SECTION IX.
The Judgment of some eminent Persons, prior to the Reformation, continued.
If we carry down our enquiries to the century preceding the Reformation, we shall find that period illuminated by several very distinguished advocates for the doctrines of free and sovereign grace, as now held by those who are since called1 Calvinists.
V. John Huss, the well-known Bohemian martyr, was converted to the truth of the gospel, next under God, by reading the works of our renowned countryman John Wickliff. He took his batchelor of arts' degree in the University of Prague, A. D. 1393, and was eminent for learning (as learning then went), but more so for the exemplary sanctity of his life.2 I need not relate the perfidy of the Council of Constance, who condemned him to the flames, in open violation of the safe-conduct which had been solemnly granted him by the Emperor Sigismund. Suffice it to observe, that this infamous synod acted up to their own maxim, of "No faith to be kept with heretics:" and that he was burned, A. D. 1415. His dying prediction at the stake is, however, too remarkable to be omitted. "He behaved himself, at his martyrdom, with a wonderful chearfulness; and seems to have had a spirit of prophecy: for whereas Huss, in the Bohemian tongue, signifies a goose, he told them, You now roast a goose; but, after an hundred years, a swan shall rise out of my ashes. Which was fulfilled in Luther, who just an hundred years after Huss's death, began to appear in opposition to the Pope."3
Among the articles of pretended heresy, which this excellent man was arraigned and put to death for maintaining, were the following:4
"There is but one holy, universal, or Catholic Church, which is the universal company of all the predestinate. I do confess," said Huss, "that this proposition is mine; and [it] is confirmed by St. Augustine upon St. John.
"St. Paul was never any member of the devil, albeit that he committed and did certain acts like unto the acts of the malignant Church" [i.e. St. Paul, prior to his conversion. acted like a reprobate, though he was, secretly, and in reality, one of God's elect]. "And likewise St. Peter, who fell into an horrible sin of perjury and denial of his master; it was by the permission of God, that he might the more firmly and stedfastly rise again and he confirmed." To this charge, Huss replied, "I answer according to St. Austin, that it is expedient that the elect and predestinate should sin and offend."5
"No part or member of the Church doth depart, or fall away, at any time, from the body: forsomuch as the charity of predestination, which is the bond and chain of the same, doth never fall." Huss answers; This proposition is thus placed in my book: "As the reprobate of the Church proceed out of the same, and yet are not as parts or members of the same; forsomuch as no part or member of the same doth finally fall away: because that the charity of predestination, which is the bond and chain of the same, doth never fall away. This is proved by Cor. xiii. and Rom. viii. All things turn to good, to them that love God: also, I am certain that neither death nor life can separate us from the charity and love of God, as it is more at large in the book."
Another article, objected against him, was, his being of opinion that "the predestinate, although he be not in the state of grace according to present justice, yet is he always a member of the universal Church." He answers: "Thus it is in the book, about the beginning of the fifth chapter, where it is declared, that there be divers manners or sorts of being in the Church: for there are some in the Church, according to the mis-shapen faith; and other some according to predestination: as Christians predestinate, now in sin, shall return again unto grace." The good man added: "Predestination doth make a man a member of the universal Church; the which [i.e. predestination] is a preparation of grace for the present, and of glory to come: and not any degree of" [outward] "dignity, neither election of man" [or, one man's designation of another to some office or station,] "neither any sensible sign" [i.e. predestination does not barely extend to the outward signs, or means of grace: but includes something more and higher:] "For the traitor Judas Iscariot, notwithstanding Christ's election" [or appointment of him to the apostleship,] and the temporal graces which were given him for his office of apostleship, and that he was reputed and counted of men a true apostle of Jesus Christ; yet was he no true disciple, but a wolf covered in a sheep's skin, as St. Augustin saith."
"A reprobate man is never a member of the holy Church. I answer, it is in my book, with sufficient long probation out of the xxvi. Psalm, and out of the v. chapter to the Ephesians: and also by St. Bernard's saying, The Church of Jesus Christ is more plainly and evidently his body, than the body which he delivered for as to death. I have also written, in the fifth chapter of my book, that the holy Church" [i.e. the outward, visible Church of professing Christians, here on earth] "is the barn of the Lord, in the which are both good and evil, predestinate and reprobate: the good being as the good corn, or grain; and the evil, as the chaff. And thereunto is added the exposition of St. Austin."
" Judas was never a true disciple of Jesus Christ. I answer, and I do confess the same. They came out from amongst us, but they were none of us. He knew from the beginning, who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And therefore I say unto you, that none cometh unto me, except it be given him of my Father."
Such were some of the allegations, brought against this holy man by the Council of Constance; and such were his answers, when he stood on his public trial, as a lily among thorns, or as a sheep in the midst of wolves. How easy it is for me to write in defence of these inestimable truths, which (through the goodness of Divine Providence) have now, in our happy land, the sanction of national establishment! But with what invincible strength of grace was this adamantine saint endued, who bore his explicit, unshaken testimony to the faith, in the presence and hearing of its worst foes, armed with all the terrific powers of this world!
Prior to his execution, Mr. Huss made his solemn appeal to God, from the judgment of the Pope and Council. In this appeal6 (the whole of which would well repay the reader's perusal,) he again repeats his assured faith in the doctrine of election; where he celebrates the willingness with which Christ vouchsafed, "By the most bitter and ignominious death, to redeem the children of God, chosen before the foundation of the world, from everlasting damnation."
Much farther proof might be given of Huss's Calvinism. Enough, however, has been produced. Yet will I request my reader's patient attention to the passage that follows. He was accused of having affirmed, that "Christ doth more love a predestinate man, being sinful, than any reprobate, in what grace possible soever he be."7 To which, his reply was: "My words are in the fourth chapter of my book, entitled, Of the Church. And it is evident, that God doth love the predestinate being sinful" [i.e. the elect, even prior to their conversion;] than any reprobate, in what [seeming] grace soever he be for the time; forasmuch as he [i.e. God] willeth that the predestinate shall have perpetual blessedness, and the reprobate to have eternal fire. The predestinate cannot fall from grace: for they have a certain, radical grace rooted in them, althourh they [may] be deprived of the abundant grace for a time."8
As to what he says above, concerning the love which God bears to the predestinate, even while sinful; though it be, perhaps, rather incautiously phrased, it still is, in effect, affirming no more than the Apostle has affirmed before him: God, who is rich in mercy, for the great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace ye are saved. Eph. ii. 4, 5.
It is very observable, that the Popish Council of Constance charged Huss with being a Fatalist:9 and opposed the doctrine of predestination, which he held and taught, by the same identical cavils which have been, since, so greedily licked up, and so plentifully disgorged, by Messrs. Wesley, Sellon, and others of that fraternity. These gentlemen blush not to whet their bills on the door posts of Popery itself, rather than not be enabled to peck at those Protestant doctrines, to which they (I will not say, for divers good, but) for divers weighty causes, have, themselves, most solemnly, though most hypocritically, subscribed.
Next after the testimony of John Huss, naturally follows that of his intimate friend and faithful fellow-martyr, Jerom of Prague. As they were united in their lives by the most sacred ties of religious and learned regard, so in their deaths they were almost undivided: for they were both executed within a twelve-month of each other.
VI. Jerom, surnamed of Prague, from the place of his nativity, was a lay gentleman, of competent fortune, and of very extraordinary learning. Having taken his master of arts' degree, in the university of his native city, he visited most of the countries in Europe. In the course of this tour, the universities of Paris, Cologne, and Heidelburg, successively complimented him with the same degree which he had taken at Prague. The writers of the Biographical Dictionary10 seem to think it probable, that the university of Oxford likewise favoured him with the same mark of respect. It is, however, certain, that, during his progress, he was over in England; where he copied out the books of Wickcliff, and returned with them to Prague.11
In proving the Calvinism of Dr. John Huss, I have proved the Calvinism of his brother in the faith, the learned and pious Jerom. "I knew him," said Jerom, speaking of Huss, "to he a just and true preacher of the holy gospel: and whatsoever things Mr. Huss and Wickliff have held or written, I will affirm, even unto death, that they were holy and blessed men."12 In pursuance of this declaration, delivered before a full meeting of the Council of Constance, he was condemned to death: and, in the very sentence of condemnation, the Council alleged this reason, among others, why they proceeded against him to the ultimate severity, viz, because he had "affirmed, that he never, at any time, had read any errors or heresy in the books and treatises of the said Wickliff and Huss, and because the said Jerom is an adherent and maintainer of the said Wickliff and Huss and their errors, and both is and hath been a favourer of them."13 As he suffered for the same blessed cause, so he suffered on the same spot of ground where his friend Huss had been executed: and his persecutors gave the strongest proofs they were able of their meanness and malice, by fixing him to a stake which had been shaped into an image, resembling his brother-martyr, who had so lately and so gloriously set his life as a seal to the truth in that place.14 Yet, though no circumstance was omitted which might tend to shake his fortitude and to disconcert him in his last moments, "he suffered with all the magnanimity of Huss. He embraced the stake, to which he was fastened with the peculiar malice of wet cords. When the executioner went behind him, to set fire to the pile, Come here, said Jerom, and kindle it before my eyes; for if I dreaded such a sight, I should never have come to this place, when I had a free opportunity of escaping. The fire was kindled, and he then sung an hymn,which was soon finished by the incircling flames.15
VII. John de Wesalia was another eminent witness for the doctrines of grace, and suffered much for his adherence to them. "He was," says Monsieur Bayle, "a doctor of divinity; and was very ill treated by the inquisition in Germany, for having taught some doctrines which disgusted the Catholics."16 Another writer informs us, more particularly, what those doctrines were, which gave the Church of Rome so much disgust. Diether Isenburgh, archbishop of Mentz, convened an assembly of Popish doctors, A. D. 1479, to sit in judgment on this pretended heretic, who was then, on account of his religious principles, a prisoner in a convent of that city. A long catalogue of articles was laid to his charge: of which, the following were some:
"God hath, from everlasting, written a book, wherein he hath inscribed all his elect: and whosoever is not already written there will never be written there at all.
"Moreover, he that is written therein will never be blotted out of it.
"The elect are saved by the alone grace of God: and what man soever God willeth to save, by enduing him with grace, if all the priests in the world were desirous to damn and excommunicate that man, he would still be saved. Whomsoever, likewise, God willeth to condemn, if the whole clan of pope, priests, and others, were desirous of saving that man, he still condemned would be.
"If there had never been any Pope in the world, they, who are saved, would have been saved notwithstanding.
"They who undertake pilgrimages to Rome, are fools.
"I will not look on any thing as sinful which the scripture does not call so.
"I despise the Pope, his Church and his Councils. But I love Christ. Let the word of Christ dwell in us abundantly.
"It is a difficult thing to be a [true] Christian."17
The Church of Rome took fire at these propositions. The affair was carried before the tribunal of the inquisition. In the course of his examination, another heinous heresy was laid to his charge: viz. that he had given it as his opinion, that St. Paul contributed nothing toward his own conversion by the help of his own free-will.18 A man need but look into the 9th chapter of the Acts, to be fully convinced that Dr. Wesalia was in the right. How exactly, by the bye, does Mr. Sellon jump with these Romish inquisitors, who has declared, totidem verbis, that, in converting St. Paul, "The Lord did wait for St. Paul's compliance and improvements!" i.e. at the very time when God struck Saul to the earth, he waited for Saul's consent to fall! Had the Almighty waited for the compliance of him who was breathing out threats and slaughters against the gospel, he might have waited long enough, and waited for nothing at last.
Wesalia, it seems, was extremely old and infirm when he underwent the above inquisitorial examination. Being, says Mr. Bayle, "Broken by age and diseases, he was not able to express his thoughts before such a dreadful tribunal:" hence proceeded the retraction, into which he was trepanned. It is plain, that his retraction was not considered as sincere, from his being condemned to perpetual confinement and penance "in a monastery of the Augustins; where he died soon after."19
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