queftion. When they adverted to it, they difcovered a fenfe of their limited capacity; and feldom ventured beyond those statements, with which the exprefs words of holy Scripture fupplied them. "In these matters," faid Bifhop Ridley, "I am so fearful, that I dare not speak farther; yea almost none otherwife than the very text. does, as it were, lead me by the hand *.”

Some of our divines in the reign of Elifabeth, went into deeper fpeculations on the point; and a ftronger, and more determinate language respecting the divine decrees, was expreffed by many

of them.

During the reign of James the First, the objections of Arminius againft Calvin's doctrine appeared. The opinions of the Leyden profeffor were then confidered by our Church as erroneous: and a deputation of the English clergy was fent to the fynod of Dort, to meet the delegates of other Proteftant Churches, for the purpose of compofing the differences occafioned by the writings of Arminius.

One of this deputation, a divine whofe name ftands high among us to this day, thus complains,

This prelate is reputed the greatest scholar among the reformers of the English Church.

after his return to England from the fynod; "After "not many years fettling at home, it grieved my "foul, to see our own Church begin to ficken of the "fame disease, which we had endeavoured to "cure in our neighbours." From this time, the fentiments of our clergy refpecting the divine decrees, became lefs and lefs uniform; and controverfial writings on the fubject appeared, which ftill further divided the minifters of our Church.

At length came the unhappy differences between Charles I. and the Parliament; and with thefe political difputes, religious controverfy was mixed. Many of the moft faithful adherents to the Church and the king, ftill maintained the Calviniftic tenets; but feveral of the clergy appear to have been of the Arminian perfuafion. On the fide of the Nonconformifis, greater unanimity on the queftion obtained: that body, with fcarcely any exception, being determined Calvinifts. During the reign of Prefbyterianifm, and under the Ufurpation, Calvinifm rode triumphant. In the former period, it was accompanied with fierce invectives againft the Epifcopal clergy, who were generally accused of Arminianism; and against our ecclefiaftical conftitution, as a departure from the purity of the primitive Church. In the latter period, it was maintained by the preachers who

"Specialties of the life of Jofeph Hall, Ep. of Norwich."

fupplanted the Prefbyterian paftors, with equal violence against the order of things eftablished at the Reformation; with a more difgufting cant; and fometimes, with a mixture of licentious pofitions.

Thus Calvanism being the favourite system of most of the troublers of our Ifrael, it was thereby made accountable for all the fad events of that period:-for the horrors of civil war ;—the subverfion of the national Church;-the expulfion and impoverishment of the clergy; and, to compleat the climax of infamy, the murder of the king. With this accumulation of iniquity on its head, the nation beheld it with abhorrence; and it became a name for every thing odious, every thing wild, fierce, and deadly. Thus has it been handed down to the prefent age. And now many revolt at the very mention of the word, who have never taken any pains to know, what is peculiar to the theological fyftem of which it is the title; or what it has in common with other systems.

There exifts then in this country, an hereditary deteftation of Calvanifm; and fo ftrong is it, as to be ready inftantly to discharge itfelf on any who may hold a doctrine that Calvin maintained, though that doctrine be no peculiarity of his fchool. Thus, if a Clergyman be very earnett in the

E

pulpit, if he inculcate the doctrine of our being juftified folely by the merits of Chrift, if he dwell much on the fallen ftate of man, if he contend for the doctrine of falvation by grace, if he afcribe all that is good in man to the influence of the Holy Spirit, if the phrase, looking to Jefus," occur frequently in his fermons; though he never touch on the doctrine of God's decrees, he is called a Calvinift. Yet the fact perhaps is, that fo far is he from being of Calvin's fchool, as to hold its peculiar dogmas in abhorrence. Such is the cafe with feveral of thofe clergymen, of whom we are giving an account.

Many of them indeed arè decidedly of Calvin's fentiments, on the fubject of the divine decrees. And of fuch confequence do fome of this divifion deem their fyftem, as to have it ever prefent to their minds. It is the medium through which every religious object is viewed; and it gives a tincture to their language, by which their adherence to it is difcerned, even when the main subject of the difcourfe is far removed from its diftinguifhing points. Nor is it difficult to perceive, that the principal light in which they confider themfelves as Chriftian minifters, is that of being inftruments ordained of God to gather his elect, and train them for that future bleffednefs to which they were from eternity chofen.

But others of the clergy, called Evangelical minifters, confider themfelves as the common inftructors of all, who come under their care. They do not deny, that there may be fome, "Chofen veffels;" that certain individuals may from all eternity be predeftinated to honourable Stations in the Church below, and to fuperior happiness hereafter: as for inftance, St. Paul. Thefe, however, they confider as felect cafes, which furnish no rule to them in the execution of their office; and, moreover, as being of fuch a nature, that though they feem to vary from the ordinary courfe of the divine proceedings, yet do not at all interfere with the plan of the Gospel; which they reverence as a merciful provifion for the good of all, to whom it may be fent. They know not how to feparate the idea of Legiflation from the Chriftian religion; nor how to regard a conftitution, which commiffions them to "preach "the Gospel to every creature," under a view, which reduces it to a fyftem of favouritifm. Such, to their apprehenfion, does the principle of Calvinifm. To them, therefore, it is a kind of monfter in the moral world;-a principle, repugnant to the dictates of our nature, in which, depraved as it is, there ftill exifts fome remains of that fenfe of the obligation and advantage of obedience, with which man came out of the hands of his Creator;-a principle, contradicting all our ideas of moral government; at open war with our