MISCELLANIES. 



653 



ther opportunity. Be punctual 

 and diligent, rather, indeed for 

 your own sakes than for mine. 

 You will be the sooner released 

 from duty ; but as for me, I must, 

 at all events, remain here during 

 the allotted period of time. I have 

 addressed you very much at large, 

 with great sincerity of heart, with 

 an earnest desire for your in- 

 terests, and those of the public; 

 and, may I hope, not wholly 

 without effect. 



Theological Literature at 

 Cambridge. 



From Mr. Dyer^s History of that 

 University, 



This, perhaps, might be the 

 place for considering theological 

 literature: but, however interest- 

 ing, it would introduce more con- 

 troversy, and must be more mul- 

 tifarious than suits our brevity : 

 besides, theological matters will be 

 occasionally interspersed through- 

 out this history, and in some mea- 

 sure, have been anticipated al- 

 ready ; the less, therefore, need 

 be introduced here; the leading 

 theological doctrines, on which 

 the Reformation of the sixteenth 

 century turned, being the same as 

 those taught by WicklifFe, in the 

 fourteenth. These doctrines being 

 those afterwards maintained by 

 Calvin, in his Institutions, con- 

 cerning " the knowledge of God 

 the Creator," and " the know- 

 ledge of God the Redeemer," have 

 been since called Calvinistic. For 

 though Calvin's Institutions con- 

 tain but little new, yet, being a 

 judicious compilation of St. Au- 

 gustine's works, so far as the 



doctrines of Grace, Faith, Justi- 

 fication, Sanctification, and Pre- 

 destination go, these several points 

 were called after him Calvinism. 

 He became the great doctor of his 

 age. O le grand homme ! II 

 n'y a ancien a comparer a lui. II 

 asi bienintendu I'escriture. Solus 

 Calvinus in Theologicis : exclaims 

 even Joseph Scaliger. 



Whether Calvin was so great or 

 good a man, as it was the fashion 

 of the times to consider him, 

 making no part of our inquiry, it 

 is not necessary to deliver an ex- 

 plicit opinion : suffice it, that the 

 doctrines maintained by him were 

 those taught in England as the 

 doctrines of the Reformation ; 

 and, of course, were the theolo* 

 gical doctrines of the University 

 of Cambridge. 



The Reformed, at first, or the 

 pretended reformed, as the French 

 Catholics used to call them, al- 

 most all favoured the doctrines of 

 Calvin, and prided themselves in 

 having as good a uniformity as the 

 Church of Rome itself, that had 

 taunted them with having no re- 

 gular, uniform belief. They ac- 

 cordingly published a concord of 

 Faith, a Corpus Confessionum : 

 these being all Calvinistic, and the 

 confession of the Church of Eng- 

 land being one among them, it 

 follows, that the Church of Eng- 

 land was, at the time, Calvinistic. 

 To this may be added, what Mr. 

 Collins says, and with truth, in a 

 discourse of freethinking, " that 

 our priests, for many years after 

 the Reformation, were generally 

 Calvinists or Predestinarians, is 

 evident from the Bibles printed in 

 queen Elizabeth's time, to which 

 are often added an apology for 

 predestination, answering the com- 



