But their religion, be it remembered, was not a mere religion of the Sabbath. It accompanied them through the week. It attended them in all the walks, and in all the engagements of life. It indicated the objects of their habitual pursuit; shaped their plans; enlisted their energies, and gave direction to their exertions. It rendered them just and upright in their dealings; faithful to their engagements; meek in their spirit; kind in their deportment; sober, and temperate, and chaste in all their conversation. Deeply sensible of that exuberant and unceasing mercy of Heaven on which they lived, they could open their hearts, and their treasures to the children of indigence and distress. Habitually penetrated with the pardoning love of their Saviour, they could love the unlovely; they could forgive the injurious; they could overcome evil with good. Yes, in the genuine New England Puritan, there was a symmetry, and a finish of character which not only puts to shame the morality of the men of the world, but casts into shade the ordinary virtue, even of the religious; and which emphatically proclaims the divine and unparalleled excellence of genuine, thorough Christianity. True; those good men exhibited little of polish in their manners, or of artificial grace in their deportment. But theirs was the substantial politeness which, without form or parade, studies the feelings, and promotes the comfort of others. They were uninitiated in the pleasures of the ball-room, and the theatre; but they found solid and heart-felt comfort at the family fireside. They had little relish for the fripperies and affectations of literature; but with all their hearts, they loved sound and sober learning. What unvitiated heart does not love the unadorned, unaffected simplicity of these venerable men? Who does not admire their good sense, in seeking only the solid realities of virtue, of politeness, of knowledge, of enjoyment; and contentedly leaving their forms and shadows to others. We need not undervalue any real improvements of modern times. We cheerfully admit that those improvements are many and great. Yet who will not confess that by a little infusion of the ancient New Eng

sanity and suicide: who, humanly speaking, might have been preserved in health, if they would have conscientiously observed the Sabbath."Who would not wish, that the statesmen and politicians of our own country would receive a lesson of wisdom, and of the truest honour, from this distinguished friend of God and man?

land simplicity, neither our morals, nor manners, nor amusements, nor learning, nor even our theology would suffer loss?

But fruitful and unexhausted as the subject is, the discussion must not be prolonged. The view we have given of the characteristic excellencies of the pilgrim Fathers, and of their earlier descendants, gives birth to some interesting reflections.

Let us look, then, once more, at those venerable men, who have just passed in review before us. What new thing is this in the earth? When, before, did a company of pilgrims abandon their beloved homes, and the sepulchres of their fathers, to seek, over the pathless ocean, and amidst the horrours of winter, a far distant and inhospitable clime. And for what? Not for gain, nor for glory; not for commerce, nor for conquest; but for the pure love of God, and his truth; of Christ, and his religion. The spectacle is as instructive, as it is sublime. It preaches aloud to the world. It declares, and most eloquently declares, what is the true dignity of man; what is the highest perfection of the human character; what, in the most elevated minds, is the most important object of life; what is that pearl of great price, for which every thing beside were well sacrificed. It declares what are the religious principles which the greatest and best of men have embraced and loved; what are the views of Scripture truth which inspire the noblest views, the truest courage, the most rigid self-denial, the most exalted patriotism, and the purest virtue.

Look abroad on the land: and if amidst much which is painful to the eye, and sickening to the heart, you yet behold a country rich in blessings of every name; what do you behold, but a living commentary on the wisdom and virtue of our Fathers? Yes, it is through their instrumentality that a munificent and merciful God has poured upon us, as a people, such a profusion of invaluable favours.

Here, solemn reflections arise. If it is an honour to have sprung from such progenitors; if it is a privilege to inhabit a land explored by their enterprise, hallowed by their prayers, brightened by their virtues, and, through their cultivation, fruitful in all that dignifies man, and adorns society, and sweetens life; if to the honour and privilege an immense responsibility is attached-how has this responsibility been met? Have not these good men been more praised than imitated by us? How much have we pre

served of the purity of their faith; of the fervour of their piety; of the unbending strictness of their virtue? How do we regard and treat the truths they loved; the example they exhibited; the institutions they planted and cherished? Where, now, is the sacredness which they attached to the Sabbath? Where their scrupulous and devout attendance on the sanctuary? Where their delightful gathering around the family altar? Have we not long been subsisting on a fund of good habits provided by their wisdom and thrift, and yet neglected to recruit and perpetuate it? Have we not been dreaming that the fabric of our public prosperity will stand, even when the basis of private virtue which supports it, is undermined and gone?

But this is delusion; dangerous, fatal delusion. Who, that seriously reflects, can doubt whether, if our republic is to stand, it will stand on the same principles of religion and liberty of liberty based on religion, which gave it birth? Who can doubt, that if it sink to the same grave which has received other republics, it will owe the catastrophe to an abandonment of these high and holy principles? Who can doubt, that if the portentous clouds which are gathering around our country, are to be dissipated, it must be by a return to the principles and maxims of our great and pious fathers? Do we not need, do we not greatly need, the calm, sober, reflecting spirit of the wise and strong-minded Puritans, to subdue those excitabilities and excitements of the public mind, which threaten, more than all things else, our liberties, our government, and every thing sacred and precious in our country?

We solemnly record, before earth and heaven, our inviolable attachment to the sacred principles of the pilgrim Fathers. We shall die. But these principles are immortal. We shall die. But may we be gathered, at death, to the company of those who have HUMBLY AND PURELY SERVED GOD AND MAN. Let the wealth and honours of the world be given to those who sigh for them. Let the wreath of a posthumous fame light on the brows that ache for the empty trifle. But may the soul of the writer, and of every reader be joined in death, and in the great day of decision, to the Puritan fathers of happy New England.

ART. XIII.-ON THE CONTRAST BETWEEN THE LUTHERAN AND CALVINISTIC THEORIES OF THE DOCTIRNE OF ELECTION.

BY DR. F. SCHLEIERMACHER, late Professor of Theology, and Court Preacher at Berlin.

Translated from the German, by THE EDITOR,

PART II.

Calvinistic Theory of Election, vindicated from Objections drawn from its practical and theoretical Consequences.

THE old objections to the Calvinistic theory of Election, [relating to its consequences,] are thus exhibited by Dr. Bretschneider (p. 99): he distinguishes between the man who feels himself so far reformed, that he counts himself among the elect, the man in whom virtue and vice are still in conflict, and finally, the man who feels himself unable to extricate himself from the bonds of sin. He then affirms, that the first must be led by the Calvinistic theory to carelessness, or to pride; the second, to carelessness, or to despondency; the third, to absolute despair. As to Calvin and those of his followers, who have not fallen into these evils, he supposes that they possessed so strong a moral nature, that this theoretic errour could not exert its natural influence on their lives.

For my part, I could never believe, at the outset, that Calvin had overlooked these consequences of his doctrine, since he has elsewhere shown such a definite reference to the tendencies of the human heart, both to presumption and despondency; and labours to show, how careful and exact the preacher should be, on account of these dispositions, in his manner of exhibiting the truth. Thus, at the commencement of what he says on the loss of free will, he remarks: "hæc autem optima cavendi erroris erit ratio, si pericula considerentur quæ utrinque imminent. Nam ubi omni rectitudine abdicatur homo, statim ex eo occasionem desidiæ arripit; et quia nihil ad justitiæ studium per se valere dicitur ; illud totum quasi jam nihil ad se pertineat susque deque habet. Rursum vel minutulum illi quippiam

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arrogari non potest quin et ipse temeraria confidentia labefactetur."*

Can it be supposed now, that where he is treating of the doctrine of human inability, as in this passage-the doctrine upon which his theory of Election depends-he should have shown such regard, both to the presumptuous pride and the anxious despondencies of the human heart; that he should have seen how certainly encouragement would be given to one or the other by the least deviation from the right line; and that he should even have made it the test of true doctrine, that it produces neither of the consequences; can it be supposed, I say, that he should have done this, and then, when he comes to treat of the doctrine of Election-which is directly inferred from the othershould have forgotten it all, and proceeded as if no regard were to be paid to this twofold bias of the human heart? This is hard for me to believe respecting so judicious a teacher! And since he unhesitatingly ascribes to the opposite opinion, which denies the entire inability of man, all the fearful consequences of a frivolous pride; it is still more improbable, that he should not have inquired, what might be alleged by opponents against his own doctrine, as tending to produce, at least, a cheerless despondency, On this account, it appears to me, that an attempt must be made to discover, whether Calvin might not bring forward some argument, besides the strictness of his own virtue, (which can avail but little in this case) to repel these consequences-something contained in the nature of the doctrine itself, which he teaches.

It is, indeed, a matter of surprise to me, that I cannot refer directly to Calvin himself. But the fact is, that in the passage where he treats of the doctrine of Election, he has nothing to say of the caution, which it is necessary to use, lest encouragement should be given to the human heart, always seeking, as it is, for excuses. But ought we not to conclude from this, that, since the two doctines [of human

• Inst. II. II. 1.

+ Quorsum enim pertinet vana omni fiducia fretos deliberare, instituere, tentare; moliri, quæ putamus ad rem pertinere, et defici quidem et destitui tum sana intelligentia tum vera viutute, inter primos conatus, pergere tamen secure, donec in exitium corruamus? Atqui non aliter succedere iis potest, qui se aliquid posse propria virtuté confidunt.— Inst. II. I. 2.