Latimer 7. The way to finde out our Election delivered by the same godly Bishop and by Bishop Hooper with somewhat to the same purpose also from the Book of Homilies 8. The Doctrine of Predestination delivered by the holy Martyr John Bradford with Fox his gloss upon the same to corrupt the sense 9. No countenance to be had for any absolute personal and irrespective decree of Predestination in the publique Liturgie 10. An Answer to such passages out of the said Liturgie as seem to favour that opinion as also touching the number of Gods Elect. 1. THus have we seen the Doctrine of the Church of England in the five controverted Points according as it is delivered in the Book of Articles but in what sense we ought to understand it hath been made a Question Some take the Articles in the Literal and Graminacal sense which is the fairest and most approved way of Interpretation according to the saying of an ancient Writer That if the Literal sense of holy Scripture will stand with the Analogie of faith and piety it is to be preferred before any other Others they are of which his late Majestie complained who draw the Articles aside and put their own sense or comment to be the meaning
aforementioned ' That our Saviour Christ according to the will of his Eternal Father when the time thereof was fully accomplished taking our nature upon him came into this World from the high Throne of his Father to declare unto miserable sinners the Goodness c. To shew that the time of Grace and Mercy was come to give light to them that were in darkness and in the shadow of death and to preach and give Pardon and full Remission of sin to all his Elected And to perform the same he made a Sacrifice and Oblation of his body upon the Cross which was a full Redemption Satisfaction and Propitiation for the sins of the whole world ' More briefly Bishop Latimer thus ' The Evangelist saith When Jesus was born c. What is Jesus Jesus is an Hebrew word which signifieth in our English Tongue a Saviour and Redeemer of all Mankinde born into the World This Title and Name To save appertaineth properly and principally unto him for he saved us else had we been lost for ever ' Bishop Hoâ—per in more words to the same effect ' That as the sins of Adam without Priviledge or Exemption extended and appertained unto all and every of Adams Posterity so did this Promise of Grace generally appertain as well to every and singular of Adams Posterity as to Adam as it is more plainly expressed where God promiseth to bless in the seed of Abraham all the people of the world ' 8. Next for the point of Universel Vocation and the extent of the Promises touching life Eternal Besides what was observed before from the Publique Liturgie we finde some Testimonies and Authorities also in the Book of Homilies In one whereof it is declared That God received the learned and unlearned and casteth away none but is indifferent unto all And in another place more largely that the imperfection or natural sickness taken in Adam excludeth not that person from the promise of God in Christ except we transgress the limits and bounds of this Original sin by our own folly and malice If we have Christ then have we with him and by him all good things whatsoever we can in our hearts wish or desire as victory over death sin hell c. The truth hereof is more clearly evidenced in the writings of the godly Martyrs so often mentioned as first of Bishop Latimer who discourseth thus ' We learn saith he by this sentence that multi sunt vocati that many are called c. that the preaching of the Gospel is universal that it appertaineth to all mankinde that it is written in omnem terram exivit soâ—us eorum through the whole world their sound is heard Now seeing that the Gospel is universal it appeareth that he would have all mankinde be saved that the fault is not in him if they be damned for it is written thus Deus vult omnes homines salvos fieri God would have all mankinde saved his Salvation is sufficient to save all mankinde Thus also in another place That the promises of Christ our Saviour are general they appertain to all mankinde He made a general Proclamation saying Qui credit in me habet vitam aeternam whosoever believeth me hath eternal life ' And not long after in the same Sermon ' That we must â— consider wisely what he saith with his own mouth Venite ad me omnes c. Mark here he saith mark here he saith Come all ye wherefore should any body despaiâ— or shut out himself from the promises of Christ which be general and appertain to the whole world ' The like saith Bishop Hooper also telling us ' There was no diversity in Christ of Jew or Gentile that it was never forbid but that all sorts of people and every progeny of the world to be made partakers of the Jews Religion ' And then again in the example of the Ninivites ' Thou hast saith he good Christian Reader the mercy of God and general promise of salvation performed in Christ for whose sake onely God and man were set at one ' 9. The less assistance we had from Bishop Hooper in the former points the more we shall receive in this touching the causes why this great benefit is not made effectual unto all alike Concerning which he lets us know ' That to the obtaining the first end of his justice he allureth as many as be not utterly wicked and may be helped partly with threatnings and partly with promises and so provoketh them unto amendment or life c. and would have all men to be saved therefore provoketh now by fair means now by foul that the sinner should satisfie his just and righteous pleasure not that the promises of God appertain to such as will not repent or his threatnings unto him that doth repent but these means he useth to save his creature this way useth he to nurture us until such time as the Holy Spirit worketh such a perfection in us that we will obey him though there were neither pain nor joy mentioned at all ' And in another place more briefly ' That if either out of a contempt or hate of Gods Word we fall into sin and transform our selves into the image of the Devil then we exclude our selves by this means from the promises and merits of Christ ' Bishop Latimer to the same point also ' His Salvation is sufficient to satisfie for all the world as concerning it self but as concerning us he saveth no more than such as put their trust in him and as many as believe in him shall be saved the other shall be cast out as Infidels into everlasting damnation not for lack of salvation but for infidelity and lack of faith which is the onely cause of their damnation ' One word more out of Bishop Hooper to conclude thiâ— point which in fine is this 'To the Objection saith he touching that S. Peter speaketh of such as shall perish for their false doctrine c. this the Scripture answereth that the promise of grace appertaineth to every sort of men in the world and comprehendeth them all howbeit within certain limits and bounds the which if men neglect to pass over they exclude themselves from the promise of Christ ' CHAP. XI Of the Heavenly influences of Gods grace in the Conversion of a sinner and mans co-operation with those heavenly influences 1. I The Doctrine of Deserving Grace ex congruo maintained in the Roman Schools before the Council of Trent rejected by our ancient Martyrs and the Book of Articles 2. The judgement of Dr. Barns and Mr. Tyndall touching the necessary workings of Gods grace on the will of man not different from that of the Church of England 3. Universal grace maintained by Bishop Hooper and proved by some passages in the Liturgie and Book of Homilies 4. The offer of Universal grace made ineffectual to some for want of faith and to others for want of repentance according
to the judgement of Bishop Hooper 5. The necessity of Grace Preventing and the free co-operation of mans will being so prevented maintained in the Articles in the Homilies and the publique Liturgie 6. The necessity of this co-operation on the part of man defended and applied to the exercise of a godly life by Bishop Hooper 7. The Doctrine of Irresistibility first broached by Calvin pertinaciously maintained by most of his followers and by Gomarus amongst others 8. Gainsaid by Bishop Hooper and Bishop Latimer 9. And their gainsayings justified by the tenth Article of Kings Edwards Books And 10. The Book of Homilies 1. THis leads me unto the Disputes touching the influences of Grace and the co-operation of mans will with those heavenly influences in which the received Doctrine of the Church of Rome seems to have had some alteration to the better since the debating and concluding of those points in the Council of Trent before which time the Doctrine of the Roman Schools was thought to draw too near to the lees of Pelagianism to ascribe too much to mans Freewill or so much to it at the least as by the right use of the powers of nature might merit grace ex congruo as the Schoolmen phrase it of the hands of God Against this it was that Dr. Barns declared as before was said in his Discourse about Freewill and against which the Church of England then declared in the 13 Article affirming That such works as are done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit do not make men meet to receive grace or as the Schoolmen say deserve grace of Congruity Against which Tyndall gives this note That Freewill preventeth not Grace which certainly he had never done if somewhat to the contrary had not been delivered in the Church of Rome and against which it was declared by John Lambert another of our ancient Martyrs in these following words viz. Concerning Freewill saith he I mean altogether as doth S. Augustine that of our selves we have no liberty nor ability to do the will of God but are subject unto sir and thrals of the same conclusi sub peccato or as witnesseth S. Paul But by the grace of God we are rid and set at liberty according to the proportion that every man hath taken of the same some more some less 2. But none more fully shewed himself against this opinion then Dr. Barns before remembred not touching onely on the by but writing a Discourse particularly against the errours of that time in this very point ' But here saith he we will search what strength is of man in his natural power without the Spirit of God to will or do those things that be acceptable before God unto the fulfilling of the will of God c. ' A search which had been vain and needless if nothing could be found which tended to the maintenance of acting in spiritual matters by mans natural power without the workings of the Spirit And therefore he saith very truly ' That man can do nothing by his Freewil as Christ teacheth For without me ye can do nothing c. where it is opened that Freewil without Grace can do nothing he speaks not of eating and drinking though they be works of Grace but nothing that is fruitful that is meritorious that is worthy of thanks that is acceptable before God ' To which effect we also finde these brief Remembrances Mans Freewil without Gods Grace can do nothing that is good p. 263. that all which Freewil can do without Grace is but sin c. fol 269. In which passages of those godly Martyrs as there is nothing in it self not Divine and Orthodox so finde we somewhat in their writings which doth as truly and Religiously express the workings of Gods Spirit in the heart of man without depriving him of the ability of co-operation which afterwards was taught and countenanced by the Church of England Of which thus Tyndall in his Pathway ' When the Evangelion is prearhed saith he the Spirit of God entreth into them whom God hath ordained and appointed to Everlasting life and openeth their inward eyes and worketh such a belief in them when the woful Consciences feel and taste how sweet a thing the bitter death of Christ is and how merciful and loving God is through Christs Purchasing and Merits so that they begin to love again and consent to the Law of God how that it is good and ought so to be and that God is righteous that made it and desire to fulfil the Law as a sick man desireth to be whole ' According to which Doctrine the Church hath taught us to pray thus viz. ' O God forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee grant that that working of the Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts through Christ our Lord Amen ' More of which Prayers might be produced to the same effect were not this enough the point concerning the necessity of Gods grace towards mans Conversion not being in Dispute between the Parties 3. Now for Gods Grace according as it is set forth in the Church of England we shall consider it in the general offer and extent the efficacious workings of it and the concurrence of mans will in the beginning and accomplishment of his own Conversion And first as to the general offer of the Grace of God we finde Bishop Hooper thus discoursing in the sixth Chapter of his Exposition of the Ten Commandments ' Thus did S. Paul saith he convince the Gentiles of sin because they knew the evil they did was condemned by the testimony of their own Conscience for the Law of God to do well by is naturally written in the heart of every man He that will diligently search himself shall somtime find the same and in case man should behold his own misery both in body and soul although there were no Law correcting nor no Heavens over our heads to testifie the justice and judgement of God and the equity of an honest life mans Conscience would tell him when he doth well and when he doth evil ' ' Further saith he the judgement and discovery of Reason directs not onely to live just in this world but also to live for ever in Eternal Felicity without end And that cometh by the similitude of God which remaineth in the soul since the sin of Adam whereby we plainly see that those excuses of ignorance be damnable when man sees that he could do well if he followed the judgement of his own Conscience ' Our Articles indeed say nothing to this particular but our Liturgie doth and somewhat is found also of it in the Book of Homilies For what can be more clear and full than that clause in the Collect where it is said of God Almighty That he sheweth to all men being in errour the light of his truth to the intent they may return to the way of righteousness c.
What more comfortable to a man deprived of the outward benefit of the Word and Sacraments than that clause in the Homily where it is said That if we lack a Learned man to instruct and teach us God himself from above will give light unto our mindes and teach us those things which are necessary for us 4. If then it be demanded How it comes to pass that this general Overture of Grace becomes so little efficacious in the hearts of men we shall finde Bishop Hooper ascribing it in some men to the lack of faith and in others to the want of repentance Touching the first he tells us this ' That S. Paul concludes and in a manner includeth the Divine Grace and Promise of God with in certain terms and limits that onely Christ should be profitable and efficacious to those that apprehend and receive this abundant Grace by faith and to such as have not the use of faith neither Christ nor Gods Grace to appertain ' After which he proceedeth in this manner toward the other sort of men which make not a right use of this general Grace for want of Repentance ' Howbeit saith he that we know by the Scripture that notwithstanding this imperfection of faith many shall be saved and likewise notwithstanding that Gods pro 〈…〉 be general unto all people of the world yet many shall be damned These two points must therefore diligently be discussed first how this faith being unperfect is accepted of God then how we be excluded from the promise of grace that extendeth to all men c. To which first it is thus answered That S. Paul S. John and Christ himself damneth the contemnets of God or such as willingly continue in sin and will not repent these the Scripture excludeth from the general promise of Grace ' 5. Here then we have the Doctrine of the Church of England delivered in the Liturgie and the Book of Homilies more punctually pressed and applied in the words of godly Bishop Hooper concerning Universal Grace and somewhat also of the reasons of its not being efficacious in all sorts of men relating to that liberty which remains in man of closing or contending with it as he is either ruled by reason or else misguided by the tyranny of his lusts and passions But before I come unto this point we may behold the necessary workings of Gods Grace preventing man by the inspirations of his holy Spirit and the concurrence or co-operation of mans will being so prevented which is the Celestial influences of the Grace of God Of which the Church hath spoke so fully in all the Authentick Monuments and Records thereof that no true English Protestant can make question of it For thus she tells us in the tenth Article of her Confession viz. That 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 Wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable â—nto 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 In the first clause the Church declares her self against the old Pelagians and some of the great Schoolmen in the Church of Rome and in the last against the Maniches and some of the more rigid Lutherans in the Churches Protestant which make man in the work of his own Conversion to be no other than a Statue or a senseless stock Contrary whereunto we are instructed in the Homily exhorting to the reading of Holy Scripture to use all possible endeavours in our own Salvation If we read once twice or thrice and understand not let us not cease so but still continue reading praying asking of other men and so by still knocking at last the door shall be opened as S. Augustine hath it which counsel had been vain and idle if man were not invested with a liberty of complying with it More plainly is the same exprest in many of our Publique Prayers as partly in the Collect for Easter-Day in which we humbly beseech Almighty God That as by his special Grace preventing us he doth put in our minde good desires so by his continual Fellowship that he would bring the same to good effect And in that on the sevententh Sunday after Trinity That his Grace may always prevent and follow us and make us continually to be given to all good works But most significantly we have it in one of the Collects after the Communion that namely in which we pray to the Lord To prevent us in all our doings by his most gracious favour and further us with his continual help that in all our works begun continued in him we may so glorifie his holy Name that finally by his mercy we may obtain life everlasting through Christ Jesus our Lord. So that upon the whole matter it needs must follow that as we can do nothing acceptable in the sight of God without Grace preventing so by the freedom of mans will co-operating with the Grace preventing and by the subsequent Grace of God Cooperating with the will of man we have a power of doing such works as are agreeable to the will of our Heavenly Father 6. Now to this Plain Song of the Articles the Homilies and the Publique Liturgie it may be thought superfluous to make a descant or adde the light of any Commentary to so clear a Text. And yet I cannot baulk some passages in Bishop Hooper which declare his judgement in the point where he not onely speaks of mans concurrence or co-operation with the Grace of God but lays his whole damnation on the want thereof ' Look not therefore saith he on the promises of God but also what diligence and obedience he requireth of thee lest thou exclude thy self from the promise There was promised to all those that went out of Egypt with Moses the Land of Canaan howbeit for disobedience of Gods Commandments there were but one or two that entred ' This he affords in his Preface and more than this in his tenth Chapter of the Exposition relating to the common pretence of Ignorance ' For though saith he thou canst not come to so far knowledge in the Scripture as others that believe by reason thou art unlearned or else thy vocation will not suffer thee all days of thy â—â—â—e to be a student yet must thou know and upon pain of damnation art bound to know God in Christ and the Holy Catholick Church by the Word written the Ten Commandments to know what works thou shouldst do and what to leave undone the Pater noster Christ his Prayer which is an Abridgement Epitome or compendious Collection of all the Psalms and Prayers written in the whole Scripture in the which thou prayest for the remission of sin as well for thy self as for all others desirest the
threatnings of God as well believe the Law as the Gospel as well that there is an hell and everlasting fire as there is an heaven and everlasting joy as well they should believe damnation to be threatned to the wicked and evil doers as salvation to be promised to the faithful in Word and Works as well they should believe God to be true in the one as the other ' And for sinners that continue in this wicked living they ought to think that the promises of Gods mercy and the Gospel pertain not unto them being in that state but only the Law and those Scriptures which contain the wrath and indignation of God and his threatnings which should certifie them that as they do over boldly presume of Gods mercy and live dissolutely so doth God still more and more withdraw his mercy from them as he is so provoked thereby to wrath at length that he destroyeth such presumers many times suddenly for of such Saint Paul said thus When they shall say it is peace there is no danger then shall sudden destruction come upon them let us beware therefore of such naughty boldness to sin for God which hath promised his mercy to them that be truly penitent although it be at the latter end hath not promised to the presumptuous sinner either that he shall have long life or that he shall have true Repentance at the last end But for that purpose hath he made every mans death uncertain that he should not put his hope in the end and in the mean season to Gods high displeasure live ungodlily Wherefore let us follow the counsel of the Wise man let us make no sarrying to turn unto the Lord let us not put off from day to day for suddenly his wrath comes and in time of vengeance he will destroy the wicked let us therefore turn betimes and when we turn let us pray to God as Hosea teached saying Forgive all our sins receive us graciously And if we turn to him with an humble and a very penitent heart he will receive us to his favour and grace for his holy Names sake for his Promise sake for his Truth and Mercies sake promised to all faithful believers in Jesus Christ his only natural Son To whom the only Saviour of the world with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all honour glory and power world without end Amen ' 3. These are the very words of the second Homily touching falling from God in which we have many evident proofs not only that there is a falling and a frequent falling but also a total yea a final falling from the grace of God according to the Doctrine of the Church of England And hereunto I must needs say that I never met with any satisfactory and sufficient Answer how much soever some have slighted the authority of it or the strength rather of the Argument which is taken from it for Mr. Yates of Ipswitch from whose candle most of them that followed borrow all their light in his book intituled Ibis ad Caesarem writ against Montagues Appeal can finde no better answers to it or evasions from it then they four that follow viz. 1. That the Homily speaks of the visible Church and therefore is not to be construed in the same sense of all whereas the Homily speaketh of Gods chosen people his chosen Vineyard are the words and consequently not only of the mixed multitude in a visible Church He answers secondly That it speaks with limitation and distinction some beholding the face of Gods mercy aright others not as they ought to do the one of which may fall quite away the other being transformed can never be wholly deformed by Satan But this is such a pitiful shift as could not save the man from the scorn of laughter had he been dealt with in his kind the Homily speaking largely of those men which having beheld Gods face of mercy in Jesus Christ as they ought to do do afterwards neglect the same prove unthankful to him and order not their lives according to his Example and Doctrine c. for which consult the place at large in the former Church He answers thirdly that the Homily speaks conditionally if they afterwards c. that is to say if afterwards they neglect the same prove unthankful to him and order not their lives according to his Example and Doctrine c. and so concludes nothing positively and determinately which is a sorrier shift than that which you had before for if such conditional Propositions conclude nothing positively what will become of all those Propositions in the Scriptures by which we are assured That if a sinner do repent him of his sins and wickednesses he shall find mercy from the Lord Do they conclude nothing positively neither most miserable were the state of man if these conditional Propositions should conclude nothing to the comfort of a troubled conscience And finally he answereth thus that the Homily speaks of Gods dreadful countenance appearing in plagues sword famine and such like temporal punishments wherewith the Elect may be chastened as well as others that they may not for ever be condemned with the wicked the first part of which Allegation I confess to be true Gods judgements falling promiscuously on all sotts of people but the addition is unknown and is not to be found in the words of the Homily And secondly the Homily speaks not only of Gods temporal judgements with which the Elect be chastened as well as others that they may not for ever be condemned with the wicked but positively and determinately of taking from them his Kingdom and holy word as in the former so that they shall be no longer of his Kingdom governed no longer by his holy Spirit put from the Grace and benefit which they had c. 4. But Master Yates intends not so to leave the matter we must first see that he is as good at raising an Objection as at the making of an Answer and he objecteth out of another of the Homilies that though the godly do fall yet they walk not on purposely in sinne they stand not still to continue and tarry in sinne they sit not down like carelesse men without all fear of Gods just punishment for sinne through Gods great grace and infinite mercy they rise again and fight against sinne c. But first it may be hoped that Master Yates could not be ignorant how great a difference there is betwixt such passages as fall occasionally and on the by from the pen of a Writer discoursing on another Argument and those which do occur in such Discourses Sermons and other Tractates as purposely are made and fitted to the point in hand And secondly though it be affirmed in the said Homily that the godly man which shall adde sinne to sinne by Gods great grace and infinite mercy may arise again and fight against sinne Yet can it not be gathered thence that it is so at all times
he determined only in himself Conform to which we find in the Genevian Bibles this marginal Note amongst many others of like nature viz. As the only Will and purpose of God is the chief cause of Election and Reprobation so his free mercy in Christ is an inferiour cause of salvation c. Rom. 9. 6. In the next place comes out a Pamphlet entituled against a privy Papist the Author whereof takes upon him to prove this point That all evil springeth out of Gods Ordinance or that Gods Predestination was the cause of Adams fall and of all wickedness Now this man goes to work like a Logician and frames his Sylogism in this manner viz. That whatsoever was in Adam was in him by Gods Will and Ordinance But sin was in Adam Ergo. sin was in him by Gods will and ordinance Of which Sylogisme Campneys very well observeth that if the Major of it be understood of Adam after his fall as by the minor it must be then may it be affirmed also of any other that whatsoever execrable wickedness is in him the same is in him by Gods will and ordinance But then because it might be asked that seeing it is the decree ordinance and will of God that man should not sin How they should creep into that secret councell where God ordained decreed and willed the contrary The leader will come in to help his followers in the present plunge for in his trayterous and seditious Libel Against the Regiment of Women which he calls The first blast of the Trumpet he knows not how to shift off the obedience due by Gods word to lawful Queens in their severall Kingdoms but by flying to some speciall Revelation from his secret will not publikely communicated to the sons of men And this he speakes not faintly but with zeale and confidence telling us how assured him that God hath revealed it to some in our age that is to say himselfe and his Disciples in the holy Presbytery that it is more then a Monster in nature that a Woman should Rule and have Empire against man And what could they doe less upon this assurance upon so plaine a Revelation of Gods secret will then take up arms against their Queen depose her from her throne expell her out of her native Kingdom and finally prosecute her to the very death The Ladder which Constantine the great commended to Assesius a Novatian Bishop for his safer climing up to heaven was never more made use of then by Knox and Calvin for mounting them to the sight of Gods secret Councell which St. Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or things unspeakble such as are neither possible nor lawfull for a man to utter 7. But of all Knoxe's followers none followed so close upon his heels as Ro. Crowly a fugitive for Religion in Q. Maries daies and the Author of a Booke called a Confutation of 13. Articles c. In which he layes the sin of Adam and consequently all mens sins from that time to this upon the Absolute Decree of Predestination for seeing saith he that Adam was so perfect a creature that there was in him no lust to sin and yet withall so weak of himselfe that he was not able to withstand the assault of the subtile Serpent no remedy the only cause of his fall must needs be the Predestination of God In other places of this book he makes it to be a common saying of the free-will men as in contempt and scorn he calls them that Cain was not predestinate to slay is brother which makes it plaine that he was otherwise perswaded in his own opinion That the most wicked persons that have been whereof God appointed to be even as wicked as they were that if God doe predestinate a man to doe things rashly and without any deliberation he shall not deliberate at all but run headlong upon it be it good or evill That we are compelled by Gods predestination to doe those things for which we are damned And finally finding this Doctrine to be charged with making God more cruell and unmercifull then the greatest Tyrant and pressed therewith by some of the contrary perswasion he returns his answer in this wise If God saith he were an inferiour to any superior power to the which he ought to render an account of his doing or if any of us were not his creatures but of another creation besides his workmanship then might we charge him with Tyranny because he condemneth us and appointed us to be punished for the things we doe by compulsion through the necessity of his Predestination For a Catholicon or generall Antidote to which dangerous Doctrines a new distinction was devised by which in all abominations God was expresly said to be the Author of the fact or deed but not of the crime which subtilty appeareth amongst many others in a brief Treatise of Election and Reprobation published by one Iohn Veron in the English tongue about the beginning of the raigne of Queen Elizabeth Which subtilty Campneys not unfitly calls a marvellous sophistication a strang Paradox and a cautelous Riddle and he seems to have good reason for it For by this Doctrine as he noteth it must follow that God is the Author of the very fact and deed of Adultery Theft Murder c. but not the Author of the sin Sin having as they say no positive entity but being a meer nothing as it were and therefore not to be ascribed to Almighty God And thereupon he doth inferre that when a malefactor is hanged for any of the facts before said he is hanged for nothing because the fact or deed is ascribed to God and the sin only charged on him which sin being nothing in it self it must be nothing that the malefactor is condemned or hanged for 8. By all the Books it doth appear what method of Predestination these new Gospellers drive at how close they followed at the Heels of their master Calvin in case they did not go beyond him Certaine it is that they all speak more plainly then their Master doth as to the makeing of God to be the the Author of sin though none of them speake any things else then what may logically be inferred from his ground and principles And by this book it appeareth also how contrary these Doctrins are to the establisht by the first Reformers in the Church of England how contrary the whole method of Predestination out of which they flow is to that delivered in the Articles the Homilies and the publick Liturgie and witnessed too by so many learned men and godly martyrs Which manifest deviation from the rules of the Church as it gave just offence to all moderate and sober men so amongst others unto Campneys before remembred who could not but express his dislike thereof and for so doing was traduced for a Pelagian and a Papist or a Popish Pelagian For which being charged by way of Letter he was
the said Ecclesiastical Priests how they have profited in the study of holy Scripture Evident Arguments that there was no intent of setling any other Doctrine in the Church of England then such as was agreeable to the Judgement of that Learned man 5. The next care was for making and perfecting those Homilies of which we finde mention at the end of King Edwards Book for the necessary edifying of Christian people and the increase of godly living both Books sufficiently provided for besides the confirmation of that first Article of the year 1552. in the Rubrick of the second Liturgie where it is said that after the Creed if there be no Sermon shall follow one of the Homilies already set forth or to be set forth by common authority which Rubrick being revised with the rest of the Liturgie put the said books of Homilies as well the second as first part of them into the service of the Church and thereby made them no small part of the publick doctrine But who they were which laboured in this second Book whither they were the same that drew up the first or those who in Queen Elizab. time reviewed the Liturgie or whether they were made by the one and reviewed by the other I have no where found though I have taken no small paines in the search thereof But those few doctrinals which were contained in the Book of Common Prayer or deducible from it not being much took notice of and the Homilies not confirm'd by that common Authority which was required in the Rubrick the Zuinglians or Gospellers took the opportunity to disperse their doctrines before the door of utterance should be shut against them or any publick course be taken to suppress their practices And this they did with so much diligence and cunning that they encreased exceedingly both in power and numbers of which more hereafter Notice whereof being took of those which were of most Authority in the Government of the Church it was thought necessary for the preventing of the mischief which might thence insue that the Articles of Religion published in King Edwards time 1552. should be brought under a Review accommodated to the use of the Church and made to be the standing Rule by which all persons were to regulate and confirm their Doctrines 6. And to this end a Convocation was assembled on the 13. of January An. 1562. which continued tâ—â—â— the 14. day of April the main business which was acted in it being the canvasing and debating of the Articles of King Edwards Book and passing them in the forme and manner in which now they stand which business as they took first into consideration on the 19. of January and diligently prosecuted from day to day by the Bishops and Clergie in their several houses they came to an agreement on the 29. of the same moneth on which the said Articles were publickly recited generally approved and subscribed by the greatest part of the Clergy which were then assembled And being so subscribed presented to the Queen and ratified by her Royal Authority were forthwith published to the same end for which they were made that is to say For the avoiding of diversities of opinions and for the stablishing of consent touching true Religion as in the title is declared In the composing of which Book though a clause was added to the twentieth Article and another taken from the third though some Articles of King Edwards were totally omitted and some new made as that amongst the rest for confirmation of the second Book of Homilies which were not in the Book before yet the the five Articles touching the Doctrine of the Church in the points disputed as they stand in the eight Chapter of this Book were left in that same state in which they found them And being left in the same state in which they found them were to be taken in the same sense in which they had been understood at the first making of them according to such illustrations as occur in the Book of Common Prayer such Explanations as are found in the Book of Homilies and the judgement of those learned men and godly Martyrs which had a principal hand in the Reformation so that the Articles being the same as to these particulars the paraphrases of Erasmus state the same the publick Liturgie and the first Book of Homilies in all points the same and the second book of Homilies agreeing exactly with the first in the present controversies as appears by the three first Sections of the seventh Chapter of this Book and that which follows in the next there is no question to be made but that the doctrine was the same in the said five points which had been publickly allowed of in the time of King Edward 7. But against this it may be said that one of the material Articles of King Edwards book in reference to the points disputed was totally left out of this and therefore that there was some alteration of the Churches judgement as to the sense and meaning of the present Articles which Article being the tenth in number as it stands in that Book is there delivered in these words viz. Gratia Christi seu spiritus sanctus qui per eundem datur c. ' The grace of Christ or the holy Ghost which is given by him doth take from man the heart of stone and giveth him a heart of flesh And though by the influences thereof it rendreth us willing to do those good works which before we were unwilling to do and unwilling to do those evil works which before we did voluntati tamen nullam violentiam infert yet is no violence offered by it to the will of man nor can any man when he hath sinned excuse himself quasi nolens aut coactus peccaverit as if he had sinned against his will or upon constraint and therefore that he ought not to be accused or condemned upon that account ' For answer whereunto it may first be said that the Composers of that Book thought it not fit to clog it with any unnecessary points in which the peace and safty of the Church seemeth not much concerned and therefore as they left out the present Article so they omitted the sixteenth touching the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost together with the foure last of King Edwards Book touching the General resurrection the stare of mens souls after death the Doctrine of the Millinaries and of a general salvation to be given to the wicked also after they had endured the paines of hell for a certain time Secondly they considered that the doctrine of mans free Co-operation with the grace of God had been sufficiently expressed and provided for by the tenth Article of this Book and the ninth of which illustrated by divers passages in the publick Liturgie accommodated and applied to the most encrease of piety in the Book of Homilies therefore that there was no great need to contend about it or to retain it in the Book And somewhat
benefit of our Saviours sufferings to a few particulars nothing of Gods invincible working on the hearts of his chosen ones or the impossibility of mans co-operating any further in his resurrection from the death of sin to the life of lighteousness then in that of his body from the grave to the life of glory nothing that teacheth any such certainly or infallibly of persevering in the faith and favour of God as all the sinnes of the world are not able to deprive them of it but that they shal must necessarily be brought again into the place and station from which they had fallen And as for the last of the said two passages being the very same with that in the Authours Latine and the English translation of the same there is nothing in it which either a true English Protestant or a Belgick Remonstrant may not easily grant and yet preserve himself from falling into Calvinisme in any of the points disputed For granting that the Church is the universal number and fellowship of all the faithful whom God through Christ hath before all beginning of time appointed to everlasting life Yet must it so be understood that either they were appointed to eternal life upon the supposition of their faith and repentance which may extend to the including of all those who are called to the external participation of the Word and Sacraments or else that it is meant specially of such as are appointed from all eternity to life everlasting without excluding any from the Dignity of being members of the Church who have received the outward call and openly joyne with them in all publick duties and thereby pass in common estimate amongst the faithful believers And then this definition will afford no comfort to our moderne Calvinists or create any inconvenience unto those whom they call Arminians CHAP. XVIII A Declaration of the Doctrine in the Points disputed under the new establishment made by Queen Elizabeth 1. THe Doctrine of the second Book of Homilies concerning the wilful fall of Adam the miserable estate of man the restitution of lost man in Jesus Christ and the universal redemption of all man-kinde by his death and passion 2. The doctrine of the said second Book concerning universal grace the possibility of a total and final falling and the co-operation of mans will with the grace of God 3. The judgement of Reverend Bishop Jewell touching the universal redemption of mankinde by the death of Christ Predestination grounded upon faith in Christ and reached out unto all them that believe in him by Mr. Alexander Powell 4. Dr. Harsnet in his Sermon at St. Pauls crosse Anno 1584. sheweth that the absolute decree of Reprobation turneth the truth of God into a lie and makes him to be the Authour of sinne 5. That it deprives man of the natural freedome of his will makes God himself to be double minded to have two contrary wills and to delight in mocking his poor creature man 6. And finally that it makes God more cruel and unmerciful then the greatest Tyrant contrary to the truth of Scripture and the constant Doctrine of the Fathers 7. The rest of the said Sermon reduced unto certaine other heads directly contrary to the Calvinian Doctrines in the points disputed 8. Certain considerations on the Sermon aforesaid with reference to the subject of it as also to the time place and persons in and before which it was first preached An Answer to some Objections concerning a pretended Recantation falsly affirmed to have been made by the said Mr. Harsnet 10. That in the judgement of the Right learned Dr. King after Bishop of London the alteration of Gods denounced judgements in some certaine cases infers no alteration in his councels the difference between the changing of the will and to will a change 11. That there is something in Gods decrees revealed to us and something concealed unto himself the difference between the inferiour and superiour causes and of the conditionalty of Gods threats and promises 12. The accomodating of the former part of this discourse to the case of the Ninevites 13. And not the case of the Ninevites to the case disputed 1. THese Obstacles being thus removed I shall proceed unto a Declaration of the Churches Doctrine under this new establishment made by Queen Eliz. And first all Arguments derived from the publick Liturgie and the first book of Homilies being still in force we will next see what is delivered in the Homilies of the second part establisht by a special Article and thereby made a part of the doctrine here by law established And first as touching the doctrine of Predestination it is declared in the Homily of the Nativity ' That as in Adam all men universally sinned so in Adam all men received the reward of sinne that is to say became mortal and subject unto death having in themselves nothing but everlasting condemnation both of body and soul that man being in this wretched case it pleased God to make a new Covenant with him namely that he would send a Mediatour or Messias into the world which should make intercession and put himself as a stay between both parties to pacifie wrath and indignation conceived against sin and to deliver man out of the miserable curse and cursed misery whereunto he was fallen headlong by disobeying the Will and Commandment of the onely Lord and Maker Nor secondly was this deliverance and redemption partial intended onely for a few but general and universal for all man-kinde the said Homily telling us not long after that all this was done to the end the promise and covenant of God made unto Abraham and his posterity concerning the Redemption of the world might be credited and believed to deliver man-kinde from the bitter curse of the Law and make perfect satisfaction by his death for the sinnes of all people ' For the accomplishment whereof ' It was expedient saith the Homily that our Mediatour should be such an one as might take upon him the sins of mankinde and sustain the due punishment thereof viz. death ' to the intent he might more fully and perfectly make satisfaction for man-kinde which is as plaine as words can make it and yet not more plaine then that which followeth in the Homily of the worthy receiving of the Sacrament Fol. 200. 2. Nor doth the Homily speak lesse plainly in another place concerning universal Grace then it doth speak to this in reference to universal redemption as appears evidently by the first part of the Sermon against the perill of Idolatry in which it is declared in the way of paraphrase on some passages in the 40. Chapter of the Prophet Isaiah ' that it had been preached to men from the beginning and how by the creation of the world and the greatness of the work they might understand the Majesty of God the Creator and Maker of all things to be greater then it should be expressed in any image or bodily similitude ' And
any point of Calvinisme in the Schooles of Oxon. from the year 1596. to the year 1616. and yet to make that number also he is fain to take in Dr. George Abbot and Dr. Benfield on no other account but for maintaining deum non esse authorem peccati that God is not the Author of sin which any Papist Lutheran or Arminian might have maintained as well as they 8. And yet it cannot be denyed but that by errour of these times the reputation which Calvin had attained to in both universities and the extreame diligence of his followers for the better carrying on of their own designes their was a generall tendency unto his opinions in the present controversies so that it is no marvell if many men of good affection to that Church in goverment and formes of worship might unawares be seasoned with his Principles in point of Doctrine his book of Institutes being for the most part the foundation on which the young Divines of those times did build their studies and having built their studies on a wrong foundation did publickly maintaine some point or other of his Doctrines which gave least offence and ouâ— of which no dangerous consequence could be drawne as they thought and hoped to the dishonor of God the disgrace of Religion the scandall of the Church or subversion of godliness amongst which if Judicious Mr. Hooker be named for one as for one I finde him to be named yet is he named only for maintaining one of the five points that namely of the not total or final falling away of Gods Elect as Dr. Overald also did in the Schools of Cambridge though neither of them can be challenged for maintaining any other point of Calvins Doctrine touching the absolute decree of Reprobation Election unto life without Reference to faith in Christ the unresistable workings of Grace the want of freedom in the will to concur therewith and the determining of all mens actions unto good or evill without leaving any power in men to do the contrary And therefore secondly Mr. Hookers discourse of Justification as it now comes into our hands might either be altered in some points after his discease by him that had the publishing of it or might be written by him as an essay of his younger years before he had confuted the booke of Homilies and perused every clause in the publick Liturgie as he after did or had so carefully examined every text of Scripture upon which he lays the weight of his judgment in it as might encourage him to have it printed when he was alive 9. Of any men who publickly opposed the Calvinian tenents in this Univesity till after the beginning of King James his raigne I must confesse that I have hitherto found no good assurance though some their were who spared not to declare their dislike thereof and secretly traind up their scholars in other principles An argument whereof may be that when Dr. Baroe dyed in London which was about three or four yeares after he had left his place in Cambridge his funerall was attended by most of the Divines then living in and about the City Dr. Bancroft then Bishop of London giving order in it which plainly showes that there were many of both Universities which openly favoured Baroes doctrines and did as openly dislike those of the Calvinians though we finde but few presented to us by their names Amongst which few I first reckon Dr. John Buckridge President of St. Johns Colledge and Tutor to Archbishop Laud who carried his Anti-Calvinian doctrins with him to the See of Rochester and publickly maintained them at a conference in York house An. 1626. And secondly Dr. John Houson one of the Cannons of Christ Church and Vice-Chancellor of the University An. 1602. so known an enemy to Calvin his opinions that he incurred a suspension by Dr. Robert Abbots then Vice-Chancellor And afterwards being Bishop of Oxon subscribed the letter amongst others to the Duke of Buckingham in favour of Mountague and his Book called Apello Cesarem as before was said And though we finde but these two named for Anti-Calvinist in the five controverted points yet might there be many houses perhaps some hundreds who held the same opinions with them though they discovered not themselves or break out in any open opposition as they did at Cambridge God had 7000. servants in the Realm of Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal though we find the name of none but the Prophet Eliah the residue keeping themselves so close for fear of danger that the Prophet himself complained to God that he alone was left to serve him A parallel case to which may be that the Christians during the power and prevalency of the Arian Hereticks St. Jerome giving us the names of no more them three who had stood up stoutly in defence of the Nicene councell and the points of Doctrine there established viz. 1. St. Athanasius Patriark of Alexandria in Egypt St. Hillarie Bishop of Poictious in France and St. Eusebius Bishop of Vevelli in Italy of which thus the Father Siquidem Arianis victis triumphatorem Athanasium suum Egyptus excepit Hillarium e prelio revertentem galliarum ecclesiia complexa est ad reditum Eusebii sui lugubres vestes Italia mutavit that is to say upon the overthrow of the Arians Egypt received her Athanasius now returned in triumph the Church of France embraced her Hillary coming home with victory from the battle and on the returne of Eusebius Italy changed her mourning garments By which it is most clear even to vulgar eys that not these Bishops only did defend the truth but that it was preserved by many others as well of the Clergy as of the people in their several Countreys who otherwise never had received them with such joy and triumph if a great part of them had not been of the same opinions though no more of them occur by name in the records of that age 10. But then againe If none but the three Bishops had stood unto the truth in the points disputed at that time between the Orthodox Christians and the Arian Hereticks yet had that been sufficient to preserve the Church from falling universally from the faith of Christ or deviating from the truth in those particulars the word of truth being established as say both Law and Gospel if there be only two or three witnesses to attest unto it two or three members of the Church may keep possession of a truth in all the rest and thereby save the whole from errour even as a King invaded by a foraign enemy doth keep possession of his Realme by some principall forrtesse the standing out whereof may in time regaine all the rest which I returne for answer to another objection touching the paucity of those Authors whom we have produced in Maintenance of the Anti-Calvinian or old English doctrines since the resetling of the Church under Queen Elizabeth for though they be but few in number
Historia Quinqu Articularis OR A DECLARATION OF The Judgement of the Western Churches And more particularly Of the Church of ENGLAND IN The Five Controverted Points Reproched in these Last times by the Name of ARMINIANISM Collected in the way of an Historicall Narration Out of the Publick Acts and Monuments and most approved Authors of those severall CHURCHES By PETER HEYLYN Jerem. VI. 16. State super vias videte interrogate de semitis antiquis quae sit via bona ambulate in ea invenietis resrigerium animabus vestris Macrob. in Saturnall Omne meum nihill meum LONDON Printed by E. C. for Thomas Johnson at the Key in St. Pauls Church-yard 1660. TO THE READER IT is well known to some in London and elsewhere that these Papers were finished for the Presse before August last But the first breaking out in Cheshire and the unsetledness of affairs which ensued upon it proved such discouragements to all Engagings of this kinde that Michaelmas was past before the undertakers would adventure on it And what distractions have since followed in the Publick Government sufficient to retard a work of greater consequence is unknown to none But long looked for comes at last as the saying is though why it should come out at all may be made a question And I shall also give the Reader some account of that but in so doing must make use of somewhat which was said elsewhere It was more then half against my will and rather through the indiscretion of others then any forwardness of my own that I was drawn to shew my self in these present Controversies But being unseasonably brought upon the stage by Dr. Bernard impertinently enough by Mr. Baxter and with more then ordinary Petulancy by the Man of Scorne the Occasion was laid hold on by some very able and discerning men for pressing me to search into the History of these disputes so far forth as the Church of England was concerned in them and to make publick what I found upon that inquiry To which request I made such answer at the present as the consideration of my many unfitnesses for an employment of that nature might suggest unto me But coming to me from so many hands that it could not fairly be denyed I was prevailed with in the end to apply my self to the undertaking as soon as I had dispatched such other businesses as lay then upon me In the mean time I thought I might comply sufficiently with all expectations by fashioning some short Animadversions on the principal passages relating to the Doctrine of the Church of England which had been purloyned for the most part out of Mr. Prinnes book of Anti-arminianism by a late Compiler By which name the old Criticks and Grammarians used to call those men who pilfering their materials out of other mens writings did use to lay them close together as their own to avoid discovery And so the word is took by Horace in his Compilasse Serm. 1. verse ult as is observed on that verse by the learned Scoliasts So that a Compilator and a Plagiary are but two terms of one signification And he that would behold a Plagacy in his proper colours may finde him painted to the life in the Appendix to Mr. Pierce his Vindication of the learned Grotius to which for further satisfaction I refer the Reader That preamble having led the way and my other businesses being over I prepared my self unto that search to which I was so earnestly moved and so affectionately intreated My helps were very few and weak which might sufficiently have deterred me from the undertaking But a good cause will help to carry on it self and truth will finde the way to shine though darkned for a time with the clouds of Errour as the Sun breaking from an Eclips doth appear more glorious though a while obscured Delitere videtur sol non delitet as in the like case the Father hath it The Five disputed Points which in these last times are Reproached by the name of Arminianisme had more or lesse exercised the Church in all times and ages especially after the breaking out of the Pelagian Heresies when all the Niceties thereof were more thoroughly canvassed Neither the piety and sobriety of the Primity times nor the authority of the Popes nor the commanding spirit of Luther nor the more powerful name of Calvin have prevailed so far but that the Church and every broken fragment of it hath found some subdivision about these Debates So that it can be no great wonder if the Church of England be divided also on the same occasion or that a Deviation should be made from her publick Rules as well as in all other Churches and all former times Which way the general vote had passed in the elder ages hath been abundantly set forth by John Gerrard Vossius in his Historia Pelagiana But he descended not so low as these latter times conceiving he had done enough in shewing to which of the contending parties the general current of the Fathers did most encline And if Turtullians rule be good that those opinious have most truth which have most antiquity id verum est quod primum as his own words are the truth must run most cleerly in that part of the Controversie which hath least in it of the Zuinglian or Calvinian Doctrines And so far I shall follow his method or example rather in the pursuit of that designe which I have before me For though it be my principal purpose to search into the Doctrine of the Church of England yet I shall preface my Discourse by laying down The Judgement of the rest of the Western Churches before I come to that of our first Reformers By means whereof it may be seen what guides they followed or rather with what parties they concurred in judgement since in those times the Church was generally so distracted about these disputes that with the whole the aggregate body of believers there could be no agreement hoped for no compliance possible In the pursuance of this work I have exemplified so much of the Debates and Artifices in the Councel of Trent as concerns these points and may be parallel'd with the like proceedings in the Synod of Dort I have consulted also tho Confessions the Synodals and other publick Monuments and Records of the several parties and so many of the best and most approved Authors of this Church of England as either were within my power or could be advised with at a further distance One whole discourse I have transcribed about Freewill not obvious to be met withall in Shops or Libraries The like I have done also with one whole Homily though the book be easie to be found by those that seek it knowing full well how unwilling most Readers are to take more pains in turning over several books and examining all quotations which are brought before them then of necessity they must Nor have I purposely concealed or subducted any thing
to be superfluous because both Life and Death are rather the Acts of Gods Will then of his Prescience or fore-knowledge And then he adds as of his own that if God did but fore-see the successes of men and did not also dispose and order them by his Will then this Question should not without cause be moved Whether his fore seeing any thing availed to the necessity of them But since sayth he he doth no otherwise fore-see the things that shall come to pass then because he hath decreed that they should so come to pass it is in vain to move any Controversy about Gods fore-knowledge where it is certain that all things do happen rather by divine Ordinance and appointment ' Yet notwithstanding all these shifts he is forced to acknowledge the Decree of Adams Fall to be Horribile decretum A cruell and horrible Decree as indeed it is a cruell and horrible Decree to pre-ordain so many Millions to destruction and consequently unto sinne that he might destroy them And then what can the wicked and Impenitent do but ascribe all their sinnes to God by whose inevitable Will they are lost in Adam by whom they were particularly and personally necessitated to death and so by consequence to sin A Doctrine so injurious to God so destructive of Piety of such reproach amongst the Papists and so offensive to the Lutherans of what sort soever that they profess a greater readiness to fall back to Popery then to give way to this Predestinarian Pestilence by which name they call it to come in amongst them V. But howsoever having so great a Founder as Calvin was it came to be generally entertained in all the Churches of his Plat-form strongly opposed by Sebastian Castellino in Geneva it self but the poor man so despightfully handled both by him and Beza who followed him in all and went beyond him in some of his Devises that they never left pursuing him with Complaints and Clamours till they had first cast him out of the City and at the last brought him to his Grave The terrour of which example and the great name which Calvin had attained unto not only by his diligent Preaching but also by his laborious Writings in the eye of the World As it confirmed his power at home so did it make his Doctrines the more acceptable and esteemed abroad More generally diffused and more pertinaciously adhered unto in all those Churches which either had received the Genevian Discipline or whose Divines did most industriously labour to advance the same By means whereof it came to pass as one well observeth ' that of what account the Master of the Sentences was in the Church of Rome the same and more amongst the Preachers of the Reformed Churches Calvin had purchased so that they were deemed to be the most perfect Divines who were most skilful in his Writings His Books almost the very Canon by which both Doctrine and Discipline were to be judged The French Churches both under others abroad or at home in their own Country all cast according to the Mold which he had made The Church of Scotland in erecting the Fabrick of their own Reformation took the self same pattern ' Received not long after in the Palatine Churches and in those of the Netherlands In all which as his Doctrine made way to bring in the Discipline so was it no hard matter for the Discipline to support the Doctrine and crush all those who durst oppose it Only it was permitted unto Beza and his Disciples to be somewhat wilder then the rest in placing the Decree of Predestination before the Fall which Calvin himself had more rightly placed in Massa corrupta in the corrupted Mass of Man-kinde and the more moderate Calvinians as rightly presuppose for a matter necessary before there could be any place for the Election or Reprobation of particular persons But being they concurred with the rest as to the personal Election or Reprobation of particular persons the restraining of the Benefit of our Saviours Sufferings to those few particulars whom only they had honoured with the glorious name of the Elect the working on them by the irresistible powers of Grace in the Act of Conversion and bringing them infallibly by the continual assistance of the sayd Grace unto life everlasting there was hardly any notice taken of their Deviation they being scarce beheld in the condition of erring brethren though they differed from them in the main Foundation which they built upon but passing under the name of Calvinists as they thus did And though such of the Divines of the Belgick Churches as were of the old Lutheran Stock were better affected unto the Melancthonian Doctrine of Predestination then to that of Calvin yet knowing how pretious the Name and Memory of Calvin was held amongst them or being unwilling to fall foul upon one another they suffered his Opinions to prevail without opposition And so it stood till the year 1592. when Mr. William Perkins an eminent Divine of Cambridge published his Book called the Armilla Aurea c. containing such a Doctrine of Predestination as Beza had before delivered but cast into a more distinct and methodical Form With him as being a Foreiner both by Birth and Dwelling a Supralapsarian in Opinion and one who had no personal Relations amongst themselves it was thought fittest to begin to confute Calvins Doctrines in the person of Perkins as many times a Lion is sayd to be corrected by the well Cudgelling of a Dog without fear of danger And against him it was his order in delivering the Decree of Predestination that Arminius first took up the Bucklers in his Book intituled Examen Praedestinationis Perkinsoniae which gave the first occasion to those Controversies which afterwards involved the Sublapsarians also of which more hereafter VI. In the mean time let us behold the Doctrine of the Supralapsarians first broacht by Calvin maintained by almost all his Followers and at last polished and lickt over by the sayd Mr. Perkings as it was charged upon the Contra Remonstrants in the Conference at the Hague Anno 1610. in these following words Viz. ' That God as some speak by an eternal and unchangable Decree from amongst men whom he considered as not created much less as falâ— ordained certain to eternal life certain to eternal death without any regard had to their righteousness or sin to their obedience or disobedience only because it was his pleasure or so it seemed good to him to the praise of his Justice and Mercy or as others like better to declare his saving Grace Wisdom and free Authority or Jurisdiction ' many being also so ordained by his eternal and unchangable decree fit for the execution of the same by the power or force whereof it is necessary that they be saved after a necessary and unavoidable manner who are ordained to Salvation so that 't is not possible that they should perish but they who are destined to destruction who are
the Dutch Divines IX A further prosecution of the Quarrel between the Councel and the Synod in reference to the Articles used in the Draught upon the Canons and Decrees of either and the doubtfull meaning of them both X. The quarrelling Parties joyn together against the Remonstrants denying them any place in the Synod and finally dismist them in a furious Oration made by Boyerman without any hearing XI The Synodists indulgent to the damnable Doctrines of Macorius and unmerciful in the banishment or extermination of the poor Remonstrants XII Scandalously defamed to make them odious and thâ—se of their perswasions in other places Ejected Persecuted and Disgraced I. HAving thus run through all the other Opinions touching Predestination and the Points depending thereupon I come next to that of the Remonstrants or Arminians as they commonly call them accused of Novelty but ancienter then Calvinism in the Churches of the Belgick Provinces which being Originally Dutch did first embrace the Reformation according to the Lutheran model though afterwards they suffered the Calvinian Plat-form to prevail upon them It was about the year 1530. that the Reformed Religion was admitted in the Neighbouring Country of East-Friezland under Enno the First upon the preaching of Hardingbergius a Learned and Religious man and one of the principal Reformers of the Church of Emden a Town of most note in all that Earldom from him did Clemens Martini take those Principles which afterwards he propagated in the Belgick Churches where the same Doctrine of Predestination had been publickly maintained in a Book called Odegus Laicorum or the Laymans Guide published by Anastasius Velluanus An. 1554. and much commended by Henricus Antonides Divinity Reader in the University of Francka But on the other side the French Ministers having setled themselves in those Parts which either were of French Language or anciently belonged to the Crown of France and having more Quicksilve in them then the others had prevailed so far with William of Nassaw Prince of Orange that a Confession of their framing was presented to the Lady Regent ratified in a forcible and tumultuous way and afterwards by degrees obtruded upon all the Belgick Churches which notwithstanding the Ministers successively in the whole Province of Vtrecht adhered unto their former Doctrines not looked on for so doing as the less Reformed Nor wanted there some one or other of eminent Note who did from time to time oppose the Doctrine of Predestination contained in that Confession of the year 1567. when it took beginning Insomuch that Johannes Isbraâ—di one of the Preachers of Rotradam openly professed himself an Anticalvinian and so did Gellius Succanus also in the Country of West-Friezland who looked no otherwise upon these of Calvin's Judgment then as Innovators in the Doctrine which had been first received amongst them The like we finde also of Holmanus one of the Professors of Leyden of Cornelius Meinardi and Cornelius Wiggeri two men of principal esteem before the name of Jacob Van-Harmine was so much as talked of II. But so it hapned that though these learned men had kept on foot the ancient Doctrines yet did they never finde so generally an Entertainment in those Provinces as they did afterwards by the pains and diligence of this Van-Harmine Arminius he is called by our Latine Writers from whom these Doctrines have obtained the name of Arminianism called so upon no juster Grounds then the great Western Continent is called by the name of America whereas both Christopher Collumbus had first discovered it and the two Cabots Father and Son had made a further progress in the sayd discovery before Americus Vespatius ere saw those shores As for Arminius he had been fifteen years a Preacher or a Pastor as they rather phrase it to the great Church of Arastandam during which times taking a great distast at the Book published by Mr. Perkins intituled Armilla Aurea he set himself upon the canvasing of it and published his performance in it by the name of Examen Praedestinationis Perkinsoniae as before was sayd Incouraged with his good success in this adventure he undertakes a Conference on the same Argument with the learned Junius the summe whereof being spread abroad in several Papers was after published by the name of Amica Collatio Junius being dead in the year 1603. the Curators or Overseers of the University made choice of this Van-harmine to succeed him in his place But the Inhabitants of the Town would not so part with him till they were over-ruled by the Entreaties of some and the power of others A matter so unpleasing to the rigid Calvinians that they informed against him to the state for divers Heterodoxies which they had noted in his Writings But the business being heard at the Hague he was acquitted by his Judge dispatcht for Leyden and there confirmed in his place Toward which the Testimonial Letters sent from the Church of Amsterdam did not help a little In which he stands commended Ob vitae inculpatae sanae doctrinae morum summam integritatem That is to say for a man of an unblameable life sound Doctrine and fair behaviour as may be seen at large in the Oration which was made at his Funeral in the Divinity Schools of Leyden on the 22. day of October 1609. III. Thus dyed Arminius but the Cause did not so dye with him For during the first time of his sitting in the Chair of Leyden he drew unto him a great part of the University who by the Piety of the man his powerful Arguments his extreme diligence in that place and the clear light of Reason which appeared in all his Discourses were so wedded unto his Opinions that no time nor trouble could drown them For Arminius dying in the year 1609. as before was sayd the heats betwixt the Scholars and those of the contrary perswasion were rather encreased then abated the more encreased for want of such a prudent Moderator as had before preserved the Churches from a publick Rupture The breach between them growing wider and wider each side thought fit to seek the Countenance of the State and they did accordingly for in the year 1610. the Followers of Arminius address their Remonstrance containing the Antiquity of their Doctrines and the substance of them to the States of Holland which was encountred presently by a Contra Remonstance exhibited by those of Calvins Party from hence the names of Remonstrants and Contra Remonstrants so frequent in their Books and Writings each Party taking opportunity to disperse their Doctrines the Remonstrants gained exceedingly upon their Adversarys For the whole Controversie being reduced to these five Points Viz. The Method and Order of Predestination The Efficacy of Christs Death The Opperations of Grace both before and after mâ—â—s Conversion and perseverance in the same the Parties were admitted to a publick Conference at the Hague in the year 1611. in which the Remonstrants were conceived to have had much the better of the day Now
mans disobedience many were made sinners By which words we are taught that as in Adam all men universally sinned so in Adam all men universally received the reward of sin that is to say became moâ—tâ—l and subject unto 〈…〉 themselves nothing 〈…〉 tion both of body and soul c. Had it been any marvel if mankinde had been utterly driven to desperation being thus fallen from life to death from salvation to destruction from Heaven to Hell But behold the great goodness and tender mercy of God in this behalf albeit mans wickedness and sinful behaviour was such that it deserved not in any part to be forgiven yet to the intent he might not be clean destitute of all hope and comfort in time to come he ordained a new Covenant and made a sure promise thereof namely that he would send a Mediator or Messias into the world which should make intercession and put himself as a stay between both parties to pacifie the wrath and indignation conceived against sin and to deliver man out of the miserable curse and cursed misery whereunto he was fallen head-long by disobeying the Will and Commandment of the onely Lord and Maker ' 4. Which ground thus laid we will proceed unto the Doctrine of Predestination according to the sense and meaning of the Church of England which teacheth us according to the general current of the ancient Authors before Augustines time that God from all Eternity intending to demonstrate his power and goodness designed the Creation of the World the making of man after his own image and leaving him so made in a perfect liberty to do or not to do what he was commanded and that fore-knowing from all Eternity the man abusing this liberty would plung himself and his posterity into a gulf of miseries he graciously resolved to provide them such a Saviour who should redeem them from their sins to elect all those to life eternal who laid hold upon him leaving the rest in the same state in which he found them for their incredulity And this I take to be the method of Election unto life Eternal through Jesus Christ our Lord according to the Doctrine of the Church of England For although there be neither prius nor posterius in the will of God who sees all things at once together and willeth at the first sight without more delay yet to apply his acts unto our capacitie as were the acts of God in their right production so were they primitively in his intention But Creation without p 〈…〉 did forego the fall and the disease or death which ensued upon it was of necessity to be before there could be a course taken to prescribe the care and the prescribing of the care must first be finished before it could be offered to particular persons Of which and of the whole Doctrine of Predestination as before declared we cannot have an happier illustration then that of Agilmond and Lamistus in the Longobardiaâ— story of Paul the Deacon In which it is reported That Agilmond the second King of Lombard riding by a fish-pond saw seven young children sprawling in it whom their unnatural mothers as the Author thinketh had thrown into it not long before Amazed whereat he put his hunting spear amongst them and stiâ—â—ed them gently up and down which one of them laying hold on was drawn to land called Lamistus from the word Lama which is the language of that people and signifies a fish-pond Trained up in that Kings Court and finally made his Successor in the Kingdom Granting that Agilmond being forewarned in a vision that he should finde such children sprawling for life in the midst of that pond might thereupon take a resolution within himself to put his hunting â—pear amongst them and the which of them soever should lay hold upon it should be gently drawn out of the water adopted for his son and made heir of his Kingdom no Humane story can afford us the like parallel case to Gods proceeding in the great work of Predestination to Eternal life according to the Doctrine of the ancient Fathers and the Church of Rome as also of the Lutheran Churches and those of the Arminian party in the Belgick Provinces 5. Now that this was the Doctrine also of the Church of England will easily appear upon a due search into the Monuments and Records thereof as they stand backed by those learned religious men who had a principal hand in carrying on the great work of the Reformation Among which those of the Calvinian party would fain hook in Wicklif together with Fryth Barns and Tyndal which can by no means be brought under that account though some of them deserved well of the Churches for the times they lived in They that desire to hook in Wicklif do first confess that he stands accused by those of the Church of Rome for bringing in Fatal Necessity and making God the Author of sin and then conclude that therefore it may be made a probable guess that there was no disagreement between him and Calvin The cause of which Argument stands thus That there being an agreement in these points betwixt Wicklif and Calvin and the Reformers of our Church embracing the Doctrines of Wicklif therefore they must embrace the Doctrines of Calvin also But first it cannot be made good that our Reformers embraced the Doctrines of Wicklif or had any eye upon the man who though he held many points against those of Rom yet had his field more tares then wheat his books more Hetrodoxies then sound Catholick Doctrine And secondly admitting this Argument to be of any force in the present case it will as warrantably serve for all the Sects and Heresies which now swarm amongst us as well as for that of Calvin Wicklif affording them the grounds of their several dotages though possibly they are not so well studied in their own concernments For they who consult the works of Thomas Waldensis or the Historia Wicklifiana writ by Hartsfield will tell us that Wicklif amongst many other errours maintained these that follow 1. That the Sacrament of the Altar is nothing else but a piece of Bread 2. That Priests have no more Authority to minister Sacraments then Lay-men havâ— 3. That all things ought to be common 4. That it is as lawful to Christen a childe in a Tub of water at home or in a Ditch by the way as in a Font-stone in the Churches 5. That it is as lawful at all times to confess unto a Lay-man as to a Priest 6. That it is not necessary or profitable to have any Church or Chappel to pray in or to do any Divine Service in 7. That burying in Church-yards is unprofitable and in vain 8. That Holy Days ordained and instituted by the Church and taking the Lords Day in for one are not to be observâ—d and kept in reverencâ— inasmuch as all days are alike 9. That it is sufficient and enough to believe though a man do no good works at all 10.
Calvin no more than to the judgement of Wicklif Tyndall Barns or Frith whose offered assistance they refused when they went about it of which he sensibly complained unto some of his friends as appears by one of his Epistles I answer next affirmatively in the words of an Act of Parliament 2. 3. Edw. 6. where it is said That they had an eye in the first place to the mo pure and sincere Christian Religion taught in the Scriptures and in the next place to the usages of the Primitive Church Being satisfied in both which ways they had thirdly a more particular respect to the Lutheran Plat-forms the English Confession or Book of Articles being taken in many places word for word out of that of Ausberg and a conformity maintained with the Lutheran Churches in Rights and Ceremonies as namely in kneeling at the Communion the Cross in Baptism the retaining of all the ancient Festivals the reading of the Epistles and Gospels on Sundays and Holy-days and generally in the whole Form of External Worship Fourthly in reference to the points disputed they ascribed much to the Authority of Melancthon not undeservedly called the Phoenix of Germany whose assistance they earnestly desired whose coming over they expected who was as graciously invited hither by King Edwâ—rd the sixth Regiis literis in Angliam vocari as himself affirms in an Epistle to Camerarius His coming laid aside upon the fall of the Duke of Sommerset and therefore since they could not have his company they made use of his writings for their direction in such points of Doctrine in which they thought it necessary for the Church to declare her judgement 3. I observe finally That as they attributed much to the particulars to the Authority of Melancthon so they ascribe no less therein unto that of Erasmus once Reader of the Greek Tongue in Cambridge and afterwards one of the Professors of Divinity there whose Paraphrases on the four Evangelists being translated into English were ordered to be kept in Churches for the use of the People and that they owned the Epistles to be studied by all such as had cure of souls Concerning which it was commanded by the injunctions of King Edward the sixth published by the advice of the Lord Protector Somerset and the Privy Council in the first year of the said Kings Reign 1. ' That they should see provided in some most convenient and open place of every Church one Great Bible in English with the Paraphrase of Erasmus in English that the people might reverendly without any let read and hear the same at such time as they listed and not to be inhibited therefrom by the Parson or Curate but rather to be the more encouraged and provoked thereunto And 2. That every Priest under the degree of a Bachellour of Divinity should have of his own one New Testament in English and Latine with the Paraphrases of Erasmus upon the same and should diligently read and study thereupon and should collect and keep in memory all such comfortable places of the Scripture as do set forth the Mercy Benefits and Goodness of Almighty God towards all penitent and believing persons that they might thereby comfort their flock in all danger of death despair or trouble of Conscience and that therefore every Bishop in their Institution should from time to time try and examine them how they have profited in their studies ' A course and care not likely to have entred into the thoughts of the Lord Protector or any of the Lords of the Council if it had not been advised by some of the Bishops who then began to have an eye on the Reformation which soon after followed and as unlikely to be counselled and advised by them had they intended to advance any other Doctrine than what was countenanced in the writings of that learned man Whereupon I conclude the Doctrine in the points disputed to be the true and genuine Doctrine of the Church of England which comes most near to the plain sense of holy Scripture the general current of the Fathers in the Primitive times the famous Augustane Confession the Writings of Melancthon and the Workes of Erasmus To which Conclusion I shall stand till I finde my self encountred by some stronger Argument to remove me from it 4. The ground thus laid I shall proceed unto the Reformation which was built upon it first raking in my way some necessary preparations made unto it by H. 8. by whom it had been ordered in the year 1536. That the Creed the Lords Prayer and the ten Commandments should be recited publiquely by the Parish Priest in the English Tongue and all the Sundays and other Holidays throughout the year And that the people might the better understand the duties contained in them it pleased him to assemble his Bishops and Clergie in the year next following requiring them ' Upon the diligent search and perusing of Holy Scripture to set forth a plain and sincere Doctrine concerning the whole sum of all those things which appertain unto the Profession of a Christian man ' Which work being finished with very great care and moderation they published by the name of an Institution of a Christian man containing the Exposition or Interpretation of the common Word the seven Sacraments the Ten Commandments the Lords Prayer c. and dedicated â—t to the Kings Majestie ' Submitting to his most Excellent Wisdom and Exact Judgement to be by him recognized overseen and corrected if he found any word or sentence in â—t amiss to be qualified changed or further expounded in the plain setting-forth of his most vertuous desire and purpose in that behalf ' A Dedication publikely subscribed in the name of the rest by all the Bishops then being eight Archdeacons and seventeen Doctors of chief note in their several faculties Amongst which I finde seven by name who had a hand in drawing up the first Liturgie of King Edward the sixth that is to say Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury Goodrich Bishop of Ely Hobeach then Bishop of Rochester and of Lincoln afterwards Skip then Archdeacon of Dorset after Bishop of Hereford Roberson afterwards Dean of Durham as Maro was afterwards of S. Pauls and Cox of Westminster And I finde many others amongst them also who had a principal hand in making the first Book of Homilies and passing the Articles of Religion in the Convocation of the year 1552. and so it rested till the year 1643. when the King making use of the submission of the Book which was tendred to him corrected it in many places with his own hand as appeareth by the Book it self remaining in the famous Library of Sir Robert Cotton Which having done he sends it so corrected to Archbishop Cranmer who causing it to be reviewed by the Bishops and Clergie in Convocation drew up some Annotations on it And that he did for this intent as I heard exprest in one of his Letters bearing date June 25. of this present year because
conversant in Latimers writings and will compare them carefully with the Book of Homilies that they do not onely savour of the same spirit in point of Doctrine but also of the same popular and familiar stile which that godly Martyr followed in the course of his preachings for though the making of these Homilies be commonly ascribed and in particularr by Mr. Fox to Archbishop Cranmer yet it is to be understood no otherwise of him then that it was chiefly done by encouragement and direction not sparing his own hand to advance the work as his great occasions did permit That they were made at the same time with King Edwards first Liturgie will appear as clearly first by the Rubrick in the said Liturgie it self in which it is directed that after the Creed shall follow the Sermon or Homily or some portion of one of them as they shall be hereafter divided It appears secondly by a Letter writ by Matrin Bucer inscribed To the holy Church of England and the Ministers of the same in the year 1549. in the very beginning whereof he lets them know That their Sermons â—r Homilies were come to his hands wherein they godlily and effectually exhort their people to the reading of Holy Scripture that being the scope and substance of the first Homily which occurs in that Book and thâ—rein expounded the sense of the faith whereby we hold our Christianity and Justification whereupon all our help consisteth and other most holy principles of our Religion with most godly zeal And as it is reported of the Earl of Gondomar Ambassador to King James from the King of Stain that having seen the eleganâ— disposition of the Rooms and Offices in Burleigh-House not far from Stansord erected by Sir William Cecâ—l principal Secretary of State and Lord Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth he very pleasantly affirmed That he was able to discern the excellent judgement of the great Statesman by the neat contrivance of his house So we may say of those who composed this Book in reference to the points disputed A man may easily discern of what judgement they were in the Doctrine of Predestination by the method which they have observed in the course of these Homilies Beginning first with a Discourse of the misery of man in the state of nature proceeding next to that of the salvation of mankinde by Christ our Saviour onely from sin and death everlasting from thence to a Declaration of a true lively and Christian faith and after that of good works annexed unto faith by which our Justification and Salvation are to be obtained and in the end descending unto the Homily bearing this inscription How dangerous a thing it is to fall from God Which Homilies in the same form and order in which they stand were first authorized by King Edward the sixth afterwards tacitly approved in the Rubrick of the first Liturgie before remembred by Act of Parliament and finally confirmed and ratified in the Book of Articles agreed upon by the Bishops and Clergie of the Convocation anno 1552. and legally confirmed by the said King Edward 8. Such were the hands and such the helps which co-operated to the making of the two Liturgies and this Book of Homilies but to the making of the Articles of Religion there was necessary the concurrence of the Bishops and Clergy assembled in Convocation in due form of Law amongst which there were many of those which had subscribed to the Bishops Book anno 1537. and most of those who had been formerly advised with in the reviewing of the Book by the Commandment of King Henry the eighth 1543. To which were added amongst others Dr. John Point Bishop of Winchester an excellent Grecian well studied with the ancient Fathers and one of the ablest Mathamaticians which those times produced Dr. Miles Coverdale Bishop of Exon who had spent much of his time in the Lutheran Churches amongst whom he received the degree of Doctor Mr. John Story Bishop of Rochester Ridley being then preferred to the See of London from thence removed to Chichester and in the end by Queen Elizabeth to the Church of Hereford Mr. Rob. Farran Bishop of St. Davids and Martyr a man much favoured by the Lord Protector Sommerset in the time of his greatness and finally not to descend to those of the lower Clergie Mr. John Hooker Bishop of Gloucester and Martyr of whose Exposition of the Ten Commandments and his short Paraphrase on Romans 13. we shall make frequent use hereafter a man whose works were well approved of by Bishop Ridley the most learned and judicious of all the Prelates who notwithstanding they differed in some points of Ceremony professeth an agreement with him in all points of Doctrine as appears by a Letter written to him when they were both Prisoners for the truth and ready to give up their lives as they after did in defence thereof Now the words of the Letter are as followeth But now my dear Brother forasmuch as I understand by your works which I have but superficially seen that we throughly agree and wholly consent together in those things which are the grounds and substantial points of our Religion against the which the world now so rageth in these our days Howsosoever in times past in certain by-matters circumstances of Religion your wisdom and my simplicity and ignorace have jarred each of us following the abundance of his own sense and judgement Now I say be you assured that even with my whole heart God is he witness in the bowels of Christ I love you in truth and for the truths sake that abideth in us and I am perswaded by the grace of God shall abide in us for evermore The like agreement there was also between Ridley and Cranmer Cranmer ascribing very much to the judgement and opinion of the learned Prelate as himself was not ashamed to confess at his Examination for which see Fox in the Acts and Monuments fol. 1702. 9. By these men and the rest of the Convocation the Articles of Religion being in number 41 were agreed upon ratified by the Kings Authority and published both in Latine and English with these following Titles viz. Articuli de quibus in Synodo Londinens A. D. 1552. ad tollendam opinionum dissentionem consensum verae Religionis firmandum inter Episcopos alios eruditos viros convenerat Regia authoritate Londin editi that is to say ' Articles agreed upon by the Bishops and other learned men assembled in the Synod at London anno 1552. and published by the Kings authority for the avoiding of diversities of opinions and for the establishing of consent to the loving of true Religion ' Amongst which Articles countenanced in Convocation by Queen Elizabeth an 1562. the Doctrine of the Church in the five controverted points is thus delivered according to the form and order which we have observed in the rest before 1. Of Divine Predestination Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby
first composed in which Provision seemes to have been made against all those who taught that men sinned against their wills or upon constraint or that men might excuse themselves from the blame thereof upon that consideration If any of the Calvinian factions can finde any thing in this Article against Arminianisme as they call it or in defence of the determining of the will by converting grace or the consistency of the freedome or liberty of the will much good may it do them But then they should think themselves obliged to give a better reason than I think they can why this Article is not to be found in the Book as now it is printed Either this Article was not made in favour of Calvinisme when it was published with the rest in King Edwards time or the Reformers of the Church under Queen Elizabeth were no friends to Calvinisme in causing it to be left out in the second Book Anno 1562. to which subscription is required by the Lawes of the Land 10. Proceed we next unto the Book of Homilies in the one of which we find this passage ' that few of the proud learned wife perfect and holy Pharisees were saved by Christ because they justified themselves by their counterfeit holinesse before men ' And in another thus ' But the corrupt inclination of man was so much given to follow his own fancies and as you would say to favour his own bâ—rd that he worships himself that all the admonitions exhortations benefits and the precepts of God could not keep him from their intent on ' More clearly and expressely in another place where after the recitation of some pious duties by God commended to the Jewes the Homily proceeds in this manner following ' But these things they passed not of they turned their backs and went their way they stopped their eares that they might not hear and they hardned their hearts as an adamant stone that they might not listen to the Law and the words that the Lord had sent through his holy Spirit wherefore the Lord shewed his great indignation upon them It came to passe saith the Prophet even as I told them and they would not hear so when they cryed they were not heard but were scattered into all Kingdoms which they never knew and their land was made desolate And to be short all they that may not abide the Word of God but following the perswasions and stubbornnesse of their own hearts go backward and not forward as is said in Jeremy they go and turne away from God ' Nor is this spoken only of such a temporary resistance as may be overcome at last by the unconquerable power of the Spirit of God but even of such an obstinate and perverse resistance as in the end will lead the way to a final Apostacy an unrecoverable forsaking of God and being as irrecoverably forsaken by him Of which we shall speak more at large in the fifth and last Article concerning the uncertainty of perseverance CHAP. XII The Doctrine of Freewil agreed upon by the Clergie in their Convocation An. 1543. 1. OF the Convocation holden in the year 1543. in order to the Reformation of Religion in points of Doctrine 2. The Article of Freewil in all the powers and workings of it agreed on by the Prelates and Clergie of that Convocation agreeable to the present Doctrine of the Church of England 3. An Answer to the first Objection concerning the Popishness of the Bishops and Clergie in that Convocation 4. The Article of Freewil approved by King Henry the eighth and Archbishop Cranmer 5. An Answer to the last Objection concerning the Conformity of the Article to the present Established Doctrine in the Church of Rome 1. BUt First I am to take in my way another evidence whiâ—h though it hath not so directly the force of Law to binde us to consent unto it and perhaps may not be considered amongst the Monuments and Records of the Reformation yet it speaks plainly the full sense of our first Reformers I speak this of a pithy but short Discourse touching the nature of Freewil contained amongst some others in the Book published by the Authority of King Henry the eighth in the year 1543. entituled A necessary Doctrine and Erudition for all Christian men Concerning which as we have spoke at large already in Chap. 8. of this Work so now we must adde something touching this particular of which there was no notice taken in the Bishops Book For when the Bishops Book which had been printed in the year 1537. under the title of An Institution for a Christian man had for some time continued without alteration it was brought under the review of the Bishops and Clergie assembled in their Convocation anno 1543. and having been reviewed in all the parts and members of it a particular Treatise touching the nature of Freewil which in those times had exercised the greatest wits Of which I finde this Memorandum in the Acts of the Convocation that is to say That on Monday being the last of April Lecto publice exposuo Articulo Liberi Arburii in vulgari c. The Article of Freâ—wil being read and publiquely expounded in the English Tongue the most Reverend Archbishops delivered it into the hands of the Prolocutor to the end that he should publish it before the Clerks of the lower House of Convocation as is accustomed in such cases Quo lecto per eos approbato which being read and approved by them it was returned with the residue to the upper House of Convocation with this Approbation Quod pro Catholicis Religiosis acceperunt nâ—c non gratias in gentes patribus egerunt quâ—d tanâ—â—s labores sudores vigilias Religionis Reipublicae causa unitatis gratia subicraâ—t that is to say that they embraced them all for sound and Orthodox rendring unto the Fathers there most humble thanks for the great care and pains which they had undertaken for the good of the Church and Commonwealth and the preserving of peace and unity amongst the people Which passage I have at large laid down to shew by whose hands and by what Authority as well the Book it self which we have spoken of before as this particular Treatise in it was at first fashioned and set forth And that being said I shall first present the Treatise or Discourse it self and after Answer such Objections as either prejudice or partiality may devise against it Now the Article followeth in hac verba The Article of Freewil 2. THe Commandments and threatnings of Almighty God in Scripture whereby man is callâ—d upon and put in remembrance what God would have him to do most evidently do expresse and declare that man hath Free-will also now after the fall of our first father Adam as plainly appeareth in these places following Be not overcome of evil neglect not the grace that is in thee Love not the world c. If thou wilt
for finally or totally and much lesse for both And that he doth so in the Gag I shall easily grant where he relateth only to the words of the Article which speaks only of a possibility of falling without relating to the measure or duration of it But he must needs be carried with a very strange confidence which can report so of him in his book called Appello Caesarem in which he both expressely saith and proveth the contrary He saith it first in these words after a repetition of that which he had formerly said against the Gagger ' I determine nothing in the question that is to say nor totally nor finally or totally not finally or totally finally but leave there all to their Authors and Abettors resolving upon this not to go beyond my bounds the consented resolved and subscribed Articles of the Church of England in which nor yet in the Book of Common Prayer and other divine offices is there any tye upon me to resolve in this much disputed question as these Novellers would have it not as these Novellers would have it there 's no doubt of that For if there be any it is for a possibility of total falling of which more anon ' He proves it next by several Arguments extracted from the Book of Homilies and the publike Liturgy Out of which last he observeth three passages the first out of the Forme of Baptisme in which it is declared that the baptized infant being born in original sin by the Laver of Regeneration in Baptism is received into the number of the children of God and Heirs of everlasting life the second out of the publick Catechism in which the child is taught to say that by his Baptism he was made a member of Christ the child of God and an inheritor of the Kingdom of heaven The third out of the Rubrick before Confirmation in which it is affirmed for a truth that it is certain by Gods word that children being baptized have all things necessary for their salvation and be undoubtedly saved And thereupon he doth observe that it is to be acknowledged for a Doctrine of this Church that children duly baptized are put ' into a state of Grace and salvation and secondly that it is seen by common experience that many children so baptized when they come to age by a wicked and lewd life do fall away from God and from the state of Grace and salvation wherein he had set them to a worse state wherein they shall never be saved ' From which what else can be inferred but that the Church maintains a total and a final falling from the grace of God Adde hereunto that the Church teacheth men to pray to Almighty God not to take his holy Spirit from us And in another place that he suffer us not at our last hour for any pains of death to fall from him which certainly she had never done were it not possible for a man so far to grieve and vex the holy Spirit of God and so far to despair of his gracious mercie as to occasion him at the last to deprive us both of the one and the other 9. Next for the Homilies as they commend us unto Gods people a probable and stedfast hope of their salvation in Christ Jesus so they allow no such infallibility of persisting in grace as to secure them from a total and final falling In reference to the first they tell us in the second part of the Sermon against the fear of death ' that none of those their causes of the fear of death that is to say the sorrow of repenting from our worldly pleasures the terrible apprehension of the pangs of death and the more terrible apprehension of the pains of hell do make any trouble to good men because they stay themselves by true faith perfect charity and sure hope of the endlesse joy and blisse everlasting All therefore have great cause to be full of joy that be joyned to Christ with true faith stedfast hope and perfect charity and not to fear death nor everlasting damnation ' The like we finde not long after where it speaks of those ' when being truly penitent for their offences depart hence in perfect charity and in sure trust that God is merciful to them forgiving them their sins for the merits of Jesus Christ the only natural Son ' In the third part of which Sermon it is thus concluded ' He that conceiveth all these things and beleeveth them assuredly as they ought to be believed even from the bottom of his heart being established in God in his true faith having a quiet conscience in Christ a firm hope and assured trust in Gods mercy through the merits of Jesus Christ to obtain this rest quieâ—ness and everlasting joy shall not only be without fear of godly death when it cometh but greatly desire in his heart as S. Paul did to be rid from all these occasions of evil and live ever to Gods pleasure in perfect obedience of his Will with Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour to whose gracious presence c. ' By all which passages it is clear and evident that the Church teacheth us to entertain a probable and stedfast hope of our salvation in Christ Jesus but whether it teacheth also such an infallibility of persisting in grace such a certainty of perseverance as to exclude all possibility of a total or a final falling we are next to see 10. And see it we may without the help of Spectacles or any of the Optical instruments if we go no farther than the title of two of those Homilies the first wherof is thus inscribed viz. A Sermon shewing how dangerous a thing it is to fall from God And it had been ridiculous if not somewhat worse to write a Sermon de non ente to terrifie the people with the danger of that misfortune which they were well enough assured they should never suffer Out of which Homilies the Appellant makes no use but of these words only ' Whereas God hath shewed unto all them that truly do believe his Gospel his face of mercy in Christ Jesus which doth so enlighten their hearts that they be transformed into his image be made partakers of the heavenly light and of his holy Spirit be fashioned to him in all goodnesse requisite to the child of God so if they do afterwards neglect the same if they be unthankful unto him if they order not their lives according unto his Doctrine and Example and to the setting forth of his glory he will take from them his holy Word his kingdom whereby he should reign in them because they bring not forth fruit which he looked for ' Besides which there are many other passages to this effect where it is said that as by pride and sin we fall from God so shall God and all goodness go from us that sometimes men go from God by lack of faith mistrusting of God and somtimes
and in all such cases that is to say that neither the great grace nor his infinite mercy shall be wanting at any time unto such as are fallen from God or that man shall not be wanting to himself in making a right use of it to his rising again And then this passage in the Homily will affirme no more to this purpose than the Article doth where it is said that after we have received the holy Ghost we may depart from grace given and fall into sinne and by the grace of God we may arise again and amend our lives 5. Now to these testimonies from the Homilies the publick Liturgy and the writings of the learned men and godly Martyrs before remembred it will not be amisse to adde one more that is to say Master Lancelot Ridley Arch-Deacon of Cantenbury who by his name seemes to have had relation to Doctor Nicholas Ridley Bishop of London and by his office to Doctor Cranmer Arch-bishop of Canterbury the two chief Agents in the work of the Reformation This man had published some Expositions on Saint Pauls Epistles to the Ephesians and Philippians as he did afterwards on that to the Collossians also which last was printed by Richard Grafton 1548. At which time both the first Liturgy and the first Book of Homilies were in force and practice and therefore was not like to containe any point of Doctrine repugnant unto either of them And if we look upon him in his Comment upon the Epistle we shall finde him thus declare himself in the points disputed which I will lay all together according to the method formerly observed in setting down the Articles or points themselves For first in reference to Election unto life eternal he telleth us ' That all fulnesse of the Father is called to dwell in Christ that all men should know all the goodnesse they have to come of God by Christ to them that all that believe in Christ should not perish but be saved and should have life everlasting by Christ with the Father ' And afterwards speaking on those vertues which Saint Paul commends in the Elect he tells us ' that those vertues do shew unto us who be elected of God and who not as farre as man can judge of outward things and that those men may be concluded to be elected of God who hate all vice and sinne that love vertue and godly living and in it do walk all their life-time by true faith and works of the spirit ' 2. More plainly doth he speak in the second place of Universal Redemption telling us that ' all men which either for their Original sinne or for their Actual sinne were out of Gods favour and had offended God should by Christ only be reconciled to Gods favour and have remission of their sinnes and he made partakers of everlasting life that Christs death was a full and sufficient satisfaction for the sinnes of the whole world and for all them that shall be sanctified and saved that Christ by his death once for all hath fully and perfecty satisfied for the sinnes of all men and finally that therefore this is an undoubted truth ever to be believed of all Christians that Christ by his Passion and and Death hath taken away all the sinnes of the world ' 6. In the next place he puts the question with reference to the application of so great a benefit for what causes God would not have his Word preached unto the Gentiles till Christs time and makes this answer thereunto First ' that it is a point not to be too curiously searched or enquired after Secondly that it is enough for us to know that it was so ordered by Gods Will and for his glory But thirdly that it might yet be done either because by their sins they had deserved their blindnesse and damnation as indeed they had or that God saw their hard hearts or their stiff necks and that they would not have received it before Christs coming if the Gospel had been preached unto them or finally that God reserved that mystery unto the coming of our Saviour Christ that by him all goodnesse should be known to come to us c. ' As for the necessary influences of Gods Grace and mans co-working with the same he telleth us briefly ' that no man ought to ascribe the good works that he doth to himself or to his own might and power but to God the Author of all goodnesse but then withall that it is not enough for men to have knowledge of Christ and his benefits but that they must encrease in the knowledge of God which knowlege cometh by Gods Word And finally as to the point of falling away he gives us first the example of Demas who as long as all things were prosperous with S. Paul was a faithful minister to him and a faithful Disciple of Christ but when he saw Paul cast into prison he forsook Paul and his Doctrine and followed the world then he inferreth that many such there be in the world c. ' of whom speaketh Christ Matâ—h 13. ' Many for a time do believe but in time of tribulations they shrink away And finally he concludes with this advice that he that standeth should look that he did not fall and that he do not trust too much to his own might and power for if he did he should deceive himself and have a fall as Demas had ' And so much for the judgment and opinion of Master L. Ridley in the points disputed who being Arch-deacon of Canterbury as before was said may be presum'd to be one of those who concurred in Convocation to the making of the Articles of K. Edwards Book 1552. to finde the true and natural meaning of which Articles we have took this pains CHAP. XV. Of the Author and Authority of King Edwards Chatechisme as also of the Judgement of Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr in the Points disputed 1. THE Catechisme published by the Authority of King Edward the sixth Anno 1553. affirmed to have been writ by Bishop Poinet and countenanced by the rest of the Bishops and Clergy 2. Several passages collected out of that Catechisme to prove that the Calvinian Doctrines were the true genuine and ancient Doctrines of the Church of England 3. With a discovery of the weakness and impertinency of the Allegation 4. What may most probably be conceived to have been the judgement of Bishop Poinet in most of the Controverted Points 5. An Answer to another Objection derived from Mr. Bucer and Peter Martyr and the influence with their Auditors and Disciples are supposed to have had in the Reformation 6. That Bucer was a man of moderate Counsels approving the first Liturgy of King Edward the sixth assenting to the Papists at the Dyet of Ratisbone in the possibility of falling from grace and that probably Peter Martyr had not so far espoused the Calvinian quarrels when he lived in Oxon as after his return to
Gospel viz. How many a time and oft have I assayed to gather thy children together and to joyn them to my self none otherwise then the hen gathereth her chickens under her wings that they may not miscarry But thy stubborness hath gone beyond my goodness and as though thou hadst even vow'd and devoted thy self to utter ruine so dost thou refuse all things whereby thou mighâ—est be recovered and made whole And finally as to the possibility of falling from the faith of Christ he thus declares himself in the Exposition of our Saviours Parable touching the sower and the seed viz. There is another sort of men which greedily hear the word of the Gospel and set it deep enough in their mind and keep it long but their minds being entangled and choaked with troublesome cares of this world and especially of riches as it were with certain thick thorns they cannot freely follow that he â—â—veth because they will not suffer these thornes which cleave together and be entangled one with another among themselves to be cut away the fruit of the seed which is sowen doth utterly perish Which being so either we must conclude the doctrine of this Church in the Book of Articles to be the same with that which is contained in the Paraphrases of this learned man or else condemn the godly Bishops of this Church and the religious Princes above mentioned of a great imprudence in recommending them to the diligent and careful reading both of â—â—iest and People HISTORIA QVINQV ARTICVLARIS OR A DECLARATION Of the Judgement of the WESTERN CHVRCHES And more particularly of the CHURCH of ENGLAND In the five Controverted Points Reproached in these last Times by the name of Arminianisme PART III. CONTAINING The first Breakin gs out of the Predestinarians in the Church of England and the Pursuance of those Quarrels from the Reign of King EDWARD the sixth to the death of King JAMES By P. HEYLIN D. D. LONDON Printed for T. Johnson at the sign of the Key in Pauls Church-yard 1660. PART III. CHAP. XVI Of the first Breakin gs out of the Predestinarians and their Proceedings in the same 1. THE Predestinarians called at first by the name of Gospellers 2. Campneys a professed enemy to the Predestinarians but neither Papist nor Pelagtan 3. The common practises of the Calvinists to defame their Adversaries the name of Free will men to whom given why 4. The Doctrine of John Knox. in restraining all mens actions either good or evil to the determinate Will and Counsel of God 5. The like affirmed by the Author of the Table of Predestination in whom and the Genevian Notes we find Christ to be excluded from being the foundation of mans Election and made to be an inferiour cause of salvation only 6. God made to be the Author of sin by the Author of a Pamphlet entituled against a Privy Papist and his secret Counsels called in for the proof thereof both by him and Knox with the mischiefs which ensued upon it 7. The Doctrine of Robert Crowly imputing all mens sins to Predestination his silly defences for the same made good by a distinction of John Verons and the weakness of that distinction shewed by Campneys 8. The Errours of the former Authors opposed by Campneys his book in answer to those Errours together with his Orthodoxie in the point of universal Redemption and what he builds upon the same 9. His solid Arguments against the imputing of all actions either good or evil to Predestination justified by a saying of Prosper of Aquitaine 10. The virulent prosecutions of Veron and Crowly according to the Genius of the sect of Calvin THus we have seen the Doctrine of the Church of England in the five â—nntroverted points according to the Principles perswasions of the first Reformers And to say truth it was but time that they should come to some conlusion in the points disputed there being some men who in the beginning of the Reign of King Edward the sixth busily stickled in the maintenance of Calvins Doctrines And thinking themselves to be more Evangelical then the rest of their brethren they either took unto themselves or had given by others the name of Gospellers Of this they were informed by the reverent Prelate and right godly Martyr Bishop Hooper in the Preface to his Exposition of the ten Commandments Our Gospellors saith he be better learned then the holy Ghost for they wickedly attribute the cause of Punishments and Adversity to Gods Providence which is the cause of no ill as he himself can do no ill and over every mischief that is done they say it is Gods Will. In which we have the men and their Doctrine how the name of Gospellers and the reason why that name was ascribed unto them It is observed by the judicious Author of the Book called Europae Speculum that Calvin was the first of these latter times who searcht into the Counsels the eternal Counsels of Almighty God And as it seems he found there some other Gospel then that which had been written by the four Evangelists from whence his followers in these Doctrines had the name of Gospellers for by that name I find them frequently called by Campneys also in an Epistolary Discourse where he clears himself from the crimes of Popery and Pelagianism which some of these new Gospellers had charged upon him which had I found in none but him it might have been ascribed to heat or passion in the agitation of these quarrels but finding it given to them also by Bishod Hooper a temperate and modest man I must needs look upon it as the name of the Sect by which they were distinguished from other men 2. And now I am fallen upon this Campneys it will not be unnecessary to say something of him in regard of the great part he is to act on the stage of this business Protestant he was of the first edition cordially affected to the Doctrine of the Church of England in the present points but of a sharp and eager spirit And being not well weaned from some points of Popery in the first dawning of the day of our Reformation he gave occasion unto some of those whom he had exasperated to inform against him that they prosecuted the complaint so far that he was forced to bear a faggot at St. Pauls Cross as the custome was in all such cases Miles Coverdale then or not long after Bishop of Exon preaching a Sermon at the same But whatsoever he was then in other Doctrinals he hath sufficiently purged himself from the crimes of Popery and Pelagianism wherewith he had been charged by those of the adverse party For whereas one William Samuel had either preached or written in Queen Maries time That a man might deserve God c. Campneys beholds it for a doctrine so blasphemous and abominable that neither Papists nor Pelagians nor any other Heretick old or new hath ever written or maintained a more filthy and execrable saying For
publick service if otherwise of known zeale against the Papists 2. Several examples of that kinde in the places of greatest power and trust in the Church of England particularly of Mr. Fox the Martyrologist and the occasion which he took of publishing his opinion in the point of predestination 3. His notes on one of the Letters of John Bradford Martyr touching the matter of Election therein contained 4. The difference between the Comment and the Text and between the authour of the Comment and Bishop Hooper 5. Exceptions against some passages and observations upon others in the said Notes of Mr. Fox 6. The great breach made hereby in the Churches Doctrine made greater by the countenance which was given to the Book of Acts and Monuments by the Convocation An. 1571. 7. No argument to be drawn from hence touching the approbation of his doctrine by that Convocation no more then for the Approbation of his Marginal Notes and some particular passages in it disgraceful to the Rites of the Church attire of the Bishops 8. A counterballance made in the Convocation against Fox his Doctrine and all other Novelismes of that kinde 1. IT was not long that Queen Mary sate upon the Throne and yet as short time as it was it gave not only a strong interruption for the present to the proceedings of the Church but an occasion also of great discord and dissention in it for the time to come For many of our Divines who had fled beyond the Sea to avoid the hurry of her Reign though otherwise men of good abilities in most parts of Learning returned so altered in their principals as to points of Doctrine so disaffected to the Government formes of worship here by Law established that they seem'd not to be the same men at their coming home as they had been at their going hence yet such was the necessity which the Church was under of filling up the vacant places and preferments which had been made void either by the voluntary discession or positive deprivation of the Popish Clergie that they were faine to take in all of any condition which were able to do the publick service without relation to their private opinions in doctrine or discipline nothing so much regarded in the choice of men for Bishopricks Deanries Dignities in Cathedral Churches the richest Bâ—nefices in the Countrey and places of most command and trust in the Universities as their known â—eal against the Papists together with such a sufficiency of learning as might enable them for writing and preaching against the Popes supremacy the carnal presence of Christ in the blessed Sacrament the superstition of the Masse the halfe communion the celâ—bratin of Divine service in a tongue not known unto the people the inforced single life of Priests the worshiping of Images and other the like points of Popery which had given most offence and were the principal causes of that separation 2. On this account we finde Mr. Pilkington preferred to the See of Durham and Whittingham to the rich Deanry of the Church of which the one proved a great favourer of the Non-conformists as is confessed by one who challengeth a relation to his blood and family the other associated himself with Goodman as after Goodman did with Knox for planting Puritanisme and sedition in the Kirk of Scotland On this account Dr. Lawrence Humphrey a professed Calvinian in point of doctrine and a Non-conformist but qualified with the title of a moderate one is made the Queens professor for Divinity in the University of Oxon Thomas Cartwright that great Incendiary of this Church preferred to be the Lady Margarets professor in the University of Cambridge Sampson made Dean of Christ-church and presently proptor Puritaxismum Exauctoratus turned out again for Puritanisme as my Authour hath it Hardiman made one of the first Prebends of Westminster of the Queens foundation and not long after deprived of it by the high Commissioners for breaking down the Altar there and defacing the ancient utensils and ornaments which belonged to the Church And finally upon this account as Whitehead who had been Chaplaine to Queen Anne Bulline refused the Arch-Bishoprick of Canterbury before it was offered unto Parker and Covâ—rdale to be restored to the See of Exon which he had chearfully accepted in the time of King Edward so Mr. John Fox of great esteem for his painful and laborious work of Acts and Monuments commonly called the Book of Martyrs would not accept of any preferment in the Church but a Prebends place in Salisbury which tide him not to any residence in the same And this he did especially as it after proved to avoid subscription shewing a greater willingnesse to leaue his place then to subscribe unto the Articles of Religion then by Law established when he was legally required to do it by Arch-Bishop Parker Of this man there remains a short Discourse in his Acts and Monuments of Predestination occasioned by a letter of Mr. Bradfords before remembred whose Orthodox doctrine in that point he feared might create some danger unto that of Calvin which then began to finde a more general entertainment then could be rationally expected in so short a time And therefore as a counter-ballance he annexeth this discourse of his own with this following title viz. Notes on the same Epistle and the matter of Election thereunto appertaining ' 3. As touching the Doctrine of Election whereof this letter of Mr. Bradford and many other of his Letters more do much intreat three things must be considered 1. What Gods Election is and what the cause thereof 2. How Gods Election proceedeth in working our salvation 3. To whom Gods election pertaineth and how a man may be certaine thereof Between Predestination and Election this difference there is Predestination is as well to the Reprobate as to the Elect Election pertaineth onely to them that be saved Predestination in that it respecteth the reprobate is called reprobation in that it respected the saved is called Election and is thus defined Predestination is the eternall decreement of God purposed before in himself what shall befal all men either to salvation or damnation Election is the free mercy and grace of God in his own will through faith in Christ his Sonne choosing and preferring to life such as pleaseth him In this definition of Election first goeth before the mercy and grace of God as the causes thereof whereby are excluded all works of the Law and merits of deserving whither they go before faith or come after so was Jacob chosen and Esau refused before either of them began to work c. Secondly in that the mercy of God in this Definition is said to be free thereby is to be noted the proceeding and working of God not to be bound to any ordinary place or to any succession of choice nor to state and dignity of person nor to worthinesse of blood c. but all goeth by the meere will of his own purpose as it is
which he hath marked out to reprobation the Scripture laying no such censure on Nachor or his Posterity as the Authour doth Or else the Authour must know more of the estate of Nachor then Abraham his brother did who certainly would never have chosen a wife for his sonne Isaac out of Nachors line if he had looked upon them as reprobated and accursed of God I observe Secondly that plainly God is made an accepter of persons by the Authours doctrine For first he telleth us that the elder son had a better will to tarry by his father and so did indeed but the fatted Calf was given to the younger son that ran away and thereupon he doth infer that the matter goeth not by the will of man but by the Will of God as it pleaseth him to accept I observe Thirdly that Vocation â—â—â— the Authours judgement standeth upon Gods Election as the work thereof whereas Vocation is more general and is extended unto those also whom they call the Reprobate and therefore standeth not on Election as the Authour hath it For many 〈◊〉 called though out of those many which are called but a few are chosen Fourthly I observe that notwithstanding the Authour builds the doctrine of Electionâ—â—â— â—â—â— Gods absolute will and pleasure yet he is faine to have recourse to some certaine condition telling us that though the mercy of God his Grace Election Vocation and other preâ—â—â—ent Causes do justifie us yet this is upon condition of believing in Christ And finally it is to be observed also that after all his paines taken in defending such a personal and eternal Election as the Calvinians now contend for he adviseth us to wrap up our selves wholly both body and soul under Gods general promise and not to cumber our heads with any further speculations knowing that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish c. 6. And so I take my leave of our Martyrologist the publishing of whose discourse I look on as the first great battery which was made on the Bulwarks of this Church in point of Doctrine by any member of her own after the setling of the Articles by the Queens Authority Anno 1562. the brables raised by Crowley in his Book against Campneys though it came out after the said Articles were confirmed and published being but as haile-shot in comparison of this great piece of Ordnance Not that the Arguments were so strong as to make any great breach in the publick Doctrine had it been published in a time-lesse capable of innovations or rather if the great esteeme which any had of that man and the universal reception which his Book found with all sorts of people had not gained more authority unto his discourse then the merit or solidnesse of it could deserve The inconveniences whereof as also the many marginal Notes and other passages visibly tending to faction and sedition in most parts of that Book were either not observed at first or winked at in regard of the great animosities which were ingendred by it in all sorts of people as well against the persons of the Papist as against the doctrine Insomuch that in the Convocation of the year 1571. there passed some Canons requiring that not onely the Deanes of all Cathedrals should take a special care that the said Book should be so conveniently placed in their several Churches that people of all conditions might resort unto it but also that all and every Arch-Bishop Bishops Deans Residentiaries and Arch-Deacons should choose the same to be â—laced in some convenient publick room of their several houses not only for the entertainment and instruction of their menial servants but of such strangers also as occasionally repaired unto them 7. If it be her eupon inferred that Fox his doctrine was approved by that Convocation and therefore that it is agreeable to the true intent and meaning of the Articles of the Church of England besides what hath been said already by Anticipation it may as logically be inferred that the Convocation approved all his Marginal Notes all the factious and seditious passages and more particularly the scorn which he puts upon the Episcopal habit and other Ceremonies of the Church Touching which last for the other are too many to be here recited let us behold how he describes the difference which hapned between Hooper Bishop of Glocester on the one side Cranmer and Ridley on the other about the ordinary habit and attire then used by the Bishops of this Church we shall finde it thus viz. ' For notwithstanding the godly reformation of Religion that was begun in the Church of England besides other ceremonies that were more ambitious then profitable or tended to edification they used to wear such garments and apparel as the Romish Bishops were wont to do First a Chimere and under that a white Rocket then a Mathematical cap with four Angles dividing the whole world into four parts These trifles being more for superstition then otherwise as he could never abide so in no wise could he be perswaded to weare them But in conclusion this Theological contestation came to this end that the Bishops having the upper hand Mr. Hooper was faine to agree to this condition that sometimes he should in his Sermon shew himself apparalled as the Bishops were Wherefore appointed to preach before the the King as a new player in a strange apparel he cometh forth on the stage His upper garment was a long skarlet Chimere down to the foot and under that a white linnen Rocket that covered all his shoulders upon his head he had a Geometrical that is a square cap albeit that his head was round What case of shame the strangenesse hereof was that day to the good preacher every man may easily judge But this private contumely and reproach in respect of the publick profit of the Church which he onely sought he bare and suffered patiently ' 8. Here have we the Episcopal habit affirmed to be a contumelie and reproach to that godly man slighted contemptuously by the name of trifles and condemned in the Marginal Note for a Popish attire the other ceremonies of the Church being censured as more ambitious then profitable and tending more to superstition then to edification which as no man of sense or reason can believe to be approved and allowed of by that Convocation so neither is it to be believed that they allowed of his opinion in the present point For a counterballance whereunto there was another Canon passed in this Convocation by which all preachers were enjoyned to take special care ne quid unquam doceant pro concione quod a populo religiose teneri credi velint nisi quod consent aneum sit doctrinae veteris aut novi testamenti quodque ex illa ipsa doctrina Catholici Patres veteres Episcopi Collegeriâ—t that is to say that they should maintain no other doctrine in their publick Sermons to be believed of the people but that which was agreeable
is to say It was not the Will of God that they should perish if they did repent For God desireth not the death of a sinner but rather that he be converted and live and yet it was his will that they should peâ—ish if they did not repent for these two are one as for example It is the Will of God saith he that we should have eternal life if we believe and constantly persevere in the faith of Christ And it is not the will of God that we should have eternal life if we do not believe or believing only for a time do not persevere therein to the end of our lives which point he further proves by the condition of the message sent from God to Hezekiah by the Prophet Isaiah 2 King 20. 1. as before was said in Dr. King For which together with the rest of his discourse upon that occasion concerning the consistency of these alterations with the immutability or unchangableness of Almighty God I shall refere the Reader to the book it self 5. So far that learned man had declared himself upon occasion of that Text and the case of the Niâ—evites before the year 1574. being ten years before the preaching of Hâ—rsnets Sermon at St. Pauls Cross and more then twenty years before the â—â—irs at Cambridge betwixt him and Whitacres In all which time or at lest the greatest part thereof he inclined rather unto the Melancthonian way according to the Judgement of the Church of England in laying down the Doctrine of Predestination then to that of Calvin For fifteen years it is confest in a letter sent by some of the heads of Cambridge to William Lord Burleigh then Chancellour of the University bearing date March the 8. 1595. That he had taught in his Lectures preached in Sermons determined in the Schools and printed in several books a contrary Doctrine unto that which was maintained by Dr. Whitacres and had been taught and received in the University ever since the beginning of her Majesties Reign which last though it be gratis dictum without proof or evidence yet it is probable enough that it might be so Cartwright that unextinguished Fire-brand being Professor in that place before him and no greater care taken in the first choice of the other before recited to have had the place then to supply it with a man of known aversness from all points of Popery And it seems also by that letter that Baroe had not sown his seed in a barren soil but in such as brought forth fruit enough and yielded a greater increase of Followers then the Calvinians could have wished For in one place the letter tells us that besides Mr. Barret of whom we shall speak more anon There were divers others who there attempted publickly to teach new and strange opinions in Religion as the Subscribers of it call them And in another place it tels us of Dr. Baroe that he had many Disciples and Adherents whom he enboldned by his example to maintain false Doctrine And by this check it may be said of Peter Baroe in reference to that Vniversity indangered to be overgrown with outlandish Doctrines as the Historian doth of Cajus Marius with referrence to the state of Rome in fear of being over-run by the Tribes of the Cymbri which were then breaking in upon it Actum esset de Repub. nisi Marius isti seculo contigisset the Common-wealth had then been utterly overthrown if Marius had not been then living 6. Now as for Barret before mentioned he stands accused so far forth as we can discern by the Recantation which some report him to have made for preaching many strange and erroneous Doctrines that is to say 1. ' That No man in this transitory life is so strongly underpropped at lest by the certainty of faith that is to say as afterwards he explained himself by Revelation that he ought to be assured of his own salvation 2. That the faith of Peter could not fâ—il but that the faith of other men might fail our Lord not praying for the faith of every particular man 3. That the certainty of perseverance for the time to come is a presumptuous and proud security forasmuch as it is in its own nature contingent and that it was not only a presumptuous but a wicked Doctrine 4. There was no distinction in the faith but in the persons believing 5. That the forgiveness of sins is an Article of the Faith but not the forgiveness of the sins particularly of this man oâ— that and therefore that no true Believer either can or ought believe for certain that his sins are forgiven him 6. That he maintained against Calvin Peter Martyr and the rest concerning those that are not saved that sin is the true proper and first cause of Reprobation 7. That he had taxed Calvin for lifting up himself above the high and Almighty God And 8ly That he had uttered many bitter woâ—ds against Peter Martyr Theodore Beza Jâ—rom Zanchius and Francis Junius c. calling them by the odious names of Calvinists and branding them with a most grievous mark of Reproach they being the lights and Ornaments of our Church as is suggested in the Articles which were exhibited against him ' 7. For having insisted or at lest touched upon these points in a Sermon preached at St. Marys on the 29. day of April Ann. 1595. all the Calvinian heads of that Vniversity being lbid together by Whitaores and inflamed by Perkins took fire immediately And in this Text he was convented on the fifth of May next following at nine of the clock in the morning before Dr. Some then Deputy Vice-Chancellour to Dr. Duport Dr. Goad Dr. â—yndal Dr. Whitacres Dr. Barwell Dr. Jegon Dr. Preston Mr. Chatterton and Mr. Claton in the presence of Thomas Smith publick Notary by whom he was appointed to attend again in the afternoon At which time the Articles above mentioned were read unto him which we alleadged to be erroneous and false Et repugnantes esse religioni in regno Angliae legitima Authoritate receptae ac stabilitae that is to say contrary to the Religion received and established by publick Authority in the Realm of England To which Articles being required to give an Answer he confest that he had published in his Sermon all these positions which in the said Articles are contained sed quod contenta in iâ—â—dem Religioni Ecclesiae Anglicanae ut prefertur omnino non repugnant but denyed them to be any way repugnant to the Doctrine of the Church of England Whereupon the Vice-Chancellour and the forenamed heads entring into mature deliberation and diligently weighing and examining these positions because it did manifestly appear that the said positions were false erroneous and likewise repugnant to the ' Religion received and established in the Church of England adjudged and declared that the said Barret had incurred the Penalty of the 45. Statute of the Vniversity de concionibuâ— ' And by vertue and tenour of that
last giving him leave to look about him and to discerne the dangers which did seeme to threaten him on the other side considering therefore with himselfe or being informed by tale of the Bishop and Divines as were then about him how great an adversary was Calvinius to Monarchicall interesse how contrary the Predestination doctrines were to all rules of Government he found it neeessary to devise or admit some course of the preventing of the mischiefe To which end he issued certain directions to the vice Chancellor and Heads of both Universities bearing date January 18. 1619. Requiring them to take speciall order among other things that all that tooke any degree in the ' Schooles should subscribe to the three Articles in the thirty sixt Canon that no man in the Pulpit or Schooles be sufferred to maintaine Dogmatically any point of doctrine that is not allowed by the Church of England that none be suffered to preach or lecture in the Towns of Oxon. or Cambridge but such as were every way conformable to the Church both in doctrine and discipline and finally which most apparently conduced to the ruine of Calvinism that young Students in divinity be directed to study such books as be most agreeable in doctrine and discipline to the Church of England and excited to bestow their time in the Fathers and Councels Schoolmen Histories and Controversies and not to insist too long upon Compendiums and abbreviations making them the grounds of their study in divinity ' This seemed sufficient to bruse these doctrines in the shel as indeed it was had these directions been as carefully followed as they were piously prescribed But little or nothing being done in pursuance of them the Predestinarian doctrines came to be the ordinary Theam of all Sermons Lectures and Disputations partly in regard that Dr. Prideaux who had then newly succeeded Dr. Rob. Abbot in the chair at Oxon. had very passionately exposed the Calvinian Interest and partly in regard of the Kings declared averseness from the Belgick Remonstrants whom for the reasons before mentioned he laboured to suppress to his utmost power And yet being carefull that the truth should not fair the worse for the men that taught it he gave command to such Divines as were commissionated by him to attend in the Synod of Dort Anno 1618. not to recede from the doctrine of the Church of England in the point of universal Redemption by the death of Christ A point so inconsistent with that of the Absolute and irrespective decree of Reprobation and generally of the whole Machina of Predestination and the points depending thereupon as they are commonly maintained in the Schools of Calvin that fire and water cannot be at greater difference But this together with the rest being condemned in the Synod of Dort and that Synod highly magnified by the English Calvinists they took confidence of making those disputes the Subject of their common discourses both from the Pulpit and press without stint or measure And thereupon it pleased his Majesty having now no further fear of any dangers from beyond the seas to put some water into their wine or rather a Bridle into their mouths by publishing certain orders and directions touching Preachers and preaching bearing date on the 4. of August 1622. In which it was enjoyned amongst other things ' That no Preacher of what Title soever under the degree of a Bishop or Dean at least do from hence forth presume to teach in any popular Auditory the deep points of Predestination Election Reprobation or of the Universality Efficacity Resistability or Irresistability of Gods Grace but rather leave those Theames to be handled by learned men and that modestly and moderately by use and application rather then by way of positive Doctrine as being fitter for Schools and Vniversities then for simple Auditors ' The violating of which order by Mr. Gabriel Bridges of Corpus Christi Colledge in Oxon. by preaching on the 19th of Ianuary then next following against the absolute decree in maintenance of universal Grace and the co-operation of mans free will prevented by it though in the publick Church of the Vniversity laid him more open to the prosecution of Dr. Prideaux and to the censure of the Vice-Chancelor and the rest of the Heads then any preaching on those points or any of them could possibly have done at another time 11. Much was the noise which those of the Calvinian party were observed to make on the publishing of this last order as if their mouths were stopped thereby from preaching the most necessary Doctrines tending towards mans salvation But a far greater noise was raised upon the coming out of Montagues answer to the Gagger in which he asserted the Church to her primitive and genuine Doctrines disclaimed all the Calvinian Tenents as dis-owned by her and left them to be countenanced and maintained by those to whom they properly belonged Which book being published at a time when a Session of Parliament was expected in the year 1624. The opportunity was taken by Mr. Yates and Mr. Ward two of the Lecturers or Preachers of Ipswich to prepare an Information against him with an intent to prosecute the same in the following Session A Copy whereof being come into Mountagues hands he flies for shelter to King James who had a very great estimation of him for his parts and learning in which he had over-mastred they then though much less Selden at his own Philologie The King had already served his own turn against the Remonstrants by the Synod of Dort and thereby freed the Prince of Orange his most dear Confederate from the danger of Barnwell and his faction Arch-Bishop Abbot came not at him since the late deplorable misfortune which befell him at Branzil and the death of Dr. James Mountague Bishop of Winton left him at liberty from many importunities and sollicitations with which before he had been troubled so that being now master of himself and governed by the light of his own most clear and exellent Judgement he took both Montague and his Doctrines into his Protection gave him a full discharge or quietus est from all those Calumnies of Popery or Arminianism which by the said Informers were laid upon him incouraged him to procecd in finishing his just Appeal which he was in hand with commanded Dr. Francis White then lately preferred by him to the Deanry of Carlisle and generally magnified not long before for his zeal against Popery to see it licensed for the Press and finally gave order unto Mountague to dedicate the book when printed to his Royal self In obedience unto whose Command the Dean of Carlisle licensed the book with this approbation That there was nothing contained in the samo but what was agreeable to the publick Faith Doctrine and Discipline established in the Church of England But King James dying before the book was fully finished at the Press it was published by the name of Appello Cesarem and dedicated to King
on the secret Mystery of Predestination as to account himself for certain to be within the number of the Elect as if he were assured of this that being justified he could neither sin no more nor were sure of repentance if he did And therefore no man is to flatter himself with any such certainty of perseverance though all men ought to place a constant and firm hope for the obtaining of the same in the help of God They which by sin have faln away from the grace received may recover their lost Justification if being stirred up from above they endeavour the recovery of it by sincere repentance or by the Sacrament of Pennance as the words there are And finally the grace of Justification or the grace by which a man is justified is not only lost by infidelity by which the Faith it self doth suffer Shipwrack but even by every mortal sin though Faith be not lost also at the same time with it X. Such is the Doctrine of this Councel in the Points disputed extracted faithfully out of the Canons and Decrees thereof one only clause being added to the Article of Predestination agreeable to the Opinion in the Conferences and Debates about it which prevailed most upon the Prelates and all others who were interessed and intrusted in drawing up the Products and Conclusions of it which how far it agreeth or disagreeth with or from that which is maintained by the opposite Parties in the Reformed and Protestant Churches we are next to see CHAP. IV. The Judgment of the Lutherans and Calvinians in these Five Points with some Objections made against the Conclusions of the Councel of Dort I. No Difference in Five Points betwixt the Lutherans and the Church of Rome as is acknowledged by the Papists themselves II. The Judgment of the Lutheran Churches in the sayd 5 Points delivered in the famous Confession of Ausperge III. The distribution of the Quarrel betwixt the Franciscans Melancthonians and Arminians on the one side the Dominicans Rigid Lutherans and Sublapsarian Calvinists on the other the middle way of Catarinus paralleled by that of Bishop Overal IV. The Doctrine of Predestination as layd down by Calvin of what ill Consequence in it self and how odious to the Lutheran Doctors V. Opposed by Sebastian Castellio in Geneva it self but propagated in most Churches of Calvins Plat-form and afterwards polished by Perkins a Divine of England and in him censured and confuted by Jacob Van Harmine a Belgick Writer VI. A brief view of the Doctrine of the Sublapsarians and the odious Consequences of it VII The Judgment of the Sublapsarians in the sayd Five Points collected and presented at the Conference at the Hague Ann. 1610. VIII The Doctrine of the Synodists in the sayd Points IX Affirmed to be repugnant to the holy Scripture as also to the Purity Mercy Justice and Sincerity of Almighty God X. And the subversion of the Ministry and all Acts of Piety illustrated by the example of Tiberius Caesar and the Lantgrave of Thurin I. SUCH being the Doctrines of this Councel in the Points disputed we need not take much pains in looking after the Judgment of the Lutheran Churches which comes so neer to that of the Church of Rome as to be reckoned for the same For in the History of the Councel it is sayd expresly as before is noted that in the Books of Luther in the Augustan Confession and in Apologies and Colloquies there was nothing found as to the Doctrine of Predestination which deserved to be censured And therefore they were fain to have recourse unto the Writings of the Zuinglian Party among which Calvin and his followers were to be accounted to find out matter to proceed upon in their Fulminations And in particular it is sayd by Andreas Vega one of the stiffest and most learned men amongst the whole pack of the Franciscans when the Points about Free-will were in agitation that between themselves and the Protestants there was no difference of opinion as to that particular How neer they came to one another in the other Points may easily be found in the Debates and Conferences before layd down compared with the Judgment of the Lutheran Doctors not only in their private Writings but their publick Colloquies But then we are to understand that this Agreement of the Lutheran Doctors expressed in their private Writings and their publick Colloquies and especially the solemn Confession at Ausperge relates to that interpretation of the Decrees and Canons of the Tridentine Councel which is made by the Jesuits and Franciscans and not unto the Gloss or Exposition which is made thereof by the Preaching and Dominican Fryers II. But not to leave so great a matter to a Logical Inference I shall lay down the Doctrine of the Lutheran Churches in the sayd Five Points extracted faithfully out of the Augustan Confession with the Addition of one Clause only to the first Article the Makers of the Confession declining purposely the point of Predestination out of the Writings of Melancthon and other learned men of the same perswasion Now the Doctrine of the sayd Churches so delivered is this that followeth Viz. 1. Of Divine Predestination After the miserable fall of Adam all men which were to be begotten according to the common course of Nature were involved in the guilt of Original sin by which they are obnoxious to the wrath of God and everlasting damnation In which Estate they had remained but that God beholding all man-kinde in this wretched condition was pleased to make a general conditional Decree of Predestination under the condition of Faith and Perseverance And a special absolute Decree of electing those to life who he fore-saw would believe and persevere under the means and aides of Grace Faith and Perseverance and a special absolute Decree of condemning them whom he fore-saw to abide impenitent in their sins 2. Of the Merit and Efficacy of Christs Death The Son of God who is the Word assumed our humane Nature in the Womb of the Virgin and being very God and very Man he truly Suffered was Crucified Dead and Buried to reconcile his Father to us and to be the Sacrifice not only for Original sin but also for all the Actual sins of men A great part of S. Pauls Epistle to the Hebrews is spent in the proving of this Point that only the Sacrifice or Oblation made by Christ procured for others Reconciliation and Remission of sins inculcating that the Livitical Sacrifices were year by year to be reiterated and renewed because they could not take away sins but that satisfaction once for all was made by the Sacrifice of Christ for the sins of all men 3. Of Mans Will in the state of depraved Nature The Will of man retains a freedom in Actions of Civil Justice and making Election of such things as are under the same pretension of natural Reason but hath no power without the speciall Assistance of the Holy Ghost
Common-wealth Barnevelts Kindred might be faulty the Arminians innocent or the Arminians faulty in their practise against the life of the Prince of Orange under and by whom they had suffered so many oppressions without involving those in their Crimes and Treasons who hold the same Opinion with them in their Neighbouring Churches IX The reason is because there is nothing in the Doctrine of the Arminians as it relates to the Five points in difference which can dispose the Professors of it to any such practises And therefore if the Arminians should have proved as turbulent and seditious as their enemies made them yet we were not to impute it to them as they were Arminians that is to say as men following the Melanctonian way of Predestination and differing in those points from the rest of the Calvinists but as exasperated and provoked and forced to cast themselves upon desperate courses Quae libertatis arma dat ipse dolor in the Poets language But so some say it is not with the Doctrine of the other party by which mens actions are so ordered predetermined by the eternall will of God even to the taking up of a straw as before was said ut nec plus boni nec minus mali that it is neither in their power to do more good or commit less evil then they do And then according to that Doctrine all Treasons Murders and Seditions are to be excused as unavoydable in them who commit the same because it is not in their power not to be guilty of those Treasons or Seditions which the fire and fury of the Sect shall inflame them with And then to what end should Princes make Laws or spend their whole endeavors in preserving the publick Peace when notwithstanding all their cares and travails to prevent the mischief things could no otherwise succeed then as they have been predetermined by the will of God And therefore the best way would be Sinere res vadere quo vult in the Latin of an old Spanish Monke to let all matters go as they will since we cannot make them go as we would according to that counsell of the good old Poet. Solvite mortales animos curisque levate Totque super vacuis animum deplete querelis Fata regunt Orbem certa stant omnia lege That is to say Discharge thy soul poor man of vexing fears And ease thy self of all superfluous cares The World is governed by the Fates and all Affairs by Heaven's decree do stand or fall X. To this effect it is reported that the old Lord Burleigh should discourse with Queen Eliz. when he was first acquainted with the making of the Lambeth Articles Not pleased wherewith he had recourse unto the Queen letting her see how much her Majesties Authority and the Laws of the Realm were thereby violated and it was no hard matter to discern what they aimed at who had most stickled in the same For saith he this is their opinion and Doctrine that every Humane action be it good or evil it is all restrained and bound up by the Law of an immutable decree that upon the very wills of men also this necessity is imposed ut aliter quam vellent homines velle non possent that men could not will otherwise then they did will Which Opinions saith he Maddam if they be true Frustra ego aliique fideles Majestatis tuae ministri c. then I and the rest of your Majesties faithfull Ministers do sit in Councel to no purpose 't is in vain to deliberate and advise about the affairs of your Realm Cum de his quae eveniunt necessario stulta sit plane omnis consultatio since in those things that come to passe of necessity all consultation is foolish and ridiculous To which purpose it was also press'd by the Bishop of Rochester Oxon and St. Davids in a Letter to the Duke of Buckingham concerning Mountagues Appeal An. 1625. In which it is affirmed that they cannot conceive what use there can be of Civil Government in the Common-wealth or of Preaching and externall Ministry in the Church if such fatal Opinions as some which are opposite contrary to those delivered by Mr. Mountague shall be publickly taught and maintained More plainly and particularly charged by Dr. Brooks once Master of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge in a Letter to the late Archbishop bearing date Decemb. 15. 1630. in which he writes that their Doctrines of Predestination is the root of Puritanisme and Puritanisme is the root of all Rebellions and disobedient untractablenesse in Parliaments c. and of all Schisme and sawcinesse in the Countrey nay in the Church it self making many thousands of our people and too great a part of the Gentlemen of the Land very Leightons in their hearts which Leighton had published not long before a most pestilent and seditious Book against the Bishops called Sions Plea in which he excited the people to strike the Bishops under the fifth rib reviling the Queen by the name of a Daughter of Heth and for the same was after censured in the Star-Chamber to Pillory loss of Ears c. XI But because perhaps it may be said that this is but a new device excogitated by the malice of these later times to defame this Doctrine let us behold what Campneys hath delivered of it in the first or second year of Queen Eliz. at the first peeping of it out to disturb this Church Where saith he who seeth not the distraction of England to follow this Doctrine Who seeth not the confusion of all Common-wealths to depend hereupon What Prince may sit safely in the seat of his Kingdome What subject may live quietly possessing his own What man shall be ruled by the right of Law If there Opinions may be perfectly placed in the hearts of the People Which Corollary he brings in in the end of a Discourse touching the Rebellion raised by Martin Cyrnell and seconded by the Earl of Lincolne Martin Swarth and others against Hen. 7. For building on the Calvinian Maxim that as God doth appoint the end so he appointeth also the means and causes which lead unto it he thereupon inferreth that Martin Swarth and his men according to that Doctrine were destined by God to be slain at the Battle of Stoke In order whereunto first Sir Richard Simon the Priest must be appointed and predestinate of God to powre in the pestilent poyson of Privy Conspiracy and trayterous mischief of vain glory into the heart of Lambert his Scholar as a cause leading to the same end Secondly that he the said Lambert was appointed and predestinate of God to consent and agree unto the pestiferous perswasion of his Master * S. Richard in the pride of Lucifer to aspire unto the Royall Throne as another cause leading to the same end which God ordained Thirdly that the Irish men were appointed of God to be Rebellious Traytors against their Soveraign Lord the King of England and
thee ' Of these high flyings Lawbert another of our Martyrs was endicted also who as he would not plead Not guilty so he stood not mute but bound to the Endictment in this manner following ' Unto the Article * saith he whether it be good or evil cometh of necessity that is as you construe it to wit whether a man hath freewill so that he may deny joy or pain I say as I said at the beginning that unto the first part of your Riddle I neither can nor will give any definitive answer forsomuch as it surmounteth my capacity trusting that God will send hereafter others that be of better cunning then I to endire it ' 10. If there be any thing in this which may give any comfort to our rigid Calvinists much good do them with it and if they meet with any in the former passages let them look back upon the answers before laid down and then consider with themselves what they have got by the adventure or whether Tyndâ—ll Barnâ— and Frâ—th conjunct or separate may be considered as a rule to our first Reformers which having done I would have them finally observe the passage in the eighth of S. Mark where the blinde man whom our Saviour at Bâ—thsaida restored to his sight at the first opening of his eyes said he saw men as trees walking that is to say he saw men walking as trees quasi dicat Homines quos ambulantes video non homines sed arbores mihi videntur as we read in Maldiâ—nale By which the blinde man declared saith he se quidem videre aliquid imperfecte tamen videre cum inter homines arbores distingure non posset I discern somewhat said the poor man but so imperfectly that I am not able to distinguish between trees and men Such an imperfect sight as this might these Martyrs have in giving unto men no greater power of walking in the ways of Gods Commandments then as if they had been senseless trees or liveless shadows And such an imperfect sight as this the Lord gave many times to those whom he recovered out of the Egyptian darkness of Popish Errours who not being able to discern all divine truths at the first opening of the eyes of their understanding were not to be a Rule or President to those that followed and lived under a brighter beam of illumination Finally taking all for granted as to the judgement of these men in the points disputed which the Calvinians can desire and pretend unto and leting them enjoy the title which Mr. Fox hath given them of being called the Ring-leaders of the Church of England which Biâ—ney Byfield Lambert Garet or any other of our ancient Martyrs may aswel lay claim to yet as they suffered death before the publike undertaking of the Reformation under E. 6. so nothing was ascribed to their Authority by the first Reformers CHAP. VIII Of the Preparatives to the Reformation and the Doctrine of the Church in the present points 1. THe danger of ascribing too much to our ancient Martyrs c. exemplified in the parity of Ministers and popular elections unto Benefices allowed by Mr. John Lambert 2. Nothing ascribed to Calvins judgement by our first Reformers but much to the Augustine Confession the writings of Melancthon 3. And to the Authority of Erasmus his Paraphrases being commended to the use of the Church by King Edward the sixth and the Reasons why 4. The Bishops Bâ—ok in order to a Reformation called The institution of a Christian man commanded by King Henry the eigth 1537. corrected afterwards with the Kings own hand examined and allowed by Cranmer approved by Parliament and finally published by the name of Necessary doctrine c. An. 1543. 5. The Doctrine of the said two books in the points disputed agreeable unto that which after was established by King Edward the sixth 6. Of the two Liturgies made in the time of King Edward the sixth and the manner of them the testimony given unto the first and the alterations in the second 7. The first Book of Homilies by whom made approved by Bucer and of the Argument that may be gathered from the method of it in the points disputed 8. The quality and condition of those men who principally concurred to the Book of Articles with the Harmony or consent in Judgement between Archbishop Cramner Bishop Ridley Bishop Hooper c. 9. The Doctrine delivered in the Book of Articles touching the five controverted points 10. An answer to the Objection against these Articles for the supposed want of Authority in the making of them 11. An Objection against King Edwards Catechism mistaken for an Objection against the Articles refelled as that Catechism by John Philpot Martyr and of the delegating of some powers by that Convocation to a choice Committee 12. The Articles not drawn up in comprehensive or ambiguous terms to please all parties but to be understood in the respective literal and Grammatical sense and the Reasons why 1. I Have the longer stood upon the answering of this Objection to satisfie and prevent all others of the like condition in case it should be found on a further search that any of our godly Martyrs or learned Writers who either suffered death before the Reign of Edw. 6. or had no haâ—d in the carrying on of the Reformation embraced any opinions in Doctrine or Discipline contrary to the established Rules of the Church of England For otherwise as we must admit all Tyndalls Heterodoxies and Friths high flying conceâ—ts of Predestination which before we touch'd at so must we also allow a Parity or an Identity rather in Priests and Bishops because John Lambert another of our godly Martyrs did conceive so of it ' In the primitive Church saith he there were no more Officers in the Church of God than Bishops and Deacons that is to say Ministers as witnesseth beside Scripture S. Hierom in his Commentaries on the Epistles of S. Paul Whereas saith he that those whom we now call Priests were all one and no other but Bishops and the Bishops no other but Priests men ancient both in age and learning so neer as could be chosen nor were they instituted and chosen as they be now adays the Bishop and his Officer onely opposing them whether they can construe a Collect but they were chosen also with the consent of the people amongst whom they were to have their living as sheweth S. Cyprian But alack for pity such elections are banished and new fashions brought in ' By which opinion if it might have served for a Rule to the Reformation our Bishops must have been reduced to the rank of Priests and the right of Presentation put into the hands of the people to the Destruction of all the Paâ—â—oâ—s in the Kingdom 2. If then the question should be asked as perhaps it may On whom or on whose judgement the first Reformers most relied in the weighty business I answer negatively first That they had no respect of
the Book being to be set fâ—rth by his Graâ—es censure and judgement he would have nâ—thing therein that Momus himself could reprehend referring notwithstanding all his Annotations to his Majesties exacter judgement Nor staid it here but being committed by the King to both Houses of Parliament and by them very well approved of as appears by the Statutes of this year Cap. 1. concerning the Advancing of true Religion and the abolition of the contrary it was published again by the Kings command under the title of Neâ—essary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian man And it was published with an Epistle of the Kings before it directed to all his faithful and loving Subjects wherein it is affirmed 'To be a true Declaration of the true knowledge of God and his Word with the principal Articles of Religion whereby men may uniformly be led and taught the true understanding of that which is necessary for every Christian man to know for the ordering of himself in this life agreeable unto the will and pleasure of Almighty God ' 5. Now from these Books the Doctrine of Predestination may be gathered into these particulars which I desire the Reader to take notice of that he may judge the better of the Conformity which it hath with the established Doctrine of the Church of England 1. That man by his own nature was born in sin and in the indignation and displeasure of God and was the very childe of Wrath condemned to everlasting death subject and thrall to the power of the Devil and sin having all the principal parts or portions of his soul as Reason and understanding and free-wil and all other powers of his soul and body not onely so destituted and deprived of the gifts of God wherewith they were firstendued but also so blinded corrupted and poysoned with errour ignorance and carnal concupiscence that neither his said powers could exercise the natural function and office for which they were ordained by God at the first Creation nor could he by them do any thing which might be acceptable to God 2. That Jesus Christ the onely begotten Son of God the Father was eternally pre-ordained and appointed by the Decree of the Holy Trinity to be our Lord that is to say to be the onely Redeemer and Saviour of Mankinde and to reduce and bring the same from under the Dominion of the Devil and sin unto his onely Dominion Kingdom Lordship and Governance 3. That when the time was come in the which it was before ordained and appointed by the Decree of the Holy Trinity That Mankinde should be saved and redeemed then the Son of God the second Person in the Trinity and very God descended from Heaven into the world to take upon him the very habit form and nature of man and in the same nature to suffer his glorious Passion for the Redemption and Salvation of all Mankinde 4. That by this Passion and Death of our Saviour Jesus Christ not onely Corporal death is so destroyed that it shall never hurt us but rather that it is made wholesome and profitable unto us but also that all our sins and the sins also of all them that do believe in him and follow him be mortified and dead that is to say all the guilt and offence thereof as also the damnation and pains due for the same is clearly extincted abolished and washed away so that the same shall never afterwards be imputed and inflicted on us 5. That this Redemption and Justification of Mankinde could not have been wrought or brought to pass by any other means in the world but by the means of this Jesus Christ Gods onely Son and that never man could yet nor never shall be able to come unto God the Father or to believe in him or to attain his favour by his own wit and reason or by his own science and learning or by any his own works or by whatsosoever may be named in Heaven or Earth but by faith in the Name and Power of Jesus Christ and by the gifts and graces of his Holy Spirit 6. But to proceed the way to the ensuing Reformation being thus laid open The first great work which was accomplished in pursuance of it was the compiling of that famous Liturgie of the year 1549. commanded by King Edward the sixth that is to say the Lord Protector and the rest of the Privy Council acting in his Name and by his Authority performed by Archbishop Cramner and the other six before remembred assisted by Thirdby Bishop of Westminster Day Bishop of Chichester Ridley Bishop of Rochester Taylor then Dean after Bishop of Lincoln Redman then Master of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge and Hains Dean of Exeter all men of great abilities in their several stations and finally confirmed by the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in Parliament assembled 23 Edw. 6. In which Confirmatory act it is said expresly to have been done by the especial aid of the Holy Ghost which testimony I finde also of it in the Acts and Monuments fol. 1184. But being disliked by Calvin who would needs be meddling in all matters which concerned Religion and disliked it chiefly for no other reason as appears in one of his Epistles to the Lord Protector but because it savoured too much of the ancient forms it was brought under a review the cause of the reviewing of it being given out to be no other than that there had risen divers doubts in the Exercise of the said Book for the fashion and manner of the Ministration though risen rather by the curiosity of the Ministers and Mistakers then of any other cause 5 6 Edw. 6. cap. 1. The review made by those who had first compiled it though Hobeach and Redman might be dead before the confirmation of it by Act of Parliament some of the New Bishops added to the former number and being reviewed was brought into the same form in which now it stands save that a clause was taken out of the Letany and a sentence added to the destribution of the blessed Sacrament in the first year of Queen Elizabeth and that some alteration was made in two or three of the Rubricks with an addition of Thansgiving in the end of the Letany as also of a Prayer for the Queen and the Royal Issue in the first of King James 7. At the same time and by the same hands which gave us the First Liturgie of King Edward the sixth was the first Book of Homilies composed also in which I have some cause to think that Bishop Latimer was made use of amongst the rest as one who had subscribed the first other two Books before mentioned as Bishop of Worcester anno 1537. and ever since continued zealous for a Reformation quitting in that respect such a wealthy Bishoprick because he neither would nor could conform his judgement to the Doctrine of the six Articles Authorized by Parliament For it will easily appear to any who is
of the Articles fashioning them to their own fancies as they please themselves Each of the parties in those curious points in which the present differences do most consist conceive the Articles of the Church to speak for them exclusive wholly of the other but with a notable difference in the Application The Calvinists by which name they love to be called endeavour to captivate the sense of the Article and bring it to the bent of their own understanding but the true English Protestants whom for distinction sake we may call Confessionists accommodate though they do not captivate their own sense to the sense of the Church according to the plain and full meaning of the Articles in the points disputed But because possibly both parties may not be agreed on a Rule or Medium by which the proper sense and meaning of the Articles may be best discovered it will not be amiss to follow the directions of the Civil Laws in cases of like doubtful nature which is briefly this viz. Si de interpretatione Legis quaeritur iâ—â—riâ—â—is insp câ—endum est quo jure Civitas â—â—â—â—â— in hujâ—smodi casibus usa fuit And this we shall the better do if we enquire into the Doctrine of those Learned Religious and Godly men who either had a principal hand in the Reformation or were most conversant with them and beloved of them in their several stations taking along with us the Authority of the Homilies and publique Liturgie to which all parties have subscribed In order whereunto it will first be necessary to lay down the definition of Predestination as before we had it in the Article to sum up the particular points and contents thereof to shew the sense of one phrase in it and then to travel more exactly in this enquiry whether the method of Predestination illustrated by the story of Agilmond and Amistus Kings of Lombardy cap. 7. num 4. agree not more harmoniously with the true sense and meaning of the Church of England than any other whatsoever 2. First then ' Predestination unto life is defined in the 17 Article to be the Everlasting purpose of God whereby and before the foundations of the world were laid he hath constantly decreed by his Council secret unto us to deliver from damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankinde and to bring them by Christ unto everlasting salvation ' In which definition there are these things to be observed First That Predestination doth presuppose a curse or state of damnation in which all mankinde was represented to the sight of God which plainly crosseth the opinion of the Supra-Lapsarians the Supra-Creaturians or Creabilitarians as some call them now Secondly That it is an act of his from Everlasting because from Everlasting he foresaw into what misery whretched man would fall by the abuse of that liberty in which first he stood Thirdly That he founded it and resolved for it in the Man and Mediator Christ Jesus both for the purpose and performance which crosseth as directly with the Sublapsarians who place the absolute decree of Predestination to life and of Reprobation unto death both of body and soul before the decree or consideration of sending his onely beloved Son Jesus Christ into the world to be the common Propitiation for the sins of men Fourthly That it was of some special ones alone Elect called fort and reserved in Christ and not generally extended unto all mankinde a General Election as they say being no Election Fifthly That being thus elected in Christ they shall be brought by Christ but not without their own consent and co-operation to everlasting salvation And finally That this Council is secret unto us for though there be revealed to us some hopeful signs of our Election and Predestation destination unto life yet the certainty thereof is a secret hidden in God and in this life unknown to us For who hath known the minde of the Lord or hath been his Counsellour or of his Secret Council saith the great Apostle 3. Such is the definition of Predestination and the substance of it in which there is nothing so obscure no term so intricate as to need any especial or distinct explication as those words Whom he hath chosen in Christ which being the very words of the same Apostle Ephesians first cap. 4. we will first paraphrase in the words of some ancient Writers and then illustrate them by others of our holiest Martyrs who had a principal hand in the Reformation First S. Ambrose amongst others sâ—cut elegit nos in ipso as he hath chosen us in him Praescivit enim Deus omnes scil qui credituri essent in Christum For God saith he by his general prescience did foreknow every man that would believe in Christ To the same purpose speaks S. Chrysostome saying Quod dicit perinde est ac â—si dicat Per quem nos benedixit per eundem elegit and a little after Quid est in ipso elegit per eam quae in ipso habenda esset fidem For praestitit prius quam ipsi essemus magis autem prius quam mundi hujus jacerentur Fundamenta Which is as much as to say saith he as if he had said That we are blessed in him in whom we are chosen and we are chosen in him in whom we believe which he performed before we our selves had any being or rather before the foundations of the world were laid And to the same effect the Commentary upon S. Pauls Epistles ascribed to S. Jerome viz. in hoc praedestavit ut haberent potestatem filii Dei fieri homines qui credere voluissent that is to say in this he hath predestinated us to Eternal life that men may be made the sons of God if they will believe Which sayings of those ancient Writers we shall expound by others of our holy Martyrs and first Archbishop Cranmer in his Answer to Gardiner touching the holy Sacrament telleth us this viz. ' Christ saith he took unto himself not onely their sins that many years before were dead and put their trust in him but also the sins of those that until his coming again should truly believe in his Gospel ' More fully Bishop Latimer thus ' When saith he we hear that some be chosen and some be damned let us have good hope that we be amongst the chosen and live after this hope that is uprightly and godly then shall we not be deceived think that God hath chosen those that believe in Christ and Christ is the Book of Life If thou believest in him then art thou written in the Book of Life and shalt be saved ' By which we may the better understand that passage in the Book of Homilies where it said ' That the Scripture shutteth up all under sin that the promise by the faith of Jesus Christ should be given unto them that believe ' which is as much as can be comprehended in so narrow a compass 4.
him are of the same Book and so are chosen to everlasting life for onely those are ordained that believe ' Nor stays that godly Bishop here but proceeds after some intervening passages towards this Conclusion ' Here is now taught you saith he how to try your Election namely in Christ For Christ is the Accompting Book and Register of God and even in the same Book that is Christ are witten all the names of the Elect therefore we cannot finde our Election in our selves neither yet the high Council of God for inscrutabilia suâ—t judicia Altissimi Where then shall I finde my Election in the Compting Book of God which is Christ c. ' Agreeable whereunto we finde Bishop Hooper speaking thus ' The cause of our Election is the mercy of God in Christ howbeit he that will be partaker of this Election must receive the promise in Christ by faith for therefore we be elected because afterwards we are made the members of Christ So we judge of Election by the event or success that hapneth in the life of man those onely to be elected ' that by faith apprehend the mercy promised in Christ To the same purpose also but not so clearly and perspicuously speaks the Book of Homilies where we finde it thus viz. ' That of our selves as in our selves we finde nothing whereby we may be delivered from this miserable captivity in which we were cast through the envy of the Devil by breaking Gods Commandment in our first Parent Adam It is the Lord with whom is plenteous Redemption he is the God which of his own mercy saveth us c. not for our own deserts merits or good deeds c. but of his meer mercy freely and for whose sake truly for Christ Jesus sake the pure and undesiled Lamb of God c. for whose sake God is fully pacified satisfied and set at one with man Such is the Doctrine of the Church in the matter of Predestination unto life according to the judgement of these learned men and godly Martyrs who were of such Authority in the Reformation ' 8. Proceed we next to one of an inferiour Order the testimony of John Bradford Martyr a man in very high esteem with Martin Bucer made one of the Prebends of S. Pauls Church by Bishop Ridley and one who glorified God in the midst of the flames with as great courage as his Patron of whom we finde a Letter extant in the Acts and Monuments directed to his friends N. S. and R. â— being at that time not thorowly instructed in the Doctrine of Gods Election The words of which Letter are as followeth ' I wish to you my good Brethren the same grace of God in Christ which I wish and pray the Father of mercies to give me for his holy names sake amen Your Letter though I have not read my self because I would not alienate my minde from conceived things to write to others yet I have heard the sum of it that it is of Gods Election wherein I will briefly relate to you my faith and how far I think it good and meet for a Christian to wade in I believe That man made after the image of God did fall from that pleased estate to the condemnation of him and all his posterity I believe that Christ for man being then fallen did oppose himself to the judgement of God as a Mediator paying the ransome and price of Redemption for Adam and his whole posterity that refuse it not finally I believe that all that believe I speak of such as be of years of discretion are partakers of Christ and all his merits I believe that faith and belief in Christ is the work and gift of God given to no other then to those which be his children that is to those whom God the Father before the beginning of the world hath Predestinated in Christ unto Eternal life Thus do I wade in Predestination in such sort as God hath patefied and opened it Though to God it be the first yet to us it is the last opened and therefore I begin with Creation from whence I come to Redemption so to Justification so to Election On this sort I am sure that warily and wisely a man may walk it easily by the light of Gods Spirit in and by his Word seeing this faith is not to be given to all men 2 Thess 3. but to such as are born of God Predestinated before the world was made after the purpose and good will of God c. ' Which judgement of this holy man comes up so close to that of the former Martyrs and is so plainly cross to that of the Calvinistical party that Mr. Fox was fain to make soom Scholia's on it to reconcile a gloss like that of Orleance which corrupts the Text and therefore to have no place here however it may be disposed of at another time But besides the Epistle above mentioned there is extant a Discourse of the said godly Martyr entituled The sum of the Doctrine of Predestination and Reprobation in which is affirmed That our own wilfulness sin and contemning of Christ are the cause of Reprobation as is confessed by the Author of the Anti-Arminianism p. 103. though afterwards he puts such a gloss upon it as he doth also on the like passages in Bishop Hooper as makes the sin of man to be the cause onely of the execution and not of the decree of Reprobation 9. But it is said That any one that reads the Common-Prayer Book with an unprejudiced minde cannot chuse but observe divers passages that make for a Personal Eternal Election So it is said of late and till of late never so said by any that ever I heard of the whose frame and fabrick of the Publique Liturgie being directly opposite to this new conceit For in the general Confession we beseech the Lord to spare them that confess their faults and restore them that be penitent according to his promises declared unto mankinde in Christ Jesus our Lord In the Te Deum it is said that Christ our Saviour having overcome the sharpness of death did open the Kingdâ—m of heaven to all believers In the Prayer for the first day of Lent That God hateth nothing which he hath made but doth forgive the sins of all them that be penitent In the Prayer at the end of the Commination That God hath compassion of all men that he hateth nothing which he hath made that he would not the death of a sinner but rather that he should turn from sin and repent In the Absolution before the Communion That God of his great mercy hath promised forgiveness of sins to all them which with hearty repentance and truâ— faith turn unto him Can any one which comes with an unprejudiced minde to the Common-Prayer Book observe any thing that savoureth of a Personal Election in all these passages or can he hope to finde them in any other Look then upon the last Exhortation
before the Communion in which we are required above all things 'To give most humble and hearty thanks to God the Father and the Holy Ghost for the Redemption of the world by the death and passion of our Saviour Christ both God and man who did humble himself even to the death upon the Cross for us miserable sinners which lay in darkness and the shadow of death ' More of which nature we shall finde in the second Article Look on the Collect in the form of publique Baptism in which we pray ' That whosoever is here dedicated unto God by our Office and Ministrey may also be endued with heavenly vertues and everlastingly rewarded through Gods mercy O blessed Lord God c. ' And in the Rubrick before Confirmation where it is said expresly That it is certain by Gods Word that children being baptized have all things necessary to their salvation and be undoubtedly saved Look on these passages and the rest and tell me any one that can whether the publique Liturgie of the Church of England speak any thing in favour of such a Personal and Eternal Election that is to say such an absolute irrespective and irreversible Decree of Predestination and that of some few onely unto life Eternal as is maintained and taught in the Schools of Calvin 10. Some passages I grant there are which speak of Gods people and his chosen people and yet intend not any such Personal and Eternal Election as these men conceit unto themselves Of which sort these viz. To declare and pronounce to his people being penitent O Lord save thy people and bless thy heritage that it would please thee to keep and bless all thy people and make thy chosen people joyful with many others interspers'd in several places But then I must affirm with all that those passages are no otherwise to be understood than of the whole body of the Church the Congregation of the faithful called to the publique participation of the Word and Sacraments Which appears plainly by the Prayer for the Church Militant here on earth where having called upon the Lord and said To all thy people give thy heavenly grace we are taught presently to adde especially to this Congregation here present that is to say the members of that particular Church which there pour forth their prayers for the Church in general More to their purpose is that passage in the Collect for the Feast of All-Saints where it is said That Almighty God hath knit together his Elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of his Son Jesus Christ though it doth signifie no more but that inseparable bond of Charity that Love and Unity that Holy Communion and Correspondency which is between the Saints in Glory in the Church Triumphant and those who are still exercised under the cares and miseries of this present life in the Church here Militant But it makes most unto their purpose if any thing could make unto their purpose in the Common-Prayer Book that at the burial of the dead we are taught to pray That God would please of his gracious goodness shortly to accomplish the number of his elect and to hasten his Kingdom From whence as possibly some may raise this inference That by the Doctrine of the Church of England there is a predestinated and certain number of Elect which can neither be increased nor diminished according to the third of the nine Articles which were agreed upon at Lambeth So others may perhaps conclude That this number is made up out of such Elections such Personal and Eternal Elections as they have fancied to themselves But there is nothing in the Prayer which can be useful to the countenancing of any such fancy the number of the Elect and the certainty of that number being known onely unto God in the way of his Prescience by which he seeth all things past and all things to come as if present with him And therefore having past a general Decree of Predestination touching the saving of all those which believe in Christ and knowing most infallibly who and how many of all Nations will believe in Christ continue in the faith to the end of their lives and consequently attain salvation The number of the persons so Predestinated is as well known unto him in the universal comprehension of his Heavenly Prescience as if they had been personally elected unto life Eternal the accomplishing of which number that so his Kingdom may be hastned and the hastning of his Kingdom that we with all the rest which are departed in the true faith of his holy Name may have our perfect Consummation and bliss both in body and soul is the scope and purpose of that Prayer And being the sole scope and purpose of it cannot imply such a Personal and Eternal Election as some men imagine though it conclude both for a number and for a certain number of Gods Elect. CHAP. X. The Doctrine of the Church concerning Reprobation and Universal Redemption 1. THe absolute Decree of Reprobation not found in the Articles of this Church but against it in some passages of the publike Liturgie 2. The cause of Reprobation to be found in a mans self and not in Gods Decrees according to the judgement of Bishop Latimer and Bishop Hooper 3. The Absolute Decrees of Election and Reprobation how contrary to the last clause in the seventeenth Article 4. The inconsistency of the Absolute Decree of Reprobation with the Doctrine of Universal Redemption by the death of Christ 5. The Universal Redemption of mankinde by the death of Christ declared in many places of the publique Liturgie and affirmed also in one of the Homilies and the Book of Articles 6. A further proof of it from the Mission of the Apostles and the Prayer used in the Ordination of Priests 7. The same confirmed by the writings of Archbishop Cranmer and the two other Bishops before mentioned 8. A Generality of the Promises and an Universality of Vocation maintained by the said two godly Bishops 9. The reasons why this benefit is not made effectual to all sorts of men to be found onely in themselves 1. AS the speaking of Heaven doth many times beget the discovery of Hell so the foregoing Discovery of Predestination to Eternal life conducts me to the speaking of a few words concerning the Doctrine of Reprobation Rejection Eternal Death a point of which the Church of England is utterly silent leaving it to be gathered upon Logical inferences from that which is delivered by her in the point of Election for contrariorum contraria est ratio as Logicians say though that which is so gathered ought rather to be called a Dereliction than a Reprobation No such absolute irreversible and irrespective Decree of Reprobation taught or maintained in any publique Monument or Record of the Church of England by which the far greater part of mankinde are pre-ordained and consequently pre-condemned to the Pit of torments without any respect had unto their
the rest before that is to say the reconciliation of all men to Almighty God the universal redemption of Man-kinde by the death of Christ expresly justfied and maintained by the Church of England For though one in our late undertaking seem exceeding confident that the granting of universal redemption will draw no inconvenience with it as to the absoluteness of Gods decrees or to the insuperability of converting Grace or to the certain infallible perseverance of Gods elect after conversion Yet I dare say he will not be so confident in affirming this That if Christ did so far dye for all as to procure a salvation for all under the condition of faith and repentance as his own words are there can be any room for such an absolute decree of reprobation 〈…〉 and precedent to the death of Christ as his great masters in the school of Calvin have been pleased to teach him Now for the Doctrine of this Church in that particular it is exprest so clearly in the second article of the five before laid down that nothing needs be added either in way of explication or of confirmation howsoever for avoiding of all doubt and Haesitancy we will first add some farther testimonies touching the Doctrine of this Church in the point of universal redemption And secondly touching the applying of so great a benefit by universal vocation and finally we shall shew the causes why the benefit is not effectual unto all alike 5. And first as for the Doctrine of universal redemption it may be further proved by those words in the publick Carechism where the Childe is taught to say that he believeth in God the Son who redeemed with him all mankinde in that clause of the publique Letany where God the Son is called the Redeemer of the world in the passages of the latter Exhortation before the Communion where it is said That the Oblation of Christ once offered was a full perfect and sufficient Sacrifice for the sins of the WHOLE WORLD in the proper Preface appointed for the Communion on Easter-Day in which he is said to be the very Paschal Lamb that was offered for us and taketh away the sins of the world repeated in the greater Catechism to the same effect And finally in the Prayer of Conservation viz. Almighty God our heavenly Father which of thy tender mercies didst give thine onely Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the Cross for our Redemption who made there by his own Oblation of himself once offered a firm and perfect and sufficient Sacrifice Oblation and Satisfaction for the sins of the WHOLE WORLD To this purpose it is said in the Book of Homilies That the World being wrapt up in sin by the breaking of Gods Law God sent his onely Son our Saviour Christ into this world to fulfil the Law for us and by shedding of his most precious blood to make a Sacrifice and Satisfaction or as it may be called amends to his Father for our sins to asswage his wrath and indignation conceived against us for the same Out of which words it may be very well concluded That the world being wrapt up in sin the Recompence and Satisfaction which was made to God must be made to him for the sins of the world or else the plaister had not been commensurate to the sore nor so much to the magnifying of Gods wonderful mercies in the offered means of Reconcilement betwixt God and man the Homily must else fall short of that which is taught in the Articles In which besides what was before delivered from the second and 31. concerning the Redemption of the world by the death of Christ it is affirmed in the 15 as plain as may be That Christ came to be a Lamb without spot who by the Sacrifice of himself once made should take away the sins of the world Then which there can be nothing more conducible to the point in hand 6. And to this purpose also when Christ our Saviour was pleased to Authorize his Holy Apostles to preach the Good Tidings of Salvation he gave them both a Command and a Commission To go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every Creature Mark 16. 15. So that there was no part of the world nor any Creature in the same that is to say no Rational Creature which seems to be excluded from a possibility of obtaining Salvation by the Preaching of the Gospel to them if with a faith unfeigned they believed the same Which the Church further teacheth us in this following Prayer appointed to be used in the Ordering of such as are called unto the Office of the Holy Priesthood viz. ' Almighty God and Heavenly Father which of thine Infinite Love and Goodness toward us hast given to us thy Only and Most Dear Beloved Son Jesus Christ to be our Redeemer and Author of Everlasting Life who after he had made perfect our Redemption by his Death and was ascended into Heaven sent forth abroad into the world his Apostles Prophets Evangelists Doctors and Pastors by whose Labour and Ministry he gathered together a great Frock in all the Parts of the World to set forth the Eternal Praise of his Holy Name For these so great Benefits of thy Eternal Goodness and for that thou hast vouchsafed to call thy Servant here present to the same Office and Ministry of Salvation of Mankind we render unto thee most hearty thinks and we worship preise thee and we humbly beseech thee by the same thy Son to grant unto all which either here or elsewhere call upon thy name that we may shew our selves thankful to thee for these and all other thy benefits and that we may daily encrease and go forward in the knowledge and faith of thee and thy Son by the Holy Spirit So that as well by these thy Ministers as by them to whom they shall be appointed Ministers thy Holy Name may be always glorified and thy Blessed Kingdom enlarged through the same thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ who liveth and reigneth with thee in the Unity of the same Holy Spirit world without end Amen ' Which Form in Ordering and Consecrating Bishops Priests and Deacons I note this onely by the way being drawn up by those which had the making of the first Liturgie of King Edward the sixth and confirmed by Act of Parliament in the fifth and sixth of the said King was afterwards also ratified by Act of Parliament in the eighth year of Queen Elizabeth and ever since hath had its place amongst the Publique Monuments and Records of the Church of England 7. To these I shall onely adde one single testimony out of the Writings of each of the three godly Martyrs before remembred the point being so clearly stated by some of our Divines commonly called Calvinists though not by the Outlandish also that any longer insisting on it may be thought unnecessary First then Bishop Cranmer tells us in the Preface to his Book against Gardiner of Winchester
Grace of the Holy Ghost to preserve thee in vertue givest thanks for the goodness of God toward thee and all other He that knoweth less than this cannot be saved and he that knoweth no more than this if he follow his knowledge cannot be damned ' 7. But the main Controversie in the point of mans Conversion moves upon this hinge that is to say Whether the influences of Gods Grace be so strong and powerful that withal they are absolutely irresistible so that it is not possible for the will of man not to consent unto the same Calvin first harped upon this string and all his followers since have danced to the tune thereof Illud toties à Chrysostomo repetitum repudiari necesse est Quem trahit volentem trahit quo insinuat Dominum porrecta tantum manu expectare an suo auxilio juvari nobis adlubescat These words saith he so often repeated by Chrysostome viz. That God draws none but such as are willing to go are to be condemned the Father intimating by those words that God expecteth onely with an outstretched and ready arm whether we be willing or not In which though he doth not express clearly the good Fathers meaning yet he plainly doth declare his own insinuating that God draws men forcibly and against their will to his Heavenly Kingdom Gomarus one of later date and a chief stickler in these Controversies comes up more fully to the sense which Calvin drives at For putting the question in this manner An gratia hac datur vi irresistibili id est efficaci operatione DEI ita ut voluntas ejus qui regeneratur facultatem non habeat illi resistendi He answereth presently Credo profiteor ita esse that is to say his question is ' Whether the Grace of God be given in an irresistible manner that is to say with such an efficacious operation that the will of him who is to be regenerated hath not the power to make resistance ' And then the answer follows thus ' I believe and profess it to be so ' More of which kinde might be produced from other Authors but that this serves sufficiently to set forth a Doctrine which is so little countenanced by the burning and most shining lights of the Church of England 8. Beginning first with Bishop Hooper we shall finde it thus ' It is not saith he a Christian mans part to attribute his salvation to his own Freewil with the Pelagian and extenuate Original sin nor to make God the Author of ill and damnation with the Maniche nor yet to say that God hath written Fatal Laws and with necessity of Destiny violently pulleth the one by the hair into heaven and thrusteth the other headlong into hell c. More fully in his glosse on the text of Saint John viz. No man cometh to me except my Father draw him chap. 6. 44. Many saith he understand these words in a wrong sence as if God required no more in a reasonable man than in a dead post and mark not the words which follow Every man that heareth and learneth of my Father commeth unto me c. God draweth with his Word and the holy Ghost but mans duty is to hear and learn that is to say to receive the grace offered consent to the promise and not to impugne the God that calleth ' More fully but to the same purpose also speaks Bishop Latimer ' Gods salvation saith he is sufficient to save all mankinde But we are so wicked of our selves that we refuse the same and we will not take it when 't is offered unto us and therefore he saith pauci vero electi few are chosen that is few have pleasure and delight in it for the most part are weary of it cannot abide it and there are some that hear it but they will abide no danger for it And in few lines after thus Such men are cause of their own damnation for God would have them saved but they refuse it like Judas the traytor whom Christ would have had to be saved but he refused his salvation he refused to follow the Doctrine of his Master Christ ' The like occurs in another place of the same Sermon where we finde ' that seeing the preaching of the Gospel is universal it appeareth that God would have all mankind saved and that the fault is not in him if they be damned For thus it is written Deus vult omnes homines salvos fieri God would have all men to be saved but we are so wicked of our selves that we refuse the same and will not take notice of it when 't is offered ' 9. And here for strength and confirmation unto all the rest we are to know that these two godly Martyrs have delivered no other Doctrine than what is positively expressed or may be rationally inferred both from the tenth Article of King Edwards Book and the Book of Homilies And first for the tenth Article of King Edwards Book it is this that followeth viz. Gratia Christi sive Spiritus Sanctus qui per eundem datur cor lapideum aufert dat cor â—arneum Atque licet ex nol â—tibus quae recta sunt volentes faciat ex voleâ—tibus prava nolentes reddat Voluntati tamen nullam violentiam infert nâ—mo hac de causa cum pe caverit ut eam ob causum accusari non meretaur aut damnar That is to say ' The Grace of Christ or the Holy Ghost which is given by him doth take from man the heart of stone and giveth him a heart of flesh And though it rendreth us willing to do those good works which before we were unwilling to do and unwilling to do those evil works which before we did yet is no violence offered by it to the will of man so that no man when he hath sinned can excuse himself as if he had sinned against his will or upon constraint and therefore that he ought not to be accused or condemned upon that account ' The composition of which Article doth most clearly shew that our first Reformers did as little countenance that Doctrine of the Irresistibility of Gods grace in its workings on the will of man which the Calvinians now contend for as they did the Dreams and Dotages of some Zuinglian Gospellers into whose writings if we look we shall easily find that Gods divine Predestination is by them made the cause of sinne by which men are necessitated and compelled to those acts of wickednesse which they so frequently commit By the vertue of Gods will saith one all things are done yea even those things which are evil and execrable By Gods Predestination saâ—th another we are compelled to do those things for which we are damned as will appear more fully in the sixteenth Chapter when the extravagancies of the Predestinaâ—ians come to be considered And it is probable enough that to encounter with these monstrous Paradoxes of the Zuinglian Gospellers this Article was
they ought earnestly and with a fervent devotion and stedfast faith to aske of him which gave the beginning that he would vouchsafe to performe it which thing God will undoubtedly grant according to his promise to such as persevere in calling upon him For he is naturally good and willeth all men to be saved and careth for them and provideth all things by which they may be saved except BY THEIR OWN MALICE they will be evil and so by the righteous judgement of God perish and be lost For truly men be to themselves the AUTHOR OF SIN and DAMNATION God is neither the AUTHOR of SIN nor the CAUSE OF DAMNATION And yet doth he most righteously damne those men that do with vices corrupt their nature which he made good and do abuse the same to evil desires against his most holy will wherefore men be to be warned that they do not impute to God their vice or their damnation but to themselves who by Free-will have abused the grace and benefits of God All men be also to be monished and chiefly Preachers that in this high matter they looking on both sides so attemper and moderate themselves that neither they so preach the Grace of God as to take away thereby Free-will Nor on the other side so extol Free-will that injury be done to the grace of God 3. Such was the judgment of the Bishops and Clergy assembled in Convocation An. 1543. touching the nature of Free-will and the co-operations of it with the grace of God In which I can see nothing not agreeable to the present establisht Doctrine of the Church of England And if it be objected as perhaps it may that this Convocation was held in times of Popery and managed by a Popish Clergy it may be answered that the Bishops and Clergy then assembled were such as had a principal hand in the Reformation and generally subscribed unto the Articles of Religion agreed upon and published in King Edwards time Anno 1552. At which time fifteen of the Bishops which had been present at the Convocation Anno 1543. were not only living but present and consenting to the Articles in King Edwards time that is to say Cranmer Arch-bishop of Canterbury Parfew Bishop of Saint Asaph Buchely Bishop of Bangor Bush Bishop of Bristol Sampson Bishop of Litchfield Butler Bishop of Saint David Goodrich Bishop of Elie Ship Bishop of Hereford Folgate Bishop of Landaff and afterwards Arch-bishop of York King Bishop of Oxon Chambers Bishop of Peterborough Cepon Bishop of Sarum Thiâ—bly then Bishop of Westminster Aldrich then Bishop of Caerlile and Bird Bishop of Chester By which proportion we may conclude that a farre greater number of the Deans and Arch-deacons who have a personal right of voting in all Convocations and coming to the number of eighty and thereabouts must be living and consenting also to the Reformation as being younger men than the Bishops were not to say any thing of the Clerks or Procurates of Cathedral Churches and those of the Diocesan Clergy as being variable and changeable from time to time though possibly a great part of them might be present and consenting also 1552. Nor stood this Book nor the Article of Free-will therein contained upon the order and authority only of this Convocation but had as good countenance and encouragement to walk abroad as could be superadded to it by an Act of Parliament as appears plainly by the Kings Preface to that Book and the Act it self to which for brevity sake I refer the Reader 4. But if it be replyed that there is no relying on the Acts of Parliament which were generally swayed changed and over-ruled by the power and passions of the King and that the Act of Parliament which approved this Book was repealed in the first year of King Edward the sixth as indeed it was we might refer the Reader to a passage in the Kings Epistle before remembred in which the doctrine of Free-will is affirmed to have been purged of all Popish errors concerning which take here the words of the Epistle viz. And forasmuch as the heads and senses of our people have been imbusied and in these days travelled with the understanding of Free-will Justification c. We have by the advice of our Clergy for the purgation of Erroneous Doctrine declared and set forth openly plainly and without ambiguity of speech the meere and certaine truth of them so as we verily trust that to know God and how to live after his pleasure to the attaining of everlasting life in the erd this Book containeth a perfect and sufficient Doctrine grounded and established in holy Scriptures And if it be rejoyned as perhaps it may that King Henry used to shift opinion in matters which concerned Religion according unto interest and reason of State it must be answered that the whole Book and every Tract therein contained was carefully corrected by Arch-bishop Cranmer the most blessed instrument under God of the Reformation before it was committed to the Prolocutor and the rest of the Celrgy For proof whereof I am to put the Reader in minde of a Letter of the said Archbishop relating to the eighth Chapter of this Book in which he signified to an honourable friend of his that he had taken the more paines in it because the Book being to be set forth by his Graces that is to say the Kings censure and judgement he could have nothing in it that Momus himself could reprehend as before was said And this I hope will be sufficient to free this Treatise of Free-will from the crime of Popery 5. But finally if notwithstanding all these Reasons it shall be still pressed by those of the Calvinian party that the Doctrine of Free-will which is there delivered is in all points the same with that which was concluded and agreed on in the Council of Trent as appears Cap. de fructibus justificationis merito bonorum operum Can. 34. and therefore not to be accounted any part of the Protestant Doctrine which was defended and maintained by the Church of England according to the first Rules of her Reformation the answers will be many and every answer not without its weight and moment For first it was not the intent of the first Reformers to depart farther from the Rites and Doctrines of the Church of Rome than that Church had departed from the simplicity both of Doctrine and Ceremonies which had been publickly maintained and used in the Primitive times as appears plainly by the whole course of their proceedings so much commended by King James in the Conference at Hampton Court Secondly this Doctrine must be granted also to be the same with that of the Melancthonian Divines or moderate Lutherans as was confessed by Andreas Vega one of the chief sticklers in the Council of Trent who on the agitating of the Point did confesse ingenuously that there was no difference betwixt the Lutherans and the Church touching that particular And then it must be confessed also
Zurick and Calvins Neighbourhood 7. The Judgement of Erasmus according as it is delivered in his Paraphrases on the four Evangelists proposed first in the general view and after more particularly in every of the Points disputed SEâ—urâ— de salute de gloria corteâ—â—s Having shewed the cause by so many pregnant Evidences derived from the Articles and Homilies and back't by the consenting Testimonies of learned Men and godly Martyrs it would adde something at the least in point of Reputation if not of glory also to gain Bishop Poinet to the side of whom as to his personal capacity we have spoke already and must now look back upon him in relation to a Chatechism of his setting forth Printed by Wolfe in Latine and by Day in English Anno 1553. being the next year after the Articles were agreed upon in the Convocation a Catechisme which comes commended to us with these advantages that it was put forth by the Authority of King Edward the sixth to be taught by all Schoolmasters in the Kingdome By another of the same perswasion ' that the King committed the perusal of it to certain Bishops and other learned men whom he much esteemed by whom it was certified to be agreeable to the Scripture and Statutes of the Realm that thereupon he prefixt his Epistle before it in which he commands and charges all Schoolmasters whatsoever within his Dominions as they did reverence his Authority and as they would avoid his Royal displeasure to teach this Catechism diligently and carefully in all and every their Schools that so the youth of the Kingdome might be setled in the grounds of true Religion and furthered in Gods worship ' The Church Historian seems to give it some further countenance by making it of the same extraction with the Book of Articles telling us that by the Bishops and Learned men before mentioned â—e are to understand the Convocation and that it was not commanded by his Majesties Letters Patents to all Schoolmasters only but by him commended to the rest of the Subjects which cost these several Authors have bestowed upon it out of an hope of gaining some greater matter by it towards the countenancing and advancing of the Calvinian Doctrine Predestination as the true genuine and ancient Doctrine of this Church certain I am that both Mr. Prin and his Shadow so declare themselves the one affirming that all these passages are directly for them and punctually opposite to their Arminian Antagonists the other crying out with some admiration How do the Master and Scholar plainly declare themselves to be no friends to the Tenents which the English Arminians now concend for but notwithstanding all this â—ry I fear we shall get but little wool when we come to consider of those passages in Poynets Catechisme which are most relyed on and which here follow as I finde them in the Anti-arminianismâ— without alteration of the words or syllables though with some alteration in the method of the Collection Now the passages collected out of Poynets Catechisme are these that follow viz. 2. ' The Image of God in â—â—â— by original sin and evil custome was so obscured in the beginning and the natural judgement so corrupted that man himself could not sufficiently understand the difference between good and bad between just and unjust c. As for the sacrificings cleansings washings and other Ceremonies of the Law they were Shadows Types Images and Figures of the tâ—â—â— and eternal sacrifice that Jesus Christ made upon the Cross by whose benefit alone all the sins of all believers from the beginning of the world are pardoned by the sole mercy of God and not by any merit of their own Assoon as ever Adam and Eve had eaten of the forbidden fruit they both dyed that is that they were not only liable to the death of the body but likewise lost the life of the soul which is righteousness and forthwith the Divine Image was obscured in them and those lineaments of Righteousness Holiness Truth and Knowledge of God exceeding comely were disordered and almost obliterated the terene Image only remained coupled with unighteousness fraud carnal affections and great ignorance of Divine and heavenly things from thence also proceeded the infirmity of our flesh from thence corruption and confusion of affections and desires hence that plague hence that seminary and nutriment of sin wherewith all mankind iâ— infected which is called Original sin Moreover nature is so depraved and cast down that unless the goodness and mercy of Almighty God had helped us by the medicine of grace as in body we were thrust down into all the miseries of death so it was necessary that all men of all sorts should be cast into eternal torments and fire which cannot be quenched Those things which are spiritual are not seen but by the eye of the Spirit he therefore that will see the Divinity of Christ on earth let him open the eyes not of the body but of the mind and of Faith and he shall see him present whom the eye doth not see he shall see him present in the midst of them Wheresoever two or three are gathered together in his Name he shall see him present with us to the end of the end of the world What have I said he shall see Christ present yea he shall both see and feel him dwelling in himself no otherwise then his own soul for he doth dwell and reside in the soul and in the heart of him who doth place all his confidence in him ' 3. ' Above all things this cannot be concealed that the benefits which are brought unto us by the death the Resurrection and Ascention of Christ were so great and ample that no tongue either of men and Angels can express it c. From these and from other Actions of Christ two benefits do accrew unto us One that whatsoever he did he did it all for our profit and commodity so that they are as much ours if we cleave fast to them with a firm and lively Faith as if we our selves had done them He verily was nailed to the Cross and we are crucified with him and our sins are punished in him He died and was buried we likewise with our sins are dead and buried and that so as that all the memory of our sins is utterly abolished he rose again and we also are risen with him being made partakers of his resurrection and life that henceforth death might no more domineere in us for there is the same Spirit in us that raised Jesus from the dead Lastly as he ascended into celestial glory so we are exalted together with him The Holy Ghost is called holy not only for his own holiness but because the Elect of God and the Members of Christ are made holy by him The Church is the company of them who are called to eternal life by the holy Ghost by whom she is guided and governed which time
Doctrine get as good countenance to it as he could within a time especially intent on suppressing Popery might be no hard matter for him to doe And as to that part of the objections which Relates to Campneys and his suppressing of his Name I look upon it as a high part of wisdom in him in regard of the Great sway which the Calvinians had at their first coming over the prejudice conceived against him for his slipps and sufferings in the raigne of K. Edward and the Authority of the men against whom he writ Veron a Chaplaine to the Queen Crowly of Great esteem in London for his diligent preaching and Knox the great Directer of the Kirke of Scotland CHAP. XVII Of the Disputes amongst the Confessors in Prison in Queen Maries dayes and the Resetling of the Church on her former principles under Queen Elizabeth 1. THe Doctrine of Predestination disputed amongst the Confessors in Prison in Queen Maries dayes 2. The Examination of John Carelese before Dr. Martin in reference to the said Disputes 3. Considerations on some passages in the conference betwixt Dr. Martin and the said John Carelesse 4. Review made of the publick Liturgie by the command of Queen Elizabeth and the Paraphrases of Erasmus commended to the reading both of Priest and People 5. The second book of Homilies how provided for and of the liberty taken by the Gospellers and Zuinglian Sectaries before the reviewing and confirming of the Book of Articles by the Queens Authority 6. Of the reviewing and authority of the Book of Articles Anno 1562. and what may be from thence inferred 7. An answer from the Agreement drawn from omitting the ninth Article of King Edwards Book the necessity of giving some content to the Zuinglian Gospellers and the difficulty wherewith they were induced to subscribe the Book at the first passing of the same 8. The Argument taken from some passages in the English Catechisme set forth by Mr. Alexander Powell and the strength thereof 9. Several considerations on the said Catechisme and the rest of the Authours making and what his being Prolocutor in the convocation might adde to any of them in point of Orthodoxie 10. Nothing to be collected out of the first passage in Mr. Powells Catechism in favour of the Calvinian doctrine of Predestination and the points depending thereupon and lesse then nothing in the second if it be understood according to the Authours meaning and the determination of the Church 1. MOre calmly and with lesse deviation from the Doctrine of the Church of England were the same points disputed in Queen Maries dayes amongst the Confessors in Prison which coming to the knowledge of the Queen and her Councel a Commission was granted to one Dr. Martin a busie man in all such matters as appears by the story to make enquiry amongst many other things into this particular and he according to the power given by the commission convents before her one John Carelese borne at Coventry of no better quality then a weaver yet one that was grown very able to expresse himself when the matter came to examination by which examination it appears that as Carelese somewhat differed in the Doctrine of Predestination and the point depending thereupon from the Church assembled according as it was established in King Edwards time so Trew another of the Prisoners but of what quality or condition I am yet to seek seemes more inclinable to that opinion if Carelese understood them rightly which was defended all that time by the Popish Clergie And that the Reader may perceive the better how the difference stood I shall lay down so much of the conference between Dr. Martin and the Prisoner as concernes this businesse leaving the Reader to admire at Gods infinite goodnesse giving poor unlettered men such a measure of Christian courage as might enable them to speak both stoutly and discreetly in their greatest troubles Now the said conference was as followeth 2. The Examination of John Carelese before Doctor Martin Carelese I could wish that thou wouldest play the wise mans part thou art a handsome man and 't is pity but that thou shouldest do well and save that God hath bought I thank your good Mastership most heartily and I put you out of doubt that I am most sure and certaine of my salvation by Jesus Christ so that my soule is safe already what paines soever my body suffer here for a little time Yea marry you say truth for thou art so predestinate to life that thou canst not perish in whatsoever opinion thou dost die That God hath predestinate me to eternal life in Jesus Christ I am most certain and even so I am sure that his holy Spirit wherewith I am sealed will so preserve me from all heresies and evill opinions that I shall die in none at all Go to let me hear your faith in Predestination for that shall be written also Your Mastership shall pardon me herein for you said your self ere while that you had no Commission to examine my conscience I tell thee I have a Commission yea and a Commandment from the Councel to examine thee of such things as be in controversie between thee and thy fellows in the Kings Bench whereof Predestination is a part as thy fellow hath confessed and thy self dost not deny it I do not deny it but he that first told you that matter might have found himself much better occupied Why I tell thee truth I may now examine thee of any thing that I list Then let your Scribe set his pen to the paper and you shall have it roundly as the truth is I believe that Almighty God our most deare loving Father of his great mercy and infinite goodness through Jesus Christ did elect and appoint in him before the foundation of the Earth was laid a Church or Congregation which he doth continually guide and governe by his Grace and holy Spirit so that not one of them all ever finally perish When this was written Mr. Doctor took it in his hand saying Why who will deny this If your Mastership do allow it and other learned men when they shall see it I have my hearts desire Did you hold no otherwise then is there written No verily no nere did Write that he saith otherwise he holdeth not so that was written It was told me also that thou dost affirme that Christ did not die effectually for all men Whatsoever hath been told you is not much material for indeed I do believe that Christ did effectually die for all those that do effectually repent and believe and for none other so that was written Now Sir what is Trews faith of Predestination he believeth that all men be predestinate and that none shall be damned doth he not No forsooth that he doth not How then I think he doth believe as your Mastership and the rest of the
therefore by the light of the same instruction had they not shut their eyes against it they might have come unto a further knowledge of the will of God and by degrees to the performance of all moral duties required of them before Christ coming in the flesh And in the third part of the same Sermon there are some passages which do as plainly speak of falling from God the final alienation of the soul of a man once righteous from his love and favour Where it is said ' how much better it were that the arts of painting and we had never been found then one of them whose souls are so precious in the sight of God should by occasion of image or picture perish and be lost ' And what can here be understood by the souls which are so precious in the sight of God but the souls of the elect of justified and righteous persons the souls of wicked men being vile and odious in his sight hated by God as Esau was before all eternity as the Calvinians do informe us And what else can we understand by being perished and lost but a total or final alienation of those precious souls from his grace and favour more plainly speaks the Homily of the Resurrection in which the Church represents unto us what shame it should be for us ' being thus clearly and freely washed from our sinne to returne to the filthinesse thereof again What a folly it would be for us being thus endued with righteousnesse to loose it again What a madnesse it would be to to loose the inheritance we be now set in for the vile and transitory pleasure of sinnes And what an unkindnesse it would be where our Saviour Christ of his mercy is come unto us to dwell with us as our guest to drive him from us and to banish him violently out of our souls And instead of him in whom is all grace and vertue to receive the ungracious spirit of the devil the founder of all naughtinesse and mischiefe ' then which there can be nothing more direct and positive to the point in hand And as for the co-operation of mans will with the grace of God either in accepting or resisting it when once offered to him besides what may be gathered from the former passages it is to be presumed as a thing past question in the very nature of that book for what else are those Homilies but so many proofs and arguments to evince that point For to what purpose were they made but to stir up the mindes of all men to the works of piety And what hopes could the Authors of them give unto themselves of effecting that which they endeavoured had they not presupposed and taught that there was such a freedome in the will of man such an assistance of Gods grace as might enable them to performe these works of piety as in all and every one of the said Homilies are commended to them More for the proof of which points might be gathered from the said second Book of Homilies established by the Articles of Queen Elizabeth's time as before is said were not these sufficient 3. Proceed we therefore from the Homilies and the publick monuments of the Church to the judgement of particular persons men of renown and eminent in their several places amongst which we finde incomparable Jewell then Bishop of Sallsbury thus clearly speaking in behalf of universal redemption viz. Certo animis nostris persuademus c. ' We do assuredly perswade our mindes saith he that Christ is the obtainer of forgivenesse for our sins and that by his blood all our spots of sins be washed cleane that he hath pacified and set at one all things by the blood of his crosse that he by the same one onely sacrifice which he once offered upon the crosse hath brought to effect and fulfilled all things and that for the cause he said it is finished By which word saith he be plainly signified persolutum â—am esse pretium pro peccato humani generis that the price or ransome was now fully paid for the sin of man-kinde ' Now as Bishop ewell was a principal member of the House of Bishops so Mr. Powell was the Prolocutoâ— for the House of the Clergy in which the Articles were debated and agreed upon In which respect his favour is much sought by those of the Calvinian party as before was shown But finding no comfort for them in his larger Catechisme let us see what may be found in his Latine Catechisme authorized to be taught in Schools and published by his consent in the English tongue Anno 157â— And first he sheweth that as God is said to be our Father for some other reasons so most specially for this quod nos divine per spiritum sanctum generavit per fidem in verum suum aâ—que naturalem filium Iesum Christum nos el git sibique Filios regni â—oelestis atque sempiternae vitae heredes per eundem injâ—ituit that is to say because he hath divinely regenerated us or begotten us again by the Holy Ghost and hath elected us by faith in his true and natural son Christ Jesus and through the same Christ â—ath adopted us to be his children and heires of his heavenly Kingdom and of life everlasting And if election come by our faith in Christ as he saith it doth neither a Supra-bapsarian nor a Sub-â—apâ—arian can finde any comfort from this man in favour of that absolute and irrespective decree of Predestination which they would gladly father on him in his larger Catechisme And then as for the method of predestination he thus sets it forth viz. ' Deus Adamum illis honoris insignibus ornavit ut ea cum sibi tum suis id est toti humano generi aut servaret aut amitteret c. God saith he indued Adam with those ornaments that is to say those ornaments of grace and nature which before we speak of that he might have them or loose them for himself and his that is to say for all man-kinde And it could not otherwise be but that as of an evil tree evil fruits do spring so that Adam being corrupted with sinne all the issue that came of him must also be corrupted with that original sin For delivery from the which there remained no remedy in our selves and therefore God was pleased to promise that the seed of the woman which is Jesus Christ should break the head of the Serpent that is of the Devi who deceived our first parents and so should deliver them and their posterity that believed the same Where first we have mans fall Secondly Gods mercy in his restitution Thirdly this restitution to be made by Jesus Christ and fourthly to be made to all which believe the same ' 4. Proceed we next to a Sermon preached at St. Pauls crosse Octob. 27. 1584. by Samuel Hâ—rsâ—et then fellow of Pâ—mbrooke Hall in Cambridge and afterwards Master of the same preferred
to the doctrine of the Old and New Testament and had from thence been gathered by the Catholick or Orthodox Fathers and ancient Bishops of the Church To which rule if they held themselvs as they ought to do no countenance could be given to Calvines Doctrines or Fox his judgment in these points maintained by one of the Catholick Fathers and ancient Bishops of the Church but St. Augustine only who though he were a godly man and a learned Prelate yet was he but one Bishop not Bishops in the plural number but one father and not all the fathers and therefore his opinion not to be maintained against all the rest CHAP. XX. Of the great Innovation made by Perkins in the publick Doctrine the stirs arising thence in Cambridge and Mr. Barrets carriage in them 1 OF Mr. Perkins and his Doctrine of Predestination with his recital of the four opinions which were then maintained about the same 2. The sum and substance of his Doctrine according to the Supralapsarian or Supra-creatarian way 3. The several censures past upon it both by Papists and Protestants by none more sharply then by Dr. Rob. Abbots after Bishop of Sarum 4. Of Dr. Baroe the Lady Margarets Professor in the University and his Doctrine touching the divine Decrees upon occasion of Gods denounced Judgement against the Ninivites 5. His constant opposition to the Predestinarians and the great increase of his Adherents 6. The Articles collected out of Barrets Sermon derogatory to the Doctrine and persons of the chief Calvinians 7. Barret convented for the same and the proceedings had against him at his first conventing 8. A form of Recantation delivered to him but not the same which doth occur in the Anti-Arminianism to be found in the Records of the University 9. Several arguments to prove that Barret never published the Recantation imposed upon him 10. The rest of Barrets story related in his own letter to Dr. Goad being then Vice-Chancelour 11. The sentencing of Barret to a Recantation no argument that his Doctrine was repugnant to the Church of England and that the body of the same University differed from the heads in that particular 1. THis great Breach being thus made by Fox in his Acts and Monuments was afterwards open'd wider by William Perkins an eminent Devine of Cambridge of great esteem amongst the Puritans for his zeal and piety but more for his dislike of the Rites and Ceremonies here by Law established of no less fame among those of the Calvinian party both at home and abroad for a Treatise of Predestination published in the year 1592. entituled Armilla Aurea or the Golden Chain containing the order of the causes of salvation and damnation according to Gods word First written by the Author in Latin for the use of Students and in the same year translated into English at his Request by one Robert Hill who afterwards was Dr. of Divinity and Rector of St. Bartholomews Church near the royal Exchange In the preface unto which Discourse the Author telleth us ' that there was at that day four several Opinions of the order of Gods Predestination The first was of the old and new Pelagians who placed the cause of Gods Predestination in man in that they hold that God did ordain men to life or death according as he did foresee that they would by their natural free-will either reject or receive Grace offered The second of them who of some are termed Lutherans which taught that God foreseeing that all mankind being shut under unbelief would therefore reject Grace offered did hereupon purpose to chuse some to salvation of his meer mercy without any respect of their faith or good works and the rest to reject being moved to do this because he did eternally fore-see that they would reject his Grace offered them in the Gospel The third of Semi-palagian Papists which ascribe Gods Predestination partly to mercy and partly to mens foreseen Preparations and meritorious works The fourth of such as teach that the cause of the execution of Gods Predestination is his mercy in Christ in them which are saved and in them which perish the fall and corruption of man yet so as that the Decree and eternal Counsel of God concerning them both hath not any cause besides his Will and pleasure ' In which Preface whither he hath stated the opinions of the parties right may be discerned by that which hath been said in the former Chapters and whither the last of these opinions ascribe so much to Gods Mercy in Christ in them that are saved and to mans natural Corruption in them that perish will best be seen by taking a brief view of the opinion it self The Author taking on him to oppugn the three first as erroneous and only to maintain the last as being a truth which will bear weight in the ballance of the Sanctuary as in his Preface he assures us 2. ' Now in this book Predestination is defined to be the Decree of God by the which he hath ordained all men to a certain and everlasting Estate that is either to salvation or condemnation to his own Glory He tells us secondly that the means for putting this decree in execution were the creation and the fall 3. That mans fall was neither by chance or by Gods not knowing it or by his bare permission or against his Will but rather miraculously not without the Will of God but yet without all approbation of it ' Which passage being somewhat obscure may be explained by another some leaves before In which the Question being asked Whether all things and actions were subject unto Gods Decree He answereth ' Yes surely and therefore the Lord according to his good pleasure hath most certainly decreed every both thing and action whether past present or to come together with their circumstances of place time means and end ' And then the Question being prest to this particular What even the wickedness of the wicked The answer is affirmative ' Yes he hath most justly decreed the wicked works of the wicked For if it had not pleased him they had never been at all And albeit they of their own natures are and remain wicked yet in respect of Gods decree they are to be accounted good ' Which Doctrine though it be no other then that which had before been taught by Beza yet being published more copiously insisted on and put into a more methodical way it became wondrous acceptable amongst those of the Calvinian party both at home and abroad as before was said Insomuch that it was printed several times after the Latin edition with the general approbation of the French and Belgick Churches and no less then 15. times within the space of twenty years in the English tongue At the end of which term in the year 1612. the English book was turned by the Translator into Questions and Answers but without any alteration of the words of the Author as he informs us in the last page
and make but a very thin appearance Apparent rari nautes in gurgite vasto in the Poets language yet serve they for a good assurance that the Church still kept possession of her primitive truths not utterly lost though much endangered by such contrary Doctrines as had of late been thrust upon her there was a time when few or none of the Orthodox Bishops durst openly appear in favour of St. Athanasius but only Liberius Pope of Rome who thereupon is thus upbraided by Constantius the Arian Emperour Quota pars tu es orbis terrarum qui solus c. How great a part saith he art thou of the whole world that thou alone shouldst shew thy self in defence of that wicked man and thereby overthrow the peace of the Universe To which Liberius made this answer non diminuitur solitudine mea verbum dei nam olim tres solum inventi fuere qui edicto resisterint that is to say the word of God is not made the weaker by my sole appearing in defence thereof noâ— more then when there were but three he meanes the three Hebrew Children in the book of Daniel with durst make open opposition to the Kings Edict Liberius thought himself sufficient to keep possession of a truth in the Church of Christ till God should please to raise up more Champions in all places to defend the same not thinking it necessary to returne any other answer or to produce the names of anyothers of his time who turned Athanasius as much as he which brings into my mind a passage in the conference betwixt Dr. Ban Featly and Sweat the Jesuite in which the Jesuite much insisted on that thred bare question viz. where was your Church before Luther which when the the Doctor went to shew out of Scriptures and Fathers some of the Papists standing by cryed out for names those which stood further of ingeminating nothing but Names Names whereupon the Dr. Merily asked them if nothing would content them but a Buttery book And such an Answer I must make in the present case to such as take up testimony by tale not weight and think no truth is fairly proved except it come attended with a cloud of witnesses But what we want in number now he shall find hereafter when we shall come to take a view of King James his Reign to which now we hasten CHAP. XXII Of the Conferrence at Hampton Court and the several encouragements given to the Anti-Calvinians in the time of KING James 1. THE occasion of the conference at Hampton Court and the chief persons there assembled 2. The nine Articles of Lambeth rejected by King James 3. Those of the Church being left in their former condition 4. The Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination decryed by Bishop Bancroft and disliked by King James and the reasons of it 5. Bishop Bancroft and his Chaplain both abused The inserting the Lambeth Articles into the confession of Ireland no argument of King James his approbation of them by whom they were inserted and for what cause allowed of in the said Confession 6. A pious fraud of the Calvinians in clapping their predestinarian Doctrines at the end of the old Testament An. 1607. discovered censured and rejected with the reasons for it 7. The great Incouragement given by King James to the Anti-calvinians and the increasing of that party both in power and number by the stirs in Holland 8. The offence taken by King James at Conradus Vorstius animateth the Oxon. Calvinists to suspend Dr. Houson and to preach publickly against Dr. Laud. 9. The like proceedings at Cambridge against Mr. Simpson first prosecuted by King James and on what account that the King was more incensed against the party of Arminius then against their perswasions 10. Instructions published by King James in order to the diminishing of Calvins authority the defence of universal Redemption and the suppressing of his Doctrines in the other points and why the last proved so unusefull in the case of Gabriel Bridges 11. The publishing of Mountagues answer to the Gagger the information made against it the Author and his Doctrine taken by King James into his protection and his appeal licensed by the Kings appointment 12. The conclusion of the whole discourse and the submission of it to the Church of England 1. NOW we come unto the Reign of King James of happy memory whose breeding in the Kirk of Scotland had given some hopes of seeing better days to the English Puritans then those which they enjoyed under Queen Elizabeth Vpon which hopes they presented him at his first coming to the Crown with a supplication no less tedious then it was impertinent given out to be subscribed with a thousand hands though it wanted many of that number and aiming at an alteration in many points both of Doctrine and Discipline But they soon found themselves deceived For first the King commanded by publick proclamation that the divine service of the Church should be diligently officiated and frequented as in former times under pain of suffering the severest penalties by the Laws provided in that case And that being done instead of giving such a favourable answer to their supplication as they had flattered themselves withall he commended the answering of it to the Vice-Chancellour Heads and other learned men of the Vniversity of Oxon. from whom there was nothing to be looked for toward their contentment But being thirdly a just Prince and willing to give satisfaction to the just desires of such as did apply themselves unto him as also to inform himself in all such particulars as were in difference betwixt the Petitioners and the Prelates he appointed a solemn Conference to be held before him at Hampton Court on Thursday the 12. of January Anno 1603. being within less then ten moneths after his entrance on the Kingdom To which conference were called by several letters on the Churches part the most Reverend and right renowned Fathers in God Dr. John Whitgift Arch-Bishop of Canterbuy Dr. Richard Bancroft Bishop of London Dr. Tobie Mathews Bishop of Durham Dr. Thomas Bilson Bishop of Winchester Dr. Gervase Babbinton Bishop of Worcester Dr. Anthony Ruâ—d Bishop of Davids Dr. Anthony Walson Bishop of Chechester Dr Henry Robbinson Bishop of Carlile and Dr. Thomas Dâ—ve Bishop of Peterborough as also Dr. James Mountague Dean of the Chappel Dr. Thomas Ravis Dean of Christ Church Dr. John Bridges Dean of Sarum Dr. Lancelot Andrews Dean of Westminster Dr. John Overald Dean of Saint Pauls Doctor William Barlow Dean of Chester Doctor Giles Tompson Dean of Windsor together with Dr. John King Arch-Deacon of Nottingham and Dr. Richard Field after Dean of Glocester all of them habited and attired according to their several ranks and stations in the Church of England And on the other side there appeared for the Plantiffe or Petitioner Dr. Reynolds Dr. Spark Mr. Knewstubs and Mr. Chatterton the two first being of Oxon. and the other of Cambridge apparelled in their
Election depend not upon any Qualities Actions or works of men which be mutable but upon Gods eternal and immutable decree and purpose yet such is the necessity of Repentance after known sins committed as that without it there could not be either Reconciliation with God or remission of those sins ' 5. But here methinks I hear it said ' that though the King being then unaquainted with the Lambeth Articles thought not meet to put them amongst the Articles of this Church yet he liked it well enough in his Clergy of Ireland that they took them into their confession and Bishop Bancroft had agreed to them before the conference and that when he was Arch-Bishop his Chaplain with his good liking and approbation published the Exposition or Analysis of our Articles in which he gives the Calvinist as fair quarter as can be wished ' But first beginning with the last so much of the objection as concerns Bishop Bancroft is extreamly false not agreeing to the Lambeth Articles nor being Bishop of London when those Articles were agree unto as is mistakeingly affirmed and that Analysis or Explication of our English Articles related to in the objection being published in the year 1585. which was ten years before the making of the Lambeth Articles and eighteen years before Bancroft had been made Arch-Bishop And secondly It is not very true that King James liked that is to say was well pleased with the putting of those Articles into the confession of the Church of Ireland though the said Confession was subscribed in his name by the Lord Deputy Chichester is plainly enough not without his consent for many other things were in the Confession to which the Lord Deputy subscribed and the King consented as affairs then stood which afterwards he declared no great liking to either of the Tenor or effect thereof For the truth is that the drawing up of that confession being committed principally to the care of Dr. Usher and afterwards Lord Primate of Ireland a professed Calvinian he did not only thrust into it all the Lambeth Articles but also makes others of his own opinions as namely That the Pope was Anti-Christ or that man of sin that the power of sacerdotal Absolution is no more then declatory as also touching the morality of the Lords day Sabboth and the total spending of it in religious Exercises Which last how contrary it is to King Jame's Judgement how little cause he had to like it or rather how much reason he had to dislike it his Declaration about Lawfull sports which he published within three years after doth express sufficiently so that the King might give consent to the confirming of these Articles amongst the rest though he liked as little of the one as he did of the other And he might do it on these Reasons For first The Irish Nation at that time were most tenaciously addicted to the errors and corruptions of the Church of Rome and therefore must be bended to the other extream before they could be streight and Orthodox in these ponits of Doctrine Secondly it was an usual practise with the King in the whole course of his government to ballance one extream by the other countenancing the Papists against the Puritan and the Puritan sometimes against the Papist that betwixt both the true Religion and Professors of it might be kept in safety 6. With greater Artifice but less Authority have some of our Calvinians framed unto themselves another Argument derived from certain Questions and answers printed at the end of the Bible published by Rob. Barker his Majesties own Printer in the year 1607 from whence it is inferred by the Author of the Anti-Arminianism and from him by others that the said Questions and Answers do contain a punctual Declaration of the received Doctrine of this Church in the points disputed But the worst is they signifie nothing to the purpose for which they were produced For I would fain know by what Authority those Questions and Answers were added to the end of the Bible If by Authority and that such Authority can be produced the Argument will be of force which it takes from them and then no question but the same Authority by which they were placed there at first would have preserved them in that place for a longer time then during the sale of that Edition The not retaining them in such Editions as have followed since the sale of that shews plainly that they were of no authority in themselves nor intended by the Church for a rule to others and being of no older standing then the year 1607. for ought appears by Mr. Prin who first made the objections they must needs seem as destitute of antiquity as they are of authority so that upon the whole matter the author of the book hath furnished those of different Judgement with a very strong argument that they were foysted in by the fraud and practise of some of the Emissaries of the Puritan Faction who hoped in time to have them pass as currant amongst the people as any part of Canonical Scripture Such Piae fraudes as these are we should have too many were they once allowed of Some prayers were also added to the end of the Bible in some Editions and others at the end of the publick Liturgy Which being neglected at the first and afterwards beheld as the authorized prayers of the Church were by command left out of those books and Bibles as being the compositions of private men not the publick acts of the Church and over since added as before 7. But to return unto King James we find not so much countenance given to the Calvinians by the fraud of his Printer as their opposites received by his grace and favour by which they were invested in the chief preferments of the Chutch of England conferred aâ— openly and freely upon the Anti-Calvinians as those who had been bred up in the other perswasions Trosse Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine habentur as we know who said For presently upon the end of the conference he prefers Bishop Bancroft to the Chair of Canterbury and not long after Dr. Barlow to the See of Rochester On whose translation unto Lincoln Dr. Richard Neil then Dean of Westminster succeeds at Rochester and leaves Dr. Buckridge there for his successour at his Removal unto Lichfielâ— in the year 1609. Dr. Samuel Harsnet is advanced to the See of Lichfield and about ten years after unto that of Norwich In the beginning of the year 1614. Dr. Overald succeeds Neil then translated to Lincoln in the See of Coventry and Lichfielâ— Dr. George Mountein succeeded the said Neil then translated to Durham in the Church of Lincoln In the year 1619. Dr. John Houson one of the Canons of Christ Church a professed Anti-calvinist is made Bishop of Oxon. And in the year 1621. Dr. Valentine Cary Successor unto Overalâ— in the Deanry of Saint Paul is made Bishop of Exon and on the same day Dr. William Laud
Charls as the son and Successor to whom it properly belonged the Author touching in the Epistle Dedicatory all the former passages but more at large then they are here discoursed of in this short Summary 12. And thus far have we prosecuted our discourse concerning the five points disputed between the English Protestants the Belgick Remonstrants the Melancthonian Lutherans together with the Jesuites and Franciscans on the one side the English Calvinists the Contra-Remonstrants the Rigid Lutherans and the Dominican Friers on the other side In the last part whereof we may observe how difficult a thing it is to recover an old doctrinal Truth when overborn and almost lost by the continual Prevalency of a Busie faction And I have carried it on no further because at this time Bishop Laud to whom the raising and promoting of the Arminian Doctrines as they call them is of late ascribed was hardly able to promote or preserve himself opprest with a heard hand by Arch-Bishop Abbot secretly traduced unto the King for the unfortunate business of the Earl of Devonshire attaining with great difficulty to the poor Bishop-prick of St. Davids after ten years service and yet but green in savour with the Duke of Buchingham What happened afterwards towards the countenancing of these Doctrines by the appearing of King Charls in the behalf of Mountague the letter of the three Bishops to the Duke in defence of the man and his opinion his questioning and impeachment by the House of Commons and his preferment by the King to the See of Chichester are all of them beyond the bounds which I have prescribed unto my self in this Narration Nor shall I now take notice of his Majesties Proclamation of the 14. of June Anno 1626. For establishing the peace and quiet of the Church of England by which he interdicted all such preaching and printing as might create any fresh Disturbance to the Church of England or for his smart Answer to the part of the Remonstrance of the house of Commons Anno 1628. which concerned the danger like to fall on this Church and Kingdom by the grouth of Arminianism or of the Declaration prefixed before the book of Articles in the same year also for silencing the said Disputes or finally of his Majesties Instructions bearing date Decemb. 30. 1629. for causing the Contents of the Declaration to be put in execution and punctually observed for the time to come By means whereof and many fair encouragements from many of our Prelates and other great men of the Realm the Anti-Calvinist party became considerable both for power and number FINIS A POSTSCRIPT To the READER Concerning some particulars in a scurrulous Pamphlet intituled A Review of the Certamen Epistolare c. PRimâ dicta mihi summâ dicenda camaenâ with thee good Reader I began and with thee I must end I gave thee notice in the Preface of a scurrilous Libel the Author whereof had disgorged his foul stomack on me and seemed to Glory in the shame But whither this Authour be a Cerberus with three heads or a Smertginnuus with fire or but a single Shimi only for it is differently reported is all one to me who am as little troubled with the noise of Billings-gate as the cry of an Oyster-wife It is my confidence that none of the dirt which he most shamefully confesseth himself to have thrown in my face will be found upon it notwithstanding that necesse est ut aliquid haereat may be sometimes true Omitting therefore the consideration of his many Obscaenities which every where are intermingled for the floures of his Rhetorick I cannot but do my self so much justice as to satisfie the Reader in the truth of some things which otherwise may be beleeved to my disadvantage I am content to suffer under as much obloquie as any foule mouthed Presbyterian can spit upon me but I am not willing to be thought a slanderer a profane person or ungrateful for the smallest favours all which the Authour of that scurrulous pamphlet hath imposed upon me In the first place it is much laboured to make me guilty of ingratitude and disaffection to Magd. Coll. of which I had the honour to be once a member and do retain so high an estimation of it that whensoever I shall write or speak any thing to the reproach of that foundation let my tongue cleave unto the roof of my mouth and my right hand forget its cunning But I am able to distinguish between the duty I owe to the House it selfe and that which every member of it is to challenge from me quid civitati quid civibus debeam in the Orators Criticisme And therefore I would not have the Libeller or his partners think that his or their taking Sanctuary under the name of Magdalen Colledge shall so far priviledge them in their actings either against the Church in general or my own particular but that I shall as boldly venture to attacque them there without fear of sacriledge as Joab was smitten by Benaiah at the hornes of the Altar But the best is that I am made to have some ground for my disaffection though there be no lesse falsehood in the fundamentals then the superstructure And a fine tale is told of some endeavours by me used for bringing one of my own brood into that foundation the failing of which hopes must of necessity occasion such an undervaluing of that Colledge as to change it from a nest of Sparrows to a nest of Cuckoes But the truth is that the party for whom I was a suitor was so farre from being one of my own brood as not to be within the compasse of my Relations so much a stranger to my blood that he was no otherwise endeared unto me then by the extraordinary opinion which I had of his parts and industry And therefore I commended him no further unto Doctor Goodwin then that it was not my desire to have him chosen if any abler Schollar should appeare for the place And it was well for the young man that I sped no better Periisset nisi Periisset as we knowe who said For within lesse then two years after he was elected into the Society of Merton Colledge to their great honour be it spoken upon no other commendation then his owne abilities In the next place I am made a slanderer for saying that the new Sabbath speculations of Doctor Bound and his adherents had beene embraced more passionately of late then any one Article of Religion here by Law established How so Because saith he or they 't is no matter which it is well known that they do more passionately embrace the great truths of Christs Divinity and the Divine Authority of Scripture c. then any opinion about the Sabbath What may be meant by the c. it is hard to say perhaps the Presbyterian Discipline or the Calvinian Doctrines of Predestination the two deare Helena's of the Sects as sacred and inviolable in their estimation as any