Chillicothe Female Miss. Society Lafayette Crooked creek & con. Mrs. Nancy Carson, don'n by By Rev. B. Waddle part bequest Elizabeth Paxton dec., Crooked creek cong. 50 00 Rev. Peacock.. 4 00 Waddle. 25 00 do 5.00 50 00 Wheeling Rev. W. Wallace 15 00 Jonathan's creek Rush creek John Jackson Ky. Bethel cong 5 00 20 00 Fairhaven vacancy Mr. Samuel Barnet of Springfield O. 10 00 Rev. Wilson 18 00 10 00 6. Piny Fork Paris Galloway 5.00 & J. R. Bonner 14 00 6 00 Sycamore Monfort 10 00 Sydney McCaughan 15 00 Richmond 12.00 do 2*00 do 7-00 cong. do 7.00% Dr. Macdill 18 00 10.00 cong. Hopewell Female Miss. Soc. by S. W. McCracken 6:00 Rev. Blain 25 62 3.50 Mt. Pleasant Sharon Fairview Washington O.. 2.00 22 00 11 14 9, 0.0 1843 Aug. 17 Paid on Saml. Sturgeons order of June 1842 of CONTRA. $190 Miss. services 44 75 do's order June 1843 for $112 1-2 67 50 Sept. 11 66 J. H. Pressley order 12 00 15 66 Robt. McElroy order of Oct. 1839 102 00 We have defined predestination to be a picture existing in the divine mind from eternity, of which the universe past, present, and future, is the exact reality. It embraces every thing that comes to pass, whether God's own spontaneous acts, or the moral acts of others infallibly foreseen and adopted into his own great plan. All its parts are fitted together in the most exquisite order. The whole of it is adjusted and governed by the moral perfections of God; so that not a single instance of injustice can be found in it. It secures his absolute sovereignty, as well in the moral, as in the natural, universe. The whole of this mighty plan is but one single idea in the divine mind, beside other innumerable plans of other countless creations; and being adopted by a single act of the divine will, it is but one vast purpose. Every part of it is certain to come to pass in due time, and nothing else ever can take place; and this certainty rests wholly upon the omnipotence of God, and no part of it depends upon necessity, which, as applied to God, is a mere chimera of philosophers, and no where has any existence. To support this doctrine, we brought five general arguments, viz: 1. An argument from the following scriptures, "Thus saith the Lord the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, ask me of things concerning my sons; and concerning the work of my hands command ye me." "I am God and there is none like me; declaring the end from the beginning, and from ANCIENT times the things nol YET done, saying; my -counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.” "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." 2. The argument from a universal providence. If the providence of God extend over all things, it is more reasonable to suppose that he acts in every case from an intelligent previous purpose, than from a blind impulse. This supposition is not only more rational, but free from all objection: for, whatever it is right to do, it is equally right to purpose. 3. The argument from the coincidence between a universal providence and the divine foreknowledge. From eternity, God foreknew all things. To eternity, he does all things. Since it is impossible to foreknow any act of ours without having, at the same time, a purpose to do that act, therefore God's foreknowl VOL. II.-No. 6 or acts. edge that he would do all things, necessarily implies predestinatio n.. 4. The argument from design. The universe is full of design, wheth-er we look at the whole, or the smallest parts of it. But what is design? It is the previous plan according to which a wise being works And the vast and intricate design of which the universe is full, is nothing else than the eternal plan according to which God creates and governs. 5. The argument from cause and effect. So closely are all things in creation linked together by the tie of cause and effect, that the very first form which God gave the universe at its creation, became the never-failing cause of all things as they are this moment, or shall be to the end of time. Each tree of the forest is the same with the first after his kind which God planted in the morning of the creation; so is each flower, and each blade of grass. Therefore, the whole vegetable kingdom, as it is now, has descended from the vegetable kingdom at the creation, with unaltered similarity. The same is the case with the animal kingdom---each creature can be traced up to the original pair. So with the whole world---it is the direct and inevitable offspring of the world which God formed in the beginning. And had he then created a thousand worlds precisely like our own, and governed them by the same providence, they would be exactly alike at this moment. Election, which is God's eternal purpose to all, to justify, to sanctify, and glorify, a certain chosen number of the lost children of Adam--and reprobation, which is his eternal purpose to leave the rest to perish in their sins---we sustained by a variety of scriptures, together with the argument, that if he really does all this it is reasona- ble to suppose that he does it from a previous purpose, rather than from blind impulse of the moment; while every objection was silenced by the simple truth, that whatever it is right for him to do, it is not wrong to purpose. God's decrees concerning our temporal condition are another branch of his great purpose of predestination; which we supported by various scriptures, concluding with this one, that God hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth; and hath determined the time before appointed and the bounds of their habitation." Concerning human actions, we taught as follows, viz; 1. That there is a distinction between the complete purpose of the soul, and the outward act proceeding from it; the purpose being in itself a complete moral act, and our outward actions being merely the mechanical execution of our purposes; and that the Lord, suffers such of our purposes alone to burst out into action as will answer his own ends, while he restrains the rest, and they prove abortive. Thus, he foreordained all our outward acts spontaneously. 2. With regard to our internal purposes or moral acts, God determined to leave holy beings, such as good angels and regenerated men, and also all sinful beings, such as fallen angels and unconverted men, as free to form their own independent purposes according to their respective natures as he himself is free to form purposes according to his nature. 3. That, foreseeing all our moral actions in virtue of this freedom, he adopted them all into his own great plan of predestination; so that they be. came as real parts of that plan as his own spontaneous purposes. Even wicked actions thus adopted by Jehovah as his own, are, on his part, perfectly holy; since his object is to overrule their evil to the advancement of the most just and noble ends. 4. These views were fortified by two principal arguments. First; that God really does cooperate with his good creatures in all their moral actions, while he exerts a controlling influence over the actions of the wicked. Secondly; that all prophecy is a great catalogue of actual instances in which God has foreordained both sinful and righteous actions---especially, we produced the cases of Joseph's brethren, of Pharaoh, and of the crucifixion, where God predetermined sins, and yet they who committed them were in full possession of their free-agency. All the objections to the decrees we saw founded upon their certainty, except one which was based upon their partiality--we answered them thus, viz: The certainty of the decrees does not destroy free-agency; for all of God's future actions are just as certain as our own, and yet he is the great Free-Agent of the universe. This certainty does not make God the author of sin, unless our free-agency be destroyed by it, which, we have seen, is not. The certainty of election or reprobation does not destroy the use of means. 1. Because we do not know what it is that is certain, whether our election, or reprobation; and therefore it is impossible to be discouraged from using. means, since the encouragement of election is just as great as the discouragement of reprobation; so that they neutralize and destroy each other. 2d. Because the means are just as certain as the end, at the same time that they are known and visible; while, therefore, we can never feel any interest about the decrees of the ends, we have a double encouragement in the decree of the means, since they are both known and certain. Hence, in selecting a successor to Judas Iscariot, the apostles being totally ignorant which of the two candidates the Lord had already chosen, proceeded to cast the lot; and the result was |