The religious context.

To what extent were the political ideas outlined in the previous chapter influenced by the religious beliefs of the denomination, or the party within the Anglican church, to which they belonged? Denominations may be distinctive in a number of ways, including a specific set of theological dogmas, an attitude to scripture and its interpretation, a form of ecclesiastical organisation, social composition and the legal and political rights its members enjoyed. To place the arguments in their full religious context the influence of each of these must be considered. Theology Few based their political theory directly on their theology and even fewer on a brand of theology peculiar to a denomination. The Methodist Arminians claimed to find the political implications of Calvinism unacceptable as well as its soteriology. John Fletcher insisted that what he regarded as the antinomian nature of Calvinism led directly to political subversion: the transition from ecclesiastical to civil Antinomianism, is easy and obvious, for, as he that reverences the law of God, will naturally reverence the just commands of the King; so he that thinks himself free from the laws of the Lord, will hardly think himself bound by the statutes of his sovereign. But despite the Methodist alarm, most Calvinists did not deserve the antinomian tag. The best-known Calvinist in the Church of England was Augustus Toplady, the incumbent of Broadhembury in Devonshire, and on the rare occasions when he expressed political views they were of the most conventional and moderate kind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]