The Bell Witch: The Full Account (49 page)

Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet

choose Israel;” because, contemplating a future

period, He declares that the collection of the

residue of the people, whom He had appeared to

have forsaken; would be a sign of the stable and

sure election, which had likewise seemed to fail.

When He says also, in another place, “I have

chosen thee, and not cast thee away,” He

commends the continual course of His signal

liberality and paternal benevolence. The angel, in

Zachariah, speaks more plainly: “The Lord shall

choose Jerusalem again;” as though His severe

chastisement had been a rejection, or their exile

had been an interruption of election; which,

nevertheless, remains inviolable, though the

tokens of it are not always visible.

VI. We must now proceed to a second degree of

election, still more restricted, or that in which the

Divine grace was displayed in a more special

manner, when of the same race of Abraham God

rejected some, and by nourishing others in the

Church, proved that He retained them among His

children. Israel at first obtained the same station

as his brother Isaac, for the Spiritual covenant

was equally sealed in him by the symbol of

circumcision. He is cut off; afterwards Esau;

lastly, an innumerable multitude, and almost all

Israel. In Isaac the seed was called; the same

calling continued in Jacob.

God exhibited a similar example in the rejection of

Saul, which is magnificently celebrated by the

Psalmist: “He refused the tabernacle of Joseph,

and chose not the tribe of Ephraim, but chose the

tribe of Judah;” and this the sacred history

frequently repeats, that the wonderful secret of

Divine grace may be more manifest in that

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change. I grant, it was by their own crime and

guilt that Ishmael, Esau, and persons of similar

characters, fell from the adoption; because the

condition annexed was, that they should faithfully

keep the covenant of God, which they perfidiously

violated. Yet it was a peculiar favor of God, that

He deigned to prefer them to other nations; as it is

said in the Psalms: “He hath not dealt so with any

nation; and so for His judgments, they have not

known them.”

But I have justly said that here are two degrees to

be remarked; for in the election of the whole

nation, God has already shown that in His mere

goodness He is bound by no laws, but is perfectly

free, so that none can require of Him an equal

distribution of grace, the inequality of which

demonstrates it to be truly gratuitous. Therefore

Malachi aggravates the ingratitude of Israel,

because, though not only elected out of the whole

race of mankind, but also separated from a sacred

family to be a peculiar people, they perfidiously

and impiously despised God their most beneficent

Father.

“Was not Esau Jacob's brother? Saith the Lord:

yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau.” For God

takes it for granted, since both were sons of a holy

father, successors of the covenant, and branches

from a sacred root, that the children of Jacob

were already laid under more than common

obligations by their admission to that honor; but

Esau, the first-born, having been rejected, and

their father, though inferior by birth, having been

made the heir, He proves them guilty of double

ingratitude, and complains of their violating this

two-fold claim.

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VII. Though it is sufficiently clear, that God, in

his secret counsel, freely chooses whom He will,

and rejects others, His gratuitous election is but

half displayed till we come to particular

individuals, to whom God not only offers

salvation, but assigns it in such a manner, that

the certainty of the effect is liable to no suspense

or doubt.

These are included in that one seed mentioned by

Paul; for though the adoption was deposited in

the hand of Abraham, yet many of his posterity

being cut off as putrid members, in order to

maintain the efficacy and stability of election, it is

necessary to ascend to the head, in whom their

heavenly Father has bound His elect to each

other, and united them to Himself by an

indissoluble bond. Thus the adoption of the

family of Abraham displayed the favor of God,

which He denied to others; but in the members of

Christ there is a conspicuous exhibition of the

superior efficacy of grace; because, being united

to their head, they never fail of salvation.

Paul, therefore, justly reasons from the passage of

Malachi which I have just quoted, that where God,

introducing the covenant of eternal life, invites

any people to Himself, there is a peculiar kind of

election as to part of them, so that he does not

efficaciously choose all with indiscriminate grace.

The declaration, “Jacob have I loved,” respects the

whole posterity of the patriarch, whom the

prophet there opposes to the descendants of

Esau.

Yet this is no objection to our having in the

person of one individual a specimen of the

election, which can never fail of attaining its full

effect. These, who truly belong to Christ, Paul

correctly observes, are called “a remnant,” for

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experience proves, that of a great multitude the

most part fall away and disappear, so that often

only a small portion remains. That the general

election of a people is not always effectual and

permanent, a reason readily presents itself,

because, when God covenants with them, He does

not also give the Spirit of regeneration to enable

them to preserve in the covenant to the end; but

the eternal call, without the internal efficacy of

grace, which would be sufficient for their

preservation, is a kind of medium between the

rejection of all mankind and the election of the

small number of believers.

The whole nation of Israel was called “God's

inheritance,” though many of them were

strangers; but God, having firmly covenanted to

their Father and Redeemer, regards that

gratuitous favor rather than the defection of

multitudes; by whom His truth was not violated,

because His preservation of a certain remnant to

Himself, made it evident that His calling was

without repentance. For God's collection of a

Church for himself, from time to time, from the

children of Abraham, rather than from the

profane nations, was in consideration of his

covenant, which, being violated by the multitude,

He restricted to a few, to prevent a total failure.

Lastly, the general adoption of the seed of

Abraham was a visible representation of a greater

blessing, which God conferred on the few out of

the multitude.

This is the reason that Paul so carefully

distinguishes the descendants of Abraham

according to the flesh, from His Spiritual children

called after the example of Isaac. Not that the

mere descent from Abraham was a vain and

unprofitable thing, which could not be asserted

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without depreciating the covenant; but because to

the latter alone the immutable counsel of God, in

which He predestinated whom He would, was of

itself effectual to salvation. But I advise my

readers to adopt no prejudice on either side, till it

shall appear from adduced passages of Scripture

what sentiments ought to be entertained. In

conformity, therefore, to the clear doctrine of the

Scripture, we assert, that by an eternal and

immutable counsel, God has once for all

determined, both whom He would admit to

salvation, and whom He would condemn to

destruction. We affirm that this counsel, as far as

concerns the elect, is founded on His gratuitous

mercy, totally irrespective of human merit; but

that to those whom He devotes to condemnation,

the gate of life is closed by a just and

irreprehensible, but incomprehensible, judgment.

In the elect, we consider calling as an evidence of

election, and justification as another token of its

manifestation, till they arrive in glory, which

constitutes its completion. As God seals His elect

by vocation and justification, so by excluding the

reprobate from the knowledge of His name and

the sanctification of His Spirit, He affords an

indication of the judgment that awaits them.

Here I shall pass over many fictions fabricated by

foolish men to overthrow predestination. It is

unnecessary to refute things, which, as soon as

they are advanced, sufficiently prove their own

falsehood. I shall dwell only on these things

which are subjects of controversy among the

learned, or which may occasion difficulty to

simple minds, or which impiety speciously pleads

in order to stigmatize the Divine justice. 93

93 John Calvin,
The Institutes of the Christian Religion
.

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Appendix I:

The Bells in Mississippi

M UCH HAS BEEN SAID about the Bells who

moved to Mississippi and had various

encounters with Kate. As was mentioned

earlier, the families of Jesse Bell and Alex Porter

moved to Mississippi in hopes of escaping from Kate.

It is unclear if this was the real reason, for they did

not move until many years after Kate had left the Bell

home in Tennessee. The families who moved to

Mississippi were still not free from Kate, however.

Those who moved to Mississippi were tormented just

as they were in Tennessee many years beforehand.

Unlike most accounts of Kate in Tennessee, the

Mississippi accounts are undocumented and the

product of stories passed from generation to

generation – pure folklore. This is not to say that the

Mississippi accounts are false, but that no “hard

evidence” exists to substantiate their occurrence. We

do know by examining the public records of

Mississippi that Jesse Bell, Alex Porter (and his wife,

Esther Bell), and later, Elizabeth (Bell) Powell, did in

fact emigrate to and live in Mississippi after the

hauntings in Tennessee.

While the Porters experienced very few encounters

with Kate after moving to Mississippi, the same

cannot be said of Jesse Bell’s family, who were

frequently subjected to Kate’s tricks. A number of

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their descendants in the area today still experience

unexplainable encounters they believe to be the

doings of Kate.

The most popular Mississippi account of Kate

deals with the daughter of John Thomas Bell (son of

Jesse Bell), who fell in love with a farm overseer who

died at the height of their affair. After the overseer’s

death, strange things began to happen on the farm

and around the small community of Eureka, just

outside present-day Batesville.

The farm overseer had been interested in Bell’s

daughter since he first started working on the farm.

Over time, he watched her mature into a beautiful,

young woman. As she matured, the overseer spent

more and more time with her – walking her to the

outbuildings and helping with chores, taking her

fishing at nearby Long Creek, and occasionally

helping her with schoolwork. Over the course of

time, a deep love fell between the two and they

became inseparable.

Both knowing that Bell would strongly disapprove

of their relationship because of their ages and the

business relationship he had with the overseer, they

decided to keep it a secret – hoping to marry once

she became older and he could find work on some

other farm. Several of the farmhands noticed the

seeming attraction between the two but never said a

word. Before long, Bell himself began to notice that

something seemed to be going on between them.

Anywhere he saw one, the other would be nearby –

and always with a seemingly good excuse for being

there. The relationship between Bell’s daughter and

the farm overseer was short-lived, however.

One late-summer afternoon, the overseer went to

an outbuilding to fetch some nails for one of the new

farmhands. Not having a candle with him, he

methodically ran his hands up and down the shelves

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looking for the right sized nail. As he reached both

arms over his head to feel along the top shelf, he

suddenly felt a strong blow to his stomach, followed

by an intense, “stinging” sensation.

In pain, he stepped backwards and out the door

where in the daylight he saw two small streams of

blood coming from his stomach. He grew very weak

as he stood in the hot sun, eventually dropping to his