The Canons of the Synod of Dort
The Synod of Dordrecht
November 13, 1618-May 9,
1619
I. FIRST HEAD OF DOCTRINE: DIVINE ELECTION AND REPROBATION
FIRST HEAD: ARTICLE 1. As all men have sinned in Adam, lie
under the curse, and are deserving of eternal death, God would have done no
injustice by leaving them all to perish and delivering them over to
condemnation on account of sin, according to the words of the apostle:
"that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to
God." (Rom 3:19). And: "for all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God," (Rom 3:23). And: "For the wages of sin is death."
(Rom 6:23).
FIRST HEAD: ARTICLE 2. but in this the love of God was
manifested, that He "sent his one and only Son into the world, that
whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (1 John
4:9, John 3:16).
FIRST HEAD: ARTICLE 3. And that men may be brought to
believe, God mercifully sends the messengers of these most joyful tiding to
whom He will and at what time He pleases; by whose ministry men are called to
repentance and faith in Christ crucified. "How, then, can they call on the
one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they
have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And
how can they preach unless they are sent?" (Rom 10:14-15).
FIRST HEAD: ARTICLE 4. The wrath of God abides upon those
who believe not this gospel. But such as receive it and embrace Jesus the
Savior by a true and living faith are by Him delivered from the wrath of God
and from destruction, and have the gift of eternal life conferred upon them.
FIRST HEAD: ARTICLE 5. The cause or guilt of this unbelief
as well as of all other sins is no wise in God, but in man himself; whereas
faith in Jesus Christ and salvation through Him is the free gift of God, as it
is written: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and
this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God" (Eph 2:8). Likewise:
"For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on
him, but also to suffer for him" (Phil 1:29).
FIRST HEAD: ARTICLE 6. That some receive the gift of faith
from God, and others do not receive it, proceeds from God's eternal decree.
"For known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the
world" (Acts 15:18 A.V.). "who works out everything in conformity
with the purpose of his will" (Eph 1:11). According to which decree He
graciously softens the hearts of the elect, however obstinate, and inclines
them to believe; while He leaves the non-elect in His just judgment to their
own wickedness and obduracy. And herein is especially displayed the profound,
the merciful, and at the same time the righteous discrimination between men
equally involved in ruin; or that decree of election and reprobation, revealed
in the Word of God, which, though men of perverse, impure, and unstable minds
wrest it to their own destruction, yet to holy and pious souls affords
unspeakable consolation.
FIRST HEAD: ARTICLE 7. Election is the unchangeable purpose
of God, whereby, before the foundation of the world, He has out of mere grace,
according to the sovereign good pleasure of His own will, chosen from the whole
human race, which had fallen through their own fault from the primitive state
of rectitude into sin and destruction, a certain number of persons to
redemption in Christ, whom He from eternity appointed the Mediator and Head of
the elect and the foundation of salvation. This elect number, though by nature
neither better nor more deserving than others, but with them involved in one
common misery, God has decreed to give to Christ to be saved by Him, and
effectually to call an draw them to His communion by His Word and Spirit; to
bestow upon them true faith, justification, and sanctification; and having
powerfully preserved them in the fellowship of His son, finally to glorify them
for the demonstration of His mercy, and for the praise of the riches of His
glorious grace; as it is written "For he chose us in him before the
creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he
predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance
with his pleasure and will- to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely
given us in the One he loves." (Eph 1:4-6). And elsewhere: "And those
he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he
justified, he also glorified." (Rom 8:30).
FIRST HEAD: ARTICLE 8. There are not various decrees of election,
but one and the same decree respecting all those who shall be saved, both under
the Old and New Testament; since the Scripture declares the good pleasure,
purpose, and counsel of the divine will to be one, according to which He has
chosen us from eternity, both to grace and to glory, to salvation and to the
way of salvation, which He has ordained that we should walk therein (Eph 1:4,
5; 2:10).
FIRST HEAD: ARTICLE 9. This election was not founded upon
foreseen faith and the obedience of faith, holiness, or any other good quality
or disposition in man, as the prerequisite, cause, or condition of which it
depended; but men are chosen to faith and to the obedience of faith, holiness,
etc. Therefore election is the fountain of every saving good, from which
proceed faith, holiness, and the other gifts of salvation, and finally eternal
life itself, as its fruits and effects, according to the testimony of the
apostle: "For he chose us (not because we were, but) in him before the
creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight." (Eph 1:4).
FIRST HEAD: ARTICLE 10. The good pleasure of God is the sole
cause of this gracious election; which does not consist herein that out of all
possible qualities and actions of men God has chosen some as a condition of
salvation, but that He was pleased out of the common mass of sinners to adopt
some certain persons as a peculiar people to Himself, as it is written:
"Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad-in order
that God's purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who
calls-she (Rebekah) was told, 'The older will serve the younger.' Just as it is
written: 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.'" (Rom 9:11-13). "When the
Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all
who were appointed for eternal life believed." (Acts 13:48).
FIRST HEAD: ARTICLE 11. And as God Himself is most wise,
unchangeable, omniscient, and omnipotent, so the election made by Him can
neither be interrupted nor changed, recalled, or annulled; neither can the
elect be cast away, nor their number diminished.
FIRST HEAD: ARTICLE 12. The elect in due time, though in
various degrees and in different measures, attain the assurance of this their
eternal and unchangeable election, not by inquisitively prying into the secret
and deep things of God, but by observing in themselves with a spiritual joy and
holy pleasure the infallible fruits of election pointed out in the Word of
God-such as, a true faith in Christ, filial fear, a godly sorrow for sin, a
hungering and thirsting after righteousness, etc.
FIRST HEAD: ARTICLE 13. The sense and certainty of this
election afford to the children of God additional matter for daily humiliation
before Him, for adoring the depth of His mercies, for cleansing themselves, and
rendering grateful returns of ardent love to Him who first manifested so great
love towards them. The consideration of this doctrine of election is so far
from encouraging remissness in the observance of the divine commands or from sinking
men in carnal security, that these, in the just judgment of God, are the usual
effects of rash presumption or of idle and wanton trifling with the grace of
election, in those who refuse to walk in the ways of the elect.
FIRST HEAD: ARTICLE 14. As the doctrine of election by the
most wise counsel of God was declared by the prophets, by Christ Himself, and
by the apostles, and is clearly revealed in the Scriptures both of the Old and
the New Testament, so it is still to be published in due time and place in the
Church of God, for which it was peculiarly designed, provided it be done with
reverence, in the spirit of discretion and piety, for the glory of God's most
holy Name, and for enlivening and comforting His people, without vainly
attempting to investigate the secret ways of the Most High (Acts 20:27; Rom
11:33f; 12:3; Heb 6:17f).
FIRST HEAD: ARTICLE 15. What peculiarly tends to illustrate
and recommend to us the eternal and unmerited grace of election is the express
testimony of sacred Scripture that not all, but some only, are elected, while
others are passed by in the eternal decree; whom God, out of His sovereign,
most just, irreprehensible, and unchangeable good pleasure, has decreed to
leave in the common misery into which they have willfully plunged themselves,
and not to bestow upon them saving faith and the grace of conversion; but,
permitting them in His just judgment to follow their own ways, at last, for the
declaration of His justice, to condemn and punish them forever, not only on
account of their unbelief, but also for all their other sins. And this is the
decree of reprobation, which by no means makes God the Author of sin (the very
though of which is blasphemy), but declares Him to be an awful,
irreprehensible, and righteous Judge and Avenger thereof.
FIRST HEAD: ARTICLE 16. Those in whom a living faith in
Christ, and assured confidence of soul, peace of conscience, an earnest
endeavor after filial obedience, a glorying in God through Christ, is not as
yet strongly felt, and who nevertheless make use of the means which God has
appointed for working these graces in us, ought not to be alarmed at the
mention of reprobation, nor to rank themselves among the reprobate, but
diligently to persevere in the use of means, and with ardent desires devoutly
and humble to wait for a season of richer grace. Much less cause to be
terrified by the doctrine of reprobation have they who, though they seriously
desire to be turned to God, to please Him only, and to be delivered from the
body of death, cannot yet reach that measure of holiness and faith to which
they aspire; since a merciful God has promised that He will not quench the
smoking flax, nor break the bruised reed. But this doctrine is justly terrible
to those who, regardless of God and of the Savior Jesus Christ, have wholly
given themselves up to the cares of the world and the pleasures of the flesh,
so long as they are not seriously converted to God.
FIRST HEAD: ARTICLE 17. Since we are to judge of the will of
God from His Word, which testifies that the children of believers are holy, not
by nature, but in virtue of the covenant of grace, in which they together with
the parents are comprehended, godly parents ought not to doubt the election and
salvation of their children whom it pleases God to call out of this life in
their infancy (Gen 17:7; Acts 2:39; 1 Cor 7:14).
FIRST HEAD: ARTICLE 18. To those who murmur at the free
grace of election and the just severity of reprobation we answer with the
apostle "But who are you, O man, to talk back to God?" (Rom 9:20),
and quote the language of our Savior: "Don't I have the right to do what I
want with my own?" (Matt 20:15). And therefore, with holy adoration of
these mysteries, we exclaim in the words of the apostle: "Oh, the depth of
the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out! 'Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who
has been his counselor?' 'Who has ever given to God, that God should repay
him?' For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the
glory forever! Amen." (Rom 11:33-36).
REJECTION OF ERRORS
The true doctrine concerning election and reprobation having
been explained, the Synod rejects the errors of those:
FIRST HEAD: PARAGRAPH 1. Who teach: That the will of God to
save those who would believe and would persevere in faith and in the obedience
of faith is the whole and entire decree of election, and that nothing else
concerning this decree has been revealed in God's Word.
For these deceive the simple and plainly contradict the
Scriptures, which declare that God will not only save those who will believe,
but that He has also from eternity chosen certain particular persons to whom,
above others, He will grant in time, both faith in Christ and perseverance; as
it is written "I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the
world. (John 17:6). "and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.
(Acts 13:48)". And "For he chose us in him before the creation of the
world to be holy and blameless in his sight. (Eph 1:4)."
FIRST HEAD: PARAGRAPH 2. Who teach: That there are various
kinds of election of God unto eternal life: the one general and indefinite, the
other particular and definite; and that the latter in turn is either
incomplete, revocable, non-decisive, and conditional, or complete, irrevocable,
decisive, and absolute. Likewise: That there is one election unto faith and
another unto salvation, so that election can be unto justifying faith, without
being a decisive election unto salvation.
For this is a fancy of men's minds, invented regardless of
the Scriptures, whereby the doctrine of election is corrupted, and this golden
chain of our salvation is broken: "And those he predestined, he also
called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also
glorified. (Rom 8:30)."
FIRST HEAD: PARAGRAPH 3. Who teach: That the good pleasure
and purpose of God, of which Scripture makes mention in the doctrine of
election, does not consist in this, that God chose certain persons rather than
others, but in this, that He chose out of all possible conditions (among which
are also the works of the law), or out of the whole order of things, that act
of faith which from its very nature is undeserving, as well as it incomplete
obedience, as a condition of salvation, and that He would graciously consider
this in itself as a complete obedience and count it worthy of the reward of
eternal life.
For by this injurious error the pleasure of God and the
merits of Christ are made of none effect, and men are drawn away by useless
questions from the truth of gracious justification and from the simplicity of
Scripture, and this declaration of the apostle is charged as untrue: "who
has saved us and called us to a holy life, not because of anything we have done
but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ
Jesus before the beginning of time (2 Tim 1:9)."
FIRST HEAD: PARAGRAPH 4. Who teach: That in the election
unto faith this condition is beforehand demanded that man should use the light
of nature aright, be pious, humble, meek, and fit for eternal life, as if on
these things election were in any way dependent.
For this savors of the teaching of Pelagius, and is opposed
to the doctrine of the apostle when he writes: "All of us also lived among
them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following
its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive
with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have
been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the
heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show
the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ
Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from
yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast (Eph
2:3-9)."
FIRST HEAD: PARAGRAPH 5. Who teach: That the incomplete and
non-decisive election of particular persons to salvation occurred because of a
foreseen faith, conversion, holiness, godliness, which either began or
continued for some time; but that the complete and decisive election occurred
because of foreseen perseverance unto the end in faith, conversion, holiness,
and godliness; and that this is the gracious and evangelical worthiness, for
the sake of which he who is chosen is more worthy than he who is not chosen;
and that therefore faith, the obedience of faith, holiness, godliness, and
perseverance are not fruits of the unchangeable election unto glory, but are
conditions which, being required beforehand, were foreseen as being met by
those who will be fully elected, and are causes without which the unchangeable
election to glory does not occur.
This is repugnant to the entire Scripture, which constantly
inculcates this and similar declarations: Election is "not by works but by
him who calls (Rom 9:12)." "And all who were appointed for eternal
life believed (Acts 13:48)." "For he chose us in him before the
creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight (Eph 1:4)."
"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit
that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name (John
15:16)." "And if by grace, then it is no longer by works (Rom
11:6)." "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us
and sent his Son (1 John 4:10)."
FIRST HEAD: PARAGRAPH 6. Who teach: That not every election
unto salvation is unchangeable, but that some of the elect, any decree of God
notwithstanding, can yet perish and do indeed perish.
By this gross error they make God be changeable, and destroy
the comfort which the godly obtain out of the firmness of their election, and
contradict the Holy Scripture, which teaches that the elect can not be led
astray (Matt 24:24), that Christ does not lose those whom the Father gave him
(John 6:39), and that God also glorified those whom he foreordained, called,
and justified (Rom 8:30).
FIRST HEAD: PARAGRAPH 7. Who teach: That there is in this
life no fruit and no consciousness of the unchangeable elect to glory, nor any
certainty, except that which depends on a changeable and uncertain condition.
For not only is it absurd to speak of an uncertain
certainty, but also contrary to the experience of the saints, who by virtue of
the consciousness of their election rejoice with the apostle and praise this
favor of God (Eph 1); who according to Christ's admonition rejoice with his
disciples that their names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20); who also place
the consciousness of their election over against the fiery darts of the devil,
asking: "Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? (Rom
8:33)."
FIRST HEAD: PARAGRAPH 8. Who teach: That God, simply by
virtue of His righteous will, did not decide either to leave anyone in the fall
of Adam and in the common state sin and condemnation, or to pass anyone by in
the communication of grace which is necessary for faith and conversion.
For this is firmly decreed: "God has mercy on whom he
wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden (Rom 9:18)."
And also this: "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has
been given to you, but not to them (Mat 13:11)." Likewise: "I praise
you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things
from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes , Father,
for this was your good pleasure (Mat 11:25-26)."
FIRST HEAD: PARAGRAPH 9. Who teach: That the reason why God
sends the gospel to one people rather than to another is not merely and solely
the good pleasure of God, but rather the fact that one people is better and
worthier than another to which the gospel is not communicated.
For this Moses denies , addressing the people of Israel as
follows: "To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest
heavens, the earth and everything in it. Yet the LORD set his affection on your
forefathers and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the
nations, as it is today (Deu 10:14-15)." And Christ said: "Woe to
you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you
had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in
sackcloth and ashes (Mat 11:21)."
II. SECOND HEAD OF DOCTRINE: THE DEATH OF CHRIST, AND THE
REDEMPTION OF MEN THEREBY
SECOND HEAD: ARTICLE 1. God is not only supremely merciful,
but also supremely just. And His justice requires (as He has revealed Himself
in His Word) that our sins committed against His infinite majesty should be
punished, not only with temporal but with eternal punishments, both in body and
soul; which we cannot escape, unless satisfaction be made to the justice of
God.
SECOND HEAD: ARTICLE 2. Since, therefore, we are unable to
make that satisfaction in our own persons, or to deliver ourselves from the
wrath of God, He has been pleased of His infinite mercy to give His only
begotten Son for our Surety, who was made sin, and became a curse for us and in
our stead, that He might make satisfaction to divine justice on our behalf.
SECOND HEAD: ARTICLE 3. The death of the Son of God is the
only and most perfect sacrifice and satisfaction for sin, and is of infinite
worth and value, abundantly sufficient to expiate the sins of the whole world.
SECOND HEAD: ARTICLE 4. This death is of such infinite value
and dignity because the person who submitted to it was not only really man and
perfectly holy, but also the only-begotten Son of God, of the same eternal and
infinite essence with the Father and the Holy Spirit, which qualifications were
necessary to constitute Him a Savior for us; and, moreover, because it was
attended with a sense of the wrath and curse of God due to us for sin.
SECOND HEAD: ARTICLE 5. Moreover, the promise of the gospel
is that whosoever believes in Christ crucified shall not perish, but have
eternal life. This promise, together with the command to repent and believe,
ought to be declared and published to all nations, and to all persons promiscuously
and without distinction, to whom God out of His good pleasure sends the gospel.
SECOND HEAD: ARTICLE 6. And, whereas many who are called by
the gospel do not repent nor believe in Christ, but perish in unbelief, this is
not owing to any defect or insufficiency in the sacrifice offered by Christ
upon the cross, but is wholly to be imputed to themselves.
SECOND HEAD: ARTICLE 7. But as many as truly believe, and
are delivered and saved from sin and destruction through the death of Christ,
are indebted for this benefit solely to the grace of God given them in Christ
from everlasting, and not to any merit of their own.
SECOND HEAD: ARTICLE 8. For this was the sovereign counsel
and most gracious will and purpose of God the Father that the quickening and saving
efficacy of the most precious death of His Son should extend to all the elect,
for bestowing upon them alone the gift of justifying faith, thereby to bring
them infallibly to salvation; that is, it was the will of God that Christ by
the blood of the cross, whereby He confirmed the new covenant, should
effectually redeem out of every people, tribe, nation, and language, all those,
and those only, who were from eternity chosen to salvation and given to Him by
the Father; that He should confer upon them faith, which, together with all the
other saving gifts of the Holy Spirit, He purchased for them by His death;
should purge them from all sin, both original and actual, whether committed
before or after believing; and having faithfully preserved them even to the
end, should at last bring them, free from every spot and blemish, to the
enjoyment of glory in His own presence forever.
SECOND HEAD: ARTICLE 9. This purpose, proceeding from
everlasting love towards the elect, has from the beginning of the world to this
day been powerfully accomplished, and will henceforeward still continue to be
accomplished, notwithstanding all the ineffectual opposition of the gates of
hell; so that the elect in due time may be gathered together into one, and that
there never may be wanting a Church composed of believers, the foundation of
which is laid in the blood of christ; which may stedfastly love and faithfully
serve Him as its Savior (who, as a bridegroom for his bride, laid down His life
for them upon the cross); and which may celebrate His praises here and through
all eternity.
REJECTION OF ERRORS
The true doctrine having been explained, the Synod rejects
the errors of those:
SECOND HEAD: PARAGRAPH 1. Who teach: That God the Father has
ordained His Son to the death of the cross without a certain and definite
decree to save any, so that the necessity, profitableness, and worth of what
christ merited by His death might have existed, and might remain in all its
parts complete, perfect, and intact, even if the merited redemption had never
in fact been applied to any person.
For this doctrine tends to the despising of the wisdom of
the Father and of the merits of Jesus Christ, and is contrary to Scripture. For
thus says our Savior: "I lay down my life for the sheep ... and I know
them. (John 10:15, 27)." And the prophet Isaiah says concerning the
Savior: "Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring
and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand (Isa
53:10)." Finally, this contradicts the article of faith according to which
we believe the catholic Christian Church.
SECOND HEAD: PARAGRAPH 2. Who teach: That it was not the
purpose of the death of Christ that He should confirm the new covenant of grace
through His blood, but only that He should acquire for the Father the mere
right to establish with man such a covenant as He might please, whether of
grace or of works.
For this is repugnant to Scripture which teaches that
"Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant that is a new
covenant ..." and that "it never takes effect while the one who made
it is living. (Heb 7:22; 9:15, 17)."
SECOND HEAD: PARAGRAPH 3. Who teach: That Christ by His
satisfaction merited neither salvation itself for any one, nor faith, whereby
this satisfaction of Christ unto salvation is effectually appropriated; but
that He merited for the Father only the authority or the perfect will to deal
again with man, and to prescribe new conditions as He might desire, obedience
to which, however, depended on the free will of man, so that it therefore might
have come to pass that either none or all should fulfill these conditions.
For these adjudge too contemptuously of the death of Christ,
in no wise acknowledge that most important fruit or benefit thereby gained and
bring again out of the hell the Pelagian error.
SECOND HEAD: PARAGRAPH 4. Who teach: That the new covenant
of grace, which God the Father, through the mediation of the death of Christ,
made with man, does not herein consist that we by faith, in as much as it
accepts the merits of Christ, are justified before God and saved, but in the
fact that God, having revoked the demand of perfect obedience of faith, regards
faith itself and the obedience of faith, although imperfect, as the perfect
obedience of the law, and does esteem it worthy of the reward of eternal life
through grace.
For these contradict the Scriptures, being: "justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God
presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood (Rom
3:24-25)." And these proclaim, as did the wicked Socinus, a new and
strange justification of man before God, against the consensus of the whole
Church.
SECOND HEAD: PARAGRAPH 5. Who teach: That all men have been
accepted unto the state of reconciliation and unto the grace of the covenant,
so that no one is worthy of condemnation on account of original sin, and that
no one shall be condemned because of it, but that all are free from the guilt
of original sin.
For this opinion is repugnant to Scripture which teaches
that we are by nature children of wrath (Eph 2:3).
SECOND HEAD: PARAGRAPH 6. Who use the difference between
meriting and appropriating, to the end that they may instil into the minds of
the imprudent and inexperienced this teaching that God, as far as He is
concerned, has been minded to apply to all equally the benefits gained by the
death of Christ; but that, while some obtain the pardon of sin and eternal
life, and others do not, this difference depends on their own free will, which
joins itself to the grace that is offered without exception, and that it is not
dependent on the special gift of mercy, which powerfully works in them, that
they rather than others should appropriate unto themselves this grace.
For these, while they feign that they present this
distinction in a sound sense, seek to instil into the people the destructive
poison of the Pelagian errors.
SECOND HEAD: PARAGRAPH 7. Who teach: That Christ neither
could die, nor needed to die, and also did not die, for those whom God loved in
the highest degree and elected to eternal life, since these do not need the
death of Christ.
For the contradict the apostle, who declares, Christ:
"loved me and gave himself for me (Gal 2:20)." Likewise: "Who
will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who
justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died (Rom 8:33-34)",
namely, for them; and the Savior who says: "I lay down my life for the
sheep (John 10:15)." And: "My command is this: Love each other as I
have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life
for his friends (John 15:12-13)."
III/IV. THIRD AND FOURTH HEADS OF DOCTRINE: THE CORRUPTION
OF MAN, HIS CONVERSION TO GOD, AND THE MANNER THEREOF
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 1. Man was originally formed
after the image of God. His understanding was adorned with a true and saving
knowledge of his Creator, and of spiritual things; his heart and will were
upright, all his affections pure, and the whole man was holy. But, revolting
from God by the instigation of the devil and by his own free will, he forfeited
these excellent gifts; and an in the place thereof became involved in blindness
of mind, horrible darkness, vanity, and perverseness of judgment; became
wicked, rebellious, and obdurate in heart and will, and impure in his
affections.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 2. Man after the fall begat
children in his own likeness. A corrupt stock produced a corrupt offspring.
Hence all the posterity of Adam, Christ only excepted, have derived corruption
from their original parent, not by limitation, as the Pelagians of old
asserted, but by the propagation of a vicious nature, in consequence of the
just judgment of God.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 3. Therefore all men are
conceived in sin, and are by nature children of wrath, incapable of saving
good, prone to evil, dead in sin, and in bondage thereto; and without the
regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit, they are neither able nor willing to
return to God, to reform the depravity of their nature, or to dispose
themselves to reformation
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 4. There remain, however, in
man since the fall, the glimmerings of natural light, whereby he retains some
knowledge of God, or natural things, and of the difference between good and
evil, and shows some regard for virtue and for good outward behavior. But so
far is this light of nature from begin sufficient to bring him to a saving
knowledge of God and to true conversion that he is incapable of using it aright
even in things natural and civil. Nay further, this light, such as it is , man
in various ways renders wholly polluted, and hinders in unrighteousness, by
doing which he becomes inexcusable before God.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 5. In the same light are we
to consider the law of the decalogue, delivered by God to His peculiar people,
the Jews, by the hands of Moses. For though it reveals the greatness of sin,
and more and more convinces man thereof, yet, as it neither points out a remedy
nor imparts strength to extricate him from his misery, but, being weak through
the flesh, leaves the transgressor under the curse, man cannot by this law
obtain saving grace.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 6. What, therefore, neither
the light of nature nor the law could do, that God performs by the operation of
the Holy Spirit through the word or ministry of reconciliation; which is the
glad tidings concerning the Messiah, by means whereof it has pleased God to
save such as believe, as well under the Old as under the New Testament.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 7. This mystery of His will
God reveals to but a small number under the Old Testament; under the New
Testament (the distinction between various peoples having been removed) He
reveals it to many. The cause of this dispensation is not to be ascribed to the
superior worth of one nation above another, nor to their better use of the
light of nature, but results wholly from the sovereign good pleasure and
unmerited love of God. Hence they to whom so great and so gracious a blessing
is communicated, above their desert, or rather notwithstanding their demerits,
are bound to acknowledge it with humble and grateful hearts, and with the
apostle to adore, but in no wise curiously to pry into, the severity and
justice of God's judgments displayed in others to whom this grace is not given.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 8. As many as are called by
the gospel are unfeignedly called. For God has most earnestly and truly
declared in His Word what is acceptable to Him, namely, that those who are
called should come unto Him. He also seriously promises rest of soul and
eternal life to all who come to Him and believe.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 9. It is not the fault of the
gospel, nor of Christ offered therein, nor of God, who calls men by the gospel
and confers upon them various gifts, that those who are called by the ministry
of the Word refuse to come and be converted. The fault lies in themselves; some
of whom when called, regardless of their danger, reject the Word of life;
other, though they receive it, suffer it not to make a lasting impression on
their heart; therefore, their joy, arising only from a temporary faith, soon
vanishes, and they fall away; while others choke the seed of the Word by perplexing
cares and the pleasures of this world, and produce no fruit. This our Savior
teaches in the parable of the sower (Matt 13).
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 10. But that others who are
called by the gospel obey the call and are converted is not to be ascribed to
the proper exercise of free will, whereby one distinguishes himself above
others equally furnished with grace sufficient for faith and conversion (as the
proud heresy of Pelagius maintains); but it must be wholly ascribed to God,
who, as He has chosen His own from eternity in Christ, so He calls them
effectually in time, confers upon them faith and repentance, rescues them from
the power of darkness, and translates them into the kingdom of His own Son;
that they may show forth the praises of Him who has called them out of darkness
into His marvelous light, and may glory not in themselves but in the Lord,
according to the testimony of the apostles in various places.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 11. But when God accomplishes
His good pleasure in the elect, or works in them true conversion, He not only
cause the gospel to be externally preached to them, and powerfully illuminates
their minds by His Holy Spirit, that they may rightly under and discern the
things of the Spirit of God; but by the efficacy of the same regenerating
Spirit He pervades the inmost recesses of man; He opens the closed and softens
the hardened heart, and circumcises that which was uncircumcised; infuses new
qualities into the will, which, though heretofore dead, He quickens; from being
evil, disobedient, and refractory, He renders it good, obedient, and pliable;
actuates and strengthens it, that like a good tree, it may bring forth the
fruits of good actions.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 12. And this is that
regeneration so highly extolled in Scripture, that renewal, new creation,
resurrection from the dead, making alive, which God works in us without out
aid. But this is in no wise effected merely by the external preaching of the
gospel, by moral suasion, or such a mode of operation that, after God has
performed His part, it still remains in the power of man to be regenerated or
not, to be converted or to continue unconverted; but it is evidently a
supernatural work, most powerful, and at the same time most delightful, astonishing,
mysterious, and ineffable; not inferior in efficacy to creation or the
resurrection from the dead, as the Scripture inspired by the Author of this
work declares; so that all in whose heart God works in this marvelous manner
are certainly, infallibly, and effectually regenerated, and do actually
believe. Whereupon the will thus renewed is not only actuated and influenced by
God, but in consequence of this influence becomes itself active. Wherefore also
man himself is rightly said to believe and repent by virtue of that grace
received.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 13. The manner of this
operation cannot be fully comprehended by believers in this life. Nevertheless,
they are satisfied to know and experience that by this grace of God they are
enabled to believe with the heart and to love their Savior.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 14. Faith is therefore to be
considered as the gift of God, not on account of its being offered by God to
man, to be accepted or rejected at his pleasure, but because it is in reality
conferred upon him, breathed and infused into him; nor even because God bestows
the power or ability to believe, and then expects that man should by the
exercise of his own free will consent to the terms of salvation and actually
believe in Christ, but because He who works in man both to will and to work,
and indeed all things in all, produces both the will to believe and the act of
believing also.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 15. God is under no
obligation to confer this grace upon any; for how can He be indebted to one who
had no previous gifts to bestow as a foundation for such recompense? Nay, how
can He be indebted to one who has nothing of his own but sin and falsehood? He,
therefore, who becomes the subject of this grace owes eternal gratitude to God,
and gives Him thanks forever. Whoever is not made partaker thereof is either
altogether regardless of these spiritual gifts and satisfied with his own
condition, or is in no apprehension of danger, and vainly boasts the possession
of that which he has not. Further, with respect to those who outwardly profess
their faith and amend their lives, we are bound, after the example of the
apostle, to judge and speak of them in the most favorable manner; for the
secret recesses of the heart are unknown to us. And as to others who have not
yet been called, it is our duty to pray for them to God, who calls the things
that are not as if they were. But we are in no wise to conduct ourselves
towards them with haughtiness, as if we had made ourselves to differ.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 16. But as man by the fall
did not cease to be a creature endowed with understanding and will, nor did sin
which pervaded the whole race of mankind deprive him of the human nature, but
brought upon him depravity and spiritual death; so also this grace of
regeneration does not treat men as senseless stocks and blocks, nor take away
their will and it properties, or do violence thereto; but is spiritually
quickens, heals, corrects, and at the same time sweetly and powerfully bends
it, that where carnal rebellion and resistance formerly prevailed, a ready and
sincere spiritual obedience begins to reign; in which the true and spiritual
restoration and freedom of our will consist. Wherefore, unless the admirable
Author of every good work so deal with us, man can have no hope of being able
to rise from his fall by his own free will, by which, in a state of innocence,
he plunged himself into ruin.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 17. As the almighty operation
of God whereby He brings forth and supports this our natural life does not
exclude but require the use of means by which God, of His infinite mercy and
goodness, has chosen to exert His influence, so also the aforementioned
supernatural operation of God by which we are regenerated in no wise excludes
or subverts the use of the gospel, which the most wise God has ordained to be
the seed of regeneration and food of the soul. Wherefore, as the apostles and
the teachers who succeeded them piously instructed the people concerning this
grace of God, to His glory and to the abasement of all pride, and in the
meantime, however, neglected not to keep them, by the holy admonitions of the
gospel, under the influence of the Word, the sacraments, and ecclesiastical
discipline; so even now it should be far from those who give or receive
instruction in the Church to presume to tempt God by separating what He of His
good pleasure has most intimately joined together. For grace is conferred by
means of admonitions; and the more readily we perform our duty, the more
clearly this favor of God, working in us, usually manifest itself, and the more
directly His work is advanced; to whom alone all the glory, both for the means
and for their saving fruit and efficacy, is forever due. Amen.
REJECTION OF ERRORS
The true doctrine having been explained, the Synod rejects
the errors of those:
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: PARAGRAPH 1. Who teach: That it
cannot properly be said that original sin in itself suffices to condemn the
whole human race or to deserve temporal and eternal punishment.
For these contradict the apostle, who declares:
"Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death
through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned (Rom
5:12)." And: "The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation
(Rom 5:16)." And "the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23)."
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: PARAGRAPH 2. Who teach: That the
spiritual gifts or the good qualities and virtues, such as goodness, holiness,
righteousness, could not belong to the will of man when he was first created,
and that these, therefore, cannot have been separated therefrom in the fall.
For such is contrary to the description of the image of God
which the apostle gives in Eph. 4:24, where he declares that it consists in
righteousness and holiness, which undoubtedly belong to the will.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: PARAGRAPH 3. Who teach: That in
spiritual death the spiritual gifts are not separate from the will of man,
since the will in itself has never been corrupted, but only hindered through
the darkness of the understanding and the irregularity of the affection; and
that, these hindrances having been removed, the will can then bring into
operation its nature powers, that is, that the will of itself is able to will
and to choose, or not to will and not to choose, all manner of good which may
be presented to it. This is an innovation and an error, and tends to elevate
the powers of the free will, contrary to the declaration of the prophet:
"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure (Jer 17:9)";
and of the apostle: "All of us also lived among them at one time,
gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and
thoughts (Eph 2:3)."
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: PARAGRAPH 4. Who teach: That the
unregenerate man is not really nor utterly dead in sin, nor destitute of all
powers unto spiritual good, but that he can yet hunger and thirst after
righteousness and life, and offer the sacrifice of a contrite and broken
spirit, which is pleasing to God.
For these things are contrary to the express testimony of
Scripture: "you were dead in your transgressions and sins (Eph 2:1,
5)." And: "every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only
evil all the time. (Gen 6:5, 8:21)." Moreover, to hunger and thirst after
deliverance from misery and after life, and to offer unto God the sacrifice of
a broken spirit, is peculiar to the regenerate and those that are called
blessed (Ps 51:17; Matt 5:6).
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: PARAGRAPH 5. Who teach: That the
corrupt and natural man can so well use the common grace (by which they
understand the light of nature), or the gifts still left him after the fall,
that he can gradually gain by their good use a greater, that is, the
evangelical or saving grace, and salvation itself; and that in this way God on
His part shows Himself ready to reveal Christ unto all men, since He applies to
all sufficiently and efficiently the means necessary to conversion.
For both the experience of all ages and the Scriptures
testify that this is untrue. "He has revealed his word to Jacob, his laws
and decrees to Israel. He has done this for no other nation; they do not know
his laws (Psa 147:19-20)." "In the past, he let all nations go their
own way (Acts 14:16)." And: "Paul and his companions traveled
throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy
Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the
border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would
not allow them to (Acts 16:6-7)."
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: PARAGRAPH 6. Who teach: That in the
true conversion of man no new qualities, powers, or gifts can be infused by God
into the will, and that therefore faith, through which we are first converted
and because of which we are called believers, is not a quality or gift infused
by God but only an act of man, and that it cannot be said to be a gift, except
in respect of the power to attain to this faith.
For thereby they contradict the Holy Scriptures, which
declare that God infuses new qualities of faith, of obedience, and of the
consciousness of His love into our hearts: ""This is the covenant I
will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD.
"I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts (Jer 31:33)."
And: "For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry
ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your
descendants (Isa 44:3)." And: "God has poured out his love into our
hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us (Rom 5:5)." This is also
repugnant to the constant practice of the Church, which prays by the mouth of
the prophet thus: "Restore me, and I will return (Jer 31:18)."
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: PARAGRAPH 7. Who teach: That the
grace whereby we are converted to God is only a gentle advising, or (as others
explain it) that this is the noblest manner of working in the conversion of
man, and that this manner of working, which consists in advising, is most in
harmony with man's nature; and that there is no reason why this advising grace
alone should not be sufficient to make the natural man spiritual; indeed, that
God does not produce the consent of the will except through this manner of
advising; and that the power of the divine working, whereby it surpasses the
working of Satan, consists in this that God promises eternal, while Satan
promise only temporal good.
But this is altogether Pelagian and contrary to the whole
Scripture, which, besides this, teaches yet another and far more powerful and
divine manner of the Holy Spirit's working in the conversion of man, as in
Ezekiel: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will
remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh (Ezek
36:26)."
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: PARAGRAPH 8. Who teach: That god in
the regeneration of man does not use such powers of His omnipotence as potently
and infallibly bend man's will to faith and conversion; but that all the works
of grace having been accomplished, which God employs to convert man, man may
yet so resist god and the Holy Spirit, when God intends man's regeneration and
wills to regenerate him, and indeed that man often does so resist that he
prevents entirely his regeneration, and that it therefore remains in man's
power to be regenerated or not.
For this is nothing less than the denial of all that
efficiency of God's grace in our conversion, and the subjecting of the working
of Almighty God to the will of man, which is contrary to the apostles, who
teach that we believe accord to the working of the strength of his might (Eph
1:19); and that God fulfills every desire of goodness and every work of faith
with power (2 Th 1:11); and that "His divine power has given us everything
we need for life and godliness (2 Pet 1:3)."
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: PARAGRAPH 9. Who teach: That grace
and free will are partial causes which together work the beginning of
conversion, and that grace, in order of working, does not precede the working
of the will; that is, that God does not efficiently help the will of man unto
conversion until the will of man moves and determines to do this. For the
ancient Church has long ago condemned this doctrine of the Pelagians according
to the words of the apostle: "It does not, therefore, depend on man's
desire or effort, but on God's mercy (Rom 9:16)." Likewise: "For who
makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not
receive? And if you did receive it (1 Cor 4:7)?" And: "for it is God
who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose (Phil
2:13)."
V. FIFTH HEAD OF DOCTRINE: THE PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS
FIFTH HEAD: ARTICLE 1. Those whom God, according to His
purpose, calls to the communion of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and
regenerates by the Holy Spirit, He also delivers from the dominion and slavery
of sin, though in this life He does not deliver them altogether form the body
of sin and from the infirmities of the flesh.
FIFTH HEAD: ARTICLE 2. Hence spring forth the daily sins of
infirmity, and blemishes cleave even to the best works of the saints. These are
to them a perpetual reason to humiliate themselves before God and to flee for
refuge to Christ crucified; to mortify the flesh more and more by the spirit of
prayer and by holy exercises of piety; and to press forward to the goal of
perfection, until at length, delivered from this body of death, they shall
reign with the Lamb of God in heaven.
FIFTH HEAD: ARTICLE 3. By reason of these remains of
indwelling sin, and also because the temptations of the world and of Satan,
those who are converted could not persevere in that grace if left to their own
strength. But God is faithful, who, having conferred grace, mercifully confirms
and powerfully preserves them therein, even to the end.
FIFTH HEAD: ARTICLE 4. Although the weakness of the flesh
cannot prevail against the power of God, who confirms and preserves true
believers in a state of grace, yet converts are not always so influenced and
actuated by the Spirit of God as not in some particular instances sinfully to
deviate from the guidance of divine grace, so as to be seduced by and to comply
with the lusts of the flesh; they must, therefore, be constant in watching and
prayer, that they may not be led into temptation. When these are great and
heinous sins by the flesh, the world, and Satan, but sometimes by the righteous
permission of God actually are drawn into these evils. This, the lamentable
fall of David, Peter, and other saints described in Holy Scripture,
demonstrates.
FIFTH HEAD: ARTICLE 5. By such enormous sins, however, they
very highly offend God, incur a deadly guilt, grieve the Holy Spirit, interrupt
the exercise of faith, very grievously wound their consciences, and sometimes
for a while lose the sense of God's favor, until, when they change their course
by serious repentance, the light of God's fatherly countenance again shines
upon them.
FIFTH HEAD: ARTICLE 6. But God, who is rich in mercy,
according to His unchangeable purpose of election, does not wholly withdraw the
Holy Spirit from His own people even in their grievous falls; nor suffers them
to proceed so far as t lose the grace of adoption and forfeit the state of
justification, or to commit the sin unto death or against the Holy Spirt; nor
does He permit them to be totally deserted, and to plunge themselves into
everlasting destruction.
FIFTH HEAD: ARTICLE 7. For in the first place, in these
falls He preserves in them the incorruptible seed of regeneration from
perishing or being totally lost; and again, by His Word and Spirit He certainly
and effectually renews them to repentance, to a sincere and godly sorrow for
their sins, that they may seek and obtain remission in the blood of the
Mediator, may again experience the favor of a reconciled God, through faith
adore His mercies, and henceforward more diligently work out their own
salvation with fear and trembling.
FIFTH HEAD: ARTICLE 8. Thus it is not in consequence of
their own merits or strength, but of God's free mercy, that they neither
totally fall from faith and grace nor continue and perish finally in their
backslidings; which, with respect to themselves is not only possible, but would
undoubtedly happen; but with respect to God, it is utterly impossible, since
His counsel cannot be changed nor His promise fail; neither can the call
according to His purpose be revoked, nor the merit, intercession, and preservation
of Christ be rendered ineffectual, nor the sealing of the Holy Spirit be
frustrated or obliterated.
FIFTH HEAD: ARTICLE 9. Of this preservation of the elect to
salvation and of their perseverance in the faith, true believers themselves may
and do obtain assurance according to the measure of their faith, whereby they
surely believe that they are and ever will continue true and living members of
the Church, and that they have the forgiveness of sins and life eternal.
FIFTH HEAD: ARTICLE 10. This assurance, however, is not
produced by any peculiar revelation contrary to or independent of the Word of
God, but springs from faith in God's promises, which He has most abundantly
revealed in His Word for our comfort; from the testimony of the Holy Spirit, witnessing
with our spirit that we are children and heirs of God (Rom 8:16); and lastly,
from a serious and holy desire to preserve a good conscience and to perform
good works. And if the elect of God were deprived of this solid comfort that
they shall finally obtain the victory, and of this infallible pledge of eternal
glory, they would be of all men the most miserable.
FIFTH HEAD: ARTICLE 11. The Scripture moreover testifies
that believers in this life have to struggle with various carnal doubts, and
that under grievous temptations they do not always feel this full assurance of
faith and certainty of persevering. But God, who is the Father of all
consolation, does not suffer them to be tempted above that they are able, but
will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that they may be able to
endure it (1 Cor 10:13), and by the Holy Spirit again inspires them with the
comfortable assurance of persevering.
FIFTH HEAD: ARTICLE 12. This certainty of perseverance,
however, is so far from exciting in believers a spirit of pride, or of
rendering them carnally secure, that on the contrary it is the real source of
humility, filial reverence, true piety, patience in every tribulation, fervent
prayers, constancy in suffering and in confessing the truth, and of solid
rejoicing in God; so that the consideration of this benefit should serve as an
incentive to the serious and constant practice of gratitude and good works, as
appears from the testimonies of Scripture and the examples of the saints.
FIFTH HEAD: ARTICLE 13. Neither does renewed confidence of
persevering produce licentiousness or a disregard of piety in those who are
recovered from backsliding; but it renders them much more careful and
solicitous to continue in the ways of the Lord, which He has ordained, that
they who walk therein may keep the assurance of persevering; lest, on account
of their abuse of His fatherly kindness, God should turn away His gracious
countenance from them (to behold which is to the godly dearer than life, and
the withdrawal of which is more bitter than death) and they in consequence
thereof should fall into more grievous torments of conscience.
FIFTH HEAD: ARTICLE 14. And as it has pleased God, by the
preaching of the gospel, to begin this work of grace in us, so He preserves, continues,
and perfects it by the hearing and reading of His Word, by meditation thereon,
and by the exhortations, threatenings, and promises thereof, and by the use of
the sacraments.
FIFTH HEAD: ARTICLE 15. The carnal mind is unable to
comprehend this doctrine of the perseverance of the saints and the certainty
thereof, which God has most abundantly revealed in His Word, for the glory of
His Name and the consolation of pious souls, and which He impresses upon the
hearts of the believers. Satan abhors it, the world ridicules it, the ignorant
and hypocritical abuse it, and the heretics oppose it. But the bride of Christ
has always most tenderly loved and constantly defended it as an inestimable
treasure; and God, against whom neither counsel nor strength can prevail, will
dispose her so to continue to the end. Now to this one God, Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, be honor and glory forever. Amen.
REJECTION OF ERRORS
The true doctrine having been explained, the Synod rejects
the errors of those:
FIFTH HEAD: PARAGRAPH 1. Who teach: That the perseverance of
the true believers is not a fruit of election, or a gift of God gained by the
death of Christ, but a condition of the new covenant which (as they declare)
man before his decisive election and justification must fulfil through his free
will.
For the Holy Scripture testifies that this follows out of
election, and is given the elect in virtue of the death, the resurrection, and
the intercession of Christ: "What Israel sought so earnestly it did not
obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened (Rom 11:7)." Likewise:
"He who did not spare His own Son, but gave him up for us all-how will he
not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any
charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he
that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died-more than that, who was raised to life-is
at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ (Rom 8:32-35)?"
FIFTH HEAD: PARAGRAPH 2. Who teach: That God does indeed
provide the believer with sufficient powers to persevere, and is ever ready to
preserve these in him if he will do his duty; but that, though all though which
are necessary to persevere in faith and which God will use to preserve faith
are made us of, even then it ever depends on the pleasure of the will whether
it will persevere or not.
For this idea contains outspoken Pelagianism, and while it
would make men free, it make them robbers of God's honor, contrary to the prevailing
agreement of the evangelical doctrine, which takes from man all cause of
boasting, and ascribes all the praise for this favor to the grace of God alone;
and contrary to the apostle, who declares that it is God, "He will keep
you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord
Jesus Christ (1 Cor 1:8)."
FIFTH HEAD: PARAGRAPH 3. Who teach: That the true believers
and regenerate not only can fall from justifying faith and likewise from grace
and salvation wholly and to the end, but indeed often do fall from this and are
lost forever.
For this conception makes powerless the grace,
justification, regeneration, and continued preservation by Christ, contrary to
the expressed words of the apostle Paul: "While we were still sinners,
Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much
more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him (Rom 5:8-9)." And
contrary to the apostle John: "No one who is born of God will continue to
sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has
been born of God (1 John 3:9)." And also contrary to the words of Jesus
Christ: "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can
snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater
than all ; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand (John 10:28-29)."
FIFTH HEAD: PARAGRAPH 4. Who teach: That true believers and
regenerate can sin the sin unto death or against the Holy Spirit.
Since the same apostle John, after having spoken in the
fifth chapter of his first epistle, vs. 16 and 17, of those who sin unto death
and having forbidden to pray for them, immediately adds to this in vs. 18:
"We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin (meaning a sin
of that character); the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil
one cannot harm him (1 John 5:18)."
FIFTH HEAD: PARAGRAPH 5. Who teach: That without a special
revelation we can have no certainty of future perseverance in this life.
For by this doctrine the sure comfort of the true believers
is taken away in this life, and the doubts of the papist are again introduced
into the Church, while the Holy Scriptures constantly deduce this assurance,
not from a special and extraordinary revelation, but from the marks proper to
the children of God and from the very constant promises of God. So especially
the apostle Paul: "neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ
Jesus our Lord (Rom 8:39)." And John declares: "Those who obey his
commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in
us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us (1 John 3:24)."
FIFTH HEAD: PARAGRAPH 6. Who teach: That the doctrine of the
certainty of perseverance and of salvation from its own character and nature is
a cause of indolence and is injurious to godliness, good morals, prayers, and
other holy exercises, but that on the contrary it is praiseworthy to doubt.
For these show that they do not know the power of divine
grace and the working of the indwelling Holy Spirit. And they contradict the
apostle John, who teaches that opposite with express words in his first
epistle: "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be
has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like
him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies
himself, just as he is pure (1 John 3:2-3)." Furthermore, these are
contradicted by the example of the saints, both of the Old and the New
Testament, who though they were assured of their perseverance and salvation,
were nevertheless constant in prayers and other exercises of godliness.
FIFTH HEAD: PARAGRAPH 7. Who teach: That the faith of those
who believe for a time does not differ from justifying and saving faith except
only in duration.
For Christ Himself, in Matt 13:20, Luke 8:13, and in other
places, evidently notes, beside this duration, a threefold difference between
those who believe only for a time and true believers, when He declares that the
former receive the seed on stony ground, but the latter in the good ground or
heart; that the former are without root, but the latter have a firm root; that
the former are without fruit, but that the latter bring forth their fruit in
various measure, with constancy and steadfastness.
FIFTH HEAD: PARAGRAPH 8. Who teach: That it is not absurd
that one having lost his first regeneration is again and even often born anew.
For these deny by this doctrine the incorruptibleness of the
seed of God, whereby we are born again; contrary to the testimony of the
apostle Peter: "For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but
of imperishable (1 Pet 1:23)."
FIFTH HEAD: PARAGRAPH 9. Who teach: That Christ has in no
place prayed that believers should infallibly continue in faith.
For the contradict Christ Himself, who says: "I have
prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail (Luke 22:32)", and the
evangelist John, who declares that Christ has not prayed for the apostles only,
but also for those who through their word would believe: "Holy Father,
protect them by the power of your name," and "My prayer is not that
you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one
(John 17:11, 15, 20)."
CONCLUSION
And this is the perspicuous, simple, an ingenuous
declaration of the orthodox doctrine respecting the five articles which have
been controverted in the Belgic Churches; and the rejection of the errors, with
which they have for some time been troubled. This doctrine the Synod judges to
be drawn from the Word of God, and to be agreeable to the confession of the
Reformed Churches. Whence it clearly appears that some, whom such conduct by no
means became, have violated all truth, equity, and charity, in wishing to
persuade the public:
"That the doctrine of the Reformed Churches concerning
predestination, and the points annexed to it, by its own genius and necessary
tendency, leads off the minds of men from all piety and religion; that it is a
opiate administered by the flesh and the devil; and the stronghold of Satan,
where he lies in wait for all, and from which he wounds multitudes, and
mortally strikes through many with the darts both of despair and security; that
it makes God the author of sin, unjust, tyrannical, hypocritical; that it is
noting more than interpolated Stoicism, Manicheism, Libertinism, Turcism; that
it renders men carnally secure, since they are persuaded by it that noting can
hinder the salvation of the elect, let them live as they please; and,
therefore, that they may safely perpetrate every species of the most atrocious
crimes; and that, if the reprobate should even perform truly all the works of
the saints, their obedience would not in the least contribute tot their
salvation; that the same doctrine teaches that God, by a mere arbitrary act of
his will, without the least respect or view to any sin, has predestinated the
greatest part of the world to eternal damnation, and has created them for this
very purpose; that in the same manner in which the election is the fountain and
cause of faith and good works, reprobation is the cause of unbelief and
impiety; that many children of the faithful are torn, guiltless, from their
mothers' breasts, and tyrannically plunged into hell: so that neither baptism
nor the prayers of the Church at their baptism can at all profit them;"
and many other things of the same kind which the Reformed Churches not only do
not acknowledge, but even detest with their whole soul.
Wherefore, this Synod of Dort, in the name of the Lord,
conjures as many as piously call upon the name of our Savior Jesus Christ to
judge of the faith of the Reformed Churches, not from the calumnies which on
every side are heaped upon it, nor from the private expressions of a few among
ancient and modern teachers, often dishonestly quoted, or corrupted and wrested
to a meaning quite foreign to their intention; but from the public confessions
of the Churches themselves, and from this declaration of the orthodox doctrine,
confirmed by the unanimous consent of all and each of the members of the whole
Synod. Moreover, the Synod warns calumniators themselves to consider the
terrible judgment of God which awaits them, for bearing false witness against
the confessions of so many Churches; for distressing the consciences of the
weak; and for laboring to render suspected the society of the truly faithful.
Finally, this Synod exhorts all their brethren in the gospel
of Christ to conduct themselves piously and religiously in handling this
doctrine, both in the universities and churches; to direct it, as well in
discourse as in writing, to the glory of the Divine name, to holiness of life,
and to the consolation of afflicted souls; to regulate, by the Scripture,
according to the analogy of faith, not only their sentiments, but also their
language, and to abstain from all those phrases which exceed the limits
necessary to be observed in ascertaining the genuine sense of the Holy
Scriptures, and may furnish insolent sophists with a just pretext for violently
assailing, or even vilifying, the doctrine of the Reformed Churches.
May Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who, seated at the Father's right hand, gives gifts to men, sanctify us in the truth; bring to the truth those who err; shut the mouths of the calumniators of sound doctrine, and endue the faithful ministers of his Word with the spirit of wisdom and discretion, that all their discourses may tend to the glory of God, and the edification of those who hear them. Amen.