did unto a man both of parts and piety upon no other pretence or provocation whatever but because he maintained another way of predestination than that which they had taught their followers for Gods Truth and Gospel And therefore it can be no wonder if the new Gospellers in England pursued the same courses against all those who opposed their fancies For being governed by this spirit they taxed their opposits sometimes for being haters of Gods Predestination as before is said though entire lovers of the same Answer to a certain Letter p. 16. reviled them by the names of Popish Pelagians and justifiers of themselves imputing to those men the whole mass of Pelagianism who from their very hearts and souls abhorr'd all their wicked Opinions and have been many years willing to bestow their lives against all their abominable Errours And sometimes finally they call them Free-will men in contempt and scorn designing by that name not the Papist only but such of their own Mothers Children also as taught that Cain was not predestinate to slay his Brother Id. p. 56. and that God hath not predestinate any man to the committing of Murder or any such like wicked abominations Which being said and the credit of the man set right we may the better know what we are to trust to in taking up some few following passages upon his Authority Amongst which I shall first begin with that of Knox that great Incendiary of the Nation and Kirk of Scotland who in a book of his published in the end of King Edward's or the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign against an Adversary of Gods Predestination as the Title telleth us First builds the Doctrine of Predestination unto Gods absolute Will without relation to mans sin or our Saviours suffering and then ascribes unto the predeterminate Counsel and Will of God all humane actions whatsoever In reference to the first he was of their opinion plainly who building upon the example of Esau exclude all that is in man either original sin or actual from the cause of Gods hate which they lay on his own pleasure only which Knox endeavoureth to make good by this following Argument p. 141. That if Esau was hated for his evil deserving then must needs follow that Jacob was loved for his well-deserving Pag. 48. the Argument following as he saith by the rule of contraries What superstructure he hath raised upon this foundation Assuredly no better nor no worse than this That the wicked are not only left by Gods suffering but compelled to sin by his power p. 317. More copiously but not more plainly in another place fol. 158. where it is affirmed That whatsoever the Ethnicks and Ignorants did attribute unto fortune we Christians do assign to the Providence of God that we should judge nothing of fortune Id. p. 22. but that all cometh by the determination of his Counsel and finally that it displeaseth him when we esteem any thing to proceed from any other so that saith he we not only behold and know him to be the principal cause of all things but also the Author appointing all things to the one part or to the other by his Counsel In which last if he make not God the Author of sin as I think he doth we shall very shortly find another that will So able a Leader as John Knox could not want followers of all Nations to attend upon him in the Catalogue or list whereof Id. p. 36. we must first look upon the Author of a Treatise written in French and published afterwards in English entituled A brief Declaration of the Table of Predestination in which it is affirmed expresly That seeing God hath appointed the end it is necessary also that he should appoint the causes leading to the same end as if he should have said saith Campneys that as God hath appointed some man to be hanged so he hath appointed him also to steal as a cause leading to the same end to which by God he is appointed The same French English Author lets us know in another place That by vertue of Gods Will all things were made yea P. 45. even those things which are evil and execrable Which execrable saying he endeavoureth to palliate with this distinction That those evil execrable things which are wrought by the vertue of Gods Will are not evil and execrable in that they are wrought by his divine Counsel P. 63. but for as much as they proceed from the Prince of the air And as for the foundation of Election to eternal life he laies it not on the free Mercy of God in Christ which he affirms to be no other but an inferiour cause thereof but teacheth us to ascend unto an higher cause that is to say to the eternal purpose and predestination of God which 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. In the next place comes out a Pamphlet entituled Against a privy Papist the Author whereof takes 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 Syllogism in this manner viz. That whatsoever was in Adam Major was in him by Gods Will and Ordinance But sin was in Adam Minor Ergo Sin was in him by Gods Will and Ordinance Of which Syllogism 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 Council Ibid. p. 43. 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 several Kingdoms but by flying to some special Revelation from his secret will not publickly communicated to the Sons of men And this he speaks not faintly but with zeal and confidence telling us who assured him that God hath revealed to some in our Age that is to say himself and his Disciples in the holy Presbytery that it is more than a Monster in nature that a Woman should Rule and have Empire against man And what could they do less upon this assurance
rest of man-kind and appointed them by the same decree to eternal damnation without any regard to their Infidelity or Impenitency Art 2. Of the Merit and Effect of Christs Death That Jesus Christ hath not suffered death for any other but for those Elect only Ibid. p. 29. having neither had any intent nor commandment of his Father to make satisfaction for the sins of the whole World Art 3. Of Mans Will in the state of Nature That by Adam's Fall his Posterity lost their Free-will Ibid. p. 33. being put to an unavoidable necessity to do or not to do whatsoever they do or do not whether it be good or evil being thereunto Predestinated by the eternal and effectual secret decree of God Art 4. Of the manner of Conversion That God to save his Elect from the corrupt Mass Ibid. p. 41. doth beget faith in them by a power equal to that whereby he created the World and raised up the dead insomuch that such unto whom he gives that Grace cannot reject it and the rest being Reprobate cannot accept of it Art 5. Of the certainty of Perseverance That such as have once received that Grace by Faith can never fall from it finally Ibid. p. 47. or totally notwithtanding the most enormious sins they can commit This is the shortest and withal the most favourable Summary which I have hitherto met with of the conclusions of this Synod that which was drawn by the Remonstrants in their Antidotum being much more large and comprehending many things by way of Inference which are not positively expressed in the words thereof But against this though far more plausible than the rigorous way of the Supralapsarians Gods love to Mankind p. 45. it is objected by those of the contrary persuasion 1. That it is repugnant of plain Texts of Scripture as Ezek. 33.11 Rom. 11.2 John 3.16 2 tim 2.4 2 Pet. 3.9 Gen. 4.7 1 Chron. 28.9 2 Chron. 15.2 Secondly That it fighteth with Gods Holiness and makes him the cause of sin in the greatest number of men 1. In regard that only of his own will and pleasure he hath brought men into an estate in which the cannot avoid sin that is to say by imputing to them the transgression of their Father Adam Ibid. p. 53. And 2. In that he leaves them irrecoverably plunged and involved in it without affording them power or ability to rise again to newness of life In which case that of Tertullian seems to have been fitly alledged viz. In cujus manu est ne quid fiat Tertul. l. 2. contr Marcion c. 22. ei deputatur cum jam sit That is to say In whose power it is that a thing be not done to him it is imputed when it is done as a Pilot may be said to be the cause of the loss of that Ship when it is broken by a violent Tempest to the saving whereof he would not lend a helping hand when he might have done it They object thirdly That this doctrine is inconsistent with the mercy of God so highly signified in the Scriptures Gods love to Mankind p. 62. in making him to take such a small and speedy occasion to punish the greater part of men for ever and for one sin once committed to shut them up under an invincible necessity of sin and damnation For proof whereof they alledge this saying out of Prosper viz. Qui dicit quod non omnes homines velit Deus salvos fieri Ibid. p. 64. sed certum numerum praedestinatorum durius loquitur quam loquutum est de altitudine inscrutabilis gratiae Dei That is to say He which saith that God would not have all men to be saved but a certain set number of predestinate persons only he speaketh more harshly than he should of the light of Gods unsearchable Grace 4. It is affirmed to be incompatible with the Justice of God who is said in Scripture to be Righteous in all his ways according unto weight and measure Ibid. p. 65. p. 67. that the far greatest part of man-kind should be left remedilâ—sly in a state of damnation for the sin of their first Father only that under pain of damnation he should require faith in Christ of those to whom he hath precisely in his absolute purpose denied both a power to believe and a Christ to believe in or that he should punish men for the omission of an Act which is made impossible for them by his own decree by which he purposed that they should partake with Adam in his sin and be stript of all the supernatural power which they had in him before he fell And fifthly It is said to be destructive of Gods sincerity in calling them to repentance and to the knowledge of the faith in Jesus Christ Ibid. p. 58. that they may be saved to whom he doth not really intend the salvation offered whereby they are conceived to make God so to deal with men as if a Creditor should resolve upon no terms to forgive his Debtor the very least part of his debt Ibid. p. 76. and yet make him offers to remit the whole upon some conditions and bind the same with many solemn Oaths in a publick Auditory The like to be affirmed also in reference to Gods passionate wishes that those men might repent which repent not as also to those terrible threatnings which he thundreth against all those that convert not to him all which together with the whole course of the Ministry are by this doctrine made to be but so many acts of deep Hypocrisie in Almighty God though none of the maintainers of it have the ingenuity to contess the same but Piscator only in his Necesse est ut sanctam aliquam si mutationem statuamus in Deo which is plain and home And finally it is alledged that this doctrine of the Sublapsarians is contrary to the ends by God proposed in the Word and Sacraments to many of Gods excellent gifts to the Sons of men to all endeavours unto holiness and godly living which is said to be much hindered by it Ibid. p. 91. and tend to those grounds of comfort by which a Conscience in distress should be relieved And thereupon it is concluded that if it be a doctrine which discourageth Piety if it maketh Ministers by its natural importment to be negligent in their Preaching Praying and other Services which are ordained of God for the eternal good of their people if it maketh the people careless in hearing reading praying instructing their Families examining their Consciences fasting and mourning for their sins and all other godly exercises as they say it doth it cannot be a true and a wholsome doctrine as they say 't is not This they illustrate by a passage in Suetonius Sect. de vit Tyb c. 69. p. 180. relating to Tyberius Caesar of whom the Historian gives this note Cire à Deos Religiones negligentior erat quippe addictus
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 Ambros in Epâ—st 1.4 and then illustrate them by others of our holiest Martyrs who had a principal hand in the Reformation First St. Ambrose amongst others sicut 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. Chrysostom saying Quod dicit perinde est ac 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 Chrys in Ep. 14. magis autem prius quam mundi bujus 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 St. Pauls Epistles ascribed to St. Jerom viz. in hoc praedestinavit ut haberent potestatem filii Dei ficri homines Hierom. in Epist 64. 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 L. 5. p. 372. in his Answer to Gardiner touching the holy Sacrament telleth us this viz. Christ saith he took unto himself not only 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 Serm. 3. Sunday after Epiphany part 3. fol. 198. 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 Hom. of the misery of Man f. 8. where it is 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 This said as in the way of Explication we will next see what hath been positively delivered by our first Reformers concerning the fatality or absoluteness of Gods Decrees maintained by Calvin then and his followers since Of which thus Bishop Latimer in his Sermon upon Septuagesima Serm. on Sepfâ—ages f. 213. Some vain fellows make their reckoning thus What need I to mortifie my body with abstaining from all sin and wickedness I perceive God hath chosen some and some are rejected now if I be in the number of the chosen I cannot be damned but if I be accounted amongst the condemned number then I cannot be saved For Gods judgments are immutable such foolish and wicked reasons some have which bringeth them either to carnal liberty or to desperation Therefore it is as needful to beware of such Reason or Exposition of the Scriptures as it is to beware of the Devil himself To the same purpose in his third Sermon after the Epiphany viz. We read in the Acts of the Apostles that when St. Paul had made a long Sermon at Antioch There believed saith the Evangelist as many as were ordained unto everlasting life With the which saying a great number of people have been offended and have said We perceive that only those shall come to believe and so to everlasting life which are chosen of God unto it therefore it is no matter whatsoever we do for if we be chosen to everlasting life we shall have it And so they have opened a door unto themselves of all wickedness and carnal liberty against the true meaning of the Scripture For if they must be damned the fault is not in God but in themselves for it is written Deus vult omnes homines salvos fieri God would have all men should be saved But they themselves procure their own damnation and despise the passion of Christ by their own wicked and inordinate living 5. Hooper is bolder yet than he even to the censuring of those who by the fatality of these Decrees Hoop in Prefac before the ten Commandm make God to be the author of sin And first he lets us know in general That the blind Southsayers that write of things to come were more to be esteemed of than our curious and high-climing Wits for they attribute the cause of ill to the evil Aspect and sinister conjunctions of the Planets Which said we shall hear him speaking more particularly to the present point Id. Ibid. in this manner following viz. It is not a Christian mans part to attribute to his own free will with the Pelagian and extenuate Original sin nor to make God the Author of evil and our damnation nor yet to say God hath written fatal Laws with the Stoicks and in the necessity of Destiny violently pulleth one by the hair into Heaven and thrusteth the other headlong into Hell And in another place Our Gospellists saith he he better Learned than the Holy Ghost Id. Ibid. for they wickedly attribute the cause of punishment and adversity to Gods Providence which is the cause of no ill as he himself could do no ill and every mischief that is done they say it is Gods will Id. Ibid. And then again Howsoever man judgeth of Predestination God is not the cause of sin thou art not the God that willest sin and it is said That thy Perdition O Israel is of thy self and thy succour only of me And finally to shut up his discourse hereof with some Application he shall tell us thus Being admonished by the Scripture that we must leave sin Id. Ibid. and do the works commanded of God it will prove but a carnal opinion which we blind our selves withal of Fatal Destiny and in case there follow not in us knowledge of Christ amendment of life it is not a lively faith that we have but rather a vain knowledge and meer presumption Next let us look upon such passages in the writings
to say to receive the grace offered consent to the promise and not to impugn the God that calleth More fully but to the same purpose also speaks Bishop Latimer Gods salvation saith he is sufficient to save all man-kind But we are so wicked of our selves that we refuse the same Serm. on Septu fol. 214. 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 find That seeing the preaching of the Gospel is universal it appeareth that God would have all man-kind saved and that the fault is not in him if they be damned For thus it is written Deus vult omnes homines falvos 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 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 carneum Atque licet ex nolentibus quae recta sunt volentes faciat ex volentibus prava nolentes reddat Voluntati tamen nullam violentiam infert nemo hac de causa cum peccaverit ut eam ob causam accusari nonmereatur aut damnari 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 goed worke 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 sin by which men are necessitated and compelled to those acts of wickedness 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 excerable By Gods Predestination saith another we are compelled to do those things for which we are damned as will appear more fully in the sixtecnth Chapter when the extravagancies of the Predestinarians come to be considered And it is probable enough that to encounter with these monstrous Paradoxes of the Zuinglian Gospellers this Article was first composed in which Provision seems 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 find any thing in this Article against Arminianism as they call it or in defence of the determining of the will by converting grace or the consistency of the freedom 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 Calvinism when it was published with the rest in King Edwards time or the Reformers of the Church under Queen Elizabeth were no friends to Calvinism in cansing it to be left out in the second Book Anno 1562. to which subscription is required by the Laws of the Land Proceed we next unto the book of Homilies in the one of which we find this passage Hom. of the Mis of Man p. 10. that few of the proud learned wise perfect and holy Pharisees was saved by Christ because they justified themselves by their counterfeit holiness 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 bird Hom. of good works p. 33. that he worships himself that all the admonitions exhortations benefits and the precepts of God could not keep him from their intention More clearly and expresly in another place where after the recitation of some pious duties by God commended to the Jews 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 ears that they might not hear 1. p. of the Ser. of felling from God p. 53. 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 pass saith the Prophet even as I told them and they would not hear so when they cried 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 persuasions and stubbornness of their own hearts go backward and not forward as is said in Jeremy they go and turn 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 Freewill agreed upon by the Clergy in their Convocation Anno 1543. 1. Of the Convocation holden in the year 1543. in order to
upon so plain a Revelation of Gods secret Will than take up Arms against the Queen depose her from her Throne expel 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 climbing up to Heaven was never more made use of than by Knox and Calvin for mounting them to the sight of Gods secret Council which St. Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or things unspeakable such as are neither possible nor lawful for a man to utter But of all Knox's followers none followed so close upon his heels as Ro. Crowly a fugitive for Religion in Q. Maries days and the Author of a Book called a Confutation of 13 Articles Ibid. p. 18. c. In which he lays 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 withal so weak of himself 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 his Brother Ibid. p. 2. ◠which makes it plain that he was otherwise persuaded 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 do predestinate a man to do things rashly and without any deliberation he shall not deliberate at all but run headlong upon it Ibid. p. 2. 6. be it good or evil That we are compelled by Gods predestination to do those things for which we are damned Ibid. 2.7 Ibid. 46. And finally finding this Doctrine to be charged with making God more cruel and unmerciful than the greatest Tyrant and pressed therewith by some of the contrary persuasion he returns his answer in this wise If God saith he were an inferiour to any superiour 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 do by compulsion through the necessity of his Predestination For a Catholicon or general Antidote to which dangerous Doctrines a new distinction was devised Ibid. p. 4. 47. 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 John Veron in the English tongue Ibid. p. 32. about the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth which subtilty Campneys not unfitly calls a marvellous sophistication a strange 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 thereup on he doth infer 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 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 Certain it is that they all speak more plainly than their Master doth as to the making of God to be the Author of sin though none of them speak any thing else than what may Logically be inferred from his ground and principles And by this book it appeareth also now contrary these Doctrins are to the establish'd 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 Liturgy 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 necessitated to return an Answer to it which he published in the second or third year of Queen Elizabeth In which Answer he not only clears himself from favouring the Pelagian Errours in the Doctrine of Freewill Justification by Works c. but solidly and learnedly refuteth the Opinions of certain English Writers and Preachers whom he accuseth for teaching of false and scandalous Doctrine under the name of Predestination Ibid. p. 10. Rom. 5. for his preparation whereunto he states the point of Universal Redemption by the death of Christ out of the parallel which St. Paul hath made between Christ and Adam that by the comparison of condemnation in Adam and redemption in Christ it might more plainly be perceived that Christ was not inferiour to Adam nor grace to sin And that as all the generation of man is condemned in Adam so is all the generation of man redeemed in Christ and as general a Saviour is Christ by Redemption as Adam is a condemner by transgression Which ground so laid he shews how inconsistent their Opinions are to the truth of Scripture who found the Doctrine of Election and Reprobation on Gods absolute pleasure by which infinitely the greatest part of all mankind is precedaniously excluded from having any part or interess in this Redemption reprobated to eternal death both in body and soul as the examples of his vengeance and consequently preordained unto sin as the means unto it that so his vengeance might appear with the face of Justice Which preordaining unto sin as it doth necessarily infer the laying of a necessity upon all mens actions whether good or bad according to that predeterminate Counsel and Will of God so these good men the Authors of the books before remembred do expresly grant it acknowledging that God doth not only move men to sin but compel them to it by the inevitable rules of Predestination But against this it is thus discoursed by the said Campneys that if Gods Predestination be the only cause of Adams fall and filthy sin Ibid. p. 51. And
under Eutychianus Baron Ann. Eccl. in An. 277. his next Successor and let them reconcile the difference that list for me Suffice it that the Heresie being risen up and being so directly contrary both to Faith and Piety the Bishops of the Church bestirred themselves both then and after for the suppressing of the same according to their wonted care of Her peace and safety Not as before in the case of Paulus Samosatenus by Synodical meetings which was the only way could be taken by them for the deposing of him from his Bishoprick which followed as a part of his condemnation but by discourse and Argument in publick Writings which might effectually suppress the Heresie although the person of the Heretick was out of distance and to say truth Epiph. advers haeres 66. n. 12. beyond their reach The Persian King had eased them of that labour who seizing on that wretched miscreant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commanded him to be flay'd alive and thereby put him to death as full of ignominy as of pain But for the confutation of the Heresie which survived the Author that was the business of the Bishops by whom as Epiphanius noteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. Ibid. n. 21. many most admirable Disputations had been made in confutation of his Errors Particularly he instanceth in Archelaus Bishop of the Caschari a Nation of Mesopotamia Titus Bishop of Bostra Diodorus one of the Bishops of Cilicia Serapion Bishop of Thmua Eusebius the Historian Bishop of Caesarea Eusebius Emisenus Georgius and Apollinaris Bishops successively of Laodicea Athanasius Patriarch of Alexandria with many other Prelates of the Eastern Churches Not that the Bishops of the West did nothing in it though not here named by Epiphanius who being of another Language could not so well take notice of their Works and Writings For after this St. Austin Bishop of Hippo wrote so much against them and did so fully satisfie and confute them both that he might justly say with the Apostle that he laboured more abundantly than they all So careful were the Bishops of the Churches safety that never any Heretick did arise but presently they set a watch upon him and having found what Heresies or dangerous doctrines he dispersed abroad endeavoured with all speed to prevent the mischief This as they did in other cases so was their care the more remarkable by how much greater was the person whom they were to censure Which as we have before demonstrated in the case of Paulus Patriarch of the Church of Antioch so we may see the like in their proceedings against Marcellinus one of the Popes of Rome the third from Felix who though he broached no Heresie as the other did yet gave as great a scandal to the Church as he if not greater far The times were hot and fiery in the which he sat so fierce a persecution being raised against the Church by Dioclesian and his Associates in the Empire as never had been before A persecution which extended not only to the demolishing of Churches Theod. Eccl. hist l. 5. c. 28. Arnob. cont gent. l. 4. in fine Damas in vita Marcellini the Temples of Almighty God but to the extirpation of the Scriptures the Books and Oracles of the Almighty And for the bodies of his Servants some of which were living Libraries and all lively Temples even Temples of the holy Ghost it raged so terribly amongst them that within Thirty days Seventeen thousand Persons of both sexes in the several parts and Provinces of the Romam Empire were crowned with Martyrdom the Tyrants so extreamly raging Marcellinus comes at last unto his trial where being wrought upon either by flattery or fear or both he yielded unto flesh and blood and to preserve his life Id. ibid. he betrayed his Master Ad sacrificium ductus est ut thurificaret quod fecit saith Damasus in the Pontifical He was conducted to the Temple to offer incense to the Roman Idols which he did accordingly And this I urge not to the scandal and reproach of the Church of Rome Indeed 't is no Reproach unto her that one amongst so many godly Bishops most of them being Martyrs also should waver in the constancy of his resolutions and for a season yield unto those persuasions which flesh and blood and the predominant love of life did suggest unto him That which I urge it for is for the declaration of the Course which was taken against him the manner how the Church proceeded in so great a cause and in the which so great a Person was concerned For though the crime were great and scandalous tending to the destruction of the flock of Christ which being much guided by the example of so prime a Pastor might possibly have been seduced to the like Idolatry and that great numbers of them ran into the Temple and were spectators of that horrid action yet find we not that any of them did revile him in word or deed or pronounced hasty judgment on him but left the cognizance of the cause to them to whom of right it did belong Nor is it an hard matter to discern who these Judges were Lay-men they could not be Amb. Epist l. 5. Ep. 32. that 's sure Quando audisti in causa fidei Laicos de Episcopis judicasse When did you ever hear saith Ambrose speaking of the times before him that Lay-men in a point of Faith did judge of Bishops And Presbyters they were not neither they had no Authority to judge the Person of a Bishop That Bishops had Authority to censure and depose their Presbyters we have shewn already that ever any Presbyters did take upon them to judge their Bishop is no where to be found I dare boldly say it in all the practice of Antiquity For being neither munere pares Id. ibid. nor jure suniles equal in function nor alike in law they were disabled now in point of reason from such bold attempts as afterwards disabled by Imperial Edict A simple Biship might as little intermeddle in it as a simple Presbyter for Bishops severally and apart were not to judge their Metropolitan no nor one another Being of equal Order and Authority and seeing that Par in parem non habet potestatem that men of equal rank qua tales are of equal power one of them cannot be the others Judge for want of some transcendent power to pass sentence on him Which as it was of force in all other cases wherein a Bishop was concerned so most especially in this wherein the party Criminal was a Metropolitan and more than so the Primate or Patriarch of the Diocess So that all circumstances laid together there was no other way conceivable in these ancient times than to call a Council the greatest Ecclesiastical Tribunal of Christ on earth there to debate the business and upon proof of the offence to proceed to judgment This had been done before in the case of Paulus and this is
able of our selves so much as to think well and where in giving the cause why some have revolted from the Faith and some stand firm he said it was because the Foundation of God standeth sure and hath this seal the Lord knoweth who are his They added divers passages of the Gospel of S. John and infinite Anthorities of S. Augustine because the Saint wrote nothing in his old Age but in favour of this Doctrine But some others though of Iess esteem opposed this opinion calling it hard cruel inhumane horrible impious and that it shewed partiality in God if without any motive cause he elected one and rejected another and unjust if he damned men for his own will and not for their faults and had created so great a multitude to condemn it They said it destroyed Free-will because the Elect cannot finally do evil nor the Reprobate good that it casteth men into a gulph of desperation doubting that they be Reprobates That it giveth occasion to the wicked of bad thoughts not caring for Pennance but thinking if they be elected they shall not perish if Reprobates it is in vain to do well because it will not help them They confessed that not only works are not the cause of Gods election because that is before them and eternal but that neither Works foreseen can move God to Predestinate who is willing for his infinite mercy that all should be saved to this end prepareth sufficient assistance for all which every man having Free-will receiveth or refuseth as pleaseth him and God in his eternity foreseeth those who will receive his help and use it to good and those who will refuse and rejecteth these electeth and predestinateth those They added That otherwise there was no cause why God in the Scriptures should complain of sinners nor why he should exhort all to repentance and conversion if they have not sufficient means to get them that the sufficient assistance invented by the others is insufficient because in their opinion it never had nor shall have any effect The first Opinion as it is mystical and hidden keeping the mind humble and relying on God without any confidence in it self knowing the deformity of sin and the excellency of Divine Grace so this second was plausible and popular cherishing humane presumption and making a great shew and it pleased more the preaching Fryers than the understanding Divines And the Council thought it probable as consonant to politick Reason It was maintained by the Bishop of Bitonto and the Bishop of Salpi shewed himself very partial The Defenders of this using humane Reasons prevailed against the others but coming to the testimonies of Scripture they were manifestly overcome Calarinus holding the same Opinion to resolve the places of Scripture which troubled them all invented a middle way That God of his goodness had elected some few whom he will save absolutely to whom he hath prepared most potent effectual and infallible means the rest he desireth for his part they should be saved and to that end hath promised sufficient means for all leaving it to their choice to accept them and be saved or refuse them and be damned Amongst these there are some who receive them and are saved though they be not of the number of the Elect of which kind there are very many Other refusing to co-operate with God who wisheth their salvation are damned The cause why the first are predestinated is only the will of God why the others are saved is the acceptation good use and co-operation with the Divine assistance foreseen by God why the last are reprobated is the foreseeing of their perverse will in refusing or abusing it That S. John S. Paul and all the places of Scripture alledged by the other part where all is given to God and which do shew infallibility are understood only of the first who are particularly priviledged and in other for whom the common way is left the admonitions exhortations and general assistances are verified unto which he that will give ear and follow them is saved and he that will not perisheth by his own fault Of these few who are priviledged above the common condition the number is determinate and certain with God but not of those who are saved by the common way depend on humane liberty but only in regard of the fore-knowledge of the works of every one Catarinus said He wondred at the stupidity of those who say the number is certain and determined and yet they add that others may be saved which is as much as to say that the number is certain and yet it may be enlarged And likewise of those who say That the Reprobates have sufficient assistance for salvation though it be necessary for him that is saved to have a greater which is to say a sufficient unsufficient He added that S. Augustins Opinion was not heard of before his time and himself confesseth it cannot be found in the works of any who wrote before him neither did himself always think it true but ascribed the cause of Gods will to merits saying God taketh compassion on and hardneth whom he listeth But that will of God cannot be unjust because it is caused by most secret merits and that there is diversity of sinners some who though they be justified deserve justification But after the heat of Disputation against the Pelagians transported him to think and speak the contrary yet when his opinion was heard all the Catholicks were scandalized as S. Prosper wrote to him and Genadius of Marselles fifty years after in his judgment which he maketh of the famous Writers said That it hapned to him according to the words of Solomon That in much speaking one cannot avoid sin and that by his fault exagitated by his Enemies the question was not then risen which might afterwards bring forth Heresie whereby the good Father did intimate his fear of that which now appeareth that is that by that opposition some Sect and Division might arise The censure of the second Article was diverse according to the three related Opinions Catarinus thought the first part true in regard of the efficacy of the Divine Will towards those who were particularly favoured But the second false concerning the sufficiency of Gods assistance unto all and mans liberty in co-operating Others ascribing the cause of Predestination in all to humane consent condemned the whole Article in both parts But those that adhered unto S. Augustine and the common opinion of the Theologans did distinguish it and said it was true in a compound sense but damnable in a divided a subtilty which confounded the minds of the Prelates and his own though he did exemplifie it by saying he that moveth cannot stand still it is true in a compound sense but is understood while he moveth but in a divided sonse it is false that is in another time Yet it was not well understood because applying it to his purpose It cannot be said that a man predestinated can be damned
ill but all cometh from absolute necessity and in us is no Free-will and to affirm it is a meer fiction 3. Free-will since the sin of Adam is lost and a thing only titular and when one doth what is in his power he sinneth mortally yea it is a thing fained and a Title without reality 4. Free-will is only in doing ill and hath no power to do good 5. Free-will moved by God doth by no means co-operate and followeth as an Instrument without life or an unreasonable Creature 6. That God correcteth those only whom he will though they will not spurn against it Upon the first Article they spake rather in a Tragical manner than Theological that the Lutheran Doctrine was a frantick wisdom that mans Will as they make it is prodigious that those words a thing of Title only a Title without reality are monstruous That the Opinion is impious and blasphemous against God that the Church hath condemned it against the Maniches Priscilianists and lastly against Aballardus and Wickliff and that it was folly against common sense every one proving in himself his own Liberty that it deserveth not confutation but as Aristotle saith Chastisement and Experimental proof that Luther's Scholars perceived the folly and to moderate the Absurdity said after that a man had liberty in External Political and Oeconomical actions and in matters of Civil Justice that which every one but a Fool knoweth to proceed from Councils and Election but denied Liberty in matter of Divine Justice only Marinarus said That as it is foolish to say no huane action is in our power so it is no less absurd to say that every one is every one finding by experience that he hath not his affections in his power that this is the sense of the Schools which say that we are not free in the first motions which freedom because the Saints have it is certain that some freedom is in them which is not in us Catarinus according to his opinion said That without Gods special assistance a man cannot do a moral good said there was no liberty in this and therefore that the Fourth Article was not so easily to be condemned Vega after he had spoken with such Ambiguity that he understood not himself concluded that between the Divines and the Protestants there was no difference in Opinion for they concluding now that there is liberty in Philosophical Justice and not in Supernatural in External works of the Law not in external and spiritual that is to say precisely with the Church that one cannot do spiritual works belonging to Religion without the assistance of God And though he said all endeavour was to be used for composition yet he was not gratefully heard it seeming in some sort a prejudice that any of the differences might be reconciled and they were wont to say that this is a point of the Colloquies a word abhorred as if by that the Laity had usurped the Authority which is proper to Councils A great Disputation arose upon them Whether it be in mans power to believe or not to believe The Franciscans following Sotus did deny it saying That as Knowledge doth necessarily follow Demonstrations so Faith doth arise necessarily from persuasions and that it is in the understanding which is a natural Agent and is naturally moved by the Object They alledged Experience that no man can believe what he will but what seemeth true adding that no man would feel any displeasure if he could believe he had it not The Dominicans said that nothing is more in the power of the Will than to believe and by the determination and resolution of the Will only one may believe the number of the Stars is even Upon the I hird Article Whether Free-will be lost by sin very many Authorities of S. Augustine being alledged which expresly say it Hist of 〈◊〉 cil p. 108. c. Soto did invent because ke knew no other means to avoid them that true Liberty is equivocal for either it is derived from the Noun Libertas Freedom or from the Verb Liberare to set Free that in the first sense it is opposed to Necessity in the second to Servitude and that when S. Augustine said That Free-will was lost he would infer nothing else but that it is made slave to Sin and Satan This difference could not be understood because a servant is not free for that he cannot do his Will but is compelled to follow his Masters And by this opinion Luther could not be blamed for entituling a Book of SERVILE WILL many thought the Fourth Article absurd saying That Liberty is understood to be a power to both the contraries therefore that it could not be said to be a Liberty to Evil if it were not also to Good But they were made to acknowledge their Error when they were told that the Saints and blessed Angels in Heaven are free to do good and therefore that it was no inconvenience that some should be free only to do Evil. In the examining the fifth and sixth Articles of the consent which Free-will giveth to Divine Inspiration or preventing Grace the Franciscans and Dominicans were of divers Opinions The Franciscans contended that the Will being able to prepare it self hath Liberty much more to accept or refuse the divine Prevention when God giveth assistance before it useth the strength of Nature The Dominicans denied that the Works preceding the Vocation are truly preparatoy and ever gave the first place to God Notwithstanding there was a contention between the Dominicans themselves For Soto defended that although a man cannot obtain Grace without the special preventing assistance of God yet the Will may ever some way resist and refuse it and when it doth receive it it is because it giveth assent and doth will so and if our assent were not required there would be no cause why all should not be converted For according to the Apocalyps God standeth always at the Gate and knocketh And it is a saying of the Fathers now made common That God giveth Grace to every one that will have it and the scripture doth always require this consent in us and to say otherwise were to take away the Liberty of the Will and to say that God useth violence Fryer Aloisius Catanca said to the contrary That God worketh two sorts of preventing Grace in the mind according to the Doctrine of S. Thomas the one sufficient the other effectual To the first the Will may consent or resist but not to the second because it implieth contradiction to say that Efficacy can be resisted for proof he alledged places of S. John and very clear Expositions of S. Augustine He answereth that it ariseth hence that all are not converted because all are not effectually prevented That the fear of overthrowing Free-will is removed by S. Thomas the things are violently moved by a contrary Cause but never by their own and God being the cause of the WIll to say it is moved by God is to
Learning And as for Barns the far most learned of the three he had been once Prior of the Augustinian Fryers in Cambridge whose Doctrines he had sucked in at his first coming thither and therefore might retain them to the very last without relation to the Zuinglian or Calvinian Tenents or any differences then on foot between the Protestant Doctors and the Church of Rome Besides being of the same Order which Luther had quitted he might the more willingly encline to Luthers first opinion touching servitude of the will mans inability in co-operating with the Grace of God and being forcibly drawn in his own conversion velut inanimatum quiddam like a stock or stone in which he was tenaciously followed by the rigid Lutherans though he had afterwards changed his judgment touching that particular So that beholding Dr. Barns either as one that followed Luther in his first Opinions or travelled the Dominican way in the present points as an Augustinian it is no marvel if we find somewhat in his Writings agreeable to the palate of the Calvinists and rigid Lutherans From whence it is Dise of Free-will p. 278. that laying down the Doctrine of Predestination he discourseth thus viz. But yet sayst thou that he giveth to the one mercy and the other none I answer what is that to thee is not his mercy his own is it not lawful for him to give it to whom he will is thine eye evil because his is good take that which is thine and go thy way for if he will shew his wrath and make his power known over the vessels of wrath ordained to damnation and to declare the riches of his glory unto the vessels of mercy Id. ib. which he hath prepared and elected unto Glory what hast thou therewith to do But here will subtil blindness say God saw before that Jacob should do good and therefore did he choose him he saw also that Esau should do evil therefore did he condemn him Alas for blindness what will you judg of that which God foresaw how know we that God saw that and if he saw it how know we that it was the cause of Jacobs Election These Children being unborn they had done neither good nor bad and yet one of them is chosen and the other is refused St. Paul knoweth no other cause but the will of God and will you needs discuss another He saith not I will have mercy on him that I see shall do good but I will shew mercy to whom I will He saith not I will have compassion on him that shall deserve it de congruo but Of him of whom I will have compassion Now as he followeth the Dominicans or rigid Lutherans in laying down the grounds and method of Predestination so he draws more to them also and the Zuinglians also touching Gods workings on the will than possibly may be capable of a good construction Ib. p. 281. Gods saith he of his infinite power letteth nothing to be exempted from him but all things to be subject unto his action and nothing can be done by them but by his principal motion So that he worketh in all manner of things that be either good or had not changing their nature but only moving them to work after their natures So that good worketh good and evil worketh evil and God useth them both as instruments and yet doth he nothing evil but evil is done alone through the will of man God working by him but not evil as by an instrument Which last Position notwithstanding all the subtilty in the close thereof how far it is from making God to be the Author of sin I leave to be determined by men of more Sholastical and Metaphysical heads than my simplicity can pretend to For Tyndal next though I shall not derogate in any thing from his great pains in translating the Bible nor from the glory of his suffering in defence of those Truths for which he died yet there were so many Heterodoxes in the most of his Writings as render them no fit rule for a Reformation no more than those of Wicklif before remembred the number and particulars whereof I had rather the Reader should look for in the Acts and Monuments where they are mustered up together about the latter end of the Reign of King Henry the eighth than expect them here That which occurreth in him touchin Predestination is no more than this Prolog in Epist to the Romans p. 42. 1. Grace saith he is properly Gods favour benevolence or kind mind which of his own self without our deservings he reacheth to us whereby he was moved and inclined to give Christ unto us with all other gifts of Grace Which having told us in his Preface to Sr. Pauls Epistle to the Romans he telleth us not long after that in the 9 10 11. Chapters of the Epistle the Apostle teacheth us of Gods Predestination From whence it springeth altogether whether we shall believe or not believe be loosed from sin or not be loosed By which Predestination our Justifying and Salvation are clear taken out of our hands and put into the hands of God only which thing is most necessary of all for we are so weak and so uncertain that if it stood in us there would of truth no man be saved Ibid. 15. the Devil no doubt would deceive him but now God is sure of his Predestination neither can any man withstand or let him else why do we hope and sigh against sin Discoursing in another place of the act the Will hath on the Understanding he telleth us That the Will of man followeth the Wit that as the Wit erreth so doth the Will and as the Wit is in captivity so is the Will neither is it possible that the Will should be free when the Wit is in bondage c. as I err in my Wit so I err in my Will when I judg that to be evil which is good then indeed do I hate that which is good and then when I perceive that which is good to bee evil then indeed do I love the evil Finally in the heats of his Disputation with Sir Thomas Moor who had affirmed That men were to endeavour themselves and captivate their understandings if they would believe He first cryes out lib. 3. Hist Moor p. 306. How Beetle-blind is fleshly reason and then subjoyns that the Will hath no operation at all in the working of faith in my soul no more than the Child hath in begetting of his Father for saith Paul it is the gift of God and not of us my Wit must conclude good or had yet my Will can leave or take my Wit must shew me a true or an apparent cause why yet my Will have any working at all I had almost forgot John Frith and if I had it had been no great loss to our rigid Calvinists who not content to guide themselves in these Disputes by Gods Will revealed have too audaciously pried into the
albeit the light of Reason doth abide yet is it much darkned and with much difficulty doth discern things that be inferiour and pertain to this present life but to understand and perceive things that be spiritual and pertain to that everlasting life it is of it self unable And so likewise there remains a certain freedom of the will in those things which do pertain unto the desires and works of this present life yet to perform spiritual and heavenly things Freewill of it self is unsufficient and therefore the power of mans Freewill being thus wounded and decayed hath need of a Physician to heal it and one help to repair it that it may receive light and strength whereby it may be so and have power to do those godly and spiritual things which before the fall of Adam it was able and might have done To this blindness and infirmity of mans Nature proceeding of Original sin the Prophet David hath regard when he desired his eyes to be lightened of Almighty God that he might consider the marvellous things that be in his Law And also the Prophet Jeremy saying Psalm 115. Jer. 16. Heal me O Lord and I shall be made whole Augustin also plainly declareth the same saying We conclude that Freewill is in man after his fall which thing whoso denieth is not a Catholick man but in spiritual desires and works to please God it is so weak and feeble hat it cannot eithre begin or perform them unless by the Grace and help of God it be prevented and holpen And hereby it appeareth that mans strength and Will in all things which be helpful to the soul and shall please God hath need of the graces of the holy Ghost by which such things be inspired to men and strength and constancy given to perform them if we do not wilfully refuse the said Grace effered to them And likewise as many things be in the Scripture which do shew Freewill to be in man so there be now fewer places in Scripture which declare the Grace of God to be so necessary that if by it Freewill be not prevented and holpen it neither can do nor will any thing good and godly of which sort be these Scriptures following Without me you can do nothing no man cometh to me except it be given him of my Father John 15. Jon. 6.1 Cor. 3. We be not sufficient of our selves as of our selves to think any good thing According unto which Scriptures and such other like it followeth That Freewill before it may will or think any godly thing must be holpen with the grace of Christ and by his Spirit be prevented and inspired that it may be able thereunto And being so made able may from thenceforth work together with grace and by the same sustained holpen and maintained may both accomplish good works and avoid sin and persevere also and increase in grace It is true of the grace of God only that first we are inspired and moved to any good thing but to resist temptations and to persist in goodness and go forward it is both of the Grace of God and our Freewill and endeavour And finally after we have persevered unto the end to be crowned with glory therefore is the gift and mercy of God who of his bountiful goodness hath ordained that reward to be given after this life according to such good works as be done in this life by his Grace Therefore men ought with much diligence and gratitude of mind to consider and regard the inspiration wholesom motions of the holy Ghost and to embrace the Grace of God which is offered to them in Christ and moveth them to work good things And furthermore to go about by all means to shew themselves such as unto whom the Grace of God is not given in vain And when they do settle that notwithstanding their diligence yet through their infirmity they be not able to do that they desire then they ought earnestly and with a fervent devotion and stedfast faith to ask of him which gave the beginning that he would vouchsafe to perform 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 judgment of God perish and be lost For truly men be to themselves the AVTHOR OF SIN and DAMNATION God is neither the AVTHOR OF SIN nor the CAVSE OF DAMNATION and yet doth he most righteously damn 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 Freewill 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 Freewill Nor on the other side so extol Freewill that injury be done to the grace of God Such was the judgment of the Bishops and Clergy assembled in Convocation Anno 1543. touching the nature of Freewill and the co-operations of it with the grace of God In which I can see nothing not agreeable to the present establish'd 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 Archbishop of Canterbury Parfew Bishop of Saint Asaph Buchely Bishop of Bangor Bush Bishop of Bristol Sampson Bishop of Litchfield Barlow Bishop of Saint David Goodrich Bishop of Ely Ship Bishop of Hereford Folgate Bishop of Landaff and afterwards Archbishop of York King Bishop of Oxon Chambers Bishop of Peterborough Cepon Bishop of Sarum Thirlby then Bishop of Westminster Aldrich then Bishop of Carlile and Bird Bishop of Chester By which proportion we may conclude that a far 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
Papist nor Pelagian 3. The common practices of the Calvinists to defame their Adversaries the name of Freewill-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 Orthodoxy in the point of universalRedemption and what he builds upon the same 9. Hissolid 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 Controverted Points according to the Principles and persuasions of the first Reformers And to say truth it was but time that they should come to some conclusion in the Points disputed there being some men who in the beginning of the Reign of King Enward the sixth busily stickled in the maintenance of Calvins Doctrins And thinking themselves to be more Evangelical than 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 reverend Prelate and right godly Martyr Bishop Hooper in the Preface to his Exposition of the Ten Commandments Our Gospellers saith he be better learned than 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 too 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 search'd into the Counsels the Eternal Counsels of Almighty God And as it seems he found there some other Gospel than 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 Bishop 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 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 custom 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 Answer to a certain Letter p. 3. For whereas one William Samuel had either preached or written in Queen Maries times 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 it is the flat and manifest denying both of God the Father and of his Son Christ Jesus neither doth it require any confutation to him that doth but confess that there is a God And as for my self saith he I do not love my life so dearly as I hate this vile saying deadly He gives not long after to the Popish Pelagians the name of a filthy and detestable Sect. p. 5. mustereth up all the errours of Pelagius which had been publickly recanted in the Synod of Palestine and falling upon that which teacheth That the grace of God is given according unto our deserving he declares it to be vile and abominable contrary to the manifest mind and words of the Apostle p. 12. Finally Not to trouble my self with more particulars encountring with another of the Pelagian Heresies he passionately cries out O blasphemy intolerable O filthy puddle and sink most execrable full of stinking Errours full of damnable presumption like to the pride of Lucifer most abominable p. 15. This is enough to free this man from being either a Papist or Pelagian Heretick as his Enemies made him And for the other reproach which they laid upon him of being an Enemy to Gods Predestination I conceive it will not be regarded as a matter of moment considering the Disputes between them and the usual acts of the Calvinians to defame their Adversaries We shewed before how Bogerman Paraeus and the rest of the Calvinian Sect reproach'd the Remonstrants with Pelagianism in their publick Writings though as free from it as themselves We shewed before how Cross in the continuation of his Belgick History imposeth on them for some of their detestable Opinions that they made God to be the Author of sin and that he had created the infinitely greatest part of mankind to no other end but to burn them in Hell-fire for ever which horrid blasphemies they both abominated and confuted to their best abilities The like unworthy practices were used by Calvin and Beza against Sebastian Castel a man of no less learning but of far more modesty and moderation than either of them whom they never left persecuting and reviling till they had first cast him out of Geneva and afterwards brought him to his grave And this they
fry in Hell and that he made them for no other purpose than to be the children of death and hell and that for no other cause but his meer pleasure sake and so say that God doth not only say but will swear to a lye For the Oath should have run thus As I live saith the Lord I do delight in the death of man Secondly it doth not by consequence but directly make God the Author of sin For if God without eye to sin did design men to hell then did he say and set down that he should sin for without sin he cannot come to hell And indeed doth not this Opinion say that the Almighty God in the eye of his Counsel did not only see but say that Adam should fall and so order and decree and set down his fall that it was no more possible for him not to fall than it was possible for him not to eat And of that when God doth order set down and decree I trust he is the Author unless they will say that when the Right honourable Lord Keeper doth say in open Court We order he means not to be the Author of that his Order Which said he tells us Thirdly Ibid. p. 135. that it takes away from Adam in his state of innocency all freedom of will and Liberty not to sin For had he had freedom to have altered Gods designment Adams liberty had been above the designment of God And here I remember a little witty solution is made that is if we respect Adams Will he had power to sin but if Gods Decrees he could not sin This is a filly solution And indeed it is as much as if you should take a sound strong man that hath power to walk and to lie still and bind him hand and foot as they do in Bedlam and lay him down and then bid him rise up and walk or else you will stir him up with a whip and he tell you that there be chains upon him so that he is not able to stir and you tell him again that that is no excuse for if he look upon his health his strength his legs he hath power to walk or to stand still but if upon his Chains indeed in that respect he is not able to walk I trust he that should whip that man for not walking were well worthy to be whipt himself Fourthly As God do abhor a heart and a heart and his soul detesteth also a double minded man so himself cannot have a mind and a mind a face like Janus to look two ways Yet this Opinion maketh in God two Wills the one flat opposite to the other An Hidden Will by which he appointed and willed that Adam should sin and an open Will by which he forbad him to sin His open Will said to Adam in Paradise Adam thou shalt not eat of the Tree of good and evil His Hidden Will said Thou shalt eat nay now I my self cannot keep thee from eating for my Decree from Eternity is passed Thou shalt eat that thou may drown all thy posterity into sin and that I may drench them as I have designed in the bottomless pit of Hell Fifthly Amongst all the Abominations of Queen Jezabel that was the greatest 1 Kings 21. when as hunting after the life of innocent Naboth she set him up amongst the Princes of the Land that so he might have the greater fall God planted man in Paradise as in a pleasant Vineyard and mounted him to the World as on a stage and honoured him with all the Soveraignty over all the Creatures he put all things in subjection under his feet so that he could not pass a decree from all Eternity against him to throw him down head-long into Hell for God is not a Jezabel Tollere in altum to lift up a man ut lapsu graviore ruat that he may make the greater noise with his fall But he goes on and having illustrated this cruel Mockery by some further instances he telleth us Ibid. p. 140. that the Poet had a device of their old Saturn that he eat up his Children assoon as they were born for fear least some of them should dispossess him of Heaven Pharaoh King of Egypt had almost the same plea for he made away all the young Hebrew Males lest they should multiply too fast Herod for fear our Saviour Christ should supplant him in his Kingdom caused all the young Children to be slain those had all some colour for their barbarous cruelty But if any of those had made a Law designing young Children to torments before they had been born and for no other cause and purpose but his own absolute will the Heavens in course would have called for revenge It is the Law of Nations that no man innocent shall be condemned of Reason not to hate where we are not hurt of Nature to like and love her own brood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the holy Ghost we are Gods Kindred he cannot hate us when we are innocent when we are nothing when we are not Now touching Gods Glory which is to us all as dear as our life this Opinion hath told us a very inglorious and shameful Tale for it saith the Almighty God would have many souls go to Hell and that they may come thither they must sin that so he may have just cause to condemn them Who doth not smile at the Grecians Conceit that gave their God a glorious title for killing of flies Gods Glory in punishing ariseth from his Justice in revenging of sin and for that it tells us as I said a very sad and unpleasant Tale for who could digest it to hear a Prince say after this manner I will beget met a Son that I may kill him that I may so get me a name I will beget him without both his feet and when he is grown up having no feet I will command him to walk upon pain of death and when he breaketh my Commandment I will put him to death O beloved these glorious fancies imaginations and shews are far from the nature of our gracious merciful and glorious God who hath proclaimed himself in his Titles Royal Jehovah the Lord the Lord strong and mighty and terrible slow to anger and of great goodness And therefore let this conceit be far from Jacob and let it not come near the Tents of Joseph How much holier and heavenlier conceit had the holy Fathers of the Justice of God Non est ante punitor Deus quam peccator homo God put not on the person of a Revenger before man put on the person of an Offender saith St. Ambrose Neminem coronat antequam vincit neminem punit antequam peccat he crowns none before he overcomes and he punisheth no man before his offence Et qui facit miseros ut miseratur crudelem habet miserecordiam he that puts man into miseries that he may pity him hath no kind but a cruel pity The absolute decree of Reprobation
touching the divine Decrees upon occasion of Gods denounced Judgment against the Ninevites 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 Vniversity 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-Chancellor 11. The sentencing of Barret to a Recantatation no argument that his Doctrine was repugnant to the Church of England and that the body of the same Vniversity differed from the heads in that particular THIS great breach being thus made by Fox in his Acts and Monuments was afterwards open'd wider by William Perkins an eminent Divine 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 Larin 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 than 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 man-kind being shut under unbelief would therefore reject Grace offered did hereupon purpose to choose 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 whether he hath stated the opinions of the parties right may be discerned by that which hath been said in the former Chapters and whether 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 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 Golden chain 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. Ibid. p. 52. 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 leases 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 Ibid. 29. 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 than 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 than 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 of his Preface after which it might have sundry other impressions that which I follow being of the year 1621. And though the Supra-lapsarians or rigid Calvinists or Supra-creatarians rather as a late judicious Writer calls them differ exceedingly in these points from many of their more moderate Brethren distiguished from them by the name of Sub-lapsarians yet in all points touching the specifying of their several supposed Degrees they agree well enough together and therefore wink at one another as before was noted Notwithstanding the esteem wherewith both sorts of Calvinists entertained the book it found not the like welcome in all places 〈◊〉 Dedi nor from all mens hands Amongst other Parsons the Jesuite gives this censure of him viz. That by the deep humour of fancy he hath published and written many books with strange Titles which neither he nor his Reader do understand as namely about the Concatenation or laying together of the causes of mans Predestination and Reprobation c. Jacob van Harmine afterwards better known by the name of Arminius being then Preacher of the Church of Amsterdam not only censured in brief as Parsons did but wrote a full discourse against it entituled Examen Predestinationis Perkinsanae which gave the first
composing those differences not by the way of an accommodation but an absolute conquest and to this end they dispatch'd to him certain of their number in the name of the rest such as were interessed in the Quarrel Dr. Whitacres himself for one and therefore like to stickle hard for the obtaining their ends the Articles to which they had reduced the whole state of the business being brought to them ready drawn and nothing wanting to them but the face of Authority wherewith as with Medusa's head to confound their Enemies and turn their Adversaries into stones And that they might be sent back with the face of Authority the most Reverend Archbishop Whitgift calling unto him Dr. Flecher Bishop of Bristol then newly elected unto London and Dr. Richard Vaughan Lord Elect of Bangor together with Dr. Tyndal Dean of Ely Dr. Whitacres and the rest of the Divines which came from Cambridg proposed the said Articles to their consideration at his House in Lambeth on the tenth of Novemb. Anno 1595. by whom those Articles were agreed on in these following words 1. Deus ab aeterno praedestinavit quosdam ad vitam quosdam reprobavit ad mortem 2. Causa movens aut efficiens praedestinationis ad vitam non est praevisio fidei aut perseverantiae aut bonorum operum aut ullius rei quae insit in personis Praedestinatis sed sola voluntas beneplaciti Dei 3. Praedestinatorum praefinitus certus est numerus qui nec augeri nec minui potest 4. Qui non sunt Praedestinati ad salutem necessario propter peccata sua damnabuntur 5. Vera viva justificans fides spiritus Dei justificantis non extinguitur non excidit non evanescit in Electis aut finaliter aut totaliter 6. Homo vere fidelis id est fide justificante praeditus certus est plerophoria Fidei de Remissione peccatorum suorum salute sempiterna sua per Christum 7. Gratia salutaris non tribuitur non incommunicatur non conceditur universis hominibus qua servari possint si velint 8. Nemo potest venire ad Christum nisi datum ei fuerit nisi pater eum traxerit omnes homines non trahuntur à patre ut veniant ad filium 9. Non est positum in arbitrio aut potestate uniuscujusque hominis servari 1. God from Eternity hath predestinate certain men unto life certain men he hath reprobate 2. The moving or efficient cause of predestination unto life is not the foresight of Faith or of perseverance or of good works or of any thing that is in the person predestinated but only the good will and pleasure of God 3. There is predetermined a certain number of the Predestinate which can neither be augmented or diminished 4. Those who are not predestinated to salvation shall be necessarily damned for their sins 5. A true living and justifying Faith and the Spirit of God justifying is not extinguished falleth not away it vanisheth not away in the Elect either totally or finally 6. A man truly faithful that is such an one who is indued with a justifying faith is certain with the full assurance of faith of the remission of his sins and of his everlasting salvation by Christ 7. Saving Grace is not given is not granted is not communicated to all men by which they may be saved if they will 8. No man can come unto Christ unless it be given unto him and unless the Father shall draw him and all men are not drawn by the Father that they may come to the Son 9. It is not in the will or power of every one to be saved Now in these Articles there are these two things to be considered first the Authority by which they were made and secondly the effect produced by them in order to the end proposed and first as touching the authority by which they were made it was so far from being legal and sufficient that it was plainly none at all For what authority could there be in so thin a meeting consisting only of the Archbishop himself two other Bishops of which but one had actually received consecration one Dean and half a dozen Doctors and other Ministers neither impowred to any such thing by the rest of the Clergy nor authorized to it by the Queen And therefore their determinations of no more Authority as to binding of the Church or prescribing to the judgment of particular persons than as if one Earl the eldest son of two or three others meeting with half a dozen Gentlemen in Westminster Hall can be affirmed to be in a capacity of making Orders which must be looked on by the Subject as Acts of Parliament A Declaration they might make of their own Opinions or of that which they thought fittest to be holden in the present case but neither Articles nor Canons to direct the Church for being but Opinions still and the Opinions of private and particular persons they were not to be looked upon as publick Doctrines And so much was confessed by the Archbishop himself when he was called in question for it before the Queen who being made acquainted with all that passed by the Lord Treasurer Burleigh who neither liked the Tenents nor the manner of proceeding in them was most passionately offended that any such Innovation should be made in the publicck Doctrine of this Church and once resolved to have them all attainted of a Premunire But afterwards upon the interposition of some Friends and the reverend esteem she had of the excellent Prelate the Lord Archbishop whom she commonly called her Black Husband she was willing to admit him to his defence and he accordingly declared in all humble manner that he and his Associates had not made any Articles Canons or decrees with an intent that they should serve hereafter for a standing Rule to direct the Church but only had resolved on some Propositions to be sent to Cambridge for the appeasing of some unhappy differences in the University with which Answer her Majesty being somewhat pacified commanded notwithstanding that he should speedily recall and suppress those Articles which was performed with such care and diligence that a Copy of them was not to be found for a long time after And though we may take up this relation upon the credit of History of the Lambeth Articles printed in Latin 1651. or on the credit of Bishop Mountague who affirms the same in his Appeal Appeal p. 71. Resp Nec p. 146 Anno 1525. yet since the Authority of both hath been called in question we will take our warrant for this Narrative from some other hands And first we have it in a book called Necessario Responsio published by the Remonstrants Anno 1618. who possibly might have the whole story of it from the mouth of Baroe or some other who lived at that time in Cambridge Cabul p. 117. and might be well acquainted with the former passages And secondly We find the same
Tyranny over his Subjects may not be resisted that is to say if the Subject may not take up Arms against him he and his followers may destroy the Kingdom And and we are fallen upon the business of Resistance Calvin allows of no case for ought I can see in which the Subject lawfully may resist the Sovereign Sect. 23. quandoquidem resisti magistratui non potest quin simul resistatur Deo forasmuch as the Magistrate cannot be resisted but that God is resisted also and reckoning up those several pressures whereof Samuel spake unto the Jews and which he calls jus Regis as himself translates it he concludes at last Sect. 26. cui parere ipsi necesse esset nec obsistere liceret that no resistance must be made on the Subjects part though Kings entrench as much upon them both in their liberties and properties as the Prophet speaks of His Scholars are grown wiser and instruct us otherwise Paraeus saith that if the King assault our persons or endeavour to break into our Houses we may as lawfully resist him as we would do a Thief or Robber on the like occasions And our new Master have found out many other Cases in which the Subject may resist and which is more than so is bound to do it Paraeus in Rom. cap. 13. as namely in his own behalf and in Gods behalf in behalf of his Countrey and in behalf of the Laws and in so many more behalfs that they have turned most Christian Kings out of half their Kingdoms But to go on Calvin determins very rightly that notwithstanding any Contract made or supposed to be made between a King and his people yet if the King do break his Covenants and oppress the Subject the Subject can no more pretend to be discharged of his Allegiance than the Wife may lawfully divorce herself from a froward Hisband or Children throw aside that natural duty which they owe their Parents because their Parents are unkind and it may be cruel Those which do otherwise conclude from the foresaid Contract he calls insulsos ratioeinatores Sect. 29. but sorry and unsavory Disputants and reckoneth it for a seditious imagination that we must deal no otherwise with Kings than they do deserve nec aequum esse ut subditos ei nos praestemus qui vicissim Regem nobis non se praestet Sect. 27. or to imagine that it is neither sense nor reason that we should â—â—ew our selves obedient subjects unto him who doth not mutually perform the duty of a King to us His Scholars are grown able to teach their Master a new Lesson and would tell him if he were alive that there is a mutual Contract between King and Subjects and if he break the Covenant he forfeiteth the benefit of the Agreement and he not performing the duty of a King they are released from the duty of Subjects As contrary to their Masters Tenet as black to white and yet some late Pamphleters press no doctrine with such strength and eagerness as they have done this Nor have the Pulpits spaâ—ed to publish it to their cheated Auditories as a new Article of Faith that if the Ruler perform not his duty the Contract is dissolved and the people are at liberty to right themselves What excellent uses have been raised from this dangerous Doctrine as many Kings of Christendom have fest already so posterity will have cause to lament the mischiefs which it will bring into the World in succeeding Ages Finally Calvin hath determined and exceeding piously that if the Magistrate command us any thing which is contrary to the Will and word of God we must observe Saint Peters Rule and rather choose to obey God than men and that withal we must prepare our selves to endure such punishments as the offendd Magistrate shall inflict upon us for the said refusal Sect. 32. Et quicquid potius perpeti quam à veritate deflectere and rather suffer any Torments than forsake the way of Gods Commandments The Magistrate as it seems by him must at all times be honoured by us either in our active obedience or in our passive if we refuse to do his will we must be content to suffer for it His Scholars are too wise to submit to that and are so far form suffering for the testimony of the Gospel and a good conscience that they take care to teach the people that it is lawful to rebel in behalf of God to preserve the true Religion when it is in danger or when they think it is in danger by force of Arms and to procure the peace of Hierusalem by the destruction of Babylon Which being so the difference being so great and irreconcileable between the Followers and their Leader in the point of practice between the Master and the Scholars in the points of Doctrine me thinks it were exceeding fit the man were either less admired or better followed that they who cry him up for the great Reformer would either stand to all his Tenets or be bound to none that they would be so careful of the Churches peace and their own salvation as not to swallow down his Errors in his points of disciplines and pass him by with a Magister non tâ—netur when he doth preach Obedience to them and doth so solidly discourse of the powers of Government Tilly Philip. 2. Aut undique religionem suam toliant at usquequaque conserent as Tully said of Antony in another case But of this no more Hitherto CALVIN hath done will few better of the Genevian Doctors none ne unus quidem not so much as one But there 's an herb which spoils the pottage an HERB so venomous that it is mors in olla unto them that taste it The figs in the next basket are evil Jerem. 24. very evil not to be eaten as it is in the Prophets words they are so evil In that before he did exceeding soundly and judiciously law down the doctrine of obedience unto Kings and Princes and the unlawfulness of Subjects taking Arms against their Sovereign In this to come he openeth a most dangerous gap to disobedience and rebellions in most States in Christendom in which his name is either reverenced or his works esteemed of For having fully expressed the points before delivered unto the conscience of the Subject and utterly disabled them from lifting up their hands against the Supream Magistrate on any occasion whatsoever he shews them how to help themselves and what course to take for the asserting of their Liberties and the recovery of their Rights if the Prince invade them by telling them that all he spake before was of private persons Sect. 31. but that if there were any popular Officers such as the Ephori of Sparta the Tribunes of Rome the Demarchi of Athens ordained for the restraint of Kings and Supream Governours it never was his meaning to include them in it And such power he doth suppose to be in the three Estates of
and yet they that came last were rewarded with the first Mat. 20. The working will of the Pharisee seemed better but yet the Lords Will was rather to justifie the Publican Luk. 18. The elder Son had a better will to tarry by his Father and so did indeed and yet the fat Calf was given to the younger Son that ran away Luk. 15. whereby we have to understand how the matter goeth not by the will of man but by the will of God as it pleaseth him to accept according as it is written non ex voluntate carnis neque ex voluntate viri sed ex Deo nati sunt c. Which are born not of the will of the flesh nor yet of the will of man but of God Furthermore as all then goeth by the will of God only and not by the will of man So again here is to be noted that the will of God never goeth without faith in Christ Jesus his Son And therefore fourthly is this clause added in the definition through faith in Christ his Son which faith in Christ to us-ward maketh altogether For first it certifieth us of Gods Election as this Epistle of Mr. Bradford doth well express For whosoever will be certain of his Election in God let him first begin with faith in Christ which if he find in him to stand firm he may be sure and nothing doubt but that he is one of the number of Gods Elect. Secondly the said faith and nothing else is the only condition and means whereupon Gods mercy grace Election vocation and all Gods promises to salvation do stay accordingly the word of St. Paul si permanseritis in fide and if ye abide in the faith Col. 1.3 This faith is the mediate and next cause of our justification simply without any condition annexed For as the mercy of God his grace Election vocation and other precedent causes do save and justifie us upon condition if we believe in Christ so this faith only in Christ without condition is the next and immediate cause which by Gods promise worketh out justification according as it is written crede in dominum Jesum salvus eris tu domus tus Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved thou and thy whole house And thus much touching the Definition of Election with the causes thereof declared which you see now to be no merits or works of man whether they go before or come after faith For like as all they that be born of Adam do taste of his Malediction though they tasted not of the Apple so all they that be born of Christ which is by faith take part of the obedience of Christ although they never did that obedience themselves which was in him Rom. 5. Now to the second consideration Let us see likewise how and in what order this Election of God proceedeth in choosing and electing them which he ordaineth to salvation which order is this In them that be chosen to life first Gods mercy and free grace bringeth forth Election Election worketh Vocation or Gods holy calling which Vocation though hearing bringeth knowledge and faith in Christ Faith through promise obtaineth justification justification through hope waiteth for glorification Election is before time Vocation and Faith cometh in time Justification and Glorification is without end Election depending upon Gods free grace and will excludeth all mans will blind fortune chance and all peradventures Vocation standing upon Gods Election excludeth all mans wisdom cunning learning intention power and presumption Faith in Christ proceeding by the gift of the Holy Ghost and freely justifying man by Gods promises excludeth all other merits of men all condition of deserving and all works of the Law both Gods Law and mans Law with all other outward means whatsoever Justification coming freely by Faith standeth sure by Promise without doubt fear or wavering in this life Glorification appertaining only to the life to come by hope is looked for Grace and Mercy preventeth Election ordaineth Vocation prepareth and receiveth the Word whereby cometh Faith Faith justifieth Justification bringeth glory Election is the immediate and next cause of Vocation Vocation which is the working of Gods Spirit by the Word is the immediate and next cause of Faith Faith is the immediate and next cause of Justification And this order and connexion of causes is diligently to be observed because of the Papists which have miserably confounded and inverted this doctrine thus teaching that Almighty God so far as he foreseeth mans merits before to come so doth he dispence his Election Dominus prout cujusque merita fore praevidet ita dispensat electionis gratiam futuris tamen concedere That is that the Lord recompenseth the grace of Election not to any merits proceeding but yet granteth the same to the merits that follow after and not rather have our holiness by Gods Election going before But we following the Scripture say otherwise that the cause only of God Election is his own free mercy and the cause only of our justification is our faith in Christ and nothing else As for example first concerning Election if the question be asked why was Abraham chosen and not Nathor why was Jacob chosen and not Esau why was Moses Elected and Pharaoh hardened why David accepted and Saul refused why few be chosen and the most forsaken It cannot be answered otherwise but thus because so was the good will of God In like manner touching Vocation and also Faith if the question be asked why this Vocation and gift of Faith was given to Cornelius the Gentile and not to Tertullus the Jew why to the Poor the Babes and the little ones of the world of whom Christ speaketh I thank the Father which hast hid these from the wise c. Matth. 11. why to the unwise the simple abjects and out-casts of the world of whom speaketh Saint Paul 1 Cor. 1. You see your calling my Brethren why not many of you c. Why to the sinners and not to the just why the Beggars by the high-ways were called and the bidden guests excluded We can ascribe no other cause but to Gods purpose and Election and say with Christ our Saviour quia Pater sic complacitum est ante te Yea Father for that it seemed good in thy sight Luk. 10. And so it is for Justification likewise if the question be asked why the Publican was justified and not the Pharisee Luk. 18. Why Mary the sinner and not Simon the inviter Luk. 11. Why Harlots and Publicans go before the Scribes and Pharisees in the Kingdom Matth. 21. why the Son of the Free-woman was received and the Bond-womans Son being his elder rejected Gen 21. why Israel which so long sought for righteousness found it not and the Gentiles which sought it not found it Rom. 9. We have no other cause hereof to render but to say with Saint Paul because they sought for it by works of the Law and not by Faith which
Faith as it cometh not by mans will as the Papists falsly pretend but only by the Election and free gift of God so it is only the immediate cause whereto the promise of our salvation is annexed according as we read And therefore of faith is the inheritance given as after grace that the promise might stand sure to every side Rom. 4. and in the same Chapter Faith believing in him that justifieth the wicked is imputed to righteousness And this concerning the causes of our salvation you see how Faith in Christ immediately and without condition doth justifie us being solicited with Gods mercy and Election that wheresoever Election goeth before Faith in Christ must needs follow after And again whosoever believeth in Christ Jesus through the vocation of God he must needs be partaker of Gods election whereupon resulteth the third note or consideration which is to consider whether a man in this life may be certain of his election To answer to which question this first is to be understood that although our election and vocation simply indeed be known to God only in himself a priore yet notwithstanding it may be known to every particular faithful man a posteriore that is by means which means is Faith in Christ Jesus crucified For as much as by Faith in Christ a man is justified and thereby made the child of salvation reason must needs lead the same to be then the child of election chosen of God to everlasting life For how can a man be saved but by consequence it followeth that he must also be elected And therefore of election it is truly said de electione judicandum est à posteriore that is to say we must judge of election by that which cometh after that is by our faith and belief in Christ which faith although in time it followeth after election yet this the proper immediate cause assigned by the Scripture which not only justifieth us but also certifieth us of this election of God whereunto likewise well agreeth this present Letter of Mr. Bradford wherein he saith Election albeit in God it be the first yet to us it is the last opened And therefore beginning first saith he with Creation I come from thence to Redemption and Justification by faith so to election not that faith is the cause efficient of election being rather the effect thereof but is to us the cause certificatory or the cause of our certification whereby we are brought to the feeling and knowledge of our election in Christ For albeit the election first be certain in the knowledge of God yet in our knowledge Faith only that we have in Christ is the thing that giveth to us our certificate and comfort of this election Wherefore whosoever desireth to be assured that he is one of the Elect number of God let him not climb up to Heaven to know but let him descend into himself and there search his faith in Christ the Son of God which if he find in him not feigned by the working of Gods Spirit accordingly thereupon let him stay and so wrap himself wholly both body and soul under Gods general promise and cumber his head with no further speculations knowing this that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish Joh. 3. shall not be confounded Rom. 9. shall not see death Joh. 8. shall not enter into judgment Joh. 5. shall have everlasting life Joh. 3.7 shall be saved Matth. 28. Act. 16. shall have remission of all his sins Act. 10. shall be justified Rom. 3. Gal. 2. shall have floods flowing out of him of the water of life Joh. 7. shall never die Joh. 11. shall be raised at the lest day Joh. 6. shall find rest in his soul and be refreshed Matth. 11. c. Such is the judgment and opinion of our Martyrologist in the great point of Predestination unto life the residue thereof touching justification being here purposely cut off with an c. as nothing pertinent to the business which we have in hand But between the Comment and the Text there is a great deal of difference the Comment laying the foundation of Election on the Will of God according to the Zuinglian or Calvinian way but the Text laying it wholly upon faith in Christ whom God the Father hath Predestinate in Christ unto eternal life according to the doctrine of the Church of England The Text first presupposeth an estate of sin and misery into which man was fallen a ransom paid by Christ for man and his whole Posterity a freedom left in man thus ransomed either to take or finally to refuse the benefit of so great mercy and then fixing or appropriating the benefit of so great a mercy as Christ and all his merits do amount to upon such only as believe But the Comment takes no notice of the fall of man grounding both Reprobation and Election on Gods absolute pleasure without relation to mans sin or our Saviours sufferings or any acceptation or refusal of his mercies in them As great a difference there is between the Author of the Comment and Bishop Hooper as between the Comment and the Text Bishop Hooper telleth us cap. 10. num 2. that Saul was no more excluded from the promise of Christ than David Esau than Jacob Judas than Peter c. if they had not excluded themselves quite contrary to that of our present Author who having asked the question why Jacob was chosen and not Esau why David accepted and Saul refused c. makes answer that it cannot otherwise be answered than that so was the good will of God And this being said I would fain know upon what authority the Author hath placed Nachor amongst the Reprobates in the same rank with Esan Pharaoh and Saul all which he hath marked out to reprobation the Scripture laying no such censure on Nachor or his Posterity as the Author doth Or else the Author must know more of the estate of Nachor than Abraham his Brother did who certainly would never have chosen a Wife for his Son 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 Authors 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 in the Authors judgment 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 Author hath it For many are called though out of those many which are called but a few are chosen Fourthly I observe that notwithstanding the Author builds the doctrine of Election on Gods