Benjamnin F. Butler, Butler's Book: Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences of Major-General Benjamin Butler

[61] were of two classes in this regard,--one from the very beginning elected to be saved and to enjoy the presence of God in the mansions of heaven, and the other class, very much the larger, elected from the beginning to be damned to eternal torment in hell, which was a lake of fire and brimstone. Also, whoever had the means of grace before him,--to wit, sermons and teachings of divine truths,--who did not allow such teachings to bring him to a state of grace, would find hell very much hotter for him than would the poor heathen who had never had the Word of God preached to him, and who knew nothing of the jeopardy in which he stood. If I were elected to be saved, the sermons would do me no good, except, perhaps, to make heaven somewhat more pleasant. But where I was to go could not be changed, yet I was to pray God's mercy wherever I might be; that is, I must ask that He, in His mercy for a single person, would alter His divine laws made from the beginning and unalterable. It was my duty to make these useless trials and hear these teachings, the result of which might be to add to the miseries of the torment of the lake into which I was to be cast.

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