these ends, we say, he is predestinated either to life or to death."1

Dr. W. B. Pope2 has recorded it as a fact that "Calvin himself protested unconsciously against all among his followers who should soften his system of doctrine: 'Many so preach election as to deny that any man is reprobated; but very ignorantly and childishly, since election itself would not stand unless opposed to reprobation.'" These citations from the Institutes seem clearly to establish the fact that Calvin was a supralapsarian some five years before his death, when he "put the finishing hand" "with his last corrections and additions" to his Institutes, "the first and grandest work of systematie divinity."

Dr. Schaff, the great Presbyterian historian, shows that "Calvin carried the doctrine of the divine decrees beyond the Augus

I

Ibid., Chap xxi., Sec. 5.

2 Compendium of Christian Theology, Vol. II.,

p. 353.

3 Creeds of Christendom, Vol. I., p. 453.

tinian infralapsarianism, which makes the fall of Adam the object of a permissive or passive decree, and teaches the preterition rather than the reprobation of the wicked, to the very verge of supralapsarianism, which traces even the first sin to an efficient or positive decree, analogous to that of election."

1

Dr. Henry J. Van Dyke, an eminent Presbyterian divine, and Moderator of the General Assembly of the (Northern) Presbyterian Church, in 1876, believes that Calvin was a supralapsarian. With a degree of emphasis, he says: "For myself I am free to declare that I utterly reject and loathe the theory, which my venerated teacher [Dr. Charles Hodge] declares to be 'repugnant, to the nature of God and unscriptural.' If for rejecting this doctrine of Calvin any one accuses me of being no longer a Calvinist, the charge will not trouble me much. John Calvin was not crucified for me, neither was I baptized in his name."

I Variations of Calvinism, p. 24.

V.

Calvin Taught That Some Infants Dying in Infancy Are Lost.

Having learned the doctrine of Calvin in reference to God's decrees, there is no occasion for surprise when his logical application shuts some of those who die in infancy out of heaven. But a few citations from his writings will make his position on this subject more apparent.

"Therefore infants themselves, as they bring their condemnation into the world. with them, are rendered obnoxious to punishment by their own sinfulness, not by the sinfulness of another. For though they have not yet produced the fruits of their iniquity, yet they have the seed of it within them; even their whole nature is as it were a seed of sin, and therefore cannot but be odious and abominable to Cod. Whence it follows, that it is properly accounted sin

in the sight of God, because there could be no guilt without crime." The ground of the condemnation of infants, according to the teaching of this language, grows out of his doctrine of original sin, in which, as has already been shown, he agreed substantially with Augustine. Moreover, except for the doctrine of election, all who die in infancy must be lost.

"And for this reason, Christ was sanctified from his earliest infancy, that he might sanctify in himself all his elect, of every age, without any difference. For as, in order to obliterate the guilt of the transgression which had been perpetrated in our flesh, he assumed to himself that very flesh, that he might perform a perfect obedience in it, on our account, and in our stead, so he was conceived of the Holy Spirit, that having the whole body which he assumed, fully endued with the sanctity of the Spirit, he might communicate the same to us. If Christ exhibits a perfect exemplar of all the

Institutes, Book II., Chap. i., Sec. 8.

graces which God bestows upon his children, he will also furnish us with a proof that the age of infancy is not altogether incompatible with sanctification. But, however this may be, we consider it as clear, beyond all controversy, that not one of the elect is called out of the present life without having been previously regenerated and sanctified by the Spirit of God." Since all have "the seed" of iniquity in them, those who are received into heaven must have "been previously regenerated and sanctified by the Spirit of God;" and this is as true of infants as it is of those who have reached a mature age.

"It is certain that some infants are saved; and that they are previously regenerated by the Lord, is beyond all doubt." In the last quotation it was seen that all, both infants and adults, are involved in original sin, and that those who are saved must be regenerated. In this passage it is asserted that some (not all) infants are saved, being

2 Ibid., Book IV., Chap. xvi., Sec. 18.