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scholars. Indeed, we publish these Theses in preference to any others; for having already served the purposes of his private disputations, they may now afford abundant testimony to the fidelity and diligence of our father in instructing and adorning the candidates for Holy orders. Beside the matter or subject on which he treated with so much faithfulness and accuracy, our excellent father, who was a severe judge of method, thought that he would exhibit the order which ought to be observed in compiling a correct system of Theology. Such a plan he had often and long revolved in his mind; and for this purpose had perused, with very great care, almost all the Synopses or large Treatises of Divinity that had been published. He was in some measure induced to give a representation of this scheme in the following Theses proposed for private disputation. Let the learned decide upon the skill with which he has sketched this outline, which it was his wish to display as an attempt at a Synopsis, for the sake of exercise. O that it had been the will of Almighty God, to have enabled him to finish, as he had desired, this body of Theological Theses which he was forced to leave incomplete! For it is believed, that upwards of twenty Theses are still wanting to crown the undertaking. By an untimely death, which is a source of the deepest affliction to us, as well as to all good men, his design was frustrated; though the consummation of it would, beyond any thing else in this life, have been an object of the fondest gratification to us his sorrowing offspring.

But since it has been the pleasure of our gracious God, against whom it does not become us frowardly to contend, to call our father from this miserable valley of tears to his own celestial mansion; we wish that he had obtained [among survivors] some equitable and candid judges of his laborious exertions and innocency; and that it had been possible for him, even by death, to escape from the rancorous teeth of calumny, which, in conformity to the precept and the example of Jesus Christ our only Saviour, he endured, as long as his life was spared, without any attempt to render railing for railing, yet with such consummate patience, as almost excited the indignation of his friends against him. We wish also that a certain person had not expressed doubts respecting the eternal salvation of our father, whom we with many others openly beheld, (as we here do testify,) in a manner the most placid, surrendering up his soul to God, like one that was falling asleep, amidst unceasing and most ardent prayers, and confessing his own wretchedness and weakness, but at the same time extolling that only saving grace which shines forth upon

those who believe in Jesus Christ, the Author of our salvation. We repeat our wishes, that there had not been a person who uttered serious doubts about the eternal salvation of our father. Far be it from any of us to condemn him whom God has absolved, and for whom Jesus Christ testifies, that he came into the world, and suffered death.

Alas! were we not already sufficiently unhappy in having lost one of our parents, while we are all of an age comparatively tender, the eldest of us not being yet quite seventeen years old! But may our God forbid, that they who deliver their souls into his merciful hands in the name of Jesus Christ alone, should not be made partakers of eternal salvation, or should be disappointed of their hopes of a life of blessedness! May He rather grant unto all of us, that, faithfully and constantly treading in the footsteps of our beloved father, and being active in the pursuit of truth and piety with integrity and sincerity of mind, we may approve our lives and all our studies to God and to all good men, as highly as our revered parent, we humbly hope, approved himself and all his concerns to your Mightinesses, as long as he lived. Of the great esteem in which you held him, you have afforded abundant proofs, in those innumerable and never sufficiently tobe-recounted benefits which he received from you while he lived. But stronger evidence of this you gave immediately after his decease, in the benefits which you have bestowed on our dearest mother, and on each of us their children, and which you most liberally continue to this day. O that the time may at length arrive in which we may be enabled to requite you for these your numberless acts of kindness to us! May God assist us thus to

repay you!

But, in the mean time, that some token of a grateful mind towards your Mightinesses may be extant on our part, at the earliest opportunity we bring forth from the library of our deceased parent, under the auspices of your honorable names, this rich and costly casket; and we will afterwards draw out of the same treasury, each in its due order and time, not a few other things of the same or of a different kind which he has left in our possession,-provided those which we now offer shall meet with a suitable reception from the students of Theology. But we are deeply conscious, that this offering of ours is contemptible, when placed in competition with your kindness towards us: Of all persons we should be the most ungrateful, if we did not make this acknowledgement; and still more so, if we did not confess that this is a present from our deceased parent, rather than from us.

Should it hereafter be seen, that our revered father has bequeathed to us, as his heirs, his industry, piety and virtue, (which may God of his infinite mercy grant,) as he has already made us the inheritors of this production and of the other fruits of his studies; we will use our utmost endeavours never to be found deficient in our duty, but to propose to ourselves throughout the whole of our future lives, by all the means in our power, to gain the approbation of your Mightinesses, and to prove ourselves always grateful to you.

May Almighty God long preserve you in safety, and render you still propitious to us! May He in the most bountiful manner crown your government with every blessing from above! So pray

Your Mightinesses' most devoted servants, the seven sons of JAMES ARMINIUS, a native of Oudewater, in our own names and in those of our two sisters,

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The early octavo edition of 1610 is the only one in which the Dedication is thus subscribed by "the seven sons of ARMINIUS, in their own names and in those of their two sisters." In all succeeding editions, the subscription has been, as usual, "the nine orphan children."

DISPUTATIONS

ON

SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS

OF

The Christian Religion.

BY JAMES ARMINIUS, D. D.

THIS is the portion of the Works of ARMINIUS, which the judicious MOSHEIM recommends to the attentive perusal of all "those who would form a just and accurate notion of the TEMPER, GENIUS, and DOCTRINE of this divine." After having commended the writings of Arminius, generally, for exhibiting "much of that SIMPLICITY and PERSPICUITY which his followers have always looked upon, and still consider, among the principal qualities of a Christian Minister;" Mosheim adds this observation, "There is in his manner of reasoning, and also in his phraseology, some little remains of the scholastic jargon of that age." Without an intimate knowledge of the Logic and the Metaphysics of that age, no man would have been qualified for discharging the duties of a Professor of Divinity in any of the Protestant Universities on the Continent of Europe: And it was a happy circumstance for his countrymen, and for the whole of Christendom, that Arminius was in this respect so well versed in the lore of his adversaries. In his Works, however, appears far less of this metaphysical refinement, than in those of any other contemporary divine. The study of Logic, indeed, he warmly advocated; and it is difficult to conceive how a young man who is intended for any of the learned professions, but especially for that of Theology, can enter into the investigation of Truth, and can be properly instructed to discriminate between it and well-dissembled Error, unless he become a proficient in this most useful Art as well as Science of which the much and in many respects deservedly lauded mathematical process is but one division. That he did not entertain an equally exalted opinion of Scholastic Divinity, is proved by what is recorded of him in a letter from Borrius, which I have quoted in the first volume of this translation, pages 300, 301.

In the following Public and Private Disputations, the steps by which Arminius proceeds in his course of reasoning, are so gradual and easy as to be comprehended without difficulty by general readers. To those of them, however, who have either neglected or forgotten their logical studies, the subjoined translation of the chapter On Cause and Effect, in Dr. Wallis's excellent treatise on Logic, may be serviceable, as it explains some terms which occur in several of these Disputations, commencing at the Seventh.

"There are also other words, (or notions of things as they have a mutual relation to each other,) which some Logicians have considered worthy of explanation: Such

are Cause and Effect, the Whole and its Parts, the Subject, Object, and Adjunct, &c. Though these properly come under the consideration of Metaphysics, yet Logic and Metaphysics are kindred studies, so nearly allied to each other as to render it no act of incongruity to treat of both of them in this place.

"Cause and Effect are relative terms between themselves; of which, the former is considered to be as the Giver, and the latter of consequence as the Recipient.

"There are usually reckoned Four Causes: The Efficient, BY which ;-the Matter, FROM which ;-the Form, THROUGH which ;-and the End, FOR or on ACCOUNT OF which,-any thing is done.

"The Efficient Cause is the agent himself, who does the thing; as a shoe-maker who finishes a shoe. The Matter is that from which it is made, as a skin or hide of leather. The Form is that through which it becomes such a thing as is specified, as the very form and shape of a shoe; because the matter, when thus [figurata] fashioned, becomes a shoe. The End is that for or on account of which it is made; suppose, for the purpose of covering the feet. All these things have their own causalities in order to the Effect which is produced, and which, in the instance now given, is a shoe.

"Cause and Effect are such as they have been here described, not only in these mechanical exercises, in which the Effect that remains is something gross and palpable to the hands; but likewise in all other acts or operations [immanentibus] which are internal, and yet in which occasionally the very act is the effect that is produced,- —as in willing, loving, choosing, understanding, thinking, &c. "In all things of this kind, great is the variety of causes.

"1. The EFFICIENT cause is either Principal or Less-principal. For instance, In finishing a shoe, the Principal Efficient is the shoe-maker himself: But the awl, the knife, &c. are also efficient Causes, but Less-principal, and are called Instrumental. Thus a man writes, as the Principal cause; but a pen is the Instrument of the writing.

"Among the Less-principal efficient causes are commonly reckoned those which they denominate Motives, by which an agent is incited to action. Of this description are those which are called ponysμevn, the Inly-moving or principal cause, and @рокатаρктiη, the Outwardly-moving or external cause. For instance: When a passionate man strikes another person on a slight provocation; he who thus strikes, is the Principal cause of the blow; the sword or staff with which he strikes, is the Instrumental; but the wrathful disposition of the man is the Inly-moving cause, which induces or disposes the mind to this act; and the occasion afforded, or the provocation given, though it be only very trivial, is the Outwardly-moving or external cause, by which the mind is excited to the act.

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"2. The MATTER, or the MATERIAL cause, is either Proximate, as the dressed hide from which a shoe is made; or Remote, as the raw skin of the animal from which the hide is dressed; or still more Remote, the four elements of which we suppose the skin to consist; or the most Remote of all, the primitive matter of which all material things are said to consist, and which remain exactly the same under the change of all Forms.

"3. The FORM, or the FORMAL cause, is also called Remote or Proximate. For instance: The form of a hide or skin, that is, that by which it is a hide or a skin, are the more Remote forms of a shoe; but the fashion or shape of the shoe, from which it becomes a shoe, is the Proximate and Immediate form of the shoe.

"4. In like manner, the END, or the FINAL Cause, is either Proximate, more Remote, or Ultimate. The Proximate end of a shoe is the safety or defence of the foot; the more Remote end is the health of the body, and its freedom from pain; or still more Remote is whatever beyond the former there may be, on account of which this health of body and this freedom from suffering are desirable. But, in addition to these, there may likewise be other Less-principal ends; as, for instance, comeliness or grace, or whatsoever of ornament may appear in the wearing of a shoe.

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