SIDE ISSUES ELIMINATED 193 



determine the content of the doctrine of sin.^ The cau- 

 tion and vagueness with which the subject of predesti- | 

 nation is handled in one of our Articles of Religion is 

 noticeable; and that article proved to be quite unsatis- 

 fying to those who at the time of its publication were 

 agitating the question. The seventeenth article indeed 

 acknowledges that God has chosen the subjects of His 

 saving grace from eternity, and it could hardly acknowl- 

 edge less if the subject were handled in any manner; 

 and it goes on to speak of the comfort which the sub- 

 jects of grace feel in the contemplation of this mystery. 

 But, lest such acknowledgment should seem to counte- 

 nance the very precise definitions of that age, the article 

 proceeds to point out the baneful effects upon sinners 

 of speculation concerning the subject, and reminds us 



1 The best treatment of the subject is perhaps J. B. Mozley, 

 Augustinian Doctrine of Predestination — a work to which I have 

 frequently referred in these pages. The subject should in the first 

 place be studied historically, with the aid of such histories of doc- 

 trine as those of Harnack, Hagenbach, Neander, and Bethune- 

 Baker. 



Predestination may be accepted in three forms: {a) Of individuals 

 and races to especial privileges in this world — e.g., of Israel, and of 

 individuals to baptismal grace; {b) Of the Church, in her corporate 

 capacity, to glory; (c) Of individuals, as such, to glory. Scripture 

 is most frequently concerned with (a) and (&) and defines practically 

 nothing with reference to (c). The controversies of the Augustin- 

 ian and subsequent ages have to do with (c). They lie chiefly (i) 

 between absolute predestination, having no reference to human merits, 

 and predestination based upon knowledge of human conduct; (2) 

 between predestination to glory — no other predestination being 

 involved, — and a double predestination of certain to glory and of 

 the rest to damnation. No one of these conflicting positions is sup- 

 ported by catholic consent. 



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