" Not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world be- gan," 2 Tim. i. 9.
" For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the pur- pose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth," etc., Horn. ix. 11. " All that the Father giveth me shall come to me," John vi. 37.
" Many are called, but few are chosen," Matt. xxii. 14. "Fear not, little flock ; for it is your Fa- ther's good pleasure to give you the kingdom," Luke xii. 32.
Lib. Arbit. "No such will can be ascribed unto God, whereby he so would have any to be saved, that from thence his salvation should be sure and infallible," Armin. " I acknowledge no sense, no per- ception of any such election in this life," Grevinch. " We deny that God's election unto salvation ex- tendeth itself to singular persons," Rem. Coll. Hag.
" As we are justified by faith, so we are not elected but by faith," Grevinch.
" We profess roundly that faith is considered by God as a condi- tion preceding election, and not following as a fruit thereof," Rem. Coll. Hag.
" The sole and only cause of election is not the will of God, but the respect of our obedience," Episcop. " For the cause of this love to any person is, [that] the goodness, faith, and piety, where- with, according to God's com- mand and his own duty, he is endued, are pleasing to God," Rem. Apol.
"God hath determined to gTant the means of salvation unto all without difference; and accord- ing as he foreseeth men will use those means, so he determineth of them," Corv.
68
A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM.
s. s.
" What hast thou that thou didst not receive?" 1 Cor. iv. 7. "Are we better than they? No, in no wise," Rom. iii. 9. But we are "predestinated to the adop- tion of children by Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will," Eph. i. 5; John vi. 37-89, X. 3, xiii. 18, xvii. 6; Acts xiii. 48; Tit. i. 1; 2 Tim. ii. 19; James i. 17, IS, etc.
Lib. Arbit. The sum of their doctrine is: God hath aj^pointed the obedi- ence of faith to be the means of salvation. If men fulfil this con- dition, he determineth to save them, which is their election ; but if, after they have entered the way of godliness, they fall from it, they lose also their predesti- nation. If they will return again, they are chosen anew ; and if they can hold out to the end, then, and for that continuance, they are peremptorily elected, or postdes- tinated, after they are saved. Now, whether these positions may be gathered from those places of Scripture which deliver this doc- trine, let any man judge.
CHAPTER VII.
Of original sin and the corruption of nature.
Herod the Great, imparting his counsel of rebuilding the temple unto the Jews, they much feared he would never be able to accom- plish his intention,^ but, like an unwise builder, having demolished the old before he had sat down and cast up his account whether he were able to erect a new, they should (by his i)roject) be deprived of a temple. Wherefore, to satisfy their jealousies, he resolved, as he took down any part of the other, presently to erect a portion of the new in the place thereof. Right so the Arminians, determining to demolish the building of divine providence, grace, and favour, by which men have hitherto ascended into heaven, and fearing lest we should be troubled, finding ourselves on a sudden deprived of that wherein we reposed our confidence for happiness, they have, by de- grees, erected a Babyloni.sh tower in the room thereof, whose top, they would persuade us, shall reach unto heaven. First, therefore, the foundation-stones they bring forth, crying, " Hail, hail," unto
' Joseph. Antiq. JmUo., lib. xv. cap, 11, sect. C.
OF ORIGINAL SIN. 69
them, and pitch them on the sandy, rotten ground of our own na- tures. Now, because heretofore some v/ise master-builders had dis- covered this ground to be very unfit to be the basis of such a lofty erection, by reason of a corrupt issue of blood and filth arising in the midst thereof, and overspreading the whole platform, to encourage men to an association in this desperate attempt, they proclaim to all that there is no such evil fountain in the plain which they have chosen for the foundation of their proud building, setting up itself against the knowledge of God in plain terms. Having rejected the providence of God from being the original of that goodness of entity which is in our actions, and his predestination from being the cause of that moral and spiritual goodness wherewith any of them are clothed, they endeavour to draw the praise of both to the rectitude of their nature and the strength of their own endeavours. But this attempt, in the latter case, being thought to be altogether vain, be- cause of the disability and corruption of nature, by reason of original sin, propagated unto us all by our first parents, whereby it is become wholly void of integrity and holiness, and we all become wise and able to do evil, but to do good have no power, no understanding; therefore, they utterly reject this imputation of an inherent, origi- nal guilt, and demerit of punishment, as an enemy to our upright and well-deserving condition. And oh, that they were as able to root it out of the hearts of all men, that it should never more be there, as they have been to persuade the heads of divers that it was never there at all !