provided for them and irresistible grace. The
modern Calvinists differ, as we have also seen, from both of these
schools, and hold that God loves all, and has provided a Saviour for
all, but that converting grace is given only to some. There is a
consistency, a grim consistency, in the two former views; but the
latter limps, it divides the Trinity. It makes God's love to be
world-wide, Christ's death to be for all, but the gracious or
converting work of the Spirit is limited. But however these systems
differ from each other, they all agree in this, that God is not
earnestly desirous of saving all men. And this, as we hold, is the
damning fact against them all.

There are certain specific objections, however, to which we now beg
attention.

CHAPTER VI.

OBJECTIONS TO THE CALVINISTIC DOCTRINE OF ELECTION.

(1.) WE object, in the _first_ place, to the Calvinistic doctrine of
election, because it is absurd to call it election. The advocates of
the three views of election mentioned stoutly maintain that the
persons chosen are chosen unconditionally; in other words, they are
chosen not on account of any mental or moral quality in them. It is
on this account designated _unconditional_. There is nothing
whatever in the persons chosen on which to ground the choice.
Supposing this to be the case, can there be any choice, election?
Mr. Robinson has put the case thus: "What is election? Is it
possible to choose one of two things, excepting for reasons to be
found in the things themselves? Ask a friend which of a number of
oranges he will take. If he sees nothing in them to determine
selection, he says, 'I have no choice.' Ask a blind man which of two
oranges, that are out of his reach, he prefers, and you mock him by
proposing an impossibility. If they are put near him, that he may
feel them or smell them, or if by any other means he can judge
between them, he can choose, otherwise he cannot choose. If they lie
far from him, he may say, 'Give me the one that lies to the east, or
the west;' but that is a lottery, an accident, chance, certainly no
choice. Therefore, to assert that the cause of election is not in
anything in the person chosen, is really to deny that there is any
election. And it is a curious fact that the most vehement
predestinarians, while they flatter themselves that they are the
honoured advocates of the Divine decrees, by sequence set aside
election altogether. Their hypothesis annihilates the very d