of whatever is exceptionable.
Calvinism is not pagan fatalism. It is Christian fatalism. It is
fatalism baptized.

DISCOURSE III.

"In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being
predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all
things according to the counsel of his own will."--EPH. i. 11.

IN the preceding discourse, I showed that the Calvinistic
doctrine of the Divine decrees leads to the following consequences,
namely, that man is not a free agent; that he is not properly
accountable for his conduct; that there is no sin in the world; or,
that, if there be sin, God is the author of it; or, that, if he be
not strictly and properly the author, he is at least the prime
mover of it; that, if sin exist, God prefers sin to holiness in
every instance in which sin takes place; that sin is not an evil,
but a real good; that whatever is is right; that there is no
reasonable ground for repentance, or for prayer, or for pardon;
that regeneration is nothing else than a change from perfect
conformity to the will of God in one way, to perfect conformity to
the will of God in another way; that the doctrines of the fall and
redemption by Christ are gross and palpable absurdities; that man
is not in a state of probation; that God has two hostile wills
relative to the same thing; that, not only are his secret decrees
and his written laws at variance, but he has also decreed and brings
to pass opposite and contradictory events; that civil government is
wholly unreasonable; that there is in fact no moral government; that
God is not holy, or just, or wise, or truthful, or benevolent; or,
that if God be nevertheless holy, and wise, and true, and just, and
good, we have the foundation of a new system of morals, which, if
adopted, must reverse all our estimates of moral character; that man
cannot contribute anything to his personal salvation; that the devil
and his angels are as faithful servants of God as any of his elect.
It was shown that it leads to Universalism and to rank infidelity;
that it sanctions all the errors that were ever promulgated; that it
furnishes a complete justification of the worst conduct of the worst
men, that ever lived, tends to paralyze all effort to resist
temptation, and condemns as impious any opposition to the commission
of sin by our neighbors, and, finally, that it is worse than the
pagan doctrine of fatalism.

I shall now endeavor to present the true doctrine. As has been
sai