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build no assurance upon decrees which are hidden and kept secret from me. But whatever those decrees are, my reason assures me they cannot be contrary or against the revealed will of God, which is given us in the Holy Scriptures; because that would be for God to contradict himself. Therefore, that I may surely trust in his promises, and cheerfully set about my duty, without perplexing myself about his secret decrees.

7. C. I hope, Master, that what you have said of predestination will satisfy others as well as it has me. First, that the whole dispute, as managed by the Calvinists, is built upon a wrong foundation, even by their own confession, in arguing strictly from words ad captum, and which they confess to be so, and will not suffer the like to be done in any other case. Therefore, that they ought to stop their disputes on this point, till they can find proper words to speak by, if they will speak properly of God. And these disputes ought to cease for a second reason you have given, which is, that they are useless, because, whatever the secret decrees of God may be supposed to be, yet they cannot go against or invalidate his will declared openly in the Holy Scriptures, for that would be to contradict himself. Therefore, that we may work in hope, and cheerfully apply ourselves to the performing of what he has commanded us, with full trust and assurance of what he has promised, without perplexing and entangling ourselves in these disputes about his secret decrees, for they must go according to his revealed will. In this we are sure, and therefore these disputes are at the best useless to us; but of most pernicious consequence, when taken by the wrong handle, as you have fully shown.

8. But there is one thing wherein Dr. Edwards and the predestinarians do very much boast, they say that their doctrine is agreeable to our Thirty-Nine Articles; and therefore that our clergy have apostatized as (Dr. Edwards words it) from the doctrine of the Church of England; and the dissenters are the true Church of England, because they hold predestination, and are against free-will, as they say our articles likewise speak. Now, though this be no argument as to the doctrine itself, yet to those of the Church of England it is of very great consequence, as well to vindicate the Church of England, as to stop the mouths of the dissenters, who are all open upon us on this account.

R. The 10th Article is of free-will; which is not at all there denied, but rather supposed and asserted. But it supposes the concurrence of the grace of God by Christ to be necessary to incline and guide our will, and to work with us when we have that good-will.

The 17th Article is of predestination, and keeps to the scripturephrase of God's ordaining before the world began, of calling whom he foreknew, justifying, sanctifying them, &c. Which is to be understood in the same and no other sense than as these words are used in Holy Scripture, which all are agreed to be ad captum, as we have discoursed before. And these expressions of Scripture are, according to our capacities and manner of speaking, as this article says, " full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly persons." But then this article checks the curiosities of this dispute, (which is what I have been blaming) and says, "For curious and carnal persons, lacking the Spirit of Christ, to have continually before their eyes the sentence of God's predestination, is a most dangerous downfall, whereby the devil doth thrust them either into desperation, or into wretchlessness of most unclean living, no less pernicious than desperation."

C. This is so exactly what you have said, that yours is but a comment upon this.

R. Then the article ends thus, "Furthermore, we must receive God's promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in Holy Scripture; and, in our doings, that will of God is to be followed which we have expressly declared unto us in the word of God."

C. This is just as you have concluded, that we may safely trust in God's promises, and perform our duty cheerfully which he has commanded in Holy Scripture, without perplexing ourselves about his secret decrees. Therefore, instead of these articles being against you, or you against them, you have perfectly followed them in your argument, and explained them.

R. Observe, farther, that there is not a word of reprobation in this 17th article of predestination, nothing of God's having fore-decreed any to misery, but it speaks only of those whom he has elected to salvation. So that the rigid Calvinists, against whom we have been disputing, can find no colour or umbrage in their favour from this article. Therefore, whatever the opinion of particular men might have been, this cannot be charged upon the Church of England.

9. There was a time when some of our divines ran in too much with the Calvinists. In the Marian persecution many fled to Geneva and those parts. And the joint cause against Popery, together with the smart of their own persecution, inclined them to all the favourable opinion they could have of their friends, who gave them shelter. By this means some were tinctured with these rigid notions of predestination. And when they returned to England, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, their reputation made this doctrine go down more easily with some people.

10. But our English Cyprian, the great Archbishop Laud, set himself to stop the torrent of this infection, and, when he was chancellor of Oxford, he turned the bent of their studies from these modern polemics, and reading the Dutch and German systems of divinity, to learn downwards, and from the first beginning of Christianity to acquaint themselves with the Fathers in the several ages to our times; whereby they would be better able to judge of the novel disputes of the remonstrants, anti-remonstrants, supra and sub-lapsarians, &c., which then tormented the reformation in Germany and Holland; and wherein we likewise took part. And that famous University ( (together with her sister of Cambridge, which took the same method) reap to this day the benefit of these pious instructions of her learned chancellor, which has given them that deserved reputation all over Europe for their great knowledge and exactness in antiquity, and the primitive doctrine and discipline of the Church; and teaching us to derive our faith from its fountain and original, and to go higher up than either Luther or Calvin. For want of which, the Church of Rome has gained great advantage against her less learned opposers.

For this cause Dr. Edwards has thought fit to fall foul upon Archbishop Laud, as the corrupter of our doctrine; but we bless his memory as the

restorer of it.

11. The doctor charges him and us with bringing in what he calls Pelagianism and Arminianism. But he is too learned not to know this to be a mistake. For though we assert free-will, yet we teach the concurrence and even the necessity of grace, to enable us to bring forth fruit unto God

12. C. You have made it plain even to me. And now I am frighted to think that any divine of the Church of England should make such an use of the union of the two kingdoms, and to propose it in print, as to join with the rigid Calvinists in Scotland and Holland, and our own dissenters at home, against the Church of England, which he calls apostate; and hopes, with this foreign and domestic aid, to bring us all back again to the rigid and most abhorrent Calvinism of predestination; to throw men into despair, and "wretchlessness of most unclean living," as our article of predestination speaks.

13. But I hope this will give sufficient warning to those of our clergy who yet remain firm to the church, that they may in time ward off this blow which is so publicly threatened and already attempted!

REVIVAL OF POPISH ORDERS.-REFORM OF THE

CONFESSIONAL.1

IN passing the Romish Relief Bill, certain provisions were introduced for the better security, as it was said, of the Established Church. Amongst them was one for the gradual suppression of the monkish religious orders. There was to be a yearly or half-yearly registration of the members; and, if we mistake not, the numbers were not to exceed a given proportion, until by degrees they should become wholly extinct. Like all other provisions of that bill, the observance of which depended upon the good faith of the Romanists, this " security" has been long since tacitly set at nought, and the time has now arrived at which it may be set at open defiance. We copy from a recent number of the Cork Reporter a project said to be formed for reviving and re-establishing, under their original rules, (of the strictest fanaticism), the several religious orders which, under one poor and humble pretence or other, have built their nests of abomination in this country. Lest we should be thought to misrepresent the matter, we give the project, as we find it recorded in the Southern Reporter a journal, by the by, which is a very able and a very consistent advocate of the Roman Catholic priesthood in their principles and politics :

66 REFORMATION OF THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

"A project has been formed by some zealous clergymen, which it is intended should be laid before the bishops of the Irish Church at their annual meeting in February next, for the purpose, we believe, of re-establishing the original rules in the principal religious orders throughout this country. Should it meet with the approbation of the Irish hierarchy, it will be submitted, with an appropriate address, to the Holy See, and, by the authority of the Sovereign Pontiff, the desired reformation would be effected. We have seen the documents relating to the question, ranged under the various heads-1st, of the necessity of a reformation; 2d, the

1 From the Dublin Evening Mail.

principles by which that reformation in the religious orders can be effected; 3d, the practical method of applying those principles; and, 4th, the happy effects which would result from that reform; and, without hazarding any opinion on the subject, we would say that the plan appears to be the offspring of the purest religious motives. The following summary of the principles of this reform will best explain in what it consists:

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"1st. The rules of each religious institute shall be established, as far as shall be found practicable and advisable in the present circumstances of the country; and no member of a religious community shall possess any private property whatsoever. 2d. There shall be a school, or mission, attached to each religious house. 3d. Every religious community shall contain eight members at least. 4th. The system of questioning practised at present in religious communities shall be henceforth and for ever abolished. 5th. Each religious establishment shall possess ample means of support for the maintenance of the number of members which may be attached to it which means of support are to be supplied by its funded property, or by the emoluments accruing from its schools, or from the mission which the bishops of the diocess may attach to it, or from all these sources united. 6th. The office of superior, and all other offices in which the interests of the community are involved, shall continue only for one year; and in no case whatever shall the same individual be eligible to fill the office of superior for two years in succession. 7th. The vote by ballot shall be the mode of electing members for every office in every religious establishment: each order shall be subject to its religious superior, as heretofore. The majority of votes shall be the mode of deciding everything in which the interests of the community are involved. 8th. The virtue and merits of each individual shall be rewarded in whatever manner the majority of each community shall ordain."

Offensive as the design entertained in this project is, there are two particulars in the document which surprise and please us :

The first is the acknowledgment, on the part of Roman Catholic priests, that anything in the ecclesiastical polity of their (so called) infallible church can need reformation; and the second is, the principle of reform, which requires" that the system of questioning practised at present in religious communities shall be henceforth and for ever abolished."

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No person but the parties can, of course, be aware what the precise "system of questioning" in a monastery or "religious community is; but of this we are morally certain, that it cannot possibly be more gross, immoral, and offensive, than the system of questioning practised in the confessional. It appears that the religious orders-the nuns — are to be relieved of this abomination; and even so far we rejoice to see that the spirit of reformation has touched the inmates of the cloister, and priests that minister at the altar. Is there not in this a hint-an example-a precedent to the laity-to brothers, fathers, and husbands, whose sisters, daughters, and wives, are subject to the beastly and diabolical system of questioning practised in the confessional-to come forward in relief of the decency, the morals, and the feelings, of the community, and insist that this system be henceforth and for ever abolished? Most of our readers are acquainted, in a general manner (thank Heaven, very few are aware of the particulars), with the grossness and abominations of the confessional questioning, as exhibited in Dens. But we tell them, of a truth, that even Dens does not exhibit the most revolting picture of

confessional indecency which the formula of Popery contain; and that so brutally shocking are portions of the examination to be found in some of them that no later ago than our last publication we had to apologize to a respectable correspondent for the non-insertion in our columns of authentic extracts taken from the formula of the Popish confessional—inasmuch as they were too gross to be conveyed to the general public, even under the redingote of a dead language.

.We hope, therefore, that the reformation which is to begin at the monasteries will extend itself to the lay community; and that the odious, corrupting, and demoralizing system of questioning, practised in the confessional, will be henceforth and for ever abolished. If its abolition be requisite in the one case, much more so is it in the other. We trust the Roman Catholic laity have good sense and spirit enough to insist on being included in this reform.

Reviews.

The State of Christianity not inconsistent with the belief that it is a revelation from God, the Norrisian Prize Essay for 1837. By DANIEL MOORE, Scholar of Catharine Hall.

The Mysteries of Revelation no solid argument against its truth; the Hulsean Prize Essay for 1838. By the same Author. J. W. Parker, and J. and J. J. Deighton.

PRIZE Essays seldom obtain much public notice; they shine sometimes brilliantly for a short period, in the circle for which they are written, too frequently elevate the self-esteem of the writers, then fall into their natural oblivion and are forgotten. And perhaps it is well that it should be so; but we have selected the two pamphlets above named, first on account of their intrinsic merit, and, secondly, on account of the period of their publication, and we very much regret that it does not lie in our power to assign any space for noticing them at all commensurate with their value. It is, perhaps, but justice to the author to state that he has just terminated an academic career of unusual credit. The first year of his novitiate he obtained the prize for Latin declamation, and for the Norrisian Essay; in the second year for the Hulsean Essay, and again in the third year for the Norrisian; in all evincing equal ability and at

tainment.

The titles of the two before us contain the germs of the main objections of some of the most renowned infidels who have ever cursed the earth by the brilliancy of their genius. Hobbes, Bolingbroke, Voltaire, and Volney, have each taken these grounds as insuperable proofs of the inauthenticity of the Scriptures, and the unnaturalness of Christianity. Wading indeed through the mire of their own darkened views at different depths, or crawling through the slime of their own trail, part of them have mistaken the universe and the heavens for our common earth, through the worldliness of their conceptions, while the others have misconceived the prismatic hues of the glorious sun as he shone down upon their mucous exudation for the refracted hues of their brilliant thoughts;

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