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"I WILL be righteous," is a promise made and broken almost every moment. may be made by Balaam as well as by Moses, by Judas as well as by Peter. "I would be righteous, but I love the world," saith the covetous. "I would be righteous, but I fulfil my lusts," saith the wanton: That is, I would be righteous, but I will be wicked. This is our willing, this is our seeking of righteousness. I dare not say, that to will is an act of the understanding: But if we define it by the practice of the major part of Christians, it is no more. And this is one of Satan's wiles and enterprizes to persuade the greatest part of mankind, that they then lift up their hearts when they do but lift up their voice, that they truly desire that which they would not have, and seek that which they would not find, seek righteousness when they would loathe it.

"I do not the good which I would; but the evil which I would not, that do I.” They are the words of St. Paul in Romans vii, 19; but how are they made an apology for sin! For he that knoweth little of St. Paul doth easily remember this, though he understand it not: And we may observe it familiar in their mouths who say they would be righteous, when they will be wicked; who pretend they desire one thing, when they resolve the contrary.

But we may say of these words, as Job did of his friends, They are but miserable comforters. For St. Paul speaketh as in his own person, but not of himself;—by this modest way to insinutate the truth which he intended. He doth here, as himself speaketh, "as in a figure transfer that to himself" which indeed cannot belong but to an unregenerate man. And for this we have the joint testimony of the Fathers of the first three ages of the church.

For to will here is no more than to approve, nor can it be. And the reason is plain: For he that doth truly will, cannot but do those things which shew a willing mind. He that will be rich doth not gather wealth by saying he will be rich, but "doth rise up early and lie down late, and eat the bread of carefulness." Saith Chrysostom, "If thou dost will indeed, thou canst not but do those things which manifest and demonstrate that will." For, it is St. Augustine's [saying], "Truly to will a thing, is to have it." We cannot say he ever would be righteous, who is not. When we speak to Christ, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make us righteous;" Christ returneth no other answer than this, "I will, I command it; and tribulation and anguish shall be upon every soul that is not righteous." Never did any yet set forth with a willing mind, whom God brought not to their journey's end. It is but, "Open thy mouth wide, and He will fill it."-FARINDON's Forty-seven Sermons, p. 879.

A LETTER

ADDRESSED TO

HIPPOLYTUS A COLLIBUS,

AMBASSADOR FROM THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS PRINCE, THE ELECTOR PALATINE, FREDERICK IV,

TO THE SEVEN UNITED DUTCH PROVINCES:

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ADDRESS TO THE READER.

BENEVOLENT READER,

IT CANNOT be a matter of secrecy to you, how various, uncertain and prodigious the rumours are which have been circulated through Holland, Germany, and Great Britain, concerning JAMES ARMINIUS, Professor of Divinity; and in what manner (I do not stop to discuss with how much zeal) some persons accuse this man of schism and others of heresy, some charge him with the crime of Pelagianism and others brand him with the black mark of Socinianism, while all of them execrate him as the pest of the Reformed Churches. On this account, those persons who feel a regard for the memory of this learned man, and who, not without good reason, are desirous of maintaining his reputation and character, and of defending him from those atrocious imputations and virulent calumnies, have lately published some of his erudite lucubrations, which are polished with the greatest care: They have thus placed them within the reach of the public, that the reader, who is eager in the pursuit after truth, may more easily and happily form his judgment about the station which Arminius is entitled to hold among posterity, not from fallacious rumours and the criminations of the malevolent, but from authentic documents, as if from the ingenuous confession itself of the accused speaking openly in his own cause, and mildly replying to the crimes with which he has been charged.

With this object in view, the friends of Arminius have published, as separate treatises, his "Modest EXAMINATION of a Pamphlet, written some years ago, by that very learned Divine, WILLIAM PERKINS, on Predestination: To which is added, an ANALYSIS of

the Ninth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans ;" and his "DISSERTATION on the true and genuine Meaning of the Seventh Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans.

But these two Works are neither sufficient nor satisfactory to many dispositions that are [curiosis] prying or [sagacibus] that indulge in surmises, and to other eminent men who abound with an acrimonious shrewdness of judgment; because they embrace neither the whole nor the chief [aporias] of the perplexing difficulties of James Arminius. Some of those who attended his Academical Lectures, affirm, that he frequently uttered novel and astounding paradoxes about other points of the orthodox doctrine [than are contained in the two Works just mentioned]. Other persons relate, as a great secret, that Arminius addressed "A LETTER" to Hippolytus a Collibus, in which he more fully discloses his own pestiferous sentiments; and that "CERTAIN ARTICLES are circulated in a private manner, in which, while treating upon several of the chief heads of orthodox Theology, he introduces his own poisonous dogmas.

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In this state of affairs, we may be permitted to give some assistance to an absent person, nay, to one who is dead; and to offer a reply to the accusations and criminations which we have now specified, by the evidence of witnesses who are worthy of credit, and by the publication of the very documents which we are thus challenged to produce. Perhaps, by this means, we shall be able to remove those sinister insinuations and suspicions: We shall, at least, meet the wishes of a number of persons, and shall terminate the anxieties of several minds that have till now been in a state of suspense.

Accept, therefore, candid Reader, of that "LETTER" about which so many reports have been circulated, and which was addressed to Hippolytus a Collibus, Ambassador from Prince Frederick IV, the Elector Palatine. Accept, likewise, of those " ARTICLES" which are

688

THE WORKS OF JAMES ARMINIUS.

to be diligently examined and pondered, and which give us the sentiments of Arminius on the One and the Tri-une GOD, the Attributes of GOD, the Deity of the SON, Predestination and Divine Providence, Original Sin, Free Will, the Grace of GoD, CHRIST and his Satisfaction, Justification, Faith and Repentance, Regeneration, the Baptism of Infants, the Lord's Supper, and On Magistracy. Accurately consider and candidly judge whatever he thought necessary to be amended or to be rendered more complete in the doctrine of the Reformed Churches.

The writings of this man require no commendations from me, or from any other person: There is no need of ivy in this instance, for [merx] these productions will ensure approbation.

I HAVE translated this "ADDRESS TO THE READER," from a scarce 8vo copy, printed at Delft in 1613, by "JOHN ANDREWS, at the sign of the Golden Alphabet." This is the only edition of the pamphlet that affords us any thing in the form of an INTRODUCTION to the important observations which it contains.

However, lest the reader should be deceived respecting Articuli nonnulli diligenti examine perpendendi, of which a brief notice in the preceding ADDRESS is given, he ought to be informed, that they appear to have been loose memoranda, or, as the learned of an earlier age than this would have called them, certain anecdota, in which Arminius was accustomed to note down any doctrinal modification, explanation of theological difficulties, or any incautious expression of his adversaries, which occurred to him in the course of his reading or of his public duty as Professor of Divinity. Though they are evidently very incomplete and deficient, and do not enter deeply into the subjects upon which they severally treat; yet it is not improbable that they assumed the connected form in which they now appear, for the purpose of serving either as prompting hints to the author in another public discussion of his sentiments to which he expected to be summoned, or as a kind of nucleus for those more enlarged propositions which it was his intention to present to the first Provincial or General Synod which he might be permitted to attend.

Yet, even when viewed as fragments of this description, the doctrines which they imperfectly develope do not disgrace the author, and demand some consideration from every candid Divine.

J. N.

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