and perjured apoftates from the truth?" Cer"tainly," remarked a late very learned Prelate", "the greatest fault of the Calvinifts has been "their want of charity for those who differ "from them :" a fault, I cannot but add, little confiftent with that "meeknefs," which Whitefield profeffed to discover in Calvin 1, and which he proposed as a pattern for his own imitation. For my own part, to fuch" railing "accufations" as thofe which have just been noticed, I reply in the language of a friend of Arminius, on whom fimilar appellations were profufely lavifhed by his opponents, "I "am no Arian, no Papift, no Calvinist, no "Lutheran, no Pelagian, but a CHRISTIAN, "ordained to proclaim the perfections of Him, "who has called us out of darkness into his "marvellous light." But at the fame time, when I thus furvey the conduct of those, who have been moft vehement in the propagation of these peculiar tenets;-when I reflect how aliene is religious intolerance from "the royal' "law" of Chriftian charity;-and when I likewife call to mind the promise of our bleffed Lord, that" if any man will do his Fa"ther's will, he fhall know of the doctrine, Bishop Horfley's primary Charge at St. Afaph. k Speech of Vitenbogart before the States of Holland. See Brandt's Hift. vol. ii. p. 56. "whether it be of God1:"-when I recollect moreover the tendency, that Calvinifm has already been reprefented to bear, with respect to the moral conduct, and the peace of heart, of its profeffors :—I cannot but look upon it with a very fufpicious eye; and feel difpofed to ac knowledge, with humble and hearty thanks to Almighty God, that a doctrine, teeming with fuch dark prefages on the one hand, and with fuch profligacy on both; and fo prone withal, if not to promote, at leaft not to difcourage, an acrimonious fpirit in its profef fors, is not the doctrine which we preach. If therefore, as was before remarked, when it is objected to us that we do not preach the Gof pel, thefe doctrines are intended as the doctrines of the Gospel, we are not difpofed to fhrink from the charge. The words, which we preach, are the words of peace and confolation, not those of horror and defpair: the fruits, which we attempt to rear, are the fruits of holiness, from a meek and lowly heart; not thofe of a prefumptuous temper, and an unclean life fearful of "making the heart of "the righteous fad, whom God has not made "fad, and of strengthening the hands of the "wicked, that he fhould not return from his "wicked way, by promifing him life," the 1 John vii. 37. Ezek. xiii. 22. Gospel which we preach, we believe to be the Gofpel of the Holy Spirit; as for thofe doctrines, which are fometimes preached for the Gofpel, we know not what spirit they are of. Let me here pause to remark on the case of thofe among our brethren of the Establishment, who, unwilling, as it appears, to "launch out "into that unfordable abyfs of horror and ❝ astonishment, the decree of eternal reproba❝tion "," veil their opinions upon the fubject of predeftination under the fpecious title of 66 а milder and moderate Calvinifm." " No"thing," remarks their Apologift, "is further ❝ from my purpose, than to infer from what has "been advanced in this fection, that the "precife theological fyftem of John Calvin in "all its parts and to its full extent was in"tended to be established in the thirty-nine "Articles to the exclufion of every milder fen"timent." "When therefore," he continues, after fome intermediate obfervations, "certain ❝ writers have formed a frightful system of "nothing but abfolute decrees, abfolute repro"bation, and other extravagancies, which we "abfolutely difavow, they may attack it as "vehemently as they pleafe; but it deferves "their confideration, that it is a creature "of their own, and that in refpect to us "at least the most pointed of their weapons "falls, Telum imbelle fine ictu P. Whether the extravagant and frightful fyftem, which the writers here alluded to attack, be in point of fact a creature of their own; and whether to allege that it is fo, be creditable to the ingenuousness of him who affirms it; are queftions not deftitute of importance, but they must be paffed over as foreign to my more immediate purpose, to which I accordingly haften. Now we should rejoice in giving to all the followers of Chrift, and efpecially to these brethren and minifters of our own commu¬ nion, "the right hand of fellowship." I admire their zeal, and I honour their exertions. When therefore I hear them apparently excepting against "several doctrines, which are "contained in Calvin's Inftitutions :" when I hear them denying, as it should seem, "that "the fall of Adam was the effect of a divine "decree;" admitting that the efficacy of "Chrift's redemption extends" to all mankind; and difavowing and condemning altogether the doctrine of abfolute reprobation, as being "unfcriptural or liable to abuse":" when Overton, p. 96. See Overton, p. 93. ' Remarks on Dr. Kipling's Pamphlet by Academicus, 66 they exprefs themselves as "wifhing unequivocally to teach, that man's falvation is "wholly of grace, but that his perdition is "of himself; and neither to make God the "author of fin, nor man a mere machine and "unfit to be treated as a moral agent;" "the "cause of God's rejection of any man being "his fin and rejection of the Gospel :" when they moreover unrefervedly contend, as the unquestionable doctrine of Scripture, that “we "fhall be judged, rewarded, and receive "according to our works; that the wicked "shall be punished with different degrees of "punishment proportioned to their demerits; "and that God will give to his faithful people higher degrees of glory in reward for higher 66 66 degrees of holiness and good works":" when fome of these conceffions and declations I hear, and others I think I hear, from the moderate Calvinifts, I am inclined to cherish a feeling of regret, that their attachment to an obnoxious, or, to employ the epithet of their Advocate, "an odious name "," fhould ferve to keep open a breach, not required by an effential difference of doctrine. But when on the other hand I hear them maintain, too plainly to be mistaken, but in • Overton, p. 89. Ibid. p. 291, 292. |