Tuesday, February 23, 2010

The Articles of the Church of England proved not to be Calvinistic.

Review of New Publications
1803
Orthodox Churchman

The Articles of the Church of England proved not to be Calvinistic. By Thomas Kipling, D.D. Dean of Peterborough, and late Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge. 8vo. 1802. Second Edition.


In the supplement to our second volume, p. 414, one of our correspondents had so fully expressed our sentiments respecting this treatise, that we did not deem it necessary to notice it in our reviewing department. We think it right, however, to announce its appearance in a second edition, more especially as it is now enlarged by the addition of an Appendix.

The learned author, after premising, that all the peculiar opinions of Calvin, which are connected with het subject of his enquiry, may be comprised under the single doctrine of predestination, proceeds to prove, that the doctrines of our Church are not, as has sometimes been asserted, in unison and correspondence with those op[inions o Calvin. This he does, and in the most satisfactory manner, 1st, by delineating the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination; and, 2dly. By comparing this doctrine with the Articles and Liturgy of the Church of England.

He considers the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination as reducible to the following propositions.

1st. That omnipotent Being, who has existed from all eternity, after he had decreed to create man in his own image, and had fore-ordained his fall from original righteousness, by which fall Adam’s own nature would be corrupted and depraved, viewed with the eye of prescience the whole of Adam’s offspring as a mass of corruption and perdition.

2nd. Among the vast multitude of human beings composing this mass of corruption and perdition, Almighty God decreed, before the foundation of the world, to bring some everlasting salvation and to damn all the rest eternally. This decree or purpose of God is denominated by Calvin predestination, some being thereby predestined to everlasting happiness, and other condemned by it to everlasting misery.

3dly. The objects of this decree are, not collective bodies of men, as Jews, Gentiles, Greeks, Romans, but individuals, as John, Matthew, Thomas, Peter, every one of whose fate after death is fixed by it, before he is born, immutably and everlastingly.

4thly. Adam, agreeably to the preordinance of God (for we are now come to the execution of this decrees) fell from innocence; and , in consequence of this lapse, the whole of man’s nature, as the Deity had foreseen and foreordained, underwent a complete change. It became corrupt, depraved, vicious; and every descendant of Adam, through his first parents’ transgression, became a lost, a damned, an accursed creature, and fuel for the flame of divine vengeance.

5thly. From the birth of Abraham (if not from an earlier period) to this present time, the Deity, agreeably to his eternal purpose and immutable decree, hath constantly been taking, and will continue daily to take, those individuals, whom he hath predestinated before the world began to everlasting salvation, out of this mass of corruption and perdition. All the rest, every one, whom he Passeth by, and leaves in this state of corruption and perdition, he reprobates; that is, abandons to wickedness in this life, and will torture eternally in the next. Those, whom he makes choice of, selects, and segregates for salvation, are called elect. Those whom he leaves in their original pollution, abandons, and will eternally torment, are called preterits (praeteriti) but most commonly reprobates. By election and reprobation is executed the immutable decree of predestination.

6thly. This discrimination made by the Deity between the elect and the reprobates is arbitrary; in no degree owing to any superior excellence, worth, or merit in the former, either present and actual, or future and foreseen, but wholly and solely to God’s will and pleasure. He extricates the elect from destruction for a demonstration of his mercy and goodness. He leaves the reprobates in their original state of perdition for a display of his power and glory.

7thly. The elect are put under the custody and protection of Jesus Christ; and, do what they will in this life, they cannot fail of being saved finally, being under an immutable decree, and guarded by omnipotence. The reprobates, how much soever they may exert themselves for the purpose, cannot attain everlasting salvation, being hindered therefrom, and repelled by Almighty God. As the final salvation of the elect is in no degree doubtful, from their first entrance into this world to their departure out of it, but is all the time fixed and certain; so neither is the eternal damnation of a reprobate ever uncertain, during his passage through this world, but is even before he is born unalterably fixed and sure. That he should perish, is the very purpose, for which he was created.

8thly. Neither the best purposes, nor the best endeavors, nor the best acts, of an elect, even after regeneration, are in any wise preparatory to eternal salvation. On the contrary, as the elect people of God under the Mosaic dispensation, were commanded to desist on the Sabbath day from their worldly occupations, so, in respect of a all spiritual concerns, the elect under the Gospel dispensation are enjoined to bid adieu to all wills, works, and endeavors of their own, and to keep most religiously a perpetual Sabbath; that there may be free and sample scope within them for the operation of God’s spirit.

9thly. God, who of his own will and pleasure predestinated the elect to eternal salvation, himself prepares and fits them for it. The means used by him for this purpose are the preaching of his word, and the operations of his spirit; both which together constitute what is denominated special calling.

10thly. The operations of God’s spirit are manifold – He forms in the elect a new understanding.2. He destroys their natural, and creates in them a new will.3. Every propensity they may have, and every effort they may make, to do works pleasing and acceptable to God, is his.4. He also, it is, who begins; continues, and finishes, every good work done by them; and who makes them persevere unto the end in well doing. In each of these operations, he does not concur or co-operate with the elect, but is the sole and entire operator; and they are his instruments or organs.

11thly. Though the elect may, for a time, resist the grace of God, they cannot finally overcome it. This grace is sovereign, and invincible in its operation.

12thly. God, who arbitrarily predestinated the reprobates to eternal destruction, himself also prepares and hits them for it. He does this by blinding their minds, hardening their hearts, stupefying their intellects, depriving them of the knowledge of himself, withholding from them the influence of his spirit, and delivering them over to the devil.

13thly. The number of the elect is very small. The reprobates, of course, are numberless.

Lastly. The reprobates, those numberless rational beings, whom Almighty God hath raised up for the illustrating of his glory, are hateful to him. He also hates, in proportion to their naughtiness, the chosen few.

When these propositions are brought together, and consider in one view, they almost induce us to think that Calvin had set himself to collect al the absurdities on the subject, which the human imagination was capable of conceiving. That the above is a faithful representation of the opinions of Calvin on the subject of predestination, is most incontrovertibly shown by copious extracts from the writings of Calvin himself. These extracts the learned reader will do well to consult; but it is not necessary for us to transcribe them here. After this delineation of what Calvinism is, we need not follow the author in his comparison of it with the Articles and Liturgy of our Church; but may safely leaven it to the judgment of our readers to determine, whether the doctrines of the Church can with any propriety be called Calvinistic.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Next Month's reading from Kindred Spirits

I am really looking forward to getting this book from the library!!!

Here is a link to join the monthly reading!!!
http://kindredspiritsbookgroup.blogspot.com/

The Simmons Family

The Simmons Family