Calvin (a perfon, than whom none has deferved better of the Church), namely, that he had prefumed to exalt himself above the Son of God: in faying which, I acknowledge that I greatly injured that most learned and truly pious man; and I do most humbly intreat, that you will all forgive this my rafhnefs. I alfo threw out, in a moft rancorous manner, fome reflections against P. Martyr, Theodore Beza, Jerom Zanchy, Francis Junius, and others of the fame religion, who were the lights and ornaments of our Church: calling them by the malicious name of Calvinifts, and branding them with other reproachful terms. I did wrong, in affailing the reputation of these perfons, and in endeavouring to leffen the estimation in which they are held, and in diffuading any from reading their most learned

ignominia graviffimam infamiæ notam inurens. Quos quia ecclefia noftra meritò reveretur, non erat æquum, et ego eorum famam violarem, aut exiftimationem aliquâ ratione imminuerem; aut aliquos è noftris debortarer, ne eorum doctiffima Scripta legerent.

Strype's Life of Whitgift. Appendix. p. 186.

I cannot help obferving one more particular, refpecting this famous recantation; wherein the recanter thus expreffed himself: Secundò, Petri fidem deficere non potuiffe, afferui; at aliorum poffe, &c. i. e. "I afferted, that Peter's faith, indeed, could not fail; but that the faith of other believers might; whereas, now, being, by Christ's own word, brought to a better and founder mind, I acknowledge that Chrift prays for the faith of each believer in particular; and that, by the efficacy of Chrift's prayer, all true believers are fo fupported, that their faith cannot fail." Barrett afferted, rank Arminian as he was, that Peter's faith did not actually fail. But we have had a recent inftance of an Arminian preacher, who avers, without ceremony, that Peter's faith did fail. The paffage, verbatim, without adding a jot, or diminishing a tittle, ftands thus: "Peter's faith failed, though Christ himfelf prayed it might not." See a fermon, on 1 Cor. ix. 27. preached before the univerfity of Oxford, Feb. 19. 1769, by John Allen, M. A. Vice-principal of Magdalen Hall, p. 17.

This is Arminianifm double-diftilled. The common, fimple Arminianifm, that ferved Barrett, and Laud, and Heylin, will not do now, for our more enlightened divines. Whether Peter's faith failed, or not; that Mr. Allen's modefty has failed him, is, I believe, what no-body can deny.

works:

works feeing our Church holds thefe divines in deferved reverence."

I would hope, as our articles of religion have not been changed, but ftand just as they did at that very time, that the Church of England, in the year 1769, ftill confiders the above great men (and Zanchy among the reft) as fome of her antient lights and ornaments: and that the holds them, and their writings, in the fame deserved reverence, as did the Church of England in the year 1595.

OBSER

OBSERVATIONS

ON THE

DIVINE ATTRIBUTES;

NECESSARY TO BE PREMISED,

In order to our better understanding the Doctrine of PREDESTINATION.

ALTHOUGH the great and ever bleffed God

is a being abfolutely fimple, and infinitely remote from all fhadow of compofition; he is, nevertheless, in condefcenfion to our weak and contracted faculties, reprefented, in Scripture, as poffeffed of divers properties, or attributes, which, though feemingly different from his effence, are, in reality, effential to him, and conftitutive of his very nature.

Of these attributes, thofe, on which we shall now particularly defcant (as being more immediately concerned in the enfuing fubject), are the following ones; 1. His eternal wisdom and foreknowledge.2. The abfolute freedom and liberty of his will. The perpetuity and unchangeablenefs both of himfelf and his decrees. 4. His omnipotence. 5. His juftice. 6. His mercy.

3.

Without an explication of these, the doctrine of predestination cannot be fo well understood: we fhall, therefore, briefly confider them, by way of preliminary to the main fubject.

I. With

I. With refpect to the divine wifdom and foreknowledge, I fhall lay down the following pofitions.

Pol. 1. God is, and always was, fo perfectly wife, that nothing ever did, or does, or can, elude his knowledge. He knew, from all eternity, not only what he himself intended to do, but alfo what he would incline and permit others to do. Acts xv. 18. "Known unto God are all his works, a' αINIO,

from eternity."

Pof. 2. Confequently, God knows nothing now, nor will know any thing hereafter, which he did not know and foresee from everlasting: his fore-knowledge being co-eternal with himself, and extending to every thing that is or fhall be done. Heb. iv. 13. All things, which comprises paft, prefent, and future, are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

Pof. 3. This foreknowledge of God is not conjectural and uncertain, (for then it would not be foreknowledge) but most fure and infallible: so that whatever he foreknows to be future, fhall neceffarily and undoubtedly come to pafs. For, his knowledge can be no more fruftrated, or his wifdom be deceived, than he can cease to be God. Nay, could either of these be the cafe, he actually would ceafe to be God; all mistake and difappointment being abfolutely incompatible with the divine nature.

Pof. 4. The influence, which the divine foreknowledge has on the certain futurition of the things forcknown, does not render the intervention of fecond caufes needlefs, nor deftroy the nature of the things themselves.

My meaning is, that the prefcience of God does not lay any co ercive neceffity on the wills of beings naturally free, For inftance, man, even in his fallen ftate, is endued with a natural freedom of will; yet he acts, from the firft to the laft moment of his life, in abfolute fubferviency (though, perhaps, he does not know it, nor defign it) to the purposes and de

crees

crees of God concerning him: notwithstanding which, he is fenfible of no compulfion, but acts as freely and voluntarily, as if he was fui juris, fubject to no controul, and abfolutely lord of himfelf. This made Luther*, after he had fhewn how all things neceffary and inevitably come to pass, in confequence of the fovereign will and infallible foreknowledge of God, fay, that "We should carefully diftinguish between a neceffity of infallibility, and a neceffity of coaction; fince both good and evil men, though by their actions they fulfil the decree and appointment of God, yet are not forcibly conftrained to do any thing, but act willingly."

Pof. 5. God's foreknowledge, taken abstractedly, is not the fole caufe of beings and events; but his will and foreknowledge together. Hence we find, Acts ii. 23. that his determinate counfel and foreknowledge act in concert; the latter refulting from, and being founded on, the former.

We pass on,

II. To confider the will of God: with regard to which we affert as follows.

Pof. 1. The Deity is poffeffed not only of infinite knowledge, but likewife of abfolute liberty of will: fo that whatever he does, or permits to be done, he does and permits freely, and of his own good pleasure.

Confequently, it is his free pleasure to permit fin; fince, without his permiffion, neither men nor devils can do any thing. Now, to permit, is, at least, thé fame as not to hinder, though it be in our power to hinder if we please: and this permiffion, or nonhindrance, is certainly an act of the divine will. Hence Auftin fays, "Thofe things, which, feemingly, thwart the divine will, are, neverthelefs, agreeable to it; for, if God did not permit them, they could not be done and whatever God per

* De Serv. Arb. cap. 44.

Enchir. cap. 100. mits,