Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-06-30
REPLY TO MR.. BRADFORD,
To tie Editor of the Buole

few remarks on Mr.. Bradford's communication on
Presbyterianism, or Calvinism, and Freedom.
l. He says, Calvinism is found in the New Tes-
lament. That may be. 1t would be hard to say
what system of theology, from Popery to Quaker
ism and Unitarianism, may not be found thore.
The fact that Calvinism is found in the New Tes-
lament, is no proof that il is friendly to freedom.
The leading doctrines of Popery are found in the
New Testament; yet Popery is by no means
friendly to Freedom.
2. lie says, tho Reformers of the sixteenth cen
fury were oil Calvinists. Can he give US any proof
of this? If he will try, we will offer q little to
tho contrary.
3. lie says, the right Of private judgment was
'thc grand doctrine of Calvinism." We think it
no part of the system. Calvin did not hold the
doctrine, nor did he tolerate it in others. His fol-
lowers have never shown the doctrine much favor.
To this day, they shut men out of their churches,
and damn them to hell, for differences of belief,
originating in the exercise Of private judgment.
We see no difference between Calvinists and Pap
lists, with regard to this doctrine, except that the
Calvinists sometimes profess to favor it, while the
Papists disown it. They only differ in profession.
lie says, Christianity secures the rights Of indi-
viduals composing a nation. Where is the proof?
We think il neither has done so, nor can do so.
1t has no tendency, in our opinion, to secure the
rights of individuals. On the contrary, its ten
dency is to perpetuate systems and doctrines in-
imical to the rights both of male and female.
lie says, the men of this day are beginning to
discover that the prevalence of Christianity is tho
only ground of hope for free government and per-
sonal rights. To us, it seems that men are begin
ming to discover that the only ground of hope for
free government and human rights is in the over
throw of Christianity.
He says, the Puriians of England were Calvin
lists. That there were Calvinists among them, we
know but where is the proof that the whole, or
that the best of the Puritans were Calyinists
He says, Hume admits that to the Puritans the
world owes all the liberty it enjoys. We answer,
Hume makes no such Acknowledgement. lie must
have been wofully ignorant to have done so. "The
world owes all the liberty it enjoys to the Puritans
of the sixteenth century u" Ridiculous y
He says, Crom weU was q Calvinist. l doubt
that: but, Calvinist or not, he was no advocate OF
human rights or human liberty. lie was wishful
that his opn religious party should have rights and
privileges, but not that men should have equal
rights. Hence, he never consulted the people.
lie never submitted to q Parliament much less to
a Parliament chosen by the whole people. lie
called together a few godly friends but he never
consulted the nation. lie was a despot. lie hung
the men who pleaded for equal rights. lie &C
knowledged no rights in the unregenerate. The
saints alone, in his opinion, were fit for freedom.
He was no more favorable to republicanism, demo-
cracy, or human rights, than Charles the irst.
We ara told that he 1vos rho odyooof IN md protootcr
of English liberty. Perhaps he was but he was
not the protector of human liberty. He was not the
advocate of liberty for Roman Catholics or Jewellers.
Cromwell and his friends advocated liberty for
themselves alone, and insisted on Subsection from
others. Richard Baxter, one of the principal
c~haplains in Cromwelrs army, and one of the best
and wisest men of his party, shows, in his "Holy
Commonwealth" that the Puritans did not contend
Tor either political or religious liberty. Mr.. Brad
ford does not seem to have read the work. nor the
political writings of any of the earlier Puritans.
| will therefore give him a few quotations from
this prince of nonconformist and puritanical d.
vines. The following arc among the propositions
he maintains:
l. That Democracy or popular government is
ordinarily the worst.
thhS IN uhtSi ehS = llONo ~ thCulJ dlSu
ments, of which the following are specimens:
l. Democracy comes nearest to the utter con-
founding of the governors and the governed. To
make the people to rule themselves is next to the
utter confounding of the commonwealth
2. The people have neither sense nor virtue for
the work of government.
8. All this stir of the republicansis but to make
the seed of the serpent the sovereign rulers of the
earth, &c. The advocates of republicanism are in
fdels, that take evil for good, &c.-p. 90.
They are haters of piety, who, if they were not
restrained, would have the blood of the godly.
A 1t is next to an impossibility that the major
vote of the people should be just or good. We
have some hopes of just and honest government, if
we have a Monarchy or Aristocracy; but we have
so little hopes as is next to none, if the popular
vote must have the sovereignty. For it is the
whole human nature that is corrupted and fallen,
&c.
S. Democracy is furthest from unity, and, there
fore, furthest from perfection.
6. The government of the ,corld is monarchial
and that which differs most from it is most imper-
feet, &c.
7. The government that recedeth furthest from
that which Christ has settled in the church is the
worst government. But such is popular govern
ment. Pretenders to a popular church power, as
of divine institution, 90 point blank against the
Scriptures. "One Lord" "One head to the
body" This one head settled in every particular
church Bishops, Presbyters or Pastors, whom he
hath commanded the people to obey as their rulers,
&c.
And thus he goes on. He traces the spread of
republican or democratic sentiments to the revival
of Pagan literature. "Ths reading of those Ro-
man histories" says he, (which draw some into
love with popular government. doth make my
stomach rise against it,"
Baxter was right. Infdelity and Romanism are
the advocates of Democracy and Republicanism.
| III D.lI = IL