BY THE REV. WILLIAM HULL, PERPETUAL CURATE OF ST. GREGORY’S, NORWICH. Τουτον γαρ ἁπασῃ ψυχῃ φυσικον νομον βοηθον αυτῃ και συμμαχον επι των πρακτεων ὁ των ὁλων δημιουργος ὑπεστατο. Δια μεν του νομου την ευθειαν αυτῃ παραδειξας ὁδον· δια δε της αυτῃ δεδωρημενης αυτεξουσιου ελευθεριας την των κρειττονων αἱρεσιν επαινου και αποδοχης αξιαν αποφηνας, γερων τε και μειζονων επαθλων.—Eusebius. LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. G. F. & J. RIVINGTON, ST. PAUL’S CHURCH YARD, AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL. 1841

S ir , W hen I venture to inscribe to you the following pages, I am fearless of having applied to me Johnson’s definition of a dedicator, “one who inscribes his work to a patron with compliment and servility.” Adulation, Sir, from any quarter, you would resent as an indignity, and the tenor of my own life and writings will secure me from the imputation of servile deference to others, with whatever reverence I may contemplate their rank, their talents, or their virtues. When, Sir, under unusual c

T hat strenuous attempts are now in progress to propagate Calvinism in its most objectionable forms, by impressing into its service that spirit of earnest, but often misinformed piety which has been awakened within the bosom of the Church, is too notorious to require proof or to admit of refutation. The following sheets have been written, and are now published, under the solemn conviction, that the danger to be apprehended from the extensive diffusion of this creed, both to religion and the Chur

PART I. GENERAL REMARKS. To St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo in Africa, belongs the equivocal distinction of having originated in the Christian Church a controversy respecting the Divine decrees, a controversy which dates its origin from the fifth century, and which, after the lapse of thirteen hundred years, exhibits no symptoms of approaching to its end. In the Roman Communion, it was the source of those bitter animosities, which reciprocally exasperated the Jesuits and Jansenists. The Protestan

T he existence of moral evil is a fact , not to be denied by any man who reverences his own understanding; and that it seemed fit to the Divine Wisdom to permit its introduction into the world, is equally beyond contradiction, unless we limit the divine power, and suppose that, by a necessity antecedent to the divine will, and controlling the divine conduct, the Deity himself acts, not spontaneously but from coercion. That sin, with its awful consequences, should even exist by permission , under

Whatever extent we assign to the corruption of human nature, by which its moral powers have been impaired, or the soul disqualified for the due and proper use of those powers, it is plain that men are still capable of acting, and of being treated as the subjects of moral government. Calvinistic writers do themselves admit the turpitude of sin and the loveliness of virtue—that vice entails suffering, and that happiness is the consequence of a religious conformity to the will of God. That is, sett

By the visible Church is meant the great body of persons who are baptized into the faith of Christ, and openly profess his religion; and the term is used in contradistinction to the invisible Church, which consists of real, sincere, and spiritual disciples of our Lord. These may be said to be invisible, since to search the heart and penetrate its secrets, is the prerogative of God alone. The truly faithful, as distinguished from the mere professors of Christianity, will not be seen in their dist

W hen Lord Chatham taunted the Church with having “a Calvinistic creed, a popish liturgy, and an Arminian clergy,” that illustrious person was the author of a libel on this holy and apostolical institution. Her creed is not Calvinistic, for it says nothing about absolute predestination; her liturgy it not popish, for there is no worship of saints or of the Virgin; her clergy are not Arminian, for their moderation has preserved them, as a body, from all extremes in doctrine, and that , as well as

The general tenor of the Holy Scriptures is so clearly against it, that it is impossible to account for the facts or the doctrines of the Bible on supposition of the truth of the Calvinistic theology: Nor would it be needful to discuss the subject, however briefly, on scriptural grounds, but for a few particular texts which are cited against the current testimony of the word of God. It is said that one text, if plain and direct, is evidence enough for the establishment of any doctrine. This may

It was not in the nature of things, that Calvinistic predestination should be received as truth, without producing such a modification of the entire system of divine revelation, as would impress on it a new and completely different character. Christianity, in its unadulterated simplicity, is distinguished by the consolatory views it imparts of the benignity and grace of God, and by the direct and cogent motives it suggests for holiness and righteousness of life. But the first article of the Calv

ADDITIONAL REMARKS ON MR. NOEL’S TRACT ON “THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH.” T he writer of these pages has no personal knowledge of the author of the tract, of whom he has only heard by report, that he is a zealous minister and popular preacher. His writings indicate natural suavity of temper. Having therefore no feeling of personal disrespect, he deems no apology to be necessary for the freedom of his strictures on a work which challenges attention and defies contradiction. Mr. Noel has openly and dog