to cheer, nor has the future any promise te comfort him. For him the blood of the Saviour of the world has not been fhed :- for him "the God of all comfort" extends not the arms of his mercy:-" the dayfpring from on "high" does not vifit him with one gleam of hope, to guide his feet into the way of ઉં peace-but he advances through clouds and thick darkness towards the vale of the fhadow of death, which he furveys before him, not as a refuge, "where the wicked cease

from troubling and the weary be at reft;" not as an avenue to the abode of happiness, where his earthly fufferings are to be recompenfed by "an eternal weight of glory;" but as the paffage from a fhort life of intolerable. mifery and apprehenfion, to an interminable existence of far more exceeding horror!

This is not a picture of the imagination : would to God that it were! The experience, both of earlier and of more recent times, will furnish too many originals; whilst the fame experience will alfo warrant an opinion, that the evils, which refult from the fyftem to the individual profeffor, are not redeemed by any benefits, to which it gives rife in his intercourfe with fociety.

That Calvinifm has a general tendency to create and fofter humility and a Christian temper, is an opinion which its adherents may

fondly cherish, but which the evidence of hiftory will not fubftantiate. If it be fo, why did it not restrain the intolerant and perfecuting fpirit, with which Calvin himself maintained his doctrines, even to the banishment, if not to the death, of one of his unhappy victims; when, inconfiftently with the affertion of a late biographer, that " he never used any "expreffions unworthy of a pious man"," he ftyled his opponents "fools," and "impious;" litigating with God;" "forgetful that they were men;"" virulent dogs, barking and vomiting forth their accufations againft God;" malignant and impudent calumniators of his doctrine" in a word, accufing them of

66

• See Calv. Inft. lib. iii. cap. xxi. fect. 1. and Whitefield's Works, vol. iv. p. 61.

* Sebastian Caftalio. See Heylyn's Quinquart. Hist. part i. chap. v. part iii. chap. xvi. Mofheim, cent. xvi. fect. iii. p. 2.

Mackenzie's Life of Calvin, p. 140.

Figmenta, quæ ad everteudam prædeftinationem commenti funt ftulti homines. Inft. lib. iii. cap. xxi. fect. 7. Quæ fpeciofe ad fuggillandam Dei juftitiam prætendit impietas. Ibid.

Hæc quidem piis et modeftis abunde fufficerent, et qui fe homines reminifcuntur. Quia tamen non unam fpeciem virulenti ifti canes evomunt contra Deum &c. Multis modis cum Deo litigant ftulti homines. Ibid. cap. xxiii. fect. 2.

-divinæ Providentia calumniator. Ibid. fect. 5. Maligne atque impudenter hanc doctrinain calumniantur alii. Ibid. fect. 13.

LS

a

every fpecies of depravity, moral as well as intellectual, with fuch afperity of manner, and fuch virulence of language, as provoked the mild Bucer to write to him, that "he regu"lated his judgment by his paffions of love " and hatred, and thefe by his mere will;" and to bestow on him the appellation of " "Fratricide?" If it be fo, why did it not check the arrogance, the turbulence, the flanders of his early partizans; the Contra-Remonftrants on the continent; and their abettors, the Gofpellers, as they were termed, among ourselves? Why did it not mitigate that implacable temper, wherewith the opponents of Arminius belied, calumniated, and falfely accufed him; and wherewith his colleague Gomarus in particular averred, that "he fhould be afraid to die in his principles, "and appear before the tribunal of God;" and that, in fo uncharitable a manner, as to draw from one, that heard him, the memorable declaration, that "he had rather die with "the faith of Arminius, than with the charity "of his accufer"." Why did it not correct Perfidi et impii nebulones. Epift. Col. 142.

quemadmodum protervi ifti canes contra nos blaterant In Ezek. xviii. 32.

T

* Judicas, prout amas vel odisti; amas autem, vel odisti, prout libet. See the Examination of Tilenus, p. 324.

See Brandt's Hiftory of the Reformation in the Low Countries, vol, ii. p. 51, 48.

the domineering and tyrannical conduct, the bitterness and evil-fpeaking, the partiality and duplicity, the frauds, deceits, and equivocations, practifed in fupport of their doctrine by the delegates at Dort, to fuch an extent as to excite the disgust and animadversion even of their adherents themselves? Why did it not moderate the bigotry, the intolerance, and the factious spirit of the Scotch Covenanters, who fold their King; and why did it not purify the hearts and lives of the English regicides, who bought and flew him; inftead of giving a fanction to their vices, whilft they lived, and affording them, as was notoriously the cafe with Cromwell, peace and confolation in the

* See Examination of Tilenus, Pref. Epift. p. 253. Brandt's Hift. vol. iii. p. 308-12. Hale's and Balcanqual's Letters from the Synod, efpecially p. 482. and following. Heylyn's Quinquartic. Hift. part i. chap. v.

"This minds me of a remarkable paffage told by Dr. "Bates, who wrote the Elenchus Motuum Nuperorum in "Anglia. He, as a phyfician, was called upon to affift "that night that Oliver proved a true deliverer of his "country. The Protector was in great agonies of mind, "often started, and asked them, if they faw any thing? "At length he called for his chaplains; and the first "question he asked them, was, If there was any falling "from grace? To which being anfwered in the negative, "Then, faid he, I am fafe. For he fuppofed that fome "time or other in his life he might have had a little 6 grace. And then his ufurpation, with the murder of "the King, and devaftation of three kingdoms, befides

hour of death, from the perfuafion, that, whatever were their fins, they could not fall from grace, which they had once enjoyed? Why did it not prevent the Calvinistic champion of Methodism from committing, avowing, and justifying a breach of faith towards his Arminian antagonist, for the purpose of propagating these very doctrines themselves; and why did it not humble that imperious temper,

66

imperious" by his own confeffion, which prompted him to ufurp and exercise dominion over the faith of his brethren, yea of his fathers, in Chrift; and to pronounce on these controverted points with all the arrogance and fancied infallibility of a Roman Pontiffs? Finally, why does it not infuse a milder, a more tolerant, and a more Christian spirit into its advocates of the prefent day; and incline them to regard us, who are of a different perfuafion, with "brotherly love," instead of denouncing us, as dangerous heretics and fchifmatics; as impious hypocrites; blafphemers;

"much blood shed abroad, and the overthrow of the "eftablished Church, could do him no hurt! This is at "short way of quieting conscience, and to lull men asleep "in their fins! Thus poor fouls are deluded by these doc "trines of decrees." Rehearsal, vol. iv. p. 45.

• See Coke's Life of Wefley, p. 214. ' Whitefield's Works, vol. i. p. 195. Ibid. p. 95, 101, 182, 212, &c.