THE WORKS OF

AUGUSTUS TOPLADY

VOLUME 2

THE

WORKS

OF

AUGUSTUS M. TOPLADY, A.B.

LATE VICAR OF BROAD HEMBURY, DEVON.

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NEW EDITION,

WITH AN ENLARGED MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR

_____________________________________

IN SIX VOLUMES

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VOL. 2

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LONDON:

PRINTED FOR WILLIAM BAYNES AND SON,

PATERNOSTER ROW;

AND H. S. BAYNES, EDINBURGH

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1825

As Published By Grace-eBooks.com 2015

Book II - Works of Augustus Toplady

Calvinism XVI - The Judgment of the most eminent English Martyrs,...

SECTION XVI.

The Judgment of the most eminent English Martyrs, and Confesssors, who suffered Death, or Persecution, after the Overthrow of the Reformation by Queen Mary I.

WE have seen in the three preceeding Sections, 1. That the reformers of the Church of England were zealous Calvinists, as to matters of doctrine: 2. That Calvin himself had a very considerable hand in reducing our liturgy to that purity and excellence which it still retains: and, 3. That Calvin, Beza, Zanchius, Sadeel, Bullinger, and Gualter, entertained very respectful and affectionate sentiments, concerning the ritual, decency and order, together with the episcopal regimen, of our incomparable Church. And, to the approbation of those most learned persons, might be added (if need required) that of many other foreign Calvinists, who are deservedly numbered among the first ornaments of that century.

While pious king Edward lived, the Church of England saw herself at the very pinnacle of spiritual prosperity. Her supreme visible head was a prodigy of wisdom, knowledge, and undefiled religion. Her bishops were luminaries of the first brightness: men glowing with love to God; clear in the doctrines of the gospel, and zealous in maintaining them; of eminent learning, for the most part; assertors, and patterns, of every good word and work. Had Providence been pleased to have extended the felicities of that reign, what might not have been expected from a Prince of Edward's accomplishments; and from a choir of prelates, whom grace, abilities, and almost every useful attainment, concurred to render venerable?

But God (whose disposals are not less wise, just, and gracious, for being at present unsearchable,) was pleased to reverse the scene. The king's death opened Mary's way to the throne; who ruled not with a sceptre, but a sword.

That bigotted princess, and her Popish counsellors, knew, that the doctrines of gratuitous election, invincible grace, and justification without works, enter into the very basis of genuine Protestantism. No wonder, therefore, that, to rid the two Universities of all predestinarians, was a primary object of her attention. Free-will, conditional justification, and the merit of works, were doctrines so essential to the interests of Popery, that not to aim at (t) restoring them, would have been doing matters by halves. Therefore, "A resolution was taken, to bring into the Universities a test for purging them of all Protestants, and to prevent their re-admission for the future. This was done by way of oath, as follows:

"You shall swear, by the holy contents of this book, that you shall not keep, hold, maintain, and defend, at any time, during your life, any opinion erroneous, or error of Wickliff, Huss, Luther, or any other condemned of heresy: And that you shall, namely and specially, hold as the Catholic church holdeth in all these articles, wherein lately hath been controversy, dissention, and error; as concerning faith, and works, grace and free-will, &c." Now, I have before demonstrated (particularly, in the 3d and 4th Sections of this essay), that “in all these articles," which concern “faith and works, grace and free will," the church of Rome is avowedly Arminian throughout. Consequently, by tendering the above oath to the members of the Universities, queen Mary's design was to clear those seminaries of all Calvinists; the better to make way for the re-introduction of Popery.

(t) It deserves particular notice, that, A.D. 1554 (which was the year after Mary came to the crown), Bonner published a book, for the re-instruction of his diocese in the principles of Popery, entitled, A Profitable and Necessary Doctrine, containing an Exposition on the Creed, Seven Sacraments, Ten Commandments, the Pater-noster, Are Maria, &c. A considerate part of which was taken out of the Pia et Catholica Institutio, which had been published in the reign of Henry VIII. See the Biogr. Dict. vol. ii. p 264 - Thus Sellon's Arminian letter to the vicar of Broad Hembury, as also Dr. N.'s answer to the Author of Pietas Oxoniensis, are fraught with arguments borrowed from that self-same Popish storehouse (viz. the Pia et Catholica Institutio) which furnished Bonner with materials for his pastoral letter to the diocese of London. Arminianism cares not what it eats. The foulest food will go down, so dear free-will is but kept from starving.

With the same view, a proclamation was issued, in 1555, to prohibit the sale, the reading, or the keeping of any book or books, writings or works, made or set forth by or in the name of Martin Luther, O. Ecolampadius, Zuinglius, John Calvin, Bucer, Peter Martyr, Latimer, Hooper, Coverdale, Tyndal, Cranmer (w)," and other predestinarian Protestants whose names are there enumerated. Twas added, that all persons, possessing any books written by the above authors, “Shall, within the space of fifteen days next after the publication of this proclamation, bring, or deliver, or cause the said books, writings, and works, and every of them, remaining in their custody and keeping, to be brought and delivered, to the ordinary of the diocese, to be burnt," or otherwise destroyed. On which order the pious Mr. Fox makes this obvious remark: What a-do is here, to keep down Christ in his sepulchre! and yet will he rise, in spite of all his enemies (x). The truth is, queen Mary and her Spanish husband, in whose names that proclamation ran, well knew that Calvinism is the very life and soul of the reformation: and that popery would never flourish, 'till the Calvinistic doctrines were eradicated.

(w) Fox, iii. p. 225. (x) Ibid.

I have already given some intimation (p. 310), from bishop Burnet, of a brief confession of faith, which was drawn up and signed by the Protestant bishops and Clergymen who were then imprisoned in London, shortly after the coronation of Mary. But as Burnet's extract is (according to custom) very partial and superficial, I shall here present my readers with the entire paragraph, to which that historian so lamely refers. “Fourthly, we believe and confess, concerning justification, that as it cometh only from God's mercy through Christ, so it is perceived and had of none, who be of years of discretion, otherwise than by faith only. Which faith is not an opinion, but a certain persuasion wrought by the Holy Ghost in the mind and heart of man; wherethrough, as the mind is illuminated, so the heart is suppled to submit itself to the will of God unfeignedly; and so sheweth forth an inherent righteousness, which is to be discerned (i.e. which inherent righteousness is to be carefully distinguished) in the articles of justification, from the righteousness which God endueth us with al, justifying us; although inseparably they go together. And this we do [i.e. we preserve this important distinction between imputed and inherent righteousness] not for curiosity, nor contention sake; but for conscience sake; that it might be quiet; which it can never be, if we confound, without distinction, forgiveness of sins and Christ's righteousness imputed to us, with regeneration and inherent righteousness." Thus spake these excellent divines: adding, immediately after, “by this," (i.e. by this view of justification,) “we disallow Papistical doctrine of free-will, of works of supererogation, of merits, of the necessity of auricular confession, and satisfaction to God-wards (y)." This valuable paper was dated the 8th day of May, A.D. 1554, and subscribed by

Robert Ferrar, late bishop of St. David's.

Rowland Taylor.

John Philpot.

John Bradford.

John Hooper, late bishop of Worcester and Gloucester.

Edward Crome.

John Rogers.

Laurence Saunders.

Edmund Laurence

J. P.

T. M.

(y) Fox's Acts & Mon. vol. iii. p. 83.

At the bottom of all was written, “To these things abovesaid, do I, Miles Coverdale, late (bishop) of Exeter, consent and agree, with these mine afflicted brethren, being prisoners: mine own hand.'' Now, can any person question the Calvinism of these blessed men of God, by whom the tenets of free-will and of justification by inherent righteousness, were expressly numbered among “Papistical doctrines;" and classed with “works of supererogation, merits, and auricular confession?"

A great number of God's faithful servants, both ministers and people, were brought to the stake, for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of his patience, during the short, but sharp reign of this sanguinary woman. Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, and Hooper, having been treated of already, I shall proceed to the brief mention of some others.

And here, amidst the noble army of English Martyrs, I find myself encompassed with so great a cloud of witnesses to the doctrines of grace, that I scarce know whom to select, or whom to omit. Was I to introduce them all, I should exceed every reasonable limit of brevity. I am obliged, therefore, to suppress the attestations of many precious sufferers for Christ, who witnessed a good confession even unto death, and who will be found with honour and praise and glory at his appearing. Among the few I shall produce, as vouchers for the rest, those that follow:

I. Mr. John Rogers, prebendary and divinity-lecturer of St. Paul's, and vicar of St. Sepulchre's, London, had the honour of being the first that was burned for the gospel, under the bloody auspices of Mary. He suffered in Smithfield, February 4, 1555. His judgment, concerning the Calvinian doctrines, is sufficiently apparent, without adducing any other proofs, from the above mentioned declaration of faith, to which he set his hand during his last imprisonment.

II. Mr. Laurence Saunders, a clergyman of birth and fortune, eminent as a scholar, but still more respectable for the grace given him of God, was lecturer, first, at Fothering-hay; next, reader in the cathedral of Litchfield; and, lastly, rector of Allhallows, in Bread-street, London. He was burned at Coventry, Feb. 8. 1555. Though his hand, likewise, was to the declaration of faith, quoted above; I will annex one or two additional evidences of his Calvinism: in hope, that, while they demonstrate the clearness of the martyr's head, their piety may warm and impress the reader's heart. In a letter, sent from prison to his wife, he thus expressed his triumph of faith: “I do not doubt but that both I and you, as we be written in the book of life, so we shall together enioy the same everlastingly, through the grace and mercy of God our dear Father, in his Son, our Christ. I am merry, I thank my God and my Christ; in whom and thro' whom I shall, I know, be able to fight a good fight, and finish a good course (z)." In another letter to Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer (then prisoners at Oxford), this seraphic man observes: “We walk in faith: which faith, although, for want of outward appearance, reason reputeth but as vain; yet the chosen of God do know the effect thereof to bring a more substantial state and lively fruition of very felicity and perfect blessedness, than reason can reach, or senses receive. You may be assured, by God's grace, that you shall not be frustrate of your hope of our constant continuance in the cheerful confession of God's everlasting verity. For even as we have received the word of truth, the gospel of our salvation; wherein we believing are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance (which Spirit certifieth our spirit that we are the children of God, and therefore God hath sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father); so, after such portion as God measureth unto us, we, with the whole Church of Christ and with you, reverend fathers, receiving the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak. Knowing, most certainly, that though we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of this power might be God's, and not ours; yet shall we not be dashed in pieces: for the Lord will put his hand under us. To communicate with our sweet Saviour Christ in hearing the cross, it is appointed unto us, that with him also we shall be glorified (a)." Elsewhere Mr. Saunders sets his seal to the doctrine of final perseverance, in terms, if possible stronger still: “Now that he hath, in his dear Christ, repaired us (being, before, utterly decayed); and redeemed us, purging us unto himself as a peculiar people, by the blood of his Son; he hath put on a most tender good will and fatherly affection towards us never to forget us (b)." Again: “Praised be our gracious God, who preserveth his from evil; and doth give them grace to avoid all such offences, as might hinder his honour, or hurt his Church (c)." Once more, “I take occasion of much rejoicing in our so gracious God and merciful Father, who hath, in his immeasurable mercy, by faith, hand-fasted us his chosen children unto his dear Son our Christ (d).” “We may boldly, with our Christ, and all his elect, say, Death, where is thy sting (e)?" No self-righteousness lay at the foundation of this holy man's triumph. His whole trust was in the covenant-merits of Jesus the Saviour. Hence, in a short letter, which is entitled, To his wife, a little before his burning, after desiring her to send him a shirt in which he was to suffer, he breaks out into this sweet prayer, “O, my Heavenly Father, look upon me in the face of thy Christ! or else, I shall not be able to abide thy countenance; such is my filthiness. He will do so; and therefore I will not be afraid what sin, hell, death, and damnation, can do against me (f)." His spiritual consolations continued with him to the last. When arrived at the place of execution, he kissed the stake; saying, in a transport of joy, Welcome, the cross of Christ; welcome, everlasting life!

(z) Ibid. p. 111. (a)Ibid. p. 112. (b) Ibid. p. 113. (c) Ibid (d) Ibid. p. 116. (e) Ibid. (f) Ibid. p. 118.

III. Dr. Rowland Taylor was rector of Hadley, in Suffolk. We may form a judgment of that wonderful out-pouring of the Holy Spirit, and of the diffusive spread of divine knowledge, which attended the preaching of the gospel in the age of the reformation, from what Mr. Fox delivers, concerning the state of religion in that particular town. “The town of Hadley was one of the first that received the gospel in all England, at the preaching of Mr. Thomas Bilney: by whose industry the gospel of Christ had such gracious success, and took such root there, that a great number in that parish became exceeding well learned in the Holy Scriptures, as well women as men. So that a man might have found amongst them many, who had often read the whole Bible through, and who could have said a great sort of St. Paul's epistles by heart, and very well and readily have given a godly, learned sentence in any matter of controversy. Their children and servants were also brought up and trained so diligently in, the right knowledge of God's word, that the whole town seemed rather an university of the learned, than a town of cloth-making, or labouring people; and, what is most to be commended, they were, for the more part, faithful followers of God's word in their living. In this town was Doctor Rowland Taylor, doctor in both the civil and canon laws, and a right perfect divine, parson (g)." What a melancholy contrast, alas! are the present times, to those! How has the introduction of Arminianism poisoned our Protestant streams, and cankered our evangelical gold!

(g) Fox, vol iii. p. 137.

Dr. Taylor was a very uncommon man, both for grace and gifts. He had the piety of Calvin, the intrepidity of Luther, and the orthodoxy of both. When bishop Bonner came to degrade him, in the Poultry compter, prior to his martyrdom, he [Bonner] desired the magnanimous prisoner to put on the sacerdotal habit, that he might, be divested of it in form. “I am come, [quoth Bonner] to degrade you: wherefore put on these vestures. No, said Dr. Taylor, I will not. Wilt thou not? answered the bishop; I shall make thee, ere I go. Quoth Dr. Taylor, You shall not, by the grace of God. Then he charged him, upon his obedience, to do it: but he would not do it for him (h)." 'Tis usual, it seems, in popish degradations, for the bishop to give the degraded person a slight stroke on the breast, with a crosier. Bonner was afraid (for persecutors are generally cowards) to perform this part of the ceremony on Taylor. "At the last," says Mr. Fox, "when he should have given Dr. Taylor a stroke on the breast with his crosier-staff, the bishop's chaplain said, My lord, strike him not, for he will sure strike again. Yea, by St. Peter, will I, quoth Dr. Taylor: the cause is Christ's: and I were no good Christian, if I would not fight in my master's quarrel. So the bishop laid his curse upon him, but struck him not. Bonner being gone, the doctor returned up stairs: and when he came up, he told Mr. Bradford (for they both lay in one chamber) that he had made the bishop of London afraid; for, said he, laughing, His chaplain gave him counsel not to strike me with his crosier-staff, for that I would strike again; and, by my troth, continued he, rubbing his hands, I made him believe I would do so indeed (i).”

(h) Ibid. p. 143. (i) Ibid.

That this eminent messenger and martyr of Christ was one who rightly divided the word of truth, the following short extracts will suffice to shew. His judgment was, that the Mediator died for those only who are endued with faith: “Christ gave himself," said he, “to die for our redemption, upon the cross; whose body, there offered, was the propitiatory sacrifice, full, perfect, and sufficient unto salvation, for all them that believe in him (k).” He held the doctrine of assurance: and no wonder; for God had favoured him with the gift itself. Hence, four days before his execution, he thus subscribed his last will and testament: "Rowland Taylor, departing hence in sure hope, without doubting, of eternal salvation; I thank God, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ my certain Saviour, Amen. The 5th of February, anno 1555. The Lord is my light and my salvation: whom then shall I fear? God is he that justifieth: who is he that can condemn? In thee, O Lord, have I trusted: let me never be confounded." All assurance of salvation, not grounded on certainty of perseverance, is, in the most superlative degree, baseless, contradictory, and enthusiastic. But this good man's assurance was not thus built on a bubble. “I am," said he, “immovably settled upon the rock: nothing doubting, but that my dear God will perform and finish the work that he hath begun in me and others (l)." I will only add a judicious remark of his, concerning justification: "Abraham's justification by faith, by grace, by promise, and not by works, is plainly set forth, both in the Epistle to the Romans, chap. iv. (Ro 4) and to the Galatians, chap. iii. (Ga 3) And Abraham's works of obedience, in offering up his son so long after his justification, must needs be taken as a fruit of a good tree, justifying before men, and not of justification before God: for then had man [i.e. man would then have somewhat] to glory in; then did Christ die in vain (m).'' Now, as men, by the gospel scheme of salvation, have nothing to glory in, nothing to boast of, nothing to rest upon, but the grace of God and the Messiah's obedience unto deatli; it follows, that men cannot be justified in the sight of God, by their own works, neither in whole, nor in part: since, if they could, they would have something else to glory in, besides that grace and imputed righteousness which the Scripture avers are the only basis of a sinner's justification. Moreover, as this blessed martyr farther observes from the apostle, Christ died in vain, on the supposition that human works have any antecedent influence on our acceptance with God: for, as much conditionally, or casualty, as you ascribe to works; just so much you detract from the merit and efficacy of Christ's blood and righteousness The Saviour of sinners obeyed and died, either to accomplish the whole of our iustitication, or a part of it only. If to accomplish the whole, then justification by works falls at once. If his merits accomplished our justification only in part, then our own works must come in, by way of supplement, to make up what Christ left deficient: on which supposition, as human obedience would have some hand in justifying us, so, it would be fairly entitled to a share of the praise; for, if Christ has actually divided the work of salvation between himself and sinners, it is but equitable that the honour should be divided also. The Bible, however, cuts up this sacrilegious and self-righteous scheme, both root and branch: and, without giving the lie in form to every page of that blessed book, we cannot believe that Christ's mediatorial righteousness has any deficiency to make up. Admitting, therefore, that his work was perfect, and that he truly said, it is finished; the consequence will be, that our good works (though absolutely requisite, ex post facto, as indications of justification; yet) have no kind of agency, whatever, in accomplishing, procuring, obtaining, or conditionating our pardon and acceptance with the Father. Since, if Christ redeemed us completely, and any remaining efficacy be still supposed to reside in our own works; that efficacy (be it more or less) renders superfluous an equal ratio of the merit of Christ's complete redemption: and thus, so far, Christ, on this scheme, must have died in vain. But it was impossible for Christ to die in vain: therefore, human works have no hand in justification. This seems, to me, the precise drift of the apostle's argument, Ga 2:21. If righteousness, either justification itself, or any part of the righteousness which justifies, come by the law, accrue, though ever so remotely, to any sinner, by or through his own conformity to the moral law; then it would follow that Christ is dead in vain: but Christ could not die in vain; ergo, neither justification itself, nor the righteousness which justifies, can accrue, though ever so remotely, to any sinner by or through his own conformity to the moral law. But does not St. James affirm, that Abraham was justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? Certainly he was. But it was a justification before men, not before God. As good Dr. Rowland Taylor remarks, Abraham had been justified before God, long, even many years, before his intentional oblation of Isaac: yea, many years before Isaac himself was born. Abraham's justification in the sight of God is related Ge 15:6. But even the birth of Isaac does not occur, till you come to chapter xxi.(Ge 21) I conclude, then, that the justification, of which St. James speaks, is no more than an evidential justification before men, by visible works of external obedience; declaring, manifesting, and proving, a prior justification before God: which prior justification before God is in no sense founded upon, though most certainly productive of, all holiness of life and conversation. St. Paul viewed the matter exactly in the same light: by faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son. Heb 11:17. Observe, his receiving of the promises (by which faith, or reception, he was divinely justified in the court of his own conscience), his receiving of the promises respecting salvation by Christ, was antecedent to his offering of Isaac. Consequently, having been already actually justified by the former; the justification, mentioned by St. James, can only mean a declarative display, or practical proof, of Abraham's (and by the same rule, of any other believer's) preceding justification in the sight of God, without works. The reader, I hope, will forgive this incidental disquisition: which, though in some measure excursive, is not wholly digressive; as it at tempts to elucidate, more at large, what the excellent martyr intimated in brief.

(k) Ibid. p. 139. (l) Ibid. p. 142. (m) Ibid. p. 147.

IV. and V. Soon after the burning of Dr. Taylor, Mr. Thomas Causton, and Mr. Thomas Higbed, sealed the truth with their blood. Fox expressly says, that these two elect champions were “condemned for the confession of faith” which they united in drawing up and presenting to Bonner. Part of that confession was as follows. “We believe, that there is a Catholic church, even a communion of saints, built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles (as Paul saith), Christ being the head corner-stone. For the which church, Christ gave himself, to make it to himself a glorious congregation, without fault in his sight. We believe, that this church, of herself, and by her own merits, is sinful; and must needs say, Father, forgive us our sins, But, thro' Christ and his merits, she is freely forgiven: for he, in his own person, hath purged her sins, and made her faultless in his sight (n)." Can words more strongly express a redemption absolute, limited, and efficacious?

(n) Fox, vol. iii. p. 162.

VI. Mr. Stephen Knight was burnt at Maldon, in Essex, March 28, 1555. Part of his prayer at the stake was, “Thou rememberest, O Lord, that I am but dust, and. able to do nothing that is good: therefore, O Lord, as, of thine accustomed goodness and love, thou hast bidden me to this banquet, and accounted me worthy to drink of thine own cup, amongst thy elect; even so give me strength, &c. (o)''

(o) Ibid. p. 165.

VII. The right reverend Doctor Robert Farrer, lord bishop of St. David's, a prelate of eminent name in the Church of England, and formerly one of the committee nominated to compile the English liturgy, was burned in the market-place at Caermarthen, March 30, 1555. On his examination, a paper, containing several Popish articles, was tendered to him for subscription: but he resolutely refused to save his life at the expense of his faith. One of these articles, which respected justification, was as follows: “Men are not justified before God, by faith only; but hope and charity are also necessarily required to justification (q)." The bishop's not acceding to this Papistical tenet (a tenet, now, as common to Arminians, as ever it was to Papists), was one cause of his being adjudged to the flames: for, in the sentence of condemnation which enumerated some of the pretended errors for which he was cast, the following clause brings up the rear: Item, quod homo sola fide justificatur: i.e. “Also, he believeth, that men are justified by faith alone (r)." The reader, I suppose, need not be reminded that this worthy bishop was one of those imprisoned divines who drew up and set their hands to the confession of faith, quoted toward the beginning of this Section. His lordship's execution was attended with a very remarkable circumstance. A Mr. Jones coming to condole him on the painfulness of the death he was to undergo, the holy bishop made answer, If you see me once to stir, while I am burning, then give no credit to the truth of the doctrines for which I suffer. God, under whose inspiration, undoubtedly, this was uttered, enabled his faithful martyr to make good his promise: for he stood, encircled with the flames, like a rock in the midst of the waves, without flinching, or moving so much as once: steadily holding up his arms, even when his hands were burnt away; till one Richard Gravel, a bye-stander, “dashed him on the head with a staff, and struck him down (s)."

(q) Fox, vol. iii. p. 177. (r) Ibid. p. 178. (s) Ibid.

VIII. Mr. George Marsh suffered Martyrdom at or near Chester, April 24, 1555. This good man was as truly Calvinistic, as the rest of his Protestant brethren; for, being charged on his examination before Cotes, the Popish bishop of Chester, with having said, "That the church and doctrine taught and set forth in king Edward's time was the true church, and the doctrine of the true church;" Marsh acknowledged that he had so spoken, and declared himself still to be of the same mind (t). If more particular proof of his judgment be thought necessary, the ensuing passages, extracted from some of his letters, offer themselves as evidences. “Tho' Satan" says he, “be suffered to sift us, as wheat, for a time; yet faileth not our faith, thro' Christ's aid (u)." Again: “If any, therefore, fall away from Christ and his word, it is a plain token that they were but dissembling hypocrites, for all their fair faces outwardly, and never believed truly: as Judas, Simon Magus, Demas, Hymenaeus, Philetus, and others were (w)." Once more: "Daily I call and cry unto the Lord, in whom is all my trust, and without whom I can do nothing, that he who hath I begun a good work in me, would vouchsafe to go forth with it until the day of Jesus Christ: being surely certified in my own conscience, of this, that he will do so; forasmuch as he hath given me not only that I should believe on him but also suffer for his sake (x)." What he thought concerning the invincible efficacy of inward grace, appears from this passage in the prayer which the historian tells us "he used daily to say:" We beseech thee, according to the little measure of our infirmity, although we be far unable and unapt to pray, that thou wouldest mercifully circumcise our stony hearts, and for these old hearts create new within us, and replenish us with a new spirit (y). - Nor was his judgment, respecting faith, justification, and works, less excellent and scriptural. “What hast thou, saith the apostle, that thou hast not received? This sentence ought to be had in remembrance of all men: for, if we have nothing but that which we have received, what can we deserve? or what need we to dispute and reason of our own merits? It cometh of the free gift of God, that we live, that we love God, that we walk in his fear. Where "is our deserving then (z)!" Elsewhere he writes thus: “Grace is, throughout all the Epistles of Paul, taken for the free mercy and favour of God; whereby he saveth us freely, without any deservings, or works of the law (a)." Reconciliation with God, through the blood of Christ, is a subject, which this holy martyr treats of with equal clearness: "Peace is taken for the quietness and

(t) Ibid. p. 190 (u) Ibid. p. 192. (w) Ibid. p. 194. (x) Ibid. p. 199. (y) Ibid, (z) Ibid. p. 196. (a) Ibid. p. 197.

tranquillity of the conscience, being thoroughly persuaded, that through the only merits of Christ's death and blood-shedding, there is an atonement and peace made between God and us: so that God will no more impute our sins unto us, nor yet condemn us (b).” Yet are not good works hereby discarded: “Declare your faith," says he, “by your good works, which are in fallible witnesses of the true justifying faith, which is never idle, but worketh by charity (c)." Again: “After these works, we must learn to know the cross, and what affection and mind we must bear towards our adversaries and enemies, whatsoever they be; to suffer all adversities and evils patiently; to pray for them that hurt, persecute, and trouble us: and, by thus using ourselves, we shall obtain a hope and certainty of our vocation, that we be the elect children of God (d).'' He observes, that “God is wont, for the most part, to warn his elect and chosen, what affliction and trouble shall happen unto them for his sake: not to the intent to fray them thereby, but rather to prepare their minds against the boisterous storms of persecution (e)." Next to the effectual presence of the Holy Spirit, nothing, perhaps, so strengthens and animates the minds of God's people to be valiant for his truths, as the examples of those who are enabled to lay down their lives for Christ: whence we find Mr. Marsh saying, as the apostle did before him, “We suffer all things for the elects' sake (f)." His judicious explication of Col 1:24. shall at present close the testimony of this worthy martyr: “St. Paul doth not here mean, that there wanteth anything in the passion of Christ, which may be supplied by man: for the passion of Christ, as touching his own person, is that most perfect and omni-sufficient sacrifice, whereby we are all made perfect, as many as are sanctified in his blood. But these his words [i.e. the Apostle's words in the above text] ought to be understood of the elect and chosen, in whom Christ is and shall be persecuted unto the world's end (g)."

(b) Ibid. (c) Ibid. p. 194. (d) Ibid. p. 195. (e) Ibid. p. 198. (f) Ibid. (g) Ibid.

IX. Mr. John Warne, upholsterer and citizen of London, was burned in Smithfield, May, 31, 1555. The day before he suffered he wrote a confession of his faith, in form of a commentary on the Apostle's creed. The confession, though long, is so excellent that I cannot help giving it entire.

"I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth.

“A Father, because he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the everlasting Word, whom, before all worlds, he hath begotten of himself; which Word was made flesh, and therein also manifested to be his Son: in whom he hath adopted us to be his children, the inheritors of his kingdom; and therefore he is our Father. An Almighty God, because he hath, of nothing, created all things, visible and invisible, both in heaven and in earth, even all creatures contained therein; and governeth them.

“And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.

“The eternal Word, perfect God with his Father, of equal power in all things, of the same substance, of like glory, by whom all things were made and have life, and without whom nothing liveth. He was made also perfect man: and so, being very God and very man in one person, is the only Saviour, Redeemer, and Ransomer, of them which were lost in Adam our forefather. He is the only mean of our deliverance, the hope of our health, the surety of our salvation.

“Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary.

" According to the Father’s most merciful promise, this Eternal Son of God, forsaking the heavenly glory, humbled himself to take flesh of a virgin, according to the Scriptures: uniting the substance of the Godhead to the substance of the manhood, which he took of the substance of that blessed Virgin Mary, in one person; to become therein the very Messiah, the anointed King and Priest, forever appointed to pacify the Father's wrath, which was justly gone out against us all for our sin.

“Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried, and descended into Hell.

" He was arraigned before Pontius Pilate, the ruler of Jewry; and so unjustly accused of many crimes, that the ruler judged him innocent, and sought means to deliver him: but contrary to known justice, he did let go Barabbas, who had deserved death; and delivered Christ to be crucified, who deserved no death Which doth declare unto us, manifestly, that he suffered for our sins, and was buffetted for our offences, as the Prophets do witness: thereby to have it manifested to all men that he is that Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. Therefore, suffering for our sins, he received and did bear our deserved condemnation, the pains of death, the taste of abjection, the very terror of Hell: yielding his spirit to his Father; his body, to be buried in the earth.

“The third day, he rose again from the dead.

“To make full and perfect the whole work of our redemption and justification, the same crucified body, which was laid in the grave, was raised up again the third day from death, by the power of his Father, and glory of his Godhead. He became the first fruits of the resurrection, and got the victory of death, that all by him might be raised up from death: through whom all true penitent sinners may now boldly come unto the Father, and have remission of their sins.

"He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

“After that, in his death and resurrection, he had conquered sin, death, and the Devil, and had been conversant forty days in the earth, being seen of the Apostles, and more than five hundred brethren at once; in the same body, in which he wrought the work of our salvation, he ascended into heaven, with eternal triumph for the victory over death, sin, and hell: leaving the passage open, by which all true believers may and shall enter into his kingdom; where he now sitteth at his Father's right hand, that is to say, in power and glory equal, in Majesty co-eternal.

“From thence he shall come, to judge the quick and the dead.

“He shall appear again, in great glory, to receive his elect unto himself, and to put his enemies under his feet: changing all living men, in a moment, and raising up all that be dead; that all may be brought to his judgment. In this shall he give each man according to his deeds. They who have followed him in re generation, who have their sins washed away in his blood, and are clothed with his righteousness, shall receive the everlasting kingdom, and reign with him forever. And they, who, after the race of the corrupt generation of Adam, have followed flesh and blood, shall receive everlasting damnation with the Devil and his angels.

"I believe in the Holy Ghost.

"I do believe that the Holy Ghost is God; the third person in the Trinity; in unity of the Godhead equal with the Father and the Son: given, through Christ, to inhabit our spirits; by which we are made to feel and understand the great power, virtue, and loving-kindness, of Christ our Lord. For he [i.e. the Holy Ghost] illuminates, quickens, and certifies our spirit that by him we are sealed up to the day of redemption: by whom we are regenerate, and made new creatures: so that, by him, and through him, we do receive all the abundant goodness promised us in Jesus Christ.

“The Holy Catholic Church.

“This is a holy number of Adam's posterity, elected, gathered, washed, and purified by the blood, from the beginning of the world; and is dispersed through the same, by the tyranny of Gog and Magog, i.e. [by] the Turk and his tyranny; and Antichrist, otherwise named the bishop of Rome, and his angels [i.e. his emissaries], as this day also doth teach.

“The Communion of Saints.

“Which most holy congregation (being, as St. Paul teacheth, builded upon the foundation of the Apostles, and Prophets, Jesus Christ being the head-corner stone), though it be, by the tyranny of Satan and his ministers, persecuted, some by death, and some by other afflictions and painful torments; yet doth it remain in one perfect unity, both of faith and fellowship. Which unity is knit in an unspeakable knot, as well of them who are departed from this mortal life, as of them who now believing, and hereafter shall be in the same: and so shall continue, until they all do meet in the kingdom, where the head, Jesus Christ, with all his holy members (of which number, through Christ, I assuredly believe I am one), shall be fully complete, knit, and united together, forevermore.

“The forgiveness of Sins.

I do believe, that my sins, and all their sins who do rightly believe the Holy Scripture, are forgiven only through Jesus Christ; of whom only I do profess, that I have my whole and full salvation and redemption: which St. Paul saith cometh not through our works and deservings, but freely, by grace, lest any should boast himself. Through the blood of the cross, all things in heaven and earth are reconciled and set at peace with the Father [i.e. as it immediately follows], without him [without Christ] no heavenly life [is] given, no sin forgiven.

“The Resurrection of the Body.

I do believe, that, by the same, my Saviour Christ, I and all men shall rise again from death: for he, as St. Paul saith, is risen again from the dead, and is become the first-fruits of them that sleep; for by a man came death, and by a man cometh the resurrection from death. This man [by whom the resurrection comes] is Christ; through the power of whose resurrection, I believe that we shall rise again in these our bodies: the elect, clothed with immortality, to live with Christ forever; the reprobate also shall rise immortal, to live with the Devil and his angels in death everlasting.

“And the life everlasting.

Through the same Jesus, and by none other, I am sure to have life everlasting. He only is the way and entrance into the kingdom of Heaven. For God so loved the world, that he did give his only Son Jesus Christ, to the end that so many as do believe in him might have everlasting life. The which I am sure to possess, so soon as I am dissolved, and departed out of this tabernacle; and in the last day, shall, both body and soul, possess the same forever: to the which, God grant all men to come.

"I believe, that the sacraments, that is to say, of baptism and the Lord's Supper, are seals of God's most merciful promises towards mankind. In baptism, as, by the outward creature of water, I am washed from the filthiness which hangeth on my flesh; so do I assuredly believe, that I am, by Christ's blood, washed clean from my sins: through which [spiritual washing] I have sure confidence of my certain salvation. In partaking of the Lord's supper, as I receive the substance of bread and wine, the nature of which is to strengthen the body; so do I, by faith, receive the redemption wrought in Christ's body broken on the cross; life, by his death; resurrection, by his resurrection; and, in sum, all that ever Christ in his body suffered for my salvation, to the strengthing of my faith in the same. And I believe that God hath appointed the eating and drinking of the creatures of bread and wine, in his holy supper, according, to his word, to move and to stir up my mind to believe these articles above written.

“This is my faith: this do I believe: and I am content, by God's grace, to confirm and seal the truth of the same with my blood. “By me, JOHN WARNE (h)."

(h) Fox, Ibid. p. 206, 207.

X. At the same stake with Mr. Warne, suffered that memorable dignitary of the Church of England, the reverend Mr. John Cardmaker, canon residentiary, and treasurer, of the cathedral church of Wells, and vicar of St. Bride's, Fleet-street. There is, so far as I have yet been able to find, no more than a single letter of his extant, and that a very short one: but, concise as it is, it contains a clause whence we may infer the Calvinism of this excellent man. “The Lord," says he to his friend and correspondent, “strengthen you, me, and all his elect (i)."

(i) Fox, Ibid. p. 207. And Strype's Eccl. Mem. vol. ii. p. 260.

XI. Mr. Thomas Haukes, a gentleman of Essex, suffered at Coggleshall, in that county, June 10, 1555. A little before his execution, several of his particular friends, who, though stedfast Protestants, were in some degree of bondage through fear of that violent death which they knew not how soon they might be called to undergo, requested him, that if the pain of burning was at all tolerable, he would give them a signal before he expired. The good man promised them that he would: and the token fixed upon was that he should elevate his hands above his head towards Heaven ere his soul ascended to God. Being fastened to the stake, the fagots were kindled: “In which, when he had continued long, and when-his speech was taken away by the violence of the flame, his skin shriveled, and his fingers consumed, so that all thought certainly he had been gone; suddenly, and contrary to all expectation, the blessed servant of God, being mindful of his promise afore made, lifted up his hands (which were all in a blaze) over his head, and triumphantly struck them together thrice. At the sight of which, the spectators, they especially who were apprised of the signal, gave uncommon shouts of joy and applause. And so the blessed martyr of Christ, straight way sinking down into the fire, yielded up his spirit (k)."

(k) Fox, Ibid. p. 220.

Mr. Haukes's principles, as to the doctrine of grace, are sufficiently apparent, from the two following passages. “Though the world rage," said he, “and blaspheme the elect of God; ye know that it did so unto Christ, his apostles, and to all that were in the primitive church (l).'' In a letter to a person who had promised to take charge of his son's education, he wrote thus; “I hope to meet both him and you among all God's elect (m)."

(l) Ibid. p. 221. (m) Ibid. p. 222.

XII. Mr. Nicolas Sheterden was burned at Canterbury, July 12, 1555. Praying at the stake, he said, “O Father, I do not presume unto thee in my own righteousness: No! but only in the merits of thy dear Son, my Saviour. For the which excellent gift of salvation, I cannot worthily praise thee (n).''

(n) Ibid. p. 313.

To his surviving brother he thus expressed himself: “God is the giver of all goodness, and that freely, for his love to us; not only without our deserts, but contrary to the same (o)." Again: “Dear brother, my heart's desire and prayer to God is, that we may together enjoy the bliss of eternal inheritance, by one spiritual regeneration and new birth (p)."

(o) Ibid. p. 315. (p) Ibid.

XIII. Mr. John Newman was crowned with martyrdom, at Saffron Walden, August 31,1555. "Faith," said this Christian hero, “is the gift of God, and cometh not of man (q).'' Having occasion to treat of the extent of Christ's death, he thus delivered his belief: “With that one sacrifice of his body, once offered on the cross, he hath made perfect, forever, all them that are sanctified (r).* Adding, “I believe that there is a holy church, which is the company of the faithful and elect people of God, dispersed abroad throughout the whole world (s)."

(q) Ibid. p. 325. (r) Ibid. p. 326. (s) Ibid.

XIV. In the same month, Mr. Robert Smith was burnt at Uxbridge. Some of his excellent observations were these: “In Corinth was not all the congregation of God; but a number of those holy and elect people of God (t).'' Referring to the persecuting time in which he lived, “The prince of darkness,'' said he, “is broken loose, and rageth, in his members, against the elect of God (u). By these means, God will try his elect, as gold in the furnace (w)." He asserts the absolute freeness of salvation in all its parts: “All favour, mercy, and forgiveness, cometh only by Christ. He only, of God the Father, was made, for us, all wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. All these are the gifts of God the Father, freely given unto us, by Christ Jesus, God and man, through faith in his blood, and not by the merits of men. Gifts they are, I say; freely given unto us, of favour, without our desert: by believing, and not by deserving. To this do the law and the prophets bear witness (x)." Let us just hear him on the article of perseverance: God "hath numbered all the hairs of his children's heads, so that not one of them shall perish without his Fatherly will. He keepeth the sparrows: much more will he preserve them whom he hath purchased with the blood of the immaculate Lamb (y).''

(t) Ibid. p. 331 (u) Ibid. p. 339. (w) Ibid. p. 341. (x) Ibid. p. 340. (y) Ibid. p. 341.

God honoured the martyrdom of this pious person with a display of divine goodness and power, not unsimilar to what was related of Mr. Haukes. Before Mr. Smith was chained to the stake, he conversed with the people that surrounded him, concerning the goodness of the cause for which he was about to suffer; and expressed his certainty of again receiving, at the resurrection, that body which he was then resigning to the flames: adding, I doubt not, but God will show you some token thereof. And so it proved. For, “at length, being well-nigh half burned, and also black with fire, clustered together as in a lump, and supposed by all to be dead; he suddenly rose upright before the people, lifting up the stumps of his arms, and clapping them together: after which, bending down again, and hanging over the fire, he slept in the Lord (z)." Thus, on some great occasions,

Heav'n owns its friends, and points them out to men!

(z) Ibid. p. 312.

XV. Mr. Robert Samuel, who had been an eminent and useful preacher in king Edward's days, was burned at Ipswich, Aug. 31, 1555. But not till he had borne a lasting testimony to the gospel, in the few, but precious papers, which he bequeathed to the church of God. “Touching the Father of Heaven," say he, "I believe as much as Holy Scripture teacheth me to believe. The Father is the first person in the Trinity, [and] first cause of our salvation: who hath blessed us with all manner of blessings in heavenly things by Christ. Who hath chosen us, before the foundations of the world were laid, that we should be holy, and without blame before him. Who hath predestinated us, and ordained us, to be his children of adoption, through Christ Jesus (a)." For these predestinated persons, sanctified and set apart by the Father, Mr. Samuel believed that Christ became obedient unto death: Christ, “Is made unto us, of God, that only sacrifice and oblation, offered, once for all and forever, for all them that be sanctified (b)." Between Christ and these there is a blessed commutation, or exchange, of sin and righteousness: Christ takes away the guilt of their trespasses, and consigns over to them the merit of his own active and passive satisfaction to the divine law. This was the doctrine of our martyred preacher: “His [i.e. Christ's] innocency, his righteousness, his holiness, his justice, is our's given us of God: and our sins and unrighteousness, by his obedience, and abasing of himself to the death of the cross, are his (c)." Such as are elected, redeemed, and justified, shall be preserved to God's kingdom and glory: “Now that Christ our head is risen, we, being his body and members, must follow our head [i.e. our bodies shall, like his, be raised to eternal life]. Death, hell, and sin, cannot sunder nor pluck us from him. For, as the Son cannot be divided nor sundered from the Father, nor the Holy Ghost from them both; no more may we, being the faithful [i.e. the believing] members of Christ, be separated from Christ (d). Christ affirmed the same; saying, My sheep hear my voice: I know them: they hearken unto me, and to no strangers: and I give them everlasting life; and they shall not be lost: and no man shall pluck them out of my hands. No, nor yet this flattering world, with all his vain pleasures; nor any tyrant, with his great threats and stout brags; can once move them out of the way of eternal life. What consolation and comfort may we have, more pleasant and effectuous than this? We are members of his body, and of his flesh, and of his bones; and as dear to him as the apple of his eye (e)."

(a) Ibid. p. 348. (b) Ibid. (c) Ibid. (d) Ibid. (e) Ibid. p. 347.

XVI. Mr. Robert Glover became a burnt-offering for the truth's sake, at Coventry, in September, 1555. Valuable is the testimony which he bore to the doctrine of election. Speaking of saints, he justly affirms, that "They were no bringers of any goodness to God, but altogether receivers. They chose not God first, but he chose them. They loved not God first, but he loved them first. Yea, he both loved and chose them, when they were [considered as] his enemies, full of sin and corruption, and void of all goodness (f)." Pursuant to this evangelical view of the subject, Mr. Glover thus addressed the adorable Majesty: “O Lord, thou shewest power, in weakness; wisdom, in foolishness; mercy, in sinfulness. Who shall lett [i.e. who can hinder] thee to chuse where and whom thou wilt (g)?"

(f) Ibid. p. 355. (g) Ibid. p. 353.

XVII. Mr. Thomas Whittle, a clergyman of Essex, received the crown of martyrdom, in Jan. 1556. "Christ," saith this good Church of England divine, "hath, by his passion, fully redeemed and saved us in his own person: howbeit, his elect must suffer with him and for him, to the world's end (h)." Elsewhere he expresses himself thus: "Those that are ingrafted and incorporated into Christ by faith, feeling the motion of God's holy spirit as a pledge of their election and inheritance, exciting and stirring them not only to seek heavenly things, but also to hate vice and embrace virtue; will not only do these things, but also, if need require, will gladly take up their cross, and follow their captain, their king, and their Saviour, Jesus Christ, as his poor afflicted Church of England now doth, against that false and antichristian doctrine and religion now used (i):" i.e. against the doctrine and religion of Popery, then newly restored. The perseverance of the elect is a consequence which necessarily follows from the above premises: take, however, one positive proof of this martyr's judgment as to the certainty of that inestimable truth. “Tho' the righteous fall, saith David, he shall not be cast away, for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. Oh, the bottomless mercy of God, towards us miserable sinners (k)!"

(h) Ibid. p. 520. (i) Ibid. p. 521. (k) Ibid. p. 520.

XVIII. Mr. Bartlet Green, a gentleman of the law, was converted at Oxford, by hearing the divinity-lectures of Peter Martyr. But, being young, and rich, and naturally of a gay turn, he was permitted, for a time, to relapse into a worldly spirit, and lose sight of that glory and virtue to which he had been called by grace. God, however, who will never lose a chosen vessel, recalled the wanderer; and even enabled him to lay down his life for the sake of Christ. And thus, as the pious Mr. Fox remarks on this occasion, "We see the fatherly kindness of our most gracious and merciful God, who never suffereth his elect children so to fall, as to lie still [i. e. to the end] in security of sin: but oftentimes quickens them up by some such means as perhaps, they think least of; as he did, here, this his strayed sheep (l)." He ascended from Smithfield, to Heaven, in company with six other martyrs, who were burned in the same fire, January 27, 1556.

(l) Ibid. p. 52.

This valuable person touches on the doctrine of grace, with much judgment and propriety. "God" says Mr. Green, "is not bound to time, wit, or knowledge; but rather chooseth the weak things of the world, in order to confound the strong. Neither can men appoint bounds to God's mercy: for I will have compassion, saith he, on whom I will shew mercy. There is no respect of persons with God, whether it be old or young, rich or poor, wise or foolish, fisher or basket-maker: God giveth knowledge of his truth, through his free grace, to whom he list(m)." On one of his examinations before the popish delegates, he offered to debate matters with them, in form; provided, they would first allow him to consult "Calvin, and my lord of Canterbury's books (n)." Indeed, the writings of Calvin and Cranmer were deservedly numbered among the most efficacious antidotes against the poison of popery: and, the Arminian weed not having then overran the protestant garden, Canterbury and Geneva were considered as much nearer neighbours than the new sprung disciples of Van Harmin are willing to confess. I cannot take leave of Mr. Green, without citing the pious and not inelegant distich, which he several times repeated, both on his way to execution, and after his arrival at the stake:

Christe Deus, sine te spes est mihi nulla salutis!

Te duce, vera sequor; te duce, falsa nego.

(m) Ibid. p. 523. (n) Ibid. p. 524.

XIX. Mr. William Tyms, a young clergyman, in deacon's orders, and curate of Hockley, was burned, in April, 1556. When he was first seized and brought before Gardiner, the popish bishop of Winchester, he was very meanly dressed (such were the distresses of God's people, at that time of trouble, rebuke, and blasphemy): he went not to the bishop, says Mr. Fox, in a gown, but in a coat; and his stockings were of two colours. Gardiner insulted him on the poorness of his habit: "Sarrah, are you a deacon? You are not apparelled like one." Mr. Tyms, with great smartness replied, My lord, your own dress is no more like that of the apostles, than mine is like a deacon's.

This gentleman's agreement with the Protestant church of England, in the points which relate to grace, may be collected from the following passages. Writing to a penitent backslider, he says, "Since I heard of your earnest repentance, I have very much rejoiced, and praised Almighty God for his mercy showed to you, in that he has not left you to yourself, but, since your denial, hath showed his mercy on you, by looking back upon you, as he did on Peter, and so caused you to repent: Whereas, if God had left you to yourself, you had run forward, from one evil to another (o)." In the same letter, speaking of such false, nominal protestants, as had fallen back into a profession of popery, he observes that such would perish, "Except they do repent and amend: which grace, that they may so do, I beseech the eternal God, for his Christ's sake, if it be his good will, to give them in his good time (p)."

(o) Ibid. p. 574. (p) Ibid.

He justly ascribes the "perception" and "feeling" of " grace and peace" in the " heart," to "the mighty working of the Holy Ghost the comforter (q):" and says, "I am surely certified of this, that he, who hath begun a good work in you, shall go forth with it [i. e. go through with it, maintain and complete it] until the day of Jesus Christ (r)." Adding: "The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, shall, his own self, after you have suffered a little affliction, make you perfect; shall settle, strengthen, and stablish you."

(q) Ibid. p. 575. (r) Ibid. p. 576.

XX. XXI. and XXII. Three persons were burned at Beccles, in Suffolk, May 21, 1556. Their names were Thomas Spicer, John Denny, and Edmund Poole. One of the articles, for which they were condemned to death, ran in these words: "Item, They affirmed no mortal man to have in himself freewill to do good or evil (s)."

(s) Ibid. p. 590.

XXII. - LVI. The historian mentions 34 persons beside, who were persecuted and expelled from the towns of Winston and Mendlesham, in Suffolk, in the same month of May, 1556. These, though it does not appear that they were all eventually brought to the stake, yet deserve to be ranked with those that were: inasmuch as they suffered greatly, for the same blessed cause. Among the reasons assigned by the martyrologist, for the hard usage of these excellent people, is the following: "Fifthly, They denied man's freewill, and held that the pope's church did err: rebuking their [i. e. the papists] false confidence in works, and their false trust in man's righteousness. Also, when any rebuked those persecuted, for going so openly, and talking so freely; their answer was, they acknowledged, confessed, and believed, and therefore must speak: and that their tribulation was God's good will and providence, and that, of very faithfulness and mercy, God had caused them to be troubled; so that not one hair of their heads should perish before the time, but all things should work unto the best to them that love God: And, that Christ Jesus was their life and only righteousness; and that, only by faith in him, and for his sake, all good things were freely given them; also forgiveness of sins, and life everlasting. Many of these persecuted were of great substance, and had possessions of their own (t)."

(t) Ibid. p. 590, 591.

Now, I would ask of Mr. Wesley and Col 1. Were not these good old church-of-England people, Calvinists? 2. Can the church of Rome be, with any show of reason, or with any shadow of truth, considered as well-affected to Calvinism; seeing one grand motive, why she persecuted the primitive protestants, was, because they held the Calvinistic doctrines? 3. Must it not be the very essence of slander and falsehood, to object against those doctrines as productive of practical remissness: when the persons, who maintained them with the greatest zeal, took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, relinquished their worldly possessions, rather than dissemble any part of their faith, and went even to prison and to death for the sake of those very principles? If any man seriously supposes, that Calvinism relaxes the sinews of evangelical or moral duty, let him only consider the holiness, the honesty, and the heroism, of those Calvinistic saints, whose sufferings and deaths redden the protestant calendar, and who resisted even unto blood, striving against sin.

LVII. - LXX. Eleven men, and two women, were burned, in one fire, at Stratford le Bow, near London, June 27, 1556. It should seem, that they had temporized, or at least concealed their faith, for some time after the return of popery under queen Mary. My chief reason, for this supposition, is, because their own words appear to imply something of this kind. They speak, as persons who had once let go the profession (though not the possession) of grace: and ascribe their recovery, not to their own freewills, but to the unfailing faithfulness of God's unchangeable spirit. "Although," said they, in their united declaration, "we have erred for a certain time, yet the root of faith was preserved in us, by the Holy Ghost, who hath reduced us into a full certainty of the same (u)."

(u) Ibid. p. 594.

LXXI. Mr. John Careless, of Coventry, bore a glorious attestation to the doctrines of the church of England. Though he died in the king's-bench prison, and so, as Mr. Fox observes, "came not to the full martyrdom of his body; yet is he no less worthy to be counted in honour and place of Christ's martyrs, as well for that he was, for the same truth's sake, a long while imprisoned, as also for his willing mind and zealous affection which he had to martyrdom, if the Lord had so determined (w)."

(w) Ibid. p. 598.

What this eminent servant of God believed, and delivered, concerning predestination, will appear from some remarkable passages, which passed at his examination before Dr. Martin, the popish commissary. The commissary having told Mr. Careless, that he had authority to question him on any articles of faith whatever; Careless answered, "Then let your scribe set his pen to the paper: and you shall have it roundly, even as the truth is. I believe, that Almighty God, our most dear, loving Father of his great mercy and infinite goodness, did elect in Christ.

"The Popish Doctor. Tush, what need all that long circumstance? Write, I believe God elected: and make no more ado.

"Careless. No, not so, Mr. Doctor. It is an high mystery, and ought reverendly to be spoken of. And, if my words may not be written as I do utter them, I will not speak at all."

“Popish Doctor. Go to, go to: write what he will. Here is more business than needeth.

"Careless. I believe, that Almighty God, our most dear, 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 govern, by his grace and holy Spirit; so that not one of them shall ever finally perish."

“The crafty, fleering papist then asked Mr. Careless, "Why, who will deny this?" To which the honest, unsuspecting prisoner made answer, "If your mastership do allow it, and other learned men when they see it, I have my heart's desire."

"Popish Doctor. It was told me also, that thou dost affirm, that Christ did not die effectually for all men.

“Careless. Whatsoever hath been told you, it is not much material unto me. Let the tellers of such tales come before my face, and I trust to make them answer. For indeed, I do believe, that Christ did die effectually for all those that do effectually repent and believe; and for no other."

"Popish Doctor. Now, Sir, what is Trew's faith of predestination?

"Careless. Truly, I think, he doth believe as your mastership and the rest of the clergy [i. e. the popish clergy] do believe of predestination: that we be elected, in respect of our good works; and so long elected as we do them, and no longer (z)."

(z) Ibid.

Here observe, 1. That the Mr. Trew, now mentioned, was a professing protestant; and had, probably, been a member of that single "Freewill congregation," spoken of by Mr. Strype, and noticed by me in the first section of this treatise. 2. That those few free-willers (and they were, in that age, exceeding few indeed) who made profession (and it was little more than mere profession) of protestantism; did not vary from the church of Rome, but cordially chimed in with her, like two tallies, so far as election and its connected articles were concerned. For, the upright Mr. Careless, whom neither fear nor favour could bias from his integrity, expressly declared, in the hearing and to the face of his popish judge, that Mr. Trew, the freewilier (who held a changeable election grounded on works) did therein exactly agree with the said popish judge, and the rest of the Romish clergy. From whence, say I, Mr. John Wesley, Mr. Wat Sellon, and some others of that kidney, whom I could name, may see, to what party they belong. And although the said Messieurs may not deem it altogether prudent and convenient, to own their relationship to the said popish party; yet, as many of mankind, as have unprejudiced eyes wherewith to see, and distinguishing heads wherewith to understand, cannot possibly fail to rank the Messieurs aforesaid with the party aforementioned.

A few concise extracts, from some of Mr. Careless's letters, shall give farther demonstration of that light and grace which God had bestowed on this admirable man.

1. “To Mr. John Bradford.

"John Bradford, thou man so specially beloved of God, his singularly beloved and elect child; I pronounce and testify unto thee, in the word and name of the Lord Jehovah, that Christ hath cleansed thee with his blood, and clothed thee with his righteousness; and hath made thee, in the sight of God his Father, without spot or wrinkle: so that, when the fire doth its appointed office, thou shalt be received, as a sweet burnt-sacrifice, into heaven; where thou shalt joyfully remain in God's presence for ever, as the true inheritor of his everlasting kingdom, unto which thou wast undoubtedly predestinate and ordained by the Lord's infallible purpose and decree, before the foundation of the world was laid (a)."

(a) Ibid. p. 602.

2. "To my most dear and faithful brethren in Newgate, condemned to die for the testimony of God's everlasting truth.

"The everlasting peace of God, in Jesus Christ; the continual joy, strength, and comfort of his most pure, holy, and mighty Spirit; with the increase of faith, and lively feeling of his eternal mercy; be with you, my most dear and faithful loving brother Tyms, and with all the rest of my dear hearts in the Lord, your faithful fellow-soldiers, and most constant companions in bonds. Thy will, O Lord, be effectually fulfilled! for it is only good, and turneth all things to the best for such as thou, in thy mercy, hast chosen. He [i. e. Christ] hath given you, for everlasting possession, all his holiness, righteousness, and justification: yea, and the Holy Ghost into your hearts, wherewith ye are surely sealed to the day of redemption, to certify you of your eternal election, and that ye are his true adopted sons(b)."

(b) Ibid. p. 603, 604.

3. "To my dear and faithful brother, William Tyms, prisoner in Newgate.

"Faithful is God, and true of his promises, who hath said, that he will never suffer his chosen children to be tempted above their strength. Great cause have you to be of good comfort. I see, in you, as lively a token of God's everlasting love and favour in Jesus Christ, as ever I perceived in any man. Christ is made unto us holiness, righteousness, and justification. He hath clothed us with all his merits, mercies, and most sweet sufferings; and hath taken to him all our misery, wretchedness, sin, and infirmity. So that if any [i. e. any of God's chosen children] should now be condemned for the same, it must needs be Jesus Christ, who hath taken them upon him. But indeed he hath made satisfaction for them to the uttermost jot. So that, for his sake, they shall never be imputed to us, if they were a thousand times so many more as they be.

"Satan's fiery darts can do you no harm, but rather do you good service: to cast you down under the mighty hand of God, that he may take you up by his only grace and power, and so you may render him all the glory by Jesus Christ: which thing the enemy can in no wise abide: therefore he shooteth off his other piece most pestilent, to provoke you to put some part of your trust and confidence in yourself, and in your own holiness and righteousness; that you might, that way, rob God of his glory, and Christ of the honour and dignity of his death. But, blessed be the Lord God, you have also a full strong bulwark to beat back this pestiferous pellet also: even the pure law of God, which proveth the best of us all [to be] damnable sinners in the sight of God, if he would enter into judgment with us according to the severity of the same [i. e. according to the unabating severity and perfection of his law]; and that our best works are polluted and defiled, in such sort as the prophet describeth them: with which manner of speaking, our freewill pharisees are much offended: for it felleth all man's righteousness to the ground (I had like to have said, to the bottom of hell); and extolleth only the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which is allowed before God, and is freely given to all those that firmly believe; as blessed be God, you do. (God) comfort, strengthen, and defend you, with his grace and mighty operation of his holy Spirit, as he hath hitherto done: that you, having a most glorious victory over the subtile serpent and all his wicked seed, may also receive the crown of glory and immortality, prepared for you before the foundations of the world were laid, and is so surely kept for you in the hands of him whose promise is unfallible, that the devil, sin, death, or hell, shall never be able to deprive you of the same (c)."

(c) Ibid. p. 605.

4. To my good Sister, M. C.

"Though God, for a time, permit satan to take his pleasure on me, as he did upon Job; yet, I doubt not, but, in the end, all shall turn to my profit, through the merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To whose most merciful defence I commit you, dear sister, with all the rest of the Lord's elect (d)."

(d) Ibid. p. 606.

5. To my dear Brother, T. V.

“If his [i. e. if God's] love towards you stood in the respect of your own merit and worthiness, you might well mourn, lament, and complain: yea, you had good cause to doubt, fear, and mistrust. But seeing he loveth you only for and in Jesus Christ, who is your whole righteousness and redemption; banish from you all fear, mistrust, and infidelity. And know, that, as long as Christ doth continue God's Son, so long must the love of the Father continue towards you immutable, and his good will unchangeable, and cannot be altered through any of your infirmities (e)."

(e) Ibid.

6. "To my dear Brother, Henry Adlington, prisoner in the Lollard's Tower.

"This present day, I received a letter from you; at the reading whereof, my brethren and I were not a little comforted, to see your conscience so quieted in Christ, and your continuance so stedfast in him. Which things be the special gifts of God: not given to every man, but to you his dear, darling elect and chosen in Christ. Blessed be God for you, and such as you be, who have played the part of wise builders. You have digged down, passed the sand of your own natural strength, and beneath the earth of your own worldly wisdom: and are now come to the hard stone and immoveable rock, Christ, who is your only keeper: and upon him alone have you builded your faith, most firmly, without doubting, mistrust, or wavering. Therefore neither the storms nor tempests, winds nor weathers, that satan and all his wily workmen can bring against you, with the very gates of hell to help them, shall ever be able once to move your house; much less, to overthrow it: for the Lord God himself, and no man, is the builder thereof, and hath promised to preserve and keep the same for ever (f)."

(f) Ibid. p. 608, 609.

7. "To my most dear and faithful Brother, T. V.

"The Lord thy God, in whom thou dost put all thy trust: for his dear Son's sake, in whom thou dost also undoubtedly believe; hath freely forgiven thee all thy sins, clearly released all thy iniquities, and fully pardoned all thy offences, be they never so many, so grievous, or so great; and will never remember them any more, to condemnation. As truly as he liveth, he will not have thee die the death: but hath utterly determined, purposed, and eternally decreed, that thou shalt live with him for ever. Thy sore shall be healed, and thy wounds bound up, even of himself, for his own name's sake. He doth not, nor will he, look upon thy sins, in thee; but he respecteth and beholdeth thee in Christ: into whom thou art lively grafted by faith in his blood, and in whom thou art most assuredly elected and chosen to be a sweet vessel of his mercy and salvation, and wast thereto predestinate in him, before the foundation of the world was laid. In testimony and earnest whereof, he hath given thee his good and holy Spirit, who worketh in thee faith, love, and unfeigned repentance, with other godly virtues, contrary to the corruption of thy nature (g)."

(g) Ibid. p. 610.

8. " To E. K.

"Forasmuch as Christ hath chosen us out of the world, to serve God in spirit and verity; let us be well assured, the world will hate us and persecute us, as it hath done our Lord and Master (h)."

(h) Ibid. p. 611.

9. " To Mrs. A. G.

"His glory, above all other things, we, that are his chosen children, ought to seek; yea, even with the loss of our own lives: being yet well assured, that the same shall not be shortened, one minute of an hour, before the time which God hath appointed. Cast, therefore, dear sister, all your care upon the Lord, who careth for you. And mighty is his love and mercy towards you. With his grace he will defend you; and with his Holy Spirit will he evermore guide you, wherewith he had surely sealed you unto the day of redemption. He hath also given you the same, in earnest for the recovery of the purchased possession which he hath prepared for you before the foundation of the world (i).”

(i) Ibid. p. 612.

10. “To the said Mrs. A. G.

“Although the perilous days be come, whereof Christ prophesied, that, if it were possible, the very elect should be deceived; yet let the true faithful Christians rejoice and be glad, knowing that the Lord himself is their keeper, who will not suffer one hair of their heads to perish, without his Almighty good will and pleasure. Neither will he suffer them to be further tempted than he will give them strength to bear; but will, in the midst of their temptations, make a way for them to escape out: so good and gracious a God is he to all his chosen children. And though, sometimes, he do let his elect stumble and fall, yet no doubt, he will raise them up again, to the further increase of their comfort, and to the setting forth of his glory and praise (k).”

(k) Ibid.

Mr. Careless lay in prison, on account of his religious principles, two whole years: first, in Coventry jail; and, finally, in the King’s Bench, London. So ardent was his zeal for the reformed Church of England, that the sun-burnt hart does not long more intensely after the waters of the brook, that this seraphic saint panted for the flames. Dying, however, in the last-mentioned prison, the Papists, disappointed of burning him, buried his remains in a dunghill (l).

(l) Great and exemplary was the Christian zeal with which Mr. Careless opposed the free-will of men of that age. Some remarkable passages, from Strype’s Memorials of Cranmer, will both prove this, and illustrate the conversation (already related) which passed between Careless and his Popish examiner, Dr. Martin.

“Careless also had much conference with these men [i.e. with the free-willers], prisoners with him in the King's Bench; of whose contentiousness he complained in a letter to Philpot. There is extant an answer of Philpot to Careless about them: where he writes, that he was sorry to hear of the great trouble which these schismatics did daily put him to; that he should commit the success of his labours (in rightly informing these men) to God; and not to cease, with charity, to do his endeavour in defence of the truth against these arrogant and self-willed, blind scatterers; that these sects were necessary for the trial of our faith, and for the beautifying therof; that he should shew as much modesty and humility as possible, and then, others, seeing his modest conversations among these contentious babblers, would glorify God in the truth of him, and the more abhor them; that he should be content that Shimei do rail at David, and cast stones awhile, &c." Such was the arch-deacon Philpot's opinion of the free-will mongers: whom he termed schismatics: arrogant self-willed, blinded scatterers, sects, contentious babblers; and railing Shimeis. Yet did not the arch-deacon's zeal out run his charity: for his letter concludes with a most candid and pious exhortation, in which he earnestly intreated the brethren “to kiss one another with the kiss of unfeigned love, and to take one another by the hand cheerfully, and to say, Let us take up our cross together, and go to the Mount of Calvary."

Mr. Strype remarks, that all the terrors of the Popish persecution could not keep the free-will men within the bonds of peace and quietness. For, in 1556, Mr. Careless having “wrote a confession of his faith, some part whereof favoured absolute predestination against free-will; he sent it from the King's Bench, where he lay) to the Protestant prisoners in Newgate: whereunto [i.e. to which confession of faith] they generally subscribed; and particularly twelve, who were, a little before, condemned to die. Hart [who was a noted preacher among the free-willers] having gotten a copy of this, [i.e. of Mr. Careless's predestinarian] confession, on the back-side thereof wrote his confession in opposition thereunto. When they in Newgate had subscribed Careless's confession, this Hart propounded his unto them; and he, with one Kemp and Gybson, would have persuaded them from the former to the latter, but prevailed not. One Chamberlain also [another free-will teacher] wrote against it [against Mr. Careless's confession].

“This paper of Careless's confession, with the answer wrote on the back-side by Hart, fell, by some accident, into the hands of Dr. Martin, a great Papist; who took occasion, hence, to scoff at the professors of the Gospel, because of these divisions and various opinions among them. But Careless, before the said Martin, disowned Hart, and said, that he [viz. Hart,] had seduced and beguiled many a simple soul with his foul Pelagian opinions, both in the days of king Edward, and since his departure." - - - Strype's Memorials of Cranmer, p. 351, 352.

LXXII. Mrs. Joyce Lewis, genteely born and elegantly brought up, was martyred at Litchfield. A little before she suffered, she said to some friends who came to take leave of her, "When I enjoy the shinings of my Saviour's countenance, the near view of death ceases, in great measure to be terrible." Mr. Fox adds, that she took occasion, at the same time, to "reason most comfortably, out of God's word, concerning God's election and reprobation (m)." Early in the morning of the day on which she was executed, this excellent woman was tempted to doubt of her own election and redemption. It should seem, that, for several hours, she walked in spiritual darkness, even darkness which might be felt. Unbelief was permitted to suggest, how do I know that I was chosen to eternal life, and that Christ died for me (n)? Some religious persons, who were about her, perceiving her distress, reminded her, "That her vocation and calling to the knowledge of God's word, was a manifest token of God's love towards her: which might be farther inferred, from that love to God, that desire to please him, and that desire to be justified by Christ, which the holy Spirit had wrought in her heart. By these, and like persuasions, and especially by the comfortable promises of Christ alleged from scripture, the enemy fled, and she was comforted in Christ (o)."

(m) Ibid. p. 704. (n) Ibid. (o) Ibid. p. 709

LXXIII. Mr. Ralph Allerton was burned at Islington. This good man, quoting that passage in the Psalms, Though the righteous fall, &c. justly observes upon it, "Whereby we perceive God's election to be most sure (p)."

(p) Ibid. p. 710.

LXXVI. With Mr. Allerton were executed three others, viz. James Austoo, and Margaret, his wife; and Richard Roth. Of the two former Mr. Fox says, that "they were as sound in matters of faith, and answered as truly, as ever any did: especially the wife; to whom the Lord had given the greater knowledge, and more fervency of spirit." And that Mr. Roth was as "sound in matters of faith," as either of them; is plain, from the answer he returned to bishop Bonner: who asking him, "what he thought of his fellow prisoner, Ralph Allerton?" Roth replied, "I think him to be one of the elect children of God (q)."

(q) Ibid. p. 712.

LXXVII. Mr. John Rough, a minister, who had been exercised with several very remarkable providences; at length sealed the truth with his death, in the latter end of 1557. Writing to some religious friends, he thus expresses the benevolence of his wishes, and the purity of his faith: "The comfort of the Holy Ghost make you able to give consolation to others, in these dangerous days, when satan is let loose, but to the trial only of the chosen, when it pleaseth our God to sift his wheat from the chaff (r)." And, in another letter, addressed to his former congregation, and written two days before his martyrdom, he observes, that "God hath in all ages tried his elect (s)."

(r) Ibid. p. 724. (s) Ibid. p. 725.

LXXVIII. The celebrated Mr. Cuthbert Sympson, who underwent such variety of torments so meekly, that Bonner himself pronounced him the most patient prisoner he ever dealt with; and who at last ended his holy life in the flames, A. D. 1558; has transmitted, to posterity, that grand axiom, through the unfeigned belief of which, he was enabled, without murmuring, to "stand as a beaten anvil to the stroke." And what axiom was it? That in which the rays of Calvinism are concentred, and contracted to a point. Read it in the martyr's own words: "There is nothing that cometh unto us by chance or fortune; but by our heavenly Father's providence (t)"

(t) Ibid. p. 728.

I may truly say, with the apostle, time would fail me to tell of that "noble army of martyrs," and of suffering confessors, who, through faith, quenched the violence of fire, and out of weakness were made strong: who were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had trial of cruel mockings, and scourgings; yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment: being destitute, afflicted, tormented. A competency of witnesses has been produced, sufficient to show, that our protestant martyrs were doctrinal Calvinists. I cannot help repeating an observation already made, viz. that I am widely mistaken indeed, if the gentlemen on the Arminian side of the question are able to bring a single instance of any one pelagian, or free-will-man, who laid down his life in defence of the reformation, during the whole reign of queen Mary. I can at least say, that I, for my part, have, not hitherto met with any such example. If Mr. Wesley, or Mr. any-body else, can point out so much as one; it will, as before noted, be for the honour of pelagianism, to let the world know it.

I have dwelt, perhaps, too long, already, on the subject now in hand. Yet, I cannot dismiss those eminent worthies, whose testimonies adorn this section, without adding four more to the number. The reader will not wonder at my introducing them, when he perceives the celebrated names of Mr. John Bradford, chaplain to bishop Ridley, and prebendary of St. Paul's, London; Mr. John Philpot, archdeacon of Winchester; Mr. Richard Woodman, and Mr. John Clement: which two last, though not in orders, were men famous in their generation, men of renown, for holiness of conversation, liveliness of grace, and clearness of evangelical light. Their attestations shall occupy the section that follows.

Calvinism XVII - The Judgment of the Martyrs concluded.

SECTION XVII.

The Judgment of the Martyrs concluded.

Mr. John Bradford was one of the most valuable men that ever adorned God's visible church below. The impartial and judicious Mr. Strype styles him, one of the "four prime pillars of the reformed church of England (u) and adds, that he was a person "of great learning, elocution, sweetness of temper, and profoundness of devotion towards God. Of whose worth, the papists themselves were so sensible, that they took more pains to bring him off from the profession of religion, than any other. But he, knowing the truth and goodness of his cause, remained stedfast and immoveable. While he was in prison, he spent his time in preaching twice every Sunday, in writing many letters and discourses, praying, reading, conferring, disputing; sleeping but four hours in the night."

(u) "Bradford and Latimer, Cranmer and Ridley, four prime pillars of the reformed church of England; whom this bloody year [1558] executed in the flames." - Strype's Eccles. Mem. vol. iii. 254.

It had been at the importunate instigation of Martin Bucer, that Mr. Bradford entered into holy orders. On Bucer's expressing his earnest desire of seeing him in the ministry, Bradford declined the proposal; from a supposition, that he had not sufficient talents, to speak in the name of God. Bucer's answer was memorable : If you cannot feed the people with fine manchet, feed them with such barley-bread as God may give you. In the end, Bucer's expostulations prevailed: and Mr. Bradford received both his ordination and his preferments from the apostolic bishop Ridley. The brightest abilities are usually rooted in self-diffidence. Mr. Bradford's powers, as an orator; and the blessing, with which his labours were attended, as a minister of Christ; were equal to the fear and trembling, with which he entered on the arduous employ. Of his usefulness in king Edward's reign, bishop Ridley wrote as follows: "He [i. e. Bradford] is a man by whom, as I am assuredly informed, God hath and doth work wonders, in setting forth his word." And, on another occasion, Ridley said, of Bradford, "In my conscience I judge him more worthy to be a bishop, than many of us, that are bishops already, are of being parish priests." But his course, though illustrious, was short. Queen Mary made him pass through the fire to heaven, in June 1555 (y).

(y) At the same stake with Mr. Bradford, was burned one John Leaf, a tallow-chandler's apprentice, not twenty years of age. This elect youth had been converted in king Edward's reign, under the ministry of Mr. Rogers, the proto-martyr of the church of England. During Leaf's imprisonment for the gospel, old Bonner sent him two papers, viz. a Recantation of Protestantism, which if he would sign, his life was to be spared: and A Summary of the Protestant confession, by the signing of which, his doom was to be finally fixed. The young martyr, on this alternative being offered him, absolutely refused to have any thing to do with the recantation. Not being able to write, he pricked his hand with a pin; and sprinkling the Protestant confession of faith with his blood, ordered Bonner's messenger to shew it his master, as a proof of his determined resolution to lay down his life for the truth. What an instance of heroic zeal! How unlike that worldly, that luke-warm spirit of religious indifference, which now seems to have laid Protestants of every denomination asleep!

Let us now see, whether this "prime pillar of the church of England" was, or was not, a Calvinist.

On his first appearance before Gardiner, the popish bishop of Winchester, we are informed, that Gardiner "began a long process, concerning the false doctrine wherewith the people were deceived in the days of king Edward: and so turned the end of his talk to Bradford; saying, how sayest thou? Bradford answered, my lord, the doctrine taught in king Edward's days was God's pure religion: the which as I then believed, so do I now more believe it than ever I did. And therein I am more confirmed, and ready to declare it, by God's grace, even as he will, to the world, than I was when I first came into prison (z)." This declaration, alone, might suffice to convince any person, who is acquainted with the religious history of the reign of Edward VI., that Bradford was, to all intents and purposes, a doctrinal Calvinist. If more particular proofs be required, take the following, as a specimen of the rest:

(z) Fox's Acts and Mon. vol. iii. p. 236.

1. In a letter to Mrs. Warcup, and others of his evangelical friends, this eminent predestinarian thus writes: "The souls under the altar look for us to fill up their number. Happy are we, if God have so appointed us. Howsoever it be, dearly beloved, cast yourselves wholly upon the Lord; with whom all the hairs of your head are numbered, so that not one of them shall perish. Will we, nill we, we must drink God's cup, if he have appointed it for us (a)."

(a) Ibid. p. 268.

2. "To Sir James Hales, Knight.

"The children of God think, oftentimes, that God hath forgotten them: and therefore they cry, Hide not thy face from me; leave me not, O Lord. Whereas in very truth, it is not so, but to their present sense. And therefore David said, I said in my agony, I was clean cast away from thy face. But was it so? Nay, verily. Read his Psalms, and you shall see. So writeth he also, in other places, very often; especially, in the person of Christ: as when he saith, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Where [i. e. whereas] indeed God had not left him; but that it was so to his sense: and that this Psalm telleth us full well. The same we read, in the prophet Isaiah, chap. xl (Isa 40) where he reproveth Israel saying, God hath forgotten them: fear not, &c. For a little while I have forgotten thee, but with great compassion will I gather thee. For a moment, in mine anger, I hid my face from thee, for a little season: but in everlasting mercy have I had compassion on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. For this is unto me as the waters of Noah: for as I have sworn, that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn, that I would not be angry with thee, nor rebuke thee. For, the mountains shall remove, and hills fall down: but my mercy shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace fall away, saith the Lord that hath compassion on thee. Be certain, be certain, good master Hales, that all the hairs of your head your dear Father hath numbered. Your name is written in the book of life. Therefore upon God cast all your care, who will comfort you with his eternal consolations (b)."

(b) Ibid. p. 269, 270.

3. "To Mrs. M. H. a godly gentlewoman: comforting her in that common heaviness and godly sorrow, which the feeling and sense of sin worketh in God's children.

"As satan laboureth to loosen our faith, so must we labour to fasten it, by thinking on the promises and covenant of God in Christ's blood: namely, that God is our God, with all that ever he hath. Which covenant dependeth and hangeth on God's own goodness, mercy, and truth, only; and not on our obedience, or worthiness, in any point: for then should we never be certain. Indeed, God requireth of us obedience, and (c) worthiness: but not that thereby we might be his children, and he our Father; but because he is our Father and we his children through his own goodness in Christ, therefore requireth he faith and obedience. Now, if we want this obedience and worthiness which he requireth, should we doubt whether he be our Father? Nay. That were to make our obedience and worthiness the cause, and so put Christ out of place, for whose sake God is our Father. But rather, because he is our Father, and we feel ourselves to want such things as he requireth, we should be stirred up to a shamefacedness and blushing, because we are not as we should be. And thereupon should we take occasion to go to our Father, in prayer, on this manner: Dear Father, thou, of thy own mercy in Jesus Christ, hast chosen me to be thy child: and therefore thou wouldst that I should be brought into thy church and faithful company of thy children, wherein thou hast kept me hitherto; thy name therefore be praised. Now, I see myself to want faith, hope, love, &c. which thy children have, and thou requirest of me. Wherethrough the devil would have me to doubt, yea, utterly to despair of thy fatherly goodness, favour, and mercy. Therefore I come to thee, as to my merciful Father, through thy dear Son Jesus Christ: and pray thee to help me, good Lord. Help me, and give me faith, hope, love, &c. and grant that thy holy Spirit may be with me for ever, and more and more, to assure me that thou art my Father; that this merciful covenant (which thou madest with me, in respect of thy grace, in Christ and for Christ, and not in respect of any my worthiness) is always to me. On this sort, I say, you must pray, and use your cogitations, when satan would have you to doubt of your salvation.

(c) The word worthiness, here used by Mr. Bradford, does not, in this connection, signify merit, or desert; but a suitableness of practice, becoming of, correspondent to, and such as may be expected to follow upon, a profession of conversion. And, in this sense, the word very frequently occurs in our old writers. Just as the adjectives Axiov and Dignus are often used by writers more ancient still.

"Might not [God] have made you blind, deaf, lame, frantic, &c.? Might he not have made you a Jew, a Turk, a papist, &c.? And why hath he not done so; Verily, because he loved you. And why did he love you? What was there in you, to move him to love you? Surely, nothing moved him to love you, and therefore to make you, and so hitherto to keep you, but his own goodness in Christ. Now then, in that his goodness in Christ still remaineth as much as it was, that is, even as great as himself, for it cannot be lessoned; how should it be, but that he is your God and Father? Believe this, believe this, my good sister: for God is no changeling. Them, whom he loveth, he loveth to the end (d)."

(d) Fox’s Acts and Mon. vol. iii. p. 271, 272.

4. To another religious friend, who was in darkness and distress of soul, Mr. Bradford wrote as follows:

"His [i. e. God's] calling and gifts be such, that he can never repent him of them. When he loveth, he loveth to the end. None of his chosen can perish. If he had not chosen you (as, most certainly, he hath), he would not have so called you, he would not have so justified you, he would never have so glorified you with his gracious gifts: he would never have so exercised your faith with temptations, as he hath and doth, if he had not chosen you. If he hath chosen you, as doubtless he hath, in Christ; then neither can you, nor ever shall you, perish. For, if you fail, he putteth under his hand: you shall not lie still [in sin]. So careful is Christ your keeper, over you. Never was mother so mindful over her child, as he is over you. And hath not he always been so? Think you God to be mutable? Is he a changeling? Doth not he love to the end, them whom he loveth? Are not his gifts and calling such, that he cannot repent him of them? for else were he no God. If you should perish, then wanted he power: for, I am certain, his will toward you is not to be doubted of. Hath not the Spirit, which is the spirit of truth, told you so; and will you now hearken with Eve, to the lying spirit, which would have you (not to despair; no, he goeth more craftily to work: but) to doubt and stand in a mammering? And so should you never truly love God, but serve him of a servile fear, lest he should cast you off for your unworthiness and unthankfulness: as though your thankfulness, or worthiness, were any cause with God, why he hath chosen you, or will finally keep you! Your thankfulness and worthiness are fruits and effects of your election: they are no causes. You have a shepherd, who never slumbereth nor sleepeth. No man, nor devil, can pull you out of his hands. Therefore, inasmuch as you are indeed the child of God, elect in Christ before the beginning of all times; inasmuch as you are given into the custody of Christ, as one of God's most precious jewels; inasmuch as Christ is faithful, and hitherto hath all power, so that you shall never perish; I beseech you, I pray you, I desire you, I crave at your hands, with all my very heart, I ask of you with hand, pen, tongue, and mind, in Christ, through Christ, for Christ, for his name, blood, mercies, power, and truth's sake, that you admit no doubting of God's final mercies towards you, howsoever you feel yourself (e)."

(e) Ibid. p. 273, 274.

5. To Mr. John Hall, and his wife; prisoners in Newgate for the gospel.

"He [i. e. your heavenly Father] hath brought you where ye be. And though your reason and wit will tell you it is by chance, or fortune, or otherwise; yet know for certain, that whatsoever was the mean, God your Father was the worker hereof (f).”

(f) Ibid. p. 275.

6. To Mr. Richard Hopkins, sheriff of Coventry; and prisoner in the Fleet, for the faithful and constant confessing of God's holy gospel.

"The apostle saith, not many noble, not many rich, not many wise in the world, hath the Lord God chosen. Oh then, what cause have you to rejoice, that, amongst the not many, he hath chosen you to be one (g)!"

(g) Ibid. p. 282.

7. To my good sister, Mrs. Eliz. Brown.

"Patience and perseverance be the proper notes, whereby God's children are known from counterfeits. They, who persevere not, were always but hypocrites. Many make godly beginnings; yea, their progress seemeth marvellous: but, yet, after, in the end they fail. These were never of us, saith St. John: for, if they had been of us, they would have continued to the very end (h)."

(h) Ibid. p. 283.

8. "To a godly gentlewoman troubled and afflicted by her friends, for not coming to mass.

"If your cross be to me a comfort or token of your election, and a confirmation of God's continual favour; how much more ought it to be so unto you (i)?"

(i) Ibid. p. 285.

9. "This is the difference betwixt God's children, who are regenerate, and elect before all times in Christ; and the wicked always: that the elect lie not still continually [i. e. finally] in their sin, as do the wicked; but at length do return again, by reason of God's seed, which is in them, hid as a sparkle of fire in the ashes: as we may see in Peter, David, Paul, Mary Magdalen, and others. For these, I mean God's children, God hath made all things in Christ Jesus, that they should be his inheritance and spouses (k)."

(k) Ibid. p. 3?0.

10. "To certain of his friends, N. S. and R. C.

"I believe, that man, made after the image of God, did fall from that blessed state, to the condemnation of himself and all his posterity. I believe, that Christ, for man being thus fallen, did oppose himself to the justice of God, a mediator: paying the ransom and price of redemption for Adam, and his whole posterity that refuse it not finally (l)." In the judgment, therefore, of Mr. Bradford, Christ did not ransom and redeem those of Adam's posterity, who finally refuse the redemption which he wrought: or in other words, according to this divine, Christ did not die for any who do not eventually believe in him for salvation: which is particular redemption, with a witness. Christ, says the above paragraph, "paid the price of redemption" for as many of Adam's whole posterity, as finally accept of it by faith: consequently, for those who finally refuse it (and these, ‘tis to be feared, are more than a few) the price of redemption was not paid. And I should much wonder if it had: since what good end would it have answered? Mr. Bradford goes on: "I believe, that all who believe in Christ, I speak of such as be of years of discretion, or partakers of Christ and all his merits. I believe, that faith, and to believe in Christ (I speak not now of [that] faith which men have by reason of miracles, (Joh 2:11. Ac 8.) or by reason of earthly commodity, (Mt 13), custom, or authority of man; which is commonly seen; the hearts of them, that so believe, being not right and simple before God: but I speak of that faith, which is indeed the true faith, the justifying and regenerating faith; I believe, I say, that this faith and belief in Christ is the work and gift of God; given to none other than to those which be the children of God: that is, to those whom God the Father, before the beginning of the world, hath predestinate in Christ unto eternal life (m)." Mr. Bradford's reasoning stands thus: Christ died not for those who finally refuse his redemption; but for those who are justified and regenerated by faith in him: which justifying and regenerating faith is the gift of God, given to those persons only whom he predestined to eternal life before the world began. Thus it appears, that there is nothing discouraging, in the doctrines of eternal election and particular redemption. Not in election; because God gives faith to his people, as a token and pledge of their sure interest in his covenant-favour: and as to those who may, at present, be seemingly destitute of faith, we know not how soon God may give it them, or stir them up to seek it. Neither does limited redemption tend to the discouragement of any who seriously desire to be saved in God's own way, i. e. in the Bible-way of faith, repentance, and new obedience; forasmuch as Christ "paid the ransom and price of redemption, for Adam's whole posterity who do not finally refuse it." Thus scripturally and discreetly does the admirable Mr. Bradford state and assert these illustrious doctrines of the gospel.

(l) Ibid. p. 291. (m) Ibid.

Another remark of his, deserves well to be considered: "For the certainty of this faith [i. e. of the justifying faith] search your hearts. If you have it, praise the Lord; for you are happy, and therefore cannot finally perish: for then happiness were not happiness, if it could be lost. When you fall, the Lord will put under his hand, that you shall not lie still. But, if ye feel not this faith, then know, that predestination is too high a matter for you to be disputers of, until you have been scholars in the school-house of repentance and justification; which is the grammar-school, wherein we must be conversant and learned, before we go to the university of God's most holy predestination and providence (n). Thus do I wade in predestination: in such sort as God hath patefied and opened it. Though, in God, it be the first; yet, to us, it is the last opened. And therefore I begin with creation, from thence I come to redemption, so to justification, and so to election. On this sort, I am sure that warily and wisely a man may walk in it easily, by the light of God's Spirit, in and by his word; seeing this faith not to be given to all men, (2Th 3.) but to such as are born of God, predestinate before the world was made, after [i.e. according to] the purpose and good will of God. Which will we may not call in disputation, but, in trembling and fear, submit ourselves to it, as to that which can will none otherwise than that which is holy, right, and good, how far soever otherwise it may seem to the judgment of reason: which" [i. e. the judgment of reason, so far as it opposes the doctrine of predestination,] "must needs be beaten down to be more careful for God's glory, than for man's salvation, which hangeth only thereon, as all God's children full well see (o)."

(n) Ibid. p. 292. (o) Ibid.

11. "To Sir Thomas Hall, and Father Traves, of Blackly.

"Christ alone is our full, sufficient Saviour; for in him we be complete: being made, through his death and one only oblation made and offered by himself upon the cross, the children of God, and fellow-heirs with him of the celestial kingdom, which is the free gift of God, and cometh not of merits, but of the mere grace of God. He that is of God, heareth the word of God: Joh 8. Will you have a more plain badge, whether you are the elect child of God or no, than this text (p)?"

(p) Ibid. p. 205.

12. Mr. Strype has preserved a valuable paper, entitled, John Bradford's Meditation of God's Providence and Presence. Part of it runs thus: "This ought to be unto us most certain, that nothing is come without thy providence, O Lord: that is, that nothing is done, good or bad, sweet or sour, but by thy knowledge; that is, by thy will, wisdom, and ordinance; for all these knowledge doth comprehend in it. As, by the word, we are taught, in many places, that even the loss of a sparrow is not without thy will; nor any liberty or power upon a poor porket [i. e. swine] have all the devils in hell, but by thine own appointment and will. And we must always believe it, most assuredly, to be, all, just and good, howsoever it may seem otherwise unto us. For thou art marvellous, and not comprehensible, in thy ways; and holy, in all thy works. But hereunto it is necessary for us to know, no less certainly, that, although all things be done by thy providence, yet the same thy providence to have many and divers means to work by: which [means] being contemned, thy providence is contemned."

Such ample attestation did this faithful martyr, and "prime pillar" of the Church of England, bear to "The doctrine taught in king Edward's days!"

A very remarkable and important confirmation of Mr. Bradford's zeal for doctrinal Calvinism, as maintained by the Church of England, occurs in Strype's Memorials of Cranmer, book III. chap. xiv. A confirmation, which also involves additional proof of the Calvinism of archbishop Cranmer, bishop Ridley, bishop Latimer, bishop Ferrar, Dr. Rowland Taylor, and Mr. Philpot, who (together with Bradford himself) were, all martyrs for the church.

Strype acquaints us, under the year 1554, when papal persecution began to wax warm, that, among such protestants as then filled the public prisons in London, there was a mixture of free-will men: i.e. of men who "held free-will, tending to the derogation of God's grace; and refused the doctrine of absolute predestination, and original sin," (Memor. of Cranm. p. 350). The historian adds, that these free-will prisoners, though men of strict lives, were "very hot in their opinions and disputations, and unquiet." Divers of them, it seems, were confined "in the king's bench, where Bradford and many other gospellers [i. e. Protestants] were: many whereof, by their conferences, they [i. e. the free-will men] gained to their own persuasion. Bradford had much discourse with them. The name of their chief man was Harry Hart, who had writ something in defence of his [free-will] doctrine. Trew and Abingdon were teachers also among them: Kemp, Gybson, and Chamberlain, were others. They ran their notions as high as Pelagius did, and valued no learning: the writings and authorities of the learned they utterly rejected and despised.

"Bradford was apprehensive, that they might now do great harm in the church: and therefore, out of prison, wrote a letter to Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, the three chief heads of the reformed, though oppressed Church in England, to take some cognizance of this matter, and to consult with them in remedying it; and with him joined bishop Ferrar, Rowland Taylor, and John Philpot." (Memor. of Cranm. ut supr.)

The letter itself, sent on this occasion, is extant in the Appendix to the above 'Memorials of Cranmer,' p. 195. No. lxxxiii. ‘Tis entitled, "Bradford to Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, concerning the free-willers." The superscription of it written by Bradford himself, ran thus: 'To my dear Fathers, Doctor Cranmer, Doctor Ridley, Doctor Latimer; prisoners in Oxford, for the testimony of the Lord Jesus, and his holy gospel.' Part of the letter is as follows: "Almighty God, our heavenly Father, more and more kindle your hearts and affections with his love. As for your parts, in that it is commonly thought, your staff standeth next the door" [i. e. you are among the first who are to be burnt for Christ], "ye have the more cause to rejoice and be glad, as they which shal come to their fellows under the altar. To the which society, God, with you, bring me also, in his mercy, when it shall be his good plesure. Herewithal, I send unto you a little treatise" [written in favour of predestination], "which I have made, that you might peruse the same. All the prisoners here about, in manner, have seen it, and read it: and as therein they agree with me, nay rather with the truth; so they are ready, and will be, to signify it, as they shal see you give them example." Good Mr. Bradford then observes, that his motive to writing this letter, arose from the apprehensions he entertained, of the "Great evil, that is like hereafter to come to posterity, by these men," i. e. by the free-willers: adding, "The which thing that I might the more occasion you to perceive, I have sent you here a writing of Harry Hart's own hand: whereby ye may see, how Christ's glory and grace is like to lose much light, if your sheep quondam be not something holpen by them that love God, and are able to prove that all good is to be attributed only and wholly to God's grace and mercy in Christ, without other respects of worthies than Christ's merits." The holy and judicious martyr next proceeds to give the following true and just account of the free-willers. "The effects of salvation they so mingle and confound with the cause, that, if it be not seen to, more hurt will come by them, than ever came by the Papists. In free-will, they are plain Papists; yea, Pelagians: and ye know, that modicum fermenti totam massam corrumpit. They utterly contemn all learning. But hereof shall this bringer" [i. e. shall the bearer of this letter] "shew you more." The whole concludes thus: "My brethren here with me have thought it their duty to signify this need to be no less than I make it, to prevent the plantations which may take root by these men.

Yours in the Lord,

“Robert Ferrar,

“John Bradford,

“Rowland Taylor,

“John Philpot."

Such was Bradford's excellent letter against the free-will men. And what effect had it on Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer? It filled those illustrious martyrs with deep and solemn alarm, lest the corrupt leaven of free-will, though little at the time (few protestants, comparatively, being infected with it), might, as Bradford also seemed to fear, go on to spread its defilement. "Upon this occasion," says the historian, "Ridley wrote a treatise on God's Election and Predestination. And Bradford wrote another upon the same subject, and sent it to those three fathers in Oxford for their approbation: and their's" [i. e. the approbation of Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer] "being ohtained, the rest of the eminent divines, in and about London, were ready to sign it also." (Strvpe's Memor. of Cranm. p. 350).

"I have" adds Mr. Strype, "seen another letter of Bradford, to certain of those men who were said to hold the error of the Pelagians and Papists concerning man's free-will: by which letter, it appeared, that Bradford had often resorted to them and conferred with them; and, at his own charge and hindrance, had done them good. But, seeing their obstinacy and clamours against him, he forbore to come at them any more: but yet wrote letters to them, and sent them relief. They told him, he was a great slander to the word of God, in respect of his doctrine; in that he believed and affirmed the salvation of God's children to be so certain, that they should assuredly enjoy the same: for, they said, it hanged partly on our perseverance to the end. Bradford [by way of answer] said, it [i. e. salvation] hung upon God's grace in Christ; and not upon our perseverance, in any point: for then were grace no grace. They charged him, that he was not so kind to them as he ought, in the distribution of the charity-money (which was then sent by well-disposed persons to the prisoners of Christ, in which Bradford was the purse-bearer); but he assured them, he never defrauded them of the value of a penny: and at that time sent them 13s. 4d. and, if they needed as much more, he promised they should have it."

Though Mr. Bradford broke the errors of the free-will men to pieces with the hammer of God's word: he yet observed all possible candour and meekness toward their persons. "Let love," said he, "bear the bell away; and let us pray one for another, and be careful one for another. I have loved you in the Lord, my dear hearts; though you have taken it otherwise, without cause by me given. I have not" [i.e. he had not then] “suffered any copy of my Treatise of Predestination to go abroad, because I would suppress all occasion, so far as might be. I am going before you, to my God and your God, to my Father and your Father, to my Christ and your Christ, to my home and your home." ”What a striking model, was this excellent man of ‘orthodoxy and charity united!’ Mr. Strype observes, that “By Bradford’s pains and diligence, he gained some [i.e. some of the free-willers] from their errors, particularly, one Skelthorp: for whom in a letter to Careless, he thanked God, who gave this man to see the truth at length.” Mem. Of Cranm. P. 350, 351.

I shall now proceed to Mr. John Philpot, Arch-deacon of Winchester: to which he was collated by the pious and discerning Dr. Ponet, the first Protestant bishop of that see, and a principal framer of that excellent catechism mentioned in Section xiii.

Mr. Arch-deacon Philpot “was of a worshipful house, a knight’s son, born in Hampshire, brought up in NewCollege, Oxford, where he studied the civil law for six or seven years, besides other liberal arts, and especially the languages. In wit he was pregnant and happy; of a secular courage; in spirit, fervent; in religion; zealous (r).” He suffered death in Smithfield, December 18, 1555.

(r) Fox’s Acts and Mon. vol. iii. p. 459. Mr stripe records two amusing incidents, relative to this Mr. Philpot. “He was the son of Sir Peter Philpot, Knight, nigh Winchester; and was, in his youth, put to Wickham College; where he profited in learning so well, that he laid a wager of twenty pence with John Harpsfield, that he would make two hundred verses in one night, and not make above three faults in them. Mr. Thomas Tuchyner, school-master was judge: and adjudged the twenty pence to Mr. Philpot.” Strype’s Eccl. Mem. iii. p. 263. – “Stephen [Gardiner], bishop of Winton, ever bore ill-will against this godly gentleman [viz. against Mr. Philpot the martyr], and forbad him preaching, oftentimes in king Henry’s reign. But he [Philpot] could not in conscience hide his talent under this Prince, and in so Popish a diocese. At last the bishop sent for certain justices, who came to his house: and there calling Mr. Philpot, a rogue, [Philpot said to the bishop,] My lord, do you keep a privy sessions in your own house for me, and call me rogue, whose father is a knight, and may spend a thousand pounds within one mile of your nose? And he that can spend ten pounds by the year, as I can, I thank God, is no vagabond.

“Bishop of Winchester. Canst thou spend ten pounds by the year?

“Philpot. Ask Henry Francis, your sister’s son. Henry Francis, kneeling down, said, I pray you, my lord, be a good lord to Mr. Philpot: for he is to me a good landlord.

"Bishop of Winchester. What rent dost thou pay him?

"Francis. I pay him ten pounds by the year.

"At this word, the bishop was afraid, and ashamed for making so loud a lie upon a gentleman, and a learned gentleman." Strype, Ibid.

At his examination, before five Popish prelates, and other doctors of the Romish church, Mr. Philpot defied them all to confute Calvin’s institutions. “Which of you all,” said he, “is able to answer Calvin’s institutions, who is minister of Geneva (s)?” To which one of the Papists (Dr. Saverson) replied, “A godly minister indeed! of receipt of cut-purses and runagate traitors. And of late, I can tell you, there is such contention fallen between him [meaning Calvin] and his own sects, that he was fain to flee the town, about predestination. I tell you truth; for I came by Geneva hither.” To this, Philpot rejoined in these words: “I am sure you blaspheme that godly man, and that godly church where he is minister. As it is your churches’ condition” [i.e. in slandering Calvin, you follow the constant practice of the Romish church], “when you cannot answer men by learning, to oppress them with blasphemies and false reports. For in the matter of predestination, he [i.e. Calvin] is in no other opinion than all the doctors of the church be, agreeing [i.e. who agree] with the scriptures (t).” Such was Mr. Philpot’s judgment of Calvin, and predestination. And indeed, where was then the church of Englandman who thought otherwise either of him or it?

(t) Fox, vol. iii. p. 470.

On a subsequent examination before the popish commissioners; Ralph Bayne, bishop of Coventry and Litchfield, told Mr. Philpot, that Christ prophesied of Geneva, when he bid his disciples beware of false prophets. Take the bishop's flirtation, and Philpot's answer, in the words of each respectively.

"Bishop of Cov. Your church of Geneva, which ye [i. e. ye protestants] call the Catholic Church, is that which Christ prophesied of.

"Philpot. I allow [i. e. I acknowledge and profess] the church of Geneva, and the doctrine of the same: for it is Una, Catholica, et Apostolica; and doth follow the doctrine, which the apostles did preach: and the doctrine, taught and preached in king Edward's days, was also according to the same (u)."

(u) Ibid. p. 495.

Here is an arch-deacon of the church of England, who laid down his life for her doctrines, openly witnessing that the doctrinal system of Calvin and Geneva was the same which the apostles preached, and the same which was taught and asserted in the days of king Edward. And the arch-deacon well knew what he said, and whereof he affirmed. For he had been, not only a clergyman, but a dignitary, of our protestant church, in the said king Edward's days. He had, moreover, not only the ocular demonstration of Calvin's writings, to convince him how exactly the doctrines of that reformer harmonized with the doctrines of the Church of England; but had likewise had auricular demonstration of it, during his travels abroad. So that this martyr's peremptory attestation to the sameness of the doctrine established at Geneva, under Calvin; with the doctrine established in England, under king Edward; is such a proof of the Calvinism of our church, as all the piddling cavils of all the Arminian methodists in the three kingdoms will never be able to shake.

While the good arch-deacon lay in prison, he wrote several inestimable letters: and from which I shall give the reader a few selections.

1. "To Mr. John Careless, prisoner in the king's bench.

"God, by his Spirit, setteth the sins of his elect still before them; that where they perceived sin to abound, there they might be assured that grace shall super-abound: and bringeth them down unto hell, that he might lift them up with greater joy to heaven. The Spirit, which is in you, is mightier than all the adversary's power. Tempt he [i. e. the adversary] may; and, lying await at your heels, give you a fall, unawares: but overcome he shall not, yea, he cannot; for you are sealed up already, with a lively faith, to be the child of God for ever. And whom God hath once sealed for his own, him he never utterly forsaketh. The just falleth seven times: but he riseth again. It is man's frailty, to fall: but it is the property of the devil's child, to lie still. Who can lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? Do you not perceive the manifest tokens of your election? First, your vocation to the gospel; and, after your vocation, the manifest gifts of the Spirit of God, given unto you above many others of your condition, with godliness, which believeth and yieldeth to the authority of the scriptures, and is zealous for the same. The peace of God be with you, my dear brother. I can write no more, for lack of light. And that I have written, I cannot read myself; and, God knoweth, it is written far uneasily. I pray God, you may pick out some understanding of my mind towards you. Written in a coal-house of darkness, out of a pair of painful stocks; by thine own in Christ, John Philpot (x)." It was usual for some of the protestant preachers, before sentence of death was actually passed, to be confined in bishop Bonner's coal-house: where they suffered every kind of inconvenience and indignity.

2. "To certain godly Brethren.

"To continue out in well-doing, is the only property of the children of God" [i. e. is the property of God's children only], "and such as assuredly shall be saved. He hath commanded his angels to keep us, that we stumble not at a stone without his divine providence (y)."

(y) Ibid. p. 504.

3. "To Lady Vane.

"Blessed be they that mourn, for such shall be comforted. God wipe away all tears from your pitiful eyes, and sorrow from your merciful heart: that you may (as doubtless, you shall do shortly) rejoice with his elect for ever. God pour his Spirit abundantly upon you: until you may come to see the God of all gods, with his elect, in Sion (z)."

(z) Ibid. p. 506.

4. "To the same Lady.

"His elect, and such as he loveth, will he punish here, that they should not be condemned hereafter with the world eternally. Be thankful unto God, for his wondrous working in his chosen people (a)." The benevolent reader will not be displeased, to know, that the excellent person to whom the two last mentioned letters were addressed, and who was the common supporter of God's afflicted witnesses, during the whole reign of Mary, was reserved by providence, to out-live those persecuting times, and had the comfort of seeing the Church of England restored by queen Elizabeth. Mr. Fox's short account of this elect lady (as Mr. Philpot justly termed her) will hardly be censured as a digression. "This lady Vane was a special nurse of the godly saints, who were imprisoned in queen Mary's time. Unto whom divers letters I have, both of Mr. Philpot, Careless, Trahern, Thomas Rose, and others: wherein they render most grateful thanks for her exceeding goodness towards them; with their singular commendation and testimony also of her Christian zeal towards God's afflicted prisoners, and to the verity of his gospel. She departed of late, at Holborn" [now a part of London, then a village near it; or at most a suburb] "Anno 1568, whose end was more like sleep than death, so quietly and meekly she deceased in the Lord (b)."

(a) Ibid. p. 508, 509. (b) Fox, vol. iii. p. 274.

Mr. Strype informs us of the earnestness, with which arch-deacon Philpot opposed an Arian of those times. On this occasion, Philpot wrote what he calls an apology. It is extant in the Ecclesiastical Memoirs (c). Among other particulars, it contains the following: "Pray that God will give you the lyke zele to withstand the enemies of the gospel, which go about to teach you any other doctryne than you have received in kynge Edward's days: in the which, praised be God, all the syncerity of the gospel was reveled, accordynge to the pure use of the primitive Churche, and as it is, at this present, of the trew Catholyck Churche, allowed through the worlde. Thes new heretyks are full of blasphemous reports: spreading the same abroad, both by themselfs, and by their adherents, against the sincere professors of the gospel, that we make God the author of synne; and that we say, Let men do what they will, it is not material, if they be predestinate. And with this I, among other, am most slaunderously charged and defamed by these outragious heretyks; to whom I have gon abowte, to my power, to do good, as God is my witnes. But I have received the reward of a prophet at their hands (although I am not worthy to be cownted under that glorious name), which is shame, rebuke, slander, and slaying of my good fame: only because I holde and affirme, being manifestly instructed by God's word, that the elect of God cannot finally perish. Therefore they [i. e. the Arian free-willers] have pyked owt of their own malicious nailes the former part of thes blasphemies: and because, at another tyme, I did reprove them, of their temerous and rash judgment, for condemnying of men usyng thyngs indifferent, as shooting, bowling, hawkyng, with such lyke; provyng by the scripture, that all men, in a temperancy, might use them in their dew tymes, and showing honest pastyme was no synne: which thes contentious schismatyks do improve, whereupon they do maliciously descant, as is before mentioned."

(c) Vol. iii. append. No. 48. p. 145—157.

Here let us observe, 1. That the Arians of that age were likewise free-willers: they not only denied the proper divinity of God the Son and God the Spirit, but also the predestination of God the Father, and the final perseverance of his people. 2. As these Arians were free-willers; so, it should seem, that none, who call themselves Protestants, were free-willers, but such as were Arians too. 3. These free-will Arians were professed dissenters from the reformed Church of England. Hence, Mr. Philpot vindicates the church from their malicious objections. Indeed, such men as these could be no other than dissenters. They held what the Church denies, and denied what the Church affirms. The Church denies, to this day, that free-will has any power in spirituals: but those Arian Pelagians maintained the contrary. The Church asserts absolute predestination: but they denied that there is any such thing. The Church holds a Trinity of divine persons: to which those men said, Nay. The Church affirms the ultimate perseverance of the elect: the above Arians would not allow of it at all. The Church declares, that no man upon earth is free from sin: but those very free-will Arians, against whom arch-deacon Philpot disputes in the said apology, maintained, that "men might be without sin, as well as Christ." The Church teaches her children to say, Lord, have mercy upon us miserable sinners: but these identical Arian free-willers objected against that suffrage ; for they said, they were not miserable, nor would be accounted so." The Church uses the Lord's prayer: but the aforesaid free-will Arians "were against using the Lord's prayer; for it was needless, they said, to pray, thy kingdom come, when God's kingdom was already come upon them. And also that petition, forgive us our trespasses: for they held they had no sin (f)." Query: Would not any body almost imagine, that, in all the above respects (the article, concerning the Trinity, alone excepted}, these free-will Arians were designed as types, figures, forerunners, and prophetic images, of Messrs. Wesley, Sellon, and their associates? Never, surely, was there a stronger likeness, in all the features but one! 4. The self-same slander against predestination and perseverance, which was raised by those Arians, is (almost in the self-same words) alleged by the acrimonious Arminians last mentioned. The Arian slander, urged against the "doctrine received in king Edward's days," was, Let men do what they will, it is not material, if they be predestinate." And what says Mr. John Wesley? "the elect shall be saved, do what they will." Behold, how brethren jump together? 5. Mr. Philpot, the martyred arch-deacon, was traduced, by the said Arians, as an Antinomian, because he maintained that "honest pastime was no synne," if properly timed, and temperately indulged: such as "shooting, bowling, hawking, and such like." 6. Justly, therefore, did that pious and learned martyr brand the said free-will Arian-perfectionists (and, by the same rule, justly may their modern successors be branded) on account of “their temerarious and rash judgment, for condemning men using things indifferent."

So much for the excellent Mr. Philpot; who shall now take his leave of the reader, with this short, but weighty observation: "Such is the omnipotencye of owre God, that he can and doth make, to his elect, sour, sweet, and misery, felicity."

Mr. Richard Woodman was burned, in one fire, with nine other martyrs, at Lewes, in Sussex, July 22, 1557.

His first examination was before Dr. Christopherson, the popish bishop of Chichester. Some particulars, which passed on that occasion, are worthy the reader's attention.

"Bishop of Chichester. Do you think that you have the Spirit of God?

"Mr. Woodman. I believe verily that I have.

"Bishop of Chichester. You boast more than ever Paul did, or any of the apostles: which is great presumption.

"Mr. Woodman. I boast not in myself, but in the gift of God, as Paul did. I can prove, by places enough, that Paul had the Spirit of God; as I myself, and all God's elect, have.

"Bishop of Chichester. How prove you that?

"Mr. Woodman. No man can believe that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost, 1Co 7. I do believe that Jesus Christ is my Redeemer, and that I shall be saved from all my sins by his death and blood-shedding; as Paul and all the apostles did, and as all faithful people ought to do: which no man can do, without the Spirit of God. And as there is no damnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, so is there no salvation to them that are not in Christ: for he, that hath not the spirit of Christ, is none of his. We have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The same spirit certifieth our spirits, that we are the sons of God. Besides all this, he, that believeth in God, dwelleth in God, and God in him. So, it is impossible to believe in God, unless God dwell in us.

"Dr. Story [another of the popish examiners.} Oh, my Lord, what an heretic is this same? Why hear you him? Send him to prison, to his fellows in the Marshalsea, and they shall be dispatched within these twelve days.

"Bishop of Chichester. Methinks he is not afraid of the prison.

"Mr. Woodman. No; I praise the living God.

"Dr. Story. This is an heretic indeed: he hath the right terms of all heretics. The living God! I pray you, be there dead gods, that you say the living God?

"Mr. Woodman. Are you angry with me, because I speak the words that are written in the bible?

"Dr. Story. Bibble babble, bibble babble. What speakest thou of the bible? There is no such word written in all the bible (h)."

(h) Fox, vol. iii. p. 675.

Some time afterwards, Mr. Woodman was examined again, before Doctor Langdale. By reciting what then passed, concerning God's decrees, and man's free-will, we shall see, whether the popish doctor was not what would now be called an Arminian, and the protestant martyr a Calvinist.

"Mr. Woodman. St. Paul saith, Ro 9. Ere ever the children were born, ere ever they had done either good or bad, that the purpose of God, which is by election, might stand, not by the reason of works, but by the grace of the caller, the elder shall serve the younger: Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated.

"Dr. Langdale. Methinks, by your talk, you deny original sin and free-will.

“Mr. Woodman. I pray you, what free-will hath man to do good of himself?

"Dr. Langdale. I say, that all men have as much free-will now, as Adam had before his fall.

"Mr. Woodman. I pray you, how prove you that?

"Dr. Langdale. Thus I prove it: that as sin entered into the world, and by the means of one that sinned, all men became sinners, which was by Adam; so, by the obedience of one man, righteousness came upon all men that had sinned, and set them as free as they were before the fall: which was by Jesus Christ.

"Mr. Woodman. Oh Lord, what an overthrow have you given yourself here, in original sin! For, in proving that we have free-will, you have quite denied original sin. For here you have declared, that we be set as free by the death of Christ, as Adam was before his fall: and I am sure, that Adam had no original sin before his fall. If we be as free now, as he was then; I marvel wherefore Paul complained thrice to God, to take away the sting of it: God making him answer, and saying, my grace is sufficient for thee.

"These words, with divers other, prove original sin in us; but not that it shall hurt God's elect people, but that his grace is sufficient for all his. I say, with David, in sin was I born, and in sin hath my mother conceived me: but in no such sin that shall be imputed; because I am born of God by faith. Therefore I am blessed, as saith the prophet, because the Lord imputeth not my sin: not because I have no sin, but because God hath not imputed my sins. Not of our own deserving, but of his free mercy, he hath saved us. Where is now your free-will that you speak of? If we have free-will, then our salvation cometh of our own selves, and not of God: which is a great blasphemy against God and his word.

"For St. James saith, every good gift, and every perfect gift cometh from above, from the Father of Light, with whom is no variableness. Of his own will begat he us. For the wind" [i. e. the regenerating breath of the holy Spirit] "bloweth where it listeth. It is God that worketh in us the will, and also the deed. Seeing, then, that every good gift cometh from above, and lighteneth upon whom it pleaseth God, and that he worketh in us both the will and the deed; methinks all the rest of our own will is little worth, or nought at all, unless it be wickedness. And as for original sin, I think I have declared my mind therein, how it remaineth in man: which you cannot deny, unless you deny the word of God.

"Dr. Langdale. Say what you can: for it availeth me to say nothing to you. I was desired to send for you, to teach you; and there will no words of mine take place in you; but you go about to reprove me. Say what you will, for me (i)."

(i) Ibid. p. 684.

The truth is, the popish examiner had the wrong end of the argument: and he was glad to shuffle off the Calvinistic prisoner, as well as he could. Mr. Woodman, however, was not so easily shuffled off: for, to one who came in during the debate, the intrepid martyr said, "He [i. e. Dr. Langdale] saith, I denied original sin: and it was he himself (that denied it), for he went about to prove that man hath free-will (k)."

(k) Ibid. p. 686.

This protestant nero's last examination, at the close of which he received sentence of death, was held in the Church of St. Mary Overey (now St. Saviour's), Southwark. Himself informs us, that his judges and condemners were, Gardiner "the bishop of Winchester, (Christopherson) bishop of Chichester, the arch-deacon of Canterbury, Dr. Langdale, Mr. Roper, with a fat-headed priest, I cannot tell his name (l)." We shall soon see, what a jest this "fat-headed priest," whose name Mr. Woodman could not tell, made of predestination, and justification by faith alone. Happy would it have been for the protestant cause in general, and for the Church of England in particular, if those doctrines had, to this day, been exploded by papists only. But there have, since, been too many "fat-headed priests," of more than one protestant denomination, at whose hands the doctrines of election and free justification found no better reception, than at those of the nameless fat-headed priest above mentioned. I wish the same remark may not extend to more than a few lean-headed priests likewise.

(l) Ibid. p. 691.

The commissioners being sat, Mr. Woodman was called upon to give an account of his faith. This he did, as follows:

"I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ my Saviour; very God, and very man. I believe in God the Holy Ghost, the comforter of all God's elect people; and that he is equal with the Father and the Son (m)."

(m) Ibid.

The bishop of Winton and the arch-deacon of Canterbury told him, in the cant so usual with persecutors, "we go not about to condemn thee, but to save thy soul, if thou wilt be ruled, and do as we would have thee.

"Woodman. To save my soul? Nay; you cannot save my soul. My soul is saved already: I praise God therefore. There can no man save my soul, but Jesus Christ. And he it is that hath saved my soul, before the foundation of the world was laid.

"The fat priest. What an heresy is that, my lord! Here's an heresy! He saith, his soul was saved before the foundation of the world was laid! Thou canst not tell what thou sayest. Was thy soul saved before it was [i. e. before it existed]?

"Woodman. Yes, I praise God, I can tell what I say; and I say the truth. Look in the first of Ephesians, and there you shall find it: where Paul saith, blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all manner of spiritual blessings, in heavenly things, by Christ; according as he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world was laid, that we should be holy and without blame before him, through love; and thereto were we predestinated. These be the words of Paul: and I believe they be most true. And therefore it is my faith, in and by Jesus Christ, that saveth: and not you, nor any man else.

"The fat priest. What! Faith without works? St. James saith, faith without works is dead. And we have free-will to do good works.

“Woodman. I would not that any of you should think that I disallow good works: for a good faith cannot be without good works. Yet not of ourselves: it is the gift of God. It is God that worketh in us both the will and the deed (n)."

(n) Fox, Ibid. p. 692.

What could the popish free-willers and merit-mongers do with this inflexible heretic? Convince him they could not. The shortest expedient, therefore, was, to burn him out of the way: which they accordingly did.

Let me now introduce Mr. John Clement to my readers; a man of great grace, and distinguished usefulness; concerning whom, Mr. Strype thus writes:

"There were now [viz. in the year 1556] abundance of sects and dangerous doctrines; whose maintainers shrouded themselves under the professors of the gospel [i.e. they affected to pass for Protestants]. Some denied the godhead of Christ; some denied his manhood. Others denied the godhead of the Holy Ghost, original sin, the doctrine of predestination and free election, the descent of Christ into hell (which the protestants here generally held), the baptism of infants. Others held free-will, man's righteousness, and justification by works: doctrines, which the protestants, in the times of king Edward, for the most part disowned. By these opinions, a scandal was raised on the true professors [i.e. on those who had suffered, and who were then suffering persecution and death for their attachment to the protestant church of England]. Therefore it was thought fit now, by the orthodox, to write and publish, summary confessions of their faith, to leave behind them when they were dead: wherein they should disclaim these doctrines, as well as all popish doctrines whatsoever.

"This was done by one John Clement, this year (1556), laying a prisoner in the king's bench for religion: (whose declaration is) entitled, A Confession and Protestation of the Christian Faith. In which it appears, the protestants thought fit (notwithstanding the condemnation and burning of Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Hooper, Rogers, Saunders, Bradford, for heretics), to own their doctrine" (viz. 'the doctrine of Cranmmer, Ridley, Latimer, Hooper, Rogers, Saunders, Bradford, &c.') as agreeable to the word of God, and "them as such as sealed the same with their own blood. This confession may be looked upon as an account of the belief of the professors" [i. e. of the protestant church of England-men] in those days. Copies thereof were taken, and so dispersed, for the use of good men: one whereof is in my hands. Thus we see how industriously they [the protestants of those days] disowned all Arians, Anabaptists, and such like, who being not of the Roman faith, the papists would fain have joined them with all the protestants, to disgrace and disparage the holy profession."

Before I quote the confession itself, let me observe from the above passage, 1. That, so far as appears, Arians, Socinians, and such like, were the only protestants who, in those times, denied "the doctrines of predestination and free election:" and that the protestants, "in the times of king Edward," did for the most part "disown the doctrines of free-will, man's righteousness, and justification by works." And no wonder: for "the most part" of the then protestants were sincere members of the church of England: which church then did, and still does, assert "predestination and free election and deny "free-will, man's righteousness, and justification by works." 2. It is evident, that such, as dissented from the church of England in those points, strove to take advantage of the afflicted, persecuted state, which the church was in, under the reign of Mary; and to palm themselves upon the world, as churchmen: labouring to persuade the ignorant, that the doctrines, for which the martyrs bled, were the same doctrines which were held by these same Arians, free-willers, and work-mongers. With as much audacity, and with as little truth, as Wesley, Sellon, and others of that stamp, now effect to shelter their pelagianism under the wing of our present establishment. 3. The surviving protestants, who were imprisoned for the faith, and had not yet (as many of them soon afterwards were) been brought to the stake, took no small alarm at the impudence and falsehood of these free-willers: and thought it incumbent upon themselves, as well they might, to clear the suffering church of England and her godly martyrs, from the unjust insinuations of the Arian and Pelagian party. They deemed it, says Mr. Strype, "a scandal," to be numbered with those few, but insolent fanatics, who, "denying predestination and free election," held "free-will and justification by works."

4. The more openly to "disclaim," and the more effectually to "disown," all connexion with these intruding free-willers; "the orthodox," says Mr. Strype, "thought fit to own," i. e. publicly and unanimously to avow, "the doctrine of Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Hooper, Rogers, Saunders, and Bradford, as agreeable to the word of God," and to the faith of the reformed church of England: and to own "them," i. e. to own the said martyrs, Cranmer, &c. to have been "such as sealed the same [doctrines] with their blood." To this end,

5. It was resolved on, by the evangelical prisoners, to draw up, and publish, an explicit confession of faith, prior to their own martyrdom: which confession might remain "behind them, when they were dead," and be a standing proof of their union and communion, in matters of doctrine, with Cranmer, Ridley, &c. and the other foregoing martyrs of the church of England.

6. Framing this confession, and the digesting of it into form, was committed to Mr. John Clement: who executed his trust with such care, fidelity, and ability, that (says Mr. Strype) the said confession may be looked upon as an "account of the belief of the professors in those days:" i. e. of the "protestants in the times of king Edward," thousands of whom were afterwards persecuted, and hundreds of whom were put to death, under the succeeding tyranny of Mary.

So much by way of preliminary to this famous confession. Now for a concise view, of the confession itself. The reader that pleases to peruse the whole of it may see it in Strype.

It observes, toward the beginning, the manifold subtlety of satan in corrupting the human mind from the glorious gospel of the blessed God: "Some denyinge the doctrine of Godes firm predestination and free election in Jesus Christe; which is the very certayntie of our salvation. And as he" [i. e. the devil] "hathe caused them to denye all these thinges, even so hathe he made them to affirm many madde and foolish fantasyes, whiche the worde of God dothe utterlye condempne: as free-will, man's righteousnesse, and justifying of workes; withe dyvers suche lyke; to the great dishonoure of God, to the obscuringe of his glorye, the darkeninge of his truthe, to the great defacynge of Christe’s deathe; yea to the utter destruction of many a simple soule, that cannot shifte from these subtill sleightes of satan, excepte the Lorde shewe his great mercye upon them. I do undoubtedlye beleve in God the Holy Ghoste, who is the Lorde and gever of lyfe, and the sanctifier of all Godes elect. Furthermore, I do confesse, and undoubtedlye beleve, that I, and every lyvely member of this catholyke church, is and shall be redeemed, justified and saved, onely and solye by the free grace and mere mercye of God in Jesus Christe, throughe his moste precyious deathe and bloodsheaddinge: and in no part by or for any of our owne good workes, merites, or deservings, that we can do or deserve. Notwithstandinge, I confesse, that all men ought, and are bownde by the worde of God, to doe good workes, and to knowe and kepe God's commandmcntes: yet not to deserve any part of our salvations thereby; but to shewe their obedience to God, and the frutes of faythe unto the worlde. And this salvation, redemption, and justification, is apprehended or receaved of us, by the onely faithe in Jesus Christe: in that sence and meanynge, as is declared in the homilye of justification, which was appoynted to be reade in the peculiar Church of Englande, in good kynge Edward's dayes the syxte. Which homilye, with all the reaste, then set furthe by his authoritie, I do affirme and beleve to be a true, holesome, and godlye doctryne for all Chrystian men to beleve, observe, kepe, and folowe.

"Also, I do beleve and confesse, that the last boke, which was geven to the Churche of Englande by the authoritie of good kynge Edwarde the syxte and the whole parliament, contayninge the manor and fourme of Common Prayer, and ministration of the blessed sacramentes in the Churche of Englande; ought to have been receaved with all readynes of mynde, and thankfullnes of harte. Also I do accepte, beleve, and alowe, for a very truthe, all the godlye articles that were agreed upon in the Convocation-house, and published by the kynges majesties authoritie (I meane, kynge Edwarde the syxte), in the last yeare of his most gracyous reigne.

"I doe confesse and beleve, that Adam, by his fall, lost, from himself and all his posterity, all the freedome, choyce, and power of man's will to doe good: so that all the will and imaginations of mannes harte is onelye to evil, and altogether subject to synne, and bonde and captive to all manner of wickednes. So that it cannot once thinke a good thought, much lesse then doe any good deede, as of his owne worke, pleasaunte and acceptable in the syght of God, untill suche tyme as the same" [i. e. until such time as the will] "be regenerate by the Holy Ghoste. Until the spirite of regeneration be given us of God, we can neither will, doe, speake, nor thinke, any good thynge that is acceptable in his sight. As a man that is deade cannot rise up himselfe, or worke anye thynge towards his resurrection; or he that is not, worke towardes his creation; even so the naturall man cannot worke any thynge towards his regeneration. As a bodye, without the soule, cannot move but downewardes; so the soul of man, without the spirite of Christe, cannot lyfte up himselfe. He must be borne agayne, to doe the workes that be spirituall and holye. And by ourselves we cannot be regenerate by any meanes: for it is onlye the worke of God. To whom let us praye, with David, that he will take away our stonye hartes, and create in us new hartes, by the mighty operations of his Holye Spirite.

"I do acknowledge, confesse, and undoubtedlye beleve, that God, our eternal Father (whose power is incomprehensible, whose wisdome is infinite, and his judgments unsearchable) hath, onelye of his greate aboundant mercye, and free goodnesse, and favoure, in Jesus Christe, ordeyned, predestinated, elected, and appointed, before the foundation of the worlde was layd, an innumerable multitude of Adam's posteritie, to be saved from their synnes thoroughe the merites of Christe’s deathe and bloudsheaddinge onelye; and to be (thoroughe Christ) his adopted sonnes, and heres of his everlasting kingdome, in whom his great mercye shall be magnified for ever: of which moste happye number, my fyrme faith and stedfast beleve is, that I, althoughe unworthye, am one; onelye throughe the mercye of God in Jesus Christe our Lorde and Savyour.

"And I beleve, and am surely certified, by the testimonye of Gode’s good Spirite, and the unfallyble truthe of his most holye worde, that neither I, nor any of these his chosen children, shall fynally perishe, or be dampned: althoughe we all (if God should entre into judgment with us, according to our dedes) have justly deserved it. But suche is Gode’s greate mercye towardes us, for our Lorde Jesus Christe’s sake, that our synnes shall never be imputed unto us. We are all geven to Christe to kepe, who will lose none of us: neither can any thinge pluck us furthe of his handes, or separate us from him. He hathe maryed us unto him by faythe, and made us his pure spouse without spot or wrinkle in his sight, and will never be devorced from us. He hathe taken from us all our synnes, myseries, and infirmities: and hathe put them upon himselfe: and hathe clothed us with his righteousness, and enriched us with his merits, and mercyes, and moste lovinge benefites. And he hathe not onelye done all this, and much more, for us; but also, of his great mercye, love, and kyndness, he dothe styll kepe the same most surelye safelye for us, and will doe so for ever: for he lovethe us unto the ende. His Father hathe committed us unto his safe custodye, and none can ever be able to plucke us furthe of his hands. He hathe regesterd our names in the boke of lyfe, in such sorte that the same shall never be raced out. In consideration whereof, we have good cause to rejoice, to thanke God, and hartelye to love him; and, of love, unfaynedlye to doe whatsoever he willeth us to doe: for he loved us firste.

"Fynallye, Christe testifyethe himself, That it is not possible that the elect shoulde be deceaved. Verelye then, can they not be dampned" [i. e. damned]: "Therefore I confesse and beleve, with all my harte, soull, and mynde, that not one of all Gode’s elect children shall fynallye perishe or be dampned. For God, who is their Father, both can and will preserve, kepe, and defende them for ever. For, seynge he is God, he wanteth no power to do it: and also, seynge he is their moste deare lovynge Father, he lacketh no good will towardes them, I am sure. How can it be, but he will perfourme their salvation to the uttermoste, sythe he wanteth neither power, nor good will, to do it?

"And this moste heavenlye, true, and comfortable doctrine dothe not bringe with it a fleshelye, idell, carnall, and careless lyfe, as some men unjustlye doe report of it: whose eyes God open, and pardon their ignorance and rashe judgmentes. But rather it dothe mayntayne and bringe with it all true godlyncss, and Christian purite of lyfe, with moste earneste thankefullnes of harte, in respecte of Gode’s greate mercye and lovynge kyndnes onlye.

"As for reprobation, I have nothinge to saye of it: for Sainte Paul saythe, What have we to doe with them that are without? The Lorde encrease our faythe and true feelynge of our election. Notwithstanding, as [the gospel] "is unto some the savor of lyfe unto lyfe ; even so is it, unto other some, the savor of death unto death: as Christe himselfe is, unto some, a rocke to ryse bye; and to other some, a stone to stumble at."

Thus believed the primitive members of the church of England. Thus held, and thus taught, those protestant worthies, who, when the truths of God were at stake, loved not their lives, unto death.

Let me once more observe (the remarks are very important, or I would not repeat them), that, by the acknowledgment even of Mr. Strype himself, 1. This confession of faith was drawn up by Mr. Clement, at the desire of the imprisoned protestants in general: 2. That it was a declaration of their common belief: 3. That "Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Hooper, Rogers, Saunders, and Bradford, sealed the same" [i. e. the same doctrines which this confession asserts] "with their own blood." 4. That this confession "may be looked upon as an account of the belief of the protestants in the times of king Edward, and of the professors in those days." Would to God, that the same creed was as generally held, in the days that are now!

Mr. Clement, whose pen was particularly employed in this laudable service, has, in the concluding part of the above confession, an observation or two, respecting himself, which breathe almost the very spirit of an apostle, "I doe not depende upon the judgment of any man, farther than the same dothe agree with the true touchstone, which is the holye scriptures: wherein I thanke my Lorde God) I have bene continuallye exercised, even from my youthe up; as they, that have knowne my bringynge up, can tell: and some persecution I have suffered for the same. And now it hath pleased God to make me a prisoner, for the testimonye thereof: and I thynke, that shortelye I must give my life for it, and so confyrme it with my bloude; whiche thynge I am well contented to doe. And I moste heartelye thanke my Lorde Gode therefore: that is to saye, for this his specyall gifte of persecution for righteousness sake. And thoughe, for my synnes, God might justlye have condempned me to hell-fyre for ever, and also have caused me to suffre bothe shame and persecution in this lyfe, for evyll doynge; yet hathe he (of his greate mercye in Jesus Christe, according to his owne good-will and purpose) dealte more mercyfulle with me: as to geve me this grace and favour in his sight, that I shall suffre persecution of the wicked, with his elect people, for the testymonye of his truthe."

This was dated in April, 1556. The good man did not long survive. It was one of the last services, which he rendered to the church of God. He supposed, at the time of his writing the above, that he should very speedily be, literally, a burnt-offering to Christ: and he was ready to become so. But God had determined otherwise. His "burning was prevented, by his death in prison: and he was buried at the back-side of the king's bench, in a dunghill, June 25, [1556]. Where two days before, one Adheral was buried, who likewise died in the same prison, and in the same cause. And, in the same prison and cause, five days after, died John Careless: who was contumeliously buried where the two others were." Precious, in the sight of the Lord, is the death of his saints.

Thus have I given a sample (and it is but a sample) of those authentic attestations, which our martyrs bore, to the doctrines of the church of England. And, even from these instances, it is manifest, that those of our present clergy and laity, who have fallen in with Arminianism, have palpably revolted from those grand truths for which our martyrs bled, and which our church still continues to assert in her liturgy, articles, and homilies.

Nor was the belief of the Calvinistic principles confined to our bishops, clergymen, and martyrs only. It was common to the main body of protestants: i. e. to all who were not open, professed dissenters from the church. The Norfolk and Suffolk supplication, addressed to queen Mary's commissioners, may serve for one instance. In it, the protestants of those counties term the late king Edward "A most noble, virtuous, and innocent king; a very saint of God;" adding, that "The religion, set forth by him, is such, as every Christian man is bound to confess to be the truth of God." Again: "We certainly know, that the whole religion, set out by our late most dear king, is Christ's true religion, written in the holy scripture of God, and by Christ and his apostles taught to his church. O merciful God have pity upon us! we may well lament our miserable estate, to receive such a commandment, to reject, and cast out of our churches all these most godly prayers, [meaning the English liturgy], instructions, admonitions, and doctrines [meaning the homilies and articles] (s)." This religious remonstrance, though it produced no good effect on the popish queen and her commissioners; yet tends to show, how tenaciously the members of our church embraced and held fast her excellent principles.

(s) Fox, vol. iii. p. 579, et seq.

An anonymous letter, sent to Bonner, shows, that the writer of it was (and, at that time, what church of England-man was not?) a Calvinist. After dissuading that inhuman prelate from persisting to imbrue his hands in the blood of the saints, it follows: "I say not this, for that I think thou canst shorten any of God's elect children's lives before the time that God hath appointed by his divine will and pleasure: but because I would fain see some equity, &c."

I cannot better conclude the forgoing extracts from our martyrs, than by inserting part of that admirable prayer, which seems to have been generally used by those who poured out their souls in defence of the gospel. It is intitled, "A Prayer, to be said at the stake, of all them that God shall account worthy to suffer for his sake." In it are these words: "I most humbly pray thee, that thou wouldst aid, help, and assist me with thy heavenly grace: that with Christ thy Son, I may find comfort; with Stephen, I may see thy presence and gracious power; with Paul, and all others who for thy name's sake have suffered affliction and death, I may find so present with me thy gracious consolations; that I may by my death glorify thy holy name, confirm thy church in thy verity, convert some that are to be converted, and so depart forth of this miserable world, where I do nothing but daily heap sin upon sin. Dear Father, whose I am, and always have been, even from my mother's womb; yea, even before the world was made (u).”

(u) Fox, u. s. p. 498. Let it be observed, that, of those who were imprisoned for the faith, all were not crowned with martyrdom: some were, by the good providence of God, reserved to see better times.

Among these, was Mr. John Lithall: whose examination, before the bishop of London's chancellor, is related by Mr. Fox. - "You boast much, every one of you," said the chancellor to this holy prisoner, "of your faith and belief. Let me hear, therefore, how you believe." 'I believe," answered Lithall, 'to be justified really by Christ Jesus, without either deeds or works, or any thing that may be invented by man." The chancellor replied, "Faith cannot save, without works." - 'That,' rejoined Lithall, 'is contrary to the doctrine of the apostles.'

The reverend Mr. John Melvin was also of the number, who, I believe, by some means or other, escaped burning. He was however, a prisoner in Newgate: and dated, from that prison, a very valuable letter to his Christian friends; in which he expressed himself as follows. "Most certain it is, dearly beloved, that Christ's elect be but few, in comparison of that great number which go, in the broad way, into everlasting perdition. - Most certain it is also, that our Saviour Jesus Christ hath and knoweth his own, whose names are written in the book of life: redeemed with the most precious blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ. So that the eternal Father knoweth them that are his. - Our Saviour loseth none of all them whom the eternal Father hath given him. - [He died] the death of the cross, for the ransom and sins of God's elect," - See Fox, iii. 763. 845.

So unanimous were the protestant church of England-men (those who were burned, and those who escaped), in believing, professing, and holding fast, the precious Calvinistic doctrines of the bible and of the church.

Calvinism XVIII - The Re-Establishment of the Church of England,

SECTION XVIII.

The Re-establishment of the Church of England, by Queen Elizabeth.

QUEEN Mary's death, in November, 1558, quite changed the face of religious affairs in England. The princess Elizabeth, during the reign of her half-sister, was so obnoxious to the latter, both on a domestic and a religious account, that her life had been in perpetual danger. Mary, whose politics were as contemptible, as her cruelty and superstition were detestable; would, more than once, have very willingly dispatched Elizabeth to the other world. But this design was constantly overruled by king Philip. That prince is supposed, by some, to have screened Elizabeth, from an hope of marrying her himself, in case of Mary's death, whose state of health grew continually worse and worse. This might possibly be one motive, to the protection which he gave the princess: for, after the decease of queen Mary, Elizabeth was hardly seated on the throne, before Philip actually solicited her hand. But, probably, what operated most strongly in Elizabeth's behalf, was, the close connection that subsisted between France and Scotland. So far back as the beginning of the reign of Edward VI, the plan seems to have been laid, for the Dauphin's marriage to Mary queen of Scots: which projected marriage took effect in 1558. Philip knew, that, on the demise of his own queen, none (x) stood, between Mary of Scots and the crown of England, but Elizabeth. It was necessary, therefore, to preserve Elizabeth alive; lest France, in right of the Dauphiness, should be aggrandized by the addition of England and Ireland: which would have been throwing too much weight into the French scale. It was, probably, owing to a similar consideration of policy, that in the succeeding century, Charles I. when prince of Wales, was suffered to return hither from Spain. In all likelihood, Php 4. would have made the prince pay very dear for his romantic ramble to that court, if the king of Bohemia had not, in right of his consort, been next heir to the crown of England. Thus does the secret, but efficacious direction of divine providence, make even the political wisdom of this world instrumental to the accomplishment of the divine decrees!

(x) The duchess of Suffolk's descent is no exception to this remark: as her mother was but the younger daughter of Henry VII.

When Elizabeth mounted the throne, the church of England, with all its doctrinal Calvinism, became, once more, the pure religion of this nation. The proofs are so numerous, that I must only abstract a few.

I. The liturgy, the XXXIX articles, and the supplementary homilies added to those of king Edward; are such glaring evidences on the side of (y) Calvinism, as might well supply the place of all evidence beside. These being so well known, I shall carry my appeal to other facts, which lie more out of the way of common notice.

(y) If it be possible for any reasonable being seriously to question, whether those ecclesiastical standards are truly and thoroughly Calvinistic; let him only peruse, with more attention, the standards themselves. I shall here make no extracts from them: having already done it, partly, in my Caveat against Unsound Doctrines; and, more largely, in my Vindication, of the Church from Arminianism. However, as I am now on the subject, let the remarks of Dr. Peter Heylyn (than whom a more outrageous Arminian never existed) stand, as a striking monument of that irresistible force, with which truth is sometimes found, during certain intervals of sober reflection, to irradiate and compel even the most perverse and profligate mimls. The remarks, which I here subjoin, consist of inferences, deduced from the seventeenth article, which treats of predestination and election. If such a writer, as Heylyn, should be found to acknowledge, that the said seventeenth article speaks the undoubted language of Calvin; our wonder will be, not that the article should speak that language (for, of this, no considerate person can sincerely doubt), but that so virulent a party-man, as Peter, should, by any transient gleam of regard to veracity, publicly avow some of his real convictions, and transmit that avowal to posterity.

"Predestination to life," says he, "is defined, in the XVIIth article, to be the everlasting purpose of God, whereby before the foundations of the world were laid, he hath constantly decreed, by his counsel, secret to us, to deliver from damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation [as vessels made to honour.] In which definition," adds Heylyn, "there are these things to be observed: 1. That predestination doth presuppose a curse, or state of damnation, in which all mankind was presented to the sight of God. 2. That it [viz. predestination to life, or the decree of election] is an act of his from everlasting: because, from everlasting, he foresaw that misery into which wretched man would fall. 3. That he founded it, and resolved for it, in the man and mediator Christ Jesus, both for the purpose and performance. 4. That it was of some special ones alone; elect, called forth, and reserved in Christ, and not generally extended unto all mankind. 5. That, being thus elected in Christ, they shall be brought by Christ to everlasting salvation. And, 6. That this counsel is secret to us: for though there be revealed to us some hopeful signs of our election and predestination to life, yet the certainty thereof is a secret hidden in God, &c"—Life of Laud, Introd. p. 29.

Though the above concessions are not entirely without their flaws, (or, at least a few small Arminian cracks); yet it is amazing, that the cracks are so few and slight, when we consider by what hand the six beads were strung.

But the seventh bead is most wonderful of all. "Such," says the stringer, "is the church's doctrine, in the point of election, or predestination unto life. But, in the point of reprobation, or predestination unto death, she is" [to wit, in the seventeenth article] “utterly silent: leaving it to be gathered upon logical inferences from that which is delivered by her in the point of election. For contrariorum contraria est ratio, as logicians say. Though that which is so gathered, ought rather to be called a dereliction, than a reprobation." Ibid, p. 30.

We will not quarrel with Peter, about the term reprobation. Dereliction includes as much reprobation as need be contended for. And I wish Dr. Heylyn may not be. reprobated by Mr. Wesley, for conceding, that "reprobation, or predestination unto death," is to be " gathered" by " logical inferences," from the seventeenth article.

To make up a round number, Peter shall annex an eighth bead to the preceding seven. He very justly observes, that the prayer, in which our church beseeches God "to accomplish the number of his elect," doth "conclude both for a number, and for a certain number, of God's elect." Miscel. Tr. p. 559. Query: Was not Peter, during some luminous moments, "derelicted" by Arminianism, and taken captive by truth? I wish, Mr. Wesley and his man Sellon may profit by the example, be seized in like sort, and permanently experience the same "dereliction."

II. The only commentary on the 39 articles, which was published in the reign of Elizabeth, is that of Mr. Thomas Rogers, rector of Horninger, in Suffolk. He dedicated it to archbishop Whitgift: by whom (says Fuller) it was countenanced (z)" A subsequent edition of it, in 1607, the author dedicated to arch-bishop Bancroft, whose chaplain he was. As it is not a very scarce book, I shall make no transcripts from it: but only intimate that the commentary does not (as is too often the case) vary from the text, but is perfectly and judiciously Calvinistical, from beginning to end. The only people, to whom it gave offence in those days, were Papists, Presbyterians, and such as leaned to either of those extremes. Now, I would ask, whether a professedly predestinarian analysis and exposition of the 39 articles, dedicated to two archbishops of Canterbury, and approved by both of them; is not one conclusive proof, that doctrinal Calvinism was, all through the reign of Elizabeth, and in the beginning of Jas 1. considered as the true and undoubted system of the church of England?

(z) Church Hist. b. ix. p. 173.

III. The marginal notes, which occur in the bibles that were published during Elizabeth's reign, unanswerably prove the same point. Observe, I speak not of the Geneva bible, translated, commented on, and published by the English who had been exiles in that city: which edition, however valuable on some accounts, was never received as authentic by the church and state of England. But I speak of such bibles, and of such only, as passed the review of the leading ecclesiastics at home, and came out by the warrant and under the sanction of "The queen's most excellent majesty."

Of these warranted bibles there were, principally, three kinds. The first was commonly denominated, The Great Bible. Another went by the name of the Bishop’s Bible. The third was the Quarto Bible, for the use of families.

(1.) Of the Great Bible, otherwise called, Archbishop Cranmer's Bible, there had been more than one edition, antecedently to the accession of queen Elizabeth. It was completed for the press, A. D. 1537, in or about the 28th year of the reign of Henry VIII. It was by lord Cromwell's interest with the king, that Cranmer obtained the royal licence to translate and publish the scriptures: and this was the first English bible, that was printed by authority. The care of the translation lay wholly on Cranmer; assigning little portions of this holy book to divers bishops and learned men to do. And, to his inexpressible satisfaction, he saw the work finished in this year (1537), about July or August" When the care of the translation is said to have lain wholly on archbishop Cranmer, we must understand no more, by that expression, than that Cranmer, on this occasion, revised and corrected the translation made, six or seven years before, by Mr. William Tyndal the martyr. This appears, not only on comparing the text of Cranmer's, or the Great Bible, with the text of Tyndal's; but is also noted, by the exactly careful compiler of Cranmer's history. The bible, as Fox speaks, had been printed in the year 1532, and reprinted again three or four years after. The printers were Grafton and Whitchurch, who printed it at Hamburgh. The corrector (of the press) was John Rogers, a learned divine, afterwards a canon of St. Paul's, in king Edward's time, and the first martyr in the next reign (viz. in the reign of Mary). The translator was William Tyndal, another learned martyr; with the help of Miles Coverdale, afterwards bishop of Exeter. But, before all this second edition was finished, Tyndal was taken and put to death for his religion, in Flanders, in the year 1536, and his name then growing into ignominy, as one burnt for an heretic; they [i. e. the printers] thought it might prejudice the book, if he should be named for the translator thereof: and so they used a feigned name; calling it Thomas Matthews' bible. In this bible were certain prologues (prefixed at the head of the respective books) and a special table collected of the common places in the bibles, and texts of scripture for proving the same; and chiefly the common places of the Lord's Supper, the marriage of priests and the mass: of which [i. e. of the mass} it was there said, that it was not to be found in scripture. This bible giving the (Popish) clergy offence, was gotten to be restrained. Some years after, came forth the bible aforesaid [i. e. the Great Bible, otherwise termed, Cranmer's], wherein Cranmer had the greatest hand: which, as I suppose, was nothing but the former [i. e. Tyndal's] corrected: the prologues and tables being left out."

So much for the origin of Cranmer's bible. Let us now consult that bible itself: which (besides the light it will throw on our general argument) will contribute, not a little, to confirm what has been already asserted and proved, concerning the Calvinism of that great and good archbishop. Though Cranmer's, or the Great Bible, was prepared for publication in 1537, I cannot find that it was actually published till 1539. It is a very scarce and curious book: of which, however, I have been able to procure a sight. It is entitled, "The Byble in Englyshe, &c. prynted by Richard Grafton and Edward Whitchurch, 1539." It is a large folio, on a black letter, ornamented with small wooden cuts; and divided into chapters, but not into verses. The margin has scripture references, but no expository notes. The deficiency of notes is remedied by a summary of contents, placed at the head of each chapter. From a sample of which summaries, archbishop Cranmer appears to have been, even at that early period, much enlightened into the doctrines of grace.

The contents to Ro 3. run thus: "Both the Jewes and Gentyls are under synne, and are justyfyed only by the grace of God in Chryst."

Contents to Ro 4. "He [i. e. St. Paul] declareth by the example of Abraham, that fayth justyfyeth, and not the lawe, nor the workes thereof."

In the prefixed "summe and content of all the Holy Scripture," good Cranmer observes, that God is he, "Of whom all thinges proceade; and without whom ther is nothynge which is ryghteous and mercyful; and who worketh all thyngs in all, after hys wyll: of whom it maye not be demaunded, wherefore he doth thys or that." The reader will not consider the above extracts as an absolute digression from the times of queen Elizabeth, when he recollects that the Great Bible, and two others which are next to be mentioned, were the current bibles in the beginning of her reign; until the scarcity and dearness of these occasioned the publication of what was called the Bishops' Bible.

The other two, which appeared before Elizabeth's accession, were, the folio edition, of 1549; and the quarto edition, of 1552. Both printed in the reign of king Edward VI. and under the care of archbishop Cranmer. These, likewise, I have consulted; and from them I copy the passages hereafter given.

That of 1549, is on a small, neat, slenderlyblackish letter, somewhat approaching toward the Saxon style of character. It is dedicated to king Edward, and has prologues to the respective books of both Testaments. The marginal notes being exceeding few, I shall give proof of the pure divinity, which then obtained among the protestants of the church of England from the valuable "table of the principal matters," which runs alphabetically, and is prefixed to the Old Testament. Under the head of election, we thus read: "Our eleccyon is by grace, and not by workes. Few are electe, or chosen. We are electe of God the Father, thorow his good wil, before the construcyon of the world, that by the grace and merite of Christ we should have health [i. e. salvation], serving al men by charite. The elect cannot be accused, forasmuch as God justifieth them." Under the head of predestination, we read thus: "The predestinate are sainctes, or holy people, made lyke to the image of the sonne of God, and called, justifyed, and glorifyed by him. God had predestynate, before the makyng of the world, for to redeme us by the bloud of his sonne, for to save, and make us hys chyldren by adopcyon, accordynge to the purpose of his wyl. The carnal and sensual people cannot comprehende the eleccyon and predestinacyon of God: because they stryve for to save themselves, by theyr own workes and merites; which cannot be." Under the article of will, it is affirmed, that the will of God is immutable, and the which no man can resist. And, under the head of perseverance, or continuance in grace, it is asserted, that perseverance in the truth is geven of Christ unto the faithful. Thus speaks Cranmer's bible of 1549.

The quarto edition, of 1552, is on a black letter, with wooden cuts; divided into chapters, but not into verses. The translation appears to be Tyndal's. In this curious bible (which was reprinted under Elizabeth, in 1566, a note, subjoined to the 3d chapter of Romans, runs thus: "God, in his lawe, doth not onely requyre of us an outward ryghtewesnes, but also an inward perfection. That is to saye, we are not onely bounde to fulfyll the workes of the lawe, outwardly, in our lyvinge; but, also, inwardly, in our heartes: to be most syncere; to love God entirely, above all thinges; and our neyghbours as ourselves. But our nature is so corrupted, that no man living is able to do the same. Wherefore no man can be justified by the workes of the lawe." The note to Ro 9. is this: "It is evident by this texte, that our workes or merytes do not justifye us, but that our salvation doth wholly depende upon the free election of God; whiche, beynge the ryghtewesnes itselfe, doth chose whome it pleseth hym unto lyfe everlastynge." The note to Ro 11. is: "God doth preserve his elect, even in the middest of thousandes of idolaters." Thus wrote Cranmer, and our other bishops in 1552.

(2.) Come we now to the Bishop’s Bible: emphatically so called, because it was set on foot, promoted, and completed, chiefly under the auspices of Parker, the first Protestant archbishop of Canterbury after Cranmer. A beginning was made in it, A. D. 1565, and the seventh of Elizabeth: but the work was not published, ‘til 1568. The other principal prelates concerned in this edition, were, Sandes, then bishop of Worcester; Guest, bishop of Rochester; Parkhurst, bishop of Norwich; Davies, bishop of St. David's; and Cox, bishop of Ely. This is supposed to have been the first English bible, whose chapters were sub-divided into verses. It is a large folio, on a black letter; and, in fact, no more than an improved edition of Cranmer's, or the Great Bible, already mentioned. I have not had it in my power to see the original edition of this the Bishop’s Bible, printed in 1568. What I have consulted, is a re-publication of it, six years afterwards; viz. the edition of 1574, illustrated with archbishop Parker's arms and preface, and Cranmer's original preface annexed.

Queen Elizabeth's prelates did by no means warp from the doctrinal purity of their Protestant predecessors under the blessed king Edward. Witness the following passages, which occur in the preface to the New Testament of the Bishop’s Bible. "By him [i. e. by Christ] hath he [i. e. God the Father] decreed to geve, to his elect, the lyfe everlasting." And again, "Here may we beholde the eternal legacies of the New Testament, bequeathed from God the Father, in Christe his sonne, to all his electes."

In what is entitled, "the Summe of the whole Scripture," prefixed (as it was also to Cranmer's own edition of 1539), it is observed, that God is he "from whom al thinges do come; without whom, there is nothing at al: - who also worketh al in' al, after his owne wyl; to whom it is not lawful to say, wherefore he doth thus or thus."

On Ro 3:20, the note is, "He includeth here the whole lawe, both ceremonial and moral; whose workes cannot justifie, because they be imperfect in al men."

On Ro 9:11. "The wyl and purpose of God is the cause of the election and reprobation: for his mercy and calling, through Christ, are the means of salvation; and the withdrawing of his mercy is the cause of damnation."

On Ro 10:4. "Christe hath fulfilled the whole lawe; and therefore, whosoever believeth in him, is counted just before God, as wel as (if) he had fulfilled the whole lawe himselfe."

On Ro 11:35. "By this the apostle declareth, that God, by his free wyl and election, doeth geve salvation unto menne, without any desertes of theyr owne."

On 1Pe 1:2. "The free election of God is the efficient cause of our salvation: the material cause, is Christe's obedience."

On 2Pe 1:10. "Albeit it [viz. election] be sure in itselfe, forasmuche as God cannot change; yet we must confirm it in ourselves" [i. e. we should get a subjective assurance of our election], "by the fruite of the Spirite: knowing that the purpose of God electeth, calleth, sanctifieth, and justifieth us." So spake these excellent prelates, in the famous Bishop’s Bible.

(3.) The Quarto Bible, published in queen Elizabeth's reign, appears to have been designed as a still farther improvement on the preceding. Though the explicatory notes are more numerous and diffuse, yet the reduction of the type, and the consequent reduction of the size, rendered it cheaper than the former editions; and of course, better calculated for private and domestic use.

Of this bible, the first edition (according to Strype) appeared in 1576. Another in 1582. That which I have now before me, is the edition of 1602, published by Barker the queen's own printer. The marginal remarks, and some other matters, with which this presents us, will prove, that Calvinism continued to flourish in the church of England (i. e. the church continued to abide by her own fundamental principles), to the very close of Elizabeth's life: for the reader need not be reminded, that 1602 was the last year of that queen's reign.

From this bible I extract the following notes; in lieu of a multitude, which might be cited.

On Mt 11:26, the remark is: "Faith cometh not of man's will, or power; but by the secret illumination of God, which is the declaration of his eternal counsel."

On Mt 8:31. "The devil desireth ever to doe harme: but he can do no more than God doeth appoint."

On Mt 9:37 it is observed, that Christ compares "the number of the elect to a plentiful harvest."

On Mt 21:33. "The vineyard is the people whom he had elected."

On Mt 25:34. "Hereby God declareth the certainty of our predestination; whereby we are saved because we were chosen in Christ before the foundations of the world."

On the 35th verse of the same chapter: "Christ meaneth not that our salvation dependeth on our works, or merits; but teacheth, what it is to live justly according to godlinesse and charitie; and that God recompenseth his, of his free mercy, likewise as he doth elect them."

Mt 26:24. "To the intent his disciples might know, that all this" [viz. the sufferings and crucifixion of Christ] "was appointed by the providence of God."

Mr 4:9. "God doth not open all men's hearts to understand his mysteries." And ‘tis presently after, added, that there are some, meaning the reprobate, who, "attaine not to the pith and substance" [of religion], "but onely stay in the outward rinde and barke."

Mr 13:22. "The elect may waver and be troubled, but they cannot utterly be deceived and overcome."

Mr 14:21. "This declareth, that nothing can be done without God's providence."

On the 49th verse (Mr 14:49) of the same chapter: "which declareth, that no man can do any thing contrary to God's ordinance."

Lu 1:30. "Not for her merits, but onely through God's free mercy, who loved us when we were sinners, that whosoever rejoiceth should rejoice in the Lord."

On verse 32. Christ " is the true Sonne of God, begotten from before all beginning; and manifested in the flesh, at the determinate time."

Lu 7:35. "He [i. e. Christ] sheweth, that the wicked, altho’ they turne from God, shall nothing hinder the elect to continue in the faith of the gospel."

Lu 8:3. "Whereby they acknowledged they had received of him; and also shewed their perseverance, which prooved their knowledge to be of God." Such, therefore, as do not persevere, were never made wise with the knowledge, that cometh from God.

Lu 10:21. "He [Christ] attributeth it to the free election of God, that the wise and worldlings know not the gospel, and yet the poore base people understand it."

On verse 31, the phrase, "by chance," is thus interpreted: "So it seemed to man's judgment; although this was so appointed by God's counsel and providence."

Lu 17:37. "Nothing can hinder the faithful to be joined to their head, Jesus Christ."

Lu 22:22. The text says, truely the Sonne of man goeth as it is appointed: the commentary adds, "by the secret counsel of God."

Lu 23:35. The text calls Christ the chosen of God. On which, the marginal note thus remarks: "Whom God hath before all others appointed to be the Messias. Otherwise, the scripture calleth them the elect of God, whom hee hath chosen, before all beginning, to life everlasting."

Lu 24:16. "This declareth that we can neither see nor understand, until God open our eyes."

Verse 28. "Christ did both shut their eyes, and open them: he would keepe them in suspence, until his time came to manifest himself unto them."

Joh 4:14. "He" [i. e. the true believer] "shall never be dried up, or destitute."

Joh 6:37. "God doeth regenerate his elect, and causeth them to obey the gospel."

Joh 7:33. Christ "showeth unto them that they have no power over him, untill the time come that his Father hath ordained."

Joh 10:15. "As the Father cannot forget him" [i. e. cannot forget Christ himself,] "no more can he forget us."

Verse 17. "Christ, even in that he is man, hath deserved his Father's love and everlasting life, not to his flesh onely, but to us also, who, by his obedience and perfect justice" [i. e. perfect righteousness,] "are imputed righteous."

Verse 26. The text says, ye believe not, for yee are not of my sheepe; i. e. because ye are not in the number of my elect. The marginal note judiciously says, "The cause wherefore the reprobate cannot believe."

Joh 14:21. "He" [i. e. the assured believer] "shall sensibly feele, that the grace of God abideth in him."

Joh 17:3. The text runs, that hee should give eternal life to all them that thou hast given him. The margin says: "which are the elect."

Verse 6. "Our election standeth in the good pleasure of God, which is the only foundation and cause of our salvation; and is declared to us in Christ, through whom we are justified by faith, and sanctified."

Verse 12. The text styles Judas a child of perdition. The marginal note says, that "He was so called, not only because he perished, but because God had appointed and ordained him to this end."

Verse 19. "Christ's holinesse is our's."

On Ac 2:23, the observations are: "God caused their wickednesse" [i. e. the wickedness of Christ's betrayer and crucifiers] "to set foorth his glory, contrary to their mindes. As Judas's treason, and their crueltie toward Christ, were most detestable; so were they not only knowen to the eternall wisdome of God, but also directed, by his immutable counsel, to a most blessed ende."

On chap. iv. 21. "God hath put a ring thorow the wicked's noses, so that he stayeth them from their mischievous purposes." Was it not a little unmannerly in queen Elizabeth's bishops, to, represent sovereign free-willers as a company of bears, restrained by the decree, and led captive by providence, with rings in their noses?

On the 28th verse of the same chapter, the right reverend commentators scruple not to affirm, that "All things are done by the force of God's purpose, according to the decree of his will."

Chap. xiii. 48. "None can beleeve, but they whom God doth appoynt, before all beginnings, to be saved."

In a short, but excellent preface, prefixed to the epistle to the Romans, and entitled, "The Argument;" the heads of the church of England thus expressed themselves: "The great mercie of God is declared towards man in Christ Jesus, whose righteousnesse is made our's by faith. For, when man, by reason of his owne corruption, could not fulfill the law; yea, committed most abominably, both against the law of God and nature; the infinite bountie of God ordeined, that man's salvation should only stand in the perfit obedience of his Sonne Jesus Christ. And to the intent that none should thinke, that the covenant which God made to him [i. e. with Abraham] and his posteritie, was not performed; either because the Jewes received not Christ, or els beleeved not that he was the true Redeemer; the examples of Ismael and Esau declare, that all are not Abraham's posteritie, which come of Abraham according to the flesh: the very strangers and Gentiles, grafted in by faith, are made heires of the promise. The cause whereof is the only will of God; forasmuch, of his free mercy, he electeth some to be saved, and of his just judgement, rejecteth others to be damned: as appeareth by the testimonie of the scriptures."

From these introductory remarks, the reader may sufficiently ascertain the complexion of those subsequent notes on the epistle itself, with which the Calvinistic prelates ennobled its margin. For brevity's sake, let the few following stand for all.

Ro 2:11. There is no respect of persons with God: "As touching any outward qualitie" [such as high birth, learning, riches, &c] "But, as the potter, before he make his vessels, he doeth appoynt some to glory and others to ignominie."

Chap. iv. 4. Now to him that worketh not, &c. "That dependeth not on his works, neither thinketh to merite by them."

Ibid. ver. 25. Christ was raised "To accomplish and make perfect our justification."

Chap. v. 17. "The justice" [justitia, i. e. the righteousness] "of Jesus Christ, which is imputed to the faithful."

Chap. viii. 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? “Wherewith he loved us, or God in Christ: which love is grounded on his determinate purpose; and Christ is the pledge thereof."

Chap. xi. 29. "To whom God giveth his Spirit of adoption, and whom he calleth effectually, he cannot perish: for God's eternal counsel never changeth."

1Co 3:3. "The hardnesse of man's heart, before he be regenerate, is as a stonie table, Eze 2:10. and Eze 36:26. But, being regenerate by the Spirit of God, it is as soft as flesh; that the grace of the gospel may be written in it, as in new tables."

Ibid. verse 9. "The gospel declareth, that Christ is made our righteousness."

Ibid, verse 13. "The Jews' eyes were not lightned, but blinded; and so could not come to Christ."

Chap. v. 21. The text says, that we are made the righteousness of God in Christ: the margin adds, "by imputation."

On Ga 1:7. "What is more contrary to our free justification by faith, than the justification by the law; or, [by] our workes? Therefore, to joyne these together, is to joyne light with darknesse, death with life; and doeth utterly overthrow the gospel."

Ibid. iii. 12. "The law -- condemneth all them which in all points doe not fulfill it." And how is this condemnation to be escaped? By our own righteousness? Certainly not. For our own works do not "in all points fulfill" the law. But by the imputation of Christ's righteousness, who actually did "fulfill" the law, and that "in all points."

Eph 1:4. "This election, to life everlasting, can never bee changed. But, in temporal offices, which God hath appointed for a certaine space, when the term is expired, he changeth his election: as we see in Saul and Judas."

Ibid, verse 23. "That is the great love of Christ toward his church, that he counteth not himself perfect without us which are his members: and therefore the church is also called Christ [i. e. Christ mystical], as 1Co 12:12-13."

Tit 3:5. "God doth not justify us for respect of any thing which he seeth in us: but doeth prevent us [i. e. he is beforehand with us] with his grace, and freely accepteth us." So, chap. i. 2. God hath promised eternal life before the world began, "Of his meere liberalitie, without foreseeing our faith or works as a cause to move him to this free mercie."

On Jas 2:14, the note is: "St. Paul, to the Romanes and Galatians, disputeth against them which attributed justification to works; and here St. James reasoneth against them which utterly condemne workes. Therefore Paul showeth the causes of our justification; and James, the effects. There [i. e. in Paul's epistles], it is declared, how we are justified: here [i. e. in James's epistle], howe wee are knowen to be justified. There, works are excluded, as not the cause of our justification: here, they are approoved, as effects proceeding thereof. There, they [i. e. good works] are denied to go before them that shall be justified: and here they are sayd to follow them that are justified."

Ibid, verse 22. "The more his [i. e. Abraham's] faith was declared by his obedience and good works, the more was it knowen to men to be perfect; as the goodnesse of a tree is knowen by her good fruite: otherwise, no man can have perfection in this world; for every man must pray for remission of sinnes, and increase of faith."

2Pe 1:10. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure: "Albeit it be sure in itselfe, forasmuch as God cannot change; yet we must confirme it in ourselves, by the fruits of the Spirit: knowing, that the purpose of God electeth, calleth, sanctifyeth, and justifyeth us."

Jude 1:4. "He confirmeth their heart, against the contemners of religion, and apostates; showing, that such men trouble not the church at all adventures, but are appointed thereunto by the determinate counsel of God."

Thus speak the excellent prelates, who were concerned in the editions of our protestant bibles, published cum privilegio Regiae majestatis.

IV. The professed Calvinism of our church may be farther argued, from the learned and orthodox Francis Junius's commentary on the book of Revelation, bound up with the bibles of those times. One citation from which commentary shall here suffice. Re 13:8. Whose names are not written in the booke of life, &c. "That is," says Junius, "such as are not, from everlasting, elected in Christ Jesus." Let it be observed, that this was the same Junius, who overthrew Arminius, in a debate concerning free-will; the particulars of which debate were transmitted, at large, to posterity (f').

(f) Arminius's children, of whom nine survived him, were so unaccountably weak, as to insert this dispute into their father's works. Vide Arminii Opera, a p. 445. ad pa 610. Edit. Lugd. 1629.

V. The questions and answers concerning predestination, inserted into the authorized bibles of that age, are another proof, that the doctrines of Calvin were owned to be the doctrines of our establishment.

Mr. Strype was able to trace up the insertion of these questions and answers into queen Elizabeth's bibles, as far as the year 1582 (and I myself have lately seen an edition of 1583, wherein those questions and answers stand); a period, twenty years earlier than that, in which the edition, which I am now making use of, was printed. That historian, whose fidelity, in his relation of facts, is unimpeachable, is not always very happy in his conjectures. The questions and answers, says he, were "joined to the bible without any public licence and authority, as it seems" I am persuaded, that, had the vast multitude of materials, which this industrious compiler was digesting into an orderly series, allowed him leisure for due consideration, it would have "seemed" even to himself, utterly impossible for the said questions and answers to have crept into these editions of the bible, "without public licence and authority," under the government of a queen so tenderly jealous of her ecclesiastical supremacy, and amidst that unrelaxing vigilance for which both her council and her bishops were so remarkable. Can any body cooly suppose, that, at such a time, her majesty's own publisher would have ventured to fly in the face of church and state, by foisting in these questions, without proper authority? "Oh, but the authority is no where recorded." Nor was there any reason why it should, in a case so palpably plain. The simple circumstance of their being admitted there at all, is proof enough, that they were admitted by authority. But, supposing it even possible, that they might have stolen in at first; would not the intrusion have been presently detected? And would not the questions and answers, if real interlopers, have been displaced from the subsequent editions? Would they have been permitted to keep their station, all through the remainder of queen Elizabeth's reign (for more than twenty years elapsed, from their first insertion, to the death of that princess), if they had not been introduced by due licence? And would they have been, moreover, continued in all the editions of the bible, which were published, after her decease, during the first twelve years (at least) of her successor king James?

Come we now to the questions and answers themselves.

In the editions of 1583, 1602, and 1614, I find them prefixed to the New Testament. The title they bear, is,

"Certaine questions and answeres, touching the doctrine of predestination, the use of God's word, and sacraments."

They begin thus:

"Question. Why do men so much vary in matters of religion?

"Answere. Because all have not the like measure of knowledge, neither do all beleeve the gospel of Christ.

"Quest. What is the reason thereof?

"Answ. Because they only beleeve the gospel and doctrine of Christ, which are ordained unto eternall life.

"Quest. Are not all ordained unto eternall life?

"Answ. Some are vessels of wrath, ordained unto destruction; as others are vessels of mercie prepared to glory.

"Quest. How standeth it with God's justice, that some are appointed unto damnation?

"Answ. Very well: because all men have in themselves sinne, which deserveth no less. And therefore the mercy of God is wonderfull, in that he vouchsafeth to save some of that sinfull race, and to bring them to the knowledge of the trueth.

"Quest. If God's ordinance and determination must of necessitie, take effect; then, what need any man to care? for hee, that liveth well, must needs be damned, if hee be thereunto ordained; and hee, that liveth ill, must needs be saved, if he be thereunto appointed?

"Answ. Not so: For it is not possible, that either the elect should always be without care to doe well; or that the reprobate should have any will thereunto. For, to have either good will, or good worke, is a testimonie of the Spirit of God, which is given to the elect onely; whereby faith is so wrought in them, that, being graft in Christ, they grow in holinesse to that glory whereunto they are appointed. Neither are they so vaine, as once to thinke that they may doe as they liste themselves, because they are predestinate unto salvation; but rather they endeavour to walke in such good workes, as God in Christ Jesus had ordained them unto, and prepared for them to bee occupied in, to their owne comfort, stay, and assurance, and to his glory.

"Quest. But how shall I know myself to be one of those whom God hath ordained to life eternal?

"Answ. By the motions of spirituall life, which belong onely to the children of God: by the which, that life is perceived, even as the life of this body is discerned by the sense and motions thereof.

"Quest. What meane you, by the motions of spirituall life?

"Answ. I meane remorse of conscience, joined with the lothing of sinne, and love of righteousnesse: the hand of faith reaching unto life eternall in Christ, the conscience comforted in distresse, and raised up to confidence in God, by the worke of his spirit: a thankfull remembrance of God's benefits received, and the using of all adversities as occasion of amentment sent from God.

"Quest. Cannot such perish, as at some time or other feele these motions within themselves?

"Answ. It is not possible that they should: for, as God's purpose is not changeable, so hee repenteth not of the gifts and graces of his adoption; neither doth hee cast off those whom he hath once received.

"Quest. Why then should we pray, by the example of David, that he cast us not from his face, and that hee take not his holy Spirit from us?

Answ. In so praying, we make protestation of the weaknesse of [our] flesh, which mooveth us to doubt: yet should not wee have courage to aske, if wee were not assured, that God will give, according to his purpose and promise, that which we require.

"Quest. Doe the children of God feele the motions aforesaid, alwayes alike?

"Answ. No, truly: for God, sometime, to prove his, seemeth to leave them in such sort, that the flesh overmatcheth the spirit; whereof ariseth trouble of conscience, for the time. Yet the spirit of adoption is never taken from them, that have once received it: else might they perish. But as, in many diseases of the body, the powers of bodily life are letted; so, in some assaults, these motions of spirituall life are not perceived, because they lye hidden in our manifold infirmitys, as the fire covered with ashes. Yet as, after sicknesse, commeth health; and, after cloudes, the sunne shineth cleare; so the powers of spirituall life will, more or lesse, be felt and perceived, in the children of God.

"Quest. What if I never feele these motions in myself? Shall I despaire, and thinke myself a castaway?

"Answ. God forbid. For God calleth his, at what time hee seeth good: and the instruments, whereby he usually calleth, have not the like effect at all times. Yet, it is not good to neglect the meanes, whereby God hath determined to work the salvation of his. For as waxe is not melted, without heate; nor clay hardened, but by meanes thereof; so God useth meanes, both to draw those unto himselfe, whom hee hath appoynted unto salvation, and also to bewray the wickednesse of them whom he justly condemneth." The remainder of these learned and masterly questions and answers well deserve to be transcribed: but what have been now alleged, are sufficient to prove the purpose for which I bring them.

VI. A judicious little tractate (the work, originally, of pious bishop Cranmcr), bound up likewise with the bibles of this reign, still continued to demonstrate the Calvinism of the church. It is entitled, 'The Summe of the whole Scripture of the Bookes of the Old and New Testament.' Under the article God, this valuable compendium of scripture-doctrine expressly asserts, as usual, that he "worketh all in all, after his owne will; to whom it is not lawful to say, wherefore doth hee thus or thus ?" It affirms, that, in consequence of Adam's original transgression, "We, which be sprong from him by the flesh, bee in nature the children of wrath, made subject to thrall and death, to damnation, to the yoke and tyranny of the devill." It maintains, that, by Christ's oblation of himself, "All sinne" is "blotted out, and quite put away:" and, that the Spirit of God, and the scriptures of truth, are given, in order to lead us to Christ, "that wee, believing, mought have, in his name, life everlasting."

VII. Nor can I omit the mention of some excellent prayers, designed for private use, and then bound up at the end of the liturgy. Two of these shall here answer for the rest. The collect for Sunday, was this: "O Almightie and mercifull Lord, which givest unto thy elect people the Holy Ghost, as a sure pledge of thy heavenly kingdome; grant unto us, O Lord, thy holy Spirit, that he may beare witnesse with our spirit that we be thy children, and heires of thy kingdome: and that, by the operation of this Spirit, we may kill all carnal lustes, unlawfull pleasures, concupisences, evill affections, contrary unto thy will; by our Savior and Lord Jesu Christ. Amen."

The other, which I shall cite, is part of that most admirable supplication, entitled, ‘A Prayer to to be said at the Houre of Death.' And I beseech God, that Mr. Wesley, Mr. Sellon, and myself, may be enabled, at that important crisis, to expire, under the full impression of the gracious sentiments with which it is fraught. "I, wretched sinner, give and submit myself wholly to thy most blessed will: and being sure, that the thing cannot perish, which is committed unto thy mercy, willingly now I leave this fraile and wicked flesh, in hope of the resurrection, which, in better wise, shall restore it to me againe. I see and knowledge, that there is, in myselfe, no helpe of salvation: but all my confidence, hope, and trust, is in thy most merciful goodnesse. I have no merits, nor good workes, which I may alledge before thee. Of sinnes, and evill workes, alas! I see a great heape. But, through thy mercy, I trust to be in the number of them, to whom thou wilt not impute their sins; but take and accept me for righteous and just, and to be the inheritour of everlasting life. Thou, merciful Lord, wast born, for my sake; thou diddest both hunger and thirst, for my sake; thou diddest preach and teach, thou diddest pray and fast, for my sake; thou diddest all good workes and deedes, for my sake: thou sufferedst most grievous paines and torments, for my sake; and, finally, thou gavest thy most precious body to die, and thy blood to be shed on the crosse, for my sake. Let thy blood cleanse and wash away the spots and foulness of my sinnes. Let thy righteousness hide and cover mine unrighteousnesse. Let the merites of thy passion and blood, bee the satisfaction for my sinnes."

VIII. If ever there was a Calvinistic confession of faith since the world began, the two Helvetic, or Swiss confessions (the smaller, drawn up, A. D. 1536, the larger, A. D. 1566,) have a right to be so termed. Even the vindicator of Mr. Wesley's minutes will hardly, I should imagine, venture to contest the doctrinal Calvinism of those excellent creeds, which do honour to the ancestors of his protestant countrymen.

In that valuable collection, entitled, Corpus et Syntagma Confessionum Fidei, which comprises the several confessions of faith avowed by all the protestant churches (among which confessions, the 39 articles of our own church shine with a lustre as bright as any); the Helvetic system leads the van: in a short preface to which, the editor (p. 4.) affirms, that the last and larger of the two was "subscribed by the divines of Zurich, Bern, Shaffhausen, St. Gall, Grisonny, Basil, Bienne, and Geneva;" and that "The church of England, the church of Scotland, the reformed churches in France, all the Dutch churches, together with many of the protestant churches in Poland, Hungary, and Germany, testified their approbation of the said Helvetic confession." What I quote this passage for, is, to prove, that the church of England, after its restoration by queen Elizabeth, acknowledged its approbation of the doctrines contained in that thoroughly Calvinistic declaration of faith: which approbation our church would by no means have testified, had not her own principles been as thoroughly and confessedly Calvinistic, as were the principles of the said Swiss churches.

Object not, that the truth of this circumstance rests on the authority of the foreign compiler of the Syntagma Confessionum. For the very same circumstance is affirmed, and in still stronger terms, by a most respectable English historian. His words are these, under the year 1566. "There was lately a confession of faith, set forth by Bullinger and others, for the churches of Helvetia: which our church did then heartily consent to and own. This I take, from the pen of one that well knew, viz. Grindal [at that time] bishop of London, [and afterwards archbishop of Canterbury]: for there is a letter of his, to the said Bullinger, wherein among other things speaking of our church [i. e. the church of England's] affairs, he [the bishop] showed, how that many did endeavour to bring into the [English] church a doctrine different from that pure and sincere profession which was embraced by the churches of Helvetia: But [added the good prelate], ad hunc usque diem, cum vestris ecclesiis, vestraque confessione nuper edita, plenissimi consentimus:" i. e. 'down to this very day, we [viz. we bishops and clergy of the church of England] do perfectly agree with your [i. e. with the Switz] churches, and with your confession of faith lately set forth.'

Is the reader desirous to see a specimen of the Helvetic confession? He shall have it. The whole is very long: consisting of no fewer than thirty sections, or chapters. It is drawn up with wonderful candour, piety, and judgment. The sixth chapter treats of divine providence: concerning which, it thus speaks: "Every thing whatever is destined of God to some certain end, or purpose. He it is, who hath ordained, both its commencement, and the means by which the end shall be attained. The heathens, indeed, attributed things to blind fortune, and to precarious chance: but St. James directs us to say, If the Lord will, we will do this or that. So speaks St. Austin: all things whatever, even those things not excepted, which, to us vain mortals, seem to come to pass rashly and without design; do, in reality, accomplish nothing but the command of God: for at his command it is, that they come to pass at all."

The eighth chapter treats of original sin: and justly observes, that, "When God is, in scripture, said to blind, to harden, and deliver men over to a reprobate mind; the meaning is, that God doth so, in a way of just judgment, as a righteous judge and avenger. Moreover, as often as scripture affirms God to be the worker of any evil, it does not mean that evil is not of man's own committing; but that God, by his just judgment, permits evil to be wrought, and doth not hinder it, though it be in his power to hinder it if he so pleased. Or, it may be understood thus; that God makes a good use of men's evil actions; as he did of the sins committed by Joseph's brethren"

The ninth chapter treats of free-will. Part of it runs thus: "The regenerate are active, as well as passive, in their choice and performance of what is good. For they are acted upon by God, in order to their doing what they do." Again: "The will itself is not only changed by God's holy Spirit; but is also furnished with ability, freely to will and do that which is good."

I shall only add another paragraph, from the tenth chapter, which treats of God's predestination. "God hath from eternity, predestinated, or elected, freely, and of his own absolute grace, without any respect of man [i. e. without any respect of man's goodness], the saints whom it is his will to save in Christ: according to that of the apostle [Eph 1.] God hath chosen us in him, before the foundations of the world. And, again: Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose, and grace, which was given us in Christ, before the eternal ages, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, [2Ti 1:9-10]." So speaks the Helvetic confession: with which, the church of England doth so "perfectly agree."

IX. Something has already been said, concerning what is commonly called bishop Ponet's catechism, drawn up in the reign of king Edward VI. The same famous catechism will supply us with an additional proof of the continued Calvinism of our church, under the reign of queen Elizabeth. For, that catechism was not only revived, but enlarged, in the year 1562; and allowed by the same identical convocation, which resettled our 39 articles upon their present footing. That I may not seem to advance any thing rashly, I shall, as usual, produce the authorities on which I go.

"One considerable thing more passed the hands of this convocation: viz. The catechism in Latin, for the use of schools, and also for a brief summary of religion, to be owned and professed in this reformed church. And this is the same with that which is commonly known, to this day, by the name of Nowell's catechism. The occasion was this. Upon secretary Cecil's advice, Nowell, dean of St. Paul's, drew up a catechism in elegant Latin: yet making much use of the catechism set forth towards the latter end of king Edward's reign. This, when the dean had finished, he dedicated to the same secretary who set him on work. And the clergy of the convocation thought fit to peruse it: and, having well considered it, and making some corrections, gave it a more public character, as proceeding from them, and so allowing and approving the use of it.

"This catechism lay in Cecil's hand for above a year; and then was returned to Nowell again, with some learned man's notes: remaining with him, until 1570. And then it was called for again, by both archbishops, in order to the publishing of it: and, by Cecil's consent (to whom it was dedicated before being dedicated now by the author to the two archbishops and the bishop of London, by name, and to all the rest of the bishops, it was printed. And printed again, 1572. And again, 1578. Bearing this title, Christianae Pietatis prima Institutio, ad Usum Scholarum Latine scripta. This catechism was translated also, by the same dean's procurement, into English and Greek, for the use also of young learners.

"This catechism seems to be the same with that set forth a month or two before king Edward's death, and licensed and recommended by the said king's letter set before it. For the two persons that hold the dialogue, in both catechisms, are magister and auditor. In that letter, it is said to have been written by a certain pious and learned man; and to have been, moreover, diligently perused by certain bishops, and other persons of learning, to whom the king had committed it. And (it was) likewise the same (catechism) which, in queen Mary's first convocation was much quarrelled with" (and no wonder; for popery and Calvinism are but wet friends); "and, lastly, which the popish bishops brought with them, when they came to Mr. Philpot's examination: which Philpot (the arch-deacon and martyr, of whom before), very probably, was one of those learned men in convocation, that king Edward had committed this catechism to their perusal of." Poor Mr. Wesley thought, I suppose, that he had long ago taken leave of bishop Ponet's ghost; but we see, the ghost is so unceremonious as to appear again: nay, enhances the terrors of its appearance, by stalking hand-in-hand with additional ghosts; even the ghosts of Philpot, Cranmer, Ridley, and other "certain bishops and learned men" of king Edward's convocation. But I return to the historian.

"It was thought fit (namely, in the reign of Elizabeth) that ministers should converse in this catechism, and learn true divinity from it. But this some [viz. some of the rigid Puritans], conceited of their own learning, afterwards thought much of. Thus Thomas Cartwright, in his admonition, complained, that now, ministers, like young children, must be instructed, and learn catechisms: where, in the margin, he placed these words, ministers of London enjoyned to learn Mr. Nowell's catechism. To which, thus archbishop Whitgift made answer: “That catechism, which you, in derision quote in the margin, is a book fit for you to learn also. And I know no man so well learned, but it may become him to read and learn that learned and necessary book.” Such was the esteem of this catechism, upon its coming abroad, that, at some visitation, as it seems, in London, the reading of it was recommended to the ministers: and that with good reason; having passed the synod.

"Let me add, that, many years after, concerning this catechism, thus it was writ by a great bishop (Cowper, bishop of Winchester), in answer to (a pamphlet entitled) Martin Mar Prelate. For a catechism (said the bishop), I refer them to that which was made by the learned and godly man, Mr. Nowell, dean of St. Paul's; received and allowed by the church of England, and very fully grounded and established upon the word of God. There may you see all the parts of true religion received; the difficulties expounded; the truth declared; the corruptions of the church of Rome rejected." Thus do not only the ghosts of king Edward's bishops, and of queen Mary's martyrs; but the ghosts also of queen Elizabeth's prelates, and of the whole convocation which passed the book of articles; unite with the ghost of John Calvin, to frighten the vaunting Mr. Wesley and the quaking Mr. Sellon. Both the knight and the squire are haunted by the merciless train, who are perpetually holding up Ponet's catechism to view.

But that catechism, though materially, was not exactly, the same with Nowell's. So, at least, I learn from the annalist; for I have never been able to procure a sight of dean Nowell's edition. But, that the Calvinistic doctrines suffered no injury nor amputation, by passing through the hands of that learned editor, and of the convocation of 1562, I am fully satisfied. Should it be asked, on what grounds I am convinced that those doctrines continued with full force to predominate in Nowell's improved edition? My answer would be, let us attend to what Heylyn himself observes, concerning Nowell's catechism. From whence an additional advantage will also arise: for the quotations from it, which the Arminian brings, will remedy, in some measure, the inability I am under of quoting it myself.

“It is objected," says Heylyn, "that Mr. Alexander Nowell, dean of St. Paul's, who was prolocutor in this convocation, maintaineth in his catechism a doctrine contrary to that which the Arminians, as some call them, do now contend for: and that it is not to be thought, that he and others, engaged with them in the same convocation, were either so ignorant, as not to know what they put into the [39] articles; or so infatuated by God, [as] to put in things quite contrary to their own judgments: which being supposed, or took for granted, we are directed to his catechism, written in the English tongue, and dedicated to the two archbishops." The sum of the argument is this. The self-same bishops and clergymen in convocation, who revised and allowed the 39 articles as we have them at this very day; did also revise and allow Nowell's improved edition of Ponet's catechism: and the said houses of convocation cannot, with any show of reason and justice, be supposed to have been either so ignorant, or so infatuated, as to approve two contrary systems of religion, at one and the same time. Consequently, the Calvinism of the catechism is an additional argument that the articles are Calvinistic; and the Calvinism of the articles is an additional argument to prove the Calvinism of the catechism. Say not, that this kind of reasoning is circular, and therefore inconclusive. For, as contraries are often admitted to illustrate each other: so may correlates.

Heylyn found himself extremely hampered by the above argument: which indeed proved a circle, that hemmed him tightly round. His subsequent concessions, and subsequent twistings, demonstrate, that this was a circle which, on his own Arminian principles, he knew not how to square. For his twistings, I refer my readers to his book itself. But his concessions merit a place here.

He confesses, that the two following passages are a part of Nowell's catechism. "To the church do all they properly belong, as many as do truly fear, honour, and call upon God, altogether applying their minds to live holily and godly, and with putting all their trust in God, do most assuredly look for the blessedness of eternal life. They that be stedfast, stable, and constant in this faith, were chosen and appointed, and (as we term it) predestinate, to this so great felicity." The other passage which Heylyn cites is: "The church is the body of the Christian commonwealth: that is, the universal number and fellowship of the faithful, whom God, through Christ, hath, before all beginning of time, appointed to everlasting life.”

Heylyn observes, that those passages have been alleged from Nowell's catechism, "to prove that Mr. Nowell had no communion with Arminians." And what says Heylyn in answer to this? He was forced to acknowledge the justness of the inference: which he does, in the following remarkable words. "To say truth, he [i. e. Nowell] could have no communion with the Arminians, as some please to call them, though he had desired it: Arminius being not born, or but newly born, when Mr. Nowell wrote that catechism. And Mr. Nowell had been dead some years, before the name of an Arminian had been heard in England (r)."

(r) This, and the preceding quotations from Heylyn, occur in his Miscell. Tracts, p. 599.

So much having been said, concerning this good man's catechism; it may not prove disagreeable to the reader, to be informed of some particulars, relative to the good man himself: which I have therefore subjoined, in the note (s) below.

(s) "Dr. Alexander Nowell was born, A. D. 1510, of a knightly family, at Read, in Lancashire. At thirteen, he was admitted of Brazen-Nose, Oxford: where he took his batchelor's, master's, and doctor's degrees, and obtained a fellowship. He was, successively, school-master of Westminster, canon of Westminster Abbey, canon of Windsor, and dean of St. Paul's.

"He was so fond of fishing, that his picture, kept in Brazen-Nose college, represents him surrounded with his hooks, lines, and other apparatus of the same sort. During the reign of Edward VI. he distinguished himself much, as a promoter of the protestant religion. But after the accession of Mary, while Nowell indulged himself in his favourite amusement of catching fishes, Bonner was catching of Nowell, and designed him for the shambles: whither he had certainly been sent, had not a friend of Nowell's safely conveyed him beyond the seas. Without offence (says Fuller), it may be remembered, that Nowell, after one of his fishing expeditions, happening to leave a bottle of ale in the grass, he found it some days after, no bottle, but a gun, so loud was the sound at opening thereof: and this is believed to have been the original of bottled ale in this kingdom.

"Queen Mary being dead, and Elizabeth having ascended the throne, Nowell returned from Germany to England, and was the first of the exiled protestants, who, on that happy change, revisited their native country. Soon after his arrival, he was chose member of parliament for a borough in Cornwall; but his election was declared void, on account of his being in deacon's orders."Elizabeth quickly raised him to the deanery of London; and (adds Dr. Fuller) for his meek spirit, deep learning, prudence, and piety, the then parliament, and convocation both, chose, enjoined, and trusted him to be the man to make a catechism for public use; such an one, as should stand as a rule, for faith and manners, to their posterity. For thirty years together, he preached the first and last sermons in Lent, before the queen; wherein he dealt plainly and faithfully with her, and yet never incurred her displeasure. He was a learned man; charitable to the poor, especially if they had any thing of the scholar in them; and a great comforter of afflicted consciences. He died in 1602, aged more than ninety years. But, like another Moses, his eyes were not dim, nor did he ever make use of spectacles to read the smallest print. A man of most angelical life; a great defender of justification by faith alone, and yet a great practicer of good works." Wood's Athenae, i. 271. Fuller's Worthies, p. 115. et ejusd. Church Hist. book. x. p. 4.

X. The great, the general, the just alarm, occasioned by the surreptitious publication of such books (which now and then made shift to steal from the press) as tended to countenance the doctrines of man's free-will, and the possibility of sinless perfection in this life; is another glaring proof, how totally those corrupt tenets were then supposed to deviate from the pure system of the church of England. Let one example stand for several.

"The free-will men," says Mr. Strype, under the year 1581, "at this time, gave some disturbance by their doctrine. And now they had procured Castalio's books to be printed here, or brought over hither." This Castalio was, by birth, a Frenchman: extremely poor, but very learned and ingenious. Though he always continued a layman, he was yet a perpetual dabbler in divinity: his peculiar notions in which, he sought to obtrude upon other people, with much bigotry, and sometimes with little decency. While he kept within any tolerable bounds of moderation, he experienced a generous and affectionate patron in Calvin: but, by degrees, his impatient, dogmatizing zeal put him upon running to such blasphemous lengths against predestination, as obliged Calvin to turn him adrift. Such, however, were Calvin's benevolence and candour, that, if Castalio's own account is to be relied on, he was dismissed from Geneva with a very favourable attestation to his character. Retiring to Basil, he obtained a Greek professorship: and died there, in 1563. His professorship was far from yielding him a maintenance. It is even said, that he was forced to divide his time between study and manual labour. His mornings were appropriated to literature: his afternoons to digging, like "a common workman. But all would not afford him and his numerous family a competent support. He wanted necessaries to the very last. Hence his melting complaint, to an opulent friend; you distill your oyl but by drops, into my lamp. How discommendable soever his heterodoxies might be deemed, the reflections of candid posterity must for ever bear hard on the learned men of that age, for suffering a person of Castalio's fine acquirements to languish under the pressure of such complicated difficulties.

When the writings of this classical free-willer began to appear publicly in England, the friends of our established church took immediate alarm. Among these, was Sir Francis Knollis, treasurer of the queen's household: "who" says Strype, "thought it highly convenient to have the book searched for, and the reading of it hindered." With this view, he wrote a letter to the lord treasurer, and to the earl of Leicester. His letter seems to have had the intended effect. It ran thus:

"My very good lords,

"Your hableness and readiness to do good, in these perilous days of traiterous practices both against God and against her majesty, doth embolden me to presume to remember your good lordships, that, by your good means, order may be taken, that the true authors and favourers of the setting forth of Castalio's book, with the (x) abuses of the bishop of London in that behalf, may be diligently examined and bolted out: that, the hypocrisy therein used, being known, the pestilent doctrine thereof may be the more soundly suppressed. For it seemeth to me, that these free-will men, or Anabaptistical sectaries, do follow the same scopes that the deified men of the Family of Love (afterwards known by the name of Ranters) do follow: saving that the same perfection which the Family of Love do pretend to obtain by virtue of love, the same perfection do Castalio's sectaries pretend to obtain by the virtue of faith (y). But it is not by faith, in believing to be saved in the merits of Christ; but by a faith, in believing that every man is able to fulfill the law of God; and that the cause, why men do not fulfill the law, is the want of this Castalio's belief. Now both these sects [i. e. both the Familists, or Ranters; and the followers of Castalio] do serve the turns of the papists: as all free-will men, and justiciaries, or justifiers of themselves do. Yet, this difference is betwixt the papists and these sectaries (I do mean touching their practices here in England): for these sectaries [i. e. the free-will men and perfectionists] are more hypocritical, and will sooner deny their doctrines and assertions, to avoid punishment, than the papists will.

"London, September 29, 1581."

(x) It is very observable, that, in those days, all the free-willers were, to a man (so far as appears), open revilers of the church of England, and virulent defamers of the bishops.

(y) Mr. Wesley has improved upon the plan both of the Ranters and of Castalio, by associating the principle of each. The Methodistical perfection pretends to be composed of faith and love together.

Such were the sentiments, then entertained, concerning the poisonous nature and dangerous tendency of the principles advanced by the free-will men!

XI. Mr. Sellon's impertinence obliges me to repeat a very remarkable incident in the religious history of queen Elizabeth's reign, which I have had occasion to mention in a former (a) publication: namely, the case of Thomas Talbot, parson of St. Mary Magdalene's, in Milk-street, London. This Talbot presented a petition to the bishops and clergy assembled in convocation; which petition set forth, that the said parson Talbot, and some private persons who concurred with him in opinion, wero "mightily cried out against" by the members of the church of England, because the said Talbot and his associates believed that God doth only foreknow, but not predestinate, any " evil, wickedness, or sin." For thus believing, the petitioners complained, that they were "esteemed and taken, of their brethren the protestants, for fautors of false religion; and are constrained, hitherto, to sustain at their hands, daily, the shameful reproach and infamy of free-will men, pelagians, papists, epicures, anabaptists, and enemies to God's holy predestination and providence; with other such like opprobrious words; and threatnings of such like, or as great punishments and corrections, as, upon any of the aforesaid errors and sects, is meet and due to be executed." The petitioners next entreat, that they may enjoy their opinion of ‘God's not being the author and predestinator of man's sin and damnation,' "Without any prejudice or suspicion, to be had towards them, of the opprobrious infamy of such heretical names above named: and, that none of those corrections, punishments and executions, which the clergy hath in their authority already, and hereafter, by the authority of this present parliament, from henceforth shall have in their authority, to exercise upon any of the aforesaid errors and sects, or any other; shall in no wise, extend to be executed upon any manner of person or persons, as do hold of predestination as is above declared: except it be duly proved, that the same person or persons do, by their express words or writings, affirm, or maintain, that man, of his own natural power, is able to think, will, or work, of himself, any thing that should, in any case, help or serve towards his own salvation, or any part thereof (b)." Hence, among several other conclusions, I inferred, and still infer, that our protestant bishops and clergy were, in Elizabeth's reign, more highly Calvinistical, than, perhaps, the scripture itself will warrant: for they roundly affirmed God to be the author both "of man's sin and damnation:" That such persons, as did not hold this, were looked upon as "differing from the rest" of our protestant churchmen: That those few people, who supposed God "not to be any cause of man's sin and damnation," were "mightily cried out against," by the main body of our reformed church, as "fautors" or “favourers of false religion:" that "free-will men" were ranked among "pelagians, papists, epicures, anabaptists, and enemies to God's holy predestination and providence: that, to be called "a free-will man," was looked upon as a "shameful reproach" and " opprobrious infamy:" yea, that a free-willer was deemed "heretical;" and not only so, but exposed to the "corrections, punishments, and executions" of the civil magistrate: that the few opposers of predestination were then both more modest, and more orthodox (or, rather, less heterodox), than the generality of our modern Arminians. More modest: in that the Milk-street parson only requested a bare toleration for himself and his Semipelagian brethren; which request argued both a consciousness, and an acknowledgment, that he and they dissented from our established church. More orthodox: in that, as we have seen from the very phraseology of their own petition, they were ready to consent, that any ecclesiastical censure or civil penalty should he inflicted on such of their number, as should "affirm and maintain, that man, of his own natural power, is able to think, will, or work, of himself, any thing that should in any case help or serve towards his own salvation, or any part thereof." I, therefore, ask, again; where is now the Arminian, who would make such a concession as this? Nay, where is now the Arminian, who does not stiffly maintain the very reverse? From whence I infer, that our new Anti-calvinists are as much degenerated from the decency even of their pelagian forefathers, as those pelagian forefathers were degenerated from the purity of the protestant faith in general, and from that of our own national church in particular.

(a) See my Church Vindicated from Arminianism.

(b) See the whole of this memorable petition, in Strype's annals, sub An. 1562, vol. i. chap. 28. p. 331-333.

And now, what say Mess. Wesley and Sellon, by way of answer to my argument for the Calvinism of the church of England, drawn from the tenor of the above-cited petition? Instead of answering, the astonished Arminians descant as follows: "Good God! To what a pitch of tyranny and wickedness was the Calvinistic faction gotten, in Elizabeth's days! It is plain that Dr. Heylyn says true, when he tells us, It was safer for any man, in those times, to have been looked upon as an heathen or publican, than an Anti-calvinist. This shows, what a deplorable state the church was at that time in: reformed from bad to worse; from popish superstition to Calvinistic blasphemy. These bishops and clergy" [viz. the bishops and clergy in the convocation of 1562, to whom Talbot's petition was presented; who were also the very identical bishops and clergy that then settled the present liturgy, and framed the present 39 articles of the church of England], "These bishops and clergy were a company of silly men, to say no worse (c)." The church is much obliged to Mr. John and his man Wat, for their complaisance to her. Unhappily, however, for themselves and their cause, they have, in the ferment of their scurrilous heat, unwarrily set their seal to the whole of the argument I plead for. They acknowledge (who could ever have thought it?) even John Wesley and Walter Sellon do, themselves, acknowledge, that the church of England was "reformed from popish superstition to Calvinistic" principles; and that, in good queen Bess's golden days, when Calvinism had no harm in it, "it was safer for any man to have been looked upon as an heathen or publican, than an Anti-calvinist." Granted. And what is this, but the very point for which I contend (d)?

(c) Sellon, p. 55, 56, 57.

(d) The compliment, which this brace of Methodists pass on the bishops, &c. who threw our 39 articles into their present form: viz. that "they were a company of silly men, to say no worse" of them; yea, (p. 56) that the said bishops and. clergy were "an herd of persecutors;" reminds me of another very elegant compliment offered, by the said brace, to the memories of those great and good men who translated the holy scripture into English version now used: viz. that they were "blunderers and blasphemers" (p. 110). And yet, one of these railers, viz. Mr. Wesley himself, tells us, in the preface to his wretched bundle of plagiarisms on the New Testament, that there is something in the very diction of our English translation, which is, in his estimation, peculiarly venerable. That is, blunders and blasphemies are, in Mr. Ws judgment, peculiarly venerable! I should have imagined as much, without his information: they being, literally two species of commodities, in which he drives a larger traffic than any other blunder-merchant this island has produced.

XII. I must repeat another instance, than which it is hardly possible, perhaps, to allege an incident more strong, striking, and conclusive, in favour of the absolute Calvinism of the church of England: I mean, the advice, offered and recommended by queen Elizabeth's bishops themselves, that "Incorrigible Arians, pelagians or free-will men, be sent into some one castle, in North Wales, or Wallingford; and there to live of their own labour and exercise; and none other be suffered to resort unto them, but their keepers: until they be found to repent their errors."

This most remarkable paper of advice is thus introduced by Mr. Strype: "Another thing also was now drawn up in writing, by the archbishop [Parker], and bishops, for the further regulation of the inferior clergy. This paper consisted of interpretations and farther considerations of certain of the queen's injunctions, for the better direction of the clergy, and for keeping good order in the church. It was framed, as it seems to me, by the pen of Cox, bishop of Ely; and revised by the archbishop." Let it be noticed, that dean Nowell’s catechism, together with the "second book of homilies, as we have them at this day in our homily book," was compiled and published; as also the "articles of faith to be subscribed to by ministers, and the form of declaration" [i. e. the declaration of conformity to the liturgy and rites] "to be by them openly spoken and professed; were likewise framed,' about the same time, and by the self-same bishops who advised the queen to shut up all incorrigible free-will "men in some one castle in North Wales, or Wallingford."

From my former Vindication of the Church of England, permit me to transcribe a brief remark or two, which I then made, on this extraordinary advice offered by queen Elizabeth's bishops and clergy in convocation assembled. I observed, I do not quote this mortifying paragraph [mortifying indeed, to Arminians and Arminianizers], from any approbation I entertain of the expedient recommended: for I abhor every thing that even looks like persecution, for principles merely religious. But I cannot help deducing two conclusions from this curious portion of our ecclesiastical history. 1st, That free-will men were considered, by the church of England, when in her purity, as some of the most dangerous recusants she had to grapple with: else, she would never have advised the confining of them in a remote prison, where none should be permitted to have access to them, their keepers only excepted. 2dly, That free-will men were, at that time, very few in number: otherwise, "One castle," however spacious, would not have been thought large enough to contain them. I heartily congratulate our present free-willers, on their living in an age of liberty.

And I still congratulate them, with the utmost sincerity. Among which congratulated number, I include even Mr. Wesley and Mr. Sellon. Had the advice of the episcopal bench been followed, and had it continued in force to this day, Mr. Wesley, instead of ranging the three kingdoms, like a bird of passage; would have been caged on the dreary summit of a Welsh mountain: or, compelled to fix his nest in some hole of Wallingford Castle, must have beat time to the music of the winds. The melodious Mr. Sellon, likewise, instead of improving and ravishing the public with his mellifluous notes, must have followed his master to the coop: and warbled his harmonious woes to the dull, dark, damp, solitary walls: or whistled his pensive strains to the owls and to the bats. I mean if these two Arminians had stood to their principles: of which I stand in much doubt.

I am glad the sweet singers are at full liberty to hop from spray to spray in pursuit of flies, though I cannot wish them a large capture. And whereas I had reasonably and naturally inferred, that free-willers were once very few in number, from the circumstance of a single castle's being deemed sufficient to hold them all; I am well pleased that the said nightingales should have it in their power to counteract my inference with this sage objection (p. 39.): to wit, that "One castle would have held all the avowed protestants in England, in queen Mary's days." But this happens to be a mistake. For, though many protestants fled, as opportunity offered, into other countries; yet, the multitude of those that remained was so great, that Mary's popish bishops were tired, and her popish administration were ashamed, of the imprisonments, the sufferings, and the slaughters, by which her detestable reign was distinguished. Let Strype testify, whether "One castle would have held all the avowed protestants in England." That authentic historian affirms, that, in London only, "The Tower, the Fleet, the Marshalsea, the King's-bench, Newgate, and the two Counters were full of them." It was even computed, that no fewer than twenty thousand persons, who had been, from the very first, bigoted papists; were, during the persecution, converted to protestantism, in the course of one twelvemonth only. A very elegant and masterly historian, now living, confirms the falsehood of Mr. Sellon's conjecture. "The patience and fortitude, with which the martyrs for the reformation submitted to their sufferings; the heroic contempt of death, expressed by persons of every rank, and age, and sex; confirmed many more in the protestant faith, than the threats of their enraged persecutors could frighten into apostacy. The business of such as were entrusted with the trying of heretics, grew upon them, and appeared as endless as it was odious. The queen's ablest ministers became sensible, how impolitic, as well as dangerous, it was, to irritate the people by the frequent spectacle of public executions, which they detested, as no less unjust than cruel. Even Philip was so thoroughly convinced of her having run to an excess of rigour, that he assumed a part, to which he was little accustomed; becoming an advocate for moderation and lenity." In supposing therefore, that "all the avowed protestants in England, might in the days of Mary," have been comprehended in "one castle;" Mr. Sellon rashly estimates the integrity of the martyrs, by his own: but he should remember, that they were conscientious Calvinists, and himself is a prevaricating Arminian.

On the whole, it follows, that one castle would not have held all the professed protestants in queen Mary's reign: But that one castle would have held all the protestant free-willers in the reign of queen Elizabeth.

XIII. The avowed and undeniable Calvinism of those prelates, with whom that discerning princess took care to fill the metropolitical see of Canterbury, during the whole of her reign, supplies another argument, for the palpable Calvinism of the church. Indeed, the same care was taken of the inferior sees: witness the venerable Calvinistic names of Sandys, Hutton, and Matthew, archbishops of York; Aylmer, and Bancroft, bishops of London; Home, Watson, and Cowper, bishops of Winchester; Cox, Barlow, Jewell, Gheast, Babington, Parkhurst, Young, Scambler, Pilkington, and many others, who were rather ornaments to the mitre, than the mitre to them.

I should expatiate on too large a field, were I (as I once designed) to enter on the proof, which history affords, of the orthodox principles of those and the other leading (m) bishops in that reign. I must, therefore, confine myself to the prelates of Canterbury: who were Parker, Grindal, and Whitgift.

(m) Let the accomplished Dr. Jewell, bishop of Salisbury, whose able defences of the church of England have stamped immortality on his name, stand as one proof for all, of that thorough-paced Calvinism which was universally adopted by the valuable fathers who graced the right reverend bench, in those times of doctrinal purity. "God," says bishop Jewell, "hath chosen you from the beginning. His election is sure for ever. The Lord knoweth who are his. You shall not be deceived with the power and subtilty of antichrist. You shall not fall from grace. You shall not perish. This is the comfort which abideth with the faithful, when they behold the fall of the wicked; when they see them forsake the truth and delight in fables; when they see them return to their vomit, and wallow again in the mire. When we see these things in others, we must say, alas they are examples for me, and lamentable examples. Let him that standeth take heed that he fall not. But God hath loved me, and hath chosen me to salvation. His mercy shall go before me, and his mercy shall follow me. His mercy shall guide my feet, and stay me from falling. If I stay by myself, I stay by nothing; I must needs come to ground. He hath loved me; he hath chosen me; he will keep me. Neither the example nor the company of others, nor the enticing of the devil, nor my own sensual imaginations, nor sword, nor fire, is able to separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is the comfort of the faithful. Whatsoever falleth upon others, though others fall and perish, although they forsake Christ and follow after antichrist, yet God hath loved you and given his Son for you. He hath chosen you, and prepared you unto salvation, and hath written your names in the book of life. But how may we know that God hath chosen us? how may we see this election? or how may we feel it? the Apostle saith, through sanctification, and the faith of truth. These are tokens of God's election. This [viz. the holy Spirit] comforteth us in all temptations; and beareth witness with our spirit that we be the children of God; that God hath chosen us: and doth love us, and hath prepared us to salvation; that we are the heirs of his glory; that God will keep us as the apple of his eye; that he will defend us; and we shall not perish." Bishop Jewell's Exposit. of the epistles to the Thessalonians, p. 143, 144. Lond. 1611.

(1.) Dr. Matthew Parker was consecrated archbishop, Dec. 17, 1559, in Lambeth chapel. Almost immediately afterwards, his grace received a letter from Calvin: which letter he communicated to the queen's privy council, who, when they had seriously considered its contents, ordered the archbishop to transmit their thanks to Calvin for his pains and kindness. I shall recite this matter more at large, in the historian's own words.

A letter was sent, this year (1560), to archbishop Parker, "From the hands of a great divine, John Calvin: importing, how he [viz. Calvin] rejoiced in the happiness of England, and that God had raised up so gracious a queen to be instrumental in propagating the true faith of Jesus Christ, by restoring the gospel, and expelling idolatry, together with the bishop of Rome's usurped power. Calvin then made a serious motion of uniting protestants together, as he had done before (n) in king Edward's reign. He [now] intreated the archbishop to prevail with her majesty to summon a general assembly of all the protestant clergy, wheresoever dispersed; and that a set form and method [i. e. of public service, and government of the church] might be established, not only in her dominions, but also among all the reformed and evangelical churches abroad.

(n) "The sentiments of the foreign protestants concerning the present English state" [viz. concerning the church and condition of England under the government of king Edward VI.] "deserves a particular remark. They took such great joy and satisfaction in this good king, and his establishment of religion, that Bullinger, Calvin, and others, in a letter to him, offered to make him their defender, and to have bishops in their churches, as there were in England; with a tender of their service, to assist and unite together." (Strype's Memorials of Cranmer, p. 207.) Nothing could be more wisely, or more benevolently planned, than this excellent scheme. It was, however, frustrated. And frustrated by whom? By the papists of that time: who were, to the last degree, stung and alarmed at the prospect of a general union among the reformed. The council of Trent was then sitting: some artful members of which undertook, by dint of collusive management, to disconcert a measure so formidable to the interests of Rome. For thus the historian goes on: "This" [proposal of Calvin's to king Edward and the church of England] "nettled the learned at the council of Trent, who came to the knowledge of it by some of their private intelligencers; and they verily thought, that all the heretics, as they called them, would now unite among themselves, and become one body, receiving the same discipline exercised in England: which if it should happen, and they should have heretical bishops near them in those parts, they concluded that Rome and her clergy would utterly fall. Whereupon were sent two of their emissaries from Rotterdam into England, who were to pretend themselves Anabaptists, and preach against baptizing infants, and preach up rebaptising, and a fifth monarchy upon earth. And, besides this, one D. G. authorized by these learned men [i. e. by the popish synod assembled at Trent], dispatched a letter, written in May, 1549, from Delft in Holland, to two [of the popish deprived] bishops [here], whereof [Gardiner bishop of] Winchester was one; signifying the coming of these pretended Anabaptists, and that they should receive them, and cherish them, and take their parts, if they should chance to receive any checks: telling them, that it was left to them to assist in this cause, and to some others whom they knew to be well affected to the mother church. This letter is lately put in print. Sir Henry Sidney first met with it in queen Elizabeth's closet, among some papers of queen Mary's. He transcribed it into a book of his, called, The Romish Policies. It came afterwards into the hands of archbishop Usher; and was transcribed thence by sir James Ware." (Strype, u. s. p. 207, 208.)

The Romish church had reason to dread the projected coalition of protestants: and the restless intrigues of her emissaries, who, under various characters and appearances, went about, sowing divisions, and seeking to unsettle the minds of the people; doubtless, contributed much to impede and dissipate the intended salutary union. It would, however, in all probability, have taken effect, at the long run; if the state-animosities and factions, which divided king Edward's court, together with the early death of the good king himself, had not superseded the excellent design.

See more of Cranmer's correspondence with Calvin, in Mr. Strype's above quoted Memorials, from p. 409 to p. 413.

This was a noble offer: and the archbishop soon acquainted the queen's council with it. They took it into consideration, and desired his grace to thank Calvin, and to let him know, they liked his proposals, which were fair and desirable; yet, as to the government of the church, to signify to him, that the church of England would still retain her episcopacy (o)." And it was Calvin's desire that she might. Nay, that great reformer (as hath been already observed) wished for the introduction of protestant episcopacy into the reformed churches abroad. Witness, farther, what Mr. Strype immediately subjoins:

(o) Strype's Life of Parker, p. 69.

"This was a great work; and created serious thoughts in the archbishop's mind, for the framing a proper method to set it on foot: but he had considered but a little while of these matters, when news arrived at court, that Calvin was dead. How Calvin stood affected in the said point of episcopacy, and how readily and gladly he and other heads of the reformed churches would have received it, is evident enough from his writings and epistles. In his book of the necessity of reforming the church, he hath these words: Talem nobis Hierarchiam exhibeant, &c. Let them give us such an hierarchy, in which bishops may be so above the rest, as they refuse not to be under Christ, and depend upon him as their only head; that they maintain a brotherly society, &c. if there be any that do not behave themselves with all reverence and obedience toward them, there is no anathema, but I confess them worthy of it (p)" Calvin's opinion being so favourable to the English episcopacy, it was no wonder that he and the archbishop of Canterbury were on terms of most friendly and intimate correspondence. The truth is, they were reciprocal admirers of each other, and agreed no less in matters of discipline than of doctrine.

(p) Life of Parker, p. 69, 70 The historian mentions another very remarkable proof, both of Calvin's regard for episcopacy, and of the manner in which a seeming difference arose between the plan of ecclesiastical government adopted by that reformer, and the plan of episcopal government adopted by the church of England. A curious paper, in archbishop Abbot's own hand-writing, found among archbishop Usher's manuscripts, and published by Mr. Strype, ran as follows: "Perusing some papers of our predecessor, Matthew Parker, we find, that John Calvin, and others of the protestant churches of Germany and elsewhere, would have had episcopacy, if permitted. And whereas Calvin had sent a letter, in the reign of king Edward VI., to have conferred with "the clergy of England, about some things to this effect; two [popish] bishops, viz. Gardiner and Bonner, intercepted the same: whereby Mr. Calvin's overture perished, and he received an answer [from Gardiner and Bonner] as if it had been from the reformed divines of those times; wherein they checked him, and slighted his proposals. From which time John Calvin and the church of England were at variance in several points [respecting church government]: which, otherwise, through God's mercy, had been qualified, if those papers of his proposals had been discovered to the queen's majesty [viz. to queen Elizabeth] during John Calvin's life. But, being not discovered until, or about, the sixth year of her reign, her majesty much lamented, they were not found sooner: which she expressed before her council, in the presence of her great friends Sir Henry Sidney and Sir William Cecil." Strype's Life of Parker, p. 70. So wrote that most respectable prelate, archbishop Abbot; whose evidence may be thus summed up; Calvin's last letter concerning episcopacy, sent to the ruling clergy of England in the reign of Edward VI. was craftily intercepted by Bonner and Gardiner; who (to quash Calvin's scheme for episcopizing the foreign protestant churches (forged a surly, snappish answer to Calvin, in the names of the divines to whom his letter had been addressed, but whose hands it had never reached. Calvin, being disgusted at the rudeness with which he supposed his overture had been received here, dropt all thoughts of making any further advances on the subject. And thus, had not the fraudulent malice of two popish extinguishers put out the design, Calvin had admitted the discipline of the church of England, with as much zeal and heartiness as the church of England actually adopted Calvin's doctrines Let me add, that queen Elizabeth's "much lamentation before her council," on the detection of the above popish fraud, demonstrated how fair Mr. John Calvin stood in her majesty's esteem.

A very remarkable passage occurs, likewise, in the examination of Mountagu's Pelagian and Arminian appeal, written by the excellent bishop Carleton, who had been one of the representatives of the church of England at the ever memorable synod of Dort. A passage, which demonstrates, that the affection of the foreign reformed churches, to a protestant and primitive episcopacy, did not expire with the life of Calvin. "When wee [i. e. when we English divines, who attended that synod] were to yeeld our consent to the Belgic confession at Dort; I made open protestation in the synode, that whereas, in that confession, there was inserted a strange conceit of the parity of ministers to be instituted by Christ, I declared our dissent utterly in that point. I showed, that, by Christ, a parity was never instituted in the church. And herein I appealed to the judgment of antiquity, and to the judgment of any learned man now living; and craved herein to be satisfied, if any man of learning could speak to the contrary. (My lord of Salisbury is my witnesse; and so are all the rest of our company, who spake also in the same cause.) To this there was no answere made by any. Whereupon, we conceived that they yeelded to the truth of the protestation. And somewhat I can say, of my own knowledge: for I had conferences with divers of the best learned in that synode. I told them, that the cause of all their troubles (viz. of all the dissensions occasioned and fomented in the Dutch churches by the Arininians] was this, that they had not byshops among them: who, by their authoritie, might represse turbulent spirits that broached novelties. Their answere was, that they did much honour and reverence the good order and discipline of' the church of England; and, with all their hearts, would be glad to have it established among them: but that could not be hoped for, in their state. Their hope was, that, seeing they could not doe what they desired, God would be merciful to them, if they did what they could. This was their answere. The truthe is, they groane under that burden [viz. the burden of ministerial parity], and would be eased, if they could. This is well knowne to the rest of my associates there." Bishop Carleton's Examination, &c. p. 111, 112. Lond. 1626.

In the year 1563, Musculus's Common Places, which contain a complete and very excellent system of Calvinistical divinity, were translated into English, and the translation dedicated to the said archbishop Parker. Nay, in the opinion of Mr. Strype, the archbishop himself honoured the book with the prefatory admonition to the reader, concerning church-discipline and ceremonies. "Musculus's Common Places came forth, this year, in folio; translated out of Latin into English, for the use of English divines and others, in order to instruct them in a body of sound divinity purged from the errors of popery. The author [viz. Musculus] was a learned professor of divinity, in Bern, Switzerland; and reckoned among the most profound doctors that had written in the church of God. The translator was Mr. Man, head of Merton College, Oxford; who dedicated the book to our archbishop." (Strype’s Life of Parker, p. 150.) In this book, the doctrines of absolute predestination and grace are wrought up to the highest standard. I have the Latin edition by me, and number it among my choicest literary treasures. Let me ask, whether the archbishop would not only have permitted the English version of it to be dedicated to himself, but also have prefixed to it a "preface of his own," if his grace had not indeed looked upon that performance as, what Mr. Strype justly terms it, "a body of sound divinity?"

The extraordinary countenance afforded by the same archbishop to the Geneva bible, is a strong accessory proof of his doctrinal Calvinism. One Mr. John Bodleigh began to prepare a new edition of that bible, in 1569, and, "applied himself to the queen's secretary, Cecil. But the secretary suspended giving his furtherance, till he had heard the advice of the archbishop, and the bishop of London. Both the archbishop and bishop willingly gave their letters to the secretary, in Bodleigh's behalf; writing to him, that they thought so well of the first impression, and the review of those who had since travelled therein, that they, [viz. the bishops of Canterbury and London] wished it would please him [secretary Cecil] to be a means, that twelve years longer term might be, by special privilege, granted him [i. e. to Bodleigh], in consideration of the charges, by him and his associates, in the first impression, and the review is thence sustained." Thus, though the Geneva Bible never had the express authority of the state to recommend it, it had the approbation of the principal ecclesiastics in the church of England.

But the translation, called, the Bishop’s Bible, mentioned above, and from which some striking extracts have been given; puts the Calvinism of archbishop Parker (who had the chief hand in that version) beyond all controversy. "The archbishop took upon him the labour to contrive, and to set the whole work a going in a proper method; by sorting out the whole bible into parcels, and distributing those parcels to able bishops, and other learned men, to peruse, and collate, each, the books allotted them: sending, withal, his instructions for the method they should observe, and they to add some short marginal notes for the illustration or correction of the text. And all these portions of the bible being finished, and sent back to the archbishop, he was to add the last hand to them, and so to take care for printing and publishing the whole.” All which was accordingly done. History records many other proofs of archbishop Parker's orthodoxy (the modelling of the 39 articles, for instance; and his concurrence with the rest of the bishops, in the proposal for confining "incorrigible free-will men," to hard labour and discipline, "in some one castle;" with various particulars besides, all tending to the same point): but the few, already specified, shall, at present, suffice. This good archbishop, dying in 1575, was succeeded in the see of Canterbury.

(2.) By the learned and pious Dr. Edmund Grindal: a prelate, in whose breast the entire assemblage of Christian graces met, and in whose life every moral virtue shone. A remarkable incident is related of him, when a boy. He was, from his infancy, biassed by a strong propensity to literature: and used to make some valuable book or other the constant companion of his solitary walks. Passing, one day, through a field, with his coat or waistcoat buttoned half-way up, and a volume resting in his bosom, an arrow, from some unknown quarter, lighted on his breast, and must have killed him immediately, if the book had not intercepted the point of the weapon in its way to his heart.

Being transplanted from his native county of Cumberland, to Cambridge; he there became fellow of Pembroke Hall; and, in consideration of his distinguished abilities and merit, was nominated by bishop Ridley to be one of his chaplains; his other two being Mr. John Rogers and Mr. John Bradford, who were both (as was their lord, the bishop himself) afterwards martyred in the reign of Mary. Dr. Grindal would, probably, have been baptized with the same fiery baptism, had not that watchful Providence, whose care he eminently experienced from his earliest years, enabled him to escape into Germany; where he stayed till Elizabeth became queen. On his return to England, he was, successively bishop of London, archbishop of York, and at last of Canterbury. He died A. D. 1583, and lies buried in the chancel of Croydon Church. Pious king Edward VI. sensible of Grindal's worth, had nominated him to a bishopric, a little before his [the king's] decease; but Providence reserved our prelate's advancement, to the more fixed and settled times of Elizabeth.

His attachment to the Calvinistic principles has never, so for as I can find, been disputed. And, indeed, his extraordinary zeal for that pure, protestant system, was the reason why this good archbishop has been so maliciously pecked at, by more than one Arminian traducer; particularly, by the infamous Peter Heylyn.

A person need but look into Mr. Fox's inestimable Martyrology, and he will presently perceive, that predestination and its connected doctrines are the threads of gold and scarlet which pervade the whole of that performance. The venerable author was indebted, for much assistance in his work, to the pains and care of Grindal. "Many accounts of the acts and disputations, of the sufferings and ends, of the godly men under queen Mary, came, from time to time, to Grindal's hands: and, as they came to his hands, he conveyed them to Fox. Nor did he only do this; but, withal, frequently gave Fox his thoughts concerning them, and his instructions and counsels about them. I find Grindal, soon after Bradford's martyrdom, sending Fox his history, together with many of his holy letters. Grindal wrote him likewise, that he had a great heap of such papers: to whom Fox [replied], he doubted not that he would, with the like vigilancy and faithfulness, peruse and digest them. Indeed, Grindal had greater opportunities of knowing Bradford, and getting his papers, than others [had]: they two having been fellow chaplains together to [Ridley] the bishop of London, and to the king [viz. Edward VI.], and fellow-prebendaries of St. Paul's; and I might add also, fellows of the same college." Doctor Grindal also furnished Fox with the accounts of Cranmer, Ridley, and others of the eminent martyrs. By which it appears, "How earnest an assistant Grindal was to Fox, in compiling his Martyrology; both by his continual counsel, and by supplying him with materials for it: much whereof he sent him drawn up and methodized by his own pen, in English."

I have already proved, that Peter Martyr was a Calvinist of the truest dye: and under his ministry it was, that Grindal sat, during the exile of the latter in Germany, while Mary swayed the sceptre in England. For, thus wrote Grindal, in a letter to the imprisoned bishop Ridley: "We [i. e. the protestant refugees] be here dispersed in divers and several places. Certayne be at Tigurye; good students, of either university, a number; very well entreated of Maister Bullinger, &c. Another number of us remayne at Argentine, and take the commodity of Maister Martyr's lessons, who is a very notable father."

On his return to England (which was in the very next month after queen Elizabeth's accession), he was one of the principal commissioners, appointed to the revisal of the Book of Common Prayer. The Calvinism therefore, of the liturgy, evinces the Calvinism of Grindal. The review of the Common Prayer was quickly finished: and it was read, for the first time after its restoration, on Sunday, May 12, 1559, in the queen's chapel; and on the succeeding Wednesday (May 15), it was solemnly read in St. Paul's church, after a prefatory sermon, preached by Grindal.

No reader, at all versed in the history of the reformed churches, need be told, that the famous Jerom Zanchius subscribed to some Lutheran peculiarities, concerning the Lord's Supper, under certain salvoes and restrictions of his own framing, and which he explicitly avowed. On this occasion, Zanchy wrote to his old friend, Dr. Grindal, then bishop of London. "Grindal answered Zanchy's letter, in one dated in August [1563], from Fulham: wherein he [bishop Grindal] signified, that, for his own part, he attributed so much to Zanchy's piety and prudence, that he had a good opinion of all his actions; especially, since he had the opinion of such a learned man as Calvin, in what he had done. This, the bishop said, much confirmed him: being apt to attribute much to his [i. e. to Calvin's] judgment." The excellent prelate concluded with commending Zanchy to God, "Who, he doubted not, would give him a mouth and wisdom which the adversaries of the truth could not resist."

In a foregoing (a) part of this work, I have taken some notice of one Justus Velsius, a Dutch frce-willer, who, A. D. 1563, made much noise in London. He was, what would now be called an Arminian-perfectionist. "The bishop of London [Dr. Grindal] was concerned with this man, both as he was of the Dutch congregation, and had made disturbance there, over which our bishop was superintendant; as also because his opinions came as far as the ears of the court. For he [Velsius] presumed in the month of March, to write bold letters to the secretary [of state]; nay, to the queen herself: superscribing to the queen, Ad proprias manus: sending withal his book unto them. Which he did, also, two months before, to the bishop: avowing it to be by him conceived and writ from the enlightening of the spirit of Christ.

(a) See above, Sect. 6.

"The bishop therefore thought very fit, and that upon the secretary's advice, to write shortly some animadversions upon it [i. e. upon Velsius's heterodox book]. Therein he [the bishop] observed, 1. That he [Velsius] set forth no confession of faith, as he ought; but prescribed a rule, according to which he would have all consciences to be tried. Nor was there any mention of faith. And that he craftily passed over justification by faith; and what he thought of the powers in man, and free-will, and what concerning works. (2.) That, in those things, it was most certain, he had, in foreign parts, desperately erred, and disquieted men's consciences, and taught matters contrary to orthodox doctrine; and that there were witnesses then in England of it." Beside the tenet of free-will, and justification by works, wherein the bishop affirmed this pelagian to have "desperately erred;" there were several other monstrous opinions, for which that able prelate severely censured the said Velsius: such as the doctrine of a twofold regeneration, to wit, of the outward man, and the inward; and that a believer is godded into God. But the bishop's judgment, concerning Velsius's mad tenet of sinless perfection, deserves particular notice: "Hence it appeared, why he [Velsius] had said before, we are that which Christ is, and Christians are gods in men: because he had a mind to affirm perfection, which he feigned to be in a Christian, and that all Christians were gods, that is, free of all spot and fault. Which arrogance, how detestable it is, there is no pious man but sees. He could not more openly reject the doctrine of faith, and the remission of sins, and so set up a new gospel." Nothing could be more wild, and remote from truth, than Velsius's corrupt doctrines: nothing more sober, sound, and scriptural, than good bishop Grindal's Calvinistical animadversions. In conclusion, Velsius was "Cited before the ecclesiastical commission; where the bishop of London [Dr. Grindal], and the bishop of Winchester [Dr. Horne], and the dean of St. Paul's [Dr. Alexander Nowell], conferred roundly with him, exposing the errors of his book before mentioned: which he stubbornly endeavouring to vindicate, they at last charged him, in the queen's name, to depart the kingdom." This was the same Velsius, with whom Calvin himself had held a public disputation, concerning free-will at Frankford, in 1556. I will not venture to say, that another divine (named Horne), who likewise disputed against Velsius at the same place, in the same year, and on the same subject, was our English Dr. Horne, afterwards the bishop of Winchester, just mentioned: though, to me, it seems extremely probable. Certain it is, that bishop Horne was then an exile in Germany, for the protestant faith; and that he continued so, all through the reign of queen Mary.

Another evidence of Grindal’s Calvinism presents itself, under the year 1566. "Theodore Beza, late assistant to Calvin, and now the chief minister of Geneva, made a present, this year, to bishop Grindal of his annotations on the New Testament: and the same reverend father [i. e. the bishop], soon after, sent him [i.e. sent Beza] a letter thanking him for the book; and withal a gratification. What it [i. e. what Grindal's present to Beza] was, I cannot tell: perhaps, it was the bishop's picture, or his ring. But Beza called it, Longe maximum gratissimumque tui mnhmosunon, i.e. A very great and most acceptable remembrance of himself, which he would keep for his sake. The bishop, in his letter, had much commended his [Beza's] annotations, as accurate and learned: but Beza modestly declined the praise, and added, that then they might seem such as the bishop had charactered them, when they should be critically corrected by him, and by such learned men as he. How "much" soever the bishop "commended" Beza's annotations, hardly any strain of commendation could exceed the merits and value of those admirable notes: or the learning, judgment, and piety, of that eminent supralapsarian writer.

Geneva, though never episcopised since its reformation from popery, was nevertheless regarded and cherished by queen Elizabeth, by her statesmen, and by the English bishops, as a sister church, harmonising with our own, in doctrinals; though not consentaneous to it, in ceremonials. Some time in the year 1581, that famous protestant city had like to have been enslaved by an enterprising popish neighbour (the duke of Savoy); but was relieved by a seasonable accession of forces from the Swiss Cantons. The expenses, however, to which the necessary preparations for defence had put the citizens, obliged them to have recourse to the benevolence of other protestant communities. Amongst the rest, England was applied to, through the intervention of the queen's ambassador in France, and of good Dr. Grindal at home. The ambassador's importunate letter, written, on this occasion, to sir Francis Walsingham, secretary of state, may be read in Strype. The matter being laid before the queen, her majesty and privy council dispatched circular letters to all the bishops of England, desiring them "To promote a liberal charity upon this occasion, through their several dioceses:" and styling it "a needful service for the church." The queen and council farther observed, in their letter to each bishop respectively, that the town of Geneva seemed to have "Deserved the fruits of Christian compassion, by former courtesies and favours, showed to sundry her majesty's subjects, during the late persecution in queen Mary's time: wherein, as they shall render charity for charity, and give good demonstration to the world, that, in their wealth and peace, they are not careless of the afflictions of Joseph; so shall you give us cause to think, that you not only care, as in Christian compassion you are bound, to relieve the present distress of that poor town, which, through God's goodness, hath served in this latter age, for a nursery unto God's church; but also to satisfy this our request: to the end we may continue that good opinion we have of your lordship."

Thus was Geneva considered as a "nursery to God's church;" and her distresses were termed "the afflictions of Joseph." A letter, issued, soon after by archbishop Grindal, as metropolitan, to the prelates of his province, breathed the same spirit of tenderness and brotherly affection for the said city and church of Geneva. "Considering," said his grace, "that under her majesty, and their lordships of her most honourable privy council, the immediate charge of the province doth appertain to me; and, especially, of the clergy; and the consideration of this pitiful relief, tending to the defence of so notable and sincere a church; I thinke it my part and bounden duty, to recommend the furtherance of so good a cause to your lordship."

I am not insensible, that this excellent primate has been maliciously charged with leaning to puritanism: which charge, were it proveable, might go far toward invalidating that branch of my argument for the doctrinal Calvinism of the church, drawn from the doctrinal Calvinism of this her good archbishop. But by whom is the bill filed against him? Chiefly, by that historic knight of the post, Peter Heylyn: a writer, who had long taken a final leave of truth, whenever it stood in his way; and who was quite petrified to every feeling of shame. There are accumulated proofs, that Grindal was rather a bigot to the constitution and discipline of the church, than that his attachment to either was lax and cool. Instances occurred, in the course of his administration, wherein his zeal, for the exteriors of our ecclesiastical fabric, out-weighed, perhaps, that due proportion of moderation and temper, which he has been falsely represented as possessing to an extreme. A short testimony, or two, from judicious and dispassionate writers, shall, at present, suffice to support the remark now made. Should future occasion require more solid proofs, I can carry my appeal to some prolix, but most conclusive and incontestable facts.

Dr. Grindal had, at first, his scruples respecting conformity. But it is no less true, that he did not accept of preferment in the church, until those scruples were solved to the satisfaction of his own mind. The satisfactory solution of which scruples rendered him, afterwards, (I will not say, a fiercer, but) a much warmer churchman, than if he had conformed, hand over head, without previously examining matters for himself.

"Upon his first coming over from his exile, queen Elizabeth being possessed of the crown, when preferment in the church was to be laid upon him, his dread of popery created him some demur in accepting the same: fearing to comply with the very appearances and shadows of it, in the habits and some other rites appointed, until he had satisfaction, partly by serious consideration with himself, and partly by the advice of certain foreign divines; chiefly Peter Martyr and Henry Bullinger, men of the greatest learning in divinity that age afforded. And therefore, afterwards, when some, for these external matters in religious worship, made seditions, and brake the churches quiet; he [Grindal] thought himself bound, as a faithful and careful overseer of the church of Christ in England (when all his mild persuasions and arguments proved ineffectual), to prosecute the refusers, and to use the severer methods, warranted by the laws, against them. His zeal and affection to the state of the reformed church of England showed itself, as on every occasion, so, particularly, in endeavouring to reclaim those they styled Precisians and Puritans; who, for some few ceremonies, made a breach in Christian communion. Though his spirit was easy and complaisant, and liked not of rigour; yet, when he saw that no other means would bring them to obedience, he approved of restraint: especially of the heads of the faction; whom he styled, fanatical and incurable." Even Collier, it seems, vindicates our prelate from Heylyn's charge. "He was," says Jeremy, "no negligent governor, nor a person of latitude, or indifference for the ceremonies of the church." In the judgment of the famous lord Bacon, Dr. Grindal was "the greatest and gravest prelate of this land." And, amidst all the insults he suffered from his contemporary aspersors, and all the malicious dirt with which his venerable memory has been pelted since his decease; it reflects no small ray of honour on his name, to add, that he had "A great respect to Calvin, Luther, Melancthon, Bucer, Peter Martyr, Bullinger, Zanchy, and the rest of the pious foreign reformers."

(3.) Dr. John Whitgift succeeded Grindal, in the metropolitical chair, A. D. 1583. He was a prelate of great abilities, and of warm piety; sound in the faith, and very zealous for the church. If any branches of his conduct tended to shade, in some degree, the brightness of his acknowledged virtues; the extreme rigour which the non-conformists experienced at his hands, and the perpetual incense of profuse adulation which he seldom failed to offer at the shrine of secular power, seem the most (perhaps, the only) vulnerable parts of his character. And yet, on one hand, truth obliges us to confess, that some, among the then puritans, were persons of the most intractable and exasperating perverseness, whose separation from the establishment was formed on the narrowest principles of prejudice, and whose outrageous zeal against the hierarchy and ceremonies of the church transported them beyond all bounds of moderation and decency. While protestants, agreeing in doctrinals, were thus biting and devouring one another about rituals; Rome, the common enemy to both, laughed and enjoyed the sport. On the other hand, let it be remembered, in extenuation of Whitgift's lavish complaisance to the court, that he lived under the jealous eye of a high-spirited queen, who was constantly on the watch for every occasion of screwing up her ecclesiastical supremacy to the utmost height.

Strong, and numerous, are the evidences of this archbishop's orthodoxy. I shall briefly select a few.

Some time in the reign of Elizabeth, one Peter Baro, or Baron, born at Estampes, a city of Gastinois, in France, thought proper to visit England, in quality of a protestant refugee. A protester, ‘tis true, he was: for he had not been long settled at Cambridge, before he publicly entered his protest against some eminent doctrines of the church established, which had so generously sheltered him in her bosom.

Our universities were, at that time, like our monarchs, defenders of the faith. Cambridge was all in alarm, at the heterodoxies vented by the French divinity professor. Complaint was made, that he "Taught the popish doctrine of the co-operation of faith and works to justification: that he laboured to make men believe, that the reformed church's doctrine was not so differing from popish doctrine, but that, by distinctions, they might be reconciled: with other strange matters, which they" [viz. the complainants, who were the heads of the university] "looked upon as damnable errors; being the highway, not only to popery, but to atheism."

Dr. Fuller gives us some other propositions, maintained by Baro: which propositions, though moderately orthodox (at least, the heterodoxies were so decently wrapped up, as to elude a superficial eye), were deemed of ambiguous construction, and therefore branded in due season.

The transactions at Cambridge, relative to Baro, could not long escape bishop Whitgift's notice. This wakeful and discerning guardian of the church appears to have been doubtful of Baro, from the first; and never to have rightly relished the unsuspecting patronage, afforded, by lord Burleigh, to that artful foreigner. The event proved, that Whitgift could better see into church matters, with one eye, than Burleigh could, with two. The good prelate thought, among other particulars, that Baro was not so tight a predestinarian, as the church and universities of England then expected a divinity professor to be. Whitgift, says Mr. Strype, had his "Objections against Baro, for some tenets, differing, as was thought, from the true doctrine of the decrees of God concerning the final state of man." Nor did his lordship prove mistaken.

It was not until the year 1595, that Baro ventured to unmask his batteries against the established doctrine of predestination, in his sermon ad clerum. This sermon gave vast and deserved offence, both to the church and to the court of England: for not only the bishops and the leading clergy were displeased, but, as Mr. Strype expressly affirms, "The queen also showed herself particularly angry with Baro, in some discourse she had of these matters with the archbishop:” to whom her majesty justly observed, that Baro, "Being an alien, ought to have carried himself quietly and peaceably in a country where he was so humanely harboured, and where both he and his family had been infranchised." The archbishop, though he equally disapproved both the pelagianism and the contentious proceedings of Baro, candidly endeavoured to soften the queen's resentment against him; and was probably the means of restraining it from falling with weight on the French delinquent's head.

Baro and William Barret distinguished themselves about one and the same time, as opposers of predestination, in the University of Cambridge: and Heylyn himself gives us to understand, that they, and one Harsenet, were the first protestant divines, since the reformation, by whom the Calvinistic system was publicly attacked. Mr. Tindal, the historian, has the same remark; "The predestinarian controversy" [i. e. the controversy agitated against predestination] "was begun in 1595, by Barret, fellow of Caius College, Cambridge, who preached against Calvin's doctrine of predestination, &c. for which he was censured by the University, and forced to retract in St. Mary's church. He was afterwards sent to Lambeth, and examined before archbishop Whitgift; who enjoined him to confess his errors, and not teach the like doctrines for the future: but he chose rather to quit the University [and openly declare himself a papist beyond sea.] This gave occasion for the famous Lambeth articles: in which the Calvinistical sense of predestination, election, and the other controverted points, is strongly asserted; and to which the scholars in the universities were strictly enjoined to conform."

Though Whitgift, as already observed, generously interceded with the queen, in behalf of Baro's person; yet was he warmly displeased with the innovating insolence of the pragmatical Frenchman, who, presuming too far on the tenderness and moderation with which he had been hitherto forborne, dared, at length, to broach the following doctrines, which, being too grossly pelagian for any further tolerance, raised a storm against him, that all his craft and interest could never afterwards compose.

"Docuit, Deum omnes et singulos, absoluta voluntate, ad vitam aeternam creasse.

"Voluntatem Dei duplicem esse, viz. antecedentem, et consequentem. Antecedente quidem voluntate, Deum neminem rejecisse.

"Christum mortuum esse pro omnibus et singulis.

"Promissiones Dei ad vitam universales esse: et aeque spectre ad Cainum et Abelem, Esavum atque Jacobum, Judam atque Petrum; et Cainam non magis a Deo fuisse rejectum, quam Abelem, antequam se excluserat"

That is: "God created all and every individual of mankind, with a real will to save them.

"The will of God is twofold: antecedent, and consequent. God reprobates no man, by his will of antecedence.

"Christ died for all and every individual of the human race.

"God's promises, respecting eternal life, are universal: and were made equally to Cain and Abel, to Esau and Jacob, to Judas and Peter. Nor, ‘til Cain excluded himself, was he any more rejected of God, than was Abel."

These were the four monstrous propositions, for which Baro was prosecuted in the vice-chancellor's court. In an age, when even a slack predestinarian, or an half-Calvinist, was started at, as a shocking phaenomenon; a gross free-willer, a palpable universalist (who preached up an ignorant, a dependent, a disappointed, and a changing deity, as an object of rational worship), might well be shunned and exclaimed against, as a

Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens, cuiluasen ademptum.

Lord Burleigh was then chancellor of Cambridge. Partly, through his lordship's bad state of health at that time, which would not permit him to treat University matters with his usual attention; and, partly, from a principle of compassion to the heterodox foreigner as a foreigner; Baro was not (as Barrett, the English pelagian, had just been) violently displaced, but allowed to resign. The archbishop, however, in a previous conversation with him, took him severely to task: of which his grace gave some account, in a letter to Doctor Goad, the vice-chancellor; in which letter the archbishop informed Goad, "That he was very sorry that Doctor Baro, notwithstanding all the advertisements [or admonitions] which had been given to him, and his [i. e. Baro's] faithful promise made to him [i. e. to himself the archbishop], did nevertheless continue his troublesome course of contending. That he [the archbishop] had, of late, by Dr. Neville, signified to him [to Baro], how hardly her majesty had been informed against him for these causes: and how unfit it was, that he, being a stranger, and receiving such courtesy and friendship here, of good will, and not for any need we had of him; should be so busy in another commonwealth, and make himself as it were author of new stirs and contentions in this church. That at his last being with him, he [the archbishop] showed to him [to Baro] the propositions [i. e. the Lambeth articles], and demanded his opinion of every one of them severally, and that at two several times: and although, the latter time, Baro seemed to make some frivolous and childish objections against some one or two of them only; yet did he confess that they were all true, and that they did not impugn any of his assertions."

What a frontlet of brass must Baro have possessed, ere he could go about to face down archbishop Whitgift with this most gigantic of untruths, that none of his (i. e. of Baro's) assertions were impugned by any thing contained in the Lambeth articles! No other possible overstrain of falsehood can transcend the enormity of this. I know but of one, that can any way pretend to come up with it: viz. the declaration of those modest Arminians, who affirm, that there is nothing in the 39 articles, which any way impugns the doctrines of Pelagius and Van Harmin. The fellow, who averred, that he once drove a ten-penny nail through the moon; and his companion, who added, that he remembered it very well, for he himself stood on the other side, and clinched it; were but dwarfs in the art of audacious falsification, when compared with Baro the first, and with those numerous swarms of modern Baros, who have, since, so plentifully overspread the face of the church of England.

The most important of Baro's "assertions," as he called them, for which he lost his preferments, have been already specified. Let the reader only compare those assertions, with the Lambeth articles; and he will immediately perceive, with what modesty and veracity, Baro would have persuaded the archbishop, that there was no contrariety between the two systems.

The articles of (b) Lambeth (so called, because drawn up at Lambeth palace, under the eye, and with the assistance, of archbishop Whitgift himself; in concert with Bancroft, then bishop of London, afterwards translated to Canterbury; together with Vaughan, bishop of Bangor; Tindal, dean of Ely; Dr. Whitaker, the queen's divinity professor; and other eminent dignitaries of the church; the articles of Lambeth, drawn up, as aforesaid, by these great prelates and divines) exhibit also an irrefragable proof of the primate's Calvinism. Translated into English, they run thus:

(b) For a fuller account of those articles, and the occasion of them, see my Church Vindicated from Arminianism.

"1. God hath, from eternity, predestinated certain persons to life; and hath reprobated certain persons unto death.

"2. The moving, or efficient cause of predestination unto life, is not the foresight of faith, or of perseverance, or of good works, or of any thing that is in the persons predestinated: but the alone will of God's good pleasure.

"3. The predestinate are a pre-determined and certain number, which can neither be lessened, nor increased.

"4. Such as are not predestinated to salvation, shall inevitably be condemned on account of their sins.

"5. The true, lively, and justifying faith, and the Spirit of God justifying, is not extinguished, doth not utterly fail, doth not vanish away, in the elect, either finally, or totally.

"6. A true believer, that is, one who is endued with justifying faith, is certified, by the full assurance of faith, that his sins are forgiven, and that he shall be everlastingly saved by Christ.

"7. Saving grace is not allowed, is not imparted, is not granted to all men, by which they may be saved if they will.

"8. No man is able to come to Christ, unless it be given him, and unless the Father draw him: and all men are not drawn by the Father, that they may come to his Son.

"9. It is not in the will or power of every man to be saved."

Such were these famous articles; concerning which, his grace of Canterbury expressed himself in the following very remarkable terms: "I know them to be sound doctrines, and uniformly professed in this church of England, and agreeable to the articles of religion established by authority." Under this just persuasion, he communicated them to his brother of York, Doctor Matthew Hutton: who returned them, with some judicious remarks (which see in Strype), and with this remarkable subscription:

Hae theses ex Sacris literis vel aperte colligi, vel necessaria consecutione deduci, possunt; et ex scriptis Augustini.

Matth. Ebor.

That is: "These positions are gatherable from the holy scriptures, either expressly, or by necessary consequence; and also from the writings of St. Austin.

"Matthew York.”

The Lambeth articles, thus approved by the archbishops of both provinces, were forwarded to Cambridge; accompanied by a letter, from Whitgift himself, to that university: wherein he requested the heads of houses, "To take care, that nothing be publicly taught to the contrary," i. e. contrary to those articles: adding, that he thought the said nine articles "to be true, and correspondent to the doctrine professed in the church of England, and established by the laws of the land."

The reader may, possibly, wish to know what became of Peter Baro. Dr. Hutton, archbishop of York, was for having him treated with exemplary severity. Whitgift had wrote to Hutton, on the last day of February, 1595, "wherein among other things, he desired his opinion of Baro's assertions: when that prelate [viz. his grace of York,] in his answer, showed how little he liked of Baro and his learning; wishing, that Baro was in his own country, and not to have disturbed the peace of our church: and would have one to be put in his place, who was learned, godly, and mild of nature; and that Cambridge afforded store of such." Thus, in the judgment of that grave archbishop, to preach against predestination was to "disturb the peace of the church:" and the plain drift of his advice was, that Baro should be displaced from his office at Cambridge, and be banished to France, his native soil; where, without molestation, he might safely disseminate his pelagian tares among his popish countrymen.

But Whitgift (prompted either by his own candour, or, which is more probable, by his profound deference to lord Burleigh) was for pursuing more snug and gentle measures. He prudently deemed it sufficient, to avail himself of Baro's natural timidity, which with proper management, would make the French free-willer glad to quit the university, and sheer off into his primitive obscurity. This was tossing up matters, with less noise, than if he had been formally divested of his professorship; and answered, to better advantage, all the purposes of more ostensible rigour. The end of his triennial lectures drawing near, the university were determined not to re-elect him, but to turn him decently and quietly adrift. "He himself was sensible thereof, and besides, he saw the articles of Lambeth lately sent to the university; and foresaw, that subscription thereunto would be expected from, yea, imposed on him. To which he could not condescend: and therefore resolved to quit his place. So that his departure was not his free act, out of voluntary election; but that whereunto his will was necessarily determined. Witness his own return to a friend, who required of him the cause of his withdrawing: Fugio, said he, ne fugarer; I fly, that I may not be driven away." So writes Dr. Fuller. And, matters standing thus, we cannot wonder that Anthony Wood should style Baro's decampment, a removal: "He was," says that writer, "removed from his place of Margaret professor, about the year 1596; not without the consent of Dr. Whitgift, archbishop of Canterbury." The truth is, an English university, and the church of England herself, were then too hot to hold an Arminian. More shame for posterity, if our love to our own essential principles has, since, waxed so cold (though the said principles themselves, unchanged to this day, are alive to stare us in the face); that not a few Arminian salamanders, basking in the rays of our ecclesiastic and academic sunshine can say, with some certain good people of old, Aha, I am warm: I have seen, and can stand the fire (i) of subscription, conformity, assent, and consent; yea, I can even pass through the fire, so dexterously, as not to singe an hair of my pelagian Moloch's head.

(i) Isa 44:16.

Such casuists remind me of an anecdote, or two, related, with much simplicity, by honest Whiston.

He mentions an acquaintance of his (one Dr. Cannon), "Who would join with the church in signing the 39 articles, without believing them, as legal qualifications for preferment only." Every body knows, that Mr. Whiston was a violent enemy to the doctrine of the Trinity; and, in particular, proclaimed eternal war against that admirable form of sound words, commonly called the Athanasian Creed. Whence, he thus proceeds in his information concerning the aforesaid Dr. Cannon. "He joined with the Athanasian creed itself, in the cathedral of Ely, at a time when I was there and refused it. I asked him, how one that believed so very little, could join in a thing so absurd? His answer was, what is one man's meat is another man's poison. He also told Mr. Jackson, that, if he were at Paris, he would declare himself a Roman Catholic; and, if he were at Constantinople, he would declare himself a Mussulman. He was ready to wonder at Mr. Jackson, for believing St. Paul before himself, when they [viz. St. Paul and Dr. Cannon] were of contrary sentiments. So great an opinion had he of his own sagacity."

“Tis some little comfort, to consider, that protean casuistry, like that by which Dr. Cannon regulated his motions, is not peculiar to some who wear gowns and cassocks. Who would have suspected, so great a man, as the lord chancellor King, could have deviated into the same slippery path of Jesuitical evasion? “I must," says Whiston, "tell a melancholy story of my own knowledge. When I was once talking with the [then] lord chief justice King, we fell into a debate about signing articles, which we did not believe, for preferment: which he openly justified; and pleaded for it, that we must not lose our usefulness for scruples. Strange doctrine," adds Whiston, "in the mouth of one bred up among dissenters, whose whole dissent from the legally established church was built on scruples! I replied, that I was sorry to hear his lordship say so: and desired to know, whether in their courts [viz. the temporal courts of law], they allowed of such prevarication, or not? He answered, they did not allow of it. Which produced this rejoinder from me: suppose God Almighty should be as just, in the next world, as my lord chief justice is in this? where are we then? To which he made no answer. And to which the late queen Caroline added, when I told her the story, Mr. Whiston, no answer was to be made to it.

"I conclude this matter, with that very pertinent and emphatical reply, which a fellow of Emmanuel College, in Cambridge, made to a friend of his, of the same college. The latter, at the restoration, had been representing the great difficulties" [as they seemed to him] "of conformity, in point of conscience: concluding, however, with these words, But we must live. To which the other answered only, with the like number of words, but we must [also] die. Than which, a better answer could not possibly be given." Let those of the sacred order, whom it may concern, weigh the answer well.

Peter Baro, though a pelagian in grain, yet had not lost all sight of moral honesty. Hence, he recoiled at subscribing the Lambeth articles: yea, though he had, before, so far strained his veracity, as to tell archbishop Whitgift, that those articles did not contravene any of the doctrines he had been teaching at Cambridge. What a contrast, between the archbishop's faith, and that of the outed professor! On the one hand, Whitgift affirmed, that the Lambeth articles "were undoubtedly true, and not to be denied of any sound divine." On the other, Baro chose rather to forsake the university, than subscribe them.

Let me just observe, that Monsieur Baro was, at one time, a man of a most acrimonious spirit, and would very willingly have persecuted those from whom he differed in opinion. For, this was the same Baro, who, some time before his own downfall, had the insolence to style the learned, holy, and laborious Mr. Perkins, of Cambridge, "homuncio quidam" in a letter to archbishop Whitgift: and even importuned (but without effect) Dr. Andrews, to exert his influence, that Mr. Perkins and Dr. Some might be displaced and silenced. How justly was the haughty, malicious pelagian taken, himself, in the net which he had spread for others!

After his disgraceful retreat from Cambridge, he settled in London: where (for a burnt child dreads the fire) his subsequent behaviour was so orderly and peaceable, that, dying three or four years after, his funeral in St. Olave's, Hart-street, was attended by a respectable appearance of city divines, whose favour his dutiful submission to authority had deservedly conciliated. Thus quietly did the once boisterous Dr. Baro finish his course; and thus were his latter days better than the former: as having the negative merit of raising no farther storms in the academical atmosphere, but of gliding gently and inoffensively away within the peaceful banks of silent obscurity.

Another remarkable instance of archbishop Whitgift's Calvinism appears, in an injunction, which he issued, enjoining all clergymen, having care of souls, and not having taken the degree of Master of Arts, to provide themselves with a bible, and with Dr. Bullinger's Decads: which they were carefully to study and make extracts from. The reader must be reminded, that Henry Bullinger, author of the Decads above mentioned, was a most learned protestant divine of Switzerland, a deep predestinarian, and a disciple of the famous Zuinglius: on the (o) death of whom in 1531, Bullinger succeeded to the pastoral care of the church of Zurich. So highly was this eminent foreign Calvinist accounted of in our church of England, that archbishop Whitgift, and the rest of the bishops (for a whole convocation of them concurred in the direction given), thought the bible, and Bullinger's Decads, a necessary and sufficient library for two parts in three of the established clergy. My authority follows:

"Orders for the better increase of learning, in the inferior ministers; and for more diligent preaching and catechising, agreed upon by the archbishop and other bishops in convocation [1586].

(o) Ulricus Zuinglius was the reformer of Switzerland, and may, as a prodigy of parts, grace, and usefulness, be numbered among the most illustrious ornaments of the sixteenth century. In the year 1531, five of the Popish Cantons came to open hostilities with the two protestant Cantons of Bern and Zurich. It has been affirmed, that Zuinglius was literally fighting for his faith and for his country, when he received the wound from the popish forces, which deprived him of life. But the accurate Melchior Adamus, who was best qualified to know, positively denies that Zuinglius attended the protestant camp in a military character: and affirms, that he only accompanied his heroic fellow-citizens in quality of chaplain or pastor [Vit. Theol. Germ. p. 38]; deeming it ungenerous and dishonourable, that his flock should expose their lives, in defence of the truths they had received from him, without his participating the common danger. A resolution the more magnanimous, as he had, from the very first, a conviction, strongly impressed on his mind, that he should not survive the battle of that day.

The compilers of the Biographical Dictionary [vol. xi. p. 523.] in translating some of Zuinglius's dying words, have been guilty of an oversight, which does no more honour to their precision, than justice to the Christian heroism of that great man. "Upon receiving his death's wound," say they, "and falling, he was heard to utter these words, what a misfortune is this? &c." Rather, what a misfortune is it, when fine sentiments are murdered in the relating! The fact was this. During the hurry of the fight Zuinglius, overwhelmed by the press of the rushing enemy, was thrice thrown down, and recovered his feet as often. At last, a weapon, doomed to extinguish one of the most valuable lives that ever added lustre to religion and learning, entering under his chin, transfixed his throat. The holy man, falling first on his knees, and then sinking to the ground, uttered these noble sentences: "Ecquid hoc infortunii? Can this be considered as a calamity? Age, corpus quidem occidere possunt; animam non possunt: Well! they are able, indeed, to slay the body: but they are not able to kill the soul" [Melch. Ad. u. s. p. 37.] Could any thing be more truly Christian, more divinely triumphant, more sublimely philosophic? His body being found by the papists, among the slain, they burned it to ashes: which occasioned these elegant verses, consecrated to his memory by Beza.

Zuinglius arderet gemino quum sanctus amore,

Nempe Dei imprimis, deinde etiam Patriae;

Dicitur in solidum se devovisse duobus:

Nempe Deo imprimis, deinde etiam Patriae.

Quam bene persolvit simul istis Vota duobus!

Pro Patria exanimis, pro Pietate Cinis!

"Every minister, having cure, and being under the degrees of master of art, and bachelor of law, and not licensed to be a public preacher, shall, before the second day of February next, provide a bible, and Bullinger's Decads in Latin or English, and a paper book: and shall, every day, read over one chapter of the holy scriptures; and note the principal contents thereof, briefly in his paper book: and shall, every week, read over one sermon in the said Decads; and note likewise the chief matters, therein contained, in the said paper book. And shall, once in every quarter, viz. within a fortnight before or after the end of the quarter, show his said notes to some preacher near adjoining, to be assigned for that purpose. Item, Such as shall refuse to perform the exercises, or shall be negligent therein; and shall not, after admonition by the bishop or arch-deacon, or other ordinary aforesaid, reform himself; if he be beneficed, [he] shall be compelled thereunto, by ecclesiastical censures: if he be a curate, [he] shall be inhibited to serve within the jurisdiction."

One word more, and I take my leave of Whitgift. Soon after the archbishop's decease, Dr. Benjamin Carier (who had been his grace's chaplain) publicly apostatised to the church of Rome: and, with great virulence, fell foul on the memory of Calvin. Dr. George Hakewell, chaplain to prince Henry, was appointed to answer this shameless renegado. And, says Strype, "I cannot but add one passage, wherein the answerer put the apostate in mind of the archbishop, his old master; giving Carier a rebuke on his account, in regard of his [i. e. of Carier's] reproaching of Calvin and his writings, your old master [said Hakewell], archbishop Whitgift, was of another mind; labouring always, when any occasion was offered, to countenance his own writings with Calvin's authority; and especially out of that book which you most dislike [viz. Calvin's Institutions]: yielding him the title of a famous and learned man." Such was that great and good prelate's veneration for the great and good Mr. John Calvin.

Thus have we seen, of what principles and spirit were the archbishops of Canterbury, all through the reign of Elizabeth, the illustrious re-foundress of the church of England. They were, in matters of doctrine, true Calvinistic sons of the church; as they were, by station, its venerable fathers and guardians.

A farther proof or two, out of many which remain yet unmentioned, shall be added to the evidences, already given, of the incontestable Calvinism of our church during that queen's memorable reign.

XIV. Every body knows, that, when Mary of Scotland was brought to the block, in Fotheringay Castle, Fletcher, dean of Peterborough, was present, to offer that princess his spiritual services. Though she would not permit him to pray with her, the dean was determined to pray for her; and, of the prayer he made, the following remarkable paragraph is preserved: "That it would please Almighty God to send her his holy Spirit and grace; and also, if it were his will, to pardon all her offences, and of his mercy to receive her into his heavenly and everlasting kingdom." A petition, evidently formed on the highest principles of Calvinism; and, of course, in exact harmony with the prevailing divinity of that age (s).

(s) The speech, which the dean made to her majesty of Scots, was no less Calvinistical than his prayer. In it, were these passages: "That you may be found of God, not having your own righteousness, which is defiled and unclean, but the righteousness of God, by faith in Jesus Christ, upon all and in all them that believe. The special means to attain to forgiveness of sins, is neither in man, nor by man; but by faith only in Jesus Christ crucified; in whom we, being justified, have peace with God, and all spiritual security. If you flee to the throne of God, with boldness only in Christ's meritorious obedience, and apply it to your soul with the hand of true faith, your cross shall be your life, and your death shall be your vantage. O, madam, trust not the devices which God's word doth not warrant. To Christ give all the scriptures testimony, that, through faith in his blood, we and all God's church shall receive remission of sins." The queen interrupted him, three or four times, in the course of his exhortation; saying, Master dean, trouble not yourself or me; for know, that I am settled in the ancient, catholic, Romish religion. The earls of Shrewsbury and Kent, who were appointed to see her executed, made the following Calvinistical address to her: "Madam, we will pray for your grace, with master dean, [that] if it stand with God's good will, you may have your heart enlightened, &c."—Strype's annals, vol. iii. p. 386—388.

XV. It was during Elizabeth's reign, that one Campneys, a restless and abusive pelagian, sought to disturb the peace of the church, by publishing a defamatory tract in opposition to the received doctrine of predestination.

This Campneys had, some years before, rendered himself very obnoxious to the protestant government, in the time of king Edward VI. His affection to popery, and his abhorrence of the reformation effected under the auspices of that prince, had been so turbulently and so indecently expressed, and were so generally known even in the succeeding century, as to wring out the following reluctant concession from the pen of Peter Heylyn himself: viz. that this Campneys was "of a sharp and eager spirit," and "not well weaned from some points of popery, in the first dawning of the day of our reformation" The truth is, his insolencies against the reformed church of England laid him open to the laws: and he "was made to bear a faggot at Paul's Cross, in king Edward's time; the learned and pious Miles Coverdale [bishop of Exeter] preaching a sermon when that punishment was inflicted on him.

"When queen Elizabeth had restored the true religion, Campneys began to play his old pranks; i. e. to cause disturbance, by nibbling at such who were deservedly honoured and preferred in the church: publishing a pamphlet, to which he had not courage enough to affix his name, against predestination. This pamphlet was encountered by Mr. John Veron, a chaplain to the queen, and reader of the divinity lecture in St. Paul's church: as also by Mr. Robert Crowley, sometime fellow of Magdalen College in Oxford, at that time a famous preacher in London. Both these put out answers to Campneys: and their answers were both licensed and approved [by public authority]; and Veron's [book in favour of predestination] was dedicated to the queen herself. Whereas Campneys's virulent pamphlet came forth surreptitiously: neither author nor printer daring to put their names to it."

I learn, from Heylyn, that the answer, written by Mr. Veron, and dedicated to the queen as aforesaid, was entitled, "An Apology, or Defence of the Doctrine of Predestination." Wherein her majesty's chaplain terms Campneys, "The Blind Guide of the Free-will Men:——a very pelagian, and consequently a rank papist: the standard-bearer of the free-will men, &c." Would a chaplain to the queen, and the divinity lecturer of St. Paul's cathedral, have made so free with free-will men, in a book inscribed to his royal mistress, and published cum auctoritate; if the doctrinal system of the church of England had not been deemed incontrovertibly Calvinistic?

XVI. Among the particulars which I have already, in their due place, noted, concerning Martin Bucer, the reader must be reminded of two: viz. that, during his life-time, it was hardly possible for man to wind up the doctrine of predestination to a greater height, than was done by that great reformer; and that, after his decease, when queen Mary introduced popery again, his bones, together with those of the learned Fagius, were dug up, at Cambridge, and publicly burned in the market-place there, by order of cardinal Pole.

At the time of their exhumation by the papists, Dr. Scot, the popish bishop of Chester, alleged, as one reason of that indecent revenge, that Martin Buccr, in particular, had drank in the heresy of Wickliff, who asserted, "omnia fato et absoluta necessitate fieri: i. e. that whatever comes to pass, is the result of fate and absolute necessity (y)." Dr. Perne, the popish vice-chancellor of Cambridge, preached a sermon on the occasion: wherein, "among other things, he told how Bucer held opinion, as he himself heard him confess, that God was the author and well-spring, not only of good, but also of evil: and that whatsoever was of that sort, flowed from him, as from the head and maker thereof (z)." Dr. Watson also, another zealous papist, took the opportunity of making a public harangue : in which he exclaimed, "How perilous a doctrine is that, which concerneth the fatal and absolute necessity of predestination! And yet they [meaning Bucer and Fagius] set it out in such wise, that they have left no choice at all in things: as who should say, It skilleth not what a man purposeth of any matter, since he had not the power to determine otherwise than the matter should come to pass. The which was the peculiar opinion of them, that made God the author of evil: bringing men, through this persuasion, into such a careless security of the everlasting eternity, that, in the mean season, it made no matter, either toward salvation or damnation, what a man did in his life. Theses errors were defended by them [i. e. by Bucer and Fagius] with great stoutness (a)." So spake the Romish doctors, in the reign of Mary: and thus (like too many ostensible protestants since) did they slander and distort the holy and blessed doctrine of predestination.

(y) See Fox's Acts and Mon. iii. 645. (z) Fox, ibid. p. 646. (a) Fox, ibid. 648.

Queen Elizabeth had a better opinion of Bucer and Fagius, and of the pure protestant doctrine which they had maintained. She had not long been on the throne, when her majesty gave a very promising presage of her intention to restore the church of England to its chastity of Calvinism, in commanding the insults, which had been offered to the remains of Bucer and Fagius, to be, as far as was practicable, publicly and solemnly reversed, in the face of the whole university; and all possible honours to be rendered to the memories of those distinguished Calvinists. For which purpose, letters of commission were issued to Parker, archbishop of Canterbury; to Grindal, then bishop of London; and to others.

Mr. Acworth was, at that time, public orator of Cambridge. Fox gives us the entire speech, which that gentleman delivered, at what was termed, "The restitution of Martin Bucer and Paulus Fagius." In the course of his oration, Acworth observed, concerning Bucer, "We saw [viz. in king Edward's reign], with our eyes, this university flourishing by his [Bucer's] institutions: the love of sincere religion not only engendered, but also confirmed and strengthened, through his continual and daily preaching. Insomuch that, at such time as he was suddenly taken from us, there was scarce any man, that, for sorrow, could find in his heart to bear with the present state of this life: but that either he wished, with all his heart, to depart out of this life with Bucer, and, by dying, to follow him into immortality; or else endeavoured himself, with weeping and sighing, to call him again into the prison of the body, lest he should leave us as it were standing in battle without a captain. Oxford burnt up the right reverend fathers, Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, the noble witnesses of the clear light of the gospel. Moreover at London, perished those two lanterns of light, Rogers and Bradford : in whom, it is hard to say, whether there were more force of eloquence and utterance in preaching, or more holiness of life and conversation. What city is there, that hath not flamed with the burning of holy bodies? But Cambridge played the mad bedlam against the dead. The dead men (viz. Fagius and Bucer), whose (holiness of) living no man was able to find fault with, whose doctrine no man was able to reprove, were, by false slanderers, indicted; contrary to the laws of God and man, sued in the law; condemned; their sepulchres violated, and broken up; their carcasses pulled out, and burned with fire. Bucer, by the excellency of his wit and doctrine, known to all men; of our countrymen, in manner, craved, of many others intreated and sent for, to the intent he might instruct our Cambridge men in the sincere doctrine of the Christian religion; he, being spent with age, and his strength utterly decayed, forsook his own country; refused not the tediousness of that long journey; was not afraid to adventure himself upon the sea; but had more regard to the dilating and amplifying the church of Christ, than to all other things. So, in conclusion, he came. Every man received and welcomed him. Afterward, he lived in such wise, as it might appear he came not hither for his own sake, but for ours. For, he sought not to drive away the sickness, which he had taken by troublesome travel of his long journey. Albeit his strength was weakened and appalled, yet he regarded not the recovery of his health; but put himself to immoderate labour and intolerable pain, only to teach and instruct us. Toward this so noble and worthy a person, while he lived, were shown all the tokens of humanity and gentleness, reverence and courtesy, that could be. He had free access into the most gorgeous buildings, and stately palaces of the greatest princes: and, when he was dead, could not be suffered to enjoy so much at his poor grave (b)."

(b) Fox, Ibid. p. 649, 650.

I have largely shown, in a foregoing section, what the doctrine of Bucer was. And the particulars, cited under the present article, demonstrate, that, in the judgment of the protestant church and state of England, regnante Elizabetha, Bucer's Calvinistic doctrine was esteemed and taken to be "sincere [i. e. pure, genuine] religion;" "doctrine, which no man was able to reprove;" yea, "the sincere doctrine of the Christian religion:" and that Bucer himself was a "noble" and "worthy" person; who, at his death, left our church of England protestants almost "without a captain." Let me add, that Dr. Pilkinton, then Margaret professor of divinity, and, soon after, bishop of Durham, preached the restitution sermon, from Ps 111. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, &c. in honour of the said Bucer and Fagius: and that "the entrance and walls of the church were all hung with verses in their praise. An account of this restitution the university, on the 3d of August [1560], sent up to the archbishop and the commissioners; acquainting them, with what great joy, and triumph, and applause, it was generally done: and that as soon as their (the commissioners) letters (enjoining this public restitution of honours to the memories of Bucer and Fagius) were read to the senate, and the injuries offered (in the foregoing reign of Mary) to the dead bodies, by them mentioned; they were all presently on fire to honour them." The next year, in respect to the great Peter Martyr, then living beyond sea, the remains of his wife (who had died and been buried at Oxford) were transferred from a dunghill, to which queen Mary's papists had maliciously removed them, and honourably re-interred in Christ's church (d). So careful was the restored church of England to testify her grateful regard for whatever had any relation to her pious, learned, Calvinistical reformers.

(d) "On the 11th of January [1561], happened a remarkable action at Oxford: viz. the solemn restoring of Catherine Vermilia (sometime the pious wife of Peter Martyr) to honourable burial, after a strange indignity offered [by the Papists, in 1556] to her corpse. For our archbishop [Parker], together with Grindal, bishop of London, Richard Goodrick, Esq. and others; by virtue, as it seems, of the queen's ecclesiastical commission; deputed certain fit persons in that university to enquire into a barbarous and inhuman usage of that virtuous woman's dead body; who, [more than] two years after her burial, had been digged up, and earned away, and buried in a dunghill belonging to Dr. Marshall, then dean of Christ's Church; whereof he himself was the great actor, by authority from cardinal Pole.

"Her restitution was accordingly performed after this manner: The persons, appointed for this business, cited those who had been concerned in digging up the body; who, being charged, showed them the place where she was first buried; which was near St. Frideswide's tomb, on the north part of Christ's Church. Then requiring where they had conveyed the corpse, they were conducted towards Dr. Marshall's stables: and there out of a dunghill, it was digged up, not quite consumed. Which they caused to be carefully deposited in a convenient receptacle, and so brought back therein to the said church: leaving it thus to be watched by the officers of the church, until they might conveniently celebrate the re-interment.

"There were, belonging to the said church, two silk bags, wherein the bones of St. Frideswide were wrapt up and preserved: which were wont, on solemn days, to be taken out, and laid upon the altar, to be openly seen and reverenced by the superstitious people. For the preventing any future superstitions with those relics (and yet that no indecency might be used toward the said saint and foundress's bones), and, withal, for the better securing of this late buried holy woman's bones from being disturbed any more; by the advice of Mr. Calfhill, the bones of both were mixed and put together, and so laid in the earth, in one grave, in the upper part of the said church, towards the east: after a speech had been made, to a very great auditory, declaring the reason of the present undertaking. And, on the next day, being the Lord's day, one of the society, named Rogerson, preached a learned and pious sermon on the occasion; and therein took notice of the cruelty exercised by papists to the bodies of innocent and good men, which they burnt alive; and then, of the horrible inhumanity showed to this pious matron's dead body; whose life he propounded as an excellent example to imitate. For her farther honour, the university hung upon the church doors many copies of Latin and Greek verses, composed by eminent members thereof. This is the sum of what Calfhill, one of the chief managers, wrote to bishop Grindal concerning this matter.

"The papists have been twitted, by protestants, with the base usage of this good woman: and they, to lessen their fault, have laboured to disparage and defame her. One of them called her, Fustiluggs; being somewhat corpulent. This occasioned Dr. George Abbot [afterwards archbishop of Canterbury] in his excellent answer to that Romanist, to say some things remarkable of her: which he had the opportunity of knowing, being, himself, of the University of Oxford, and living in or near those times. She was, said he, reasonably corpulent; but of most matron-like modesty: for the which, she was much reverenced by the most. She was of singular patience, and of excellent arts and qualities. Among other things, for her recreation, she delighted to cut plum-stones into curious faces and countenances: of which, exceedingly artificially done, I once had one, with a woman's visage, and head attire on one side, and a bishop with his mitre on the other; which was the elegant work of her hands. By divers, yet living in Oxford [A. D. 1604], this good woman is remembered, and commended, as for her other virtues, so for her liberality to the poor: which, by Mr. Fox, writing how she was treated after her death, is rightly mentioned. For the love of true religion, and the company of her husband, she left her own country, to come into England, in king Edward's days. And so good was her fame here, that, when papists, in queen Mary's time, being able to get nothing against her, being dead; would needs rage upon the bones of her, a woman, and a stranger; and took them out of her grave from Christian burial, and buried them in a dunghill. Whereupon one made these verses:

Faemineum sexum Romani semper amarunt;

Projiciunt corpus cur muliebre foras?

Hoe si tu quaeras; facilis responsio danda est;

Corpora non curant mortua: viva petunt."

Strype's Life of archbishop Parker, p. 100, 101.

XVII. It was in the orthodox reign of Elizabeth, that the learned Dr. Willet's inestimable book first appeared, entitled, Synopsis Papismi, or, A general View of Papistry. In this performance, dedicated to the queen, and published by authority, and which is one of the very best batteries that were ever raised for the demolition of popery, no fewer than fifteen hundred "heresies and errors" are charged on the church of Rome, and most ably refuted, by that profound and indefatigable divine.

I cannot immediately recollect the exact date of the first edition. But a third came out, in 1600. My copy is of the fifth edition, 1634. The author was a prebendary of Ely, and most zealously attached to the church of England. Not a grain of puritanism mingled itself with his conformity. Let us hear what Strype says, relatively to the admirable work now under consideration.

"Now also [A. D. 1600] Dr. Andrew Willet set forth a third edition of the Synopsis Papismi: which book gave a large account of all the controversies between the church of Rome and the protestant reformed church; with particular confutations of that degenerate church's errors. Or, as he himself saith of it, containing the whole sum of that holy faith and religion, which the queen maintained, and the church of England professed." Of that "holy faith," which was "maintained by the queen," and "professed by the church of England;" the Calvinistic doctrines were an essential and an eminent part. This will appear, by the following short passages, extracted from the Synopsis itself.

(1.) Concerning predestination. "Predestination is the decree of God, touching the salvation and condemnation of men.

"God's prescience is not the cause of predestination: for, how can the effect go before the cause? God's will is the cause of predestination.

"As he hath made all men, so hath he freely disposed of their end, according to the counsel of his own will: selecting some, to be vessels of honour; and rejecting others, to be vessels of wrath. And this very well standeth both with the mercy and justice of God, to save some, and reject others: for he might justly condemn all to eternal death (f)."

(f) Synopsis Papismi, p. 881. 883.

(2.) As to universal grace. "If God give grace unto some, to obey their calling, and thereby to be converted, and not to others; we must not be inquisitive to search, but leave it unto God, whose judgments may be hid and secret, but are always most just: for he hath mercy on whom he will.

"It cannot be literally understood, that God would absolutely have all men to be saved: for, why then should not all be saved? For who hath resisted God's will? Neither can it be answered here, as sometime by the old pelagians, that God's will is not fulfilled, because man will not: for this were to make men mightier than God (g)."

(g) Ibid. p. 886.

(3.) Limited redemption. "Here we are to consider the beginning of election, the progress thereof, and the end. The beginning: in that God, according to his good pleasure, elected his, in Christ, before the foundation of the world. The progress: in that he hath given the elect unto Christ, to be saved and redeemed by him. The end is, that he hath purposed to bring them unto glory.

"Christ only was given to die for the company of the elect. Not that it [viz. Christ's death] is not sufficient for the whole world, in itself; but because the efficacy and benefit of Christ's death is only applied by faith to believers; and faith only is of the elect. Christ died, only for those that should believe in him. But it is not given to all, to believe in Christ, except only to the elect which are ordained to life. Ergo, for them only Christ died (h)."

(h) Ibid. p. 803, 894.

(4.) Concerning free-will. "They that affirm, that God offereth grace and faith equally to all; and that God would have all men to believe; and if they believe not, it is not for want of grace, but the fault is only in themselves; do consequently hold, that, to believe, is either wholly, or in part, in man's power. The absurdity of which opinion, we declare thus.

"All cannot have faith; but such as are ordained and elected thereunto: Joh 10:26. Joh 12:39. Ac 13:48. Faith, and every good gift; the beginning, perfection, and end; is only of God: Ro 9:16. Php 2:13. Joh 15:5. Joh 6:44. They that are drawn of God; must needs come unto Christ.

"The patrons of common grace do fall into a flat point of pelagianism, whose assertion was this: Vitam aeternam omnibus paratam esse, quantum ad Deum; quantum ad arbitrii libertatem, ab eis eum apprehendi, qui sponte Deo crediderunt" [i. e. the pelagian system maintains, that eternal life is, on God's part, provided for all men; and is, on the part of free-will, to be lain hold upon by as many as spontaneously believe in God]. "This did the old pelagians hold; this do the new universalists affirm (i).

(i) Ibid. p. 908, 909.

"A freedom of will from necessity, we grant to have been in our first parents: whereby it was in their power, to have chosen either the good or the evil way. But since that by Adam's transgression the whole power of nature was shaken, and all the [spiritual] gifts and graces of creation decayed; there remaineth no freeness of will, unto good, in man: but only a voluntary promptness and inclination to evil without constraint [k]."

(k) Ibid. p. 931, 932.

(5.) Hear him on justification. Under the head of "popish subtle sleights and distinctions," he deservedly places the antichristian doctrine of "two justifications: the first, which is only of grace; and the second, wherein we proceed daily by good works." By way of antidote against this palpable poison, Dr. Willet observes, that "the scripture speaketh of but one justification [before God], which glorification followeth: whom he justified, them he also glorified; Ro 8:30. If, then, this one justification do bring us to glorification, what need a second (l)?

(l) Ibid. p. 993.

He adds, elsewhere. "Faith doth not justify us, by the worthiness and dignity thereof; or as it is a quality inherent in man, by any meritorious act, or by the work of believing; or as a proper, efficient cause: but by way of an instrument only; being as it were the hand of the soul, whereby we do apprehend the righteousness of Christ.

Faith, whereby we are justified, is passive in apprehending the promises of God in Christ, and applying Christ with all his benefits: in which respect, faith only justifieth. It is also active, in bringing forth good fruits, and in quickening of us to every good work; but so it justifieth not [except before men]. Faith, then, is inseparably joined with hope and love, and necessarily yieldeth in us good fruit: but none of all these do concur with faith in the act of our justification: but it is the office only of faith, to apply unto us the righteousness of Christ, whereby only we are made righteous before God (m)."

(m) Ibid. p. 993, 985.

(6.) His testimony to the great doctrine of final perseverance shall close these extracts "These patrons of universal and conditional election and grace [viz. the papists and pelagians], who affirm, that men are no otherwise elected, but with condition, if they believe; and so long are they elected, as they continue in faith; do consequently also hold, that men may both lose their election, and lose their faith: and, of vessels of honour, if they fall from faith, become vessels of wrath. Now, on the contrary, that both our election is sure before God, neither that the faith of the elect (though it may fail and impair, yet) cannot utterly be lost, we are assured by the evident testimony of scripture.

"All that are elected, shall be assuredly raised up to life eternal. And God, to such as he hath chosen, will give grace to continue. They, therefore, that finally fall away, were not elected in the beginning. And that faith which some have made shipwreck of, is not the justifying faith of the elect; but a temporary, or historical faith. Men's falling away from faith, then, cannot make God's election void, as the apostle saith: Shall their unbelief make the faith [i. e. the unalterable faithfulness] of God without effect? Ro 3:3. (n).

(n) Ibid. p. 912, 913.

"The papists say, a man may fall away from the faith which once truly he had, and be deprived altogether of the state of grace, so that he may justly be counted among the reprobates.

"Our sentence [i. e. the judgment and opinion of us church of England men] is this: that he, who once hath received a true, lively faith, and is thereby justified before God, can never finally fall away. Neither can that faith utterly perish, or fail in him. Though it may, for a while, somewhat decay, and be impaired; yet shall it revive, and he be raised up again (o).

(o) Ibid. p. 1009, 1010.

"Such were the doctrines which queen Elizabeth "maintained," and the "church of England professed."

XVIII. Another conclusive argument, to the same effect, may be drawn from the learned Dr. William Fulke's confutation of the Rhemish Testament, published about the middle of this reign. The occasion was as follows:

The English papists in the seminary at Rheims, perceiving, as Fuller observes, that they could no longer "blindfold their laity from the scriptures, resolved to fit them with false spectacles; and set forth the Rhemish translation" in opposition to the protestant versions. No man fitter, in point either of learning, or of grace, to stand forth, in the name of the church of England, than Dr. Fulke, Master of Pembroke Hall, and Margaret professor of divinity, in Cambridge. He accordingly undertook, and successfully accomplished, an entire refutation of the popish version and commentary. The late great and good Mr. Hervey (who, from an exuberance of candour, was, sometimes, rather too sanguine and indiscriminate, in his public recommendation of books; witness the high strains of undue panegyric, in which he condescended to celebrate Bengelius's Gnomon) passed a very just encomium on Dr. Fulke's noble performance: which he styles, a "Valuable piece of ancient controversy and criticism, full of sound divinity, weighty arguments, and important observations.'' Adding: "Would the young student be taught to discover the very sinews of popery, and be enabled to give an effectual blow to that complication of errors; I scarce know a treatise, better calculated for the purpose."

It was dedicated to the queen, and did honour to the royal patronage. Two or three brief extracts will suffice to show, what is popery, and what is protestantism, in the estimation of the church of England.

1. In their note on Mt 25:20. the Romish-Rhemish commentators express themselves thus: "Free-will, with God's grace, doth merit." No, says Fulke, in his answer: "The will, the work, and the fruit thereof, and the faith from whence it floweth, are, all, the gifts of God, and no merit of man."

The papists affirmed that Christ "worketh not our good, against our wills; but our wills concurring." The protestant doctor replies, "Man hath no free-will to accept God's benefits, before God, of unwilling, by his only grace maketh him willing."

The catholics admitted, as some moderate Arminians do now, that man " was wounded very sore in his understanding and free-will, and all other powers of soul and body, by the sin of Adam: but that neither understanding, nor free-will, nor the rest, were extinguished in man, or taken away." Fulke answers: "Against this vain collection by allegory, the scripture is plain, that we are all dead in sin, by the sin of Adam. So that neither the will, nor the understanding, have any heavenly life in them."

2. It is amusing, to observe, what a curious hash (bishop Latimer would have said, mingle mangle) the Catholic expositors tossed up, of merit, and grace, free-will, and predestination, in their note on Ro 8:30. They observe, that "God's eternal foresight, love, purpose," &c. are "the gulph," whereon "many proud persons" have founded "most horrible blasphemies against God's mercy, and divers damnable errors against man's free-will, and against all good life in religion;" but that "this said eminent truth of God's eternal predestination, doth stand with man's free-will and the true liberty of his actions, nor taketh away the means or nature of merits, and co-operation with God to our own and other men's salvation." In opposition to which wretched jumble, our church of England champion thus replies: "The eternal predestination of God excludeth the merits of man, and the power of his will, thereby to attain to eternal life: yet forceth not a man's will, to good or ill; but altereth the will, of him who is ordained to life, from evil to good."

The aforesaid papists affirmed, that "God is not the cause of any man's reprobation or damnation." On the contrary, Dr. Fulke insisted, that "God reprobateth, justly, whom he will; and condemneth the reprobate, justly, for sin." The Catholics would have it, that, toward the effecting of conversion and salvation, grace and free-will contribute, each, its quota: with this difference, however, that grace is the principal, and free-will the subordinate, contributor. "We may not," say they, "with heretics, infer, that man hath not free-will, or that our will worketh nothing, in our conversion, or coming to God. But this only: that our willing, or working, of any good, to our salvation, cometh of God's special motion, grace, and assistance; and that it [viz. free-will] is the secondary cause, not the principal." Excellent, and full to the point, is Dr. Fulke's demolition of this artful, but insufficient sophism; which he demolishes thus: "Our election, calling, and first coming to God, lieth wholly in God's mercy; and not either wholly, or principally, or any thing at all, in our own will, or works. But whom God electeth before time, he calleth in time by him appointed; and, of unwilling, by his grace maketh them willing to come to him, and to walk in good works unto which he hath elected them. So that man hath no free-will, until it be freed."

3. I shall only add a passage or two, from each side, concerning justification.

At, and soon after, the reformation, the papists, finding themselves hard pushed by the numerous scriptures which assert justification without works, were driven to the false and absurd resource of there being more justifications than one. That great ornament of our reformed church, bishop Downame, seems to have considered cardinal Bellarmine as the first broacher of these multiplied justifications. But, let them have been invented by whom they would, the Romish divines caught at the multiplication, with no little eagerness. The plurality of justifications soon passed as current, in that church, as Peter-pence; and like the hunted slipper, circulated, with all possible glibness, from hand to hand. Among the rest, thus speak the Rhemish translators: "Not faith alone, but good works also do justify. Therefore, St. Paul meaneth the same that St. James. The first justification [is] without works: the second, by works. St. Paul speaketh of the first, specially; St. James, of the second." Agreeably to this ridiculous distinction, they affirm the first justification to take place, "when an infidel, or ill man, is made just, who had no acceptable works before to be justified by." Which man, it seems, must, some time afterwards, be justified over again: and this second, or over and above justification, they define to be, "An increase of former justice, which he, who is in God's grace, daily proceedeth in, by doing all kind of good works; and for doing of which, he is just indeed before God." Observe, by the way, how wretchedly these two popish justifications hang together. The first makes us just: the second makes us just indeed. As if being just indeed was not included in being indeed just! We have heard the popish distinction, and the popish explication of that distinction. Let me now administer Dr. Fulke's protestant antidote against the poison of both. "Your distinction of the first and second justification before God, is but a new device, not threescore years old, [and] utterly unheard of among the ancient fathers. For whom God justifieth by faith without works, he also glorifieth; Ro 8:30. And that which you call the second justification, or increase of justice, is but the effect and fruits of justification before God; and a declaration before men, that we are just. And so meaneth St. James: that Abraham, who was justified, or made just before God, through faith; was also justified, or declared to be just, before men, by works. We affirm, that God justifieth us, when he imputeth justice [i. e. righteousness] to us, without works: by which imputation, we are not falsely accounted, but are indeed by God truly made just, by the righteousness of Christ, which is given unto us, and which we apprehend by faith."

XIX. I cannot help touching on another proof of that exquisite, but not undue, jealousy and care, with which the doctrinal Calvinism of our church was watched and guarded in the reign now under consideration.

So precious a palladium were the sister doctrines of free predestination and of justification by faith only, then deemed; that whosoever lifted but a finger against either, was supposed to touch the apple of the church of England's eye. Witness what Mr. Strype relates, concerning a poor handful of free-will men, who could not assemble in a private conventicle, without attracting the rod of ecclesiastical censure, and suffering, by the archbishop of Canterbury's means, the rigorous penalty of imprisonment itself.

"There was a religious assembly now [A. D. 1586], taken notice of (whereof one Glover was a chief, and, as it seems, a minister), complained of, for their opinions, to the archbishop [Whitgift]: which Glover, with some others, was imprisoned. But whatsoever this society was, they seemed so excusable to the lord treasurer Burleigh, that he wrote a letter to the archbishop in their favour. In which letter may be seen, what their tenets and doctrines were: namely, about the sense of justification and predestination. Followers, perhaps, of Dr. Peter Baro and Corranus." In all probability, lord Burleigh's humane application to the primate, in behalf of these theological delinquents, procured them a gaol-delivery, and set the free-will men corporally free. So, at least, I conjecture, from the letter of thanks, written, by the said Glover, to the said lord treasurer: which letter whoso listeth to read, may find in Strype's volume and page beforementioned. Thus much, however, I shall observe from it; that Mr. Glover, the free-will man, lays all the cause of his and his brethren's imprisonment, on their dissenting from Luther's doctrine of justification without works, and from Calvin's doctrine of unconditional predestination; and loudly complains of the "Iniquity and tyranny" of their prosecutors: which included a tacit fling at the archbishop himself. And to say the truth, the bishops, that then were, had just as much regard for the free-will men, as St. Paul had for the viper he shook into the fire.

XX. One proof more shall finish our review of queen Elizabeth's ecclesiastical administration. And that proof shall be drawn from the order that was issued, and which was as punctually obeyed, for the placing of good Mr. Fox's Calvinistic Martyrology in all the parish churches of England, for the instruction and edification of the people at the intervals of divine service. Hence it is, that, in some of our churches, we see those inestimable volumes preserved to this day. Nor, perhaps, could our present secular and ecclesiastical governors do a more substantial service to the souls of the common people, than by renewing that well judged command, and taking care to have every church re-furnished with those venerable records of protestant antiquity: which, with their suitable companion, the Book of Homilies, might be more conducive to the expulsion of the religious darkness that now overwhelms this land, than all the apostolic travels of a thousand Lancashire missionaries.

"This history of the church [viz. Fox's Martyrology] was," says Strype, "of such value and esteem for the use of it to Christian readers, and the service of our religion reformed, that it was, in the days of queen Elizabeth, enjoined to be set up, in some convenient place, in all the parish churches, together with the bible, and bishop Jewel's Defence of the Apology of the church of England: to be read, at all suitable times, by the people, before or after service."

Nor was this all. By the canons of the convocation, held, under archbishop Parker, in St. Paul's cathedral, A. D. 1571, it was enjoined, that each of the archbishops, and every bishop should procure the holy bible of the largest edition, and Fox's Martyrology, and other similar books, conducive to religion; and place the said books, either in the hall of their respective dwelling-houses, or in their principal dining room: that so those books might be serviceable both to such company as might come to visit the said dignitaries, and likewise to their own servants and domestics.

Moreover, every dean was enjoined, by the canons aforesaid, to see that each cathedral church, respectively, was furnished with the books above mentioned: which books were to be placed in such an open and convenient part of each cathedral, that they might be both heard and read by the priests, vicars, minor canons, and other ministers, and also by such strangers and travellers, as might occasionally resort to the said cathedrals. The word "heard" [ut commode audiri et legi possint] seems to indicate, that Fox's Martyrology was publicly and audibly read by the clergy (in the nave, or some other capacious part of each cathedral church, at such times as divine service was not celebrating in the choir), to those persons who attended, out of church hours, for that purpose. It is much to be wished, that the same laudable practice was still continued. To all this, I must add, that, by the same ecclesiastical injunctions, passed in full convocation, every dean, prebend, canon residentiary, and arch-deacon, was to procure the said predestinarian Martyrology, and place it in some conspicuous and frequented room of his house, for the benefit of servants, visitors, and all comers and goers. The same order, according to Anthony Wood, was extended to all the heads of colleges, in the two universities; who were required, to place the Martyrology in their college halls respectively.

Let us next examine, whether Fox's Martyrology be indeed a Calvinistic performance.

Proof has already been given, of the ample testimony, which that history bears, to the Calvinism of those excellent men, whose martyrdoms it records. Nor does it bear less testimony to the Calvinism of the admirable historian himself. Witness what immediately follows:

"The secret purpose of Almighty God," says Mr. Fox, "disposeth all things (f)." A golden sentence, which, alone, might suffice to show what complexion his book is of. But the complexion, both of him and it, will appear, still more explicitly, from an abstract of what he delivers, in that part of his work which professedly treats on election and reprobation.

(f) Acts & Mon. iii. 761.

"As touching the doctrine of election," says this most venerable master in our protestant Israel, "three things must be considered:

"1. What God's election is, and what is the cause thereof.

"2. How God's election proceedeth in working our salvation.

"3. To whom God's election pertaineth, and how a man may be certain thereof.

"Between predestination and election, this difference there is: predestination is as well [i. e. relates as much] to the reprobate, as to the elect: election pertaineth only to them that be saved.

"Predestination is the eternal decreement of God, purposed before in himself, what shall befal on all men, either to salvation, or damnation.

"Election is the free mercy and grace of God, in his own will, through faith in Christ, his Son, choosing and preferring to life such as pleaseth him.

"In this definition of election, first goeth before the mercy and grace of God, as the causes thereof; whereby are excluded all works of the law, and merits of deserving, whether they go before faith, or come after. So was Jacob chosen, and Esau refused, before either of them began to work. In that this mercy and grace of God, in this definition, is said to be free; thereby is to be noted the proceeding and working of God not to be bounded to any ordinary place, succession of chair, state or dignity of person, worthiness of blood, &c. but all goeth by the mere will of his own purpose. It is added, in his own will. By this falleth down the free-will and purpose of man, with all his actions, counsel, and strength of nature: according as it is written, It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth; but of God that showeth mercy. So we see, how Israel ran along, and yet got nothing. The Gentiles later began to set out, and yet got the game. So they, who came at the first hour, did labour more; and yet they, who came last, were rewarded with the first. The working will of the Pharisee seemed better; but yet the Lord's will was rather to justify the Publican. The elder son [in the parable] had a better will to tarry by his father, and so did indeed; and yet the fat calf was given to the younger son that ran away.

"Whereby we are to understand, how the matter goeth, not by the will of man; but by the will of God, as it pleaseth him to accept; according as it is written, Who were born, not of the will of the flesh, nor by the will of man, but of God.

"God's mercy and free grace bringeth forth election. Election worketh vocation, or God's holy calling. Which vocation, through hearing, bringeth knowledge and faith of Christ. Faith, through promise, obtaineth justification. Justification, through hope, waiteth for glorification.

"Election is before time. Vocation and faith come in time. Justification and glorification are without end.

"Election, depending on God's free grace and will, excludeth all man's will, blind fortune, chance, and all peradventures.

"Vocation, standing upon God's election, excludeth all man's wisdom, cunning, learning, intention, power, and presumption.

"Faith in Christ, proceeding by the gift of the Holy Ghost, and freely justifying man by God's promise, excludeth all other merits of men, all condition of deserving, and all works of the law, both God's law and man's law, with all other outward means whatsoever.

"This order and connection of causes is diligently to be observed, because of the papists, who have miserably confounded and inverted this doctrine; teaching, that Almighty God, so far forth as he foreseeth man's merits before to come, so doth he dispense his election. As though we had our election, by our holiness that followeth after; and not, rather, have our holiness, by God's election going before!

"If the question be asked, why was Abraham chosen, and not Nachor? why was Jacob chosen, and not Esau? why was Moses elected, and Pharaoh hardened? why David accepted, and Saul refused? why few be chosen, and the most forsaken? It cannot be answered otherwise but thus - because it was so the good will of God.

"In like manner, touching vocation, and also faith. If it be asked, why this vocation and gift of faith was given to Cornelius the Gentile, and not to Tertullus the Jew? why the beggars, by the highways, were called, and the bidden guests excluded? we can go to no other cause, but to God's purpose and election; and say, with Christ our Saviour, Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.

"And so for justification likewise. If the question be asked, why the publican was justified, and not the pharisee? why Mary the sinner, and not Simon the inviter? why harlots and publicans go before the scribes and pharisees in the kingdom? why the son of the free woman was received, and the bond woman's son, being his elder, was rejected? why Israel, which so long sought for righteousness, found it not; and the Gentiles, which sought not for it, found it? We have no other cause hereof to render, but to say, with St. Paul, Because they sought for it by works of the law, and not by faith: which faith cometh not by man's will (as the papist falsely pretendeth), but only by the election and free gift of God.

"Wheresoever election goeth before, there faith in Christ must needs follow after. And again, whosoever believeth in Christ Jesus, through the vocation of God, he must needs be partaker of God's election.

"Whereupon resulteth now the third note, or consideration: which is, to consider, whether a man, in this life, may be certain of his election?

"Although our election and vocation simply indeed be known to God only in himself, a priore; yet, notwithstanding, it may be known to every particular faithful man, a posteriore; that is, by means: which means, is faith in Christ Jesus crucified. And therefore it is truly said, De electione judicandum est a posteriore: that is to say, we must judge of election by that which cometh after: i.e. by our faith and belief in Christ, which certifieth us of this election of God. For albeit that election be first certain in the knowledge of God; yet, in our knowledge, faith only, that we have in Christ, is the thing that giveth to us our certificate and comfort of this election. Election [is] first known to God, and last opened to man (g)."

(g) Fox’s Acts & Mon. iii. 292, 293.

So speaks the book, with which the archbishops, bishops, arch-deacons, prebendaries, and canons residentiary, were enjoined to enrich their principal apartments: which all deans were commanded to place in their cathedrals: which all heads of colleges were required to exhibit in the public halls of each university: and which constituted part of the religious furniture of every parish church, throughout the kingdom.

Well, therefore, might bishop Davenant affirm, that Laud's parasite, Samuel Hoord the Arminian, "so farre forth as he seemeth to oppose the absolute decree of predestination, and the absolute decree of negative reprobation, or non-election; reducing them to the contrary foreseen conditions of good or bad acts in men; he crosseth the received doctrine of the church of England. I will," adds the bishop, "lay down such fundamental doctrines, concerning predestination or election, as I conceive are grounded upon the 17th article, and have always been taken for the common received doctrine of our church: the contradictory [doctrines, viz. the doctrines of Pelagius and Arminius] having been always, when they were broached, held and censured for erroneous by our universities and reverend bishops. As for those, whom you [viz. you Samuel Hoord] term Sublapsarians, you should have taken notice, that in this number you must put all who embrace St. Augustine's doctrines, and who have subscribed to the 17th article of our church. So that, by joining yourself with the remonstrants [i. e. with the Arminians], you have as clearly forsaken the doctrine of the church of England, as [you have forsaken the doctrine] of Beza, Zanchius, or Piscator. Our church of England was more willing and desirous to set down expressly the doctrine of absolute predestination, I mean of predestination causing faith and perseverance, than it was of [setting down so expressly] absolute negative reprobation. It was wisdom, which made our church so clear in the article for absolute predestination, and yet so reserved in the other [viz. in the point of reprobation]: easily perceiving, that [the] predestination of some men [to eternal life] cannot be affirmed, but non-predestination [to life], or preterition, or negative reprobation, (call it as you please) of some others, must needs therewith be understood. For the truth of absolute reprobation, so farre forth as it is connected and conjoined with absolute predestination; when the main intent of the remonstrants is, by opposing the former, to overthrow the latter, it importeth those, who have subscribed to the 17th article, not to suffer it to be obliquely undermined." The learned prelate's reasoning is masterly and just. For, 1. The predestination of some to life, asserted in the 17th article of our church, cannot be maintained, without admitting the reprobation of some others unto death. 2. This reprobation, though not expressly asserted in the article, is palpably deducible from it: yea, so necessary is the inference, that, without it, the article itself cannot stand. Consequently, 3. Whoever opposes reprobation "obliquely undermines" the 17th article. And, 4. All, "who have subscribed" to the said article, are bound in honour, conscience, and law, to defend reprobation, were it only to keep the 17th article upon its legs. So argues bishop Davenant.

From the proofs, which this section hath alleged, of the Calvinism of our established church, through the entire reign of queen Elizabeth; it follows (no less clearly than reprobation follows from our 17th article) that the established, religion of this land was, originally; remained, successively; and still continues to be, intrinsically; as remote from, and as essentially the reverse of, Pelagianism and Arminianism, in every point and respect whatsoever, as any two things, within the whole compass of existence, can be remote and different from each other.

A conviction of this most plain and certain truth made Dr. Carleton, bishop of Chichester, express himself in these positive, but not too positive, terms: "I am well assured, that the learned bishops, who were in the reformation of our church in the beginning of queen Elizabeth's reign, did so much honour St. Augustine, that, in the collecting of the Articles and Homilies, and other things in that reformation, they had an especial respect unto St. Augustine's doctrines."

This I much suspect to be the chief cause of Mr. Wesley's unappeasable wrath against the memory of old queen Bess: though his ostensible reason is, the behaviour of that princess to her female neighbour of Scotland. It is curious to observe the tiffing vehemence, wherewith the petty dragon spits his harmless fire at the dead lioness. "What then was queen Elizabeth? As just and merciful as Nero, and as good a Christian as Mahomet."

Let the following authentic account of the truly pious manner, in which that great monarch closed her life, determine what degree of credit is due to the spitting journaliser; and show, whether she was a Mahometan or a Christian.

"She [queen Elizabeth] had several of her learned and pious bishops frequently about her, performing the last offices of religion with her. Particularly, Watson, bishop of Chichester, her almoner; the bishop of London; and, chiefly, the archbishop [Whitgift]: with whom, in their prayers, she very devoutly, both in her eyes, hands, and tongue, and with great fervency, joined; making signs and shows, to her last remembrance, of the sweet comfort she took in their presence and assistance, and of the unspeakable joy she was going unto.

"Her death drawing near, the archbishop exhorted her to fix her thoughts on God; the better to draw off her mind from other secular things, concerning her kingdom and successor, which some of her court then propounded to her. To which good advice, she answered him, she did so; nor did her mind wander from God. And as a sign thereof, when she could not speak, she was observed much to lift up her eyes and hands to heaven.

"Her Almoner rehearsing to her the grounds of the Christian faith, and requiring her assent unto them by some sign; she readily gave it, both with hand and eye. And, when he proceeded to tell her, that it was not enough, generally to believe that those articles of faith were true; but that all Christian men were to believe them true to them, and that they themselves were members of the true church, and redeemed by Jesus Christ, and that their sins were forgiven to them; she did, again, with great show of faith, lift up her eyes and hands to heaven, and so stayed them long, as a testimony she gave of applying the same unto herself."

"This queen, says lord Bacon, as touching her religion, was pious, moderate, constant, and an enemy to novelty. For her piety, though the same were most conspicuous in her acts, and the form of her government; yet it was pourtrayed also in the common course of her life, and her daily comportment. Seldom would she be absent from hearing divine service, and other duties of religion, either in her chapel, or in her privy closet. In the reading of the scriptures, and the writings of the fathers, especially of St. Augustine, she was very frequent: and she composed certain prayers, herself, upon emergent occasions. Within the compass of one year, she did so establish and settle all matters belonging to the church, as she departed not one hair's breadth from them to the end of her life. Nay, and her usual custom was, in the beginning of every parliament, to forewarn the houses not to question or innovate any thing already established in the discipline or rites of the church.

"Her (p) stature [say Guthrie, Welwood, and Bacon] was somewhat tall, and her complexion fair. She understood the Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, and Dutch languages. She translated several pieces from Xenophon, Isocrates, Seneca, Boethius, and other ancients, with taste and accuracy. The Augustan age was revived in her reign: and the true religion was so well established before she left the world, that her reign ought justly to be termed the golden age of the church of England."

(p) She was five feet and eleven inches in height, two inches taller than Agustus the Roman emperor. Derham’s Phys. Theol. P. 331.

Calvinism XIX - State of the Calvinistic Doctrines in England,...

SECTION XIX.

State of the Calvinistic Doctrines in England, from the death of Elizabeth, to that of King James I.

JAMES the First's accession to the crown of England was, for many years, followed by no shadow of alteration in the theological principles of our ruling ecclesiastics. The king himself was a Calvinist in theory: but more, by virtue of outward and visible education, than of inward and spiritual grace. His own personal morals did by no means comport with the rectitude of his speculative system. England had seen few princes more warmly orthodox; and not very many, whose private manners were so thoroughly profligate and eccentric. A proof, that the purest set of religious tenets, when they float merely on the surface of the understanding, and are no otherwise received, than scholastically, as a science, without reaching the heart; are sure to leave the life and manners uncultivated and unrenewed. The regenerating influence of God's holy Spirit on the soul, is the best door for the doctrines of grace to enter at. When they flow to us through the channel of celestial experience, they cannot fail to throw our hearts, our tempers, and our morals, into the mould of holiness. There are two sorts of persons, whose condition is eminently dangerous: those, who know just enough of the gospel system, to hate it; and those, who profess to love it, but hold it in unrighteousness.

King James, amidst all his deviations from virtue; amidst all his mental weaknesses, and political absurdities; was the most learned secular prince then in Europe. His talents, as a scholar, were far from being so extremely despicable and superficial, as his defect of wisdom and his excess of self opinion have led some historians to suppose. Had his judgment and his virtues borne any proportion to his acquirements, his name would have adorned, instead of dishonouring, as it does, the catalogue of kings. His two sons, prince Henry, and Charles the first, though they had not half the literary attainments of their father, yet eclipsed him totally, even as a man of parts, by force of superior genius, and by possessing a larger stock of private virtue. Vice (especially those species of it, to which James was enslaved) has a native tendency to debase, enfeeble, and diminish, the powers of the mind. To which must be added, that the erudition, as well as the whole personal and civil conduct, of this mean prince, appeared to peculiar disadvantage, after the wise, the shining, the vigorous administration of Elizabeth: who was immensely his superior, both in elegant learning, and in the art of government.

That James was a speculative Calvinist, his own writings abundantly declare. Mr. Hume gives a sort of ambiguous intimation, that, toward the end of his reign, he adopted the principles of Arminius. I wish that polite, but not always impartial historian, had favoured us with the authorities (if any such there be) on which that implication was grounded. I should be extremely glad, to see it proved, that James actually did, apostatise, in his latter years, to the Arminian tenets. For he really was no honour to us. King as he was, the meanest Calvinist in his dominions might have blushed to call him brother. It were pity, that a man of so corrupt a heart should live and die with a set of sound opinions in his head.

But I have never been able to find, that there is the smallest shadow of foundation, for supposing, that he ever dropped, what Mr. Hume pleases to term, "The more rigid principles of absolute reprobation and unconditional decrees." On the contrary, his religious tenets, and his principles of political tyranny, seem, like flesh and spirit, to have been in perpetual conflict with each other, during the last years of his life. Let me explain myself. The point is curious: and not altogether uninteresting.

James was wicked enough, to hunger and thirst after the liberties of his people. But, with all his boasted king-craft (as he called it), he was, providentially, destitute both of wisdom and spirit, to carry his wish into execution. Much of his reign was wasted, in contemptibly striving to balance matters between the protestants and the papists; the latter of whom he affected to keep fair with, on account of their being, as he phrased it, "dexterous king-killers." Just as some Indians are said to worship the devil, for fear he should do them a mischief.

For sometime before his death, James's wretched politics took a turn, somewhat different. His royal care was to trim between the Calvinists and the Arminians (though the latter, at that time, hardly amounted to a handful): or, rather, to play them off against each other, while he buckled himself the faster into the saddle of despotism.

The Calvinists, though, even in his own judgment, religiously orthodox, were considered by him as state heretics, because they were friends to the rights of mankind, and repressed the encroachments of civil tyranny.

On the other hand, the Arminians (then newly sprung up; or rather, newly imported from the Dutch coast) were detested by James, for the novelty, and for the supposed ill tendency, of their religious sentiments. The Arminians had, therefore, but one card to play, in order to save a losing game: which was to compensate for their religious heterodoxies, by state orthodoxy. They were forced, even to avoid the inconveniences of persecution itself (for James had given proof, that he could burn heretics as well as any of his predecessors), to fall in with the court-measures for extending the prerogative.

This card the Arminians accordingly played. It won: and gave a new turn to the game. It not only saved them from civil penalties, but (of which, probably, at first, they were not so sanguine as to entertain the most distant expectation) they even began to be regarded, at court, as serviceable folks.

Hence, from being exclaimed against, as the very pests of Christian society; they gradually obtained connivance, toleration and countenance. To sum up all: they got ground, in the close of James's reign; and, in that of Charles, saw themselves, for the first time, at the top of the ecclesiastical wheel.

Every one, who is at all acquainted with the history of James's administration, knows, that I have not over-charged a single feature. For the sake, however, of such readers, as may not be versed in this kind of enquiries, I confirm the account, already given, by the following extract from Tindal.

"Soon after the accession of king James, the canons of the church were confirmed by the king and convocation. Things were in this state, when a great turn happened in the doctrine of the church. The Arminian, or remonstrant tenets, which had been condemned by the synod at Dort, began to spread in England (s). The Calvinistical sense of the [39] articles was discouraged; and injunctions were published against preaching upon predestination, election, efficacy of grace, &c. while the Arminians were suffered to inculcate their doctrines (t)" without control.

(s) Observe: the "Arminian tenets" did not "begin" to "spread in England," till after the said tenets had been condemned "by the synod at Dort." Which condemnation by that synod took place, A. D. 1619; about sixteen years after James's accession to the English crown, and little more than five years before his majesty's death. Of such very modern standing, in England, is that Arminianism, which, coming to its full growth under Charles the First,

Per populos graium, mediaique per elidis urbem,

Ibat ovans, divumque sibi poscebat honores!

(t) Tindal's Cont. of Rapin, vol. iii. p. 279, 280. Octavo.

So much for the conduct of James and his court. Now, for the reason of that conduct. This the above historian immediately assigns, in manner and form following:

"As Arminianism was first embraced by those who were for exalting the [king's] prerogative above law; all, who adhered to the side of [civil] liberty, and to the Calvinistical sense of the articles, though ever so good churchmen, were branded by the court with the name of Puritans. By this means, the [real] Puritans acquired great strength: for, the bulk of the people and clergy were at once confounded with them (u)," under the absurd, new invented names of doctrinal and state puritans.

(u) Tindal, ibid. 280.

What if, to the testimony of this whig historian, we add that of a tory compiler? The whole nation was now" [viz. A. D. 1622,] "divided between the court and the country parties. All the papists, and the Arminians (who were by this time formed into a sect in England), espoused the cause of the king. Those who professed the tenets of Arminius, were now as much caressed, as they had been formerly detested, by the courtiers. And William Laud, who had adopted this faith, was promoted to the bishopric of St. David's."

It is plain, then, that the reason, why James I was "insensibly engaged, towards the end of his reign, to favour" [for it does not appear that he ever adopted], "the milder theology of Arminius," was, because the partisans of that new theology, were much "milder" and more friendly to James' scheme of setting himself above law, than were the partisans of the established Calvinistic doctrines. The moving cause, why that weak and vicious prince laboured to ram Arminianism down the throats of his protestant subjects, was, the innate fitness of Arminianism to subserve and promote the purposes of arbitrary power. At the very time that James manifestly appears to have abhorred the religious tenets of Arminius, considered as religious, he professedly patronized the maintainers of those identical tenets, because he regarded both the tenets and their maintainers as the best state engines he could employ, to effectuate that plan of secular tyranny, on which he had so vehemently set his heart.

To what an unprincely and uncomfortable dilemma had James reduced himself! He could not persist in carrying on his old theological war against Arminianism, without weakening the foundations of the tyrannical fabric he intended to rear. Nor could he proclaim peace, without rendering himself, to the last degree, contemptible, for his inconsistencies. On one hand, conscience, religious conviction, and a regard to his own character, united to dissuade him from taking the Arminians into his alliance: and haunted him with, O my soul, go not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united. On the other hand, his "king-craft," i. e. the shallow cunning of a mean and vicious policy, suggested to him, in behalf of the Arminian sect he so deeply hated, If ye be come peaceably unto me, to help me, my heart shall be knit unto you.

To help him, they accordingly tried. And knit to them, as a state party, he certainly was, for the last four years of his life. Should it be asked, 'What could render the friendship of the Arminians so important in James' idea, seeing their number was then so very few? The answer is obvious. The new and few Arminians were joined by the whole body of Roman catholics: and it was this junction of forces which augmented their weight. Each of these two obnoxious parties, lying open to the lash of the law, wished to recommend themselves to the favour of the court. Effectually to do so, they adopted and propagated the then court maxim of unlimited obedience to princes, with all possible fervour. A coalition of interests naturally produces a coalition of parties. It was no wonder, therefore, as the papists and the Arminians had one and the same end to promote, and promoted that end by the self same means, that they should, as a state faction, swim hand in hand with each other. Nor was the association, considered even in a religious view, at all unnatural. Arminianism pulls up, and removes, five, at the very least, of those ancient land-marks (might I not say, five and twenty?) by which protestantism and popery are severed from each other. Such a theological and political coincidence might well produce (as it actually did) a civil union between the partisans of Rome and the disciples of Arminius. They both aspired, in amicable conjunction, to the favour of James: and James caught at their alliance, with as great eagerness, as they aspired to his.

But the accession of such recruits, as these, reflected no honour on the king; and, in reality, did him no service. It added to the national jealousy, and quickened the national resentment. In all appearance, James died just at the time when matters were ripening to a crisis between him and his people. Had his reign been protracted much longer, it is probable, either that his crown would have trembled on his brow; or, that its security must have been purchased by a number of just and necessary concessions to a brave and injured nation.

With what propriety and decency this prince affected to cherish Arminianism, let the productions of his own pen testify. But, before I briefly appeal to these, let James's best historiographer, the honest Mr. Arthur Wilson, supply us with an introduction to them.

"Our neighbours of the Netherlands had" [in the beginning of the seventeenth century] "a fire kindled in their own bosoms: [namely,] a schism in the church, and a faction in the state. The first author of the schism, was (z) Arminius: who had been divinity professor at Leyden. He died in the year 1609; leaving behind him the seeds of the pelagian heresy.

(z) For some account of this Arminius, see a pamphlet of mine, entitled, More Work for Mr. John Wesley.

"This rupture in the bowels of the church [of Holland] grew so great, that it endangered the body of the state. The chief rulers and magistrates, in the several provinces, being tainted with this error, strove to establish it by power: among whom, Barnevelt was a principal agent. He, by the assistance of Hoogenberts of Leyden, Grotius of Rotterdam, and Leidenburgh, secretary of Utrecht, with others their adherents, drew on the design: which was to suppress the protestant reformed religion, and establish the tenets of Arminius; being fomented by the kings of France and Spain, as the immediate way to introduce popery. This went on so smoothly, that the orthodox ministers were expelled out of their principal towns, and none but Arminians admitted to preach to the people: which, in some places, bred many combustions, that tended to nothing but popular confusion.

"But long before this time, our king (James I) saw the storm coming upon them [viz. that was coming on the Dutch provinces]. For in the year 1611, he forewarns the states: telling them, that, by the unhappy succession of two such prodigies in one sphere, as Arminius and Vorstius, some dreadful mischief would succeed.

"For, Arminius was no sooner dead, but those that drew on the design had an eye on Vorstius, his [i. e. Arminius's] disciple, to make him divinity professor in his place. Which the king hearing of, and having read some of Vorstius's blasphemous writings, sends to his then ambassador, sir Ralph Winwood, resident there, to let the state know, that Vorstius rather deserved punishment, than promotion: that the head of such a viper should be trod upon and crushed, which was likely to eat his way through the bowels of the state: and if, nevertheless, they should persist to prefer him, he (viz. king James himself) would make known to the world, publicly in print, how much he detested such abominable heresies, and all allowers and tolerators of them."

The states, however, invested Vorstius with the professorship, lately vacated by the death of Arminius. This greatly incensed king James. It, at once, stung his pride, and gravelled his orthodoxy. True enough it was, that he had no right to dictate to the Dutch magistrates, on whom they should bestow their own preferments. "For what is it to his majesty," said his ambassador Winwood, in a remonstrance presented to the states by the king's directions, "What is it to his majesty, whether Dr. Vorstius be admitted professor in the university of Leyden or not? Or, whether the doctrine of Arminius be preached in your churches? Saving that, as a Christian prince, he desires the advancement of the gospel. Let yourselves be judges, in how great a danger the state must needs be at this present, so long as you permit the schisms of Arminius to have such vogue, as now they have, in the principal towns of Holland. The disciples of Socinus, with whose doctrine Vorstius had been suckled in his childhood, do seek him for their master, and are ready to embrace him. Let him go: he is a bird of their own feather: Et dignum sane patella operculum, a fit cover for such a dish. His majesty doth exhort you, that you would not suffer the followers of Arminius to make your actions an example for them to proclaim throughout the world that wicked doctrine of the apostacy of the saints." Thus did James cover his own bigotry and haughtiness, with the plausible mantle of zeal for the glory of God and the good of Holland.

Meanwhile, his majesty was not idle at home. By his express command, Vorstius' writings were publicly burnt at St. Paul's (c) Cross in London, and in the two universities of Oxford and Cambridge. One reason, assigned by James himself for a step so very humiliating to the new Arminian party, was what his majesty styles, the "impudence" of Bertius; who was another chip of the said Arminian block, Vorstius's intimate friend, and who, together with Vorstius, had been Arminius's pupil.

(c) Paul's Cross, of which so frequent mention is made in the religious history of this kingdom, was situated in the church-yard belonging to the cathedral of St. Paul, on the north side of that church, towards the east end, where a tree now stands. (See Dugdale's Hist. of St. Paul's, p. 130. And the octavo edition of Latimer's sermons, vol. i. p. 39.)

It seems to have been standing till the great fire in 1666; and was of very high, but unknown, antiquity. Stowe, in his survey of London, calls it, "A pulpit cross of timber, mounted upon steps of stone, and covered with lead; in which are sermons preached by learned divines, every Sunday in the forenoon." Stowe died in 1605. So that it appears, by his testimony, that preaching at this famous cross, in the open air, was continued after the accession of James I

It was usual to deliver sermons, and other public annunciations, at Paul's Cross, for some ages before the reformation. In 1259, king Henry III. ordered a general muster of the Londoners, to be made at the Cross; all of whom, from twelve years of age, inclusive, there took the oaths of fidelity to that prince and his successors, in presence of the lord mayor and aldermen.

At the same Cross, in 1262, was publicly read pope Urban the fourth's bull, absolving Henry from the oath he had taken, relative to the Oxford barons.

In 1299, about the 27th of Edward I. the dean of London solemnly cursed, at Paul's Cross, some persons who, in expectation of finding a rich booty, had searched the church of St. Martin in the Fields. (See Stowe, u. s.)

Michael de Northburg, or Northbrooke, bishop of London, who died in 1361, bequeathed a standing fund of a thousand marks, to his church, for the accommodation of such as might be in want of small sums; payable again in one year, and for which an equivalent pledge was to be deposited by the borrower. It was an article in this bishop's last will, that "If, at the year's end, payment were not made of any sum so borrowed, the preacher at Paul's Cross should, in his sermon, declare, that the pledge would be sold within fourteen days, if not retrieved before."

In the eleventh of Richard II. i. e. about the year 1388, Robert de Braybroke, bishop of London, issued letters to the clergy of his diocese, desiring them to solicit the contributions of the people for the repair of Paul's Cross, which had been much shattered by storms. He styled it, Crux alta, in majori caemeterio ecclesiae nostrae cathedralis, ubi verbum Dei consuevit populo praedicari, tanquum loco magis publico et insigni: "The high cross standing in the larger burying-ground belonging to the cathedral, where the word of God had been usually preached to the people, as a place eminently public and renowned." (See Dugdale, u. s. 3.)

In process of time, the old Cross being much dilapidated by years and weather, a new one was erected, on the same spot, by Thomas Kempe, bishop of London, who died in 1489. Crucem Paulinam, (says bishop Godwin) qua, nunc forma cernitur, construxit: Kempe built up Paul's Cross in the same manner as it still appears;" i. e. as it then appeared, in 1616. (De Praes. Ang. p. 189.)

I cannot find, that this structure, while it remained, underwent any farther alterations, from that time. But, when God was pleased to visit this land with the beams of the reformation, Paul's Cross was put to a nobler use than ever. It might be called the city fountain, from which the streams of purest doctrine replenished the metropolis, and the kingdom. Here, our great reformers preached, in the days of Edward the good: and, here, the great restorers of the reformed doctrines continued to dispense the waters of life, through the long reign of Elizabeth. There are three distinguished (I had almost said sacred) spots of ground, which, I think, no genuine, considerate Englishman can survey, without some emotion of awful rapture. I mean, that part of St. Paul's church-yard, which was beautified by the feet of the reformers; Smithfield, from whence so many of our protestant Elijahs ascended, in chariots of flame, to glory; and Runne-mead, adjoining to Egham, where the signature of the great charter was extorted from king John.

The area of Paul's Cross was, formerly, more spacious, than that on which the tree at present stands. It commanded an extent of vacant ground, large enough to admit, with convenience, some thousands of auditors. For, bishop Jewel, in a letter to Peter Martyr, written about the year 1560, informed his learned friend, that nothing contributed more to the visible increase of protestantism, than the inviting the people to sing psalms: that this was begun in one church in London, and did quickly spread itself, not only through the city, but in the neighbouring places; and that, sometimes, at Paul's Cross, there would be six thousand people singing together. This (added bishop Jewel) was very grievous to the papists. It was said, White [the popish bishop of Winchester] died of rage. (See Burnet's Hist, of Ref. vol. iii. p. 290).

At this famous Cross it was, that the books of Vorstius, the disciple and successor of Arminius, were publicly burned, in the year 1611, by the express order of king James I And it was almost the only act of his whole reign, that reflects honour on his memory. For, could a juster sacrifice, than Vorstius's Arminian writings, be consumed at the protestant shrine of Paul's Cross?

Does the reader ask, ‘Wherein the "impudence" of Bertius consisted?' King James shall answer the question. Bertius had written against the final perseverance of the elect; and, not content with barely that, was, says his majesty, "so impudent, and so shameless, as to maintain, that the doctrine, contained in his book, was agreeable with the doctrine of the church of England! Let the church of Christ then judge, whether it was not high time for us to bestir ourselves."

But it may be worthwhile, to hear the king's own words at full length. "Some of Vorstius's books were brought over into England; and, as it was reported, not without the knowledge and direction of the author. And, about the same time, one Bertius, a scholar of the late Arminius (who [viz. Arminius] was the first in our age that infected Leyden with heresy) was so impudent as to send a letter unto the archbishop of Canterbury, with a book, entitled, De Apostasia Sanctorum. And, not thinking it sufficient to avow the sending of such a book (the title whereof only, were enough to make it worthy the fire), hee was moreover so shameless, as to maintain, in his letter to the archbishop, that the doctrine contained in his booke was agreeable with the doctrine of the church of England. Let the Church of Christ then judge, whether it was not high time for us to bestir ourselves, when as this gangrene had not only taken hold amongst our neerest neighbours, [viz. the Dutch], so as non solum paries proximus jam ardebat, not only the next house was on fire, but did also begin to creep into the bowells of our own kingdom. For which cause, having first given order that the said books of Vorstius should be publicly burnt, as well in Paul's church-yard, as in bothe the universitys of this kingdom; we thought good to renew our former request unto the states (of Holland), for the banishment of Vorstius (d).

(d) Works of king James I p. 354. Lond. 1616.

This curious king-text deserves a commentary. And let us note, 1. What an horrible opinion James entertained of Arminius himself: whom his majesty termed, an infector of Leyden with "heresy." This was neither more nor less, than calling the said Van Harmin an heretic; yea, an heresiarch, or an heretical ringleader. 2. Observe, how vigorously the king asserted the doctrine of final perseverance. He denominates the contrary tenet, of the defectibility of the saints, "a gangrene:" and affirms, that the very "title page alone" of Bertius' Treatise, rendered both title and treatise "worthy of the flames." 3. His majesty stared (and well he might), with wonder and amazement, at Bertius' "impudence," in presuming to send "such" a book (a book which maintained that saints might cease to persevere) to an archbishop of the church of England; who, as a father in that church (and she never had a worthier father than archbishop Abbot), could not but abhor the pelagian dream of falling finally from grace. But, 4. Behold the royal surprise wound up to the highest astonishment, at the accumulated effrontery of Bertius. It was "impudent" in the said Arminian to make a present of his book, against perseverance, to the archbishop of Canterbury: but for the present maker to insinuate, that "the doctrine, contained in his booke, was agreeable with the doctrine of the church of England;" was indeed "shameless" beyond all sufferance: seeing the church herself avers, in the 17th article, that they, who are endued with the excellent benefit of election, or predestination unto life, do at length, actually attain to everlasting felicity. Observe, 5. The anxiety, with which king James marked the progress of Arminianism in Holland. He trembled, lest the "gangrene" should extend to England also. He considered the Dutch Netherlands as his next door neighbours: and, their house being "on fire" with the Arminian heresies, he was apprehensive lest the heretical flames might, by popish winds, be blown over to Britain. 6. He expressed a fear, that Arminianism had already "began" to "creep" into the bowels of his kingdom. His fears, however, at that time (e), seem to have been premature. 7. But the king's fears, Bertius' "impudence," and Vorstius' impieties, all conspired to produce one very good effect: to wit, the burning of Vorstius' books. 8. Let it be added, that James had been almost nine years on the throne of England, when he burned the books aforesaid. A proof that he did not soon discountenance the doctrines of the reformation. His zeal for those doctrines was red-hot, till he happened to find out, that his orthodoxy and his politics stood in each other's way. Nor must I omit, that his own writings, which have supplied me with the materials from whence the above conclusions are drawn, furnish me likewise with another proof, that his perseverance in defending the faith was long, though not final. For, the edition of his works, which I am now making use of, was printed in 1616: which will spin out his Calvinistic majesty's perseverance to, at least, that year; and that year was the fourteenth of his reign.

(e) It was not until ten or eleven years after this period, that, as Fuller quaintly expresses it, "many English souls took a cup too much of Belgic wine: whereby their heads have not only grown dizzy, in matters of less moment; but their whole bodies stagger in the fundamentals of their religion." Church. Hist. of Brit, book x. p. 61.

By the Belgic, or Dutch wine, Dr. Fuller meant Arminianism. Which wine, though made in Holland, was pressed from the Italian grape. Rome and Socinus supplied the fruit, and Arminius squeezed out the juice.

We have seen that what king James entitles, his Declaration against Vorstius, is not only pregnant with threatenings, and almost with slaughters, against that learned Arminian; but likewise breathes a very bitter spirit of implacable resentment against the memory of Arminius himself, who had been then dead about two years. Not satisfied with terming Vorstius a "wretched heretic, or rather atheist (f)," a "monster," an "anti-St. John," and a "Samosatenian (g);" the king hardly gives better quarter to Arminius, from whose root Vorstius had sprung. His majesty's instructions to his ambassador in Holland, have these remarkable words: "You shall repaire to the States General, with all possible diligence, in our name: telling them, that wee doubt not, but that their ambassadour's, which were with us about two years since, did inform them of a forewarning, that wee wished the said ambassadours to make unto them in our name, to beware, in time, of seditious and heretical preachers; and not to suffer any such to creepe into their State. Our principal meaning was of Arminius: who though himself was lately dead, yet had hee left too many of his disciples behind him (h)." The king added, that "the above-named Arminius" was "of little better stuff (i)," than his disciple Vorstius. Arminius' own writings bear full witness to the justness of James' remark. And, continued his majesty, "though [Arminius] himselfe be dead, he hath left his sting yet living among them (k)."

(f) It must be acknowledged, that Vorstius laid himself very open to this formidable charge. Among the tenets, for which he was stigmatised by the king of England, were the following:

God is not unchangeable in his will.

God's foreknowledge is, in some sort, conjectural; as having to do with things of uncertain event.

Future contingencies may, comparatively speaking, be said to be less certain, even to God himself, than things past or present.

If all things whatever, and every event whatever, were precisely determined from eternity, God's providence would cease to be needful.

Doctor Fuller, the historian, was not mistaken in giving the following character of Vorstius and his system. "This Vorstius had both written and received several letters from certain Samosatenian heretics in Poland, and thereabouts: and it happened, that he had handled pitch so long, that at last it stuck to his fingers, and [he] became infected therewith. Whereas it hath been the labour of the pious and learned, in all ages, to mount man to God, as much as might be, by a sacred adoration (which, the more humble, the more high) of the divine incomprehensibleness; this wretch did seek to stoop God to man, by debasing his purity; assigning him a material body; confining his immensity, as not being every where; shaking his immutability, as if his will were subject to change; darkening his omnisciency, as uncertain in future contingents; with many more monstrous opinions, fitter to be remanded to hell, than committed to writing." Church Hist. x. 60.

In short, if Vorstius was (as he strongly appears to have been) a materialist, the king did him no injury in calling him an atheist.

(g) James' Works, p. 349, 350. 365. 377.

(h) King James' Works, p. 350. (i) Ibid. (k) Ibid.

In a letter to the States themselves, his majesty informs them, "It was our [i. e. king James' own} hard hap, not to heare of this Arminius, before he was dead, and that all the reformed churches of Germany had with open mouth complained of him. But as soon as wee understood of that distraction in your state, which after his death he left behind him, we did not faile, taking the opportunitie when your last extraordinary ambassadors were here with us, to use some such speeches unto them, concerning this matter, as wee thought fittest for the good of your state, and which we doubt not but they have faithfully reported unto you. For, what need we make any question of the arrogance of these heretiques, or rather atheistical sectaries, among you; when one of them [viz. Bertius, already noted], at this present remaining in your town of Leyden, hath not only presumed to publish, of late, a blasphemous booke of the apostacie of the saints, but hath, besides, beene so impudent as to send, the other day, a copie thereof, as a goodly present, to our archbishop of Canterbury, together with a letter, wherein he [Bertius] is not ashamed (as also in his booke) to lie so grossly, as to avow, that his heresies, conteined in his said booke, are agreeable with the religion and profession of our reformed church of England. For these respects, therefore, have we cause enough, very heartily to request you to roote out, with speed, those heresies and schismes, which are beginning to bud foorthe among you: which if you suffer to have the reins any longer, you cannot expect any other issue thereof, than the curse of God, infamy throughout all the reformed churches, and a perpetual rent and distraction in the whole body of your state. But if, peradventure, this wretched Vorstius should denie or equivocate upon those blasphemous poynts of heresie and atheism, which already he hath broached; that, perhaps, may moove you to spare his person, and not cause him to bee burned (which never any heritique better deserved, and wherein we will leave him to your owne Christian wisdome): but to suffer him, upon any defence, or abnegation, which hee shall offer to make, still to continue and to teach amongst you, is a thing so abominable, as, we assure ourselves, it will not once enter into any of your thoughts (l)."

(l) Ibid. p. 355.

More matter for disquisition! But my remarks shall not be exuberant. Observe, then, 1. That Bertius' book against final perseverance, and his presenting a copy of it to the archbishop of Canterbury, but chiefly his having affirmed that he [Bertius] and the church of England were of one mind in that point; were insults, which James' orthodoxy could neither forget nor digest. 2. In his majesty's opinion, Vorstius was an "heretic," a "monster," and an "atheist;" and Arminius was "of little better stuff." 3. So obscure was Arminius, during his life time, and so little progress had Arminianism then made; that the king had never so much as heard of Arminius until after the said Arminius "was dead." A circumstance, which James lamented, and called by the name of " hard hap:" intimating, that had he known of Arminius' schism, while the schismatic himself was in the land of the living, the royal pen would have been drawn no less against Van Harmin himself, than it was, afterwards, against Vorstius. 4. As soon as Arminius' pelagian innovations became known, the protestants were struck with alarm: "All the reformed churches in Germany," and elsewhere, "complained of him," i. e. complained of Arminius, "with open mouth." 5. When king James became acquainted with Arminius' tenets, conduct, and character, his majesty pronounced him to have been, "a seditious and heretical preacher:" Yea, a monster with a "sting," and an "enemy of God." 6. James also declared the new Arminians, or (as himself expressed it), the "too many disciples" whom Arminius "left behinde him," to be "arrogant heretics," and "atheistical sectaries." 7. In the judgment of the said king, Bertius' Treatise against Perseverance, was a "presumptuous" and a "blasphemous" book: and the author himself an "impudent heretic," and a "gross liar." Terms, these, I acknowledge, utterly unfit for a king to make use of: but James had no more of politeness in his composition, than he supposed the Arminians to have of Christianity in their system. 8. He "very heartily requested the states general to "root out" the Arminians, as "heretics" and "schismatics:" and enforces his exhortation under the penalty of God's "curse," of "infamy" among men, and of perpetual "rent" and "distraction" throughout the whole body of the Dutch provinces. 9. He desires them to divest Vorstius of his promotion: 10. To banish him from their dominions: and 11. In his plenitude of outrageous zeal, he drops a pretty broad hint, that the magistrates of Holland would greatly oblige the king of England, were they to "cause" Vorstius "to be burned:" a death, says his majesty, "which never any heretic better deserved." An horrid intimation! but worthy of the sanguinary tyrant that gave it! The Calvinistic doctrines, retained by such an ungracious bigot, resembled (what some naturalists have feigned) a pearl in the head of a toad. 12. Let it not be overlooked, that James' declaration against Vorstius, in which the above cited particulars occur, is solemnly dedicated and inscribed, by the king himself, to Jesus Christ (m). I see, therefore, no reason to doubt of the sincerity with which he opposed Arminianism. Bad as he was, he was certainly in earnest. Though some other ingredients, besides that of mere zeal for the protestant doctrines, had, it is probable, a share in the violent counsels with which his Britannic majesty so officiously pestered the states of Holland.

(m) That frivolous pride, which displays its plumes, in order to attract the admiration of our fellow mortals, froths and evaporates into vanity. But the solemn pride, which dares unfurl itself to the eye of Heaven, blackens and condenses into impiety. It is hard to say, whether James discovered more weakness, or profaneness, in this extraordinary dedication; wherein he presumed to address the Saviour of sinners, in a style, which breathed more of equality, than of adoration: subscribing himself our Lord's

"Most humble, and most obliged servant,

James, by the grace of God,

King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland;

Defender of the Faith."

Works, p. 348.

It was, however, no new thing with James, to hate and oppose Arminianism. Of this, he had before given sufficient proof, during the conference held at Hampton Court, in the very infancy of his English reign.

The severity of Elizabeth's laws, against the puritans, had retained a great number of that body within the visible pale of the church established, and forced them into a sort of outward conformity to institutions which they were extremely remote from cordially approving. These, and a very few others, whom no coercive penalties had induced to temporise, flattered themselves, that James, who was by profession a Presbyterian, would, on succeeding to Elizabeth's throne, relax and widen the terms of communion.

It is extremely problematical, whether James, even when king of Scotland only, entertained any serious intention to favour those people, should he ever have it in his power. He seems, from the first, to have drank very deeply into the low arts of a narrow subtilty, which disfigured and discoloured all the leading actions of his life. Twelve or thirteen years before he ascended the throne of England, he laboured to ingratiate himself with the Scotch kirk, by an indecent (and, as heir presumptive to Elizabeth, by a very impolitic) censure of the English ritual. "As for our neighbour Kirk of England," said he, standing in an assembly of his clergy, with his head uncovered, and his hands (in one of which, he held his bonnet) raised toward heaven; "As for our neighbour Kirk of England, their service is an evil mass said in English. They want nothing of the mass, but the liftings. I charge you, my good ministers, doctors, elders, nobles, gentlemen, and barons, to stand to your purity, and to exhort the people to do the same. And I, forsooth, as long as I brook my life, shall maintain the same." This was in 1590. Eight years afterward, he told his parliament, that he had no intention "to bring in papistical or Anglican bishops." Such were his compliments on the church of England.

But he was no sooner at the head of that church, than he either dropped the (o) masque, or was proselyted by the English prelates, who had seasonably and discreetly gained his ear. The puritans in this kingdom quickly found, that they had mistaken their man: for James was shot up, all at once, into a very high church-man.

(o) A masque indeed it seems to have always been: but, if James's own attestation be admitted as valid, his hypocrisy is certain, and placed beyond dispute. For, says Barlow, his majesty professed, at the Hampton conference, that though, in the foregoing part of his life, he had "lived among puritans, and was kept, for the most part, as a ward under them; yet, since he was of the age of his sonne, ten years old, he ever disliked their opinions: as the Saviour of the world said, though he lived among them, he was not of them." (Summe and subst. of the conference, &c. p. 20. edit. 1625). Thus was James not ashamed, to confess himself an hypocrite from the tenth to the thirty-seventh year of his age: i. e. an hypocrite of seven and twenty years standing! And (which crowned this unblushing declaration with the most shocking impiety) the adorable Redeemer of men, in whose mouth was no guile, is profanely lugged in as a pander to the duplicity of the most contemptible dissembler that ever entangled the reins of government.

Under pretence of trying to bring matters to an amicable compromise between the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians, a conference was opened at Hampton Court, between the two parties, on Saturday, the 14th of January, 1604. But, on the king's side, the whole interview was only a mere state manoeuvre, and no otherwise designed from the first. Every circumstance demonstrated, that it had been resolved, beforehand, to let all things continue as they were. Dr. Welwood is undoubtedly right, in affirming, that the conference at Hampton Court "was but a blind to introduce episcopacy into Scotland: all the Scotch noblemen, then at court, being designed to be present; and others, both noblemen and ministers, being called up, from Scotland, to assist at it, by the king's letter."

How contemptible James rendered himself, in the course of the three days debate, abundantly appears, even from the well glossed narrative of Barlow. So far from preserving the dignity of a king, or the candour of a public father, or even the decent coolness of a moderator; he behaved, on one hand, with all the weakness of a dupe: and, on the other, with all the insolence of a bully.

His majesty, and Bancroft bishop of London, monopolized much of the conference to themselves. That prelate has been represented, as having leaned to Arminianism: but, for my life, I could never find any proof of it. Sure I am, that, during the said Hampton conference, his lordship acquitted himself, in all theological respects, like a sober, judicious, well principled Calvinist.

Dr. Remolds, one of the four who appeared for the Puritans, moved, that part of the 16th article might be explained; and that the famous Lambeth articles might be incorporated with the thirty-nine.

James, it seems, had never heard of those Lambeth articles before: and therefore, says Barlow, "His majesty could not suddenly answer; because he understood not what the doctor meant by those assertions, or propositions at Lambeth. But, when it was informed his majesty, that, by reason of some controversies, arising in Cambridge, about certaine points of divinity, my lord's grace" [viz. Whitgift, archbishop of Canterbury] "assembled some divines of especial note, to set downe their opinions, which they drew into nine assertions; and so sent them to the university, for appeasing of those quarrels: Then his majesty answered, 1. That, when such questions arise among schollers, the quietest proceeding were to determine them in the universities, and not to stuffe the booke [viz. the 39 articles] with conclusions theological. 2. The better course would be, to punish the broachers, of false doctrine, as occasion should be offered: for were the articles never so many and sound, who can prevent the contrary opinions of men until they be heard?"

Hence it appears, 1. That one reason of James's declining to super-add, by express authority, the articles of Lambeth to the nine and thirty established articles of the church, was, not any disapprobation of the Lambeth articles themselves; but because he was unwilling to "stuffe," i. e. to enlarge, the thirty-nine articles with more "conclusions theological," than were needful. And, herein, the king judged wisely enough. There was no sort of necessity for inserting the Lambeth propositions: since they do not affirm any single doctrine, which is not, either expressly, or virtually, contained, in the thirty-nine articles already established. I observe, 2. That the king, on being informed what the Lambeth articles were, and on what occasion they had been framed, did tacitly allow the orthodoxy of the said articles: for he gave the company to understand, that there was the less need of embodying those articles with the thirty-nine, as himself stood in constant readiness to "punish" the "broachers of false doctrine:" i. e. to punish those who might broach any doctrine contrary to that of the Lambeth articles, and of the thirty-nine articles of the church of England.

No sooner did James intimate this his design of punishing the "broachers of false doctrine than a certain person, then present, took the alarm, and began to enter a caveat in his own behalf. This was Dr. John Overall, at that time dean of St. Paul's, and who died bishop of Norwich. He was supposed, by some, to have been a sort of mongrel divine; half-Calvinist, and half-Arminian. But I am not disposed to judge so harshly of that learned man. The only article, in which (so far as I can hitherto recollect) he appears to have deviated from the protestant system, was, respecting the possibility of a total (though he denied the possibility of a final) fall from justification.

"Upon this," i. e. instantaneously on James's professing his intention to punish the broachers of false doctrine as occasion should be offered, "the deane of Paules, kneeling downe, humbly desired leave to speak: signifying unto his majesty, that this matter somewhat more nearly concerned him [viz. the speaking dean], by reason of controversie betweene him and some other in Cambridge, upon a proposition which he had delivered there: namely, that whosoever, although before justified, did commit any grievous sin, as adultery, murder, treason, or the like, did become, ipso facto, subject to God's wrath, and guilty of damnation; or were in state of damnation, quoad praesentem statum, until they repented."

Thus spake the kneeling dean: and the sum of his opinion certainly amounted to this, that a justified man might totally lose his justification. Bat whether the said dean (who, doubtless, kept his eyes steadily fixed on the king, and acutely watched every motion of the royal face) actually discerned any symptoms of incipient displeasure lowering on his majesty's brow; or whether the prudent ecclesiastic only intended to guard himself, in general, against all possible "punishment" as a "broacher of false doctrine;" cannot, at this distance of time, be infallibly determined. Thus much, however, is certain: that, for some present reason or other, the dean, in the very midst of his oration, suddenly wheeled about, and positively denied that justification could be even totally, much less finally, lost. For thus the narrative proceeds: "Adding hereunto," i. e. dean Overall, immediately after declaring that justified persons, who fall into atrocious sins, are in a state of damnation, quoad praesentem statum, until they repent; subjoined, in the same breath, "That those which were called and justified according to the purpose of God's election, howsoever they might, and did, sometime fall into grievous sins, and thereby into the present state of wrath and damnation; yet did never fall, either totally, from all the graces of God, [so as] to bee utterly destitute of all the parts and seed thereof, nor finally from justification: but were in time renewed by God's Spirit, unto a lively faith and repentance, &c."

This seasonable salvo saved Overall's credit with his majesty. James, whose science lay more in terms, than in things, was extremely well satisfied with his dean's orthodoxy. As long as some ostensible respect was paid to the two words, total and final; the royal disputant looked no farther.

The king, however, embraced this opportunity of entering "into a longer speech of predestination and reprobation, than before; and of the necessary conjoyning repentance and holinesse of life with true faith: concluding, that it was hypocrisie, and not true justifying faith, which was severed from them. For although," added his majesty, "predestination and election depend not on any qualities, actions, or works of man, which be mutable; but upon God's eternal and immutable decree and purpose: yet, such is the necessity of repentance, after knowne sinnes committed, as that, without it, there could not be, either reconciliation with God, or remission of those sins."

Should the reader ask, 'Why I so carefully recite what passed, in the Hampton Court conference, respecting predestination?' I answer: To show the total want of truth, with which some late Arminian writers insinuate, that predestination was not, at that time, a sacred article of faith with James and the ruling clergy.

In this same conference it was, that Bancroft (then bishop of London, and, shortly afterwards, archbishop of Canterbury) suggested that scriptural and judicious caution, concerning predestination, which has been already referred to in a preceding part of this work. That great and able prelate's own words shall close our present sketch of the Hampton interview. "The bishop of London took occasion to signifie to his majesty, how very many, in these daies, neglecting holinesse of life, presumed too much of persisting of grace, laying all their religion upon predestination; [arguing thus with themselves], if I shall be saved, I shall be saved: which he [the bishop] termed [and with great reason] a desperate doctrine, contrary to good divinity, and the true doctrine of predestination; wherein we should reason, rather ascendendo, than descendendo, thus: I live in obedience to God, in love with my neighbour; I follow my vocation, &c. therefore I trust, that God hath elected me, and predestinated me to salvation. Not thus, which is the usual course of argument, God hath predestinated and chosen me to life, therefore, though I sin never so grievously, yet I shall not be damned."

In this excellent caveat against the abuse of predestination, Bancroft goes no farther than Calvin himself had gone before, Sit igitur haec nobis inquirendi via ut exordium sumamus a Dei vocatione; says that illustrious reformer: i. e. In all our enquiries into predestination, let us never fail to begin with effectual calling (x). Again: There are some who go on, securely, in sin; alleging, that, if they are in the number of the elect, their vices will not hinder them from going to heaven. Such execrable language, as this, is not the holy bleating of Christ's sheep; but, as Calvin very justly styles it, foedus porcorum grunnitus, the impure grunting of swine. For, adds that incomparable man, we learn from St. Paul, that we are elected to this very end, even to holiness and blamelessness of living. Now, if sanctity of life is the very end, scope, and drift of election itself; it will follow, that the doctrine of election should awaken and spur us on to sanctification, instead of furnishing us with a false plea for indolence. Thus perfectly were Calvin and Bancroft agreed.

(x) Calvini Instit. p. 3. c. 24. s. 4.

Almost fifteen years after the Hampton Court conference, king James and the church of England gave the most public proof of their continued Calvinism, by the distinguished part they bore in the transactions of the synod of Dort.

The disturbances, raised and fomented by the Arminian faction, in Holland, were, in the year 1618, (i. e. about nine years after Arminius's decease), risen to such a height, as threatened to involve both the church and state of the United Provinces in one common mass of total ruin. What embolded the Arminians, was, the secret encouragement they received from foreign and domestic papists. We have already heard, from Wilson, that the kings of France and Spain clandestinely blowed the Arminian flame in Holland, "as the immediate way to introduce popery." And Mr. Camden has preserved the name of one of the French agents, who were privately dispatched to Holland on that laudable errand. "July 27, news was brought [viz. to the English court], of Bossis, a Frenchman, being sent into the low countries, to strengthen the catholic and Arminian parties" Sir Dudley Carlton, also, who was ambassador from the English court to the States General, makes express mention, in a letter to archbishop Abbot, of "the French ambassador's private practices in favour of the Arminian party." Could the Dutch Arminians justly complain, if they were treated as enemies to their country?

Treated so they undoubtedly were, for a time: and no faction upon earth ever deserved it more. They artfully attempted to make Europe believe, that they were persecuted, entirely, on account of their religious tenets. But it was no such thing. They were repressed as public enemies to the state. The danger, indeed, and the venom of their political views conduced, very naturally, to bring their theological principles into additional discredit. Yet were they persecuted (as they called it), not merely as Arminians but as traitors.

"On the 19th of August [1618], the prime ring-leaders of the sedition, Barnevelt, Hoogenberts, and Grotius, were seized on at the Hague, as they were entering the senate, and committed to several prisons. This cast a general damp on the spirits of the remonstrants [for so the Arminians called themselves], as if they had been crushed in the head."

Of the three delinquents, only Barnevelt was sacrificed to the justice of his injured country. He suffered decapitation at the Hague, May 14, 1619. The sentence, by which he was condemned, enumerated, without any exaggeration, the principal crimes, whereby he had violated the duties of a good citizen. Among others, he was justly charged with having endeavoured to disturb the peace of the land; with kindling the fire of dissension in the provinces; raising soldiers in the diocese of Utrecht; revealing the secrets of the state; and receiving presents and gifts from foreign princes. Even Peter Heylyn confesses to have heard, that the Spanish court secretly fomented the designs of Barnevelt.

Nor could any thing be more natural. Philip III still considered the United Provinces as a parcel of his own dominions: and, indeed, they had shaken off his yoke but a very few years before, and were not acknowledged, by Spain, as a free state, till thirty years after, viz. the year 1648. No wonder, therefore, that king Philip sought with eagerness, to avail himself of the Arminian schism: a schism, which, at once, bade fair to exterminate the protestant religion from the Dutch Netherlands, and to reduce them afresh to the obedience of Spain. Hence arose Philip's secret tamperings with Barnevelt, the secular head and protector of that Arminian sect, from whose doctrinal innovations and political intrigues the Spanish monarch had so many advantages to expect. But the wisdom, courage, and activity of Maurice, prince of Orange, were the means, which providence used, to defeat the iniquitous schemes of the Arminian and Spanish faction. The seizure of the principal rebels and incendiaries, together with the execution of Barnevelt, in whom both those characters were united; laid, once more, that foundation of national liberty and safety, which the Dutch to this day enjoy, and which have since conduced to render that illustrious republic of such weight and importance in the European scale.

What prince Maurice did for the state, the council of Dort did for the church of Holland: as if pure religion and civil liberty were irreversibly fated to fall and rise together.

The reformation appears to have been first introduced into the Dutch provinces, by the numerous French refugees, who fled thither, about the middle of the sixteenth century. For some time, protestantism diffused itself insensibly among the natives, who were then subject to the crown of Spain. By degrees, the progress of evangelical truth became so extensive, and the number of its partisans grew so considerable, that, about the year 1567, they ventured to draw up a confession of faith, formed entirely on the system of Calvin. Their Spanish governors soon took the alarm. To check the spreading heresy, and to restrain the Dutch within the bonds both of popish and of Spanish obedience, the inquisition was established by force; and that bloody tribunal dispatched multitudes of souls, by a short way to heaven. Civil and ecclesiastical grievances were, at length, so multiplied and aggravated, that the people, harrassed by a never ending train of intolerable oppressions, were compelled to seek relief in themselves. Every tyranny has its crisis; which having attained, the mock sun declines, more rapidly than it rose. Providence succeeded the pious and patriotic efforts of the Dutch. After some years noble and obstinate struggle, those provinces threw off popery and slavery together. The pure religion of the gospel continued to shine, with uninterrupted beams, for the most part, on that free and happy people, until Arminius darkened and disturbed their hemisphere. The commotions, began by that pestilent schismatic, and raised to almost a ruinous height, by his immediate followers, were, as has been already intimated, suppressed by prince Maurice and his patriots, so far as concerned the state. To extinguish the fire which had half consumed the church, and to resettle its faith on its original Calvinistic basis, was the task assigned to the synod at Dort.

That famous assembly began to sit, on Tuesday morning, November the thirteenth, 1618. The states of Holland intended, at first, that the synod should consist of no more than their own provincial divines. It was at the persuasion of king James I (whose request was signified and seconded by Maurice prince of Orange), that select ministers, deputed from England and from other reformed countries, were admitted to assist in the deliberations at Dort. His majesty, doubtless, wished to seize so fair an occasion of avowing, to all Europe, both his own doctrinal Calvinism, and that of the church of England.

Heylyn himself gives us to understand, that James's immediate view was, to condemn the Arminian tenets with the greater formality: "Those opinions," says Heylyn, "which he (the king) had laboured to condemn at the synod at Dort." The same writer informs us, that the Dutch, antecedently to the actual calling together of that synod, took care "to invite to their assistance, some divines, out of all the churches of Calvin's platform; and none else." In saying whereof, the Arminian unwarily concedes the church of England, among the rest, to be a church of Calvin's platform; as, in point of doctrine, she certainly is, and has been from her very first reformation.

James's request being granted, and what divines, he might please to send, being invited; his majesty nominated four very eminent dignitaries, to represent the church of England, in the synod; and one divine to represent the church of Scotland. The English representatives were, Dr. George Carleton, then bishop of Landaff, and afterwards of Chichester; Dr. Joseph Hall, then dean of Worcester, afterwards bishop of Exeter, and, lastly, of Norwich; Dr. John Davenant, then master of Queen's College, Cambridge, and Margaret professor; afterwards, bishop of Salisbury; and Dr. Samuel Ward, master of Sydney College, and arch-deacon of Taunton.

The four English divines waited on the king, at Newmarket, to receive his instructions. What those instructions were, may be seen in Fuller. On the 8th of October, 1618, Dr. Davenant and Dr. Ward attended his majesty, once more, at Royston; who, commanding them to sit down, conversed very familiarly with them for two hours; and, on parting, solemnly besought God to bless their endeavours at the ensuing synod.

Sailing from the English coast, our four delegates landed at Middleburgh, in Zealand, October 20; arrived at the Hague, on the 27th, where they had the honour to kiss the hand of the laurelled patriot, prince Maurice; and, from thence, repaired to Dort, the main scene of action. Dr. Balcanqual, who appears to have set out later, did not take his place in the synod, until December 10.

The members of this synod formed a constellation of the best and most learned theologians that had ever met in council, since the dispersion of the apostles; unless we except the imperial convocation at Nice, in the fourth century. Read but the names of Heinsius, Lydius, Hommius, Voetius, Bisterfield, Triglandius, Bogermanus, Sibelius, Gomarus, Polyander, Thysius, Walaeus, Sculttetus, Altingius, Deodatus, Carleton, Davenant, Hall; exclusively of the many other first rate worthies, who constituted and adorned this ever memorable assembly; and doubt, if you can, whether the sun could shine on a living collection of more exalted piety and stupendous erudition!

That low and virulent Arminian, John Goodwin, the fifth monarchy man, compares the synod with Herod, who, "for his oath's sake, contrary to his minde, caused John the Baptist's head to be given to Herodias in a platter." Intimating, that the Dordrechtan fathers had, before the commencement of their synodical business, taken an oath to condemn the Arminians at all events. Dr. Fuller is even with Goodwin, and repays that libeller in his own coin, by comparing him to Pilate. "See here," says the historian, "how this suggester, though at first he takes water, and washes his hands, with a ‘far be it from me to subscribe the report; yet afterwards, he crucifies the credit of a whole synod, and makes them all guilty of no less than damnable perjury.

“ I could have wished, that he had mentioned, in the margin, the authors of this suggestion. Whereas, now, the omission thereof will give occasion to some, to suspect him for the first raiser of the report. Musing with myself on this matter, and occasionally exchanging letters with the sons of bishop Hall; it came into my mind, to ask them Joseph's question to his brethren, Is your father well? the old man, of whom ye spake, is he yet alive? And, being informed of his life and health, I addressed myself, in a letter, to him, for satisfaction in this particular; who was pleased to honour me with his return, herein inserted:

"Whereas you desire from me a just relation of the carriage of the businesse at the synod at Dort: and the conditions required of our divines there, at or before their admission to that grave and learned assembly; I, whom God was pleased to employ as an unworthy agent in that great work, and to reserve still upon earth, after all my reverend and worthy associates doe; as in the presence of that God to whom I am now daily expecting to yield up my account, testifie to you, and (if you will) to the world, that I cannot, without just indignation, read that slanderous imputation, which Mr. Goodwin, in his Redemption Redeemed, reports to have been raised and cast upon those divines, eminent both for learning and piety, that they suffered themselves to be bound with an oath, at, or before their admission into that synod, to vote down the remonstrants [i. e. the Arminians] howsoever; so as they came deeply pre-engaged to the decision of those unhappy differences. Truly, sir, as I hope to be saved, all the oath that was required of us, was this: After that the moderator, assistants, and scribes were chosen, and the synod formed, and the several members allowed, there was a solemn oath required to be taken by every one of that assembly; which was publicly done, in a grave manner, by every person, in their order, standing up, and laying his hand upon his heart, calling the great God of heaven to witnesse, that he would unpartially proceed in the judgment of these controversies, and no otherwise: so determining of them, as he should find in his conscience most agreeable to the holy scriptures. And this was all the oath, that was either taken, or required. And farre was it from those holy souls, which are now glorious in heaven, or mine (who still, for some short time, survive, to give this just witnesse of our sincere integrity), to entertain the least thought of any so foul corruption, as, by any over-ruling power, to be swayed to a pre-judgment in the points controverted. Sir, since I have lived to see so foul an aspersion cast upon the memory of those worthy and eminent divines, I blesse God that I yet live to vindicate them, by this my knowing, clear, and assured attestation; which I am ready to second with the solemnest oath, if I shall be thereto required.

"Your most devoted friend, &c.

"Jos. Hall, B. N."

"Higham, Aug. 30,1651."

Judge now, what degree of credit is due to the malevolent insinuations of John Goodwin. The wretch lived no fewer than ten years after Dr. Fuller's publication of the above letter. Yet he never, so far as I can find, either retracted the slander he had advanced, or even apologised for it. So hardened was his front, and so thoroughly was he drenched in the petrifying water of a party (m)!

(m) The oath, taken by each member of the synod, of which bishop Hall recites the substance: ran verbatim, thus:

Promitto, coram Deo, quem praesentissimum renumque et cordium scrutarorem credo et veneror, me, in tota hac synodali actione, qua instituetur examen, judicium, et decisio, turn de notis quinque articulis, et difficultatibus inde orientibus, turn de omnibus reliquis doctrinalibus; non ulla scripta humana, sed solum Dei verbum, pro certa ac indubitata fidei regula adhibiturum; mihique, in tota hac causa, nihil propositum fore, praeter Dei gloriam, tranquillitatem ecclesiae;, et cum primis conservationem puritatis doctrinae. Ita propitius mihi sit servator meus Jesus Christus; quem precor ardentissime, ut, in hoc proposito, spiritus sui gratia mihi perpetuo adsit.

i.e.

I promise, before God, whom I believe and worship as the ever present Searcher of the reins and hearts, that I will, in the whole business and transaction of this synod (wherein shall be appointed an enquiry, judgment, and decision, as well concerning the famous Five Points, and the intricacies arising from them, as concerning all the other doctrinal matters); that I will not admit of any human writings, but allege the word of God only, as the certain and undoubted rule of faith: and that I will propose nothing whatever to myself, in this whole business, but the glory of God, the peace of the church, and especially the preservation of pure doctrine. May my Saviour Jesus Christ so be merciful to me; whom I most earnestly beseech, that he would, by the grace of his Spirit, be ever present with me in this my purpose and resolution. Acta Synodi Dordr. p. 66.

***The reader need not be told, that what the oath styles "the famous Five Points," were, the doctrines of election, limited redemption, the spiritual inability of the human will through original sin, the invincible efficacy of grace in regeneration, and the final perseverance of truly converted persons.

King James's heart was quite wrapt up in the synod; and all his attention seemed collected to a point, as long as the divines were sitting. With such eagerness and anxiety did he interest himself in the condemnation of Arminianism, that he commanded his British divines to send him "a weekly account of all memorable passages transacted at [Dort]. Yet it happened, that, for a month, or more, the king received from them no particulars of their proceeding: whereat his majesty was most highly offended. But, afterwards, understanding that this defect was caused by the countermands of an higher king, even of him who gathereth the winds in his fists, stopping all passages by contrary weather; he was quickly pacified: yea, highly pleased, when four weekly dispatches (not neglected to be orderly sent, but delayed to be accordingly brought) came, altogether, to his majesty's hands." The royal baby of fifty-three received his rattles, and was contented. For, by James, religion itself seems to have been regarded chiefly as a plaything, which contributed to his amusement; or, at most, as a pedestal, on which his vanity might display itself conveniently. Two or three years, indeed, after the period of which we are now treating, he considered it under the more serious idea of a commodious engine, which he thought himself capable of working and managing to much political advantage.

Two and twenty sessions had elapsed, ere any thing was done by the synod, relative to the Arminians: and yet those people complained (for they came with a resolution to complain at all events), that sufficient time had not been allowed them to prepare their papers of defence. As if they had not known, seven or eight years before the synod was called, that such an assembly was to be convened! And as if, even after the synod began to sit, ample space had been denied them, wherein to provide for their appearance!

Determined to clog and interrupt, as much as possible, every wheel of public business, the Arminians, with Episcopius at their head, affected openly to resent their being cited to the synod as delinquents, instead of being invited to sit in it, as judges. A wonderful hardship indeed, that criminals indicted for transgressing the laws of their country, should not be invited to take their seat on the judicial bench!

For the farther clearing of this supposed grievance, let it be considered, 1. That the then Arminians of Holland (for it is of the Dutch Arminians, and of those only who were then living, that we are now treating) had, by kindling a flame in the church, formed likewise a very dangerous faction in the state; even such a faction, as menaced the loss, not only of religious, but of civil liberty, to the whole community at large. Hence, 2. They rendered themselves, by every law of society whatever, responsible to that public, whose ruin they had so nearly accomplished. Especially, 3. When it was found, that the popish courts of France and Spain (those natural enemies, whose power the United Provinces, then in their infancy of strength, had so just reason to dread) were actually grafting political machinations on these ecclesiastical disputes, by aiding, seconding, and encouraging the Arminians to effect the total overthrow of the new born republic.

Should it be said, that "Though these heinous political offences deserved punishment, yet their punishment should have been assigned, not to the synod of Dort, but to the secular courts of justice;" I answer, 1. An injured state, whose legal forms of procedure (like those of Holland at the above period) have not attained their full maturity, digestion, and establishment, by the length of time, the regularity of equal custom, and the leisurely wisdom of general deliberation and consent, requisite to such a fixed settlement; a state so circumstanced, is at full liberty to refer the cognizance of its domestic disturbers to what court soever its self may please to authorize. 2. The synod of Dort not only assembled and sat by virtue of the civil authority; but was, intrinsically, both an ecclesiastical and a civil court. It was far from consisting of ecclesiastics only. Lay assessors (or, as they were termed, "political delegates") sat, with the spiritual deputies, in that great assembly. Consequently, 3. A court, formed on this mixed plan, was the properest court in the world to judge a set of misdoers, whose crimes were of a mixed nature. The Arminians had sinned, equally, against church and state. The civil power contented itself with laying hold on two or three of the most dangerous and inflammatory: and consigned the rest to a mixed tribunal, consisting of churchmen and of laymen. Could any government have acted with more prudence, temper, and equity? 4. After all, what if some of the Arminians refused to sit in the synod, when that favour was offered them? "We shall soon see that this was actually the case.

"But the synod of Dort did not profess to condemn these delinquents, for their state offences; but for their doctrinal deviations from the purity of the protestant faith." Be it so. The Arminians were liable to two very heavy charges: viz. of undermining the public safety; and of seeking to overthrow the reformed religion. When two indictments thus hang over a man's head, one of which, if proved, will suffice to incapacitate him, for ever, from doing any further mischief, and the man be actually found guilty of that one; what reason can be assigned, for trying him on the other? He could but be condemned, if convicted of a thousand crimes. The synod of Dort fixed on one of the two charges against the Arminians. It was a matter of indifference, on which of the two they should proceed. That single charge being demonstratively proved, there was no sort of occasion for their examining the merits of the second. All the purposes, both of church and state, were answered, without farther trouble; and without exposing the malpractices of the Arminians, beyond what absolute necessity required. That sect were, already, sufficiently the (q) objects of public indignation. It would have been unmerciful, to have needlessly ript open the whole of their criminality; when amply enough of it appeared, to justify every hostile step, taken against them by the synod.

(q) Before matters were reduced again, to their first protestant settlement, by the synod of Dort, it is impossible to express the popular odium, under which the disciples of Arminius laboured, for having so wantonly and violently unhinged the public peace. - "All," says Monsieur Bayle from Curcellaeus, "was in an uproar and confusion; and in this conflict no man was more exposed to the imprecations of the populace, than the most learned among the Arniinians; because they were looked upon as the first cause of these disorders." Vol. ii. p. 793.

Thirteen Arminian (r) teachers were summoned to appear at Dort. On their arrival in that city, their three chiefs (viz. Episcopius, Corvinus, and Dwinglon) waited privately on our bishop Carleton, in hopes of being able to prejudice him in their favour. That sound and trusty church of England man gave them an exceeding cool reception. "They entreated me," says his lordship, "to mediate for them, that Grevinchovius might be admitted to their company. I told them, that the [Dutch] church had deposed Grevinchovius, and the states had approved the deposition: and therefore I could not meddle in that thing. Yet they were very earnest. I told them, I would send for my colleagues; and they should have a common answer. Whilst we staid for my fellows, I fell into some speech with Corvinus, concerning some things which he had written: and found him nothing constant in those things which he hath published. When the rest [of the British divines] came, they gave the same answer.

(r) Their names follow: Leo, Wezek, Hollinger, Episcopius, Corvinus, Dwinglon, Poppius, Rijckwaert, Pynacker, Sapma, Goswinius, Mathisius, and Niellius. Acta Syn. p. 18, 19.

Of all these, Episcopius was, by far, the ablest and most learned. He and Grotius were the greatest men the Arminians and Socinians ever had to boast of.

"Corvinus came to Mr. Mayer, the professor of Basil, and told him, that he [viz. Corvinus] was drawn into these troublesome courses by others: and showed some dislike, as if he meant to withdraw himself from them [i. e. from the Arminian party, by whom he had been inveigled] (s)." The bishop adds: "We hear, that the Jesuits are much offended at the synod. It must be some great good, that offends them (t)." The Jesuits, it must be confessed, had reason enough to be "offended" with the meeting of this glorious protestant synod. But it makes very little for the credit of any professed protestants, to stumble at the same stone with the disciples of Loyola.

(s) Bishop Carleton's Letter from Dort to the archbishop of Canterbury. Hales's Rem. 173. 175. See also, p. 53.

(t) Ibid. p. 175.

Nothing could exceed the insolence, the perverseness, and the studied chicanery, with which the Arminians, through the course of their appearance in the synod, exercised the humility and patience of the venerable assembly.

Had the Arminians been required to hold up their hands at the bar of that court, it had been no more than strict justice would have authorised. But, instead of thus treating them with ignominy, the synod, with much candour, desired them to sit; for which purpose, a long table had been provided, surrounded with chairs and forms, in the middle of the synod-house. As soon as they were seated, the president politely informed them, that he had, at their request, moved the synod to grant them longer time; but that the deputies of the states were pleased to order their appearance then, and that they should have liberty to open their cause themselves.

Episcopius, instead of reciprocating the civilities which himself and his party had received, rose sullenly from his chair, and gave the assembly to understand, that he and his associates were come, ad collationem instituendam; i. e. not to appear as defendants, but to open a conference with the synod: and that they [the Arminians] were ready, even at that present, to begin the business they came for, without farther delay.

Polyander, the Leyden professor, took occasion to animadvert on the haughtiness of the above speech. "The Arminians" (said that great man) "ought to know, that they were not sent for, to hold a conference: nor does the synod sit here as an adverse party to them. Conferences have been held with them often enough, in time past: and all to no purpose. They should recollect, that they were not now called hither to confer, but were cited to give in their opinions, with the reasons by which those opinions are supported. The synod sit as judges, not as opponents, of the Arminians."

To provoke the synod into rigorous measures, seems to have been the wish and design of the Arminian faction; that they might have some plausible colour of complaint, and be able to spread an artificial mist before the public eye: just as the cuttlefish, when in danger of being taken, emits an inky fluid, to darken the water, and favour its own escape. "You are incompetent judges," said the Arminians to the synod: "You are schismatics, innovators, and cherishers of schism. Not you, but the civil magistrate, have a right to adjust our controversies."

Could any thing be more insolent, more scurrilous, and more untrue? Here is an handful of novel schismatics, whose separation from the reformed churches had began but about fourteen or fifteen years before, charging the reformed churches themselves with schism and innovation! Ravaillac, who murdered Henry the Fourth of France, might with equal reason, modesty, and truth, have laboured to transfer the name of assassin from himself to Henry.

But what reply did the president, as mouth of the synod, return, to the audacious, indecent, and false invectives of the Arminians? He answered, with all the dignity and gentleness which might be expected from so great a man. "When it shall be made plain to the synod," said he, "what the received doctrine of the church has been; then will it appear, who they are that have receded from her doctrine, and on which of the two parties the guilt of schism is justly chargeable. If you except against us members of this assembly, merely because our religious sentiments are different from your own, by what tribunal would you wish to be tried? By yourselves? or by the papists? or by the anabaptists? or by the libertines? or by some other faction in these countries? Even supposing we actually were the schismatics you have styled us; yea, were we scribes and pharisees, or worse than they; yet would the present synod, as such, be a lawful court. For, it is called and empowered by the civil government, whose authority cannot be questioned. It is composed of delegates and representatives, regularly chosen and deputed. Every individual has also taken a solemn oath, to decide according to justice. If all this will not suffice to render us competent judges, what can?" The Arminians had nothing to offer, in opposition to president Bojermann's cool and solid reasonings, but saucy cavils and vain janglings.

The learned Mr. John Hales very justly wonders at the shameless indecency of Episcopius and his comrades: "It was much, that they should grow to that boldness, as that, openly, they should call the synod, the seculars, the chief magistrates, yea the prince of Orange himself, schismatics." But the Dutch Arminians had not yet learned the profitable lesson of absolute obedience to the civil power. Their brethren in England were wiser; and, almost as soon as they arose, began to profess an unbounded subjection to the will of the chief magistrate. This it was, that saved them from James' iron hand, and even lifted them into favour. It was by this clasper, that the tendrils of Arminian novelty twined round the royal leg of James; and, afterwards, under Charles I. flourished as a green bay-tree in the court of the king's house.

After the synod of Dort had long borne with the grossest insults at the hands of the Arminians, it was agreed, that the said Arminians should be admonished to behave, for the future, with more decency and respect. At the same time, a decree of the states was read to those sectarists: importing, that whereas the Arminians had made many dilatory answers to the injury [i. e. to the hinderance] both of the ecclesiastics and seculars; it was decreed by them [i. e. by the states], that they [the Arminians should lay aside all frivolous exceptions and dilatory answers, and forthwith proceed to set down their mind concerning the five articles, for which end they were come together.

Episcopius now began to draw in his horns, and pretend to some degree of veneration for the states. "In the imputation of schism," said he," we include not the seculars, but the ecclesiastics only." Ridiculous! As if the ecclesiastics and the seculars were not of one mind, and embarked in the same cause!

The president then urged the Arminians to give an answer, whether or no they would set down their minds concerning the points in controversy. But they still flew from the point: alleging, as before, that "the synod were not their competent judges." The president asked, by whom then are you willing to be judged? They insolently replied, "That's a question which we will not answer: suffice it, that we except against this synod." Remember said the secular president, that you are subjects, and ought to show decent respect to the laws of your country. "The magistrates," answered the Arminians, "have no authority over our consciences." True. But this was not the article in question. The magistracy did not pretend to prescribe to the Arminians what they should believe; but only claimed a right to know, from their own mouths, what they did believe. They were called thither by the state, not to have a creed obtruded upon them, but ut sententiam suam dilucide et perspicue exponerent et defenderent: i. e. in order to give them an opportunity of fairly and clearly proposing and defending their own doctrinal principles. What shadow of magisterial, or of ecclesiastical tyranny, was there in this?

Still the Arminians refused to give any account of their own positive tenets. They would not so much as carry on the conference they had pretended to desire, unless they might be permitted to begin with an attack on the doctrine of reprobation: to which the synod objected. Reprobation, or pretention, is but a negative consequence of election. Election, therefore, ought, as first in order of nature, to be first considered: for, how absurd would it be, to discuss the naked conclusion, without antecedently canvassing the premises! So that, in proposing such a wild and illogical method of procedure, the Arminians at the synod of Dort acted neither as men of peace, nor as men of honesty, nor as men of sense. They pretended, indeed, that it was "a matter of conscience with them, to put reprobation foremost.'' But, as the synod very reasonably observed, "The pretext of conscience was idle and absurd. Conscience is conversant with matters of faith and practice. But how can conscience be interested in what relates simply to the mere order and arrangement of a disputation? as, whether pretention, or election, should be handled first."

Great complaint had been made, by the Arminians, against the palatine catechism and confession. A paper, containing their objections, was delivered to the synod. Hear Mr. Hales' remarks on that frivolous paper, so far as related to the confession. "These considerations are nothing else but queries, upon some passages of the [palatine] confession, of little or no moment. So that it seems a wonder unto many, how these men [i. e. the Arminians] who, for so many years past, in so many of their books, have threatened the churches with such wonderful discoveries of falsehood and error in their confession and catechism, should at last produce such poor impertinent stuff. There is not, I persuade myself, any writing in the world, against which, wits, disposed to wrangle, cannot take abundance of such exceptions."

The affair of reprobation was again, with equal art and insolence, resumed by the Arminians. Nothing would content them, but making reprobation take the lead of election: and the stale plea of "conscience" was repeatedly urged. "As for conscience," replied the synod, "the word of God is the rule of it. Only prove from scripture, that God has prescribed the mode of disputation you contend for; we will immediately admit that mode to be a matter of conscience, and allow you to proceed in your own way." Mr. Hales very justly remarks, that, by thus stiffly urging their [pretence of] conscience, the Arminians did exceedingly wrong the decree of the states and synod, as if by them something against the word of God, some impiety, were commanded: Whereas, in reality, the command was only, that firstly should go before secondly; that the chain of disquisition should commence, at the right link; and that every point of enquiry should proceed regularly, and in its own natural order. "No," rejoined Episcopius in the name of his Arminian brethren: "unless we be at absolute liberty to pursue what method of argumentation we please, and to begin with whatever article we ourselves choose, we will not move a step. For, we are resolved, agere pro judicio nostro, non pro judicio synodi; to act according to our own pleasure, and not according to the pleasure of the synod." You stand, replied the synodical president, in the presence of God, and in the presence of your lawful magistrates. It is, moreover, a cause wherein the church of Christ is concerned: the peace of which church, such behaviour as your's is by no means calculated to promote. "My conscience will not let me act otherwise," answered Episcopius. Which impertinent allegation the president, with much dignity of patience and strength of reason, repelled as before: Adde verbum Dei, show us upon what text of scripture your conscience is grounded; otherwise, you wrong both the magistrates and the synod (m). But Episcopius and his brethren had no such passage of scripture to produce.

(m) On observing the obstinacy, with which the Arminians insisted upon opening the trenches against reprobation, antecedently to election; the learned Lydius took occasion to remind the synod, that "It was the usual practice of those who favoured pelagianisin, to begin with kicking up a dust against reprobation." Nothing can be more true.

What could the synod do? The Arminians would not dispute, unless they might be permitted to dispute backward, as a crab walks: i. e. unless they were allowed to turn all due method up-side down, and to obtrude their own perverse and unheard of rules on the synod. Neither would they give a fair and direct answer to such questions as the synod should put to them. In a word, so refractory and untractable were these new sectarists, that they would neither sit (n) in the synod as members of it; nor yet appear before it, in quality of (what they indeed were by all the legal authority of the civil power) a cited party.

(n) Though the Dutch Arminians, both as a political and as a schismatical sect, were extremely obnoxious to the laws of their country, and very criminal enemies to its civil and religious constitution; yet, by an almost unparalleled excess of candour and moderation, the synod of Dort actually permitted Episcopius and the other Arminian delegates from Utrecht, to take their seats in the synod, as members and judges: and, in the said synod of Dort, the said Arminian delegates might have continued to sit, had they agreed to a few necessary and equitable conditions; viz. 1. If they would promise and engage, not to consider themselves as determined devotees to a party, but as candid investigators of truth at large: 2. If they would neither aid, counsel, nor abet the other cited Arminians: Nor, 3. prematurely divulge the act of the synod: Nor 4. delay its proceedings by any needless or unseasonable interruptions. The Arminians rejected these reasonable terms of alliance; and, in consequence of this their haughtiness, refractoriness, and temerity, they themselves as fairly vacated their own seats, (see Hales, u. s. p. 34.) as ever James the Second vacated the throne of England.

On the whole, I am quite at a loss to know, what a very capital writer intends, by the "proud cruelty" of the synod of Dort. (See the Confessional, p. 77). I can discern no glimpse, either of cruelty or of pride, in any part of that synod's behaviour to the Arminians. But, in the behaviour of the Arminians to the synod, I can see pride, envy, malice, and uncharitableness, little short of Luciferian. Nor did the president at all exaggerate, when he told them at their final dismission from the assembly, sinceritati, lenitati, mansuetudini synodi, fraudes, artes, mendacia opposuistis. He might have added, arrogantiam, et inurbanitatem. One of the Arminian ministers, Sapma by name, crowned the insolence of his party, with the following speech, when he quitted the synod: Exeo, said he, turning on his heel, ex ecclesia malignantium! i. e. "Thus depart I from the congregation of malignants!" Hales, ibid. p. 77.

Mr. Hales, writing from Dort to Sir D. Carleton, who was then at the Hague, thus expressed himself, in relation to the contumacy and petulance of the Arminians: "The state of our synod now suffers a great crisis; and, one way or other, there must be an alteration. Either the remonstrant [i. e. the Arminian party] must yield, and submit himself to the synod, of which I see no great probability; or else, the synod must vail to them: which to do [i. e. for the synod to accommodate itself to the perverse humours of the Arminians], farther than it hath already done, I see not how it can stand with their honour [i. e. with the honour and dignity of the synod]. But the synod, bearing an inclination to peace, and wisely considering the nature of their people, resolved yet farther, though they had yielded sufficiently unto them already, yet to try a little more, &c." The president recommended to the assembly, "To consider, whether there might not be found some means of accommodation, which might mollify the remonstrants [i. e. soften the obstinacy of the Arminians], and yet stand well with the honour of the synod." What could be more healingly and more meekly said? But the Arminian fierceness was too harsh and stubborn to be moderated by any lenient measures. And, hitherto, none but softening measures had been tried. For, those decrees of the synod, extorted from the synod by dint of insolence, and which carried any implication of seeming severity, were, as Mr. Hales observes, "mere powder without shot, which gives a clap, but does no harm:" Insomuch that, as the same unprejudiced writer adds, "Some thought the synod had been too favourable to the remonstrants already; and that it were best now not to hold them, if they would be going: since hitherto, they [the remonstrants, or Arminians] had been, and, for any thing appeared to the contrary, meant hereafter to be, a hinderance to all peaceable and orderly proceedings." And such they most undoubtedly were in every respect, and on every occasion.

As they persisted in a peremptory refusal to give any account, either of their faith, or of the reasons on which it was grounded; there remained but one thing for the synod to do: which was to convict them of error, from their own writings, which they themselves had formerly published to the world. In the discussion of which Arminian writings, the following departments fell to the British divines, in consequence of a plan previously settled among themselves: "We have now," said Dr. Balcanqaul, "divided the business among us. Dr. Ward's part is, to refute the Arminian doctrine of a decree to save men, considered as believers. My lord of Landaff's part is, to answer and solve such arguments, as the Arminians are wont to urge, in behalf of that general decree. Doctor (t) Goad's part is, to refute the Arminian tenet of election on faith foreseen: and to prove, in opposition to it, that faith, is [not the cause, or condition, but] the fruit, and effect, of election. Doctor Davenant's part is, to vindicate the orthodox doctrine of election, from the objections alleged against it by the Arminians. My part is, to encounter all the arguments in general, which the Arminians bring, against the orthodox [i. e. against the Calvinistic] scheme."

(t) Doctor Hall having been forced to retire from Dort, on account of his ill state of health, the king sent over in his room, Dr. Thomas Goad, archbishop Abbot's chaplain.

The Arminian teachers were, in the end, deposed from their ministry, by the synod; and the sentence of deposition was ratified by the states. The divines from England, having first entered a proviso in favour of episcopacy, testified their entire consent to the Dutch confession of faith,- so far as matters of doctrine were concerned. Which testification of consent was as strong a proof as they could give, of their rooted attachment to the strictest principles of Calvin.

"On the 29th of April [1619], the synod ended. The states to express their gratitude, bestowed on the English divines, at their departure, two hundred pounds, to bear their charges in their return (z). Besides a golden medal, of good value, was given to every one of them, whereon the sitting of the synod was artificially represented. And now these [five British] divines, who, for many months, had, in a manner, been fastened to their chair and desks, thought it a right due to themselves, that, when their work was ended, they might begin their recreation. Wherefore they viewed the most eminent cities in the low countries; and, at all places, were bountifully received, Leyden(a) only excepted. This gave occasion to that passage in the speech of Sir Dudley Carlton, the English ambassador, when, in the name of his master, he tendered the states public thanks, for their great respects to the English divines; using words to this effect: That they had been entertained at Amsterdam, welcomed at the Hague, cheerfully received at Rotterdam, kindly embraced at Utrecht, &c. and that they had seen Leyden."

(z) That the bishop and clergymen from England might be able, while in Holland, to support a style of living, suitable to the dignity of the church they represented, they were allowed by the states general, ten pounds sterling per day. At the conclusion of their spiritual embassy, they received an additional present, as Fuller informs us above, of £200 to defray their expenses homeward. Mrs. Macaulay (a name superior to all encomium) acquaints us, that each of them received that sum, to his own respective share; that they were jointly complimented with "an acknowledgment of the excellency of the constitution of the church of England; and that the Dutch regretted the conveniency of their own state did not admit of the same system of subordination." Mrs. Macaulay's Hist. of Eng. vol. i. p. 117. Octavo.

It seems, the apartment, in which the synod was held, and the seats, on which the members of it sat, are, to this day, carefully preserved at Dort, in statu quo, and shown to travellers. See the Complete Syst. of Geogr. vol. i. p. 573.

(a) The cold reception, which our divines, who had been so eminently active in the synod of Dort, met with, at Leyden, is easily accounted for. Arminius, Vorstius, and Episcopius, had successively filled the divinity chair of that university: and as king James expresses it, had "infected" many of the academies "with heresie." But in a short time after the synod was held, the "infection" ceased; and the University of Leyden, recovering, at once, its orthodoxy and its credit, has since given both education and residence to as great men, as ever adorned the Republics of religion and learning. In the present age, indeed (referenti dolet), both learning and religion seem to be at a dead stand, in almost every part of Europe.

It must not be forgotten, that the reformed churches in France would very gladly have deputed a select number of their body, to represent them at the synod at Dort, and to assist in the condemnation of Arminianism: but the French king, like a sturdy Catholic, restrained them from this step, by his peremptory prohibition. He could not, however, restrain the protestant clergy of that kingdom from solemnly receiving and approving the decisions of Dort, in a national synod, held at Alez, in 1619.

On the return of our five divines to England, their first care was, to wait on king James. As they entered the palace-court, his majesty saw them from a window, and said, with an emotion of sensible pleasure, "Here come my good mourners:" they being in mourning for the queen, who had died during their absence. "Then," adds Fuller, "after courteously entertaining them, he favourably dismissed them; and, afterwards, on three of them bestowed preferment: removing (d) Carleton [from the bishoprick of Landaff] to Chichester; preferring Davenant to [the see of] Salisbury; and bestowing the mastership of the Savoy on Balcanqual. So returned they all, to their several professions: bishop Carleton, to the careful governing of his diocese: Dr. Davenant, besides his collegiate cure, to his constant lectures in the [University-] School: Dr. Ward, to his discreet ordering of his own college: Dr. Goad, to his diligent discharging of domestical duties in the family of his lord and patron; and Mr. Balcanqual, to his fellowship in Pembroke-hall."

(d) Bishop Carleton was a prelate of very elevated parts, and of very distinguished literature: and no man ever adhered more steadily to the doctrines of the church of England. Let me briefly exemplify this latter feature of his character, by two very striking proofs. 1. He could not endure the tenet of a redemption absolutely universal: utterly denying it to be (they are his own words) "a truth of the scripture, or the doctrine of the church of England." For, as his lordship unanswerably argued, wheresoever the grace of redemption goeth, there goeth also remission of sins:" so that, if we admit the grace of redemption "to be common to all," we must "admit also, that all men have remission of sins." See his Letters, annexed to Hale’s Rem. p. 180. 2. Many years after, in the Arminian reign of Charles I. his lordship published, in direct opposition to the court system, his valuable Defence of the pure Doctrines of the established church, against the high insolencies and the low aspersions of that learned, but profligate pelagian theorist, Dr. Richard Montagu: whom the positive and misguided Charles raised, soon after, to an episcopal chair, in open defiance of church, of parliament, and of every prudential and religious restraint.

Our good bishop Carleton acquitted himself, at the synod of Dort, so much to king James' satisfaction, that he translated him to Chichester, within about four months after his return. His next translation was to heaven, in 1628. On whose decease, Dr. Montagu, abovementioned, became his unworthy successor at Chichester; with such an high hand of insult did Arminianism, under Charles and Laud, begin to carry all before it!

Mr. Camden's attestation to Carleton's merit, deserves to be noted: "I loved him," said that learned antiquarian, "for his excellent proficiency in divinity and other polite parts of learning." See Biogr. Dict. vol. iii. p. 68.

Some pacific disquisitions, concerning the extent of redemption, having amicably and privately passed, among the English divines at Dort, several Arminian writers (equally disposed to magnify a barley-corn, into a mountain, or reduce a mountain to a barley-corn, as convenient occasion may require) have laboured to raise, on the narrow bottom of that slender incident, the following enormous pile of falsehood: viz. that the said divines were for absolutely unlimited redemption. But it so happens, that those excellent divines, though dead, are yet able to speak for themselves. Consult the records of the synod itself, and then judge. And for the mere English reader, the ensuing passage, from a letter, written at Dort, by the British divines themselves, and sent to the archbishop of Canterbury, subscribed by the hands of them all; will at once demonstrate, how infinitely distant our religious plenipotentiaries were, from arminianising in. the article of redemption. That passage runs, verbatim thus: "Nor do we, with the remonstrants, leave at large the benefit of our Saviour's death, as only propounded loosely to all, ex aequo, and to be applied by the arbitrary act of man's will; but we expressly avouch for the behoof of the elect, a special intention, both in Christ's offering, and God the Father accepting: and, from that intention, a particular application of that sacrifice, by conferring faith, and other gifts, infallibly bring the elect to salvation (f)."

(f) Added to the end of Hale's Rem. p. 185.

The gross slander, cast, by certain writers, on the above divines, as though the latter were in Arminius' licentious scheme of indiscriminate redemption; reminds me of a similar falsehood, launched by Mr. Wat Sellon, to wit, that archbishop Usher, and bishop Davenant, died Arminians. To this flat untruth I, at present, only oppose a flat denial; because the said Sellon does no more than nakedly affirm the premises, without clothing his affirmation with a single rag of proof. My simple negatur, therefore, unclothed as it is, needs not be ashamed. A naked no, is as good as a naked yes. Let me add, however, that I am ready to clothe my side of the question (though a negative) with proof, when called upon to produce it.

The transactions of the synod of Dort have given grievous offence, to more than one class of men. A late respectable compiler, to whose literary endeavours the friends of civil and of religious liberty are under considerable obligation, raises two objections, in particular, against that renowned assembly. As I honour the memory, and value the labours, of the worthy objector, I shall weigh his remarks attentively, though with brevity.

(1.) We are told, that "Whoever calls to mind the deprivations, and banishment, which followed the decisions of this synod, of such great men as Episcopius, Utenbogart, Corvinus, &c. and the persecution, which ensued, throughout the United Provinces, against the Arminians; will be apt to entertain but a poor opinion of those men who were actors in it." To clear this matter, let it be remembered, 1. That, if the decisions of the synod were followed by any thing that resembled a persecution of the Arminians, such seeming persecution was the act, not of the synod, but of the civil power: and how were the members of that synod accountable for the conduct of the secular magistrate? especially, for a conduct which did not take place, until long enough after the synod had ceased to sit? 2. Even supposing (what I can by no means grant) that the synod actually did persecute the Arminians; yet, certain it is, that the Arminians themselves gave the first blow, and persecuted the Dutch protestants, long before the Dutch protestants are feigned to have persecuted the Arminians. And, though nothing can justify persecution, even when it amounts to no more than a retaliation; still it is but too natural for a persecuted party (as the Dutch Calvinists had undeniably been) to take the first opportunity of turning the tables on their oppressors.

When the Arminian faction, in Holland, began to gather strength and come to an head; so fiercely intolerant was the bigotry, with which they espoused their new system, that they meditated, and in part accomplished, an absolute suppression of such magistrates, ministers, and even military officers, as discovered a resolution to abide by the old doctrines of the reformation. Legal magistrates were riotously deposed; legal pastors were deprived by violence; and the orthodox even among the commonality were liable to loss of property, loss of personal liberty, and to every vexatious injury, which the new sect were able to devise. So furiously did the Arminians drive, at first setting off; that, as far as their power extended, not a Calvinistic minister was suffered to exercise his function. All freedom of conscience was denied: nothing would content the drivers, but a total extinction of the reformed interest, and that Arminianism should reign without a partner and without limitation. Sedition, tumult, rapine, imprisonment, and banishment, were the gentle instruments, made use of by the Arminians, to establish their pretended theory of universal love!

All this happened a considerable time before the synod of Dort assembled: and was, in reality, one reason why that synod was convened. Complaints, therefore, of persecution, would have come with an exceeding ill grace from the mouths of the Arminian faction, if the synod had even meted to them the same measure which themselves had so liberally dealt to their innocent neighbours. But I must add, 3. that the Arminians were not persecuted in return, so far as I have been able to find. Punished, in some degree, they were: but punishment and persecution are essentially different. Social enormity justly exposes an offender to the former: though no religious errors, how great and many soever, can justly subject a person to the latter. Shall the twelve judges of England be styled twelve persecutors, because they vindicate the majesty of law against its transgressors? Shall legal prosecution, and legal punishment, be denominated persecution, where the offence is of a secular nature, and adequate in degree to the inflicted penalty? Weigh the political vices of the first Arminians; and then pronounce them persecuted if you can. Nor must I omit to observe, 4. on the credit of a very candid and capable writer, that, notwithstanding the due indignation of the Dutch states against the social crimes of the primitive Arminians; the said states, highly Calvinistic as they were, consented that "the mere Arminian," who did not connect turbulence and sedition with religious mistakes, should be "continued and cherished in the bosom of the church." The same learned and accurate author adds, that Episcopius himself, even that very Episcopius who had flown in the face of the synod and of his country, was hardly displaced from his Leyden professorship, before he was permitted, "both at Rotterdam and Amsterdam, to enjoy an honourable and gainful preferment." With such exemplary moderation did the Dutch Calvinists use the victory which God had given them!

[2.] Dr. Harris' other complaint is, that "The kings, princes, and great men concerned [in the synod of Dort], had, undoubtedly, worldly views, and were actuated by them: for though purity of doctrine, peace of the church, extirpation of heresy, were pretended; the state faction of the Arminians was to be suppressed, and that of Maurice, prince of Orange, exalted." I am glad, that the impartiality of this respectable writer induced him to term those Arminians a "state," i. e. a secular or political faction: for such they were. And, if so, why might not political persons, legally invested with just authority, seek to tie up the hands of a pernicious political faction from doing any farther political mischief? Be it so, then, that prince Maurice had his "worldly views" in filing down the tusks of some restless Arminians. The preservation of the United Provinces from relapsing under, the yoke of Spain was, indeed, a "worldly view," but a very lawful and a very expedient one. Antecedently to the assembling of the synod, providence had so ordered events, that the interests of pure religion and of public policy were happily twisted together. Hence resulted the Dordrechtan ‘alliance between church and state.' A consequence whereof was, that two birds of prey were disabled, at one shot: viz. doctrinal error, and civil sedition. Nor unreasonably: for, the poison being compound, why should the antidote be single?

Sir Richard Baker, though a very high principled historian, mentions the synod of Dort, in terms of remarkable moderation and respect. It was assembled, says he, "to examine and determine the doctrine of Arminius, 1. Concerning God's predestination, election, and reprobation: 2. Concerning Christ's death, and man's redemption by it: 3. Concerning man's corruption, and conversion to God: 4. Concerning the perseverance of the saints. In all which points, the doctrine of Arminius was rejected, as also of Vorstius; and the true doctrine established by a general consent, together with the approbation of the lords and states. Which yet the papists made so little reckoning of, that one of them, in scorn, made echo to sensure it [i. e. to sensure the synod] in this distich:

Dordraci Synodus? Nodus. Chorus integer? AEger,

Conventus? Ventus. Sessio Stramen? Amen.

But who knows not, that ill-will never speaks well? and that nothing is so obvious, in the mouth of an adversary, as scandals and invectives(m)?" Let this be a word in season, to Mr. Wesley and his man Watty: and restrain them, in time to come, from singing in chorus with "the papists," by traducing the synod of Dort.

(m) Baker's Chronicle, p. 419.

Thus have we traced king James' doctrinal perseverance in orthodoxy, down to the year 1619, inclusively: and the church kept pace with his majesty. His having interested himself, so zealously, in the condemnation of Arminianism, struck the secret favourers of that system, in England, with a temporary stupor. Even Laud was forced to lie still, and to roll his principles, in private, as a sweet morsel, under his tongue; until a more favourable day should invite them to walk abroad with safety. James was always very suspicious of Laud's orthodoxy: and the reluctance, with which he lifted him to episcopal rank, supplies us with another very strong proof of the monarch's Calvinism.

The authorized bibles, during the first nine years of James' reign, were those of queen Elizabeth; enriched with such marginal annotations, as we have produced sufficient samples of, in the preceding section. James desired to signalize his own reign, by a translation more exactly conformable to the original languages of the Old and New Testaments. In 1611, that translation (used at this day) was finished by the excellent divines, to whose care this great work had been assigned, and who had spent about three years in the important employ. Instead of human annotations, the margin of this version is very properly filled with references to parallel scriptures: so that the bible is now a commentary on itself. If it be asked, 'Whether the ancient notes were omitted, with a simple view to render the scripture its own interpreter?' I must confess, that this is a question which I can answer by conjecture alone. And my conjecture is, that James' suspicious policy was afraid to entrust even the bishops and clergymen of the church of England, concerned in this translation, with the insertion of any marginal notes at all; lest some remark or other might slip in, tending to emblazon the wickedness and absurdity of despotic power. He was a better textuary, than to be ignorant, that there are a multitude of passages, and of instances, in the inspired volume, which grind the doctrine of non-resistance to powder, and disperse its atoms in empty air. Better, therefore, in James' opinion, to forego all explications whatever, than to run the risk of rendering those unfavourable passages more visible than they render themselves. This I (n) conceive to have been the true cause of the simplicity, by which our present version is distinguished. As to the Calvinistic doctrines, there is no need, nor was there any need from the first, of erecting marginal banners, to distinguish in what places of scripture they are to be found. What I observed, several years ago, concerning the liturgy; I now observe, concerning the bible: open God's word where you will, Calvinism stares you in the face.

(n) Since the above was written, I recollected to have formerly met with something, in the account of the Hampton-court conference, relative to the omission of marginal notes from the present translation of the bible. On recurring to that account, I find myself warranted to assign the reason already hinted, not as a conjecture of my own, but as the true and undoubted cause of the said omission. Bishop Barlow informs us, that the king complained, he had never yet seen a bible "well translated in English: but the worst of all, his majesty thought the Geneva bible to be," for a reason which quickly follows. The royal plaintiff then expressed his intention of having a new translation undertaken: "and this to bee done by the best learned in both the universities; after them, to be reviewed by the bishops, and the chiefe learned of the church; from them, to be presented to the privie counsel; and, lastly, to be ratified by his royall authority; and so this whole church to be bound unto it and none other. Marrie, withal, hee gave this caveat (upon a word cast out by my lord of London), that no marginal notes should bee added: having found, in them which are annexed to the Geneva translation, which hee saw in a bible given him by an English lady, some notes, very partially untrue, seditious, and savouring too much of dangerous and traiterous conceits. As for example: Ex 1:19. where the marginal note alloweth disobedience unto kings." Bishop Barlow's Summe of the Conf. p. 47, 48.

In the year 1621, the English Arminians began to recover from the panic, into which they had been thrown, two years before, by the proceedings at Dort. The king's enormous (o) concessions to the church of Rome, in order to facilitate the conclusion of the Spanish match, gave new life to the popish party, who had the comfort to see themselves objects of court indulgence, their religion openly protected, and their imprisoned priests enlarged.

(o) "It has ever been my way," said James, "to go with the church of Rome, usque ad aras:" i. e. to symbolize with that church, in matters of doctrine, discipline, and worship, as far as prudence would permit, and policy might require. (See the Complete Hist. vol. ii. p. 767.) Indeed, the papal supremacy over kings themselves, and the lawfulness of king killing, seem to have been the only popish doctrines which he considered as indigestible.

Where is the wonder, that Arminianism also, taking advantage of a juncture so favourable, should rear its head, unseal its eyes, and venture into open day? "The king's mercy and indulgence extending towards the papists, taught many men to come as near popery as they could stretch; finding it the next way to preferment. So that Arminius' tenets flew up and down, from pulpit to pulpit, and preaching was nothing but declamation, little tending to edification; such orthodox ministers, as strove to refute these erroneous opinions, being looked upon as puritans and anti-monarchial." To crown the infelicities of this memorable year 1621, Dr. Laud found means (though not without much difficulty and many hard struggles) to climb, from the deanery of Gloucester, to the bishoprick of St. David's. He was consecrated to that see, November 18. A dark day, in the annals of the church of England.

It was not without reason, that even the impolitic and undiscerning James, prognosticated the bad effects, which would probably ensue from Laud's promotion. That incident drew after it a train of consequences, which sadly warranted the justness of his majesty's misgivings; and resulted in a complication of catastrophes, too ruinous and fatal, for a much wiser prince to have foreseen. In fact, Laud owed his bishoprick, not to the king, but to the duke of Buckingham: into the good graces of whom, the Arminian ecclesiastic had insinuated himself, with extreme labour and art, and by a long series of servile and obsequious adulation. What I in this place, can but barely intimate, shall appear with sufficient extent, if providence give me health and leisure to complete my intended History of Archbishop Laud's Life and Times.

This prelate had not worn lawn sleeves much longer than eight months, before he became instrumental in procuring, and in drawing up, a well known court paper, entitled, Directions concerning Preachers. The third article of these directions enjoined, "That no preacher of what title soever, under the degree of a bishop or dean, at the least, do, from henceforth, presume to preach, in any popular auditory, the deep points of predestination, election, reprobation; or the universality, efficacy, resistibility, or irresistibility, of God's grace; but leave those themes rather to be handled by the learned men [in the two universities]: and that moderately and modestly, by way of use and application, rather than by way of positive doctrines; being fitter for the schools, than for simple auditories." This was the first blow, given by royal authority, to the doctrinal Calvinism of the established church, since the death of Mary the bloody. For, though it prima facie, seemed to muzzle the Arminians, no less than the Calvinistic clergy; yet its design was, to bridle the latter, and leave the former at liberty to spread their new principles without restraint. The above paper of directions was dated from Windsor, 4th August, 1622.

Let not the reader, however, suppose, that the king took this extraordinary stride, out of mere complaisance to Laud. That insidious prelate, in promoting and in helping to frame the said directions, only struck in with the opportunity, and availed himself of certain political circumstances, which had, previously, soured and embarrassed the mind of James.

The case stood thus. His majesty, in order to strengthen his unnatural and ill judged union with Spain, was (s) projecting a general toleration of popery throughout the British dominions. So far is certain. And, perhaps, we should not overshoot the mark, were we to suspect, that something more, than a mere toleration, was remotely in view.

(s) This latent intention of giving a free and full toleration to popery, appears, from the subsequent transactions of the next year, viz. 1623, when the following articles were agreed to by James, in the Spanish treaty: namely, That no laws, repugnant to the Roman catholic religion, should, at any time hereafter, directly, or indirectly, be commanded to be put in execution: that the king should swear to this, and that the privy council should take the same oath: That the king and the prince of Wales should interpose their authority, and do all that in them lay, to make the parliament revoke and abrogate all laws, both general and particular, which had been enacted against Roman catholics; and, that neither the king, nor the prince of Wales when king, should ever, at any time, consent to the passing of any new laws to the prejudice of the catholics. The oath of each privy counsellor ran in these words:

I, A. B. do swear, that I will truly and fully observe, as much as belongeth to me, all and every of the articles which are contained in the treaty of marriage between the most gracious Charles, prince of Wales, and the most gracious lady, Donna Maria, Infanta of Spain. Likewise, I swear, that I will neither commit to execution, or cause to be executed, either by myself, or by any inferior officer serving under me, any law made against any Roman Catholic whatsoever, nor will execute any punishment inflicted by those laws, &c. See Mrs. Macaulay's Hist. vol. i. p. 202, 203.

When two houses are to be thrown into one, you must down with the partition wall. The Calvinistic doctrines of the church of England were considered as the interposing barrier between her and popery. Though the king was attached to those doctrines, in his heart; yet, as they stood in the way of his political schemes, he lent his authority to certain Arminian engineers, who lost no time in beginning (not to assault and batter, but) to undermine and sap the said wall.

Add to this, that, when James consented to publish the above directions concerning preachers, his mind was chafed and nettled, by a recent quarrel with the parliament. He had flattered himself, for some time, that his designs in favour of popery were formed with such secrecy, as to elude the vigilance of the house of commons. But he perceived his mistake, when word was brought him, that those wise and zealous guardians of the church and nation had prepared a very strong remonstrance against popery, and against the illegal encouragement already shown to papists. He was stung to the quick, at receiving this intelligence; and prohibited the house from presenting him with an address so peculiarly unacceptable: giving them to understand, that these were matters above their reach and capacity and tended to his "high dishonour, and breach of his prerogative royal." What had chiefly offended him in the remonstrance (of which he had procured a copy), was, the patriotic wish, expressed by the national representatives, that his majesty would break with Spain, and marry his son to a protestant princess. Several altercations passed between his majesty and the commons. The latter, who had sagacity to discern, and integrity to pursue, the real good of the public, conducted themselves with a respectful decency toward the king, yet with an unrelaxing adherence to the cause of their country. James did not maintain his share in the debate, with any degree of prudence. He inculcated maxims of despotism, unheard of, until broached by himself; and, to save those maxims from being canvassed by the parliament, he dissolved it, by proclamation, in January, 1622 (u).”

(u) The papers and messages, which passed between the king and parliament, prior to his timid and angry dissolution of the latter, deserves the perusal of every Englishman. See them laid together in the Parliamentary History, vol. v. p. 487-525.

It must be observed, that the members of the lower house in that parliament, were Calvinists in matters of doctrine, as well as friends to the true interest of the state. Never was a nation more faithfully represented, than by that uncorrupt body of senators. The pulse of all the honest protestants in England beat in harmony with that of the parliament. James was apprised of this, and dreaded the effect. Laud and others, who were on the watch for a trade wind, immediately hoisted sail, and took advantage of the ill humour into which the king's affairs had thrown him. It was not very difficult to persuade such a monarch as James, that the parliament, the clergy, and the majority of the people, were puritanic, because they hated popery; and disaffected to the crown, because they hated tyranny: that, at once, to wean them from their abhorrence of Rome, and break them into the trammels of absolute subjection to the throne, Calvinism must be discountenanced, and Arminianism encouraged. James listened, liked, and acted accordingly. Thus it appears, that the "Directions concerning Preachers" were begot on James by motives of mistaken secular policy, arising from the Spanish alliance, and from the intended popish toleration. The just opposition, which the parliament and nation raised against his majesty's dangerous designs, brought the said "directions" to the birth: and Dr. Laud, aided by his college of associates, was glad to act as principal midwife and nurse, on the occasion.

Here the matter rested, during the remainder of James' reign. For I must do him the justice to observe, that the preaching directions were the first, and the only, public step, taken by that prince, to the professed detriment of the religion established in England, if we except his negotiations with Spain and France, and his tenderness for papists. It does not appear, that the protestant preachers paid much regard to the king's "directions," by excluding the doctrine of predestination from the spiritual provision with which they nourished their flocks. In the ensuing reign of Charles the First, when Laud attained to the zenith of ecclesiastical power, those directions (somewhat amplified, and improved into a proclamation) were enforced with rigour; even to the bringing of the great and good bishop Davenant on his knees before the privy council. But though, while James lived, scarce any severity seems to have seconded the injunction, by which he imposed silence on his divines concerning some of the Calvinian articles; yet, his publication of that order tended, more than a little, to sink him in the public esteem. For, how did such a measure comport with his late professions of zeal against Arminianism? It was no farther back than the winter of 1617, that he had reproved some of the Cambridge doctors, for permitting the Arminian leaven to gain ground in that University (x). It was but in January, 1619, that his majesty flew into a violent passion, at reading some Arminian positions of Episcopius, sent over hither from Dort (y). And, after bearing so eminent a part in the condemnation of Arminianism, by the synod there assembled; his "directions," of 1622, can be imputed only to a low, absurd, and misguided policy, which reflected equal dishonour on his civil and religious character.

(x) "November 10. The king chides the doctors of Cambridge, about the spreading of the Arminian sect amongst the students."— Camden's Annals of King James, sub. 1617.

(y) "He [the archbishop of Canterbury] sent me word, that the king had the Episcopii Theses which I sent, and that he was mightily incensed at them." Dr. Balcanqual to Sir D. C. apud Hales' Rem. p. 72.

While he lived, Calvinism still supported itself in the saddle; and Arminianism, unable to keep its legs, could scarcely creep on its hands and knees. Within a few months of his majesty's decease, his zeal and vigilance against the encroachments of Arminianism extorted thanks from the eminently learned and profoundly loyal Dr. John Prideaux, then vice-chancellor of Oxford, and afterwards bishop of Worcester; whose elegant oration to the king, at Woodstock, on the 24th of August, 1624, is still extant, and has passages to the following effect. "Do we rejoice, that the university of Oxford is preserved, untainted, from the leaven of popery? We are indebted, for that preservation, to your majesty's prudential care. Do we congratulate ourselves, that our seats remain uninfected by the Arminian pestilence? It was your forecast, which supplied us with the timely antidote. Are the discipline of the church, the good order of our colleges, and the episcopal government itself, preserved from the levelling and confounding innovations of puritanism? It is your royal and experienced wisdom, which has damped the rage of puritans, and restrained them with the bridle they deserve. Yes: to you we owe, that popery hangs its head; that Arminianism is repressed; and that puritanism does not lay waste our borders. Within the last nine years, Oxford has sent forth seventy-three doctors in divinity, and more than one hundred and eighty batchelors in the same sacred science. I, as your majesty's divinity professor, had the honour to be concerned, in the conferring of those degrees. And I can confidently affirm, that all those two hundred and fifty three divines and more, are warm detesters of popery, remote from favouring Arminianism, and strong disapprovers of puritanism." Some needful allowance must be made, for the high strains of complaisance to his majesty, wherewith the learned vice-chancellor thought meet to season his address. This great man (and he was a very great man indeed) knew, that James' palate must be tickled: and therefore, like an experienced college cook, he discreetly larded the oration to the monarch's taste. But the facts, which Dr. Prideaux affirmed, and the conclusions, deducible from those facts, are more than a little important to the argument now in hand.

Death closed the eyes of king James, on the 27th of March, 1625. Guthrie has hit off his character, with much judgment and exactness: "He was," says that writer, "a king despicably great; a scholar impertinently learned; a politician unprofitably cunning; and a man immorally religious."

Burnet justly observes, that "No king could die less lamented, or less esteemed. His reign in England was a continued course of mean practices. He was become the scorn of the age. And while hungry writers flattered him out of measure, at home, he was despised by all, abroad, as a pedant, without true judgment, courage, or steadiness; subject to his favourites, and delivered up to the counsels, or rather the corruption of Spain."

He is said to have been the first of our kings, who assumed the appellation of "Most sacred majesty." And certain it is, that he was the first of them, who, for his weakness, vanity, inconstancy, and pusillanimity, obtained the nick-name of queen, both among foreigners, and among his own subjects. The terms "king Elizabeth," and "queen James," shew, to what an ebb of contempt the latter was reduced, when set in competition with his magnanimous predecessor.

In the language of sycophants, the reigning king never fails to be the best that ever filled a throne. Such was James, while living, represented to be, by those artful flatterers (and by those only), whose interest led them to practice on his weakness, and to mould him to their own purposes. He was pronounced, "The Solomon of the age ;" a "pithy and sweet orator," whose "words were as apples of gold in pictures of silver:" yea, that "he spake by the instinct of the Spirit of God." They declared him to be "such a king, as, since Christ's time, the like had not been." His writings were styled, "blazing stars, which men look upon with amazement and which were "fuller of excellent counsels, than a pomegranate is full of kernels." On some occasions, his pen teemed with what are still better than "kernels;" even with "pearls." He was "a divine;" he was "a natural philosopher;" he was a non-pariel, both "for parts of nature, for gifts of learning, and graces of piety (c)."

(c) For all this rubbish, and for more of the same sort, consult bishop Barlow's Account of the Conference at Hampton Court, and bishop Mountague's Preface to James' Works.

But the cant-compliment of the time, which seems to have been most current and in vogue, and to have flowed from the tongue's end of every court lord who had a fortune to make or to mend, was, "Your majesty is the breath of our nostrils." It is the crampe repetita, which occurs, again and again, in the court conversations of that reign. No strains of adulation were too fulsome, for James to relish; nor too gross, for his digestion. He would even suck in blasphemy itself, when the vehicle of his own panegyric. Witness that horrid profanation of scripture, mentioned by Balzac. One of the Spanish ambassadors in England, receiving a visit from the king, saluted his majesty's entrance, with those words of the centurion to Christ, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof. But what fumes of licentious flattery were ever known to disgust James' nostrils? The stronger the incense, the sweeter.

Had not this king's political depravity been counterbalanced by almost an equal portion of invincible timidity; either himself, or the nation, had infallibly been ruined: so that his constitutional cowardice, even while it renders him peculiarly despicable, must be considered as a very happy ingredient in his composition. He laid, without doubt, the foundation of those calamities which so sadly distinguished the reign of his son: and the ill effects of his tyrannical maxims and distempered politics operate even at this day. The state parties, which still continue to divide the interests and the affections of Englishmen, originated in his reign. Sorry I am to add, that so detestable a prince, and so profligate a man died, in all appearance, a speculative Calvinist. I wish Mr. Hickman had less respectable authority, than that of Dr. Featly, for assuring us, that "king James called the Arminians, heretics, not many weeks before his death."

Calvinism XX - The Introduction of Arminianism...

SECTION XX.

The Introduction of Arminianism by archbishop Laud. - Short Review of tJie Calvinism of our Bishops and Universities, antecedently to that AEra. - Objections answered: - And the Whole Concluded.

King Charles the First ascended the throne, at a very unfavourable time, and under circumstances of peculiar disadvantage; a consideration, which should never be forgot, amidst the just censures wherewith impartial posterity must always brand the calamitous maxims by which he steered.

To develope the intricate complication of untoward coincidents, or the political situation of things, which marked the aera of Charles' accession, does not fall within the province of my present undertaking. It shall, therefore, suffice, to observe, that had Laud possessed any degree of common prudence, the civil complexion of the times would, alone, have taught him, how necessary it was for him to restrain his own restless spirit from raising a storm in the church, when the symptoms of approaching convulsion had already began to endanger the state. But, on the death of James, the prelate, who had been kept in considerable awe by that prince, was over-joyed to find himself in a state of perfect liberty under Charles, whose favour he had cultivated with success, and into whose ear he continually distilled the most pernicious poison a prince can imbibe.

Indeed, Laud found no great difficulty in bringing the new monarch to his lure. He did but sow in ground already ploughed to his hands. Charles was imperious, by nature; and tyrannic, by education. With the crown, he inherited all the arbitrary principles of his father. The plan of despotism, rudely sketched by James, was hurried into an absolute system by Charles; who adopted it with more settled obstinacy of determination, and pursued it with more daring boldness of execution.

If Heylyn may be credited, Laud had formed a design so far back as the year 1600, of endeavouring to pervert the church of England from her Calvinistic doctrines. A very extraordinary object, for so raw a youth, as he, at that time, was! or, as Heylyn himself expresses it, "a desperate attempt, for a single man, unseconded, and not well befriended, to oppose himself against an army, to strive against so strong a stream, and cross the current of the times!" He was then about twenty-five years of age; a young master of arts; no more than Fellow of St. John's college, Oxford; not many years emancipated from school; in deacon's orders only; his finances very moderate; without any ecclesiastical preferment; and with hardly a friend in the university, to countenance him amidst that torrent of general and public odium, which his haughty behaviour and his papistical bias had drawn upon him from every side; for a man, under those circumstances, and in so early a part of life, to project a scheme of such consequence and difficulty, as the divorcing of the established church from her own essential principles, exhibits an instance of wild self-sufficiency, and of audacious restlessness, scarcely to be exceeded in the whole compass of history.

No wonder that a person, stimulated by this outrageous enthusiasm for innovation, drove so furiously when Charles intrusted him with the reins. Mosheim shall give us a concise view of the plan adopted both by the sovereign and the prelate.

"All the emotions of his [i. e. of king Charles'] zeal, and the whole tenor of his administration, were directed towards the three following objects:

"[1.] The extending the royal prerogative, and raising the power of the crown above the authority of the law.

"[2.] The reduction of all the churches in Great Britain and Ireland, under the jurisdiction of bishops.

"[3.] The suppression of the opinions and institutions peculiar to Calvinism.

"The person, whom the king chiefly intrusted with the execution of this arduous plan, was William Laud" [who, in July, 1628, became] "bishop of London. This haughty prelate executed the plans of his royal master, and fulfilled the views of his own ambition, without using those mild and moderate methods, which prudence employs, to make unpopular schemes go down. He carried matters with a high hand. When he found the laws opposing his views, he treated them with contempt, and violated them without hesitation. He loaded the puritans" [and not them only, but all who avowed the doctrinal system of the church, though ever so zealous for the hierarchy and ceremonies] "with injuries and vexations, and aimed at nothing less than their total extinction. He rejected the Calvinistical doctrine of predestination, publicly, in the year 1625" [viz. in the first year of Charles' reign]; "and, notwithstanding the opposition and remonstrances of [archbishop] Abbot, substituted the Arminian system in its place."

The Arminians, therefore, were no losers, by the death of king James. On the contrary, their influence continually encreased, from the moment Charles began to wield the sceptre. Being the avowed enemies of limited monarchy, this unhappy prince entered as warmly into their religious principles, as they did, into his political views. Between eight and nine years after his accession, the court-credit of the Arminian faction arrived to its meridian; when, on the decease of good archbishop Abbot, Laud was lifted to the see of Canterbury, and the reformed world, with indignation and concern, saw Lambeth palace become the head quarters of Arminianism, A. D. 1633. There had been six protestant metropolitans, from the reformation, to the advancement of Laud: viz. Cranmer, Parker, Grindal, Whitgift, Bancroft, and Abbot. Not one of these was tainted with Arminianism. Laud was the first Arminian primate of England, who made profession of the reformed religion. Nor is it unworthy of notice, that Arminius himself, whose doctrines the high flying Laud so fiercely adopted, was neither more nor less than a Dutch presbyterian and republican.

I shall confine myself to two remarkable instances of the force and fraud, with which this grand corrupter of our established church laboured to debauch her purity of faith.

I. The directions concerning preachers, issued by James the first (as already noted), in the year 1622, forbad every clergyman, under the degree of a bishop, or of a dean, to preach, in public, either for or against such of the doctrines of grace as were specified in those directions. But as this prohibition was (h) very unpleasing to the public in general, so was it far from producing universal obedience. The king, perceiving how much offence his directions had given to the nation, thought proper to publish a subsequent apology for his conduct in that matter: which discreet step conduced, both to calm the minds of the people, and to blunt the force of the directions themselves. This was not the first time that James had been drawn into a scrape by Laud; nor the first time of his majesty's receding from the imprudent measures into which he had been hurried by that warm and forward ecclesiastic.

(h) Among the remarks, to which James' absurd injunction had given occasion, were the following. Some observed, that "in prohibiting the preaching of predestination, man makes that the forbidden fruit, which God appointed for the tree of life: so cordial [are] the comforts contained therein [i.e. contained in the scripture-doctrine of predestination], to a distressed conscience." Others seasoned their complaints with sarcasm and invective: saying, "bishops and deans, forsooth, and none under their dignity, may preach of predestination. What is this, but to have the word of God in respect of persons? As if all discretion were confined to cathedral men! and they best able to preach, who use it the least!" Fuller's Church Hist, book x. p. 110.

But Charles had very little of his father's "king-craft." In June 1626 (i. e. hardly more than four months after his coronation), Laud got him to revive the unpopular directions concerning preachers; of which a new edition appeared, in the form of a proclamation, extending the prohibition to bishops and deans themselves: who were, by this ill-judged stretch of royal supremacy, commanded to forbear, from treating of predestination in their sermons and writings.

One immediate design of this proclamation was, to shelter Richard Montagu (who had lately written in behalf of the Arminian doctrines, and of (m) absolute obedience to kings) from the printed refutations, which were showering upon him from all quarters. Among the numerous champions, who had hewn Montagu's Arminianism in pieces, were Dr. Sutcliffe, dean of Exeter; bishop Carleton, of Chichester; and Mr. Wooton, divinity professor in Gresham college. The parliament too, near a twelvemonth before, had severely censured Montagu's performance (entitled, An Appeal to Csesar), in which, said the committee of enquiry, "There are many things directly contrary to the [XXXIX] articles of religion established by parliament. He denies that Arminius was the first who infected Leyden with errors and schisms. The synod of Dort, so honoured by the late king, he calls foreign and partial. He plainly intimates, that there are puritan bishops; which, we conceive, tends much to the disturbance of the peace in church and state. He respects Bellarmine, but slights Calvin, Beza, Perkins, Whitaker, and Reynolds. He much discountenances God's word; disgraces lectures, and lecturers, and preaching itself; nay, even reading the bible. Upon the whole, the frame of the book is, to encourage popery, in maintaining the papists to be the true church, and that they differ not from us in any fundamental point." So spake the committee of the house of commons, 1625.

(m) Arminianism took care, in that age, to connect itself with despotism. And these two systems, cemented by their mutual interest in each other, constituted that grand combination, against the doctrines of the church, and against the constitutional liberty of the public, which soon issued in the overthrow of nation, church, and king.

‘Tis very observable, that Charles and Laud had recourse to a proclamation, because they were afraid to trust the Arminian controversy to the management of a convocation. Heylyn has blabbed this curious secret: and unwarily informs us, that the bishops and clergy of England were so averse to Arminianism, that it would have been highly unsafe to have staked, on their decision, the court design of banishing predestination from the pulpits. Read his own words: "Andrews did not hold it fit for any thing to be done in that particular" [viz. concerning new modelling the church of England from Calvinism to Arminianism], "as the case then stood: the truth in those opinions" [by the truth Heylyn means the Arminian tenets] "not being so generally entertained among the clergy, nor the archbishop [viz. Abbot, who was then living] and the greater part of the prelates so inclinable to them [i. e. to Arminius' doctrines], as to venture the determining of those points to a convocation. But that which was not thought fit, in that conjecture, for a convocation, his majesty was pleased to take order in, by his royal edict. Many books had been written against Montagu, &c.."

Some considerable time after the said proclamation, or "royal edict," had been issued, Dr. Davenant, bishop of Salisbury, preached before the king at Whitehall. His text, as himself acquaints us, was Ro 6:23. The gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. "Here," says his lordship, "I expounded the threefold happiness of the godly.

"1. Happy in the Lord, whom they serve: God, or Christ Jesus.

"2. Happy in the reward of their service: eternal life.

"3. Happy in the manner of their reward: xapisma, or gratuitum donum in Christ? [i. e. the reward is God's free, unmerited gift in Christ.]

"The two former points were not excepted against. In the third and last, I considered eternal life in three divers instances:

"[1.] In the eternal destination thereunto, which we call election.

"[2.] In our conversion, regeneration, or" [manifestative] "justification: which I termed the embryo of eternal life.

"[3.] And, last of all, in our coronation, when full possession of eternal life is given us.

"In all these, I showed it to be xarisma,or the free gift of God, through Christ; and not procured, or pre-merited, by any special acts depending upon the free-will of men. The last point, wherein I opposed the popish doctrine of merit, was not disliked. The second, wherein I showed, that effectual vocation, or regeneration, whereby we have eternal life inchoated and begun in us, is a free gift; was not expressly taxed. Only the first was it which bred the offence: not in regard of the doctrine itself, but because, as my lord's grace [i. e. Harsenet, archbishop of York] said, the king had prohibited the debating thereof"

What was the consequence of the excellent bishop's presuming to assert predestination to the face of the Arminian king and his whole court? “Presently after my sermon was ended, it was signified unto me, by my lord of York, my lord of (r) Winchester, and my lord Chamberlain, that his majesty was much displeased that I had stirred this question, which he had forbidden to be meddled withal, one way or other. My answer was, that I had delivered nothing but the received doctrine of our church, established in the seventeenth article: and that I was ready to justify the truth of what I had then taught. Their answer was, that the doctrine was not gainsayed; but his highness had given command, that these questions should not be debated: and therefore he took it more offensively, that any should be so bold, as, in his own hearing, to break his royal commands.

(r) The learned and orthodox Dr. Launcelot Andrews was this bishop of Winchester: a prelate, who, though a Calvinist in sentiment, knew how to keep his Calvinism to himself, like a good courtier, when necessity or conveniency required. But if his lordship could discreetly throw a mantle over his religious principles, to conceal them from Charles, king of England (or, rather, superinduce a veil of gauze over them, by occasional court compliance, to render them not so glaringly visible); yet, he dared not dissemble with God, the king of heaven. On his knees in his closet, bishop Andrews was as purely and scripturally orthodox, as Abbot, Usher, Carleton, or Davenant. Witness, among many others, the following passages, which occur in his private devotions; and which, though they passed the translating pen of an eminent modern Arminian (for I never met with the Greek original), run in this truly evangelical strain. "Hold thou me in, with bit and bridle, when I would break away from thee. O thou, who hast invited me, compel me to come into my own happiness!" "From thee, O Christ, the anointed, let me have the unction of thy chosen." "Think upon the congregation which thou hast purchased and redeemed of old." "What shall thy servant say? That I will pay thee all? Oh, no! I do most truly and sorrowfully confess, that I have nothing at all to pay." "I have neither understanding to discern; nor power to effect; nor, as I ought to have, even will to desire and seek my truest and best good." "We have sinned, and have all become as an unclean thing: our righteousnesses are like filthy rags." "In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing." "I believe his providence, by which the world, and all things in it, are preserved, governed and perfected." "Turn thou us, O good Lord, unto thee; and so shall we be turned." "O let Christ be an effectual propitiation for my sins, who is a sufficient propitiation for the sins of the whole world." Thou hast sent, "Thy Christ, the Son of thy love, that, by his spotless and holy life, he might fulfil the obedience of the law; and, by the sacrifice of his death, might take away the curse." "Visit me with the favour which thou bearest unto thy chosen." Dean Stanhope's Translation of Bishop Andrews' Devotions, p. 19, 20. 22. 20. 26. 41. 52. 55, 56. 59. 71. 73. 93.109.

"My reply was only this: that I never understood his majesty had forbid the handling of any doctrine comprised in the articles of our church; but only the raising of new questions, or adding of new sense thereunto: which I had not done, nor ever should do. This was all that passed betwixt us, on Sunday night, after my sermon.

"The matter thus rested, and I heard no more of it, until coming to the Tuesday sermon, one of the clerks of the council told ine, that I was to attend, at the council table, the next day, at two of the clock. I told him, I would wait upon their lordships, at the hour appointed.

"When I came thither, my lord of York made a speech of well-nigh half an hour long, aggravating the boldness of my offence, and showing the many inconveniences which it was likely to draw after it. When his grace had finished, I desired the lords, that since I was called thither as an offender, I might not be put to answer a long speech on the sudden; but that my lord's grace would be pleased to charge me, point by point, and so to receive my answer: for I did not yet understand, wherein I had broken any commandment of his majesty's, which my lord in his whole discourse took for granted. Having made this motion, I made no farther answer: and all the lords were silent for a while.

"At length, my lord's grace said, I knew, well enough, the point which was urged against me: namely, the breach of the king's declaration. Then I stood upon this defence: that the doctrine of predestination, which I taught, was not forbidden by the declaration, (1.) Because in the declaration, all the [thirty-nine] articles are established: amongst which, the article of predestination is one. (2.) Because all ministers are urged to subscribe unto the truth of the article [viz. of the seventeenth article, which concerns predestination], and all subjects to continue in the profession of that, as well as of the rest. Upon these and such like grounds, I gathered, it [i. e. predestination] could not be esteemed among forbidden, curious, or needless doctrines.

"And here, I desired, that, out of any clause in the declaration, it might be showed me, that keeping myself within the bounds of the article, I had transgressed his majesty's command. But the declaration was not produced, nor any particular words in it. Only this was urged, that the king's will was, that, for the peace of the church, these high questions should be forborne." His lordship, after discreetly promising a general conformity to his majesty's pleasure, saluted the council, and withdrew.

Fuller observes, that the bishop, at his first coming into the council chamber, presented himself, before the board, on his knees. A circumstance of mortifying indignity, which the spiteful Laud was, in all probability, the procurer of. A very strange sight, to behold a bishop of Salisbury, one of the most respectable peers of the realm, constrained to that humiliating posture, only for preaching a doctrine to which he had solemnly subscribed; and which was confessed to be a true doctrine, by the very persons themselves who were the inflicters of the disgrace, and at the very time when the disgrace was inflicted! This we learn from the bishop's own narrative: "Though it grieved me," says Davenant, "that the established doctrine of our church should be distasted; yet, it grieved me the less, because the truth of what I delivered was acknowledged even by those who thought fit to have me questioned for the delivery of it." With what face could Charles' Arminian bishops reprimand so great a prelate as Davenant, for inculcating a scriptural tenet, to which the reprimanders themselves had set their own hands, and even then admitted to be a truth of the bible and of the church?

On his knees he might have remained, during the whole time of his continuance before the privy council, "for any favour he found from any of his own function there present. But the temporal lords bid him arise, and stand to his own defence; being as yet only accused, not convicted." Bishop Laud, who had, it is likely, been one of Davenant's auditory at Whitehall, when the offensive sermon was preached; and who was, evidently, the contriver of the preacher's embroilment, contented himself with having already effectually played his part behind the curtain: and, though present as a privy counsellor, slyly refrained from assuming any visible share in the examination of Davenant. "Doctor Harsenet, archbishop of York, managed all the business against [Salisbury]. Bishop Laud, walking by, all the while, in silence, spake not one word." But everybody knew, by whose magic this court storm had been raised.

The storm, however, was quickly laid. Within a short time, good bishop Davenant was admitted to kiss the king's hand. What passed, on that occasion, is worthy of perusal. "When I came in, his majesty declared his resolution that he would not have this high point" [viz. the high point of predestination] "meddled withal, or debated, either the one way, or the other; because it was too high for the people's understanding: and other points, which concern reformation and newness of life, were more needful and profitable. I promised obedience therein: and so, kissing his majesty's hand, departed." Was not the king an hopeful proficient in Laud's Arminian school? He "would not have" predestination "meddled with, or debated, either one way or the other:" i. e. he pretended to prohibit the opposing, no less than the asserting, of that doctrine. But he meant no more than half of what he said. Montagu (to mention a single instance, out of many) was encouraged and promoted, for opposing predestination: i. e. for literally transgressing the king's ostensible injunction. Who sees not the drift and design of all this? Let me add, that the absolute sovereignty of the most high and only wise God, manifested in the free predestination of men, according to the purpose of his unerring will; was contravened, with an exceeding ill grace, by such a monarch as Charles, who was for rendering his own authority absolute over the lips, the actions, the property, the persons, and even the religious opinions, of all the men who lived within the limits of the British dominion. An earthly prince may establish an unbounded authority, and be blameless! but the king of heaven cannot dispose as he pleases of his own, without being tyrannical and unjust!

II. The other instance, which I shall just mention, of the methods by which Laud sought to graft Arminianism on the creed of these nations, discovers no less of insidious artifice, than his foregoing treatment of Davenant displays of open insolence and coercion. I mean the thin craft and the shallow subtilty, with which he pretended to supersede those articles of religion, which had been solemnly recognised and admitted by the bishops and clergy of Ireland, assembled, in full convocation, at Dublin, in the year 1615.

Of those articles, the following are some:

"God from all eternity, did, by his unchangeable counsel, ordain whatsoever in time should come to pass. Yet so, as, thereby, no violence is offered to the wills of the reasonable creatures: and neither the liberty, nor the contingency, of the second causes, is taken away; but established rather.

"By the same eternal counsel, God hath predestinated some unto life, and reprobated some unto death, of both which, there is a certain number, known, only to God, which can neither be increased nor diminished.

"The cause, moving God to predestinate to life, is, not the foreseeing of faith, or perseverance, or good works, or of any thing which is in the person predestinated; but only the good pleasure of God himself. For, all things being ordained for the manifestation of his glory, and his glory being to appear both in the works of his mercy and of his justice; it seemed good to his heavenly wisdom, to choose out a certain number, towards whom he would extend his undeserved mercy: leaving the rest, to be spectacles of his justice.

"All God's elect are, in their time, inseparably united unto Christ, by the effectual and vital influence of the Holy Ghost, derived from him [i.e. from Christ], as from the head, to every true member of his mystical body. And, being thus made one with Christ, they are truly regenerated, and made partakers of him and all his benefits."

More of these excellent articles may be seen, in the performance referred to below. The Lambeth articles, and also as many of our own XXXIX as directly relate to the Calvinistic doctrines, were incorporated with the Irish confession; and the whole ratified by the authority of king James I the then reigning prince.

His son Charles had filled the throne, between 9 and 10 years, ere Laud would venture to nibble publicly at the said confession. With what low arts of intrigue and address he, at length, in the year 1634, feigned to have compassed his point, may be learned from Heylyn. Matters were conducted with such duplicity, that even the learned and sagacious archbishop Usher did not penetrate the more than Jesuitic slyness of Laud, Strafford, and Bramhall. Witness that part of Usher's letter to his friend Dr. Ward (the same Dr. Ward who had assisted at the synod at Dort): wherein the upright, unsuspecting primate thus apprises Ward, of what had passed in the Irish convocation of 1634. "The articles of religion, agreed upon in our former synod, anno 1615, we let stand as they did before. But, for the manifesting of our agreement with the church of England, we have received and approved your articles also" [i. e. the XXXIX articles], "concluded in the year 1572; as you may see in the first of our canons."

The archhishop was in the right. But Laud and his party endeavoured to infer, that the church of Ireland, by receiving and approving the XXXIX articles of the church of England, had actually quitted and abolished the Irish articles antecedently established in 1615. This was the quirk, which Laud had in view from the first. But it was a quirk, and nothing else. For, by "receiving" and "approving" the English articles "also;" the Irish prelates and clergy did neither cancel nor supersede their own prior articles, but only "manifested," or publicly and deliberately avowed, their doctrinal "agreement" with the church established on this side St. George's channel. So that Laud's Arminian policy amounted to no more, after all, than a stroke of mere chicane; which showed, indeed, the sophistry and deceit whereof he was capable, but which, in reality, left the old articles standing in full force "as they did before."

The articles of 1615 are, to this day, a part of the national creed established in Ireland. They were solemnly admitted by the ecclesiastical power, and as solemnly ratified by the civil. They could only be repealed and abolished by the same authority, which had established them. But this has never been done. Consequently, they are in full force, to this very hour; and, together with our own XXXIX (admitted "also," merely by way of declaratively "manifesting" or acknowledging the "agreement" between the two churches), constitute the legal standard of faith in that kingdom. For the truth of this, we have not only the unexceptionable testimony of archbishop Usher himself (who presided personally in this convocation of 1634, when the English articles were "also" received); but likewise the evidence of the canon then and there passed, and which to this moment keeps its place at the head of the Irish "constitutions and canons ecclesiastical." It runs thus. "For the manifestation of our agreement with the church of England in the confession of the same Christian faith, and the doctrine of the sacraments; we do receive and approve the book of articles of religion, agreed upon by the archbishops, and bishops, and the whole clergy in the convocation holden at London, in the year of our Lord God, 1572, for the avoiding of diversities of opinions, and for the establishing of consent, touching true religion. And, therefore, if any, hereafter, shall affirm, that any of those articles are, in any part, superstitious or erroneous; or such as he may not, with a good conscience, subscribe unto; let him be excommunicated, and not absolved before he make a public revocation of his error." Here is not the remotest hint concerning any setting aside of the former articles. The canon only associates the XXXIX articles with the preceding ones, and gives to the former the same weight of respectability in Ireland, which they bear in England.

Dr. Fuller, therefore, was too hasty, in asserting, that the Irish articles were "utterly excluded." There was no exclusion nor amputation in the case. Laud himself, some years afterwards, confessed the very point I am now maintaining. He tells us, that one of the accusations against him, on his trial, in 1644, was, concerning "The articles of Ireland, which call the pope the man of sin. But," continues Laud, "the articles of Ireland bind neither this church nor me." Exceptio probat regulam in non exceptis. His grace's observation decides the question at once. "The articles of Ireland bind not" the church of England, "nor me" as an English prelate. What was this, but allowing, to every purpose of argument, that the Irish articles continued to "bind" the church and bishops of that kingdom, though they bound not the church and bishops of this? I must again remind my reader, that Laud advanced the above remark in the year 1644: which was no fewer than ten years after the Irish articles are pretended to have been set aside. It remains, that the famous articles of Ireland were never repealed at all. Without doubt, Laud intended to repeal them when due opportunity should serve; and associated the English articles with the Irish ones by way of prelude to the future abolition of the latter. But the civil storm which soon began to thicken, rendered that, and many similar projects of his abortive. It saved the thirty-nine articles themselves from annihilation.

How violently matters were carried in England, for the suppression of the old doctrines, and for the extension of Arminianism, appears, among a thousand instances besides, from the visitation articles issued by Laud's trusty friend and pliable machine, Dr. Richard Mountagu. When this profligate priest disgraced the mitre of Norwich, among the questions propounded to the churchwardens of that diocese, was the following: "Doth your minister, commonly, or of set purpose, in his popular sermons, fall upon those much disputed and little understood doctrines of God's eternal predestination, of election antecedaneous, of reprobation irrespective without sinne foreseene, of free-will, of perseverance, and not falling from grace; points obscure, unfoldable, unfoordable, untractable?"

This, and similar practices of such diocesans as were tools to the court, were the fruits of archbishop Laud's own "injunctions," signified to the bishops in general, and charging them "in his majestie's name," that they should "take special care, that no minister nor lecturer, in their diocesse, should preach upon the prohibited controverted points, contrary to his majestie's declarations and instructions:" and that they, the bishops, "should give an yearly account, to the archbishop, of their proceedings herein." And thus, as Mr. Prynne (g) truly observes, "The Arminian errors were freely vented, in all dioceses, without any public opposition: and those who out of zeal to truth, durst open their mouths to refute them, were silenced, suspended, and brought into the high commission, to their undoing; while the Arminians, on the contrary, had free liberty to broach their erroneous tenets, without control, and were advanced to the greatest benefices and ecclesiastical dignities."

(g) Let none except against Mr. William Prynne, as though he were an incompetent evidence. The very reverse is true. Hence he is frequently cited and referred to by Heylyn himself: and (which imparts infinitely stronger sanction to the precedent) by the respectable Mr. Strype, who was particularly delicate, as to the sources from whence he drew his intelligence. Prynne was warmly attached to the doctrinal principles of the church of England, and even wrote much in their defence: though the inhuman severities, which he experienced at the hands of the furious ecclesiastics then in power, gave him some distaste of episcopacy itself. Nor were even his political sentiments carried to such an extreme, as to render them peculiarly obnoxious. In the long parliament, he attached himself, with zeal, to the interests of king Charles I. and was one of those who voted his majesty's concessions satisfactory: for which the army excluded him from the house of commons. He was deemed so sturdy a royalist, that, during the usurpation, Cromwell, on whom he had severely reflected in his writings, threw him into prison. When things began to verge towards.the restoration of Charles II. in 1659, Mr. Prynne was permitted to resume his seat in parliament; where his services to the then excluded prince, were so distinguished, and his warmth for recalling him so violent, that even general Monk advised him to moderate his zeal. Charles the Second, when restored, was so sensible of his ability and merit, that he appointed him chief keeper of the Tower records, with a salary of £500 per annum; which office he enjoyed to his death. His acceptance of this promotion is, perhaps, the largest blot in his escutcheon. That a man of Prynne's noble spirit, who had, both under the encroachments of Charles the First, and under the usurpation of Oliver Cromwell, made such glorious stands against tyranny, and suffered so greatly in the cause of civil and ecclesiastical liberty; should, afterwards, so far degenerate from the fervor of his first love, as to hold an appointment under so abandoned a being as the second Charles; would astonish, if any human deviations from virtue could justify astonishment. Had Prynne lost his life, when he lost his ears, his name had descended, with untarnished lustre, to posterity.

This learned orthodox, and indefatigable man, was born at Swainswick, in Somersetshire; received his school education at Bath; was a graduate of Oriel college, Oxford: and became barrister, bencher, and reader, at Lincoln's Inn. During the civil commotions, he sat in parliament for Newport, in Cornwall. After the restoration, he was one of the members for Bath.

He was a profound and masterly, but neither a concise, nor a, polite, writer. His works, many of which (particularly, in divinity and antiquities) are extremely valuable and useful; are said to amount to no fewer than forty volumes in folio and quarto.

Old Anthony Wood, who treats the memory of this great man with much indecent scurrility, yet does justice to his industry: " I verily believe," says Anthony, " that, if rightly computed, he wrote a sheet for every day of his life; reckoning from the time when he came to the use of reason and the state of man."

The said Anthony's account of Mr. Prynne's method of study is amusing, for the quaintness which which it is expressed. "His custom, when he studied, was, to put on a long quilted cap, which came an inch over his eyes; serving, as an umbrella, to defend them from too much light: and, seldom eating a dinner, would, every three hours or more, be munching a roll of bread; and now and then refresh his exhausted spirits with ale, brought to him by his servant.

He brought his body into an ill habit, and so, consequently shortened his days, by too much action and concernment day and night.” This hard student, however, held out till the 69th, if not the 70th year of his age. A period, whereof poor Anthony Wood came short, by six or seven years.

Mr. Prynne died, at his chambers in Lincoln's Inn, A. D. 1669; and lies buried in the walk, under the chapel there, among the pillars which support that elegant fabric.

Had Charles' political views been crowned with success, archbishop Laud would, most undoubtedly, have given the coup de grace to our established Calvinism, by procuring the XXXIX Articles to be repealed in form, and by substituting Arminian ones in their room. Together with the utter extinction of civil liberty, the church would have been shorn of those evangelical principles, which, through the good hand of God upon us, are still its glory. We had been made

"An island in our doctrines, far disjoin'd

"From the whole world of protestants beside."

But, as things then stood, the repeal of the articles would have been too dangerous a stride. Though Laud took care to have the bishoprics and crown benefices, as fast as they became vacant, filled up, for the most part, by a colony of new Arminians; yet, the old Calvinistic prelates and beneficiaries did not die off, with sufficient rapidity, for him to secure a majority in the convocation. Besides, the body of the people, incapacitated from being corrupted by preferment, would never have parted tamely with their protestant creed, had Laud even been able to have packed an ecclesiastical convocation to his mind. The members of the church of England had, in general, at that time, a very large portion of principle and virtue: which rendered them, as a body, not only respectable, but formidable. Religion was deemed sacred, by the public; and a thing worthy of contending for. The temper of those times would not have borne the total alteration at which Laud aimed. Matters were therefore to be done by degrees. The reformed doctrine established by law, and rooted in the hearts of the nation, could not, with safety to its assailants, be taken sword in hand; but they flattered themselves, that it might be gradually undermined. The archbishop was forced to content himself for the present, with altering the face of the church, before he would venture to make a home thrust at her internal constitution. He was for painting her first, and for completely debauching her afterwards. The superinduction of popish ceremonies was to clear the way for that of popish Arminianism: which two streams, when united in their course, were to have emptied themselves into the dead sea of arbitrary power.

But, just as the luckless metropolitan had made a promising entrance on his toil, providence stopped him short: and the adventurer fell, himself, into the pit which he had made for the country that bred him, and for the church that fed him. How unjustifiable soever (humanly speaking) the means might be, which brought this prelate to the scaffold, the church and kingdom of England would have had little reason to lament his fall, had he fallen alone, and not, like the apostate sun of the morning, dragged other stars from their orbits, with his tail. It is very remarkable, that, on his trial, he utterly denied himself to be either an Arminian or a promoter of Arminianism. A denial, badly calculated to impress us with a favourable idea of his regard to veracity. "I answer in general," said he, "that I never endeavoured to introduce Arminianism into our church; nor ever maintained any Arminian opinions. I did neither protect, nor countenance the Arminians' persons, books or tenets. True it is, I was, in a declaration of the commons house, taxed as a favourer [and] advancer of Arminians and their opinions, without any particular proof at all; which was a great slander to me." O human nature, how low art thou capable of falling!

I shall close this essay, with a short and general review.

1. Of the Calvinism of our old English bishops.

2. Of the Calvinism of our English universities.

3. Of the state of the Calvinistic doctrines in our church, from the death of archbishop Laud, to the present time; and,

4. Obviate an objection or two, by which those doctrines are defamed.

I. What has been already observed, concerning the principal bishops, who flourished under king Edward VI. (during whose reign the reformation was first established in England), renders any farther demonstration of their Calvinism, entirely needless. Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Hooper, Ferrar, Ponet, were eminent among the golden fathers who adorned that truly protestant period.

Under Elizabeth, the church could boast of prelates no less sound, holy, and learned. Hear how pathetically their orthodoxy was lamented by the popish party. "In England," said the zealous Scultingius, "Calvin's Book of Institutions is almost preferred to the bible itself" [had the papists said, 'In England, Calvin's institutions are valued next after the bible,' he had come nearer the mark]. "The pretended English bishops enjoin all the clergy to get the book almost by heart, never to have it out of their hands, to lay it by them in a conspicuous part of their pulpits; in a word, to prize and keep it as carefully, as the old Romans are said to have preserved the Sybilline oracles." Another angry papist (Stapleton) a native of our own island, thus made his moan: "The Institutions of Calvin are so greatly esteemed in England, that the book has been most accurately translated into English, and is even fixed in the parish churches for the people to read. Moreover, in each of the two universities, after the students have finished their circuit in philosophy, as many of them, as are designed for the ministry, are lectured first of all in that book."

Indeed, the doctrinal Calvinism of Elizabeth's bishops is almost incapable of exaggeration. Would they, in the memorable convocation of 1562, have "thought fit that ministers should converse in Ponet's catechism," in order to "learn true divinity from it;" if they themselves had not been Calvinists of the strongest dye?

Parkhurst, bishop of Norwich, shall give us a sample, how highly the foreign Calvinistic divines were esteemed and venerated by our episcopal bench. That ingenious prelate thus celebrated the praises (A. D. 1573,) of some transmarine worthies who were then living:

De Bullingero, Bibliandro, Martyre, Zancho,

Et Gualthero, Gesnero, de Pelicano,

Nostrum judicium si, forsan, Cole, requiris;

Hos ego doctrina eximios, pietate gravesque,

Judicio: queis similes perpaucos hie habit orbis.

That is: "Do you ask, what I think of Bullinger, Bibliander, Peter Martyr, Zanchius, Gualter, Gesner, and Pelicanus? My opinion of them is, that they are illustrious in point of learning, venerable for their piety, and that they have very few equals in the whole world."

Even in the reign of Charles I. a new edition of Doctor Willett's famous book, entitled, Synopsis Papismi (from which some extracts have been laid before the reader, sect. XVIII.) was favoured with a patent, the preamble to which takes notice, "That the doctor was a very painful man in behalf of the church, and that his Synopsis had been approved by the bishops; held in great esteem by the two universities; and much desired by all the learned, both of the clergy and laity, throughout the king's dominions." This was in 1630. So uncorrupt in doctrine did the bishops, the universities, the clergy, and the people generally continue, even under the malignant aspect of the Laudean planet!

Descend we lower still. The reign of Charles II. was not wholly undignified with Calvinistic bishops. Witness the great Dr. Saunderson, bishop of Lincoln. "When I began," says this valuable prelate, "to set myself to the study of divinity as my proper business, Calvin's institutions were recommended to me, as they were generally to all young scholars in those times, as the best and perfectest system of divinity, and the fittest to be laid as a ground work in the study of that profession. And indeed my expectation was not at all deceived in the reading of those institutions." Dr. Edwards, to whom I am indebted for this quotation, adds, that as bishop Saunderson "began with Calvin, so he proceeded to approve of his [Calvin's] sentiments through his whole life: as we see in his letters to Dr. Hammond, and in other parts of his writings." His lordship was the author of an admirable tract, intitled, Pax Ecclesiae; in which, among a great number of other judicious observations, the discerning prelate thus accounts for the "advantages" on which the "Arminian party hath and yet doth gain strength to itself." As for instance, "The publishing of Mr. Mountagu's appeal, with allowance [i. e. under the sanction of court countenance]: which both hath given confidence to sundry, who before were Arminians, but in secret, now to walk unmasked, and to profess their opinions publicly in all companies." The good bishop also accounted for the progress of the new doctrine, on another consideration: viz. "The plausibleness of Arminianism, and the congruity it hath in sundry points, with the principles of corrupt nature, and of carnal reason. For it is a wonderful tickling to flesh and blood to have the powers of nature magnified, and to hear itself flattered, as if she carried the greatest stroke in the work of salvation: especially, when those soothings are conveyed under the pretence of vindicating the dispensations of God's providence from the imputation of injustice." His lordship then proceeds to specify, what he terms, "The manifold cunning of the Arminians to advance their own party: as, 1. In pleading for a liberty for every man to abound in his own sense, in things undetermined by the church; that so they [the Arminians] may spread their own tenets the more freely. Whereas, yet, it is too apparent by their writings and speeches, that their intent and endeavour is, to take the benefit of this liberty themselves; but not to allow it to those that dissent from them. 2. In bragging out some of their private tenets, as if they were the received established doctrine of the church of England; by forcing the words of articles, or common prayer book, to a sense which appeareth not to have been intended therein: as Mr. Montagu hath done, in the point of falling from grace. Whereas the contrary tenet, viz. of the final perseverance of the righteous in grace and faith, may be, by as strong evidence every way, and by as natural deducement, collected out of the said books; as shall be easily proved if it be required. 3. In seeking to derive envy on the opposite [i. e. on the Calvinistic] opinions; by delivering them in terms odious, and of ill and suspicious sound. 4. Which is the most unjust and uncharitable course of all the rest, in seeking to draw the persons of those that dissent from them, into dislike with the state: as if they [i. e. as if the Calvinists] were puritans, or disciplinarians, or that way affected." So much for bishop Saunderson's judgment concerning the "manifold, unjust, and uncharitable cunning of the Arminians, to advance their own party." But what was his judgment, concerning the Calvinistic system itself? Read it, in his own words. "Lest this covenant [i. e. the covenant of grace and redemption] should yet be ineffectual, and Christ die in vain; because none of the sons of Adam, left to themselves, especially in this wretched state of [original] corruption, could actually have repented and believed in Christ; [it pleased God] for the glory of his grace, to elect and cull a certain number of particular persons, out of the corrupted lump of mankind, to be advanced into this covenant, and thereby entitled to salvation: and that without any cause, or motive, at all, in themselves; but merely of his [i. e. of God's] own free grace and good pleasure in Jesus Christ: pretermitting, and passing by the rest, to perish justly, in their sins." It is, adds his lordship, a part of God's decree, "To confer, in due season, upon the persons so elected, all fit and effectual means and graces, needful, for them, unto salvation: proportionally to their personal capacities and conditions. Thus much, concerning the salvation of those, whom God hath of his free mercy elected thereunto. But, with the reprobates, whom he hath in his justice appointed to destruction, he dealeth in another fashion: as concerning whom, he hath decreed, either,

"1. To afford them neither the extraordinary, nor so much as the outward and ordinary means of faith. Or else,

"2. In the presence of the outward means of the word and sacraments, to withhold the inward concurrence of his enlightening and renewing Spirit to work with those means. For want whereof, they [the outward means] become ineffectual to them [viz. to the reprobate] for their good; working upon them either malignantly, so as their hearts are the more hardened thereby in sin and unbelief; or infirmly, so as not to work in them a perfect conversion: but to produce (instead of the gracious habits of sanctification, as faith, repentance, charity, humility, &c.) some weak and infirm shadows of those graces: which, for their formal semblance sake, do sometimes bear the name of those graces they resemble, but were never, in the meantime, the very true graces themselves; and, in the end, are discovered to have been false, by the want of perseverance." 1 shall only add, from the same masterly tract, his lordship's idea of efficacious grace. Upon the elect, says he, who live to the use of reason, God confers "Such a measure of faith in the Son of God, of repentance from dead works, of new and holy obedience to God's commandments, together with final perseverance in all these; as, in his excellent wisdom, he seeth meet: wrought and preserved in them, outwardly, by the word and sacraments; and, inwardly, by the operation of his holy Spirit, shed in their hearts. Whereby, sweetly and without constraint [i. e. without forcible compulsion], but yet effectually, their understandings, wills, and affections, are subdued to the acknowledgment and obedience of the gospel: and both these are done, ordinarily, and by ordinary means." So writes the bishop, to whom our English liturgy is indebted for its judicious preface, which begins with, "It has been the wisdom of the church, &c."

The truly apostolic bishop Pearson (who succeeded the no less excellent bishop Wilkins, in the see of Chester) was another of Charles the second’s prelates, who did honour to the rochet. Dr. Pearson's Calvinism is so well known, (consult, for instance, his valuable exposition of the creed), that I shall only cite a memorable anecdote of him, on the testimony of the learned Dr. John Edwards. "When I was a young Master of Arts," said Pearson to Edwards, "I thought there was no difficulty in these grand articles" [viz. in the articles which divide the Calvinists and the Arminians]; "and that I was able to determine any of them with ease: especially, on the Arminian side. But I have since found it otherwise. And I disapprove of men's rash censuring and condemning the other [viz. the Calvinistic] side." And, indeed, as Dr. Edwards observes, we might have guessed this to be the bishop's inclination by his approving of Mr. Hales' Remains.

So lately as in the reign of queen Anne, the English bench was graced with a Beveridge. But further than the reign of that queen, this deponent saith not.

II. Now for a sketch of the former state of religion in the two universities.

Everybody knows the situation in which religious affairs were left by Henry VIII. That monarch, as Luther smartly and justly expressed it, "killed the pope's body, but saved his soul alive (t):" i. e. his majesty stabbed the papal (u) supremacy; continuing however to the last hour of his life, a devoted bigot to the essential doctrines of the Roman church.

(t) Luther's Divine Discourses, or Table-Talk, p. 464. Lond. 1652, folio.

(u) And even " the pope's body," as Luther termed it, bade very fair at one time for a revival: Henry having consented to negotiate a reconciliation with Clement the Seventh, under the healing auspices of the French king (Francis I.) who had "Prevailed with the pope to promise, that, if the king [of England] would send a proxy to Rome, and thereby submit his cause to the holy see; he [the pope] would appoint commissioners to meet at Cambray, and, immediately afterwards pronounce the sentence of divorce required of him. Bellay, bishop of Paris, was next dispatched to London; and obtained a promise of the king, that he would submit his cause to the Roman consistory, provided the cardinals of the Imperial faction were excluded from it. The prelate earned this verbal promise to Rome: and the pope agreed, that, if the king would sign a written agreement to the same purpose, his demands should be fully complied with. A day was appointed for the return of the messenger. But the greatest affairs often depend on the most frivolous incidents. The courier, who carried the king's written promise was detained beyond the day appointed. News was brought to Rome that a libel had been published in England against the court of Rome, and a farce acted before the king in derision of the pope and cardinals. The pope and cardinals entered into the consistory, enflamed with anger; and, by a precipitate sentence, the marriage of Henry and Catherine was pronounced valid, and Henry declared to be excommunicated if he refused to adhere to it Two days after the courier arrived: and Clement, who had been hurried from his usual prudence, found, that though he repented heartily of this hasty measure, it would be difficult for him to retract it, or replace affairs on the same footing as before." Hume, vol. iv. p. 126, 127.

Thus had not the pope regarded his infallibility as too nice a point of honour to be sacrificed by rescinding his late act, his jurisdiction had been re-established in England.

But, "After the death of Henry, by the industrious zeal of Calvin and his disciples, more especially Peter Martyr, the [English] universities, schools, and churches, became the oracles of Calvinism. Hence it happened, that, when it was proposed, under the reign of Edward VI. to give a fixed and stable turn to the doctrine and discipline of the church [of England], Geneva was acknowledged as a sister church, and the theological system there established by Calvin was adopted, and rendered the public rule of faith in England. This, however, was done without any change of the form of episcopal government." Thus stood matters while Edward swayed the sceptre.

When Mary governed, the protestant fabric reared by Edward was overturned: and as the universities under him had been reformed from popery to Calvinism, they were, under her, forcibly carried back from Calvinism to popery.

Elizabeth brought things to the right pass again; and our "universities," as well as our churches, became once more "the oracles of Calvinism:" and so they continued not only until that good queen ascended to a brighter crown, but through the reign of her successor James, and (notwithstanding Laud's vehement efforts to the contrary) through the Arminian reign of Charles I. I shall give a few instances.

In 1595, William Barret, for having contradicted the doctrine of final perseverance, and for having aspersed Calvin, Beza, Zanchius, and other luminaries of the protestant church, was forced to make reparation, both to the truths of God, and to the venerable names which he had so flippantly traduced, by publicly reading his recantation: which recantation had been drawn up for him, by the university of Cambridge, for that purpose (y).

(y) See my Tract, entitled, The Church of England vindicated from Arminianism.

Peter Baro's troubles in the same university, and in the same year with Barrett, have been already noted in our XVIIIth section.

To the above brace of brothers, let me add Dr. John Houson, by way of making up a leash. This said Houson, though a canon of Christ's church, and though he had been vice-chancellor of Oxford, fell under the censure of the university, for (what was then esteemed a crime of no small magnitude) "advancing somewhat, tending to the disparagement of the Geneva annotations on the holy scriptures." The sermons, in which he launched this indirect "disparagement," were termed, Conciones publicas, minus orthodoxas, et plenas offensionis: i. e. "not sufficiently orthodox, and replete with offence." In fine, the preacher was called in question, and suspended, "by Dr. Robert Abbot" [brother to archbishop Abbot, and shortly after bishop of Salisbury], "who was then doctor of the chair, and vice-chancellor." So fared it with canon Houson, A. D. 1614.

And no wonder. For Heylyn himself gives us the following needless information: "It cannot be denied," says the Arminian, "but that, by the error of those times, the reputation which Calvin had attained to in both universities, and the extreme diligence of his followers" [i. e. of the bishops, clergy, and laity in general] "for the better carrying on of their own designs" [viz. the laudable designs of barring out popery and pelagianism] "there was a general tendency unto his [i. e. to Calvin's] opinions." The same Arminian adds, that Calvin's "Book of Institutes was, for the most part, the foundation on which the young divines of those times did build their studies." He even confesses that he could "find" but "two anti-Calvinists," in the whole university of Oxford, at the period here treated of: which poor "two" were, Buckridge, tutor to Laud, and the above suspended Dr. Houson. Well, therefore, may the said Heylyn observe (though we should have known it without his information), that, in the two universities, the anti-Calvinians were "but few in number, and make but a very thin appearance." Extremely few and thin indeed, if their whole number amounted to no more than two! So that Heylyn should not have applied (as he does) that line to the case in hand,

Apparent rari nantes in Gurgite vasto;

but should rather have altered it to

Apparent gemini nantes in Gurgite vasto:

I mean, supposing Dr. Buckridge was really not a Calvinist. Of which, however, I stand in some doubt. Should my doubt be well grounded, Virgil's line must undergo a second alteration; and we must say, of solitary Houson,

Apparet solus natans in Gurgite vasto.

If Buckridge was then an anti-Calvinist, he seems to have been an hidden one: else would not vice-chancellor Abbot have suspended the fellow of John's, with as little scruple, as he inflicted that censure on the canon of Christ's church? Heylyn's even number, therefore, of two, does not hang well together. Divide his two Arminian doctors by one, and, in all probability, the remainder will give the (d) quotient.

(d) With regard to queen Elizabeth's reign, Heylyn does not pretend to allege a single instance of public opposition to Calvin's doctrines, during the whole of that long period, in the university of Oxford. "Of any men," says he, "who publicly opposed the Calvinian tenets, in this university, until after the beginning of king James' reign, I must confess that I have hitherto found no good assurance." Ibid. p. 626. He, indeed, pretends to think that there were some who "secretly" trained up their pupils in other principles: but, unless he had produced better authority for this supposition, than his own conjecture, the supposition may well pass for groundless.

Unhappily for the credit of Arminianism, Laud himself, its grand hero in England, incurred no little danger and molestation, at Oxford, on account of his having been suspected to lean towards that new and hated system. In the year 1606, Mr. Laud, who had then but just taken his Batchelor's degree in divinity, "was questioned [i. e. called to account], by Dr. Airy, the vice-chancellor, for a sermon preached in St. Mary's church, on the 26th of October, as containing in it sundry scandalous and popish passages: the good man [i. e. the vice-chancellor] taking all things to be matter of popery, which were not held forth unto him in Calvin's Institutes" It appears, that the orthodox university at large, were of the vice-chancellor's mind, both as to the excellency of Calvin, and as to the malignity of Laud. For Heylyn adds: "Which advantage being taken by Dr. Abbot, he so violently persecuted the poor man [i. e. poor Mr. Laud], and so openly branded him for a papist, or at least very popishly inclined: that it was almost made an heresy, as I have heard from his [viz. from Laud's] own mouth, for any one to be seen in his company; and a misprision of heresy, to give him a civil salutation as he passed the streets." They saw what materials he was made of, and stigmatized him accordingly.

Eight years after Laud's public disgrace, above recited, to wit, A. D. 1614, when the said Laud had risen to the presidentship of St. John's college, the spirited and active Dr. Abbot (not the archbishop but the bishop) took him openly to task, in a very sacred place, and on a very solemn occasion: or, as Heylyn phrases it, "Fell violently foul on Dr. William Laud, whom, in his sermon at St. Peter's, on Easter-Sunday, he [Abbot] publicly exposed to contempt and scorn, under the notion of a papist; as Barret's doctrines had been formerly condemned at Cambridge" [and with ample reason], "by the name of popery." As to Barret, he justified the suspicions which were entertained of him at Cambridge, by actually declaring himself a papist shortly after. And for Laud, a few years made it sufficiently plain, that the Oxonians were not very wide of the mark in questioning the genuine protestancy of that unhappy gentleman. Considering the zealous orthodoxy of the university in those days, Laud was well off, to escape without expulsion.

Various were the subsequent toils which Laud met with; many a weary step did he take, and many a mortifying repulse did he suffer, ere he could climb the hill of promotion to which he so ardently aspired. Heylyn laments very pathetically, the difficulties which this his patron had to surmount, on his first attempts to ascend the ladder ecclesiastic. "At this time," says he, viz. about the year 1624, and the last of king James' reign, "bishop Laud, to whom the raising and promoting of the Arminian doctrines (as they call them) is of late ascribed, was hardly able to promote and preserve himself: oppressed with an hard hand by archbishop Abbot; secretly traduced to the king, for the unfortunate business of the earl of Devonshire; attaining, with great difficulty, the poor bishopric of St. David's, after ten years’ service" [i. e. after ten years court attendance]; "and yet but green in favour with the duke of Buckingham." However, in due season the "green" favourite waxed a grey one.

Nothing is more prolific than heresy. About three years after Laud had been "publicly exposed to contempt and scorn" by vice-chancellor Abbot, in the pulpit of St. Peter's, Oxford, another bird of Laud's feather (but whose nest was in the university of Cambridge, as Fellow of Trinity college there) underwent a very uncomfortable plucking. This gentleman's name was Edward Simpson; who, A. D. 1617, preached a sermon before king James I at Royston; taking for his text, "Joh 3:6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. Hence he endeavoured to prove that the commission of any great sin doth extinguish grace and God's Spirit for the time in the man. He added also, that St. Paul, in Ro 7, spake not of himself as an apostle and regenerate, but statu legis. Hereat his majesty took and publicly expressed great distaste: because Arminius had lately been blamed for extracting the like exposition out of the works of Faustus Socinus. Whereupon, he [king James] sent to the two professors in Cambridge for their judgment herein: who [i. e. the two Cambridge divinity professors] proved and subscribed the place in Ro 7 to be understood of a regenerate man, according to St. Austin's later opinion in his retractation." What was the result?" The preacher was enjoined a public recantation before the king; which accordingly was performed. Nor doth such a palinody sound any thing to his disgrace; having St. Austin himself for his precedent, who modestly retracted what formerly he had written therein."

"Nor must we forget Mr. Gabriel Bridges, of Corpus Christi college, Oxford: who, "By preaching, on the 19th of January [1623], against the absolute decree, in maintenance of universal grace, and the co-operation of man's free-will prevented by it, in the public church of the university; laid him more open to the prosecution of Dr. Prideaux, and to the censure of the vice-chancellor and the rest of the heads, &c. We learn from another writer that the prosecution of Mr. Bridges terminated in his public recantation of his errors, and that the said recantation, though forced at first, proved eventually real and sincere: the good man being brought to a better mind, and to a serious conviction of the truths he had too hastily opposed.

Some years afterwards I find another religious delinquent; one Mr. Brookes, of Wadham college, Oxford: censured, "by the university heads, for broaching and justifying some Arminian assertions, in a sermon preached at St. Mary's." This young culprit thus censured and disgraced in the reign of James, was rewarded in that of Charles, by promotion to a wealthy cure of souls.

The Theses, publicly maintained by such as proceeded doctors in divinity, are an additional demonstration of the old university Calvinism. Mr. Prynne has collected a great number of these from the authentic acts of Oxford in particular: and introduces them with the following just remark. These "Act-Theses and questions are always (before they are either admitted, printed, published, or disputed on) propounded to a general convocation of the whole university, and by them particularly allowed, voted, and then recorded in the university register, for a testimony to posterity, as orthodox, and consonant to the established doctrine, faith, and articles, of the church of England. So that the whole university's judgment is comprised in them [i. e. in those Theses], as well as theirs that give them."

"AEterna Dei predestinatione continentur, aliorum electio ad vitam aeternam, aliorum ad mortem reprobatio: i. e. The election of some persons to everlasting life, and the reprobation of others unto death, are comprised respectively in God's eternal decree of predestination.

"Electorum certa est salus, ut periere non possint. - The salvation of the elect is so certain that they cannot possibly perish.

"Electi non possunt, in hac vita, implere legem Dei. - The elect are unable in the present life to fulfil the law of God.

"Doctrina praedestinationis olim tradita ab Augustino, et nostris temporibus a Calvino, eadem est. - The doctrine of predestination which St. Austin anciently taught, is the same with that doctrine of predestination, which in our own times, Calvin hath taught.

"Praescientia Dei aeterno decreto omnia ordinantis, non pugnavit cum abitrii libertate primis parentibus concessa. - The foreknowledge of God, who ordaineth all things by his eternal decree, did not clash with that freedom of will which he granted [in the state of innocence] to Adam and Eve."

In the reign of James I the Oxonian doctors maintained the following and similar positions for that degree in divinity:

"Tota salus electorum est mere gratuita. - The salvation of the elect is, from first to last absolutely free and unmerited.

"Electi debent esse, et sunt tandem, suae salutis certi. - The elect ought to be assured of their salvation; and sooner or later they are so.

"Reprobus quisque sua solius perit malitia. - Every reprobate perishes in consequence of his own wickedness only.

"An, qui in Christo sunt perire possint? Neg. - They who are in Christ, cannot perish.

"An certi salutis suae omnes salventur? Aff. – All, who are assured of their salvation shall surely be saved.

"An fideles possint, certa fide, statuere remissa esse peccata? Aff. - Believers may, with an assured faith, conclude that their sins are forgiven.

"Non est liberum arbitrium. - Man's will is not free.

"Sancti non possunt excidere gratia. - Real saints cannot fall entirely from grace.

"An, homo possit se praeparare ad gratiam recipiendam? Neg. - Man cannot prepare himself to receive grace.

"An, homo possit scire, se habere gratiam? Aff. - A man who has grace, may know that he has it.

"An, electio. sit ex praevisis operibus? Neg. - Election is not occasioned by God's foresight of good works.

"An, decretum reprobationis sit absolutum? Aff. - The decree of reprobation is absolute.

"An, Deus autor peccati, juxta reformatorum sententiam, statuatur? Neg. - The doctrine of the reformers, or of the reformed divines, does not make God the author of sin.

"An, gratia regenerationis omnibus offeratur? Neg. - The grace of regeneration is not offered to all men.

"An, gratia regenerationis possit resisti? Neg. - The grace of regeneration is irresistible.

"An, voluntas, in prima conversione, habeat se tantum passive? Aff. - The will of man is entirely passive, in the first reception of grace.

"An, reconciliatio per mortem Christi sit singulis hominibus impetrati? Neg. - Christ's death did not procure reconciliation with God for every man.

"An, lapsus Adami, diverso respectu, dici possit necessarius et contingens? Aff. - The fall of Adam was both contingent and necessary.

"An, decretum, de danda fide, sit, in mente divina, prius decreto de danda salute? Neg. - God first decreed to save his people; and, in consequence of that decree, resolved to give them faith.

"An, semel vere justificatus semper maneat justificatus? Aff. - The man who is once truly justified continues justified for ever.

"An, voluntas humana resistere possit gratiae Dei efficaci? Neg. - Man's will cannot resist the efficacious grace of God.

"An, post Adama lapsum, libertas ad bonum sit prorsus amissa? Aff. - Ever since the fall of Adam, the human will has utterly lost all its freedom to [spiritual] good.

"An, omnes baptizati sint justificati? Neg. - All baptized persons are not therefore in a state of justification.

"An, ipse actus fidei nobis imputetur pro justitia legis sensu proprio? Neg. - Strictly speaking, the act of believing is not imputed to us for legal righteousness.

"An, fides, et fidei justitia, sint propria electorum? Aff. - Faith itself, and the righteousness of faith are peculiar to the elect."

Among others, the Theses, which next follow, were asserted by the Oxford doctors, even after the accession of king Charles I. when Calvinism ceased to enjoy the sunshine of court encouragement.

Anno 1625. "An, praedestinatio sit ex praevisa fide, vel operibus? Neg. - Predestination to life is not for faith and good works foreseen.

Anno I627. "An, praedestinatio ad salutem sit mutabilis? Neg. - Predestination to life is an unchangeable act of God.

"An, fides, semel habita, possit amitti? Neg. - True faith, once had, can never be lost.

"An, vera fides cadat in reprobum? Neg. - No reprobate can truly believe.

"An, efficacia gratiae pendeat a libero influxu arbitrii? Neg. - The efficacy of divine grace is not suspended on the free influence of man's will.

"An, Christus divinae justitiae, vice nostra, proprie et integre satisfecerit? Aff. - Christ did, literally and completely, make satisfaction to the justice of God, in our room and stead.”

Anno 1628. "An, arbitrium humanum determinet gratiam divinam? Neg. - God's grace is not determined by man's will."

Examples might be multiplied to a volume. But the reader may judge of the crop, by the small gleaning here presented to his view. The church of England in those days, might boast of Oxonians who believed as well as subscribed her Thirty-nine articles.

Nor did our other "oculus angliae," the university of Cambridge, yield a jot to her elder sister in point of orthodoxy. The eminent Dr. Samuel Ward, in May, 1628, thus wrote from Cambridge to archbishop Usher: "As for our university, none do patronize these [i. e. the Arminian] points, either in schools or pulpit. Though, because preferments at court are conferred on such as incline that way, causeth some to look that way." In the same letter he blames a Dr. Jackson, who had lately "professed himself an Arminian:" and adds, concerning the said Jackson, "I do conceive all that which he disputeth in his book against negative reprobation, as not sorting with the antecedent will of God for the salvation of all; to be against the seventeenth article of religion, which plainly avereth a gratuitous predestination of some and not of all. Therefore, from thence [i. e. from the seventeenth article of the church of England] is inferred, a not election of others to that grace: which is that which, properly, is styled, reprobation."

More than six years after, viz. in June, 1634, when Arminianism had waxed both older and bolder, the same Dr. Ward wrote as follows, to the said great and good archbishop. "We have had some doings here [at Cambridge], of late, about one of Pembroke-hall [viz. Mr. Tourney]; who, preaching in St. Mary's, about the beginning of Lent, upon Jas 2:22 seemed to avouch the insufficiency of faith to justification, and to impugn the doctrine of our eleventh article of justification by faith only: for which he was convented by the vice-chancellor, who was willing to accept of an easy acknowledgment. But the same party, preaching his Latin sermon, pro gradu, the last week, upon Ro 3:28; he said, he came not Palinodiam canere, sed eandem Cantilenam canere. Which moved our vice-chancellor, Dr. Love, to call for his sermon: which he refused to deliver. Whereupon, on Wednesday last, being Barnaby day, the day appointed for the admission of the batchelors of divinity, which must answer, Die Comitiorum; he (viz. the Arminian preacher) was stayed (i. e. stopt of his degree) by the major part of the suffrages of the doctors of the faculty. And though sundry doctors did favour him (even as many as wished to recommend themselves at court and at Lambeth) "and would have had him to be the man that should answer, Die Comitiorum; yet he is put by: and one Mr. Flatkers, of our (viz. of Sydney) college, chosen to answer; whose first question is, sola fides justificat. - The truth is, there are some heads among us that are great abettors of Mr. Tourney, the party above mentioned; who no doubt are backed by others. I pray God we may persist in the doctrine of our church, contained in our articles and homilies! innovators are too much favoured now-a-days. Our vice-chancellor hath carried business, for matter of religion, both stoutly and discreetly. - It may be you are willing to hear of our university affairs. I may truly say, I never knew them in worse condition, since I was a member thereof: which is almost forty-six years. Not but that I hope the greater part is orthodox. But new heads are brought in, and they are backed in maintaining novelties, and them which broach new opinions. Others" (i.e. those who abide by the old Calvinian truths] "are disgraced and checked, when they come above" [i. e. when they either went to court, or waited on Charles' new Arminian bishops] "as I myself was, by my lord of York" {Viz. Richard Neile] "last Lent, in consistory, for favouring puritans" (the stale, unjust, and shameless pretence, under which the Laudsean faction sought to cover their design of smothering the church doctrines): "and all from false informations from hence, which are believed without any examination. - I think, they would have me out of my professor's place. And I could wish the same, if I could have one to succeed according to my mind. - Well, howsoever, God's will be done; and he teach us humility and patience! I heard also of some doings with you. The Lord of heaven direct you and us, and teach us to submit to him in all things. - I have not yet sent my answer to Mr. Ch., but intend ere long. I have not finished yet one point: (viz,) to show that the Arminian opinions were condemned in the synods which condemned the pelagian heresy. - The tractate, De Praedestinationis, in defence of your lordship (I know not your adversary, nor his name), is Doctor Twiffe's. It may be he hath sent your lordship a copy of it. He is a deserving man. We have a (new) vice-chancellor who favours novelties both in rites and doctrines." Observe here, 1. That Arminianism was then beginning to gain ground in Cambridge. 2. This made good Doctor Ward sigh and weep over the corrupt inundation, which he dreaded would overwhelm the church of England. 3. Laud, Neile, and the other ecclesiastical instruments of court oppression, laboured, might and main, to "disgrace" and "check" all the conscientious churchmen, who stood to the "articles" and "homilies." Among the rest, this Dr. Ward and archbishop Usher himself, had been brow-beaten and insulted by the unblushing priests who held the rudder. 4. Matters, however, though gloomy and unpromising, were not yet so bad, but an Arminian clergyman, "backed" by people in power, was, for being an Arminian, refused his degree "by the major part of the suffrages" of the Cambridge doctors (in divinity, so low down as A. D. 1634, which was the) tenth year of Charles' reign, and the second of Laud's primacy. - 5. How differently did the court current flow about sixteen years before, when the identical Dr. Ward, who wrote the above letter, was sent by king James in triumph to the synod of Dort!

Let the same reverend and learned hand inform us, how the church of Rome exulted on the eclipse of Calvinism in England. "Our commencement is now over: where dean Baden, now Dr. Baden, did well perform his part; who answered the act, Vesperiis Comitiorum. And so did the batchelor of divinity, Die Comitiorum; being one of the fellows of our college. The (late) vice-chancellor, Dr. Love, did well perform his part; especially, in encountering with one Franciscus de St. Clara (but his true name is Davenport), who, in a book set forth at Douay, would reconcile our articles of religion with the definitions of the council of Trent." The encreasing rampancy of Arminianism in this kingdom, which encouraged the pope himself to make Laud two separate offers of a cardinal's hat, emboldened the Romish minorite, Davenport, to lend an helping hand to the common cause, by striving to strike up a match between the thirty-nine articles and the decisions of Trent. Nor did the minorite, in this shameless effort at impossibility, act at all more absurdly than did those degenerate and impudent protestants, who first pretended to find Arminianism in the said thirty-nine articles of the church of England. Was Arminianism really the doctrine of these articles, Francis de St. Clara might have spared half his trouble: for there would then be, so far as Arminianism is concerned, no shadow of difference between the English articles and the Trentish determinations.

I shall conclude this brief enquiry into the Calvinism of our universities, with a sketch of the happy effects which archbishop Usher's preaching had, at Oxford, on the youths of that renowned seminary, antecedently to the civil wars.

"The persuasion of his (i. e. of Usher's) incomparable learning, the observation of his awful gravity, the evidence of his eminent and exemplary piety, all improved to the height by his indefatigable industry, drew students to flock to him as doves to the windows. It joys us to recollect, how multitudes of scholars, especially the heads of our tribes, thronged to hear the sound of his silver bell, and how much they were taken with the voice of this wise charmer. Surely, if ever, it was then; that the gospel ran and was glorified in Oxford. - Here you might have seen a sturdy Saul changed into a submissive Paul: a persecutor transformed into a preacher. There a tender-hearted Josiah lamenting after the Lord, and, with Ephraim, smiting on his thigh, saying, what have I done! Others, with the penitent Jews, so stabbed at the heart, as to cry out, men, brethren, fathers, what shall we do?" - Could archbishop Usher have risen from the dead and preached in Oxford as heretofore; delivering the ancient truths, and with the same spiritual success, I fear there has been a subsequent period, when his converted students would have been expelled, and the preacher himself rung out of the town. - This reminds me of the

3rd remaining particular: namely, just to touch upon the state of religion amongst us, since the primary introduction of Arminianism by archbishop Laud.

The final catastrophes of Charles' reign are well known; of which catastrophes his own tyranny, perverseness, and insincerity, together with the violent conduct of his ministers, must undoubtedly be considered as the main source. With regard to ecclesiastical matters, the triumphant sectarists did but finish what Laud had began. That prelate laboured to destroy the internal doctrines of the church: and the republican zealots followed the blow by demolishing the whole fabric.

In the unsettled times which intervened between the execution of Charles I. and the restoration of his family to the crown; the church lay in ruins. A violent extreme very frequently engenders its opposite. As Laud had directed much of his zeal and force towards his favourite point, of re-baptizing the church into the grossest absurdities of splendid superstition; his enemies were no sooner masters of the field than they bent things too much the other way, and opened a channel to the wildest extravagancies of fanaticism. The elegant simplicity, with which the national worship had been solemnized during the reigns of Elizabeth and James I gave place, in many instances, to naked and slovenly modes of celebration, that rendered the public performance of divine offices rather matter of contempt and disgust, than steps to decent and reasonable devotion.

It must, indeed, be acknowledged, that during the period now treated of (viz. the usurpation), many eminent divines flourished, whose piety and learning, abilities and candour, would have adorned any denomination, and have done honour to any party whatever. Mr. Stephen Charnock, for example, in whom all those illustrious qualities were united, and to a very uncommon degree, may rank with the best and most respectable men to whom this island ever gave birth. Yet is it equally true, that no small number of the then authorised teachers were immerged in the thickest dregs of ignorance, bigotry, and fanaticism. For the plan (now adopted by Mr. John Wesjey, and which has ever been in fashion among the Turks) was then too generally pursued in England: viz. that of prostituting the ministerial function to the lowest and most illiterate mechanics, persons of almost any class, but especially common soldiers, who pretended to be pregnant with "a message from the Lord," had free access to the pulpit. If the preacher was hardly "letter-learned" enough, to read his text; that very circumstance was in the opinion of many but a stronger demonstration of his being supernaturally "gifted." It is easy to conceive, what an inverted and distorted figure the protestant doctrines must have made, when viewed through the medium of such ministrations. Corruptio optimi est passima. It was this unhappy circumstance which opened the chief door to those floods of licentious ridicule and burlesque, poured on the most venerable and important truths in the subsequent days of Charles II.(u) - Among the lay-preachers, who most signalized themselves during the usurpation, was John Goodwin, the Arminian leveller and fifth monarchy man; with whom must be joined his co-adjutant in the work of the ministry (for they both occupied one pulpit), the renowned Mr. Thomas Venner, no less eminent for the insurrections which he raised, for the murders he committed, and for his horrible dying behaviour at the gallows, than for his skilfulness in hooping barrels (which was his proper trade), and for the ardour wherewith he propagated Arminianism.

(u) The following portrait of Charles II. though sketched by a foreign hand, conveys a striking likeness of that profane and libidinous tyrant. Fuit is libidinis servus; sacra susque deque habens; Protestantis speciem prae se ferens, ut securius regnaret; sed in extremis, ut quidem ferunt, pontificio ritu rem divinam fecit, i.e. he was a drudge to lust; a contemptuous disregarder of every thing serious and sacred; a protestant in pretence to secure himself on the throne; but, in his last moments, he so far threw off the masque as to receive the eucharist, &c. after the manner prescribed by the popish ritual." - Joh. Alph. Turettint Hist. Eccles. p. 403.

Monarchy and the church of England revived together, in 1663. By the church of England, I here mean the frame and the forms of the church: or, in other words, her hierarchy, discipline, worship, and revenues. Does the reader ask, why I express myself with such precision and limitation? I would rather answer this question in the words of another, than in words of my own. - "Upon the Restoration, the church, though she still retained her old subscriptions and articles of faith, was found to have totally changed her speculative principles." That is, though the liturgy, articles, and homilies, were not weeded of their Calvinism, yet, very many of the new clergy were tinged with Arminianism. To preserve appearances the old doctrines were permitted to keep their place in the printed standards; but a great number of the new subscribers had in reality ranged themselves under a different banner. - Thus, no sooner had the goodness of divine providence retrieved the church from the hands of her declared enemies, than she suffered by the doctrinal desertion of her ostensible friends. Not that the desertion then, any more than now, was universal. But those who embraced that odd species of dissenting conformity known by the name of Arminianism, appear to have constituted the majority (y); and have done so from that day to this.

(y) It is remarkable, that application was made to Charles the Second, to revive queen Elizabeth's order for placing Fox's History of the Martyrs in the common halls of the archbishops, bishops, deans, arch-deacons, colleges, &c. To which request, the crafty king seemed to smile assent. But he took care to leave the thing undone. - See Wood's Athen. I. 187.

IV. Let me now proceed to the ventilation of such objections raised against the doctrinal Calvinism of the church of England, as I have either omitted to confute, or have but lightly touched upon in my former publications.

1. We are gravely told, by one Arminian after another, that the principles of our established church are, "not Calvinian but Melancthonian." If this was true what would the Arminians get by it? just nothing at all. For, as I have (z) elsewhere proved, Melancthon carried the doctrine of predestination to as high a pitch as Luther and Calvin themselves. Nor did he ever retract a single syllable of what he wrote on that subject.

(z) See my Translation of Zanchius on Predestination.

But Melancthon, how orthodox soever, does not appear (and I have studied these matters with as much attention, I believe, as any Arminian among us) to have had the least hand, or the least influence, directly or indirectly, on any part of the English reformation. He was, for aught I have ever been able to find, no more concerned in fabricating the church of England, than was Zoroaster or Confucius. Let the Arminians prove the contrary, and we will weigh their proofs in the exactest balance of candour and attention. - I go still farther; and add, so remote was Melancthon from being an English reformer, that I never yet heard of any church at all, whose reformation he was the instrument of effecting. I know indeed, that he is generally numbered among the foreign reformers; but he seems to have that honour assigned him, more by the courtesy of some authors, than by virtue of historical fact. His framing the Augsburg confession does not prove him a reformer: for that pacific department was committed to his care, by princes whose churches were already reformed to his hand. Nor did his pious endeavours to assist Herman, the archbishop of Cologne, in reforming that city, entitle him to the above name; for both the archbishop's efforts and his own, proved entirely unsuccessful.

As I am on the subject of Melancthon, I will digress into some other particulars concerning him.

Mr. Hume is abundantly too severe to the memory of that learned man, in numbering him among those whom he impertinently traduces as "wretched composers of metaphysical polemics." Melancthon, with all his supposed "wretchedness" of parts, had more solid knowledge in his little finger, than Mr. Hume has of infidelity, from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot. Add to which, that this censure, if admitted, would involve, not only the greatest Christian divines of all ages, but likewise more than half the philosophers of antiquity; who dealt as much in "metaphysics," and in "polemics," as any believing priest whatever. Besides: who has dabbled more in "polemical metaphysics," than Mr. Hume himself? and a metaphysical polemist is a metaphysical polemist, let his metaphysics and his polemics be of what cast they will. Moreover, the sneer could not have fallen more wide of the mark: for no divine, of Melancthon's eminence then living, had a less metaphysical head, or dealt more sparingly in polemics, than he. - Let the ingenious declaimer read, before he declaims: and his conclusions will be less precipitant.

Amidst all my just veneration for the name and memory of Melancthon, I must observe, that he possessed one quality, which threw no little shade on the lustre of his virtues and of his talents. I mean, that timid, temporising spirit, which, either through weakness of nerves, or weakness of faith, appears to have been the evil that most easily besat him. Dr. Robertson remarks, that, in 1550, after the artful business of the (b) Interim had been successfully carried by the power and intrigues of the emperor Charles (a step which he would not have found so easy, had the honest and courageous Luther been living); "Melancthon, now deprived of the manly counsels of Luther, which were wont to inspire him with fortitude, and to preserve him steady amidst the storms and dangers that threatened the church, was seduced into unwarrantahle concessions hy the timidity of his temper, his fond desire of peace, and his excessive complaisance towards persons of high rank."

(b) When disputes ran high in Germany, between the advocates for popery, and the patrons of the reformation, Charles V. ordered a system of theology to be drawn up, in which he required both parties to acquiesce, till a general council should meet to settle the agitated controversies. Hence the book itself was called, The Interim. It was first published in the diet of Augsburgh, May 15, 1548, and, though composed with much studied ambiguity of expression, in order to trepan the protestants with greater facility, yet, almost every one of the popish tenets was either expressly or virtually asserted in it. See Robertson, vol. iii. p. 481.

On this, as well as many other occasions throughout his life, Melancthon's complaisance was indeed excessive to a fault. The name Didymus, which he once assumed (when he published a tract under the rose), suited but too well with that duplicity of conduct which put him so often upon trimming and shuffling in the things which pertain to God. At bottom his principles were sound: and he hated in reality the painful ambidexterousness, wherewith he thought it prudent to balance between the friends and the enemies of the Reformation.

"All Europe was convinced that Melancthon was not so averse as Luther to an accommodation with the Romanists; and that he would have sacrificed many things for the sake of peace." Of this, Melancthon gave proof upon proof: but never more enormously, than at the Augsburgh conference, in 1530, when he appeared to be in an humour to sacrifice, not only many things, but every thing for the sake of a coalition with the church of Rome. He agreed, "That men should not be said to be justified by faith alone, but by faith and grace [i. e. by faith and inherent grace or holiness]: That good works are necessary [viz. to justification]: That reprobates are included in the church: That man hath a free-will: That the blessed saints intercede for us, and may be honoured: That the body and blood of Christ are contained in both elements: That those of the laity are not to be condemned, who receive the eucharist only under one kind: That the usual veneration should he given to the holy sacrament: That mass should be publicly celebrated with the usual ceremonies: That the popish bishops should hold their ancient jurisdictions: and that the parish priests should possess a power of excommunication, and be subject in spiritual matters, to the said Roman bishops."

This was "sacrificing," with a witness. But it seems the good man would have sacrificed still more, if Luther and the other protectants, by whose commission he [Melancthon] treated with the Romish divines, had not taken fire at the extravagant concessions already made, and restrained him from going on. "Melancthon, who was very much inclined to peace" [i. e. to patch up a peace with the church of Rome, by allowing her every point she wanted], "might have come nearer if he had been invested with ample powers. But the rigid protestants had been dissatisfied with his condescensions, and ordered him to advance no farther." - Thus acted the man, who declared himself to be what he most certainly was in his heart, so convinced "of the truth of Luther's doctrine," that he "would never forsake it!" Nor does it appear that he ever did inwardly forsake the doctrine of Luther. But can I commend him for his pusillanimous flexibility which induced him to curry human favour, at the expense of divine truth; and for straining his own conscience in order to shake hands with Rome? I commend him not.

Take another instance of his ductility. "Melancthon was consulted upon the divorce which Henry VIII. was determined to have against Catherine of Spain: and he gave his opinion, that the law in Leviticus is dispensable, and that the marriage [viz. the king's marriage with his brother's widow] might be lawful; and that, in these matters, states and princes might make what laws they pleased." Throw this artful piece of court casuistry which way you will, it will pitch upon its legs, and stand plum upon all-four. It told Henry, in effect, that he might either retain his conjugal sister, or put her away, just as appetite should serve. For what was past, his majesty had incurred no sin: because, in these matters, the law of God may be dispensed with by princes. And, as to the future, if the king did not choose to persist in exerting his right to dispense with God's law, he might at any time rid himself of a stale wife, by giving her a bill of divorcement. Such was Melancthon's "excessive complaisance to persons of high rank!"

The advice he gave to CEcolampadius bore the same impress of artifice and duplicity. The Lutherans and the Zuinglians differed, concerning the nature of the holy sacrament. The former supposed, that the real body and blood of Christ were consubstantiated with the elements, though the elements were not transubstantiated into the real body and blood: but that both subsisted together, as fire subsists in and with a red hot iron. The Zuinglians on the other hand, believed that the consecrated symbols were no more than a merely commemorative representation. A conference was opened upon this matter, between some divines of each party. CEcolampadius wrote to Melancthon, requesting him to terminate the dispute, by declaring himself in favour of the Zuinglian opinion. Observe Melancthon's answer. "I cannot approve the opinion of the sacramentarians; but if you would act politicly, you should speak otherwise; for you know there are many learned men among them, whose friendship would be advantageous to me."

Luther could never bring himself to hunt with the hound and run with the hare. He was formed of materials too heroic, not to abhor collusion, and all its narrow, skulking arts. Hence, he often rallied Melancthon, and sometimes chid him in terms of severity, for his religious cowardice. These friendly stimulations roused and quickened Melancthon, for a short while: but he soon relapsed into Melancthon again.

Let a man espouse what system he will, he must unavoidably displease some party or other. But the man who affects to adopt such a system, as may render him obnoxious to no party whatever, very rarely acquires that measure of esteem from any, which he fondly expects to receive from all. Melancthon hoped, that his extreme moderation would have exempted him entirely from the feuds of enmity and opposition. But he was disappointed: and the disappointment had an unfavourable effect on his spirits. In angling with so much anxiety for universal applause, he incurred that suspicion which is the usual reward of irresolute fluctuation. A great part of the protestants disliked him, for not seeming protestant enough: and most of the papists hated him, for not being sufficiently popish. The consequence was, that he led a very uneasy life between the two.

"Nature," says Monsieur Bayle, "which gave Melancthon a peaceable temper, made him a present ill suited with the time in which he was to live. He was like a lamb in the midst of wolves. His moderation served only to be his cross. Nobody liked his mildness." He was never out of danger; but might truly be said, through fear, to be all his life time subject to bondage. Thus he declared in one of his works, that he had held his professor's place [at Wittenburg] forty years, without being ever sure that he should not be turned out of it before the end of the week." Honesty is the best policy. Who would wish, by disguising his sentiments, to tread the artificial and painful path of the trimming Melancthon?

Notwithstanding his acknowledged defect of courage, he yet ventured to assert the strongest predestination. A learned papist even goes so far as to charge Calvin himself with borrowing some of the arguments by which he supports that doctrine, from Melancthon. This accusation, though false, shows the agreement which subsisted between those two divines upon that important article.

Our own bishop Davenant who was a consummate judge of these matters, observes, that "Melancthon took offence at the manner of delivering the doctrine of predestination and reprobation, insisted on by some: but, for the substance of doctrine, he acknowledged his agreement with Calvin. That men must come to the knowledge of their election, from their faith and holy life, was Melancthon's opinion: but that their foreseen faith and holiness was the cause, or condition, or motive, upon which God founded his decree of election, was far from his mind." We are reminded by a later writer than the good bishop, that Calvin condescended to dedicate his Treatise against Pighius, to Melancthon: for which token of Calvin's friendship, Melancthon warmly expressed his gratitude. "Mr. Calvin confirmed his own [flock] at home, and strongly opposed his adversaries abroad: publishing his four books about free-will, which he dedicated to Philip Melancthon; against Albert Pighius, the greatest sophister of the age, and who had singled out Calvin for his antagonist, being promised a cardinal's hat if he could carry the victory. But [Pighius] being frustrated of his labour, he got that which the enemies of truth only deserve, viz. that he stank amongst learned and good men, himself being deceived by the devil. How much Melancthon esteemed those books of Mr. Calvin, himself testifies in his epistles which are in print."

Melancthon as well as Calvin was a (q) sublapsarian. In those times Arminianism was a term utterly unknown in the Christian church. Melancthon died, A. D. 1560, i. e. the same year in which Arminius was born. The enemies of grace were then termed pelagians and semipelagians.

(q) "Reformatores nostri, ut verbum etiam de tis addamus, D. Augustini de gratia et predestinatione sententiam pene omnes sequebantur; quam et crudius nonnunquam tradebant; ut ex Lutheri, de servo arbitrio, multisque Zuinglii et Calvini, locis, constare potest. Quin et fuerunt, qui ad rigidissima Supralapsariorium placita (quibus tuuntur) procedure haud dubitarent; ut Beza et Zanchius: ad mitiora deflexit Melancthon.” – J. A. Turettini Hist. Eccles. p. 328 - Let me just hint that this learned man is mistaken, in placing Zanchius on the list of Supralapsarians.

Melancthon had an elegant genius, cultivated by intense application. His piety was elevated, his learning profound, and his usefulness very considerable. Could he have got the better of that unhappy diffidence, which was perpetually betraying him into inconsistencies, and hampering him with perplexities, he might have been classed with the greatest of mankind. Among bis other friends, Zanchius, with much tenderness and delicacy, warned him of the danger to which his capital deficiency exposed him. "Non dubitant pii," said that great man in one of his letters to Melancthon, "de tua eximia eruditione, et singulari pietate; tantum hoc precamur omnes, donet te, virum alioqui fortem, majori etiam spiritus fortitudine Deus. Vide, quam familiariter ego, omnium minimus, tui tamen inter omnes observantissimus, tecum loquor, exime et doctissime Philippe. i. e. All good men unite in acknowledging your uncommon learning and piety. But it is no less true, that we likewise unite, in beseeching God to endue you with a larger portion of courage and boldness. See, how free the least considerable, but not the least respectful, of your friends, ventures to make with you!"

Envy is, perhaps, not often honoured with residence in so valuable a mind as that of Melancthon. At the very time, however, when his intimacy with Luther was at its height, he seems to have viewed the ascendancy, which that reformer had acquired among protestants, with jealousy and pain. I wish the following incident could be reasonably ascribed to a less ungenerous principle. "Melancthon often exhorted Bucer, not to yield so much to Luther." He seems to have reiterated this secret exhortation, not only by word of mouth, but also by letter: and Bucer, wearied and disgusted with Melancthon's teizings, seems to have at last communicated the matter to Luther himself. So at least I conjecture, from the aspect of what follows: "He [i. e. Melancthon] himself writes, that Luther was so enraged against him about a letter, received from Bucer, that he [Melancthon] thought of nothing but withdrawing himself for ever from Luther's presence. He lived under such continual constraint from Luther, &c. and was so oppressed with labour and vexation, that, being quite spent, he wrote to his friend Camerarius: I am in bondage, as if I were in the cave of the Cyclop (for I cannot disguise my sentiments to you), and I have often thoughts of making my escape." At one time, he entertained the romantic design of retiring into the holy land, and of spending the remainder of his days in the identical caverns formerly occupied by St. Jerom. But, the storm abating, that whimsical scheme subsided with it.

Is it not very extraordinary, that a person, of Melancthon's tender spirits and goodness of heart, should justify and applaud the magistrates of Geneva, for punishing Servetus' religious mistakes with death?" They acted right" says Melancthon, "in bringing that blasphemer to the stake, after having first granted him the privilege of a fair trial." Alas, what is man!

No less inconsistent were Melancthon's nibblings at the doctrine of fate, in the sense wherein that doctrine was held by some stoics. The astrological fate, or a destiny resulting from the positions and influence of the planets, is a very absurd, and a very profane tenet. Melancthon would have done rightly in entering his caveat against it, had his caveat been sincere. But, even here, he acted with his usual dissimulation. In his heart, he leaned very strongly toward that exceptionable species of illegitimate fatality. "I will observe," says Bayle, "that he [Melancthon] was credulous, as to prodigies, astrology, and dreams." Mr. Rolt adds, "from Melancthon's Epistles it may be observed, that he was a believer in judicial astrology, a caster of nativities, and an interpreter of dreams. Strange weakness in so great a man! - So far therefore, was he from really denying predestination and fate, that he held those doctrines even to excess: i. e. in the most irrational, gloomy, and superstitious point of view, in which it is possible for the human mind to entertain them.

The reformers were, however, sensible of Melancthon's well meaning piety, though the strange mixture and variegation of his spiritual complexion made them often at a loss how to deal with him.

- - Each finding, as a friend,

Something to blame, and something to commend.

Luther had a very great regard for him, but perceived it needful both to refrain him, and to spur him on as occasion required. Calvin held him in considerable estimation, and treated him with the most benevolent tenderness. He was also honoured with the correspondence of archbishop Cranmer; who conceived a favourable idea of his learning and humility. But they, who insinuate, that he [Melancthon] was concerned with that prelate in reforming the church of England, seem to have advanced a conjecture totally unwarranted by a single grain of proof. I can find no more than two occasions on which he was invited into England, (but they were only invitations, for he never came): namely, in the reign of Henry VIII. whom he had pleased to the life, by his gentle casuistry concerning that monarch's divorce; and again a little before the death of Edward VI. who intended to have given him a quiet retreat in England from his troubles in Germany, by fixing him at Cambridge after the death of Bucer. But when the first invitation was given him, Henry had no design to reform (nor did he to his dying day reform) the doctrinal system of the church. And, when the second invitation was signified to Melancthon, the church had been reformed already, by the care of king Edward, the duke of Somerset, Cranmer, Ridley, Bucer, Martyr, Calvin, and others. Certain it is, that Zanchius was actually invited hither in due season, "to assist in carrying on the Reformation:" and that the reformers of our church were disappointed of his help, by his preferring a settlement at Strasbourg; the divinity chair of that city being offered him, while he was on his journey towards this kingdom (d).

(d) See my Life of Zanchius.

2. It is objected against the Calvinism of our established church, that "in several parts of the liturgy, &c. she herself seems to speak the language of Arminius." - Impossible! for the church (as we have already observed) having been reformed and established long enough before Arminius existed, she can never be supposed to have borrowed either her sentiments or her language from a man who was then unborn.

A number of passages have been amassed, by some despairing Arminians, in order to prove, from the liturgy and homilies themselves, that the church of England is but a sort of shoot from the Arminian stock. The passages, however, are no more to the purpose, than if they were alleged to prove that queen Elizabeth was Adam's wife and the mother of all mankind. Notwithstanding this, I have given each of them a distinct consideration in a pamphlet which has long lain by me; and which shall be committed to the press, whenever the indulgence of the public shall call for its appearance. In the meanwhile, I shall weigh two passages which are urged with great triumph, and not without some colour of seeming plausibility, by Mr. John Wesley and Co.

The first of these two citations is selected from the liturgy: where, in the communion service, the officiating minister at the delivery of the holy elements, says, to every receiver, "The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee:" and, "the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for thee." - Does not this look something like absolutely universal redemption? Not, when soberly considered: unless it could be proved that every individual of the whole human race, from Adam to the last of mankind, have been, are, and will be, communicants in the church of England. - "Oh, but it proves that all, who do so communicate, are, in her judgment, redeemed by Christ." Granted. And why does she suppose them redeemed? Even because she invites none to the Lord's table, but those who do "truly and earnestly repent them of their sins, and are in love and charity with their neighbours, and intend to lead a new life, following the commandments of God, and walking from henceforth in his holy ways(e)." As, therefore, the church takes for granted, that all who present themselves at that solemn ordinance, are partakers of these graces, she very consistently infers, that they are likewise all redeemed by the blood of Christ: for who can question the redemption of penitents and saints?" Oh, but there is reason to believe, that all communicants are not penitents and saints." Whether they are, or are not, must be left to the decision of God. It is enough to the present point, that the church describes the redeemed of the Lord under the characters of penitent and holy: and thereby (in exact harmony with scripture), virtually excludes from a visible interest in Christ's redemption, those who do not repent and obey. For each converted and sanctified receiver, the church affirms that the "body of Christ was given," and, "the blood of Christ was shed." What is this but saying, by necessary consequence, that we have no right to extend the death of Christ to such persons, as are not converted and sanctified? So that the very words themselves, of the administration are a proof, not of an unlimited, but of an exceedingly restrictive redemption.

(e) Exhortation before the celebration of the blessed sacrament.

The second quotation is taken from one of the homilies, "In the homily of alms-doing," say Wesley and Sellon, "there is this apocryphal text, that alms make an atonement for sins." – I know not what adequate atonement these two Arminians can make to the church, for the slander and falsehood of that insinuation, which they mean to convey, under the cover of this remark. Let us consult the homily itself: and its import will be found not only quite innocent of Arminianism, but positively orthodox, and most highly Calvinistic.

"Ye shall understand dearly beloved, that neither those places of the scripture before alleged; neither the doctrine of the blessed martyr Cyprian; neither any other godly and learned man; when they, in extolling the dignity, profit, fruit, and effect of virtuous and liberal alms, do say that it washeth away sins, and bringeth us to the favour of God, do mean that our work and charitable deeds are the original cause of our acceptation before God, or that, for the dignity or worthiness thereof, our sins may be washed away, and we purged and cleansed of all the spots of our iniquity: for that were indeed to deface Christ, and to defraud him of his glory. But they mean this, and this is the understanding of those and such like sayings: that God, of his mercy and special favour towards them whom he hath appointed to everlasting salvation, hath so offered his grace especially, and they have so received it fruitfully, that although, by reason of their sinful living, they seemed before to have been the children of wrath and perdition; yet now, the Spirit of God mightily working in them unto obedience to God's will and commandments, they declare, by their outward deeds and life, in the showing of mercy and charity (which cannot come, but of the Spirit of God and his especial grace), that they are the undoubted children of God, appointed to everlasting life. And so as, by their wickedness and ungodly living" [viz. before they were converted], "they showed themselves, according to the judgment of men which follow the outward appearance, to be reprobates and cast-aways; so now, by their obedience unto God's holy will, and by their mercifulness and tender pity (wherein they show themselves to be like unto God, who is the fountain and spring of mercy), they declare, openly and manifestly to the sight of men, that they are the sons of God, and elect of him unto salvation. For as the good fruit is not the cause that the tree is good, but the tree must first be good before it can bring forth good fruit; so the good deeds of man are not the cause that maketh man good: but he is first made good by the Spirit and grace of God that effectually worketh in him; and afterward he bringeth forth good fruits. And then, as the good fruit doth argue the goodness of the tree; so doth the good and merciful deed of the man argue and certainly prove the goodness of him that doth it: according to Christ's saying, Ye shall know them by their fruits."

If the church had not thus explained her own meaning, Messrs. Wesley and Sellon might have had some seeming foundation for insinuating that the homily asserts the propitiatory merit of almsgiving. But as she, so largely and so expressly, defines the sense in which she admits the justifying power of that good work; the above pair of Arminian defamers are absolutely inexcusable for their gross and wilful violation of justice and truth, in laying to the charge of the church, things which she knoweth not (g).

(g) From the pitiable ignorance which distinguishes the complexion of the following remark, I am disposed to believe, that the remark itself is of Mr. Sellon's own fabrication, unaided by the co-adjutorship of his domineering help-mate, Mr. John Wesley. - The remark is this: that the church of England affirms universal redemption, in saying, that "Christ offered himself once for all upon the altar of the cross." Now, I hereby inform Mr. Sellon (as Mr. Wesley ought to have done before the bolt was shot), that the church of England took that phrase [viz. "once for all"] from the epistle to the Hebrews: where the original word is, efapaz, which signifies, once only or irrepeatably; and means, that Christ so offered himself in sacrifice, as never to be offered up again: he pouted out his soul unto death for the first and for the last time.

Would politeness give leave, I might farther explain the import of the term efapaz, or once for all, by addressing Mr. Sellon thus: 'Be it known, once for all, that you are a most wretched and contemptible ignoramus.' - But rather let me advise Mr. Wesley, once for all, not to expose his own cause again, by entrusting the management of it to such a very illiterate advocate.

3. It is objected that the Calvinistic doctrines are puritanic; and were tenaciously held by many who opposed the established hierarchy.

I answer that the term puritan belonged in its primary application, to those persons, and to those persons alone, who dissented from the government, the discipline, and the ceremonies, of the church of England. This will never be controverted by any who are at all acquainted with the history of Elizabeth's reign, in whose time that word (puritan) was first coined. Nor was it ever applied to Churchmen themselves, until about two years before the death of king James the first: when a temporizing Italian papist [viz. Antony de Dominis, once archbishop of Spalato] craftily endeavoured to transfer the name, from protestant dissenters, to such members of the established church as were enemies to regal tyranny, and to the new doctrines of Arminius. In the succeeding reign of Charles, Laud kept up the ball which De Dominis had raised: and, by degrees, every conscientious son of the church, who was protestant enough to maintain her doctrines; and Englishman enough to support the civil constitution of the kingdom; was at court treated as a puritan.

Wilson developes the whole matter with great fidelity, under the year 1622. "This animosity of the king's [viz. of king James I] against the (real) puritans, was thought to be fomented by the papists, whose agent bishop Laud was suspected to be; though in religion he had a motley form by himself, and would never (as a priest plainly told me in Flanders) bring his neck under the obedience of the Roman yoke, though he might stickle for the grandeur of the clergy. And now he began to be Buckingham's confessor (as he expresseth in his own notes), and wore the court livery: though the king had a sufficient character of him, and was pleased with asseveration to protest his [viz. Laud's3 incentive spirit should be kept under, that the flame should not break out by any preferment from him. But that was now forgotten in some measure: and he crept so into favour, that he was thought to be the bellows that blew these fires. For the papists used all the artifices they could, to make a breach between the king and his people; that they might enter at the same for their own ends. Which to accomplish, they slyly closed with the chief ministers of state, to put the king upon all his projects and monopolies displeasing to the people, that they might the more alienate their affections from him: sowing their seeds of division also betwixt puritan and protestant; so that (like the second commandment) they quite excluded the protestant [under the false idea of puritanism]: for all those were puritans with this high grown Arminian popish party, that held in judgment the doctrine of the reformed churches, or in practice lived according to the doctrine puhlicly taught in the church of England."

To such an height did the court madness arise, that all were supposed to be tinctured with puritanism who did not flatter James even to blasphemy. "It was too apparent, that some of the clergy, to make the way the smoother to their wished end, began so to adore the king, that he could not be named, but more reverence was done to it, than to the name of God; and the judges in their itinerant circuits, the more to enslave the people to obedience, being to speak of the king, would give him such sacred and oraculous titles, as if their advancement to higher places must necessarily be laid upon the foundation of the people's debasement."

Hear what the wise and upright archbishop Usher told king Charles the First, to his face, from the pulpit, in I627. "I see that those who will not yield to that new doctrine which hath disturbed the low countries" [i. e. who will not embrace Arminianism], "there is an odious name cast upon them, and they are counted puritans; which is a thing tending to dissension. We know who are esteemed by Christ; and were it not a vile thing to term him a puritan? - And king James maintained the same" [viz. the same Calvinistic doctrines which the church of England has adopted]: "and shall those be counted so" [i. e. be counted puritans], "who confess those points which he maintained? Do not think I speak any thing as being hired on any side. But I foresee that the forecasting of that name upon those who maintain the doctrine published by the pen of our (late) sovereign, will prove a means for the disturbing of our peace. I will not deny, but confess that in those five points which disturb the low countries, I am in the mind of my sovereign. I am not ashamed to confess it; nor never will be. And I do here profess before God, that if I were an Arminian and did hold those five points which have caused those troubles in the low countries, and is like to cause them here among us; the case standing as it doth, that the greatest number of the prophets blow their horns another way; I hold I were bound in conscience to hold my peace, and keep my knowledge to myself, rather than, by my unseasonable uttering of it, to disturb the peace of the church. - This is the last time I shall be called to this place: therefore, I will leave this advice; which if it be neglected, peradventure it will be too late easily to stop things (l)."

(l) Archbishop Usher's Sermon on 1 Cor. xiv. 33. Preached before the king, at Greenwich, June 27, 1627. Annexed to the folio edition of his Body of Divinity, Lond. 1678 p. 183, 184.

Observe here, 1. That, in this prelate's judgment, king James lived and died a doctrinal Calvinist. - 2. That Calvinism was a thing as essentially different from puritanism, as light from darkness. - 3. That if the belief of the Calvinian doctrines be puritanic, it would follow, that Christ himself was a puritan. - 4. The good archbishop was not ashamed to avow those doctrines, in the presence of king Charles and of his Arminian court. - 5. As he is said to have foretold the massacre of the Irish protestants, so in the above discourse, he as plainly predicted the civil wars which many years after, actually ensued. - 6. We have his grace's explicit testimony, that even in the reign of Charles the First, "the greatest number" of the established clergy "blew their horns," i. e. preached and published, not in the Arminian strain, but quite "another way," though in direct opposition to the wind and tide of court encouragement. – 7. He was sensible that for his honesty and faithful dealing, this was "the last time" he should ever be asked to preach before the king: he therefore resolved to make, and make he did, the most of that last opportunity, by giving his majesty some very wholesome, though not very palatable "advice." Which advice had the king uniformly followed, he had, probably, saved the church from ruin, the three kingdoms from destruction, and his own head from the axe. - 8. The archbishop's integrity is more to be admired, as the king's declaration, for imposing silence on preachers touching the points in dispute, had been published so lately as the year before the above sermon was delivered. The heroic prelate thought it right, to obey God rather than man.

After all, what if the puritans themselves, truly and properly so called, should be found to have been dissenters, not from the doctrines, but merely and solely from the rites and regimen of the church of England? That this was actually and literally the. case, i. e. that the puritans (in the reigns of Elizabeth and the first James) cordially approved the furniture, though they disrelished the fabric of our excellent ecclesiastical house; appears from the most conclusive and incontrovertible evidence.

On this subject, archbishop Hutton thus expressed himself, in 1604. "The puritans, whose fantastical zeal I mislike, though they differ in ceremonies and accidents, yet they agree with us in substance of religion."

"People of the same country," says Mr. Nicholas Tindal, "of the same religion, and of the same judgment and doctrine, parted communion on account of a few habits and ceremonies."According to this historian, the very Brownists themselves, though they bear the character of having been the most rigid and intractable of all the then separatists, were one with the church in matters of doctrine, "The Brownists did not differ from the church in any doctrinal points." With the superficial Mr. Tindal agrees the profound and laborious Mr. Chambers: "The occasion of their [i. e. of the Brownists] separation, was not any fault they found with the faith, but only with the discipline and form of government of the other churches in England."

Even Peter Heylyn found himself constrained to draw a line between Calvinists and puritans. And thus he draws it. "I must needs say, the name of doctrinal puritanism is not very ancient. - Nor am I of opinion, that puritan and Calvinian are terms convertible. For though all puritans are Calvinians both in doctrine and practice; yet all Calvinians are not to be counted as puritans also: whose practices [i. e. the practices of the puritans] many of them [i. e. many of the Calvinists] abhor, and whose inconformities they detest."

A writer, whose portmanteau Heylyn was not worthy to carry, shall clinch the present nail of evidence. I mean the very respectable bishop Saunderson: who affirms, that to charge Calvinists with puritanism, is a "most unjust and uncharitable course;" whereby, his lordship thought the Arminians had "prevailed more, than by all the rest [of their artifices], in seeking to draw the persons of those that dissent from them, into dislike with the state, as if they were puritans, or disciplinarians, or at least that way affected. Whereas," adds this judicious prelate, "1. The questions in debate are such, as no way touch upon puritanism, either off or on. - 2. Many of the [Calvinists] have as freely and clearly declared their judgments, by preaching and writing against all puritanism and puritanical principles, as the stoutest Arminian in England hath done. - Could that blessed archbishop Whitgift, or the modest and learned Hooker, have ever thought, so much as by dream, that men, concurring with them in opinion, should for some of these very opinions be called puritans?" - I hope we shall, hear no more of the puritanic tendency of Calvinism.

4. Another false and shameless objection against these doctrines is, that they are "unfavourable to loyalty." But no insinuation can be more abominably unjust. We assert with scripture, that the powers which be, are ordained of God: consequently, we cannot be disloyal, without flying in the face of that very predestination and providence, for which we so zealously contend. A spur, this, to civil obedience, which Arminianism must for ever want.

From innumerable proofs, I select one very pertinent and remarkable instance. Let us contrast the loyalty of the Calvinistic archbishop Usher, with that of the Arminian ranter and fifth monarchy man John Goodwin.

"The execution of king Charles I. struck archbishop Usher with great horror. The countess of Peterborough's house, where the primate [Usher] then lived, being just over against Charing-Cross, several of her gentlemen and servants went up to the leads of the house, from whence they could plainly see what was acting before Whitehall. As soon as his majesty came upon the scaffold, some of the household told the primate of it: and asked him, whether he would see the king once more, before he was put to death? He was at first unwilling; but, at last, went up; where, as the ceremonial advanced, the primate grew more and more affected; and, when the executioners in vizards began to put up the king's hair, the archbishop grew pale, and would have fainted, if he had not been immediately carried off."

Very different was that tragical incident relished by Goodwin the free-will man. I have proved in a foregoing part of this work(t), that he considered all "kingship as the great antichrist:" and, in perfect consistency with this mad and detestable principle, he "not only justified putting the king to death, but magnified it as the most glorious action men were capable of.” What half killed the most reverend Calvinist of Armagh, made the heart of that irreverend free-will man of Coleman-street to leap for joy. Loyal Usher began to swoon, at the sight of majesty on a scaffold: but the Arminian rebel John Goodwin vindicated, and in folio too, the stroke of that nefarious axe which deprived majesty of life.

A single question and answer shall for the present, wind up the topic of loyalty. - Whom did providence honour with being the auspicious instrument of entailing the British crown on the house of the amiable and illustrious monarch who now adorns the throne? His Calvinistic majesty king William III.

5. "Oh, but Calvin himself pronounces the decree of reprobation an horrible decree." - I know not which exceeds: Mr. Sellon's ignorance or Mr. Wesley's disingenuity. Calvin no where styles "reprobation," an "horrible decree." These two Arminians, therefore, are, in plain English, a pair of horrible liars.

It is in treating of God's determination to permit the fall of Adam, that Calvin says, Decretum quidem horribile fateor; inficiari tamen nemo poterit, quin praesciverit Deus, quem exitum esset habiturus homo, antequam ipsum conderet (u); i.e. "I acknowledge this decree to be an awful one: it is, however, undeniable, that, before the creation of man, God knew what the event of it would be."

(u) Calv. Instit. Lib. III. cap. xxiii. sect. vii.

I would willingly imagine, that Mr. Wesley is not so wretched a Latinist as to believe that he and his subaltern acted fairly, in rendering the word horribilis, as it stands in the above connection, by the English adjective horrible. Though there is a sameness of sound, there is no necessary sameness of signification in the two epithets. We have annexed a secondary idea to the English words "horror" and "horrible;" which the Latin "horror" and "horribilis," do not always import. I shall give two or three instances: taking care for the sake of poor Mr. Sellon, to add English explanations of the Latin passages I bring.

When Cicero says, Horribile est, causam capitis dicere; horribilius, priore loco dicere: is not this the meaning? "It is an awful undertaking, to plead a cause in which life and death are concerned; more awful still, to be the first opener of such a cause." - When Virgil (y) mentions the horribilius iras of Juno; what are we to understand, but the tremendous resentment of the goddess? - The same poet's horrentique atrum nemus imrninet umbra, must be rendered by, "the impending grove is dark with solemn shade." Similar (as Servius observed) is that of Lucan: Arboribus suus horror inest: i. e. "There is something venerable in a grove of trees." - Nor did the noble and profoundly learned Daniel Heinsius use an improper term, when (speaking of Julius Scaliger) he said, Cujus nomen sine horrore et religione commemorare non possum: i. e. "The very mention of his name strikes a sort of religious awe upon my mind."

(y) Hoc quondam monstro horribiles exercuit iras inachiae Juno pestem meditata juvencae. Geor. lib. iii.

Calvin, therefore, might well term God's adorable and inscrutable purpose respecting the fall of man, decretum horribile; i. e. not an horrible, but an awful, a tremendous, and a venerable decree. A decree, the divine motives to which can never be investigated by human reason, in its present benighted state; and concerning which, we can only say in the language of scripture, How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

TO CONCLUDE.

From what has been observed relative to the great protestant doctrines, now distinguished by the name of Calvinistic; we may too easily perceive, how deeply, and how generally, we are revolted and gone from the religion of Jesus Christ, or (which is the self same thing) from the spirit and principles of the religion established in this land. What an ingenious writer remarks, is melancholy, because true: "The church of England are predestinarians by their articles; and preach free-will (c)." The greater the pity, and the greater the shame.

(c) Letters on the English Nation, by Battista Angeloni, vol. ii. Letter 34. p. 60 Edit. 1755. This performance is, by some, ascribed to Dr. Shebbeare.

For this dreadful declension from the scripture and from the church, we are partly indebted to that door of endless prevarication, opened to the clergy, by bishop Burnet, in what he entitles, his Exposition of the XXXIX articles: a performance, for which (notwithstanding its merit in some respects) the church of England is, upon the sum total, under no very great obligation to his lordship's art and labour. It is true, that work is not so commonly nor so assiduously studied, of late years, as it was half a century ago. Many of our divines have tender eyes; and, for fear of endangering those valuable organs, by the perusal of a formidable volume, choose to take matters upon trust, and borrow the needful evasions, viva voce, from one another. Even the lax theology of Tillotson is almost grown obselete.

Where shall we stop? We have already forsook the good old paths, trod by Moses and the prophets, and by Christ and the apostles: paths in which our own reformers also trod, our martyrs, our bishops, our clergy, our universities, and the whole body of this protestant, i. e. of this once Calvinistic nation. Our liturgy, our articles, and our homilies, it is true, still keep possession of our church walls: but we pray, we subscribe, we assent one way; we believe, we preach, we write another. In the desk, we are verbal Calvinists: but no sooner do we ascend a few steps above the desk, than we forget the grave character in which we appeared below, and tag the performance with a few minutes entertainment compiled from the fragments bequeathed to us by Pelagius and Arminius; not to say by Arius, Socinus, and by others still worse than they. Observe, I speak not of all indiscriminately. We have many great and good men, some of whom are, and some of whom are not Calvinists. But, that the glory is in a very considerable degree, departed from our established Sion, is a truth which cannot be contravened, a fact which must be lamented, and an alarming symptom which ought to be publicly noticed.

In the opinion of the late Dr. Young, "almost every cottage can show us one that has corrupted, and every palace one that has renounced the faith." Are matters much mended, since that pious and respectable Arminian launched the above complaint? I fear not. Is there a single heresy, that ever annoyed the Christian world, which has not its present partisans among those who profess conformity to the church of England? At what point our revoltings will end, God alone can tell. But this I affirm without hesitation, and on the most meridian conviction, that Arminianism is the poisonous wood, to which the waters of our national sanctuary are primarily indebted for all their embitterment. In particular, Arianism, Socinianism, practical Antinomianism, and infidelity itself, have all made their way through that breach, at which Arminianism entered before them. Nor will the (e) protestant religion gain ground, or finally maintain the ground it has got; neither is it possible for the interests of morality itself to flourish; until the Arminian bondwoman and her sons are cast out: i. e. until the nominal members of our church become real believers of its doctrines; and throw the exotic and corrupt system of Van Harmin, with all its branches and appurtenances, to the moles and to the bats.

(e) In the reign of Elizabeth, a pamphlet appeared, entitled, The Book of the Generation of Antichrist: written, indeed, by a very acrimonious puritan; yet, as far as matters of mere doctrine were concerned, perfectly harmonizing with the creed of the church of England. Among other particulars, the author, with equal humour and truth, traced out the following genealogy of free-will, merit, unholy living, and popery. "The devil begot darkness, Eph 6. - Darkness begot ignorance, Acts xvii - Ignorance begot error and his brethren, 1Ti 4. - Error begot free-will and self-love, Isa. X - Free-will begot merits, Isa 58. - Merits begot forgetfulness of grace, Rom. x - Forgetfulness of God's grace begot transgression, Ro 2. - Transgression begot mistrust, Gen. v - Mistrust begot satisfaction" (i. e. the opinion that human works and penances would satisfy God's justice for sin), Mt 17. - Satisfaction begot the sacrifice of the mass, Da 12." How justly the links of this chain are connected!

Let not my honoured brethren of the clergy deem me their enemy, because I presume to remind them of the truth. God is witness, that I wish you prosperity, ye that are of the house of the Lord. Permit the obscurest of your number to submit without offence, the foregoing particulars to your attentive consideration. May none of your venerable order be justly ranked in time to come, among those half-conformists who fall in with the ceremonies, but fall out with the doctrines of the church. Halt not between God and Baal. Give no occasion to our adversaries to speak reproachfully of us. Let it not any longer be thrown in our teeth, that "No set of men differ more widely from each other, than the present clergy; though they all (f) subscribe to one and the same form of doctrine." Subscription is, in virtue and in fact, a solemn bond of engagement to God, and of security to men, that the subscriber fairly and honestly without reserve, evasion, or disguise, absolutely and nakedly believes the things to which he sets his hand. Query: What firm hold could a temporal monarch have on the allegiance of his sworn subjects, should the same horrid prevarications find their way into the minds of political swearers, which, it is to be feared, have obtained among some theological subscribers? A remark of the late Dr. Daniel Waterland's is at once so important and so pertinent, that, though I have formerly quoted it in another publication, I cannot restrain myself from introducing it here. "If either state oaths on the one hand, or church subscriptions on the other, once come to be made light of; and subtleties be invented, to defend or palliate such gross insincerity; we may bid farewell to principles, and religion will be little else but disguised atheism." This flame of gross insincerity has already in part, caught hold of the church. And who can tell how much further it may spread?

(f) The late learned and candid Dr. Doddridge has a passage, concerning the sacred nature and obligation of ecclesiastical subscriptions, which deserves to be pondered with the utmost seriousness. - He introduces it, under the article of perjury.

"Care should be taken, that we do not impair the reverence due to an oath, by using or imposing oaths on trifling occasions, or administering them in a careless manner. The reverence of an oath requires, that we take peculiar care to avoid ambiguous expressions in it, and all equivocation and mental reservation. Something of this kind may be said of subscription to articles of religion: these being looked upon as solemn actions, and nearly approaching to an oath. Great care ought to be taken, that we subscribe nothing that we do not firmly believe."

The Doctor then proceeds to particularize the most plausible of those fashionable evasions, under the thin shelter of which, some subscribers (like a certain bird, who, when she hides her head, fondly thinks herself quite concealed) are supposed to lurk. The said evasions are as follow. "If the signification of the words be dubious, and we believe either sense, and that sense in which we do believe them is as natural as the other; we may, consistently with integrity, subscribe them. Or, if the sense in which we believe them, be less natural, and we explain that sense, and that explanation be admitted by the person requiring subscription in his own right; there can be no just foundation for a scruple." But, in both these cases, it is easy to discern, that subscription would evaporate into a pompous nothing.

The Doctor goes on. "Some have added, that, if we have reason to believe, though it is not expressly declared, that he, who imposes the subscription, does not intend that we should hereby declare our assent to those articles, but only that we should pay a compliment to his authority, and engage ourselves not openly to contradict them; we may, in this case, subscribe what is most directly contrary to our belief: or, that, if we declare our belief in any book, as (for instance) the Bible, it is to be supposed that we subscribe other articles only so far as they are consistent with that; because we cannot imagine, that the law would require us to profess our belief of contrary propositions at the same time."

And now, what says the good Doctor, by way of answer to the three quibbles above started? He overthrows them all with the stroke of his pen, in the following memorable terms: "But subscription upon these principles seems a very dangerous attack upon sincerity and public virtue; especially, in those designed for public offices." Dr. Doddridge's Course of Lectures, p. 142 - Quarto, 1763.

The men, who lately petitioned the legislature to overthrow the religious constitution of their country, and whose party is not yet extinct, resemble too much, a certain set of innovators, who, in the last century, began with pecking at the church, and ended with demolishing the state. What security can such persons give the government, that the same leaven of iniquity is not working even now? "O they say that they are very loyal." True: and when they subscribed to the liturgy and articles, what was it but saying (in a manner still more solemn, than if they had only declared it by word of mouth), that they were very orthodox, and very good friends to the church of England? Is it any breach of candour, to surmise, that they, who are capable of dissembling with God, may also be capable of dissembling with men? If they did these things in a green tree, what will they not do in a dry! Can civil obligations be considered as binding those slippery consciences, on which the infinitely superior sanction of the most religious and sacred stipulations have no force nor tie? Should providence have so dreadful a judgment in store, for this now highly favoured land, as permissively to crown the design of these schemers with effect; actum est may be the epitaph, inscribed on the tomb of our national Christianity. We may convert our churches, some into warehouses, and others into dancing rooms; make one grand bonfire of our articles, homilies, and liturgy; and tear up our bibles into waste paper.

"Oh, but the petitioners have a great respect for the bible." Who says so? “Why, they themselves." This is just nothing to the purpose. They have demonstrated their insincerity, in other matters: and therefore have no right to draw a bill of credit on our belief, as to this.

The author of the Confessional (pity it is, that the master of such fine talents should employ them in so bad a cause), sees with joy, the daring measures pursued by that shameless faction which openly seeks to compass the ruin of the church. Let the bishops look about them. No less is aimed at than the demolition of the hierarchy itself. The writer last mentioned, has thought proper to give more than one intimation that, together with the doctrines and formularies of the establishment, a blow is meditating against our highest order of ecclesiastics. My proofs are these. "In all exclusive establishments, where temporal emoluments are annexed to the profession of a certain system of doctrines, and the usage of a certain routine of forms, and appropriated to an order of men so and so qualified; that order of men will naturally think themselves interested, that things should continue as they are. A reformation might endanger their emoluments. For though it should only begin with such things as are most notoriously amiss, the alteration of which would no way effect their temporal interests; yet by opening a door to farther enquiry, which would be the natural effect of it, their dignities and revenues might possibly be brought into question, and be thought to need some regulations, which it can hardly be supposed they would approve. So that they who ask, who knows where a reformation may end? by way of giving a reason why it should not be begun; are certainly not unwise in their generation." This is what may be termed a very broad hint at the very least. But what honest intelligencer will give information by halves? Behold, therefore, a farther opening of the budget in the passage that follows; "The infection of the times has in some degree, laid hold even of those venerable personages" [i. e. the bishops], "and produced appearances of secularity, which, whenever a reformation shall be happily brought about, we may be sure will not be suffered to disparage their sacred characters." Thus the secret is out. The Calvinism and the episcopacy of the church, give equal umbrage to the petitioning clergy; who are therefore labouring to roll away both these stones of offence; and, by one happy manoeuvre to rid us of orthodoxy and prelacy together.

See, Right Reverend Fathers, to what point Arianism, Socinianism and Arminianism, are driving. It appears, that a number of the very men, who have solemnly sworn canonical obedience to your lordships, are actually labouring to annihilate the mitre, and to spring a mine under every cathedral in England. A striking instance, that they who could subscribe to articles which they disbelieve, can also digest the guilt and the shame of a violated oath. Too evident it is, that the Strand petitioners (stranded may their attempt be!) though declared enemies to the (k) orthodoxy, are strongly agitated by the levelling principle of the ancient puritans. Should your lordships (which God forbid) ever condescend to acquiesce in any of the alterations demanded by these fiery claimants, their restlessness and insatiability would still cry out for more. Were they to gain but a single point, it would encourage them to say, with their predecessors of old, Ne ungulam esse relinquendam (l). You yourselves would be, at best, the ultimo devorandi.

(k) It has already been proved, that the puritans agreed with the church of England, in all articles of faith.

(l) "He [secretary Walsingham] offered, in the Queen's name, that the three ceremonies, at which they [the puritans] seemed most to boggle, that is to say, kneeling at the communion, the surplice, and the cross in baptism, should be expunged out of the Book of Common Prayer, if that would content them. But thereunto it was replied in the words of Moses, Ne ungulam esse relinquendam: that they would not leave so much as an hoof behind. Meaning thereby, that they would have a total abolition of the Book, without retaining any part or office in it in their next new-nothing. Which peremptory answer did much alienate his [the secretary's] affection from them; as afterwards he affirmed to Knewstubs; and Knewstubs to Doctor John Burges of Coleshill, from whose pen I have it." Heyl. Hist. Presb. p. 264, 265.

Your lordships lament the visible encroachments of popery. - Arminianism is at once its root, its sunshine, and its vital sap.

Your lordships see with concern, the extending progress of infidelity. - Arminianism has opened the hatches to this pernicious inundation; by going about to evaporate the complete redemption and the finished salvation absolutely wrought by Christ, into (what all the art of man can never really make it) a vox, et praeterea nihil. As if the gospel of grace was only a frigid declaration of the terms and conditions on which we are to save ourselves; and as if Christ himself was little or nothing more than a moral philosopher. Happily for the intrinsic dignity of Christianity, the religion of Jesus is not that poor, unmeaning thing, which the modern misrepresentation induces too many to believe. But can it be matter of reasonable wonder, that they, who are imposed upon by such misrepresentation, should turn their backs on a seeming phantom which has nothing to recommend it; and dismiss it with a sneer, to the shades of contempt?

I wish, that the workings even of atheism itself may not administer to your lordships just ground of indignation and alarm. - For this also, Arminianism has paved the way; by despoiling the divine Being, among other attributes, of his unlimited supremacy, of his infinite knowledge, of his infallible wisdom, of his invincible power, of his absolute independency, and of his eternal immutability. Not to observe, that the exempting of some things and events from the providence of God, by refering them to free will, to contingency, and to chance, is another of those back lanes, which lead, in a direct line from Arminianism to Atheism. Neither is it at all surprising, that any, who represent men as gods (by supposing man to possess the divine attribute of independent self-determination), should when their hand is in, represent God himself with the imperfections of a man; by putting limitations on his sovereignty; by supposing his knowledge to be shackled with circumspection, and darkened with uncertainty; by connecting their ideas of his wisdom and power with the possibility of disconcertment and disappointment, embarrassment and defeat; by transferring his independency (m) to themselves, in order to support their favourite doctrine, which affirms that the divine will and conduct are dependent on the will and conduct of men; by blotting out his immutability (n),that they may clear the way for conditional, uncertain, variable, vanquishable, and amissible grace; and, by narrowing his providence, to keep the idol of free-will upon its legs, and to save human reason from the humiliation of acknowledging her inability to account for many of the divine disposals: so that according to this scheme, we may write under the majority of incidents that come to pass, this motto, Hic Deus nihil fecit. - Who sees not the atheistical tendency of all this? Let Arrninianism try to exculpate herself from the heavy, but unexaggerated indictment. Which if she cannot effect, it will be doing her no injustice, to term her, atheism in masquerade.

(m) I myself know several Arminians, who have declared to me in conversation, that, so far as concerns the ipsa determinatio or the very act of the will's determinating itself to one thing in preference to another, the said human will is (horrendum dictu!) independent of God himself. I pray God to give them experimental demonstration, that they are not so independent as they imagine; by bringing them to a better mind.

(n) A worthy and ingenious pen presented the public some years ago, with the following lines; in which, this topic is very properly handled.

"Shall Wesley sow his hurtful tares,

And scatter round a thousand snares?

Telling how God from wrath may turn,

And love the souls he thought to burn;

And how, again, his mind may move

To hate, where he has vow'd to love;

How all mankind he fain would save,

But longs for what he cannot have.

Industrious thus to sound abroad

A disappointed changing God!

Blush, Wesley, blush at thy disgrace;

Haste thee to Rome, thy proper place, &c."

See a Poem, entitled, Perseverance; by the late Mr. Thomas Gumey.

Your lordships cannot be insensible of the conterinpt and insignificancy, into which many of your clergy are fallen. - Arminianism is one grand source of this likewise. Even those of the laity, whom fashion, or prejudice, or inclination, hath Arminianized, too well know, what judgment to form of such spiritual guides as subscribe to the whiteness of snow, though they believe it to be black as jet. Let the clergy learn to despise the sinful pleasures, maxims, pursuits, and doctrines, of this world; and the world will, from that moment, cease to despise the clergy.

Your lordships observe with pain, the glaring and almost universal decay of moral virtue. – This has been a growing calamity ever since the restoration of the Stuart line in the person of Charles II. With that prince, Arminianism returned as a flood; and licentiousness of manners was co-extensive with it. We have had, since that (otherwise happy) period, more than an hundred years experience of the unsanctified effects, which naturally result from the ideal system of free-will and universal redemption. What has that system done for us? It has unbraced every nerve of virtue, and relaxed every rein of religious and of social duty. In proportion to the operation of its influence, it has gone far toward subverting all moral obedience; and seems to endanger the entire series even of political and of ecclesiastical subordination.

Tantum [ea] religio potuit suadere malorum!

Look round the land, and your lordships cannot fail of perceiving, that our fiercest free-willers are, for the most part, the freest livers; and that the practical belief of universal grace is, in too many instances, the turnpike road to universal sin.

Your lordships mark, with becoming disgust, the continued existence of Methodism. - Arminianism is the Pandorean box, from which this evil also hath issued. And though Methodism appears, at present, rather to resemble a standing pool, than an increasing stream; we know not how soon it may become a running water, and enlarge itself into an overflowing flood; if the corrupt tenets vented with such raging zeal in Mr. Wesley's meeting-houses, should, unhappily, be re-echoed from the pulpits of the established church. For, certain it is, that those of the clergy, who fly the fastest and the farthest from doctrinal Calvinism, are plunging more deeply than they imagine, into the grossest dregs of Methodism.

Calvinism - A Word Concerning the Bathing-Tub Baptism.

A WORD CONCERNING THE BATHING-TUB BAPTISM.

Mr. John Wesley having thought it convenient, in his remarks on Mr. Hill, to pretend absolute ignorance of the above-mentioned operation, which he some years ago performed upon Mrs. L. S. (see the 2d edition of my letter to him); and the party herself, from whose own lips I had the account, having given me leave to publish her name on the occasion (a liberty which I would not have taken, without her previous consent;) - Be it known, that the person who was the subject of 'that blest bathing-bout,' is Mrs. Lydia Sheppard, now living in the borough of Southwark.

Since Mr. Wesley's virtual denial of the fact, she has been again consulted: and I now by her authority, subjoin the following circumstances, several of which I tenderly omitted, when I first gave the anecdote to the public.

Antecedently to the ceremony, Mr. Wesley told her, that, to satisfy weak minds, he had occasionally baptized some persons by immersion, at Bristol, and elsewhere; and would do the same for her to make her easy. The time and place were accordingly appointed. A house in Long Lane, Southwark, was to have been the scene of action; and the water and other requisite conveyances, were there actually got in readiness. But, the matter having taken air, and the curiosity of various people being excited, Mr. John did not choose to accomplish the business in the presence of so many spectators, as were then and there expected to assemble. Thus, the administration was adjourned, and another place fixed upon: at which place, Mr. John Wesley did, with his own hands, baptize the said Mrs. Lydia Sheppard, by plunging her under water. And a fine plunging it had liked to have proved.

Does the reader ask, in what font this baptism was administered? The font was a common bathing-tub. Is it further enquired, in what chapel did the font stand at the time? The chapel was, truly, a chapel in cryptis: to wit, a common cellar. - Am I asked, of what cathedral was this subterraneous chapel a part? The cathedral, or mother church, was neither better nor worse than a cheesemonger's house, in Spitalfields, London. - Who were the witnesses to this under-ground baptism? A party, it seems, carefully grafted from, what Mr. Wesley calls, his classes and bands.

And, now, what will that gentleman allege, in extenuation of his affected ignorance of this whole matter? Surely, even he will not persist in pretending to forget so remarkable a transaction: especially, when such an explicit series of striking circumstances arises to refresh his memory! - Possibly, he may, on this occasion, repeat his former climax of "a Cynic, a Bear, a Toplady." But, I assure him, I will not retaliate the compliment, by crying out, an Hottentot, a wolf, a Wesley. - No. The weapons of my warfare are of a milder temperature. I would much rather endure scurrility than offer it.

But I still adhere to my primitive demand, with which I set out, several years ago, when the present controversy with the Arminians began to wax warm: namely, let Mr. Wesley plead his own cause, and fight his own battles. I am as ready as ever to meet him with the sling of reason and the stone of God's word in my hand. But let him not fight by proxy. Let his coblers keep to their stalls. Let his tinkers mend their brazen vessels. Let his barbers confine themselves to their blocks and basons. Let his bakers stand to their kneading-troughs. Let his blacksmiths blow more suitable coals than those of controversy. Every man in his own order.

Should, however, any of Mr. Wesley's life-guard-men, whether gowned or aproned, Swiss or English, step forth to their tottering master's relief,

"In squalid legions swarming from the press,

"Like Egypt's insects from the mud of Nile;"

I shall, probably, not so much as give them the reading. Or, if any of them happen to fall under my perusal, and I deem it proper to repress the vanity of the vain, Mr. Wesley himself will still be my mark; and I shall, if providence permit, continue to imitate the conduct of that philosopher, who thrashed the master for the ill behaviour of the scholars. Though after all, if Mr. Richard Hill's two masterly pamphlets (one entitled, A Review of the Doctrines taught by Mr. John Wesley, with a Farrago annexed; the other, Logica Wesleiensis, or The Farrago double distilled) make no advantageous impression on 'the John Goodwin of the present age; he may, from henceforward, be fairly and finally consigned to the hospital of incurables.

Chronology of England.

CHRONOLOGY OF ENGLAND,

A List of the Kings of England, from Egbert, down to his present Majesty.

EGBERT, 829 - 838

The sixteenth king of Wessex (comprehending the present counties of Hants, Berks, Wilts, Dorset, Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall), succeeded Brithric, A. D. 800. He was descended from Cerdic, a Saxon (o) General, who, resolving to seek his fortune in Britain, arrived here A. D. 495, and, after having founded the kingdom of the West-Saxons, and being twice crowned, died in 534, leaving his dominions to his son Cenric. During the reign of Brithric, Egbert had rendered himself extremely popular in Wessex; which Brithric could not observe without jealousy. Egbert perceiving this, found it for his safety to fly into France, where he was kindly received by Charles the Great.

(o) The old Saxons were, originally, inhabitants of the Cimbrian Chersonesus, now called Jutland; from whence being driven by the Goths, they settled in Germany, and made themselves masters of those tracts of land, lying between the Rhine and the Elbe. Their territories, bounded on the west by the German ocean, extended eastward to the borders of Thuringen: consequently, they were masters of Saxony, Westphalia, and as much of the Low Countries as lies north of the Rhine. As to the very first origin of the Saxons, previous to their possession of Chersonesus, we know nothing at all about it. The numerous conjectures that have been made concerning it only leaving us, if possible, still more in the dark.

Nor is the true etymology of the name Saxon, much less difficult to fix.

1. Some derive it from Seax, a sword, or cutlass: whence those old verses;

Quippe brevis gladiut apud illos Saxa vocatur;

Unde sibi Saxo nomen traxisse putatur.

In like manner, the Quirites had their name from quiris, a short spear; and the Scythians, from scytton to shoot from a bow - Add to this, that the arms of Saxony are, at this very day, two short swords in cross.

2. Mr. Camden agrees with those who derive the name of Saxon, from the Saeae, or Sassones, mentioned by Pliny; a very ancient and considerable nation in Asia; and that the Saxons are, as it were, Sacasons, i. e. sons of the Sacae; and that out of Scythia, or Sarmatia Asiatica, they came, by little and little, into Europe, along with the Getae, the Suevi, and the Daci.

3. Scaliger will have them to be descended from the ancient Persians.

Brithric having accidentally tasted some poison, which his wife Edburga had mixed up for some other person, died A. D. 799. Edburga was obliged to fly the kingdom; and a solemn embassy was sent over to Egbert, with an offer of the crown of Wessex, which he accepted. A. D. 809, he totally subdued the Britons of Cornwall. The next year, 810, Andred, king of Northumberland (comprehending the counties of Lancaster, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Northumberland, York, and Durham) submitted to Egbert. By the year 829, at farthest, he finished his conquests, and became sovereign of all England. (p) He was, indeed, only in actual possession of Wessex, Sussex, Kent, and Essex; but he had made the kingdoms of Mercia. Northumberland, and East-Anglia, tributary to himself. Thus he ended the famous heptarchy, which had lasted (reckoning from its original, viz. the arrival of Hengist, A. D. 449.) about 380 years. Egbert dying, A. D. 838, was succeeded by his only son.

(p) But his repose was soon disturbed by the Danes, who, A. D. 833, landed at Charmouth in Dorsetshire; where Egbert, engaging them, was entirely defeated; and, flying, narrowly escaped with life. A. D. 835, they paid him another visit; but he quite defaced the dishonours of his former defeat, by gaining a great victory over them, at Hengston-Hill, in Cornwall. (The Danes had made two descents on England, previous to these: the first, at Portland, in 789; the second, in the Isle of Shephey, A. D. 832.) At the battle of Charmouth, were slain, among others, Hereferth, bishop of Winchester; and Wigfertb, bishop of Sherborne.

2. ETHELWULPH. (A. D. 838 - 857.)

This prince, A. D. 840, resigns the kingdoms of Kent, Essex, and Sussex, (including Surrey,) to Athelstan, his natural son. A. D. 852, the two kings gave battle to the Danes, at Okley in Surrey, and gained a complete victory: which, however, Athelstan does not long survive.

A. D. 855, Ethelwulph goes to Rome, upon superstitious motives; and his son Ethelbald takes that opportunity of aspiring to the throne. The king returning immediately, is forced to compromise matters, by resigning Wessex to his son, and reserving ony Kent, Essex, and Sussex, to himself. Ethelwulph outlives this partition but two years. He was a very conscientious, exemplary prince. He died, A. D. 857, leaving four sons, Ethelbald, already in possession of Wessex; Ethelbert, who, by virtue of his father's last will, succeeded him in the kingdoms of Kent, Essex, Sussex, and Surrey, (comprised now under the general name of the kingdom of Kent;) Ethelred; and Alfred; who both successively mounted the throne.

3. ETHELBALD. (A. D. 857 - 860.)

Reigned in Wessex two years, during his father's life; and about two and a half, after his decease. He died about 860, leaving behind him a bad character; and was succeeded by his second brother.

4. ETHELBERT, (A. D. 860 - 866.)

Who, already possessed of Kent major, did, by acceding to Wessex, unite the kingdoms again. This king, by giving the Danes money, in order to make them go away, only allured them to make their descents the oftener. He died, A. D. 866, leaving behind him, two sons, Anhelm and Ethelward; neither of whom succeeded him: his younger brother, Ethelred, mounting the throne, by virtue of his father Ethelwulph's will.

5. ETHELRED I. (A. D. 866 - 872.)

His reign was short and troublesome: being one continued conflict with the Danes. Ivar, or Hinguar, a Danish king, landing here, made very considerable conquests. Ethelred, though very unfortunate, was extremely courageous. He received his death's wound, at the battle of Marden, in Wiltshire, fought with the Danes, A. D. 872, and was buried at Winborne.

6. ALFRED. (A. D. 872 - 900.)

Ethelred left several children, who were barred from the succession by the will of their grandfather, Ethelwulph; which adjudged the crown to Alfred, justly styled The Great. Scarce had this most excellent prince been a month on the throne, when, in the battle of Wilton, he was worsted by the Danes. In the year 877, they invade Wessex; and, the next year, Alfred finds himself deserted by all: and is forced to conceal himself in a shepherd's house, in the isle of Athelney, in Somersetshire. But, shortly after, letting his friends know where he was, he so concerted measures, that, putting himself once more at the head of an army, he defeated the Danes at the battle of Edington, Somersetshire. Thus, though he succeeded to the throne, A. D. 872, yet he was not thoroughly settled in it, until the year 878. From this time, he bent all his thoughts how he might render his people free and happy at home, and secured from foreign attacks. To that end, he first puts his navy on a very formidable footing; and then, having thus guarded his coasts, he fortifies the rest of the kingdom with castles and walled towns. Next he set himself to make and compile a body of laws; and to guard private persons, as much as possible from oppression, he was the immortal institutor of juries, and ordained that, in all criminal cases, a man should be tried by his peers. He was likewise, probably, the first who divided England into shires, (from the Saxon word scyre, to branch or divide), hundreds, and tythings. He regulates the militia, so as to have them ready for service, in case of invasion, at a short warning; he introduces and promotes a very extensive commerce with other nations; invites over some learned men from abroad; and, A. D. 886, founds four colleges at Oxford: one for divinity, one for grammar and rhetoric, one for logic, arithmetic, and music; and, in the other, Johannes Scotus (surnamed Erigena, i. e. Irishman, from the word Erin, or Irin, the true name of Ireland) professed geometry and astronomy. With regard to the administration of national affairs, he set up two councils, wherein everything was debated: 1. A cabinet council. 2. Another, answerable to what is now called the privy council. To these he added the old Saxon Wittenagemot, or general assembly of the realm; much of the same nature with what is now called the parliament. Some time after, he introduces the way of building with brick and stone: houses, &c. until then, being usually built of wood. In the distribution of his time, he was very exact; allotting eight hours in the day for the dispatch of public business; eight for sleep, study, and necessary refreshment; and (pursuant to a vow he made, while he lay concealed in Aldeny) eight to acts of devotion. He died, A. D. 900, aet. 52, regni 29. He was bora at Wantage, in Berks; and buried at Winchester, without the North-gate, since called the Hide. He was, without doubt, one of the best, the greatest, and most glorious princes, that ever wore a crown. He was succeeded by his son

7. EDWARD I. (A. D. 900 - 925.)

He was inferior to his father in everything, except in valour and success. He is usually supposed to have founded the university of Cambridge, A. D. 915. His reign, which lasted more than twenty-four years, was, upon the whole, a happy and glorious one. By his first wife, he had two sons; Elsward, who survived him but a few days; and Edwin, who was put to death by Athelstan, A. D. 938.

By a second wife, named Edgiva, he had two sons; Edmund and Edred, who both mounted the throne.

8. ATHELSTAN. (A. D. 925 - 941.)

Notwithstanding Edward left three surviving sons, and eight daughters, all legitimate; yet his natural son, Athelstan, whom he had by a concubine named Egwina, is, by the clergy and nobility, elected king. He proved a valiant and successful prince; loved at home, and respected abroad. He died at Gloucester, A. D. 941,cet. 46, regni 16, and was buried at Malmesbury. He left no issue; by which means

9. EDMUND I. (A. D. 941 - 948.)

Eldest son of Edward I. is unanimously placed on the throne. In the year 948, being at Puckle-church, in Gloucestershire, he saw one Leolf, a noted robber, who had been condemned to banishment, dining at a table in the same hall with himself. The king, enraged, orders him to be apprehended: on which the hardy villain draws his dagger, to defend himself. Edmund, incensed to the last degree, leaps from his throne, and catching him by the hair, drags him out of the hall. In the straggle, Leolf wounds him in the breast; and the imprudent king expires on the body of his murderer. This was the end of Edmund, aet. 25, regni 8. He was buried at Glastonbury; of which he made Dunstan the first Abbot.

10. EDRED. (A. D. 948 - 955.)

Though Edmund had two sons (by his wife Elgiva) namely Edwy and Edgar; yet his brother, Edred, was placed on the throne. He was remarkable for his successes against the Danes; and after a seven year's reign, died A. D. 955. Though he left two sons, Elfred and Bedfrid, they were set aside; and he was succeeded by

11. EDWY, (A. D. 955 - 959.)

Son of Edmund I. his elder brother. This prince was so very handsome, that he acquired the surname of Pancalus. Dunstan, who had been a favourite with Edred, being disgraced by Edwy, foments a rebellion in Mercia. The Mercians choose Edgar for their king; in which Edwy is obliged to acquiesce. But this partition, together with seeing Dunstan and his monks triumphant, so preyed upon his spirits, as to throw him into a deep melancholy; of which he died, A. D. 959, after a short reign of somewhat above four years. Dying childless, he was succeeded by his brother

12. EDGAR, (A. D. 959 - 975.)

Who, hereby, united the kingdoms lately divided. His reign was remarkable for the continual peace with which it was attended; whence he had the name of Edgar the Peaceable. This uninterrupted calm was owing neither to his valour, nor to his pusillanimity; but to the great preparations he had made, to defend himself in case of any attack. This rendered him so formidable, that none of the neighbouring princes durst venture to begin with him. Keeping his court once at Chester, he was rowed down the river Dee, to the monastery of St. John the Baptist, by eight kings (himself sitting at the helm,) viz. Malcom, king of Cumberland; Mackus, lord of the Isles; and six Welch princes, Duffnal, Sifert, Howel, Jago, Inchell, and Jevaff. By promising every criminal capitally convicted, his pardon, on condition of bringing him so many wolves tongues by such a time, he cleared England of wolves, in the space of three years. After reigning sixteen years, he died, A. D. 975, aet. 32, leaving two sons: 1. Edward, who succeeded him, born by Elfleda, his concubine; at least the marriage was very doubtful. 2. Ethelred, the youngest, by the beautiful Elfrida, (daughter of Ordang, earl of Devonshire,) whom he had married. Edgar seems to have been rather a great, than a good prince.

13. EDWARD II. (A. D. 975 - 979.)

Commonly called the Martyr (though very improperly) was, partly through the impudence, and partly through the intrigues of Dunstan, acknowledged as king, at the age of fourteen years. He reigned but four years; for A. D. 979, being on his return from hunting, he called at Corfe Castle (in the isle of Purbeck, Dorsetshire,) to pay his respects to his mother-in-law, Elfrida, who lived there with her son Ethelred. Being told that the king was at the gate, Elfrida ran out to receive him, and earnestly pressed him to alight and come in to refresh himself. But, as Edward's design was only to call on her, as he passed by her castle, he excused himself from going in, and only desired a glass of wine, that he might drink her health. Hardly had he lifted the glass to his mouth, when a ruffian (some say Elfrida did it with her own hands) stabbed him in the back with a dagger. Perceiving himself wounded, he set spurs to his horse, and quickly gallopped out of sight: but being unable to keep to the saddle through loss of blood, he fell, and was dragged a considerable way, until his horse voluntarily stopped at the door of a cottage which stood by the road side. Elfrida, to conceal her crime, had his corpse thrown into a well; but it was soon discovered and removed to Shaftesbury. Elfrida, (according to the custom of those times,) thinking to atone for what she had done, founded two monasteries; one at Ambresbury, in Wiltshire; and the other at Wherwell, near Andover; in which latter she shut herself up, to do penance the rest of her life.

14. ETHELRED II. (A. D. 979 - 1013.)

Edward the Martyr (and a martyr he was, to the ambition of his mother-in-law, who was determined, at all events, to see her own son on the throne) was succeeded by his half-brother, Ethelred the second, Edgar's son by Elfrida. In this king's reign was perpetrated the massacre of the Danes. But Sweyn king of Denmark, hearing of it, soon took a severe revenge. He landed thrice in England. The two first times he did incredible damage, and carried off immense booty. The third time, which was in the year 1012, or 1013, he made himself master of the whole kingdom.

15. SWEYN, first Danish King.

(A. D. 1013 - 1014.)

Sweyn king of Denmark, was the first Danish king of England. His reign was very short; for he died suddenly the next year, being 1014. Whereupon

ETHELRED (Restored)

Ethelred was, by the English, recalled to the throne; who after a reign of continued bloodshed and disquiet, died at London, A. D. 1015. From his remissness and inactivity, he obtained the surname of the Unready. He left the kingdom involved in the utmost misery and poverty, confusion and desolation. He was succeeded by his son

16. EDMUND II. (A. D. 1015 - 1017.)

Surnamed Ironside, from his great robustness of body. The Danes, however, declare for Canute (son of Sweyn) now in England.

In one year, 1016, Edmund and Canute fought five pitched battles. The same year, Edmund sent a challenge to Canute; which the latter did not accept: but proposed referring the decision of their claims, to a certain number of plenipotentiaries, nominated by each party. The proposal was gladly received by the lords who sided with Edmund; so he was obliged to acquiesce in it. The congress was held accordingly, in Alney (a little island in the Severn, opposite to Gloucester;) where peace was quickly concluded, by a partition of the kingdom between the two competitors. All the country, south of the Thames, together with London and part of Essex, was adjudged to Edmund; the rest of the kingdom to Canute. Matters being thus settled, the two kings met in the isle of Alney, and, after mutually swearing to keep the peace, each retired to the dominions assigned him.

Edmund died the next year 1017, and was buried at Glastonbury, beside his grandfather Edgar. He was a just, magnanimous, and heroic prince; and, had his success in life been equal to his merit, he would have vied with the greatest and the best of monarchs.

By his wife, Algitha, he left two sons, Edmund and Edward. With him the Saxon monarchy in a manner ended, and gave place to the Danes; after it had lasted one hundred and ninety years, from the establishment by Egbert; four hundred and thirty-two, from the founding of the Heptarchy; and five hundred and sixty-eight years, from the arrival of the Saxons under Hengist.

17. CANUTE, Second Danish King.

(A. D. 1017 - 1036.)

Canute, already sovereign of great part of England, found means, though not directly by dint of arms, to make himself master of Wessex; and, thereby, of the whole realm. A. D. 1018, or thereabouts, he marries Emma, of Normandy, widow of Ethelred the second.

A. D. 1027, he subdues Norway; of which he is crowned king. This conquest satisfying his ambition, he thenceforward gave himself up to acts of devotion; and continued to the end of his days, humble, modest, just, and truly religious: a character very different from that which he bore during the former part of his reign. Dying, A. D. 1036, at Shaftesbury, he was buried at Winchester. He left three sons; 1. Sweyne, to whom he bequeathed Norway; 2. Harold, to whom he gave England; and Canute, commonly called Hardicanute, whom he had by Emma, and to whom he assigned Denmark.

18. HAROLD I, Third Danish King.

(A. D. 1036 - 1039.)

Harold accordingly succeeds his father; first in Mercia only, and then, through the interest of earl Goodwin, in Wessex also. His reign was short, and remarkable for nothing of moment. He was surnamed Harefoot; because, according to some, one of his feet was hairy all over; according to others, because he would never mount an horse, always choosing to walk on foot: but most probably, from his swiftness in running. He died at Oxford, A. D.1039, and was succeeded by his brother

19. CANUTE II. or Hardicanute, Fourth Danish King. (A. D. 1039).

So called, from the robustness of his constitution. He was a prince, in whose whole character there was nothing of the amiable, the respectable, or the beneficent: being cruel, avaricious, haughty, oppressive, and intemperate. He died, probably in a drunken fit, at Lambeth, unlamented, A. D. 1041.

20. EDWARD III. the Confessor. (A. D. 1041 - 1066.)

Hardicanute, leaving no issue, the nobles were embarrassed, whom to elect. There were,

1. Edward (afterwards named the Confessor,) son of Ethelred the second, by Emma of Normandy. But then,

2. There was another Edward (son of Edmund Ironside, and who, with his brother had been sent, in the beginning of Canute's reign, into Hungary, where he now was,) one degree nearer the crown; being, as I have said, son to Edmund the second, and by consequence, nephew to the Confessor. On the other hand,

3. There had been an uninterrupted succession of four Danish kings, for twenty-eight years; and Sweyn, son to Canute the first, was still living.

However, Edward, son of Ethelred the second, was chosen by the interest of earl Goodwin, whom he had gained. His election was quickly followed by a general expulsion of the Danes. Edward (though sainted, about 200 years after his death, by pope Alexander the third) was a prince of weak, narrow genius; a mean dissembler; unsteady, malicious, and revengeful, where he entertained any dislike; and yet good natured even to folly, where his caprice leaned that way: a despicable king; a very bad husband to a most virtuous and amiable wife (Editha, daughter of earl Goodwin); and not only an undutiful, but a cruel son, to his mother, Emma of Normandy. It is true she had disobliged him, by marrying Canute, her first husband's mortal enemy; but chiefly by one of the marriage articles, in wbich she consented that the crown of England should go to the issue she might have by Canute: which, however, it did not.

On Edward's accession, he not only stript her of all her possessions, allowing her only a very slender pension; but likewise in fact, kept her a prisoner at Winchester, where, after about eleven years confinement, in great poverty, she was released by death, A. D. 1052. Thus died Emma of Normandy, a sad sacrifice to the revenge and inhumanity of her own son! she who was the widow of two kings (Ethelred II. and Canute I;) mother of two more (Hardicanute, and this Edward;) and daughter of a duke of Normandy, little inferior to a king!

Toward the latter part of his reign, Harold (son of earl Goodwin, lately deceased) forms a design of mounting the throne. At the same time, Edward not troubling himself to fix the succession, employs himself solely in building a church at Westminster, and finished it just before his death, which happened A. D. 1065, or the beginning of 1066.

He made no manner of figure, either as a good man, or a great: and yet he must have a place in the calendar! and, for no reason in the world, be called a Confessor!

21. HAROLD II. (A. D. 1006.)

Edgar Atheling (grand nephew to Edward the Confessor, and son to Edward, the son of Edmund Ironside) was next the throne: but Harold had lain his plan so well, that he got himself elected. His late father, the great earl Goodwin, was of Danish extraction.

Harold's reign, short as it was, was molested by the invasions and restless hatred of his brother Toston (whom, for mal-administration, he had formerly removed from the government of Northumberland; which act of disinterested justice, Toston could never forgive.) But his most formidable and most successful foe was William the Bastard of Normandy, afterwards named the Conqueror: who, having waited some time for a wind, at length set sail from St. Valery, and lands at Pevensey (now called Pensey,) in Sussex, on the 29th of September. Thence he marches to Hastings, where he encamps. King Harold (who was then in the north, repelling an invasion from Norway,) hearing of William's descent, moves toward Hastings. October the 14th, being Harold's birthday, the two armies engage near that place. Harold after acquitting himself with a valour, prudence, and magnanimity, which well deserved a crown, yields at last to destiny, and falls among the slain: soon after, his troops are totally routed. This battle (commonly called the battle of Hastings) was fought on the spot where the town of Battle now stands, so named from this day's action. Thus died Harold after a short reign of less than a twelve-month. Though unfortunate, he was possessed of every quality that is requisite to form a great prince and an amiable man. His mounting the throne, was the only fault that could be laid to his charge.

22. (1.) WILLIAM I. (A. D. 1066 - 1087.)

On gaining the battle of Hastings, the Conqueror approaches London. The magistrates meet him with the keys, and the nobles offer him the crown; which he accepts. Though, at his coronation, he took the usual oath; yet his reign was excessively violent and tyrannical; and the English were mortified, pillaged, and oppressed to the last degree. A. D. 1087, being at war with Philip king of France, he laid siege to the city of Nantes, which he reduced to ashes. The heat of the season, and his standing too near the fire to see his orders executed, threw him into a fever, which interrupted the progress of his arms. Another accident likewise proved fatal to him: for being at this time excessively corpulent and unwieldy, he hurt the rim of his belly against the pummel of his saddle, as he was leaping a ditch, on horseback, in Normandy: this increasing his fever, he was carried on in a litter to Roan;where (after expressing great concern for the sins of his life, and owning himself an usurper of the crown of England) he died Sept. 9, 1087, and was buried at Caen, after a reign of fifty-two years in Normandy, and almost twenty-one in England. By his wife Matilda, daughter to the earl of Flanders, he left three surviving sons; Robert, duke of Normandy; William and Henry; of whom the two last successively mounted the throne.

23. (2.) WILLIAM II. (A. D. 1087 - 1100.)

Duke Robert, eldest son of the Conqueror, should have succeeded to the kingdom: but his brother William (surnamed Rufus, from the redness either of his hair, or his complexion) found means to supplant him. Robert was one of the most amiable princes in all respects, (if you except his indolence) that ever lived: on the contrary, William had every evil quality that could disgrace a man, and degrade a prince. His valour (the only property in him, that had even the least appearance of excellence) was more properly a brutal fierceness. A. D. 1098, he builds Westminster Hall. A. D. 1100, as he was hunting at Choringham, in the New Forest, in pursuit of a stag he had wounded, one Walter Tyrrel, a French knight, shooting at the same stag, pierced (as it is said) the king in the breast; who fell down dead on the spot, without speaking a word. Thus died William Rufus, quite unlamented, in the forty-fourth year of his age; after a reign, or rather tyranny, of almost thirteen years; and was buried at Winchester.

24. (3.) HENRY I. (A. D. 1100 - 1135.)

Though the youngest of the Conqueror's sons, yet he found means to make a strong party for himself; which became still stronger in a short time; those, who were in the interest of his brother Robert, choosing at last to declare for Henry, lest the kingdom should be involved in a civil war. His election, however, was very irregular and tumultuary; being entirely popular. He was even crowned on the fourth day from Rufus' death, before the states had confirmed his election. At first, he gave hopes of being a just, beneficent king; but the mask soon fell off, and his reign was for the most part, one series of tyranny and oppression. A. D. 1106, he entirely strips duke Robert his brother, of all Normandy; and, having taken that most amiable, but unfortunate prince, prisoner at the battle of Tinchebray, be brought him over to England, and shut him up in the castle of Cardiffe, in Glamorganshire; where he continued a prisoner till his death, which happened not till twenty-six years after, A. D. 1133.

Henry did not very long survive his injured brother: for, having eaten to excess, of some lampreys, he died December 2, 1135, an. aet. 68, regn. 36, and was buried at Reading. His courage, his capacity, and his acquired learning were great: but then he was haughty, cruel, covetous, insatiably avaricious, and lustful beyond most.

By his wife Matilda (who was daughter to Malcolm king of Scotland; by Margaret, sister to Edgar Atheling, who was grandson of Edmond Ironside) he left only one daughter, Matilda, married A. D. 1109, to the emperor Henry IV. Of his surviving natural children (which were twelve,) Robert, duke of Gloucester, who made so great a figure in the next reign, was the most eminent.

25. (4.) STEPHEN. (A. D. 1135 - 1154.)

Henry thought he had secured the succession to his daughter, the empress Matilda, but he was mistaken; for he was succeeded by Stephen de Blois, earl of Bologne, his nephew; whose mother, Adela was daughter to William the Conqueror, and married to the earl of Blois, by whom she had four sons, of whom Stephen, earl of Bologne, was one.

Upon the death of Henry (in whose court Stephen had been educated,) the clergy led the way, by declaring for his nephew: and the nobility, though they had thrice sworn to Matilda, soon followed the example. Stephen's reign was a very turbulent one. Desirous to retrench the pride and luxury of the clergy, he makes them his determined enemies; and they quickly gain over the people to their side. In this juncture, the empress Matilda lands in England, to assert her right to the crown. Her brother (though illegitimate,) Robert, duke of Gloucester, had, some time before headed a revolt; the design of which was to place her on the throne: but Stephen having defeated him, he flies over to his sister, who, at his persuasion, comes hither to head her friends in person. At first, she takes up her quarters with Adeliza, (daughter to Godfrey, the first earl of Brabant, and fourteen years wife to Henry I.) the queen dowager, in the castle of Arundel. Hence, at the queen's intercession, Stephen generously gives her leave to go unmolested to Bristol: where, and at Gloucester, she manages so artfully as to gain over both nobles and clergy to her party, and, by their means, almost all the people. A civil war breaks out: Stephen is reduced to extreme perplexity, yet preserves his intrepidity. At length the duke of Gloucester's forces, and those of king Stephen engage: the latter is defeated, taken prisoner, and sent to Matilda, who is so base as to lay him in irons, and confine him in the castle of Bristol. After this, Stephen's youngest brother, Henry de Blois, at first abbot of Glastonbury, now bishop of Winchester, sides with Matilda. But her unsufferable haughtiness quickly alienates the affections of him and all her new subjects. The bishop declares again for his brother: the revolt from Matilda is general: she betakes herself to the castle of Winchester, where she is closely besieged. Making a sally, a battle ensues: her troops are defeated: the duke of Gloucester is taken prisoner, and soon after exchanged for king Stephen, who now, once more sees himself at liberty. Matilda flying from place to place, is forced about four years after, to quit the kingdom, A. D. 1146, earl Robert having been first slain. Thus Stephen is again master of England. But, A. D. 1152, Henry, duke of Normandy (afterwards Henry II.) son to Matilda, by Geoffrey Plantagenet, earl of Anjou, (whom, A. D. 1127, she had married upon the death of her former husband, the emperor Henry IV.) looking on himself as undoubted heir to the crown, came over hither, in order to strengthen his party. He and Stephen had given each other battle at Wallingford, in Berks, had it not been for the persuasions of the earl of Arundel, who inclined Stephen to peace. In short, duke Henry and the king held a conference on the opposite banks of the Thames (which, at Wallingford, is very narrow,) where they agreed on a truce. The next year, it was settled, that Stephen should enjoy the crown for life, but that Henry should be next successor: which he accordingly was.

Stephen outlived this agreement but eleven months; dying at Canterbury of the cholic, October 25, 1154, an. aet. 50, regn. 19, and was buried at Feversham. Stephen, abstracted from his ambition in mounting the throne, was possessed not only of the whole circle of virtues; but, which rarely is the case, adorned with every amiable and graceful qualification which could set off those virtues to advantage. After giving him such a character, it would be needless to observe, that he was in particular, valiant, merciful, just, generous, and a lover of his people.

26. (5.) HENRY II. (A. D. 1154 - 1189.)

Pursuant to treaty, Henry Plantagenet, (otherwise called, Fitzempress) son to the earl of Anjou, (by Matilda daughter of Henry I. and relict of the emperor Henry IV.) succeeds to the crown without opposition. He lands December 7, and is crowned the 19th. He was in a most flourishing condition, revered every where, and extending his conquests in France, till disturbed by the ingratitude and unparalleled insolence of Thomas a Becket archbishop of Canterbury; who was solely indebted to Henry for all his preferments. This haughty prelate was son of Gilbert Becket, a citizen of London, by Matildis, said to be the daughter of a Saracen, who had taken this Gilbert, Thomas a Becket's father, prisoner, when he went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Thomas spent his youth in the study of the law. In process of time he was taken from thence and made arch-deacon of Canterbury. Shortly after, the king taking a fancy to him, made him lord high chancellor. Now it was that his pride began to be insupportable. The very bits in the bridles of his horses were silver. Attending the king in the war of Tholouse, he maintained at his own expense; 700 knights, and 1200 foot. Haughty and insolent as he was to every body else, he was all submission to the king; till Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, dying, he was promoted to that see by the king's recommendation. Henry, who imagined he should have a pliant archbishop ready to sacrifice every thing to his will, quickly found himself mistaken. As soon as Becket was consecrated, he sent back the great seal to the king and affected mortification and retirement. He knew the king was desirous of reducing the power of the clergy within reasonable bounds; and determines, from the moment he arrived at the pinnacle of preferment to oppose it with all his might. The first occasion of this famous quarrel happened A. D. 1163. One Philip de Broc, canon of Bedford, having committed a murder, the king would have had him capitally punished: but this was opposed by Becket, who was for setting all ecclesiastics above king and law too. Matters at length came to that pass that Thomas being condemned to imprisonment of body and confiscation of goods, flies over to Flanders in disguise, and is received into the protection of Lewis king of France. This was the latter end of the year 1163.

A. D. 1166, dies Henry's mother, the empress Matilda, aet. at 64, and was buried according to some, in the abbey of Bec, in Normandy; according to others, in the suburbs of Roan. On account of her being daughter of a king (Henry I.) wife to an emperor (Henry IV.) and mother of a king (Henry II.) she had this epitaph;

"Ortu magna, viro major, sed maxima partu,

"Hic jacet Henrici filia, spousa, parens."

The breach between Becket and his sovereign still continued. In November 1168, they held a conference near Paris, in the presence of the French king: when Henry made this proposal to Becket; "Pay me the same regard as the greatest of your predecessors paid to the least of mine, and I shall be satisfied." The pride and obstinacy of the ecclesiastic would not let him promise this: so the conference came to nothing. In 1169, another was held at a place in France, called Mons Martyrum: but the prelate's inflexibility rendered it as fruitless as the first. A third was held in 1170, at Montmirail, but without effect; and a fourth, the same year at Amboise, where all difficulties were at length surmounted; chiefly through the good offices of Rotrou, archbishop of Roan. The reconciliation was sincere on Henry's part; who, to convince the world of it, even condescended to hold the mad prelate's stirrup as he mounted his horse. Thus, after about seven years exile the imperious Becket was restored to his bishopric and his country; whither he returned with a resolution to revenge his past disgraces on the king, the very first opportunity that offered. Henry, though the injured party was unfeigned in his reconciliation; but Becket, the aggressor, could never forgive his king whom he had insulted. No sooner is the furious priest returned to England, than he suspends the archbishop of York, and excommunicates the bishops of London, Durham, and Exeter, who had sided with the king. The Christmas-day following, mounting his archiepiscopal chair at Canterbury, he solemnly excommunicates two barons; Nigel de Sackvil, and Robert Brock: the first for detaining (as was alleged) a manor belonging to the see of Canterbury; the other for cutting off the tail of an horse that was carrying provisions to his palace. The truth is, he was determined to exercise his authority with an higher hand than ever; and to brave the king, by showing him he was not afraid to revive the ancient quarrel. The excommunicated bishops appeal to the king who is still in Normandy. Henry, tired and exasperated at being incessantly plagued with the insolence of a subject whom he had raised from the dust, could not help crying out; "How unhappy am I, that among the great numbers I maintain, there is not a man dares revenge the affronts I perpetually receive from the hands of a wretched priest." These words were not dropt in vain. Four barons who were in waiting, resolved to free the king from this enemy. Their names were Reignald Fitzurse, William Tracey, Richard Britton, and Hugh Morvill. Landing in Kent, they repair to Canterbury; and, on the 30th of December, 1170, entering the cathedral where the archbishop was at vespers, they first upbraid him with his pride, obstinacy, and ingratitude: to which he returned so resolute an answer, as to give them occasion to effect their purpose. One Edward Ryme, who was waiting on the archbishop, had his arm almost cut off, by receiving the first blow that was made at Becket's head occasioned by the archbishop's having called Fitzurse, "a pimp." In short, they hacked the prelate with their swords in such a manner, that his blood and brains flew all over the altar. After committing this action they retired peaceably; none offering to stop them. Not daring to return to the king, they went and stayed a year at Knaresborough castle, in Yorkshire, belonging to Hugh Morvill: after which, Hoveden says, they went to Rome, for absolution; and were enjoined to go to Jerusalem, and do penance on the Black Mountain for life. However, it is certain that William Tracey retired to Mort, in Devonshire, twenty-three years after the death of Becket. The insolent prelate possessed the qualifications of a popish saint, in too eminent a degree not to be canonized after his decease: particularly that leading one, without which a man can be neither saint nor martyr in the court of Rome's account - a blind, absolute attachment to the holy chair; and of consequence, a desire to elevate the hierarchy of antichrist above all law and the rights of mankind. Miracles (as usual) were quickly ascribed to the new saint; foreigners, in vast numbers flocked from all parts of Europe, to Canterbury, to implore an interest in his merits and intercession; and presents of immense value were offered up to his tomb.

A. D. 1171, Henry resumes his design of conquering Ireland; a design, which he had formed before, but found it necessary to defer, on account of his quarrel with Becket. The king, this year, had as fair an opportunity, as his heart could wish, of putting his desire into execution. For Dermot, king of Leinster, having debauched and carried away the wife of O-Rorick, king of Meath; the latter, to be revenged, levied an army, and (with the help of Roderick, king of Connaught) invaded Dermot. Dermot, (being abandoned by his own subjects, to whom his arbitrary measures had rendered him extremely odious) fled into France, where our king Henry then was, to implore his aid. Henry caught at the proposal: but not being at leisure to assist him himself, on account of the war he was carrying on in France, he gives Dermot leave to go into England, and obtain assistance from what barons he could until himself could support him with stronger forces. Dermot comes accordingly, and makes an agreement with Robert Fitzstephen, and Richard de Clare (surnamed Strongbow,) earl of Pembroke. To the first he gave hopes of his making a considerable fortune in Ireland; to the latter he promised his only daughter in marriage, and to settle the succession on him. Fitzstephen, being first ready, accompanies Dermot, into Ireland, with four hundred men. Landing at Waterford, the Irish king leads him before Wexford, which being presently taken, is given to Fitzstephen, who there settles the first English colony ever planted in Ireland. After this exploit, Maurice de Prendergest, an English baron, arriving with fresh troops, reinforces Fitzstephen's army to three thousand; with which he next subdues the king of Ossory. By this time, Roderick, the king of Connaught, takes the alarm; and offers Fitzstephen a large sum, if he would quit the island; but in vain. Dermot himself enters into treaty with Roderick, to send away the English: when, just in the crisis, arrives the earl of Pembroke, with twelve hundred men. He marries Dermot's daughter; and, his father-in-law, dying soon after, the earl takes possession of the kingdom of Leinster. After the death of Dermot, the English adventurers make great progress: chiefly by means of their cross-bows, with which the Irish were greatly intimidated, having never seen any (much less felt them) until then. In short, the English advance to Dublin, and take it. Henry, hearing of this prodigious success, grows jealous of the adventurers, and recalls them: on which Fitzstephen, and the earl of Pembroke, send deputies, to assure him of their submission, and that their conquests were at his command: which so far appeased him, that he suffers them to stay in Ireland. A. D. 1172, Henry sails in person, from the coast of Pembrokeshire, into Ireland, with four hundred sail. On his arrival, the Irish unanimously submit. All the kings of the island waited on him at Waterford (where he landed,) and swore allegiance. Thus, says Rapin, Henry, without spilling one drop of blood, became master of Ireland, in less time, than was sufficient to travel over it. After placing fresh garrisons at Waterford and Wexford, and some other maritime towns, he marched to Dublin; and there, without the city, had a palace built of wattles, according to the fashion of the country; and kept his court until the beginning of February. Having made, during his stay at Dublin, several regulations for the government of his new conquest, he set sail again for England, after not quite four month's continuance in Ireland; leaving at Dublin, Hugh Lacy, to govern the island in his name, by the title and style of Justiciary of Ireland. The earl of Pembroke died, A. D. 1176.

The same year that Henry left Ireland, he was absolved by the pope's legate, of Becket's murder, upon terms equally advantageous to pope and clergy, and dishonourable to so great a king. Among the rest, one was, that he should go barefoot to Becket's tomb, and there, upon his naked back, receive four or five lashes from each of the monks belonging to the monastery of St. Austin; which he actually submitted to the next year.

A. D. 1173. his queen (Eleanor of Guienne,) exasperated at her husband's frequent and open violations of his nuptial vow, enters into a conspiracy with three of his sons, Henry, Richard, (his successor,) and Geoffrey; who, without any scruple, joined with her in the design of dethroning their father: but without effect; his vast successes against Scotland, together with his rapid conquests in France, and all crowned with his reduction of the rebels in England, rendering their unnatural schemes abortive. His eldest son, Henry, died A. D. 1183, with great signs of remorse for his undutiful conduct. A. D. 1186, Richard openly revolts in France, but is obliged to make his submission. A. D. 1189, he discovers that his favourite son John had a chief hand in exciting the troubles against him in France; and notwithstanding the particular tenderness with which he had always treated that unworthy son, he had endeavoured might and main, to dethrone him. His grief threw him into a disorder, which soon carried him off: but not till after he had uttered the most bitter and terrible imprecations against his sons, which he could never be prevailed with to revoke. He died at Chinon, in Poictou, the 6th of July, 1189, an. aet. 57, regn. 35, and was interred at Font Evraud. His surviving sons, by Eleanor of Guienne, were Richard and John, who both succeeded him. King Henry was valiant, prudent, generous, politic, studious, learned, and of an exalted genius: but, on the other hand, his haughtiness, lust and ambition, were boundless. His reign had been one series of glory and happiness, had it not been for the unfortunate quarrel with Becket, and the repeated rebellions of his sons.

27. (6.) RICHARD I. (A. D. 1189 - 1196.)

Commonly called (for his valour, the only commendable quality he had) Coeur de lion, succeeded his father; and in 1190, taking the crusade, he sets out for France, in order to go to the holy land: but not until he had released his mother queen Eleanor, who had languished in prison for the last sixteen years of her husband's reign.

Sailing from Marseilles, he makes himself, A. D. 1191, master of the isle of Cyprus: Isaac, king of that isle, having stripped and imprisoned some of Richard's army, who, on their way to Palestine, had been wrecked on the Cyprian coasts. Isaac, being taken prisoner at Limisso, besought Richard not to put him in irons: but the English king, insulting his misfortunes, granted his request literally, and ordered him to be bound in fetters of silver. Being arrived in the holy land, Richard gives astonishing proofs of his valour: and embarking for Europe, A. D. 1192, the ship in which he was, suffered shipwreck between Aquileia and Venice. After this, he imprudently ventures himself into the dominions of the duke of Austria, (whom he had mortally offended, when they were in Palestine together, at the siege of Acres) where, though disguised as a pilgrim, and travelling on foot, he was discovered, seized at a small village near Vienna, and delivered to the duke; by whom he was afterwards given up to the emperor, Henry VI. who, without any ceremony, clapped him into close confinement. During this time his brother John was trying in England to take advantage of Richard's imprisonment, and raise himself to the throne: and, the better to succeed in his design, laboured all he could with the emperor, to detain his illustrious prisoner; and entered into close treaty with Philip of France, who from motives both of policy and revenge (for they had differed much and often in the holy land,) had nothing more at heart than to embroil Richard's affairs.

Meanwhile, Eleanor, the queen dowager, tried all she could to counteract the ambition of her younger son, and procure Richard's enlargement. But the obstacles were many: the pope refused to interfere in his favour; the emperor, who detained the king, was insatiably covetous; and the French king, together with prince John of England, had offered the emperor very highly, if he would make Richard's confinement perpetual. However, chiefly through the representations made by the Diet of the Empire, Richard is at length set at liberty, upon paying the emperor 100,000 marks of silver, and giving hostages for the payment of 50,000 more. The emperor quickly repented of his bargain; and sent after Richard, in hopes of seizing him again: but the king had made too much haste, and arrived safe at Sandwich, March 20, 1194, after four years absence, fifteen months of which he had spent in prison. His subjects received him with great demonstrations of joy. His first care was to quell his brother John's faction; which done, he is re-crowned; and causes a sentence to pass against John, confiscating his lands, and declaring him incapable of succeeding to the crown: but, at the intercession of their mother, queen Eleanor, he pardons John in the year 1195, at Roan, where, by her means, they had an interview. Being engaged in a war against Philip of France, he besieges Chaluz; from the walls of which city, an archer shot him with an arrow, which, fixing in his shoulder, close to his neck, proved his death; not so much from the real mortality of the wound itself, as by the unskilfulness of the surgeon that dressed it. Perceiving himself near death, he bequeaths all his dominions to his brother John, and expires, A. D. 1199. By his own desire, expressed in his last will, he was interred at Font-Evraud, in Anjou, at his father's feet; in testimony of his grief for the many sorrows he had occasioned him. Richard, though valiant beyond most men that ever lived, was yet upon the whole, but a very indifferent king; who spared neither the lives, liberty, nor purses of his subjects. His rebellion against his father; his inextinguishable thirst of money; his ungovernable pride; and his unbounded lust (even to the commission, it is said, of the sin against nature;) will for ever, and indellibly, stain his memory. He left no issue by his wife, Berenguella of Navarre.

28. (7). JOHN. (A. D. 1199 - 1216.)

Prince John succeeded to the throne, solely by testamentary right, i. e. by virtue of his brother's will; to the prejudice of Arthur, duke of Bretagne, son to Geoffrey, (third son of Henry II.) John's elder brother. [It should have been observed, in its proper place, that prince John was, in the reign of his father Henry, A. D. 1185, made chief governor of Ireland. The king intended to have crowned him monarch of that island, and the pope had, for that purpose, sent over a crown of peacock's feathers interwoven with gold: but, on second thoughts, Henry laid aside his design, for fear of strengthening the ambition, and enflaming the jealousy of his other son Richard. John was well received in his government at first; but, in a short time, so alienated the hearts of the Irish, that Henry was obliged to recal him.]

John's reign in England was a series of disquiet and misfortune, both to himself and his people. The chief events were these.

1. The loss of almost all the English dominions in France, conquered from him by Philip Augustus, the French king.

2. A. D. 1215, the barons take arms in the cause of liberty; make themselves masters of London; and besiege the king in the Tower: who is forced to yield, and, in fact, throw himself on their mercy. In consequence of this success,

3. They oblige him to sign Magna Charta; which he does in the open air, in a meadow called Runnemead, between Staines and Windsor, June 5, 1215, at the same time he signed the Charter of Forests.

4. John, who had signed these charters with no intention to keep them, got the pope to absolve him of his oath. Retiring to the Isle of Wight, he waits the arrival of foreign troops whom he had sent for; on whose coming, as they did in shoals, the barons retreat to London; and the whole kingdom is ravaged by a merciless army of foreign savages divided into two bodies, one headed by John himself, the other by his natural brother William (surnamed Longsword) earl of Salisbury, king Henry's son by Rosamond Clifford. Never was England in so sad a condition. The confederate barons, in despair, make an offer of the crown to prince Lewis (son of Philip, king of France) who afterwards mounted the French throne by the name of Lewis VIII. King Philip promises to assist them; vast preparations are made in France; prince Lewis, in the beginning of 1216, lands at Sandwich, takes Rochester, and sees himself on a sudden, master of almost all the south of England. But,

5. The meanest thing, which even John the meanest as well as worst of princes, ever did, was his resignation of his crown on his knees, to Pandulph, the pope's legate, in Dover church, A. D. 1213. He layed the crown, and other regalia at Pandulph's feet (as representative of the pope); offering at the same time, a sum of money by way of tribute, which the humble legate, to show the grandeur of his master, spurned with his foot. John then signed a resignation of the kingdom of England and lordship of Ireland, to the pope. The legate kept the crown and sceptre five days; and then restored them to John, as a vassal of the holy see. The next year, 1214, he resigns his crown a second time to the pope [who was Innocent the XIIth] in the person of Pandulph, at Westminster.

Whilst Lewis is in England, John, after the misfortune of losing all his baggage by a flood in the marshes on the borders of Lincolnshire and Norfolk, falls sick, and dies at Newark, October 18, 1216, and is buried, without pomp, at Worcester.

From every part of his conduct, both before and after his accession to the crown, it is evident, that John was one of the worst men that ever lived; and one of the worst kings that ever reigned.

29. (8.) HENRY III. (A. D. 1216 - 1272.)

Henry, son to John by his third wife, Isabel of Angouleme, succeeded his father, at the age of ten years. Prince Lewis of France was still in the kingdom, pushing his conquests. But, after the coronation of young Henry, Lewis meeting with little success, returns to France, A. D. 1217.

Henry proved a very bad king; though bad as he was, he appeared to some advantage, after the reign of a worse, his father and predecessor.

Henry's genius was wretched and despicable, he was a slave to his favourites; and by his high notions of kingly power, made both himself and his people unhappy. He was haughty, capricious, deceitful, and covetous; yet though covetous, he was not rich; not having sense enough to manage the money he so insatiably thirsted after. His treatment of the barons; his confirmation and violations of the charters, demonstrate, that he paid no sort of regard to his word, his bond, or the most solemn oaths. But, with all his other vices, he was not incontinent. In a word, there have been, in some respects, worse kings in England; but few characters more truly contemptible, than Henry the Third. James the First, if any, exceeding him in the latter.

Returning from Norwich, A. D. 1272, (where he had been to punish some rioters) he was taken ill at St. Edmund's Bury; but, continuing his journey, reached London, where he died the sixteenth of November, aet. 66, regn. 56, and was buried at Westminster. By his wife, Eleanor of Provence, he had two sons, Edward and Edmund; the former of whom succeeded him.

30. (9.) EDWARD I. (A. D. 1272 - 1307.

Edward (the first of that name, since the Conquest; but the fourth from Egbert) surnamed Longshanks, was in Sicily when his father's death was notified to him. The English had conceived a very great esteem for him, during the late reign, owing to the proofs he had given both of his valour and clemency; he succeeded , without opposition, the barons even swearing allegiance to him in his absence. He did not arrive in England, until the year 1274; after which he was presently crowned. The chief events of his reign were,

1. His wars with Lewellyn, prince of Wales; which, at length, A. D. 1282, ended in his entire reduction of that important country (by the battle of Snowdon, in Caernarvonshire, in which Lewellyn's forces were defeated, and himself slain;) which, A. D. 1283, he united to England. After his victory, Edward builds the castle of Aberconway, at the foot of Snowdon-hill. A. D. 1284, the king had a son (afterwards the unfortunate Edward II.) born at Caernarvon.

2. A. D. 1296, in the battle of Dunbar, he conquers Baliol, king of Scotland; soon after which, Baliol comes to Kincardin, where Edward was, and makes a formal resignation of his kingdom to Edward; signing at the same time, an instrument of express conveyance, to which the great seal of Scotland was affixed, and the greatest part of the Scotch barons likewise set their hands. Afterwards, Edward received homage from the states of Scotland, who, repairing to Berwick, swore allegiance to him.

Now it was, that Edward removed the Scotch regalia into England; together with the famous stone on which the inauguration of the Scotch kings was always performed. The history of this stone is as follows: Keneth II. king of Scots, having, A. D. 840 (soon after the succession of Ethelwulph, the second king of England) given the Picts a total defeat, near the monastery of Scone, placed a stone there (which fabulous tradition reported to be the same that served Jacob for a pillow,) and inclosed it in a wooden chair, for the inauguration of the kings. It had been brought out of Spain into Ireland, by Simon Breccus; afterwards, out of Ireland into Scotland. This stone the Scots for many ages looked upon as their palladium; on the preservation of which, and its continuance in their nation, depended their sovereignty and independency as a kingdom. On it was engraved the following distich:

"Ni fallat fatum, Scoti quocunque locatum

"Invenient lapidem, regnare tenentur ibidem."

This stone Edward conveyed to Westminster Abbey, (where it still continues) to make the Scots believe that the time appointed for the dissolution of their monarchy was really come.

3. The next year, A. D. 1297, one William Wallace, a man of mean birth, but great genius, excites the Scots to revolt. Matters come to that pass, that, in 1299, all the English are forcibly driven out of Scotland. A. D. 1306, Edward carries his arms into Scotland, and a third time, sees himself master of that kingdom. But another revolution happening there soon after, Edward, exasperated to the last degree, resolved (to use his own phrase) "utterly to destroy all Scotland from sea to sea."

Vast preparations were made; an army was gathered, the finest England had ever seen; Edward marches to Carlisle, with full intent to make good his threats. But providence suddenly put an end to his days and his projects. Finding himself taken ill, and knowing he should die, he sent for his son, and exhorted him to these three things:

1. Vigorously to push the war against Scotland, and to carry his bones with him, at the head of the army.

2. Never to recal Gaveston (an infamous young man, a great favourite with the prince, but whom the king had formerly banished as a corrupter of his son).

3. To send his heart to the Holy Land. Then, desirous, if possible, to die in Scotland, a country he had thrice conquered; he moved, by easy journies, toward that kingdom. When he had advanced as far as the little town of Burgh upon the Sands, in Cumberland, he there resigned his last breath, July 7, 1307, aged sixty-eight, after a most glorious reign of more than thirty-four years and an half. His body was removed to Westminster, and interred near Edward the Confessor: upon his tomb is this line:

"Edwardus primus, Scotorum Malleus, hic est."

He was remarkably tall and handsome; but still more distinguished by the excellencies of his mind. His virtue was both eminent and universal; if we except his implacable enmity to Scotland, and his ambition; of which latter he had, perhaps, too great a share. His only surviving son, by his wife, Eleanor of Castile, was his successor who ascended the throne by the name of

31. (10.) EDWARD II. (A. D. 1307 – 1327.

The second of this name, since the Conquest; the fifth since Egbert. He was commonly called Edward of Caernarvon, from the place of his nativity. No sooner was he on the throne, than, in violation of his oath made to his father some years back, and of his promise to him on his death-bed, he recalls his old favourite, Piers Gaveston (he was a Gascon by birth; the handsomest young man of his age, and as profligate as handsome,) which was the original spring of all his troubles afterwards. A. D. 1311, he is obliged by the barons to re-banish Gaveston; but within a few months recalls him. A civil war being raised, Gaveston is besieged and taken in Scarborough Castle, by the earl of Pembroke, and his head is presently after struck off by the earl of Warwick. A. D. 1319, a new brace of favourites having succeeded Gaveston in the king's affections, viz. the two Spencers, father and son, Edward is forced to banish these two; but quickly recalls them. At length, A. D. 1326, his queen, Isabel of France (infamous for her affection to Roger Mortimer the younger; to which, however, she was probably first induced by the king's criminal passion for the late Gaveston, and afterwards by the continual insults and mortifications she was forced to put up with from the succeeding favourites) found means to raise a faction against him; which faction, being supported by her brother Charles the Fair, king of France, ends in Edward's deposition, A. D. 1327, by his own parliament, which declare his son (Edward III.) king in his room. But the prince, being unwilling to accept the crown, without his father's consent, solemnly vowed he never would: on which, the parliament send deputies to Edward, now in confinement at Kenelworth Castle, to persuade, or rather force him, to resign the crown to his son; which, finding there was no remedy, he was obliged to do. Thus ended the reign of Edward II; a prince, not entirely destitute of all good qualities, but of a very mean capacity, and ruined by an obstinate attachment to his favourites, whom he would never willingly part with, though petitioned ever so humbly and frequently by an injured nation. [This unfortunate monarch after his deposition, was kept prisoner by his wife, in Kenelworth Castle for some time: but dreading his restoration, she, in concert with her paramour Roger Mortimer, ordered sir John Maltravers and sir Thomas Gurney to remove Edward from Kenelworth to Berkeley Castle; where he was very soon murdered in his bed. A pillow was first laid on his mouth to prevent his cries from being heard; and then, thrusting a pipe of horn up his body, they ran a red hot iron through that, and so burnt his bowels. All this happened in the year 1327. He lies in Gloucester Cathedral. As to queen Isabel (her son, the young king, being a minor) she and Mortimer, earl of March, seized on the government until the new king should come of age: and, partly by their infamous and avowed passion for each other; and, partly, through the haughty and oppressive manner in which they governed; the king her son, A. D. 1330, stript her not only of her power, but also of her dowry, and confined her to her house at Risings, near London, where, after an imprisonment of twenty-eight years, she died, A. D. 1358. As to her gallant, the earl of March, being impeached of high treason, before the parliament, and found guilty, he was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn (then called Elms,) A. D. 1330. His descendants, by the female line, mounted afterwards the throne; as we shall see hereafter: [viz. Edward IV. Edward V. and Richard III.]

32. (11.) EDWARD III. (VI.) (A. D. 1327 - 1377.)

Called from the place of his birth, Edward of Windsor. His reign was long and glorious; of which the chief events were,

1. The downfal of his mother, queen Isabel, and Mortimer, A. D. 1330, as related above.

2. The birth of his son prince Edward, at Woodstock, A. D. 1330, who proved one of the greatest ornaments to mankind, that this or any nation ever produced. From a suit of black armour, which he usually wore in fight, he was called Edward the Black Prince. He was made duke of Cornwall, A. D. 1337, and was the first person that ever bore the dignity of duke in England. He married his cousin, Johanna of Kent (commonly called the Fair,) Countess Dowager of Holland, and daughter of Edmund earl of Kent, who was beheaded in the beginning of this reign, by the intrigues of Isabel and Mortimer. By her he had one son, afterwards Richard II. Prince Edward died of a fever, June 8, 1376, aet. 46, inexpressibly lamented by the king his father, and the whole nation. He lies in the cathedral of Canterbury. It was said of him (as it was afterwards of the duke of Marlborough) that he never went on an expedition, in which he did not succeed; nor ever undertook a siege, which he did not carry.

3. A. D. 1333, king Edward, by gaining the battle of Halydon-hill, reduces Berwick upon Tweed, and annexes it for ever to the crown of England. In this, and two or three of the following years, he more than once makes himself master of Scotland.

4. A. D. 1340, he assumes the title of king of France, and quarters the arms of that kingdom with his own; subjoining for motto, Dieu et mon droit. [N. B. Upon the death of Charles the Fair king of France, in 1329, Edward, as nephew of that monarch (who was brother to Isabel, the queen dowager of England, mother of Edward) laid claim to the crown. But, Philip de Valois succeeding by virtue of the salique law, Edward took the first opportunity of making war upon him.]

5. The year 1346 was remarkable for the famous battle of Cressy, in which king Edward and his glorious son the Black Prince, did wonders almost more than human. With an army of 30,000 men they beat Philip, at the head of 100,000. Edward seeing that victory would probably declare for his troops, purposely leaves the honour of the day to his son, and stood off on a rising ground, where he could see the issue of the fight. The prince having routed the greater part of the French forces, there yet remained one body to reduce, commanded by the king of Bohemia. Toward this, the heroic prince directed his steps. The enemy give way; multitudes drop; the remainder fly, and are pursued with incredible slaughter. The old king of Bohemia was slain as he wished to be, fighting for France; and his standard (on which were embroidered in gold, three ostrich feathers, with this motto, Itch Dien, i.e. I serve, alluding to his being in the service of France) was taken and brought to the Black Prince, who, in memory of the event, bore, from thenceforward, three ostrich feathers in his coronet (as his successors have done ever since,) and adopted the motto for his own. In this famous, battle, the English first made use of cannon: a thing yet unheard of among the French. The field of action were the plains between Aberville and Cressy, in Picardy. The day was Saturday, August 24. France lost eleven princes; upwards of eighty standards; 1200 knights; and about 30,000 soldiers. The Black Prince was just turned of the sixteenth year of his age at this time.

6. A. D. 1347, the king takes Calais (which continued in the hands of the English, until the reign of Mary the bloody, when it was taken, for the French king, by the duke of Guise, A. D. 1558.)

7. A. D. 1348, one half of the nation is swept away by a most dreadful plague.

8. Philip de Valois, the French king, dying in 1350, is succeeded by his son John; who being, A. D. 1356, taken prisoner by the Black Prince, at the battle of Poictiers, is, the year following conducted to London. Thus there were at one time, two kings prisoners in England, John of France; and David, king of Scotland, who was confined at Odiham in Hampshire.

9. The king institutes the Order of the Garter, A. D. 1349.

10. In 1359, he ravages France, to the very gates of Paris.

11. In 1369, dies Edward's queen, Philippa of Hainault; to whom he had been married forty-two years, and who was, in every respect, a most excellent princess. She lies at Westminster.

12. A. D. 1377, that eminent instrument of God, John Wickliff, began to make a great figure.

And this same year, dies king Edward, of the shingles, at Shene (now Richmond, near London) June 21, an. regn. 51, aet. 65. He lies in the church of Westminister.

In this prince's general character, every thing that is great and good was united. His greatest foible was his falling in love with Alice Pearce (who had been lady of the bed-chamber to his late queen,) in his old age, A. D. 1376, and making her his mistress against the united voice of his parliament and kingdom. But where is virtue without a foil?

33. (12.) RICHARD II. (A. D. 1377 - 1399.) Surnamed of Bourdeaux.

King Edward was succeeded by his grandson, Richard (only son of Edward the Black Prince, by Johannah of Kent.)

Were virtue hereditary, this prince had been an ornament to the throne: but in every quality he was the reverse of his illustrious father. He acceded to the crown at eleven years of age. His uncles, John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster; and Edmund of Langley, earl of Cambridge (afterwards duke of York) govern the state, until 1380; when Thomas de Beauchamp, earl of Warwick is made sole governor of the king.

In 1381, happened the insurrection of Wat Tyler; and, the same year, Richard marries Ann of Luxemburgh, sister of the emperor Wenceslaus.

About this time the king's disposition began to show itself. He appeared to be totally void of merit, but most extravagantly conceited: a slave to his pleasures; and a dupe to flatterers, whom unfortunately he looked upon as his only friends. A. D. 1386, the nation is threatened with an invasion from France; on which Richard calls a parliament, who refuses to supply him, except he dismisses his favourites; (the chief of whom were, Alexander Neville, archbishop of York; Robert de Vere, earl of Oxford, a most abandoned young man, but a darling of Richard's; Michael de la Pole, a merchant's son of London; and judge Tresilian.) - Richard refuses, and treats the parliament with the utmost disrespect, indecency, and contempt: but is at length forced to comply. After this, the parliament as guardians of the nation they represented, found themselves obliged so far to consult the common safety, as to appoint fourteen commissioners, to govern jointly with the king.

No sooner is the parliament broke, than he recalls his favourites, and loads them with greater honours than ever. In concert with these, A. D. 1387, he forms the design of making himself absolute; and even gets the judges to decide, that the king is above law. The barons are necessitated to take up arms in their own and the people's defence: on which, Richard resolves to go over into France, and, by the surrender of Calais and Cherburgh to the French king, obtains forces of him, to reduce and enslave his subjects; but, the barons happily discovering the plot, it comes to nothing. At length, A. D. 1397, he so manages, as to pack a parliament to his mind; which he adjourns from Westminster to Shrewsbury (whence this infamous assembly got the name of the Shrewsbury Parliament); where they carry the kingly power higher than any English monarch had yet pretended to. A. D. 1398, he confiscates to himself all the estates of seventeen whole counties. This year dies John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, Richard's uncle. A. D. 1399, being in Ireland, to quell rebellion there, a conspiracy is formed against him here. The English malecontents invited over from France (whither he had been most unjustly banished by Richard, who had also confiscated his whole estate,) Henry (presently after Henry IV.) duke of Hereford; or, rather duke of Lancaster. This prince was first cousin to Richard; being son to John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, who was fourth son to Edward III. Richard's grandfather. Duke Henry upon the strength of this invitation, lands at Ravenspur in Yorkshire; and soon sees himself joined in effect, by almost the whole kingdom. Some time after, Richard lands at Milford-haven from Ireland, and, being at a loss which way to turn, shuts himself up in the castle of Aberconway. Hither the duke of Lancaster sends deputies to him. To these, Richard makes the offer of resigning his crown, on condition that his own life, and the lives of eight more, to be named by him should be preserved; and an honourable pension be assigned to himself. Upon this he is removed to Flint Castle, where he and the duke of Lancaster have an interview. From hence they travel together to London; where Richard is confined in the Tower. On September 29, the duke attended with a great number of lords, goes to him (the day before the parliament was to meet); when Richard delivers up the regalia, and, with his own hand signs an instrument, wherein he confesses himself unworthy and unfit to reign. The next day the parliament being met, articles of accusation were drawn up, consisting of thirty-three particulars; after which, the parliament with one consent, pronounced him deposed. On this the duke of Lancaster standing up, and crossing himself, claims the crown; which is unanimously adjudged to him.

Thus ended the reign of Richard II. who first suffered himself to be corrupted by flattery; next, obstinately adhered to his flatterers, though exclaimed against by all his people; and lastly, to complete his misfortunes, aimed at rendering himself arbitrary and depostic: which three things were the united source of his ruin.

[After his deposition, he was soon removed by Henry, from the Tower of London to Pontefract Castle, where he came by an unnatural end, in February, 1400. Some say, that he was starved to death: others, that he was run through with a sword, by Sir Piers Exton, who (they add) repaired to Pontefract for that very purpose. He died, aged thirty-three years; of which he had reigned twenty-two. His body was indecently buried at King's Langley, in Herts; but afterwards honourably removed to Westminster, by Henry V. the first year of his reign.]

34. (13.) HENRY IV. (A. D. 1399 - 1413.)

Thus Henry IV. mounted the throne. He was as said above, son to John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster (son to Edward the Third, by queen Philippa) by his first wife, Blanch of Artois. Duke Henry's right was no doubt unquestionable in itself, because it was a parliamentary one: but still, if we go by hereditary succession, there was one nearer the crown than he; viz. Edmund Mortimer, earl of March; who married Philippa, daughter to Lionel, duke of Clarence, third son of Edward III. by virtue of which marriage, the earl was (had the nation consented) next heir to the crown.

Presently after Henry's accession, the parliament (not that which had deposed Richard) past this extraordinary sentence on the late king; viz. "That he should be confined during life; and should himself be the very first person put to death, if any should attempt his deliverance." A conspiracy being formed against Henry the next year, was no doubt the occasion of Richard's untimely death, as related above, pursuant to sentence of parliament.

Henry every time he went to bed, had his crown laid upon his pillow. Some time before he died, being fallen into so strong a fit, that he was supposed to have breathed his last, his son prince Henry, (afterwards the glorious Henry V.) took it up and carried it away. The king coming to himself, and missing the crown, enquired what was become of it? Being told, he sent for his son, and asked him, "whether he meant to rob him of his royalty, even before he was dead?" The prince, after a dutiful and affectionate answer, laid the crown in its place again.

Henry died March 20, 1413, aet. 46, having reigned thirteen years and a half, wanting a few days. He was far from making any great figure, while on the throne; nor yet was he despicable; especially in point of valour. His main care was, to preserve the crown he had acquired; which, tottering more than once, made him spend his days in a jealousy, suspicion, and continual alarm, hardly compatible with true peace of mind.

He was surnamed of Bollingbroke, a town in Lincolnshire, the place of his nativity.

The little regard he showed for the liberties of his people; the death of Richard his predecessor; and his being the first burner of the Wickliffites; will be everlasting blots in his fame. He lies in the cathedral of Canterbury. By his first wife, Mary Bohun (daughter of Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford,) he had, besides two daughters, four sons; namely, Henry his successor; Thomas duke of Clarence; John duke of Bedford; and Humphrey, created duke of Gloucester, by his brother, Henry V.

In Henry IV's reign, flourished William of Wickham, and Chaucer the poet.

35. (14.) HENRY V. (A. D. 1413 - 1422.)

Surnamed of Monmouth, succeeded his father. [He was, from his very childhood, of a warlike, enterprising disposition; which his father observing with jealousy, he was soon excluded from all civil and military employ. Reduced thus to a state of idleness, his active genius would not suffer him to lie still: he accordingly gave into all the excesses, which a prince of spirit and vivacity, corrupted by a set of young courtiers and flatterers, can be supposed to allow himself in. His court was the receptacle of libertines, buffoons and parasites. And yet, amid all his extravagances, some rays of generosity, virtue, and magnanimity, would discover themselves on occasion. A particular instance of his moderation, gave hopes to the people, that he would one day prove a beneficent king. A favourite servant of his being, in the year 1412, arraigned for felony, before William Gascoigne the lord chief justice; prince Henry, in hope of over-awing the judge by his presence, sat by during the trial. But his presence not hindering the condemnation of the criminal, the prince was so enraged, that he gave the judge a box on the ear. The magnanimous chief justice immediately ordered him to be arrested on the spot, and committed prisoner to the king's bench. The prince conscious of his rashness, and struck no doubt, with the impartiality and intrepidity of the judge, suffered himself to be led away to prison, like a private person, without offering the least resistance. He is said to have carried his frolics so far, as, among other pranks to disguise himself, and lay in wait for the receivers of his father's revenues, and, in the person of a highwayman, to set upon and rob them. In such rencounters, he sometimes happened to be soundly beat; but always rewarded such of his father's officers, as made the stoutest resistance. In these wild sallies, the famous sir John Fastolff, (corruptly called Falstaff) was usually one.}

Upon his accession, he dismisses all his former riotous companions; chooses a council, composed of persons most eminent for integrity and ability; and gave indisputable proofs of a total reformation. - This great prince, on October 25, 1415, with an army of less than 10,000 men, beat the French army, consisting of 150,000. This memorable battle was fought in Artois, near the castle of Azincourt; from which the battle itself has taken its name. In short, within the course of four or five years, Henry made himself master of almost all France. At length, he died of a flux (others say, of an acute fever, attended with a dysentery: and Peter Bassett, who was his chamberlain, that he died of a pleurisy,) at Vincennes, near Paris, August 31, 1422, aged thirty-four, after a short, but most glorious reign of between nine and ten years. He was a prince, who raised the English name, and his own to the highest pitch of glory. He possessed every qualification, both of body and mind, requisite to form the best, the greatest, and most amiable of men. His severity to the Lollards, in the beginning of his reign; and particularly his suffering that great and good man, sir John Oldcastle, baron of Cobham, to fall a sacrifice to the bigotry and cruelty of Thomas Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury; was the greatest, perhaps the only real blot in his reign. His body was brought into England, and buried at Westminster. His queen (Catherine of France, whom he married in 1419,) caused a statue of silver gilt, as large as the life, and extremely like him, to be laid on his tomb; but, about the latter end of Henry VIII. the head being of massy silver, was broken off and carried away, together with the plates of silver, that covered his trunk, which now remains alone, and is heart of oak. By his queen, he left only one son, an infant; who succeeded him by the name of

36. (15.) HENRY VI. (A. D. 1422 – 1461.

This mean and unfortunate prince was but nine months old, when his father died. John, duke of Bedford, and Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, (sons to Henry IV. brothers of the late, and uncles of the reigning king) are made the chief managers of affairs, the first in France, the latter in England. They conducted their administrations with the greatest fidelity to their nephew, and with a prudence and vigour, which proved them to be persons of the most eminent abilities. The English affairs went on well in France, until the year 1429, when Joan of Arc (a village in Lorrain, where she was born) was raised up by Providence to turn the balance of success in favour of the French. [This extraordinary young woman (commonly called the Maid of Orleans, from her being present when the English were forced to raise the siege of that city), was afterwards taken prisoner by the duke of Burgundy, at the siege of Compiegne, and delivered up to the duke of Bedford, who had her tried and burnt for a witch at Roan, where she was executed, May 30, 1431.] Notwithstanding a long train of losses and misfortunes on our side, Henry, being about nine years old, goes over, and is crowned king of France, at Paris, in 1430.

A. D. 1444, Henry marries Margaret of Anjou; who, instantly perceiving the weakness of his genius, so managed, as to rule him absolutely, from the very day of her arrival. A. D. 1447, was remarkable for the murder of that noble, heroic, and amiable prince, Humphrey, duke of Gloucester; whom Margaret could never forgive, because he opposed her marriage with the king his nephew. She therefore joined with William de la Pole, marquis of Suffolk; Henry Beaufort (great uncle to the king and) bishop of Winchester; and others of that faction, to accomplish his destruction. Being imprisoned, on some false pretence at Edmonsbury, where the parliament was then sitting, he was found the next morning, dead in his bed. This, and many other acts of violence, quite alienated the people from the queen and her ministry; who, at length, became so arbitrary and oppressive, that Richard, duke of York (descended from Lionel, duke of Clarence, son of Edward the Third) began to cast a longing eye on the crown. With this view, he at several different times raises armies. Particularly, in 1455, he engages with Henry, at St. Alban's: where Henry not only loses the victory, but is likewise taken prisoner by the duke of York, by whom he is respectfully conducted to London; where the parliament made the duke protector of England; the sovereignty being still vested in the king. A. D. 1460, the queen and her ministry form a project of putting all the Yorkists to death; on which the duke of York, with other lords, put themselves at the head of 40,000 men. Queen Margaret, who was assembling her forces at Coventry, marches toward London, in order to give the Yorkists battle. The earl of March (presently after Edward IV.) son of the duke of York, together with two other lords, is detached at the head of 25,000 men, to meet her. The two armies engage near Northampton; where Margaret is defeated, king Henry who was in her camp taken prisoner; and the enterprising queen is forced to fly into the north. But, in the battle of Wakefield, soon after, Margaret is successful, and the duke of York slain; which his son Edward, earl of March, hearing, loses neither his courage nor his hopes. Heading his troops, he defeats the earl of Pembroke (near Mortimer's Cross, in Herefordshire,) who had been sent against him by Margaret. The young earl, marching immediately to London, Margaret retires to the north. On his arrival in the city, he is received with open arms and universal acclamations. Henry is deposed by the joint consent of the people, and such of the nobility, magistracy, and gentry, as were in town; and the earl of March mounts the throne, by the name of

37. (16.) EDWARD IV. (vii.) (A. D. 1461 - 1483.)

[Thus ended at present, the reign of Henry VI. Incapacity for public affairs, and a stupid insensibility of misfortune, appear to have been his chief characteristics. He was, however, remarkably moral; or rather innocent: not so much from principle, as for want of sense, spirit, and activity, to be otherwise. After his marriage, queen Margaret (a woman of unbounded haughtiness, and insatiably fond of power) was the governing person: and by endeavouring to render the king (or, rather herself, who, with her corrupt set of favourites, did every thing) absolute master of the lives and properties of his subjects, occasioned her own, her husband's and her son's ruin, together with the ruin of the whole house of Lancaster. It may not be amiss to observe in this place, that Henry was, by the earl of Warwick's faction, released from the Tower, on October 25, 1470, and restored to the throne: on which king Edward (who was forced to take shelter in the dominions of his brother-in-law, the duke of Burgundy) was, by the parliament which was called soon after, declared a traitor; his paternal estates confiscated; and the statutes of his reign annulled. But on the fourteenth of March following, Edward lands at Ravenspur in Yorkshire; and, getting together some forces, marched to London: which opening her gates to him, he made his public entry into the city, April 17, 1471. Meanwhile, Henry, who seemed born for no other end than to be the sport and football of fortune, was re-committed to the Tower, from whence, about six months before, he had been taken to remount the throne. Henry did not long survive this reverse of fortune: for Edward soon after, gaining the famous battle of Tewkesbury (in which queen Margaret was taken prisoner, together with her son prince Edward, and her general, Edmund Beaufort, duke of Somerset, the unfortunate Henry was dispatched in his confinement; some say by the hands of Richard, duke of Gloucester, (afterwards Richard the Third,) the brother to king Edward. As to queen Margaret, she was, upon the loss of that battle, shut up in the Tower of London; where she remained a prisoner, till A. D. 1475, when she was ransomed by her father (Rene, of Anjou, king of Sicily) for 50,000 crowns. As to her son, the heroic prince Edward, who was eighteen years of age, he was soon dispatched in cold blood; and the duke of Somerset quickly lost his head on the scaffold.] ,

King Edward was chiefly indebted for his advancement, to Richard Neville, earl of Warwick. And through his incurring the resentment of this earl, he had, two or three years after, almost lost for ever the crown he had gained by his means. The affair was this. In 1465, Edward sends the earl of Warwick on embassy to the French king, Lewis XI. The earl's business was to demand Bona of Savoy, in marriage, for his master. Lewis consents, and Warwick is not a little pleased with the success of his negociation. But while this affair was transacting in France, Edward falls in love at home with Elizabeth Woodville, whom he saw by accident in Northamptonshire. This young lady was a widow, (but in the full bloom of beauty) having been married to sir John Grey, of Groby. She was daughter to Jaquelina of Luxemburg, duchess of Bedford, (relict of the famous John, duke of Bedford, son of Henry IV. and regent of France, in the reign of his nephew, Henry VI.) who had married sir Richard Woodville. In short, the king marries her, without sending to consult with the earl of Warwick: who, upon his return, was so incensed at his being thus mocked, that he never forgave Edward afterwards; of which he convinced him, by actually dethroning him in the year 1470, as we have heard above: but, on Edward's recovery of the crown, the earl of Warwick was slain in the battle of Barnet, which was fought on Easter Sunday, April 14,1471. The battle of Tewkesbury, fought on the third or fourth of May following, was decisive, and settled Edward firm on the throne for life. A. D. 1475, Edward has a conference with Lewis XI of France, on Pequigny bridge, near Amiens, with a grate between them. In 1478, George, duke of Clarence, king Edward's brother, fell a sacrifice to the jealousy and resentment of the queen, of his other brother the duke of Gloucester, and of the king himself. Being in a lame, underhand manner, condemned for treason; all the favour duke George could obtain of the king his brother, was, the liberty of choosing what kind of death he pleased: on which, to avoid appearing on a scaffold, he desires to be drowned in a butt of malmsey wine; which was done. Edward died the ninth day of April, 1483, aet 42, regni. 22, some say, he died of an ague; others, of a surfeit; and some, that he was poisoned by his brother, Richard, duke of Gloucester. He was, perhaps, the handsomest man in all Europe: valiant, affable, and naturally generous. But then he was certainly cruel on some occasions; witness, in particular, the deaths of Henry the Sixth's son, prince Edward; king Henry the Sixth himself; and his own brother, the duke of Clarence. He was, at all times, lustful and incontinent; and could be perfidious upon occasion, when he had any turn to serve by it. His queen, Elizabeth Woodville, brought him three sons and eight daughters. One of his sons died an infant; the other two were murdered, as we shall soon see. The princess Elizabeth, his eldest daughter, was, in process of time, married to Henry VII. Edward was succeeded by his eldest son.

38. (17.) EDWARD V. (VIII.) (A. D. 1483.)

This unfortunate young prince was between twelve and thirteen years old, at the time of his accession. His reign (improperly so called,) or rather his life, ended within three months after. He was at Ludlow, in Shropshire, when the king his father died: his uncle Richard manages so, that the queen dowager disbands her troops: presently after, he seizes on the young king at Stony Stratford, The queen mother, perceiving what these steps tended to, takes sanctuary by night in Westminster Abbey; carrying with her the duke of York, her younger son, aged nine years; and others of her family. The duke of Gloucester conducts the king in a very respectful manner to London: where, calling a grand council, he gets himself declared protector. Having made such alterations at court, as he thought necessary in order to his design, he moves, in council, to have the king's brother, Richard, duke of York, taken out of his mother's hands. The cardinal archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Bourchier, is accordingly sent to the queen at Westminster; who, after much dispute, and with a shower of tears, delivers him up to the prelate; who (little suspecting what the protector had in view) delivered him to the duke of Gloucester. This designing prince now pretended to carry on the preparations for the king's coronation: and, at once, to amuse the people and favour his own plot, he removes his two nephews from the bishop of London's house, to the Tower (from whence the coronation procession generally used to begin). And now the villain communicates his intentions to Henry Stafford, duke of Buckingham. This nobleman, upon a promise of certain lands belonging to the earldom of Hereford (which he had claimed during the late reign, but without success,) readily came into Gloucester's designs. Their emissaries next endeavour to scatter reports against the legitimacy of Edward the Fourth and his children. Soon after they hire one Dr. Shaw, a venal priest, but famous preacher; who, in a sermon at Paul's Cross, defamed the late king and his posterity, and extolled Gloucester to the skies. But this having no effect on the people, the duke of Buckingham harangues the citizens at Guildhall; pressing them to petition Gloucester to accept the crown. The people were shocked, and kept a profound silence. Buckingham then orders the recorder to address them: after which, some of the mob, and others, hired before hand, cried out, Long live king Richard! next day Buckingham, with the lord mayor and others, waited on the protector, at his house in Thames-street, and offered him the crown: which, after a long scene of affectation and artifice, he accepted, and was, on June 22, 1483, proclaimed hy the name of

39. (18.) RICHARD III. (A. D. 1483 - 1485.)

Presently after his barefaced usurpation of the crown, Richard resolves on the deaths of his nephews, king Edward and the duke of York. In order to accomplish his bloody design with the less odium to himself, he takes a journey to Gloucester; from whence he sent an express command to Brackenbury, governor of the Tower, to murder the two princes. The governor excusing himself, Richard sends him an order in writing, requiring him to deliver to James Tyrell the bearer, the keys and government of the Tower, for one night. Brackenbury obeyed, and Tyrell brought in his agents (whose names were, Miles Forest, and John Dighton) to execute the king's will. That very night the two princes were smothered in their bed, and then buried under a little stair-case. At least, this is what Tyrell himself afterwards confessed, who was executed in the reign of Henry the Seventh. The bones of the royal brothers were supposed to have been found, in the reign of king Charles the Second, A. D. 1675; who, upon the presumption, had them put into a marble urn, and interred in Westminster Abbey. Richard was hardly warm on the throne, when the duke of Buckingham claimed the lands of Hereford, pursuant to promise. But Richard had changed his mind, and refused to keep his word. Some say that is a mistake; and that Richard gave him the lands agreed upon. However, it is certain that Buckingham, some way or other disgusted with Richard, retired in discontent to his castle at Brecknock: where Morton, bishop of Ely, was confined by Richard. Here the duke and the bishop consult how they may dethrone the king. Henry, earl of Richmond, (soon after Henry VII.) was the person on whom they fixed for the crown. [This prince, with his uncle Jasper Tudor, earl of Pembroke, had embarked for France, A. D. 1471, soon after the battle of Tewkesbury; but, being driven on the coast of Bretagne, they were detained by the duke of that county, who assigned them the town of Vannes for their habitation, with an honourable allowance: but though they were treated in a ceremonious manner, they were kept against their wills, and very narrowly watched.] The earl of Richmond's mother, Margaret, countess of Richmond, (only daughter of John Beaufort, duke of Somerset; grandson of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, fourth son of Edward III.) was informed of the plot, by one Reginard Bray, whom the duke of Buckingham and bishop of Ely had sent to acquaint her with it. She was told, at the same time, that in order to bring matters to bear, the earl her son must marry the princess Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV. and desired her (the countess) to apply to the queen mother for her consent: she did so, and obtained it. The countess then sent to her son (still in Bretagne), who imparting the affair to the duke of Bretagne, was enabled by his assistance, to appear on the coast of England ; but, meeting with a storm, was obliged to put back. Mean while Richard calls a parliament, by which the earl of Richmond is attainted: and it being discovered, that the earl's marriage with the princess Elizabeth, was the basis of the plot, Richard contrives to make away with his queen (Ann Neville, daughter of Richard Neville, earl of Wapvick) in order to marry his niece, the princess Elizabeth, himself: in which, however, he did not succeed. The bishop of Ely having made his escape from the castle of Brecknock, flies into Flanders: the duke of Buckingham is betrayed into Richard's hands, and beheaded at Shrewsbury. - The earl of Richmond, on his return to Bretagne, finding it unsafe for him to stay there, escapes into France, and puts himself under the protection of Charles VIII. who resolves to assist him. August 6, 1485, the earl lands at Milford Haven. Thence advancing to Shrewsbury and Litchfield, (his army continually increasing all the way,) he goes to Bosworth, in Leicestershire, where the two competitors met, each at the head of his army. Victory declares for the earl. Richard, seeing the day lost, rushed in despair among the thickest of the enemy, and fell, covered with wounds: having enjoyed the crown but two years and two months, which he had gained by so many ill actions. This battle was fought August 22, 1485. Richard's body being found among the slain, stark naked, covered with blood and dirt, was, in that condition, thrown across an horse, with his head hanging on one side and his legs on the other, and so carried to Leicester: where, after being two days exposed to public view, it was, without ceremony, interred in St. Mary's church. The stone coffin, in which his corpse lay, was made a drinking trough for horses, at the White Horse Inn, in Leicester. He was aged about three or four and thirty years. With him ended the race of Plantagenet in England.

40. (19.) HENRY VII. (A. D. 1485 - 1509.)

Earl Henry, having gained the battle of Bosworth, caused Te Deum to be sung on the spot; all the troops falling on their knees, to bless God for the victory. Presently after, he is proclaimed king by his army. [It may now be proper to trace the pedigree of this prince. Catherine of France, widow of Henry V. married Owen Tudor, a Welsh gentleman, of mean descent, but the handsomest man of the age. By him, she had three sons; Edmund, Jasper, and Owen. Edmund was created earl of Richmond, by his half brother Henry VI. who gave him to wife, Margaret, only daughter of John Beaufort, duke of Somerset, grandson to John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, fourth son of Edward the Third. From this marriage of Edmund with Margaret, sprung Henry VII. who was consequently grandson to Henry the Fifth's widow, by his father's side; and by his mother's, the fifth from Edward III.] With regard to Henry's accession, or rather military election, there is one particular deserves to be considered. Either the next heir of the York line ought to have succeeded; or the next heir of the Lancastrian. If of the former, then Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Edward the Fourth should have succeeded in her own right, immediately on the death of Richard the Third, and earl Henry should have actually married her, previous to his assuming the title of king: or if the Lancastrian house ought to have succeeded, there was one before Henry: I mean his mother, Margaret, countess dowager of Richmond who was still living (r). So that either way, by Henry's ascending the throne when he did, the line of regular succession was broke. Such a cobweb, such a shadow, is what some pompously call "Indefeasible hereditary right!"

(r) She did not die until the first of Henry VIII.

Marching up to London he is well received in that city. There he institutes the yeomen of the guard. He is crowned, October 30, previous to the sitting of parliament, which did not meet until November 7. And January 18, 1486, he is married to the princess Elizabeth; to whom his detestation of the house of York, made him a very indifferent, not to say bad, husband. That same year he confines his mother-in-law, the queen dowager, Edward the Fourth's widow, in the monastery of Bermondsey, Southwark; where she continued, deprived both of liberty and estates, until her death, which did not happen until several years after. She was buried at Windsor, by the side of her royal husband, Edward IV. Scarce was Henry warm on the throne, than he was disturbed by Lambert Simnel, a baker's son, who (through the contrivances of one Richard Simon, an Oxford priest) passed with many for Richard duke of York, son of Edward the Fourth, who had been murdered by Richard the Third. Simnel was at this time about fifteen years old. Passing into Ireland, he is proclaimed and actually crowned at Dublin. Returning some time after to England, with an army composed of Irish and Germans, and headed by the earls of Lincoln and Kildare, his troops give battle to Henry, June 6, 1487, at Stoke, in Nottinghamshire. Victory declares for Henry; the earl of Lincoln is slain; and Simnel himself being taken prisoner, is made a turnspit in the kitchen of the monarch he sought to dethrone. In the year 1493, Margaret, duchess of Burgundy, (daughter of Richard duke of York, [who was slain in 1460, at the battle of Wakefield,] and sister of Edward IV.) in hopes of dispossessing Henry, and restoring her own house of York to the crown, set up one Perkin Warbeck, to personate her nephew, Richard duke of York, whom Richard the Third, her brother, had murdered in the Tower. [This Perkin Warbeck was son to John Osbeck, a converted Jew of Tournay, who had long lived in, London. King Edward IV. being acquainted with this Jew, stood godfather to one of his children; to whom he gave the name of Peter; from whence was formed the diminutive Peterkin, or Perkin. The boy was so handsome, and endowed with qualities so far above his birth, that many suspected him to be the illegitimate child of Edward: and, indeed, it is something extraordinary, that that prince should stand godfather to one of so mean parentage.]: The young impostor acted his part so well, that, for at least five years together, he gave Henry infinite alarm and uneasiness; and more than once made him shake in his throne. At length being forced to surrender, he was hanged, November 23, 1499; after having been acknowledged for lawful king in Ireland, France, Flanders, England, and Scotland.

In the beginning of 1502, Henry's daughter, the princess Margaret, is married to Jas 4. of Scotland: from which marriage sprung in process of time, James the First of England.

Toward the latter end of his reign, Henry gave full range to his avarice; and without regard to equity, justice, or common humanity, plundered his subjects to fill his coffers. His two chief tools for this purpose were sir Richard Empson, and Edmund Dudley. [But these two infamous oppressors of their country paid dear for their activity in the following reign; being both beheaded on Towerhill, August 17, 1510.]

After a reign of near twenty-four years, Henry died at Richmond, April 22, 1509, aet. 52. By his queen, Elizabeth, (daughter of Edward IV. and Elizabeth Woodville) he had four sons, and four daughters. Prince Arthur, the eldest, died, A. D. 1502, at Ludlow castle, (where he was sent to keep residence as prince of Wales,) aet. 17, and was buried at Worcester. Henry, his second son succeeded him. Edmund and Edward died in their childhood; as did two of his daughters, Elizabeth and Catherine: Margaret (as has been observed) married James the Fourth of Scotland; and Mary married first Lewis the Twelfth of France; and after his death, Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, reckoned the handsomest man of the age.

As to the character of Henry, it is very far from an amiable one. His two grand objects were, to preserve the crown he had acquired, and to heap up money. In enmity he was implacable; and his avarice was insatiable. His temper was gloomy, morose, haughty, and suspicious. His inextinguishable abhorrence of the house of York, together with his affectation of despotism on all occasions, and his rapacious covetousness which knew no bounds either of justice or mercy, are indelible stains on his memory. If he was in many respects moral, it seems to have been more owing to the phlegm of his constitution than to principle. That he was extremely politic, is certain; but this was not so much the effect of genius as of distrust, which made him for ever uneasy, and for ever on his guard. He lies in his own chapel at Westminster.

He rebuilt the palace of Shene, near London, after it had been burnt down; and gave it the name of Richmond (from his having been earl of Richmond,) which it still bears.

41. (20.) HENRY VIII. (A. D. 1509 - 1547.)

Succeeded his father at the age of eighteen years, wanting two months and six days. He had the advantage of a very learned education for a prince; and was also a distinguished master of the heroic exercises then in use. The year he came to the crown he married his brother Arthur's widow, Catherine of Arragon; pursuant to his late father's intention and desire. The principal events of this reign were,

1. The rise, prosperity, and fall of Thomas Wolsey; who, from being no more than a buteher's son at Ipswich, where he was born in 1471, was advanced to the highest honours, both secular and ecclesiastical. He commenced A. B. at Oxen, at the age of fourteen; was soon after elected Fellow of Magdalen, and A. D. 1500, presented by the marquis of Dorset, to the rectory of Lymington, in Somersetshire: where he had not long resided before he was set in the stocks for drunkenness, and raising a riot at a fair in the neighbourhood. Being made chaplain to Henry VII. in 1506, he insinuated himself into the favour of Richard Fox, bishop of Winton; by whose recommendation he was sent ambassador from that king to the emperor Maximilian, and upon his return made dean of Lincoln. Upon the accession of Henry VIII. bishop Fox introduced him to the new king, who for many years together, thought he could never give him sufficient marks of his regard. In 1513, he became prime minister; in 1514, bishop of Lincoln; administrator of the see of Tournay in Flanders, and archbishop of York; in 1515, he received a cardinal's hat; was made lord chancellor; adminstrator of the bishoprics of Bath, Worcester, and Hereford; together with the addition of several prebendaries to increase his revenues.

Free Thoughts On the projected application to Parliament,...

FREE THOUGHTS

On the projected application to Parliament, in the Year 1771, for the Abolition of Ecclesiastical Subscriptions.

Hold fast that thou hast, that no man take thy crown. – Re 3:11.

"To be impugned from without, and betrayed from within; is certainly the worst condition a church can fall into: and the best of churches, the church of England, has had experience of both. It had been to be wished, and (one would think) might have been expected, that, when Providence had took the work of destroying the church of England out of the papists hands, some would have been contented with her preferments, without either attempting to give up her rites and liturgy, or deserting her doctrine. But it has happened much otherwise."

Dr. South's Pref. to his Animadv. on Sherlock.

In consequence of an advertisement, which made its appearance in the London papers, some clergymen lately met, at the Feathers Tavern, in the Strand, to consult upon ways and means of applying to parliament, for "relief in the matter of subscription to the liturgy and XXXIX articles." About fourscore I am told attended: some, from motives of curiosity; some, as observers of the rest; and some, to lend an helping hand to the business in agitation.

To the few reverend gentlemen (for it seems they were much the minority), who heartily fell in with the purpose of this extraordinary meeting, I beg leave to submit the following hints:

I. Is not every king of England, for the time being, the supreme visible head of our national church?

II. Should not therefore these ecclesiastical male contents have began at the right end, by first petitioning his majesty for leave to assemble on an occasion, and to deliberate on a question, wherein not only the forms but the very essence also, of our religious constitution are so deeply and directly concerned? The king, I am aware, cannot, himself, introduce a bill into the house of commons. But, surely the king's permission was, in law and regularity, absolutely requisite, prior to such a public meeting, called for such a purpose. And both the calling and the holding of such a meeting, for such a purpose, was neither more nor less than an open insult offered to the supreme visible head of the church of England.

But we will suppose the male-contents not to have thus stumbled at the threshold, by assembling on such business, without the king's licence first had and obtained. We will imagine them to have done no more than appoint a committee to draw up a petition of leave to the throne. Even that step must have proceeded on this horrid and unsurmiseable implication, that, to gratify an exceeding small handful of clergymen, the king would forfeit his own royal word, and even violate his still more sacred oath. For,

III. Has not the king, solemnly and publicly declared again and again, that he will inviolably preserve our present settlement in church and state? Nay, was not this a very material part of the coronation oath? Can we then think, that his majesty will ever consent to unsettle and new model that church which he has both promised and sworn to maintain and defend? Impossible. I dare believe, the king would sooner fling his crown into the sea.

Amidst all the political defects with which the revolution was attended, considerable care was nevertheless taken of the church. Witness that part of the statute, 1 Will. c. 6. whereby it was "enacted, that the following oath shall be administered to every king or queen, who shall succeed to the imperial crown of this realm, at their respective coronations:" the form of which oath, so far as relates to the matter in hand, ran thus:

"Archbishop or bishop. Will you, to the utmost of your power, maintain the laws of God, the true profession of the gospel, and protestant reformed religion'established by law?

"The king or queen shall answer: All this I promise to do. After this, laying his, or her hand upon the holy gospels, he or she, shall say, the things which I have here before promised, I will perform and keep; so help me God: and shall then kiss the book."

But even this security was not deemed sufficient. A flaw, tantamount to a trap-door, was still supposed to remain. The church of England might, possibly, in after times, be so re-modelled by the joint authority of the three estates, as to be no longer the same identical church it was before: and yet, by being re-modelled on the authority aforesaid, might still be, literally, the religion established by law.

This trap-door required, effectual stopping up. And effectually stopped up it was, by the act which united England and Scotland into one kingdom, 5 Ann. c. 8. which celebrated statute enacts, that, "After the demise of her majesty queen Anne, the sovereign next succeeding, and so for ever afterwards, every king or queen succeeding and coming to the royal government of the kingdom of Great Britain, at his or her coronation, shall, in the presence of all persons who shall be attending, assisting, or otherwise then and there present, take and subscribe an oath to maintain and preserve inviolably the settlement of the church of England, and the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government thereof, as by law established within the kingdoms of England and Ireland, the dominion of Wales, and town of Berwick upon Tweed, and the territories thereunto belonging."

To a prince who has both taken and set his hand to such an oath as this, no petition for leave to innovate on the church, could with any show of decency be presented. And yet, without such leave, the intentional innovators had no shadow of right to assemble for the purpose they did. Either way, they are hemmed in with unsurmountable embarrassment. What then remains for them to do? Simply, this alternative: either to rest contented with the church as she now stands; or, fairly to quit her, and, like honest men avail themselves of the toleration.

IV. These very gentlemen, who are so extremely sanguine for an alteration, and who so liberally exclaim against being held down to creeds and articles; these very gentlemen, I am persuaded, would, without any scruple at all, subscribe to Arian creeds and Arminian articles, if the former were three dozen, and the latter thirty-nine hundred. It is not subscription itself which so much constitutes the grievance complained of; but the stubborn orthodoxy of the things subscribed. Castrate the liturgy, articles, and homilies, of their Calvinism and Trinitarianism, and I will answer for it, subscription will no longer be considered as "a yoke of bondage, which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear." - But,

V. Why is subscription even on its present footing, so tragically decried as "a yoke?" Supposing it to be ever so galling in itself, it certainly need never have galled the reverend shoulders of those divines who groan under it. Did anybody compel these labourers into the established vineyard? No; but the grapes were so inviting, that the hedge of subscription, with all its supposed prickliness, was deliberately struggled through, notwithstanding conscience was sure to get a few scratches (not to say lacerations) in the passage.

Was there no act of toleration; were persons, who dissent from the establishment, liable to positive penalties for that dissent; were all means of subsistence cut off from Arminian and Anti-Trinitarian preachers; much might be offered in mitigation of conformity without conviction. This would furnish ample matter of solid complaint. Subscription in that case, would indeed be a badge of slavery and a yoke of oppression: even of such oppression as would make humanity weep; and of such slavery as would make protestantism tremble to her centre. - But, blessed be God, these happy nations know nothing at present of this black, bigotted, unprotestant intolerancy. Such as cannot, freely and conscientiously, subscribe to our ecclesiastical forms, are at full and just liberty to exercise their ministry among what denomination they choose. A circumstance, which, however, serves to render those persons quite inexcusable, who, for the sake of a larger dividend of the loaves and fishes, solemnly subscribe, and as solemnly testify their uncompelled assent, to certain standards, which, at the very time, they disbelieve, oppose, and would gladly overthrow: men, who (to borrow the phraseology of a late celebrated Doctor), though "never trained," either by grace or sincere inclination, "to pace in the trammels of the church;" are yet so far "tempted by the sweets of her preferments," as to sacrifice conscience to profit, principle to ambition, and integrity to promotion.

VI. Does the projected plan, for a repeal of subscriptions, come with a good grace from some of those very ecclesiastics, who have themselves, actually submitted to this imaginary grievance, and who hold all their preferments by virtue of that self same submission? What can the world think of such divines? It must think this: that there are certain clergymen, whom no ties, however sacred, can bind; who make scripture, conscience, church, and all things else, bend to secular interest: men, who can swallow subscriptions, promises, and declarations of assent, without assenting to what they declare, without intending what they promise, and without believing what they subscribe: who having (many of them at least) taken care, in the first place, to get snugly beneficed; are, by a shameless stroke of after-policy, seeking to demolish the gate by which they entered, and to kick away the ladder by which they ascended; who, in short, while they eat the bread of the church, are lifting up their heel against her; and, like the ungrateful boy in the fable, think to enjoy more of the golden eggs, by killing the fowl that lays them.

"Possibly, however, these non-assenting clergymen might have subscribed, heedlessly, and ignorantly, in their youth; without duly considering what they did. Would you have such dissemble their dissatisfaction, after they perceive their error?" By no means. Let them avow their dissatisfaction; but let them also act accordingly. Let them retract their subscriptions, not by word and in tongue only, but in deed and in truth, by renouncing the preferments as well as the doctrines of the church; and all the world will call them honest men. While I was over in Ireland, I was informed, that the late bishop of Cl-------r had been advised, by several of his friends, to give this conclusive proof of his integrity. But, dear as Arianism was to his lordship, a mitre was dearer (s): and he chose rather to (t) break his heart in lawn sleeves, than, by resigning them, to demonstrate that he acted on principles purely conscientious.

(s) I must, however, do justice to the memory of that celebrated prelate, by publishing the following anecdote, which I had from unquestionable authority, and to which I cannot help yielding the most implicit credit. As his lordship was possessed of a very ample fortune, exclusive of his high preferment in the church, he found himself able to appropriate the whole revenues of his see (amounting to near £4000. per annum,) to the purposes of charity; and, I have been assured, that, upon inspection of his books after his decease, it appeared, that the entire profits of his bishopric had, for many years, been so devoted.

(t) Occasioned by the apprehensions of a gathering storm, which thickened every day, and bade fair for speedily ending in a deprivation, by the joint authority of church and state.

With regard to those of our own inferior clergy, who are embarked in the present expedition against the church, their design is, evidently, to burn the title-deed, and yet keep possession of the estate: to shake off subscription, without shaking off its lucrative appendages. Not considering, that, if the requiring of subscription be an unlawful imposition, the advantages, resulting from a submission to it, must have been unlawfully obtained: and what a person has obtained unlawfully, must, when he comes to a better mind, be surrendered and renounced, if he mean to act as a man of principle. Either, therefore, those clergymen, who repent of subscribing, are not so deeply wounded in conscience, as they profess; or wounds of conscience are in their estimation, lighter than dust on the scale, when weighed against worldly ease, profit, and advancement.

VII. Had not, and has not the church of England as much right as any other society, to judge for herself what doctrines are scriptural, and to establish them accordingly? I do not mean to insinuate, that our own church, or any church whatever, has the least right to obtrude her own judgment on such individuals as cannot see with her eyes. And I will venture to be quite positive, that the present governors of the church are perfectly remote from the least desire to tarnish the glory of her moderation, by wishing to bring back the persecuting days of Charles I. and Charles II. But may not the church, without the least shadow of persecution, continue to fix the terms, on which she will admit persons to take the charge of her flock, and to minister at her altars? Must she, in order to prove her Catholicism, throw down her fence, and reduce herself from a garden to a common, that all beasts of the field may riot on her spoils, and every wild ass quench his thirst at her fountain? For,

VIII. What would be the consequence, if subscription was totally set aside, and if clergymen were not restrained to the use of the liturgy? The consequence would be this: papists on one hand, and the dregs of the dissenters on the other, would pour in upon us as a flood, and over-run the church, as the Goths and Vandals first over-ran, and then destroyed the western empire.

Let the reader observe, I say not "the dissenters;" but, "the dregs of the dissenters :" such as Deistical, Arian, Socinian, Pelagian dissenters. Nor can the dissenters as a body, be displeased at my using such a term. Every society has its dregs. - God knows the established church is not without them. Our protestant dissenters, considered in the aggregate, are most justly entitled to respect and Christian affection. I speak, therefore, above, only of such individuals, as come within the compass there specified. Nor do I presume to judge even those. I am personally acquainted with many Deists, Arians, Socinians, and Pelagians; whom, as men of parts, and as worthy members of society, I honour and esteem: yet I should be very sorry to see any of them trail in gowns and cassocks, and disseminate their doctrinal tares from the pulpits of our parish churches. I may have a sincere and very great regard for a neighbour, without wishing him to marry into my family.

While our present out-works are suffered to stand, we have this grand consolation left; viz. that Arians, Socinians, Pelagians, &c. cannot, with any colour of decency, pretend that their mistaken opinions have the sanction of law and establishment. Let who will be for them, the church is not. - Medicus, qui omnia fecit ut sanaret, partes suas peregit. The wise and pious vigilance of our protestant ancestors has guarded the purity of the church, by every religious, and almost every civil precaution, which human care and foresight could devise. If, notwithstanding all these prudent precautions, any are found, who creep into the established ministry, bringing in with them destructive heresies, the church and constitution are not to blame, but the intruders themselves: whose conduct proves, that the most solemn tests and engagements have, with these theological Samsons, no more efficacy than a thread of tow, which is broken when it toucheth the fire (Jg 16:9).

"What use of oaths, of promise, or of test,

"Where men regard no God but interest?"

Mille adde catenas,

Effugiet tamen haec sceleratus vincula Proteus.

But shall we totally demolish and set aside subscription, only because it is not found, in every respect, fully to answer its original design? The very same argument would hold, for a repeal of the penal laws against popery. Shall a man unhang his doors, take down his window-shutters, and leave his house open all night, for this sage reason, because doors and window-shutters are sometimes found an ineffectual barrier against house-breakers?

IX. After all, more than a bare superseding of subscription, is palpably the drift of the present enterprise. Not only subscription to the articles and homilies, but to the liturgy also, is classed under the predicament of "grievous oppression." - Now, the persons who flinch at subscribing and declaring their assent to the book of common prayer, would most certainly (if subscription and assent were dispensed with) scruple to use that book; for, if they would not hesitate to use it, why should they scruple to subscribe it?

The matter then, is plainly this: those Arians, Arminians, &c. who have hitherto stayed out of our ecclesiastical pale, would gladly get within it: and the few Arians, and many Arminians, who are within it, wish to have the church arianized and arminianized, as well for their own private convenience, as for the more easy admittance of their brethren who are hankering at the gate. For the accommodation of those who have struggled in, and in complaisance to those who yet tarry out, the whole ecclesiastical edifice, founded on the rock of scripture, and cemented with the blood of our martyrs, is, forsooth, to be taken down, and not one doctrinal stone left upon another. In particular, the doctrine of the Trinity, and that of gratuitous predestination (the two master pillars of the sacred structure), must be removed from the premises, and thrown, like degraded idols, to the moles and to the bats; else, it seems, we cannot show a due degree of brotherly attention to the tender consciences of those good Christians, who wish to erect free-will, merit, chance, and Unitarianism, upon the ruins of that church, which once shone (and, were all her professing sons true to her principles, would continue to shine) the glory of the reformation, and the excellency of the whole earth.

X. Would it be for the credit of the protestant religion in general, and of the church of England in particular, to be perpetually shifting and tacking about, never continuing in one stay, but (to use the expression of a certain Arminian) always flitting and "tossing from system to system?" Our articles have already passed one revisal, since their first publication in 1552. Our liturgy has been reviewed no fewer than four times. Must we be incessantly doing and undoing? Is the church of England, like Penelope's web, to experience a regular vicissitude of weaving and unraveling? or must she, like the image at Loretto, never appear two days together in the same dress? Are we ever learning, yet never able to come to the knowledge of the truth? Is religion so far the daughter of time, as to be susceptible of daily improvement, like the handy-craft arts? To answer these questions in the affirmative, would be to expose religion itself to the scorn and laughter of every rational being. And yet, unless these questions are to be answered affirmatively, whither do our projected alterations tend?

XI Supposing, for argument's sake, that many things in the church of England, might be altered even greatly for the better; the present is certainly a very unfit time for such an enterprise. What if a set of writers, who have little or no turn for mathematics, should undertake to revise and correct the philosophical works of sir Isaac Newton? Now, every man must admit, that a concern for religion is by no means a characteristic of the present age. Consequently, had the church, in reality, any tares to be rooted up, the wheat would run at least a very dangerous risk of being torn up also. The safest way, therefore, would be, to let both grow together until harvest.

"What! would you oppose all reformation?" I am only for opposing the measures of those (at best, mistaken; perhaps, designing) brethren, who are evidently for reforming us out of the reformation.

"Have you no regard to the ease of scrupulous consciences?" I have the tenderest regard to it. But the question has two edges. It concludes as much, at least, for my argument, as against it. For, is scrupulousness of conscience peculiar to Arians, Socinians, and Pelagians? Have not the orthodox their scruples also? And must no provision be made for the scruples of the elder branch? Must the younger (i. e. protestants of the modern cast) run away with all the attention of legislature? - Besides; those of our reformed brethren, who are restrained from falling in with the church, by scruples truly conscientious, are under no sort of obligation to put a force upon conscience, by smothering their scruples. They are at unrestrained liberty to indulge any scruples that can arise, and to follow conscience whithersoever she goes. If? therefore, conscience is all, conscience has no reason to complain. She may, in these happy nations, pursue her own dictates, without impediment; and choose her own faith and worship, both as to mode and substance.

XII. Let us, for a moment, suppose the superseding scheme to have taken full effect. We will imagine the liturgy, articles, and homilies, to be actually shorn of their orthodoxy; and subscription to be totally rescinded. Old things are done away; behold, all things are become new. Still there will be plenty of male-contents. We shall be as far, or farther, from unity, than ever. It is impossible, in the very nature of things, for any church upon earth to be so constituted, as to satisfy every body. All the difference would be, that many churchmen, and many dissenters, would change places. Many dissenters would commence churchmen; and every true churchman would and must commence dissenter. All would be turned upside down, and a total reverse of things ensue. Papists, Arians, Socinians, Infidels, and such like, would be the only gainers, by the exchange. These would laugh to see themselves at the top of the wheel: and the established church, from that fatal moment, degenerate into the common sewer of every heresy under heaven.

XIII. The political consequences of such a religious revolution are likewise to be pre-considered. We, already, as a nation, too much resemble an house divided against itself. How exceedingly indiscreet therefore (to call it by no harsher name,) is the ill-timed zeal of such clergymen, who labour to stir the fire with a sword, by seeking to add the fury of religious discord to the rage of civil dissension? Who can foretel, or even foresee, the destructive effects which might follow from the coalition of this double flame? Let us remember how dear the hot innovating spirit of the first Arminians had like to have cost their country. The states of Holland were pushed to the very brink of total ruin, by the rashness of that obstinate faction, who could not find in their hearts to let religion stand as the reformation had left it.

XIV. In vain would subscription to our established forms and formularies be set aside, unless the projectors could procure the bible also to be cried down by public authority. The business will be but half done, while the scripture is permitted to stare those refining gentlemen in the face. They should, therefore, to be consistent, move for the utter abrogation of that. For (according to their idea of intellectual liberty), it must be a most grievous encroachment on the right of private judgment, that candidates for the Christian ministry should be obliged to testify their belief of that old fashioned book. Since, it can hardly be supposed, that they who deem it a badge of oppression to subscribe a set of doctrinal articles deduced from the scriptures, should with perfect complacency be ready to subscribe the scriptures themselves, from whence those very articles are deduced. This would indeed be straining at a gnat, and swallowing a camel.

Instead, then, of beating about the bush, by a petition against the liturgy and articles, let the reverend petitioners spring the grand quarry at once. Let them honestly, and without mincing the point, lay the axe to the root, by addressing parliament against the wrwton xakon, from whence the liturgy and articles were derived. What avails it, to exhaust your indignation on the rivulets? Act as men of spirit, and roundly attack the fountain. You will never be able to give the coup de grace to the church of England, while you suffer the prophets, evangelists, and apostles, to stand full in your way. Treat them therefore, O ye reputed successors of those apostles, as Nero wished to treat the Roman citizens: piously endeavour to cut off both Bible and church at a blow.

A paragraph or two, to the following purport, would serve to adorn your intended petition

And whereas there is a certain obsolete work, made up of divers treatises, collected into a thick volume, which volume was, by the ignorance and superstition of our block-headed forefathers, looked upon as sacred, and as written under the influence of Divine Inspiration: We, your petitioners, being happily emancipated from the shackles of prejudice, and having dilated into true liberality of sentiment, do give it as our opinion, that the obtruding of the said book upon the free-born minds of men, is a most grievous hardship and unsufferable imposition. For, we can easily prove, that the book aforesaid is stuffed with a detail of many improbable, not to say impossible, facts; and, moreover, fraught throughout, with a great number of doctrines, equally repugnant to reason, and dangerous to morality: such as, that three are one, and one is three (which we can mathematically demonstrate to be impossible); not to mention the wicked doctrines of election, justification, atonement, imputed righteousness, original sin, efficacious, grace, regeneration, the indwelling of the Spirit, final perseverance, &c. &c. All which are irrational in themselves, and of very licentious tendency: not to add, that they are quite obsolete and worn out with age; and, therefore, it is high time that both they, and the book which inculcates them, were dead, buried, and forgot.

Your petitioners do also beseech the wisdom of this nation, in parliament united, to relieve us reverend divines from another very irksome grievance, which renders our useful lives not a little miserable. We mean, the superstitious observance of what is commonly called the Lord's day. On this day, those of us who subsist by the church, and who cannot afford to keep curates, are forced to undergo the intolerable drudgery of reading public prayers, and of preaching eight, ten, and sometimes fifteen minutes; both which burthens are very oppressive and unreasonable: seeingthe Sabbath was intended for a day not of labour, but of rest: which rest cannot, in equitable construction, be deemed general, unless it extend to clergy as well as laity.

And whereas there is a vexatious and unreasonable canon, whereby we are enjoined not to appear in public without cassocks, nor to wear any light coloured stockings: We, your aggrieved petitioners, not being content with breaking the said canon, do pray and desire that it may be totally and finally repealed; and that a law may pass, entitling us to dress like other men. Not as if we thought that our profession has any reason to be ashamed of us; but we, being ashamed of our profession, do testify our earnest wish of being permitted to wear laced hats, ruffled shirts, and all other ornaments pertaining to men of this world: and that none but dissenting teachers, may be obliged to go in constant mourning: We also humbly submit it to the consideration of legislature, whether it might not be fitting, to confer the following mark of honourable distinction on us, the ecclesiastical sons of liberty, who assembled, for the above and other equally laudable purposes, at the Feather's Tavern: viz. that we, who make this noble effort in favour of religious freedom, may be entitled to wear a white feather in our hats, in lieu of a rope and rose, to the intent, that every Deist, Papist, Arian, Socinian, and Pelagian, who meets us in the streets, may know us, bow to us, and give us the wall, accordingly.

In acceding to the supplication now presented, and in retrieving us from the egregious grievance of subscription in time to come (though even that will be no absolution of us from the guilt of having already subscribed to the wicked liturgy, articles, and homilies in time past), ye will confer a signal favour on us your petitioners, who, as in duty bound, will ever, &c.

To speak seriously, I really think these gentlemen are most justly entitled to some trophy of distinction. If, as the public have lately seen, a Gloucestershire (z) painter brought in his bill for altering the belief in a parish chancel; much more may the reverend brethren of the Feathers association, bring in theirs, for the superlative merit of attempting the overthrow of creeds, articles, liturgy, homilies, church, and all. And what is the true reason of this prodigious wrath against our liturgy, homilies, articles, and creeds? The true reason is apparently this: those excellent forms of sound words have given Arianism and Arminianism a blow under the fifth rib; of which, Arianism and Arminianism will never be healed, until those forms are annihilated.

(z) The London and Western Papers, for August, 1771, had the ensuing article; which, however it may carry the appearance of humour, was affirmed to be literally true: " The following is a true copy of a painter's bill, at Cirencester, in Gloucestershire, delivered to the churchwardens of an adjoining parish:

"Mr. Charles Ferebee, churchwarden of Siddington, to Joseph Cook, debtor.

"To mending the Commandments, }

"Altering the Belief, and } 210

"Making a new Lord's Prayer. }

I have, with all the humility which becomes so obscure an individual, but, at the same time, with a degree of that freedom, which the nature and importance of the subject demand, ventured to lay before the public, what occurred to me on the point in question. May I, without the appearance of presumption, be permitted to add, that convinced as I am of the utility and necessity of ecclesiastical subscription, I am no less strongly convinced, that the requisition of subscription is, at present, extended too far? It must be acknowledged, that religious liberty is not, strictly speaking, so completely established among us, as Christian benevolence requires, and the rights of mankind demand. Remote as I am, and hope ever to be, from Arianism and Socinianism, I yet most sincerely wish that neither Arians nor Socinians might, as such, lie in any respect at the mercy of their fellow creatures. I should rejoice, unfeignedly, to see the act of toleration no longer clogged with the following restrictive clause: "Provided that nothing in this act shall be construed to extend to give any ease, benefit, or advantage to any person that shall deny in his preaching, or writing, the doctrine of the blessed Trinity as it is declared in the aforesaid articles" [i. e. in the XXXIX articles] "of religion."

The toleration of protestants should, by every law both of God and nature, and of civil policy, be absolutely unlimited. It is as much their due as the air they breathe, or as the light by which they see. They are not to ask it as a favour; but may claim it as a debt. Keep Antitrinitarians out of the church by all means: but let them enjoy every advantage of civil society; together with the free exercise of their religion, only extra ecclesiam, not within the establishment.

It is equally injurious to the right of private judgment, to exact subscription to the doctrinal articles of the church of England, from those very persons who declare themselves dissenters from that church. No dissenting minister is legally entitled to the benefit of the Act of Toleration, until he has, at the general, or quarter session of the peace, declared his approbation of, and likewise subscribed to all the XXXIX articles, except the 34th, 35th, 36th, and the first clause of the 20th. This is, to very many dissenting protestants, a real grievance, and calls for legal redress. God forbid, that the church should ever accommodate her doctrines to the religious mistakes of those who differ from her: but surely, the state ought to be the common guardian of every well behaving protestant, without excepting one. A man may be a good subject, and a valuable member of the community, without coming up to the orthodoxy of the XXXIX articles. A toleration truly protestant, requires a more generous and expanded basis.

Here, then, I most heartily join hands with the adversaries of subscription. As far as the protestant dissenters are concerned, I should, as a well-wisher to mankind, rejoice to see subscription, I will not say, relaxed, but entirely taken out of the way. I mean subscription to all the XXXIX articles, those only excepted, which are directly pointed against the church of Rome: and to them, I dare believe, every protestant dissenter in the king's dominions, would cheerfully set his hand.

The toleration is not complete until matters are put on this footing. A sword still hangs by a thread, over the heads of reputed heretics; which is liable, at any time, to fall and do mischief. Surely, bare connivance is too slender a security for the property and freedom of any protestant whatever!

May I, likewise, be allowed just to hint at another real grievance, equally oppressive and absurd? I mean, the exaction of subscription to the XXXIX articles from those of the laity, who take the academical degrees in law, or physic. Nay, I have been informed (but I will not venture to affirm), that subscription is required even of those who proceed doctors in music. If so, can any thing be more unreasonable? As if men could not be able lawyers, physicians, or musicians, without being (a) orthodox!

(a) The late learned and truly respectable Dr. Daniel W - t - 1 - d gave a very remarkable proof, how forcibly this kind of prejudice and bigotry-are sometimes seen to operate even on, otherwise exalted minds. The main circumstance on which the whole spirit of the following fact turns, may, to some readers, appear rather indelicate. However, as Dr. Middleton did not disdain to write it; and as bishop Warburton did not scruple to let it be published (for I suppose the copy of the letter was communicated by his lordship, to the editors of Dr. Middleton's Works; I need not apologize for reciting it. "In his" (i. e. Dr. W's) "last journey from Cambridge to London, being attended, by Dr. P_____e, and C______n the surgeon, he lodged the second night at Hodsden; where being observed to be costive on the road, he was advised to have a clyster: to which he consented. The apothecary was presently sent for; to whom Dr. P_____e gave his orders below stairs, while Dr. W. continued above: upon which, the apothecary could not forbear expressing his great sense of the honour which he received, in being called to the assistance of so celebrated a person, whose writings he was well acquainted with. The company signified some surprise, to find a country apothecary so learned. But he assured them, that he was no stranger to the merit and character of the doctor, but had lately read his ingenious book with much pleasure, (entitled) The Divine Legation of Moses. - Dr. P_____e, and a Fellow of Magdalen there present, took pains to convince the apothecary of his mistake: while C______n the surgeon ran up stairs with an account of his blunder to W. who, provoked by it into a violent passion, called the poor fellow a puppy and blockhead, who must needs be ignorant in his profession, and unfit to administer any thing to him, and might possibly poison his bowels: and, notwithstanding Dr. P_____e's endeavours to moderate his displeasure, by representing the expediency of the operation, and the man's capacity to perform it; he would hear nothing in his favour, but ordered him to be discharged, and postponed the benefit of the clyster until he reached his next stage." Middleton’s Works, vol. i. p. 484, 485. Quarto.

As if the apothecary was necessarily incapable of administering a clyster, only because he admired The Divine Legation of Moses!

But this affects not the clergy. It is absolutely necessary, for the honour of Christianity, and for the good of souls, that they should be sound in the faith, and give sufficient security for their being so. Experience proves, that some of us are not a little centrifugal. Great care therefore should be taken, to retain us within the orbit of orthodoxy. There have been instances more than a few, of eccentric divines, who have indeed gravitated very strongly towards the emoluments of the church: but who were, nevertheless, exceeding prone to recede from her doctrines. The repelling force of the thirty-nine articles themselves proved insufficient to restrain those stars-ecclesiastical from availing themselves of the emoluments: nor was all the attractive power of the emoluments able to procure any quarter for the doctrines. Predestination (for instance) has been dehorted from as poison; while the preferments, appending to the supposed belief of it, were enjoyed as nectar.

What does this prove? thus much: that, through the depravation and frailty of human nature, the solemn three-fold band of subscription, assent, and approbation, does not (as already observed) perfectly answer the end of its intention. It does not, so universally as might be wished, preclude all diversities of opinions from the church, nor establish absolute unity of consent touching true religion. What then? must it (to repeat the important question) be therefore totally abolished? Nay: but, if any proper expedients can be farther devised for that purpose, let it rather be strengthened. We will suppose an husband breaks through his marriage articles. Would not the injured party be insane, to imagine, that her destroying those articles, by committing them to the flames, would add to her security?

If unsound doctrines make shift to creep now and then into the church, notwithstanding the hedge of subscription by which she is guarded; what would become of her, if she dismissed her guard, and the hedge was totally removed? On the whole, I take leave of the subject, with the same ardent wish for the church of England, which a celebrated historian expressed for the state of Venice: Esto perpetua!

Table of Contents

Title Page

Book II - Works of Augustus Toplady

Calvinism XVI - The Judgment of the most eminent English Martyrs,...

Calvinism XVII - The Judgment of the Martyrs concluded.

Calvinism XVIII - The Re-Establishment of the Church of England,

Calvinism XIX - State of the Calvinistic Doctrines in England,...

Calvinism XX - The Introduction of Arminianism...

Calvinism - A Word Concerning the Bathing-Tub Baptism.

Chronology of England.

Free Thoughts On the projected application to Parliament,...