' " '•'" • . V!*!^.„.
HE
GE
A Bel
CO!
AT TBfE , PRESBYTERIAN HOUSE,
- 1334 Ghestnut Street, (2d atory,) Philadelphia,
.i ol&n W. Diears, Editor and Publisher.
B. B. Hotchbln, Editor of News and
Family Departments.
Bet* C. P. Bush, Corresponding Editor,
Rochester, N. Y.
ffatma® Kmfatftoiait.
THURSDAY, JULY 27, 1866,
CONTENTS OF INSIDE PAGES.
Seoon-d Page—The FAmiu Girdle
ilia footsteps of Decay—The Clouded Intellect—A
Story forCMd and Young-It takes Little Stiokato
Make a Firo— What Cuts Me Moat”—Love’s Min-
Mtry The Invalid—A Bible-reading, Iriahman-
Bmma and the Little Boy—The Power to say " No”
—Devotion of a Bird to her Young.
Rural Eoonomy: Philadelphia Raspberry—Ger
man Economy.
Third Page—Editor's,Table . aI
BlHi’ott’s "Critical and;Grammatical Commentary
oa fat. s Epistles to thePMlippians, Colossians,
Philemon-~rHeadley*s V Grant and Sherman,
Their Campaigns and Generals”—Pamphlets and
Periodicals. ' , , ..i '
Miscellaneous : r The Pope’s Lottery—Why did God
Lore Man. *
Sixth Page-—CtfaBESFONbENCE:
Search the Scriptures—Conversion of the Jews—
Men Wanted: fpr What: and of What Sort—Mr.
Hammonds Letter to the Children—Away from
Home.
Seventh Page—Religious Intelligence :
Presbyterian—Congregational—Methodist— Baptist
—Episcopal—German Reformed-Reformed Hutch
—Lutheran—Missionary—Roman Catholic —Miscel-
laneous-Items.
Aggravations of the guilt of
THE REBEL LEADERS.
For the sole offence of the overt act of
treason, confessedly without justification,
the traitor leaders deserve the severest pen
alties of the law. It is not necessary _to
prove that they have added a deeper hue
to their guilt by the employment of every
species of crime that could, in their opin
ion, be made accessory to the dire work in
which they were engaged. The atrocities,
to which rebel leaders have prompted their
agents jin Canada,in the citieg. of New
York and Philadelphia, in -the • National
Capital,'find,' above all, in their treatment
of prisoners, must not be held up to public
indignation, as the chief elements of their
guilt and the conclusive arguments for their
punishment. Had the leaders confined
themselves to honorable warfare alone, that
warfare waged without j ustification against
the; constituted authorities of their country,
would have been a capital offence,"which
the Government would be bound to punish
as Such.
But if rebellion itself against the free
government ot our country in the interest
of the slave power is such a crime, as we
have endeavored, in recent articles, to
prove it, and as the general sentiment of
the nation regards it, what wonder that it
should be prolific qf crimes of the most
startling and unparalleled character ? The
secret elements; of wrong from which the
rebellion itself was produced, contained the
seeds of every possible outrage of man
against his fellow. Did any one, from some
peculiar bent of his mind, some powerful
prejudice, or some political thecry, fail to
appreciate the guilt of the rebellion itself,
he needs but torn to the startling accom
paniments of arson, piracy, fever-poisoning,
assassination, cold-blooded cruelty and the
deliberate and pre-arranged, starvation of
captives taken in open warfare by tens of
thousands, to convince himself that no
mere political caprice, no mere venal of
fence of mistaken men, but that the most
diabolical and unpardonable wickedness is
at the bottom of the whole movement. The
unspeakable vilenefes and venom ,of the re
bellion could not be veiled even under the
guise of Southern chivalry. The chivalry
itself was but another name for arrogance
nursed by slavery—was but the rebellious
spirit premonitory of war in the assault
upon Senator Sumner and in a thousand
acts of violence, in duels; and challenges,
and brutal assaults upon free-speech all
over the land. The rebellion proved itself
to be the work of the 350,000 slavemasters
of the South; for in its essence and its
adjuncts it is only the natural development
of the proslavery spirit. It is the terrible,
brutal slave power armed and erected into
a military despotism. Rebellion is Ame
rican Slavery “ writ large”—that is all. It
could not be otherwise; when it took the
attitude of open rebellion, it must needs
reveal the “depths of Satan” inherent in
the system.
The history of wrong and outrage thus
-unfolded superadded to rebellion and mark
ing every step of its progress, is one at
•which coming generations will shudder. It
begins with the first Bull Run battle-field,
where rebel soldiers oarved into trinkets
the bones of our dead. Nay, it goes
■further back to the nameless outrages per
petrated upon helpless Union men and their
families mobbed, imprisoned, tortured,
Rung, drowned, shot, or more mercifully
-expatriated, in the mountains of East Ten
nessee, by the rapid Missijfcppi, in the
swamps of Arkansas, in the remote borders
-of Texas. Who can forget, what Ameri
f ean boy of ten years old but will remember
[to his dying day, the well-attested horrors
lof the capture of Fort Pillow, and will not
task for the fulfillment. of Mr.' Lincoln’s
>romise, that retribution should; be exacted
New Serffess, VoL 11, No. 30.
from, the Sepoy Forrest and his men ?*
.Passing oyer the attempts to burn populous
hotels, tp destroy peaceful cities, the .utter.
wantonness of the burning: of Chambers
burg, (the partly successful plot to introduce
yellow fever into our ' seaboard—passing
over the plot, successful to such- a melan
choly degree, to destroy, at one Alow, the
civil and and military heads of the Govern
ment, which we can afford to omit as the
principal authors have met the fate they
deserved, let us fix our view upon the
single enormity, of the deliberate and official
starvation of captured soldiers of the Na--
twnal army. ■ -i.-> : Ji_ '-x
One might have supposed, or, indeed,.
for the honor of humanity have, fervently '
wished, that, with the end of the will, and
the subsidence of excitement, the represen
tation made upon this painful subject would
have undergone some 'modification more
favorable to the rebels. But the-clearing
up of the atmosphere has only furnished
us with new proofs of the fact and of its
enormity.' It has become more than ever
a solemn duty for us to recognize the fact,
and to appreciate it to the fullest extent.
Let no .sentimental weakness, no > false
charity to the guilty, no- mistaken regard
for the honor of our country, induce us to
palliate, to white-wash, or to forget this
most extraordinary, most scandalous offence
against humanity. The only thing in the.
wide worldAjPmparable to it would be that,
when once committed, such an iniquity
could be extenuated and inadequately pun
ished by the Government.
The facts are established beyond doubt.;
First, the prisoners were stripped of all
their , property and almost reduced to naked
ness by the robbery of their clothing:
They were huddled in unroofed
enclosures, not, half of them provided with
tents, left to burrow in the sand or mud, or
to endure heat and cold, snow, frost and
rain, with less protection than wild beasts.
Their food was scandalously inadequate
in quantity, often putrid and alive with ver
min. They sought to allay the crav
ings of hunger by searching among filthy
offal for bones, by killing and devour
ing rats, dogs andcats. The “hospitals”
were without even straw for half of the
miserable sufferers to lie upon, without cold
water to wash their faces. When-Northern
friends sent supplies to thejfiglief of these
prisoners, the rebel authorities failed to de
liver them, allowed them to be piled up in
the very sight of the famished men for
whom they were intended, and even appro
priated their contents to their own use.
One of our officers confined in Libby
prison, saw his own civilian’s suit of cloth
ing, with his name written on the watch
pocket, upon the person of a rebel official.
Officers who were allowed to buy articles at
extravagant prices, found the marks of the
Sanitary Commission upon. them. The
gifts of the Christian Commissio^in tended
for the use of the prisoners, have been dis
covered stored away in a ruined condition
since the Capture of Richmond. ' Colonel
Robert M. Ould, a renegade from Wash
ington, : afterwards rebel Commissioner of
Exphange, received three hundred boxes:
for the prisoners every week. When the
Government, now so busy granting pardons,
gets ready to inquire into these outrages,
this gentleman will doubtless be required
to explain how they were disposed of. It is,
-however, but justice to say, in this connec
tion, that a statement ; from one of our
aigHprities has Appeared in the New York
JdWald, which not only vouches for Col.
Ould’s innocence in the matter of this ras
cality, but gives him credit for efforts to
put the supplies into the hands of the pris
oners. Still, nothing short of a strict in
vestigation will satisfy the demands of the
case.
The fact that, at one time, as many as
three thousand such boxes from the North
were piled up, unopened, in sight of the
famishing men for whom they were in
tended j the fact, that the rebel commissary
warehouse in Salisbury was filled to the
roof with corn and pork, and the - whole
surrounding country abounding with: pro
visions, while our brave boys were dying
in the prison-pens of starvation; th# fact,
that the farm-yards were full of grain
stocks, while .the miserable occupants of
the hospitals died more wretchedly than
cattle upon the bare floor, all this gives
amplest ground for the suspicion, almost
too horrible ■ to be entertained, that there
was a deliberate purpose on the part of the
rebel authorities to murder our prisoners by
the slow and torturing death of starvation.
“It is the same story everywhere, says
*A recent number of Chicago Repub
lican contains the following:—“ General For
rest has been in Vicksburg and has gone out
*hve. of the rebels who
took tort Pillow, the man who is responsible,
above all others, for the barbarous massacre
of that garrison, who committed that crime
because the victims were loyal white Tennes
seeans and black men, and. not because any
thing in the circumstances or laws of war
gave the color of excuse* to his ferocity, has
been atiiong us, and has gone in safety to his
plantationl”- -; :
PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, JULY 27, 18(^5.
•the Report of the Sanitary Commission*:— called the; attention .of that strangely .can
prisoners pf war treated worse than con- stituted body to’ the subject,.and insisted
victs, shut' up . either in suffocating build- -upon an immediate committee qf mvesti
ings, or in outdoor enclosures, without gation. I grieve to iuj that this was at
even the shelter that is provided for the Te/nsecZ, and I was mbst acrimonipusly
beasts of the field; unsupplied 5 with sufici- censured by several members forintroducing
ent food; supplied’with food and water the subject in the House at-all. 1 But I
injurious and even poisonous; compelled solved to have an investigation; and to put
to live in such personal uncleanliness as to a stop to such Vandalic atrocities if I could
generate vermin; compelled to -sleep on or at least to rescue my own character from
.floors often covered with human filth, or menaced infamy by withdrawing from all
on ground saturated with it; compelled to farther connection with the Confederate
breathe an air oppressed with an intolera- cause at once. I introduced a second reso
ble stench; hemmed in by a fatal dead- lutionnext morning, and finally succeeded
line, and in hourly danger of being shot by in getting the committee raised. You will
unrestrained and brutal guards; despon- find, iff addition to the report maja jy
■ dent even to madness; idiocy and suicide; committee,« considerable maps of testimony
sick of diseases (so congruous in character of'various , kinds reported with it; and among
as -to appear and spread ’like* the' plague) other documentary proofs, iheJtffhtlal com
caused by the torrid sun, by decaying food, munication of the Commissary General ,
by filth, bv vermin, by malaria, and by cold; above referred to,' and the endorsement of
removed at the last moment, and by hun- Mr. Seddon t\creon, in which he substan
dreds at a time, to hospitals corrupt as a tiallysays that, in his judgment, the time
sepulchre, there, with few remedies, little had arrived for retaliation upon the prison
cute and no sympathy, to die in wretched- ers of war of the enemy.”
ness and despair, not only among strangers, . ft is past question then, that the reßel
but among enemies too resentful either to j-j j - • , *,
have pity or to show mercy,” . authorities did deliberately perpetrate this
Since the close of the rebellion, South- enor J and that upon their souls lies the
erners Northerners, at the blo ° d of * vast multitude of victims, from
South, soMrof whom ..even claim a place thousand in number, slain
in the church and the ministry, have been by a proCess 10 '? hlcil the molting atro
understood to defend this policy of the rebel 0lt “ S of were merciful:
leaders; certainly we have never heard of might even imagine the Red men of
any Southern church organization in Dio- the “ brought back to the hunting
cese, Presbytery, Association, Conference or which a righteous God has
Assembly; we have never heard of any driven them for their cruelty, and as they
religious paper at the South protesting in are permitted togaze upon those worn and
the .name of charity and of humanity lan g u ishing forms, that slow and listless
against'these monstrous cruelties. The F ooessi °n of spectre-Uke meq from
blessed religion of Jesus was taught and! c°™tenan P es aH.the. light,of hope,
the God of Justice was appealed to, in be- ™ W might well imagine even
.half of the rebel.'cause, within sound of their unfeeling natures moved with amaze-,
the moans of slowly dying victims of un- ment and pity at the ,victims of a cruelty
paralleled cruelties, or of the crack of the refined-and more protracted than they
guard’s more merciful rifle, and of his oath had ever perpetrated, and more fiendish
of congratulation that he had succeeded in tban their heathen souls'had ever conceived,
killing one more of the miserable captives Fo , r such well authenticated, snehun
who had come too near the window of his P araUeled orimes against helpless prisoners,
crowded prison to catch a breath of fresh ever ? sentiment of justice, every fibre of
air. The worship of God in Richmond, out moral naturcs eries out for Punishment,
while Belle Isle and “ Libby” drew forth fche most. .prompt and severe within the
no expression of Christian sympathy, and. Could the guilty perpe,
ho manly protest of Christian indighation, : ' tratoife made *o feel/some of the very
Was mere mockery, was outrageous hypoc- P a ®S s they, “ drest in their little
risy. With men who winked at such a W fuffioritydared to inflict upon their
wrong, and yet call themselves Christians, follow countrymen, who would not heartily
we want no fellowship. “O my soul, come cr 7 -Amen ! The moral sense of the com
mit thou into theirsecret; unto their assem- muqlty will be wronged, injured, outraged,
bly, mine honor be not thou united! Cursed if matter is not made the subject of
be their anger, for it was fierce, and their s P eclfic inc L ul, 7> aad lf Government does
wrath, for it was cruel. I will divide them not Jealously take in hand the cause of the
in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.” Can mart 7 red m y nads of BeUe Isle i of Aader ‘
a just God regard such- services in any sonMlo > and of Salisbury, whose wasted
other light than that of‘lsa. i. IS. “Bring are faBt mingling with the soil, but
no more vain oblations. It is iniquity, even. wbose sou l s are surely under the altar, in
the'solemn meeting. Your new moons and the midst of high heaven, beneath the
your appointed feasts my spul liatetli; they e y e of a i ust iile a U heaven
are a trouble unto me, lam weary to bear waits in suspense for an answer to their
them. And when ye spread- forth your or “How long, 0 Lord, holy and true,
hands, I will hide mine eyes from’you; yeaf dos t thou not judgeand avenge our blood
when ye make many prayers, I will not on them that dwell on the earth. One
hear ; your hands are full of blood. ” 31111084 ftels tha t the whole activity of the
It will be remembered that-the rebel national Government in providing the lately
Congress was indeed, at a late day, stirred re t>el States with the machinery of Govern
np by %e former Senator Foote, of Missis- men4 i and in facilitating the pardon of offem
sippi, to some superficial inquiry into these der8 > 4133 1 16611 mere child’s play, while de
oomplaints, and a congressional report, mands of justice 4 so awful and so compre
smoothing over the dreadful truth, was tensive remain unsatisfied. It is but the
brought in. Mr. Foote himself, who; we tithing of mint, anise and cummin, while
believe has never taken the oath of alle- 4be weightier matters of the law are
gianee to the national Government, and neglected.
whose testimony is therefore that of a?rebel,
gives us the following confirmation of our
suspicions of a deliberate purpose on the
part of rebel authorities to destroy our
prisoners by starvation and cruelty.
in the form of a recent letter to the New
York Herald.
Touching the Congressional report
referred to, I have this to say-: A.
month or two anterior to the date of sate
report, I learned from a government officer
of respectability, that the prisoners of'wai-
then confined in and about Richmond were
suffering severely for want of provisions
He told me further, that it was manifest to
him that a systematic scheme was on foot for
subjecting these unfortunate men to starva
tion ; that the Commissary General, Mr.
Northup, (a most wicked and heartless
wretch,) had addressed a communication to
Mr. Seddon, the Secretary of War, propo
sing to withhold meat altogether from mili
tary prisoners then 'in custody, and to
give them nothing but bread and vege
tables, and that Mr. Seddon had endorsed
the document containing this recommendation
affirmatively. I learned further, that by
calling upon Major Ould, the Commissioner
for Exchange of prisoners, I would be able
to obtain further information orchis sub
ject. I went to Major Ould immediately,
and obtained the desired information. Being
utterly unwilling to countenance such bar-
barity foma moment, regarding indeed the
honor of lie whole South as concerned in
the affair, I proceeded without delay to the
hall of the House of Representatives,
* The Report of the Commission of In
quiry appointed by, the Sanitary Commission
to inquire into the facts of the treatment of
our prisoners, published at LitteWs Living
Age office ', should be read and pondered by
every one desiring to- get at the real-awimits
of .the rebellion ;. and to learn the Fornble
depth-to which it deliberately descended. ■.
* NEW ENGLAND THEOLOGY.*
An original system of theology, recog
nized and accepted as such even in Europe,
was not certainly a phenomenon to be won
dered at, in this country. The bonds cast
off by the church in emigrating to the
new world, the elasticity of mind conse
t quent upon such a change, the wide and
i novel prospects openings before man in the
i new world,-Joined with great revivals,
1 might .well, set the ratiocinative powers of
the descendants of the pilgrims into active
' operation upon theological subjects. These
men seem to have brought along with their
settled Calvinisti,c systems, across the ocean,
the conviction of John Robinson, that
more light would yet break forth from
God'stword; they thoroughly believed that
theology is an improvable scienoe.
The great leader in theological specula
tion in the new world, and indeed in the
Anglo-Saxon race in the eighteenth century,
was Jonathan Edwards. Robert Hall
declared that he considered him K the
greatest of the sons of men.” Bickersteth
attributes to ‘ him the' formation of “a
new and higher school in divinity, to which
the great body of evangelical authors who
have since, lived have been indebted.”
Sir James Mackintosh spoke of “ his power
of subtile argument, perhaps unmatched,
certainly unsurpassed among men.”
Jonathan Edwards was truly a Calvinist,
and is, we : believe, recognized fully as such
by those who repudiate the school of the
ology which claims the endorsement; of his
* Bibliotheca Sacra for July,. Art. IV.
_ Prof.H. B. Smith’s Hagenbach 2, §285, A. e.
Genesee Evangelist, ISTo. 1001.
name/ That school became better known,
and after its later .modifications, is more
truthfully described, as the. New England
Theology. In this school Hopkins,. Bel
lamy, the younger Edwards, Emmons,
Pres. D wight, and others were distinguished
collaborators ; they are represented in part
by Nathaniel W. Taylor, of New Haven
Seminary, and by Professor Park, of An
dover Seminary, in later times.
A summary view of what, at this time,
inay be regarded as the true Edwardean
theology, with those, later modifications
whibli may be viewed as a true development,
not a corruption, of its original principles,
and which earn for it the more general
title at the head of this article, must, we
think, prove interesting and valuable.
With them is connected that theological
movement which,, in part, led to the di
vision of the Presbyterian Church. It
was New England leaven which largely
contributed to constitute the “ New School"
branch of the Church;, or rather the re
action of a foreign-bred conservatism against
the ground-principle of the American Pres
byterian Church, of a toleration of diversi
ties in non-essentials of doctrine—it being
precisely among these non-essential particu
lars of Calvmistic doctrine. that the New
England theology wrought its seriouslnno
vations. The foreign elements not com
prehending, and not appreciating, the beau
. tiful adaptedness of the American Church
to its position ,in a new country, and to a
better period of the Christian world, with
an . exaggerated conscientiousness, agitated
until they had cast out pretty much that
portion of the Church which believed in
the - practicability of an advancement in
scientific theology upon the basis of genuine
Calvinism. Hence we still turn with in
terest to the Theology of New England,
and welcome anysoholarly effort to present
the movement in its entireness.
This tocology begins with anthropology.
Says Professor Smith in his edition of
Hagenbach, vol. ii. p. 435, “The separa
tion of the Church from the State, the un
exampled immigration, and the rapid growth
of the country made the pressure to come
upon the practical rather than the theo
retical aspects of Christian truth. Hence
the most thorough discussions and contro
versies have been chiefly upon questions of
anthropology and soteriology."
The foundations of this new system were
laid in the Doctrine of Virtue. One of
President Edwards’ great achievements is
his Treatise on the Nature of Virtue. Virtue
is resolved, according to this theory, into
“a disposition to love being in general."
It is essential to virtue that the good of being
without reference to character should be
its primary object. This is love of benevo
lence. The secondary form of virtue, or
love of complacence, is love for beings on
account of their holiness or benevolence.
Its object is not simply being, but benevolent
being. As G-od is the greatest, the infinite
being, and as he is infinitely benevolent,
“ all true virtue consists radically, essen
tially, and, as it were, summarily” in supreme
love of God, or the love of benevolence and
of complacence. Virtue is not -instinctive
and involuntary. It is a free choice or pre
ference of the higher to the lower good, of
the general to the private interest. These
moralists recognize no disposition, or inclj
tations aside from the voluntary action of
the will. . A taste or relish for holiness
from which arises holy and virtuous pur
pose as a secondary phenomenon, is also
rejected by this Philosophy. •
In this theory, virtue itself is the highest
good, though general happiness is the ulti
mate aim of virtue. The general happi
ness is a great good; but the benevolence
which seeks it is a greater good.
This theory of morals lays the founda
tion for another doctrine, still in the region
of anthropology: the Nature of Sin. As
might be anticipated, sin, the opposite of
holiness, is selfishness, or inordinate self
love. All diversified forms of sin have
their foot in, and derive their character
from, selfishness. Moreover, all sin is vol
untary. It lies in the generic choice, the
governing purpose, or, as Edwards said) in
the “ immanent acts" of the will. Sin is
not in the faculty of the will, nor in a
natural incapacity, nor in involuntary acts
or dispositions prior to all choices. This
school sharply discriminates between vol
untary exercises and that which causes or
occasions them; and insists that sin and
holiness consists wholly in the former and
not at all in the latter, whatever it may be,
whether an involuntary act, or disposition,
or law of nature, or divine constitution, or
direct divine influence. “All sin consists
in sinning.”
Coming upon the mysterious ground of
Original Sin , we find ourselves chronolo
gically at the point where this great work
of the revision. of Calyinistio doctrine was
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commended by. Edwards. The doctrine of
Original Sin had to be defended against
Arminians, and Edwards thought himseli
constrained to find a more philosophical
basis for it. Holding fast, the doctrine
that sin is voluntary, and also believing that
men are born with a voluntary sinful dispo
sition, he took refuge in the transcendental
dogma already accepted by Augustine and
Stapfer,* that human nature, beginning with
Adam, is a unit and identical in all indi
viduals of the race; that the posterity of
Adam were literally in him and with him,
voluntarily sharing in the primal trans
gression, Adam’s act being literally the act
of all. There is no need of a doctrine ot
imputation, or such a doctrine sinks at once
to a secondary position. Nothing is imputed
but what actually appertains to the charac
ter. All men are guilty of Adam’s sin
because they all committed it.
But Edwards utterly failed to establish
this view in the New England Theology.
We have not space to follow the various
modifications which his theory underwent
at the hands of his followers, especially
Hopkins, Dwight, Emmons, and Taylor, of
New Haven. Dr. Fisk, in the Bibliotheca,
states the prevalent view of those who now
adopt the New England Theology on this
point to be, “ that God in his sovereign
wisdom so made Adam the head and repre
sentative of the race, that if he sinned, the
race would be constituted sinners. [Hop
kins.] He did sin, and- they in conse
quence are constituted sinners, by receiving
through their natural connection with him,
an impaired and vitiated nature, which
nature renders it certain that in all the
appropriate circumstances of their being,
left to themselver, they will sin in all their
moral acts.” [N. W. Taylor.]
Jonathan Edwards truly would fail to
recognize any feature of his own realistic
theory in this less philosophically exact, but
more prudent statement of those who
wished to be.regarded as his followers.
His teachings on ability and inability
were far more fortunate. They have held
their own unchanged to this day. In op
position Jo the old theory, that man by the
fall lost every power to obey God, and
needed an actual reinforcement of natural
power, he taught that man’s natural powers
remained undestroyed and substantially
unimpaired after the fall, and that what
he lost by that catastrophe was moral ability.
There is no want of faculties, or capabili
ties, or opportunities. Sinners have every
thing needful for actual obedience except a
right will or disposition of the heart. They
are not in the least degree inclined, dis
posed, or willing to love and obey God.
They are wholly and fixedly averse from
good. This -is called moral inability. “No
class of divines,” says Dr. Fiske, “have
with greater emphasis affirmed the moral
inability of sinners; that is their total, and
unvarying, and intense disinclination to
love and serve God. It is a sinful and
wholly inexcusable inability. It is not a
misfortune visited upon them prior to, and
-irrespective of their own free, sinful choice.
It is their own free, sinful choice for which
they are wholly to blame. It is their total
depravity, voluntary alike in its origin and
continuance.”
So far, we have followed our chief au
thority in the j ßibliotheca Sacra , where for
the present he stops. As the marvellous
doctrinal activity which produced the New
England Theology has almost, entirely
cea3ed, it is for the critic to arise to set the
system as such, and in its historical phases,
in its true light. We must have a clear
apprehension of the results and services of
the past, before we can profitably attempt
an advance upon the work. Jt is not
necessary that we should endorse the New
England Theology in all its parts, in order
to acknowledge the power, value, and im
portance of the movement as a part of the
theological development of the age and
church. For ourselves, we'are thankful
for it; and confess ourselves not prepared
to part with quite so much of it as high
authorities in our church seem ready to
sacrifice. But aside from such considera
tions we follow with interest those active,
and, as we think, in the main, just, sound,
and wholesome movements of the sanctified
intellect of one branch of the Calvinistic
body in America j and wonderingly contrast
it with the dog-in-the-manger policy of
another class of theologians, who have held
it as their most solemn duty to keep all the
doors of theological speculation barred, to
hold up the human systems of centuries
past as the end of all perfection, to bring
the heaviest ecclesiastical penalties to bear
upon such of their associates as were large
minded enough to share in the movement,
or, in lieu of that, to revolutionize the
Church, and to fasten upon Presbyterianism
a name for bigotry and injustice -which
will,dishonor it for generations.'
* Shedd’s History of Doctrine, ii, 165. s