CONTENTS.

Preface

Introduction

CHAP. I.-Unconditional Election is not the Doc-

trine of the United Church of England

and Ireland

CHAP. II.-The Doctrines of Redemption and

Grace, witnessed by the Liturgy of the

United Church of England and Ire-

land, are incompatible with the Inter-

pretations affixed to her Tenets by the

Abettors of the Absolute Predestina-

tion Scheme

CHAP. III.-The prevalence of the Doctrine of

Absolute Decrees in England is to be

attributed, not to an unbiassed Inves-

tigation of their Merits, but so essen-

tially to the sole Authority of Calvin,
that the credit which is apparently

derived upon the doctrine, from its

general reception, during the Reigns of

Elizabeth and James the First, should

not enhance its title to acceptance

CHAP. IV. The INQUIRY, in asserting that the

United Church of England and Ireland

demands from her Clergy and Laity

"an unfeigned belief of her doctrines,"

and enjoins it "as the only way of
salvation," ascribes to this Reformed

Church pretensions not more injurious

to her character, which has been dis-

tinguished for moderation, than re-

pugnant to the principles by which she

vindicated her own dissent from the

erroneous determinations of Councils

Conclusion

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279

PREFACE.

THE Apology for the United Church of Eng. land and Ireland is on the eve of publication; and, as the hour approaches when it is to be transferred to the public hand irrevocably, the Author feels anxieties, with which he was not visited dur ing the progress of the Work. He perceives, with pressing solicitude, the responsibility of the charge which he has undertaken, and he is proportionably apprehensive of his having failed to do ample justice to the cause which he defends. He is aware that it must be indebted to its intrinsic excellence, and not to his name, or to the power of his talents, for its success. But if he finds in this reflection a source of fear, he finds in it a source of comfort also. He is convinced of the goodness of the cause; he is satisfied of the abundant sufficiency of the materials which he possessed for establish

b

ing its merits; and he, therefore, rests assured that any injury, which its interests may sustain from his deficiencies, will not prove fatal.

Should his defence fail to place the real doctrines of this Church beyond the reach of assault hereafter, she can send forth from her sons another, and another, and another, who will correct his unskilfulness, retrieve his failures, and accomplish her security. For himself, he will say, that he is conscious that the importance of the cause, and the dignity of this Established Church, will not allow him to expect for this Work indulgences, which might be justly solicited for compositions that are candidates merely for public favour and he will, in his own vindication, declare, that he has imparted to the subject all the energy of mind which, in the intervals of arduous and almost incessant occupations, he could lend it, and, that he never withheld from it all the assiduity, which, in his circumstances, he could bestow. He begs leave to state that, in the conclusion, he availed himself of Bishop Tomline's Refutation of Calvinism, to select from it some Extracts from Calvin's Works; and, that to Mant's Bampton Lectures he is indebted for the quotations from Overton. The Bishop has given only Translations of the Original; but, in