The
Five Points of Calvinism
by R. L. Dabney
HISTORICALLY,
this title is of little accuracy or worth; I use it to denote certain
points of doctrine, because custom has made it familiar. Early in the
seventeenth century the Presbyterian Church of Holland, whose doctrinal
confession is the same in substance with ours, was much troubled by a
species of new-school minority, headed by one of its preachers and
professors, James Harmensen, in Latin,
Arminius (hence, ever since, Arminians). Church and state have always
been united in Holland; hence the civil government took up the quarrel.
Professor Harmensen (Arminius) and his party were required to appear
before the States General (what we would call Federal Congress) and say
what their objections were against the doctrines of their own church,
which they had freely promised in their ordination vows to teach.
Arminius handed in a writing in which he named five points of doctrine
concerning which he and his friends either differed or doubted. These
points were virtually: Original sin, unconditional predestination,
invincible grace in conversion, particular redemption, and perseverance
of saints. I may add, the result was: that the Federal legislature
ordered the holding of a general council of all the Presbyterian
churches then in the world, to discuss anew and settle these five
doctrines. This was the famous Synod of Dort, or Dordrecht, where not
only Holland ministers, but delegates from the French, German, Swiss,
and British churches met in 1618. The Synod adopted the rule that every
doctrine should be decided by the sole authority of the Word of God,
leaving out all human philosophies and opinions on both sides. The
result was a short set of articles which were made a part thenceforward
of the Confession of Faith of the Holland Presbyterian Church. They are
clear, sound, and moderate, exactly the same in substance with those of
our Westminster Confession, enacted twenty-seven years afterward.
I have always considered this paper handed in by
Arminius as of little worth or importance. It is neither honest nor
clear. On several points it seeks cunningly to insinuate doubts or to
confuse the minds of opponents by using the language of pretended
orthodoxy. But as the debate went on, the differences of the Arminians
disclosed themselves as being, under a pretended new name nothing in the
world but the old semi-pelagianism which had been plaguing the churches
for a thousand years, the cousin-german of the Socinian or Unitarian
creed. Virtually it denied that the fallen Adam had brought man's heart
into an entire and decisive alienation from God. It asserted that his
election of grace was not sovereign, but founded in his own foresight of
the faith, repentance, and perseverance of such as would choose to
embrace the gospel. That grace in effectual calling is not efficacious
and invincible, but resistible, so that all actual conversions are the
joint result of this grace and the sinner's will working abreast. That
Christ died equally for the non-elect and the elect, providing an
indefinite, universal atonement for all; and that true converts may, and
sometimes do, fall away totally and finally from the state of grace and
salvation; their perseverance therein depending not on efficacious
grace, but on their own free will to continue in gospel duties.
Let any plain mind review these five changes and
perversions of Bible truth, and he will see two facts: One, that the
debate about them all will hinge mainly upon the first question, whether
man's original sin is or is not a complete and decisive enmity to
godliness; and the other, that this whole plan is a contrivance to
gratify human pride and self-righteousness and to escape that great
humbling fact everywhere so prominent in the real gospel, that man's
ruin of himself by sin is utter, and the whole credit of his redemption
from it is God's.
We Presbyterians care very little about the name
Calvinism. We are not ashamed of it; but we are not bound to it. Some
opponents seem to harbor the ridiculous notion that this set of
doctrines was the new invention of the Frenchman John Calvin. They would
represent us as in this thing followers of him instead of followers of
the Bible. This is a stupid historical error. John Calvin no more
invented these doctrines than he invented this world which God had
created six thousand years before. We believe that he was a very gifted,
learned, and, in the main, godly man, who still had his faults. He found
substantially this system of doctrines just where we find them, in the
faithful study of the Bible, Where we see them taught by all the
prophets, apostles, and the Messiah himself, from Genesis to Revelation.
Calvin also found the same doctrines handed down
by the best, most learned, most godly, uninspired church fathers, as
Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas, still running through the errors of
popery. He wielded a wide influence over the Protestant churches; but
the Westminster Assembly and the Presbyterian churches by no means
adopted all Calvin's opinions. Like the Synod of Dort, we draw our
doctrines, not from any mortal man or human philosophy, but from the
Holy Ghost speaking in the Bible. Yet, we do find some inferior comfort
in discovering these same doctrines of grace in the most learned and
pious of all churches and ages; of the great fathers of Romanism, of
Martin Luther, of Blaise Paschal, of the original Protestant churches,
German, Swiss, French, Holland, English, and Scotch--and far the largest
part of the real scriptural churches of our own day. The object of this
tractate is simply to enable all honest inquirers after truth to
understand just what those doctrines really are which people style the
peculiar "doctrines of Presbyterians," and thus to enable honest minds
to answer all objections and perversions. I do not write because of any
lack in our church of existing treatises well adapted to our purpose;
nor because I think anyone can now add anything really new to the
argument. But our pastors and missionaries think that some additional
good may come from another short discussion suitable for unprofessional
readers. To such I would earnestly recommend two little books, Dr.
Mathews's on the Divine Purpose, and Dr. Nathan Rice's God Sovereign and
Man Free. For those who wish to investigate these doctrines more
extensively there are, in addition to their Bible, the standard works in
the English language on doctrinal divinity, such as Calvin's Institutes
(translated), Witsius on the Covenants, Dr. William Cunningham's, of
Edinburgh, Hill's and Dicks's Theologies, and in the United States those
of Hodge, Dabney, and Shedd.
1
Original Sin
What Presbyterians really mean by terms such as
"Original Sin," "Total Depravity," and "Inability of the Will" is
defined by our Confession of Faith, Chapter 10, Section 3: "Man, by his
fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any
spiritual good accompanying salvation; so as a natural man being
altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able, by his
own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto."
By original sin we mean the evil quality which
characterizes man's natural disposition and will. We call this sin of
nature original, because each fallen man is born with it, and because it
is the source or origin in each man of his actual transgressions. By
calling it total, we do not mean that men are from their youth as bad as
they can be. Evil men and seducers wax worse and worse, "deceiving and
being deceived" (2 Tim. 3:13). Nor do we mean that they have no social
virtues toward their fellowmen in which they are sincere. We do not
assert with extremists that because they are natural men therefore all
their friendship, honesty, truth, sympathy, patriotism, domestic love,
are pretenses or hypocrisies. What our Confession says is, "That they
have wholly lost ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying
salvation." The worst retain some, and the better much, ability of will
for sundry moral goods accompanying social life. Christ teaches this
(Mk. 10:21) when, beholding the social virtues of the rich young man who
came kneeling unto him, He "loved him." Christ could never love mere
hypocrisies. What we teach is that by the fall man's moral nature has
undergone an utter change to sin, irreparable by himself. In this sense
it is complete, decisive--or total. The state is as truly sinful as
their actual transgressions, because it is as truly free and
spontaneous. This original sin shows itself in all natural men in a
fixed and utter opposition of heart to some forms of duty, and
especially and always to spiritual duties, owing to God, and in a fixed
and absolutely decisive purpose of heart to continue in some sins (even
while practicing some social duties), and especially to continue in
their sins of unbelief, impenitence, self-will, and practical
godlessness. In this the most moral are as inflexibly determined by
nature as the most immoral. The better part may sincerely respect sundry
rights and duties regarding their fellow men, but in the resolve that
self-will shall be their rule, whenever they please, as against God's
sovereign holy will, these are as inexorable as the most wicked.
I suppose that a refined and genteelly reared
young lady presents the least sinful specimen of unregenerate human
nature. Examine such a one. Before she would be guilty of theft, profane
swearing, drunkenness, or impurity, she would die. In her opposition to
these sins she is truly sincere. But there are some forms of self-will,
especially in sins of omission as against God, in which she is just as
determined as the most brutal drunkard is in his sensuality. She has, we
will suppose, a Christian mother. She is determined to pursue certain
fashionable conformities and dissipations. She has a light novel under
her pillow which she intends to read on the Sabbath. Though she may
still sometimes repeat like a parrot her nursery prayers, hers is
spiritually a prayerless life. Especially is her heart fully set not to
forsake at this time her life of self-will and worldliness for Christ's
service and her salvation. Tenderly and solemnly her Christian mother
may ask her, "My daughter, do you not know that in these things you are
wrong toward your heavenly Father" She is silent. She knows she is
wrong. "My daughter, will you not therefore now relent, and choose for
your Savior's sake, this very day, the life of faith and repentance, and
especially begin tonight the life of regular, real, secret prayer. Will
you?" Probably her answer is in a tone of cold and bitter pain. "Mother,
don't press me, I would rather not promise." No; she will not! Her
refusal may be civil in form, because she is well-bred; but her heart is
as inflexibly set in her as the hardened steel not at this time to turn
truly from her self-will to her God. In that particular her stubbornness
is just the same as that of the most hardened sinners. Such is the best
type of unregenerate humanity.
Now, the soul's duties toward God are the
highest, dearest, and most urgent of all duties; so that wilful
disobedience herein is the most express, most guilty, and most hardening
of all the sins that the soul commits. God's perfections and will are
the most supreme and perfect standard of moral right and truth.
Therefore, he who sets himself obstinately against God's right is
putting himself in the most fatal and deadly opposition to moral
goodness. God's grace is the one fountain of holiness for rational
creatures; hence, he who separates himself from this God by this hostile
self-will, shuts himself in to ultimate spiritual death. This rooted,
godless, self-will is the eating cancer of the soul. That soul may
remain for a time like the body of a young person tainted with
undeveloped cancer, apparently attractive and pretty. But the cancer is
spreading the secret seeds of corruption through all the veins; it will
break out at last in putrid ulcers, the blooming body will become a
ghastly corpse. There is no human remedy. To drop the figure; when the
sinful soul passes beyond the social restraints and natural affections
of this life, and beyond hope, into the world of the lost, this fatal
root, sin of wilful godlessness will soon develop into all forms of
malignity and wickedness; the soul will become finally and utterly dead
to God and to good. This is what we mean by total depravity.
Once more, Presbyterians do not believe they lose
their free-agency because of original sin. See our Confession, Chapter
9, Section 1: "God hath endued the will of man with that natural
liberty, that it is neither forced, nor by any absolute necessity of
nature determined, to good or evil." We fully admit that where an agent
is not free he is not morally responsible. A just God will never punish
him for actions in which he is merely an instrument, impelled by the
compulsion of external force or fate. But what is free agency? There is
no need to call in any abstruse metaphysics to the sufficient answer.
Let every man's consciousness and common sense tell him: I know that I
am free whenever what I choose to do is the result of my own preference.
If I choose and act so as to please myself, then
I am free. That is to say, our responsible volitions are the expression
and the result of our own rational preference. When I am free and
responsible it is because I choose and do the thing which I do, not
compelled by some other agents, but in accordance with my own inward
preference. We all know self-evidently that this is so. But is rational
preference in us a mere haphazard state? Do our reasonable souls contain
no original principles regulative of their preferences and choices? Were
this so, then would man's soul be indeed a miserable weathercock,
wheeled about by every outward wind; not fit to be either free,
rational, or responsible. We all know that we have such first principles
regulative of our preferences; and these are own natural dispositions.
They are inward, not external They are spontaneous, not compelled, and
so as free as our choices. They are our own, not somebody else's. They
are ourselves. They are essential attributes in any being possessed of
personality. Every rational person must have some kind of natural
disposition. We can conceive of one person as naturally disposed this
way, and of another that way. It is impossible for us to think a
rational free agent not disposed any way at all. Try it.
We have capital illustrations of what native
disposition is in the corporeal propensities of animals. It is the
nature of a colt to like grass and hay. It is the nature of a bouncing
schoolboy to like hot sausage. You may tole the colt with a bunch of
nice hay, but not the boy; it is the hot sausage will fetch him when he
is hungry; offer the hot sausage to the colt and he will reject it and
shudder at it. Now both the colt and the boy are free in choosing what
they like; free be cause their choices follow their own natural likings,
i. e., their own animal dispositions.
But rational man has mental dispositions which
are better than illustrations, actual cases of native principles
regulating natural choices. Thus, when happiness or misery may be chosen
simply for their own sakes, every man's natural disposition is toward
happiness and against misery. Again, man naturally loves property; all
are naturally disposed to gain and to keep their own rather than to lose
it for nothing. Once more, every man is naturally disposed to enjoy the
approbation and praise of his fellow-men; and their contempt and abuse
are naturally painful to him. In all these cases men choose according as
they prefer, and they prefer according to their natural dispositions,
happiness rather than misery, gain rather than loss, applause rather
than abuse. They are free in these choices as they are sure to choose in
the given way. And they are as certain to choose agreeably to these
original dispositions as rivers are to run downward; equally certain and
equally free, because the dispositions which certainly regulate their
preferences are their own, not some one else's, and are spontaneous in
them, not compelled.
Let us apply one of these cases. I make this
appeal to a company of aspiring young ladies and gentlemen: "Come and
engage with me of your free choice in this given course of labor; it
will be long and arduous; but I can assure you of a certain result. I
promise you that, by this laborious effort, you shall make yourselves
the most despised and abused set of young people in the State." Will
this succeed in inducing them? Can it succeed? No; it will not, and we
justly say, it cannot. But are not these young persons free when they
answer me, as they certainly will, "No, Teacher, we will not, and we
cannot commit the folly of working hard solely to earn contempt, because
contempt is in itself contrary and painful to our nature." This is
precisely parallel to what Presbyterians mean by inability of will to
all spiritual good. It is just as real and certain as inability of
faculty. These young people have the fingers with which to perform the
proposed labor (let us say, writing) by which I invite them to toil for
the earning of contempt. They have eyes and fingers wherewith to do
penmanship, but they cannot freely choose my offer, because it
contradicts that principle of their nature, love of applause, which
infallibly regulates free human preference and choice. Here is an exact
case of "inability of will."
If, now, man's fall has brought into his nature a
similar native principle or disposition against godliness for its own
sake, and in favor of self-will as against God, then a parallel case of
inability of will presents itself. The former case explains the latter.
The natural man's choice in preferring his self-will to God's authority
is equally free, and equally certain. But this total lack of ability of
will toward God does not suspend man's responsibility, because it is the
result of his own free disposition, not from any compulsion from
without. If a master would require his servant to do a bodily act for
which he naturally had not the bodily faculty, as, for instance, the
pulling up of a healthy oak tree with his hands, it would be unjust to
punish the servant's failure. But this is wholly another case than the
sinner's. For, if his natural disposition toward God were what it ought
to be, he would not find himself deprived of the natural faculties by
which God is known, loved, and served. The sinner's case is not one of
extinction of faculties, but of their thorough willful perversion.
It is just like the case of Joseph's wicked
brethren, of whom Moses says (Gen. 37:4): "That they hated their brother
Joseph, so that they could not speak peaceably unto him." They had
tongues in their heads? Yes. They could speak in words whatever they
chose, but hatred, the wicked voluntary principle, ensured that they
would not, and could not, speak kindly to their innocent brother.
Now, then, all the argument turns upon the
question of fact: is it so that since Adam's fall the natural
disposition of all men is in this state of fixed, decisive enmity
against God's will, and fixed, inexorable preference for their own
self-will, as against God? Is it true that man is in this lamentable
state, that while still capable of being rightly disposed toward sundry
virtues and duties, terminating on his fellow creatures, his heart is
inexorably indisposed and wilfully opposed to those duties which he owes
to his heavenly Father directly? That is the question! Its best and
shortest proof would be the direct appeal to every man's conscience. I
know that it was just so with me for seventeen years, until God's
almighty hand took away the heart of stone and gave me a heart of flesh.
Every converted man confesses the same of himself. Every unconverted man
well knows that it is now true of himself, if he would allow his
judgment and conscience to look honestly within. Unbeliever, you may at
times desire even earnestly the impunity, the safety from hell, and the
other selfish advantages of the Christian life; but did you ever prefer
and desire that life for its own sake? Did you ever see the moment when
you really wished God to subjugate all your self-will to his holy will?
No! That is the very thing which the secret disposition of your soul
utterly resents and rejects. The retention of that self-will is the very
thing which you so obstinately prefer, that as long as you dare you mean
to retain it and cherish it, even at the known risk of an unprepared
death and a horrible perdition. But I will add other proofs of this
awful fact, and especially the express testimony of the Holy Spirit:
There is the universal fact that all men sin more
or less, and do it wilfully. In the lives of most unrenewed men, sin
reigns prevalently. The large majority are dishonest, unjust, selfish,
cruel, as far as they dare to be, even to their fellow creatures, not to
say utterly godless to their heavenly Father. The cases like that of the
well-bred young lady, described above, are relatively few, fatally
defective as they are. This dreadful reign of sin in this world
continues in spite of great obstacles, such as God's judgments and
threatenings, and laborious efforts to curb it in the way of
governments, restrictive laws and penalties, schools, family discipline,
and churches. This sinning of human beings begins more or less as soon
as the child's faculties are so developed as to qualify him for sinning
intentionally. "The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray
as soon as they be born, speaking lies" (Ps. 58:3). Now, a uniform
result must proceed from a regular prior cause--there must be original
sin in man's nature.
Even the great rationalistic philosopher Emmanual
Kant believed and taught this doctrine. His argument is that when men
act in the aggregate and in national masses, they show out their real
native dispositions, because in these concurrent actions they are not
restrained by public opinion and by human laws restricting individual
actions, and they do not feel immediate personal responsibility for what
they do. The actions of men in the aggregate, therefore, show what man's
heart really is. Now, then, what are the morals of the nations toward
each other and toward God? Simply those of foxes, wolves, tigers, and
atheists. What national senate really and humbly tries to please and
obey God in its treatment of neighbor nations? What nation trusts its
safety simply to the justice of its neighbors? Look at the great
standing armies and fleets! Though the nation may include many
God-fearing and righteous persons, when is that nation ever seen to
forego a profitable aggression upon the weak, simply because it is
unjust before God? These questions are unanswerable.
In the third place, all natural men, the decent
and genteel just as much as the vile, show this absolute opposition of
heart to God's will, and preference for self-will in some sinful acts
and by rejecting the gospel. This they do invariably, knowingly,
wilfully, and with utter obstinacy, until they are made willing in the
day of God's power. They know with perfect clearness that the gospel
requirements of faith, trust, repentance, endeavors after sincere
obedience, God's righteous law, prayer, praise, and love to him, are
reasonable and right. Outward objects or inducements are constantly
presented to their souls, which are of infinite moment, and ought to be
absolutely omnipotent over right hearts. These objects include the
unspeakable love of God in Christ in giving his Son to die for his
enemies, which ought to melt the heart to gratitude in an instant; the
inexpressible advantages and blessings of an immortal heaven, secured by
immediate faith, and the unutterable, infinite horrors of an everlasting
hell, incurred by final unbelief, and risked to an awful degree, even by
temporary hesitation. And these latter considerations appeal not only to
moral conscience, but to that natural selfishness which remains in full
force in unbelievers. Nor could doubts concerning these gospel truths,
even if sincere and reasonably grounded to some extent, explain or
excuse this neglect. For faith, and obedience, and the worship and the
love of God, are self-evidently right and good for men, whether these
awful gospel facts be true or not. He who believes is acting on the safe
side in that he loses nothing, but gains something whichever way the
event may go; whereas neglect of the gospel will have incurred an
infinite mischief, with no possible gain should Christianity turn out to
be true.
In such cases reasonable men always act, as they
are morally bound to do, upon the safe side, under the guidance of even
a slight probability. Why do not doubting men act thus on the safe side,
even if it were a doubtful case (which it is not)? Because their
dispositions are absolutely fixed and determined against godliness. Now,
what result do we see from the constant application of these immense
persuasives to the hearts of natural men? They invariably put them off;
sometimes at the cost of temporary uneasiness or agitation, but they
infallibly put them off, preferring, as long as they dare, to gratify
self-will at the known risk of plain duty and infinite blessedness.
Usually they make this ghastly suicidal and wicked choice with complete
coolness, quickness, and ease! They attempt to cover from their own
consciences the folly and wickedness of their decision by the fact they
can do it so coolly and unfeelingly. My common sense tells me that this
very circumstance is the most awful and ghastly proof of the reality and
power of original sin in them. If this had not blinded them, they would
be horrified at the very coolness with which they can outrage themselves
and their Savior. I see two men wilfully murder each his enemy. One has
given the fatal stab in great agitation, after agonizing hesitations,
followed by pungent remorse. He is not yet an adept in murder. I see the
other man drive his knife into the breast of his helpless victim
promptly, coolly, calmly, jesting while he does it, and then cheerfully
eat his food with his bloody knife. This is no longer a man, but a
fiend.
But the great proof is the Scripture. The whole
Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, asserts this original sin and
decisive ungodliness of will of all fallen men. Genesis 6:3: "My spirit
shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh (carnally
minded)." Again, Genesis 6:5: "God saw that every imagination of the
man's heart was only evil continually." After the terrors of the flood,
God's verdict on the survivors was still the same. Genesis 8:21: "I will
not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination
of man's heart is evil from his youth."
Job, probably the earliest sacred writer, asks,
"Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one" (Job 14:4).
David says: "Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother
conceive me" (Ps. 51:5). Prophet asks (Jer. 13:23), "Can the Ethiopian
change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good that
are accustomed to do evil." Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful
above all things, and desperately wicked." What does desperately mean?
In the New Testament Christ says (Jn. 3:4-5), "That which is born of the
flesh is flesh;" and "Except ye be born again ye cannot see the kingdom
of God." The Pharisees' hearts (decent moral men) are like unto whited
sepulchers, which appear beautifully outwardly, but within are full of
dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Does Christ exaggerate, and
slander decent people?
Peter tells us (Acts 8:23) that the spurious
believer is "in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity." Paul
(Rom. 8:7): "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be," (inability of will).
Ephesians 2:3 All men are "by nature the children of wrath" and "dead in
trespasses and sins" (v. 1). Are not these enough?
2
Effectual Calling
What is the nature and agency of the moral
revolution usually called effectual calling or regeneration?
This change must be more than an outer
reformation of conduct; it is an inward revolution of first principles
which regulate conduct. It must go deeper than a change of purpose as to
sin and godliness; it must be a reversal of the original dispositions
which hitherto prompted the soul to choose sin and reject godliness.
Nothing less grounds a true conversion. As the gluttonous child maybe
persuaded by the selfish fear of pain and death to forego the dainties
he loves, and to swallow the nauseous drugs which his palate loathes, so
the ungodly man may be induced by his self-righteousness and selfish
fear of hell to forbear the sins he still loves and submit to the
religious duties which his secret soul still detests. But as the one
practice is no real cure of the vice of gluttony in the child, so the
other is no real conversion to godliness in the sinner. The child must
not only forsake, but really dislike his unhealthy dainties; not only
submit to swallow, but really love, the medicines naturally nauseous to
him. Selfish fear can do the former; nothing but a physiological change
of constitution can do the latter. The natural man must not only submit
from selfish fear to the godliness which he detested, he must love it
for its own sake, and hate the sins naturally sweet to him. No change
can be permanent which does not go thus deep; nothing less is true
conversion. God's call to the sinner is: "My son, give me thine heart" (Prov.
23:26). God requires truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part:
"Thou shalt make me to know wisdom" (Ps. 51:6). "Circumcise therefore
the foreskin of your heart" (Deut. 10:16). But hear especially Christ:
"Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree
corrupt, and his fruit corrupt" (Matt. 12:33). We call the inward
revolution of principles regeneration; the change of life which
immediately begins from the new principles conversion. Regeneration is a
summary act, conversion a continuous process. Conversion begins in, and
proceeds constantly out of, regeneration, as does the continuous growth
of a plant out of the first sprouting or quickening of its dry seed. In
conversion the renewed soul is an active agent: "[God's] people shall be
willing in the day of [his] power" (Ps. 110:3). The converted man
chooses and acts the new life of faith and obedience heartily and
freely, as prompted by the Holy Ghost. In this sense, he works out his
own salvation (Phil. 2:12). But manifestly in regeneration, in the
initial revolution of disposition, the soul does not act, but is a thing
acted on. In this first point there can be no cooperation of the man's
will with the divine power. The agency is wholly Gods, and not man's,
even in part. The vital change must be affected by immediate direct
divine power. God's touch here may be mysterious; but it must be real,
for it is proved by the seen results. The work must be sovereign and
supernatural. Sovereign in this sense, that there is no will concerned
in its effectuation except God's, because the sinner's will goes against
it as invariably, as freely, until it is renewed; supernatural, because
there is nothing at all in sinful human nature to begin it, man's whole
natural disposition being to prefer and remain in a godless state. As
soon as this doctrine is stated, it really proves itself. In section 1
we showed beyond dispute that man's natural disposition and will are
enmity against God. Does enmity ever turn itself into love? Can nature
act above nature? Can the stream raise itself to a higher level than its
own source? Nothing can be plainer than this, that since the native
disposition and will of man are wholly and decisively against godliness,
there is no source within the man out of which the new godly will can
come; into the converted man it has come; then it must have come from
without, solely from the divine will.
But men cheat themselves with the notion that
what they call free-will may choose to respond to valid outward
inducements placed before it, so that gospel truth and rational
free-will cooperating with it may originate the great change instead of
sovereign, efficacious divine grace. Now, any plain mind, if it will
think, can see that this is delusive. Is any kind of an object actual
inducement to any sort of agent? No, indeed. Is fresh grass an
inducement to a tiger? Is bloody flesh an inducement to a lamb to eat?
Is a nauseous drug an inducement to a child's palate; or ripe sweet
fruit? Useless loss an inducement to the merchant; or useful gain? Are
contempt and reproach inducements to aspiring youth; or honor and fame?
Manifestly some kinds of objects only are inducements to given sorts of
agents; and the opposite objects are repellants. Such is the answer of
common sense. Now, what has decided which class of objects shall
attract, and which shall repel? Obviously it is the agents' own
original, subjective dispositions which have determined this. It is the
lamb's nature which has determined that the fresh grass, and not the
bloody flesh, shall be the attraction to it. It is human nature in the
soul which has determined that useful gain, and not useless loss, shall
be inducement to the merchant. Now, then, to influence a man by
inducement you must select an object which his own natural disposition
has made attractive to him; by pressing the opposite objects on him you
only repel him; and the presentation of the objects can never reverse
the man's natural disposition, because this has determined in advance
which objects will be attractions and which repellants. Effects cannot
reverse the very causes on which they themselves depend. The complexion
of the child cannot re-determine the complexion of the father. Now,
facts and Scripture teach us (see section 1) that man's original
disposition is freely, entirely, against God's will and godliness and in
favor of self-will and sin. Therefore, godliness can never be of itself
inducement, but only repulsion, to the unregenerate soul. Men cheat
themselves; they think they are induced by the selfish advantages of an
imaginary heaven, an imaginary selfish escape from hell. But this is not
regeneration; it is but the sorrows of the world that worketh death, and
the hope of the hypocrite that perisheth.
The different effects of the same preached gospel
at the same time and place prove that regeneration is from sovereign
grace: "Some believed the things which mere spoken, and some believed
not" (Acts 18:24). This is because, "As many as were ordained to eternal
life believed" (Acts 13:48). Often those remain unchanged whose social
virtues, good habits, and amiability should seem to offer least
obstruction to the gospel; while some old, profane, sensual, and
hardened sinners become truly converted, whose wickedness and long
confirmed habits of sinning must have presented the greatest obstruction
to gospel truth. Like causes should produce like effects. Had outward
gospel inducements been the real causes, these results of preaching
would be impossible. The facts show that the gospel inducements were
only instruments, and that in the real conversion the agency was
almighty grace.
The erroneous theory of conversion is again
powerfully refuted by those cases, often seen, in which gospel truth has
remained powerless over certain men for ten, twenty, or fifty years, and
at last has seemed to prevail for their genuine conversion. The gospel,
urged by the tender lips of a mother, proved too weak to overcome the
self-will of the boy's heart. Fifty years afterward that same gospel
seemed to convert a hardened old man! There are two well-known laws of
the human soul which show this to be impossible. One is, that facts and
inducements often, but fruitlessly, presented to the soul, become weak
and trite from vain repetition. The other is, that men's active
appetencies grow stronger continually by their own indulgence. Here,
then, is the case: The gospel when presented to the sensitive boy must
have had much more force than it could have to the old man after it had
grown stale to him by fifty years of vain repetition. The old man's love
of sin must have grown greatly stronger than the boy's by fifty years of
constant indulgence. Now how comes it, that a given moral influence
which was too weak to overcome the boy's sinfulness has overcome the old
man's carnality when the influences had become so much weaker and the
resistance to it so much stronger. This is impossible. It was the finger
of God, and not the mere moral influence, which wrought the mighty
change. Let us suppose that fifty years ago the reader had seen me visit
his rural sanctuary, when the grand oaks which now shade it were but
lithe saplings. He saw me make an effort to tear one of them with my
hands from its seat; but it proved too strong for me. Fifty years after,
he and I meet at the same sacred spot, and he sees me repeat my attempt
upon the same tree, now grown to be a monarch of the grove. He will
incline to laugh me to scorn: "He attempted that same tree fifty years
ago, when he was in his youthful prime and it was but a sapling, but he
could not move it. Does the old fool think to rend it from its seat now,
when age has so diminished his muscle, and the sapling has grown to a
mighty tree?" But let us suppose that the reader saw that giant of the
grove come up in my aged hands. He would no longer laugh. He would stand
awe-struck. He would conclude that this must be the hand of God, not of
man. How vain is it to seek to break the force of this demonstration by
saying that at last the moral influence of the gospel had received
sufficient accession from attendant circumstances, from clearness and
eloquence of presentation, to enable it to do its work? What later
eloquence of the pulpit can rival that of the Christian mother
presenting the cross in the tender accents of love? Again, the story of
the cross, the attractions of heaven, ought to be immense, even when
stated in the simplest words of childhood. How trivial and paltry are
any additions which mere human rhetoric can make to what ought to be the
infinite force of the naked truth.
But the surest proof is that of Scripture. This
everywhere asserts that the sinner's regeneration is by sovereign,
almighty grace. One class of texts presents those which describe the
sinner's prior condition as one of "blindness," Ephesians 4:18; "of
stony heartedness," Ezekiel 36:26; "of impotency," Romans 5:6; "of
enmity," Romans 8:7; "of inability, John 6:44 and Romans 7:18; "of
deadness," Ephesians 2:1-5. Let no one exclaim that these are "figures
of speech." Surely the Holy Spirit, when resorting to figures for the
very purpose of giving a more forcible expression to truth, does not
resort to a deceitful rhetoric! Surely he selects his figures because of
the correct parallel between them and his truth!
Now, then, the blind man cannot take part in the
very operation which is to open his eyes. The hard stone cannot be a
source of softness. The helpless paralytic cannot begin his own
restoration. Enmity against God cannot choose love for him. The dead
corpse of Lazarus could have no agency in recalling the vital spirit
into itself. After Christ's almighty power restored it, the living man
could respond to the Savior's command and rise and come forth.
The figures which describe the almighty change
prove the same truth. It is described (Ps. 119:18) as an opening of the
blind eyes to the law; as a new creation; (Ps. 51:10; Eph. 2:5) as a pew
birth; (Jn. 3:3) as a quickening or resurrection (making alive; Eph.
1:18, and 2:10). The man blind of cataract does not join the surgeon in
couching his own eye; nor does the sunbeam begin and perform the
surgical operation; that must take place in order for the light to enter
and produce vision.
The timber is shaped by the carpenter; it does
not shape itself, and does not become an implement until he gives it the
desired shape.
The infant does not procreate itself, but must be
born of its parents in order to become a living agent.
The corpse does not restore life to itself; after
life is restored if becomes a living agent.
Express scriptures teach the same doctrine in
Jeremiah 31:18, Ephraim is heard praying thus: "Turn thou me and I shall
be turned." In John 1:13, we are taught that believers are born "not of
blood, nor of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but of
God." In John 6:44, Christ assures us that "No man can come to me except
the Father which hath sent me draw him." And in John 15:16, "Ye have not
chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go
and bring forth fruit." In Ephesians 2:10, "For we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which Christ hath fore ordained
that we should walk in them."
It is objected that this doctrine of almighty
grace would destroy man's free-agency. This is not true. All men whom
God does not regenerate retain their natural freedom unimpaired by
anything which he does to them.
It is true that these use their freedom, as in
variably, as voluntarily, by choosing their self-will and unregenerate
state. But in doing this they choose in perfect accordance with their
own preference, and this the only kind of free-agency known to men of
common sense. The unregenerate choose just what they prefer, and
therefore choose freely; but so long as not renewed by almighty grace,
they always prefer to remain unregenerate, because it is fallen man's
nature. The truly regenerate do not lose their free-agency by effectual
calling, but regain a truer and higher freedom; for the almighty power
which renews them does not force them into a new line of conduct
contrary to their own preferences, but reverses the original disposition
itself which regulates preference. Under this renewed disposition they
now act just as freely as when they were voluntary sinners, but far more
reasonably and happily. For they act the new and right preference, which
almighty grace has put in place of the old one.
It is objected, again, that unless the agent has
exercised his free-will in the very first choice or adoption of the new
moral state, there could be no moral quality and no credit for the
series of actions proceeding therefrom, because they would not be
voluntary. This is expressly false. True, the new-born sinner can claim
no merit for that sovereign change of will in which his conversion
began, because it was not his own choosing, or doing, but God's; yet the
cavil is untrue; the moral quality and merit of a series of actions does
not depend on the question, whether the agent put himself into the moral
state whence they how, by a previous volition of his own starting from a
moral indifference.
The only question is, whether his actions are
sincere, and the free expressions of a right disposition, for
1. Then Adam could have no morality; for we are
expressly told that God "created him upright." (Eccles. 7:29.)
2. Jesus could have had no meritorious morality,
because being conceived of the Holy Ghost he was born that holy thing
(Matt. 1:20; Luke 1:35)
3. God himself could have no meritorious
holiness, because he was and is eternally and unchangeably holy. He
never chose himself into a state of holiness, being eternally and
necessarily holy. Here, then, this miserable objection runs into actual
blasphemy. On this point John Wesley is as expressly with us as Jonathan
Edwards. See Wesley, On Original Sin.
3
God's Election
In our Confession, Chapter 3, Sections 3, 4, and
7, we have this description of it: "By the decree of God, for the
manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestined unto
everlasting life and others foreordained to everlasting death" (3).
"These angels and men, thus predestinated and foreordained, are
particularly and unchangeably designed; and their number is so certain
and definite that it cannot be either increased or diminished" (4).
"The rest of mankind, God was pleased, according
to the unsearchable counsel of his own will, whereby he extendeth or
withholdeth mercy as he pleaseth, for the glory of his sovereign power
over his creatures, to pass by, and to ordain them to dishonor and wrath
for their sin, to the praise of his glorious justice" (7).
The first and second sections of this tract prove
absolutely this sad but stubborn fact, that no sinner ever truly
regenerates himself. One sufficient reason is, that none ever wish to do
it, but always prefer, while left to themselves by God, to remain as
they are, self-willed and worldly. That is to say, no sinner ever makes
himself choose God and holiness, because every principle of his soul
goes infallibly to decide the opposite preference. Therefore, whenever a
sinner is truly regenerated, it must be God that has done it. Take
notice, after God has done it, this new-born sinner will, in his
subsequent course of repentance and conversion, freely put forth many
choices for God and holiness; but it is impossible that this sinner can
have put forth the first choice to reverse his own natural principles of
choice. Can a child beget its own father? It must have been God that
changed the sinner. Then, when he did it he meant to do it. When was
this intention to do it born into the divine mind? That same day? The
day that sinner was born? The day Adam was made? No! These answers are
all foolish. Because God is omniscient and unchangeable he must have
known from eternity his own intention to do it. This suggests, second,
that no man can date any of God's purposes in time without virtually
denying his perfections of omniscience, wisdom, omnipotence, and
immutability. Being omniscient, it is impossible he should ever find out
afterward anything he did not know from the first. Being all-wise, it is
impossible he should take up a purpose for which his knowledge does not
see a reason. Being all-powerful, it is impossible he should ever fail
in trying to effect one of his purposes. Hence, whatever God does in
nature or grace, he intended to do that thing from eternity. Being
unchangeable, it is impossible that he should change his mind to a
different purpose after he had once made it up aright under the guidance
of infinite knowledge, wisdom, and holiness. All the inferior wisdom of
good men but illustrates this. Here is a wise and righteous general
conducting a defensive war to save his country. At mid-summer an
observer says to him, "General, have you not changed your plan of
campaign since you began it?" He replies, "I have." Says the observer,
"Then you must be a fickle person?" He replies, "No, I have changed it
not because I was fickle, but for these two reasons: because I have been
unable and have failed in some of the necessary points of my first plan;
and second, I have found out things I did not know when I began." We say
that is perfect common sense, and clears the general from all charge of
fickleness. But suppose he were, in fact, almighty and omniscient? Then
he could not use those excuses, and if he changed his plan after the
beginning he would be fickle. Reader, dare you charge God with
fickleness? This is a sublime conception of God's nature and actions, as
far above the wisest man's as the heavens above the earth. But it is the
one taught us everywhere in Scripture. Let us beware how in our pride of
self-will we blaspheme God by denying it. Third. Arminians themselves
virtually admit the force of these views and scriptures; for their
doctrinal books expressly admit God's particular personal election of
every sinner that reaches heaven. A great many ignorant persons suppose
that the Arminian theology denies all particular election. This is a
stupid mistake. Nobody can deny it without attacking the Scripture,
God's perfections, and common sense. The whole difference between
Presbyterians and intelligent Arminians is this: We believe that God's
election of individuals is unconditioned and sovereign. They believe
that while eternal and particular, it is on account of God's eternal,
omniscient foresight of the given sinner's future faith and repentance,
and perseverance in holy living. But we Presbyterians must dissent for
these reasons: It is inconsistent with the eternity, omnipotence, and
sovereignty of the great first cause to represent his eternal purposes
thus, as grounded in, or conditioned on, anything which one of his
dependent creatures would hereafter contingently do or leave undone.
Will or will not that creature ever exist in the
future to do or to leave undone any particular thing? That itself must
depend on God's sovereign creative power. We must not make an
independent God depend upon his own dependent creature. But does not
Scripture often represent a salvation or ruin of sinners as conditioned
on their own faith or unbelief? Yes. But do not confound two different
things. The result ordained by God may depend for its rise upon the
suitable means. But the acts of God's mind in ordaining it does not
depend on these means, because God's very purpose is this, to bring
about the means without fail and the result by the means.
Next, whether God's election of a given sinner,
say, Saul of Tarsus, be conditioned or not upon the foresight of his
faith, if it is an eternal and omniscient: foresight it must be a
certain one. Common sense says: no cause, no effect; an uncertain cause
can only give an uncertain effect. Says the Arminian: God certainly
foresaw that Saul of Tarsus would believe and repent, and, therefore,
elected him. But I say, that if God certainly foresaw Saul's faith, it
must have been certain to take place, for the Omniscient cannot make
mistakes. Then, if this sinner's faith was certain to take place, there
must have been some certain cause insuring that it would take place.
Now, no certain cause could be in the "free-will" of this sinner, Saul,
even as aided by "common sufficient grace." For Arminians say, that this
makes and leaves the sinner's will contingent. Then, whatever made God
think that this sinner, Saul, would ever be certain to believe and
repent? Nothing but God's own sovereign eternal will to renew him unto
faith and repentance.
This leads to the crowning argument. This Saul
was by nature "dead in trespasses and in sins" (Eph. 2:1), and,
therefore, would never have in him any faith or repentance to be
foreseen, except as the result of God's purpose to put them in him. But
the effect cannot be the cause of its own cause. The cart cannot pull
the horse; why, it is the horse that pulls the cart. This is expressly
confirmed by Scripture. Christ says (Jn. 15:16): "Ye have not chosen me,
but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring
forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain." Romans 9:11-13: "For
the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil,
that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works,
but of him that calleth; It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the
younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated;"
and verse 16: "So then, it is not of him that: willeth, nor of him that
runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy." What is not? The connection
shows that it is the election of the man that willeth and runneth, of
which the apostle here speaks. Paul here goes so dead against the notion
of conditional election, that learned Arminians see that they must find
some evasion, or squarely take the ground of infidels. This is their
evasion: that by the names Esau and Jacob the individual patriarchs are
not meant, but the two nations, Edom and Israel, and that the
predestination was only unto the privation or enjoyment of the means of
grace. But this is utterly futile: First, because certainly the
individual patriarchs went along with the two posterities whom they
represented. Second, because Paul's discussion in this ninth chapter all
relates to individuals and not to races, and to salvation or perdition,
and not to mere church privileges. Third, because the perdition of the
Edomite race from all gospel means must have resulted in the perdition
of the individuals. For, says Paul: "How could they believe on him of
whom they have not heard?"
This is the right place to notice the frequent
mistake when we say that God's election is sovereign and not conditioned
on his foresight of the elected man's piety. Many pretend to think that
we teach God has no reason at all for his choice; that we make it an
instance of sovereign divine caprice! We teach no such thing. It would
be impiety. Our God is too wise and righteous to have any caprices. He
has a reasonable motive for every one of his purposes; and his
omniscience shows him it is always the best reason. But he is not bound
to publish it to us. God knew he had a reason for preferring the sinner,
Jacob, to the sinner Esau. But this reason could not have been any
foreseeing merit of Jacob's piety by two arguments: The choice was made
before the children were born. There never was any piety in Jacob to
foresee, except what was to follow after as an effect of Jacob's
election. Esau appears to have been an open, hard-mouthed, profane
person. Jacob, by nature, a mean, sneaking hypocrite and supplanter.
Probably God judged their personal merits as I do, that personally Jacob
was a more detestable sinner than Esau. Therefore, on grounds of
foreseen personal deserts, God could never have elected either of them.
But his omniscience saw a separate, independent reason why it was wisest
to make the worse man the object of his infinite mercy, while leaving
the other to his own profane choice. Does the Arminian now say that I
must tell him what that reason was? I answer, I do not know, God has not
told me. But I know He had a good reason, because he is God. Will any
man dare to say that because omniscience could not find its reason in
the foreseen merits of Jacob, therefore it could find none at all in the
whole infinite sweep of its Providence and wisdom? This would be
arrogance run mad and near to blasphemy.
One more argument for election remains: Many
human beings have their salvation or ruin practically decided by
providential events in their lives. The argument is, that since these
events are sovereignly determined by God's providence, the election, or
preterition of their souls is thereby virtually decided, Take two
instances: Here is a wilful, impenitent man who is down with fever and
is already delirious. Will he die or get well? God's providence will
decide that. "In his hands our breath is, and his are all our ways"
(Dan. 5:23). If he dies this time he is too delirious to believe and
repent; if he recovers, he may attend revival meetings and return to
God. The other instance is, that of dying infants. This is peculiarly
deadly to the Arminian theory, because they say so positively that all
humans who die in infancy are saved. (And they slander us Presbyterians
by charging that we are not positive enough on that point, and that we
believe in the "damnation of infants.") Well, here is a human infant
three months old. Will it die of croup, or will it live to be a man?
God's providence will decide that. If it dies, the Arminian is certain
its soul is gone to heaven, and therefore was elected of God to go
there. If it is to grow to be a man, the Arminian says he may exercise
his freewill to be a Korah, Dalthan, Abiram, or Judas. But the election
of the baby who dies cannot be grounded in God's foresight of its faith
and repentance, because there was none to foresee before it entered
glory; the little soul having redeemed by sovereign grace without these
means.
But there is that sentence in our Confession,
Chapter 10, Section 3: "Elect infants, dying in infancy, are regenerated
and saved by Christ through the Spirit, who worketh when and where and
how he pleaseth." Our charitable accusers will have it that the
antithesis which we imply to the words "elect infants dying in infancy"
is, that there are non-elect infants dying in infancy are so damned.
This we always deny. But they seem to know what we think better than we
know ourselves. The implied antithesis we hold is this: There are elect
infants not dying in infancy, and such must experience effectual calling
through rational means, and freely believe and repent according to
Chapter 10. There were once two Jewish babies, John and Judas; John an
elect infant, Judas a non-elect one. Had John the Baptist died of croup
he would have been redeemed without personal faith and repentance; but
he was predestinated to live to man's estate, so he had to be saved
through effectual calling. Judas, being a non-elect infant, was also
predestinated to live to manhood and receive his own fate freely by his
own contumacy. Presbyterians do not believe that the Bible or their
Confession teaches that there are non-elect infants dying in infancy and
so damned. Had they thought this of their Confession, they would have
changed this section long ago.
When an intelligent being makes a selection of
some out of a number of objects, he therein unavoidably makes a
preterition (a passing by) of the others; we cannot deny this without
imputing ignorance or inattention to the agent; but omniscience can
neither be ignorant nor inattentive. Hence, God's preordination must:
extend to the saved and the lost.
But here we must understand the difference
between God's effective decree and his permissive decree, the latter is
just as definite and certain as the former; but the distinction is this:
The objects of God's effective decree are effects which he himself
works, without employing or including the free-agency of any other
rational responsible person, such as his creations, miracles,
regenerations of souls, resurrections of bodies, and all those results
which his providence brings to pass, through the blind, compulsory
powers of second causes, brutish or material. The nature of his purpose
here is by his own power to determine these results to come to pass.
But the nature of his permissive decree is this:
He resolves to allow or permit some creature free-agent freely and
certainly to do the thing decreed without impulsion from God's power. To
this class of actions belong all the indifferent, and especially all the
sinful, deeds of natural men, and all those final results where such
persons throw away their own salvation by their own disobedience. In all
these results God does not himself do the thing, nor help to do it, but
intentionally lets it be done. Does one ask how then a permissive decree
can have entire certainty? The answer is, because God knows that men's
natural disposition certainly prompts them to evil; for instance, I know
it is the nature of lambs to eat grass. If I intentionally leave open
the gate between the fold and the pasture I know that the grass will be
eaten, and I intend to allow it just as clearly as if I had myself
driven them upon the pasture.
Now, it is vain for those to object that God's
will cannot have anything to do with sinful results, even in this
permissive sense, without making God an author of the sin, unless these
cavilers mean to take the square infidel ground. For the Bible is full
of assertions that God does thus foreordain sin without being an author
of sin. He foreordained Pharaoh's tyranny and rebellion, and then
punished him for it. In Isaiah 10 he foreordains Nebuchadnezzar's sack
of Jerusalem, and then punishes him for it. In Acts 2:23 the wicked
Judas betrays his Lord by the determinate purpose and foreknowledge of
God. In Romans 9:18, "he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom
he will he hardeneth," so in many other places. But our Confession,
Chapter 10, Section 7, makes this express difference between God's
decree of election and of preterition. The former is purely gracious,
not grounded in any foresight of any piety in them because they have
none to foresee, except as they are elected and called, and in
consequence thereof. But the non-elect are passed by and foreordained to
destruction "for their sins, and for the glory of God's justice."
We thus see that usual fiery denunciations of
this preterition are nothing but absurd follies and falsehoods. These
vain-talkers rant as though it were God's foreordination which makes
these men go to perdition. In this there is not one word of truth. They
alone make themselves go, and God's purpose concerning the wretched
result never goes a particle further than this, that in his justice he
resolves to let them have their own preferred way. These men talk as
though God's decree of preterition was represented by us as a barrier
preventing poor striving sinners from getting to heaven, no matter how
they repent and pray and obey, only because they are not the secret pets
of an unjust divine caprice.
The utter folly and wickedness of this cavil are
made plain by this, that the Bible everywhere teaches none but the elect
and effectually called ever work or try in earnest to get to heaven;
that the lost never really wish nor try to be saints; that their whole
souls are opposed to it, and they prefer freely to remain ungodly, and
this is the sole cause of their ruin. If they would truly repent,
believe, and obey, they would find no decree debarring them from grace
and heaven, God can say this just as the shepherd might say of the
wolves: if they will choose to eat my grass peaceably with my lambs they
shall find no fence of mine keeping them from my grass. But the shepherd
knows that it is always the nature of wolves to choose to devour the
lambs instead of the grass, which former their own natures, and not the
fence, assuredly prompts them to do, until almighty power new-creates
them into lambs. The reason why godless men cavil so fiercely against
this part of the doctrine, and so fully misrepresent it, is just this:
that they hate to acknowledge to themselves that free yet stubborn
godlessness of soul which leads them voluntarily to work their own ruin,
and so they try to throw the blame on God or his doctrine instead of
taking it on themselves.
In fine, unbelieving men are ever striving to
paint the doctrine of election as the harsh, the exclusive, the terrible
doctrine, erecting a hindrance between sinners and salvation. But
properly viewed it is exactly the opposite. It is not the harsh
doctrine, but the sweet one, not the exclusive doctrine, not the
hindrance of our salvation, but the blessed inlet to all the salvation
found in this universe. It is sin, man's voluntary sin, which excludes
him from salvation; and in this sin God has no responsibility. It is
God's grace alone which persuades men both to come in and remain within
the region of salvation; and all this grace is the fruit of election. I
repeat, then, it is our voluntary sin which is the source of all that is
terrible in the fate of ruined men and angels. It is God's election of
grace which is the sweet and blessed source of all that is remedial,
hopeful, and happy in earth and heaven. God can say to every angel and
redeemed man in the universe: "I have chosen thee in everlasting love;
therefore in loving kindness have I drawn thee." And every angel, and
saint on this earth and in glory responds, in accordance with our hymn:
"Why was I made to hear his voice
And enter while there's room,
While others make a wretched choice
And rather starve than come?
'Twas the same love that spread the feast
That sweetly drew me in;
Else I had still refused to taste
And perish in my sin."
And now dare any sinner insolently press the
question, why the same electing love and power in God did not also
include and save all lost sinners? This is the sufficient and the awful
answer: "Who art thou, O man, that repliest against God?" (Romans ix.
20.) Hast thou any claim of right against God, O man, to force thee
against thy preference and stubborn choice to embrace a redemption unto
holiness which thou dost hate and wilfully reject in all the secret
powers of thy soul? And if thou destroyest thyself, while holy creatures
may lament thy ruin, all will say that thou art the last being in this
universe to complain of injustice, since this would be only complaining
against the God whom thou dost daily insult, that he did not make thee
do the things and live the life which thou didst thyself wilfully and
utterly refuse!
Others urge this captious objection: that this
doctrine of election places a fatal obstacle between the anxious sinner
and saving faith. They ask, How can I exercise a sincere, appropriating
faith, unless I have ascertained that I am elected? For the reprobate
soul is not entitled to believe that Christ died for him, and as his
salvation is impossible, the truest faith could not save him even if he
felt it. But how can man as certain God's secret purpose of election
toward him?
This cavil expressly falsifies God's teachings
concerning salvation by faith. As concerning his election the sinner is
neither commanded nor invited to embrace as the object of his faith the
proposition "I am elected." There is no such command in the Bible. The
proposition he is invited and commanded to embrace is this: "Whosoever
believes shall be saved" (Rom. 10:11.) God has told this caviler
expressly, "Secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things
that are revealed belong to you and your children, that ye may do all
the words of this law." (Deut. 29:29.) Let us not cavil, but obey. God's
promises also assure us "that whosoever cometh unto God through Christ,
he will in no wise cast off" (Jn. 6:37). So that it is impossible that
any sinner really wishing to be saved can be kept from salvation by
uncertainty about his own election. When we add that God's decree in no
wise infringes man's free agency, our answer is complete. Confession,
Chapter 3, Section 1., by this decree, "No violence is offered to the
will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second
causes taken away, but rather established.
But it is stubbornly objected that those who are
subject to a sovereign, immutable decree cannot be free agents; that the
two propositions are contradictory, and the assertion of both an insult
to reason. We explained that there are various means by which we see
free agents prompted to action, which are not compulsory, and yet
certain of effect, and that our God is a God of infinite wisdom and
resources. God tells them that in governing his rational creatures
according to his eternal purpose, he uses only such means as are
consistent with their freedom. Still, the arrogant objectors are
positive that it cannot be done, even by an infinite God! that if there
is predestination, there cannot be free-agency. Surely the man who makes
this denial should be himself infinite!
But, perhaps, the best answer to this folly is
this: Mr. Arminian, you, a puny mortal, are actually doing, and that
often, the very thing you say an almighty God cannot do! Predestining
the acts of free-agents, certainly and efficiently, without their
freedom. For instance: Mr. Arminian invites me to dine with him at one
o'clock PM. I reply, yes, provided dinner is punctual and certain,
because I have to take a railroad train at two PM He promises positively
that dinner shall be ready at one PM How so, will he cook it himself?
Oh, no! But he employs a steady cook, named Gretchen, and he has already
instructed her that one PM must be the dinner hour.
That is predestination he tells me, certain and
efficacious.
I now take up Mr. Arminian's argument, and apply
it to Gretchen thus: He says predestination and free-agency are
contradictory. He predestinated you, Gretchen, to prepare dinner for one
o'clock, therefore you were not a free agent in getting dinner.
Moreover, as there can be no moral desert where there is no freedom, you
have not deserved your promised wages for cooking, and Mr. Arminian
thinks he is not at all bound to pay you.
Gretchen's common sense replies thus: I know I am
a free agent; I am no slave, no machine, but a free woman, and an honest
woman, who got dinner at one o'clock because I chose to keep my word;
and if Mr. Arminian robs me of my wages on this nasty pretext, I will
know he is a rogue.
Gretchen's logic is perfectly good.
My argument is, that men are perpetually
predestinating and efficiently procuring free acts of free agents. How
much more may an infinite God do likewise. But this reasoning need not,
and does not, imply that God's ways of doing it are the same as ours.
His resources of wisdom and power are manifold,
infinite. Thus this popular cavil is shown to be as silly and
superficial as it is common. It is men's sinful pride of will which
makes them repeat such shallow stuff.
Having exploded objections, I now close this
argument for election with the strongest of all the testimonies, the
Scriptures. The Bible is full of it; all of God's prophecies imply
predestination, because, unless he had foreordained the predicted
events, he could not be certain they would come to pass. The Bible
doctrine of God's providence proves predestination, because the Bible
says providence extends to everything, and is certain and omnipotent,
and it only executes what predestination plans. Here are a few express
texts among a hundred: Psalm 33:11: "The counsel of the Lord standeth
forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations." Isaiah 46:10:
God declareth "the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the
things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will
do all my pleasure." God's election of Israel was unconditional. See
Ezekiel 16:6: "And when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine
own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live." Acts
8:48: "When the Gentiles heard this . . . as many as were ordained to
eternal life believed." Romans 8:29-30: "For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate . . . Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he
also called, and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he
justified, them he also glorified." Ephesians 1:4-7: "He hath chosen us
in him (Christ) before the foundation of the world," etc. 1
Thessalonians 1:4: "Knowing, brethren, beloved, your election of God."
Revelation 21:27 ". . . . They that are written in the Lamb's book of
life."
Silly people try to say that election is the
doctrine of that harsh apostle Paul. But the loving Savior teaches it
more expressly if possible than Paul does. See, again, John 6:16: "Ye
have not chosen me, but I have chosen you," etc. John 6:37: "All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me," etc.; see also verses 39, 44;
Matthew 24:22; Luke 18:7; John 10:14, 28; Mark 13:22; Matt. 20:16.
4
Particular Redemption
Did Christ die for the elect only, or for all
men?" The answer has been much prejudiced by ambiguous terms, such as
"particular atonement," "limited atonement," or "general atonement,"
"unlimited atonement," "indefinite atonement." What do they mean by
atonement? The word (at-one-ment) is used but once in the New Testament
(Rom. 5:11), and there it means expressly and exactly reconciliation.
This is proved thus: the same Greek word in the next verse, carrying the
very same meaning, is translated reconciliation. Now, people continually
mix two ideas when they say atonement: One is, that of the expiation for
guilt provided in Christ's sacrifice. The other is, the individual
reconciliation of a believer with his God, grounded on that sacrifice
made by Christ once for all, but actually effectuated only when the
sinner believes and by faith. The last is the true meaning of atonement,
and in that sense every, atonement (at-one-ment), reconciliation, must
be individual, particular, and limited to this sinner who now believes.
There have already been just as many atonements as there are true
believers in heaven and earth, each one individual.
But sacrifice, expiation, is one-- the single,
glorious, indivisible act of the divine Redeemer, infinite and
inexhaustible in merit. Had there been but one sinner, Seth, elected of
God, this whole divine sacrifice would have been needed to expiate his
guilt. Had every sinner of Adam's race been elected, the same one
sacrifice would be sufficient for all. We must absolutely get rid of the
mistake that expiation is an aggregate of gifts to be divided and
distributed out, one piece to each receiver, like pieces of money out of
a bag to a multitude of paupers. Were the crowd of paupers greater, the
bottom of the bag would be reached before every pauper got his alms, and
more money would have to be provided. I repeat, this notion is utterly
false as applied to Christ's expiation, because it is a divine act. It
is indivisible, inexhaustible, sufficient in itself to cover the guilt
of all the sins that will ever be committed on earth. This is the
blessed sense in which the Apostle John says (1 Jn. 2:2): "Christ is the
propitiation (the same word as expiation) for the sins of the whole
world."
But the question will be pressed, "Is Christ's
sacrifice limited by the purpose and design of the Trinity"? The best
answer for Presbyterians to make is this: In the purpose and design of
the Godhead, Christ's sacrifice was intended to effect just the results,
and all the results, which would be found flowing from it in the history
of redemption. I say this is exactly the answer for us Presbyterians to
make, because we believe in God's universal predestination as certain
and efficacious so that the whole final outcome of his plan must be the
exact interpretation of what his plan was at first. And this statement
the Arminian also is bound to adopt, unless he means to charge God with
ignorance, weakness, or fickleness. Search and see.
Well, then, the realized results of Christ's
sacrifice are not one, but many and various:
1. It makes a display of God's general
benevolence and pity toward all lost sinners, to the glory of his
infinite grace. For, blessed be his name, he says, "I have no pleasure
in the death of him that dieth" (Ezek. 18:32).
2. Christ's sacrifice has certainly purchased for
the whole human race a merciful postponement of the doom incurred by our
sins, including all the temporal blessings of our earthly life, all the
gospel restraints upon human depravity, and the sincere offer of heaven
to all. For, but for Christ, man's doom would have followed instantly
after his sin, as that of the fallen angels did.
3. Christ's sacrifice, wilfully rejected by men,
sets the stubbornness, wickedness, and guilt of their nature in a much
stronger light, to the glory of God's final justice.
4. Christ's sacrifice has purchased and provided
for the effectual calling of the elect, with all the graces which insure
their faith, repentance, justification, perseverance, and glorification.
Now, since the sacrifice actually results in all these different
consequences, they are all included in Gods design. This view satisfies
all those texts quoted against us.
But we cannot admit that Christ died as fully and
in the same sense for Judas as he did for Saul of Tarsus. Here we are
bound to assert that, while the expiation is infinite, redemption is
particular. The irrefragable grounds on which we prove that the
redemption is particular are these: From the doctrines of unconditional
election, and the covenant of grace. (The argument is one, for the
covenant of grace is but one aspect of election.) The Scriptures tell us
that those who are to be saved in Christ are a number definitely elected
and given to him from eternity to be redeemed by his mediation. How can
anything be plainer from this than that there was a purpose in God's
expiation, as to them, other than that it was as to the rest of mankind?
(See the Scriptures regarding the immutability of God's purposes--Isa.
46:10; 2 Tim. 2:19.)
If God ever intended to save any soul in Christ
(and he has a definite intention to save or not to save toward souls),
that soul will certainly be saved (Jn. 10:27-28; 6:37-40). Hence, all
whom God ever intended to save in Christ will be saved. But some souls
will never be saved; therefore some souls God never intended to be saved
by Christ's atonement. The strength of this argument can scarcely be
overrated. Here it is seen that a limit as to the intention of the
expiation must be asserted to rescue God's power, purpose, and wisdom.
The same fact is proved by this, that Christ's intercession is limited
(see Jn. 17:9, 20). We know that Christ's intercession is always
prevalent (Rom. 8:34; Jn. 11:42). If he interceded for all, all would be
saved. But all will not be saved. Hence, there are some for whom be does
not plead the merit of his expiation. But he is the "same yesterday and
to-day and forever" (Heb. 13:8). Hence, there were some for whom, when
be made expiation, he did not intend to plead it. Some sinners (i. e.,
elect) receive from God gifts of conviction, regeneration, faith,
persuading and enabling them to embrace Christ, and thus make his
expiation effectual to themselves, while other sinners do not, But these
graces are a part of the purchased redemption, and bestowed through
Christ. Hence his redemption was intended to effect some as it did not
others (see above.)
Experience proves the same. A large part of the
human race were already in hell before the expiation was made. Another
large part never hear of it. But "faith cometh by hearing" (Rom. 10:17),
and faith is the condition of its application. Since their condition is
determined intentionally by God's providence, it could not be his
intention that the expiation should avail for them equally with those
who hear and believe. This view is destructive, particularly of the
Arminian scheme.
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man
lay down his life for his friends" (Jn. 15:13). But the greater includes
the less, whence it follows, that if God the Father and Christ cherished
for a given soul the definite electing love which was strong enough to
pay the sacrifice of Calvary, it is not credible that this love would
then refuse the less costly gifts of effectual calling and sustaining
grace. This is the very argument of Romans 5:10 and 8:31-39. This
inference would not be conclusive. if drawn merely from the benevolence
of God's nature, sometimes called in Scripture "his love," but in every
case of his definite, electing love it is demonstrative.
Hence, it is absolutely impossible for us to
retain the dogma that Christ in design died equally for all. We are
compelled to hold that he died for Peter and Paul in some sense in which
he did not for Judas. No consistent mind can hold the Calvinistic creed
as to man's total depravity toward God, his inability of will, God's
decree, God's immutable attributes of sovereignty and omnipotence over
free agents, omniscience and wisdom, and stops short of this conclusion.
So much every intelligent opponent admits, and in disputing particular
redemption, to this extent at least, he always attacks these connected
truths as falling along with the other.
In a word, Christ's work for the elect does not
merely put them in a salvable state, but purchases for them a complete
and assured salvation. To him who knows the depravity and bondage of his
own heart, any less redemption than this would bring no comfort.
5
Perseverance of the Saints
Our Confession, in Chapter 17, Sections 1 and 2,
states this doctrine thus: "They whom God hath accepted in his beloved,
effectually called and sanctified by his Spirit, can neither totally nor
finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere
therein to the end., and be eternally saved" (1). "This perseverance of
the saints depends not upon their own free will, but upon the
immutability of the decree of election, flowing from the free and
unchangeable love of God the Father; upon the efficacy of the merit and
intercession of Jesus Christ; the abiding of the Spirit and of the seed
of God within them; and the nature of the covenant of grace, from all
which ariseth also the certainty and infallibility thereof."
I beg the reader to weigh these statements with
candor and close attention, He will find that we do not ascribe this
stability of grace in the believer to any excellence in his own soul,
even regenerate, as source and cause, but we ascribe it to the
unchangeable purpose and efficacious grace of God dwelling and operating
in them. All the angels, and Adam, received from their Creator holy
natures; yet our first father and the fallen angels show that they could
totally fall away into sin. No one in himself is absolutely incapable of
sinning, except the unchangeable God. Converted men, who still have
indwelling sin, must certainly be as capable of falling as Adam, who had
none. We believe that the saints will certainly stand, because the God
who chose them will certainly hold them up.
We do not believe that all professed believers
and church members will certainly persevere and reach heaven. It is to
be feared that many such, even plausible pretenders, live in name only
while they are actually dead (cf. Rev. 3:1). They fall fatally because
they never had true grace to fall from.
We do not teach that any man is entitled to
believe that he is justified, and therefore shall not come again in
condemnation on the proposition "once in grace always in grace,"
although he be now living in intentional, wilful sin. This falsehood of
Satan we abhor. We say, the fact that this deluded man can live in
wilful sin is the strongest possible proof that he never was justified,
and never had any grace to fall from. And, once for all, no intelligent
believer can possibly abuse this doctrine into a pretext for carnal
security. It promises to true believers a perseverance in holiness. Who,
except an idiot, could infer from that promise the privilege to be
unholy?
Once more. We do not teach that genuine believers
are secure from backsliding, but if they become unwatchful and
prayerless, they may fall for a time into temptations, sins, and loss of
hope and comfort, which may cause them much misery and shame) and out of
which a covenant-keeping God will recover them by sharp chastisements
and deep contrition. Hence, so far as lawful self-interests can be a
proper motive for Christian effort, this will operate on the
Presbyterian under this doctrinal perseverance, more than on the
Arminian with his doctrine of falling from grace. The former cannot say,
"I need not be alarmed though I be backslidden"; for if he is a true
believer he has to be brought back by grievous and perhaps by terrible
afflictions; he had better be alarmed at these! But further, an
enlightened self-love will alarm him more pungently than the Arminians'
doctrine will remonstrate him. Here is an Arminian who finds himself
backslidden. Does be feel a wholesome alarm, saying to himself, "Ah, me,
I was in the right road to heaven, but I have gotten out of it; I must
get back into it"? Well, the Presbyterian similarly backslidden is
taught by his doctrine to say: I thought I was in the right road to
heaven, but now I see I was mistaken all the time, because God says that
if I had really been in that right road I could never have left it (1 Jn.
2:19). Alas! therefore, I must either perish or get back, not to that
old deceitful road in which I was, but into a new one, essentially
different, narrower and straighter. Which of the two men has the more
pungent motive to strive?
As I have taken the definition of the doctrine
from our Confession, I will take thence the heads of its proofs:
(a) The immutability of God's election proves it.
How came this given sinner to be now truly converted? Because God had
elected him to salvation. But God says, "My [purpose] shall stand, and I
will do all my pleasure" (Isa. 46:10). Since God is changeless and
almighty, this purpose to save him must certainly succeed. But no man
can be saved in his sins, therefore this man will certainly be made to
persevere in grace.
(b) The doctrine follows from the fact that God's
election is sovereign and unconditional, not grounded in any foreseen
merit in the sinner elected. God knew there was none in him to foresee.
But God did foresee all the disobedience, unthankfulness, and
provocation which that unworthy sinner was ever to perpetrate.
Therefore, the future disclosure of this unthankfulness, disobedience,
and provocation by this poor sinner, cannot become a motive with God to
revoke his election of him. God knew all about it just as well when he
first elected him, and yet, moved by his own motives of love, mercy, and
wisdom, he did elect him, foreknowing all his possible meanness.
(c) The same conclusion follows from God's
covenant of redemption with his Son the Messiah. This was a compact made
from eternity between the Father and the Son. In this the Son freely
bound himself to die for the sins of the world and to fulfill his other
offices as Mediator for the redemption of God's people. God covenanted
on this condition to give to his Son this redeemed people as his
recompense. In this covenant of redemption Christ furnished and
fulfilled the whole conditions; his redeemed people none. So, when
Christ died, saying "It is finished," the compact was finally closed;
there is no room, without unfaithfulness in the Father, for the final
falling away of a single star out of our Saviour's purchased crown; read
John 17. It is "an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and
sure" (2 Sam. 23:5.)
(d), We must infer the same blessed truth from
Christ's love in dying for his people while sinners, from the supreme
merits of his imputed righteousness, and the power of his intercession:
"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his
blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were
enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more,
being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life" (Rom. v. 8-10.) "He
that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not with him also freely give us all things?" (Rom. 8:32). Of Christ,
the Intercessor, it is said that the Father hears him always (cf. Jn.
11:42). But see John 17:20: "Neither pray I for these alone, but for
them also which shall believe on me through their word." If the
all-prevailing High Priest prays for all believers, all of them will
receive what he asks for. But what and how much does he ask for them?
Some temporary, contingent and mutable grace, contingent on the
changeable and fallible human will? See verse 24: "Father, I will that
they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may
behold my glory, which thou hast given me."
(e) If any man is converted, it is because the
Holy Ghost is come into him; if any sinner lives for a time the divine
life, it is because the Holy Ghost is dwelling in him. But the Bible
assures us that this Holy Ghost is the abiding seed of spiritual life,
the earnest of heaven, and the seal of our redemption. Believers are
"born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word
of God, which liveth and abideth for ever" (1 Pet. 1:23). The Apostle
Paul declares that they receive the earnest of the Spirit, and that his
indwelling is "the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of
the purchased possession" (Eph. 1:14). The same apostle says, "grieve
not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of
redemption" (Eph. 4:30).
An earnest, or earnest-money, is a smaller sum
paid in cash when a contract is finally closed, as an unchangeable
pledge that the future payments shall also be made in their due time. A
seal is the final imprint added by the contracting parties to their
names to signify that the contract is closed and binding. Such is the
sanctifying presence of the Holy Spirit in every genuine believer; a
deathless principle of perseverance therein, God's advanced pledge of
his purpose to give heaven also, God's seal affixed to his covenant of
grace. This, then, is the blessed assurance of hope which the true
believer is privileged to attain: not only that God is pledged
conditionally to give me heaven, provided I continue to stick to my
gospel duty in the exercise of my weak, changeable, fallible will. A
wretched consolation, that, to the believer who knows his own heart! But
the full assurance of hope is this: Let the Holy Spirit once touch this
dead heart of mine with his quickening light, so that I embrace Christ
with a real penitent faith; then I have the blessed certainty that this
God who has begun the good work in me will perfect it unto the day of
Jesus Christ (his judgment day), that the same divine love will
infallibly continue with me--and notwithstanding subsequent sins and
provocations, will chastise, restore, and uphold me, and give me the
final victory over sin and death. This is the hope inexpressible and
full of glory, a thousand-fold better adapted to stimulate in me
obedience, the prayer, the watchfulness, the striving, which are the
means of my victory, than the chilling doubts of possible falling from
grace. Again, the Scriptures are our best argument. I append a few texts
among many: See Jeremiah 32:40: "And I will make an everlasting covenant
with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I
will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me."
My sheep never perish, and none shall pluck them out of my hand. Second
Timothy 2:19: "The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal,
the Lord knoweth them that are his." Christ himself implies that it is
not possible to deceive his elect: First Peter 1:5: Believers "are kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation." The same apostle thus
explains the apostasy of final backsliders. Second Peter 2:22: "The sow
that was washed returns to her wallowing in the mire." She is a sow
still in her nature, though with the outer surface washed, but never
changed into a lamb; for if she had been, she would never have chosen
the mire. The apostle (1 Jn. 2:19) explains final backslidings in the
same way, and in words which simply close the debate: "They went out
from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would
no doubt have continued with us; but they went out that they might be
made manifest that they were not all of us."
My affirmative argument virtually refutes all
objections. But there are two to which I will give a word. Arminians
urge always an objection drawn from their false philosophy. They say
that if God's grace in regeneration were efficient, certainly
determining the convert's will away from sin to gospel duty, it would
destroy his free-agency. Then there would be no moral nor deserving
quality in his subsequent evangelical obedience to please God, any more
than in the natural color of his hair, which he could not help. My
answer is, that their philosophy is false. The presence and operation of
a right principle in a man, certainly determining him to right feelings
and actions, does not infringe his free-agency but rather is essential
to all right free-agency. My proofs are, that if this spurious
philosophy were true, the saints and elect angels in heaven could not
have any free-agency or praise-worthy character or conduct. For they are
certainly and forever determined to holiness. The man Jesus could not
have had any free-agency or merit, for his human will was absolutely
determined to holiness. God himself could not have had any freedom or
praiseworthy holiness. He least of all! for his will is eternally,
unchangeably, and necessarily determined to absolute holiness. If there
is anything approaching blasphemy in this, take notice, it is not mine.
I put this kind of philosophy from me with abhorrence.
It is objected, again, that the Bible is full of
warnings to believers to watch against apostasy, like this in 1
Corinthians 10:12: "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he
fall." The sophism is, that if believers cannot fall from grace, all
these warnings are absurd. I reply, they are reasonable, because
believers could fall from grace if they were left to their own natural
powers. In this sense, they naturally might fall, and therefore
watchfulness is reasonably urged upon them, because God's unchangeable
purpose of grace toward them is effectuated in them, not as if they were
stocks or stones, or dumb beasts, but rational free agents, to be guided
and governed by the almighty Spirit through the means of rational
motives. Therefore, when we see God plying believers with these rational
motives not to backslide, it is not to be inferred that he secretly
intends to let them backslide fatally, but rather just the contrary.
I will close with a little parable: I watch a
wise, intelligent, watchful, and loving mother, who is busy about her
household work. There is a bright little girl playing about the room,
the mo
