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
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
by any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical power or authority hath heretofore beene or may lawfully be exercised or vsed for the visitation of the Ecclesiasticall State and persons and for reformation order and correction of the same and of all manner of Haeresies Errors Scismes and Ecclesiasticall Abuses Offences and Enormities much more haue they Iurisdiction of these things themselues else they could not collate or transferre such Iurisdiction vnto others Is it then because the worthy iudicious members of our present Parliament want learning iudgement or sufficiencie to discerne of Spirituall Truthes to vnderstand the sense and meaning of our Articles which themselues long since confirmed to distinguish Popish and Arminian Errors from receiued from vndoubted Orthodox conclusions or because they are so barbarously illiterate or irreligiously ignorant as not to know the obuious professed established and long continued Doctrines of our Church which euery catechized Country Peasant or Schoole-boy can repeate Alas what English Spanish Romish spirit can be so impudently absurd so prodigiously intoxicated as thus to idioâ—ize yea quite vnchristen the Piety and all-sufficiencie of our selected Senate the most iudicious and supreame Counsell of our King and State Can any man who knowes their most accomplished abilities their dexterity and insight in Religion so much as once conceiue such a grosse stupidity or more then damnable and vnchristian ignorance in this very flower of our Church and Pillars of our State as that the proper sence of our receiued Articles or the long-continued plaine and oft-resolued Doctrines of our Church are yet kept sealed from them What is this but to brand them all for ignorants or to stitch the Colliers or Papists blinde implicite faith vpon them to beleeue onely as our Church beleeues and yet to know no distinct particular Tenents which she doth beleeue What but to aduance our Ecclesiasticall Commissioners aboue our Parliament in admitting them to bee competent and able Iudges of Haeresie Scisme and of the sence and meaning of our Articles when as the Parliament which confirmed them are not such and to denie that priuiledge of iudging Doctrines trying spirits prouing all things distinguishing the voyce of Christ and of his Spirit from the voyce of Strangers Theeues and false seducing Spirits to the prime and choysest of Christs Flocke which is common to inseparable from the very meanest of his Lambes and Sheepe If then Parliaments haue alwayes anciently intermedled with matters of Religion by a constant iust and Legall right If there bee now no sufficient disability either in the Members Iurisdiction Skill or requisite Abilities of our present Parliament to censure or examine the Violations of our established Articles and Religion or to settle protect define declare and ratifie the proper sense and meaning of our Articles and the vndoubted Doctrines of our Church I see no cause why any Clergy men vnlesse they are guilty of Sophisticating or betraying the Truthes and Doctrines of our Church and therefore feare the doome of Parliaments from which there is no euasion should quarrell or except against your pious progresse in matters of Religion which most of all concerne vs nor yet repine at Laicks as they do for writing in their iust defence This stumbling-blocke of Parlimentary Iurisdiction in causes of Religion which stickes and takes with many being thus in briefe remoued and your present Honourable proceedings in the examination of the innouations and violations of the ancient Religion and the resolued Doctrines of our Church absolued from the vniust exceptions of ignorant obnoxious or ill-affected Spirits who only censure and dislike them It may be here demanded what Doctrines what Religion are now to be established Surely no other but those Ancient Orthodox and Dogmaticall Conclusions which the Church of England since her Reformation hath alwaies constantly embraced ratified and defended as her owne but those especially which Popery and Arminianisme haue of late inuaded Yea but how may Parliaments infallibly discerne what Tenents are our Churches genuine Doctrines when as both sides lay equall claime and title to our Church Arminians now appealing to Her aswell as their Opposers For resolution to this Quaere I shall first of all take two things as vndoubted Theories First that the Church of England hath some certaine positiue particular established receiued yea resolued Doctrines which shee may truely call her owne in which all necessary Truthes especially such wherein the very marrow efficacy life and power of grace and all true Christian comfort doe subsist are actually euidently and fully comprehended Else it will ineuitably follow that as yet shee hath no sound Religion in her and is as yet no true no Christian Church Secondly that all these seuerall Doctrines are not onely cognoscible in themselues but likewise publikly indiuidually and distinctly known in our Church else all our Articles Preaching writing and Disputes together with the bloud shedde of our famous Martyrs and all Apologies for our Religion from the beginning of reformation to this present are in vaine and wee haue yet no other but an indefinite confused Religion an ambiguous implicit Popish Faith which in truth is no Religion no Faith at all and so our danger is our condemnation shall be greater then euer Sodomes or Gomorrahs were who neuer had such meanes such light as we These two irrefragable Conclusions being thus praemised This Quaere may be thus resolued The onely infallible way to determine to finde out the ancient the vndoubted Doctrines of our Church is to compare them with the Rules of triall The originall Touch-stone by which all Theologicall Conclusions must bee examined is the Scriptures and these together with the Ancient Fathers and approued Councels wee dare to challenge as our owne if the naked truth of our Assertions were the thing in Issue But our present inquirie being of a different nature to discouer the true Ancient Doctrines of our Church and distinguish them from pestilent vpstart Errors wee must heere proceed by other Triers euen the Articles Homilies Common Prayer Booke the publike Euidences Records and Declarations with the concurrent Testimony of all the learned Writers of our Church the onely Grand-Iury-men to try the best Euidences the sole Witnesses to proue the most impartiall and able Iudges to determine the Doctrines of our Church That which all these doe ioyntly cleerely fully vote confirme approue and testifie a Parliament may safely declare and ratifie to bee that which they all or most disclaime a Parliament may iustly censure not to bee the vndoubted and resolued Doctrine of our Church If then all these giue vp their ioynt and seuerall suffrages for our Anti-Arminian Conclusions If they all passe Sentence against their opposite Arminian Errors as this present Treatise will vndenably prooue them to haue done you may confidently declare resolue re-establish the one as being exile yea damne the other as not being the Ancient receiued and vndoubted Doctrine of our English Church And why should you now
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
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
working in due season and through grace they obey the calling they be iustified freely they be made sonnes of God by adoption they be made like the image of his onely begotten Son Iesus Christ they walke religiously in good workes and at length by Gods mercy they attaine to euerlasting felicitie But such as are not predestinated to saluation shall finally be condemned for their sinnes 16 The godly consideration of Predestination and our election in Christ is full of sweete pleasant and vnspeakeable comfort to godly persons and such as feele in themselues the working of the spirit of Christ mortifying the workes of the flesh and their earthly members and drawing vp their mindes to high and heauenly things as well because it doth greatly confirme and establish their faith of eternall saluation to be enjoyed through Christ as because it doth feruently kindle their loue towards God and on the contrary side for curious and carnall persons lacking the spirit of Christ to haue continually before their eies the sentence of Gods predestination is very dangerous 22 By one man sinne entred into the world and death by sinne and so death went ouer all men for as much as all haue sinned 23 Originall sinne standeth not in the imitation of Adam as the Pelagians dreame but is the fault and corruption of the nature of euery person that naturally is ingendered and propagated from Adam whereby it commeth to passe that man is depriued of originall righteousnes and by nature is bent vnto sinne And therefore in euery person borne into the world it deserueth Gods wrath and damnation 25 The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turne and prepare himselfe by his owne naturall strength and good workes to faith and calling vpon God Wherefore we haue no power to doe good workes pleasing and acceptable vnto God without the grace of God preuenting vs that we may haue a good will and working with vs when we haue that good will 26 Workes done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of his spirit are not pleasing vnto God for as much as they spring not of faith in Iesus Christ neither doe they make men meete to receiue grace or as the Schoole Authors say deserue grace of congruitie yea rather for that they are not done in such sort as God hath willed and commanded them to be done we doubt not but they are sinfull 31 They are to bee condemned that presume to say that euery man shall bee saued by the Law or Sect which he professeth so that he bee diligent to frame his life according to that Law and the light of nature For holy Scripture doeth set out vnto vs onely the name of Iesus Christ whereby men must be saued 32 None can come vnto Christ vnlesse it bee giuen vnto him and vnlesse the Father draw him And all men are not so drawne by the Father that they may come vnto the Sonne Neither is there such a sufficient measure of Grace vouchsafed vnto euery man whereby he is enabled to come vnto euerlasting life 33 All Gods Elect are in their time inseperably vnited vnto Christ by the effect all and vitall influence of the holy Ghost deriued from him as from the head vnto euery true member of his mysticall body And being thus made one with Christ they are truely regenerated and made partalâ—ers of him and aâ— his benefits 37 By iustifying â—aith wee vnderstand not onely the common beliefe of the Articles of Christian Religion and a perswasion of the trueth of Gods word in generall but also a particular application of the gracious promises of the Gospell to the comfort of our owne Soules whereby we lay hold on Christ with all his benefits hauing an earnest trust and confidence in God that hee will be mercifull vnto vs for his onely Sonnes sake So that a true beleeuer may bee certaine by the assurance of faith of the forgiuenesse of his sinnes and of his euerlasting saluation by Christ. 38 A true liuely iustifying faith and the sanctifying spirit of God is not extinguished nor vanisheth away in the regenerate either finally or totally THE BOOKE OF Common Prayer IN this Booke of Common prayer established by Act of Parliament in our Church there are sundry passages to prooue these seuerall Anti-Arminian Positions First that God from eternity hath freely of his own accord chosen out of mankinde a certaine select number of men which can neither bee augmented nor diminished whom he doth effectually call saue and bring to glory so that none of them can perish or fall off from him and that these onely are the true Church This Conclusion wee shall see confirmed by these seuerall passages And make thy chosen people ioyfull Almighty GOD which hast knit together the Elect in one Communion and fellowship in the mysticall body of thy Sonne Iesus Christ our Lord grant vs grace so to follow thy holy Saints in all vertuous and godly liuing c. Thirdly in God the holy Ghost who sanctifieth me and all the Elect people of God Almighty God with whom do liue the spirits of them who depart hence in the Lord and in whom the soules of them that bee elected after they bee deliuered from the burthen of the flesh be in ioy and felicitie c. Wee beseech thee of thy gracious goodnesse shortly to accomplish the number of thine Elect c. O Almighty and mercifull Lord which giuest vnto thy Elect people the holy Ghost as a sure pledge of thy heauenly kingdome grant vnto vs this holy spirit that he may beare witnesse with our spirits that wee be thy children and heires of thy Kingdome and that by the operation of this spirit wee may kill all carnall lusts c. Honour and praise bee giuen vnto thee O Lord God almighty most deare Father of heauen for all thy mercies and louing kindnesse shewed vnto vs in that it hath pleased thee freely and of thine owne accord to elect and chuse vs to saluation before the beginning of the world c. Almighty God c. grant that all thy seruants which shall bee baptized in this Water may receiue the fulnesse of thy grace and euer remaine in the number of thy faithfull and elect children c. See the Collect on good Fryday on the first Sunday after the Epiphany and one the 2. 15. and 22. Sundaies after Trinitie to this purpose Secondly that there is no such free-will or vniuersall and sufficient grace giuen vnto all men by which they may conuert repent beleeue and be saued if they will and that it is Gods speciall preuenting grace which must change mens hearts and giue repentance faith and all other graces to them This Orthodoxe position which ouerturnes Free-will and vniuersall grace the very center and ground work of Arminianisme is aboundantly prooued by these ensuing Prayers