e a secret, we
would like to know by what authority it is so confidently stated
in the _Confession of Faith_ and the _Catechism_. How did they
come by the knowledge of God's secret decree? They may claim to
be better educated than we are, and more intelligent, to have
minds of a superior natural constitution; but we protest against
their claiming to be intrusted with the secrets of heaven.

26. This wonderful doctrine makes out the devil and his angels to
be faithful servants of God. They have done, throughout the past,
and are doing now, precisely what God, in his wise and holy
counsel, foreordained they should do.

27. It leads to Universalism. If all beings do as God has
decreed, upon what ground can God punish any of them, then, in
futurity? You have only to connect with this doctrine the
declaration that God is benevolent, or just, and Universalism
follows.

28. It leads to rank infidelity. It is to my mind more reasonable
to believe that God has made no written revelation of his will,
than that he has revealed such a doctrine as this. Let the
opinion become prevalent that it is a doctrine of the Bible, and,
as the consequence, the Bible will be rejected by thousands, yea,
hundreds of thousands. It is impossible for the ablest disputant
to maintain a respectable argument against infidelity while
standing upon this ground. He must assume the opposite ground, as
the basis of his argument, or he will fail signally. The infidel
objects to the Bible that it represents God as sanctioning crime,
and making favorites of its perpetrators, and hence concludes
that it cannot be true.

The usual reply is that, so far from having sanctioned vice and
its perpetrators, he has solemnly prohibited it; that he holds
the perpetrator guilty, condemns him to severe punishment, and
will remit that punishment only in view of repentance, and
reformation, and an atonement which fully vindicates the Divine
government, and most impressively manifests its abhorrence of the
course pursued by the transgressor. But what says this doctrine?
That God has freely, and from all eternity _willed, decreed,
foreordained, whatsoever_ comes to pass. The infidel objects that
the Bible contains contradictions, and hence cannot be the word
of God. The usual answer admits that God cannot contradict
himself, but denies that the Bible is chargeable with self
-contradiction. Whereas, this doctrine declares that God has
decreed and brought to pass all the