Doctrine get as good countenance to it as he could within a time especially intent on suppressing Popery might be no hard matter for him to doe And as to that part of the objections which Relates to Campneys and his suppressing of his Name I look upon it as a high part of wisdom in him in regard of the Great sway which the Calvinians had at their first coming over the prejudice conceived against him for his slipps and sufferings in the raigne of K. Edward and the Authority of the men against whom he writ Veron a Chaplaine to the Queen Crowly of Great esteem in London for his diligent preaching and Knox the great Directer of the Kirke of Scotland CHAP. XVII Of the Disputes amongst the Confessors in Prison in Queen Maries dayes and the Resetling of the Church on her former principles under Queen Elizabeth 1. THe Doctrine of Predestination disputed amongst the Confessors in Prison in Queen Maries dayes 2. The Examination of John Carelese before Dr. Martin in reference to the said Disputes 3. Considerations on some passages in the conference betwixt Dr. Martin and the said John Carelesse 4. Review made of the publick Liturgie by the command of Queen Elizabeth and the Paraphrases of Erasmus commended to the reading both of Priest and People 5. The second book of Homilies how provided for and of the liberty taken by the Gospellers and Zuinglian Sectaries before the reviewing and confirming of the Book of Articles by the Queens Authority 6. Of the reviewing and authority of the Book of Articles Anno 1562. and what may be from thence inferred 7. An answer from the Agreement drawn from omitting the ninth Article of King Edwards Book the necessity of giving some content to the Zuinglian Gospellers and the difficulty wherewith they were induced to subscribe the Book at the first passing of the same 8. The Argument taken from some passages in the English Catechisme set forth by Mr. Alexander Powell and the strength thereof 9. Several considerations on the said Catechisme and the rest of the Authours making and what his being Prolocutor in the convocation might adde to any of them in point of Orthodoxie 10. Nothing to be collected out of the first passage in Mr. Powells Catechism in favour of the Calvinian doctrine of Predestination and the points depending thereupon and lesse then nothing in the second if it be understood according to the Authours meaning and the determination of the Church 1. MOre calmly and with lesse deviation from the Doctrine of the Church of England were the same points disputed in Queen Maries dayes amongst the Confessors in Prison which coming to the knowledge of the Queen and her Councel a Commission was granted to one Dr. Martin a busie man in all such matters as appears by the story to make enquiry amongst many other things into this particular and he according to the power given by the commission convents before her one John Carelese borne at Coventry of no better quality then a weaver yet one that was grown very able to expresse himself when the matter came to examination by which examination it appears that as Carelese somewhat differed in the Doctrine of Predestination and the point depending thereupon from the Church assembled according as it was established in King Edwards time so Trew another of the Prisoners but of what quality or condition I am yet to seek seemes more inclinable to that opinion if Carelese understood them rightly which was defended all that time by the Popish Clergie And that the Reader may perceive the better how the difference stood I shall lay down so much of the conference between Dr. Martin and the Prisoner as concernes this businesse leaving the Reader to admire at Gods infinite goodnesse giving poor unlettered men such a measure of Christian courage as might enable them to speak both stoutly and discreetly in their greatest troubles Now the said conference was as followeth 2. The Examination of John Carelese before Doctor Martin Carelese I could wish that thou wouldest play the wise mans part thou art a handsome man and 't is pity but that thou shouldest do well and save that God hath bought I thank your good Mastership most heartily and I put you out of doubt that I am most sure and certaine of my salvation by Jesus Christ so that my soule is safe already what paines soever my body suffer here for a little time Yea marry you say truth for thou art so predestinate to life that thou canst not perish in whatsoever opinion thou dost die That God hath predestinate me to eternal life in Jesus Christ I am most certain and even so I am sure that his holy Spirit wherewith I am sealed will so preserve me from all heresies and evill opinions that I shall die in none at all Go to let me hear your faith in Predestination for that shall be written also Your Mastership shall pardon me herein for you said your self ere while that you had no Commission to examine my conscience I tell thee I have a Commission yea and a Commandment from the Councel to examine thee of such things as be in controversie between thee and thy fellows in the Kings Bench whereof Predestination is a part as thy fellow hath confessed and thy self dost not deny it I do not deny it but he that first told you that matter might have found himself much better occupied Why I tell thee truth I may now examine thee of any thing that I list Then let your Scribe set his pen to the paper and you shall have it roundly as the truth is I believe that Almighty God our most deare loving Father of his great mercy and infinite goodness through Jesus Christ did elect and appoint in him before the foundation of the Earth was laid a Church or Congregation which he doth continually guide and governe by his Grace and holy Spirit so that not one of them all ever finally perish When this was written Mr. Doctor took it in his hand saying Why who will deny this If your Mastership do allow it and other learned men when they shall see it I have my hearts desire Did you hold no otherwise then is there written No verily no nere did Write that he saith otherwise he holdeth not so that was written It was told me also that thou dost affirme that Christ did not die effectually for all men Whatsoever hath been told you is not much material for indeed I do believe that Christ did effectually die for all those that do effectually repent and believe and for none other so that was written Now Sir what is Trews faith of Predestination he believeth that all men be predestinate and that none shall be damned doth he not No forsooth that he doth not How then I think he doth believe as your Mastership and the rest of the
for the five Articles above mentioned they were these that follow VIZ. I. De Electione ex fide praevisa DEus aeterno immutabili Decreto in Jesu Christo filio suo ante jactum mundi fundamentum statuit ex lapso peccatis obnoxio humano genere illos in Christo propter Christum per Christum servare qui spiritus sancti gratia in eundem filium ejus credunt in ea fide fideique obedientia per eandem gratiam usque ad finem perseverant VIZ. I. Of Election out of Faith foreseen ALmighty God by an eternal and unchangable Decree ordained in Jesus Christ his only Son before the Foundations of the World were layd to save all those in Christ for Christ and through Christ who being faln and under the command of sin by the assistance of the Grace of the Holy Ghost do persevere in faith and obedience to the very end II. De Redemptione universali Proinde Deus Christus pro omnibus ac singulis mortuus est atque id ita quidem ut omnibus per mortem crucis Reconciliationem Peccatorum Remissionem impetrarit Ea tamen conditione ut nemo illa peccatorum Remissione fruatur praeter hominem fidelem Joh. 2. 16. 1 Joh. 2. 2. II. Of universal Redemption To which end Jesus Christ suffered death for all men and in every man that by his death upon the Cross he might obtain for all mankind both the forgiveness of their sins and Reconciliation with the Lord their God with this Condition notwithstanding that none but true believers should enjoy the benefit of the Reconciliation and forgiveness of sins John 2. 16. 1 John 2. 2. III. De causa fidei Homo fidem salutarem a seipso non habet nec vi liberi sui arbitrii quandoquidem in statu defectionis peccati nihil boni quod quidem vere est bonum quale est fides salutaris ex se potest cogitare velle aut facere sed necessarium est eum a Deo in Christo per spiritum ejus sanctum regigni renovari mente affectibus seu voluntate omnibus facultatibus ut aliquid boni posset intelligere cogitare velle perficere secundum illud John 15. 5. sine me potestis nihil III. Of the cause or means of attaining Faith Man hath not saving Faith in and of himself nor can attain it by the power of his own Free-will in regard that living in an estate of sin and defection from God he is not able of himself to think well or do any thing which is really or truly good amongst which sort saving faith is to be accounted And therfore it is necessary that by God in Christ and through the Workings of the Holy Ghost he be regenerated and renewed in his understanding will affections and all his other faculties that so he may be able to understand think will and bring to pass any thing that is good according to that of Saint John 15. 5. Without me you can do nothing IV. De Conversionis modo Dei gratia est initium progressus perfectio omnis boni atque adeo quidem ut ipse homo Regenitus absque hae praecedanea seu Adventitia excitante consequente co-operante gratia neque boni quid cagitare velle aut facere potest neque etiam ulli malae tentationae resistere adeo quidem ut omnia bona opera quae excogitare possumus Deigratiae in Christo tribuenda sunt Quoad vero modum co-operationis illius gratiae illa non est irresistibilis de multis enim dicitur eos spiritui sancto Resistisse Actorum 7. alibi multis locis IV. Of the manner of Conversion The Grace of God is the beginning promotion and accomplishment of every thing that is good in us insomuch that the Regenerate man can neither think well nor do any thing that is good or resist any sinfull temptations without this Grace preventing co-operating and assisting and consequently all good works which any man in his life can attain unto are to be attributed and ascribed to the grace of God But as for the manner of the co-operation of this Grace it is not to be thought to be irresistable in regard that it is sayd of many in the holy Scriptures that they did resist the Holy Ghost as in Acts 7. and in other places V. De Perseverantia incerta Qui Jesu Christo per veram fidem sunt insiti ac proinde spiritus ejus vivificantis participes ii abundehabent facultatum quibus contra Satanam peccatum mundum propriam suam carnem pugnent victoriam obtineant verum tamen per gratiae spiritus sancti subsidium Jesus Christus quidem illis spiritu suo in omnibus tentationibus adest manum porrigit modo sint ad certamen prompti ejus Auxilium Petant neque officio suo desint eos confirmat adeo quidem ut nulla satanae fraude aut vi seduci vel e manibus Christi eripi possint secundum illud Johannis 10. Nemo illos e manu mea eripiet Sed an illi ipsi negligentia sua principium illud quo sustentantur in Christo deserere non possint praesentem mundum iterum amplecti a sancta doctrina ipsis semel tradita deficere conscientiae naufragium facere a gratia excidere penitus ex sacra scriptura esset expendendum antequam illud cumplena animi tranquillitate Plerephoria dicere possumus V. Of the uncertainty of Perseverance They who are grafted into Christ by a lively Faith and are throughly made Partakers of his quickning Spirit have a sufficiency of strength by which the Holy Ghost contributing his Assistance to them they may not only fight but obtain the Victory against the Devil Sin the World and all infirmities of the flesh Most true it is that Jesus Christ is present with them by his Spirit in all their temptations that he reacheth out his hand unto them and shews himself ready to support them if for their parts they prepare themselves to the encounter and beseech his help and are not wanting to themselves in performing their duties so that they cannot be seduced by the cunning or taken out of the hands of Christ by the power of Satan according to that of S. John No man taketh them out of my hand c. cap. 10. But it is first to be well weighed and proved by the holy Scripture whether by their own negligence they may not forsake those Principles of saving Grace by which they are sustained in Christ embrace the present World again Apostatize from the saving doctrine once delivered to them suffer a Shipwrack of their Conscience and fall away from the Grace of God before we can publickly teach these doctrines with any sufficient trauquillity or assurance of mind ' V. It is reported that at the end of the Conference between the Protestants and Papists in the first Convocation of Qâ—een Maries Reign the Protestants were
the Book being to be set fâ—rth by his Graâ—es censure and judgement he would have nâ—thing therein that Momus himself could reprehend referring notwithstanding all his Annotations to his Majesties exacter judgement Nor staid it here but being committed by the King to both Houses of Parliament and by them very well approved of as appears by the Statutes of this year Cap. 1. concerning the Advancing of true Religion and the abolition of the contrary it was published again by the Kings command under the title of Neâ—essary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian man And it was published with an Epistle of the Kings before it directed to all his faithful and loving Subjects wherein it is affirmed 'To be a true Declaration of the true knowledge of God and his Word with the principal Articles of Religion whereby men may uniformly be led and taught the true understanding of that which is necessary for every Christian man to know for the ordering of himself in this life agreeable unto the will and pleasure of Almighty God ' 5. Now from these Books the Doctrine of Predestination may be gathered into these particulars which I desire the Reader to take notice of that he may judge the better of the Conformity which it hath with the established Doctrine of the Church of England 1. That man by his own nature was born in sin and in the indignation and displeasure of God and was the very childe of Wrath condemned to everlasting death subject and thrall to the power of the Devil and sin having all the principal parts or portions of his soul as Reason and understanding and free-wil and all other powers of his soul and body not onely so destituted and deprived of the gifts of God wherewith they were firstendued but also so blinded corrupted and poysoned with errour ignorance and carnal concupiscence that neither his said powers could exercise the natural function and office for which they were ordained by God at the first Creation nor could he by them do any thing which might be acceptable to God 2. That Jesus Christ the onely begotten Son of God the Father was eternally pre-ordained and appointed by the Decree of the Holy Trinity to be our Lord that is to say to be the onely Redeemer and Saviour of Mankinde and to reduce and bring the same from under the Dominion of the Devil and sin unto his onely Dominion Kingdom Lordship and Governance 3. That when the time was come in the which it was before ordained and appointed by the Decree of the Holy Trinity That Mankinde should be saved and redeemed then the Son of God the second Person in the Trinity and very God descended from Heaven into the world to take upon him the very habit form and nature of man and in the same nature to suffer his glorious Passion for the Redemption and Salvation of all Mankinde 4. That by this Passion and Death of our Saviour Jesus Christ not onely Corporal death is so destroyed that it shall never hurt us but rather that it is made wholesome and profitable unto us but also that all our sins and the sins also of all them that do believe in him and follow him be mortified and dead that is to say all the guilt and offence thereof as also the damnation and pains due for the same is clearly extincted abolished and washed away so that the same shall never afterwards be imputed and inflicted on us 5. That this Redemption and Justification of Mankinde could not have been wrought or brought to pass by any other means in the world but by the means of this Jesus Christ Gods onely Son and that never man could yet nor never shall be able to come unto God the Father or to believe in him or to attain his favour by his own wit and reason or by his own science and learning or by any his own works or by whatsosoever may be named in Heaven or Earth but by faith in the Name and Power of Jesus Christ and by the gifts and graces of his Holy Spirit 6. But to proceed the way to the ensuing Reformation being thus laid open The first great work which was accomplished in pursuance of it was the compiling of that famous Liturgie of the year 1549. commanded by King Edward the sixth that is to say the Lord Protector and the rest of the Privy Council acting in his Name and by his Authority performed by Archbishop Cramner and the other six before remembred assisted by Thirdby Bishop of Westminster Day Bishop of Chichester Ridley Bishop of Rochester Taylor then Dean after Bishop of Lincoln Redman then Master of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge and Hains Dean of Exeter all men of great abilities in their several stations and finally confirmed by the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in Parliament assembled 23 Edw. 6. In which Confirmatory act it is said expresly to have been done by the especial aid of the Holy Ghost which testimony I finde also of it in the Acts and Monuments fol. 1184. But being disliked by Calvin who would needs be meddling in all matters which concerned Religion and disliked it chiefly for no other reason as appears in one of his Epistles to the Lord Protector but because it savoured too much of the ancient forms it was brought under a review the cause of the reviewing of it being given out to be no other than that there had risen divers doubts in the Exercise of the said Book for the fashion and manner of the Ministration though risen rather by the curiosity of the Ministers and Mistakers then of any other cause 5 6 Edw. 6. cap. 1. The review made by those who had first compiled it though Hobeach and Redman might be dead before the confirmation of it by Act of Parliament some of the New Bishops added to the former number and being reviewed was brought into the same form in which now it stands save that a clause was taken out of the Letany and a sentence added to the destribution of the blessed Sacrament in the first year of Queen Elizabeth and that some alteration was made in two or three of the Rubricks with an addition of Thansgiving in the end of the Letany as also of a Prayer for the Queen and the Royal Issue in the first of King James 7. At the same time and by the same hands which gave us the First Liturgie of King Edward the sixth was the first Book of Homilies composed also in which I have some cause to think that Bishop Latimer was made use of amongst the rest as one who had subscribed the first other two Books before mentioned as Bishop of Worcester anno 1537. and ever since continued zealous for a Reformation quitting in that respect such a wealthy Bishoprick because he neither would nor could conform his judgement to the Doctrine of the six Articles Authorized by Parliament For it will easily appear to any who is
the rest before that is to say the reconciliation of all men to Almighty God the universal redemption of Man-kinde by the death of Christ expresly justfied and maintained by the Church of England For though one in our late undertaking seem exceeding confident that the granting of universal redemption will draw no inconvenience with it as to the absoluteness of Gods decrees or to the insuperability of converting Grace or to the certain infallible perseverance of Gods elect after conversion Yet I dare say he will not be so confident in affirming this That if Christ did so far dye for all as to procure a salvation for all under the condition of faith and repentance as his own words are there can be any room for such an absolute decree of reprobation 〈…〉 and precedent to the death of Christ as his great masters in the school of Calvin have been pleased to teach him Now for the Doctrine of this Church in that particular it is exprest so clearly in the second article of the five before laid down that nothing needs be added either in way of explication or of confirmation howsoever for avoiding of all doubt and Haesitancy we will first add some farther testimonies touching the Doctrine of this Church in the point of universal redemption And secondly touching the applying of so great a benefit by universal vocation and finally we shall shew the causes why the benefit is not effectual unto all alike 5. And first as for the Doctrine of universal redemption it may be further proved by those words in the publick Carechism where the Childe is taught to say that he believeth in God the Son who redeemed with him all mankinde in that clause of the publique Letany where God the Son is called the Redeemer of the world in the passages of the latter Exhortation before the Communion where it is said That the Oblation of Christ once offered was a full perfect and sufficient Sacrifice for the sins of the WHOLE WORLD in the proper Preface appointed for the Communion on Easter-Day in which he is said to be the very Paschal Lamb that was offered for us and taketh away the sins of the world repeated in the greater Catechism to the same effect And finally in the Prayer of Conservation viz. Almighty God our heavenly Father which of thy tender mercies didst give thine onely Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the Cross for our Redemption who made there by his own Oblation of himself once offered a firm and perfect and sufficient Sacrifice Oblation and Satisfaction for the sins of the WHOLE WORLD To this purpose it is said in the Book of Homilies That the World being wrapt up in sin by the breaking of Gods Law God sent his onely Son our Saviour Christ into this world to fulfil the Law for us and by shedding of his most precious blood to make a Sacrifice and Satisfaction or as it may be called amends to his Father for our sins to asswage his wrath and indignation conceived against us for the same Out of which words it may be very well concluded That the world being wrapt up in sin the Recompence and Satisfaction which was made to God must be made to him for the sins of the world or else the plaister had not been commensurate to the sore nor so much to the magnifying of Gods wonderful mercies in the offered means of Reconcilement betwixt God and man the Homily must else fall short of that which is taught in the Articles In which besides what was before delivered from the second and 31. concerning the Redemption of the world by the death of Christ it is affirmed in the 15 as plain as may be That Christ came to be a Lamb without spot who by the Sacrifice of himself once made should take away the sins of the world Then which there can be nothing more conducible to the point in hand 6. And to this purpose also when Christ our Saviour was pleased to Authorize his Holy Apostles to preach the Good Tidings of Salvation he gave them both a Command and a Commission To go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every Creature Mark 16. 15. So that there was no part of the world nor any Creature in the same that is to say no Rational Creature which seems to be excluded from a possibility of obtaining Salvation by the Preaching of the Gospel to them if with a faith unfeigned they believed the same Which the Church further teacheth us in this following Prayer appointed to be used in the Ordering of such as are called unto the Office of the Holy Priesthood viz. ' Almighty God and Heavenly Father which of thine Infinite Love and Goodness toward us hast given to us thy Only and Most Dear Beloved Son Jesus Christ to be our Redeemer and Author of Everlasting Life who after he had made perfect our Redemption by his Death and was ascended into Heaven sent forth abroad into the world his Apostles Prophets Evangelists Doctors and Pastors by whose Labour and Ministry he gathered together a great Frock in all the Parts of the World to set forth the Eternal Praise of his Holy Name For these so great Benefits of thy Eternal Goodness and for that thou hast vouchsafed to call thy Servant here present to the same Office and Ministry of Salvation of Mankind we render unto thee most hearty thinks and we worship preise thee and we humbly beseech thee by the same thy Son to grant unto all which either here or elsewhere call upon thy name that we may shew our selves thankful to thee for these and all other thy benefits and that we may daily encrease and go forward in the knowledge and faith of thee and thy Son by the Holy Spirit So that as well by these thy Ministers as by them to whom they shall be appointed Ministers thy Holy Name may be always glorified and thy Blessed Kingdom enlarged through the same thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ who liveth and reigneth with thee in the Unity of the same Holy Spirit world without end Amen ' Which Form in Ordering and Consecrating Bishops Priests and Deacons I note this onely by the way being drawn up by those which had the making of the first Liturgie of King Edward the sixth and confirmed by Act of Parliament in the fifth and sixth of the said King was afterwards also ratified by Act of Parliament in the eighth year of Queen Elizabeth and ever since hath had its place amongst the Publique Monuments and Records of the Church of England 7. To these I shall onely adde one single testimony out of the Writings of each of the three godly Martyrs before remembred the point being so clearly stated by some of our Divines commonly called Calvinists though not by the Outlandish also that any longer insisting on it may be thought unnecessary First then Bishop Cranmer tells us in the Preface to his Book against Gardiner of Winchester
for finally or totally and much lesse for both And that he doth so in the Gag I shall easily grant where he relateth only to the words of the Article which speaks only of a possibility of falling without relating to the measure or duration of it But he must needs be carried with a very strange confidence which can report so of him in his book called Appello Caesarem in which he both expressely saith and proveth the contrary He saith it first in these words after a repetition of that which he had formerly said against the Gagger ' I determine nothing in the question that is to say nor totally nor finally or totally not finally or totally finally but leave there all to their Authors and Abettors resolving upon this not to go beyond my bounds the consented resolved and subscribed Articles of the Church of England in which nor yet in the Book of Common Prayer and other divine offices is there any tye upon me to resolve in this much disputed question as these Novellers would have it not as these Novellers would have it there 's no doubt of that For if there be any it is for a possibility of total falling of which more anon ' He proves it next by several Arguments extracted from the Book of Homilies and the publike Liturgy Out of which last he observeth three passages the first out of the Forme of Baptisme in which it is declared that the baptized infant being born in original sin by the Laver of Regeneration in Baptism is received into the number of the children of God and Heirs of everlasting life the second out of the publick Catechism in which the child is taught to say that by his Baptism he was made a member of Christ the child of God and an inheritor of the Kingdom of heaven The third out of the Rubrick before Confirmation in which it is affirmed for a truth that it is certain by Gods word that children being baptized have all things necessary for their salvation and be undoubtedly saved And thereupon he doth observe that it is to be acknowledged for a Doctrine of this Church that children duly baptized are put ' into a state of Grace and salvation and secondly that it is seen by common experience that many children so baptized when they come to age by a wicked and lewd life do fall away from God and from the state of Grace and salvation wherein he had set them to a worse state wherein they shall never be saved ' From which what else can be inferred but that the Church maintains a total and a final falling from the grace of God Adde hereunto that the Church teacheth men to pray to Almighty God not to take his holy Spirit from us And in another place that he suffer us not at our last hour for any pains of death to fall from him which certainly she had never done were it not possible for a man so far to grieve and vex the holy Spirit of God and so far to despair of his gracious mercie as to occasion him at the last to deprive us both of the one and the other 9. Next for the Homilies as they commend us unto Gods people a probable and stedfast hope of their salvation in Christ Jesus so they allow no such infallibility of persisting in grace as to secure them from a total and final falling In reference to the first they tell us in the second part of the Sermon against the fear of death ' that none of those their causes of the fear of death that is to say the sorrow of repenting from our worldly pleasures the terrible apprehension of the pangs of death and the more terrible apprehension of the pains of hell do make any trouble to good men because they stay themselves by true faith perfect charity and sure hope of the endlesse joy and blisse everlasting All therefore have great cause to be full of joy that be joyned to Christ with true faith stedfast hope and perfect charity and not to fear death nor everlasting damnation ' The like we finde not long after where it speaks of those ' when being truly penitent for their offences depart hence in perfect charity and in sure trust that God is merciful to them forgiving them their sins for the merits of Jesus Christ the only natural Son ' In the third part of which Sermon it is thus concluded ' He that conceiveth all these things and beleeveth them assuredly as they ought to be believed even from the bottom of his heart being established in God in his true faith having a quiet conscience in Christ a firm hope and assured trust in Gods mercy through the merits of Jesus Christ to obtain this rest quieâ—ness and everlasting joy shall not only be without fear of godly death when it cometh but greatly desire in his heart as S. Paul did to be rid from all these occasions of evil and live ever to Gods pleasure in perfect obedience of his Will with Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour to whose gracious presence c. ' By all which passages it is clear and evident that the Church teacheth us to entertain a probable and stedfast hope of our salvation in Christ Jesus but whether it teacheth also such an infallibility of persisting in grace such a certainty of perseverance as to exclude all possibility of a total or a final falling we are next to see 10. And see it we may without the help of Spectacles or any of the Optical instruments if we go no farther than the title of two of those Homilies the first wherof is thus inscribed viz. A Sermon shewing how dangerous a thing it is to fall from God And it had been ridiculous if not somewhat worse to write a Sermon de non ente to terrifie the people with the danger of that misfortune which they were well enough assured they should never suffer Out of which Homilies the Appellant makes no use but of these words only ' Whereas God hath shewed unto all them that truly do believe his Gospel his face of mercy in Christ Jesus which doth so enlighten their hearts that they be transformed into his image be made partakers of the heavenly light and of his holy Spirit be fashioned to him in all goodnesse requisite to the child of God so if they do afterwards neglect the same if they be unthankful unto him if they order not their lives according unto his Doctrine and Example and to the setting forth of his glory he will take from them his holy Word his kingdom whereby he should reign in them because they bring not forth fruit which he looked for ' Besides which there are many other passages to this effect where it is said that as by pride and sin we fall from God so shall God and all goodness go from us that sometimes men go from God by lack of faith mistrusting of God and somtimes
sins and incredulities as generally is maintained and taught in the Schools of Calvin Much I am sure may be said against it out of the passages in the Liturgie before remembred where it is said that God hath compassion upon all men and hateth nothing which he hath made but much more out of those which are to come in the second Article touching the Vniversal Reconciliation of mankinde unto God the Father by the death of Christ Take now no more than this one Collect being the last of those which are appointed for Good Friday on which we celebrate the memorial of Christ his death and passion and is this that followeth viz. ' Merciful God who hast made all men and hatest nothing that thou hast made nor wouldst the death of a sinner but rather that he should be converted andâ—â—ve have mercy upon all Jews Turks Infidels and Hereticks and take from them all ignorance hardness of heart and contempt of thy Word and so fetch them home blessed Lord to thy flock that they may be saved amongst the remnant of the true Israelites and be made one fold under one Shepherd Jesus Christ our Lord. ' A Prayer as utterly inconsistent with the Calvinians Decree of Reprobation as the finding of an Hell in Heaven or any thing else which seems to be most abhorrent both from faith and piety 2. More may be said against it out of the writings of Bishop Latimer and Bishop Hooper before remembred Beginning first with Latimer he will tell us this viz. ' That if most be damned the fault is not in God but in themselves for Dus vult omnes homines salvos fieri God would that all men should be saved but they themselves procure their own damnation ' Thus also in another place That Christ onely and no man else merited Remission Justification and Eternal Felicity for as many as believe the same that Christ shed as much blood for Judas as for Peter that Peter believed it and therefore was saved that Judas could not believe it therefore was condemned the fault being in him onely and no body else More fully not more plainly the other Bishop in the said Preface to the Exposition on the Ten Commandments where it is said ' That Gain was no more excluded from the promise of Christ till he exlcuded himself than Abel Saul than David Judas than Peter Eâ—au than Jacob ' concerning which two brethren he further added ' That in the sentence of God given unto Rebecca that there was no mention at all that Esau should be disinherited of Eternal life but that he should be inferiour to his brother Jacob in this world which Prophecy saith he was fulfilled in their Posterity and not the persons themselves the very same with that which Arminius and his followers have since declared in this case ' And this being said he proceedeth to this Declaration ' That God is said by the Prophet to have hated Esau not because he was disinherited of Eternal life but in laying his mountains and his heritage waste for the Dragons of the wilderness Mal. 1. 3. that the threatning of God against Esau of he had not of wilful malice excluded himself from the promise of grace should no more have hindred his salvation than Gods threatning against Nineve that the cause of Rejection or Damnation is sin in man which will not hear neither receive the promise of the Gospel And â—â—â—ally thus That by Gods grace we might do the good and leave the evil if it were not through malice of accustomed doing of sin the which excuseth the mercy and go dâ—â—ess of God and maketh that no man shall be excused in he latter judgement how subtilly soever they now excuse the matter and put their evil doings from them and lay it uâ—on the Predestination of God and would excuse it by ignorance oâ— say he cannot be good because he is otherwise destined which in the next words he calls A Stoical 〈…〉 refuted by those words of Horace Nemo adeo fâ—rus est c. ' 3. But that which makes most against the absolute irrespective and irreversible decree of predestination whether it be life or death is the last clause of our second Article being the seventeenth of the Church as before laid down where it is said that we must receive Gods promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture and that in all our doings that will of God is to be followed which we have expresly declared to us in holy Scriptures And in the holy Scripture it is declared to us That God gave his Son for the world or for all man-kind that Christ offered himself a Sacrifice for all the sixs of the whole world that Christ redeemed all man-kinde that Christ commanded the Gospel to be preached to all that God wills and commands all men to hear Christ and to believe in him and in him to offer grace and salvation unto all men That this is the infallible truth in which there can be no falshood otherwise the Apostles and other Ministers of the Gospel preaching the same should be false witnesses of God and should make him a liar than which nothing can be more repugnant to the Calvinian Doctrine of predestination which restrains predestination unto life in a few particulars without respect had to their faith in Christ or Christs suffering death for them which few particulars so predestinate to eternal life shall as they tell us by an irrestible Grace be brought to God and by the infallible conduct of the holy Spirit persevere from falling away from grace and favour Nothing more contrary to the like absolute decree of Reprobation by which the infinitely greatest part of all Mankinde is either doomed remidilesly to the torments of Hell when they were but in the estate of Creability as the Supralapsarians have informed us and unavoidably necessated unto sin that they might infallibly be damn'd or otherwise as miserably leaving them under such a condition according to the Doctrine of the Sublapsarians which renders them uncapable of avoiding the wrath to come and consequently subjected them to a damnation no less certain then if they were created to no other purpose which makes it seem the greater wonder that Doctor Vsher afterwards Lord Primate of Ireland in drawing up the article of predestination for the Church of Ireland anno 1615. should take in so much as he doth of the Lambeth articles and yet subjone this very clause at the foot thereof which can no more concorporate with it then any of the most Het rogeneus mettals can unite into one piece of refined Gold which clause as it remaineth in the articles of the Church of England how well it was applyed by King James and others in the conference at Hampton Court we shall see hereafter 4. In the mean time we must behold another argument which fights more strongly against the Apostles decree of Reprobation then any of
aforementioned ' That our Saviour Christ according to the will of his Eternal Father when the time thereof was fully accomplished taking our nature upon him came into this World from the high Throne of his Father to declare unto miserable sinners the Goodness c. To shew that the time of Grace and Mercy was come to give light to them that were in darkness and in the shadow of death and to preach and give Pardon and full Remission of sin to all his Elected And to perform the same he made a Sacrifice and Oblation of his body upon the Cross which was a full Redemption Satisfaction and Propitiation for the sins of the whole world ' More briefly Bishop Latimer thus ' The Evangelist saith When Jesus was born c. What is Jesus Jesus is an Hebrew word which signifieth in our English Tongue a Saviour and Redeemer of all Mankinde born into the World This Title and Name To save appertaineth properly and principally unto him for he saved us else had we been lost for ever ' Bishop Hoâ—per in more words to the same effect ' That as the sins of Adam without Priviledge or Exemption extended and appertained unto all and every of Adams Posterity so did this Promise of Grace generally appertain as well to every and singular of Adams Posterity as to Adam as it is more plainly expressed where God promiseth to bless in the seed of Abraham all the people of the world ' 8. Next for the point of Universel Vocation and the extent of the Promises touching life Eternal Besides what was observed before from the Publique Liturgie we finde some Testimonies and Authorities also in the Book of Homilies In one whereof it is declared That God received the learned and unlearned and casteth away none but is indifferent unto all And in another place more largely that the imperfection or natural sickness taken in Adam excludeth not that person from the promise of God in Christ except we transgress the limits and bounds of this Original sin by our own folly and malice If we have Christ then have we with him and by him all good things whatsoever we can in our hearts wish or desire as victory over death sin hell c. The truth hereof is more clearly evidenced in the writings of the godly Martyrs so often mentioned as first of Bishop Latimer who discourseth thus ' We learn saith he by this sentence that multi sunt vocati that many are called c. that the preaching of the Gospel is universal that it appertaineth to all mankinde that it is written in omnem terram exivit soâ—us eorum through the whole world their sound is heard Now seeing that the Gospel is universal it appeareth that he would have all mankinde be saved that the fault is not in him if they be damned for it is written thus Deus vult omnes homines salvos fieri God would have all mankinde saved his Salvation is sufficient to save all mankinde Thus also in another place That the promises of Christ our Saviour are general they appertain to all mankinde He made a general Proclamation saying Qui credit in me habet vitam aeternam whosoever believeth me hath eternal life ' And not long after in the same Sermon ' That we must â— consider wisely what he saith with his own mouth Venite ad me omnes c. Mark here he saith mark here he saith Come all ye wherefore should any body despaiâ— or shut out himself from the promises of Christ which be general and appertain to the whole world ' The like saith Bishop Hooper also telling us ' There was no diversity in Christ of Jew or Gentile that it was never forbid but that all sorts of people and every progeny of the world to be made partakers of the Jews Religion ' And then again in the example of the Ninivites ' Thou hast saith he good Christian Reader the mercy of God and general promise of salvation performed in Christ for whose sake onely God and man were set at one ' 9. The less assistance we had from Bishop Hooper in the former points the more we shall receive in this touching the causes why this great benefit is not made effectual unto all alike Concerning which he lets us know ' That to the obtaining the first end of his justice he allureth as many as be not utterly wicked and may be helped partly with threatnings and partly with promises and so provoketh them unto amendment or life c. and would have all men to be saved therefore provoketh now by fair means now by foul that the sinner should satisfie his just and righteous pleasure not that the promises of God appertain to such as will not repent or his threatnings unto him that doth repent but these means he useth to save his creature this way useth he to nurture us until such time as the Holy Spirit worketh such a perfection in us that we will obey him though there were neither pain nor joy mentioned at all ' And in another place more briefly ' That if either out of a contempt or hate of Gods Word we fall into sin and transform our selves into the image of the Devil then we exclude our selves by this means from the promises and merits of Christ ' Bishop Latimer to the same point also ' His Salvation is sufficient to satisfie for all the world as concerning it self but as concerning us he saveth no more than such as put their trust in him and as many as believe in him shall be saved the other shall be cast out as Infidels into everlasting damnation not for lack of salvation but for infidelity and lack of faith which is the onely cause of their damnation ' One word more out of Bishop Hooper to conclude thiâ— point which in fine is this 'To the Objection saith he touching that S. Peter speaketh of such as shall perish for their false doctrine c. this the Scripture answereth that the promise of grace appertaineth to every sort of men in the world and comprehendeth them all howbeit within certain limits and bounds the which if men neglect to pass over they exclude themselves from the promise of Christ ' CHAP. XI Of the Heavenly influences of Gods grace in the Conversion of a sinner and mans co-operation with those heavenly influences 1. I The Doctrine of Deserving Grace ex congruo maintained in the Roman Schools before the Council of Trent rejected by our ancient Martyrs and the Book of Articles 2. The judgement of Dr. Barns and Mr. Tyndall touching the necessary workings of Gods grace on the will of man not different from that of the Church of England 3. Universal grace maintained by Bishop Hooper and proved by some passages in the Liturgie and Book of Homilies 4. The offer of Universal grace made ineffectual to some for want of faith and to others for want of repentance according
What more comfortable to a man deprived of the outward benefit of the Word and Sacraments than that clause in the Homily where it is said That if we lack a Learned man to instruct and teach us God himself from above will give light unto our mindes and teach us those things which are necessary for us 4. If then it be demanded How it comes to pass that this general Overture of Grace becomes so little efficacious in the hearts of men we shall finde Bishop Hooper ascribing it in some men to the lack of faith and in others to the want of repentance Touching the first he tells us this ' That S. Paul concludes and in a manner includeth the Divine Grace and Promise of God with in certain terms and limits that onely Christ should be profitable and efficacious to those that apprehend and receive this abundant Grace by faith and to such as have not the use of faith neither Christ nor Gods Grace to appertain ' After which he proceedeth in this manner toward the other sort of men which make not a right use of this general Grace for want of Repentance ' Howbeit saith he that we know by the Scripture that notwithstanding this imperfection of faith many shall be saved and likewise notwithstanding that Gods pro 〈…〉 be general unto all people of the world yet many shall be damned These two points must therefore diligently be discussed first how this faith being unperfect is accepted of God then how we be excluded from the promise of grace that extendeth to all men c. To which first it is thus answered That S. Paul S. John and Christ himself damneth the contemnets of God or such as willingly continue in sin and will not repent these the Scripture excludeth from the general promise of Grace ' 5. Here then we have the Doctrine of the Church of England delivered in the Liturgie and the Book of Homilies more punctually pressed and applied in the words of godly Bishop Hooper concerning Universal Grace and somewhat also of the reasons of its not being efficacious in all sorts of men relating to that liberty which remains in man of closing or contending with it as he is either ruled by reason or else misguided by the tyranny of his lusts and passions But before I come unto this point we may behold the necessary workings of Gods Grace preventing man by the inspirations of his holy Spirit and the concurrence or co-operation of mans will being so prevented which is the Celestial influences of the Grace of God Of which the Church hath spoke so fully in all the Authentick Monuments and Records thereof that no true English Protestant can make question of it For thus she tells us in the tenth Article of her Confession viz. That the condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works to faith and calling upon God Wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable â—nto God without the Grace of God by Christ preventing us that we may have a good will and working with us when we have that good will In the first clause the Church declares her self against the old Pelagians and some of the great Schoolmen in the Church of Rome and in the last against the Maniches and some of the more rigid Lutherans in the Churches Protestant which make man in the work of his own Conversion to be no other than a Statue or a senseless stock Contrary whereunto we are instructed in the Homily exhorting to the reading of Holy Scripture to use all possible endeavours in our own Salvation If we read once twice or thrice and understand not let us not cease so but still continue reading praying asking of other men and so by still knocking at last the door shall be opened as S. Augustine hath it which counsel had been vain and idle if man were not invested with a liberty of complying with it More plainly is the same exprest in many of our Publique Prayers as partly in the Collect for Easter-Day in which we humbly beseech Almighty God That as by his special Grace preventing us he doth put in our minde good desires so by his continual Fellowship that he would bring the same to good effect And in that on the sevententh Sunday after Trinity That his Grace may always prevent and follow us and make us continually to be given to all good works But most significantly we have it in one of the Collects after the Communion that namely in which we pray to the Lord To prevent us in all our doings by his most gracious favour and further us with his continual help that in all our works begun continued in him we may so glorifie his holy Name that finally by his mercy we may obtain life everlasting through Christ Jesus our Lord. So that upon the whole matter it needs must follow that as we can do nothing acceptable in the sight of God without Grace preventing so by the freedom of mans will co-operating with the Grace preventing and by the subsequent Grace of God Cooperating with the will of man we have a power of doing such works as are agreeable to the will of our Heavenly Father 6. Now to this Plain Song of the Articles the Homilies and the Publique Liturgie it may be thought superfluous to make a descant or adde the light of any Commentary to so clear a Text. And yet I cannot baulk some passages in Bishop Hooper which declare his judgement in the point where he not onely speaks of mans concurrence or co-operation with the Grace of God but lays his whole damnation on the want thereof ' Look not therefore saith he on the promises of God but also what diligence and obedience he requireth of thee lest thou exclude thy self from the promise There was promised to all those that went out of Egypt with Moses the Land of Canaan howbeit for disobedience of Gods Commandments there were but one or two that entred ' This he affords in his Preface and more than this in his tenth Chapter of the Exposition relating to the common pretence of Ignorance ' For though saith he thou canst not come to so far knowledge in the Scripture as others that believe by reason thou art unlearned or else thy vocation will not suffer thee all days of thy â—â—â—e to be a student yet must thou know and upon pain of damnation art bound to know God in Christ and the Holy Catholick Church by the Word written the Ten Commandments to know what works thou shouldst do and what to leave undone the Pater noster Christ his Prayer which is an Abridgement Epitome or compendious Collection of all the Psalms and Prayers written in the whole Scripture in the which thou prayest for the remission of sin as well for thy self as for all others desirest the
first composed in which Provision seemes to have been made against all those who taught that men sinned against their wills or upon constraint or that men might excuse themselves from the blame thereof upon that consideration If any of the Calvinian factions can finde any thing in this Article against Arminianisme as they call it or in defence of the determining of the will by converting grace or the consistency of the freedome or liberty of the will much good may it do them But then they should think themselves obliged to give a better reason than I think they can why this Article is not to be found in the Book as now it is printed Either this Article was not made in favour of Calvinisme when it was published with the rest in King Edwards time or the Reformers of the Church under Queen Elizabeth were no friends to Calvinisme in causing it to be left out in the second Book Anno 1562. to which subscription is required by the Lawes of the Land 10. Proceed we next unto the Book of Homilies in the one of which we find this passage ' that few of the proud learned wife perfect and holy Pharisees were saved by Christ because they justified themselves by their counterfeit holinesse before men ' And in another thus ' But the corrupt inclination of man was so much given to follow his own fancies and as you would say to favour his own bâ—rd that he worships himself that all the admonitions exhortations benefits and the precepts of God could not keep him from their intent on ' More clearly and expressely in another place where after the recitation of some pious duties by God commended to the Jewes the Homily proceeds in this manner following ' But these things they passed not of they turned their backs and went their way they stopped their eares that they might not hear and they hardned their hearts as an adamant stone that they might not listen to the Law and the words that the Lord had sent through his holy Spirit wherefore the Lord shewed his great indignation upon them It came to passe saith the Prophet even as I told them and they would not hear so when they cryed they were not heard but were scattered into all Kingdoms which they never knew and their land was made desolate And to be short all they that may not abide the Word of God but following the perswasions and stubbornnesse of their own hearts go backward and not forward as is said in Jeremy they go and turne away from God ' Nor is this spoken only of such a temporary resistance as may be overcome at last by the unconquerable power of the Spirit of God but even of such an obstinate and perverse resistance as in the end will lead the way to a final Apostacy an unrecoverable forsaking of God and being as irrecoverably forsaken by him Of which we shall speak more at large in the fifth and last Article concerning the uncertainty of perseverance CHAP. XII The Doctrine of Freewil agreed upon by the Clergie in their Convocation An. 1543. 1. OF the Convocation holden in the year 1543. in order to the Reformation of Religion in points of Doctrine 2. The Article of Freewil in all the powers and workings of it agreed on by the Prelates and Clergie of that Convocation agreeable to the present Doctrine of the Church of England 3. An Answer to the first Objection concerning the Popishness of the Bishops and Clergie in that Convocation 4. The Article of Freewil approved by King Henry the eighth and Archbishop Cranmer 5. An Answer to the last Objection concerning the Conformity of the Article to the present Established Doctrine in the Church of Rome 1. BUt First I am to take in my way another evidence whiâ—h though it hath not so directly the force of Law to binde us to consent unto it and perhaps may not be considered amongst the Monuments and Records of the Reformation yet it speaks plainly the full sense of our first Reformers I speak this of a pithy but short Discourse touching the nature of Freewil contained amongst some others in the Book published by the Authority of King Henry the eighth in the year 1543. entituled A necessary Doctrine and Erudition for all Christian men Concerning which as we have spoke at large already in Chap. 8. of this Work so now we must adde something touching this particular of which there was no notice taken in the Bishops Book For when the Bishops Book which had been printed in the year 1537. under the title of An Institution for a Christian man had for some time continued without alteration it was brought under the review of the Bishops and Clergie assembled in their Convocation anno 1543. and having been reviewed in all the parts and members of it a particular Treatise touching the nature of Freewil which in those times had exercised the greatest wits Of which I finde this Memorandum in the Acts of the Convocation that is to say That on Monday being the last of April Lecto publice exposuo Articulo Liberi Arburii in vulgari c. The Article of Freâ—wil being read and publiquely expounded in the English Tongue the most Reverend Archbishops delivered it into the hands of the Prolocutor to the end that he should publish it before the Clerks of the lower House of Convocation as is accustomed in such cases Quo lecto per eos approbato which being read and approved by them it was returned with the residue to the upper House of Convocation with this Approbation Quod pro Catholicis Religiosis acceperunt nâ—c non gratias in gentes patribus egerunt quâ—d tanâ—â—s labores sudores vigilias Religionis Reipublicae causa unitatis gratia subicraâ—t that is to say that they embraced them all for sound and Orthodox rendring unto the Fathers there most humble thanks for the great care and pains which they had undertaken for the good of the Church and Commonwealth and the preserving of peace and unity amongst the people Which passage I have at large laid down to shew by whose hands and by what Authority as well the Book it self which we have spoken of before as this particular Treatise in it was at first fashioned and set forth And that being said I shall first present the Treatise or Discourse it self and after Answer such Objections as either prejudice or partiality may devise against it Now the Article followeth in hac verba The Article of Freewil 2. THe Commandments and threatnings of Almighty God in Scripture whereby man is callâ—d upon and put in remembrance what God would have him to do most evidently do expresse and declare that man hath Free-will also now after the fall of our first father Adam as plainly appeareth in these places following Be not overcome of evil neglect not the grace that is in thee Love not the world c. If thou wilt
that it was the Doctrine of Saint Augustine according to that Divine saying of his Sine gratia Deâ— praeveniente â—t velimus subsequente ne frustra velimus ad pietatis opera nil valemus which is the same of that of the tenth Article of the Church of England where it is said That without the grace of God preventing us that we may have a good will and working with us when we have that good will we can do nothing that is acceptable to him in the wayes of piety So that if the Church of England must be Arminian and the Arminian must be Papist because they agree together in this particular the Melancthonian Divines amongst the Protestants yea and S. Augustine amongst the Ancients himself must be Papists also CHAP. XIII The Doctrine of the Church of England concerning the certainty or uncertainty of Perseverance 1. THe certainty of Grace debated in the Council of Trent and maintained in the Affirmative by the Dominioans and some others 2. The contrary affirmed by Calarinus and his adherents 3. The doubtful resolution of the Council in it 4. The Calvinists not coment with certainty of Grace quoad statum presentem presume upon it also quoad statum futurum 5. The bounds and limits wherewith the judgement in this point ought rationally to be circumscribed 6. The Doctrine of the Church of England in the present Article 7. Justified by the testimonies of Bishop Latimer Bishop Hooper and Master Tyndal 8. And proved by several arguments from the publick Liturgie 9. The Homily commends a probable and stedfast hope but 10. Allows noâ— certainty of Grace and perseverance in any ordinary way to the sons of men 1. OF all the Points which exercised the wits and patience of the Schoolmen in the Council of Trent there was none followed with more heat between the parties then that of the certainty of Grace occasioned by some passages in the writings of Luther wherein such certainty was maintained as necessary unto justification and an essential part thereof ' In canvasing of which point the one part held that certainty of grace was presumption the other that one might have it meritoriously The ground of the first was that Saint Thomas Saint Bonaventure and generally the Schoolmen thought so for which caule the major part of the Dominicanâ— were of the same opinion besides the authority of the Doctors they alledged for reasons that God would not that man should be certaine that he might not be lifted up in pride and esteeme of themselves that he might not prefer himself before others as he that knoweth himself to be just would do before manifest sinners and a Christian would so become drowsie carelesse and negligent to do good Therefore they said that uncertainty was profitable yea and meritorious besides because it is a passion of the mind which doth afflict it and being supported is turned to merit ' They alledged many places of the Scripture also of Solomon that a man knoweth not whether he be worthy of hate or love of Wisdome which commandeth not to be without fear of these sinnes pardoned of Saint Peter to work out our salvation with fear and trembling of Saint Paul who said of himself though my conscience accuse me not yet I am not thereby justified ' These Reasons and Testimonies together with many places of the Fathers were brought and amplified especially by Levipandus Vega and Solo. 2. ' But Calarinus and Marinarus had other places of the same Fathets to the contrary which shewed they had spoken accidentally in this particular as the occasions made most for their purpose sometimes to comfort the scrupulous sometimes to represse the audacious yet they kept themselves close to the authority of the Scripture They said that to as many as it is read in the Gospel that Christ hath forgiven sins to all them he said Believe that your sinnes are forgiven and it would be an absurdity that Christ should give an occasion of temerity and pride or if the contrary were profitable or a merit that he would deprive all men of it That the Scripture bindeth us to give God thanks for our justification which cannot be given except we know that we have obtained it for to give them when we are uncertain would be most foolish and impertinent That Saint Paul doth plainly confirme the certainty when he putteth the Corinthians in mind to know that Christ is in them except they be reprobates And when he saith we have received from God the Spirit to know what is given us by his divine Majesty and more clearly that the holy Spirit doth bear witnesse to our spirit that we are the sons God and it is much to accuse them of rashnesse who beleeve the Holy Ghost that speaketh with them For Saint Ambrose saith that the Holy Ghost doth never speak unto us but doth make us know that it is he that speaketh After this he added the words of Christ in Saint John that the world cannot receive the Holy Ghost because it seeth him not nor knoweth him but that the disciples shall know him because he shall dwell in them Calarinus did fortifie himself strongly by saying that it was the opinion of a man in a dream to defend that Grace is voluntarily received when we know not whether we have it or not as if to receive a thing willingly it be not necessary that the willing receiver should know it is given him that he doth really receive it and that after it is received he doth possesse it ' 3. ' The force of these Reasons made them first retire a little that censured the opinion of Temerity and yield that there might be a conjecture though not an ordinary certainty yet they acknowledged a certainty in the Martyrs in the newly baptized and in some by special revelation and from conjecture they were brought to call it moral Faith And that Vego who in the beginning admitted probability only overcome by these Reasons and beginning to favour the certainty for fear of conforming himself to the Lutheran opinion said that there was so much certainty as did exclude all doubt and could not be deceived ' yet that it was not Christian Faith but humane and experimental But Calarinus and his party which were all the Carmelites not resting satisfied either in the termes of an experimental faith or a moral perswasion did presse the certainty so farre that many of the Prelateâ— began to encline to that opinion and to perswade themselves that certainty of Grace was founded upon such an assurance as might in some sort be called divine though when they came to draw up the Decree therein they found themselves involved in more perplexities than they were aware of For the Point being followed with great heat between the parties and each of them conceiving that the truth was clearly on their side it was found necessary to cast the Decree into such a mold as those of the two contrary opinions might
and so they live as if carnal liberty were the true liberty of the Gospel But God forbid good people that ever we should desire such liberty for although God suffer sometimes the wicked to have their pleasure in this world yet the end of ungodly living is at length endless destruction the murmuring Israelites had that they longed for they had Quails enough yea till they were weary of them but what was the end thereof their sweet meat had sowre sawâ—e even whil'st the meat was in their mouths the plague of God alighted upon them and suddenly they dyed So if we live ungodly and God suffereth us to follow our own wills to have our own delights and pleasures and correcteth us not with some plague it is no doubt but he is almost utterly displeased with us and although it be long ere he strike yet many times when he striketh such persons he striketh them once for ever so that when he doth not strike us when he ceaseth to afflict us to punish or beat us and suffereth us to run headlong into all ungodliness and pleasures of this world that we delight in without punishment or adversity it is a dreadful token that he loveth us no longer that he careth no longer for us but hath given us over to our selves ' As long as a man doth prune his Vines doth dig at the root and lay fresh earth to them he hath a mind to them he perceiveth some token of fruitfulness that may be recovered in them but when he will bestow no more such cost and labour about them it is a sign that he thinks they will never be good And the father as long as he loveth his childe he looketh angerly he correcteth him when he doth amiss but when that serveth not and upon that he ceaseth from correction of him and suffereth him to do what he list himself it is a sign he intendeth to disinherit him and cast him away for ever so surely nothing should pierce our hearts so sore and put us into such horrible fear as when we know in our conscience that we have grievously offended God and do so continue that yet he striketh not but quietly suffereth us in the naughtiness that we here delight in then especially it is time to cry and to cry again as David did Cast me not away from they face and take not thy holy Spirit from me hide not thy face from me lest I be like unto them that go down into hell The which lamentable prayers of his as they do certifie us what horrible danger they be in from whom God turneth his face for the time and as long as he so doth so should they more and more stir us to cry unto God with all our heart that we may not be brought into the state which doubtless is so sorrowful so miserable and so dreadful as no tongue can sufficiently express nor any heart can think for what deadly grief can a man suppose it is to be under the wrath of God to be forsaken of him to have his holy Spirit the Author of all goodness to be taken from him to be brought to so vile a condition that he shall be left meet for no better purpose than to be for ever condemned to hell for not only such places of David do shew that upon the turning of Gods face from any persons they shall be left bare from all goodness and far from hope of remedy but also the place rehearsed last before of Isaiah doth mean the same which sheweth that God at length doth so â—o sake his unfruitful Vineyard that he will not only suffer it to bring forth weeds bryars and thorns but also further to punish the unfruitfulness of it he saith he will not cut it he will not delve it and he will command the clouds that they shall not rain upon it whereby is signified the teaching of the holy Word which Saint Paul after a like manner expressed by planting and watering Meaning that he will take that away from them so that they shall be no longer of his Kingdom they shall be no longer governed by his holy Spirit they shall be put from the grace and benefits they had and ever might have enjoyed through Christ they shall be deprived of the heavenly light and life which they had in Christ whilst they abode in him they shall be as they were once as men without God in this world or rather in a worse taking ' ' And to be short they shall be given into the power of the Divel which beareth the rule of all men which be cast away from God as he did in Saul and Judas and generally in all such as work after their own wills the children of mistrust and unbeilef let us beware therefore good Christian people lest that we rejecting or casting away Gods Word by which we obtain and retain true faith in God be not at length cast so far off that we become as the children of unbelief which be of two sorts far divers yea almost clean contrary and yet both be very far from returning to God the one sort only weighing their sinful and detestable living with the right judgement and straitness of Gods righteousness be so without content and be so comfortless as they all must needs be from whom the Spirit of counsel and comfort is gone that they will not be perswaded in their hearts but that either God cannot or else that he will not take them again to his favour and mercy the other hearing the loving and large promises of Gods mercy and so not conceiving a right faith thereof make those promises larger than ever God did Trusting that although they continue in their sinful and detestable living never so long yet that God at the end of their life will shew his mercy upon them and that then they will return And that both these two sorts of men be in a damnable estate and yet nevertheless God who willeth not the death of the wicked hath shewed means whereby both the same if they take heed in season may escape The first as they defend Gods rightful justice in punishing sinners whereby they should be dismayed and should despair indeed as touching any hopes that may be in themselves so if they would constantly and stedfastly believe that Gods mercy is the remedy prepared against such despair and distrust not only for them but generally for all that be sorry and truly repentant and will therewithall stick to Gods mercy they may be sure they shall obtain mercy and enter into the Port or Haven of safeguard into the which whosoever do come be they before time never so wicked they shall be out of danger of everlasting damnation as godly Ezekiel saith What time soever a sinner doth return and take earnest of true Repentance I will forgive all his wickedness ' ' The other as they be ready to believe Gods promises so they should be as ready to believe the
threatnings of God as well believe the Law as the Gospel as well that there is an hell and everlasting fire as there is an heaven and everlasting joy as well they should believe damnation to be threatned to the wicked and evil doers as salvation to be promised to the faithful in Word and Works as well they should believe God to be true in the one as the other ' And for sinners that continue in this wicked living they ought to think that the promises of Gods mercy and the Gospel pertain not unto them being in that state but only the Law and those Scriptures which contain the wrath and indignation of God and his threatnings which should certifie them that as they do over boldly presume of Gods mercy and live dissolutely so doth God still more and more withdraw his mercy from them as he is so provoked thereby to wrath at length that he destroyeth such presumers many times suddenly for of such Saint Paul said thus When they shall say it is peace there is no danger then shall sudden destruction come upon them let us beware therefore of such naughty boldness to sin for God which hath promised his mercy to them that be truly penitent although it be at the latter end hath not promised to the presumptuous sinner either that he shall have long life or that he shall have true Repentance at the last end But for that purpose hath he made every mans death uncertain that he should not put his hope in the end and in the mean season to Gods high displeasure live ungodlily Wherefore let us follow the counsel of the Wise man let us make no sarrying to turn unto the Lord let us not put off from day to day for suddenly his wrath comes and in time of vengeance he will destroy the wicked let us therefore turn betimes and when we turn let us pray to God as Hosea teached saying Forgive all our sins receive us graciously And if we turn to him with an humble and a very penitent heart he will receive us to his favour and grace for his holy Names sake for his Promise sake for his Truth and Mercies sake promised to all faithful believers in Jesus Christ his only natural Son To whom the only Saviour of the world with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all honour glory and power world without end Amen ' 3. These are the very words of the second Homily touching falling from God in which we have many evident proofs not only that there is a falling and a frequent falling but also a total yea a final falling from the grace of God according to the Doctrine of the Church of England And hereunto I must needs say that I never met with any satisfactory and sufficient Answer how much soever some have slighted the authority of it or the strength rather of the Argument which is taken from it for Mr. Yates of Ipswitch from whose candle most of them that followed borrow all their light in his book intituled Ibis ad Caesarem writ against Montagues Appeal can finde no better answers to it or evasions from it then they four that follow viz. 1. That the Homily speaks of the visible Church and therefore is not to be construed in the same sense of all whereas the Homily speaketh of Gods chosen people his chosen Vineyard are the words and consequently not only of the mixed multitude in a visible Church He answers secondly That it speaks with limitation and distinction some beholding the face of Gods mercy aright others not as they ought to do the one of which may fall quite away the other being transformed can never be wholly deformed by Satan But this is such a pitiful shift as could not save the man from the scorn of laughter had he been dealt with in his kind the Homily speaking largely of those men which having beheld Gods face of mercy in Jesus Christ as they ought to do do afterwards neglect the same prove unthankful to him and order not their lives according to his Example and Doctrine c. for which consult the place at large in the former Church He answers thirdly that the Homily speaks conditionally if they afterwards c. that is to say if afterwards they neglect the same prove unthankful to him and order not their lives according to his Example and Doctrine c. and so concludes nothing positively and determinately which is a sorrier shift than that which you had before for if such conditional Propositions conclude nothing positively what will become of all those Propositions in the Scriptures by which we are assured That if a sinner do repent him of his sins and wickednesses he shall find mercy from the Lord Do they conclude nothing positively neither most miserable were the state of man if these conditional Propositions should conclude nothing to the comfort of a troubled conscience And finally he answereth thus that the Homily speaks of Gods dreadful countenance appearing in plagues sword famine and such like temporal punishments wherewith the Elect may be chastened as well as others that they may not for ever be condemned with the wicked the first part of which Allegation I confess to be true Gods judgements falling promiscuously on all sotts of people but the addition is unknown and is not to be found in the words of the Homily And secondly the Homily speaks not only of Gods temporal judgements with which the Elect be chastened as well as others that they may not for ever be condemned with the wicked but positively and determinately of taking from them his Kingdom and holy word as in the former so that they shall be no longer of his Kingdom governed no longer by his holy Spirit put from the Grace and benefit which they had c. 4. But Master Yates intends not so to leave the matter we must first see that he is as good at raising an Objection as at the making of an Answer and he objecteth out of another of the Homilies that though the godly do fall yet they walk not on purposely in sinne they stand not still to continue and tarry in sinne they sit not down like carelesse men without all fear of Gods just punishment for sinne through Gods great grace and infinite mercy they rise again and fight against sinne c. But first it may be hoped that Master Yates could not be ignorant how great a difference there is betwixt such passages as fall occasionally and on the by from the pen of a Writer discoursing on another Argument and those which do occur in such Discourses Sermons and other Tractates as purposely are made and fitted to the point in hand And secondly though it be affirmed in the said Homily that the godly man which shall adde sinne to sinne by Gods great grace and infinite mercy may arise again and fight against sinne Yet can it not be gathered thence that it is so at all times
she cannot be understood by the â—ight of Sense or Nature is justly placed amongst the number of those things which are to be believed and is therefore called the Catholick that is the universal Assembly of the faithful because it is not tyed to any certain place God who rules and governs all things can do all things No man is of so great power that he can so much as withstand him but he gives whatsoever he shall decree according to his own pleasure and those things which are given to us by him he is able to take them away ' 4. ' After the Lord God had made the Heaven and Earth he determined to have for himself a most beautiful Kingdom and holy Common-wealth The Apostles and Ancient Fathers that writ in Greek called it Ecclesia in English a Congregation or Assembly into the which he hath admitted an infinite number of men that should be subject to one King as their Soveraign and only Head him we call Christ which is as much as to say Anointed or to the furnishing of this Common-wealth belong all they as many as do truely fear honour and call upon God daily applying their minds to holy and godly living and and all those that putting all their hope and trust in him do assuredly look for bliâ—s of everlasting life But as many as are in this Faith stedfast were fore-chosen predestinate and appointed to everlasting life before the world was made witness whereof they have within their hearts the merit of Christ the Authour earnest and unfallable pledge of their Faith which Faith only is able to perceive the mysteries of God only brings peace unto the heart only taketh hold on the Righteousness which is in Christ Jesus Master ' Doth then the Spirit alone and Faith sleep we never so securely or stand we never so wrestless or slothfull work all things for us as without any help of our own to convey us to heaven Scholar ' Just Master as you have taught me to make a difference between the Cause and the Effect The first principal and most proper cause of our Justification and Salvation is the goodness and love of God whereby he chose us for his before he made the world After that God granteth us to be called by preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ when the Spirit of the Lord is poured upon us by whose guiding and governance we be led to settle our trust in God and hope for the performance of his promise With this choice is joyned as companion the mortifying of the Old man that is of our affections and Iusts from the same Spirit also cometh our Sanctification the love of God and of our neighbour justice and uprightness of life Finally to say all in summe whatever is in us or may be done of us honest pure true and good that altogether springeth out of this most pleasant Rock from this most plentiful Fountain the goodness love choice and unchangeable purpose of God he is the cause the rest are the fruits and effects Yet are also the choice and Spirit of God and Christ himself causes conioyned and coupled each with other which may be reckoned amongst the principal causes of salvation As oft therefore as we use to say that we are made righteous and saved by Faith only it is meant thereby that faith or rather trust alone doth lay hard upon understand and perceive our righteous making to be given us of God freely that is to say by no deserts of our own but by the free grace of the Almighty Father Moreover Faith doth ingender in us love of our neighbour and such works as God is pleased withall For if it be a lively and true Faith quickned by the Holy Ghost she is the Mother of all good saying and doing by this short tale it is evident by what means we attain to be righteous For not by the worthiness of our deservings were we heretofore chosen or long ago saved but by the only mercy of God and pure grace of Christ our Lord whereby we were in him made to do those good works that God had appointed for us to walk in And although good works cannot deserve to make us righteous before God yet do they so cleave unto Faith that neither Faith can be found without them nor good works be any where found without Faith immortality and blessed life God hath provided for his chosen before the foundations of the world were laid ' 3. These are the passages which Mr. Prin hath gathered out of Poynets Catechism to prove that Calvinism is the true genuine and Original Doctrine of the reformed Church of England in the Points disputed for my part I can see no possible inconvenience which can follow on it in yeilding so far to his desires as to admit the passages before recited to be fully consonant to the true genuine sense and proper meaning of all but more especially of our 9. 10. 13. 16. and 17. Articles then newly composed so that whatsoever is positively and clearly affirmed in this Catechisme of any of the Points now controverted may be safely implied as the undoubted Doctrine of our Church and Articles For who can find if he looks upon them with a single and impartial eye that all or any of the passages before treated can be made use of for the countenancing of such a personal and eternal election without relation unto sin as is supposed by the Supra-Lapsarians or without reference to Christs death and sufferings as is defended by the Sublapsarians in the Schools of Calvin what ground can a man find here for the Horribile Decretum that cruel and most unmerciful decree of preordaining the far greatest part of all mankind to everlasting damnation and consequently unto sin that they might be damned What passage find we in all these either in opposition to the Doctrine of Vniversal Redemption though that be afore said to be here condemned or in maintenance of the irresistible working of the grace of God as takes away all freedom and cooperation from the will of man and renders him as unable to his own conversion as to the work of his own being begotten to the life of nature or to the raising of his dead body to life of glory And finally what assurance is here that the man once justified shall not fal into deadly sin or not continue in the same multiplying one sin upon another till he hath made up the measure of his iniquities and yet all this while remain in the favour of God and be as sure and certain of his own salvation by the like unresistible working of the holy Spirit as if he had never wandred from the ways of Righteousness He must see further into a Milstone then all men living who can conclude from all or any of these passages that the Zuinglian and Calvinian Doctrines the Anti Arminian Doctrines as that Author calls them are manifestly approved and undeniably confirmed by
them as the only ancient established and professed Doctrines of our Church and Articles or that can honestly affirme as his echo doth that both the Master and the Scholar declare themselves plainly in that Catechisme to be no friends to any of the Tenents which those of the opposite side contend for 4. Which said we will endeavour to finde out Bishop Poynes judgement in the points disputed or so many of them at the least as are touched upon as well from such fragments as are offered to us in the Anti-Arminianisme as from such passages as have been cunningly slipt over of purpose to subduct them from the eye of the Reader And first the Author let us know that God created man after his own Image that is to say in ea absolutissima Justitia perfectissima sanctimonia c. in such a high degree of righteousness and perfect holinesse as came most neare unto the nature of God himselfe that this Divine image was so defaced by the sin of our first parents Adam and Eve that those lineaments of righteousnesse holinesse truth and knowledge of God were disordered and almost obliterated that man being in this wretched case it pleased God to raise him to a new hope of Restitution in the seed of the woman that is to say in Jesus-Christ his only Son conceived of the holy Ghost and born of the pure and most immaculate Virgin Mary the Actions of whose life do so much redound to our benefit and commodity that if we cleave fast unto them with a true and lively faith they shall be as much ours as his and finally that as many as are in this faith stedfast were fore-chosen predestinate and appointed to everlasting life before the world was made 2. In the next place he lets us know which the Author hath amongst his fragments that the sacrificings cleansings washings and other Ceremonies of the Law were shadows types images and figures of the true and eternal sacrifice of Jesus Christ made upon the Crosse by whose benefit alone all the sins of all believers from the beginning of the world are pardoned by the sole mercy of God and not by any deserts of their own But then he lets us know withal which that Author doth not that he did truly die and was truly buried ut â—ratum humano generâ— Patrem suavissimo sacrificio placaret that by so sweet a sacrifice he might reconcile his angry and offended father unto all mankinde 3. In the third place by asking this question viz. whether the Spirit alone and faith sleep we never so securely or stand we never so worthlesse or slothful work all things for us as without any help of our own to carry us to heaven He plainly sheweth first that some men there were who did so conceive it but that they were to be condemned for conceiving so of it And secondly that all men were to lend a helping hand toward their salvation not only by laying hold on Christ with the hand of faith but in being fruitful of good works without which faith is neither to be reckoned true and lively or animated by the holy Ghost 4. He telleth us finally that the Church is the company of them that are called to eternal life by the holy Ghost by whom she is guided and governed And yet it cannot but be feared that many of those who are called to eternal life by the holy Ghost and chearfully for a time obey the calling and live continually within the pale of the Church which is guided by the most blessed spirit do fall away from God and the grace received and thereby bring themselues into a state of damnation from which they never do recover by sincere repentance 5. As little comfort can be drawn from that Argument by which they hope to make the Articles in these points to speak no otherwise then according to the sense of Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr by whose Disciples and Auditors they are alledged to have been composed or at the least by such as hold consent with them in Doctrine but unto this it hath been answered that our first reformers were two old Arch-Bishops Deans and Arch-Deacons most of them to be put to School again to either of them Secondly the first Liturgy of King Edward the sixth which was the key to the whole work was finished confirmed and put in execution before either of them were brought over Dispatcht soon after their arrival to their several chaires Martyr to the Divinity Lecture in Oxon and Bucer unto that of Cambridge where he lived not long And dying so quickly as he did Luctu Academiae as my Author hath it though he had many Auditors there yet could he not gain many Disciples in so short a time Thirdly that though Peter Martyr lived to see the Death of King Edward and consequently the end of the Convocation An. 1552. in which the Articles of Religion were first composed and agreed on yet there was little use made of him in advising and much lesse in directing any thing which concerned that business for being a stranger and but one and such an one who had no Authority in Church or State he could not be considered as a Master-builder though some use might be made of him as a labourer to advance the work And fourthly as to their consent in point of doctrine it must be granted in such things and in such things only in which they joyn together against the Papists not in such points wherein those learned men agreed not between themselves and therefore could be no foundation of consent in others 6. For they who have consulted the Lives and Writings of these learned men have generally observed that Bucer having spent the most part of his time in the Lutheran Churches was more agreeable to the doctrines which were there maintained as Martyr who was most conversant amongst the Suitzers shewed himself more inclinable to the Zuinglian or Calvinian Tenents And it is generally observed also that Bucer was a man of moderate counsel and for that received a check from Calvin at his first coming hither putting him in remembrance of his old fault for a fault he thought it Mâ—dici consiliis Autorem esse vel approbatorem of being an Author or an approver of such moderate courses as the hot and fiery temper of the Calvinists could by no means like And governing himself with such moderation he well approved of the first Liturgie translated into Latine by Alexander Alesius a learned Scot that he might be the better able to understand the composure of it and passe his judgment on the same accordingly And yet it cannot be denied but that there are many passages in the first Liturgie which tend directly to the maintenance of universal Redemption by the death of Christ of the co-operation of mans will with the grace of God and finally of the possibility of falling from that grace and other the benefits and fruits thereof before received
Turky Gowns to shew as Bishop Bancroft tartly noted they desired rather to conform themselves in outward Ceremonies with the Turks then they did with the Papists 2. The first day of the Conference being spent betwixt the King and the Bishops the second which was the 16. of the same moneth was given to the Plantiffes to present their grievances and to remonstrate their desires amongst which it was named by Dr. Reynolds as the mouth of the rest That the nine Assertions Orthodoxal as he termed them concluded upon at Lambeth might be inserted into the book of Articles which when King James seemed not to understand as having never heard before of those nine Assertions ' He was informed that by reason of some Controversies arising in Cambridge about certain points of Divinity my Lords Grace assembled some Divines of especial note to set down their opinions which they drew into nine Assertions and sent so them to the Vniversity for the appeasing of those Quarrels and thereupon his Majesty resolved thus that when such questions arise amongst Scholars the quietest proceeding were to determine them in the Vniversity and not to stuff the book with all Conclusions Theological ' Out of which passage I observed First that the Attribute of Orthodoxal is ascribed to the said nine Assertions by none but Dr. Reynolds who termed them so and not by Dr. Barlow then Dean of Chester who related the conference and had been present at the making of the said Assertions being at that time one of the domestick Chaplains of Arch-Bishop Whitgift And secondly That they were not made to be a standing Rule to the Church of England but only for the present pacifying of some differences which arose in Cambridge as is here acknowledged I observe thirdly that King James did utterly eject the motion as to the inserting of the said nine Assertions amongst the Articles of the Church leaving them to be canvased and disputed in the Schools as more proper for them And fourthly That being left to be disputed in the Schools they might beheld in the Affirmative or in the Negative as best pleased the Respondent 3. It was also moved by Dr. Reynolds That the book of Articles of Religion concluded 1562. might be explained in places obscure and enlarged where some things were defective And in particular he desired that an explanation might be made of the 23d Article for ministring in the Congregation of the 25. touching Confirmation and of the 37th concerning the Authority of the Pope of Rome as also that these words viz. That the intention of the Minister is not of the Essence of the Sacrament might be added in some fit place to the book of Articles But that which Dr. Reynolds did most insist upon was the 16. Article where it is said That after we have received the Holy Ghost we may depart from Grace The meaning whereof though he acknowledged to be sound yet he desired that because they may seem to be contrary to the Doctrine of Election and Predestination in the 17th Article those words may seem to be explained with this or the like addition viz. That neither totally nor finally Which motion or proposal concerning Dr. Overald more then any other he took occasion thereupon to acquaint his Majesty with that which had happened to him at Cambridge concerning the Estate of a justified man fallen into any grievous sin as Murder Treason Adultery and the like as hath been shewn at large in the former Chapter But the result of all was this that after a full debate and consideration concerning every one of the said Articles and the doubts moved about the same there was no cause sound for altering any thing in any of them and as little for the 16th as for any other For though the said Dr. Overald had declared it for his own opinion that he who was called and justified according to the purpose of Gods Election being brought into a state of wrath and damnation did neither fall totally from all the graces of God nor finally from the possibility of being renewed again by Gods holy Spirit as before is said and that King James himself had left it to be considered whether the word Often might not be added to the 16. Article as thus viz. We may often depart from Grace c. yet being left to the consideration of the Prelates as were all the rest the said Article remained without any alteration as before they found it and as it still continueth to this very day 4. But here is to be observed ' that upon the first motion concerning falling from Grace the Bishop of London took occasion to signifie to his Majesty how very many in these dayes neglecting holiness of life presumed too much of persisting in Grace laying all their Religion upon Predestination If I shall be saved I shall be saved which he termed a desperate Doctrine shewing it to be contrary to good divinity and the true Doctrine of Predestination wherein we should rather reason Ascendendo then Discendendo thus I live in obedience to God in love with my neighbour I follow my occasion c. Therefore I trust God hath elected me and predestinated me to salvation not thus which is the usual course of argument God hath predestinate and chosen me to life therefore though I sin never so grievously yet I shall not be damned for whom he once loveth he loveth to the end Whereupon he shewed his Majesty out of the next Article what was the Doctrine of the Church of England touching predestination in the very last Paragraph scilicet We must receive Gods promises in such wise as these be generally set forth to us in holy Scriture and in all our doings the Will of God to be followed which we have delivered to us in holy Scripture Which part of the Article his Majesty very well approved and after he had according to his manner very singularly discoursed on that place of Paul Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling he left it to be considered wither any thing were not to be added for the clearing of the Doctors doubt by putting in the word often or the like as thus We may often depart from Grace but in the mean time wished that the Doctrine of Predestination might be very tenderly handled and with great discretion lest on the one side Gods omnipotency might be called in question by impeaching the Doctrine of his eternal Predestination or on the other a desperate Resumption might be arreared by inferring the necessary certainty of standing and persisting in grace After which upon occasion of Dr. Overals discourse concerning his affairs at Cambridge his Majesty entred into a longer discourse of Predestination and Reproation then before and of the necessary conjoyning Repentance and holiness of life with true faith concluding that it was Hypocrysie and not true justifying faith which was severed from them For although Predestination and
on the secret Mystery of Predestination as to account himself for certain to be within the number of the Elect as if he were assured of this that being justified he could neither sin no more nor were sure of repentance if he did And therefore no man is to flatter himself with any such certainty of perseverance though all men ought to place a constant and firm hope for the obtaining of the same in the help of God They which by sin have faln away from the grace received may recover their lost Justification if being stirred up from above they endeavour the recovery of it by sincere repentance or by the Sacrament of Pennance as the words there are And finally the grace of Justification or the grace by which a man is justified is not only lost by infidelity by which the Faith it self doth suffer Shipwrack but even by every mortal sin though Faith be not lost also at the same time with it X. Such is the Doctrine of this Councel in the Points disputed extracted faithfully out of the Canons and Decrees thereof one only clause being added to the Article of Predestination agreeable to the Opinion in the Conferences and Debates about it which prevailed most upon the Prelates and all others who were interessed and intrusted in drawing up the Products and Conclusions of it which how far it agreeth or disagreeth with or from that which is maintained by the opposite Parties in the Reformed and Protestant Churches we are next to see CHAP. IV. The Judgment of the Lutherans and Calvinians in these Five Points with some Objections made against the Conclusions of the Councel of Dort I. No Difference in Five Points betwixt the Lutherans and the Church of Rome as is acknowledged by the Papists themselves II. The Judgment of the Lutheran Churches in the sayd 5 Points delivered in the famous Confession of Ausperge III. The distribution of the Quarrel betwixt the Franciscans Melancthonians and Arminians on the one side the Dominicans Rigid Lutherans and Sublapsarian Calvinists on the other the middle way of Catarinus paralleled by that of Bishop Overal IV. The Doctrine of Predestination as layd down by Calvin of what ill Consequence in it self and how odious to the Lutheran Doctors V. Opposed by Sebastian Castellio in Geneva it self but propagated in most Churches of Calvins Plat-form and afterwards polished by Perkins a Divine of England and in him censured and confuted by Jacob Van Harmine a Belgick Writer VI. A brief view of the Doctrine of the Sublapsarians and the odious Consequences of it VII The Judgment of the Sublapsarians in the sayd Five Points collected and presented at the Conference at the Hague Ann. 1610. VIII The Doctrine of the Synodists in the sayd Points IX Affirmed to be repugnant to the holy Scripture as also to the Purity Mercy Justice and Sincerity of Almighty God X. And the subversion of the Ministry and all Acts of Piety illustrated by the example of Tiberius Caesar and the Lantgrave of Thurin I. SUCH being the Doctrines of this Councel in the Points disputed we need not take much pains in looking after the Judgment of the Lutheran Churches which comes so neer to that of the Church of Rome as to be reckoned for the same For in the History of the Councel it is sayd expresly as before is noted that in the Books of Luther in the Augustan Confession and in Apologies and Colloquies there was nothing found as to the Doctrine of Predestination which deserved to be censured And therefore they were fain to have recourse unto the Writings of the Zuinglian Party among which Calvin and his followers were to be accounted to find out matter to proceed upon in their Fulminations And in particular it is sayd by Andreas Vega one of the stiffest and most learned men amongst the whole pack of the Franciscans when the Points about Free-will were in agitation that between themselves and the Protestants there was no difference of opinion as to that particular How neer they came to one another in the other Points may easily be found in the Debates and Conferences before layd down compared with the Judgment of the Lutheran Doctors not only in their private Writings but their publick Colloquies But then we are to understand that this Agreement of the Lutheran Doctors expressed in their private Writings and their publick Colloquies and especially the solemn Confession at Ausperge relates to that interpretation of the Decrees and Canons of the Tridentine Councel which is made by the Jesuits and Franciscans and not unto the Gloss or Exposition which is made thereof by the Preaching and Dominican Fryers II. But not to leave so great a matter to a Logical Inference I shall lay down the Doctrine of the Lutheran Churches in the sayd Five Points extracted faithfully out of the Augustan Confession with the Addition of one Clause only to the first Article the Makers of the Confession declining purposely the point of Predestination out of the Writings of Melancthon and other learned men of the same perswasion Now the Doctrine of the sayd Churches so delivered is this that followeth Viz. 1. Of Divine Predestination After the miserable fall of Adam all men which were to be begotten according to the common course of Nature were involved in the guilt of Original sin by which they are obnoxious to the wrath of God and everlasting damnation In which Estate they had remained but that God beholding all man-kinde in this wretched condition was pleased to make a general conditional Decree of Predestination under the condition of Faith and Perseverance And a special absolute Decree of electing those to life who he fore-saw would believe and persevere under the means and aides of Grace Faith and Perseverance and a special absolute Decree of condemning them whom he fore-saw to abide impenitent in their sins 2. Of the Merit and Efficacy of Christs Death The Son of God who is the Word assumed our humane Nature in the Womb of the Virgin and being very God and very Man he truly Suffered was Crucified Dead and Buried to reconcile his Father to us and to be the Sacrifice not only for Original sin but also for all the Actual sins of men A great part of S. Pauls Epistle to the Hebrews is spent in the proving of this Point that only the Sacrifice or Oblation made by Christ procured for others Reconciliation and Remission of sins inculcating that the Livitical Sacrifices were year by year to be reiterated and renewed because they could not take away sins but that satisfaction once for all was made by the Sacrifice of Christ for the sins of all men 3. Of Mans Will in the state of depraved Nature The Will of man retains a freedom in Actions of Civil Justice and making Election of such things as are under the same pretension of natural Reason but hath no power without the speciall Assistance of the Holy Ghost
to attain unto spiritual Righteousness according to the saying of the Apostle That the natural man perceiveth not the things which are of the spirit of God And that of Christ our Saviour without me you can do nothing And therefore the Pelagians are to be condemned who teach that man is able by the meer strength of Nature not only to love God above all things but also to fulfil the Law according to the substance of the Acts thereof 4. Of Conversion and the manner of it The Righteousness which is effected in us by the opperation and assistance of the Holy Ghost which we receive by yeilding our assent to the word of God according to that of S. Augustine in the third Book of his Hypognosticks in which he grants a freedom of the Will to all which have the use of Reason not that they are thereby able either to begin or go through with any thing in the things of God without Gods assistance but only in the Affairs of this present life whether good or evil 5. Of falling after Grace received Remission of sins is not to be denied in such who after Baptism fall into sins at what time soever they were converted and the Church is bound to confer the benefit of Absolution upon all such as return unto it by Repentance And therefore as we condemn the Novatian Hereticks refusing the benefit of absolution unto those who having after Baptism lashed into sin gave publick Signs of their Repentance so we condemn the Anabaptists who teach that a man once justified can by no means lose the Holy Ghost as also those who think that men may have so great a measure of perfection in this present life that they cannot fall again into sin Such is the Doctrine of the Lutheran Churches agreed on in the famous Augustan Confession so called because presented and avowed at the Diet of Auspurge Augusta vindelicorum the Latines call it 1530. confirm'd after many struglings on the one side and oppositions on the other by Charles the fifth in a general Assembly of the Estates of the Empire holden at Passaw Ann. 1552. and afterwards more fully in another Dyet held at Auspurge Ann. 1555. A Confession generally entertained not only in the whole Kingdoms of Denmark Norway and Sweden but also in the Dukedom of Prussia and some parts of Poland and all the Protestant Churches of the High Germany neither the rigid Lutherans nor the Calvinians themselves being otherwise tolerated in the Empire than as they shrowd themselves under the Patronage and shelter of this Confession For besides the first breach betwixt Luther and Zuinglius which hapned at the beginning of the Reformation there afterwards grew a sub-division betwixt the Lutherans themselves occasioned by Flacius Illyricus and his Associates who having separated themselves from Melancthon and the rest of the Divines of Wittenberge and made themselves the Head of the rigid Lutherans did gladly entertain those Doctrines in which they were sure to finde as good Assistance as the Dominicans and their party could afford unto them The wisdom and success of which Councel being observed by those of the Zuinglian or Calvinian Faction they gladly put in for a share being not meanly well approved that though their Doctrines were condemned by the Councel of Trent yet they found Countenance especially in the Sublapsarian way not only from the whole Sect of the Dominicans but the rigid Lutherans And that the Scales might be kept even between the Parties there started ouâ— another Faction amongst the Calvinists themselves who symbolized with the Melancthonians or moderate Lutherans as they did with the Jesuit and Franciscan Fryers For the Abetting of which their Quarrel this last side calling to their Ayde all the Ancient Fathers both Greek and Latine who lived before the time of S. Augustine the others relying wholly on his single Judgment not alwayes constant to himself nor very well seconded by Prosper noâ— any other of great Note in the times succeeding Finally that Catarinus may not go alone in his middleway I will follow him with one of his own Order for he was afterwards made Bishop of Miâ—ori in Italy that is to say the right learned Doctor Overall publick Professor of Divinity in Cambridge Dean of S. Pauls and successively Bishop of Lichfield and Norwich whose Judgment in a middle way and though not the same that Catarinus went the Reader may finde in Mr. Playferts notable Piece intituled Apello Evangelium to which I refer him at the present as being not within the compass of my present Design which carries me to such Disputes as have been raised between the Calvinians and their Opposites in these parts of the world since the conclusion and determination of the Councel of Trent IV. And for the better carrying on of my Design I must go back again to Calvin whom I left under a suspition of making God to be the Author of sin from which though many have took much pains none more then industrious Doctor Feild to absolve and free him yet by his Doctrine of Predestination he hath layd such grounds as have involved his Followers in the same guilt also For not content to travel a known and beaten way he must needs finde out a way by himself which neither the Dominicans nor any other of the Followers of Augustine's Rigors had found out before in making God to lay on Adam an unavoidable necessity of falling into sin and misery that so he might have opportunity to manifest his Mercy in the electing of some few of his Posterity and his Justice in the absolute rejecting of all the rest In which as he can finde no Countenance from any of the Ancient Writers so he pretendeth not to any ground for it in the holy Scriptures For whereas some objected on Gods behalf De certis verbis non extare That the Decree of Adams Fall and consequently the involving of his whole Posterity in sin and misery had no foundation in the express words of Holy Writ he makes no other Answer to it then a quasi vero as if saith he God made and created man the most exact Piece of his Heavenly Workmanship without determining of his end And on this Point he was so resolutely bent that nothing but an absolute Decree for Adams Fall seconded by the like for the involving of all his Race in the same Perdition would either serve his turn or preserve his Credit For whereas others had objected on Gods behalf that no such unavoidable necessity was layd upon man-kinde by the will of God but rather that he was Created by God unto such a perishing estate because he foresaw to what his own perversness at the last would bring him He answereth that this Objection proves nothing at all or at least nothing to the purpose which sayd he tels us further out of Valla though otherwise not much versed as he there affirmeth in the holy Scriptures ' That this Question seems