As in a Christian land we receive the lessons of Morality in connexion
with the Doctrines of Revealed Religion, we cannot too early free the
mind from prejudices widely spread, in part through the abuse, but far
more from ignorance, of the true meaning of doctrinal Terms, which,
however they may have been perverted to the purposes of Fanaticism,
are not only scriptural, but of too frequent occurrence in Scripture
to be overlooked or passed by in silence. The following extract,
therefore, deserves attention, as clearing the doctrine of Salvation,
in connexion with the divine Foreknowledge, from all objections on
the score of Morality, by the just and impressive view which the
Archbishop here gives of those occasional revolutionary moments, that
_Turn of the Tide_ in the mind and character of certain Individuals,
which (taking a religious course, and referred immediately to the
Author of all Good) were in his day, more generally than at present,
entitled EFFECTUAL CALLING. The theological interpretation and the
philosophic validity of this Apostolic Triad, Election, Salvation, and
Effectual Calling, (the latter being the intermediate), will be found
among the Comments on the Aphorisms of Spiritual Import. For our
present purpose it will be sufficient if only I prove, that the
Doctrines are in themselves _innocuous_, and may be both holden and
taught without any practical ill-consequences, and without detriment
to the moral frame.