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order to destroy them, without respect to their 'foreseen wickedness.' It would be awfully presumptuous to deny the right of God to do whatever he pleases; but he cannot act inconsistently with his infinite perfections of wisdom, justice, truth, and goodness; he has no where claimed a right to punish the innocent; it does not appear to be consistent with his perfections. He did not create men depraved and prone to sin, but "very good." "Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made "man upright but they have sought out many "inventions."1 The fall of man is never ascribed to God, but the contrary. In respect of individuals, "God cannot be tempted of evil, neither "tempteth he any man." He no doubt foresaw, and determined to permit, the fall of Adam; but even concerning this the scripture is very reserved, if not totally silent: and God foresaw that fallen men would all deserve his wrath and damnation, and be "vessels of wrath fitted for destruc"tion:" he could foresee nothing good in any of them, except the effects of his own grace, which he determined to confer on some, and not on others. These are saved gratuitously, and their foreseen good works, are the effects, and not the cause of their election. The rest are left to the consequences of their sins; their destruction is deserved, and their foreseen evil deeds the cause of their rejection. All the good in man is from God, and the glory belongs to him: all the evil is from ourselves, and " to us belong shame and "confusion of face before him." In this particular, therefore I must dissent from Calvin. It must be 1 Ec. vii. 29.

allowed, that he, and many others, have ventured on language, not to be found in scripture. Whether their sentiments can be vindicated or not, in this case their expressions cannot.]

[The perversity of the nature abandoned of 'God.' Many very plausible reasonings have been used, to prove, that the fall of men and angels arose, not from their forsaking God, in the first instance; but from his previously leaving or abandoning them, and that they then forsook him in consequence. But the scriptures give another view of the subject, and ascribe all wickedness to the wilful apostacy of rational creatures: and such reasonings, however ingenious, and difficult to answer, as much corrupt Christianity by metaphysics, as some of the ancient fathers corrupted it by heathen philosophy. The proportion, likewise, in which this part of the subject occupies the attention of the writer,' is wholly unscriptural. Two or three of these quotations contain more than can be found in the whole scripture, concerning the manner in which sin entered; and concerning the non-elect, except in respect of their depravity and actual crimes.

LAMBETH ARTICLES.

As I have not in my scanty library any books from which I can collect a full, impartial, and satisfactory history of these Articles, I shall not republish any thing which the first edition contained about them: for the mistakes, into which I was led concerning the Articles of the Synod of Dort, (as I shall soon state to the reader,) are a ' Calvin.

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warning to me not to hazard an opinion without more adequate information.-As his Lordship introduces the Lambeth Articles by saying; At Lambeth, on the 10th of November 1595, these 'articles were agreed on in the following words ;' I take it for granted that the annexed articles are, in reality, the Lambeth Articles, or an exact translation of them; and not merely an abridgment, or compendium. I shall therefore insert them without comment.

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1. God from eternity hath predestinated cer'tain men unto life; certain men he hath repro'bated.

2. The moving or efficient cause of predes'tination unto life is not the foresight of faith, or ' of perseverance, or of good works, or of any thing that is in the person predestinated, but ' only the good-will and pleasure of God.

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3. There is predetermined a certain number of the predestinate, which can neither be aug'mented nor diminished.

4. Those who are not predestinated to salvation shall be necessarily damned for their 'sins.

‹ 5. A true living and justifying faith, and the 'Spirit of God justifying, is not extinguished, falleth not away; it vanisheth not away in the 'elect, either totally or finally.

6. A man truly faithful, that is, such a one 'who is endued with a justifying faith, is certain, ' with the full assurance of faith, of the remission ' of his sins, and of his everlasting salvation by 'Christ.

7. Saving grace is not given, is not granted,

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' is not communicated to all men, by which they may be saved if they will.'

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'8. No man can come unto Christ, unless it be ' given unto him, and unless the Father shall 'draw him; and all men are not drawn by the 'Father, that they may come to the Son.

9. It is not in the will or power of every one 'to be saved.'

I perfectly coincide in opinion with his Lordship, that the persons concerned in passing these articles acted without any legal authority; and the case would have been the same, had both the archbishops, and all the bishops and dignitaries in the nation concurred in the transaction. They would have been authorized to draw up articles, and propose them to the parliament: but, unless sanctioned by King, Lords, and Commons, in parliament assembled, they had no authority to enforce subscription to them; and they were justly deserving of the frown of their sovereign for their presumption.

It is evident that Anticalvinism began about this time to prevail in the university of Cambridge, and elsewhere in the church of England; and that by a rapid progress it spread so widely, that at length the great body of the clergy seem wholly to have forgotten the doctrinal articles which they were continually subscribing, or requiring others to subscribe. To a zealous Anticalvinist this must

If they will.' This supposes some who are willing to be saved in the way of the gospel, but are not able because of some insurmountable hindrance: which is neither consonant to the scriptures, nor to our articles and liturgy. [Remark in first edit. J. S.]

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of course appear as the breaking forth of the genuine doctrine of the church, through the 'clouds of Calvinism, wherewith it was before 'obscured, and its shining forth again in its true 'lustre.' It is, however, remarkable that his Lordship should date the progress of Calvinism in England, nearly from the same period concerning which his historian Heylin uses these words.1 This was in the year 1595, and James I. came to the throne in 1603; during whose feeble reign,' his Lordship says, the opinions of Calvin made 'considerable progress :'2 so that, according to this statement, the revival of Anticalvinism was soon terminated. Yet, in fact, the progress of Arminianism in the church of England may properly be dated from the time which Heylin fixes. As to the Lambeth Articles, which never had any authority, and which few at present so much as wish that they had; I do not see that modern Calvinists, or the evangelical clergy, have any more to do with them, than with the decrees of the council of Trent.

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ARTICLES OF THE SYNOD OF DORT.

[The reader has been apprised, under the head of the Lambeth Articles,' that the Author felt himself to have been very much misled, in the first edition of this work, in treating of the Articles of the Synod of Dort. The fact was this: he found in the Refutation Tilenus's pretended abbreviation of the Articles, copied from Peter Heylin, styled "The Articles of the Synod of "Dort," and with the following sanction (I pre'Ref. 565.

2 Ref. 583.

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