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In Reply to: some logic from ***** posted by #####
Unfortunately for the world, about the beginning of the
sixteenth century, a man by the name of Gerard Chauvin was married
to Jeanne Lefranc, and still more unfortunately for the world, the
fruit of this marriage was a son, called John Chauvin, who
afterwards became famous as John Calvin, the founder of the
Presbyterian Church.This man forged five fetters for the brain. These fetters he
called points. That is to say, predestination, particular
redemption, total depravity, irresistible grace, and the
perseverance of the saints. About the neck of each follower he put
a collar bristling with these live iron points. The presence of all
these points on the collar is still the test of orthodoxy in the
church he founded. This man, when in the flush of youth, was
elected to the office of preacher in Geneva. He at once, in union
with Farel, drew up a condensed statement of the Presbyterian
doctrine, and all the citizens of Geneva, on pain of banishment,
were compelled to take an oath that they believed this statement.
Of this proceeding Calvin very innocently remarked that it produced
great satisfaction. A man named Caroli had the audacity to dispute
with Calvin. For this outrage he was banished.To show you what great subjects occupied the attention of
Calvin, it is only necessary to state that he furiously discussed
the question as to whether the sacramental bread should be leavened
or unleavened. He drew up laws regulating the cut of the citizens'
clothes, and prescribing their diet, and all those whose garments
were not in the Calvin fashion were refused the sacrament. At last,
the people becoming tired of this petty theological tyranny,
banished Calvin. In a few years, however, he was recalled and
received with great enthusiasm. After this he was supreme, and the
will of Calvin became the law of Geneva.Under his benign administration, James Gruet was beheaded
because he had written some profane verses. The slightest word
against Calvin or his absurd doctrines was punished as a crime.In 1553 a man was tried at Vienna by the Catholic Church for
heresy. He was convicted and sentenced to death by burning. It was
apparently his good fortune to escape. Pursued by the sleuth hounds
of intolerance he fled to Geneva for protection. A dove flying from
hawks, sought safety in the nest of a vulture. This fugitive from
the cruelty of Rome asked shelter from John Calvin, who had written
a book in favor of religious toleration. Serviettes had forgotten
that this book was written by Calvin when in the minority; that it
was written in weakness to be forgotten in power; that it was
produced by fear instead of principle. He did not know that Calvin
had caused his arrest at Vienna, in France, and had sent a copy of his work, which was claimed to be blasphemous, to the archbishop.
He did not then know that the Protestant Calvin was acting as one
of the detectives of the Catholic Church, and had been instrumental
in procuring his conviction for heresy. Ignorant of all this
unspeakable infamy, he put himself in the power of this very
Calvin. The maker of the Presbyterian creed caused the fugitive
Serviettes to be arrested for blasphemy. He was tried. Calvin was
his accuser. He was convicted and condemned to death by fire. On
the morning of the fatal day, Calvin saw him, and Serviettes, the
victim, asked forgiveness of Calvin, the murderer. Serviettes was
bound to the stake, and the fagots were lighted. The wind carried
the flames somewhat away from his body, so that he slowly roasted
for hours. Vainly he implored a speedy death. At last the flames
climbed round his form; through smoke and fire his murderers saw a
white heroic face. And there they watched until a man became a
charred and shriveled mass.Liberty was banished from Geneva, and nothing but
Presbyterianism was left. Honor, justice, mercy, reason and charity
were all exiled; but the five points of predestination, particular
redemption, irresistible grace, total depravity, and the certain
perseverance of the saints remained instead.Calvin founded a little theocracy, modeled after the Old
Testament, and succeeded in erecting the most detestable government
that ever existed, except the one from which it was copied.Against all this intolerance, one man, a minister, raised his
voice. The name of this man should never be forgotten. It was
Castalio. This brave man had the goodness and the courage to
declare the innocence of honest error. He was the first of the so-
called reformers to take this noble ground. I wish I had the genius
to pay a fitting tribute to his memory. Perhaps it would be
impossible to pay him a grander compliment than to say. Castalio
was in all things the opposite of Calvin. To plead for the right of
individual judgment was considered a crime, and Castalio was driven
from Geneva by John Calvin. By him he was denounced as a child of
the devil, as a dog of Satan, as a beast from hell, and as one who,
by this horrid blasphemy of the innocence of honest error,
crucified Christ afresh, and by him he was pursued until rescued by
the hand of death.Upon the name of Castalio, Calvin heaped every epithet, until
his malice was nearly satisfied and his imagination entirely
exhausted. It is impossible to conceive how human nature can become
so frightfully perverted as to pursue a fellow-man with the
malignity of a fiend, simply because he is good, just, and generous.Calvin was of a pallid, bloodless complexion, thin, sickly,
irritable, gloomy, impatient, egotistic, tyrannical, heartless, and
infamous. He was a strange compound of revengeful morality,
malicious forgiveness, ferocious charity, egotistic humility, and
a kind of hellish justice. In other words. he was as near like the
God of the Old Testament as his health permitted. The best thing,
however, about the Presbyterians of Geneva was, that they denied
the power of the Pope, and the best thing about the Pope was, that
he was not a Presbyterian.The doctrines of Calvin spread rapidly, and were eagerly
accepted by multitudes on the continent; but Scotland, in a few
years, became the real fortress of Presbyterianism. The Scotch
succeeded in establishing the same kind of theocracy that
flourished in Geneva. The clergy took possession and control of
everybody and everything. It is impossible to exaggerate the mental
degradation, the abject superstition of the people of Scotland
during the reign of Presbyterianism. Heretics were hunted and
devoured as though they had been wild beasts. The gloomy insanity
of Presbyterianism took possession of a great majority of the
people. They regarded their ministers as the Jews did Moses and
Aaron. They believed that they were the especial agents of God, and
that whatsoever they bound in Scotland would be bound in heaven.
There was not one particle of intellectual freedom. No man was
allowed to differ with the church, or to even contradict a priest.
Had Presbyterianism maintained its ascendancy, Scotland would have
been peopled by savages today.The revengeful spirit of Calvin took possession of the
Puritans, and caused them to redden the soil of the New World with
the brave blood of honest men. Clinging to the five points of
Calvin, they too established governments in accordance with the
teachings of the Old Testament. They too attached the penalty of
death to the expression of honest thought. They too believed their
church supreme, and exerted all their power to curse this continent
with a spiritual despotism as infamous as it was absurd. They
believed with Luther that universal toleration is universal error,
and universal error is universal hell. Toleration was denounced as
a crime.Fortunately for us, civilization has had a softening effect
even upon the Presbyterian Church. To the ennobling influence of
the arts and sciences the savage spirit of Calvinism has, in some
slight degree, succumbed. True, the old creed remains substantially
as it was written, but by a kind of tacit understanding it has come
to be regarded as a relic of the past. The cry of "heresy" has been
growing fainter and fainter, and, as a consequence, the ministers
of that denomination have ventured, now and then, to express doubts
as to the damnation of infants, and the doctrine of total
depravity. The fact is, the old ideas became a little monotonous to
the people. The fall of man, the scheme of redemption and
irresistible grace, began to have a familiar sound. The preachers
told the old stories while the congregations slept. Some of the
ministers became tired of these stories themselves. The five points
grew dull, and they felt that nothing short of irresistible grace
could bear this endless repetition. The outside world was full of
progress, and in every direction men advanced, while this church,
anchored to a creed, idly rotted at the shore. Other denominations,
imbued some little with the spirit of investigation, were springing
up on every side, while the old Presbyterian ark rested on the
Ararat of the past, filled with the theological monsters of another age.Lured by the splendors of the outer world, tempted by the
achievements of science, longing to feel the throb and heat of the
mighty march of the human race, a few of the ministers of this
conservative denomination were compelled, by irresistible sense, to
say a few words in harmony with the splendid ideas of to-day.These utterances have upon several occasions so nearly wakened
some of the members that, rubbing their eyes, they have feebly
inquired whether these grand ideas were not somewhat heretical.
These ministers found that just in the proportion that their
orthodoxy decreased, their congregations increased. Those who dealt
in the pure unadulterated article found themselves demonstrating
the five points to a less number of hearers than they had points.
Stung to madness by this bitter truth this galling contrast, this
harassing fact, the really orthodox have raised the cry of heresy,
and expect with this cry to seal the lips of honest men. One of the
Presbyterian ministers, and one who has been enjoying the luxury of
a little honest thought, and the real rapture of expressing it, has
already been indicted, and is about to be tried by the Presbyter of
Illinois. He is charged --First, With having neglected to preach that most comforting
and consoling truth, the eternal damnation of the soul.Surely, that man must be a monster who could wish to blot this
blessed doctrine out and rob earth's wretched children of this
blissful hope!Who can estimate the misery that has been caused by this most
infamous doctrine of eternal punishment? Think of the lives it has
blighted, of the tears it has caused -- of the agony it has
produced. Think of the millions who have been driven to insanity by
this most terrible of dogmas. This doctrine renders God the basest
and most cruel being in the universe. Compared with him, the most
frightful deities of the most barbarous and degraded tribes are
miracles of goodness and mercy. There is nothing more degrading
than to worship such a god. Lower than this the soul can never
sink. If the doctrine of eternal damnation is true, let me share
the fate of the unconverted; let me have my portion in hell, rather
than in heaven with a god infamous enough to inflict eternal misery
upon any of the sons of men.