death?

Confessing the wisdom and justice of predestination, as maintained by
themselves, to be above our comprehension, the Calvinists are accustomed
to remind us of the littleness, the weakness, and the blindness of the
human mind, and how dangerous it is for beings like ourselves to pry into
mysteries. We are aware, indeed, that our faculties are limited on all
sides, and that we are exceedingly prone to assume more than belongs to
us. We are not sure that the human mind, so little and so assuming,
appears to any very great advantage in its advocacy of the Calvinistic
scheme of predestination. This scheme is not only found in the ninth
chapter of Romans, by a strange misapprehension of the whole scope and
design of the apostle's argument, but, after having based it upon this
misinterpretation of the divine word, its advocates persist in regarding
all opposition to it as an opposition against God. As often as we dispute
the doctrine, they cry out, "Nay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest
against God?"

This rebuke was well administered by St. Paul. He applied it to those who,
understanding his doctrine, did not hesitate to arraign the equity of the
divine proceeding in the election of one nation in preference to another
to constitute the visible Church on earth. This was not only to reply
against God's word, but also against the manifest arrangements and
dispensations of his providence. But it is not well applied by Calvinists,
unless they possess an infallibility which authorizes them to identify
their interpretation of the word of God with the word itself. It is not
well applied by them, unless they are authorized to put themselves in the
place of God. If they have no right to do this, we must insist upon it
that it is one thing to reply against God, and quite another to reply
against Calvin and his followers.

Section IV.

The true ground and reason of election to eternal life shows it to be
consistent with the infinite goodness of God.

We agree with both Calvinistic and Arminian writers in the position, that
no man is elected to eternal life on account of his merits. Indeed, the
idea that a human being can merit anything, much less eternal life, of
God, is preposterous in the extreme. All his gifts are of pure grace. The
creation of the soul with glorious and immortal powers was an act of pure,
unmixed favour. The duty of loving and serving him, which we are permitt