the invincible power of God." In the 17th Article the reprobates of Calvin are in no manner or degree alluded to; (the number of whom, in his opinion, to that of the elect, is in the proportion of four to one. Instit. lib.iii. c. xxiv. sect. 11.) Consequently the elect, whom the framers of our 39 Articles have defined or described in this 17th Article, are different from Calvin's elect; and, of course, the predestination. See p. 322. "According to Calvin, the whole human race, in consequence of Adam's fall, became a mass of corruption; that this effect of original sin abideth upon the reprobates for ever, neither are their actual sins ever remitted; they being created for, and born to, certain and everlasting perdition. But what saith the Church of England concerning this most important doctrine? In her 31st Article are these. words; "The offering of Christ, once made, is that perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction, for all the sins of the whole world, both original and acinat.” When, therefore, these evangelical preachers, Messrs Overton and Presbyter, assert that the founders of the Church of England, when they were preparing materials for the edifice, were Calvinists in sentiment, they either deny that those venerable divines were men of veracity, or proclaim to the world a want of veracity in themselves. Seeing, then, that the doctrines of our Church are set forth in its Articles; that in matters of doctrine there is not the least discord between the liturgy of our Church and these Articles; that, therefore, if its Liturgy be at variance with Calvin's doctrines, its doctrinal parts must also be at variance with them; and, since between this Liturgy and Calvin's doctrines there is almost every where a very material difference, it follows that the doctrinal Articles of our Church cannot be in correspondence with Calvinism, nor were intended to be subscribed in a Calvinistic sense." Kipling on the Articles.

"Our Church, therefore, when she requires our assent to these Articles, either doth hold the doctrine of absolute predestination, or she doth not; but, on the contrary, doth supp se men capable of conforming voluntarily to the articles of religion. If she doth hold the doctrine of predestination, she might as well spare all the rest of her Articles; for as much as it would not be in any man's own power either to grant or withhold his assent, but in the power of the predestinating director. And, if she doth suppose men at liberty to consent, or not, to these Articles, which can only make them proposals of any sense to intelligent rational creatures, then she cannot understand the doctrine of predestination in the way in which some would interpret it." Dr Parker's Sermon on Rom. viii. 30, p. 46.

"What shall we say about our reformers? If they designed that the famous Article on which all Calvinists build so much should be understood in the Calvinistic sense, they must be condemned, out of their own mouths, as the most inconsistent of men; and, as such, very unqualified for the important office they undertook, that of reforming and new modelling our national Church. For, if our reformers meant that the doctrine of our Church should be received in the Calvinistic sense, and at the same time made use of a paraphrase (Erasmus's) calculated to convey a different sense to her members, they were in fact pulling down, with one hand, what they professed to be building up with the other; and, consequently, the sense which Calvinists have annexed to our Church

Articles is not the sense in which they were originally composed." Daubeny's Appendix, letter 4, p. 209, 211, 217, &c.

"The fact is, that the introduction of Calvinism, or rather its prevalence, in any considerable degree, was subsequent to the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, when all our public formularies, our Articles, our Liturgy, and our Homilies, were settled as they now are, with the exception of a few alterations and additions to the Liturgy, not in the least affecting its general spirit and character. Our reformers followed no human authority; they had recourse to the Scriptures as their sole guide, and the consequence has been what might have been expected, that our Articles and Liturgy do not exactly correspond with the sentiments of any of the eminent reformers upon the continent, or with the creeds of any of the Protestant churches which are there established. Our Church is not Lutheran, it is not Calvinistic, it is not Arminian; it is Scriptural. It is built upon the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone." Bp of Lincoln's Charge, May, 1803.

THE END.

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