æternum Dei decretum, quo apud se constitutum habuit, quid de unoquoque homine fieri vellet. Non enim pari conditione creantur omnes; sed aliis vita æterna, aliis damnatio æterna præordinatur." -"Quod ergo Scriptura clare ostendit dicimus, æterno et immutabili consilio Deum semel constituisse, quos olim semel assumere vellet in salutem, quos rursum exitio devovere. Hoc consilium quoad electos in gratuitâ ejus misericordiâ fundatum esse asserimus, nullo humanæ dignitatis respectu: quos vero damnationi addicit, his justo quidem et irreprehensibili, sed incomprehensibili ipsius judicio vitæ aditum præcludi."" "The Article of Predestination," says Dr. Waterland, "has been vainly enough urged in favour of the Calvinistical tenets; for, not to mention the saving clause in the conclusion, or its saying nothing at all of reprobation, and nothing in favour of absolute predestination to life, there seems to be a plain distinction (as Plaifere has well observed) in the Article itself, of two kinds of Predestination, one of which is recommended to us, the other condemned. Predestination, rightly and piously considered, that is, considered not irrespectively, not absolutely, but with respect to faith in Christ, faith working by love, and persevering; such a predestination is a sweet and comfortable doctrine; but the sentence of God's predestination (it is not here said in Christ as before), that sentence simply or absolutely considered (as curious and carnal persons are apt to Calv. Instit. lib. iii. cap. 21.

a

consider it), is a most dangerous downfall, leading either to security or desperation, as having no respect to foreseen faith and a good life, nor depending upon it, but antecedent in order to it. The Article then seems to speak of two subjects; first of predestination, soberly understood with respect to faith in Christ, which is wholesome doctrine; secondly, of predestination simply considered, which is a dangerous doctrine. And the latter part seems to be intended against those Gospellers, whereof Bishop Burnet speaks. Nor is it imaginable that any true and sound doctrine of the Gospel should of itself have any aptness to become a downfall even to carnal persons; but carnal persons are apt to corrupt a sound doctrine, and suit it to their own lusts and passions, thereby falsifying the truth. This doctrine, so depraved and mistaken, our Church condemns; that is, she condemns absolute, irrespective predestination, not the other."

As Archbishop Cranmer was not only the principal compiler of these Articles, but by his writings and influence contributed more than any other person to the Reformation in England, it may be right to state the sentiments of that eminent prelate upon the subject of this Article; and as the publication from which the following quotations are taken was confirmed by act of parliament, they may be considered as containing also the sentiments of our early Reformers in general: "God is

a

Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian Man.

naturally good, and willeth all men to be saved, and careth for them, and provideth all things by which they may be saved, except by their own malice they will do evil, and so by righteous judgment of God perish and be lost; for truly men be to themselves the authors of sin and damnation. God is neither author of sin, nor the cause of damnation; and yet doth he most righteously damn those men that do with vices corrupt their nature, which he made good, and do abuse the same to evil desires against his most holy will wherefore men be to be warned, that they do not impute to God their vice, or their damnation, but to themselves, which by free will have abused the grace and benefit of God.""It is to be considered, that although our Saviour Christ hath offered himself upon the cross, a sufficient redemption and satisfaction for the sins of all the world, and hath made himself an open way and entry unto God the Father for all mankind, only by his worthy merit and deserving, and willing all men to be saved, calleth upon all the world, without respect of persons, to come and be partakers of the righteousness, peace, and glory, which is in him; yet for all this benignity and grace, showed universally to the whole world, none shall have the effect of the benefit of our Saviour Christ, and enjoy everlasting salvation by him, but they that take such ways to attain the same as he hath taught and appointed by his holy word."-" And here all fantastical imagination, curious reasoning, and vain trust of predestination,

is to be laid apart. And according to the plain manner of speaking and teaching of Scripture in innumerable places, we ought evermore to be in dread of our own frailty, and natural pronity to fall to sin, and not to assure ourselves that we be elected any otherwise than by feeling of spiritual motions in our heart, and by the tokens of good and virtuous living, in following the grace of God, and persevering in the same to the end."

It is very clearly proved in "A Dissertation on the Seventeenth Article"," printed at Oxford in 1773, that the sentiments of Ridley, Latimer, and Hooper, coincided with those of Cranmer concerning grace and predestination; and Dean Tucker has shown, in his Letters to Dr. Kippis, that "at the time just preceding the Reformation, the church of Rome, in respect to predestination, grace, free will, and perseverance, was truly Calvinistical."

"In England, at the time of the Synod of Dort, we were much divided in our opinion concerning the controverted Articles; but our Divines having taken the liberty to think and judge for themselves, and the civil government not interposing, it has come to pass, that from that time to this, almost all persons here, of any note for learning and abilities, have bid adieu to Calvinism", have sided with the Remonstrants, and have left the Fatalists to follow their own opinions, and to rejoice (since

a

Written by Dr. Winchester. b Whitby published some tracts on Election, Reprobation, and

Original Sin, and in these treatises he confuted Calvinism almost to a demonstration. Jortin.

they can rejoice) in a religious system consisting of human creatures without liberty, doctrines without sense, faith without reason, and a God without mercy."

ARTICLE THE EIGHTEENTH.

OF OBTAINING ETERNAL SALVATION ONLY BY THE NAME

OF CHRIST.

presume to say, That

They also are to be had accursed that every Man shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth; so that he be diligent to frame his Life according to that Law, and the Light of Nature. For Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the Name of Jesus Christ, whereby Man must be saved.

THIS Article is to be considered as directed against those who maintained, that it was a matter of indifference whether men embraced the Gospel, or not; that all religions were equally acceptable to

a

Jortin, Dissert. ii. p. 3. [But a slight acquaintance with the history of the controversy respecting Predestination is sufficient to create a strong feeling of regret that this sentence should have been quoted by so respectable a writer as Bishop Tomline. Jortin was vain of his little measure of knowledge, and could venture to speak presumptuously in an age when theology and religious feeling were at a low ebb among those whom he addressed. Supposing, even, that it be quite decided that no respect was had to the views of Augustin

in the present Article, it can never be disputed that the most learned of Armenian theologians found their best abilities necessary to resist the mighty band of scholars against whom they ranged themselves. The student of divinity cannot be too earnestly warned against learning to speak, reason, or feel in imitation of such men as Jortin. Nothing was ever written on the subject more useful or admirable than Bishop Copleston's Enquiry into the Doctrines of Necessity and Predestination.-EDITOR.]