[PUBLIC OPINION—INFANT DAMNATION.]
St. Louis, Mo., May 18th, 1874.
To the Editor of the Globe:
I will give a reward of fifty dollars to any one who will give the name of a Presbyterian minister, who is a member of a Presbytery, under the jurisdiction of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, of the United States of America, who has, at any time, preached the doctrine of infant damnation; and I will give fifty dollars additional reward, to any one who can point out any article in the Confession of Faith or Catechism of this Church, teaching this horrid doctrine. As infant damnation has been charged upon Presbyterians in an editorial, of recent date, in the Globe, the above reward is offered for the proof. That the elect are incapable of sin, is also stated in the same editorial, to be a doctrine of the Presbyterian Church. This also is untrue.
W. H. Aughey.
WE publish the above to show where the pressure comes, and not that we expect any “fifty dollars reward,” for such men as the writer of this, always have a loop-hole through which to escape, but we will see whether the Presbyterian ministry believe “this horrid doctrine.” If they do not believe the Confession of Faith, they are sailing under false colors and their profession is a sham. If they do believe their Confession of Faith, we leave the reader to judge whether they believe “this horrid doctrine.” Let us hear the Confession: “God from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so as thereby neither is God the Author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creature, nor is the liberty of contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.” Con., page 18, God’s Eternal Decree, chap. iii.
The reader will see nothing about infant damnation in that. Very well; let us see what is in it. This is in it—that God did foreordain unchangeably whatever comes to pass. There is more than this in it—he did this “from all eternity.” Now let us hear the Confession tell what one of these decrees is: “By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death.” Con. page 18. When was this done? “From all eternity.” What was it done for? “For the manifestation of his glory.” What was done? “Some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others foreordained unto everlasting death.” That makes a plain case of it.
Let us hear the Confession again: “These angels and men thus predestinated and foreordained are particularly and unchangeably designed, and their number is so certain and definite that it can not be either increased or diminished.” Con. page 19. This decree of predestination and foreordination is particularly and unchangeably designed, and the number thus particularly and unchangeably designed can not be increased or diminished. But it will be said that this is not said of infants, but of “angels and men.” So it is. But when was this decreed? “From all eternity.” These men “foreordained to everlasting death” were thus “particularly and definitely designed” “from all eternity.” We may not be able to explain precisely the meaning of the words “from all eternity,” but they evidently mean before they were created. Before they were born, then, some men were foreordained to everlasting death. When they were born they were infants; yes, infants “particularly and unchangeably designed” to everlasting death. Those of these infants foreordained, “particularly and unchangeably designed to everlasting death,” who die in infancy are lost. Here, then, in the Confession of Faith, which Presbyterian ministers profess to believe, is the doctrine of infant damnation—yes, “the horrid doctrine,” whether they believe it or not.