get ten into our churches where we now get one;
for it must be remembered that Arminianism is far more palatable
to depraved nature than Calvinism." Again: "These brethren go too
fast, get men into the visible kingdom too soon; lull them to
everlasting sleep by their soporific measures and doctrinal
anodynes, thereby breaking down the barriers which separate the
Church from the world, and ruining hundreds of souls where they
save one. Let our young men be made to feel rather that
Arminianism is a dangerous delusion wherever it is preached, and
uphold with all their might and main real old-fashioned
Calvinism."
It is a very common thing with Calvinists to refer opposition to
Calvinism to depravity, as its source. The _Presbyterian Banner_,
for Nov. 5, 1853, contains the following: "The natural heart
recoils from predestination. The ungodly hate it. Our whole
system is too humbling to human pride to find friends even among
the vicious. This is to us a strong affirmation of its truth."
They also claim for Calvinism that it is not only specially
conducive to civil and religious liberty, but that it is
essential thereto. The Rev. Dr. Wilson, of the New School
Presbyterian Church, in an address delivered before the literary
societies of Delaware College, in 1852, went out of his way to
eulogize Calvinism in these terms: "Calvinism and human liberty
flourish side by side, or rather the latter is not found without
the former; and nowhere at this hour is there _true freedom_,
true independence of opinion in Church or State where Calvinism
is not the foundation." Calvinists must be very forgetful of
their history, or they must suppose that all others are ignorant
or forgetful of it. But it is not my intention, at present, to
reply to this extravagant pretension.
I do not object to the publication of these views from the pulpit
and the press. If our brethren entertain them, they have a right
to publish them. It is manly to do so. But it may be obligatory
upon us to stand up for what we believe to be the truth, and to
oppose what we believe to be error. I shall endeavor to do so,
the Lord being my helper.
DISCOURSE II.
"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.
IN the preceding discourse, I called attention to the fact that the
opponents of Calvinism are frequently charged with misun
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