To the Editor of the Globe:
I will give a reward of fifty dollars to any one who will give the name of a Presbyterian minister, who is a member of a Presbytery, under the jurisdiction of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, of the United States of America, who has, at any time, preached the doctrine of infant damnation; and I will give fifty dollars additional reward, to any one who can point out any article in the Confession of Faith or Catechism of this Church, teaching this horrid doctrine. As infant damnation has been charged upon Presbyterians in an editorial, of recent date, in the Globe, the above reward is offered for the proof. That the elect are incapable of sin, is also stated in the same editorial, to be a doctrine of the Presbyterian Church. This also is untrue.
WE publish the above to show where the pressure comes, and not that we expect any “fifty dollars reward,” for such men as the writer of this, always have a loop-hole through which to escape, but we will see whether the Presbyterian ministry believe “this horrid doctrine.” If they do not believe the Confession of Faith, they are sailing under false colors and their profession is a sham. If they do believe their Confession of Faith, we leave the reader to judge whether they believe “this horrid doctrine.” Let us hear the Confession: “God from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so as thereby neither is God the Author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creature, nor is the liberty of contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.” Con., page 18, God’s Eternal Decree, chap. iii.
The reader will see nothing about infant damnation in that. Very well; let us see what is in it. This is in it—that God did foreordain unchangeably whatever comes to pass. There is more than this in it—he did this “from all eternity.” Now let us hear the Confession tell what one of these decrees is: “By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death.” Con. page 18. When was this done? “From all eternity.” What was it done for? “For the manifestation of his glory.” What was done? “Some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others foreordained unto everlasting death.” That makes a plain case of it.
Let us hear the Confession again: “These angels and men thus predestinated and foreordained are particularly and unchangeably designed, and their number is so certain and definite that it can not be either increased or diminished.” Con. page 19. This decree of predestination and foreordination is particularly and unchangeably designed, and the number thus particularly and unchangeably designed can not be increased or diminished. But it will be said that this is not said of infants, but of “angels and men.” So it is. But when was this decreed? “From all eternity.” These men “foreordained to everlasting death” were thus “particularly and definitely designed” “from all eternity.” We may not be able to explain precisely the meaning of the words “from all eternity,” but they evidently mean before they were created. Before they were born, then, some men were foreordained to everlasting death. When they were born they were infants; yes, infants “particularly and unchangeably designed” to everlasting death. Those of these infants foreordained, “particularly and unchangeably designed to everlasting death,” who die in infancy are lost. Here, then, in the Confession of Faith, which Presbyterian ministers profess to believe, is the doctrine of infant damnation—yes, “the horrid doctrine,” whether they believe it or not.
But then infant damnation is no worse than the damnation of adults who are foreordained to everlasting death, particularly and unchangeably designed to everlasting death, the number so definite that it can be neither increased nor diminished.
Let us hear the Confession again: “Those of mankind that are predestinated unto life, God, before the foundation of the world was laid, according to his eternal and immutable purpose and the secret counsel and good pleasure of his will, hath chosen in Christ, unto everlasting glory, out of his mere free grace and love, without any foresight of faith or good works, or perseverance in either of them, or any other thing in the creature as conditions or causes moving him thereto; and all to the praise of his glorious grace.” Con., page 21.
In view of this, where is the difference whether infants or adults? The decree of God—his design—settled the matter before they were born, and made it so definite, that the number can neither be increased nor diminished, and that, too, without any foresight of faith or good works in the creature. The immutable decree and design of God has settled the matter, and that, too, before time began. The elect can never be lost, and the non-elect can never be saved, no matter whether infants or adults. To unchangeably foreordain an infant to everlasting death, is no worse than to foreordain a man to everlasting death—design him to it before he was created. But we must, since the account is opened, administer yet another item or two on this matter. “Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion,” is a standard work among Presbyterians, and used as a text-book in their theological schools. Let us hear from this work, Vol. I. page 166: “Hence appears the perverseness of their disposition to murmur, because they intentionally suppress the cause of condemnation, while they are constrained to acknowledge it themselves, hoping to excuse themselves by charging it upon God. But, though I ever so often admit God to be the Author of it, which is perfectly correct, yet this does not abolish the guilt impressed upon their consciences.”
Calvin here says, to confess that God is the Author of sin, which is the cause of condemnation, “is perfectly correct.” Let us hear him again: “I confess, indeed, that all the descendants of Adam fell, by the Divine will, into that miserable condition in which they are now involved; and this is what I asserted from the beginning, that we must always return at last to the sovereign determination of God’s will, the cause of which is hidden in himself,” Inst., page 166. Here Calvin says, “Adam fell by the Divine will.” Let us hear him once more: “If God simply foresaw the fates of men, and did not also dispose and fix them, by his determination, there would be room to agitate the question, whether his providence or foresight rendered them at all necessary. But since he foresaw future events only in consequence of his decree that they should happen, it is useless to contend about foreknowledge, while it is evident that all things come to pass rather by ordination and decree.” Inst., page 171.
Here it is argued that God foreknows “only in consequence of his decree.” But we must hear this great master in the Presbyterian Israel again: “I inquire again how it came to pass that the fall of Adam, independent of any remedy, should involve so many nations, with their infant children, in eternal death, but because such was the will of God?” Inst., page 170. Is there any infant damnation in this? But he says, “independent of any remedy.” He does so say, but for the non-elect there is no remedy. They and their infant children are involved in eternal death, and that “because such was the will of God.” In these passages we have it clearly taught that God is the Author of sin; that not only Adam, but many nations, with their infant children, are involved in eternal death, and that, too, according to the will of God, because he willed, designed—decreed it.
See one more item from the Confession, chap. v. sec. 4: “The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom and infinite wisdom and goodness of God, so far manifest themselves in his providence that it extendeth itself to the first fall, and all other sins of angels and men, and that not by a bare permission, but such as hath joined with it a most wise and powerful bounding, and otherwise ordering and governing of them, in a manifest dispensation to his own holy ends.” It is seen from this that the Confession teaches that even the providence of God extends not only to the first fall, but to all other sins of angels of men, and that not by a bare permission, but such as has joined with it a most wise and powerful bounding, and otherwise ordering and governing of them, in a manifest dispensation to his own holy ends.
Let us hear the Larger Catechism, page 195: “They who have never heard the gospel, know not Jesus Christ, and believe not in him, can not be saved, be they never so diligent to frame their lives according to the light of nature or the laws of that religion which they possess; neither is there salvation in any other, but in Christ alone, who is the Savior only of his body, the church.” What becomes of all those who die without remedy, with their infant children? If Presbyterian ministers do not believe this horrible doctrine of infant damnation, it is because they do not believe their own Confession of Faith, and standard works. We can supply them with plenty more of the same sort, if there is any demand for it.