facrament does, ipfo facto, confer grace ex opere operato, and curfes them that will not believe it; as alfo, that baptifm impreffes I know not what fpiritual mark on the foul, even fuch a mark as can never be effaced which affertion fhe likewife arms with a fting in the tail; pronouncing them accurfed who deny it. But our own Church has nothing like this. On the contrary, fhe pofitively defines a facrament to be "An outward and visible fign of an inward fpiritual grace, given unto us, ordained by Chrift himself, as a means whereby we receive the fame, and a pledge to affure us thereof." She adds, that "The outward, vifible fign, or form in baptifm," is "water, wherein," or wherewith, "the perfon is baptized in the name of the Father, &c." Baptifm itfelf, therefore, is not regeneration, but a fign or type of it and is then only a proof of regeneration, when accompanied with" the inward and fpiritual grace," which the Church does not affirm it always is. And, indeed, I fhould wonder if he had; fince, if all baptized perfons were truly regenerate, chriftendom would be a much better part of the world than it is. This inward and fpiritual grace, of which baptifm is the fign and figure, is defined by our Church to confift in "A death unto fin, and a new birth unto righteoufnefs. For, being, by nature, born in fin, and the children of wrath, we are hereby [i. e. by inward and fpiritual grace, the laft immediate antecedent] "made" [conftituted and proved to be] "children of "children of grace." Exactly coincident with our catechifm, is our 27th article:

Baptifm is not only a fign of profeffion, and mark of difference, whereby Chriftian men are difcerned from others that be not chriftened; but it is also a fign of regeneration, or new birth, whereby, as by an inftrument, they, that receive baptifm rightly, are grafted into the Church, &c." I conclude from hence, that, in the judgment of the Church of England, baptifm and internal regeneration (the former

being, fimply confidered in itself, only a fign or fymbol of the latter) are two diftin&t things; which, though they fometimes go together (when the holy fpirit pleafes to make baptifm the channel of his gracious influences), yet do not neceffarily nor conftantly accompany each other: and, therefore, the fubfequent apoftacy of fome baptized perfons does not in the leaft (as bishop Burnet would infer, and you from him) fhake the doctrine either of immutable predeftination on God's part, or of infallible perfeverance on the part of the truly regenerate. But, you obferve, page 109, that, "With regard to infants, the rubrick declares, it is certain by God's word, that children, which are baptized, dying before they commit actual fin, are undoubtedly faved." I firmly believe the fame. Nay, I believe more. I am convinced, that the fouls of all departed infants whatever, whether baptized or unbaptized, are with God in glory. And I think my belief warranted by an authority which cannot err, Matt. xviii. 14. You have, therefore, no occafion to lug in children. by head and fhoulders, page 110, and to afk, with an air of infult, where then is the "doctrine of abfolute, irrefpective predeftination and reprobation, which would include children as well as adults ?" I believe, that, in the decree of predeftination to life, God hath included all whom he hath decreed to take away in infancy: and that the decree of reprobation has nothing to do with them.

Now we come to what you and others of your party reprefent as monftrum, borrendum, informe, ingens, eni lumen ademptum: I mean, the doctrine of reprobation. Abfolute reprobation, you fay, "Is no where taught in our articles, nor in the fcriptures; but just the contrary." I, on the other hand, maintain, that it is plainly implied in our articles, and expressly afferted in the fcriptures. Of the latter I fall fay little here but I cannot, in juftice to the Church, omit a short proof or two refpecting the former. In doing

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doing this, I muft really be fo unpolite as to hold up the 17th article to you, though I am fenfible it is an article you have no great affection for. However, as it has received the fanction of your own folemn fubfcription, you are bound, both in honour, confcience, and law, to ftand or fall by the evidence it brings. "Predeftination to life" [which implies, on the other hand, a predeftination to death; otherwife the article is lame] "is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby, before the foundations of the world were laid, he hath conftantly decreed by his counsel, fecret to us, to deliver from curfe and damnation those [obferve that reftrictive word], whom he hath chofen in Chrift out of mankind," [all mankind therefore were not chofen, but fome were paffed by for if there was no decretive diftinction in God's election, the elect could not be faid to be chosen out of mankind] "and to bring them by Christ" [and not the reft, out of whom they were chofen], "to everlasting falvation as veffels made to honour. [There are, therefore, fome veffels not made unto honour]. In thus afferting everlasting, perfonal, immutable election; the Church, tacitly, indeed, but virtually, and by neceffary* confequence, fets her feal to the oppofite doctrine of preterition: fince there can be no choice, without a refufal; no election of fome, without a rejection of others; no partial admiffion, without a partial exclufion. The Church, indeed, does not exprefsly fay as much: but, from the premifes (he has laid down, the conclufion follows as unavoidably as if she had: and I defy all the fophiftry of man to affirm the premifes, without admitting the conclufion. Election, without reprobation, cannot ftand: it must have the other leg, or it will tumble down. -But I recur to the article: and fhall begin where I left off. After afferting the decree of predeftination unto life, and telling us what it is; the Church goes on to affirm, that this de

* See Heylin's Life of Laud, p. 30. and Cambr, Tracts, 175.

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cree cannot be fruftrated, but fhall certainly have its accomplishment, in the falvation of its objects, at the appointed time, and through the appointed means: "Wherefore they, which be endued with fo excellent a benefit of God" [namely, with the excellent benefit of God's election and predeftination to life], "be called" [and that not with a random call, but] according to God's purpose, by his fpirit working in due feafon: [nor with a precarious, ineffectual call; but with fuch a fpiritual and internal call, as infures the end for which it was vouchfafed; for] "They, through grace, obey the calling: they be juftified freely: they be made fons of God by adoption; they be made like the image of his only begotten Son Jefus Chrift: they walk religiously in good works;" [not only for a while, but to the end of their days; otherwife it would not be added] "and, at length, by God's mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity:" [fo that they, who do not eventually attain to everlafting felicity, were never in the number of God's elect *.]

In the next place, this article proceeds, by way of practical improvement, to point out the moft obvious uses and abuses of the doctrine of predeftination. 1. Its uses. "As the godly confideration of predeftination and our election in Chrift is [1.] full of fweet, pleasant, and unfpeakable comfort to godly perfons, and fuch as feel in themselves the working of the fpirit of Chrift, mortifying the works of the flesh and their earthly members, and drawing up their mind to high and heavenly things; as well becaufe [2.] it doth greatly establish and confirm their faith of eternal falvation to be enjoyed through Chrift, as because [3.] it doth fervently kindle their love towards God;" [now follow the abufes of it] "So, for curious and carnal perfons, lacking the fpirit of God" [i. e. the reprobrate, who are defcribed in Scripture, (Jude 19.) under this very * See a most remarkable conceffion of Heylin's. (Life of Laud, character

P. 29.)

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character of not having the fpirit], "to have continually before their eyes the fentence of God's predeftination, is a moft dangerous downfall; whereby the devil doth thrust them either [1.] into defperation, or [2.]into wretchleffnefs of moft unclean living, no lefs perilous than defperation." The article, then, plainly fpeaks of two distinct forts or perfons; the elect, and the non-elect. With regard to the converted elect, the confideration of their predeftination in Chrift fills them with fweet, pleafant, and unfpeakable comfort; it greatly establishes and confirms their faith; and doth fervently kindle their love towards God: which love is the never-failing fource of all good works. But, with regard to the others, the article exprefsly declares God's predeftination to be a fentence; and a difmal fentence it is, to fuch the contemplation of which ferves to thrust them into defperation and unclean living. Never was any ecclefiaftical decifion a more exact unifon with Scripture. Who can read this 17th article,' and not be reminded of that paffage in the apostle, 1 Pet. ii. 8, 9?

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The article clofes with two wife and ufeful cautions; "furthermore, we muft [1.] receive God's promises in fuch wife, as they be generally fet forth in holy Scripture: and [2.] in our doings, that will of God is to be. followed, which we have exprefsly declared unto us in the word of God." Two propofitions thefe, which every Calvinift allows; and the latter of which, by the bye, is evidently formed on the Calvinilic diftinction of the divine will into fecret and revealed.

But you ftill wage war against the import of the word elect. Hence, page 112, you ferve up the crambe repe'ita again, and will have it that "the. elect and chofen of God are, all good Chriftians." You have given us to understand before, that God the Son redeemed, and God the Holy Spirit fanctifies, none but good Chriftians; as if the effect

went