XIX. CHAP. vantage of other nations, his work had been composed in the Latin language, on account of its universality. The English scholar and the English divine will prefer its present garb, because it has conferred immortality on their native tongue. The Ecclesiastical Polity, independently of its subject, and considered merely as a composition, is, beyond comparison, the greatest work of the Elizabethan age. It is not from any predilection for the opinions of Hooker that his style will be preferred, not to his contemporaries, but to one who lived more than a generation after him; to Milton. The style of Hooker, when compared with that of Milton, possesses equal harmony, more dignity, and, which is strange to say, more courtliness. Hooker, though he had not enjoyed, like Milton, the advantages of foreign travel, was well acquainted with "seemly arts and affairs:" he had a taste for painting, he had an exquisite sense of music, and in the rhythm of his periods may be detected the latent seeds of poetry. It is impossible to conclude these reflections without expressing the gratifying thought that a work, whose existence must be coeval with the national language, is consecrated to the defence of THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. CHAPTER XX. Progress of doctrinal Calvinism.-Disputes at Cambridge.Predestinarian Controversy.-Lambeth Articles.-Schism between the Jesuits and Seculars.-Death of Elizabeth.Accession of James.-State of the Scottish Church.-Whitgift sends Nevil into Scotland.-Assurances of James to protect the Church of England.-Millenary Petition.-Hampton-court Conference. THAT the earliest reformers of the English A. D. church, however they might differ in their notions of discipline, were of the same mind in points of Elizabeth. doctrine, is a proposition which, however confidently assumed, cannot be admitted without limitations. The proposition is true, if understood to imply that there were certain doctrines which the English reformers were unanimous in maintaining against the church of Rome; yet a difficulty will still remain, in ascertaining what these doctrines really were. It has been already shown that the essential points of difference between the two churches were reduced to these two: the papal supremacy and the corporal presence. Other points there were, concerning which the Christian church has been divided from the apostolic age, on which the Romanists and reformers disagreed among themselves but this difference of opinion was no obstacle to church communion, either with the Romish or reformed churches. CHAP. XX. Among those points in which a latitude of opinion was allowed by the church of Rome, must be reckoned those abstruse and inexplicable questions, Of Providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate, questions on which speculation too frequently ends Such questions, at the time of the reformation, were not authoritatively decided by a church fond of deciding, and arrogating to its decisions the claim of infallibility. The real opinions of Augustin, bishop of Hippo, the successful antagonist of Pelagius on predestination and grace, have been as variously represented as the questions themselves have been fiercely agitated; for opposite sects have claimed him as their own. But it is certain that Augustin was generally esteemed the oracle of the Latin church, as Cassian was the oracle of the Greek church. Of the two great rival orders, the Dominicans denied free will, in which they were followed by the Augustinians, and, with a few exceptions, by the Benedictines. A large majority of the monastic orders, including, at their first institution, the Jesuits, adhered to the doctrine of Augustin; and Bellarmine himself was formed in the Augustinian school. The council of Trent, therefore, in framing its decrees on these intricate questions, had shown a neutrality which pleased all and offended none *, * Heylin's Quinquarticular Hist. p. 16. Among the earliest reformers there was a similar A. D. diversity of opinion, and a similar latitude was allowed. Luther was originally an Augustinian Elizabeth. friar, and as he had embraced the opinions of his master before he separated from the church of Rome, it can only be said that he did not abandon them when he began the reformation. Unguarded and dangerous is the admission, that Luther espoused the opinions of Augustin, as most opposite to the corruptions of the church of Rome; because these opinions have been espoused by the most zealous Romanists. The Romish doctrines, of merit and works of supererogation, can be combated without embracing predestination; as the popish doctrines, of purgatory, masses for the dead, and indulgences, may be overthrown without embracing materialism*. Zuinglius, in opposition to Luther, asserted free will; and so far was he from adopting the doctrine of a divine decree, absolute, arbitrary, and unconditional, by which the future condition of each individual was determined, that he went into the contrary extreme: he taught that the kingdom of heaven was attainable by all who lived according to the dictates of right reason t. When Calvin returned to Geneva, and the Helvetian church was committed to his government, he entirely reformed its doctrine. It was an essential article of his system that God, in predestinating from all eternity one part of mankind to everlasting * The author of the Confessional recommends materialism on this ground. Pref. to first edit. p. 85, note. + See Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. cent. xvi. sect. 3. part 2, note, and the authors quoted in proof of this assertion. XX. CHAP. happiness, and another to endless misery, was led to make this distinction by no other motive than his good pleasure and free will. This capital tenet of the Calvinistic scheme was not only defended by its author with great strength of argument, but was made by him an essential requisite of communion with the Genevan church. Those whom he could not convince, he could excommunicate; and the examples of Castalio and Bolsec may be cited, to prove that the doctrine of absolute predestination could not be opposed at Geneva with impunity *. So great was the reputation of Calvin that, although he was not the original assertor of the predestinarian tenets, yet the name of DOCTRINAL CALVINISTS was assumed by those who, dissenting from the Calvinistic discipline, embraced the Calvinistic doctrine of absolute and irrespective de crees. The appellation was given inaccurately to such as received Calvin's doctrine in a moderated sense; it was indiscriminately bestowed on the Sublapsarians and the Supralapsarians, though Calvin himself adopted the Supralapsarian hypothesis. Doctrinal Calvinism was esteemed the standard of orthodoxy in most of the foreign theological seminaries of the reformed churches. But as the doctrines of the Genevese reformer had not been incorporated into the protestant confessions of faith †, there were not wanted eminent men by * For an account of Castalio and Bolsec the reader is referred to Bayle's Dictionary. † None of the foreign protestant churches assert in their confessions the absolute decree of reprobation. The Helvetian confession goes so far as to assert irrespective election, sect. 10. |