tical
disbelief of the principles which, in speculation or imagination,
they seem to hold.

It would be both unjust and uncharitable to judge any class of
persons simply by the creed they subscribe, or to impute to them the
consequences which might be supposed to follow from a rigid
adherence to its doctrines. There are antagonist principles at work;
there is the law written on the heart; there is grace to counteract
the tendency of false impressions; there is the love of God and of
man to render those who are truly good men superior to any bad
principles they have unhappily imbibed. Their Christianity is
dominant, and their Calvinism is made harmless.

But evil speculation has a tendency in all minds to lessen or
destroy the power of those dictates of conscience which are
honourable to us as moral agents; and it will counteract, so far as
it goes, the salutary influence of those scriptural truths which
still retain their hold upon the judgment or the feelings. In but
few instances, comparatively, can Calvinism be altogether harmless;
in the ordinary course of things, it is productive of results
positively injurious.

In persons of serious religion, it will produce opposite effects, as
they may be gentle and timid, or bold and presumptuous. In the
former, anxiety, fearful apprehension, deep distress, approaching to
despondency, lest the tremendous decree of reprobation should have
been recorded against them in the indelible page. In the latter, who
can bring a sanguine temperament of mind to the contemplation of the
subject, the effect may be, and often is, unbounded confidence,
leading to self-complacency and spiritual pride; the very natural
result of believing that they are special objects of the love of
God, and that their persuasion is a divine impulse, God speaking to
the heart. Spiritual pride may assume the aspect of profound
humility, and thus impose on its victim by the notion that he is
only magnifying the sovereign grace of Heaven in his election to
eternal life. But such is the weakness of human nature, that the
consciousness of this high distinction needs to be chastened by very
lofty views of the moral virtue required by Christianity, and by
very humbling conceptions of our own, to prevent a false and
dangerous elation of the heart.

And, in how many instances this consciousness is mere delusion, it
would seem almost needless to suggest. It is often professed under
suspicious circumstances by doubt