My whole mind rebelled against this teaching. I could not and did not believe it. Its logic was inexplicable, and the results reached were wholly contradictory, marked with great injustice, and unworthy of an omnipotent Being who had made His creatures and fixed them from all eternity in this dilemma. Besides, I was condemned by the rules of the college to attend the prayers and hear these sermons which would bring about such direful results if I were not elected to be saved; and if I did not obey the rules I was to lose my standing as, a scholar, and my money as a poverty-stricken student.
I gave this subject the most careful consideration. I read much that bore upon it, and among the rest I read “Edwards on the will,” a most powerful argument in favor of the doctrine, of logic inexorable, whose conclusions could not be denied by any thinking mind which granted his premise of an omniscient and omnipotent God who foresaw and determined everything from the beginning. I saw that I must contend against a doctrine established in 1532, by Calvin, then the acknowledged head of the reformed religion of what was then called “the monstrosity of papacy.” I saw that I was putting myself in opposition to the belief and platforms of a
