Dr. Whitby, the commentator, who was ori◄ ginally a Calvinist, has written an elaborate defence of Arminianism; and the reader should consult Dr. Taylor's Key to the Epistles to the Romans, which has been admired on the subject. Since the days of Laud (who was archbishop of Canterbury in the reign of Charles the First), by far the majority of the English clergy have taken this side of the question. Bishop Burnet has given a full account of the opinions of this sect, in his Exposition of the Seventeenth Article.

In the last century disputes ran very high in Holland between the Calvinists and the Arminians. On each side talents and learning were displayed; but some called in the interference of the civil power; and thus terminated a controversy, which for some years had agitated the religious world. For this purpose the famous synod of Dort was held, 1618, where

edition. Here are collected together and explained the principal passages usually adduced in favour of election and reprobation from the New Testament, and these explications are accompanied with some remarks tending to assuage the asperity of religious controversy, and to promote the mild influence of christian love and charity. The reader is also referred to A Refutation of Calvinism, in which the doctrines of original sin, grace, regeneration, justification, and universal redemption are explained, &c. by George Tomline, D. D. Bishop of Lincoln and Dean of St. Paul's. This work, however, has been animadverted upon by the late Dr. Williams, and other divines of the Calvinistic persuasion.

the Arminians were scandalously treated. Mosheim is of opinion, that even before the meeting of the synod, it was agreed upon, that, on account of their religious opinions, they should be deemed enemies of their country, and accordingly be exposed to every species of persecution. A curious narrative of its proceedings may be seen in the series of letters written by the ever-memorable John Hales, who was present on the occasion. This synod was succeeded by a severe persecution of the Arminians. The respectable Barnevelt lost his head on a scaffold, and the learned Grotius, condemned to perpetual imprisonment, escaped from the cell and took refuge in France. The storm, however, some time after abated, and Episcopius, an Arminian minister, opened a seminary in Amsterdam, which produced able divines and excellent scholars.

The Arminian writers are, Episcopius, Vorstius, Grotius, Limborch, Le Clerc, Wetstein; not to mention many others of modern times, particularly Mr. John Wesley, in his numerous works, and Mr. Fellowes, in his Religion without Cant, and in his elegant work, entitled Christian Philosophy.

The Arminians are sometimes called the Remon strants, because they, in 1611, presented a RemonSTRANCE to the States General, wherein they pathetically state their grievances, and pray for relief. See an interesting work, entitled An Abridgement of Gerrard Brandt's History of the Reformation in the

Low Countries, 2 vols. 8vo. Dr. Maclaine says, it is certain that the most eminent philosophers have been found, generally speaking, among the Arminians. If both Calvinists and Arminians claim a King, it is certain that the latter alone can boast of a Newton, a Locke, a Clarke, and a Boyle." Archbishop Usher is said to have lived a Calvinist, and died an Arminian. The members of the episcopal church in Scotland, the Moravians, the general Baptists, the Wesleyan Methodists, the Quakers, or Friends, &c. are Arminians; and it is supposed that a great proportion of the clergy of the Kirk of Scotland teach the doctrines of Arminius, though they have a Calvinistic confession of faith. What a pity it is that opinions, either Calvinistic or Arminian, cannot in the eye of some persons be held without a diminu tion of Christian charity.*

BAXTERIANS.

THE Baxterian strikes into a middle path, between Arminianism and Calvinism, and thus endeavours to unite both schemes. With the Calvinist, he

* Dr. Hammond mentions a ludicrous instance of bigotry, when he tells us, that when a Dutchman's horse does not go as he would have him, he calls him in a great rage an Arminian!

professes to believe that a certain number, determined upon in the divine councils, will be infallibly saved; and with the Arminian he joins in rejecting the doctrine of reprobation as absurd and impious; admits that Christ, in a certain sense, died for all, and supposes that such a portion of grace is allotted to every man, as renders it his own fault if he does not attain to eternal life. This conciliatory system was espoused by the famous non-conformist RICHARD BAXTER, who died in the year 1691, and who was equally celebrated for the acuteness of his controversial talents, and the utility of his practical writings. Most of his pieces, excepting his Saint's everlasting Rest, and Call to the Unconverted, are now little read, or rather they are sunk into oblivion. Among Baxterians are generally ranked both Watts and Doddridge. Dr. Doddridge indeed has this striking remark with which J. Evans closes his Letter to Dr. Hawker-"That a Being who is said not to tempt any one, and even swears that he desires not the death of a sinner, should irresistibly determine millions to the commission of every sinful action of their lives, and then with all the pomp and pageantry of an Uni. versal Judgment condemn them to eternal misery on account of these actions, that hereby he may promote the happiness of others who are or shall be irresistably determined to virtue, in the like manner, is of all incredible things to me the most incredible!" Two Hundred and Twenty-third Lecture of Dod

dridge's Lectures on Pneumatology, Ethics, and Divinity.

In the scale of religious sentiment, BAXTERIANISM seems to be, with respect to the subject of divine favour, what Arianism is with respect to the person of Christ. It appears to have been considered by some pious persons as a safe middle way between two extremes. Baxter was an extraordinary character in the religious world. He wrote about 120 books, and had above 60 written against him! Though he possessed a metaphysical genius, and consequently sometimes made a distinction without a difference, yet the great object of most of his productions was peace and amity. Accordingly his system was formed, not to inflame the passions and widen the breaches, but to heal those wounds of the Christian church, under which she had long languished. As a proof of this assertion, take the following affecting declaration from the Narrative of his own Life and Times—“ I am deeplier afflicted for the disagreements of Christians than I was when I was a younger Christian. Except the case of the infidel world nothing is so sad and grievous to my thoughts as the case of the divided churches! And, therefore, I am the more deeply sensible of the sinfulness of those who are the principal cause of these divisions. O! how many millions of souls are kept by their ignorance and ungodliness, and deluded by faction, as if it were true religion. How is the conversion of infidels hindered,

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