DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA, TO WIT: BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the twenty-fifth day of January, in the forty-first year of the Independence of the [SEAL.] United States of America, A. D. 1817, Philip H. Nicklin, of the said District, has deposited in this Office the title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as Proprietor, in the words following, to wit: "The Fathers, the Reformers, and the Public Formularies, of the Church of England, in harmony with Calvin, and against the Bishop of Lincoln; to which is prefixed a Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, on the subject of this Controversy. By a Layman. With a Preface, Notes, and an Appendix, by an American Clergyman. "Man, of his own nature, is sinful and disobedient to God, without any spark of goodness in him, without any virtuous or godly motion."-Church of England. Hom. Whitsun. "We can by no means allow-that of our own nature we are without any spark of goodness in us, and that man has no ability or dispo sition whatever, either to faith or good works."-Dr. Tomline, Bishop of Lincoln. "To be impugned from without, and betrayed from within, is certainly the worst condition, that either Church or State can fall into: -the Church of England has had experience of both."-Dr. South. In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned:" And also to the act, entitled, "An act supplementary to an act, entitled, An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned," and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." D. CALDWELL, Clerk of the District of Pennsylvania. Gift 2-23-1932 PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. "ARE the doctrines of the Protestant Episcopal Church in England and America, which are expressed in the Thirty-nine Articles, and the public Formularies, the doctrine of Calvinism ?" is a question much agitated on each side of the Atlantic. In England many advocate the affirmative of this question; but in America those who coincide with their European brethren on this subject are few, unless it be among the laymen, and hitherto have published nothing. A difference of opinion however does exist, even among the clergy here; and if no writer to support the Calvinism of the Church of England can be found in our country, the lucubrations of our AMERICAN LINCOLNS may be unintentionally, but effectually answered by the following English production. It is written with ability and candour. It permits Calvin, Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Jewell, the Articles, the Homilies, the Liturgy, and Tomline, to speak for themselves. The doctrines of the Church of England and of Calvin, on several of the most important points in theology, are compared in parallel columns; so that the private Christian who cannot find time to read huge fo lios, may have a synopsis of the whole controversy, and judge for himself._ This book will not only be useful to all Episcopalians who will read it, but possibly show some of the Presbyterians in New-York, and elsewhere, who seem to be at variance on the subject, what Calvinism is, in distinction from several heterogeneous systems which have proudly usurped the name. The friends of the doctrines of the Reformation" must desire that their opinions should be known and thoroughly sifted; and they are confident that the more men study the philosophy of the human mind, the system of Calvinistic doctrine, and the word of God, the stronger will be their conviction that all three perfectly harmonise. Indeed, it is impossible that the truth concerning the mind of man, and the doctrines contained in the Bible, should be at variance, unless two constitutions of the Supreme Being may contradict each other: and it is no small argument in favour of Calvinism, that all the new discoveries in metaphysics which have been made from accurate observations of the phenomena of mind, but evince more clearly its complete agreement with the testimony of Jesus." To eradicate if possible some prejudices injurious to truth, which are excited at the sight of a few Calvinistic words, it may not be improper to state, that Predestination, when attributed to the Deity, is nothing more than a previous purpose concerning his own actions. Before Jehoyah performs any work, he determined to perform it. He has predestinated all his own actions. Who that has any wisdom acts without some previous purpose to act? Who of our race is not a predestinarian, so far as he has knowledge, and conceives that he has power? A man who should act without previous purpose, would be deemed irrational, if not an idiot. Who, then, can wish to conceive of his God as acting without the predestination of his own actions? From eternity, moreover, the Calvinistic system teaches, that the Deity predestinated his own operations to be suited to the natures of the things on which they were to terminate; so that whatever work he determined to perform on the mind of man is performed in such a manner as is consistent with the nature of an intelligent, sensitive, voluntary, active creature. He determined to govern matter by certain laws adapted to an unfeeling, inactive, involuntary being; and mind by such laws as originate, and continue, freedom of agency. He determined to constitute man, and to govern him, when made, as a man, and not as a vegetable or mineral. The Lord foreknew what man would do in every state; which state should exist in consequence of the performance of his own predestinated actions; and in full view of all that should result from the free agency of man in such a state, resolved to execute his determinations, and either permit the sinful actions of the accountable, free, but circumscribed creature; or excite him by a positive, upmerited influence, to that which is good; so that in this way he also "foreordains whatsoever comes to pass." He predestinates his own actions, and foreordains all events, even such as are inseparably connected with free human agency. A previous ordaining of circumstances, by Jehovah, is consequent upon his predestination of that foreordination. In the Calvinistic system these distinctions may be thus applied. God determined to make a complex being, consisting of a material body; an animal soul, which is the seat of animal instincts; and an immortal spirit; which should be so connected as to constitute one person, called man. He determined to locate him, when made in a state which he had foreordained for him; and he executed his predeterminate counsel in these particulars. The state in which man was first placed was one in which all nature smiled around him, in which he had an innocent, intelligent, affectionate partner, and in which the Deity so regulated his spirit as to secure the right operation of all his faculties. For a time the divine foreordination of the circumstances of the first man was such, that he was not tempted, that he knew his duty, and performed it. The primeval holiness of Adam consisted in the operations of an intelligent, voluntary, sensitive, active mind; but innocent as he was when he came from the hand of his Maker, the praise of his holiness was ascribable to the divine predestination and foreordination. For wise purposes, this state in which he was preserved in innocence, and excited to positive virtue, was changed for a second, a state of trial. To do that which should produce this state, Jehovah had determined; and the state existed in consequence of Jehovah's withdrawing his positive influence to holiness, and permitting (according to his predestination) an unholy being to tell a falsehood to the innocent. The lie was assented to as truth; the testimony of his Maker in the case was not remembered, the contemplated action of eating the interdicted fruit seemed desirable; and thus, "BEING LEFT to the freedom of his own will," he chose to transgress, and performed what he chose. A divine interference, or prevention, in the case, was not predestinated, and of course, no circumstances effectually to preclude the apostacy in a free agent were foreordained. The state of probation having been ordained, and Adam having been placed in it, the laws |