wonder that, from such principles, the practical truths of the gospel should be next subjected to a most profane attack. “All diligence to make our calling and election sure," is treated by men of such sentiments, as a most dangerous error, and even robbing Christ of his glory; and no wonder at the conclusion of the whole, that if the infatuated antinomian enthusiast can, merely from the fond fancy of his own mind, conceit himself to be one of God's elect-he is just as safe, whether he dies a martyr at the stake, or a criminal at the gallows : for the concluding horrible conceit is, "Sin can do a believer no harm ;" and whether he sins, or serves God, it is all the same; for God sees no sin in his elect, even while they commit the worst of sins!

Mal. Sir, whatever you may think of our doctrines, some of our ministers are very moral and consistent in their characters.

Loveg. So they should, or suffer the correction of the law; yet I know that others of them have been most abominably wicked.

Mal. But, Sir, those of them who have it to spare are very generous to the poor.

Lovey. So they ought.-My poor vicarage and increasing family allow me to do but little. What great matter is it to give away that which I don't want for myself? But in whatever they may give I dare say they first remember themselves.

Mal. Sir, I only meant to say, we are no enemies tó morality upon proper principles.

Loveg. No more you should, unless you meant to be candidates for the gallows, or a gaol. But, Sir, can any sort of an apology be granted for sentiments like yours! When a man can dare to throw open the floodgates of iniquity by such loose and wanton expressions, can he excuse himself, that he is not so iniquitous? Is not such external morality as this within the power even of an

atheist to perform, while the thin varnish renders the evil of such pernicious sentiments less suspected, and consequently more fatal to the less cautious among the thoughtless of mankind?

Mer. It is not to be supposed that the devil would walk abroad without a slipper to cover his cloven foot, that he might be the better able to deceive. When he appears like a chimney-sweeper, at once people are set upon their guard, but when dressed like a miller he is more apt to prevail. But, Sir, another evil comes in with all this: a sad indifference concerning the salvation of the souls of men. Instead of seeking after sinners that are gone far from God, I am told that some of them have actually supposed that St. Paul was under a sort of carnal or fleshly love to the souls of men, contrary to the decree of election, when he "yearned over souls in the bowels of Jesus Christ," and while "he travailed in birth till Christ was formed within them," and when "he prayed them in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God." Their principal work is to disturb peaceable congregations, that they may draw away disciples after them; and thus to fish in their troubled waters, to the grief and perplexity of many minds.

Loveg. That is a fixed principle with them, that nothing is to be done in addressing the consciences of unawakened sinners.

Mal. Sir, we never call dead men to work as you do, for we are sure the non-elect will never come at our bidding. I wonder that you should be always calling dead sinners to repentance.

Loveg. Because Christ set us the example. He who alone gives the life tells us he came "not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." All the prophets did the same; the general strain of their language was, " Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why will ye die, O house of Israel!" Did not John the Baptist preach entirely

to sinners, that he might call them to repentance? and was not the great work of the apostles to preach “repentance towards God, who commandeth all men to repent," and to "pray them in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God," while even that wretched sinner, Simon Magus, was directed to pray, if so be the wickedness of his heart might be forgiven him?

Mal. Well, I don't want to argue the point any further; but, after all, I think it most consistent to preach as our ministers do, to tell the non-elect plainly and publicly that they have nothing to say to them, for that their message is only to the elect.

Loveg. Pray, Sir, does election rest with you, or with God?

Mal. O, surely, it rests with God.

Loveg. So we think, and consequently we deliver his message as he has directed us. It is an awful stratagem of the devil to prompt ministers, who are permitted to believe this lie, to leave ruined sinners unaddressed and unalarmed, when we are so expressly commanded "to cry aloud and spare not, and to lift up the voice like a trumpet;" or in Paul's language, "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." I hate this fastidious nonsense. What, have we known nothing of divine truth throughout the land till a few juvenile upstarts have lately appeared to instruct us.

Mal. Sir, I had better go home, you seem to be much displeased.

Loveg. Not personally at you, Sir, but at the sentiments you have advanced, whereby the world is confirmed in all their objections against divine truth, that "we may continue in sin, that grace may abound." In

vain we cry, may God forbid," while they will be happy to fly to such a testimony against us. And though we have not the least apprehension of any truly serious

and sober-minded Christians being moved away from the purifying truths of the gospel, by such daring expressions and impure doctrines; yet all this cannot but bring upon us a day of rebuke and blasphemy, which will be severely felt. Could any infidel upon earth have wished a better opportunity for the exercise of his profane ridicule on the sacred doctrine of our election in Christ, and so directly contrary to the word of God, in which the cause and the effect are so solemnly united with each other; that "we are elect according to the foreknowledge of God through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience;" that "we are saved and called with an holy calling." What can be more explicit than St. Paul's declaration, that "we are predestinated to be conformed to the image of his dear Son;" and that he hath chosen us that we may "be holy and without blame before him in love? Is there one single instance throughout the Bible, where election is mentioned unconnected with personal sanctification, as producing the invariable fruits and effects of righteousness upon the heart and life?

Mal. O Sir! I shall be too late if I don't go directly to Mr. John Crispin's with the indentures, which must be signed this day by twelve o'clock. He has a deal of work, and is going to take another apprentice.

Mr. Malapert retires, and thus the conversation ended. The reader may suppose how much Mr. Merryman and his company were disgusted at the daring things they had heard; and should any persons ignorantly assert, that such sentiments can be founded on what is called Calvinism, they know not what Calvinism means; for in no one instance are they correct; and which may be best known by their direct opposition to each other. The propriety therefore of the expression of Hypercal

vinism is what I cannot understand; as though a real lie was lurking under the disguise of truth. Is it to be supposed that a person who cultivates a very scrupulous attention to integrity is advancing nearer to knavery, or that such as are aiming at the highest degree of purity in their deportment, are advancing thereby into all that is filthy and impure? Do we get nearer to a point, by advancing further from it? how then is it possible that a high degree of any thing that deserves the name of truth, should lead into the contrary error? Will an extreme sense of our total depravity lead us to any thing but extreme humiliation and self-abasement bcfore God? Can an extreme feeling of our utter inability to help ourselves, and that all our help must come alone from the agency of the Divine Spirit, lead us to any thing but a more solemn and entire dependence on that agency for the communications of all that is holy and good? Will an extreme attention to the eternal obligations we are and must be under to obey the law, create in us any thing but a most holy and circumspect obedience to its precepts? Assuredly it will, and must be so; and such are the principles that Calvinism, however misrepresented and caricatured, most solemnly avows, while it shall be left to others to vindicate that lax law of obedience which some have imagined to exist, that we are to do as well as we can, or that a certain something is still left to the freedom of the will; that a man may give a turn to the scale of the divine favour whenever he may choose.*

On this many thousands are found most presumptuously to depend, and thereby are tempted most awfully to neglect their immortal concerns, and though all are by no means equally presumptuous, yet such is the antinomianism that arminianism still suggests, while an

* See Dialogue XXX.