rity, it is a presumption
against their truth.

2. This doctrine has the recommendation of freeing those who hold it
from anxiety about the practical part of religion, by substituting a
system of belief _purely speculative_. When examined in all its
bearings, it may be seen to consist of faith and assurance: faith in
the divine decrees; assurance of being numbered with the elect. Get
clear views of the divine sovereignty, believe that Christ died for
_you_ in particular, construe the persuasion of your safety into an
especial witness of the Holy Spirit; doubt nothing, fear nothing;
look entirely out of yourselves; and remember that there is a
finished salvation for the elect; and all is well! This is
Calvinism. And this is speculation. If repentance, self-government,
virtue, and the duties of Christian piety and obedience are
inculcated, these must be enforced on grounds not supplied by the
predestinarian theology, and irreconcileable with that scheme of
doctrine. Doubtless, the best writers of this school insist on
holiness of temper, and sanctity of life, and enforce these by
motives derived from the moral perfections of God, the turpitude of
sin, and the necessity of a renewed heart as being essential to
religion here and happiness hereafter. But all these considerations
are totally independent of the speculations of the fatalist, and are
rendered powerless as incentives to action exactly in proportion to
the practical influence of these speculations on the mind and the
heart.

Let the professor of Christianity give up his thoughts to eternal
decrees, and special grace, and the soothing dream of irrevocable
promises sealed to the heart by the clear witness of the Spirit, and
the moral conflict with sin and temptation will languish with the
salutary fear of danger. This is suited to the depraved indolence of
man. All false systems of religion have in view the indulgence of
this perilous but seductive peace. Any thing is acceptable to
corrupt human nature that supplies a substitute for the duties of
moral righteousness and a sublime virtue, lulling the conscience
into a state of artificial repose. And to produce this effect, no
scheme of religious belief, that ever emanated from the perverse
ingenuity of the human mind, was ever so perfectly contrived as the
Calvinistic notion of predestinating grace.

3. Of the multitudes of truly religious persons, who embrace this
doctrine or give their passive assent to it, bu