“He (the congregational minister) is now, in his own opinion, the ONE MAN of the whole body of believers in all the services of the sanctuary. He utters all their sentiments of faith and doctrine, and offers up all their prayers! How can he justify the position he has assumed as _an usurper_? yea as a _grievous wolf_! in that he has swallowed up _all the gifts of the Holy Ghost_ in the _voracity of his selfishness_,” &c. It is not thus that the “unity of the church,” which they profess to desire is likely to be cemented. {90} Bishop Jewel, in his “Defence of his apology for the Church of England,” says, that “the term _Calvinist_ was in the first instance applied to the Reformers and the English Protestants as a matter of reproach by the Church of Rome.” {91} Whatever difference may have subsisted between Luther and Calvin on the subject of Divine decrees, no language can be stronger than that in which Luther insists upon the moral impotence of man’s depraved nature in opposition to the Pelagian doctrine of freewill. {93a} It is difficult to reconcile this doctrine with 2 Cor. v. 14, 15. 1 Tim. ii. 6. 2 Pet. iii. 9. Rom. viii. 32. 1 Tim. iv. 10. &c. {93b} The best account of their system is to be found in “The Assembly’s Catechism,” which is taught their children. To this sect belongs more particularly the doctrine of _Atonement_, or, “that Christ by his death made satisfaction to the Divine justice for the _Elect_; appeasing the anger of the Divine Being, and effecting on his part a reconciliation.” That thus Christ had, as they term it, “the sin of the Elect laid upon him.” But some of their teachers do not hold this opinion, but consider Christ’s death as simply a medium through which God has been pleased to exercise mercy towards the penitent. “The sacrifice of Christ,” says Dr. Magee, “was never deemed by any (who did not wish to calumniate the doctrine of atonement), to have made God placable: but merely viewed as the means appointed by Divine wisdom by which to bestow forgiveness.” To this it may be further added, that the language used throughout the Epistles of St. Paul with regard to the redemption of man, is that of the then familiar slave market. Man is “bought with a price” from his former master, Sin, for the service of God. The scholar who will consult Romans vi. will see immediately that all the metaphors used are those of purchase for military service; “Your members,” says he, ver. 13, “shall not be the arms (ὄπλα) of unrighteousness used for the service of sin; but the arms (ὄπλα) of righteousness for God.” And ver 23, τὰ γὰρ ὀψώνια τῆς ὰμαρτίας, θάνατος· τὸ δὲ χαρισμα τοῦ θεοῦ, ζωὴ, αἰώνιος ἐν Χριτῷ Ιησοῦ τῷ κυρίῳ ἠμῶν. i.e. The rations of sin are death, but the donative of God is eternal life, by means of Jesus Christ our Lord. It is impossible to express more clearly that it was not the wrath of God which required to be appeased by the great sacrifice—the slave was _bought by