connecting links between the Old Testament and the New, but which, when submitted to the clearer light of the Gospel, afford those opinions no support. Their principal reliance has been upon Psalm xvi. 10: “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption;" whereas all who are even moderately well acquainted with the language of the Scriptures know that the word hell most commonly means the grave; whilst "the soul" not unfrequently implies the dead body merely, or, it may be, the whole man, as in Psalm xxxiii. 18, 19,—"Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy; to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine."

CHAPTER VI.

OF CALVINISTIC PREDESTINATION, AND PREVENIENT GRACE.

A GENERAL notion of providence is inseparable from every idea of God; we cannot imagine this wonderful frame of things to have been called into existence, but at the command of a Being infinite in power, in wisdom, and in goodness; and no less difficult is it to conceive how it could be preserved in the harmony and perfection in which we behold it, unless the same power, and wisdom, and goodness were every moment operative in maintaining it.

The doctrine, in fact, of a superintending providence, presents itself in every view of nature; it meets us in our reflections, and it crosses the mind in all its paths; but when we are told by an inspired Apostle,-" God, that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though He needed anything; seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that

they should seek the Lord," (Acts xvii. 24-26)—the doctrine of a disposing providence equally claims our assent. By this is meant, that mysterious power of the Almighty, by which He has arranged from the beginning, the long series of causes and effects which constitute the course of events in this lower world, and in accordance with which nothing can happen that has not been from eternity contemplated by Him as a mean conducing to a given end.

To speak of man as a mere machine, actuated by motives, but without the power of choice, is to dishonour God, however unintentionally or unconsciously this may sometimes have been done by persons who sincerely embrace the Gospel.

Nevertheless, "Those whom God hath predestinated we are assured that He also foreknew."*

The difficulty consists in our inability to reconcile a disposing providence with the freedom of human action: a vain and presumptuous attempt, far less suited to our finite faculties than humility, adoration, and praise. It is sufficient for us to know, that while we are instruments in the hands of God (and it is repugnant to our reason no less than to our faith to suppose the independence of created beings), yet the Almighty, in every page of His Holy Word, addresses us as rational and moral agents, unfettered by necessity, and propounds to us His laws, as to beings who may either obey or disregard them. Whatever, in short, may be the metaphysical subtleties attending questions of this kind,

Acts viii. 29.

they have happily nothing to do with practice, nor are they practically felt.

The disposing providence of God is a grand system resulting from the combination of all the attributes which we ascribe to the Almighty conspiring to the best ends; His justice invades not human freedom; His mercy and His grace assist human weakness; His wisdom is engaged in plans of ultimate and eternal good; and His power is exerted in their accomplishment. The notion of such a providence differs from that of fatality, as the tender mercies of a parent differ from the stern decrees of an inexorable tyrant. The notion of fatality chills every generous feeling of the heart, thwarts every fair and noble purpose, and blasts every hope; while the doctrine of a providence is full of consolation, whispering peace to those who know that all things, whether prosperous or adverse, "work together for good to them that love God." So, with regard to the doctrine of faith and good works; it is as truly essential to evangelical faith to believe that our salvation will depend upon our own virtuous endeavours, assisted by divine grace, as to believe that Christ died to atone for the sins of fallen creatures. To work out our own salvation is as clearly enjoined us, as the belief that it is Christ who worketh in us to will and to do according to his good pleasure.

The doctrine of justification by faith is so consolatory, and, at the same time, to the unsophisticated Christian intellect so simple, that controversy is wasted upon it. Fallen man was incapable of restoring himself to the favour of God by anything that he could do. He is exclusively indebted to the atoning blood of Christ for

redemption. If thousands of treatises were added to the tens of thousands already in existence on the subject, Luther's doctrine of justification by faith alone means simply that we are saved by faith, and not by works. Nevertheless man is still, as he was before the fall of Adam, a responsible and moral agent. "To our own safety," as the venerable Hooker writes, our own sedulity is required. And then blessed for ever and ever be that mother's child, whose faith hath made him the child of God."*

"As labour without prayer would be infidelity, or a wicked recumbency upon our own strength, so prayer without labour, on the other hand, would be just as truly hypocrisy, and a presumptuous and unauthorized, and therefore offensive appeal to God, instead of a pious waiting upon Him in the way of His commandments."+

The error of Calvinists consists in supposing that God, from all eternity, has arbitrarily consigned certain individuals to everlasting happiness or misery. It was the contemplation of this tremendous error that so vehemently excited John Wesley's indignation, and led him in his well-known sermon on "Free Grace" to exclaim, "I abhor the doctrine of predestination; a doctrine upon the supposition of which, if one could possibly suppose it for a moment (call it election, reprobation, or what you please, for all comes to the same thing), one might say to our adversary the devil, 'Thou fool, why dost thou roar about any longer? Thy lying

* Sermon on the Certainty of Perpetuity of Faith in the Elect.

↑ Archdeacon Bather's Church Missionary Sermon, 1883.