On Calvinism

Excerpt

ir,

When I venture to inscribe to you the following pages, I am fearless of having applied to me Johnson’s definition of a dedicator, “one who inscribes his work to a patron with compliment and servility.” Adulation, Sir, from any quarter, you would resent as an indignity, and the tenor of my own life and writings will secure me from the imputation of servile deference to others, with whatever reverence I may contemplate their rank, their talents, or their virtues.

When, Sir, under unusual circumstances, I engaged in the ministry of the Church, the presentation which I received from the Chapter was, on my part, unsolicited and unexpected, and, on yours, a favour done on public principle to one who was personally unknown to you.

In respectfully presenting to your attention this short treatise, I do not prejudge your opinion of its contents, whether favourable or adverse. The responsibility rests exclusively with the writer.

But I cherish the persuasion that it contains no sentiments, and expresses no feelings, which can be justly displeasing to a dignified clergyman, who has firmly professed his attachment to the great principles of the Church in times more dangerous to 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....