Reformed Anglicans

Thomas Cranmer, 25. The dynamic of Tyndale, Joye, Barnes and others was being felt on the stony ground of the English ecclesiastical establishment, to the malicious chagrin of Wolsey, Warham, Fisher, More and the Tudor King. Henry VIII remained an Anglo-Romanist (without the Pope) to his death. Henry had some esteem for Melancthon and invited him to England. The Germans always sent second stringers rather than Henry. The Ten Articles of 1536 were proposed reflecting some transitional elements, but more as a political expedient to quell dissension. The third article has some Lutheranization to it: “…whereby the penitent must hope that God will forgive him and repute him justified and of the number of his elect children, not for the worthiness of any merit or work done by him, but for the only merits of the blood and passion of our Saviour Jesus Christ…though God pardoned sin only for the satisfaction of Christ, yet they must bring forth the fruits of penance, prayer, fasting, alms-deeds...

MASTER THOMAS BILNEY AND GEORGE JOYE: ENGLISH REFORMATION, BIBLE-MEN, ELECT, JUSTIFIED, AND WITNESSES--they speak anew and afresh today. C. Thomas Bilney, 15f. Master Thomas Bilney (1495-1531) of Cambridge experienced an evangelical conversion in 1519, the same year that Dr. Colet died. Dr. Thomas Cranmer is aged 30, is involved in academic theological studies, but largely (in terms of footprints) is off the radar. Not so for Thomas Bilney, Robert Barnes, or Hugh Latimer in the 1520s. The hunt is on for Lutherans and OXBRIDGE by Wolsey, Warham, Fisher and More. Bilney, a scholarly priest, writes to the Bishop of London, Cuthbert Tonstal: “At last I heard speak of Jesus, even then when the New Testament was first set forth by Erasmus; which then I understood to be eloquently done by him, being allured rather by the Latin than by the word of God (for at that time I knew not what it meant), I bought it even by the providence of God, as I do now well understand and perceive: and at the...

DR. JOHN COLET, OXFORD LECTURER, DEAN OF ST. PAUL'S IN LONDON, EXEGETE, PROTO-REFORMER, WYCLIFFIAN AND LOLLARD: John Colet, 12f. John Colet (1467-1519), perhaps an unsung hero of the pre-Reformation period, he was an ad fontes man—back-to-the-Bible, expositing the Biblical text on Romans and Corinthians without the scholastic method. He began his public lectures at St. Paul’s, London in 1497 to receptive and large audiences. The text was opened in an originalist and direct exposition. Dean Colet taught clearly justification by Christ’s merits only—a full 20 years before Luther posted his 95 theses. God, Colet affirmed “of His grace imparts himself to those who believe and trust in Him, who have been taken and drawn away by Him from unbelief, that they may trust in Him alone, and believe that by no other means whatever can they be justified than by the divine grace.” Colet continued, “Abraham had testimony borne to his righteousness before the works and ceremonies of the Law were o...

A.    Wycliffe and the Lollards, 10f. Prof. Hughes begins exploring the Augustinian of Lutterworth, John Wycliffe (d. 1384). "No creaturely merit cancels sin: I reckon that is is impossible for even the smallest sin committed against the Lord to be removed by any merit unless is removed sovereignly by the merits of this Man" [DPV, "this Man" = "Jesus Christ]. Wycliffe denied the heavenly bank of surplus or supererogatory merits, the accumulation of the excessive worthiness of great stains. Wycliffe denounced this as the "lying fiction of a limitless treasury of the supererogatory merit of the church triumphant which the pope is empower to distribute" (11).

Justification Before Christ’s First Advent--Justification of the Old Testament Saints Bishop “Old Hugh” Latimer on faith, justification and Old Testament saints: “They believed in Abraham’s Seed which was promised…which faith stood them in good stead, and they were all as well saved through the same belief as we now through our belie. For it is no difference between their belief and ours, but this: they believed in Christ who was to come, and we believe in Christ who is come already. Now their belief served them as well as ours doth us. For at that time God required no further at their hands than was opened unto them. We have in our time a further and more perfect knowledge of Christ than they had.” Hugh Latimer. Works. 1.378. Bishop “Old Hugh” Latimer from the famous Sermon of the Plough: “…the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world…as a continuous sacrifice…all men that trusted in the death of Christ shall be saved, as well they that came before as they that came after; for He...

Justification: Order of Salvation, Predestination, Glorification   XVII. Of Predestination and Election. Predestination to Life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby (before the foundations of the world were laid) he hath constantly decreed by his counsel secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation, as vessels made to honour. Wherefore, they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of God, be called according to God's purpose by his Spirit working in due season: they through Grace obey the calling: they be justified freely: they be made sons of God by adoption: they be made like the image of his only begotten Son Jesus Christ: they walk religiously in good works, and at length, by God's mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity.   As the godly consideration of Predestination, and our Election in Christ, is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable com...

RIGHT FAITH AND WRONG FAITH; LIVING AND DEAD FAITH William Tyndale: “I pray thee how many thousands are there of them that say, ‘I believe that Christ was born of a virgin that He died, that He rose again,’ and so forth, and thou canst not bring them in belief that they have any sin at all!...For though they believe that Christ died, yet believe they not that He died for their sins, and that His death is a sufficient satisfaction for their sins; and that God, for His sake, will be a father unto them, and give them power to resist sin.” William Tyndale. Works. 1.79, 113. FAITH AND WORKS: WORKS FOLLOWETH Thomas Cranmer: “How can a man have this true faith, this sure trust and confidence in God, that by the merits of Christ his sins be remitted and he be reconciled to the favour of God, and to be partaker of the kingdom of heaven by Christ, when he liveth ungodly and denieth Christ in his deeds? Surely no such ungodly man can have this faith and trust in God…Therefore, to conclude,...