nothing more than his real will, is to draw down his judgments and everlasting wrath!

It has been urged by some, that God does not work without a plan-and that predestination is nothing more than the plan of Divine operations.

Suppose we admit that the Supreme Ruler of the Universe does not work without a plan; it does not follow that unconditional election and reprobation is that plan. Such a conclusion could not be drawn, without proving that such a plan would be consistent with the attributes of the Deity, and also, that the doctrine of free agency would not. But this has not been done. On the other hand, it may be urged, both from Scripture and from reason, that the plan which the Almighty has laid down for the government of his rational creatures, is, that man should be free to choose and to act-instructed in his duty-enabled to perform it-and made subject to the consequences.

It has also been supposed that, as the Deity foreknows all things, what is foreknown must certainly come to pass.

All those who have pretended to digest the doctrine into any thing like a system, and all who have held it so digested, have distinguished between the foreknowledge of the Deity, and his decrees. The one is an attribute, the other an act. The Prescience of the Almighty is as much an attribute as his Power, and must have existed from all eternity. But it would seem that a decree necessarily implied an act: an act necessarily required a time at which it was performed-begun-and finished. But how will this accord with the idea of its having existed from all eternity? And if the Prescience

existed before the decrees, then what is foreknown is not necessarily decreed. Calvin * did not rely on the argument of foreknowledge, to establish the doctrine of the decrees. At that day there was a doctrine which Calvin seemed more careful to oppose than that of free-willit was the merit of works. And as he apprehended it might be supposed, that the Almighty, foreknowing the course of conduct which each individual would pursue, had fixed his election or reprobation according to the works foreknown, he contended that the decrees were totally irrespective of the foreknowledge, or of the moral condition of the subjects.

In thus distinguishing between the decrees and the foreknowledge of God, and asserting that such decrees are not dependent on this foreknowledge, he entirely destroys the force of the argument which has been drawn from that source. For if the existence of such decrees be denied, those who confess that they are not dependent on foreknowledge, cannot refer to that foreknowledge as an evidence of their existence.

* His words are; "But many persons involve this doctrine in difficulties; and especially those who pretend to found it upon the Divine Prescience. Both of these things we establish, that God forsees all, and that He disposes of all; but we maintain that it confounds every thing, to subject the PREDESTINATION of God to his PRESCIENCE."

MACKENZIE'S LIFE OF CALVIN, p. 242.

"We cannot suppose Him to have foreknown any thing which He had not PREVIOUSLY decreed, without setting up a series of causes, EXTRA DEUM, and making the Deity dependent for a great part of the knowledge He has, upon the will and works of his creatures, and upon a combination of cir cumstances exterior to Himself. Therefore, his determinate plan, counsel, and purpose, (that is, his own predestination of causes and effects,) is the only basis of his foreknowledge: which foreknowledge could neither be certain nor independent, but as founded on his own ANTECEDENT decree."

TOPLADY, p. 100.

Some of the disciples of Calvin explain his opinions by saying, that "Intelligent beings first determine on a purpose, and then know that it will be accomplished."

If we apply this proposition to the Deity, and it certainly can apply to no other being-it will follow, that his Prescience did not exist from all eternity. For that could not have been of eternal duration, which was preceded by any event whatever. Thus we are led back to a period, in which, according to this view, one of the attributes of the Deity did not exist.

In tracing these various arguments to their natural consequences, my mind revolts at the ideas which are necessarily excited. It is painful too, to my feelings, to canvass the principles of any Society with freedom. I feel no sectarian animosity. I know and esteem many individuals who hold this very doctrine. But while I acknowledge the obligations of charity, I hope it will not be a cause of offence, if I am found also in the exercise of Christian solicitude for their eternal happiness. This solicitude prompts me to the investigation of the subject before us, and freely to develope its character and consequences.

And here I would drop a caution, against a boldness which is sometimes discoverable, in attempting to bring down Divine Attributes to the level of human comprehension. It is done in the doctrines of infidelity, as well as in those of predestination. In the former, it has been levelled against revealed religion, and all the mysteries it embraces; in the latter, it offers an indignity to the Divine Character. Among the very objectionable consequences and imputations which necessarily follow from it, it represents the foreknowledge very far below

perfection, by confining it merely to what is decreed. Besides this, it denies the justice and mercy of the ALmighty. It is true the professors of the doctrine do not acknowledge these consequences; but they follow from it as inevitably as mathematical demonstrations.

And how dare we call these Divine Attributes in question? Do not our very hopes of heaven and happiness depend on these? Banish these from our minds, and our prospects are wrapped in gloom. We no longer look up to a God hearing prayer, but to an inexorable Being, whom neither prayers nor intercessions can move! The uncertainty of our being of the elect number, must still cross our minds with inexpressible horror. Notwithstanding the powerful invitations which we may feel, to become heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, we still may suppose He has bid us seek his face in vain; and only gives these invitations, to increase our condemnation, and aggravate our final misery.

The justice of His judgments and the riches of of His mercy, have been displayed through all generations on earth; and they will be proclaimed in the anthems of the redeemed in heaven.

I shall conclude by appealing to the universal experience of mankind; for I am persuaded that I may assert, without fear of contradiction, that every man who has come to feel the powerful operation of Redeeming Love, rising into predominance in his own heart, feels therein an extension of good-will to the whole human family, and a desire for the salvation of all; in the language of Scripture, "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" and

live.* 2 Pet. iii. 9. And in proportion as we come under the influence of the Spirit of Him, who laid down his life for us, so this love and desire for the salvation of all men becomes powerful in us. And is it to be supposed that our love for mankind, our feelings of pity, commiseration, and desire for their salvation, should be thus enlarged, if the love of God, and the means of salvation, were restricted to the narrow limits which have been supposed, on the predestinarian scheme? It is impossible. Effects cannot exceed their cause; nor any feeling of love or good-will, or desire for the salvation of souls, rise in us, superior to the inexhaustible Source of the love of God in Christ Jesus, from which alone it is derived in us.

Nor is this the only evidence we find within ourselves. And here I can make a similar appeal-whether every man who is capable of rational reflection, does not feel himself in the full exercise of free agency? Is he

But what shall we say of such sentiments as the following? Do they not seem to represent the SMALLNESS of the number of those that are saved, as a source of gratification to the elect-and even as enhancing their happiness? For by not adopting indifferently the whole world to the hope of salvation, but by giving to some what He refuses to others, He, by this comparison of His grace, renders it more estimable, and more illustrious."

CALVIN'S INST. BOOK 3. chap. 21.

"In other cases, the VALUE of a privilege or possession, is enhanced by its SCARCENESS. A VIRTUOSO sets but little esteem on a medal, a statue, or a vase, so common that every man who pleases may have one of the same kind: he prizes that alone, as a rarity, which really is such; and which is not only intrinsically valuable, but which lies in FEW HANDS. Were all men here on earth qualified and enabled to appear as kings; the crown, the sceptre, the robe of state, and other ensigns of majesty, would presently sink into things hardly noticeable. TOPLADY, PREFACE, p. 8.

And these comparisons he brings forward, to illustrate the "reflections," &c. "of such persons as are favoured with a sense of their ELECTION in Christ to holiness and heaven," ib.