either side, should be informed of what is true in this case, viz. that
a great portion, probably on the whole by far the greatest portion of
predestinarians, and _all_ anti-predestinarians, understood the doctrine
of absolute predestination, as involving directly, or by consequence,
certain specified principles; but that a portion of predestinarians
persisted in denying that these principles were involved in the
doctrine; and suppose this intelligent person should be informed of the
additional facts, that these predestinarians had tried all their skill
at explanation and argument, generation after generation, but had never
succeeded in the view of the other party in freeing their doctrine from
these charges, nay, that they had so far failed of it, that many, very
many were leaving them, and adopting the anti-predestinarian system, for
the _very reason_ that they could not rid the system, in which they had
been educated, from those principles which were charged upon it--and
that even among those who had adhered to the old doctrine there were new
modes of explaining and stating the theory, constantly springing up,
until finally numbers of them _had explained themselves entirely out of
the doctrine_, and into the opposite sentiment; and that very many
others, by adhering to the doctrine, and following out the principles
involved in it, had come to the conclusion that there was "no hell"--no
judgment, and "no angry God." Suppose, I say, this intelligent man
should be informed of all these facts, and then be requested to
_presume_ whether or not these contested principles were involved in the
doctrine--what would be his judgment? I need not answer this question.
There is _strong_ presumptive evidence that the views in the sermon are
correct.
2. Another reason for believing that this doctrine is what we have
defined it to be, and involves in it the principles we have charged upon
it, is drawn from the terms in which it is expressed, and the manner and
circumstances in which these terms are used. The more common terms are
_decree, predestination, foreordination, predetermination, purpose_,
&c.--These are all authoritative terms, and carry with them the idea of
absolute sovereignty. But lest they should not be sufficiently strong
and imperious, they are, in this theory, generally accompanied by some
strong qualifying terms, such as _sovereign decree, eternal and
immutable purposes;_ and without any reference to other bearings, the
whole is placed on the ground of God's absolute and sovereign will.
These sovereign decrees, however, are not proposed to his subjects in
the light of a law enforced by suitable sanctions, and liable to be
broken. They are the _secret counsels_ of his own will; and so far from
being law, that often, perhaps oftener than otherwise, in the moral
world, they are in direct opposition to the precepts of the law. When
these decrees come in contact with the law they supersede it. Laws may
sometimes be broken, the decrees, never. God commits his law to
subordinate moral agents, who may break or keep them; but his decrees he
executes himself. It should also be understood that the advocates of
this theory, in their late controversy with Dr. Taylor, strenuously
maintain that sin, wherever it occurs, is preferable to holiness in its
stead, and is the _necessary means_ of the _greatest good_. The idea
that God, foreseeing what moral agents would do, under all possible
circumstances, _so ordered his works_ as to take up and incorporate into
his plan the foreseen volitions of moral agents, and thus constitute a
grand whole, as perfect as any system which involves a moral government
could be, they discard as rank Arminianism. Now is it possible that
decrees like these, concealed in the eternal mind of him that conceived
them--dependent solely on Almighty power to execute them, not modified
by subordinate agencies, but made to control these agencies with
absolute and arbitrary sway; can it be _possible_, I say, that such
decrees do not efficiently control and actuate the human will? Must not
he who, in this manner, forms and executes the general plan, also form
and execute all its parts? Must not he who gives the first impulse to
this concatenation of events, linked together by his eternal purposes,
follow up the whole with his continued and direct agency, and carry on
this work in every mind and through every emotion? Most assuredly he
must. His is, undoubtedly, according to this doctrine, that operative,
controlling and propelling energy that
"Lives through all life, extends through all extent,
Acts undivided, operates unspent."
And that we may be sure not to misrepresent the Calvinists on this
subject, let them speak for themselves. Dr. Hill, who is a modern, and
is reputed a moderate Calvinist, says:--"The Divine decree is the
determination to _produce_ the universe, that is, the _whole series_ of
_beings_ and _events_ that was then future." Dr. Chalmers, who has been
esteemed so moderate a Calvinist, that some had doubted whether he had
not given up absolute predestination altogether, comes out in his sermon
on predestination in the following language:--"Every step of every
individual character, receives as determinate a character from the hand,
of God, as every mile of a planet's orbit, or every gust of wind, or
every wave of the sea, or every particle of flying dust, or every
rivulet of flowing water. This power of God knows no exceptions: it is
absolute and unlimited. And while it embraces the vast, it carries its
resistless influence to all the minute and unnoticed diversities of
existence. It _reigns_ and operates through all the secrecies of the
inner man. It gives birth to every purpose, it gives impulse to every
desire, it gives shape and colour to every conception. It wields an
entire ascendancy over every attribute of the mind; and the will, and
the fancy, and the understanding, with all the countless variety of
their hidden and fugitive operations, are submitted to it. It gives
movement and direction through every one point of our pilgrimage. At no
moment of time does it abandon us. It follows us to the hour of death,
and it carries us to our place, and to our everlasting destiny in the
region beyond it!!!" These quotations need no comment; if they do not
come up to all we have ever charged upon this doctrine, there is no
definite meaning in words.
But we have another authority on this subject, which bears more directly
on the Calvinists of this country, the Assembly's Catechism. Dr. Fitch,
who is certainly as well qualified to judge in this matter as another
man, informs us, through the medium of the Christian Spectator, that
"the articles of faith prepared by that body, (the assembly of English
and Scotch divines at Westminster,) are considered as expressing
essentially the views not only of the Presbyterian Church in this
country, but also of the orthodox Congregational Churches of
New-England." It is known, also, that the Shorter Catechism has been
almost universally used by them in their families, and in the religious
instruction of their children. Here then we have a standard of faith,
which all the _classes_, I suppose, will acknowledge,--and what saith
it? After stating that the decrees of God are his eternal purpose,
according to the counsel of his own will, whereby, for his own glory, he
hath foreordained whatsoever cometh to pass, it goes on to say, "God
_executeth_ his decrees in the works of creation and providence," and
then for farther explanation adds--"God's works of providence are his
most holy, wise, and powerful, preserving and governing all his
creatures and all their actions." This is certainly an awkward sentence,
if I may be allowed to say this of the productions of an assembly which
has been characterised as a paragon of excellency in erudition and
theology. Its meaning, however, according to grammar and logic, must be,
that by his acts of providence God, in a most holy, wise, and powerful
manner, preserves and governs both all his creatures, and all their
actions. But as it seems to be a solecism to talk about _preserving
actions_, we will understand _preserving_ to belong to _creatures_, and
_governing_ to _actions_, and then it will be thus: God powerfully
preserves all his creatures, and powerfully governs all their actions:
and it is in this way he _executes_ his decrees. There are evidently two
methods of governing. That control which is made up of legal precepts,
and sanctions, and retributions, is called a government; not that all
the subjects of such a government always obey its ordinances, but if
they violate them, they are subjected to punishment. _This_ is evidently
not the kind of government that the assembly contemplated. It was a
government by which God _executed his decrees;_ but, as we have seen,
his decrees are not his laws, for they are frequently in direct
opposition to his laws. Decree and law are not only frequently opposed,
in respect to the moral action demanded by each, but even where those
demands are coincident they differ greatly in the _manner_ and
_certainty_ of their fulfilment. Of course government, by _executing
decrees_, is another thing altogether from government by _executing
laws_. But there is another kind of government. It is that _efficient
control_ of a superior, by which a being or an act is _made to be what
it is_, in opposition to _non-existence_, or a _different existence_.
Now this appears to be precisely the kind of government alluded to when
it said, "God _executes his decrees_ by powerfully _governing_ all the
actions of his creatures." That is, he efficiently produces and controls
all the responsible volitions, good and bad, of the moral universe. And
what is this, but affirming all that the sermon has affirmed on this
subject? If any one is disposed to deny that this is a fair exposition
of the Catechism, let him reflect that as he cannot pretend that
_government_ here means a _legal administration_, it will be incumbent
on him to show what other fair construction can be put upon it than the
one given above; to show how God can execute a secret decree, by his own
powerful act, in any other way than in the one already explained.
In corroboration of the foregoing views it should also be borne in mind,
that the Calvinists uniformly use these very same terms, _decree,
predestination_, &c, in the _same sense_, in reference to _all events_.
They say, God's decrees extend to all events, physical and moral, good
and evil, by which they must mean, if they mean any thing intelligible,
that his predestination bears the same relation to all events. If then
his decree of election embraces the means to the accomplishment of the
end, so also must his decree of reprobation. If his decree of election
requires for its accomplishment an _efficient_ operation, so also does
his decree of reprobation. If Divine agency is directly and efficiently,
requisite to produce a good volition, it must follow that it is in the
same sense requisite to produce a sinful volition.
To tell us a thousand times, without any distinction or discrimination,
that all things are _equally_ the result of the Divine decree, and then
tell us that the relation between God's decree and sin is essentially
different from the relation existing between his decree and holiness,
would certainly be a very singular and unwarrantable use of language.
How then, I inquire, does God produce holy volitions?--Why, say the
Calvinists, by a direct, positive, and efficient influence upon the
will, and in proof quote--"Thy people _shall_ be willing in the day of
thy power." Well, how, I ask again, does God execute his decrees
respecting unholy volitions? Consistency requires the same reply. But,
says the Calvinist, he need not exert the same influence to produce
unholy volitions, because it is in accordance with the nature of sinful
men to sin. Indeed! and is not this _nature_ the result of a decree? It
would seem God approaches his work of executing his decree _respecting
sin_, either more reluctantly or with greater difficulty, so that it
requires two steps to execute this, and only one the other. It is in
both cases, however, equally his work. This will be seen more clearly if
we turn our attention to the first sin; for it is certainly as much
against a perfectly holy nature to commit sin, as it is against an
unholy nature to have a holy volition. Hence the one as much requires a
direct and positive influence as the other, and therefore the passage in
the 110th Psalm, if it applies at all to a positive Divine influence in
changing the will, must have a much more extensive meaning, than has
been generally supposed. It should be paraphrased thus:--Not only shall
thy elect people, who are yet in their sins, and therefore not yet in a
strict and proper sense thine, be made willing to become holy in the day
that thou dost efficiently change their will, but also thy angels and
thy first created human pair, who were before their fall more truly
thine, as they were made perfectly holy, shall be made willing to become
unholy in the day that thou dost efficiently change their wills from
submission to rebellion. For if Divine efficiency is necessary to make a
naturally perverse will holy, it is also necessary to make a naturally
holy will perverse.
I am aware that we may be met here by this reply, that although God does
efficiently control the will, still it is in a way suited to the nature
of mind, and consistent with free agency, because he operates upon the
mind through the influence of moral suasion, or by the power of motives.
To this it may be answered, that the Calvinists generally condemn Dr.
Taylor's views of conversion, because they suspect him of holding that
motives alone convert the sinner; whereas they deem it necessary that
the Holy Spirit should act directly upon the will; if so, then, as I
have shown above, it is also necessary that there should be a direct
Divine influence upon the will of a holy being, to make him sinful. And
this more especially, since both changes are decreed, and both stand in
the same relation to the Divine purpose. But this doctrine of motives
leads me to another argument, viz.
3. That the view I have taken of predestination is correct, appears
evident from the Calvinistic doctrine of motives, especially when this
doctrine is viewed in connection with the Calvinistic theory of
depravity.
The doctrine of motives I understand to be this, that "the power of
volition is never excited, nor _can be_, except in the presence and from
the excitement of motives," (see "Views in Theology,") and that the mind
must necessarily be swayed by the strongest motive, or by what appears
to the mind to be the greatest good. Dr. Edwards, following Leibnitz,
incorporated this doctrine of philosophical necessity with the
Calvinistic theology. In this he has been followed by a great portion, I
believe, of the Calvinistic clergy. Without stopping here to attempt a
refutation of this theory, my present object is to show that it
necessarily fastens upon Calvinism the charges brought against it, and
sustains the definition that has been given to predestination. For since
God creates both the mind and the motives, and brings them together for
the _express purpose_ that the former should be swayed by the latter, it
follows conclusively that God _efficiently_ controls the will, and
produces all its volitions. And this is according to express Calvinistic
teaching:--"God," says the author of "Views in Theology," already
quoted, "God is the determiner of perceptions, and perceptions are the
determiners of choices." The inference therefore is plain and
unavoidable, _God is the determiner of choices_. The plea that God does
not produce volitions, by a direct influence, but indirectly, through
second causes, avails nothing. Although there should be ten, or ten
thousand intermediate links, if they are all arranged by our Creator in
such order as to produce the intellectual vibration intended, whenever
he pleases to give the impulse, what is the difference? In point of
efficient agency, none at all. Nor yet will it alter the case to say,
that "this effect is produced by God through such a medium as is suited
to the nature of the mind, and therefore it cannot be said, that God
does any violence to the will, or to man's free agency." God created the
_mind_, and the _means_ that were to influence it. He gave to mind its
nature, and to motives their influence and arrangement, for _this very
purpose_. Hence, unless man can unmake himself, he is _bound by the law
of his nature_ to act in all cases as he does. Why talk about a _free_
agency when it is such an agency as _must_, by _the constitution_ of
_God_, lead inevitably to sin and ruin! That old, and in the premises,
foolish reply, that man could do differently, _if he chose_, does not
help the case. It is only saying, the nature of man is such that it is
governed by his perceptions, and since "God is the determiner of
perceptions, and perceptions the determiners of choices," whenever God
pleases to alter the perceptions so as thereby to change the choice,
_then_, and not before, man can do differently. According to this
doctrine is it possible, according to the very nature of mind, for the
choice to be different until the perceptions are changed? And can the
perceptions be changed, until God changes them? To answer either or both
of these questions in the affirmative, would be to give up the doctrine
of motives. To answer them in the negative, would be to entail upon the
doctrine all that I have charged upon it. The advocates of the theory
may have their choice. Nor yet, again, will it destroy the force of this
argument, to say "man has an _unholy nature;_ and this is the reason why
the motives presented influence him to sin; therefore the guilt is
chargeable upon himself, and God is clear." For, in the first place,
this would not account for the first unholy volitions of holy angels and
the first human pair.
This argument presupposes that, but for the consideration of man's
_unholy nature_, the charge against the Calvinistic theory would be
valid. And inasmuch as here are cases in which the argument obviously
affords no relief to the system, it follows that in these uses, at
least, God is the efficient and procuring cause of unholy volitions--and
therefore the charges against predestination are established. But by a
little farther attention we shall see that this argument affords as
little relief to the system in the case of man as he now is. For this
first sin, which was itself the necessary result of the Divine
arrangement and of positive Divine influence, threw, if possible, a
stronger and a more dire necessity over all the coming generations of
men. For this act entailed upon man a depraved heart. Hence this corrupt
nature came upon man without his knowledge or agency. We trace it back
then, thus:--Man's love of sin was produced by the unholy choice of the
first pair--that choice was produced by perceptions--these perceptions
were produced by motives--and these motives were brought by God to bear
upon the minds which he had made for this very purpose--therefore God,
by design, and because he purposed it, produced our corrupt nature; and
then, for the express purpose of leading that unholy nature to put forth
unholy volitions, he brings those motives to bear upon our minds, which,
from the unavoidable nature of those minds, _must produce_ the sin
designed. It is thus that, according to his theory, our Creator binds
the human mind by the strong cords of depravity with one hand, and with
the other lashes it, by the maddening scourge of motives, into all the
excitement of unholy delirium; and then, for his own glory, consigns the
sinner over to the prison house of wo!! Turn this system, then, as you
will, you find this doctrine of predestination binding the human mind,
and efficiently producing all the volitions of the moral universe. The
strong arm of Jehovah not more directly and irresistibly moves and binds
the planets in their orbits, than it moves and controls, in the
mysterious circle of his eternal decrees, "all the actions of all his
creatures."
I know, as a closing argument, it is urged, whatever may be our
inferences, we all know that we are free, and that we are responsible,
because _we are conscious of it_. This is a most singular course of
reasoning, and seems to have been adopted to reconcile contradictions.
If this doctrine be true, I am not _sure_ that I am free, and that I am
responsible merely because I feel that I am. I am at least _quite_ as
conscious that I ought not to be held responsible for what is
unavoidable, as I am that I am possessed of moral liberty. Break down my
consciousness in one case, and you prepare the way for me to suspect it
of fallacy in another. And if I must give up my consciousness, between
two alternatives I will choose that which will not involve the
government of God in injustice, and myriads of intelligent beings in
unavoidable perdition. Hence, with Dr. Edwards' premises, which he holds
in common with Lord Kaimes, I would come to his lordship's conclusion,
viz. that God never intended to hold men responsible, and the universal
feeling of responsibility is a kind of pious fraud--a salutary delusion,
imposed as a check and restraint upon man here, but to be followed by no
unpleasant consequences either here or hereafter. But this would be
charging our Creator with both deception and folly--deception in the
delusive consciousness of responsibility, and folly in suffering Lord
Kaimes and others to disclose the secret, and frustrate the Divine
purpose! This cannot be. The charge of deception and of fallacy,
therefore, must be rolled back from consciousness and from the throne of
God upon the doctrine of predestination. And if the reaction should
crush the theory for ever, it would doubtless be a blessing to the
Church and to the world.
To conclude. For the reasons given, I must still maintain that the
charges contained in the sermon against that modification of Calvinism I
am now opposing, are just; and the definition assumed, is correct. If
the advocates of the system can clear themselves, or their doctrine, let
it be done. If not, let one of two courses be pursued--either let the
system be abandoned, or _let us have it as it is_.
I have dwelt the longer on this subject, because I am weary, and I
believe we all are, of hearing the oft-repeated complaint, "You
misrepresent us!" "You mistake our doctrine!"
In the next No., by the leave of Providence, the nature of human agency,
and the ground of human responsibility, will be examined.
NUMBER VIII.
MORAL AGENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY.