Descending from the era of the Reformation to the present day, who can doubt that religious light has been continually increasing; that the sacred writings are getting to be better and better understood; that the system of doctrine which promises to be most prevalent is more and more purified from conflicting errors? Pelagianism is retiring on one hand; Calvinism on the other. Man is utterly incapable, by his own unassisted efforts, of working out his salvation. He stands in absolute need of the enlightening and sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit. At the same time, he has a real agency in the work of his salvation; and is not, as the Calvinists will have it, a mere passive recipient of irresistible grace. The great doctrine of redemption is equally vindicated from the attacks of the Socinian, who denies the necessity of redemption on one hand; and from those of the Calvinist, who limits the efficacy of redemption to a few arbitrarily elected favourites, on the other. The absurdities of Calvinism, like those of Popery, if left unopposed, would have produced universal infidelity. And to what are we to ascribe the decline of this pernicious doctrine, which may be considered as one of the most conspicuous of the religious signs of the present times? It is to be ascribed, unquestionably, to the prevalence of

enlightened discussion. The controversy relative to the points of Calvinistic divinity, has led to a most thorough investigation of the sacred writings; and this investigation has terminated in the establishment of the blessed doctrine of the redemption of fallen man through the blood of Christ, on foundations not to be shaken by the efforts of the Pelagians and Socinians on the one hand, or of the Calvinists and Antinomians* on the other. Look at the history of the Church of England, and you will constantly see a host of scholars

* It would be very unjust not to admit that many, who hold the Calvinistic doctrines, are strenuous in urging the indispensable neces sity of obedience to the divine law-of holiness of heart and life-to our salvation. Such persons are equally zealous with their opponents in reprobating the shocking tenets of Antinomianism; and it must be a subject of sincere regret to the friends of vital piety, that persons who agree, at once, in ascribing the entire merit of redemption to Jesus Christ, and in insisting upon conformity to the whole law of God as necessary, on the part of man, should wrangle with one another on the subject of supposed secret decrees; instead of uniting their force in opposing the common enemy. At the same time, candour obliges me to add, that the genuine tenets of Calvinism appear to me to lead, directly and irresistibly, to the most immoral and blasphemous consequences. So the great Melancthon viewed the matter; for he did not hesitate to give to the speculations of Calvin, the title of "stoical necessity," and to brand their author as the Zeno of his age. Still the principles in question are viewed in a different point of light by those who hold them; and while such persons unite in urging a strict conformity to the whole law of God as necessary to salvation, it is, let it be repeated, a subject of sincere regret that they should be arranged in opposition to their brethren by the dark tenets of a metaphysical system. When these tenets are brought forward, however, it is absolutely necessary that they should be opposed. Calvinism destroys the beauty and loveliness of the Christian system, and infallibly prepares the way for the introduction of infidelity.

throwing the shield of learning and piety before the true faith; at one time defending it against the assaults of papal superstition, at another against those errors both of doctrine and discipline into which many of the Reformers were led by a well meaning but intemperate zeal. And not content with preserving the purity of the faith from the contagion of superstition on one hand, and of fanaticism on the other, you behold the unrivalled scholars in question repelling, at all times, with equal sagacity and vigour, the secret and the public assaults of the boasted champions of infidelity.

Yes, if the present fashionable prejudice, on the subject of controversy, had governed the conduct of Christian scholars, we might have continued to grope in the darkness of papal error -the faith would never have been recovered from the mass of corruption with which Rome had encumbered it; or if recovered, it must, after being first defaced by fanatical extravagance, have finally perished under the attacks of a licentious scepticism.

4. The experience of this country furnishes abundant evidence of the beneficial effects of religious discussion. Suppose, for a moment, that, from the original settlement of the country, no controversy had taken place relative to the principles

which discriminate the Episcopal Church from other religious denominations. Beyond all question, she would have perished. Her distinctive principles being forgotten, and her spirit of corps extinguished, she would have been gradually absorbed by other societies of Christians. Very many Episcopal congregations have actually disappeared in this way, and all would have disappeared but for that enlightened zeal for her institutions which controversy has enkindled. Mind gravitates towards mind, not less than matter towards matter. The planets would immediately rush to the sun if there were no principle to counteract the force of attraction. And the Church would infallibly have merged in the larger religious societies around her, if she had pursued the policy, so often recommended to her, of seeking peace by forgetting every circumstance of distinction between them and her. No body of men will grow without contending for their principles; nor will any attachment be preserved for principles which it is made an object to keep systematically out of sight. Under such circumstances the laity would soon become entirely ignorant of the peculiar doctrines of the Church; the clergy would, in time, become ignorant of them also;-then would follow a complete interchange of religious offices; and this could not fail ultimately to draw

after it an incorporation of the respective bodies. Of course, the entire mass would assume the shape and features of the larger division; especially if that division should happen to be deeply impregnated with its own separate and peculiar spirit.

Thus all the doctrines and institutions of our Church; nay, her existence itself, would be sacrificed to a spurious liberality.

The progress and present state of our Church in Connecticut, will furnish a complete exemplification of the truth of these remarks. A century ago she had scarcely an existence in that State; consisting principally of about seventy or eighty families, in the towns of Stratford, Fairfield, Norwalk, Newtown, Repton, and West-Haven.* While the Church was in this low and feeble condition, an event occurred which has been productive of most important consequences. Some Congregational ministers, of distinguished talents and piety, being convinced, upon mature investigation, of the invalidity of Presbyterian ordination, resigned their places, went to England for holy orders, and became most useful and zealous clergymen of the Episcopal Church. In this number were Dr. Timothy Cutler, and, Dr. Samuel Johnson,

Chandler's Life of Dr. Johnson, p. 26, 39.