As the system of doctrine commonly designated Calvinism, from its ablest expounder, the illustrious reformer of Geneva, was in fact first clearly defined and advocated by the great St. Augus- tin, bishop of Hippo, in Northern Africa, during the last years of the ^fourth and the first of the fifth century, so that antagonist system, now generally known as Arminianism, from the fact that its most able and prominent modern advocates, the Remonstrants, of Holland, were led, in the order of time, by James Arminius, professor of theology in the University of Leyden, from 1602 to 1609, was really in the first instance set forth by John Cas- siantjs, an Eastern monk settled in Marseilles, in France, during the first half of the fifth century. The advocates of this system were at first called Massilians (from Massilia, Marseilles), and afterwards, by the schoolmen, Semipelagians.
During the controversies which immediately preceded the General Synod of Dort, in Holland, A. D. 1618 and 1619 (when the churches of England, Scotland, Holland, the Palatinate, and Switzerland, united in condemning, by their representatives, this doctrine, and in reasserting Calvinism as the faith of the Keformed churches), the Kemonstrants set forth their position, as contrasted with the established doctrine of the Protestant churches, in five propositions. These are known as the five points of contro- versy between the disciples of Arminius and of Calvin. These, as given by Mosheim, Cent. XVII.. Sec. II., Part II., Chap. III., are as follows :
1st. " That God, from all eternity, determined to bestow salva- tion on those who, as he foresaw, would persevere unto the end in their faith in Jesus Christ, and to inflict everlasting punish- ment on those who should continue in their unbelief, and resist, to the end of life, his divine succours.
2d. " That Jesus Christ, by his death and sufferings, made an atonement for the sins of mankind in general, and of every indi- vidual in particular ; that, however, none but those who believe in him can be partakers of that divine benefit.
3d. " That true faith can not proceed from the exercise of our natural faculties and powers, or from the force and operation of
522 APPENDIX.
free will, since man, in consequence of his natural corruption, is incapable of thinking or doing any good thing ; and that there- fore it is necessary to his conversion and salvation that he be re- generated and renewed by the operation of the Holy Ghost, which is the gift of God through Jesus Christ.
4th. " That this divine grace or energy of the Holy Ghost, which heals the disorders of a corrupt nature, begins, advances, and brings to perfection every thing that can be called good in man ; and that, consequently, all good works, without exception, are to be attributed to God alone, and to the operation of his grace ; that, nevertheless, this grace does not force the man to act against his inclination, but may be resisted and rendered ineffec- tual by the perverse will of the impenitent sinner.
5th. " That they who are united to Christ by faith are there- by furnished with abundant strength and succor sufficient to en- able them to triumph over the seductions of Satan, and the allure- ments of sin ; nevertheless they may, by the neglect of these suc- cors, fall from grace, and, dying in such a state, may finally perish. This point was stated at first doubtfully, but afterwards positively as a settled doctrine."
It must be remembered that this statement was put forth dur- ing the early stages of this controversy, while the Kemonstrants were deprecating all ecclesiastical investigation of their divergen- cies from the creeds of the national church, and before, in fact, their system had been thoroughly elaborated by their own teachers. The fundamental positions set forth in these five points led by logical necessity to that rationalistic anti-evangelical system ma- tured by the later Eemonstrant theologians, and presenting un- scriptural views upon almost every question concerning Christi- anity, as concerning our federal relation to Adam, original sin, predestination, providence, redemption, free will, grace, faith, re- generation, justification, sanctification, perseverance, good works, etc., etc.
THE END.
; Nov . 8 I860.
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