the third Council of Carthage I shall bethink my self of an Answer to it But sure I am that in the third Council of Carthage Caesario Attico Coss as it is said to be in all Collections of the Councils were made but 24 Canons as it is in balsamon but five and twenty as in zonaras whereof this is none And no less sure that it is told me by Baronius haud omnes in hac Synodo sanciri that all the Canons attributed to this Council were not made therein Baron Annal. Eccla An. 397. n. 46. nor is it to be found in the Collection of the Canons of the Councils of Carthage either of Zonaras or Balsamon or in the Codex Canonum published by Justellus and therefore in all probability made in none at all Next look we on the other parts of the publick Liturgies for other parts there were besides the ministration of the Sacraments and the daily Service and we shall find as undeniable Authorities for defence of those as any of the former before remembred Of these I shall insist upon no more at this present time than the Form of ordering Bishops Priests and Deacons and that of solemnizing Matrimony to which we shall adjoyn their Form and Rites of Burial and so descend at last to a conclusion And first for that of Ordination whereas the ancient Form thereof had been interrupted and many of the Rulers of the Church had been too sensibly indulgent to their own affections in the dispensing of the same it pleased the Fathers in the fourth Council of Carthage not so much to ordain and constitute new Forms and Ordinances as revive the old A Council of that note and eminance that as the Acts thereof were approved and ratified by Pope Leo the great if that add any thing unto them Binius in titulo Concil To. 1. p. 587. edit Col. Id. Ibid. p. 591. so by the same the following Ages of the Church did use to regulate and dispose the publick Discipline Adeo ut hoc Concilium Ecclesiae disciplinae ad pristinam consuetudinem revocatae quasi promptuarium semper meritoque apud posteros habitum fuit as saith Binius truly Now amongst those they which first lead the way unto all the rest declare the Form and manner to be used in all Ordinations whether of Bishops Priests and Deacons or of inferiour Officers in the Church of Christ And first for Bishops especial care being taken for an inquisition into their Doctrine Life and Conversation Concil Carthag IV. can 1. it is decreed that when a Bishop is to be ordained two other Bishops are to hold the Book of the holy Gospel over his head and whilest one of them doth pronounce the blessing the rest there present lay their hands upon his head Episcopus cum ordinatur Ib. Can. 2. duo Episcopi panant teneant Evangeliorum codicem super caput cervicem or rather verticem ejus uno super eum fundente benedictionem reliqui omnes Episcopi qui adsunt manibus suis caput ejus tangant So the canon goeth And this is still observed in the Church of England save that the laying of the Book on the parties head is turned and as I think with more significancy into the putting of the same into his hand Then for the ordering of the Priest or Presbyter it is thus declared Presbyter cum ordinatur Episcopo eum benedicente manum super caput ejus tenente Ib. Can. 3. etiam omnes Presbyteri qui praesentes sunt manus suas juxta manum Episcopi super caput illius teneant When a Presbyter is to be ordained the Bishop giving the benediction or saying the words of Consecration and holding his hand upon his head all other Presbyters then present are to lay their hands upon his head near the hand of the Bishop And this is also used and required in the Church of England save that more near unto the Rule and prescript of Antiquity three Presbyters at least are to be assistant in laying hands upon the party to be ordained And last of all for that of Deacons it was thus provided solus Episcopus qui eum benedicit manum super caput illius ponat Ibid. Can. 4. that the Bishop only who ordains should lay his hand upon his head The reason of the which is this quia non ad Sacerdotium sed ad ministerium consecratur because he is not consecrated to the Office of Priesthood but to an inferiour ministry in the house of God Nor is the Deacon otherwise ordained than thus in the Church of England Here are the Rites the visible and external signs but where I pray you are the Forms the prescribed words and prayers which are now in use I answer that they are included in those two phrases benedicere and fundere benedictionem to bless to give the benediction or pronounce the blessing For as a Writer of our own very well observes Benedicere hic nibil aliud est quam verba proferre Mason de Minist Angl. l. 2. cap. 17. per quae horum Ordinum potestas traditur To bless saith he or give the benediction is nothing more nor less than to say those words by which the power of Order is conferred on every or either of the parties which receive the same And that the Form of words then used was prescribed and set not left unto the liberty of every Prelate to use what Form of words he pleased so he kept the sense we saw before in that of Zonaras where he affirmed that the Canon formerly remembred about the using prescribed Forms in the Church of God did reach to Ordination also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Ordinations Zonaras in Concil Carth. Can. 117. saith the Scholiast the Bishop or Chief Priest laying his hands on him that came to be ordained was to recite the usual and accustomed Prayers Statas preces exequi solitus est as the Translator of the Scholiast And this may be observed withal that though this Council be of good antiquity as being held An. 398. yet almost all the Acts thereof and those especially amongst the rest were rather declaratory of the antient Customs of the Church of CHRIST Baron Annal. Eccl. An. 398. than introductory of new as both Baronius and Binius do affirm and justifie That which remains concerns the Form of Marriage and Rites of Burial to which a little shall be added of those pious Gestures used by them in the Act of publick Worship and that being done I shall conclude And first for Marriage there is no question to be made but that from the beginning of Christianity it hath been celebrated by the Priest or Minister with publick Prayers and Benedictions and most times with the celebration of the blessed Eucharist whereof thus Tertullian Vnde sufficiam ad felicitatem ejus matrimonii enarrandam Tertullian ad uxorem l. 2. quod Ecclesia conciliat confirmat
far more express Episcopos vocat stellas c. Paraeus in Apocal cap. 1. v. 20. The Bishops are called Stars saith he because they ought to out-shine others aswell in purity of Doctrine as sincerity of Conversation in the Church of God eosdem Angelos vocat quia sunt Legati Dei ad Ecclesiam and they are also called Angels because they are the Legats or Embassadours of God to his holy Church And lest we should mistake our selves and him in the word Episcopus he laboureth to find out the Bishop of each several Church as we shall see hereafter in that inquisition for those who speak to the particular Beza Annot. Apoc. c. 2.1 we begin with Beza who on those words unto the Angel of the Church of Ephesus gives this Annotation Angelo i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quem nimirum oportuit imprimis de his rebus admoneri c. To the Angel that is saith he to the chief President whom it behoved to have the notice of the charge there given and by him to the rest of his Colleagues and the whole Congregation but fearing lest this Exposition might give some advantage for the upholding of the Hierarchie which he so laboured to pull down he adds de proprio that notwithstanding this acknowledgment Episcopal authority being a thing of mans invention hinc statui nec potest nec debet nor may nor ought to have any ground from hence Finally Marlorat himself on those very words Marlorat Eccl. Expâ—sit in Apocal c. 2. v. 1. shews that however there were many things in the Church of Ephesus which required Reformation both in the Clergy and the people Non tamen populum aggreditur sed Clerum yet the Apostle doth not apply himself unto the people but the Clergy Nor doth he fashion his discourse to the Clergy generally Sed ad Principem Cleri Episcopum utique but to the chief or principal of the Clergy which was the Bishop Nay Marlorat goes further yet and he as he layeth down his interpretation so he doth also give a reason of it and such a one as may well satisfie any man of reason Idem Ibid. His reason is Nam Pastor non modo pro propriis c. Because the Pastor is not only to render an account to the supream Judg for his own sins alone but for the sins of all his flock if any of them by his sloth or negligence do chance to perish And certainly this reason is of special use and efficacy to the point in hand For if the Lord do look for an account at the Pastors hand for every sheep that shall be lost by his sloth or negligence it must needs follow thereupon that those of whom so strict a reckoning is expected must not have power only to persuade and counsel but also to correct and censure and by their own proper and innate authority to rectifie such things as are amiss in their several charges The Son of God is neither so unjust as that the Pastor should be charged with those enormities which he hath no authority to amend or rectifie nor so forgetful as to threaten and rebuke the Pastor not only for the peoples faults but the Errata of the Presbyters in case he were not trusted with a greater power than any of the rest for that end and purpose Which being so and that our Saviour by Saint John doth send out his summons neither unto the Church in general nor to the Presbyters in common but to the Angel of each Church in the singular number it is most plain and evident as I conceive that in the time of writing the Apocalypse as long time before it the Church of Christ had certain Pastors of more eminent note when they as we intituled Bishops which governed as well the Presbyters as the rest of the Flock and those the Son of God acknowledgeth for stars and Angels And howsoever the inferiour Pastors both are and may be called Angels in a general sense as Messengers and Ministers of God Almighty yet if it be the Angel in the singular number the Angel in the way of eminence and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is peculiar only to the Bishop Now that each Church of those remembred in that Book had his proper Angel and that they were not governed by a Corporation or Colledg of Presbyters to whom those several Epistles might be sent by the name of Angels the word Angel being to be taken collectively and not individually as some men suppose is in the next place to be shewed And first for proof Smectymn p. 52. there is a pregnant evidence in a Discourse or Treatise touching the Martyrdom of Timothy the Author of the which relates that after Saint John the Apostle was revoked from his exile by the sentence of Nerva Apud Phot. in Biblioth n. 254. he betook himself to the Metropolis of Ephesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and being assisted with the presence of the seven Bishops he took upon himself the government of the Metropolis of the Ephesians and there continued preaching the Doctrine of salvation till the time of Trajan Which as it is an evident and convincing proof that the seven Churches had their several Bishops to each Church one Bishop so is it no such difficult matter to find out most of them by name and what Church each of them did govern And first for Ephesus Paraeum in Apocal cap. 2. some have conceived that Timothy was still alive and Bishop at that time when the Apocalypse was written which hotly is defended by Alcasar against Ribera Lyra and Pererius who opine the contrary But surely Timothy it could not be as doth appear in part by that which was alledged out of the Treatise of his Martyrdom which if it were not written by Polycrates is yet very antient and authentick wherein he is conceived to be dead before but principally by the quality and condition of that blessed Evangelist so plentifully endued with the Holy Ghost so eminent in piety and all heavenly graces that no man can conceive him lyable to the accusation with which the Angel of that Church is charged And therefore it must either be that John when on the death of Timothy as I conceive Saint John ordained Bishop of this Church as is reported in the Constitutions Constitut Apost l. 7. c. 48. ascribed to Clemens or else Onesimus another of the Successors of Timothy in the See of Ephesus who is intituled Bishop of it in the Epistle of Ignatius written to that Church within twelve years after the writing of the Revelation In which Epistle Ignatius blessing God for so good a Bishop Igna. in Epist ad Ephes admonisheth the people of their duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in submitting themselves unto his judgment or concurring with it as their whole Presbytery did which harmony of the Bishop and his Presbyters he doth compare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto the concord of the
Eccles l. 4.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Five books he writ as both Eusebius and Saint Hierom tell us touching the Acts and Monuments of the Church of God this last affirming of the work that it contained many things ad utilitatem legentium pertinentia exceeding profitable to the Reader De scriptor Eccles though written in a plain and familiar stile Some fragments of his cited by Eusebius we have seen before the body of his Works being eaten by the teeth of Time and one we are to look on now being the remainder of a most accurate and full confession of his Faith Euseb ut supra which he left behind him There he relates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in a Journey towards Rome he did confer with many Bishops and that he found amongst them all the same Form of Doctrine there being no City where he came no Episcopal succession wherein he found not all things so confirmed and setled as they were prescribed by the Word taught by the Prophets and Preached by our Lord and Saviour Particularly he tells us of the Church of Corinth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it continued constantly in the Orthodox Faith till the time that Primus was there Bishop with whom he had much conference as he sailed towards Rome staying with him many days at Corinth and being much delighted with his Conversation Of Rome he only doth inform us that he abode there till the time of Anicetus whose Deacon Eleutherus at that time was who not long after did succeed in his Pastors Chair Soter succeeding Anicetus Eleutherus succeeding Soter Where by the way De viris ill in Egesip I wonder how Saint Hierom came to place the coming of Egesippus unto Rome sub Aniceto when Anicetus was there Bishop considering that Egesippus tells us he was there before and that he there continued 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 until the time of Anicetus as before was said Discoursing of the Errours of the Jews his Countrey-men he sheweth that after James the Just was martyred in defence of Christs Truth and Gospel Simeon the son of Cleophas and Uncle to our Saviour was erected Bishop all the Disciples giving their voices unto him as being of their Masters kindred He addeth that Hierusalem whereof he speaketh was called for long time the Virgin Church as being undefiled with the filth of Heresies and that Thebulis was the first who broached strange Doctrine in the same the man being discontented as it seemed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he was not made a Bishop So far the pieces of this Journal or Itinerary direct us in this present search as to discern how strong a bulwark the Episcopal succession hath been and been accounted also of Gods sacred Truths how strong a Pillar for support of that blessed building At the same time with Egesippus lived Dionysius the learned and renowned Bishop of the Church of Corinth Euseb Eccles hist l. 4. c. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De scriptor Ecc. successor to that Primus whom before we spoke of A man as both Eusebius and Saint Hierom say of such both industry and Eloquence ut non solum suae Civitatis Provinciae populos that he instructed not alone by his Epistles the people of his own City and Province but also those of other Churches One writ he saith Eusebius to the Lacedemonians at once confirming them in faith and love another unto the Athenians about the time that Publius their Bishop suffered Martyrdom exhorting them to live according to the prescript of Christs holy Gospel In that Epistle he makes mention of Quadratus also who succeeded Publius in that charge declaring also that Dionysius the Areopagite being converted by Saint Paul was made the first Bishop of that City Of which three Bishops of Athens Quadratus is much celebrated by Eusebius for an Apologie by him written Euseb l. 4. c. 3. and tendred unto Adrian the Emperour in the behalf of Christians being the first piece of that kind that was ever written in the World and written as it seems with such power and efficacy Id. ibid. c. 9. that shortly after Adrian desisted from his persecuting of the Church of God making a Law or Edict for their future safety But to go on with Dionysius A third he writ unto the Nicomedians opposing in the same the Heresies of Marcion a fourth unto the Gortynaeans in which he much commended their Bishop Philip in that the Church committed to his care and governance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been made famous by so many tryals both for faith and constancy He writ unto the Church of Amastris also and the rest in Pontus speaking by name of Palma the Bishop there as also to the Church of Gnossus in the Isle of Crete in which he did persuade Pintus Bishop of the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to impose that grievous yoke of Chastity upon his brethren as a matter necessary but to consider rather the infirmity and weakness of them Finally there was extant in Eusebius's time another Epistle of this Dionysius to the Church of Rome wherein he magnifieth their abundant charity towards all the Brethren which were in want or persecution not only of their own but of other Cities highly commending Soter who was then their Bishop who did not only study to preserve them in so good a way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but also did encourage them to improve their bounties So much remains of Dionysius and his publick Acts by which we may perceive that though the Bishops of those times as since had their particular Sees and Cities yet did their care extend unto others also maintaining a continual intercourse betwixt one another not only for their mutual comfort in those dangerous times but also for the better government of the Church it self the Unity whereof was then best preserved by that correspondence which the Bishops in the name of their several Churches had with one another For other Bishops of those times not to say any thing of Melito or Polycarpus whom before we spake of nor of the Bishops of the four Patriarchal Sees which we shall have occasion to remember shortly those of most fame were Papias and Apollinarius Euseb Hist l. 3. c 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishops successively of Hierapolis a City of Phrygia Pothinus Bishop of Lyons in France Id. l. 4. c. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. l. 5. c. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. c. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. c. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. c. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theophilus Bishop of Caesarea Cassius Bishop of Tyre Clarius Bishop of Ptolomais all three in Palestine Publius Julius Bishop of Debelto a Colony in Thrace with many others of great eminency whereof consult Euseb Hist Eccles 5. c. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By this that hath been said of Dionysius and other Bishops
the City Provinces As for the Church of Antiochia it spread its bounds and jurisdiction over those goodly Countries of the Roman Empire from the Mediterranean on the West unto the furthest border of that large dominion where it confined upon the Persian or the Parthian Kingdom together with Cilicia and Isauria in the lesser Asia But whether at this time it was so extended I am not able to determine Certain I am that in the very first beginning of this Age all Syria at the least was under the jurisdiction of this Bishop Ignatius in his said Epistle to those of Rome Ignat. ad Rom. stiling himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not a Bishop in Syria but the Bishop of Syria which sheweth that there being many Bishops in that large Province he had a power and superiority over all the rest Indeed the Bishops of Hierusalem were hedged within a narrower compass being both now and long time after subject unto the Metropolitan of Caesarea as appears plainly by the Nicene Canon though after they enlarged their border and gained the title of a Patriarch as we may see hereafter in convenient time Only I add that howsoever other of the greater Metropolitan Churches such as were absolute and independent as Carthage Cyprus Millain the Church of Britain Concil Ni. c. 7◠and the rest had and enjoyed all manner of Patriarchal rights which these three enjoyed yet only the three Bishops of Rome Antioch and Alexandria had in the Primitive times the names of Patriarches by reason of the greatness of the Cities themselves being the principal both for power and riches in the Roman Empire the one for Europe the other for Asia and the third for Africk This ground thus laid we will behold what use is made of this Episcopal succession by the ancient writers And first Saint Irenaeus a Bishop and a Martyr both derives an argument from hence to convince those Hereticks which broached strange Doctrines in the Church Iren. contr haer lib. 3. cap. 3. Habemus annumerari eos qui ab Apostolis instituti sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis c. we are able to produce those men which were ordained Bishops by the Apostles in their several Churches and their successors till our times qui nihil tale docuerunt neque cognoverunt quale ab hiis deliratur who neither knew nor taught any such absurdities as these men dream of Which said in general he instanceth in the particular Churches of Rome Ephesus and Smyrna being all founded by the Apostles and all of them hac ordinatione successione by this Episcopal ordination and succession deriving from the Apostles the Preaching and tradition of Gods holy truth till those very times The like we find also in another place where speaking of those Presbyteri so he calleth the Bishops which claimed a succession from the Apostles He tells us this quod cum Episcopatus successione charisma veritatis certum secundum placitum Patris acceperunt that together with the Episcopal succession Ir. adv haeres l. 4. cap. 43. they had received a certain pledge of truth according to the good pleasure of the Father See to this purpose also cap. 63. where the same point is pressed most fully and indeed much unto the honour of this Episcopal succession Where because Irenaeus called Bishops in the former place by the name of Presbyters I would have no man gather Smectym p. 23. as some men have done that he doth use the name of Bishops and Presbyters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a promiscuous sense much less conclude that therefore Presbyters and Bishops were then the same For although Irenaeus doth here call the Bishops either by reason of their age or of that common Ordination which they once received by the name of Presbyters yet he doth no where call the Presbyters by the name of Bishops as he must needs have done if he did use the names 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a promiscuous sense as it is supposed And besides Irenaeus being at this time Bishop if not Archbishop of the Church of Lyons could not but know that he was otherwise advanced both in power and title as well in Dignity as Jurisdiction than when he was a Presbyter of that very Church under Pothinus his Predecessor in that See and therefore not the same man meerly which he was before But to let pass as well the observation as the inference certain I am that by this argument the holy Father did conceive himself to be armed sufficiently against the Hereticks of his time and so much he expresseth plainly saying that by this weapon he was able to confound all those qui quoquo modo vel per sui placentiam malam vel vanam gloriam vel per coecitatem malam sententiam praeter quam oportet Ire adv haeres l. 3. c. 3. colligunt Who any way either out of an evil self complacency or vain-glorious humour or blindness of the mind or a depraved understanding did raise such Doctrins as they ought not So much for blessed Irenaeus a man of peace as well in disposition and affection as he was in name Next let us look upon Tertullian who lived in the same time with Irenaeus beginning first to be of credit about the latter end of this second Century Baron ann eccl anno 196. Pamel in vita Tertull. as Baronius calculates it and being at the height of reputation an 210. as Pamelius noteth about which time Saint Irenaeus suffered Martyrdom And if we look upon him well we find him pressing the same point with greater efficacy than Irenaeus did before him For undertaking to convince the Hereticks of his time as well of falshood as of novelties and to make known the new upstartedness of their Assemblies which they called the Church he doth thus proceed Tertull. de praes adv haeres c. 32. Edant ergo origines ecclesiarum suarum evolvant ordinem Episcoporum suorum c. Let them saith he declare the original of their Churches let them unfold the course or order of their Bishops succeeding so to one another from the first beginning that their first Bishop whosoever he was had some of the Apostles or of the Apostolical men at least who did converse with the Apostles to be their founder and Predecessor For thus the Apostolical Churches do derive their Pedegree Thus doth the Church of Smyrna shew their Polycarpus placed there amongst them by Saint John and Rome her Clement Consecrated or Ordained by Peter even as all other Churches also do exhibit to us the names of those who being Ordained Bishops by the Apostles did sow the Apostolical seed in the field of God This was the challenge that he made And this he had not done assuredly had he not thought that the Episcopal succession in the Church of Christ had been an evident demonstration of the truth thereof which since the Hereticks could not shew in their Congregations or Assemblies it
was a very pregnant evidence that they had neither verity nor antiquity to defend their Doctrins nor could with any shew of Justice challenge to themselves the name and honour of a Church Id. ibid. ca. 36. And such and none but such were those other Churches which he after speaketh of viz. of Corinth Philippi Thessalonica Ephesus and the rest planted by the Apostles apud quas ipsae Cathedrae Apostolorum suis locis praesidentur in which the Chairs of the Apostles to that time were sate in being possessed not by themselves but by their Successors By the same argument Optatus first and after him St. Austin did confound the Donatists that mighty faction in the Church St. Austin thus Numerate Sacerdotes vel ab ipsa sede Petri August contr Petil. l. 2. in illo ordine quis cui successerit videte Number the Bishops which have sate but in Peters Chair and mark who have succeeded one another in the same A Catalogue of which he gives us in another place Id. Epist 165. lest else he might be thought to prescribe that to others on which he would not trust himself Nay so far he relyed on the authority of this Episcopal Succession in the Church of Christ as that he makes it one of the special motives quae eum in gremio Ecclesiae justissimè teneant which did continue him in the bosom of the Catholick Church Id. contr Epist Manichaei c. 4. As for Optatus having laid down a Catalogue of the Bishops in the Church of Rome till his own times He makes a challenge to the Donatists to present the like Optat. de schis Donat. l. 2. Vestrae Cathedrae originem edite shew us saith he the first original of your Bishops and then you have done somewhat to advance your cause In which it is to be observed that though the instance be made only in the Episcopal succession of the Church of Rome Irt. adv haere lib. 3. cap. 3. the argument holds good in all others also it being too troublesome a labour as Irenaeus well observed omnium Ecclesiarum enumerare successiones to run through the succession of all particular Churches and therefore that made choyce of as the chief or principal But to return again unto Tertullian whom I account amongst the Writers of this Age though he lived partly in the other besides the use he made of this Episcopal succession to convince the Heretick he shews us also what authority the Bishops of the Church did severally enjoy and exercise in their successions which we will take according to the proper and most natural course of Christianity First for the Sacrament of Baptism which is the door or entrance into the Church Tertul. lib. de Baptism c. 17. Dandi quidem jus habet summus sacerdos i. e. Episcopus The Right saith he of giving Baptism hath the High-Priest which is the Bishop and then the Presbyters and Deacons non tamen sine Episcopi antoritate yet not without the Bishops licence and authority for the Churches honour which if it be preserved then is Peace maintained Nay so far he appropriates it unto the Bishop as that he calleth it dictatum Episcopi officium Episcopatus a work most proper to the Bishop in regard of his Episcopacy or particular Office Which howsoever it may seem to ascribe too much unto the Bishop in the administration of this Sacrament is no more verily than what was after affirmed by Hierom Hieron adver Lucifer shewing that in his time sine Episcopi jussione without the warrant of the Bishop neither the Presbyters nor the Deacons had any authority to Baptize not that I think that in the days of Hierom before whose time Parishes were assigned to Presbyters throughout the Church the Bishops special consent and warrant was requisite to the baptizing of each several Infant but that the Presbyters and Deacons did receive from him some general faculty for their enabling in and to those Ministrations Next for the Sacrament of the blessed Eucharist that which is a chief part of that heavenly nourishment by which a Christian is brought up in the assured hopes of Eternal life he tells us in another place non de aliorum manu quam Praesidentium sumimus Tertul. de Corona Militis that they received it only from their Bishops hand the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or President of the Presbytery as Justin Martyr seconded by Beza did before call him Which Exposition or construction lest it should be quarrelled as being injurious to the Presbyters who are thereby excluded from the honour and name of Presidents I shall desire the Reader to consult those other places of Tertullian in which the word Prefident is used as viz. Prescriptio Apostoll Bigames non sinit praesidere Tert. ad axor lib. ad uxorem and lib. de Monogamia in both of which the man that had a second Wife is said to be disabled from Presiding in the Church of God and on consideration to determine of it whether it be more probable that Presbyters or Bishops be here meant by Presidents Besides the Church not being yet divided generally into Parishes but only in some greater Cities the Presbyter had not got the stile of Rector and therefore much less might be called a President that being a word of Power and Government which at that time the Presbyters enjoyed not in the Congregation And here Pope Leo will come in to help us if occasion be assuring us that in his time it was not lawful for the Presbyter in the Bishops presence nisi illo jubente Leo Epist 88. unless it were by his appointment conficere Sacramentum corporis sanguinis Christi to consecrate the Sacrament of Christs body and blood The author of the Tract ascribed to Hierom entituled de Septem Ecclesiae ordinibus doth affirm as much but being the author of it is uncertain though it be placed by Erasinus amongst the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 docta we will pass it by From the Administration of the Sacraments which do belong ad potestatem ordinis to the power of Order proceed we on to those which do appertain ad potestatem jurisdictionis unto the power of Jurisdiction And the first thing we meet with is the appointing of the publick Fasts used often in the Church as occasion was A priviledg not granted to the common Presbyter and much less to the common people but in those times wherein the Supream Magistrate was not within the pale or bosom of the Church entrusted to the Bishop only This noted also by Tertullian in his book entituled de jejuniis which though he writ after his falling from the Church and so not to be trusted in a point of Doctrine may very well be credited in a point of custom Quod Episcopi universae plebi mandare jejunia assolent non dico de industria stipium conferendarum sed ex aliqua sollicitudinis Ecclesiae causa
vocatur ad principatum sed ad servitutem totius Ecclesiae is not invited to an Empire or a Principality but to the Service of the whole Church And this he keeps himself to constantly in that whole discourse being the sixth Homily on the Prophet Esay in which although he afterwards doth call the Bishop Ecclesiae Princeps yet he affirms that he is called ad servitutem to a place of service and that by looking to his service well ad solium coeleste ire posset he may attain an Heavenly Throne And so much shall suffice for Origen a Learned but unfortunate man with whom the Church had never peace either dead or living From him then we proceed unto his Successor Heraclas an Auditor at first of Clemens â—â—sâ—b hist l. 6. c. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then of Origen who being marvellously affected with the great Learning of the man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made him his Partner in the Chair which after Origen was laid by Id. c. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he managed wholly by himself with great applause A man that had the happiness to succeed the two greatest Enemies in the world Origen and Demetrius the one in the Schools the other in the Church of Alexandria unto which honour he was called on Demetrius death who had sate Bishop there three and forty years On this preferment of Heraclas unto the Patriarchate the Regency of the Alexandrian Schools was forthwith given to Dionysius another of Origens Disciples who after fourteen years or thereabout succeeded also in the Bishoprick And here began that alteration in the Election of the Bishops of this Church which S. Hierom speaks of Hieron ad Evagrium The Presbyters before this time used to Elect their Bishop from among themselves Alexandriae à Marco Evangelista usque ad Heraclam Dionysium Episcopos Presbyteri unum ex se electum in excelsiori gradu collocatum Episcopum nominabant as the Father hath it But here we find that course was altered though what the alteration was in what it did consist whether in the Electors or the condition of the party to be Elected is not so clearly evident in S. Hierom's words For my part I conceive it might be in both both in the unum ex se and the collocabant For first the Presbyters of that Church had used to choose their Bishop from amongst themselves Electing always one of their own body But in the choice of these two Bishops that course was altered these two not being Presbyters of the Church but Readers in the Schools of Alexandria and so not chosen from amongst themselves And secondly I take it that the course was altered as to the Electors to the Collocabant For whereas heretofore the Presbyters had the sole power of the Election to choose whom they listed and having chosen to enthrone him without expecting what the people were pleased to do the people seeing what was done in other Churches begun to put in for a share not only ruling but finally over-ruling the Election What else should further the Election of these two I can hardly tell but that their diligence and assiduity in the discharge of the employment they had took upon them the great abilities they shewed therein and the great satisfaction given thereby unto the people who carefully frequented those publick Readings had so endeared them to the multitude that no other Bishops could content them had not these been chosen And this I am the rather induced to think because that in a short time after the interess of the people in the Election of their Bishop was improved so high that the want of their consent and suffrage was thought by Athanasius a sufficient bar against the right of the Elected Atha in Epi. ad Orthodoxos affirming it to be against the Churches Canons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to the precept of the Apostles But which of these soever it was an alteration here was made of the ancient custom which is as much as is intended by S. Hierom in the words alledged How others have abused this place to prove that the imparity of Bishops is not of Divine Authority but only brought in by the Presbyters we have shewn before Part I. Cha. 3. But to go on with Dionysius for of Heraclas and his acts there is little mention we find the time in which he sate to be full of troubles both in regard of Persecutions which were raised against the Church without and Heresies which assaulted her within Novatus had begun a faction in the Church of Rome grounding the same upon a false and dangerous doctrine the sum whereof we find in an Epistle of this Dionysius Eus hist Ec. lib. 7. cap. 7. unto another Dionysius Pope of Rome And whereas Fabius Bishop of Antiochia was thought to be a fautor of that Schism he writes to him about it also Id. l. 6. c. 36. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. l. 7. c. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. l. 7. c. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. l. 7. c. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So when Sabellius had begun to disperse his Heresies he presently gives notice of it to Sixtus or Xystus Bishop of the Church of Rome as also unto Ammon Bishop of Bernice and Basilides the Metropolitan of Cyrenaica or Pentapolis and to divers others And when that Paulus Samosatenus began to broach strange doctrins in the Church of Christ although he could not go in person to suppress the same yet writ he an Epistle to the Bishops Assembled there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 declaring his opinion of the point in question And on the other side when as the Persecutors made foul havock in the Church and threatned utterly to destroy the Professors of it Id. l. 6. c. 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he by his Letters certifieth his neighbouring Bishops in what estate Gods Church stood with him with what heroick resolutions the Christians in his charge did abide the fury and conquered their tormenters by their patient sufferings so giving houour to the dead and breathing courage in the living Indeed what Bishops almost were there in those parts of Christendom with whom he held not correspondence with whom he had not mutual and continual entercourse by the way of Letters from whom he did not carefully receive in the self-same way both advice and comfort Witness his several Epistles besides those formerly remembred unto Cornelius Pope of Rome Id. li. 6. c. 38. commending him for an Epistle by him written against Novatus and giving notice to him of the death of Fabius and how Demetrianus did succeed him in the See of Antioch and also to the Church of Rome discoursing of the publick Ministeries in the Christian Church Witness that also unto Stephanus the Predecessor of Cornelius Id. l. 7. c. 2. Id. l. 7. c. 4. entituled De Baptismate a second to the aforesaid Stephanus about the faction of Novatus
formatae or communicatoriae were these Letters called as in the 163 Epistle of S. Austin where both names occur This as it was the usage of the former times so was there never more need to uphold the same than in the latter part of this present Age. So mighty a distemper had possessed the Church that no part almost of it was in a tolerable constitution and therefore it concerned the Bishops to be quick and active before the maladies thereof became incurable In that of Carthage besides the faction raised by Felicissimus which had no countenance from the Church there was an erroneous doctrine publickly received about the Baptism of Hereticks The Church of Alexandria besides the heat she fell into concerning Origen was much disquieted by the Heresie of Sabellius broached within the same And that no sooner was suppressed or at lest quieted for the present but a great flame brake out in the Church of Antioch which beginning in the House of Paulus Samosatenus before remembred had like to have put all the Church into combustion Rome in the mean time was afflicted more than all the rest by the Schism raised and the false doctrines preached therein by Novatianus and that not for a fit only and no more but so but in a constant kind of sickness which disturbed her long In this distemper of the Church the Bishops had no way to consult her health but by having recourse to their old way of mutual commerce and conference which being it could not be performed in person must be done by Letters And so accordingly it was Witness those several Letters written by St. Cyprian to the Bishops of Rome viz. from him to Stephanus Epist 71. to Lucius Epist 58. and to Cornelius Epist 42 43 47 54 55 57. to the Church there Epist 23 29. and from the Church of Rome and the Bishops of it unto him again Epist 31 46 48 49. In all of which they mutually both give and take advice as the necessities of their affairs and the condition of the Church required Nor was the business of the Church of Carthage in agitation between Cyprian only and the Roman Prelates but taken also into the care and consideration of Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria Euseb hist Ecc. l. 7. cap. 2. who writ his judgment in it and advice about it to Stephanus then Pope of Rome who held against St. Cyprian or indeed rather for the truth in the point in question What the same Dionysius did for the suppressing of the faction of Novatus raised in Rome at first but after spreading further over all the Church we have in part beheld already by his Epistle unto Fabius of Antiochia who was suspected to incline that way and that inscribed unto Cornelius written about that business also which before we spake of And we may see what Cyprian did in recompence of that advice and comfort which he had from Rome in his own afflictions by the great care he took for the composing of her Schisms and troubles when she fell into them by his Epistles to that only purpose as viz. those unto Cornelius Cypr. Ep. 41. Id. Ep. 42. Id. Ep. 43. Id. Ep. 50 51. Id. Ep. 48 49. intituled Quod ordinationem Novatiani non receperit De ordinatione ejus à se comprobata Quod ad Confessores à Novatiano seductos literas fecerit The Letters of those seduced Confessors to him and his congratulation unto them upon their return to their obedience to the Church Cornelius writing unto him touching the faction of Novatian and their wicked practices with his Reply unto Cornelius Thus also when Sabellius began to broach his Heresies within the jurisdiction of Alexandria he did not only signifie the same to the Bishop of Rome which by the Cardinal is used I know not how for a prime Argument Baron in Annal Eccl. Anno 260. n. 62. to prove the Popes Supremacy but unto divers other Bishops as before was shewn to whom assuredly he owed no obedience This as he did according to the usage of the Church at that time in force so took he other courses also for the suppression of that Heresie both by power and pen. For finding upon certain information 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that diverse Bishops of Pentapolis Athan. de sentent Dionys being within the Patriarchat of Alexandria began to countenance and embrace the said desperate doctrines and had so far prevailed therein that there was hardly any mention in their Churches of the Son of God he knowing that the care and oversight of the said Churches did belong to him first laboured by his Messengers and Commissioners to dissuade them from those lewd opinions and when that would not do the deed he was constrained to write unto them an Epistle in which he throughly confuted their erroneous Tenets By which as we may see the care and piety of this famous Prelate triumphing in the fall of Heresie so we may see the power and eminency of that famous See having the governance and superintendency of so many Churches But that which was indeed the greatest business of his time and which the Church was most concerned in was that of Paulus Samosatenus the sixteenth Bishop of the Church of Antioch great in relation to the man Euseb Eccl. hist l. 7. c. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of the three prime Bishops in the Christian Church and great inference to the danger which was like to follow When one of the main Pillars of a Church is foundred the whole edifice is in danger of a present ruin And therefore presently upon the apprehension of the mischief likely to ensue in case there was no speedy course taken to prevent the same the Bishops of all parts repaired to Antioch not only those which were within the jurisdiction of that Patriarchate but such as lived far off and in all possibility might have kept their Churches from the infection of the Heresie being so remote For thither came Firmilianus Bishop of Caesarea Id. Ibid. in Cappadocia Gregory surnamed Thaumaturgus Bishop of Neo-Caesarea in Pontus and Athenodorus his brother another Bishop of that Province Helenus Bishop of Tarsus Nicomas Bishop of Iconium Hymenaeus Bishop of Hierusalem Maximus Bishop of Bostra Theoctecnus Bishop of Caesarea the Metropolis of Palestine and so many others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the number of them was innumerable Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria was required also to be there Id. ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but he excused himself by reason of his age and weakness And well indeed he might do so being then very ill at ease and dying whilst the Synod was in preparation Id. ibid. But what he could not do in person he performed by his Pen writing not only to the Fathers who were there assembled which Eusebius speaks of but to the Heretick himself a Copy of the which we have both in Baronius and the Bibliotheca as before was said As
under Eutychianus Baron Ann. Eccl. in An. 277. his next Successor and let them reconcile the difference that list for me Suffice it that the Heresie being risen up and being so directly contrary both to Faith and Piety the Bishops of the Church bestirred themselves both then and after for the suppressing of the same according to their wonted care of Her peace and safety Not as before in the case of Paulus Samosatenus by Synodical meetings which was the only way could be taken by them for the deposing of him from his Bishoprick which followed as a part of his condemnation but by discourse and Argument in publick Writings which might effectually suppress the Heresie although the person of the Heretick was out of distance and to say truth Epiph. advers haeres 66. n. 12. beyond their reach The Persian King had eased them of that labour who seizing on that wretched miscreant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commanded him to be flay'd alive and thereby put him to death as full of ignominy as of pain But for the confutation of the Heresie which survived the Author that was the business of the Bishops by whom as Epiphanius noteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. Ibid. n. 21. many most admirable Disputations had been made in confutation of his Errors Particularly he instanceth in Archelaus Bishop of the Caschari a Nation of Mesopotamia Titus Bishop of Bostra Diodorus one of the Bishops of Cilicia Serapion Bishop of Thmua Eusebius the Historian Bishop of Caesarea Eusebius Emisenus Georgius and Apollinaris Bishops successively of Laodicea Athanasius Patriarch of Alexandria with many other Prelates of the Eastern Churches Not that the Bishops of the West did nothing in it though not here named by Epiphanius who being of another Language could not so well take notice of their Works and Writings For after this St. Austin Bishop of Hippo wrote so much against them and did so fully satisfie and confute them both that he might justly say with the Apostle that he laboured more abundantly than they all So careful were the Bishops of the Churches safety that never any Heretick did arise but presently they set a watch upon him and having found what Heresies or dangerous doctrines he dispersed abroad endeavoured with all speed to prevent the mischief This as they did in other cases so was their care the more remarkable by how much greater was the person whom they were to censure Which as we have before demonstrated in the case of Paulus Patriarch of the Church of Antioch so we may see the like in their proceedings against Marcellinus one of the Popes of Rome the third from Felix who though he broached no Heresie as the other did yet gave as great a scandal to the Church as he if not greater far The times were hot and fiery in the which he sat so fierce a persecution being raised against the Church by Dioclesian and his Associates in the Empire as never had been before A persecution which extended not only to the demolishing of Churches Theod. Eccl. hist l. 5. c. 28. Arnob. cont gent. l. 4. in fine Damas in vita Marcellini the Temples of Almighty God but to the extirpation of the Scriptures the Books and Oracles of the Almighty And for the bodies of his Servants some of which were living Libraries and all lively Temples even Temples of the holy Ghost it raged so terribly amongst them that within Thirty days Seventeen thousand Persons of both sexes in the several parts and Provinces of the Romam Empire were crowned with Martyrdom the Tyrants so extreamly raging Marcellinus comes at last unto his trial where being wrought upon either by flattery or fear or both he yielded unto flesh and blood and to preserve his life Id. ibid. he betrayed his Master Ad sacrificium ductus est ut thurificaret quod fecit saith Damasus in the Pontifical He was conducted to the Temple to offer incense to the Roman Idols which he did accordingly And this I urge not to the scandal and reproach of the Church of Rome Indeed 't is no Reproach unto her that one amongst so many godly Bishops most of them being Martyrs also should waver in the constancy of his resolutions and for a season yield unto those persuasions which flesh and blood and the predominant love of life did suggest unto him That which I urge it for is for the declaration of the Course which was taken against him the manner how the Church proceeded in so great a cause and in the which so great a Person was concerned For though the crime were great and scandalous tending to the destruction of the flock of Christ which being much guided by the example of so prime a Pastor might possibly have been seduced to the like Idolatry and that great numbers of them ran into the Temple and were spectators of that horrid action yet find we not that any of them did revile him in word or deed or pronounced hasty judgment on him but left the cognizance of the cause to them to whom of right it did belong Nor is it an hard matter to discern who these Judges were Lay-men they could not be Amb. Epist l. 5. Ep. 32. that 's sure Quando audisti in causa fidei Laicos de Episcopis judicasse When did you ever hear saith Ambrose speaking of the times before him that Lay-men in a point of Faith did judge of Bishops And Presbyters they were not neither they had no Authority to judge the Person of a Bishop That Bishops had Authority to censure and depose their Presbyters we have shewn already that ever any Presbyters did take upon them to judge their Bishop is no where to be found I dare boldly say it in all the practice of Antiquity For being neither munere pares Id. ibid. nor jure suniles equal in function nor alike in law they were disabled now in point of reason from such bold attempts as afterwards disabled by Imperial Edict A simple Biship might as little intermeddle in it as a simple Presbyter for Bishops severally and apart were not to judge their Metropolitan no nor one another Being of equal Order and Authority and seeing that Par in parem non habet potestatem that men of equal rank qua tales are of equal power one of them cannot be the others Judge for want of some transcendent power to pass sentence on him Which as it was of force in all other cases wherein a Bishop was concerned so most especially in this wherein the party Criminal was a Metropolitan and more than so the Primate or Patriarch of the Diocess So that all circumstances laid together there was no other way conceivable in these ancient times than to call a Council the greatest Ecclesiastical Tribunal of Christ on earth there to debate the business and upon proof of the offence to proceed to judgment This had been done before in the case of Paulus and this is
told how much my first engaging in this business might offend those men who loved to countenance their extravagancy by the name of the Church and what loud clamours they had raised against the most Reverend Dr. Whitgift for encountring with T. C. in behalf of the Liturgy against Dr. John Bridges Dean of Sarisbury for standing in defence of the sacred Hirarchy against the most Learned Bishop Bilson for crossing Calvins new device about Christ descent against Dr. Barce for opposing the Genevian Rigors in the points before us against Mr. Richard Montague for separating the opinions of private men from the Churches Doctrins and finall against the late Renowned Archbishop for labouring to restore this Church to its primitive lustre And though hI could not hope to be more savourably dealt withal in this case than my Letters were yet I might reasonably expect to be used no worse But on the contrary I have lately seen a scurrilous Pamphlet the Author whereof hath licked up all the filth of former Libels to vomit it at once upon me without respect to that civility which beseems a Scholar or that sobriety and modesty which adorns a Christian so Cocks are dieted sometimes with Garlick before they fight that they may rather overcome their Adversaries by the stinck of their breath than by the sharpness of their spurs or the strength of their blows But I have been so long accustomed to the noise of this Rayling Rhetorick that I am now no more troubled at it than were the Catadupi at the Rorings of the River Nilus or Socrates to see himself derided and exposed to scorn on the publick Theatre Or could I be exasperated to a Retaliation that saying of St. Cyprian would recal me to my wonted temper who being bitterly railed at by some of his Presbyters returned this Answer Non Oportet me paria cum illis facere that it becomes not me to answer them with the like revilings And yet I cannot but take notice of a mischievous project for throwing a Ball of discord betwixt me and some friends of mine Doctors in title and degree and by the Libeller declared to be of my own persuasion one of which is affirmed to say That I was an unhappy Writer and marred every thing which I medled with and for the finding of this one I have nothing but a blind direction of Hist in the margin placed there of purpose as it seemeth to put me into a suspition of all eminent persons whose names begin with those two Letters It is recorded in the History of Amianus Marcellinus that certain men informed the Emperour Valence by their Devilish Arts that one whose name began with THEO should succeed in the Empire Which put the sealous Prince into such a general distrust of all whose Names had that beginning Theodoret Theodofius Theopulos Theodulos Theodore that he caused many of them though men of eminent worth and most exemplary Loyalty to be made the subjects of his fear and cruelty And such a Devillish Art is this of T. C. the younger by which two Letters he affects to disguise his name to work me into a suspition of some eminent persons and such as must be also of my own persuasions But I have no such jealousies as Valence had and therefore shall create no trouble to my self or others upon that temptation For first I know the parties pointed to in those two letters to be the masters of so much Candor and Ingenuity that I am consident they rather would excuse my infelicities or insufficiencies be they which they will than bring me under the reproach of any such censure as none of different judgment ever laid upon me And secondly so much they have descended beneath themselves as of their own accord to certifie me both by Letters and Messages how free they were from giving any ground to that base suspition which was contrived with so much malice and design to divide between us And so Autorem Scelus repetet the Calumny must be left at the Authors door as the natural parent of it till he can find out more distinctly upon whom to charge it In the mean time I leave him to the mercy of the Laws as a common Barrator Drenched over head and ears in the waters of strife a sower of discord and discention amongst faithful friends But I have wasted too much time on this piece of impertinency and might perhaps have better studied my own fame if I had taken no notice of the Libel or the Author either but that to have been silent altogether in so just a grievance might possibly be taken for an argument of insensibility For otherwise as there is nothing in the Author but the stoln name of Theophilus Churchman which descries my Pen so there is nothing argumentative in the Pamphlet either which was not both foreseen and satisfied in the following papers before it came unto my hands I return therefore to my Post which if I can make good by Records and Evidence the fittest weapons for this Warfare I shall not easily be forced from it by Reproach and Clamors as were the ancient Gauls from surprising the Capitol by the noise and gagling of the Geese But whether I have made it good or not must be left to the Reader to whom I hope it will appear that Calvinism was not the native and original Doctrine of the Church of England though in short time it overspread a great part thereof as Arrianism did the Eastern Churches in the elder times Ubi ingemuit orbis as St. Hierom hath it when the world groaned and trembled under the calamity of that dangerous Heresie And I hope too it will appear by this discourse that I am not yet so far reduced ad secundam pueritiam as the Scorner taunts it as that my venerable back and buttocks pardon me for repeating such unmannerly language should be intituled to the Rod of this proud Orbilius Or if I be I doubt not but that God Almighty who ordaineth praise out of the mouths of Babes and Sucklings will raise some glory to his Name from that second Childhood To which great God and his unspeakable mercies in Jesus Christ our common Saviour I do most heartily recommend this Church and all them that love it Lacies Court in Abington December 26. 1659. PETER HEYLYN Historia Quinqu-Articularis OR A DECLARATION Of the Judgment of the Western-Churches c. CHAP. I. The several Heresies of those who make God to be the Author of Sin or attribute too much to the Natural freedom of Man's Will in the Works of Piety 1. God affirmed by Florinus to be the Author of sin the blasphemy encountred by Irenaeus and the foul consequents thereof 2. Revived in the last Ages by the Libertines said by the Papists to proceed from the Schools of Calvin and by the Calvinists to proceed from the Schools of Rome 3. Disguised by the Maniches in another dress and the necessity thereby imposed on the Wills
say it is moved by it self And he condemned yea mocked the Lutherans manner of speech that the Will followeth as a dead and unreasonable Creature for being reasonable by Nature moved by its own Cause which is God it is moved as reasonable and followeth a reasonable And likewise that God consenteth though men will not and spurn at him For it is a contradiction that the Effect should spurn against the Cause That it may happen that god may effectually convert one that before hath spurned before sufficient prevention but afterwards cannot because a gentleness in the Will moved must needs follow the Efficacy of the Divine Motion Soto said That every Divine Inspiration was only sufficient and that that whereunto Free-will hath assented obtaineth efficiency by that consent without which it is ineffectual not by the defect of it self but of the man The Opinion he defended very fearfully because it was opposed that the distinction of the Reprobate from the Elect would proceed from man contrary to the perpetual Catholick sense that the Vessels of Mercy are distinguished by Grace from the Vessels of Wrath. That Gods Election would be for Works foreseen and not for his good Pleasure That the Doctrine of the Fathers in the Affrican and French Councils against the Pelagians hath published that God maketh them to will which is to say that he maketh them consent therefore giving consent to us it ought to be attributed to the Divine Power or else he that is saved would be no more obliged to God than he that is damned if God should use them both alike But notwithstanding all these Reasons the contrary Opinion had the general applause though many confessed that the Reasons of Catanca were not resolved and were displeased that Soto did not speak freely but said that the Will consenteth in a certain manner so that it may in a certain manner resist as though there were a certain manner of mean between this Affirmation and Negation The free speech of Catanca and the other Dominicans did trouble them also who knew not how to distinguish the Opinion which attributeth Justification by consent from the Pelagian and therefore they counselled to take heed of leaping beyond the Mark by too great a desire to condemn Luther that Objection being esteemed above all that by this means the Divine Election or Predestination would be for Works foreseen which no Divine did admit The Ground thus laid we shall proceed unto a Declaration of the Judgment of the Church of Rome in the five Articles disputed afterwards with such heat betwixt the Remonstrants and the Contra Remonstrants in the Belgick Church so far forth as it may be gathered from the Decrees and Canons of the Council of Trent and such preparatory Discourses as smoothed the way to the Conclusions which were made therein In order whereunto it was advised by Marcus Viguerius Bishop of Sinigali to separate the Catholick Doctrine from the contrary and to make two Decrees in the one to make a continued Declaration and Confirmation of the Doctrine of the Churches Ibid. p. 215. and in the other to condemn and Anathematize the contrary But in the drawing up of the Decrees there appeared a greater difficulty than they were aware of in conquering whereof the Cardinal of Sancta Cruz one of the Presidents of the Council took incredible pains avoiding as much as was possible to insert any thing controverted amongst the School-men and so handling those that could not be omitted as that every one might be contented And to this end he observed in every Congregation what was disliked by any and took it away or corrected it as he was advised and he spake not only in the Congregations but with every one in particular was informed of all the doubts and required their Opinions He diversifyed the matter with divers Orders changed sometimes one part sometimes another until he had reduced them unto the Order in which they now are which generally pleased and was approved by all Nor did the Decrees thus drawn and setled give less content at Rome than they did at Trent for being transmitted to the Pope and by him committed to the Fryers and other learned men of the Court to be consulted of amongst them they found an universal approbation because every one might understand them in his own sense And being so approved of were sent back to Trent and there solemnly passed in a full Congregation on the thirteenth of January 1547. according to the account of the Church of Rome And yet it is to be observed that though the Decrees were so drawn up as to please all parties especially as to the giving of no distast to the Dominican Fryers and theis Adherents yet it is casie to be seen that they incline more favourably to the Franciscans whose cause the Jesuits have since wedded and speak more literally and Grammatically to the sence of that party than they to do the others which said I shall present the Doctrine of the Council of Trent as to these controverted Points in this Order following 1. Of Divine Predestination All Mankind having lost its primitive integrity by the sin of Adam they became thereby the Sons of wrath Concil Trid. Sess 6. c. 1. and so much captivated under the command of Satan that neither the Gentiles by the power of Nature nor the Jews by the Letter of the Law of Moses were able to free themselves from that grievous Servitude In which respect it pleased Almighty God the Father of all Mercies to promise first Ibid c. 2. and afterwards actually to send his only begotten Son Jesus Christ into the World not only to redeem the Jews who were under the Law but that the Gentiles also might embrace the righteousness which is by Faith and all together might receive the Adoption of Sons To which end he prepared sufficient assistance for all Hist of the Council f. 212. which every man having free will might receive or refuse as it pleased himself and foreseeing from before all Eternity who would receive his help and use it to God and on the other side who would refuse to make use thereof he predestinated and elected those of the first sort to Eternal Life and rejected the others 2. Of the Merit and Effect of the Death of Christ Him God proposed to be a propitiation for our sins by his Death and Passion and nor for our sins only Ses 6. c. 2 3. but for the sins of the whole World But so that though Christ died for all men yet all do not receive the benefit of his death and sufferings but only they to whom the merit of his Passion is communicated in their new birth or Regeneration by which the grace whereby they are justified or made just is conferred upon them 3. Of Mans Conversion unto God The Grace of God is not given no man by Jesus Christ to no other end session 6 can 2 3. but that thereby he might
the excellency of Divine Grace so the Second being that maintained by the Franciscans was plausible and populare and cherished humane presumption c. The whole passage we have had before in the Second Chapter Numb 4. but we shall answer to no more of it than the former Clause Concerning which it may be said that though Father Paul the Author of the History hath filled the Christian World with admiration yet it is obvious to the eye of any discerning Reader that in many places he savoureth not so much of the Historian as he doth of the Party and that being carryed by the Interest of his Native Countrey which was the Signory of Venice he seldom speaks favourably of the Jesuits and their adherents amongst which the Franciscans in these points are to be accounted Secondly that either Father Paul did mistake himself or else that his Translator hath mistaken his meaning in making the Second Opinion to be more pleasing to the Preaching Fryers than the understanding Divines the name of Preaching Fryers being so appropriated in common speech to those of the Dominican Order that it is never applyed unto any other And Thirdly That the Authority of Father Paul is no otherwise to be embraced in Doctrinal matters what credit soever may be given to him in point of History than as it is seconded by Reason And certainly if we proceed by the rule of Reason that Doctrine must needs more cherish humane presumption which puffeth men up with the certainty of their Election the infallibility of assisting and persisting Grace and the impossibility of falling from the attaining of that salvation which they have promised to themselves than that which leaves these points uncertain which puts a man to the continnal necessity of calling on God and working out the way unto his salvation with fear and trembling He that is once possessed with this persuasion that all the sins which he can possibly commit were they as many as have been committed by all mankind since the beginning of the World are not able to frustrate his Election or separate him from the love and favour of Almighty God will be too apt to swell with Pharisaical pride and despise all other men as Heathens and Publicans when such poor Publicans as have their minds humble and relying on God will stand aloof not daring to approach too near the Divine Majesty but crying out with God be merciful unto me a sinner and yet shall be more justified in the sight of God than the others are For this we need produce no proof we find it in the supercilious looks in the haughty carriage of those who are so well assured of their own Election who cannot so disguise themselves as not to undervalue and despise all those who are not of the same party and persuasion with them A race of men whose insolence and pride there is no avoid by a modest submission whose favour there is no obtaining by good turns and benefits Quorum superbiam frustra per modestiam obsequium effugeris as in another case was said by a Noble Britain And finally it is objected but the Objection rather doth concern the men than the Doctrine that the Arminians are a Faction a turbulent seditious Faction so found in the Vnited Provinces from their very first spawning not to be suffered by any Reason of State in a Commonwealth So saith the Author of the pamphlet called the Observator observed and proves it by the wicked conspiracy as he calls it of Barnevelt Obf. Observed p. 46. who suffered most condignly as he tells us upon that account 1619. And afterwards by the damnable and hellish plot of Barnevelts Children and Allies in their designs against the State and the Prince of Orange P. 37. This Information seconded by the Author of the Book called The Justification of the Fathers c. who tells us but from whom he knows not that the States themselves have reported of them that they had created them more trouble than the King of Spain had by all his Wars And both these backt by the Authority of King James who tells us of them in his Declaration against Vorstius That if they were not with speed rooted out no other issue could be expected than the Curse of God infamy throughout all the Reformed Churches and a perpetual rent and destraction in the whole body of the State This is the substance of the Charge So old and common that it was answered long since by Bishop Ridly in Qu. Maries days when the Doctrine of the Protestants was said to be the readiest way to stir up Sedition and trouble the quiet of the Commonwealth wherefore to be repressed in time by force of Laws To which that godly Bishop returns this Answer That Satan doth not cease to practice his old guiles and accustomed subtilties He hath ever this Dart in a readiness to whirl against his adversaries to accuse them of Sedition that he may bring them if he can in danger of the Higher Powers for so hath he by his Ministers always charged the Prophets of God Ahab said unto Elias art thou he that troubleth Israel The false Prophets complained also to their Princes of Jeremy that his words were seditious and not to be suffered Did not the Scribes and Pharisees falsly accuse Christ as a seditious person and one that spake against Caesar Which said and the like instance made in the Preachings of St. Paul Confer between Kidley and Latimer he concludes it thus viz. But how far they were from all sedition their whole Doctrine Life and Conversation doth well declare And this being said in reference to the Charge in general the Answer to each part thereof is not far to seek And first it hath been answered to that part of it which concerns King James that the King was carried in this business not so much by the clear light of his most excellent understanding as by Reason of State the Arminians as they call them were at that time united into a party under the command of John Olden Barnevelt and by him used for the reasons formerly laid down to undermine the power of Maurice then Prince of Orange who had made himself the Head of the Contra-Remonstrants and was to that King a most dear Confederate Which Division in the Belgick Provinces that King considered as a matter of most dangerous consequence and utterly destructive of that peace unity and concord which was to be the greatest preservation of the States Vnited on whose tranquillity and power he placed a great part of the peace and happiness of his own Dominions Upon which reason he exhorts them in the said Declaration To take heed of such infected persons their own Countrey-men being already divided into Factions upon this occasion as he saith which was a matter so opposite to Vnity which was indeed the only prop and safety of their State next under God as of necessity it must by little and little
which was built upon it first taking in my way some necessary preparations made unto it by H. 8. by whom it had been ordered in the year 1536. That the Creed the Lords Prayer and the Ten Commandments should be recited publickly by the Parish Priest in the English Tongue and all the Sundays and other Holidays throughout the year And that the people might the better understand the duties contained in them it pleased him to assemble his Bishops and Clergy in the year next following requiring them Vpon the diligent search and perusing of Holy Scripture to set forth a plain and sincere Doctrine concerning the whole sum of all those things which appertain unto the Profession of a Christian man Which work being finished with very great care and moderation they published by the name of an Institution of a Christian man containing the Exposition or Interpretation of the common Creed the seven Sacraments the Ten Commandments Epls Dedit the Lords Prayer c. and dedicated to the Kings Majesty Submitting to his most excellent Wisdom and exact Judgment to be by him recognized overseen and corrected if he found any word or sentence in it amiss to be qualified changed or further expounded in the plain setting forth of his most vertuous desire and purpose in that behalf A Dedication publickly subscribed in the name of the rest by all the Bishops then being eight Archdeacons and seventeen Doctors of chief note in their several faculties Amongst which I find seven by name who had a hand in drawing up the first Liturgy of King Edward VI. that is to say Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury Goodrich Bishop of Ely Hebeach then Bishop of Rochester and of Lincoln afterwards Skip then Archdeacon of Dorset after Bishop of Hereford Roberson afterwards Dean of Durham as Mayo was afterwards of S. Pauls and Cox of Westminster And I find many others amongst them also who had a principal hand in making the first Book of Homilies and passing the Articles of Religion in the Convocation of the year 1552. and so it rested till the year 1643. when the King making use of the submission of the Book which was tendred to him corrected it in many places with his own hand as appeareth by the Book it self remaining in the famous Library of Sir Robert Cotton Which having done he sends it so corrected to Archbishop Cranmer who causing it to be reviewed by the Bishops and Clergy in Convocation drew up some Annotations on it And that he did for this intent as I find exprest in one of his Letters bearing date June 25. of this present year because the Book being to be set forth by his Graces censure and judgment he would have nothing therein that Momos himself could reprehend referring notwithstanding all his Annotations to his Majesties exacter judgment Nor staid it here but being committed by the King to both Houses of Parliament and by them very well approved of as appears by the Statutes of this year Cap. 1. concerning the advancing of true Religion and the abolition of the contrary it was published again by the Kings command under the title of Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian man And it was published with an Epistle of the Kings before it directed to all his faithful and loving Subjects wherein it is affirmed To be a true Declaration of the true knowledge of God and his Word with the principal Articles of Religion whereby men may uniformly be led and taught the true understanding of that which is necessary for every Christian man to know for the ordering of himself in this life agreeable unto the will and pleasure of Almighty God Now from these Books the Doctrine of Predestination may be gathered into these particulars which I desire the Reader to take notice of Institut of a Christian that he may judge the better of the Conformity which it hath with the established Doctrine of the Church of England 1. That man by his own nature was born in sin and in the indignation and displeasure of God and was the very child of Wrath condemned to everlasting death subject and thrall to the power of the Devil and sin having all the principal parts or portions of his soul as reason and understanding and free-will and all other powers of his soul and body not only so destituted and deprived of the gifts of God wherewith they were first endued but also so blinded corrupted and poysoned with errour ignorance and carnal concupiscence that neither his said powers could exercise the natural function and office for which they were ordained by God at the first Creation nor could he by them do any thing which might be acceptable to God 2. That Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God the Father was eternally preordained and appointed by the Decree of the Holy Trinity to be our Lord that is to say to be the only Redeemer and Saviour of Man-kind and to reduce and bring the same from under the Dominion of the Devil and sin unto his only Dominion Kingdom Lordship and Governance 3. That when the time was come in the which it was before ordained and appointed by the Decree of the Holy Trinity That Man-kind should be saved and redeemed Necessary prayer than the Son of God the second Person in the Trinity and very God descended from Heaven into the world to take upon him the very habit form and nature of man and in the same nature of suffer his glorious Passion for the Redemption and Salvation of all Man-kind 4. That by this Passion and Death of our Saviour Jesus Christ not only Corporal death is so destroyed that it shall never hurt us but rather that it is made wholesome and profitable unto us but also that all our sins and the sins also of all them that do believe in him and follow him be mortified and dead that is to say all the guilt and offence thereof as also the damnation and pains due for the same is clearly extincted abolished and washed away so that the same shall never afterwards be imputed and inflicted on us 5. That this Redemption and Justification of Man-kind could not have been wrought or brought to pass by any other means in the world but by the means of this Jesus Christ Gods only Son and that never man could yet nor never shall be able to come unto God the Father or to believe in him or to attain his favour by his own wit and reason or by his own science and learning or by any of his own works or by whatsoever may be named in Heaven or Earth but by faith in the Name and Power of Jesus Christ and by the gifts and graces of his Holy Spirit But to proceed the way to the ensuing Reformation being thus laid open The first great work which was accomplished in pursuance of it was the compiling of that famous Liturgy of the year 1549 commanded by King Edward VI. that is to
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 counsel whereunto the sentence weas referred 3. If you consider Nineveh in the inferiour cause that is in the deservings of Inineveh it shall fall to the ground but if you take it in the superiour cause in the goodness and clemency of Almighty God Nineveh shall escape Lastly the judgment was pronounced with a condition reserved in the mind of the judge Nineveh shall be overthrown if it repent not Now he that speaketh with condition may change his mind without suspition of lightness 2 Cor. 1. As Paul promised the Corinthians to come to them in his way towards Macedonia and did it not For he evermore 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 Lacedemonians that if he invaded their Country 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 than Nineveh if this secret condition of the goodness of God at the second hand had not been 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 Ninevites it self my 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 or out of an unwillingness 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 judgment 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 accommodating the case of the Ninevites to the matter which is now before us we cannot better do it than in the words of Bishop Hooper so often mentioned who having told us that Esau was no more excluded from the promise of grace than Jacob was Pres to his Expos on the ten Commandments proceedeth thus viz. By the Scripture saith he it seemeth that the sentence of God was given to save the one and damn 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 than Gods threatnings against Nineveh which notwithstanding that God said should be destroyed within forty days stood a great time after and did penance Esau was circumcised and presented unto the Church of God by his Father Isaac 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 than the judgment denounced against the Ninevites could have been the cause of their impenitency if they had continued in their sins and wickednesses without repentance contrary to the Doctrine of the Gospellers in Queen Maries days 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 than the like threatning against the Ninevites could have sealed to them the assurance of their present destruction if he had heartily repented of his sins 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 than under the condition tacitly annexed unto them that is to say that the Ninevites should be destroyed within forty days if they did not repent them of their sins 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 sins and do unfainedly believe his holy Gospel 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 accommodated 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 publick service if otherwise of known zeal against the Papists 2. Several examples of that kind 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 Letter of John Bradford Martyr touching the matter of election therein contained 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 Doctrine made greater by the countenance which was given to the Book of Acts and Monuments by the Convocation An. 1571. 7. No argument to be drawn from hence touching the approbation of his doctrine by touching the approbation of his doctrine by that Convocation no more than for the Approbation of his Marginal Notes and some particular passages in it disgraceful to the Rites of the Church attire of the Bishops 8. A counterballance made in the Convocation against Fox his Doctrine and all other Novelisms of that kind IT was not long that Queen Mary sate upon the Throne and yet as short time as it was it gave
absolute will and pleasure yet he is fain to have recourse to some certain condition telling us that though the mercy of God his Grace Election Vocation and other precedent Causes do justifie us yet this is upon condition of believing in Christ And finally it is to be observed also that after all his pains taken in defending such a personal and eternal Election as the Calvinians now contend for he adviseth us to wrap up our selves wholly both body and soul under Gods general promise and not to cumber our heads with any further speculations knowing that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish c. And so I take my leave of our Martyrologist the publishing of those discourse I look on as the first great battery which was made on the Bulwarks of this Church in point of doctrine by any member of her own after the setling of the Articles by the Queens Authority Ann. 1562. the brables raised by Crowley in his Book against Campneys though it came out after the said Articles were confirmed and published being but as hail-shot in comparison of this great piece of Ordnance Not that the Arguments were so strong as to make any great breach in the publick Doctrine had it been published in a time less capable of innovations or rather if the great esteem which many had of that man and the universal reception which his Book found with all sorts of People had not gained more authority unto his discourse than the merit or solidness of it could deserve The inconveniencies whereof as also the many marginal Notes and other passages visibly tending to faction and sedition in most parts of that Book were either not observed at first or winked at in regard of the great animosities which were ingendred by it in all sorts of People as well against the persons of the Papists as against the doctrine Insomuch that in the Convocation of the year 1571. there passed some Canons requiring that not only the Deans of all Cathedrals should take a special care that the said Book should be so conveniently placed in their several Churches that people of all conditions might resort unto it but also that all and every Arch-Bishop Bishops Deans Residentiaries and Arch-Deacons should choose the same to be placed in some convenient publick room of their several houses not only for the entertainment and instruction of their menial servants but of such strangers also as occasionally repaired unto them If it be hereupon inferred that Fox his doctrine was approved by that Convocation and therefore that it is agreeable to the true intent and meaning of the Articles of the Church of England besides what hath been said already by Anticipation it may as logically be inferred that the Convocation approved all his marginal Notes all the factious and seditious passages and more particularly the scorn which he puts upon the Episcopal habit and other Ceremonies of the Church Touching which last for the other are too many to be here recited let us behold how he describes the difference which hapned between Hooper Bishop of Glocester on the one side Cranmer and Ridley on the other about the ordinary habit and attire then used by the Bishops of this Church we shall find it thus viz. Acts and Mon. so 1366 1367. For notwithstanding the godly reformation of Religion that was begun in the Church of England besides other ceremonies that were more ambitious than profitable or tended to edification they used to wear such garments and apparel as the Romish Bishops were wont to do First a Chimere and under that a white Rocket then a Mathematical cap with four Angles dividing the whole world into four parts These trifles being more for superstition than otherwise as he could never abide so in no wise could he be persuaded to wear them But in conclusion this Theological contestation came to this end that the Bishops having the upper hand Mr. Hooper was fain to agree to this condition that sometimes he should in his Sermon shew himself apparalled as the Bishops were Wherefore appointed to preach before the King as a new Player in a strange apparel he cometh forth on the stage His upper garment was a long skarlet Chimere down to the foot and under that a white linnen Rocket that covered all his shoulders upon his head he had a Geometrical that is a square cap albeit that his head was round What case of shame the strangeness hereof was that day to the good Preacher every man may easily judge But this private contumely and reproach in respect of the publick profit of the Church which he only sought he bare and suffered patiently Here have we the Episcopal habit affirmed to be a contumely and reproach to that godly man slighted contemptuously by the name of trifles and condemned in the marginal Note for a Popish attire the other ceremonies of the Church being censured as more ambitious than profitable and tending more to superstition than to edification which as no man of sense or reason can believe to be approved and allowed of by that Convocation so neither is it to be believed that they allowed of his opinion in the present point For a counterballance whereunto there was another Canon passed in this Convocation by which all Preachers were enjoyned to take special care â—ne quid unquam doceant pro concione quod à populo religiose teneri credi velint nisi quod consentaneum sit doctrinae veteris aut novi testamenti quodque ex'illa ipsa doctrina Cathotici Patres veteres Episcopi Collegerint that is to say that they should maintain no other doctrine in their publicki Sermons to be believed of the People but that which was agreeable to the doctrine of the Old and New Testament and had from thence been gathered by the Catholick or Orthodox Fathers and ancient Bishops of the Church To which rule if they held themselves as they ought to do no countenance could be given to Calvines Doctrines or Fox his judgment in these points maintained by one of the Catholick Fathers and ancient Bishops of the Church but St. Augustine only who though he were a godly man and a learned Prelate yet was he but one Bishop not Bishops in the plural number but one father and not all the fathers and therefore his opinion not to be maintained against all the rest CHAP. XX. Of the great Innovation made by Perkins in the publick Doctrine the stirs arising thence in Cambridge and Mr. Barrets carriage in them 1. Of Mr. Perkins and his Doctrine of Predestination which his recital of the four opinions which were then maintained about the same 2. The sum and substance of his Doctrine according to the Supralapsarian or Supra-creatarian way 3. The several censures past upon it both by Papists and Protestants by none more sharply than by Dr. Rob. Abbots after Bishop of Sarum 4. Of Dr. Baroe the Lady Margarets Professor in the Vniversity and his Doctrine
Lutherans and the Church of Rome as is acknowledged by the Papists themselves Page 518 2. The Judgment of the Lutheran Churches in the said five Points delivered in the famous Confession of Ausperge ibid. 3. The distribution of the Quarrel betwixt the Franciscans Melancthonians and Arminians on the one side the Dominicans rigid Lutherans and Sublapsarian Calvinists on the other the middle way of Catarinus parallell'd by that of Bishop Overal Page 519 4. The Doctrine of Predestination as laid down by Calvin of what ill Consequence in it self and how odious to the Lutheran Doctors Page 520 5. Opposed by Sebastian Castellio in Geneva it self but propagated in most Churches of Calvins Plat-form and afterwards polished by Perkins a Divine of England and in him censured and confuted by Jacob Van Harmine a Belgick Writer Page 521 6. A brief view of the Doctrine of the Sublapsarians and the odious Consequences of it Page 522 7. The Judgment of the Sublapsarians in the said five Points collected and presented at the Conference at the Hague Anno 1610. ibid. 8. The Doctrine of the Synodists in the said Points Page 523 9. Affirmed to be repugnant to the holy Scripture as also to the Purity Mercy Justice and Sincerity of Almighty God ibid. 10. And the subversion of the Ministry and all Acts of Piety illustrated by the example of Tiberius Caesar and the Lantgrave of Thurin Page 524 CHAP. V. The Doctrine of the Remonstrants and the story of them until their final Condemnation in the Synod of Dort 1. The Doctrine of the Remonstrants ancienter than Calvinism in the Belgick Churches and who they were that stood up for it before Arminius Page 525 2. The first undertakings of Arminius his preferment to the Divinity-Chair at Leiden his Commendations and death Page 526 3. The occasion of the Name Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants the Controversie reduced to five Points and those disputed at the Hague in a publick Conference ibid. 4 The said five Points according to their several Heads first tendred at the Hague and after at the Synod at Dort Page 527 5. The Remonstrants persecuted by their Opposites put themselves under the protection of Barnevelt and by his means obtained a collection of their Doctrine Barnevelt seised and put to death by the Prince of Orange Page 528 6. The Calling of the Synod of Dort the parallel betwixt it and the Council at Trent both in the conduct of the business against their Adversaries and the differences amongst themselves Page 529 7. The breaking out of the differences in the Synod in open Quarrels between Martinius one of the Divines of Breeme and some of the Divines of Holland and on what occasions ibid. 8. A Copy of the Letter from Dr. Belconqual to S. Dudly Carleton his Majesties Resident at the Hague working the violent prosecutions of those Quarrels by the Dutch Divines Page 530 9. A further prosecution of the parallel between the Council and the Synod in reference to the Articles used in the draught upon the Canons and Decrees of either and the doubtful meaning of them both Page 531 10. The quarrelling Parties joyn together against the Remonstrants denying them any place in the Synod and finally dismist them in a furious Oration made by Boyerman without any hearing Page 532 11. The Synodists indulgent to the damnable Doctrines of Macorius and unmerciful in the banishment or extermnation of the poor Remonstrants ibid. 12. Scandalously defamed to make them odious and those of their persuasions in other places Ejected Persecuted and Disgraced Page 533 CHAP. VI. Objections made against the Doctrine of the Remonstrants the Answer unto all and the retorting of some of them on the opposite Party 1. An Introduction to the said Objections Page 534 2. The first Objection touching their being enemies to the Grace of God disproved in general by comparing the Doctrine with that of S. Augustine though somewhat more favourable to Free Will than that of Luther ibid. 3. A more particular Answer in relation to some hard expressions which were used of them by King James Page 535 4. The second charging it as Introductive of Popery begun in Holland and pressed more importunately in England answered both by Reason and Experience to the contrary of it ibid. 5. The third as filling men with spiritual pride first answered in relation to the testimony from which it was taken and then retorted on those who object the same Page 536 6. The fourth Charge making the Remonstrants a factious and seditious People begun in Holland prosecuted in England and answered in the general by the most Religious Bishop Ridley ibid. 7. What moved King James to think so ill of the Remonstrants as to exasperate the States against them Page 537 8. The Remonstrants neither so troublesome nor so chargeable to the States themselves as they are made by the Assertor the indirect proceedings of the Prince of Orange viz. the death of Barnevelt and the injustice of the Argument in charging the practices of his Children and the Prince upon all the party ibid. 9. Nothing in the Arminian Doctrine which may incline a man to sediti us courses as it is affirmed and proved to be in the Calvin Page 538 10. The Recrimination further proved by a passage in the Conference of the Lord Treasurer Burleigh with Queen Eliz. in a Letter of some of the Bishops to the Duke of Buckingham and in that of Dr. Brooks to the late Archbishop ibid. 11. More fully prosecuted and exemplified by Campney's an old English Protestant Page 539 12. A Transition to the Doctrine of the Church of England ibid. CHAP. VII An Introduction to the Doctrine of the Church of England in the points disputed with the Removal of some rubs which are laid in the way 1. The Doctrine of the Homilies concerning the Endowments of man at his first Creation Page 541 2. His miserable fall Page 542 3. And the promised hopes of his Restitution in the Lord Christ Jesus ibid. 4. A general Declaration of the judgment of the Church of England in the points disputed exemplified in the story of Agilmond and Lamistus Kings of Lombardy ibid. 5. The contrary judgment of Wicklif objected answered and applied to all modern Heresies Page 543 6. A general answer to the like Argument pretended to be drawn from the Writings of Frith Tyndal and Barns But more particularly Page 444 7. The judgment of Dr. Barns in the present point and the grounds on which he builded the same ibid. 8. Small comfort to be found from the works of Tyndal in favour of the Calvinian Doctrines Page 545 9. The falsifyings of John Frith and others in the Doctrine of Predestination reproved by Tyndal Page 546 10. A parallel between some of our first Martyrs and the blind man restored to fight in the eighth of Saint Mark. ibid. CHAP. VIII Of the Preparatives to the Reformation and the Doctrine of the Church in the present points 1. The danger of ascribing
the Article to the present Established Doctrine in the Church of Rome ibid. CHAP. XIII The Doctrine of the Church of England concerning the certainty or uncertainty of Perseverance 1. The certainty of Grace debated in the Council of Trent and maintained in the Affirmative by the Dominicans and some others Page 573 2. The contrary affirmed by Catarinus and his adherents ibid. 3. The doubtful resolution of the Council in it Page 574 4. The Calvinists not content with certainty of Grace quoad statum praesentem presume upon it also quoad statum futurum ibid. 5. The bounds and limits wherewith the judgment in this point ought rationally to be circumscribed Page 575 6. The Doctrine of the Church of England in the present Article ibid. 7. Justified by the testimonies of Bishop Latimer Bishoop Hooper and Master Tyndal Page 576 8. And proved by several arguments from the publick Liturgie ibid. 9. The Homily commends a probable and stedfast hope Page 577 But 10. Allows no certainty of Grace and perseverance in any ordinary way to the Sons of men ibid. CHAP. XIV The Plain Song of the second Homily touching the falling from God and the Descants made upon it 1. More from some other Homilies touching the possibility of falling from the grace received Page 578 2. The second Homily or Sermon touching falling from God laid down verbatim Page 579 3. The sorry shifts of Mr. Yates to illude the true meaning of the Homily plainly discovered and consuted Page 581 4. An Answer unto his Objection touching the passage cited from the former Homily in Mr. Mountagues Appeal ibid. 5. The judgment of Mr. Ridley Arch-Deacon of Canterbury in the points of Election and Redemption Page 582 6. As also touching the reasons why the Word was not preached unto the Gentiles till the coming of Christ the influences of grace the co-workings of man and the possibility of falling from the truth of Christ ibid. CHAP. XV. Of the Author and Authority of King Edwards Chatechism as also of the judgment of Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr in the Points disputed 1. The Catechism published by the Authority of King Edward VI. Anno 1553. affirmed to have been Writ by Bishop Poinet and countenanced by the rest of the Bishops and Clergy Page 583 2. Several passages collected out of that Catechism to prove that the Calvinian Doctrins were the true genuine and ancient Doctrins of the Church of England Page 584 3. With a discovery of the weakness and impertinency of the Allegation Page 585 4. What may most probably be conceived to have been the judgment of Bishop Poinet in most of the Controverted Points Page 586 5. An Answer to another Objection derived from Mr. Bucer and Peter Martyr and the influence which their Auditors and Disciples are supposed to have had in the Reformation ibid. 6. That Bucer was a man of moderate Counsels approving the first Liturgy of King Edward VI. assenting to the Papists at the Dyet of Ratisbone in the possibility of falling from grace and that probably Peter Martyr had not so far espoused the Calvinian quarrels when he lived in Oxon as after his return to Zurick and Calvins Neighbourhood Page 587 7. The judgment of Erasmus according as it is delivered in his Paraphrases on the four Evangelists proposed first in the general view and after more particularly in every of the Points disputed Page 588 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 Page 589 2. Campney's a professed Enemy to the Predestinarians but neither Papist nor Pelagian Page 590 3. The common practices of the Calvinists to defame their Adversaries the name of Free-will men to whom given why ibid. 4. The Doctrine of John Knox in restraining all mens actions either good or evil to the determinate Will and Counsel of God Page 591 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 ibid. 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 ibid. 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 Page 592 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 ibid. 9. His solid Arguments against the imputing of all actions either good or evil to Predestination justified by a saying of Prosper of Aquitain Page 593 10. The virulent prosecutions of Veron and Crowly according to the Genius of the sect of Calvin Page 594 CHAP. XVII Of the disputes amongst the Confessors in Prison in Queen Maries days and the resetling of the Church on her former principles under Queen Elizabeth 1. The Doctrine of Predestination disputed amongst the Confessors in Prison in Queen Maries days Page 595 2. The Examination of John Carelese between Dr. Martin in reference to the said Disputes ibid. 3. Considerations on some passages in the conference betwixt Dr. Martin and the said John Carelesse Page 596 4. Review made of the publick Liturgie by the command of Queen Elizabeth and the â—araphrases of Erasmus commended to the reading both of Priest and People Page 597 5. The second Book of Homilies how provided for and of the liberty taken by the Gospellers and Zuinglian Sectaries before the reviewing and confirming of the Book of Articles by the Queens Authority ibid. 6. Of the reviewing and authority of the Book of Articles Anno 1562. and what may be from thence inferred Page 598 7. An Answer from the Agreement drawn from omitting the ninth Article of King Edwards Book the necessity of giving some content to the Zuinglian Gospellers and the difficulty wherewith they were induced to subscribe the Book at the first passing of the same ibid. 8. The Argument taken from some passages in the English Catechism set forth by Mr. Alexander Nowel and the strength thereof Page 599 9. Several considerations on the said Catechism and the rest of the Authors making and what his being Prolocutor in the Convocation might add to any of them in point of Orthodoxie ibid. 10. Nothing to be collected out of the first passage in Mr. Nowels Catechism in favour of the Calvinian doctrine of Predestination and the points depending thereupon and less than nothing in the second if it be understood according to the Authors meaning and the determination of the Church Page 600 CHAP. XVIII A Declaration of the
Doctrine in the Points disputed under the new establishment made by Queen Elizabeth 1. The Doctrine of the second Book of Homilies concerning the wilful fall of Adam the miserable estate of man the restitution of lost man in Jesus Christ and the universal redemption of all mankind by his death and passion Page 601 2. The doctrine of the said second Book concerning universal grace the possibility of a total and final falling and the co-operation of mans will with the grace of God Page 602 3. The judgment of Reverend Bishop Jewel touching the universal redemption of man-kind by the death of Christ Predestination grounded upon faith in Christ and reached out unto all them that believe in him by Mr. Alexander Nowel ibid. 4. Dr. Harsnet in his Sermon at St. Pauls Cross Anno 1584. sheweth that the absolute decree of Reprobation turneth the truth of God into a lie and makes him to the Author of sin Page 603 5. That it deprives man of the natural freedom of his will makes God himself to be double-minded to have two contrary wills and to delight in mocking his poor Creature Man ibid. 6. And finally that it makes God more cruel and unmerciful than the greatest Tyrant contrary to the truth of Scripture and the constant Doctrine of the Fathers Page 604 7. The rest of the said Sermon reduced unto certain other heads directly contrary to the Calvinian Doctrine in the points disputed ibid. 8. Certain considerations on the Sermon aforesaid with reference to the subject of it as also to the time place and persons in and before which it was first preached Page 605 9. An Answer to some Objections concerning a pretended Recantation falsly affirmed to have been made by the said Mr. Harsnet ibid. 10. That in the judgment of the Right Learned Dr. King after Bishop of London the alteration of Gods denounced judgments in some certain cases infers no alteration in his Councils the difference between the changing of the will and to will a change Page 606 11. That there is something in Gods decrees revealed to us and something concealed unto himself the difference between the inferiour and superiour causes and of the conditionality of Gods threats and promises ibid. 12. The accomodating of the former part of this discourse to the case of the Ninevites Page 607 13. And not the case of the Ninevites to the case disputed ibid. 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 publick service if otherwise of known zeal against the Papists Page 609 2. Several examples of that kind 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 ibid. 3. His Notes on one of the Letters of John Bradford Martyr touching the matter of Election therein contained ibid. 4. The difference between the Comment and the Text and between the Author of the Comment and Bishop Hooper Page 612 5. Exceptions against some passages and observations upon others in the said Notes of Mr. Fox ibid. 6. The great breach made hereby in the Churches Doctrine made greater by the countenance which was given to the Book of Acts and Monuments by the Convocation Anno 1571. Page 613 7. No argument to be drawn from hence touching the approbation of his doctrine by that Convocation no more than for the Approbation of his Marginal Notes and some particular passages in it disgraceful to the Rites of the Church attire of the Bishops ibid. 8. A counterballance made in the Convocation against Fox his Doctrine and all other Novelisms of that kind Page 614 CHAP. XX. Of the great Invocation made by Perkins in the publick Doctrine the stirs arising thence in Cambridge and Mr. Barrets carriage in them 1. Of Mr. Perkins and his Doctrine of Predestination with his recital of the four opinions which were then maintained about the fame Page 614 2. The sum and substance of his Doctrine according to the Supralapsarian or Supra-creatarian way Page 615 3. The several censures past upon it both by Papists and Protestants by none more sharply than by Dr. Rob. Abbots after Bishop of Sarum Page 616 4. Of Dr. Baroe the Lady Margarets Professor in the Vniversity and his Doctrine touching the divine Decrees upon occasion of Gods denounced Judgment against the Ninivites ibid. 5. His constant opposition to the Predestinarians and the great increase of his Adherents Page 617 6. The Articles collected out of Barrets Sermon derogatory to the Doctrine and persons of the chief Calvinians ibid. 7. Barret convented for the same and the proceedings had against him at his first conventing Page 618 8. A Form of Recantation delivered to him but not the same which doth occur in the Anti-Arminianism to be found in the Records of the Vniversity ibid. 9. Several Arguments to prove that Barret never published the Recantation imposed upon him Page 619 10. The rest of Barrets story related in his own Letter to Dr. Goad being then Vice-Chancellor ibid. 11. The sentencing of Barret to a Recantation no argument that his Doctrine was repugnant to the Church of England and that the body of the same Vniversity differed from the heads in that particular Page 620 CHAP. XXI Of the proceedings against Baroe the Articles of Lambeth and the general calm which was in Oxon touching these Disputes 1. The differences between Baroe and Dr. Whitacres the address of Whitacres and others to Arch-bishop Whitgift which drew on the Articles of Lambeth Page 621 2. The Articles agreed on at Lambeth presented both in English and Latine Page 622 3. The Articles of no authority in themselves Archbishop Whitgift questioned for them together with the Queens command to have them utterly supprest ibid. 4. That Baroe neither was deprived of his Professorship nor compelled to leave it the Anti-Calvinian party being strong enough to have kept him in if he had desired it Page 623 5. A Copy of the Letter from the Heads in Cambridge to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh occasioned as they said by Barret and Baroe Page 624 6. Dr. Overalds encounters with the Calvinists in the point of falling from the grace received his own private judgment in the point neither for total nor for final and the concurrence of some other Learned men in the same opinion Page 625 7. The general calm which was at Oxon at that time touching these disputes and the Reasons of it ibid. 8. An Answer to that Objection out of the writings of judicious Hooker of the total and final falling Page 626 9. The disaffections of Dr. Bukeridge and Dr. Houson to Calvins
45. n. 14. Ignatius did willingly resign his present interest unto Euodius whom he succeeded also after his decease But be this how it will certain I am that the preferment of Euodius to the See of Antioch is placed by Eusebius in the 45. year of Christs Nativity who having sate there six and twenty years did leave the same unto Ignatius Anno 71. S. John and perhaps other of the Apostles being then alive More than so Chrysostom affirms expresly Serm. de Ignat. Tom. 5. p. 499. edit Savil. not only that some of the Apostles were then alive but that he was made Bishop by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that the hands of the Apostles touched his holy head And so much for the Bishops of Antioohia which lived and were co-temporary with the Apostles But to go forwards with S. Peter having thus setled and confirmed the Church of Antioch and by this Preaching to Cornelius opened a door unto the Gospel in Caesarea and amongst the Gentiles he followed on the course of his Apostleship Preaching unto the Jews dispersed in the Eastern parts as namely throughout Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia as himself intimates in his first Epistle 1 Pet. 1.1 And when he was to leave those parts and make for Italy he left them not without a Ministery nor did he leave that Ministery without some Bishops to govern and direct the Flock The Roman Martyrology doth reckon in these Churches of S. Peters founding Cornelius the first fruits of the Gentiles Februar 2. Quem B. Petrus Episcopali honore sublimavit made by him Bishop of Caesarea Metaphrastes if he may be credited Citat ap Baron An. 44. n. 10. as in most things which do not tend to miracles I think he may relateth that S. Peter in his peregrination did ordain Bishops in the Churches of Sydon Berytus and Laodicea that he made Marson Bishop of Tripolis and Prochorus of Nicomedia and finally that in the Provinces of Pontus Cappadocia and Bithynia he did not only plant Churches but he founded Bishopricks But waving these things as I find them and the report of Agapetus in the fifth Council of Constantinople that the first Bishop of Bizantium was of Peters founding though of unquestionable credit Let us repair unto the Scriptures Conc. Constant 5. Act. 2. There find we the Apostles stirring up the Pastors to have a care unto the Flock The Elders which are amongst you I exhort who am also an Elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ Feed the Flock of God which is among you 1 Pet. 5.1 Oecumen in 1 Pet. cap. 5. Ask Oecumenius who these Presbyters or Elders were and he will tell you they were Bishops And then he gives this reason of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Bishops are called Presbyters in the book of Acts. But Oecumenius being of a later standing may possibly be undervalued when he speaks alone and therefore we will stare super vias antiquas enquire amongst the ancients and ask their judgments in the case And here we meet with Gregory Nazianzen Nazian in Apâ—â—get who pencelling and describing a perfect Prelate makes amongst others this to be a special quality belonging to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to constrain their people to the works of piety by force and violence but to allure them by persuasions For proof whereof he instanceth in this present Text Feed the Flock of Christ which is among you not by constraint but willingly of a ready mind But this construction may be verified from the Text it self as well as from the Glosses of the ancient Writers and that from three particular words or phrases that occur therein For first Saint Peter calling himself their Fellow Presbyter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek shews plainly that they were not simple Presbyters which he thus exhorteth but Presbyters invested with some higher dignity such as had some resemblance of the Apostolical function In which regard S. John the Apostle in his two last Epistles calls himself a Presbyter the Elder as our English reads it Which word he used as Oecumenius hath observed Oecum in 2. Joh. ep 1. v. 1. either because he was grown aged when he wrote the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or intimating that he was a Bishop according as the word Presbyter would bear in those former times And why not thus since Beza doth affirm on those words of Saint Peter Generale esse nomen Presbyteri Beza Annot. in 1 Pet. c. 5. that the name of Presbyter was very general so general as it seems by him ut etiam ipsi Apostoli hoc nomine comprehendantur that even the holy Apostles are comprised therein And therefore Beza being Judge S. Peter may mean Bishops here though he calls them Presbyters And that he meaneth Bishops may be also gathered from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Feed ye the Flock which is among you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek not signifying to feed only and no more than so but such a feeding as implyeth a rule or governance annexed unto it which is the proper act of Bishops Inferiour Presbyters may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 feed the particular Flock committed to them by the word of Doctrine The Bishop only may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so feed them with the word of Doctrine as that he also rule them with the rod of Discipline In this respect as the Apostle joyns the Shepherd and the Bishop in a line together 1 Pet. 2.25 So primitive Antiquity did arm the Bishop with a Crozier or Pastoral staff to shew the union of those Offices in the self-same person But hereof we shall speak more fully in another place And indeed need not speak more of it upon this occasion considering that there is another word behind in S. Peters Text which putteth the matter out of question Feed ye the Flock of God which is among you saith the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Text taking the oversight thereof as our English reads it doing the Office of a Bishop as the word doth signifie Phil. 3.17 cap. 9. v. 9. The ordinary Presbyters may be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Seers if you will according to the notion of that word in the first of Samuel the Bishops are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as do over-see the Seers So then the Presbyters whom S. Peter speaks of being such as might 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both feed and oversee and govern it is apparent they were Bishops and not simple Presbyters But in this point Saint Peter shall not go alone S. Paul will put in for a share and keep him company who writing to the Hebrews even to the very hebrews of Saint Peters Province Heb. 13.17 doth advise them thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch
Craec in Martii 14. was by him ordained Bishop of Britain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the words there are a region full of fierce and savage people and that having there setled the Church and ordained Presbyters and Deacons in the same he did there also end his life The Reverend Primate of Armagh out of a fragment attributed to Heleca De Britannic Eccl. prim c. 1. sometimes Bishop of Saragossa in Spain doth recite a passage wherein it is affirmed of this Aristobulus missum in Angliam Episcopum that he was sent Bishop into England for so the Author calleth this Countrey according to the name it had when he writ the same But these things which relate to the British Churches I rather shall refer to our learned Antiquaries to be considered of more fully than affirm any thing my self But to look back on Timothy and Titus whom we left lately in their several Churches I hear it said that notwithstanding all those proofs before produced from the ancient yet being Evangelists as they were they could be no Bishops Smectymn p. 48. Bishops being tied to the particular care of that flock or Church over which God had made them Overseers but the Evangelists being Planetary sent up and down from place to place by the Apostles as the necessities of the Church required Besides that moving in an higher sphere than that of Bishops and being Co-partners with Saint Paul in his Apostleship or Apostolical function Unbishopping of Tim. Tit. p. 36. it had been a devesting of themselves of their Apostolical jurisdiction and preheminence to become Bishops at the last and so descend from a superiour to an inferiour Office For answer whereunto we need say but this that the gift of being an Evangelist might and did fall on any rank of ordinary Ministers as might that also of the Prophet Philip one of the seven a Deacon as it is generally conceived but howsoever Ministring unto the Church in an inferiour place or Office was notwithstanding an Evangelist and Agabus though perhaps but a simple Presbyter one of the Seventy past all question was a Prophet too Philip as he was one of the Seven was tied to a particular employment and of necessity sometimes Acts 6.12 must leave the Word of God to serve Tables Yet the same Philip as he was furnished by the Lord with gifts and graces for gaining Souls to God Almighty and doing the work of an Evangelist must leave the serving of those Tables to preach the Word And Agabus Acts 11.27 28. 21.10 if he were a Presbyter whether of Hierusalem from whence he is twice said to come or of some other Church that I will not say might notwithstanding his employment in a particular Church repair to Antioch or Caesarea as the Spirit willed him there to discharge the Office of a Prophet So then both Timothy and Titus might be Bishops as to their ordinary place and calling though in relation unto their extraordinary gifts they were both Evangelists As for their falling from a higher to a lower function from an Evangelist unto a Bishop I cannot possibly perceive where the fall should be They that object this will not say but Timothy at the least was made a Presbyter for wherefore else did the Presbytery which they so much stand on lay hands upon him And certainly if it were no diminution from an Evangelist to become a I resbyter it was a preferment unto the Evangelist from being but a Presbyter to become a Bishop But for the Bishopping of Timothy and Titus as to the quod sit of it that so they were in the opinion of all ancient Writers we have said enough We will next look on the authority committed to them to see what further proof hereof may be brought for that CHAP. V. Of the Authority and Jurisdiction given by the Word of God to Timothy and Titus and in them to all other Bishops 1. The Authority committed to Timothy and Titus was to be perpetual and not personal only 2. The power of Ordination intrusted only unto Bishops by the Word of God according to the judgments of the Fathers 3. Bishops alone both might and did Ordain without their Presbyters 4. That Presbyters might not Ordain without a Bishop proved by the memorable case of Coluthus and Ischyras 5. As by those also of Maximus and a Spanish Bishop 6. In what respects the joint assistance of the Presbyters was required herein 7. The case of the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas declared and qualified 8. The care of ordering Gods Divine Service a work peouliar to the Bishop 9. To whom the Ministration also of the Saoraments doth in chief belong 10. Bishops to have a care that Gods Word be preached and to encourage those that take pains that way 11. Bishops to silence and correct such Presbyters as preach other doctrines 12. As also to reprove and reject the Heretick 13. The censure and correction of inferiour Presbyters doth belong to Bishops 14. And of Lay-people also if they walk unworthy of their Christian calling 15. Conjectural proofs that the description of a Bishop in the first to Timothy is of a Bishop truly and properly so called THEY who object that Timothy and Titus were Evangelists and so by consequence no Bishops Unbishopping of Tim. Tit. p. 60 61 c. have also said and left in writing that the authority committed to them by Saint Paul did not belong to them at all as Bishops but Evangelists only But this if pondered as it ought hath no ground to stand on The calling of Evangelists as it was Extraordinary so it was but temporary to last no longer than the first planting of the Church for which so many signal gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit were at first poured on the Disciples I know not any Orthodox Writer who doth not in this point agree with Calvin Com. in 4. ad Eph. v. 11. who in his Comment on the Epistle to the Ephesians gives us this instruction Deum Apostolis Evangelistis Prophetis Ecclesiam suam non nisi ad tempus ornasse that God adorned his Church with Prophets Evangelists and Apostles for a season only having before observed that of all those holy ministrations there recited Postrema tantum duo perpetua esse the two last viz. Pastors and Teachers which he takes for two were to be perpetual But on the other side power to ordain fit Ministers of what sort soever as also to reprove and censure those that behaved themselves unworthily authority to convent and reject an Heretick to punish by the censures of the Church all such as give offence and scandal to the Congregation by their exhorbitant and unruly living this ought to be perpetual in the Church of Christ This the Apostle seems to intimate when he said to Timothy I charge thee in the sight of God 1 Tim. 6.14 and before Jesus Christ that thou keep this Commandment without spot
particular the case of the Reformed Churches may not unfitly be resembled unto that of Scipio as it is thus related in the story Valer. Maxim l. 3. c. 7. Upon some want of money for the furtherance of the necessary affairs of State he demanded a supply from the common Treasury But when the Quaestor pretending that it was against the Laws refused to open it himself a private person seised upon the Keys Et patefacto aerario legem necessitati cedere coegit and made the Law give way to the necessities of the Commonwealth So in like manner the better to reform Religion many good men made suit to be supplyed out of the common Treasuries of the Church to be admitted to the Ministery according to the common course of Ordination Which when it was denyed them by the Bishops the Churches Quaestors in this case they rather chose to seise upon the Keys and receive Ordination from the hands of private persons than that the Church should be unfurnished This I conceive to be the Case at the first beginning But whether with the change of their condition the case be altered or whether they continue in the state they were I am not able to say any thing It is a good old saying and to that I keep me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that where I am a stranger I must be no medler Hitherto of the power of Ordination committed by Saint Paul to his two Bishops of Ephesus and Crete and in them to all other Bishops whatsoever We must next look upon the power of Jurisdiction and that consists in these particulars First in the ordering of Gods Service and the Administration of his Sacraments Secondly in the preaching of his Word censuring those that broach strange Doctrines and on the other side encouraging and rewarding such as are laborious in their Calling and lastly in correction of the manners of such as walk unworthy of the Gospel of Christ whether of the Clergy or the Laity To these three Heads we may reduce the several points and branches of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction so far forth as the same hath been committed by the Word of God and by the practice of the Church unto the managing and care of Bishops First for the ordering of Gods Service and all things thereunto pertaining Saint Paul gave Timothy this Direction that first of all 1 Tim. 2.1 Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men for Kings and all that be in authority that men may lead a quiet and a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty This as it was a common Duty and appertaining unto every man in his several place so the Apostle leaves it unto Timothy to see that men performed this Duty and were not suffered to neglect it For that the Prayers here intended were not the private Prayers of particular persons but the publique of the Congregation is agreed on all sides Calvin conceives it so for the Protestant Writers Paulus simpliciter jubet quoties orationes publicae habentur Calvin in 1. ad Tim. c. 2. that Paul doth here appoint what he would have to be comprized in our publique Prayers Estius for the Pontificians doth resolve so also Estius in 1 ad Tim. c. 2. that the place must be understood de publicis Ecclesiae precibus of the publique Prayers of and in the Congregation And that the Western Churches may not stand alone Theophylact and Oecumenius do expound the words Theophyl Occum in locum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the daily Service used in the Church of God who also call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first Christian Duty Now ask of Chrysostom Chrysost in 1 ad Tim. c. 2. to whom it doth belong to see this Duty carefully discharged as it ought to be and he will tell you 't is the Priest or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he which is the common Father of the Universe and therefore to take care of all as doth the Lord whose Priest or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is And ask of Oecumenius Oecum Ibid. than whom none better understood that Fathers Writings whom he doth there mean by the Priest or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he will tell you that it is the Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It doth saith he belong unto the Bishop as the common Father to make Prayers for all men faithful and infidels friends and enemies persecuters and slanderers Lyra speaks home and fully to this purpose also For this he makes to be secundus actus ad Episcopum pertinens the second Act belonging to the Bishops Office that Prayers be offered unto God The Ministration of the Sacraments being a principal part of Gods publique service and comprehending Prayers and Supplications and giving of thanks must be looked on next And this we find to be committed principally to the Bishops care and by their hands to such inferiour Ministers in the Church of God as they thought fit to trust with so great a charge Mat. 28.19 Luk. 22.19 To teach and to Baptize was given in the charge to the Apostles and unto none but they did Christ say hoc facite that they should take the bread and break and bless it and so deliver it to the Communicants So also in the blessing and distributing of the other element This power they left in general to their Successors to the Bishops chiefly and such as were found worthy of so high a trust Ep. ad Smyrnens by their permission Ignatius who lived nearest to our Saviours time and had been conversant with the Apostles doth expresly say it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It is not lawful without the Bishop either to Baptize or make Oblations or celebrate the Eucharist or finally to keep the Love-feasts or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which were then in use for those I take it were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Father speaks of Tertul. de Baptismo c. 17. Tertullian for the second Century doth affirm as much The right saith he of giving Baptism belongs to the chief Priest that is the Bishop next to the Presbyters or Deacons non tamen sine authoritate Episcopi yet not without the Bishops Licence or Authority Concil Laodic Can. 57. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the third Century the Councel held in Laodicea is as plain and full save that indeed it is more general in which the Presbyter is tyed from doing any thing i. e. such things as appertain to his ministration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the knowledge of his Bishop Hieron adv Luciferian Saint Hierom finally no great advancer of the Episcopal authority and jurisdiction having considered of it better doth conclude at last that if the Bishop had not a preheminence in the Church of God there would be presently almost as many Schisms as Priests And hence it is saith he Vt sine Episcopi missione neque Presbyter
neque Diaconus jus habeat baptizandi that without lawful mission from the Bishop neither the Presbyter nor Deacons might Baptize Not that I think there was required in Hieroms time a special Licence from the Bishop for every ministerial act that men in either of those Orders were to execute but that they had no more interest therein than what was specially given them by and from the Bishop in their Ordination As for the Act of Preaching which was at first discharged by the Apostles Prophets and Evangelists according to the gifts that God had given them for the performance of the same when as the Church began to settle it was conferred by the Apostles on the several Presbyters by themselves ordained as doth appear by Saint Pauls exhortation to the Presbyters 2 Tim. 4.5 which he called from Ephesus unto Miletum To this as Timothy had been used before doing the work of an Evangelist so he was still required to ply it being called unto the Office of a Bishop Saint Paul conjuring him before God and Christ that notwithstanding the diversions which might happen to him by reason of his Episcopal place and jurisdiction 2. Tim. 4.2 he should Preach the Word and not to Preach it only in his own particular 2 Tim. 2.15 shewing himself a Workman that needed not to be ashamed dividing the word of truth aright But seeing that others also did the like according to the trust reposed in them whether they had been formerly ordained by the Apostles or might be by himself ordained in times succeeding Those that discharge this duty both with care and conscience 1 Tim. 5.17 guiding and governing that portion of the Church aright wherewith they are intrusted and diligently labouring in the word and doctrine by the Apostle are accounted worthy of double honour Which questionless S. Paul had never represented unto Timothy but that it did belong unto him as a part of his Episcopal power and Office to see that men so painful in their calling and so discreet in point of government should be rewarded and encouraged accordingly By honour in this place the Apostle doth not only mean respect and reverence but support and maintenance as appears plainly by that which is alledged from holy Scripture viz. Thou shalt not muzzle the Oxe that treadeth out the Corn And the Labourer is worthy of his hiâ—e Chrysost hom 15. in 1 Tim. 5. Ambros in locum Calvin in 1 ad Tim. c. 5. Chrysostom so expounds the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By honour here is meant both reverence and a supply of all things necessary with whom agree the Commentaries which pass under the name of Ambrose Calvin affirms the like for our modern Writers Victum praecipue suppeditari jubet Pastoribus qui docendo sunt occupati Paul here commandeth that necessary maintenance be allowed the Pastor who laboureth in the Word and Doctrin And hereto Beza agreeth also in his Annotations on the place Now we know well that in those times wherein Paul wrote to Timothy and a long time after the dispensation of the Churches Treasury was for the most part in the Bishop and at his appointment For as in the beginnings of the Gospel the Faithful sold their Lands and Goods Act. 4. v. ult and laid the money at the Apostles feet by them to be distributed as the necessities of the Church required So in succeeding times all the Oblations of the faithful were returned in unto the Bishop of the place and by him disposed of We need not stand on many Authors in so clear a business Zonaras telling plainly that at the first the Bishop had the absolute and sole disposing of the revenues of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zonaras in Concil Chalcedâ—n Ca. 26. no man whoever being privy to their doings in it And that they did accordingly dispose thereof to every man according to his parts and industry doth appear by Cyprian where he informeth us that he having advanced Celerinus a Confessor of great renoun amongst that people and no less eminent indeed for his parts and piety unto the office of a Reader he had allotted unto him Cypr. Ep. 34. vel l. 4. ep 5. and to Aurelius one of equal vertue then a Reader also Vt sportulis iisdem cum Presbyteris honorentur that they should have an equal share in the distribution with the Priests or Presbyters But many times so fell out that those to whom the Ministry of the word was trusted Preached other doctrin to the People than that which had been taught by the Apostles 1 Tim. 1.3 Tit. 1.10 11. Vain talkers and deceivers which subverted whole houses teaching things they should not and that for filthy lucres sake What must the Bishop do to them He must first charge them not to Preach such doctrins which rather minister questions than godly edifying 1 Tim. 1.4 And if they will not hearken to nor obey this charge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 1.9 he must stop their mouths let them be silenced in plain English The silencing of such Ministers as deceive the People and Preach such things they should not even for lucres sake to the subverting of whole Families is no new matter as we see in the Church of God Saint Paul here gives it as in charge to Titus and to all Bishops in his person Certain I am that Chrysostom doth so expound it If thou prevailest not saith he by admonitions Chrysost tom 2. n. Tit. 1. be not afraid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 silentium iis impone the Translator reads it but silence them that others may the better be preserved by it Hierom doth so translate it also quibus oportet silentium indici such men must be commanded silence Hieron in Can. Tit. And for the charge of Paul to Timothy that he should charge those false Apostles which he speaks of not to Preach strange doctrines it carries with it an Authority that must be exercised For this cause I required thee to abide at Ephesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not that thou shouldst intreat but command such men to Preach no other doctrines than they had from me Theophylact on those words Theophyl in 1. ad Tim. c. 1. puts the question thus in the words of Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it may be asked saith he whether that Timothy were then Bishop when Paul wrote this to him To which he answereth of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is most probable giving this reason of the same because he is to charge those men not to teach other doctrines Oecumen in locum Oecumenius is more positive in the point and affirms expresly on these words that Paul had made him Bishop there before that time And Lyra if he may be heard Lyra in 1 Tim. c. 1. make this general use of the Apostles exhortation that the first Act here recommended to a Bishop is falsae doctrinae
of the Holy Ghost his first Epistle being inscribed ad Parthos as some Antients say But that he came at last to Asia and there preached the Gospel is a thing past question Eusebius out of Origen doth expresly say it August qu. Evang l. 2. chap. 39. Eccl. Histor l. 3. cap. 1. And though that piece of Origen be lost out of which Eusebius took the same yet we may take it on his word without more authority Nor did he only preach the Gospel in those parts of Asia strictly and properly so called but he also planted many Churches and founded in them many Bishopricks All the seven Churches except that of Ephesus to which he writ his Revelation were partly if not totally his foundation and in all them he constituted Bishops as we shall manifest and declare anon And as for Ephesus although he came too late to plant it yet he came time enough to water it to settle and confirm the same being much weakned and endangered by the sorceries and devices of Apollonius Tyanaeus who for some time did therein dwell as also by the Heresies of Ebion and Cerinthus who at that time lived and therefore rightly doth Ignatius who then lived also joyn him with Paul and Timothy as a Co-founder of that Church Ignat. Epist ad Ephes p. 22◠Edit Vedelian But being in the middle of his course he was sent prisoner unto Rome Anno 92. thence confined to Patmos where he continued till the death of the Emperour Domitian which was in Anno 99. during which time he writ the Revelation And of those Churches I conceive it was that Tertullian speaketh where pleading in defence of the Catholick Faith delivered by the Apostles to the Churches by them severally planted and by the Bishops of those Churches taught and in their successions he thus brings them in Habemus Johannis alumnas Ecclesias c. We have saith he Tertul. lib. 4. contra Marci cap. 5. the Churches founded by Saint John For howsoever Marcion doth reject his Revelation Ordo tamen Episcoporum yet the succession of their Bishops reckoned up unto their original will stand for John to be their founder And probable at their request it was that he writ his Gospel Hier. descrip Fcc. in Johan prooem in Evang 8. Matth. For that he writ it at the intreaty of the Asian Bishops Rogatus ab Asiae Episcopis is positively affirmed by Hierom though like enough it is that other Bishops besides those of his own foundation might contribute their requests and importunities to so good a purpose being all equally afflicted with the pest of Heresies The quality and condition of these Asian Churches Saint John doth punctually describe in his Revelation written in Anno 97. when as he had been four or five years confined to Patmos It seemeth those Churches most of them at the least on the calamity which befel the Apostle in his deportation being deprived of the benefit of so Divine and excellent a Spirit and pressed by the importunity of these active Hereticks willing to make the best advantage of the present time began to stagger in the faith wax cold in their affection to the Gospel and to give way to such false Teachers as were crept in amongst them to rectify what was amiss amongst them and to inform them of their errours did he direct unto them his Apocalypse Apoc. 1.4 To the seven Churches in Asia so it doth begin But when he comes unto particulars to give them every one their particular charge from him who walked in the midst of the Golden Candlesticks then he addresseth his discourse to the Angels only Apoc. 2.1 Cap. 8.12 the Angels of those several Churches Unto the Angel of the Church of Ephesus and to the Angel of the Church of Smyrna and to the Angel of the Church of Pergamus sic de caeteris Now ask the Fathers what those Angels were and they will tell you that they were the Bishops of those several Churches Saint Austin writing on these words Vnto the Angel of the Church of Ephesus c. makes this observation August Ep. 162. in fine Divina voce sub Angeli nomine laudatur praepositus Ecclesiae that the Bishop or Governour of the Church remember what was said before of the word Praepositus is praised by the voice of Christ Vid. chap. 3. n. 5. under the name of an Angel But first he gives a reason of his resolution shewing that this Expostulation could not be applyed to those Ministring spirits in the Heavens because they still retained their first Love to God and therefore must be understood de praepositis Ecclesiae of the Rulers or Governours of the Church who had given way to false Apostles The like occurreth in his Comment on the Revelation wherein he maketh the Angels of these Churches to be Episcopi aut praepositi Ecclesiarum the Bishops or Rulers of the same The Commentaries under the name of Ambrose pointing unto this place of the Apocalypse Amb. in 1 Cor. cap. 11. give us this short note Angelos Episcopos dicit that by Angels there he meaneth Bishops And these ascribed to Hierom writing on those words Because of the Angels Hier. ib. 1 Cor. 11. observes the same Angelos ecclesiis presidentes dicit that there by Angels Saint Paul intends the Presidents or Rulers of the Churches Finally Oecumenius saith the same Oecumen ca. 1. in Apoca. who speaking of the seven Churches in Asia to whom Saint John addresseth his Discourses observe that John ascribes to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an equal or proportionable number of governing Angels And on those words Id. cap. 2. in Apocal. the seven stars are the Angels of the seven Churches makes this gloss or Comment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he calleth these Angels governours of Churches by the name of stars because they borrow all their light from the Sun of Righteousness For Protestant Writers which affirm the same I begin with those which speak most generally and indefinitely Citat apud Marlorat in cap. ◠Apoca. v. 20. Bullin con 6. in Apocal. Id. in con 9. where first we have Sebastian Meyer Ecclesiarum Praefecti stellae Angeli in sacris literis dicuntur the Governours of Churches are called saith he in holy Scripture by the name of Stars and Angels Bullenger to the same effect Angeli sunt legati Dei Pastores Ecclesiarum the Angels are the Messengers of God the Pastors of the Churches in which lest possibly we might mistake his meaning in the word Pastor he tells us not long after that he means the Bishop for speaking of the Angel or the Pastor of the Church of Smyrna he tells us that he was that Polycarpus as it was indeed Ordinatus ab Apostolis ab ipso inquam Johanne Episcopus who was ordained Bishop of that Church by the Apostles nay by John himself Paraeus is as general as the other two but
ill but all cometh from absolute necessity and in us is no Free-will and to affirm it is a meer fiction 3. Free-will since the sin of Adam is lost and a thing only titular and when one doth what is in his power he sinneth mortally yea it is a thing fained and a Title without reality 4. Free-will is only in doing ill and hath no power to do good 5. Free-will moved by God doth by no means co-operate and followeth as an Instrument without life or an unreasonable Creature 6. That God correcteth those only whom he will though they will not spurn against it Upon the first Article they spake rather in a Tragical manner than Theological that the Lutheran Doctrine was a frantick wisdom that mans Will as they make it is prodigious that those words a thing of Title only a Title without reality are monstruous That the Opinion is impious and blasphemous against God that the Church hath condemned it against the Maniches Priscilianists and lastly against Aballardus and Wickliff and that it was folly against common sense every one proving in himself his own Liberty that it deserveth not confutation but as Aristotle saith Chastisement and Experimental proof that Luther's Scholars perceived the folly and to moderate the Absurdity said after that a man had liberty in External Political and Oeconomical actions and in matters of Civil Justice that which every one but a Fool knoweth to proceed from Councils and Election but denied Liberty in matter of Divine Justice only Marinarus said That as it is foolish to say no huane action is in our power so it is no less absurd to say that every one is every one finding by experience that he hath not his affections in his power that this is the sense of the Schools which say that we are not free in the first motions which freedom because the Saints have it is certain that some freedom is in them which is not in us Catarinus according to his opinion said That without Gods special assistance a man cannot do a moral good said there was no liberty in this and therefore that the Fourth Article was not so easily to be condemned Vega after he had spoken with such Ambiguity that he understood not himself concluded that between the Divines and the Protestants there was no difference in Opinion for they concluding now that there is liberty in Philosophical Justice and not in Supernatural in External works of the Law not in external and spiritual that is to say precisely with the Church that one cannot do spiritual works belonging to Religion without the assistance of God And though he said all endeavour was to be used for composition yet he was not gratefully heard it seeming in some sort a prejudice that any of the differences might be reconciled and they were wont to say that this is a point of the Colloquies a word abhorred as if by that the Laity had usurped the Authority which is proper to Councils A great Disputation arose upon them Whether it be in mans power to believe or not to believe The Franciscans following Sotus did deny it saying That as Knowledge doth necessarily follow Demonstrations so Faith doth arise necessarily from persuasions and that it is in the understanding which is a natural Agent and is naturally moved by the Object They alledged Experience that no man can believe what he will but what seemeth true adding that no man would feel any displeasure if he could believe he had it not The Dominicans said that nothing is more in the power of the Will than to believe and by the determination and resolution of the Will only one may believe the number of the Stars is even Upon the I hird Article Whether Free-will be lost by sin very many Authorities of S. Augustine being alledged which expresly say it Hist of 〈◊〉 cil p. 108. c. Soto did invent because ke knew no other means to avoid them that true Liberty is equivocal for either it is derived from the Noun Libertas Freedom or from the Verb Liberare to set Free that in the first sense it is opposed to Necessity in the second to Servitude and that when S. Augustine said That Free-will was lost he would infer nothing else but that it is made slave to Sin and Satan This difference could not be understood because a servant is not free for that he cannot do his Will but is compelled to follow his Masters And by this opinion Luther could not be blamed for entituling a Book of SERVILE WILL many thought the Fourth Article absurd saying That Liberty is understood to be a power to both the contraries therefore that it could not be said to be a Liberty to Evil if it were not also to Good But they were made to acknowledge their Error when they were told that the Saints and blessed Angels in Heaven are free to do good and therefore that it was no inconvenience that some should be free only to do Evil. In the examining the fifth and sixth Articles of the consent which Free-will giveth to Divine Inspiration or preventing Grace the Franciscans and Dominicans were of divers Opinions The Franciscans contended that the Will being able to prepare it self hath Liberty much more to accept or refuse the divine Prevention when God giveth assistance before it useth the strength of Nature The Dominicans denied that the Works preceding the Vocation are truly preparatoy and ever gave the first place to God Notwithstanding there was a contention between the Dominicans themselves For Soto defended that although a man cannot obtain Grace without the special preventing assistance of God yet the Will may ever some way resist and refuse it and when it doth receive it it is because it giveth assent and doth will so and if our assent were not required there would be no cause why all should not be converted For according to the Apocalyps God standeth always at the Gate and knocketh And it is a saying of the Fathers now made common That God giveth Grace to every one that will have it and the scripture doth always require this consent in us and to say otherwise were to take away the Liberty of the Will and to say that God useth violence Fryer Aloisius Catanca said to the contrary That God worketh two sorts of preventing Grace in the mind according to the Doctrine of S. Thomas the one sufficient the other effectual To the first the Will may consent or resist but not to the second because it implieth contradiction to say that Efficacy can be resisted for proof he alledged places of S. John and very clear Expositions of S. Augustine He answereth that it ariseth hence that all are not converted because all are not effectually prevented That the fear of overthrowing Free-will is removed by S. Thomas the things are violently moved by a contrary Cause but never by their own and God being the cause of the WIll to say it is moved by God is to
the more easily divert himself in the ways of Godliness and consequently merit and obtain eternal life which otherwise he might do without any such Grace by his own free will though with more difficulty and trouble And therefore if any man shall say that without the preventing Inspiration of the Holy Ghost and his heavenly Influences a man is able to even hope love or repent as he ought to do that so he may be justified in the sight of God let him be Anathema 4. Of the manner of Conversion The Freedom of the Will is not so utterly lost in man Sess 6. c. 5. though it be diminished and impaired as to be accounted nothing but an empty Name or the name of no such thing existing in Nature in that the Will of man moved and stirred up by the grace of God retains a power of co-operating with the heavenly Grace by which he doth prepare and dispose himself for the obtaining of the Justification which is given unto him Can. 4. And therefore if any one shall say that a man cannot resist this grace though he would or that he is meerly passive not acting any thing but as a stock or sensless stone in his own Conversion let him be also held accurst And so are they who have presumed to affirm and teach that it is not in the power of man to do evil but as well bad as good works are done not only by Gods permission but by his proper working so that as well the Treason of Judas as the Calling of Paul is to be reckoned for the work of Almighty God 5. Of the certainty or uncertainty of Perseverance No man is so far to presume on the secret Mystery of Predestination Sess 6. Can. 13. as to account himself for certain to be within the number of the Elect as if he were assured of this that being justified he could neither sin no more nor were sure of Repentance if he did And therefore no man is to flatter himself with any such certainty of perseverance though all men ought to place a constant and firm hope for the obtaining of the same in the help of God Can. 14. They which by sin have fallen away from the grace received may recover their lost Justification if being stirred up from above they endeavour the recovery of it by sincere Repentance Can. 15. or by the Sacrament of Pennance as the words there are And finally the grace of Justification or the grace by which a man is justified is not only lost by infidelity by which the Faith it self doth suffer Shipwrack but even by every mortal sin though Faith be not lost also at the same time with it Such is the Doctrine of this Council in the Points disputed extracted fainfully out of the Canons and Decrees thereof one only clause being added to the Article of Predestination agreeable to the Opinion in the Conferences and Debates about it which prevailed most upon the Prelates and all others who were interessed and intrusted in drawing up the Products and Conclusions of it which how far it agreeth or disagreeth with or from hat which is maintained by the opposite Parties in the Reformed and Protestant Churches we are next to see CHAP. IV. The Judgment of the Lutherans and Calvinians in these Five Points with some Objections made against the Conclusions of the Council of Dort 1. No difference in the Five Points betwixt the Lutherans and the Church of Rome as is acknowledged by the Papists themselves 1. The Judgement of the Lutheran Churches in the said five Points delivered in the famous Confession of Ausperge 3. The distribution of the Quarrel betwixt the Franciscans Melancthonians and Arminians on the one side the Dominicans Rigid Lutherans and Sublapsarian Calvinists on the other the middle way of Catarinus paralleled by that of Bishop Overal 4. The Doctrine of Predestination as laid down by Calvin of what ill Consequence in it self and how odious to the Lutheran Doctors 5. Opposed by Sebastian Castellio in Geneva it self but propagated in most Churches of Calvins Plat-form and afterwards polished by Perkins a Divine of England and in him censured and confuted by Jacob Van Harmine a Belgick Writer 6. A brief view of the Doctrine of the Sublapsarians and the odious Consequences of it 7. The Judgment of the Sublapsarians in the said Five Points collected and presented at the Conference at the Hauge Anno 1610. 8. The Doctrien of the Synodists in the said Points 9. Affirmed to be repugnant to the holy Scripture as also to the Purity Mercy Justice and Sincerity of Almighty God 10. And the subversion of the Ministry and all Acts of Piety illustrated by the Example of Tiberius Caesar and the Lantgrave of Thurin SUCH being the Doctrines of this Council in the Points disputed we need not not take much pains in looking after the Judgment of the Lutheran Chruches which comes so near to that of the Church of Rome as to be reckoned for the same For in the History of the Council Hist of the Council of Tr. p. 210. it is said expresly as before is noted that in the Books of Luther in the Augustane Confession and in Aplogies and Colloquies there was nothing found as to the Doctrine of Predestination which deserved to be censured And therefore they were sain to have recourse unto the Writings of the Zuinglian party amongst which Calvin and his followers were to be accounted to find out matter to proceed upon in their Fulminations And in particular it is said by Andreas Vega one of the stiffest and most learned men amongst the whole pack of the Franciscans Ibid. f. 208. when the Points about Free will were in agitation that between themselves and the Protestants there was no difference of Opinion as to that particular How near they came to one another in the other Points may easily be found in the Debates and Conferences before laid down compared with the Judgment of the Lutheran Doctors not only in their private Writings but their publick Colloquies But then we are to understand that this Agreement of the Lutheran Doctors expressed in their private Writings and their publick Colloquies and especially the solemn Confession at Ausperge relates to that interpretation of the Decrees and Canons of the Tridentine Council which is made by the Jesuits and Franciscans and not unto the Gloss or Exposition which is made thereof by the Preaching and Dominican Fryers But not to leave so great a matter to a Logical Inference I shall lay down the Doctrine of the Lutheran Churches in the said Five Points extracted faithfully out of the Augustan Confession with the Addition of one Clause only to the first Article the Makers of the Confession declining purposely the Point of Predestination out of the Writings of Melancthon and other learned men of the same persuasion Now the Doctrine of the said Churches so delivered is this that followeth Viz. 1. Of Divine Predestinction
that which had been falsly fathered on him in the Synod that he could not endure to hear his dearest Colleague so much abused as he had been by some men in the Synod Moreover he could not now dissemble the great grief he had conceived that some in the Synod went about to trouble sound Divinity with bringing in Tricas Scolasticas such as was to make God Causam Physicam Conversionis that was for Martinius such portenta vocabulorum as determinare and non determinare voluntatem That some men durst say that there were some doubts in the Fourth Article which Calvin himself had not throughly satisfied nor other Learned Reformed Doctors that it was to be feared that they intended to bring in Jesuits Divinity in the Reformed Churches and to corrupt the Youth committed to their Charge with a strange kind of Divinity This last Speech concerned D. Grotius Scultetus delivered his mind in exceeding bitter and disgraceful words and repeated his bitterest sentences twice over He having ended Martinius with great modesty answered first That he would read Paraeus his own words which he did next that for Sibrandus he wondred that he would now in publick bring these things up since out of his love to Peace that very day he had sent his Colleague Grotius to Sibrandus with a large explication in that sense in which he was fully satisfied and so he made account that that business had been peaceably transacted All this while Grotius spake nothing Gomarus beginneth to go on in the Disquisition but I think he delivered a Speech against the Bremenses which none but a madman would have uttered First Whereas Martinius had said that he did desire the resolution of this doubt Qui Deus possit ab homine cujus potentia est finita fidem quae est opus omnipotentiae exigere and that neither Calvin nor any of the Divines had yet plainly enough untied the Knot He replied first That he that said so was not Dignus qui solveret Calvino Corrigiam and that for the doubt it self it was such a silly one that ipsi pueri in trivio could ipsius solutionem decantare at which Speech very body smiled Moverover whereas Martinius in his Answer to Scultetus had not spoken one word against him but only this That he was sorry that one who had now been 25 years a Professor of Divinity should be thus used for using a School-term Gomarus very wisely had a fling at the two and telleth the Synod that since some men thought to carry it away annorum numero he himself had been a Professor not only 25 but 35 years Next he falleth upon Grotius and biddeth the Synod take heed of these men that brought in the Monstra Portenta vocabulorum the Barbarisms of the Schools of the Jesuits determinare non determinare voluntatem with many such speeches delivered with such sparklings of his eyes and fierceness of pronunciation as every man wondred the President did not cut him off at last he cut off himself I think for want of breath and the President giveth Celeberrimo Doctori Gomaro many thanks for that his Grave and accurate speech the Exteri wondred at it at last my Lord of Landaff in good faith in a very grave short speech for which as for one of the least I am persuaded he ever delivered we and all the Exteri thought he deserved infinite Commendations he spake to the President to this purpose That this Synod called Disquisition was instituted for Edification not for any man to shew Studium Contentionis and therefore did desire him to look that the knot of Vnity were not broken In this his Lordships speech be named no man the last word was hardly out of his Lordships mouth but furious Gomarus knowing himself guilty delivered this wise Speech Reverendissime D. Praesul non agendum est hic in Synodo authoritate sed ratione That it was free for him to speak in his own place which no man must think to abridge him of by their Authority My Lord replied nothing but the President told my Lord that Celeberrimus D. Gom had said nothing agaist mens Persons but their Opinions and therefore that he had said nothing worthy of Reprehension This gave every man just occasion to think the President was of the Plot. Martinius against this Speech of Gomarus said nothing but that he was sorry that he should have this Reward for his far Journey The Disquisition went on to Thysius who very discreetly told the SYnod he was sorry Martinius should be so exagitated for a speech which according to Martinius his explication was true Just as Thysius was thus speaking Gomarus and Sibrandus who sate next him pulled him by the Sleeve talked to him in a confused angry noise in the hearing and seeing of all the Synod chiding him that he would say so afterwards Thysius with great moderation desired Martinius to give him satisfaction of one or two doubtful Sentences he had delivered which Martinius thanking him for his Courtesie fully did The President was certainly in this Plot against Martinius for at the same time he read out of a Paper publickly a note of all the hard Speeches martinius had used All this while D. Grotius his patience was admired by all men who being so grosly abused and disgraced could get leave of his affections to hold his peace I could pursue these Differences further both in weight and number without any great trouble but that I have some other work to do which is the pressing of some other Conformities between this Synod and the Council the same Arts being used in drawing up the Canons and Conclusions of the one as were observed in the other what care and artifice was used in the Council of Trent so to draw up the Canons and Decrees thereof as to please all the differing Parties hath been already shewn in the third Chapter of this Book And in the History of the Councils we shall find t his passage viz. That immediatly after the Session Fryer Dominicus Soto principal of the Dominicans wrote three Books and did Intitle them of Nature and of Grace for Commentary of this Doctrine and in his Expositions all his Opinions are found When the work was published Hist of the Contr. p. 215. Fryer Andrew Vega the most esteemed of the Franciscans set forth fifteen great Books for Commentaries upon the sixteen Points of that Decree and did expound it all according to his own Opinion which two Opinions saith my Author do not only differ in almost all the Articles but in many of them are expresly contrary A perfect parallel to which we may find in this Synod the conclusions and results whereof being so drawn up for giving satisfaction to the Salapsarians that those of the Supralapsarian Faction might pretend some Title to them also â—rtf A. 9. Concerning which take here this passage from the Arcan Dogm Remonstr long since published where we are told of a
Proclamation from the States General to banish them from their Native Countrey with their Wives and Children and so compelling them to beg their Bread even in desolate places But yet this was no end of their sorrows neither He must come under a new Cross and be calumniated for maintaining many horrid Blasphemies and gross impieties which they most abhorred For in the continuation of the History of the Netherlands written by one Cross a fellow of no parts or judgment and so more apt to be abused with a false report It is there affirmed whether with greater ignorance or malice it is hard to say That there was a Synod called at Dort to suppress the Arminians and that the said Arminians held amongst other Heresies First That God was the Authorâ—â— sin and Secondly That he created the far greater part of Man-kind only of purpose for to damn them with several others of that kind Which every man of reason knows not only to be the consequence and results of Calvins Doctrine but to be positively maintained and taught by some of his followers By which and such like subtile and malicious practises they endeavoured to expose their Adversaries to the publick hatred and make th em odious with the people till at last these poor men might have said most justly as one the primitive Christians did under the burden of the like Calumnies and Imputations Condemnati sumus quia nominamur non quia convincimur as Tertullian hath it the name of an Arminian carried a Condemnation in it self without any conviction Nor was their fury satisfied in Exauctorating Banishing and destroying those of the adverse party who lived within the compass of the Belgick Provinces the genius of the Sect being active in all parts alike in none more visibly than the neighbouring City of Ledan the principal seat and Signory of the Dukes of Bovillon Out of which Francisous Auratus a most faithful Minister of that Church is said to have been shamefully ejected for no other reason by those of the Calvinian party but because preaching on the Text of St. James 1.13 God tempteth no man c. he largely declared that God was not the Author of sin With what severity they proceeded in England when they had gotten the advantage of Power and Number and with what Calumnies and Reproaches they aspersed all those which were of a contrary persuasion to them the sequestring and ejecting of so many hundreds of learned and religious men from their several Benefices the most odious Pamphet called The first Century of Scandalous and MALIGNANT PRIESTS together with many uncharitable and disgraceful passages against them in the Writings of some Presbyterian Ministers do most clearly evidence CHAP. VI. Objections made against the Doctrine of the Remonstrants the Answer unto all and the retorting of some of them on the Opposite Party 1. The Introduction to the said Objections 2. The first Objection touching their being Enemies to the Grace of God disproved in general by comparing the Doctrine with that of St. Augustine though somewhat more favourable to Free Will than that of Luther 3. A more particular Answer in relation to some hard Expressions which were used of them by King James 4. The second charging it as Introductive of Propery began in Holland and pressed more importunatly in England answered both by Reason and Experience to the contrary of it 5. The third as filling men with spiritual pride first answered in relation to the testimony from which it was taken and then retorted on those who objected the same 6. The fourth CHarge making the Remonstrants a factious and seditious people began in Holland prosecuted in England and answered in the general by the most Religious Bishop Ridly 7. What moved King Jmaes to think so ill of the Remonstrants as to exasperate the States against them 8. The Remonstrants neither so troublesom nor so chargeable to the States themselves as they are made by the Assertor the indirect proceedings of the Prince of Orange viz. the death of Barnevelt and the injustice of the Argument in charging the practices of his Children and the Prince upon all the party 9. Nothing in the Arminian doctrine which may incline a man to seditious courses as it is affirmed and proved to be in the Calvin 10. The Racrimination further proved by a passage in the Conference of the Lord Treasurer Burleigh with Queen Eliz. in a Letter of some of the Bishops to the Duke of Buckingham and in that of Dr. Brooks to the late Archbishop 11. More fully prosecuted and exemplified by Campney's an old English Protestant 12. A Transition to the Doctrine of the Church of England IT may be thought that some strange mystery of iniquity lay hidden under the Mask or Vail of the Five Articles last mentioned which made the Synodists so furiously to rage against them to use such cruelty for security is too mild a name to express their rigour towards all those who did maintain them For justifying whereof in the eye of the World both before and after the Synod course was taken to impeach their Doctrine in these points of no smaller crimes than to be destructive of Gods Grace introductory of Popery tending unto spiritual pride and to Sedition or Rebellion in the Civil Government Which Objections I shall here present as I have done the Arguments of most importance which were Excogitated and enforced against the Conclusions and Determinations of the Synod in the said five points and that being done I shall return such Answers as are made unto them First then it is objected that this Doctrine is destructive of Gods Free Grace reviving the old Pelagian Heresies â—â—â—man Annot Grotii Putat so long since condemned This is press'd by Boyerman in his Annotations on the Book of Grotius called Pietas Ordinum c. where he brings in Pareus charging them with having proceeded E Schola Caelestii Pelagii from no other School than that of Pelagius and Caelestius those accursed Hereticks Thycius another of the Contra-Remonstrants but somewhat more moderate than the rest in this particular conceives their Doctrine to incline rather to Semi-Pelagianism Et aut eandem esse aut non multo diversam and either to be the very same or not much different Declar. against Vorstius But the authority of King James was of greatest weight who in his heats against Vorstius calls them the Enemies of Gods grace Atheistical Sectaries and more particularly the Enemy of God Arminius as the King once called him To which Objection it is answered that whatsoever Paraeus and the rest might please to call them they had but little reason for it the Remonstrants speaking as honourably of the Grace of God as any other whatsoever And this they prove by comparing the first branch of the Fourth Article with that Golden saying of St. Augustine yiz. Sine gratia Dei praeveniente ut velimus subsequente ne frustra velimus ad pietatis opera nil valemus
Ark of Gods Secret Counsels of which spirit I conceive this Frith to be not that I find him such in any of his Writings extant with the other two but that he is affirmed for such in a Letter of Tyndals directed to him under the borrowed name of Jacob For in the collection of his pieces neither the Index nor the Margent direct us unto any thing which concerns this Argument though to the Writtings of the others they give a clearer sense howsoever made then in favour of the Calvinian party than the Books themselves or possibly was ever meant by the men that made them Acts and Mon. fol. 987. Now Tyndals Letter is as followeth Dearly beloved Jacob my hearts desire in our Saviour Jesus is That you arm your self with patience and be hold sober wise and circumspect and that you keep you a low by the ground avoiding high questions that pass the common capacity but expound the Law truly and open the Rule of Moses to condemn all flesh and prove all men sinners and all deeds under the Law before mercy hath taken away the condemnation thereof to be sin and damnable And then as a faithful Minister set abroach the mercy of our Lord Jesus and let the wounded consciences drink of the water of life And then shall your preaching be with power not as the Doctrine of Hypocrites and the Spirit of God shall work with you and all consciences shall bear record unto you and feel that it is so And all Doctrine that casteth a mist on these two to shadow and hide them I mean the Law of God and mercy of Christ that resist you with all your power Of him it is or of such high Climers as he was â—roloe before the Epist unto the Rom. p. 48. who we find Tyndal speaking in another place But here saith he we must set a mark upon those unquiet busie and high-climing Wits how far they shall go which first of all bring hither their high Reasons and pregnant Wits and begin first from on high to search the bottomless secrets of Gods Predestination whether they be predestinated or no These must needs either cast themselves headlong down into Desperation or else commit themselves to free chance careless But follow thou the order of this Epistle and nuzzel thy self with Christ and learn to understand the Law and the Gospel-means and the office of both that thou mayst in the one know thy self and how thou hast of thy self no strength but to sin and in the other the grace of Christ and then see thou fight against sin and the flesh as the seven first Ghapters teach thee Of these high flyings Lambert another of our Martyrs was endicted also who as he would not plead Not guilty Acts and Mon. fol. 1008. so he stood not mute but bound to the Endictment in this manner following Vnto the Article saith he whether it be good or evil cometh of necessity that is as you construe it to wit whether a man hath Free-will so that he may deny joy or pain I say as I said at the beginning that unto the first part of your Riddle I neither can nor will give any desinitive answer for so much as it surmounteth any capacity trusting that God will send hereafter others that be of better cunning than I to incite it If there be any thing in this which may give any comfort to our rigid Calvinists much good do them with it and if they meet with any in the former passages let them look back upon the Answers before laid down and then consider with themselves what they have got by the adventure or whether Tyndal Barns and Frith conjunct or separate may be considered as a Rule to our first Reformers which having done I would have them finally observe the passage in the eighth of St. Mark where the blind man whom our Saviour at Bethsaida restored to his sight at the first opening of his eyes said he saw men as trees walking that is to say he saw men walking as trees quasi dicat homines quos ambulantes video non homines sed arbores mihi videntur as we read in Maldionale By which the blind man declared saith he se quidem videre aliquid imperfecte tamen videre cum inter homines c arbores distinguere non posset I discern somewhat said the poor man but so imperfectly that I am not able to distinguish between trees and men Such an imperfect sight as this might these Martyrs have in giving unto men no greater power of walking in the ways of Gods Commandments than as if they had been sensless Trees or liveless shadows And such an imperfect sight as his the Lord gave many times to those whom he recovered out of the Egyptian darkness of Popish Errours who not being able to discern all divine Truth at the first opening of the eyes of their understanding were not to be a Rule or President to those that followed and lived under a brighter beam of illumination Finally taking all for granted as to the judgment of these men in the points disputed which the Calvinians can desire and pretend unto and letting them enjoy the Title which Mr. Fox hath given them of being called the Ring-leaders of the Church of Englanp which Bilney Byfield Lambert Garet or any other of our ancient Martyrs may as well lay claim to yet as they suffered death before the publick undertaking of the Reformation under E. 6. so nothing was ascribed to their Authority by the first Reformers CHAP. VIII Of the Preparatives to the Reformation and the Doctrine of the Church in the present points 1. The danger of ascribing too much to our ancient Martyrs c. exemplified in the parity of Ministers and popular elections unto Benefices allowed by Mr. John Lambert 2. Nothing ascribed to Calvins judgment by our first Reformers but much to the Augustine Confession the writings of Melancthon 3. And to the Authority of Erasmus his Paraphrases being commanded to the use of the Church by King Edward VI. and the Reasons why 4. The Bishops Book in order to a Reformation called The Institution of a Christian man commanded by King Henry VIII 1537. corrected afterwards with the Kings own hand examined and allowed by Cranmer approved by Parliament and finally published by the name of Necessary doctrine c. An. 1543. 5. The Doctrine of the said two Books in the points disputed agreeable unto that which after was established by King Edward the Sixth 6. Of the two Liturgies made in the time of King Edward VI. and the manner of them the testimony given unto the first and the alterations in the second 7. The first Book of Homilies by whom made approved by Bucer and of the Argument that may be gathered from the method of it in the points disputed 8. The quality and condition of those men who principally concurred to the Book of Articles with the Harmony or consent in Judgment between
Archbishop Cranmer Bishop Ridley Bishop Hooper c. 9. The Doctrine delivered in the Book of Articles touching the five controverted points 10. An answer to the Objection against these Articles for the supposed want of Authority in the making of them 11. An Objection against King Edwards Catechism mistaken for an Objection against the Articles refelled as that Catechism by John Philpot Martyr and of the delegating of some powers by that Convocation to a choice Committee 12. The Articles not drawn up in comprehensive or ambiguous terms to please all parties but to be understood in the respective literal and Grammatical sense and the Reasons why I Have the longer stood upon the answering of this Objection to satisfie and prevent all others of the like condition in case it should be found on a further search that any of our godly Martyrs or learned Writers who either suffered death before the Reign of Edward VI. or had no hand in the carrying on of the Reformation embraced any opinions in Doctrine or Discipline contrary to the established Rules of the Church of England For otherwise as we must admit all Tyndals Heterodoxies and Friths high flying conceits of Predestination which before we touch'd at so must we also allow a Parity or an Identity rather in Priests and Bishops because John Lambert another of our Godly Martyrs did conceive so of it In the primitive Church saith he there were no more Officers in the Church of God than Bishops and Deacons that is to say Ministers as witnesseth beside Scripture S. Hierom in his Commentaries on the Epistles of S. Paul Whereas saith he that those whom we now call Priests were all one and no other but Bishops and the Bishops no other but Priests men ancient both in age and learning so near as could be chosen nor were they instituted and chosen as they be now a days the Bishop and his Officer only opposing them whether they can construe a Collect but they were chosen also with the consent of the people amongst whom they were to have their living as sheweth S. Cyprian But alack for pity such elections are banished and new fashions brought in By which opinion if it might have served or a Rule to the Reformation our Bishops must have been reduced to the rank of Priests and the right of Presentation put into the hands of the people to the Destruction of all the Patrons in the Kingdom If then the question should be asked as perhaps it may On whom or on whose judgment the hrst Reformers most relied in the weighty business I answer negatively First That they had no respect of Calvin no more than to the judgement of Wicklef Tyndal Barns or Frith whose offered assistance they refused when they went about it of which he sensibly complained unto some of his friends as appears by one of his Epistles I answer next affirmatively in the words of an Act of Parliament 2. 3. Edw. 6. where it is said That they had an eye in the first place to the more pure and sincere Christian Religion taught in the Scriptures and in the next place to the usages of the Primitive Church Being satisfied in both which ways they had thirdly a more particular respect to the Lutheran Plat-forms the English Confession or Book of Articles being taken in many places word for word out of that of Ausberg and a conformity maintained with the Lutheran Churches in Rites and Ceremonies as namely in kneeling at the Communion the Cross in Baptism the retaining of all the ancient Festivals the reading of the Epistles and Gospels on Sundays and Holy-days and generally in the whole Form of External Worship Fourthy 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 the Sixth Regiis literis in Angliam vocari as himself affirms in an Epistle to Camerarius His coming laid aside upon the fall of the Duke of Sommerset and therefore since they could not have his company they made use of his writings for their direction in such points of Doctrine in which they though it necessary for the Church to declare her judgment I observe finally That as they attributed much to the particulars to the Authority of Melancthon so they ascribe no less therein unto that of Erasmus once Reader of the Greek Tongue in Cambridge and afterwards one of the Professors of Divinity there whose Paraphrases on the four Evangelists being translated into English were ordered to be kept in Churches for the use of the People and that they owned the Epistles to be studied by all such as had cure of souls Concerning which it was commanded by the injunctions of King Edward VI. published by the advice of the Lord Protector Somerset and the Privy Council Acts and Mon. fol. 1181. in the first year of the said Kings Reign 1. That they should see provided in some most convenient and open place of every Church one great Bible in English with the Paraphrase of Erasmus in English that the People might reverently without any let read and hear the same at such time as they listed and not to be inhibited therefrom by the Parson or Curate but rather to be the more encouraged and provoked thereunto And 2. That every Priest under the degree of a Batchellour of Divinity should have of his own one New Testament in English and Latine with the Paraphrases of Erasmus upon the same and should diligently read and study thereupon and should collect and keep in memory all such comfortable places of the Scripture as do set forth the Mercy Benefits and Goodness of Almighty God towards all penitent and believing persons that they might thereby comfort their flock in all danger of death despair or trouble of Conscience and that therefore every Bishop in their Institution should from time to time try and examine them how they have profited in their studies A course and care not likely to have entred into the thoughts of the Lord Protector or any of the Lords of the Council if it had not been advised by some of the Bishops who then began to have an eye on the Reformation which soon after followed and as unlikely to be counselled and advised by them had they intended to advance any other Doctrine than what was countenanced in the Writings of that Learned man Whereupon I conclude the Doctrine of the points disputed to be the true and genuine Doctrine of the Church of England which comes most near to the plain sense of holy Scripture the general current of the Fathers in the Primitive times the famous Augustane Confession the Writings of Melancthon and the Works of Erasmus To which Conclusion I shall stand till I find my self encountred by some stronger Argument to remove me from it The ground thus laid I shall proceed unto the Reformation
say the Lord Protector and the rest of the Privy Council acting in his Name and by his Authority performed by Archbishop Cranmer and the other six before remembred assisted by Thirdby Bishop of Winchester Day Bishop of Chichester Ridley Bishop of Rochester Taylor then Dean after Bishop of Lincoln Redman then Master of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge and Hains Dean of Exeter all men of great abilities in their several stations and finally confirmed by the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in Parliament Assembled 23 Edw. VI. In which Confirmatory act it is said expresly to have been done by the especial aid of the Holy Ghost which testimony I find also of it in the Acts and Monuments fol 1184. But being disliked by Calvin who would needs be meddling in all matters which concerned Religion and disliked it chiefly for no other reason as appears in one of his Epistles to the Lord Protector but because it savoured too much of the ancient Forms it was brought under a review the cause of the reviewing of it being given out to be no other than that there had risen divers doubts in the Exercise of the said Book for the fashion and manner of the Ministration though risen rather by the curiosity of the Ministers and Mistakers than of any other cause 5 6 Edw. 6. cap. 1. The review made by those who had first compiled it though Hobeach and Redman might be dead before the confirmation of it by Act of Parliament some of the New Bishops added to the former number and being reviewed was brought into the same form in which now it stands save that a clause was taken out of the Letany and a sentence added to the distribution of the blessed Sacrament in the first year of Queen Elizabeth and that some alteration was made in two or three of the Rubricks with an addition of Thanksgiving in the end of the Letany as also of a Prayer for the Queen and the Royal Issue in the first of King James At the same time and by the same hands which gave us the first Liturgy of King Edward VI. was the first Book of Homilles composed also in which I have some cause to think that Bishop Latimer was made use of amongst the rest as one who had subscribed the first other two books before mentioned as Bishop of Worcester Ann. 1537. and ever since continued zealous for a Reformation quitting in that respect such a wealthy Bishoprick because he neither would nor could conform his judgment to the Doctrine of the six Articles Authorized by Parliament For it will easily appear to any who is conversant in Latimers writings and will compare them carefully with the book of Homilies that they do not only savour of the same spirit in point of Doctrine but also of the same popular and familiar stile which that godly Martyr followed in the course of his preachings for though the making of these Homilies be commonly ascribed and in particular by Mr. Fox to Archbishop Cranmer yet it is to be understood no otherwise of him thad than it was chiefly done by encouragement and direction not sparing his own hand to advance the work as his great occasions did permit That they were made at the same time with King Edwards first Liturgy will appear as clearly first by the Rubrick in the same Liturgy it self in which it is directed Let. of Mr. Bucer to the Church of England that after the Creed shall follow the Sermon or Homily or some portion of one of them as they shall be hereafter divided It appears secondly by a Letter writ by Martin Bucer inscribed To the holy Church of England and the Ministers of the same in the year 1549. in the very beginning whereof he lets them know That their Sermons or Homilies were come to his hands wherein they godlily and effectually exhort their people to the reading of Holy Scripture that being the scope and substance of the first Homily which occurs in that book and therein expounded the sense of the faith whereby we hold our Christianity and Justification whereupon all our help censisteth and other most holy principles of our Religion with most godly zeal And as it is reported of the Earl of Gondomar Ambassador to King James from the King of Spain that having seen the elegant disposition of the Rooms and Offices in Burleigh House not far from Stanford erected by Sir William Cecil principal Secretary of State and Lord Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth he very pleasantly affirmed That he was able to discern the excellent judgment of the great Statesman by the neat contrivance of his house So we may say of those who composed this book in reference to the points disputed A man may easily discern of what judgment they were in the Doctrine of Predestination by the method which they have observed in the course of these Homilies Beginning first with a discourse of the misery of man in the state of nature proceeding next to that of the salvation of man-kind by Christ our Saviour only from sin and death everlasting from thence to a Declaration of a true lively and Christian saith and after that of good works annexed unto faith by which our Justification and Salvation are to be obtained and in the end descending unto the Homily bearing this inscription How dangerous a thing it is to fall from God Which Homilies in the same form and order in which they stand were first authorized by King Edward VI. afterwards tacitly approved in the Rubrick of the first Liturgy before remembred by Act of Parliament and finally confirmed and ratified in the book of Articles agreed upon by the Bishops and Clergy of the Convocation Anno 1552. and legally confirmed by the said King Edward Such were the hands and such the helps which co-operated to the making of the two Liturgies and this book of Homilies but to the making of the Articles of Religion there was necessary the concurrence of the Bishops and Clergy Assembled in Convocation in due form of Law amongst which there were many of those which had subscribed to the Bishops book Anno 1537. and most of those who had been formerly advised with in the reviewing of the book by the Commandment of King Henry VIII 1543. To which were added amongst others Dr. John Point Bishop of Winchester an excellent Grecian well studied with the ancient Fathers and one of the ablest Mathematicians which those times produced Dr. Miles Coverdale Bishop of Exon who had spent much of his time in the Lutheran Churches amongst whom he received the degree of Doctor Mr. John Story Bishop of Rochester Ridley being then preferred to the See of London from thence removed to Chichester and in the end by Queen Elizabeth to the Church of Hereford Mr. Rob. Farran Bishop of St. Davids and Martyr a man much favoured by the Lord Protector Sommerset in the time of his greatness and finally not to descend to those of the lower
Clergy Mr. John Hooker Bishop of Gloucester and Martyr of whose Exposition of the Ten Commandments and his short Paraphrase on Romans 13. we shall make frequent use hereafter a man whose works were well approved of by Bishop Ridley the most learned and judicious of all the Prelates who notwithstanding they differed in some points of Ceremony professeth an agreement with him in all points of Doctrine as appears by a Letter written to him when they were both Prisoners for the truth and ready to give up their lives as they after did in defence thereof Now the words of the Letter are as followeth But now my dear Brother forasmuch as I understand by your works which I have but superficially seen that we throughly agree and wholly consent together in those things which are the grounds and substantial points of our Religion Acts and Mon. fol. 1366. against the which the world now so rageth in these our days Howsoever in times past in certain by-matters and circumstances of Religion your wisdom and my simplicity and ignorance have jarred each of us following the abundance of his own sense and judgment Now I say be you assured that even with my whole heart God is the witness in the bowels of Christ I love you in truth and for the truths sake that abideth in us and I am persuaded by the grace of God shall abide in us for evermore The like agreement there was also between Ridley and Cranmer Cranmer ascribing very much to the judgment and opinion of the learned Prelate as himself was not ashamed to confess at his Examination for which see Fox in the Acts and Monuments fol. 1702. By these men and the rest of the Convocation the Articles of Religion being in number 41 were agreed upon ratified by the Kings Authority and published both in Latine and English with these following Titles viz. Articuli de quibus in Synodo Londinens A.D. 1552. ad tollendam opinionum dissentionem consensum verae Religionis firmandum inter Episcopos alios eruditos viros convenerat Regia authoritate Londin editi that is to say Articles agreed upon by the Bishops and other learned men assembled in the Synod at London Anno 1552. and published by the Kings Authority for the avoiding of diversities of opinions and for the establishing of consent touching true Religion Amongst which Articles countenanced in Convocation by Queen Elizabeth Ann. 1562. the Doctrine of the Church in the five controverted points is thus delivered according to the form and order which we have observed in the rest before 1. Of Divine Predestination Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the foundations of the World were laid he hath constantly ordered by his Council Artic. 17. secret unto us to deliver from curse and damnation those whom be hath chosen in Christ out of man-kind and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation as vessels made to honour Furthermore we must receive Gods promises in such wise at they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture and in our doing the will of God that is to be followed which we have expresly declared to us in the Word of God 2. Of the Redemption of the World by the faith of Christ The Son which is the Word begotten of the Father begotten from everlasting of the Father c. and being very God and very Man did truly suffer was Crucified Dead and Buried Artic. 2. to reconcile his Father to us and be a Sacrifice not only for Original guilt but also for the actual sins of men The Offering of Christ once made Artic. 31. is this perfect Redemption Propitiation and Satisfaction to all the sins of the whole world both Original and Actual 3. Of mans will in the state of depraved nature Artic. 9. Man by Original sin is so far gone from Original righteousness that of his own nature be is inclined to evil so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit and therefore Works done before the grace of Christ Artic. 13. and the inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ neither do they make men meet to receive grace or as the School Authors say deserve grace of Congruity 4. Of the manner of Conversion The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works Artic. 10. to faith and calling upon God wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God without the grace of God by Christ preventing us that we may have a good will and working with us when we have that good will 5. Of the uncertainty of Perseverance The Grace of Repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into sin after Baptism in regard that after we have received the Holy Ghost Artic. 16. we may depart from grace given and fall into sin and by the grace of God we may arise again and amend our lives and therefore they are to be condemned which say they can no more sin as long as they live here or deny the place of Repentance to such as truly repent Now in these Articles as in all others of the book there are these two things to be observed 1. What Authority they carried in respect of the making And 2. How we are to understand them in respect of the meaning And first for their Authority it was as good in all regards as the Laws could give them being first treated and agreed upon by the Bishops and Clergy in their Convocation and afterwards confirmed by the Letters Patents of Edw. VI. under the Great Seal of England But against this it is objected That the Records of this Convocation are but a degree above blanks that the Bishops and Clergy then assembled had no Commission from the King to meddle in Church business that the King durst not trust the Clergy of that time in so great a matter on a just jealousie which he had of the ill affections of the major part and therefore the trust of this great business was committed unto some few Confidents cordial to the cause of Religion and not unto the body of a Convocation To which it hath been already answered That the Objector is here guilty of a greater crime than that of Scandalum magnatum making King Edward VI. of pious memory no better than an impious and lewd Impostor in fathering those children on the Convocation which had not been of their begetting For first the Title to the Articles runneth thus at large Articuli de quibus c. as before we had it which Title none durst adventure to set before them had they not really been the products of the Convocation Secondly the King had no reason to have any such jealousie at that time of the major part of the Clergy but that he might
determinations in a National Church no more than is of making Laws to bind the Subjects in an unsetled Commonwealth with an intent to leave them in their former liberty either of keeping or not keeping them as themselves best pleased Which said we shall enquire into the meaning of the Articles as before laid down whether they speak in favour of the Melancthonian or Calvinian way so far forth as the meaning of them can be gathered from the publick Liturgy and book of Homilies or from the Writings of those men who either had a hand in the making of them or died in the Religion here by Law established CHAP. IX Of the Doctrine of Predestination delivered in the Articles the Homilies the publick Liturgies and the Writings of some of the Reformers 1. The Articles indifferently understood by the Calvinian party and the true English Protestants with the best way to find out the true sense thereof 2. The definition of Predestination and the most considerable points contained in it 3. The meaning of those words in the Definition viz. whom he hath chosen in Christ according to the Exposition of St. Ambrose St. Chrysostom St. Jerom as also of Archbishop Cranmer Bishop Latimer and the Book of Homilies 4. The Absolute Decree condemned by Bishop Latimer as a means to Licentiousness and carnal living 5. For which and making God to be the Author of sin condemned as much by Bishop Hooper 6. Our Election to be found in Christ not sought for in Gods secret Counsels according to 〈◊〉 judgment of Bishop Latimer 7. The way to find out our Election delivered by the same godly Bishop and by Bishop Hooper with somewhat to the same purpose also from the Book of Homilies 8. The Doctrine of Predestination delivered by the holy Martyr John Bradford with Fox his gloss upon the same to corrupt the sense 9. No countenance to be had for any absolute personal and irrespective Decree of Predestination in the publick Liturgy 10. An Answer to such passages out of the said Liturgy as seem to favour that Opinion as also touching the number of Gods Elect. THUS have we seen the Doctrine of the Church of England in the five controverted Points according as it is delivered in the Book of Articles but in what sense we ought to understand it hath been made a Question Some take the Articles in the Literal and Grammatical sense which is the fairest and most approved way of Interpretation according to the saying of an ancient Writer Declar. before the Art 1628. That if the Literal sense of holy Scripture will stand with the Analogy of Faith and Piety it is to be preferred before any other Others they are of which his late Majesty complained who draw the Articles aside and put their own sense or Comment to be the meaning of the Articles fashioning them to their own fancies as they please themselves Each of the parties in those curious points in which the present differences do most consist conceive the Articles of the Church to speak for them exclusive wholly of the other but with a notable difference in the Application The Calvinists Our Divines commonly called Calvinists Yates in Ap Caesar cap. 5. p. 38. by which name they love to be called endeavour to captivate the sense of the Article and bring it to the bent of their own understanding but the true English Protestants whom for distinction sake we may call Confessionists accommodate though they do not captivate their own sense to the sense of the Church according to the plain and full meaning of the Articles in the points disputed But because possibly both parties may not be agreed on a Rule or Medium by which the proper sense and meaning of the Articles may be best discovered it will not be amiss to follow the directions of the Civil Laws in cases of like doubtful nature which is briefly this viz. Si de interpretatione Legis quaeritur imprimis inspiciendum est quo jure Civitas retro in hujusmodi casibus usa fuit And this we shall the better do if we enquire into the Doctrine of those Learned Religious and Godly men who either had a principal hand in the Reformation or were most conversant with them and beloved of them in their several stations taking along with us the Authority of the Homilies and publick Liturgy to which all parties have subscribed In order whereunto it will first be necessary to lay down the definition of Predestination as before we had it in the Article to sum up the particular points and contents thereof to shew the sense of one phrase in it and then to travel more exactly in this Enquiry whether the method of Predestination illustrated by the story of Agilmond and Amistus Kings of Lombardy cap. 7. num 4. agree not more hamoniously with the true sense and meaning of the Church of England than any other whatsoever First then Predestination unto life is defined in the seventeenth Article to be the everlasting purpose of God whereby and before the foundations of the World were laid he hath constantly decreed by his Council secret unto us to deliver from damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind and to bring them by Christ unto everlasting salvation In which definition there are these things to be observed First That Predestination doth presuppose a curse or state of damnation in which all mankind was represented to the sight of God which plainly crosseth the Opinion of the Supra-Lapfarians the Supra-Creaturians or Credibilitarians as some call them now Secondly That it is an act of his from Everlasting because from Everlasting he foresaw into what misery wretched man would fall by the abuse of that liberty in which first he stood Thirdly That he founded it and resolved for it in the Man and Mediator Christ Jesus both for the purpose and performance which crosseth as directly with the Sublapsatians who place the absolute decree of Predestination to life and of Reprobation unto death both of body and soul before the decree or consideration of sending his only beloved Son Jesus Christ into the World to be the common Propitiation for the sins of men Fourthly That it was of some special ones alone Elect called forth and reserved in Christ and not generally extended unto all mankind a General Election as they say being no Election Fifthly That being thus elected in Christ they shall be brought by Christ but not without their own consent and cooperation to everlasting salvation And finally That this Council is secret unto us for though there be revealed to us some hopeful signs of our Election and Predestination unto life yet the certainty thereof is a secret hidden in God and in this life unknown to us For who hath known the mind of the Lord or hath been his Counsellour or of his Secret Council saith the great Apostle Such is the definition of Predestination and the substance of it in which there is
Prescience by which he seeth all things past and all things to come as if present with him And therefore having past a general Decree of Predestination touching the saving of all those which believe in Christ and knowing most infallibly who and how many of all Nations will believe in Christ continue in the faith to the end of their lives and consequently attain salvation The number of the persons so Predestinated is as well known unto him in the universal comprehension of his Heavenly Prescience as if they had been personally elected unto life Eternal the accomplishing of which number that so his Kingdom may be hastned and the hastning of his Kingdom that we with all the rest which are departed in the true faith of his holy Name may have our perfect Consummation and bliss both in body and soul is the scope and purpose of that Prayer And being the sole scope and purpose of it cannot imply such a Personal and Eternal Election as some men imagine though it conclude both for a number and for a certain number of Gods Elect. CHAP. X. The Doctrine of the Church concerning Reprobatin and Universal Redemption 1. The absolute Decree of Reprobation not found in the Articles of this Church but against it in some passages of the publick Liturgy 2. The cause of Reprobation to be found in a mans self and not in Gods Decrees according to the judgment of Bishop Latimer and Bishop Hooper 3. The Absolute Decrees of Election and Reprobation how contrary to the last clause in the seventeenth Article 4. The inconsistency of the Absolute Decree of Reprobation with the Doctrine of Vniversal Redemption by the death of Christ 5. The Vniversal Redemption of man-kind by the death of Christ declared in many places of the publick Liturgy and affirmed also in one of the Homilies and the Book of Articles 6. A further proof of it from the Mission of the Apostles and the Prayer used in the Ordination of Priests 7. The same confirmed by the writings of Archbishop Cranmer and the two other Bishops before mentioned 8. A Generality of the Promises and an Vniversality of Vocation maintained by the said two godly Bishops 9. The reasons why this benefit is not made effectual to all sorts of men to be found only in themselves AS the speaking of Heaven doth many times beget the discovery of Hell so the foregoing discovery of Predestination to Eternal life conducts me to the speaking of a few words concerning the Doctrine of Reprobation Rejection Eternal death a point of which the Church of England is utterly silent leaving it to be gathered upon Logical inferences from that which is delivered by her in the point of Election for contrariorum contraria est ratio as Logicians say though that which is so gathered ought rather to be called a Dereliction than a Reprobation No such absolute irreversible and irrespective Decree of Reprobation taught or maintained in any publick Monument of Record of the Church of England by which the far greater part of man-kind are preordained and consequently pre-condemned to the pit of torments without any respect had unto their 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 Liturgy 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 Universal Reconciliation of man-kind unto God the Father by the death of Christ Take now to 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 rahter that he should be converted and live 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 More may be said against it out of the writings of Bishop Latimer and Bishop Hooper before remembred Latimer in his 4. Sermon third Sunday after Epiphany 4. Serm. in Lincoln 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 Deus 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 only 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 only 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 Cain was no more excluded from the promise of Christ till he excluded himself than Abel Saul than David Judas than Peter Esau 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 withat of 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 if 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 finally thus That by Gods grace we might do the good Exposit of the Command cap. of Ignor. and leave the evil if it were not through malice or accustomed doing of sin the which excuseth the mercy and goodness of God and maketh that no man shall be excused in the latter judgment how subtilly soever they now excuse the matter and put their evil doings from them and
world The like saith Bishop Hooper also telling us Pref. to his Exposition There was no diversity in Christ of Jew or Gentile that it was never forbid but that all sorts of people and every propeny of the World to be made partakers of the Jews Religion And then again in the example of the Ninevites Thou hast saith he good Christian Reader the mercy of God and general promise of salvation performed in Christ for whose sake only God and man were set at one The less assistance we had from Bishop Hooper in the former points the more we shall receive in this touching the causes why this great benefit is not made effectual unto all alike Concerning which he lets us know That to the obtaining the first end of his justice he allureth as many as be not utterly wicked and may be helped Ibid. partly with threatnings and partly with promises and so provoketh them unto amendment of life c. and would have all men to be saved therefore provoketh now by fair means now by foul that the sinner should satisfie his just and righteous pleasure not that the promises of God appertain to such as will not repent or his threatnings unto him that doth repent but these means he useth to save his creature this way useth he to nurture us until such time as the holy Spirit worketh such a perfection in us that we will obey him though there were neither pain nor joy mentioned at all And in another place more briefly That if either out of a contempt or hate of Gods Word we fall into sin and transform our selves into the image of the Devil then we exclude our selves by this means from the promises and merits of Christ Serm. 1. Sund. after Epiph. Bishop Latimer to the same point also His salvation is sufficient to satisfie for all the World as concerning it self but as concerning us he saveth no more than such as put their trust in him and as many as believe in him shall be saved the other shall be cast out as Infidels into everlasting damnation not for lack of salvation but for infidelity and lack of faith which is the only cause of their damnation One word more out of Bishop Hooper to conclude this point which in fine is this To the Objection saith he touching that S. Peter speaketh of such as shall perish for their false doctrine c. this the Scripture answereth that the promise of grace appertaineth to every sort of men in the world and comprehendeth them all howbeit within certain limits and bounds the which if men neglect to pass over they exclude themselves from the promise of Christ CHAP. XI Of the Heavenly influences of Gods grace in the Conversion of a Sinner and mans co-operation with those Heavenly influences 1. The Doctrine of Deserving Grace ex congruo maintained in the Roman Schools before the Council of Trent rejected by our ancient Martyrs and the Book of Articles 2. The judgment of Dr. Barns and Mr. Tyndal touching the necessary workings of Gods grace on the will of man not different from that of the Church of England 3. Vniversal grace maintained by Bishop Hooper and proved by some passages in the Liturgy and Book of Homilies 4. The offer of Vniversal grace made ineffectual to some for want of faith and to others for want of repentance according to the judgment of Bishop Hooper 5. The necessity of Grace preventing and the free co-operation of mans will being so prevented maintained in the Articles in the Homilies and the publick Liturgy 6. The necessity of this co-operation on the part of man defended and applied to the exercise of a godly life by Bishop Hooper 7. The Doctrine of Irresistibility first broached by Calvin pertinaciously maintained by most of his followers and by Gomarus amongst others 8. Gainsaid by Bishop Hooper and Bishop Latimer 9. And their gainsayings justified by the tenth Article of King Edwards Books And 10. The Book of Homilies THIS leads me unto the Disputes touching the influences of Grace and the co-operation of mans will with those Heavenly influences in which the received Doctrine of the Church of Rome seems to have had some alteration to the better since the debating and concluding of those points in the Council of Trent before which time the Doctrine of the Roman Schools was thought to draw too near to the lees of Pelagianism to ascribe too much to mans Free-will or so much to it at the least as by the right use of the powers of nature might merit grace ex congruo as the School-men phrase it of the hands of God Against this it was that Dr. Barnes declared as before was said in his discourse about Free-will and against which the Church of England then declared in the 13 Article His works p. 821. affirming That such works as are done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit do not make men meet to receive grace or as the School-men say deserve grace of Congruity Against which Tyndal gives this note That Free-will preventeth not Grace which certainly he had never done if somewhat to the contrary had not been delivered in the Church of Rome and against which it was declared by John Lambert another of our ancient Martyrs in these following words viz. Concerning Free-will saith he I mean altogether as doth S. Augustine that of our selves we have no liberty nor ability to do the will of God but are subject unto sin Acts and Mn. fol. 1009. and thrals of the same conclusi sub peccato or as witnesseth S. Paul But by the grace of God we are rid and set at liberty according to the proportion that every man hath taken of the same some more some less But none more fully shewed himself against this opinion than Dr. Barnes before remembred not touching only on the by Collection of his works by I. D. sol 266. but writing a Discourse particularly against the errours of that time in this very point But here saith he we will search what strength is of man in his natural power without the Spirit of God to will or do those things that be acceptable before God unto the fulfilling of the will of God c. A search which had been vain and needless if nothing could be found which tended to the maintenance of acting in spiritual matters by mans natural power without the workings of the Spirit And therefore he saith very truly That man can do nothing by his Free-will as Christ teacheth for without me ye can do nothing c. where it is opened that Free-will without Grace can do nothing he speak not of eating and drinking though they be works of Grace but nothing that is fruitful that is meritorious that is worthy of thanks that is acceptable before God To which effect we also find these brief Remembrances Mans Free-will without Gods Grace can do nothing that is good p. 268. that all which
the Reformation of Religion in points of Doctrine 2. The Article of Freewil in all the powers and workings of it agreed on by the Prelates and Clergy of that Convocation agreeable to the present Doctrine of the Church of England 3. An Answer to the first Objection concerning the Popishness of the Bishops and Clergy in that Convocation 4. The Article of Freewil approved by King Henry the eighth and Archbishop Cranmer 5. An Answer to the last Objection concerning the Conformity of the Article to the present established Doctrine in the Church of Rome BUT First I am to take in my way another evidence which though it hath not so directly the forced of Law to bind us to consent unto it and perhaps may not be considered amongst the Monuments and Records of the Reformation yet it speaks plainly the full sense of our first Reformers I speak this of a pithy but short Discourse touching the nature of Freewil contained amongst some others in the Book published by the Authority of King Henry the cighth in the year 1543. entituled A necessary Doctrine and Erudition for all Christian men Concerning which as we have spoken at large already in Ch. 8. of this Work so now we must add something touching this particular of which there was no notice taken in the Bishops book For when the Bishops Book which had been printed in the year 1537. under the Title of An Institution for a Christian man had for some time continued without alteration it was brought under the review of the Bishops and Clergy assembled in their Convocation An. 1543. and having been reviewed in all the parts and members of it a particular Treatise touching the nature of Freewil which in those times had exercised the greatest wits Of which I find this Memorandum in the Acts of the Convocation that is to say Art of Confes 1543. Aprill ult That on Monday being the last of April Lecto publice exposito Articulo Liberi Arbitrii in vulgari c. The Article of Freewil being read and publickly expounded in the English Tongue the most Reverend Archbishops delivered it into the hands of the Prolocutor to the end that he should publish it before the Clerks of the lower House of Convocation as is accustomed in such cases Quo lecto per eos approbato which being read and approved by them it was returned with the residue to the upper House of Convocation with this Approbation Quod pro Catholicis Religiosis acceperunt necnon gratias ingentes patribus egerunt quod tantos labores sudores vigilias Religionis Reipublicae causa unitatis gratia subierant that is to say that they embraced them all for sound and Orthodox rendring unto the Fathers their most humble thanks for the great care and pains which they had undertaken for the good of the Church and Commonwealth and the preserving of peace and unity among the people Which passage I have at large laid down to shew by whose hands and by what Authority as well the Book it self which we have spoken of before as this particular Treatise in it was at first fashioned and set forth And that being said I shall first present the Treatise or Discourse it self and after Answer such Objections as either prejudice or partiality may devise against it Now the article followeth in haec verba The Article of Freewill The Commandments and threatnings of Almighty God in Scripture whereby man is called upon and put in remembrance what God would have him to do Rom. 12. 1 Tim. 4. 1 John 2. Matth. 19. most evidently do express and declare that man hath Freewil also now after the fall of our first Father Adam as plainly appeareth in these places following Be not overcome of evil neglect not the grace that is in thee Love not the World c. If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments Which undoubtedly should be said in vain unless there were some faculty or power left in man whereby he may by the help and grace of God if he will receive it when it is offered him understand his Commandments and freely consent unto and obey them which thing of the Catholick Fathers is called Freewill which if we will describe we may call it conveniently in all men A certain power of the Will joyned with Reason whereby a reasonable creature without constraint in things of Reason discerneth and willeth good and evil but it willeth not the good which is acceptable to God except it be holpen with Grace but that which is ill it willeth of it self And therefore other men define Freewill in this wise Freewill is a power and Reason of Will by which good is chosen by the assistance of Grace as evil is chosen without the assistance of the same Howbeit the state and condition of Freewill was otherwise in our first Parents before they sinned than it was either in them or their Posterity after they had sinned For our first Parents Adam and Eve until they wounded and overthrew themselves by sin had so in possession the said power of Freewill by the most liberal gift and grace of God their Maker that noe only they might eschew all manner of sin but also know God and love him and fulfil all things appertaining to their felicity and welfare For they were made righteous and to the image and similitude of God 1. 〈◊〉 16. having power of Freewill as Chrysostom saith to obey or disobey so that by obedience they might live and by disobedience they should worthily deserve to die A For the wise man affirmeth of them that the state of them was of this sort in the beginning saying thus God in the beginning did create man and left him in the hands of his own counsel he gave unto him his Precepts and Commandments saying If thou wilt keep these Commandments they shall preserve thee He hath set before thee fire and water put forth thy hands to whether thou wilt before man is life and death good and evil what him listeth that shall he have From this must happy estate our first Parents falling by disobedience most grievously hurted themselves and their posterity for besides many other evils that came by that transgression the high power of mans Reason and Freedom of will were wounded and corrupted and all men thereby brought into such blindness and infirmity that they cannot eschew sin except they be made free and illuminated by an especial grace that is to say by a supernatural help and working of the holy Ghost which although the goodness of God offers to all men yet they only enjoy it which by their Freewill do accept and embrace the same Nor they also that be holpen by the said grace can accomplish and perform things that be for their wealth but with much labour and endeavour So great is in our Nature the corruption of the first sin and the heavy burden hearing us down to evil For truly
albeit the light of Reason doth abide yet is it much darkned and with much difficulty doth discern things that be inferiour and pertain to this present life but to understand and perceive things that be spiritual and pertain to that everlasting life it is of it self unable And so likewise there remains a certain freedom of the will in those things which do pertain unto the desires and works of this present life yet to perform spiritual and heavenly things Freewill of it self is unsufficient and therefore the power of mans Freewill being thus wounded and decayed hath need of a Physician to heal it and one help to repair it that it may receive light and strength whereby it may be so and have power to do those godly and spiritual things which before the fall of Adam it was able and might have done To this blindness and infirmity of mans Nature proceeding of Original sin the Prophet David hath regard when he desired his eyes to be lightened of Almighty God that he might consider the marvellous things that be in his Law And also the Prophet Jeremy saying Psalm 115. Jer. 16. Heal me O Lord and I shall be made whole Augustin also plainly declareth the same saying We conclude that Freewill is in man after his fall which thing whoso denieth is not a Catholick man but in spiritual desires and works to please God it is so weak and feeble hat it cannot eithre begin or perform them unless by the Grace and help of God it be prevented and holpen And hereby it appeareth that mans strength and Will in all things which be helpful to the soul and shall please God hath need of the graces of the holy Ghost by which such things be inspired to men and strength and constancy given to perform them if we do not wilfully refuse the said Grace effered to them And likewise as many things be in the Scripture which do shew Freewill to be in man so there be now fewer places in Scripture which declare the Grace of God to be so necessary that if by it Freewill be not prevented and holpen it neither can do nor will any thing good and godly of which sort be these Scriptures following Without me you can do nothing no man cometh to me except it be given him of my Father John 15. Jon. 6.1 Cor. 3. We be not sufficient of our selves as of our selves to think any good thing According unto which Scriptures and such other like it followeth That Freewill before it may will or think any godly thing must be holpen with the grace of Christ and by his Spirit be prevented and inspired that it may be able thereunto And being so made able may from thenceforth work together with grace and by the same sustained holpen and maintained may both accomplish good works and avoid sin and persevere also and increase in grace It is true of the grace of God only that first we are inspired and moved to any good thing but to resist temptations and to persist in goodness and go forward it is both of the Grace of God and our Freewill and endeavour And finally after we have persevered unto the end to be crowned with glory therefore is the gift and mercy of God who of his bountiful goodness hath ordained that reward to be given after this life according to such good works as be done in this life by his Grace Therefore men ought with much diligence and gratitude of mind to consider and regard the inspiration wholesom motions of the holy Ghost and to embrace the Grace of God which is offered to them in Christ and moveth them to work good things And furthermore to go about by all means to shew themselves such as unto whom the Grace of God is not given in vain And when they do settle that notwithstanding their diligence yet through their infirmity they be not able to do that they desire then they ought earnestly and with a fervent devotion and stedfast faith to ask of him which gave the beginning that he would vouchsafe to perform it which thing God will undoubtedly grant according to his promise to such as persevere in calling upon him For he is naturally good and willeth all men to be saved and careth for them and provideth all things by which they may be saved except BY THEIR OWN MALICE they will be evil and so by the righteous judgment of God perish and be lost For truly men be to themselves the AVTHOR OF SIN and DAMNATION God is neither the AVTHOR OF SIN nor the CAVSE OF DAMNATION and yet doth he most righteously damn those men that do with Vices corrupt their Nature which he made good and do abuse the same to evil desires against his most holy will wherefore men be to be warned that they do not impute to God their Vice or their damnation but to themselves who by Freewill have abused the grace and benefits of God All men be also to be monished and chiefly Preachers that in this high matter they looking on both sides so attemper and moderate themselves that neither they so preach the Grace of God as to take away thereby Freewill Nor on the other side so extol Freewill that injury be done to the grace of God Such was the judgment of the Bishops and Clergy assembled in Convocation Anno 1543. touching the nature of Freewill and the co-operations of it with the grace of God In which I can see nothing not agreeable to the present establish'd Doctrine of the Church of England And if it be objected as perhaps it may that this Convocation was held in times of Popery and managed by a Popish Clergy it may be answered that the Bishops and Clergy then assembled were such as had a principal hand in the Reformation and generally subscribed unto the Articles of Religion agreed upon and published in King Edwards time Anno 1552. At which time fifteen of the Bishops which had been present at the Convocation Anno 1543. were not only living but present and consenting to the Articles in King Edwards time that is to say Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury Parfew Bishop of Saint Asaph Buchely Bishop of Bangor Bush Bishop of Bristol Sampson Bishop of Litchfield Barlow Bishop of Saint David Goodrich Bishop of Ely Ship Bishop of Hereford Folgate Bishop of Landaff and afterwards Archbishop of York King Bishop of Oxon Chambers Bishop of Peterborough Cepon Bishop of Sarum Thirlby then Bishop of Westminster Aldrich then Bishop of Carlile and Bird Bishop of Chester By which proportion we may conclude that a far greater number of the Deans and Arch-deacons who have a personal right of voting in all Convocations and coming to the number of eighty and thereabouts must be living and consenting also to the Reformation as being younger men than the Bishops were not to say any thing of the Clerks or Procurates of Cathedral Churches and those of the Diocesan Clergy as being variable and changeable
works of the spirit 2. More plainly doth he speak in the second place of Universal Redemption Id. in cap. 1 6. telling us that all men which either for their Original sin or for their Actual sin were out of Gods favour and had offended God should by Christ only be reconciled to Gods favour and have remission of their sins and be made partakers of everlasting life that Christs death was a full and sufficient satisfaction for the sins of the whole World Id Ibid. 〈◊〉 1. and for all them that shall be sanctified and saved that Christ by his death once for all Id. Ibid. 〈…〉 hath fully and perfectly satisfied for the sins of all men and finally that there re this is an undoubted truth ever to be believed of all Christians that Christ by his Passion and Death hath taken away all the sins of the World In the next place he puts the question with reference to the application of so great a benefit for what causes God would not have his Word preached unto the Gentiles till Christs time and makes this answer thereunto First That it is a point not to be too curiously searched or enquired after Secondly That it is enough for us to know that it was so ordered by Gods Will Id. Ibid. G. 2 3. But thirdly That it might yet be done either because by their sins they had deserved their blindness and damnation as indeed they had or that God saw their hard hearts or their stiff necks and that they would not have received it before Christs comings if the Gospel had been preached unto them or finally that God reserved that mystery unto the coming of our Saviour Christ that by him all goodness should be known to come to us Id. cap. 2. H. 7. c. As for the necessary influences of Gods Grace and mans co-working with the same he telleth us briefly That no man ought to ascribe the good works that he dâ—th â—s himself or to his own might and power but to God the Author of all goodness but then withal that it is not enough for men to have knowledge of Christ and his benefits but that they must encrease in the knowledge of God Idâ—â— cap. 4. which knowledge cometh by Gods Word And finally as to the point of falling away he gives us first the example of Demas who as long as all things were prosperous with S. Paul was a faithful Minister to him and a faithful Disciple of Christ but when he saw Paul cast into Prison he forsook Paul and his Doctrine and followed the World then he inferreth that many such there be in the World c. of whom speaketh Christ Matth. 13. Many for a time do believe but in time of tribulations they shrink away And finally he concludes with this advice That he that standeth should look that he did not fall and that he do no trust too much to his own might and power for if he did he should deceive himself and have a fall as Demas had And so much for the judgment and opinion of Master L. Ridley in the points disputed who being Arch-deacon of Canterbury as before was said may be presum'd to be one of those who concurred in Convocation to the making of the Articles of K. Edwards book 1552. to find the true and natural meaning of which Articles we have taken this pains CHAP. XV. Of the Author and Authority of King Edwards Catechism as also of the judgment of Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr in the Points disputed 1. The Catechism published by the Authority of King Edward VI. Ann. 1553. affirmed to have been writ by Bishop Poinet and countenanced by the rest of the Bishops and Clergy 2. Several passages collected out of that Catechism to prove that the Calvinian Doctrines were the true genuine and ancient Doctrines of the Church of England 3. With a discovery of the weakness and impertinency of the Allegation 4. What may most probably be conceived to have been the judgment of Bishop Pointer in most of the Controverted Points 5. An Answer to another Objection derived from Mr. Bucer and Peter Martyr and the influence which their Auditors and Disciples are supposed to have had in the Reformation 6. That Bucer was a man of moderate Counsels approving the first Liturgy of King Edward VI. assenting to the Papists at the Dyet of Ratisbone in the possibility of falling from grace and that probably Peter Martyr had not so far espoused the Calvinian quarrels when he lived in Oxon. as after his return to Zurick and Calvins Neighbourhood 7. The judgment of Erasmus according as it is delivered in his Paraphrases on the four Evangelists proposed first in the general view and after more particularly in every of the Points disputed SEcuri de salute de gloria certemus Having shewed the cause by so many pregnant Evidences derived from the Articles and Homilies Tacit in vita Agric. and backt by the consenting Testimonies of Learned men and godly Martyrs it would add something at the least in point of Reputation if not of glory also to gain Bishop Poinet to the side of whom as to his personal capacity we have spoken already and must now look back upon him in relation to a Catechism of his setting forth Printed by Wolfe in Latine and by Day in English Anno 1553. being the next year after the Articles were agreed upon in the Convocation a Catechism which comes commended to us with these advantages that it was put forth by the Authority of King Edward VI. to be taught by all School-masters in the Kingdom By another of the same persuasion Prin. Anti-Armin Pag. 44. that the King committed the perusal of it to certain Bishops and other Learned men whom he much esteemed by whom it was certified to be agreeable to the Scripture and Statutes of the Realm that thereupon he presixt his Epistle before it in which he commands and charges all School-masters whatsoever within his Dominions as they did reverence his Authority Anti-Armin Page 48. and as they would avoid his Royal displeasure to teach this Catechism diligently and carefully in all and every their Schools that so the youth of the Kingdom might be setled in the grounds of true Religion and furthered in Gods worship The Church Historian seems to give it some further countenance Ch Hist lib. 7. fol. 421. by making it of the same extraction with the book of Articles telling us that by the Bishops and Learned men before-mentioned we are to understand the Convocation and that it was not commanded by his Majesties Letters Patents to all School-masters only but by him commended to the rest of the Subjects which cost these several Authors have bestowed upon it out of an hope of gaining some greater matter by it towards the countenancing and advancing of the Calvinian Doctrine Predestination as the true genuine and ancient Doctrine of this Church certain I am that both Mr.
Papist nor Pelagian 3. The common practices of the Calvinists to defame their Adversaries the name of Freewill-men to whom given why 4. The Doctrine of John Knox in restraining all mens actions either good or evil to the determinate Will and Counsel of God 5. The like affirmed by the Author of the Table of Predestination in whom and the Genevian Notes we find Christ to be excluded from being the foundation of mans Election and made to be an inferiour cause of salvation only 6. God made to be the Author of sin by the Author of a Pamphlet entituled against a Privy Papist and his secret Counsels called in for the proof thereof both by him and Knox with the mischiefs which ensued upon it 7. The Doctrine of Robert Crowly imputing all mens sins to Predestination his silly defences for the same made good by a distinction of John Verons and the weakness of that distinction shewed by Campneys 8. The Errours of the former Authors opposed by Campneys his book in answer to those Errours together with his Orthodoxy in the point of universalRedemption and what he builds upon the same 9. Hissolid Arguments against the imputing of all actions either good or evil to Predestination justified by a saying of Prosper of Aquitaine 10. The virulent prosecutions of Veron and Crowly according to the Genius of the sect of Calvin THUS we have seen the Doctrine of the Church of England in the Five Controverted Points according to the Principles and persuasions of the first Reformers And to say truth it was but time that they should come to some conclusion in the Points disputed there being some men who in the beginning of the Reign of King Enward the sixth busily stickled in the maintenance of Calvins Doctrins And thinking themselves to be more Evangelical than the rest of their Brethren they either took unto themselves or had given by others the name of Gospellers Of this they were informed by the reverend Prelate and right godly Martyr Bishop Hooper in the Preface to his Exposition of the Ten Commandments Our Gospellers saith he be better learned than the holy Ghost for they wickedly attribute the cause of Punishments and Adversity to Gods Providence which is the cause of no ill as he himself can do no ill and over every mischief that is done they say it is Gods Will. In which we have the men and their Doctrine too the name of Gospellers and the reason why that name was ascribed unto them It is observed by the judicious Author of the Book called Europae Speculum that Calvin was the first of these latter times who search'd into the Counsels the Eternal Counsels of Almighty God And as it seems he found there some other Gospel than that which had been written by the four Evangelists from whence his followers in these Doctrines had the name of Gospellers for by that name I find them frequently called by Campneys also in an Epistolary Discourse where he clears himself from the crimes of Popery and Pelagianism which some of these new Gospellers had charged upon him which had I found in none but him it might have been ascribed to heat or passion in the agitation of these Quarrels but finding it given to them also by Bishop Hooper a temperate and modest man I must needs look upon it as the name of the Sect by which they were distinguished from other men And now I am fallen upon this Campneys it will not be unnecessary to say something of him in regard of the great part he is to act on the stage of this business Protestant he was of the first Edition cordially affected to the Doctrine of the Church of England in the present points but of a sharp and eager spirit And being not well weaned from some points of Popery in the first dawning of the day of our Reformation he gave occasion unto some of those whom he had exasperated to inform against him that they prosecuted the complaint so far that he was forced to bear a faggot at St. Pauls Cross as the custom was in all such cases Miles Coverdale then or not long after Bishop of Exon preaching a Sermon at the same But whatsoever he was then in other Doctrinals he hath sufficiently purged himself from the crimes of Popery and Pelagianism wherewith he had been charged by those of the adverse Party Answer to a certain Letter p. 3. For whereas one William Samuel had either preached or written in Queen Maries times That a man might deserve God c. Campneys beholds it for a Doctrine so blasphemous and abominable that neither Papists nor Pelagians nor any other Heretick old or new hath ever-written or maintained a more filthy and execrable saying For it is the flat and manifest denying both of God the Father and of his Son Christ Jesus neither doth it require any confutation to him that doth but confess that there is a God And as for my self saith he I do not love my life so dearly as I hate this vile saying deadly He gives not long after to the Popish Pelagians the name of a filthy and detestable Sect. p. 5. mustereth up all the errours of Pelagius which had been publickly recanted in the Synod of Palestine and falling upon that which teacheth That the grace of God is given according unto our deserving he declares it to be vile and abominable contrary to the manifest mind and words of the Apostle p. 12. Finally Not to trouble my self with more particulars encountring with another of the Pelagian Heresies he passionately cries out O blasphemy intolerable O filthy puddle and sink most execrable full of stinking Errours full of damnable presumption like to the pride of Lucifer most abominable p. 15. This is enough to free this man from being either a Papist or Pelagian Heretick as his Enemies made him And for the other reproach which they laid upon him of being an Enemy to Gods Predestination I conceive it will not be regarded as a matter of moment considering the Disputes between them and the usual acts of the Calvinians to defame their Adversaries We shewed before how Bogerman Paraeus and the rest of the Calvinian Sect reproach'd the Remonstrants with Pelagianism in their publick Writings though as free from it as themselves We shewed before how Cross in the continuation of his Belgick History imposeth on them for some of their detestable Opinions that they made God to be the Author of sin and that he had created the infinitely greatest part of mankind to no other end but to burn them in Hell-fire for ever which horrid blasphemies they both abominated and confuted to their best abilities The like unworthy practices were used by Calvin and Beza against Sebastian Castel a man of no less learning but of far more modesty and moderation than either of them whom they never left persecuting and reviling till they had first cast him out of Geneva and afterwards brought him to his grave And this they
was then so generally received and taught in the Reformed Church of England as not to be known to Artificers Tradesmen and Mechanicks and that they were so well instructed in the niceties of it as to believe that though Christ died effectually for all yet the benefit thereof should be effectually applied to none but those who do effectually repent Fourthly I consider that if the Popish Clergy of those times did believe no otherwise of Predestination than that men be elected in respect of good works and so long elected as they do them and no longer as Carelese hath reported of them the Doctrine of the Church hath been somewhat altered since those times there being now no such Doctrine taught in the Schools of Rome as that a man continues no longer in the state of Election than whilst he is exercised in good works And finally I consider the unfortunate estate of those who living under no certain rule of Doctrine or Discipline lie open to the practices of cunning and malicious men by whom they are many times drawn aside from the true Religion For witnesses whereof we have Trew and Carelese above mentioned the one being wrought on by the Papists the other endangered by the Gospellers or Zuinglian Sectaries For that Carelese had been tampered with by the Gospellers or Zuinglian Sectaries doth appear most clearly first by the confidence which he had of his own salvation and of the final perseverance of all others also which are the chosen members of the Church of Christ and secondly but more especially for giving the scornful title of a Free-will man to one of his fellow Prisoners who was it seems of different persuasion from him For which consult his Letter to Henry Adlington in the Act. and Mon. Fol. 1749. which happened unto him as to many others when that Doctrine of the Church wanted the countenance of Law and the Doctors of the Church here scattered and dispersed abroad not being able to assist them In which condition the affairs of the holy Church remained till the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and for some years after But no sooner had that gracious Lady attained the Crown when she took order for the reviewing of the publick Liturgy formerly Authorized by Act of Parliament in the fifth and sixth years of King Edward VI. The men appointed for which work were Dr. Parker after Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Grindal after Bishop of London Dr. Pilkington after Bishop of Durham Dr. Cox after Bishop of Elie Dr. May Dean of Pauls Dr. Bill Provost of Eaton after Dean of Westminster Mr. Whitehead sometimes Chaplain to Queen Anne Bullen designed to be the first Archbishp of this new Plantation and finally Sir Thomas Smith a man of great esteem with King Edw. VI. and the Queen now Reigning By thesE men was the Liturgy reviewed approved and passed without any sensible alteration in any of the Rubricks Prayers and Contents thereof but only the giving of some contentment to the Papists and all moderate Protestants in two particulars the first whereof was the taking away of a clause in the Letany in which the People had been taught to pray to Almighty God to deliver them from the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities The second was the adding of the sentences in the distribution of the Sacrament viz. The Body of our Lord Jesus which was given for thee preserve thy body and soul to everlasting life The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ which was shed for thee c. which sentences exclusive of the now following words of participation as they were only in the first so were they totally left out of the second Liturgy of King Edward VI. Other alterations I find none mentioned in the Act of Parliament 1 Eliz. c. 2. but the appointing of certain Lessons for every Sunday in the year which made no change at all in the publick Doctrine before contained in that book and that the People might be the better trained up in the same Religion which had been taught and preacht unto them in the time of King Edward VI. She gave command by her Injunctions published in the first year of her Reign Ann. 1559. that the Paraphrases of Erasmus should be diligently studied both by Priest and People And to that end it was required as formerly in the Injunctions of the said King Edward 1. That the Paraphrases of the said Erasmus Injunct 6. and on the Gospel in the English tongue should be provided at the joynt charges of the Parson and Parishioners and being so provided should be set up in some convenient place of every Church so as the Parishioners may most commodiously resort unto the same and read the same out of the time of common service And secondly Injunct 16. that every Parson Vicar Curate and Stipendary Priest shall provide and have of his own within the time therein limitted the New Testament in Latine and English with the Paraphrases on the same conferring the one with the other And the Bishops by themselves and other Ordinaries and their Officers in Synods and Visitations shall examine the said Ecclesiastical Priests how they have profited in the study of holy Scripture Evident Arguments that there was no intent of setling any other Doctrine in the Church of England than such as was agreeable to the Judgment of that Learned man The next care was for making and perfecting those Homilies of which we find mention at the end of King Edwards book for the necessary edifying of Christian People and the increase of godly living both books sufficiently provided for besides the confirmation of that first Article of the year 1552. in the Rubrick of the second Liturgy where it is said that after the Creed if there be no Sermon shall follow one of the Homilies already set forth or to be set forth by common authority which Rubrick being revised with the rest of the Liturgy put the said books of Homilies as well the second as first part of them into the service of the Church and thereby made them no small part of the publick doctrine But who they were which laboured in this second book whether they were the same that drew up the first or those who in Queen Elizabeths time reviewed the Liturgy or whether they were made by the one and reviewed by the other I have no where found though I have taken no small pains in the search thereof But those few doctrinals which were contained in the Book of Common Prayer or deducible from it not being much taken notice of and the Homilies not confirm'd by that common Authority which was required in the Rubrick the Zuinglians or Gospellers took the opportunity to disperse their doctrines before the door of utterance should be shut against them or any publick course be taken to suppress their practices And this they did with so much diligence and cunning that they encreased exceedingly both in power and numbers of
being thus discharged he shews in the next place Ibid. 48. that as God desireth not the death of man without relation to his sin so he desireth not the death of the sinful man or of the wicked sinful man but rather that they shoudl turn from their wickedness and live And he observes it is said unto the Goats in St. Matthews Gospel Ite malidicti 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 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 nelgect and contempt of this Grace is the cause why every one doth not come to Heaven and not any privative Decree Council and Determination of God The stating and canvasing of which points so plainly curtly to the Doctrines of che 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 furtehr 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 Now in this Sermon there are sundry things to be considered 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 duo vel nemo 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 Mayor 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 Council 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 Council-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 Archbiship of York in the Reign of King Charles 1628. when the times are thought to have been inclinable to those of the Arminian Doctrines yet he was made Master of Pembrook Hill Bishop of Chichester and from thence translated unto Norwich 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 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 Perpetulty c. 304. and the Controversies that arose upon it in Cambridg 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 siad 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 Cambridg 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 madea t St. Pauls Cross where the supposed offence was given it would be known by whose Authority it was enjoyned Not by the Bishop of London in whose Diocess the Sermon was preached for his Authority did not reach so far as Cambridg whither the Preacher had retited after he had performed the service he was called unto and if it were injoyned by the High Commission and performed accordingly there is no question to be made but that we should have heard of in the Anti-Arminianism where there are no less than eight leaves spend in relating the story of a like Recantation pretended to be made by one Mr. Barret on the tenth of May 1595. and where it is affirmed that the said Mr. Harsnet held and maintained the same errors for which Barret was to make his Recantation But as it will be proved hereafter that no such Recantation wass made by Barret so we have reason to believe that no such Recantation was imposed on Harsnet Nor secondly can it be made good that the Controversies between Doctor Whitacres and Dr. Baroe were first occasioned by this Sermon or that Mr. Wotton was appointed by the University to confute the same For it appears by a Letter written from the heads of that University to their Chancellor the Lord Treasurer Burleigh dated March 18. 1595. that Baroe had maintained the same Doctrines and his Lectures and Determinations above 14 years before by their own account for which see Chap. 21. Numb 80. which must be three years at the least before the preaching of that Sermon by Mr. Harsnet And though it is probable enopugh that Mr. Wotton might give himself the trouble of confuting the Sermon yet it is more than probable that he was not required so to do by that
occasion to these controversies many appearing in defence of Perkins and his Opinions which afterwards involved the Sublapsarians in the self same quarrel Hal. in Holy State p. 50. Amongst our selves it was objected That his Doctrine referring all to an absolute decree ham-string'd all industry and cut off the sinews of mens endeavours towards salvation for ascribing all to the wind of Gods Spirit which bloweth where it listeth he leaveth nothing to the cares of mens diligence either to help or hinder to the attaining of happiness but rather opens a wide door to licentious security Absolv contr Tompsoni Diatrib But none of all our English was so sharp in their censures of him as Dr. Robert Abbot then Dr. of the Chair in Oxon and not long after Bishop of Sarum who in his book against Thompson though otherwise inclined too much to Calvins Doctrines gives this judgment of Mr. Perkinsius viz. Alioqui eruditus pius in discriptione Divinae Praedestinationis quam ille contra nostram contra veteris Ecclesiae fidem citra lapsum Adami absolute decretum constituit erravit errorem non levem cujus adortis quibusdam viris inita jamdudum suscepta defensio turbas ecclesiis non necessarias dedit quas etiamnum non sine scandalo periculo haerere videmus dum viam quisque quam ingressus est sibi ante tenendum judicat quam ductam sacrarum literarum authoritate lineam veritatis tanquam filum Ariadnaeum sibi ducem faciat that is to say Perkins though otherwise a godly and learned man in his description of Divine Predestination which contrary not only to the Doctrine of the primitive times but also unto that of the Church of England he builds upon an absolute decree of Almighty God without reference to the Fall of Adam ran himself into no small error The defence whereof being undertaken by some learned men hath given the Church some more than necessary troubles which still continued not without manifest scandal and danger to it whilst every one doth rather chuse to follow his own way therein than suffer himself to be guided in the Labyrinth by the line of truth as by the Clew of Ariadne drawn from the undeniable Authority of holy Scriptures And so I leave the man with this observation that he who in his writings had made the infinitly greatest part of all man-kind uncapable of Gods grace and mercy by an absolute and irrespective decree of Reprobation who in expounding the Commandments when he was Catechist of Christs Colledge in Cambridge did lay the Law so home in the ears of his Auditors that it made their hearts fall down Holy State p. 90. and yea their hair to stand almost upright and in his preaching use to pronounce the word Damned with so strong an Emphasis that it left an eccho in the ears of his hearers a long time after this man scarce lived out half his days being no more than forty-four years of age from the time of his death at the pangs conducing unto which he was noted to speak nothing so articulately as Mercy Mercy which I hope God did graciously vouchsafe to grant him in that woful Agony But to proceed this Doctrine finding many followers and Whitacres himself then Dr. of the Chair in Cambridge concurring in opinion with him it might have quickly over-spread the whole University had it not been in part prevented and in part suppressed by the care and diligence of Dr. Baroe and his Adherents who being a French man born of eminent piety and learning and not inclinable at all unto Calvins Doctrines had been made the Lady Margarets Professor for the University somewhat before the year 1574. For in that year he published his Lectures on the Prophet Jonah In one of which being the 29th in number he discourseth on these words of the Prophet viz. Baroe Fraelect 29. p. 216. Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed cap. 3. ver 4. where we find it thus Haec denunciatio non est quasi Proclamatio decreti divini absoluti sed quaedam patio praeponendae divinae voluntatis qua Deus eorum animos flectere voluit quare haec oratio etsi simplex absoluta videatur tacitam tamen habet conditionem nisi rescipiscant namque hanc in esse conditionem eventus comprobavit The denouncing of this Judgment saith that learned man is not to be beheld as the publication of one of Gods absolute Decrees but only as a form observed in making Gods Will known unto them by which he meant to put them to it and rouse their spirits to Repentance Therefore saith he although the Denunciation of the following Judgment seem to be simply positive and absolute yet hath it notwithstanding this Condition that is to say unless they do repent included in it for that such a Condition was included in it the event doth shew which said he leads us on to the denouncing of the like Judgment on the house of Abimelech which he had before in Dr. King Chap. 18. Num. 11. who herein either followed Baroe or at the least concurred in Opinion with him And in the next place he proceeds a little further than the case of the Ninevites Baroe Prael â—i 32. p. 217. touching upon the point of Election unto life Eternal by the most proper superstructure could be laid upon such a foundation Dei voluntas non erat ut perirent si rescipiscerent non vult enim mortem preccatoris sed ut convertatur Et rursus Dei erat voluntas ut perirent nisi rescipiscerent Haec enim duo unum sunt ut Dei voluntas est ut vitam habeamus si credamus Et Dei voluntas non est ut vitam habeamus nisi credamus aut si credentes perseveremus non autem si aliquandiu credentes non perseveremus that is to say It was not the Will of God that they should perish if they did repent For God desireth not the death of a sinner but rather that he be converted and live and yet it was his will that they should perish if they did not repent for these two are one as for Example It is the Will of God saith he that we should have eternal life if we believe and constantly persevere in the faith of Christ And it it is not the will of God that we should have eternal life if we do not believe or believing only for a time do not persevere therein to the end of our lives which point he further proves by the condition of the Message sent from God to Hezekiah by the Prophet Isaiah 2 Kings 20.1 as before was said in Dr. King For which together with the rest of his discourse upon that occasion concerning the consistency of these alterations with the immutability or unchangeableness of Almighty God I shall refer the Reader to the book it self So far that learned man had declared himself upon occasion of that Text and the case
those times did build their studies and having built their studies on a wrong foundation did publickly maintain some point or other of his Doctrines which gave least offence and out of which no dangerous consequence could be drawn as they thought and hoped to the dishonour of God the disgrace of Religion the scandal of the Church or subversion of godliness amongst which if judicious Mr. Hooker be named for one as for one I find him to be named yet is he named only for maintaining one of the five points that namely of the not total or final falling away of Gods Elect as Dr. Overald also did in the Schools of Cambridge though neither of them can be challenged for maintaining any other point of Calvins Doctrine touching the absolute decree of Reprobation Election unto life without reference to faith in Christ the unresistible workings of Grace the want of freedom in the will to concur therewith and the determining of all mens actions unto good or evil without leaving any power in men to do the contrary And therefore secondly Mr. Hookers discourse of Justification as it now comes into our hands might either be altered in some points after his decease by him that had the publishing of it or might be written by him as an essay of his younger years before he had consulted the Book of Homilies and perused every clause in the publick Liturgy as he after did or had so carefully examined every Text of Scripture upon which he lays the weight of his judgment in it as might encourage him to have it printed when he was alive Of any men who publickly opposed the Calvinian tenents in this University till after the beginning of King James his Reign I must confess that I have hitherto found no good assurance though some there were who spared not to declare their dislike thereof and secretly trained up their Scholars in other principles An argument whereof may be that when Dr. Baroe dyed in London which was about three or four years after he had left his place in Cambridge his Funeral was attended by most of the Divines then living in and about the City Dr. Bancroft then Bishop of London giving order in it which plainly shews that there were many of both Universities which openly favoured Baroes Doctrines and did as openly dislike those of the Calvinians though we find but few presented to us by their names Amongst which few I first reckon Dr. John Buckridge President of St. Johns Colledge and Tutor to Archbishop Laud who carried his Anti-Calvinian doctrines with him to the See of Rochester and publickly maintained them at a conference in York House Ann. 1626. And secondly Dr. John Houson one of the Canons of Christ Church and Vice-Chancellor of the University Ann. 1602. so known an enemy to Calvin his opinions that he incurred a suspension by Dr. Robert Abbots then Vice Chancellor And afterwards being Bishop of Oxon subscribed the letter amongst others to the Duke of Buckingham in favour of Mountague and his Book called Appello Cesarem as before was said And though we find but these two named for Anti-Calvinist in the five controverted points yet might there be many houses perhaps some hundreds who held the same opinions with them though they discovered not themselves or break out in any open opposition 1 King 19 18. 1 King 19 1◠as they did at Cambridge God had 7000. Servants in the Realm of Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal though we find the name of none but the Prophet Eliah the residue keeping themselves so close for fear of danger that the Prophet himself complained to God that he alone was left to serve him A parallel case to which may be that the Christians during the power and prevalency of the Arian Hereticks St. Jerome giving us the names of no more than three who had stood up stoutly in defence of the Nicene council and the points of Doctrine there established viz. 1. St. Athanasius Patriark of Alexandria in Egypt St. Hillary Bishop of Poictious in France and St. Eusebius Bishop of Vevelli in Italy of which thus the Father Siquidem Arianis victis triumphatorem Athanasium suum Egyptus excepit Hillarium è prelio revertentem galliarum ecclesia complexa est ad reditum Eusebii sui lugubres vestes Italia mutavit that is to say upon the overthrow of the Arians Egypt received her Athanasius now returned in triumph the Church of France embraced her Hillary coming home with victory from the battel and on the return of Eusebius Italy changed her mourning garments By which it is most clear even to vulgar eyes that not these Bishops only did defend the truth but that it was preserved by many others as well of the Clergy as of the People in their several Countreys who otherwise never had received them with such joy and triumph if a great part of them had not been of the same opinions though no more of them occur by name in the records of that age But then again If none but the three Bishops had stood unto the truth in the points disputed at that time between the Orthodox Christians and the Arian Hereticks yet had that been sufficient to preserve the Church from falling universally from the faith of Christ or deviating from the truth in those particulars Deut. 17.6 Mat. 18 19. the word of truth being established as say both Law and Gospel if there be only two or three witnesses to attest unto it two or three members of the Church may keep possession of a truth in all the rest and thereby save the whole from errour even as a King invaded by a foreign Enemy doth keep possession of his Realm by some principal fortress the standing out whereof may in time regain all the rest which I return for answer to another objection touching the paucity of those Authors whom we have produced in maintenance of the Anti Calvinian or old English doctrines since the resetling of the Church under Queen Elizabeth for though they be but few in number and make but a very thin appearance Apparent rari nautes in gurgite vasto in the Poets language yet serve they for a good assurance that the Church still kept possession of her primitive truths not utterly lost though much endangered by such contrary Doctrines as had of late been thrust upon her there was a time when few or none of the Orthodox Bishops durst openly appear in favour of St. Athanasius but only Liberius Pope of Rome Theod. Hist Eccles lib. 2. cap. 15. who thereupon is thus upbraided by Constantius the Arian Emperour Quota pars tu es orbis terrarum qui solus c. How great a part saith he art thou of the whole world that thou alone shouldst shew thy self in defence of that wicked man and thereby overthrow the peace of the Universe To which Liberius made this answer non diminuitur solitudine mea verbum dei nam olim
assembled some Divines of especial note to set down their opinions which they drew into nine Assertions and sent so them to the Vniversity for the appeasing of those quarrels and thereupon his Majesty resolved thus that when such questions arise amongst Scholars the quietest proceeding were to determine them in the Vniversity and not to stuff the Book with all Conclusions Theological Out of which passage I observed First that the Attribute of Orthodoxal is ascribed to the said nine Assertions by none but Dr. Reynolds who termed them so and not by Dr. Barlow then Dean of Chester who related the conference and had been present at the making of the said Assertions being at that time one of the domestick Chaplains of Archbishop Whitgift And secondly That they were not made to be a standing Rule to the Church of England but only for the present pacifying of some differences which arose in Cambridge as is here acknowledged I observe thirdly that King James did utterly eject the motion as to the inserting of the said nine Assertions amongst the Articles of the Church leaving them to be canvased and disputed in the Schools as more proper for them And fourthly That being left to be disputed in the Schools they might be held in the Affirmative or in the Negative as best pleased the Respondent It was also moved by Dr. Reynolds That the book of Articles of Religion concluded 1562. might be explained in places obscure Ibid. p. 24. and enlarged where some things were defective And in particular he desired Pag. 25. that an explanation might be made of the 23d Article for ministring in the Congregation of the 25th touching Confirmation Pag. 37. and of the 37th concerning the Authority of the Pope of Rome Pag. 38. as also that these words Pag. 24. viz. That the intention of the Minister is not of the Essence of the Sacrament might be added in some fit place to the book of Articles But that which Dr. Reynolds did most insist upon was the 16th Article where it is said That after we have received the Holy Ghost we may depart from Grace The meaning whereof though he acknowledged to be sound yet he desired that because they may seem to be contrary to the Doctrine of Election and Predestination in the 17th Article those words may seem to be explained with this or the like addition viz. That neither totally nor finally Which motion or proposal concerning Dr. Overald more than any other he took occasion thereupon to acquaint his Majesty with that which had happened to him at Cambridge concerning the Estate of a justified man fallen into any grievous sin as Murder Treason Adultery and the like as hath been shewn at large in the former Chapter But the result of all was this that after a full debate and consideration concerning every one of the said Articles and the doubts moved about the same there was no cause found for altering any thing in any of them Pag. 41. and as little for the 16th as for any other For though the said Dr. Overald had declared it for his own opinion that he who was called and justified according to the purpose of Gods Election being brought into a state of wrath and damnation did neither fall totally from all the graces of God not finally from the possibility of being renewed again by Gods holy Spirit as before is said and that King James himself had left it to be considered whether the word Often might not be added to the 16th Article as thus viz. We may often depart from Grace c. yet being left to the consideration of the Prelates as were all the rest the said Article remained without any alteration as before they found it and as it still continueth to this very day But here is to be observed that upon the first motion concerning falling from Grace the Bishop of London took occasion to signifie to his Majesty how very many in these days neglecting holiness of life presumed too much of persisting in Grace laying all their Religion upon Predestination If I shall be saved I shall be saved which he termed a desperate Doctrine shewing it to be contrary to good Divinity and the true doctrine of Predestination wherein we should rather reason Ascendendo than Descendendo thus I live in obedience to God in love with my Neighbour I follow my occasion c. Therefore I trust God hath elected me and predestinated me to salvation not thus which is the usual course of Argument God hath predestinate and chosen me to life therefore though I sin never so grievously yet I shall not be damned for whom he once loveth he loveth to the end Whereupon he shewed his Majesty out of the next Article what was the doctrine of the Church of England touching Predestition in the very last Paragraph scilicet We must receive Gods promises in such wise as these be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture and in all our doings the Will of God to be followed which we have delivered to us in holy Scripture Which part of the Article his Majesty very well approved and after he had according to his manner very singularly discoursed on that place of Paul Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling he left it to be considered whether any thing were not to be added for the clearing of the Doctors doubt by putting in the word often or the like as thus We may often depart from Grace but in the mean time wished that the Doctrine of Predestination might be very tenderly handled and with great discretion left on the one side Gods omnipotency might be called in question by impeaching the doctrine of his Eternal Predestination or on the other a desperate Resumption might be arreared Ibid. p. 43. by inferring the necessary certainty of standing and persisting in Grace After which upon occasion of Dr. Overals discourse concerning his affairs at Cambridg his Majesty entred into a longer discourse of Predestination and Reprobation than before and of the necessary enjoyning Repentance and holiness of life with true Faith concluding that it was Hypocrisie and not true justifying faith which was severed from them For although Predestination and Election depend not upon any Qualities Actions or works of men which be mutable but upon Gods eternal and immutable decree and purpose yet such is the necessity of Repentance after known sins committed as that without it there could not be either Reconciliation with God or remission of those sins But here methinks I hear it said that though the King being then unacquainted with the Lambeth Articles Justific of the Fathers c. in pref thought not meet to put them amongst the Articles of this Church yet he liked it well enough in his Clergy of Ireland that they took them into their Confession and Bishop Bancroft had agreed to them before the Conference and that when he was Archbishop his Chaplain with his good liking
increase the differences betwixt the Remonstrants and the Contra-Remonstrants in the Belgick Provinces did not help a little who publishing their discourses one against the other sharpened the Appetite of many Students in both Universities to feed more heartily on such Dishes are were now plentifully set before them than they had done in former times which they either were not to be had or not to be fed upon without fear of surfeit without â—â—edanger of dilgorging what before they had eaten But so it 〈…〉 that while matters went thus fairly forwards Condradus Vorstius suspected for a Sainâ—setenian or Socinian Heretick and one who had derogated in his writings from the Purâ—y the Immensity the Omniscience and immutability of Almighty God was chosen by the Curators of Leiden Anno 1611. to succeed Arminius in that place Wherewith King James being made acquainted inflamed as well with a pious â—â—al to the honour of God as a just fear lest the Contagion of his Errors might cross the Seas and infect his own Sujects also he first sollicited the States not to suffer such a man to be placed amongst them and afterwards to send him back when they had received him But finding no success in either and having sent many sruitless Messages and Letters to the States about it he published his Declaration against the said Vorstius and therein used many harsh and bitter Expressions against Arminius and his followers of which see Cap. 6. Num. 37. as if they had been guilty of the same impieties This put the Calvinists again upon such a Gog that none of their Adversaries in either of the Universities of what eminent parts and name soever could escape their hands During which heats the reverend Dr. Houson who had been Vice-Chancellor of the University ten years before was called in question and suspended by Dr. Reb. Abbot then Dr. of the Chair and Vice-Chancellour also Propter conciones publicas minus Orthodoxas plenas offensionis for preaching certain Sermons less Orthodox and fuller of offence than they should have been He was sufficiently known for an Anticalvinist and had preached somewhat tending to the disparagement of the Genevian Annotations on the Holy Scriptures censured more bitterly by none than King James himself which brought him under this displeasure And about two years after Anno 1614. the said Dr. Abbot fell violently soul on Dr. William Laud then President of St. John's Colledg whom in his Sermon at St. Peters on Easter Sunday he publickly exposed to contempt and scorn under the notion of a Papist as Barrets dâ—ctriâ—es had been formerly condemned at Cambridge by the name of Popery for which consult the Anti-Armin p. 66. But there was something more peculiar in the case of Mr. Edward Sympson than in that of the two great Doctors before remembred King James himself being both the Informer and the Prosecutor against this man as it is thus related by the Church Historian viz. Ch. Hist l. 6. Hist of Camb. p. 10â— It happened in the year 1616. that Mr. Edward Sympson a very good Scholar fellow of trinity Colledg preached a Sermon before King James at Royston taking for his Text John 3.6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh Hence he endeavoured to prove that the committing of any great sin doth extinguish Grace and Gods Spirit for the time in the man He added also that S. Paul in the seventh Chapter to the Remans spake not of himself as an Apostle and Regenerate but sub statu legis Hereat his Majesty took and publickly expressed great distaste because Arminius had lately been blamed for extracting the like Exposition out of the works of Faustus Socinus Whereupon he sent to the two Professors in Cambridg for their Judgment herein who proved and subscribed the place ad Rom. 7. to be understood of a Regenerate man according to St. Augustines latter Opinion in his Retractations and the Preacher was enjoined a publick Recantation before the King which accordingly was performed by him In which it is first to be observed that no offence was taken at the first part of his Sermon in which he went no further than Dr. Overald had gone before as in our last Chap. Num. 6. Secondly That the latter part thereof might have given as little if his Exposition on the 13. Chap of St. Pauls Epistle to the Romans had not been fathered on Arminius against whom the King had openly declared in his book against Vorstius and likewise upon his followers in the Belgick Provinces himself as a dangerous party which he then laboured to suppress as before was noted And therefore thirdly I observe that the two Professors in Cambridg did neither more wholly or originally of their own authority but as they were set on by the King who could nor otherwise be satisfied than by some such censure on Arminius and consequently for his sake on the Preacher too For that King James condemned not the Arminian doctrines in themselves though he had taken some displeasure against their persons as is said before appears not only by rejecting the Lambeth Articles and his dislike of 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 Vniversal Redemption which they accordingly performed Nor were the said Professors at that time so forward as to move in it of themselves as may appear by their not answering of Tompsons book entituled de Intercrsione Gratiae Justificationis though the Author of it was a member of that University but leaving it to be confuted by Dr. Abbot their Brother in the Chair at Oxon. So great an alteration had been made in the Affections of the University since the first striking up of their heats against Baroe and Barret which presently began to cool on the death of Whitacres and seemed to have been utterly quenched in the death of Perkins The hammering of the Golden Chair gave the first blow in it But though the passions of the King inflamed by holy indignation and kept unto the height to serve other mens turns rather than to advance his own had used some harsh expressions against Arminius yet did his passions calm and subside at last giving him leave to look about him and to discern the dangers which did seem to threaten him on the other side considering therefore with himself or being informed by such of the Bishops and Divines as were then about him how great an adversary was Calvinius to Monarchical interesse how contrary the Predestination doctrines were to all rules of Government he found it necessary to devise or admit some course of the preventing of the mischief To which end he issued certain directions to the Vice-Chancellor and Heads of both Universities bearing date Jan. 18. 1619. Requiring them to take special order among other things that all that took any degree in the Schools should subscribe to the three Articles in the
continual Prevalency of a busie faction And I have carried it on no further because at this time Bishop Laud to whom the raising and promoting of the Arminian doctrines as they call them is of late ascribed was hardly able to promote and preserve himself opprest with a hard hand by Archbishop Abbot secretly traduced unto the King for the unfortunate business of Early of Devonshire attaining with great difficulty to the poor Bishoprick of St. Davids after ten years service and yet but green in favour with the Duke of Buckingham What happened afterwards towards the countenancing of these Doctrines by the appearing of King Charles in the behalf of Mountague the Letter of the three Bishops to the Duke in defence of the man and his Opinion his questioning and impeachment by the House of Commons and his preferment by the King to the See of Chichester are all of them beyond the bounds which I have prescribed unto my self in this Narration Nor shall I now take notice of his Majesties Proclamation of the 14. of June Anno 1626. For establishing the peace and quiet of the Church of England by which he interdicted all such preaching and printing as might create any fresh disturbance to the Church of England or for his smart Answer to that part of the Remonstrance of the House of Commons Anno 1628. which concerned the danger like to fall on this Church and Kingdom by the growth of Arminianism or of the Declaration prefixed before the book of Articles in the same year also for silencing the said Disputes or finally of his Majesties Instructions bearing date Decemb. 30. 1629. for causing the Contents of the Declaration to be put in execution and punctually observed for the time to come By means whereof and many fair encouragements from many of our Prelates and other great men of the Realm the Anti-Calvinist party became considerable both for power and number A POSTSCRIPT TO THE READER Concerning some particulars in a scurrilous Pamphlet intituled A Review of the Certamen Epistolare c. PRimâ dicta mihi summâ dicenda camaenâ with thee good Reader I began and with thee I must end I gave thee notice in the Preface of a scurrilous Libel the Author whereof had disgorged his foul stomach on me and seemed to glory in the shame But whether this Author be a Cerberus with three heads or a Smectymnuus with fire or but a single Shimei only for it is differently reported is all one to me who am as little troubled with the noise of Billings-gate as the cry of an Oyster-wife It is my confidence that none of the dirt which he most shamefully confesseth himself to have thrown in my face will be found upon it P. 175. notwithstanding that necesse est ut aliquid haereat may be sometimes true Omitting therefore the consideration of his many Obscenities which every where are intermingled for the flowers of his Rhetorick I cannot but do my self so much justice as to satisfie the Reader in the truth of some things which otherwise may be believed to my disadvantage I am content to suffer under as much obloquie as any foul-mouth'd Presbyterian can spit upon me but I am not willing to be thought a slanderer a profane person or ungrateful for the sinallest favours all which the Author of that scurrilous Pamphlet hath imposed upon me In the first place it is much laboured to make me guilty of ingratitude and disaffection to Magd. Coll. of which I had the honour to be once a member P. 22. and do retain so high an estimation of it that whensoever I shall write or speak any thing to the reproach of that foundation let my tongue cleave unto the roof of my mouth and my right hand forget its cunning But I am able to distinguish between the duty I own to the House it self and that which every member of it is to challenge from me quid civitati quid civibus debeam in the Orators Criticism And therefore I would not have the Libeller or his Partners think that his or their taking Sanctuary under the name of Magdalen Colledge shall so far priviledge them in their actings either against the Church in general or my own particular but that I shall as boldly venture to attacque them there without fear of sacriledge as Joab was smitten by Benaiah at the horns of the Altar But the best is that I am made to have some ground for my disaffection though there be no less falshood in the fundamentals than the superstructure And a fine tale is told of some endeavours by me used for bringing one of my own brood into that foundation the failing of which hopes must of necessity occasion such an undervaluing of that Colledge as to change it from a nest of Sparrows to a nest of Cucknes P. 22. But the truth is that the party for whom I was a suitor was so far from being one of my own brood as not to be within the compass of my Relations so much a stranger to my blood that he was no otherwise endeared unto me than by the extraordinary opinion which I had of his parts and industry And therefore I commended him no further unto Dr. Goodwin than that it was not my desire to have him chosen if any abler Scholar should appear for the place And it was well for the young man that I sped no better Periisset nisi periisset as we know who said For within less than two years after he was elected into the Society of Merton Colledge to their great honour be it spoken upon no other commendation than his own abilities In the next place I am made a slanderer for saying that the new Sabbath speculations of Dr. bound and his adherents had been embraced more passionately of late than any one Article of Religion here by Law established How so Because saith he or they 't is no matter which it is well known that they do more passionately embrace the great truths of Christs Divinity and the Divine Authority of Scripture c. than any opinion about the Sabbath What may be meant by the c. it is hard to say perhaps the Presbyterian Discipline or the Calvinian Doctrines of Predestination the two dear Helena's of the Sects as sacred and inviolable in their estimation as any of their new opinions about the Sabbath But whether the great truths of Christs Divinity the Divine Authority of Scripture or any Article of Religion here by Law established be embraced by them with the like passion as their new Saint Sabbath may be discerned by that impunity which is indulged by them to all Anabaptists Familists Ranters Quakers and all other Sectaries by whom the great Truths of Christs Divinity and the Divine Authority of holy Scripture and almost all the Articles of the Christian Faith have been called in question And yet we cannot choose but know with what severity they proceeded when they were in power against all persons whatsoever
Clergy in the Church of of God hath been or is maintained with less charge to the Subject than the established Clergy of the Church of England Page 167 2. That there is no man in the Kingdom of England who payeth any thing of his own towards the maintenance and support of his Parish-Minister but by his Easter-Offering Page 171 3. That the change of Tithes into Stipends will bring greater trouble to the Clergy than is yet considered and far less profit to the Countrey than is now pretended Page 174 The History of Episcopacy PART I. CHAP. I. The Christian Church first founded by our Lord and Saviour in an imparity of Ministers 1. THE several Offices of Christ our Saviour in the Administration of his Church Page 187 2. The aggregating of Disciples to him Page 188 3. The calling of the Apostles out of them and why twelve in number ibid. 4. Of the Name and Office of an Apostle Page 189 5. What things were specially required unto the making of an Apostle Page 190 6. All the Apostles equal in Authority amongst themselves ibid. 7. The calling and approinting of the 70 Disciples Page 191 8. A reconciliation of some different Opinions about the number Page 192 9. The twelve Apostles superiour to the Seventy by our Saviours Ordinance ibid. 10. What kind of superiority it was that Christ interdicted his Apostles Page 193 11. The several powers faculties and preheminences given to the Apostles by our Saviour Christ Page 194 12. That the Apostles were Bishops averred by the ancient Fathers ibid. 13. And by the text of holy Scripture Page 195 CHAP. II. The foundation of the Church of Hierusalem under the Government of Saint James the Apostle and Simeon one of the Disciples the two first Bishops of the same 1. Matthias chosen in the place of Judas Page 196 2. The coming of the Holy Ghost and on whom it fell Page 197 3. The greatest measure of the Spirit fell on the Apostles and therewithal the greatest power ibid. 4. The several Ministrations in the Church then given and that in ranking of the same the Bishops are intended in the name of Pastors Page 198 5. The sudden growth of the Church of Hierusalem and making Saint James the first Bishop there ibid. 6. The former point deduced from Scripture Page 199 7. And proved by the general consent of Fathers ib. 8. Of the Episcopal Chair or throne of James and his Successors in Hierusalem Page 200 9. Simeon elected by the Apostles to succeed Saint James Page 201 10. The meaning of the word Episcopus and from whence borrowed by the Church ibid. 11. The institution of the Presbyters Page 202 12. What interest they had in the common business of the Church whilst St. James was Bishop ib. 13. The Council of Jerusalem and what the Presbyters had to do therein Page 203 14. The institution of the Seven and to what Office they were called ibid. 15. The names of Ecclesiastical Functions promiscuously used in holy Scripture Page 204 CHAP. III. The Churches planted by Saint Peter and his Disciples originally founded in Episcopacy 1. The founding of the Church of Antioch and that Saint Peter was the first Bishop there Page 205 2. A reconciliation of the difference about his next Successors in the same Page 206 3. A List of Bishops planted by him in the Churches of the Circumcision Page 207 4. Proofs thereof from St. Peters general Epistle to the Jews dispersed according to the exposition of the Ancient Writers ibid. 5. And from Saint Pauls unto the Hebrews Page 208 6. Saint Pauls Praepositus no other than a Bishop in the Opinion of the Fathers ibid. 7. Saint Peter the first Bishop of the Church of Rome Page 209 8. The difference about his next Successors there reconciled also ibid. 9. An Answer unto such Objections as have been made against Saint Peter's being Bishop there Page 210 10. Saint Mark the first Bishop of Alexandria and of his Successors Page 221 11. Notes on the observations of Epiphanius and Saint Hierom about the Church of Alexandria Page 212 12. An observation of Saint Ambrose applyed unto the former business ibid. 13. Of Churches founded by Saint Peter and his Disciples in Italy France Spain Germany and the Isle of Britain and of the Bishops in them instituted Page 213 CHAP. IV. The Bishoping of Timothy and Titus and other of Saint Pauls Disciples 1. The Conversion of Saint Paul and his ordaining to the place of an Apostle Page 214 2. The Presbyters created by Saint Paul Acts 14. of what sort they were Page 215 3. Whether the Presbyters or Presbytery did lay on hands with Paul in any of his Ordinations Page 216 4. The people had no voice in the Election of those Presbyters by Saint Paul ordained Page 217 5. Bishops not founded by Saint Paul at first in the particular Churches by him planted and upon what reasons ibid. 6. The short time that the Churches of Saint Pauls Plantation continued without Bishops over them Page 218 7. Timothy made Bishop of Ephesus by Saint Paul according to the general consent of Fathers Page 219 8. The time when Timothy was made Bishop according to the holy Scripture Page 220 9. Titus made Bishop of Cretans and the truth verified herein by the antient Writers Page 221 10. An Answer unto some Objections against the subscription of the Epistle unto Titus ibid. 11. The Bishoping of Dionysius the Areopagite Aristarchus Gaius Epaphroditus Epaphras and Archippus Page 222 12. As also of Silas Sosthenes Sosipater Crescens and Aristobulus Page 223 13. The Office of a Bishop not incompetible with that of an Evangelist ibid. CHAP. V. Of the Authority and Jurisdiction given unto Timothy and Titus and in them to all other Bishops by the Word of God 1. The authority committed unto Timothy and Titus was to be perpetual and not personal only Page 224 2. The power of Ordination intrusted only unto Bishops by the Word of God according to the exposition of the Fathers Page 225 3. Bishops alone both might and did ordain without their Presbyters Page 226 4. That Presbyters might not ordain without a Bishop proved by the memorable case of Colluthus and Ischyras ibid. 5. As by those also of Maximus and a Spanish Bishop Page 227 6. In what respects the joint assistance of the Presbyters was required herein Page 228 7. The case of the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas objected and declared ibid. 8. The care of ordering Gods Divine Service a work peculiar to the Bishop Page 229 9. To whom the Ministration of the Sacraments also doth in chief belong Page 230 10. Bishops to have a care that Gods Word be preached and to encourage those that take pains therein ibid. 11. Bishops to silence and reprove such Presbyters as preach other Doctrines Page 231 12. As also to correct and reject the Heretick ibid. 13. The censure and correction of inferiour Presbyters in point of life and conversation doth
too much to our ancient Martyrs c. exemplified in the parity of Ministers and popular elections unto Benefices allowed by Mr. John Lambert Page 547 2. Nothing ascribed to Calvins judgment by our first Reformers but much to the Augustine Confession the Writings of Melancthon Page 548 3. And to the Authority of Erasmus his Paraphrases being commended to the use of the Church by King Edward VI. and the Reasons why ibid. 4. The Bishops Book in order to a Reformation called The institution of a Christian man commanded by King Henry VIII 1537. correcied afterwards with the Kings own hand examined and allowed by Cranmer approved by Parliament and finally published by the name of Necessary Doctrine c. An. 1543. ibid. 5. The Doctrine of the said two Books in the points disputed agreeable unto that which after was established by King Edward VI. Page 549 6. Of the two Liturgies made in the time of King Edward VI. and the manner of them the testimony given unto the first and the alterations in the second Page 550 7. The first Book of Homilies by whom made approved by Bucer and of the Argument that may be gathered from the method of it in the points disputed ibid. 8. The quality and condition of those men who principally concurred to the Book of Articles with the Harmony or consent in judgment between Archbishop Cranmer Bishop Ridley Bishop Hooper c. Page 551 9. The Doctrine delivered in the Book of Articles touching the five controverted points ibid. 10. An Answer to the Objection against these Articles for the supposed want of Authority in the making of them Page 552 11. An Objection against King Edwards Catechism mistaken for an Objection against the Articles refelled as that Catechism by John Philpot Martyr and of the delegating of some powers by that Convocation to a choice Committee Page 553 12. The Articles not drawn up in comprehensible or ambiguous terms to please all parties but to be understood in the respective literal and Grammatical sense and the Reasons why ibid. CHAP. IX Of the Doctrine of Predestination delivered in the Articles the Homilies the publique Liturgies and the Writings of some of the Reformers 1. The Articles differently understood by the Calvinian party and the true English Protestants with the best way to find out the true sense thereof Page 555 2. The definition of Predestination and the most considerable points contained in it ibid. 3. The meaning of those words in the definition viz. Whom he hath chosen in Christ according to the Exposition of S. Ambrose S. Chrysostom S. Jerom as also of Archbishop Cranmer Bishop Latimer and the Book of Homilies Page 556 4. The Absolute Decree condemned by Bishop Latimer as a means to Licentiousness and Carnal living ibid. 5. For which and making God to be the Author of sin condemned as much by Bishop Hooper ibid. 6. Our Election to be found in Christ not sought for in Gods secret Councils according to the judgment of Bishop Hatimer Page 557 7. The way to find out our Election delivered by the same godly Bishop and by Bishop Hooper with somewhat to the same purpose also from the Book of Homilies ibid. 8. The Doctrine of Predestination delivered by the holy Martyr John Bradford with Fox his gloss upon the same to corrupt the sense Page 558 9. No countenance to be had for any absolute personal and irrespective decree of Predestination in the publique Liturgie ibid. 10. An Answer to such passages out of the said Liturgie as seem to favour that opinion as also touching the number of Gods Elect. CHAP. X. The Doctrine of the Church concerning Reprobation and Universal Redemption 1. The absolute Decree of Reprobation not found in the Articles of this Church but against it in some passages of the publick Liturgie Page 560 2. The cause of Reprobation to be found in a mans self and not in Gods Decrees according to the judgment of Bishop Latimer and Bishop Hooper ibid. 3. The Absolute Decrees of Election and Reprobation how contrary to the last clause in the seventeenth Article Page 561 4. The inconsistency of the Absolute Decree of Reprobation with the Doctrine of Vniversal Redemption by the death of Christ ibid. 5. The Vniversal Redemption of man-kind by the death of Christ declared in many places of the publick Liturgie and affirmed also in one of the Homilies and the Book of Articles Page 502 6. A further proof of it from the Mission of the Apostles and the Prayer used in the Ordination of Priests ibid. 7. The same confirmed by the Writings of Archbishop Cranmer and the two other Bishops before mentioned Page 563 8. A Generality of the Promises and an Vniversality of Vocation maintained by the said two godly Bishops ibid. 9. The reasons why this benefit is not made effectual to all sorts of men to be found only in themselves ibid. CHAP. XI Of the Heavenly influences of Gods grace in the Conversion of a Sinner and a mans cooperation with those Heavenly influences 1. The Doctrine of Deserving Grace ex congruo maintained in the Roman Schools before the Council of Trent rejected by our ancient Martyrs and the Book of Articles Page 564 2. The judgment of Dr. Barns and Mr. Tyndal touching the necessary workings of Gods grace on the will of man not different from that of the Church of England Page 565 3. Vniversal grace maintained by Bishop Hooper and approved by some passages in the Liturgie and Book of Homilies ibid. 4. The offer of Vniversal grace made ineffectual to some for want of faith and to others for want of repentance according to the judgment of Bishop Hooper ibid. 5. The necessity of Grace Preventing and the free co-operation of mans will being so prevented maintained in the Articles in the Homilies and the publique Liturgie Page 566 6. The necessity of this co-operation on the part of man defended and applied to the exercise of a godly life by Bishop Hooper ibid. 7. The Doctrine of Irresistibility first broached by Calvin pertinaciously maintained by most of his followers and by Gomarus amongst others Page 567 8. Gainsaid by Bishop Hooper and Bishop Latimer ibid. 9. And their gain-sayings justified by the tenth Article of King Edwards Books Page 568 And 10. The Book of Homilies ibid. CHAP. XII The Doctrine of Free-will agreed upon by the Clergy in their Convocation An. 1543. 1. Of the Convocation holden in the year 1543. in order to the Reformation of Religion in points of Doctrine Page 569 2. The Article of Free-will in all the powers and workings of it agreed on by the Prelates and Clergie of that Convocation agreeable to the present Doctrine of the Church of England ibid. 3. An Answer to the first Objection concerning the Popishness of the Bishops and Clergie in that Convocation Page 571 4. The Article of Free-will approved by King Henry VIII and Archbishop Cranmer Page 572 5. An Answer to the last Objection concerning the Conformity of
extirpatio the extirpation of false doctrine This part of jurisdiction with those that follow I shall declare only but not exemplifie For being matters meerly practical and the proceedings on Record they will occur hereafter as occasion is in this following History And that which followeth first is very near of kin indeed unto that before For many times it happeneth so that howsoever men be charged not to teach strange doctrins and that their mouths be stopped and they put to silence yet they will persevere however in their wicked courses and obstinately continue in the same until at last their obstinacy ends in heresie What course is to be taken upon such occasions The Apostle hath resolved that also A man that is an Heretick saith he after the first and second admonition Tit. 3.10 is to be rejected Rejected but by whom why by Titus surely The words are spoken unto him in the second person and such as did possess the same place and office Hanc sive admonitionem sive correptionem intellige ab Episcopo faciendam Estius in Ep. ad Tit. c. 3. c. This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Saint Paul here speaks of whether that it be meant of gentle admonition or severe reproof must be done only by the Bishop and that not as a private person but as the governour of the Church and that both with authority and power by which he also may denounce him excommunicate if he amend not on the same So Estius in his Comment on the place and herewith Calvin doth accord Tito scribens Paulus Calvin in Titum c. 3. non disserit de Officio magistratus sed quid Episcopo conveniat Paul saith he writing unto Titus disputes not of the Office of the civil Magistrate but of the duty of a Bishop And this in answer unto some who had collected from these words of the Apostle that Hereticks were to be encountred with no sharper weapon than that of Excommunication nec esse ultra in eos saeviendum and that there was no other course to be taken with them In which these Moderns say no more as to the exercise and discharge of the Episcopal function in this case Hieron ad Riparium adv Vigilant a. than what the Ancients said before I marvail saith Saint Hierom speaking of Vigilantius a broacher of strange or other Doctrins in the Church of Christ that the Bishop in whose Diocess he is said to be a Presbyter hath so long given way to his impiety Et non virgâ Apostolica virgáque ferreâ confringere vas inutile and that he hath not rather broke in pieces with the Apostolick rod a rod of iron this so unprofitable a Vessel In which as the good Father manifests his own zeal and fervour so he declareth therewithal what was the Bishops power and office in the present business The last part of Episcopal jurisdiction which we have to speak of is the correction of ill manners whether in the Presbyters or in the People concerning which the Apostle gives both power to Timothy 1 Tim. 5.19 20. and command to use it First for the Presbyters Against an Elder receive not an accusation but before two or three Witnesses but if they be convicted them that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear In the declaring of which power I take for granted that the Apostle here by Elder doth mean a Presbyter according to the Ecclesiastical notion of that word Hom. 15. in 1 Tim. in locum though I know that Chrysostom and after him Theophylact and Oecumenius do take it only for a man well grown in years And then the meaning of Saint Paul will be briefly this that partly in regard of the Devils malice apt to calumniate men of that holy function and partly to avoid the scandal which may thence arise Timothy and in him all other Bishops should be very cautious in their proceedings against men of that profession But if they find them guilty on examination then not to smother or conceal the matter but censure and rebuke them openly that others may take heed of the like offences The Commentaries under the name of Ambrose Amb. in 1. ad Tim. c. 5. do expound it so Quoniam non facile credi debet de Presbytero crimen c. Because a crime or accusation is not rashly to be credited against a Presbyter yet if the same prove manifest and undeniable Saint Paul commandeth that in regard of his irregular conversation he be rebuked and censured publikely that others may be thereby terrified And this saith he non solum ordinatis sed plebi proficit will not be only profitable unto men in Orders but to Lay people also Herewith agreeth as to the making of these Elders to be men in Orders the Comment upon this Epistle Hier. in Ep. 1. ad Tim. ascribed to Hierom Presbyters then are subject unto censure but to whose censure are they subject Not unto one anothers surely that would breed confusion but to the censure of their Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Epiphanius Epipha haer 75. n. 5. Theoph. in 1. ad Tim. c. 5. he speaks to Timothy being a Bishop not to receive an accusation against a Presbyter Theophylact also saith the same For having told us that if a Presbyter upon examination of the business be found delinquent he must be sharply and severely censured that others may be terrified thereby he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it becomes a Bishop in such cases to be stern and awful Lyra in eund locum Lyra observes the like in his Gloss or Postils viz. that the proceedings against inferiour Clergy-men in foro exteriori in a judiciary way is a peculiar of the Bishops But what need more be said than that of Beza Beza Annot. in 1. ad Tim. 5. who noteth on these very words that Timothy to whom this power or charge was given was President or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at that time of the Ephesian Clergy Which is a plain acknowledgment in my opinion that the correction of the Clergy by the law of God doth appertain unto the Bishop the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or President of the Presbytery call him what you will For what need we contend for words when we have the matter And this appeareth by the several Councils of Nice and Antioch Sardica Turin Africa and Sevil in all and every of the which the censure and proceedings against a Presbyter are left to their own Bishops severally but a course taken therewithal for their ease and remedy in case their own Bishops should proceed against them out of heat or passion For the Lay-people next that Paul gave Timothy a power of correcting them appears by the instructions which he gives him for the discharge of this authority towards all sorts of People whether that they be old or young of what sex soever Old men if they offend must be handled gently