(4) that those gracious influences of the Holy Spirit which are adapted and sufficient to lead a sinner to true repentance and salvation are restricted to a portion of the race, namely, to the unconditionally elect; and
(1.) Certainty as distinguished from necessity. This was a favorite Arminian distinction (see Arminius, 1, 280, 281; 3, 402, 411, 416, 423, 425; Epistolae Theologicae, epist. 19:72 [Arminius]; Curcellaets, p. 774, etc.).
(2.) Active and voluntary nature of sin and holiness, universally maintained by the Arminian divines (see, for instance, Episcopius, 2, 92 b; Curcellseus, p. 136, 137, 902, 904; Limborch, II, 23:15; III, 4:8; V, 3, 2).
(3.) Self-determination in view of motives. According to New school New England theology, the will invariably chooses the greatest apparent good. This may be deemed incompatible with Arminian principles. Properly explained, however, it does not seem to be so. The theory is not that the will invariably chooses the greatest real good proffered for choice, nor even the greatest apparent good as estimated by the cool exercise of judgment, but simply that it chooses that good which appears to the subject, organized, circumstanced, and disposed as he is, as most desirable. It is only saying, in other words, that a man invariably chooses just as under the circumstances at that moment the state of his mind prompts him to choose. But,
(a), the Arminian authorities never denied this position. They denied that the mere absence of co-action constituted liberty (Episcopius, 1, 356,357 a); but New England divines do the same. They denied that mere spontaneity is liberty in its full sense (ibid. p. 198 b; Curcellaeus, p. 158,159); but the New England divines do the same. They denied, as did Leibnitz, that the decision of the will is invariably determined “ab ultimo judicio rationis practico” (Episcopius, 1, 209 b sq.; Curcellaeus, p. 985; Limborch, p. 131, etc.); but in the form propounded to them, the divines of New England would ill like manner repudiate it. They denied that the will is necessarily determined by motives; but this doctrine is rejected with equal explicitness by champions of Newschool New England theology.
(b.) The will in all rational choices invariably acts in view of a good (Episcopius, 1, 202 b, et al.).
(c.) The will is able to choose the least apparent good. This follows from the Arminian doctrine of power to the contrary. It is also illustrated in choices between objects of equal apparent desirableness. “Si paria offerat, quorum alterum talltumn eligendum est, libertas plenaria locum habebit” (ibid. p. 207).
(d.) In all deliberate choices men ordinarie follow the decision of the judgment; when not, it is because “alia quaedam causa impediat” (ibid. De Libero Arbitrio, VIII, 9).
(e.) They will never choose evil as evil, or “sub ratione mall” (ibid. 1, 215 b, 318 sq.).
(f.) Though the will does not invariably choose the greatest good according to the decision of the judgment, it does in all rational choices invariably choose thatgood which seems the most desirable to the whole man. This doctrine seems to be clearly implied in cap. 10 of Episcopius, Examen Sententiea Cameronis. The apparent contradiction found in cap. 8 of his Responsio ad Defensionem Cameronis is easily solved by observing that according to the doctrine of Episcopius, as according to that of the New England divines, the will does not invariably follow the dictate of reason, nor invariably follow the dictate of the natura appetitiva, both which maintenances are perfectly consistent with the doctrine in question — to wit, that the will invariably chooses the good which to the whole man under the inward, and outward conditions seems the most desirable. On this point, then, so far is the doctrine of the Newschool divines of New England from being incompatible with Arminian teachings that, on the contrary, that doctrine finds in Remonstraint literature some of its earliest and most carefully guarded enunciations.
(4.) Obligation cannot transcend ability-an axiom with the Arminians (see Arminius, Declaratio, passim; Curcellaeus, p. 96 b; also VII, 2, passim; Limborch, III, 4:7, etc.). Here we may remark that the distinction between natural and moral ability is much older than its emergence in New England theology, being clearly laid down in several of the elder Arminian divines (see Episcopius, 2, 94 a; Curcellaeus, p. 156, 421).
(5.) Intransferableness of moral character and deserts, strongly asserted by Episcopius, 2, 151 b; by Curcellaeus, p. 131-137, 424, 470, 896-902; by Limborch, V, 77, 18; III, 3, 11, etc.
3. In positive theological, anthropological, and soteriological teachings the two systems are in marked accord.
(1.) The Decrees of God. —The New-school divines of New England hold to a universal foreordination, absolute as respects all divine acts, effectual as regards all consequences of those acts. One of the consequences of those acts is the establishment and maintenance of human freedom. What said Arminian theology?
(a.) All divine acts are absolutely decreed--” Deus nihil facit, nisi prius apud se id decreverit facere” (Curcellaeus, p. 82).
(b.) God foreordains (positively or permissively). whatsoever cometh to pass” Nihil absque ipsius permissu ant directione evenit” (ibid. p. 87).
(c.) God decrees to do things which he knows will occasion sinful choices on the part of men, and to abstain from acts which, if wrought, he knows would prevent sinful choices. This also is clearly involved in what is laid down by Arminius (3, 418-429), Episcopius, Curcellaeus, and Limborch on Permissio, Exccecaiio, and Induratio.
(d.) God decrees to do that which he knows will occasion sin, for a specific end, and that end is the best possible (Arminius, 3, 419).
(e.) A decree to do that which will as a matter of fact occasion sin does not in any wise necessitate that sin (Curcellieus, p. 382, 1021).
(2.) The Constitution of Men not Sin, but the Invariable Occasion of Sin. —No New England divine has produced all abler exposition and defense of this view than are found in Curcellaeus, Dissertatio de Peccato Originis, and in Limborchb III, 4.
(3.) The Atonement. —The identity of the Edwardean theory of the atonement with the Dutch Arminian, as respects the nature of the atonement, ground of its necessity, and its extent is articulately proven in art. 3 of the Meth. Quar. Rev. July, 1860.
(4.) Justification. —Arminius's definition of justification could be subscribed to by the whole body of New England divines with perhaps the exception of Emmons. “Justification is a just and gracious act of God as a judge, by which, from the throne of his grace and mercy, lie absolves from his sins man, a sinner, but who is a believer, on account of Christ and the obedience and righteousness of Christ; and considers him righteous [justum], to the salvation of the justified person, and to the glory of divine righteousness and grace” (2, 116).
(5.) Regeneration. —By the elder Arminius, Calvinistic, and Lutheran divines this operation of the Spirit is not sharply and definitely distinguished from sanctification, but in the definitions of the representative New England divines there is nothing to which Arminius or his disciples would have objected.
(6.) Perseverance. —
(a.) The regenerate can fall away. This is universally maintained by the Arminians.
(b.) The regenerate in point of fact never do fall away. Arminius did not decide. He says, “At no period have I asserted that believers do finally decline or fall away from faith and salvation” (2, 281). Like New England Calvinists, he asserted the possibility, but not thefact, of a total and final defection of the elect.
From the foregoing it is evident that the evangelical New England reaction against Calvinism, while remarkably indigenous and original, resembles in a most striking manner the earlier Arminian reaction. The Remonstrants repudiated no part of standard Calvinism which these New England theologians do not repudiate; they revolted from traditional tenets from the same honorable motives; they anticipated by two centuries nearly every favorite idea of their New England successors, and would perhaps have anticipated every one explicitly, had it not been for the backwardness of the psychological and ethical sciences. Nevertheless, there ever remains this radical difference, that according to New England theology, as according to original Calvinism, the real reason why one man is saved and another is not, is always in the last analysis to be found in the different foreordinations of God respecting the two, and this difference of foreordinations is referable solely to the sovereign good-pleasure of God.
IV. Variations and Side-issues. —Several noteworthy views and speculations, to which their respective authors owed no small share of their reputation, are either not adopted: or positively repudiated by the great mass of recent New England Calvinists. For example:
1. The Edwardean notion of human liberty. President Edwards is generally understood to have accepted the definition of Locke and of the sensational school, making the liberty of the human will “the power, opportunity, or advantage that any one has to do as he pleases ;” in other words, one's ability freely to execute volitions philosophically or coactively necessitated. The inadequacy of this definition is now universally admitted. SEE EDWARDS.
2. Hopkins's doctrine of disinterested benevolence. This was at one time the most vital and essential element in the New Divinity. With Hopkins it was the corner-stone of systematic theology. SEE HOPKINS.
3. Emmons's hypothesis of God's efficient causality of ever moral act of man. Emmons held that God was the efficient originator of every volition of the human mind, good or evil, holy or sinful. He has had but few adherents, and doubts are expressed as to whether he has been correctly understood by many on this point (Park, Memoir, p. 385 sq.). SEE EMMONS.
4. Nathaniel W. Taylor's view of the non-preventability of sin, his doctrine of the basis of virtue, and his metaphysical explanation of the Sacred Trinity. SEE TAYLOR.
5. The perfectionism of Prof. Finney. SEE CHRISTIAN PERFECTION; SEE OBERLIN THEOLOGY.
6. Dr. Edward Beecher's doctrine that all the descendants of Adam have enjoyed an equitable probation in a previous state of being, and that they are born under the curse of original sin on account of having sinned in that pre-existent state. See his Conflict of Ages and Concord of Ages. SEE PRE-EXISTENCE.
7. Dr. Horace Bushnell's view of Christ and of the Sacred Trinity, of revelation, sin, and the atonement. See literature below.
V. Literature. —
1. In General. —A Memoirs and Works of the Edwardses, Bellamy, Hopkins, Stephen and Samuel West, Samuel Spring, John Smalley, Emmons, Dwight, Leonard Woods, N. W. Taylor, Benlnet Tyler; Lynman Beecher, Horace Bushnell, and others above mentioned; Park, Essay on the Development of the Edwardean Theory of the Atonement (prefixed to his collection of Discourses and Treatises on the Atonement by Edwards, Smalley, Maxcy, Emmons, Griffin, Burge, and Weeks); Woods, Old and New Theology (from an Old-school Presbyterian standpoint); Hodgson [Meth.], New Divinity Examined; Fisk [Meth.], The Calvinistic Controversy; Ellis [Unit.], Fifty Years of the Unitarian Controversy; Fiske [Cong.], New Eng. Theol. in Bill. Sac. 22:477, 568;. Lawrence, in Amer. Theol. Rev. May, 1860; Bibl. Sac. and Princeton Bibl. Repertory, 1851- 52, and passim; The Church Review, 2, 89; 5, 349; Smith, Church History in Tables, p. 78; Ueberweg, Hist. of Philippians (Amer. ed.), 2, 443-460; Sherman, New England Divines; Sprague, Annals.
2. The Pre-Edwardean Period. —See Sprague, Annals, vol. 1; SEE COTTON, JOHN; SEE DAVENPORT, JOHN; SEE MATHER, COTTON, SEE INCREASE, and SEE RICHARD; SEE STODDARD, SOLOMON; SEE WIGGLESWSORTH, EDWARD.
3. Jonathan Edwards and his Theology. —Reviews of his work on the Will by Dr. James Dana (1770), J. Day (1841), A. T. Bledsoe (1845), D. D. Whedon (1859); Oliver Wendell Holmes's art. in the International Rev. July, 1880. The Bibliotheca Sacra will give some of Edwards's yet unpublished manuscripts in 1881. One on Trinity and Redemption, ed. by Smyth, N. Y. 1880. SEE EDWARDS.
4. Hopkins and Hopkinsianism. —Memoir and Works, 3 vols.; Bibl. Sac. 9:174 sq.; 10:63 sq.; 19:633; Ely, Calvinism and Hopkinssianism. SEE HOPKINS, SAMUEL.
5. Emmons and Emmonsism. —Memoir and Works, 6. vols.; abstract of his theology in Bibl. Sac. 7:254 sq., 479 sq.; see also 9:170 sq., and 22:467 sq.; Smith, Faith and Philosophy, p. 215-263.
6. Taylor and Taylorism. —Memoir and Works, 4 vols.; Bibl. Sac. 17:355 sq., 452 sq.; Lord, in the Evang. Mag. 1832-36; Tyler, Letter to Dr. Hawes; essays in Christian Spectator and Spirit of Missimos, passim; Pigeon, New Haven Theology, in Lit. and Theol. Review, 5, 149 sq.; 6:121, 280, 557; Fisher, Discussions in History and Theology (1880), p. 285 sq.; Thasher, Taylorism Examined (1834,12mo); Meth. Quar. Rev. Oct. 1860, 1862; New-Englander, 1859, 1860.
7. Bushnell and Bushnellism. —Life and Letters; Works, especially God in Christ; Forgiveness and Law : —Vicarious Sacrifice; Turnbull, Review of Bushnell's Theories; Hovey, God with Us, an Exam. of Bushnell's Vic. Sac.; Bartol, Principles and Portraits, p. 366 sq.; The New-Englander, 2, 309,440; 5, 6; Meth. Quar. Rev. 1866.
8. New Divinity in the Presbyterian Church. —Memoirs and writings of Rev. Albert Barnes; Beman, On the Atonement; Duffield, Regeneration; Whelpley, Triangle; E. S. Ely, E. D. Griffin, etc.; Hodge, Essays and Reviews; Bibl. Sac. 20:561. SEE PRESBYTRIAN CHURCH, NEW- SCHOOL.
9. The “Old School” in New England Theology. Tyler, Memoir and Lectures; Woods, Works (6 vols.); Burton, Essays; Fisher, Discussions in History and Theology, p. 227 sq.; Bibl. Sac. 20:311 sq.; 30:371 sq.; Parsons Cooke, New England Puritan; Recorder, etc. (W. F. W.)