Historia Quinqu Articularis OR A DECLARATION OF The Judgement of the Western Churches And more particularly Of the Church of ENGLAND IN The Five Controverted Points Reproched in these Last times by the Name of ARMINIANISM Collected in the way of an Historicall Narration Out of the Publick Acts and Monuments and most approved Authors of those severall CHURCHES By PETER HEYLYN Jerem. VI. 16. State super vias videte interrogate de semitis antiquis quae sit via bona ambulate in ea invenietis resrigerium animabus vestris Macrob. in Saturnall Omne meum nihill meum LONDON Printed by E. C. for Thomas Johnson at the Key in St. Pauls Church-yard 1660. TO THE READER IT is well known to some in London and elsewhere that these Papers were finished for the Presse before August last But the first breaking out in Cheshire and the unsetledness of affairs which ensued upon it proved such discouragements to all Engagings of this kinde that Michaelmas was past before the undertakers would adventure on it And what distractions have since followed in the Publick Government sufficient to retard a work of greater consequence is unknown to none But long looked for comes at last as the saying is though why it should come out at all may be made a question And I shall also give the Reader some account of that but in so doing must make use of somewhat which was said elsewhere It was more then half against my will and rather through the indiscretion of others then any forwardness of my own that I was drawn to shew my self in these present Controversies But being unseasonably brought upon the stage by Dr. Bernard impertinently enough by Mr. Baxter and with more then ordinary Petulancy by the Man of Scorne the Occasion was laid hold on by some very able and discerning men for pressing me to search into the History of these disputes so far forth as the Church of England was concerned in them and to make publick what I found upon that inquiry To which request I made such answer at the present as the consideration of my many unfitnesses for an employment of that nature might suggest unto me But coming to me from so many hands that it could not fairly be denyed I was prevailed with in the end to apply my self to the undertaking as soon as I had dispatched such other businesses as lay then upon me In the mean time I thought I might comply sufficiently with all expectations by fashioning some short Animadversions on the principal passages relating to the Doctrine of the Church of England which had been purloyned for the most part out of Mr. Prinnes book of Anti-arminianism by a late Compiler By which name the old Criticks and Grammarians used to call those men who pilfering their materials out of other mens writings did use to lay them close together as their own to avoid discovery And so the word is took by Horace in his Compilasse Serm. 1. verse ult as is observed on that verse by the learned Scoliasts So that a Compilator and a Plagiary are but two terms of one signification And he that would behold a Plagacy in his proper colours may finde him painted to the life in the Appendix to Mr. Pierce his Vindication of the learned Grotius to which for further satisfaction I refer the Reader That preamble having led the way and my other businesses being over I prepared my self unto that search to which I was so earnestly moved and so affectionately intreated My helps were very few and weak which might sufficiently have deterred me from the undertaking But a good cause will help to carry on it self and truth will finde the way to shine though darkned for a time with the clouds of Errour as the Sun breaking from an Eclips doth appear more glorious though a while obscured Delitere videtur sol non delitet as in the like case the Father hath it The Five disputed Points which in these last times are Reproached by the name of Arminianisme had more or lesse exercised the Church in all times and ages especially after the breaking out of the Pelagian Heresies when all the Niceties thereof were more thoroughly canvassed Neither the piety and sobriety of the Primity times nor the authority of the Popes nor the commanding spirit of Luther nor the more powerful name of Calvin have prevailed so far but that the Church and every broken fragment of it hath found some subdivision about these Debates So that it can be no great wonder if the Church of England be divided also on the same occasion or that a Deviation should be made from her publick Rules as well as in all other Churches and all former times Which way the general vote had passed in the elder ages hath been abundantly set forth by John Gerrard Vossius in his Historia Pelagiana But he descended not so low as these latter times conceiving he had done enough in shewing to which of the contending parties the general current of the Fathers did most encline And if Turtullians rule be good that those opinious have most truth which have most antiquity id verum est quod primum as his own words are the truth must run most cleerly in that part of the Controversie which hath least in it of the Zuinglian or Calvinian Doctrines And so far I shall follow his method or example rather in the pursuit of that designe which I have before me For though it be my principal purpose to search into the Doctrine of the Church of England yet I shall preface my Discourse by laying down The Judgement of the rest of the Western Churches before I come to that of our first Reformers By means whereof it may be seen what guides they followed or rather with what parties they concurred in judgement since in those times the Church was generally so distracted about these disputes that with the whole the aggregate body of believers there could be no agreement hoped for no compliance possible In the pursuance of this work I have exemplified so much of the Debates and Artifices in the Councel of Trent as concerns these points and may be parallel'd with the like proceedings in the Synod of Dort I have consulted also tho Confessions the Synodals and other publick Monuments and Records of the several parties and so many of the best and most approved Authors of this Church of England as either were within my power or could be advised with at a further distance One whole discourse I have transcribed about Freewill not obvious to be met withall in Shops or Libraries The like I have done also with one whole Homily though the book be easie to be found by those that seek it knowing full well how unwilling most Readers are to take more pains in turning over several books and examining all quotations which are brought before them then of necessity they must Nor have I purposely concealed or subducted any thing
them any place in the Synod and finally dismiss them in a furious Oration made by Boyerman without any hearing 11. The Synodists indulgent to the damnable Doctrines of Macorius and as unmercifull in the banishment and extermination of the poor Remonstrants 12. Scandalously defamed to make them odious and those of their perswasions in other places ejected persecuted and disgraced CHAP. VI. Objections made against the Doctrine of the Remonstrants the Answers unto all and the retorting of some of them on the Opposite Party 1. AN Introduction to the said Objections 2. The first Objection touching their being enemies to the grace of God disproved in generall by comparing the Doctrine with that of St. Augustine though somewhat more favourable to Free-will then that of Luther 3. A more particular Answer in relation to some hard expressions which were used of them by K. James 4. The second charging it as introductive of Popery begun in Holland and pressed more importunately in England answered both by Reason and Experience to the contrary of it 5. The third charge of filling men with spirituall pâ—ide first answered in Relation to the testimony from which it was taken and then retorted on those who object the same 6. The fourth Charge making the Remonstrants a furious and seditious People begun in Holland prosecuted in England and answered by the most Religious Bishop Ridley 7. What moved K. James to think so ill of the Remonstrants as to exasperate the States against them 8. The Remonstrants neither so troublesome nor so chargeable to the States themselves as they were made by the Objector the indirect proceedings of the Prince of Orange in the death of Bannevelt and the injustice of the Argument in charging the practises of his Children against the Prince of Orange upon all the party 9. Nothing in the Arminian Doctrine that may incline a man to factious and seditious courses as is affirmed and proved to be in that of Calvin 10. The Recrimination further proved by a passage in the Conference of the Lord Treasurer Burleigh with Queen Eliz in a letter of some of the Bishops to the Duke of Buckingham and in that of Dr. Brooks to the late Archbishop 11 More fully prosecuted and exemplified by Campneys an old English Protestant 12. A Transition to the Doctrine of the Church of England CHAP. VII An Introduction to the Doctrine of the Church of England in the Points disputed with the removall of some Rubs which are laid in the way 1. THe Doctrine of the Homilies concerning the endowments of man at his first Creation 2. His miserable Fall 3. And the promised hopes of his restitution in the Lord Christ Jesus 4. A general Declaration of the judgment of the Church of England in the points disputed exemplified in the story of Agillmond and Lamissus Kings of Lombardy 5. The contrary judgment of Wickleff objected answered and applyed to all modern Heresies 6. The general answer of the like Argument pretended to be drawn from the writings of Frith Tyndall and Barns but more particularly 7. The judgment of Dr. Barns in the present Points and the grounds on which he builded the same 8. Small comfort to be found from the works of Tyndall in favour of the Calvinian Doctrin 9. The high flyings of John Frith and others in the Doctrine of Predestination reproved by Tyndall 10. A parallel between some of our first Martyrs and the blind man restored to his â—ight in the 8. of St. Mark CHAP. VIII Of the Preparatives to the Reformation and the Doctrin of the Church in the present Points 1. THe danger of ascribing too much to our ancient Martyrs exemplified in the parity of Ministers and popular Elections unto Benefices allowed by Mr. John Lambert 2. Nothing ascribed to Calvins judgment by our first Reformers but much to the Augustan Confession the writings of Melancthon and 3. unto the Authority of Erasmus His paraphrases being commended to the use of the Church by King Edward 6. and the Reasons why 4. The Bishops book in order to the Reformation called The Institution of a Christian man commended by King Henry 8. 1537. corrected afterwards by the Kings own hand examined and allowed by Cranmer approved by Parliament and finally published by the name of A necessary Doctrin c. Anno 1543. 5. The Doctrine of the said two books in the Points disputed agreeable unto that which after was established by King Edward 6. 6. Of the two Liturgies made in that Kings time and the makers of them the testimony given to the first and the alterations made in the second 7. The first book of Homilies by whom made approved by Bucer and of the Arguments that may be drawn from the method of it in the points disputed 8. The quality and condition of those men who principally concurred to the book of Articles with the harmony or concent in judgment between Archbishop Cranmer Bishop Ridly and Bishop Hooper c. 9. The Doctrin delivered in the book of Articles touching the Five Controverted points 10. An answer to the objections against these Articles for the supposed want of Authority in the making of them 11. An objection against King Edwards Catechism mistaken for an objection against the Articles refelled as to that late Schisme by John Philpot Martyr and of the delegating of their powers by the Convocation to a choice Committee 12. The Articles not drawn up in comprehensive or ambiguous termes to please all parties but to be understood in the Restrictive letter and Grammatical sense and the Reasons why CHAP. IX Of the Doctrin of Predestination delivered in the Articles the Homilies the publick Liturgie and the writings of some of the Reformers 1. THe Articles differently understood by the Calvinian party and the true English Protestants with the best way to finde out the true sense thereof 2. The definition of Predestination and the most considerable points contained in it 3. The meaning of those words in the Difinition viz. Whom he hath châ—sen in Christ according to the exposition of St. Ambrose St. Chrysostom and St. Jerom as also of Archbishop Cranmer Bishop Latimer and the book of Homilies 4. The absolute decree condemned by Bishop Latimer as a means to licentiousness and carnall living 5. For which and making God to be the Author of sin condemned as much by Bishop Hooper 6. Our election to be found in Christ not to be sought for in Gods secret Councels according to the judgment of Bishop Latimer 7. The way to finde out our Election delivered by the same godly Bishop and by Bishop Hooper with somewhat to the same purpose also from the book of Homilies 8. The Doctrin of Predestination delivered by the holy Martyr John Bradford with Fox his glosse upon the same to corrupt the text 9. No countenance to be found for any absolute personal and irrespective Decree of Predestination in the publick Liturgy 10. An answer to such passages out of the said Liturgy as seem to
favour that opinion as also touching the number of Gods elect CHAP. X. The Doctrine of the Church concerning Reprobation and Universal Redemption 1. THE absolute Decree of Reprobation not to be found in the Articles of this Church but against it in some passages of the publick Liturgy 2. The cause of Reprobation to be found in a mans self and not in Gods Decrees according to the judgement of Bishop Latimer and Bishop Hooker 3. The Absolute Decree of Election and Reprobation how contrary to the last Clause in the 17. Article 4. The inconsistency of the absolute Decree of Reprobation with the Doctrine of Universal Redemption by the death of Christ 5. The Universal Redemption of mankinde by the death of Christ delivered in many places of the publick Liturgy and affirmed also in one of the Homilies and the Book of Articles 6. A further proof of it from the mission of the Apostles and the prayer used in the Ordination of Priests 7. The same confirmed by the writings of Archbishop Cranmer and the two other Bishops before remembred 8. A generality of the Promises and an universality of Vocation maintained by the said two godly Bishops 9. The Reasons why this benefit is not made effectual unto all sorts of men to be found in themselves CHAP. XI Of the Heavenly influences of Gods Grace in the conversion of a sinner and Man's cooperation with those Heavenly influences 1. THE Doctrin of Deserving Grace ex congruo maintained in the Roman Schools before the Councel of Trent rejected by our antient Martyrs and the book of Articles 2. The judgement of Dr. Barnes and Mr. Tyndall touching the necessary workings of Gods Grace on the Will of man not different from the Church of England 3. Universal Grace maintained by Bishop Hooper and proved by some passages in the Liturgy and book of Homilies 4. The offer of Universall Grace made ineffectual to some for want of Faith and to others for want of Repentance according to the judgement of Bishop Hooper 5. The necessity of Grace preventing and the free cooperation of mans will being so prevented maintained in the Articles in the Homilies and the publick Liturgy 6. The necessity of this Cooperation on the part of man defended and applyed to the exercise of a godly life by Bishop Hooper 7. The Doctrin of Irresistability first broached by Calvin and pertinaciously maintained by most of his Followers and by Gomarus amongst others 8. Gainsaid by Bishop Hooper and Bishop Latimer 9. And their gainsaying justified by the truth Article of King Edwards book and 10. the book of Homilies CHAP. XII The Doctrin of Free-will agreed upon by the Clergie in their Convocation Anno 1543. 1. OF the Convocation in the year 1543. in order to the Reformation of Religion in points of Doctrin 2. The Article of Free-will in all the powers and workings of it agreed on by the Prelates and Clergy of the Convocation agreable to the present Doctrine of the Church of England 3. An answer to the first objection concerning the Popishnesse of the Bishops and Clergy in that Convocation 4. The Article of Free-will approved by King Henry the 8. and Archbishop Cranmer 5. An answer to the last objection concerning the Conformity of that Article to the present established Doctrine in the Church of Rome CHAP. XIII The Doctrin of the Church of England concerning the certainty or uncertainty of Perseverance 1. THe certainty of Grace debated in the Councel of Trent and maintained in the affirmative by the Dominicans and some others 2. The contrary affirmed by Catarinus and his adherents 3. The doubtful Resolution of the Councell in it 4. The Calvinists not content with certainty of Grace quoad statum praesentem presume upon it also quoad statum futurum 5. The bounds and limits wherewith the Judgment in this point ought rationally to be circumscribed 6. The Doctrin of the Church of England in the present Article 7. Justified by the testimony of Bishop Latimer Bishop Hooper and Mr. Tyndall 8. And proved by several Arguments from the publick Liturgy 9. The Homily commends a probable stedfast hope but 10. allowes no certainty of Grace and Perseverance in any ordinary way to the sons of men CHAP. XIV The Plain Song of the second Homily touching the falling from God and the Descants made upon it 1. MOre from some other Homilies touching the possibility of falling from the Grace received 2. The second Homily or Sermon touching Falling from God laid down Verbatim 3. The sorry shifts of Mr. Yates to illude the true meaning of that Homily plainly discovered and confuted 4. An answer to his objection touching the passages cited from the former Homily in Mr. Mountague's Appeal 5. The judgement of Mr. L. Ridley Archdeacon of Canterbury in the points of Election and Redemption 6. As also touching the Reasons why the Word was not preached unto the Gentiles till the coming of Christ the influences of Grace the Co-working of man and the possibility of Falling from the faith of Christ CHAP. XV. Of the Author and Authority of K. Edwards Catechism As also of the judgement of Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr in the Points disputed 1. THe Catechism published by the Authority of K. Edward 6 1553. affirmed to have been writ by Bishop Poynet and countenanced by the rest of the Bishops and Clergy 2. Several passages collected out of that Catechism to prove that the Calvinian Doctrins were the true genuine and ancient Doctrins of the Church of England 3. With a discovery of the weakness and impertinency of the Allegation 4. What may most probably be conceived to have been the judgement of Bishop Poynet in most of the Controverted points 5. An answer to another objection derived from M. Bucer and P. Martyr and the influence which their Auditors and Disciples are supposed to have had in the Reformation 6. That Bucer was a man of moderate Counsels approving the first Liturgie of K. Edward 6. assenting to the Papists at the Dyet of Ratisbone in the possibility of Falling from Grace and that probably P. Martyr had not so far espoused the Calvinian quarrels when he lived in Oxon as after his return to Zurick and Calvins neighbourhood 7. The judgement of Erasmus according as it is delivered in his Paraphrases on the Four Evangelists proposed first in the generall view 8. And after more particularly in every one of the poynts disputed CHAP. XVI Of the first breakin gs out of the Predestinarians and their Proceedings in the same 1. THe Predestinarians at the first called by the name of Gospellers 2. Campneys a professed enemy to the Predestinarians but neither Papist nor Pelagian 3. The common practises of the Calvinists to defame their Adversaries the name of Free-will-men to whom given and why 4. The Doctrine of John Knox in restraining all mens actions whether good or evill to the determinate will and Councell of God 5. The like affirmed by the Author of the Table of
to maintain the false and fithy quarrell of Lambert as another cause leading to the same end Fourthly that in order to the said end the Lady Margaret sister to K. Edw. 4. was appointed and predestinate of God to be a Traytoresse to England and to imploy all her wits forces and power to the utter destruction of her naturall Countrey And Fiftly in particular that the said Lady Margaret was appointed of God to hiâ—e the said Martin Swarth and his men to invade the Realm of England Sixthly and finally that the said Martin Swarth the Earl of Lincoln the Lord Lorell the Lord Gerrard and divers others Captains of the Rebels weâ—e appointed and predestinate of God to be of such valiant courage in maintaining the false quarrel of traytetous Lambert that they were slain on the other side many a brave English mans blood was shed at the battell of Stoke which was the end of this wofull Tragedy Let them say therefore what they can or will this meer necessity which our men teâ—ch is the very same which the Stoicks did hold which opinion because it destroyed the state of a Common-wealth was banished out of Rome as St. Augustine declareth in lib. Quest Vet. Nov. Testam XII And thus the different Judgements of all the other Western Churches and the severall Subdivisions of them in the five controverted Points being laid together with such Discourses and Disputes as have occasionally been made and raised about them we will next shew to which of the said differing parties the Church of Englandâ—â—â—ms â—â—â—ms most inclinable and afterwards proceed in the story of iâ— Historia Quinqu Articularis OR A DECLARATION OF THE Judgement OF THE WESTERN CHURCHES And more particularly of the CHVRCH of ENGLAND IN THE Five Controverted Points Reproached in these last times by the name of Arminianism PART II. Containing the Judgement of the Church of England and the most Eminent Divines thereof in the Reign of King Henry the eighth and King Edward the sixth By Peter Heylin D. D. London Printed for Tho Johnson 1660. PART II. The Judgement of the Church of England in the five controverted Points CHAP. 7. 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 2. His miserable fall 3. And the promised hopes of his Restitution in the Lord Christ Jesus 4. A general Declaration of the judgement of the Church of England in the points disputed exemplified in the story of Agilmond and Lamistus Kings of Lombardy 5. The contrary iudgement of Wicklif objected answered and applied to all modern Heresies 6. A general answer to the like Argument pretended to be drawn from the Writings of Frith Tyndall and Barns But more particularly 7. The judgement of Dr. Barns in the present points and the grounds on which he builded the same 8. Small comfort to be found from the works of Tyndal in favour of the Calvinian Doctrines 9. The falsifyings of John Frith and others in the Doctrine of Predestination reproved by Tyndal 10. A parallel between some of our first Martyrs and the blinde man restored to sight in the eighth of Saint Mark. 1. BEing therefore in the next place to declare the Judgement of the Church of England I shall prepare the way by laying down her publique Doctrine touching the Fall of Adam and the Restitution of mankinde in Jesus Christ that having cleared God from being the Authour of sin and having laid a sure foundation for the Restitution of Mankinde to Gods grace and favour and consequently to the hopes of Eternal life we may proceed with more assurance to the rest that followeth And this we cannot better do then by laying down the words of the Homily concerning the Nativity and Birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ where we finde it thus ' Among all the Creatures saith the Homily that God made in the beginning of the world most excellent and wonderful in their kinde there was none as the Scripture beareth witness to be compared almost in any point unto man who as well in body as soul exceedeth all other no less then the Sun in brightness and light exceedeth every bright and little Star in the Firmament He was made according to the similitude and image of God he was endued with all kinde of heavenly gifts he had not spot of uncleanness in him he was sound and perfect in all parts both outwardly and inwardly his reason was uncorrupt his understanding was pure and good his will was obedient and godly he was made altogether like unto God in righteousness in holiness in wisdom in truth to be short in all kinde of perfection ' 2. After which having spoken of mans Temporal 〈◊〉 relating to the delicacies of the Garden of Eden and the Dominion which God gave him over all the Creatures the Homily doth thus proceed viz. ' But as the common nature of all men is in time of prosperity and wealth to forget not onely themselves but also God even so did this first man Adam who having but one Commandment at Gods hand namely That he should not eat of the Fruit of Knowledge of Good and Evil did notwithstanding most unmindefully or rather most wilfully break it in forgetting the strait charge of his Maker and giving ear to the crafty suggestion of the evil Serpent the Devil whereby it came to pass that as before he was blessed so now he was accursed as before he was loved so now he was abhorred as before he was most beautiful and precious so now he was most vile and wretched in the sight of his Lord and Maker instead of the image of God he was now become the image of the Devil instead of a Citizen of Heaven he was now become the bond-slave of Hell having in himself no one part of his former purity and cleanness but being altogether spotted and defiled insomuch that now he seemed to be nothing else but a lump of sin and therefore by the just judgement of God was condemned to everlasting death ' 3. This being said touching the introduction of the body of Sin the Homily doth first proceed to the propagation and universal spreading of it and afterwards to the Restitution of lost man by faith in Christ ' This so great and miserable plague for so the Homily proceedeth if it had onely rested in Adam who first offended it had been so much the easier and might the better have been born but it fell not onely on him but also on his posterity and children for ever so that the whole brood of Adams flesh should sustain the self same fall and punishment which their forefather by his offence most justly had deserved S. Paul in the fifth to the Romans saith By the offence of onely Adam the fault came upon all men to condemnation and by one
aforementioned ' That our Saviour Christ according to the will of his Eternal Father when the time thereof was fully accomplished taking our nature upon him came into this World from the high Throne of his Father to declare unto miserable sinners the Goodness c. To shew that the time of Grace and Mercy was come to give light to them that were in darkness and in the shadow of death and to preach and give Pardon and full Remission of sin to all his Elected And to perform the same he made a Sacrifice and Oblation of his body upon the Cross which was a full Redemption Satisfaction and Propitiation for the sins of the whole world ' More briefly Bishop Latimer thus ' The Evangelist saith When Jesus was born c. What is Jesus Jesus is an Hebrew word which signifieth in our English Tongue a Saviour and Redeemer of all Mankinde born into the World This Title and Name To save appertaineth properly and principally unto him for he saved us else had we been lost for ever ' Bishop Hoâ—per in more words to the same effect ' That as the sins of Adam without Priviledge or Exemption extended and appertained unto all and every of Adams Posterity so did this Promise of Grace generally appertain as well to every and singular of Adams Posterity as to Adam as it is more plainly expressed where God promiseth to bless in the seed of Abraham all the people of the world ' 8. Next for the point of Universel Vocation and the extent of the Promises touching life Eternal Besides what was observed before from the Publique Liturgie we finde some Testimonies and Authorities also in the Book of Homilies In one whereof it is declared That God received the learned and unlearned and casteth away none but is indifferent unto all And in another place more largely that the imperfection or natural sickness taken in Adam excludeth not that person from the promise of God in Christ except we transgress the limits and bounds of this Original sin by our own folly and malice If we have Christ then have we with him and by him all good things whatsoever we can in our hearts wish or desire as victory over death sin hell c. The truth hereof is more clearly evidenced in the writings of the godly Martyrs so often mentioned as first of Bishop Latimer who discourseth thus ' We learn saith he by this sentence that multi sunt vocati that many are called c. that the preaching of the Gospel is universal that it appertaineth to all mankinde that it is written in omnem terram exivit soâ—us eorum through the whole world their sound is heard Now seeing that the Gospel is universal it appeareth that he would have all mankinde be saved that the fault is not in him if they be damned for it is written thus Deus vult omnes homines salvos fieri God would have all mankinde saved his Salvation is sufficient to save all mankinde Thus also in another place That the promises of Christ our Saviour are general they appertain to all mankinde He made a general Proclamation saying Qui credit in me habet vitam aeternam whosoever believeth me hath eternal life ' And not long after in the same Sermon ' That we must â— consider wisely what he saith with his own mouth Venite ad me omnes c. Mark here he saith mark here he saith Come all ye wherefore should any body despaiâ— or shut out himself from the promises of Christ which be general and appertain to the whole world ' The like saith Bishop Hooper also telling us ' There was no diversity in Christ of Jew or Gentile that it was never forbid but that all sorts of people and every progeny of the world to be made partakers of the Jews Religion ' And then again in the example of the Ninivites ' Thou hast saith he good Christian Reader the mercy of God and general promise of salvation performed in Christ for whose sake onely God and man were set at one ' 9. The less assistance we had from Bishop Hooper in the former points the more we shall receive in this touching the causes why this great benefit is not made effectual unto all alike Concerning which he lets us know ' That to the obtaining the first end of his justice he allureth as many as be not utterly wicked and may be helped partly with threatnings and partly with promises and so provoketh them unto amendment or life c. and would have all men to be saved therefore provoketh now by fair means now by foul that the sinner should satisfie his just and righteous pleasure not that the promises of God appertain to such as will not repent or his threatnings unto him that doth repent but these means he useth to save his creature this way useth he to nurture us until such time as the Holy Spirit worketh such a perfection in us that we will obey him though there were neither pain nor joy mentioned at all ' And in another place more briefly ' That if either out of a contempt or hate of Gods Word we fall into sin and transform our selves into the image of the Devil then we exclude our selves by this means from the promises and merits of Christ ' Bishop Latimer to the same point also ' His Salvation is sufficient to satisfie for all the world as concerning it self but as concerning us he saveth no more than such as put their trust in him and as many as believe in him shall be saved the other shall be cast out as Infidels into everlasting damnation not for lack of salvation but for infidelity and lack of faith which is the onely cause of their damnation ' One word more out of Bishop Hooper to conclude thiâ— point which in fine is this 'To the Objection saith he touching that S. Peter speaketh of such as shall perish for their false doctrine c. this the Scripture answereth that the promise of grace appertaineth to every sort of men in the world and comprehendeth them all howbeit within certain limits and bounds the which if men neglect to pass over they exclude themselves from the promise of Christ ' CHAP. XI Of the Heavenly influences of Gods grace in the Conversion of a sinner and mans co-operation with those heavenly influences 1. I The Doctrine of Deserving Grace ex congruo maintained in the Roman Schools before the Council of Trent rejected by our ancient Martyrs and the Book of Articles 2. The judgement of Dr. Barns and Mr. Tyndall touching the necessary workings of Gods grace on the will of man not different from that of the Church of England 3. Universal grace maintained by Bishop Hooper and proved by some passages in the Liturgie and Book of Homilies 4. The offer of Universal grace made ineffectual to some for want of faith and to others for want of repentance according
What more comfortable to a man deprived of the outward benefit of the Word and Sacraments than that clause in the Homily where it is said That if we lack a Learned man to instruct and teach us God himself from above will give light unto our mindes and teach us those things which are necessary for us 4. If then it be demanded How it comes to pass that this general Overture of Grace becomes so little efficacious in the hearts of men we shall finde Bishop Hooper ascribing it in some men to the lack of faith and in others to the want of repentance Touching the first he tells us this ' That S. Paul concludes and in a manner includeth the Divine Grace and Promise of God with in certain terms and limits that onely Christ should be profitable and efficacious to those that apprehend and receive this abundant Grace by faith and to such as have not the use of faith neither Christ nor Gods Grace to appertain ' After which he proceedeth in this manner toward the other sort of men which make not a right use of this general Grace for want of Repentance ' Howbeit saith he that we know by the Scripture that notwithstanding this imperfection of faith many shall be saved and likewise notwithstanding that Gods pro 〈…〉 be general unto all people of the world yet many shall be damned These two points must therefore diligently be discussed first how this faith being unperfect is accepted of God then how we be excluded from the promise of grace that extendeth to all men c. To which first it is thus answered That S. Paul S. John and Christ himself damneth the contemnets of God or such as willingly continue in sin and will not repent these the Scripture excludeth from the general promise of Grace ' 5. Here then we have the Doctrine of the Church of England delivered in the Liturgie and the Book of Homilies more punctually pressed and applied in the words of godly Bishop Hooper concerning Universal Grace and somewhat also of the reasons of its not being efficacious in all sorts of men relating to that liberty which remains in man of closing or contending with it as he is either ruled by reason or else misguided by the tyranny of his lusts and passions But before I come unto this point we may behold the necessary workings of Gods Grace preventing man by the inspirations of his holy Spirit and the concurrence or co-operation of mans will being so prevented which is the Celestial influences of the Grace of God Of which the Church hath spoke so fully in all the Authentick Monuments and Records thereof that no true English Protestant can make question of it For thus she tells us in the tenth Article of her Confession viz. That the condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works to faith and calling upon God Wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable â—nto God without the Grace of God by Christ preventing us that we may have a good will and working with us when we have that good will In the first clause the Church declares her self against the old Pelagians and some of the great Schoolmen in the Church of Rome and in the last against the Maniches and some of the more rigid Lutherans in the Churches Protestant which make man in the work of his own Conversion to be no other than a Statue or a senseless stock Contrary whereunto we are instructed in the Homily exhorting to the reading of Holy Scripture to use all possible endeavours in our own Salvation If we read once twice or thrice and understand not let us not cease so but still continue reading praying asking of other men and so by still knocking at last the door shall be opened as S. Augustine hath it which counsel had been vain and idle if man were not invested with a liberty of complying with it More plainly is the same exprest in many of our Publique Prayers as partly in the Collect for Easter-Day in which we humbly beseech Almighty God That as by his special Grace preventing us he doth put in our minde good desires so by his continual Fellowship that he would bring the same to good effect And in that on the sevententh Sunday after Trinity That his Grace may always prevent and follow us and make us continually to be given to all good works But most significantly we have it in one of the Collects after the Communion that namely in which we pray to the Lord To prevent us in all our doings by his most gracious favour and further us with his continual help that in all our works begun continued in him we may so glorifie his holy Name that finally by his mercy we may obtain life everlasting through Christ Jesus our Lord. So that upon the whole matter it needs must follow that as we can do nothing acceptable in the sight of God without Grace preventing so by the freedom of mans will co-operating with the Grace preventing and by the subsequent Grace of God Cooperating with the will of man we have a power of doing such works as are agreeable to the will of our Heavenly Father 6. Now to this Plain Song of the Articles the Homilies and the Publique Liturgie it may be thought superfluous to make a descant or adde the light of any Commentary to so clear a Text. And yet I cannot baulk some passages in Bishop Hooper which declare his judgement in the point where he not onely speaks of mans concurrence or co-operation with the Grace of God but lays his whole damnation on the want thereof ' Look not therefore saith he on the promises of God but also what diligence and obedience he requireth of thee lest thou exclude thy self from the promise There was promised to all those that went out of Egypt with Moses the Land of Canaan howbeit for disobedience of Gods Commandments there were but one or two that entred ' This he affords in his Preface and more than this in his tenth Chapter of the Exposition relating to the common pretence of Ignorance ' For though saith he thou canst not come to so far knowledge in the Scripture as others that believe by reason thou art unlearned or else thy vocation will not suffer thee all days of thy â—â—â—e to be a student yet must thou know and upon pain of damnation art bound to know God in Christ and the Holy Catholick Church by the Word written the Ten Commandments to know what works thou shouldst do and what to leave undone the Pater noster Christ his Prayer which is an Abridgement Epitome or compendious Collection of all the Psalms and Prayers written in the whole Scripture in the which thou prayest for the remission of sin as well for thy self as for all others desirest the
that it was the Doctrine of Saint Augustine according to that Divine saying of his Sine gratia Deâ— praeveniente â—t velimus subsequente ne frustra velimus ad pietatis opera nil valemus which is the same of that of the tenth Article of the Church of England where it is said That without the grace of God preventing us that we may have a good will and working with us when we have that good will we can do nothing that is acceptable to him in the wayes of piety So that if the Church of England must be Arminian and the Arminian must be Papist because they agree together in this particular the Melancthonian Divines amongst the Protestants yea and S. Augustine amongst the Ancients himself must be Papists also 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 Dominioans and some others 2. The contrary affirmed by Calarinus and his adherents 3. The doubtful resolution of the Council in it 4. The Calvinists not coment with certainty of Grace quoad statum presentem presume upon it also quoad statum futurum 5. The bounds and limits wherewith the judgement in this point ought rationally to be circumscribed 6. The Doctrine of the Church of England in the present Article 7. Justified by the testimonies of Bishop Latimer Bishop Hooper and Master Tyndal 8. And proved by several arguments from the publick Liturgie 9. The Homily commends a probable and stedfast hope but 10. Allows noâ— certainty of Grace and perseverance in any ordinary way to the sons of men 1. OF all the Points which exercised the wits and patience of the Schoolmen in the Council of Trent there was none followed with more heat between the parties then that of the certainty of Grace occasioned by some passages in the writings of Luther wherein such certainty was maintained as necessary unto justification and an essential part thereof ' In canvasing of which point the one part held that certainty of grace was presumption the other that one might have it meritoriously The ground of the first was that Saint Thomas Saint Bonaventure and generally the Schoolmen thought so for which caule the major part of the Dominicanâ— were of the same opinion besides the authority of the Doctors they alledged for reasons that God would not that man should be certaine that he might not be lifted up in pride and esteeme of themselves that he might not prefer himself before others as he that knoweth himself to be just would do before manifest sinners and a Christian would so become drowsie carelesse and negligent to do good Therefore they said that uncertainty was profitable yea and meritorious besides because it is a passion of the mind which doth afflict it and being supported is turned to merit ' They alledged many places of the Scripture also of Solomon that a man knoweth not whether he be worthy of hate or love of Wisdome which commandeth not to be without fear of these sinnes pardoned of Saint Peter to work out our salvation with fear and trembling of Saint Paul who said of himself though my conscience accuse me not yet I am not thereby justified ' These Reasons and Testimonies together with many places of the Fathers were brought and amplified especially by Levipandus Vega and Solo. 2. ' But Calarinus and Marinarus had other places of the same Fathets to the contrary which shewed they had spoken accidentally in this particular as the occasions made most for their purpose sometimes to comfort the scrupulous sometimes to represse the audacious yet they kept themselves close to the authority of the Scripture They said that to as many as it is read in the Gospel that Christ hath forgiven sins to all them he said Believe that your sinnes are forgiven and it would be an absurdity that Christ should give an occasion of temerity and pride or if the contrary were profitable or a merit that he would deprive all men of it That the Scripture bindeth us to give God thanks for our justification which cannot be given except we know that we have obtained it for to give them when we are uncertain would be most foolish and impertinent That Saint Paul doth plainly confirme the certainty when he putteth the Corinthians in mind to know that Christ is in them except they be reprobates And when he saith we have received from God the Spirit to know what is given us by his divine Majesty and more clearly that the holy Spirit doth bear witnesse to our spirit that we are the sons God and it is much to accuse them of rashnesse who beleeve the Holy Ghost that speaketh with them For Saint Ambrose saith that the Holy Ghost doth never speak unto us but doth make us know that it is he that speaketh After this he added the words of Christ in Saint John that the world cannot receive the Holy Ghost because it seeth him not nor knoweth him but that the disciples shall know him because he shall dwell in them Calarinus did fortifie himself strongly by saying that it was the opinion of a man in a dream to defend that Grace is voluntarily received when we know not whether we have it or not as if to receive a thing willingly it be not necessary that the willing receiver should know it is given him that he doth really receive it and that after it is received he doth possesse it ' 3. ' The force of these Reasons made them first retire a little that censured the opinion of Temerity and yield that there might be a conjecture though not an ordinary certainty yet they acknowledged a certainty in the Martyrs in the newly baptized and in some by special revelation and from conjecture they were brought to call it moral Faith And that Vego who in the beginning admitted probability only overcome by these Reasons and beginning to favour the certainty for fear of conforming himself to the Lutheran opinion said that there was so much certainty as did exclude all doubt and could not be deceived ' yet that it was not Christian Faith but humane and experimental But Calarinus and his party which were all the Carmelites not resting satisfied either in the termes of an experimental faith or a moral perswasion did presse the certainty so farre that many of the Prelateâ— began to encline to that opinion and to perswade themselves that certainty of Grace was founded upon such an assurance as might in some sort be called divine though when they came to draw up the Decree therein they found themselves involved in more perplexities than they were aware of For the Point being followed with great heat between the parties and each of them conceiving that the truth was clearly on their side it was found necessary to cast the Decree into such a mold as those of the two contrary opinions might
threatnings of God as well believe the Law as the Gospel as well that there is an hell and everlasting fire as there is an heaven and everlasting joy as well they should believe damnation to be threatned to the wicked and evil doers as salvation to be promised to the faithful in Word and Works as well they should believe God to be true in the one as the other ' And for sinners that continue in this wicked living they ought to think that the promises of Gods mercy and the Gospel pertain not unto them being in that state but only the Law and those Scriptures which contain the wrath and indignation of God and his threatnings which should certifie them that as they do over boldly presume of Gods mercy and live dissolutely so doth God still more and more withdraw his mercy from them as he is so provoked thereby to wrath at length that he destroyeth such presumers many times suddenly for of such Saint Paul said thus When they shall say it is peace there is no danger then shall sudden destruction come upon them let us beware therefore of such naughty boldness to sin for God which hath promised his mercy to them that be truly penitent although it be at the latter end hath not promised to the presumptuous sinner either that he shall have long life or that he shall have true Repentance at the last end But for that purpose hath he made every mans death uncertain that he should not put his hope in the end and in the mean season to Gods high displeasure live ungodlily Wherefore let us follow the counsel of the Wise man let us make no sarrying to turn unto the Lord let us not put off from day to day for suddenly his wrath comes and in time of vengeance he will destroy the wicked let us therefore turn betimes and when we turn let us pray to God as Hosea teached saying Forgive all our sins receive us graciously And if we turn to him with an humble and a very penitent heart he will receive us to his favour and grace for his holy Names sake for his Promise sake for his Truth and Mercies sake promised to all faithful believers in Jesus Christ his only natural Son To whom the only Saviour of the world with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all honour glory and power world without end Amen ' 3. These are the very words of the second Homily touching falling from God in which we have many evident proofs not only that there is a falling and a frequent falling but also a total yea a final falling from the grace of God according to the Doctrine of the Church of England And hereunto I must needs say that I never met with any satisfactory and sufficient Answer how much soever some have slighted the authority of it or the strength rather of the Argument which is taken from it for Mr. Yates of Ipswitch from whose candle most of them that followed borrow all their light in his book intituled Ibis ad Caesarem writ against Montagues Appeal can finde no better answers to it or evasions from it then they four that follow viz. 1. That the Homily speaks of the visible Church and therefore is not to be construed in the same sense of all whereas the Homily speaketh of Gods chosen people his chosen Vineyard are the words and consequently not only of the mixed multitude in a visible Church He answers secondly That it speaks with limitation and distinction some beholding the face of Gods mercy aright others not as they ought to do the one of which may fall quite away the other being transformed can never be wholly deformed by Satan But this is such a pitiful shift as could not save the man from the scorn of laughter had he been dealt with in his kind the Homily speaking largely of those men which having beheld Gods face of mercy in Jesus Christ as they ought to do do afterwards neglect the same prove unthankful to him and order not their lives according to his Example and Doctrine c. for which consult the place at large in the former Church He answers thirdly that the Homily speaks conditionally if they afterwards c. that is to say if afterwards they neglect the same prove unthankful to him and order not their lives according to his Example and Doctrine c. and so concludes nothing positively and determinately which is a sorrier shift than that which you had before for if such conditional Propositions conclude nothing positively what will become of all those Propositions in the Scriptures by which we are assured That if a sinner do repent him of his sins and wickednesses he shall find mercy from the Lord Do they conclude nothing positively neither most miserable were the state of man if these conditional Propositions should conclude nothing to the comfort of a troubled conscience And finally he answereth thus that the Homily speaks of Gods dreadful countenance appearing in plagues sword famine and such like temporal punishments wherewith the Elect may be chastened as well as others that they may not for ever be condemned with the wicked the first part of which Allegation I confess to be true Gods judgements falling promiscuously on all sotts of people but the addition is unknown and is not to be found in the words of the Homily And secondly the Homily speaks not only of Gods temporal judgements with which the Elect be chastened as well as others that they may not for ever be condemned with the wicked but positively and determinately of taking from them his Kingdom and holy word as in the former so that they shall be no longer of his Kingdom governed no longer by his holy Spirit put from the Grace and benefit which they had c. 4. But Master Yates intends not so to leave the matter we must first see that he is as good at raising an Objection as at the making of an Answer and he objecteth out of another of the Homilies that though the godly do fall yet they walk not on purposely in sinne they stand not still to continue and tarry in sinne they sit not down like carelesse men without all fear of Gods just punishment for sinne through Gods great grace and infinite mercy they rise again and fight against sinne c. But first it may be hoped that Master Yates could not be ignorant how great a difference there is betwixt such passages as fall occasionally and on the by from the pen of a Writer discoursing on another Argument and those which do occur in such Discourses Sermons and other Tractates as purposely are made and fitted to the point in hand And secondly though it be affirmed in the said Homily that the godly man which shall adde sinne to sinne by Gods great grace and infinite mercy may arise again and fight against sinne Yet can it not be gathered thence that it is so at all times
he determined only in himself Conform to which we find in the Genevian Bibles this marginal Note amongst many others of like nature viz. As the only Will and purpose of God is the chief cause of Election and Reprobation so his free mercy in Christ is an inferiour cause of salvation c. Rom. 9. 6. In the next place comes out a Pamphlet entituled against a privy Papist the Author whereof takes upon him to prove this point That all evil springeth out of Gods Ordinance or that Gods Predestination was the cause of Adams fall and of all wickedness Now this man goes to work like a Logician and frames his Sylogism in this manner viz. That whatsoever was in Adam was in him by Gods Will and Ordinance But sin was in Adam Ergo. sin was in him by Gods will and ordinance Of which Sylogisme Campneys very well observeth that if the Major of it be understood of Adam after his fall as by the minor it must be then may it be affirmed also of any other that whatsoever execrable wickedness is in him the same is in him by Gods will and ordinance But then because it might be asked that seeing it is the decree ordinance and will of God that man should not sin How they should creep into that secret councell where God ordained decreed and willed the contrary The leader will come in to help his followers in the present plunge for in his trayterous and seditious Libel Against the Regiment of Women which he calls The first blast of the Trumpet he knows not how to shift off the obedience due by Gods word to lawful Queens in their severall Kingdoms but by flying to some speciall Revelation from his secret will not publikely communicated to the sons of men And this he speakes not faintly but with zeale and confidence telling us how assured him that God hath revealed it to some in our age that is to say himselfe and his Disciples in the holy Presbytery that it is more then a Monster in nature that a Woman should Rule and have Empire against man And what could they doe less upon this assurance upon so plaine a Revelation of Gods secret will then take up arms against their Queen depose her from her throne expell her out of her native Kingdom and finally prosecute her to the very death The Ladder which Constantine the great commended to Assesius a Novatian Bishop for his safer climing up to heaven was never more made use of then by Knox and Calvin for mounting them to the sight of Gods secret Councell which St. Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or things unspeakble such as are neither possible nor lawfull for a man to utter 7. But of all Knoxe's followers none followed so close upon his heels as Ro. Crowly a fugitive for Religion in Q. Maries daies and the Author of a Booke called a Confutation of 13. Articles c. In which he layes the sin of Adam and consequently all mens sins from that time to this upon the Absolute Decree of Predestination for seeing saith he that Adam was so perfect a creature that there was in him no lust to sin and yet withall so weak of himselfe that he was not able to withstand the assault of the subtile Serpent no remedy the only cause of his fall must needs be the Predestination of God In other places of this book he makes it to be a common saying of the free-will men as in contempt and scorn he calls them that Cain was not predestinate to slay is brother which makes it plaine that he was otherwise perswaded in his own opinion That the most wicked persons that have been whereof God appointed to be even as wicked as they were that if God doe predestinate a man to doe things rashly and without any deliberation he shall not deliberate at all but run headlong upon it be it good or evill That we are compelled by Gods predestination to doe those things for which we are damned And finally finding this Doctrine to be charged with making God more cruell and unmercifull then the greatest Tyrant and pressed therewith by some of the contrary perswasion he returns his answer in this wise If God saith he were an inferiour to any superior power to the which he ought to render an account of his doing or if any of us were not his creatures but of another creation besides his workmanship then might we charge him with Tyranny because he condemneth us and appointed us to be punished for the things we doe by compulsion through the necessity of his Predestination For a Catholicon or generall Antidote to which dangerous Doctrines a new distinction was devised by which in all abominations God was expresly said to be the Author of the fact or deed but not of the crime which subtilty appeareth amongst many others in a brief Treatise of Election and Reprobation published by one Iohn Veron in the English tongue about the beginning of the raigne of Queen Elizabeth Which subtilty Campneys not unfitly calls a marvellous sophistication a strang Paradox and a cautelous Riddle and he seems to have good reason for it For by this Doctrine as he noteth it must follow that God is the Author of the very fact and deed of Adultery Theft Murder c. but not the Author of the sin Sin having as they say no positive entity but being a meer nothing as it were and therefore not to be ascribed to Almighty God And thereupon he doth inferre that when a malefactor is hanged for any of the facts before said he is hanged for nothing because the fact or deed is ascribed to God and the sin only charged on him which sin being nothing in it self it must be nothing that the malefactor is condemned or hanged for 8. By all the Books it doth appear what method of Predestination these new Gospellers drive at how close they followed at the Heels of their master Calvin in case they did not go beyond him Certaine it is that they all speak more plainly then their Master doth as to the makeing of God to be the the Author of sin though none of them speake any things else then what may logically be inferred from his ground and principles And by this book it appeareth also how contrary these Doctrins are to the establisht by the first Reformers in the Church of England how contrary the whole method of Predestination out of which they flow is to that delivered in the Articles the Homilies and the publick Liturgie and witnessed too by so many learned men and godly martyrs Which manifest deviation from the rules of the Church as it gave just offence to all moderate and sober men so amongst others unto Campneys before remembred who could not but express his dislike thereof and for so doing was traduced for a Pelagian and a Papist or a Popish Pelagian For which being charged by way of Letter he was
the said Ecclesiastical Priests how they have profited in the study of holy Scripture Evident Arguments that there was no intent of setling any other Doctrine in the Church of England then such as was agreeable to the Judgement of that Learned man 5. The next care was for making and perfecting those Homilies of which we finde mention at the end of King Edwards Book for the necessary edifying of Christian people and the increase of godly living both Books sufficiently provided for besides the confirmation of that first Article of the year 1552. in the Rubrick of the second Liturgie where it is said that after the Creed if there be no Sermon shall follow one of the Homilies already set forth or to be set forth by common authority which Rubrick being revised with the rest of the Liturgie put the said books of Homilies as well the second as first part of them into the service of the Church and thereby made them no small part of the publick doctrine But who they were which laboured in this second Book whither they were the same that drew up the first or those who in Queen Elizab. time reviewed the Liturgie or whether they were made by the one and reviewed by the other I have no where found though I have taken no small paines in the search thereof But those few doctrinals which were contained in the Book of Common Prayer or deducible from it not being much took notice of and the Homilies not confirm'd by that common Authority which was required in the Rubrick the Zuinglians or Gospellers took the opportunity to disperse their doctrines before the door of utterance should be shut against them or any publick course be taken to suppress their practices And this they did with so much diligence and cunning that they encreased exceedingly both in power and numbers of which more hereafter Notice whereof being took of those which were of most Authority in the Government of the Church it was thought necessary for the preventing of the mischief which might thence insue that the Articles of Religion published in King Edwards time 1552. should be brought under a Review accommodated to the use of the Church and made to be the standing Rule by which all persons were to regulate and confirm their Doctrines 6. And to this end a Convocation was assembled on the 13. of January An. 1562. which continued tâ—â—â— the 14. day of April the main business which was acted in it being the canvasing and debating of the Articles of King Edwards Book and passing them in the forme and manner in which now they stand which business as they took first into consideration on the 19. of January and diligently prosecuted from day to day by the Bishops and Clergie in their several houses they came to an agreement on the 29. of the same moneth on which the said Articles were publickly recited generally approved and subscribed by the greatest part of the Clergy which were then assembled And being so subscribed presented to the Queen and ratified by her Royal Authority were forthwith published to the same end for which they were made that is to say For the avoiding of diversities of opinions and for the stablishing of consent touching true Religion as in the title is declared In the composing of which Book though a clause was added to the twentieth Article and another taken from the third though some Articles of King Edwards were totally omitted and some new made as that amongst the rest for confirmation of the second Book of Homilies which were not in the Book before yet the the five Articles touching the Doctrine of the Church in the points disputed as they stand in the eight Chapter of this Book were left in that same state in which they found them And being left in the same state in which they found them were to be taken in the same sense in which they had been understood at the first making of them according to such illustrations as occur in the Book of Common Prayer such Explanations as are found in the Book of Homilies and the judgement of those learned men and godly Martyrs which had a principal hand in the Reformation so that the Articles being the same as to these particulars the paraphrases of Erasmus state the same the publick Liturgie and the first Book of Homilies in all points the same and the second book of Homilies agreeing exactly with the first in the present controversies as appears by the three first Sections of the seventh Chapter of this Book and that which follows in the next there is no question to be made but that the doctrine was the same in the said five points which had been publickly allowed of in the time of King Edward 7. But against this it may be said that one of the material Articles of King Edwards book in reference to the points disputed was totally left out of this and therefore that there was some alteration of the Churches judgement as to the sense and meaning of the present Articles which Article being the tenth in number as it stands in that Book is there delivered in these words viz. Gratia Christi seu spiritus sanctus qui per eundem datur c. ' The grace of Christ or the holy Ghost which is given by him doth take from man the heart of stone and giveth him a heart of flesh And though by the influences thereof it rendreth us willing to do those good works which before we were unwilling to do and unwilling to do those evil works which before we did voluntati tamen nullam violentiam infert yet is no violence offered by it to the will of man nor can any man when he hath sinned excuse himself quasi nolens aut coactus peccaverit as if he had sinned against his will or upon constraint and therefore that he ought not to be accused or condemned upon that account ' For answer whereunto it may first be said that the Composers of that Book thought it not fit to clog it with any unnecessary points in which the peace and safty of the Church seemeth not much concerned and therefore as they left out the present Article so they omitted the sixteenth touching the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost together with the foure last of King Edwards Book touching the General resurrection the stare of mens souls after death the Doctrine of the Millinaries and of a general salvation to be given to the wicked also after they had endured the paines of hell for a certain time Secondly they considered that the doctrine of mans free Co-operation with the grace of God had been sufficiently expressed and provided for by the tenth Article of this Book and the ninth of which illustrated by divers passages in the publick Liturgie accommodated and applied to the most encrease of piety in the Book of Homilies therefore that there was no great need to contend about it or to retain it in the Book And somewhat
considerable which may seem to make for the advantage of the opposite party And have therefore brought in a discourse of the Martyrologist in favour of the Calvinian Doctrine I have also given a just account of the first breaking out of the Predestinarians in Queen MARIES time and of the stirs in Cambridge in Queen ELIZABETHS not pretermitting such particulars as may be thought to make for them in the course of this Narrative even to the Articles of Ireland and the harsh expressions of King JAMES against Arminius And therefore I may say in the words of Curtius Plura equidem transcribo quam credo nec enim affirmare aufuge sum quae dubito nec subducere sustinco quae accepi I have related many things which I cannot approve though I have not let them passe without some censure that so I may impose nothing on the Readers belief without good grounds nor defraud him of any thing conducible to his Information I was not to be told how much my first engageing 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 Christs descent against Dr. Barce for opposing the Genevian Rigors in the points before us against Mr. Richard Mountague for separating the opinions of private men from the Churches Doctrins and finally against the late Renouned Archb. for labouring to restore this Church to its primitive Lustre And though I could not hope to be more favorably dealt withall in this â—ase then 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 â—hereof hath licked up all the filth of for◠〈…〉 els to vomit it at once upon me without â—esâ—â—ct 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 then by the sharpeness 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 then 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 recall me to my wonted temper who being bitterly railed at by some of his Presbyters retruned 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 mischievious 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 perswasion 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 blinde 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 Jealous Prince into such a generall distrust of all whose Names had that beginning Theodoret Theodosius 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 perswasions 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 confident they rather would excuse my infelicities or insufficiencies be they which they will then bring me under the reproach of any such censure as none of different judgement 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 dore 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 took no notice of the Libell 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 stolne name of Theophilus Churchman which descries my Pen so there is nothing argumentative in the Pamphlet either which was not bâ—th 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 Doctrin of the Church of England though in short time it over spread 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 SYLLABVS CAPITVM OR The Contents of the Chapters CHAP. I. The severall Heresies of those who make God to be the Author of sin or attribute too much to the naturall freedome of Mans Will in the works of Piety 1 GOD affirmed by Florinus to be the Author of sin the blasphemy encountred by Irenaeus and the foule consequents thereof 2. Revived in these 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 Dresse and the necessity thereby imposed on the wills of men 4 The like by Bardesanes and the Priscilianists the dangerous consequents thereof exemplified out of Homer and the words of St. Augustine 5. The error of the Maniches touching the servitude of the will revived by Luther and continued by the Rigid Lutherans 6. As those of Bardesanes and Priscilian by that of Calvin touching the Absolute Decree the Dangers which lye hidden under that Decree and the incompetiblenesse thereof with Christs coming to Judgement 7. The large expressions of the Ancient Fathers touching the Freedome of the will abused by Pelagius and his Followers 8. The Heresie of Pelagius in what it did consist especially as to this particular and the dangers of it 9. The Pelagian Heresies condemned and recanted the temper of St. Augustine touching the Freedome of the will in spirituall matters 10. Pelagianisme falsly charged on the moderate Lutherans How far all parties do agree about the Freedome of the Will and in what they differ CHAP. II. Of the Debates among the Divines in the Councel of Trent touching Predestination and Originall Sin 1. THE Articles drawn from the Writings of the Zuinglians touching Predestination and Reprobation 2. The Doctrine of Predestination according to the Dominican way 3. As also that of the Franciscans with reasons for their own and against the other 4. The Historians Judgement interposed between the parties 5. The middle way of Catarinus to compose the differences 6. The newnesse of St. Augustines Opinion and the dislike thereof by the most learned men in the Ages following 7. The Perplexities amongst the Theologues touching the Absoluteness of the Decrees 8. The Judgement of the said Divines touching the possibility of Falling from Grace 9. The Debates about the Nature and transmitting of Originall sin 10. The Doctrine of the Councell in it CHAP. III. The like Debates about Free-will with the Conclusions of the Councell in the Five Controverted Poynts 1. THE Articles against the Freedome of the Will extracted out of Luthers Writings 2. The exclamations of the Divines against Luthers Doctrine in that Poynt and the absurdities thereof 3. The severall judgements of Marinarus Catarinus and Andreas Vega. 4. The different Judgement of the Dominicans and the Franciscans whether it lay in mans power to believe or not to believe and whether the freedome of the Will were lost in Adam 5. As also of the poynt of the co-operation of Mans Will with the Grace of God 6. The Opinion of Fryer Catanca in the poynt of irresistability 7. Faintly maintained by Soto a Dominican Fryer and more cordially approved by others but in fine rejected 8. The great care taken by the Legates in having the Articles so framed as to please all parties 9 The Doctrin of the Councell in the Five Controverted Points 10. A Transition from the Councell of Trent to the Protestant and Reformed Churches CHAP. IV. The Judgement of the Lutherans and Calvinians in the said Five Poynts with some Objections made against the Conclusions of the Synod of Dort 1. NO difference in the Five Poynts betwixt the Lutherans and the Church of Rome as is acknowledged by the Papists themselves 2. The Judgement of the Lutheran Churches in the said Five Poynts delivered in the famous Confession of Ausberge 3. The distribution of the Quarrell 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 parallelled by that of Bishop Overall 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 Platform afterwards polished by Perking a Divine of England and in him censured and confuted by Jacob Van Harmin a Belgick Writer 6. A brief view of the Doctrine of the Supralapsarians and the odious consequences of it 7. The judgement of the Sublapsarians in the said Five points collected and presented at the Conference at the Hague An. 1610. 8. The Doctrin of the Synodists in the said Five points 9. Affirmed to be repugnant to the Holy Scripture as also to the purity justice and sincerity of Almighty God 10. As also subversive of the Ministry and all acts of Piety illustrated by the example of Tyberius Caesar and the Lant-grave of Thurin CHAP. V. The Doctrine of the Remonstrants and the story of them untill their finall condemnation in the Synod of Dort 1. THe Doctrine of the Remonstrants ancienter then Calvinisme in the Belgick Churches and who they were that stood up for it before Arminius 2. The first undertakings of Arminius his preferment to the Divinity Chair of Leyden his commendations and death 3. The occasion of the names of Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants the Controversie reduced to Five points and those disputed at the Hague in a publick Conference 4. The said five Points according to their severall heads first tendred at the Hague and after at the Synod of Dort 5. The Remonstrants persecuted by their Opposites put themselves under the protection of Barnevelt and by his means obtain a Toleration of their Doctrines Barnevelt seized and put to death by the Prince of Orange 6. The calling of the Synod of Dort the parallel betwixt it and the Councell of Trent both in the conduct of the businesse against their Adversaries and the difference amongst themselves 7. The breaking out of the differences in the Synod into open quarrells between Martinius one of the Divines of Breeme and some of the Divines of Holland and on what occasions 8. A copy of the Letter from Dr. Belcanquall to Sir Dudly Carleton his Majesties Resident at the Hague touching the violent prosecution of those quarrells by the Dutch Divines 9. A further prosecution of the Parallel between the Councell and the Synod in reference to the Artifices used in drawing up the Canons and Decrees of either and the doubtfull meaning of them both 10. The quarrelling parties joyn together against the Remonstrants denying
censures past upon it both by Papists and Protestants by none more sharply then by Dr. Robert Abbots after Bishop of Sarum 4. Of Dr. Baroe the Lady Margarets Professor in that University his Doctrine touching the Divine decrees upon occasion of Gods denounced Judgment against the Ninivites 5. His constant opposition to the Predestinarians and the great encrease of his Adherents 6. The Articles collected out of Barrets Sermon derogatory to the Doctrin anâ— persons of the chief Calvinians 7. Barret convented for the same and the proceedings had against him at his first Convention 8. A form of Recantation delivered to him but not the same which doth occur in the Anti-Arminianisme nor to be found in the Records of that University 9. Severall arguments to prove that Barret never published the Recantation imposed upon him 10. The rest of Barrets story related in his own Letter to Dr. Goade being then Vice-chancellor 11. The sentencing of Barret to a Recantation no argument that his Doctrin was repugnant to the Church of England and that the body of the same Uuiversity differed from the Heads in that particular CHAP. XXI Of the proceedings against Baroe the Articles of Lambeth and the generall calm which was in Oxon touching these Disputes 1. THe differences between Baroe and Dr. Whitakers the Address of Whitakers and others to Archbishop Whitgift which drew on the Articles of Lambeth 2. The Articles agâ—eed on at Lambeth presented both in English and Latine 3. The Articles of no Authority in themselves Archbishop Whitgift questioned for them together with the Queens command to have them utterly suppress'd 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 5. A copy of the Letter from the Heads in Cambridge to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh occasioned as they said by Barret and Baroe 6. Dr. Overald encounters with the Calvinists in the point of falling from Grace received his own private judgment in the point neither for totall or for finall and the concurrence of some other learned men in the same opinion 7. The generall calm which was at Oxon at that time touching these Disputes and the reasons of it 8. An answer to the objection out of the writings of Judicious Hooker as to the totall and finall falling 9. The disaffection of Dr. Buckridge and Dr. Houson to Calvins Doctrins an Answer to the objection touching the paucity of those who oppose the same 10. Possession of a truth maintained but by one or two preserves it sacred and inviolable from unfortunate times the case of Liberius Pope of Rome and that the testimonies of this kinde are rather to be valued by weight then tale CHAP. XXII Of the Conference at Hampton-Court and the severall encouragements given to the Anti-Calvinians in the time of K. James 1. THe occasion of the Conference at Hampton-Court and the chief persons there assembled 2. The 9 Articles of Lambeth rejected by K. James 3. Those of the Church being left in their former condition 4. The Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination decried by Bishop Bancroft disliked by King James and the reasons of it 5. Bishop Bancroft and his Chaplain both abused the inserting of the Lambeth Articles into the Confession of Ireland no argument for K. James his approbation of them by whom they were inserted and for what cause allowed of in the said Confession 6. A pious fraud of the Calvinians in clapping their Predestinarian Doctrines at the end of the Old Testament An. 1607. discovered censured and rejected with the reasons for it 7. The great encouragement given by King James to the Anti-Calvinians and the increase of that Party both in power number by the stirrs in Holland 8. The offence taken by K. James at Conradus Vorstius animateth the Oxford Calvinists to suspend Dr. Houson and to preach publickly against Dr. Laud. 9. The like proceedings at Cambridge against Mr. Symson first prosecuted by K. James and on what account that the King was more incensed against the party of Arminius then against their perswasions 10. Instructions published by K. James in order to the diminishing of Calvins authority the defence of Universal Redemption and the suppressing of his Doctrins in the other points why the last proved so unusefull in the case of Gabriel Bridges 11. The publishing of Mountagues Answer to the Gagger the information made against it the Author and his Doctrins taken by K. James into his protection and his Appeal licensed by that Kings appointment 12. The Conclusion of the whole discourse and the submission of it to the Church of England Historia Quinqu Articularis OR A DECLARATION OF The Judgement of the Western Churches And more particularly Of the Church of ENGLAND IN The Five Controverted Points Reproched in these Last times by the Name of ARMINIANISM PART I. CONTAINING The Debates and Determinations in the said Five Points amongst the Learned Romanists in the Councel of Trent as also of the Lutheran Churches the Supralapsarian and Sublapsarian Calvinists and the Arminians or Remonstrants LONDON Printed by E. C. for Thomas Johnson at the Key in St. Pauls Church-yard 1660. Historia Quinqu Articularis OR A DECLARATION Of the JUDGEMENT of the Western-Churches And more particularly of the Church of ENGLAND In the five Controverted Points c. CHAP. 1. 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 I. GOD affirmed by Florinus to be the Author of sin the blasphemy encountred by Irenaeus and the foul Consequents thereof II. Revived in the last Ages by the Libertines sayd by the Papists to proceed fram the Schools of Calvin and by the Calvinists to proceed from the Schools of Rome III. Disguised by the Maniches in another dress and the necessity thereby imposed on the â—ils of men IV. The like by Bardesanes and the Priscilianists the dangerous consequents thereof exemplified out of Homer and the words of S. Augustine V. The error of the Maniches touching the servitude of the Will revived by Luther and continned by the rigid Lutherans VI. As those of Bardesanes and Priscilian by that of Calvin touching the Absolute Decree the dangers which lye hidden under the Decree and the incompetibleness thereof with Christs coming to Judgment VII The large expressions of the Ancient Fathers touching the freedom of the â—ill abused by Pelagius and his followers VIII The Heresie of Pelagius in what it did consist especially as to this particular and the dangers of it IX The Pelagian Heresie condemned and recalled the temper of S. Augustine touching the freedom of the Will in spirituall matters X. Pelagianism falsly charged on the Moderate Lutherans How far all parties do agree about the freedom of the Will and in what they differ 1. OF all the Heresies which exercised the Church in the times foregoing there
the stronger then to any clear and evident Authority which they can pretend to from that Father or any other ancient Writers of unquestioned credit which said I hope it will be granted without much difficulty that such a doctrine of predestination as neither directly nor indirectly makes God to be the Author of sin nor attributes so much to the will of man in depraved nature as to exclude the influences of Gods heavenly Grace is more to be embraced then any other which dasheth against either of the said extremes And that being granted or supposed I shall first lay down the Judgment of the differing parties in the Article of Predestination and the Points depending thereupon and afterwards declare to which of the sayd differing Parties the Doctrine of the Church of England seemeth most inclinable CHAP. II. Of the Debates amongst the Divines in the Councel of Trent touching Predestinations and Original Sin I. The Articles drawn from the Writings of the Zuinglians touching Predestination and Reprobâ—ation II. The Doctrine of Predestination according to the Dominican way III. As also the old Franciscans with Reasons for their own and against the other IV. The Historians Judgment interposed between the Parties V. The middle way of Catarinus to compose the differences VI. The newness of St. Augustines Opinion and the dislike thereof by the most Learned men in the Ages following VII The perplexities amongst the Theologues touching the absoluteness of the Decrees VIII The Judgment of the sayd Divines touching the possibility of falling from Grace IX The Debates about the nature and transmitting of Original Sin X. The Doctrine of the Councel in it I. IN such condition stood Affairs in reference to the doctrines of Predestination Grace Free-will c. at the first sitting down of the Councel of Trent in which those Points became the subject of many sad and serious Debates amongst the Prelates and Divines then and there Assembled which being so necessary to the understanding of the Questions which we have before us I shall not think my time ill spent in laying down the summe and abstract of the same as I find it digested to my hand by Padre Paulo the diligent and laborious Author of the Tridentine Historie only I shall invert his method by giving precedency to the Disputes concerning Predestination before the Debates and Agitations which hapned in canvasing the Articles touching the Freedome of mans Will though those about Free-will do first occur in the course and method of that Councel It being determined by the Councel as that Author hath it to draw some Articles from the Writings of the Protestants concerning the Doctrine of Predestination It appeared that in the Books of Luther in the Augustan Confession and in the Apologies and Colloquies there was nothing found that deserved censure But much they found among the Writings of the Zuinglians out of which they drew these following Articles Viz. 1. For Predestination and Reprobation that man doth nothing but all is in the will of God 2. The Predestinated cannot be condemned nor the Reprobate saved 3. The Elect and Predestinated only are truly justified 4. The Justified are bound by Faith to believe they are in the number of the Predestinated 5. The Justified cannot fall from Grace 6. Those that are called and are not in the number of the Predestinated do never receive Grace 7. The Justified is bound to believe by Faith that he ought to persevere in Justice until the end 8. The Justified is bound to believe for certain that in case he fall from Grace he shall receive it again II. In the examining the first of these Articles the Opinions were divers The most esteemed Divines amongst them thought it to be Catholick the contrary Heretical because the good School Writers S. Thomas Scotus and the rest do so think that is that God before the Creation out of the Mass of man-kind hath elected by his only and meer mercy some for Glory for whom he hath prepared effectually the means to obtain it which is called to predestinate That their number is certain and determined neither can there any be added The others not Predestinated cannot complain for that God hath prepared for them sufficient assistance for this though indeed none but the Elect shall be saved For the most principal reason they alledged that S. Paul to the Romans having made Jacob a pattern of the Predestinated and Esau of the Reprobate he produceth the Decree of God pronounced before they were born not for their Works but for his own good pleasure To this they joyned the example of the same Apostle That as the Potter of the same Lump of Clay maketh one Vessel to honour another to dishonour so God of the same Mass of men chooseth and leaveth whom he listeth for proof whereof S. Paul bringeth the place where God faith to Moses I will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy and I will shew pity on whom I will shew pity And the same Apostle concludeth It is not of him that willeth or of him that runneth but of God who sheweth mercy adding after that God sheweth mercy on whom he will and hardneth whom he will They sayd further That for this cause the Councel of the Divine Predestination and Reprobation is called by the same Apostle The height and depth of wisdom unsearchable and incomprehensible They added places of the other Epistles where he sayth We have nothing but what we have received from God that we are not able of our selves so much as to think well and where in giving the cause why some have revolted from the Faith and some stand firm he sayd it was because the Foundation of God standeth sure and hath this seal the Lord knoweth who are his They added divers passages of the Gospel of S. John and infinite Authorities of S. Augustine because the Saint wrote nothing in his old Age but in favour of this Doctrine III. But some others though of less esteem opposed this opinion calling it hard cruel inhumane horrible impious and that it shewed partiality in God if without any motive cause he elected one and rejected another and unjust if he damned men for his own will and not for their faults and had created so great a multitude to condemn it They sayd it destroyed Free-will because the Elect cannot finally do evil nor the Reprobate good that it casteth men into a gulph of desperation doubting that they be Reprobates That it giveth occasion to the wicked of bad thoughts not caring for Pennance but thinking if they be elected they shall not perish if Reprobates it is in vain to do well because it will not help them They confessed that not only works are not the cause of Gods election because that is before them and eternal but that neither Works foreseen can move God to Predestinate who is willing for his infinite mercy that all should be saved to this end prepareth sufficient assistance for all which every man
on the secret Mystery of Predestination as to account himself for certain to be within the number of the Elect as if he were assured of this that being justified he could neither sin no more nor were sure of repentance if he did And therefore no man is to flatter himself with any such certainty of perseverance though all men ought to place a constant and firm hope for the obtaining of the same in the help of God They which by sin have faln away from the grace received may recover their lost Justification if being stirred up from above they endeavour the recovery of it by sincere repentance or by the Sacrament of Pennance as the words there are And finally the grace of Justification or the grace by which a man is justified is not only lost by infidelity by which the Faith it self doth suffer Shipwrack but even by every mortal sin though Faith be not lost also at the same time with it X. Such is the Doctrine of this Councel in the Points disputed extracted faithfully out of the Canons and Decrees thereof one only clause being added to the Article of Predestination agreeable to the Opinion in the Conferences and Debates about it which prevailed most upon the Prelates and all others who were interessed and intrusted in drawing up the Products and Conclusions of it which how far it agreeth or disagreeth with or from that which is maintained by the opposite Parties in the Reformed and Protestant Churches we are next to see CHAP. IV. The Judgment of the Lutherans and Calvinians in these Five Points with some Objections made against the Conclusions of the Councel of Dort I. No Difference in Five Points betwixt the Lutherans and the Church of Rome as is acknowledged by the Papists themselves II. The Judgment of the Lutheran Churches in the sayd 5 Points delivered in the famous Confession of Ausperge III. The distribution of the Quarrel betwixt the Franciscans Melancthonians and Arminians on the one side the Dominicans Rigid Lutherans and Sublapsarian Calvinists on the other the middle way of Catarinus paralleled by that of Bishop Overal IV. The Doctrine of Predestination as layd down by Calvin of what ill Consequence in it self and how odious to the Lutheran Doctors V. Opposed by Sebastian Castellio in Geneva it self but propagated in most Churches of Calvins Plat-form and afterwards polished by Perkins a Divine of England and in him censured and confuted by Jacob Van Harmine a Belgick Writer VI. A brief view of the Doctrine of the Sublapsarians and the odious Consequences of it VII The Judgment of the Sublapsarians in the sayd Five Points collected and presented at the Conference at the Hague Ann. 1610. VIII The Doctrine of the Synodists in the sayd Points IX Affirmed to be repugnant to the holy Scripture as also to the Purity Mercy Justice and Sincerity of Almighty God X. And the subversion of the Ministry and all Acts of Piety illustrated by the example of Tiberius Caesar and the Lantgrave of Thurin I. SUCH being the Doctrines of this Councel in the Points disputed we need not take much pains in looking after the Judgment of the Lutheran Churches which comes so neer to that of the Church of Rome as to be reckoned for the same For in the History of the Councel it is sayd expresly as before is noted that in the Books of Luther in the Augustan Confession and in Apologies and Colloquies there was nothing found as to the Doctrine of Predestination which deserved to be censured And therefore they were fain to have recourse unto the Writings of the Zuinglian Party among which Calvin and his followers were to be accounted to find out matter to proceed upon in their Fulminations And in particular it is sayd by Andreas Vega one of the stiffest and most learned men amongst the whole pack of the Franciscans when the Points about Free-will were in agitation that between themselves and the Protestants there was no difference of opinion as to that particular How neer they came to one another in the other Points may easily be found in the Debates and Conferences before layd down compared with the Judgment of the Lutheran Doctors not only in their private Writings but their publick Colloquies But then we are to understand that this Agreement of the Lutheran Doctors expressed in their private Writings and their publick Colloquies and especially the solemn Confession at Ausperge relates to that interpretation of the Decrees and Canons of the Tridentine Councel which is made by the Jesuits and Franciscans and not unto the Gloss or Exposition which is made thereof by the Preaching and Dominican Fryers II. But not to leave so great a matter to a Logical Inference I shall lay down the Doctrine of the Lutheran Churches in the sayd Five Points extracted faithfully out of the Augustan Confession with the Addition of one Clause only to the first Article the Makers of the Confession declining purposely the point of Predestination out of the Writings of Melancthon and other learned men of the same perswasion Now the Doctrine of the sayd Churches so delivered is this that followeth Viz. 1. Of Divine Predestination After the miserable fall of Adam all men which were to be begotten according to the common course of Nature were involved in the guilt of Original sin by which they are obnoxious to the wrath of God and everlasting damnation In which Estate they had remained but that God beholding all man-kinde in this wretched condition was pleased to make a general conditional Decree of Predestination under the condition of Faith and Perseverance And a special absolute Decree of electing those to life who he fore-saw would believe and persevere under the means and aides of Grace Faith and Perseverance and a special absolute Decree of condemning them whom he fore-saw to abide impenitent in their sins 2. Of the Merit and Efficacy of Christs Death The Son of God who is the Word assumed our humane Nature in the Womb of the Virgin and being very God and very Man he truly Suffered was Crucified Dead and Buried to reconcile his Father to us and to be the Sacrifice not only for Original sin but also for all the Actual sins of men A great part of S. Pauls Epistle to the Hebrews is spent in the proving of this Point that only the Sacrifice or Oblation made by Christ procured for others Reconciliation and Remission of sins inculcating that the Livitical Sacrifices were year by year to be reiterated and renewed because they could not take away sins but that satisfaction once for all was made by the Sacrifice of Christ for the sins of all men 3. Of Mans Will in the state of depraved Nature The Will of man retains a freedom in Actions of Civil Justice and making Election of such things as are under the same pretension of natural Reason but hath no power without the speciall Assistance of the Holy Ghost
the business but brake out many times into such open heats and violences as are not to be parallel'd in the like Assemblies the Provincial Divines banding against the Foreiners and the Foreiners falling foul upon one another for so it hapned that Martinius one of the Divines of Breme a moderate and learned man being desired to speak his minde in the Points last mentioned signified to the Synod ' That he made some scruple touching the Doctrine Passant about the manner of Christs being Fundamentum electionis and that he thought Christ not only the Effector of our Election but also the Author and Procurer of it Gomarus presently as soon as Martinius had spoken starts up and tells the Synod Ego hanc rem in me recipio and therewithall casts his Glove and challenges Martinius with this Proverb Ecce Rhodum ecce Sullum and required the Synod to grant them a Duel adding That he knew Martinius could say nothing in Refutation of that Doctrine ' So my dear Friend Mr. Hales of Eaton relates the story of this passage in a Letter to Sir Dudly Carleton bearing date Jan. 25. 1618. according to the style of the Church of England and where he endeth Dr. Belcanquall shall begin relating in his Letters to the sayd Ambassadour the story of a greater Fray between the sayd Martinius and Sibrandus Lubberius above mentioned upon this occasion Martinius had affirmed God to be Causa Physica Conversionis and for the truth thereof appealed to Goclenius a great Philosopher being then present in the Synod who thereupon discoursed upon it out of Thâ—mistinus Averores Alexander Aphrodisaeus and many more affirming it to be true in Philosophy although he would not have it to prescribe in Divinity Sibrandus Lubbert taking fire at this falls upon them both but the Fray parted at the present by the care of Boyerman Gomarus within few dayes after picks a new Quarrel with Martinius and the rest of the Divines of Breme for running a more moderate course then the rest of the Synod many other of the Provincials seconding Gomarus in the Quarrel and carrying themselves so uncivilly in the prosecution that Martinius was upon the Point of returning homewards But this Quarrel being also taken up the former is revived by Sibrandus in the following Session concerning which Belcanquall writes to Sr Dudley Carleton this ensuing Letter which for the rarity and variety of the passages contained in it and the great light which it affords to the present business I shall crave leave to add it here Dr. BELCANQUALLS LETTER TO Sir Dudley Carleton My very good Lord VIII SInce my last Letters to your Lordship there hath been no business of any great Note in the Synod but that which I am sure your Lordship will be very sorry to hear Contention like to come to some head if it be not prevented in time for there hath been such a Plot layd ex compositò for disgracing of the Bremenses as I think the Synod shall receive small grace by it D. Gomarus being he at whom the last Disquisition of the third and fourth Articles ended was entreated by the President to speak his minde of the sayd Articles but Sibrandus desireth the President first to give him leave to add some few things to that he had spoken the day before Now what he added was nothing but a renewing of the strife which was between him and Martinius in the last Session two things â—e alledged First That he had been at Goclenius his Lodging conferring with him about that Proposition whether God might be called Causa Physica of humane Actions and delivered certain Affirmations pronounced by Goclenius tending to the Negative for the truth of his relation he appealed to Goclenius there present who testified that it was so next Martinius had alledged a place out of Paraeus for the Affirmative in opere conversionis Sibrandus read a great many places out of Paraeus tending to the contrary and no question it being pleaded before he entreateth some of the Pallatines naming them all severally who were Paraeus his Colleagues would speak what they did know of Paraeus his minde concerning the sayd Proposition Scultetus beginneth with a set Speech which he had writ lying before him but such a Speech it was as I and I think all the Exteri were exceedingly grieved it should have come from a man of so much worth the summ of it was this That he did know upon his own knowledge that Paraeus did hold the contrary of that which had been fasly 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 Scholasticas 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 minde 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 had delivered the Proposition with which explication Sibrandus himself had sent him word 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 mad man would have uttered First Whereas Martinius had sayd 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 untyed the Knot he replyed first That he that sayd 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 every body smiled Moreover 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
Common-wealth Barnevelts Kindred might be faulty the Arminians innocent or the Arminians faulty in their practise against the life of the Prince of Orange under and by whom they had suffered so many oppressions without involving those in their Crimes and Treasons who hold the same Opinion with them in their Neighbouring Churches IX The reason is because there is nothing in the Doctrine of the Arminians as it relates to the Five points in difference which can dispose the Professors of it to any such practises And therefore if the Arminians should have proved as turbulent and seditious as their enemies made them yet we were not to impute it to them as they were Arminians that is to say as men following the Melanctonian way of Predestination and differing in those points from the rest of the Calvinists but as exasperated and provoked and forced to cast themselves upon desperate courses Quae libertatis arma dat ipse dolor in the Poets language But so some say it is not with the Doctrine of the other party by which mens actions are so ordered predetermined by the eternall will of God even to the taking up of a straw as before was said ut nec plus boni nec minus mali that it is neither in their power to do more good or commit less evil then they do And then according to that Doctrine all Treasons Murders and Seditions are to be excused as unavoydable in them who commit the same because it is not in their power not to be guilty of those Treasons or Seditions which the fire and fury of the Sect shall inflame them with And then to what end should Princes make Laws or spend their whole endeavors in preserving the publick Peace when notwithstanding all their cares and travails to prevent the mischief things could no otherwise succeed then as they have been predetermined by the will of God And therefore the best way would be Sinere res vadere quo vult in the Latin of an old Spanish Monke to let all matters go as they will since we cannot make them go as we would according to that counsell of the good old Poet. Solvite mortales animos curisque levate Totque super vacuis animum deplete querelis Fata regunt Orbem certa stant omnia lege That is to say Discharge thy soul poor man of vexing fears And ease thy self of all superfluous cares The World is governed by the Fates and all Affairs by Heaven's decree do stand or fall X. To this effect it is reported that the old Lord Burleigh should discourse with Queen Eliz. when he was first acquainted with the making of the Lambeth Articles Not pleased wherewith he had recourse unto the Queen letting her see how much her Majesties Authority and the Laws of the Realm were thereby violated and it was no hard matter to discern what they aimed at who had most stickled in the same For saith he this is their opinion and Doctrine that every Humane action be it good or evil it is all restrained and bound up by the Law of an immutable decree that upon the very wills of men also this necessity is imposed ut aliter quam vellent homines velle non possent that men could not will otherwise then they did will Which Opinions saith he Maddam if they be true Frustra ego aliique fideles Majestatis tuae ministri c. then I and the rest of your Majesties faithfull Ministers do sit in Councel to no purpose 't is in vain to deliberate and advise about the affairs of your Realm Cum de his quae eveniunt necessario stulta sit plane omnis consultatio since in those things that come to passe of necessity all consultation is foolish and ridiculous To which purpose it was also press'd by the Bishop of Rochester Oxon and St. Davids in a Letter to the Duke of Buckingham concerning Mountagues Appeal An. 1625. In which it is affirmed that they cannot conceive what use there can be of Civil Government in the Common-wealth or of Preaching and externall Ministry in the Church if such fatal Opinions as some which are opposite contrary to those delivered by Mr. Mountague shall be publickly taught and maintained More plainly and particularly charged by Dr. Brooks once Master of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge in a Letter to the late Archbishop bearing date Decemb. 15. 1630. in which he writes that their Doctrines of Predestination is the root of Puritanisme and Puritanisme is the root of all Rebellions and disobedient untractablenesse in Parliaments c. and of all Schisme and sawcinesse in the Countrey nay in the Church it self making many thousands of our people and too great a part of the Gentlemen of the Land very Leightons in their hearts which Leighton had published not long before a most pestilent and seditious Book against the Bishops called Sions Plea in which he excited the people to strike the Bishops under the fifth rib reviling the Queen by the name of a Daughter of Heth and for the same was after censured in the Star-Chamber to Pillory loss of Ears c. XI But because perhaps it may be said that this is but a new device excogitated by the malice of these later times to defame this Doctrine let us behold what Campneys hath delivered of it in the first or second year of Queen Eliz. at the first peeping of it out to disturb this Church Where saith he who seeth not the distraction of England to follow this Doctrine Who seeth not the confusion of all Common-wealths to depend hereupon What Prince may sit safely in the seat of his Kingdome What subject may live quietly possessing his own What man shall be ruled by the right of Law If there Opinions may be perfectly placed in the hearts of the People Which Corollary he brings in in the end of a Discourse touching the Rebellion raised by Martin Cyrnell and seconded by the Earl of Lincolne Martin Swarth and others against Hen. 7. For building on the Calvinian Maxim that as God doth appoint the end so he appointeth also the means and causes which lead unto it he thereupon inferreth that Martin Swarth and his men according to that Doctrine were destined by God to be slain at the Battle of Stoke In order whereunto first Sir Richard Simon the Priest must be appointed and predestinate of God to powre in the pestilent poyson of Privy Conspiracy and trayterous mischief of vain glory into the heart of Lambert his Scholar as a cause leading to the same end Secondly that he the said Lambert was appointed and predestinate of God to consent and agree unto the pestiferous perswasion of his Master * S. Richard in the pride of Lucifer to aspire unto the Royall Throne as another cause leading to the same end which God ordained Thirdly that the Irish men were appointed of God to be Rebellious Traytors against their Soveraign Lord the King of England and
mans disobedience many were made sinners By which words we are taught that as in Adam all men universally sinned so in Adam all men universally received the reward of sin that is to say became moâ—tâ—l and subject unto 〈…〉 themselves nothing 〈…〉 tion both of body and soul c. Had it been any marvel if mankinde had been utterly driven to desperation being thus fallen from life to death from salvation to destruction from Heaven to Hell But behold the great goodness and tender mercy of God in this behalf albeit mans wickedness and sinful behaviour was such that it deserved not in any part to be forgiven yet to the intent he might not be clean destitute of all hope and comfort in time to come he ordained a new Covenant and made a sure promise thereof namely that he would send a Mediator or Messias into the world which should make intercession and put himself as a stay between both parties to pacifie the wrath and indignation conceived against sin and to deliver man out of the miserable curse and cursed misery whereunto he was fallen head-long by disobeying the Will and Commandment of the onely Lord and Maker ' 4. Which ground thus laid we will proceed unto the Doctrine of Predestination according to the sense and meaning of the Church of England which teacheth us according to the general current of the ancient Authors before Augustines time that God from all Eternity intending to demonstrate his power and goodness designed the Creation of the World the making of man after his own image and leaving him so made in a perfect liberty to do or not to do what he was commanded and that fore-knowing from all Eternity the man abusing this liberty would plung himself and his posterity into a gulf of miseries he graciously resolved to provide them such a Saviour who should redeem them from their sins to elect all those to life eternal who laid hold upon him leaving the rest in the same state in which he found them for their incredulity And this I take to be the method of Election unto life Eternal through Jesus Christ our Lord according to the Doctrine of the Church of England For although there be neither prius nor posterius in the will of God who sees all things at once together and willeth at the first sight without more delay yet to apply his acts unto our capacitie as were the acts of God in their right production so were they primitively in his intention But Creation without p 〈…〉 did forego the fall and the disease or death which ensued upon it was of necessity to be before there could be a course taken to prescribe the care and the prescribing of the care must first be finished before it could be offered to particular persons Of which and of the whole Doctrine of Predestination as before declared we cannot have an happier illustration then that of Agilmond and Lamistus in the Longobardiaâ— story of Paul the Deacon In which it is reported That Agilmond the second King of Lombard riding by a fish-pond saw seven young children sprawling in it whom their unnatural mothers as the Author thinketh had thrown into it not long before Amazed whereat he put his hunting spear amongst them and stiâ—â—ed them gently up and down which one of them laying hold on was drawn to land called Lamistus from the word Lama which is the language of that people and signifies a fish-pond Trained up in that Kings Court and finally made his Successor in the Kingdom Granting that Agilmond being forewarned in a vision that he should finde such children sprawling for life in the midst of that pond might thereupon take a resolution within himself to put his hunting â—pear amongst them and the which of them soever should lay hold upon it should be gently drawn out of the water adopted for his son and made heir of his Kingdom no Humane story can afford us the like parallel case to Gods proceeding in the great work of Predestination to Eternal life according to the Doctrine of the ancient Fathers and the Church of Rome as also of the Lutheran Churches and those of the Arminian party in the Belgick Provinces 5. Now that this was the Doctrine also of the Church of England will easily appear upon a due search into the Monuments and Records thereof as they stand backed by those learned religious men who had a principal hand in carrying on the great work of the Reformation Among which those of the Calvinian party would fain hook in Wicklif together with Fryth Barns and Tyndal which can by no means be brought under that account though some of them deserved well of the Churches for the times they lived in They that desire to hook in Wicklif do first confess that he stands accused by those of the Church of Rome for bringing in Fatal Necessity and making God the Author of sin and then conclude that therefore it may be made a probable guess that there was no disagreement between him and Calvin The cause of which Argument stands thus That there being an agreement in these points betwixt Wicklif and Calvin and the Reformers of our Church embracing the Doctrines of Wicklif therefore they must embrace the Doctrines of Calvin also But first it cannot be made good that our Reformers embraced the Doctrines of Wicklif or had any eye upon the man who though he held many points against those of Rom yet had his field more tares then wheat his books more Hetrodoxies then sound Catholick Doctrine And secondly admitting this Argument to be of any force in the present case it will as warrantably serve for all the Sects and Heresies which now swarm amongst us as well as for that of Calvin Wicklif affording them the grounds of their several dotages though possibly they are not so well studied in their own concernments For they who consult the works of Thomas Waldensis or the Historia Wicklifiana writ by Hartsfield will tell us that Wicklif amongst many other errours maintained these that follow 1. That the Sacrament of the Altar is nothing else but a piece of Bread 2. That Priests have no more Authority to minister Sacraments then Lay-men havâ— 3. That all things ought to be common 4. That it is as lawful to Christen a childe in a Tub of water at home or in a Ditch by the way as in a Font-stone in the Churches 5. That it is as lawful at all times to confess unto a Lay-man as to a Priest 6. That it is not necessary or profitable to have any Church or Chappel to pray in or to do any Divine Service in 7. That burying in Church-yards is unprofitable and in vain 8. That Holy Days ordained and instituted by the Church and taking the Lords Day in for one are not to be observâ—d and kept in reverencâ— inasmuch as all days are alike 9. That it is sufficient and enough to believe though a man do no good works at all 10.
thee ' Of these high flyings Lawbert another of our Martyrs was endicted also who as he would not plead Not guilty so he stood not mute but bound to the Endictment in this manner following ' Unto the Article * saith he whether it be good or evil cometh of necessity that is as you construe it to wit whether a man hath freewill so that he may deny joy or pain I say as I said at the beginning that unto the first part of your Riddle I neither can nor will give any definitive answer forsomuch as it surmounteth my capacity trusting that God will send hereafter others that be of better cunning then I to endire it ' 10. If there be any thing in this which may give any comfort to our rigid Calvinists much good do them with it and if they meet with any in the former passages let them look back upon the answers before laid down and then consider with themselves what they have got by the adventure or whether Tyndâ—ll Barnâ— and Frâ—th conjunct or separate may be considered as a rule to our first Reformers which having done I would have them finally observe the passage in the eighth of S. Mark where the blinde man whom our Saviour at Bâ—thsaida restored to his sight at the first opening of his eyes said he saw men as trees walking that is to say he saw men walking as trees quasi dicat Homines quos ambulantes video non homines sed arbores mihi videntur as we read in Maldiâ—nale By which the blinde man declared saith he se quidem videre aliquid imperfecte tamen videre cum inter homines arbores distingure non posset I discern somewhat said the poor man but so imperfectly that I am not able to distinguish between trees and men Such an imperfect sight as this might these Martyrs have in giving unto men no greater power of walking in the ways of Gods Commandments then as if they had been senseless trees or liveless shadows And such an imperfect sight as this the Lord gave many times to those whom he recovered out of the Egyptian darkness of Popish Errours who not being able to discern all divine truths at the first opening of the eyes of their understanding were not to be a Rule or President to those that followed and lived under a brighter beam of illumination Finally taking all for granted as to the judgement of these men in the points disputed which the Calvinians can desire and pretend unto and leting them enjoy the title which Mr. Fox hath given them of being called the Ring-leaders of the Church of England which Biâ—ney Byfield Lambert Garet or any other of our ancient Martyrs may aswel lay claim to yet as they suffered death before the publike undertaking of the Reformation under E. 6. so nothing was ascribed to their Authority by the first Reformers CHAP. VIII Of the Preparatives to the Reformation and the Doctrine of the Church in the present points 1. THe danger of ascribing too much to our ancient Martyrs c. exemplified in the parity of Ministers and popular elections unto Benefices allowed by Mr. John Lambert 2. Nothing ascribed to Calvins judgement by our first Reformers but much to the Augustine Confession the writings of Melancthon 3. And to the Authority of Erasmus his Paraphrases being commended to the use of the Church by King Edward the sixth and the Reasons why 4. The Bishops Bâ—ok in order to a Reformation called The institution of a Christian man commanded by King Henry the eigth 1537. corrected afterwards with the Kings own hand examined and allowed by Cranmer approved by Parliament and finally published by the name of Necessary doctrine c. An. 1543. 5. The Doctrine of the said two books in the points disputed agreeable unto that which after was established by King Edward the sixth 6. Of the two Liturgies made in the time of King Edward the sixth and the manner of them the testimony given unto the first and the alterations in the second 7. The first Book of Homilies by whom made approved by Bucer and of the Argument that may be gathered from the method of it in the points disputed 8. The quality and condition of those men who principally concurred to the Book of Articles with the Harmony or consent in Judgement between Archbishop Cramner Bishop Ridley Bishop Hooper c. 9. The Doctrine delivered in the Book of Articles touching the five controverted points 10. An answer to the Objection against these Articles for the supposed want of Authority in the making of them 11. An Objection against King Edwards Catechism mistaken for an Objection against the Articles refelled as that Catechism by John Philpot Martyr and of the delegating of some powers by that Convocation to a choice Committee 12. The Articles not drawn up in comprehensive or ambiguous terms to please all parties but to be understood in the respective literal and Grammatical sense and the Reasons why 1. I Have the longer stood upon the answering of this Objection to satisfie and prevent all others of the like condition in case it should be found on a further search that any of our godly Martyrs or learned Writers who either suffered death before the Reign of Edw. 6. or had no haâ—d in the carrying on of the Reformation embraced any opinions in Doctrine or Discipline contrary to the established Rules of the Church of England For otherwise as we must admit all Tyndalls Heterodoxies and Friths high flying conceâ—ts of Predestination which before we touch'd at so must we also allow a Parity or an Identity rather in Priests and Bishops because John Lambert another of our godly Martyrs did conceive so of it ' In the primitive Church saith he there were no more Officers in the Church of God than Bishops and Deacons that is to say Ministers as witnesseth beside Scripture S. Hierom in his Commentaries on the Epistles of S. Paul Whereas saith he that those whom we now call Priests were all one and no other but Bishops and the Bishops no other but Priests men ancient both in age and learning so neer as could be chosen nor were they instituted and chosen as they be now adays the Bishop and his Officer onely opposing them whether they can construe a Collect but they were chosen also with the consent of the people amongst whom they were to have their living as sheweth S. Cyprian But alack for pity such elections are banished and new fashions brought in ' By which opinion if it might have served for a Rule to the Reformation our Bishops must have been reduced to the rank of Priests and the right of Presentation put into the hands of the people to the Destruction of all the Paâ—â—oâ—s in the Kingdom 2. If then the question should be asked as perhaps it may On whom or on whose judgement the first Reformers most relied in the weighty business I answer negatively first That they had no respect of
Calvin no more than to the judgement of Wicklif Tyndall Barns or Frith whose offered assistance they refused when they went about it of which he sensibly complained unto some of his friends as appears by one of his Epistles I answer next affirmatively in the words of an Act of Parliament 2. 3. Edw. 6. where it is said That they had an eye in the first place to the mo pure and sincere Christian Religion taught in the Scriptures and in the next place to the usages of the Primitive Church Being satisfied in both which ways they had thirdly a more particular respect to the Lutheran Plat-forms the English Confession or Book of Articles being taken in many places word for word out of that of Ausberg and a conformity maintained with the Lutheran Churches in Rights and Ceremonies as namely in kneeling at the Communion the Cross in Baptism the retaining of all the ancient Festivals the reading of the Epistles and Gospels on Sundays and Holy-days and generally in the whole Form of External Worship Fourthly in reference to the points disputed they ascribed much to the Authority of Melancthon not undeservedly called the Phoenix of Germany whose assistance they earnestly desired whose coming over they expected who was as graciously invited hither by King Edwâ—rd the sixth Regiis literis in Angliam vocari as himself affirms in an Epistle to Camerarius His coming laid aside upon the fall of the Duke of Sommerset and therefore since they could not have his company they made use of his writings for their direction in such points of Doctrine in which they thought it necessary for the Church to declare her judgement 3. I observe finally That as they attributed much to the particulars to the Authority of Melancthon so they ascribe no less therein unto that of Erasmus once Reader of the Greek Tongue in Cambridge and afterwards one of the Professors of Divinity there whose Paraphrases on the four Evangelists being translated into English were ordered to be kept in Churches for the use of the People and that they owned the Epistles to be studied by all such as had cure of souls Concerning which it was commanded by the injunctions of King Edward the sixth published by the advice of the Lord Protector Somerset and the Privy Council in the first year of the said Kings Reign 1. ' That they should see provided in some most convenient and open place of every Church one Great Bible in English with the Paraphrase of Erasmus in English that the people might reverendly without any let read and hear the same at such time as they listed and not to be inhibited therefrom by the Parson or Curate but rather to be the more encouraged and provoked thereunto And 2. That every Priest under the degree of a Bachellour of Divinity should have of his own one New Testament in English and Latine with the Paraphrases of Erasmus upon the same and should diligently read and study thereupon and should collect and keep in memory all such comfortable places of the Scripture as do set forth the Mercy Benefits and Goodness of Almighty God towards all penitent and believing persons that they might thereby comfort their flock in all danger of death despair or trouble of Conscience and that therefore every Bishop in their Institution should from time to time try and examine them how they have profited in their studies ' A course and care not likely to have entred into the thoughts of the Lord Protector or any of the Lords of the Council if it had not been advised by some of the Bishops who then began to have an eye on the Reformation which soon after followed and as unlikely to be counselled and advised by them had they intended to advance any other Doctrine than what was countenanced in the writings of that learned man Whereupon I conclude the Doctrine in the points disputed to be the true and genuine Doctrine of the Church of England which comes most near to the plain sense of holy Scripture the general current of the Fathers in the Primitive times the famous Augustane Confession the Writings of Melancthon and the Workes of Erasmus To which Conclusion I shall stand till I finde my self encountred by some stronger Argument to remove me from it 4. The ground thus laid I shall proceed unto the Reformation which was built upon it first raking in my way some necessary preparations made unto it by H. 8. by whom it had been ordered in the year 1536. That the Creed the Lords Prayer and the ten Commandments should be recited publiquely by the Parish Priest in the English Tongue and all the Sundays and other Holidays throughout the year And that the people might the better understand the duties contained in them it pleased him to assemble his Bishops and Clergie in the year next following requiring them ' Upon the diligent search and perusing of Holy Scripture to set forth a plain and sincere Doctrine concerning the whole sum of all those things which appertain unto the Profession of a Christian man ' Which work being finished with very great care and moderation they published by the name of an Institution of a Christian man containing the Exposition or Interpretation of the common Word the seven Sacraments the Ten Commandments the Lords Prayer c. and dedicated â—t to the Kings Majestie ' Submitting to his most Excellent Wisdom and Exact Judgement to be by him recognized overseen and corrected if he found any word or sentence in â—t amiss to be qualified changed or further expounded in the plain setting-forth of his most vertuous desire and purpose in that behalf ' A Dedication publikely subscribed in the name of the rest by all the Bishops then being eight Archdeacons and seventeen Doctors of chief note in their several faculties Amongst which I finde seven by name who had a hand in drawing up the first Liturgie of King Edward the sixth that is to say Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury Goodrich Bishop of Ely Hobeach then Bishop of Rochester and of Lincoln afterwards Skip then Archdeacon of Dorset after Bishop of Hereford Roberson afterwards Dean of Durham as Maro was afterwards of S. Pauls and Cox of Westminster And I finde many others amongst them also who had a principal hand in making the first Book of Homilies and passing the Articles of Religion in the Convocation of the year 1552. and so it rested till the year 1643. when the King making use of the submission of the Book which was tendred to him corrected it in many places with his own hand as appeareth by the Book it self remaining in the famous Library of Sir Robert Cotton Which having done he sends it so corrected to Archbishop Cranmer who causing it to be reviewed by the Bishops and Clergie in Convocation drew up some Annotations on it And that he did for this intent as I heard exprest in one of his Letters bearing date June 25. of this present year because
the Book being to be set fâ—rth by his Graâ—es censure and judgement he would have nâ—thing therein that Momus himself could reprehend referring notwithstanding all his Annotations to his Majesties exacter judgement Nor staid it here but being committed by the King to both Houses of Parliament and by them very well approved of as appears by the Statutes of this year Cap. 1. concerning the Advancing of true Religion and the abolition of the contrary it was published again by the Kings command under the title of Neâ—essary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian man And it was published with an Epistle of the Kings before it directed to all his faithful and loving Subjects wherein it is affirmed 'To be a true Declaration of the true knowledge of God and his Word with the principal Articles of Religion whereby men may uniformly be led and taught the true understanding of that which is necessary for every Christian man to know for the ordering of himself in this life agreeable unto the will and pleasure of Almighty God ' 5. Now from these Books the Doctrine of Predestination may be gathered into these particulars which I desire the Reader to take notice of that he may judge the better of the Conformity which it hath with the established Doctrine of the Church of England 1. That man by his own nature was born in sin and in the indignation and displeasure of God and was the very childe of Wrath condemned to everlasting death subject and thrall to the power of the Devil and sin having all the principal parts or portions of his soul as Reason and understanding and free-wil and all other powers of his soul and body not onely so destituted and deprived of the gifts of God wherewith they were firstendued but also so blinded corrupted and poysoned with errour ignorance and carnal concupiscence that neither his said powers could exercise the natural function and office for which they were ordained by God at the first Creation nor could he by them do any thing which might be acceptable to God 2. That Jesus Christ the onely begotten Son of God the Father was eternally pre-ordained and appointed by the Decree of the Holy Trinity to be our Lord that is to say to be the onely Redeemer and Saviour of Mankinde and to reduce and bring the same from under the Dominion of the Devil and sin unto his onely Dominion Kingdom Lordship and Governance 3. That when the time was come in the which it was before ordained and appointed by the Decree of the Holy Trinity That Mankinde should be saved and redeemed then the Son of God the second Person in the Trinity and very God descended from Heaven into the world to take upon him the very habit form and nature of man and in the same nature to suffer his glorious Passion for the Redemption and Salvation of all Mankinde 4. That by this Passion and Death of our Saviour Jesus Christ not onely Corporal death is so destroyed that it shall never hurt us but rather that it is made wholesome and profitable unto us but also that all our sins and the sins also of all them that do believe in him and follow him be mortified and dead that is to say all the guilt and offence thereof as also the damnation and pains due for the same is clearly extincted abolished and washed away so that the same shall never afterwards be imputed and inflicted on us 5. That this Redemption and Justification of Mankinde could not have been wrought or brought to pass by any other means in the world but by the means of this Jesus Christ Gods onely Son and that never man could yet nor never shall be able to come unto God the Father or to believe in him or to attain his favour by his own wit and reason or by his own science and learning or by any his own works or by whatsosoever may be named in Heaven or Earth but by faith in the Name and Power of Jesus Christ and by the gifts and graces of his Holy Spirit 6. But to proceed the way to the ensuing Reformation being thus laid open The first great work which was accomplished in pursuance of it was the compiling of that famous Liturgie of the year 1549. commanded by King Edward the sixth that is to say the Lord Protector and the rest of the Privy Council acting in his Name and by his Authority performed by Archbishop Cramner and the other six before remembred assisted by Thirdby Bishop of Westminster Day Bishop of Chichester Ridley Bishop of Rochester Taylor then Dean after Bishop of Lincoln Redman then Master of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge and Hains Dean of Exeter all men of great abilities in their several stations and finally confirmed by the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in Parliament assembled 23 Edw. 6. In which Confirmatory act it is said expresly to have been done by the especial aid of the Holy Ghost which testimony I finde also of it in the Acts and Monuments fol. 1184. But being disliked by Calvin who would needs be meddling in all matters which concerned Religion and disliked it chiefly for no other reason as appears in one of his Epistles to the Lord Protector but because it savoured too much of the ancient forms it was brought under a review the cause of the reviewing of it being given out to be no other than that there had risen divers doubts in the Exercise of the said Book for the fashion and manner of the Ministration though risen rather by the curiosity of the Ministers and Mistakers then of any other cause 5 6 Edw. 6. cap. 1. The review made by those who had first compiled it though Hobeach and Redman might be dead before the confirmation of it by Act of Parliament some of the New Bishops added to the former number and being reviewed was brought into the same form in which now it stands save that a clause was taken out of the Letany and a sentence added to the destribution of the blessed Sacrament in the first year of Queen Elizabeth and that some alteration was made in two or three of the Rubricks with an addition of Thansgiving in the end of the Letany as also of a Prayer for the Queen and the Royal Issue in the first of King James 7. At the same time and by the same hands which gave us the First Liturgie of King Edward the sixth was the first Book of Homilies composed also in which I have some cause to think that Bishop Latimer was made use of amongst the rest as one who had subscribed the first other two Books before mentioned as Bishop of Worcester anno 1537. and ever since continued zealous for a Reformation quitting in that respect such a wealthy Bishoprick because he neither would nor could conform his judgement to the Doctrine of the six Articles Authorized by Parliament For it will easily appear to any who is
conversant in Latimers writings and will compare them carefully with the Book of Homilies that they do not onely savour of the same spirit in point of Doctrine but also of the same popular and familiar stile which that godly Martyr followed in the course of his preachings for though the making of these Homilies be commonly ascribed and in particularr by Mr. Fox to Archbishop Cranmer yet it is to be understood no otherwise of him then that it was chiefly done by encouragement and direction not sparing his own hand to advance the work as his great occasions did permit That they were made at the same time with King Edwards first Liturgie will appear as clearly first by the Rubrick in the said Liturgie it self in which it is directed that after the Creed shall follow the Sermon or Homily or some portion of one of them as they shall be hereafter divided It appears secondly by a Letter writ by Matrin Bucer inscribed To the holy Church of England and the Ministers of the same in the year 1549. in the very beginning whereof he lets them know That their Sermons â—r Homilies were come to his hands wherein they godlily and effectually exhort their people to the reading of Holy Scripture that being the scope and substance of the first Homily which occurs in that Book and thâ—rein expounded the sense of the faith whereby we hold our Christianity and Justification whereupon all our help consisteth and other most holy principles of our Religion with most godly zeal And as it is reported of the Earl of Gondomar Ambassador to King James from the King of Stain that having seen the eleganâ— disposition of the Rooms and Offices in Burleigh-House not far from Stansord erected by Sir William Cecâ—l principal Secretary of State and Lord Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth he very pleasantly affirmed That he was able to discern the excellent judgement of the great Statesman by the neat contrivance of his house So we may say of those who composed this Book in reference to the points disputed A man may easily discern of what judgement they were in the Doctrine of Predestination by the method which they have observed in the course of these Homilies Beginning first with a Discourse of the misery of man in the state of nature proceeding next to that of the salvation of mankinde by Christ our Saviour onely from sin and death everlasting from thence to a Declaration of a true lively and Christian faith and after that of good works annexed unto faith by which our Justification and Salvation are to be obtained and in the end descending unto the Homily bearing this inscription How dangerous a thing it is to fall from God Which Homilies in the same form and order in which they stand were first authorized by King Edward the sixth afterwards tacitly approved in the Rubrick of the first Liturgie before remembred by Act of Parliament and finally confirmed and ratified in the Book of Articles agreed upon by the Bishops and Clergie of the Convocation anno 1552. and legally confirmed by the said King Edward 8. Such were the hands and such the helps which co-operated to the making of the two Liturgies and this Book of Homilies but to the making of the Articles of Religion there was necessary the concurrence of the Bishops and Clergy assembled in Convocation in due form of Law amongst which there were many of those which had subscribed to the Bishops Book anno 1537. and most of those who had been formerly advised with in the reviewing of the Book by the Commandment of King Henry the eighth 1543. To which were added amongst others Dr. John Point Bishop of Winchester an excellent Grecian well studied with the ancient Fathers and one of the ablest Mathamaticians which those times produced Dr. Miles Coverdale Bishop of Exon who had spent much of his time in the Lutheran Churches amongst whom he received the degree of Doctor Mr. John Story Bishop of Rochester Ridley being then preferred to the See of London from thence removed to Chichester and in the end by Queen Elizabeth to the Church of Hereford Mr. Rob. Farran Bishop of St. Davids and Martyr a man much favoured by the Lord Protector Sommerset in the time of his greatness and finally not to descend to those of the lower Clergie Mr. John Hooker Bishop of Gloucester and Martyr of whose Exposition of the Ten Commandments and his short Paraphrase on Romans 13. we shall make frequent use hereafter a man whose works were well approved of by Bishop Ridley the most learned and judicious of all the Prelates who notwithstanding they differed in some points of Ceremony professeth an agreement with him in all points of Doctrine as appears by a Letter written to him when they were both Prisoners for the truth and ready to give up their lives as they after did in defence thereof Now the words of the Letter are as followeth But now my dear Brother forasmuch as I understand by your works which I have but superficially seen that we throughly agree and wholly consent together in those things which are the grounds and substantial points of our Religion against the which the world now so rageth in these our days Howsosoever in times past in certain by-matters circumstances of Religion your wisdom and my simplicity and ignorace have jarred each of us following the abundance of his own sense and judgement Now I say be you assured that even with my whole heart God is he witness in the bowels of Christ I love you in truth and for the truths sake that abideth in us and I am perswaded by the grace of God shall abide in us for evermore The like agreement there was also between Ridley and Cranmer Cranmer ascribing very much to the judgement and opinion of the learned Prelate as himself was not ashamed to confess at his Examination for which see Fox in the Acts and Monuments fol. 1702. 9. By these men and the rest of the Convocation the Articles of Religion being in number 41 were agreed upon ratified by the Kings Authority and published both in Latine and English with these following Titles viz. Articuli de quibus in Synodo Londinens A. D. 1552. ad tollendam opinionum dissentionem consensum verae Religionis firmandum inter Episcopos alios eruditos viros convenerat Regia authoritate Londin editi that is to say ' Articles agreed upon by the Bishops and other learned men assembled in the Synod at London anno 1552. and published by the Kings authority for the avoiding of diversities of opinions and for the establishing of consent to the loving of true Religion ' Amongst which Articles countenanced in Convocation by Queen Elizabeth an 1562. the Doctrine of the Church in the five controverted points is thus delivered according to the form and order which we have observed in the rest before 1. Of Divine Predestination Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby
forth according to a Statute in that behalf provided might be well said to be done in the Synod of London though such as were of the house had no notice thereof before the promulgation And thereupon he did infer That the setters forth of the Catechism did not slander the House as they went about to perswade the world since they had the Authority of the Synod unto them committed to make such Spiritual Laws as they thought convenient and necessary for the good of the Church In which discourse we may observe that there was not one word which reflects on the Book of Articles all of it being made in reference to the Catechism before remembred though if the Objection had been made as indeed it was not against the Articles themselves the defence of that learned man and godly Martyr would have served as fully for the one as it did for the other But whatsoever may be said in derogation to the Authority of the Book of Articles as it was published in the time of King Edward the sixth Anno Dom. 1552. certain I am that nothing can be said unto the contrary but that they were received and the far greater part of them agreed upon in full Convocation Anno 1562 And therefore for avoiding of all disputes I am resolved to take them in this last capacity as they were ratified by Queen Elizabeth Anno 1563. confirmed by King James Anno 1604. and finally established by the late King Charls with his Majesties Royal Declaration prefixt before them Anno 1628. 12. Less doubt there is concerning the intent of this Convocation in drawing up the Articles in so loose a manner that men of different judgements might accommodate them to their own opinions which I finde both observed and commended in them by the former Author by whom we are informed that the Articles of the English Protestant Church in the infancy thereof were drawn up in general terms foreseeing that posterity would grow up to fill the same meaning that these holy men did prudently discover that differences in judgement would unavoidably happen in the Church and were loth to unchurch any and drive them off from an Ecclesiastical communion for petty differences which made them pen the Articles in comprehensive words to take in all who differing in the branches meet in the root of the same Religion This hath been formerly observed to have been the artifice of those who had the managing of the Council of Trent and is affirmed to have been used by such men also as had the drawing up of the Canons at the Synod at Dort But the Composers of the Articles of the Church of England had not so little in them of the Dove or so much of the Serpent as to make the Articles of the Church like an upright shoe which may be worn on either foot or like to Therancâ—nes shoe as the Adage hath it fit for the foot of every man that was pleased to wear it and therefore we may say of our first Reformers in reference to the present Book of Articles as was affirmed of them by Dr. Brancroft then Bishop of London in relation to the Rubrick in private Baptism that is to say that those reverend and learned men intended not to deceive any by ambiguous terms for which see Conf. at Hampton Court p. 15. And to this supposition or imagination it is also answered That the first Reformers did not so compose the Articles as to leave any liberty to dissenting judgements as the said Author would fain have it in some words preceding but did not binde men to the literal and Grammatical sense they had not otherwise attained to the end they aimed at which was ad tollendam Opinionum Dissentionem consensum in vera Religione firmandum that is to say to take away diversity of opinions and to establish an agreement in the true Riligion Which end could never be effected if men were left unto the liberty of dissenting or might have leave to put their own sense upon the Articles as they list themselves For where there is a purpose of permitting men to their own opinions there is no need of definitions and determinations in a National Church no more than is of making Laws to binde the Subjects in an unsettled Common-wealth with an intent to leave them in their former liberty either of keeping or not keeping them as themselves best pleased Which said we shall enquire into the meaning of the Articles as before laid down whether they speak in favour of the Melancthonian or Calvinian way so far forth as the meaning of them can be gathered from the publique Liturgie and Book of Homilies or from the Writings of those men who either had a hand in the making of them or dyed in the Religion here by Law established CHAP. IX Of the Doctrine of Predestination delivered in the Articles the Homilies the publique Liturgies and the Writings of some of the Reformers 1. THe Articles differently understood by the Calvinian party and the true English Protestants with the best way to finde out the true seâ—se thereof 2. The definition of Predestination and the most considerable points contained in it 3. The meaning of those words in the Definition viz. Whom he hath chosen in Christ according to the Exposition of S. Ambrose S. Chrysostome S. Jerome as also of Archbishop Cranmer Bishop Latimer and the Book of Homilies 4. The Absolute Decree condemned by Bishop Latimer as a means to Licentiousness and Carnal living 5. For which and making God to be the Author of sin condemned as much by Bishop Hooper 6. Our Election to be found in Christ not sought for in Gods secret Counsels according to the judgement of Bishop Latimer 7. The way to finde out our Election delivered by the same godly Bishop and by Bishop Hooper with somewhat to the same purpose also from the Book of Homilies 8. The Doctrine of Predestination delivered by the holy Martyr John Bradford with Fox his gloss upon the same to corrupt the sense 9. No countenance to be had for any absolute personal and irrespective decree of Predestination in the publique Liturgie 10. An Answer to such passages out of the said Liturgie as seem to favour that opinion as also touching the number of Gods Elect. 1. THus have we seen the Doctrine of the Church of England in the five controverted Points according as it is delivered in the Book of Articles but in what sense we ought to understand it hath been made a Question Some take the Articles in the Literal and Graminacal sense which is the fairest and most approved way of Interpretation according to the saying of an ancient Writer That if the Literal sense of holy Scripture will stand with the Analogie of faith and piety it is to be preferred before any other Others they are of which his late Majestie complained who draw the Articles aside and put their own sense or comment to be the meaning
before the Communion in which we are required above all things 'To give most humble and hearty thanks to God the Father and the Holy Ghost for the Redemption of the world by the death and passion of our Saviour Christ both God and man who did humble himself even to the death upon the Cross for us miserable sinners which lay in darkness and the shadow of death ' More of which nature we shall finde in the second Article Look on the Collect in the form of publique Baptism in which we pray ' That whosoever is here dedicated unto God by our Office and Ministrey may also be endued with heavenly vertues and everlastingly rewarded through Gods mercy O blessed Lord God c. ' And in the Rubrick before Confirmation where it is said expresly That it is certain by Gods Word that children being baptized have all things necessary to their salvation and be undoubtedly saved Look on these passages and the rest and tell me any one that can whether the publique Liturgie of the Church of England speak any thing in favour of such a Personal and Eternal Election that is to say such an absolute irrespective and irreversible Decree of Predestination and that of some few onely unto life Eternal as is maintained and taught in the Schools of Calvin 10. Some passages I grant there are which speak of Gods people and his chosen people and yet intend not any such Personal and Eternal Election as these men conceit unto themselves Of which sort these viz. To declare and pronounce to his people being penitent O Lord save thy people and bless thy heritage that it would please thee to keep and bless all thy people and make thy chosen people joyful with many others interspers'd in several places But then I must affirm with all that those passages are no otherwise to be understood than of the whole body of the Church the Congregation of the faithful called to the publique participation of the Word and Sacraments Which appears plainly by the Prayer for the Church Militant here on earth where having called upon the Lord and said To all thy people give thy heavenly grace we are taught presently to adde especially to this Congregation here present that is to say the members of that particular Church which there pour forth their prayers for the Church in general More to their purpose is that passage in the Collect for the Feast of All-Saints where it is said That Almighty God hath knit together his Elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of his Son Jesus Christ though it doth signifie no more but that inseparable bond of Charity that Love and Unity that Holy Communion and Correspondency which is between the Saints in Glory in the Church Triumphant and those who are still exercised under the cares and miseries of this present life in the Church here Militant But it makes most unto their purpose if any thing could make unto their purpose in the Common-Prayer Book that at the burial of the dead we are taught to pray That God would please of his gracious goodness shortly to accomplish the number of his elect and to hasten his Kingdom From whence as possibly some may raise this inference That by the Doctrine of the Church of England there is a predestinated and certain number of Elect which can neither be increased nor diminished according to the third of the nine Articles which were agreed upon at Lambeth So others may perhaps conclude That this number is made up out of such Elections such Personal and Eternal Elections as they have fancied to themselves But there is nothing in the Prayer which can be useful to the countenancing of any such fancy the number of the Elect and the certainty of that number being known onely unto God in the way of his Prescience by which he seeth all things past and all things to come as if present with him And therefore having past a general Decree of Predestination touching the saving of all those which believe in Christ and knowing most infallibly who and how many of all Nations will believe in Christ continue in the faith to the end of their lives and consequently attain salvation The number of the persons so Predestinated is as well known unto him in the universal comprehension of his Heavenly Prescience as if they had been personally elected unto life Eternal the accomplishing of which number that so his Kingdom may be hastned and the hastning of his Kingdom that we with all the rest which are departed in the true faith of his holy Name may have our perfect Consummation and bliss both in body and soul is the scope and purpose of that Prayer And being the sole scope and purpose of it cannot imply such a Personal and Eternal Election as some men imagine though it conclude both for a number and for a certain number of Gods Elect. CHAP. X. The Doctrine of the Church concerning Reprobation and Universal Redemption 1. THe absolute Decree of Reprobation not found in the Articles of this Church but against it in some passages of the publike Liturgie 2. The cause of Reprobation to be found in a mans self and not in Gods Decrees according to the judgement of Bishop Latimer and Bishop Hooper 3. The Absolute Decrees of Election and Reprobation how contrary to the last clause in the seventeenth Article 4. The inconsistency of the Absolute Decree of Reprobation with the Doctrine of Universal Redemption by the death of Christ 5. The Universal Redemption of mankinde by the death of Christ declared in many places of the publique Liturgie and affirmed also in one of the Homilies and the Book of Articles 6. A further proof of it from the Mission of the Apostles and the Prayer used in the Ordination of Priests 7. The same confirmed by the writings of Archbishop Cranmer and the two other Bishops before mentioned 8. A Generality of the Promises and an Universality of Vocation maintained by the said two godly Bishops 9. The reasons why this benefit is not made effectual to all sorts of men to be found onely in themselves 1. AS the speaking of Heaven doth many times beget the discovery of Hell so the foregoing Discovery of Predestination to Eternal life conducts me to the speaking of a few words concerning the Doctrine of Reprobation Rejection Eternal Death a point of which the Church of England is utterly silent leaving it to be gathered upon Logical inferences from that which is delivered by her in the point of Election for contrariorum contraria est ratio as Logicians say though that which is so gathered ought rather to be called a Dereliction than a Reprobation No such absolute irreversible and irrespective Decree of Reprobation taught or maintained in any publique Monument or Record of the Church of England by which the far greater part of mankinde are pre-ordained and consequently pre-condemned to the Pit of torments without any respect had unto their
Grace of the Holy Ghost to preserve thee in vertue givest thanks for the goodness of God toward thee and all other He that knoweth less than this cannot be saved and he that knoweth no more than this if he follow his knowledge cannot be damned ' 7. But the main Controversie in the point of mans Conversion moves upon this hinge that is to say Whether the influences of Gods Grace be so strong and powerful that withal they are absolutely irresistible so that it is not possible for the will of man not to consent unto the same Calvin first harped upon this string and all his followers since have danced to the tune thereof Illud toties à Chrysostomo repetitum repudiari necesse est Quem trahit volentem trahit quo insinuat Dominum porrecta tantum manu expectare an suo auxilio juvari nobis adlubescat These words saith he so often repeated by Chrysostome viz. That God draws none but such as are willing to go are to be condemned the Father intimating by those words that God expecteth onely with an outstretched and ready arm whether we be willing or not In which though he doth not express clearly the good Fathers meaning yet he plainly doth declare his own insinuating that God draws men forcibly and against their will to his Heavenly Kingdom Gomarus one of later date and a chief stickler in these Controversies comes up more fully to the sense which Calvin drives at For putting the question in this manner An gratia hac datur vi irresistibili id est efficaci operatione DEI ita ut voluntas ejus qui regeneratur facultatem non habeat illi resistendi He answereth presently Credo profiteor ita esse that is to say his question is ' Whether the Grace of God be given in an irresistible manner that is to say with such an efficacious operation that the will of him who is to be regenerated hath not the power to make resistance ' And then the answer follows thus ' I believe and profess it to be so ' More of which kinde might be produced from other Authors but that this serves sufficiently to set forth a Doctrine which is so little countenanced by the burning and most shining lights of the Church of England 8. Beginning first with Bishop Hooper we shall finde it thus ' It is not saith he a Christian mans part to attribute his salvation to his own Freewil with the Pelagian and extenuate Original sin nor to make God the Author of ill and damnation with the Maniche nor yet to say that God hath written Fatal Laws and with necessity of Destiny violently pulleth the one by the hair into heaven and thrusteth the other headlong into hell c. More fully in his glosse on the text of Saint John viz. No man cometh to me except my Father draw him chap. 6. 44. Many saith he understand these words in a wrong sence as if God required no more in a reasonable man than in a dead post and mark not the words which follow Every man that heareth and learneth of my Father commeth unto me c. God draweth with his Word and the holy Ghost but mans duty is to hear and learn that is to say to receive the grace offered consent to the promise and not to impugne the God that calleth ' More fully but to the same purpose also speaks Bishop Latimer ' Gods salvation saith he is sufficient to save all mankinde But we are so wicked of our selves that we refuse the same and we will not take it when 't is offered unto us and therefore he saith pauci vero electi few are chosen that is few have pleasure and delight in it for the most part are weary of it cannot abide it and there are some that hear it but they will abide no danger for it And in few lines after thus Such men are cause of their own damnation for God would have them saved but they refuse it like Judas the traytor whom Christ would have had to be saved but he refused his salvation he refused to follow the Doctrine of his Master Christ ' The like occurs in another place of the same Sermon where we finde ' that seeing the preaching of the Gospel is universal it appeareth that God would have all mankind saved and that the fault is not in him if they be damned For thus it is written Deus vult omnes homines salvos fieri God would have all men to be saved but we are so wicked of our selves that we refuse the same and will not take notice of it when 't is offered ' 9. And here for strength and confirmation unto all the rest we are to know that these two godly Martyrs have delivered no other Doctrine than what is positively expressed or may be rationally inferred both from the tenth Article of King Edwards Book and the Book of Homilies And first for the tenth Article of King Edwards Book it is this that followeth viz. Gratia Christi sive Spiritus Sanctus qui per eundem datur cor lapideum aufert dat cor â—arneum Atque licet ex nol â—tibus quae recta sunt volentes faciat ex voleâ—tibus prava nolentes reddat Voluntati tamen nullam violentiam infert nâ—mo hac de causa cum pe caverit ut eam ob causum accusari non meretaur aut damnar That is to say ' The Grace of Christ or the Holy Ghost which is given by him doth take from man the heart of stone and giveth him a heart of flesh And though it rendreth us willing to do those good works which before we were unwilling to do and unwilling to do those evil works which before we did yet is no violence offered by it to the will of man so that no man when he hath sinned can excuse himself as if he had sinned against his will or upon constraint and therefore that he ought not to be accused or condemned upon that account ' The composition of which Article doth most clearly shew that our first Reformers did as little countenance that Doctrine of the Irresistibility of Gods grace in its workings on the will of man which the Calvinians now contend for as they did the Dreams and Dotages of some Zuinglian Gospellers into whose writings if we look we shall easily find that Gods divine Predestination is by them made the cause of sinne by which men are necessitated and compelled to those acts of wickednesse which they so frequently commit By the vertue of Gods will saith one all things are done yea even those things which are evil and execrable By Gods Predestination saâ—th another we are compelled to do those things for which we are damned as will appear more fully in the sixteenth Chapter when the extravagancies of the Predestinaâ—ians come to be considered And it is probable enough that to encounter with these monstrous Paradoxes of the Zuinglian Gospellers this Article was
first composed in which Provision seemes to have been made against all those who taught that men sinned against their wills or upon constraint or that men might excuse themselves from the blame thereof upon that consideration If any of the Calvinian factions can finde any thing in this Article against Arminianisme as they call it or in defence of the determining of the will by converting grace or the consistency of the freedome or liberty of the will much good may it do them But then they should think themselves obliged to give a better reason than I think they can why this Article is not to be found in the Book as now it is printed Either this Article was not made in favour of Calvinisme when it was published with the rest in King Edwards time or the Reformers of the Church under Queen Elizabeth were no friends to Calvinisme in causing it to be left out in the second Book Anno 1562. to which subscription is required by the Lawes of the Land 10. Proceed we next unto the Book of Homilies in the one of which we find this passage ' that few of the proud learned wife perfect and holy Pharisees were saved by Christ because they justified themselves by their counterfeit holinesse before men ' And in another thus ' But the corrupt inclination of man was so much given to follow his own fancies and as you would say to favour his own bâ—rd that he worships himself that all the admonitions exhortations benefits and the precepts of God could not keep him from their intent on ' More clearly and expressely in another place where after the recitation of some pious duties by God commended to the Jewes the Homily proceeds in this manner following ' But these things they passed not of they turned their backs and went their way they stopped their eares that they might not hear and they hardned their hearts as an adamant stone that they might not listen to the Law and the words that the Lord had sent through his holy Spirit wherefore the Lord shewed his great indignation upon them It came to passe saith the Prophet even as I told them and they would not hear so when they cryed they were not heard but were scattered into all Kingdoms which they never knew and their land was made desolate And to be short all they that may not abide the Word of God but following the perswasions and stubbornnesse of their own hearts go backward and not forward as is said in Jeremy they go and turne away from God ' Nor is this spoken only of such a temporary resistance as may be overcome at last by the unconquerable power of the Spirit of God but even of such an obstinate and perverse resistance as in the end will lead the way to a final Apostacy an unrecoverable forsaking of God and being as irrecoverably forsaken by him Of which we shall speak more at large in the fifth and last Article concerning the uncertainty of perseverance CHAP. XII The Doctrine of Freewil agreed upon by the Clergie in their Convocation An. 1543. 1. OF the Convocation holden in the year 1543. in order to the Reformation of Religion in points of Doctrine 2. The Article of Freewil in all the powers and workings of it agreed on by the Prelates and Clergie of that Convocation agreeable to the present Doctrine of the Church of England 3. An Answer to the first Objection concerning the Popishness of the Bishops and Clergie in that Convocation 4. The Article of Freewil approved by King Henry the eighth and Archbishop Cranmer 5. An Answer to the last Objection concerning the Conformity of the Article to the present Established Doctrine in the Church of Rome 1. BUt First I am to take in my way another evidence whiâ—h though it hath not so directly the force of Law to binde us to consent unto it and perhaps may not be considered amongst the Monuments and Records of the Reformation yet it speaks plainly the full sense of our first Reformers I speak this of a pithy but short Discourse touching the nature of Freewil contained amongst some others in the Book published by the Authority of King Henry the eighth in the year 1543. entituled A necessary Doctrine and Erudition for all Christian men Concerning which as we have spoke at large already in Chap. 8. of this Work so now we must adde something touching this particular of which there was no notice taken in the Bishops Book For when the Bishops Book which had been printed in the year 1537. under the title of An Institution for a Christian man had for some time continued without alteration it was brought under the review of the Bishops and Clergie assembled in their Convocation anno 1543. and having been reviewed in all the parts and members of it a particular Treatise touching the nature of Freewil which in those times had exercised the greatest wits Of which I finde this Memorandum in the Acts of the Convocation that is to say That on Monday being the last of April Lecto publice exposuo Articulo Liberi Arburii in vulgari c. The Article of Freâ—wil being read and publiquely expounded in the English Tongue the most Reverend Archbishops delivered it into the hands of the Prolocutor to the end that he should publish it before the Clerks of the lower House of Convocation as is accustomed in such cases Quo lecto per eos approbato which being read and approved by them it was returned with the residue to the upper House of Convocation with this Approbation Quod pro Catholicis Religiosis acceperunt nâ—c non gratias in gentes patribus egerunt quâ—d tanâ—â—s labores sudores vigilias Religionis Reipublicae causa unitatis gratia subicraâ—t that is to say that they embraced them all for sound and Orthodox rendring unto the Fathers there most humble thanks for the great care and pains which they had undertaken for the good of the Church and Commonwealth and the preserving of peace and unity amongst the people Which passage I have at large laid down to shew by whose hands and by what Authority as well the Book it self which we have spoken of before as this particular Treatise in it was at first fashioned and set forth And that being said I shall first present the Treatise or Discourse it self and after Answer such Objections as either prejudice or partiality may devise against it Now the Article followeth in hac verba The Article of Freewil 2. THe Commandments and threatnings of Almighty God in Scripture whereby man is callâ—d upon and put in remembrance what God would have him to do most evidently do expresse and declare that man hath Free-will also now after the fall of our first father Adam as plainly appeareth in these places following Be not overcome of evil neglect not the grace that is in thee Love not the world c. If thou wilt
they ought earnestly and with a fervent devotion and stedfast faith to aske of him which gave the beginning that he would vouchsafe to performe it which thing God will undoubtedly grant according to his promise to such as persevere in calling upon him For he is naturally good and willeth all men to be saved and careth for them and provideth all things by which they may be saved except BY THEIR OWN MALICE they will be evil and so by the righteous judgement of God perish and be lost For truly men be to themselves the AUTHOR OF SIN and DAMNATION God is neither the AUTHOR of SIN nor the CAUSE OF DAMNATION And yet doth he most righteously damne those men that do with vices corrupt their nature which he made good and do abuse the same to evil desires against his most holy will wherefore men be to be warned that they do not impute to God their vice or their damnation but to themselves who by Free-will have abused the grace and benefits of God All men be also to be monished and chiefly Preachers that in this high matter they looking on both sides so attemper and moderate themselves that neither they so preach the Grace of God as to take away thereby Free-will Nor on the other side so extol Free-will that injury be done to the grace of God 3. Such was the judgment of the Bishops and Clergy assembled in Convocation An. 1543. touching the nature of Free-will and the co-operations of it with the grace of God In which I can see nothing not agreeable to the present establisht Doctrine of the Church of England And if it be objected as perhaps it may that this Convocation was held in times of Popery and managed by a Popish Clergy it may be answered that the Bishops and Clergy then assembled were such as had a principal hand in the Reformation and generally subscribed unto the Articles of Religion agreed upon and published in King Edwards time Anno 1552. At which time fifteen of the Bishops which had been present at the Convocation Anno 1543. were not only living but present and consenting to the Articles in King Edwards time that is to say Cranmer Arch-bishop of Canterbury Parfew Bishop of Saint Asaph Buchely Bishop of Bangor Bush Bishop of Bristol Sampson Bishop of Litchfield Butler Bishop of Saint David Goodrich Bishop of Elie Ship Bishop of Hereford Folgate Bishop of Landaff and afterwards Arch-bishop of York King Bishop of Oxon Chambers Bishop of Peterborough Cepon Bishop of Sarum Thiâ—bly then Bishop of Westminster Aldrich then Bishop of Caerlile and Bird Bishop of Chester By which proportion we may conclude that a farre greater number of the Deans and Arch-deacons who have a personal right of voting in all Convocations and coming to the number of eighty and thereabouts must be living and consenting also to the Reformation as being younger men than the Bishops were not to say any thing of the Clerks or Procurates of Cathedral Churches and those of the Diocesan Clergy as being variable and changeable from time to time though possibly a great part of them might be present and consenting also 1552. Nor stood this Book nor the Article of Free-will therein contained upon the order and authority only of this Convocation but had as good countenance and encouragement to walk abroad as could be superadded to it by an Act of Parliament as appears plainly by the Kings Preface to that Book and the Act it self to which for brevity sake I refer the Reader 4. But if it be replyed that there is no relying on the Acts of Parliament which were generally swayed changed and over-ruled by the power and passions of the King and that the Act of Parliament which approved this Book was repealed in the first year of King Edward the sixth as indeed it was we might refer the Reader to a passage in the Kings Epistle before remembred in which the doctrine of Free-will is affirmed to have been purged of all Popish errors concerning which take here the words of the Epistle viz. And forasmuch as the heads and senses of our people have been imbusied and in these days travelled with the understanding of Free-will Justification c. We have by the advice of our Clergy for the purgation of Erroneous Doctrine declared and set forth openly plainly and without ambiguity of speech the meere and certaine truth of them so as we verily trust that to know God and how to live after his pleasure to the attaining of everlasting life in the erd this Book containeth a perfect and sufficient Doctrine grounded and established in holy Scriptures And if it be rejoyned as perhaps it may that King Henry used to shift opinion in matters which concerned Religion according unto interest and reason of State it must be answered that the whole Book and every Tract therein contained was carefully corrected by Arch-bishop Cranmer the most blessed instrument under God of the Reformation before it was committed to the Prolocutor and the rest of the Celrgy For proof whereof I am to put the Reader in minde of a Letter of the said Archbishop relating to the eighth Chapter of this Book in which he signified to an honourable friend of his that he had taken the more paines in it because the Book being to be set forth by his Graces that is to say the Kings censure and judgement he could have nothing in it that Momus himself could reprehend as before was said And this I hope will be sufficient to free this Treatise of Free-will from the crime of Popery 5. But finally if notwithstanding all these Reasons it shall be still pressed by those of the Calvinian party that the Doctrine of Free-will which is there delivered is in all points the same with that which was concluded and agreed on in the Council of Trent as appears Cap. de fructibus justificationis merito bonorum operum Can. 34. and therefore not to be accounted any part of the Protestant Doctrine which was defended and maintained by the Church of England according to the first Rules of her Reformation the answers will be many and every answer not without its weight and moment For first it was not the intent of the first Reformers to depart farther from the Rites and Doctrines of the Church of Rome than that Church had departed from the simplicity both of Doctrine and Ceremonies which had been publickly maintained and used in the Primitive times as appears plainly by the whole course of their proceedings so much commended by King James in the Conference at Hampton Court Secondly this Doctrine must be granted also to be the same with that of the Melancthonian Divines or moderate Lutherans as was confessed by Andreas Vega one of the chief sticklers in the Council of Trent who on the agitating of the Point did confesse ingenuously that there was no difference betwixt the Lutherans and the Church touching that particular And then it must be confessed also
and in all such cases that is to say that neither the great grace nor his infinite mercy shall be wanting at any time unto such as are fallen from God or that man shall not be wanting to himself in making a right use of it to his rising again And then this passage in the Homily will affirme no more to this purpose than the Article doth where it is said that after we have received the holy Ghost we may depart from grace given and fall into sinne and by the grace of God we may arise again and amend our lives 5. Now to these testimonies from the Homilies the publick Liturgy and the writings of the learned men and godly Martyrs before remembred it will not be amisse to adde one more that is to say Master Lancelot Ridley Arch-Deacon of Cantenbury who by his name seemes to have had relation to Doctor Nicholas Ridley Bishop of London and by his office to Doctor Cranmer Arch-bishop of Canterbury the two chief Agents in the work of the Reformation This man had published some Expositions on Saint Pauls Epistles to the Ephesians and Philippians as he did afterwards on that to the Collossians also which last was printed by Richard Grafton 1548. At which time both the first Liturgy and the first Book of Homilies were in force and practice and therefore was not like to containe any point of Doctrine repugnant unto either of them And if we look upon him in his Comment upon the Epistle we shall finde him thus declare himself in the points disputed which I will lay all together according to the method formerly observed in setting down the Articles or points themselves For first in reference to Election unto life eternal he telleth us ' That all fulnesse of the Father is called to dwell in Christ that all men should know all the goodnesse they have to come of God by Christ to them that all that believe in Christ should not perish but be saved and should have life everlasting by Christ with the Father ' And afterwards speaking on those vertues which Saint Paul commends in the Elect he tells us ' that those vertues do shew unto us who be elected of God and who not as farre as man can judge of outward things and that those men may be concluded to be elected of God who hate all vice and sinne that love vertue and godly living and in it do walk all their life-time by true faith and works of the spirit ' 2. More plainly doth he speak in the second place of Universal Redemption telling us that ' all men which either for their Original sinne or for their Actual sinne were out of Gods favour and had offended God should by Christ only be reconciled to Gods favour and have remission of their sinnes and he made partakers of everlasting life that Christs death was a full and sufficient satisfaction for the sinnes of the whole world and for all them that shall be sanctified and saved that Christ by his death once for all hath fully and perfecty satisfied for the sinnes of all men and finally that therefore this is an undoubted truth ever to be believed of all Christians that Christ by his Passion and and Death hath taken away all the sinnes of the world ' 6. In the next place he puts the question with reference to the application of so great a benefit for what causes God would not have his Word preached unto the Gentiles till Christs time and makes this answer thereunto First ' that it is a point not to be too curiously searched or enquired after Secondly that it is enough for us to know that it was so ordered by Gods Will and for his glory But thirdly that it might yet be done either because by their sins they had deserved their blindnesse and damnation as indeed they had or that God saw their hard hearts or their stiff necks and that they would not have received it before Christs coming if the Gospel had been preached unto them or finally that God reserved that mystery unto the coming of our Saviour Christ that by him all goodnesse should be known to come to us c. ' As for the necessary influences of Gods Grace and mans co-working with the same he telleth us briefly ' that no man ought to ascribe the good works that he doth to himself or to his own might and power but to God the Author of all goodnesse but then withall that it is not enough for men to have knowledge of Christ and his benefits but that they must encrease in the knowledge of God which knowlege cometh by Gods Word And finally as to the point of falling away he gives us first the example of Demas who as long as all things were prosperous with S. Paul was a faithful minister to him and a faithful Disciple of Christ but when he saw Paul cast into prison he forsook Paul and his Doctrine and followed the world then he inferreth that many such there be in the world c. ' of whom speaketh Christ Matâ—h 13. ' Many for a time do believe but in time of tribulations they shrink away And finally he concludes with this advice that he that standeth should look that he did not fall and that he do not trust too much to his own might and power for if he did he should deceive himself and have a fall as Demas had ' And so much for the judgment and opinion of Master L. Ridley in the points disputed who being Arch-deacon of Canterbury as before was said may be presum'd to be one of those who concurred in Convocation to the making of the Articles of K. Edwards Book 1552. to finde the true and natural meaning of which Articles we have took this pains CHAP. XV. Of the Author and Authority of King Edwards Chatechisme as also of the Judgement of Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr in the Points disputed 1. THE Catechisme published by the Authority of King Edward the sixth Anno 1553. affirmed to have been writ by Bishop Poinet and countenanced by the rest of the Bishops and Clergy 2. Several passages collected out of that Catechisme to prove that the Calvinian Doctrines were the true genuine and ancient Doctrines of the Church of England 3. With a discovery of the weakness and impertinency of the Allegation 4. What may most probably be conceived to have been the judgement of Bishop Poinet in most of the Controverted Points 5. An Answer to another Objection derived from Mr. Bucer and Peter Martyr and the influence with their Auditors and Disciples are supposed to have had in the Reformation 6. That Bucer was a man of moderate Counsels approving the first Liturgy of King Edward the sixth assenting to the Papists at the Dyet of Ratisbone in the possibility of falling from grace and that probably Peter Martyr had not so far espoused the Calvinian quarrels when he lived in Oxon as after his return to
she cannot be understood by the â—ight of Sense or Nature is justly placed amongst the number of those things which are to be believed and is therefore called the Catholick that is the universal Assembly of the faithful because it is not tyed to any certain place God who rules and governs all things can do all things No man is of so great power that he can so much as withstand him but he gives whatsoever he shall decree according to his own pleasure and those things which are given to us by him he is able to take them away ' 4. ' After the Lord God had made the Heaven and Earth he determined to have for himself a most beautiful Kingdom and holy Common-wealth The Apostles and Ancient Fathers that writ in Greek called it Ecclesia in English a Congregation or Assembly into the which he hath admitted an infinite number of men that should be subject to one King as their Soveraign and only Head him we call Christ which is as much as to say Anointed or to the furnishing of this Common-wealth belong all they as many as do truely fear honour and call upon God daily applying their minds to holy and godly living and and all those that putting all their hope and trust in him do assuredly look for bliâ—s of everlasting life But as many as are in this Faith stedfast were fore-chosen predestinate and appointed to everlasting life before the world was made witness whereof they have within their hearts the merit of Christ the Authour earnest and unfallable pledge of their Faith which Faith only is able to perceive the mysteries of God only brings peace unto the heart only taketh hold on the Righteousness which is in Christ Jesus Master ' Doth then the Spirit alone and Faith sleep we never so securely or stand we never so wrestless or slothfull work all things for us as without any help of our own to convey us to heaven Scholar ' Just Master as you have taught me to make a difference between the Cause and the Effect The first principal and most proper cause of our Justification and Salvation is the goodness and love of God whereby he chose us for his before he made the world After that God granteth us to be called by preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ when the Spirit of the Lord is poured upon us by whose guiding and governance we be led to settle our trust in God and hope for the performance of his promise With this choice is joyned as companion the mortifying of the Old man that is of our affections and Iusts from the same Spirit also cometh our Sanctification the love of God and of our neighbour justice and uprightness of life Finally to say all in summe whatever is in us or may be done of us honest pure true and good that altogether springeth out of this most pleasant Rock from this most plentiful Fountain the goodness love choice and unchangeable purpose of God he is the cause the rest are the fruits and effects Yet are also the choice and Spirit of God and Christ himself causes conioyned and coupled each with other which may be reckoned amongst the principal causes of salvation As oft therefore as we use to say that we are made righteous and saved by Faith only it is meant thereby that faith or rather trust alone doth lay hard upon understand and perceive our righteous making to be given us of God freely that is to say by no deserts of our own but by the free grace of the Almighty Father Moreover Faith doth ingender in us love of our neighbour and such works as God is pleased withall For if it be a lively and true Faith quickned by the Holy Ghost she is the Mother of all good saying and doing by this short tale it is evident by what means we attain to be righteous For not by the worthiness of our deservings were we heretofore chosen or long ago saved but by the only mercy of God and pure grace of Christ our Lord whereby we were in him made to do those good works that God had appointed for us to walk in And although good works cannot deserve to make us righteous before God yet do they so cleave unto Faith that neither Faith can be found without them nor good works be any where found without Faith immortality and blessed life God hath provided for his chosen before the foundations of the world were laid ' 3. These are the passages which Mr. Prin hath gathered out of Poynets Catechism to prove that Calvinism is the true genuine and Original Doctrine of the reformed Church of England in the Points disputed for my part I can see no possible inconvenience which can follow on it in yeilding so far to his desires as to admit the passages before recited to be fully consonant to the true genuine sense and proper meaning of all but more especially of our 9. 10. 13. 16. and 17. Articles then newly composed so that whatsoever is positively and clearly affirmed in this Catechisme of any of the Points now controverted may be safely implied as the undoubted Doctrine of our Church and Articles For who can find if he looks upon them with a single and impartial eye that all or any of the passages before treated can be made use of for the countenancing of such a personal and eternal election without relation unto sin as is supposed by the Supra-Lapsarians or without reference to Christs death and sufferings as is defended by the Sublapsarians in the Schools of Calvin what ground can a man find here for the Horribile Decretum that cruel and most unmerciful decree of preordaining the far greatest part of all mankind to everlasting damnation and consequently unto sin that they might be damned What passage find we in all these either in opposition to the Doctrine of Vniversal Redemption though that be afore said to be here condemned or in maintenance of the irresistible working of the grace of God as takes away all freedom and cooperation from the will of man and renders him as unable to his own conversion as to the work of his own being begotten to the life of nature or to the raising of his dead body to life of glory And finally what assurance is here that the man once justified shall not fal into deadly sin or not continue in the same multiplying one sin upon another till he hath made up the measure of his iniquities and yet all this while remain in the favour of God and be as sure and certain of his own salvation by the like unresistible working of the holy Spirit as if he had never wandred from the ways of Righteousness He must see further into a Milstone then all men living who can conclude from all or any of these passages that the Zuinglian and Calvinian Doctrines the Anti Arminian Doctrines as that Author calls them are manifestly approved and undeniably confirmed by
Gospel viz. How many a time and oft have I assayed to gather thy children together and to joyn them to my self none otherwise then the hen gathereth her chickens under her wings that they may not miscarry But thy stubborness hath gone beyond my goodness and as though thou hadst even vow'd and devoted thy self to utter ruine so dost thou refuse all things whereby thou mighâ—est be recovered and made whole And finally as to the possibility of falling from the faith of Christ he thus declares himself in the Exposition of our Saviours Parable touching the sower and the seed viz. There is another sort of men which greedily hear the word of the Gospel and set it deep enough in their mind and keep it long but their minds being entangled and choaked with troublesome cares of this world and especially of riches as it were with certain thick thorns they cannot freely follow that he â—â—veth because they will not suffer these thornes which cleave together and be entangled one with another among themselves to be cut away the fruit of the seed which is sowen doth utterly perish Which being so either we must conclude the doctrine of this Church in the Book of Articles to be the same with that which is contained in the Paraphrases of this learned man or else condemn the godly Bishops of this Church and the religious Princes above mentioned of a great imprudence in recommending them to the diligent and careful reading both of â—â—iest and People HISTORIA QVINQV ARTICVLARIS OR A DECLARATION Of the Judgement of the WESTERN CHVRCHES And more particularly of the CHURCH of ENGLAND In the five Controverted Points Reproached in these last Times by the name of Arminianisme PART III. CONTAINING The first Breakin gs out of the Predestinarians in the Church of England and the Pursuance of those Quarrels from the Reign of King EDWARD the sixth to the death of King JAMES By P. HEYLIN D. D. LONDON Printed for T. Johnson at the sign of the Key in Pauls Church-yard 1660. PART III. CHAP. XVI Of the first Breakin gs out of the Predestinarians and their Proceedings in the same 1. THE Predestinarians called at first by the name of Gospellers 2. Campneys a professed enemy to the Predestinarians but neither Papist nor Pelagtan 3. The common practises of the Calvinists to defame their Adversaries the name of Free will men to whom given why 4. The Doctrine of John Knox. in restraining all mens actions either good or evil to the determinate Will and Counsel of God 5. The like affirmed by the Author of the Table of Predestination in whom and the Genevian Notes we find Christ to be excluded from being the foundation of mans Election and made to be an inferiour cause of salvation only 6. God made to be the Author of sin by the Author of a Pamphlet entituled against a Privy Papist and his secret Counsels called in for the proof thereof both by him and Knox with the mischiefs which ensued upon it 7. The Doctrine of Robert Crowly imputing all mens sins to Predestination his silly defences for the same made good by a distinction of John Verons and the weakness of that distinction shewed by Campneys 8. The Errours of the former Authors opposed by Campneys his book in answer to those Errours together with his Orthodoxie in the point of universal Redemption and what he builds upon the same 9. His solid Arguments against the imputing of all actions either good or evil to Predestination justified by a saying of Prosper of Aquitaine 10. The virulent prosecutions of Veron and Crowly according to the Genius of the sect of Calvin THus we have seen the Doctrine of the Church of England in the five â—nntroverted points according to the Principles perswasions of the first Reformers And to say truth it was but time that they should come to some conlusion in the points disputed there being some men who in the beginning of the Reign of King Edward the sixth busily stickled in the maintenance of Calvins Doctrines And thinking themselves to be more Evangelical then the rest of their brethren they either took unto themselves or had given by others the name of Gospellers Of this they were informed by the reverent Prelate and right godly Martyr Bishop Hooper in the Preface to his Exposition of the ten Commandments Our Gospellors saith he be better learned then the holy Ghost for they wickedly attribute the cause of Punishments and Adversity to Gods Providence which is the cause of no ill as he himself can do no ill and over every mischief that is done they say it is Gods Will. In which we have the men and their Doctrine how the name of Gospellers and the reason why that name was ascribed unto them It is observed by the judicious Author of the Book called Europae Speculum that Calvin was the first of these latter times who searcht into the Counsels the eternal Counsels of Almighty God And as it seems he found there some other Gospel then that which had been written by the four Evangelists from whence his followers in these Doctrines had the name of Gospellers for by that name I find them frequently called by Campneys also in an Epistolary Discourse where he clears himself from the crimes of Popery and Pelagianism which some of these new Gospellers had charged upon him which had I found in none but him it might have been ascribed to heat or passion in the agitation of these quarrels but finding it given to them also by Bishod Hooper a temperate and modest man I must needs look upon it as the name of the Sect by which they were distinguished from other men 2. And now I am fallen upon this Campneys it will not be unnecessary to say something of him in regard of the great part he is to act on the stage of this business Protestant he was of the first edition cordially affected to the Doctrine of the Church of England in the present points but of a sharp and eager spirit And being not well weaned from some points of Popery in the first dawning of the day of our Reformation he gave occasion unto some of those whom he had exasperated to inform against him that they prosecuted the complaint so far that he was forced to bear a faggot at St. Pauls Cross as the custome was in all such cases Miles Coverdale then or not long after Bishop of Exon preaching a Sermon at the same But whatsoever he was then in other Doctrinals he hath sufficiently purged himself from the crimes of Popery and Pelagianism wherewith he had been charged by those of the adverse party For whereas one William Samuel had either preached or written in Queen Maries time That a man might deserve God c. Campneys beholds it for a doctrine so blasphemous and abominable that neither Papists nor Pelagians nor any other Heretick old or new hath ever written or maintained a more filthy and execrable saying For
Doctrine get as good countenance to it as he could within a time especially intent on suppressing Popery might be no hard matter for him to doe And as to that part of the objections which Relates to Campneys and his suppressing of his Name I look upon it as a high part of wisdom in him in regard of the Great sway which the Calvinians had at their first coming over the prejudice conceived against him for his slipps and sufferings in the raigne of K. Edward and the Authority of the men against whom he writ Veron a Chaplaine to the Queen Crowly of Great esteem in London for his diligent preaching and Knox the great Directer of the Kirke of Scotland CHAP. XVII Of the Disputes amongst the Confessors in Prison in Queen Maries dayes and the Resetling of the Church on her former principles under Queen Elizabeth 1. THe Doctrine of Predestination disputed amongst the Confessors in Prison in Queen Maries dayes 2. The Examination of John Carelese before Dr. Martin in reference to the said Disputes 3. Considerations on some passages in the conference betwixt Dr. Martin and the said John Carelesse 4. Review made of the publick Liturgie by the command of Queen Elizabeth and the Paraphrases of Erasmus commended to the reading both of Priest and People 5. The second book of Homilies how provided for and of the liberty taken by the Gospellers and Zuinglian Sectaries before the reviewing and confirming of the Book of Articles by the Queens Authority 6. Of the reviewing and authority of the Book of Articles Anno 1562. and what may be from thence inferred 7. An answer from the Agreement drawn from omitting the ninth Article of King Edwards Book the necessity of giving some content to the Zuinglian Gospellers and the difficulty wherewith they were induced to subscribe the Book at the first passing of the same 8. The Argument taken from some passages in the English Catechisme set forth by Mr. Alexander Powell and the strength thereof 9. Several considerations on the said Catechisme and the rest of the Authours making and what his being Prolocutor in the convocation might adde to any of them in point of Orthodoxie 10. Nothing to be collected out of the first passage in Mr. Powells Catechism in favour of the Calvinian doctrine of Predestination and the points depending thereupon and lesse then nothing in the second if it be understood according to the Authours meaning and the determination of the Church 1. MOre calmly and with lesse deviation from the Doctrine of the Church of England were the same points disputed in Queen Maries dayes amongst the Confessors in Prison which coming to the knowledge of the Queen and her Councel a Commission was granted to one Dr. Martin a busie man in all such matters as appears by the story to make enquiry amongst many other things into this particular and he according to the power given by the commission convents before her one John Carelese borne at Coventry of no better quality then a weaver yet one that was grown very able to expresse himself when the matter came to examination by which examination it appears that as Carelese somewhat differed in the Doctrine of Predestination and the point depending thereupon from the Church assembled according as it was established in King Edwards time so Trew another of the Prisoners but of what quality or condition I am yet to seek seemes more inclinable to that opinion if Carelese understood them rightly which was defended all that time by the Popish Clergie And that the Reader may perceive the better how the difference stood I shall lay down so much of the conference between Dr. Martin and the Prisoner as concernes this businesse leaving the Reader to admire at Gods infinite goodnesse giving poor unlettered men such a measure of Christian courage as might enable them to speak both stoutly and discreetly in their greatest troubles Now the said conference was as followeth 2. The Examination of John Carelese before Doctor Martin Carelese I could wish that thou wouldest play the wise mans part thou art a handsome man and 't is pity but that thou shouldest do well and save that God hath bought I thank your good Mastership most heartily and I put you out of doubt that I am most sure and certaine of my salvation by Jesus Christ so that my soule is safe already what paines soever my body suffer here for a little time Yea marry you say truth for thou art so predestinate to life that thou canst not perish in whatsoever opinion thou dost die That God hath predestinate me to eternal life in Jesus Christ I am most certain and even so I am sure that his holy Spirit wherewith I am sealed will so preserve me from all heresies and evill opinions that I shall die in none at all Go to let me hear your faith in Predestination for that shall be written also Your Mastership shall pardon me herein for you said your self ere while that you had no Commission to examine my conscience I tell thee I have a Commission yea and a Commandment from the Councel to examine thee of such things as be in controversie between thee and thy fellows in the Kings Bench whereof Predestination is a part as thy fellow hath confessed and thy self dost not deny it I do not deny it but he that first told you that matter might have found himself much better occupied Why I tell thee truth I may now examine thee of any thing that I list Then let your Scribe set his pen to the paper and you shall have it roundly as the truth is I believe that Almighty God our most deare loving Father of his great mercy and infinite goodness through Jesus Christ did elect and appoint in him before the foundation of the Earth was laid a Church or Congregation which he doth continually guide and governe by his Grace and holy Spirit so that not one of them all ever finally perish When this was written Mr. Doctor took it in his hand saying Why who will deny this If your Mastership do allow it and other learned men when they shall see it I have my hearts desire Did you hold no otherwise then is there written No verily no nere did Write that he saith otherwise he holdeth not so that was written It was told me also that thou dost affirme that Christ did not die effectually for all men Whatsoever hath been told you is not much material for indeed I do believe that Christ did effectually die for all those that do effectually repent and believe and for none other so that was written Now Sir what is Trews faith of Predestination he believeth that all men be predestinate and that none shall be damned doth he not No forsooth that he doth not How then I think he doth believe as your Mastership and the rest of the
Clergy do believe of Predestination that we be elect in respect of our good works and so long elected as we do them and no longer Yet thou cannot deny but that you are at a jar amongst your selves in the Kings Bench and it is so throughout all your Congregation for you will not be a Church No Master Doctor that is not so there is a thousand times more variety of opinions amongst your Doctors which you call of the Catholick Church yea and that in the Sacrament for the which there is so much blood shed now adayes I meane of your later Doctors and new Writers as for the old they agree wholly with us 3. Now in this conference or examination there are divers things to be considered For first I consider Carelese as a man unlettered and not so thoroughly grounded in the constitution of the Church of England as not to entertaine some thoughts to which the doctrine of this Church could afford no countenance Amongst which I reckon that strong confidence which he had of his own salvation and of the final perseverance of all those who are the chosen members of the Church of Christ which was not taught him by the Church and could not be obtained in any ordinary way by the light of that doctrine which then shined forth unto the people Secondly I consider him as one so far instructed in the knowledge of Predestination as to lay the foundation of it on Gods great mercy and infinite goodnesse in Christ Jesus which plainly crosseth with the new Gospellers of those times who found the same upon his absolute will and pleasure without relation to Christs sufferings for us or our faith in him Thirdly I consider that the Doctrine of Vniversal Redemption by the death of Christ and the effectuality thereof to the sons of men 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 nicities 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 then 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 Schooles of Rome as that a man continues no longer in the state of Election then whilest he is exercised in good works And finally I consider the unfortunate estate of those who living under no certaine 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 seemes of different perswasion from him For which consult his letter to Henry Adlington in the Act. 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 affaires of the holy Church remained till the beginning of the Reigne of Queen Elizabeth and for some yeares after 4. But no sooner had that gracious Lady attained the Crown when she took order for the reviewing of the publick Liturgie formerly Authorized by Act of Parliament in the fifth and sixth years of King Edward the sixth The men appointed for which work were Dr. Parker after Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Dr. Grindall after Bishop of London Dr. Pilkington after Bishop of Durham Dr. Cox after Bishop of Elie Dr. May Deane of Pauls Dr. Bill Provost of Eaton after Deane of Westminister Mr. Whitehead sometimes Chaplaine to Queen Anne Bullen designed to be the first Arch-Bishop of this new plantation and finally Sir Thomas Smyth a man of great esteeme with King Edward the sixth and the Queen now Reigning By these men were the Liturgie 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 them 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 onely in the first so were they totally left out of the second Liturgie of King Edward the sixth Other alterations I finde none mentioned in the Act of Parliament 1. Eliz. â— 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 the sixth She gave command by her Injunctions published in the first year of her Reign An. 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 and on the Gospel in the English tongue should be provided at the joynt charges of the Parson and Parishoners 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 that every Parson Vicar Curate and Stipendary Priest shall provide and have of his own within the time therein limited 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 wise c. Mat. 11. why to the unwise the simple abjects and out-casts of the world of whom speaketh Saint Paul 1 Cor. 1 You see your calling my brethren why not many of you c. Why to the sinners and not to the just why the beggars by the high-wayes were called and the bidden guests excluded We can ascribe no other cause but to Gods purpose and Election and say with Christ our Saviour quia Pater sic complacitum est ante te ye Father for that it seemed good in thy sight Luk. 10. And so it is for justification likewise if the question be asked why the Publican was justified and not the Pharisee Luk. 18. Why Mary the sinner and not Simon the inviter Luke 11. Why Harlots and Publicans go before the Scribes and Pharisees in the Kingdome Mat. 21. why the sonne of the Free-woman was received and the bond-womans Son being his elder rejected Gen. 21. why Israel which so long sought for righteousnesse found it not and the Gentiles which sought it not found it Rom. 9. We have no other cause hereof to render but to say with Saint Paul because they sought for it by works of the Law and not by faith which faith as it cometh not by mans will as the Papists falsely pretendeth but onely by the election and free gift of God so it is onely the immediate cause whereto the promise of our salvation is annexed according as we read And therefore of faith is the inheritance given as after grace that the promise might stand sure to every side Rom. 4. and in the same Chapter Faith believing in him that justifieth the wicked is imputed to righteousnesse And this concerning the causes of our salvation you you see how faith in Christ immediately and without condition doth justifie us being solicited with Gods mercy and election that wheresoever election goeth before faith in Christ must needs follow after And again whosoever believeth in Christ Jesus through the vocation of God he must needs be partaker of Gods election whereupon resulteth the third note or consideration which is to consider whither a man in this life may be certaine of his election To answer to which question this first is to be understood that although our election and vocation simply indeed be known to God onely in himselfe a priore yet notwithstanding it may be known to every particular faithful man a Posteriore that is by means which means is faith in Christ Jesus crucified For as much as by faith in Christ a man is justified and thereby made the childe of salvation reason must needs lead the same to be then the childe of election chosen of God to everlasting life For how can a man be saved but by consequence it followeth that he must also be elected And therefore of election it is truly said de electione judicandum est a posteriore that is to say we must judge of election by that which cometh after that is by our faith and belief in Christ which faith although in time it followeth after election yet this the proper immediate cause assigned by the Scripture which not onely justifieth us but also certifieth us of this election of God whereunto likewise well agreeth this present Letter of Mr. Bradford wherein he saith Election albeit in God it be the first yet to us it is the last opened And therefore beginning first saith he with Creation I come from thence to Redemption and justification by faith so to election not that faith is the cause efficient of election being rather the effect thereof but is to us the cause certificatory or the cause of our certification whereby we are brought to the feeling and knowledge of our election in Christ For albeit the election first be certain in the knowledge of God yet in our knowledge faith only that we have in Christ is the thing that giveth to us our certificate and comfort of this election Wherefore whosoever desireth to be assured that he is one of the Elect number of God let him not climbe up to heaven to know but let him descend into himself and there search his faith in Christ the Son of God which if he find in him not feigned by the working of Gods Spirit accordingly thereupon let him stay and so wrap himself wholly both body and foul under Gods general promise and cumber his head with no further speculations knowing this that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish John 3. shall not be confounded Rom. 9. shall not see death John 8. shall not enter into judgement John 5. shall have everlasting life John 3. 7. shall be saved Mat. 28. Acts 16. shall have remission of all his sins Act. 10. shall be justified Rom. 3. Cal. 2. shall have floods flowing out of him of the water of life Joh. 7. shall never die John 11. shall be raised at the last day John 6. shall finde rest in his soul and be refreshed Mat. 11 c. 4. Such is the judgement and opinion of our Martyrologist in the great point of Predestination unto life the residue thereof touching justification being here purposely cut off with an c. as nothing pertinent to the businesse which we have in hand But between the Comment and the Text there is a great deal of difference the Comment laying the foundation of Election on the Will of God according to the Zuinglian or Calvinian way but the Text laying it wholly upon faith in Christ whom God the Father hath Predestinate in Christ unto eternal life according to the doctrine of the Church of England The Text first presupposeth an estate of sin and misery into which man was fallen a ransom paid by Christ for man and his whole Posterity a freedome left in man thus ransomed either to take or finally to refuse the benefit of so great mercy and then fixing or appropriating the benefit of so great a mercy as Christ and all his merits do amount to upon such only as believe But the Comment takes no notice of the fall of man grounding both Reprobation and Election on Gods â—bsolute pleasure without relation to mans sin or our Saviours sufferings or any acceptation or refusal of his mercies in them As great a difference there is between the Authour of the Comment and Bishop Hooper as between the Comment and the Text Bishop Hooper telling us cap. 10. num 2. that Saul was no more excluded from the promise of Christ then David Esau then Jacob Judas then Peter c. if they had not excluded themselves quite contrary to that of our present Authour who having asked the question why Jacob was chosen and not Esau why David accepted and Saul refused c. makes answer that it cannot otherwise be answered then that so was the good Will of God 5. And this being said I would faine know upon what authority the Authour hath placed Nachor amongst the reprobates in the same Ranck with Esau Pharaoh and Saul all
which he hath marked out to reprobation the Scripture laying no such censure on Nachor or his Posterity as the Authour doth Or else the Authour must know more of the estate of Nachor then Abraham his brother did who certainly would never have chosen a wife for his sonne Isaac out of Nachors line if he had looked upon them as reprobated and accursed of God I observe Secondly that plainly God is made an accepter of persons by the Authours doctrine For first he telleth us that the elder son had a better will to tarry by his father and so did indeed but the fatted Calf was given to the younger son that ran away and thereupon he doth infer that the matter goeth not by the will of man but by the Will of God as it pleaseth him to accept I observe Thirdly that Vocation â—â—â— the Authours judgement standeth upon Gods Election as the work thereof whereas Vocation is more general and is extended unto those also whom they call the Reprobate and therefore standeth not on Election as the Authour hath it For many 〈◊〉 called though out of those many which are called but a few are chosen Fourthly I observe that notwithstanding the Authour builds the doctrine of Electionâ—â—â— â—â—â— Gods absolute will and pleasure yet he is faine to have recourse to some certaine condition telling us that though the mercy of God his Grace Election Vocation and other preâ—â—â—ent Causes do justifie us yet this is upon condition of believing in Christ And finally it is to be observed also that after all his paines taken in defending such a personal and eternal Election as the Calvinians now contend for he adviseth us to wrap up our selves wholly both body and soul under Gods general promise and not to cumber our heads with any further speculations knowing that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish c. 6. And so I take my leave of our Martyrologist the publishing of whose discourse I look on as the first great battery which was made on the Bulwarks of this Church in point of Doctrine by any member of her own after the setling of the Articles by the Queens Authority Anno 1562. the brables raised by Crowley in his Book against Campneys though it came out after the said Articles were confirmed and published being but as haile-shot in comparison of this great piece of Ordnance Not that the Arguments were so strong as to make any great breach in the publick Doctrine had it been published in a time-lesse capable of innovations or rather if the great esteeme which any had of that man and the universal reception which his Book found with all sorts of people had not gained more authority unto his discourse then the merit or solidnesse of it could deserve The inconveniences whereof as also the many marginal Notes and other passages visibly tending to faction and sedition in most parts of that Book were either not observed at first or winked at in regard of the great animosities which were ingendred by it in all sorts of people as well against the persons of the Papist as against the doctrine Insomuch that in the Convocation of the year 1571. there passed some Canons requiring that not onely the Deanes of all Cathedrals should take a special care that the said Book should be so conveniently placed in their several Churches that people of all conditions might resort unto it but also that all and every Arch-Bishop Bishops Deans Residentiaries and Arch-Deacons should choose the same to be â—laced in some convenient publick room of their several houses not only for the entertainment and instruction of their menial servants but of such strangers also as occasionally repaired unto them 7. If it be her eupon inferred that Fox his doctrine was approved by that Convocation and therefore that it is agreeable to the true intent and meaning of the Articles of the Church of England besides what hath been said already by Anticipation it may as logically be inferred that the Convocation approved all his Marginal Notes all the factious and seditious passages and more particularly the scorn which he puts upon the Episcopal habit and other Ceremonies of the Church Touching which last for the other are too many to be here recited let us behold how he describes the difference which hapned between Hooper Bishop of Glocester on the one side Cranmer and Ridley on the other about the ordinary habit and attire then used by the Bishops of this Church we shall finde it thus viz. ' For notwithstanding the godly reformation of Religion that was begun in the Church of England besides other ceremonies that were more ambitious then profitable or tended to edification they used to wear such garments and apparel as the Romish Bishops were wont to do First a Chimere and under that a white Rocket then a Mathematical cap with four Angles dividing the whole world into four parts These trifles being more for superstition then otherwise as he could never abide so in no wise could he be perswaded to weare them But in conclusion this Theological contestation came to this end that the Bishops having the upper hand Mr. Hooper was faine to agree to this condition that sometimes he should in his Sermon shew himself apparalled as the Bishops were Wherefore appointed to preach before the the King as a new player in a strange apparel he cometh forth on the stage His upper garment was a long skarlet Chimere down to the foot and under that a white linnen Rocket that covered all his shoulders upon his head he had a Geometrical that is a square cap albeit that his head was round What case of shame the strangenesse hereof was that day to the good preacher every man may easily judge But this private contumely and reproach in respect of the publick profit of the Church which he onely sought he bare and suffered patiently ' 8. Here have we the Episcopal habit affirmed to be a contumelie and reproach to that godly man slighted contemptuously by the name of trifles and condemned in the Marginal Note for a Popish attire the other ceremonies of the Church being censured as more ambitious then profitable and tending more to superstition then to edification which as no man of sense or reason can believe to be approved and allowed of by that Convocation so neither is it to be believed that they allowed of his opinion in the present point For a counterballance whereunto there was another Canon passed in this Convocation by which all preachers were enjoyned to take special care ne quid unquam doceant pro concione quod a populo religiose teneri credi velint nisi quod consent aneum sit doctrinae veteris aut novi testamenti quodque ex illa ipsa doctrina Catholici Patres veteres Episcopi Collegeriâ—t that is to say that they should maintain no other doctrine in their publick Sermons to be believed of the people but that which was agreeable
to the doctrine of the Old and New Testament and had from thence been gathered by the Catholick or Orthodox Fathers and ancient Bishops of the Church To which rule if they held themselvs as they ought to do no countenance could be given to Calvines Doctrines or Fox his judgment in these points maintained by one of the Catholick Fathers and ancient Bishops of the Church but St. Augustine only who though he were a godly man and a learned Prelate yet was he but one Bishop not Bishops in the plural number but one father and not all the fathers and therefore his opinion not to be maintained against all the rest CHAP. XX. Of the great Innovation made by Perkins in the publick Doctrine the stirs arising thence in Cambridge and Mr. Barrets carriage in them 1 OF Mr. Perkins and his Doctrine of Predestination with his recital of the four opinions which were then maintained about the same 2. The sum and substance of his Doctrine according to the Supralapsarian or Supra-creatarian way 3. The several censures past upon it both by Papists and Protestants by none more sharply then by Dr. Rob. Abbots after Bishop of Sarum 4. Of Dr. Baroe the Lady Margarets Professor in the University and his Doctrine touching the divine Decrees upon occasion of Gods denounced Judgement against the Ninivites 5. His constant opposition to the Predestinarians and the great increase of his Adherents 6. The Articles collected out of Barrets Sermon derogatory to the Doctrine and persons of the chief Calvinians 7. Barret convented for the same and the proceedings had against him at his first conventing 8. A form of Recantation delivered to him but not the same which doth occur in the Anti-Arminianism to be found in the Records of the University 9. Several arguments to prove that Barret never published the Recantation imposed upon him 10. The rest of Barrets story related in his own letter to Dr. Goad being then Vice-Chancelour 11. The sentencing of Barret to a Recantation no argument that his Doctrine was repugnant to the Church of England and that the body of the same University differed from the heads in that particular 1. THis great Breach being thus made by Fox in his Acts and Monuments was afterwards open'd wider by William Perkins an eminent Devine of Cambridge of great esteem amongst the Puritans for his zeal and piety but more for his dislike of the Rites and Ceremonies here by Law established of no less fame among those of the Calvinian party both at home and abroad for a Treatise of Predestination published in the year 1592. entituled Armilla Aurea or the Golden Chain containing the order of the causes of salvation and damnation according to Gods word First written by the Author in Latin for the use of Students and in the same year translated into English at his Request by one Robert Hill who afterwards was Dr. of Divinity and Rector of St. Bartholomews Church near the royal Exchange In the preface unto which Discourse the Author telleth us ' that there was at that day four several Opinions of the order of Gods Predestination The first was of the old and new Pelagians who placed the cause of Gods Predestination in man in that they hold that God did ordain men to life or death according as he did foresee that they would by their natural free-will either reject or receive Grace offered The second of them who of some are termed Lutherans which taught that God foreseeing that all mankind being shut under unbelief would therefore reject Grace offered did hereupon purpose to chuse some to salvation of his meer mercy without any respect of their faith or good works and the rest to reject being moved to do this because he did eternally fore-see that they would reject his Grace offered them in the Gospel The third of Semi-palagian Papists which ascribe Gods Predestination partly to mercy and partly to mens foreseen Preparations and meritorious works The fourth of such as teach that the cause of the execution of Gods Predestination is his mercy in Christ in them which are saved and in them which perish the fall and corruption of man yet so as that the Decree and eternal Counsel of God concerning them both hath not any cause besides his Will and pleasure ' In which Preface whither he hath stated the opinions of the parties right may be discerned by that which hath been said in the former Chapters and whither the last of these opinions ascribe so much to Gods Mercy in Christ in them that are saved and to mans natural Corruption in them that perish will best be seen by taking a brief view of the opinion it self The Author taking on him to oppugn the three first as erroneous and only to maintain the last as being a truth which will bear weight in the ballance of the Sanctuary as in his Preface he assures us 2. ' Now in this book Predestination is defined to be the Decree of God by the which he hath ordained all men to a certain and everlasting Estate that is either to salvation or condemnation to his own Glory He tells us secondly that the means for putting this decree in execution were the creation and the fall 3. That mans fall was neither by chance or by Gods not knowing it or by his bare permission or against his Will but rather miraculously not without the Will of God but yet without all approbation of it ' Which passage being somewhat obscure may be explained by another some leaves before In which the Question being asked Whether all things and actions were subject unto Gods Decree He answereth ' Yes surely and therefore the Lord according to his good pleasure hath most certainly decreed every both thing and action whether past present or to come together with their circumstances of place time means and end ' And then the Question being prest to this particular What even the wickedness of the wicked The answer is affirmative ' Yes he hath most justly decreed the wicked works of the wicked For if it had not pleased him they had never been at all And albeit they of their own natures are and remain wicked yet in respect of Gods decree they are to be accounted good ' Which Doctrine though it be no other then that which had before been taught by Beza yet being published more copiously insisted on and put into a more methodical way it became wondrous acceptable amongst those of the Calvinian party both at home and abroad as before was said Insomuch that it was printed several times after the Latin edition with the general approbation of the French and Belgick Churches and no less then 15. times within the space of twenty years in the English tongue At the end of which term in the year 1612. the English book was turned by the Translator into Questions and Answers but without any alteration of the words of the Author as he informs us in the last page
of his Preface after which it might have sundry other impressions that which I follow being of the year 1621. And though the Supra-lapsarians or rigid Calvinists or Supra-creatarians rather as a late judicious Writer calls them differ exceedingly in these points from many of their more moderate brethren distinguished from them by the name of Sub-lapsarians yet in all points touching the specifying of their several supposed Decrees they agree well enough together and therefore wink at one another as before was noted 3. Notwithstanding the esteem wherewith both sorts of Calvinists entertained the book it found not the like welcome in all places nor from all mens hands Amongst other Parsons the Jesuite gives this censure of him viz. That by the deep humour of fancy he hath published and writ many books with strange Titles which neither he nor his Reader do understand as namely about the Concatenation of laying together of the causes of mans Predestination and Reprobation c. Jacob van Harmine afterwards better known by the name of Arminius being then Preacher of the Church of Amsterdam not only censured in brief as Parsons did but wrote a full discourse against it entituled Examen Predestinationis Perkinsanae which gave the first occasion to these controversies many appearing in defence of Perkins and his Opinions which afterwards involved the Sub-lapsarians in the self same Quarrel 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 ' But none of all our English was so sharp in their censures of him as Dr. Robbert Abbot then Dr. of the Chair in Oxon. and not long after Bishop of Sarum who in his book against Tompson though others inclined too much to Calvins Doctrines gives this Judgement 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 jndicat 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 referrence 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 then 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 then 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 mankind 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 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 dayes being no more then fourty 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 wofull Agony 4. 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 inclimable 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. Yet forty dayes 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 ratio praepâ—nendae divinae voluntatis qua Deus corum animos flectere voluit quare haec oratio et si simplex absoluta vâ—eatur tacitam tamen habet conditionem nisi rescipiscant namque hanc in esse conditionem eventus comprobavit The denouncing of this Judgement 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 ment to put them to it and rouse their spirits to Repentance Therefore saith he although the Denunciation of the following Judgement 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 Judgement on the house of Abimileck 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 then the case of the Ninivites 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 peccatoris 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 persâ—veremus 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 peâ—ish if they did not repent for these two are one as for example It is the Will of God saith he that we should have eternal life if we believe and constantly persevere in the faith of Christ And it is not the will of God that we should have eternal life if we do not believe or believing only for a time do not persevere therein to the end of our lives which point he further proves by the condition of the message sent from God to Hezekiah by the Prophet Isaiah 2 King 20. 1. as before was said in Dr. King For which together with the rest of his discourse upon that occasion concerning the consistency of these alterations with the immutability or unchangableness of Almighty God I shall refere the Reader to the book it self 5. So far that learned man had declared himself upon occasion of that Text and the case of the Niâ—evites before the year 1574. being ten years before the preaching of Hâ—rsnets Sermon at St. Pauls Cross and more then twenty years before the â—â—irs at Cambridge betwixt him and Whitacres In all which time or at lest the greatest part thereof he inclined rather unto the Melancthonian way according to the Judgement of the Church of England in laying down the Doctrine of Predestination then to that of Calvin For fifteen years it is confest in a letter sent by some of the heads of Cambridge to William Lord Burleigh then Chancellour of the University bearing date March the 8. 1595. That he had taught in his Lectures preached in Sermons determined in the Schools and printed in several books a contrary Doctrine unto that which was maintained by Dr. Whitacres and had been taught and received in the University ever since the beginning of her Majesties Reign which last though it be gratis dictum without proof or evidence yet it is probable enough that it might be so Cartwright that unextinguished Fire-brand being Professor in that place before him and no greater care taken in the first choice of the other before recited to have had the place then to supply it with a man of known aversness from all points of Popery And it seems also by that letter that Baroe had not sown his seed in a barren soil but in such as brought forth fruit enough and yielded a greater increase of Followers then the Calvinians could have wished For in one place the letter tells us that besides Mr. Barret of whom we shall speak more anon There were divers others who there attempted publickly to teach new and strange opinions in Religion as the Subscribers of it call them And in another place it tels us of Dr. Baroe that he had many Disciples and Adherents whom he enboldned by his example to maintain false Doctrine And by this check it may be said of Peter Baroe in reference to that Vniversity indangered to be overgrown with outlandish Doctrines as the Historian doth of Cajus Marius with referrence to the state of Rome in fear of being over-run by the Tribes of the Cymbri which were then breaking in upon it Actum esset de Repub. nisi Marius isti seculo contigisset the Common-wealth had then been utterly overthrown if Marius had not been then living 6. Now as for Barret before mentioned he stands accused so far forth as we can discern by the Recantation which some report him to have made for preaching many strange and erroneous Doctrines that is to say 1. ' That No man in this transitory life is so strongly underpropped at lest by the certainty of faith that is to say as afterwards he explained himself by Revelation that he ought to be assured of his own salvation 2. That the faith of Peter could not fâ—il but that the faith of other men might fail our Lord not praying for the faith of every particular man 3. That the certainty of perseverance for the time to come is a presumptuous and proud security forasmuch as it is in its own nature contingent and that it was not only a presumptuous but a wicked Doctrine 4. There was no distinction in the faith but in the persons believing 5. That the forgiveness of sins is an Article of the Faith but not the forgiveness of the sins particularly of this man oâ— that and therefore that no true Believer either can or ought believe for certain that his sins are forgiven him 6. That he maintained against Calvin Peter Martyr and the rest concerning those that are not saved that sin is the true proper and first cause of Reprobation 7. That he had taxed Calvin for lifting up himself above the high and Almighty God And 8ly That he had uttered many bitter woâ—ds against Peter Martyr Theodore Beza Jâ—rom Zanchius and Francis Junius c. calling them by the odious names of Calvinists and branding them with a most grievous mark of Reproach they being the lights and Ornaments of our Church as is suggested in the Articles which were exhibited against him ' 7. For having insisted or at lest touched upon these points in a Sermon preached at St. Marys on the 29. day of April Ann. 1595. all the Calvinian heads of that Vniversity being lbid together by Whitaores and inflamed by Perkins took fire immediately And in this Text he was convented on the fifth of May next following at nine of the clock in the morning before Dr. Some then Deputy Vice-Chancellour to Dr. Duport Dr. Goad Dr. â—yndal Dr. Whitacres Dr. Barwell Dr. Jegon Dr. Preston Mr. Chatterton and Mr. Claton in the presence of Thomas Smith publick Notary by whom he was appointed to attend again in the afternoon At which time the Articles above mentioned were read unto him which we alleadged to be erroneous and false Et repugnantes esse religioni in regno Angliae legitima Authoritate receptae ac stabilitae that is to say contrary to the Religion received and established by publick Authority in the Realm of England To which Articles being required to give an Answer he confest that he had published in his Sermon all these positions which in the said Articles are contained sed quod contenta in iâ—â—dem Religioni Ecclesiae Anglicanae ut prefertur omnino non repugnant but denyed them to be any way repugnant to the Doctrine of the Church of England Whereupon the Vice-Chancellour and the forenamed heads entring into mature deliberation and diligently weighing and examining these positions because it did manifestly appear that the said positions were false erroneous and likewise repugnant to the ' Religion received and established in the Church of England adjudged and declared that the said Barret had incurred the Penalty of the 45. Statute of the Vniversity de concionibuâ— ' And by vertue and tenour of that
Statute they decreed and adjudged the said Barret to make a publick recantation in such words and forme as by the Vice-Chancellour and the said heads or any three or two of them or else upon his refusal to recant in that manner to be perpetually expelled both from his Colledâ—e and the Vniversity binding him likewise in an Assumpsit of 40 li. to appear personally upon two dayes warning before the Vice-chancellor or his Deputy at what time and place they should require 8. It appears afterwards by the Register of the Vniversity that Barret being resummoned to appear before him though none but Goad Tyndal Barwell and Preston were present at that time with the Vice-Chancellor or his Deputy for I know not which a Recantation ready drawn was delivered to him which he was commanded to publish solemnly in St. Maries Church on Satterday the 10. of May then next ensuing And it is confidently affirmed by the Author of the Arminianism and his Ecco too that the said Recantation was publickly made by the said Barret at the time and place therein appointed And hereof the first Author seems to be so confident that he doth not only tell us that this Recantation was made accordingly but that it was not made with that Humility and Remorse which was expected it being said that after the reading thereof he concluded thus Haec dixi intimating thereby that he consented not in his heart to that which he had delivered by his tongue This is the total of the business concerning Barret in the Anti-Arminianism in which there is somewhat to be doubted and somewhat more to be denyed And first it is to be doubted whether any such Recantation consisting of so many Articles and every Article having his abjuration or Recantation subjoined unto it was ever enjoyned to be made for though the Author of the book affirmeth in one place that the whole Recantation in the same manner and form 〈…〉 there we find it was exemplified and sent unto him under the hand of the Register of the Vniversity pag. 62. yet he confesseth within few lines after that no such matter could be found when the heads of houses were required by an Order from the house of Commons in the last Session of Parliament Anno 1628. to make certificate to them of all such Recantations as were recorded in their Vniversitie Register and of this Recantation in particular And though it be hereupon inferred that this Recantation was embezilled and razed out of the Records of the Vniversity by some of the Arminian party the better to suppress the memory of so great a foil yet it may rather be believed that many false Copys of it were dispersed abroad by those of the Calvinian faction to make the man more odious and his opinions more offensive then might stand with truth 9. The truth is that a Recantation was enjoyned and delivered to him though not the same nor in the same form and manner as before laid down Barret confessing in his letters of which more anon that a Recantation was imposed on him and expected from him But then it is to be denyed as a thing most false that he never published the Recantation whatsoever it was which the heads enjoyned and required at his last convention For First It is acknowledged in the Authors own Transcript of the Acts that though he did confess the propositions wherewith he was charged to be contained in his Sermon yet he would never grant them to be contrary to the Doctrine of the Church oâ— England and therefore was not likely to retract the same Secondly It is plain by Barrets said letters the one to Dr. Goad Master of Kings the other to Mr. Chadderton Master of Emanuel Colledge that neither flattery nor threatnings nor the fear of loosing his subsistence in the Vniversity should ever work him to the publishing of the Recantation required of him And thirdly It appears by the letters from the heads above mentioned to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh that Barret had not made the Recantation on the 8th of March which was full ten moneths after the time appointed for the publishing of it And on these terms this business sheweth the Author his Errour to affirm with all confidence for if the one doth the other must that Barret made this Recantation in St. Maries Church on the tenth of May Anno 1595. Barret declaring in his letter to Dr. Goad about nine moneths after that he would never make it And the heads signified to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh on the eight of March being ten moneths after that at that time he had not made And who should believe in the present case Barret that saith he would never do it and the heads who say he had not done it on the eight of March or that they say upon the credit of a false and malitious Coppy purposely spread abroad by the Puritan faction to defame the man that he had published it on the 10. of May ten moneths before I find also in the Title to this Recantation as it stands in the Anti-arminianism p 46 that Mr. Harsnet of Pembrook Hall is there affirmed to have maintained the supposed Errours for which Barret was condemned to a Recantation and 't is strange that Harsnet should stand charged in the Title of another mans sentence for holding and maintaining any such points as had been raked out of the dunghill of Popery and Pelagianism as was there affirmed for which he either was to be questioned in his own person or not to have been condemned to the Title of a sentence passed on another man Which circumstance as it discredits the Title so the Title doth as much discredit the reality of the Recantation adeo mendaciorum natura est ut cohaerere non possint saith Lactantius truly The rest of Barrets story shall be told by himself according as I find it in a letter of his to Dr. Goad then being Vice-Chancellour written about nine moneths after the time of his first conventing as the letter doth appear which is this that followeth A Copy of Mr. Barret's Letter to Dr. Goade 10. MY Duty remembred to your Worship c. Sir according to your appointment I have conferred with Mr. Overald and Mr. Chadderton Mr. Overald after once conference refused to talke off these points any more saying it needed not For Mr. Chadderton he is a learned man and one whom I do much reverenced yet he hath not satisfied me in this point For I required proof but of these two things at his hands viz. That Una sides did differre specie ab alia and that it was aliud donum ab alio but he did neither But for the first whereas he should have proved it did differre specie he proved it did differre numero and that but out of the Mr. of the Sentences whose Authority notwithstanding I do not impugn And for the other that it should be Aliud donum he proveth out of St. Augustine that fides
demonum is not alia a fide Christianorum which no man ever denyed for fides Demonum is not Donum at all so that it commeth not in Question so that I being here unsatisfied of one party meaning Mr. Chadderion and rather confirmed of the other party I do hold my positions as before And for the Retractation I purpose not to perform it Yet that the peace of the Vniversity and the Church may be preserved I do solemnly promise to keep my opinion to my self so that in this regard my humble suit unto your Worship and hearty prayer to God is this that you would suffer me to continue in the Vniversity without molestation though I live but in disgrace amongst you yet I regard it so I may be quiet For my intent is to live privately at my book untill such times as by continual conference with those that are of contrary Judgement I may learn the truth of your Assertions which when I have learned I promise before God and your Worship not to conceal But if you and the rest of your Assistants whom I reverence do purpose to proceed in disquieting and traducing me as you have done by the space of three quarters of this year so in the end mean to drive me out of the University I must take it patiently because I know not how to redress it but let God be judge between you and me These things I leave to your worships favourable consideration for this I must needs say and peradventure it may tend to your credit when I shall report it that above the rest hitherto I have found you most courteous and most just I leave your worship to Gods Direction and holy tuition expecting a gracious answrr Your dayly Beads man WILLIAM BARRET 11. But here perhaps it may be said that though Barret might be as obstinate in refusing to publish the Recantation as this letter makes him yet it appears by the whole course of those proceedings that his Doctrines were condemned by the heads of the Vniversity as being contrary to that which was received and established in the Church of England And that it was so in the Judgement of those men who either concurred in his censure or subscribed the letter to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh above mentioned in a thing past question But this can be no Argument that Barrets Doctrines were repugnant to the Church of England because these heads either in favour of Dr. Whitacres or in respect to Mr. Perkins were pleased to think no otherwise of them for if it be we may conclude by the same Argument that the Church of Rome was in the right even in the darkest times of ignorance and superstition because all those who publickly opposed her Doctrines were solemnly enjoyned by the then prevailing party to a Recantation and which is more it may be also thence concluded that the Doctrine maintained by Athanasius touching Christs Divinity was contrary to that which had been taught by the Apostles and men of Apostolical spirits because it was condemned for such by some Arrian Bishops in the Councel or rather Conventicle of Tyre which was held against him 2. It cannot be made apparent that either Dr. Duport the Vice-Chancellor who was most concerned or Dr. Baroe the Lady Margarets Professour for divinity there had any hand in sentencing this Recantation Not Dr. Baroe because by concurring to this sentence he was to have condemned himself Nor Dr Duport for I find his place to be supplyed and the whole action govern'd by Dr. Some which shews him to be absent at that time from the Vniverâ—ity according to the stile whereof the Title of Procancellarius is given to Dr. Soâ—e in the Acts of the Court as appears by the extract of them in the Anti-Arminianism p. 64. compared with p. 63. But thirdly admitting that the headâ— were generally thus enclined yet probably the whole body of the Vniversity might not be of the same opinion with them thoâ—e heads not daring to affirm otherwise of Barrets Doctrine in their letter to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh then that it gave just offence to many And if it gave offence unto many only it may be thought that it gave no offence to the Major part or much less to all for if it had the Writers of the letter would not have been so sparing in their expressions as to limit the offence to many if they could have said it of the most But of this we shall speak more in the following Chapter when we shall come to feel the pulse of the Vniversity in the great competition between Wotton and Oveald after Whitacres death Of which opinion Harsnet was we have seen before And we have seen before that Baroe had many Disciples and Adherents which stood fast unto him And thereupon we may conclude that when Dr. Baroe had for 14 or 15. years maintained these opinions in the Schools as before was shewed which are now novelized by the name of Arminianism and such an able man as Harsnet had preached them without any Controul when the greatest audience of the Kingdom did stand to him in it There must be many more Barrets who concurred with the same opinions with them in the Vniversity though their names through the envy of the times are not come unto us CHAP. XXI Of the proceedings against Baroe the Articles of Lambeth and the general calme which was in Oxon touching these Disputes 1. THe differences between Baroe and Dr. Whitacres the addresse of Whitakers others to Arch-bishop Whâ—tgift which drew on the Articles on Lambeth 2. The Articles agreed on at Lambeth presented both in English and Latine 3. The Articles of no authorty in themselves Archbishop Whitgift questioned for them together with the Queens command to have them utterly supprest 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 5. A Copy of the Letter from the Heads in Cambridge to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh occasioned as they said by Barret and Baroe 6. Dr. Overalds encounters with the Calvinists in the point of falling from the grace received his own private judgement in the point neither for total nor for finall and the concurrence of some other learned men in the same opinion 7. The general calme which was at Oxon at that time touching these disputes and the Reasons of it 8. An answer to that Objection out of the writings of judicious Hooker of the total and finall falling 9. The disaffections of Dr Bukeridge and Dr. Houson to Calvines doctrines an Answer to the Objection touching the paucity of those who opposed the same 10. Possession of a truth maintained but by one or two preserves it sacred and inviolable for more fortunate times the case of Liberius Pope of Rome and that the testimonies of this kinde are rather to be valued by weight then tale 1. FRom barret pass we on
in such things as his Articles had charged him withal There is also since the former another Complaint preferred against him by certain Batchelors in Divinity that he hath not only in the Sermon but also for the space of this 14. or 15. years taught in his Lectures preached in his Sermons determined in the Schools and printed in several books divers points of Doctrine not only contrary to himself but also contrary to that which hath been taught and received ever since her Majesties Reign and agreeable to the errors of Popery which we know your Lordship hath alwayes disliked and hated so that we who for the space of many years past have yielded him sundry benefits and favours here in the Vniversity being a stranger and forborn him when he hath often heretofore busie and curious in aliena Republica broached new and strange questions in Religion now unless we should be careless of maintaining the truth of Religion established and of our duties in our places cannot being resolved and confirmed in the truth of the long professed and received Doctrine but continue to use all good means and seek at your Lordships hands some effectual Remedy hereof lest by permiting passage to these errors the whole body of Popery should by little and little break in upon us to the overthrow of our Religion and consequently the with-drawing of many here and else where from true obedience to her Majestie May it therefore please your Lordship to have an honourable consideration of the premises for the better maintaining of Peace and the truth of Religion so long received in this Vniversity and Church to vouchsafe your Lordships good aid and advice both to the comfort of us wholly consenting and agreeing in Judgement and all others of the Vniversity truely affected and to the suppression in time not only of these errors but even of gross Popery like by such means in time easily to creep in amongst us as we find by late experience it hath dangerously begun Thus craving pardon for troubling your Lordship and commending the same in praise to Almighty God we humbly take our leave From Cambridge March 8. 1595 Your Lordships humble and bounden to be commanded Roger Goad Procan R. Some Tho. Leg John Jegon Thomas Nevil Thomas Preston Hump. Tyndal James Mountague Edm. Barwel Laur. Cutterton 6. Such was the condition of Affairs at Cambridge at the expiring of the year 1595. the genuine Doctrine of the Church beginning then to break thorow the clouds of Calvinism wherewith it was before obscured and to shine forth again in its former lustre To the advancement of which work as the long continuance of Baroe in the Vniversity for the space of 20. years and upwards the discreet Activity of Dr. Harsnet Fellow and Master of Pembrook Colledge for the term of 40. years and more gave a good encouragement so the invincible constancy of Mr. Barret and the slender opposition made by Overald contributed to the confirmation and increase thereof For scarce had Overald warmed his Chair when he found himself under a necessity of encountring some of the Remainder of Baroes Adversaries though he followed not the blow so far as Baroe did for some there were of the old Predestination Leven who publickly had taught as he related it in the conference at Hampton Coutt ' all such persons as were once truly justified though after they fell into never so grievous sins yet remained still just or in the state of Justification before they actually repented of those sins yea though they never repented of them through forgetfulness or sudden death yet they should be justified and saved without Repentance Against which Overald maintained that whosoever although before justified did commit any grievous sin as Adultery Murder Treason or the like did become ipso facto subject to Gods wrath and guilty of damnation or were in the state of damnation quo ad presentem statum untill they repented ' And so far he had followed Baroe but he went no further holding as he continued his own story that such persons as were called and justified according to the purpose of Gods Election did neither fall totally from all the graces of God though how a justified man may bring himself into a present state of wrath and damnation without a total falling from all the graces of God is beyond my Reason and that they were in time renewed by the Spirit of God unto a lively faith and repentance and thereby justified from those sins with the guilt and wrath annexed unto them into which they had fallen nor can it be denied but that some other learned men of those times were of the same opinion also Amongst which I finde Dr. John Bridges dean of Sarum and afterwards Lord Bishop of Oxon to be reckoned for one and Mr. Richard Hooker of whom more anon to be accounted for another But being but the compositions of private men they are not to be heard against the express words of the two Homilies touching Falling from God in case the point had not been positively determined in the sixteenth Article But so it hapned notwithstanding that Overald not concurring with the Calvinists concerning the estate of such justified persons as afterwards fell into grievous sins there grew some diffidences and distrust between them which afterwards widned themselves into greater differences In so much that dissenting from them also touching the absolute decree of Reprobation and the restraining of the benefit of Christs death and Gods grace unto a few particulars and that too in Gods primitive purpose and intent concerning the salvation and damnation of mankind those of the Anti-Calvinian party went on securely with little or no opposition and lesse disturbance 7. At Oxford all things in the mean time were calm and quiet no publick opposition shewing it self in the Schooles or Pulpits The reasons of that which might be first that the Students of that vniversity did more incline unto the canvasing of such points as were in difference betwixt us the Church of Rome then unto those which were disputed against the Calvinists in these points of Doctrine for witnesse whereof we may call in the works of Sanders Stapleton Allyns Parsons Campian and many others of that side as those of Bishop Jewel Bishop Bilson Dr. Humpherys Mr. Novell Dr. Sparks Dr. Reynolds and many other which stood firme to the Church of England And secondly though Dr. Humpheryes the Queens Professor for divinity was not without cause reckoned for a non-Conformist yet had he the reputation of a moderate man a moderate non-Conformist as my Author calls him and therefore might permit that Liberty of opinion unto other men which was indulged unto himself neither did Dr. Holland who succeeded him give any such countenance to the propogating of Calvins doctrines as to make them the subject of his lectures and disputations In so much that Mr. Prinne with all his diligence can finde but seven men wâ—o publickly maintained
and make but a very thin appearance Apparent rari nautes in gurgite vasto in the Poets language yet serve they for a good assurance that the Church still kept possession of her primitive truths not utterly lost though much endangered by such contrary Doctrines as had of late been thrust upon her there was a time when few or none of the Orthodox Bishops durst openly appear in favour of St. Athanasius but only Liberius Pope of Rome who thereupon is thus upbraided by Constantius the Arian Emperour Quota pars tu es orbis terrarum qui solus c. How great a part saith he art thou of the whole world that thou alone shouldst shew thy self in defence of that wicked man and thereby overthrow the peace of the Universe To which Liberius made this answer non diminuitur solitudine mea verbum dei nam olim tres solum inventi fuere qui edicto resisterint that is to say the word of God is not made the weaker by my sole appearing in defence thereof noâ— more then when there were but three he meanes the three Hebrew Children in the book of Daniel with durst make open opposition to the Kings Edict Liberius thought himself sufficient to keep possession of a truth in the Church of Christ till God should please to raise up more Champions in all places to defend the same not thinking it necessary to returne any other answer or to produce the names of anyothers of his time who turned Athanasius as much as he which brings into my mind a passage in the conference betwixt Dr. Ban Featly and Sweat the Jesuite in which the Jesuite much insisted on that thred bare question viz. where was your Church before Luther which when the the Doctor went to shew out of Scriptures and Fathers some of the Papists standing by cryed out for names those which stood further of ingeminating nothing but Names Names whereupon the Dr. Merily asked them if nothing would content them but a Buttery book And such an Answer I must make in the present case to such as take up testimony by tale not weight and think no truth is fairly proved except it come attended with a cloud of witnesses But what we want in number now he shall find hereafter when we shall come to take a view of King James his Reign to which now we hasten CHAP. XXII Of the Conferrence at Hampton Court and the several encouragements given to the Anti-Calvinians in the time of KING James 1. THE occasion of the conference at Hampton Court and the chief persons there assembled 2. The nine Articles of Lambeth rejected by King James 3. Those of the Church being left in their former condition 4. The Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination decryed by Bishop Bancroft and disliked by King James and the reasons of it 5. Bishop Bancroft and his Chaplain both abused The inserting the Lambeth Articles into the confession of Ireland no argument of King James his approbation of them by whom they were inserted and for what cause allowed of in the said Confession 6. A pious fraud of the Calvinians in clapping their predestinarian Doctrines at the end of the old Testament An. 1607. discovered censured and rejected with the reasons for it 7. The great Incouragement given by King James to the Anti-calvinians and the increasing of that party both in power and number by the stirs in Holland 8. The offence taken by King James at Conradus Vorstius animateth the Oxon. Calvinists to suspend Dr. Houson and to preach publickly against Dr. Laud. 9. The like proceedings at Cambridge against Mr. Simpson first prosecuted by King James and on what account that the King was more incensed against the party of Arminius then against their perswasions 10. Instructions published by King James in order to the diminishing of Calvins authority the defence of universal Redemption and the suppressing of his Doctrines in the other points and why the last proved so unusefull in the case of Gabriel Bridges 11. The publishing of Mountagues answer to the Gagger the information made against it the Author and his Doctrine taken by King James into his protection and his appeal licensed by the Kings appointment 12. The conclusion of the whole discourse and the submission of it to the Church of England 1. NOW we come unto the Reign of King James of happy memory whose breeding in the Kirk of Scotland had given some hopes of seeing better days to the English Puritans then those which they enjoyed under Queen Elizabeth Vpon which hopes they presented him at his first coming to the Crown with a supplication no less tedious then it was impertinent given out to be subscribed with a thousand hands though it wanted many of that number and aiming at an alteration in many points both of Doctrine and Discipline But they soon found themselves deceived For first the King commanded by publick proclamation that the divine service of the Church should be diligently officiated and frequented as in former times under pain of suffering the severest penalties by the Laws provided in that case And that being done instead of giving such a favourable answer to their supplication as they had flattered themselves withall he commended the answering of it to the Vice-Chancellour Heads and other learned men of the Vniversity of Oxon. from whom there was nothing to be looked for toward their contentment But being thirdly a just Prince and willing to give satisfaction to the just desires of such as did apply themselves unto him as also to inform himself in all such particulars as were in difference betwixt the Petitioners and the Prelates he appointed a solemn Conference to be held before him at Hampton Court on Thursday the 12. of January Anno 1603. being within less then ten moneths after his entrance on the Kingdom To which conference were called by several letters on the Churches part the most Reverend and right renowned Fathers in God Dr. John Whitgift Arch-Bishop of Canterbuy Dr. Richard Bancroft Bishop of London Dr. Tobie Mathews Bishop of Durham Dr. Thomas Bilson Bishop of Winchester Dr. Gervase Babbinton Bishop of Worcester Dr. Anthony Ruâ—d Bishop of Davids Dr. Anthony Walson Bishop of Chechester Dr Henry Robbinson Bishop of Carlile and Dr. Thomas Dâ—ve Bishop of Peterborough as also Dr. James Mountague Dean of the Chappel Dr. Thomas Ravis Dean of Christ Church Dr. John Bridges Dean of Sarum Dr. Lancelot Andrews Dean of Westminster Dr. John Overald Dean of Saint Pauls Doctor William Barlow Dean of Chester Doctor Giles Tompson Dean of Windsor together with Dr. John King Arch-Deacon of Nottingham and Dr. Richard Field after Dean of Glocester all of them habited and attired according to their several ranks and stations in the Church of England And on the other side there appeared for the Plantiffe or Petitioner Dr. Reynolds Dr. Spark Mr. Knewstubs and Mr. Chatterton the two first being of Oxon. and the other of Cambridge apparelled in their
Turky Gowns to shew as Bishop Bancroft tartly noted they desired rather to conform themselves in outward Ceremonies with the Turks then they did with the Papists 2. The first day of the Conference being spent betwixt the King and the Bishops the second which was the 16. of the same moneth was given to the Plantiffes to present their grievances and to remonstrate their desires amongst which it was named by Dr. Reynolds as the mouth of the rest That the nine Assertions Orthodoxal as he termed them concluded upon at Lambeth might be inserted into the book of Articles which when King James seemed not to understand as having never heard before of those nine Assertions ' He was informed that by reason of some Controversies arising in Cambridge about certain points of Divinity my Lords Grace 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 Arch-Bishop 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 beheld in the Affirmative or in the Negative as best pleased the Respondent 3. It was also moved by Dr. Reynolds That the book of Articles of Religion concluded 1562. might be explained in places obscure and enlarged where some things were defective And in particular he desired that an explanation might be made of the 23d Article for ministring in the Congregation of the 25. touching Confirmation and of the 37th concerning the Authority of the Pope of Rome as also that these words 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 16. 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 then 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 sound for altering any thing in any of them 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 nor 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 16. 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 4. 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 dayes 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 then Discendendo 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 predestination in the very last Paragraph scilicet We must receive Gods promises in such wise as these be generally set forth to us in holy Scriture 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 wither 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 lest 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 by inferring the necessary certainty of standing and persisting in grace After which upon occasion of Dr. Overals discourse concerning his affairs at Cambridge his Majesty entred into a longer discourse of Predestination and Reproation then before and of the necessary conjoyning Repentance and holiness of life with true faith concluding that it was Hypocrysie and not true justifying faith which was severed from them For although Predestination and
last giving him leave to look about him and to discerne the dangers which did seeme to threaten him on the other side considering therefore with himselfe or being informed by tale of the Bishop and Divines as were then about him how great an adversary was Calvinius to Monarchicall interesse how contrary the Predestination doctrines were to all rules of Government he found it neeessary to devise or admit some course of the preventing of the mischiefe To which end he issued certain directions to the vice Chancellor and Heads of both Universities bearing date January 18. 1619. Requiring them to take speciall order among other things that all that tooke any degree in the ' Schooles should subscribe to the three Articles in the thirty sixt Canon that no man in the Pulpit or Schooles be sufferred to maintaine Dogmatically any point of doctrine that is not allowed by the Church of England that none be suffered to preach or lecture in the Towns of Oxon. or Cambridge but such as were every way conformable to the Church both in doctrine and discipline and finally which most apparently conduced to the ruine of Calvinism that young Students in divinity be directed to study such books as be most agreeable in doctrine and discipline to the Church of England and excited to bestow their time in the Fathers and Councels Schoolmen Histories and Controversies and not to insist too long upon Compendiums and abbreviations making them the grounds of their study in divinity ' This seemed sufficient to bruse these doctrines in the shel as indeed it was had these directions been as carefully followed as they were piously prescribed But little or nothing being done in pursuance of them the Predestinarian doctrines came to be the ordinary Theam of all Sermons Lectures and Disputations partly in regard that Dr. Prideaux who had then newly succeeded Dr. Rob. Abbot in the chair at Oxon. had very passionately exposed the Calvinian Interest and partly in regard of the Kings declared averseness from the Belgick Remonstrants whom for the reasons before mentioned he laboured to suppress to his utmost power And yet being carefull that the truth should not fair the worse for the men that taught it he gave command to such Divines as were commissionated by him to attend in the Synod of Dort Anno 1618. not to recede from the doctrine of the Church of England in the point of universal Redemption by the death of Christ A point so inconsistent with that of the Absolute and irrespective decree of Reprobation and generally of the whole Machina of Predestination and the points depending thereupon as they are commonly maintained in the Schools of Calvin that fire and water cannot be at greater difference But this together with the rest being condemned in the Synod of Dort and that Synod highly magnified by the English Calvinists they took confidence of making those disputes the Subject of their common discourses both from the Pulpit and press without stint or measure And thereupon it pleased his Majesty having now no further fear of any dangers from beyond the seas to put some water into their wine or rather a Bridle into their mouths by publishing certain orders and directions touching Preachers and preaching bearing date on the 4. of August 1622. In which it was enjoyned amongst other things ' That no Preacher of what Title soever under the degree of a Bishop or Dean at least do from hence forth presume to teach in any popular Auditory the deep points of Predestination Election Reprobation or of the Universality Efficacity Resistability or Irresistability of Gods Grace but rather leave those Theames to be handled by learned men and that modestly and moderately by use and application rather then by way of positive Doctrine as being fitter for Schools and Vniversities then for simple Auditors ' The violating of which order by Mr. Gabriel Bridges of Corpus Christi Colledge in Oxon. by preaching on the 19th of Ianuary then next following against the absolute decree in maintenance of universal Grace and the co-operation of mans free will prevented by it though in the publick Church of the Vniversity laid him more open to the prosecution of Dr. Prideaux and to the censure of the Vice-Chancelor and the rest of the Heads then any preaching on those points or any of them could possibly have done at another time 11. Much was the noise which those of the Calvinian party were observed to make on the publishing of this last order as if their mouths were stopped thereby from preaching the most necessary Doctrines tending towards mans salvation But a far greater noise was raised upon the coming out of Montagues answer to the Gagger in which he asserted the Church to her primitive and genuine Doctrines disclaimed all the Calvinian Tenents as dis-owned by her and left them to be countenanced and maintained by those to whom they properly belonged Which book being published at a time when a Session of Parliament was expected in the year 1624. The opportunity was taken by Mr. Yates and Mr. Ward two of the Lecturers or Preachers of Ipswich to prepare an Information against him with an intent to prosecute the same in the following Session A Copy whereof being come into Mountagues hands he flies for shelter to King James who had a very great estimation of him for his parts and learning in which he had over-mastred they then though much less Selden at his own Philologie The King had already served his own turn against the Remonstrants by the Synod of Dort and thereby freed the Prince of Orange his most dear Confederate from the danger of Barnwell and his faction Arch-Bishop Abbot came not at him since the late deplorable misfortune which befell him at Branzil and the death of Dr. James Mountague Bishop of Winton left him at liberty from many importunities and sollicitations with which before he had been troubled so that being now master of himself and governed by the light of his own most clear and exellent Judgement he took both Montague and his Doctrines into his Protection gave him a full discharge or quietus est from all those Calumnies of Popery or Arminianism which by the said Informers were laid upon him incouraged him to procecd in finishing his just Appeal which he was in hand with commanded Dr. Francis White then lately preferred by him to the Deanry of Carlisle and generally magnified not long before for his zeal against Popery to see it licensed for the Press and finally gave order unto Mountague to dedicate the book when printed to his Royal self In obedience unto whose Command the Dean of Carlisle licensed the book with this approbation That there was nothing contained in the samo but what was agreeable to the publick Faith Doctrine and Discipline established in the Church of England But King James dying before the book was fully finished at the Press it was published by the name of Appello Cesarem and dedicated to King
laid downe and humbly praying in the close that he would graciously be pleased to extend unto me such a measure of his power and favour in the case before him as might preserve me in a fit capacity to proceed in those services which otherwise I could not be able to performe as I had done formerly His Majesty thereupon gave order to the now Lord Bishop of Lichfield being then President of the Colledge to see me resetled for the present and to Sir Arthur Ashton who was then Governour of the Towne to take some strict course with his Souldiers for not giving me the like disturbance for the time to come which was the least I could expect from his Majesties goodnesse And here I thought my troubles had beene at an end But so it happened that the Lord Marquesse of Hertford was at the same time chosen Chancellor of the Vniversity and some of his sevants must be dealt with to espouse the quarrell By whose soliticaton I was required to attend his Lordship whithin few dayes after and I went accordingly But when I came and that his Lordship saw how farre his Majesty had already apperaed in the businesse he could not but perceive withall how unfit it was for him to take any cognizance of that cause which by his Majesty had beene heard and predetermined He thereupon presently declined the businesse seemed much offended at the trouble which was given me in it and having dismist the rest of the company retained me with him for some time held some discourse with me about the quality and estate of the Kings affaires and finally called for Ale and Wine for my entertainment But notwithstanding those indignities which were put upon me on the one side and those many advantages which I had on the other I carried my selfe fairly all along to my troublesome Landlord gave him a civil treatment in the Christmas Holidays presented him with no inconsiderable new-years gift as the times then were and promised him that as soone as otherwise I could provide my selfe of convenient Lodging I would give him the contentment he so much desired Nor was it long before I did make good that promise Since which time all fair offices and friendly correspondencies have past between us there being nothing I thank God which I can more easily forget then the sense of Injuries Hic status haec Rerum fuerat fortuna mearum Such was the state of these affaires And such the issue of my cares And thus good Reader thou hast seene those horrible prophanations slanders and ingratitudes for which I stand arraigned in that scurrilous Libell for by that name I shall take leave to call that Pamphlet which for the Ribauldry thereof was stopt by the Vice-Chancellor at the Presse in Oxon and being at last brought forth in the dark at London is neither justified by the name of the Authour nor otherwise offered unto sale then by an underhand promoting of it amongst those of that Faction But there is still a race of men as anciently there was in Saint Hieroms time qui aliorum vituperatione laudabile se videri cupiunt which hope to get themselves a name by defaming others And for my part I am content they should enjoy the ignominy of that Peccant humour which is so proper to the Text without other censure then that which Michael the Arch-Angel passed upon the Devil when he contended with him for the body of Moses of whom it is written by Saint Jude that he durst not bring a railing accusation against that Accuser of the brethren but left him to the judgement of Almighty God with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord rebuke thee I have but one thing more to adde and that relates to the Integrity of Doctor Barlow who stands defamed by the Libeller and his alter idem for using some unjust dealing towards Doctor Reynolds Doctor Sparks c. in his relation of the conference at Hampton Court For proofe whereof one Master Sparks affirmed to be a man of eminent learning must be disquieted at his death if not rather raised up from the dead to declare his knowledge who signified by his friend I. M. what he once heard from H. G. an aged Minister concerning Doctor Barlow's sorrow at his death-bed for the wrong he had done to Doctor Reynolds and the rest in relating that conference with H. I. is reported to have added further that being at a Table with Master Sparks the sonne of Doctor Sparks he found him very sensible of the abuse of which he could not speak without great indignation which had been put upon his Father and Doctor Reynolds by the said Relator But first the man himself is dead from whom we are to take our greatest light in so dark a businesse And who can tell but that this whole narration may be one of those pious fraudes devised by the Pamphleter or his Alter Idem nec enim nunc fallere primum Incipit a nobis for imposing as well upon the dead as upon the living Secondly the principal witnesse being dead the credit of the sigment resteth on two common vouchers that is to say I. M. and H. I. as easie to be found and as honest folk as Nicholas Nemo in Utopia or Madam Charity of the Oudemeon street in Mantinea or Doctor H. H. in the Margin of the Libel which is now before us Thirdly it must needs seeme exceeding strange to a sober Reader that this great truth should lie concealed like a spark raked up in ashes five and fifty years and then blaze out upon a sudden when it was not thought of And Fourthly I had once the happiness to be exeeeding well acquainted with Master Thomas Sparks of Candoâ—er in the County of South-Hampton and Master William Sparks of Bleckly in the County of Buckingham sometime Divinity Reader in Magdalen Colledge the onely sonnes of Doctor Sparks before remembred and having had many opportunities of discoursing with them about that conference and their Fathers acting in the same I never heard the least word from either of them of any wrong done or supposed to be done by Doctor Barlow in drawing up the substance and abridgement of it so that I doubt not but it will appear on the full debate that Doctor Barlow is more wronged in his fame by these Libellers Pamphlets then ever Doctor Reynolds had been injured by that learned Prelate I have now done with these polemical discourses and shall not easily ingage in a new adventure unlesse invincible necessity or some unsufferable provocation shall inforce me to it In which case only it is possible that I may be tempted to the resuming of those armes which otherwise I would willingly hang up in the Temple of Concord that I may spend the whole remainder of my time in more peacefull studies I have already done my part in vindicating the Doctrine Government and formes of worship established in the Church of England And it is time to leave the
Predestination in which and the Genevian Notes we finde Christ excluded from being the foundation of mans Election and made to be an inferiour cause of salvation only 6. God made to be the Author of sin by the Author of a Pamphlet entituled Against a Privy Papist and his secret Councells called in for the proof thereof both by him and Knox with the mischiefs which ensued upon it 7. The Doctrine of Robert Crawley imputing all mens sins to Predestination his silly defences for the same made good by a distinction of John Verons and the weaknesse of that Distinction shewed by Campneys 8. The Errors of the former Authors opposed by Campneys his book in Answer to those Errors together with his Orthodoxie in the point of Vniversall Redemption and what he builds upon the same 9. His solid Arguments against the imputing of all actions either good or evill to Predestination justified by a saying of Prosper of Aquitain 10. The virulent prosecutions of Veron and Crowley according to the Genius of the Sect of Calvin CHAP. XVII Of the Disputes amongst the Confessors in Prison in Queen Maries dayes and the resetling of the Church on her former Principles under Queen Eliz. 1. THe Doctrine of Predestination disputed amongst the Confessors in Prison in Queen Maries dayes 2. The Examination of John Carelesse before Dr. Martin 3. Considerations on some passages in the said Conference 4. A review made of the publick Liturgy by the command of Queen Eliz. and the Paraphrases of Erasmus commended to the reading both of Priests and People 5. The second Book of Homilies how provided for and of the liberty taken by the Gospellers and Zuinglian Sectaries before the reviving and confirming of the Book of Articles by the Queens Authority 6. Of the reviving and authority of the Book of Articles An. 1562. and what may be thence inferred 7. An Answer to the Argument drawn from omitting the ninth Article of King Edwards Book the necessity of giving some content to the Zuinglian Gospellers and the difficulties wherewith they were induced to subscribe the Book at the first passing of the same 8. The Argument taken from some passages in the English Catechisme set forth by Mr. Alexander Nowell and the strength thereof 9. Considerations made on the said Catechisme and the rest of that Authors making and what his being Prolocutor in the Convocation might adde to any of them in point of Orthodoxy 10. Nothing to be collected out of the first passage in Mr. Nowels Catechisme in favour of the Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination and the points depending thereupon and less then nothing in the second if it be understood according to the Authors meaning and the determination of the Church CHAP. XVIII A Declaration of the Doctrine in the Points disputed under the new Establishment made by Queen Eliz. 1. THe Doctrine of the second Book of Homilies concerning the wilfull Fall of Adam the miserable estate of man the restitution of lost man in Jesus Christ and the universall Redemption of all Mankinde by his Death and Passion 2. The Doctrin of the said second Book concerning Universal Grace the possibility of a totall and finall Falling and the cooperation of mans will with the grace of God 3. The judgment of Reverend Bishop Jewell touching the universal Redemption of Mankinde by the Death of Christ Predestination grounded upon faith in Christ and reached out unto all them that believe in him by Mr. Alexander Nowell 4. Dr. Harsnet in his Sermon at Pauls Crosse 1584. sheweth that the absolute decree of Reprobation tâ—rneth the truth of God into a lye and makes him to be the Author of sin 5. That it deprives man of the naturall freedome of his will makes God himself to be double-minded to have two contrary wills and to delight in mocking his poor creature Man 6. And finally that it makes God more cruel and unmercifull then the greatest Tyrant contrary to the truth of Scripture and the constant Doctrin of the Fathers 7. The rest of the said Sermon reduced unto certain Heads directly contrary to the Calvinian Doctrines in the points disputed 8. Certain considerations on the Sermon aforesaid with reference to the subject of it as also to the time place and person in and before which it was first preached 9. An answer to some Objections concerning a pretended Recantation affirmed to have been made by the said Mr. Harsnet 10. That in the judgment of the right learned Dr. King after Bishop of Reading the alteration of Gods denounced Judgements in some certain cases infers no alteration in his Councels the difference between the changing of the will and to will a change 11. That there is something in Gods decrees revealed to us something concealed to himself the difference between the inferiour and superiour causes and of the conditionality of Gods Threats and Promises 12. The accommodating of the former part of this discourse to the case of the Ninivite 13. And not the case of the Ninivites to the case disputed CHAP. XIX Of the first great breach which was made in the Doctrine of the Church by whom made and what was done toward the making of it up again 1. GReat Alteration made in the face of the Church from the return of such Divines as had withdrawn themselves beyond Sea in the time of Queen Mary with the necessity of imploying them in the publick service if otherwise of known zeal a gainst the Papists 2. Severall examples of that kinde in the places of greatest Power and Trust in the Church of England particularly of Mr. Fox the Martyrologist and the occasion which he took of publishing his opinion in the point of Predestination 3. His Notes on one of the Letters of Mr. John Bradford martyr touching the matters of Election therein contained and his perverting of the Text on which he writeth 4. The difference between the Comment and the Text and between the Author of the Comment and Bishop Hooper 5. Exceptions against some passages and observations upon others in the said Notes of Mr. Fox 6. The great breach made hereby in the Churches Doctrin made greater by the countenance which was given to the Acts and Monuments by the Convocation 1571. 7. No argument to be drawn from hence touching the approbation of his Doctrine by the Convocation no more then for the approbation of his Marginal Notes and some particular passages in it disgracefull to the Rites of the Church Attire of the Bishops 8. A Counter-ballance made in that Convocation against Fox his Doctrines and all other Novelismes of that kinde CHAP. XX. Of the great Innovation made by Perkins in the Publick Doctrine the stirs arising thence in Cambridge and Mr. Barrets carriage in them 1. OF Mr. Perkins and his Doctrine of Predestination with his recitall of the 4 Opinions which were then maintained about the same 2. The sum and substance of his Doctrin according to the Supralapsarian oâ— Supracreatarian way 3. The severall
the far greater number must be damned necessarily and inevitably so that 't is not possible for them to be saved Which doctrine first makes God to be the Author of sin as both Piscator and Macarius and many other Supralapsarians as well as Perkings have positively and expresly affirmed him to be then concludes him for a more unmerciful Tyrant then all that ever had been in the world were they joyned in one A more unmerciful Tyrant then the Roman Emperour who wished that all the people of Rome had but one Neck amongst them that he might cut it off at a blow he being such in voto only God alone in opere VII But this extremity being every day found the more indefensible by how much it had been more narrowly sifted and inquired into the more moderate and sober sort of the Calvinians forsaking the Colours of their first Leaders betook themselves into the Camp of the rigid Lutherans and rather chose to joyn with the Dominican Fryers then to stand any longer to the dictates of their Master Calvin These passing by the name of Sublapsarians have given us such an order of Predestination as must and doth presuppose a Fall and findes all man-kind generally in the Mass of Perdition The substance of whose doctrine both in this and the other Articles were thus drawn up by the Remonstrants in the Conference at the Hague before remembred 1. That God Almighty willing from eternity with himself to make a decree concerning the Election of some certain men but the rejection of others considered man-kinde not only as created but also as faln and corrupted in Adam and Eve our first Parents and thereby the deserving the Curse And that he decreed out of the fall and damnation to deliver and save some certain ones of his Grace to declare his Mercy But to leave others both young and old yea truly even certain Infants of men in Covenant and those Infants baptized and dying in their Infancy by his just Judgment in the Curse to declare his Justice and that without all consideration of Repentance and Faith in the former or of Impenitence or unbelief in the latter For the execution of which decree God useth also such means whereby the Elect are necessarily and unavoidably saved but Reprobates necessarily and unavoidably perish 2. And therefore that Jesus Christ the Saviour of the World died not for all men but for those only who are elected either after the former or this latter manner he being the mean and ordained Mediator to save those only and not a man besides 3. Consequently that the Spirit of God and of Christ doth work in those who are elected that way or this with such a force of Grace that they cannot resist it and so that it cannot be but that they must turn believe and thereupon necessarily be saved But that this irresistible grace and force belongs only to those so elected but not to Reprobates to whom not only the irresistible Grace is denied but also grace necessary and sufficient for Conversion for faith and for salvation is not afforded To which Conversion and Faith indeed they are called invited and freely sollicited outwardly by the revealed Will of God though notwithstanding the inward force necessary to Faith and Conversion is not bestowed on them according to the secret Will of God 4. But that so many as have once obtained a true and justifying Faith by such a kinde of irresistible force can never totally nor finally lose it no not although they fall into the very most enormious sins but are so led and kept by the same irresistible force that 't is not possible for them oâ— they cannot either totally or finally fall and perish VII And thus we have the doctrine of the Sublapsarian Calvinists as it stands gathered out of the Writings of particular men But because particular men may sometimes be mistaken in a publick doctrine and that the Judgment of such men being collected by the hands of their Enemies may be unfaithfully related we will next look on the Conclusions of the Synod of Dort which is to be conceived to have delivered the Genuine sense of all the parties as being a Representative of all the Calvinian Churches of Europe except those of France some few Divines of England being added to them Of the calling and proceedings of this Synod we shall have occasion to speak further in the following Chapter At this time I shall only lay down the Results thereof in the five controverted Points as I finde them abbreviated by Dan. Tilenus according to the Heads before mentioned in summing up the doctrine of the Councel of Trent Art 1. Of Divine Predestination That God by an absolute decree hath Elected to salvation a very smal number of men without any regard to their Faith or obedience whatsoever and secluded from saving Grace all the rest of man-kinde and appointed them by the same decree to eternal damnation without any regard to their Infidelity or Impenitency Art 2. Of the Merit and Effect of Christs Death That Jesus Christ hath not suffered death for any other but for those Elect only having neither had any intent nor commandment of his Father to make satisfaction for the sins of the whole World Art 3. Of Mans Will in the state of Nature That by Adam's Fall his Posterity lost their Free-will being put to an unavoidable necessity to do or not to do whatsoever they do or do not whether it be good or evil being thereunto Predestinated by the eternal and effectual secret decree of God Art Of the manner of Conversion That God to save his Elect from the corrupt Mass doth beget faith in them by a power equal to that whereby he created the World and raised up the dead insomuch that such unto whom he gives that Grace cannot reject it and the rest being Reprobate cannot accept of it Art 5. Of the certainty of Perseverance That such as have once received that Grace by Faith can never fall from it finally or totally notwithstanding the most enormious sins they can commit IX This is the shortest and withall the most favourable Summary which I have hitherto met with of the conclusions of this Synod that which was drawn by the Remonstrants in their Antiâ—â—tam being much more large and comprehending many things by way of Inference which are not positively expressed in the words thereof But against this though far more plausible then the rigorous way of the Supralapsarians it is objected by those of the contrary perswasion 1. That it is repugnant to plain Texts of Scripture as Ezek. 33. 11. Rom. 11. 2. John 3. 16. 2 Tim. â— 4. 2 Pet. 3. 9. Gen. 4 7. 1 Chron. 28. 9. 2 Chron. 15. â— Secondly That it fighteth with Gods Holiness and makes him the cause of sin in the greatest number of men 1. In regard that only of his own will and pleasure he hath brought men into an estate in
lay open to such further informations as were offered to him which drew him to a better liking both of the Men and their Opinions then he had formerly entertained of either of them IV. It is objected secondly that these Doctrines symbolize so much with the Church of Rome that they serve only for a Bridge for Popery to passe over into any Church into which they can obtain admittance This Calumny first laid upon them in a Declaration of the States Generall against Barnevelt before remembred wherein they charge him with a design of confederating with the Spaniard to change the Religion of those Countreys and countenancing to that end the Arminian party as his fittest Instruments which clamor being first raised in Holland was afterwards much cherished and made use of by the Puritan or Calvinian party amongst us in England By one of which it is alleadged that Mr. Pym being to make a report to the House of Commons An. 1626. touching the Books of Richard Mountague after Bishop of Chichester affirmed expressely that the whole scope of his Booke was to discourage the well-affected in Religion and as much as in him lay to reconcile them unto Popery He gives us secondly a Fragment of a scattered Paper pretended to be written to the Rector of the Jesuites Colledge in Bruxells in which the Writer lets him know that they had strongly fortified their Faction here in England by planting the Soveraign Drug Arminianisme which he hoped would purge the Protestants from their Heresie Thirdly he backs this Paper with a Clause in the Remonstrance of the House of Commons 1628. where it is said that the hearts of his Majesties Subjects were perplexed in beholding the daily growth and spreading of the Faction of Arminianisme that being as his Majesty well knew so they say at least but a cunning way to bring in Popery To all which being but the same words out of divers mouths it is answered first That the points which are now debated between the Calvinians and the old Protestants in England between the Remonstrants and the Contra-Remonstrants in the Belgick Churches and finally between the rigid and moderate Lutherans in the upper Germany have been as fiercely agitated between the Franciscans and the Dominicans in the Church of Rome The old English Protestants the Remonstrants and the moderate Lutherans agreeing in these points with the Franciscans as the English Calvinists the Contra-Remonstrants and the rigid Lutherans do with the Dominicans So that there is a compliance on all sides with one of the said two differing parties in the Church of Rome And therefore why a generall complyance in these poynts with the Fryers of St. Dominick the principall sticklers promoters of that Inquisition should not be thought as ready a way to bring in Popery as any such complyance with the Fryers of St. Francis he must be a very wise man indeed which can give the reason Secondly it is answered that the Melanctonian or moderate Lutherans which make up infinitely the greatest part of the Lutheran Churches agree in these points with the Jesuites or Franciscan Fryers and yet are still as far from relapsing to the Church of Rome as when they made the first separation from it And therefore thirdly that if Arminianisme as they call it be so ready a Bridge for passing over to Popery it would be very well worth the knowing how and by what means it should come to passe that so few of the Remonstrants in the Belgick Provinces and none of those whom they call Arminians in the Church of England should in so long a time pass over that Bridge notwithstanding all the Provocations of want and scorn which were put upon the one and have been since multiplyed upon the other V. In the next place it is objected that the Arminian Doctrines naturally incline a man to the sin of pride in attributing so much to the power of his own will so little to the Grace of God in choosing both the means and working out of the end of his own salvation And for the proof hereof a passage is alleadged out of the History of the Councell of Trent that the first opinion that is to say the Doctrin of Predestination according to the opinion of the Dominican Fryers as it is hidden and mysticall keeping the minde humble and relying on God without any confidence in it self knowing the deformity of Sin and the excellency of Divine Grace so the Second being that maintained by the Franciscans was plausible and popular and cherished humane presumption c. The whole passage we have had before in the Second Chapter Num. 4. but we shall answer to no more of it then 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 seldome speaks favourably of the Jesuites and their adherents amongst which the Franciscans in these poynts 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 then 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 Doctrinall matters what credit soever may be given to him in point of History then 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 the impossibility of falling from the attaining of that salvation which they have promised to themselves then that which leaves these poynts uncertain which puts a man to the continuall necessity of calling on God and working out the way unto his salvation with fear and trembling He that is once possessed with this perswasion that all the sins which he can possibly commit were they as many as have been committed by all Mankinde 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 Pharisaicall pride and despise all other men as Heathens and Publicans when such poor Publicans as have their minds humble and relying â—n God will stand aloof not daring to approach too neer the Divine Majesty but crying out with God be mercifull unto me a sinner and yet shall be more justified in the sight of God then the others are For this we need produce no proof
That no Humane Laws or Constitutions do oblige a Christian 11. And finally That God never gave grace nor knowledge to a great person or rich man and that they in no wise fâ—llow the same What Anabaptists Brownists Ranters Quakers may not as well pretend that our first Reformers were of their Religion as the Calvinists can if Wicklifs Doctrine be the rule of our Reformation Which because possibly it may obtain the less belief if they were found only in the works of Harpsfield and Waldensis before remembred the Reader may look for them in the catalogue of those Mala Dogmâ—ta complained of by the Prolocutor in the Convocation An. 1536. to have been publikely preached printed and professed by some of Wicklifs Followers for which consult the Church History lib. 4. fol. 208. and there he shall be sure to finde them 6. It is alledged in the next place that the Calvinistical Doctrines in these points may be found in the writings of John Frith William Tyndall and Dr. Barns collected into one volume and printed by Jâ—ha Day 1563. of which the first suffered death for his conscience An. 1533. the second An. 1536. and the third An. 1540. called therefore by Mr. Fox in a Preface of his before the Book the Ring-leaders of the Church of England And thereupon it is inferred that the Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination must be the same with that which was embraced and countenanced by the first Reformers But first admitting that they speak as much in Honour of Calvins Doctrine as can be possibly desired yet being of different judgements in the points disputed and not so Orthodox in all others as might make them any way considerable in the Reformation it is not to be thought that either their writings or opinions should be looked on by us for our direction in this case Barns was directly a Dominican in point of Doctrine Frith soared so high upon the wing and quite out-flew the mark that Tyndal thought it not unfit to call him down and lure him back unto his pearch and as for Tyndal he declares himself with such care and caution excepting one of his flyings out against Freewil that nothing to their purpose can be gathered from him Secondly I do not look on Mr. Fox as a competent Judge in matters which concern the Church of England the Articles of whose Confession he refused to subscribe he being thereunto required by Archbishop Paâ—ker and therefore Tyndal Frith and Barns not to be hearkned to the more for his commendation Thirdly if the testimony of Frith and Tyndall be of any force for defence of the Calvinists the Anti-Sabbatarians may more justly make use of it in defence of themselves against the new Sabbath speculations of Dr. Bond and his adherents embraced more passionately of late then any Article of Religion here by Law established Of which the first declares the Lords day to be no other than an Ecclesiastical Institution or Church Ordinance the last that it is still changeable from one day to another if the Church so please For which consult the Hist of Sab. l. 2. c. 8. Let Frith and Tyndal be admitted as sufficient witnesses when they speak against the new Sabbath Doctrines or not admitted when they speak in behalf of Calvins and then I am sure his followers will lose more on the one side thâ—n they gained on the other and will prove one of the crossest bargains to them which they ever made And then it is in the fourth place to be observed that the greatest treasury of learning which those and the Famerlines could boast of was lockt up in the Cloisters of the Begging Friers of which the Franciscans were accounted the most nimble Disputants the Dominicans the most diligent and painful Preachers the Augustinians for the most part siding with the one and the Carmilites or White Friers joyning with the other so that admitting Frith and Tindal to maintain the same Doctrine in these points which afterwards was held forth by Calvin yet possibly they maintained them not as any points of Protestant Doctrine in opposition to the errours of the Church of Rome which had not then declared it self on either side but as the received opinions of the Dominican Friers in opposition to the Franciscans The Doctrine of which Dominican Friers by reason of their diligent preaching had met with more plausible entertainment not onely amongst the inferiour sort of people but also amongst many others of parts and learning 7. And as for Barns the far most learned of the three he had been once Prior of the Augustinian Friers in Cambridge whose Doctrines he had sucked in at his first coming thither and therefore might retain them to the very last without relation to the Zuinglian or Calvinian Tenents or any differences then on foot between the Protestant Doctors and the Church of Rome Besides being of the same Order which Luther had quitted the might the more willingly encline to Luthers first opinion touching servitude of the will mans inability in cooperating with the grace of God and being forcibly drawn in his own conversion velut inanimatum quiddam like a stock or stone in which he was tenaciously followed by the rigid Lutherans though he had afterwards changed his judgement touching that particular So that beholding Dr. Barns either as one that followed Luther in his first opinions or travelled the Dominican way in the present points as an Augustinian it is no marvel if we finde somewhat in his writings agreeable to the palate of the Calvinists and rigid Lutherans From whence it is that laying down the Doctrine of Predestination he discourseth thus viz. ' But yet sayest thou that he giveth to the one mercy and the other none I answer what is that to thee is not his mercy his own is it not lawful for him to give it to whom he will is thine eye evil because his is good take that which is thine and go thy way for if he will shew his wrath and make his power known over the vessels of wrath ordained to damnation and to declare the riches of his glory unto the vessels of mercy which he hath prepared and elected unto glory what hast thou therewith to do But here will subtil blindeness say God saw before that Jacob should do good and therefore did he chuse him he saw also that Esau should do evil therefore did he condemn him Alas for blindness what will you judge of that which God foresaw how know we that God saw that and if he saw it how know we that it was the cause of Jacobs Election These children being unborn they had done neitheir good nor bad and yet one of them is chosen and the other is refused S. Paul knoweth no other cause but the will of God and will you needs discuss another He saith not I will have mercy on him that I see shall do good but I will shew mercy to whom I will He saith not I will
before the foundations of the world were laid he hath constantly ordered by his Council secret unto us to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankinde and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation as vessels made to honour Furthermore we must receive Gods promises in such wise as 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 to reconcile his Father to us and be a Sacrifice not onely for Original guilt but also for the actual sins of men The Offering of Christ once made is this perfect Redemption Propitiation and Satisfaction to all the sinnes of the whole world both Original and Actual 3. Of mans will in â—he state of depraved nature Man by Original sin is so far gone from Original â—ighteousness that of his own nature he is inclined to evil so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit and therefore Works done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spiriâ— 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 graâ—e 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 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 nâ—t to be denyed to such as fall into sin after Baptism in regard that after we have received the Holy Ghost we may depart from grace giâ—en 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 10. 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 Clergie in their Convocation and afterwards confirmed by the Letters Patents of Edw. 6. 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 Clergie then assembled had no Commission from the King to meddle in Church business that the King durst not trust the Clergie 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 the sixth 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 Artâ—culi 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 Clergie but that he might trust them with a power to meddle with matters of Religion this Convocation being holden the sixth year of his Reign when Gardiner Bonner Day and Tunstall and others of the stiffest Romanists were put out of their places most of the Episcopal Sees and Parochial Churches being filled with men according unto his desires and generally conâ—ormable to the Forms of Worship here by Law established Thirdly the Church of England for the first five years of Queen Elizabeth retained these Articles and no other as the publike â—endries of the Church in point of Doctrine which certainly she had not done had it been recommended to her by a less Authority than a Convocation lawfully assembled and confirmed And Fourthly that it is true that the Records of Convocation during this King and the first years of Queen Mary are very defective and imperfect most of them lost amongst others those of this present year And yet one may conclude as strongly that my mother dyed childeless because my Christening is not to be found in the Parish Register as that the Convocation of this year was barren because the Acts and Articles of it were not entred in the Journal Book 11. To salve this sore it is conceived by the Objector that the Bishops and Clergie had passed over their power to some ' select Divines appointed by the King in which sense they may be said to have made these Articles themselves by their delegates to whom they had deputed their Authority the case not being so clear but that it occasioned a cavil at the next Convocation the first of Queen Mary when the Papists therein assembled renounced the legality of any such former transactions ' And unto this it shall be answered That no such defect of legality as was here pretended was charged against the Book of Articles it self but onely against a Catechism which was bound up with it countenanced by the Kings Letters Patents prefixt before it approved by many Bishops and learned men and generally voyced to be another of the products of this Convocation And therefore for so much as concerns this Catechism it was replied by Mr. John Philpot Archdeacon of Winchester who had been a member in the former and was now a member of the Convocation in the first of Queen Mary That he thought they were deceived in the Title of it in that it owned the Title of the last Synod of London many which were then present not being made privy to the making or publishing of it He added That the said former Convocation had granted the Authority of making excellent Laws unto certain persons to be appointed by the Kings Majestie so as whatsoever Ecclesiastical Laws they or the most part of them did set
of the Articles fashioning them to their own fancies as they please themselves Each of the parties in those curious points in which the present differences do most consist conceive the Articles of the Church to speak for them exclusive wholly of the other but with a notable difference in the Application The Calvinists by which name they love to be called endeavour to captivate the sense of the Article and bring it to the bent of their own understanding but the true English Protestants whom for distinction sake we may call Confessionists accommodate though they do not captivate their own sense to the sense of the Church according to the plain and full meaning of the Articles in the points disputed But because possibly both parties may not be agreed on a Rule or Medium by which the proper sense and meaning of the Articles may be best discovered it will not be amiss to follow the directions of the Civil Laws in cases of like doubtful nature which is briefly this viz. Si de interpretatione Legis quaeritur iâ—â—riâ—â—is insp câ—endum est quo jure Civitas â—â—â—â—â— in hujâ—smodi casibus usa fuit And this we shall the better do if we enquire into the Doctrine of those Learned Religious and Godly men who either had a principal hand in the Reformation or were most conversant with them and beloved of them in their several stations taking along with us the Authority of the Homilies and publique Liturgie to which all parties have subscribed In order whereunto it will first be necessary to lay down the definition of Predestination as before we had it in the Article to sum up the particular points and contents thereof to shew the sense of one phrase in it and then to travel more exactly in this enquiry whether the method of Predestination illustrated by the story of Agilmond and Amistus Kings of Lombardy cap. 7. num 4. agree not more harmoniously with the true sense and meaning of the Church of England than any other whatsoever 2. First then ' Predestination unto life is defined in the 17 Article to be the Everlasting purpose of God whereby and before the foundations of the world were laid he hath constantly decreed by his Council secret unto us to deliver from damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankinde and to bring them by Christ unto everlasting salvation ' In which definition there are these things to be observed First That Predestination doth presuppose a curse or state of damnation in which all mankinde was represented to the sight of God which plainly crosseth the opinion of the Supra-Lapsarians the Supra-Creaturians or Creabilitarians as some call them now Secondly That it is an act of his from Everlasting because from Everlasting he foresaw into what misery whretched man would fall by the abuse of that liberty in which first he stood Thirdly That he founded it and resolved for it in the Man and Mediator Christ Jesus both for the purpose and performance which crosseth as directly with the Sublapsarians who place the absolute decree of Predestination to life and of Reprobation unto death both of body and soul before the decree or consideration of sending his onely beloved Son Jesus Christ into the world to be the common Propitiation for the sins of men Fourthly That it was of some special ones alone Elect called fort and reserved in Christ and not generally extended unto all mankinde a General Election as they say being no Election Fifthly That being thus elected in Christ they shall be brought by Christ but not without their own consent and co-operation to everlasting salvation And finally That this Council is secret unto us for though there be revealed to us some hopeful signs of our Election and Predestation destination unto life yet the certainty thereof is a secret hidden in God and in this life unknown to us For who hath known the minde of the Lord or hath been his Counsellour or of his Secret Council saith the great Apostle 3. Such is the definition of Predestination and the substance of it in which there is nothing so obscure no term so intricate as to need any especial or distinct explication as those words Whom he hath chosen in Christ which being the very words of the same Apostle Ephesians first cap. 4. we will first paraphrase in the words of some ancient Writers and then illustrate them by others of our holiest Martyrs who had a principal hand in the Reformation First S. Ambrose amongst others sâ—cut elegit nos in ipso as he hath chosen us in him Praescivit enim Deus omnes scil qui credituri essent in Christum For God saith he by his general prescience did foreknow every man that would believe in Christ To the same purpose speaks S. Chrysostome saying Quod dicit perinde est ac â—si dicat Per quem nos benedixit per eundem elegit and a little after Quid est in ipso elegit per eam quae in ipso habenda esset fidem For praestitit prius quam ipsi essemus magis autem prius quam mundi hujus jacerentur Fundamenta Which is as much as to say saith he as if he had said That we are blessed in him in whom we are chosen and we are chosen in him in whom we believe which he performed before we our selves had any being or rather before the foundations of the world were laid And to the same effect the Commentary upon S. Pauls Epistles ascribed to S. Jerome viz. in hoc praedestavit ut haberent potestatem filii Dei fieri homines qui credere voluissent that is to say in this he hath predestinated us to Eternal life that men may be made the sons of God if they will believe Which sayings of those ancient Writers we shall expound by others of our holy Martyrs and first Archbishop Cranmer in his Answer to Gardiner touching the holy Sacrament telleth us this viz. ' Christ saith he took unto himself not onely their sins that many years before were dead and put their trust in him but also the sins of those that until his coming again should truly believe in his Gospel ' More fully Bishop Latimer thus ' When saith he we hear that some be chosen and some be damned let us have good hope that we be amongst the chosen and live after this hope that is uprightly and godly then shall we not be deceived think that God hath chosen those that believe in Christ and Christ is the Book of Life If thou believest in him then art thou written in the Book of Life and shalt be saved ' By which we may the better understand that passage in the Book of Homilies where it said ' That the Scripture shutteth up all under sin that the promise by the faith of Jesus Christ should be given unto them that believe ' which is as much as can be comprehended in so narrow a compass 4.
sins and incredulities as generally is maintained and taught in the Schools of Calvin Much I am sure may be said against it out of the passages in the Liturgie before remembred where it is said that God hath compassion upon all men and hateth nothing which he hath made but much more out of those which are to come in the second Article touching the Vniversal Reconciliation of mankinde unto God the Father by the death of Christ Take now no more than this one Collect being the last of those which are appointed for Good Friday on which we celebrate the memorial of Christ his death and passion and is this that followeth viz. ' Merciful God who hast made all men and hatest nothing that thou hast made nor wouldst the death of a sinner but rather that he should be converted andâ—â—ve have mercy upon all Jews Turks Infidels and Hereticks and take from them all ignorance hardness of heart and contempt of thy Word and so fetch them home blessed Lord to thy flock that they may be saved amongst the remnant of the true Israelites and be made one fold under one Shepherd Jesus Christ our Lord. ' A Prayer as utterly inconsistent with the Calvinians Decree of Reprobation as the finding of an Hell in Heaven or any thing else which seems to be most abhorrent both from faith and piety 2. More may be said against it out of the writings of Bishop Latimer and Bishop Hooper before remembred Beginning first with Latimer he will tell us this viz. ' That if most be damned the fault is not in God but in themselves for Dus vult omnes homines salvos fieri God would that all men should be saved but they themselves procure their own damnation ' Thus also in another place That Christ onely and no man else merited Remission Justification and Eternal Felicity for as many as believe the same that Christ shed as much blood for Judas as for Peter that Peter believed it and therefore was saved that Judas could not believe it therefore was condemned the fault being in him onely and no body else More fully not more plainly the other Bishop in the said Preface to the Exposition on the Ten Commandments where it is said ' That Gain was no more excluded from the promise of Christ till he exlcuded himself than Abel Saul than David Judas than Peter Eâ—au than Jacob ' concerning which two brethren he further added ' That in the sentence of God given unto Rebecca that there was no mention at all that Esau should be disinherited of Eternal life but that he should be inferiour to his brother Jacob in this world which Prophecy saith he was fulfilled in their Posterity and not the persons themselves the very same with that which Arminius and his followers have since declared in this case ' And this being said he proceedeth to this Declaration ' That God is said by the Prophet to have hated Esau not because he was disinherited of Eternal life but in laying his mountains and his heritage waste for the Dragons of the wilderness Mal. 1. 3. that the threatning of God against Esau of he had not of wilful malice excluded himself from the promise of grace should no more have hindred his salvation than Gods threatning against Nineve that the cause of Rejection or Damnation is sin in man which will not hear neither receive the promise of the Gospel And â—â—â—ally thus That by Gods grace we might do the good and leave the evil if it were not through malice of accustomed doing of sin the which excuseth the mercy and go dâ—â—ess of God and maketh that no man shall be excused in he latter judgement how subtilly soever they now excuse the matter and put their evil doings from them and lay it uâ—on the Predestination of God and would excuse it by ignorance oâ— say he cannot be good because he is otherwise destined which in the next words he calls A Stoical 〈…〉 refuted by those words of Horace Nemo adeo fâ—rus est c. ' 3. But that which makes most against the absolute irrespective and irreversible decree of predestination whether it be life or death is the last clause of our second Article being the seventeenth of the Church as before laid down where it is said that we must receive Gods promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture and that in all our doings that will of God is to be followed which we have expresly declared to us in holy Scriptures And in the holy Scripture it is declared to us That God gave his Son for the world or for all man-kind that Christ offered himself a Sacrifice for all the sixs of the whole world that Christ redeemed all man-kinde that Christ commanded the Gospel to be preached to all that God wills and commands all men to hear Christ and to believe in him and in him to offer grace and salvation unto all men That this is the infallible truth in which there can be no falshood otherwise the Apostles and other Ministers of the Gospel preaching the same should be false witnesses of God and should make him a liar than which nothing can be more repugnant to the Calvinian Doctrine of predestination which restrains predestination unto life in a few particulars without respect had to their faith in Christ or Christs suffering death for them which few particulars so predestinate to eternal life shall as they tell us by an irrestible Grace be brought to God and by the infallible conduct of the holy Spirit persevere from falling away from grace and favour Nothing more contrary to the like absolute decree of Reprobation by which the infinitely greatest part of all Mankinde is either doomed remidilesly to the torments of Hell when they were but in the estate of Creability as the Supralapsarians have informed us and unavoidably necessated unto sin that they might infallibly be damn'd or otherwise as miserably leaving them under such a condition according to the Doctrine of the Sublapsarians which renders them uncapable of avoiding the wrath to come and consequently subjected them to a damnation no less certain then if they were created to no other purpose which makes it seem the greater wonder that Doctor Vsher afterwards Lord Primate of Ireland in drawing up the article of predestination for the Church of Ireland anno 1615. should take in so much as he doth of the Lambeth articles and yet subjone this very clause at the foot thereof which can no more concorporate with it then any of the most Het rogeneus mettals can unite into one piece of refined Gold which clause as it remaineth in the articles of the Church of England how well it was applyed by King James and others in the conference at Hampton Court we shall see hereafter 4. In the mean time we must behold another argument which fights more strongly against the Apostles decree of Reprobation then any of
the rest before that is to say the reconciliation of all men to Almighty God the universal redemption of Man-kinde by the death of Christ expresly justfied and maintained by the Church of England For though one in our late undertaking seem exceeding confident that the granting of universal redemption will draw no inconvenience with it as to the absoluteness of Gods decrees or to the insuperability of converting Grace or to the certain infallible perseverance of Gods elect after conversion Yet I dare say he will not be so confident in affirming this That if Christ did so far dye for all as to procure a salvation for all under the condition of faith and repentance as his own words are there can be any room for such an absolute decree of reprobation 〈…〉 and precedent to the death of Christ as his great masters in the school of Calvin have been pleased to teach him Now for the Doctrine of this Church in that particular it is exprest so clearly in the second article of the five before laid down that nothing needs be added either in way of explication or of confirmation howsoever for avoiding of all doubt and Haesitancy we will first add some farther testimonies touching the Doctrine of this Church in the point of universal redemption And secondly touching the applying of so great a benefit by universal vocation and finally we shall shew the causes why the benefit is not effectual unto all alike 5. And first as for the Doctrine of universal redemption it may be further proved by those words in the publick Carechism where the Childe is taught to say that he believeth in God the Son who redeemed with him all mankinde in that clause of the publique Letany where God the Son is called the Redeemer of the world in the passages of the latter Exhortation before the Communion where it is said That the Oblation of Christ once offered was a full perfect and sufficient Sacrifice for the sins of the WHOLE WORLD in the proper Preface appointed for the Communion on Easter-Day in which he is said to be the very Paschal Lamb that was offered for us and taketh away the sins of the world repeated in the greater Catechism to the same effect And finally in the Prayer of Conservation viz. Almighty God our heavenly Father which of thy tender mercies didst give thine onely Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the Cross for our Redemption who made there by his own Oblation of himself once offered a firm and perfect and sufficient Sacrifice Oblation and Satisfaction for the sins of the WHOLE WORLD To this purpose it is said in the Book of Homilies That the World being wrapt up in sin by the breaking of Gods Law God sent his onely Son our Saviour Christ into this world to fulfil the Law for us and by shedding of his most precious blood to make a Sacrifice and Satisfaction or as it may be called amends to his Father for our sins to asswage his wrath and indignation conceived against us for the same Out of which words it may be very well concluded That the world being wrapt up in sin the Recompence and Satisfaction which was made to God must be made to him for the sins of the world or else the plaister had not been commensurate to the sore nor so much to the magnifying of Gods wonderful mercies in the offered means of Reconcilement betwixt God and man the Homily must else fall short of that which is taught in the Articles In which besides what was before delivered from the second and 31. concerning the Redemption of the world by the death of Christ it is affirmed in the 15 as plain as may be That Christ came to be a Lamb without spot who by the Sacrifice of himself once made should take away the sins of the world Then which there can be nothing more conducible to the point in hand 6. And to this purpose also when Christ our Saviour was pleased to Authorize his Holy Apostles to preach the Good Tidings of Salvation he gave them both a Command and a Commission To go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every Creature Mark 16. 15. So that there was no part of the world nor any Creature in the same that is to say no Rational Creature which seems to be excluded from a possibility of obtaining Salvation by the Preaching of the Gospel to them if with a faith unfeigned they believed the same Which the Church further teacheth us in this following Prayer appointed to be used in the Ordering of such as are called unto the Office of the Holy Priesthood viz. ' Almighty God and Heavenly Father which of thine Infinite Love and Goodness toward us hast given to us thy Only and Most Dear Beloved Son Jesus Christ to be our Redeemer and Author of Everlasting Life who after he had made perfect our Redemption by his Death and was ascended into Heaven sent forth abroad into the world his Apostles Prophets Evangelists Doctors and Pastors by whose Labour and Ministry he gathered together a great Frock in all the Parts of the World to set forth the Eternal Praise of his Holy Name For these so great Benefits of thy Eternal Goodness and for that thou hast vouchsafed to call thy Servant here present to the same Office and Ministry of Salvation of Mankind we render unto thee most hearty thinks and we worship preise thee and we humbly beseech thee by the same thy Son to grant unto all which either here or elsewhere call upon thy name that we may shew our selves thankful to thee for these and all other thy benefits and that we may daily encrease and go forward in the knowledge and faith of thee and thy Son by the Holy Spirit So that as well by these thy Ministers as by them to whom they shall be appointed Ministers thy Holy Name may be always glorified and thy Blessed Kingdom enlarged through the same thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ who liveth and reigneth with thee in the Unity of the same Holy Spirit world without end Amen ' Which Form in Ordering and Consecrating Bishops Priests and Deacons I note this onely by the way being drawn up by those which had the making of the first Liturgie of King Edward the sixth and confirmed by Act of Parliament in the fifth and sixth of the said King was afterwards also ratified by Act of Parliament in the eighth year of Queen Elizabeth and ever since hath had its place amongst the Publique Monuments and Records of the Church of England 7. To these I shall onely adde one single testimony out of the Writings of each of the three godly Martyrs before remembred the point being so clearly stated by some of our Divines commonly called Calvinists though not by the Outlandish also that any longer insisting on it may be thought unnecessary First then Bishop Cranmer tells us in the Preface to his Book against Gardiner of Winchester
to the judgement of Bishop Hooper 5. The necessity of Grace Preventing and the free co-operation of mans will being so prevented maintained in the Articles in the Homilies and the publique Liturgie 6. The necessity of this co-operation on the part of man defended and applied to the exercise of a godly life by Bishop Hooper 7. The Doctrine of Irresistibility first broached by Calvin pertinaciously maintained by most of his followers and by Gomarus amongst others 8. Gainsaid by Bishop Hooper and Bishop Latimer 9. And their gainsayings justified by the tenth Article of Kings Edwards Books And 10. The Book of Homilies 1. THis leads me unto the Disputes touching the influences of Grace and the co-operation of mans will with those heavenly influences in which the received Doctrine of the Church of Rome seems to have had some alteration to the better since the debating and concluding of those points in the Council of Trent before which time the Doctrine of the Roman Schools was thought to draw too near to the lees of Pelagianism to ascribe too much to mans Freewill or so much to it at the least as by the right use of the powers of nature might merit grace ex congruo as the Schoolmen phrase it of the hands of God Against this it was that Dr. Barns declared as before was said in his Discourse about Freewill and against which the Church of England then declared in the 13 Article affirming That such works as are done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit do not make men meet to receive grace or as the Schoolmen say deserve grace of Congruity Against which Tyndall gives this note That Freewill preventeth not Grace which certainly he had never done if somewhat to the contrary had not been delivered in the Church of Rome and against which it was declared by John Lambert another of our ancient Martyrs in these following words viz. Concerning Freewill saith he I mean altogether as doth S. Augustine that of our selves we have no liberty nor ability to do the will of God but are subject unto sir and thrals of the same conclusi sub peccato or as witnesseth S. Paul But by the grace of God we are rid and set at liberty according to the proportion that every man hath taken of the same some more some less 2. But none more fully shewed himself against this opinion then Dr. Barns before remembred not touching onely on the by but writing a Discourse particularly against the errours of that time in this very point ' But here saith he we will search what strength is of man in his natural power without the Spirit of God to will or do those things that be acceptable before God unto the fulfilling of the will of God c. ' A search which had been vain and needless if nothing could be found which tended to the maintenance of acting in spiritual matters by mans natural power without the workings of the Spirit And therefore he saith very truly ' That man can do nothing by his Freewil as Christ teacheth For without me ye can do nothing c. where it is opened that Freewil without Grace can do nothing he speaks not of eating and drinking though they be works of Grace but nothing that is fruitful that is meritorious that is worthy of thanks that is acceptable before God ' To which effect we also finde these brief Remembrances Mans Freewil without Gods Grace can do nothing that is good p. 263. that all which Freewil can do without Grace is but sin c. fol 269. In which passages of those godly Martyrs as there is nothing in it self not Divine and Orthodox so finde we somewhat in their writings which doth as truly and Religiously express the workings of Gods Spirit in the heart of man without depriving him of the ability of co-operation which afterwards was taught and countenanced by the Church of England Of which thus Tyndall in his Pathway ' When the Evangelion is prearhed saith he the Spirit of God entreth into them whom God hath ordained and appointed to Everlasting life and openeth their inward eyes and worketh such a belief in them when the woful Consciences feel and taste how sweet a thing the bitter death of Christ is and how merciful and loving God is through Christs Purchasing and Merits so that they begin to love again and consent to the Law of God how that it is good and ought so to be and that God is righteous that made it and desire to fulfil the Law as a sick man desireth to be whole ' According to which Doctrine the Church hath taught us to pray thus viz. ' O God forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee grant that that working of the Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts through Christ our Lord Amen ' More of which Prayers might be produced to the same effect were not this enough the point concerning the necessity of Gods grace towards mans Conversion not being in Dispute between the Parties 3. Now for Gods Grace according as it is set forth in the Church of England we shall consider it in the general offer and extent the efficacious workings of it and the concurrence of mans will in the beginning and accomplishment of his own Conversion And first as to the general offer of the Grace of God we finde Bishop Hooper thus discoursing in the sixth Chapter of his Exposition of the Ten Commandments ' Thus did S. Paul saith he convince the Gentiles of sin because they knew the evil they did was condemned by the testimony of their own Conscience for the Law of God to do well by is naturally written in the heart of every man He that will diligently search himself shall somtime find the same and in case man should behold his own misery both in body and soul although there were no Law correcting nor no Heavens over our heads to testifie the justice and judgement of God and the equity of an honest life mans Conscience would tell him when he doth well and when he doth evil ' ' Further saith he the judgement and discovery of Reason directs not onely to live just in this world but also to live for ever in Eternal Felicity without end And that cometh by the similitude of God which remaineth in the soul since the sin of Adam whereby we plainly see that those excuses of ignorance be damnable when man sees that he could do well if he followed the judgement of his own Conscience ' Our Articles indeed say nothing to this particular but our Liturgie doth and somewhat is found also of it in the Book of Homilies For what can be more clear and full than that clause in the Collect where it is said of God Almighty That he sheweth to all men being in errour the light of his truth to the intent they may return to the way of righteousness c.
for finally or totally and much lesse for both And that he doth so in the Gag I shall easily grant where he relateth only to the words of the Article which speaks only of a possibility of falling without relating to the measure or duration of it But he must needs be carried with a very strange confidence which can report so of him in his book called Appello Caesarem in which he both expressely saith and proveth the contrary He saith it first in these words after a repetition of that which he had formerly said against the Gagger ' I determine nothing in the question that is to say nor totally nor finally or totally not finally or totally finally but leave there all to their Authors and Abettors resolving upon this not to go beyond my bounds the consented resolved and subscribed Articles of the Church of England in which nor yet in the Book of Common Prayer and other divine offices is there any tye upon me to resolve in this much disputed question as these Novellers would have it not as these Novellers would have it there 's no doubt of that For if there be any it is for a possibility of total falling of which more anon ' He proves it next by several Arguments extracted from the Book of Homilies and the publike Liturgy Out of which last he observeth three passages the first out of the Forme of Baptisme in which it is declared that the baptized infant being born in original sin by the Laver of Regeneration in Baptism is received into the number of the children of God and Heirs of everlasting life the second out of the publick Catechism in which the child is taught to say that by his Baptism he was made a member of Christ the child of God and an inheritor of the Kingdom of heaven The third out of the Rubrick before Confirmation in which it is affirmed for a truth that it is certain by Gods word that children being baptized have all things necessary for their salvation and be undoubtedly saved And thereupon he doth observe that it is to be acknowledged for a Doctrine of this Church that children duly baptized are put ' into a state of Grace and salvation and secondly that it is seen by common experience that many children so baptized when they come to age by a wicked and lewd life do fall away from God and from the state of Grace and salvation wherein he had set them to a worse state wherein they shall never be saved ' From which what else can be inferred but that the Church maintains a total and a final falling from the grace of God Adde hereunto that the Church teacheth men to pray to Almighty God not to take his holy Spirit from us And in another place that he suffer us not at our last hour for any pains of death to fall from him which certainly she had never done were it not possible for a man so far to grieve and vex the holy Spirit of God and so far to despair of his gracious mercie as to occasion him at the last to deprive us both of the one and the other 9. Next for the Homilies as they commend us unto Gods people a probable and stedfast hope of their salvation in Christ Jesus so they allow no such infallibility of persisting in grace as to secure them from a total and final falling In reference to the first they tell us in the second part of the Sermon against the fear of death ' that none of those their causes of the fear of death that is to say the sorrow of repenting from our worldly pleasures the terrible apprehension of the pangs of death and the more terrible apprehension of the pains of hell do make any trouble to good men because they stay themselves by true faith perfect charity and sure hope of the endlesse joy and blisse everlasting All therefore have great cause to be full of joy that be joyned to Christ with true faith stedfast hope and perfect charity and not to fear death nor everlasting damnation ' The like we finde not long after where it speaks of those ' when being truly penitent for their offences depart hence in perfect charity and in sure trust that God is merciful to them forgiving them their sins for the merits of Jesus Christ the only natural Son ' In the third part of which Sermon it is thus concluded ' He that conceiveth all these things and beleeveth them assuredly as they ought to be believed even from the bottom of his heart being established in God in his true faith having a quiet conscience in Christ a firm hope and assured trust in Gods mercy through the merits of Jesus Christ to obtain this rest quieâ—ness and everlasting joy shall not only be without fear of godly death when it cometh but greatly desire in his heart as S. Paul did to be rid from all these occasions of evil and live ever to Gods pleasure in perfect obedience of his Will with Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour to whose gracious presence c. ' By all which passages it is clear and evident that the Church teacheth us to entertain a probable and stedfast hope of our salvation in Christ Jesus but whether it teacheth also such an infallibility of persisting in grace such a certainty of perseverance as to exclude all possibility of a total or a final falling we are next to see 10. And see it we may without the help of Spectacles or any of the Optical instruments if we go no farther than the title of two of those Homilies the first wherof is thus inscribed viz. A Sermon shewing how dangerous a thing it is to fall from God And it had been ridiculous if not somewhat worse to write a Sermon de non ente to terrifie the people with the danger of that misfortune which they were well enough assured they should never suffer Out of which Homilies the Appellant makes no use but of these words only ' Whereas God hath shewed unto all them that truly do believe his Gospel his face of mercy in Christ Jesus which doth so enlighten their hearts that they be transformed into his image be made partakers of the heavenly light and of his holy Spirit be fashioned to him in all goodnesse requisite to the child of God so if they do afterwards neglect the same if they be unthankful unto him if they order not their lives according unto his Doctrine and Example and to the setting forth of his glory he will take from them his holy Word his kingdom whereby he should reign in them because they bring not forth fruit which he looked for ' Besides which there are many other passages to this effect where it is said that as by pride and sin we fall from God so shall God and all goodness go from us that sometimes men go from God by lack of faith mistrusting of God and somtimes
cause to condemn them Who doth not smile at the Grecians Conceit that gave their God a glorious title for killing of flyes Gods Glory in punishing ariseth from his Justice in revenging of sin and for that it tells us as I said a very sad and unpleasant tale for who could digest it to hear a Prince say after this manner I will beget me a son that I may kill him that I may so get me a name I will beget him without both his feet and when he is grown up having no feet I will command him to walk upon pain of death and when he breaketh my Commandment I will put him to death O beloved these glorious fancies imaginations and shews are far from the nature of our gracious mercifull and glorious God who hath proclaimed himself in his Titles Royal Jehovah the Lord the Lord strong and mighty and terrible slow to anger and of great Goodness And therefore let this conceit be far from Jacob and let it not come near the Tents of Joseph How much holyer and heavenlyer conceit had the holy Fathers of the Justice of God Non est ante punitor Deus quam peccator homo God put not on the person of a Revenger before man put on the person of an Offender saith St. Ambrose Neminem coronat antequam vincit neminem punit antequam peccat he crowns none before he overcomes and he punisheth no man before his offence Et qui facit miseros ut misereatur crudelem habet miserecordiam he that puts man into miseries that he may pity him hath no kind but a cruell pity ' 7. The absolute deâ—ree of Reprobation being thus discharged he shews in the next place that as God desireth not the death of man without relation to his sin so he desireth not the death of the sinfull man or of the wicked sinfull man but rather that they should turn from their wickedness and live And he observes it is said unto the Coats in Saint Mathews Gospel Ite melidicti in ignem paratum he doth not say Maledicti patris Go ye cursed of the Father as it is Benedicti patris when he speaks of the sheep God intituling himself to the blessing only and that the fire is prepared but for whom Non vobis sed Diabolo Angelis ejus not for you but for the Devil and his Angels So that God delighteth to prepare neither death nor hell for damned men The last branch of his discourse he resolves into six consequences as links depending on his chain 1. Gods absolute Will is not the cause of Reprobation but sin 2. No man is of an absolute necessity the child of Hell so as by Gods grace he may not avoid it 3. God simply willeth and wisheth every living soul to be saved and to come to the kingdom of Heaven 4. God sent his son to save every soul and to bring it to the kingdom of heaven 5. God offereth Grace effectually to save every one and to direct him to the Kingdom of heaven 6. The neglect and contempt of this Grace is the cause why every one doth not come to Heaven and not any privative Decree Councel and Determination of God ' The stating and canvasing of which points so plainly curtly to the Doctrines of the old Zuinglian Gospellers and the modern Calvinians as they take up the rest of the Sermon so to the Sermon I refer the Reader for his further satisfaction in them I note this only in the close that there is none of the five Arminian Articles as they commonly call them which is not contained in terms express or may not easily be found by way of Deduction in one or more of the six consequences before recited 8. Now in this Sermon there are sundry things to be consisidered as namely first That the Zuinglian or Calvinian Gospel in these points was grown so strong that the Preacher calls it their Goliah so huge and monstrous that many quaked and trembled at it but none that is to say but few or none vel dâ—o vel nâ—mo in the words of Persius durst take up Davids sling to throw it down Secondly That in canvasing the absolute Decree of Reprobation the Preacher spared none of those odious aggravations which have been charged upon the Doctrines of the modern Calvinists by the Remonstrants and their party in these latter times Thirdly That the Sermon was preached at St. Pauls Cross the greatest Auditory of the Kingdom consisting not only of the Lord Major the Aldermen and the rest of the chief men in the City but in those times of such Bishops and other learned men as lived occasionally in London and the City of Westminster as also of the Judges and most learned Lawyers some of the Lords of the Counsel being for the most part present also Fourthly That for all this we cannot find that any offence was taken at it or any Recantation enjoyned upon it either by the high Commission or Bishop of London or any other having authority in the Church of England nor any complaint made of it to the Queen or the Counsel-Table as certainly there would have been if the matter of the Sermon had been contrary to the Rules of the Church and the appointments of the same And finally we may observe that though he was made Arch-Bishop of Yorke in the Reign of King Charls 1628. when the times are thought to have been inclinable to those of the Arminian Doctrines yet he was made Master of Pembrook hall Bishop of Chichester and from thence translated unto Norwitch in the time of King James And thereupon we may conclude that King James neither thought this Doctrine to be against the Articles of Religion here by Law established nor was so great an enemy to them or the men that held them as some of our Calvinians have lately made him 9. But against this it is objected by Mr Prin in his book of Perpetuity c. printed at London in the year 1627. 1. That the said Mr. Harsnet was convented for this Sermon and forced to recant it as heretical 2. That upon this Sermon and the controversies that arose upon it in Cambridge between Baroe and Whitacres not only the Articles of Lambeth were composed of which more hereafter but Mr. Wotton was appointed by the University to confute the same 3. That the said Sermon was so far from being published or printed that it was injoyned by Authority to be recanted For Answer whereunto it would first be known where the said Sermon was recanted and by whose Authority Not in or by the University of Cambridge where Mr. Harsnet lived both then and a long time after for the Sermon was preached at St. Pauls Cross and so the University could take no cognisance of it nor proceed against him for the same And if the Recantation was made at St. Pauls Cross where the supposed offence was given if would be known by whose Authority it was enjoyned Not by the
Bishop of London in whose Diocess the Sermon was preached for his Authority did not reach so far as Cambridge whither the Preacher had retired 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 then eight leves spent 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 was 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 Chancellour 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. Num. 80. which must be three years at the least before the preaching of that Sermon by Mr. Harsnet And though it is probable enough that Mr. Wotton might give himself the trouble of confuting the Sermon yet it is more then probable that he was not required so to do by that University For if it had been so appointed by the University he would have been rewarded for it by the same power and authority which had so appointed when he appeared a Candidate for the Professorship on the death of Whitacres but could not find a party of sufficient power to carry it for him of which see also Chap. 21. numb 4. And thirdly as for the not printing of the Sermon it is easily answered the Genius of the time not carrying men so generally to the printing of Sermons as it hath done since But it was printed at the last though long first And being printed at the last hath met withnone so forward in the Confutation as Mr. Wotton is affirmed to be when at first it was preached And therefore notwithstanding these three surmises which the Author of the Pâ—rpetuity c. hath presented to us it may be said for certain as before it was that Mr. Harsnet was never called in Question for that Sermon of his by any having Authority to convent him for it and much less that he ever made any such Recantation as by the said Author is suggested 10. In the next place we will behold a passage in one of the Lectures upon Jonah delivered at York Anno 1594. by the right learned Dr. John King discended from Robert King the first Bishop of Oxon afterwards made Dean of Christ Church and from thence preferred by the power and favour of Arch-Bishop Bancroft to the See of London A Prelate of too known a zeal to the Church of England to be accused of Popery or any other Heterodoxies in Religion of what sort soever who in his Lecture on these words Yet forty dayes and Nineveh shall be overthrown cap. 3. verse 4. discourseth on them in this manner The only matter of Question herein is how it may stand with the constancy and truth of eternal God to pronounce a Judgement against a place which taketh not affect within one hundred years For either he was ignorant of his own time which we cannot imagine of an omniscient God or his mind was altered which is unprobable to suspect For â—â— the strength of Israel a man that he should lye or as the son of man that he should repeat Is he not yesterday and to day and the same for ever that was that is and that which is to come I mean not only in substance but in Will and Intention Doth he use lightness Are the words that he speaketh yea and nay Doth he both affirm and deny too Are not all his Promises are not all his Threatnings are not all his Mercies are not all his Judgements are not all his words are not all the tittles and jots of his words yea and amen so firmly ratified that they cannot be broken Doubtless it shall stand immutable When the heaven and the earth shall be changed and wax old like a garment Ego Deus non mutor I am God that am not changed The School in this respect hath a wise distinction It is one thing to change the Will and another to will a change or to be willed that a change should be God will have the Law and Ceremony at one time Gospel without Ceremony at another this was his Will from Everlasting constant and unmovable that in their several courses both should be Though there be a change in the matter and Subject there is not a change in him that disposeth it Our Will is in winter to use the fire in summer a cold and an open air the thing is changed according to the season but our Will whereby we all decreed and determined in our selves so to do remain the same 11. Sometimes the Decrees and purposes of God consist of two parts the one whereof God revealeth at the first and the other he concealeth a while and keepeth in his own knowledge as in the Action enjoyned to Abraham the purpose of God was two fold 1. To try his Obedience 2. To save the Child A man may impute it inconstancy to bid and unbid but that the Will of the Lord was not plenarily understood in the first part This is it which Gregory expresseth in apt terms God chanâ—eth his intent pronounced sometimes but never his Counsel intended Sometimes things are decreed and spoken of according to inferiour cause which by the highest and over-ruling cause are otherwise disposed of One might have said and said truly both wayes Lazarus shall rise again and Lazarus shall not rise again if we esteem it by the power and finger of God it shall be but if we leave it to nature and to the arme of flesh it shall never be The Prophet Esay told Hezekias the King put thy house in order for thou shall die considering the weaknesse of his body and the extremity of his disease he had reason to warrant the same but if he told him contrariwise according to that which came to pass thou shalt not die looking to the might and mercy of God who received the prayers of the King he had said as truly But the best definition is that in most of these threatnings there is a condition annexed unto them either exprest or understood which is as the hinges to the Doore and turneth forward and backward the whole matter In Jeremy it is exprest I will speak
publick service if otherwise of known zeale against the Papists 2. Several examples of that kinde in the places of greatest power and trust in the Church of England particularly of Mr. Fox the Martyrologist and the occasion which he took of publishing his opinion in the point of predestination 3. His notes on one of the Letters of John Bradford Martyr touching the matter of Election therein contained 4. The difference between the Comment and the Text and between the authour of the Comment and Bishop Hooper 5. Exceptions against some passages and observations upon others in the said Notes of Mr. Fox 6. The great breach made hereby in the Churches Doctrine made greater by the countenance which was given to the Book of Acts and Monuments by the Convocation An. 1571. 7. No argument to be drawn from hence touching the approbation of his doctrine by that Convocation no more then for the Approbation of his Marginal Notes and some particular passages in it disgraceful to the Rites of the Church attire of the Bishops 8. A counterballance made in the Convocation against Fox his Doctrine and all other Novelismes of that kinde 1. IT was not long that Queen Mary sate upon the Throne and yet as short time as it was it gave not only a strong interruption for the present to the proceedings of the Church but an occasion also of great discord and dissention in it for the time to come For many of our Divines who had fled beyond the Sea to avoid the hurry of her Reign though otherwise men of good abilities in most parts of Learning returned so altered in their principals as to points of Doctrine so disaffected to the Government formes of worship here by Law established that they seem'd not to be the same men at their coming home as they had been at their going hence yet such was the necessity which the Church was under of filling up the vacant places and preferments which had been made void either by the voluntary discession or positive deprivation of the Popish Clergie that they were faine to take in all of any condition which were able to do the publick service without relation to their private opinions in doctrine or discipline nothing so much regarded in the choice of men for Bishopricks Deanries Dignities in Cathedral Churches the richest Bâ—nefices in the Countrey and places of most command and trust in the Universities as their known â—eal against the Papists together with such a sufficiency of learning as might enable them for writing and preaching against the Popes supremacy the carnal presence of Christ in the blessed Sacrament the superstition of the Masse the halfe communion the celâ—bratin of Divine service in a tongue not known unto the people the inforced single life of Priests the worshiping of Images and other the like points of Popery which had given most offence and were the principal causes of that separation 2. On this account we finde Mr. Pilkington preferred to the See of Durham and Whittingham to the rich Deanry of the Church of which the one proved a great favourer of the Non-conformists as is confessed by one who challengeth a relation to his blood and family the other associated himself with Goodman as after Goodman did with Knox for planting Puritanisme and sedition in the Kirk of Scotland On this account Dr. Lawrence Humphrey a professed Calvinian in point of doctrine and a Non-conformist but qualified with the title of a moderate one is made the Queens professor for Divinity in the University of Oxon Thomas Cartwright that great Incendiary of this Church preferred to be the Lady Margarets professor in the University of Cambridge Sampson made Dean of Christ-church and presently proptor Puritaxismum Exauctoratus turned out again for Puritanisme as my Authour hath it Hardiman made one of the first Prebends of Westminster of the Queens foundation and not long after deprived of it by the high Commissioners for breaking down the Altar there and defacing the ancient utensils and ornaments which belonged to the Church And finally upon this account as Whitehead who had been Chaplaine to Queen Anne Bulline refused the Arch-Bishoprick of Canterbury before it was offered unto Parker and Covâ—rdale to be restored to the See of Exon which he had chearfully accepted in the time of King Edward so Mr. John Fox of great esteem for his painful and laborious work of Acts and Monuments commonly called the Book of Martyrs would not accept of any preferment in the Church but a Prebends place in Salisbury which tide him not to any residence in the same And this he did especially as it after proved to avoid subscription shewing a greater willingnesse to leaue his place then to subscribe unto the Articles of Religion then by Law established when he was legally required to do it by Arch-Bishop Parker Of this man there remains a short Discourse in his Acts and Monuments of Predestination occasioned by a letter of Mr. Bradfords before remembred whose Orthodox doctrine in that point he feared might create some danger unto that of Calvin which then began to finde a more general entertainment then could be rationally expected in so short a time And therefore as a counter-ballance he annexeth this discourse of his own with this following title viz. Notes on the same Epistle and the matter of Election thereunto appertaining ' 3. As touching the Doctrine of Election whereof this letter of Mr. Bradford and many other of his Letters more do much intreat three things must be considered 1. What Gods Election is and what the cause thereof 2. How Gods Election proceedeth in working our salvation 3. To whom Gods election pertaineth and how a man may be certaine thereof Between Predestination and Election this difference there is Predestination is as well to the Reprobate as to the Elect Election pertaineth onely to them that be saved Predestination in that it respecteth the reprobate is called reprobation in that it respected the saved is called Election and is thus defined Predestination is the eternall decreement of God purposed before in himself what shall befal all men either to salvation or damnation Election is the free mercy and grace of God in his own will through faith in Christ his Sonne choosing and preferring to life such as pleaseth him In this definition of Election first goeth before the mercy and grace of God as the causes thereof whereby are excluded all works of the Law and merits of deserving whither they go before faith or come after so was Jacob chosen and Esau refused before either of them began to work c. Secondly in that the mercy of God in this Definition is said to be free thereby is to be noted the proceeding and working of God not to be bound to any ordinary place or to any succession of choice nor to state and dignity of person nor to worthinesse of blood c. but all goeth by the meere will of his own purpose as it is
Charls as the son and Successor to whom it properly belonged the Author touching in the Epistle Dedicatory all the former passages but more at large then they are here discoursed of in this short Summary 12. And thus far have we prosecuted our discourse concerning the five points disputed between the English Protestants the Belgick Remonstrants the Melancthonian Lutherans together with the Jesuites and Franciscans on the one side the English Calvinists the Contra-Remonstrants the Rigid Lutherans and the Dominican Friers on the other side In the last part whereof we may observe how difficult a thing it is to recover an old doctrinal Truth when overborn and almost lost by the continual Prevalency of a Busie faction And I have carried it on no further because at this time Bishop Laud to whom the raising and promoting of the Arminian Doctrines as they call them is of late ascribed was hardly able to promote or preserve himself opprest with a heard hand by Arch-Bishop Abbot secretly traduced unto the King for the unfortunate business of the Earl of Devonshire attaining with great difficulty to the poor Bishop-prick of St. Davids after ten years service and yet but green in savour with the Duke of Buchingham What happened afterwards towards the countenancing of these Doctrines by the appearing of King Charls in the behalf of Mountague the letter of the three Bishops to the Duke in defence of the man and his opinion his questioning and impeachment by the House of Commons and his preferment by the King to the See of Chichester are all of them beyond the bounds which I have prescribed unto my self in this Narration Nor shall I now take notice of his Majesties Proclamation of the 14. of June Anno 1626. For establishing the peace and quiet of the Church of England by which he interdicted all such preaching and printing as might create any fresh Disturbance to the Church of England or for his smart Answer to the part of the Remonstrance of the house of Commons Anno 1628. which concerned the danger like to fall on this Church and Kingdom by the grouth of Arminianism or of the Declaration prefixed before the book of Articles in the same year also for silencing the said Disputes or finally of his Majesties Instructions bearing date Decemb. 30. 1629. for causing the Contents of the Declaration to be put in execution and punctually observed for the time to come By means whereof and many fair encouragements from many of our Prelates and other great men of the Realm the Anti-Calvinist party became considerable both for power and number FINIS A POSTSCRIPT To the READER Concerning some particulars in a scurrulous Pamphlet intituled A Review of the Certamen Epistolare c. PRimâ dicta mihi summâ dicenda camaenâ with thee good Reader I began and with thee I must end I gave thee notice in the Preface of a scurrilous Libel the Author whereof had disgorged his foul stomack on me and seemed to Glory in the shame But whither this Authour be a Cerberus with three heads or a Smertginnuus with fire or but a single Shimi only for it is differently reported is all one to me who am as little troubled with the noise of Billings-gate as the cry of an Oyster-wife It is my confidence that none of the dirt which he most shamefully confesseth himself to have thrown in my face will be found upon it notwithstanding that necesse est ut aliquid haereat may be sometimes true Omitting therefore the consideration of his many Obscaenities which every where are intermingled for the floures of his Rhetorick I cannot but do my self so much justice as to satisfie the Reader in the truth of some things which otherwise may be beleeved to my disadvantage I am content to suffer under as much obloquie as any foule mouthed Presbyterian can spit upon me but I am not willing to be thought a slanderer a profane person or ungrateful for the smallest favours all which the Authour of that scurrulous pamphlet hath imposed upon me In the first place it is much laboured to make me guilty of ingratitude and disaffection to Magd. Coll. of which I had the honour to be once a member and do retain so high an estimation of it that whensoever I shall write or speak any thing to the reproach of that foundation let my tongue cleave unto the roof of my mouth and my right hand forget its cunning But I am able to distinguish between the duty I owe to the House it selfe and that which every member of it is to challenge from me quid civitati quid civibus debeam in the Orators Criticisme And therefore I would not have the Libeller or his partners think that his or their taking Sanctuary under the name of Magdalen Colledge shall so far priviledge them in their actings either against the Church in general or my own particular but that I shall as boldly venture to attacque them there without fear of sacriledge as Joab was smitten by Benaiah at the hornes of the Altar But the best is that I am made to have some ground for my disaffection though there be no lesse falsehood in the fundamentals then the superstructure And a fine tale is told of some endeavours by me used for bringing one of my own brood into that foundation the failing of which hopes must of necessity occasion such an undervaluing of that Colledge as to change it from a nest of Sparrows to a nest of Cuckoes But the truth is that the party for whom I was a suitor was so farre from being one of my own brood as not to be within the compasse of my Relations so much a stranger to my blood that he was no otherwise endeared unto me then by the extraordinary opinion which I had of his parts and industry And therefore I commended him no further unto Doctor Goodwin then that it was not my desire to have him chosen if any abler Schollar should appeare for the place And it was well for the young man that I sped no better Periisset nisi Periisset as we knowe who said For within lesse then two years after he was elected into the Society of Merton Colledge to their great honour be it spoken upon no other commendation then his owne abilities In the next place I am made a slanderer for saying that the new Sabbath speculations of Doctor Bound and his adherents had beene embraced more passionately of late then any one Article of Religion here by Law established How so Because saith he or they 't is no matter which it is well known that they do more passionately embrace the great truths of Christs Divinity and the Divine Authority of Scripture c. then any opinion about the Sabbath What may be meant by the c. it is hard to say perhaps the Presbyterian Discipline or the Calvinian Doctrines of Predestination the two deare Helena's of the Sects as sacred and inviolable in their estimation as any
Stage to more able Actors To whom I recommend the care of that weighty businesse not doubting but that my endeavours in the Churches service will finde acceptance with all equal and indifferent men And for the rest who are so far ingaged in the adverse party that possibly they may hate to be reformed in the Psalmists language I neither fear their censures nor court their favours but leave them to enjoy the happinesse of these open times in quibus non modo libertas sed etiam loquendi libido impunita est as my Author hath it And thus good Reader I bid thee once again farewel in the Lord to whose unspeakable mercies in Christ Jesus thou art most heartily recommended by Lacies Court in Abindon Dec. 29. 1659. Thine alwayes to be commanded in the Churches service P. H. An Advertisement touching the ERRATA THe ill printing of that part of the Certamen Epistolore which was most controversial hath exposed me to some disadvantage in the eyes of those who are willing to interpret every mistaking of the presse to be an error of the pen which hath made me require the greater care for the well-doing of this though it could not passe without such faults as workmen will commit somtimes do they what they can But they are neither great nor many and such as are may be corrected in this manner The Errata of the first Part. Pa. 3 line 5 for Loppinus read Coppinus p 9 l 34 for works r. words p 30 l 22 for sub r. supra p 39 l 17 Macurius r. Maccorius p 46 l 26 r. Belconquall 29 for quarrel r. parallel p 48 c. for Arustondon r. Amsterdam p 49 l 20 for drown r. divorce p 57 r. Themistius p 60 l 14 c. for Grotius r. Crotius p 62 for Synod called r. Synodical p 70 l ulâ— adde that without the grace of God preventing we may will the things c. The Errata of the second Part. P. 20 l 19 for word r. Creed p 21 l 8 for heard r. find p 27 l 11 for to the loreing of r. touching p 31 l 34 for Therancenâ—s r. Theramenes p 50 l 9 for Apostles r. positive p 51 l 9 for greater Catechisme r. Gloria in excelsis p 74 l 12 for Butler r. Barlow The Errata of the third Part. P. 2 l 23 for how r. two p 6 l 6 del who p 14 and c. for Powel r. Nowel p. 25 l 5 for from charity r. from shewing p 28 l 11 for Powel r. Poynets p 41 l 2 for discended from r. discended from a brother of Robert King c. p 70 l 30 ad should be tendred to him p 101 l 11 for makes r. many p 103 l 11 for Lichfield r. Chichester p 105 l 5 r. looked and del himself â—ompilo i. e. Surâ—â—piâ— quia quae fares auseruat â—a prâ—ssim colligunt quod est compiâ—are a Hist Eccl. Euseb l. 5. c. 14. 19. b Calv. Advers Liberti c. â—â— d Prateol Elench Haere in Quintinâ— e Bellâ—â— d Prateol in Elench Haeâ— in Manich. e August de Haeres cap. 25. f Ibid. cap. 15. 70. g Homer Illiad h August de Gen. ad lit lib. 2. c. 27. i Calv. instâ—â— lib. 3. c. 23 sect 7 k V. Synod Rom l Fulgent ad Monimum m August Tom. 2. Epist â—06 n Praâ—eol Elencâ— Haeret. in Pelag. o August l. â— contr Epist Pelagi cap. 2. p Lindan in Dial. 21. Eccles polit lib. 11. p 96. Hist of the Councel fol. 175. I de n fol. 181. Hist of Councel p 108. c. Ibid. p. 2â—â— Conciâ— Trid. Ses â— c. 1. Ibid. c. 2. b Hist of the Councel f. 212. Sess 6. c. 2 3. Session 6. Can. 2. 3. Sâ—ss 6. c. 5. Ca. 4. Sess 6. Can. 13. Can. 14. Can. 15. Hist of the Councel of Tâ— p 210. * Ibid. f. 20â— August Confes cap. 2. Appel Evang. cap. 4. Aug. Confes c. 3. Id. cap. de Mâ—ssa Ibid. cap. 18. Idem cap. 18. Idem cap. 11. a Institut l. 3. c. 23. Sect. 7. Calvin Institut lib. 3. cap. 23. sect 6. Idem ib sect 7. Hooker in â—â—cle â—ol Prâ—f p 9. Arcan Dog Ant. Roâ— p 15. Ibid. 17. 6. Arcan Dogn Contr. Remon p. 23. Ibid. p. 29. Ibid. p. 33. Ibid p. 41. Ibid. 47. Gods love to Mankind p 45. Ibid p. 53. Tertul. l. 2. contr Marcion c. 22. Gods love to Mankind p. 62. Ibid. p. 64. Ibid. p. 65 p. 67. Ibid. p. 68. Ibid p 76. Ibid. p. 91. Suet. de vit Tyb c. 69. p. 180. Hâ—isti lib. de Minor Hist c. 27. p. 39. or in Gâ—ds love to mankâ—nd p. 97. In his Letters p. 72. Belcanquals Letters p. 10 Hist of the Contr. p. 215. * Pref. A. 9. Exam. Cers p. 63. B. * Gods Love to mankinde p. 89. Arcan Deg. Cert Remons p. 95. Boyerman Anroâ— Grotii Pietat * Declar. against Vorstius Justif of the Fathers c. p. Justis of the Fathers c. p. 34. * Obs Observed p. 46. * P. 37. â—â—â—ser between Ridley and Latimer Manil. de Sphe lib. * Hist Artic. Lambeth p. 6 7. * Cabuba p. 116. * Conâ— Dom. p. 167 Answer to a certain Leâ—t p. 38 Ibid. p. 38. Hom. of the Nativity fol. 167. Hom. of the Nativity p. 168. Ibid. Idem * Disc of Freewil p. 278. * Id. ib. * Ib. p. 281. * Prolog in Epist to the Romans p. 42. Ibid. 15â— Lib. 3. Hist. Moor p. 306 Acts and Mon. fol. 987. Prologue before the Epist unto the Rom. p. 48. Acts and Mon. fol. 1008. Acts and Mon. fol. 1181. Epis Didic Institut of a Christian. Necessary prayer Let. of Mr. Bucer to the Church of England Acts and Mon. fol. 1366. Artic. 17. Artic. 2. Artic. 31. Artic. 9. Artic. 13. Artic. 10. Artic. 16. Id. Ib. Acts and Mon. fol. 1282. Chur. Hist lib. 9. fol. 72. Conser Declar. before the Art 1628. Our Divines commonly called Calvinists Yates in Ap. Caesar cap. 5. p. 38. Ambros in Epist 1 4. Chrys in Ep. 14. Hierom. in Epist 64. L. 5 p. 372. Serm. 3. Sunday after Epiphany part 3. fol. 198 Hom. of the misery of man f. 8. Serm. on Septu fol. 213. Hoop in Prefac before the ten Commandm Id. Ibid. Id. Ibid. Id. Ibid. Id. Ibid. Lat. in Serm. on Septuages p. 3. fol. 214. Hom. of the misery of man fol. 11. Fox Acts and Moâ— fol. 1505. Justifi Fathers Latimer in his 4 Sermon third Sunday after Epiphaniâ— 4 Serm. in Lincoln Exposit of the Command cap. of ignor Article of Ireland Numb 12. 14. 17. Cap. 10. Hic in â—â—stip father Hom. Salvation p. 13. Serm. 1 Sund. after Epiph. Pref. to the ten Commandm Hom. of Holy Scrip. p. 5. Hom. against fear of death p. 62. Serm. Septuag 1 Sâ—â—m Lincol. Hook Pref. to Commo Pref. to his Exposition Ibid. Serm. 1. Sund. after Epiph. His works p. 321. Acts and Mon. fol. 1009. Collection of his works by I. D. fol.