NUMBER VI.

PREDESTINATION.

DEFINITIONS are the foundations of reasoning. Hence in any reply to my sermon on predestination and election it was natural and fair that the first inquiry should be, Are the definitions correct? The definition of predestination assumed in the sermon was, that unalterable purpose and efficient decree of God, by which the moral character and responsible acts of man were definitely fixed and efficiently produced. On this point the sermon joined issue. To this definition most of the notices and reviews, to the number of six or seven, which I have seen, have taken exceptions. The review in the Boston Telegraph, however, is not of this number.That, as has already been noticed, agrees with the charge in the sermon, that "the fiat of God brought forth sin as directly as it made the world." We have only to leave those Calvinists, who accord to that sentiment, to struggle, as they can, against the arguments of the sermon -against the common sense of the worldagainst their own convictions of right and wrong —and, I may add, against their own brethren of "the class," some of whom have already publicly denounced the sentiment as "horrid blasphemy." At this day of light, in which naked Calvinism is abhorred by most of those who bear the name of Calvinists, it is hardly neces sary to give a formal answer to such a revie

We approve of the logical consistency of these men-we admire the moral courage that, from assumed premises, pushes out a theory to its legitimate results without flinching; but we are astonished at the moral nerve that can contemplate such results with complacency. For myself I confess when I see this naked system of Calvinism fulminating the curse of reprobation in the teeth of the miserable wretch whose only crime is, that his God has made him a sinner, my heart recoils with indescribable horror! Let him contemplate this picture who can. I covet not his head or his heart.

Of others who have expressed their views of the sermon there are two classes: 1. The conductors of the Christian Spectator and those who favour their views; and 2. Those who in a former number were called Reformed Hopkinsians. The latter comprehend the larger portion of Calvinists in New-England, and probably in the United States. Their views on predestination shall be noticed in another number. At present I shall direct my remarks to the letters of Mr. Metcalf and to the first and second notices of the sermon in the Christian Spectator. And here let me say, once for all, that I do not consider either of these gentlemen, or any who think with them, responsible for the doctrine of predestination as stated and opposed in the sermon. This I hope will be satisfactory. If these gentlemen should ask me why I published my sermon in terms that included Calvinists generally, without making the exception

in their favour, I answer, 1. The views of Dr. Taylor and "those who believe with him," on this particular point, were unknown to me at the time. Nor is this strange, for it is but lately that those views have been fully developednever so fully before, probably, as in Dr. Fitch's review of my sermon, already alluded to. 2. It never occurred to me that any man or any set of men holding, in respect to predestination, the doctrine of James Arminius, John Wesley, and the whole body of Methodists, would call themselves Calvinists!! This is all the apology I have, and whether or not it is sufficient, the public must judge. By acknowledging the views of these gentlemen to be Methodistical on the subject of predestination, I by no means would be understood to say this of their system as a whole the objectionable parts will be noticed in their place. But whatever is true is none the less so for being mixed with error. There are some things, however, to be regretted and exposed in the manner in which these reviewers have expressed their doctrine of predestination, and also in the manner in which they have opposed the sermon and Arminianism generally. They complain of my definition of predestination. Mr. M. thinks it is bearing false witness. The reviewer thinks it is obviously erroneous and unjust. And yet they themselves acknowledge that the sermon is an unanswerable refutation of predestination as held by Dr. Tyler and others who oppose their views. But what is a matter of the greatest surprise is the determina

tion with which these gentlemen persist in holding up the idea that their views essentially differ from ours. Dr. Fitch, in his answer to my

reply, says:

"There are three views, and only three, which can be taken of the Divine purposes in relation to a moral kingdom :

"1. That God, foreseeing the certainty of the conduct of his creatures, purposes merely to treat them in a corresponding manner.

2. That he, first of all, resolves what the conduct of his creatures shall be, and next resolves on such measures as shall bring them to that conduct.

"3. That, foreseeing the conduct which will certainly ensue on the different measures it is possible for him to take, he purposes to pursue those measures which will certainly lead to the best possible results."

"The first view is that which we understood to be advocated by Dr. Fisk, in the sermon we reviewed." The writer goes on farther to say that his objection to this is, "that it is utterly deficient". "that it passes over in silence all those acts of God in creation and government by which he determines character." Of course

he means to say that the sermon advocated a theory which left out of the question all the Divine influence in determining character. How strangely he has misunderstood the sermon, let those judge who have read it. It teaches that God hath fixed the laws of the physical and moral world; that he has a general plan, suited to

all the various circumstances and contingencies of government; that God gives the sinner power to choose life; that his grace enlightens and strengthens the sinner to seek after and obtain salvation. In short, it must be obvious that no man who believes in the Divine government and in Gospel provisions can leave this influence out of his system. I will therefore venture upon the following declaration, which it is presumed Dr. Fitch cannot gainsay, namely, Dr. F. never saw a man and never heard of a man that was a believer in revelation, who left out of his creed all that conduct in God which determines character. That such was not the character of my creed, the reviewer might have learned in my reply to his first review, if he could not from the sermon. In the reply it is said,," As God foresaw men would sin, he also determined upon the plan he would pursue in reference to them as sinners, and arranged in the counsels of his own infinite mind the extended concatenation of causes and effects so as to make the wrath of man praise him,' and deduce the greatest possible good from the best possible system.”. And yet, strange to tell, in his answer to my reply, the reviewer says as decidedly as if it were an undisputed truth," Dr. Fisk advocates the first," (meaning the first view of the Divine purposes given above.) "We brought forward the third," (meaning the third view.) "Now since the third upholds the fact of foreordination, free from the objections of Dr. F., we have succeeded in upholding the fact which Dr. F., as an