its being so than the morality and piety which evidently distinguish those of his followers, who reject his doctrines of election and predestination*, (as I believe by far the greatest part of them do): but every thing was against Calvin at the time he flourished. Wollaston, in his Religion of Nature delineated, observes, "that truth is the offspring "of silence, of unbroken meditations, and of "thoughts often revised and corrected." The turbulence of the times when Calvin lived admitted not of this silence, leisure, or composure; neither were the Scriptures by any means so well understood as they are at present; they had for ages been secluded from the perusal of men by the Roman Pontiffs, and the secession from that power by the Reformation was much too recent, to have allowed of a general and critical perusal of them. Since Calvin's time the Scriptures have been carefully examined, with every advantage that could be derived from a state of leisure and peace, by men possessed of as much learning, piety, and zeal, and more humility, and a less saturnine temper, than Calvin: their plain, literal, unsophisti

This sanctity of character among the Calvinists I had an opportunity of witnessing when in Germany: and though I was never in Scotland, Mr, Pennant, in his Tour through it, speaks of the body of the Scotch clergy as men of the correctest characters, and who, in general, possess great learning and piety; and which indeed is evident from their writings. I have heard the same character of them from other persons.

cated, and therefore genuine meaning, has been restored; and that mystical interpretation, with respect to election and predestination, so erroneously adopted between two and three hundred years ago, has been justly exploded by most or all men of erudition, though unhappily retained by the lower order of Calvinists. At the period of the Reformation, the minds of all men on the continent, both in politics and religion, were in a raging fever: the Pope was in the most violent agitation, from the increasing progress of the Reformation: Charles the Fifth and Francis the First were contending not only in general for dominion, but particularly who should be King of the Romans; and as it suited their secular purposes, they alternately threatened and favoured the German Princes, the Pope, and the Reformers: the Calvinists and Lutherans opposed each other, as both these did the Pope; and in this theological ferment, the opinions of Melancthon and Arminius, the only two men whose minds seem to have been actuated with true charity, and the unpersecuting spirit of the Gospel, were not heard or attended to. At the Synod of Dort, the English Doctors opposed the doctrine of unconditional decrees: and though the Calvinists, by the favour of secular power, triumphed at this famous Synod, Mosheim remarks, that immediately after it the doctrine of absolute decrees lost ground from day to

day; and that from the period of the assembling of this celebrated Synod to the present time, the Arminians have had the pleasure of seeing the decisions and doctrines of the Synod of Dort, relative to the points in debate between them and the Calvinists, treated with something more than mere indifference; beheld by some with aversion, and by others with contempt. He further adds what. is still more remarkable, and therefore ought not to be passed over in silence, "We see the city of "Geneva, which was the parent, the nurse, and "the guardian of the doctrine of absolute predes"tination and particular grace, not only put on "sentiments of charity, forbearance, and esteem "for the Arminians, but become itself so far Ar"minian, as to deserve a place among the Churches

of that communion." Thus it would be doing great injustice to many Calvinists of learning, piety, and virtue, to imagine, because they adopt Calvin's creed in most points, that they do so universally; especially with respect to his doctrine of absolute decrees. In reality, the difficulties which attend this doctrine are entirely insuperable; they so offend reason, common sense, and Scripture, so evidently call in question that wisdom, justice, and goodness of God, that equity and loving-kindness towards the human race, which, in his holy word, God declares he delights in exercising towards it, that no man of

sense or reflection can for a moment believe in it, can possibly imagine it proceeds from God, or have any other source than in the heated imagination of enthusiasts; who, as Montesquieu observes in his Persian Letters, consult and expound Scripture not so much with a design to explain its true meaning, as to establish and support their own superstitious systems and however Calvin may be exempted from this charge in other respects, no man is more justly liable to it than himself, in his absurd and impious doctrines of absolute and unconditional election and predestination; and by his horrid assertion, that before their birth even some men are destined and foreappointed to eternal damnation. By excluding salvation and repentance to poor afflicted sorrowing souls, to whom God and his Son freely offer both, Calvin is guilty of an offence like that of the lying prophets mentioned in Ezekiel, who are reproached by God for making the hearts of the righteous sad, whom he had not made sad: and when our blessed Saviour, by his merits and oblation of himself, once offered for the sins of the whole world, has opened the gates of the kingdom of heaven to all believers, Calvin has dared, has impiously and mercilessly dared, without warrant from God, our Saviour, or his Apostles, to shut them against half mankind! Mr. Locke observes, that the animal, mineral, vegetable, and solar systems are so per

fect, that no man was ever able to point out any defect in them, or any way in which they could be improved: the intellectual system of God exhibits the same perfection as it relates to man, and consists in God's having been pleased to endue him with reason, conscience, and a moral sense; and given him infallible directions in his holy word as to the accomplishment of the duty he requires of him to perform, with perfect ability (by the assistance of divine grace duly implored) to perform it; and has annexed such temporal and eternal rewards, as are sufficient to stimulate and determine every rational being to its performance. But an intellectual system, formed on the principle of absolute decrees, and asserting that God doomed a large portion of the human race to eternal damnation before their birth, evinces no such perfection: on the contrary, it would be unworthy of even a wise or good man; for it is a system formed on such arbitrary, partial, cruel, and unjust principles, as any good man would be ashamed to act on, or good monarch would observe or establish in his kingdom. It is a system which represents the Almighty God of heaven and earth not, as he is pleased to proclaim himself, "merciful, gracious, longsuffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin," &c. but as an object only of dread and fear; and it contradicts those natural and intuitive ideas of right