repentance, and yet serious and in good earnest in his decree to deny them that grace without which they neither can believe nor repent? If we consider with what vehemence and what pathetic expressions God desires the obedience and reformation of his people, can it be rationally imagined that there was any thing wanting on his part,and that he should himself withhold the means sufficient to enable them to do what he thus earnestly wishes they had done?"

The answer made by the Calvinists to all reasonings and interrogations of this kind, appears to me to consist of the five following branches, which I have arranged in the order that is most natural, and which I shall not spread out at length, but leave to be filled up by private reading and reflection.

1. The Calvinists say that it is a misrepresentation of their doctrine to state the efficacy of the grace of God as superseding commands, counsels, and exhortations, or rendering them unnecessary with regard to the elect. The purpose of that grace is to produce in the elect the character which is inseparably connected with salvation. For the Calvinists, no less than the Arminians, hold that the promise of eternal life is conditional, suspended upon perseverance in well-doing. What is peculiar to them is, that they consider the fulfilment of the condition in those who are elected to eternal life as depending upon the action of the Spirit of God: but the method in which they reconcile this action with the liberty of a moral agent implies the exhibition of all the moral inducements fitted to act upon reasonable beings; and although they hold that all means are ineffectual without the grace of God, yet it appears to them that when the means of improving the human character, which the Scripture employs, are considered as parts of that series of causes and effects by which the Almighty executes his decree, the necessity and the efficacy of them is established upon the surest ground. Hence the Calvinists do not perceive any inconsistency between the promise, "I will give you a new heart,' and the precept, "make you a new heart and a new spirit ;" between the declaration, "we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works," and the precept, which seems to imply that we are our own workmanship, "that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." Far from perceiving any inconsistency between the promise and the precept, they admire the harmony with which the two conspire in the infallible production of the same end. For the divine counsels, commands, and invitations to obedience, by making that impression upon the minds of the elect which the authority and kindness therein exhibited have a tendency to produce upon reasonable beings, are the instruments of fulfilling the divine intention, by conducting the elect in a manner conformable to their nature, and through the free exercise of every Christian grace, to that happiness which had been from eternity destined for them.

2. The Calvinists say that these counsels and commands, which are intended by God to produce their full effect only with regard to the elect, are addressed indifferently to all, for this reason, because it was not revealed to the writers of the New Testament, nor is it now revealed to the ministers of the gospel, who the elect are. The Lord

knoweth them that are his: but he hath not given this knowledge to any of the children of men. We are not warranted to infer from the former sins of any person that he shall not at some future period be conducted by the grace of God to repentance; and therefore we are not warranted to infer that the counsels and exhortations of the divine word, which are some of the instruments of the grace of God, shall finally prove vain with regard to any individual. But although it is in this way impossible for a discrimination to be made in the manner of publishing the gospel, and although many may receive the calls and commands of the gospel who are not in the end to be saved, the Calvinists do not admit that even with regard to them, these calls and commands are wholly without effect. For,

3. They say that the publication of the gospel is attended with real benefit even to those who are not elected. It points out to them their duty; it restrains them from flagrant transgressions which would be productive of much present inconvenience, and would aggravate their future condemnation: it has contributed to the diffusion and the enlargement of moral and religious knowledge, to the refinement of manners, and to the general welfare of society; and it exhibits such a view of the condition of man and of the grace from which the remedy proceeds, as magnifies both the righteousness and the compassion of the Supreme Ruler, and leaves without excuse those who continue in sin.

4. The Calvinists say further, that although these general uses of the publication of the gospel come very far short of that saving benefit which is confined to the elect, there is no want of meaning or of sincerity in the expostulations of Scripture, or in its reproaches and pathetic expressions of regret with regard to those, who do not obey the counsels and commands that are addressed to all. For these counsels and commands declare what is the duty of all, what they feel they ought to perform, what is essential to their present and their future happiness, and what no physical necessity prevents them from doing. There is indeed a moral inability, a defect in their will. But the very object of counsels and commands is to remove this defect; and if such a defect rendered it improper for the Supreme Ruler to issue commands, every sin would carry with it its own excuse; and the creatures of God might always plead that they were absolved from the obligation of his law, because they were indisposed to obey it. It is admitted by the Calvinists, that the moral inability in those who are not elected is of such a kind, as will infallibly prevent their obeying the commands of God; and it is a part of their system, that the Being who issues these commands has resolved to withhold from such persons the grace which alone is sufficient to remove that inability. In accounting for these commands, therefore, they are obliged to have recourse to a distinction between the secret and the revealed will of God. They understand, by his revealed will, that which is perceptive, which declares the duty of his creatures, containing commands agreeable to the sentiments of their minds and the constitution of their nature, and delivering promises which shall certainly be fulfilled to all who obey the commands. They understand, by his secret will, his own purpose in distributing his favours and arranging the condition of his creatures; a purpose which is founded

upon the wisest reasons, and is infallibly carried into execution by his sovereign power, but which not being made known to his creatures cannot possibly be the rule of their conduct. This distinction, although the subject of much obloquy in all Arminian books, appears, upon a fair examination, only a more guarded method of stating what we found to be said by the advocates for universal redemption. Their language is, that God intends to save all men by the death of Christ, but that this intention becomes effectual only with regard to those who repent and believe. The Calvinists, not choosing to hold a language which implies that an intention of God can prove fruitless, interpret all the counsels, and commands, and expostulations, which are urged in proof of an intention to save all men, as expressions only of a revealed will, but not as implying any purpose which is to be carried into effect. When they find in Scripture such general propositions as the following, "he that believeth on me hath everlasting life," "whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy;" they consider them both as declaring a rule of conduct, and as delivering a promise which is fulfilled with regard to every individual who believes and repents; and as they know that these propositions never can prove false, so it does not appear to them that there is any inconsistency between the general terms in which the propositions are enunciated, and the special grace by which God produces faith and repentance in those whom he has predestinated to everlasting life.

5. The Calvinists say, in the last place, that if there is a difficulty in reconciling the earnestness with which God appears in Scripture to seek the salvation of all men, with the infallible execution of his decree that only some shall be saved, this difficulty is not peculiar to their system, but belongs to the Arminian also. If with the Socinians we abridge the foreknowledge of God, then his counsels and exhortations to all men will appear to us the natural expressions of an anxiety, such as we often feel, about an effect, of the production of which we are uncertain. But if with the Arminians we admit that the determinations of free agents were from eternity known to God, then we must admit also that he addresses counsels and exhortations to those upon whom he knows they will not produce their full effect. As he sent of old by Moses a command to Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go, although at the very time of giving the command he says, "and I am sure that he will not let you go;"* as our Lord said to his disciples, "watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation,"t although the whole tenor of the discourse, of which these words are a part, discovers his certain knowledge that all the disciples were to yield to temptation, Peter by denying, and the rest by forsaking him: so the word of God continues to warn men against sins which they will commit, to prescribe duties which they will not perform, and to give them, in the language of the warmest affection, counsels upon which the obstinacy of their hearts is to pour contempt. The answer made by the Arminians to the Socinian charge of a want of seriousness and sincerity in warnings, precepts, and counsels, uttered by a Being who foresees their final inefficacy, is this, that it is fit and proper for God to declare to men their duty; that the perverseness of † Matth. xxvi. 41.

Exod. iii. 18, 19.

their wills does not diminish their obligations, and that his foreknowledge of that perverseness has no influence in giving his counsels less effect upon their minds. The very same answer may be adopted by the Calvinists. For although they infer, from the perfection of the Supreme Mind, and from various expressions in Scripture, that there is a decree by which certain persons are elected, while others are left to perish; yet, as the particulars of this decree are nowhere made known to us, they cannot regard it as in any respect the rule of our conduct; and although they do not think themselves at liberty to follow the Socinians in denying the extent of the divine understanding, yet, like the Socinians, they receive the authoritative injunctions of the divine word as the will of our Creator; they study to learn from thence, not the unknown purposes of divine wisdom, but the measure of our obedience; and they say with Moses, who, in his last address to the children of Israel, Deut. xxix. 29, appears to give his sanction to the distinction made by them, "the secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us, and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law."

CHAPTER XI.

HISTORY OF CALVINISM.

THE history of that system of opinions, now called Calvinistic, extends almost from the beginning of the Christian era to the present period. It is not my province to detail the names of all those by whom these opinions have been held, the ages in which they lived, the books which they wrote, the opposition or the encouragement which they received. But I think it may be interesting and useful to subjoin to the discussions in which we have lately been engaged, a short comprehensive view of the state of the opinions which were the subjects of the discussions, during the different stages of their progress.

Those who hold the Calvinistic system find its origin in several expressions of our Lord, and in many parts of the writings of Paul. Those who hold the opposite system give a different interpretation of all the passages in which this origin is sought for. The dispute is not decided by referring to the most ancient Christian writers, for they express themselves generally in the language of Scripture with much simplicity; they do not appear to have possessed great critical talents; and they avoid entering into any profound speculations. It is not ascertained what was the system of Christians in the first four centuries, or whether they had formed any system upon this intricate subject. But in the fifth century systems very similar to those which are now held were opposed to one another. The voluminous writings of Augustine, by whom one of the systems was established, are extant; and we learn the outlines of the opposite system, both from the large extracts out of the works of its supporters, which are found in his writings, and from other collateral testimony. Although the system combated by Augustine was not completely evolved till his day, yet the principles from which it took its rise may be traced back to those philosophical speculations which, in the former centuries, had occupied a great part of the attention of Christian writers. Even in the days of the apostles, some who had been educated in the schools of the philosophers, professed to embrace Christianity; and the number of learned Christians continued to increase in every century. Not content with the simple form in which the doctrines of revelation had been held by their more illiterate predecessors, these learned converts introduced a spirit of research, a refinement of speculation, and a systematical arrangement, of which the sacred writers have not set an example. The tenets, which many of these converts had imbibed in their youth, and which they were far from relinquishing when they