Fatalism, indeed, is
no modern invention, being as old as humanity itself, perhaps,
older. We find it as strongly inculcated by the Greek tragic poet, as
by the modern Calvinist. But the peculiar colors in which we see it
dressed, are derived from the revolt of men's minds against the Romish
doctrine as to good works. Among these, penance, fasting, alms,
pilgrimages, bounty to the church and its servants, come first. This
leads to the keeping of a debt and credit account with heaven; and to
the saints is attributed the power of buying up a stock of works of
supererogation, by which they acquire a mediatory power in themselves.
Human reason has been likened to a drunken clown, who if you help him
up on one side of his horse, falls over on the other. To deter men
from the presumptuous sin of attributing merit to their actions, the
reformers, and also individuals and even orders in the church, have
labored to prove that man acts only in obedience to preordained
decree, and can of himself do nothing good; yet their logic charges
him freely with the _guilt_ of sinning by necessity. I cannot for the
life of me distinguish between fatalism and predestination.
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