to be either seduced or dragged out of the hands of Christ. * But I think it is useful and will be quite necessary in our first

Arminius spoke nearly the same modest words when interrogated on this subject in the last Conference which he had with Gomarus, before the States of Holland, on the 12th of Aug. 1609, only two months prior to his decease. The Rev. Thomas Scott says, in his notes to the Historical Preface, 'It is ' remarkable, that Arminius himself in this his last public Conference, and 'just before his death, should express himself so UNDECIDED on this grand 'point of decided and unqualified opposition to modern Arminians; and should make the concession, that he was not yet able to answer the scriptures which seemed to favour the doctrine of the final perseverance in all true believers. It is worthy the serious consideration of his disciples.'-Mr. Scott thinks this conduct remarkable. Such it might appear to be in a man of common mould, who, because he had somewhat against particular parts of a certain unscriptural system, would venture rashly to oppose other parts that deserved no marked reprehension. But to discover in Arminiu3 a different and admirable trait, ought to excite no wonder; for, it will be seen, he was on every occasion careful to let his moderation be known unto all men. (Phil. iv, 5.)

This diffident mode of expressing himself on a topic about which he had not fully satisfied the scruples of his own mind, is indeed "worthy of consideration by his disciples ;" and since it has elicited from Mr. Scott a high and deserved eulogium, we may hope that it will also be accounted worthy of very "serious consideration" by all the other disciples of Calvin. The common sense of mankind will in that case be no longer insulted with the silly verbiage and arrogant boasting, which distinguish the productions of those men who have sworn fealty to mere earthly teachers; and who seem to have forgotten, that, as a general characteristic, it may be confidently predicated of all humble and sincere Christians, ONE is your Master, even CHRIST; and all ye are brethren.' The followers of the Redeemer, who can embrace as their "brethren beloved" those "of the household of faith" that are not rigid Predestinarians, will then possess the assurance of which St. John speaks when he declares, 'We KNOW that we have passed from death unto life, BECAUSE WE

LOVE THE BRETHREN.'

Though the question propounded, and the answer returned, were not exactly those which the Historical Preface and Mr. Scott have stated, (as is shewn in Appendix W,) yet the leaning of our author's mind towards the negative of that question, is very evident from this part of his DECLARATION, and from his answer to the Second of the Thirty-one Articles with which he was unjustly charged. In the latter production he points out an important distinction that ought always to be observed when this doctrine is discussed, and the terms on which he was prepared to maintain, "that it is impossible for believers, as long as they continue believers, to decline [or fall away] from salvation ;" and, on the contrary, "that it is impossible for believers, if they fall away from the faith and become unbelievers, to do otherwise than fall away from salvation,—that is, if they remain unbelievers.”—The restrictions in these two passages are perfectly in unison with the rest of our author's system, which recognizes, as believers, those christian characters alone who continue to believe and do not fall from their own steadfastness. (2 Pet. iii, 17.) But it also accounts it possible for those very characters to imitate the change in conduct of that faithful and wise steward, described by our Lord (Luke xii, 42.) as saying in his heart, "My Lord delayeth his coming!; and who [in consequence] began to beat the men-servants, &c. The Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the UNBELIEVERS !"-" Ye are the salt of the earth," says the same Supreme Authority, "but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for

convention, [or Synod] to institute a diligent enquiry from the Scriptures, Whether it is not possible for some individuals through negligence to desert the commencement of their existence in Christ, to cleave again to the present evil world, to decline from the sound doctrine which was once delivered to them, to lose a good conscience, and to cause Divine grace to be ineffectual.

nothing but to be cast out, and trodden under foot of men. Have salt in yourselves," &c.

In his pamphlet, entitled Articuli nonnulli Perpendendi, Arminius very justly observes concerning the Perseverance of Saints, The Church of Christ, 'from the days of the Apostles, down to the present time, has never reckoned 'that as an ORTHODOX opinion which denies that it is either possible for true believers and regenerate persons to fall away from faith, or that they do in reality fall away from faith, totally and finally. Neither has the Christian 'Church ever accounted that opinion HERETICAL, which maintains the contrary proposition, [that is, the possibility and the actuality of believers falling 'totally and finally from the faith.] Nay, the affirmative proposition [which 'maintains the possibility of their fall,] has always had more patrons among 'the followers of Christ, than the negative has obtained.'

Mr. Scott, therefore, is far from being correct when he wishes to prove, from a brief and garbled statement of an insulated occurrence, that Arminius was ou this point opposed to his modern followers. The assertion is not true as it regards our author, who was far from being the rash and truce-breaking man that Mr. Scott has represented: Neither is it generally true, as it regards modern Arminians. For, by quotations from some of the greatest defenders of General Redemption that the Church of England has produced, I can easily demonstrate, that they maintained the doctrine of Final Perseverance with as much ability as any of Calvin's followers.

The great Melancthon's opinion concerning the defectibility of the Saints, is very express : 66 They are the Sons of God who are actuated by the Holy Spirit. But they who run headlong against conscience, eject and vex the Holy Spirit; and therefore they cease to be any longer the Sons of God.-I also affirm, that they who fall into such sins shake off the Holy Spirit, and are again made liable to eternal punishment. Some of them, as Aaron and David, return unto the Lord, are converted and received into favour: Many of them do not return, but fall into eternal punishment.-But these Stoical disputations which some men keep up are to be execrated, who contend, that the elect always retain the Holy Spirit even when they suffer falls the most atrocious."

Luther says: "Unless Ham had believed and prayed, and unless he had feared God, he could in no wise have been saved in the ark: Yet he was afterwards reprobated. Do you ask, what we shall infer from such examples? We shall only draw this inference, that these examples have been proposed for the purpose of instilling into us a godly fear, lest we should suppose, that, after grace has been once received, it is impossible for us to fall again from it." The strong language of the Augsburgh and Saxon Confessions on this topic, are well known to all theological readers.

Seckendorf, the historian of Lutheranism, says: "Luther, Bugenhagen, and Melancthon declared, that they had in all the Churches unanimously taught a contrary doctrine, [to that of the indefectibility of grace even in those who fall into open sin,] that is, they had always taught, that if any saint and believer should willingly and purposely sin against God's commands, he was no longer a saint, but had cast away TRUE FAITH, and rejected the Holy Spirit."

Though I here openly and ingenuously affirm, I never taught that a true believer can either totally or finally fall away from the faith, and perish ;* yet I will not conceal, that there are passages of Scripture which seem to me to wear this aspect; and those answers to them which I have been permitted to see, are not of such a kind as to approve themselves on all points to my understanding. On the other hand, certain passages are produced for the contrary doctrine [of Unconditional Perseverance] which are worthy of much consideration.

VI. THE ASSURANCE OF SALVATION.

With regard to the certainty [or assurance] of salvation, my opinion is, that it is possible for him who believes in Jesus Christ to be certain and persuaded, and, if his heart condemn him not, he is now in reality assured, that he is a Son of God, and stands in the grace of Jesus Christ. Such a certainty is wrought in the mind, as well by the action of the Holy Spirit inwardly actuating the believer and by the fruits of faith,—as from his own conscience, and the testimony of God's Spirit witnessing together with his conscience. I also believe, that it is possible for such a person, with an assured confidence in the grace of God and his mercy in Christ, to depart out of this life, and to appear before the throne of grace, without any anxious fear or terrific dread: and yet this person should constantly pray, 'O Lord, enter not into judgment with thy servant!+

* See the First and Second of the subjoined XXXI Articles.

+ One of the most edifying as well as amusing ecclesiastical narratives that could be produced by a man of genius and piety, would be a correct history of the fluctuation of religious opinions among different sects and parties,—and the prominence which has at various periods been given, by one and the same sect, to some of the distinguishing doctrines of Christianity. The Assurance of Salvation," which our author has described in the 333rd page as the Internal Witness of the Holy Spirit," has been recognized under these and other names, and is one of those grand doctrines which cannot be separated from the gospel without undermining its very foundations. Long before the days of Arminius, the Christian Church had considered it a test of the personal interest which every individual believer felt in the saving merits of Christ applied to his soul. It was consequently inculcated as a duty of universal obligation among Christ's flock. But after our author had begun to shew the absurdity of several of Calvin's additions to the gospel, the rigid Predestinarians resolved to re-model this doctrine of Personal Assurance and to make it one of the strong bulwarks of their system. Instead of allowing it to remain the scriptural criterion of a believer's actual enjoyment in God, they overcharged it with their own inventions: They no longer applied it to the present experience of the people of God, as Arminius has done in the text, but to a very different and unhallowing purpose,-to the creation of a presumptuous confidence, that, "whether in the way to the kingdom, or by the way-side, they should never fall totally and finally from grace." In the spirit of their creed, they did not make it helpful in ascertaining the conscious growth of their Christian graces, the perceptible elevation of their religious

But, since "God is greater than our hearts, and knoweth all things," and since a man judges not his owu self,-yea, though

character, or their actual standing in the Divine Favour; but they employed it to work themselves up to a persuasion of their individual or personal election, (which according to their doctrine was determined at first in the Divine Mind, without any regard to faith or holiness in the particular subjects of it,) and consequently to a complete certainty of their final perseverance.-Arminius did not in his days greatly impugn this preposterous sentiment, (for his enemies gave him abundance of other employment,) indeed it had then scarcely attained to any degree of popularity. But it was boldly attacked by his successors, who shewed its absurdity.-When the Calvinists found it to be untenable in its more modern shape, they abandoned both the sound part of the doctrine and their own additions, in rather a curious manner; for they began to teach it, not as a duty incumbent on all believers, but as a privilege enjoyed by only a few even of the elect. In that condition it rests generally among them to this day. So that they are but a very slight remove beyond the Semi-Pelagians, many of whom acknowledge the existence of the doctrine and the enjoyment of it as a rare privilege, while others of them in their usual style deride it as "enthusiastic,"-a word of portentous sound among those self-estimated men of reason, and sufficient with them to induce the abandonment of any true but unfashionable tenet to which it is applied. These two discordant parties are not the only persons who discountenance this scriptural doctrine; it is discarded from the creed and practice of the Roman Catholic Church, because it will be seen by a subsequent extract, that it is very injurious to several parts of the Priests' office.

Limborch has well described the views of the moderate part of the SemiPelagians, when he treats in his "Body of Divinity" on the Sealing, the Earnest or the Pledge of the HOLY SPIRIT, by which terms were then understood nearly the same gifts as the Witness of the Spirit, or the Assurance of Salvation. He asks, "Is it not granted to all true believers?—Answer: It does not appear to be granted to all, neither is it necessary,-because it is conferred in order to give them a certainty of their salvation. But this certainty [or assurance] may likewise be drawn from the word of God, and from the clear promises which are contained in it, and which a believer may with certainty apply to himself. (2 Tim. iv, 6–8; 1 John ini, 21, 22.) And this kind of certainty seems ordinarily to be sufficient. In the mean time, such cases may happen as those in which, if sincere and ardent prayers be addressed to God, he may bestow his Spirit, to effect a stronger confirmation of that hope which has been conceived through his promises. I say, if the Spirit be asked of him in prayer,-because it is his pleasure, to be acknowledged as the author of such a saving gift. (Luke xi, 13; James i, 5.) For instance, when a man is oppressed with some heavy calamity or persecution, or is solicited by a grievous temptation, under which he would easily faint or fall, he prays to God, and God is accustomed to grant this gift, by which he confirms the man in the hope of life eternal, places before his eyes its magnitude and glory, and causes it to appear as if it were present. God is pleased to do this, that the man, being thus inflamed with the desire of that glory, may cheerfully proceed in a course of piety, and may reject and despise all the delights of this world and the desires of the present life, which might seduce and attract him from his Christian career. This is that peace of God (Phil. iv, 7,) with which when believers are armed, they not only preserve an equanimity of mind in adversities the most difficult, but they also rejoice and glory in them, even unto death. (Rom. v, 2, 3.) Examples of these effects are shewn in various martyrs, who, while enduring the most grievous torments and cruel deaths, employed themselves in singing psalms and hymns. But this kind of confirmation seems to be no other, than sealing by the Holy Spirit. But since God bestows on believers this gift of sealing, he will likewise preserve it in them to the end, if they persevere in faith. On this account it is said, (Ephes.

a man know nothing by himself, yet is he not thereby justified, but he who judgeth him is the Lord," (1 John iii, 19; 1 Cor. iv,

iv, 30,) we are sealed by the Holy Spirit of God unto the day of redemption.”— According to this mode of stating the doctrine, common Christians have little need of it, and the cases are very few in which such confirmation may happen to be necessary !!

The purpose to which Oliver Cromwell applied the Calvinistic perversion of this doctrine, may be seen in a preceding page, (444,) and in page 406 is shewn the still more preposterous use which Hommius made of it, when, after one prayer, "he formed a holy resolution to persevere steadfastly in those opinions which are generally received." A similar instance of this arrogance respecting the Divine assurance of holding correct opinions, (which is a doctrine greatly opposed to that inculcated page 404,) occurs in Fox's Acts and Monuments, concerning a person of the name of CARELESS, who was one of the holy sufferers in the bloody days of Queen Mary, and who thus puns upon his own name, in a letter to a friend: "I have cast my CARE upon the "Lord, which CARETH for me, and I will be CARELESS, according to my "name." In the course of his examination before a Popish Doctor, he said, "I am most sure and certain of my salvation by Jesus; so that my soul is "safe already, whatsoever pains my body may suffer here for a little time." There is nothing very objectionable in this paragraph, except the confident boasting of the safe state of his soul, which is expressed according to the Calvinistic doctrine of assured perseverance, and which would not sound well with the scriptural and modest appendage of Arminius, ' O Lord, enter not into judgment with thy servant!'-But CARELESS adds soon afterwards, "I am most certain, and even so am I sure, that his Holy Spirit "(wherewith I am sealed,) will so preserve me from all heresies and evil "opinions, that I shall die in none at all." When poor CARELESS spoke these words, he had either forgotten, or had carelessly perused the following quotation from the Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian Man, or King's Book, published in 1543, which contained the only public formularies of faith that were then in force within these realms: "Whether there "be any special, particular knowledge, which man by faith hath certainly of "himself, whereby he may testify to himself, that he is of the Predestinates "which shall to the end persevere in their calling,—we have not spoken, nor "can in scripture nor doctors find, that any such faith can be taught or "preached." But we are not too rigorously to judge every expression of this kind. Great allowance must occasionally be made for the phraseology of a man of lively imagination; and still greater allowance will be granted when we consider, that, through Divine condescension, a larger measure of the graces of the Holy Spirit, even according to Limborch's cool notions, might be imparted to the mind of one who was in immediate view of martyrdom. This example is quoted to shew the unwarranted length to which the early Calvinists were inclined to stretch the salutary doctrine of assurance, and the encouragement which their unguarded manner gave to subsequent enthusiasts, who rendered it subservient to any thing which suited their fancies. How different in every respect is the certainty inculcated by Arminius: "If a man's heart [a believer "in Jesus] condemn him not, he is certain and persuaded, that he is a Son of "God and stands in the grace of Jesus Christ. But-I dare not place such an "assurance on an equality with that by which we know there is a God, and that "Christ is the Saviour of the world." In accordance with the modesty of this declaration, Bishop Ridley, that noble martyr for the truth of God, thus expressed himself respecting the assurance which he felt in the very prospect of death: "How nigh the day of my dissolution and departure out of this world is at hand, I cannot tell. The Lord's will be fulfilled, how soon soever it shall come! I know, that the Lord's words must be verified in me, that I shall appear before the Incorrupt Judge, and be countable to him for all my former life. And although THE HOPE of his mercy is my SHEET-ANCHOR of eternal