CALVINISM.

THE Almighty, foreseeing the tendency of the innate atheism of the human heart, directed his apostle to write, "That all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." Had not such a passage been written, we can hardly calculate what would have been the resultive consequences-what heresies and schisms, what heterodoxy of sentiment, and confusion of creeds, would have desolated the world, human thought is inadequate to estimate. In this, as in all God has done, is there infinite merey and transcendant wisdom displayed: He foresaw, and forknew, what feebleness there was in man-how weak his facultieshow diminutive the powers of his intellect, and how unable to meet the assaults of the great adversary-he knew, that if in revealing his will-if, with that oracle of his word, he permitted ought that was tinged by creatureship or emanated from man, to be united there with, and become the textuary or base of doctrine, or for instruction or edification, how instantly such circumstance would have been laid hold of by man, to doubt the authority of the whole, by the unwitnessed and unattestted fact, of which was God's and which was man's therefore infinite wisdom and unfathomable mercy, did our God display, when in revealing his will through the agency of man, and him only as his amanuensis-he for ever (through dignifying him, as a medium) shut him out from all participation of that word and will-he placed it beyond the breath of doubt when he declared "All Scripture is by inspiration of God." This is enough for us -do we doubt it? Then we rank ourselves on the side of the foeman at once. As it is, we must receive scripture as a whole or not at all. Almighty wisdom has chained us to this alternative-it will not permit us to say this passage was inspired, and that was not this came from God, and that from man-this as the authority of the King, that of the subject. For such to have been our condition-the only standard of revelation, would have been man's own darkened mind, and cloudy perceptions and each then would have stamped as divine, those parts only apparently harmonizing most in accordance with the conceptions of his prejudices. But since God himself has declared, "All Scripture is given by inspiration," be it ours,' to fall in prostrated homage and worshipping adoration, at a merey so great-a gift so precious-and at the bestowal of so costly a treasure.

Such are the spontaneous thoughts, which arise upon the threshold of a subject, at once pregnant with interests-full of consolation, as well as vital in its consequences. Scripture, as the revealed mind of God-being the basis of all true doctrine, must be its first evidence as well as its last appeal-and ought of doctrine, creed, or faith which cannot bring it as the one, and rests not on it as the other, VOL. XII.-No. 133.

comes not from God,-is unheavenly in its origin and tendeth only to perdition. Moreover, God being the author of scripture-it cannot teach contrary doctrine-while it propounds a variety of doctrines in detail; yet the whole is an harmonious one-none clash against each other-each have their distinctive connections in one essential whole. God abhoreth sin and cannot look upon it-yet before the mountains were, his delight was with the sons of men. It was declared the soul that sinned that soul should die-yet dies not the sinner-angels waft thousands to the throne of our heavenly Father. No man can see God and live, such said God himself, yet his beloved Son, our Jesus, said, whoso hath seen me, hath seen the Father; again it is said, "Nothing that is unclean shall inherit the kingdom of God-yet God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, and they were altogether gone out of the way, there was none which did good, no not one-and still heaven is the habitation of a countless throng, as the sands of the sea shore, numberless. Again, it is said, "Cursed is every one which continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them;" and yet it also says, "By the deeds of the law shall no man be justified:" and so might we multiply quotations ad infinitum, to shew that to arrive at truth and discover the meaning of passages, we must not take them exparte, but receive them as an whole, knowing that apparent contradictory passages, such as quoted, require others, the light from which shews that there exists a beautiful harmony in the body. And though the Alpha of a doctrine or a truth be taught in Genesis, we will not call it less glorious, less divine, or less complete, because its Omega be in Revelation. It is in the Bible; it came from God; that is enough for us. given by inspiration of God;" and cannot "All Scripture is clash against itself.

we have

Let an hundred men strive to sever it in an hundred shreds, and weave therefrom an hundred doctrines; we say, "To the Word and to the testimony" let us go; and if they and theirs will not come with us, it is because they have wove that which is human with theirs, and the truth is not in them.

But beyond all, is it of infinite value to know the truth-though Scripture is truth, as God is truth; yet does not God reveal himself to all; so neither does he reveal his Scripture to all, and as by innate nature no man can find out the "Almighty to perfection," so neither can he find out his Scripture unto perfection. To do either-however imperfectly, or in part-is of God, who giveth "according to the good pleasure of his will.” May it be our blessed privilege, as it is our fervent prayer, to be led into truth, while endeavoring to point to where the source of its beauty lies, and from whence much of its glory is radiated; and may also all who pro

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fess to love the truth, be not satisfied, as many are with it, as the bold negation of error, but rather burn with a fervoured zeal to value it as a positive life-springing channel, through which flows all that can give happiness here and eternal glory hereafter. This we pray, in the name and for the sake of Jesus; who has said, "Whatsoever ye ask in my name, that will I do." John xiv. 13.

ter their prejudices, and administer to the dominant biases of their minds, and then pass away and leave it all. The place which knew them knows them no more. They leave a blank, which, scarcely have their absence made a vacated and solitary spot, than another steps in and fills, unknown and uncared for by them. The same desires, emotions, affections, and prejudices, in like manner, actuate their lives also, until they in turn also pass away too.

written on the brow of every ereature: the passing wind breathes it; the lightning flashes it; it is spoken in the thunder, and spelt in the waves. All nature is its alphabet, and all creation its response.

Having made these prefatory remarks, we at once enter upon our subject-viz., that of the doctrine of Calvinism. We want to shew This is the common lot and heritage of all: they are the doctrines of Scripture; that death is the doom passed upon all. All men they come from God and are of God. Our know it: every child learns it as soon as conearly remarks will be principally on the doc-sciousness dawns: it is the confessed fact, trine of reprobation, as flowing out of election -the crowning glory of God's infinite love. Let us, then, begin by observing, that we know of no doctrine by man's name. If we attach any creature name to any doctrine, it is rather from motives of expediency than from principle; only to be understood not by way of subscription. If, then, we write under such an heading as begins these thoughts, we do not wish it to be implied that we believe that Calvin discovered or taught any new doctrine, in anything biassed by his mind, or colored by his faculties. On the contrary, we maintain and subscribe to nothing but Christianity; the Christianity of the Bible, and the Christianity of Christ. We know no canon but revelation; and no creed but that of the inspired Word. But while in principle we call no man lord or master, (for One is our Head, who is in heaven), yet we are willing to be Pauline, so as to be understood; and so ranking under the banner of the sturdy reformer of Geneva, we are willing to contend-which we mean by God's grace to do for "the faith once delivered to the saints;" and with the Word of God in our hands, we do say that Word declares God's everlasting love in the particular choice of his people; their calling in time and glorification in eternity; in contradistinction to the assertion that God had from all eternity thoughts of love unto all the sons of men; and that he sent his beloved Son Jesus, who died for the chosen, for they had forfeited their innocence by the transgression of Adam, and became amenable to eternal death thereby; that Jesus dying for all such, the Holy Spirit imparts grace sufficient unto them, so as to enable them to accept and lay hold of the sacrificial benefits arising from the death of

Christ.

Our present point is to prove, that God hath not elected all to eternal life; nor yet given unto all the means of obtaining that eternal life. And whether we take the existing condition and practical character of mankind here on earth, or his ultimate state hereafter, either is ample in illustration, for bearing on our subject. By which we mean that man does prove in his life, walk and character, the truth of non-election, and also that his final state attest it. What is the condition of mankind? The world with its peopled crowds, its teeming myriads, its vast populations, only inhabit it for a few brief years, accumulate a few small possessions, and surround themselves with friends; gratify their tastes, flat

But yet, though death surrounds us, and our latter end is preached from every quarter though man feels it, is certain of it, is conscious that, in a few years, he too will sleep the long sleep of death, how does he act the teaching lesson of his innate consciousness? How does he apply his heart to wisdom? Does he profit by it? As his days draw out, and his term wears out, is he the more fitted in the desires of his heart, in the sympathies of his soul, to enjoy the bliss, and realise the glories of that hereafter condition of perfect peace and happiness? Nay, it is not so. Despite the thousand lessons, the myriad tongued voice of warning that meet him at every point, he learns not from the one, and sets at nought the other. He chooses rather to float on the rippling tide of pleasure, down the glassy stream of earthly joy and sensual gratification, so long as the ocean into which that stream rushes, is far, far beyond the ken of eye. So long as it is unvisioned by its distance, heedlessly will they float, and joyously sail. If you tell them of their danger, speak to them of the future, "they will have none of your counsel." They consider the pleasures of the to-day more worthy of thought than the realities of the to-morrow. Herein is folly; folly which is bound up in all; all which thoughts are of "the earth, earthy."

This unvarnished picture of the condition of mankind attests his general and complete depravity and fall. It speaks in unequivocal language, with noon-day light, the appalling truth that man is altogether become corrupt; that his desires are vitiated; his tastes depraved; his mind darkened; his faculties, all he is and has, sunken and degraded ; 66 and in himn dwelleth no good thing."

Arrived at this point-the fallen state of mankind by nature, from survey of his existing condition, from his life, walk and character, we are now prepared to take another step, and endeavor to realise his ultimate destiny; and though we have not brought in the aid of revelation, to shew his present existing condition here parent to all, even to the sceptic and unbeliever - yet must we have resort to that blessed Word, as a testimony of evidence for what we are now about to adduce; for we desire above all things to make plain every

such being ap

inch of our ground. Though the lantern of the human diffuses some light, yet there is nothing like the lantern of the Divine to dissipate darkness, whose beams ever shed celes-blackness for ever," where there is weeping, tial light.

thoughtless of hereafter, so sensual, so debased, so feeble, so earthly and time serving? Why shall his destiny be the "darkness of

wailing, and gnashing of teeth? Is he reall this depravity? In short, is he responsible sponsible for all these sins, all this negligence, for his condition here, and his destiny hereafter? For on this hangs the whole question

Then to the Word and to the testimony, as an unerring guide, do we resort, to learn what will be the condition of the world's destiny hereafter. Revelation speaketh thus-" And death and hell delivered up the dead which this is the centre of all that has ever been were in them: and they were judged every of Augustine to our own. said or written upon the subject from the days We e freely and fearman according to his works; and death and lessly admit that darkness surrounds the subhell were cast into the lake of fire." Rev. ject, that it is curtained in mystery, and canxx. 13, 14. "Then shall he say unto them opied by secrecy; yet, nevertheless, revelation pours much light on it. Undoubtedly man is a responsible being-otherwise, his would be an injustice-he is a free agent in being, as he is, the subject of punishment, to his charge: he has conscience in him some points, or criminality could not be laid sufficient to make him amenable to the law, otherwise the justice of God could not be vindicated in punishing him for the violation of that law. But then the position of man is double-while, on the one hand he is a responsible being, he is also, on the other hand, an irresponsible being; while a free agent, yet he hath not power to lift up his hand to heaven, or his thoughts to the Most High. In all things he is sustained by infinite power, and upheld by merciful interposition: he has not innate strength in himself to perform the feeblest act; all which he has is derived from the Giver of every good and perfect gift. Analogy bears out this: he cannot control the circumstances of his birth, his being, or his condition-inheriting a fallen condition by federal relation to Adam, he had no control thereon; God's justice could not, therefore, reprobate him for any such; no man is eternally shut out from God's presence, and doomed to eternal perdition on account of sins which are not his own: such is neither scripture or reason, and if any man says that such is Calvinism, we reply, that it is the Calvinism of his own imagination-the perverted doctrine of a misunderstood and much abused creed. Christianity teaches, and teaches absolutely and clearly, that hell will be peopled by the guilty, be inhabited by the workers of iniquity-mark these words, "workers of iniquity," implying that it is those who have been the individual, identical workers of sin, they who have pampered to their lust, cultivated a depraved nature, and fostered debased habits in the face of warnings and the admonition of conscience; these are the sinners who are the workers of iniquity, to such is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever. It no where says in Scripture, that men are eternally doomed for a mother's sin, or a father's vice-but it does say, "the soul which sinneth IT shall die." It does say, "every man shall be judged according to his works." It does say, that "every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof at the day of judgment; for by thy words shalt thou be justified, and by thy words shalt thou be condemned."

on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Matt. xxv. 41. "The rich man also died and was buried; and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torment." Luke xvi. 22, 23. "The Son of Man shall send forth his angels; and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." Matt. xiii. 41, 42. "And they shall go forth and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh." Isa. lxv. 6. "Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go therein." Matt. vii. 13. "And he opened the bottomless pit, and there arose a great smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace-and the sun and the air was darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit." Rev. ix. 3." Wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever." Jude 13. "If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation, and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone, in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb; and the smoke of their torment ascended up for ever and ever, and they have no rest day nor night." Rev. xiv. 9-11. "Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Matt. xxii. 13. Such are the testimonial evidence of inspiration on the ultimate destiny of apostate man; the bare realities of an hell of intence penal infliction, infinite agony and unmitigated suffering, portrayed in living words on the inspired page, would be enough to rack the strongest mind, and palsy the most powerful heart. The fear of enduring pain so exquisite, torments so intense, and despair so poignant, would be enough to destroy reason and annihilate understanding. But it is not so. Man sentinels the avenues of time, that eternity shall not vision itself to his mind, or disturb his thoughts. He cultivates the solicitudes of earth, chaunts her glory, and sings hosannas to her praise; while eternity, mantling itself around him, has not a thought, an anxiety, or a care.

But whence is this? Why is man so

This is the only Scriptural doctrine of reprobation, and it is clearly a reprobation of

evi! works. It is not a reprobation of individ-| the wicked; but if there were no wicked, it is uals-abstractedly considered. clear there would have been no necessity for law, as indeed there would not have been.

Also, yet further, it is again said, "That the wages of sin is death;" clearly inferring, that death or eternal damnation is the allotted punishment-the merited and deserved award of sin. That the sinner is being punished for his sins, is but receiving the remunerative award thereof; which is the idea brought out by the term wages;" a correlative receipt for a corresponding labour or deed. Had God have reprobated the sinner apart from his sins, he would indeed have had cause to upbraid his Maker with injustice and partiality; but when he stands charged with crime-as on him, the guilt of sin-he cannot but confess that punishment is his reward, and damnation the just sentence of outraged virtue.

But sin being in the world, man having derived contamination therefrom, pollution having passed on the whole species, he is unable to perform ought which is perfect, right or good in an essential sense; his best works, works of duty and conscience, are marred and stained by a sinful and a lapsed and fallen condition of being; hence he is unable to perform absolute good. God does not demand that from him, knowing he cannot render it. And when Christ said to his disciples, "Be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect," he never intended to teach that they should be absolutely as perfect as God himself was: this were impossible. Relative perfection is what is meant; perfection as commensurate as the condition (fallen as it is) of man would permit: this is taught all through Scripture (men gather not figs from a thistle, nor does a corrupt fountain send forth pure water): this is all the requirement of God from the unregenerate, according to their abilities and talents does God demand of them-"Where much is given much is required:" he that hath one talent, of him is required one talent; he that hath two, of him is required two, and so forth. The unregenerate inheriting a sinful nature, a nature by which they never can by any possibility perform absolute good works, works pleasing to God, or that can or shall effect their eternal salvation: hence they are not condemned, for this their incapacity-for not being saved-for inheriting such a nature; but for not putting out the one talent committed to their charge to usury, and rendering the due that as a natural subject they owed to their Lord. Here, then, is responsibility and irresponsibility. If any man doubts it, let him read Scripture; and, if guided by the Spirit, he will see it marked on every page.

But if it be objected that even this view makes God unjust, in not giving to all men the means of repentance, and facilities of escape from the wrath to come, as to those who are intended in the covenant of election-we answer, all men are given sufficient light to know right from wrong; all men have a sense of duty; all are cognisant of the demands which virtue and right have upon them: even heathens have such-(see Rom. ii. 14, 15). Conscience is implanted in them for this purpose; it is the monarch faculty of the mind, which sits in judgment on what is right and what is wrong. Its privilege is as lofty as its responsibility is grave. If it sever from its instinctive functions, and permit the mind to sin, that is often for punishment and retribution. God has implanted sufficient light in man for him to judge what is his duty, and to enable him to do it. But if he choose the paths of open sin, to walk therein, do not let him be so mean or ungenerous as to charge God with his sin, or say it was his fault to permit these paths to be there at all, or to have allurements, whereby he might be tempted. Rather let him speak the honest dictates of conscience, and lay the charge to himself. Man is responsible for sin! Scripture teaches it; reason attests it, and God declares it. But while accountability is the law of his being, and the canon of his existence in reference to sin, and acting guilt pertaining to the individual yet, in reference to that sinful condition by inherent relationship and generic association to Adam-that fallen, lapsed, and peccable nature; all men receive and are born into the world in, in no way is man eternally responsible for. Had he no such nature, perfection of works must necessarily be the result of perfection of being-inasmuch as a perfect being must produce perfect works. And Depend upon it, God's justice is only mainthence, he would have had no need of a Sav-tained and his equity vindicated, by this iour, an atonement or a justification; which would have impugned the Office-character, of Second Person of the ever-blessed and Holy Trinity. "Nor does that text, " "By the works of the law shall no flesh Hiving be justified," at all militate against this view; and that because no law would ever have been given, seeing no sin existed. Restraining law is an adjunct associated only with guilt, and is not necessary in a state of innocence, being incorruptible therewith. Law is a terror to

True and scriptural, which is the only real Calvinism, knows nothing of that cold and heartless dogma, that God reprobated man abstractedly. He reprobated sin; and if men are clothed in sin-if wilful sin become part of their nature, and as punished will be their sins, they also must necessarily be punished with them, they having become part and parcel of their very being. If a man steeps his clothes in inflammable matter and then fastens them on him so as to be unable to take them off, it is a law of sequence, that should they become ignited, he also must perish with them.

scriptural view of the reprobation of sin. God hates nothing which he has made; but sin being his opposite, and he not being the author of it, he can, as he does, hate it, with an infinite and eternal hatred: while it is quite true, that God in his sovereignty has not chose or seen fit to exonerate all men from the effects of sin by Christ becoming their substitute, or by electing them to be among that glorious number, called "a remnant according to the election of grace;" a peculiar people;"

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"vessels of honor," and so forth. It was the right of God to choose who he would; and in electing some sinners, so long as he punished their sins, he was just. This he did in the Person of his dear Son. It was also equally just of him to leave the others to work out their own reprobation. That reprobation, based on their own responsibility of action; God not requiring or demanding perfection of works from them.

Divine justice is manifested in Divine sovereignty: God is glorified as much in the punishment of the wicked, and the reprobation of sin, as he is in the reward of the righteous, and glorification of the elect. God, as a Sovereign, had a right to make man as he pleased. So long as man is only punished for his sins, the non-elect cannot charge God with their damnation, inasmuch as justice and sovereignty are the correlative attributes of Jehovah.

God willing, we shall again revert to this much misunderstood doctrine of reprobation, and endeavor to shew the fallacy and hollow ness of the objections to it, and then devote a page or two to that ever-glorious and eternally blessed doctrine of unconditional election. Jan. 17, 1856.

A STRIPLING.

EPISTLES TO THEOPHILUS.

LETTER XX.

My good Theophilus, I will now try to prove to you that many of the expostulations and exhortations of the Word of Truth are founded, not in any ability in the natural man to do that which is spiritual, but are founded on the profession they make of the name of the Lord. And this I do from the conviction that you are seeking for heavenly wisdom, as the best of silver, and searching for it as for the best of hid treasures. (Prov. ii. 4). And it we wish to be right in matters pertaining to this life, how much more may we seek the good and right way of eternal life? And we know that a wrong position in one respect, may make us wrong in all the rest; and I shall presently give you proof of this. It is the wisdom of the wise to understand his way; and if we have any grace in our hearts, we shall be concerned to grow in that grace.

"Now the (dispensational) kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard, (Matt. xx.), and finding men standing idle." Now, take careful notice of this-they were standing idle (verse 3)—that is, having nothing to do. They professed to want employment. Here, then, are people professedly tired of the world. They have left off working for satan, and they now wish to work for God. But they are as yet standing idle; the unclean spirit is gone out of them; but the Word of God has not yet taken hold of them: they are standing idle. By-and-bye the Word comes along and takes hold of them, and directs them to a free-grace vineyard, and assures them that they shall be daily supported: they shall have their penny a-day. Well, into the (outward)

kingdom they come, and are very, very humble; and to work they go, gathering in all the grapes they can; and some of these gather the promises very fast, and soon possess them all, and make them all their own. No doubting; no fearing; no calling in question but that they are gathering the right grapes at the right time, and in the right way. Such is the character of the mere natural man, when he comes into a profession of the religion, and yet turns the gospel into a land of legal bondage and conditional rewards.

But here is another order of people standing idle, out of whom satan is cast; for when satan goes out, he takes the key with him; but when he is cast out, the Lord himself takes possession of the heart, with, "My son, give me thine heart." Satan went out of Judas, and then Judas wanted religious employment, and he found that employment; but satan still had the key of his heart, and therefore at the suited time could and did re-enter the heart of Judas, and thus drive him on to deeds which should hasten his destruction; out of Peter's heart satan was cast, and therefore could not get back again into his old possession, though he did all he could towards it. He threw some of his heaviest artillery at Peter, and Peter staggered and fell; but a fall is not a surrender, although it certainly is the beginning of a surrender; and so Peter began to anathematize and to swear; but a look from the Saviour frowned satan away, brought Peter again to his feet, the Saviour still retaining possession of Peter's heart. And upon this point rested the question, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me ?" And the truth of the answer laid in the truth of the Saviour still possessing Peter's heart.

So here, in this second order, the Lord said, "Go, work in my vineyard, and whatsoever is right, I will give you." And now comes the test to which these two orders of workmen are to be put. The labourers are called to receive their hire, beginning with the last, and ending with the first. Now when the first saw how liberally those who came last into the vineyard were dealt with, they began to think they ought to receive more; for if those who have done next to nothing are to have a whole day's pay, and thus to be dealt with not according to the time and amount of their work, but according to their need; and according to the nature and willing-heartedness of their work, then what are these all-day working, formal, steady-going workmen to have? Why, of course, a great deal more than these come-late people. Such were their thoughts; but such were not the thoughts of the householder. No: the Lord's thoughts stand thus: "Let the wicked forsake his way." That is, the wicked shall forsake his way. Let, is God's imperative mood; and is founded in mediation and purpose eternal, and in power almighty. The sins of all such were laid upon the Saviour, and he has borne them away; so that every legal impediment being removed, God's command puts down all rule; and all authority against the sinner; so that to all the broken principalities of sin, death and hell, God says, "Let the sinner