for the fame general application, it therefore can contribute no more towards Mr. O.'s immediate purpose, than do the teftimonies which have been already referred to; of which the reader will have no doubt on his mind, when he takes this confideration into the account, that the Bishop, whose authority is here brought forward in fupport of an honeft unequivocal fubfcription, is at the fame time no advocate for that Calvinistic interpretation which Mr. O. maintains. When Mr. O., therefore, fhall have proved, that what "these distinguished heads and champions of our Church understand," on the fubject of our Articles, correfponds with his own fentiments on that fubject; and that what the British Critic, or Mr. D. have faid relative to the "revilings of fectaries," was intended to apply to those respect able authorities, which Mr. O. has thus ingeniously preffed into his fervice; the questions which Mr. O. afks, with fuch apparent confidence, together with the conclufion built upon them, in p. 42 and 43 of his publication, will be in fome degree to his purpose, and not before.

Giving my reader credit, therefore, for a moderate fhare of that precision of ideas, which is fo effential an ingredient in all good reasoning; he will have no difficulty, after what has been faid, in appreciating either the validity of Mr. O.'s premises on this occafion, or the logic of his conclufion.

CHAPTER II.

"The real Sense of the Articles, and Doctrines. of our Reformers, investigated, and appealed to on the Question."

SECTION I.

"The true Interpretation sought from our different Forms, as they illustrate and explain each other; the Title and Preamble annexed to the Articles; the Circumstances and Object of our Reformers; their other PUBLICK and approved Writings; and the Authorities they respected."

BE

EFORE we enter on the fubject of the present chapter, as defigned to contribute to the fupport of Mr. O.'s general pofition, in favour of those Evangelical Minifters, who confider the Articles of our Church to be Calvinistic, against the great body of Clergy of a different persuasion; it may be neceffary to lay down fome few data, which may conftitute a kind of ftandard, by which the judgment of the parties, who appear to hold opinions contrary to each other, may be tried. An agreement upon terms, as tending to the abridgment of controversy, is, on that account, most desirable; for, it is prefumed, that few men of understanding delibe

rately enter into a dispute merely for difputing fake, When, indeed, the paffions are engaged, and prejudices fet afloat, it too often happens, that points are maintained both againft reafon and conviction, which the parties themselves, in their cooler moments, and under different circumstances, would have never thought it neceffary to fupport. But for fuch cases the infirmity of human nature muft plead excufe, from which it has been found, that the greatest minds, and the best of Christians, are not totally exempt.

"

Whoever, for instance, confiders the futile objections brought forward by BAXTER, for the purpose of juftifying his non-conformity to the re-establishe ment of our Church difcipline at the Restoration, as they have been expofed by Bishop STILLING, FLEET, and other writers; will conclude, in justice to BAXTER'S memory, that he himself, had he at the time been in a disposition of mind to have weighed them in the scale of found reafon, would have been afhamed to produce them.

Before, then, we enter upon the precife determi nation of a point, upon which the opinions of Chriftians have been more or less divided for upwards of the last two centuries, relative to the Calvinistic interpretation of our Articles, in order to fhorten our procefs, and to arrive, as far as may be, at diftin&t ideas on this controverted fubject, it will be proper that we commence our inquiry with a definition of what is to be understood by Calvinism.

Under the term Calvinism, then, it must be underftood, are comprehended, not thofe Evangelical doctrines which J. CALVIN held in common with our Reformers, but thofe peculiar tenets which may be confidered as originating in a great measure with himself, and derived their chief authority from his writings. It has been, I am inclined to think, for want of a proper difcrimination having been made between the doctrines of Grace and Calvinistic doctrines, properly fo called, that fo much confufion has from time to time crept into this fubject, that it is become impoffible at all times, to afcertain the precife ideas meant to be conveyed by the parties engaged in this controverfy; a circumftance which tends to render all accommodation between them hopeless.

To terminate a difpute between parties on any given subject, an acknowledged standard of appeal must be fet up, by which the matter is to be deter mined. This is the ouly way to prevent loofe and random reafoning, by making the arguments adduced bear on fome certain decided point. But previously. to the establishment of fuch a ftandard, the difputants must be so far agreed as to annex a certain precife definition to the subject, which constitutes the ground of difference between them; that their readers may have it in their power to determine their own judgment on the cafe, by measuring the arguments on each fide by the standard set up for the purpose. But if the writers have not themfelves

clear and precife ideas on the fubject they profess to handle, it is impoffible that they should convey those ideas to their readers. And from a fubject upon which no clear and precife ideas have been formed, no legitimate conclusion can be drawn.

How far the foregoing obfervation applies to the indifcriminate manner in which Mr. O. has treated his fubject in the Chapter before us, I fhall leave. my reader to determine for himfelf; and fhall pro ceed to mark out that precise standard, by which the fuppofed conformity of our Articles to the Calviniftic model is to be ascertained.

The tenets which peculiarly distinguish the religious fyftem of J. CALVIN, as they are to be found in his writings, are thefe following:-The abfolute and unconditional Election, or Predestination, of certain particular individuals, to eternal salvation; and the equally abfolute and unconditional reprobation of all the remaining part of mankind, without re. spect of perfons. As preparatory to this divine. act of Predeftination, taken in this abfolute and unconditional fenfe, it is maintained, that God foreordained the fall of Man.* That in confequence of his fall, the whole human race, becoming a mass of corruption, it was decreed by GoD, before the foundation of the world, to choose fome out of this mafs to be faved, and to leave the others to ever

* “Arcanum Dei confilium, quo præordinatus fuerat hominis lapfus." Calv. de Præd. p. 607.