est Antichristus Wherefore let not the Historian spend time to prove that those Articles do not bind the Church as those did that solemnly passed in the Convocations for I ascribe no such Authority to them only urge them as Declarations of the Articles of our Religion just as I would urge the judgment of the two Lord Chief Iustices calling in to their assistance others learned in the Law for the expounding of a Statute 't is not impossible they should be mistaken in their exposition but it would be strongly presumed by all modest men that they were not mistaken And so I could let go these Articles had it not pleased the Historian to tell us of a mighty offence taken at them by the Lord Burleigh and a resolution of having all that acted in them attainted of a praemunire from the danger of which the Arch-Bishop could not get release until he had promised speedily to recall and suppress those Articles All which we have laid down page 81 82 as things affirmed by Mr. Mountague from the Remonstrants in an Answer of theirs published 1618. But where did these Remonstrants hear this story Why possibly they might have it from the mouth of Baro or some other Cambridge men Will any man believe so great things upon so slender proofs as the possibility of the Remonstrants hearing them from the mouth of some Cantabridgian when they do not so much as pretend to have heard any such thing from any member of our Church nor doth any one ever since offer to tell us when and where the Arch-Bishop was forced to make any such submission The Heads of Houses in their Letter to the Lord Burleigh own the sending up of Dr. Tindal and Dr. Whitaker to conferr with the Lord of Canterbury and write of the great and comfortable quiet that by the coming down of the Articles was brought unto the University until that Baro in January following contrary to restraint and commandment gave some new disturbance In the same Letter also subscribed with their names and bearing date March 8. 1595 they resolutely tell the same Lord that Baro had determined preached printed diverse points of Doctrine not only contrary to himself but also contrary to that which had been taught and received ever since her Majesty's reign and agreeable to the errours of Popery Wherefore they pray his Lordship to vouchsafe his good ayd and advise to the comfort of themselves and all others of the University truly affected and to the suppression in time of those errours and even of gross Popery like by such means to creep in among them And upon this Letter or something else Baro left his place in the University because he could not keep it say Dr. Ward Mr. Fuller and all other Cantabridgians that ever I read but this Oxford Historian who can easily affirm any thing that he much desires tells us he left his place neither because he was deprived nor because he had any fear of being deprived but meerly because he had no mind to keep it any longer Nay he sticks not to affirm that in case it had pleased him to continue any longer Lecturer it is probable he might have carried the Lecture from any other Candidate or Competitour of what rate soever But by what mediums did he bring himself to this probable perswasion or whence did he collect that Baro had so great a number of adherents Only from Dr. Overals being chosen to succeed Dr. Whitaker But if they were the Anti-calvinists that carried it for Overal why did they not rather carry it for Baro himself seeing they had such fair presidents of preferring those who are Lady Margarets Professors to be King's Professors Hutton had been so preferred so had Whitgift so had Chaderton Or if Baro's interest were so great how came he to use so little care and Conscience as not to provide a Successor of his own mind Did he think his opinions were not worth the knowing If he did not why did he trouble the world with them If he did why would he so tamely yield to the chusing of Doctor Playfer than whom there was not a man in all the University more opposite to him The truth is Doctor Overal had not then declared himself to differ from Calvin and therefore was by the University employed to convince Barret and afterwards when he delivered such things as some Calvinists condemned him for yet he never deliver'd his mind so as to deny personal election or the certain perseverance of all the elect Something more of his mind we shall hear hereafter in the Hampton-Court Conference In the mean time I must mind the Doctor of a certain Catechism consisting of Questions and Answers touching the Doctrine of Predestination bound up with our English Bibles printed by Robert Barker Anno 1607. but not then first bound up with our Bibles as the Doctor seems willing to think pag. 101 102. The Questions and Answers are to be found in the Church Bibles commonly called the Bishops Bibles printed by Christopher Barker I my self have seen Bibles printed twenty years before the coming in of King Iames in which they were and for ought I know they were as old as any Translation of the Bible used in Queen Elizabetbs time He asks by what authority those Questions and Answers were put in betwixt the Old and New Testament and so I remember he somewhere asks by what Authority the Metrical Translation of the Psalmes was allowed to be Sung in Churches I am not able to give him a satisfactory answer either to the one or the other question no more than he is able to answer me who made our second Book of Homilies Yet he thinks I suppose that those who made that Book were Authorized to make it and so I think that those who first bound up those Questions and Answers and Singing Psalmes with our Bibles had Order and Authority so to do All this while Cambridge hath took us up We must now look into the other University in which we are told that all things were calm and quiet no publick opposition shewing it sâ—lf in the Schools or Pulpits The reason of this quiet is guessed at because the Students of that University did more incline to the canvasing of such Points as were in difference betwixt us and the Romanists For witness he calls in many Papists and on the other side Bishop Iewel Bishop Bilson Dr. Humphry Mr. Nowel Dr. Reynolds and many others which stood firm to the Church of England This last clause sure slipped from him unawares Upon second thoughts I fear he will scarce affirm that all these stood firm to the Church of England If they did no lot or portion hath he or any of his in the Church of England most of them having declared their minds point blank against conditional election c. Iewel hath told us his mind about Election in his Comment on the Thessalonians so hath Mr. Nowel in his Catechism Dr. Humphries
me how it appears that Mr. Harsnet and his Sermon was so censured and condemned I answer It appears from the plain testimony of Mr. William Prin page 304 of his Perpetuity printed at such a time when Prudence as well as Conscience would have restrained him from uttering an untruth against so great a man as Harsnet was then become Can it be imagined that if this had been a slander so great a Prelate of our Nation would not have demanded reparation and satisfaction As for the Doctor 's Argument that seeing the Sermon was preached at the Cross the University could take no cognizance of it it is such as I suppose upon second thoughts he will wish he had never made use of And he hath as much reason to wish that he had never troubled his Book with any thing of Bishop King's Lectures upon Ionah in which nothing is to be found against absolute Predestination nor yet any thing from which any probable collection can be made that the Bishop had conceived in his own mind any opinion about it contrary to Mr. Calvin's nor could the Doctor himself collect any thing from them till he had first supposed which no one will grant him that there is the same reason of God's eternal Election and his Promises as of his eternal Reprobation and his threatnings This done the Historian fills his nineteenth Chapter with lamentations and weeping bewailing the sad condition of the Church that was feign in her Reformation under Queen Elizabeth to make use of any Learned man that had zeal against Popery to discharge the places of greatest trust and Authority in the Church how Calvinistical soever they were for Doctrine But when was that it the Church was put to this strait was it not in the first years of Queen Elizabeth and particularly in the year 1562 when the first Convocation was held If so what a piece of boldness was it to say that that Convocation drew up Articles with any purpose to give check to Doctrinal Calvinism and what uncharitableness is it to affirm that our learned Divines did change their minds when for a few years they were forced to change the air in the Reign of Queen Mary What men of note had they to converse with beyond the Seas whose Opinions and Arguments they had not read and considered while in England They must needs be clouds without water if the breath of Calvin and Martyr could so easily toss them to and fro But we know those that went over Conformists came home Conformists and those that went over Non-conformists came back Non-conformists though somewhat strengthened in their Non-conformity by the communion they had with the Protestant Churches beyond the Seas I shall hereafter shew that not only Non-conforming Divines but also the most zealous Conformists did set themselves with all their might to declare against and crush the Arminian Doctrine as soon as in any place it began to be be delivered And the Doctor may do well to remember that Mr. Hooper and Mr. Bradford whom he hath before made so much use of though to little purpose were both of them Non-conformists in King Edward's days and Mr. Latimer whom he also challengeth for his own was litle better than a Non-conformist letting fly sufficiently at the Dignities of the Reformed Prelates So that if these three men had been as much for him as he pretends a man might say English Arminianism did spring out of the root of Non-conformity but it will appear that it did spring from opposition to those wholsom Doctrines in which all our Reformers how much soever differing about Ceremonies agreed Mr. Iohn Fox his Martyrology though dedicated to the Queen and by her accepted graciously though highly honoured by a Canon of the whole Convocation 1571 the Historian expresly saith he looketh 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 page 58. A piece of confidence suitable to that which carried him to say King Edward was an ill principled Prince and that his removal by death was no infelicity of our Church And it is the more inexcusable because in all his Histoâ—iâ—s about our Reformation he lighteth his Candle so oft at the Martyrologist's It seems he loveth darkness rather than light if it come from Geneva Bishop Hall to whom Episcopacy oweth far more than to Doctor Heylin calleth Fox a Saint-like Historian and for such he will be accounted as long as any one drop of good Protestant bloud runneth in our English veins But did the Convocation appoint no balm for that wound made by the Martyrology Yes that it did he thinks What was it Another Canon page 60 that men should teach no other Doctrine in their publick Sermons to be believed of the People but what was agreeable to the Doctrine of the Old and New Testament and had from thence been gathered by the Catholick Fathers and ancient Bishops I say If this Canon had been observed Mr. Harsnet had never preached his Sermon He thinks Calvinism had never been preached because maintained by none of the Catholick Fathers and ancient Bishops but Saint Augustine only who was but one Bishop but one Father All Calvinists will now easily forgive him his reproaches against Calvin seeing he spares not St. Augustine But I hope he will not forgive himself that passion which produced so great an untruth Had he said none before St. Augustine maintained Calvin's Doctrines the mistake had been excusable so is it not to say that no Catholick Father or ancient Bishop maintained it besides St. Augustine Doubtless Prosper and Hilary were both Catholick Fathers and ancient Bishops yet they as much maintained Calvin's Opinions as St. Augustine doth Who are the Bishops and Catholick Fathers that the Doctor follows in these Points of Predestination and grace In his second Part page 36 he quotes three ancient Writers The first Ambrose on the Epistles yet every one knows that those Commentaries on the Epistles are not his but the work as some think of a Pelagian as others of one Hilary no Bishop though a Catholick He also quotes the Commentary upon Saint Paul's Epistles ascribed to St. Hierom but he is not ignorant or if he be ignorant few other Scholars be that those Commentaries however formerly fathered on Hierom do call Pelagius himself Father and he I trow was no Cathotholick Father or ancient Bishop but a most vile Heretick He also refers us to St. Chrysostom in Ep. 14. By which I know not what he means but am sure it is little credit to a Doctor in Divinity living so near the University to bring Chrysostom in Latine whose Greek is so easie as that School-boys are able to understand it so that if this had been any piece of a Sermon I might certainly hâ—â—e concluded that the Doctor had violated the Canon and would fain know of him how our ordinary Countrey Preachers should be in any capacity to
any such practices Answ. I know not that any one hath in print affirmed that the Arminian Doctrine doth naturally lead men to Faction and Sedition but if any one have affirmed any such thing he may prove his affirmation by an argument which cannot easily be answered viz. Those Doctrines which do encline men to Pride do naturally lead men to Faction and Sedition The Arminian Doctrines do incline men to Pride ergo The Minor hath been before confirmed the Major is undeniable as being built upon plain express Scripture But the Doctor contenting himself nakedly to affirm that there is nothing in the Arminian Doctrines which can dispose the Professors of it to seditious practices tells us from some that it is not so with the Doctrine of the other Party Dr. H. Pag. 78. By which mens actions are so ordered predetermined by the will of God even to the taking up of a straw ut nec plus boni nec minus mali that it is neither in their power to do more good or commit less evil than they do and then according to that Doctrine all treasons murders and seditions are to be excused as unavoidable in them that commit the same c. Ans. There is I remember a very noted story out of Holland concerning an Anonymous Libeller who would needs father it upon the reverend and learned Dr. Carolus de Maets that God hath decreed and determined that all things should be done in that time manner place and order that in time they are done and that according to this decree and divine determination a man cannot do more good or evil than he doth or omitteth quite leaving out the explication that was used by the judicious Professor viz. that in a divided sense a man may do more good and avoid more evil than he doth Just so doth our Historian proceed making the Calvinists to affirm that absolutely which they affirm not but with a distinction In sensu composito a man cannot do more good than he doth nor abstain from more evil than he abstaineth from but in a divided sense he may Which made our Divines of Great Britain in the Synod of Dort among the Heterodox assertions which they rejected place this Hominem non posse plus boni facere quam facit nec plus mali omittere quam omittit falsum hoc est absonum sive de homine irregenito animali intelligatur sive etiam de renato gratia sanctificante suffulto The learned Camero was charged by his angry Adversary Tilenus to hold that man could not do more good than he doth nor omit more evil than he omitteth To this what answereth he Ego vero libens agnosco multa esse c. pag. mihi 704 I willingly acknowledge that there are many things which uttered simply do and that deservedly breed offence which very things if they be expressed conditionally appear such as that no man dare contradict them e. c. If any one shall say that Pharaoh could not let Israel go he would offend the ears of all if he add not unless God soften the heart of the wicked man but God hath not decreed to do that therefore it shall not be it cannot be that Pharaoh let Israel go Now his speech will offend no man no not Tilenus himself who doth not deny but that on hardened persons there doth lie and that by the decree of God a necessity of sinning Nor can the Arminians those of them who assert Divine praescience tell how to extricate themselves out of the labyrinth but by the help of this distinction in sensu composito diviso which is made use of by Curcellaeus in his Epistle to Limburgius from Amsterdam Decemb. 13. 1653. To be short there is no Doctrine that can more encline the heart to quietness patience contentedness all which are perfectly contrary to sedition and rebellion than doth the Augustinian or if that must be the name Calvinian Doctrine For this being once firmly imprinted on our hearts that all things come to pass according to the determinate counsel of God's will that the worst of Persecutors are but the staff of his indignation do fulfill the will of his purpose when they most cross and go against his legislative will what place is there left for murmuring what place for envie or revenge against second causes or instruments It was not an Arminian but a Calvinistical apprehension of God's providence about sin which Ioseph had when unto his Brethren fearing lest after their Father's death their old unkindness should be remembred he answered Gen. 50.19 20 Fear not for am I in the pâ—ace of God but as for you ye thought evil against me but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive Nor would he be understood of the otiosa permissio that Mr. Calvin writes against when he saith Gen. 45.8 It was not you that sent me hither but God This notwithstanding Dr. Heylin will quote some testimonies and authorities tending to prove that Calvinism or doctrinal Puritanism is destructive to all Civil Policy and Government Some scraps he produceth from the old Lord Burley from the Bishop of Oxford Rochester St. Davids from Dr. Brooks once Master of Trinity Colledge But he is I believe afraid to come either to the pole or to the scale either to weigh or to number authorities with us We 'll undertake among English Protestant Divines and Statesmen to produce forty who deny Calvinism to have any tendency to Sedition for one who hath laid any such thing to its charge And 't is a shrewd sign that the Doctor was hard put to it to find out Abettors for his Cause else he would not have set Cerberus to bark against his Adversaries which yet to his no small shame he doth page 79 80. This Campneys was in Edward the Sixths time a Papist a railing furious Papist and as such did suffer though not unto death At the beginning of Queen Elizabeths he began to make disturbance in the Church nibling at the Doctrine that was generally received and entertained by men every way his betters in so mâ—ch that he was generally voiced to be Popish and Pelagian His Pamphlet if it might be called his unto which he was ashamed to put his name was quickly conâ—uted by Mr. Crowly and Vâ—ron men famous in their generation of more judgement and insight in the ancient Fathers than to ascribe the Questiones Vet. Novi Testamenti to St. Austin which every Puny knows to be the fruit of some Pelagian brain I had thought to have followed our Historian and to have given some account of his second and third Part in which he goes about to perswade us that the Doctrine now called Arminianism was and is the Doctrine of the Reformed Church of England But this work is already done to satisfaction by Theophilus Churchman in his Reviâ—w If any say this is but a shift I do here