17TH ARTICLE.

"Predestination to Life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby, before the foundations of the world were laid, He had constantly decreed by his counsel secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation those whom He hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them, by Christ, to everlasting salvation as vessels made to honor. Wherefore, they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of God be called, according to God's purpose, by His spirit working in due season, they through grace obey the calling: they be justified freely: they be made sons of God by adoption: they be made like the image of His only begotten Son Jesus Christ : they walk religiously in good works, and at length, by God's mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity."

We have here the leading paragraph of the 17th Article, which has been claimed both by Romanists and Calvinists as favoring their respective views. Singularly enough, if it were not every day's experience, upon what apparently uncongenial aliment preconception of the mind may be fostered.

I now present for convenient reference, the marginal texts given in Bishop Mant's Prayer Book, in quarto, published by authority :

"Come ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."-Matt. 25, 34.

"According as He hath chosen us in Him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him, in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children, by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of his will." -Ephesians 1, 4.

"Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began."—2nd Tim. 1, 9.

"For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them."-Gal. 3, 10.

"Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." -1st Peter, 1, 2.

"For whom He did foreknow He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the first born among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them he also glorified."-Rom. 8, 29-30.

In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace," Ephes. 1, 7.

But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons."-Gal. 4, 4.

'In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will." -Ephes. 1, 11.

"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."-Ephes. 2, 10.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection. of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in Heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time."-1st Peter 1, 3.

Having thus quoted the texts referred to by the Church, it will be useful to add the concluding paragraph of the Article itself, as showing the temper of mind in which we should consult these Scriptural passages.

"Furthermore we must receive God's promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in Holy Scripture; and in our doings, that will of God is to be

followed which we have expressly declared to us in the word of God."

The Marginal Texts by which this paragraph is supported, are as follows:

"God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."-John 3, 16.

"Who (God) will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the Truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus: Who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time."-1st Tim. 2, 4.

And behold a certain lawyer stood up and tempted Him, saying, Master what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said, What is written in the Law, how readest thou? And he answering, said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind: and thy neighbour as thyself. And He said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do and thou shalt live." -Luke 10, 25.

These are the passages in Holy Scripture expressly pointed out for our general guidance and instruction. They breathe the mild, pure, and merciful truths of Christianity, in perfect consonance with the whole tone and tenor of the Bible throughout. We here learn that

"Whosoever believeth shall not perish;" that “ God would have all men to be saved;" that Christ died for

all, "Gave Himself a ransom for all ;"—all who believe in Him:" and that " He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." And this broad and plain view of the mystery of Predestination and Election, will, I trust, be found to be only more fully proved as we proceed to examine more closely and copiously the Divine rule of faith' which the Bible presents to our study. The moment we quit that pure and only source of true knowledge, light, and life, to wander amid the mazes of human theory and conjecture, that moment all becomes dark, doubtful, and difficult-all weariness and vexation of spirit. Proof of this I am now compelled to give, in adverting to the character of Calvinistic interpretation, which, as if loving darkness rather than light, seems to peep askaunt into the Sacred volume, and having snatched a text from the half open page, builds thereon a mystic and cloudy pile of human sophisms, unknown and unthought of during the first three centuries of the Christian Era, and until the time of Augustine.

But, doubtless, great allowances should be made for controversial writers on Divinity, prior to the age of printing. "Monasteries of some consideration had frequently only a missal."* Even to those who had access to a com

* Rev. H. Horne.