THIS is sufficiently evinced by the well known attempts of the Calvinists, both in the reign of Elizabeth and James, to procure the insertion of the Lambeth Articles among the established Articles of our Church. Upon the accession of the latter Prince, a conference was publicly held at Hampton Court, in which the innovation alluded to, with others of equal importance, was suggested. The particulars of this conference were subsequently published, in which the spokesman of the Calvinists is stated to have moved his Majesty, "That "the Book of Articles of Religion, concluded in 1562, "might be explained in places obscure, and enlarged "where some things were defective. For example, "whereas Art. 16. the words are these, After we have "received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from grace, "notwithstanding the meaning be sound, yet he desired, "that, because they may seem to be contrary to the "doctrine of God's Predestination and Election in the "17th Article, both these words might be explained "with this or the like addition; yet neither totally nor "finally; and also that the nine assertions orthodoxall, as "he termed them, concluded upon at Lambeth, might be "inserted into that book of Articles." p. 24. To this conference James himself alluded in his Proclamation for authorizing an uniformity of the Book of Common Prayer. "At our very first entry (he remarked) into .... "this realm, being entertained and importuned with "informations of sundry ministers complaining of the "errors and imperfections of the Church here, as well "in matter of doctrine as of discipline, although we had "no reason to presume &c. yet because the impor"tunity of the complainers were great, their affirmations "vehement, and the zeal wherewith the same did seem "to be accompanied very specious, we were moved "thereby to make it our occasion to discharge that "duty which is the chiefest of all kingly duties, that is, "to settle the affairs of religion and the service of God "before their own. Which while we were in hand to “do, as the contagion of the sickness reigning in our "city of London and other places would permit an as"sembly of persons meet for that purpose, some of "those who misliked the state of religion here esta“blished, presuming more of our intents, than ever we "gave them cause to do, and transported with humour, "began such proceedings, as did rather raise a scandal "in the Church than take offence away. For both "they used forms of public serving of God not here "allowed, held assemblies without authority, and did "other things carrying a very apparent shew of sedi"tion, more than of zeal; whom we restrained by a "former proclamation in the month of October last, "and gave intimation of the conference we intended to “be had with as much speed as conveniently could be, "for the ordering of those things of the Church, which "accordingly followed in the month of January last, at "our Honour of Hampton Court, where before ourself "and our Privy Council were assembled many of the "gravest Bishops and Prelates of the realms, and many "other learned men, as well of those, that are conform"able to the state of the Church established, as of those "that dissented. Among whom what our pains were, "what our patience in hearing and replying, and what "the indifference and uprightness of our judgment in ❝ determining, we leave to the report of those who "heard the same, contenting ourself with the sincerity "of our own heart therein. But we cannot conceal, "that the success of that conference was such, as hap"peneth to many other things, which, moving great "expectation before they be entered into, in their issue "produce small effects." The nine assertions orthodoxal referred to on this occasion, or the nine predestinarian propositions originally drawn up at Lambeth, in consequence of some public disputes at Cambridge, were the following; "1. Deus ab æterno prædestinavit quosdam ad vi"tam, quosdam reprobavit ad mortem. "2. Causa movens aut efficiens prædestinationis ad “vitam, non est prævisio fidei aut perseverantiæ, aut "bonorum operum, aut ullius rei quæ insit in personis "prædestinatis, sed sola voluntas beneplaciti Dei. "3. Prædestinatorum præfinitus et certus est nume"rus, qui nec augeri nec minui potest. “4. Qui non sunt prædestinati ad salutem, necessa"rio propter peccata sua damnabuntur. 66 "5. Vera, viva, et justificans fides, et Spiritus Dei justificantis, non extinguitur, non excidit, non eva"nescit, in electis aut finaliter aut totaliter. "6. Homo vere fidelis, id est, fide justificante præ"ditus, certus est plerophoria fidei de remissione pecca"torum suorum, et salute sempiterna sua per Christum. "7. Gratia salutaris non tribuitur, non communica"tur, non conceditur universis hominibus, qua servari "possint, si velint. "8. Nemo potest venire ad Christum, nisi datum ei "fuerit, et nisi pater eum traxerit, et omnes homines 66 non trahuntur a patre, ut veniant ad filium. ❝9. Non est positum in arbitrio aut potestate unius "cujusque hominis servari." Although the Calvinists failed under James in their attempt to correct what they deemed to be " the errors "and imperfections of the Church, as well in matter of "doctrine as discipline," nevertheless under his unhappy Successor, or rather under the authority of a Parliament in opposition to the Sovereign, they commenced an actual Reformation of our Articles. In the year 1643" the Assembly of Divines," as the Committee alluded to has been usually styled, revised the first fifteen," with a design," as the historian of the Puritans himself observes, "to render their sense more express, and determinate in favour of Calvinism." Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. i. p. 48. ed. 1754. The 9th Article of Original Sin was thus amended by them; "Original Sin standeth not in the following of "Adam, as the Pelagians do vainly talk, but [together “with his first sin imputed] it is the fault and corruption "of the nature of every man that naturally is propagated "from Adam, whereby man is wholly deprived of (not "as before, very far gone from) original righteousness, "and is of his own nature inclined [only] to evil . . . . "yet the Apostle doth confess, that concupiscence and 66 .... lust is truly and properly sin" (instead of hath of itself the nature of sin). In the 10th Art. upon Free Will they made only one interpolation, but that of some importance. After the words," without the grace of God "by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good "will," they inserted, " and working so effectually in us, "as that it determineth our will to that which is good." And again in the 11th Art. upon Justification, another explanation of no less importance was introduced. "We are justified," it was said, "that is, we are ac"counted righteous before God, and have remission of "sins not for nor by our own works or deservings, but "freely by his grace, only for our Lord and Saviour "Jesus Christ's sake, his whole obedience and satisfac "tion being by God imputed unto us, and Christ with his " righteousness being apprehended and rested on by faith only." Ibid. Appendix, No. 1. Do not these emendations prove, that the respective opinions introduced were not, in the judgment of those who proposed them, at least necessarily contained in the original Articles? An unprejudiced Calvinist might perhaps admit a stronger conclusion to be warrantable. That the Assembly of Divines proceeded no further in their labours than to the review of the 15th Article, might be owing to a persuasion of the attempt being hopeless, from the incorrigibility of the ancient creed; or perhaps to a prospect, which then began rapidly to open upon the Puritanical cause, not merely of reforming the Church, but altogether of subverting it. Page 10, note (2). Ego persuasus sum sine literarum peritia prorsus stare non posse sinceram theologiam, sicut hactenus, ruentibus et jacentibus literis, miserrime et cecidit et jacuit. Quin video, nunquam fuisse insignem factam verbi Dei revelationem, nisi primo, velut præcursoribus Baptistis, viam pararit surgentibus et florentibus linguis et literis. Lutheri Epistol. vol. ii. p. 307. Vitæ German. Theologorum a Melchiore Adamo, p. 164. Page 12, note (3). "How not only men of the new learning (as they be "called) but also the very Papistical authors do allow, "&c." Letter from Cranmer to Henry VIII. Burnet's History of the Reformation, vol. i. Addenda, p. 319. "But when a good number of the best learned men "reputed within this realm, some favouring the old, "and some the new learning, as they term it, &c." Cranmer's Letter to Queen Mary, Fox's Martyrology, vol. ii. p. 1715. ed. 1610. Page 13, note (4). After the commencement of our Reformation, Me |