n the principles of reason and philosophy.
"The apostle," says Calvin, "ascribes everything to the Lord's mercy, _and
leaves nothing to our wills or exertions_."(138) He even contends, that to
"suppose man to be a cooeperator with God, so that the validity of election
depends on his consent," is to make the "will of man superior to the
counsel of God;"(139) as if there were no possible medium between nothing
and omnipotence.

Section V.

The danger of mistaking distorted for exalted views of the divine
sovereignty.

There is no danger, it is true, that we shall ever form too exalted
conceptions of the divine majesty. All notions must fall infinitely below
the sublime reality. But we may proceed in the wrong direction, by making
it our immediate aim and object to exalt the sovereignty of God. An object
so vast and overwhelming as the divine omnipotence, cannot fail to
transport the imagination, and to fill the soul with wonder. Hence, in our
passionate, but always feeble, endeavours to grasp so wonderful an object,
our vision may be disturbed by our emotions, and the glory of God badly
reflected in our minds. Our utmost exertions may thus end, not in exalted,
but in distorted views of the divine sovereignty. Is it not better, then,
for feeble creatures like ourselves, to aim simply to acquire a knowledge
of the truth, which, we may depend upon it, will not fail to exhibit the
divine sovereignty in its most beautiful lights?

If such be our object, we shall find, we think, that God is the author of
our spiritual views in religion, as well as those genuine feelings of
reverence and love, without which obedience is impossible; and that man
himself is the author of the volitions by which his obedience is
consummated. This shows the precise point at which the divine agency
ceases, and human agency begins; the precise point at which the sphere of
human power comes into contact with the sphere of omnipotence, without
intersecting it and without being annihilated by it. It shows at once the
absolute dependence of man upon God, without a denial of his free and
accountable agency; and it asserts the latter, without excluding the
Divine Being from the affairs of the moral world. It renders unto Caesar
the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things which are God's. At
the same time that it combines and harmonizes these truths, it shows the
errors of the opposite extremes, and places