LECTORI. SISTE TE parumper, erudite lector, ut noris cujam et qualem pagellam comprimis, hoc scilicet solo nomine redarguendam, quod sit tota gemmea. In historiis, "compendia, dispendia ;” at in Theologia, polemica saltem, μεγάλαι βιβλοι, μεγάλα σήματα, atque instar montium, qui, quo sublimiori consurgunt cacumine, magis sterilescunt. Optandum ex Theologorum disceptationibus et colloquiis, (ut puta Mompelgartensi, Hagiensi, aliisque,) succum et sanguinem exprimi, responsionum lacinias abradi, in personas nominaque (quas vere "rabiem & rixas Theologorum" vocavit Melanchthon,) lituras expungi: quibus sarmentis, siquis inter by (quos vocat Spiritus Sanctus §) nomen suum professus, operam daret averruncandis, plus certe quam ex alio quovis scripto elenctico proficerent lectores. Dicam quod res est: misere ruspamur in controversâ Theologiâ, et si quando 8 Eccles. xii, 1. Patades, magistros collectionum sive pandectarum. MERC. TRANSLATION. ADDRESS TO THE READER. STOP a little, learned reader, and learn whose pages these are which thou turnest over, and what is their quality. The only fault with which they can be charged, is, that they are entirely studded with gems. In historica. works, abridgments are said to be real detriments. But in Divinity, at least in that which is polemic, "great books are great evils," and resemble mountains, "the more elevated their summits are, the greater is their sterility. It is very desirable, that the juice and blood were extracted out of the disputes and conferences of Divines, (such, for instance, as those of Montbelliard, the Hague, and others, ‡) that the borders of the answers were cut away, and that the blots upon persons and names were expunged, which Melancthon has truly called, "the madness and squabbles of Di vines." If there be any one that has placed his name among those whom the Holy Spirit calls "masters of assemblies,"§ and if he would attempt to remove all those fragments and excrescences, he would perform a service from which a far greater degree of profit would accrue to the readers, than from any other argumentative compositions whatsoever. Shall I state what is really the fact? Unhappily we make deep researches into controversial theology; and, after having been almost famished through our pressing + See Appendix A. App. B. § Mercer calls them, "Rhapsodists, masters of the collections, digests or pandects." See the advice of Hornbeck in his Summary of the Controversies respecting Popery, page 316. veritatis importunâ fame confecti, margaritam offendimus, Exclamare libet, populus quod clamat Osyri Nervosi siquidem sunt et acuti Theologi, Camero ubi habet Tilenum adversarium, Twissius ubi Arminium, Corvinum, eundemque Tilenum confodit; at! at! postquam pulmones in verborum cortice exagitaveris, vix tandem medullam sensûs potis eris eruere, anhelus lector. Inde est adeo laudabile institutum reverendi viri Thomæ Parkeri, authoris Thesium de Traductione peccatoris ad vitam, qui eadem premit vestigia, nec tædio lectorem enecat. Neminem suppilavit, sugillavit neminem. Non habent scriptores, quem incusent stellionatus, nec alii verbera violentæ linguæ patiuntur. Arminii et Socini nomina reliquit intacta; non ita causam, et argumenta. Sentiunt se mori tacito vulnere, qui in argumentis aut conversionis aut satisfactionis periculose et infœliciter disputarunt. Hic is est, si nescis, lector, cujus pater Robertus Parker, o Mxxxpins tam erudite et copiose scripsit de Signo Crucis, Descensu Christi ad Inferos, et Ecclesiastica Politeia, in causâ religionis patriæ exul, qui una cum Amesio, notissimum virum I. Robinsonum,++ ad sobriam in disciplinâ mentem revocavit. Dig tt Vide eundem Hornbeckium in Brownismo, p. 625. TRANSLATION. hunger for the truth, if we find a pearl, "we may be permitted to exclaim, as the people of Egypt do, when they find Osiris," We have made a discovery! When CAMERON + has Tilenus for his adversary, and when TWISSE at one blow despatches Arminius, Corvinus and Tilenus, both of them are nervous and acute Divines. But, alas, when the panting reader has penetrated through the rind of their words and reached the kernel, after all his trouble he will scarcely be able to find any nutriment for his understanding. This is the reason of the very laudable design of that reverend person, THOMAS PARKER, the author of the Theses on the traduction or drawing of man, as a sinner, to Life. He treads in the footsteps of Cameron and Twisse, but he does not try the patience of his reader or produce weariness. From no man has he purloined, and he has not cast a reproach upon any person. There are no writers who can accuse him of knavish practices; nor do others endure from him those stripes which a violent tougue can inflict. He leaves the name of ARMINIUS and of SOCINUS § untouched; but he encounters their cause and their arguments. Those persons who have in a dangerous or inauspicious manner engaged in disputes concerning the arguments of Conversion or Sanctification, feel themselves dying through the secret wound which they here receive. Reader, if thou be yet unacquainted with the parentage of this young man, know, that his father was Robert PARKER of blessed memory, who has written with great learning and copiousness on the Sign of the Cross, the Descent of Christ into Hell, and on Ecclesiastical Polity; and who, while an exile from his native land on account of religion, united with William AMES in recovering that celebrated person, J. ROBINSON, ¶ to a sober judgment concerning church-discipline. †† Our author, therefore, App. C and D. + App. E. App. C. § App. F. 1 66 nus est adeo hic noster author tam istoc patre, quam hac prole. Id unice agit vir doctissimus, ut gratiæ Divinæ suus constet honos sartus-tectus; ut gratia præveniens, excitans, pulsans, efficax et actuosa habeatur, non segnis, et voluntatis nostræ pedissequa," qualem adversarii comminiscuntur, qui "Gratiæ" verbo abusi sunt, (ut Augustinus jam diu notavit) ¶ ad frangendam invidiam. Si cui minus arridet, quod à styli evangelici simplicitate abhorrere videatur; et poquoλveia quædam terminorum Philosophicorum interpolasse, sciat velim, lectorem desiderari gravem, et in scholis exercitatum, cui si sit ingenium theologicum, nihil nocebit stylus metaphysicus; nec omnino desunt, quod dixit in re leniori Antonius, (lib. 9. sect. 3.) etiam in phrasi wagπήγματα αψικαρδία. Prodiere sæpius hæ eædem Theses, cum aliis ejusdem commatis Amesii Tractatulis compactæ, a doctis indoctisque pro Amesianis habitæ, et citatæ; sed quod dolendum maxime, mancæ semper, et perfectæ, vzoboraia nonnunquam addita, loca Scripturæ fedissime distorta, et transversa tuentia: quindecim integras theses nescio cujus sacrilega manus depeculabantur. Pauci hæc observarunt, miratique non superesse, qui plagiarium ¶ Vidi quemadmodum potuerit (Pelagius) etiam gratiam nominari sub ambigua generalitate, quid sentiret, abscondens, gratiæ tamen vocabulo, frangens invidiam, offensionemque declinans.-AUG. de Pecc. Orig. contra Pelag. et Caœlest. cap. 37. TRANSLATION. is a worthy son of such a father, and is himself the worthy father of this production. The only object which this very learned individual has in view, is, to preserve inviolate the just honour of Divine Grace,-that preventing, exciting, propelling, efficacious, and actuating Grace may not be accounted idle or inoperative and the obsequious attendant of the human will, according to the misrepresentations of our adversaries, wlio, as St. Augustine long ago observed, abuse the term "GRACE" to wipe away reproach. + If any one be displeased, that " our author seems to dislike the simplicity of the style of the gospel," and that "he has interspersed certain frightful figments of philosophical terms," I wish such an objector to know, that, to understand this work, a deep and serious reader is required, one who is well-versed in scholastic lore, and who possesses a theological genius : To a person thus qualified a metaphysical style will do no harm. Yet there are not wanting those additions which Antoninus has described, (lib. 1x, sect. 3,) under the phrase of "precepts that produce an influence on the heart." These Theses have been frequently published, and bound up with other tracts by AMES of the same description: They have likewise been cited and esteemed, by the learned and the unlearned, as the productions of AMES. But it is much to be lamented, that they have always been printed in a mutilated and imperfect form, sometimes augmented with adulterated passages, and the quotations from scripture most scandalously distorted and made to convey a different signification. I know not whose sacrilegious hands they are which have plundered this disputation of fifteen entire Theses. Some few people have observed these defects and redundaucies, "I perceived in what way it was also possible for grace to be mentioned under an ambiguous generality, and what sentiments Pelagius secretly held under the word Grace' to break the force of public aversion, and not to give offence." (AUG. de Pecat. Origin, contra Pelag, et Cœlest., cap. 37.) App. I. et stellionem insequeretur, et in jus vocaret. Tu igitur, ingenue lector, aequi bonique consulas, quod ego, qui in sacro sum satel litio ultimæ sortis, in extremis Angliæ oris ab omnibus pæne bonis literis exul, Αμμις γαρ ουδε τρίτοι, οι δε τεταρτοι, Ουδε δυωδέκατοι, ουτ' εν λόγω, ουτ' εν αριθμώ. Hanc qualemcumque opellam dabam, tribus quatuorve exemplaribus MSS. et impressis fideliter collatis, ut authorem tibi, authorique suum nomen et Theses vindicarem. TRANSLATION. H. S. and have been amazed that there is no one left to prosecute the rascally plagiarist, and call him to an account for his base conduct. Do thou therefore, ingenuous reader, put a just and favourable interpretation upon this my labour. I am one of the sacred band [of preachers] and of the lowest condition, residing in the extreme confines of England, and doomed to almost an entire exclusion from polite literature: "For we have neither three, four, nor twelve [literary friends], either according to conception or computation." Under these circumstances I have made an effort, trifling though it may appear, to restore the real author to thee, and to claim in his behalf his own name and his Theses, which I have faithfully collated with three or four manuscript and printed copies. M H. S. LECTORI. Ocyus te in pedes conjice, lector pads, ni mavis in harum Thesium Editoris substratos encomiorum flosculis casses incidere; vel perplexis earundem Authoris plagulis irretiri, Neque tamen ab isto metuendum esset, Scholarum inaniis, verborumque captum humanum fugientium involucris sensa mentis intricante, nisi viam ad periculum ille, incautus, opinor, Præfator sic stravisset. Vir sane, quicunque is est, cordatus, quem nec hoc nomine tam incusandum censuerim, quod ab Ecclesiæ etiamnum Anglicana doctrinâ, formulisque (ex præjudiciis imbibitis) abhorrere videatur, quam jure merito laudibus efferendum, quòd placidum se, et modesti ingenii virum, indiciis minime obscuris, nec non bonarum literarum bene compotem præstiterit. Laudet sane, ut sibi gratum faciat, Cameronem Scoto-Gallum, et Twissium Anglo-Britannum; Arminium autem et Cor TRANSLATION. BISHOP WOMACK'S REMARKS ON THE PRECEDING ADDRESS TO THE READER. SPEEDILY betake thyself to thy feet, my reader, if thou be a lover of truth; unless thou wouldst prefer to fall into the toils which the EDITOR of these Theses has bestrewed with encomiastic flowerets, or to be entangled between the intricate and confused meshes of that net which has been spread by the AUTHOR. Yet, because the LATTER has involved the conceptions of his unfledged mind in the trifling inanities of the Schools, and in words that scorn to be comprehended by the human intellect, there would be no cause of fear on his account, had not this Prefacer, to whom I cannot ascribe the praise of caution, thus paved the way to danger. But whoever he may be, he is undoubtedly a person of some discretion, whom I do not consider to be blamed so much on account of his present apparent aversion to the doctrine and formularies of the Church of England, (through prejudices which he has imbibed,) as he is entitled to just praise for shewing himself to be meek and placid, and, by tokens that cannot be mistaken, a man of modest genius, and possessed of a good and competent share of polite learning.† Let him eulogize CAMERON the Scottish Frenchman, that he may render himself agreeable to him, and TwISSE the Englishman; let him trample upon ARMINIUS and CORVINUS the Dutchinen, and upon TILENUS the Frenchman, the three men whom TwISSE conquered; and, on the other hand, + App. L. ¡App. K. |