Chapter 29 - Predestination, the Positive Case

Summary

This chapter discusses the positive content of the Laudians’ position on predestination. Particular attention is paid to seven authors prepared to deal with this topic in extenso – Edward Kellett, Robert Shelford, Thomas Chown, Thomas Hoard, Robert Jackson, Edmund Reeve and Robert Skinner, not to mention the anonymous J. A. of Ailward. The latter attempted to attribute an essentially Arminian version of the theology of grace to the English church though the appropriation of what at the time was regarded as an essentially heretical work, which survived only in the refutation of it by the Edwardian protestant, and future puritan, Robert Crowley. This chapter concerns itself with the relation between divine foreknowledge and the double decree. These discussions were often conducted in terms of the divine attributes, chief amongst them divine mercy and justice. On this topic particular attention is given to the work of Thomas Jackson and Robert Shelford.