passage on predestination

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and both the dangers are alluded to in a passage in one of Luther's letters, which bears a striking resemblance to the language of our own Article.

"Men should not turn their eyes on the secret sentence of election, foreknowledge, and predestination, as they are called; for such speeches lead to doubt, security, or despair, are you elected? no fall can hurt you, and you cannot perish,-are you not elected? there is no remedy for it. These are shocking speeches,

and men ought not to fix their hearts on such thoughts; but the gospel refers us to the proclaimed word of God, wherein He has revealed His will, and through which He will be known and will work." 2

IV. Two Considerations calculated to guard the Doctrine from Abuses.

The last paragraph of the Article gives two rules which seem more particularly intended to guard against the Calvinistic tenet of particular redemption. They are the following:

(a) We must receive God's promises in such wise as they be generally (generaliter) set forth to us in Holy Scripture.

(b) In our doings that will of God is to be followed, which we have expressly declared to us in the word of God.

1 Froude, History of England, vol. ii. p. 81; cf. Foxe, iv. p. 694.

2 Luther's Letters, No. 1753. There are two expressions in the English of this second paragraph of our Article on which a note may be useful— (1) "curious" in the phrase "curious and carnal persons" simply means inquisitive (cf. Ecclus. iii. 23: "Be not curious in unnecessary matters"), (2) "wretchlessness" (Latin, securitas) is only another form of the word "recklessness." It occurs with various forms of spelling. In modern editions it invariably appears as "wretchlessness," but in the edition of 1553 it is spelt "rechielesnesse"; in 1571, "rechelessnesse."

In the first of these rules the English sounds somewhat ambiguous, but there can be no doubt that 'generally" here means universally," ie. of God's promises as applying to all men, and not, as the Calvinistic party asserted, only to a particular class consisting of a few favourites of Heaven. This interpretation is rendered certain by the corresponding passage in the Reformatio Legum, which has been already quoted, where God's promises to the good, and threats to the evil, are spoken of as generaliter proposito in Holy Scripture. The same interpretation was pointed out by Baro in his Concio ad Clerum in 1595, in the controversy when the Lambeth Articles were first projected; and was also asserted against the Puritans by Bishop Bancroft at the Hampton Court Conference. Thus the clause directly condemns the theory of particular redemption.3

The second rule seems equally clear against the doctrine of reprobation. "In our doings that will of God is to be followed which we have expressly declared to us in the word of God"; and that will certainly is that "all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. ii. 4). The clause is perhaps still more directly aimed against a tenet not unknown to the Calvinists, but finding special favour with the

1 Strype's Whitgift, p. 466.

'Cardwell's History of Conferences, p. 181. For this meaning of the word, cf. the Catechism, which speaks of two sacraments ordained by Christ "as generally necessary to salvation," i.e. necessary for all men; and cf. the use of the word "generally" in the Authorised Version, in 2 Sam. xvii. 11; Jer. xlviii. 38.

"The

8 With the expression generaliter proposita" cf. the language of Article VII., which says that in Scripture "æterna vita humano generi est proposita"; cf. Latimer's Sermons, p. 182, ed. 1584. promises of Christ our Saviour be general; they pertain to all mankind. The promises of Christ which be general and pertain to the whole world."

...

Anabaptists, which spoke of a secret will of God opposed to His revealed will; so Hooper, afterwards Bishop of Gloucester, writes in 1549 of the Anabaptists: "They maintain a fatal necessity, and that beyond and besides that will of His, which He has revealed to us in the Scriptures, God hath another will by which He altogether acts under some kind of necessity."1 Such teaching as this is at once condemned in our Article, which refers us exclusively to the revealed will of God.2

It only remains, for the sake of completeness of treatment, to point out-(1) that there was no Article on the subject of predestination in the Confession of Augsburg; and (2) that at the Council of Trent much perplexity was felt on the subject, and finally a decree was drawn up in most guarded terms so that everyone might agree to it: "No one, so long as he exists in this mortal state, ought so far to presume concerning the secret mystery of Divine predestination as to determine for certain that he is assuredly in the number of the predestinated; as if it were true that he who is justified either cannot sin any more, or if he do sin, that he ought to promise himself a certain repentance; for except by a special revelation it cannot be known whom God hath chosen to Himself." 3

1 Original Letters, Parker Society, p. 66.

2 It must be admitted that the wording of this particular sentence is not particularly happy, and that Guest had some reason for his desire that it should be altered, because it might be thought to countenance the notion of a secret will of God opposed to "that will . . . which we have expressly declared to us in the word of God." See his letter to Cecil among the State Papers ("Domestic" Elizabeth, vol. lxxviii, No. 37) referred to on p. 45.

Sess. VI. c. xii.

ARTICLE XVIII

De speranda æterna salute tantum

in nomine Christi.

Sunt et illi anathematizandi qui dicere audent, unumquemque in lege aut secta quam profitetur, esse servandum, modo juxta illam et lumen naturæ accurate vixerit : cum sacræ literæ tantum Jesu Christi nomen prædicent, in quo salvos fieri homines oporteat.

Of obtaining eternal Salvation, only by the Name of Christ.

They also are to be had accursed, that presume to say, that every man shall be saved by the law or sect which he professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that law, and the light of nature. For Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved.

THIS Article now stands as it was originally published in 1553. The copula with which it begins is difficult to account for. They also are to be had accursed": The et" of the Latin was omitted in 1563, but restored again in 1571, and was perhaps intended to link this Article on to the last clause of Article XVI. : They are to be condemned (illi damnandi sunt) which say they can no more sin here," etc.

The language of the Article has not been traced to any earlier source, but there is a section in the Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum which affords a close parallel to it.

1In 1553 and 1563 the title was as follows: "Tantum in nomine Christi speranda est æterna salus": "We must trust to obtain eternal salvation only by the name of Christ." The change of construction in 1571 brought it into harmony with the titles of the other Articles, almost all of which now begin in the same way.

"Horribilis est et immanis illorum audacia, qui contendunt in omni religione vel secta, quam homines professi fuerint, salutem illis esse sperandam, si tantum ad innocentiam et integritatem vitæ pro viribus enitantur juxta lumen quod illis prælucet a natura infusum. Authoritate vero sacrarum literarum confixæ sunt hujusmodi pestes. Solum enim et unicum ibi Jesu Christi nomen nobis commendatum est, ut omnis ex eo salus ad nos perveniat." 1

This section and the Article before us are evidently intended to rebuke the same error; and it has sometimes been thought that the opinion condemned is that which maintains a possibility of salvation for the heathen, and those who have never heard the name of Christ. On a careless reading of the Article such a view may seem probable. But there are two considerations which make strongly against it: (1) The title in the Latin is "De speranda æterna salute," etc.; strictly, of hoping for eternal salvation." Such a phrase could only be used if the case contemplated was that of those within sound of the gospel, knowing "the name of Christ" and able to "trust to obtain salvation by it." (2) From the fact that the Article begins with a definite anathema of certain people, and couples the opinion denounced with that condemned in Article XVI., it is clear that it is no vague opinion that is intended to be here rejected, but the positive teaching of a particular set of persons. Now it does not appear that the question of the salvability of the heathen was formally raised by any of the sects of the day; but when we discover that one of the many schools of Anabaptists was teaching, not only that religion was a matter of indifference, but also that the deliberate rejection of the Saviour of the world would not be attended with loss, it 1 Reformatio Legum Eccl., De Hæres. c. xi.

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