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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86290	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.	Heylyn, Peter, 1600-1662.	1660 (1660)	Wing H1721; Thomason E1020_1; Thomason E1020_2; Thomason E1020_3; Thomason E1020_4; ESTC R202407	247,220	357

we finde it in the supercilious looks in the haughty carriage of those who are so well assured of their own Election who cannot so disguise themselves as not to undervalue and despise all those who are not of the same party and perswasion with them A race of men whose insolence and pride there is no avoyding by a modest submission whose favour there is no obtaining by good turns and benefits Quorum superbiam frustra per modestiam obsequium effugeris as in another case was said by a Noble Britain VI. And finally it is objected but the Objection rather doth concern the men then the Doctrine that the Arminians are a Faction a turbulent seditious Faction so found in the United Provinces from their very first spawning not to be suffered by any Reason of State in a Common-wealth So saith the Author of the Pamphlet called the Observator observed and proves it by the wicked conspiracy as he calls it of Barnevelt who suffered most condignly as he he tells us upon that account 1619. And afterwards by the damnable and hellish plot of Barnevelts Children and Allies in their designs against the State and the Prince of Orange This Information seconded by the Author of the Book called The Justification of the Fathers c. who tells us but from whom he knowes not that the States themselves have reported of them that they had created them more trouble then the King of Spain had by all his Warres And both these backt by the Authority of K. James who tells us of them in his Declaration against Vorstius That if they were not with speed rooted out no other issue could be expected then the Curse of God infamy throughout all the Reformed Churches and a perpetual rent and distraction in the whole body of the State This is the substance of the Charge So old and common that it was answered long since by Bishop Ridly in Queen Marys dayes when the Doctrine of the Protestants was said to be the readiest way to stir up sedition and trouble the quiet of the Common-wealth wherefore to be repressed in time by force of Laws To which that godly Bishop returns this Answer That Satan doth not cease to practise his old guiles and accustomed subtilties He hath ever this Dart in a readinesse to whirle against his adversaries to accuse them of sedition that he may bring them if he can in danger of the Higher Powers for so hath he by his Ministers alwayes charged the Prophets of God Ahab said unto Elias art thou he that troubleth Israel The false Prophets complained also to their Princes of Jeremy that his words were seditious and not to be suffered Did not the Scribes and Pharises falsly accuse Christ as a seditious person and one that spake against Caesar Which said and the like instance made in the Preachings of St. Paul he concludes it thus viz. But how far they were from all sedition their whole Doctrine Life and Conversation doth well declare And this being said in reference to the Charge in generall the Answer to each part thereof is not far to seek VII And first it hath been answered to that part of it which concerns King James that the King was carried in this business not so much by the clear light of his most excellent understanding as by Reason of State the Arminians as they call them were at that time united into a party under the command of John Olden Barnevelt and by him used for the reasons formerly laid down to undermine the power of Maurice then Prince of Orange who had made himself the Head of the Contra-Remonstrants and was to that King a most dear Confederate Which Division in the Belgick Provinces that King considered as a matter of most dangerous consequence and utterly destructive of that peace unity and concord which was to be the greatest preservation of the States Vnited on whose tranquillity and power he placed a great part of the peace and happiness of his own Dominions Upon which reason he exhorrs them in the said Declaration to take heed of such infected persons their own Countrey-men being already divided into Factions upon this occasion which was a matter as he saith so opposite to unity which was indeed the only prop and safety of their State next under God as of necessity it must by little and little bring them to utter ruine if justly and in time they did not provide against it So that K. James considering the present breach as tending to the utter ruine of those States and more particularly of the Prince of Orange his most dear Allye he thought it no small piece of King-craft to contribute toward the suppression of the weaker party not only by blasting them in the said Declaration with reproachfull names but sending such Divines to the Assembly at Dort as he was sure would be sufficiently active in their condemnation VIII So that part of the Argument which is borrowed from the States themselve● it must be proved by some better evidence then the bare word of Mr. Hickman before it can deserve an answer the speech being so Hyperbolicall not to call it worse that it can hardly be accounted for a flower of Rhetorick The greatest trouble which the States themselves were put to all this businesse was for the first eight years of it but the hearing of Complaints receiving of Remonstrances and being present at a Conference between the parties And for the last four years for it held no longer their greatest trouble was to finde out a way to forfeit all their old and Native Priviledges in the dea●h of Barnevelt for maintenance whereof they had first took up Arms against the Spaniard In all which time no blood at all was drawn by the Sword of War and but the blood of 5 or 6 men only by the Sword of Justice admitting Barnevelts for one Whereas their warres with Spain had lasted above thrice that time to the sacking of many of their Cities the loss of at least 100000. of their own lives and the expense of many millions of Treasure And as for Barnevelt if he had committed any Treason against his Countrey by the Laws of the same Countrey he was to be tryed Contrary whereunto the Prince of Orange having got him into his power put him over to be judged by certain Delegates commissionated by the States Generall who by the Laws of the Union can pretend unto no Authority over the Life and Limb of the meanest subject Finally for the conspiring of Barnevelts Children it concerns only them whose design it was Who to revenge his death so unworthily and unjustly contrived and as they thought so undeservedly and against their Laws might fall upon some desperate Councels and most unjustifiable courses in pursuance of it But what makes this to the Arminian and Remonstrant party Or doth evince them for a turbulent and seditious Faction not to be suffered by any Reason of State in a well-ordered

thought to have had the better as being more dextrous in applying and in forcing some Texts of Scripture then the others were and that thereupon they were dismissed by Weston the Prolocutor with this short come off You sayd he have the word and we have the Sword His meaning was That what the Papists wanted in the strength of Argument they would make good by other waies as afterwards indeed they did by Fire and Fagot The like is sayd to have been done by the Contra Remonstrants who finding themselves at this Conference to have had the worst and not to have thrived much better by their Pen-comments then in that of the Tongue betook themselves to other courses vexing and molesting their Opposites in their Classes or Consistories endeavouring to silence them from Preaching in their severall Churches or otherwise to bring them unto publick Censure At which Weapon the Remonstrants being as much too weak as the others were at Argument and Disputation they betook themselves unto the Patronage of John Van Olden Burnevelt a man of great Power in the Councel of Estate for the Vnited Belgick Provinces by whose means they obtained an Edict from the States of Holland and West-Fri●zland Ann. 1613. requiring and enjoyning a mutual Toleration of Opinions as well on the one side as the other An Edict highly magnified by the Learned Grotius in a Book intituled Pietas Ordinum Hollandiae c. Against which some Answers were set out by Bogerman Sibrandus and some others not without some reflection on the Magistrates for their Actings in it But this indulgence though at the present it was very advantageous to the Remonstrants as the case then stood cost them dear at last For Barnevelt having some suspition that Morris of Nassaw Prince of Orange Commander Generall of all the Forces of those United Provinces both by Sea and Land had a design to make himself the absolute Master of those Countries made use of them for the uniting and encouraging of such good Patriots as durst appear in maintenance of the common liberty which Service they undertook the rather because they found that the Prince had passionately espoused the Quarrel of the Contra Remonstrants From this time forwards the Animosities began to encrease on either side and the Breach to widen not to be closed again but either by weakning the great power of the Prince or the Death of Barnevelt This last the easier to be compassed as not being able by so small a Party to contend with him who had the absolute command of so many Legions For the Prince being apprehensive of the danger in which he stood and spurred on by the continuall Sollicitations of the Contra Remonstrants suddenly put himself into the Head of his Army with which he marcht from Town to Town altered the Guards changed the Officers and displaced the Magistrates where he found any whom he thought disaffected to him and having gotten Barnevelt Grotius and some other of the Heads of the Party into his power he caused them to be condemned and Barnevelt to be put to death contrary to the fundamental Laws of the Country and the Rules of the Union VI. This Alteration being thus made the Contra Remonstrants thought it a high Point of Wisdom to keep their Adversaries down now they had them under and to effect that by a National Councel which they could not hope to compass by their own Authority To which end the States General being importuned by the Prince of Orange and his Sollicitation seconded by those of King James to whom the power and person of the Prince were of like Importance a National Synod was appointed to be held at Dort Ann. 1618. Barnevelt being then still living To which besides the Commissioners from the Churches of their several Provinces all the Calvinian Churches in Europe those of France excepted sent their Delegates also some eminent Divines being Commissionated by King James to attend also in the Synod for the Realm of Britain A Synod much like that of Trent in the Motives to it as also in the mannaging and conduct of it For as neither of them was Assembled till the Sword was drawn the terrour whereof was able to effect more then all other Arguments so neither of them was concerned to confute but condemn their Opposites Secondly The Councel of Trent consisted for the most part of Italian Bishops some others being added for fashion sake and that it might the better challenge the Name of General as that of Dort consisted for the most part of the Delegates of the Belgick Churches to whom the forein Divines were found inconsiderable The Differences as great at Dort as they were at Trent and as much care taken to adulce the discontented Parties whose Judgments were incompatible with the ends of either in the one as the other The British Divines together with one of those which came from the Breme maintained the universal Redemption of Mankinde by the Death of Christ But this by no means would be granted by the rest of the Synod especially by those of North Holland for fear of yeilding any thing to the Arminians as Soto in the Councel of Trent opposed some moderate Opinions teaching the certainty of Salvation because they were too much in favour with the Lutheran Doctrines First The general body of the Synod not being able to avoid the inconveniences which the Supra-lapsarian way brought with it were generally intent on the Sublapsarian but on the other side the Commissioners of the Churches of South-Holland thought it not necessary to determine which were considered man faln or not faln while he passed the Decrees of Election and Reprobation But far more positive was Gomarus one of the four Professors of Leiden who stood as strongly to the absolute irrespective and irreversible Decree exclusive of mans sin and our Saviours Sufferings as he could have done for the Holy Trinity And not being able to draw the rest unto his Opinion nor willing to conform to theirs he delivered his own Judgment in writing apart by it self not joyning in subscription with the rest of his Brethren for conformity sake as is accustomed in such cases But Macorius one of the Professors in Frankar in West-Frizeland went beyound them all not only maintaining against Sibrandus Lubbertus his fellow Collegiate in their open Synod That God wills sin That he ordains sin as it is sin and That by no means he would have all men to be saved but openly declaring That if these Points were not maintained they must forsake their chief Doctors who had so great a hand in the Reformation VII Some other differences there were amongst them not reconcilable in this Synod as namely whether the Elect be loved out of Christ or not whether Christ were the cause and foundation of Election or only the Head of the Elect And many others of like nature Nor were these Differences mannaged with such sobriety as became the gravity of the persons and weight of

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 ●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 th●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 elegan● disposition of the Rooms and Offices in Burleigh-House not far from Stansord erected by Sir William Cec●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

repose themselves on it And certainly he that looks on the ninth Chapter of the sixth Session of the Council entituled Contra inanem Haereticorum fiduciam may easily perceive into what streights they were reduced by seeking to content the Leaders of the several factions For when the Decree came to be discussed it was no hard matter to make them joyne against that confidence which was maintained by many of Luthers followers as if a man were no otherwise justified than by the confidence which he had in his own justification yet when they came to expresse that certainty which had occasioned that intricate and perplexed dispute they were not so well able to state the point as not to shew their own irresolution and uncertainty in it For in the conclusion of the Decree in which they were to declare some cause for which no man could certainly know that he hath obtained Grace at the hands of God the Cardinal to satisfie one part added certainty of faith and he with the Dominicans not thinking it to be enough urged him to adde the word Catholick to it so that the sence thereof might seeme to be to this effect that no man could assure himself of obtaining Grace by any such certainty of Faith as may come under the notion of Catholick But because the Adherents of Calarius were not so contented instead of those words of Catholick Faith on which the Deminicans insisted it was thought necessary to declare that they meant it not of such a faith cui non potest subesse falsum which cannot be subject to falshood And thereupon the conclusion was drawn up in these following words viz. Quilibet dum seipsum ●uan●que propriam infirmitatem indispositionem respicit de gratia formidare timere potest cum nullus scire valeat certitudine Fidei cui non potest subesse falsum se gratiam Dei esse consecutum that is to say that every one in regard of his own disposition and infirmity may doubt with himself whether he hath received this Grace or not because he cannot know by certainty of infallible faith that he hath obtained it A temperament which contented both sides For one party inferred that all the certainty of faith which could be had herein might be false or fallible and therefore to be thought uncertaine the others inferred with equal confidence and content that the certainty therein declared could have no doubt of falshood or fallibility for the time that it remained in us and that it could no otherwise become false or fallible than by changing from the state of grace to the state of sinne as all contingent truths by the alteration of their subjects may be made false also 4. By which last clause it doth appear that all the certainty with Catarinus and the Carmelites contended for was no more but this that the Regenerate and righteous man might be certaine of grace and his own justification quo ad statum praesentem but not that he could challenge or pretend to any such certainty quo ad statum futurum or build on a continual perseverance in it for the time to come For even those men who stickled most in maintenance of the certainty of Grace quo ad statum praesentem concurred with those who maintained the uncertainty of perseverance together with the possibility of falling Totally and Finally from the Grace received for which see Chap. 2. Num. 8. of this present Book But the Calvinists being men of another making presume not only as one saith of them to know all things that belong to their present justification as assuredly as they know that Christ is in heaven but are as sure of their eternal election and of their future glorification as they are of this Article of our Creed that Christ was borne of the Virgin Mary And that he may not be thought to have spoken this without good authority we need look no farther than the fifth Article of the Contra-Romonstrants which was disputed at the Hague according as it is laid down in our fourth Chap. Numb 7. compared with the determination of the Council of Dort touching the point of Perseverance the summe whereof is briefly this viz. ' That God will preserve in the Faith all those who are absolutely elected from eternity and are in time brought to faith by an almighty and irresistible operation or working so that though they fall into detestable wickednesses and villanies and continue in them some space of time against their conscience yet the said wicked villanies do not hinder so much as a straw amounts to theit election or salvation neither do they or can they by means of or because of these fall from the Grace of Adoption and from the state of Justification or lose their faith but all their sinnes how great soever they be both which heretofore they have committed and those which after they will or shall commit are surer than assuredly forgiven them yea and moreover they themselves at last though it be at the last gasp shall be called to repentance and brought out into possession of salvation ' To which determination of the Synod it self it may be thought impertinent to subjoyne the words and suffrages of particular men though those of Roger Donlebeck are by no means to be omitted by whom it is affirmed That if it were possible for any one man to commit all the sinnes over again which have been acted in the world it would neither frustrate his election nor alienate him from the love and favour of God For which and many other passages of like nature too frequent in the writings of the Contra-Remonstrants the Reader may consult the Appendix to the book called Pre● Declaratio Sententiae Remonstratium printed at Leiden Anno 1616. and there he may be satisfied in his curiosity 5. But on the other side such as have looked into the mysteries of Eternal life with the eye of Reverence are neither so confident in the point nor so unadvised in their expressions as Donlebeck and others of the presumptuous sort of our moderne Calvinists by whom we are informed that all assurance is twofold that is to say in respect of the object known believed and in regard of the subject believing knowing As man relyeth upon his Evidence or as his Evidence to relie upon that all Evidence is divine or humane from God or man that Evidence divine if apprehended is ever certaine and infallible both for the necessity of our object God in whom is nor change nor shadow of change as also for the manner of determining the Evidence whereby that is certaine or necessary for effect which is but contingent otherwise in it self that such Evidence as is most clear and such assurance as is most certaine in it self may be contingent and uncertaine as we may both use it and dispose it who are here and there off and on as our judgements vary being irresolute in our wayes and as