334 ESSAYS IN PHILOSOPHY 



return to an unmitigated Predestinationism. Nor 

 may this stop short of foreordination to Reprobation 

 as well as to Election — a foreordination not simply 

 " supralapsarian," but precedent to creation itself. 

 The separation of the Sheep from the Goats must 

 be from "before the foundation of the world," and 

 the Elect must be created " unto life everlasting," 

 while the reprobate are created " unto shame and 

 everlasting contempt." 



Thus we see that not even Divine agency can give 

 rise to another self-active intelligence by -SiXsy produc- 

 tive act. Such creation, by whomsoever it might 

 be, could only apply to the existence of mere tilings, 

 things lifeless and inorganic, and never to that which 

 has "life in itself." Much less could regeneration, 

 the bringing-on of voluntary repentance and genuine 

 reformation in the soul, be by any sort of efficient 

 causality, — a truth to which modern theology has 

 evidently for some time been alive, as its forward 

 movement is keyed upon the increasing recognition 

 of the metaphor in the name. These thoughts, how- 

 ever incontrovertible they may be, are no doubt stag- 

 gering thoughts, so much are we of old habituated to 

 calling regeneration the "work" of the Holy Spirit, 

 and to naming man the "creature" of God, and God 

 his "maker." Still, staggering though they be, they 

 must be true if human freedom is to be a fact ; and 

 that human freedom is to be a fact, the modern con- 



