It is however upon the principle here avowed, that the conduct of the moderate Calvinift appears to be regulated. He endeavours perhaps to close his eyes on thofe parts of the fyftem, which are too "horrible" (I use the epithet of its framer) to be ftedfastly beheld by any other than an eye of uncommon firmnefs; and he endeavours to withdraw them from the foreground of the picture, and to throw them into fhade, left their deformity fhould fhock and appal his weaker brethren. Still, with whatever caution these horrors may be concealed, they conftitute an effential part of the fyftem. "Where there is an election "of fome," remarked the laft cited author, "there must be a rejection of others':" and it was laid down by the Calviniftic Founder of Methodifm, that "without doubt the doctrine "of election and reprobation must stand or fall "together"." "No medium can be affigned," faid Bishop Davenant, who was one of our divines that affifted at the Synod of Dort, "either on God's part, betwixt the decrees of predeftinating some men and not predeftinating others; or on man's part, betwixt men

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* Decretum quidem horribile fateor. Calv. Inftit. lib. iii. cap. xxiii. fect. 7.

abfolutely predeftinated to the attainment of "life eternal, and abfolutely permitted and "left infallibly to fail of the obtainment of "eternal life; which we call abfolute Repro"bation "."

If any one difputes thefe pofitions, which are laid down by Calviniftic writers, let him fatisfactorily explain, with what confiftency he infers the abfolute election of individuals from the declaration in Scripture, that "God "will have mercy on whom he will have "mercy," but denies the inference in fupport of the abfolute reprobation of individuals, deduced from its counterpart, "whom he will, "he hardeneth." Or waving the appeal to fuch detached paffages, deprived of which however Calvinifm will dwindle into a name, let him furvey the question abftractedly, and fairly meet and repel the argument of Calvin, one of those" fundamental principles on which "his fyftem refts," and one which I adopt the epithet of the moderate Calvinist in defcribing as "incontrovertible." "You are greatly de"ceived," faid he to a friend, "if you think "the everlafting counfel of God can be fo "mutilated, as for fome to have been chofen "by him to falvation, no one to have been

* See Whitby on the Five Points, Difc. I. p. 1.

any

"deftined to deftruction. For if he hath cho"fen fome, it certainly follows, that all have 66 not been chofen. And what is to be faid of "thefe, but that they are left in order to perish. "There must therefore be a mutal relation be"tween the reprobate and the elect." And again, to the fame effect, in words which ef pecially merit the attention of the moderate Calvinift: "Many perfons indeed, as if they "wifhed to acquit God of blame, acknowledge "election in fuch a way, as to deny that "one is reprobated: but with extreme abfur"dity and childish weakness; seeing that elec ❝tion itself could not ftand, unless it were op"posed to reprobation. God is faid to separate "thofe, whom he adopts for falvation: to "affirm that others obtain by chance, or ac"quire by their own exertions, what election "alone confers upon a few, were worse than 66 a foolish affertion. WHOM THEREFORE GOD 66 PASSES BY, HE REPROBATES: and that for. other caufe, than that he chooses to exclude

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• Tu vero, mi Chriftophore, longe falleris, fi æternum Dei confilium ita poffe difcerpi putas, ut quofdam elegerit in falutem, neminem exitio deftinarit. Nam fi aliquos elegit, certe fequitur non omnes effe electos. Porro quid de his dicendum erit, nifi eos relinqui ut pereant? Mutua igitur inter reprobos et electos relatio fit oportet. Calv Chriftophoro Liberteto, Col, 142.

"them from the inheritance, which he pre"deftinates to his fons ","

Let me not be understood as infinuating by thefe remarks, that the moderate Calvinift does really entertain opinions, which he difavows. Charity forbids the infinuation; neither is it my wish to accufe but to defend. But, for my own part, agreeing in this refpect with the framer of the system, and regarding election and reprobation as infeparably connected, I am induced to state that connection as a reafon, why the milder, as well as the more rigid, fyftem is beheld by us with averfion; and why by the fame arguments, which condemn. the rigours of the Calviniftic system, we feel ourselves conftrained to renounce, and juftified in renouncing, the Calvinistic doctrines altogether.

Looking upon these doctrines then, however fpeciously they may fometimes be difguifed, as

Multi quidem, ac fi invidiam a Deo repellere vellent, electionem fatentur, ut negent quenquam reprobari : fed infcite nimis et pueriliter; quando ipfa electio nifi reprobationi oppofita non ftaret. Dicitur fegregare Deus quos adoptet in falutem; fortuito alios adipifci, vel fua induftria acquirere, quod fola electio paucis confert, plufquam infulle dicetur. Quos ergo Deus præterit, reprobat: neque alia de caufa, nifi quod ab hæreditate, quam filiis fuís prædeftinat, illos vult excludere. Inft. lib. iii. cap. xxiii. fect. 1.

really and substantially the fame, I proceed to affirm, and I truft I shall not be deemed pre+ fumptuous for affirming, that they are not the Gospel preached by Chrift and his Apoftles, and especially by St. Paul, on whom their advocates would willingly faften them. The affertion needs not to be contradicted, that 66 every one, who has read St. Paul's epiftles, "knows that they teem with predeftination "from beginning to end" the question is, what is the predeftination with which they teem, and on that question turn the folution of the whole controverfy between us.

Nor

needs it to be denied, that the fyftem of Cale viniftic predeftination may appear to be coun tenanced by fome infulated paffages in the writings of that Apoftle, as well as in fome other parts of holy writ. With respect to fuch paffages however, fome remarks thrown out in my firft difcourfe, and fome examples then adduced in illustration, render a particular notice of them again unneceffary. It may fuffice therefore briefly to call to mind, that of the infulated paffages which may feem to fa your the Calviniftic tenets, fome derive their colour from being understood in a literal, inftead of their idiomatical fenfe; fome from the English expreffion, in its prefent fignifica

Toplady on Predeftination, p. 134.