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❝ obedience to God's revealed will." "In regard to the "rule of morals," they "prescribe a perfect standard, ❝even the whole moral law of God. Perfect conformity "in heart and conduct to this law" they "maintain is "the duty of all men, and that after this conformity "they ought continually to labourm:" and their “ uni"form doctrine is, that nothing except an habitual re"nunciation of evil, and pursuit of that which is good, " is a satisfactory evidence of a state of salvation; nay, "that all pretensions to such a state without this evi"dence is the highest presumption and the grossest "absurdity; and, in short, that it is the Christian's "bounden duty, his highest interest, and his firmest "security, and will constitute his daily pleasure, to love, "cherish, cultivate, and pursue every species and every "possible degree of holiness, for all the reasons, and in "consideration of all the motives, which have been "enumerated"."

These statements of the modern Calvinists on the motives and importance of good works, have been extracted, as an act of justice to those who maintain them, and in the hope of repressing the confidence with which their maintenance of them is denied by the misinformed and incautious adversaries, or suppressed by the less sober and judicious advocates of the Calvinistic doctrine. Yet notwithstanding these extracts, many will contend for the Antinomian tendency of the doctrines in question; and it is to be deeply regretted, that their suspicions should be confirmed by expressions which occur in the

1 Williams, p. 239. pare pages 225. 228.

Scott, vol. ii. p. 63. 71.
n Ibid. p. 295.

m Overton, p. 271. Com

writings of avowed and distinguished Calvinists. The following sentences are liable to this exception, and can hardly fail of being misapplied into a motive of indolence and despondence, or of presumption and vain security.

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"We think every true Christian, every one who has "the inward grace of baptism, is saved. His salvation "is secured by the promise and covenant of God, and " will certainly be accomplished, though he have to pass "through many trials and temptations, perils and alarms "in the mean while." "Many a poor sinner is so "convinced that he must be changed or perish everlast66 ingly, that if a wish, or a desire, or a few even vigor"ous efforts would suffice, he would go so far in seeking "to escape destruction; but has he the disposition to "aspire, even by his wishes and desires, to what in the "sight of God is good p?" "Whether is easier to say, "the believer in Christ Jesus is no longer liable to the "penalty of everlasting death, for his deviations from "the pure will of God, but bears all his rod and stripes " in the present life, or to say, though in many things he "offend, and thereby incur the penalty of everlasting "death, that penalty, through repentance and sprink

ling of the blood of Jesus, is again, and again, and "again remitted?" It is concluded from the favour shewn to Zaccheus and Manasseh," that the Lord de"lighteth to shew mercy where we should abandon all "expectation; that where sin abounded, there did grace "much more abound." So again it is affirmed, that the "mercy of God is not forfeited by the ingratitude

• Scott, vol. i. p. 76. P Ibid. vol. ii. p. 603. Vaughan's Account, r Ibid. p. 363.

p. 192.

L

"of his children :" and this is called "

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"declaring, that even the sins and failings of his rege"nerated, believing servants, do not provoke him to "cast them off. Whilst it is a fact to be stated with

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awe, with caution, and with delicacy, is it a fact to be "wholly suppressed? Does it not fitly find its place of "mention in the consideration of that attribute, whose "peculiar province it is to shew favour to the unde"servings?" "The doctrines of election and perseverance, as Mr. Robinson would have maintained, do "not rest on single and solitary texts for their proof; "they are interwoven with the whole thread, and breath"ed forth in the general texture of Scripture... Would "he have contended, that a righteous man dying in "unrighteousness shall be saved? Would he not have "maintained, that the privileges of the covenant pre"clude the possibility of such a supposition with re"spect to the saints of God? No man plucketh them "out of my handst." It is recorded of Mr. Robinson by his biographer, that "by an attendance upon felons "and some other persons of notoriously bad character, "he seemed to witness a peculiar manifestation of the ❝ invincibility and freedom of divine grace." This position is illustrated by appropriate anecdotes, of the premature death of a young man who had exhibited signs of unbelief, and of especial aversion from the ministry of Mr. Robinson; and of a criminal who on his first commitment to prison had betrayed the most inveterate hardness of heart, until "brought to a better "mind through the sovereign and effectual grace of + Ibid. p. 372.

Vaughan's Account, p. 371.

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"God, which can make the nether milstone feel, he and "his partner in crime and suffering died composedly "with lively hope and joyu." Mr. Overton quotes without disapprobation the sentiment of Dr. Hawker, that the grace of God is not "exerted in supporting "what is already strong, nor in helping what possesses some power; not in cleansing what is in part holy, “but in taking such as are of the mass of helpless, in❝ firm, and polluted creatures of the dust, and purifying "them for his glory x."

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It is not necessary to enlarge upon the tendency of these expressions, or upon the form which they assume when they are interpreted by the enthusiast, and received by the credulous ears of the husbandman and the mechanic. They afford the strongest proof of what the Calvinists themselves admit, that there are some of what they call "the characteristic truths of the Gospel, which 66 are likely to be misapprehended and misrepresented "in a mixed congregation y," that "caution 2" and "reservea" are requisite in delivering them, and that they thould be "stated accurately, and cleared from "misrepresentation and misapprehension b." If under these acknowledgments we cannot admit that the zeal with which Calvinists urge the "necessity of a personal "and practical acquaintance" with the doctrines of Christ, and the "consequent distinction between real "and merely nominal Christians, constitute the most "striking of their peculiarities," we will neverthe

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less not question the efficacy of their preaching, nor examine the degree of the morality which it produces, and of which the claims are urged with no common confidenced. We may, however, without adverting to the circumstances of a recent secession, be permitted to repeat the remark, which has been made in the preceding Discourse, that the terms in which the Calvinists refer to the judgment to come are not sufficiently definite and distinct; and it requires but little experience in the parochial ministry to know, that the impressions of this doctrine, which formed the principal article in the belief and religious conversation of our ancient villagers, are gradually losing their influence upon the minds of their posterity. Has then the hope of grace superseded the fear of judgment? And if there has been a time, in which the former was overlooked, may there not also be a time, in which the latter shall be almost, if not altogether suppressed? These are questions which, in the present state of religion and morals, are worthy of the deepest and most candid consideration.

The private characters of the Calvinistic Clergy are unexceptionable; their adherence to the formularies, and to what they conceive to be the doctrines of the Church of England, is rigorous and exact; the zeal of their ministry is indefatigable; their concert and cooperation with each other are worthy of all praise and emulation. There is a something in their personal conduct so fascinating and imposing, as to increase the necessity of warning the inexperience and indiscriminating credulity of our younger brethren, of the obliquity of the

d

Williams, p. 150. Scott, vol. i. p. 351. vol. ii. p.448.

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