any thing, that the Calvinistic fense of predestination cannot be the genuine fenfe of the church of England.

One word more, and I have done.

When I consider the disadvantage that has accrued to the Chriftian cause from the too curious inveftigation of this fubject, how much the human paffions have been mixed up with it, and how little good has been produced by any thing that has been faid upon it, I am inclined to wish that a fubject which has diminished our charity without increafing our knowledge, might be laid to reft for ever. The longer I live in the world, the more I am convinced that religious controverfy tends (if I may fo fay) more to the wearing of the flesh than to the growth of the fpirit. In following the Apostle's direction to provoke one another to love and to do good works, we shall be fure to be profitably engaged; for charity will live whilft the understanding all mysteries and all knowledge may perish with its poffeffor. Calvinifts, however diftinguished for their exemplary character, have, generally speaking, been too apt to follow the example of their prototype, with whom the worst word* was

* Thofe who differ from CALVIN upon his favoured points, he fcrupled not to call, "Perfidi et impii nebulones; ftulti homines; virulenti ifti canes." And their doctrines he called, "Deliria:

not at times thought too bad for thofe who did not fee the doctrine of grace in the exact light in which he faw it. I honour their zeal, I refpect their piety, at the fame time that I lament their want of knowledge, of judgment, and of charity. Although your language is not, I confefs, cloathed in so coarse a drefs as fome that I have received from anonymous quarters on the subject of my book, yet I think the idea conveyed in your 91ft page does not, in point of charity, fall much fhort of any that I have been treated with; where you fay, that you believe" few will prefume to question the doctrine of particular election," &c. (in the sense in which it is understood by Calvinists) but those who are strangers to the power of fin in themselves, or to the riches of grace in God."

I forbear a comment. Permit me only to remind you, Sir, of the words of GREGORY NAZIANZEN, when, lamenting over the contentions among Chrift ians, he thus expreffed himself: "The only godliness we glory in, is to find somewhat whereby we may judge others to be ungodly." GREG. NAZ. in Apol

But though as an honest man I shall never shrink from what I conceive to be truth, on account of the

Impii errores; infulfitas." Vide Epiftole Coll. 142. Inftitut. lib. III. cap. xxiii. fec. 2.

obloquy with which the prosecution of it may be accompanied; yet, Sir, I can affure you I would rather lofe my argument than maintain it in a manner inconfiftent with the character of a Christian minifter. In that character, in return for the uncharitableness of your judgment, where you suppose me capable of fubfcribing to articles which I do not believe, and the confequent severity of the sentence pronounced in the laft page of your letter, my hearty defire to GOD for you is, that your knowledge of Christianity may fo keep pace with your zeal, that you may become, what every Christian minister must wish you to be, as orthodox in profeffion, as I understand you now are exemplary in piety and in practice.

I have the honour to be,

&c. &c.

[The reader, should he be difpofed, may fee the fubject of the foregoing letter ftill more fully handled, in anfwer to Mr. OVERTON, in "Vindicia Ecclefiæ Anglicana," chap. ii. fec. 1 and 2.]

LETTER V.

SIR,

OUR Letter now before me, though a long

YOUR

one, seems not to require a long answer; because it is chiefly taken up, in conformity with the wretched fashion of the times, with indifcriminate cenfures of the established clergy.

You do me the honour to invest me with the office of " spokesman for the whole body." But having received no commiffion from my brethren to plead their cause, they may probably wish, fhould they think their defence neceffary, to employ a more able advocate. I fhall only take the liberty, therefore, of repeating what has been already faid in my Postscript to occafional Separatists, that whilft I would "cordially join with you and every well-wisher to his country, in bearing the most public testimony against that lukewarmnefs in the cause of CHRIST, that indifference and even daring contempt for religion, which