777 



ELECTION. 



ELECTION. 



778 



moral and religious agency, is not necessitated by omniprescient decrees 

 of God. His tenets were adopted in Palestine, and throughout the 

 East, especially by Chrysostom, Isidorus, Theodoret, and the other 

 Greek fathers ; and Pelagius, an English monk, proceeding on their 

 authority, promulgated in the first half of the 5th century the sectarian 

 theory designated Pelagianism, which asserts free agency, moral re- 

 sponsibility and perfectibility, making good works meritorious, and 

 denouncing the predestinarian doctrine of imputed guilt and inherited 

 depravity. (Pelagius in Pluquet's ' Diet, des Heresies.') St. Augustine 

 was among the most strenuous opponents of Pelagius, and adduced 

 abundance of scriptural authority to show the absolute omnipotence, 

 the omniprescience, and consequently the preordination of God, with 

 respect to the characters and destiny of men ; showing some to be 

 elected by the divine will as objects of especial grace, and others to be 

 abandoned to the perdition which through Adam is merited by all. 

 (St. Augustine, ' De Gratia, De Peccat. orig., De lib. arbitr., De Dono 

 Perseverantise.') The arguments of St. Augustine occasioned the forma- 

 tion in the 5th century of a sect in Africa called Predestinarians, the 

 tenets of which were zealously propagated in Gaul by a priest named 

 Lucidus, who was excommunicated and anathematised by the church 

 in council. (See the treatise of Pere Sirmond on this heresy, and the 

 replies of the Janseniste and divines of Port Royal.) 



In the 9th century, the Predestinarian controversy was revived with 

 great enthusiasm by Gottescalque, a French Benedictine monk, who 

 was condemned, and terminated hia hie in a dungeon, for teaching the 

 " five points " concerning election, which subsequently gained for 

 Calvin so much celebrity. Gottescalque was answered by Scotus 

 Erigena, and many others. (Dufresnoy, ' Tablettes Chronolog.') This 

 incomprehensible subject formed one of the great points of subtle dis- 

 putation in the scholastic theology ; it was discussed by ' the Angelic 

 Doctor," Thomas Aquinas, and others, in the 13th century. Whether 

 God's election was before or after the prevision of human merits was a 

 standard thesis for the exercise of syllogistic skill (electio ante vel post 

 pncvisa merita). Aquinas sustained the doctrines of Augustine, and 

 the controversy was subsequently carried on in the 16th century be- 

 tween his followers (the Thomista) and the adherents of Louis Molina 

 (the Moliniste). When Luther began to form his opinions, he perceived 

 that nothing could so effectually demolish the Roman Catholic doctrine 

 of justification by works as the predestinarian theory of St. Augustine, 

 which he therefore enforced in his writings ; but finally he was induced 

 by Melanchthon to mitigate the rigour of his opinions concerning 

 man's passive subjection to God's eternal decrees. By the Socinians 

 the certain prescience of future events by the Deity is denied, and the 

 divine decrees are maintained to be merely general, and not specially 

 relative to particular persons. The system of Calvin is set forth in 

 his great work entitled ' Institutes of the Christian Religion ' (' Institu- 

 tiones," &c.), in which he states that " no one desirous of the credit of 

 piety can dare to deny God's predestination of some to eternal happi- 

 ness, and of others to eternal damnation ; " that " every man is created 

 for one or the other of these purposes." God having from all eternity 

 fixed the destiny of every individual of the human race, all of whom, 

 in consequence of Adam's offence, have been, are, and to the end of 

 time will be, under the curse and wrath of God, and justly subject to 

 everlasting punishment ; that salvation depends wholly on God's will ; 

 that particular persons, without any regard whatever to their merits 

 or demerits, are elected, or rejected for ever ; and that God is an abso- 

 lute, tremendous, and incomprehensible Judge. Such propositions, it 

 must be confessed, are sufficiently mysterious and fearful to overwhelm 

 the timid with despair, and excite the bold to inquire if they are 

 founded in truth. One of the ablest works in confutation of Calvin is 

 Dr. Whitby's discourse on the five points of his system, which are as 

 follows : 1. God, before the creation, was pleased to choose, without 

 prevision of merit, some of mankind to enjoy everlasting happiness, 

 and others to Buffer everlasting misery. What was certainly foreseen 

 must certainly come to pass, as the prescience of the omnipotent and 

 omniscient Being must be coincident with, and not by possibility ante- 

 cedent to, his decrees. 2. Atonement was made by Christ only for the 

 sins o{ the elect. His death did not make the salvation of all possible, 

 and dependent on the performance of certain conditions ; for if God 

 intended salvation for all, doubtless all must be saved ; and if Christ 

 died for all, he died in vain for many, which is a supposition absurd 

 and impious. 3. By original sin, that is, the imputation of Adam's 

 guilt, aU are by nature in total depravity, which justifies the consign- 

 ment of the whole human race to eternal misery, and makes the elec- 

 tion of some to happiness an act of God's especial grace and good 

 pleasure. 4. All the elect are effectually called at some point of time 

 in life when the influence of the divine grace is first communicated. 

 5. As all who are not elected must be damned, so all those who are 

 elected must be saved : irremissible grace necessitates all their actions, 

 and inevitable salvation must terminate their " final perseverance." 



The following are some of the scriptural authorities alleged in sup- 

 port of these doctrines : Ephesians i. 4, 5, 11, some chosen before the 

 foundation of the world ; predestinated according to God's pleasure : 

 Acts' XT. 18, God's foreknowledge: Rom. viii. 29, 30, 33, those fore- 

 known, predestinated, called, justified, and glorified, are God's elect; 

 Math. xxv. 34, to inherit a kingdom eternally prepared for them : 

 Act xiii. 48, tin I to eternal life believe; Rom. ix. 11, 18, 



21, 22, 23, election before birth, and not according to works; God's 



power absolute ; mercifully favours some and hardens others. Divine 

 election is considered to be shown in the acceptance of Abel, and the 

 rejection of Cain ; in God's love of Jacob, and hatred of Esau (Malachi i. 

 2, 3) ; in the two men in the field ; the two women at the mill ; and 

 the two in a bed, of whom one was taken and the other left (Luke xvii. 

 34, 35 Matth. xxiv. 40, 41). 



Arminius, a professor in the University of Leyden, became, at the 

 commencement of the 17th century, the chief of Calvin's opponents, 

 who were thence called Arminians, and Remonstrants, from the remon- 

 strance which they addressed to the Dutch government against Cal- 

 viuistie intolerance. But the rigid Calvinists, headed by Goar (Goarites), 

 being by far the most powerful party, Armiuiug and his adherents 

 were condemned at the general synod of Dordrecht, convened for the 

 purpose in 1619. (Scott's 'Synod of Dort,' pp. 112-124.) At this 

 synod the standard points of strict Calvinism, with respect to election, 

 were determined upon and established. That the homilies and articles 

 of the English church, especially the seventeenth, are confirmatory of 

 the Calvinistic views of election, is beyond dispute, though many 

 Arminian expositors have made laborious efforts to explain away their 

 obvious original purport. Bishop Burnet, in his exposition of the 

 Articles, observes that the seventeenth, on Election and Predestination, 

 " has given occasion to one of the longest, the subtilest, and the most 

 intricate of all the questions in divinity." It displays in fact the 

 medulla of Calvin's Institutes, precisely involving all the doctrinal par- 

 ticulars of his " five points," and asserting that, to the elect predesti- 

 nation " is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort ; while to 

 the reprobate it is a most dangerous downfall, whereby the devil doth 

 thrust them into desperation and wretchedness." Baxter endeavoured 

 to reconcile the doctrines of Calvin and Arminius. Arnauld, in his 

 treatise on the subject, contends that the Calvinistic predestination 

 directly overthrows all the principles of morality ; though many others, 

 including Dr. Chalmers, in his lectures on Predestination, assert the 

 contrary. To enumerate the various modifications of this doctrine, 

 which at different times have beeu maintained by distinguished theolo- 

 gians, would be endless. Some, as Origen and the Catabaptists, have 

 denied that any one is predestined to perdition, and contended that 

 salvation will be finally extended to every one of God's creatures, 

 including the devil and all his angels. (Bullinger, ' Contra Catabap.') 

 The number of writers on the subject have been very great, and are 

 continually increasing, but the following references may be useful to 

 the studious inquirer : 



(Cudworth's free Thoughts on Election ; Diderot, Encyclop., articles 

 Predestination, &c. ; Bossuet, Jlitt. del Variations, liv. 14; Westminster 

 Assembly's Confession of Faith (Calvinistic) ; Mosheim's Eccles. Hist., 

 vols. iii. and iv. ; Authentic Documents relating to the Predestination 

 Controversy under Queen Mary, by Archbishop Lawrence, 1819 ; Jonathan 

 Edwards's Freedom of the Will, and other of his works ; the works of 

 Whitefield and Wesley ; and the Theological Essays of the Rev. F. D, 

 Maurice.) 



ELECTION (law) is when a man is left to his own free will to take 

 or do one thing or another which he pleases (Termes de la Ley) ; and he 

 who is to do the first act shall have the election. As if A covenants to 

 pay B a pound of pepper or saffron before Witsuntide, it is at the 

 election of A at all times before Witsuntide which of them he will 

 pay ; but if he does not pay either before the time fixed, then it is at 

 the election of B to sue for which he pleases. So, if a man give to 

 another one of his horses, the donee may take which he chooses ; but 

 if the donation be that he will give one of his horses (in the future 

 tense), then the election is in the donor. 



Courts of equity frequently apply the principle of election in cases 

 where a party has inconsistent rights, and compel him to elect which 

 he will enforce : as, if A by his will assumes to give an estate belong- 

 ing to B to C, and gives other benefits to B, B cannot obtain the 

 benefits given to him by the will unless he gives effect to the testator's 

 disposition to C. The principle of election is equally recognised in 

 courts of law, though they are seldom called to adjudicate upon it, 

 except where the alternative is very distinct, or the party has already 

 elected. Indeed this principle is of universal application, and pre- 

 vails in the laws of all countries ; it is applicable to all interests, 

 whether of married women or of infants ; to interests immediate, 

 remote, or contingent ; to copyhold as well as to freehold estates ; to 

 personalty as well as to realty ; to deeds as well as to wills. 



Courts of equity also will compel a plaintiff suing at law as well as 

 in equity, or in a foreign court as well as in the court in England, for 

 the same matter at the same time, to elect in which court he will 

 proceed, and will restrain him from pursuing his rights in all others. 

 There are some exceptions to this doctrine, as in the case of a mort- 

 gagee, who may proceed in equity for a foreclosure, and on his bond 

 or covenant at law at the same time ; but this arises from the differ- 

 ence of the remedy, and from the original agreement to give the 

 concurrent remedies : and even in such a case a Court of equity will 

 restrain a mortgagee from enforcing his judgment at law upon the 

 bond or covenant, if he is not prepared to deliver up the mortgaged 

 property and the title-deeds belonging to it. 



On Election under a will in the Roman law see 'Dig.' xxxiii. tit. 5, 

 De Optione vel Electione Legata : as to the French Law, see the ' Code 

 Napole'on,' art. 1189, Ac., Des Obligations Alternatives ; and for the 

 law of Scotland, ' Ersk. Inst.,' lib. iii. tit. 3, 8, and 9. 



