Page images
PDF
EPUB

quod dico, deum non modo, primi hominis casum, & in eo posterorum ruinam prævidisse, sed arbitrio quoque suo dispensasse.-Lapsus est enim primus homo, quia dominus ita expedire censuerat: cur censuerit, nos latet. Certum tamen est, non aliter censuisse, nisi quia videbat nominis sui gloriam inde merito illustrari.-Calvin.

God hath two wills-the one outward and revealed, whereby he most tenderly invites sinners to his grace, and most graciously calls them to repentance, seeming as though he were earnestly desirous of their salvation; whereas his other will is inward and secret, which is irresistible, and takes effect infallibly; and by this he brings men, through ways unavoidable, to an estate and course of sin here, and then to eternal damnation and punishment hereafter."-Calvin.

"It is true that their own sins, under the direction of God's providence, are so far from injuring the saints, that they rather promote their salvation."-Calvin.

"There is an universal calling, by which God, through the external preaching of the word, equally invites all men to him, even those, to whom he proposes it for the savour of death, and as a ground of heavier condemnation."-Zanchius.

"The Lord sometimes orders that a certain thing should be done by a man, and yet, by his secret will, does not wish that it should be done by him."-Zanchius.

You mean to say this, that God wishes for the same thing that he professes; but that is not always, nor in all things true: although God does not always wish what he intimates that he wishes, he is by no means contaminated with the vice of hypocrisy."-Piscator.

"As to whether God always wishes what he commands of forbids, or in reality wishes often for what is different, nay even for what is opposite, I deny the former, and affirm the latter. As to your question, whether I think with Calvin, that grace is promised to many, to whom God, at the same time, never intends to give it: I confess I am of this opinion."Piscator.

.

"That God does not wish, that all those should keep his commandments, to whom they are proposed, I have proved above."-Piscator.

"God orders that all shall believe in Christ, not with the intention of converting each, but with a different purpose, viz. for converting the elect, and rendering the reprobate inexcusable. We confess and teach, that all impious persons are directed by divine providence, so that they can do nothing else, than what God has decreed by his eternal and immuta ble counsel."-Trigland.

"All things that are done, and therefore even the most atrocious crimes, are done by the decree of God."-Piscator.

"It is not absurd to say, that sin is committed by the will, the decree, the ordinance of God, nay by God's willing, decreeing, ordaining beforehand, that it was impossible that it should not come to pass."-Piscator.

"The faithful, even if they wish it, cannot lose their faith, the absolute and efficacious decree of God preventing it."

Piscator.

"The foundation of our salvation is laid in the eternal election of God; so that a thousand sins, nay, all the sins of the whole world, and all the devils that are in hell, cannot make the election of God vain. It may indeed happen, that our hearts may strengthen our sins, may weaken our faith, may affect with sorrow the spirit of God that is in us; but they cannot take away faith, nor altogether shake off the Holy Spirit; God condemns no man for his sins, who has been adopted as his child in Christ Jesus."-Perkins.

Calvin denies that there is any difference between præterition and reprobation. "Electionem ita fatentur, ut negent quenquam reprobari: sed inscite nimis & pueriliter; quando ipsa electio nisi reprobationi opposita non staret. Quos ergo Deus præterit, reprobat."-Calvini Inst. iii. 23.-1.

"God chooses and pitches upon men to do the most execrable deeds; and' does not only negatively withhold from the wicked his grace, which alone can restrain them from evil,

but occasionally puts them into circumstances of temptation, such as shall cause the persons so tempted, to turn aside from the path of duty, to commit sin, and involve both themselves and others in evil."-Toplady.

"Since justice pré-supposes blame, without which it cannot be exercised, (for where there is no blame, there can be no punishment,) it was right that man should be so created, as to be a fit object for divine justice: that is, eternal damnation."--Beza.

Thirty-nine Articles.-Art. xvii. "For curious and carnal persons, lacking the spirit of Christ, to have continually before their eyes, the sentence of God's predestination, is a most dangerous downfall, whereby the devil has thrust them either into desperation, or into wretchlessness of unclean living; no less perilous than desperation." It should be recklessness, carelessness, negligence.

Rarissimus est, cujus non interdum animus hac cogitatione feriatur, unde tibi salus, nisi in dei electione. Electionis porro quæ tibi revelatio? Quæ si apud quempiam semel invaluit, aut diris tormentis miserum perpetuo excruciat, aut reddit penitus attonitum.-Ergo naufragium si timemus, sollicite hoc scopulo cavendum, in quem nemo sine exitio impingitur. Tunc enim se in profundum immensæ voraginis absorbendum præcipitat: tunc innumeris atque inexplica bilibus laqueis se induit: tunc cæcæ caliginis abysso se adobruit.-Calvin. Inst. iii. 24.—4.

P. 259.—(2) “God calleth those things that be not, as though they were," because all things are present to him.Rom. iv. 17. The past is often put for the future. See in the original, John, iii. 13., v. 24., xv. 6., ix, 6., and Isaiah, lx. 6., xxi. 9., liii. 4., &c.

That justification, salvation, sanctification, &c., when spoken of as taken place in this life, refer to baptism and conversion, appears from their being expressed, in the original, by the past tenses of the verbs, as having already taken place: all Christians are said to be saved. "Such as should be saved,"

66

in Acts ii. 47., is an oversight. In the original it is "as are saved," that is, converted; so Newcome translates it. "To us who are saved," (Cor. i. 18.) means all Christians. That baptism is synonymous with salvation, is exemplified in 1 Pet. iii. 21. 'Baptism doth also now save us." Thus too, (Titus iii. 5.) "he saved us by the washing of regeneration," or the laver of baptism. The words are used promiscuously by the early Fathers: thus, Irenæus, βαπτίσματος, της εις Θεόν avayevηows.—See also 2 Tim. i. 9. "God hath saved us and called us:"--both past.

P. 265.-(3) Acts, xiii. 48. Tota Scriptura manifestissimum est, credere quidem omnes, quot ordinati sunt ad vitam æternam, non eo simpliciter quod ordinati, sed quod ea conditione ordinati sunt-Quocirca sagaciores meo judicio interpretes-existimant idem valere τελαγμένοι, quod εὖ ητοι μελτίως diarivo, bene aut mediocriter dispositi sive affecti.—Milton. C. D. p. 42.

Φύσει γαρ ην σωφρων, και τεταγμενος ταις επιθυμίαις, Plutarch in Pompcio.

SERMON XI.

ON ORIGINAL SIN.

ROMANS V.-12.

"By one man sin entered into the world; and death by sin."

pose,

IN this discourse I shall prosecute the same purwhich engaged our thoughts on some former occasions, and on the same plan, as far as the nature of the subject will admit.

The doctrine, which I shall now attempt to explain, is the Original Sin of Adam, and its effects on his posterity.

The plan, which I have hitherto pursued is, to state the sentiments of our Lord, as the standard, by which all our reasonings must be adjusted, and to interpret the words of his Apostles in conformity with his. If we cannot reconcile the disciple with his master, we should rather conclude, that we have not been able to penetrate the meaning of the Apostle, than suspect him of

« PreviousContinue »