"But where more ends of this kind occur, (of which, as it has been said, one is beyond another,) they are called subordinate ends, as being those of which one stands in order to the other. But the most remote of all is usually called the Ultimate end; and the rest, Mediate or Intermediate ends to that Ultimate one: Indeed, every end is Intermediate to that which is more remote than itself.

"Distinctions are also made between the end of the Work, and the end of the Workman: The former is that to which the thing itself tends; the latter is that to which the agent has regard. Thus, when a shoe is finished, the end of the Work is the defence of the foot: But the end of the Workman is the profit or the gains which the shoe-maker procures for himself by making shoes; and the more Remote end of the workınan is a livelihood, clothing, and other things which may be purchased with money obtained in this manner; and indeed an end of the workman still more Remote is the preservation of his own health and life; and other things are ends yet more Remote than these."

I do not recollect any other terms, occurring in these Disputations, in which even the most youthful student will find any real difficulty. Let it, however, never be forgotten that these terms were not invented by Arminius, but were those employed in common by the learned among the Calvinists as well as among the Anti-Calvinists in that age, more frequently than in modern times. And when the ART to which they belong and by which they are skilfully marshalled against an adversary, or (rather) when the SCIENCE by which these weapons are wielded in controversy, is not carried to extremes and does not degenerate into excessive refinement, it affords mighty aid to the interests of Truth, and cannot justly become an object of reprehension to the most fastidious among the lovers of simplicity. Its nature and offices would indeed be very imperfectly described, if it were said to be chiefly occupied about polemical Divinity: On the contrary, it is much more conversant with the Theology that is pacific and elucidatory; and, in this respect, it may, not inappropriately, be styled a kind of moral chemistry, by which all the constituent parts of any subject are reduced to their simplest elements, and are offered in their purest and least exceptionable forms to the contemplation of the con. scientious enquirer after Truth.

The scriptural references have given me much inconvenience: Indeed I have spent far more time in verifying them, than in the mere translation of all the Theses. The quarto editions of the Works of Arminius are, in this particular, very faulty: The greatest assistance afforded to me in rectifying them, has been by the earliest octavo edition, which was printed with tolerable correctness; but the rough press-work of the whole of that impression, and the consequent indistinctness of the numerous marginal references in small figures, have been the origin of those egregious errors which are perpetuated in all the subsequent editions. So indistinctly indeed were some of the abbreviated Latin titles of the Books of Scripture printed, that one Book was often mistaken and misprinted for another, and consequently more chapters were occasionally ascribed to some of them than were their original proper portion.

In the whole of this translation, the reader will have perceived, I have been partial to the practice of inserting the author's Latin expression within brackets; and this for several reasons. The mature and accomplished divine has thus, in many instances, an opportunity of more correctly ascertaining the intention of the author, than he could have from a translator's phraseology, which must from circumstances often be somewhat circumlocutory; while the mere English reader will, in almost every instance, be furnished with a cognate or synonymous phrase that will afford him much assistance in comprehending the force of particular expressions, in connection with some of the arguments employed. I have generally left the word "RATIO" untranslated. Respecting the vagueness of its meaning in the Classics, an eminent lexicographer has well observed, "There is scarcely a Latin word used in a greater variety of meanings, or more difficult to translate, than RATIO. "This observation applies with greater force to many of the modern uses of the word; though its just and proper application is seldom mistaken by any man accustomed to Logical and Metaphysical deductions.

ON

DISPUTATION I.

THE AUTHORITY AND CERTAINTY OF THE SACRED

SCRIPTURES.

Respondent, BERNARD VESUKIUS.

I. THE Authority of Scripture is nothing else but [dignitas] the worthiness according to which it merits (1.) [fidem] CREDENCE, as being true in words and true in significations, whether it simply declares any thing, or also promises and threatens; and (2.) as a superior, it merits OBEDIENCE through the credence given to it, when it either commands or prohibits any thing. Concerning this Authority two questions arise, (1.) Whence does it belong to Scripture? (2.) Whence is it evident or can be rendered evident to men, that this authority appertains to Scripture? These two questions shall be discussed in their proper order. (1 Tim. i, 15; 2 Pet. i, 19; John v, 39; Heb. vi, 18.-Rom. i, 5; 2 Cor. x, 5, 6; xiii, 3; xii, 12; Gal. i, 1, 12, 13, &c.)

II. The authority of any word or writing whatsoever depends upon its author, as the word "authority" indicates; and it is just as great as the veracity and the power, that is, the averia, of the author. But God is of infallible veracity, and is neither capable of deceiving nor of being deceived; and of irrefragable power, that is, supreme over the creatures: If therefore He is the Author of Scripture, its authority is totally dependent on Him alone. (i.) Totally, Because He is the all-sufficient Author, all-true and all-powerful. (ii.) On Him alone, Because he has no associate either in the truth of what he says, or in the power of his right. For all veracity and power in the creature proceed from him; and into his veracity and power are resolved all faith and obedience, as into the First Cause and the Ultimate [terminum] Boundary. (Gal. iii, 8, 9; 1 John v, 9; Rom. iii, 4; Tit. i, 2; Psalm 1, 1–23; Gal. i, 1, 7, 8; John v, 34, 36; Rom. xi, 34-36; xiii, 1.)

III. This is proved by many arguments dispersed throughout the Scripture: (1.) From the inscriptions of most of the prophetical books and of the apostolical epistles, which run thus, "The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, to Joel, to Amos,' &c. "Paul, Peter, James, &c., a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ." (Hosea, Joel, Amos; Rom. i, 1; James i, 1;

1 Pet. i, 1.) (2.) From the introductions to many of the prophecies: "Thus saith the Lord," "That which I have received of the Lord, I have also delivered unto you." (Exod. v, 1; 1 Cor. xi, 23.) (3.) From the petitions, on the part of the ambassadors of God and of Christ, for Divine assistance, and from the promise of it which is given by God and Christ, such aid being necessary and sufficient to obtain authority for what was to be spoken. (Exod. iv, 1; Acts iv, 29, 30; Mark xvi, 17, 20.) (4.) From the method used by God himself, who, when about to deliver his law, introduced it thus: "I am the Lord thy God!" And who, when in the act of establishing the authority of his Son, said, "This is my beloved Son, hear ye Him." (Exod. xx, 1; Matt. xvii, 5.)-This is acknowledged by the general consent of mankind: Minos, Numa, Lycurgus, and Solon were fully aware of it; for, to give some validity to their laws, they referred them to Gods or Goddesses as the real authors.

IV. When this authority is once known, it binds the con sciences of all those to whom the discourse or the writing is addressed or directed, to accept of it in a becoming manner. But whoever they be that receive it as if delivered by God, that approve of it, publish, preach, interpret and expound it, that also distinguish and discriminate it from words or writings which are supposititious and adulterated; these persons add not a tittle of authority to the sayings or writings, because their entire authority, whether contemplated separately or conjointly, is only that of mortal men; and things Divine neither need confirmation, nor indeed can receive it, from those which are human. But this whole employment of approving, preaching, explaining and discriminating, even when it is discharged by the Church Universal, is only an attestation by whieh she declares, that she holds and acknowledges these words or writings, and these alone, as Divine. (John xv, 22, 24; viii, 24; Gal. i, 8, 9 ; Eph. ii, 20; Rev. xxi, 14; John i, 6, 7; v, 33-36; 1 Thess. ii, 13.)

V. Therefore, not only false but likewise implying a contradiction, foolish and blasphemous, are such expressions as the following, employed by Popish writers: "The Church is of greater antiquity than the Scriptures; and they are not authentic except by the authority of the Church." (Ecci Enchir. de Eccles.) "All the authority which is now given to the Scriptures, is necessarily dependent on that of the Church." (PIGHIUS de Hierar. Eccles. lib. 2, c. 2.) The Scriptures would possess no more validity than the Fables of Esop, or any other kind of VOL. II. G

writing whatever, unless we believed the testimony of the Church." (HOSIUS de Author. Script. lib. 3.) But that "the Church is of greater antiquity than the Scriptures," is an argument which labours under a falsity in the antecedent and under [inconsequential a defective inference. For the Scriptures, both with regard to their significations and their expressions, are more ancient than the Church; and this former Church is bound to receive the latter sayings and writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, &c. of Paul, Peter, &c., as soon as their Divine verity has been demonstrated by sufficient arguments according to the judgment of God. (Matt. xvi, 18; 1 Cor. iii, 9, 10.)

VI. But by the very arguments by which the Scriptures are Divine, they are also [proved to be] Canonical, from the method and end of their composition, as containing the rule of our faith, charity, hope, and of the whole of our living. For they are given for doctrine, for reproof, for instruction, for correction, and for consolation; that is, that they may be the rule of truth and falsehood to our understanding, of good and evil to our affections, either to do and to omit, or to have and to want. (Deut. xxvii, 26; Psalm cxix, 105, 106; Rom. x, 8, 17; Matt. xxii, 37-40; 2 Tim. iii, 16; Rom. xv, 4.) For as they are Divine because given by God, not because they are "received from men;" so they are canonical, and are so called in an active sense because they prescribe a Canon or rule, and not passively because they are reckoned for a Canon, or because they are taken into the Canon. So far indeed is the Church from rendering them authentic or canonical, that no assemblage or congregation of men can come under the name of a Church, unless they account the Scriptures authentic and canonical with regard to the sum or substance of the Law and Gospel. (Gal. vi, 16; 1 Tim. vi, 3, 4; Rom. xvi, 17; x, 8-10, 14-17.)

VII. The SECOND Question is, [§ I,] How can a persuasion be wrought in men, that these Scriptures are Divine? For the explication of this question some things must be premised, which may free the discussion from equivocations, and may render it more easy. (1.) A distinction must be drawn between Scripture, (which, as a sign, consists of a word and of the writing of that word,) and the sense or meaning of Scripture; because it is not equally important which of the two is necessary to be known and believed, since it is Scripture on account of its [sensus] meanings, and because there is a difference in the method of proof by which Divinity [astruitur] is ascribed to the writing itself and to its significations. (2.) A distinction must likewise be drawn

between the primary cause of Scripture, and the instrumental causes; lest it be thought, that the same necessity exists for believing some book of Scripture to have been written by this or that particular amanuensis, as there is for believing it to have proceeded from God. (3.) The ratio of those meanings is dissimilar, since some of them are simply necessary to salvation, as containing the foundation and sum of religion; while others are connected with the former in no other way, than by a certain relation of explanation, proof, and amplification. (John viii, 24; v, 39, 46, 36; 1 Cor. xii, 3.-2 Cor, ii, 4, 5; iii, 7-9; Matt. x, 20; 2 Cor. iii, 11, 12; Phil. iii, 15, 16; Col. ii, 16, 19.)

VIII. (4.) The persuasion of faith must be distinguished from the certainty of vision, lest a man, instead of seeking here* for faith which is sufficiently powerful to prevail against temptations, should require certainty which is obnoxious to no temptation. (5.) A difference must be made between implicit faith by which this Scripture without any understanding of its significations is believed to be Divine, and explicit faith which consists of some knowledge of the meanings, particularly of those which are necessary: And this historical knowledge, which has only ao paλelav mentis, mental security, [or human certainty, Luke i, 4,t] comes to be distinguished from saving knowledge, which also contains πληροφοριαν full assurance and πεποιθησιν confidence, on which the conscience reposes. This distinction must be made, that a correct judgment may be formed of those arguments which are necessary and sufficient for producing each of these kinds of faith. (6.) A difference must also be made between those arguments which are worthy of God, and those which human vanity may require: And such arguments must not here be demanded as cannot fail to persuade every one; since many persons denied all credence to Christ himself, though he bore testimony to his own doctrine by so many signs and wonders, virtues and distributions of the Holy Ghost. (7.) The external light, derived from arguments which are employed to effect suasion, must be distinguished from the internal light of the Holy Spirit [testificantis] bearing his own testimony; lest that which properly belongs to the latter, as the seal and the earnest or pledge of our faith, should be ascribed to the strength

The Latin particle hic is here employed, which some translators would render "on this subject," while others would construe it "in this world." The same remark applies to the expression in the 6th division of this paragraph.

+ Compare the English rendering of this word with that of πεπληροφορημένων in the first verse of the same chapter.-ED.