ON THE FOUR PRINCIPAL RELIGIONS, WHICH HAVE OBTAINED IN THE WORLD; PAGANISM, MOHAMMEDISM, JUDAISM, AND ALSO ON THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, AND OTHER DENOMI- NATIONS OF PROTESTANTS: AND ON Evangelical Keligion. BY THE LATE REV. DAVID WILLIAMSON, A state of innocence we can only conceive, if indeed, in our present misery, it We have hitherto trodden on ground, common to the orthodox professors of Christianity; we now enter the disputed and debatable regions, where men celebrated for their piety, for their learning, and for their penetration, find themselves engaged in opposite systems, which too often have drawn them into acrimonious disputes, and into a state of mutual repulsion. It shall be our business, without entering into the controversy ourselves, to state the claims of both parties, and the objections with which they mutually assail each other. On no subject, perhaps, is accuracy more a desideratum, than on that before us. Such have been the mis-statements, on both sides of the question, that too many partisans of each, seem resolved not to know what the tenets are, that have been embraced by their opponents. The name of Calvin has, by one part of the Christian Church, been raised to a distinction and eminence, almost equal with those of the Apostles, and his decisions esteemed almost oracular. By another part, it has been associated with every thing that is oppro : |