BLASPHEMY BORRELLISTS tire of the most remarkable Passages of his Life | more than one God, or denies Christianity to be end Times, by Silvester; Palmer's Noncon- true, for the first offence is rendered incapable of formist Memorial; Lives of P. and M. Henry; any oflice; for the second, adjudged incapable of Life of Halyburton; Orton's Memoirs of Dod-suing, being executor or guardian, receiving any drudge; Gillies' Life of Whitfield; Doddridge's gift or legacy, and to be imprisoned for years. Life of Gardiner; Life of Wesley by Hampson, According to the law of Scotland, blasphemy is Ce, More, and Whitehead; Middleton's Bio- punished with death: these laws, however, in graphia Evangelica; Edwards's Life of D. the present age, are not enforced: the legislature Brainerd; Gibbon's Life of Watts; Brown's thinking, perhaps, that spiritual offences should Life of Hervey; Fawcett's Life of Heywood; be left to be punished by the Deity rather than by Bran's Lives in his Student and Pastor; human statutes. Campbell's Prel. Diss. vol. i. Burnet's Life of Rochester; Hayley's Life of p. 395; Robinson's Script. Plea 58. P. Caper; Benson's Life of Fletcher; Jay's Life BLASPHEMY AGAINST THE HOLY of Winter; Cecil's Life of Newton; Priestley's GHOST. See UNPARDONABLE SIN. Chart of Biography, with a Book describing it, ; Harteis's Life of Romaine; Fuller's Life of Pearce. BODY OF DIVINITY. See THEOLOGY. BOGOMILI, or BOGARMITE, a sect of heretics which arose about the year 1179. They held BISHOP, a prelate consecrated for the spi- that the use of churches, of the sacrament of the ritual government of a diocese. The word comes Lord's Supper, and all prayer except the Lord's from the Saxon bischop, and that from the Greek prayer, ought to be abolished; that the baptism errara, an overseer, or inspector. It is a long of Catholics is imperfect; that the persons of the que since bishops have been distinguished from Trinity are unequal, and that they often made zre priests, or presbyters; but whether that dis-themselves visible to those of their sect. Laction be of divine or human right; whether it was settled in the apostolic age, or introduced are, is truch controverted. Churchmen in genenu plead for the divine right; while the Diswaters suppose that the word no where signifies more than a pastor or presbyter; the very same persons being called bishops and elders, or presters, Acts xx. 17, 28. 1 Pet. v. 1, 3. Tit. i. 57. Phil. i. 1. See EPISCOPACY. All the shops of England are peers of the realm, except the bishop of Man; and as such sit and vote in the house of lords. Besides two archbishops, there are twenty-four bishops in England, exclusive of the bishop of Sodor and Man. The bshops of London, Durham, and Winchester, take the precedence of the other bishops, who tank after them according to their seniority of Consecration. See EPISCOPACY. BOHEMIAN BRETHREN, a sect of Christian reformers which sprung up in Bohemia in the year 1167. They treated the pope and cardinals as Antichrist, and the church of Rome as the whore spoken of in the Revelations. They rejected the sacraments of the Romish church, and chose laymen for their ministers. They held the Scriptures to be the only rule of faith, and rejected the popish ceremonies in the celebration of the mass; nor did they make use of any other prayer than the Lord's prayer. They consecrated leavened bread. They allowed no adoration but of Jesus Christ in the communion. They rebaptized all such as joined themselves to their congregation. They abhorred the worship of saints and images, prayers for the dead, celibacies, vows, and fasts; and kept none of the festivals but Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide. BLASPHEMY, from 6, according to In 1503 they were accused by the Catholics to Dr. Campbell, properly denotes caluinny, detracking Ladislaus II., who published an edict against tion, reproachful or abusive language, against whomsoever it be vented. It is in Scripture appted to reproaches not aimed against God only bot man also, Rom. iii. 8. xiv. 16. 1 Pet. iv. 4. Git. It is, however, more peculiarly restrained to evil or reproachful words offered to God. Accaring to Lindwood, blasphemy is an injury offered to God, by denying that which is due and tenging to him, or attributing to him what is Lagreeable to his nature. "Three things," mys a divine, "are essential to this crime; 1. rod must be the object.-2. The words spoken er written, independent of consequences which ers may derive from them, must be injurious in their nature.—And, 3. He who commits the frame must do it knowingly. This is real blasray: but there is a relatice blasphemy, as BOOK OF SPORTS. See SPORTS. when a man may be guilty ignorantly, by pro- BORRELLISTS, a Christian sect in HolDating opinions which dishonour God, the ten- land, so named from their founder Borrel, a man cy of which he does not perceive. A man of great learning in the Hebrew, Greek, and LaTay be guilty of this constructively: for if he tin tongues. They reject the use of the sacraeak freely against received errors, it will be con-ments, public prayer, and all other external acts rad into blasphemy." By the English laws, of worship. They assert that all the Christian bemies of God, as denying his being or pro- churches of the world have degenerated from the ace, and all contumelious reproaches of Jesus pure apostolic doctrines, because they have suf Canet, &c. are offences by the common law, and fered the word of God, which is infallible, to be pashable by fine, imprisonment, and pillory; expounded, or rather corrupted, by doctors who i by the statute law, he that denies one of the are fallible. They lead a very austere life, and persons in the Trinity, or asserts that there are employ a great part of their goods in alms, them, forbidding them to hold any meetings, either privately or publicly. When Luther de clared himself against the church of Rome, the Bohemian brethren endeavoured to join his party. At first, that reformer showed a great aversion to them; but, the Bohemians sending their depu ties to him in 1535, with a full account of their doctrines, he acknowledged that they were a society of Christians whose doctrines came nearest to the purity of the Gospel. This sect published another confession of faith in 1535, in which they renounced anabaptism, which they at first prac tised: upon which a union was concluded with the Lutherans, and afterwards with the Zuinglians, whose opinions from thenceforth they continued to follow. BROWNISTS BRETHREN BOURIGNONISTS, the followers of Antoi- | viii. 2, 14, and maintained that the true children nette Bourignon, a lady in France, who pre-of God were invested with perfect freedom from tended to particular inspirations. She was born the jurisdiction of the law. They held that all at Lisle, in 1616. At her birth she was so de- things flowed by emanation from God; that reformed, that it was debated some days in the tional souls were portions of the Deity; that the family whether it was not proper to stifle her as a universe was God; and that by the power of monster; but her deformity diminishing, she was contemplation they were united to the Deity, and spared; and afterwards obtained such a degree acquired hereby a glorious and sublime liberty, of beauty, that she had her admirers. From her both from the sinful lusts and the common inchildhood to her old age she had an extraordinary stincts of nature, with a variety of other enthu turn of mind. She set up for a reformer, and siastic notions. Many edicts were published published a great number of books filled with against them; but they continued till about the very singular notions; the most remarkable of middle of the fifteenth century. which are entitled The Light of the World, and BRETHREN AND CLERKS OF THE The Testimony of Truth. In her confession of COMMON LIFE, a denomination assumed by faith, she professes her belief in the Scriptures, a religious fraternity towards the end of the fi the divinity and atonement of Christ. She be-teenth century. They lived under the rule of lieved also that man is perfectly free to resist or St. Augustine, and were said to be eminently receive divine grace; that God is ever unchange- useful in promoting the cause of religion and able love towards all his creatures, and does not learning. inflict any arbitrary punishment; but that the evils they suffer are the natural consequence of sin; that religion consists not in outward forms of worship nor systems of faith, but in an entire resignation to the will of God. She held many extravagant notions, among which, it is said, she asserted that Adam, before the fall, possessed the principles of both sexes; that in an ecstacy, God represented Adam to her mind in his original state; as also the beauty of the first world, and how he had drawn from it the chaos; and that every thing was bright, transparent, and darted forth life and ineffable glory, with a number of other wild ideas. She dressed like a hermit, and travelled through France, Holland, England, and Scotland. She died at Fanekir, in the province of Frise, October 30, 1680. Her works have been printed in 18 vols. 8vo. BRETHREN, WHITE, were the followers of a priest from the Alps, about the beginning of the fifteenth century. They and their leader were arrayed in white garments. Their leader carried about a cross like a standard. His apparent sanctity and devotion drew together a number of fol lowers. This deluded enthusiast practised many acts of mortification and penance, and endeavoured to persuade the Europeans to renew the holy war. Boniface IX. ordered him to be appre hended, and committed to the flames; upon which his followers dispersed. BRETHREN, UNITED. See MORAVIANS BREVIARY, the book containing the daily service of the church of Rome. BRIDGETINS, or BRIGITTINS, an order denominated from St. Bridget, or Brigit, a Swedish lady, in the fourteenth century. Their rule is BOYLE'S LECTURES; a course of eight nearly that of St. Augustine. The Brigittins sermons, preached annually; set on foot by the profess great mortification, poverty, and sell-dehonourable R. Boyle, by a codicil annexed to his nial; and they are not to possess any thing they will, in 1691, whose design, as expressed by the can call their own, not so much as an half-penny: institutor, is to prove the truth of the Christian nor even to touch money on any account. This religion against infidels, without descending to order spread much through Sweden, Germany, any controversies among Christians, and to an- and the Netherlands. In England we read swer new difficulties, scruples, &c. For the sup-but one monastery of Brigittins, and this built by port of this lecture he assigned the rent of his house in Crooked Lane to some learned divine within the bills of mortality, to be elected for a térm not exceeding three years. But, the fund proving precarious, the salary was ill paid; to remedy which inconvenience, archbishop Tennison procured a yearly stipend of 501. for ever, to be paid quarterly, charged on a farm in the parish of Brill, in the county of Bucks. To this appointment we are indebted for many excellent de- BROWNISTS, a sect that arose among the fences of natural and revealed religion, among puritans towards the close of the sixteenth cen which may be mentioned those of Clarke, Kid-tury; so named from their leader, Robert Brown der, Bentley, Burnet, Berriman, Whiston, &c. BRANDENBURG, CONFESSION OF. A formulary or confession of faith, drawn up in the city of Brandenburg by order of the elector, with a view to reconcile the tenets of Luther with those of Calvin, and to put an end to the disputes occasioned by the Confession of Augsburg. See AUGSBURG CONFESSION. BRETHREN AND SISTERS OF THE FREE SPIRIT, an appellation assumed by a sect which sprung up towards the close of the thirteenth century, and gained many adherents in Italy, France, and Germany. They took their denomination from the words of St. Paul, Rom. Henry V. in 1415, opposite to Richmond, now called Sion House; the ancient inhabitants of which, since the dissolution, are settled at Lisbon BRIEFS (Apostolical) are letters which the pope dispatches to princes and other magistrate concerning any public affair. BROTHERS, LAY, among the Romanists are illiterate persons, who devote themselves in some convent to the service of the religious. He was educated at Cambridge, and was a man BROWNISTS BURIAL son, in 1630. The revolt of Brown was attended | after him, Mr. Ainsworth, author of the learned with the dissolution of the church at Middle- Commentary on the Pentateuch. Their church burgh; but the seeds of Brownism which he had flourished near 100 years. Among the Brownists, sown in England were so far from being destroy- too, were the famous John Robinson, a part of ed, that Sir Walter Raleigh, in a speech in 1592, whose congregation from Leyden, in Holland, computes no less than 20,000 of this sect. made the first permanent settlement in North The articles of their faith seem to be nearly the America; and the laborious Canne, the author same as those of the church of England. The of the marginal references to the Bible.-Fuller's occasion of their separation was not, therefore, Church History of England, B.9. p. 166; Strype's any fault they found with the faith, but only with Life of Parker, p. 326; Neale's History of the the discipline and form of government of the Puritans, vol. i. p. 375; Mosheim's Eccl. History, churches in England. They equally charged vol. iv. p. 98; Hornbeck's History of Brownism. corruption on the episcopal and presbyterian BUCHANITES, a set of enthusiasts who forms; nor would they join with any other re- sprung up in the west of Scotland about 1783, formed church, because they were not assured of and took their name from a Mrs. Buchan of the sanctity and regeneration of the members that Glasgow, who gave herself out to be the woman composed it. They condemned the solemn cele-spoken of in the Revelations; and that all who bration of marriages in the church, maintaining that matrimony being a political contract, the confirmation thereof ought to come from the civil cagistrate; an opinion in which they are not singalar. They would not allow the children of rch as were not members of the church to be ized They rejected all forms of prayer, and held that the Lord's prayer was not to be recited as a prayer, being only given for a rule or model whereon all our prayers are to be formed. Their form of church government was nearly as follows: When a church was to be gathered, such as desed to be members of it made a confession of their fath in the presence of each other, and signed a evenant, by which they obliged themselves to walk together in the order of the Gospel. The whole power of admitting and excluding mem-mandments of the pope. r with the decision of all controversies, was odged in the brotherhood. Their church officers were chosen from among themselves, and separated to their several offices by fasting, prayer, and imposition of hands. But they did not allow the priesthood to be any distinct order. As the de of the brethren made a man a minister, so the same power could discharge him from his ce, and reduce him to a mere layman again; as they maintained the bounds of a church to be no greater than what could meet together in one place, and join in one communion, so the wer of these officers was prescribed within the me limits.-The minister of one church could administer the Lord's Supper to another, nor baptize the children of any but those of his own raty. Any lay brother was allowed the liberty of giving a word of exhortation to the people; and it was usual for some of them after sermon to ask questions, and reason upon the doctrines that had been preached. In a word, every church on thur model is a body corporate, having full power to do every thing in themselves, without being table to any class, synod, convocation, or ther jurisdiction whatever. The reader will Jage how near the Independent churches are slad to this form of government. See INDEPENDENTS. The laws were executed with great verity on the Brownists; their books were prohabited by queen Elizabeth, their persons impriwed, and some hanged. Brown himself decard on his death-bed that he had been in thirty-two different prisons, in some of which he uld not see his hand at noon-day. They were so much persecuted, that they resolved at last to qut the country. Accordingly many retired and ind at Amsterdam, where they formed a church, and chose Mr. Johnson their pastor, and believed in her should be taken up to heaven without tasting death, as the end of the world was near. They never increased much; and the death of their leader, within a year or two afterwards, occasioned their dispersion, by putting an end to their hopes of reaching the New Jerusalem without death. BUDNÆANS, a sect in Poland, who disclaimed the worship of Christ, and ran into many wild hypotheses. Budnæus, the founder, was publicly excommunicated in 1584, with all his disciples, but afterwards he was admitted to the communion of the Socinian sect. BULLS, (Popish,) are letters called apostolic by the Canonists, strengthened with a leaden seal, and containing in them the decrees and com BURGHER SECEDERS, a numerous and respectable class of dissenters from the church of Scotland, who were originally connected with the associate presbytery; but, some difference of sentiment arising about the lawfulness of taking the Burgess oath, a separation ensued in 1739; in consequence of which, those who pleaded for the affirmative obtained the appellation of Burgher, and their opponents that of Anti-burgher Seceders. See SECEDERS. BURIAL, the interment of a deceased person. The rites of burial have been looked upon in all countries as a debt so sacred, that such as neglected to discharge them were thought accursed. Among the Jews, the privilege of burial was denied only to self-murderers, who were thrown out to putrefy upon the ground. In the Christian church, though good men always desired the privilege of interment, yet they were not, like the heathens, so concerned for their bodies, as to think it any detriment to them if either the barbarity of an enemy, or some other accident, deprived them of this privilege. The primitive church denied the more solemn rites of burial only to unbaptized persons, self-murderers, and excommunicated persons, who continued obstinate and impenitent in a manifest contempt of the church's censures. The place of burial among the Jews was never particularly determined. We find they had graves in the town and country, upon the highway or in gardens, and upon mountains. Among the Greeks, the temples were made repositories for the dead, in the primitive ages: yet, in the latter ages, the Greeks as well as the Romans buried the dead without the cities, and chiefly by the highways. Among the primitive Christians, burying in cities was not allowed for the first three hundred years, nor in churches for many ages after; the dead bodies being first deposited in the atrium | In the famous bishop Hall's will we find this or churchyard, and porches and porticos of the church: hereditary burying-places were forbidden till the twelfth century. See FUNERAL RITES. As to burying in churches, we find a difference of opinion: some have thought it improper that dead bodies should be interred in the church. Sir Matthew Hale used to say that churches were for the living, and churchyards for the dead. passage; after desiring a private funeral, he says, "I do not hold God's house a meet repository for the dead bodies of the greatest saints." "Mr. Hervey, on the contrary, defends it, and supposes that it tends to render our assemblies more awful: and that, as the bodies of the saints are the Lord's property, they should be reposed in his house. C. CABBALA, a Hebrew word, signifying tradi- | tion: it is used for a mysterious kind of science pretended to have been delivered by revelation to the ancient Jews, and transmitted by oral tradition to those of our times: serving for interpretation of the books both of nature and Scripture. CABBALISTS, the Jewish doctors who profess the study of the cabbala. They study principally the combination of particular words, letters, and numbers; and by this, they say, they see clearly into the sense of Scripture. In their opinion, there is not a word, letter, number, or accent, in the law, without some mystery in it; and they even pretend to discover what is future by this vain study. Dr. Smith has given us the following description of the Cabbalistic rabbies. marks of reprobation; as the inhabitants of So dom, Esau, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. They had, in particular, great veneration for Judas, under the pretence that the death of Christ had saved mankind. had been constantly received by the ancient doctors, during the first five centuries, were to be considered as of equal truth and authority with the express declarations and doctrines of Scripture. CALIXTINS, a branch of the Hussites in Bohemia and Moravia, in the fifteenth century. The principal point in which they differed from the church of Rome was the use of the chalice (calix), or communicating in both kinds. Calixtins was also a name given to those among the Lutherans who followed the opinions of George Calixtus, a celebrated divine in the seventeenth century, who endeavoured to unite the Romish, Lutheran, and Calvinistic churches in the bonds of charity and mutual benevolence. He maintained, 1. That the fundamental doctrines of They have employed the above methods of in- Christianity, by which he meant those elementerpretation, which have rendered the Scripture a tary principles whence all its truths flow, were convenient instrument of subserviency to any preserved pure in all three communions, and were purpose which they might choose. Disregarding contained in that ancient form of doctrine that is the continuity of subject, and the harmony of vulgarly known by the name of the apostles' parts, in any Scriptural composition, they select-creed.-2. That the tenets and opinions which ed sentences, and broken pieces of sentences, and even single words and detached letters; and these they proposed to the ignorant and abused multitude as the annunciations of truth and authority. To ascertain the native sense of the sacred writers, however momentous and valuable, was no object of their desire. Attention to the just import of words, to the scope of argument, and to the connexion of parts, was a labour from which they were utterly averse, and which they impiously despised. Instead of such faithful and honest endeavours to know the will of God, they stimulated a sportive fancy, a corrupt and often absurd ingenuity, to the invention of meanings the most remote from the design of the inspired writer, and the most foreign from the dictates of an unsophisticated understanding. No part of the Scriptures was safe from this profanation. The plainest narrative, the most solemn command, the most clear and interesting declaration of doctrine, were made to bend beneath this ir reverent violence. History the most true, the most ancient, and the most important in the world, was considered merely as the vehicle of mystic allegory. The rule of faith, and the standard of indissoluble duty, were made flexible and weak as the spider's web, and the commandments of God were rendered void. See Dr. Smith's Sermon on the Apostolic Ministry compared with the Pretensions of spurious Religion and false Philosophy. CAINITES, a sect who sprung up about the year 130; so called, because they esteemed Cain worthy of the greatest honours. They honoured those who carry in Scripture the most visible CALL, CALLING, generally denotes God's invitation to man to participate the blessings of salvation: it is termed effectual, to distinguish it from that external or common call of the light of nature, but especially of the Gospel, in which men are invited to come to God, but which has no saving effect upon the heart: thus it is said, "Many are called, but few chosen." Matt. xxi. 14. Effectual calling has been more particularly defined to be "the work of God's Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds with the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the Gospel. This may further be considered as a call from darkness to light, 1 Pet. ii. 9; from bondage to liberty, Gal. ii. 13; from the fellowship of the world to the fellowship of Christ, 1 Con i. 9; from misery to happiness, 1 Cor. vii. 15; from sin to holiness, 1 Thess. iv. 7; finally, from all created good to the enjoyment of eternal felicity 1 Pet. v. 10. It is considered in the Scripture as a holy calling, 2 Tim. i. 9; a high calling, Phil iii. 14; a heavenly calling, Heb. iii. 1; and with out repentance, as God will never cast off any who are once drawn to him, Rom. xi. 29. It has been a matter of dispute whether the Gospel call should be general, i. e. preached to e men indiscriminately. Some suppose that, as the clect only will be saved, it is to be preached only to them; and, therefore, cannot invite all to com CALVINISTS CALVINISTS In proof of this they allege, among many other Scripture passages, the following: "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.-For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God, that showeth mercy. Thou wilt say, then, Why doth he yet find fault; for who hath resisted his will? to Christ. But to this it is answered, that an un-before the foundation of the world, unto eternal known decree can be no rule of action, Deut. glory, according to his immutable purpose, and mix. 29. Prov. ii. 13; that, as we know not who of his free grace and love, without the least foreare the elect, we cannot tell but he may succeed sight of faith, good works, or any conditions perour endeavours by enabling those who are ad- formed by the creature; and that the rest of mandressed to comply with the call, and believe; that kind he was pleased to pass by, and ordain to it is the Christian minister's commission to dishonour and wrath, for their sins, to the praise preach the Gospel to every creature, Mark xvi. of his vindictive justice. 15; that the inspired writers never confined themselves to preach to saints only, but reasoned with and persuaded sinners, 2 Cor. v. 11:-and, lastly, that a general address to men's consciences has been greatly successful in promoting their contersion, Acts ii. 23, 41. But it has been asked, if noue but the elect can believe, and no man has any ability in himself to comply with the call, and as the Almighty knows that none but those to whom he gives grace can be effectually called, of what use is it to insist on a general and external call? To this it is answered, that, by the exter-Nay, but O man! who art thou that repliest nal call, gross enormous crimes are often avoided; against God? Shall the thing formed say to him babits of vice have been partly conquered; and that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? much moral good at least has been produced. It Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the is also observed, that though a man cannot con- same lump to make one vessel unto honour and vert himself, yet he has a power to do some things another unto dishonour?-Hath God cast away that are materially good, though not good in all his people whom he foreknew? Wot ye not those circumstances that accompany or flow from what the Scripture saith of Elias? Even so at regeneration: such were Ahab's humility, 1 this present time, also, there is a remnant accordKings xxi. 29; Nineveh's repentance, Jer. iii. 5; ing to the election of grace. And if by grace, and Herod's hearing of John, Mark vi. 20. On then it is no more of works. What then? Israthe whole, the design of God in giving this com-el hath not obtained that which he seeketh for, mon call in the Gospel is the salvation of his but the election hath obtained it, and the rest are people, the restraining of many from wicked blinded.-Whom he did predestinate, them he practices, and the setting forth of the glorious also called. We give thanks to God always for work of redemption by Jesus Christ. See Gill you brethren beloved of the Lord, because God and Ridgley's Body of Div.; Witsius on the hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, Cor.; and Bennet's Essay on the Gospel Dis-through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of pensation. the truth.-As many as were ordained to eternal CALVINISTS, those who embrace the doc-life, believed." Eph. i. 4. Rom. ix. xi. 1-6. trine and sentiments of Calvin, the celebrated reformer of the Christian church from Romish superstition and doctrinal errors. John Calvin was born at Nogen, in Picardy, in the year 1509. He first studied the civil law, and was afterwards made professor of divinity at Geneva, in the year 1536. His genius, learning, eloquence, and piety, rendered him respectable even in the eyes of his enemies. The name of Calvinists seems to have been given at first to those who embraced not merely Che doctrine, but the church government and discine established at Geneva, and to distinguish them from the Lutherans. But since the meeting of the Synod of Dort, the name has been chiefly appled to those who embrace his leading views of Ge Gospel, to distinguish them from the Ar viii. 29, 30. 2 Thess. ii. 13. Acts xiii. 48. They think also that the greater part of these passages, being found in the epistolary writings, after the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, who was promised to guide the apostles into all truth, is an argument in favour of the doctrine. They do not consider predestination, however, as affecting the agency or accountableness of creatures, or as being to them any rule of conduct. On the contrary, they suppose them to act as freely, and to be as much the proper subjects of calls, warnings, exhortations, promises, and threatenings, as if no decree existed. The connection in which the doctrine is introduced by the divines at Dort, is to account for one sinner's believing and being saved rather than another; and such the Calvinists say, is the connection which it occupies in the Scriptures. The leading principles taught by Calvin were With respect to the conditional predestination same as those of Augustine. The main doc-admitted by the Arminians, they say that an nes by which those who are called after his election upon faith or good works foreseen, is not rume are distinguished from the Arminians, are that of the Scriptures; for that election is there ed to five articles; and which, from their made the cause of faith and holiness, and cannot, wing the principal points discussed at the Synod for this reason, be the effect of them. With reDart, have since been denominated the fire gard to predestination to death, they say, if the These are, predestination, particular re- question be, Wherefore did God decree to punish tion, total depravity, effectual calling, and those who are punished? the answer is, On accertain perseverance of the saints. count of their sins. But if it be, Wherefore did The following statement is taken principally he decree to punish them rather than others? • the writings of Calvin and the decisions at there is no other reason to be assigned, but that „hat, compressed in as few words as possible. so it seemed good in his sight. Eph. i. 3, 4. 1. They maintain that God hath chosen a cer- John vi. 37. Rom. viii. 29, 30. Acts xiii. 48. number of the fallen race of Adam in Christ 1 Pet. i. 1. Rom. ix. 15, 16. xi. 5, 6. |