received a rude shock at the time of the
Reformation, when predestination and election were upheld by some of the
greatest theologians, and accepted by some of the greatest Protestant
Churches. With stoical austerity Calvin declares: "We were elected from
eternity, before the foundation of the world, from no merit of our own,
but according to the purpose of the divine pleasure." In affirming this,
Calvin was resting on the belief that God has from all eternity decreed
whatever comes to pass. Thus, after the lapse of many ages, were again
emerging into prominence the ideas of the Basilidians wad Valentinians,
Christian sects of the second century, whose Gnostical views led to the
engraftment of the great doctrine of the Trinity upon Christianity. They
asserted that all the actions of men are necessary, that even faith is
a natural gift, to which men are forcibly determined, and must therefore
be saved, though their lives be ever so irregular. From the Supreme God
all things proceeded. Thus, also, came into prominence the views which
were developed by Augustine in his work, "De dono perseverantiae." These
were: that God, by his arbitrary will, has selected certain persons
without respect to foreseen faith or good works, and has infallibly
ordained to bestow upon them eternal happiness; other persons, in like
manner, he has condemned to eternal reprobation. The Sublapsarians
believed that "God permitted the fall of Adam;" the Supralapsarians that
"he predestinated it, with all its pernicious consequences, from all
eternity, and that our first parents had no liberty from the beginning."
In this, these sectarians disregarded the remark of St. Augustine:
"Nefas est dicere Deum aliquid nisi bonum predestinare."

Is it true, then, that "predestination to eternal happiness is the
everlasting purpose of God, whereby, before the foundations of the world
were laid, he hath constantly decreed by his council, secret to us,
to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen out of
mankind?" Is it true that of the human family there are some who, in
view of no fault of their own, Almighty God has condemned to unending
torture, eternal misery?

In 1595 the Lambeth Articles asserted that "God from eternity hath
predestinated certain men unto life; certain he hath reprobated." In
1618 the Synod of Dort decided in favor of this view. It condemned the
remonstrants against it, and treated them with such severity, that many
of the