are in the
foregoing illustration interpreted of the election of nations to be the
people of God, and to enjoy the advantage of an external revelation, and
of their losing these honourable distinctions, the reader must not, on
that account, suppose the author rejects the doctrines of the decree and
foreknowledge of God. These doctrines are taught in other passages of
Scripture: see Rom. viii, 29." Thus this enlightened critic candidly
abandons the ninth chapter of Romans, and seeks support for his
Calvinistic view of the divine decrees elsewhere.

Let us, then, proceed to examine the eighth chapter of Romans, upon which
he relies. The words are as follow: "For whom he did foreknow, he also did
predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the
first-born among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them
he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he
justified, them he also glorified." We need have no dispute with the
Calvinists respecting the interpretation of these words. If we mistake
not, we may adopt their own construction of them, and yet clearly show
that they lend not the least support to their views of election and
reprobation. "As to _know_," says Professor Hodge, "is often to _approve_
and _love_, it may express the idea of peculiar affection in the case; or
it may mean to _select_ or _determine upon_." These two interpretations,
as he truly says, "do not essentially differ. The one is but a
modification of the other." "The idea, therefore, obviously is, that those
whom God peculiarly loved, and by thus loving, distinguished or selected
from the rest of mankind; or, to express both ideas in one word, those
whom he _elected_ he predestinated, &c." Thus, according to this
commentator, those whom God elected, he also predestinated, called,
justified, and, finally, glorified.

Now, suppose all this to be admitted, let us consider whether it gives any
support to the Calvinistic creed of election. It teaches that all those
whom God elects shall be ultimately saved; but not one word or one
syllable does it say with respect to the principle or ground of his
election. It tells us that God, in his infinite wisdom, selects one
portion of mankind as the objects of his saving mercy,--the heirs of
eternal glory; but it does not say that this selection, this
_approbation_, this _peculiar love_, is wholly without foundation in the
character or condition of the elec