degree, i.e. such a faith which is formally and essentially true, or, which is the same, which is justifying, though not saving, but justifying in the essence or substance of it, in respect whereof a man is at present righteous or just not justifying in respect of continuance; since if we consider the truth of the end, that faith is not truly justifying, which at any time ceases to justify because no other faith bas the promise of eternal life, but only that which perseveres.1

:

CLEMENT OF ROME.

Remember the words of our Lord Jesus: for He has said, Woe to that man; it were good for him rather not to have been born, than that he should cause one of my elect people to stumble."

BARNABAS.

Take heed, therefore, lest sitting still, now that we are called, we fall asleep in our sins, and the wicked one getting the dominion over us, stir us up, and shut us out of the kingdom of the Lord." Beware, therefore, lest haply we discover, as it is written, many are called, but few chosen."

HERMAS.

Behold the mighty Lord, who by His invisible power and with His excellent wisdom made the world, and by His glorious counsel beautified His creature, and with His most mighty word fixed the heaven and founded the earth upon the waters: and by His powerful might established His Holy Church, which He hath blessed, Behold He will remove the heavens and the mountains, the hills and the seas; and all things shall be made smooth for His elect; that He may fulfil to them the promise which He hath promised, with much honour and joy, it so be that they shall keep the statutes of God which they have received in great faith."

For the mighty Lord hath sworn by His glory concerning His Elect after that he had aforetime appointed that day that if any one shall still sin, he shall not have salvation.

Voss. Hist. Pelag. lib. vi. Thes. 13.

3 Μνήσθητε τῶν λόγων Ἰησοῦ τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν, εἶπε γάρ· “ Οὐαὶ τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ ἐκείνῳ, καλὸν ἦν αὐτῷ εἰ οὐκ ἐγεννήθη, ἢ ἕνα τῶν ἐκλεκτῶν μου σκανδαλίσαι· κρεῖττον ἦν αὐτῷ περιπεθῆναι μύλου, καὶ καταποντισθῆναι εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν, ἡ ἕνα τῶν μικρῶν μου σκανδαλίσαι.” Epist. ad Corinth. § 46.

3 Adtendite, ne quando quiescentes jam vocati addormiamus in peccatis nostris; et nequam, accipiens potestatem nostram, suscitet et excludat à regno Domini. Barn. Epis. §iv.

Adtendamus ergo, ne forte, sicut scriptum est, multi vocati, pauci electi, inveniamur. Ib.

Ecce Deus virtutem, qui invisibili virtute, et magno sensu suo condidit mundum, et honorifico consilio circumdedit decorem creaturæ suæ et fortissimo suo verbo confixit cælum, et fundavit terram super aquas, et virtute suâ potenti condidit sanctam Ecclesiam suam, quam benedixit; ecce transferet cælos ac montes, colles ac maria; et omnia plana fient electis ejus; ut reddat illis repromissionem quam repromisit, cum multo honore et gaudio si servaverint legitima Dei, quæ acceperunt in magna fide. Herm. Vis. i. § 3. Juravit enim Dominator ille per gloriam suam super electos suos, præfinita istâ die; etiam nunc si peccaverit aliquis, non habiturum illum salutem. Ib. Vís. ii. § 2.

Beware, my sons, lest peradventure then your dissensions should defraud you of your life. How will you instruct the elect of God, seeing that ye yourselves have no discipline ?1

Woe

Go and relate to the elect of God, His mighty deeds. to those doubtful ones, who shall hear these words and despise them! It were better for them never to be born. 2

TERTULLIAN.

Some are of opinion as if God must of necessity give that which He has promised, even to those that are unworthy, and thus make His bounty a servitude or bondage. But if He gratifies us with the symbol of death out of necessity, He does it against His will. And who will suffer that to continue or remain firm which He gives unwillingly? For, do not many afterwards fall away? Is not this gift taken away from many?"

CYPRIAN.

If forsaking the Church when he has been a confessor, and thus rending asunder the concord of unity, any person shall have exchanged his first faith for later perfidy; he cannot merely by reason of his confession flatter himself as if he were elected to the reward of glory, since from this very conduct the deservedness of his punishment is only increased. For the Lord elected Judas also among the Apostles, and yet Judas afterwards betrayed the Lord.

Notwithstanding Peter, upon whom the Church was built by the same Lord, speaking once for all, and answering in the Church's voice, says, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life": and we believe and know that Thou art the Son of the living God; signifying and showing that those who depart from Christ perish through their own fault, but the Church which believes in Christ, and which holds that which it has once known, never departs from Him at all; and they are the Church who abide in the house of God."

1 Videte ergo filii, ne forte ha dissentiones vestræ fraudent vitam vestram. Quo modo vos erudire vultis electos Dei, cum ipsi non habeatis disciplinam ? Ib. Vis. iii. § 9. Vade ergo, et enarra electis Dei magnalia ipsius...... Væ dubiis iis, qui audierint verba hæc, et contempserint! Melius erat illis non nasci. Ib. Vis. iv. § 2.

Quidam autem opinatur, quasi Deus necesse habeat præstare etiam indignis, quod spospondit; et liberalitatem ejus faciunt servitutem Quod si necessitate nobis symbolum mortis indulget, ergo invitus facit. Quis enim permittit permansurum id, quod tribuerit invitus ? Non enim multi postea excidunt? Non à multis donum illud aufertur ? Tert. de Pœnitentia cap. vi.

Si Ecclesiam denique, ubi confessor factus est, derelinquens, et unitatis concordiam scindens, fidem primam perfidia posteriore mutaverit, blandiri sibi per confessionem non potest, quasi sit electus ad gloriæ præmium; quando ex hoc ipso magis creverint merita pœnarum: nam et Judam inter Apostolos Dominus elegit; et tamen Dominum Judas post modum tradidit. Cyprian, de unit Eccles.

5 Petrus tamen, super quem ædificata ab eodem Domino fuerat Ecclesia, unus pro omnibus loquens, et Ecclesiæ voce respondens, ait: Domine ad quem ibimus ? verba vitæ æternæ habes, et nos credimus et cognovimus, quoniam tu est filius Dei vivi: Significans scilicet et ostendens, eos qui à Christo recesserint, culpa sua perire: Ecclesiam tamen quæ in Christum credat, et quæ semel id quod cognoverit teneat, nunquam ab eo omnino discedere; et eos esse Ecclesiam, qui in domo Dei permanent. Cyprian, Ep. lxix. ad Cornel.

BASIL.

Many who had gathered much together from their youth, when they came to the middle of their years, temptations from evil spirits rising up against them and assaulting them, have not been able to bear the burden of the winter for want of a good pilot ship, and so have lost all. And hence it comes to pass that some have made shipwreck of faith; others, by means of a violent tempest, as it were, of pleasure rushing upon them, have utterly lost that chastity which they had preserved together from their youth. A most sad spectacle! for a man after fasting, after austereness of living, after much praying, after much weeping, after a continent life, it may be for twenty or thirty years together, through negligence and carelessness of soul, to be found destitute of all and that such a person who hath greatly prospered by the work of the commandments (of God) should become like unto a merchant of a great estate, who, whilst his ship sailed on her course with a fair and prosperous wind, judged himself a brave man for the abundance of goods in her, but having passed through tempestuous seas, his vessel comes to be wrecked in the very haven, and he pointed at or shown by men as one that on the sudden and at once hath lost all.1

:

But sin is the destroyer of that grace which is given us by the laver of regeneration."

JEROME.

(For) Nothing is lost except what was before safe, and nothing dies except what was before alive. Therefore, those who are now called the sons of perdition, or of iniquity and of wickedness, have through their own fault forsaken the Lord, and from the sons of the Lord have begun to be the sons of perdition: this same Prophet (Isaiah) saying, "You have forsaken the Lord, you have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger." (Is. i. 4.)1

AUGUSTINE.

It is much to be wondered at, and greatly to be wondered at, that 1 Πολλοὶ γὰρ πολλὰ συναθροίσαντες ἐκ νεότητος, περὶ τὰ μέσα τοῦ βίου γενόμενοι, ἐπαναστάντων αὐτοῖς πειρασμῶν ἐκ τῶν πνευμάτων τῆς πονηρίας, οὐκ ἤνεγκαν τοῦ χειμῶνος τὸ βάρος διὰ τὸ τὴν κυβέρνησιν αὐτοῖς μὴ παρεῖναι· ἀλλὰ πάντων ἐκείνων τὴν ζημίαν ὑπέμειναν. Οθεν καὶ οἱ μὲν τὴν πίστιν ἐναυάγησαν, ἄλλοι δὲ σωφροσύνην ἣν συνήγαγον ἐκ νεότητος, ὥσπερ καταιγίδος τινὸς τῆς πονηρᾶς ἡδονῆς ἐπιδραμούσης, ἀπώλεσαν, Ελεεινότατον θέαμα· μετὰ νηστείαν, μετὰ σκλη ραγωγίαν, μετὰ προσευχὴν ἐκτενῆ, μετὰ δάκρυον δαψιλές, μετὰ ἐγκράτειαν ἐτῶν εἴκοσι που, ἢ τρίακοντα, διὰ ἀπροσεξίαν ψυχῆς καὶ ἀμέλειαν, γυμνὸν ἁπάντων ἀποδειχθῆναι· καὶ παραπλήσιον γενέσθαι τὸν τῇ ἐργασίᾳ τῶν ἐντολῶν εὐθηνούμενον, ἐμπόρῳ τινὶ μεγαλοπλούτῳ, ὃς τῷ πλήθει τῶν ἀγωγίμων ἐπαγαλλόμενος, ἐξουρίας αὐτῷ τῆς νηὸς φερομένης, τὰ φοβερὰ πελάγη διαδραμὼν, πρὸς αὐτοῖς τοῖς λιμέσι διαῤῥαγέντος τοῦ πλοίου, πάντων αθρόως ἔρημος ἀπεδείχθη. Basil Hom. xii. in Princip. Proverb. (prope finem).

2 Ἡ δὲ ἁμαρτία ἀφανιστικὴ τῆς χάριτος, τῆς δεδομένης ἡμῖν διὰ τοῦ λούτρου τῆς παλιγγενεσίας. Ib. Hom. xxi. (circa finem).

1 Nunquam enim perit, nisi quod prius salvum fuit; et nunquam moritur, nisi quod antè vixerat. Ergo isti qui nunc appellantur filii perditionis, sive iniquitatis, ac sceleris, proprio vitio dereliquerunt Dominum, et de filiis Domini, filii perditionis esse cœperunt, dicente ad eos hoc eodem Propheta: Dereliquistis Dominum, et ad iracundiam provo castis Sanctum Israel. Hier. In Isa. Proph,. lib. xvi., cap. 57.

God, to some of His children whom He has regenerated in Christ, and to whom He has given faith, hope, and love, should not give perseverance also; when He forgives such great sins unto strange children, and by imparting His grace unto them, makes them His own children.1

That of two both being godly, why perseverance unto the end should be given unto the one and not given unto the other belongs to the unsearchable judgment of God.

That of regenerate men, some die persevering unto the end; others are detained in life until they fall away, who certainly had not fallen away had they died before they so fell; and, again, some falling but not departing from this life until they rise again, who certainly would have perished had they died before their return.3

1 Mirandum est quidem, multumque mirandum, quod filiis suis Deus quibusdam quos regeneravit in Christo, quibus fidem, spem, dilectionem dedit, non dat perseverantiam, cum filiis alienis scelera tanta dimittat, atque impertitâ gratiâ suâ, faciat filios suos. August. de Corrept et Grat. cap. xviii. [viii].

2 Ex duobus autem piis, cur huic donetur perseverantia usque in finem, illi autem non donetur inscrutabiliora sunt judicia Dei. Ib. de Dono Persev. cap. xxi. [viii].

3 Ipsos quoque regeneratos, alios perseverantes usque in finem, hinc abire: alios quousque decidant, hic teneri, qui utique non decidissent, si antequam laberentur hinc issent et rursus, quosdam lapsos, quousque redeant, non exire de hac vitâ: qui utique perirent, si antequam redirent, exirent. Ibid. cap. xxxii. [xiii].

371

CHAPTER VII.

BRIEF NOTICES OF OTHER SCHEMES OF ELECTION.

(a) Arminianism.

We propose now to consider more particularly the doctrine enunciated by Arminius and usually held by his followers, and in setting forth his views to give them as nearly as possible in his own words gathered from his various writings.

It is not unfrequently asserted that Arminius assigned the cause of election to be God's eternal prevision of the future persevering holiness and consequently moral fitness of the individuals themselves, who by reason whereof have been thus elected. It is apprehended that, however common this assertion may be-an assertion sanctioned by Mr. Faber in his excellent "Enquiry into the Primitive Doctrine of Election," it is not an accurate statement of the doctrine as taught by Arminius, neither is it a fair deduction from what he did teach. It is true that he considered the cause of reprobation to be God's eternal foresight of the future impenitence and unbelief of the individuals themselves, who thence have been reprobated; but it does not follow that holiness or peculiar fitness was therefore, according to him, the cause of election. He most certainly bases the one on mercy and the other on justice alone.

Arminius defines Predestination as the decree of the good pleasure of God in Christ by which He resolved within Himself from all eternity to justify, adopt, and endow with everlasting life to the praise of His own glorious grace, believers on whom He had decreed to bestow faith. The cause of this decree of God is "the good pleasure or the benevolent affection of His own will." This good pleasure, he considered, not only excludes every cause which it could take from man, or which it could be imagined to take from him, but it likewise removes whatever is in or from man that could justly move God not to make that gracious decree.

As the foundation of this Decree he places Jesus Christ the Mediator between God and man, who is constituted by God the

Mr. Faber's idea is that Arminianism has rejected both the Ideality and the Causation of Election, as that doctrine was understood by the strictly Primitive Church. Calvinism, on the other hand, he considered, had retained the Causation, but rejected the Ideality. Thus, of the two systems, he thought Arminianism had the more widely departed from aboriginal Christian antiquity, for in truth it had altogether forsaken it. Mr. Faber has somewhat misunderstood the views of Arminius.