not the God and Father of Jesus, is not that God whose name is LOVE. This, Sir, is the system that I am accused of having caricatured. It is the system concerning which I have pronounced, and I now solemnly repeat the charge, that it is "a tremendous "doctrine, which, had it really been taught by "Christ and his apostles, their gospel might truly have been denominated, not the doctrine "of peace and good will, but a message of wrath "and injustice, of terror and despair." I have spoken of it, and while life and breath and intellect remain, I shall ever speak of it as " å -66 rigorous, a gloomy, and a pernicious system,” as "full of horror, as the very extravagance of "error," and as "a mischievous compound of "impiety and idolatry.” Predestination, absolute arbitrary predestination, the predestination of some to eternal life, and of the many to eternal misery, from mere good pleasure, and for the glory of God, is the very soul of Calvinism. To affect to evade the horror of the doctrine, by pretending that the non-elect were only left, and not doomed, to perish; or, that they were predestinated to punishment, because they were predestinated to sin; or, that being the descendants of a fallen fallen pair, they were born, that is, in other words, that God made them with corrupt natures, and therefore under his wrath and curse; or lastly, but not least remarkable, that sin, like darkness, is a mere defect*, that is, a nonentity, and therefore meritorious of eternal punishment; all this is trifling and puerile in the extreme. The daring and vigorous mind of the reformer of Geneva disdained such pitiful evasions; and contends, in the most explicit language, for the doctrine of absolute reprobationt. A man, therefore, who denies arbitrary predestination, may, notwithstanding, be a wise man, a learned man, a good man, and a true Christian; but, it is most certain, that he has no right to call himself a Calvinist. "All positive existence must be the object of the creating "and sustaining power of God, the framer of all things, and by "whom all things consist. Sin is precisely the reverse of this,— "it is a fault, a defect, a failure, an imperfection." See a Sermon on the Divine Glory displayed in the Permission of Sin, page 6, by the Author of the Letters to Mr. B. † Si non possumus rationem assignare cur suos misericordia dignetur nisi quoniam ita illi placet, neque etiam in aliis reprobandis aliud habebimus quam ejus voluntatem. Calvin, Inst. lib. iii. cap. xxii. sec. 11. In In my next Letter I shall proceed to justify the charges which I have alleged against the calvinistic system, and likewise to notice some other observations of my reverend opponent, In the mean time I am, Dear Sir, &c. &c, LETTER LETTER II. Abhorrence of Calvinism, consistent with a favourable opinion of many who hold that unscriptural system.-Unjust insinuations repelled.-Concerning the personal presence of Christ with his Apostles after his ascension. DEAR SIR, I FLATTER myself that I stand completely exonerated from the charge of having either intentionally, or ignorantly, misrepresented the calvinistic system. Calvinism is not a term of indefinite signification, like the cant phrase evangelical, which commonly means nothing, but the opinions of the men who use it. Calvinism expresses a system clearly defined, and accurately exhibited in the Institutes of Calvin, in the Decrees of the Synod of Dort, and in this country, in the Assembly's Catechism, in which the children of Calvinists are generally instructed, and the sense of which is sufficiently ascertained. Calvinism Calvinism teaches that the great Creator, by an arbitrary decree, and for his own glory, dooms millions of his creatures to eternal misery for Adam's sin. This, if true, would unquestionably have been a message of wrath and injustice, of terror and despair.-The fundamental principle of Calvinism is, that God is a tyrant. This is impious.-Calvinism teaches that God would not save the number, which from mere good pleasure he had elected to everlasting life, till a person equal to himself in power and glory, had satisfied his justice by bearing his wrath. This is polytheism and absurdity. Calvinism, consistently indeed with itself, renders to this supposed second person, a homage equal to the first. This is idolatry; it is worshipping as God, a mere creature of the imagination.-Calvinism is a system replete with horror: for the chance against every individual is, that he is in the number of those who, for Adam's sin, are doomed to the eternal, inevitable, wrath and curse of the Almighty.Calvinism therefore is a very pernicious system. The natural and direct tendency of Calvinism, is to lead men to think of their Maker with indignation and abhorrence, and to curse their existence it often generates presumption, arrogance, and malignity, in those who fancy themselves the elect favourites of God: It ex cites |