be said to run the risk of fortune; though to those on the spot there is no contingency in the case.

Before I dismiss the consideration of this subject, I would suggest one caution relative to a class of objections frequently urged against the Calvinistic scheme-those drawn from the conclusions of what is called natural religion, respecting the moral attributes of the Deity; which, it is contended, rendered the reprobation of a large portion of mankind an absolute impossibility. That such objections do reduce the predestinarian to a great strait, is undeniable; and not seldom are they urged with exulting scorn, with bitter invective, and almost with anathema. But we should be very cautious how we employ such weapons as may recoil upon ourselves. Arguments of this description. have often been adduced, such as, I fear, will crush beneath the ruins of the hostile structure the blind assailant who has overthrown it. It is a frightful, but an undeniable truth, that multitudes, even in christian countries, are born and brought up under such circumstances as afford them no probable, often no possible, chance of

obtaining a knowledge of religious truths, or a habit of moral conduct, but are even trained from infancy in superstitious error and gross depravity. Why this should be permitted, neither Calvinist nor Arminian can explain; nay, why the Almighty does not cause to die in the cradle every infant whose future wickedness and misery, if suffered to grow up, He foresees, is what no system of religion, natural or revealed, will enable us satisfactorily to account for.

In truth, these are merely branches of the one great difficulty, the existence of evil, which may almost be called the only difficulty in theology. It assumes indeed various shapes;—it is, by many, hardly recognized as a difficulty; and not a few have professed and believed themselves to have solved it; but it still meets them, though in some new and disguised form, at every turn; like a resistless stream, which, when one channel is dammed up, immediately forces its way through another. And as the difficulty is one not peculiar to any one hypothesis, but bears equally on all alike, whether of revealed or of natural religion, it is better in point of prudence as well as of fairness, that the consequences of

it should not be pressed as an objection against any. The Scriptures do not pretend (as some have rashly imagined) to clear up this awful mystery: they give us no explanation of the original cause of the evil that exists; but they teach us how to avoid its effects: and since they leave this great and perplexing question just where they find it, it is better for us to leave it among "the secret things which belong unto the Lord our God," and to occupy ourselves with "the things which are revealed," and which concern us practically,-which "belong unto us and to our children," that we may "do all the words of God's law."

§ 5. It is on these principles, viz. that the first point of inquiry at least ought to be what doctrines are revealed in God's word,-and that we ought to expect that the doctrines so revealed should be, not matters of speculative curiosity but of practical importance—such as "belong to us that we may do them ;"-it is in conformity, say, with these principles, that I have waived the question as to the truth or falsity of the Calvinistic doctrine of Election; inquiring only

I

whether it is revealed.

And one of the reasons

for deciding that question in the negative, is the very circumstance that the doctrine is, if rightly viewed, of a purely speculative character, not "belonging to us practically, and which ought not at least, in any way, to influence our conduct.

It has indeed been frequently objected to the Calvinistic doctrines, that they lead, if consistently acted upon, to a sinful, or to a careless, or to an inactive life; and the inference deduced from this alleged tendency, has been that they are not true. But this is a totally distinct line of argument, both in premises and conclusion, from that now adverted to; and I mention it, not for the purpose either of maintaining or impugning it, but merely of pointing out the distinction. Whatever may be, in fact, the practical ill tendency of the Calvinistic scheme, it is undeniable that many pious and active Christians, who have adopted it, have denied any such tendency,-have attributed the mischievous consequences drawn, not to their doctrines rightly understood, but to the perversion and abuse of them ;—and have so explained them, to their own satisfaction, as to

be compatible and consistent with active virtue. Now if, instead of objecting to, we admit, the explanations of this system, which the soundest and most approved of its advocates have given, we shall find that, when understood as they would have it, it can lead to no practical result whatever. Some Christians, according to them, are eternally enrolled in the book of life, and infallibly ordained to salvation, while others are reprobate and absolutely excluded: but as the preacher, (they add) has no means of knowing, in the first instance at least, which persons belong to which class; and since those who are thus ordained, are to be saved through the means God has appointed; the offers, and promises, and threatenings of the Gospel are to be addressed to all alike, as if no such distinction existed. The preacher, in short, is to act in all respects, as if the system were not true. Each individual Christian again, according to them, though he is to believe that he either is, or is not, absolutely destined to eternal salvation, yet is also to believe, that if his salvation is decreed, his holiness of life is also decreed :-he is to judge of his own state by the fruits of the Spirit" which he