"Augustine was commissioned for another work. The church, in the centuries antecedent to his appear- ance, had vaguely believed in the depravity and help- lessness of human nature ; but Augustine was raised up to explain with clearness, and to maintain, and to bring forth in suitable prominence, the great doctrine of the native corruption and moral ruin of man ; his utter hopelessness apart from the remedial agencies of Divine grace, on which supposition only the ancient beliefs of the church and the unqualified declarations of Scripture could lie true. His mission was the enunciation, exposition, and defense of a great truth respecting human nature, and round that truth was grouped all Christian thinking of that age. It is this which gives that age its character. The whole scho- lastic theology is but the radicated and ramified out- growth of that vital germ of truth. To him is the church indebted for her first vivid apprehension and scientific statement of the Christian doctrine of man. Augustine is the historical representative of that or- ganic evolution. The third of these divinely appoint- ed representative men laid hold of both these truths, which for sixteen centuries had been developing; ac- cepted the church's developed ideas respecting God and respecting man, and then expounded with keen dialectical rigor the only doctrine which could har- monize the two. His mission was to point out how God could be what the church taught that he was, and man what the church declared him to be, at one and the same time. The readjustment of the disturbed and abnormal relations of man to God by justification is the central thought of Protestant theology ; the an- nouncement and exposition of their relations in that readjustment was the work of Arminius. And not un- til Ariniiiius is placed iii this relation to the doctrinal development of Christianity in the church is there at- tained a true perception of the grand and growing rhythm of its history." The Prodcstinarians (as re- marked above) erred by maintaining that the particu- lar exercise of Divine efficiency, by which the abnor- mal relation of God to a sinner is readjusted, was un- conditioned by anything whatsoever, and was ground- ed solely apon the arbitrary good pleasure of the Al- mighty . Maintaining this unconditioned elective vo- lition, they naturally demanded an "effectual call- ing," " irresistible grace," and •• persevering success," for all these were accessary concomitants. The refu- tation ol this error, and the establishment of the oppo- site view, was the mission of Ann'mitis. His labors gave scientific form to the ecclesiastical opinion upon the third great point, and complete. 1 the cycle of Christian theology. As in the development of apos- tolic doctrine, the Pauline and Petrine elements were
unified in John, so, in its uninspired development, after Athanasius had set forth his truth, and Augus- tine his, Arminius steps forth the later apostle of dog- matic completion (Dr. Warren, in Methodist Quarterly Revieic, 1857, p. 346 sq.).
The Arminian doctrine on predestination is now very widely diffused in the Protestant world. It is, in the main, coincident with that of the Lutherans in Germany ; is held by the Wesleyan Methodist church- es throughout the world ; by a large part of the Church of England, and by many of the clergy of the Protest- ant Episcopal Church in the United States. It is sub- stantially the doctrine (on the question of predestina- tion) of the Greek and Roman churches ; and it is also held by several of the minor sects. For the sources of information, see the writers above referred to, and also Episeopius, Tnstkut. Thiol. (1G50) ; Limborch, Theologia Christiana (1G86) ; • Calder, Life of Episeopius (N. Y. 12mo); Wesley, Works (N. Y*. 7 vols. 8vo); Watson, Theol. Institut. (2 vols. 8vo) ; ~Skho\\s, Calrinism andAr- minianism compared (Lond. 1824, 2 vols. 8vo) ; Fletch- er, Complete Works (N.Y. 1850, 4 vols. 8vo); Neander, Hist, if Christ. Dogmas, ii, 678 sq. ; Art. Arminius, by W. F. Warren, Meth. Q. Rev. July, 1857 ; Schweitzer, Die Protest. C< ntral 'dor/men, ii, 31 sq. ; Gass, Geschichie d. Prot. Dogmatik, i, 379 sq. ; Ebrard, Christ! it he Dogma- tik, § 24-43 (transl. in Mercersburg Revieic, ix and x) ; Francke, Hist. Dcgm. Armin. (Kiel, 1814, 8vo) ; Cun- ningham, Historical Theology, ch. xxv (Calvinistic ; Edinb. 1864, 2 vols. 8vo) ; Schneckenburger, Verg. DarstiUung d. hither, und reform. Lehrbegrijfs (Stuttg. 1855, 8vo) ; Schenkel, Wesen des Protestant 'i sinus (Schaff- hansen, 2d ed. 1862,' 8vo) ; Whedon, Freedom of the Will (K.Y. 1864, 12mo); Warren, Systematische Thecl- ogie, Einleitung (Bremen, 1865, 8vo); Shedd, History of Doctrines, bk. iv, ch. viii ; Ik. v, ch. vi ; Smith's llagenbach, History of Doctrines, § 225, 235; Gieseler, Ch. History, iv, § 43 (N. Y. ed.). A list of the earlier Arminian writings is given in Van Cattenburgh, Bib- Loth. Script. Remonstr. (Amstel. 1728, 8vo). See Cal- vinism ; Baxter ; Dokt ; Methodism ; Grace ; Predestination.
Arminius. See Arminianism. Armlet (represented by STlSXSt, etsadah', Num. xxxi, 50; 2 Sam. i, 10; Sept. kXiSoiv; Aquila fipa- XidXiov; Vulg. periscelis armilla ; properly a fetter, from 1"^, to step; comp. Isa. iii, 20, and Anklet), an ornament universal in the East, especially among women ; worn by princes as one of the insignia of roy- alty, and 1 y distinguished persons in general. The word is not used in the A. V., as even in 2 Sam. i, 10, they render the Heb. term "by the bracelet on his arm." Sometimes only one was worn, on the right arm (Ecclus. xxi, 21). From Cant, viii, 6, it appears that the signet sometimes consisted of a jewel on the