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was even reckoned an herefy; which the veneration for that great man led its oppofers to fay, had originated, "ex AUGUSTINI verbis malè intellectis." You may morcover know, what a flame this view of Divine truth raised in the Gallican church four hundred years after ST. AUGUSTINE's death, when divines of equal eminence and reputation for piety and learning were to be found among its ftrenuous fupporters and opponents. At least, Sir, you cannot be ignorant, that after CALVIN, among his other fingularities, had broached this doctrine anew, it was attacked by the learned VAN HARMIN, profeffor of divinity in the univerfity of Leyden; and that his followers, who carried on the attack after his death, were borne down, not by theological argument, but by the civil power at the fynod of Dort. Where the foundation, then, is confeffedly fo unfound, the superstructure cannot be fo folid as to be trusted in with safety.

The quotations you have brought to establish this doctrine from Archbishop USHER, Bishop BABINGTON, DAVENANT, and Dr. EDWARDS, prove just as much as your letter upon this subject proves; but nothing towards afcertaining the genuine fenfe of the church of England upon it. You might have brought a volume of fimilar quotations from the divines who

lived in Queen ELIZABETH's and King JAMES'S reigns; and a volume of quotations of an oppofite tendency may be brought from divines of at least equal refpectability, who have lived fince that period. But what other end could be answered by fuch an accumulation of evidence, than that of proving, what every man who is acquainted with the English hiftory knows already, that at a particular period a large portion of the great body of the clergy of our church were Calvinistically inclined, and that therefore it was very natural for fuch men to see the doctrines of the church to which they belonged, as you now do, through that medium; and that at a fubfequent period of the fame hiftory the divines of our church, by adopting a better and more rational plan of studying divinity than that which had been for fome time in use, were qualified to do more juftice to the good fenfe and confistency of our reformers than had been done for a century before.

But the point in queftion is not to be determined in this way; you have your opinions, and I have mine; but our opinions conftitute no standard for afcertaining the doctrines of the church of England. The church of England must speak for herself; and when she does, her members are bound to conform

to her judgment; not to the judgment of those, who make their own private opinions the doctrine of the church, and the only standard of orthodoxy.

Whether the genuine doctrine of the church of England be Calvinistic or not, is not so much a matter of opinion as of fact, which is to be determined, as other facts, by proper evidence. This fact has been determined by persons competent to the undertaking. And I have not heard, that the authority of Bishop BULL, Dr. WATERLAND, LESLEY, and Dean TUCKER, not to mention other writers on this fub. ject, has been fet afide by any Calvinistic writer, who ventured to reafon upon it.

But in your cafe there is no need of appeal to fuch authority; for the fact in question has been proved to demonstration, in publications profeffedly addreffed to yourself by Dr. NOWELL, late principal of St. Mary-Hall in Oxford, and the late pious Mr. FLETCHER. Whoever reads thofe publications, will find in them more than an answer to all that has been faid to me; and on laying down his book, will only feel at a lofs which to be surprised at most, the defection of your memory, or the steady and unabating perfeverance with which you support a cause,

against which fuch weight of evidence has been repeatedly brought forward.

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The little fuccefs that has attended the earnest endeavours of thofe, whofe profeffed object it was to convince you that you had mifrepresented the doctrine of the church of England, and who were at the fame time fo well qualified for the task they undertook, renders it unneceffary that I fhould retrace the ground that they have fo ably trodden. If proofs drawn from the most authentic fources, in direct contradiction to the doctrine you maintain, will not tend to alter your opinion upon it, the lefs that is written upon this fubject the better. With this idea in view, my object will be to bring into the fhorteft compass what I have to fay on the prefent fubject, by adverting only to thofe few ftriking circumftances, which appear fufficient of themselves to determine the judgment of every reasonable man.

There are certain pofitions which require only to be plainly ftated to be generally received; because, being felf-evident, they ftand in no need of proof. Of this kind are these two following; that our reformers, in the articles, homilies, and liturgy, in laying down a collected fyftem of Christian doctrine, did not mean to contradict themselves. Confequently,

that our church, in the fubfcription to her articles, does not require a profeffion of faith from her clergy different from that which they are taught to preach to their congregations in the established liturgy.

From thefe pofitions being granted, it follows that there must be a confiftency between our articles, homilies, and liturgy; and confequently that attempts to fet them at variance with each other must arise from partial extracts being taken in a fenfe different from that which was annexed to them by their original compofers. Let us now proceed to a fhort application of the foregoing pofitions.

By the doctrine of election and predestination in the Calvinistic fenfe is understood the abfolute and unconditional election and predeftination of certain individuals to eternal life, in exclufion of all others, in confequence of a Divine decree that has been paffed in their favour before the world began; by virtue of which decree, (to make ufe of the words of Archbishop USHER, whofe authority has been brought to your fupport, p. 78) "GoD, according to his good pleasure, hath most certainly decreed every (both) thing and action, whether past, present, or to come; and not only the things and actions themselves, but also all their circumftances of place and time,

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