name would needs take in hand to dispute with this proud philosopher. The bishops and other learned men standing by were marvellously abashed at the matter, thinking that by his doing they should be all confounded and put to open shame. He notwithstanding goeth on, and beginning in the name of the Lord Jesus, brought the philosopher to such point in the end, contrary to all men's expectation, that he could not choose but acknowledge the power of God in his words, and to give place to the truth. Was not this a miraculous work, that one silly soul, of no learning, should do that which many bishops of great knowledge and understanding were never able to bring to pass? So true is the saying of Bede: Where the Holy Ghost doth instruct and teach, there is no delay at all in learning." Sermon for Whitsunday, pp. 190, 191. ness. belief: We be not,' saith he, sufficient of ourselves, as of ourselves, once to think any thing: but all our ableness is of God's goodFor he it is, in whom we have all our being, our living, and moving.' If ye will know furthermore, where they had their gifts and sacrifices, which they offered continually in their lives to Almighty God, they cannot but agree with David, where he saith, Of thy liberal hand, O Lord, we have received that we gave unto thee.' If this holy company therefore confess so con stantly, that all the goods and graces, wherewith they were erdued in soul, came of the goodness of God only; what more can be said to prove that all that is good cometh from Almighty God? Is it meet to think that all spiritual goodness cometh from God above only; and that other good things, either of nature or of fortune (as we call them) come of any other cause? Doth God of his goodness adorn the soul with all the powers thereof as it is; aud come the gifts of the body, wherewith it is endued, from any other? If he doth the more, cannot he do the less? To justify a sinner, to new create him from a wicked person to a righteous man, is a greater act,' saith St. Augustine, than to make such a new heaven and earth as is already made.' We must needs agree, that whatsoever good thing is in us, of grace, of nature, or of fortune, is of God only, as the only author and worker." Lomity for Rogation Week, pp. 203--203. Again: "Let us (as we are most bound) give hearty thanks to God the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ, for sending down his Comforter into the world, humbly beseeching him so to work in our hearts by the power of this Holy Spirit, that we being regenerate and newly born again in all goodness, righteousness, sobriety, and truth, may in the end be made partakers of everlasting life in his heavenly kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour." Sermon for Whitsunday, p. 191. The following Homily invokes all the glorified saints in heaven, as witnesses to the power and efficacy of the Divine influence. "If these were asked, who should be thanked for their regeneration, for their justification, and for their salvatiou? whether their deserts, or God's goodness only? although in this point every one confess sufficiently the truth of this matter in his own person; yet let David answer by the mouth of them all at this time, who cannot choose but say, 'Not to us, O Lord; not to us, but to thy name give all the thanks, for thy loving mercy, and for thy truth sake. If we should ask again, from whence came their glorious works and deeds, which they wrought in their lives, wherewith God was so highly pleased and worshipped by them? let some other witness be brought in, to testify this matter, that in the mouth of two or three may the truth be known. Verily, that holy prophet Isaiah beareth record, and saith, O Lord, it is thou of thy goodness that hast wrought all our works in us, not we ourselves.' And to uphold the truth of this matter, against all justiciaries and hypocrites, which rob Almighty God of his honour, and ascribe it to themselves, St. Paul bringeth in his "I promised to you to declare that all spiritual gifts and graces come especially from God. Let us consider the truth of this matter, and hear what is testified first of the gift of faith, the first entry into a Christian life, without the which no man can please God. For St. Paul confesseth it plainly to be God's gift, saying, faith is the gift of God.' And again, St. Peter saith, it is of God's power that ye be kept through faith to salvation.' It is of the goodness of God that we falter not in our hope unto him. It is ve:ily God's work in us, the charity wherewith we love our brethren. If after our tail, we rep:nt, it is by him that we repent, which reacheth forth his merciful hand to raise us up. If we have any will to rise, it is he that preventeth our will and disposeth us thereto. If after contrition, we feel our consciences at peace with God, through remission of our sin, and so be reconciled again to his favour, and hope to be his children, and inheritors of everlasting life, who worketh these great miracles in us? our worthiness, our deservings, and endeavours, our wits, and virtue? Nay, verily, St. Paul will not suffer flesh and clay to presume to such arrogancy, and therefore saith, All is of God, which hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. For God was in Christ when he reconciled the world unto himself.' God, the Father of all mercy, wrought this high benefit unto us, not by his own person, but by no less a mean than his only beloved Son, whom he spared not from any pain and travail that might do us good. For, upon him he put our sins, and upon him he made our ransom; him he made the mean betwixt us and himself, whose mediation was so acceptable to God the Father, through his absolute and perfect obedience, that he took his act for a full satisfaction of all our disobedience and rebellion, whose righteousness he took to weigh against our sins, whose re. demption he would have stand against our damnation." Homily for Rogation Week, pp. 215, 216. "God give us grace, good people, to know these things, and to feel them in our hearts. This knowledge and feeling is not in ourselves; by ourselves it is not possible to come by it; a great pity it were that we should lose so profitable knowledge. Let us, therefore, meekly call upon that bountiful Spirit, the Holy Ghost, which pro ceedeth from our Father of mercy, and from our Mediator Christ, that he would assist us, and inspire us with his presence, that in him we may be able to hear the goodness of God declared unto us to our salvation. For without his lively and secret inspiration can we not once so much as speak the name of our Mediator, as St. Paul plainly testifieth, No man can once name our Lord Jesus Christ, but in the Holy Ghost. Much less should we be able to believe and know these great mysteries that he opened to us by Christ." Homily for Rogation Week, pp. 217, 218. It remains now that we produce the views entertained by the framers of the Homilies, on the subjects of justification, faith, and works. "Because all men be sinners and offenders against God, and breakers of his law and commandments, therefore can no man by his own acts, works and deeds (seem they never so good) be justified, and made righteous before God: but every man of necessity is constrained to seek for another righteousness of justification, to be received at God's own hands, that is to say, the forgiveness of his sins and trespasses, in such things as he hath offended. And this justification, or righteousness, which we so re ceive of God's mercy and Christ's merits, "This is that justification of righteousnes so that "The apostle toucheth specially three things, which must go together in our justification. Upon God's part, his great mercy and grace; upon Christ's part, justice, that is, the satisfaction of God's justice, or the price of redemption, by the offering of hi body, and shedding of his blood, with fulfilling of the law perfectly and throughly; and upon our part, true and lively faith in the merits of Jesus Christ, which yet is not ours, but by God's working in us: in our justification, there is not only God's mercy and grace, but also his justice, which the apostle calleth the justice of God, and it consisteth in paying our ransom, and fulfilling of the law; and so the grace of God doth not shut out the justice of God in our justification, but only shutteth out the justice of man, that is to say, the justice of our works, as to be merits of deserving our justification. And therefore St. Paul declareth here nothing on the behalf of man concerning his justification, but only a true and lively faith, which nevertheless is the gift of God, and not man's only work without God. And yet that faith doth not shut out repentance, hope, love, dread, and the fear of God, to be joined with faith in every man that is justified; but it shutteth_them out from the office of justifying. So that, although they be all present together in him that is justified, yet they justify not alto gether: neither doth faith shut out the jus tice of our good works necessarily to be done afterwards of duty towards God; (for we are most bounden to serve God, in doing good deeds, commanded by him in bis holy Scripture, all the days of our life:) but it excludeth them, so that we may not do them to this intent, to be made just by doing of them." Sermon of the Salvation of Mankind, pp. 34, 35. "To be short, the sum of all Paul's dispu tation is this: that if justice come of works, then it cometh not of grace; and if it come of grace, then it cometh not of works. And 66 Nevertheless, this sentence, that we be justified by faith only, is not so meant of them, that the said justifying faith is alone in man, without true repentance, hope, charity, dread, and the fear of God, at any time and season. Nor when they say, that we should be justified freely, do they mean that we should or might afterward be idle, and that nothing should be required on our Darts afterward: neither do they mean so to be justified without good works that we should do no good works at all, like as shall be more expressed at large hereafter. But this saying, that we be justified by faith only, freely, and without works, is spoken for to take away clearly all merit of our works, as being unable to deserve our justification at God's hands, and thereby most plainly to express the weakness of man, and the goodness of God; the great infirmity of ourselves, and the might and power of God; the imperfection of our own works, and the most abundant grace of our Saviour Christ; and therefore wholly to ascribe the merit and deserving of our justification unto Christ only, and his most precious blood-shedding." Sermon of the Salvation of Mankind, Pp. 37, 38. Justification is not the office of man, but of God; for man cannot make himself righteous by his own works, neither in part nor in the whole; for that were the greatest, arrogancy and presumption of man that antichrist could set up against God, to affirm that a man might by his own works take away and purge his own sins, and so justify himself. But justification is the office of God only, and is not a thing which we render unto him, but which we receive of him; not which we give to him but which we take of him by his free mercy, and by the only merits of his most dearly beloved Son, our only Redeemer, Saviour, and Justifier Jesus Christ: so that the true understanding of this doctrine, we be justified freely by faith without works, or that we be justified by faith in Christ only, is not, that this our own act to believe in Christ, or this our faith in Christ, which is within us, doth justify us, and deserve our justification unto us, (for that were to count ourselves to be justified by some act or virtue that is within ourselves ;) but the true un derstanding and meaning thereof is, that although we hear God's word, and believe it; although we have faith, hope, charity, repentance, dread and fear of God within us, and do never so many works thereunto; yet we must renounce the merit of all our said virtues, of faith, hope, charity, and all other virtues and good deeds, which we either have done, shall do, or can do, as things that be far too weak and insufficient, and imperfect, to deserve remission of our sins, and our justification; and therefore we must trust only in God's mercy, and that sacrifice which our High Priest and Saviour Christ Jesus, the Son of God, once offered for us upon the cross, to obtain thereby God's grace and remission, as well of our original sin in bap tism, as of all actual sin committed by us after our baptism, if we truly repent, and turn unfeignedly to him again." Sermon of the Salvation of Mankind, pp. 38, 39. "It hath been manifestly declared unto you, that no man can fulfil the law of God; and therefore by the law all men are condemned: whereupon it followeth necessarily, that some other things should be required for our salvation than the law; and that is, a true and a lively faith in Christ; bringing forth good works, and a life according to God's commandments. And also you heard the ancient anthors' minds of this saying, faith in Christ only justifieth man, so plainly declared, that you see, that the very true meaning of this proposition or saying, we be justified by faith in Christ only (according to the meaning of the old ancient authors) is this: we put our faith in Christ, that we be juctified by him only, that we be justified by God's free mercy, and the merits of our Saviour Christ only, and by no virtue or good work of our own that is in us, or that we can be able to have, or to do, for to deserve the same; Christ himself only being the meritorious cause thereof." Sermon of the Salvation of Mankind, p. 40. "They are greatly deceived that preach repentance without Christ, and teach the simple and iguorant that it consisteth only in the works of men. They may indeed speak many things of good works, and of amendment of life and manners: but without Christ they be all vain and unprofitable. They that think that they have done much of themselves towards repentance, are so much more the farther from God, because they do seek those things in their own works and merits, which ought only to be sought in out Saviour Jesus Christ, and in the merits of his death, and passion, and blood-shedding." Sermon on Repentance. p. 230. The framers of the Homilies thought some apology necessary for the length, and particularly of their statements on the subject of justifi cation, and for the extreme solicitude which they manifest not to be misunderstood. They appear to have had a sort of prophetic anticipation of the ingenious sophistry which would be employed in these later days to perplex and misrepresent their plain and obvious intention. "Here you perceive many words are used to avoid contention in words, with them that delight to brawl about words, and also to shew the true meaning to avoid mistaking and misunderstanding; and yet peradven. ture all will not serve with them that be contentious; but contenders will ever forge matters of contention, even when they have none occasion thereto. Notwithstanding, such be the less to be passed upon, so that the rest may profit, which will be more desirous to know the truth, than (when it is plain enough) to contend about it; and with contentious and captious cavillation, to obscure and darken it."-Sermon on the Salvation of Man, pp. 40, 41. To the numerous quotations already given, we shall subjoin only two, on the subject of faith and works. «The soul that hath a lively faith in it will be doing always some good work, which shall declare that it is living, and will not be unoccupied. Therefore, when men hear in the Scripture so high commendations of faith, that it maketh us to please God, to live with God, and to be children of God; if then they fancy that they be set at li berty from doing all goed works, and may live as they list, they trifle with God, and deceive themselves. And it is a manifest token that they be far from having the true and lively faith, and also far from knowledge what true faith meaneth. For the very sure and lively Christian faith is, not only to believe all things of God which are contained in boly Scripture, but also is an earnest trust and confidence in God, that he doth regard us, and that he is careful over us, as the father is over the child whom he doth love, and that he will be merciful unto us for his only Son's sake, and that we have our Saviour Christ our perpetual advocate, and priest, in whose only merits, oblation, and suffering we do trust that our of fences be continually washed and purged, whensoever we, repenting truly, do return to bim with our whole heart, stedfastly determining with ourselves, through his grace, to obey and serve him in keeping his conmandments, and never to turn back again to sin. Such is the true faith that the Scriptare doth so much commend."-Homily of Faith, Pp. 47, 48. "Faith giveth life to the soul; and they be as much dead to God that lack faith, as they be to the world whose bodies lack sosis. Without faith, all that is done of us is but dead before God, although the work seen never so gay and glorious before man. Even as the picture graven or painted is but a dead representation of the thing itself, and is without life or any manner of moving; s be the works of all unfaithful persons before God: they do appear to be lively works, and indeed they be but dead, not availing to the everlasting life: they be but shadows and shews of lively and good things, and not good and lively things indeed: for true faith doth give life to the works, and out si such faith come good works, that be very good works indeed; and without faith a work is good before God, as saith St. Augustine."-Homily of Good Werks, p. 59. Now let any candid man, after having attentively perused these extracts, compare them with those passages of the Bishop of Lincoln's Elements of Theology, or of his Refutation of Calvinism, in which the same subjects are discussed, and we can have no doubt that the result will be, a conviction that the views of the Bishop, as there exhibited, differ materially from those of the Church of England. We do not know what the eager ingenuity of controversialists may attempt in establishing an agreement between his Lordship and the Homilies; for we have of late seen wonders attempted in this way; but we cannot believe that a jury of twelve competent men, impannelled to try the fact of agreement or disagreement, would hesisate about their verdict. We are aware that the charge which we have thus ventured to prefer against his Lordship's productions, is one of grave and serious import. It is one, nevertheless, which, after due deliberation, we do not shrink from maintaining; and in doing so we ground ourselves entirely on the plain and obvious meaning of the Articles, Homilies, and Liturgy of the Church, which we further believe to be a clear and faithful exposition of the doctrines of Scripture. named them; should have pointed to their writings; should have specified the particular passages in those writings against which he felt it to be his duty to warn the public. It is implied indeed, but without the shadow of proof, that the clergy who are usually styled evangelical, not only hold, but teach the peculiar tenets of Calvin. If the fact could have been substantiated, there might then have been found some apology for disturbing the peace of the Church by a ponderous volume on this most unprofitable subject. The writings of the class of the clergy to which we have alluded, have, during the last ten or fifteen years, been numerous; and the writers are certainly not of a character to suppress any part of divine truth which they deem to be essential. But to how small a portion of these numerous writings can the appellation of Calvinistic be, with any propriety, applied? We have recommended one experiment to our readers. We will now recommend another. After having instituted the proposed comparison between the Bishop of Lincoln's book and our extracts from the Homilies, and satisfied themselves as to the result, let them proceed to compare with the same extracts what has been written on the subject of Original Sin, Justification by Faith, and Spiritual Influences, by some of those men who are branded as evangelical clergymen, Calvinists, &c., and whom the Bishop's last work attempts, by means of some sweeping inuendoes, to bring into discredit, as if they had introduced a new faith. Let them take, for example, the writings of Scott, Cecil, Milner, Simeon, Woodd, Cooper, Gisborne, Loyd, Robinson, to whom many more names might be added; and they will find in these writers, on the points we have mentioned (however they may differ on other points of less moment, such as those involved in the Calvinistic controversy), a remarkable agreement, not only with each other, but with the Homilies. We should be willing, indeed, to leave to the issue of this double comparison the decision of the question, who are the most faithful expositors of the doctrines of the Church, the Bishop of Lincoln or those whom he attacks. We have already given it as our opinion, that the Bishop's work is unseasonable. We continue to be of the same opinion. He has selected Calvinism for the object of his attack, as if Calvinism were the great evil existing in the Church. But who are the writers who now inculcate Calvinism? Who are they whose endeavours to propagate this noxious heresy have rendered it incumbent on the learned prelate to wield the weapons of offensive war? His Lordship, we think, should have When we use the term Calvinistic, however, we must be considered as using it in a sense very different from that in which the Bishop of Lincoln wishes it to be understood. We use it as comprising merely the peculiarities of the Calvinistic scheme, and not any of those fundamental verities of the Christian religion which give to that religion its distinctive character, and are embraced alike by pious Calvinists and pious Arminians. Had the Bishop consulted the writings of Arminius himself, of Limborch, of John Wesley*, of Fletcher of Madeley, of Mr. Gisborne, and many others who might be named, he would have found it to be perfectly consistent with the most decided non-calvinism, to hold those very opinions on the subject of Ori We particularly recommend to his Lordship the perusal of a tract, written by Mr. considered," as containing, in a small coniWesley, entitled, "Predestination calmly pass, and expressed with great precision and force, almost every thing that can be said on the anti-calvinistic side of this formidable question. |