Tomline on Article XVII: Of Predestination and Election

and it has in different ages of the Christian church, been the fruitful source of a great va- riety of controversies. These disputes have been chiefly upon points far beyond the capacity of men, and have tended but little to promote the true interests of Christianity. This article is drawn up with great caution and judgment; in the former part of it, which relates to the mean- ing of the terms Predestination and Election, the words of Scripture are chiefly used, and the lat- ter part is obviously designed to guard against the evils and mischiefs which might arise from mistaken ideas upon these intricate subjects. I shall state, with as much perspicuity as I am able, the doctrines of our church concerning these points, subjoining the authorities upon which they rest.

God is represented in Scripture as having pre- ordained the redemption of mankind, throu^ Christ, before the foundation of the world, and ” when the fulness of the time was come, he sent forth his Son, made of a woman (a)^’ to execute his gracious purpose. But it has pleased our Al- mighty Father in the inscrutable counsels of his wisdom, to confine the knowledge of this merciful dispensation, even to this day, to a portion of the hmnan race; and by his prescience he foresaw,

to (a) Gal. c. 4. V. 4.

[…]

to whom these glad tidings would be cbmmuiu- cated. Those who are blessed with the glorious light of the Gospel, according to this scheme of Divine Providence, may be said to be predesti- nated to life, because they enjoy the appointed •means of salvation : and therefore, predestina- tion TO LIFE IS THE EVERLASTING PURPOSEOF GOD, WHEREBY (BEFORE THE FOUNDATIONSOF THE WORLD WERE lAID) HE HATH CONSTANT-

MADE TO HONOUR. ” Those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind,” are that part of mankind, to whom God decreed to make known the Gospel ; and it is to be observed, that this expression does not distinguish one set of Christians from another, but Christians in geoeral from the rest of mankind ; and conse- quently, ” to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation,” does not mean actually saving them; but granting them the means of salvation through Christ. This beginning of the article is taken from the following passage in St. Paul’s second Epistle to Timothy, ” who hath saved us, and i^alled us with an holy calling, not according to

• . ^ our

309 j&gpmtmt^tki IwAwrtiu

our works, but acoovdiiig to his own fympoM tod grace which was given us in Christ Jeraiy before th worid began (b) ; ” here the word ’ ot” evidently means Christians, and the words * hath saved us” do not mean that the salvation q( Christians had actually taken place, but that they were enabled to obtain salvation (c). Salvation will not take plate till the day of judgment ; and it can scarcely be supposed, that all, whom God ’ hath called with his holy calling,” will then be saved, although every Christian has it in his power to obtain salvation, by complying with die terms upon which it is promised.

Those to whom the Gospel was made knowi according to the foreseen purpose of God an said in the New Testament to be predestinated and elect, ’ Who are the called according to his purpose : for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate […] Elect, according to the foreknowledge of God(e):” Predestination and Election are therefore founded in the fordoiow* ledge of God In the latter of the above pas Migea St Peter speaks of all the Christians of

Ponttts,

(b) 2 Tim. c. 1 . V. 9.

(c) Similar expressions with the same meaning occur in several parts of the New Testament, Eph. c. 2. v. 8. Tit. c. 3. V. 5. 1 Pet. c. 3. v. 21. Rom. c. 8. V. 04. 1 Cor. c. 1 . V. 18.

(d) Rom. 0. 8. V. 2^ (e) 1 Pet c. 1. v. «.

▲BT. xvji] TUrhfnim Articles. ^o%

PontiiSy Gdlatia, Cappadoda, Asia, and BiAyiuay and St. Panl speaks of all the Cdoesian Chrisn tians (f)i as being dect;” and both apoades represent the salvatkm of these elect persons aa depending upon dieir obedience to the precepts of the Gospel ; and consequently by the word elect they could not mean Christians who wen certain oS being saved by an absolute decree of God ; and surely no one would contend that all the Christians of those five extwsive countries, or of the dty of Colosse who were then ad* dressed, will hereafter be saved. The word4 elect and chosi constantly denote collective bodies of men who were convted to the Gospd without any restriction to diose who will obtain salvation ; and an infalliUe certainty of eternal happiness m consequence of a divine decree, is not attributed to any number q£ Christians, or to any single Christian, throughout the New Testa* ment. Salvation is uniformly mentioned as con* tingent and conditional St. Peter calls upon Christians by their own diligice to mate their cafling and dection sure (g)y’ and consequently the calling and election of Christians imply only the Qieans of salvation, which may or may not be effectual : to require human diligence to make a divine infallible decree sure could never be the

injunction (f) C.3. ▼. It. (g) c Pet c 1. V. 10.

304 Expmtwn of the [[part rn«

injunction of an apostle. St. Paul himself ad- mitted the possibility of his being ” a castaway;” that is, rejected at the great day of final retri- bution, if he did not ’^ keep under his body, and bring it into subjection/’ that is resist the evil propensities of his nature, and practise that Gros- pel which he ” had preached to others (hy

Thus were our Reformers fully authorized by Scripture to declare, as they have done in this article, that predestination to life is not an irre- spective decree of eternal happiness to certain individual Christians exclusively, but the gracious purpose of God, before the creation, of man, to make an indiscriminate offer of salvation in his own good time, to all who shall embrace and obey the Gospel, through the merits of his blessed Son. This indeed appears to be the only sense in which predestination is reconcileable with the attributes of God and the free agency of man : for we cannot conceive that a Being of infinite justice and mercy would arbitrarily select out of his rational creatures a determinate number, on whom he would bestow the blessing of eternal happiness, while he consigned all the rest to eternal’ punishment (i)^ or passed them over as

unworthy (h) 1 Cor. e.g. v. 27.

(i) This is the doctrine of absolute election and re*

probation, and was maintained by those who are called

Supralapsarians.

ART. XVII.] Thirty-nine Articles. ^o^

Unworthy of his regard and attention (k). Such an idea of election ought surely to be rejected. We are not required to believe that God, from all eternity, absolutely decreed that certain persons only should be saved, or that he gives an irre- sistible grace to some men which he denies to others : such a mode of proceeding would be as destructive of human freedom, as it would be repugnant to the perfections of the divine nature. If we believe that God is infinitely just and mer- ciful, we must believe that he has equally enabled every man bom into the world to work out his salvation^ though we know so little of the divine government, that in many cases we cannot discern how that impartiality is maintained. This igno- rance

Supralapsarians. It is to be observed, that reprobation is not mentioned in this article. It cannot be said that our Church favours absolute predestination, as in the last article it is asserted, that we may fall from grace given : for if we be not absolutely predestinated to persevere in grace, we cannot be absolutely pre- destinated to salvation ; and in the Catechism of our Church it is said, thatOod the Son redeemed cdl manr kind, which is not consistent with the doctrine of absolute election and reprobation ; and in the Com- munion service it is said^ that Christ, by the one oblation of himself once offered, made there a fuU, {)erfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satis- faction, for the sins of the wluyle world.

(k) This was the doctrine of those who were called Sublapsarians.

’.■n< «

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306 Hrposition of the [paet iii.

r^nce should lead us to be very cautious in what we pronounce concernmg the decrees and coun- sels of God : it should make us reluctant to spe- culate upon these awful and mystenous subjectSi and solicitous to avoid the pernicious error of uniing at being ” wise abovp that which is writ- ten (ly The prescience of God, as extending to every instance of human con4uct, from tne creation of man to the nnal consummation of all

If are

things, is a fit object of our belief ; but we are utterly incapable of comprehending how this pre- science consists with the other attributes of me

)eity and with the free-agency of man ’: nor can

•t . • -I.- ”- •’ iit>“i”t>

we conceive how those future contingencies, which depend upon the determination of the human will, should be certain and infallible : and ye^ .that they are so, is fully proved \fy the acciujate accomplishment of prophecies. Rather than be- wilder ourselves in the inextricable difficulties of such contemplations, to which our limited facul- ties are by . no means competent, we should ei- xiBhn, with the pious and humble Psalmist, ^^ Such knowledge is too wonderful and excellent for utf, we cannot attain unto it (my

Wherefqre they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of god, be called

ACCORDING TO GOd’s PURPOSE BY HIS SPIRIT

(I) I Con G. 4. T, 6. (m) P». i jfg. ▼. $•

AET. itii.] Thirty^ne Articles. 307

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fn^ Oal. c. 4. y; 5. (0) Rom. c. 8, t. sg;

O; ^h. c. i. V. i6.

3p8 ,EsposUiono/tIie [part iii.

mre kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time CgX’ — ” According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will (r).”

” The errors and vain disputes,” says Mr. Pylc, ” that have arisen in the latter ages of Christi- anity concerning faith and works, justification and sanctification, election and reprobation, that have distracted the minds of many Christians, have pro- ceeded from applying particular phrases, or pas-, sages in the Epistles to particular persons, which originally referred to the state and condition not of particular persons, but of whole churches in their collective capacity. Thus the body of heathens,, while in their heathen state, are called aliens, stran- gers, enemies to God, &c, ; but such of them as were converted (the churches to whom the Apos-i ties wrote) are styled no longer strangers, but of the. household of God, a chosen or elected generation, a royal priesthood, justified, sanctified, saints, &c.. So the major part of the Jewish natiou, who ob-. stinately rejected the Gospel of Christ, instead of being any longer the holy nation, the people of

God, (q) I Pet. c. 1. T. 3f kc. (r)Eph.c. u t.4&£.

AUT. XVII.] Thirty-nine Articles. 309

God, are called the vessels of wrath, fitted (by their own obstinacy) for destruction, reprobate ; while tue believing Jews became vessels of mercy, fore- ordained, predestinated, to be called into the kingdom or covenant of the Gospel, chosen to eternal life ; which expressions mean no more than their having been offered the means and op- portunities of attaining to the future happiness of heaven, by their knowledge and practice of Christ’s religion. Their actual enjoyment of future happiness depended entirely on their vir- tuous obedience to the Gospel; on their diligence to make their calling and election sure, that is, effectual to their salvation. No private persons are ever mentioned in these writings as elected to eternal life by any absolute decree of God. Paul was a chosen vessel; but he was chosen as a proper minister of Christ’s Gospel, to bear his name to the Gentiles ; his being chosen to the crown of life hereafter, was the fruit of his earnest endeavours to keep the faith, (his fidelity) to finish his course, and of his labouring abundantly. To take these expressions otherwise, is to pervert the design of these writings. It is this mistake that has diverted the minds of many good men from attending to the more excellent parts of these writings, the moral and weighty exhorta- tions given to Christians ; and by puzzling them about former controversies that do very little, if

X 3 . at

[…]

at all, concern us now, have turned off their, thoughts from the great matters of Ae ChristiaQ law, which are most easy to be understoojtjl^ and requisite to be put in practice (s).”

As THE GODLY CONSIDERATION OF PLB- ABLJE COMFORT TO GODLY PERSoN3, AND EARTHLY MEMBERS; AND DRAWING UP THEIR AD COMFIRM THEIR FAITH OF ETERNAL THEIR LOVE TOWARDS GOD : SO, FOR CUIL- DOWNFALL (t)y WHEREBY THE DEVIL DOTH INTO WRETCHLESSNESS (u) OF MOST UNCLEAN

($) Preface to the Epistle to the Romans.

(t) The Latin word is preecipitium, a precipice, which seems better to describe the dangerous si- tuation in which such persons are placed.

[…]

«i> prscipiteSf

ART. XVII,] Thirty-nine Articles. 311

[…]

LIVING, NO LESS PERILOUS THAN DESPERA*

tion; that is, as a due consideration of the divine . , decree to save all who shall oeheve and obey the Gospel, is a source of inexpressible consolation to virtuous and godly persons ; encourages them to rely upon the promised assistance of the Holy Spirit : fortines them against the temptations to neskly lusts ; teaches them to set their affections on t;hings above ; strengthens their faith ; and animates their love towards God : so the unwar ranted idea of God^s absolute and unconditional

predestination is apt to dnve the presumptuous and the wicked, who resist the innuence of the Spirit of Christ, either into a state of gloomy de- spondency on the one hand, or into a course 01 unbridled licentiousness on the other. ” Ifam&n thinks that he is under an inevitable de!cree,‘as he will nave qttle remorse for all the evil he does, while he imputes it to that inevitable force tnat constrains him, so he will naturally conclude that it IS to no purpose for him to struggle with im- possibilities; and men being inclined roth to throw all blame off from ttemselves, and to in dulge themselves in laziness and sloth, these practices are too natural to mankind to be encoii raged by opinions that favour them. AU virme

and

Z’i.

[…]

♦’ ’ X 4

’ […] •

312 Exposition of the [part hi.

and religion, all discipline and industry^ must arise from this, as their first principle, that there is a power in us to govern our own thoughts and’ * actions, and to raise and improve our faculties. If this is denied, all endeavours, all education, all pains, eitiier on ourselves or others, are vain and fruitiess things. Nor is it possible to make a man believe otiier than this : for he does so plainly perceive that he is a free agent ; he feels himself balance matters in his thoughts, and de- liberate about them so evidentiy, that he certainly knows he is a free being. Though he feels him- self often hurried on so impetuously, that he may seem to have lost his freedom in some turns, and upon some occasions, yet he feels that he might have restrained that heat in its first beginning ; he feels he can divert his thoughts, and master himself in most things, when he sets himself to it; he finds that knowledge and reflection, that good company and good exercises, do tame and soften him, and that bad ones make him wild, loose, and irregular. From all this they conclude that man is free, and not under inevitable fate, or irresistible mo- tions either to good or evil. All this they con- firm from the whole currentof the Scripture, which is full of persuasions, exhortations, reproofs, ex- postulations, encouragements, and terrors, which . are all vain and theatrical things, if there are no free powers in us to which they are addressed : to

what

AKT. XVII.] Thirty-nine Articles. 313

what purpose is it to speak to dead men, to per- 3uade the blind to see, or the lame to run ? If we are under an impotence till the irresistible grace comes, and if, when it comes, nothing can withstand it, then what occasion is there for all those solemn discourses, if they can have no effect on us ? They cannot render us inexcusable, un- less it were in our power to be bettered by them ; and to imagine that God gives light and blessings to those, whom he before intended to damn, only to make them inexcusable, when they could do them no good, and they will serve only to aggravate their condemnation, gives so strange an idea of that infinite goodness, that it is not fit to express it by those terms, which do naturally arise upon it (x)” Furthermore, we must receive god’s promises, in such wise as they be ge- nerally set forth in holy scripture : The promises of God are general and con- ditional. The gospel dispensation is described as a covenant between God and man ; arid the salvation of every individual is made to depend upon his observance of the proposed conditions. Men, as free agents, have it in their power to perform or not to perform these conditions ; and God foresaw from all eternity who would and who would not perform them, that is, who will ’ And ^ho will not be saved at the day of judg- ment (x) Burnet,

^J4 J^spositiqn of the [?akt in.

ment. This prescience of voluotary conduct and consequent happiness or misery is very iSereap from an irreversible decree, direcjdng in what manner each individual shall act in this world, and whether he shall Jbe happy or miserable in that which is to come. ” pd’s promises gsne- rally set forth in holy Scripture,” seem here to be opposed to the ” counsel of God secret to U3,r spoken of in the former part of this article ; an it is declared that, whatever promises are mad to us in Scripture, we are .to receive them im- plicitly, and not pervert their obvious sense by abstruse inquiries into the hidden mysteries f the divine dispensations. The promises ths ” Whosoever believeth in the only begotten .Ssqn oi God shall not perish, but have everlasting life CyX” and that the death of Christ will be accepted as ” a propitiation for the sins of the whole world f J,” are so plain, that we cannot well mistake their meaning as far as they respex;t ourselves ; and they are also so important, hat, if we value our own comfort, we shall not suffer our faith in them to be shaken by any difficulties, ](ybidi speculative men may raise concerning Election and Predestination, as they relate to mankind at,laj:ge. And in our doings, that will of god is

TO BE FOLLOWED, which WE HAVE EXPRESSLY DECLARED UNTO US IN THE WORD OF QOp.

The (jf) John, c. 3. V. 16. {$) 1 John, c. s. t. %.

A?T. XVII.] Thirty-nine Articles. 315

The will of God can be collect from $cripturf3 oqly ; 93 it there stands rqealed, U; i to be obeyed wi:hout any excqptjqia or reserve : no rules of fictiop re tp be aUoi .iphich a not authorized by the declarations of Scripture ; no conduct is to he justified or excused, which is contradictory to the written wprd of God.

This last branch of the article seems to have bn directed agnst a set of profligate enthu- siasts, who at the time of the Reformation, urged the will of God as m .excuse for their vices : ” In voluntateain I)ei criminum suorum culpam conferuat (a).” The impiety and the nuschief of such a principle (whidi is a most unjustifiable perversion of ih doctrine pf predestination) are equally obvious. The will of God, as was just now observed, can only be known from the Scrip- tures, and his jvvrill q ivealed ought to be the rule of every one’s conduct.

It is sufficientiy evident from the above review and exposition of this article, that the doctrines maintained in it are by no means conformable to the principles of Calvin, who contended for ab^lute unconditional decrees of God, and irre sistible grace, ^nd asserted that God, in predes tinating from all eternity one part of mankind to everlasting happiness, and another to endless

(a) Reform. Leg.

31 6 Exposition of the [part rir.

[…]

the

(b) Arminius opposed these doctrines, but not till after our articles were compiled. Calvin nearly followed the opinions of Austin and the Latin church, and Armi- mus those of Chrysostom and the Greek church. For an accountof this controversy, seeM osheim; and for a general accountof the opinions which have been enter- tamed concerning Predestination, and the arguments by which they have been supported, see Burnet upon this article. ” It is agreed by every body that his col- lection of the arguments made use of by both parties, contains a brief, full, and fair representation of what it found in their respective writings upon this subject.’^ Veneer.

(c) Calv. Instit. lib. 3. ci^. 21.

ART. XVII.] Thirty-nine Articles. 3 1 7

the conclusion, or its saying nothing at all of reprobation, and nothing in favour of absolute predestination to life, there seems to be a plain distinction (as Plaifere has well observed) in the article itself, of two kinds of Predestination, one of which is recommended to us, the other con- demned. Predestination, rightly and piously considered, that is, considered not irrespectively, not absolutely, but with respect to faith in Christ, feith working by love, and persevering ; such a predestination is a sweet and comfortable doc- trine ; but the sentence of God’s predestination (it is not here said in Christ as before) that sen- tence simply or absolutely considered (as curious and carnal persons are apt to consider it) is a most dangerous downfall, leading either to security or desperation, as having no respect to foreseen faith and a good life, nor depending upon it, but antecedent in order to it. The article then seems to speak of two subjects j first of predestination, ioberly understood with respect to faith in Christ, which is wholesome doctrine ; secondly, of predestination simply considered, which is a dangerous doctrine. And the latter part seems to be intended against those Gospellers, whereof Bishop Burnet speaks. Nor is it imaginable that any true and sound doctrine of the Gospel, should of itself have any aptness to become a downfall even to carnal persons ; but carnal

persons

3i8 ExpoMtidh oflhe [PAnT xit.

[…]

As archbishop Cranmer was not only the principal compiler of these articte, but by his \ilritihgs and influence contributed ihore than ah bthek* person to the Reformation in England, it may be right to state the sehtiihent of that emi- tient prelate upon the subject of this article; and as the publication (d) fr6m which the tblloiHi quotations are taken, was cohfitiiied by act of parfiament, they mdy be considered as cohtaiiiittg also the sentiments of our early Reformierd ill general : ” God is Naturally good, ind wiOeth an men to be saved, and careth for then), and provideth all things by which they may be saved, except by thefr own malice they will do evft, and so by righteous judgment of God perish UtA be lost; for truly men be to themselvc lh6 authors Of sin and damnation. G6d nath author of sin, nor the cause of damriatloh; ittid yet doth he tnost righteously datnh th!) Web, that do with vices corrupt ‘tWeir nlrfufe, Wffiift •he made good, and do abu the ine to 69B

aesuT»

(d) Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any duriflitiiin Man.

AET. xvii.] Thirty-nine Articles. 315

desires against his most holy wiQ: wherefore men be to be warned, that thiey do not impute to God their vice, or their damnation, but to them- selves, which by free-will have abused the grace and benefit of […] It is to be considered, that although our Saviour Christ hath offered himself upon the cross, a sufficient redemption and satisfaction for the sins of all the world, and hath made himself an open way and entry unto God the Father for all mankind, only by his worthy merit and deserving, and willing all men to be saved, calleth upon all the world, without respect of persons, to come and be partakers of the righteousness, peace, and glory, which is in him ; yet for all this benignity and grace, shewed universally to the whole world, none shall have the effect of the benefit of our Saviour Christ, end enjoy everlasting salvation by him, but they that take such ways to attain the same, as he hath taught and appointed by his holy […] And here all fantastical imagination, curious reasoning, and vain trust of predestination, is to be laid apart. And according to the plain manner of speaking and teaching of Scripture in innumerable places, we ought evermore to be in dread of our own frailty, and natural pronity to fell to sin, and not to assure ourselves that we be dected any otherwise than by feeling of spiritual motions in our heart, and by the tokens of good

and

[…]

and virtuous living, in following the grace of God^ and persevering in the same to the end/’

It is very clearly proved in ” A Dissertation on the Seventeenth Article (e)y’ printed at Oxford in 1773, that the sentiments of Ridley, Latimer, and Hooper, coincided with those of Cranmer concerning grace and predestination ; and Dean Tucker has shewn, in his Letters to Dr. Kippis, that ” at the time just preceding the Reforma- tion, the church of Rome, in respect to predes- tination, grace, freewill, and perseverance, w^as truly Calvinistical.”

” In England, at the time of the Synod of Dort, we were much divided in our opinion concerning the controverted Articles ; but our Divines having taken the liberty to think and judge for them* selves, and the civil government not interposing, it has come to pass, that, from diat time to this, almost ail persons here, of any note for learning and abilities, have bid adieu to Calvinism (f)^ have sided with the Remonstrants, and have left the Fatalists to follow their own opinions, and to rejoice (since they can rejoice) in a religious sys- tem consisting of hiunan creatures without liberty, doctrines without sense, faith without reason, and

a God without mercy (g)’^

(e) Written by Dr. Winchester.

(f) “Whitby published some tracts on Election, Re- probation, and Original Sin, and in these treatises be confuted Calvinism almost to a demonstration/’ Jortin.

(g) Jortin, Dissert. 2nd. Page 3.

AWT. xviii.’] Hurty^^me Articles. ^\