It
gave to human feelings the right to express themselves as elements in the
problem of man's relations to God, and vindicated for God the right to be
deemed as sympathetic and loving as the men who worship him.
While the Arminians accepted the Bible as an authoritative standard as
fully as did the Calvinists, they were more critical in its study: they
applied literary and historical standards in its interpretation, and they
submitted it to the vindication of reason. They sought to escape from the
tyranny of the Bible, and yet to make it a living force in the world of
conduct and character. They not only declared anew the right of private
judgment, but they wished to make the Bible the source of inward spiritual
illumination,--not a standard and a test, but an awakener of the divine
life in the soul. They sought for what is really essential in religious
truth, limited the number of dogmas that may be regarded as requisite to
the Christian life, and took the position that only what is of prime
importance is to be required of the believer. The result was that
Arminianism became a positive aid to the growth of toleration in England;
for it became what was called latitudinarian,--that is, broad in temper,
inclusive in spirit, and desirous of bringing all the nation within the
limits of one harmonizing and noble-minded church.
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