being transferred or substituted for another ; and tlie whole being complete and unimpeded in its action. Such is the order of God's working, that if you give a naturalist a single bone, he can con- struct the whole skeleton of which it is a part ; and such is the order of his plan of redemption, that if one of the great truths which it includes be admitted, all the rest must be accepted. This is the first great argument in support of the Pauline or Augustin- ian scheme of doctrine.
Argument from the Facts of Providence.
In the second place, this scheme alone is consistent with the facts of God's providence. Obvious as the truth is, it needs to be constantly repeated, that it is useless to contend against facts. If a thing is, it is vain to ignore it, or to deny its significance. We must conform our theories to facts, and not make the facts conform to our theories. That view of divine truth, therefore, is correct which accords with the facts of God's providence ; and that view of doctrine must be false which conflicts with those facts. An- other principle no less plain, and no less apt to be forgotten, is the one assumed above as admitted by all Christians, namely, that God has a plan and that the events of his providence correspond with that plan. In other words, that whatever happens, God in- tended should happen ; that to Him nothing can be unexpected, and nothing contrary to his purposes. If this be so, then we can learn with certainty what God's plan is, what He intended to do or to permit, from what actually comes to pass. If one portion of the inhabitants of a given country die in infancy, and another por- tion live to mature age ; such w^as, for wise reasons, the purpose of God. If some are prosperous, and others miserable, such also is in accordance with his holy will. If one season is abundant, an- other the reverse, it is so in virtue of his appointment. This is a dictate even of natural religion. As much as this even the heathen believe.
It can hardly be doubted that if these simple principles be granted, the truth of the Augustinian scheme must be admitted. It is a fact that God created man ; it is a fact that the fall of Adam involved our whole race in sin and misery ; it is a fact that of this fallen family, some are saved and others perish ; it is a fact that the salvation of those who actually attain eternal life, is secured by the mediation of Christ, and the work of the Holy Spirit. These are providential facts admitted by all Christians. All that Augustinianism teaches is, that these facts were not unexpected
336 PART m. ch. I — the plan of salvation.
by the divine mind, but that God foreknew they would occur, and intended that they should come to pass. This is all. What actu- ally does happen, God intended should happen. Although his pur- poses or intentions cannot fail. He uses no influence to secure their accomplishment, which is incompatible with the perfect liberty and entire responsibility of rational creatures. As God is infinite in power and wisdom, He can control all events, and therefore the course of events must be in accordance with his will, because He can mould or direct that course at pleasure. It is, therefore, evi- dent, first, that events must be the interpretation of his purposes, i. e., of what He intends shall happen ; and secondly, that no objection can bear against the purpose or decrees of God, which does not bear equally against his providence. If it be right that God should permit an event to happen, it must be right that He should purpose to permit it, i. e., that He should decree its occur- rence. We may suppose the Deistic or Rationalistic view of God's relation to the world to be true ; that God created men, and left them without any providential guidance, or any supernatural influ- ence, to the unrestrained exercise of their own faculties, and to the operation of the laws of nature and of society. If this were so, a certain course of events in regular succession, and in every vari- ety of combination, would as a matter of fact, actually occur. In this case there could be no pretence that God was responsible for the issue. He had created man, endowed him with all the facul- ties, and surrounded him by all the circumstances necessary for his highest welfare. If he chose to abuse his faculties, and neglect his opportunities, it would be his own fault. He could bring no just complaint against his maker. We may fui'ther suppose that God, overlooking and foreseeing how men left to themselves would act, and what would be the issue of a universe conducted on this plan, should determine, for wise reasons, that it should become actual ; that just such a world and just such a»series of events should really occur. Would this be wrong ? Or, would it make any ditterence, if God's purpose as to the futurition of such a world, instead of following the foresight of it, should precede it ? In either case God would purpose precisely the same world, and the same course of events. Augustinianism supposes that God for his own glory, and therefore for the highest and most beneficent of all ends, did purpose such a world and such a series of events as would have occurred on the Deistical hypothesis, with two impor- tant exceptions. First, He interposes to restrain and guide the wickedness of men so as to prevent its producing unmitigated evil,