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no more than an instrument void of intrinsic efficacy, a mere external sign of an immediate operation of the Spirit of God. This last declaration is however both obscure and captious. Be that as it may, Pajon concludes by observing, that we ought not to dispute about the manner in which the Holy Spirit operates upon the minds of men, but content ourselves with acknowledging, that he. is the true and original author of all that is good in the affections of our heart, and the actions that proceed from them. Notwithstanding these declarations, the doctrine of this learned and ingenious ecclesiastic was not only looked upon as heterodox by some of the most eminent divines of the reformed church, but was also condemned, in the year 1677, by several synods in France, and, in 1686, by a synod assembled at Rotterdam,

Papin.

XVIII. This controversy, which seemed to be brought to a conclusion by the death of Pajon, was revived, or rather continued, by Isaac Papin, his nephew, a native of Blois, who, by his writings and travels, was highly instrumental in communicating to England, Holland, and Germany, the contagion of these unhappy debates. This ecclesiastic expressed his sentiments without ambiguity or reserve, and propagated every where the doctrine of his uncle, which, according to his crude and harsh manner of representing it, he reduced to the two following propositions :

"That the natural powers and faculties of man are more than sufficient to lead him to the knowledge of divine truth;

"That, in order to produce that amendment of the heart, which is called regeneration, nothing more is requisite than to put the body, if its habit is bad, into a sound state by the power of physic, and then to set truth and falsehood before the understanding, and virtue and vice before the will, in their genuine colours, clearly and distinctly, so as that their nature and properties may be fully apprehended."

This and the other opinions of Papin were refuted, with a considerable degree of acrimony, in the year 1686,

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z All these declarations made by Pajon may be seen in a confession of his faith, supposed to have been drawn up by himself, and published by the learned M. de Chauffepied, in his Nouveau Dictionaire Histor. et Critique, tom. ii. p. 164, in note c of the article Le Cene.

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by the famous Jurieu, professor of divinity and pastor of the French church at Rotterdam, and they were condemned the year following by the synod of Boisleduc. In the year 1688, they were condemned, with still greater marks of severity, by the French synod at the Hague, where a sentence of excommunication was pronounced against their author. Exasperated at these proceedings, Papin returned into France in the year 1690, where he abjured publicly the protestant religion, and embraced the communion of the church of Rome, in which he died in the year 1709. It has been affirmed by some, that this ingenious man was treated with great rigour and injustice; and that his theological opinions were unfaithfully represented by his violent and unrelenting adversary, Jurieu, whose warmth and impetuosity in religious controversy are well known. How far this affirmation may be supported by evidence, we cannot pretend to determine. A doctrine, something like that of Pajon, was maintained in several treatises, in the year 1684, by Charles le Cene, a French divine of uncommon learning and sagacity, who gave a new and very singular translation of the Bible. But he entirely rejected the doctrine of original sin, and of the importance of human nature; and asserted, that it was in every man's power to amend his ways, and arrive at a state of obedience and virtue, by the mere use of his natural faculties, and an attentive study of the divine word; more especially, if these were seconded by the advantage of a good education, and the influence of virtuous examples. Hence several divines pretend that his doctrine is, in many respects, different from that of Pajon..

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Le Cene.

England under

James I.

XIX. The church of England had, for a long time, reThe state of Sembled a ship tossed on a boisterous and tempesthe church of tuous ocean. The opposition of the patists on the one hand, and the discontents and remonstrances of the Puritans on the other, had kept it in a perpetual ferment. When, on the death of Elizabeth, James I. ascended the throne, these latter conceived the warmest hopes of seeing more serene and prosperous days, and of

a See Jurieu, De la Nature et de la Grace. Molleri Cimbria Literat. tom. ii. p. 603. b This translation was published at Amsterdam in the year 1741, and was condemned by the French synod in Holland.

c See the learned and laborious M. Chauffepied's Nouv. Diction. Hist. et Critiq. tom. ii. p. 160, at the article Le Cene.

being delivered from the vexations and oppressions they were constantly exposed to, on account of their attachment to the discipline and worship of the church of Geneva. These hopes were so much the more natural, as the king had received his education in Scotland, where the puritans prevailed, and had, on some occasions, made the strongest declarations of his attachment to their ecclesiastical constitution." And some of the first steps taken by this prince seemed to encourage these hopes, as he appeared desirous of assuming the character and office of an arbitrator, in order to accommodate matters between the church and the puritans. But these expectations soon vanished, and, under the government of James, things put on a new face. As the desire of unlimited power and authority was the reigning passion in the heart of this monarch, so all his measures, whether of a civil or religious nature, were calculated to answer the purposes of his ambition. The presbyterian form of ecclesiastical government seemed less

d In a general assembly held at Edinburgh, in the year 1590, this prince is said to have made the following public declaration; "I praise God that I was born in the time of the light of the gospel, and in such a place as to be the king of the sincerest, i. e. purest, kirk in the world. The kirk of Geneva kept pasche and yule, i. c. Easter and Christmas. What have they for them? They have no institution. As for our neighbour kirk of England, their service is an evil said mass in English; they want nothing of the mass but the liftings, i. e. the elevation of the host. Icharge you, my good ministers, doctors, elders, nobles, gentlemen, and barons, to stand to your purity, and to exhort your people to do the same; and I, forsooth, as long as I brook my life, shall do the same." Calderwood's History of the Church of Scotland. p.

256.

e The religious disputes between the Church and the Puritans induced James to appoint a conference between the two parties at Hampton Court; at which nine bishops, and as many dígnitaries of the church, appeared on the one side, and four Puritan ministers on the other. The king himself took a considerable part in the controversy against the latter; and this was an occupation well adapted to his taste; for nothing could be more pleasing to this Royal pedant, than to dictate magisterially to an assembly of divines concerning points of faith and discipline, and to receive the applauses of these holy men for his superior zeal and learning. The conference continued three days. The first day it was held between the king and the bishops and deans, to whom James proposed some objections against certain expressions in the liturgy, and a few alterations in the ritual of the church; in consequence of which, some slight alterations were made. The two following days the Puritans were admitted, whose proposals and remonstrances may be seen in Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. ii. p. 15. Dr. Warner, in his Ecclesiastical History of England, observes, that this author must be read with caution, on account of his unfairness and partiality; why therefore did he not take his account of the Hampton Court Conference from a better source? The different accounts of the opposite parties, and more particularly those published by Dr. Barlow, dean of Chester, on the one hand, and Patrick Galloway, a Scots writer, on the other, both of whom were present at the conference, must be carefully consulted, in order to our forming a proper idea of these theological transactions. James at least obtained, on this occasion, the applause he had in view. The archbishop of Canterbury, Whitgift, said, "That undoubtedly his Majesty spoke by the special assistance of God's Spirit ;" and Bancroft, falling on his knees, with his eyes raised to- -James, expressed himself thus: "I protest my heart melteth for joy, that Almighty God, of his singular mercy, has given us such a king, as since Christ's time has not been."

favourable to his views than the Episcopal hierarchy; as the former exhibits a kind of republic which is administered by various rules of equal authority; while the latter approaches much nearer to the spirit and genius of monarchy. The very name of a republic, synod, or council, was odious to James, who dreaded every thing that had a popular aspect; hence he distinguished the bishops with peculiar marks of his favour, extended their authority, increased their prerogatives, and publicly adopted and inculcated the following maxim, "No bishop, no king." At the same time, as the church of England had not yet abandoned the Calvinistical doctrines of predestination and grace, he also adhered to them for some time, and gave his theological representatives, in the synod of Dort, an order to join in the condemnation of the sentiments of Arminius in relation to these deep and intricate points. Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury, a man of remarkable gravity, and eminent

If Lord Clarendon says, in his history of the rebellion, that "Abbot was a man of very morose manners, and of a very sour aspect, which at that time was called gravity." If, in general, we strike a medium between what Clarendon and Neal say of this prelate, we shall probably arrive at the true knowledge of his character. See the History of the Rebellion, vol. i. p. 88, and Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. ii. p. 243. It is certain, that nothing can be more unjust and partial than Clarendon's account of this eminent prelate, particularly when he says, that he neither understood nor regarded the constitution of the church. But it is too much the custom of this writer, and others of his stamp, to give the denomination of latitudinarian indifference to that charity, prudence, and moderation, by which alone the best interests of the church, though not the personal views of many of its ambitious members, can be established upon firm and permanent foundations. Abbot would have been reckoned a good churchman by some, if he had breathed that spirit of despotism and violence, which, being essentially incompatible with the spirit and character of a people, not only free, but jealous of their liberty, has often endangered the church, by exciting that resentment which always renders opposition excessive. Abbot was so far from being indifferent about the constitution of the church, or inclined to the Presbyterian discipline, as this noble author affirms in his History of the Rebellion, that it was by his zeal and dexterity that the clergy of Scotland, who had refused to admit the bishops as moderators in their church synods, were brought to a more tractable temper, and things put into such a situation as afterward produced the entire establishment of the episcopal order in that nation. It is true, that Abbot's zeal in this affair was conducted with great prudence and moderation, and it was by these that his zeal was rendered successful. Nor have these his transactions in Scotland, where he went as chaplain to the lord high treasurer Dunbar, been sufficiently attended to by historians; nay, they seem to have been entirely unknown to some, who have pretended to depreciate the conduct and principles of this virtuous and excellent prelate. King James, who had been so zealous a Presbyterian, in appearance, before his accession to the crown of England, had scarcely set his foot out of Scotland, when he conceived the design of restoring the ancient form of Episcopal government in that kingdom: and it was Abbot's transactions there that brought him to that high favour with the king, which, in the space of little more than three years, raised him from the deanery of Winchester to the see of Canterbury. For it was by Abbot's mild and prudent counsels, that Dunbar proeured that famous act of the General Assembly of Scotland, by which it was provided, "that the king should have the calling of all general assemblies; that the bishops, or their deputies, should be perpetual moderators of the diocesan synods; that no excommunication should be pronounced without their approbation; that all presentations of benefices should be made by them; that the deprivation or suspension of ministers should belong to them; that the visitation of the diocess should be performed by the bishop

g

zeal, both for civil and religious liberty, whose lenity toward their ancestors the puritans still celebrate in the highest strains, used his utmost endeavours to confirm the king in the principles of Calvinism, to which he himself was thoroughly attached. But scarcely had the British divines returned from the synod of Dort, and given an account of the laws that had been enacted, and the doctrines that had been established by that famous assembly, than the king, together with the greatest part of the episcopal clergy, discovered in the strongest terms, their dislike of these proceedings, and judged the sentiments of Arminius, relating to the divine decrees, preferable to those of Gomarus and Calvin." This sudden and unexpected change in the the

or his deputy only; and that the bishop should be moderator of all conventions for exercisings or prophesyings, i. e. preaching, within their bounds." See Calderwood's True History of the Church of Scotland, fol. 1680, 588, 589. Heylen's History of the Presbyterians, p. 381, 382, and, above all, Speed's History of Great Britain, book x. fol. 1227. The writers who seem the least disposed to speak favourably of this wise and good prelate, bear testimony nevertheless to his eminent piety, his exemplary conversation, and his inflexible probity and integrity; and it may be said with truth, that, if his moderate measures had been pursued, the liberties of England would have been secured, popery discountenanced, and the church psevented from running into those excesses which afterward proved so fatal to it. If Abbot's candour failed him on any occasion, it was in the representations, which his rigid attachment, not to the discipline, but to the doctrinal tenets of Calvinism, led him to give of the Arminian doctors. There is a remarkable instance of this in a letter of his to Sir Ralph Winwood, dated at Cambeth, the 1st of June, 1613, and occasioned by the arrival of Grotius in England, who had been expressly sent from Holland, by the Remonstrants or Arminians, to mitigate the king's displeasure and antipathy against that party. In this letter, the arch bishop represents Grotius, with whom he certainly was not worthy to be named, either in point of learning, sagacity, or judgment, as a pedant; and mentions, with a high degree of complaisance and approbation, the absurd and impertinent judgment of some civilians and divines, who called this immortal ornament of the republic of letters, a smatterer and a simple fellow. See Winwood's Memorials, vol. iii. p. 459.

g See Anton. Wood, Athena Oxoniens. tom. i. p. 583. Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. ii. ch. iv. p. 242. Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, vol. i.

h See Heylen's History of the Five Articles. Neal, ibid. vol. ii. ch. ii. p. 117. This latter author tells us, that the following verses were made in England, with a design to pour contempt on the synod of Dort, and to turn its proceedings into ridicule ;

"Dordrechti Synodus, Nodus; Chorus Integer, Æger;
Coventus, Ventus; Sessio, Stramen. Amen!"*

With respect to James, those who are desirous of forming a just idea of the character, proceedings, and theological fickleness and inconstancy of that monarch, must peruse the writer of English history, more especially Larrey and Rapin Thoyras. The greatest part of these writers tell us, that, toward the latter end of his days, James, after having deserted from the Calvinists to the Arminians, began to discover a singular propensity toward Popery; and they affirm positively, that he entertained the most ardent desire of bringing about a union between the church of England and the church of Rome. In this, however, these writers seem to have gone too far; for

* It would be a difficult, nay, an insurmountable task, to justify all the proceedings of the synod of Dort; and it were much to be wished, that they had been more conformable to the spirit of Christian charity, than the representations of history, impartially weighed, show them to have been. We are not, however, to conclude, from the insipid monkish lines here quoted by Dr. Mosheim, that the transactions and decisions of that synod were universally condemned or despised in England. It had its partisans in the established church, as well as among the puritans; and its decisions, in point of doctrine, were looked upon by many, and not without reason, as agreeable to the tenor of the Book of Articles established by law in the Church of England."

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