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born again were perfect, they might be justified by them, though they may have perpetrated many evil works when [or before] they obtain the remission of them."

XXIV. ON THE GOOD WORKS OF BELIEVERS.

1. QUERIES.-Is it truly said, concerning the good works of believers?," They are unclean like a menstruous cloth." And does this confession belong to those works?, "We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags," &c. (Isaiah lxiv. 6.)

2. In what sense is it correctly said ?, "Believers sin mortally in every one of their good works."

3. Do the good works of believers come into the judgment of God so far only as they are testimonies of faith; or likewise so far as they have been prescribed by God, and sanctioned and honoured with the promise of a reward, although this reward be not bestowed on them except "of grace" united with mercy, and on account of Christ, whom God hath appointed and set forth as a propitiatory through faith in his blood, and, therefore, with [intuitu] reference to faith in Christ?

XXV. ON PRAYER.

1. QUERIES.-Does prayer, or the invocation of God, hold relation truly to the performance of worship to his honour? Or does it likewise bear the relation of means necessary for obtaining that which is asked,-means indeed which God foresaw would be employed before He absolutely determined to bestow the blessing on the petitioner?

2. Is the faith with which we ought to pray, that faith by which he who prays believes assuredly that he will obtain what he asks? Or is it that faith by which he is assuredly persuaded, that he is asking according to the will of God, and will obtain what he asks, provided God knows that it will conduce to his glory and to the salvation of the petitioner ?

XXVI. ON THE INFANTS OF BELIEVERS WHEN THEY ARE

OFFERED FOR BAPTISM.

QUERY.-When the children of believers are offered for baptism, are they considered as "the children of wrath," or as the children of God and of grace? And if they be considered in both ways, is this relation according to the same time, or according to different times?

XXVII. ON THE SUPPER OF THE LORD.

QUERY.-Is not the proximate and most appropriate, and, therefore, the immediate end of the Lord's Supper,—both as it was at first instituted and as it is now used,-the memory, or commemoration, or annunciation of the Lord's death; and this with thanksgiving for the gift of God, in delivering up his Son to death for us, and in having given his flesh to be eaten and his blood to be drunk through faith in Him?

XXVIII.-ON MAGISTRACY.

1. THE chief magistrate is not correctly denominated Political or Secular, because those epithets are opposed to the ecclesiastical and spiritual power.

2. In the hands and at the disposal of the chief magistrate is placed, under God, the supreme and sovereign power of caring and providing for his subjects, and of governing them, with respect to animal and spiritual life.

3. The care of religion has been committed by God to the chief magistrate, more than to priests and to ecclesiastical persons.

4. It is in the power of the magistrate to enact laws concerning civil and ecclesiastical polity, yet not unless those persons have been asked and consulted who are the best versed in spiritual matters, and who are peculiarly designed for teaching the church.

5. It is the duty of the magistrate to preserve and defend the ecclesiastical ministry; to appoint the ministers of God's word, after they have previously undergone a lawful examination before a Presbytery; to take care that they perform their duty; to require an account of their ministry; to admonish and incite those among them who are negligent; to bestow rewards on those ministers who preside well over their flocks; and to remove such as are pertinaciously negligent, or who bring a scandal on the church.

6. Also to convoke councils, whether general, national or provincial; by his own authority to preside as moderator of the assembly, either in person or through deputies suitable for discharging such an office.

7. QUERY.-Is it useful to ecclesiastical conventions or assemblies, that those persons preside over them whose interest it is that matters of religion and church-discipline should be transacted in this manner rather than in that ?

8. For the discharge of these duties the magistrate must understand those mysteries of religion which are absolutely necessary for the salvation of men: For in this part [of his high office] he cannot depend upon and confide in the conscience of another person.

9. The Christian magistrate both presides in those ecclesiastical assemblies in which he is present, and pronounces a decisive and definitive sentence, or has the right of delivering a decisive and definitive sentence.

XXIX. ON THE CHURCH OF ROME.

1. QUERIES.-Must a difference be made between the Court of Rome, (that is, the Roman Pontiff, the Cardinals, and the other sworn retainers and satellites of his kingdom,) and the Church which is denominated Romish? (See pages 274-289.)

2. Can those people by no means be called "the church of Christ" who, having been deceived by the Roman Pontiff, consider him as the successor of St. Peter and the head of the church?

3. Has God sent a bill of divorcement to those people, so that He does not at all acknowledge them as his, any more than He does Mahometans and Jews?

END OF THE ARTICLES TO BE CONSIDERED.

A LETTER

ON THE SIN AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST.

TO

PECULIARLY

JOHN UYTENBOGARD, HIS MOST DEAR AND
BELOVED BROTHER IN CHRIST, JAMES ARMINIUS WISHES
HEALTH AND HIS WELFARE THROUGH CHRIST.

Most Friendly of Mankind,

As you intend soon to preach before the members of your church on the Sin against the Holy Ghost, you request that I will disclose to you my meditations and musings on that subject; on which you had also previously asked my opinion: But at that time it was not in my power to comply with your request; for I had formed no distinct conception in my mind respecting it,

neither have my sentiments upon it yet attained to any certain and full persuasion. But my slight musings and meditations I neither feel any desire of denying to you, nor would it be my duty to with-hold them from one to whom I have long ago transferred the plenary right of requiring and even of commanding any thing from me. Nor will I suffer myself to be seduced from this desire of obeying you by any false and rustic shame, though I know that my contemplations on this question are such as cannot satisfy you, since in fact they are not much approved by myself. For, of what kind soever they may be, I am aware that they deserve to obtain some excuse, as they are concerning that question, than which scarcely any one of greater difficulty can be found in the whole Scripture, as St. Augustine testifies when professedly treating upon this subject, (tom. 10, fol. 9,) in his explication of Matthew xii, 31, 32. Besides, I hope and feel fully persuaded, that you will so polish these my rough notes, that I may afterwards receive them from you not only with interest, but also others which will be able entirely to complete my wishes.

But I will not at present examine what St. Augustine has produced on the same passage, when writing about this sin; nor what is found on this subject in the writings of other authors, whether among the Ancients or in our own times; lest I should be unnecessarily prolix; especially as you are yourself extremely well furnished with their works, and are ready to make the necessary inquiry into their sentiments. I will transcribe for you only my own meditations, not in that order which is suitable to the nature of the thing itself, (for how is it possible for me to do this, when it is not fully known by me?,) but in the order which it is possible for me to observe in the confusion of various thoughts.

It will not be useless, in the first place, to prefix to this investigation those passages of Scripture in which mention is made of this sin, or in which it seems at least to be made.

"Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: But the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.” (Matt. xii, 31, 32.) "Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewithsoever they shall blaspheme: But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation." (Mark iii, 28, 29.) "And whosoever shall speak

a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: But unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven." (Luke xii, 10.) There are, besides, two passages in the Epistle to the Hebrews, the first of them in the Sixth chapter, the other in the Tenth, which it seems possible to refer to this subject without any great detriment. "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again to repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame." (Heb. vi, 4-6.) "He that despised Moses's law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?" (x, 28, 29.) To these may be added a passage from St. John's First Epistle:-" If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say, that he shall pray for it." (1 John v, 16.) Let the following passage also, from the Epistle to the Hebrews, be added, for the sake of explanation, not because it is on exactly the same subject: "For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?” (Heb. ii, 2-4.) To these let another passage be subjoined from the Acts of the Apostles, "Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: As did your fathers, so do ye." (Acts vii, 51.) But about the same persons it was said, in a preceding chapter, " And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which Stephen spake.” (vi, 10.) "And all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on bim, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel." (vi, 15.)

I unite these passages for no other reason than that I may be able to contemplate them all together at one glance, and may direct my thoughts according to them.

And, first, we must see the appellations which the sin receives about which we are here treating.

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