Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/doomofmajorityofOObarrrich THE DOOM OF THE MAJORITY oh MANKIND. BY SAMUEL J. BARROWS. BOSTON: AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION. 1891. ^3f Copyright, 188S, By American Unitarian Association. University Press: John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. / PREFACE, The great discussions in theology, both in England and America, during the last few years, have turned mainly upon two points. The first of these is the relation of humanity to the Future Life. In England the discussion on this subject was powerfully stim- ulated by Canon Farrar's book, " Eternal Hope." In America the debate, rekindled by this book, received a new direction and an independent impulse from the so-called Andover Controversy ; one result of which was that an Orthodox clergyman, called to a profes- sorship by the Trustees of that institution, was denied confirmation by the Board of Visitors, because of his charitable speculations on this subject. Candidates for ordination were afterwards excluded from Orthodox pulpits for the same reason. A conspicuous feature in this discussion has related to the destiny of those — involving the great majority of the race — who have no opportunity in this life to accept or even to become acquainted with the Orthodox theory of salvation. With this question before it, the American Board, at its last annual missionary meeting at Portland, refused to concede that the heathen might have a probation after death, and reafiirmed the motive for missionary work to be the necessity of saving them from an end- less hell. IV PREFACE. The second great subject of theological discussion has been the scientific criticism of the Bible. The influence of Dutch and German criticism has pene- trated to the very centre of Calvinistic strongholds. These two theological questions are much more closely related than they seem to be at first. The Orthodox estimate of the Bible as an infallible book has had much to do in determining what view shall be taken of the future destiny of the race. It was a deep conviction of the close relationship of these two questions which led Rev. George E. Ellis, D.D., of Boston, to affirm in a public address, that before Orthodoxy could revise its creeds, it must revise its estimate of the Bible. In the prolonged discussion which this paper awakened, an incidental statement of Dr. Ellis, that certain Scripture texts " are alleged as certifying that the vast majority of the human race are to be victims of endless woe," was challenged by an Orthodox clergyman, Rev. J. L. Withrow, D.D., of Park Street Church, Boston, who characterized it as an absolute and abominable misrepresentation of Or- thodoxy. As editor of the " Christian Register," the writer replied at length in the columns of that paper, aiming to fix upon Orthodoxy the responsibility of teaching this doctrine of the doom of the majority of mankind. This debate, and the questions that grew out of it, have furnished the material for this book. In the first three chapters the evidence presented in the original article has been largely augmented, especially with reference to modern authorities. In the fourth chap- ter important admissions and criticisms of Evangelical writers are presented concerning the moral difficulties PREFACE. V of this doctrine. Attempted mitigations, and features which are still unrelieved by these palliations, are considered in succeeding chapters ; while in a final chapter attention is invited to what seems to us a more promising and, indeed, the only adequate solution. Two things have become evident in this discussion. First, that Orthodoxy is not wholly ready to revise its belief ; and secondly, that its beliefs are constantly suffering revision without its consent. The tenacity, painfully apparent, with which Orthodox bodies hold to ancient standards and traditional interpretations of Scripture, has not prevented the action of other solvents. The old creeds cannot be exposed to the atmosphere of to-day without disintegration. The progress of science, philosophy, and ethics has ren- dered progress in theology imperative. It has also become evident to an increasing minority of Christians that Orthodoxy must revise its teachings. But no revis- ion will satisfy the demands of an enlightened liberal thought and sentiment, which does not reconsider and restate the relations of God to human destiny, and reafl&rm, with clarion voice, the great truth that " in every nation he that feareth God and worketh right- eousness is accepted with him," and that "as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are the sons of God." No apology is needed for any warmth and earnest- ness in dealing with a dogma so distressing to the feelings, so alien to the moral sense, as the Doom of the Majority of Mankind ; but earnestness and warmth are not inconsistent, we trust, with kindly feeling and fairness of statement. In exposing the VI PREFACE. errors of Orthodoxy, we are not ungrateful for its truths. No better proof of the timeliness of this volume can be given than that Orthodoxy is earnestly seeking for a solution of the problems of which it treats. That solution may not be reached in the present discussion, but its attainment is only postponed. Fundamental questions in ethics or religion are not decided finally until they are decided rightly. They may be evaded or deferred ; but they will reappear, and knock at the door of the reason and the conscience till by their importunity they command a hearing. The disposi- tion of Evangelical Christians to grapple anew with these old questions is a grateful sign. There is a liberal spirit working through all the sects to-day. No sect has any monopoly of it, and none can escape its influence. It is not merely pull- ing down, but it is building " with a sure and ample base," upon broader and deeper foundations. We hail with joy every conquest that it makes. Let the liberal elements in every branch of the Christian Church join hands for the consummation of this con- structive work. What are differences in polity, ritual, and denominational traditions, compared with the work of purifying Christianity from its corruptions, developing its best ideals, and making it truly repre- sentative of universal religion ? Boston, May, 1883. CONTENTS. PAGS Pbepacb iii I. The Damnation of the Majority taught BY Evangelical Christians as a Scrip- ture Doctrine 5 II. The Damnation of the Majority taught BY Evangelical Creeds 25 III. This Doctrine still taught by Evangel- ical Denominations 49 IV. Admissions and Criticisms 67 V. Attempted Mitigations 95 VI. Unmitigated Features 113 VII. The Solution 130 OM OF THE MAJORITY OF MANKIND. " Dark and Awful : " such are the words with which an eminent professor in an Evangelical Theological Semi- nary (Rev. W. G. T. Shedd, D.D., of Union Theological Seminaiy, New York) describes the doctrine that he teaches to his pupils, and proclaims from~ the pulpit as the great motive for missionary effort. What is this "dark and awful" doctrine? It is that ''millions upon millions " ^ of a " miserable and infatuated race," involv- ing the vast majority of mankind, are doomed to ever- lasting woe. Were this merely the personal opinion of the man who teaches it, we should hardly think it necessary to consider it, notwithstanding the respect we entertain for this emi- nent writer and scholar. If it were the opinion of a few individuals only, or if it were a doctrine antiquated and obsolete, we should not arraign it in this paper. But it is a view which has been and is still extensively held within the limits of what is known as Evangelical Christianity. It is a doctrine upon which a whole system of theology has been built, and upon which it still rests. 1 The GuUt of the Pagan, New York, 1864, p. 23. 4 THE DOOM OF THE Three hundred years ago John Calvin, in describing his doctrine, used words similar to those of Dr. Sbedd; "It is a dreadful decree, I confess." Decretum quidem horrible, fateor. And yet this dreadful decree has been, and still is, proclaimed as a part of the glad tidings which Jesus Christ brought into the world ! At the present day there are many who, while admitting the premises upon which the doctrine is founded, shrink from the conclusions to which it inevitably leads. They would gladly relieve Orthodoxy from the charge of having believed and taught that "the vast majority of the human race are to be the victims of endless woe." They cannot feel more deeply than we do the reproach of such a doc- trine. We welcome any argument or any confession which shall remove this stigma from the name of Christi- anity. But such argument or confession must be true to the facts. Orthodoxy cannot be relieved from its respon- sibility for this doctrine by the plea that it has never authoritatively taught it. Rev. J. L. Withrow, D.D., pastor of Park Street Church, Boston, is amazed that men should so "absolutely and abominably misrepresent the Evangelical belief concerning the number of the saved and lost." ^ When a prominent Orthodox minister feels called upon to deny that he per- sonally believes that the vast majority of the human race are to be victims of endless woe, we are conscious of in- creased respect for his opinions and his courage in declaring them; but when it is flatly denied that it is a doctrine of the system of Orthodoxy which he represents, the negation demands consideration. In the following pages we respectfully present some competent evidence upon the subject, — not so much that we may fix the shame and disgrace of the doctrine upon Evangelical Christians, as that we may have some ground for urging them to remove it. The best argument we can 1 Christian Register, December 14, 1882; and January 4, 1883. MAJORITY OF MANKIND. present against this dismal doctrine is to let those who hold it state it for themselves. The evidence we offer covers the following points : — I. Evangelical Christians have taught this as a Scrip- ture doctrine. II. It is taught by Evangelical Creeds. III. It is still taught by Evangelical Denominations. We purpose to take these points in the order in which they are given, and consider them in detail. I. The Damnation op the Majority of Mankind has been taught by evangelical christians as a Doctrine of the Scriptures. When it is asked, "Do the Scriptures teach this doc- trine ? " we answer, With any fair, reasonable, scholarly interpretation, they do not. But we do assert, without fear of successful contradiction, that Orthodoxy has in^ fused its interpretation into the /Scriptures, and has constantly appealed to them in support of this doctrine. The texts which are adduced in its support are very numerous, and the men who have presented them have been as numerous as the texts. They have not been con- fined to any one age. In his book, " Mercy and Judg- ment," which followed the storm created by " Eternal Hope," Canon Farrar has gone into this general question in much detail. As a result of his examination he says ; *^ I assert and shall prove that the Christian writings of every age abound in assertions that the few only will be savedr Canon Farrar proves his assertion by referring to the opinions of the Church Fathers. Rev. F. N. Oxen- ham, in his book, " What is the Truth as to Everlasting Punishment ? " also in reply to Dr. Pusey, has effectually appealed to the same sources. Some of these quotations 6 THE DOOM OF THE show from what a small tincture of Scripture, diluted with a great deal of individual speculation, the doctrine was compounded. They are sufficient to confirm Mr. Oxenham in his conclusion that "the dominant teaching of all sorts of theologians since the Reformation, both Catholic and Protestant (with no doubt a remarkable exception here and there), until the last few years, has declared unhesitatingly this doctrine as a certain and terrible truth revealed to us by God." (p. 31.) ^ ST. CHRYSOSTOM. St. Chrysostom, in his Twenty-fourth Homily on the Acts, preaching at Antioch, said : — *' How many, think you, are there in our city who will be saved ? It is a terrible truth which I am about to utter, but yet I will utter it. Among so many thousands, a hundred can- not be found who will be saved, and even about them I doubt.'* {0pp. ed. Montfaucon, ix. 198 [214], b.) ST. AUGUSTINE. **Not all, nor even a majority, are saved" (^Enchiridion, cap. 24, al. 97. 0pp. vi. 231 [395], ed. Bened.) "They [the saved] are indeed many, if regarded by them- selves, hut they are few in comparison ivith the far larger number of those who shall be punished with the devil." (Contra Cresco- nium,, lib. iv. cap. 63, al. 53. 0pp. ix. 514 [785], ed. Bened.) GREGORY THE GREAT. " Many come to (the knowledge of) the faith, but few are led on to enter the heavenly kingdom.^^ (In Evang. Horn. xix. c. 5. 0pp. i. 1513, ed. Bened.) ST. THOMAS AQUINAS. St. Thomas Aquinas, commenting on 2 Pet, i. 10, says: — "For now it is a secret who are elect and who are repro- bates, since both are now together ; and many, who now are i/ MAJORITY OF MANKIND. 7 living well, are nevertheless reprobates, and many, who now are evil-livers, are nevertheless elect. But in the Day of Judg- ment, when God will winnow and purge his floor, it will then be evident who are elect and who are reprobates ; and that the ^, elect are few and the reprobates many, since much shall be found f of chaff and little of wheat." (See Oxenham, p. 150.) CORNELIUS X LAPIDE. Writing on the "greatt multitude which no man could number" (Rev. vii. 9), Cornelius a Lapide, the eminent commentator, says : — '* From what has been said, we may estimate that in the end of the world the total number of all the saints and elect, who have ever lived anywhere in any age, will make up some hundred millions. The number of the reprobate will, however, be far greater, which will come to not only hundreds but even thou- sands of millions. For often out of a thousand men, — nay, even out of ten thousand, — scarcely one is saved." Cornelius says elsewhere that " a crowd of men sink daily to Tartarus as thick as the falling snowflakes." (Num. xiv. 30.) GIULIO CESARE RECUPITO. Recupito was the author of a curious book, " De Num- ero Praedestinatorum et Reproborum," Paris, 1664. We have never had access to it ; but Canon Farrar found a copy in the Archbishops' Library at Lambeth, and thus describes it : — ** In the first chapter he argues that the number of the elect is fixed and definite. In the second he quotes the view of those who held that the number of the lost did not exceed that of the saved. He does not stop to argue the question generally. He at once assumes, as an axiom, that for six thousand years none but Jews could have been saved, and that now none could be possibly saved outside the pale of the Church ; so that countless millions of Mohammedans, Gentiles, and heretics are calmly disposed of with the oracular remark that ' their damnation is certain.* ( 8 THE DOOM OF THE " He next adduces the opinion of the Fathers, and quotes in his favor St. Chrysostom, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and St. Gregory. Then he tells us from the Abbot Nilus, a revelation to St. Simeon Stylites that scarcely one soul was saved out of ten thousand, and the vision of a bishop, referred to by Trithemius in his ' Chronicon,' about a.d. 1160, in which a hermit appeared to him, and said that at the hour of his death three thousand others had died, and that the only one saved among them was St. Bernard of Clairvaux, and three who went to purgatory. He further adduces another vision of a preacher who says that sixty thousand stood with him before God's bar, and all except three were condemned to hell ; and yet another of a Parisian master who appeared to his bishop, announcing that he had been damned, and added that ' so many souls were daily thrust down to hell that he could scarcely believe there were so many men in the world.' Indeed, he asked if the world still existed. For he had seen so many tumbling into the abyss that he thought that none could remain alive." Dr. Lewis Du-Moulin was Professor of History at Oxford. We have before us his little work, found in Harvard College Library, and bearing the following title : — *' Moral Reflections upon the Number of the Elect, Proving plainly from Scripture Evidence, etc., That not One in a Hun- dred Thousand (nay probably not One in a Million), from Adam down to our Times, shall be Saved. By Dr. Lewis Du-Moulin, Late Histoiy Professor of Oxford. London : Printed for Richard Janetvay, in Queens-Head Alley, in Pater-Noster-Row, MDCLXXX." The doctrine of this book may be inferred from the title ; but we quote some interesting passages : — *' Some, who are but few in Number, as C(Elius Secundus Curio, de amplitudine regni gratiw, have indeavoured to prove, That the Number of the Saved Ones, is much more great, than that of the Damned. .Others make almost an equal division of them, as Zuinglius: feut the most believe, that the Number MAJORITY OF MANKIND. 9 Xof the Damned is incomparably greater, than those that are/ / Saved ; and that there is not above one Saved of a hundred*^ Thousand, or rather of a Million, from Adam, even to the Day of Judgment." \^. 1.) " Jesus Christ sayes, that his Flock is small ; that there are but few persons that enter into the Kingdom of Heaven ; that when he shall come again upon the Earth, he shall not find faith in it ; that all the World shall run after the Beast: That the Number of the Elect is very little in Comparison of those that are Called, and Consequently, that the Number of the Called is infinitely less, than that of those who are not Called, and that know not what the Christian Religion is. For if you suppose that before Jesus Christ there was but one Called among a Hundred Thousand, if not indeed a Million of Men, and that among a Hundred Called, it was but a peradventure that one was Chosen ; the Number of the Elect before the Advent of Jesus Christ will amount to very little ; for it is easy to shew by History, that, I will not say of a Hundred, but of Five Hun- dred, or a Thousand Called in Israel, scarce will you find one Faithful ; insomuch, that though the Called People were so greatly numerous, the Prophets, particularly Esaiah, complain, that hardly one believed their Report, or Preaching," (p. 11.) ♦' To conclude, I would refer my self to the judgment of any sober, considering person, what a vast and almost an infinit proportion in number one should find, if from Adam^s days down to ours, there should be a comparison made of the Sum total of the Elect, with that of those who are not Elected : I believe that this Proportion would be of one Person Saved, to a Million that is not : that is to say, That there is a Million of Reprobates to one that shall be Chosen so as to be Saved." (p. 21.) But there is another authority. Let us take the man who, more than any other, has been adduced as the cham- pion and founder of the Orthodox system, — John Calvin. His modern influence we believe is certainly declining, but he is still proudly appealed to as an authority by a great body of Evangelical Christians. Professor E. D. Morris, of Lane Seminary (Presbyterian), in his Inaugu- ral Address recently delivered, says : " Presbyterianism 10 THE DOOM OF THB throughout the world may be said to be in an eminent sense doctrinal, — doctrinal because it is Calvinistic." What is, then, the doctrine of Calvin on this point? Calvin believed, and did not hesitate to assert, that the majority of mankind are eternally lost. He did not fear to face the logical consequences of his belief. Where did he get his belief from? He professed to get it — and certainly thought in all honesty that he got it, from the Bible. He claimed that the Bible taught that God had elected Q,few to eternal glory, but that the rest, including the heathen, who constitute the vast majority of man- kind, were reprobated to eternal damnation. In his commentary on Matt. vii. 13, Calvin says : — *' He expressly says that many run along the hroad roady because men ruin each other by wicked examples. For whence does it arise that each of them knowingly and wilfully rushes headlong, but because, while they are ruined in the midst of a vast crowd, they do not believe that they are ruined. The small number of believers, on the other hand, renders many persons careless. It is with difficulty that we are brought to renounce the world, and to regulate ourselves and our life by the manners of B.few. We think it strange that we should be forcibly sep- arated from the vast majority, as if we were not a part of the human race. But though the doctrine of Christ confines and hems us in, reduces our life to a narrow road, separates us from the crowd, and unites us to a few companions, yet this harsh- ness ought not to prevent us from striving to obtain life." (Pringle's Translation.) In his Harmony, Matt. xxiv. 22, he discusses the ques- tion why God determined that " a few should remain out of a vast multitude.'*'* In his comments on Matt. xxiv. 5 he shows that it was " through the vengeance of God that more were carried away by a foolish credulity than were brought by a right faith to obey God." MAJORITY OF MANKIND. 11 In commenting upon the prayer of Jesus, in John xvii. 9, he says : — *' Whence it appears that the whole \\^orld does not belong to its Creator ; only that grace snatches a few from the curse and wrath of God, and from eternal death, who would otherwise perish ; but leaves the world in the ruin to which it has been ordained." In remarking upon the beautiful words of Christ, Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy-laden^ Calvin's dreadful views are clearly made plain : — " And yet all [who accept this invitation] are few in number ; because, out of the innumerable multitude of those who are perishing, but few perceive that they are perishing." In writing against Arminianism Calvin confesses this horrible doctrine to its full extent : — " I ask again, how has it come to pass that the fall of Adam has involved so many nations with their infant children in eternal death, and this without remedy, but because such was the will of God? Here the tongues that have been so voluble it becomes to be mute. It is a dreadful decree, I confess." — (Institut. lib. iii. 23, 7.) OPINIONS OF OTHER COMMENTATORS. As Jesus was journeying towards Jerusalem, teaching in cities and villages, Luke tells us (xiii. 23) that a certain man met him and said unto him, "• Lord, are there few that be saved ? " It was a curious question, but one very natural for a Jew to ask ; for it was a common belief among the Jews that they were the elect of God, and that the Gentiles were of little importance in his sight. Eisenmenger^ quotes a rabbin who said that "the soul of a single Israelite is by itself more precious and dear in the sight of the blessed God than all the souls of a whole nation ; " and again : " The world was created for the sake of the Israelites." " They are the wheat, the other nations 1 Entdecktes Judenthum, vol. i. pp. 569, 571. 12 THE DOOM OF THE are the chaff." It may have seemed to this Jew a dan- gerous doctrine to preach that the Gentiles were equally the children of his fatvor ; as centuries later it seemed to the makers of the Westminster Catechism a " detestable and pernicious "doctrine that the heathen could be saved. But whatever the motive of this question, Jesus did not deign to answer it. He advised his questioner, however, to strive to enter the strait gate himself, to work out his own salvation, instead of cherishing the idea that he belonged to a favored class. Although Jesus did not satisfy this man's curiosity by giving his own views on the subject, it seems a little strange that there should have been commentators in all ages who have been bold enough to furnish him with an opinion. With singular frequency the conclusion has been reached that few were to be saved and the vast majority eternally lost. Among Calvinistic commen- tators this has been the unanimous verdict. That system of orthodoxy has permitted no other belief. But this view has not been confined to Calvinists. It has been held by Arminians as well. As Canon Farrar ^ says : "It is centuries older than Calvinism; it is immensely wider than the limits of Calvinistic churches." And again in the same book : " The damnation of the vast majority of mankind has been the normal teaching of theologians in every age since the earliest.'* (p. 140.) The passage in Luke has furnished less ground, perhaps, for this conclusion than two that occur in Matthew — namely. Matt. xx. 16 and xxii. 14, where Jesus says, " Many are called but few chosen." In one case it follows the parable of the Laborers, which seems to be directed against the doctrine of 'Jewish exclusiveness ; in the other it follows the parable of the Marriage of the King's Son. In neither parable is there the slightest reference to the doctrine of everlasting punishment. Jesus was re- 1 Mercy and Judgment, p. 153. MAJORITY OF MANKIND. 13 buking the people of his own age and country because many of them preferred darkness rather than light. He showed also that, though many were called into his kingdom, but few became eminent in it. It is a monstrous assumption to suppose that in these passages he gave a revelation concerning the proportion of the human race who should be consigned to hell. Yet this is the view that has been taken over and over again of these texts by Evangelical writers. Matt. vii. 13 has been inter- preted in the same way. A few extracts from prominent commentators will show how persistently these texts have been interpreted with reference to the final destiny of the race. DIG D ATI. Diodati, in his Annotations (third edition, 1661) on Matt. vii. 13, says : — " For to come to eternall happiness doe not follow the way of pleasures, and ease of the world and the flesh, nor the great num- ber and multitude of men: but make choice of the hard and laborious profession of the Gospel with its crosse : and joyn thy- self to the small sanctified flock of the Church by faith and imitation of good men, who are alwaies the smallest number in the world. ^^ On Matt. xxii. 14 he says : — '* Because that many who are called do not answer to Gods call and that even amongst those also who doe in some sort answer, some are rejected, it appears that the eternall election is not of allf but of a feiv.^^ On Luke xiii. 23 he says: — " Christ according to his wonted custome does not answer directly to that curious and unprofitable question : hit silently avoweth that indeed there are but few. ^^ ESTIUS. Estius, commenting on St. Paul's declaration (1 Tim. ii. 4) that " God will have all men to be saved and to come 14 ~ THE DOOM OF THE to the knowledge of the truth," concludes one part of his argument by saying, " Since it is certain that all men are not saved, and that all men do not believe, but only a few out of all," &c. And, again, on 2 Pet. iii. 9, he says : " Since, then, it is an admitted fact [constet] that all men do not come to repentance, but that the majority are lost, it is inquired," &c. WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES. In the Annotations made upon the Bible by the West- minster Assembly of Divines, they say of Matt. xx. 16: — " Some come short of that which others, inferior to them in the account of the world, obtain, because they are only out- wardly called, by the word, but are not from eternity chosen by God to eternall life. . . . Though there are many who are exter- nally called, yet there are but few that go to heaven." On the similar passage in Matt. xxii. 14, they say : — " Because many that are called do not come into God's Church, and among those that do come, some are not saved, for want of an holy conversation, it appears that few are chosen to eternal life.'' MATTHEVr HENRY. Matthew Henry, on Matt. vii. 13, says : — ' ' Those that are going to heaven are but few compared to those that are going to hell; a. remnant, a little flock like the grape-gleanings of the vintage ; as the eight that were saved in the ark." In commenting on the question put to Jesus in Luke xiii. 23 : " Are there few that be saved ? " Matthew Henry recognizes the fact that Jesus did not return any direct answer to the question. He does not, however, seem content to leave the matter where Jesus left it, but pro- ceeds to answer the question himself. " We have reason to wonder that, of the many to whom the word of salvation is sent, there are so few to whom it is indeed a MAJORITY OP MANKIND. 15 saving word. ... It concerns us all seriously to improve the great truth of the fewness of those that are saved. Think how many take some pains for salvation, and yet perish because they do not take enough ; and you will say that there are few that will he saved, and that it highly concerns us to strive. . . . Think of the distinguishing day that is coming, and the decisions of that day, and you will say there are few that shall be saved, and that we are concerned to strive. Think how many that were very con- fident they should be saved will be rejected in the day of trial, and their confidence will deceive them ; and you will say, there are few that shall be saved, and we are all concerned to strive." WILLIAM BUEKITT. William Burkitt (vicar of Dedham, Eng., 1712), on Matt. xxii. 14, says : — ** Amongst the Multitude of those that are called by the Gospel unto Holiness and Obedience, few, very few compara- tively, do obey that Call, and shall be Eternally saved." ADAM CLARKE. Dr. Adam Clarke, in his commentary on Psalms ix. 17: — " The wicked shall be turned into helj, and all the nations that forget God. There are both nations and individuals who, though they know God, forget Him, that is, are unmindful of Him ; do not acknowledge Him in their designs, ways, and works. These are all to be thrust down into hell." In his commentary on Matt. vii. 14 he says (Italics his) : — " There are few who fnd the way to heaven ; fewer yet who abide any time in it ; fewer still who walk in it ; and fewest of all who persevere unto the end." The " wide gate and broad way " he interprets as leading into " eternal misery." On Matt. xxii. 14 he remarks : — ♦' Many are called by the preaching of the gospel unto the outward communion of the Church of Christ ; hut few, compara- 16 THE DOOM OF THE lively^ are chosen to dwell with God in glory, because they do not come to the master of the feast for a marriage-garment." DODDRIDGE. Doddridge on Matt. vii. 14 : — " Strait is the Gate and rugged and painful the Way which leads to eternal Life, and they who find it and with a holy Ardency and Resolution press into it, so as to arrive at that blessed End, are comparatively few." _ On Matt. XX. 16 : — *' Though many are called, and the Messages of Salvation are sent to vast Multitudes, even to all the Thousands of Israel, yet there are but few chosen. A small remnant only will embrace the Gospel so universally offered and so be saved according to the Election of Grace, while the rest will be justly disowned by God as a Punishment for so obstinate and so envious a Temper." On Matt. xxii. 14: — " Though it be a dreadful truth, yet I must say that even the greatest part of those to whom the Gospel is offered will either openly reject or secretly disobey it. . . . Few are chosen in such a sense as finally to partake of its blessings." BOOT-HEOYD. Boothroyd's Family Bible (1824), in a note on Matt, xxii. 14: — " Though many are invited [by the Gospel] yet few chosen, — few that will he finally approved." HEUBNEB. Heubner, on Matt. vii. 13 : — " Oh, how many go on the broad way! Thus the majority of men hasten to ruin, and will ultimately be condemned." DE. OWEN. Dr. John J. Owen, in his commentary (New York, 1857) on Matt. xxii. 14 : — . MAJORITY OF MANKIND. 17 "Many are invited to the blessings and privileges of the gospel feast, but comparatively few are real participants of the grace of God. This was true of the Jewish nation, in respect to whom this parable had primary application. The people in general were obdurate and unbelieving, while a few only listened to the inspired prophets. Such, also, is the sad /ac/ in respect to every nation, even those most highly favored with the light of pure Christianity. The masses go down in impenitence to the grave, and comparatively few are found in the way that leadeth to life.'' BISHOP OF LINCOLN. Dr. Christopher Wordsworth, Bishop of Lincoln (1872), on Matt. xxii. 14 : — "Christ commands to baptize all Nations. ... He proffers the Marriage garment to all, and yet how many refuse it and prefer their own clothes! Besides, even of those who have the wedding garment, some are described as bad. Therefore /e?^j are chosen. The k\t]to\, or Ecclesia visibilis^ is numerous, but how few are the chosen ! " OLSHAUSEN. Olshausen, on Luke xiii. 23, 24, concedes the damnation of the majority : — " The Saviour in reply does not say exactly that there were but few who should partake of salvation, for, looked at simply in itself, the number of the saved is great ; it is only relatively, and as compared with the lost, that it is small." DEAN GOULBURN. Speaking of the doctrine of the comparative fewness of the saved, Dean Goulburn, in an excursus added to the second edition of his sermons on Everlasting Punishment (1881), says : — "It is awfully startling, and ought to be very rousing to the energies of" our will, to think how legibly this doctrine is written on the surface of Holy Scripture, — what pains, if I may say so, God has taken to impress it upon us for our warning." (p. 241.) 18 THE DOOM OF THE " Now let it be observed that this doctrine of the fewness of the saved, in comparison of the lost, is one so plainly revealed that none who accept Holy Scripture as the word of God, can dispute it." (p. 251.) We have quoted from a line of commentators extend- ing from Calvin down to the present day, to show how constantly this doctrine has been attributed to the Scrip- tures. There have not been lacking eminent scholars who have formed a more rational judgment of these passages, but the view we have given has been the more common one, and has helped to confirm the popular belief on this subject. OTHER AUTHORITIES. This interpretation of the Scripture is frequently con- fessed in the works of prominent Evangelical writers. Elchard Baxter, in his " Saints' Rest," thus describes the people of God : — " They are a small part of lost mankind whom God hath from eternity predestinated to this Rest for the glory of his mercy, and given to his Son, to be by him in a special manner re- deemed." (Baxter^s Saints^ Rest, ch. viii. 115.) Flavel, in his " Method of Grace," says (the italics arp his): — " How great a number of persons are in the state of condemnation ! That is a sad complaint of the prophet, — ' Who hath believed our report ? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed ? ' (Isaiah liii. 1.) Many talk of faith, and many profess it; but there are few in the world unto whom the arm of the Lord has been revealed in the work of faith with power. It is put among the great mysteries that Christ is believed on in the world (1 Tim. iii. 16). Oh, what a terrible day will be the day of Christ's coming to judgment, when so many millions of unbeliev- ers shall bd' brought to his tribunal to be solemnly sentenced." Rev. Jonathan Townsend, M.A., pastor of a church at Needham, said : — MAJORITY OF MANKIND. 19 *' And thus quick are we all hastening into Eternity. Some to heaven, a little Company ; but Multitudes throng the way to Hell, a great Multitude which no Man can number, " (^Discourse on God^s Marvellous Sparing Mei'cy^ 1738, Boston, p. 5.) It is competent to quote President Edwards on this point : — " That there are generally but few good men in the world, even among them that have those most distinguishing and glo- rious advantages for it, which they are favored with that live under the Gospel, is evident by that saying of our Lord, from time to time in his mouth. Many are called , hut few are chosen. And if there are but few among these, how few, how very few indeed, must persons of this character be, compared with the whole world of mankind! The exceeding smallness of the number of true saints, compared with the whole world, appears by the representations often made of them as distinguished from the world." — (^Edwards on Original Sin, section vii. ; Works, vol. ii. p. 343.) Another form in which the doctrine is taught is, that the great body of the heathen world — numerically the vast majority of the race — are doomed to eternal misery. In '• The Principles of the Protestant Religion, main- tained by the Ministers of the Gospel in Boston," 1690, by James Allen, Joshua Moody, Samuel Willard, and Cot- ton Mather, the damnation of the heathen is taught as a Scripture doctrine : — •' That there are any Elect among Pagans, who never had the gospel offered them, is not only without Scripture warrant, but against its Testimony, as hath been agen and agen made evident." (pp. 92, 93.) In a work entitled " The Doleful State of the Damned," by S. Moody of York, Maine, published in 1710, we find the tortures of the heathen thus described: — " The Gentile Nations that perished (by Thousa'^ds and Mil- lions) for lack of Vision, for so many Ages, whiles God (in a way of New Covenant Mercy) knew only the Jewish Nation, the Seed of Abraham; giving His Word to Jacob, His Statutes 20 THE DOOM OF THE and Judgments to Israel : All these Nations (I say) whom God suffered to walk in their own wayes, will be inraged with Self- tormenting Madness, that the Lord should send all His Servants the Prophets to them, unto Jacob whom He loved, and make His Word in their Mouth, effectual to the Conversion and Salvation of so many Thousands of them ; while these Sinners of the Gentiles could not hear for want of a Preacher, Rom. x. 14. And the Ungospellized Nations, now since Christ came and brake down the Partition Wall between Jews and Gentiles (which are by far the greatest Part of the World), will have the same bitter Pill to Chew, while they Consider how that some in all Ages, of one Nation or other, and some of all Nations, in one Age or other, are Redeemed and Saved; this will make them Lament and Blaspheme, that the Gospel was not sent to their Nation, and in their Day on Earth. Now to take the whole World of Reprobates together, in whatever Age or Nation they lived, that Perish either for lack of Vision, or for Rebelling against the Light of Nature and Scripture both ; we may a little consider, in a more general Way, how it will Vex and Torment all the Damned, while they View and Survey in their Heaven- piercing Thoughts, the Place and State of the Glorified; and consider, L That there was a Possibility of their having been all happy, as well as they that are so, or instead of them ; there being nothing in the Nature of God or Man against it ; . . . so that Thousands of Millions will say, in Hell (and vex them- selves forever with such fruitless Wishes) Oh ! That the Gospel of Salvation had been sent to us : Oh ! That we had but heard the joyful Sound: Oh! That we had Lived in such Times and Places as were blessed with Sabbaths, Ministers, and Bibles. And ten thousand Times ten Thousand, Oh! That the Gospel had been made effectual to us." {The Doleful State of the Damned, Doctrine H. p. 47.) Rev. Nathanael Emmons, D.D., was one of the most eminent of Orthodox theologians. His name needs only to be mentioned to be recognized and honored as one of Orthodoxy's representative champions. His writings have had a wide circulation and influence. The writer possesses an edition of the Works of Dr. Emmons, with an interesting Memoir by Prof. Edwards A. Park. It MAJORITY OF MANKIND. ' 21 is not the work of a Latin Father ; it bears the imprint of the Congregational Board of Publication, 1860. In the second volume of that work, Dr. Emmons has a ser- mon entitled " Sins without Law deserve Punishment," in which he gives Scripture evidence to show that the heathen (constituting the vast majority of mankind) shall finally perish : — " The design of this discourse is to show : — I. That the heathen are without law. II. That they sin without law. And III. That they must perish without law." (vol. ii. p. 663.) " Though the heathen sin without law, yet their sin deserves eternal destruction." {lb. p. 668.) " Though God has never forbidden the heathen to do things worthy of death, yet since they have done things worthy of death, he has a right to make them suffer eternal death, the proper wages of sin." {lb. p. 669.) " God has told us in his word, that the heathen, who sin without law, shall perish without law. God might, if he had pleased, have saved the heathen, notwithstanding their desert of eternal destruction ; but he has let us know in his word that he deter- mines to cast them off forever. He has already caused many of them to perish. *' The men of Sodom and Gomorrah were heathen, and them, we are told, he has ' set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire,' David says: ' The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.' And he prays for the destruction of the heathen: 'Thou, therefore, O Lord God of hosts,, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen.' And again he prays: ' Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name.' " More passages might be quoted, and more things said upon this head, but it is needless to enlarge. The will of God respecting the state of the heathen seems to be clearly and fully revealed in his word.^^ (lb. p. 669.) Rev. Enoch Pond will be recognized as another eminent Orthodox authority. In a course of Missionary Discourses, 22 THE DOOM OF THE given at Ward, Mass., and published in 1824, we find one on Romans vi. 21 : '^ The end of those things is death," in which he says : — *' We have, therefore, in the text this affecting truth : the end of heathenism is eternal death. Or, in other words, the great body of those who lice and die heathen must Jinally perish.^'' (p. 221.) " Like all unpardoned sinners, they are ' condemned already,' and are under sentence of eternal punishment. This sentence cannot be remitted without repentance and reformation. We find no intimations in the Scriptures that God will forgive any, even heathens, without repentance ; but everywhere the plainest intimations to the contrary." (p. 225.) *' The conclusion, therefore, is irresistible, that the great body of the heathen are not delivered from the wages of sin, but are descending, in fearful multitudes, down to the chambers of eternal death." (p. 228.) "It is submitted, my brethren, after what has been said, whether the proposition, announced at the commencement of this discourse, has not been immovably established, — that the end of heathenism is eternal death ; or that the great body of those who live and die heathens must ^ go away into everlasting punish- ment: " (p. 232.) Dr. Pond adduces " numerous passages of Scripture in which the heathen are represented as exposed to perish forever." The list is too long to republish. These quotations from acknowledged Orthodox authori- ties might be easily multiplied ; but we have given enough to show how Orthodoxy has interpreted the Bible on these points, and how badly that collection of books has fared at its hands. What better argument than such beliefs as these can we present that Orthodoxy needs to revise its estimate of the Bible? What better evidence to show that the Scriptures had better be rationally interpreted, or rationally abandoned ? Undoubtedly the Scriptures do teach, in the various texts that have been quoted, that comparatively few attnin the higher blessedness, — the more abundant life, to which MAJORITY OF MANKIND. 23 Jesus called men, — compared with the great multitude who take a broader and easier road. Bat the assumption is unwarranted that these passages refer to everlasting punishment. DR. EZRA abbot's VIEW. In a note on one of the most frequently quoted of these passages, that of Matt. xxii. 14, " Many are called but few chosen," Prof. Ezra Abbot, of the Cambridge Divinity School, after quoting, as an instance of intelli- gent Orthodox interpretation. Prof. Bernhard Weiss's exposition of this jjassage,^ says : — *' I would only add that, in this parable and elsewhere, Jesus is not considering the question of 'probation after death,' — whether those who depart from this life without having become his followers, or even in a state of hostility to his religion, may or may not, in the ages to come, be brought into a better spiritual condition ; still less is he teaching any doctrine about election and reprobation in the Calvinistic sense, and the num- ber of the finally saved. The present parable describes his rejection by the great body of the Jews ; and also teaches that of those (Jews or Gentiles) who might profess to be his followers many would not be truly such, and therefore could not share the blessings which belonged to his kingdom. When persecution should test the faith of his disciples, many would fall away; nay, ' the love of the many,* of the great majority, ' would become cold ' (Matt. xxiv. 10, 12). Many would seek to enter the kingdom, or to partake of the great Messianic banquet, but would not be able (Luke xiii. 24), from non-fulfilment of the essential conditions, which were very different from what they were conceived to be by the great body of the Jews. " In Matt. vii. 13, 14, Jesus teaches that the path that leads to life is strait and narrow; i.e., that true religion requires great self-denial and self-sacrifice, such as the vast majority of men 1 Weiss, Das Matthdusevangelium und seine Lucas-Parallelen erJclart ("The Gospel of Matthew and its Parallels in Luke Explained"), Halle, 1875, p. 472. Compare his " Biblical Theology," § 30, d, vol. i. p. 137, English translation. 24 , THE DOOM OF THE shrink from, so that those who walk in this narrow path are comparatively few. Everybody knows that this was the state of the Jewish and the heathen world when Jesus uttered these words, and that it is to a very large extent the state of the world now. The questions whether, or how, or when, those who are in the road to destruction can turn round and change their course, are not here considered. To assume that Christ's language teaches that the spiritual state in which a man leaves this world is irreversible, and that the great majority of men, or all men, may not ultimately become his followers, is to thrust into the passage what is not there. " The prevalent false view of this and many other passages is due in part to that misinterpretation of the language of Jesus wliich* applies such terms as life, eternal life, salvation, the kingdom of heaven, etc., on the one hand, and death, destruc- tion, hell, damnation (or condemnation), on the other, mainly to the rewards and punishments of another world, and con- ceives of these as more or less arbitrary, and not, essentially, the natural and necessary results of the observance or vio- lation of spiritual laws. It is not recognized that these terms in their essential meaning, as used by Jesus, describe not external conditions, but states of the soul; that ' he who listens to the word of Jesus and believes in Him that sent him hath eternal life; and cometh not into condemnation, but hath passed out of death into life.' The pictorial, dramatic, parabolic language in which Jesus enforces the fact of retribution, and illustrates the conditions of admission into his kingdom, is taken in a gross sense, utterly foreign from the spirit of his religion." (Christian Register, Boston, Feb. 22, 1883.) But whatever view may be taken of the Scripture teachings on this point, humanity is rapidly reaching a point of development when it will refuse to receive as authoritative any doctrine which affronts the affections, outrages the moral sense, and blasphemes the name of the Most High. MAJORITY OF MANKIND, 25 II. The Damnation of the Majority taught by Evangelical Creeds. It is claimed by some that the only fair way in an examination of this kind is not to take individual inter- pretations of Scripture, or individual utterances on the point at issue, but to appeal to the Evangelical Creeds. Thus Rev. Dr. Withrow, of Boston, in the discussion which has given rise to this book, said : " Evangelical creeds are the constitutional beliefs of Christendom. These great standards of Orthodox belief contain the body of Evangelical Faith, founded on the Word of God. It would be in order for any one to adduce from the Westminster Confession of Faith, from the Thirty-nine Articles, or the Saybrook or the Andover Creed, a dis- proof of my statement, that 'no evangelical creed in Christendom teaches that the vast majority of the human race are to be the victims of endless woe.' . . . Ortho- doxy does not hold itself responsible for all the views of its several adherents. Its beliefs are to he judged by its standards^ {Christian Register, Jan. 4, 1883, p. 5.) The position assumed by Dr. Withrow is perfectly logi- cal. It is consistent and honorable. Denominations that have standards to which they appeal should be judged by them. Let us see, then, what the great evangelical standards teach concerning this doctrine. We will not pause here to ask the question how far individuals who still profess these creeds have secretly or openly repu- diated them. We are told that we must not judge evangelical bodies by individual opinions. The appeal has been made to the standards; to the standards let us go. V 26 THE DOOM OF THE We readily grant that the oldest creed known to Christendom, the Apostles' Creed, does not contain the doctrine ; but it is unmistakably taught in the mediaeval creeds of the Church, and most conspicuously in the creeds of that branch of the Christian Church to which Dr. Withrow belongs, — Calvinistic Orthodoxy. As our argu- ment concerns only the Protestant belief on this subject, we omit reference to the Roman Catholic creeds, and, beginning with the Protestant Reformation, confine our- selves to those creeds which are still the authoritative standards of a large portion of the Evangelical Church. We do not say that the doctrine of the doom of the majority is stated in so many words, but we contend that a creed is responsible, not merely for its definitions, but for the inevitable conclusions which must be drawn from them. We shall show, therefore, that the principal creeds teach : 1. The doctrine of the eternal damnation of the ma- jority of infants of the race. 2. The doctrine of the eternal damnation of the great body of the heathen world, constituting the vast majority of the adult portion of mankind. 1, Infant Damnation in the Creeds, 1. The doctrine of the damnation of the majority of infants is taught in creeds which make salvation depend- ent on baptism. This was the doctrine of Augustine. It is the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church to-day. It is also taught in THE AUGSBURG COI^FESSTON. That Confession, adopted in 1530, says : — " Art. IX. Of Baptism they teach that it is necessary to salva- tion. . . . They condemn the Anabaptists, who allow not the baptism of children, and affirm that children are saved without baptism.''^ MAJORITY OF MANKIND. 27 Luther, in an Exposition of Psalm xxix., in extending comfort to Christian mothers, based on the invitation of Jesus, says : — *' We say that children are conceived and born in sin, and 'cannot be saved without Christ, to whom we bring them in baptism . . . for without Christ is there no salvation. There- fore Turkish and Jewish children are not saved, since they are not brought to Christ." Melanchthon, who wrote the Augsburg Confession, also held the same views : — ' ' The promise of grace pertains to children who are within the Church. It is certain that out of the Church, — that is, among those upon whom the name of God is not invoked through baptism, and who are without the Gospel, — there is no remission of sins and participation in eternal life." (Melanchthonis Oper., part. 1. de baptism, infantum, fol. 237 seq) He classes them with blasphemous Jews, Mahometans, and the enemies of Christ. Again he says : — "It is not to be asserted that salvation pertains to infants outside of the Church, as without any evidence the Anabaptists furiously contend." And again : — " This hypothesis is to be held, that infants who are within the Church, upon whom the name of Christ has been invoked, are received into grace; not Turks nor Jews." Zerneke,^ the author of a curious book on the " State of Infants of Heathen Parents, who die in Infancy," after quoting these passages from Melanchthon, says : — 1 Dissertatio Tkeologica de Statu Infantium a Gentilihus progenitorum, cum in Infantia decedunt. Jena, 1733. Third edition, — in the library of Dr. Ezra Abbot, Cambridge, Mass. We find on the titlepage tlie names of Dr. Joannes Fecht as presses, and Jacobus Henricus Zerneke as respondent ; but it appears from p. 96 that Zerneke is the substantial author, though he was assisted by Fecht, Professor of Theology and Superintendent at Rostock. 28 THE DOOM OF THE " From these it is easily apparent in what way the words of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession are to be understood, since any one is the best interpreter of his own words." The Augsburg Confession has always been, and still is, the authoritative standard of the Lutheran Church. In the discussion on " The Revision of Creeds" in the North American Review for February, 1883, Rev. Dr. G. F. Krotel, speaking for the Lutheran Church in America, says: "All parts of the Lutheran Church in this country profess to receive the fundamental creed of Lutheranism, the Augsburg Confession ex animoy He tells us that " the Lutheran Church, instead of going away from her stand- ards, is really coming back to them." Rev. Dr. C. P. Krauth, the most prominent advocate of Lutheranism in this country, in his principal work, " The Conservative Reformation," argues that Baptism " as the ordinary channel of Regeneration, places infant salvation on the securest ground." In his " Review of Dr. Hodge's Systematic Theology," p. 22, Dr. Krauth relieves us some- what by saying: "As Lutherans we have a clear faith resting on a specific covenant in the case of a baptized child, and a well-grounded hope resting on an all-embrac- ing mercy in the case of an unbaptized child." But this is the individual view of Dr. Krauth ; it is not the teaching of the Lutheran Standards ; nor, as we have seen, was it the view of Luther and Melanchthon, the authors of that Confession. There is abundant evidence that Lutheran ministers and laity still cling to the necessity of water- baptism for infant salvation, and, like Roman Catholics, would not dare to let their children die without it.^ Dr. Philip Schaff, of Union Theological Seminary in New York, says : — 1 See a little book, " Behind the Scenes," by F. M, Jams, Cincin- nati, Ohio, — G. W. Lasher, 1883, — in which confessions are given of various ministers who have baptized infants to assure parents of their salvation. (Chaps, ii. and ix.) MAJORITY OP MANKIND. 29 *' All Orthodox systems which hold to the necessity of water- baptism for salvation, lead to the horrible conclusion that all unbaptized infants dying in infancy, as well as all the heathen, — that is, by far the greatest part of the hmnan race, past and present, — are lost forever." (^The Harmony of the Reformed Confessions^ p. 50.) The Church of England, in her baptismal formula, clearly teaches the doctrine of baptismal regeneration ; but though maintaining that baptized infants are saved, she does not say that unbaptized infants are lost. 2. The doctrine of the damnation of infants taught in Calvinistic Creeds. In his review of Dr. Hodge's " Systematic Theology," that eminent Lutheran scholar and divine, Dr. C. P. Krauth, lately deceased, has presented an overwhelming amount of testimony concerning " Infant Baptism and Infant Salvation in the Calvinistic System." Calvinistic Creeds and Calvinistic Fathers have been placed on the witness-stand. We have not space to give a tithe of the evidence so thoroughly presented ; but, after rending it, we cannot escape his conclusion, that " Calvin's theory involves the certain damnation of the majority of the infants of the race, and does not claim that there is distinct evidence, even in the most hopeful case, that any particular child is saved." (p. 58.) Dr. Philip Schaff, himself a Presbyterian, makes this candid admission : — *' The scholastic Calvinists of the seventeenth century mounted the Alpine heights of eternal decrees with intrepid courage, and revelled in the reverential contemplation of the sovereign majesty of God, which seemed to require the damna- tion of the great mass of sinners, including untold millions of heathen and infants, for the manifestation of his terrible justice. Inside the circle of the elect all was bright and delightful in thei sunshine of infinite mercy, but outside all was darker than midnight. ' ' ( The Harmony of the Reformed Confessions, p. 47.) 30 THE DOOM OF THE THE SYNOD OF DORT. At the Synod of Dort, 1619-1622, this question of infant damnation came up. The position of Calvinism is unmistakable, that only elect infants are saved. Against this view the Arminians protested; and their "Apology" shows the doctrine against which Episcopius and others remonstrated : — " Why shall it be thought absurd or wicked to say that God not only wills of his good pleasure to destroy, but also to devote to the inner torments of hell, the larger part of the human race, many myriads of infants torn from their mothers' breasts? for these are the horrid inferences which the school of Calvin rears on those foundations, which consequently the Remonstrants look upon with their whole soul full of aversion and abhorrence." {Krauth, p. 63.) The Arminians say again : — " We especially desire to know from this venerable Synod, whether it acknowledges as its own doctrine, and the doctrine of the Church, particularly what is asserted . . . concerning the creation of the larger part of mankind for destruction, the repro- bation of infants, even though born of believing parents.'* (Acta Synod., 121; Krauth, p. 58.) The Swiss Theologians at Dort say: — " That there is an election and reprobation of infants no less than of adults, we cannot deny in the face of God who loves and hates unborn children.^' (Acta Synod. Judic. 40. See Krauth, p. 15.) From the Zurich Consensus between Calvin and the Zurich ministers : — " We zealously teach that God does not promiscuously exer- cise His power on all who receive the Sacraments, but only on the elect. He enlightens unto faith none but those whom He has foreordained unto life. ^' (Niemeyer, Collect. Conf. 195.) From the above it is evident that, according to Cal- vinism, non-elect infants cannot be saved by baptism. MAJORITY OP MANKIND. 31 Molinseus, 1568-1658, " one of the greatest divines of the French Calvinistic Church," defended the decrees of the Synod of Dort : — " If one were to crush an ant with his foot, no one could charge him with injustice, — though the ant never offended him, though he did not give life to the ant, though the ant belonged to another and no restitution could be made. . . . The offspring of the pious and faithful are born with the infection of original sin. ... As the eggs of the asp are deservedly crushed, and serpents just born are deservedly killed, though they have not yet poisoned any one with their bite, so infants are justly obnoxious to penalties." (Krauth, p. 66.) Again, Molinaeus says : — " We dare not promise salvation to any [infant] remaining outside Christ's covenant." {Krauth, p. 18.) The Bremen Theologians at Dort say : — "Believers' infants alone, who die before they reach the age in which they can receive instruction, do we suppose to be loved of God, and saved of His . . . good pleasure." {Acta Synod., 63.) Marckius (quoted by Krauth) says : — *' Nor is it to be doubted that among these reprobated are to be referred the infants of unbelievers. . . . God has revealed nothing as decreed or to be done for their salvation, and they are destitute of the ordinai'y means of grace. So that we ought utterly to reject, not only their salvation, of which Pelagians dream, but also the Remonstrant [Arminian] theory that their penalty is one of privation, without sensation. The terminus to which these are predestined is eternal death, destruction, damnation.^' {Krauth, p. 35.) THE WESTMINSTER CONFESSION. The Westminster Confession and Catechisms, says Dr. Philip Schaff, in his " Harmony of the Reformed Confes- sions" (p. 11), "present the ablest, the clearest, and the fullest statement of the Calvinistic system of doctrine. . . . They have been adopted not only by Presbyterians, but also, with some modifications, on church polity and the 32 THE DOOM OF THE doctrine of baptism, and with a reservation of greater freedom, by the Orthodox CongregationaHsts and the Kegular, or Calvinistic Baptists in Great Britain and America." This Confession of Faith also assumes the damnation of unelect infants. " Elect Infants dying in infancy are regenerated and saved by Christ, through the Spirit who worketh when and where and how he pleaseth. So also are all other elect persons who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the word. " Others not elected^ although they may be called by the ministry of the word and may have some common operations of the Spirit, yet they never truly come to Christ, and therefore cannot be saved. " (^Westminster Confession, Chap. X. in., iv.) The inevitable conclusion from this language is that while elect infants are saved, unelect infantg are certainly lost. Modern Calvinists, repudiating the doctrine of in- fant damnation, would like to put a new meaning into these words ; they would have us believe that all dying in infancy are elect. But such is not the language, and such is not the natural meaning, of the Westminster Confes- sion. If the writers of it believed that all infants were saved, why did they limit the word infants by that word elect'^ In that Confession we are told again that '''■every sin, both original and actual, . . . doth in its own na- ture bring guilt upon the sinner, whereby he is bound over to the wrath of God and curse of the law, and so made subject to death, with all miseries, spiritual, tem- poral, and eternal.^'* ( Westminster Confession, VI. vi.) Thus original sin is exposed to the same penalty as actual sin, and nothing in the Westminster Confession relieves any infants but elect ones from this fate. There is not a line in that Confession that teaches that infants are saved as a class. As Dr. Krauth says, their salvation depends upon " an absolute personal election." MAJORITY OF MANKIND. 33 This view of the Westminster Confession is confirmed by a vast array of testimony from the Calvinistic writers of the time, which we could readily present, if it seemed necessary ; but perhaps one quotation will be sufficient to show how the Westminster Confession was understood by the men that made it. Dr. William Twisse was the Pro- locutor of the Westminster Assembly of divines. He was one of the most prominent Calvinists of his day. In his greatest work, "The Vindication of the Grace, Power, and Providence of God," he says : — " Many infants depart from this life in original sin, and con- sequently are condemned to eternal death on account of original sin alone: therefore, from the sole transgression of Adam, con- demnation to eternal death has followed upon many in/ants.'^ ( Vindicice, i. 48.) This view of Twisse was very extensively held among Calvinists, not only in England, but in this country. We have a rough poetic monument of its prevalence in this country in " The Day of Doom," by Rev. Michael Wig- gles worth, A. M., " teacher of the Church at Maiden, in New England, 1662." This is " a poetical description of the great and last Judgment." Among the great number of those who appear before the judgment-seat are the reprobate infants, who piteously plead for mercy : — " Then to the Bar all they drew near Who died in infancy, And never had or good or bad effected pers'nally; But from the womb unto the tomb were straightway carried, (Or at the least ere they transgress'd) Who thus began to plead: *' * If for our own transgressi-on or disobedience, We here did stand at thy left hand, just were the Recompense; 3 34 THE DOOM OF THE But Adam's guilt our souls hath spilt, his fault is charg'd upon us; And that alone hath overthrown and utterly undone us. * Not we, but he ate of the Tree, whose fruit was interdicted ; Yet on us all of his sad Fall the punishment 's inflicted. How could we sin that had not been, or how is his sin our, Without consent, which to prevent we never had the pow'r? ' ' O great Creator why was our Nature depraved and forlorn ? Why so defil'd, and made so vil'd, whilst we were yet unborn? If it be just, and needs we must transgressors reckon'd be. Thy Mercy, Lord, to us afford, which sinners hath set free. ' Behold we see Adam set free, and sav'd from his trespass, W^hose sinful Fall hath split [spilt ?] us all, and brought us to this pass. Canst thou deny us once to try, or Grace to us to tender, When he finds grace before thy facej who was the chief offender? ' Then answered the Judge most dread : ' God doth such doom forbid, . That men should die eternally for what they never did. But what you call old Adam's Fall, and only his Trespass, You call amiss to call it his; both his and yours it was. MAJORITY OF MANKIND. 35 " * He was design 'd of all Mankind to be a public Head ; A common Root, whence all should shoot, and stood in all their stead. He stood and fell, did ill or well, not for himself alone, But for you all, who now his Fall and trespass would disown. ** * If he had stood, then all his brood had been established In God's true love never to move, nor once awry to tread ; Then all his Race my Father's Grace should have enjoy'd for ever, And wicked Sprites by subtile sleights could them have harmed never. *' ' Would you have griev'd to have receiv'd through Adam so much good ; As had been your for evermore, if he at first had stood ? Would you have said, " We ne'er obey'd nor did thy laws regard ; It ill befits with benefits, us, Lord, to so reward ?" " * Since then to share in his welfare, you could have been content. You may with reason share in his treason, and in the punishment. Hence you were born in state forlorn, with Natures so depraved ; Death was your due because that you had thus yourselves behaved. " * You think " If we had been as he whom God did so betrust. We to our cost would ne'er have lost all for a paltry lust 'TlS)IVEB.-ITY)i 36 THE DOOM OF THE Had you been made in Adam's stead, you would like things have wrought, And so into the self-same woe, yourselves and yours have brought. ^ ** * I may deny you once to try, or Grace to you to tender, Though he finds Grace before my face who was the chief offender ; Else should my Grace cease to be Grace, for it would not be free, If to release whom I should please 1 have no liberty. (( ' If upon one what 's due to none I frankly shall bestow , And on the rest shall not think best compassion's skirt to throw, Whom injure I? will you envy and grudge at others' weal ? Or me accuse, who do refuse yourselves to help and heal ? " ' Am I alone of what 's my own, no Master or no Lord ? And if I am, how can you claim what I to some afford ? Will you demand Grace at my hand, and challenge what is mine ? Will you teach me whom to set free, and thus my Grace confine ? ** ' You sinners are, and such a share as sinners, may expect ; Such you shall have, for I do save none but mine own Elect. Yet to compare your sin with their who liv'd a longer time, I do confess yours is much less, though every sin 's a crime. MAJORITY OF MANKIND. 37 *' ' A crime it is, therefore in bliss you may not hope to dwell; But unto you I shall allow the easiest room in Hell.'' " Wiggles worth's views were thus in entire harmony with the Westminster Confession and with those of Twisse, its prolocutor, Calvin, and others whom we have quoted. The popularity of his poem was very great. " The lirst edition," says John Ward Dean,^ " consisting of eighteen hundred copies, was sold, with some profit to the author, within a year ; " which, considering the population and wealth of New England at that time, shows almost as remarkable a popularity as that of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Professor Tyler, in his "History of American Litera- ture," says : ^ " This great poem, which, with entire uncon- sciousness, attributes to the Divine Being a character the most execrable and loathsome to be met with, perhaps, in any literature, Christian or Pagan, had for a hundred years a popularity far exceeding that of any other work, in prose or verse, produced in America before the Revo- lution. . . . No narrative of our intellectual history dur- ing the colonial days can justly fail to record the enormous influence of this terrible poem during all those times. Not only was it largely circulated in the form of a book, but it was hawked about the country in broadsides as a popular ballad. ... Its pages were assigned in course to little children to be learned by heart along wdth the cate- chism ; as late as the present century, there were in New England many aged persons who were able to repeat the whole poem ; for more than a hundred years after its first publication it was, beyond question, the one supreme poem of Puritan New England." 1 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, for April, 1863. 2 History of American Literature,*vol. ii. p. 34. 38 THE DOOM OF THE " His work," says Francis Jenks,^ " fairly represents the prevailing theology of New England at the time it was written, and which Mather thought might * perhaps find our children till the Day itself arrives.' " Happily that day has not arrived, and the children of Mather have disowned so much of the doctrine as relates to the dam-: nation of infants. The Cumberland Presbyterian Church of the United States, which was organized in 1810, adopted in 1813 a semi-Arrainian revision of the Westminster Confession. Instead of saying, "Elect infants dying in infancy are regenerated and saved," they changed the language to all infants. The great body of the Presbyterian Church in America, however, though they have individually given up the belief in infant damnation, still allow this frightful doctrine to disfigure their standards. Yet Dr. Withrow tells us that Orthodoxy must be judged " by its standards." No modern Presbyterian clergyman that we know of teaches the doctrine of infant damnation, but every Pres- byterian minister is obliged to subscribe to a Confession which teaches it. If our Calvinistic brethren deny the doctrine of infant damnation, let them blot it out of their standards. Either their standards are condemned by their present beliefs or their present belief is condemned by their standards, 2. The Damnation of Heathen in the Creeds, Not only is the damnation of unelect infants and unbap- tized infants taught in the creeds, but the damnation of the unconverted heathen, the vast majority of the adult por- tion of mankind, is taught with even more emphasis and uniformity. THE SAXON VISITATION ARTICLES. In the Saxon Articles of Visitation, prepared by the Lutherans in 1592 against the Calvinists, the Calvinists 1 Christian Examiner, November, 1828. MAJORITY OF MANKIND. 39 were charged with holding, among others, the following errors : — " That God created the greater part of mankind for eterrval dam- nation, and wills not that the greater part should be converted and live." (Art. iv. On Predestination, 2.) The Calvinists denied that they taught that God created the greater part of mankind for eternal damnation, but did not deny that such was their destiny, nor did the Lutherans, generally. THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. In the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England, both in the English Edition of 1571 and the American Revision of 1801, we find salvation thus conditioned : — " Art. XVIII. They also are to be accursed that presume to say that every man shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that Law and the light of Nature. For Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the Name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved." This article is liberally interpreted by the Church of England to-day, although it undoubtedly had its origin in the same narrow view of salvation which is apparent in the extracts from the creeds that follow. Bishop Burnet, in his celebrated Exposition of the Articles, 1699, strug- gles with the difiiculties and mysteries of this article as it concerns the heathen, and shows a charity of heart and breadth of mind which might be commended to many in our own day : — *' As for them whom God has left in Darkness, they are cer- tainly out of the Covenant, out of those Promises and Declarations that are made in it. So that they have no Federal Right to be saved, neither can we affirm that they shall be saved : But on the other hand, they are not under those positive denunciations, because they were never made to them : Therefore since God has not declared that they shall be damned, no more ought we to take upon us to damn them. 40 THE DOOM OP THE " Instead of stretching the Severity of Justice by an Inference, we may rather venture to stretch the Mercy of God, since that is the Attribute which of all others is the most Magnificently spoken of in the Scriptures: So that we ought to think of it in the largest and most comprehensive manner. But indeed the most proper way is, for us to stop where the Revelation of God stops: And not to be wise beyond what is written ; but to leave the secrets of God as Mysteries, too far above us to Examine, or to sound their depth." (Exposition of the Thirty- Nine Articles. 4th ed., p. 169.) THE SCOTCH CONFESSION OF FAITH. The Scotch Confession of Faith adopted in 1560 is very explicit in excluding the heathen : — " We utterly abhorre the blasphemie of them that affirme, that men quhilk live according to equitie and justice sal be saved, quhat Religioun that ever they have professed. For as without Christ Jesus there is nouther life nor salvation ; so sal there nane ' be participant hereof, bot sik as the Father hes given unto his Sonne Christ Jesus, and they that in time cum unto him, avowe his doctrine, and beleeve into him, we comprehend the children with the faithfull parentes." (Art. xvi.) THE IRISH ARTICLES OF RELIGION (1615). "Art. XXXI. They are to be condemned that presume to say that every man shall be saved by the law or sect which he professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that law and the light of nature. For holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the name of Jesus Christ whereby men must be saved. *' Art. XXXII. None can come unto Christ unless it be given unto him, and unless the Father draw him. And all men are not so drawn by the Father that they may come unto the Son. Neither is there such a sufficient measure of grace vouch- safed unto every man, whereby he is enabled to come unto everlasting life." THE LAMBETH ARTICLES. This limitation in the Irish Articles was a reiteration of the same doctrine seen in the Lambeth Articles, a MAJORITY OF MANKIND. 41 Calvinistic appendix to the Thirty-Nine Articles, com- posed in 1595: — "I. God from eternity hath predestinated certain men unto life ; certain men he hath reprobated." " III. There is predetermined a certain number of the pre- destinate which can neither be augmented nor diminished. " IV. Those who are not predestinated to salvation shall be necessarily damned for their sins." " VII. Saving grace is not given, is not granted, is not com- municated to all men, by which they may be saved if they will. *' VIII. No man can come unto Christ unless it shall be given unto him, and unless the Father shall draw him; and all men are not drawn by the Father, that they may come to the Son. "IX. It is not in the will or power of every one to be saved." THE CANONS OF DORT. The Canons of the Synod of Dort were adopted- in 1618 and 1619. They are very strong in their definitions of election, and in their denial of salvation through the light of nature. These Canons are still in force in the Reformed (Dutch) Church in America, and the text from which we quote is taken from the " Constitution of the Reformed Church in America," published in New York (Schaff, Creeds^ who hold this doctrine, only nominally believe it. It does not affect their happiness, because they never realize its fearful import. Human nature has other resources besides logic vvitli which to protect itself against superstition. As a bullet may be encysted in the body, so a painful and un- ^ natural belief may become encysted in the mind. Yet there are thousands of devout, earnest, and thoughtful people who are periodically sensible of the oppressive weight of this dogma. They would gladly be relieved of the bur- den if they could but see how it might be rolled off. To such minds Orthodoxy offers no help. The logical super- structure of Orthodoxy has been carefully built. So long as the foundation premises are acknowledged, its conclu- sions inevitably follow. The whole system is based on an ancient but palpably false conception of the universe. The false premises must be removed before we can expect to destroy the false conclusions. In denying the premises of Orthodoxy we do not, ne- cessarily, deny those of Christianity. The fundamental principles of all religions are far deeper than the theo- logical systems that are built upon them. Indeed, it is by a re-assertion of essentially Christian principles that we find a corrective for many of the errors that have been taught in Christianity's name. Infant damnation, for instance, is historically a dogma of Christian theology; yet nothing could be more diametrically opposed to the original principles of the Christian religion. If the gos- pels be not a lie, Jesus treated little children as if they were the offspring of God, not as if they were the oft- §prin