he determined only in himself Conform to which we find in the Genevian Bibles this marginal Note amongst many others of like nature viz. As the only Will and purpose of God is the chief cause of Election and Reprobation so his free mercy in Christ is an inferiour cause of salvation c. Rom. 9. 6. In the next place comes out a Pamphlet entituled against a privy Papist the Author whereof takes upon him to prove this point That all evil springeth out of Gods Ordinance or that Gods Predestination was the cause of Adams fall and of all wickedness Now this man goes to work like a Logician and frames his Sylogism in this manner viz. That whatsoever was in Adam was in him by Gods Will and Ordinance But sin was in Adam Ergo. sin was in him by Gods will and ordinance Of which Sylogisme Campneys very well observeth that if the Major of it be understood of Adam after his fall as by the minor it must be then may it be affirmed also of any other that whatsoever execrable wickedness is in him the same is in him by Gods will and ordinance But then because it might be asked that seeing it is the decree ordinance and will of God that man should not sin How they should creep into that secret councell where God ordained decreed and willed the contrary The leader will come in to help his followers in the present plunge for in his trayterous and seditious Libel Against the Regiment of Women which he calls The first blast of the Trumpet he knows not how to shift off the obedience due by Gods word to lawful Queens in their severall Kingdoms but by flying to some speciall Revelation from his secret will not publikely communicated to the sons of men And this he speakes not faintly but with zeale and confidence telling us how assured him that God hath revealed it to some in our age that is to say himselfe and his Disciples in the holy Presbytery that it is more then a Monster in nature that a Woman should Rule and have Empire against man And what could they doe less upon this assurance upon so plaine a Revelation of Gods secret will then take up arms against their Queen depose her from her throne expell her out of her native Kingdom and finally prosecute her to the very death The Ladder which Constantine the great commended to Assesius a Novatian Bishop for his safer climing up to heaven was never more made use of then by Knox and Calvin for mounting them to the sight of Gods secret Councell which St. Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or things unspeakble such as are neither possible nor lawfull for a man to utter 7. But of all Knoxe's followers none followed so close upon his heels as Ro. Crowly a fugitive for Religion in Q. Maries daies and the Author of a Booke called a Confutation of 13. Articles c. In which he layes the sin of Adam and consequently all mens sins from that time to this upon the Absolute Decree of Predestination for seeing saith he that Adam was so perfect a creature that there was in him no lust to sin and yet withall so weak of himselfe that he was not able to withstand the assault of the subtile Serpent no remedy the only cause of his fall must needs be the Predestination of God In other places of this book he makes it to be a common saying of the free-will men as in contempt and scorn he calls them that Cain was not predestinate to slay is brother which makes it plaine that he was otherwise perswaded in his own opinion That the most wicked persons that have been whereof God appointed to be even as wicked as they were that if God doe predestinate a man to doe things rashly and without any deliberation he shall not deliberate at all but run headlong upon it be it good or evill That we are compelled by Gods predestination to doe those things for which we are damned And finally finding this Doctrine to be charged with making God more cruell and unmercifull then the greatest Tyrant and pressed therewith by some of the contrary perswasion he returns his answer in this wise If God saith he were an inferiour to any superior power to the which he ought to render an account of his doing or if any of us were not his creatures but of another creation besides his workmanship then might we charge him with Tyranny because he condemneth us and appointed us to be punished for the things we doe by compulsion through the necessity of his Predestination For a Catholicon or generall Antidote to which dangerous Doctrines a new distinction was devised by which in all abominations God was expresly said to be the Author of the fact or deed but not of the crime which subtilty appeareth amongst many others in a brief Treatise of Election and Reprobation published by one Iohn Veron in the English tongue about the beginning of the raigne of Queen Elizabeth Which subtilty Campneys not unfitly calls a marvellous sophistication a strang Paradox and a cautelous Riddle and he seems to have good reason for it For by this Doctrine as he noteth it must follow that God is the Author of the very fact and deed of Adultery Theft Murder c. but not the Author of the sin Sin having as they say no positive entity but being a meer nothing as it were and therefore not to be ascribed to Almighty God And thereupon he doth inferre that when a malefactor is hanged for any of the facts before said he is hanged for nothing because the fact or deed is ascribed to God and the sin only charged on him which sin being nothing in it self it must be nothing that the malefactor is condemned or hanged for 8. By all the Books it doth appear what method of Predestination these new Gospellers drive at how close they followed at the Heels of their master Calvin in case they did not go beyond him Certaine it is that they all speak more plainly then their Master doth as to the makeing of God to be the the Author of sin though none of them speake any things else then what may logically be inferred from his ground and principles And by this book it appeareth also how contrary these Doctrins are to the establisht by the first Reformers in the Church of England how contrary the whole method of Predestination out of which they flow is to that delivered in the Articles the Homilies and the publick Liturgie and witnessed too by so many learned men and godly martyrs Which manifest deviation from the rules of the Church as it gave just offence to all moderate and sober men so amongst others unto Campneys before remembred who could not but express his dislike thereof and for so doing was traduced for a Pelagian and a Papist or a Popish Pelagian For which being charged by way of Letter he was
necessitated to returne an Answer to it which he published in the second or third year of Queen Elizabeth In which Answer he not only cleares himselfe from favoring the Pelagian errors in the Doctrin of Freewill Justification by works c. but solidly and learnedly refuteth the opinions of certaine English Writers and Preachers whom he accuseth for teaching of false and scandalous Doctrin under the name of Predestination for his preparation whereunto he states the point of universall redemption by the death of Christ out of the parrallel which St. Paule 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 shows 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 eternall death both in body and soule 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 remembered doe expresly grant it acknowldgeing that God doth not only move men to sin but compell them to it by the inevitable rules of Predestination 9. 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 And consequently the only cause and worker of all evill yea even with compulsion and force as they shamefully and plainly affirm then will no man deny but that on the other side Gods predestination worketh as violently in all things that are good so then if Gods predestination work all without all exception both in evil and good then all other things whatsoever they be although they all appear to work and do some things yet do they indeed utterly nothing So that the Devill doth nothing Man doth nothing Laws do nothing Doctrine doth nothing Prayer doth nothing but Gods predestination doth all together and is the efficient cause yea and the only cause of all things He further proves that according unto this position they hold the errour both of the Stoicks as also of the Manicheans that is to say as St. Augustine declaeth that evill hath his original of Gods Ordinance and not of mans free-will for if Murtherers Adulterers Thieves Traitors and Rebels be of God predestinate and appointed to be wicked even as they are cannot chuse but of meer necessity by the Ordinance of God commic all such wickedness even as they doe then what is our life but a meer destiny All our doing God ordinances and all our immaginations branches of Gods Predestination And then we must have thieves by Predestination who remasters and Adulterers by Predestination Murderers and Traitors by Predestination and indeed what not if all mens actions are necessitated by the will of God and so necessitated that they can neither doe less evill nor more good then they doe though they should never so much endeavour it as some of our Calvinians teach us which opinion as Campneys hath observed is condemned by Prosper of Acquitaine in his defence of St. Augustine in these following words Predestinationem dei sive ad malum sive ad bonum c. That the predestination of God saith he doth worke in all men either into good or into evill is most foolishly said As though a certaine necessity should drive men unto both seeing in good things the evill is not to be understood without grace and in evill things the evil is to be understood without grace And so much touching Campneys and his performance in the points against the Gospellers some passages haveing before been borrowed from him concerning Lambert Gynnell and his Adherents For which see Chap. 6. Numb 11. 10. No sooner was this booke come out but it gave a very strong alarum to those of the Calvinian party within this Realm which had been very much encreased by the retiring of so many of our learned men to the Zuinglian and Genevian Churches in Queen Maryes dayes amongst which none more eagar because more concerned then Veron Crowly above mentioned The first of these being Reader of the Divinity Lecture in the Church of St. Pauls and one of the Chaplains to the Queen published his Answer shortly after called An Apology or Defence of the Doctrine of predestination and dedicated to the Queen in which Answer he gives his Adversary no better titles then the blind Guide of the free-will men p. 37. A very Pelagian and consequently a Rank Papist p 40. Suffering the Devill by such sectaries as Campneys to sow his lyes abroade c. and 41. The Stander-bearer of the free-will men His booke he calls a venemous and Railing booke upbraids him with his bearing of a fagot in K. Edwards dayes and chalenging him that if he be able to maintaine his own Doctrine and oppose that in the answer to it let him come forth and play the man Nor was it long before another Answer came out by the name of Crowly called an Apologie or defence of the English Writers and Preachers with Cerberus the three headed dog Hell Chargeth with false Doctrine under the name of Predestination printed at London in the yeare 1566. And by the title of this Book as we may see with what a strange Genius the Gospellers or Calvinians were possessed from the first beginning we may well conjecture at the Gentle usage which the poore man was like to finde in the whole discourse But if it be objected in favour of these two books that they were published by Authority and according to order when that of Campneys seems to have been published by stealth without the Name of Author or of Printer as is affirmed in Verons booke before remembred It may be since answered that the Doctrine of the Church was then unsetled the Articles of K. Edwards time being generally conceived to be out of force and no new established in their place when Veron first entered on the cause And secondly it may be answered that though Crowlyes Apologie came not out till the yeare 1566. when the new articles were agreed upon yet his treatise called a confutation of 13. Articles which gave occasion to the Quarrel had been written many years before And he conceived himselfe obliged to defend his
Predestination in which and the Genevian Notes we finde Christ excluded from being the foundation of mans Election and made to be an inferiour cause of salvation only 6. God made to be the Author of sin by the Author of a Pamphlet entituled Against a Privy Papist and his secret Councells called in for the proof thereof both by him and Knox with the mischiefs which ensued upon it 7. The Doctrine of Robert Crawley imputing all mens sins to Predestination his silly defences for the same made good by a distinction of John Verons and the weaknesse of that Distinction shewed by Campneys 8. The Errors of the former Authors opposed by Campneys his book in Answer to those Errors together with his Orthodoxie in the point of Vniversall Redemption and what he builds upon the same 9. His solid Arguments against the imputing of all actions either good or evill to Predestination justified by a saying of Prosper of Aquitain 10. The virulent prosecutions of Veron and Crowley according to the Genius of the Sect of Calvin CHAP. XVII Of the Disputes amongst the Confessors in Prison in Queen Maries dayes and the resetling of the Church on her former Principles under Queen Eliz. 1. THe Doctrine of Predestination disputed amongst the Confessors in Prison in Queen Maries dayes 2. The Examination of John Carelesse before Dr. Martin 3. Considerations on some passages in the said Conference 4. A review made of the publick Liturgy by the command of Queen Eliz. and the Paraphrases of Erasmus commended to the reading both of Priests and People 5. The second Book of Homilies how provided for and of the liberty taken by the Gospellers and Zuinglian Sectaries before the reviving and confirming of the Book of Articles by the Queens Authority 6. Of the reviving and authority of the Book of Articles An. 1562. and what may be thence inferred 7. An Answer to the Argument drawn from omitting the ninth Article of King Edwards Book the necessity of giving some content to the Zuinglian Gospellers and the difficulties wherewith they were induced to subscribe the Book at the first passing of the same 8. The Argument taken from some passages in the English Catechisme set forth by Mr. Alexander Nowell and the strength thereof 9. Considerations made on the said Catechisme and the rest of that Authors making and what his being Prolocutor in the Convocation might adde to any of them in point of Orthodoxy 10. Nothing to be collected out of the first passage in Mr. Nowels Catechisme in favour of the Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination and the points depending thereupon and less then nothing in the second if it be understood according to the Authors meaning and the determination of the Church CHAP. XVIII A Declaration of the Doctrine in the Points disputed under the new Establishment made by Queen Eliz. 1. THe Doctrine of the second Book of Homilies concerning the wilfull Fall of Adam the miserable estate of man the restitution of lost man in Jesus Christ and the universall Redemption of all Mankinde by his Death and Passion 2. The Doctrin of the said second Book concerning Universal Grace the possibility of a totall and finall Falling and the cooperation of mans will with the grace of God 3. The judgment of Reverend Bishop Jewell touching the universal Redemption of Mankinde by the Death of Christ Predestination grounded upon faith in Christ and reached out unto all them that believe in him by Mr. Alexander Nowell 4. Dr. Harsnet in his Sermon at Pauls Crosse 1584. sheweth that the absolute decree of Reprobation tâ—rneth the truth of God into a lye and makes him to be the Author of sin 5. That it deprives man of the naturall freedome of his will makes God himself to be double-minded to have two contrary wills and to delight in mocking his poor creature Man 6. And finally that it makes God more cruel and unmercifull then the greatest Tyrant contrary to the truth of Scripture and the constant Doctrin of the Fathers 7. The rest of the said Sermon reduced unto certain Heads directly contrary to the Calvinian Doctrines in the points disputed 8. Certain considerations on the Sermon aforesaid with reference to the subject of it as also to the time place and person in and before which it was first preached 9. An answer to some Objections concerning a pretended Recantation affirmed to have been made by the said Mr. Harsnet 10. That in the judgment of the right learned Dr. King after Bishop of Reading the alteration of Gods denounced Judgements in some certain cases infers no alteration in his Councels the difference between the changing of the will and to will a change 11. That there is something in Gods decrees revealed to us something concealed to himself the difference between the inferiour and superiour causes and of the conditionality of Gods Threats and Promises 12. The accommodating of the former part of this discourse to the case of the Ninivite 13. And not the case of the Ninivites to the case disputed CHAP. XIX Of the first great breach which was made in the Doctrine of the Church by whom made and what was done toward the making of it up again 1. GReat Alteration made in the face of the Church from the return of such Divines as had withdrawn themselves beyond Sea in the time of Queen Mary with the necessity of imploying them in the publick service if otherwise of known zeal a gainst the Papists 2. Severall examples of that kinde in the places of greatest Power and Trust in the Church of England particularly of Mr. Fox the Martyrologist and the occasion which he took of publishing his opinion in the point of Predestination 3. His Notes on one of the Letters of Mr. John Bradford martyr touching the matters of Election therein contained and his perverting of the Text on which he writeth 4. The difference between the Comment and the Text and between the Author of the Comment and Bishop Hooper 5. Exceptions against some passages and observations upon others in the said Notes of Mr. Fox 6. The great breach made hereby in the Churches Doctrin made greater by the countenance which was given to the Acts and Monuments by the Convocation 1571. 7. No argument to be drawn from hence touching the approbation of his Doctrine by the Convocation no more then for the approbation of his Marginal Notes and some particular passages in it disgracefull to the Rites of the Church Attire of the Bishops 8. A Counter-ballance made in that Convocation against Fox his Doctrines and all other Novelismes of that kinde CHAP. XX. Of the great Innovation made by Perkins in the Publick Doctrine the stirs arising thence in Cambridge and Mr. Barrets carriage in them 1. OF Mr. Perkins and his Doctrine of Predestination with his recitall of the 4 Opinions which were then maintained about the same 2. The sum and substance of his Doctrin according to the Supralapsarian oâ— Supracreatarian way 3. The severall
all which things are absurd But for censure first the Authority of the Prophet was brought directly contrary in terms where God sayth That if the Just shall abandon justice and commit iniquity I will not remember his works The Example of David was added who committed Murther and Adultry of Magdalen and S. Peter who denied Christ They deâ—ided the folly of the Zuinglians for saying the Just cannot fall from Grace and yet sinneth in every work The two last were uniformly condemned of temerity with exception of those unto whom God hath given a special Revelation as to Moses and the Disciples to whom it was revealed that they were written in the Book of Heaven IX Now because the Doctrine of Predestination doth naturally presuppose a Curse from which man was to be delivered it will not be amiss to lay down the Judgment of that Councel in the Article of Original sin which rendred man obnoxious to the dreadful curse together with the preparatory Debates amongst the Scool-men and Divines which were there Assembled touching the nature and transmitting of it from Adam unto his Posterity and from one man to another Concerning which it was declared by Catarinus That as God made a Covenant with Abraham and all his Posterity when he made him Father of the faithful So when he gave Original Righteousness to Adam and all man-kinde he made him seal an Obligation in the name of all to keep it for himself and them observing the Commandment which because he trangressed he lost it as well for others as himself and incurred the punishent also for them the which as they are derived in every one and to him as the cause to others by vertue of the Covenant so that the actual sin of Adam is actual sin in him and imputed to others in Original for proof whereof he grounded himself upon this especially that a true and proper sin must needs be a voluntary Act and nothing can be voluntary but that transgression of Adam imputed unto all And Paul saying that all have sinned in Adam it must be understood that they have all committed the same sin with him he alledged for example that S. Paul to the Hebrews affirmeth that Levi payd Tythe to Melchisedeck when he payd in his great Grandfather Abraham by which reason it must be sayd that the Posterity violated the Commandments of God when Adam did it and that they were sinners in him as in him they received Righteousness X. Which Application as it was more intelligible to the Prelates Assembled together in the Councel then any of the Crabbed Intricacies and perplexities of the rest of the Scoolmen irreconcilable in a manner amongst themselves so did it quicken them to the dispatch of their Canons or Anathamatisms while they had the Notions in their heads against all such as had taught otherwise of Original sin then was allowed of and maintained in the Church of Rome but more particulary against him 1. That confesseth not that Adam by transgressing hath lost Sanctity and Justice incurred the wrath of God Death and Thraldom to the Devil and is infected in Soul and Body 2. Against him that averreth that Adam by sinning hath hurt himself only or hath derived into his Posterity the death only of the Body and not sin the death of the Soul 3. Against him that affirmeth the sin which is one in the beginning and proper to every one committed by Generation not imitation can be abolished by any other remedy then the death of Christ is applied as well to Children as to those of riper years by the Sacrament of Baptism ministred in the form and rite of the Church CHAP. III. The like Debates about Free-will with the Conclusions of the Councel in the Five Controverted Points I. The Articles against the Freedom of the Will extracted out of Luther's Writings II. The exclamation of the Divines against Luther's Doctrine in the Point and the absurdities thereof III. The several Judgments of Marinarus Catarinus and Andreas Vega. IV. The different Judgment of the Dominicans and Franciscans whether it lay in mans power to believe or not to believe and whether the Freedom of the Will were lost in Adam V. As also of the Point of the co-operation of mans Will with the Grace of God VI. The opinion of Fryer Catanca in the point of irresistibility VII Faintly maintained by Soto a Dominican Fryer and more cordially approved by others but in time rejected VIII The great care taken by the Legates in having the Articles so framed as to please all parties IX The Doctrine of the Councel in the V. controverted Points X. A Transition from the Councel of Trent to the Protestant and Reformed Churches I. THese Differences and Debates concerning Predestination the possibility of Falling away from the Faith of Christ and the nature of Original sin being thus passed over I shall look back on those Debates which were had amongst the Fathers and Divines in the Councel of Trent about the Nature of Free-will and the power thereof In order whereunto these Articles were collected out of the Writings of the Lutherans to be discussed and censured as they found cause for it Now the Articles were these that follow Viz. 1. God is the total cause of our works Good and Evil and the Adultry of David the cruelty of Manlius and the Treason of Judas are the works of God as well as the Vocation of Saul 2. No man hath power to think well or 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 II. Upon the first Article they spake rather in a Tragical manner then 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 Priscillianists and lastly against Aballardus and Wickliff and that it was a folly against common sense every one proving in himself his own Liberty that it deserveth not confutation but as Aristotle sayth Chastisement and Experimental proofe that Luther's Scholars perceived the folly and to moderate the Absurdity sayd 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 Councels and Election but denied Liberty in matter of
the far greater number must be damned necessarily and inevitably so that 't is not possible for them to be saved Which doctrine first makes God to be the Author of sin as both Piscator and Macarius and many other Supralapsarians as well as Perkings have positively and expresly affirmed him to be then concludes him for a more unmerciful Tyrant then all that ever had been in the world were they joyned in one A more unmerciful Tyrant then the Roman Emperour who wished that all the people of Rome had but one Neck amongst them that he might cut it off at a blow he being such in voto only God alone in opere VII But this extremity being every day found the more indefensible by how much it had been more narrowly sifted and inquired into the more moderate and sober sort of the Calvinians forsaking the Colours of their first Leaders betook themselves into the Camp of the rigid Lutherans and rather chose to joyn with the Dominican Fryers then to stand any longer to the dictates of their Master Calvin These passing by the name of Sublapsarians have given us such an order of Predestination as must and doth presuppose a Fall and findes all man-kind generally in the Mass of Perdition The substance of whose doctrine both in this and the other Articles were thus drawn up by the Remonstrants in the Conference at the Hague before remembred 1. That God Almighty willing from eternity with himself to make a decree concerning the Election of some certain men but the rejection of others considered man-kinde not only as created but also as faln and corrupted in Adam and Eve our first Parents and thereby the deserving the Curse And that he decreed out of the fall and damnation to deliver and save some certain ones of his Grace to declare his Mercy But to leave others both young and old yea truly even certain Infants of men in Covenant and those Infants baptized and dying in their Infancy by his just Judgment in the Curse to declare his Justice and that without all consideration of Repentance and Faith in the former or of Impenitence or unbelief in the latter For the execution of which decree God useth also such means whereby the Elect are necessarily and unavoidably saved but Reprobates necessarily and unavoidably perish 2. And therefore that Jesus Christ the Saviour of the World died not for all men but for those only who are elected either after the former or this latter manner he being the mean and ordained Mediator to save those only and not a man besides 3. Consequently that the Spirit of God and of Christ doth work in those who are elected that way or this with such a force of Grace that they cannot resist it and so that it cannot be but that they must turn believe and thereupon necessarily be saved But that this irresistible grace and force belongs only to those so elected but not to Reprobates to whom not only the irresistible Grace is denied but also grace necessary and sufficient for Conversion for faith and for salvation is not afforded To which Conversion and Faith indeed they are called invited and freely sollicited outwardly by the revealed Will of God though notwithstanding the inward force necessary to Faith and Conversion is not bestowed on them according to the secret Will of God 4. But that so many as have once obtained a true and justifying Faith by such a kinde of irresistible force can never totally nor finally lose it no not although they fall into the very most enormious sins but are so led and kept by the same irresistible force that 't is not possible for them oâ— they cannot either totally or finally fall and perish VII And thus we have the doctrine of the Sublapsarian Calvinists as it stands gathered out of the Writings of particular men But because particular men may sometimes be mistaken in a publick doctrine and that the Judgment of such men being collected by the hands of their Enemies may be unfaithfully related we will next look on the Conclusions of the Synod of Dort which is to be conceived to have delivered the Genuine sense of all the parties as being a Representative of all the Calvinian Churches of Europe except those of France some few Divines of England being added to them Of the calling and proceedings of this Synod we shall have occasion to speak further in the following Chapter At this time I shall only lay down the Results thereof in the five controverted Points as I finde them abbreviated by Dan. Tilenus according to the Heads before mentioned in summing up the doctrine of the Councel of Trent Art 1. Of Divine Predestination That God by an absolute decree hath Elected to salvation a very smal number of men without any regard to their Faith or obedience whatsoever and secluded from saving Grace all the rest of man-kinde 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 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 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 Of the manner of Conversion That God to save his Elect from the corrupt Mass 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 or totally notwithstanding the most enormious sins they can commit IX This is the shortest and withall 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 Antiâ—â—tam 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 then the rigorous way of the Supralapsarians it is objected by those of the contrary perswasion 1. That it is repugnant to plain Texts of Scripture as Ezek. 33. 11. Rom. 11. 2. John 3. 16. 2 Tim. â— 4. 2 Pet. 3. 9. Gen. 4 7. 1 Chron. 28. 9. 2 Chron. 15. â— 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
for the five Articles above mentioned they were these that follow VIZ. I. De Electione ex fide praevisa DEus aeterno immutabili Decreto in Jesu Christo filio suo ante jactum mundi fundamentum statuit ex lapso peccatis obnoxio humano genere illos in Christo propter Christum per Christum servare qui spiritus sancti gratia in eundem filium ejus credunt in ea fide fideique obedientia per eandem gratiam usque ad finem perseverant VIZ. I. Of Election out of Faith foreseen ALmighty God by an eternal and unchangable Decree ordained in Jesus Christ his only Son before the Foundations of the World were layd to save all those in Christ for Christ and through Christ who being faln and under the command of sin by the assistance of the Grace of the Holy Ghost do persevere in faith and obedience to the very end II. De Redemptione universali Proinde Deus Christus pro omnibus ac singulis mortuus est atque id ita quidem ut omnibus per mortem crucis Reconciliationem Peccatorum Remissionem impetrarit Ea tamen conditione ut nemo illa peccatorum Remissione fruatur praeter hominem fidelem Joh. 2. 16. 1 Joh. 2. 2. II. Of universal Redemption To which end Jesus Christ suffered death for all men and in every man that by his death upon the Cross he might obtain for all mankind both the forgiveness of their sins and Reconciliation with the Lord their God with this Condition notwithstanding that none but true believers should enjoy the benefit of the Reconciliation and forgiveness of sins John 2. 16. 1 John 2. 2. III. De causa fidei Homo fidem salutarem a seipso non habet nec vi liberi sui arbitrii quandoquidem in statu defectionis peccati nihil boni quod quidem vere est bonum quale est fides salutaris ex se potest cogitare velle aut facere sed necessarium est eum a Deo in Christo per spiritum ejus sanctum regigni renovari mente affectibus seu voluntate omnibus facultatibus ut aliquid boni posset intelligere cogitare velle perficere secundum illud John 15. 5. sine me potestis nihil III. Of the cause or means of attaining Faith Man hath not saving Faith in and of himself nor can attain it by the power of his own Free-will in regard that living in an estate of sin and defection from God he is not able of himself to think well or do any thing which is really or truly good amongst which sort saving faith is to be accounted And therfore it is necessary that by God in Christ and through the Workings of the Holy Ghost he be regenerated and renewed in his understanding will affections and all his other faculties that so he may be able to understand think will and bring to pass any thing that is good according to that of Saint John 15. 5. Without me you can do nothing IV. De Conversionis modo Dei gratia est initium progressus perfectio omnis boni atque adeo quidem ut ipse homo Regenitus absque hae praecedanea seu Adventitia excitante consequente co-operante gratia neque boni quid cagitare velle aut facere potest neque etiam ulli malae tentationae resistere adeo quidem ut omnia bona opera quae excogitare possumus Deigratiae in Christo tribuenda sunt Quoad vero modum co-operationis illius gratiae illa non est irresistibilis de multis enim dicitur eos spiritui sancto Resistisse Actorum 7. alibi multis locis IV. Of the manner of Conversion The Grace of God is the beginning promotion and accomplishment of every thing that is good in us insomuch that the Regenerate man can neither think well nor do any thing that is good or resist any sinfull temptations without this Grace preventing co-operating and assisting and consequently all good works which any man in his life can attain unto are to be attributed and ascribed to the grace of God But as for the manner of the co-operation of this Grace it is not to be thought to be irresistable in regard that it is sayd of many in the holy Scriptures that they did resist the Holy Ghost as in Acts 7. and in other places V. De Perseverantia incerta Qui Jesu Christo per veram fidem sunt insiti ac proinde spiritus ejus vivificantis participes ii abundehabent facultatum quibus contra Satanam peccatum mundum propriam suam carnem pugnent victoriam obtineant verum tamen per gratiae spiritus sancti subsidium Jesus Christus quidem illis spiritu suo in omnibus tentationibus adest manum porrigit modo sint ad certamen prompti ejus Auxilium Petant neque officio suo desint eos confirmat adeo quidem ut nulla satanae fraude aut vi seduci vel e manibus Christi eripi possint secundum illud Johannis 10. Nemo illos e manu mea eripiet Sed an illi ipsi negligentia sua principium illud quo sustentantur in Christo deserere non possint praesentem mundum iterum amplecti a sancta doctrina ipsis semel tradita deficere conscientiae naufragium facere a gratia excidere penitus ex sacra scriptura esset expendendum antequam illud cumplena animi tranquillitate Plerephoria dicere possumus V. Of the uncertainty of Perseverance They who are grafted into Christ by a lively Faith and are throughly made Partakers of his quickning Spirit have a sufficiency of strength by which the Holy Ghost contributing his Assistance to them they may not only fight but obtain the Victory against the Devil Sin the World and all infirmities of the flesh Most true it is that Jesus Christ is present with them by his Spirit in all their temptations that he reacheth out his hand unto them and shews himself ready to support them if for their parts they prepare themselves to the encounter and beseech his help and are not wanting to themselves in performing their duties so that they cannot be seduced by the cunning or taken out of the hands of Christ by the power of Satan according to that of S. John No man taketh them out of my hand c. cap. 10. But it is first to be well weighed and proved by the holy Scripture whether by their own negligence they may not forsake those Principles of saving Grace by which they are sustained in Christ embrace the present World again Apostatize from the saving doctrine once delivered to them suffer a Shipwrack of their Conscience and fall away from the Grace of God before we can publickly teach these doctrines with any sufficient trauquillity or assurance of mind ' V. It is reported that at the end of the Conference between the Protestants and Papists in the first Convocation of Qâ—een Maries Reign the Protestants were
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 Septuagâ—sâ—mâ— ' 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 condeâ—ned number then I cannot be saved For Gods judgements 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 S. Paul had made a long Sermon at Antioch there believed saith the Evangilist 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 onely 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 vâ—lt omnes homines salvos fieire 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 make God to be the Author of sin And first he lets us know in general ' That the blinde 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 in this manner following viz. ' It is not a Christian mans part to attribute to his own freewil 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 saâ—th he be better learned than the Holy Ghost 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 ' 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 onely 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 and do the works commanded of God it will prove but a carnal opinion which we blinde 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 ' 6. Next let us look upon such passages in the writings of those those godly men which teach us to enquire no further after our Election than as it is to be found in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Of which Bishop Latimer in the first place thus viz. ' If thou art desirous to know whether thou art chosen to everlasting life thou mayest not begin with God for God is too high thou canst not comprehend him the judgements of God are unknown to man therefore thou must not begin there But begin with Christ and learn to know Christ and wherefore that he came namely That he came to save sinners and made himself a subject of the Law and fulfiller of the same to deliver us from the wrath and danger thereof and therefore was crucified for our sins c. Consider I say Christ and his coming and then begin to try thy self whether thou art in the Book of Life or not If thou findest thy self in Christ then thou art sure of everlasting life If thou be without him then thou art in an evil case for it is written nemo venit ad patrem nisi pâ—r me that is no man cometh to my Father but through me therefore if thou knowest Christ thou mayest know further of thy Election ' And then in another place ' When we are troubled within our selves whether we be elected or no we must ever have this Maxime or principal rule before our eyes namely that God beareth a good will towards us God loveth us God beareth a Fatherly heart towards us But you will say How shall I know that or how shall I believe that We may know Gods good will towards us through Christ for so saith John the Evangelist Filius qui est in sinu patris ipse revelavit that is The Son who is in the bosom of the Father he hath revealed it Therefore we may perceive his good will and love towards us He hath sent the same Son into the world which hath suffered most painful death for us Shall I now think that God hateth me or shall I doubt of his love towards me ' And in another place ' Here you see how you shall avoid the scrupulous and most dangerous question of the Predestination of God for if thou wilt enquire into his Councils and search his Consistory thy wit will deceive thee for thou shalt not be able to search the Council of God But if thou begin with Christ and consider his coming into the world and dost believe that God hath sent him for thy sake to suffer for thee and to deliver thee from sin death the Devil and Hell Then when thou art so armed with the knowledge of Christ then I say this simple question cannot hurt thee for thou art in the Book of Life which is Christ himself For thus it is writ Sice Deus dilexit mundum that God so entirely loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son to the end that all that believed in him should not perish but have everlasting life whereby appeareth most plainly that Christ is the Book of Life and that all that believe in
him are of the same Book and so are chosen to everlasting life for onely those are ordained that believe ' Nor stays that godly Bishop here but proceeds after some intervening passages towards this Conclusion ' Here is now taught you saith he how to try your Election namely in Christ For Christ is the Accompting Book and Register of God and even in the same Book that is Christ are witten all the names of the Elect therefore we cannot finde our Election in our selves neither yet the high Council of God for inscrutabilia suâ—t judicia Altissimi Where then shall I finde my Election in the Compting Book of God which is Christ c. ' Agreeable whereunto we finde Bishop Hooper speaking thus ' The cause of our Election is the mercy of God in Christ howbeit he that will be partaker of this Election must receive the promise in Christ by faith for therefore we be elected because afterwards we are made the members of Christ So we judge of Election by the event or success that hapneth in the life of man those onely to be elected ' that by faith apprehend the mercy promised in Christ To the same purpose also but not so clearly and perspicuously speaks the Book of Homilies where we finde it thus viz. ' That of our selves as in our selves we finde nothing whereby we may be delivered from this miserable captivity in which we were cast through the envy of the Devil by breaking Gods Commandment in our first Parent Adam It is the Lord with whom is plenteous Redemption he is the God which of his own mercy saveth us c. not for our own deserts merits or good deeds c. but of his meer mercy freely and for whose sake truly for Christ Jesus sake the pure and undesiled Lamb of God c. for whose sake God is fully pacified satisfied and set at one with man Such is the Doctrine of the Church in the matter of Predestination unto life according to the judgement of these learned men and godly Martyrs who were of such Authority in the Reformation ' 8. Proceed we next to one of an inferiour Order the testimony of John Bradford Martyr a man in very high esteem with Martin Bucer made one of the Prebends of S. Pauls Church by Bishop Ridley and one who glorified God in the midst of the flames with as great courage as his Patron of whom we finde a Letter extant in the Acts and Monuments directed to his friends N. S. and R. â— being at that time not thorowly instructed in the Doctrine of Gods Election The words of which Letter are as followeth ' I wish to you my good Brethren the same grace of God in Christ which I wish and pray the Father of mercies to give me for his holy names sake amen Your Letter though I have not read my self because I would not alienate my minde from conceived things to write to others yet I have heard the sum of it that it is of Gods Election wherein I will briefly relate to you my faith and how far I think it good and meet for a Christian to wade in I believe That man made after the image of God did fall from that pleased estate to the condemnation of him and all his posterity I believe that Christ for man being then fallen did oppose himself to the judgement of God as a Mediator paying the ransome and price of Redemption for Adam and his whole posterity that refuse it not finally I believe that all that believe I speak of such as be of years of discretion are partakers of Christ and all his merits I believe that faith and belief in Christ is the work and gift of God given to no other then to those which be his children that is to those whom God the Father before the beginning of the world hath Predestinated in Christ unto Eternal life Thus do I wade in Predestination in such sort as God hath patefied and opened it Though to God it be the first yet to us it is the last opened and therefore I begin with Creation from whence I come to Redemption so to Justification so to Election On this sort I am sure that warily and wisely a man may walk it easily by the light of Gods Spirit in and by his Word seeing this faith is not to be given to all men 2 Thess 3. but to such as are born of God Predestinated before the world was made after the purpose and good will of God c. ' Which judgement of this holy man comes up so close to that of the former Martyrs and is so plainly cross to that of the Calvinistical party that Mr. Fox was fain to make soom Scholia's on it to reconcile a gloss like that of Orleance which corrupts the Text and therefore to have no place here however it may be disposed of at another time But besides the Epistle above mentioned there is extant a Discourse of the said godly Martyr entituled The sum of the Doctrine of Predestination and Reprobation in which is affirmed That our own wilfulness sin and contemning of Christ are the cause of Reprobation as is confessed by the Author of the Anti-Arminianism p. 103. though afterwards he puts such a gloss upon it as he doth also on the like passages in Bishop Hooper as makes the sin of man to be the cause onely of the execution and not of the decree of Reprobation 9. But it is said That any one that reads the Common-Prayer Book with an unprejudiced minde cannot chuse but observe divers passages that make for a Personal Eternal Election So it is said of late and till of late never so said by any that ever I heard of the whose frame and fabrick of the Publique Liturgie being directly opposite to this new conceit For in the general Confession we beseech the Lord to spare them that confess their faults and restore them that be penitent according to his promises declared unto mankinde in Christ Jesus our Lord In the Te Deum it is said that Christ our Saviour having overcome the sharpness of death did open the Kingdâ—m of heaven to all believers In the Prayer for the first day of Lent That God hateth nothing which he hath made but doth forgive the sins of all them that be penitent In the Prayer at the end of the Commination That God hath compassion of all men that he hateth nothing which he hath made that he would not the death of a sinner but rather that he should turn from sin and repent In the Absolution before the Communion That God of his great mercy hath promised forgiveness of sins to all them which with hearty repentance and truâ— faith turn unto him Can any one which comes with an unprejudiced minde to the Common-Prayer Book observe any thing that savoureth of a Personal Election in all these passages or can he hope to finde them in any other Look then upon the last Exhortation
sins and incredulities as generally is maintained and taught in the Schools of Calvin Much I am sure may be said against it out of the passages in the Liturgie before remembred where it is said that God hath compassion upon all men and hateth nothing which he hath made but much more out of those which are to come in the second Article touching the Vniversal Reconciliation of mankinde unto God the Father by the death of Christ Take now no more than this one Collect being the last of those which are appointed for Good Friday on which we celebrate the memorial of Christ his death and passion and is this that followeth viz. ' Merciful God who hast made all men and hatest nothing that thou hast made nor wouldst the death of a sinner but rather that he should be converted andâ—â—ve have mercy upon all Jews Turks Infidels and Hereticks and take from them all ignorance hardness of heart and contempt of thy Word and so fetch them home blessed Lord to thy flock that they may be saved amongst the remnant of the true Israelites and be made one fold under one Shepherd Jesus Christ our Lord. ' A Prayer as utterly inconsistent with the Calvinians Decree of Reprobation as the finding of an Hell in Heaven or any thing else which seems to be most abhorrent both from faith and piety 2. More may be said against it out of the writings of Bishop Latimer and Bishop Hooper before remembred Beginning first with Latimer he will tell us this viz. ' That if most be damned the fault is not in God but in themselves for Dus vult omnes homines salvos fieri God would that all men should be saved but they themselves procure their own damnation ' Thus also in another place That Christ onely and no man else merited Remission Justification and Eternal Felicity for as many as believe the same that Christ shed as much blood for Judas as for Peter that Peter believed it and therefore was saved that Judas could not believe it therefore was condemned the fault being in him onely and no body else More fully not more plainly the other Bishop in the said Preface to the Exposition on the Ten Commandments where it is said ' That Gain was no more excluded from the promise of Christ till he exlcuded himself than Abel Saul than David Judas than Peter Eâ—au than Jacob ' concerning which two brethren he further added ' That in the sentence of God given unto Rebecca that there was no mention at all that Esau should be disinherited of Eternal life but that he should be inferiour to his brother Jacob in this world which Prophecy saith he was fulfilled in their Posterity and not the persons themselves the very same with that which Arminius and his followers have since declared in this case ' And this being said he proceedeth to this Declaration ' That God is said by the Prophet to have hated Esau not because he was disinherited of Eternal life but in laying his mountains and his heritage waste for the Dragons of the wilderness Mal. 1. 3. that the threatning of God against Esau of he had not of wilful malice excluded himself from the promise of grace should no more have hindred his salvation than Gods threatning against Nineve that the cause of Rejection or Damnation is sin in man which will not hear neither receive the promise of the Gospel And â—â—â—ally thus That by Gods grace we might do the good and leave the evil if it were not through malice of accustomed doing of sin the which excuseth the mercy and go dâ—â—ess of God and maketh that no man shall be excused in he latter judgement how subtilly soever they now excuse the matter and put their evil doings from them and lay it uâ—on the Predestination of God and would excuse it by ignorance oâ— say he cannot be good because he is otherwise destined which in the next words he calls A Stoical 〈…〉 refuted by those words of Horace Nemo adeo fâ—rus est c. ' 3. But that which makes most against the absolute irrespective and irreversible decree of predestination whether it be life or death is the last clause of our second Article being the seventeenth of the Church as before laid down where it is said that we must receive Gods promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture and that in all our doings that will of God is to be followed which we have expresly declared to us in holy Scriptures And in the holy Scripture it is declared to us That God gave his Son for the world or for all man-kind that Christ offered himself a Sacrifice for all the sixs of the whole world that Christ redeemed all man-kinde that Christ commanded the Gospel to be preached to all that God wills and commands all men to hear Christ and to believe in him and in him to offer grace and salvation unto all men That this is the infallible truth in which there can be no falshood otherwise the Apostles and other Ministers of the Gospel preaching the same should be false witnesses of God and should make him a liar than which nothing can be more repugnant to the Calvinian Doctrine of predestination which restrains predestination unto life in a few particulars without respect had to their faith in Christ or Christs suffering death for them which few particulars so predestinate to eternal life shall as they tell us by an irrestible Grace be brought to God and by the infallible conduct of the holy Spirit persevere from falling away from grace and favour Nothing more contrary to the like absolute decree of Reprobation by which the infinitely greatest part of all Mankinde is either doomed remidilesly to the torments of Hell when they were but in the estate of Creability as the Supralapsarians have informed us and unavoidably necessated unto sin that they might infallibly be damn'd or otherwise as miserably leaving them under such a condition according to the Doctrine of the Sublapsarians which renders them uncapable of avoiding the wrath to come and consequently subjected them to a damnation no less certain then if they were created to no other purpose which makes it seem the greater wonder that Doctor Vsher afterwards Lord Primate of Ireland in drawing up the article of predestination for the Church of Ireland anno 1615. should take in so much as he doth of the Lambeth articles and yet subjone this very clause at the foot thereof which can no more concorporate with it then any of the most Het rogeneus mettals can unite into one piece of refined Gold which clause as it remaineth in the articles of the Church of England how well it was applyed by King James and others in the conference at Hampton Court we shall see hereafter 4. In the mean time we must behold another argument which fights more strongly against the Apostles decree of Reprobation then any of
Grace of the Holy Ghost to preserve thee in vertue givest thanks for the goodness of God toward thee and all other He that knoweth less than this cannot be saved and he that knoweth no more than this if he follow his knowledge cannot be damned ' 7. But the main Controversie in the point of mans Conversion moves upon this hinge that is to say Whether the influences of Gods Grace be so strong and powerful that withal they are absolutely irresistible so that it is not possible for the will of man not to consent unto the same Calvin first harped upon this string and all his followers since have danced to the tune thereof Illud toties à Chrysostomo repetitum repudiari necesse est Quem trahit volentem trahit quo insinuat Dominum porrecta tantum manu expectare an suo auxilio juvari nobis adlubescat These words saith he so often repeated by Chrysostome viz. That God draws none but such as are willing to go are to be condemned the Father intimating by those words that God expecteth onely with an outstretched and ready arm whether we be willing or not In which though he doth not express clearly the good Fathers meaning yet he plainly doth declare his own insinuating that God draws men forcibly and against their will to his Heavenly Kingdom Gomarus one of later date and a chief stickler in these Controversies comes up more fully to the sense which Calvin drives at For putting the question in this manner An gratia hac datur vi irresistibili id est efficaci operatione DEI ita ut voluntas ejus qui regeneratur facultatem non habeat illi resistendi He answereth presently Credo profiteor ita esse that is to say his question is ' Whether the Grace of God be given in an irresistible manner that is to say with such an efficacious operation that the will of him who is to be regenerated hath not the power to make resistance ' And then the answer follows thus ' I believe and profess it to be so ' More of which kinde might be produced from other Authors but that this serves sufficiently to set forth a Doctrine which is so little countenanced by the burning and most shining lights of the Church of England 8. Beginning first with Bishop Hooper we shall finde it thus ' It is not saith he a Christian mans part to attribute his salvation to his own Freewil with the Pelagian and extenuate Original sin nor to make God the Author of ill and damnation with the Maniche nor yet to say that God hath written Fatal Laws and with necessity of Destiny violently pulleth the one by the hair into heaven and thrusteth the other headlong into hell c. More fully in his glosse on the text of Saint John viz. No man cometh to me except my Father draw him chap. 6. 44. Many saith he understand these words in a wrong sence as if God required no more in a reasonable man than in a dead post and mark not the words which follow Every man that heareth and learneth of my Father commeth unto me c. God draweth with his Word and the holy Ghost but mans duty is to hear and learn that is to say to receive the grace offered consent to the promise and not to impugne the God that calleth ' More fully but to the same purpose also speaks Bishop Latimer ' Gods salvation saith he is sufficient to save all mankinde But we are so wicked of our selves that we refuse the same and we will not take it when 't is offered unto us and therefore he saith pauci vero electi few are chosen that is few have pleasure and delight in it for the most part are weary of it cannot abide it and there are some that hear it but they will abide no danger for it And in few lines after thus Such men are cause of their own damnation for God would have them saved but they refuse it like Judas the traytor whom Christ would have had to be saved but he refused his salvation he refused to follow the Doctrine of his Master Christ ' The like occurs in another place of the same Sermon where we finde ' that seeing the preaching of the Gospel is universal it appeareth that God would have all mankind saved and that the fault is not in him if they be damned For thus it is written Deus vult omnes homines salvos fieri God would have all men to be saved but we are so wicked of our selves that we refuse the same and will not take notice of it when 't is offered ' 9. And here for strength and confirmation unto all the rest we are to know that these two godly Martyrs have delivered no other Doctrine than what is positively expressed or may be rationally inferred both from the tenth Article of King Edwards Book and the Book of Homilies And first for the tenth Article of King Edwards Book it is this that followeth viz. Gratia Christi sive Spiritus Sanctus qui per eundem datur cor lapideum aufert dat cor â—arneum Atque licet ex nol â—tibus quae recta sunt volentes faciat ex voleâ—tibus prava nolentes reddat Voluntati tamen nullam violentiam infert nâ—mo hac de causa cum pe caverit ut eam ob causum accusari non meretaur aut damnar That is to say ' The Grace of Christ or the Holy Ghost which is given by him doth take from man the heart of stone and giveth him a heart of flesh And though it rendreth us willing to do those good works which before we were unwilling to do and unwilling to do those evil works which before we did yet is no violence offered by it to the will of man so that no man when he hath sinned can excuse himself as if he had sinned against his will or upon constraint and therefore that he ought not to be accused or condemned upon that account ' The composition of which Article doth most clearly shew that our first Reformers did as little countenance that Doctrine of the Irresistibility of Gods grace in its workings on the will of man which the Calvinians now contend for as they did the Dreams and Dotages of some Zuinglian Gospellers into whose writings if we look we shall easily find that Gods divine Predestination is by them made the cause of sinne by which men are necessitated and compelled to those acts of wickednesse which they so frequently commit By the vertue of Gods will saith one all things are done yea even those things which are evil and execrable By Gods Predestination saâ—th another we are compelled to do those things for which we are damned as will appear more fully in the sixteenth Chapter when the extravagancies of the Predestinaâ—ians come to be considered And it is probable enough that to encounter with these monstrous Paradoxes of the Zuinglian Gospellers this Article was
inconstant constant in our works And thereupon it is inferred in behalf of those who maintain the infallibility of such assurance that they mean no otherwise than this that is to say that in regard of God faithful and true in respect of his promises Yea and Amen every child of God renewed by Grace may and ought infallibly assure himself of his own salvation procured in Christ who yet in regard of his own infirmity and inconstancy cannot chuse but waver in his assurance and feare the worst though he hope the best And this if Bellarmine say right is Saint Augustines doctrine out of whom he collects thus much Ex promissione Christi potest unusquisque colligere se transisse à morte ad vitam in â—udicium non venire that is to say that every man he means it only of the regenerate man may collect from the promise of Christ that he is translated from death to life and shall not be brought unto the judgement of condemnation the Cardinal thereupon resolves that a man may collect so much by infallible assurance and divine if he look into theâ— faithfulnesse of him that promiseth but if he consider his own disposition we assigne no more but probable and conjectural assurance only 6. Which said as to the certainty and incertainty of the assurance which a man may have within himself not only concerning his present being in the state of Grace as his continuance and perseverance in it for time to come we must next look into the Doctrine of this Church in the point it self For having formerly maintained in the tenth Article of her Confession that there remains a freedome of the Will in man for laying or not laying hold upon those means which are offered by the Grace of God for our salvation she must by consequence maintaine also that there is a freedome from the Will in standing unto Grace received or departing from it Certaine I am that it is so resolved in the sixteenth Article for her Confession in which it is declared that after we have received the Holy Ghost we may depart from the Grace given and fall into sin and by the Grace of God we may arise again and amend our lives where plainly the Church teacheth a possibility of falling or departing from the Grace of the Holy Ghost which is given unto us and that our rising again and amending of our lives upon such a rising is a matter of contingency only and no way necessary on Gods part to assure us of a Doctrine so repugnant to that of the Calvinists that to make the Article come up to their opinion they would faine adde neither finally nor totally as appears by that of Doctor Reynolds at Hampton Court to the first clause of it By which Addition as they would make the last part of it to be absolutely unprofitable and of no effect so do they wilfully oppose themselves against the known maxim in the Civil Laws which telleth us Non esse distinguendum ubi lex non distinguit that no distinctions must be made in the explicating or expounding of any Law which is not to be found in the Law it self And therefore for the clear understanding of the Churches meaning we must have recourse in this as in other Articles to the plain words of Bishop Latimer and Bishop Hooper so often mentioned in this Work 7. And first we finde Bishop Latimer discoursing thus ' Let us not do saith he as the Jewes did which were stiff-necked they would not leave their sinnes they had a pleasure in the same they would follow their old Traditions refusing the Word of God therefore their destruction came worthily upon them And therefore I say let us not follow them lest we receive such a reward as they had lest everlasting destruction come upon us and so we be cast out of the favour of God and finally lost world without end And in another place I say there be two manner of men some there be that are not justified not regenerate not yet in the state of salvation that is to say not Gods servants they take the Renovation or Regeneration they be not come yet to Christ or if they were be fallen again from him and so lost their justification as there be many of us when we fall willingly into sin against conscience we lose the favour of God and finally the Holy Ghost But you will say How shall I know that I am in the Book of Life I answer that we may be one time in the Book and another time come out of it again as it appeareth by David who was written in the Book of Life but when he sinned â—oully at that time came out of the favour of God until he repented and was sorry for his faults so that we may be in the Book one time and afterwards when we forget God and his Word and do wickedly we come out of the Book which is Christ The like we finde in Bishop Hooper first telling us that the causes of Rejection or Damnation is sinne in man that will not hear neither receive the promise of the Gospel or else after he hath received it by accustomed doing of ill falleth either unto a contempt of the Gospel or will not study to live thereafter or else he hateth the Gospel because it condemneth his ungodly life After which he proceedeth to the application Refuse not therefore the Grace offered nor once received banish it with ill conversation If we fall let us hear Almighty God that calleth us to repent and with his Word and return let us not continue in sinne nor heap one sinne upon another lest at last we come to a contempt of God and his Word ' In the beginning of his Paraphrase or Exposition to the thirteenth Chapter of the Romans he speaks as plainly to this purpose which passage might here deserve place also but that I am called upon by Master Tyndall whose testimony I am sure will be worth the having and in the Prologue to his Exposition on the same Epistle he informs us thus ' None of us saith he can be received to Grace but upon a condition to keep the Law neither yet continue any longer in Grace than that promise lasteth And if we break the Law we must sue for a new pardon and have a new light against sinne hell and desperation yet we can come to a quiet faith again and feele that sinne is forgiven neither can there be in thee a stable and undoubted faith that thy sinne is forgiven thee except there be also a lusty courage in thy heart and trust that thou wilt sinne no more for on this condition that thou wilt sinne no more is the promise of mercie and forgivenesse made unto thee ' 8. But against all this it is objected that Montague himself both in his Gag and his Appeale confesseth that the Church hath left this undecided that is to say neither determining
Gospel viz. How many a time and oft have I assayed to gather thy children together and to joyn them to my self none otherwise then the hen gathereth her chickens under her wings that they may not miscarry But thy stubborness hath gone beyond my goodness and as though thou hadst even vow'd and devoted thy self to utter ruine so dost thou refuse all things whereby thou mighâ—est be recovered and made whole And finally as to the possibility of falling from the faith of Christ he thus declares himself in the Exposition of our Saviours Parable touching the sower and the seed viz. There is another sort of men which greedily hear the word of the Gospel and set it deep enough in their mind and keep it long but their minds being entangled and choaked with troublesome cares of this world and especially of riches as it were with certain thick thorns they cannot freely follow that he â—â—veth because they will not suffer these thornes which cleave together and be entangled one with another among themselves to be cut away the fruit of the seed which is sowen doth utterly perish Which being so either we must conclude the doctrine of this Church in the Book of Articles to be the same with that which is contained in the Paraphrases of this learned man or else condemn the godly Bishops of this Church and the religious Princes above mentioned of a great imprudence in recommending them to the diligent and careful reading both of â—â—iest and People HISTORIA QVINQV ARTICVLARIS OR A DECLARATION Of the Judgement of the WESTERN CHVRCHES And more particularly of the CHURCH of ENGLAND In the five Controverted Points Reproached in these last Times by the name of Arminianisme PART III. CONTAINING The first Breakin gs out of the Predestinarians in the Church of England and the Pursuance of those Quarrels from the Reign of King EDWARD the sixth to the death of King JAMES By P. HEYLIN D. D. LONDON Printed for T. Johnson at the sign of the Key in Pauls Church-yard 1660. PART III. CHAP. XVI Of the first Breakin gs out of the Predestinarians and their Proceedings in the same 1. THE Predestinarians called at first by the name of Gospellers 2. Campneys a professed enemy to the Predestinarians but neither Papist nor Pelagtan 3. The common practises of the Calvinists to defame their Adversaries the name of Free will men to whom given why 4. The Doctrine of John Knox. in restraining all mens actions either good or evil to the determinate Will and Counsel of God 5. The like affirmed by the Author of the Table of Predestination in whom and the Genevian Notes we find Christ to be excluded from being the foundation of mans Election and made to be an inferiour cause of salvation only 6. God made to be the Author of sin by the Author of a Pamphlet entituled against a Privy Papist and his secret Counsels called in for the proof thereof both by him and Knox with the mischiefs which ensued upon it 7. The Doctrine of Robert Crowly imputing all mens sins to Predestination his silly defences for the same made good by a distinction of John Verons and the weakness of that distinction shewed by Campneys 8. The Errours of the former Authors opposed by Campneys his book in answer to those Errours together with his Orthodoxie in the point of universal Redemption and what he builds upon the same 9. His solid Arguments against the imputing of all actions either good or evil to Predestination justified by a saying of Prosper of Aquitaine 10. The virulent prosecutions of Veron and Crowly according to the Genius of the sect of Calvin THus we have seen the Doctrine of the Church of England in the five â—nntroverted points according to the Principles perswasions of the first Reformers And to say truth it was but time that they should come to some conlusion in the points disputed there being some men who in the beginning of the Reign of King Edward the sixth busily stickled in the maintenance of Calvins Doctrines And thinking themselves to be more Evangelical then the rest of their brethren they either took unto themselves or had given by others the name of Gospellers Of this they were informed by the reverent Prelate and right godly Martyr Bishop Hooper in the Preface to his Exposition of the ten Commandments Our Gospellors saith he be better learned then the holy Ghost for they wickedly attribute the cause of Punishments and Adversity to Gods Providence which is the cause of no ill as he himself can do no ill and over every mischief that is done they say it is Gods Will. In which we have the men and their Doctrine how the name of Gospellers and the reason why that name was ascribed unto them It is observed by the judicious Author of the Book called Europae Speculum that Calvin was the first of these latter times who searcht into the Counsels the eternal Counsels of Almighty God And as it seems he found there some other Gospel then that which had been written by the four Evangelists from whence his followers in these Doctrines had the name of Gospellers for by that name I find them frequently called by Campneys also in an Epistolary Discourse where he clears himself from the crimes of Popery and Pelagianism which some of these new Gospellers had charged upon him which had I found in none but him it might have been ascribed to heat or passion in the agitation of these quarrels but finding it given to them also by Bishod Hooper a temperate and modest man I must needs look upon it as the name of the Sect by which they were distinguished from other men 2. And now I am fallen upon this Campneys it will not be unnecessary to say something of him in regard of the great part he is to act on the stage of this business Protestant he was of the first edition cordially affected to the Doctrine of the Church of England in the present points but of a sharp and eager spirit And being not well weaned from some points of Popery in the first dawning of the day of our Reformation he gave occasion unto some of those whom he had exasperated to inform against him that they prosecuted the complaint so far that he was forced to bear a faggot at St. Pauls Cross as the custome was in all such cases Miles Coverdale then or not long after Bishop of Exon preaching a Sermon at the same But whatsoever he was then in other Doctrinals he hath sufficiently purged himself from the crimes of Popery and Pelagianism wherewith he had been charged by those of the adverse party For whereas one William Samuel had either preached or written in Queen Maries time That a man might deserve God c. Campneys beholds it for a doctrine so blasphemous and abominable that neither Papists nor Pelagians nor any other Heretick old or new hath ever written or maintained a more filthy and execrable saying For
it is the stat 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 Synode 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 encountâ—ing with another of the Pelagian Heresies he passionately cries out O blasphemy intollerable 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. 3. 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 reproacht 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 practises were used by Calvin and Beza against Sebastian Castel a man of no less learning but of far more modesty and moderation then 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 did unto a man both of parts and piety upon no other pretence or provocation whatever but because he maintained another way of predestination then 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 persued the same courses against all those who opposed their fancies For being governed by this spirit they taxed their opposites sometimes for being Haters of Gods Predestination as before is said though intire Lovers of the same 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 abhor'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 and that God hath not predestinate any man to the committing of murder or any such like wicked abominations 4. 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 Edwards or the beginning of Queen Marie's Raign 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 Esaâ— was hated for his evil deserving then must needs follow that Jacob was loved for his well deserving 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 then 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 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 5. So able a Leader as John Knox could not want followers of all Nations to attend upon him in the Catalogue or list whereof 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 who 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 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 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
therefore by the light of the same instruction had they not shut their eyes against it they might have come unto a further knowledge of the will of God and by degrees to the performance of all moral duties required of them before Christ coming in the flesh And in the third part of the same Sermon there are some passages which do as plainly speak of falling from God the final alienation of the soul of a man once righteous from his love and favour Where it is said ' how much better it were that the arts of painting and we had never been found then one of them whose souls are so precious in the sight of God should by occasion of image or picture perish and be lost ' And what can here be understood by the souls which are so precious in the sight of God but the souls of the elect of justified and righteous persons the souls of wicked men being vile and odious in his sight hated by God as Esau was before all eternity as the Calvinians do informe us And what else can we understand by being perished and lost but a total or final alienation of those precious souls from his grace and favour more plainly speaks the Homily of the Resurrection in which the Church represents unto us what shame it should be for us ' being thus clearly and freely washed from our sinne to returne to the filthinesse thereof again What a folly it would be for us being thus endued with righteousnesse to loose it again What a madnesse it would be to to loose the inheritance we be now set in for the vile and transitory pleasure of sinnes And what an unkindnesse it would be where our Saviour Christ of his mercy is come unto us to dwell with us as our guest to drive him from us and to banish him violently out of our souls And instead of him in whom is all grace and vertue to receive the ungracious spirit of the devil the founder of all naughtinesse and mischiefe ' then which there can be nothing more direct and positive to the point in hand And as for the co-operation of mans will with the grace of God either in accepting or resisting it when once offered to him besides what may be gathered from the former passages it is to be presumed as a thing past question in the very nature of that book for what else are those Homilies but so many proofs and arguments to evince that point For to what purpose were they made but to stir up the mindes of all men to the works of piety And what hopes could the Authors of them give unto themselves of effecting that which they endeavoured had they not presupposed and taught that there was such a freedome in the will of man such an assistance of Gods grace as might enable them to performe these works of piety as in all and every one of the said Homilies are commended to them More for the proof of which points might be gathered from the said second Book of Homilies established by the Articles of Queen Elizabeth's time as before is said were not these sufficient 3. Proceed we therefore from the Homilies and the publick monuments of the Church to the judgement of particular persons men of renown and eminent in their several places amongst which we finde incomparable Jewell then Bishop of Sallsbury thus clearly speaking in behalf of universal redemption viz. Certo animis nostris persuademus c. ' We do assuredly perswade our mindes saith he that Christ is the obtainer of forgivenesse for our sins and that by his blood all our spots of sins be washed cleane that he hath pacified and set at one all things by the blood of his crosse that he by the same one onely sacrifice which he once offered upon the crosse hath brought to effect and fulfilled all things and that for the cause he said it is finished By which word saith he be plainly signified persolutum â—am esse pretium pro peccato humani generis that the price or ransome was now fully paid for the sin of man-kinde ' Now as Bishop ewell was a principal member of the House of Bishops so Mr. Powell was the Prolocutoâ— for the House of the Clergy in which the Articles were debated and agreed upon In which respect his favour is much sought by those of the Calvinian party as before was shown But finding no comfort for them in his larger Catechisme let us see what may be found in his Latine Catechisme authorized to be taught in Schools and published by his consent in the English tongue Anno 157â— And first he sheweth that as God is said to be our Father for some other reasons so most specially for this quod nos divine per spiritum sanctum generavit per fidem in verum suum aâ—que naturalem filium Iesum Christum nos el git sibique Filios regni â—oelestis atque sempiternae vitae heredes per eundem injâ—ituit that is to say because he hath divinely regenerated us or begotten us again by the Holy Ghost and hath elected us by faith in his true and natural son Christ Jesus and through the same Christ â—ath adopted us to be his children and heires of his heavenly Kingdom and of life everlasting And if election come by our faith in Christ as he saith it doth neither a Supra-bapsarian nor a Sub-â—apâ—arian can finde any comfort from this man in favour of that absolute and irrespective decree of Predestination which they would gladly father on him in his larger Catechisme And then as for the method of predestination he thus sets it forth viz. ' Deus Adamum illis honoris insignibus ornavit ut ea cum sibi tum suis id est toti humano generi aut servaret aut amitteret c. God saith he indued Adam with those ornaments that is to say those ornaments of grace and nature which before we speak of that he might have them or loose them for himself and his that is to say for all man-kinde And it could not otherwise be but that as of an evil tree evil fruits do spring so that Adam being corrupted with sinne all the issue that came of him must also be corrupted with that original sin For delivery from the which there remained no remedy in our selves and therefore God was pleased to promise that the seed of the woman which is Jesus Christ should break the head of the Serpent that is of the Devi who deceived our first parents and so should deliver them and their posterity that believed the same Where first we have mans fall Secondly Gods mercy in his restitution Thirdly this restitution to be made by Jesus Christ and fourthly to be made to all which believe the same ' 4. Proceed we next to a Sermon preached at St. Pauls crosse Octob. 27. 1584. by Samuel Hâ—rsâ—et then fellow of Pâ—mbrooke Hall in Cambridge and afterwards Master of the same preferred
cause to condemn them Who doth not smile at the Grecians Conceit that gave their God a glorious title for killing of flyes 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 me 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 mercifull 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 holyer and heavenlyer 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 misereatur crudelem habet miserecordiam he that puts man into miseries that he may pity him hath no kind but a cruell pity ' 7. The absolute deâ—ree of Reprobation being thus discharged he shews in the next place that as God desireth not the death of man without relation to his sin so he desireth not the death of the sinfull man or of the wicked sinfull man but rather that they should turn from their wickedness and live And he observes it is said unto the Coats in Saint Mathews Gospel Ite melidicti in ignem paratum he doth not say Maledicti patris Go ye cursed of the Father as it is Benedicti patris when he speaks of the sheep God intituling himself to the blessing only and that the fire is prepared but for whom Non vobis sed Diabolo Angelis ejus not for you but for the Devil and his Angels So that God delighteth to prepare neither death nor hell for damned men The last branch of his discourse he resolves into six consequences as links depending on his chain 1. Gods absolute Will is not the cause of Reprobation but sin 2. No man is of an absolute necessity the child of Hell so as by Gods grace he may not avoid it 3. God simply willeth and wisheth every living soul to be saved and to come to the kingdom of Heaven 4. God sent his son to save every soul and to bring it to the kingdom of heaven 5. God offereth Grace effectually to save every one and to direct him to the Kingdom of heaven 6. The neglect and contempt of this Grace is the cause why every one doth not come to Heaven and not any privative Decree Councel and Determination of God ' The stating and canvasing of which points so plainly curtly to the Doctrines of the old Zuinglian Gospellers and the modern Calvinians as they take up the rest of the Sermon so to the Sermon I refer the Reader for his further satisfaction in them I note this only in the close that there is none of the five Arminian Articles as they commonly call them which is not contained in terms express or may not easily be found by way of Deduction in one or more of the six consequences before recited 8. Now in this Sermon there are sundry things to be consisidered as namely first That the Zuinglian or Calvinian Gospel in these points was grown so strong that the Preacher calls it their Goliah so huge and monstrous that many quaked and trembled at it but none that is to say but few or none vel dâ—o vel nâ—mo in the words of Persius durst take up Davids sling to throw it down Secondly That in canvasing the absolute Decree of Reprobation the Preacher spared none of those odious aggravations which have been charged upon the Doctrines of the modern Calvinists by the Remonstrants and their party in these latter times Thirdly That the Sermon was preached at St. Pauls Cross the greatest Auditory of the Kingdom consisting not only of the Lord Major the Aldermen and the rest of the chief men in the City but in those times of such Bishops and other learned men as lived occasionally in London and the City of Westminster as also of the Judges and most learned Lawyers some of the Lords of the Counsel being for the most part present also Fourthly That for all this we cannot find that any offence was taken at it or any Recantation enjoyned upon it either by the high Commission or Bishop of London or any other having authority in the Church of England nor any complaint made of it to the Queen or the Counsel-Table as certainly there would have been if the matter of the Sermon had been contrary to the Rules of the Church and the appointments of the same And finally we may observe that though he was made Arch-Bishop of Yorke in the Reign of King Charls 1628. when the times are thought to have been inclinable to those of the Arminian Doctrines yet he was made Master of Pembrook hall Bishop of Chichester and from thence translated unto Norwitch in the time of King James And thereupon we may conclude that King James neither thought this Doctrine to be against the Articles of Religion here by Law established nor was so great an enemy to them or the men that held them as some of our Calvinians have lately made him 9. But against this it is objected by Mr Prin in his book of Perpetuity c. printed at London in the year 1627. 1. That the said Mr. Harsnet was convented for this Sermon and forced to recant it as heretical 2. That upon this Sermon and the controversies that arose upon it in Cambridge between Baroe and Whitacres not only the Articles of Lambeth were composed of which more hereafter but Mr. Wotton was appointed by the University to confute the same 3. That the said Sermon was so far from being published or printed that it was injoyned by Authority to be recanted For Answer whereunto it would first be known where the said Sermon was recanted and by whose Authority Not in or by the University of Cambridge where Mr. Harsnet lived both then and a long time after for the Sermon was preached at St. Pauls Cross and so the University could take no cognisance of it nor proceed against him for the same And if the Recantation was made at St. Pauls Cross where the supposed offence was given if would be known by whose Authority it was enjoyned Not by the
suddenly against a Nation or a Kingdome to pluck it up to root it out and to destroy it But if this Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their wickednesse I will repent of the plague which I thought to bring upon them So likewise for his mercy I will speak suddenly concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdome to build it and to plant it but if ye do evil in my sight and heare not my voice I will repent of the good I thought to do for them Gen. 20. it is exprest where God telleth Abimeleck with-holding Abrahams wife Thou art a dead man because of the woman which thou hast taken the event fell out otherwise and Abimileck purged himself with God With an upright minde and innocent hands have I done this There is no question but God inclosed a condition within his speech Thou art a dead man if thou restore not the woman without touching her body and dishonouring her husband 12. Thus we may answer the scruple by all these wayes 1. Yet fourty dayes and Nineveh shall be overthrown and yet fourty and fourty dayes and Nineveh shall not be overthrown Why Because Nineveh is changed and the unchangable will of God ever was that if Niniveh shewed a change it should be spared 2. There were two parts of Gods purpose the one disclosed touching the subversion of Nineveh the other of her conversion kept within the heart of God Whereupon he changed the sentence pronounced but not the councel whereunto the sentence was referred 3. If you consider Niniveh in the inferiour cause that is in the deservings of Niniveh it shall fall to the ground but if you take it in the superiour cause in the goodnesse and clemency of Almighty God Niniveh shall escape Lastly the judgement was pronounced with a condition reserved in the minde of the judge Niniveh shall be overthrown if it repent not Now he that speaketh with condition may change his minde without suspition of lightness As Paul peomised the Corinthians to come to them in his way towards Macedonia and did it not For he ever more added in his soul that condition which no man must exclude if it stand with the pleasure of God and he hinder me not Philip threatned the Lacidemonians that if he invaded their countrey he would utterly extinguish them They wrote him no other answer but this If meaning it was a condition well put in because he was never like to come amongst them Si nisi non esset perfectum quidlibet esset If it were not for conditions and exceptions every thing would be perfect but nothing more unperfect then Niniveh if this secret condition of the goodness of God at the second hand had not been 13. So far this Reverend Prelate hath discoursed of the nature of Gods decrees and accommodated his discourse thereof to the case of the Ninevites Let us next see how far the principal particulars of the said discourse and the case of the Ninivites it self may be accommodated to the Divine decree of Predestination concerning which the said Reverend Prelate was not pleased to declare his judgment either as being impertinent to the case which he had in hand 〈…〉 out of an unwillingnesse to engage himself in those disputes which might not suddenly be ended All that he did herein was to take care for laying down such grounds in those learned Lectures by which his judgment might be guessed at though not declared As Dr. Peter Baroe of whom more hereafter declared his judgement touching the Divine Decrees in the said case of the Ninevites before he fell particularly on the Doctrine of Predestination as he after did And first As for accomodating the case of the Ninevites to the matter which is now before us we cannot better do it then in the words of Bishop Hooper so often mentioned who having told us that Esau was no more excluded from the promise of grace then Jacob was proceedeth thus viz. ' By the Scripture saith he it seemeth that the sentence of God was given to save the one and damne the other before the one loved God or the other hated him Howbeit these threatnings of God against Esau if he had not of his wilful malice excluded himself from the promise of grace should no more have hindred his salvation then Gods threatnings against Nineveh which notwithstanding that God said should be destroyed within fourty dayes stood a great time after and did pennance Esau was circumcised and presented unto the Church of God by his Father Isaaac in all external Ceremonies as well as Jacob. ' And that his life and conversation was not as agreeable unto justice and equity as Jacobs was the sentence of God unto Rebecca was not in the fault but his own malice Out of which words we may observe first that the sentence of God concerning Esau was not the cause that his conversation was so little agreeable to justice and equity no more then the judgement denounced against the Ninivites could have been the cause of their impenitency if they had continued in their sinnes and wickednesses without repentance contrary to the Doctrine of the Gospellers in Queen Maries dayes imputing all mens sins to predestination Secondly that Gods threatnings against Esau supposing them to be tanta-mount to a reprobation could no more have hindred his salvation then the like threatning against the Ninevites could have sealed to them the assurance of their present distruction if he had heartily repented of his sinnes as the Ninevites did And therefore thirdly as well the decree of God concerning Esau as that which is set out against the Ninevites are no otherwise to be understood then under the condition tacitly annexed unto them that is to say that the Ninevites should be destroyed within fourty dayes if they did not repent them of their sinnes and that Esau should be reprobated to eternal death if he gave himself over to the lusts of a sensual appetite Which if it be confessed for true as I think it must then fourthly the promises made by God to Jacob and to all such as are beloved of God as Jacob was and consequently their election unto life eternal are likewise to be understood with the like condition that is to say if they repent them of their sinnes and do unfainedly believe his holy Gospell The like may be affirmed also in all the other particulars touching Gods decrees with reference to the Doctrine of predestination which are observed or accomodated by that learned Prelate in the case of the Ninevites had I sufficient time and place to insist upon them CHAP. XIX Of the first great breach which was made in the Doctrine of the Church by whom it was made and what was done towards the making of it up 1. GReat alterations made in the face of the Church from the return of such Divines as had withdrawn themselves beyond Sea in the time of Queen Mary with the necessity of imploying them in the