to death and hell in consequence of the sin of
Adam, the one asserts that the interference of Christ of itself
saved all souls, the other asserts that that interference cannot
save any soul except those whom God, of his sovereign pleasure,
had from eternity arbitrarily elected.6 This scheme grew directly
out of the dogma of fatalism, which sinks human freedom in Divine
predestination. God having solely of his

5 Burdach, Carus, Oken, Bayrhoffer, Agassiz. See Bunsen,
Christianity and Mankind, vol. iv. p. 28; Mott and Gliddon, Types
of Mankind, p. 338.

6 Confession of Faith of Westminster Divines, ch. iii. sect. 3.

own will foreordained that a certain number of mankind should be
saved, Christ died in order to pay the penalty of their sins and
render it possible for them to be forgiven and taken into heaven
without violating the awful bond of justice. The benefits of the
atonement, therefore, are limited to the elect. Nor is this to be
regarded as an act of severity; on the contrary, it is an act of
unspeakable benevolence. For by the sin of Adam the whole race of
men, without exception, were hateful to God, and justly sentenced
to eternal damnation. When, consequently, he devised a plan of
redemption by which he could himself bear the guilt, and suffer
the agony, and pay the debt of a few, and thus ransom them from
their doom, the reprobates who were left had no right to complain,
but the chosen were a monument of disinterested love, because all
alike deserved the endless tortures of hell. According to this
conception, all men being by their ancestral act and inherited
nature irretrievably lost, God's arbitrary pleasure was the cause,
Christ's voluntary death was the means, by which a certain number
were to be saved. What individuals should compose this portion of
the race, was determined from eternity beyond all contingencies.
The effect of faith and conversion, and of the new birth, is not
to save the soul, but simply to convince the soul that it is
saved. That is to say, a regenerating belief and love is not the
efficient cause, it is merely the revealed assurance, of
salvation, proving to the soul that feels it, by the testimony of
the Holy Spirit, that it is of the chosen number. The preaching of
the gospel is to be extended everywhere, not for the purpose of
saving those who would otherwise be lost, but because its
presentation will awaken in the elect, and in them alone, that
responsive experience which wi