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save all men alike, while it is certain that all will not be saved -If I could embrace the opinion that real Christians are no more indebted to grace than others, having received no more than they ; and that what makes them to differ from others is, not the sovereign goodness of God, but their own superior wisdom, strength, or merit ; in other words, that they make themselves to differ-If I could admit the dreadful thought, that the Christian's continuance in his journey heavenward, depends, not on the immutable love and promise of his God; but on the firmness of his own strength, and the stability of his own resolutions; and, of course, that he who is the most eminent saint to-day, may become a child of wrath, and an heir of perdition to-morrow-In short, if I could conceive of God as working without any providential design, and willing without any certain effect; desiring to save man, yet unable to save him, and often disappointed in his expectations; doing as much, and designing as much, for those that perish, as for those that are saved; but after all baffled in his wishes concerning them; hoping and desiring great things, but certain of nothing, because he had determined on nothing-If I could believe these things, then, indeed, I should renounce Calvinism; but it would not be to embrace the system of Arminius. Alas! it would be impossible to stop here. I must consider the character of God as dishonoured; his counsels as degraded to a chaos of wishes and endeavours; his promises as the fallible and uncertain declarations of circumscribed knowledge and endless doubt; the best hopes of the Christian as liable every hour to be blasted; and the whole plan of salvation as nothing better than a gloomy system of possibilities and peradventures; a system on the whole, nearly, if not quite, as likely to land the believer in the abyss of the damned, as in the paradise of God.

But, while I verily believe all these shocking consequences to flow, unavoidably, from the rejection of Calvinism; while the Arminian doctrine appears to me inconsistent with itself; dishonourable to God; and comfortless to man; yet I dare not bring a railing accusation against those who embrace this doctrine; I dare not impute to them the consequences which have been stated. They neither acknowledge nor perceive them; and if

they did, would, no doubt, be as ready to abhor them as ourselves. Nor can I cease to cherish the animating belief, as well as to offer the fervent prayer, that thousands who now reject, in words, the doctrines of Calvinism, and entertain invincible prejudices against the system which is generally called by that name; may, notwithstanding, for ever rejoice in these doctrines, and bless God for them in a more enlightened, and a more happy world.

LETTER VIII.

TESTIMONY OF THE SUCCESSORS OF THE REFORMERS.

CHRISTIAN BRETHREN,

By the successors of the reformers, I mean those great and good men who adorned the protestant churches, and took the lead in the direction of their affairs, for sixty or seventy years after the establishment of the reformation. Some of these excellent men have been quoted by our episcopal brethren as witnesses in their favour; especially some of the greatest ornaments of the Dutch and French churches. Mr. How speaks with confidence of their testimony, as decisively favourable to his system; and Dr. Bowden, by refering, with approbation, to what Dr. Hobart has advanced on this part of the controversy, virtually speaks the same language.

These gentlemen, in giving this representation, surely count largely on the ignorance of their readers. For although, if one might believe Durell, and other collectors and perverters of scraps from the writers in question, they sometimes speak like believers in the apostolic institution of prelacy; yet when we come to peruse their works, and especially to examine the passages in which they formally deliver their opinion on this subject, we shall find them, almost with one voice, speaking a language directly opposite to that which is ascribed to them.

The truth is, when the nonconformists in England, after the establishment of the reformation, began to revolt from the episcopal hierarchy,and to oppose its unscriptural pretensions, a number of the bishop, and other divines of the established church in that

country, wrote to some of the most eminent Presbyterian divines of the foreign reformed churches, soliciting their influence, and the authority of their names, to quiet the minds of the discontented. In answer to solicitations of this kind, some of the foreign divines wrote letters, in which they spoke politely and respectfully of the church of England; and plainly expressed an opinion that the nonconformists ought not to make the point of church government a cause of separation. Still, however, these men were Presbyterians in principle; they had solemnly subscribed Confessions of Faith, which declared ministerial parity to be the doctrine of scripture, and the practice of the primitive church; and when they came to discuss and decide the question concerning prelacy, they spoke a language corresponding with their creed. And I venture to add, that for every concession in favour of prelacy, which my opponents produce from the French, Dutch, Swiss, and German divines, who succeeded to the reformers, any man of reading might safely engage to produce ten, more pointed concessions from divines of the church of England, in favour of Presbyterianism.

It would be perfectly easy to fill a volume with quotations in proof of what has been advanced. The following selection will be sufficient to answer my purpose. It will be clearly seen, that, as the great body of the reformers never offered the plea of necessity for establishing Presbyterian parity; but steadily appealed to the word of God, and primitive usage as their warrant ; so the great and excellent men who came after them, with scarcely any important exception, took the same ground, and made the same appeal.

The learned Le Blanc, a French protestant divine of great eminence who flourished in the age immediately succeeding that of the reformation, says, "It is the most general opinion of the "English, that episcopacy and presbytery, are distinct offices; "but the rest of the reformed, as also those of the Augustan "Confession, (the Lutherans,) do unanimously believe that there " is no such distinction by divine right; and that the superiority " of bishops above presbyters is only of ecclesiastical right, and "has been introduced into the church by degrees. In the ages "after the apostles, a custom was introduced, that one of the "presbyters should be chosen, by the votes of the whole college,

"to preside over the other presbyters; and these, after a while, "assumed to themselves the name of bishops, and, by degrees, "gained more and more prerogatives, and brought their colleagues "into subjection to them, until, at length, the matter grew up to "that tyranny which now obtains in the church of Rome.”* The very learned Chamier, a French protestant divine of great distinction, contemporary with Beza, has been sometimes quoted by Episcopalians, as making concessions in favour of their cause— The following quotation will show his opinion of ministerial imparity. "Prelacy was not, by those who first began it, judged to be "absolutely better than presbytery; but only in a certain respect. "Upon the same account we may likewise say, that equality 66 among pastors is better in a certain respect, viz. for the avoid❝ing of the tyranny of a few over the rest of their brethren, yea, of

one over all. And how great an evil tyranny is, and how wide a gate was opened to it from the ambition for this presidency, "experience hath, long since, more than sufficiently shown."+ In another part of the same work, he speaks still more strongly— "There is no one who doubts that this custom of giving one pres"byter a presidency over the rest, was introduced by good men, "and upon a good design. Would to God that it had not rather "arisen from carnal prudence, than from the direction of the "Spirit! Would to God it had been attended with as happy and "prosperous success, as it was introduced with applause." In the next chapter, after having shown at large how episcopacy introduced the papacy, he closes the account with the following remark: "Thus human wisdom, if once it decline but a jot from the "original truth, becomes worse and worse."

M. Danau, a every eminent divine of the French protestant church, also contemporary with Beza, treating of the subject under consideration, thus writes. "So long as the apostolic constitution " continued in the church, the presbyters that laboured in the word "and doctrine differed not at all from bishops. But after that, "by the ambition of those who presided over other presbyters,

Thes. de Grad. Minist.

+ Panstrat. Tom. 11. Lib. 9. Cap. 14. § 11.

Panstrat. Lib. 10. Cap. 5. § 22.

§ Ibid. Cap. 6. § 18.

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