This, then, is what Calvin says—‘The gate of paradise is open to us; the Lord is willing to receive us.’ What! some will say, does he give up the doctrine of the election of God, and of the necessity of the operation of the Holy Spirit for the regeneration of man? Certainly not. Calvin believed, in its full import, this saying of the Saviour—‘You have not chosen me, _I have chosen you_.’ It has been acknowledged by men endowed with a fine intellect, who at the same time did not hold the Christian faith, that there is an election of God, not only in the sphere of grace, but in that of creation. One of them has said—‘The life of children, who differ _so much from each other, although they spring from the same stock_, and pass through a similar course of education, is well adapted to confirm the followers of Augustine in their doctrine. Minds are not wanting that take offence every time they hear the doctrine of grace set forth without disguise. Have these same minds ever reflected on that strange fatality which stamps us with a mark distinct and deep from our birth and our infancy? If these minds are religious, to what doctrine will they have recourse (to explain this) which does not resolve itself into the doctrine of grace?‘[178] [Sidenote: Calvinism A Kind Of Madness.] Calvin said to Christians, in conformity with the Scriptures, that it is God who seeks them and saves them; and that this goodwill of God ought to make them rejoice, _deliver them from fears in the midst of so many perils, and render them invincible in the midst of so many snares and deadly assaults_. But he makes a distinction. There are the hidden things of God, which are a mystery, and of these he says—‘Those who enter into the eternal council of God _thrust themselves into a deadly abyss_.’ Then there are the things which are known, which are seen in man, and are plain. ‘Let us contemplate the cause of the condemnation of man in his depraved nature, in which it is manifest, rather than search for it in the predestination of God, in which it is hidden and _altogether incomprehensible_.’[179] He is even angry with those who want to know ‘things which it is neither lawful nor possible to know (predestination). _Ignorance_,’ says he, ‘_of these things_ is _learning_, but _craving to know them is a kind of madness_.’[180] It is a singular fact that what Calvin indignantly calls a madness should afterwards be named _Calvinism_. The reformer sets himself against this craving as a raging madness, and yet it is of this very madness that he is accused.