ful characters. Nothing can be more
groundless than the persuasion so commonly entertained by persons of
this creed, that to be fully convinced of the truth of the doctrine
is a sufficient ground of confidence that _they_ are therefore of
the number of the chosen people. The strongest conviction may be
deceptive. The firmest assurance may be the result of ignorant or
fanatical presumption. And whatever may be the readiness of this
class of persons to say, "My mountain standeth firm--I shall never
be moved," it cannot but be feared respecting many of them, that
they have yet to learn the very "first principles of the oracles of
God." The remarkable absence of humility and charity in these
"children of special grace" is alone enough to render their
Christianity questionable, exposes the dangerous nature of their
delusion, and proves the practical inutility of their scheme; since,
after all, without the evidence of a truly evangelical temper and
life, no inward assurance would satisfy a reflecting mind; and in
the possession of such evidence, no other assurance is needed.

The self-righteousness of the Pharisee is scarcely more to be
dreaded than the spiritual pride of the Calvinist, when it has
passed from under the control of holy wisdom. It assumes the
character of selfishness, bigotry, and the lust of intolerant
dominion.

The same spirit of exclusiveness and domination, which pervades in
general their ecclesiastical polity, affects their allegiance to the
state. Under cover of abolishing episcopacy, the doctrinal Puritans
were the principal authors of that revolution which introduced the
Commonwealth after the fall of the monarchy; and their aim was the
exclusive _dominion of the saints_, that by political power they
might establish their own forms of Church government. Religion was
really their object, and they were not hypocritical in professing
it; but to accomplish their spiritual projects, they considered
themselves entitled to secular dominion; and their tyranny in Church
and State was so overbearing, that the nation, after the death of
Cromwell, eagerly threw itself into the arms of the Stuarts, almost
without a compact, rather than endure the sanctimonious intolerance
of Calvinistic patriots and republican saints[6].

The same leaven is still at work. The doctrinal Puritans of the
present day have the same lordly consciousness of a right to
dominion. They have declared their resolution to "stagger senates,