iii. We pass on now to the last stage in our inquiry, the consideration of the efiect of election. We aak what influence does the fact that they have been chosen by God exert over the elect? May we assume that the divine purpose working through election must of necessity attain its goal ? Can we, granting this assumption, find a place in our system for any self-determining power in the human will ?
"The theological systems, which adopt the re- stricted sense of the term election, and limit the scope of its operation to its effect on this limited circle, find no difficulty in supplying a logically coherent set of answers to these questions. It is ineonsistimt with any real faith in tlie divine Omni- potence to suppose that any deliberate purpose of God can finally fail of its accomplislnncnt. The elect, therefore, bcins; chosen for salvation, cannot fail to attain salvation. No power from without or from within can prevent this result. The fact that they have been chosen for tliis end carries ivith it the divin/> determination to provide all the
means required to ensure its attainment. The elect, therefore, receive first a gift of ' irresistibl* grace ' to raise them out of their naturally depraved state, and then a gift of ' final perseverance,' M the result of which they are assured, whatever their intervening lapses may have been, of being found at the moment of death in a state of grace.
These systems do not seem to find room, at least in the all-important moment of conversion, for any true act of self-determination on the part of the human will. A doctrine of reprobation forms an inevitable, however unwelcome, complement to the doctrine of election so defined.
It is impossible not to regard with the deepest respect systems which embody the conclusions of the most strenuous thinkers on this subject, from St. Augustine to Calvin and Jonathan Edwards. At the same time it is a remarkable fact that these conclusions have never been able to secure general acceptance. Unassailable as they may be in logic, it is felt that somehow they fail to fit the facts of life. There are elements in human experience and elements in the divine revelation for which they fail to account. And the general result is one from which the Christian consciousness seems instinct- ively to shrink in horror. It can only be accepted, if it is accepted at all, as a dark enigma, which our present faculties have no power to solve.
What, then, we seem forced to ask, are the foundations on which these conclusions rest? Can it be that the results of the argument are vitiated by any unsuspected flaw in the premisses ?
The premisses are these — (1) God is omnipotent. (2) Because God is omnipotent, the final goal of creation must correspond at all points to His original purpose. (3) The final goal of creation, as far as it affects the human race, involves the division of mankind at the day of judgment into two sharply defined classes, the saved and the lost. (4) The position of any individual man in one or other of these two classes must be traced back in the last resort to the original purpose of God with regard to him.
It seems impossible to take exception to either of the first two of these premisses. It is part of the idea of God, that He must be able to eflect what He purposes. To speak in human language, there may be enormous difiiculties to overcome in the tasks to which He sets Himself. We have therefore no right to assume that at any moment before the end all things are as He would have them to be. But the end must be a perfect embodi- ment of His original design.
Again, if the third of these premisses is sound, the fourth seems to follow from it by an inevitable deduction. Everything, therefore, depends on the validity of the third premiss. Is it, or is it not, a true and complete statement of the end towards which ' the whole creation moves ' ? Now, there can be no doubt that it expresses accurately one side of the scriptural teaching on the subject. It is, however, very far from expressing the whole. On this point, as is well known,* the evidence of Holy Scripture seems divided against itself. It speaks of eternal punishment (Mt 25^). It speaks also of the divine will that all men should be saved ( 1 Ti 2''). It speaks of those who shall be cast into the outer darkness on their Lord's return (Mt 24" etc.). It speaks also of an end, when God shall be all in all (ICo 15^). It seems clear that to our apprehension these two sets of statements must be mutually exclusive, unless we may regard the judgment as being not the end, but only a means towards the end. If we reject tins solution of the difficulty, we must remain content with an unreconciled antinomy But, in any case, it is important to remember whick • Westcott, Biitarie Faith, p. 50 S.
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dde of the antinomy was dominant in St. Paul's mind in the chapters (Ro9-ll) which contain his most explicit teaching on the subject of election.
These chapters are devoted to a consideration of the problems raised by the failure of Israel to accept the offer of salvation made to them in the gospel. The first line of solution is suggested by the thought, to which attention has already been called, of an election within the chosen people (Ro 9* 11'). Such an election has parallels in the history of the patriarchal family ('J'""). It is in acc-orJance with express utterances of prophecy (9"). It is therefore no evidence of a final defeat of the divine plan that Israel, as a whole, should for a time be shut out from salvation, and only the election should attain it. St. Paul, however, ex- pressly and indignantly refuses to accept this as a complete solution (U"). It is very far from the perfect triumph, the vision of wliich has been opened before him. He finds in the salvation of the part a sure pledge of the ultimate deliverance of the whole. ' If the iirst-fruit be holy, tlie lump is holy too' (11"). However much the nation as a whole had incurred the divine wTath by their opposition to the gospel, they were yet dear to God for their fathers' sake (ll''"). The power of their original election was by no means exhausted. The gifts and the calling of God are without repentance (11^). In the end all Israel shall be saved (11"). And lest we should think that in this respect Israel stands on adill'erent footing from the rest of the world, he adds — ' God hath shut up all men unto disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all ' (1 1^-*).