Manye other prognostycacyons we had, or sygnes afore hande, of hys goynge awaye from us. For all the yeare afore he sayd oft tymes unto us that he coveted to journaye another waye. And as he desyred, so came it to passe. For as the noble Earles of Mansfelde had sent for hym into hys owne natyve cytye of Iszleben, by hys ghostlye counsell to quyet their matters of controversye, as he did most gracyouslye, he deceased there clerelye from thys lyfe. The maner of thys Christen departynge ye have in writynge by dyverse men lerned and of most grounded testymonye, whych were there present, with the prayer whych he mayde afore he gave up hys lyfe, whych here to repete were superfluouse.'

SKETCHES OF THE REFORMATION. NO. X.

BISHOP LATIMER.

And

ALTHOUGH two of these sketches have been already occupied in unfolding the sentiments of the venerable LATIMER, on some of the most important points in theology, the subject is not yet exhausted. so much am I impressed with the value of this prelate's testimony, that, at the risk of appearing tiresome to your readers, I will venture to lay before them a few additional extracts from the same which have already furnished so many quotations.

sermons

After what appeared in my last paper, it seems scarcely necessary to state, that the doctrine of the corruption of man and his utter inability to save himself by any efforts of his own, is explicitly and unequivocally affirmed by Latimer: and that the means of removing this corruption, and remedying this helpless ness, are represented with equal clearness to arise from the redemption of Jesus Christ, and the influence of his holy spirit*. Quitting

Although these are points which, after the extracts already given, seem to

therefore the consideration of these topics,. I shall advert to another which has of late been the subject of much contention : I mean the alleged identity of baptism and regeneration. On this point, let us hear the opinion of Latimer.

"Except a man be born again from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He must have a regeneration. And what is this regeneration? It is not to be christened in water as these firebrands (the papists) expound it and nothing else." "We be born again, not by a mortal seed, but by an immortal;-by the word of God preached and opened." p. 71. Some wicked persons say it is no matter whatsoever we do. we be baptized, we cannot be damned: for all these that be baptized, and be called Christians, shall be saved.' This is a false and wick

ed opinion." "Such fellows be worse than Turks." p. 129. "How cometh regeneration? By hearing and believing of the word of God." p. 186. "Baptism ascertaineth and assureth us, that like as the water washeth the body and cleanseth it, so the blood of Christ our Saviour cleanseth and washeth us from all filth and uncleanness of sin." p. 287. "Baptism signifieth that we must wash away the old Adam, forsake and set aside all carnal lusts, and besides put on Christ, receive him with a pure heart, and study to me not to admit of any dispute, it may nevertheless be expedient to subjoin a passage or two in confirmation of them.

"All we be contaminate from our birth with sin, and so should justly be firebrands in hell world without end." p. 275. "How great need have we had of Christ: for no

doubt if we had not had him all mankind

should have been damned, yea, the best of Christ, of our own nature we can do nous world without end." p. 276. "Without thing but commit sin, and are not able to make amends for the least sin that we commit." p. 231. "Nothing cleanseth from sin, neither in heaven nor carth, saving only the blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ.” p. 128. "The only remedy is to call upou God to strengthen thy faith and to endue thee with the Holy Ghost." p. 327.

live and go forward in all goodness, according unto his will and commandments." p. 290.

I will next advert to the views which Latimer entertained of the importance and efficacy of preaching the Gospel*. He declares it to be" the power of God to every man that doth believe," p. 71. "The first step in the ladder of heaven." p. 63. Take away this, you take away salvation." p. 38. "It is the mighty instrument of God," p. 132, for "by hearing we must come to faith: through faith we must be justified." "Therefore we ought not to despise preaching, or little regard it; for it is God's instrument whereby he worketh faith in our hearts." p. 185. But for all this," adds Latimer with becoming caution," a man may not take upon him to preach God's word except he be called unto it; for if he do it, he doth not well, though he have learning and wisdom to be a preacher; yet for all that he ought not to come himself without any lawful calling. It was no doubt a good thing to keep the ark from falling, yet for all that Oza [Uzzah] was stricken to death because he took in hand to meddle with it without any commission." p. 242.

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In the same strain of practical wisdom is the following remark on the proper method of expounding the parables: and I would recommend it to the earnest attention of those who are fond of tracing out a hidden meaning in every individual expression contained in them. "It is not requisite in a parable," he observes," to expound every word of the same. For every parable hath a certain scope, to the which we must have a respect, and not go about to set all words together, or make a gloss for the same: for it is enough for us when we have the meaning of the principal scope; and more needeth not." p. 320.

I now proceed to make a few ge* It will be remembered that some pains

have been taken of late to detract from the value of this divine ordinance,

neral remarks on the extracts which have been produced from the writings of this venerable prelate.

The first thing, on the perusal of these extracts, that is likely to arrest the attention of the intelligent reader, is the tone of moderation, (some would say the inconsistency,) with which Latimer discusses the points of doctrine supposed to be comprized in our 17th article. At one time he employs language which no Arminian would think it safe to adopt. At another time he expresses himself in terms to which no Calvinist could possibly subscribe. The doctrines of predestination and election he affirms, indeed, in a general way; and his reasoning occasionally proceeds on the admission of their truth. But yet he evidently did not apprehend, that the affirmation of these doctrines involved, necessarily, the various consequences which almost all the modern asserters of predestination are disposed to regard as inseparably connected with it. Many of these, it is true, would concur with him in maintaining the universality of the redemption of Christ. I question, however, whether any would feel themselves at liberty to express their belief of this proposition, in terms so unequivocal and unreserved as those which Latimer has thought it right to use, when he says, for example, that "Christ shed as much blood for Judas, as he did for Petert."

I would just advert to another topic of some delicacy. The final perseverance of all regenerate and justified persons is considered, by modern theologians, as a corollary from the doctrines of predestination and election. It is undeniable, however, that Latimer's mode of viewing this intricate subject must have differed from theirs: because though he had before his eyes the 17th article, which he himself, it is also to be remembered, had assisted in framing; and though his reasoning stands at times on the admission +No. for January, p. 2—5. + lb. p. 2.

of the truth of the doctrines of predestination and election, he is yet so far from maintaining the certainty of the final perseverance of believers, that he makes no hesitation to affirm, that those who have been justified may lose their justification; and that the child of God may be

come a child of the wicked one*.

Another point worthy of remark is the small stress which Latimer seems to lay on those more abstruse doctrines to which I have adverted; and his evident wish to discourage his hearers from quitting the broad and safe ground of scriptural affirmation, in order to indulge that passion for systematising, and that taste for metaphysical refinement, which had probably begun to seduce them from the simplicity that is in Christ, and which have since embroiled the peace, and marred the prosperity of the church. Happy had it been for the interests of true religion, had the combatants on both sides learned, from our venerable martyr, "to keep them from all curious and dangerous questions of the predestination of Godt" an advice, it is to be observed, which the Bishop seems to address with no less emphasis to those who object to the doctrine, than to those who maintain it. May we of the present day profit by past experience, and set ourselves in earnest to study that lesson of moderation, which some of our forefathers unhappily overlooked, and which many among ourselves are also too much inclined to disregard.

It likewise deserves to be noticed that Latimer, in treating of predestination, uniformly reasons upwards, and cautiously infers the certainty of the election of individuals, not from the cternal decrees of God, but from their repentance, their faith, their holiness of heart and life, their universal obedience, their

*No. for January, p. 3.
+ Ib. p. 3.

In this view of the subject I am happy to say, that there exists no differnce be

tween I atimer and the intelligent part of

modern Calvinists.

continuance in well doing. In the absence of these essential ingredients of the Christian character, Latimer would deny their right to any spiritual comfort: nay he would plainly. tell such as were living in the wilful commission of any sin, or in the wilful indulgence of any unholy temper, that whatever may have been their past experience, they were now in a state of condemnation. (p. 3.)

But whatever question may fairly arise respecting the just and legitimate interpretation of Latimer's sentiments, on the doctrine of predestination; on points of far more transcendent moment, he has expressed himself with a clearness and fulness which exclude every pretence for doubt. These points are: The total apostacy of mankind from God in consequence of the fall, and the inevitable ruin which must follow this apostacy, without the intervention of divine grace: The restoration of our lost race to the favour of God solely by the sacrifice of his son, and to the divine image solely by the operation of the Holy Ghost: That sinful man is justified before God, neither in whole or in part by hisown obedience to the divine law, but solely for the sake of what has been done for him by Jesus Christ, the benefits of whose redemption are applied to the soul only by a living faith That he must undergo a spiritual regeneration through the pow er of the Holy Ghost and must abound in all the fruits of the spirit: And that by the utter renunciation of every sinful thought, word, and work, by the constant cultiva tion of every holy and heavenly affection, and by the undeviating performance of every prescribed duty, he must be prepared for the kingdom of heaven; from which one wilful sin unrepented of would infallibly exclude him. On these points Latimer strenuously insists, as lying at the root of all true religion.

And here permit me again to recommend to the notice of my clerical brethren, the particularity with which the venerable prelate attacks

in the subsequent member of the sentence. But this being incompatible with the rest of the passage, as it stands in our version, he proposes an alteration in the rendering of the verb TεTaula, which instead of "hath ceased," he would translate "hath made to cease;" so that the words, according to his interpretation, ought to run thus-" he that hath suffered in the flesh (i. e. Christ) hath made or caused you to cease from sin." For my part, how ever, I do not see any such ambiguity in the passage in question, as to authorize a deviation from the sense given to it by our translators; and as to D. W.'s proposed emendation, it diminishes in my opinion not a little from the force of the Apostle's reasoning.

St. Peter's object being to urge upon the Christian converts the necessity of a strict conformity to Christ, in respect both of patience under afflictions and freedom from sin, he has recourse to that peculiarity of expression, so common with St. Paul, by which the same phrases employed to describe the several circumstances in the external sufferings of Christ, are metaphorically applied to denote those inward and correspondent sufferings, which are to be experienced in the heart of the believer, and which are necessary to render him conformable to the image of his Saviour. The expression therefore ο παθών εν σαρκι, as applied to the Christian, who not only by outward persecution, but inward mortification, is made a "partaker of Christ's sufferings," is strictly analogous to those other expressions, by which he is said "to be crucified with Christ," "to be dead to sin," "to be dead with Christ," "to be baptized into his death,' be planted together in the likeness of his death," and many more of the like kind. The whole 6th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans may be taken as a comment upon these words of St. Peter, particularly the 6th and 7th verses of it-" Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with

"to

him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin: for he that is dead is freed from sin." The affections and lusts of the natural man constitute what is emphatically called the body of sin. As Christ therefore suffered for us in the flesh by bearing our sins in his own body on the tree, so is every Christian likewise called upon, after the example of his great pattern, to "suffer in the flesh;" and this he is to do, by crucifying and destroying that body of sin, which he by nature inherits, the effect of which is, that he dies to sin, or in other words, ceases from sin.

It has been observed, and with great truth, that there exists a striking conformity between the sentiments and precepts contained in this Epistle of St. Peter, and those of St. Paul. The passage under review, provided the ordinary exposition of it be retained, affords a proof of this resemblance. And if this be admitted, it is by no means an unfair inference to conclude, that the sense which best preserves this similitude of character between the two inspired writers, is that which in all probability the Apostle here designed. As to the forced and unnatural turn which the words are made to assume in our translation, this is not to be ascribed to any misapprehension of the passage, but to an inherent want of perspicuity in the original; a fault not uncommon with the sacred writers, particularly those, whose style is of a more sublime and elevated character, and whose pen, being under the infallible guidance of inspiration, disdained an attention to the technical rules and niceties of composition.

Haminond in his commentary does not notice any difficulty in this passage, though he has a note upon the words o Tawv ev σapx, which he expounds according to their general acceptation. Archbishop Leighton gives the same sense to them, from the application of the phrase in one part of the sentence to Christ, and in the other to the Christian, which,