Series 5 > Religious Controversy in Scotland 1625-1639

[BAILLIE,] ‘UNRE ASONABLENESSE OF THE SERVICE BOOK’ 119
confirmed and by consequence spiritual! children, whereof the like is not in
scripture.
42.61 The fourth tome of Bellarmine handleth the questions of the estate of
man before the fall, of the estate of man under sinne, and of sinne generally, and
of original! sinne, of the grace of God and predestination, of mans free-will, of
justification by faith, merite of good works, and perseverance. In all which it is
manifest how farre these authors have departed from the orthodoxe faith and
confession of Scotland, as is knowne by their preaching of the Arminian errours.
And these errours are sleelie mixed here too, for in the antheme of Easter it is
said: ‘For as by Adam all men do die, so by Christ all men shall be restored [to
life] ,’62 And in the catechisme, at the question of the summe of the creed it is said,
‘[Secondly, in God] the Son, [who] has redeemed me and all mankind,’63 and in
the second collect of Good Fryday where the English hath ‘that every member
of thy congregation may truely and godly serve thee,’ this book sayeth, ‘may
truelie and worthielie serve thee.’ Is not this an ap[p. 24]proaching unto merit?
Thogh these phrases be like some words of scripture, yet they ought to be cleared
especialhe in these dayes when they are misinterpreted to be the ground of so
many pernicious errours, unlesse we professe to erre with them who are unsta¬
ble and abuse scripture to their damnation.
50. Then Bellarmine handleth good works, more speciaUie where of prayer
he sayeth these words, ‘for thine is the kingdome and the power and the glorie
for ever’, are superstitious and not found in the text. This book omitts these
words (and forbids to adde them) for after then it hes them.64 He sayeth, the
canonicall houres are advysedlie prescrived and should not be omitted by the
cleargie,howbeit none of the people be present. It is so enjoined heere for evening
and morning, as I touched before. And heere, by the way, it may be asked what
these prayers doe meane? The collect of the Septuagesima, where they say, ‘O
Lord, we beseech thee favourably to hear the prayers of thy people, that we which
are jusdy punished for our offences, may be [mercifully] defivered [by thy good¬
ness, for the glory of thy Name] ..,’65—heere they suppone that the people shall
ever be punished on that day, and nevertheless it may happen on some of these
dayes the people be under no punishment. And on the 12 Sunday afterTrinitie it
is said: ‘Pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy, forgiving us those
things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving unto us that our prayer dare
61 The numbers are just set off into the margin. Closely below 42, the numbers 43 to 49 are inscribed
in smaller characters.
62 Baillie had slightly abbreviated this text, most notably the final two words. MSPB, 162.
63 MSPB,2YI.
64 MSPB, 183,200.There is no formal prohibition.
65 MSPB, 157; square brackets restore Baillie s omissions.