most
objectionable. Yet, strong as were his prejudices against it, they
ultimately gave way, and, _therefore_, Calvinism must be the truth.
But, in both instances, the impression designed to be made on the
mind of the reader is the same, that is, that the Spirit of God
accomplished what the force of argument had failed to do. Mr. Scott,
therefore, adds his testimony to that of President Edwards,
confessing that Calvinism is not supported by proofs sufficient in
themselves to carry conviction to the human mind, without special
illumination from above; an illumination, which, assuredly, the
_religious opposers_ may as righteously claim, as the religious
defenders of Calvinism. For what Christian man does not pray for the
guidance of God's good Spirit? The dispassionate reader of "_The
Force of Truth_," will naturally say, that the arguments for the
Calvinistic creed were either sound or unsound. If the former, then
Mr. Scott was either very obtuse or very obstinate to resist so long
their power. If the latter, he acted with great weakness in yielding
at length to insufficient evidence, on the score of an undefinable
impulse. In either case, his name is divested of commanding
authority in the view of reasonable men. Yet it can hardly be
doubted, that this claim to _special teaching_ from the fountain of
wisdom and of truth, has done more, incalculably more, to awe the
minds of men into submission, and thus to obtain currency for their
opinions, than the _joint confession_ of these popular writers, to
the insufficiency of their own arguments, has availed to render
suspected the force of their reasoning. The impression made on the
generality of minds would be, that men so good, and so candid in
confessing their own obstinacy, could not be mistaken, in believing
themselves, at a subsequent period, to be inspired and infallible[3].

The advocates of Calvinism differ remarkably from each other in the
tone and spirit of their writings, as their habits of thought and
feeling are modified by circumstances. The American divines of the
school of Edwards have carried out his principles with unflinching
consistency, not hesitating to impute to the Deity, in unqualified
terms, the eternal decrees which fix the weal or woe of the human
race for ever. The cold and heartless manner in which these men
treat the subject, and the stoical apathy with which they
contemplate the result of their hard metaphysics, are extremely
remote from our