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an external emanation, nor by a creation performed through the intervention of any other Divine [virtute] Power, but by an internal emanation,-He, being the Power of God, by what right shall He be despoiled of the Name of "GOD ?" For when He is said to be given, poured out, and sent; this does not betoken any diminution of his Divinity, but is an intimation of his origin from God, of his procession from the Father and the Son, and of his mission to his office. A clear indication of his Deity is also apparent from its being said, that He also with plenary power distributes Divine gifts according to his own will, (1 Cor. xii, 11,) and he bestows his gifts with an authority equal to that with which "God" the Father is said to "work his operations," (6,) and to that with which the Son, who is called "the Lord," is said to "institute administrations." (5.)

XII. This doctrine of the sacred and undivided Trinity contains a mystery which far surpasses every human and angelical understanding, if it be considered according to the internal union which subsists between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and according to the relation among them of origin and procession. But if regard be had to that economy and dispensation by which the Father and the Son, and both of them through the Holy Spirit, accomplish our salvation; the contemplation is one of admirable sweetness, and produces in the hearts of believers the most exuberant fruits of Faith, Hope, Charity, Confidence, Fear, and Obedience, to the praise of God the Creator, the Son the Redeemer, and of the Holy Ghost the Sanctifier.*-May "the Love of God the Father, the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Communion of the Holy Ghost, be with us,” and with all saints. AMEN! (2 Cor. xiii, 14.)

"If the SPIRIT be Third in dignity and order, what necessity is there for his being also the Third in nature? Indeed the doctrine of piety has perhaps taught that He is third in dignity: But to employ the expression "the third in nature,” we have neither learned out of the Holy Scriptures, nor is it possible to collect it as a consequence from what precedes. For as the Son is in truth Second in order, because He is from the Father, and Second in dignity, because the Father exists that

I have sometimes thought, that, in the composition of this sentence, Arminius had the concluding paragraph of the 17th Article of our Church in his view or in his recollection; for I know that he had many of the Works of our early Reformers in his private library.

He may be himself [principium] the Principle and the Cause, and because through the Son there is [processus] a procession and an access to God the Father; (but He is no more Second in nature, because the Deity is one in both of them :) So, undoubtedly, is likewise the Holy Spirit, though He follows the Son both in order and dignity, as we completely grant, yet He is not at all resembling one who exists in the nature of another. -BASILIUS Eversor 3.

"In brief, in things to be distinguished, the Deity is incapable of being divided; and resembles one vast attempered mass of effulgence proceeding from three suns which mutually embrace each other. Wherefore when we have had regard to the Deity itself, or to the First Cause, or to the Monarchy, we have formed in our minds a conception of some one thing: Again, when I apply my mind to those things in which Deity consists, and which exist from the First Cause itself, flowing from it with equal glory and without any relation to time, I discover three things as the objects of my adoration.”— GREGORY NAZIANZEN, Orat. 3 De Theolog.

DISPUTATION VII.

ON THE FIRST SIN OF THE FIRST MAN.*

Respondent, ABRAHAM APPART.

THE USE OF THE DOCTRINE.

I. WHEN an enquiry is instituted concerning this first evil, we do not agitate the question for the purpose of unworthily exposing to disgrace the nakedness of the first-formed pair, which had been closely covered up, as impious Ham did in reference to

• Few persons will require to be told, that all Theological Theses consist merely of the heads of those things which are maintained and defended, orally and at greater length, in the Disputation itself. This remark will be better understood after a perusal of the following extract from a letter, addressed by Arminius to Uytenbogard, August 3, 1604:

"We have also, within the last few days, held a Disputation on the Sin of our First Parents. I composed the Theses myself, as you will easily perceive from their style and order. I have used much freedom in them; but I indulged myself in still greater liberty in the course of the Disputation: For, I openly confuted necessity, and established contingency, before both Gomarus and Trelcatius: I wish that you had been present.

"Nothing has yet transpired between Gomarus and me: Should he, however, desire to have [colloquii] some conversation with me, I will not be forgetful of modesty. He is now occupied in explaining the Ninth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, which he has almost finished. He promises to collect together all the dif

his father: (Gen. ix, 22:) But we enter on this subject, that, after it is accurately known, as when the cause of a mortal disease is discovered, we may with the greater earnestness implore the Hand which heals and cures. (Gal. ii, 16.) In this discussion four things seem to be principally entitled to a consideration: (1.) The Sin itself. (2.) Its Causes. (3.) Its Heinousness. (4.) Its Effects.

THE SIN ITSELF.

II. This sin is most appropriately called by the Apostle, "disobedience," and "offence" or fall. (Rom. v, 18, 19.)—(1.) Disobedience: For, since the law against which the sin was committed, was symbolical,-having been given to testify that man was under a law to God, and to prove his obedience,—and since the subsequent performance of it was to be a confession of devoted submission and due obedience; the transgression of it cannot, in fact, be denoted by a more commodious name than that of "disobedience," which contains within itself the denial of subjection and the renunciation of obedience. (2.) Offence, or Fall: Because as man, having been previously [constitutus] placed in a state of integrity, walked [inoffenso] with unstumbling feet in the way of God's commandments; by this foul deed he impinged or offended against the law itself, and fell from his state of innocence. (Rom. v, 15-18.)

III. This sin therefore is a transgression of the law which was delivered by God, to the first human beings, about not eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; perpetrated by the free will of man, from a desire to be like God, and through the persuasion of Satan that assumed the shape of a serpent. On account of this transgression, man fell under the displeasure and the wrath of God, rendered himself subject to a double death, and deserving to be deprived of the primeval righteousness and holiness in which a great part of the image of God consisted. (Gen. ii, 17; Rom. v, 19; Gen. iii, 3—6, 23, 24; Rom. v, 12, 16; Luke xix, 26.)

ferent opinions on Predestination, to examine each of them, and to pronounce his judgment on them separately, subjoining his own sentiments with a full confirmation. I wait in expectation for the result of his labour, which I will endeavour to see and to peruse. Certain students circulate a rumour, that he will publish something on this subject: But I can with difficulty think, that he will produce such things as are incapable of refutation; for he is determined to continue fixed in his sentiments. Yet if he adduce those arguments to which no satisfactory reply can be given, he shall have me among the first to assent to his opinion and to forsake my own.

“I transmit you a copy of these Theses: Excuse the disorderly manner in which they are written, as I have completed them amidst various occupations."

THE CAUSE OF THIS SIN.

IV. The efficient cause of this sin is two-fold: The one immediate and near: The other remote and mediate. (1.) The former is Man himself, who, of his own free will and without any necessity either internal or external, (Gen. iii, 6,) transgressed the law which had been proposed to him, (Rom. v, 19,) which had been sanctioned by a threatening and a promise, (Gen. ii, 16, 17,) and which it was possible for him to have observed. (ii, 9; iii, 23, 24.)-(2.) The remote and mediate efficient cause is the Devil, who, envying the Divine glory and the salvation of mankind, solicited man to a transgression of that law. (John viii, 44.)—The instrumental cause is the Serpent, whose tongue Satan abused, for proposing to man those arguments which he considered suitable to persuade him: (Gen. iii, 1; 2 Cor. xi, 3:) It is not improbable, that the grand deceiver made a conjecture from his own case; as he might himself have been enticed to the commission of sin by the same arguments. (Gen. iii, 4, 5.)

V. Those arguments which may be called "both the inwardly moving" and "the outwardly-working causes," were two: (1.) The one, directly persuading, was deduced from a view of [utili] the advantage which man would obtain from it, that is, a likeness to God. (Gen. iii, 5, 6.)—(2.) The other was a removing argument, one of dissuasion, taken from God's threatening; lest the

*The clause in Latin is, "Argumenta ista, quæ causæ intus moventes et wрокaтаρкTikai dici possunt, duo fuerunt." The young Logician, after having been informed in this volume, (p. 78,) that the latter of these is "the outwardly-maving or external cause," may be surprised to find it here associated with "the causes inly moving:" But his surprise will cease on perusing the following extract from SCHEIBLERI Metaphysica: (Lib. i, cap. 22, sec. 43, 44 :)

"External and Internal must be taken in two senses,-with reference to the Essence and with reference to the Subject. (1.) In relation to the Essence, that is called Internal which is within the essence of a thing, that is, that which intrinsically constitutes it. But in relation to the Essence, that is called External which is [extra] exterior to the essence of the thing and does not enter into its constitution. (2.) But in relation to the Subject, that is called External which is [extra] exterior to any subject, as if it were adjacent or adhering, or [circumstet] were a circumstance. But In reference to the Subject, that is called Internal which subsists [intra] within some subject.

"When one efficient cause is called internal and another external, this is understood not in relation to the Essence but to the Subject; that is, that some cause subsists within the effect, yet without an essential dependence of the effect on the efficient, and this is denominated wponysuevn, or the inly-moving cause; but that there is also some cause [extra] exterior to the effect, that is, remote from it in place, and this is called WρоKATаρKTIKη, or the outwardly-moving cause. Yet, of these, the efficient of both kinds is in reality external, according to the meaning already declared: For the inly-moving causes are also external to the essential constitution of the effect."

fear of punishment, prevailing over the desire of a similitude to God, should hinder man from eating. (iii, 4.) Though the first of these two arguments occupies the first station, with regard to order, in the proposition; yet, we think, it obtained the last place with regard to efficiency. To these arguments may be added two qualities imparted by the Creator to the fruit of the tree, calculated blandly to affect and allure the senses of a human being; these qualities are intimated in the words, "that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes." (iii, 6.) But there is this difference between the two principal arguments and these qualities: The former were proposed by the Devil to persuade to the commission of sin, as such; while the two qualities implanted by God were proposed only for the purpose of persuading [the woman] to eat, if that could have been done without sinning.

VI. The inwardly-moving causes, but which became such by accident, were two: (1.) Such an affection, or desire, for a likeness to God, as had been implanted in man by God himself; but it was to be exercised in a certain order and method: For the gracious image and likeness of God, according to which man was created, tended towards his glorious image and likeness. (2 Cor. iii, 18.)—(2.) A natural affection for the fruit which was good in its taste, pleasant in its aspect, and well adapted for preserving and recruiting animal life.

VII. But as it was the duty of man to resist the efficacy of all and each of these several causes, so was it likewise in his power; for he had been "created after the image of God," and therefore in "the knowledge of God," (Gen. i, 27;Col. iii, 10,) and endued with righteousness and true holiness. (Ephes. iv, 24.) This resistance might have been effected by his repelling and rejecting the causes which operated outwardly, and by reducing into order and subjecting to the Law and to the Spirit of God those which impelled inwardly. If he had acted thus, the temptation, out of which he would have departed victorious, would not have been imputed to him as an offence against the violated law. (Gen. iii, 7-12.)

VIII. But [culpa] the guilt of this sin can by no means be transferred to God, either as an Efficient or as a Deficient Cause. (1.) Not as an efficient Cause: For He neither perpetrated this crime through man, nor employed against man any action, either internal or external, by which he might incite him to sin. (Psalm v, 5; James i, 13.)-(2.) Not as a Deficient Cause: For He neither denied nor withdrew any thing that was necessary for

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