will persevere to the end. The decree of election extends only to particular persons, and therefore the redemption it procures is a particular redemption; it is an absolute decree, and therefore all whom it calls, are effectually called; it is an immutable decree, and therefore all whom it restores to the condition of saints, must retain this condition.

The fundamental doctrines of Calvinism, then, are total depravity, and election; and if these are found to be contained in the articles and homilies, I suppose it may be rightly inferred, that such are the doctrines of the church. When an established church is built on a code of laws, articles, and formularies, which have been fixed by convocations and conventions, where shall we look for the tenets of this church but in this code itself? Interpretations and commentaries, to make articles understood, are very suspicious. Erudite researches, to find out what the framers of the articles meant, are useless. It is to be presumed they meant what they have expressed. If the church fancy it has grown wiser and improved since the days of Cranmer, and find doctrines contained in some of the articles, which it cannot receive, let it reject such articles, and not resort to conceits and paraphrases to explain away the meaning, which they irresistably force upon every unbiassed mind.

Let us see what the church teaches in regard to these two principal points of Calvinism. A single reading of the articles, I am persuaded, would convince most persons, that these doctrines are in substance taught there, with as much emphasis as in any calvinistic formulary. I will bring forward a few

passages, which, if they do not imply the total depravity of our nature, and the imputation of Adam's sin to his posterity, it will be no easy task to tell. what they do imply. The ninth article has generally been thought to be of itself decisive on this point, although you are resolved it shall countenance no such doctrine. The following are the words of the article, as it stands in the Book of Common Prayer.

"Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam (as the Pelagians do vainly talk,) but it is the fault and corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the spirit; and therefore in every person born into this world it deserveth God's wrath and damnation. And this infection of nature doth remain, yea, in them that are regenerated."

Where will you find the calvinistic tenet of original sin, and the total depravity of human nature, expressed in stronger terms than these? The "vain talk" of Pelagius consisted in maintaining, that the sin of Adam was not imputed to his posterity, and that we are born as free from guilt, as if Adam had never transgressed. This was called a heresy, and to guard against it, the article takes care to tell us in terms, which it is presumed no one can mistake, what the church understands by original sin. And as it respects depravity, what is "that corruption of the nature of every man, which deserveth God's wrath and damnation," if it be not what the Calvinists call total depravity? It will be difficult to form a defini

tion of such a quality, if it be not contained in these words.*

Compare this article with the following extracts. "The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and good works to faith and calling upon God." Art. x. "Works done before the grace of Christ, and the inspiration of his spirit, are not pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ, neither do they make men meet to receive grace; yea, rather, for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt not but they have the nature of sin." Art. xiii. "All men are conceived and born in sin, and they who are in the flesh connot please God."+

It is scarcely necessary to remark on these passages. Their confirmation of what has been above shown to be the sense of the ninth article must be obvious. What else but a corrupt and depraved state

* The bishop of Lincoln has reminded us, that the article does not say we are totally depraved, but only "very far gone from original righteousness." This is a quibble, which few, probably, would have discovered without aid. Whoever resorts to it, needs give no other indication of the impressions he receives from the general import of the article. That a bishop, and a scholar, should decend to this kind of trifling, we cannot but wonder; especially when it is considered that the articles were first drawn up in Latin, and that this is a very faulty translation. In the Latin it stands, "Ab originali justitia quam longissime distet;" Gone as far as possible from original righteousness. Bishop of Lincoln's Refutation of Calvinism, chap. i. p. 50. Scott's reply to Tomline, vol. i. p. 80. The Fathers, Reformers, &c. in Harmony with Calvin, p. 43.

"Baptism of such as are of riper years."

of our nature, in as strong a sense as Calvin himself could have expressed it, can render us incapable of having faith, and calling upon God? He must be a depraved being, indeed, who is not fit to call on his Maker. Can the good works of any being, who is not totally depraved, be "of the nature of sin, and not pleasant to God?" Thus we see this doctrine is most unequivocally taught in several articles of the church.

Let us turn to the Homilies. In the thirty-fifth article, these books are enjoined "to be read in churches by the ministers diligently and distinctly," as containing "a godly and wholesome doctrine, and necessary for these times." The Homilies, therefore, I suppose to be of equal authority with the articles, or any part of the church service.* In the second Homily concerning the death and passion of our Saviour, it is stated, "When our great grand father Adam had broken God's commandment, in eating the apple forbidden him in Paradise, at the motion and suggestion of his wife, he purchased

*By an order of the convention in 1801, the reading of the Homilies in churches was suspended, till a revision of them could be "conveniently made for the clearing of them, as well from obsolete words and phrases, as from local references." Nothing more seems to have been done till 1814, when the convention "proposed to the house of clerical and lay deputies, to make a standing order to every bishop, and to the ecclesiastical authority in every state destitute of a bishop, to be furnished, as soon as may be, with a copy or copies, of said work, and to require it to be studied by all candidates for the ministry within their respective bounds."

In consequence of this resolve of the convention, an edition of the Homilies was speedily published in New-York, but without alteration. It was printed literally from the last Oxford edition.

thereby not only to himself, but also to his posterity forever, the just wrath and indignation of God, who, according to his former sentence pronounced at the giving of the commandment, condemned both him and all his to everlasting death, both of body and soul;– he was cast out of Paradise, he was no longer a citizen of heaven, but a firebrand of hell, and a bond slave of the devil." "Man of his own nature is fleshly and carnal, corrupt and naught, sinful and disobedient to God, without any spark of goodness in him, without any virtuous or godly motion, only given to evil thoughts and wicked deeds."*

Again, in the second part of the Homily of the Misery of Man, we read; "Of ourselves we be crabtrees, that can bring forth no apples. We be of ourselves of such earth as can bring forth but weeds, nettles, briers, cockle, and darnel.-Hitherto have we heard what we are of ourselves; very sinful, wretched, and damnable; we are not able to think a good thought or work a good deed, so that we can find in ourselves no hope of salvation, but rather whatsoever maketh unto our destruction."

And again, after describing the deplorable condition into which Adam was brought by the fall, the Homily continues; "This so great and miserable a plague, if it had only rested on Adam, who first offended, it had been so much the easier, and might the better have been borne. But it fell not only on him, but also on his posterity and children for ever, so that the whole brood of Adam's flesh should sustain the self same fall and punishment, which their

* Homily for Whitsunday, Part. 1.