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4. But this death is of so much value and price, on this account; because the person who endured it is not only a true and perfectly holy Man, but also, the only begotten Son of God, of the same eternal and infinite essence with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, such as it behoved our Saviour to be. Finally, because his death was conjoined with the feeling of the wrath and curse of God, which we by our sins had deserved.

5. Moreover, the promise of the gospel is, that whosoever believeth in Christ crucified shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Which promise ought to be announced and proposed, promiscuously and indiscriminately, with the command to repent and believe, to all nations and men to whom God in his good pleasure hath sent the gospel.

6. But because many who are called by the gospel do not repent, nor believe in Christ, but perish in unbelief; this doth not arise from defect or insufficiency of the sacrifice offered by Christ upon the cross, but from their own fault.1

7. But to as many as truly believe, and through the death of Christ are delivered and saved from sin and condemnation, this benefit comes from the sole grace of God, which he owes to no man, given them in Christ from eternity.2

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' John iii. 19, 20. v. 44. Heb. iii. 5.

2 John i. 12. 1 Cor. xv. 10. Phil. i. 29. 2 Thess. ii. 11-14. 'We believe, that God, (after that the whole race of Adam had been 'thus precipitated into perdition and destruction, by the fault of the first man) demonstrated himself to be such as he is in reality, and acted as such (præstitisse,) namely, both merciful and just; MERCIFUL indeed in delivering and saving from damnation and death (interitu) those, whom in his eternal

8. For this was the most free counsel, and gracious will and intention of God the Father, that the life-giving and saving efficacy of the most precious death of his own Son should exert itself in all the elect, in order to give them alone justifying faith, and thereby to lead them to eternal life: that is, God willed that Christ, through the blood of the cross, (by which he confirmed the new covenant,) should, out of every people, tribe, nation, and language, efficaciously redeem all those, and those only, who were from eternity chosen to salvation, and given to him by the Father; that he should confer on them the gift of faith; (which, as well as other saving gifts of the Holy Spirit, he obtained for them by his death;) that he should cleanse them by his own blood from all sins, both original and actual, committed after as well as before faith; that he should preserve them faithfully to the end; and at length present them glorious before himself without any spot and blemish.'

9. This counsel, having proceeded from eternal love to the elect, has, from the beginning of the world to this present time, (the gates of hell in vain striving against it,) been mightily fulfilled, and will henceforth also be fulfilled; so that indeed the elect may in their time be gathered together in one, and that there may always be some church of believers founded in the blood of Christ, who

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counsel, according to his gratuitous goodness by Jesus Christ our Lord, he elected, without any respect to their works: but JUST, in leaving others in that their own fall and perdition, into 'which they had cast themselves headlong.' Belgic Confession, Article xvi.

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John vi. 37-40, 44, 65. Eph. v. 25-27. 1 Pet. i. 2—5. Rev. v. 9, 10.

may constantly love the Saviour, who for her, as a bridegroom for his bride, gave up his soul upon the cross; and perseveringly worship him, and celebrate him here and to all eternity.

BY THE TRANSLATOR.

These nine articles are thus abbreviated by Tilenus, and the abbreviation adopted by Heylin, and in the Refutation of Calvinism.'

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'ART. II. Of the Merit and Effect of Christ's Death.

'That Jesus Christ hath not suffered death, but 'for those elect only having neither had any 'intent nor commandment of his Faher, to make 'satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.'1

REJECTION OF ERRORS UNDER THE SECOND HEAD.

The orthodox doctrine having been explained, the Synod rejects the errors of those,

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1. Who teach, 'That God the Father destined 'his own Son unto the death of the cross, without a certain and definite counsel of saving any one by name, (or particularly, nominatim,) 2 so that 'its own recessity, utility, and meritoriousness (dignitas) might stand unimpaired (sarta tecta) 'to the benefit obtained (impetrationi) by the ' death of Christ, and be perfect in its measures, (numeris,) complete and entire, even if the ob

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'See Art. 4, 5, above.

2 Rev. xiii. 8. xvii. 8. xx. 15.

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'tained redemption had never, in the fact, been applied to any individual.' For this assertion is contumelious to the wisdom of God and the merit of Jesus Christ, and is contrary to scripture: as the Saviour says, "I lay down my life for the "sheep, and I know them :" John x. 15. 27: and the prophet Isaiah concerning the Saviour; "When he shall give himself a sacrifice for sin,

he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, "and the will of JEHOVAH shall prosper in his "hand." Is. liii. 10. And, finally, it overturns the article of faith by which we believe the church.'1 2. Who teach, That this was not the end of the death of Christ, that he might, in very deed, 'confirm the new covenant of grace through his 'blood; but only that he might, acquire a bare

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right to the Father of entering again into some ' covenant with men, either of grace or of works." For this contradicts the scripture, which teaches, that "Christ is become the Surety and Mediator "of a better covenant." Heb. vii. 22. And “A "testament is at length ratified in those that are "dead." Heb. ix. 15, 17.2

3. Who teach, 'That Christ, by his satisfaction, 'did not with certainty (certo) merit salvation itself, ' and faith by which this satisfaction of Christ may 'be effectually applied unto salvation; but only that 'he acquired to the Father power, and a plenary will, of acting anew with men, and of prescribing

For in this case there might possibly have been no "church "of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood." Acts xx. 28.

2 Isa. xlii. 6. xlix. 8. Dan. ix. 27. Matt. xxvi. 28. Mark xiv. 24. Gr. Heb. ix. 13-23. xiii. 20.

'whatever new conditions he willed, the per'formance of which might depend on the free will of man; and therefore it might so happen either ' that none or that all might fulfil them.' Now

these think far too meanly of the death of Christ; they in no wise acknowledge the principal fruit, or benefit obtained by it; and they recal from hell the Pelagian heresy.1

4. Who teach, 'That that new covenant of grace, ' which God the Father, through the intervention ' of the death of Christ, hath ratified with men, 'does not consist in this, that by faith, forasmuch as 'it apprehends the merit of Christ, we are justified 'before God and saved; but in this, that God, 'having abrogated the exaction of perfect legal obedience, imputes (reputet) faith itself, and the imperfect obedience of faith, for the perfect ' obedience of the law, and graciously reckons it 'as deserving of the reward of eternal life.' For ' these contradict the scripture: They are jus"tified freely by his grace, through the redemption "made in Jesus Christ, whom God hath set forth

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as a propitiation, through faith in his blood." Rom. iii. 24, 25. And with the impious Socinus, they introduce a novel and strange justification

'That so large a body of learned theologians, collected from various churches, should unanimously, without hesitation, and in so strong language, declare the error here rejected to be the revival of the Pelagian heresy, may indeed astonish and disgust numbers in our age and land, who oppose something, at least exceedingly like this, against the doctrines called evangelical; but it should lead them to reflect on the subject, and to pray over it. Are they not, in opposing Calvinism, reviving and propagating the heresy of Pelagius?

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