APPENDIX. TH GROSSETESTE. Page 44. HE honeft and intrepid fpirit, with which this excellent prelate opposed the scandalous practices of Pope Innocent IV, fufficiently appears from the feventh chapter of this Volume. But the Christian Reader may not be difpleased to fee additional proofs of the genuine humility of his mind. Self-righteoufnefs and felf-confidence feem to have been his averfion in the extreme. Dependance on God as a reconciled Father in Chrift Jefus was his grand practical principle.-The following paffages are tranflated from the Latin Opufcula of Groffetefte *. While he was archdeacon of Leicester, in one of his letters he writes thus: "Nothing that occurs in your letters ought to give me more pain than your ftyling me a perfon invefted with authority, and endued with the luftre of knowledge. So far am I from thinking as you do, that I feel myself unfit even to be the difciple of a person of authority; moreover, in innumerable matters which are objects of knowledge, I perceive myself inveloped in the darkness of ignorance. But did I really poffefs the great qualities you afcribe to me, HE alone would be worthy of the praife; and the whole of it ought to be referred unto HIM, to whom we daily fay, Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to thy name give the glory." 1 * Vol. 2. Fafcic, rer. The The fame modefty and felf-abasement accompanied him to the epifcopal chair. In his fubfequent letters, he ufually styled himself, "Robert, by Divine permiffion, the poor Minifter of the Church of Lincoln." On the important fubject of Divine Grace, he expreffes himself in the following manner. "Grace is that good pleasure of God, whereby he is pleased to bestow upon us what we have not deserved; and the gift is for our advantage, not His. Wherefore it is very clear, that all the good we poffefs, whether it be natural, or freely conferred afterwards, proceeds from the grace of God; because there is no good thing, the existence of which he does not will; and for God to will any thing, is to do it; therefore there can be no good of which he is not the Author. He it is, who turns the human will from evil, and converts it to good, and also causes it to persevere in the fame. Nevertheless man's free-will operates in this matter, as the grain shoots by an external germinative power, and by the heat of the fun and the moisture of the earth. For if it was impoffible that we should turn from the evil and be converted to the good, we fhould not be commendable in so doing, nor fhould we be ordered in fcripture to do fo. And again, if we could do this without the grace of God, there would be no propriety in praying to God for it, nor would our fuccefs depend upon his will....... A will to do good, by which a man becomes conformed to the will of God, is grace freely given. The Divine will is grace; and grace is then faid to be infufed, when the Divine will begins to operate upon our will." This extract contains a fair representation of Groffetefte's fentiments; and may be thought the more expedient, because fome authors, in their accounts accounts of the faith of this good prelate, feem to have fuppreffed fuch expreffions as did not well accord with their own views. The hiftorian endeavours to avoid controverfy; yet he may be allowed to remark, that on the fubjects of Grace, Free-will, and Juftification, Bishop Groffetefte does not always preferve an invariable confiftency. The wonder however, as hath been juftly obferved, ought to be, that he should have feen "fo well as he did. In general, he was eloquent, and mighty in the Scriptures; fervent in fpirit, fpeaking and teaching boldly the things of the Lord;though, like Apollos, he fometimes needed an Aquila and Prifcilla to expound to him the way of God more perfectly." BRADWARDINE. Page 82. Sir Henry Savile, the learned editor of the principal work of Bradwardine, informs us, that this extraordinary man devoted his main application to the ftudy of theology and mathematics; and that particularly in the latter he distanced, perhaps, the most skilful of his contemporaries. In proof of these affertions the editor refers to several of Bradwardine's mathematical tracts, and to a large manufcript volume of aftronomical tables, which Sir Henry had then in his own poffeffion, and confidered as a very elaborate and valuable performance. But in divinity, fays he, "this fingle treatise which I now publish, will be a lafting monument of his fuperior talents. It was written in support of the cause of God against the Pelagian herefy, which experience fhows to be a growing evil in every age. The fubftance of the work had been delivered in Lectures at Oxford; and the author, at the request of the ftudents of Merton College, arranged, enlarged, and polifhed them, while he was chancellor of the diocefe of London. No fooner was this performance given to the public, than it was received with the greatest applause of all learned doctors, and found its way into almost every library throughout Europe. As Bradwardine was a very excellent mathematician, he endeavoured to treat theological fubjects with a mathematical accuracy; and was the firft divine, as far as I know, who pursued that method. Hence this book against Pelagianifm is one regular, connected feries of reafoning, from principles or conclufions which have been demonftrated before. "If, in the feveral lemmas and propofitións, a mathematical accuracy is not on all occafions completely preferved, the reader must remember to afcribe the defect to the nature of the fubject, rather than to the author." This account of the extreme fingularity of Bradwardine's tafte appeared worthy of notice. ---- Mr. Milner, in p. 82, has concifely obferved, that Bradwardine attended king Edward the Third in his French wars, and that he often preached before the army. His biographer, Sir Henry, is more particular: he tells us, that fome writers of that time attributed the fignal victories of Edward, rather to the virtues and holy character of his chaplain and confeffor Bradwardine, than to the bravery or prudence of the monarch or of any other perfon. "He made it his business to calm and mitigate the fierceness of his master's temper when he faw him either immoderately fired with warlike rage, or improperly flushed with the advantages of victory. He alfo often addreffed the army; and with fo much meek nefs, |