Articles as decidedly Calvinistic, their language would have been equally explicit and strong*

It would open too ample a field, to compare all the disputed Articles with similar titles in the confessions of Calvinistic churches; one or two specimens of contrariety must suffice;

All the Calvinistic churches, in treating of original sin, have imputed to man the guilt of Adam's 'transgression, and have drawn no distinction between concupiscence, and the sinfulnessderived from it, but denounced eternal punishment upon all persons dying unbaptized, or unregenerate. Our ninth Article is content with treating original sin as a fault of our nature, DESERVING (not actually suffering) God's wrath, and delivered by the laver of baptism from even this EXPOSURE to condemnation, a deliverance extending to every person who is born into the world, and baptized. Again, in the eleventh Article, justification is stated as "the

* Whether it be said to have been purposely darkened, or purposely generalized, or purposely softened, comes all to the same thing in the end: under any of these suppositions, the object must have been only to procure unanimity among different parties; or as much unanimity as was possible and to affirm this is to give up the point in question, viz. that the Articles are exclusively Calvinistic. The question of subscription, be it remembered, is not, whether a Calvinist could sign the Articles; for he might sign the Lord's Prayer, and yet that would not prove the Lord's Prayer to be Calvinistic: but, whether the Articles be Calvinistics i, e, whether an Arminian can sign them; which the Calvinists positively deny. ho

being accounted righteous before God; the cause, the merits of Christ; the means, faith;" while a reference is made to the homily on that subject. Now, this homily states good works to be necessary. Here, then, nothing is said of two Calvinistic points; of justification as a state of actual acceptance, in opposition to the Arminian belief, which considers it as a state of reconciliation, furnishing the groundwork of that acceptance; and of works, required merely as a test of faith, or acknowledgment of gratitude for divine mercy, in opposition to the Arminian belief in their indispensableness, in following faith, as a condition of that unmerited mercy. On both these subjects, Calvinistic confessions will be found to speak plainly out. Not less cautious is the church in her forbearance to press Calvinistic doctrines in her seventeenth Article. Every other confession which mentions predestination, speaks of it as absolute and irrespective; as a separation of some to life, that they might be faithful; not from a prescience that they would embrace, by faith, the terms of salvation. In our seventeenth Article this question of absolute, irrespective election is wholly omitted; and not one syllable occurs respecting preterition or reprobation. Here is na mention, as in other Calvinistic churches, of God's determinate counsel to save SOME ONLY; while the saving clause in the end, referring to the will of God, as generally set forth in Scripture for a

guide to our doings, is peculiar to the English confession.

From the whole, it may be inferred, that the compilers of the Articles intended not to speak decidedly a Calvinistic, exclusive language, but rather to forbear pressing the points in dispute, in the hope of healing the differences attendant upon the Reformation. The Articles are not to be com mented on, then, as implying a Calvinistic sense; for not only do they bear intrinsic evidence of an intention not to speak that sense; but when the Lambeth Articles, in the reign of Elizabeth, and the Puritan preachers in that of Charles the First, attempted to pronounce that sense as their only interpretation, the suppression of the former, and the declaration forbidding innovation directed against the latter, prove that the Articles are intended by the imposers, as they were by the compilers, to be understood in their plain and literal meaning.

We have been, in this place, only concerned to show, that the Articles admit clearly of Arminian interpretation, but not clearly of Calvinistic. How a Calvinist can subscribe the thirty-first, which, in admitting universal redemption, destroys the whole quinquarticular fabric, we leave it with his conscience to determine,

Lambeth Article, fourth (applied to infants). "They who are not predestinated to salvation, shall be NECESSARILY DAMNED for their sins."

Synod of Dort. N. B. (abbreviated by Dan. Tilenus). This synod may be held as the representative of all the Calvinian churches of Europe, except those of France.

"That by Adam's fall, his posterity lost their free-will being put to an unavoidable necessity to do, or not to do, whatsoever they do, or do not, whether it be good or bad, being predestinated thereunto by the eternal and effectual secret decree of God."No.

Ninth Article of the English Church, revised by the Assembly of Divines, at Westminster, in 1643. Man is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil;" altered into, Wholly deprived of original righteousness, and is, of his own nature, inclined only to evil :" and again," Concupiscence hath the nature of sin;" to, " Is truly and properly sin."

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Irish Articles of 1615.

None can come to Christ unless it given unto him; and all men are not so drawn by the Father, that they may come to the Son; neither is there such á sufficient measure of grace vouchsafed to every man, whereby he is enabled to come to everlasting life."

Assembly's shorter Catechism, approved by the Scottish General Assembly. "The corruption of his WHOLE nature, which is commonly called original tin, c. And whereas our ninth Article says, gently and timidly, of original sin, that it DESERVETH God's wrath and damnation, &c. this Catechism deolares, that" All mankind, by their fall, lost communion with

God; are under his wrath and curse; and so made liable to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell for ever."

JUSTIFICATION.

Lambeth Article, fifth. A justifying faith falleth not away, in the elect, either totally or finally.-Sixth. A man endued with justifying faith, is CERTAIN of the remission of his sins, and of his everlasting salvation by Christ. See the whole.

Synod of Dort, fourth. "That God, to save his elect from the corrupt mass, doth beget faith in them, by a power equal fo that whereby he created the world; insomuch that they to whom it is given, cannot reject it; and the rest, being reprobate, cannot accept it."

Eleventh Article of the English Church, altered by the Assembly of Divines, in 1643. "We are accounted righteous before God, &c." altered into, "We are justified, that is, accounted righteous, before God, and have remission of sins, freely by his grace," &c.: and there is inserted the passage, "his whole obedience and satisfaction being by God imputed to us."

Irish Articles of 1615. "The Scripture useth to say, that faith without works, and the ancient fathers of the church to the same purpose, that faith only doth justify us. So that a true believer may be certain, by the assurance of faith, of the forgiveness of his sins, and of his everlasting salvation by Christ. A true life, by justifying faith, and the sanctifying Spirit of God, is not extinguished, nor vanisheth away, in the regenerate, either finally, or totally."

Calvin's Common Prayer Book for Geneva. "The justice of Jesus Christ is imputed to such as, by true faith, cleave unto him."

Assembly's Catechism; or, Confessional of Scotland. "Q. What benefits do they that are EFFECTUALLY called, partake of in this life? A. Justification, adoption, &c.-Q. What is justi