Of The Two Main Ends Aimed At By The Arminians, By Their Innovations In The Received Doctrine Of The Reformed Churches
Chapter 1
OF THE TWO MAIN ENDS
AIMED AT BY THE
ARMINIANS, BY THEIR
INNOVATIONS IN THE
RECEIVED DOCTRINE OF THE
REFORMED CHURCHES
Because of the corruption of his nature, the soul of man is not only darkened with a mist of ignorance by which he is disabled from comprehending divine truth, but he is also armed with prejudice and opposition against some parts of it.26 These are either most above or most contrary to some false principles which he has framed for himself.
Just as a desire for self-sufficiency was the first cause of this infirmity, so he still languishes with a conceit of it.27 He contends for nothing more than he contends for an independence from any supreme power which might either help, hinder, or control him in his actions. This is that bitter root from which have sprung all those heresies28 and wretched contentions which have troubled the church, concerning the power of man in working his own happiness, and his exemption from the overruling providence of Almighty God. All these wrangling disputes of carnal reason against the word of God come at last to this head: whether the first and highest part in disposing of things in this world,
Chapter 1: OF THE TWO MAIN ENDS AIMED AT BY THE ARMINIANS
ought to be ascribed to God or man? Men for the most part have vindicated this pre-eminence for themselves by exclamations that it must be so, or else God is unjust, and his ways are unequal.29 Never did any men, "postquam Christiana gens esse caepit,"30 more eagerly endeavor to erect this Babel than the Arminians, the modern blinded patrons of human self-sufficiency. All their innovations in the received doctrine of the reformed churches aim at, and tend towards, is one of these two ends:
FIRST. To exempt themselves from God's jurisdiction – to free themselves from the supreme dominion of his all-ruling providence; not to live and move in him, (Act 17:28) but to have an absolute independent power in all their actions. So that the event of all things in which they have any interest, might considerably relate to nothing but chance, contingency, and their own wills – this is a most nefarious and sacrilegious attempt! To this end – First. They deny the eternity and unchangeableness of God's decrees; for these being established, they fear they would be kept within bounds from doing anything but what his counsel has determined should be done. If the purposes of the Strength of Israel are eternal and immutable, then their idol free-will must be limited, and their independence prejudiced. Therefore they choose rather to affirm that his decrees are temporary and changeable – indeed, they affirm that he really changes them according to the several mutations he sees in us. I will show in the second chapter how wild a conceit this is, how contrary to the pure nature of God, and how destructive to his attributes.
Secondly. They question the prescience or foreknowledge of God; for if all his works are known to God from the beginning, and if he certainly foreknew all things that would hereafter come to pass, then it seems to cast an infallibility of event upon all their actions, which encroaches upon the large territory of their new goddess, Contingency.
No, it would quite dethrone the queen of heaven, and induce a kind of necessity of our doing all and nothing but what God foreknows. Now,
Chapter 1: OF THE TWO MAIN ENDS AIMED AT BY THE ARMINIANS
it will be declared in the third chapter that to deny this prescience is destructive to the very essence of the Deity; and it is plain atheism.
Thirdly. They depose the all-governing providence of this King of nations, denying its energetic, effectual power, in turning the hearts, ruling the thoughts, determining the wills, and disposing the actions of men, by granting nothing to it but a general power and influence, to be limited and used according to the inclination and will of every particular agent. So they make Almighty God to be a desirer that many things were otherwise than they are, and an idle spectator of most things that are done in the world. The falseness of these assertions will be proved in the fourth chapter.
Fourthly. They deny the irresistibility and uncontrollable power of God's will, asserting that oftentimes he seriously wills and intends what he cannot accomplish; and so God is deceived about his aim.
Though God desires and really intends to save every man, it is wholly in their own power, they say, whether he shall save anyone or not.
Otherwise their idol, free-will, would have but a poor deity if God could cross and resist their idol in his dominion, how and when God desired. Concerning this, see the fifth chapter. "His gradibus itur in coelum."31 Corrupted nature is still ready, either with Adam to nefariously attempt to be like God, or to think foolishly that God is altogether like us, Psalm 50.
All men run into one of these inconveniences if they have not learned to submit their frail wills to the almighty will of God, and make their understanding captive to the obedience of faith. [See chapter five.] SECONDLY. The second end at which the new doctrine of the Arminians aims is to clear human nature from the heavy imputation of being sinful, corrupted, wise to do evil but unable to do good. (Jer
4:22) And so they claim for themselves a power and ability to do all the good which God can justly require them to do in their current state – a power and ability making them differ from others who will not make such good use of the endowments of their natures; so that the first and
Chapter 1: OF THE TWO MAIN ENDS AIMED AT BY THE ARMINIANS
highest part in the work of their salvation may be ascribed to themselves – this is a proud Luciferian endeavor! To this end –
First. They deny the doctrine of predestination by which God is affirmed to have chosen certain men before the foundation of the world to be holy, and to obtain everlasting life by the merit of Christ, to the praise of his glorious grace. They deny any such predestination which may be the fountain and cause of such grace or glory if, according to God's good pleasure, it determines the persons on whom these things shall be bestowed. For this doctrine would make the special grace of God the sole cause of all the good that is in the elect, more than the reprobates; it would make faith the work and gift of God, with various other things, which would show their idol to be nothing and of no value. Therefore, they have substituted a corrupt heresy in its place; see the sixth chapter.
Secondly. They deny original sin and its demerit; if rightly understood, this would easily demonstrate that, notwithstanding all the labor of the smith, the carpenter, and the painter, their idol is by nature only an unprofitable block of wood; it will reveal not only our nature's impotence to do good, but also where it comes from; see the seventh chapter.
Thirdly. If you charge that our human nature is repugnant to the law of God, they will maintain that this nature was also in Adam when he was first created; and so it must come from God himself: the eighth chapter.
Fourthly. They deny the efficacy of the merit of the death of Christ – both that God intended by his death to redeem his church, or to acquire for himself a holy people; and also that Christ by his death has merited and procured for us grace, faith, or righteousness, and the power to obey God in fulfilling the condition of the new covenant.
No, this would plainly set up an ark to break their Dagon's neck; (1 Sam 5:1-4) for, "what praise," they say, "can be owed to us for believing, if the blood of Christ has procured God's bestowal of faith upon us?" "Increpet to Deus, O Satan!"32 See chapters nine and ten.
Chapter 1: OF THE TWO MAIN ENDS AIMED AT BY THE ARMINIANS
Fifthly. If Christ would claim such a share in saving his people (those who believe in him), they will grant some to have salvation quite without him – those who never heard so much as a report of a Savior.
Indeed, in nothing do they advance their idol nearer the throne of God, than in this blasphemy: chapter eleven.
Sixthly. Having thus robbed God, Christ, and his grace, they adorn their idol free-will with many glorious properties that are in no way due to it. This is discussed in chapter twelve, where you will find how,
"movet cornicula risum, furtivis nudata coloribus."33
Seventhly. They not only claim a saving power for their new-made deity, but they also affirm that he is very active and operative in the great work of saving our souls – First. In fitly preparing us for the grace of God, and so disposing us that grace becomes owed to us: chapter thirteen.
Secondly. In effectually working our conversion with this power: chapter fourteen.
And so at length, with much toil and labor, they have placed an altar for their idol in the holy temple, on the right hand of the altar of God; and on it they offer sacrifice to their own net and drag; at least,
"nec Deo, nec libero arbitrio, sed dividatur," – not all to God, nor all to free-will, but let the sacrifice of praise, for all good things, be divided between them.