That the factor of human freedom has full scope in the divine economy is too obvious to require proof. It appears in numerous utterances of Paul himself, and in the entire drift of Scripture, where man’s power of moral choice is both asserted, assumed, and appealed to; where the punishment of unbelief and disobedience is clearly shown to be due to man’s own obstinacy and perverseness. Were this not the case, if human destiny were absolutely and un- changeably fixed by an arbitrary decree, the exhortations to carry out our own salvation, to obedience and perseverance in right- doing, the cautions against moral lapse, the plain suggestions of the possibility of forfeiting divine blessings, the use of the divine promises themselves as appeals to repentance and holiness, the recognitions of the possibility of moral transformation, would assert themselves as a stupendous farce, a colossal and cruel satire.
It must suffice for us that these two factors of divine sovereignty
Cu. XL] THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 137
and human freedom are both alike distinctly recognized in Script- ure. Their interplay and mutual adjustment in the divine adminis- tration carry us out of our depth. That matter must be left with God, and faced by man with Faith, not with knowledge. That there is a divine election—the act of God’s holy will in selecting His own methods, instruments, and times for carrying out His own pur- poses—is a fact of history and of daily observation. It appears in the different natural endowments of men; in the distribution of those natural advantages which minister to the strength or weak- ness of nations ; in the inferiority of the Ethiopian to the Caucasian ; in the intellectual superiority of a Kant or a Descartes to a Chinese coolie.
“Tt is true, and no argument can gainsay it, that men are placed in the world unequally favored, both in inward disposition and outward circum- stances. Some children are born with temperaments which make a life of innocence and purity natural and easy to them ; others are born with violent passions, or even with distinct tendencies to evil, inherited from their ances- tors and seemingly unconquerable ; some are constitutionally brave, others are constitutionally cowards ; some are born in religious families and are care- fully educated and watched over ; others draw their first breath in an atmo- sphere of crime, and cease to inhale it only when they pass into their graves, Only a fourth part of mankind are born Christians. The remainder nevet hear the name of Christ except as a reproach.” (Froude, ‘‘Calvinism.”)
Such election must needs be arbitrary ; not as not having good and sufficient reasons behind it, but as impelled by such reasons as are either beyond human apprehension or are withheld from it in God’s good pleasure. All that we can say in our ignorance of these reasons is: God did thus because it pleased Him. Certain it is that, could we penetrate to these reasons, we should come, in every case, at last, upon perfect wisdom and perfect love, working out along hidden lines to such results as will fill heaven with ador-
ing joy and wonder.