Again: “All future things being uncertain to us, we hold them in suspense, as though they might happen either one way or another. Yet, this remains a fixed principle in our hearts, that there will be no event which God has not ordained.” (Ib. p. 193.)

Again: “They consider it absurd that a man should be blinded by the will and command of God, and afterwards be punished for his blindness. They, therefore, evade this difficulty, by alleging that it happens only by the permission of God, and not by the will of God; but God himself, by the most unequivocal declarations, rejects this subterfuge. That men, however, can effect nothing but by the secret will of God, and can deliberate upon nothing but what he has previously decreed, and determines by his secret direction, is proved by express and innumerable testimonies.” (Ib. p. 211.)

Again: “If God simply foresaw the fates of men, and did not also dispose and fix them by his determination, there would be room to agitate the question, whether his providence or foresight rendered them at all necessary. But, since he foresees future events only in consequence of his decree that they shall happen, it is useless to contend about foreknowledge, while it is evident that all things come to pass rather by ordination and decree.” (Vol ii. p. 169.)

Again: “I shall not hesitate, therefore, to confess plainly, with Augustine, ‘that the will of God is the necessity of things, and that what he has willed will necessarily come to pass.’ ” (Ib. p. 171.)

Again: “With respect to his secret influences, the declaration of Solomon concerning the heart of a king, that it is inclined hither or thither according to the Divine will, certainly extends to the whole human race, and is as much as though he had said, that whatever conceptions we form in our minds, they we directed by the secret inspiration of God.” (Ib. p. 213.)

Finally, for the present: “What God decrees,” says this celebrated writer, “must necessarily come to pass.” (Ib. p. 194.)

I think it will not be said, by any one who has heard me attentively, that I either misrepresent, or misunderstand, Calvin, when I impute to him the doctrine that God has purposed, decreed, determined, foreordained, predestinated whatsoever comes to pass, and that he in some way or other brings to pass whatever occurs.

But it may be objected that we ought not to hold modern Calvinists responsible for all the doctrines of Calvin; that they “no further indorse them than as they are incorporated into their acknowledged creeds.” To this we cordially assent. By this rule we will abide. What, then, is the language of the Westminster Confession of Faith, the established standard of orthodoxy in the American Presbyterian Churches? The third chapter commends thus: “God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass” (p. 15); and, at the commencement of the fifth chapter, we read: “God, the great Creator of all things, doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by his most wise and holy providence.”

Observe, he, according to this statement, not only upholds and governs all creatures, but directs and disposes all actions and things, from the greatest even to the least.

The Larger Catechism says, in answer to the question, “What are the decrees of God?” “God’s decrees are the wise, free, and holy acts of the counsel of his will, whereby, from all eternity, he hath, for his own glory, unchangeably foreordained whatsoever comes to pass in time, especially concerning angels and men.”