It only remains to point out the best editions of the Father, of whom we have been speaking. That, from which our extracts are taken, forms part of a work entitled "SS. Patrum qui temporibus Apostolicis floruerunt, Barnabæ, Clementis, Herma, Ignatii, Polycarpi opera edita et inedita, &c." Edited by J. B. Cotelerius, and revised by J. Le Clerc. Antwerp. 1698. 2 vols. folio. An improved edition was published at Amsterdam, in 1724. Besides this work, however, there are, "Patrum App. Barnabæ et Hermæ Opera." Oxon. 1685. 18mo.--" Ignatii et Barnabæ Epistolæ, cum Notis J. Vossii." Amst. 1646. 4to. We would also direct the student's attention to Archbishop Wake's admirable translation of the Genuine Epistles of the Apostolical Fathers.

ON PREDESTINATION.

Ir is well known, that both Calvin and Arminius have founded their respective doctrines of Predestination upon the common interpretation of the 28th, 29th, and 30th verses of the 8th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. A close examination of this passage will shew, how little occasion the original text of Scripture has given for the violent controversies upon these points, which have agitated the Protestant Churches ever since the Reformation. It is not my intention to dwell, either upon the incorrectness of the received interpretation, or upon the errors into which these great Divines and their followers have been led by it. The best way of refuting error is to establish the truth; for when once the truth concerning any subject is firmly established, all the errors concerning it, which before prevailed, will at once give way. I will therefore apply myself, without further preface, to the consideration of the passage, as it stands in the original.

28. Οἴδαμεν δὲ, ὅτι τοῖς ἀγαπῶσι τὸν Θεὸν πάντα συνεργεῖ εἰς ἀγαθὸν, τοῖς κατὰ πρόθεσιν κλητοῖς οὖσιν. 29. "Οτι οὓς προέγνω, καὶ προώρισε συμμόρφους τῆς εἰκόνος τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ, εἰς τὸ εἶναι αὐτὸν πρωτότοκον ἐν πολλοῖς ἀδελφοῖς. 30. Οὓς δὲ προώρισε, τούτους καὶ ἐκάλεσε· καὶ οὓς ἐκάλεσε, τούτους καὶ ἐδικαίωσεν· οὓς δὲ ἐδικαίωσε, τούτους καὶ ἐδόξασε. "28. We know that all things work together for good to those who are called according to the purpose (or predetermined plan) of God, who love God: 29. That those whom he predetermined, he also previously set apart to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren. 30. But those whom he previously set apart, he also called: and those whom he called, he also justified: and those whom he justified, he also glorified."

Ver. 29. The Apostle uses the word πpóɛyvw in reference to the word półɛσs in the former verse. The verb γινώσκω is used in this sense by Herodotus, Book V. cap. 22. Πρὸς δὲ, καὶ οἱ τὸν ἐν Ὀλυμπίῃ διέποντες ἀγῶνα Ἑλλήνων οὕτω ἔγνωσαν εἶναι,

I render the word powрioɛ, he previously set apart. This is obviously more literal than the common translation, the word "destinate" signifying to connect, or bind together, as with cords; as in the following passage, "His quum Funes, qui Antennas ad Malos destinabant,

comprehensi adductique erant, navigio remis incitato, prærumpebantur." Cæsar de Bell. Gall. lib. iii. cap. 14. Our Translators are however justified in the use of the word "predestinate" by the language of the following parable. "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net (gay) cast into the sea, and gathering together fish of every kind. Which, when it was full, having drawn it upon the shore, and set it down, they gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away." Matt. xiii. 47.

He set them apart to be conformed to the likeness of his Son. How? By being buried with him by baptism into death. "Know ye not," says the Apostle, "that as many as are baptized into Jesus Christ are baptized into his death? For we are buried with him by baptism into death, that, like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."-Rom vi. 3-5. And in the Epistle to the Galatians, St. Paul thus speaks to all the members of that Church collectively: "Ye are all the children of God through the faith which is in Jesus Christ. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ." From these passages taken together, it appears that the predestination spoken of in the New Testament, refers to the admission of Christians into the visible Church and kingdom of Christ; and not to their final entrance on the full possession of the glory, which is hereafter to be revealed.

Ver. 30. "Whom he previously set apart, them he also called, &c." In this passage is a metaphor drawn from the way, in which the Romans formed their legions from the inhabitants of the provinces, or conquered countries. There were commonly attached to the Roman legions bodies of auxiliary troops, which were considered as belonging to the provinces, where they were raised; while the legions themselves were considered as exclusively Roman. In the earlier times of the Republic, they were entirely formed from the inhabitants of the city of Rome. The way, in which the levy was then made, was this. After the appointment of the consuls and military tribunes, the consuls issued out an edict appointing a day, in which all persons of proper age for military service were to appear before the capitol. The people being come together, and the consuls, who presided in the assembly, having taken their seat, in the first place the tribunes were formed into four separate companies, according to the number of the legions, which they designed to make up, which was usually four. After this, every tribe being called out by lot, was ordered to divide into their proper centuries; and out of each century were soldiers cited by name, with respect had to their estate and class; for which purpose there were tables ready at hand, in which the name, age, and wealth of every person were described. Four men, as much alike in all circumstances as could be pitched upon, being presented out of the century, first the tribunes of the first legion chose one (Xaußávovoi πρῶτοι τὴν ΕΚΛΟΓΗΝ οἱ τοῦ πρώτου στρατοπέδου, Polybius, Book VI. cap.18), then the tribunes of the second legion another, the tribunes of the third legion a third man, and the remaining person fell to the tribunes of the fourth. Then four more were drawn out; and now the right of choosing first belonged to the tribunes of the second legion; and so

they went on choosing in turns (καὶ ἀεὶ κατὰ λόγον οὕτως ἔκ περιόδου τῆς EKAOTHΣ yɛvoμévns. Polyb. ibid.), till they had enlisted the number which they wanted. When they had thus been cited, or called by name, and chosen or elected by the tribunes, the listing oath (sacramentum) was administered to them.

In process of time, when the greater part of the citizens residing in the city of Rome became disqualified by their circumstances, or occupations, for a military life, they had recourse to the practice of raising the legions from among the inhabitants of the conquered countries. Of this practice Julius Cæsar gives us an instance, Lib. II. de Bell. Gall. cap. 2.-"Iis nunciis literisque commotus Cæsar duas legiones in citeriore Galliâ novas conscripsit, &c." These provincial recruits being thus called and elected, and thereby separated from the body of their own countrymen, on taking the listing oath immediately became Roman citizens. They were thus gratuitously justified from the charge of enmity against the Roman state, under which they had previously laboured; the Romans ruling the inhabitants of the provinces with a jealous policy, and regarding them as disaffected subjects, who were only prevented by their fears and their weakness from breaking out into open rebellion. It may here be necessary to observe, that justification is a forensic term. The expression of a just or righteous man, as it was used in the Roman law, denotes, not one who positively does good, but one who abstains from doing injury to others. This distinction between the terms "just" and "good" is marked by St. Paul, in the 5th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. "Scarcely for a righteous (or just) man will one die: yet, peradventure, for a good man some would even dare to die." Hence, when any person was charged with a crime, he was considered as placed by that charge among the unjust, and was to be justified by the event of his trial. If he was acquitted, he was of course justified, that is, replaced among the just; if he was found guilty, he remained to be justified, that is, to be rendered incapable of doing injury by being executed. In this sense the term justified is now used in countries which are governed by laws founded on the Roman; in Scotland, for instance, and in the Italian states. Thus we find St. Paul also saying, "He, who has died, has been justified from transgression." Rom. vi. 7. To return, then, to the subject; the provincial recruit, having been set apart from his people, and called to serve in the Roman legions, was gratuitously cleared from the charge of enmity to the Roman state, under which he had previously laboured, and was glorified by his admission to the privileges of a Roman citizen.

Hence it plainly appears, that the meaning of the passage before us is this: that God has predetermined and set apart a certain number from the body of mankind to be partakers of the Gospel covenant, and, to that end, has called them to be conformed to the likeness of his Son by being buried with him by baptism into death; that those who are thus baptized into Christ, are justified through the merits of his death, both from their original sin, and from the actual transgressions which they have committed; and that they are glorified by being made partakers of all the blessings and privileges, which he has purchased by his death and sufferings.

That the term "elect" is applied in Scripture to all who are admitted by baptism into the Christian covenant, and not exclusively to those who shall finally be approved at the day of judgment, clearly appears from the nature of God's covenant with Abraham, according to the view of it which is given in Scripture. In the book of Revelations, we find the Church of God represented under the type of a woman giving birth to a man child, who is to rule the nations with a rod of iron, and who was caught up unto God, and to his throne. In agreement with this representation, Christ was born of the seed of Abraham, and was formally admitted by circumcision to be a partaker of the covenant which God had made with Abraham, and which in fact was only the Gospel covenant under another form. The account given of the revelation of that covenant in the 17th chapter of Genesis, if properly considered, will throw much light upon the subject. He had been before told, that in him should all the families of the earth be blessed. On this occasion the Lord said unto him, "I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. As for me, behold my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. Thou shalt keep my covenant, therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee, in their generations. This is my covenant, which ye shall keep between me and you, and thy seed after thee: every man child among you shall be circumcised; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant." Thus was circumcision appointed to be the door of admission into the covenant made with Abraham: and in the use of this ordinance all the posterity of Israel, and such of the Gentiles as embraced their religion, were elected, or, in the phraseology now used among us, enlisted into the armies of the living God. We find Israel so called by David, when he said, "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?" We find them so called by our Lord himself, when he appeared to Joshua near Jericho. "Joshua said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay, but as Captain of the Host of the Lord am I now come." In agreement with this view of the subject, the name of Abraham, which was given to him because he was to be the father of many nations, literally translated, signifies,

אברההמון .I will elect a multitude

But when Christ, the promised seed of Abraham, in whom all the families of the earth were to be blessed, came into the world, the covenant of Abraham was through him extended to the Gentiles, as St. Paul tells us, Galatians iii. 13, 14. "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us,... that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ.' The rite of circumcision then ceased to be a sacrament, and baptism was appointed instead of it to be the sacrament of admission

into the covenant. "Ye are all," says St. Paul, "the children of God, through the faith which is in Jesus Christ. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."

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Upon the whole, then, we may safely conclude, that in the term elect," as it is used in Scripture, are included all who in baptism are admitted into the visible Church and kingdom of Christ, and enlisted under his banner to fight manfully against sin, the world, and the devil, the common enemies of his glory, and of their own salvation. By this election, or enlistment, they are made partakers of the covenant of Abraham, and consequently of the privileges of that covenant which have been purchased by the death of Christ. They are thereby separated from the heathen world, as the fish in the parable above-mentioned, are separated from the other fish in the sea by the cords of the net. Those who faithfully improve their privileges in this life will continue in the company of Abraham, and in the Church of Christ, to all eternity. On the contrary, they who neglect or refuse to improve their privileges, and thus to make their calling and election sure, will, immediately on their departure out of this life, be separated from the family of Abraham, and cast into outer darkness. Between them and the company of Abraham, a great and impassable gulf will then be placed. When the net of Predestination is full, the good will be gathered into vessels, but the bad will be cast away. At the last day, when the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised, the Son of Man will send his angels, who shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and those that commit iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire. Many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

There are, indeed, a number of passages, which, according to the common interpretation of them, directly contradict this view of the subject. Let us now examine some of them.

John vi. 37, 39. "All that my Father giveth me, shall come unto me," &c. Most readers have imagined the word "all," to refer to persons. This is manifestly an error. The word in the original is a neutral adjective. The passage runs thus: - IIAN, & didwoi por o δίδωσί μοι πατὴρ, πρὸς ἐμὲ ἥξει· καὶ τὸν ἐρχόμενον πρός με, οὐ μὴ ἐκβάλω ἔξω. Τοῦτο δέ ἐστι τὸ θέλημα τοῦ πέμψαντός με πατρὸς, ἵνα ΠΑΝ, ὃ δέδωκέ μοι, μὴ ἀπολέσω ἐξ αὐτοῦ, ἀλλὰ ἀναστήσω αὐτὸ ἐν τῇ ἐσχάτῃ ἡμέρα. "The whole of what my Father giveth me, (that is, the whole treasure of blessings, which my Father has placed at my disposal as King of Zion, for the behoof of my people,) shall come unto me; and him that cometh unto me (that is, for a portion of these blessings) I will in no wise cast out.-This is the will of my Father that sent me, that, with respect to the whole of what he has given me, I should lose nothing out of it, but should raise it up at the last day." The meaning of what our Lord here says, is this :-That of the blessings, which he bestows upon us, and which he requires us to improve to