yet hath he not decreed any thing because he foresaw it as future, or as that which would come to pass upon such conditions. 3. By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death. 4. These angels and men, thus predestinated and foreordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed; and their number is so certain and definite, that it cannot be either increased or diminished. 5. Those of mankind that are predestinated unto life, God, before the foundation of the world was laid, according to his eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure of his will, hath chosen in Christ unto everlasting glory, out of his mere free grace and love, without any foresight of faith or good works, or perseverance in either of them, or any other thing in the creature, as conditions, or causes moving him thereunto; and all to the praise of his glorious grace. 6. As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so hath he, by the eternal and most free purpose of his will, foreordained all the means thereunto. Wherefore they who are elected being fallen in Adam, are redeemed by Christ; are effectually called unto faith in Christ by his Spirit working in due season; are justified, adopted, sanctified, and kept by his power through faith unto salvation. Neither are any other redeemed by Christ, effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified, and saved, but the elect only. 7. The rest of mankind, God was pleased, according to the unsearchable counsel of his own will, whereby he extendeth or withholdeth mercy as he pleaseth, for the glory of his sovereign power over his creatures, to pass by, and to ordain them to dishonour and wrath for their sin, to the praise of his glorious justice. 8. The doctrine of this high mystery of predestination is to be handled with special prudence and care, that men attending the will of God revealed in his word, and yielding obedience thereunto, may, from the certainty of their effectual vocation, be assured of their eternal election. So shall this doctrine afford matter of praise, reverence, and admiration of God, and of humility, diligence, and abundant consolation, to all that sincerely obey the gospel."

This article is the keystone of the whole system, and although it is confused and contradictory, yet the doctrine of the "eternal decree," or the "horrid decree," as Calvin himself called it, is expressed in such explicit and unequivocal terms, that it is impossible to misconstrue or mistake its meaning. By this decree, every thing that cones to pass is unchangeably fixed; the exact number of men and of angels intended for either happiness or misery is fore-ordained from all eternity,

and in neither case has the decree any reference to the faith and good works of those whose fate it determines. Those destined for salvation are favoured and assisted "for the praise of His glorious grace;" whereas those who are fore-ordained to everlasting misery, are despised and passed by, "for the praise of His glorious justice!" There is little justice in this mode of procedure, and less mercy; and it contradicts all that is taught in the Bible, where we are told that he that conquers in the good fight-that wins the race,-that believes with the heart, confesses with the mouth, and keeps the faith and the commandments, shall enter into life and receive that crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to all them that love his appearing. But to those who have the eternal decree for ever before their eyes, love and hope is precluded, obedience is useless; the heart of the humble is driven to despair with the dreadful apprehensions of the blackness of darkness and gnashing of teeth, to which they are taught to imagine they are consigned; on the other hand, the presumptuous and self-loving sinner is deluded with the vain imagination that by this eternal decree he has been so elected to eternal felicity that no sinful course can prevent his entering into the joy of his Lord. Both the despair of the one and the presumption of the other are grievous sins, by which the author of all evil in general, and of this doctrine of the eternal decree in particular, draws unwary souls into his net, and hurries them unto destruction. Their doctrine of redemption is in strict conformity with the root from which their whole system proceeds-the eternal decree; and the whole efficacy of our Redeemer's sacrifice is confined, by the same decree, to those only who are predestinated to everlasting life 1.

1 The following dialogue, illustrative of the Calvinistic doctrine of election, between a presbyterian incumbent after the Revolution, and an episcopal layman, was extracted from an old manuscript in the possession of the late Rev. Mr. Jeffery, episcopal clergyman of Lonmay, in the diocese of Aberdeen, and inserted in the Episcopal Magazine for January 1837, having been communicated to the editor by the Rev. James Christie, episcopal clergyman at Turriff, in the same diocese:"Incumbent. Well met, neighbour, I have a fair occasion to reason with you for your separation."-" Layman. Indeed, sir, I am not free to hear you.' "I. I trow, ye have not will to hear me." "" L. That's true enough, for who is it that has free will, according to your doctrine ?"

"I. You have free will to do evil, but not to do good."-" L. Then if it be a good thing to hear you, I have not free will to do it."

"I. Yet you may hear me, if you please." "L. Will that be a mean to save me; and will the hearing of an episcopal man be a mean to damn me?"

"1. There's no doubt of that."-" L. Then, my salvation must be conditional; and if so, then not absolute."

"I. You know not but that ye may be one of the elect; and if so, then your salvation is absolute, for God sees no sin in his elect. They can never fall away

Christ is represented to have died for the elect only—that is, election in conformity with the eternal decree; whereas we are informed in Scripture that he died for all men-for the whole

from grace. But as for the reprobate, they can do nothing else but sin."— "L. Then, sir, the same actions are sin in one, and piety in another; or, to take it as the poet has it,

The saints may do the same things by

The spirit in sincerity,

Which other men are tempted to,

And at the devil's instance do :

All piety consists therein

In them, in other men all sin.'

Thus, then, if I be one of the elect, as the decrees are absolute, by your doc. trine, and bearing no mark of respect to the holiness or impiety of the persons, I cannot miss of salvation, though I live in an episcopal church."

"I. Yea, but we are the godly, and our doctrine is agreeable to the inclinations of the people, and let me tell you, the means are as absolutely foreordained as the end."L. Then if I be ordained to go to your kirk, I cannot but go; and if I stay from it, it can be no otherwise."

"I. But I may be the instrument ordained to call you to the use of the means." -"L. What may be, may not be; and if it be, it will be; and if it be not, it will not be. And if your call be effectual, it will be irresistible; but you see,I can resist you, and so your call is not effectual."

"I. Our doctine is true, but it is like you are absolutely reprobated." -"L. Your doctrine is false, for I believe I'll be conditionally saved."

"I. What do you deny our Contession of Faith and Catechisms? that "God from all eternity, predestinated, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels unto everlasting life, and foreordained others to everlasting death;' that the number of these men and angels is so certain and definite, that it cannot be either increased or diminished;' and that those of mankind that are predestinated, GoD before the foundation of the world hath chosen in Christ unto everlasting glory, and that too, out of his mere free grace, without any foresight of faith, or good works, or perseverance in either of them, or any other thing in the creature?' In a word, do you deny that God has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass?"-"L. If that be true, if God has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass, then God foreordained Adam's fall, for that came to pass; and Episcopacy, for that came to pass; and a book of Common Prayer, for that came to pass; yea, and he has ordained Episcopal meeting-houses in presbyterian paroches [parishes], and me to be one of the members, for all these came to pass."

"1. We do not say that God is the author of evil by our doctrine of predestination, for whatever God has foreordained is good."-" L. Then, Adam's fall, Episcopacy, and set forms, must be good."

"L. But the devil himIf he came

"I. I say not so, for these are come of the devil.”self is come to pass. Either he came to pass of himself or of God. to pass of himself, then God did not foreordain every thing that comes to pass. If he came to pass of God, then God did foreordain the devil.”

"I. Farewell, friend, I see you are absolutely reprobated."-" L. Farewell, friend, I see you are not absolutely elected. But hath God foreordained the means of my reprobation, as well as the end."

"I. It seems you do not read our Confession of Faith and Catechisms." -"L. Yes, I have read them, and I find several contradictory things in them, as Grace saving, and Grace not saving, Effectual Calling, and a Calling not Effectual, that no man taketh the honour of the priesthood unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron;' and, on the other hand, that in extraordinary VOL. II. 2 M

world. In this confession of faith, therefore, the elect, in the Calvinistic sense, can alone have the love of God proclaimed to them; but to those whom it asserts God hath passed by, that is, the reprobate, His wrath only can be denounced. A distinction is made between the redeemed and the unredeemed-between those who are justified, adopted, and sanctified, according to this scheme, and those whom God hath blinded, hardened, and ordained to wrath. In short, the kirk which has adopted this faith" can call on the elect to come to God and be saved; she can speak to them of his love and mercy; she can describe to them, in the most glowing terms, how much more they are bound to love and obey him, who, out of his mere free grace and love, has chosen them in Christ, in preference to others. But if she speak to the latter, it can only be to remind them of the awful truth, that God, as a righteous judge, doth, for former sins, blind and harden wicked and ungodly men, withholding his grace from them, and exposing them to such objects as their corruption makes occasion of sin.' She cannot call on them to flee from the fierce wrath of God, because she believes that they are foreordained to everlasting death, for the praise of his glorious justice. She cannot proclaim the glad tidings of salvation to all men, because she maintains that none are redeemed and saved but the elect [in her sense] only. In short, agreeably to the plain and unsophisticated meaning of her Confession and Catechisms, the presbyterian church must teach that redemption is partial, not universal; that Christ died for the elect, but not for the reprobate; that God has predestinated the former to life, and fore-ordained the latter to death; and this

cases, an extraordinary way of ordination is justifiable, and that a man cannot keep the commandments of God by grace given in this life: That God made man-purposely to damn him, and yet, that man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him for ever!"

"I. I find that you're turned blasphemous, and therefore I shall not call nor converse with you again." "L. Sir, fare you well, I make no such promises, for I own God's decree is, that whosoever believeth and worketh righteousness shall be saved. And whosoever doth not believe and obey the gospel shall, except he repent, be damned for ever. When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, then, indeed, he shall save his soul alive, Ezek. xviii. 27.'- For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved, John iii. 17.'- He gave himself a ransom for ALL, 1 Tim. ii. 6. And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only' '—the elect,

a chosen number to the exclusion of the rest- but also for the sins of the whole world, 1 John ii. 2.'-I am also resolved, with God's grace, so to live, as that your assurances will not make me presume, nor your reprobation make me despair. Farewell."

without any foresight of faith or good works, or perseverance in either of them "", whereas we are elected and justified in baptism. But there are few sects that do not retain some truths of revelation; and this Confession steadily maintains the catholic and primitive distinction betwixt the ecclesiastical and the civil powers, and the independency of the church on the state; and the presbyterians are only to be blamed for having abused and misapplied this doctrine in imitation of the pope, to the disturbance of the state and the invasion of the just rights of the sovereign. The faith and worship of the church, as a society founded by Jesus Christ, are to be maintained by patience and suffering; for it has no sword but the spiritual weapons of excommunication, spiritual censures, prayers, and tears. The church is subordinate to the state in all temporal matters, and the state to the church in spiritual affairs; and in this divine harmony and concord the state and the church are united in peace and prosperity. Whenever either party transgress their legitimate bounds, the state by violating the rights of the church, or the church in invading the rights of the prince by disturbing the peace, order, and government of the state, then all the bloodshed and oppression are sure to follow that were exhibited during the supremacy of the presbyterian rule in the reigns of James and Charles. The divine institution of the distinctive powers of the church and state, as maintained in the Westminster Confession, is sound doctrine, and agreeable to the primitive practice; and it is only where the presbyterians and papists have abused and misapplied it, that it is to be abhorred and detested by all good christians, as contrary to the gospel, the doctrine, and the practice of the Catholic church, and utterly inconsistent with the civil order and the peace of kingdoms. For the first three hundred years of christianity there was nothing more visible than the distinction betwixt the church and the civil power, between the kingdom of Christ and the empire of Cesar. And this distinction was not invented by priests, but ordained by our Lord, to distinguish the things that belong to the kingdom of God, or the church, from those that pertain to Cesar or the kingdoms of this world. And therefore it would have been rightly taught in this Confession, if the Westminster divines had not confined their definition of the Catholic church exclusively to their own denominations, which of course overturns the truth of their proposition, that " unto the Catholic visible church Christ hath given the ministry, oracles, and

The Doctrinal Differences between the Episcopal and Presbyterian Churches, by Rev. J. B. Pratt, author of the "Old Paths," in Episc. Mag. vol. iii. 1835.