to these blessed truthes wherein the very marrow of all true Christian comfort yea the strength the ground and certainety of our Saluation rest though some haue â—leited them as meere curious and nice Disputes as now to question yea silence and restraine them when they haue thus long kept her in such peace and glory as no former age hath euer matched nor subsequent dayes haâ—e hopes to parallell What shall we thus requite the Lord for these his documents wherein his incomprehensible Wisdome Freedome Mercy Iustice Power Grace and glory shine foorth in greatest luster as after all the good they haue brought vpon vs to dis-inherit them of their ancient Freedome and by certaine Politike and insensible gradations to shoulder them out of our Church that so Popery and Arminianisme the fertile mothers of all licentious dissolutenesse may possesse their throne Shall wee thus repay our blessed Martyrs for all their glorious sufferings as now for to dis-martyr yea vncrowne and tread them vnder foot by disputing or doubting these Theologicall positions which they haue canonized and sealed to vs with their bloud Shall we thus retaliate the very Pillars of our Church and Patrons of our Faith euen all our learned Writers as to brand them for illiterate erronious and seducing Nouellers to their eternall infamy in rooting vp these fundamental Truths which they haue planted or re-implanting those Pelagian Arminian Popish Errors which they all haue laboured to extirpate Shall we now proue so vnnaturall to our Mother Church as to rip vp her wombe that bare or cut off her duggs that nourished vs in offering violence to these her sacred Assertions which did at first begette vs vnto grace and now cheerish and prepare vs vnto glory Or shall wee bee so iniurious so destructiue to our owne distressed soules as to strippe them naked of all coelestiall comforts to vnbottome them of all their hope and stay or to leaue them destitute of Saluation in depriuing them of all these sweete and rauishing cordialls in dis-lincking that Golden that Adamantine chaine of Gods immutable and free Election whereon their very happinesse comfort and Saluation are alone suspended Let this let this bee far from all our thoughts at leastwise from our practise Farre be it from any of vs especially from you right Christian Worthies intrusted with the care and safety of Religion as to question or doubt of these Orthodox these sweet Conclusions so long estated so oft resolued in our Church without any retractation or controll Your onely care your worke is now to defend to settle them not dispute them to damne yea quite extirpate their opposite Arminian Errours which like Tares spring vp apace among vs and ouergrow our Wheate not to honour countenance or equalize them with them by putting them both to triall to question censure and condemne their audacious open Aduersaries their secret dangerous Master-vnderminers who are of different rankes and must be dealt with in a various manner not to discusse their verity of which our Church was neuer yet suspitious in the least degree Proceede therefore as you Gods name be blessed haue already done to inquire out the Heads the Nurseries rootes and grand Protectors of our Popish our Arminian mungrell rabble which swarme like Locusts in our Church of late combining both together as is iustly feared to eate out our Religion by degrees to spoile vs of these temporall immunities of those coelestiall treasures of Gods sauing truth which are farre dearer to vs then our dearest soules and when you haue once discouered them as you may quickely doe since practise fame and iealousie haue made them so notorious it will be worth your labour to hew them downe with speede both root and branch at once else all your superficiall hacking of some smaller Issues will but increase their growth augment their strength and multiply their fruit their branches and al-daring practises when the time the feare of lopping are but passed ouer Trampling we know on Camomile stalkes doth but make them grow the thicker spread the faster it is the breaking not the bruising of the roote that kills it The mowing down of weedes of grasse the lopping off of lesser branches doth neuer hinder but aduance their growth not lessen but augment their number The rootes must first bee stocked vp or else the blades the stalkes the branches will not cannot wither or giue ouer budding Strike therefore at the roots as well as at the branches of these preuailing Factions else all your lopping will turne but into pruning your launching into festring your medicine into poyson to kill our Church the Patient but strengthen her diseases which haue hitherto got ground vpon vs by all those former Parliamentary lenitiues and verball purges which your Medicinall skill applyed to them It is noted of Pelagianisme of which the doctrinall part of Popery in the points of Grace and the whole body of Arminianisme are the reuiued ashes and new-raysed Goasts that it tooke its rise in England Pelagius the Father of it being himselfe a Brittaine and a Monke of Bangor What a regained Honour were it to our Nation What an inutterable benefit to our Church What a glory to this your Honourable and great Assembly if you could now at last eternally interre it in the soile that bare it and make its ancient now its second wombe its last its endlesse Graue It was said by one of note some fewe yeeres past and I wish it may be Prophetically true at least Tulit malum hoc sustulit Brittaniaâ— That England had both hatched and destroyed this monster of old of new Pelagianisme which Arminius and his followers had then newly raised from Hell to which it was of old condemned But alas we see its liuing and springing vp like Hydraes heades It s former ouer-indulgent decapitations both at Dort at home being but a blood-letting to increase its future vigour not a fatall blow to bring it to its finall period because it cut not off those master-veines which gaue greatest though but hidden life and growth vnto it O therefore giue and strike it and its Arminian Issue now at last a finall fatall and heart-killing blow which needes no iteration and bury them this once so deepe so sure that they may neuer neede a second Funerall But how you will say may this bee done I will informe you in a word or two It is Storied of the chiefe Priests and Pharises who were euer the greatest and most imbittered enemies to Christ and his Apostles as their successors who will needes be stiled Priests haue since bene to his members that hauing crucified our blessed Sauiour because they would bee sure to keepe him from rising from his graue againe according to his promise they did not onely suffer him to lye intombed in a rocky Sepulchre to the doore of which there was a great stone rolled but they likewise went and made the Sepulchre sure sealing the
Doctrine of the Church of England as the Booke it selfe together with two Reuerend Prelates of our Church who haue lately in two printed Letters expresly â—uerâ—ed That the Arminian Errors condemned in the Synod of Dort cannot stand with the Doctrine of the Church of England And that none can embrace Arminianisme in the Doctrine of Predestination and grace but he must first desert the Articles agreed vpon by the Church of England nor in the point of Perseverance but hee must vary from the common Tenet and receiued opinion of our best approued Doctors in the English Church will iustifie against all Opposers Therefore it is not within the intent or limitts and so not within the Danger of his Maiesties Declaration which I would not wilfully not willingly oppose Secondly I conceiue that this Declaration prohibits nothing but vnnecessary and curious Disputes vpon bare coniectures on or strained Collections from our Articles But in this Antithesis you haue onely abare historicall recitall in nature of a Catalogue of those scattered Records and writers of our Church which haue constantly oppugned these new Arminian Errors from the beginning of reformation to this present It comes not therefore within the sphere of this Declaration Thirdly his Maiesties Declaration was chiefly to suppresse all Innovations in Religion together with such vnnecessary Controuersiâ—es as might disturbe the Peace and settled Doctrines of our Church But this Antithesis serues onely to suppresse the Innouations in Relâ—gion and to allay all moderne Arminian Controuersies which interrupt our Churches Peace and Doctrines by disprouing Arminianisme to be the Doctrine of our Church in such an apparant manner that none can contradict it Therefore it is wholly with this Declaration not against it Lastly his Maiesties Declaration prohibits principally vnnecessary disputes about curious nice and needlesse Schoole-points of which men may be ignorant without great danger But I take it vnder correction that our Anti-Arminian Tenets can which the whole fabricke of our saluation the whole Doctrine and structure both of mans fall and corruptionâ— of grace and glory of Election Reprobation Predestination Vocation Iustification Sanctification Perseuerance and Glorification are suspended are no superfluous nice or curious speculations vnfit vnneedfull to be taught or published but most necessary essentiall comfortable and fundamentall Truthes in which the whole pith and marrow of Divinity the whole Doctrine of grace and mans salvation are included This all the ancient Councels ana voluminous Treatises of the Fathers in the pâ—imatiue Church this all the moderne Synods Articles Confessions Resolutions and Writings both of our owne and other Churches against Pelagius Arminius and their followers as the professed enemies of the grace and Gospell of God as Atheisticall Sectaries yea wicked pestilent and blasphemous heretiques as our late learned Soueraigne hath rightly stiled them doe abundantly testifie All which would neuer questionlesse haue waged such fierce such perpetuall and implacable wars against these Pelagian and Arminian Heresies were they suchinnoxius or triuiall Differences such vnnecessary such curious speculations as some of their Abetters who then me thinkes should be ashamed contenâ—iously to foment them to the great disturbance of our Churches peace would seeme to make them because they would more easily induce men to neglect them till they had gotten strength and then to imbrace them to their eternall ruine Since therefore these Anti-Arminian Tenets which I here onely vindicate to be the ancient genuine vndoubted Doctrine of the Church of England are points of highest consequence of greatest weight and vse whence they haue beene more ab undantly patronized propagated and propugned not onely in the primitiue Câ—urch but likewise in most moderne Protestant Churches and in the Church of England then any other substantiall points of Diuinity whatsoeuer as is most apparently euident Since their opposite Arminian Errors which are in truth meere Popery and Semi-Pelagianisme at least a bridge a way and portall to them both haue beene most constantly oppugned both in the Primatiue our owne and other Reformed Churches as a dangerous and grace-nullifying Heresie And since Prosper himselfe hath expresly recorded it long agoe That St. Augustine hath constantly piously and abundantly proued that predestination in which there is the preparation of grace and grace in which there is the effect of predestination and the prescience of God by which he foreknew before all worlds on whom he would bestow his gifts of grace ought to be preached to the Church Of the preaching of which saith he I pray obserue his words and marke them well whosoeuer is an impugner he is a most apparant furtherer of Pelagian pride which I dare presume is farre from his Maiesties royall thoughts to be I may safely as I hope conclude on all these premises That this my Antithesis which I haue divulged onely for the peace and benefit of our English Church and the stopping of all Arminians mouthes who now must either holde their peace and yeeld their cause or else periuriously sacrilegiously renounce their Mother Church and these her Doctrines which they haue subscribed if not sworn to is clearly without the verge and danger of his Maiesties Declaration who neuer did intend so farre to countenance to grace an heresie so branded censured and condemned by the primitiue Church by forraigne Protestant Churches by the whole Church of England with all her learned writers from her first reformation to this present and more particularly by his Royall Father whose faith whose steps he meanes to follow as for its sake its growth and greater safety to put these established and professed Anti-Arminian Doctrines of our Church to silence which is almost the highest dignity the greatest conquest that Arminianisme can or would aspire to And now right Reuerend Fathers hauing cleared this obiection giue me leaue to close vp this Epistle with a word of exhortation which I beseech you for to suffer Remember I intreat you in the name and feare of God that you together with the rest of our reuerend and learned â—lergie are the Watchmen the Garrisons and Bulwarkes of our Israel to giue her warning of to protect and shield her against those pernicious subdolous and seducing heretiques those Popish and Arminian Aduersaries which warre against her faith her peace Gods grace our soules If you then through worldlinesse negligence sloathfulnesse Epicurisme or the sweete Syrenian songs of enchanting Mercuries begin to sleepe to slumber to remit or else giue ouâ—â— your spirituall watch and ward against these sheep like wolues friend-seeming Enemies which come for to deuoure vs If you proue dumb dogs that will not cannot barke at their approach or treacherous Centinells false posternes to beâ—ray vs to their infernall malice we must then bâ— needs surprised yea captivated destroyed in a moment through this your negligence and default but yet our blood shall be required at your
THE CHVRCH OF ENGLANDS OLD ANTITHESIS TO NEW ARMINIANISME Where in 7. Anti-Arminian Orthodox Tenents are euidently proued their 7. opposite Arminian once Popish and Pelagian Errors are manifestly disproued to be the ancient established and vndoubted Doctrine of the Church of England by the concurrent testimony of the seuerall Records and Writers of our Church from the beginning of her reformation to this present By WILLIAM PRYNNE Gent. Hospitij Lincolniensis GALATIANS 1. 9 2. IOHN 10. If any man preach any other Gospell vnto you then that you haue receiued let him be accursed If there come any vnto you and bring not this Doctrine receiue him not into your house neither bid him God speede Vincentius Lerinensis contra Haereses Cap. 39. Quicquid omnes vel plures vno eodemq sensu manifeste frequenter perseueranter velut quodam sibi consentiente magistrorum Concilio accipiendo tenendo tradendo firmauerint id pro indubitato certo ratoq habeatur London 1629. TO THE HIGH AND Honourable Court of Parliament now assembled RIght Christian Honourable and Religious Senators that all-disposing Prouidence of our euer-blessed GOD which hath lately Conuented and since that Centered you with an vnanimous and inflexible resolution vpon the examination of the seuerall Innouations Restraints and Pressures of our much endangered Religion to the great content and ioy of all good Christians hath at this time directed me to pen and inuited me to publish this ANTI-ARMINIAN Index which here lies prostrate at your feete imploring your most gratious and free Protection to further your religious and happy Proceedings in the discouery and suppression of those Hereticall and Grace-destroying Arminian nouelties which haue of late inuaded affronted and almost shouldred out of doores the ancient established and resolued Doctrines of our Church to the intolerable griefe of all true Christian hearts the exultation and triumph of our Romish Aduersaries the prouocation of Gods heauy wrath and curse against vs who hath blasted all our publike Enterprises since these Arminian Errous haue crept in among vs and to the great endammagement and disturbance of our Church and State which are like to sincke and perish vnder them vnlesse your medicinall and helping hands forthwith support them For me or any other now to question as I feare too many doe Whether Parliaments haue any true or legall right in the reformation establishment and rescue of Religion in the explanation of our Articles or in Church affaires were but to dispute not onely our Non-Preaching Pluralitie Commenda and Non-resident men the chiefe Fomenters of Popery and Arminianise and the onely Cauellers at Parliamentary proceedings in matters of Religion out of all their Benefices and Ecclesiasticall Promotions a happy and much desired worke but euen all our Bishops our Ministers our Sacraments our Consecration our Articles of Religion our Homilies Common-Prayer Booke yea and all Religion out of our Church which are no other way publikly receiued supported or established among vs but by Acts of Parliament as I haue more largely proued in a former Epistle Hee who hath seriously suruayed the Statutes of our Kingdome shal finde Religion and Church-affaires determined ratified declared and ordered by Act of Parliament and no wayes else euen then when Popery and Church-men had the greatest sway ingrossing all Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction to themselues alone and shall wee then doubt whether Parliaments haue any Conusance of Religion now It is the positiue Resolution of all the Fathers of all Proâ—estant and I thinke of most Popish Diuines That Kings and temporall Magistrates ought to bee the chiefe Defenders and Patrons of Religion the suppressors of Haeresies Idolatries and false Doctrines the principall Reformers of the Church and they produce the Examples of Moses Ioshua Dauid Iehosaphat Solomon Hezechiah Iosiah Constantine Charles the Great Iustinian Theodosius William the Conquerour Henry the first of England Canutus Edgar Edmund Richard the second Henry the fifth King Iue Alured Ercombert Ethelbaldus and others together with the Prophesie of Isay cap. 9. 13. Kings shall bee thy nursing Fathers and Queens thy Nurses the 17. of Deutr. 18. 19. Psalm 2. 10. the 1 Tim. 2. 1. 2. Rom. 13. 1. 2. 3. Iude 1. 2. and other Scriptures for to prooue it Why then may not our King our Parliament and Temporall Magistrates now as well as heretofore intermedle with Religion if all these examples this conclusion passe for currant Is it from any disability in their persons because they are but Laicks Why such were all these Kings and Magistrates Such were all the Ancient and Moderne Reformers of the Church that euer I could read of Such were all our Parliamentary men in former Ages who established Poperie and since that abolished it by publike Acts of State confirming that Orthodox and true Religion in our Church which now we all professe yet none findes fault with them Such a one was Valdo that Citizen of Lions the Father of the renowned Waldenses or Protestans in France and the originall Author of the first open defection from the Antichristian Church of Rome yet all good Protestants applaud this Act of his Such are the Maior part of our Ecclesiasticall Commissioners who yet determine of Haeresies false Doctrines Scismes and the sense and meaning of our Articles yet no man quarrels or excepts against them Why then should they deny this power vnto Parliaments because they are but Lay which they acknowledge and admit in these Especially since all our Churchmen are virtually included in our Parliament and so suffragate to its Conclusions in our Prelates the vnquestionable Iudges of Points and Controuersies in Religion who are chiefe Members of this mixt Assembly compacted both of Church and State and so not wholly Lay or Ciuill as some vainely fancy Is it because Parliaments want Conusance or power to deale in Church affaires and matters of Religion How then was Popery heretofore implanted since that exiled and our present Orthodoxe Religion with all its seuerall circumstances and adiuncts estated and lawfully setled in our Church by Act of Parliament if Parliaments haue no Legall but onely an vsurped Iurisdiction in Matters Articles Rites and Tenents of Religion as some Papists haue auerred and the fore-quoted learned Prelates and Writers of our Church refelled Certainely if our Parliaments haue such a transcendent power as to authorize Sheriffes in their Turnes and Stewards in their Leetes and Wapentakes to enquire of haeresie and haeretiques as to enable Iustices of the Peace and Quorum to indite and punish Scismatiques as to associate an equall number of the Temporalty with the Clergie in collecting ordering and composing Ecsiasticall Canons Lawes and Constitutions for the regulating of Ecclesiasticall Courts and persons and the better ordering of the Church As to authorize his Maiesties Commissioners in causes Ecclesiasticall though Lay-men as many of them are to exercise all Spirituall and Ecclesiasticall Iurisdictions Priuiledges Superiorities Preheminences and Authorities as
stone and setting a watch for feare lest his Disciples should come by night and steale him away and say that hee was risen What these vile miscreants vainely did in Antichristian doe you Right noble Christians in true Christian Policie Pelagius with his late-born brat Arminius hath beene oft times buried by sundry Ancient some Moderne Councels and Fathers of the Church but yet they haue alwaies risen from the dead againe to the great disquiet of all true Christian Churches If then you chance to crucifie them once againe as now wee hope wee pray you may for feare their life proue all our deathes they being the Archest Traitors to our Church our State our soules and sauing Grace you must not only see them intombed for the present though it be in graues of stone but likewise watch and seale their Sepulchres making them sure for all succeding Ages by some inexorable strict and vigilant Acts of Parliament which no Charme no Wile no Force or Policie may euade Else their Disciples will come by night againe as they haue oft times done and steale them quite away and not onely say but to our great disturbance prooue that they are once more risen from the dead So shall their last resurrection be farre worse our second danger your latter Error farre greater then the first which God forbid Now the GOD of grace and wisdome so ayde direct and guide your Honours with his Spirit in this great weighty Worke which needes an heauenly power to accomplish it that wee to our vnutterable ioy and comfort may now at last behold our drooping and declining Orthodox Religion the onely Center Pillar Bulwarke Garrison Honour Treasure and conseruer of our declining State which ebbes and flowes together with it reuiued aduanced established and secured once againe against all Forraine all Domestique hostile Forces all Stratagemes that oppugne it and that all our eyes may see with triâ—mph all Popery all Olde all Newe Pelagianisme with all the grand Fomentors and Master-springs that feede them in despight of all their new-erected and much adored Altar-Idols arraigned at your dreadfull Barre condemned at your great Tribunall executed before your faces layd dead and prostrate at your feet interred in some brasen Dungeon yea sealed vp and strictly watched with such enuironing cautelous ir-repealable and adamantine Lawes as may so presse them downe for all eternitie that they may neuer raise themselues nor yet bee raised in our Church againe Amen Amen Your Honours in all humble seruice whiles you stand for Christ Religion Church or Countrey WILLIAM PRYNNE TO THE RIGHT REVEREND FATHERS IN GOD THE ARCH-BISHOPS and Bishops of the Church of ENGLAND RIGHT Reuerend Fathers in God in whose pious integrity and industrious vigilancie the chiefest safety in whose vnfaithfulnesse negligence or insollidity the greatest hazard the inevitablest danger of our Protestant Church and long professed religion are suspended I here most humbly tender vnto your fatherly and pious considerations an vninterrupted Antithesis of the Church of England from her very first reformation to this present against that most venemous Semi-pelagian heresie and those Arminian Novelties which haue of late invaded yea much endangered her ancient established and professed Doctrines which your Ecclesiasticall Dignities and frequent Subscriptions to the Articles Homilies Tenents of our Church engage you in a more speciall manner to protect It is not yea it cannot be vnknowne to your grauities that olde Pelagius and Faustus who haue lyen dead and rotten in their graues 1100 yeares or more haue by a kinde of Pythagorean Metempsy chosis revived in Arminius and his followers now of late as Origen Priscillian and Iouinian did in them and not onely spoken openly against the grace of God and doctrines of our Church which is miserable but even publikely preached and written against them in our Church without any Ecclesiasticall censure or controll which is farre worse It was the complaint of a Reuerend and learned Prelate of our Church about some ten yeares since in an Epistle Dedicatorie vnto his Maiesty then Prince of Wales That the stinking vapors of Arminius whose heresies hee there learnedly encounters had beene blowne ouer from the Belgique shores vpon our English coast and so infatuated some of our Diuines that leauing the beaten and approued path of faith they betooke themselues vnto the crooked wayes and praecipices of Arminius destroying the Articles of our Religion with their Tenents which they had formerly confirmed by their owne subscription What hee lamented and condoled then we haue much more cause to complaine of now when as these contagious vapours haue not onely dangerously infected many but likewise animated some Goliahs to bid professed defiance to the host of Israel in Arminius his quarrell and to take vp armes in his defence against the oft resolued and subscribed Doctrines of their Mother Church who hath enriched them with sundry fauours and yet alas Ab Ecclesia siquidem haereseos impugnator expellitur et nutriri in sinu Ecclesiae haereticus inuenitur the impugners of Arminius his Champions haue beene questioned and molested when as they were neuer hitherto once publikely conuented by any Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction for these their dangerous Innouations When these Arminian Errours were first broached by Barret and Baro in Queene Elizabeths happy Raigne the zeale of our Reverend Prelates and Vniuersity heads was such that they forthwith proceeded iudicially against them not suffering them to rest or harbour in our Church But alas the cowardice indulgency and luke warmnesse of our age is such that those who haue succeeded them in their Episcopall Dignities not their zeale some few only excepted whose paucity indears theÌ„ more to God to man and adds vnto their praise haue scarce so much as once opened their mouths in publike against those Arminian theeues and robbers who by their secret pollicies and publike writings haue lately preyed vpon the sheepe and Doctrines of our Church But now since our religious Soueraine hath publikely professed in his late Declaration to all his louing Subiects to maintaine the true Religion and doctrine established in the Church of England of which the Anti Arminian Tenents comprised in this Antithesis are the chiefest branch without admitting or conniuing at any backsliding either to Popery or Scisme and hath called God to record that he will never giue way to the authorizing of any thing whereby any innovation may steale or creep into the Church but preserue that vnity of Doctrine and Discipline established in the time of Queen Elizabeth In whose Raigne Arminianisme was particularly exiled â—ndour Anti-Arminian Assertions settled in our Church whereby our Church of England hath stood and flourished ever since Since King Edward the 6. Queene Elizabeth and King Iames of blessed memory an implacable professed Antagonist to Arminianisme to Arminians to his dying day with all our learned Prelates Divinity
glory of God the Father who hath called the honour of God the holy Ghost who hath consecrated the loue of the Lord Iesus Christ who hath delegated you to the Ministrie whose person you can never truly loue vnlesse you loue his sheepe take courage zeale and resolution to your selues as some of you to their honour haue already done and now rescue vs from those Iesuiticall Romishravening wolues those â—rminian theeues and wily foxes who seeke to make our Church their prey Alas why should any of you flie why should you now feare them or giue place vnto them Yea why should you not encounter and suppresse them since you haue God himselfe our gracious Soveraigne as his late Declaration can sufficiently testifie together with the whole State and Kingdome for to back you the ensamples of your worthy Predecessors of some few of your coetanian Brethren to encourage you in this right Christian action You are our Pastors you tithe we giue our fleece ô therefore keepe ô rescue cloth vs and protect vs together with our Church and her received Doctrines for it You are our Shepheards you eate we yeeld our milke ô feede vs for it with the wholesome the soule-saving word and bread of life You reape our temporall ô sow ô giue vnto vs spirituall things You are our Master-heardsmen your wages yea your flockes are great ô then be vigilant diligent carefull and laborious for them resident and present with them that so you may know them all by name goe in and out before them become even reall instructing ensamples to them both in life and Doctrine that they againe may heare may know your voice and follow you safe from earth to heaven to your eternall ioy in that great audit-day when all the faithfull and soule-winning shepheards shall present their severall regained flockes vnto their Master-shepheard Iesus Christ who shall then reward them with a crowne of glory which fadeth not away whereas he shall cloth all theeues all wolues all hirelings all invigilant vnfaithfull sloathfull and voluptuous shepheards who haue no flockes of saved of converted soules to follow them with eternall shame I shall wind vp all in the words of Bernard Ecce sacruÌ„ EvangeliuÌ„ sub numero triuÌ„ personaruÌ„ includit multitudinem vniversam Praelatorum Proposuit enim nobis bonuÌ„ Pastorem mercenarium et furem Si boni Pastores estis gaudete quia merces vestra copiosa est in coelis Si mercenarii estis timete quia periculum vestrum grande est in terris Si fures estis ingemescite quia locus vester magnus est in paenis nisi properaveritis ad paenitentiam et quae vovistis Domino Deo vestro dignè reddideritis Now the Lord Iesus Christ the great shepheard of his sheepe inspire all your Lordships with zeale courage for the perennious defence propagation of those established Doctrines of our Church which here I recommend vnto your best protection and with all other graces requisite for the compleat discharge of your Episcopall function that so you may carefully keep indefatigably feed the flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready minde Neither as being Lords over Gods heritage but being ensamples to the flock theÌ„ wheÌ„ the chief shepheard shal appear you shal receiue a crown of glory which fadeth not away Your Lordships in all humble respect as far as you stand for Christ or for his truth WILLIAM PRYNNE To the Christian Reader CHristian Reader I heere present vnto thy view and prostrate to thy Censure a compendious Summary of those scattered Euidences a concise Catalogue of those eminent Writers and illustrious Witnesses of our Mother Church since the beginning of her Reformation to this Instant who haue positiuely maintained and punctually defended those 7. Anti-Arminian Theses which I heere prooue but diametrally oppugned yea constantly condemned their 7. opposite erronious Arminian Tenents which I here disprooue to be the ancient established and resolued Doctrines of our English Church The multitude of my other distractions and ineuitable interruptions together with the narrow scantling of those few Winter dayes I had for to compose it in haue denyed it that exact mature Summer perfection which others may expect my selfe desire Accept it therefore as a Winter fruit impatient of a tedious Summer ripening which might perchance adde much vnto its fulnesse but derogate from its seasonablenesse The Wise man hath informed That to euery thing there is a season and a time to euery purpose vnder heauen and that euery thing is beautifull yea onely beautifull and vsefull in its time I haue therefore chosen to thrust out this Antithesis more incompleat and mutilated then I did desire hoping that its seasonable and timely birth if the vnexpected and vnhappy dissolution of our present Parliament hath not made it now abortiue or vnseasonable shall excuse will salue its hasty its immature Natiuity This Treatise consists of two parts the one the Records the Acts and Monuments of our Church the other the Names and Testimonies of our Writers The speciall and more publike Records and Euidences of our Church which tend vnto our purpose I haue heere at large recited The Authors and Authorities which are mâ—â—y I haue onely named and so past ouer with a briefe quotation of their workes their Chapters Pages and those Editions which I fellow which I thought good to specifie for the greater certainety and more speedy search Their words their copious passages and discourses touching our present Conclusions I haue purposely omitted not related for sundry swaying reasons First to auoid prolixitie and to keepe this petty Treatise from swelling into an excessiue Volume which it must needs haue done had I transcribed the one moity of the ensuing Quotations in their latitude Secondly because the most the chiefe of all these Bookes and Authors are obuious and common vnto all mens view so that their bare Quotation is sufficient their Transcript needlesse Thirdly to encourage learned Readers especially our young vngrounded Schollers and Diuines who desire satisfaction in these much agitated and perplexed Controuersies to reade yea studiously to peruse the workes and writings of our vnparalleld home-bred Authors who are generally honoured in all Forreine Churches despised and neglected no where but at home and now lately more then euer Strange it is to see and lamentable to consider how the excellent Orthodox eminentest and learned Impressions of the most transplendent Lampes and Ornaments of our Church whose very names strike terrour into our Romish Aduersaries admiration into our Forraigne Friends are now so much dishonoured as Prophets for the most part onely are in their owne natiue soyle and Fathers house that many young pragmaticall Schollers some graue more young Diuines who reuerence and adore all Popish Schoolemen which oft
which must needes be accompanied with the very wrath and curse of God because it nullifies his fauour and disauowes his grace hath crept into them It is but a bridge an vsher vnto Popery and all Popish Ceremonies which winde themselues into our Church apace if Parliament complaints prooue true by their Arminian Agents as some new erected Altars Images Tapers and late vsurped Altar-adorations with the reuolt of sundry Arminians vnto Popery doe experimentally testifie O therefore as we tender the peace and safety of our Church and State the supportation soueraignty or aduancement of Gods Grace the peace the comfort or saluation of our endeared soules the perpetuity and perennious preseruation of our graces or the prosperity and happinesse of our declining Nation As wee desire the subuersion of the Pâ—pall or Spanish Monarchy the defeatment of all Iesuiticall combinations against our Church or State the ouerthrow and extirpation of Popery the continuance safety growth and flourishing of our precious Protestant Religion which Arminianisme and Popery vndermine almost as fast at home as Popish Policies or Spanish Forces doe abroad let vs now at 〈◊〉 lay downe these grosse Arminian Errors which haue constantly beene brandid censured and condemned by all the Euidences yea Writers of our Church embracing from and with our hearts and iudgements these Orthodox sweet and gracious Anti-Arminian Dogmaticall Conclusions heere recorded wherein our happinesse comfort and saluation rest as the ancient established professed and vndoubted Doctrines of our Church as this whole Antithesis infallibly prooues them that so our Church and Kingdome which being diuided against themselues by these distracting opinions and other ciuill dissentions cannot stand may once more flourish in these declining turbulent and perplexing dayes and repossesse that former vnitie safety honour peace and glory which wee all desire Wee all know in what dangerous and fickle times wee liue We see the generall desolations and lamentable ouertures of Gods Church abroade Wee see Religion sincking Grace decaying Popery triumphing Arminianisme spreading Heresies and new Errors springing and getting head in euery corner We see Nation rising vp against Nation Kingdome against Kingdome Church against Church yea we may behold one Church one state one People one House yea the Members of one and the selfe same Body diuided against it selfe Looke we vpon all the Christian World abroad vpon our selues at home wee can behold nought else but the fatall Symptomes and dismall Characters of an almost ineuitable and neere-approaching confusion O therefore let vs now cast Anchor and take Sanctuary in Heauen Let vs draw neere and sticke fast vnto our God let vs cleaue inseparably to these Anti-Arminian Conclusions and Doctrines of our Church which will be our onely cordialls our all sufficient contentment our best security support and comfort in the midst of all the ruines calamities and miserable perplexities which befall the World If our Religion be but safe our Church our State our Goods our Liberties our very soules and bodies all we haue are then secure if we hold but this all else is sure if we part with this then farewel all let vs neuer expect one halcion happy day or houre more Whiles Religion flourished and grew great among vs wee were then the head of Nations the dread the honour the mirrour and paradise of the World since the Tares of Popery and Arminianisme haue sprung vp within our Church since we haue halted and declined in our Faith wee haue beene the very obloquie scorne derision and taile of all our neighbour nations Plagues haue deuoured Diuisions weakned discontents decay of Trade with sundry other grieuances impouerished vs at home Enemies tempests vnskilfulnesse and ouer-reaching Policies consumed defeated and dishonoured vs by Sea by Land abroad All our counsels haue beene infatuated our designes frustrated our hopes dashed our prayers vnanswered our Parliaments broaken vp in discontent the curse and vengeance of God hath clinged close vnto vs to our great destruction and for all this we see we finde we feele and I pray God wee may be truely sensible of it ere it bee too late Gods anger is not yet turned away but his hand is stretched out still against vs because wee reuolt from him and our long-professed and established Religion more and more Let vs therefore now at last remember whence we are falne and doe our first workes Let vs hold fast our first professed Religion constant to the ende VVe were borne we were baptized bred and nursed in it we haue growne vp safely wee haue prospered happily vnder it we haue hitherto liued in it by it Let vs now die in it yea with it for it if God calls vs to it lest we all suddenly perish consume and die eternally without it because we haue thus backe-slided from it Farewell The true endeauourer of Religions safety and our Churches Vnitie WILLIAM PRYNNE Anti-Arminianisme OR THE CHVRCH OF Englands old Antithesis to new ARMINIANISME IT is the aduice and counsell of an Ancient Father for the suppression of such Haeresies or vpstart Errors which seeke to shrowde themselues vnder the fraudulent couert of wrested and mis-applied Scriptures to examine them by to encounter them with the opinions and vnanimous resolutions of those Ancient godly Fathers who haue either dyed in Christ or suffered for Christ that so they may bee manifestly discouered without ambiguity and finally condemned without reuocation or reuiewe This Fatherly and graue Aduice of his I haue made choice to follow in the discouery both of the nouelty and falsenesse of those Arminian Tenents which would willingly harbour themselues vnder the roofe and Patronage of the Church of England whose Doctrines they of late praetend they are The issue which the Arminians and Anti-Arminians if I may so stile them are now come to ioyne and on which they must receiue their final doome is onely this Whether the Arminian or Anti-Arminian Positions be the receiued and vndoubted Doctrines of the Church of England The onely Euidences and Grand-Iury-men to try this Issue are the Articles Homilies Common-prayer Booke and the authorized Writings of all the Learned Orthodox Writers of the Church of England from the beginning of Reformation to this present If all these suffragate or passe their Verdict for the Arminians and their erronious Assertions let iudgement then be openly pronounced for them we will foorth with yeeld vp to them without any more dispute both cause and right at once But if all or either of these giue euidence against them as in truth they doe If they all yeeld vp a ioynt vnanimous verdict for Anti-Arminians and their authentique Positions I hope they shall then receiue not only a speedy and finall iudgement on their side which no subsequent Reuiew nor writ of Error shall hencefoorth reuerse but likewise a Parliamentary Decree to establish them in their ancient and long-continued peaceable possession without disturbance for all future times For triall of this waighty
Wherefore wee beseech him to grant vs true repentance and his holy Spirit that those things may please him which wee doe at this present c O God make cleane our hearts within vs. O God from whom all holy desires all good counsels and all good workes doe proceed c. That it may please thee to giue vs an heart to loue and dread thee and diligently to walke after thy Commandements That it may please thee to giue vs true repentance and to endue vs with the grace of thy holy Spirit to amend our liues according to thy holy Word Though wee be tyed and bound with the chaine of our sins yet let the pittifulnesse of thy great mercy loose vs c. Almighty God giue vs grace that wee may cast off the workes of darkenesse and put on the armour of light c. O Lord raise vp thy power and come among vs and with great might succour vs that whereas by our sinnes and wickednesse wee be sore let and hindered thy bountifull grace and mercy may speedily deliuer vs c. See the Collects on the 1. 4. 5. Sundayes after the Epiphany O GOD create in vs new and contrite hearts c. Almighty God who doest see that of our selues wee haue no power to helpe our selues keepe thou vs both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our soules c. Almighty God wee humbly beseech thee that as by thy speciall grace preuenting vs thou doest put into our hearts good desires so by thy continuall helpe wee may bring the same to good effect God the strength of all those that trust in thee mercifully heare our prayers and because the weakenesse of our mortall nature can do no good thing without thee grant vs the helpe of thy grace that so we may please thee both in will and deede Lord of all power and might which art the onely author and giuer of all good things grasse in our hearts the loue of thy name increase in vs true Religion nourish vs with all goodnesse and of thy mercy keepe vs in the same Grant vs O Lord wee beseech thee the spirit to thinke and to doe alwayes those things as bee righteous that wee which cannot be without thee may by thee be able to doe according to thy will c. Lord wee pray thee that thy grace may alwaies preuent and follow vs and make vs continually giuen to all good workes O God for asmuch as without thee wee cannot please thee graunt that thy mercy may alwaies direct and rule our hearts See the 2. 6. 13. 15. and 22. Sundaie after Trinitie to the same effect Lord haue mercy vpon vs and encline our hearts to keepe this Lawe Preuent vs O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious fauour and further vs with thy continuall helpe that in all our workes begunne continued and ended in thee c. My good childe know that thou art not able to doe these things of thy selfe nor to walke in the Commandements of God and to serue him without his speciall grace Almighty God who makest vs both to will and to doe the things that bee acceptable vnto thy Maiestie c. Turne vs O good God and so shall we be turned Thirdly that Christ Iesus dyed sufficiently for all mankinde but effectually for none but the Elect and true beleeuers who alone are saued by his death The sufficiency of Christs death for all mankinde is expressed in these seuerall places O God the Sonne redeemer of the World haue mercy vpon vs miserable sinners Aboue all wee must giue humble and hearty thankes to God the Father c. for the redemption of the world by our Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ c. Almighty God our heauenly Father which of thy tender mercy diddest giue thine onely Sonne Iesus Christ to suffer death vpon the Crosse for our Redemption who made there by his owne oblation once offered a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice oblation and satisfaction for the sinnes of the whole world c. O Lambe of God which takest away the sinnes of the world haue mercy vpon vs. thou that takest away the sinnes of the world receive our prayers Secondly in God the Sonne who hath redeemed mee and all mankinde O Sauiour of the world saue vs which by thy Crosse and Passion hast redeemed vs All this must bee vnderstood onely of the sufficiency and merit of Christs death not of the efficacie benefit and application of it which belongs to none but to the true Church of Christ euen the Elect and true beleeuers as these passages ensuing will informe vs. When thou hadst ouercome the sharpnesse of death thou diddest open the Kingdome of heauen to all beleeuers We pray thee helpe thy seruants whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious bloud O Lord saue thy people and make thy chosen people ioyfull Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for hee hath visited and Redeemed his people To giue knowledge of Saluation to his people for the remission of their sins His mercy is on them that feare him throughout all generations He remembring his mercy hath holpen his seruant Israel c. Spare thy people whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious bloud This is the bloud of the new Testament which is shed for you and for many for the Remission of sinne Grant that by the merits and death of thy Sonne Iesus Christ through faith in his bloud we and all thy whole Church may obtaine remission of our sinnes and all other benefits of his passion Now the Church the mysticall body of Christ is the blessed company of all faithfull and elect people and none else but they as the next prayer the Collect on good Fryday and the places quoted in the first Position prooue And whereas the Minister in distributing the Bread and wine saith particularly to euery man take this in remembrance that Christ dyed for thee drinke this in remembrance that Christs bloud was shed for thee it cannot imply that Christ dyed effectually for all men but the contrary that hee dyed only thus for the Elect and faithfull because our Church prohibites all such as want true faith and repentance or liue in any grosse and knowne sinnes to come to the Sacrament admitting none but true and faithfull penitents to it so that the Minister and our Church doe alwayes looke vpon all Communicants as the elect and chosen Saints of God endued with true faith and repentance and so they may well apply at leastwise in the iudgement of Charity the efficacy and merits of Christs death vnto them I will conclude this point with the passage of A Prayer necessary for all men Iesus Christ thy onely Sonne hath perfectly fulfilled thy Law to iustifie all men that beleeue and trust in him And thus much for our Common Prayer Booke Certaine Homilies appointed
particular sinnes are freely forgiuen him neither doeth it follow hereupon that that Petition of the Lords prayer to wit forgiue vs our Trespasses is needlesse for in that Petition we aske not onely the guist but also the increase of Faith Sixtly these words escaped me in my Sermon viz. As for those that are not saued I doe most strongly beleeue and doe freely protest that I am so perswaded against Caluin Peter Martyr and the rest that sinne is the true proper and first cause of Reprobation But now being better instructed I say that the Reprobation of the wicked is from Euerlasting and that that saying of Augustine to Simplician is most true viz. If sinne were the cause of Reprobation then no man should be elected because God doeth foreknow all men to bee deâ—iled with it And that I may speake freely I am of the samâ— mind and doe beleeue concerning the Doctrine of Election and Reprobation as the Church of England beleeueth and teacheth in the booke of the Articles of Faith in the Article of Predestination Last of all I vttered these words rashly against Caluin a man that hath very well deserued of the Church of God to wit that he durst presume to lift vp himselfe aboue the High and Almighty God By which words I confesse that I haue done great iniurie to that most learned and right godly man and I doe most humbly beseech you all to pardon this my rashnesse as also in that I haue vttered many bitter words against Peter Martyr Theodore Beza Ierome Zanchius Francis Iunius and the rest of the same Religion being the Lights and Ornaments of our Church calling them by the odious names of Caluinists and other slanderous termes branding them with a most grieuous marke of reproach whom because our Church doth worthyly reuerence it was not meet that I should take away their good name from them or any way impaire their credit or dâ—hort others of our Cuntrey-men from reading their most learned workes I am therefore very sorry and grieued for this most grieuous offence which I haue publikely giuen to this most famous Vniuersity which is the Temple of true Religion and sacred receptacle of Piety And I doe promise that by Gods helpe I will neuer hereafter offend in the like sort and I doe earnestly beseech you Right worshipfull and all others to whom I haue giuen this offence either in the former Articles or in any part of my said Sermon that you would of your courtesie pardon mee vpon this my repeâ—tance That the authoritie and consequence of this precedent Recantation may bee more fully manifested I will briefely relate both the occasion and the carriage of it One Maister Barret of Kayes Colledge Preaching a Concio ad Clerum in Saint Maries Church in Cambridge on the 29. day of Aprill 1595. made bold to vent these then Pelagian and Popish but now both Popish and Arminian Tenents which are here recanted which gaue such generall offence vnto all the Auditors that on the 5. of May next following about nine of the clocke in the fore-noone hee was conuented for the publishing of these Erronious Tenents and his reuiling of Caluin Beza Peter Martyr Luther Iunius Zanchius and others before all the Heads of the Vniuersitie of Cambridge to wit Master Doctor Some Doctor Duport Doctor Goade Doctor Tindall Doctor Whitaker Doctor Barwell Doctor Iegon Doctor Preston Maister Chaderton and Maister Clayton Thomas Smith the publique Notary of the Vniuersitie being there present who appointed him to appeare againe before them at three of the clocke in the afternoone at which time Dr. Duport being then Vicechanceller read openly certaine Articles containing the positions which Maister Barret had broached in his foresaid Sermon alleaging these his assertions to bee Erronious false and opposite to the Religion receiued and established in the Kingdome of England by publique and lawfull Authoritie to which Articles he required Maister Barret to giue an answere who confessed that he had published in his Sermon the-Positions comprised in the said Articles but with all denied them to be contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of England Whereupon the Vicechancellor and the forenamed heads entring into a mature deliberation and diligently weighing and examining these Positions because it did manifestly appeare that the said Positions Were false erronious and likewise manifestly repugnant to the Religion receiued and established in the Church of England adiudged and declared that the said Barret had incurred the penaltie of the 45. Statute of that Vniuersity De Concionibus and by vertue and tenor of that Statute they decreed and adiudged the said Barret to make a publike Recantation in such words and forme as should bee prescribed vnto him by the Vice-chancellor and the said Heads or any three or two of them or ese vpon his refusall to recant in this manner to be perpetually expelled both from his Colledge and the Vniuersitie binding him likewise in an assumpsit of forty pounds to appeare personally vpon two dayes warning before the said Vice-chancellor or his Deputy at what time and place they should require Afterwards this Barret was re-summoned before the Vice-chancellor Doctor Goade Dr Tindall Dr. Barwell and Doctor Preston his assistants who deliuered him this praecedent Recantation in writing admonishing and peremptorily enioyning him on Saturday following being the 10. of May immediatly after the Clerum ended to goe vp in person into the Pulpit of Saint Maries where hee had published these errors and there openly in the face of the Vniuersity to read and make this Recantation which he did accordingly Not long after this Palinodium Master Barret to shew that these positions are but a bridge to Popery departs the Vniuersitie and gets beyond Sea where he as Bertius and some other Arminians since haue done turnes a professed Papist After this he returned into England where he liues a Laymans life being still an open dangerous violent and most pernicious and seducing Papist as some men of credit in these very termes haue informed me who both know and will auerre him to be such a one This is the true Relation and carriage of this Recantation which I haue taken verbatim out of a Transcript of the Vniuersitie Register of Cambridge vnder the Registers owne hand wherein all the passages of it are entred and recorded for the benefit of posteritie For the recantation it selfe of which Thysius and others make some mention it was fairely Printed and Published in Queene Elizabeths dayes some Copies of it being yet extant in the very selfesame words and forme as here you see it And that none may suspect it to be forged or corrupted I haue a transcript of it in Latine taken out of an Originall Coppy vnder Master Barets owne hand which agrees verbatim with this English one onely in this they differ that our 17. Article is at large recited in the Latine Coppy in the ende of the 6. Section wheras as
The intire Church of England consists of three grand members The Church of Ireland the Church of Scotland and the Church of England the mother or mistres of the other two If then I can vncontroulable euidence that these three seuerall Churches did constantly heretofore and doe as yet vnanimously acknowledge defend and iustify these our Anti-Arminian Conclusions the victory triall and points in praesent issue must be yeelded to me For the Church of Ireland it s out of quaestion that she hath alwayes both in ancient and moderne ages concluded with vs. For in ancient times in the points of the immutabisity aeternity and freenesse of Gods Election the praedetermined number of Gods Elect the infallible certainety of their effectuall calling and saluation Reprobation Freewill and vniuersall grace we shall finde Saint Gallus Sedulius and Claudius three ancient Irish Fathers and with them the ancient Irish Church concurring fully with vs and with St. Augustine in these our orthodox positions as that Reuerend learned and incomparable Irishman Doctor Vsher Arch-Bishop of Ardmagh the honor of our Church and glory of his Nation hath euidently and largely proued in his Epistle of the Religion professed by the ancient Irish bound vp at the end of Sir Christopher Sybthorpes workes page 7. 8. 9. to which I will referre you What the moderne Doctrine of the Church of Ireland is the fore-recorded Articles of Ireland composed in the Conuocation at Dublin in the yeere 1615. which conclude in terminis for vs together with Bishop Vshers Answer to the Iesuits Challenge his now recited Epistle and Sir Christopher Sybthorpes Aduertisement cap. 7. 8. sufficiently euidence so that both the Primatiue and praesent Irish Church are wholy fully for vs point-blancke against our Opposites That the ancient and moderne Church of Scotland hath suffragated vnto our Conclusions it is vndeniablie euident by their vnanimous and generall Confession of the true Christian faith and religion subscribed by King Iames himselfe his houshold with sundry others at Edenborough the 28. of Ianuary in the yeere 1581. being the 14. yeere of his Maiesties raigne Articles Of Originall sinne Of Election of Faith in the holy Ghost Of the cause of good workes Of the Church of the immortality of the soule by M. Knox in his Answ. against the Aduersaries of Gods Praedestination by Master Rollocke Rector of the Vniuersitie of Edinburgh his Commentary on the Ephesians cap. 1. 2. 3. and 5. and on Psalme 51. By Master William Cowper Bishop of Galloway in Scotland once Minister of Perth in his Heauen opened on Rom. 8. v. â—9 28. to the end and in sundry other of his workes By Master Iohn Weenise his Portraiture of the Image of God in man cap. 16. of Freewill where all or most of these Arminian pointâ— are pithily discussed By Sharpius a learned Scot Professor of Diuinity now in Dyon Tractatus De Iustificatione cap. 5. and Syntagâ—â—a Theologiae who all concurre vnanimously with vs in these our praesent conclusions which they professedly and pertinaciously maintaine and iustify That the Primatiue Church of England hath suscribed to our praesent Assertions her ancient publicke opposition to Pelagianisme her Bede her Anselme her Bradwardine and Wickliffe testify in that they constantly adhaered to St. Augustines and so to our Assertions as the vndoubted truth oppugning these now Arminian then Pelagian Tenents as dangerous and grace-opposing errors as their places quoted in the margent and in part recited in my Perpetuity p. 257. 261. c. will more at large declare The ancient Church of England and these her famous writers were professed Anti-Pelagians therefore Anti-Arminians What this our Church hath beene of latter times the fore-recited euidences and Authors doe abundantly testify I need not here repeat it I will therefore onely adde some further euidences to proue our Anti-Arminian positions to be our Arminian noualties not to be the ancient receiued and vndoubted Doctrine of our Church My first of these more full and puctuall euidences is the ingeminated confession and reiterated protestation of of the Heades of the Vniuersity of Cambridge in a memorable Letter of theirs purposely written about the suppression of these new Arminian errors to their honoured Chancellor and subscribed with their seuerall hands March 8. 1595. which Letter I haue truely transcribed out of the originall Coppy remaining in the hands of Doct. G who can produce it if occasion serue in sorâ—e as followeth RIght Honourable our bounden dutie remembred Wee are right sorry to haue such occasion to trouble your Lordship but the peace of this Vniuersity and Church which is deare vnto vs being brought into perill by the late reuiuing of new oppinions and troublesome Controuersies amongst vs hath vrged vs in regard of the places we here sustaine not onely to be carefull for the suppressing the same to our powers but also to giue your Lordship further information hereof as our Honourable head and carefull Chancellor About a yeere past amongst diuers others who here attempted publikely to teach new and strange opinions in Religion one Master Barret more boldly then the rest did preach diuers Popish Errors in Saint Maries to the iust offence of many which he was inioyned to retract but hath refused so to doe in such sort as hath beene praescribed him with whose fact and opinions your Lordship was made acquainted by Doctor Some the deputis Vice-Chancellor Hereby offence and diuision growing as after by Doctor Baroes publike Lectures aâ—d doterminations in the Schooles contrary as his Auditors haue informed to Doctor Whitakers and the sound receiued truth euer since her Maiesties raigne Wee sent vp to London by Common consent in Nouember last Doctor Tyndall and Doctor Whitakers men especially chosen for that purpose for conference with my Lord of Canterbury and other principall Diuines there that the controuersies being examined and the truth by their consents confirmed the contrary Errors and the contentions thereabout might the rather cease By whose good trauell with sound consent in truth such aduice and care was taken by certaine propositions containing certaine substantiall points of Religion taught and receiued in this Vniuersity and Church during the time of her Maiesties raigne and consented vnto and published by the best approued Diuines both at home and abroade for the maintaining of the same truth and peace of the Church as thereby wee inioyâ—ed here great and comfortable quiet vntill Doctor Baroe in Ianuary last in his Sermon Ad Clerum in Saint Maries contrary to restraint and commandement from the Vice-Chancellor and the Heads by renewing againe these Opinions disturbed our peace whereby his Adhaerents and Disciples were and are much emboldened to maintaine false Doctrine to the corrupting disturbing of this Vniuersity and Church if it be not in time effectually praeuented For remedy hereof we haue with ioynt consent and care vpon complaint praeferred
Appeale pleadeth against the Articles of Lambheth and iustifieth the Doctrine of Barret Baro and Thomson auerring the same to be the Doctrine of the Church of England This he doth not by naming of those men whose names he knew would bring no honour to this cause but by laying downe and iustifying their doctrines and suggesting that they who maintained the doctrines contained in the Articles of Lambheth are Caluinists and Puritanes So that those Reuerend Arch-Bishops Whitgift and Hutton with the Bishops of our Church who then liued are in his iudgement to be reiected as Puritans The question is Whether of these two positions wee must now receiue for the doctrines of our Church that which Barret Baro and Thompson would haue brought in which doctrines were then refuted and reiected by our Church Or that doctrine which the Bishops of our Church maintained against these men which doctrine hath been since vpon diuers occasions approued If ther were no more to be said I dare put it to the Issue before any indifferent Iudges Thus far this reuereÌ„d Bp. whose testimony alone might sufficiently determine our present Controuersie The third witnesse is Doctor Samuel Ward in his Concio ad Clerum preached in St. Maries in Cambridge Ianuary 12. 1625. page 45. This also saith he I can truely adde for a conclusion that the Vniuersall Church hath alwayes adhaered to St. Augustine in these points speaking before of some Anti-Arminian conclusions all which are fully related in his Suffragium Brittanorum annexed to this Clerum euer since his time till now the Church of England also from the beginning of reformation and this our famous Academie with al those who from thence till now haue with vs enioyed the Diuinity Chaires if we except one forraigne French man to wit Peter Baro one I say who by the vigilancy of our Ancestors and the large authority of the most Reuerend Arch-Bishop Whitgist was compelled to renounce his chaire haue likewise constantly adhaered to him And if to him then certainly to vs as the 2. part of his 7. To me which makes wholy for vs will infallibly euidence By these three seuerall testimonies it is abundantly euident that our Diuinity Professors and first reformers of Religion in King Edward the 6. his dayes our Reuerend and learned orthodox Diuines that either suffered or escaped Martyrdome in Queene Maries dayes our Bishops Diuines and learned Cleargie who composed our Articles in Queene Elizabeths dayes our famous Vniuersities of Oxford and Cambridge with all their Diuinity Professors from the beginning of reformation to this present excepting Baro who was conuented and in a manner expelled for his erronious Tenents together with the whole Church of England from her first reformation to this instant haue constantly approued vnanimously embraced and resolutely maintained our Anti-Arminian conclusions as the vndoubted resolutions and Doctrines of our English Church and will any man now be so audaciously absurd as to call them into question whether they are the Doctrines of our Church or no Not to speake of Master Samuel Ward or Master Carpenter or M. Deubtie or other of our late vnrecited writers who condemne Arminianisme in the grosse not yet to mention any of the fore-quoted Authors my 4th Euidence to proue our Anti-Arminian Tenents the vndoubted Doctrines of our Church is the authorized translating and printing in our English dialect not only of St. Augustines cheife workes against the Pelagians but euen of Caluin Beza Zanchius Bucaniâ—â— Trelcatius Bastingius Vrsin Kimedoncius Piscator Fayus Olenian Iunius Reniger and Moulins workes against the Pseudo-Lutherans and Arminians who passe for orthodox and approued Authors in our Church whom some stile a Caluinist Certainely if the Doctrine of our English Church were various from these Authors Tenents they being the greatest Anti-Arminians this day exstant their names would neuer be so venerable their workes not so highly esteemed in our Church as to be thus englished authorized sold and printed here among vs as we know they are without controll Since then our Church hath thus indenized and adopted these forraigne Authors with their Anti-Arminian Writings since she thus claimes them for and rankes them with her owne her Doctrines questionlesse are the same with theirs and so wholy ours not our Arminian Opposites whom all these pointblancke oppugne You haue seene now pious Readers what plentifull numerous punctuall full and faire Euidences Records and witnesses of all sorts and ages our Anti-Arminian Tenents haue produced to vindicate and proue themselues the ancient established professed resolued and vndoubted Doctrines of the Church of England Let vs now examine on the other side what euidences what testimonies these Arminian Errors can rake vp together to intitle themselues vnto our Church First of all they haue none of the fore-quoted Articleâ— Homâ—lies Common prayer Booke Chatechismes Synâ—d or Recantation no publike record or monument of our reformed Church to iustify them Yea all these as our Church hath alwayes hitherto expounded them doe positiuely condemne them for insufferable and branded Errors Secondly there is neuer a Martyr neuer a Diuinity Professor in either of our Vniuersities Baro a spurious Frenchman excepted neuer an orthodox or approued English Writer that I know off from the beginning of Reformation to this instant that can giue in any euidence in one particular point much lesse in all points on their side being rightly vnderstood where as we haue produced a whole Century of Authors if not more against there The only Authors that they can produce and those but partiall maimed and obscure witnesses not intire or perspicuous are Peter Baro in Queene Elizabeths Thompson in King Iames and M. Mountague and Iackson in King Charles his raigne men branded and condemned in our Church The first of these being an exortique Frenchman was solemnely conuented and censured for his erronious Bookes and Tenents first at Lambeth by the composers of the Lambheth Articles and afterwards in the Vniuersity of Cambridge by all the heads of Houses vpon the complaint of diuers Batchellors of Diuinity vpon which heâ— was forced to forsake that Vniuersity and our Kingdome too This branded and illegall witnesse then being at the very best a forraigner doth only marre not helpe their cause The second was but an Anglo-Belgicus a dissolute ebrious and luxurious English-Dutchman his Booke was denyed Licens here as being contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of England and being printed at Leyden after his death for want of licens here it was presently refelled by a reuerend and learned Prelate of our Church Doctor Robert Abbot Bishop of Salisbury whose Booke now extant was imprinted by authority and dedicated to our royall Soueraigne then Prince of Wales If then the life or posthumus Booke of this second Witnesse be examined his testimony will but cast not further not aduance their right The third of these Witnesses who was lately rumored to disclaime his testimony and