the direct procuring cause? A thousand turns of this kind, therefore, are nothing but evasions. The fiat of God brought forth sin as certainly as it made the world.

We are often told, when we quote Calvin and his contemporaries, that these are old authors; that modern Calvinists do not hold thus, and that they ought not to be accountable for these writers. But the fact is, we make them accountable only for the logical consequences of their own doctrine. The whole system turns on this hinge, "God foreordains whatsoever comes to pass." For he that, by his will and decree, produces and causes sin, that makes sin a necessary part of his plan, and is the author of the very elements and materials of his own plan, must be the proper and sole cause of sin, or we have yet to learn the definition of common words, and the meaning of plain propositions. The distinction therefore, of ancient and modern, of rigid and moderate Calvinists, is more in word, than in reality. And it would add much to the consistency of this system, if all its advocates would acknowledge, what is evidently deducible from the premises, that God is the efficient cause of sin.

2. This doctrine of predestination destroys the free agency, and of course the accountability of man. That it destroys free will was seen and acknowledged by many predestinarians of the old school. And the opposers of Mr. Wesley and Mr. Fletcher violently assailed them on this subject. Mr. Southey informs us,

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in his Life of Wesley, that the Calvinists called this doctrine of free will, "a cursed doctrine". "the most God-dishonouring and soul-destroying doctrine of the day". one of the prominent features of the beast"-"the enemy of God" "the offspring of the wicked one"-" the insolent brat of hell." Others, and the greater part of the Calvinists of the present day, endeavour to reconcile the ideas of necessity and free agency. Man, they say, sins voluntarily, because he chooses or wills to sin; therefore he is a free agent. Hence they exhort sinners to repent, and tell them they can repent if they will. By which they mean, the only impossibility of their repenting, is in their willtheir cannot is their will not. This has led many to think that there is no difference, between their preachers and the Arminians. But let us look at this subject a little, and see if there is not some sophistry concealed in this dexterous coil of words. God, according to this doctrine, secures the end as well as the means, by his decree of predestination. And therefore, as Calvin says, "every action and motion of every creature is governed by the hidden counsel of God." The will, therefore, in all its operations, is governed and irresistibly controlled by some secret impulse, some fixed and all-controlling arrangement. It is altogether futile, then, to talk about free agency under such a constitution; the very spring of motion to the whole intellectual machinery is under the influence of a secret, invincible

power. And it must move as that power directs, for it is the hand of Omnipotence that urges it on. He can act as he wills, it is true, but the whole responsibility consists in the volition, and this is the result of God's propelling power. He wills as he is made to will-he chooses as he must choose, for the immutable decree of Jehovah is upon him. And can a man, upon the known and universally acknowledged prin. ciples of responsibility, be accountable for such a volition? It is argued, I know, that man is responsible, because he feels that he acts freely, and that he might have done otherwise. To this I reply, that this is a good argument, on our principles, to prove that men are free-but on the Calvinistic ground, it only proves that God hath deceived us. He has made us feel that we might do otherwise, but he knows we cannot -he has determined we shall not. So that, in fact, this argument makes the system more objectionable. While it does not change the fact in the case, it attributes deception to the Almighty. It is logically true, therefore, from this doctrine, that man is not a free agent, and therefore not responsible. A moral agent, to be free, must be possessed of a self-determining principle. Make the will any thing short of this, and you put all the volitions, and of course the whole moral man, under foreign and irresistible influences.

3. Another strong objection to the doctrine we oppose, is, it arrays God's secret decrees against his revealed word. God commands men

not to sin, and yet ordains that they shall sin. In his word, he sets before them, in striking relief, motives of fear and of hope, for the express purpose, as he informs us, "that they sin not;" but by his predestination and secret counsel, he irresistibly impels them in an opposite course, for the express purpose, as this doctrine informs us, to secure their transgression. His rule of action is in direct opposition to our rule of duty. And yet he is the author of both! Is God at war with himself, or is he sporting and trifling with his creatures? Or is it not more probable than either, that the premises are false? When or where has God ever taught us, that he has two opposing wills? A character so suspicious, to say the least of it, ought not, without the most unequivocal evidence, to be attributed to the adorable Jehovah. In his word, we are taught, that he is "of one mind"that his "ways are equal;" and who can doubt it? We are told, it is true, to relieve the diffi. culty, that this seeming contradiction is one of the mysteries of God's incomprehensible nature. But it is not a seeming contradiction, it is a real one; not an insolvable mystery, but a palpable absurdity. God prohibits the sinful act-God ordains and procures the sinful act-God wills the salvation of the reprobate, whom he has from all eternity irreversibly ordained to eternal death! When I can embrace such opposite propositions by calling them mysteries, I can believe that two and two are more than four, that all the parts are less than the whole, and that a thing may

be made to exist and not exist at the same time; and explain them by a reference to the mystery of God's incomprehensible nature.

4. In close connection with the foregoing objection, it may be added, that this system mars, if it does not destroy, the moral attributes of God. If he holds men responsible for what is unavoidable-if he makes laws and then impels men to break them, and finally punishes them for their transgressions-if he mourns over the evils of the world, and expostulates with sinners, saying, "How can I give thee up-my heart is melted within me, my repentings are kindled together,"- -"O Jerusalem! Jerusalem! how oft would I have gathered you, and ye would not," and still he himself " 'impels the will of men," to all this wickedness-if I say God does all this, where is his veracity? Where is his mercy? Where is his justice? What more could be said of the most merciless tyrant.? What, of the most arrant hypocrite? What, of Satan himself? What does this doctrine make of our heavenly Father? I shudder to follow it out into its legitimate bearings. It seems to me, a belief of it is enough to drive one to infidelity, to madness, and to death. If the supporters of this system must adhere to it, I rejoice that they can close their eyes against its logical consequences, otherwise it would make them wretched in the extreme, or drive them into other dangerous theoretical and practical errors. Indeed, in many instances it has done this-which leads to another objection to this doctrine.