Predestination

Predestination
by Sylvester Hassell

THE GOSPEL MESSENGER

J.R. RESPESS, Editor.
- - - W. M. MITCHELL, Assoc. Editor


Williamston, N. C., Oct. 21, 1887.
PREDESTINATION

If we are blessed with the ground of 'a good and honest heart,' we will really desire, in every discussion, not victory, but truth; we will really desire not so much to silence our opponent as to avoid error ourselves; we will be more ashamed of continuing wrong than of confessing that we are not right; we will regard TRUTH as the noblest of ends, and we will earnestly strive to divest ourselves of the last remnant of prejudge, partiality and prepossession; and we will resolve to follow TRUTH whithersoever it may lead--fearlessly, unfalteringly, perseveringly--until we arrive, so far as we may be divinely enabled, at THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH.' To be sure we are aware that in our present state, sin has so corrupted our hearts and darkened our minds, that we cannot now perfectly attain to the truth in all its divine fullness and glory. Even inspired Apostles but 'saw through a glass darkly,' and confessed that they 'knew only in part;' much more are all uninspired men liable to darkness of sight and partiality of knowledge, especially upon the deep mysteries of the Divine Nature, and of sin and salvation. Not pride, but humility, is the mark of the highest worldly and of the highest spiritual wisdom belonging to any creature, especially any sinful and imperfect creature like ourselves. To the truly humble child of God, the SCRIPTURES are, on all points of doctrine and practice, the highest and final standard of truth; and all the assertions and all the reasonings of all uninspired men, if contrary to the Scriptures, are 'less than nothing, and vanity.' And now comes in the question—what is the teaching of the Scriptures? that is, what is the eternal truth in regard to the great doctrine of God s predestination of whatever comes to pass? Let it be clearly and continually borne in mind that the real question is not what any confession of faith, or any human periodical or book, or any uninspired writer or speaker says upon the subject, but alone what the SCRIPTURES declare. We are to cut loose from the last foothold of human authority, and to launch forth on the pure ocean of divine testimony. And on this great subject we are to seek to know not only 'the truth, and nothing but the truth' but 'THE WHOLE TRUTH' is SO far as the Scriptures reveal it to us. The perception of only half truths is a fruitful source of darkness and controversy. If one class of scripture passages bears upon one aspect of the subject of predestination, and another class of scripture passages bears upon another aspect of that subject, we have no right to receive the one class and reject the other, but are bound to receive both as equally divine and eternally true, and also, as essential to a scriptural understanding of the subject. It does not matter in the slightest possible degree, what uninspired men reject either of these classes of scripture passages, we are unhesitatingly and unreservedly to receive both classes of scripture passages as the indisputable truth of God. 'All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.' For our understanding and guidance in the present world, we have a need of not only a part, but of all the scriptures, otherwise they would not all have been given. And we are to 'compare spiritual things with spiritual,' 'not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but what the Holy Ghost teacheth.' One class of texts represents one aspect of the Divine Character as merciful and loving, and in the manifestation of this attribute, God saves His people from their sins; while another class of texts represents another aspect of Divine Character as just and holy, and in the manifestation of this attribute God plunges His sword into the bosom of His dear Son, the Shepherd of Israel, the Covenant Head of His sinning people, and pours out upon voluntary, unredeemed and impenitent sinners, the vials of His eternal wrath. We should be equally in error to reject the one or the other of these classes of texts—to consider God as merciful but not holy, or as holy but not merciful. Even so there are TWO classes of texts, (sometimes blended in the same sentence) bearing upon the doctrine of the divine PREDESTINATION of the future, and the truly humble child of God will receive the one as well as the other, and believe both, to be equally and certainly true, no matter in the least whatever any other human being, in the pride of human reasoning or preconceived opinion, decides to reject or ignore of the Divine testimony. 1 st . The first class of texts bears upon the truth of God's predestination of all things—whether the infinitely free, sovereign, wise and powerful Creator, who knows the end from the beginning, and who create, all things out of nothing—did from eternity foreordain all the consequences of His creative work—all the events in the universe? In the light of the Scriptures, this question answers itself: 'In the beginning; God created the heaven and the earth.'—Gen i 1. 'All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.'—John i. 3. 'By Him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him and for Him; and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.'--Colos, i. 16, 17. He is 'the Most High.'--Psalms ix. 2. He is 'the Lord God of hosts.'—Psalms lxxx. 19. He is 'the King of kings, and Lord of lords.'—I Tim. vi. 15. 'His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation: and all the inhabitants of earth are reputed as nothing: and He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of earth: and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou ? '—Dan. iv. 34, 35. 'Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world.'--Acts xv. 18. 'I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel stand, and I will do all my pleasure.'—Isaiah xlvi. 9, 10. 'Who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.'—Eph, i. 11. 'He hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.'—Acts xvii. 26. 'Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.'—Matt. x. 20, 30. 'The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.'—Prov. xvt. 33. 'We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.'—Eph, ii. 10. 'Lord, Thou wilt ordain peace for us; for Thou also hast wrought all our works in us.'—Isaiah xxvi. 12. 'It is God who worketh in you both to will and to dc, of His good pleasure.'—Philip. ii. 13. 'The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.'—Gal, v. 22, 23. 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved.'—Eph, i. 3-6. 'In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.'—Eph. i. 11. 'We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow He also did to be predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?'—Rom, viii. 28-31. These four verses just quoted (Eph. i. 5, 11; Rom. viii. 23, 20) are the only places where the word predestinate, occurs in the King James or Authorized version of the English Bible, and in each of these instances the revised version substitutes for the word predestinate, the word foreordain, which means the same thing. But there are two other places in the New Testament where the same Greek verb (pro-orizo), thus rendered predestinate, or foreordain, occurs, namely, Acts iv. 28, and 1 Cor. ii. 7. 'For of a truth against Thy holy child Jesus, whom Thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before' (Greek pro-orizo, elsewhere rendered predestinate, or foreordain, or ordain) 'to be done.'--Acts iv. 27, 28. 'But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained (Greek, pro-orizo) before the world to our glory?--I Cor. ii. 7. The simple verb orizo, without the prefix pro, (meaning before) occurs in these eight, passages: Luke xxii. 22; Acts ii. 23; x. 42; xi. 29; xvii. 26, 31; Rom. i. 4; and Heb. iv. 7. In these passages this word is rendered, in the King James version, determine, ordain, declare, and limit. Two of these passages bear especially upon our present subject: 'And truly the Soil of Man goeth as it was determined'— Luke xxii. 22. 'Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.'—Acts ii. 23. The writer to the Hebrews, vi. 17, speaks of 'the immutability of His (that is, God's) counsel.' In Gen. xxxvii. 25, we read: 'Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver; and they brought Joseph into Egypt;' while in Gen. xlv. 7, 8, we read: 'And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God.' And in Gen. 1. 20: 'As for you, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.' In Exodus ix. 12: 'And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he harkened not unto them.' In Psalms xvii. 13, 14, we read: 'Arise, O Lord, disappoint him, east hint down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is Thy sword: frown men which are thy hand.' And in Isaiah x, 5-7, 12, we read: 'O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoils, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. Howbeit, he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is irk his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few. Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed His whole wrath upon Mount Zion, and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruits of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.' In Job i. 12, we read: 'And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself, put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth froth the presence of the Lord.' After Satan had destroyed the property and children of Job, the latter says, in verse 21: 'The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: blessed be the name of the Lord.' In 2d Sam. xvi. 10, we read this language of David: 'So let him (Shimei) curse, because the Lord hath said unto him, Curse David.' In 2 Sam. xxiv. 1, we read: 'And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he' (the word he is not in the original, but is supplied by the translator. Some think that it would be better to supply the word one , referring to Satan, as in 1 Chron. xxi. 1,) 'moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah;' while in 1 Chron. xxi. 1, we read: 'And Satan' (or an adversary; the article is not used with this term here, as it is in Job)'stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.' In 2 Cor. xii. 7, we read: 'And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me.' I must confess that I am convinced by these Scripture passages (as I have said on the 485 th page of the Church History) that, in one sense, God has predestinated or foreordained all things; without Him they would never have been created; and without Him they would not be sustained now for an instant. 'If God is omniscient and omnipotent, and existed alone from eternity, and created all things out of nothing, and disposed of all things in his providence, with all the surrounding circumstances, exactly foreknowing all the results, then certainly, in one scene, His foreknowledge of all things is equivalent to His foreordination of all things, including the violations of his creatures, yet without the slightest degree of sin on His part, as the Most Holy God tempts no one to sin. The sinful, carnal mind of fallen, darkened rationalism, paints this-certain truth of nature and Scripture in the most revolting colors, preferring that senseless and heartless fate or chance should sit at the helm of the universe; but the regenerated, enlightened, spiritual mind of the child of God incomparably prefers that his Holy and Heavenly Father should sit at the helm, and direct and work all things according to the counsel of his own will.' 2 nd . In regard to the difficult and mysterious subject of God's predestination or pro-orization of sin, there is a second class of Scripture passages, which are just as inspired and truthful as the first class, which we have not a particle more right to reject than the others, and which are absolutely necessary to the scriptural understanding of the subject; and the truly humble child of God, who harkens to God rather than man , will receive them as the eternal truth with the same unquestioning reverence as the first class of Scripture passages, no matter, in the slightest possible degree, what human being may reject them. 'Let God be true, but every man liar.'—Rom, iii. 4. Now for the second class of texts, some of which, as partly belonging to the first class, have already been quoted. 'Predestinated according, to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel' (boule--will, determination, plan, design, decree; so Liddell and Scott define the word) 'of its own will.'—Eph, i. 11. 'The immutability of His counsel;' (boule, the same word as above, in the Greek).—Heb. vi. 17. 'Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world.'--Acts xv. 18. He is 'the same yesterday, and to-day and forever.'—Heb. xiii. 8. 'With whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning'--James i. 17. 'Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure—Isaiah xlvi. 10. God is 'the Sun of righteousness.'—Mal, iv. 2. 'God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.'—I John i. 5. 'The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works.'—Psalms cxlv. 17. 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.'—Isaiah vi. 3. 'Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.'—Rev. iv. 8. 'Be ye holy, for I am holy.'—I Peter i. 16. It 'is impossible for God to lie.' –Heb. vi. 18. 'He cannot deny Himself.'—2 Tim. ii. 13. 'And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.'—Gen, i. 31. 'and spared not the angels that sinned, but cast. them down to hell.' –2 Peter ii. 5. 'The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.'—Jude 6. The devil 'was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him'—John viii. 44. 'Let. no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man; but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.'—James i. 13, 14. 'For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.'—I John ii. i6. 'And the Lord God commanded the man saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat. of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.'—Gen, ii. 16, 17. 'Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eye, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her; and he did eat.'—Gen, iii. 1, 4-6. And then God pronounced severe judgment upon the serpent, the woman and the man. 'As for you, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good.'—Gen. 1. 20. 'But when Pharaoh Saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and harkened not unto them; as the Lord had said.'—Exod, viii. 15. 'Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute true judgement, and shew mercy and compassion, every man to his brother: and oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart. But they refused to harken, and pulled away their shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in His Spirit by the former prophets; therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts.'—Zech, vii. 9-12. 'O, Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in Me is thine help.'—Hosea xiii. 9. 'And the Lord said, O that there were such an heart in them that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever!'—Deut. v. 28, 29. 'O, that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!'—Deut, xxxii. 29. 'O, that My people had harkened unto Me, and Israel had walked in My ways!'—Psalms lxxxi. 13. 'O that thou hadst harkened to My commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea.'—Isaiah xlviii. 18. 'Therefore will I number you to the sword, and ye shall bow down to the slaughter: because when I called ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not.'—Isaiah lxv. 12. 'Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life.'—John v. 40. 'O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold your house is left unto you desolate.'—Matt, xxiii. 37, 38. 'In the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him [Hezekiah] to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart.'—2 Chron. xxxii. 31. 'And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand'—Job i. 12. 'And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold he is in thine hand; but save his life.'—Job ii. 6. 'So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lusts: and they walked in their own counsels.'—Psalms lxxxi. 12. 'He suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew Him.'—Mark i. 34. 'And all the devils besought Him saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave.'—Mark v. 13. 'And He suffered them.'—Luke viii. 32. 'And truly the Son of man goeth, as it was determined; but woe unto that. man by whom He is betrayed! '—Luke xxii. 22. 'Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.'—Acts ii. 13. 'Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven.'—Acts vii. 42. 'And about the time of forty years suffered He their manners in the wilderness.'—Acts xiii. 18. 'Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways?--Acts xiv. 16. 'God gave them up to vile affections, and to a reprobate mind.'--Rom, i. 26, 28. 'God endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.'—Rom. ix. 22. 'Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee: the remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain.'—Psalms lxxvi. 10. 'O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!'—Rom. xi. 33. These scriptures thoroughly satisfy me that God is as holy as He is sovereign infinitely and eternally holy, not only in His will and law, but in His essence and nature; that holiness is not an arbitrary creature of the divine will; but a fundamental and changeless attribute of the divine nature, of which His holy will is but the expression; that sin proceeds, not from the Creator, but from the creature; that 'God neither causes sin nor approves it., but only permits, directs, restrains, limits, and overrules it for the good of His people and the glory of His name;' and thus that God's predestination or pro-orization of sin was not of a compulsive but of a permissive, directive, restrictive and overruling character. The very word pro-orizo , (the only word rendered predestinate in the English Bible) seems to me to set forth this momentous fact in its primitive and radical meaning; it signifies, as every Greek scholar knows, and as every Greek dictionary will show, not the fore- compelling, but the fore -bounding, the fore -limiting of anything, the fore-determining of its bounds, as shown by the same root word in Acts xvii. 26. This fact is in exact accordance with the scriptures already quoted, which speaks of God as leaving, giving up, suffering and enduring men in their sins; and what God thus permits in time, He must, if He is unchangeable, have eternally decreed to permit. His connection with the existence of sin is, thus, not a bare permission, but a voluntary and predestinating permission, but still a permission and not a compulsion. Sin originates in the will of the creature, and not. in the will of God, to whom, and to all who have His mind, or will, or Spirit, sin is utterly detestable and abominable, and not at all admirable and lovely. Even when the incarnate Son of God bears in His body the sins of His people, the ineffably holy nature of the Divine Father necessitates His forsaking Him and leaving Him to die. There could not possibly be a more emphatic and stupendous demonstration of the essential, unchangeable and infinite holiness of God. Men are voluntary in the commission of sin, and therefore accountable and justly punishable for their sins. This is the view of predestination and sin held by all the Baptist, and by, I suppose, nine hundred and ninety-nine thousandths of all the predestinarians of former centuries, and, I believe, by nine-tenths of the Primitive Baptists of the present century. It is precisely the view of the Westminster (the most esteemed Presbyterian) Confession of Faith, and of the London (the most esteemed)Baptist Confession of Faith. My special and careful, and I hope sincere and prayerful examination, during the past month of the original Hebrew and Greek Scriptures in regard to what the Scriptures teach of predestination and sin, apart from all human teachings, has greatly increased my appreciation of the scriptural wisdom of these two old Confessions, which declare that God decreed all things, but does not force the will of the creature, or originate nor fellowship sin (Chapter iii., Section 1); that He did not compel Adam to fall, but was pleased, according to His wise and holy counsel, to permit him to fall, having purpose to order it to His own glory (Chapter vi., Section 1); that He leaves (or permits--these two words have the same meaning in all English dictionaries) men and angels to act in their sins to their just condemnation, to the praise of His glorious justice (Chapter iii., Section 3); that He loves His own children oftentimes for a season to manifold temptations, and the corruptions of their own hearts, to humble them, and make them feel more sensibly their dependence upon Him for support, and to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin (Chapter v., Section 5) and that He wisely and powerfully boundeth and otherwise ordereth and governeth the sins of angels and men, to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice infinite goodness and mercy (Chapter v., Sections 1 and 4). It is worthy of observation that the King-James version of the Bible and the Westminster and London Confessions of Faith, always use the term predestinate in reference only to the salvation of the people of God, and never in reference to sin or damnation; but, as I have said before, the Greek word pro-orizo is used in reference to sin in Acts iv. 28, and perhaps in 1 Cor. ii. 7; and the Greek word orizo is used in regard to sin in Luke xxii. 22, and Acts iii. 23. To say that 'God is infinitely and eternally holy, and that He reigns in righteousness, and there is no unrighteousness in Him; that He is not the author of sin; and that men act voluntarily when they commit sin, and are accountable and justly punishable for their sins; that God had a purpose, worthy of Himself, however inscrutable to us, in not preventing the entrance of sin into the world; that He sometimes binds and at other times looses Satan; and that He restricts the wickedness of ungodly men, making the wrath of men praise Him, and restraining the remainder of wrath; and that, by His supreme power and decree, He restricts all the rage and malice of Satan to do no more nor less than what He will overrule for the good of His people, and His own glory,' as the most able, and sound, and esteemed Northern Old School Baptist writer has declared (see Church History, pages 943 to 950), is exactly the same in substance, if language has any meaning, or if I understand the meaning of language, as to say, in the language of the Scriptures, that God permits, or bears, or suffers, or endures, while He does not tempt to sin, but that He directs and bounds, and makes it praise Him. All of our most strenuous supralapsarian brethren (whom I heartily esteem as among the excellent of the earth,) agree in declaring that ' God is not the author of sin.' Now the latest and most approved dictionaries of the English language gives the following definition of author: 'One who makes to grow or increase, originator, beginner, former, producer, creator, maker, first cause, first mover, efficient cause.' Such being, beyond all controversy, the meaning of the word author, it is certain that when these brethren say that 'God is not the author of sin,' they say that God is not the originator, beginner, former, producer, creator, maker, first cause, first mover, efficient cause of sin; and God's connection with sin is not an origination of it, or a compulsion of the creature to sin, but a foreknowledge, a permission, a direction and an overruling of sin for the glory of God and the good of His people. In no other way is it possible for us to conceive how the creature can be responsible and justly punishable for his sins. And it thus seems to me indisputably established that supralapsarianism and inpralapsarianism amount to the same thing, and that there is no substantial or essential difference among Old School or Primitive Baptists on the subject of predestination. Why God, who is infinitely wise, powerful, holy and merciful, ever permitted sin, and consequent misery in the universe, is a question 'peculiar to no system of theology, but pressing equally upon any system which acknowledges the existence and moral government of God, and the moral agency of man; a question perplexing heathen philosophers of old, and deists in modern times, and Pelagians, Socinians and Arminians just as sorely as Calvinists; a question that must ever demand submission, and defy solution.' As truly asserted by Sir William Hamilton, 'the two great articles of the Divine foreknowledge and the Divine predestination, are both embarrassed by the self-same difficulties;' for a Sovereign and Almighty God, who knew what the result would be, created all things out of nothing. So irresistible is this conclusion that Arminians have begun to recognize (as the Socinians did long ago) that in order to maintain their system, they must deny the foreknowledge of God. Other unscriptural writings are: that if the doctrine of predestination and election be true, the punishment of the wicked is 'injustice,' and what is called 'grace' is 'unworthy the acceptance of honorable free agents;' that 'every man has a free, unpredestinated chance to be the artificer of his own eternal as well as temporal fortunes ;' and that men will be finally saved for their 'obedience and holiness,' and rejected for their disobedience and unholiness.' Thus human reason and religion affirm that salvation is of man, while the Scriptures affirm that 'salvation is of the Lord.' The most intellectual and virtuous heathens of ancient and modern times, have believed in the doctrine of pantheistic fatalism; while under the enlightenment of the Divine Spirit, the most intellectual and virtuous Christians have believed in the doctrine of the all-comprehending predestination of the personal and perfect Jehovah, who, in the most wise, and holy, and gracious manner, 'works all things after the counsel of His own will' for the good of His people and the glory of His name. Such is the testimony of the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures, in church history, and in every Christian experience. As admitted by all writers on the subject. Divine predestination is a mystery which no finite mind can explore, and upon which, therefore, brethren should not disagree, at least to the extent of non-fellowshipping each other. 'For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.' l Cor. xiv. 13. Sylvester Hassell

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