lieved, is not controverted, that irresistible is here used in the sense of certainly efficacious. The Holy Spirit operates on the hearts of all men. Some are thereby renewed and brought to faith and repentance ; others are not. This difference, according to the Remonstrants, is not to be referred to the nature of the influence exerted, but to the fact that some yield to this grace and cooperate with it; while others reject and resist it.
The fifth article refers to the perseverance of the saints, and is indefinite. It admits that the Spirit furnishes grace abun- dantly sufficient to enable the -believer to persevere in holiness : " Sed an illi ipsi negligentia sua initium sui esse in Christo deserere non possint, et prassentem mundum iterum amplecti, a sancta doctrina- ipsis semel tradita deficere, conscientias naufra- gium facere, a gratia excidere; penitus ex sacra Scriptura esset expendum, antequam illud cum plena animi tranquillitate et TrX.7]po4)opia docere possent." Of course no man who believed the doctrine could write thus, and this doubtful mode of expression was soon laid aside, and " falling from grace," in the common sense of the phrase, was admitted to be an Arminian doctrine.
It will be observed that the doctrine of justification is not em- braced in the five points in the Remonstrance as presented to the authorities in Holland, and as made the basis of the decisions of the Synod of Dort. The aberration of the Arminians, however, from the faith of the Reformed churches, extended to all the doctrines connected with the plan of salvation. Arminius him- self, at least, held far higher and more Scriptural views on origi- nal sin, inability, and the necessity of supernatural grace, than those which have since become so prevalent even among the Re- formed or Calvinistic churches themselves. In matters concern- ing the method of salvation, especially as to the nature of Christ's work and its application to the believer, they at first adhered closely to the language of the Reformed confessions. Thus they did not hesitate to say that Christ made full satisfaction for the sins of men ; that He was a ransom, a sacrifice, a propitiation ; that He made expiation for sin ; that his righteousness or obedi- ence is the ground of our acceptance with God ; that the faith which saves is not mere assent to truth, or pious confidence in God, but specifically faith in Christ as the S amour of men ; and that justification is an act of God pronouncing the sinner just, or in which He pardons sin and accepts the sinner as righteous. All this is satisfactory to the ear. Language, however, admits of different interpretations; and it soon became apparent and
188 part in. Ch. XVII. -justification.
avowed that the Remonstrants intended something very different from what the Reformed Church meant to express by the same
terms.
1. They said that Christ's work was a satisfaction to divine justice. But they did not mean by satisfaction, either a " solu- tio," a real value rendered for what was due ; nor even an u ac- ceptio," taking one thing for another as an equivalent ; but an " acceptilatio," a gracious acceptance as a satisfaction of that which in its own nature was no equivalent; as though God should accept the life of a brute for that of a man ; or faith for perfect obedience. Neither did the Remonstrants mean by jus- tice the attribute which requires the righteous distribution of re- wards and punishments, and which renders it necessary that the penalty of the law should be executed in case of transgression.
With regard to this latter point (the nature of justice) the language of Grotius, and of the great body of the Remonstrant or Arminian theologians, is perfectly explicit. Grotius says: " Pcenas infligere, aut a poenis aliquem liberare, quern punire possis, quod justificare vocat Scriptura, non est nisi rectoris, qua talis primo et per se : ut, puta, in familia patris ; in republica
regis, in universo Dei Unde sequitur, omnino hie Deum
considerarfdum, ut rectorem."1 Again,2 "Ratio [cur c rectori relaxare legem talem non liceat, nisi causa aliqua accedat, si non necessaria, certe sufficiens '].... est, quod actus ferendi aut relaxandi legem non sit actus absoluti dominii, sed actus imperii, qui tendere debeat ad boni ordinis conservationem." 8 " Poena enim omnis propositum habet bonum commune." "Prudentia quoque hoc nomine rectorem ad pcenam incitat. Augetur prae- terea causa puniendi, ubi lex aliqua publicata est, quae poenam minatur. Nam tunc omissio poenae ferme aliquid detrahit de legis authoritate apud subditos." 4
Here everything is purely governmental. It is not justice, in the proper and ordinary sense of the word, that is satisfied, but God's wise and benevolent regard to the interests of his moral government. This changes everything. If God's justice be not satisfied guilt is not removed, and sin is not expiated. And there- fore conscience is not appeased ; nor can the real authority and honour of the la^ be upheld.
As to the other point, the nature of the satisfaction rendered ;
i De Satis/actione Christi, cap. 2; Works, edit. London, 1679, vol. iii. p. 306, b (19-24). a Ibid. cap. 5; p. 317, b (35-41). 8 Ibid. cap. 2; p. 308, b (62, 63).
* Ibid. cap. 5; p. 316, b (9-13).