Authority of Tindal something also was ascribed at least by Arch-Bishop Cranmer one of our Reformers to the Authority of Iohn Frith for he seems to have received his Faith in the Doctrine of the Sacrament from him and with his Heifer did he plow in his Answer to Stephen Winchester Rationes argumenta atque e Doctoribus petita testimonia Johannis Frithi singula commemorare ut immensi esset negotii ita nec valde necessarii praesertim cum Archiepiscopus Cantuariensis in suo adversus Wintoniensem Apologetico idem abunde praestitisse videatur hinc contracta maxima praesidiorum materia quibus adversus cum nititur nec scio an ulli magis Authori hujusce doctrinae fidem acceptam debuit Archiepiscopuâ— quam huic adolescenti Iohn Fox in his Commentary in Latine pag. 130. Dr. H. page 18. Here the Doctor supposeth a Question to be asked On whom or on whose judgements the first Reformers relied in the weighty business And answers it first negatively They had no respect of Calvin whose offered assistance they refused when they went about it of which he sensibly complains unto some of his Friends in one of his Epistles Answ. Here are three things affirmed 1. That our first Reformers had no respect to Calvin 2. That the Reformers refused his profered assistance 3. That Calvin sensibly complaineth of this in one of his Epistles But the Historian is wiser than to tell us in what Epistle for number Calvin makes this complaint or what was the name of that Friend to whom this Epistle was directed Such a reference might have spoiled his whole design and discredited his future proceedings for it would have let his Reader understand that he could confidently aver things that were neither vera nor verisimilia Is any man so facil as to believe that our first Reformers had no respect to Calvin when as among the different opinions concerning the Sacrament they followed his and sent for Peter Martyr and Martin Bucer and Paul Fagius men that they might be sure he had influenced and would influence to assist them in carrying on their work and to defend them by their learning against all opposition I will once more look into Calvin's Epistles and Answers that I may see what thoughts our first Reformers had of that now so much decried man One and but one Epistle I find written by Cranmer to Calvin intimating his desire that learned and godly men who excell others in learning and judgement might meet in some safe place where they might handle all the heads of Ecclesiastical Doctrine and agree not only as to the things themselves but also as to words and forms of speaking This his desire being signified he intreateth Calvin that he and Melancthon and Bullinger would deliberate among themselves how such a Synod might most commodiously be congregated The Letter bears date March 20. 1542. Calvin from Geneva answers this Letter approves the Arch-Bishops design of calling an Assembly of Divines adds that if there might be any use of him he would not refuse to pass over ten Seas to further it but hoped that his tenuity would effect that he might be spared he would think he had done his part if he should accompany others with his Prayers This certainly is not profering his service and complaining that his servâ—ce when profered was refused Calvin also did write to the Protector the Duke of Somerset that Letter was so kindly accepted that he of his own accord offered to present another Letter which Calvin sent to King Edward himself But it may be this Letter to the King was not accepted I answer It was not only accepted by the King but also pleased his whole Council And Cranmer admonished Calvin that he could not do any thing more profitable than to write often to the King as I find in a Letter to Farel from Calvin dated Iune 15. 1557. Bucer at Cambridge undestood that Calvin's Letters prevailed much with Somerset and therefore intreats him when he did write to him to admonish him not to suffer the Churches to be left void of Preachers and so to be betrayed Bishop Hooper so much valued Calvin that he did write to him even when he was imprisoned saluting him with the Compellation of Vir praestantissime earnestlyâ—begging his Churches prayers and at last subscribing himself Tuae pietatis studiosissimus Jo. Hooperus These things put together make it impossible that our first Reformers had no respect to Calvin Let the Doctor now have leave to tell us to whom or to what our Reformers had respect Dr. H. pag. 18. In the first place saith he to the most pure and sincere Christian Religion in the Scriptures and in the next place to the usages of the Primitive Church Answ. This I grant but must also add that they had a respect unto the condition of the English People much at that time wedded to Superstition and therefore they were feign to recommend to Authority for establishment not every thing which they accounted best but what they thought the weak People would be able to bear Dr. H. Ibid. Being satisfied in both which waies they had thirdly a more particular respect to the Lutheran platforms the English Confession or Book of Articles being takâ—n in many places word for word out of that of Ausberg Answ. If this be true that our Reformers had such an eye to the Augustan Confession I infer that seeing Calvin could and did subscribe to the Augustan Confession there is nothing in our Articles but what he might have subscribed to But the present Lutherans will hardly be perswaded that the Composers of our Articles had so tender a respect to the Conâ—ession of Ausberg at least as now by them understood for Ubiquity in the Article concerning the Lord's Supper is plainly condemned whiles it is defined that the Body of Christ cannot be present at one time in many and diverse places Dr. H. Ibid. Fourthly in reference to the Points disputed they ascribed much to the Authority of Melancthon not undeservedly called the Phoenix of Germany whose assistance they earnestly desired whose coming over they expected who was as graciously invited hither by King Edward his coming laid aside on the fall of the Duke of Somerset therefore since they could not have his company they made use of his Writings for their direction Answ. Of this passage I am not able to give such an account as I desire Well I remember I have read that Melancthon in an Epistle to Camerarius mentions his being invited into England by King Henry the Eighth about the year 1534 and the cause of his refusal to accept the invitation some intelligence he had received that the King had no great care of the affairs of the Church That he was ever invited by King Edward I can neither affirm nor deny having not Melancthon's Epistles at hand But when was it that this great Scholar's assistance was so earnestly desired The fall of the Duke of Somerset
Carleton 1618. Theo. Field 1619. Lincoln William Barlow 1608. Richard Neile 1613. George Mountayn 1617. Iohn Williams 1621. London Richard Vaughan 1604. Thomas Ravis 1607. George Abbot 1609. Iohn King 1611. George Mountaine 1621. Norwich Iohn Overal 1618. Samuel Harsnet 1619. Oxford Iohn Bridges 1603. Iohn Houson 1619. Roch. Willam Barlow 1605. Rechard Neile 1608. Io. Buckridge 1611. Salisbury Robert Abbot 1615. Martin Fotherby 1618. Robert Tomson 1620. Iohn Davenant 1621. Winchester Ia. Mountague 1617. Lancelot Andrews 1618. Worcester Henry Parry 1610. Iohn Thornborough 1617. York Toby Mathew 1606. Carlisle Robert Snowdon 1616. Richard Milbourne 1620. Richard Senhouse 1624. Chester George Lloyd 1604. Thomas Morton 1616. Iohn Bridgeman 1618. Durham William Iames 1606. Richard Neile 1617. How few are they among these which the Doctor layes claim to And how little or no proof doth he give us that those whom he claims had publickly owned any of his Anti-calvinian Opinions Bancroft is never affirmed to have said or written any thing concerning Predestination but what occurs in the Relation of the Hampton Court Conference and that can at most amount but to a rebuke of some carnal Protestants who did abuse the Doctrine of Predestination to their destruction Overal's Opinion in these points if it somewhat differ from Calvin's much more differs from Dr. Heylin's Yet on the account of Overal's and some others Episcopal preserments the Historian groweth so confident as to averr that his Conditional-decree-men found King James a gracious Patron and by means of his gracious Patronage in the end surmounted all difficulties and came at last to be altogether as considerable both for power and number as the Calvinists were He that will affirm this and affirm it in Print and whilst so many are living that knew the Transactions of King Iames his Court must needs lose the credit of an impartial Historian Yet the Doctor as if he had not sufficiently disparaged himself in affirming so great an increase of Anti-calvinists in England goes on to give a reason of it just as some in Natural Philosophy undertake to give us a cause of the Swans singing before her death before they have given us any good Authority that she doth so sing But what is his reason Why Dr. H. Pag. 103. The differences betwixt the Remonstrants and Contraremonstrants in Holland and their publishing of their Books one against another by which the students in the Universities were quickned to study the points Answ. That the breaking out of the Remonstrants could not did not contribute to the increase of Arminianism in England we shall see by and by In the mean time it is no great credit to the Doctors cause that so few durst publickly appear for it till it had the incouragement of the civil Magistrate If the Primitive Christians had not published the truth before Kings became nursing Fathers to it the world had been to this day under Paganish darkness Let me offer a Dilemma Either there were some in England who thought Calvins Doctrines made God the Author of sin destroyed liberty of will opened a gap to all profaneness or there were not If there were none every one sees what will follow If any how came they to have so little zeal against so damnable blasphemies as not to adventure the loss of all preferments yea of life it self in opposing of them Dr. H. Pag. 104. But so it hapned that while matters went thus fairly forwards Conradus Vorstius suspected for a Samosetenian or Socinian Heretick c was chosen by the Curators of Leiden 1611 to succeed Arminius Answ. While things went thus fairly forward How fairly forward You told us before of the preferments of certain Bishops that had espoused your opinions several of whose preferments were bestowed on them after this election of Vorstius into the place of Arminius You also little credit your History by saying that Vorstius was but suspected of Socinianism and your friends the Remonstrants did less credit themselves in appearing so streâ—uously for a man suspected of such prodigious blasphemies if he had been only suspected But what ever secret good liking you had either for the Remonstrants or Vorstius by whom they would feign have been headed your Loyalty and Allegeance should have kept you from saying that King James used many harsh and bitter expressions against Arminius and his followers as if guilty of the same impieties with Vorstius For why might not King Iames charge the Remonstrants with Vorstius his blasphemies when as they so apertly declared that they had nothing against Vorstius nor had found any thing in his Writing which was contrary to truth or piety and that it would be most profitable to Church and Commonwealth if his calling should proceed Vid. praef ad acta Synodi But how inexcuseable a piece of is it to say as you do Chapt. 6th Numb 7 that King James was carried so to express himself against the Arminians not so much by the clear light of his own understanding as by reason of State and that it was a part of Kings craft to contribute to the suppression of the weaker party For doth not King Iames in his Declaration tell you the clean contrary Doth he not also call Arminius an enemy to God his followers Atheistical sectaries Doth he not call Bertius his Book of the Apostasie of Saints a blasphemous Book worthy of the Fire for its very Title Doth he not say that Bertius lâ—ed grosly in averring his heresie contained in his said Book was agreeable with the profession and Religion of our Church of England And will you after all this make the world believe that setting aside political considerations and a design to serve the Prince of Orange King Iames had no zeal against Arminianism What if one should say that this Book you have written is not the clear result of your Judgment but wrested from you by the importunity of your Friends who would not suffer you to be quiet till you had reproached the Calvinists and wrested the History of Church affairs to serve their ends You would think your self wronged And have not you then much more wronged King Iames under whose Government you lived in telling the world so long after his death that he put all the harsh expressions against Arminius into his Declaration to serve other mens turns rather than to advance his own as you speak Chap. 22. Numb 10. But you think you have reason to charge this hypocrisie on him for say you pag. 106 That King James condemned not the Arminian Doctrines in themselves though he had taken some displeasure against their persons appears not only by rejecting the Lambeth-Articles and his dislike to the Calvinian Doctrine of predestination in the Conference at Hampton-Court but also by instructing his Divines commissionated for the Synod of Dort not to oppose the Article of Universal Redemption which they accordingly performed You told us before Chap. 6. Numb 7th that King James sent such Divines to the assembly
very fair interpretation of it and subscribe unto it This I had thought to have shown but I am prevented by the incomparable Zanchy who descanting upon the agreement made betwixt the Divines and Professors of the Church and School of Argentine Anno 1563 concerning the Divine Prescience and Predestination doth also teach us how to interpret the Book of Concord Which yet all things considered might better have been called the Book of Discord so much variance did it create among those whose Wisdom and Piety it would have been to unite against the common Enemies of Reformation Here it may not be amiss to take notice that when Marbachius about the years 1561 1562 did accuse Zanchy's Doctrine of Predestination as heretical the judgement of Churches and Universities and private learned Men was desired and the University and Church of Marpurg the School and Church of Heidelberg the Church of Scaphusinm the Tigurine Church and School the Church and University of Basil besides many private Persons did justifie him as may be seen in his second Book of Miscellanies page 79 80 c. Object But do not many of the Lutherans decry Calvins Doctrine of Predestination as injurious to God and destructive of the power and practice of godliness Ans. I must needs acknowledge they do and that at such a rate and height that they have in virulence exceeded most of the Papists Like deaf adders they seem to have stopped their ears against the voice of all those who would have charm'd them into any moderation and to have that alway written upon their hearts which once dropped from Luther's Pen in a fit of passion Blessed is the man who hath not gone in the counsel of the Sacramentarians nor stood in the way of the Zuinglians nor sate in the seat of the Tigurines The first set and solemn Dispute I find betwixt Lutherans and Calâ—inists about Predestination happened in the year 1586 and was managed principally by the learned Theodore Beza and Iacobus Andreas a man of mean birth but advanced at last to be Chancellor of Tubing the place Mompelgard the occasion such as that no good success could be expected from it Frederick the Prince was from his youth trained up and instructed in the Ubiquitarian Doctrine but by going to Berne and Geneva and frequent hearing the Lectures and Sermons of Beza began to have some more favourable thoughts of the Calvinists and therefore gave entertainment to some French exiles at Mompelgard But as soon as it was buzzed into his ear that the Duke of Wittenberg had no Heir male that the Austrians would never endure him to be Successor if he favored the Hugonots and that he was already suspected so to do both because he had been at Geneva and also because he had received and given entertainment to the French Protestants upon these reasons he yielded to the Conference not to find out truth but to purge himself from any suspition of being Calvinistically affected I would not have charged so great a Prince with so carnal a design but that Scultetus in the History of his own life pag. 28 assures me that Toâ—sanus told all this in his hearing to Pezelius And indeed by reading the Conference it self as related by Lucas Osiander I found reason to suspect some such design for whereas the Prince in his Letters missive inviting to the Conference mentioned no other cause of it but the unhappy controversie about the Lords Supper Beza and his Associates must at the Conference be put upon it unpreparedly to discourse about Predestination and the Prince as if he could not in conscience endure to hear Beza's blasphemies forsooth must offer to put an end to his Speech had not Andreas who was confident he should be able to answer him desired his Highness not to give him any interruption lest afterwards it should be said that Beza was not sufficiently heard in so weighty and great a matter And yet I observe that Andreas so declareth himself about the Doctrine of Election as that Beza saw no reason to contradict him Andreas his Positions are these 1. Deus salvandos non modo praescivit sed etiam ab aeterno elegit ad vitam aeternam praedestinavit 2. Electio facta est in Christo priusquam fundamenta mundi posita sunt hâ—c est ut per Christum salvarentur 3. Salvandorum apud Deum certus est numerus These things he layeth down as matters that come noâ— under any Dispute Beza contradicts not any of these nor had he any reason to contradict them But Andreas saith This is the question Whether God have so predestinated his own Elect to eternal Life as that he hath also destinated some and the greater part of mankind before they were born to eternal Condemnation and that by his absolute and hidden decree so as that he would not have them repent be converted and saved This he denieth and so would any Calvinist that is in his wits till the terms be distinguished I do challenge all the Jesuits and Arminians now living to name and shew me that man who hath in Print ventured to affirm That God did Decree to Damn any one single Person but for Sin When it is charged on us that we say God would noâ— have men Repent what is the meaning Is this it that there are some whose Impenitence God resolves not to cure unto whom he decreed not to give the Grace of Repentance Why who can question this If the meaning be that there are some whom God never put under an obligation to Repent unto whom he never made Repentance a duty I must needs say I am yet to learn the name of that Divine who hath affirmed any such thing Alas that Scholars should not distinguish betwixt Gods will of purpose determining of events and his legislative will determining of the creatures duty or once imagine that there is a contrariety betwixt these two wills The Conference ended Beza desired that notwithstanding any difference they might still look upon one another as Brethren which Andreas would not yield to offering Beza dextram humanitatis but not dextram fraternitatis The summ of all that I would have observed concerning the Lutherans is That the more ancient of them do not differ from the Calvinists in the Articles of Predestination or Perseverance the latter do differ from them somewhat though not so much as the Arminians in both yet the latter and worser sort of Lutherans do so lay down the Doctrine of Free-will that they may easily be driven to grant both absolute Election and absolute eternal Non-election or Preterition For as Hornbeck well Summa Contro p. 726 727 This being once granted that it is not by our own strength or concourse that we are converted but only and meerly by the grace and operation of the Spirit it follows that men cannot be converted but by this his grace and that they are then only converted when this grace is given Now all are not converted
Christ there is neither male nor female it may in like manner be performed by all Where that Order obtains that some Officer should perform the Administration that Order is to be kept for peace-sake and reverence of the Order Where the Officer is not present or cannot be present in the publick Assembly it is lawful for any man especially a meet man to perform that Administration For why should the Administration of the Lord's Supper be thought forbidden to them unto whom it is allowed to speak and teach in the Assembly But unto all men doth the Apostle permit to speak in the Church because he does except women though meet understanding women that are married and subject to Husbands as is manifest out of both Texts 1 Cor. 14.34 35. 1 Tim. 2.12 For Virgins and Widows the Apostle seemeth not to except especially if endowed with the gift of Prophecy from God 1 Cor. 11.5 because unto them do not belong the reasons for which the Apostle would have women hold their peace in the Assemblies not to teach but to be in silence Although it is certain where men especially meet are present that it is fit that they should be prefer'd to any kind of women whatever in teaching and administring I add where no men meet but only women religious and godly that there is no cause why they may not teach one another and celebrate the Lord's Supper among themselves seeing that the precept of celebrating the remembrance of Christ's death and of testifying our mutual communion belongs not less to women than to men Gal. 3.28 Verily if we view the ancient custom of the Church which Grotius hath alledged out of Tertullian and Cyprian we we cannot doubt but that the Administration of both Sacraments were granted to Laicks and sometimes to women 3. That all things ought to be common This is a most perfect calumny Wickliff held no community except that which hath nothing against it but covetousness the root of all evil as Dr. Iames hath manifested 4. That it is as lawful to Christen a Child in a Tub of Water at home or in a Ditch by the way as in a Font-stone in the Churches And what if Wickliff at a time when the publick Administration of Baptism was defiled with most dreadful Superstition did tell the People that Baptism was not by God's Law tied to a Font-stone in the Church would not the Doctor have told them as much had he lived in those dayes yea do not all say as much at this very day For my part I heartily rejoyce in the usages of those Churches that have Baptisteries placed in the Temple so as the Administration of the Ordinance may be observed by all the Members of the Congregation Nevertheless Antiquity used Tubs of Water and Ditches or Lakes not Font-stones Of the Apostolical times this will not be denied For the two following Centuries it is manifest by Iustin Martyr in his second Apology and Tertullian in his third Chapter de Corona Militis that it was customary not to bring water to the Church but to carry the Church to the Water I would thank that Scholar that would from any undoubted Record of Antiquity shew me that Font-stones placed near the Church door came in before the fourth Century 5. That it is as lawful at all times to confess unto a Lay-man as unto a Priest Is not this a shrewd Heresie delivered long before Wickliff by Saint Iames who not only allows but enjoyns us to confess our faults one to another Yet to say that Confession unto a Lay-man is to all intents and purposes as availeable as unto a Priest is an Error and never owned by Wickliff 6. That it is not necessary or profitable to have any Church or Chappel to pray in or to do any Divine Service in A Church is not necessary to perform Divine Service in that is certain no nor yet profitable so as to commend our Services to God But yet usually Temples are more convenient than any other places in our Parishes and therefore we are to rejoyce that they are continued to us notwithstanding the fury of the late Wars and to use them making no question for conscience sake Wickliff doubtless used to Pray and Preach in his Church at Lutterworth neither thinking that his Church did sanctifie his Services nor defile them and of this belief am I. Never do I find it so much as mentioned or objected against Wickliff that he performed Divine Service in any other than a Consecrated place To William Swinderby indeed I find it was objected that many times and oft he had come to a Desart Wood cleped Derwalf Wood and there in a Chappel not hallowed but accursed Shepherds Hulk presumed to sing but rather to curse in contempt of the Keys But he replies that this was falsly put on him saying it was a Chappel where a Priest useth to sing certain dayes in the year with great solemnity 7. That burying in Church-yards is unprofitable and in vain Wickliff's own Body was buried in his Church-yard after he had served God in his generation Had he accounted it unprofitable to have such a burying place why did he not take order with some of his Friends to have his Carcase laid elsewhere Were it not a custom received in our Church to bury in the Church or Church-yard I would never petition that it might be made a custom knowing that from the beginning it was not so either in the Jewish or Christian Church 8. That Holy-days ordained and instituted by the Church and taking in the Lord's day for one are not to be observed and kept in reverence in as much as all dayes are alike The Parenthesis here is of the Doctor 's own adding The Convocation represents the Wickliffists as distinguishing betwixt Sundayes and Holy-dayes Article 35. We may give a shrewd ghess at Wickliff's Opinion by the Opinion of Hierom of Prague which was as Bernard Luzenberg represents it that we must cease from work no day but the Lord's day To this the Bohemian Churches do stand to this very day keeping some dayes indeed besides the Lord's day but meerly as circumstances not as parts of worship and therefore so soon as Divine Service is over allowing people to follow their work yet granting no such allowance on the Lord's day which they aver to be of Divine institution 9. That it is sufficient and enough to believe though a man do no good works This is but the Heresie of St. Paul only maliciously represented by Wickliff's Adversaries and it is at this day the stone that every Papist carries in his pocket to throw at the heads of all Protestants whatsoever whether Calvinist or Lutheran It were to be wished that some Lutherans had no more given occasion to this reproach than Wickliff did 10. That no humane Laws or Constitutions do oblige a Christian. 'T is added by the Convocation but such as be in the Gospels or Paul 's Epistles or the
And the Protestant cause was not credited by him for he plaid such a prank as any ingenuous Heathen would have been ashamed of his Keeper shewing him more favour than he deserved he ran away from him and brought him into great danger Thus you may see sayes Careless the fruits of our Free-will-men that make so much boast of their own strength but that house which is not builded surely upon the unmoveable rock will not long stand against the boisterous winds and storms that blow so strongly in these dayes of Trouble This is the only Sufferer I know of that held conditional Election and surely his carriage was not so commendable that we should envy him unto our Adversaries But whereas the Doctor thinks that the strong confidence which Careless had of his own salvation and of the final perseverance of all those who are the chosen Members of Christ's Church was a thought of his own unto which the Doctrine of the Church gave no countenance It will appear that this was no singular opinion of his but a kindly derivation from the Article of Religion concerning Predestination unto Life and it seems to be that which he had learned from holy Bradford who in a Letter to Mistress M. H. under great heaviness and sorrow teacheth her That we should use all God's benefits to confirm our faith of this that God is our God and Father and to assure us that he loveth us as our Father in Christ and that God requireth this faith and fatherly perswasion of his fatherly goodness as his chiefest service Adding that no suggestion of Satan grounded upon our imperfection frailty and many evils should make us doubt of God's savour in Christ and that obedience giveth us not to be God's children but to be God's children giveth obedience And finally that as certain as God is Almighty as certain as God is merciful as certain as God is true as certain as Jesus Christ was crucified is risen and sitteth at the right hand of the Father as certain as this is God's Commandment I am the Lord thy God so certain she ought to be that God was her Father pag. 327 328. To another Gentlewoman page 330 thus he writes If he had not chosen you as most certainly he hath he would not have so called you he would never have justified you he would never have so exercised your faith with temptations as he hath done and doth if I say he had not chosen you If he have chosen you as doubtless Dear heart he hath in Christ for in you I have seen his earnest and before me and to me they could not deny it I know both where and when if I say he hath chosen you then neither can you nor ever shall perish And in the same Letter page 331 he sayes Your thankfulness and worthiness are fruits and effects of your Election they are no causes If once you had a hope in the Lord as you doubtless had it though now you feel it not yet shall you feel it again for the anger of the Lord lasteth but a moment his mercy endureth for ever In another Letter page 349 the same blessed Martyr sayes that One man which is regenerate well may be called alwayes just and alwayes sinful just in respect of God's seed and his regeneration sinful in respect of Satan's seed and his first birth Betwixt these two men there is continual conflict and war most deadly the flesh and old man by reason of his birth that is perfect doth often for a time prevail against the new man being but a child in comparison and that in such sort as not only other but even the Children of God themselves think they be nothing else but old and that the spirit and seed of God is lost and gone away where yet notwithstanding the truth is otherwise the spirit and seed of God appearing again and dispelling away the clouds which cover the Sun of God's seed from shining as the clouds in the air do the corporal Sun Many things to like purpose follow in that Letter by all which and by several Treatises in the printed Works of Mr. Bradford it sufficiently appears that he favoured the Doctrine of absolute Predestination And let any man judge whether he thought the term of a man's life to be moveable or no by some passages in his Examination page 286. As for my death my Lord there are twelve hours in the day as I know so with the Lord my time is appointed and when it shall be his good time then shall I depart hence but in the mean season I am safe enough though all the People had sworn my death Page 291 he desires them to proceed on in God's name he looked for that which God appointed them to do Upon which the Chancellor le ts fall these words This Fellow is in another Heresie of Fate and necessity as though all things were so tied together that of meer necessity all must come to pass What replies Bradford Things are not by fortune to God at any time though to man they seem so sometimes I speak but as the Apostle said Lord See how Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Prelates are gathered together against thy Christ to do that which thy hand and counsel hath before ordained for them to do Consider we next the judgement of Peter Martyr and Martin Bucer who though Foreigners had a great hand in the English Reformation As to Peter Martyr methinks there should be no question made of his judgment In his Commentary on the Romans and in his Common places he hath gone as high in the matter of God's decree as ever Calvin did But the Doctor tells us that Dr. H. Part 2. page 110. It s more than probable that Peter Martyr was not Peter Martyr whilst he lived in England Answ. If he would prove it but probable he must prove that it hath seemed so to all or to the most or to the wisest or to the most famous among those that are wise which I despair of ever seeing him prove so far am I from thinking that he will prove more than this The London Edition of his Common places is not now in many mens hands yet it is to be found in England and elsewhere and never did any one that was a possessor of it so much as adventure to affirm that in that Edition any thing was delivered concerning Predestination that was in the least contrary or seemingly contrary to what we find in the Editions more commonly used This answer the Doctor himself was somewhat diffident of and therefore did not give it until he had before made way by disparaging Peter Martyr as one Dr. H. pag. 109. Of whom there was little use made in advising and much less in directing any thing which concerned the Articles and who having no authority in Church or State could not be considered as a Master-builder Ans. Is the Doctor of the Chair of no authority in Church or State