paratory to a new order of things, signified in the Apocalypse by the descent of the New Jerusalem from God out of heaven, as the crown of all former dispensations. (Rev. xxi.)

We shall now, however, select an extract from the Eclectic Review, as an example and proof which is deserving of particular attention.* It of singularly remarkable, as confirmatory of our views of the present degraded condition of Christian theology, viewed as to its abstract or scientific principles. It occurs in a review of two excellent works of preeminent value by Mr. James Douglas, -1. "On the truths of Religion," and 2. "On the errors of Religion," and each deserving of deep consideration. It is from an examination of these two works that the reviewer draws his conclusion, that, of all practical sciences, theology has suffered more than any other from its envelopment in the disguise of the scholastic systems, and from the technical dialect in which it is taught, as a basis by which it is upheld, and that the whole now requires to be simplified and remodelled, in order to be rendered plain and intelligible. And yet how curious to mark the wanderings of the human mind into some foreign labyrinth of its own formation; for in the proposal to resettle Scripture doctrines, it falls into dangerous and forbidden paths, which have long since been condemned as fallacious by sound thinking minds, who have well digested and considered the subject; for this advocate of the voluntary principle is for the revival of the old fallacy of erecting something like an an appellate jurisdiction,— a council synod or convocation, as a sort of intellectual and congregational effort, by which means all these abstruse and difficult points may be fixed, arranged, and settled.

(To be continued.)

"The Christian theology was originally the most simple and popular thing in the world, within the grasp of the humblest intellect, and propounded with the utmost plainness of speech. But implicated as it has become in doubtful disputations, corrupted by false glosses, and obscured by misconception, the doctrine of the Bible has required to be re-discovered; and it is only of late that the Christian world have been led to embrace the salutary conviction, that Christianity can be learned only from the Scriptures, and must be studied in the document that contains it. But to reproduce it in its primitive genuineness, fresh-drawn from the Scriptures, is an achievement not to be accomplished at once, or by any single mind. Nor could such a reformed theology hope to become immediately popular, since there is not an existing symbol, confession, or formula of religious credence that would not be swept away by its reception; not a system or body of divinity that would not become stale and unprofitable."-Eclectic Review, Vol. V. p. 10: 1831.

THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE OF IMPUTATION.

(Concluded from page 308.)

In the previous part of this article was presented an imperfect sketch of what the Scriptures teach on the doctrine of Imputation; and now, that we may not be suspected of wishing to take a one-sided view of the subject, it may be proper briefly to notice the opinions entertained and taught of it by professing Christians of almost all denominations, leaving the reader to determine for himself on which side the truth lies. In doing this we shall quote chiefly from the accredited authorities of Calvinism, trusting that such authorities will not be denied.

That the Scriptures clearly teach that man is born into hereditary evil, and that naturally he is nothing but such evil, is fully admitted; but that the sin and guilt of the first of the human race are, by God, imputed to their whole posterity, is a position altogether at variance with the dictates of right reason, and flatly contradicted by the repeated testimony of the Word of God. "Our first parents," says the Confession of Faith agreed on by the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, "being seduced by the subtility and temptation of Satan, sinned in eating the forbidden fruit. They being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed, and the same death in sin and corrupted nature conveyed to all their posterity, descending from them by ordinary generation."* In the same work we are told that, "As for those wicked and ungodly men, whom God as a righteous Judge, for former sins, doth blind and harden, from them he not only withholdeth his grace, whereby they might have been enlightened in their understandings, and wrought upon in their hearts; but sometimes also withdraweth the gifts which they had, and exposeth them to such objects as their corruption makes occasion of sin; and withal, gives them over to their own lusts, the temptations of the world, and the power of Satan: whereby it comes to pass that they harden themselves, even under those means which God useth for the softening of others."+

Such are the views which Calvinism affords its votaries of the Divine Character; they state that God first imputes to his creatures the guilt of sin which they never committed; this renders them wicked and ungodly; then, and be it observed, as a righteous Judge, he blinds and hardens them for former sins; and not only so, but withholds from them his grace which might have both enlightened their understandings, and wrought upon their hearts; nor is this all, he sometimes withdraws the + Chap. v.

* Chap. vi.

gifts which they had, and exposes them to all that is evil, that they may harden themselves by the very means which he uses for softening others!

And this is the manner in which Jehovah is supposed to treat the whole human race, with the exception of a comparatively small number indeed, to whom he is equally arbitrary and capricious in his dealings, but in an opposite direction. These are they who, not for any good quality in themselves, but of God's mere good pleasure have been foreordained, or predestinated to eternal life, and respecting whom all good Calvinists believe as follows: "By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others fore-ordained to everlasting death. Those angels and men, thus predestinated and fore-ordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed; and their number is so certain and definite, that it cannot be either increased or diminished. The rest of mankind, God was pleased, according to the unsearchable counsel of his own will, whereby he extendeth or withholdeth mercy as he pleaseth, for the glory of his sovereign power over his creatures, to pass by, and to ordain them to dishonor and wrath for their sin, to the praise of his glorious Justice."*

In due time, moreover, they who are thus favored of God, while their fellows are abandoned to the power of Satan, are visited with a special call of the Gospel denominated “Effectual Calling,” in obeying (?) which, they undergo the grand process of becoming just while, as yet, they are ungodly. After what the reader has already seen, he may be supposed to have nerve enough to venture on the following quotation from the Calvinistic Standard of the "Form of sound words.' "Those whom God effectually calleth he also freely justifieth; not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous: not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone: not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them as their righteousness; but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and resting on him and his righteousness by faith; which faith they have not of themselves; it is the gift of God."+

Here we have without any disguise, without any attempt at modification, the popular or commonly received, and almost universally taught, doctrine of imputation; from which it plainly appears that they who hold it and teach it, do most carefully exclude from it the smallest particle even of Evangelical obedience; nothing whatever that is done * Chap. iii. + Chap. xi.

by man through the divine aid, not even the most sincere and just action which the Lord performs in him or by him must have any part in constituting him a righteous man;-no, the merits and righteousness of Christ alone, are what effect this, and that too, the moment the man believes himself to be a favorite of heaven, before he has time to think a good thought, or perform a good action; he becomes, by imputation, possessed of, and invested in the righteousness of Christ, that is to say, he has imputed, counted, or reckoned to him all the merit and righteousness belonging (every humble mind would say,) to HIM ALONE, who by His own right hand, and his holy arm, effected the great work of human redemption! Is such an imputation possible? Most assuredly it is of all impossibilities the most impossible; and as to its necessity, on which its advocates lay so much stress, it is just about as necessary as that there should be a separate sun in the firmament for every individual inhabitant of the earth. Suppose for a moment the bare possibility of the case; suppose the innumerable company of the redeemed in heaven to be individually invested with all the merits, and all the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, who, in the Old Testament, is called "JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS," and who, throughout the Book of the Revelations, is represented as the one Only Object of the worship of heaven, would not this be at least something very like placing the worshipers and the object of their worship on a level. No, certainly not, it will be replied; the worshipers are finite creatures, the object of their worship is infinite, and self-existent. Yes, just so; and we ask for nothing more than this admission to scatter to the winds the worse than visionary hypothesis of the imputation of the merits of Omnipotence to worms of the dust, an imputation, in effect, that the finite persons who are elected and have faith possess infinite merit, that is to say, they are infinite, for who besides the Infinite can possess infinite merit ? Reduced to the level of common sense, and stripped of all fictitious solemnity, we see in this imputation the sad spectacle of certain persons imputing to the God of Truth, that, by a false and impossible reckoning, He is guilty of falsehood as absurd as it is unholy!

In conclusion, a remark or two is deemed necessary in the way of explanation. It may be said, and we know it will be said, by Modern Calvinists, should the above remarks meet the eye of any such, that we have selected the strongest cases, and have not done justice to the statements of "Moderate Calvinists." We know well that there are many who pride themselves not a little in the application of this term to themselves; we know that they are ashamed of John Calvin when he

speaks plainly out, in the present slightly improved state of society, and it falls to our lot to hear numerous apologies made for his horrible assertions; but to all these we are under the necessity of replying, that in Calvinism, as such, we can see nothing of Moderation whatever; and we beg leave to hint that we conceive that any system of religion which requires apology, explaining away, to say nothing of flat contradiction, has but a sorry claim on universal reception. Consistent Calvinism, with all its faults, is, doubtless, a more honorable appellation for any one to wear, than that of Moderate Calvinism, just as Consistent Christianity is more creditable than Moderate Christianity can be to any one making the profession of Christianity at all. But we shall, for the satisfaction of the reader, allow both classes of Calvinists to speak for themselves. The Moderate Calvinist says, on the subject in question: "In point of fact his (Christ's) righteousness cannot be actually that of his people; but they are treated as though it were theirs, and accordingly they reap the benefit of it. We receive the benefit of his work as a covenanted reward to Him, though to us it is a free gift of pure unmerited favor; just as He suffered the desert of our sins as an expression of the divine displeasure against us, though, personally considered, he continued the Object of the divine complacency. This is all that is meant by our sins having been reckoned as his, and his righteousness being reckoned as ours. There is no reference to a transfusion of qualities, but to a transference of fruits and consequences.”

"This is all that is meant." What then is this all? Is it a substantial reality? The answer is, No;-it is merely an as though," or, as it might be rendered in the language of children, a "make believe." There is something so sickly, so unsatisfactory in this language that we give the decided preference to the following hale and sturdy statements of a living Professor of Calvinistic Theology, because we think they cannot well be misunderstood, and because they are in perfect keeping with the old standards already quoted.

you

“What we aim at," says Dr. Chalmers, "as the effect of all these observations, is, that you should feel your only security to be in the revealed and the offered Mediator; that I should seek to him as your only effectual hiding-place; and who alone, in the whole range of universal being, is able to lay his hand upon you, and shield you from the Justice of the Almighty, and to lay his hand upon God, and stay the fury of the Avenger. By him such a sacrifice for sin has been offered, as that, in the acceptance of the sinner, every attribute of the Divinity is exalted; and the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,