and that "God fills up in us the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power." 2 Thess. i. 11. Also, that "His divine power hath given us all things which pertain to life and godliness." 2 Pet. i. 3. "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power." "It is God that worketh in us both to will and to do." The want of the willing mind is the grand thing wanting, and until this is wrought in us, we "do always resist the Holy Ghost." Ps. cx. 4. Phil. i. 13. 9. Who teach that "Grace and free will are partial causes concurring at the same time, to the beginning of conversion; nor doth grace, in the order of causality, precede the efficacy of the will: that is, God does not effectually help the will of man to conversion, before the will of man moves and determines itself." For this dogma the ancient church long ago condemned in Pelagians, from the apostle, Rom. ix. 16. is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy." And 1 Cor. iv. 7. "Who maketh thee to differ? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive ?" Also, Phil. ii. 13. "It is God who worketh in you this very thing, to will and to do of his good pleasure."* "It "Almighty God, we humbly beseech thee, that, as by thy special grace preventing us, thou dost put into our minds good desires, so," &c. (Collect East. Sund. Ch. Eng.) CHAPTER V. OF DOCTRINE. CONCERNING THE PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS. 1. Those whom God, according to his purpose, calleth to the fellowship of his Son our Lord Jesus Christ, and regenerates by the Holy Spirit, he indeed sets free from the dominion and slavery of sin, but not entirely in this life from the flesh and the body of sin.* 2. Hence daily sins of infirmity arise, and blemishes (navi) cleave to the best works even of the saints; which furnish to them continual cause (materiam) of humbling themselves before God, of Heeing to Christ crucified, of mortifying the flesh more and more by the spirit of prayers, and the holy exercises of piety, and of panting after the goal of perfection (ad perfectionis metam suspirandi) until the time when, delivered from this body of death, they shall reign with the Lamb of God in the heavens.† 3. Because of these remains of in-dwelling sin, and moreover also, the temptations of the world and of Satan, the converted could not continue (perstare) in this grace, if they were left to their own strength. But God is faithful, who * They who constitute the true church; "such a mark of them is the faith, by which Christ, or their only Saviour, being apprehended, they flee from sin and follow after righteousness; at the same time, they love the true God and their neighbors, neither turning aside to the right hand nor to the left: they crucify the flesh with its affections; but by no means this indeed, as if there were not in them any longer infirmity: but that they fight against it through the whole time of their life, by the energy (virtutem) of the Holy Spirit; and in the mean time they flee to the blood, the death, and the sufferings and obedience of our Lord Christ, as to their most safe protection." Belgic Confession, Art. xxix. Rom. vii. 21-25. viii. 1, 2. Gal. v. 16, 17, 24. See Art. ix. Church of England. The Remonstrants or Arminians of those days held, it seems, the doctrine of sinless perfection in this life more generally than Anti Calvinists do at present. "Not that they should slumber, trusting in this remission, but that the feeling of this corruption may excite in the faithful more frequent groans; and that they may wish more ardently to be freed from this body of death. Rom. vii. 18, 24." Belgic Confession, Art. xv. confirms them in the grace once mercifully conferred on them, and powerfully preserves them in the same even unto the end.* 4. But though that power of God, confirming the truly faithful (vere fideles) in grace, and preserving them, is greater than what can be overcome by the flesh; yet the converted are not always so influenced and moved by God, that they cannot depart, in certain particular actions, from the leading of grace, and be seduced by the desires (concupiscentiis) of the flesh, and obey them. Wherefore, they must continually watch and pray, lest they should be led into temptations. Which when they do not, they may be not only violently carried away by the flesh, and the world, and Satan, unto grievous and atrocious sins; but they are sometimes even thus violently carried away, by the righteous permission of God; which the mournful falls of David and Peter, and of other saints recorded in scripture, demonstrate.† 5. But by such enormous sins they exceedingly offend God: they incur the guilt of death, they grieve the Holy Spirit, they interrupt the exercise of faith, they most grievously wound conscience, and they sometimes lose, for a time, the perception of grace; until by serious repentance, returning into the way, the paternal countenance of God again shines upon them. 6. For God, who is rich in mercy, from his immutable purpose of election, does not wholly take away his Holy Spirit from his own, even in lamentable falls; nor does he so permit them to glide down, (prolabi,) that they should fall from the grace of adoption and the state of justification, or commit the sin unto death, or against the Holy Spirit; that, being deserted by him, they should cast themselves headlong into eternal destruction. § 7. In the first place, he preserves in them, in these falls, that immortal seed, by which they are regenerated, (or begotten again, regeniti,) lest it should perish, or be shaken out.|| Then, by his own word and Spirit, he assuredly and efficaciously renews them to repentance; that from the soul they may mourn according to God, for the sins committed; may seek remission in the blood of the Mediator by faith with a contrite heart, and obtain it; that they may feel the favor of 20, 21, 24. * Prov. xxviii. 26. Jer. xvii. 9. Luke xxii. 31, 32. 1 Pet. i. 5. 1 Pet. v. 8. Jude CHAPTER V. OF DOCTRINE. CONCERNING THE PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS. 1. Those whom God, according to his purpose, calleth to the fellowship of his Son our Lord Jesus Christ, and regenerates by the Holy Spirit, he indeed sets free from the dominion and slavery of sin, but not entirely in this life from the flesh and the body of sin.* 2. Hence daily sins of infirmity arise, and blemishes (nevi) cleave to the best works even of the saints; which furnish to them continual cause (materiam) of humbling themselves before God, of fleeing to Christ crucified, of mortifying the flesh more and more by the spirit of prayers, and the holy exercises of piety, and of panting after the goal of perfection (ad perfectionis metam suspirandi) until the time when, delivered from this body of death, they shall reign with the Lamb of God in the heavens.† 3. Because of these remains of in-dwelling sin, and moreover also, the temptations of the world and of Satan, the converted could not continue (perstare) in this grace, if they were left to their own strength. But God is faithful, who *They who constitute the true church; "such a mark of them is the faith, by which Christ, or their only Saviour, being apprehended, they flee from sin and follow after righteousness; at the same time, they love the true God and their neighbors, neither turning aside to the right hand nor to the left: they crucify the flesh with its affections; but by no means this indeed, as if there were not in them any longer infirmity: but that they fight against it through the whole time of their life, by the energy (virtutem) of the Holy Spirit; and in the mean time they flee to the blood, the death, and the sufferings and obedience of our Lord Christ, as to their most safe protection." Belgic Confession, Art. xxix. Rom. vii. 21—25. viii. 1, 2. Gal. v. 16, 17, 24. See Art. ix. Church of England. The Remonstrants or Arminians of those days held, it seems, the doctrine of sinless perfection in this life more generally than Anti Calvinists do at present. "Not that they should slumber, trusting in this remission, but that the feeling of this corruption may excite in the faithful more frequent groans; and that they may wish more ardently to be freed from this body of death. Rom. vii. 18, 24." Belgic Confession, Art. xv. confirms them in the grace once mercifully conferred on them, and powerfully preserves them in the same even unto the end.* 4. But though that power of God, confirming the truly faithful (vere fideles) in grace, and preserving them, is greater than what can be overcome by the flesh; yet the converted are not always so influenced and moved by God, that they cannot depart, in certain particular actions, from the leading of grace, and be seduced by the desires (concupiscentiis) of the flesh, and obey them. Wherefore, they must continually watch and pray, lest they should be led into temptations. Which when they do not, they may be not only violently carried away by the flesh, and the world, and Satan, unto grievous and atrocious sins; but they are sometimes even thus violently carried away, by the righteous permission of God; which the mournful falls of David and Peter, and of other saints recorded in scripture, demonstrate.† 5. But by such enormous sins they exceedingly offend God: they incur the guilt of death, they grieve the Holy Spirit, they interrupt the exercise of faith, they most grievously wound conscience, and they sometimes lose, for a time, the perception of grace; until by serious repentance, returning into the way, the paternal countenance of God again shines upon them.‡ 6. For God, who is rich in mercy, from his immutable purpose of election, does not wholly take away his Holy Spirit from his own, even in lamentable falls; nor does he so permit them to glide down, (prolabi,) that they should fall from the grace of adoption and the state of justification, or commit the sin unto death, or against the Holy Spirit; that, being deserted by him, they should cast themselves headlong into eternal destruction. § 7. In the first place, he preserves in them, in these falls, that immortal seed, by which they are regenerated, (or begotten again, regeniti,) lest it should perish, or be shaken out.|| Then, by his own word and Spirit, he assuredly and efficaciously renews them to repentance; that from the soul they may mourn according to God, for the sins committed; may seek remission in the blood of the Mediator by faith with a contrite heart, and obtain it; that they may feel the favor of 20, 21, 24. * Prov. xxviii. 26. Jer. xvii. 9. Luke xxii. 31, 32. 1 Pet. i. 5. 1 Pet. v. 8. Jude |