e whole, to
holiness in its stead."

I do not charge Dr. Musgrave with holding this inference as a
doctrine, and yet it is very clearly asserted in an argument
designed to prove the Calvinistic doctrine of foreordination.
"There must," says he, "have been a time when no creature
existed, as God alone is from everlasting. Before creation, and
from all eternity, all things that are possible, as well as all
things that actually have or will come to pass in time, must have
been perfectly known to God. He must, therefore, have known what
beings and events would, on the whole, be most for his own glory,
and the greatest good of the universe; and therefore, as an
infinitely wise, benevolent, and Almighty Being, he could not but
have chosen or determined, that such beings and events, and SUCH
ONLY, should come to pass in time." "The conclusion is,
therefore, to our minds, irresistible, that if God be infinitely
wise, benevolent, and powerful, and perfectly foreknew what
beings and events would, _on the whole_, BE BEST, he must have
chosen and ordained that they should exist, or be permitted to
occur; and that, consequently, everything that does actually come
to pass in time, has been eternally and unchangeably foreordained."

Here it is argued that God, as an infinitely wise, benevolent,
and powerful being, must have _known_ and _preferred_, and
_decreed_, that just such beings should exist and events occur,
as would, on the whole, be most for his own glory, and the
_greatest good_ of the universe, _and such only_; and that,
consequently, he has eternally, and unchangeably foreordained
everything that does actually come to pass in time. Now it is
plain that all the events which have come to pass in time must
answer this description--must be for the best, for his highest
glory--or the argument falls to the ground.

The Rev. Jas. McChain, one of the editors of the _Calvinistic
Magazine_, in a discourse published in that periodical, December,
1847, thus undertakes to prove that God "has foreordained
whatsoever comes to pass:" "Jehovah is infinitely _wise_; does he
not, therefore, know what it is BEST should take place? He is
infinitely _benevolent_; will he not choose, then, that _shall
take place_ which he knows is FOR THE BEST? He is infinitely
_powerful_; can he not, therefore, cause _to take place_ what he
_chooses shall take place_? The Most High is infinitely wise, and
_knows_ what it is BEST should come to pass--benev