antecedent temper of the heart. The moment before the change, the
sinner is as far from sanctification, as darkness is from light, as
death is from life, as sin is from holiness."

"Regeneration is an instantaneous change, from exclusive attachment
to the creature, from supreme selfishness, from enmity against God,
to universal love, which fixes the heart supremely on Him; and there
is no previous abatement of the enmity, or approximation towards a
right temper; the heart being at one moment in full possession of
its native selfishness and opposition, at the next moment in
possession of a principle of supreme love to God; acquiring thus, in
an instant, a temper which it never possessed before."--_Lectures on
Important Doctrines by Dr. Griffin_.

How extravagant in theory, how false in fact! The doctrine of the
Anglican Church on this; and all similar points, never appears so
wise, and sound, and scriptural, as when contrasted with the
speculative systems of men, who, to give harmony and consistency to
their notions, close their eyes to the real world of man, and create
for themselves an ideal universe, peopled by another order of
beings, and governed by a power unknown but to the dreamers
themselves.

[5] The Presbyterian Church of Scotland is both Calvinistic and
National. But this fact does not militate against the argument of
this section; that Calvinism is opposed to the constitution and
purposes of a visible Church. Her creed and her discipline are at
variance. Her ministers are required to believe in the Westminster
Confession. And the great body of her people are said to be attached
to that system of doctrine. But her more educated classes reject it,
and the Scottish Church is a divided house.

[6] The prominent part taken by the doctrinal Puritans, in the
revolutionary movements which brought Charles I. to the block, is
proved by the concurrent testimony of the writers of those times. It
is amply illustrated and confirmed by Mr. Nichols in his "Calvinism
and Arminianism Compared."

The "Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson," by his widow Lucy, is not only
a work of great general interest, beautifully composed, and
combining with the life of an eminent person vivid sketches of the
times; but it illustrates the subject discussed in the text. Colonel
Hutchinson was a doctrinal Puritan, and one of the regicides. In
himself we behold all the elements of a great and noble character,
devout, humane, scrupulously consc