A Lesson in Calvinistic heology.

PREDESTINATION, ELECTION, REPROBATION.

ONE of the commands given by the Lord to His Church is to "earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints." This, like other precepts of the Word of God, is supported and strengthened by corresponding ones. "Hold fast the form of sound words; striving together for the faith of the Gospel," are directions given by the Holy Ghost, through Paul the Apostle-one to Gospel ministers, the other to the Church of God in general, and both relating to the holy jealousy with which the true doctrine of the grace of God should be regarded and preserved from the hands of spoilers by the faithful disciples of Christ, whether in the ministry or not. Peter, under the same Divine inspiration, exhorts the saints to "be mindful of the words spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of the apostles of the Lord and Saviour." This exhortation was considered needful on account of scoffers who should come in "the last days," and is in perfect unison with the exhortations from Jude and Paul previously adverted to. The faith once delivered―i.e., delivered once for allis not to be tampered with, altered, or explained away, and the faithful in Christ Jesus are solemnly warned against those "scoffers" and others who would attempt to do so. Such abound in the present day, and, owing to their efforts, a wave of error, wide in its extent and powerful in its influence, is at the present time passing over the professing Christian church. Men who occupy the position of teachers and pastors in Christian communities, whose proper business should therefore be to instruct the people in the verities of our most holy faith, do not scruple to decry them, and to scoff at doctrines which are as clearly revealed in God's Book as it is possible for words taken in their plain and natural sense to set them forth. Advancing light," these men tell us, "is driving back the old forms of faith; "modern thought" is to supersede all the ancient beliefs of the Church of God dating from the earliest times. Everywhere the old "Confessions are found fault with, and their obliteration, or alteration in them, called for. Nobody, it is considered, should have any definite idea as to the great doctrines of the Gospel, and the household of faith is, in effect, invited and urged to become the household of no belief. Calvinism, as it is called, must, in the opinion of the learned Professors of the day, be by all means extinguished, and a general outcry is raised against the foundational principles of divinely revealed truth as accepted by the Church of God, and set forth in the Confessions, &c., of the Reformed Churches of the Continent, the English Episcopalian Church, the Scottish Presbyterian Church, the English Independents, the English Particular Baptists, and, in fine, of all Protestant communities, holding salvation to be wholly gratuitous and altogether of grace.

No. 608.-AUGUST, 1882.

The question, then, presents itself: Are the doctrines adverted to as enshrined in so many "confessions," and enshrined there for centuries, in harmony with the teaching of Christ and His Apostles as recorded in the sacred Scriptures by the Holy Spirit? Most assuredly they are. True it

is that learned divines of the present day, for the most part, are greatly opposed to the doctrines of free and sovereign grace; but then, the godly divines of former days, who formulated those doctrines in confessions of faith, were quite as well furnished as to human learning as their successors who evince such dislike to them. We are, therefore, brought to this conclusion, that, as there can be no novelties in Divine inspiration—no yea today and nay to-morrow in the Gospel of Christ-our business is to listen with reverend awe and devout attention to the certain and unchanging Oracles of God, and to prove all things thereby, regardless of the "spirit of the times" in which we live, so different to that of former times, and heeding not the "advancing light" held out by "modern thought" teachers, which, without doubt, is the smoke of the bottomless pit.

With regard to the doctrines indicated at the head of this paper, the following is from the Synod of Dort's* deliverance thereon, and accords substantially with what is found on the same point in the "Confessions" above referred to. The devout reader, having carefully perused the same, will be in a position to judge as to its agreement with the plain meaning of those portions of the Word of God cited therein, and the testimony of Scripture generally :

"Article 1. As all men have sinned in Adam, and have become exposed to the curse and eternal death, God would have done no injustice to any one if He had determined to leave the whole human race under sin and the curse, and to condemn them on account of sin, according to those words of the Apostle, All the world is become guilty before God. All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death.'

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“2. But in this is the love of God manifested, that He sent His only begotten Son into the world, that every one who believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'

"3. But that men may be brought to faith, God mercifully sends heralds of this most joyful message, to whom He willeth, and when He willeth, by whose ministry men are called to repentance and faith in Christ crucified. For, 'How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard; and how shall they hear without a preacher; and how shall they preach, except they be sent ?'

"4. They who believe not the Gospel, on them the wrath of God remaineth; but those who receive it, and embrace the Saviour Jesus with a true and living faith, are, through Him, delivered from the wrath of God, and endowed with the gift of everlasting life.

"5. The cause or fault of this unbelief, as also of all other sins, is by no means in God, but in man. But faith in Jesus Christ, and salvation by Kim, is the free gift of God. By grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.'

*See GOSPEL HERALD for April last, for an account of this Synod.

"6. That some, in time, have faith given them by God, and others have it not given, proceeds from His eternal decree, For known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world;' according to which decree He graciously softens the hearts of the elect, however hard, and bends them to believe; but the non-elect He leaves in just judgment to their own perversity and hardness. And here especially a deep discrimination, at the same time both merciful and just-a discrimination of men equally lost-opens itself to us; or that decree of Election and Reprobation which is revealed in the Word of God: which, as perverse, impure and unstable persons do wrest to their own destruction, so, it affords ineffable consolation to holy and pious souls.

"7. But election is the immutable purpose of God, by which, before the foundations of the world were laid, He chose out of the whole human race, fallen by their own fault from their primeval integrity into sin and destruction, according to the most free good pleasure of His own will, and of mere grace, a certain number of men, neither better or worthier than others, but lying in the same misery with the rest, to salvation in Christ, whom He had, even from eternity, constituted Mediator and Head of all the elect, and the foundation of salvation, and therefore He decreed to give them unto Him to be saved; and effectually to call and draw them into communion with Him by His own Word and Spirit; or, He decreed Himself to give unto them true faith to justify, to sanctify, and, at length, powerfully to glorify them, having been kept in the communion of His Son, to the demonstration of His mercy, and the praise of the riches of His glorious grace. As it is written, God hath chosen us in Christ before the foundations of the world were laid, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath freely made us accepted to Himself in that Beloved One. Whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified' (Eph. i. 4-6; Rom. viii. 30).

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"8. This election is not multiform, but one and the same of all that shall be saved in the Old and New Testament, seeing that the Scripture declares the good pleasure, purpose, and counsel of the will of God, by which He has from eternity chosen us to grace and glory, both to salvation and the way of salvation, in which He hath before prepared that we should walk in it.'

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"9. This same election is not made from any foreseen faith, obedience of faith, holiness, or any other good quality and disposition, as a prerequisite cause or condition in the man who should be elected, but unto faith, and unto the obedience of faith, holiness, &c. And therefore, or truly, election is the fountain of every saving benefit, whence faith, holiness, and the other salutary gifts, and finally eternal life itself, flows as its fruit and effect, according to that word of the Apostle, 'He hath chosen us [not because we were, but] that we might be holy, and without blame before Him in love' (Eph. i. 4).

"10. Now, the cause of this gratuitous election is the sole good pleasure

of God: not consisting in this, that He elected into the condition of salvation certain qualities or human actions, from all that were possible; but in that, out of the common multitude of sinners, He took to Himself certain persons as His peculiar property, according to the Scripture, For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, &c., it is said [that is, to Rebecca], The elder shall serve the younger; even as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.' And, ‘As many as were ordained unto eternal life believed' (Rom. ix. 11-13; Acts xiii. 48).

12. "And as God Himself is most wise, immutable, omniscient, and omnipotent, so election made by Him can neither be interrupted, changed, or broken off, nor can the elect be cast away, nor the number of them be diminished.

"12. Of this His eternal immutable election to salvation, the elect, though by various steps, and in an unequal measure, are rendered certain or assured; not indeed by curiously scrutinising the deep and mysterious things of God, but by observing in themselves with spiritual delight and holy pleasure, the infallible fruits of election described in God's Word; such as, true faith in Christ, filial fear of God, godly sorrow for sin, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, &c.

13. From the sense and assurance of this election the children of God daily find greater cause of humbling themselves before God, of adoring the abyss of His mercies, of purifying themselves, and of more ardently loving Him reciprocally who had before so loved them: so far are they from being rendered by this doctrine of election and the meditation of it more slothful in observing the Divine commands, or carnally secure. Wherefore, by the just judgment of God, it is wont to happen to those who either are rashly presuming, or idly and forwardly prating about the grace of election, that they are not willing to walk in the ways of the elect.

"14. But as this doctrine of Divine election, in the most wise council of God, was predicated by the Prophets, by Christ Himself, and by the Apostles, under the Old as well as under the New Testament, and then committed to the monuments of the Sacred Scriptures, so it is to be declared at this day by the Church of God, to whom it is peculiarly destinated, with a spirit of discrimination, in a holy and religious manner, in its own place and time, all curious scrutinising the ways of the Most High being laid aside; and this to the glory of the most holy Divine Name, and for the lively solace of His people.

"15. Moreover, Holy Scripture doth illustrate and commend to us this eternal and free grace of our election, in this more especially that it doth also testify all men not to be elected, but that some are non-elect or passed by in the eternal election of God, whom truly God, from most free, just, irreprehensible and immutable good pleasure, decreed to leave in the common misery, into which they had by their own fault cast themselves, and not to bestow on them living faith, and the grace of conversion; but having been left in their own ways, and under just judgment, at length, not only on account of their unbelief, but also of all their other sins, to condemn and eternally punish them to the manifestation of His own justice. And this is the decree of Reprobation which determines that God is in no

wise the author of sin, which to be thought of is blasphemy, but a tremendous, irreprehensible, just Judge and Avenger.

"16. Those who do not as yet feel efficaciously in themselves a lively faith in Christ, or an assured confidence of heart, peace of conscience, earnest desire of filial obedience, glorying in God through Christ, yet nevertheless use the means by which God has promised to work these things in us, ought not to be alarmed by the mention of Reprobation, nor reckon themselves to be reprobate, but to use diligently the means of grace, and ardently to desire, and reverently and humbly to expect the period of more abounding and fructifying grace. And much less should those persons be terrified by the doctrine of Reprobation, who, when seriously converted to God, simply desire to please Him, and to be delivered from the body of death, yet cannot attain to what they wish in the path of faith and piety, because the merciful God hath promised that He will not 'quench the smoking flax, nor break the bruised reed.' But this doctrine is justly a terror to those who, forgetful of God and the Saviour Jesus Christ, have delivered themselves wholly to the cares and carnal pleasures of the world, so long as they are not in earnest converted unto God."

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Against those who murmur at this grace of gratuitous election, and the severity of just reprobation, we oppose this word of the Apostle, ‘O man, who art thou that repliest against God?' And that of our Saviour, 'Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?'. We, indeed, piously adoring these mysteries, exclaim with the Apostle: 'Oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been His counsellor? Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed to him again? For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.'"

Now, the feeling that arises in the mind of a devout, Bible-loving reader of these "articles" on perusing them will probably be a conviction of the wonderful likeness of the phraseology employed to that used by the Holy Spirit in His written Word on the same matters. Next to this will be a sense of the explicit, wise, judicious, and godly manner in which the subjects treated on are set forth, and of the devout and reverential tone which pervades every sentence. We shall not err if we accept what ancient godly learned men, with so much scrupulous regard to God's revealed will, thus set before us as being fully in accord with the teaching of Holy Scrip ture, let "modern thought" utter its vain vapourings as it may.

In Article 14 there is this wise instruction-"that the doctrine of election is to be declared in a holy and religious manner, in its own time and place." Most undoubtedly, or why did God put it in His Word? The "time and place" there indicated should guide pastors and teachers in their deliverances on the subject now. The Apostles did not preach election in their addresses either to unconverted persons or returning penitents. But when Churches of believers had been gathered, and, we may presume, somewhat settled in the faith, then the Apostles, in their letters to them, led them up to the source of all their spiritual blessings-God's everlasting love and