in the _religious_ professors of Calvinism, on the mass of ignorant,
sordid, unreflecting, and worldly-minded persons, who are taught
these doctrines, its worst influences are seen to operate; and, as
the country was notoriously demoralized at the close of the
Cromwellian dictatorship, when Calvinistic divines had enjoyed a
long and signal triumph, so is the present age marked by a
degeneracy in the public morals, which has kept pace with the
progress of opinions of similar character and tendency. The rude
multitude is taught that there is no grace but _special_ grace, and
this produces recklessness and indifference, since no efforts will
avail if they are not to be partakers of these, to them, forbidden
streams of the river of the water of life. Or, perhaps, this gloomy
doctrine produces a sullen suspicion, vague and undefined, of the
rectitude of God, and thus alienates still more those hearts which
are already adverse to the Divine government.
Of all the mischievous extravagances of opinion, none has produced
more fatal consequences, than the notion, that God takes particular
delight in selecting the vilest of men for the object of his
electing love; and that the gross sinner is better prepared for the
grace of Christ, than they who have walked in the paths of virtue.
It is a melancholy but instructive fact, that in Calvinistic
families, the puritanical order and discipline which are often
highly commendable, have proved insufficient to counteract the
malignant effects of the doctrines inculcated on the minds of the
young. Instead of being taught that grace is given to all, and that
all are responsible for its use, they are instructed that this
blessing may perhaps be withholden. And no families have sent forth
into the world more affecting examples of worthless and unprincipled
young men, who have brought down the grey hairs of their excellent
but mistaken parents with sorrow to the grave!
If the unguarded preaching of "the doctrines of grace," and the
scanty instruction given on the great duties of practical religion,
have contributed to the demoralized state of the people, let it not
be supposed that other causes have been wanting to swell the tide of
corruption. From the Revolution, toleration has been gradually
enlarged, until all salutary restraints have been swept away, and
the glorious liberties of our country have degenerated, by a fatal
abuse, into unbridled licentiousness. The press is daily infusing
poison into the public mind. What once would have been punished as
_profaneness_ and _blasphemy_, is no longer noticed by the gentle
guardians of the law, and _treason_ has almost ceased to be a crime.
Liberalism has trampled over law, and the reigning evils have been
unhappily aggravated by those whose position in the state ought to
have dictated other conduct than that of making anarchical
principles the road to dominion.
V.--CALVINISM IS NOT THE DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE OR OF THE ANGLICAN
CHURCH.
The general tenor of the Holy Scriptures is so clearly against it,
that it is impossible to account for the facts or the doctrines of
the Bible on supposition of the truth of the Calvinistic theology:
Nor would it be needful to discuss the subject, however briefly, on
scriptural grounds, but for a few particular texts which are cited
against the current testimony of the word of God. It is said that
_one_ text, if plain and direct, is evidence enough for the
establishment of any doctrine. This may be a sound canon of
interpretation, where the one text admits but one meaning, and that
meaning is not opposed by conflicting evidence, but not otherwise.
In the present instance, there exists, in addition to the opposing
stream of Scripture testimony, the following strong presumption
against the Calvinistic view of particular texts. Supposing the
doctrine of Calvinistic fatalism to be correct, no explanation can
be given of the general tenor of Divine revelation, none which _can_
be made to harmonize with that doctrine. The entire history of
providence and redemption, as given in the Bible, proceeds on the
principle, not of fate, but of freedom; and if we are not free, we
are reduced to the suspicious and unworthy conclusion, that the
secret and the revealed will of God are at variance with each other;
that we are deceived by a scheme of things designedly arranged to
convey false impressions of truth, and that while God treats us now
as though we were accountable beings, He fixes our final destinies
without any regard whatsoever to our imaginary freedom and pretended
responsibility.
On the other hand, taking the general tenor of the sacred volume to
be the true representation of the moral economy under which we are
placed by the infinite wisdom of God, all the passages which are
cited by Calvinists, as being favourable to their cause, may be so
explained, and that without violence, as to accord with the current
testimony of the Scriptures to the freedom and moral agency of man.
A stronger presumptive argument cannot be conceived against the
claim of Calvinism to scriptural authority.
Let it be also distinctly observed, that the cause of Calvinism is
not served by those passages of Scripture which relate to the
election of individuals, or of nations, to certain privileges which
do not extend to the absolute enjoyment of eternal life. Of this
description is the ninth of the Romans. The subject of that
celebrated chapter is not the election of individuals to final
salvation, but the election of the Jews to the honor of being the
visible Church, and their subsequent rejection through open
unbelief. Nor does the allusion contained in it to the destruction
of Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea, yield an argument in favour
of Calvinistic reprobation. The fact that the infatuated monarch was
hardened in heart by _the leniency_ which spared him under so many
provocations and insults offered by him to the Almighty God, does
not prove, nor was it designed to prove, that he was the fated
victim of an eternal decree, whether in regard to his secular or
spiritual condition.
Nor can Calvinism plead for itself those texts which are supposed to
refer to the election of individuals to final salvation, but which
at the same time leave unsettled the important question at issue;
whether that election was absolute and irrespective of character, or
whether it was founded on the foreknowledge of their faith and
obedience. Such for example is the language of St. Paul, 2 Thess.
ii. 13, 14. All such passages leave the controversy undetermined,
proving only that the doctrine of election is scriptural, but not
fixing the sense in which it is to be taken, whether absolute or
conditional.
The terms _election_ and _predestination_, with their correlates,
are of frequent occurrence in the New Testament, and with various
significations, which are to be explained by the particular subjects
to which they refer. But the _only_ texts which really bear on the
Calvinistic controversy, are those which may seem to represent
election as sovereign, arbitrary, and totally irrespective of the
faith and obedience of the elect; such are few indeed. Let us review
_that_ which is deemed by the advocates of Calvinism among their
most conclusive evidences. "That election," says Edwards, "is not
from a foresight of works, as depending on the condition of man's
will, is evident by 2 Tim. i. 9. 'Who hath saved us, and called us
with an holy calling, _not according to our works_, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before
the world began.'" Edwards was not more remarkable for acuteness
and subtlety as a reasoner, than for his lax and indiscriminate
citations of Scripture. He appeals to this text with such
confidence, that he deems no analysis to be necessary. The bare
citation is enough.
But a brief examination of the passage will make it clear that it
yields no support to Calvinism. The Calvinist affirms "that God, by
an absolute decree, hath elected to salvation a very small number of
men without any regard to their faith and obedience whatsoever."
That is, the decree which insures the safety of the elect is not
founded on God's foreknowledge of their holiness and of their
perseverance in the faith. To show that this doctrine is supported
by the passage under our consideration, it must be proved, that when
the Apostle says, "not according to _our works_," he means our
_Christian_ good works, our faith, our repentance, our charity, our
evangelic obedience to Christ; of this, there is not the shadow of
evidence. On the contrary, the _works_ alluded to are those, whether
good or bad, which were done in a state of heathen or Jewish
depravity, at any rate done before believers exercised faith and
repentance, and were called to the privileges of the Christian
Church. No other interpretation will hold.
St. Paul states that God "hath saved us, and called us with an holy
calling." He then proceeds to trace this happy condition to its
sources. He begins with a negation. The antecedent cause of our
salvation and calling was _not our works_; we were not treated
_according to_ our works; not after the measure, the proportion, the
merit or demerit of our works: these might have brought punishment,
but could never have procured for us blessings so great and
undeserved. The real cause was _the purpose of God_ and _his grace_
given in Christ before the world began.
Here, _our works_ are put in distinct opposition to the purpose and
grace of God.
They could not, therefore, be our Christian works, done in a state
of salvation and subsequent to our obeying the holy calling. _These_
are the practical results, the _moral effects_, of our holy calling
according to the gracious purpose of God. These could never have
been done but for that holy calling. They could not therefore in any
sense be the _antecedent cause_ of that holy calling. In the order
both of nature and of time, both the gracious purpose and the holy
calling must have preceded these works. To tell any man of common
sense, that they were not the procuring cause of the grace from
whence they were themselves derived, was needless.
To one so intelligent as Timothy, such instruction was worse than
superfluous. Works could not hold the twofold relation of cause and
effect to God's grace. Nor can it be supposed that St. Paul was the
author of a solecism so obvious, as that of formally setting in
opposition to the _purpose_ and the _grace_ of God those evangelic
works, which were the moral effects of the influence of that grace
and of the execution of that purpose. The works alluded to were
those which might be done before men were partakers of the Christian
salvation, or independently of the dispensation of grace, and
according to _such_ works no man could be entitled to the blessings
of eternal redemption.
This important text lends no support to the Calvinist. It cannot be
cited in proof, that the election of God is arbitrary and
uninfluenced by his foreknowledge of the faith and obedience of his
chosen people, for the works here intended are _not Christian good
works_ done in faith. Edwards did wisely in not analyzing this text.
The same principle of interpretation is applicable to Titus iii. 5.
"_Not by works of righteousness_ which we have done, but according
to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration, and
renewing of the Holy Ghost." These _works_ are not those of the
truly regenerate, which being the _effects_ of the grace of Christ,
cannot be mistaken for the meritorious cause of the communication of
that grace. It is rather to be taken as a broad assertion, that the
blessings of the Christian covenant, are not the result or the
reward of human deserts; that apart from the redemption of Christ,
there are _no_ works of righteousness by which we can be saved; and
that while Christians are made really holy and good, their
sanctification is to be traced to the grace of God in Christ Jesus.
In neither passage is there any statement on which to rest an
argument for the arbitrary and unconditional decree of the
Calvinist, nor for depreciating the intrinsic value of those really
good works which the Christian performs in faith. Calvinism has no
foundation in the word of God. It is in direct collision with that
sacred authority. St. Paul rests the divine election on the
foreknowledge of the Deity, and let his decision be final. "Whom he
did _foreknow_, he also did predestinate, to be conformed to the
image of his Son."
The seventeenth Article of the Church accords with the Scriptures,
and its doctrinal statements are made almost entirely in the
language of the sacred writers, and of those eminent divines of the
Reformation who abjured Calvinism and adhered to the Bible. It is
drawn up with great moderation, says nothing of absolute decrees and
unconditional election, and it treats the subject practically. The
concluding paragraph relating to "curious and carnal persons" shows
that the venerable compilers of the Article rejected extreme views
of this doctrine, since these only could lead to "a most dangerous
downfall." But if the article itself be at all equivocal, it must be
interpreted by the formularies of the Church and by the Scriptures,
since no dogma is to be imputed to this holy branch of Christ's
Catholic Church, that is at variance with the attributes of God, the
moral constitution of man, the testimony of the Bible, and the
obligations of practical religion.
If Calvinism be the doctrine of our Church, then are the
_Catechism_, and the Order for the Ministration of _Baptism_, the
most absurd and delusive compositions by which the minds of men were
ever led astray.
VI.--CALVINISM HAS LED TO THE CORRUPTION OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE, THAT
THE SCRIPTURES MAY BE ACCOMMODATED TO EXTREME VIEWS OF THE DIVINE
DECREES.
It was not in the nature of things, that Calvinistic predestination
should be received as truth, without producing such a modification
of the entire system of divine revelation, as would impress on it a
new and completely different character. Christianity, in its
unadulterated simplicity, is distinguished by the consolatory views
it imparts of the benignity and grace of God, and by the direct and
cogent motives it suggests for holiness and righteousness of life.
But the first article of the Calvinistic creed throws a veil of
awful and suspicious mystery over the divine goodness, and
represents it "as the sun shorn of his beams." Having determined
that God is not the universal Father, nor "the Saviour of all men,"
but the projector of a scheme which predetermines the ruin of the
great mass of his creatures, Calvinism models to its own purpose all
those doctrines of Christianity which are in beautiful accordance
with the truth that "God is love." It denies that the atonement of
Christ was intended to make satisfaction for "the sins of the
_whole_ world." It announces that the non-elect are laid under an
irresistible necessity of sinning to destruction, and that no
spiritual grace is imparted to rescue them from the dominion of
native, incurable, uncontrolled depravity.
The gracious invitations and promises of the Gospel are reduced to
unmeaning terms, so far as the many are concerned. And while
Calvinism is denominated by its admirers "the doctrines of grace,"
it obliterates from the Scriptures every trace of sincere mercy, and
robs the diadem of heaven of its purest and brightest gem.
_Calvinism_ and _grace_ are heterogeneous terms, representing
discordant ideas.
The motives to a holy life, governed by piety and adorned with
virtue, must be impaired by the views here given of the Deity. No
human mind can be habituated to the contemplation of the divine
conduct, as it is seen distorted by the predestinarian theology, and
retain its just sentiments of what is right, what is just, what is
honourable, what is lovely in goodness. The man who imitates the God
of the Calvinist, that phantasm of a morbid or dreaming imagination,
cannot fail to have his moral sentiments corrupted, and to become
deceptive, shuffling, treacherous, and eventually insensible to the
misery of others.
The Calvinistic doctrines of _regeneration_ and _perseverance_ are
not calculated to rectify these evils. These are made to harmonize
with the fatalism which bears all men along with irresistible
energy, the reprobate to perdition, the redeemed to blessedness. The
new birth is described as a sudden transformation of our spiritual
nature, effected by sovereign grace, unconnected with the preceding
states of the mind, whether good or evil, and attended with the
communication of spiritual life which can never afterwards be
forfeited or lost. No sins, however enormous, can endanger the
elect, although they may for a time cloud their evidences. The
effects produced by this doctrine on the mind of that individual who
believes himself to be thus specially distinguished, must be of a
very dangerous kind, unless counteracted as it frequently is by
other principles, or restrained by the genuine spirit of
Christianity operating with antagonist energy.
It is this _necessary_ corruption of the great truths of the Gospel
that renders Calvinism an object of distrust and alarm. If it was a
mere speculation, which was intended, in the calm spirit of
Christian philosophy, to solve a problem in theology or morals,
leaving untouched the essential character of revealed religion, it
might pass without rebuke. But it weakens the moral sense, and it
leads to the subversion of all that is consolatory in our prospects
of the final destinies of the human race, leaving us no security for
the salvation even of the supposed elect; for what hope can repose
with confidence on the supreme Arbiter of events, when He is
believed to be the author of a religion which represents Him as
acting without any intelligible moral motive, destroying the
majority of the human race for offences not their own, and saving
the remnant without regard to their Christian virtues!
It is remarkable that, while in modern times many disavow their
belief in those views of the _divine decrees_ which form the basis
of the Calvinistic creed, and which have occasioned this corruption
of Christian truth, they still hold to these corruptions, and write
and preach on the implied principle that the grace of God is limited
by decree to those whom they specially designate his children. They
have been driven from the foundation, and still they cleave to the
superstructure. They assume the designation of _moderate_
Calvinists, not perceiving that the doctrines of particular
redemption, and special grace, and exclusive assumption of a filial
relation to God, are untenable when absolute predestination is
exploded. Calvinism, after all, is their creed, since the system to
which they adhere cannot rest on any other foundation.
It is to be inferred, therefore, that for persons of a certain
temperament this doctrine has charms so powerful as to negative the
calm dictates of the judgment, and practically to render the mind
insensible to the force of truth.
And what are its recommendations to those who embrace it?
1. Calvinism is both exciting and sedative, exciting to the
imagination, and sedative to the conscience. Thus it is accommodated
to two of the leading principles of human nature, the love of the
awful, the terrific, the deeply tragic, and the natural anxiety
which all men feel, to be rid of the consciousness of guilt and of
personal danger. Nothing can exceed the tremendous scenes opened to
the imagination by that system of theology, which dooms to perdition
the great mass of human beings, who are permitted by their Creator
to sport or suffer upon earth through a few rapid revolutions of
time, and are then swept away for ever into an abyss of ruin; while,
with confounding and dreadful mystery, the Author of their being is
represented as the great agent in this work of appalling desolation.
To redeem his character for mercy, He rescues an elect few, but
leaves the devoted multitude without pity and without hope, to
everlasting torment. Whether we contemplate this fearful character
of the Deity, or endeavour to realize the scenes which await the
departure of lost souls, or attempt in imagination to identify
ourselves with the happy spirits of the redeemed, who have escaped,
_they know not why_, the general destruction of all that is dear to
man, we must be sensible that all the ordinary conceptions of the
human mind are comparatively powerless for pity, or terror, or
intense expectation of what is to come.
At the same time its tendency, excepting in the case of a few
sensitive and tender spirits, is to deaden the consciousness of
guilt, to still the remonstrances of the self-convicted mind, and to
enable men of no religion and of no morals to hear these doctrines
proclaimed from the pulpit without any salutary disquietude of
heart. They do not really believe them, or they find in them an
apology for their corruption. It has sometimes been said, by way of
severe reflection, of a moral sermon, that it could not be the
Gospel, for that a Socinian might have heard it without offence. The
objection is very absurd; but what then ought to be the inference
drawn by the same persons, respecting the character of doctrines
which, although in speculation they are fearful and appalling to the
utmost, tend in reality to stupify the moral sense, and can be
listened to by the profane and the profligate with complacency or
apathy? While it explains their popularity, it is a presumption
against their truth.
2. This doctrine has the recommendation of freeing those who hold it
from anxiety about the practical part of religion, by substituting a
system of belief _purely speculative_. When examined in all its
bearings, it may be seen to consist of faith and assurance: faith in
the divine decrees; assurance of being numbered with the elect. Get
clear views of the divine sovereignty, believe that Christ died for
_you_ in particular, construe the persuasion of your safety into an
especial witness of the Holy Spirit; doubt nothing, fear nothing;
look entirely out of yourselves; and remember that there is a
finished salvation for the elect; and all is well! This is
Calvinism. And this is speculation. If repentance, self-government,
virtue, and the duties of Christian piety and obedience are
inculcated, these must be enforced on grounds not supplied by the
predestinarian theology, and irreconcileable with that scheme of
doctrine. Doubtless, the best writers of this school insist on
holiness of temper, and sanctity of life, and enforce these by
motives derived from the moral perfections of God, the turpitude of
sin, and the necessity of a renewed heart as being essential to
religion here and happiness hereafter. But all these considerations
are totally independent of the speculations of the fatalist, and are
rendered powerless as incentives to action exactly in proportion to
the practical influence of these speculations on the mind and the
heart.
Let the professor of Christianity give up his thoughts to eternal
decrees, and special grace, and the soothing dream of irrevocable
promises sealed to the heart by the clear witness of the Spirit, and
the moral conflict with sin and temptation will languish with the
salutary fear of danger. This is suited to the depraved indolence of
man. All false systems of religion have in view the indulgence of
this perilous but seductive peace. Any thing is acceptable to
corrupt human nature that supplies a substitute for the duties of
moral righteousness and a sublime virtue, lulling the conscience
into a state of artificial repose. And to produce this effect, no
scheme of religious belief, that ever emanated from the perverse
ingenuity of the human mind, was ever so perfectly contrived as the
Calvinistic notion of predestinating grace.
3. Of the multitudes of truly religious persons, who embrace this
doctrine or give their passive assent to it, but few are competent
to detect its fallacies, or to trace its evil consequences.