It was usual with most of the Puritan Divines, in harmony with the order of thought pursued in the Westminster formularies, to start with the doctrine of the Divine decrees; to regard, as the foundation of all theology, the idea of God having resolved to save a certain number of human beings; and to view all the processes of redeeming love, as simply designed to accomplish that resolution. They did not deny the responsibility of all men in a certain sense, and they were ready to maintain the righteousness of God, as they understood it, against any who dared to impugn that righteousness. But generally they did not look at the moral government of God as dealing with mankind in general, on common grounds of justice, love, and mercy; they did not regard the Gospel as a gracious law for a fallen race; they did not consider it as alike the duty and the privilege of every sinful child of Adam, to accept the offer of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. There is a deeper _theological_ difference between ancient and modern Calvinists than some suppose--a difference appearing even more in the order, the relations, and the turns of thought touching salvation, than in any scientific mode of expressing it. But there remains a strong _religious_ resemblance between the two classes. What most of the old doctrinal Puritans put first as the premises leading to certain conclusions, many of what may be called the new doctrinal Puritans put last, as a conclusion drawn from certain premises. In a careful study of the whole Bible, as a revelation of God’s government of the whole world, they find passages which relate to mysterious operations of grace upon human minds; and after a careful analysis of all human and secondary causes, at work in the world’s history, or at work in private experience, they discover rightly, in my opinion, a residuum which points to what is not human, but Divine and absolute; and in this they recognize the mysterious sovereign grace of God. Further, in those passages of Scripture which speak of an election, a predestination, and a purpose before the world began, they see a statement of the fact, that what God does in time He from eternity meant to do; that the knowledge and mercy, that the wisdom and the will of the Infinite and Eternal One, must have been ever the same as they are now. And also, the present disciples of this Puritan faith, like the former, delight to dwell upon the cause and character of salvation, more even than upon its consequences in their own experience and hopes; and they are not weary, and I hope never will be, of adoring the Divine love, righteousness, and power in which their redemption originated, and on which it must for ever rest. [Sidenote: JOHN OWEN.]