PuiiSBYTKKIAN ChURCII IN THE UnITKI) StaTKS.
II. Rdation to Orir/inal Calviiiism. — The metaphysi- cal and ethical principles accepted by the New-school representatives of modern New England theology, and fundameinal to their system of doctrine, are the follow- ing: (1.) There is a radical distinction between necessi- ty and certainty. ('>.) All sin is of an active and vol- untary nature; the same is true of all holiness. (3.) Although in every exercise the human will possesses the natural power of contrary choice, still, as a matter of fact, it is invariably determined by motives. In oth- er words, although the will always am choose the least apparent good, it always rrill choose the greatest appar- ent good. (4.) Nattiral ability must in all cases eipial obligation. (.5.) Moral character or deserts are in no case transferable. In logically adhering to these prin- ciples and such as these in all their theological applica- tions, the Edwardean divines have deviated from the old Calvinistic system in the following important theo- logical, anthropological, and soteriological points:
1. J'redeslination.—Thcv do not teach that God de-
crees the volitions of moral agents in such a sense as to make those volitions necessary, but only that he has ue- termined so to make and place men that they will act just as the}' do. In this manner God's decrees secure the certainty of men's choices, but do not secure their necessity. He predetermines all that lies back of the volition — the sensibilities of the agent and whatever may act on these — which predetermination enables him to foresee the result. At the same time, the agent is able in any case to choose otherwise than he actually does; and ought to make a holy choice even where God foresees that the choice will be sinful, and actually de- crees to do that which will in fact result in the sinful choice or to omit that which would prevent it.
2. Orif/inal Sin. — Denying that there can be any ill desert prior to personal transgression, they repudiate the old Calvinistic doctrine respecting the imputation of Adam's guilt to his posterity, both in its mediate and immediate forms, with their realistic and diathetic jus- tifications or theodicies. In its place they maintain that, in consequence of Adam's transgression, all men are so made and placed that they will uniformly, certainlv, but freely, choose wrong rather than right. This constitu- tion is not sin, but merely the sure occasion of it.
3. The Atonement. — (I.) As to its nature, they teach that the sufferings of Christ were a satisfaction, not to the distributive, but only to the general, justice of Go<l. He suffered not the exact penalty of the law, but pains substituted for that penalty and answering its purpose in the securement of the ends of the moral goverinnent. (2.) As to the rjroimd of its necessity. The necessity for an atonement was governmental, not arbitrary or onto- logical. (3.) Fruits: {a) simply release from the curse of the law, and thus mediately the blessings to the re- ception of which that curse was a bar (Emmons), or (6), all blessings whatsoever (Griffin and the main body). (4.) Extent. The atonement was not designed for the elect alone, but was made for all men as truly as for any.
4. Justification does not consist in any real or hypo- thetical transfer of the righteousness of Christ to the believer, but in pardoning his sins for Christ's sake and treating him as if innocent (Emmons), as if holv (main body).
fi. Rerieneration. — Objecting to old Calvinistic descrip- tions of this work, the New England theologians define it («) as a divine communication of a new spiritual taste or relish (elder Edwards, Dwight, etc.) ; or (b), as a spir- itual illumination (Bellamy); or (c), as a (human) change of governing purpose under the influences of the Holy Spirit (Taylor, Finney, etc.); or (rf), as a gradual con- version by the moral suasion of the Holy Spirit (pecul- iar to Gilbert and his sympathizers) ; or (e), as that radical change of the soul which is produced by the in- terposition of the Holy Spirit, and which consists in a change in the balance of the sensibilities and a change of preference from wrong to right (Prof. Park); or (_/'), as a restoration of that life-communion with which (iod was lost by sin (Bushnell). Professor Park would ap- ply the term regeneration to the work instantaneously wrought by the Holy Spirit on the nature of the soul, and the term conversion to the first holy act of the soul itself, the work of God preceding the free act of the soul in the order of nature, though not of lime. By some the soul in this change is called wholly active (Emmons, Spring, Pond); by others, wholly passive (Smallev, Burton); bv others, both active and passive (Park).'
6. Perseverance. — The elect can fall away after regen- eration, even totally and finally, but never will. This is maintained by most on purely Biblical, as distinguish- ed from psychological, grounds.
Other points might be adduced on which original Calvinism and the new tenets are far from accordant ; but these are the most fundamental, and the differences above indicated will be foimd a key to the whole sys- tem. Perhaps nothing better illustrates the spirit of