In five sermons, entirely devoted to the subject, this Divine asserts and explains the doctrine of universal redemption, saying that salvation is made attainable, and is really tendered unto all, upon feasible and equal conditions; and that a competency of grace is imparted to every man, qualifying him to do what God requires.[433]
His account of the Divinity and personality of the Holy Spirit is the same as is generally given by orthodox teachers. As to the work of the third Person in the Trinity, Barrow’s line of thought coincides more with Anglican than with Puritan writers. Besides much of a general character upon the Spirit’s assistance, in the thirty-fourth sermon on the Creed, Barrow remarks—“It hath been the doctrine constantly with general consent delivered in and by the Catholic Church, that to all persons by the holy mystery of baptism duly initiated into Christianity, and admitted into the communion of Christ’s body, the grace of the Holy Spirit is communicated, enabling them to perform the conditions of piety and virtue which they undertake.”[434]
Barrow appears to have been a Low Churchman, and, in the fragment he has left us upon “the holy Catholic Church,” omits those assertions respecting ecclesiastical authority which were the joy of Thorndike and Heylyn. He explains the different senses in which the word “Church” is used in the New Testament; and, in its larger sense, applies to it the epithets “holy” and “Catholic,” winding up all he has to say with practical remarks which commend themselves to candid Christians of all denominations.[435] It may be added that, in his discourse concerning The unity of the Church, he opposes the idea of any such ecclesiastical authority as is contended for either by Papists or Anglo-Catholics.
The Treatise of the Pope’s Supremacy, from the same pen—too long to be described—places the author amongst the chief defenders of Protestantism, and deserves the eulogium of Tillotson,—what “many others have handled before, he hath exhausted.” The student can find arguments against the assumptions of Rome nowhere so fully and powerfully stated as on Barrow’s pages. Those arguments are, perhaps, like Saul’s armour, too cumbrous for the Davids of the present day; but there are in Barrow’s armoury stones from the brook for simple shepherds, as well as spears and shields for veteran warriors.
The feeling of Barrow towards the Romish Church is plain from what has now been said, and it is desirable, before we leave the opinions of the Anglicans, to inquire what their feeling generally was upon this subject; and also how they expressed themselves in reference to Protestant communities.
OPINIONS RESPECTING POPERY.
Thorndike calls the Romish a true but corrupt Church, in which salvation may be obtained, although it be clogged with difficulty. It is not Antichrist. It is not formally idolatrous; yet, after referring to its abuses, he says, “to live under them, and to yield conformity to them, is a burden unsufferable for a Christian to undergo: to approve them by being reconciled to the Church that maintains them is a scandal incurable and irreparable.”[436]
Bishop Bull observes, referring to certain doctrines held by Romanists, “I look upon it as a wonderful both just and wise providence of God, that He hath suffered the Church of Rome to fall into such gross errors (which otherwise it is scarce imaginable how men in their wits that had not renounced not only the Scriptures, but their reason, yea and their senses too, could be overtaken with), and to determine them for articles of faith.”[437]
Heylyn concedes to Rome the character of a true Church; yet after referring to the argument for image worship, he remarks:—“Though perhaps some men of learning may be able to relieve themselves by these distinctions; yet I can see no possibility how the common people, who kneel and make their prayers directly to the image itself, without being able to discern where the difference lieth between their proprie and improprie, or per se and per accidens, can be excused from palpable and downright idolatry.”[438]
The same writer, describing the Reformation, and contending for the continuity of the English Church, reflects, by implication, severely upon its previously Romanized state:—“Whereas, the case, if rightly stated, is but like that of a sick and wounded man, that had long lain weltering in his own blood, or languishing under a tedious burden of diseases, and afterwards by God’s great mercy, and the skilful diligence of honest chirurgeons and physicians, is at the last restored to his former health.”[439]