Hague where 't was their care in each of the Five Articles to show an Agreement between themselves and the Heidelberg Catechism the Belgick and other Reformed Confessions There is so much to this purpose in Bertius his Scripta Adversaria Collationis Hagiensis that the mention of a very small part thereof would fill up more Room than I can spare for this purpose besides this very Method hath been taken by some later Arminians Curcel Dissert 4. de Justisica Sect. 7. Curcellaeus to clear himself from the Charge of Heresie doth in the Doctrine of Justification protest That he doth not think any Man is justified in the sight of God for the Merit or Dignity of his Works But only through the mere Grace which is in Christ's Blood do we obtain the Remission of Sin we amending our Ways not walking according to the Flesh but according to the Spirit Rom. 8.13 When it s objected that his making Repentance necessary to Justification which includes good Works destroys its being freely of Grace he Answers Not that Repentance Curcel ubi sup Sect. 14 or our Works do Merit any thing from God or are so perfect as that if God should strictly search into them they could stand before him in Judgment God forbid that I should assert any such thing but this I say they are necessary because God will not make us partakers of the Salvation purchased by Christs Blood by any other Rule or Condition And that he may the more plausibly insinuate into the Minds of his Readers his Orthodoxy in this Matter he tells us That they who hold Repentance and Conversion to be required in order to Pardon as the greatest part of Protestants he thinks at this time do cannot contradict this Doctrine For saith he Remission of Sins and Justification are with them equipollent which may be safely enough asserted For though they may be as things divers separated from each other yet God according to the Tenor of the Gospel-Covenant forgives no Man's Sins but at the same time esteems him Righteous and promises to give him the Reward of Righteousness which is Eternal Life which is also carried in the full Pardon of all our Sins For seeing our Sins must be reduced to these two Heads namely Sins of Commission and of Omission He Curcel ubi sup Sect. 9â— whose Sins of both sorts are pardon'd must be consider'd as perfectly Righteous and therefore worthy of the Reward SECT VI. The Difference between the Arminians and the Orthodox BUT what Care soever Arminius and his Partakers heretofore and the more wary and fearful have since taken to cover the dangerous Notions they are for and appear as like the Orthodox as may be yet unless they would abandon all Essays to propagate their Dogmata 't was impossible for them when most cautious perfectly to conceal either their Notions or Designs 'T was therefore a vexatious Affliction to Arminius Epist Vytenbog p. 55. as he oft told Vytenbogardus that he could not meet with Men of Learning to whom he might freely impart his Sentiments This one thing I greatly bewail and lament Epist Vytenbog p. 121. saith he that there is no one I can venture to converse with The Reason he assigns for this his Complaint was the prevailing Humour then amongst the Orthodox to call every thing Heresie which they approv'd not even when they themselves either neglected close Study or were destitute of that Learning See his Epiâ—â—lâ— to Vytenbogard p. 57. which was necessary to search into those deep Mysteries whereby Arminius whose Learning and Abilities were too great to be confin'd within the old narrow Circle of solid Divinity where Men of as much Learning and deeper Judgment delighted to abide breaks out and makes Inquiries into the profound and unscrutable things of God where he was bewildred and scon lost himself Had he been as gently treated by all as he was by that profound Scholar Arminius's Intimacy with Juni was A. D. 1597. Junius dyed A.D. 1602. Franciscus Junius he might have escaped the Snare but this great Man soon dying after Arminius had freely opened himself unto him and others being severe in their Condemning his Inquiries he had none to Confer with but Vytenbogard and Adrian Borrius Men whose Inclinations too much suited his own to be a Balance to him in his Indagations By these Men Arminius is confirmed in the Errors his own Mind disposed him unto and were then thrown in his way by the Socinians who had furbish'd up several Pelagian Heresies about Predestination These Writings were burnt A.D. 1598. Orig'nal Sin and Free Will which about this time on the burning the Writings of Ostorodius and Voidovius were as an Introduction to Socinianism Vid. Frid. Spanhem F. Elench coâ—troâ— p. 219 crastily insinuated by Theodore Kemp Koornhert and others Arminius being thus provok'd by the angry Passions of some entic'd by the Flatteries of others and undoubtedly instigated too much by his own Spirit is fixedly set against the Calvinian Doctrines which he labours to Undermine even when he professed the most Zeal for them For altho' in pursuance of Vytenbogardus's earnest Request Armin. Epist Vytenbog p. 213. Arminius was very careful as he assur'd him he would be to mention nothing Dissonant from the Heidelberg Catechism and Belgick Confession Armin. Epist Vytenbog p. 213 and boldly undertook to defend all he wrote by them yet 't was only that thereby he might the more effectually ensnare his Scholars to a Closure with his unsound Principles for 't was his labour to get a review of the Catechism and Confession in order to a substantial Change or total Remove Ep. Armin. Vytenb p. 202. In a Declaration of his Judgment made unto the States of Holland and West-Friezland he ventures to offer his Reasons for the Review of both which being promised by a late Synod of South Holland he was emboldened to do Some of his Reasons are that it might appear to all they leaned chiefly on the word of God in matters Religious that the Cathechism and Confession being written by Men who are Fallible might contain in them some one Error or other and it was not at all unmeet for a National Synod to enquire whether they did agree in every part with the word of God even for the words and manner of speaking as well as touching their real Sence Whether there be not somewhat in them made necessary to Salvation which is not in Truth so whether there be not some Words and Forms of speech used which may be diversly understood and so give too much occasion to strifes and contentions Whether there be not some things in them repugnant to each other many other enquires he made which sufficiently show that Arminius could not heartily close with all he had subscribed unto and therefore as he rejoyc'd at the news of a n = a Epist Vytenbog p. 212. 213. Ubi sup p. 123. review so
he had been a Sinner from which 't will not follow that therefore Christ made Satisfaction for us or endured the same Punishment that was due to us We all acknowledge that on him who knew no Sin the Punishment that was due unto Sinners was inflicted but not the same Punishment nor what was Equivalent unto it was or could be laid on him wherefore what we have said concerning laying the Punishments due for our Sins on Christ By Punishments we mean Afflictions which signifies no more than what was carefully delivered a Page or two before Smalc ubi sup p. 226. Slicht Annot. in 2 Cor. 5.21 Crell Respons ad Grot. de satisf c. 4. Apol. Pol. Equit. p. 13.14 Przipcov Cogit in â—oc when he desires it may be Remarked That when they speak of Christ's being Punished for our Sins they mean only that he was Afflicted The same is affirmed both by Slichtingius and Crellius Again they own no other Imputation of Righteousness besides that of our Faith for saith the Polonian Knight in his Apology The Scriptures makes no mention of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness but simply of a Righteousness imputed unto us by God through Christ which is when God doth of his Grace and Mercy raise our Faith in Christ a living Faith working by Love so high that by it we who are guilty of most gross Sins may be esteemed Just and Righteous which is also called the Righteousness of God not ours because it 's given us freely and not for any Merit in us Now as they do thus set the Imputation of an Inherent Righteousness of our own in the stead of Christ so notwithstanding their many Pretences about ascribing Conversion to the Power of the Spirit they mean nothing less Ruarus in his Epistle to Peuschelius Ruar ad Joan. Peuschel Epist 9. doth very fully express the Socinian Sence Conversion which lyeth in a Reformation of the Vnderstanding approving the Gospel and of the Will resolved to Obey or actually observing it is caused immediately by that Conception we have in the Mind concerning God and Christ and the things appertaining to Religion and by such Arguments as move the Vnderstanding to approve and the Will to obey the Gospel This Conception is begotten in the Mind either by hearing the Word Preached or Reading it whence it is that the Word whether by Voice or Writing expressed is a kind of Remote Cause of Conversion yet such as ought necessarily to go before and if diligently heard or Read is ordinarily sufficient to begin it in all excepting some dull Persons whose Minds are too much under the influence of wicked Opinions and Wills distorted by a long custom in Sin I say that the Word is sufficient to begin our Conversion for I do not deny but that after we have rightly used our Natural Faculties the Help of the Divine Spirit is given for the encreasing the Strength is in us to the compleating and finishing of our Conversion which yet we could not know how to use to so Holy an End unless we had been first moved by God and excited by his Word Hence it doth appear that it is God who works in us both to Will and to iâ—o the first when invited by a putting us in mind of the Gospel the other when by the moving of his Spirit he strengthens us yet so that there is still Room left for the being excited to Vertue by the Proposals of Rewards and deterr'd from Vice by the threatning of Punishments To which I add That if any will have it that this Knowledge in our Mind which precedes our Assent be rather a part of our Conversion than a Cause I will not content with him only then the Word of God Preached or Read must not be esteemed the Mediate but immediate Cause of our Conversion Thus far Ruarus who makes it very manifest that the Socinian Notion touching the Power of the Spirit to Convert lyeth in ascribing the great turn from Darkness unto Light and from the Power of Satan to God unto the Hearing or Reading of the Word without any special Help of God's Spirit There being then so great a Difference between the Orthodox Expressions used by the Socinians and the corrupt Sense foâ—sâ—ed in under their Covert we need not wonder at Ruarus his asserting that the Papists amongst all other Sects have most Reason to be kind unto the Socinian for how Orthodox soever they would seem to be they embrace the most corrupt and hurtful parts of the Popish Religion I will clear this Assertion by giving you Ruarus his own Words which are amongst the Reasons given by him to show why the Papists ought not to be so very angry with the Vnitarians whom they call Socinians or Arians Another Reason saith he is Ruar because in the chief Articles of the Christian Faith they agree with the Church of Rome more than any other Sect whatsoever namely in the Doctrine of Predestination â—lection and Conditional Reprobation the Vniversality of God's Grace and Fruits of Christ's Death of free Will and its Interest in the Conversion of Man to the Faith of Justification which is made effectual by Charity of the Necessity of Good Works which they urge more vehemently than any other Church of the Possibility of keeping all God's Commands of the Difference between the Old and New Testament preferring the New before the Old with respect to the Promises and Precepts of the Difference between Venial and deadly Sins It is also manifest That how Orthodox soever Przipeovius would have his afflicted Innocence esteemed and though he differs from Socinus about the Divinity of Christ affirming him to be God truly in a proper Sence and by Nature Yet he is as far from the Truths he would be thought to embrace as any of that Gang. For in that very place where he opposes them who ascribe to Jesus Christ Divine Attributes and yet deny his Divine Nature to expose the Ridiculousness of this Notion he tells his Readers that it 's as Absurd as the Doctrine received by the Orthodox about Distinction of Persons in the same Essence And although he speaks of Christ's being God truly in a proper Sence yet denies him to be Co-eternal and Co equal with the Father and makes him to be but a Subordinate God Przipcov Hypera p. c. 4. not properly God and Man at the same but at distinct Seasons first Man then God Nor doth he hold that the Holy Ghost is a Person distinct from the Father and is of the same Opinion with the Socinians about Satisfaction giving the same Interpretation of those Texts that speak of Christ's being made Sin and giving himself a full Price that Wolzogenius Crellius and Slichtingius have done before him as may be seen in his Cogitations on the New Testament What Socinus and his Followers have herein done it 's very probable they learned from their chief Leader Bernhardinus Ochine who Writing more Academicorum did not
to Think Will or Do any good thing 3. It is the continued Assistance and help of the Holy Spirit according unto which the Holy Ghost does excite and stir up the Regenerate unto Good by infusing into them Spiritual and Heavenly Thoughts inspiring them with good Desires and enabling them actually to Will that which is good yea more according to this Grace the Spirit doth Will and work with the Man that what he Wills he may be enabled to Perfect After this manner I ascribe unto Grace the Beginning Continuation and Consummation of all Good even so far that a Regenerate Man without this Preventing Exciting Continued and Co-operating Grace can never think will or do any good nor resist the feeblest Temptation to Evil. How then can I be said to be injurious to the Grace of God or attribute too much to free Will The Controversie is not about the Actions or Operations ascribed to Grace I am for as much as any Man whatsoever but it is only about the Mode or Manner of its Oprations whether it be by an Irresistible Force or not Here indeed I do with the Holy Scriptures hold that many resist the Holy Ghost and reject the offer'd Grace And in his Letter to Hypolitus à Collibus Concerning Grace and free Will according to the Scriptures and consent of the Orthodox I do declare That Free Will without Grace can neither begin nor perfect any true Spiritual good Work and least any think I do as Pelagius did play with the Word Grace I mean that Grace which is the Grace of Christ and belongs to Regeneration which I hold to be simply and absolutely necessary for the inlightning the Understanding regulating the Affections and inclining the Will to what is good that infuses saving Light into the Mind inspires the Affections with Holy Desires and boweth down the Will to act according to that saving Light and these good Desires This Grace Prevents Begins Accompanies and Follows It stirreth up helps and works that we may Will and that we may not Will in vain Co-operates with us It secures us from Temptations Assists and helps us against them upholding us against the Flesh the World and the Devil In the Conflict it gives us the Victory and if at any time we are overcome and fall in the Temptation this Grace recovers us establishes and gives new Strength making us more watchful It begins the Work of Salvation promoves perfects and consummates it The mind of a Carnal Man is I confess dark'ned his Assections vile and inordinate his Will disorderly yea he is dead in Sin and that Preacher is most highly esteemed by me who attributes most to Grace if so be that whilst he is extolling Grace he doth neither Impeach God's Justice nor take from Man Free Will to what is Evil What any Man can desire more I know not About the Justification of a Man in the sight of God Jacoh Armin Decla sentent p. 127. I am not sensible saith he that I either teach or hold any thing but what is Vnanimously received by the Reformed Protestant Churches and most exactly agrees with their Sense There hath been I know a Controversie in this particular between Piscator and the French Churches as whether the Obedience or Righteousness of Christ which is imputed to Believers and in which the 'r Righteousness before God doth consist be only Christ's Passive Obedience as Piscator affirmed Or whether it be also his Active which all his Life he rendred to the Law of God and that Holiness in which he was conceiv'd as the Gallick Churches hold But I never interested my self in it And how oddly soever he expressed himself in this place he would still be thought a good Calvinist Armin. Decla ubi sup For saith he whatever I have in this Point delivered I differ not so much from Calvin but that I am ready with my own Hand to subscribe what he hath on this Subject in the third Book of his Institutes In his Disputations Armin. Disput Thes 48. Sect. 5. he is more particular speaking distinctly of the several Causes of Justification Of the Meritorious and Material thus That Christ by his Obedience and Righteousness is the Meritorious Cause of Justification who may therefore be deservedly called the Procatartick Cause The same Christ in his Obedience and Righteousness is also the Material Cause of our Justification that is as God gives to us Christ for Righteousness and imputes his Obedience and Rignteousness unto us in respect to this double Cause namely the Meritorious and Material we are said to be constituted Just or Righteous by Christ's Obedience In this place Arminius you see doth distinguish between the Meritorious and Material Cause of Justification the One being Extrinsick belonging to the Efficient the other Intrinsick or made the Matter of our Justification The first is Christ by his Obedience the other is Christ for Righteousness Christ Given and his Righteousness Imputed He was too Learned to confound the Material and Intrinsick with the Meritorious which is an External and Efficient Cause asserting that as Christ is the Meritorious Cause so he as an Efficient justifieth us by his Righteousness As he is the Material he is given by God for Righteousness and his Righteousness is imputed to us for Justification His Thoughts touching the Instrumental Formal Cause he expresses in these Words Faith is the Instrumental Cause Armin. ubi sup Sect. 7 8. or Action by which we apprehend Christ and his Righteousness offered unto us by God according to the Order and Promise of the Gospel where it is said That whoever Believes shall be Justified and Saved The Form of Justification is the gracious Estimation of God whereby he imputes the Righteousness of Christ unto us and imputes Faith for Righteousness that is God doth forgive unto us who believe our Sins for the sake of Christ apprehended by Faith and esteems us as Righteous in him which Estimation hath annexed unto it the Adoption of Sons and a Collation of Right to the Inheritance of Eternal Life And among the Corollaries deduced from what he had asserted in his Disputation he is positive That it is impossible for Faith and Works to Concurr to Justification that Christ did not Merit that we be justified by the Dignity and Merit of Faith much less that we be justified by the Merit of Works But the Merit of Christ is opposed to Justification by Works and Faith opposed to Merit These Appeals to the Catechism and Confession and the consent of the Reformed Protestants his recommending Calvin's Commentaries and Institutes to his Pupils and these and such other Passages make it clear That Arminius would fain be thought an Orthodox Calvinist which was also the desire and endeavour of his endeared Companions and Followers even of Vytenbogart Borrius Poppius Grievenchovius Arnoldus Corvinus and Episcopius at their Conference A. D. 1611. with Ruardus Plancius Becius Fraxinus Bogardus and Festus Homnius at the
am I hereby instructed to believe and hope that though the Saints shall never know the Almighty to Perfection yet shall they be raised to a clearer and more distinct knowledge of those now unconceiveable as well as ineffable Glories And when I read in the Writings of some Men who in Reasoning about other things are strong and nervous yet weak and feeble in their arguings against the profound Mysteries of Christ's Gospel I cannot but clearly perceive a Truth in those words of the Apostle the Natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are Foolishness unto him 1 Cor. 2.14 neither can he know them because they are Spiritually discerned for which reason these Men are rather to be pityed than envyed prayed for than Reviled that 2 Tim. 2.25 if 't would please the Lord they might come to the acknowledgment of the Truth and see how great their Folly was in making their Confin'd Understandings the measure of all Knowledge which undoubtedly is done by them that reject all things as Absurd and False which are above or beyond their Reason But the Deist adds 'T was once to serve a Turn against the Papists that our Church held all Doctrines necessary to save Souls were plainly Revealed in Scripture How could you say plainly revealed unless you understood the Revelation And why to serve a Turn and that once 't was so as if we had now forsaken our Principles and profess'd to believe unintelligible Revelations whereas 't is our constant Judgment that the Doctrines necessary to Salvation are not dark and obscure but Clear Evident and Perspicuous that what is not clearly delivered in the Scripture is not of indispensible Necessity to be Known and Believed and Consistently assert that the Mysteries our Adversaries reject are clearly revealed The Revelation is very Plain Clear and Open though the things Reveal'd are Mysterious Inscrutable and past finding out And yet these Mysterious Points are in themselves Great Glorious True and Evident and only because our Understandings are Finite Weak and Feeble are we unable to comprehend them This Truth is by a Learned Divine thus Illustrated We can see other things by the Light of the Sun better than we can see the Sun it self not because the Sun is less visible and discernable in it self but because our Visive Faculty is too weak to bear its Resplendent Light The Deists mistake therefore into which the Socinian hath led him is complicated and lyeth in a Confounding the Revelation with the thing Revealed and in a Perswasion that because the Mystery is past out Knowing to Perfection therefore not in it self Evident Clear or Knowable And if not to be fully known by vain Mortals it cannot he thinks be true but must be False Absurd and Irrational And thus according to the Scripture-Revelation being Puff'd up in his fleshly Mind Col. 2 1â— intrudes into those things which he hath not seen and contrary to the Apostolical Prohibition thinks of himself more highly than he ought to think Rom. 12.3 is resolved to penetrate into the Secrets of the Almighty to make his own mistaken fanciful and narrow Understanding the Measure Rule and Standard of Truth and like a Man who is so weak as to imagine his visive Faculty able to bear the Resplendent Light of the Sun looks on it till his Eyes are so Dazled that he cannot rightly judge of Colours even to the Presuming Deist and Ami-Trinitariants who think they can look into the Deep things of God and Comprehend the Divine Perfections are overcome by the Glory of Divine Mysteries their Minds darkened and they plunged into the Depths of Error and thus in a Measure 't is with others that have Erred from the Truth CHAP. II. Radicated Prejudices against Gospel Doctrines the Cause of Error This seen in the Opposition Man makes to Christ's Righteousness for Justification II. ANother thing that occasions Error is a Radicated prejudice against Gospel Doctrines as their Tendency is to Exalt God Depress man and engage him to Acts of greatest self-denyal The Holy Ghost having with much clearness shown the insufficiency of Mans best Righteousness for Justification and his inability to think a good Thought or do the least good Work and that the Righteousness of Christ who is God-Man can alone justify a believing Sinner and the Omnipotent Spirit alone enable us to believe these Doctrines though they are a display of the manifold Wisdom of God of the Glory of his Holiness Justice and Mercy and an illustrious Evincement of the satisfaction and Merit of the Death and obedience of Christ God-Man as also of the Powerful Operation of the third Person in the Blessed Trinity yet because they lay us low discovering the Imperfection Insufficiency and Vanity of our own Endeavours they reject these Truths exposing them as if hereby a Door had been open'd to let in all manner of Vice and Licentiousness and rather than they will submit themselves to the Righteousness of God or be owing to the power of the Holy Ghost they 'll venture first to publish that the believing in God the Son and in God the Holy Ghost is not necessary to Salvation and at length go on to deny the Personality both of Son and Spirit As Adam on the Fall instead of seeking unto God leaned to his own understanding and strength so it hath been ever since the way of his Off-spring In the Old Testament instances of Mens Glorying in their own Power and performances are innumerable and the Apostle Paul assures us in the New that this was the way of his Kindred the Jews And ever since those days it hath been the general method of Hereticks to trust in their own Righteousness and despise others This they found to be a Notion as plausible as it was to their Corrupt Minds agreeable and because the Orthodox who pressed a Holy Life and Conversation as necessary to Salvation could not put their own Obedience into the place and room of Christ's it hath been the common practice of the Erroneous to reproach them as Enemies to Holyness and Mortification as tho' they held that we might live as lewdly as we listed and die as we lived yet in the end obtain Salvation through the Death and Righteousness of Christ And as this was the burden of their Writings in like manner 't was the care of the most Eminent Heresiarchs to give an agreeable Exemple by which means Multitudes of the weaker but more zealous sort were ensnared to embrace their Errors And tho at this time the Professors of Arminian and Secinian Errors have in this respect degenerated and thereby have lost the advantage of this pretence yet Socinus and after him Slichtingius with many others valued themselves upon the Holiness of them of their way which they assign'd to the hower and Influence of their Principles However these Gentlemen not being able intirely to crase those Idea's which at first were implanted in their Souls