Jewel would have answered the first question yes, the second no, for
faith is not within the power of the heart God has not changed: ‘It is God
which openeth the hearts of the people, and maketh them tremble at his
words. It is God which giveth the increase, and maketh his word to be
of force.’^43 Further, Jewel posits that the wicked are not merely those who
have rejected God, but instead are used by God for a particular end: that
they stand as warnings to the elect. This is not some infralapsarian
blandishment:
God has chosen you from the beginning: his election is sure for ever
... You shall not be deceived with the power and subtilty of
antichrist, you shall not fall from grace, you shall not perish. This is
the comfort which abideth with the faithful, when they behold the
fall of the wicked; when they see them forsake the truth and delight
in fables; when they see them return to their vomit and to wallow
again in the mire. When we see these things in others, we must say:
Alas, they are examples for me, and they are lamentable examples!That Jewel’s wicked are lamentable examples to the elect says a great
deal about his own assumptions, and certainly how he contrasts the elect
with the wicked places him firmly within the realm of Peter Martyr’s
own views on the doctrine of election:
God hath loved me, and hath chosen me to salvation ... He hath
loved me he hath chosen me, he will keep me. Neither the example
nor the company of others, nor the enticing of the devil, nor mine
own sensual imaginations, nor sword, nor fire, is able to separate me
from the love of God.^44Jewel goes on: faith being the gift of God, it is not something that others
possess, but that Christians possess only from God. Muslims do not have
faith, for faith is only born from the Word of God. Here Jewel uses the
Word of God as Scripture and the Word of God as fiatand declarative
interchangeably. Thus the Word of God that brings salvation is also the
Word of God that effects salvation. Faith does not bring salvation, for
faith itself is a ‘token of God’s election’, as is sanctification; he does not
say works, though this is clearly implied by the term sanctification. Thus,
faith and sanctification are the results, not the cause of election.^45
Regardless of what Jewel’s actual theological position may say on this
matter, White’s six pages of revision approach the issue from the wrong
vantage. Jewel was not a formal theologian, he never constructed any
systems, nor did he ever leave any theological treatises. What works of
this kind exist, his treatises on the sacraments and Scripture, are nothing
other than postmortem compilations and collations of some of his
240 JOHN JEWEL AND THE ENGLISH NATIONAL CHURCH
(^43) Ibid.
(^44) Ibid., p. 933.
(^45) Ibid., p. 934.
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