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'chancellor and heads of houses,-conclude thus: 'This doctrine, being not about inferior points of ' matters indifferent, but of the substantial ground, ' and chief comfort and anchor-hold of our salvation, hath been, to our knowledge, continually ' and generally received, taught, and defended, in 'this university, in lectures, disputations, and ser'mons, and in other places in sermons, from the beginning of her Majesty's reign, and so still 'holden; and we take it agreeable to the doctrine ' of the Church of England.'-Extract from the 'petition of the heads of houses, and main body of 'the university, to Archbishop Whitgift, on this 'occasion. We are persuaded, that in these questions of controversies, not only the undoubted 'truth of God's word, but the doctrine of our 'church, by continuance of practice and custom 'confirmed, and by authority established, is now by 'this opposition of some oppugned.'-Extract from Archbishop Whitgift's letter, to the heads of 'houses. To traduce Calvin in the pulpit, I can

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by no means like: neither do I allow the same 'towards Augustine, Jerome, and other learned 'fathers, who were patrons of those opinions, ' which now go under the name of Calvin.'1

As it may perhaps surprise the reader to find the name of Jerome in this connexion, I subjoin a few short extracts from him, as a specimen of quotation, on the other side from those in the Refutation. In good works God is the accomplisher: (perfector :) "It is not of him that willeth, neither of him that runneth; but of "God who sheweth mercy, and assisteth"-mis'Dr. John Edwards, Evangelical Truths Restored, p. 533-535.

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VOL. VIII.

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erentis et adjuvantis Dei.- We are saved, not by the power of free will, (liberi arbitrii,) but by 'the clemency of God.' We always pray in vain, if it be in our free will to do what we desire si in nostro arbitrio sit, facere quod volThis language decidedly shews, that the ' liberum arbitrium of Jerome was something entirely distinct from free agency. A free agent, sub servo arbitrio, voluntarily did what he chose to do: but, his will being enslaved by sinful passions, he had no disposition, and consequently ' no ability,' to choose what was good in the sight of God. Nay, when so far freed, as to say, Volo, "to will is present with me;" he feels himself so entangled by remains of the old bondage, that "how to perform that which is good he finds "not; " except as he is enabled by the God of all grace, in answer to his constant earnest prayers.

['In the feeble reign of his successor, the opinions of Calvin made considerable progress, ' and produced their natural effects of weakening 'the grounds of subordination, and of lessening ' attachment to regal authority; and the unwise ' and injudicious conduct of Charles the First gave full scope for the operation of those principles, 'which terminated in the tragical death of that un'fortunate monarch, and the entire subversion, for ' a time, of our civil and ecclesiastical constitution." In what respects do the opinions of Calvin as to the doctrines of Christianity naturally weaken 'the grounds of subordination, and lessen attachment to regal authority?' Calvin's opinions as

'Ref. 583.

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to presbyterian church government may be thought to have this tendency: but no reason can be given why the doctrine of the divine sovereignty and decrees should have a similar effect; when it leads him who enters into the genuine spirit of it into a cordial acquiescence in every providential dispensation, as the appointment of infinite wisdom, truth, and goodness.-If this be meant to insinuate that modern Calvinists, in the church of England especially, are less disposed to subordination, and less attached to regal government than others, I shall only oppose to it a confident assertion on the other hand, that his present Majesty, his royal offspring, and the establishment in church and state, have not, in any one body, proportionably a larger number of decided and cordial friends, than the evangelical clergy and their congregations..... Political discontents led soon after the accession of James to the formation of parties. The Calvinistic part of the nation, whether attached to the establishment, or not, being hard pressed by the growing power of their opponents, generally united with the political party which was inimical to public measures; a vast proportion of whom, till long after, had nothing further in view than the security of political liberty against what they deemed the encroachments of prerogative. This, together with the violence and success of the Arminian party, led the Calvinists to concur in unjustifiable measures. Still, however, Arminianism prevailed, and in the reign of Charles I. under Archbishop Laud, it seemed to obtain a triumph. But the victory of the parliament over the royal party proved also a

short lived apparent victory to the Calvinists, many of whom becoming united with the Presbyterians lost their attachment to the external establishment of the church; and concurred in their violent measures. But the Presbyterians, being, as they vainly hoped, on the eve of a full establishment of their whole system, were overreached by the Independents, and lost all the fruits of their victory over the church of England. Among those who adhered to the royal party and to the established church, in her abject state, even the faults and successes of the Puritans, Presbyterians, and Independents, were arguments (and indeed they still are so,) against Calvinism; so that they became more and more Anticalvinistic, without studying the subject, by a sort of heartrevolting against principles which they erroneously supposed had produced these terrible effects. I say erroneously: for, except among a few honest but undiscerning men, and a company of wild enthusiasts, religion, as to the leaders in these tragical scenes, was merely the pretence; and, if the nation had been divided into zealots for popery and zealots for Mohammedism, the designing sagacious leaders would have known how to avail themselves of their prejudices; and the event would have nearly been the same as the affairs of the late twenty years on the continent may evince. However that may be, at the Restoration, a large majority of the clergy, who kept their stations in the church, or succeeded to those which became vacant, were Anticalvinistic, and have continued so to this day.-I feel little interest in the subsequent history of Calvinism.]

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[The early Calvinists of this country having thus failed in their endeavours to obtain a change ' in our Public Formularies, their more modern successors, despairing of alteration, have adopted ' a different mode of proceeding, and have boldly 'contended that the Articles, Liturgy, and Ho'milies are already Calvinistic, and admit of no ' other interpretation. That this is a groundless assertion, I have, I flatter myself, sufficiently ' proved in the former part of this volume.'1

That some persons, in former times have wished to render our Articles, &c, more exactly agreeable to the tenets of Calvin, or even Calvino Calviniores, cannot be denied: but the evangelical clergy are not their successors.' They do not despair

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of alteration;' for a man never despairs of what he does not desire, but most earnestly deprecates. The despair of alteration is found among those, who devise a variety of ingenious schemes, to reconcile men's consciences to subscribe what they almost openly avow that they do not believe. The evangelical clergy do not contend (at least I am no advocate for those who do,) that our Articles, Liturgy, and Homilies are in every tittle exactly coincident with the sentiments of Calvin; but that they contain, in a more unexceptionable form, all that they deem essential in his doctrine; and are Calvinistic exactly in the same sense that we are Calvinists.]

In confirmation of this historical detail, which 'may be considered as a sort of external evidence ' of the Anticalvinism of our church, and in addi'Ref. 585.

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