SERMON XIV.

THE SYSTEM OF CALVINISM.

1 THESSALONIANS, v. 21.

Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

UNDER this apostolick direction, my purpose is to review the Calvinistick system of theology. Calvin may perhaps be ranked as the second in point of talent and activity, of zeal and influence, among the distinguished reformers.* He was

born in a province of France, in the year 1509. Educated with a view to the priesthood, while young, he was introduced to office in the cathedral church belonging to the place of his nativity. From thence he soon removed to Paris, where he distinguished himself in various branches of literature. In this city, the diligent study of scripture, and the conversation of several men of enlightened minds, led him to embrace the primary principles of the

See Dr. Rees's New Cyclopedia, article, Calvin.

protestant religion. Dissatisfied with his situation in the Church, he renounced the Catholick priesthood, and for a time devoted himself to the study of the civil law. But his deep researches into the sacred oracles, and a more intimate acquaintance with the reformers, strengthened his attachment to the religious opinions then rising into general notice.

After the death of his father, who had moved in an obscure condition, to acquire the means of support, Calvin published in Paris several elegant treatises on some of the Latin classicks. His attachment to the reformation becoming publick, he was obliged suddenly to quit this metropolis, and retire to an obscure village, where he supported himself by teaching Greek. At this early age he wrote a great part of his Institutes. Finding himself exposed to danger, even in his retirement, from the jealousy of the Papal Church, in 1534 he removed from the kingdom of France, and took up his residence at Basil, where, the next year, he published his Institutes in their present form. From Basil,

Calvin removed to Geneva, and there eventually established himself. His labours in this place were unremitted. Protected by the civil authority, he became the head of a particular denomination of Christians, and established a Church distinct from the Lutheran and the Protestant Episcopalian communions. At Geneva he established a theological seminary, which, during a long period, was filled with students from different parts of Europe; and Calvin had the honour of giving his name to most of the religious establishments of Protestant Christendom. To this day, his system, I believe, is

predominant in Holland and among the dissenters in France. The language of the articles of the English episcopal Church is Calvinistick, though many of its clergy assert that the Church is not. In Scotland, Calvinism exists unadulterated and unimproved. Presbyterians through the United States are Calvinists. Many divines in New England, while they tenaciously hold the name, discover a disposition to modify the tenets of Calvin.

The mental powers of Calvin were of the first class. He was eminent for his literary acquisitions, ardent in his temper, and indefatigable in his exertions to promote the cause in which he was engaged. He claimed superiority over his fellow Christians; was abusive to his opponents; and, under circumstances of aggravated cruelty, he sacrificed Servetus at the stake. These were blemishes in his person as a man, and spots in his character as a Christian; but our censures will be softened, when we consider the age in which he lived, and the opinions which then universally prevailed.

All controversies were at that period conducted with great personal abuse: these were generally carried on in Latin; and abusive and scurrilous epithets in a dead language do not offend the ear, as similar ideas would, expressed in terms rendered familiar by their use in common conversation. Toleration was then no where admitted: even its meaning was scarce understood. It was a generally admitted principle, that the supreme power might lawfully punish hereticks. Catholick and protestant professors were stained with the blood of

persecution. The minds of reformed Christians were by slow degrees opened to admit the sacred truth, that human authority may not interfere in concerns between God and the souls of men.

We should violate the law of charity, to question the religious sincerity of Calvin; but the weakness, which all allow, that he in some instances manifested, and the unchristian spirit that he certainly displayed in lighting the fires of persecution, furnish a sufficient reason for bringing his religious dogmas to the test of reason and scripture. The reformers rose from Egyptian darkness. Could it have been expected, that they would at once ascend to the light of the meridian day? What was then the state of all other sciences? If inquiry, investigation, and experiment, have since greatly exalted all natural sciences, can it be supposed that the general improvement of the human mind may not usefully be applied to theology? All the circumstances which attended the rise and establishment of Christianity, are now more accurately known than they were at the period of the reformation. The bible, which at that time was a sealed book to the Christian community, has since, in all protestant countries, been opened to people of every class; and among theologians, biblical criticism, within the last century, has been carried to a degree of perfection unexampled in any former age. Students in divinity at the present time, possess much greater advantages to acquire an accurate knowledge of revealed truth, than the first reformers did. Shall we close the avenues of light and information, and take the opinions of men, who lived in an age of

comparative ignorance and prejudice, as the infallible standard of orthodoxy? Or, shall we encourage the inquiry into the true meaning of scripture, and candidly examine the positions of those who enter upon the study with superiour means of light and knowledge? We all justly hold in high estimation the memories of the men, who broke asunder the chains which bound Christians to the debasing impositions of the Romish Hierarchy; but our veneration for their characters should not induce us to allow them an authority, which Christ has not delegated to any fallible individual, nor to any body of men. The reformers were not empowered to exercise dominion over the faith of their fellow Christians.

The system of divinity inculcated by Calvin is severe and gloomy in its aspect. To our appre hension, it deprives God of his character as the Father of the human family, and represents his moral administration as resting on mere sovereign power, and as making the individuals of the human race, without any apparent cause of distinction, either the objects of favouritism, or of inexorable wrath, and of interminable punishment.

The peculiarities of Calvinism are contained in five distinct propositions, usually denominated the five points. I cannot review the system more methodically, or more intelligibly than by considering these in their order. These five propositions

follow.

1. "God has chosen a certain number in Christ, unto everlasting glory, before the foundation of the world, according to his immutable purpose, and of