no longer wonder at the prophecies uttered by the Quakers, the Anabaptists, the Fifth-Monarchy men, and various minor sects, that had other objects in view than those of the grand Calvinian phalanx, who had collected their forces, corporal and spiritual, from every part of Europe to fight the battles of the Lord, as they termed their attempts to accomplish their own sinister designs against the regimen established both in Church and State, and particularly against what they were pleased to call " Arminianism."* The fact announced in the last clause is very remarkable; and though the shifty purpose for which it is introduced will be very apparent, yet there are multitudes of other corroborative testimonies of the same fact. The following from Foxes and Firebrands, or a Specimen of the Danger and Harmony of Popery and Separation, 1682, is one of the most curious: "Mr. John Crooke, some time bookseller at St. Paul's Church-yard, at the Ship, in London, and since stationer and printer to his most serene Majesty in Dublin, told this story following unto Sir James Ware, Knight, now deceased: Anno 1656, the reverend divine Dr. Henry Hammond being one day in the next shop to this said John Crooke's, and there reading the works of St. Ambrose, a red-coat casually came in, and looked over this divine's shoulder, and there read the Latin as perfect as himself, which caused the Doctor to admire that a red-coat should attain to that learning. Then speaking unto him, he demanded how he came to that science. The red-coat replied, By the Holy Spirit.' The Doctor hereupon replied, I will try thee further:' and so called for a Greek author, which the redcoat not only read, but construed. The Doctor, to try him further, called for the Hebrew Bible: and so for several other books, in which this red-coat was very expert. At last the Doctor recollecting with himself, called for a Welch Bible, and said, If thou beest inspired, read me this book, and construe it.' But the red-coat being at last catched, replied, I have given thee satisfaction enough: I will not satisfy thee further; for thou wilt not believe, though an angel came from heaven.' The Doctor smelling out the deceit, caused the apprentice to go for a constable; who being brought to the shop, the Doctor told the constable, he had something to say against this red coat; and bade him bring him before Oliver Cromwell, then called the Lord Protector. The red-coat being brought to White Hall and examined, he, after a rustic manner, thoued and theed Oliver: but being suspected, it was demanded where he quartered. It being found out at the Devil Tavern, the Doctor intreated his chamber might be searched; where they found an old chest filled partly with his wearing apparel, as also with several papers and seditious popish books; amongst which there being a pair of boots, and papers stuck in one of them, they found a parchment bull of licence to this impostor, granted under several names, to assume what function or calling he pleased. These being brought before Oliver, for what reasons it is unknown, yet the red-coat escaped; bringing several proofs of what great service he had done: and the greatest affliction which was laid on him was banishment; and what proceeded further, we know not." +"After the subversion of the hierarchy, there were also several divines of great learning and talents, who held most of the distinguishing tenets of Arminianism; but as they were inflexible loyalists, they were stigmatized as 'malignants,' and driven into obscurity by the scourge of persecution. The great body of Mr. Goodwin's Puritanical friends and connections viewed Arminianism, at the period when he adopted that system, as a deadly east wind, which, when permitted by angry heaven to blow upon the garden of the church, withers every flower, and produces a general blight. Or rather they regarded it as a region, Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds, Abominable, unutterable, and worse Than fables yet have feign'd or fear conceiv'd, Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire. The system of Arminius being confessedly one that is consonant as well to Scripture as to Common Sense, those who espoused it smiled at these prophetic rhapsodies and puerile effusions of fanaticism; and, it is to be lamented, that some of them, by a feeling of natural revulsion, proceeded much beyond this, and ran into a contrary extreme, by denying the very important doctrine of Divine Influence which is the glory of Christianity, or restricted the operations of the Holy Spirit within narrow and inefficient limits.* But this feeling, the origin of which is easily traced, was still more apparent at the Restoration, when the re-action of hypocrisy and enthusiasm, which had commenced under Cromwell, continued its devastations, and threatened at first the complete overthrow of all the vital doctrines of Christianity, which were common both to the system of Arminius and of Calvin. Yet even at that period, when Religion was weak and drooping from the wounds which she had received in the house of her professed friends, many Arminians appeared as champions in the defence of gospel truth, practical godliness, and experimental religion ;† while, on the other hand, many Calvinists, ashamed of the sinister and low purposes to which their predecessors had applied certain evangelical docHence in the cant of several of the old Puritans, Prelacy and Arminianism are not unusually associated with blasphemy, profaneness, and Atheism! Such, however, was the power of conviction in the mind of Mr. Goodwin, that, with all these difficulties and discouragements before him, at the advanced age of fifty years, he abandoned the school of Calvinian theology, and boldly preached Christ as the infinitely gracious Redeemer of All Mankind." JACKSON'S Life of Goodwin. *The injurious effects which the general fanaticism of the Calvinists of that age produced for a season on the mind of RICHARD BAXTER, are thus described in the Narrative of the most memorable Passages of his Life and Times, which, like the Retractations of St. Augustine, are exceedingly curious and edifying: : "I am now therefore much more apprehensive than heretofore, of the necessity of well-grounding men in their religion, and especially of the witness of the indwelling Spirit: for I more sensibly perceive that THE SPIRIT is the great witness of Christ and Christianity to the world. And though the folly of fanatics tempted me long to overlook the strength of this testimony of the Spirit, while they placed it in a certain internal affection, or enthusiastic inspiration; yet now I see that the Holy Ghost in another manner is the witness of Christ, and his agent in the world. The Spirit in the prophets was his first witness; and the Spirit by miracles was the second; and the Spirit by renovation, sanctification, illumination, and consolation, assimilating the soul to Christ and heaven, is the continued witness to all true believers: and if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, the same is none of his. (Rom. viii. 9.) Even as the rational soul in the child is the inherent witness or evidence, that he is the child of rational parents. And therefore ungodly persons have a great disadvantage in their resisting temptations to unbelief and it is no wonder if Christ be a stumbling-block to the Jews, and to the Gentiles foolishness." "I also remember," says Whiston, "what my father told me, that, after the Restoration, almost all profession of seriousness in religion would have been laughed out of countenance, under pretence of the hypocrisy of former times, had not two very excellent and serious books, written by eminent royalists, put some stop to it: I mean The Whole Duty of Man, and Dr. Hammond's Practical Catechism." (Memoirs, vol. i. p. 10.) trines, either entirely abandoned them, or modified them in such a manner as to deprive them of all their scriptural efficiency." A fine passage from the judicious Hooker, on the abuse of the doctrine of Divine Authority, has been quoted, (page 207,) and an equally pertinent and nervous passage on the abuse of Spiritual Influence occurs in the Humble Address to the Lord Fairfax and the Council of War, in 1648, by Dr. HENRY HAMMOND, one of the mildest and most loyal of Divines, when those self-constituted arbiters of fallen Majesty had made the death of his ROYAL MASTER the subject of their deliberations. This pathetic appeal, after the manner of Luther and Melancthon when contending against the principles of the German Anabaptists, grounds its strong arguments on that doctrine of Divine Influence which connects itself with God's written word, and refuses to acknowledge any of those pretended inspirations which could not produce such a scriptural voucher. In one part the Doctor says: 66 My Lord, and Gentlemen, having among you some of the nearest of my blood, whose eternal weal must needs be very dear and precious to me, I am, in the fear of God, and in the prosecution and discharge of my duty and conscience, desirous to make this short address to you, to desire you, in the name and in the bowels of Jesus Christ and by all the obligations of christian duty and charity, to review some of the principles by which you seem to be acted, and whereon to ground the high enterprises which you have now in hand. "And 1. Whereas you seem to believe, that God by his Spirit hath put it into your hearts to do what hitherto you have done, and what now you profess to deliberate to do further against his Majesty, and all others, who are now fallen into I beseech you hands; your to consider, in the presence of that God to whose directions and Spirit you pretend, what safe ground you have for so doing. For, I shall suppose that the plain words of scripture are not that voice of THE SPIRIT which is your only guide in this matter; or if it be, I desire that charity from you, for myself and others, that you will point us out those scriptures. And I must profess to believe you bound in duty to God and man, and to yourselves, to satisfy this desire, to produce that voice of the Spirit in the received scriptures of God, which may say that to other christians also which it appears to do to you. But if God's Spirit be by you conceived to have spoken to you any other way in or by some part of the written word, then my second request is, that you will declare to others the ground of this your persuasion, that you have received any such revelation from God; that so that pretended Spirit may, according to the rules prescribed by God in his acknowledged word, be tried and ex than * See a preceding note on their abandonment of the doctrine of the Assurance of Salvation, page 141. U amined regularly, whether it be of God or no, before the subject. matter of such revelation be believed infallible, or accordingly built upon by you as your warrant or principle of acting any thing. For, there are evil spirits that come into the world, and which many times are by God permitted to seduce men, and, that they may do so the better, they constantly pretend to come from God, and assume Divine authority to recommend and authorize their delusions: a thing so ordinary in all ages, that the poet that would express the embroiling of a kingdom, thinks he cannot do it better than by bringing in Alecto, a Fury, with a message from heaven, to avenge such or such an injury. And of these our Saviour forewarns us, and tells us, that we shall know them by their fruits; and so directs us to judge of the truth of their pretensions by the goodness and commendableness, at least, justifiableness of their actions, and not to judge of their actions by their pretences. And beside these evil spirits from without, there is also an evil spirit within, a great deal of disguised wickedness in the heart of man, which, when it remains unmortified in those who believe themselves to be God's chosen saints and taught by him, is very apt to be mistaken for an inclination of God's Spirit, and a flame of zeal, when it is really the most contrary to it. And because there is so much danger, that what is not fetched from the acknowledged word of God may thus flow from one of these contrary principles, my next request is, that it be considered, whether when an angel from heaven, in case he should teach any other doctrine than what had been by Saint PAUL preached to his Galatians, were to be anathematized, and when the judgments are so fearful, which are pronounced against them which shall add to the words of that Prophecy which we now retain under the title of the Apocalypse or Revelation,-which being the last writing which is known to be dictated by the Spirit, may very probably contain a severe denunciation against all those who pretend to any revelation or prophecy after that concerning the christian church,-whether I say, it be not a matter of + In that fine sermon, The Christian's Obligations to Peace and Charity, which was preached in 1647 by Dr. Hammond, before his Majesty, then prisoner in Carisbrooke Castle, this subject is treated with great ability. Take this extract as a specimen: "The Gospel spirit is that which, after the out-dating of prophecies, pretends to no other direction or incitation or impulsion of the Spirit, than that which lies visible in the New Testament,the Spirit that incites us to perform those duties that the Word hath prescribed us, the Spirit which, when it comes to be tried whether it be of God or no, pretends not, like Mahomet, to be a-talking with God whilst he lies foaming in an epileptic fit; but is content to be judged and discerned by the old plain doctrines of the gospel,-a regulated, authorized, ordinary, sober spirit. "Our Saviour hath contributed toward this great work by the exemplariness of his own practice in this kind :-not only in refusing to have the fire from heaven, that the Boanerges would have helped him to, against the Samaritans,-in reprehending of St. Peter's zeal, when it drew the sword in his Master's defence against the high priest's servants,—in refusing the aid of angels from heaven against the heathens that attacked him ;-but, above all, by that answer of his to Pilate, If my kingdom were of this world, then should my servants fight,' &c. (John xviii, 36.); which was certainly past of that good confession before Pilate mentioned with such honour, 1 Tim.vi,13.” fear and just apprehension, to all those who shall affix or impose upon THE SPIRIT OF GOD (or pretend to be revealed to them from that,) any matter of doctrine or practice which acknowledges not the SPIRIT OF GOD speaking in the scripture for its only warrant or foundation? Or lastly, if from the scriptures you conceive it may be proved, that any part of the unction mentioned there so far belongs to you that it shall surely lead you into ail truth; then, first, I beseech you to consider, whether you do not oblige yourselves, by the same or some other scripture, to prove to others, (and not only yourselves to be persuaded,) that you are those special saints of God to whom that privilege peculiarly belongs, and as clearly to demonstrate that all others, who conceive that that unction teaches them directly the contrary to that which you profess to be taught by it, are impious persons possest with that deluding spirit of which I now desire you to beware. And secondly, to examine whether this differencing of yourselves from others, this bearing witness to yourselves, and judging others,*beside that it will look like an act of most pharisaical presumption, and the very thing which, from Simon Magus downward, hath been observed in all hereticks, calling themselves The following is a fair sample of the way in which the Calvinists were accustomed to esteem themselves the most orthodox and godly of professing christians, while others were regarded as heathen men and publicans! It is in reference to Mr. Barlee that Dr. Pierce thus writes: "I said, It is not so good a task to make men ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS, as to make them HONEST AND SINCERE ONES. Upon which Mr. B. is very angry. If he thinks it is better to know much, than to do well, and prefers a clear head before a sound and upright heart, what a case is he in! and how ill hath he done to commend his preaching! He adds a little after, that I and the pious men of my way, are great admirers and followers of a practical catechism [Dr. Hammond's] the sixth time published.' What greater commendation could he have given us, than that we follow the good which we admire? Would he have us know our lesson, but not observe and keep it? orthodox christians, but not practically honest and sincere ones too? If be, and the godly men of his way, (as he and they are wont to word it,) do neither admire nor follow that practical catechism, I wish they did, and beseech God they may. If they neither do nor will, I will rather be a pious than godly man: that is, (as he hath distinguished,) I will rather be of them whom he calls the pious, than of them whom he calls the godly. "He calls his opinions in these matters, "the very fundamentals of the covenant of grace;' but in which of the three Creeds shall we find either of them? What Popery is this, to obtrude upon us new articles of faith? I see King James was a wise, as well as a learned and orthodox man: And so was he of the lower House, who told Mr. Speaker in his speech, (An. Dom. 1640.) That if they were listened to who would extirpate episcopacy, (speak⚫ing of the Presbyterians,) they would, instead of every Bishop put down in a diocess, set up a Pope in every Parish: And if the Presbyterian as'semblies should succeed, they would assume a power to excommunicate Kings, as well as other men : And if Kings were once excommunicated, men would not care what became of them." And Mr. Hooker (as I take it) doth say of such men, that they might do well enough to live in a Wilderness, but not in a Kingdom, or Common-wealth. For all who differ from their opinions (that is, their mistakes,) shall be said to err in the very fundamentals of the covenant of grace,' and so be looked upon as Heathens, and so be used as vessels of wrath." |