Wirtemberg Confession." "Credimus et confitemur Spiritum Sanctum ab æ"terno procedere a Deo Patre et Filio, et esse ejusdem "cum Patre et Filio essentiæ, majestatis, et gloriæ, ve66 rum ac æternum Deum." 66 .... 6th Article. Sacræ Scripturæ nomine eos Canonicos li«bros veteris et novi Testamenti intelligimus, de quorum auctoritate in Ecclesia nunquam dubitatum est.' Wirtemberg Confession. 66 "De Sacra Scriptura. 29 "Sacram Scripturam vocamus eos Canonicos libros "veteris et novi Testamenti, de quorum authoritate in "Ecclesia nunquam dubitatum est.” 10th Article. "Ea est hominis post lapsum Adæ conditio, ut sese, "naturalibus suis viribus et bonis operibus, ad fidem et "invocationem Dei convertere ac præparare non possit." Wirtemberg Confession. "De Peccato. "Quod autem nonnulli affirmant homini post lap "sum tantam animi integritatem relictam, ut possit ¢¢ sese, naturalibus suis viribus et bonis operibus, ad fi“dem et invocationem Dei convertere ac præparare, "haud obscure pugnat cum Apostolica doctrina, et cum vero Ecclesiæ Catholicæ consensu." 11th Article. "Tantum propter meritum Domini ac Servatoris "nostri Jesu Christi, per fidem, non propter opera et "merita nostra, justi coram Deo reputamur." Wirtemberg Confession. "De Justificatione. "Homo enim fit Deo acceptus, et reputatur coram "eo justus, propter solum Filium Dei, Dominum nos"trum Jesum Christum, per fidem." R Id. "De Evangelio Christi. "Nec veteris nec novi Testamenti hominibus con"tingat æterna salus propter meritum operum Legis, ❝sed tantum propter meritum Domini nostri Jesu "Christi, per fidem." 12th Article. "Bona opera, quæ sunt fructus fidei, et justificatos "" sequuntur, quanquam peccata nostra expiare, et di"vini judicii severitatem ferre non possunt, Deo tamen grata sunt et accepta in Christo... 66 Wirtemberg Confession. "Non est autem sentiendum, quod iis bonis operi"bus, quæ per nos facimus, in judicio Dei, ubi agitur "de expiatione peccatorum, et placatione divinæ iræ, "ac merito æternæ salutis, confidendum sit. Omnia "enim bona opera, quæ nos facimus, sunt imperfecta, "nec possunt severitatem divini judicii ferre." 20th Article. "Habet Ecclesia ritus sive ceremonias statuendi jus, "et in fidei controversiis auctoritatem. Wirtemberg Confession. "De Ecclesia. "Credimus et confitemur quod.... hæc Ecclesia "habeat jus judicandi de omnibus doctrinis, juxta il"lud, Probate Spiritus, num ex Deo sint; et, Cæteri di"judicent." "Quod hæc Ecclesia habeat jus interpretandæ Scripturæ.' The last passage quoted from the 20th Article, is the celebrated clause, which was formerly the subject of much controversy. It was certainly not in the Articles of 1552. The question is, was it inserted, or not, by authority, in the revision under Elizabeth? That it was, does not its similarity to the clause of the Wirtemberg Confession, with which I have contrasted it, furnish additional proof, when it is considered, that the principal of the other augmentations then adopted by the Convocation were manifestly derived from that Confession? Page 46, note (16). "Res in eo tum statu erant, ut nobis peculiaris con❝fessio conscribenda, et Tridentino Conventui exhiben"da esset, qua tamen tantum abest, ut ab Augustana "confessione recesserimus, ut eam potius compendio "quodam complecti et repetere voluerimus." Præf. Ducis Wirtemb. The Wirtemberg Confession was composed in 1551, and in the following year exhibited by the Wirtemberg Ambassadors in the Council of Trent. Page 48, note (17). So little known was the fame of Calvin in England about this period, that one of his works was translated, and published in 1549, under the following title; “Of "the Life and Conversation of a Christian Man; a "right godly treatise, written in the Latin tongue, by "Master John Calvin, a man of right excellent learning, "and of no less conversation." Ames's Typographical Antiquities, p. 620. ed. W. H. Does not this encomium prove, that his name, in consequence, if not of its obscurity, at least of its little celebrity, stood in need of some commendation? How differently is Luther's announced in the following work, of rather an earlier period (viz. about the year 1547)! "The Disclosing of "the Canon of the Popish Mass. With a Sermon an"nexed, of the famous Clerk of worthy memory, Dr. "Martin Luther." See Strype's Eccles. Mem. vol. ii. p. 28. Indeed in this very year it was, that Calvin first freed himself from the suspicion of being a Lutheran in the doctrine of the Eucharist, by subscribing to an agreement with the Zuinglians; "Cæterum," observes Beza in his life of Calvin, "hoc Ecclesiis Germanicis inflictum "vulnus contrario beneficio Dominus apud Helvetios "compensavit; Farello simul ac Calvino Tigurum pro"fectis: ut, cum visus esset quibusdam Calvinus Consub"stantiationi nonnihil favere, de communi in ea re om"nium Helveticarum Ecclesiarum consensu omnibus "liqueret." Anno 1549. The concord, which, in consequence of this visit to Zurich, took place between the Pastors of Geneva and the Zuinglians, was attacked by J. Westphal, a Lutheran, in 1552. Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, vol. iv. p. 71. Calvin, however, did not answer his opponent, until the years 1556 and 1557. When the word Calvinist first became general, in the sense alluded to, I have not been able precisely to ascertain. Fox, I have remarked, does not use it. dently however in 1585, if not before, it was thus applied by Saunders to Cranmer, who, in the Book of Martyrs, is termed a Zuinglian, and not a Calvinist. De Schismate Anglicano, p. 116. Page 49, note (18). Evi At the close of the year 1551, commenced his first public controversy upon the doctrine of Predestination. "The opposition," observes Mosheim, "which was "made to Calvin, did not end here. He had contests "of another kind to sustain against those, who could "not relish his theological system, and more especially "his melancholy and discouraging doctrine in relation "to eternal and absolute decrees. These adversaries "felt, by a disagreeable experience, the warmth and "violence of his haughty temper, and that impatience "of contradiction, that arose from an over-zealous con"cern for his honour, or rather for his unrivalled su66 premacy. He would not suffer them to remain at "Geneva; nay, in the heat of the controversy, being "carried away by the impetuosity of his passions, he "accused them of crimes, from which they have been "fully absolved by the impartial judgment of unpreju "diced posterity. Among these victims of Calvin's "unlimited power and excessive zeal, we may reckon "Sebastian Castellio, master of the public school at "Geneva, who, though not exempt from failings, was "nevertheless a man of probity, and was also remark"able for the extent of his learning, and the elegance "of his taste...... A like fate happened to Jerome "Bolsec..... His imprudence, however, was great, "and was the principal cause of the misfortunes that befel him. It led him, in the year 1551, to lift up “his voice in the full congregation, after the conclusion "of divine worship, and to declaim, in the most inde"cent manner, against the doctrine of absolute de"crees; for which he was cast into prison, and soon "after sent into banishment." Mosheim, vol. iv. p. 124 and 125. To prevent the suspicion of quoting a partial authority, I shall give an account of the first public dissension upon the point under consideration, as recorded by Calvin himself and his associates. A circular letter on the occasion was written by the ministers of Geneva, to the different Helvetian Churches. In this the transaction is thus alluded to: "Est hic Hieronymus qui"dam, qui, abjecta Monachi cuculla, unus ex circum"foraneis medicis factus est, qui fallendo et frustrando 66 tantum sibi impudentiæ acquirunt, ut ad quidvis au"dendum prompti sint ac parati. Is jam ante octo menses in publico Ecclesiæ nostræ cœtu doctrinam "de gratuita Dei electione, quam ex verbo Dei accep"tam vobiscum docemus, labefactare conatus est. Ac "tunc quidem, qua fieri potuit moderatione, sedata fuit "hominis protervia. Postea non destitit locis omni"bus obstrepere, ut simplicibus hoc fidei caput excu"teret, tandem virus suum nuper aperto gutture evo"muit. Nam cum pro more nostro unus e fratribus 66 |