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+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: 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
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