other to the reprobates." This mode of proof may fatisfy you, Sir: it does not diffatisfy me, because it convinces me, that in failure of proof from fcripture, to which the appeal was made, you have had recourse to an extract from the homily levelled against the Romish error of purgatory; but which, the most curfory reader must perceive, has not the least application to the fubject in question.

I rejoice, and probably you may rejoice with me, that I fpy land, being at length arrived at the concluding page of your third letter. It is not my wifh to detain you longer than whilst I add a remark or two more by way of conclufion.

The object of your third letter has been to establish the Calvinistic doctrine of election and predestination as the acknowledged doctrine of the church of England. The object in view in my reply to it has been to demonstrate the contrary pofition. This has been done by an appeal to historic fact, which by bringing the reader acquainted with the circumstances that accompanied the original establishment of our present church doctrine, qualifies him to form a decided opinion on the subject. Unless, therefore, all consistency be denied both to our reformers and our church, I have proved in the foregoing letter, if I have proved

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

One word more, and I have done.

When I confider the disadvantage that has accrued to the Christian caufe 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 increasing our knowledge, might be laid to rest 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 spirit. In following the Apostle's direction to provoke one another to love and to do good works, we fhall be fure to be profitably engaged; for charity will live whilst the understanding all myfteries and all knowledge may perish with its poffeffor. Calvinifts, however diftinguished for their exemplary character, have, generally fpeaking, been too apt to follow the example of their prototype, with whom the worst word* was

*Those 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, "Delirias

not at times thought too bad for those 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 fo coarse a dress 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 fenfe in which it is understood by Calvinists) but those who are strangers to the power of fin in themfelves, or to the riches of grace in GOD."

T

I forbear a comment. Permit me only to remind you, Sir, of the words of GREGORY NAZIANZEN, when, lamenting over the contentions among Chriftians, 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 honeft man I fhall never shrink from what I conceive to be truth, on account of the

Impi errores; infulfitas." Vide Epiftolæ Coll. 142. Inftitut. lib. III. cap. xxiii. fec. 2.

obloquy with which the profecution 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 minister. In that character, in return for the uncharitableness of your judgment, where you fuppofe me capable of subscribing to articles which I do not believe, and the confequent severity of the sentence pronounced in the last 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 minifter 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, fhould he be difpofed, may fee the fubject of the foregoing letter ftill more fully handled, in answer to Mr. OVERTON, in “ Vindicia Ecclefiæ Anglicanæ," chap. ii. fec. 1 and 2.]