who believe that his pardon or condemnation had been sealed before the foundation of the world?

These various arguments may be summed up by a negative one, delivered by Bishop Tomline; namely, that redemption is never declared to be irrespectively partial; that human co-operation is never excluded, when the influence of the Holy Spirit is mentioned; that grace is never stated to be irresistible or indefectible; that good works are never represented as unnecessary to salvation; and that sensible inspirations of the Spirit are no where acknowledged in our Liturgy."

VII. No Calvinistic doctrines are inculcated in the Homilies. The word Predestination is not once to be found. The word Reprobation is not once to be found. Election occurs once only; and that in an Anti-calvinistic sense. And no

thing at all is mentioned concerning absolute decrees, partial redemption, perseverance, or irresistible grace*.

There is a Homily of Justification, in which we meet with the expressions, " Forasmuch as that which men's infirmity lacked, Christ's justice supplied;" we must Irenounce the MERIT of our virtues, as insufficient to DESERVE remission of our sins and justification; and believe in God's mercy, through Christ to obtain forgiveness of all sins, if we truly repent and turn unfeignedly to him."

*See Bishop of Lincoln's Charge, and Refutation of Calvinism passim.

Here REPENTANCE is made a condition of justification. A Calvinist will not hear of it as a condition.

In the Homily on the Salvation of Mankind, part iii."baptized" is equivalent to "justified." Now that baptism is regeneration, or the sign of simultaneous regeneration, is clearly demonstrated from Scripture and the sense of the early church, by Wall, Hey, Tomline, and other writers. That this was also the doctrine of our English reformers, is evident from the two following extracts from the book of Homilies; In churches, the fountain of regeneration is presented to us the body and blood of Christ is offered :" here the two sacraments are spoken of, p. 229. Christ changed frequent washings into the sacrament of regeneration," p. 243. All then who are regenerated, that is, all who are baptized, are held by the Homilies to be justified. Now, to be justified, according to the eleventh Article, is to be accounted righteous before God; all then who are baptized, are accounted righteous before God. Here therefore the Homily speaks a language directly opposite to the doctrine of election and reprobation. But further, as all who are baptized are not actually saved; to be regenerated and justified, is not to be certainly saved; to be once accounted righteous before God, is not to be certainly saved: here, then, is an opposition to the doctrine of final perseverance. Once more, it is the doctrine of

the Gospel and of our eleventh Article, that we are justified by faith only, and not for our own works and deservings. But that this faith is not irrespective to our own works and deservings, as is the doctrine of high Calvinism, appears from the Homily of the true and lively Faith, where we read that "Faith is taken in Scripture two ways; one faith, being dead, bringeth forth no good works; another worketh by charity, and ist a quick and lively faith," Galat. v. 6. Eschewing evil and doing gladly all good works. Universal redemption is taught in the Homily concerning the Nativity; in that for Good Friday, and in that for the Sacrament. In the latter, the death of Christ is said to be available for the redemption of ALL the world.

That grace is not irresistible and overwhelming, that faith is in some measure an active effort, is seen from the following exhortation: "Yea, let us endeavour ourselves, good people,

keep the presence of his Holy Spirit. apply ourselves to accept that

grace

diligently to

Only let us

that is offered

The eleventh Article, concerning justification by faith, gives a reference to the Homily of Justification. Now that Homily shows that the merit of works as an efficient cause was what the Article was intended to condemn; not but that the faith,

*Homilies, p. 417, Oxford edit. 8vo.

required must necessarily be supported by conversion and repentance. Bishop Tomline, in short, in many parts of his Refutation, has proved the Homilies to be Anti-calvinistic. Now the Articles commend the Homilies as containing a doctrine wholesome, godly, and necessary. Ridley styles them sermons in praise of the virtues and against the vices. Let it be remembered, that the subjects of many of the Homilies are intimately connected with the Calvinistic system; such as, original sin, the salvation of mankind, faith, good works, declining from God, the nativity, the passion, the resurrection, the descent of the Holy Ghost, the grace of God, and repentance. Now, all these topics are successively treated of, yet not one point of Calvinism is mentioned.

VIII. The advocates for a Calvinistic interpretation of the formularies, unable to maintain their position either by arguments drawn from the sentiments of the composers, or from the documents themselves, have again shifted their ground, and made one more attempt at proof, by asserting that these documents were generally understood in a Calvinistic sense, in the times immediately succeeding their publication. It may not be improper then to examine the strength of this argument: presuming that, even were the affirmative established, it would not go the length of proving the formularies themselves to be Calvinistic; since the inundation of Genevan divinity, which took place

in the reign of Elizabeth, may have induced many to accommodate subscription to their predestinarian principles, by strained interpretations which the early reformers did not contemplate. In conducting this inquiry, we ought also to carry along with us the recollection, that the depreciation of moral works was often overcharged with strong colouring, in order to combat the grand Popish error of deeming obedience to be in itself meritorious and efficacious*.

After the short primacy of Grindall, the successor of Parker, and himself one of the composers of the Liturgy, the metropolitan chair was occupied by Dr. Whitgift. Under this prelate's

* Hooker finished his Ecclesiastical Polity, under the patronage of Whitgift, A. D. 1600. He has been pronounced a Calvinist by Overton, and again and again, by the Christian Observer. "Hooker, however," says Strype," was for universal redemption; Travers for excluding the greatest part of mankind t," &c. Neither did Hooker believe the doctrine of assurance in a Calvinistic sense. Further, in his sermon on Justification, he says, "To say ye cannot be saved by Christ without works, is to add things, not only not excluded, but commanded; as being in their place and in their kind NECESSARY, and therefore subordinated unto Christ, by Christ himself.” A Calvinist may pretend that this is his own doctrine; but we may doubt whether a Calvinist would state it in this manner. A true Calvinist objects to "conditional justification, as overturning the whole scheme of the Gospel §.”

Life of Whitgift, p. 235.

See Walton's Account of his Controversy with Travers, § See Sir Richard Hill's Controversy with Daubeny.