gion upon Predeftination: If I fhall be faved, I
Jhall be faved. This is that which Dr. Bancroft
calleth a defperate Doctrine*. The felf-fame
for fubftance methinks I find expreffed by He-
mingius, (in Syntagmo loco de Prædeft.) whom
I befeech you hear with a little patience.

1. De æterna Prædeftinatione rectè erudiri
Ecclefiam fummoperè neceffarium eft; nam ut
nulla doctrina uberiorem confolationem piis con-
fcientiis afferre folet, quam doctrina Prædefti-
nationis rectè explicita; ita nihil periculofiùs eft,
quam rectâ Prædeftinationis ratione aberrare.

2. Nam qui a verá deflectit, in præcipitium
fertur, unde fe recipere non poteft.

3. Sunt quidam, qui cum audiunt noftram fa-
lutem in Dei Electione & propofito fitam effe, &
modum verum haud obfervant, fomnia Stoica, &
Fabulas Parcarum fingunt, quibus & feipfos mi-
ferè implicant, & alios perniciosè feducunt. (vid.
Thef. 4, 5, 6, 7.)

4. Modus autem Predeftinationis verifimus eft,
quem Paulus nobis commonftrat, cum ad Ephef.
fcribit, Elegit nos in Chrifto. (Eph. i. 9, 10,
11.) In hoc modo conditio fidei includitur: nam

See Churchman's Remembrancer, No. 4. p 22.

cum

cum fide inferimur Chrifto, ejus membra efficimur,
& ideo Electi, quia Chrifti membra fumus.

The fentence therefore of Predeftination, with-
out refpect to the manner of it, is a downfall;
but the manner of it, our being Chofen in
Chrift, is the fountain of all Comfort, and
Hope, and Godlinefs, which maketh this mat-
ter of fo much worth to contend for, the true
manner of divine Predeftination.

Now I come to the Period of the fecond Pa-
ragraph, and the whole Article; Furthermore,
we must receive God's Promifes in fuch wife, as
they be generally set forth unto us in holy Scrip-
ture, and in our doings, that Will of God is to
be followed, which we have exprefly declared unto
us in the Word of God.

This part of the Article Bishop Bancroft
fhewed King James at Hampton-Court, as the
Doctrine of the Church of England touching
Predeftination, and it was there very well ap-
proved. Moreover, the King's most excellent
Majesty that now is*, in his Declaration, com-
manding that all further curious fearch be laid

Charles I. See Churchman's Remembrancer, No.

2. p. 87, et feq.

H 4

afide,

afide, willeth that thefe difputes be shut up in God's Promifes, as they be generally fet forth unto us in the holy Scripture; as if the general Promises of God were the fureft Principles, to determine all thefe doubts and differences by, and they rest safely that reft in them.

The Authority of this Article, together with other like Paffages in our Catechism and Homilies, conftrained our Divines that were at Dort, to deliver, in fecundo articulo, thefe Thefes, for the third and fourth,

3. Deus lapfi generis humani miferatus, mifit Filium, qui feipfum dedit pretium Redemptionis pro peccatis totius mundi,

4. And for the fourth Thefis, In hoc merito mortis Chrifti fundatur univerfale promiffum Evangelicum, juxta quod omnes in Chrifto credentes remiffionem peccatorum, & ritam æternam reipfa confequantur. Which they confirm by Mark xvi. 15. [Go ye into all the World, and Preach the Gospel to every Creature, he that Believeth and is Baptized shall be faved, but he that Believeth not fhall be Damned:] So that this part of the Article, though it be the laft, yet is not the laft in worth and use.

For

For whereas it faith; furthermore we must receive, &c. It intendeth to give further remedy against the harm, which may be taken by curious and carnal Perfons, from the fentence of Predeftination had continually before their Eyes; which harm arifeth from the Sentence alone, without reference, and without order to the general Promifes of God. For if we receive God's Promises in fuch wife, as they be generally fet forth to us in holy Scripture, it is not poffible we should conceive that God hath Decreed any fentence of Predeftination before the contemplation of the fuccefs and event of thofe his general Promifes. For if he have afore Decreed to give Faith and Salvation but to fome few chofen already thereunto, and then come after with a Promife of Salvation generally unto all upon condition of Faith, this Promife muft needs be to many illufory, and deceitful; and thence it comes that the fentence of Predeftination is a downfall to despair and carelessness.

This is the reafon why they that teach, as Melancthon, Hemingius, Hunnius, and the Divines of Saxon do, the order of Election to be after the Redemption wrought by Chrift, and after Faith in him confidered in God's Foreknowledge, do fo earneftly urge the Univerfality of God's Promifes, and the Unity of God's Will

to

to that which he hath revealed; and fo doth Our Article.

This confequence (the Promise to be illufory, after Predeftination decreed,) Bucer himself did well fee and acknowledge, and therefore, ac cording to his Principles, he was neceffarily tyed, to lay another foundation than the general Promife, which is this; Primum quod Deo debes eft, ut credas te ab eo effe Prædeftinatum; nam id nifi credas, facis eum tibi, cum te ad falutem ← vocat per Evangelium, illudere. And Again; 'fi dubitas te Prædeftinatum effe, neceffe eft te dubitare de omni promiffione falutis tuæ; dubitare de Evangelio, hoc eft, Deo nihil credere omnium, quæ tibi in Evangelio offert. And ' again; tanquam caput omnis noxæ tentationis repellenda eft hæc quæftio, Simufne Prædeftinati? Præfumendum, eft igitur tanquam principium fidei, nos omnes effe a Deo præfcitos, præfinitos, feparatos a reliquis, & electos in hoc ut in æternum fervemur, hocque propofitum Dei • mutari non poffe

But this form of teaching feems, to me at leaft, new and ftrange, to presume that at the very firft, which is the last thing we attain unto after long exercise in Goodness; namely, to be

Bucer. in Rom. 8. pag. 411.