http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA147&dq=augustus%20toplady%20calvinism%20church&ei=APJjTpvAF4fGgAfpnry2Cg&ct=result&sqi=2&id=ybYOAAAAIAAJ&output=text
VIII. The blessing of final perseverance. Noah, Lot, Abraham, Jacob, David, and Solomon, though they committed very flagrant and atrocious offences, things (as the homily expresses it) "plainly forbidden by the law of God, and now repugnant to all public honesty;" yet, the opinion of our Church seems to be, that, even under such shocking circumstances as these, those Jewish saints were not totally fallen from grace. Her words are as follow; "We ought then to learn by them this profitable lesson; that, if so godly men, as they were, which otherwise felt inwardly God's Holy Spirit inflaming in their hearts with the fear and love of God, could not, by their own strength, keep themselves from committing horrible sin, but did so grievously fall, that, without God's great mercy, they had perished everlastingly; how much more then ought we miserable wretches, who have no feeling of God in us at all, continually to fear, not only that we may fall as they did, but also be overcome and drowned in Gen, which they were not V First homily on certain places of Scripture, p. 224, 225.
Perseverance, in another homily, is represented as the gift of God. "Let us, throughout our whole lives, confess all good things to come of God, of what name, or nature soever they be; not of these corruptible things only, whereof I have now last spoken, but much more of all spiritual graces behovable for our soul: without whose goodness no man is called to saith, or stayed therein." Second rogation horn. p. 296.
Again, " St. Peter saith, it is of God's power that ye be kept through saith to salvation. It is of the goodness of God, that we falter not in our hope of salvation." Third rogation horn. p. 297.
The following passages I should imagine, seem scarcely reconcilable with the doctrine of the total and final amissibility of real grace. "True saith will shew forth itself, and cannot long be idle: for, as it is written, the just man doth live by his faith ; he never sleepeth, nor is idle, when he would wake and be well occupied. And God, by his prophet Jeremy, saith, That he is an happy and blessed man, which hath saith and confidence in God: for he is like a tree set by the water side, and spreadeth his roots abroad towards the moisture, and feareth not heat when it cometh: his leaf will be green, and will not cease to bring forth his fruit: even so, saith sul men (putting away all fear of adversity) will shew forth the fruit of their good works, as occasion is offered to do them." First homily on faith, p. 21.
" All those, therefore, have great cause to be full of joy, that be joined to Christ with true saith, steadfast hope, and perfect charity; and not to fear death nor everlasting damnation. For death cannot deprive them of Jesus Christ, nor any sin can condemn them that are grafted surely in him, who is their only joy, treasure, and life." Second homily against fear of death, p. 56.
"The just man falleth seven times, and riseth again. Though the godly do fall, yet they walk not on purposely in sin ; they stand not still, to continue and tarry in sin; they sit not down like careless men, without all fear of God's just punishment for sin : but, defying sin, through God's great grace and infinite mercy they rife again, and sight against sin." Second homily on certain places of Scriptures, p. 226.
"Christ Jesus, the prophets, the apostles, all and the true ministers of his word; yea, every jot and tittle in the Holy Scripture, have been, is, and shall be for evermore, the savour of life unto eternal use, unto all those whose hearts God hath purified by true saith." Ibid. p. 228.
" After the loving kindness of God our Saviour appeared towards mankind, not according to the righteousness that we had done, but according to his great mercy, he saved us by the fountain of the new-birth, and by the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he poured upon us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that we being one justified by his grace, should be heirs of eternal life through hope and faith in his blood." Homily on the nativity, p. 247.
"St. Peter thanketh God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for his abundant mercy; because he hath begotten us (saith he) unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from death, to enjoy an inheritance immortal, that never shall perish, which is laid up in heaven for them that be kept by the power of God through faith." Homily on the resurrection, p. 264.
" He hath ransomed sin, overcome the devil, death, and hell, and hath victoriously gotten the better hand of them all, to make us free and safe from them. And knowing that we be, by this benefit of his resurrection, risen with him by our saith, unto life everlasting: being in full surety of our hope, that we shall have our bodies likewise raised from death, to have them glorified in immortality, and joined to his glorious body: having, in the mean while, this holy spirit within our hearts, as a, seal and pledge of our everlasting inheritance. By whose assistance, we be replenished with all righteousness; by whose power we shall be able to subdue all our evil affections, rising against the pleasures of God." Ibid. p. 265, 266.
" The faithful have their life, their abiding in him; their union, and, as it were, their incorporation with him." First homily on the sacrament, p. 272.
"Very liberal and gentle is the spirit of wisdom. In his power shall we have sufficient ability to know our duty to God. In him shall we be comforted and encouraged to walk in our duty. In him shall we be meet to receive the grace of Almighty God: for it is he that purgeth and purifieth the mind, by his secret working. And he only is present every where by his invisible power, and containeth all things in his dominion. He lighteneth the heart, to conceive worthy thoughts of Almighty God: he sitteth in the tongue of man, to stir him to speak his honour. He only ministereth spiritual strength to the powers of our foul and body. To hold the way which God had prepared for us, to walk rightly in our journey, we must acknowledge that it is in the power of his spirit, which helpeth our infirmity." Third homily for Rogation week, p. 299.
So speaks the Church of England: and so will we ever speak, while her liturgy, her articles, and homilies, stand as they do. These are the doctrines, which she holds: these the truths, to which all her clergy have subscribed: truths these, which have no more to do with Methodism (properly so called), than they have with Mahometanism. To our departure from the above principles of the Reformation, are chiefly owing, 1. That the Church and churchmen are the scorn of infidels. 2. That so great a part of the common people of this land are sunk into such deplorable ignorance of divine things, as is unparalleled in any other Protestant country. 3. That our Churches are, in many places, so empty; while dissenting meetings are generally as full as they can hold. The plain, but melancholy truth, is, that, in various parts of this kingdom, multitudes of persons, who are churchmen upon principle, are forced to go to meeting, in order to hear the doctrines of their own Church preached. And, as to the totally ignorant, and openly profane, they care not whether they attend on any public worship or not. To the same deviation from our established doctrines, we may, 4. Impute, in great measure, the vast and still increasing spread of infidelity amongst us. Christianity, shorn of its peculiar and distinguishing principles, and reduced to little more than a dry system of Ethics, can take but small hold of men's hearts, and is itself but a better species of Deism. Many graceless persons, are yet men of good sense : and, when such consider the present state of religion in this country, how is it possible for them not to reason in a manner similar to this?
There is a book, called the Bible, in which such and such doctrines are written as with a sunbeam. There is also an establishment, called the Church, which teaches the self same doctrines and is the very echo of that book. This Bible is said, by the clergy, to be of divine authority, and a revelation from God. And, for the Church, they tell us, it is the best and purest in the world; and indeed, unless they thought it so, nothing could justify their solemn subscription to its decisions. Yet, how many of them open their mouths, and draw their pens, against those very decisions to which they have set their hands? Can those of them, who do this, really believe the Scriptures to be divine, and their Church to be in the right?
Does it not rather look as if religion was no more than a state-engine, on one hand; and a genteel trade, on the other?Such I more than fear, is the conclusion, unhappily inferred, by thousands, from the conduct of some, who lift up their heel against the. Church, while they eat her bread; or as Dr. Young expresses it, "Pluck down the vine, and get drunk, with the grapes." To the same source may be traced the rapid and alarming progress of Popery in this kingdom. Would we lay the axe to the root of this evil ? Let us forsake our Arminianism, and come back to the doctrines of the Reformation. That these are Calvinistic, has, I think, been fully proved: and, should these proofs be deemed insufficient, there are more in reserve. A man must draw up a prodigiously large index expurgatorius of our articles, homilies, and liturgy, before he can divest the Church of her Calvinism. As long as these, in their present form, remain the standards of her faith: so long will predestination be an eminent part of it. We might more plausibly, with the philosopher of old, deny that there is any such thing as motion, than deny this glaring, palpable, stare face truth. Whilst the Calvinistic doctrines were the language of our pulpits, as well as of our articles the Reformation made a swift and extensive progress. But, ever since our articles and our pulpits have been at variance, the Reformation has been at astand. At a stand, did I say? I said too little. Protestantism, has, ever since, been visibly on the decline. Look round England, look round London. Is not Popery gaining ground upon us every day? And no wonder. Arminianism is the basis of it. Figuratively speaking, the Arminian points are five of the seven hills, on which the mystic Babylon is built. It gives a true Papist less pain to hear of pope Joan than of predestination. That I do not affirm things at random, in calling Arminianism the very essence of Popery, will appear from the following short antithesis, wherein the doctrines of our own Church, and those of Rome, respecting some, of the articles under debate, are contrasted together, in the very words of each Church.
The Works of Augustus Montague Toplady, Vol. 5 at:http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA11&dq=augustus%20toplady%20calvinism%20church%20of%20england&ei=CHbgTILcHIWglAeBiq2YAw&ct=result&id=ybYOAAAAIAAJ&output=text
For pages 1-42 and comments, see:http://reformationanglicanism.blogspot.com/2010/11/augustus-toplady-c-of-e-calvinism.html
For pages 43-82 and comments, see:http://reformationanglicanism.blogspot.com/2010/11/more-from-augustus-toplady-c-of-e.html
For pages 83-96 and comments, see:http://reformationanglicanism.blogspot.com/2010/11/augustus-toplady-vol5-pg82-97-c-of-e.html
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