"this most dangerous downfall, whereby" (as our Church expreffes herself in the 17th Article)" the Devil doth thrust curious and car"nal perfons, lacking the spirit of Chrift, ei"ther into defperation, or into wretchleffness

of most unclean living, no less perilous than

defperation;" our doctrine is, in the language of our Liturgy and Homilies, that " God "willeth not the death of a finner, but that "he fhould rather turn from his fin and be "faved';" and that, as the condemnation of every man, that shall perish, "will have been heaped upon himself by his own wickedness "and the stubbornness of his heart; which I defpifed the goodness, patience, and long'fuffering of God; when he called him conItinually to repentance;" fo there is no man but by the grace of God he may escape and be faved through Christ, provided he "take

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heed betime, while the day of falvation last"eth; and abuse not the goodness of God, "who calleth us mercifully to amendment, "and of his endless pity promifeth us forgive"ness of that which is paft, if with a perfect " and true heart we return unto him."

And

--quos damnationi addicit, his jufto quidem et irreprehenfibili, fed incomprehenfibili, ipfius judicio vitæ aditum præcludi. Inft. lib. iii. cap. xxiii. fect. 7.

1 See the Commination Service, and the Second Part of the Sermon of Falling from God.

this doctrine we fupport on the general promifes of Scripture, and on innumerable individual paffages, which might be cited in support of its several parts; and more especially on the declaration in the Prophet Ezekiel, where they are all expressly afferted. When the "wicked man turneth away from his wickednefs, that he hath committed, and doeth " that which is lawful and right, he shall save "his foul alive. I will judge you, O house of Ifrael, every one according to his ways, "faith the Lord God. Repent, and turn yourfelves from all your tranfgreffions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Caft

away from "6 you all your tranfgreffions, whereby ye have tranfgreffed; and make you a new heart and " a new spirit, for why will ye die, O house "of Ifrael? For I have no pleasure in the "death of him that dieth, faith the Lord "God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live "yem."

It is not without extreme repugnance, that I can bring myself to credit my own statement, that fuch opinions as those, which have been just ascribed to our affailants, could ever have been foberly maintained, as the declarations of the oracles of God.

Yet that fuch opinions in their full extent,

m Ezek. xviii. 27, 30, 31, 32.

if not to a greater extent than hath been ftated, were the doctrine of Calvin himself, is a pofition, to which his own writings bear unquestionable teftimony: nor hath a fyllable been here advanced, which those writings do not exprefsly warrant. The auftere and rigorous character of the doctrine, (I wish to speak of it in the most unexceptionable and inoffenfive terms,) and its tendency withal to foster the most dangerous wickedness, most dangerous, because connected with an erroneous principle, may have alarmed the more timid of his profeffed followers; and have deterred them from adopting it with all its frightful confequences, however neceffarily they may refult from his fundamental tenets. There have not however been wanting those among his difciples, both in earlier and in recent times, who have been hardy enough to employ fuch language, as will fully justify us, not only in declining to propagate, but in deprecating the propagation of, tenets so prepofterous in themselves, and of such manifest injury to the cause of pure religion. Such was the cafe at the period of the Reformation, when, as a late learned Divine remarks, " Calvinism

prevailed among a few Gofpellers, who "drew confequences from it, which Calvin "would willingly have guarded against : but "he had laid down the premises; and not

withstanding he stopped there, and would "have perfuaded others to do the same, yet the corrupt hearts of these men boldly drew "the conclufion for him "." Such alfo was

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the cafe in the time of Charles the Firft; and fuch it is in the present time.

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What, for instance, fhall we fay of the flagrant Antinomian tendency of those expresfions, wherein a living Minifter of our Church, of great and extenfive popularity, afferts the doctrines of unconditional election and irresistible grace? Wifdom crieth aloud, not in "the temple only, and in the courts of the Lord's houfe, but in the streets and the lanes of the city, among the graceless and the idle; those who are too graceless to attend "the ordinances of duty, and too idle to be "concerned for their falvation. And when "Jefus calls, obferve who they are he calls. "He fays, if any man thirst-if any man hear my voice: he doth not fay, if any good

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man, or any moral man; but any man. As

n Winchester on the 17th Article; chap. 4.

• The Author has thought it necessary to bring forward at fome length the principal Calvinistic tenets in the words of profeffed Calvinifts, chiefly of the present day. Should the reader find this feries of quotations irk fome, and be contented with Calvin's own representation of the doctrines characterised by his name, he may pass on to page 144, where the moral tendency of the fyftem is difcuffed.

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"if he had faid, I will have my offer made among such as the world may fancy too "worthless to be made partakers of my falva"tion, and too far loft to be recovered. Go

66 ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel "to every creature. The fingle qualification I expect is to believe the Gofpel: for he "that believeth fhall be faved. And even that belief my Spirit fhall beftow: He maketh

my people willing in the day of his power. "All that the Father giveth me, shall come to

me; and him that cometh, I will in no wife "caft out. Observe again the extensiveness, "the freedom, the fovereignty of his grace. "All that the Father giveth. Not one, or two, or ten thoufand; but ALL. And they Shall come. What, if they do fuch and fuch duties? Not a word of the kind:

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What, if they perform fuch obligations? "Not a fyllable like it. It is an abfolute pro"mife of the Lord Jefus, founded in his own "abfolute power. Here are neither ifs nor "buts. No conditions, nor terms. They hall "come and if they themselves will not, the "Lord will make them willing in the day of " his power. It is he that worketh in them "both to will and to do of his own good plea"fure "."

P Prop against all Despair, by Robert Hawker, D.D. Vicar of Charles, Plymouth, p. 15, 16.