champion, O sweet patron, O faith-former, under whose banner so many ful advocate, come forth to our assistance, that we may rejoice at our deliverance, and thou mayest exult in the completion of thy triumph!" To the Editor of the Orthodox Journal. SIR,-Nobody can be ignorant of the pains which the different sectaries of this country have always taken to misrepresent the Catholic doctrines. Unable to réfute our real tenets, which we easily demonstrate to be grounded on the word of God, and to have been the faith of all ages, since the first establishment of Christianity, they palm upon us creeds of their own invention, the absurdity of which is only surpassed by the impudence and malice of their authors. Too long have Catholic writers wasted their time and talents in refuting those calumnious imputations. A shorter and more effectual method of stopping the mouths of those impostors, is, in my opinion, to reveal their shame, by publishing their own religious tenets, and tearing the thin veil with which they endeavour to conceal the impiety and horridness of them. British subjects glory to fight. "In England," say the authors of the New Theological Dictionary, printed at Edinburgli, anno 1807, “Calvinism had been on the decline from the time of Queen Elizabeth until about sixty years ago, when it was again revived, and has been on the increase ever since: the major part of the clergy, indeed, are not Calvinists, though the articles of the Church are truly Calvinistical. It deserves to be remarked, however, that Calvinism is preached in more than half the churches in London; in nearly all the Dissenting meetings of the Presbyterians, Baptists, and Independents; and in all the chapels of Whitfield, Lady Huntingdon, and others of that class. In Scotland it continues also to exist in its original vigour, as the Established Church.” The object of this sketch is not so much to refute the Calvinistic doc trines, as to present your readers with a brief and clear account of them, particularly as they stand connected with the impious decree of absolute reprobation. The Calvinists usually complain that their principles, parti cularly on this head, are misunderstood, and that inferences, pretended to be deduced from them, are laid to their charge, which they positively disclaim. In order to remove every similar pretext of complaint, I shall borrow my statements from sources, held by the Calvinists themselves to be The Calvinists, it is well known, have always been among the most active in this work of misrepresentation. Whenever petitions are presented to parliament, with a view of debarring their Catholic countrymen from the full enjoyment of their civil and religious rights, their names never fail to swell the huge lists of the sub-authentic, namely, 1st, "The Confesscribers. I hope then it will not be sion of Faith," of the Church of Scotesteemed an unfair mode of reprisal land, and "The Larger and Shorter Cain a Catholic writer, to counteract techisms" of the same Church. These falsehood by truth, and oppose a ge- they consider as the three great standnuine exposition of their leading doc-ards of Calvinistic orthodoxy, having trines to the misrepresentations which they have so often published of ours. The denomination to which I allude, is very numerous. Their opposition therefore to the Catholic claims, cannot be insignificant. But were it merely as an object of curiosity, it may be interesting to form an accurate notion of the system of the French re been solemnly approved in a general assembly of their divines, and sanctioned by acts of parliament. 2d, From an Explanation of the Shorter Catechism, published by some ministers of the gospel," but commonly known by the name of Fisher's Cutechism. This last work is much esteemed by our English and Scotch DIVINE DECREES. as will appear from the following 66 "What is Calvinists, and has gone through a great number of editions. The edition before me is the twelfth, printed at of divine decrees?" They answer, Air, anno 1792. In the references to "That they are eternal, most wise, that work, the first numeral figure absolute, and unchangeable." "Why stands for the Question of the Shorter are the divine decrees said to be Catechism; and the second, for the absolute?" Answer, "Because they Question in the Explanation. As to depend upon no condition, without inferences, however evident they may God himself, but entirely and solely upappear to me, I do not mean to charge on his own sovereign will and pleasure." them to any individual who may dis-"Are there not certain means whereclaim them; I certainly allow the dis- by the decrees of God are executed ?” ciples of Calvin the liberty of being Answer, "Yes; but these means are inconsistent, and always rejoice when decreed as well as the end." I meet with any of them who may be the absurdity of conditional decrees?" better than his religion, which I am Auswer, "They make the will of God,' happy to say has, in many instances, which is the first cause, depend upon been the case. the will of the creature." (Shorter Catechism explained, Q. 7. q. 6. 9, 10. 13.) Therefore lest the will of God should seem to depend upon the will of man, the Calvinists say, that the decree of reprobation does not depend upon the will of the reprobate, either as to the end, or as to the means: The end is the damnation of the reprobate; it has been decreed independently of any foresight of their sins. The means are those very sins; they have been decreed, without any foresight of the determination or will of the reprobate to commit them. To decree the sins of the reprobate was not therefore to suffer those sins to take place, in consequence of their own determination, it was to order them, because it was God's will and pleasure that they should take place. The Calvinists believe, 1st, That all the decrees of God are absolute. 2d, That, by the same absolute and unchangeable decree, he has ordained both the end and the means. Let us apply this doctrine to the decree of reprobation. God has decreed the eternal damnation of a certain number of angels and men, absolutely, without the least foresight of their sins, which does not mean, that he did not in reality foresee the sins of the reprobate; for he sees at one sight all things past, present, and to come; but it means, that he was not in the least influenced by the foresight of their sins to pass the degree of their reprobation. By his sovereign will alone, he elected a few to glory, and the rest to damnation. By the same The Profession of Faith no less exdecree also, in the same absolute, pressly" asserts the doctrine of absounconditional manner, he not only lute or nnconditional decrees. "Al permitted, but positively pre-ordained though God knows whatsoever may or the sins of the reprobate, as mans can come to pass, upon all supposed necessary to secure the end, that is, conditions, yet hath he not decreed their eternal damnation. Thence it any thing, because he foresaw it as follows, that the persons who are the future; or as that which would come objects of this decree, must absolutely to pass upon such conditions." (Chap. be damned; and that they must abso-ii. No. 2.) God therefore did not lutely commit the sins for which they shall be damned. These are not mere inferences from Calvinistic principles, they are the principles themselves, owned and maintained by the Calvinist teachers, decree the damnation of the reprobate, as that which would come to pass, upon the supposition of their sins; nor did he decree their sins, as that which would come to pass, upon the supposition of their own malice, The decrees of God, say the Calvinistic divines above quoted, "depend, entirely and solely, upon his own sovereign will and pleasure." Both the end and the means are stated together in the same absolute and unchangeable decree. 66 The Confession of Faith, after having laid down the general doctrine of unconditional decrees, in the words above quoted, proceeds thus: "By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others fore-ordained to everlasting death." No. 3. The damnation of the reprobate therefore is not merely foreseen and permitted to take place, it is even fore-ordained. These angels and men thus predestinated to everlasting life, and fore-ordained to everlasting death, are particularly and unchangeably designed; and their number is so certain and definite, that it cannot be either increased or diminished." No. 4. "As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so hath he, by the eternal and most free purpose of his will, fore-ordained all the means thereunto--neither are any other redeemed by Christ, effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified, and saved, but the elect only." No. 6. “The rest of mankind God was pleased, according to the unsearchable counsel of his own will, whereby he extendeth or withhokleth 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." No. 7. These last words, "for their sin," and "to the praise of his justice," might seem, at first sight, to contradict the doctrine of unconditional decrees, as if the Calvinists meant that God had passed the decree of reprobation upon the foresight of the sins of the reprobate; but the Confession, in this place, speaks of the actual damnation of the reprobate on the last day, not of their reprobation, from all eternity. It must therefore be understood that, in the Calvinistic system, the sins of the reprobate are supposed to be the cause of their damnation, but not of their reprobation. "Whether is sin, in the reprobate, the cause of their damnation or of their reproba tion?" They answer, "Their sin is indeed the cause of their damnation; but the sovereign will and pleasure of God is the cause of their reprobation." Q. 7. q. 43. By this distinction, the Calvinists are sure to puzzle all such of their opponents as are not acquainted with the intricacies of their system, or may not be sufficiently upon their guard. "You see," they say, "how our doctrines are misrepresented. We never assert that almighty God will punish a man who is innocent; on the contrary, we believe that he will only punish the wicked." But this is no thing but an evasion; for if the sins of the reprobate are not the cause of their reprobation,, how can they be the real cause of their damnation? It is true, that their damnation takes place after their sins have been com mitted; but it cannot be said, in the Calvinian system, that it takes place in consequence of their sins. For their damnation was not decreed upon the foresight of their sins, but their sins damnation: they are the means stated were decreed to bring about their in the decree, to secure the execution of it. It is evident, therefore, that the damnation of the reprobate cannot be called a punishment; it is not an act of vindictive justice; it is the infallible execution of an eternal decree, which, without any foresight of sin, has doomed the reprobate to eternal torments. St. John says, that God is love, which means that God is all love, nothing but love; as when the same apostle says, God is light, he means that God is all light, and that in him is no darkness at all. But the Calvinists make God a compound of love and wrath. For if he has repro bated part of his creatures, without any foresight of their sins, he must have found in himself the reason of hating them. This wrath must be a e unmerited wrath, flowing from very nature. Indeed, say the Ivinists, "The divine decrees" dead upon no condition, without God nself. Can there be any thing more pious, more shocking! 66 FREE WILL. Apply this general principle to a particular case. Adam did eat the forbidden fruit. His will was not forced; he did it voluntarily, "without constraint or compulsion." But Adam could not avoid eating the fruit, it was not in his power to abstain from it. God determined him to that particular action, and shut up from him all other ways of acting; therefore he could not possibly obey God, he could not resist the solicitation of his wife, he could not fly from the tempter; all these ways of acting were shut from him; that only was left open to him, which God had determined to be done, namely disobedience, and sin, to the end that, by eating the fatal fruit, he might bring infallible damnation upon the reprobate. The Calvinists take away the liberor free will, of man, though they em to assert it in words. They say, rexample, that by the decrees of Fod,. no violence is offered to the ill of the creatures." (Confession Faith, c. iii. No. 1.) That "God ath endued the will of man with that atural liberty, that is neither forced, or, by any absolute necessity of naure, determined, to do good or evil." C. ix. No. 1.) But they only mean hat man is not determined by any w of nature, such as the influence of he stars or planets; and that when he Other cases. A man kills his broso irresistibly determined by the di- ther, as Cain did; runs away with his ine decree to such or such an action, neighbour's wife, as Herod; attempts that it is not in his power to do ano- upon his own life, as Judas. In comther; yet 66 no violence is offered to mitting those enormous crimes he folhis will;" he does that action wil- lows his own inclination; no violence lingly, though he does it necessarily is offered to his will; but in the doc. like a person swimming in a rapid trine of the Calvinists it is not in his river, who willingly yielded to the power to avoid them. God has from torrent, yet could not resist it, al- all eternity fore-ordained those acthough he would. This is all that tions, by an absolute irrevocable deCalvinists understand by liberty. The cree; and when the time is come that will of man is not forced; under the decree is to be executed, he himGod's decree he always acts volunta- self predetermines the sinner to those rily. "He is under no more con- particular actions, and shuts from him straint or compulsion than though all possible ways of avoiding them, there had been no such decree." (Q. that those actions which he has decreed 7.q. 19.) But they do not believe may infallibly come to pass, This is that a man can ever act otherwise than Calvinistic liberty. "The very rea he actually does; what he does, whe-son, say they, why any thing comes to ther good or evil, he is necessitated to pass in time (theft, for example, do, not by any violence offered to his drunkenness, murder, blasphemy, or will, but by a secret impulse which any other criminal action) is, behe can no more withstand than he can cause God decreed it." (Q. 7. q. 21.) stop the sun. "God," say they, "not How then can the person who commits only efficaciously concurs in producing those sins be free, when he can no the action, as to the matter of it, but likewise predetermines the creature to such and such an action, and not to another, shutting up all other ways of acting, and leaving that only opened which he had determined to be done." (Q. 11. q. 20.) more abstain from them than he can change an unchangeable decree, or resist an irresistible force? THE AUTHOR OF SIN. The Calvinists warmly contend, that their doctrine does not make God the author of sin; and as loudly 66 complain of their opponents, who lay from God. They plead that God "by no means concurs to the sinfulness or wicked ness of the act."-Q. 11, q. 21.– However, it is evident, that, in their doctrine, God is the author of the sin ful and wicked act, much more than the sinner himself is; since it is God who pre-determines the sinner to com mit that act, who inclines his will to it, and forms in his heart that wicked and sinful determination of revolting against the law, in which sin especially consists. But God, in that impious system, does even worse than this: he causes the sinner to commit the sinful act, and himself concurs to it, precisely because it is a sinful act, or on account of the sinfulness of it; for he concurs to the sins of the reprobate, inasmuch as they tend to the execu tion of his decree, or as they are means calculated and ordained to secure the end, which is their punishment or eter nal damnation. For a sinful action is not a means of damnation, precisely for the matter and entity of it, but for its sinfulness, or because it deviates from the divine law: in this respect only it can be an object of God's vin dictive justice; it is, therefore, in this relation God must consider the sins of the reprobate when he decrees them, and when he pre-determines the repro bate to commit them. But if God thus concurs to the sinful action of the sinner, and conse quently is the author of it, he equally concurs to the action of the tempter, and must be the author of the tempta tion. For, according to the Calvi nists, the Devil can no more avoid tempting men, then men when they sin can help consenting to the tempta tion. God "shuts up both" from, the tempter, and from the tempted all other ways of acting, and leaves that only open" which he has determined to be done;" the way of tempting for or approver of sin."--(Confession of the one, and the way of sinning for Faith, C. v. No. 4.) Every body the other, "Whatever use God may knows that "God cannot be the author make of second causes, in the execu or approver of sin." But is he not the tion of his decrees, yet they are all but author and approver of it in the Calvi-tools in his over-ruling hand, to bring nian system? That is the question. about his glorious designs. They are But the sinfulness of the action," say the Calvinists," proceedeth only from the creature and not from God, who being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author |