And the Protestant cause was not credited by him for he plaid such a prank as any ingenuous Heathen would have been ashamed of his Keeper shewing him more favour than he deserved he ran away from him and brought him into great danger Thus you may see sayes Careless the fruits of our Free-will-men that make so much boast of their own strength but that house which is not builded surely upon the unmoveable rock will not long stand against the boisterous winds and storms that blow so strongly in these dayes of Trouble This is the only Sufferer I know of that held conditional Election and surely his carriage was not so commendable that we should envy him unto our Adversaries But whereas the Doctor thinks that the strong confidence which Careless had of his own salvation and of the final perseverance of all those who are the chosen Members of Christ's Church was a thought of his own unto which the Doctrine of the Church gave no countenance It will appear that this was no singular opinion of his but a kindly derivation from the Article of Religion concerning Predestination unto Life and it seems to be that which he had learned from holy Bradford who in a Letter to Mistress M. H. under great heaviness and sorrow teacheth her That we should use all God's benefits to confirm our faith of this that God is our God and Father and to assure us that he loveth us as our Father in Christ and that God requireth this faith and fatherly perswasion of his fatherly goodness as his chiefest service Adding that no suggestion of Satan grounded upon our imperfection frailty and many evils should make us doubt of God's savour in Christ and that obedience giveth us not to be God's children but to be God's children giveth obedience And finally that as certain as God is Almighty as certain as God is merciful as certain as God is true as certain as Jesus Christ was crucified is risen and sitteth at the right hand of the Father as certain as this is God's Commandment I am the Lord thy God so certain she ought to be that God was her Father pag. 327 328. To another Gentlewoman page 330 thus he writes If he had not chosen you as most certainly he hath he would not have so called you he would never have justified you he would never have so exercised your faith with temptations as he hath done and doth if I say he had not chosen you If he have chosen you as doubtless Dear heart he hath in Christ for in you I have seen his earnest and before me and to me they could not deny it I know both where and when if I say he hath chosen you then neither can you nor ever shall perish And in the same Letter page 331 he sayes Your thankfulness and worthiness are fruits and effects of your Election they are no causes If once you had a hope in the Lord as you doubtless had it though now you feel it not yet shall you feel it again for the anger of the Lord lasteth but a moment his mercy endureth for ever In another Letter page 349 the same blessed Martyr sayes that One man which is regenerate well may be called alwayes just and alwayes sinful just in respect of God's seed and his regeneration sinful in respect of Satan's seed and his first birth Betwixt these two men there is continual conflict and war most deadly the flesh and old man by reason of his birth that is perfect doth often for a time prevail against the new man being but a child in comparison and that in such sort as not only other but even the Children of God themselves think they be nothing else but old and that the spirit and seed of God is lost and gone away where yet notwithstanding the truth is otherwise the spirit and seed of God appearing again and dispelling away the clouds which cover the Sun of God's seed from shining as the clouds in the air do the corporal Sun Many things to like purpose follow in that Letter by all which and by several Treatises in the printed Works of Mr. Bradford it sufficiently appears that he favoured the Doctrine of absolute Predestination And let any man judge whether he thought the term of a man's life to be moveable or no by some passages in his Examination page 286. As for my death my Lord there are twelve hours in the day as I know so with the Lord my time is appointed and when it shall be his good time then shall I depart hence but in the mean season I am safe enough though all the People had sworn my death Page 291 he desires them to proceed on in God's name he looked for that which God appointed them to do Upon which the Chancellor le ts fall these words This Fellow is in another Heresie of Fate and necessity as though all things were so tied together that of meer necessity all must come to pass What replies Bradford Things are not by fortune to God at any time though to man they seem so sometimes I speak but as the Apostle said Lord See how Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Prelates are gathered together against thy Christ to do that which thy hand and counsel hath before ordained for them to do Consider we next the judgement of Peter Martyr and Martin Bucer who though Foreigners had a great hand in the English Reformation As to Peter Martyr methinks there should be no question made of his judgment In his Commentary on the Romans and in his Common places he hath gone as high in the matter of God's decree as ever Calvin did But the Doctor tells us that Dr. H. Part 2. page 110. It s more than probable that Peter Martyr was not Peter Martyr whilst he lived in England Answ. If he would prove it but probable he must prove that it hath seemed so to all or to the most or to the wisest or to the most famous among those that are wise which I despair of ever seeing him prove so far am I from thinking that he will prove more than this The London Edition of his Common places is not now in many mens hands yet it is to be found in England and elsewhere and never did any one that was a possessor of it so much as adventure to affirm that in that Edition any thing was delivered concerning Predestination that was in the least contrary or seemingly contrary to what we find in the Editions more commonly used This answer the Doctor himself was somewhat diffident of and therefore did not give it until he had before made way by disparaging Peter Martyr as one Dr. H. pag. 109. Of whom there was little use made in advising and much less in directing any thing which concerned the Articles and who having no authority in Church or State could not be considered as a Master-builder Ans. Is the Doctor of the Chair of no authority in Church or State
Bez. in praef ad acta Coll. I hope he wronged the Lutheran Schools or else I must needs say they had strange Schools in which a man could never hear a Syllogistical Disputation In our Schools no Disputations are allowed but what are Syllogistical and the main work of the Moderator is to keep the Disputants to form And this was that which Tertullian so much commended ad lineas in gradum disputare that which St. Hierom so often called for in his Disputations against the Luciferians Rhetoricaris a disputationum spinctis ad câ—mpos liberae declamationis excurris verum define quaeso a communibus locis in gradum rursus ac lineas regredere postea si placuâ—rit latius disseremus And yet the Author of Gods love to man-kind makes this one of his reasons why he suspected the Doctrine of absolute Reprobation not to be true because the maintainers of it are so loth to have it examined But the Author before he died knew that the absolute decree did not fear tryal but was as generally entertained and as firmly held after it had endured the most severe tryals as before Buâ— if men will say We cannot endure to haave a Doctrine examined because we do not like that it should be mis-represented and then bespattered by those who had rather lose a good Conscience than a prophane Iest if we must be accouted Cowards because we tell Rabshakeh that we understand Latine and pray him not to talk to us in English in the ears of the People and answer him not a word when he hath done reviling we are content to be thought such Cowards But let those who so call us think what they would do if the Doctrine of the Trinity should be impugned They would answer him who soberly went about to shew that the Scriptures we produce do not prove a Trinity or that should go about by reason to shew that an increated infinite essence can no mâ—re be one and yet agree to three persons than the humane nature can But if any one should write such Books as Servetus did in which above an hundred times over the Trinity iâ— called â—â—iceps Cerberus diabolicum phantasma Geryonis monstrum illusio Satanae and the eternal generation is thus derided Debent dicere quod pater habeat uxorem quandam spiritualem vel quod solus ipse masculo-faeâ—â—neus aut Hermaphroditus simul sit pater mater c. and Si logos filius erat natâ—s ex patre sine matre dic mihi quomodo peperit cum per ventrem an per latus they would think it sufficient to say The Lord rebuke thee To conclude If any one who is a Scholar and will write like a Scholar will be at the pains to shew me that Arminianism in the five points is not contrary to the Doctrine of St. Austin the hammer of Pelagianism nor yet contrary to the Doctrine of our Church I shall either speedily reply or acknowledge my self his Prisoner Put if any one shall publish a Book against me stuffed only with impotent railings or malicious calumnies I shall punish him as I have done two or three already by not buying not reading his Book It will perhaps be said that the Papists against whom we should unite our forces will be too too much gratified by one Protestant 's writing against another Answ. I doubt not but the Factors for the Papacy do with much delight tell their Disciples how those that are not in Communion with them are divided among themselves But they should do well to make up their own breaches before they upbraid us witâ— ours He that being scandalised at the diversity of opinions among the Reformed shall betake himself to the Romanists will leap out of the frying-pan into the fire The Papists only agree in that in which they dare not publish how much they differ and they then let a Popes decision put an end to their disputes when they can neither say that the Pope was misinformed or that he was not in Cathedâ—a or know not how by some distinction to evade the determination that is they then let the Popes reconcile them when they have no mind to be any longer at variance They will not deny but that there is as much difference between their Dominicans and Franciscans their Jansenists and Molinists as there is betwixt Calvinists and Arminians and yet they say that their Church is one and not ours How is this to be unridled One A. D. about the beginning of King James his Reign put forth a Pamphlet which he called a Treatise of Faith near the later end of which he lets us understand that the Roman Church is alwayes one and uniform in Faith never varying or holding any dogmatical point contrary to that which in former times it did hold The learned men thereof though sometimes differing in opinion in matters not defined by the Church yet in matters of Faith all conspire in one And no marvel because they have a most convenient means to keep unity in profession of Faith sith they do acknowledge one chief Pastor appointed over them viz. the Successor of St. Peter to whose definitive censure in matters concerning Religion they wholly submit themselves The Gentlemans meaning if I can fathom it is that the Romanists are resolved to think their Church is at unity within it self For though the members thereof have 10000 differences among themselves yet those differences are not in matters of Faith because they are resolved as soon as the Church shall decide them never to differ more Well one would think that Protestants also might be at unity because they profess they will yield to Scripture determination whatever it be Nay that the Gentleman will nâ—t grant because as he had told us a little before divers men expound the Scriptures diversly As if the decisions of their Church were not expounded diversly by divers and were not as apt to be diversly expounded as the Scriptures And as if they were as much at an end after they had found out the meaning of a decision made by the Pope as we are when we have found out the meaning of the Scripture Convince a Protestant that any one place of Scripture must needs be so understood as to assert Consubstantiation he becomes a Synoâ—siast forthwith But when you have convinced a Papist that a decision of the Pope must needs be so interpreted as to cross his opinion yet he will not lay down his opinion but will say perhaps that the Pope did decide not as Pope but only as a Learned man or that it may be questioned whether he be a Pope or whether he be infallible out of a Councel or whether he was rightly informed of matter of fact Suppose a Jansenist should thus argue The Pope did not intend to condemn the Doctrine of Augustine therefore He did not intend to condemn the Doctrine of Jansenius A Molinist would be loth to deny the Antecedent and yet if he
not so accurate Dr. Heylin who almost in every period lieth at the Readers mercy should not have cavilled at it By the way let it be noted that how slightly soever our present Arminians do think or speak of Piscator yet Arminius himself either had honourable thoughts of him or else was a most notorious dissembler For writing to Utengobard concerning one to succeed Iunius then laâ—ely dead after mention of some other he saith Si Piscatoris aetas non obstet illum unum omnium commodissimum existimo quem etiam fo rs non admodum erit difficile a Comite Nassovio impetrare si Comes Mauritius D. Ordines intercedere non dedignabuntur Doctus est diligens est facilis planus perspicuus Nominis celebritatem sibi editis scriptis comparavit apud multos Hoc potissimum videtur hoc Academiae statu requiri ut succedat qui possit locum pro dignitate tueri unde tantus vir excessit quem posse publice innotuit The Letter beareth date 3. Cal. Nov. 1602 and is recorded Epistol Eccles. pag. 134. One Arrow more the Doctor hath to shoot at the absolute Decree and then his Quiver is quite emptied Dr. H. page 44. Finally it is alledged that this Doctrine of the Sublapsarians is contrary to the ends by God proposed in the Word and Sacraments to many of God's excellent gifts to the sons of men to all endeavours unto holiness and godly living and to those grounds of comfort by which a conscience in distress should be relieved Ans. All this is indeed alledged by Mr. Hoard but it is denied also by all the Sublapsarians and had the Doctor vouchsafed to bring Mr. Hoard's Reasons they should have had their Answer but where he counts it sufficient barely to affirm there I count it enough to deny But however I shall take notice of two Stories whereof the first is said to illustrate the second to evince The illustrating History in concerning Tiberius Caesar of whom Suetonius saith Circa Deos Religiones negligentior erat quippe addictus Mathematicae persuasionisque plenus omnia fato agi The evincing Story is the miserable example of the Landgrave of Turing related not by Heistibachius but Heisterbachius who being admonished of his vitious conversation and dangerous condition made his Friends this Answer Si praedestinatus nulla peccata poterint mihi Regnum Coelorum auferre si praescitus nulla opera mihi illud valebunt conferre A man would almost think that this prophane Land-grave was a piece of an Arminian because he opposeth praedestinatus praescitus whereas the Calvinists take Predestination in its latitude and make Election and Reprobation to be contained under it But however this I am sure of that a Monk in S. Austin's time being reproved by his Friends for his wickedness answered Whatsoever I am now I shall be such as God foreseeth I will be Shall we deny God's Prescience because a wretched Monk abused it No more must we deny Predestination because the Land-grave of Turing did turn it into wantonness and lasciviousness Had either Supralapsarian or Sublapsarian been present when the Land-grave uttered these words it would have been answered That though he were Predestinated yet should he never be saved if he continued in his sins and That though he were Reprobate yet he should not miss of Heaven if he continued by patience in well-doing to seek for it Salvation and Damnation are alway if we speak of the adult secundum bona mala opera Tiberius confuted himself for though he pretended a full perswasion of a Mathematical fate or destiny yet as the same Historian observeth he was out of measure afraid of Thunders and when the Air was cloudy he always did wear on his head a Crown of Laurel We may pity his ignorance in thinking that there was any virtue in the Laurel to keep him from Thunder but cannot choose but detest his Hypocrisie who in words maintained a Fate and yet endeavoured to secure his life by as many means as were used by them that held no Fate As much is their Hypocrisie to be abhorred who take occasion from the irreversibleness of God's Decrees to neglect their Souls and yet the irreversibleness of those Decrees notwithstanding mind their Bodies as much or more than any persons in the World besides To conclude Would it not exasperate I could instance in those who whilst they were prophane were Arminians to the full but left their Arminianism as they left their loosness their own experience in conversion convincing them that Faith was the gift of God in another way than the Arminians ever thought of He that questioneth this may be in part satisfied by reading the History of the Life and Death of the executed Irish Bishop published by Dr. Bernard To my grief I observe that there are multitudes of stupid and prophane wretches in the World With some of them I have occasion to converse and I find that one main thing which keepeth them in their carnality is a perswasion that there is an universal grace offered and tendered to all by which they may repent and believe when they will they therefore resolve they will enjoy the pleasures of sin a little longer and then they will receive and entertain the grace of God and so get to Heaven as sure as the strictest and earliest Puritans Yea this was the refuge and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of that grand Propagator of Arminianism Mr. Thomson If any one in a fit of intemperance minded him of the wrath of God threatned against such courses he would answer I am a Child of the Devil to day but I have Free-will and to morrow I will make my self a Child of God So I come to the fifth Chapter of the Historian in which we have some account given of the Remonstrants Unto whom it will be found that he hath discovered too much charity though he could find in his heart to shew none at all to the Contraremonstrants Dr. H. Pag. 47. His first Proposition is this That the Remonstrants Opinion though accused of Novelty is Ancienter than Calvinism in the Churches of the Belgick Provinces which being originally Dutch did first embrace Religion according to the Lutheran model though afterwards they suffered the Calvinian platform to prevail upon them Answ. A Proposition concerning which he hath reason to pray that it may meet with very easie and credulous Readers else he may well expect it will be queried 1. How it appears that the Lutheran and Calvinian model were then as to the points of Grace and the Decrees any way opposite 2. How it can be proved that on supposition the Lutheran and Calvinian platform were distinct the Belgick Churches did first embrace Religion according to the Lutheran and not the Calvinian platform To which second Question it will in no wise be a satisfactory Answer to reply That Hardingbergius Clemens Martini Henricus Antonides had opinions about Predestination differing from
I would have observed concerning Arminius 1. That in the set Conference betwixt him and Gomarus not long before his death he declared that he had never opposed the Doctrine of the certain Perseverance of Saints and that he would not then oppose it because such testimonies might be brought for it out of the Scriptures as he was not able to answer he would therefore only propound such places as made him somewhat to scruple and doubt about that matter 2. He would not then consent to have Adolphus Venator dismissed and to take another Pastor in his place though Venator was at that time as well for the impurity of his life as his Doctrine under the just censure of the Church If the Remonstrants count it any way for their honour to fight under such a Captain or Leader let them enjoy their phantasie Had not our first Reformers been endued with more courage and resolution Religion had never made that progress among us that now it hath I 'le never think any Opinion worth embracing whose Author either doubts of it or durst not suffer for it However glad I should be if they who follow or rather out-run Arminius in the five Points would be of the same mind with him as to the Pope of Rome of whom he thus writes in an Epistle to Sebastian Egbert bearing date Septemb. 24. 1608 Aperte profiteor me Pontificem Romanum pro membro corporis Christi non habere sed pro hoste pro perduelle pro sacrilego pro blasphemo pro tyranno violentissimo injustissimae in Ecclesiam dominationis usurpatore pro homine peccati pro filio perditionis pro exlege illo celeberrimo Well had it been for the Belgick Churches if Arminianism and Arminius had both died together but they did not Breaches as the Doctor truly notes pag. 49 grew wider and wider The Remonstrants having no hopes their cause should succeed if debated in a full and lawful Synod endeavour to shelter themselves under the wing of the Civil Magistrates whose favour that they might be the more sure to gain they ceased not upon all occasions to imbitter the Civil Powers against all the Pastors that were of a perswasion contrary to theirs speaking and Printing of them as if they were enemies to Magistracy and introduced an Ecclesiastical Power collateral and equal to the Civil an Artifice that Hereticks have alway used when they have been put to their shifts Not content thus to reproach their Brethren they further propound if there must needs be a Synod it might consist not of Persons delegated by the Churches but of certain nominated by the Magistrate Thinking that by this device they had put themselves out of all fear of Synodical censure they make an open Schism and present a Remonstrance to the States of Holland and West-Friesland in which they neither nakedly and plainly declared their own Opinions nor candidly represented the Tenents of their Adversaries Much they endeavoured that no Copy of this Remonstrance might be given out but at length a Copy was got and a Contraremonstrance made The Doctor tells us that Dr. H. Pag. 49 50. The Remonstrants gained exceedingly upon their Adversaries for the whole Controversie being reduced to these five Points the Method and Order of Predestination the Efficacy of Christ's Death the Operations of Grace both before and after Conversion and Perseverance in the same the Parties were admitted to a publick Conference at the Hague Anno 1611 in which the Remonstrants were conceived to have much the better of the day Answ. But if a man may be so bold Who were they that conceived the Remonstrants had much the better of the day The Remonstrants themselves Proprio laus sordet in ore The Contra-remonstrants They never so conceived but rather reported themselves Victors When were the Differences reduced to five Heads Not before the Hague Conference I am sure for the Deputies of the Churches charged the Followers of Arminius with Heterodoxies in more Points than the five now mentioned as appears by all the complaints exhibited against them And there fell out something which might justly give the World occasion to think that the Remonstrants were leavened with Socinianism as well as with Pelagianism For care being taken to chose one who might succeed Arminius in his Professors place the Remonstrants thought none so meet as Vorstius a man strongly suspected to be a great favourer of Socinus and who had then newly Printed a Book in the which he ascribed unto God Quantity Composition Mutability Passive Power and such other imperfections as are altogether repugnant to his perfect Essence yet at the Conference the Remonstrants professed unanimously that they had found nothing in the Writings of Vorstius contrary either to Truth or Piety At the Conference also the Contra-remonstrants urged that there were more things controverted betwixt them and the Remonstrants than were contained in the five Articles I shall make a few Annotations on the five Articles of the Remonstrants 1. That Almighty God ordained to save all those in Christ for Christ through Christ who being faln and under the command of sin by the assistance of the Holy Ghost do persâ—vere in Faith and Obedience to the very end This Article is such as no Christian would deny yet the Remonstrants do lay down such Assertions as do by most necessary consequence quite overthrow this Decree For Poppius a man of note and renown among them seems much to doubt Whether a late though never so serious Repentance do avail a man to Salvation Nay he expresly affirms in praxi Consolationis aegrotantium that he is destitute of any Promise so universal as that by it any one who dies with but a death-bed serious Repentance can be assured that he shall go to Heaven and that it is uncertain whether such late serious Penitents go with the Thief into Paradise or with those that die in their Sins to Hell Nor is this the singular opinion of Poppius I can shew the same in Episcopius not to mention some of our own here in England The Sublapsarians make the object of Reprobation man fallen into Sin the Remonstrants say that man recovered out of Sin by true Repentance may be the object of Reprobation and Damnation How easily might I if I took pleasure in recriminations tell them of ascribing Tyranny Hypocrisie Respect of Persons unto God But I only desire my Reader to consider whether the Remonstrant do not Preach another Gospel than what hath been hitherto taught in the Churches of Christ Nothing was thought more undoubted than that he who believes shall be saved The Remonstrant saith this is not necessarily true and that thousands and millions of true Believers may go to Hell How will such as these deal with an Unbeliever that is but twenty years old Will they perswade him to believe in Christ He will ask them what encouragement they can give him to believe Will they reply Salvation is promised to Believers in Christ He
turn I shall conclude what relates to Bishop Ridley with those words of his farewel pag. 506 Acts and Monum The Church had holy and wholesom Homilies c. It had in matters of controversie Articles so penned and framed after the holy Scripture and grounded upon the true understanding of God's word that in short time if they had been universally received they should have been able to have set in Christ's Church much concord and unity in Christ's true Religion and to have expelled many false Errors and Heresies wherewith this Church alas was almost overgone He here approves all the Articles and therefore the three before-mentioned as agreeable to God's Word As to Cranmer we have him not only owning all the Doctrine and Religion set out by King Edward but also offering if Peter Martyr might be joyned to him with four or five more to maintain that it was more pure and according to God's Word than any that had been used in England for an hundred years This had been a most foolish challenge indeed if he had not known full well that Peter Martyr and he jumped in their judgements about all the Articles and particularly that of Predestination With Heterodoxy in which he might well expect to be charged for Iames Lambert had been apposed in that point in King Henry the Eighths Reign and our Martyrs in Queen Mary's time were frequently twitted with fatality making God the Author of Sin destroying Free-will and what not The next Martyr I shall instance in is Mr. Philpot to whom Mr. Bradford refers his Friend for satisfaction in the matter of Election What he did write about Election I do not find but I find enough to make me confident that if he had written any thing about it he would have shewed himself sufficiently Calvinistical For in his fifth Examination he took occasion to ask his Popish Adversaries Which of them all was able to Answer Calvin 's Institutions which is Minister of Geneva To which Dr. Saverson replies with lye and all A godly Minister indeed of receipt of Cut-purses and Runnagate Traytors And of late I can tell you there is such contention fallen between him and his own Sects that he was feign to flee the Town about Predestination I tell you truth â—or I came by Geneva hither At which calumny Philpot â—s zeal was stirred as appears by his words I am sure you blaspheme that godly man and that godly Church where he is Minister As it is your Churches condition when you cannot answer men by learning to oppress them with blasphemies and false reports for in the matter of Predestination he is in none other opinion than all the Doctors of the Church be agreeing to the Scriptures If this be not full and home what is The profound Disputant and blessed Martyr answering for his life avows Mr. Calvin's Doctrine of Predestination to be agreeable to the ancient Doctors and Scriptures And how could a Doctrine be more amply commended His Friend Mr. Bradford will say as much for the Doctrine it self though not taking notice of Mr. Calvin as delivering it in his Institutions There is a Letter of his concerning Election to two of his Friends N. S. R. C. recorded Acts and Monuments 352. Who the persons were notified by these four letters N. S. R. C. I have no certainty but suppose that N. S. was one Skelthrop who held conditional Election and Free-will but by the pains Mr. Bradford and others took with him was reclaimed After this Epistle of Mr. Bradford's Mr. Fox adds some Notes appertaining to the matter of Election which Notes do not in the least contradict any one tittle in Mr. Bradford but more largely explain what he touched but briefly But Dr. Heylin saith Dr. H. page 42. Fox his Notes corrupt the Text and that Bradford's Notion of Predestination is plainly cross to that of the Calvinistical Party Let us see whether there be any such crossness or no. Bradford saith he believeth that Faith is the work and gift of God given to none other than the Children of God Who are they Those whom God the Father before the beginning of the World hath Predestinated in Christ unto Eternal life Answ. Is this Election cross to that of the Calvinists Do not they say against the Arminians that Faith flows from Election as a fruit of it and that it is commensurate with Election so as none believe but those who are elected It not this the very offensive Notion of Election against which the Remonstrants make such outcries The Letter further adds that though the Election be first in God yet to us it is last opened But the Doctors Election is last in God as well as last opened to us Let the Martyr proceed in his Letter By the light of the Spirit a man may see this Faith not given to all men but to such as are born of God predestinate before the World was made after the purpose and good will of God which will we may not call into disputation but in trembling and fear submit our selves to it as to that which can will none otherwise than that which is holy right and good how far soever otherwise it may seem to the judgement of reason which must needs be beaten down to be more careful for God's glory than man's salvation which dependeth only thereon as all God's Children full well see Lo here he speaks of a Predestination in which there is an unsearchable depth of an Election about which if reason not assisted by revelation should pass judgement there would seem to be in it something of injustice Whereas the Arminian Election making God to predestinate men to life upon the foresight that they would believe and to pass by others upon a foresight they would not believe hath nothing of a depth in it but is as easily accounted for as any other act of God's providence whatsoever I said before that I conceived one of those unto whom this Letter is directed was by it rectified in his judgement touching Election and the use of Free-will which he had made a condition of that Election at least I am sure one Skelthrop was made to see the light in this particular Mr. Bradford takes notice of the change wrought in him and praises God for it in a Letter to Careless page 336. Not doubting but that he would be so heedy in his conversation that his old Acquaintance may ever thereby think themselves astray In the same Letter he salutes in Christ True and his Followers hoping that God had his time for them also Now this True was a man differing from Careless in the point of Election as doth most manifestly appear by the Examination of Careless related by the Doctor page 15 16 Part 3. He thought as the Popish Clergie did that we be elect in respect of our good works But Mr. Bradford hoped he would come off from that opinion But I think he did not but still continued to sacrifice to Free-will
he phrasifieth Dr. H. Part 3. Pag. 2. There were some men who in the beginning of King Edward 's Reign busily stickled in the maintenance of Calvin 's Doctrines and thinking themselves to be more Evangelical than the rest of their Brethren they either took unto themselves or had given by others the name of Gospellers Of this they were informed by the Reverend Prelate and right godly Martyr Bishop Hooper in the Preface to his Exposition of the ten Commandments Our Gospellers saith he he better learned than the Holy Ghost for they wickedly attribute the cause of punishments and adversities to God's providence which is the cause of no ill as he himself can do no evil and over every mischief that is done they say it is God's will In which we have the men and their Doctrine how the name of Gospellers and the reason why that name was ascribed to them It is observed by the judicious Author of Europae Speculum that Calvin was the first of these latter times who searched into the Counsels the eternal Counsels of God Almighty And as it seems he found there some other Gospel than that which had been written by the four Evangelists from whence his Followers had the name of Gospellers for by that name I find them called frequently by Campneys also in an Epistolary discourse c. And finding it given them also by Bishop Hooper a temperate modest man I must needs look on it as the name of the Sect by which they were distinguished from other men Answ. All this I have at large transcribed because I have sundry observations to make thereupon First I observe that in all probability the Doctor never read Hooper but trusted to other mens eyes for he quoteth that as from the Preface of Mr. Hooper which is not to be found in the Preface but rather in his Postscript or Appendix to his Declaration of the ten holy Commandments or his Answer to certain Objections that keep men from the obedience of God's Law the fourth of which is Curiosity Nor is this the first time that he hath suffered himself and his Reader to be abused Secondly I observe that he attributes â—hese words to the Reverend Prelate and right godly Martyr Bishop Hooper whereas Hooper when he did write these words was no Prelate but only a licenced if licenced Predicant But I am glad however to find Dr. Heylin speak of honourably of the Ring-leader of the Non-conformists It seems when he is pleased he can allow one that scrupled the Habit and expresly condemned the Civil Offices of Bishops to be reverend and right godly and temperate and modest Thirdly I observe that he chargeth Mr. Calvin from the Author of Europae Speculum to be the first in these latter times that searched into the Counsels the eternal Counsels of Almighty God That the Author of Europae Speculum hath any such observation I am not sure If he have it no way contributed to procure him that esteem with which the World reads his Book for as all eternal Counsels are the Counsels of Almighty God so all the Counsels of God Almighty are eternal And to say that Calvin was the first who in this latter age searched into the Counsels of Almighty God is in effect to say that none of this latter age before Calvin regarded God's glory or mans salvation I suppose instead of eternal Counsels the Doctor intended to say hidden unrevealed Counsels But the assertion of absolute Election and Reprobation is no searching into the secrets of God Almighty or if it be Mr. Calvin cannot by any one that hath the least skill in History be thought to be the first that searched into God's secret Counsels seeing both Luther and Zuinglius had done it before him Fourthly I observe the unrighteous censure or calumny of the Doctor that Calvin by searching into God's Decrees had found out another Gospel than that which had been written by the four Evangelists from whence his Followers in these Points had the name of Gospellers Neither Calvin nor Calvinists ever found out any other Gospel than this He that believeth shall be saved he that believeth not shall be damned Nor was the name of Gospellers given to Mr. Calvin's Followers on the account of their bringing in a new Gospel or on any other account but it was the general name by which all that joyned in opposing Popery called themselves Let any one but consult the word Gospellers in the Index of Mr. Fox's Martyrology and compare the places there referred unto he shall find Papists and Gospellers still opposed Gospellers used not as a name of ignoming but as a name of honour Let him also read Bishop Ridley's Letter to his Chaplain he shall find the same word used and contradistinguished to Papists Likewise in Latine no more usual distinction than Pontificii and Evangelici So that the Historian in making the Calvinists the only Gospellers makes them indeed the only Protestants Finally I observe that the words quoted from Bishop Hooper are inexcusable if they be not qualified with some distinction The Scripture doth not oftner ascribe unto God the Creation of the World than it doth ascribe unto his Providence all the Punishments and Adversities that befal either good or bad men yet it must be granted that God does not willingly afflict the sons of men and therefore never punishes them but when he finds something in them which deserves the punishment so that they may thank themselves for all the evil they suffer from God The Doctor 's next design is to vindicate one Campneys a Fellow that was made to bear a Faggot at Paul's Cross in King Edward's time the learned and pious Miles Coverdale preaching a Sermon when that punishment was inflicted on him This man it seems having either complied in Queen Mary's time or saved himself alive by flight when Q Elizabeth had restored the true Religion began to play his old pranks i. e. to cause disturbance by nibbling at such who were deservedly honoured and preferred in the Church publishing a Pamphlet but unto which he had not courage enough to affix his name against Predestination This Pamphlet was encountred by Mr. Iohn Veron a Chaplain to the Queen and Reader of the Divinity Lecture in S. Paul's Church as also by Mr. Robert Crowley sometime Fellow of Magdalen Colledge in Oxon at that time a famous Preacher in the City of London Both these put out Answers unto Campneys and their Answers were both licenced and approved and Veron's Dedicated to the Queen her self whereas Campney's virulent Pamphlet came forth surreptitiously neither Author nor Printer daring to put their names to it All this notwithstanding the Doctor would have us believe that Campneys defended the Doctrine of the Church Veron and Crowley opposed it as if the Church had so soon lost all her zeal for her Religion and would give no countenance at all to those that contended for it yet would vouchsafe to authorize the writings
of those that vigorously fought against it We need not say that Campneys deserved all the ill names that Veron and Crowley bestowed on him perhaps their zeal might be in some particulars too bitter yet we cannot think that men of so great repute and learning would charge Pelagianism and Popery upon one that had honestly declared himself against both Popery and Pelagianism The Doctor tells us that Campneys hath sufficiently purged himself of both these crimes And indeed by reading his Book I find that he hath declared himself against Merit but so hath many a professed Papist done He doth also muster up the errors of Pelagius publickly recanted by him in the Synod of Palestine declaring them or at least one of them to be vile and abominable This notwithstanding it is possible he might be a very Pelagian Austin himself doth not speak more sharply against Pelagius than do the Ring-leaders of the Semipelagians and yet they erre as bad an errour as the Pelagians do But of all these matters let indifferent Readers judge by comparing Campneys Book with the Answers made to it More I need not say about the sixteenth Chapter had it not pleased the Historian to defame Calvin Beza and Knox. Calvin and Bâ—za he charges with unworthy practices used against Sebastian Castalio a man he says of no less learning but of far more modesty and moderation than either of them yet they never left persecuting and reviling him till they had first cast him out of Geneva and afterwards brought him to his grave meerly because he differed from them about Predestination Calvin and Beza's learning modesty and moderation are sufficiently vindicated by others Castalio discovered little either of modesty or moderation in his bitter censures of the Book of Canticles or in the help and assistance he afforded unto the cursed Socinians Beza and Calvin are not the only persons that have condemned him nor did they condemn him meerly or principally for differing from them in the point of Predestination as the Doctor might have known if he had rather consulted the impartial Historians of that time than Castalio's own writings For Mr. Knox styled pag. 5 The great Incendiary of the Nation and Kirk of Scotland I will not undertake an Apology His own Country-men who were better acquainted with his principles and practices may better do it Yet because I find him to have taken great pains in promoting our Reformation here in England I shall adventure to mind the Doctor that Spotswood purposely employed by our King to write the History of the Kirk of Scotland and having also by the King liberty given him to write truâ—h impartially doth make very honourable mention of Mr. Knox. And our own Bishop Ridley joyns him with Latimer Leaver Bradford and commends them all for their sharp reproof of all sins and sinners in King Edward's days Dr. H. Part 3. pag. 18. No sooner had that gracious Lady Queen Elizabeth attained the Crown than she took order for the reviewing of the publick Liturgy appoiâ—ting for the review Dr. Parker Drâ— Gâ—indaâ— Dr. Pilkington Dr. Cox Dr. May Dr. Bill Mr. Whitehead Sir Thomas Smith Answ. 'T is true such a revision was appointed and performed by the men here mentioned I intend not a character of them they have their characters already given them by abler Pens but so principled they were that if any thing had been left in the Liturgy favouring conditional Eâ—lection or the Apostasie of Saints it had not failed to be blotted out The Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth are mentioned by the Doctor pag. 19 in which he observes that Erasmus his Paraphrases were appointed to be provided for every Church Injunct 6. and Injunct 16 that every Parson Vicar Curate Stipendiary Priest he omits under the degree of a Master of Arts should provide and have of his own the New Testament in Latine and English with the Paraphrases the Injunction saith only with Paraphrases The conclusion he hence infers hath been before considered I must take notice that the 51. Injunction straitly chargeth and commandeth that no manner of person shall Print any manner of Book or Paper of what sort nature or in what Language soever it be except the same be first licenced by her Majesty by express words in writing or by six of her Privy Conncel or be perused and licenced by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York the Bishop of London the Chancellors of both Universities the Bishop being Ordinary and the Archdeacon also of the place where any such shall be Printed or by two of them whereof the Ordinary of the place shall always be one and that the names of such as shall allow the same be added to the end of every such work for a testimony of the allowance thereof From this Injunction I infer that Campneys had no respect at all unto the Queens Order or else he would not have published his Papers without Authority I also infer secondly that neither Queen nor Councel nor Archbishops nor Bishops were of Campneys mind because else he would have prevailed with some of them to authorize his Book that it might have been more passable And now if the Doctor have got any thing by these Injunctions much good may it do him Dr. H. Pag. 20. Here he gives us a very merry conceit that the Zuinglâ—ans being increased exceedingly both in power and numbers and notice being taken thereof by those that were of most Authority in the government of the Church it was thought necessary that the Articles of Religion published 1552 should be reviewed accommodated to the use of the Church and made to be the standing Rule by which all persons were to regulate and confirm their Doctrines Answ. He would have extreamly obliged us had he but vouchsafed to name any one person intrusted in the government of the Church at that time who was in the least offended with the Zuinglian Doctrine We have Records from which it may appear who were Anno 1562 Archbishops and Bishops amongst them all it will be hard to find any one that was not a cordial Friend unto the Doctrine of Zuinglius and Calvin some of them are blamed for agreeing too well with them in matter of Discipline and Ceremony also the names of almost all may be found in Mr. Fuller Book 9. p. 69. But the Historian would have done no less than wonders if he had informed us how the passing of the Articles in Queen Elizabeth's first Convocation could be a probable means to suppress the growth of the Zuinglian Doctrine Certain I am that if they were designed for any such use they had no prosperous success but were in the days of Queen Elizabeth and King Iames made use of to suppress the Antizuinglian Doctrine Indeed the seventeenth Article plainly lays down such a Predestination as the Anticalvinistical ear cannot hear and the Homilies so much commended in the Articles have a little too much Calvinism in them for they place Faith in such a
that the Historian himself confesseth that by means of him and Dr. Whitaker the University had been quite over-run with Calvinism had not Dr. Baro a French-man born set himself to pluck up what the other two had planted and watered Of this Dr. Baro we shall hear the Historian tell us a fine tale Scilicet liberanda veritas expectabat liberatorem Petrum Baro the English Kingdom of Heaven had fallen had it not been for this Atlas that bare it up with his shoulders Let us see what the man was and what he held that we may know how much we owe unto him which yet we cannot well do till we have taken in our way the story of one Barret This Barret in a Sermon ad Clerum April 29. 1595 had vented sundry Anticalvinistical Points for which he was convented May 5. before the Heads of Houses and charged to have preached Doctrines erroneous and false and contrary to the Religion received and established by publick Authority in the Realm of England He confessed the Doctrines charged upon him but denied them to be any way repugnant to the Doctrine of the Church of England Whereupon the Vice-Chancellor and forenamed Heads entring into mature deliberation and diligently weighing and examining these Positions because it did manifestly appear that the said Positions were false erroneous and likewise repugnant to the Religion received and established in the Church of England adjudged and declared that the said Barret had incurred the penalty of the 45th Statute of the University de Concionibus and by virtue and tenour of that Statute they decreed and adjudged the said Barret to make a publick Recantation in such words and form as by the Vice-Chancellor and the said Heads or any three or two of them should be prescribed unto him or else upon his refusal to recant to be perpetually expelled both from his Colledge and the University What the form of Recantation was may be seen in Mr. Prin such it was as gave sufficient honour unto Calvin Peter Martyr and the Doctrines Preached and Printed by them Lo here we have those that were alwaies entrusted with power to judge of and to condemn false Doctrine condemning the Anti-Calvinistical opinions as false and contrary to the Articles of Religion established in England And when such an Authority has laid a Recantation upon Mr Barret how will Dr. H. get it off Why First He doubts whether any Recantation were enjoyned in so many words as are extant in Mr. Prin. This is an irrational doubt seeing Mr. Prin had the transcript under the University Register's own hand Secondly He denies it as a thing most false that ever Barret published any Recantation whatsoever it was And yet Mr. Prin tells him that he had a transcript taken out of an Original copy under Mr. Barrets own hand and tells us as also does Mr. Fuller what words he used after he had read the Recantation and words they are from which it might be infer'd that he was not heartily sorry for the errors delivered by him nor really changed in his judgment But doth it not appear by a Letter of the Heads of Houses dated March 8 that Mr. Barret had never made any such Recantation I answer It doth not appear for the Heads of Houses say not that he had never read the Recantation but that he had refused to do it in such sort as was prescribed which might make those who were in Authority in the University both to mind him of his duty and also to complain of him unto their Chancellour for not doing his duty Yet if it will do the Doctor a kindness let him enjoy his fancy that Mr. Barret Recanted not for to be sure he did not credit his Recantation returning to Arminianism and also to Popery unto which the Heads of Houses say Arminianism had been by sundry made a Bridge However here is the judgment of the Heads of Houses in Cambridge solemnly declared that he who strikes at Mr. Calvin in these points strikes at the Church of England also Yea sayes the Dr but it will not hence follow that Barrets Doctrines were repugnant to the Church of England because these Heads judged them so for if so we may conclude by the same Argument that the Church of Rome was in Light in the Darkest times of ignorance and superstition because all that publickly opposed her Doctrine were enjoyned Recantation Which evasion is so lamentable that he had much better have used none for we do not from the injoyning of the Recantation inferr the falsity of the Doctrines to be recanted but only their dissonance unto the Religion established and certainly the Church of Rome when it was at the worst did never injoyn Recantation of any Doctrine which was not contrary unto her present sentiments And so I leave Mr. Barret and his opinions under the blot justly dropped upon them by the University only taking notice that Barrets peremptoriness might occasion Baro to deliver his mind more plainly and publickly than before he had done which occasioned the University to send up Dr. Whitaker and Dr. Tindal unto Arch-Bishop Whitgift hoping that he who had been so zealous against Cartwright in a point of Discipline would be found to have some zeal against Baro in matter of Doctrine nor did their hopes fail them for he forthwith called to him sundry right worthy and Reverend Divines and drew up those Articles commonly called the Lambeth-Articles agreed upon November the 10th 1595. nine they are in number and were approved by the Arch-Bishop of York as well as by his Grace of Canterbury So that here are the two Metropolitans men no doubt considerable for Learning as well as for Authority for both of them had been Lady Margaret's and King's Professors in the University Now I ask Did these know the Doctrine of the Church or did they not If they did not how durst they call men to subscribe what they knew not If they did then either Calvinism in this matter is the Doctrine of the Church or else the two Primates commended to the University a Doctrine against their own Light and conscience And it is worth observation that the Bishop of York in his Letter to his Brother of Canterbury does give him to understand that his opinion he sent him concerning Election and Reprobation was but that in which they had both agreed while they professed and taught Divinity in the Schools Nor can it be said that Whitgift received his opinion from beyond the Seas where he never was having such favour shewed him by Doctor Perne that he never needed to leave the Kingdom More probable it is that he suckt in these opinions from his Tutor Mr. Bradford and from Bishop Ridley Master of Pembroke Hall whilst he was a fresh-man By whom also he was so principled against the tyranny and Detestable enormities of the Pope that at the time of his commencing Dr. in Divinity he gave this Thesis to be disputed on Papa
est Antichristus Wherefore let not the Historian spend time to prove that those Articles do not bind the Church as those did that solemnly passed in the Convocations for I ascribe no such Authority to them only urge them as Declarations of the Articles of our Religion just as I would urge the judgment of the two Lord Chief Iustices calling in to their assistance others learned in the Law for the expounding of a Statute 't is not impossible they should be mistaken in their exposition but it would be strongly presumed by all modest men that they were not mistaken And so I could let go these Articles had it not pleased the Historian to tell us of a mighty offence taken at them by the Lord Burleigh and a resolution of having all that acted in them attainted of a praemunire from the danger of which the Arch-Bishop could not get release until he had promised speedily to recall and suppress those Articles All which we have laid down page 81 82 as things affirmed by Mr. Mountague from the Remonstrants in an Answer of theirs published 1618. But where did these Remonstrants hear this story Why possibly they might have it from the mouth of Baro or some other Cambridge men Will any man believe so great things upon so slender proofs as the possibility of the Remonstrants hearing them from the mouth of some Cantabridgian when they do not so much as pretend to have heard any such thing from any member of our Church nor doth any one ever since offer to tell us when and where the Arch-Bishop was forced to make any such submission The Heads of Houses in their Letter to the Lord Burleigh own the sending up of Dr. Tindal and Dr. Whitaker to conferr with the Lord of Canterbury and write of the great and comfortable quiet that by the coming down of the Articles was brought unto the University until that Baro in January following contrary to restraint and commandment gave some new disturbance In the same Letter also subscribed with their names and bearing date March 8. 1595 they resolutely tell the same Lord that Baro had determined preached printed diverse points of Doctrine not only contrary to himself but also contrary to that which had been taught and received ever since her Majesty's reign and agreeable to the errours of Popery Wherefore they pray his Lordship to vouchsafe his good ayd and advise to the comfort of themselves and all others of the University truly affected and to the suppression in time of those errours and even of gross Popery like by such means to creep in among them And upon this Letter or something else Baro left his place in the University because he could not keep it say Dr. Ward Mr. Fuller and all other Cantabridgians that ever I read but this Oxford Historian who can easily affirm any thing that he much desires tells us he left his place neither because he was deprived nor because he had any fear of being deprived but meerly because he had no mind to keep it any longer Nay he sticks not to affirm that in case it had pleased him to continue any longer Lecturer it is probable he might have carried the Lecture from any other Candidate or Competitour of what rate soever But by what mediums did he bring himself to this probable perswasion or whence did he collect that Baro had so great a number of adherents Only from Dr. Overals being chosen to succeed Dr. Whitaker But if they were the Anti-calvinists that carried it for Overal why did they not rather carry it for Baro himself seeing they had such fair presidents of preferring those who are Lady Margarets Professors to be King's Professors Hutton had been so preferred so had Whitgift so had Chaderton Or if Baro's interest were so great how came he to use so little care and Conscience as not to provide a Successor of his own mind Did he think his opinions were not worth the knowing If he did not why did he trouble the world with them If he did why would he so tamely yield to the chusing of Doctor Playfer than whom there was not a man in all the University more opposite to him The truth is Doctor Overal had not then declared himself to differ from Calvin and therefore was by the University employed to convince Barret and afterwards when he delivered such things as some Calvinists condemned him for yet he never deliver'd his mind so as to deny personal election or the certain perseverance of all the elect Something more of his mind we shall hear hereafter in the Hampton-Court Conference In the mean time I must mind the Doctor of a certain Catechism consisting of Questions and Answers touching the Doctrine of Predestination bound up with our English Bibles printed by Robert Barker Anno 1607. but not then first bound up with our Bibles as the Doctor seems willing to think pag. 101 102. The Questions and Answers are to be found in the Church Bibles commonly called the Bishops Bibles printed by Christopher Barker I my self have seen Bibles printed twenty years before the coming in of King Iames in which they were and for ought I know they were as old as any Translation of the Bible used in Queen Elizabetbs time He asks by what authority those Questions and Answers were put in betwixt the Old and New Testament and so I remember he somewhere asks by what Authority the Metrical Translation of the Psalmes was allowed to be Sung in Churches I am not able to give him a satisfactory answer either to the one or the other question no more than he is able to answer me who made our second Book of Homilies Yet he thinks I suppose that those who made that Book were Authorized to make it and so I think that those who first bound up those Questions and Answers and Singing Psalmes with our Bibles had Order and Authority so to do All this while Cambridge hath took us up We must now look into the other University in which we are told that all things were calm and quiet no publick opposition shewing it sâ—lf in the Schools or Pulpits The reason of this quiet is guessed at because the Students of that University did more incline to the canvasing of such Points as were in difference betwixt us and the Romanists For witness he calls in many Papists and on the other side Bishop Iewel Bishop Bilson Dr. Humphry Mr. Nowel Dr. Reynolds and many others which stood firm to the Church of England This last clause sure slipped from him unawares Upon second thoughts I fear he will scarce affirm that all these stood firm to the Church of England If they did no lot or portion hath he or any of his in the Church of England most of them having declared their minds point blank against conditional election c. Iewel hath told us his mind about Election in his Comment on the Thessalonians so hath Mr. Nowel in his Catechism Dr. Humphries