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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/28339-h.zip b/28339-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bca380c --- /dev/null +++ b/28339-h.zip diff --git a/28339-h/28339-h.htm b/28339-h/28339-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0ab05de --- /dev/null +++ b/28339-h/28339-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2684 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content= +"text/html; charset=utf-8"> +<title>On Calvinism.</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + body {font-family:'Bookman Old Style', 'Book Antiqua', 'Garamond'; line-height:1.6;text-align:justify; margin-left:3em; margin-right:3em} + hr {text-align:center} + h1 {font-weight:normal} + h2 {font-weight:normal;font-size:83%;margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em} + sup {color:green; font-size:75%; font-weight:900} + p.pn {text-indent:1.5em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0} + p.pns {text-indent:1.5em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:1em} + p.pnn {margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0} + p.ps {margin-top:0; margin-bottom:1em} + p.pc {text-align:center;margin-top:1.5em; margin-bottom:0} + p.pch {text-align:center;font-size:83%;margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em} + li.list1 {list-style: square outside} + li.list2 {list-style: upper-roman outside} + .ctr {text-align:center} + .p0 {padding-left:2em; text-indent:-2em} + .grk {font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:83%} + .sc {font-variant:small-caps} + +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of On Calvinism, by William Hull + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: On Calvinism + +Author: William Hull + +Release Date: March 16, 2009 [EBook #28339] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON CALVINISM *** + + + + +Produced by Keith G. Richardson + + + + + +</pre> + +<ul> +<li class="list1"><a href="#TitlePage">Title Page.</a></li> +<li class="list1"><a href="#Dedication">Dedication.</a></li> +<li class="list1"><a href="#Preface">Preface.</a></li> +<li class="list1"><a href="#Contents">Contents Page.</a></li> +<li class="list1"><a href="#Part1">Part1 — General +Remarks.</a></li> +<li class="list1"><a href="#Part2">Part2 — Particular +Objections.</a> +<ul> +<li class="list2"><a href="#I">Calvinism impugns the moral +character of the Deity</a></li> +<li class="list2"><a href="#II">Calvinism is not to be reconciled +with the moral responsibility of man</a></li> +<li class="list2"><a href="#III">Calvinism is opposed to the +constitution and the purposes of a visible Church</a></li> +<li class="list2"><a href="#IV">Calvinism is productive of +positively injurious effects, on individual character and on +social happiness</a></li> +<li class="list2"><a href="#V">Calvinism is not the doctrine of +Scripture, nor of the Anglican Church</a></li> +<li class="list2"><a href="#VI">Calvinism has led to the +corruption of Christian doctrine, that the Scriptures may be +accommodated to extreme views of the divine decrees</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +<li class="list1"><a href="#Appendix">Appendix.</a></li> +<li class="list1"><a href="#SameAuthor">By the same +Author.</a></li> +<li class="list1"><a href="#Footnotes">Footnotes.</a></li> +</ul> +<div style="text-align:center"> +<h1 style= +"font-size:150%;margin-top:10em; margin-bottom:6.5em;letter-spacing:0.2em"> +<a name="TitlePage" id="TitlePage">ON CALVINISM.</a></h1> +<p style="font-size:67%;margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0.5em;">BY +THE</p> +<p style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0.5em;letter-spacing:0.1em"> +REV. WILLIAM HULL,</p> +<p style="font-size:67%;margin-top:0; margin-bottom:3em;"> +PERPETUAL CURATE OF ST. GREGORY’S, NORWICH.</p> +</div> +<hr style="width:13%;margin-top:1.7em; margin-bottom:1.8em"> +<p class="pn"><span class="grk">Τουτον γαρ ἁπασῃ ψυχῃ φυσικον +νομον βοηθον αυτῃ και συμμαχον επι των πρακτεων ὁ των ὁλων +δημιουργος ὑπεστατο. Δια μεν του νομου την ευθειαν αυτῃ +παραδειξας ὁδον· δια δε της αυτῃ δεδωρημενης αυτεξουσιου +ελευθεριας την των κρειττονων αἱρεσιν επαινου και αποδοχης αξιαν +αποφηνας, γερων τε και μειζονων επαθλων.—Eusebius.</span></p> +<div style="text-align:center"> +<hr style="width:13%;margin-top:1.7em; margin-bottom:1.7em"> +<p style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0.2em"> +LONDON:</p> +<p style="font-size:83%;margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">PRINTED +FOR J. G. F. & J. RIVINGTON,</p> +<p style="font-size:67%;margin-top:0; margin-bottom:1em;">ST. +PAUL’S CHURCH YARD,<br> +AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL.</p> +<hr style="width:8%;margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0.2em"> +<p style="font-size:83%;margin-top:0; margin-bottom:10em;"> +1841.</p> +<p style="font-size:67%;margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0;"> +LONDON:</p> +<p style="font-size:67%;margin-top:0; margin-bottom:10em;"> +GILBERT & RIVINGTON, PRINTERS,<br> +ST. JOHN’S SQUARE.</p> +<h1 style="font-size:67%;margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:4em;"> +<a name="Dedication" id="Dedication">TO</a></h1> +<p style="font-size:83%;margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:2em;">THE +HONOURABLE AND VERY REVEREND</p> +<p style= +"font-size:133%;letter-spacing:0.2em;margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em;"> +DR. PELLEW,</p> +<p style="margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em;">DEAN OF +NORWICH.</p> +</div> +<p class="pns">S<span class="sc">ir</span>,</p> +<p class="ps">W<span class="sc">hen</span> I venture to inscribe +to you the following pages, I am fearless of having applied to me +Johnson’s definition of a dedicator, “one who inscribes his work +to a patron with compliment and servility.” Adulation, Sir, from +any quarter, <i>you</i> would resent as an indignity, and the +tenor of my own life and writings will secure me from the +imputation of <i>servile</i> deference to others, with whatever +reverence I may contemplate their rank, their talents, or their +virtues.</p> +<p class="pns">When, Sir, under unusual circumstances, I engaged +in the ministry of the Church, the presentation which I received +from the Chapter was, on my part, unsolicited and unexpected, +and, on yours, a favour done on public principle to one who was +personally unknown to you.</p> +<p class="pns">In respectfully presenting to your attention this +short treatise, I do not prejudge your opinion of its contents, +whether favourable or adverse. The responsibility rests +exclusively with the writer.</p> +<p class="pns">But I cherish the persuasion that it contains no +sentiments, and expresses no feelings, which can be justly +displeasing to a dignified clergyman, who has firmly professed +his attachment to the great principles of the Church in times +more dangerous to her interests, and more difficult for her +ministers, than any which have heretofore occurred since the +great Rebellion.</p> +<p style= +"padding-left:5em; text-indent:-2em; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em;"> +I have the honour to be, Sir,</p> +<p style= +"padding-left:7em; text-indent:-2em; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em;"> +your obliged and faithful servant,</p> +<p style="text-align:right;margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0"> +WILLIAM HULL.</p> +<p style="font-size:92%;margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">Eaton +next Norwich,</p> +<p style= +"padding-left:5em; text-indent:-2em;font-size:92%;margin-top:0; margin-bottom:10em;"> +Sept. 1841.</p> +<h1 style= +"text-align:center;font-size:133%;letter-spacing:0.1em;margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em;"> +<a name="Preface" id="Preface">PREFACE.</a></h1> +<hr style="width:15%;margin-top:1.5em;margin-bottom:1.5em"> +<p class="pnn">T<span class="sc">hat</span> strenuous attempts +are now in progress to propagate Calvinism in its most +objectionable forms, by impressing into its service that spirit +of earnest, but often misinformed piety which has been awakened +within the bosom of the Church, is too notorious to require proof +or to admit of refutation.</p> +<p class="pn">The following sheets have been written, and are now +published, under the solemn conviction, that the danger to be +apprehended from the extensive diffusion of this creed, both to +religion and the Church, renders it impossible that it should be +allowed to pursue its unmolested course, without correspondent +efforts, on the part of sound Churchmen, to counteract its +baleful influence.</p> +<p class="pn">Superstition, which lays undue stress on outward +forms, and fanaticism, which gives credit to preternatural +impulses, and professes a particular kind of inspiration +differing not at all from infallibility, are the Scylla and +Charybdis, through which, over stormy waters or serene, we have +to make our steady way. Both are equally intolerant, and both are +condemned by the genius of Protestantism, the constitution of the +Church, and the spirit of the Bible.</p> +<p class="pn">It is devoutly to be desired, that none who are +more regardful of truth than of party, that none who are alive to +the real state of the times, and to the character of the +respective interests which may hereafter be brought into unhappy +collision, may hesitate, through fear or favour, to act in this +crisis with moral courage tempered with holy charity. Let them +discountenance all extreme innovations, from whatsoever quarter +they may proceed, or by whatsoever distinguished names they may +be sanctioned. Let them rise with manly integrity above the mean +suggestions of temporizing policy, and look only to the +substantial and permanent interests of the Church, which are +those of truth and charity, of freedom in alliance with order, of +Christianity in its most ennobling form, and of the public +welfare of the British Empire.</p> +<p class="pn">If the spirit of rigid Calvinism, under any +plausible disguise, should be widely diffused through the +Anglican Church, we need no prophetic mind to announce, that it +will lead to consequences fatal to her peace and liberty, +introducing a spiritual despotism whose power will be felt +throughout the length and breadth of the land, overawing, as in +the days of John Knox, the majesty of princes, and spreading its +morbid gloom to the sequestered cottage of the peasant, in the +remotest regions and most unfrequented provinces.</p> +<p class="pn">History proves, that the men who are deeply imbued +with this spirit, merge all other interests in their devoted zeal +to its propagation.</p> +<p class="pn">Those of that party who, like Mr. Noel, think “our +venerable Church” means no more than “our venerable +<i>selves</i>,” will be ready to betray her into the hands of her +adversaries, whensoever they may be deemed strong enough to carry +her outworks, and to supplant the orthodox clergyman by the +Calvinistic minister;—while those who reverence the Apostolical +succession, or the general order of the Church, will form within +our pale an intolerant party, intriguing for dominion, restless +and oppressive, never to be satisfied until they have crushed or +excluded all who have dared to profess their rejection of the +Calvinistic theology.</p> +<p class="pn">In the spirit already exemplified by the Pastoral +Aid Society, for the detection of whose sectarian principles we +are indebted to the Christian courage of Dr. Molesworth, they +will throw obstacles in the way of candidates for ordination or +parochial cures, if they come not up to the doctrinal standard of +their <i>triers</i>: the episcopal functions will be usurped or +controlled by the ruthless zeal of an ecclesiastical faction; the +Church societies for the extension of Christian knowledge and +piety will lose their catholic character, dwindling into ignoble +channels for spreading abroad the bigotry of an exclusive school; +and gone for ever will be those beautiful charities, and that +liberal regard to the just exercise of Christian and clerical +freedom, which have been recently elicited, and expressed with +deliberate solemnity, in the correspondence of the Archbishop of +Canterbury and the Bishop of London, with the reverend Canon +Wodehouse, on the subject of subscription.</p> +<p class="pn">The author of this tract has aimed at conciseness, +so far as the nature of the argument would allow, not employing +“those arts by which a big book is made.” But if the smallness of +the work does not seem to accord with the magnitude of the +subject, it is not to be inferred that the sentiments have been +hastily formed or rashly vindicated. For many years they have +been taking deep root in the mind of the writer; nor would he +have engaged in the ministry of the Church, but on the +conviction, after serious inquiry, that her faith was primitive +and not Calvinistic.</p> +<p class="pn">He has spared no “plainness of speech,” in his +exposure of dangerous error, but from principle and feeling he +has abstained from the malice of personal vituperation. His +warfare is with pernicious opinions, not with those who hold +them, many of whom are impressed with the religious persuasion, +that what they have believed they have received from divine +teaching, and that in upholding their creed they glorify God.</p> +<p class="pn">Such divine teaching as the Calvinist claims, and +which, if it means any thing, amounts to plenary inspiration, the +writer does not suppose to have superintended his own thoughts +while engaged in the composition of these pages. He would deem it +unwarrantable presumption to look for such miraculous effusion of +the Spirit in the ordinary condition of the Church. But he +confidently believes, that, to those who seek it in humble faith, +such grace is given as may purify the dispositions of the heart, +and thus guard it from all predilection for error and all +prejudice against <i>the truth</i>. Entertaining these views of +the office of the Holy Spirit under the evangelical dispensation, +the writer humbly commits this work, not executed without +dependence on his preventing grace, to Him who is the eternal +source and the faithful patron of truth; uniting in the prayer of +this beautiful collect, with all those, who, whatsoever their +doctrinal views of religion, seek for truth as the richest of +treasures.</p> +<p class="pn">“O Lord, from whom all good things do come; grant +to us thy humble servants, that by thy holy inspiration, we may +think those things that be good, and by thy merciful guiding may +perform the same, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.”</p> +<h1 style= +"text-align:center;font-size:133%;margin-top:10em; margin-bottom:1.5em;"> +<a name="Contents" id="Contents">CONTENTS.</a></h1> +<hr style="width:15%;margin-top:2.5em; margin-bottom:3em"> +<p class="pns"><a href="#Part1">G<span class="sc">eneral +remarks</span></a></p> +<p class="pns"><a href="#Part2">P<span class="sc">articular +objections</span></a></p> +<p style= +"padding-left:3.5em; text-indent:-2em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0"> +<a href="#I">I. Calvinism impugns the moral character of the +Deity</a></p> +<p style= +"padding-left:3.5em; text-indent:-2em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0"> +<a href="#II">II. Calvinism is not to be reconciled with the +moral responsibility of man</a></p> +<p style= +"padding-left:3.5em; text-indent:-2em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0"> +<a href="#III">III. Calvinism is opposed to the constitution and +the purposes of a visible Church</a></p> +<p style= +"padding-left:3.5em; text-indent:-2em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0"> +<a href="#IV">IV. Calvinism is productive of positively injurious +effects, on individual character and on social happiness</a></p> +<p style= +"padding-left:3.5em; text-indent:-2em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0"> +<a href="#V">V. Calvinism is not the doctrine of Scripture, nor +of the Anglican Church</a></p> +<p style= +"padding-left:3.5em; text-indent:-2em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:1em"> +<a href="#VI">VI. Calvinism has led to the corruption of +Christian doctrine, that the Scriptures may be accommodated to +extreme views of the divine decrees</a></p> +<p style= +"padding-left:3.5em; text-indent:-2em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0"> +<a href="#Appendix">A<span class="sc">ppendix</span></a></p> +<h1 style= +"text-align:center;font-size:142%;letter-spacing:0.1em;margin-top:10em; margin-bottom:1em;"> +<a name="Part1" id="Part1">ON CALVINISM.</a></h1> +<hr style="width:15%;margin-top:1.5em;margin-bottom:1.5em"> +<p style= +"text-align:center;font-size:112%;margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em;"> +PART I.</p> +<p class="pch">GENERAL REMARKS.</p> +<p class="pnn">To St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo in Africa, +belongs the equivocal distinction of having originated in the +Christian Church a controversy respecting the Divine decrees, a +controversy which dates its origin from the fifth century, and +which, after the lapse of thirteen hundred years, exhibits no +symptoms of approaching to its end. In the Roman Communion, it +was the source of those bitter animosities, which reciprocally +exasperated the Jesuits and Jansenists. The Protestant Churches, +in the early days of the Reformation, were disturbed by the +agitation of this perplexed and perilous subject. And when Calvin +appeared as the vindicator of the Divine sovereignty in +predetermining the fates of men, he only introduced to the +Churches of the Reformation a doctrine which had been transmitted +from earlier times, but which, perhaps, he defined with more +precision, expounded with more fearless consistency, and invested +with the authority of his own great and illustrious name. In the +present discussion the word <i>Calvinism</i> is used, not to +signify those doctrines of the Church which Calvin held in common +with the fathers of the Reformation, but those only which relate +to his extreme views of the Divine decrees, to his predestinarian +theology, and to his modification of other scripture truths to +render them harmonious with his principal tenets.</p> +<p class="pn">Whatever therefore may be the merits or the final +result of this grave and earnest controversy, it leaves untouched +the corruption of human nature, the deity and atonement of +Christ, justification by faith, the necessity of Divine influence +to renew and purify the heart, and the scriptural doctrine of +predestination, according to the fore-knowledge of God. This +distinction is important; since, if it be overlooked, the +rejectors of Calvinism may be supposed to have also rejected the +capital doctrines of the Reformed faith. Fuller has +unwarrantably, perhaps undesignedly, given his sanction to this +imputation in his “Calvinistic and Socinian Systems +compared<sup><a href="#n1" id="f1" title="see footnote" name= +"f1">1</a></sup>.” But the rejectors of <i>Calvinistic</i> +predestination may be not less remote from Socinianism, and much +nearer to genuine Christianity, than the most rigid disciple of +that eminent Reformer, who, in the protestant city of Geneva, +committed Servetus to the flames. The Socinian controversy +relates to doctrines, which are the common faith of the Catholic +Church; with the peculiarities of Calvinism it has no concern. +And it is worthy of remark, that if one class of doctrinalists +more than another symbolizes in any instance with Socinians, the +followers of Calvin form that class; since it is not easy to +discover where lies the essential difference between the doctrine +of <i>philosophical necessity</i>, as held by the greater number +of Socinians, and that of <i>predestination</i>, as maintained by +Calvinists.</p> +<p class="pn">Both parties rest their dogmas on the same +metaphysical grounds. At the same time, as moral reasoners, the +palm of superiority must be awarded to Socinians, who reject most +consistently the doctrine of human corruption, and the atonement +of Christ, together with the correspondent doctrines of the +Gospel, as altogether out of place in a scheme which denies the +freedom of human actions and reduces all independent agency to +that of the Deity alone; while the Calvinist subjects the human +race to an inevitable necessity of sinning, denies to them +individually, even the semblance of a probationary course—makes +them accountable, yet withholds the powers necessary to a moral +agent, and then most unrighteously dooms to perdition all but the +elect! In rejecting such a theory of religion, we reject not the +fundamental doctrines of Christianity; we only vindicate them +from objections, which, if unanswerable, are fatal; and we hold +to the Gospel with a firmer conviction and a livelier faith, when +we behold its accordance with the righteousness of the Divine +administration and with the moral constitution of man.</p> +<p class="pn">On a subject, which has been so long and so +laboriously investigated, and to the illustration of which the +most vigorous and profound of human intellects have directed +their energies, it would be vain to expect any novelty of +argument. On either side, it may be presumed, the question has +been exhausted, or, that the human mind has done all that its +powers can accomplish, however unsatisfactory or inconclusive, in +some respects, the result.</p> +<p class="pn">It appears to the writer of these pages, on a calm +and summary review of the arguments by which the doctrines of +<i>freedom</i> and <i>necessity</i> have been respectively +supported, that those reasonings which are purely +<i>philosophical</i> or <i>metaphysical</i> decidedly +preponderate on the side of N<span class="sc">ecessity</span>. +The prescience of the Deity cannot, <i>on any known +principle</i>, be reconciled with the contingency which attaches +to the actions or determinations of man, on the hypothesis of +freedom<sup><a href="#n2" id="f2" title="see footnote" name= +"f2">2</a></sup>. And, moreover, if every event requires a cause, +and every volition is guided by motives, what are called the +spontaneous acts of the mind must be the necessary result of +motives which direct and command its elections. “To say that in +our choice we reject the stronger motive, and that we choose a +thing merely because we choose it, is sheer nonsense and +absurdity. And whoever, with a sound understanding, will fix his +mind upon the state of the question, will perceive its +impossibility.”</p> +<p class="pn">But, all correct <i>moral</i> reasoning ranges on +the side of <span class="sc">freedom</span>. In opposition to the +subtle or forcible reasonings of the metaphysician, every +individual can plead his inward consciousness of voluntary +agency. He feels, he knows, that he is free. The exercise of the +moral sense, the judgment which the mind pronounces on its own +good or evil movements, the conviction of having done or +neglected a duty, the calm satisfaction of the virtuous mind, and +the fierce or sullen remorse of the criminal, are associated with +the insuppressible persuasion of liberty. Destroy this +persuasion, and virtue is despoiled of its loveliness, vice of +its deformity. But it cannot be destroyed. It is the voice of +nature. The Creator has so formed us, that we cannot throw off +from ourselves the sense of responsibility, nor regard our fellow +creatures as unfit for praise or blame, for love or hatred. Men +treat each other as free agents in all the transactions of human +life, and God administers the government of the world, on the +principle that mankind are capable of self-control, regulating +their conduct by the hope of reward or fear of punishment. If the +consciousness of freedom be a delusion, it follows that moral +obligation, duty, reward, guilt, punishment, are delusions, and +that religion, however salutary in its effects, is nothing better +than a magnificent imposture.</p> +<p class="pn">Calvinism is an attempt to found the religion of +Christ on the doctrine of necessity, and to accommodate its +truths, which suppose and require free agency in man, to a dark +and appalling fatalism. But in a case like the present, in which +metaphysical reasonings, however profound or conclusive, so far +as they go, are at variance with practical truth, with +consciousness, with the actual state of things, and with the +unquestionable procedures of the Divine government, as confirmed +by the scriptures, wisdom would seem to dictate our adhesion to +that side of the question, which is supported by <span class= +"sc">moral</span> arguments.</p> +<p class="pn">In taking this part, it does not follow that we are +to repudiate, as totally without foundation, the philosophy and +the metaphysics of the necessarian—<i>æquo pretio æstimentur</i>. +We may admit, that the force of his argument, in the present +imperfect state of human knowledge, renders the question +perplexed and difficult; that it accounts for the divided +opinions of the erudite and the devout, and that it precludes the +hope of a speedy termination of the controversy. But in assigning +to moral reasoning the superior authority, we are governed by a +just regard to the nature of the question at issue, which, being +related to the destinies of moral agents, and the principles on +which the Deity conducts his moral government, must be +determined, not by metaphysical, but by moral arguments. When +brought to this test, Calvinism appears utterly indefensible, as +being a system at variance with the attributes of the Deity, and +irreconcileable with the moral constitution of human beings, and +with the obligations laid upon them by their Creator. It is +falsified by facts.</p> +<p class="pn">That the predestinarian theology, which denies the +freedom of the will, is supported by names of great +consideration, is cheerfully granted. No man, for example, was +ever endowed with a genius more commanding, with logical powers +more acute, with a faculty more surprising of writing on +recondite subjects with force, perspicuity, and nervous +eloquence, than President Edwards. Nevertheless, the correctness +of his views is not implicitly to be inferred from his +transcendant intellect and fervent piety.</p> +<p class="pn">All the great errors, which have been propagated in +the Christian Church, have found advocates in men of the first +character for intellectual power and moral dignity, or they would +have passed away with their authors into immediate oblivion.</p> +<p class="pn">In estimating the authority of Edwards as a +theologian, it is requisite that we should know the temperament +and habits of that very remarkable person. It is not, perhaps, +generally considered, that great as were the energy and acuteness +of his reasoning powers, he was less under the dominion of these +than of his imagination and feelings. In early life this is not +unfrequently the case with persons of imaginative character; but, +commonly, the ardent enthusiasm of youth gives way afterwards to +the ascendancy of the higher faculties. Edwards was, +constitutionally, too much the creature of dreams and impulses +ever to escape from their control. His gigantic mind was held in +perpetual bondage. His natural temperament was fostered +throughout the whole period which moulds and fixes the character, +by his holding little converse with human beings beyond the +sphere of a particular religious community in an obscure American +town, and by an almost uninterrupted contemplation of nature in +her gloomy and awful forms, amid the silence of uncultivated +plains, and the solitude of interminable forests. The profound +feeling, the intense excitement, which accompanied his early +devotional exercises, were such as to insure a permanent +attachment to every principle and every impression of that +susceptible age. The visions of a warm, and often morbid, +imagination continued to be cherished with religious confidence +and love for ever afterwards. Every doubt, of what he once had +received for truth, was anxiously suppressed in the manhood of +his mind as an infernal suggestion; and the acuteness of his +reasoning powers, by supplying him at all times with an argument, +for what he conceived it <i>his duty</i> to believe, served, not +to emancipate him from false apprehensions of truth, but to rivet +upon him more firmly the chains of ignorance or error. When +argument was doubtful, a dogged fanaticism supplied its place. +This may be illustrated by a particular instance, and bearing +directly on the subject of our present discussion.</p> +<p class="pn">It cannot be doubted, by any person qualified to +appreciate his writings, that his views of the Divine sovereignty +are resolvable into a system of absolute fatalism, so far as the +actions and destinies of men are concerned. Reason and conscience +revolt from the consequences involved in such a system; all our +moral instincts condemn it. But it was instilled into his mind by +Calvinistic instructors in the days of his boyhood; his +imagination was perpetually haunted by it; and having identified +it with the truth of divine revelation, which he held in +religious veneration and awe, he finally vanquished every doubt +respecting it, not by the deliberate exercise of his judgment, on +a calm investigation of evidence, but by the force of his +religious feelings, and of his ascendant imagination. Let him +tell his own story.</p> +<p class="pn">“From my childhood up,” he says, “my mind had been +full of objections against the doctrine of God’s sovereignty, in +choosing whom He would to eternal life, and rejecting whom He +pleased; leaving them eternally to perish, and to be +everlastingly tormented in hell. It used to appear like a +horrible doctrine to me. But I remember the time very well, when +I seemed to be convinced and fully satisfied as to this +sovereignty of God, and his justice in thus eternally disposing +of men, according to his sovereign pleasure. <i>But never could +give any account, how, or by what means I was thus convinced</i>, +not in the least imagining at the time, nor a long time after, +that there was any extraordinary influence of God’s Spirit in it; +but only that now I saw further, and my reason apprehended the +justice and reasonableness of it.” In this extraordinary passage, +the most instructive he ever penned, he confesses, undesignedly +but clearly, that his faith in the Calvinistic theology did not +rest on those arguments by which he has confirmed so many others +in that tremendous creed, but was the result of supposed +supernatural illumination. The true solution would be, “Sit pro +ratione voluntas!”</p> +<p class="pn">Much as we find to admire and revere in this +eminent man, the history of his mind forbids us to rely on him +with implicit confidence as an expositor of divine truth. His +religion was exalted, his genius wonderful, but the subordination +of his judgment to his imagination was an immense evil, producing +an almost superstitious dread of the operations of his own mighty +mind, suppressing its energies, its growth, and its expansion. He +presents an example, not less of the weakness than of the majesty +of human nature. We cease to wonder, when he describes the +happiness of the spirits of the redeemed in heaven, as being +derived, in part, from their listening to the groans and +lamentations of lost souls in hell. Nor can we doubt, that if he +had been born and educated a member of the Church of Rome, he +would have lived and died, like Fenelon or Pascal, a splendid +ornament of that impure communion, a conscientious advocate of +that servile faith.</p> +<p class="pn">Calvinism has never had another advocate equally +qualified with Edwards to vindicate its awful dogmata; and if, by +his own confession, his most potent arguments would have failed +to produce conviction in his own mind, without God’s special +influence, we see reason to suspect the validity of these +arguments, until we have proof that he did indeed receive from +heaven miraculous illumination. Such <i>special influence</i> we +may with propriety question, since a claim to inspiration can be +supported only by the exercise of miraculous powers. Deny, +therefore, the inspiration of this profound writer, of which +there is no proof, and we have his own authority against the +conclusiveness of his own arguments; since he confesses that by +their cogency alone they are insufficient to produce conviction +in opposition to our just and natural conceptions of the +righteous character of God.</p> +<p class="pn">Let us not, therefore, crouch with timid servility +to great names. The opinions of men of erudition, and genius, and +holy zeal for religion, are to be examined with modest deference, +but not to be received with implicit credulity. In the most +enlightened and holy men, who, since the decease of the apostles, +have served God and his Christ; in the fathers of the ancient +Church; in those who headed the Protestant Reformation, and lived +as saints, or died as martyrs; in Luther, Calvin, Cranmer, Knox, +we discover humiliating proofs of imperfection and fallibility. +And, while the fundamental truths of Christianity have been +preserved in the Catholic Church, those truths have been mingled +or associated with errors so injurious and degrading, that no +blind faith is to be rested on any <i>human authority</i>. Let us +uphold the majesty of divine revelation, and vindicate our right +and our duty to interpret the sacred page—not by the traditions +of fallible men, not by the metaphysics of the schools, not by +the “special influences” which an enthusiastic mind may construe +into divine teaching, and which may be pleaded, with equal truth +or falsehood, for every form of error; but by a sober reference +to those moral perfections of the Deity, and to those essential +attributes of human nature, the knowledge of which lies at the +foundation of all sound religious belief. These are to be learned +from the Scriptures, and are the key to their right +interpretation.</p> +<p class="pn">Edwards, incomparably the most able advocate of +Calvinism, since the days of the reformer himself, is not a +solitary example of the way in which a zealous pleader may, +unwarily, betray and weaken his own cause.</p> +<p class="pn">Mr. Scott, in his “<span class="sc">force of +truth</span>,” gives an account of his own conversion to +Calvinism not very dissimilar to that of Edwards, and not in any +degree more honourable to the cause he proposes to defend. The +argument of that work may be summed up in few words. Mr. Scott +entertained a great dislike of Calvinistic doctrines. He rejected +the evidence by which they were supported, as being insufficient +to establish a creed which appeared to him most objectionable. +Yet, strong as were his prejudices against it, they ultimately +gave way, and, <i>therefore</i>, Calvinism must be the truth. +But, in both instances, the impression designed to be made on the +mind of the reader is the same, that is, that the Spirit of God +accomplished what the force of argument had failed to do. Mr. +Scott, therefore, adds his testimony to that of President +Edwards, confessing that Calvinism is not supported by proofs +sufficient in themselves to carry conviction to the human mind, +without special illumination from above; an illumination, which, +assuredly, the <i>religious opposers</i> may as righteously +claim, as the religious defenders of Calvinism. For what +Christian man does not pray for the guidance of God’s good +Spirit? The dispassionate reader of “<i>The Force of Truth</i>,” +will naturally say, that the arguments for the Calvinistic creed +were either sound or unsound. If the former, then Mr. Scott was +either very obtuse or very obstinate to resist so long their +power. If the latter, he acted with great weakness in yielding at +length to insufficient evidence, on the score of an undefinable +impulse. In either case, his name is divested of commanding +authority in the view of reasonable men. Yet it can hardly be +doubted, that this claim to <i>special teaching</i> from the +fountain of wisdom and of truth, has done more, incalculably +more, to awe the minds of men into submission, and thus to obtain +currency for their opinions, than the <i>joint confession</i> of +these popular writers, to the insufficiency of their own +arguments, has availed to render suspected the force of their +reasoning. The impression made on the generality of minds would +be, that men so good, and so candid in confessing their own +obstinacy, could not be mistaken, in believing themselves, at a +subsequent period, to be inspired and infallible<sup><a href= +"#n3" id="f3" title="see footnote" name="f3">3</a></sup>.</p> +<p class="pn">The advocates of Calvinism differ remarkably from +each other in the tone and spirit of their writings, as their +habits of thought and feeling are modified by circumstances. The +American divines of the school of Edwards have carried out his +principles with unflinching consistency, not hesitating to impute +to the Deity, in unqualified terms, the eternal decrees which fix +the weal or woe of the human race for ever. The cold and +heartless manner in which these men treat the subject, and the +stoical apathy with which they contemplate the result of their +hard metaphysics, are extremely remote from our usual conceptions +of piety and humanity. Well might that superlative woman, Mrs. +Susanna Wesley, say, “The doctrine of <i>predestination</i>, as +maintained by rigid Calvinists, is very shocking, and ought +utterly to be abhorred.” The dark spirit of inflexible wrath +which the American Calvinists have imputed to the Deity, together +with their coarse caricatures of the Gospel, may account for, but +cannot justify, the terms in which Dr. Chancing has thought fit +to assail <i>the orthodox faith</i>, confounding on all occasions +scriptural Christianity, as held by the Catholic Church, with the +dogmas of an extravagant creed. To understand his eloquent and +indignant declamations, we must read the transatlantic expounders +of the Calvinistic theology.</p> +<p class="pn">In general, the English writers of any name, are +more guarded and less unfeeling. They do not at once and directly +charge God with being the author of sin. The late Dr. Williams of +Rotherham composed a voluminous work on the subject, entitled +“<span class="sc">equity</span> and <span class= +"sc">sovereignty</span>,” in which he gives, what he considers, a +new theory of the origin of moral evil. To redeem the divine +character from the imputation of harshness in the decree of +reprobation, he supposes mankind under a <i>necessary tendency to +moral defection</i>, as dependent and created beings; and that it +was in mere <i>equity</i>, that the wicked were <i>left</i>, not +decreed, to perdition. The hypothesis of Dr. Williams is already +exploded. It was examined and refuted by the Rev. William Parry, +of Wymondly, in a piece entitled “Strictures on the Origin of +Moral Evil.” For reasoning, acute, profound, and perspicuous, +both metaphysical and moral, this work has seldom been surpassed. +And the devout and courteous spirit in which it is written, +presents an example, beautiful and instructive, of dispassionate +controversy.</p> +<p class="pn">“Upon a review of the argument,” Mr. Parry writes, +“there appear to be strong reasons for considering the whole of +Dr. Williams’ hypothesis, to account for the origin of evil, as +highly objectionable, and worthy of rejection; because it is +founded on a false principle, which identifies physical and moral +tendency; is incompatible with the nature and phenomena of mind; +involves the existence of an antecedent fate or absolute +necessity, which controlled the divine operations; is +inconsistent with the natural and moral perfections of God, and +the scriptural account of the state in which man was created; is +expressed in obscure and inapplicable language; and is so far +from agreeing with <i>equity</i>, that, when taken together, it +represents the Divine Being as having at first, created +intelligent and accountable creatures with such powers as would +enable them to sin, but with none which would enable them to +avoid it.”</p> +<p class="pn">The theory of Dr. Williams found favour with many +Calvinists, because it assumed somewhat of a philosophical +aspect, and was put forth as a clear “<i>demonstration</i>.” But +some of its ablest defenders have since abandoned it to that +oblivion, from which no efforts can save an elaborate +speculation, ungrounded in reason or revelation, and repugnant to +common sense.</p> +<p class="pn">In England the public mind has been so powerfully +and happily influenced by the anti-calvinistic genius of the +liturgy, offices, and discipline of the Anglican Church, that the +grossness and extravagancy of the American divines have been +tolerated chiefly by those who have not fallen under her +instructions, or who have not had the advantage of a liberal +education and extensive reading. In general, whether within or +without the pale of the Church, its more intelligent advocates +have, until lately, exhibited it in a modified form, and thrown +over it a veil of mystery which has hidden its most appalling +deformities from the sight, while by the less skilful or +sagacious only, it has been adapted more to the fears or +affections of women, than to the understandings of men. +Unhappily, the grosser representations of this doctrine are now +coming into repute in quarters where, formerly, they would not +have been endured, and thus afford another warning example of the +“<i>facilis descensus Averni</i>.”</p> +<p class="pn">But under all possible modifications, it is +essentially erroneous; and this small treatise has originated in +no love of discord, or taste for polemic excitement, but in a +solemn sense of duty,—the duty of aiding, in some humble measure, +the more learned and important labours of others who are “set for +the defence of the truth.” The writer aims only at a <i>common +sense</i> view of the subject, showing that Calvinism is a +dangerous speculation, useless for every holy and salutary +purpose, inapplicable to the hopes and the duties of a religious +life, at variance with our knowledge of God, our obligations as +Christians, and all our finer sentiments and more generous +sympathies as men. So far as its influence is exerted, it +contracts the understanding and hardens the heart.</p> +<p class="pn">Bishop Tomline’s “Refutation of Calvinism,” is too +well known and justly appreciated to need recommendation from the +writer of these papers. Faber “on the Primitive Doctrine of +Election,” is an important work, composed with logical precision, +and founded on a laborious analysis of the Scriptures. The +intelligent reader will be instructed and deeply interested by +“An Inquiry into the Doctrines of Necessity and Predestination,” +by Dr. Copleston, the Bishop of Llandaff.</p> +<p class="pn">From the latter work is extracted the following +summary of the peculiar and distinctive doctrines of the +Calvinistic creed, in which it is exhibited, not in a moderated +and qualified form, as it sometimes appears in the writings of +individuals, but in its true and undisguised character, as +maintained by a grave assembly of predestinarian divines.</p> +<p class="pc">CONCLUSIONS OF THE SYNOD OF DOST, AS EXHIBITED BY +TILENUS.</p> +<div style="font-size:92%"> +<p class="pch">ART. 1. OF DIVINE PREDESTINATION.</p> +<p class="pns">That God, by an absolute decree, hath elected to +salvation a very small number of men, without any regard to their +faith or obedience whatsoever; and secluded from saving grace all +the rest of mankind, and appointed them by the same decree to +eternal damnation, without any regard to their infidelity or +impenitency.</p> +<p class="pch">ART. 2. OF THE MERIT AND EFFECT OF CHRIST’S +DEATH.</p> +<p class="pns">That Jesus Christ hath not suffered death for any +other, but for those elect only; having neither had any intent +nor commandment of his Father to make satisfaction for the sins +of the whole world.</p> +<p class="pch">ART. 3. OF MAN’S WILL IN THE STATE OF +NATURE.</p> +<p class="pns">That by Adam’s fall, his posterity lost their +free-will, being put to an unavoidable necessity to do or not to +do, whatsoever they do or do not, whether it be good or evil, +being thereunto predestinated by the eternal and effectual secret +decree of God.</p> +<p class="pch">ART. 4. OF THE MANNER OF CONVERSION.</p> +<p class="pns">That God, to save his elect from the corrupt mass, +doth beget faith in them, by a power equal to that whereby He +created the world and raised up the dead; insomuch, that such +unto whom He gives that grace, cannot reject it, and the rest, +being reprobate, cannot accept it.</p> +<p class="pch">ART. 5. OF THE CERTAINTY OF PERSEVERANCE.</p> +<p class="pns">That such as have once received that grace by +faith, can never fall from it finally or totally, notwithstanding +the most enormous sins they can commit.</p> +</div> +<h1 style= +"text-align:center;font-size:150%;margin-top:10em; margin-bottom:0.5em;"> +<a name="Part2" id="Part2">PART II.</a></h1> +<p class="pch">PARTICULAR OBJECTIONS.</p> +<hr style="width:15%;margin-top:2em;margin-bottom:2em"> +<h2 class="ctr"><a name="I" id="I">I.—CALVINISM IMPUGNS THE MORAL +CHARACTER OF THE DEITY.</a></h2> +<p class="pnn">T<span class="sc">he</span> existence of moral +evil is a <i>fact</i>, not to be denied by any man who reverences +his own understanding; and that it seemed fit to the Divine +Wisdom to <i>permit</i> its introduction into the world, is +equally beyond contradiction, unless we limit the divine power, +and suppose that, by a necessity antecedent to the divine will, +and controlling the divine conduct, the Deity himself acts, not +spontaneously but from coercion. That sin, with its awful +consequences, should even exist by <i>permission</i>, under the +administration of infinite benevolence, has been regarded by +theologians as one of the most perplexing mysteries of “the deep +things of God.”</p> +<p class="pn">But Calvinism leads to the direct and inevitable +conclusion, not only that God has permitted the fall of angels +and of men, but that He is himself the original <i>author</i> of +their defection, and of the guilt and suffering which have been +incurred by disobedience. No subtlety of argument, no special +refinements or metaphysical distinctions, no ingenious evasions +can rescue from this fatal conclusion the Calvinistic exposition +of the divine decrees. If the Creator in the construction of the +human mind rendered it naturally, morally, absolutely impossible, +that man should maintain his obedience to the divine law under +the circumstances in which he was placed—the act of +transgression, be it what it may, must be traced to the will and +intention of the Deity—the <i>effect</i>, <span class= +"sc">sin</span>, guilt, condemnation, undefinable misery, +diffused over the face of the creation, and coextensive with the +numberless generations of the family of man—the <i>cause</i>, +G<span class="sc">od</span>; that Being who is perfect reason, +perfect goodness, light without darkness, love without +malevolence; who cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He +any man; with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning! +Contrasted with this monstrous compound of impiety and absurdity, +which makes infinite goodness the eternal source of infinite +misery, there is wisdom in the Manichæan doctrine of two +conflicting principles, holding a divided dominion over the +universe, and contending, one for the production of the universal +degradation and wretchedness, the other, for the purity and bliss +of all intellectual and moral beings!</p> +<p class="pn">The advocates of scriptural truth have not failed +to expose, with holy indignation and eloquent remonstrance, the +inconsistency of these views of the divine government with the +entire scope and spirit of the evangelic economy of grace. While +the love of God to a fallen world is the great theme of the +apostolic ministry, and, in language too explicit to be +misunderstood, the propitiation of Christ is said to be for the +sins “of the <i>whole</i> world,”—while, in exact agreement with +the consolatory declaration that God “delighteth not in the death +of a sinner,” the apostles of Christ are commissioned to “preach +the gospel to <i>every creature</i>,”—we are taught by Calvinism, +that the God of truth is only mocking the great mass of his +miserable creatures with a semblance of mercy, from whose +tenderness they are excluded, and with promises and invitations +which He never designed should be accepted by them. A dark and +unrelenting fate has already sealed their destiny, and their +perdition is rendered inevitable before they have committed those +offences for which, as if in derision, they are commanded to +repent, in order that they may escape the wrath of the Almighty. +Thus, in total disregard of all that is holy and majestic in the +character of the Deity, He is described as a Being invested with +the most detestable of Satanic attributes, assuming the gentle +affections of a father, only to exercise more effectually the +wanton power of a tyrant, and treacherously inviting our +confidence and our love, when, with such falsehood and cruelty, +as the most debased of his creatures would not be able to +perpetrate, He is only preparing victims for his inexorable +malice.</p> +<p class="pn">Let it not be said, in opposition to this, that we +are imperfect judges, in any particular case, of the rectitude of +the divine procedures; that our ignorance renders our decision in +such a case daring and presumptuous. We are <i>not</i> ignorant +of what is meant either by <span class="sc">justice</span> or +<span class="sc">mercy</span>. These moral qualities are +essentially the same in nature, whether in created beings or in +their Creator. The only difference is in degree. In the Deity +they are <i>infinite</i>; and, if infinite justice and mercy are +compatible with conduct which, on a smaller scale, would expose a +human being to eternal infamy, then are we disqualified for all +just conceptions of the character of God. If wanton cruelty be +consistent with Divine compassion, then may deception be +reconciled with inviolable faith, and they, who deem themselves +to be happy in the electing love of God, may awake at last to the +fearful discovery, that, having indulged in the dream of special +grace, they are only reserved for a destiny still more terrible +than others, whom they had abandoned as reprobate to the +sovereign wrath of God! By what infatuation are men induced to +rely on any supposed distinctions in favour of themselves, when +they have removed the only grounds of confidence in the righteous +administration of the Deity?</p> +<p class="pn">It is an impressive feature in the works of rigid +predestinarians, that their own minds seem to partake of the +fearful gloom with which they depict the divine attributes. They +appear awed and terror-stricken with the stern aspect of the +great Being whose moral character they have distorted, until they +tremble at the creations of their own imagination. They write as +men whose minds are rendered morbid with mysterious fears, rather +than brightened into holy gladness, by a filial love of God. They +seem to be vindicating with servile dread a character, whose +wrath they would deprecate, and whose doubtful favour they would +propitiate on their own behalf. Even when they express their +persuasion of their own interest in “special grace,” it is more +in the spirit of men who are conscious of being the favoured +objects of capricious tyranny, than of that serene and hopeful +and cheering confidence which inspires the devout heart, when it +contemplates through a happier medium the beneficent and +universal Father. Nor is this unnatural. The moral character of +the Deity, as misrepresented by Calvinism, both unsettles all our +ideas of rectitude, and renders insecure our hold upon Infinite +Goodness.</p> +<p class="pn">That the mental disease of Cowper was intensely +aggravated by depressing views of the divine character, which he +received from Newton and others, and that the consolations which +might have soothed his mind, from a scriptural view of the grace +of the gospel, were neutralised or destroyed by his supposing +himself the victim of an <i>irreversible decree</i>, is clear to +every impartial reader of his most interesting and most +melancholy life. Yet of his piety we have this touching proof, +that, amidst the wildest aberrations of his intellect, and while +oppressed with the conviction that he was numbered with the +reprobate, his persuasion of the rectitude of the divine +government never wavered; he acquiesced in the doom which he +believed to await him; and declared that if it were the will of +God that he should perish, he would not lift a finger to reverse +his fate! Who would not lament, that a mind thus tempered to +pious confidence, should be taught by a pernicious creed to +distrust its own interest in the love of God—a delusion which +passed away only in death!</p> +<hr style="width:13%;margin-top:1.7em; margin-bottom:1.8em"> +<h2 class="ctr"><a name="II" id="II">II.—CALVINISM IS NOT TO BE +RECONCILED WITH THE MORAL RESPONSIBILITY OF MAN.</a></h2> +<p class="pn">Whatever extent we assign to the corruption of +human nature, by which its moral powers have been impaired, or +the soul disqualified for the due and proper use of those powers, +it is plain that men are still capable of acting, and of being +treated as the subjects of moral government. Calvinistic writers +do themselves admit the turpitude of sin and the loveliness of +virtue—that vice entails suffering, and that happiness is the +consequence of a religious conformity to the will of God. That +is, setting aside all special refinements by which they attempt +to disprove that the present state of man is probationary, they +confess that <i>practically</i> mankind are treated as +<span class="sc">accountable beings</span> whose guilt is +punished and their goodness rewarded. This broad and +unquestionable fact defies controversy. Although we may not be +able to give a definition of <i>freedom</i> which may satisfy the +philosopher, and although we may concede to the opposers of the +freedom of the will, that virtue and vice—moral good and moral +evil—are to be predicated, not of the cause, whether it be +freedom or fate, from whence our volitions spring, but of the +good or evil nature of the volitions themselves—in whatever way +these questions are decided, or, if we leave them undecided, as +being beyond the present grasp of the human intellect, men are +unquestionably subjected by the Deity to the laws of a moral +economy. They are, sooner or later, rendered happy in exact +proportion to their conformity to the commands of God, and +miserable if they remain rebellious.</p> +<p class="pn">And all we contend for is, that such a state of +things can never be explained on the supposition of absolute +predestination or inevitable necessity, founded on the +irreversible decrees of Heaven. The reason appears on a moment’s +consideration. The good or evil nature of the volition belongs, +on this hypothesis, not to the created being, who is a passive +instrument, without actual power—but to the Creator, who is the +only real agent, as well as the efficient cause. The instrument +by which He accomplishes his purposes may be good or evil, the +volitions of that instrument may be characterised by whatever +qualities you please, still, a mere instrument is not an object +of moral approbation or blame; no responsibility attaches to it, +and the condition on which it acts is perfectly incongruous with +all the ideas we have of reward or punishment. These are +inapplicable to a state of fatalism. The volitions, and the +actions they produce, are in reality those of the Deity. To Him +they belong, and to Him alone. On this critical and decisive +point all the great Calvinistic writers break down. While they +award to human beings the treatment due to moral agents, they +deny to them the attributes without which they cannot be +responsible for their actions.</p> +<p class="pn">To beings under moral government, personal agency +is essential; but Calvinistic fatalism reduces all agency to that +of the Deity alone. The human soul is moved mechanically by +impulse from without, and passively yields to an irresistible +power.</p> +<p class="pn">It supposes the exercise of faculties by which we +are made sensible of our relation to the Deity, and our +obligation to obey his laws. Hence results the consciousness of +rectitude or guilt, and all the noble motives by which we are led +to self-government and self-renunciation—from a sense of duty, +and with a view to future happiness in the enjoyment of the +divine approbation. But Calvinistic necessity destroys the +majesty of the human mind, as “an arbiter enthroned in its own +dominion, endowed with an initiating power, and forming its +determinations for good or for evil by an inherent and +indefeasible prerogative.” It tells us that we have neither power +to act nor freedom to fall—that our sense of liberty is delusive, +that we are predestined to sin or to holiness by a decree of the +infinite mind, and that our fate has been sealed from eternity! +If we really believe it and act upon it, our moral energies are +for ever suppressed, and the consciousness of virtue and of guilt +must give way to the humiliating persuasion that we can do +nothing, and that we have nothing to do, but to yield to our lot +and await our doom, whether to be lost or saved!</p> +<p class="pn">The absurdity of such a theory of religion is a +light consideration compared with the perilous consequences it +must produce, if it were possible that the mass of ignorant and +unreflecting creatures, of which society is composed, should +really believe it true and act in accordance with their belief. +Instructed to regard their present conduct and future allotment, +as being already determined, the notion of a state of +<i>trial</i>, in which they were accountable to God, would be +cast off, with all its salutary restraints upon the passions, and +all its noble incentives to a virtuous life. Nor would it be +possible to enforce the laws of morality by mere temporal +sanctions, the fear of exile, the dungeon, or the gibbet, when +conscience no longer enforced the dictates of religious faith. +The great auxiliary and support of all human authority is to be +found in that most noble attribute of human nature—<i>the sense +of duty</i>, which ceases to operate the moment we lose the +consciousness of freedom, believing that our thoughts, our +actions, <i>ourselves</i>, are but necessary links in an eternal +chain of causes and effects.</p> +<p class="pn">Such a theory of religion renders it absurd to +admonish mankind of their <i>duty</i>, whether to obey the law of +God, or to believe the Gospel of Christ.</p> +<p class="pn">To this reasoning the Calvinist replies: “I +acknowledge that men are morally, spiritually dead. But at the +command of God I would preach to the dead: at his word the dead +shall hear and live.” But this reply is irrelevant to the great +points of the argument. It remains to be proved, that God would +be just in punishing as a crime that spiritual death, of which, +on the Calvinistic theory, He is the author;—that it is possible +for infinite goodness to subject created beings to an inevitable +<i>necessity</i> of breaking his laws, and then hand them over to +perdition. This is the point which cannot be evaded; and it is +fatal to the predestinarian theology. Doubtless God can raise the +dead, literally or spiritually; but that does not touch the +question.</p> +<hr style="width:13%;margin-top:1.7em; margin-bottom:1.8em"> +<h2 class="ctr"><a name="III" id="III">III.—CALVINISM IS OPPOSED +TO THE CONSTITUTION AND THE PURPOSES OF A VISIBLE +CHURCH.</a></h2> +<p class="pn">By the visible Church is meant the great body of +persons who are baptized into the faith of Christ, and openly +profess his religion; and the term is used in contradistinction +to the invisible Church, which consists of real, sincere, and +spiritual disciples of our Lord. These may be said to be +invisible, since to search the heart and penetrate its secrets, +is the prerogative of God alone. The truly faithful, as +distinguished from the mere professors of Christianity, will not +be <i>seen</i> in their distinct character until the hour when +the final judgment shall separate the righteous from the wicked. +“<i>Then</i> shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the +kingdom of their Father.”</p> +<p class="pn">The visible Church, with her apostolic ministry, +her worship, her sacraments, and her various provisions for the +edification of the body of Christ, is instituted and constructed +on the manifest principle that the present is a probationary +state, and that those who by her ministrations are brought under +the obligations of the Christian covenant, are not thereby +absolutely but conditionally sealed to eternal life, which is +suspended on their faithful adhesion to Christ, and final +perseverance in his holy ways.</p> +<p class="pn">In exact accordance with this statement, our Lord +describes the kingdom of heaven, or the Christian Church, as a +field in which the <i>wheat</i> and the <i>tares</i> grow up +together until the harvest; and as a net cast into the sea and +gathering of <i>all kinds</i> of fishes, bad and good, which are +afterwards to be separated.</p> +<p class="pn">Not a syllable occurs in the New Testament, not a +single fact transpires in the history of the apostolical +Churches, to justify the persuasion, that such only as were +decreed to eventual salvation, were received as members of the +Christian community. Such an order of fellowship, had it really +existed, would have amounted to a pre-judgment of characters, +anticipating and superseding the judicial sentence of the last +day. In that case, to obtain an entrance into the communion of +the Church was virtually to be proclaimed a member, not only of +the visible, but also of the invisible society of the redeemed, +rendering needless all exhortations to perseverance, and +impossible all danger of apostasy. But such an exclusive and +select and judicial order of fellowship never did and never can +exist under the present dispensation, which is essentially a +mixed state, and one of probation, supplying the means of +<i>working out our own salvation</i>, and of <i>making our +calling and election sure</i>, but not requiring evidence of our +effectual calling and of our certain election to life previous to +our introduction to the worship and sacraments of the Church.</p> +<p class="pn">From the earliest records we have of the +administration of ecclesiastical affairs, as well as from all +later history, we may learn that the Catholic Church never aimed +at the senseless project of a pure communion, which, by excluding +all but the finally elect, should rival in sanctity the +fellowship of the saints above.</p> +<p class="pn">The <i>worship</i> of the Christian Church has +always been open, unrestricted, unconfined by classical +distinctions, such as those of the elect and the reprobate. The +gates of the temple are closed against none who would join in the +celebration of its holy rites. God is the Father of all; Christ +the Saviour of all; the manifestation of the Spirit was given for +the profit of all; the Gospel is to be preached to all. “And the +Spirit and the Bride say, Come, and let him that heareth say, +Come, and let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let +him take the water of life freely.”</p> +<p class="pn">The same free and charitable principle has directed +the administration of the <i>sacraments</i>, a circumstance the +more remarkable, since, in the judgment of the most eminent +Fathers of the Church, these are the channels by which spiritual +grace is actually communicated to all who are rightfully +baptized, and religiously partake of the Lord’s supper. The +formularies of our own branch of Christ’s Catholic Church are so +clear and definite on this point, that every effort of ingenious +casuistry to give them another meaning, or to reconcile their use +with the Calvinistic theology, has ended in discomfiture. The +<i>sacraments</i> are “outward and visible signs of an inward and +<span class="sc">spiritual grace</span>, given unto us, ordained +by Christ himself, as a <i>means</i> whereby we receive the same, +and a <i>pledge</i> to assure us thereof.” This <i>grace</i> is +imparted, not as to the elect and to them exclusively, but as to +beings who are free and responsible, who have to account for +their use of this sacred and inestimable gift, and who may +forfeit its blessings by subsequent guilt and final impenitence. +The present state of our knowledge, or rather ignorance of the +philosophy of the human mind, may not supply us with a +satisfactory answer for those, who, in a cavilling or sceptical +spirit, ask, “How can these things be?” But it is the doctrine of +the Scriptures and of the Church, and it is perplexed with fewer +difficulties than will be found to press upon every other +hypothesis.</p> +<p class="pn">Supposing the Calvinistic doctrine of +predestination to be founded in truth, the very existence of the +visible Church in its present form is a mystery which requires to +be solved. No part of its constitution or order harmonises with a +scheme based on fatalism, and limiting the grace of Heaven to a +narrow section of the human family.</p> +<p class="pn">The Sabbath bell, joyously or solemnly, invites all +who hear to come to the house of God; and in the name of the +“great congregation” the minister of Christ addresses the Deity, +saying, “<i>Our</i> Father which art in heaven!”</p> +<p class="pn">But Calvinism pronounces that God is <i>not</i> +“the lovely Father of all mankind;” and, that while He has +instituted the rites of religious worship, and invites all to +mingle in its sacred duties, He regards the greater number as +“<i>cursed children</i>,” marked out for perdition, “<i>before +the morning stars sang together, or ever the sons of God shouted +for joy</i>.”</p> +<p class="pn">The ministers of the Church administer to all adult +converts from paganism, Judaism, or Mahometanism, who make a +credible profession, and to all infants, whose sureties engage +for their Christian education, the rite of baptism, signifying +the remission of past sin, original or actual, and pledging the +communication of whatever grace is needful to remedy or assist +the weakness of nature in the moral warfare with temptation.</p> +<p class="pn">But Calvinism not only abjures this indiscriminate +bestowment of grace; but denies that even the elect are +regenerated in baptism, leaving it to the arbitrary determination +of God’s decree, at what given period, and under what +circumstances, they shall be, instantaneously, and without regard +to any foregoing state of mind or habits of life, transformed +into the beloved, and loving, and lovely children of +God<sup><a href="#n4" id="f4" title="see footnote" name= +"f4">4</a></sup>!</p> +<p class="pn">In a word, Calvinism supposes and requires an order +of administration totally distinct from that which actually +exists in the visible Church of God. And, accordingly, various +Calvinistic communions, which have separated from the Church +since the Reformation, have attempted a literal “fellowship of +<i>saints</i>,” presuming to discriminate from the mass of +nominal Christians those who have experienced the conclusive and +saving change of Calvinistic conversion, and admitting such only +to the full enjoyment of Church privileges and to the Lord’s +table. It seems not a little surprising, that not only sagacious +individuals but extensive communities should persevere in an +attempt which, in the nature of things, can lead only to +disappointment; for, the sincerity of that species of conversion +which is supposed to be final, of that grace which is said to be +irrevocable, can never be decided until the Judge of all has +pronounced his verdict. In the meantime, the terms of communion +<i>must</i> agree in some measure with the actual state of man; +and when the matter is quietly examined, it appears that even in +Calvinistic communions the terms of membership are reduced to a +profession of the received “faith and order,” and an assurance, +on the part of the initiated, that he believes himself to be a +converted person by God’s special grace. This is all that is +required besides evidence of good moral character; more than this +is impracticable. The spirit of Calvinism can never be fully +embodied in a system of Ecclesiastical polity corresponding +exactly with its own nature, and marked by its own exclusiveness; +for who shall discern the elect?</p> +<p class="pn">This discovery appears to have been made by an +eminent Calvinistic clergyman of the present day, who, instead of +coming to the legitimate conclusion that Calvinism is therefore +untenable, as being an impracticable system, has recourse to a +delusive theory of ecclesiastical fellowship, which confounds the +visible with the invisible Church, or reduces the former to a +mere nullity. According to <i>his</i> view of the subject, the +Church of Christ consists, not of the collective body of persons +who may happen to be in fellowship with any particular Christian +communities, nor of the aggregate of persons who throughout the +world make an outward profession of our holy faith, but of those, +and those only, who “maintain the doctrines of grace, and uphold +the authority of Christ in the world,” with whatever denomination +of Christians they are in external fellowship. These, being the +truly regenerate, are to tolerate each other’s differences on +minor questions, to love each other as being one in Christ, and +to co-operate in every way for the diffusion of their common +principles throughout the world. Mr. Noel’s theory confirms the +statement made in this section, that Calvinism, which it is +presumed he means by “the doctrines of grace,” denies the claim +of any <i>mixed body</i> of professing Christians, such as the +Anglican, or the Lutheran, or the Scottish, or any other church, +in its aggregate character, to be <i>a church</i>, or a distinct +branch of the Catholic Church. That is, Calvinism is opposed to +the constitution and the purposes of a visible church. Mr. Noel’s +theory is fatal to its existence. For, when it is said of those +exclusively, who, in whatever denomination, “maintain the +doctrines of grace,”—“<i>and this one body is</i> <span class= +"sc">the church</span>,”—it is clearly proveable, that these +persons have no intelligible grounds on which to rest that high +and exclusive pretension; <i>they are not</i> <span class= +"sc">the visible church</span>.</p> +<p class="pn">These persons may, or may not, be members of the +spiritual or <i>invisible</i> Church; <i>that</i> is known only +to the Searcher of the heart. They may or may not be the most +holy and sincere individuals in the several churches or +denominations with which they hold external communion; +<i>that</i> also remains to be confirmed or refuted by “the final +sentence and unalterable doom.” But they do not constitute what +is commonly understood by the visible Church of God. They have no +ministry, no worship, no administration of the sacraments, +visibly distinct from the mass of persons who are of the same +external fellowship with themselves; and the error of assigning +to them the distinction of being alone the true Church arises +from the ambiguity of the word <i>Church</i>, on which changes +are rung, producing a confusion of ideas—a double confusion of +ideas, “confusion worse confounded.” What is the mental process +by which Mr. Noel arrives at this point? <i>First</i>, the +invisible Church is tacitly put and mistaken for the visible, the +truly spiritual for the nominal, it being assumed that we can +know the hearts of others. Then, <i>secondly</i>, this invisible +Church is supposed to become visible, and to be <i>alone</i> +visible, in the persons of those who maintain the doctrines of +grace; while the really external Church, consisting of the entire +body of professing Christians throughout the world, vanishes out +of sight, and is declared to have no ecclesiastical existence! +The truth is, that Calvinism and a visible Church are incongruous +ideas, and that no man, of whatever talent he may be possessed, +can make them harmonize. The Calvinist believes, and is +consistent in his belief, that the elect only are “the Church,” +but since it is impossible to discriminate them from others, it +is impossible to unite them in an exclusive visible fellowship. +And, if it were possible, they would form such a Church as never +before existed. Calvinism is irreconcileable with the order which +has descended from the apostolic age, by the consent of the +Catholic Church, and with any visible constitution.</p> +<p class="pn">If Mr. Noel has succeeded in making converts to +<i>his</i> theory of a visible Church, from the difficulty they +find in detecting its fallacies, it only proves, that</p> +<p class="pch">“Sheer no-meaning puzzles more than wit.”</p> +<p>The dissenter who, on objecting to a Church rate, said, that +“If all Churchmen were like Mr. Noel, neither he nor his brethren +would object to join them,” does not seem to have been aware that +they were already members of Mr. Noel’s Church. Or, what is more +probable, it was designed significantly to hint to that reverend +gentleman, that he was no more attached than themselves to the +Church of which he is a pastor, and whose ordination vows are +upon him,—and that with Churchmen who are prepared so to betray +or deny their Church, under an erroneous sense of duty, +dissenters may without difficulty form an alliance<sup><a href= +"#n5" id="f5" title="see footnote" name="f5">5</a></sup>.</p> +<hr style="width:13%;margin-top:1.7em; margin-bottom:1.8em"> +<h2 class="p0"><a name="IV" id="IV">IV.—CALVINISM IS PRODUCTIVE +OF POSITIVELY INJURIOUS EFFECTS ON INDIVIDUAL CHARACTER, AND ON +SOCIAL HAPPINESS.</a></h2> +<p class="pnn">W<span class="sc">hen</span> Lord Chatham taunted +the Church with having “a Calvinistic creed, a popish liturgy, +and an Arminian clergy,” that illustrious person was the author +of a libel on this holy and apostolical institution. Her creed is +not Calvinistic, for it says nothing about absolute +predestination; her liturgy it not popish, for there is no +worship of saints or of the Virgin; her clergy are not Arminian, +for their moderation has preserved them, as a body, from all +extremes in doctrine, and <i>that</i>, as well as their +unrivalled erudition and intellectual power, has been the +admiration of the most eminent protestant divines and men of +letters in Europe. And to her truly scriptural character, +especially her rejection of the Calvinistic theology, with its +gloomy, turbulent, and intolerant spirit, may be traced the high +tone of moral feeling and practical reverence of religion which +have honourably distinguished the people of England. Happily, +Calvinism in its palmy days was confined to the Puritanical +party, which made comparatively small progress within the pale of +the Church; while the most influential of her clergy, and the +great majority of her well educated laity, embraced the doctrines +of a more generous and scriptural theology. Without falling into +Pelagianism, a charge made by Calvinists on all who reject the +system improperly called “the doctrines of grace,” they held the +great evangelic truth that Christ “<i>died for all</i>,” and its +correspondent views of the benevolence of God, and the moral +dignity of human nature, impaired, but not destroyed, by the +fall.</p> +<p class="pn">The principles of the remonstrants, without being +servilely embraced, influenced and modified the religious +opinions of the people of England, who were never generally +favourable, either to the dogmas or the discipline of the Genevan +reformer, and to this circumstance are we largely indebted for +the manly and the moral character of our country.</p> +<p class="pn">This statement, founded on the history of the +Reformation and the times which followed, is not intended as an +indiscriminate attack on the moral character of Calvinists. Many +of them are to be classed with the holiest of men; not because +they are Calvinists, but because their erroneous notions are +rendered innoxious, by the prevalence of a sincere piety, and by +a secret and practical disbelief of the principles which, in +speculation or imagination, they seem to hold.</p> +<p class="pn">It would be both unjust and uncharitable to judge +any class of persons simply by the creed they subscribe, or to +impute to them the consequences which might be supposed to follow +from a rigid adherence to its doctrines. There are antagonist +principles at work; there is the law written on the heart; there +is grace to counteract the tendency of false impressions; there +is the love of God and of man to render those who are truly good +men superior to any bad principles they have unhappily imbibed. +Their Christianity is dominant, and their Calvinism is made +harmless.</p> +<p class="pn">But evil speculation has a tendency in all minds to +lessen or destroy the power of those dictates of conscience which +are honourable to us as moral agents; and it will counteract, so +far as it goes, the salutary influence of those scriptural truths +which still retain their hold upon the judgment or the feelings. +In but few instances, comparatively, can Calvinism be altogether +harmless; in the ordinary course of things, it is productive of +results positively injurious.</p> +<p class="pn">In persons of serious religion, it will produce +opposite effects, as they may be gentle and timid, or bold and +presumptuous. In the former, anxiety, fearful apprehension, deep +distress, approaching to despondency, lest the tremendous decree +of reprobation should have been recorded against them in the +indelible page. In the latter, who can bring a sanguine +temperament of mind to the contemplation of the subject, the +effect may be, and often is, unbounded confidence, leading to +self-complacency and spiritual pride; the very natural result of +believing that they are special objects of the love of God, and +that their persuasion is a divine impulse, God speaking to the +heart. Spiritual pride may assume the aspect of profound +humility, and thus impose on its victim by the notion that he is +only magnifying the sovereign grace of Heaven in his election to +eternal life. But such is the weakness of human nature, that the +consciousness of this high distinction needs to be chastened by +very lofty views of the moral virtue required by Christianity, +and by very humbling conceptions of our own, to prevent a false +and dangerous elation of the heart.</p> +<p class="pn">And, in how many instances this consciousness is +mere delusion, it would seem almost needless to suggest. It is +often professed under suspicious circumstances by doubtful +characters. Nothing can be more groundless than the persuasion so +commonly entertained by persons of this creed, that to be fully +convinced of the truth of the doctrine is a sufficient ground of +confidence that <i>they</i> are therefore of the number of the +chosen people. The strongest conviction may be deceptive. The +firmest assurance may be the result of ignorant or fanatical +presumption. And whatever may be the readiness of this class of +persons to say, “My mountain standeth firm—I shall never be +moved,” it cannot but be feared respecting many of them, that +they have yet to learn the very “first principles of the oracles +of God.” The remarkable absence of humility and charity in these +“children of special grace” is alone enough to render their +Christianity questionable, exposes the dangerous nature of their +delusion, and proves the practical inutility of their scheme; +since, after all, without the evidence of a truly evangelical +temper and life, no inward assurance would satisfy a reflecting +mind; and in the possession of such evidence, no other assurance +is needed.</p> +<p class="pn">The self-righteousness of the Pharisee is scarcely +more to be dreaded than the spiritual pride of the Calvinist, +when it has passed from under the control of holy wisdom. It +assumes the character of selfishness, bigotry, and the lust of +intolerant dominion.</p> +<p class="pn">The same spirit of exclusiveness and domination, +which pervades in general their ecclesiastical polity, affects +their allegiance to the state. Under cover of abolishing +episcopacy, the doctrinal Puritans were the principal authors of +that revolution which introduced the Commonwealth after the fall +of the monarchy; and their aim was the exclusive <i>dominion of +the saints</i>, that by political power they might establish +their own forms of Church government. Religion was really their +object, and they were not hypocritical in professing it; but to +accomplish their spiritual projects, they considered themselves +entitled to secular dominion; and their tyranny in Church and +State was so overbearing, that the nation, after the death of +Cromwell, eagerly threw itself into the arms of the Stuarts, +almost without a compact, rather than endure the sanctimonious +intolerance of Calvinistic patriots and republican +saints<sup><a href="#n6" id="f6" title="see footnote" name= +"f6">6</a></sup>.</p> +<p class="pn">The same leaven is still at work. The doctrinal +Puritans of the present day have the same lordly consciousness of +a right to dominion. They have declared their resolution to +“stagger senates, and smash cabinets” until their points are +carried. They have given to the nation a significant announcement +of their claims to power, by their politico-religious synod of +Manchester. The imperial parliament of these realms is, in +future, it seems, to make its fiscal arrangements, and legislate +on points of purely political economy, under the dictation of the +Calvinistic divines of the nineteenth century<sup><a href="#n7" +id="f7" title="see footnote" name="f7">7</a></sup>. Doubtless, +our future Chancellors of the Exchequer will be selected from +this body of sacred financiers.</p> +<p class="pn">While it produces effects so remote from those of +true Christianity in the <i>religious</i> professors of +Calvinism, on the mass of ignorant, sordid, unreflecting, and +worldly-minded persons, who are taught these doctrines, its worst +influences are seen to operate; and, as the country was +notoriously demoralized at the close of the Cromwellian +dictatorship, when Calvinistic divines had enjoyed a long and +signal triumph, so is the present age marked by a degeneracy in +the public morals, which has kept pace with the progress of +opinions of similar character and tendency. The rude multitude is +taught that there is no grace but <i>special</i> grace, and this +produces recklessness and indifference, since no efforts will +avail if they are not to be partakers of these, to them, +forbidden streams of the river of the water of life. Or, perhaps, +this gloomy doctrine produces a sullen suspicion, vague and +undefined, of the rectitude of God, and thus alienates still more +those hearts which are already adverse to the Divine +government.</p> +<p class="pn">Of all the mischievous extravagances of opinion, +none has produced more fatal consequences, than the notion, that +God takes particular delight in selecting the vilest of men for +the object of his electing love; and that the gross sinner is +better prepared for the grace of Christ, than they who have +walked in the paths of virtue.</p> +<p class="pn">It is a melancholy but instructive fact, that in +Calvinistic families, the puritanical order and discipline which +are often highly commendable, have proved insufficient to +counteract the malignant effects of the doctrines inculcated on +the minds of the young. Instead of being taught that grace is +given to all, and that all are responsible for its use, they are +instructed that this blessing may perhaps be withholden. And no +families have sent forth into the world more affecting examples +of worthless and unprincipled young men, who have brought down +the grey hairs of their excellent but mistaken parents with +sorrow to the grave!</p> +<p class="pn">If the unguarded preaching of “the doctrines of +grace,” and the scanty instruction given on the great duties of +practical religion, have contributed to the demoralized state of +the people, let it not be supposed that other causes have been +wanting to swell the tide of corruption. From the Revolution, +toleration has been gradually enlarged, until all salutary +restraints have been swept away, and the glorious liberties of +our country have degenerated, by a fatal abuse, into unbridled +licentiousness. The press is daily infusing poison into the +public mind. What once would have been punished as +<i>profaneness</i> and <i>blasphemy</i>, is no longer noticed by +the gentle guardians of the law, and <i>treason</i> has almost +ceased to be a crime. Liberalism has trampled over law, and the +reigning evils have been unhappily aggravated by those whose +position in the state ought to have dictated other conduct than +that of making anarchical principles the road to dominion.</p> +<hr style="width:13%;margin-top:1.7em; margin-bottom:1.8em"> +<h2 class="ctr"><a name="V" id="V">V.—CALVINISM IS NOT THE +DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE OR OF THE ANGLICAN CHURCH.</a></h2> +<p class="pn">The general tenor of the Holy Scriptures is so +clearly against it, that it is impossible to account for the +facts or the doctrines of the Bible on supposition of the truth +of the Calvinistic theology: Nor would it be needful to discuss +the subject, however briefly, on scriptural grounds, but for a +few particular texts which are cited against the current +testimony of the word of God. It is said that <i>one</i> text, if +plain and direct, is evidence enough for the establishment of any +doctrine. This may be a sound canon of interpretation, where the +one text admits but one meaning, and that meaning is not opposed +by conflicting evidence, but not otherwise. In the present +instance, there exists, in addition to the opposing stream of +Scripture testimony, the following strong presumption against the +Calvinistic view of particular texts. Supposing the doctrine of +Calvinistic fatalism to be correct, no explanation can be given +of the general tenor of Divine revelation, none which <i>can</i> +be made to harmonize with that doctrine. The entire history of +<span class="sc">providence</span> and <span class= +"sc">redemption</span>, as given in the Bible, proceeds on the +principle, not of fate, but of freedom; and if we are not free, +we are reduced to the suspicious and unworthy conclusion, that +the secret and the revealed will of God are at variance with each +other; that we are deceived by a scheme of things designedly +arranged to convey false impressions of truth, and that while God +treats us now as though we were accountable beings, He fixes our +final destinies without any regard whatsoever to our imaginary +freedom and pretended responsibility.</p> +<p class="pn">On the other hand, taking the general tenor of the +sacred volume to be the true representation of the moral economy +under which we are placed by the infinite wisdom of God, all the +passages which are cited by Calvinists, as being favourable to +their cause, may be so explained, and that without violence, as +to accord with the current testimony of the Scriptures to the +freedom and moral agency of man. A stronger presumptive argument +cannot be conceived against the claim of Calvinism to scriptural +authority.</p> +<p class="pn">Let it be also distinctly observed, that the cause +of Calvinism is not served by those passages of Scripture which +relate to the election of individuals, or of nations, to certain +privileges which do not extend to the absolute enjoyment of +eternal life. Of this description is the ninth of the Romans. The +subject of that celebrated chapter is not the election of +individuals to final salvation, but the election of the Jews to +the honor of being the visible Church, and their subsequent +rejection through open unbelief. Nor does the allusion contained +in it to the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea, +yield an argument in favour of Calvinistic reprobation. The fact +that the infatuated monarch was hardened in heart by <i>the +leniency</i> which spared him under so many provocations and +insults offered by him to the Almighty God, does not prove, nor +was it designed to prove, that he was the fated victim of an +eternal decree, whether in regard to his secular or spiritual +condition.</p> +<p class="pn">Nor can Calvinism plead for itself those texts +which are supposed to refer to the election of individuals to +final salvation, but which at the same time leave unsettled the +important question at issue; whether that election was absolute +and irrespective of character, or whether it was founded on the +foreknowledge of their faith and obedience. Such for example is +the language of St. Paul, 2 Thess. ii. 13, 14. All such passages +leave the controversy undetermined, proving only that the +doctrine of election is scriptural, but not fixing the sense in +which it is to be taken, whether absolute or conditional.</p> +<p class="pn">The terms <i>election</i> and +<i>predestination</i>, with their correlates, are of frequent +occurrence in the New Testament, and with various significations, +which are to be explained by the particular subjects to which +they refer. But the <i>only</i> texts which really bear on the +Calvinistic controversy, are those which may seem to represent +election as sovereign, arbitrary, and totally irrespective of the +faith and obedience of the elect; such are few indeed. Let us +review <i>that</i> which is deemed by the advocates of Calvinism +among their most conclusive evidences. “That election,” says +Edwards, “is not from a foresight of works, as depending on the +condition of man’s will, is evident by 2 Tim. i. 9. ‘Who hath +saved us, and called us with an holy calling, <i>not according to +our works</i>, but according to his own purpose and grace, which +was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.’ ” Edwards +was not more remarkable for acuteness and subtlety as a reasoner, +than for his lax and indiscriminate citations of Scripture. He +appeals to this text with such confidence, that he deems no +analysis to be necessary. The bare citation is enough.</p> +<p class="pn">But a brief examination of the passage will make it +clear that it yields no support to Calvinism. The Calvinist +affirms “that God, by an absolute decree, hath elected to +salvation a very small number of men without any regard to their +faith and obedience whatsoever.” That is, the decree which +insures the safety of the elect is not founded on God’s +foreknowledge of their holiness and of their perseverance in the +faith. To show that this doctrine is supported by the passage +under our consideration, it must be proved, that when the Apostle +says, “not according to <i>our works</i>,” he means our +<i>Christian</i> good works, our faith, our repentance, our +charity, our evangelic obedience to Christ; of this, there is not +the shadow of evidence. On the contrary, the <i>works</i> alluded +to are those, whether good or bad, which were done in a state of +heathen or Jewish depravity, at any rate done before believers +exercised faith and repentance, and were called to the privileges +of the Christian Church. No other interpretation will hold.</p> +<p class="pn">St. Paul states that God “hath saved us, and called +us with an holy calling.” He then proceeds to trace this happy +condition to its sources. He begins with a negation. The +antecedent cause of our salvation and calling was <i>not our +works</i>; we were not treated <i>according to</i> our works; not +after the measure, the proportion, the merit or demerit of our +works: these might have brought punishment, but could never have +procured for us blessings so great and undeserved. The real cause +was <i>the purpose of God</i> and <i>his grace</i> given in +Christ before the world began.</p> +<p class="pn">Here, <i>our works</i> are put in distinct +opposition to the purpose and grace of God.</p> +<p class="pn">They could not, therefore, be our Christian works, +done in a state of salvation and subsequent to our obeying the +holy calling. <i>These</i> are the practical results, the +<i>moral effects</i>, of our holy calling according to the +gracious purpose of God. These could never have been done but for +that holy calling. They could not therefore in any sense be the +<i>antecedent cause</i> of that holy calling. In the order both +of nature and of time, both the gracious purpose and the holy +calling must have preceded these works. To tell any man of common +sense, that they were not the procuring cause of the grace from +whence they were themselves derived, was needless.</p> +<p class="pn">To one so intelligent as Timothy, such instruction +was worse than superfluous. Works could not hold the twofold +relation of cause and effect to God’s grace. Nor can it be +supposed that St. Paul was the author of a solecism so obvious, +as that of formally setting in opposition to the <i>purpose</i> +and the <i>grace</i> of God those evangelic works, which were the +moral effects of the influence of that grace and of the execution +of that purpose. The works alluded to were those which might be +done before men were partakers of the Christian salvation, or +independently of the dispensation of grace, and according to +<i>such</i> works no man could be entitled to the blessings of +eternal redemption.</p> +<p class="pn">This important text lends no support to the +Calvinist. It cannot be cited in proof, that the election of God +is arbitrary and uninfluenced by his foreknowledge of the faith +and obedience of his chosen people, for the works here intended +are <i>not Christian good works</i> done in faith. Edwards did +wisely in not analyzing this text.</p> +<p class="pn">The same principle of interpretation is applicable +to Titus iii. 5. “<i>Not by works of righteousness</i> which we +have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing +of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” These +<i>works</i> are not those of the truly regenerate, which being +the <i>effects</i> of the grace of Christ, cannot be mistaken for +the meritorious cause of the communication of that grace. It is +rather to be taken as a broad assertion, that the blessings of +the Christian covenant, are not the result or the reward of human +deserts; that apart from the redemption of Christ, there are +<i>no</i> works of righteousness by which we can be saved; and +that while Christians are made really holy and good, their +sanctification is to be traced to the grace of God in Christ +Jesus. In neither passage is there any statement on which to rest +an argument for the arbitrary and unconditional decree of the +Calvinist, nor for depreciating the intrinsic value of those +really good works which the Christian performs in faith. +Calvinism has no foundation in the word of God. It is in direct +collision with that sacred authority. St. Paul rests the divine +election on the <span class="sc">foreknowledge</span> of the +Deity, and let his decision be final. “Whom he did +<i>foreknow</i>, he also did predestinate, to be conformed to the +image of his Son.”</p> +<p class="pn">The seventeenth Article of the Church accords with +the Scriptures, and its doctrinal statements are made almost +entirely in the language of the sacred writers, and of those +eminent divines of the Reformation who abjured Calvinism and +adhered to the Bible. It is drawn up with great moderation, says +nothing of absolute decrees and unconditional election, and it +treats the subject practically. The concluding paragraph relating +to “curious and carnal persons” shows that the venerable +compilers of the Article rejected extreme views of this doctrine, +since these only could lead to “a most dangerous downfall.” But +if the article itself be at all equivocal, it must be interpreted +by the formularies of the Church and by the Scriptures, since no +dogma is to be imputed to this holy branch of Christ’s Catholic +Church, that is at variance with the attributes of God, the moral +constitution of man, the testimony of the Bible, and the +obligations of practical religion.</p> +<p class="pn">If Calvinism be the doctrine of our Church, then +are the <i>Catechism</i>, and the Order for the Ministration of +<i>Baptism</i>, the most absurd and delusive compositions by +which the minds of men were ever led astray.</p> +<hr style="width:13%;margin-top:1.7em; margin-bottom:1.8em"> +<h2 class="p0"><a name="VI" id="VI">VI.—CALVINISM HAS LED TO THE +CORRUPTION OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE, THAT THE SCRIPTURES MAY BE +ACCOMMODATED TO EXTREME VIEWS OF THE DIVINE DECREES.</a></h2> +<p class="pn">It was not in the nature of things, that +Calvinistic predestination should be received as truth, without +producing such a modification of the entire system of divine +revelation, as would impress on it a new and completely different +character. Christianity, in its unadulterated simplicity, is +distinguished by the consolatory views it imparts of the +benignity and grace of God, and by the direct and cogent motives +it suggests for holiness and righteousness of life. But the first +article of the Calvinistic creed throws a veil of awful and +suspicious mystery over the divine goodness, and represents it +“as the sun shorn of his beams.” Having determined that God is +not the universal Father, nor “the Saviour of all men,” but the +projector of a scheme which predetermines the ruin of the great +mass of his creatures, Calvinism models to its own purpose all +those doctrines of Christianity which are in beautiful accordance +with the truth that “G<span class="sc">od is love</span>.” It +denies that the atonement of Christ was intended to make +satisfaction for “the sins of the <i>whole</i> world.” It +announces that the non-elect are laid under an irresistible +necessity of sinning to destruction, and that no spiritual grace +is imparted to rescue them from the dominion of native, +incurable, uncontrolled depravity.</p> +<p class="pn">The gracious invitations and promises of the Gospel +are reduced to unmeaning terms, so far as the many are concerned. +And while Calvinism is denominated by its admirers “the doctrines +of grace,” it obliterates from the Scriptures every trace of +sincere mercy, and robs the diadem of heaven of its purest and +brightest gem. <i>Calvinism</i> and <i>grace</i> are +heterogeneous terms, representing discordant ideas.</p> +<p class="pn">The motives to a holy life, governed by piety and +adorned with virtue, must be impaired by the views here given of +the Deity. No human mind can be habituated to the contemplation +of the divine conduct, as it is seen distorted by the +predestinarian theology, and retain its just sentiments of what +is right, what is just, what is honourable, what is lovely in +goodness. The man who imitates the God of the Calvinist, that +phantasm of a morbid or dreaming imagination, cannot fail to have +his moral sentiments corrupted, and to become deceptive, +shuffling, treacherous, and eventually insensible to the misery +of others.</p> +<p class="pn">The Calvinistic doctrines of <i>regeneration</i> +and <i>perseverance</i> are not calculated to rectify these +evils. These are made to harmonize with the fatalism which bears +all men along with irresistible energy, the reprobate to +perdition, the redeemed to blessedness. The new birth is +described as a sudden transformation of our spiritual nature, +effected by sovereign grace, unconnected with the preceding +states of the mind, whether good or evil, and attended with the +communication of spiritual life which can never afterwards be +forfeited or lost. No sins, however enormous, can endanger the +elect, although they may for a time cloud their evidences. The +effects produced by this doctrine on the mind of that individual +who believes himself to be thus specially distinguished, must be +of a very dangerous kind, unless counteracted as it frequently is +by other principles, or restrained by the genuine spirit of +Christianity operating with antagonist energy.</p> +<p class="pn">It is this <i>necessary</i> corruption of the great +truths of the Gospel that renders Calvinism an object of distrust +and alarm. If it was a mere speculation, which was intended, in +the calm spirit of Christian philosophy, to solve a problem in +theology or morals, leaving untouched the essential character of +revealed religion, it might pass without rebuke. But it weakens +the moral sense, and it leads to the subversion of all that is +consolatory in our prospects of the final destinies of the human +race, leaving us no security for the salvation even of the +supposed elect; for what hope can repose with confidence on the +supreme Arbiter of events, when He is believed to be the author +of a religion which represents Him as acting without any +intelligible moral motive, destroying the majority of the human +race for offences not their own, and saving the remnant without +regard to their Christian virtues!</p> +<p class="pn">It is remarkable that, while in modern times many +disavow their belief in those views of the <i>divine decrees</i> +which form the basis of the Calvinistic creed, and which have +occasioned this corruption of Christian truth, they still hold to +these corruptions, and write and preach on the implied principle +that the grace of God is limited by decree to those whom they +specially designate his children. They have been driven from the +foundation, and still they cleave to the superstructure. They +assume the designation of <i>moderate</i> Calvinists, not +perceiving that the doctrines of particular redemption, and +special grace, and exclusive assumption of a filial relation to +God, are untenable when absolute predestination is exploded. +Calvinism, after all, is their creed, since the system to which +they adhere cannot rest on any other foundation.</p> +<p class="pn">It is to be inferred, therefore, that for persons +of a certain temperament this doctrine has charms so powerful as +to negative the calm dictates of the judgment, and practically to +render the mind insensible to the force of truth.</p> +<p class="pn">And what are its recommendations to those who +embrace it?</p> +<p class="pn">1. Calvinism is both exciting and sedative, +exciting to the imagination, and sedative to the conscience. Thus +it is accommodated to two of the leading principles of human +nature, the love of the awful, the terrific, the deeply tragic, +and the natural anxiety which all men feel, to be rid of the +consciousness of guilt and of personal danger. Nothing can exceed +the tremendous scenes opened to the imagination by that system of +theology, which dooms to perdition the great mass of human +beings, who are permitted by their Creator to sport or suffer +upon earth through a few rapid revolutions of time, and are then +swept away for ever into an abyss of ruin; while, with +confounding and dreadful mystery, the Author of their being is +represented as the great agent in this work of appalling +desolation. To redeem his character for mercy, He rescues an +elect few, but leaves the devoted multitude without pity and +without hope, to everlasting torment. Whether we contemplate this +fearful character of the Deity, or endeavour to realize the +scenes which await the departure of lost souls, or attempt in +imagination to identify ourselves with the happy spirits of the +redeemed, who have escaped, <i>they know not why</i>, the general +destruction of all that is dear to man, we must be sensible that +all the ordinary conceptions of the human mind are comparatively +powerless for pity, or terror, or intense expectation of what is +to come.</p> +<p class="pn">At the same time its tendency, excepting in the +case of a few sensitive and tender spirits, is to deaden the +consciousness of guilt, to still the remonstrances of the +self-convicted mind, and to enable men of no religion and of no +morals to hear these doctrines proclaimed from the pulpit without +any salutary disquietude of heart. They do not really believe +them, or they find in them an apology for their corruption. It +has sometimes been said, by way of severe reflection, of a moral +sermon, that it could not be the Gospel, for that a Socinian +might have heard it without offence. The objection is very +absurd; but what then ought to be the inference drawn by the same +persons, respecting the character of doctrines which, although in +speculation they are fearful and appalling to the utmost, tend in +reality to stupify the moral sense, and can be listened to by the +profane and the profligate with complacency or apathy? While it +explains their popularity, it is a presumption against their +truth.</p> +<p class="pn">2. This doctrine has the recommendation of freeing +those who hold it from anxiety about the practical part of +religion, by substituting a system of belief <i>purely +speculative</i>. When examined in all its bearings, it may be +seen to consist of faith and assurance: faith in the divine +decrees; assurance of being numbered with the elect. Get clear +views of the divine sovereignty, believe that Christ died for +<i>you</i> in particular, construe the persuasion of your safety +into an especial witness of the Holy Spirit; doubt nothing, fear +nothing; look entirely out of yourselves; and remember that there +is a finished salvation for the elect; and all is well! This is +Calvinism. And this is speculation. If repentance, +self-government, virtue, and the duties of Christian piety and +obedience are inculcated, these must be enforced on grounds not +supplied by the predestinarian theology, and irreconcileable with +that scheme of doctrine. Doubtless, the best writers of this +school insist on holiness of temper, and sanctity of life, and +enforce these by motives derived from the moral perfections of +God, the turpitude of sin, and the necessity of a renewed heart +as being essential to religion here and happiness hereafter. But +all these considerations are totally independent of the +speculations of the fatalist, and are rendered powerless as +incentives to action exactly in proportion to the practical +influence of these speculations on the mind and the heart.</p> +<p class="pn">Let the professor of Christianity give up his +thoughts to eternal decrees, and special grace, and the soothing +dream of irrevocable promises sealed to the heart by the clear +witness of the Spirit, and the moral conflict with sin and +temptation will languish with the salutary fear of danger. This +is suited to the depraved indolence of man. All false systems of +religion have in view the indulgence of this perilous but +seductive peace. Any thing is acceptable to corrupt human nature +that supplies a substitute for the duties of moral righteousness +and a sublime virtue, lulling the conscience into a state of +artificial repose. And to produce this effect, no scheme of +religious belief, that ever emanated from the perverse ingenuity +of the human mind, was ever so perfectly contrived as the +Calvinistic notion of predestinating grace.</p> +<p class="pn">3. Of the multitudes of truly religious persons, +who embrace this doctrine or give their passive assent to it, but +few are competent to detect its fallacies, or to trace its evil +consequences.</p> +<p class="pn">They are to be found chiefly among the lower ranks +of life, or the uneducated portions of the middle and the higher +classes. If there are any whose minds have been disciplined by +sound instruction, and expanded by liberal acquirements, they +are, for the most part, the children of Calvinistic families, +who, having been taught to reverence these opinions in their +childhood, have not had energy of mind to rise above their early +impressions. That multitudes of persons piously disposed, but +without the requisite knowledge, or intellectual culture, should +be influenced by the arguments of men skilful in dialectics, and +zealous to make proselytes, cannot be deemed matter of +wonderment. Especially let it be noticed, that these teachers and +preachers know well how to appeal to ignorant timidity and to +sincere but unguarded piety.</p> +<p class="pn">They are told, that to reject these doctrines shows +“a heart secretly disaffected to the government of God,” and +daring to oppose presumption and ignorance to the wisdom of the +Eternal. As if it were not the fact, that Calvinism has been +viewed with abhorrence by men of the humblest and the purest +piety, by men of seraphic minds and of the sublimest +intellect.</p> +<p class="pn">They are also instructed to believe, that the grace +of the Redeemer is magnified by degrading human nature to the +utmost, and making the redeemed passive recipients of +predestinated and exclusive grace. But they do not perceive that +Calvinism destroys all ideas of <i>grace</i>, by making God the +author of the misery which He affects to pity, and by tracing the +divine conduct to mere motiveless caprice, to blind and arbitrary +choice or rejection.</p> +<p class="pns">These distinctions are lost upon the superficial +minds of the multitude. And when they are told that Calvinism +honours the sovereignty of God, and exalts the grace of Christ, +their religious and holy feelings are enlisted in a cause which +little deserves these high and evangelic eulogies. While the love +of God in Christ, to themselves in particular, is made the +prevailing topic, the gloomy and suspicious parts of the system +are kept in the back ground, or positively denied.</p> +<p class="pn">If there be truth in the preceding remarks, the +degree of popularity which attaches to this view of religion, far +from yielding a presumptive argument in its favour, is, at least, +a reason for regarding it with suspicion. It has not the +recommendation of being the faith of the most numerous portion of +the wise, of the holy, of the virtuous. It appeals to the +weaknesses rather than to the nobler principles of human nature. +It can never be the sincere and cherished belief of an +enlightened, community.</p> +<p class="pn">The advocates of this creed appear to be aware of +this, and therefore supply their want of conclusive argument by +fulminations intended to effect by fear, what more honourable +means could not accomplish.</p> +<p class="pn">They not only contend for the truth of their +doctrine, they make the belief of it essential to salvation. None +are elect who do not receive their views of election. All others +are reprobate. “Shall I tell you,” says one of their most eminent +men, “some of the ends that may be answered by preaching this +doctrine? One important end is, to detect hearts which are +unwilling that God should reign; to lay open those smooth, +selfish spirits, which, while they cry Hosannah, are hostile to +the dominion of Jehovah. The more fully God and the system of his +government are brought out to view, the more clearly are the +secrets of all hearts revealed.” Men, who fancy themselves +impelled by a “special influence” to receive this creed, may +consistently pronounce judgment on those who reject it. The +absurdity in one case, is not greater than in the other. But +their attempts at intimidation will have no other effect with +persons of dispassionate reflection, than to render more +repulsive those errors which foster insolent conceit in vulgar +minds, and encourage those who appear to have but a superficial +knowledge of themselves to pass sentence of condemnation on the +hearts of others.</p> +<p class="pn">Formally to disclaim a charge so gross and +misapplied as that of “hostility to the dominion of Jehovah,” +would be to treat it with more respect than it deserves. But it +may not be improper to remark, that the charge proceeds with the +worst possible grace from the vindicators of a creed which +obliterates from the divine government every trace of wisdom, of +rectitude, of goodness, and so represents the Ruler of the word, +as to make Him an object of detestation and terror to his +creatures. Other sentiments must inspire the heart before we can +reverence the divine administration, and unite in “the song of +Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great +and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty: <i>just</i> and +<i>true</i> are thy ways, Thou king of saints.”</p> +<h1 style= +"text-align:center;font-size:133%;margin-top:10em; margin-bottom:1em;"> +<a name="Appendix" id="Appendix">APPENDIX.</a></h1> +<hr style="width:13%;margin-top:1.7em; margin-bottom:1.8em"> +<div style="font-size:92%"> +<p class="pch">ADDITIONAL REMARKS ON MR. NOEL’S TRACT ON “THE +UNITY OF THE CHURCH.”</p> +<p class="pnn">T<span class="sc">he</span> writer of these pages +has no personal knowledge of the author of the tract, of whom he +has only heard by report, that he is a zealous minister and +popular preacher. His writings indicate natural suavity of +temper. Having therefore no feeling of personal disrespect, he +deems no apology to be necessary for the freedom of his +strictures on a work which challenges attention and defies +contradiction.</p> +<p class="pn">Mr. Noel has openly and dogmatically set forth a +theory of the visible Church and her fellowship, not only hostile +to the Church of England and fraught with absurdity, but +propounded under the alluring guise of Christian charity; a +charity which has won for him the applause of the professors of +modern <i>liberalism</i>, because, on a cursory glance, it +appears to embrace all sects and denominations of Christians. It +is proper, therefore, to set the matter in a true light, by +showing that this liberality of sentiment is more specious than +real; that Mr. Noel is throwing out false colours, and that +while, in no measured terms, he condemns the supposed want of +brotherly-kindness in the members of the Church of England, his +own apparent liberality is resolvable into nothing else than +<i>Calvinistic exclusiveness and intolerance</i>.</p> +<p class="pn">Liberality is the order, the fashion, the idol of +the day. In many it takes the form of infidel indifference, +regarding as equally true, or equally false, every creed that is +called Christian.</p> +<p class="pn">The charity of our holy and Apostolical Church is +not thus lax and indiscriminate. It rests not upon scepticism, +but upon sound and definable principles. It does not proceed on +the assumption that all creeds are equally good, but that men of +all creeds have a political right to follow the dictates of +conscience, whether enlightened or erroneous, in matters purely +spiritual, and that they are responsible only to God for their +religious faith and worship; indulging, at the same time, a +charitable persuasion of the sincerity and Christian goodness of +multitudes who are believed to be labouring under mistaken views +of truth. This is true <i>Christian</i> charity, which tolerates +error, hopes well of misinformed but sincere piety, breathes no +malignant feelings, indulges in no haughtiness of conscious +superiority; but, after all, holds firmly to its own persuasion +of what is true and right, without the smallest approach to a +compromise of principles even with honest and well-meaning error. +This is the charity of the sound English churchman, and this +charity lies at the foundation of the religious liberties of the +British empire.</p> +<p class="pn">As churchmen we contemplate with reverence, our +protestant, episcopal, and apostolical communion. We believe that +it rests on “the foundation of Apostles and prophets, Jesus +Christ himself the chief corner-stone.” And we contend for the +right of the Church to demand from her own ministers faith in her +doctrines, and to model her own worship, and adjust her own +ceremonies according to her own holy discretion. But we compel no +man to come in. We love and cherish the chartered and +constitutional liberties of our country; and while we sympathize +not with the errors which are tolerated, we rejoice in the +freedom, the just and evangelic freedom, which leaves every man, +without control or interference, to settle all points of +<i>religious</i> duty with his conscience and his God. We do not +feel bound to attempt what would be impracticable, to construct a +church which should suit the caprices of all, and whose flexible +creed, like the vane which surmounts the steeple, should shift +with “<i>every wind of doctrine</i>;” but we allow the +discontented to depart without molestation, and we honour their +conscientious scruples, while we regret and condemn their +errors.</p> +<p class="pn">With charity so large yet discriminating, founded +on principles which approve themselves to the judgment and the +heart, we solemnly protest against every charge of intolerance +and bigotry that is brought, by friend or foe, against our +National Church.</p> +<p class="pn">But this does not satisfy Mr. Noel, who proposes, +what appears at first sight, a charity still more generous and +comprehensive. The Anti-pædobaptist and the Presbyterian, with +all their germane varieties, are not only to be treated with +forbearance and regarded with charity, but are all to form one +fellowship, united and co-operating in the great cause of their +common Christianity. Take the following passage. “And these” +<i>Baptism</i> and <i>Church government</i>, “are two of the most +important points which separate Christians. Should they separate +them? As well might the brothers of a family be separated by the +most trifling difference on some question of taste or literature. +. . . . . Episcopalians and Presbyterians, Baptists and +Pædobaptists, with all others, who differ on obscure and +undecided points, ought, if they have one Lord, one faith, one +baptism, one God, and one hope, under the influence of one +Spirit, who sanctifies them all, to be one in profession, in +action, and in heart.” This passage, which is in the spirit of +the entire tract, is open to grave animadversion.</p> +<p class="pn">1. The points mentioned as being “most trifling +differences,” are regarded by all theologians of any reputation +as questions of great moment, although not equally so with those +which immediately touch our salvation. Mr. Noel is altogether +original in regarding either the construction that is to be put +on the sacrament of baptism, or the degree of importance to be +attached to the episcopal office, as matters “most trifling.”</p> +<p class="pn">2. The Baptists and Presbyterians, who look on +these points with other feelings than those of Mr. Noel, have +considered them of sufficient moment to justify their separation +from the communion of our Church. That separation is <i>their +own</i> “act and deed.” And to charge the Church, on this +account, with bigotry, intolerance, and want of charity, proves +either consummate ignorance of ecclesiastical history, or +deliberate injustice to serve a party. Nevertheless, the entire +argument of the tract, proceeds on the assumption that the Church +is the guilty and impenitent party.</p> +<p class="pn">3. Under these circumstances, it is impossible that +there should be but “one profession,” unless one of the differing +parties can deny its own faith, and profess what it does not +believe. The Catholic Church of England cannot, and will not, be +guilty of that turpitude. The members of <i>Mr. Noel’s Church</i> +have declared, by their voluntary separation, their determination +to profess their own principles.</p> +<p class="pn">4. That which is most reprehensible in this +charitable project of hailing all sects as brethren is, that it +is, after all, deceptive and hollow. Mr. Noel does not intend a +promiscuous fellowship with various denominations. His charity is +extended to those, and to those exclusively, who, within these +several communions, hold “the doctrines of grace.” All others he +denounces as not being children of God. That is, his union +includes all those who think with himself; Calvinists of every +persuasion, and not a soul besides! These are his “one body,” and +this one body is “<span class="sc">the church</span>.” How +beautiful, how noble, how godlike is the charity of the Church of +England, which exists in unison with the love of truth, but +embraces with Christian affection even those who have quitted her +fellowship, contrasted with the drivelling and sectarian +partialities of the Calvinist who pronounces every man who +differs from himself to be no child of God! The charity of Mr. +Noel resolves itself into Calvinistic exclusiveness and +intolerance.</p> +<p class="pns">If in these remarks there is any apparent +severity, they are not to be applied to the author, but to the +principles of his work. Calvinism obscures the finest intellect, +and gives a false direction to the most humane and generous +feelings which can impart graceful dignity to the Christian +character.</p> +<p class="pch">THE END.</p> +<hr style="width:90%;margin-top:1.7em; margin-bottom:0"> +<p class="pch">G<span class="sc">ilbert</span> & +R<span class="sc">ivington</span>, Printers, St. John’s Square, +London.</p> +</div> +<h1 style="text-align:center;margin-top:10em; margin-bottom:1em"> +<a name="SameAuthor" id="SameAuthor"><i>By the same +Author</i>.</a></h1> +<hr style="width:15%;margin-top:1.7em; margin-bottom:1.5em"> +<p class="pch">I.</p> +<p class="pn">DISCOURSES on some important Theological Subjects, +Doctrinal and Practical. 7<i>s</i>.</p> +<p class="pch">II.</p> +<p class="pn">ECCLESIASTICAL ESTABLISHMENTS not inconsistent with +CHRISTIANITY. Part I. 2<i>s</i>. 6<i>d</i>. Part II. +2<i>s</i>.</p> +<p class="pch">III.</p> +<p class="pn">The CONSOLATIONS of CHRISTIANITY, in four +Discourses. 3<i>s</i>. 6<i>d</i>.</p> +<p class="pch">IV.</p> +<p class="pn">On BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 3<i>s</i>. +6<i>d</i>.</p> +<h1 style= +"text-align:center;font-size:112%;margin-top:10em; margin-bottom:2em;"> +<a name="Footnotes" id="Footnotes"><b>Footnotes</b></a></h1> +<p class="pn"><sup><a href="#f1" id="n1" name="n1">1</a></sup> + Dr. Griffin in his “Lectures on Important Doctrines,” broadly +charges the rejectors of Calvinism with embracing <i>another +Gospel</i>, and with being on the high road to infidelity. “And +when they have gone this length,” he says, “in frittering away +man’s dependence on grace, they are just prepared to place him +completely on his own works, to deny justification by faith, and +of course, the proper influence of the atonement; short of this +these systems never stop: and when they have gone thus far, there +is but one step to a denial of the divinity of Christ and the +infinite demerit of sin. The next step is <i>universalism</i>, +and the next <i>infidelity</i>.” Every intelligent reader will +know how to appreciate this senseless dogmatism. The infidel +might with equal propriety charge the professors of Scriptural +Christianity with being on the high road to Calvinism, and +prepared, by their faith in the corruption of human nature, and +the atonement of Christ, for the most extreme views of the Divine +decrees. Yet these bold and baseless assertions have their weight +with those for whom they are intended, and many weak but good +persons are held in passive bondage to these teachers and their +creed, through the holy fear of moving a step towards infidelity. +On the other hand, we might retort the charge. Calvinism has made +more infidels than any other corruption of Christianity, +excepting Popery. But we suggest this only in the way of <i>fair +retaliation</i>.</p> +<p class="pns">The rejectors of Calvinism do not reject “the +doctrines of grace,” but the corruptions by which they have been +dishonoured. They maintain, that on the absolute predestinarian +scheme, there is no room for grace, such as the Gospel exhibits +to the sinful and the lost; and that their own views are not only +more accordant with the justice, but with the unmerited and +infinite mercy of God. They ascribe all true holiness to the +Divine Spirit.</p> +<p class="pn"><sup><a href="#f2" id="n2" name="n2">2</a></sup> + Dr. Coplestone, now the Bishop of Llandaff, denies that the +foreknowledge of an event proves the <i>event to be +necessary</i>. “<i>We</i> may be unable to conceive how a thing +not necessary in its nature can be foreknown; for <i>our</i> +foreknowledge is in general limited by that circumstance, and is +more or less perfect in proportion to the fixed or necessary +nature of the things we contemplate, with which nature we become +acquainted by experience, and are thus able to anticipate a great +variety of events: but to subject the knowledge of God to any +such limitation is surely absurd and unphilosophical, as well as +impious; and, therefore, to mix up the idea of God’s +foreknowledge with any quality in the nature of the things +foreknown, is even less excusable than to be guilty of that +confusion when speaking of ourselves.”</p> +<p class="pn">But, with due deference to his lordship, this does +not contradict the statement in the text, that we are ignorant of +any principle on which <i>such prescience</i> can be explained. +Assuming, indeed, that any events are contingent, that human +actions proceed from freedom, and not from necessity, we cannot +deny that they come within the range of infinite knowledge.</p> +<p class="pns">But the philosophical necessarian does not grant +this postulate. He assumes the existence of an infinite mind, to +whose knowledge all events are open, and thence infers the +<i>necessity</i> of these events. He pleads that omniscience and +contingency are incongruous ideas, and, on the ground of pure +metaphysics, it would be difficult to refute him. But we demolish +his theory by an appeal to facts. We oppose the moral +constitution and history of man, to the plausible speculations of +philosophy. In other words, the mere metaphysician is a fatalist; +and his position, in the present state of our intellectual +philosophy, can be successfully attacked only by an appeal to +facts and consciousness, and by moral argument. That sound +metaphysics and just moral reasoning cannot really be at variance +is certain, since there cannot exist contradictory truths. Our +metaphysics therefore are wrong, or there must be an unknown +<i>third principle</i>, by which they are to be reconciled with +our moral reasonings. But until we can detect the fallacies of +the metaphysician, or supply the <i>connecting link</i> which is +now wanting, we must rest in the unsatisfactory conclusion that +abstract philosophy is with the necessarian, and that liberty and +its ennobling consequences, moral agency, and moral +responsibility, rest on the solitary basis of moral argument.</p> +<p class="pns"><sup><a href="#f3" id="n3" name="n3">3</a></sup> + On the “special <i>teaching</i>” claimed, in connexion with +“special grace,” by the most popular writers of the Calvinistic +school, the reader may find some just and forcible remarks in +Essays by W. and T. Ludlam. Their fearless exposure of the +erroneous statements given by Milner, Robinson, Newton, Harvey, +and others, more particularly on the subject of divine influence, +awakened the indignation of a party whose pretensions, when +tested by reason and revelation, were proved to be groundless. +Without attempting an indiscriminate defence of their opinions or +their arguments, we may recommend these essays as being eminently +worthy of attention in the present day, when two distinct but +zealous parties are aiming to establish exclusive doctrines, by +discountenancing the legitimate use of human reason in religious +inquiries—one resting on tradition, the other on individual +inspiration; neither of them seeming to remember, that tradition +may be pleaded for and against the same dogmata, and that the +private persuasions of one good man may be opposite to those of +another, who has, with equal earnestness and humility, prayed to +be directed into the knowledge of saving truth. The man of +independent mind will find in these essays, much to admire in +their elucidation of truth and detection of error, but more in +their dauntless defiance of those who represent the Bible as a +“sealed book” to all who are not visited with a special faculty +for discerning its mystic characters and hidden sense. In that +case, the Scriptures are a revelation <i>only to the elect</i>, +who, to satisfy themselves and the world, that <i>their +interpretation</i> is the only sound one, ought to produce +miracles as proof of their own inspiration, not less unequivocal +than those which vindicated the authority and infallibility of +the Apostles. Such opinions, although held by religious men, are +dishonourable to the Scriptures, and needlessly degrading to the +human mind.</p> +<p class="pn"><sup><a href="#f4" id="n4" name="n4">4</a></sup> +“There can be no approaches towards regeneration in the +antecedent temper of the heart. The moment before the change, the +sinner is as far from sanctification, as darkness is from light, +as death is from life, as sin is from holiness.”</p> +<p class="pn">“Regeneration is an instantaneous change, from +exclusive attachment to the creature, from supreme selfishness, +from enmity against God, to universal love, which fixes the heart +supremely on Him; and there is no previous abatement of the +enmity, or approximation towards a right temper; the heart being +at one moment in full possession of its native selfishness and +opposition, at the next moment in possession of a principle of +supreme love to God; acquiring thus, in an instant, a temper +which it never possessed before.”—<i>Lectures on Important +Doctrines by Dr. Griffin</i>.</p> +<p class="pns">How extravagant in theory, how false in fact! The +doctrine of the Anglican Church on this; and all similar points, +never appears so wise, and sound, and scriptural, as when +contrasted with the speculative systems of men, who, to give +harmony and consistency to their notions, close their eyes to the +real world of man, and create for themselves an ideal universe, +peopled by another order of beings, and governed by a power +unknown but to the dreamers themselves.</p> +<p class="pns"><sup><a href="#f5" id="n5" name="n5">5</a></sup> + The Presbyterian Church of Scotland is both Calvinistic and +National. But this fact does not militate against the argument of +this section; that Calvinism is opposed to the constitution and +purposes of a visible Church. Her creed and her discipline are at +variance. Her ministers are required to believe in the +Westminster Confession. And the great body of her people are said +to be attached to that system of doctrine. But her more educated +classes reject it, and the Scottish Church is a divided +house.</p> +<p class="pn"><sup><a href="#f6" id="n6" name="n6">6</a></sup> + The prominent part taken by the doctrinal Puritans, in the +revolutionary movements which brought Charles I. to the block, is +proved by the concurrent testimony of the writers of those times. +It is amply illustrated and confirmed by Mr. Nichols in his +“Calvinism and Arminianism Compared.”</p> +<p class="pn">The “Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson,” by his widow +Lucy, is not only a work of great general interest, beautifully +composed, and combining with the life of an eminent person vivid +sketches of the times; but it illustrates the subject discussed +in the text. Colonel Hutchinson was a doctrinal Puritan, and one +of the regicides. In himself we behold all the elements of a +great and noble character, devout, humane, scrupulously +conscientious, and of heroic courage; every quality that might +adorn the gentleman, the patriot, the Christian. But his extreme +principles induced a mistaken sense of duty, which embittered his +own days, and added to the calamities of his country; after +having been spared at the restoration, his gloomy reserve and +supposed readiness to act again the part of a rebel, if +opportunity should occur, led to his imprisonment in Sandown +Castle, where he died more ignobly than if he had been brought to +the block. It would have been more to the honour of the king, if +he had at first doomed him to a public execution, the proper +death of a regicide, or had left him afterwards unmolested; but +the second Charles was not less mean and malignant than his sire +was unfortunate. Of the character of the humbler class of the +doctrinal Puritans, the following hints are incidentally given in +this work.</p> +<p class="pn">The name of Roundhead “was very ill applied to Mr, +Hutchinson, who, having naturally a very fine thick sett head of +hair, kept it clean and handsome, so that it was a greate +ornament to him, although <i>the godly of those dayes</i>, when +he embrac’d their party, <i>would not allow him to be +religious</i>, because his hayre was not in their cutte, nor his +words in their phraze, nor such little formalities altogether +fitted to their humour; who were, many of them, so weake as to +esteeme rather for such insignificant circumstances, then for +solid wisdom, piety, and courage, which brought reall ayd and +honor to their party; but as Mr. Hutchinson chose, not them, but +the God they serv’d, and the truth and righteousness they +defended, so did not their weaknesses, censures, ingratitude, and +discouraging behaviour, with which he was abundantly exercised +all his life, make him forsake them in any thing wherein they +adher’d to just and honourable principles and practizes; but when +they apostatized from these, none cast them off with greater +indignation, how shining soever the profession were that gilt, +not a temple of living grace, but a tomb which only held the +carkase of religion.” In other words, like other partisans, whose +principles have degenerated into the spirit of faction, he +overlooked the baseness of ingratitude, and worse immoralities, +in his associates, so long as they maintained the just and +honourable character of traitors and rebels.</p> +<p class="pn"><sup><a href="#f7" id="n7" name="n7">7</a></sup> + The Manchester Synod, at which were present 620 ministers of +various denominations, was held in the year 1841, for the purpose +of discussing the <i>corn laws</i>, with a view to their +abolition. The professed object was the relief of the poor by +procuring cheap bread; the real object was the depression of the +landed aristocracy, and, through them, of the Clergy of the +National Church, whose tithes are regulated by the average value +of corn. Had those gentlemen been sincere in their lamentations +for the manufacturing poor, they would have long ago agitated the +country for the abolition of the Factory System, and the rescue +of its miserable victims from oppression and famine. That system +must be strengthened by the abolition of the corn laws, which +would only aggrandize the <i>great manufacturers</i>, and plunge +the working people into deeper misery, by throwing the +agricultural poor out of employment, and driving them to the +towns and cities for occupation, thus glutting the market with +superfluous labour. Looking at some of those individuals who took +a leading part in the Synod, men of reputed truth and probity in +their customary habits, their disingenuousness on this occasion +supplies a striking proof of the power of faction to impair the +moral sense, especially when originating in hatred of the Church. +The great body of this Synod were ministers of Calvinistic +Churches. The “dissenting interest” has degraded itself by +assuming the character of a political faction.</p> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On Calvinism, by William Hull + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON CALVINISM *** + +***** This file should be named 28339-h.htm or 28339-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/3/3/28339/ + +Produced by Keith G. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: On Calvinism + +Author: William Hull + +Release Date: March 16, 2009 [EBook #28339] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON CALVINISM *** + + + + +Produced by Keith G. Richardson + + + + +ON CALVINISM. + +BY THE + +REV. WILLIAM HULL, + +PERPETUAL CURATE OF ST. GREGORY'S, NORWICH. + +Touton gar hapase psyche physikon nomon boethon aute kai symmachon +epi ton prakteon ho ton holon demiourgos hupestato. Dia men tou +nomou ten eutheian aute paradeixas hodon: dia de tes aute +dedoremenes autexousiou eleutherias ten ton kreittonon airesin +epainou kai apodoches axian apophenas geron te kai meizonon +epathlon.--Eusebius. + +LONDON: + +PRINTED FOR J. G. F. & J. RIVINGTON, + +ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, + +AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL. + +1841. + +LONDON: + +GILBERT & RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, + +ST. JOHN'S SQUARE. + +TO + +THE HONOURABLE AND VERY REVEREND + +DR. PELLEW, + +DEAN OF NORWICH. + +Sir, + +When I venture to inscribe to you the following pages, I am fearless +of having applied to me Johnson's definition of a dedicator, "one +who inscribes his work to a patron with compliment and servility." +Adulation, Sir, from any quarter, _you_ would resent as an +indignity, and the tenor of my own life and writings will secure me +from the imputation of _servile_ deference to others, with whatever +reverence I may contemplate their rank, their talents, or their +virtues. + +When, Sir, under unusual circumstances, I engaged in the ministry of +the Church, the presentation which I received from the Chapter was, +on my part, unsolicited and unexpected, and, on yours, a favour done +on public principle to one who was personally unknown to you. + +In respectfully presenting to your attention this short treatise, I +do not prejudge your opinion of its contents, whether favourable or +adverse. The responsibility rests exclusively with the writer. + +But I cherish the persuasion that it contains no sentiments, and +expresses no feelings, which can be justly displeasing to a +dignified clergyman, who has firmly professed his attachment to the +great principles of the Church in times more dangerous to her +interests, and more difficult for her ministers, than any which have +heretofore occurred since the great Rebellion. + +I have the honour to be, Sir, + +your obliged and faithful servant, + +WILLIAM HULL. + +Eaton next Norwich, + +Sept. 1841. + +PREFACE. + + + +That strenuous attempts are now in progress to propagate Calvinism +in its most objectionable forms, by impressing into its service that +spirit of earnest, but often misinformed piety which has been +awakened within the bosom of the Church, is too notorious to require +proof or to admit of refutation. + +The following sheets have been written, and are now published, under +the solemn conviction, that the danger to be apprehended from the +extensive diffusion of this creed, both to religion and the Church, +renders it impossible that it should be allowed to pursue its +unmolested course, without correspondent efforts, on the part of +sound Churchmen, to counteract its baleful influence. + +Superstition, which lays undue stress on outward forms, and +fanaticism, which gives credit to preternatural impulses, and +professes a particular kind of inspiration differing not at all from +infallibility, are the Scylla and Charybdis, through which, over +stormy waters or serene, we have to make our steady way. Both are +equally intolerant, and both are condemned by the genius of +Protestantism, the constitution of the Church, and the spirit of the +Bible. + +It is devoutly to be desired, that none who are more regardful of +truth than of party, that none who are alive to the real state of +the times, and to the character of the respective interests which +may hereafter be brought into unhappy collision, may hesitate, +through fear or favour, to act in this crisis with moral courage +tempered with holy charity. Let them discountenance all extreme +innovations, from whatsoever quarter they may proceed, or by +whatsoever distinguished names they may be sanctioned. Let them rise +with manly integrity above the mean suggestions of temporizing +policy, and look only to the substantial and permanent interests of +the Church, which are those of truth and charity, of freedom in +alliance with order, of Christianity in its most ennobling form, and +of the public welfare of the British Empire. + +If the spirit of rigid Calvinism, under any plausible disguise, +should be widely diffused through the Anglican Church, we need no +prophetic mind to announce, that it will lead to consequences fatal +to her peace and liberty, introducing a spiritual despotism whose +power will be felt throughout the length and breadth of the land, +overawing, as in the days of John Knox, the majesty of princes, and +spreading its morbid gloom to the sequestered cottage of the +peasant, in the remotest regions and most unfrequented provinces. + +History proves, that the men who are deeply imbued with this spirit, +merge all other interests in their devoted zeal to its propagation. + +Those of that party who, like Mr. Noel, think "our venerable Church" +means no more than "our venerable _selves_," will be ready to betray +her into the hands of her adversaries, whensoever they may be deemed +strong enough to carry her outworks, and to supplant the orthodox +clergyman by the Calvinistic minister;--while those who reverence +the Apostolical succession, or the general order of the Church, will +form within our pale an intolerant party, intriguing for dominion, +restless and oppressive, never to be satisfied until they have +crushed or excluded all who have dared to profess their rejection of +the Calvinistic theology. + +In the spirit already exemplified by the Pastoral Aid Society, for +the detection of whose sectarian principles we are indebted to the +Christian courage of Dr. Molesworth, they will throw obstacles in +the way of candidates for ordination or parochial cures, if they +come not up to the doctrinal standard of their _triers_: the +episcopal functions will be usurped or controlled by the ruthless +zeal of an ecclesiastical faction; the Church societies for the +extension of Christian knowledge and piety will lose their catholic +character, dwindling into ignoble channels for spreading abroad the +bigotry of an exclusive school; and gone for ever will be those +beautiful charities, and that liberal regard to the just exercise of +Christian and clerical freedom, which have been recently elicited, +and expressed with deliberate solemnity, in the correspondence of +the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, with the +reverend Canon Wodehouse, on the subject of subscription. + +The author of this tract has aimed at conciseness, so far as the +nature of the argument would allow, not employing "those arts by +which a big book is made." But if the smallness of the work does not +seem to accord with the magnitude of the subject, it is not to be +inferred that the sentiments have been hastily formed or rashly +vindicated. For many years they have been taking deep root in the +mind of the writer; nor would he have engaged in the ministry of the +Church, but on the conviction, after serious inquiry, that her faith +was primitive and not Calvinistic. + +He has spared no "plainness of speech," in his exposure of dangerous +error, but from principle and feeling he has abstained from the +malice of personal vituperation. His warfare is with pernicious +opinions, not with those who hold them, many of whom are impressed +with the religious persuasion, that what they have believed they +have received from divine teaching, and that in upholding their +creed they glorify God. + +Such divine teaching as the Calvinist claims, and which, if it means +any thing, amounts to plenary inspiration, the writer does not +suppose to have superintended his own thoughts while engaged in the +composition of these pages. He would deem it unwarrantable +presumption to look for such miraculous effusion of the Spirit in +the ordinary condition of the Church. But he confidently believes, +that, to those who seek it in humble faith, such grace is given as +may purify the dispositions of the heart, and thus guard it from all +predilection for error and all prejudice against _the truth_. +Entertaining these views of the office of the Holy Spirit under the +evangelical dispensation, the writer humbly commits this work, not +executed without dependence on his preventing grace, to Him who is +the eternal source and the faithful patron of truth; uniting in the +prayer of this beautiful collect, with all those, who, whatsoever +their doctrinal views of religion, seek for truth as the richest of +treasures. + +"O Lord, from whom all good things do come; grant to us thy humble +servants, that by thy holy inspiration, we may think those things +that be good, and by thy merciful guiding may perform the same, +through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen." + +CONTENTS. + + + +General remarks + +Particular objections + +I. Calvinism impugns the moral character of the Deity + +II. Calvinism is not to be reconciled with the moral responsibility +of man + +III. Calvinism is opposed to the constitution and the purposes of a +visible Church + +IV. Calvinism is productive of positively injurious effects, on +individual character and on social happiness + +V. Calvinism is not the doctrine of Scripture, nor of the Anglican +Church + +VI. Calvinism has led to the corruption of Christian doctrine, that +the Scriptures may be accommodated to extreme views of the divine +decrees + +Appendix + +ON CALVINISM. + + + +PART I. + +GENERAL REMARKS. + +To St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo in Africa, belongs the equivocal +distinction of having originated in the Christian Church a +controversy respecting the Divine decrees, a controversy which dates +its origin from the fifth century, and which, after the lapse of +thirteen hundred years, exhibits no symptoms of approaching to its +end. In the Roman Communion, it was the source of those bitter +animosities, which reciprocally exasperated the Jesuits and +Jansenists. The Protestant Churches, in the early days of the +Reformation, were disturbed by the agitation of this perplexed and +perilous subject. And when Calvin appeared as the vindicator of the +Divine sovereignty in predetermining the fates of men, he only +introduced to the Churches of the Reformation a doctrine which had +been transmitted from earlier times, but which, perhaps, he defined +with more precision, expounded with more fearless consistency, and +invested with the authority of his own great and illustrious name. +In the present discussion the word _Calvinism_ is used, not to +signify those doctrines of the Church which Calvin held in common +with the fathers of the Reformation, but those only which relate to +his extreme views of the Divine decrees, to his predestinarian +theology, and to his modification of other scripture truths to +render them harmonious with his principal tenets. + +Whatever therefore may be the merits or the final result of this +grave and earnest controversy, it leaves untouched the corruption of +human nature, the deity and atonement of Christ, justification by +faith, the necessity of Divine influence to renew and purify the +heart, and the scriptural doctrine of predestination, according to +the fore-knowledge of God. This distinction is important; since, if +it be overlooked, the rejectors of Calvinism may be supposed to have +also rejected the capital doctrines of the Reformed faith. Fuller +has unwarrantably, perhaps undesignedly, given his sanction to this +imputation in his "Calvinistic and Socinian Systems compared[1]." +But the rejectors of _Calvinistic_ predestination may be not less +remote from Socinianism, and much nearer to genuine Christianity, +than the most rigid disciple of that eminent Reformer, who, in the +protestant city of Geneva, committed Servetus to the flames. The +Socinian controversy relates to doctrines, which are the common +faith of the Catholic Church; with the peculiarities of Calvinism it +has no concern. And it is worthy of remark, that if one class of +doctrinalists more than another symbolizes in any instance with +Socinians, the followers of Calvin form that class; since it is not +easy to discover where lies the essential difference between the +doctrine of _philosophical necessity_, as held by the greater number +of Socinians, and that of _predestination_, as maintained by +Calvinists. + +Both parties rest their dogmas on the same metaphysical grounds. At +the same time, as moral reasoners, the palm of superiority must be +awarded to Socinians, who reject most consistently the doctrine of +human corruption, and the atonement of Christ, together with the +correspondent doctrines of the Gospel, as altogether out of place in +a scheme which denies the freedom of human actions and reduces all +independent agency to that of the Deity alone; while the Calvinist +subjects the human race to an inevitable necessity of sinning, +denies to them individually, even the semblance of a probationary +course--makes them accountable, yet withholds the powers necessary +to a moral agent, and then most unrighteously dooms to perdition all +but the elect! In rejecting such a theory of religion, we reject not +the fundamental doctrines of Christianity; we only vindicate them +from objections, which, if unanswerable, are fatal; and we hold to +the Gospel with a firmer conviction and a livelier faith, when we +behold its accordance with the righteousness of the Divine +administration and with the moral constitution of man. + +On a subject, which has been so long and so laboriously +investigated, and to the illustration of which the most vigorous and +profound of human intellects have directed their energies, it would +be vain to expect any novelty of argument. On either side, it may be +presumed, the question has been exhausted, or, that the human mind +has done all that its powers can accomplish, however unsatisfactory +or inconclusive, in some respects, the result. + +It appears to the writer of these pages, on a calm and summary +review of the arguments by which the doctrines of _freedom_ and +_necessity_ have been respectively supported, that those reasonings +which are purely _philosophical_ or _metaphysical_ decidedly +preponderate on the side of Necessity. The prescience of the Deity +cannot, _on any known principle_, be reconciled with the contingency +which attaches to the actions or determinations of man, on the +hypothesis of freedom[2]. And, moreover, if every event requires a +cause, and every volition is guided by motives, what are called the +spontaneous acts of the mind must be the necessary result of motives +which direct and command its elections. "To say that in our choice +we reject the stronger motive, and that we choose a thing merely +because we choose it, is sheer nonsense and absurdity. And whoever, +with a sound understanding, will fix his mind upon the state of the +question, will perceive its impossibility." + +But, all correct _moral_ reasoning ranges on the side of freedom. In +opposition to the subtle or forcible reasonings of the metaphysician, +every individual can plead his inward consciousness of voluntary +agency. He feels, he knows, that he is free. The exercise of the +moral sense, the judgment which the mind pronounces on its own good +or evil movements, the conviction of having done or neglected a +duty, the calm satisfaction of the virtuous mind, and the fierce +or sullen remorse of the criminal, are associated with the +insuppressible persuasion of liberty. Destroy this persuasion, +and virtue is despoiled of its loveliness, vice of its deformity. +But it cannot be destroyed. It is the voice of nature. The Creator +has so formed us, that we cannot throw off from ourselves the sense +of responsibility, nor regard our fellow creatures as unfit for +praise or blame, for love or hatred. Men treat each other as free +agents in all the transactions of human life, and God administers +the government of the world, on the principle that mankind are +capable of self-control, regulating their conduct by the hope of +reward or fear of punishment. If the consciousness of freedom be a +delusion, it follows that moral obligation, duty, reward, guilt, +punishment, are delusions, and that religion, however salutary in +its effects, is nothing better than a magnificent imposture. + +Calvinism is an attempt to found the religion of Christ on the +doctrine of necessity, and to accommodate its truths, which suppose +and require free agency in man, to a dark and appalling fatalism. +But in a case like the present, in which metaphysical reasonings, +however profound or conclusive, so far as they go, are at variance +with practical truth, with consciousness, with the actual state of +things, and with the unquestionable procedures of the Divine +government, as confirmed by the scriptures, wisdom would seem to +dictate our adhesion to that side of the question, which is +supported by moral arguments. + +In taking this part, it does not follow that we are to repudiate, as +totally without foundation, the philosophy and the metaphysics of +the necessarian--_aequo pretio aestimentur_. We may admit, that the +force of his argument, in the present imperfect state of human +knowledge, renders the question perplexed and difficult; that it +accounts for the divided opinions of the erudite and the devout, and +that it precludes the hope of a speedy termination of the +controversy. But in assigning to moral reasoning the superior +authority, we are governed by a just regard to the nature of the +question at issue, which, being related to the destinies of moral +agents, and the principles on which the Deity conducts his moral +government, must be determined, not by metaphysical, but by moral +arguments. When brought to this test, Calvinism appears utterly +indefensible, as being a system at variance with the attributes of +the Deity, and irreconcileable with the moral constitution of human +beings, and with the obligations laid upon them by their Creator. It +is falsified by facts. + +That the predestinarian theology, which denies the freedom of the +will, is supported by names of great consideration, is cheerfully +granted. No man, for example, was ever endowed with a genius more +commanding, with logical powers more acute, with a faculty more +surprising of writing on recondite subjects with force, perspicuity, +and nervous eloquence, than President Edwards. Nevertheless, the +correctness of his views is not implicitly to be inferred from his +transcendant intellect and fervent piety. + +All the great errors, which have been propagated in the Christian +Church, have found advocates in men of the first character for +intellectual power and moral dignity, or they would have passed away +with their authors into immediate oblivion. + +In estimating the authority of Edwards as a theologian, it is +requisite that we should know the temperament and habits of that +very remarkable person. It is not, perhaps, generally considered, +that great as were the energy and acuteness of his reasoning powers, +he was less under the dominion of these than of his imagination and +feelings. In early life this is not unfrequently the case with +persons of imaginative character; but, commonly, the ardent +enthusiasm of youth gives way afterwards to the ascendancy of the +higher faculties. Edwards was, constitutionally, too much the +creature of dreams and impulses ever to escape from their control. +His gigantic mind was held in perpetual bondage. His natural +temperament was fostered throughout the whole period which moulds +and fixes the character, by his holding little converse with human +beings beyond the sphere of a particular religious community in an +obscure American town, and by an almost uninterrupted contemplation +of nature in her gloomy and awful forms, amid the silence of +uncultivated plains, and the solitude of interminable forests. The +profound feeling, the intense excitement, which accompanied his +early devotional exercises, were such as to insure a permanent +attachment to every principle and every impression of that +susceptible age. The visions of a warm, and often morbid, +imagination continued to be cherished with religious confidence and +love for ever afterwards. Every doubt, of what he once had received +for truth, was anxiously suppressed in the manhood of his mind as an +infernal suggestion; and the acuteness of his reasoning powers, by +supplying him at all times with an argument, for what he conceived +it _his duty_ to believe, served, not to emancipate him from false +apprehensions of truth, but to rivet upon him more firmly the chains +of ignorance or error. When argument was doubtful, a dogged +fanaticism supplied its place. This may be illustrated by a +particular instance, and bearing directly on the subject of our +present discussion. + +It cannot be doubted, by any person qualified to appreciate his +writings, that his views of the Divine sovereignty are resolvable +into a system of absolute fatalism, so far as the actions and +destinies of men are concerned. Reason and conscience revolt from +the consequences involved in such a system; all our moral instincts +condemn it. But it was instilled into his mind by Calvinistic +instructors in the days of his boyhood; his imagination was +perpetually haunted by it; and having identified it with the truth +of divine revelation, which he held in religious veneration and awe, +he finally vanquished every doubt respecting it, not by the +deliberate exercise of his judgment, on a calm investigation of +evidence, but by the force of his religious feelings, and of his +ascendant imagination. Let him tell his own story. + +"From my childhood up," he says, "my mind had been full of +objections against the doctrine of God's sovereignty, in choosing +whom He would to eternal life, and rejecting whom He pleased; +leaving them eternally to perish, and to be everlastingly tormented +in hell. It used to appear like a horrible doctrine to me. But I +remember the time very well, when I seemed to be convinced and fully +satisfied as to this sovereignty of God, and his justice in thus +eternally disposing of men, according to his sovereign pleasure. +_But never could give any account, how, or by what means I was thus +convinced_, not in the least imagining at the time, nor a long time +after, that there was any extraordinary influence of God's Spirit in +it; but only that now I saw further, and my reason apprehended the +justice and reasonableness of it." In this extraordinary passage, +the most instructive he ever penned, he confesses, undesignedly but +clearly, that his faith in the Calvinistic theology did not rest on +those arguments by which he has confirmed so many others in that +tremendous creed, but was the result of supposed supernatural +illumination. The true solution would be, "Sit pro ratione +voluntas!" + +Much as we find to admire and revere in this eminent man, the +history of his mind forbids us to rely on him with implicit +confidence as an expositor of divine truth. His religion was +exalted, his genius wonderful, but the subordination of his judgment +to his imagination was an immense evil, producing an almost +superstitious dread of the operations of his own mighty mind, +suppressing its energies, its growth, and its expansion. He presents +an example, not less of the weakness than of the majesty of human +nature. We cease to wonder, when he describes the happiness of the +spirits of the redeemed in heaven, as being derived, in part, from +their listening to the groans and lamentations of lost souls in +hell. Nor can we doubt, that if he had been born and educated a +member of the Church of Rome, he would have lived and died, like +Fenelon or Pascal, a splendid ornament of that impure communion, a +conscientious advocate of that servile faith. + +Calvinism has never had another advocate equally qualified with +Edwards to vindicate its awful dogmata; and if, by his own +confession, his most potent arguments would have failed to produce +conviction in his own mind, without God's special influence, we see +reason to suspect the validity of these arguments, until we have +proof that he did indeed receive from heaven miraculous +illumination. Such _special influence_ we may with propriety +question, since a claim to inspiration can be supported only by the +exercise of miraculous powers. Deny, therefore, the inspiration of +this profound writer, of which there is no proof, and we have his +own authority against the conclusiveness of his own arguments; since +he confesses that by their cogency alone they are insufficient to +produce conviction in opposition to our just and natural conceptions +of the righteous character of God. + +Let us not, therefore, crouch with timid servility to great names. +The opinions of men of erudition, and genius, and holy zeal for +religion, are to be examined with modest deference, but not to be +received with implicit credulity. In the most enlightened and holy +men, who, since the decease of the apostles, have served God and his +Christ; in the fathers of the ancient Church; in those who headed +the Protestant Reformation, and lived as saints, or died as martyrs; +in Luther, Calvin, Cranmer, Knox, we discover humiliating proofs of +imperfection and fallibility. And, while the fundamental truths of +Christianity have been preserved in the Catholic Church, those +truths have been mingled or associated with errors so injurious and +degrading, that no blind faith is to be rested on any _human +authority_. Let us uphold the majesty of divine revelation, and +vindicate our right and our duty to interpret the sacred page--not +by the traditions of fallible men, not by the metaphysics of the +schools, not by the "special influences" which an enthusiastic mind +may construe into divine teaching, and which may be pleaded, with +equal truth or falsehood, for every form of error; but by a sober +reference to those moral perfections of the Deity, and to those +essential attributes of human nature, the knowledge of which lies at +the foundation of all sound religious belief. These are to be +learned from the Scriptures, and are the key to their right +interpretation. + +Edwards, incomparably the most able advocate of Calvinism, since the +days of the reformer himself, is not a solitary example of the way +in which a zealous pleader may, unwarily, betray and weaken his own +cause. + +Mr. Scott, in his "force of truth," gives an account of his own +conversion to Calvinism not very dissimilar to that of Edwards, and +not in any degree more honourable to the cause he proposes to +defend. The argument of that work may be summed up in few words. Mr. +Scott entertained a great dislike of Calvinistic doctrines. He +rejected the evidence by which they were supported, as being +insufficient to establish a creed which appeared to him most +objectionable. Yet, strong as were his prejudices against it, they +ultimately gave way, and, _therefore_, Calvinism must be the truth. +But, in both instances, the impression designed to be made on the +mind of the reader is the same, that is, that the Spirit of God +accomplished what the force of argument had failed to do. Mr. Scott, +therefore, adds his testimony to that of President Edwards, +confessing that Calvinism is not supported by proofs sufficient in +themselves to carry conviction to the human mind, without special +illumination from above; an illumination, which, assuredly, the +_religious opposers_ may as righteously claim, as the religious +defenders of Calvinism. For what Christian man does not pray for the +guidance of God's good Spirit? The dispassionate reader of "_The +Force of Truth_," will naturally say, that the arguments for the +Calvinistic creed were either sound or unsound. If the former, then +Mr. Scott was either very obtuse or very obstinate to resist so long +their power. If the latter, he acted with great weakness in yielding +at length to insufficient evidence, on the score of an undefinable +impulse. In either case, his name is divested of commanding +authority in the view of reasonable men. Yet it can hardly be +doubted, that this claim to _special teaching_ from the fountain of +wisdom and of truth, has done more, incalculably more, to awe the +minds of men into submission, and thus to obtain currency for their +opinions, than the _joint confession_ of these popular writers, to +the insufficiency of their own arguments, has availed to render +suspected the force of their reasoning. The impression made on the +generality of minds would be, that men so good, and so candid in +confessing their own obstinacy, could not be mistaken, in believing +themselves, at a subsequent period, to be inspired and infallible[3]. + +The advocates of Calvinism differ remarkably from each other in the +tone and spirit of their writings, as their habits of thought and +feeling are modified by circumstances. The American divines of the +school of Edwards have carried out his principles with unflinching +consistency, not hesitating to impute to the Deity, in unqualified +terms, the eternal decrees which fix the weal or woe of the human +race for ever. The cold and heartless manner in which these men +treat the subject, and the stoical apathy with which they +contemplate the result of their hard metaphysics, are extremely +remote from our usual conceptions of piety and humanity. Well might +that superlative woman, Mrs. Susanna Wesley, say, "The doctrine of +_predestination_, as maintained by rigid Calvinists, is very +shocking, and ought utterly to be abhorred." The dark spirit of +inflexible wrath which the American Calvinists have imputed to the +Deity, together with their coarse caricatures of the Gospel, may +account for, but cannot justify, the terms in which Dr. Chancing has +thought fit to assail _the orthodox faith_, confounding on all +occasions scriptural Christianity, as held by the Catholic Church, +with the dogmas of an extravagant creed. To understand his eloquent +and indignant declamations, we must read the transatlantic +expounders of the Calvinistic theology. + +In general, the English writers of any name, are more guarded and +less unfeeling. They do not at once and directly charge God with +being the author of sin. The late Dr. Williams of Rotherham composed +a voluminous work on the subject, entitled "equity and sovereignty," +in which he gives, what he considers, a new theory of the origin of +moral evil. To redeem the divine character from the imputation of +harshness in the decree of reprobation, he supposes mankind under a +_necessary tendency to moral defection_, as dependent and created +beings; and that it was in mere _equity_, that the wicked were +_left_, not decreed, to perdition. The hypothesis of Dr. Williams is +already exploded. It was examined and refuted by the Rev. William +Parry, of Wymondly, in a piece entitled "Strictures on the Origin of +Moral Evil." For reasoning, acute, profound, and perspicuous, both +metaphysical and moral, this work has seldom been surpassed. And the +devout and courteous spirit in which it is written, presents an +example, beautiful and instructive, of dispassionate controversy. + +"Upon a review of the argument," Mr. Parry writes, "there appear to +be strong reasons for considering the whole of Dr. Williams' +hypothesis, to account for the origin of evil, as highly +objectionable, and worthy of rejection; because it is founded on a +false principle, which identifies physical and moral tendency; is +incompatible with the nature and phenomena of mind; involves the +existence of an antecedent fate or absolute necessity, which +controlled the divine operations; is inconsistent with the natural +and moral perfections of God, and the scriptural account of the +state in which man was created; is expressed in obscure and +inapplicable language; and is so far from agreeing with _equity_, +that, when taken together, it represents the Divine Being as having +at first, created intelligent and accountable creatures with such +powers as would enable them to sin, but with none which would enable +them to avoid it." + +The theory of Dr. Williams found favour with many Calvinists, +because it assumed somewhat of a philosophical aspect, and was put +forth as a clear "_demonstration_." But some of its ablest defenders +have since abandoned it to that oblivion, from which no efforts can +save an elaborate speculation, ungrounded in reason or revelation, +and repugnant to common sense. + +In England the public mind has been so powerfully and happily +influenced by the anti-calvinistic genius of the liturgy, offices, +and discipline of the Anglican Church, that the grossness and +extravagancy of the American divines have been tolerated chiefly by +those who have not fallen under her instructions, or who have not +had the advantage of a liberal education and extensive reading. In +general, whether within or without the pale of the Church, its more +intelligent advocates have, until lately, exhibited it in a modified +form, and thrown over it a veil of mystery which has hidden its most +appalling deformities from the sight, while by the less skilful or +sagacious only, it has been adapted more to the fears or affections +of women, than to the understandings of men. Unhappily, the grosser +representations of this doctrine are now coming into repute in +quarters where, formerly, they would not have been endured, and thus +afford another warning example of the "_facilis descensus Averni_." + +But under all possible modifications, it is essentially erroneous; +and this small treatise has originated in no love of discord, or +taste for polemic excitement, but in a solemn sense of duty,--the +duty of aiding, in some humble measure, the more learned and +important labours of others who are "set for the defence of the +truth." The writer aims only at a _common sense_ view of the +subject, showing that Calvinism is a dangerous speculation, useless +for every holy and salutary purpose, inapplicable to the hopes and +the duties of a religious life, at variance with our knowledge of +God, our obligations as Christians, and all our finer sentiments and +more generous sympathies as men. So far as its influence is exerted, +it contracts the understanding and hardens the heart. + +Bishop Tomline's "Refutation of Calvinism," is too well known and +justly appreciated to need recommendation from the writer of these +papers. Faber "on the Primitive Doctrine of Election," is an +important work, composed with logical precision, and founded on a +laborious analysis of the Scriptures. The intelligent reader will be +instructed and deeply interested by "An Inquiry into the Doctrines +of Necessity and Predestination," by Dr. Copleston, the Bishop of +Llandaff. + +From the latter work is extracted the following summary of the +peculiar and distinctive doctrines of the Calvinistic creed, in +which it is exhibited, not in a moderated and qualified form, as it +sometimes appears in the writings of individuals, but in its true +and undisguised character, as maintained by a grave assembly of +predestinarian divines. + +CONCLUSIONS OF THE SYNOD OF DOST, AS EXHIBITED BY TILENUS. + +ART. 1. OF DIVINE PREDESTINATION. + +That God, by an absolute decree, hath elected to salvation a very +small number of men, without any regard to their faith or obedience +whatsoever; and secluded from saving grace all the rest of mankind, +and appointed them by the same decree to eternal damnation, without +any regard to their infidelity or impenitency. + +ART. 2. OF THE MERIT AND EFFECT OF CHRIST'S DEATH. + +That Jesus Christ hath not suffered death for any other, but for +those elect only; having neither had any intent nor commandment of +his Father to make satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. + +ART. 3. OF MAN'S WILL IN THE STATE OF NATURE. + +That by Adam's fall, his posterity lost their free-will, being put +to an unavoidable necessity to do or not to do, whatsoever they do +or do not, whether it be good or evil, being thereunto predestinated +by the eternal and effectual secret decree of God. + +ART. 4. OF THE MANNER OF CONVERSION. + +That God, to save his elect from the corrupt mass, doth beget faith +in them, by a power equal to that whereby He created the world and +raised up the dead; insomuch, that such unto whom He gives that +grace, cannot reject it, and the rest, being reprobate, cannot +accept it. + +ART. 5. OF THE CERTAINTY OF PERSEVERANCE. + +That such as have once received that grace by faith, can never fall +from it finally or totally, notwithstanding the most enormous sins +they can commit. + +PART II. + +PARTICULAR OBJECTIONS. + + + +I.--CALVINISM IMPUGNS THE MORAL CHARACTER OF THE DEITY. + +The existence of moral evil is a _fact_, not to be denied by any man +who reverences his own understanding; and that it seemed fit to the +Divine Wisdom to _permit_ its introduction into the world, is +equally beyond contradiction, unless we limit the divine power, and +suppose that, by a necessity antecedent to the divine will, and +controlling the divine conduct, the Deity himself acts, not +spontaneously but from coercion. That sin, with its awful +consequences, should even exist by _permission_, under the +administration of infinite benevolence, has been regarded by +theologians as one of the most perplexing mysteries of "the deep +things of God." + +But Calvinism leads to the direct and inevitable conclusion, not +only that God has permitted the fall of angels and of men, but that +He is himself the original _author_ of their defection, and of the +guilt and suffering which have been incurred by disobedience. No +subtlety of argument, no special refinements or metaphysical +distinctions, no ingenious evasions can rescue from this fatal +conclusion the Calvinistic exposition of the divine decrees. If the +Creator in the construction of the human mind rendered it naturally, +morally, absolutely impossible, that man should maintain his +obedience to the divine law under the circumstances in which he was +placed--the act of transgression, be it what it may, must be traced +to the will and intention of the Deity--the _effect_, sin, guilt, +condemnation, undefinable misery, diffused over the face of the +creation, and coextensive with the numberless generations of the +family of man--the _cause_, God; that Being who is perfect reason, +perfect goodness, light without darkness, love without malevolence; +who cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man; with +whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning! Contrasted with +this monstrous compound of impiety and absurdity, which makes +infinite goodness the eternal source of infinite misery, there is +wisdom in the Manichaean doctrine of two conflicting principles, +holding a divided dominion over the universe, and contending, one +for the production of the universal degradation and wretchedness, +the other, for the purity and bliss of all intellectual and moral +beings! + +The advocates of scriptural truth have not failed to expose, with +holy indignation and eloquent remonstrance, the inconsistency of +these views of the divine government with the entire scope and +spirit of the evangelic economy of grace. While the love of God to a +fallen world is the great theme of the apostolic ministry, and, in +language too explicit to be misunderstood, the propitiation of +Christ is said to be for the sins "of the _whole_ world,"--while, in +exact agreement with the consolatory declaration that God +"delighteth not in the death of a sinner," the apostles of Christ +are commissioned to "preach the gospel to _every creature_,"--we are +taught by Calvinism, that the God of truth is only mocking the great +mass of his miserable creatures with a semblance of mercy, from +whose tenderness they are excluded, and with promises and +invitations which He never designed should be accepted by them. A +dark and unrelenting fate has already sealed their destiny, and +their perdition is rendered inevitable before they have committed +those offences for which, as if in derision, they are commanded to +repent, in order that they may escape the wrath of the Almighty. +Thus, in total disregard of all that is holy and majestic in the +character of the Deity, He is described as a Being invested with the +most detestable of Satanic attributes, assuming the gentle +affections of a father, only to exercise more effectually the wanton +power of a tyrant, and treacherously inviting our confidence and our +love, when, with such falsehood and cruelty, as the most debased of +his creatures would not be able to perpetrate, He is only preparing +victims for his inexorable malice. + +Let it not be said, in opposition to this, that we are imperfect +judges, in any particular case, of the rectitude of the divine +procedures; that our ignorance renders our decision in such a case +daring and presumptuous. We are _not_ ignorant of what is meant +either by justice or mercy. These moral qualities are essentially +the same in nature, whether in created beings or in their Creator. +The only difference is in degree. In the Deity they are _infinite_; +and, if infinite justice and mercy are compatible with conduct +which, on a smaller scale, would expose a human being to eternal +infamy, then are we disqualified for all just conceptions of the +character of God. If wanton cruelty be consistent with Divine +compassion, then may deception be reconciled with inviolable faith, +and they, who deem themselves to be happy in the electing love of +God, may awake at last to the fearful discovery, that, having +indulged in the dream of special grace, they are only reserved for a +destiny still more terrible than others, whom they had abandoned as +reprobate to the sovereign wrath of God! By what infatuation are men +induced to rely on any supposed distinctions in favour of +themselves, when they have removed the only grounds of confidence in +the righteous administration of the Deity? + +It is an impressive feature in the works of rigid predestinarians, +that their own minds seem to partake of the fearful gloom with which +they depict the divine attributes. They appear awed and terror +-stricken with the stern aspect of the great Being whose moral +character they have distorted, until they tremble at the creations +of their own imagination. They write as men whose minds are rendered +morbid with mysterious fears, rather than brightened into holy +gladness, by a filial love of God. They seem to be vindicating with +servile dread a character, whose wrath they would deprecate, and +whose doubtful favour they would propitiate on their own behalf. +Even when they express their persuasion of their own interest in +"special grace," it is more in the spirit of men who are conscious +of being the favoured objects of capricious tyranny, than of that +serene and hopeful and cheering confidence which inspires the devout +heart, when it contemplates through a happier medium the beneficent +and universal Father. Nor is this unnatural. The moral character of +the Deity, as misrepresented by Calvinism, both unsettles all our +ideas of rectitude, and renders insecure our hold upon Infinite +Goodness. + +That the mental disease of Cowper was intensely aggravated by +depressing views of the divine character, which he received from +Newton and others, and that the consolations which might have +soothed his mind, from a scriptural view of the grace of the gospel, +were neutralised or destroyed by his supposing himself the victim of +an _irreversible decree_, is clear to every impartial reader of his +most interesting and most melancholy life. Yet of his piety we have +this touching proof, that, amidst the wildest aberrations of his +intellect, and while oppressed with the conviction that he was +numbered with the reprobate, his persuasion of the rectitude of the +divine government never wavered; he acquiesced in the doom which he +believed to await him; and declared that if it were the will of God +that he should perish, he would not lift a finger to reverse his +fate! Who would not lament, that a mind thus tempered to pious +confidence, should be taught by a pernicious creed to distrust its +own interest in the love of God--a delusion which passed away only +in death! + + + +II.--CALVINISM IS NOT TO BE RECONCILED WITH THE MORAL RESPONSIBILITY +OF MAN. + +Whatever extent we assign to the corruption of human nature, by +which its moral powers have been impaired, or the soul disqualified +for the due and proper use of those powers, it is plain that men are +still capable of acting, and of being treated as the subjects of +moral government. Calvinistic writers do themselves admit the +turpitude of sin and the loveliness of virtue--that vice entails +suffering, and that happiness is the consequence of a religious +conformity to the will of God. That is, setting aside all special +refinements by which they attempt to disprove that the present state +of man is probationary, they confess that _practically_ mankind are +treated as accountable beings whose guilt is punished and their +goodness rewarded. This broad and unquestionable fact defies +controversy. Although we may not be able to give a definition of +_freedom_ which may satisfy the philosopher, and although we may +concede to the opposers of the freedom of the will, that virtue and +vice--moral good and moral evil--are to be predicated, not of the +cause, whether it be freedom or fate, from whence our volitions +spring, but of the good or evil nature of the volitions themselves +--in whatever way these questions are decided, or, if we leave them +undecided, as being beyond the present grasp of the human intellect, +men are unquestionably subjected by the Deity to the laws of a moral +economy. They are, sooner or later, rendered happy in exact +proportion to their conformity to the commands of God, and miserable +if they remain rebellious. + +And all we contend for is, that such a state of things can never be +explained on the supposition of absolute predestination or +inevitable necessity, founded on the irreversible decrees of Heaven. +The reason appears on a moment's consideration. The good or evil +nature of the volition belongs, on this hypothesis, not to the +created being, who is a passive instrument, without actual power +--but to the Creator, who is the only real agent, as well as the +efficient cause. The instrument by which He accomplishes his +purposes may be good or evil, the volitions of that instrument may +be characterised by whatever qualities you please, still, a mere +instrument is not an object of moral approbation or blame; no +responsibility attaches to it, and the condition on which it acts is +perfectly incongruous with all the ideas we have of reward or +punishment. These are inapplicable to a state of fatalism. The +volitions, and the actions they produce, are in reality those of the +Deity. To Him they belong, and to Him alone. On this critical and +decisive point all the great Calvinistic writers break down. While +they award to human beings the treatment due to moral agents, they +deny to them the attributes without which they cannot be responsible +for their actions. + +To beings under moral government, personal agency is essential; but +Calvinistic fatalism reduces all agency to that of the Deity alone. +The human soul is moved mechanically by impulse from without, and +passively yields to an irresistible power. + +It supposes the exercise of faculties by which we are made sensible +of our relation to the Deity, and our obligation to obey his laws. +Hence results the consciousness of rectitude or guilt, and all the +noble motives by which we are led to self-government and self +-renunciation--from a sense of duty, and with a view to future +happiness in the enjoyment of the divine approbation. But +Calvinistic necessity destroys the majesty of the human mind, as "an +arbiter enthroned in its own dominion, endowed with an initiating +power, and forming its determinations for good or for evil by an +inherent and indefeasible prerogative." It tells us that we have +neither power to act nor freedom to fall--that our sense of liberty +is delusive, that we are predestined to sin or to holiness by a +decree of the infinite mind, and that our fate has been sealed from +eternity! If we really believe it and act upon it, our moral +energies are for ever suppressed, and the consciousness of virtue +and of guilt must give way to the humiliating persuasion that we can +do nothing, and that we have nothing to do, but to yield to our lot +and await our doom, whether to be lost or saved! + +The absurdity of such a theory of religion is a light consideration +compared with the perilous consequences it must produce, if it were +possible that the mass of ignorant and unreflecting creatures, of +which society is composed, should really believe it true and act in +accordance with their belief. Instructed to regard their present +conduct and future allotment, as being already determined, the +notion of a state of _trial_, in which they were accountable to God, +would be cast off, with all its salutary restraints upon the +passions, and all its noble incentives to a virtuous life. Nor would +it be possible to enforce the laws of morality by mere temporal +sanctions, the fear of exile, the dungeon, or the gibbet, when +conscience no longer enforced the dictates of religious faith. The +great auxiliary and support of all human authority is to be found in +that most noble attribute of human nature--_the sense of duty_, +which ceases to operate the moment we lose the consciousness of +freedom, believing that our thoughts, our actions, _ourselves_, are +but necessary links in an eternal chain of causes and effects. + +Such a theory of religion renders it absurd to admonish mankind of +their _duty_, whether to obey the law of God, or to believe the +Gospel of Christ. + +To this reasoning the Calvinist replies: "I acknowledge that men are +morally, spiritually dead. But at the command of God I would preach +to the dead: at his word the dead shall hear and live." But this +reply is irrelevant to the great points of the argument. It remains +to be proved, that God would be just in punishing as a crime that +spiritual death, of which, on the Calvinistic theory, He is the +author;--that it is possible for infinite goodness to subject +created beings to an inevitable _necessity_ of breaking his laws, +and then hand them over to perdition. This is the point which cannot +be evaded; and it is fatal to the predestinarian theology. Doubtless +God can raise the dead, literally or spiritually; but that does not +touch the question. + + + +III.--CALVINISM IS OPPOSED TO THE CONSTITUTION AND THE PURPOSES OF A +VISIBLE CHURCH. + +By the visible Church is meant the great body of persons who are +baptized into the faith of Christ, and openly profess his religion; +and the term is used in contradistinction to the invisible Church, +which consists of real, sincere, and spiritual disciples of our +Lord. These may be said to be invisible, since to search the heart +and penetrate its secrets, is the prerogative of God alone. The +truly faithful, as distinguished from the mere professors of +Christianity, will not be _seen_ in their distinct character until +the hour when the final judgment shall separate the righteous from +the wicked. "_Then_ shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in +the kingdom of their Father." + +The visible Church, with her apostolic ministry, her worship, her +sacraments, and her various provisions for the edification of the +body of Christ, is instituted and constructed on the manifest +principle that the present is a probationary state, and that those +who by her ministrations are brought under the obligations of the +Christian covenant, are not thereby absolutely but conditionally +sealed to eternal life, which is suspended on their faithful +adhesion to Christ, and final perseverance in his holy ways. + +In exact accordance with this statement, our Lord describes the +kingdom of heaven, or the Christian Church, as a field in which the +_wheat_ and the _tares_ grow up together until the harvest; and as a +net cast into the sea and gathering of _all kinds_ of fishes, bad +and good, which are afterwards to be separated. + +Not a syllable occurs in the New Testament, not a single fact +transpires in the history of the apostolical Churches, to justify +the persuasion, that such only as were decreed to eventual +salvation, were received as members of the Christian community. Such +an order of fellowship, had it really existed, would have amounted +to a pre-judgment of characters, anticipating and superseding the +judicial sentence of the last day. In that case, to obtain an +entrance into the communion of the Church was virtually to be +proclaimed a member, not only of the visible, but also of the +invisible society of the redeemed, rendering needless all +exhortations to perseverance, and impossible all danger of apostasy. +But such an exclusive and select and judicial order of fellowship +never did and never can exist under the present dispensation, which +is essentially a mixed state, and one of probation, supplying the +means of _working out our own salvation_, and of _making our calling +and election sure_, but not requiring evidence of our effectual +calling and of our certain election to life previous to our +introduction to the worship and sacraments of the Church. + +From the earliest records we have of the administration of +ecclesiastical affairs, as well as from all later history, we may +learn that the Catholic Church never aimed at the senseless project +of a pure communion, which, by excluding all but the finally elect, +should rival in sanctity the fellowship of the saints above. + +The _worship_ of the Christian Church has always been open, +unrestricted, unconfined by classical distinctions, such as those of +the elect and the reprobate. The gates of the temple are closed +against none who would join in the celebration of its holy rites. +God is the Father of all; Christ the Saviour of all; the +manifestation of the Spirit was given for the profit of all; the +Gospel is to be preached to all. "And the Spirit and the Bride say, +Come, and let him that heareth say, Come, and let him that is +athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life +freely." + +The same free and charitable principle has directed the +administration of the _sacraments_, a circumstance the more +remarkable, since, in the judgment of the most eminent Fathers of +the Church, these are the channels by which spiritual grace is +actually communicated to all who are rightfully baptized, and +religiously partake of the Lord's supper. The formularies of our own +branch of Christ's Catholic Church are so clear and definite on this +point, that every effort of ingenious casuistry to give them another +meaning, or to reconcile their use with the Calvinistic theology, +has ended in discomfiture. The _sacraments_ are "outward and visible +signs of an inward and spiritual grace, given unto us, ordained by +Christ himself, as a _means_ whereby we receive the same, and a +_pledge_ to assure us thereof." This _grace_ is imparted, not as to +the elect and to them exclusively, but as to beings who are free and +responsible, who have to account for their use of this sacred and +inestimable gift, and who may forfeit its blessings by subsequent +guilt and final impenitence. The present state of our knowledge, or +rather ignorance of the philosophy of the human mind, may not supply +us with a satisfactory answer for those, who, in a cavilling or +sceptical spirit, ask, "How can these things be?" But it is the +doctrine of the Scriptures and of the Church, and it is perplexed +with fewer difficulties than will be found to press upon every other +hypothesis. + +Supposing the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination to be founded +in truth, the very existence of the visible Church in its present +form is a mystery which requires to be solved. No part of its +constitution or order harmonises with a scheme based on fatalism, +and limiting the grace of Heaven to a narrow section of the human +family. + +The Sabbath bell, joyously or solemnly, invites all who hear to come +to the house of God; and in the name of the "great congregation" the +minister of Christ addresses the Deity, saying, "_Our_ Father which +art in heaven!" + +But Calvinism pronounces that God is _not_ "the lovely Father of all +mankind;" and, that while He has instituted the rites of religious +worship, and invites all to mingle in its sacred duties, He regards +the greater number as "_cursed children_," marked out for perdition, +"_before the morning stars sang together, or ever the sons of God +shouted for joy_." + +The ministers of the Church administer to all adult converts from +paganism, Judaism, or Mahometanism, who make a credible profession, +and to all infants, whose sureties engage for their Christian +education, the rite of baptism, signifying the remission of past +sin, original or actual, and pledging the communication of whatever +grace is needful to remedy or assist the weakness of nature in the +moral warfare with temptation. + +But Calvinism not only abjures this indiscriminate bestowment of +grace; but denies that even the elect are regenerated in baptism, +leaving it to the arbitrary determination of God's decree, at what +given period, and under what circumstances, they shall be, +instantaneously, and without regard to any foregoing state of mind +or habits of life, transformed into the beloved, and loving, and +lovely children of God[4]! + +In a word, Calvinism supposes and requires an order of +administration totally distinct from that which actually exists in +the visible Church of God. And, accordingly, various Calvinistic +communions, which have separated from the Church since the +Reformation, have attempted a literal "fellowship of _saints_," +presuming to discriminate from the mass of nominal Christians those +who have experienced the conclusive and saving change of Calvinistic +conversion, and admitting such only to the full enjoyment of Church +privileges and to the Lord's table. It seems not a little +surprising, that not only sagacious individuals but extensive +communities should persevere in an attempt which, in the nature of +things, can lead only to disappointment; for, the sincerity of that +species of conversion which is supposed to be final, of that grace +which is said to be irrevocable, can never be decided until the +Judge of all has pronounced his verdict. In the meantime, the terms +of communion _must_ agree in some measure with the actual state of +man; and when the matter is quietly examined, it appears that even +in Calvinistic communions the terms of membership are reduced to a +profession of the received "faith and order," and an assurance, on +the part of the initiated, that he believes himself to be a +converted person by God's special grace. This is all that is +required besides evidence of good moral character; more than this is +impracticable. The spirit of Calvinism can never be fully embodied +in a system of Ecclesiastical polity corresponding exactly with its +own nature, and marked by its own exclusiveness; for who shall +discern the elect? + +This discovery appears to have been made by an eminent Calvinistic +clergyman of the present day, who, instead of coming to the +legitimate conclusion that Calvinism is therefore untenable, as +being an impracticable system, has recourse to a delusive theory of +ecclesiastical fellowship, which confounds the visible with the +invisible Church, or reduces the former to a mere nullity. According +to _his_ view of the subject, the Church of Christ consists, not of +the collective body of persons who may happen to be in fellowship +with any particular Christian communities, nor of the aggregate of +persons who throughout the world make an outward profession of our +holy faith, but of those, and those only, who "maintain the +doctrines of grace, and uphold the authority of Christ in the +world," with whatever denomination of Christians they are in +external fellowship. These, being the truly regenerate, are to +tolerate each other's differences on minor questions, to love each +other as being one in Christ, and to co-operate in every way for the +diffusion of their common principles throughout the world. Mr. +Noel's theory confirms the statement made in this section, that +Calvinism, which it is presumed he means by "the doctrines of +grace," denies the claim of any _mixed body_ of professing +Christians, such as the Anglican, or the Lutheran, or the Scottish, +or any other church, in its aggregate character, to be _a church_, +or a distinct branch of the Catholic Church. That is, Calvinism is +opposed to the constitution and the purposes of a visible church. +Mr. Noel's theory is fatal to its existence. For, when it is said of +those exclusively, who, in whatever denomination, "maintain the +doctrines of grace,"--"_and this one body is_ the church,"--it is +clearly proveable, that these persons have no intelligible grounds +on which to rest that high and exclusive pretension; _they are not_ +the visible church. + +These persons may, or may not, be members of the spiritual or +_invisible_ Church; _that_ is known only to the Searcher of the +heart. They may or may not be the most holy and sincere individuals +in the several churches or denominations with which they hold +external communion; _that_ also remains to be confirmed or refuted +by "the final sentence and unalterable doom." But they do not +constitute what is commonly understood by the visible Church of God. +They have no ministry, no worship, no administration of the +sacraments, visibly distinct from the mass of persons who are of the +same external fellowship with themselves; and the error of assigning +to them the distinction of being alone the true Church arises from +the ambiguity of the word _Church_, on which changes are rung, +producing a confusion of ideas--a double confusion of ideas, +"confusion worse confounded." What is the mental process by which +Mr. Noel arrives at this point? _First_, the invisible Church is +tacitly put and mistaken for the visible, the truly spiritual for +the nominal, it being assumed that we can know the hearts of others. +Then, _secondly_, this invisible Church is supposed to become +visible, and to be _alone_ visible, in the persons of those who +maintain the doctrines of grace; while the really external Church, +consisting of the entire body of professing Christians throughout +the world, vanishes out of sight, and is declared to have no +ecclesiastical existence! The truth is, that Calvinism and a visible +Church are incongruous ideas, and that no man, of whatever talent he +may be possessed, can make them harmonize. The Calvinist believes, +and is consistent in his belief, that the elect only are "the +Church," but since it is impossible to discriminate them from +others, it is impossible to unite them in an exclusive visible +fellowship. And, if it were possible, they would form such a Church +as never before existed. Calvinism is irreconcileable with the order +which has descended from the apostolic age, by the consent of the +Catholic Church, and with any visible constitution. + +If Mr. Noel has succeeded in making converts to _his_ theory of a +visible Church, from the difficulty they find in detecting its +fallacies, it only proves, that + + "Sheer no-meaning puzzles more than wit." + +The dissenter who, on objecting to a Church rate, said, that "If all +Churchmen were like Mr. Noel, neither he nor his brethren would +object to join them," does not seem to have been aware that they +were already members of Mr. Noel's Church. Or, what is more +probable, it was designed significantly to hint to that reverend +gentleman, that he was no more attached than themselves to the +Church of which he is a pastor, and whose ordination vows are upon +him,--and that with Churchmen who are prepared so to betray or deny +their Church, under an erroneous sense of duty, dissenters may +without difficulty form an alliance[5]. + + + +IV.--CALVINISM IS PRODUCTIVE OF POSITIVELY INJURIOUS EFFECTS ON +INDIVIDUAL CHARACTER, AND ON SOCIAL HAPPINESS. + +When Lord Chatham taunted the Church with having "a Calvinistic +creed, a popish liturgy, and an Arminian clergy," that illustrious +person was the author of a libel on this holy and apostolical +institution. Her creed is not Calvinistic, for it says nothing about +absolute predestination; her liturgy it not popish, for there is no +worship of saints or of the Virgin; her clergy are not Arminian, for +their moderation has preserved them, as a body, from all extremes in +doctrine, and _that_, as well as their unrivalled erudition and +intellectual power, has been the admiration of the most eminent +protestant divines and men of letters in Europe. And to her truly +scriptural character, especially her rejection of the Calvinistic +theology, with its gloomy, turbulent, and intolerant spirit, may be +traced the high tone of moral feeling and practical reverence of +religion which have honourably distinguished the people of England. +Happily, Calvinism in its palmy days was confined to the Puritanical +party, which made comparatively small progress within the pale of +the Church; while the most influential of her clergy, and the great +majority of her well educated laity, embraced the doctrines of a +more generous and scriptural theology. Without falling into +Pelagianism, a charge made by Calvinists on all who reject the +system improperly called "the doctrines of grace," they held the +great evangelic truth that Christ "_died for all_," and its +correspondent views of the benevolence of God, and the moral dignity +of human nature, impaired, but not destroyed, by the fall. + +The principles of the remonstrants, without being servilely +embraced, influenced and modified the religious opinions of the +people of England, who were never generally favourable, either to +the dogmas or the discipline of the Genevan reformer, and to this +circumstance are we largely indebted for the manly and the moral +character of our country. + +This statement, founded on the history of the Reformation and the +times which followed, is not intended as an indiscriminate attack on +the moral character of Calvinists. Many of them are to be classed +with the holiest of men; not because they are Calvinists, but +because their erroneous notions are rendered innoxious, by the +prevalence of a sincere piety, and by a secret and practical +disbelief of the principles which, in speculation or imagination, +they seem to hold. + +It would be both unjust and uncharitable to judge any class of +persons simply by the creed they subscribe, or to impute to them the +consequences which might be supposed to follow from a rigid +adherence to its doctrines. There are antagonist principles at work; +there is the law written on the heart; there is grace to counteract +the tendency of false impressions; there is the love of God and of +man to render those who are truly good men superior to any bad +principles they have unhappily imbibed. Their Christianity is +dominant, and their Calvinism is made harmless. + +But evil speculation has a tendency in all minds to lessen or +destroy the power of those dictates of conscience which are +honourable to us as moral agents; and it will counteract, so far as +it goes, the salutary influence of those scriptural truths which +still retain their hold upon the judgment or the feelings. In but +few instances, comparatively, can Calvinism be altogether harmless; +in the ordinary course of things, it is productive of results +positively injurious. + +In persons of serious religion, it will produce opposite effects, as +they may be gentle and timid, or bold and presumptuous. In the +former, anxiety, fearful apprehension, deep distress, approaching to +despondency, lest the tremendous decree of reprobation should have +been recorded against them in the indelible page. In the latter, who +can bring a sanguine temperament of mind to the contemplation of the +subject, the effect may be, and often is, unbounded confidence, +leading to self-complacency and spiritual pride; the very natural +result of believing that they are special objects of the love of +God, and that their persuasion is a divine impulse, God speaking to +the heart. Spiritual pride may assume the aspect of profound +humility, and thus impose on its victim by the notion that he is +only magnifying the sovereign grace of Heaven in his election to +eternal life. But such is the weakness of human nature, that the +consciousness of this high distinction needs to be chastened by very +lofty views of the moral virtue required by Christianity, and by +very humbling conceptions of our own, to prevent a false and +dangerous elation of the heart. + +And, in how many instances this consciousness is mere delusion, it +would seem almost needless to suggest. It is often professed under +suspicious circumstances by doubtful characters. Nothing can be more +groundless than the persuasion so commonly entertained by persons of +this creed, that to be fully convinced of the truth of the doctrine +is a sufficient ground of confidence that _they_ are therefore of +the number of the chosen people. The strongest conviction may be +deceptive. The firmest assurance may be the result of ignorant or +fanatical presumption. And whatever may be the readiness of this +class of persons to say, "My mountain standeth firm--I shall never +be moved," it cannot but be feared respecting many of them, that +they have yet to learn the very "first principles of the oracles of +God." The remarkable absence of humility and charity in these +"children of special grace" is alone enough to render their +Christianity questionable, exposes the dangerous nature of their +delusion, and proves the practical inutility of their scheme; since, +after all, without the evidence of a truly evangelical temper and +life, no inward assurance would satisfy a reflecting mind; and in +the possession of such evidence, no other assurance is needed. + +The self-righteousness of the Pharisee is scarcely more to be +dreaded than the spiritual pride of the Calvinist, when it has +passed from under the control of holy wisdom. It assumes the +character of selfishness, bigotry, and the lust of intolerant +dominion. + +The same spirit of exclusiveness and domination, which pervades in +general their ecclesiastical polity, affects their allegiance to the +state. Under cover of abolishing episcopacy, the doctrinal Puritans +were the principal authors of that revolution which introduced the +Commonwealth after the fall of the monarchy; and their aim was the +exclusive _dominion of the saints_, that by political power they +might establish their own forms of Church government. Religion was +really their object, and they were not hypocritical in professing +it; but to accomplish their spiritual projects, they considered +themselves entitled to secular dominion; and their tyranny in Church +and State was so overbearing, that the nation, after the death of +Cromwell, eagerly threw itself into the arms of the Stuarts, almost +without a compact, rather than endure the sanctimonious intolerance +of Calvinistic patriots and republican saints[6]. + +The same leaven is still at work. The doctrinal Puritans of the +present day have the same lordly consciousness of a right to +dominion. They have declared their resolution to "stagger senates, +and smash cabinets" until their points are carried. They have given +to the nation a significant announcement of their claims to power, +by their politico-religious synod of Manchester. The imperial +parliament of these realms is, in future, it seems, to make its +fiscal arrangements, and legislate on points of purely political +economy, under the dictation of the Calvinistic divines of the +nineteenth century[7]. Doubtless, our future Chancellors of the +Exchequer will be selected from this body of sacred financiers. + +While it produces effects so remote from those of true Christianity +in the _religious_ professors of Calvinism, on the mass of ignorant, +sordid, unreflecting, and worldly-minded persons, who are taught +these doctrines, its worst influences are seen to operate; and, as +the country was notoriously demoralized at the close of the +Cromwellian dictatorship, when Calvinistic divines had enjoyed a +long and signal triumph, so is the present age marked by a +degeneracy in the public morals, which has kept pace with the +progress of opinions of similar character and tendency. The rude +multitude is taught that there is no grace but _special_ grace, and +this produces recklessness and indifference, since no efforts will +avail if they are not to be partakers of these, to them, forbidden +streams of the river of the water of life. Or, perhaps, this gloomy +doctrine produces a sullen suspicion, vague and undefined, of the +rectitude of God, and thus alienates still more those hearts which +are already adverse to the Divine government. + +Of all the mischievous extravagances of opinion, none has produced +more fatal consequences, than the notion, that God takes particular +delight in selecting the vilest of men for the object of his +electing love; and that the gross sinner is better prepared for the +grace of Christ, than they who have walked in the paths of virtue. + +It is a melancholy but instructive fact, that in Calvinistic +families, the puritanical order and discipline which are often +highly commendable, have proved insufficient to counteract the +malignant effects of the doctrines inculcated on the minds of the +young. Instead of being taught that grace is given to all, and that +all are responsible for its use, they are instructed that this +blessing may perhaps be withholden. And no families have sent forth +into the world more affecting examples of worthless and unprincipled +young men, who have brought down the grey hairs of their excellent +but mistaken parents with sorrow to the grave! + +If the unguarded preaching of "the doctrines of grace," and the +scanty instruction given on the great duties of practical religion, +have contributed to the demoralized state of the people, let it not +be supposed that other causes have been wanting to swell the tide of +corruption. From the Revolution, toleration has been gradually +enlarged, until all salutary restraints have been swept away, and +the glorious liberties of our country have degenerated, by a fatal +abuse, into unbridled licentiousness. The press is daily infusing +poison into the public mind. What once would have been punished as +_profaneness_ and _blasphemy_, is no longer noticed by the gentle +guardians of the law, and _treason_ has almost ceased to be a crime. +Liberalism has trampled over law, and the reigning evils have been +unhappily aggravated by those whose position in the state ought to +have dictated other conduct than that of making anarchical +principles the road to dominion. + + + +V.--CALVINISM IS NOT THE DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE OR OF THE ANGLICAN +CHURCH. + +The general tenor of the Holy Scriptures is so clearly against it, +that it is impossible to account for the facts or the doctrines of +the Bible on supposition of the truth of the Calvinistic theology: +Nor would it be needful to discuss the subject, however briefly, on +scriptural grounds, but for a few particular texts which are cited +against the current testimony of the word of God. It is said that +_one_ text, if plain and direct, is evidence enough for the +establishment of any doctrine. This may be a sound canon of +interpretation, where the one text admits but one meaning, and that +meaning is not opposed by conflicting evidence, but not otherwise. +In the present instance, there exists, in addition to the opposing +stream of Scripture testimony, the following strong presumption +against the Calvinistic view of particular texts. Supposing the +doctrine of Calvinistic fatalism to be correct, no explanation can +be given of the general tenor of Divine revelation, none which _can_ +be made to harmonize with that doctrine. The entire history of +providence and redemption, as given in the Bible, proceeds on the +principle, not of fate, but of freedom; and if we are not free, we +are reduced to the suspicious and unworthy conclusion, that the +secret and the revealed will of God are at variance with each other; +that we are deceived by a scheme of things designedly arranged to +convey false impressions of truth, and that while God treats us now +as though we were accountable beings, He fixes our final destinies +without any regard whatsoever to our imaginary freedom and pretended +responsibility. + +On the other hand, taking the general tenor of the sacred volume to +be the true representation of the moral economy under which we are +placed by the infinite wisdom of God, all the passages which are +cited by Calvinists, as being favourable to their cause, may be so +explained, and that without violence, as to accord with the current +testimony of the Scriptures to the freedom and moral agency of man. +A stronger presumptive argument cannot be conceived against the +claim of Calvinism to scriptural authority. + +Let it be also distinctly observed, that the cause of Calvinism is +not served by those passages of Scripture which relate to the +election of individuals, or of nations, to certain privileges which +do not extend to the absolute enjoyment of eternal life. Of this +description is the ninth of the Romans. The subject of that +celebrated chapter is not the election of individuals to final +salvation, but the election of the Jews to the honor of being the +visible Church, and their subsequent rejection through open +unbelief. Nor does the allusion contained in it to the destruction +of Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea, yield an argument in favour +of Calvinistic reprobation. The fact that the infatuated monarch was +hardened in heart by _the leniency_ which spared him under so many +provocations and insults offered by him to the Almighty God, does +not prove, nor was it designed to prove, that he was the fated +victim of an eternal decree, whether in regard to his secular or +spiritual condition. + +Nor can Calvinism plead for itself those texts which are supposed to +refer to the election of individuals to final salvation, but which +at the same time leave unsettled the important question at issue; +whether that election was absolute and irrespective of character, or +whether it was founded on the foreknowledge of their faith and +obedience. Such for example is the language of St. Paul, 2 Thess. +ii. 13, 14. All such passages leave the controversy undetermined, +proving only that the doctrine of election is scriptural, but not +fixing the sense in which it is to be taken, whether absolute or +conditional. + +The terms _election_ and _predestination_, with their correlates, +are of frequent occurrence in the New Testament, and with various +significations, which are to be explained by the particular subjects +to which they refer. But the _only_ texts which really bear on the +Calvinistic controversy, are those which may seem to represent +election as sovereign, arbitrary, and totally irrespective of the +faith and obedience of the elect; such are few indeed. Let us review +_that_ which is deemed by the advocates of Calvinism among their +most conclusive evidences. "That election," says Edwards, "is not +from a foresight of works, as depending on the condition of man's +will, is evident by 2 Tim. i. 9. 'Who hath saved us, and called us +with an holy calling, _not according to our works_, but according to +his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before +the world began.'" Edwards was not more remarkable for acuteness +and subtlety as a reasoner, than for his lax and indiscriminate +citations of Scripture. He appeals to this text with such +confidence, that he deems no analysis to be necessary. The bare +citation is enough. + +But a brief examination of the passage will make it clear that it +yields no support to Calvinism. The Calvinist affirms "that God, by +an absolute decree, hath elected to salvation a very small number of +men without any regard to their faith and obedience whatsoever." +That is, the decree which insures the safety of the elect is not +founded on God's foreknowledge of their holiness and of their +perseverance in the faith. To show that this doctrine is supported +by the passage under our consideration, it must be proved, that when +the Apostle says, "not according to _our works_," he means our +_Christian_ good works, our faith, our repentance, our charity, our +evangelic obedience to Christ; of this, there is not the shadow of +evidence. On the contrary, the _works_ alluded to are those, whether +good or bad, which were done in a state of heathen or Jewish +depravity, at any rate done before believers exercised faith and +repentance, and were called to the privileges of the Christian +Church. No other interpretation will hold. + +St. Paul states that God "hath saved us, and called us with an holy +calling." He then proceeds to trace this happy condition to its +sources. He begins with a negation. The antecedent cause of our +salvation and calling was _not our works_; we were not treated +_according to_ our works; not after the measure, the proportion, the +merit or demerit of our works: these might have brought punishment, +but could never have procured for us blessings so great and +undeserved. The real cause was _the purpose of God_ and _his grace_ +given in Christ before the world began. + +Here, _our works_ are put in distinct opposition to the purpose and +grace of God. + +They could not, therefore, be our Christian works, done in a state +of salvation and subsequent to our obeying the holy calling. _These_ +are the practical results, the _moral effects_, of our holy calling +according to the gracious purpose of God. These could never have +been done but for that holy calling. They could not therefore in any +sense be the _antecedent cause_ of that holy calling. In the order +both of nature and of time, both the gracious purpose and the holy +calling must have preceded these works. To tell any man of common +sense, that they were not the procuring cause of the grace from +whence they were themselves derived, was needless. + +To one so intelligent as Timothy, such instruction was worse than +superfluous. Works could not hold the twofold relation of cause and +effect to God's grace. Nor can it be supposed that St. Paul was the +author of a solecism so obvious, as that of formally setting in +opposition to the _purpose_ and the _grace_ of God those evangelic +works, which were the moral effects of the influence of that grace +and of the execution of that purpose. The works alluded to were +those which might be done before men were partakers of the Christian +salvation, or independently of the dispensation of grace, and +according to _such_ works no man could be entitled to the blessings +of eternal redemption. + +This important text lends no support to the Calvinist. It cannot be +cited in proof, that the election of God is arbitrary and +uninfluenced by his foreknowledge of the faith and obedience of his +chosen people, for the works here intended are _not Christian good +works_ done in faith. Edwards did wisely in not analyzing this text. + +The same principle of interpretation is applicable to Titus iii. 5. +"_Not by works of righteousness_ which we have done, but according +to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration, and +renewing of the Holy Ghost." These _works_ are not those of the +truly regenerate, which being the _effects_ of the grace of Christ, +cannot be mistaken for the meritorious cause of the communication of +that grace. It is rather to be taken as a broad assertion, that the +blessings of the Christian covenant, are not the result or the +reward of human deserts; that apart from the redemption of Christ, +there are _no_ works of righteousness by which we can be saved; and +that while Christians are made really holy and good, their +sanctification is to be traced to the grace of God in Christ Jesus. +In neither passage is there any statement on which to rest an +argument for the arbitrary and unconditional decree of the +Calvinist, nor for depreciating the intrinsic value of those really +good works which the Christian performs in faith. Calvinism has no +foundation in the word of God. It is in direct collision with that +sacred authority. St. Paul rests the divine election on the +foreknowledge of the Deity, and let his decision be final. "Whom he +did _foreknow_, he also did predestinate, to be conformed to the +image of his Son." + +The seventeenth Article of the Church accords with the Scriptures, +and its doctrinal statements are made almost entirely in the +language of the sacred writers, and of those eminent divines of the +Reformation who abjured Calvinism and adhered to the Bible. It is +drawn up with great moderation, says nothing of absolute decrees and +unconditional election, and it treats the subject practically. The +concluding paragraph relating to "curious and carnal persons" shows +that the venerable compilers of the Article rejected extreme views +of this doctrine, since these only could lead to "a most dangerous +downfall." But if the article itself be at all equivocal, it must be +interpreted by the formularies of the Church and by the Scriptures, +since no dogma is to be imputed to this holy branch of Christ's +Catholic Church, that is at variance with the attributes of God, the +moral constitution of man, the testimony of the Bible, and the +obligations of practical religion. + +If Calvinism be the doctrine of our Church, then are the +_Catechism_, and the Order for the Ministration of _Baptism_, the +most absurd and delusive compositions by which the minds of men were +ever led astray. + + + +VI.--CALVINISM HAS LED TO THE CORRUPTION OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE, THAT +THE SCRIPTURES MAY BE ACCOMMODATED TO EXTREME VIEWS OF THE DIVINE +DECREES. + +It was not in the nature of things, that Calvinistic predestination +should be received as truth, without producing such a modification +of the entire system of divine revelation, as would impress on it a +new and completely different character. Christianity, in its +unadulterated simplicity, is distinguished by the consolatory views +it imparts of the benignity and grace of God, and by the direct and +cogent motives it suggests for holiness and righteousness of life. +But the first article of the Calvinistic creed throws a veil of +awful and suspicious mystery over the divine goodness, and +represents it "as the sun shorn of his beams." Having determined +that God is not the universal Father, nor "the Saviour of all men," +but the projector of a scheme which predetermines the ruin of the +great mass of his creatures, Calvinism models to its own purpose all +those doctrines of Christianity which are in beautiful accordance +with the truth that "God is love." It denies that the atonement of +Christ was intended to make satisfaction for "the sins of the +_whole_ world." It announces that the non-elect are laid under an +irresistible necessity of sinning to destruction, and that no +spiritual grace is imparted to rescue them from the dominion of +native, incurable, uncontrolled depravity. + +The gracious invitations and promises of the Gospel are reduced to +unmeaning terms, so far as the many are concerned. And while +Calvinism is denominated by its admirers "the doctrines of grace," +it obliterates from the Scriptures every trace of sincere mercy, and +robs the diadem of heaven of its purest and brightest gem. +_Calvinism_ and _grace_ are heterogeneous terms, representing +discordant ideas. + +The motives to a holy life, governed by piety and adorned with +virtue, must be impaired by the views here given of the Deity. No +human mind can be habituated to the contemplation of the divine +conduct, as it is seen distorted by the predestinarian theology, and +retain its just sentiments of what is right, what is just, what is +honourable, what is lovely in goodness. The man who imitates the God +of the Calvinist, that phantasm of a morbid or dreaming imagination, +cannot fail to have his moral sentiments corrupted, and to become +deceptive, shuffling, treacherous, and eventually insensible to the +misery of others. + +The Calvinistic doctrines of _regeneration_ and _perseverance_ are +not calculated to rectify these evils. These are made to harmonize +with the fatalism which bears all men along with irresistible +energy, the reprobate to perdition, the redeemed to blessedness. The +new birth is described as a sudden transformation of our spiritual +nature, effected by sovereign grace, unconnected with the preceding +states of the mind, whether good or evil, and attended with the +communication of spiritual life which can never afterwards be +forfeited or lost. No sins, however enormous, can endanger the +elect, although they may for a time cloud their evidences. The +effects produced by this doctrine on the mind of that individual who +believes himself to be thus specially distinguished, must be of a +very dangerous kind, unless counteracted as it frequently is by +other principles, or restrained by the genuine spirit of +Christianity operating with antagonist energy. + +It is this _necessary_ corruption of the great truths of the Gospel +that renders Calvinism an object of distrust and alarm. If it was a +mere speculation, which was intended, in the calm spirit of +Christian philosophy, to solve a problem in theology or morals, +leaving untouched the essential character of revealed religion, it +might pass without rebuke. But it weakens the moral sense, and it +leads to the subversion of all that is consolatory in our prospects +of the final destinies of the human race, leaving us no security for +the salvation even of the supposed elect; for what hope can repose +with confidence on the supreme Arbiter of events, when He is +believed to be the author of a religion which represents Him as +acting without any intelligible moral motive, destroying the +majority of the human race for offences not their own, and saving +the remnant without regard to their Christian virtues! + +It is remarkable that, while in modern times many disavow their +belief in those views of the _divine decrees_ which form the basis +of the Calvinistic creed, and which have occasioned this corruption +of Christian truth, they still hold to these corruptions, and write +and preach on the implied principle that the grace of God is limited +by decree to those whom they specially designate his children. They +have been driven from the foundation, and still they cleave to the +superstructure. They assume the designation of _moderate_ +Calvinists, not perceiving that the doctrines of particular +redemption, and special grace, and exclusive assumption of a filial +relation to God, are untenable when absolute predestination is +exploded. Calvinism, after all, is their creed, since the system to +which they adhere cannot rest on any other foundation. + +It is to be inferred, therefore, that for persons of a certain +temperament this doctrine has charms so powerful as to negative the +calm dictates of the judgment, and practically to render the mind +insensible to the force of truth. + +And what are its recommendations to those who embrace it? + +1. Calvinism is both exciting and sedative, exciting to the +imagination, and sedative to the conscience. Thus it is accommodated +to two of the leading principles of human nature, the love of the +awful, the terrific, the deeply tragic, and the natural anxiety +which all men feel, to be rid of the consciousness of guilt and of +personal danger. Nothing can exceed the tremendous scenes opened to +the imagination by that system of theology, which dooms to perdition +the great mass of human beings, who are permitted by their Creator +to sport or suffer upon earth through a few rapid revolutions of +time, and are then swept away for ever into an abyss of ruin; while, +with confounding and dreadful mystery, the Author of their being is +represented as the great agent in this work of appalling desolation. +To redeem his character for mercy, He rescues an elect few, but +leaves the devoted multitude without pity and without hope, to +everlasting torment. Whether we contemplate this fearful character +of the Deity, or endeavour to realize the scenes which await the +departure of lost souls, or attempt in imagination to identify +ourselves with the happy spirits of the redeemed, who have escaped, +_they know not why_, the general destruction of all that is dear to +man, we must be sensible that all the ordinary conceptions of the +human mind are comparatively powerless for pity, or terror, or +intense expectation of what is to come. + +At the same time its tendency, excepting in the case of a few +sensitive and tender spirits, is to deaden the consciousness of +guilt, to still the remonstrances of the self-convicted mind, and to +enable men of no religion and of no morals to hear these doctrines +proclaimed from the pulpit without any salutary disquietude of +heart. They do not really believe them, or they find in them an +apology for their corruption. It has sometimes been said, by way of +severe reflection, of a moral sermon, that it could not be the +Gospel, for that a Socinian might have heard it without offence. The +objection is very absurd; but what then ought to be the inference +drawn by the same persons, respecting the character of doctrines +which, although in speculation they are fearful and appalling to the +utmost, tend in reality to stupify the moral sense, and can be +listened to by the profane and the profligate with complacency or +apathy? While it explains their popularity, it is a presumption +against their truth. + +2. This doctrine has the recommendation of freeing those who hold it +from anxiety about the practical part of religion, by substituting a +system of belief _purely speculative_. When examined in all its +bearings, it may be seen to consist of faith and assurance: faith in +the divine decrees; assurance of being numbered with the elect. Get +clear views of the divine sovereignty, believe that Christ died for +_you_ in particular, construe the persuasion of your safety into an +especial witness of the Holy Spirit; doubt nothing, fear nothing; +look entirely out of yourselves; and remember that there is a +finished salvation for the elect; and all is well! This is +Calvinism. And this is speculation. If repentance, self-government, +virtue, and the duties of Christian piety and obedience are +inculcated, these must be enforced on grounds not supplied by the +predestinarian theology, and irreconcileable with that scheme of +doctrine. Doubtless, the best writers of this school insist on +holiness of temper, and sanctity of life, and enforce these by +motives derived from the moral perfections of God, the turpitude of +sin, and the necessity of a renewed heart as being essential to +religion here and happiness hereafter. But all these considerations +are totally independent of the speculations of the fatalist, and are +rendered powerless as incentives to action exactly in proportion to +the practical influence of these speculations on the mind and the +heart. + +Let the professor of Christianity give up his thoughts to eternal +decrees, and special grace, and the soothing dream of irrevocable +promises sealed to the heart by the clear witness of the Spirit, and +the moral conflict with sin and temptation will languish with the +salutary fear of danger. This is suited to the depraved indolence of +man. All false systems of religion have in view the indulgence of +this perilous but seductive peace. Any thing is acceptable to +corrupt human nature that supplies a substitute for the duties of +moral righteousness and a sublime virtue, lulling the conscience +into a state of artificial repose. And to produce this effect, no +scheme of religious belief, that ever emanated from the perverse +ingenuity of the human mind, was ever so perfectly contrived as the +Calvinistic notion of predestinating grace. + +3. Of the multitudes of truly religious persons, who embrace this +doctrine or give their passive assent to it, but few are competent +to detect its fallacies, or to trace its evil consequences. + +They are to be found chiefly among the lower ranks of life, or the +uneducated portions of the middle and the higher classes. If there +are any whose minds have been disciplined by sound instruction, and +expanded by liberal acquirements, they are, for the most part, the +children of Calvinistic families, who, having been taught to +reverence these opinions in their childhood, have not had energy of +mind to rise above their early impressions. That multitudes of +persons piously disposed, but without the requisite knowledge, or +intellectual culture, should be influenced by the arguments of men +skilful in dialectics, and zealous to make proselytes, cannot be +deemed matter of wonderment. Especially let it be noticed, that +these teachers and preachers know well how to appeal to ignorant +timidity and to sincere but unguarded piety. + +They are told, that to reject these doctrines shows "a heart +secretly disaffected to the government of God," and daring to oppose +presumption and ignorance to the wisdom of the Eternal. As if it +were not the fact, that Calvinism has been viewed with abhorrence by +men of the humblest and the purest piety, by men of seraphic minds +and of the sublimest intellect. + +They are also instructed to believe, that the grace of the Redeemer +is magnified by degrading human nature to the utmost, and making the +redeemed passive recipients of predestinated and exclusive grace. +But they do not perceive that Calvinism destroys all ideas of +_grace_, by making God the author of the misery which He affects to +pity, and by tracing the divine conduct to mere motiveless caprice, +to blind and arbitrary choice or rejection. + +These distinctions are lost upon the superficial minds of the +multitude. And when they are told that Calvinism honours the +sovereignty of God, and exalts the grace of Christ, their religious +and holy feelings are enlisted in a cause which little deserves +these high and evangelic eulogies. While the love of God in Christ, +to themselves in particular, is made the prevailing topic, the +gloomy and suspicious parts of the system are kept in the back +ground, or positively denied. + +If there be truth in the preceding remarks, the degree of popularity +which attaches to this view of religion, far from yielding a +presumptive argument in its favour, is, at least, a reason for +regarding it with suspicion. It has not the recommendation of being +the faith of the most numerous portion of the wise, of the holy, of +the virtuous. It appeals to the weaknesses rather than to the nobler +principles of human nature. It can never be the sincere and +cherished belief of an enlightened, community. + +The advocates of this creed appear to be aware of this, and +therefore supply their want of conclusive argument by fulminations +intended to effect by fear, what more honourable means could not +accomplish. + +They not only contend for the truth of their doctrine, they make the +belief of it essential to salvation. None are elect who do not +receive their views of election. All others are reprobate. "Shall I +tell you," says one of their most eminent men, "some of the ends +that may be answered by preaching this doctrine? One important end +is, to detect hearts which are unwilling that God should reign; to +lay open those smooth, selfish spirits, which, while they cry +Hosannah, are hostile to the dominion of Jehovah. The more fully God +and the system of his government are brought out to view, the more +clearly are the secrets of all hearts revealed." Men, who fancy +themselves impelled by a "special influence" to receive this creed, +may consistently pronounce judgment on those who reject it. The +absurdity in one case, is not greater than in the other. But their +attempts at intimidation will have no other effect with persons of +dispassionate reflection, than to render more repulsive those errors +which foster insolent conceit in vulgar minds, and encourage those +who appear to have but a superficial knowledge of themselves to pass +sentence of condemnation on the hearts of others. + +Formally to disclaim a charge so gross and misapplied as that of +"hostility to the dominion of Jehovah," would be to treat it with +more respect than it deserves. But it may not be improper to remark, +that the charge proceeds with the worst possible grace from the +vindicators of a creed which obliterates from the divine government +every trace of wisdom, of rectitude, of goodness, and so represents +the Ruler of the word, as to make Him an object of detestation and +terror to his creatures. Other sentiments must inspire the heart +before we can reverence the divine administration, and unite in "the +song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, +Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty: _just_ and +_true_ are thy ways, Thou king of saints." + +APPENDIX. + + + +ADDITIONAL REMARKS ON MR. NOEL'S TRACT ON "THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH." + +The writer of these pages has no personal knowledge of the author of +the tract, of whom he has only heard by report, that he is a zealous +minister and popular preacher. His writings indicate natural suavity +of temper. Having therefore no feeling of personal disrespect, he +deems no apology to be necessary for the freedom of his strictures +on a work which challenges attention and defies contradiction. + +Mr. Noel has openly and dogmatically set forth a theory of the +visible Church and her fellowship, not only hostile to the Church of +England and fraught with absurdity, but propounded under the +alluring guise of Christian charity; a charity which has won for him +the applause of the professors of modern _liberalism_, because, on a +cursory glance, it appears to embrace all sects and denominations of +Christians. It is proper, therefore, to set the matter in a true +light, by showing that this liberality of sentiment is more specious +than real; that Mr. Noel is throwing out false colours, and that +while, in no measured terms, he condemns the supposed want of +brotherly-kindness in the members of the Church of England, his own +apparent liberality is resolvable into nothing else than +_Calvinistic exclusiveness and intolerance_. + +Liberality is the order, the fashion, the idol of the day. In many +it takes the form of infidel indifference, regarding as equally +true, or equally false, every creed that is called Christian. + +The charity of our holy and Apostolical Church is not thus lax and +indiscriminate. It rests not upon scepticism, but upon sound and +definable principles. It does not proceed on the assumption that all +creeds are equally good, but that men of all creeds have a political +right to follow the dictates of conscience, whether enlightened or +erroneous, in matters purely spiritual, and that they are +responsible only to God for their religious faith and worship; +indulging, at the same time, a charitable persuasion of the +sincerity and Christian goodness of multitudes who are believed to +be labouring under mistaken views of truth. This is true _Christian_ +charity, which tolerates error, hopes well of misinformed but +sincere piety, breathes no malignant feelings, indulges in no +haughtiness of conscious superiority; but, after all, holds firmly +to its own persuasion of what is true and right, without the +smallest approach to a compromise of principles even with honest and +well-meaning error. This is the charity of the sound English +churchman, and this charity lies at the foundation of the religious +liberties of the British empire. + +As churchmen we contemplate with reverence, our protestant, +episcopal, and apostolical communion. We believe that it rests on +"the foundation of Apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself the +chief corner-stone." And we contend for the right of the Church to +demand from her own ministers faith in her doctrines, and to model +her own worship, and adjust her own ceremonies according to her own +holy discretion. But we compel no man to come in. We love and +cherish the chartered and constitutional liberties of our country; +and while we sympathize not with the errors which are tolerated, we +rejoice in the freedom, the just and evangelic freedom, which leaves +every man, without control or interference, to settle all points of +_religious_ duty with his conscience and his God. We do not feel +bound to attempt what would be impracticable, to construct a church +which should suit the caprices of all, and whose flexible creed, +like the vane which surmounts the steeple, should shift with "_every +wind of doctrine_;" but we allow the discontented to depart without +molestation, and we honour their conscientious scruples, while we +regret and condemn their errors. + +With charity so large yet discriminating, founded on principles +which approve themselves to the judgment and the heart, we solemnly +protest against every charge of intolerance and bigotry that is +brought, by friend or foe, against our National Church. + +But this does not satisfy Mr. Noel, who proposes, what appears at +first sight, a charity still more generous and comprehensive. The +Anti-paedobaptist and the Presbyterian, with all their germane +varieties, are not only to be treated with forbearance and regarded +with charity, but are all to form one fellowship, united and co +-operating in the great cause of their common Christianity. Take the +following passage. "And these" _Baptism_ and _Church government_, +"are two of the most important points which separate Christians. +Should they separate them? As well might the brothers of a family be +separated by the most trifling difference on some question of taste +or literature. . . . . . Episcopalians and Presbyterians, Baptists +and Paedobaptists, with all others, who differ on obscure and +undecided points, ought, if they have one Lord, one faith, one +baptism, one God, and one hope, under the influence of one Spirit, +who sanctifies them all, to be one in profession, in action, and in +heart." This passage, which is in the spirit of the entire tract, is +open to grave animadversion. + +1. The points mentioned as being "most trifling differences," are +regarded by all theologians of any reputation as questions of great +moment, although not equally so with those which immediately touch +our salvation. Mr. Noel is altogether original in regarding either +the construction that is to be put on the sacrament of baptism, or +the degree of importance to be attached to the episcopal office, as +matters "most trifling." + +2. The Baptists and Presbyterians, who look on these points with +other feelings than those of Mr. Noel, have considered them of +sufficient moment to justify their separation from the communion of +our Church. That separation is _their own_ "act and deed." And to +charge the Church, on this account, with bigotry, intolerance, and +want of charity, proves either consummate ignorance of ecclesiastical +history, or deliberate injustice to serve a party. Nevertheless, +the entire argument of the tract, proceeds on the assumption that +the Church is the guilty and impenitent party. + +3. Under these circumstances, it is impossible that there should be +but "one profession," unless one of the differing parties can deny +its own faith, and profess what it does not believe. The Catholic +Church of England cannot, and will not, be guilty of that turpitude. +The members of _Mr. Noel's Church_ have declared, by their voluntary +separation, their determination to profess their own principles. + +4. That which is most reprehensible in this charitable project of +hailing all sects as brethren is, that it is, after all, deceptive +and hollow. Mr. Noel does not intend a promiscuous fellowship with +various denominations. His charity is extended to those, and to +those exclusively, who, within these several communions, hold "the +doctrines of grace." All others he denounces as not being children +of God. That is, his union includes all those who think with +himself; Calvinists of every persuasion, and not a soul besides! +These are his "one body," and this one body is "the church." How +beautiful, how noble, how godlike is the charity of the Church of +England, which exists in unison with the love of truth, but embraces +with Christian affection even those who have quitted her fellowship, +contrasted with the drivelling and sectarian partialities of the +Calvinist who pronounces every man who differs from himself to be no +child of God! The charity of Mr. Noel resolves itself into +Calvinistic exclusiveness and intolerance. + +If in these remarks there is any apparent severity, they are not to +be applied to the author, but to the principles of his work. +Calvinism obscures the finest intellect, and gives a false direction +to the most humane and generous feelings which can impart graceful +dignity to the Christian character. + +THE END. + + + +Gilbert & Rivington, Printers, St. John's Square, London. + +_By the same Author_. + + + +I. + +DISCOURSES on some important Theological Subjects, Doctrinal and +Practical. 7_s_. + +II. + +ECCLESIASTICAL ESTABLISHMENTS not inconsistent with +CHRISTIANITY. Part I. 2_s_. 6_d_. Part II. 2_s_. + +III. + +The CONSOLATIONS of CHRISTIANITY, in four Discourses. 3_s_. 6_d_. + +IV. + +On BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 3_s_. 6_d_. + +Footnotes + +[1] Dr. Griffin in his "Lectures on Important Doctrines," broadly +charges the rejectors of Calvinism with embracing _another Gospel_, +and with being on the high road to infidelity. "And when they have +gone this length," he says, "in frittering away man's dependence on +grace, they are just prepared to place him completely on his own +works, to deny justification by faith, and of course, the proper +influence of the atonement; short of this these systems never stop: +and when they have gone thus far, there is but one step to a denial +of the divinity of Christ and the infinite demerit of sin. The next +step is _universalism_, and the next _infidelity_." Every +intelligent reader will know how to appreciate this senseless +dogmatism. The infidel might with equal propriety charge the +professors of Scriptural Christianity with being on the high road to +Calvinism, and prepared, by their faith in the corruption of human +nature, and the atonement of Christ, for the most extreme views of +the Divine decrees. Yet these bold and baseless assertions have +their weight with those for whom they are intended, and many weak +but good persons are held in passive bondage to these teachers and +their creed, through the holy fear of moving a step towards +infidelity. On the other hand, we might retort the charge. Calvinism +has made more infidels than any other corruption of Christianity, +excepting Popery. But we suggest this only in the way of _fair +retaliation_. + +The rejectors of Calvinism do not reject "the doctrines of grace," +but the corruptions by which they have been dishonoured. They +maintain, that on the absolute predestinarian scheme, there is no +room for grace, such as the Gospel exhibits to the sinful and the +lost; and that their own views are not only more accordant with the +justice, but with the unmerited and infinite mercy of God. They +ascribe all true holiness to the Divine Spirit. + +[2] Dr. Coplestone, now the Bishop of Llandaff, denies that the +foreknowledge of an event proves the _event to be necessary_. "_We_ +may be unable to conceive how a thing not necessary in its nature +can be foreknown; for _our_ foreknowledge is in general limited by +that circumstance, and is more or less perfect in proportion to the +fixed or necessary nature of the things we contemplate, with which +nature we become acquainted by experience, and are thus able to +anticipate a great variety of events: but to subject the knowledge +of God to any such limitation is surely absurd and unphilosophical, +as well as impious; and, therefore, to mix up the idea of God's +foreknowledge with any quality in the nature of the things +foreknown, is even less excusable than to be guilty of that +confusion when speaking of ourselves." + +But, with due deference to his lordship, this does not contradict +the statement in the text, that we are ignorant of any principle on +which _such prescience_ can be explained. Assuming, indeed, that any +events are contingent, that human actions proceed from freedom, and +not from necessity, we cannot deny that they come within the range +of infinite knowledge. + +But the philosophical necessarian does not grant this postulate. He +assumes the existence of an infinite mind, to whose knowledge all +events are open, and thence infers the _necessity_ of these events. +He pleads that omniscience and contingency are incongruous ideas, +and, on the ground of pure metaphysics, it would be difficult to +refute him. But we demolish his theory by an appeal to facts. We +oppose the moral constitution and history of man, to the plausible +speculations of philosophy. In other words, the mere metaphysician +is a fatalist; and his position, in the present state of our +intellectual philosophy, can be successfully attacked only by an +appeal to facts and consciousness, and by moral argument. That sound +metaphysics and just moral reasoning cannot really be at variance is +certain, since there cannot exist contradictory truths. Our +metaphysics therefore are wrong, or there must be an unknown _third +principle_, by which they are to be reconciled with our moral +reasonings. But until we can detect the fallacies of the +metaphysician, or supply the _connecting link_ which is now wanting, +we must rest in the unsatisfactory conclusion that abstract +philosophy is with the necessarian, and that liberty and its +ennobling consequences, moral agency, and moral responsibility, rest +on the solitary basis of moral argument. + +[3] On the "special _teaching_" claimed, in connexion with "special +grace," by the most popular writers of the Calvinistic school, the +reader may find some just and forcible remarks in Essays by W. and +T. Ludlam. Their fearless exposure of the erroneous statements given +by Milner, Robinson, Newton, Harvey, and others, more particularly +on the subject of divine influence, awakened the indignation of a +party whose pretensions, when tested by reason and revelation, were +proved to be groundless. Without attempting an indiscriminate +defence of their opinions or their arguments, we may recommend these +essays as being eminently worthy of attention in the present day, +when two distinct but zealous parties are aiming to establish +exclusive doctrines, by discountenancing the legitimate use of human +reason in religious inquiries--one resting on tradition, the other +on individual inspiration; neither of them seeming to remember, that +tradition may be pleaded for and against the same dogmata, and that +the private persuasions of one good man may be opposite to those of +another, who has, with equal earnestness and humility, prayed to be +directed into the knowledge of saving truth. The man of independent +mind will find in these essays, much to admire in their elucidation +of truth and detection of error, but more in their dauntless +defiance of those who represent the Bible as a "sealed book" to all +who are not visited with a special faculty for discerning its mystic +characters and hidden sense. In that case, the Scriptures are a +revelation _only to the elect_, who, to satisfy themselves and the +world, that _their interpretation_ is the only sound one, ought to +produce miracles as proof of their own inspiration, not less +unequivocal than those which vindicated the authority and +infallibility of the Apostles. Such opinions, although held by +religious men, are dishonourable to the Scriptures, and needlessly +degrading to the human mind. + +[4] "There can be no approaches towards regeneration in the +antecedent temper of the heart. The moment before the change, the +sinner is as far from sanctification, as darkness is from light, as +death is from life, as sin is from holiness." + +"Regeneration is an instantaneous change, from exclusive attachment +to the creature, from supreme selfishness, from enmity against God, +to universal love, which fixes the heart supremely on Him; and there +is no previous abatement of the enmity, or approximation towards a +right temper; the heart being at one moment in full possession of +its native selfishness and opposition, at the next moment in +possession of a principle of supreme love to God; acquiring thus, in +an instant, a temper which it never possessed before."--_Lectures on +Important Doctrines by Dr. Griffin_. + +How extravagant in theory, how false in fact! The doctrine of the +Anglican Church on this; and all similar points, never appears so +wise, and sound, and scriptural, as when contrasted with the +speculative systems of men, who, to give harmony and consistency to +their notions, close their eyes to the real world of man, and create +for themselves an ideal universe, peopled by another order of +beings, and governed by a power unknown but to the dreamers +themselves. + +[5] The Presbyterian Church of Scotland is both Calvinistic and +National. But this fact does not militate against the argument of +this section; that Calvinism is opposed to the constitution and +purposes of a visible Church. Her creed and her discipline are at +variance. Her ministers are required to believe in the Westminster +Confession. And the great body of her people are said to be attached +to that system of doctrine. But her more educated classes reject it, +and the Scottish Church is a divided house. + +[6] The prominent part taken by the doctrinal Puritans, in the +revolutionary movements which brought Charles I. to the block, is +proved by the concurrent testimony of the writers of those times. It +is amply illustrated and confirmed by Mr. Nichols in his "Calvinism +and Arminianism Compared." + +The "Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson," by his widow Lucy, is not only +a work of great general interest, beautifully composed, and +combining with the life of an eminent person vivid sketches of the +times; but it illustrates the subject discussed in the text. Colonel +Hutchinson was a doctrinal Puritan, and one of the regicides. In +himself we behold all the elements of a great and noble character, +devout, humane, scrupulously conscientious, and of heroic courage; +every quality that might adorn the gentleman, the patriot, the +Christian. But his extreme principles induced a mistaken sense of +duty, which embittered his own days, and added to the calamities of +his country; after having been spared at the restoration, his gloomy +reserve and supposed readiness to act again the part of a rebel, if +opportunity should occur, led to his imprisonment in Sandown Castle, +where he died more ignobly than if he had been brought to the block. +It would have been more to the honour of the king, if he had at +first doomed him to a public execution, the proper death of a +regicide, or had left him afterwards unmolested; but the second +Charles was not less mean and malignant than his sire was +unfortunate. Of the character of the humbler class of the doctrinal +Puritans, the following hints are incidentally given in this work. + +The name of Roundhead "was very ill applied to Mr, Hutchinson, who, +having naturally a very fine thick sett head of hair, kept it clean +and handsome, so that it was a greate ornament to him, although _the +godly of those dayes_, when he embrac'd their party, _would not +allow him to be religious_, because his hayre was not in their +cutte, nor his words in their phraze, nor such little formalities +altogether fitted to their humour; who were, many of them, so weake +as to esteeme rather for such insignificant circumstances, then for +solid wisdom, piety, and courage, which brought reall ayd and honor +to their party; but as Mr. Hutchinson chose, not them, but the God +they serv'd, and the truth and righteousness they defended, so did +not their weaknesses, censures, ingratitude, and discouraging +behaviour, with which he was abundantly exercised all his life, make +him forsake them in any thing wherein they adher'd to just and +honourable principles and practizes; but when they apostatized from +these, none cast them off with greater indignation, how shining +soever the profession were that gilt, not a temple of living grace, +but a tomb which only held the carkase of religion." In other words, +like other partisans, whose principles have degenerated into the +spirit of faction, he overlooked the baseness of ingratitude, and +worse immoralities, in his associates, so long as they maintained +the just and honourable character of traitors and rebels. + +[7] The Manchester Synod, at which were present 620 ministers of +various denominations, was held in the year 1841, for the purpose of +discussing the _corn laws_, with a view to their abolition. The +professed object was the relief of the poor by procuring cheap +bread; the real object was the depression of the landed aristocracy, +and, through them, of the Clergy of the National Church, whose +tithes are regulated by the average value of corn. Had those +gentlemen been sincere in their lamentations for the manufacturing +poor, they would have long ago agitated the country for the +abolition of the Factory System, and the rescue of its miserable +victims from oppression and famine. That system must be strengthened +by the abolition of the corn laws, which would only aggrandize the +_great manufacturers_, and plunge the working people into deeper +misery, by throwing the agricultural poor out of employment, and +driving them to the towns and cities for occupation, thus glutting +the market with superfluous labour. Looking at some of those +individuals who took a leading part in the Synod, men of reputed +truth and probity in their customary habits, their disingenuousness +on this occasion supplies a striking proof of the power of faction +to impair the moral sense, especially when originating in hatred of +the Church. The great body of this Synod were ministers of +Calvinistic Churches. The "dissenting interest" has degraded itself +by assuming the character of a political faction. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On Calvinism, by William Hull + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON CALVINISM *** + +***** This file should be named 28339.txt or 28339.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/3/3/28339/ + +Produced by Keith G. Richardson + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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