The prayers of Socinus were, to himself at least, of an
equally satisfactory description. He claimed to have re-
ceived God's instruction and assistance in the interpretations
which he has put upon the various passages of Scripture
Utigated between his own followers and the Church Cath-
ohcf.
I may add, that even the allied expositions of Augustine
and Mr. M ilner will but still fiirther serve distinctly to shew
the illegitimacy of the plan now under discussion.
Since these two divines recommended the practice to
others; we may fairly presume, that, respecting the true
scriptural System of Predestination, they themselves ahke
prayed for intellectual illumination. Yet, after all, in evolv-
ing the Schemes of their several intrepretations, they are
not perfectly agreed. For, if I may be pardoned a phrase-
ological anachronism, Augustine was a steady and unflinching

* Lord Herbert's Life, p. 172. Leland's View of Deistic Writers,
vol. i. p. 25.
t Green on Enthusiasm, p. 44. cited in Nott's Bamp. Lect. p. 291.
I

CHAP, v.] OP ELECTION. 65

Calvinist: while Mr. Milner, according to his own state-
ment of his own views, does not adventure to be more than
a Semicalvinist,

And now we may well stand aghast at the varied alleged
answers to prayer for divine intellectual illumination: an-
swers, which, if really received, would confer the privilege
of Infallibility upon each jarring petitioner.
When these answers are all brought together, the result
will be : that. At different times, and through the instrument-
ality of different individuals, God has unerringly decided in
favour, of Calvinism and of Arminianism, of Calvinism and
of Semicalvinism, of Socinianism and of Infidelity.
