her
interests, and more difficult for her ministers, than any which have
heretofore occurred since the great Rebellion.

I have the honour to be, Sir,

your obliged and faithful servant,

WILLIAM HULL.

Eaton next Norwich,

Sept. 1841.

PREFACE.

That strenuous attempts are now in progress to propagate Calvinism
in its most objectionable forms, by impressing into its service that
spirit of earnest, but often misinformed piety which has been
awakened within the bosom of the Church, is too notorious to require
proof or to admit of refutation.

The following sheets have been written, and are now published, under
the solemn conviction, that the danger to be apprehended from the
extensive diffusion of this creed, both to religion and the Church,
renders it impossible that it should be allowed to pursue its
unmolested course, without correspondent efforts, on the part of
sound Churchmen, to counteract its baleful influence.

Superstition, which lays undue stress on outward forms, and
fanaticism, which gives credit to preternatural impulses, and
professes a particular kind of inspiration differing not at all from
infallibility, are the Scylla and Charybdis, through which, over
stormy waters or serene, we have to make our steady way. Both are
equally intolerant, and both are condemned by the genius of
Protestantism, the constitution of the Church, and the spirit of the
Bible.

It is devoutly to be desired, that none who are more regardful of
truth than of party, that none who are alive to the real state of
the times, and to the character of the respective interests which
may hereafter be brought into unhappy collision, may hesitate,
through fear or favour, to act in this crisis with moral courage
tempered with holy charity. Let them discountenance all extreme
innovations, from whatsoever quarter they may proceed, or by
whatsoever distinguished names they may be sanctioned. Let them rise
with manly integrity above the mean suggestions of temporizing
policy, and look only to the substantial and permanent interests of
the Church, which are those of truth and charity, of freedom in
alliance with order, of Christianity in its most ennobling form, and
of the public welfare of the British Empire.

If the spirit of rigid Calvinism, under any plausible disguise,
should be widely diffused through the Anglican Church, we need no
prophetic mind to announce, that it will lead to consequences fatal
to her peace and libe