We have noticed a change in the Church of England, from prevalent Calvinism, during the reign of Elizabeth, for prevalent Arminianism, during the latter part of the reign of James I. A corresponding change occurred in the history of several eminent Divines of the seventeenth century: Bishop Andrewes, Dean Jackson, Bishop Davenant, Archbishop Ussher, John Hales, of Eton, and Dr. Sanderson, are conspicuous examples. Another instance, more remarkable in some respects, is found in the life of John Goodwin--now less known to fame than the celebrated Churchmen just mentioned, and yet a man who, in his own day, attracted not less attention than did they; and whose works for vigour, ingenuity, argument, and eloquence deserve to rank high amongst theological productions, in an age when theology bore its richest fruit. The names now grouped together belong to men who, from first to last, retained more or less of Anglican predilections, and after the commencement of the Stuart period, Anglicanism and anti-Calvinism appear in close alliance; but John Goodwin, unlike the other converts, began his career under the influence of that description of religious feeling which forms so important an element in Puritanism, and he retained that feeling to the end of life. Although he became an Arminian, and renounced opinions identified with doctrinal Puritanism, his Arminianism did not destroy the unction and ardour which were characteristic of his earlier creed. His Arminianism presents some striking differences from that of both the Anglican and Latitudinarian schools; it is animated by an evangelical spirit, and it is wrought out, in connection with evangelical principles, akin to those which appear prominently in the Arminianism of our Wesleyan brethren. Like them, this eminent predecessor of theirs maintained strenuously the doctrine of human depravity, of justification by faith, of the work of the Holy Spirit, of the new birth, and of sanctification. [Sidenote: JOHN GOODWIN.] Before John Goodwin abandoned Calvinism he repudiated the doctrine of the imputed righteousness of Christ as held by the Calvinists of his own day. Yet he concedes almost all for which modern Calvinists would contend, when he remarks that a believer may “be said to be clothed with the righteousness of Christ, and yet the righteousness of Christ itself may not be his clothing, but only that which procured his clothing to him. So Calvin calls the clothing of righteousness, wherewith a believer is clad in his justification, _Justitiam morte, et resurrectione Christi, acquisitam_--a righteousness procured by the death and resurrection of Christ.”[529]