Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

them for receiving the gospel: they agree with their more Calvinistic brethren in almost every thing, except election and final perseverance; concerning which many of them are rather negative, than positive, opponents; and we feel no repugnance to associate with them as our beloved fellow Christians; which we cannot do with those who approximate to Pelagianism; and who favour the opinion of salvation, in any way, except by living faith in Christ, and by the regeneration and sanctification of the Holy Spirit.

All these confessions of the true faith, however they may differ in word, yet in deed excellently agree together. As therefore "with the heart we believe unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation," certainly nothing can be more sweet, nothing more beautiful in this life, than the agreement of these confessions in one truth, faith, righteousness, and salvation. For, as many as there are of such harmonious confessions of the churches, so many in number are there of the most weighty and united testimonies for the truth, and against error and a lie. As many as by public confession, testify mutual consent, mutually confirm each other, and exhort each other to constancy in the same confession; and they invite and excite others to embrace the same truth: and this kind of consent of the saints in the truth here on earth exhibits a certain type, and supplies an argument, not to be slighted, of the consent and harmony with which the saints in the heavens, before the throne of God, shall celebrate to eternity the Author of all truth. Therefore the collection, and disposing into harmony, of the confessions of the orthodox churches, is to be commended, and the purpose approved, as entered on as it were, by a certain divine instigation (instinctu). For thus it is shewn, that difference and distance of places nothing hinders the conjunction and unity of the Spirit in the faithful, who is every where always like unto himself. Finally they, who are placed in the light of such a consent (consensus), and surrounded as it were "¿ by such a cloud of witnesses," have reason to blush, when they dare to recal from beneath, (ab inferis,) and having first drunk themselves, to reach forth to be received by others, the errors, which have been condemned

and exploded as well by the orthodox fathers of preceding ages, as by the consent of the churches of our own time." 1

1

' CORPUS ET SYNTAGMA CONFESSIONUM FIDEI, &c. Geneva, 1612. p. 6. -From this book, all these translations have been made; and it is well worth the study of all, who desire fully to understand these subjects, and the arguments adduced concerning them. I believe more modern editions of this collection, or a part of it have been published: but a good translation of the whole would give our countrymen in general a most important opportunity of judging, what preachers and writers have deviated from the grand doctrines of the reformation, in all the churches throughout Europe; and who have constantly adhered to them.

In what has here been attempted, the translation is as literal as the idiom of our language would admit, if not more so. Fidelity, in giving the English reader the exact meaning of the original, has alone been studied. It is however possible that the author may have in some clauses mistaken the meaning, but he is conscious that he has never wilfully misstated it.

THE

SYNOD OF DORT:

CONTAINING

THE HISTORY OF EVENTS WHICH LED TO ITS

CONVOCATION:

ITS ARTICLES, AND REJECTION OF ERRORS:

ITS DECISION CONCERNING THE REMONSTRANTS :

AND

THE APPROBATION OF THE STATES GENERAL :

AS PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY.

TRANSLATED FROM THE LATIN,

WITH

NOTES, REMARKS, AND REFERENCES.

HE THAT IS FIRST IN HIS OWN CAUSE SEEMETH JUST; BUT HIS NEIGHBOUR COMETH AND SEARCHETH HIM."-PROV. Xviii. 17.

"JUDGE NOT ACCORDING TO THE APPEARANCE, BUT JUDGE RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT."-JOHN vii. 24.

AUDI ALTERAM PARTEM.

In this, as in the preceding work, I have ventured upon some alteration, and I hope improvement, of the Title. I have also endeavoured more correctly to mark the several parts into which the work naturally divides itself, and more clearly to distinguish what belongs to the Translator and what to his Original.

It may be proper to observe that the work, from which the translation is made, is the Acta Synodi Nationalis, in Nomine Domini nostri Jesu Christi, Auctoritate D. D. Ordinum Generalium Fœderati Belgii Provinciarum, Dordrechti, habitæ Anno 1618, 1619.' Dordrechti, 1620. 4to. Editions, it would also seem were printed in the same year at Dort and Leyden, in folio, and at Hanover, in 4to.-J. S.

« ElőzőTovább »