ult or the
reward of human deserts; that apart from the redemption of Christ,
there are _no_ works of righteousness by which we can be saved; and
that while Christians are made really holy and good, their
sanctification is to be traced to the grace of God in Christ Jesus.
In neither passage is there any statement on which to rest an
argument for the arbitrary and unconditional decree of the
Calvinist, nor for depreciating the intrinsic value of those really
good works which the Christian performs in faith. Calvinism has no
foundation in the word of God. It is in direct collision with that
sacred authority. St. Paul rests the divine election on the
foreknowledge of the Deity, and let his decision be final. "Whom he
did _foreknow_, he also did predestinate, to be conformed to the
image of his Son."

The seventeenth Article of the Church accords with the Scriptures,
and its doctrinal statements are made almost entirely in the
language of the sacred writers, and of those eminent divines of the
Reformation who abjured Calvinism and adhered to the Bible. It is
drawn up with great moderation, says nothing of absolute decrees and
unconditional election, and it treats the subject practically. The
concluding paragraph relating to "curious and carnal persons" shows
that the venerable compilers of the Article rejected extreme views
of this doctrine, since these only could lead to "a most dangerous
downfall." But if the article itself be at all equivocal, it must be
interpreted by the formularies of the Church and by the Scriptures,
since no dogma is to be imputed to this holy branch of Christ's
Catholic Church, that is at variance with the attributes of God, the
moral constitution of man, the testimony of the Bible, and the
obligations of practical religion.

If Calvinism be the doctrine of our Church, then are the
_Catechism_, and the Order for the Ministration of _Baptism_, the
most absurd and delusive compositions by which the minds of men were
ever led astray.

VI.--CALVINISM HAS LED TO THE CORRUPTION OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE, THAT
THE SCRIPTURES MAY BE ACCOMMODATED TO EXTREME VIEWS OF THE DIVINE
DECREES.

It was not in the nature of things, that Calvinistic predestination
should be received as truth, without producing such a modification
of the entire system of divine revelation, as would impress on it a
new and completely different character. Christianity, in its
unadulterated simplicity, is distinguished by the conso