Here was an exigency. Let us see how he meets it. That the Confession does teach the doctrine which the lady and her son ascribed to it, is as plain as anything can be. He decreed whatsoever comes to pass, and executes his decrees. Does he ask her what objections she has to this doctrine and offer to refute them? Does he directly and promptly deny that Calvinism teaches this doctrine? No! Such a course would be rather hazardous, considering the character of the books he was seeking to distribute, and did actually leave with them. What course, then, does he take? “I told her,” says he, “if the chapter on the fall of man said so, I was as loath to believe it as she was; and if she could find it so, I would condemn the doctrine.” Mark! He does not say, unconditionally and unequivocally that he condemned the doctrine, and was as loath to believe it as she was, but if the chapter which treated on the fall of man said so. Well, what follows: “On turning to the 6th chapter, how surprised was she to read—This their sin God was pleased according to his wise and holy counsel to permit.’ ” This word permit helped him out of his difficulty. “Here was a fact,” says he, “of which they had never heard before, and which gave them no little satisfaction.” He doubtless left them under the impression that the Confession of Faith does not teach that God decreed and brought to pass the sin of Adam. However, he did not leave them until they willingly purchased the Confession of Faith, the Great Supper, and Fisher’s Catechism, which asserts, as I have already shown, that “the very reason why anything comes to pass in time is, because God has decreed it,” that “none of the decrees of God can be defeated, or fail of execution;” and that God “predetermines the creature to such or such an action, and not to another, shutting up all other ways of acting, and leaving that only open which he had determined to be done.”
Another presumption in favor of Arminianism results from the readiness with which Methodist preachers are installed as pastors of Calvinistic churches, both old and new school, with the understanding, if their own statements be reliable, that they are not required to renounce or contradict the Arminian creed. Arminian ministers are coming into great demand by Calvinists. They are admitted into the Methodist ministry with the understanding that they are sound Arminians. They remain for years without exciting the least suspicion of their orthodoxy. When, all at once, without any prior change of ecclesiastical relations, or intimation of a change of theological views, they walk into Calvinistic pulpits. I make no remarks at present upon the morality of this course, but deduce that Arminianism preaching, to some extent, is necessary to keep up Calvinistic congregations.
Methodists, you may well prize your creed. Your ministers can preach it without reserve. You can defend it. The water of life comes to you through no corrupting medium. You are in no danger of inhaling poisonous sediment. It will bear analysis. It comes to you fresh and abundant. Drink it, and dig channels wide and long for its diffusion, that others may be blest as you are.