which thou haft prepared me to perform, as being the only recompence I can poffibly make. More than this I neither have, nor ever fhall have;unless, perhaps, it may be thought more,-moft earnestly to wish both to know and to do, under all circumstances, what is altogether agreeable to THY WILL. Grant that THIS alfo may be my heart's defire; and I humbly ask these things, as a poor, miferable, mendicant finner. Is there any thing further than this for which I can ask. I do not fee that there is, though I turn my thoughts every way but if there be, I entreat thee, O Lord, with the most devout fupplication, to answer my prayer in this refpect alfo; that fo, for thy unfpeakable benefits beftowed freely upon me, I may make the most grateful return in my power, and manifeft the feelings of my heart by inceffant thanksgiving. - St. Auguftine, one of thy moft grateful children obferves, That whether we would use our minds in contemplation, or our mouths in fpeaking,-or our pens in writing, we cannot be better employed than in giving thanks to God. It is not eafy to produce a fentiment more concife in the expreffion, more pleasant to the ear, more grateful to the understanding, or more useful in practice. The fame author was, no doubt, taught by Thee to fay, That there is true wisdom in the worship of God, which very materially confifts in gratitude. Hence we are particularly admonished in the Communion Service "to give thanks to our Lord God." Let us therefore humbly acknowledge that every good thing we poffefs is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights; and with our whole heart let us give thanks to our Lord God continually. WICKLIFF. WICKLIFF. Page 95-136. It is obferved in the hiftory, page 106, that the diftinguishing tenet of Wickliff was, undoubtedly, the election of Grace. He calls the church an affembly of predeftinated perfons. Much more might be produced to the fame effect. On fome occafions he speaks in fuch ftrong terms on this fubject, that he has been understood to lean even to the doctrines of abfolute neceffity and fatalism. -The ftudent of ecclefiaftical hiftory may be pleased to have fome of the evidence, relative to this matter, laid before him, that he may have the opportunity of judging for himself. In our account of the proceedings of the council of Conftance, p. 207, it appears that the heretical opinions of Wickliff were digefted into forty-five specific articles, and unanimoufly condemned by that affembly.-Two of those articles were, viz. Article 26. The prayer of the reprobate is of no avail: and Article 27. neceffity*. All things happen from abfolute The manner in which this great man defended the latter, proves him to have been a deep thinker and a skilful disputant. Our Lord, fays he in his Trialogus, affirmed, that fuch or fuch an event fhould come to pass. Its accomplishment therefore was unavoidable.The antecedent is neceffary: by parity of argument the confequent is fo too. The confequent is not in the power of any created being, forafmuch as the declarations of Chrift, and the elections of his mind, are not liable to accidents. * L'enfant. And - And therefore, as it is abfolutely certain and cannot be otherwife but that Chrift hath foretold certain events, thofe events must neceffarily come to pass. The fame kind of argument will demonstrate every event to be neceffary, the future exiftence of which hath been previously determined by God and it will make no difference, in whatever manner, or by whatever after-difcoveries in time, it may have pleafed God to inform us that he had actually determined fo, before the creation of the world. If the thing be clearly and neceffarily fo, namely, that God did predetermine any event, the consequence is inevitable; that event must take place. Now what can prevent future events from having been predetermined by the Deity? Want of knowledge? inconftancy of will? efficacy of impediments to interrupt his purpose? But with respect to God there is no room for any of these fuppofitions. Every future event muft therefore neceffarily take place*. Wickliff states the above argument, drawn from the prophecies of our Lord, with great triumph. It had puzzled, he faid, the very best reasoners; and by its brilliancy had abfolutely confounded fuperficial divines; among whom he reckons the then bishop of Armagh, who owned that he had laboured for twenty years to reconcile the free-will of man with the certain completion of Chrift's predictions; and after all, faw no way of evading the conclufion in favour of neceffity, but by allowing that Chrift might poffibly have been miftaken and have misinformed his church in regard to future events. From this and fimilar paffages, it has been concluded that Wickliff was a fatalift. The whole question turns upon the meaning of fuch expref * Lib. III. Cap. 9. Trialog. fions fions as, "ficut neceffario Chriftus illud afferuit, ita neceffario illud eveniet." The juft interpretation of which, according to Wickliff's ideas, is given, I think, in the tranflation above. He never meant to fay that Chrift was not a free agent, but merely that it was abfolutely CERTAIN, and could not be otherwife, that Chrift HAD MADE fuch or fuch declarations. I am confirmed in this opinion by three reasons, 1. From having very diligently confidered the paffage itself as it ftands in the ninth chapter of the third book of the Trialogus. 2. From obferving that fome of those who have thought differently, have probably never feen the Trialogus itself. The book is very scarce, and they do not refer to it, but only to certain extracts from it by Widefort, who was an enemy and gives them unfairly: And 3. by attending to Wickliff's fentiments as they are delivered in other parts of that work. In book the fecond, chapter the fourteenth, he fays; "If you afk, what is the real caufe of the eternal decrees of God before they are made, the answer is, the WILL OF GOD, or God HIMSELF: And again in the tenth chapter of the first book, where the author is treating particularly of the wisdom and power of God, he exprefsly affirms, that the Divine energy acts with the most perfect freedom, though the effects produced by it muft neceffarily happen. “ Quantum ad libertatem divinæ potentiæ, patet quod eft fummè libera, et tamen quicquid facit, neceffario eveniat." "That the Supreme Being acts in the most exact conformity to his own decrees is a truth which Scripture again and again afferts; but that HE was and is abfolutely free in decreeing, is no lefs afferted by the inspired writers; who with one voice declare that the difpofals and appointments of of the Almighty do not depend on any antecedent and fatal neceffity, but on his own free choice directed by infinite wifdom." If Wickliff could be fhewn to go further than this, he ought not, I think, to be defended. Thomas Netter, commonly called Thomas of Walden, a learned Roman-catholic of the Carmelite order, was one of the greatest adversaries of Wickliff. In his four folio volumes we find fixty dangerous, heretical, articles enumerated against the English reformer. The following are among them. 1. That God gives no good things to his ene mies. 2. That God is not more willing to reward the good than to punish the wicked. 3. That all things come to pass by fatal neceffity. 4. That God could not make the world otherwife than it is made. 5. That God cannot do any thing which he doth not do. 6. That God cannot bring to pass that fomething fhould return into nothing. In perufing the diftinct and pious argumentations of Bradwardine, we everywhere meet with much entertainment and inftruction. Not fo, in traverfing the abftrufe, thorny, metaphyfical, fubtilties of Wickliff and his adverfaries. No one need be surprised if fome inconfistencies and even contradictions fhould be found in his writings. We have seen, that in himself he was not a very confiftent character, whether we regard his words or his actions. Then his infight into chriftian truths was gradual; fo that he may be expected not to hold the fame language at different periods of his life. There can, however, be no doubt, but that he loved Light and Truth; and the real wonder |