Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, M.A., Th.D.: Faith and Works--Cranmer and Hooker...

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 ordained that it might be clearly taught that justification belongs not to those who do works under the Law, but to those who imitate the faith of Abraham…the Apostle concludes that, being justified by faith, and trusting in God alone, men are reconciled to God through Jesus Christ and restored to grace, that they may stand before God, and themselves remain the sons of God, and look for the certain glory of the sons of God….For it is of the great love and grace of God toward us that we have been reconciled. Otherwise his Son would not have died for us, even when we were ungodly and at enmity with God…it is God’s will that His lovingkindness and mercy and benefits should be acknowledged to proceed wholly and manifestly from Himself; that men may have no room for either pride or idle question, but may own that nothing is of themselves, everything from God…all things are done for men by promise and the free election of God, they themselves contributing nothing towards that election, lest the counsel and purpose of God, should seem to depend on the will and deeds of men…whatever there is which affects the blessedness of mankind, it rests wholly upon the purpose and will and grace of God and that none can now truly say that he is saved except by grace…We are not righteous through observance of the law but we observe the good law because we are righteous…the love of God within us is kindled from God’s love toward us, and is begotten in us by a loving God…hence it is by God’s loving us that we love Him in return…there is nothing in man but the justest cause of death, nothing to deserve grace, but only wrath…the man who would be safe and sound must rest in the grace and love of God alone…Our justification precedes the righteous dealing which is an observance of the law, and we do not act righteously before we ourselves are righteous. Of our own human and carnal nature we are all unrighteous, confessedly powerless to do anything aright, though righteous deeds are enjoyed upon us. What indeed is the use of enjoying precepts on the unrighteous, unless we first make them righteous, so that, being made righteous, they may be able to observe the precepts of righteousness?” (12-13). Colet’s teaching was influential at Oxford and at St. Paul’s which drew eager and large crowds from all levels and walks of life. Others pondered and picked up his teachings, energetically applying them to the church in a quest for reforms and renewal. William Tyndale as an undergraduate at Magdalen College, Oxford, must have sat under Dr. Colet’s lectures. John Foxe says of Tyndale that he was “brought up from a child in the University of Oxford, where he, by long continuance, grew up and increased as well in the knowledge of tongues, and other liberal arts, as especially in the knowledge of the Scriptures” (15). There are passages in Latimer’s sermons that show his indebtedness to Dean Colet. Latimer, preaching in 1552, recalled the time “when Doctor Colet was in trouble, and should have been burnt, if God had not turned the king’s heart to the contrary” (15). In the articles drafted for heresy against Dr. Robert Barnes in 1526, that “no point in the articles derived from Luther more than from Wycliffe, or Hus or Colet” (15). According to Erasmus, close friend to Dr. Colet, Colet had read the writings of John Wycliffe and was suspected and accused of Lollardism.