elevation of a fallen and lost creature: He is only willing so far to relent as to save a few: nor will He do this without stern conditions. In the first place, the great body of mankind are to be passed by and left, an eternal monument to the glory of His Justice. In the second place, He will only save the few on condition that another take their nature, bear to the full the punishment of their sin, and thus satisfy His Justice.

We question whether even the doctrine of the Divine Decrees is more depressing to the mind than this view of the Incarnation, and yet no other is possible with the Calvinistic doctrine of the Fall. Nor is it needful for us to remark how open it lies to the attacks of scepticism. Sceptics have not failed to point out the unlovely aspect in which God the Father is here presented to In making Him the Incarnation of Justice, so to speak, He is withdrawn from the love and adoration of mankind. An abyss is opened up between Him and the Son; and some warrant is given to the sceptical attacks on the doctrine of Vicarious Satisfaction.

us.

In the Catholic system these attacks are obviated by its broader conception of the ends of Christ's mission, and its doctrine of the remedial character of Christ's sufferings as the complement and perfection of ours. Christ suffered not only to satisfy Divine Justice, but to justify and perfect His brethren in the eyes of God and all creatures.

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The next point that occurs for consideration is the Mode of Salvation. It is a consequence of this narrow view of the Incarnation that the salvation of man is reduced to a 'scheme,' a covenant, a 'bargain,'-to something in the light of a commercial transaction. No doubt, in Holy Scripture, the idea of Covenant occurs as applied to the various Dispensations; and it is both consoling and assuring, if taken in connexion with other ideas. But in the Calvinistic system it stands alone, and assumes an aspect which grates upon the mind. Religion is reduced simply to a bargain or covenant between God and man. There have been two such Covenants: the one the Covenant of Works, made with Adam; the second, the Covenant of Grace, made in Christ. In the first, God promises eternal life on condition of perfect obedience, and by breaking this covenant man incurred eternal ruin. By the second, God, in virtue of the perfect satisfaction of Christ, offers pardon, acceptance, and eternal life to the Elect.

The evil of this conception is equally great, whether the matter is viewed from a speculative or practical point of view. Looking at it from a speculative point of view, we see that it makes theology perfectly comprehensible. The Catholic Theology,

although satisfying to the full the intellect of man, is yet not fully comprehended by the intellect. Its great doctrines-the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Mystical Body-are above our comprehension. Intelligible so far, they end in mystery. The mind, in meditating on them, is ever kept in a state of adoration, as feeling itself on the borders of the Infinite and Eternal. But under the Covenant idea, theology is as comprehensible as it is vulgar. God is lowered to the understanding of man. He is placed in an unworthy and incongruous aspect as a party to a bargain, and hence is occasioned great irreverence.

But again, looking at the matter in a practical point of view, we find the evil is not less. Religion is not only perfectly intelligible, but it is made a mere matter of the understanding. It is withdrawn entirely from the other parts of our nature, where its true home ought to be; and the practical effect of this is the elimination of the great idea of Christian worship. Worship is the oblation of the whole man, body and soul, to Almighty God. It is the devotion, not only of the intellect and will, but of the affections and the creative or æsthetic part of our nature. In its expression it comprehends not only the grandest conceptions of God, the most entire devotion to Him, but the whole tribute of the heart and of the creative senses. In the old Church, from the earliest times, worship held a prominent place, and was conducted always with outward dignity, and, where possible, with splendour and magnificence. In the elevating ideas connected with Christian worship, we trace the higher type of civilization which Christianity has produced. Indeed, worship was not only a practice but a dogma, and sprang directly from the Incarnation and work of Christ. It was one of the ends of the Incarnation, that man might thereby be enabled to offer to God the worship that was His due, and which, by reason of his sin, he was unable to pay. In the idea of the old Church, expressed in the Books of Hebrews and the Apocalypse, Christ, the perfect man, was the High Priest of the Church's worship. In the Sanctuary of Heaven He offered up the worship of the Church on earth, perfecting what was lacking, and making it an offering worthy of God. The Covenant idea, however, has the effect of entirely destroying the idea of Worship. Religion being a bargain between God and man, nought else is needed than that man should be enlightened as to the terms of the bargain. The dogma of Utter Ruin, too, here comes in. That man, even in Christ, can offer aught worthy of his Maker, or which God will love to accept, is entirely inadmissible. Hence, in the idea of Calvinism, worship is empty pageantry,' 'mummery,' and, in view of the Fall, idolatrous' and carnal.' The one thing needful' is to communicate the knowledge of the 'scheme.'

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To preach, or to hear the Word of God, is worship; even prayer is turned into a sermon. The practical effect of this is hardly to be estimated. We need only mention that, in the limitation of religion to the understanding, we have the key to the hardness of the Calvinistic character, and its utter insensibility to every moral and æsthetic beauty.

The next point that arises for consideration, is the mode in which the Salvation purchased by Christ is to be apprehended. Religion being a covenant between God and man, it is manifest it can be in no other way than through Faith. Hence, the peculiar prominence which Faith assumes in the Calvinistic system. It is the only condition on man's part which is really needed, and, on the other hand, it is a condition which is absolutely indispensable. But Faith in the Calvinistic idea is a very different thing from what it is in the Catholic Theology. In the latter, it is belief in the external doctrines of Revelation-those articles of faith which are summed up in the Creed. In the Calvinistic system, it means simply the appropriation by the individual of God's promise through Christ. It is the living conviction that Christ died, not only for the Elect in general, but for the individual believing. Hence, it carries with it the full conviction or assurance of the individual's acceptance, or, in other words, that he is in the number of God's Elect. Here we have the true explanation of that inordinate spiritual pride which distinguishes the genuine Calvinist. It is seen that it is perfectly unavoidable. The convert is necessitated to look upon himself as especially favoured of the Almighty. He is one of God's Elect―a 'brand rescued from the burning.' He has been selected from the abyss of a ruined world, out of countless numbers of his fellow-creatures, and predestined to eternal glory in Heaven. To him has been vouchsafed the inestimable privilege, that nought can deprive him of his crown. The decree of God has gone forth, and nothing, not even his own sins and backslidings, can prevent its taking effect. While thus privileged himself, he is obliged to look upon all who differ with him, as hopelessly lost and given up to a reprobate mind. For Saving Faith' is not simply the only instrument of Salvation; it is absolutely indispensable. Every one who has it not, is doomed of God. Thus not only all professing Christians who are not Calvinists, but the countless numbers of mankind who never heard the Gospel, are ordained of God to eternal woe.

This peculiar view of Saving Faith brings into very striking prominence the Calvinistic doctrine of Effectual Calling, now generally called Conversion, or Regeneration. In the Catholic Theology, Regeneration is the technical term for the work of the Holy Spirit in Baptism. It is distinguished from Conversion as

being exclusively the work of the Holy Spirit, irrespective of all co-operation on our part. In the same theology, Conversion is a work of after-life. In one aspect, it is the work of a lifetime; in another, it may occur suddenly in those where, through deadly sin or inward apostasy from the Faith, the Spiritual Life has become extinct. It is the awakening of the Soul, through the help of the Spirit, to a sense of its sin, and it ends in repentance and amendment of life. In the Calvinistic system, however, Conversion, Regeneration, and Effectual Calling are only different names for the same thing; and they have a totally different meaning. In that system, all are children of wrath, and totally alienated from God, from infancy upwards. This is a necessary tenet in Calvinism: for Salvation being a covenant which can only be apprehended through Saving Faith, it is obviously impossible that any can be partakers of Salvation till they have attained to sufficient intelligence to be able to apprehend its terms. Then, again, not every one who has attained to sufficient intelligence may attain to Saving Faith, but only those who, by God's decree, have been foreordained to eternal life. These latter, in His 'appointed and accepted time,' He is pleased effectually to call by His Word and Spirit, and this not from any works foreseen in them, but of His own free and special grace alone they being altogether passive' therein; and their call is, that they are awakened to Saving Faith so as to be able to accept the Salvation offered in Christ.

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In the theological statement of this doctrine, everything is apparently smooth and easy. The transaction accomplishes itself quite like a matter of business. But it is something very different in practice. It is an arduous spiritual struggle, through which each one of the Elect must come. It is full of tumult and excitement, doubt, darkness, and despair, till at length the convert emerges into a state of calm and assurance. If we examine it more closely, the whole process resolves itself into a syllogism which the mind must elaborate: All who believe in Christ are the Elect and saved: I believe in Christ; therefore, &c. It is in the contribution of the minor that all the difficulty is felt. Wrestlings' and struggles have to be gone through ere this can be accomplished; and the hagiologies of Calvinism are full of such contests. In this warfare, the great antagonist has ever been the Devil. The graphic pen of Sir Walter Scott has pictured Balfour of Burleigh, with drawn sword, combating with Satan; nor is the picture at all exaggerated. Many a wild enthusiast has fought with Satan in bodily shape; and even in our own day, we have only to glance at a Revival Meeting, to see how Satan, in the intensity of his warfare, does not always confine himself to impalpable suggestion.

A philosophical opponent might account for the intensity of this struggle on other principles than the special enmity of the Devil. He might perceive in Calvinism, as we have tried to delineate it, a system starting with a principle at variance with the consciousness of all men. He might trace it in its subsequent development, elaborating position after position more and more one-sided, till at length it culminates in the doctrine of Conversion. And then he might shrewdly suspect that the intensity of the struggle was owing, not so much to the Devil, as to our innate reason and common-sense striving to assert its mastery. Be this, however, as it may, it is evident that, hitherto, Calvinism has adhered to strict logic. Nothing can exceed the compactness and unity with which it thus far proceeds. But we now approach a question on which it has the choice either to forsake its logic or reduce itself to absurdity. We allude to the allimportant question of Justification.

Justification is another name for the state of Salvation-that condition to which we are elevated in Christ, and being found in which at the time of death we obtain eternal life. The Old Theology, holding that Christ came ex injustis justos facere, believes that it is a state of Inherent Righteousness. It believes that not only is Christ's righteousness, through our union with Him, imputed to us and reckoned as ours, but Justifying Grace is actually infused by the Spirit. Faith, hope, and love are awakened in the soul, and it is made really just and well-pleasing to God for Christ's sake. In a word, Justifying Grace is a gratia gratum faciens. On the other hand, since our Salvation is not, as in the Calvinistic system, the result of a Divine decree, but is dependent on the co-operation of our wills, it is possible for a man to fall from that Grace, He falls from it by deadly sin or inward apostasy, just as he may hinder and mar the Divine work by lesser or venial sin. In like manner, the Grace of God may be recovered after a fall by a true repentance.

Now, in the first place, let us see to what doctrine of Justification the Calvinistic system would naturally be determined, by the force of its premisses, and thus we shall be able the better to estimate its actual doctrine. The doctrine of Inherent Righteousness must be abandoned on many grounds. In the first place, it is inconsistent with the doctrine of the Fall. The entire corruption of human nature, and the total incapacity of the human will, make the supposition of anything good residing in man quite inadmissible. It is conceivable, indeed, that by elevating Baptism to a higher position, or by supposing in Conversion a special work of the Spirit undoing the effects of Original Sin and in a measure reforming our nature, Calvinism might arrive at Inherent Righteousness. But such a principle, once admitted,