away disciples after them, was not the denial of any Christian truth, or the introduction of any peculiar heresy, but the

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speaking perverse things," things perverted from their natural, their plain and direct sense and interpretation. This prophecy may have been in the course of fulfilment when Timothy was appointed to the superintendence of the Church of Ephesus, that he might charge some e not to teach doctrine strange or foreign to that of the Apostles. The offender is thus described. If any man deliver strange doctrine, and "consent not to wholesome "words, even the words of our Lord Jesus "Christ, and to the doctrine which is ac"cording to godliness; he is proud, know“ing nothing, but doting about questions "and strifes of words." This offence of perverting the truth is also insisted on by Saint Peter, in whose time it had probably spread widely in the Church, and who, in speaking of the subjects discussed

e 1 Tim. i. 3. μη ἑτεροδιδασκαλειν. τις ἑτεροδιδασκαλει.

f 1 Tim. vi. 3, 4.

EL

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in the Epistles of Saint Paul, says, that in them " are some things hard to be under

stood, which they that are unlearned and "unstable wrest," or break as a limb upon a wheel," as they do also the other Scriptures, to their own destruction." The remedy which he prescribes for this practice is this: "Ye therefore, beloved, seeing know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away by "the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness. But grow in grace, and "in the knowledge of our Lord and Sa"viour Jesus Christs."

"that ye

From the descriptions which the Apostles have given of these men, whose offence they foretold and lived to censure, it appears, that they were themselves members of the Church, that they were under the control of the governors of the Church, and that in this capacity they nevertheless laboured to draw away disciples after them. Their offence was, that they uttered perverse things, that they wrested the Scrip

tures from their natural meaning, and that in this manner they especially treated the things hard to be understood in the Epistles of Saint Paul. What were the things hard to be understood, or to which of the Epistles allusion is principally made, it is vain to conjecture; but on a reference to the Epistle to the Ephesians, to whose perverting elders the prophecy was originally addressed, it is impossible to overlook the doctrines of Predestination and Election", of the common condition of all men by nature as the children of wrath', of their regeneration, or being quickened together with Christ, and of the salvation which is by grace through faith. From the earnestness with which the Apostle insists upon these doctrines it may be inferred, that they were especially liable to be perverted by the Ephesians; and it may have been one of the objects of his addressing this Epistle to them, to correct their misapprehension, and to communicate to them sound

h Ephes. i. 4, 5, 6. Ibid. ii. 3.

k Ibid. ii. 5. Ibid.

knowledge and instruction on these articles of their Christian faith.

It will not be denied, that these doctrines are hard to be understood, that they have often been perverted, and that whenever they are made to rest on a scriptural foundation, they are enforced almost exclusively on the authority of Saint Paul. In comparing with the general tenor of the Scriptures the doctrines of Original Sin, of Free-will, Regeneration, Salvation by Faith through grace, Election, and Predestination, as they are maintained by their advocates in the present day, it will appear, that they are appropriately designated in the Apostle's prophecy, as doctrines strange, and perverted from his meaning.

I. Of these principles, which are supposed to be "of primary and fundamental importance"," the first in order is "the "❝ universal and extreme sinfulness"," "the "universally guilty, depraved, condemned,

m

Appeal to Men of Wisdom and Candour, by the Rev. C. Simeon, p. 17.

in Some Account of the Rev. Tho. Robinson, by the Rev. E. T. Vaughan, p. 64.

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"and helpless state of man," his "total"," radical, and fundamental depravity." In the language of modern Calvinists, man is represented to be "a fallen creature, guilty, polluted, helpless"," "utterly undone, "all depravedt," having " entirely lost the perfection of his nature"," and "an ef"fectual or prevailing inclination to good":" he is "in a state of guilt and sinful imbecility," "wholly corrupt, utterly impotent, under the wrath of God, and liable "to everlasting torments"." In these expressions it is not meant," that men may "not be comparatively good by naturea;"

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• The Calvinistic Clergy defended, and the Doctrines of Calvin maintained, in a Letter to the Rev. J. Beresford, by E. T. Vaughan. 2d edit. p. 85.

S

PA Defence of Modern Calvinism, by Edward Williams, D. D. p. 514. Vaughan's Account, p. 303. 9 Overton's True Churchman ascertained, p. 134. r Simeon, p. 18. s Vaughan's Account, p. 364. t Ibid. p. 356. Remarks on the Refutation of Calvinism, by Thomas Scott, Rector of Aston Sandford. Vol. ii. p. 581.

u Williams, p. 6.

x Williams, p. 19.

a Simeon, p. 19.

Simeon, p. 19.

y Ibid. p. 202. z Overton, p. 157. Williams, p. 10, 11.