2. Arminians Maintain the Folloteing: (1) Predestination or Election is not Arbitrary or absolute, but dependent upon the foreknowledge of God. "Whom he did foreknow, them did he also predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." The passage is to be read for wards, and not backwards. Arminius denied nei ther the omnipotence of God nor his free grace; but he maintained that the honor of God was im peached by the doctrine of decrees. He strove, therefore, to establish the free-will of man and the reality of individual guilt.
(2) The Atonement Is Not Limited. It is available for all, even though not applied to all. A restricted atonement is logically involved in the notion of "a definite number which can neither be increased nor diminished." Christ cer tainly could not die for those whom God intended from all eternity to damn, at any rate, not to save.
(3) All Are Sought by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit operates in man that he may have a good will. Without this aid, he is unable to be lieve or do that which pleases God, but this aid is offered to all and urged upon all. And no one has been rendered by a divine decree im potent to receive it. Total inability, a divinely created total inability to accept grace is denied by Arminians.
(4) Salvation of Free Will. Grace although indispensable is not compulsory. Christ stands at the door and knocks. He breaks into no mans soul either violently or by stealth. Augustine taught that grace was irresistible; so did Calvin and his followers. The Dutch demonstrants in sisted that this involved coercion; to which their antagonists replied that the mode of this opera tion was inscrutable. To say, however, that an operation is irresistible is to describe the mode of it. A frequent device of theologians when two propositions are seen to be incompatible is to term this incompatibility inscrutable.
(5) Final Perseverance of Saints Questioned. Arminians, consequently, regard the final perse verance of all believers as doubtful. If grace is not irresistible, there may be, of course, degrees of faith. Nevertheless faith may become so pow erful through grace, as to make the believers per fect in this life. Wesley's Arminianism differed from that of Holland in two respects : (i) It was never involved in the fortunes of a political party. Oldenbarnveld and Grotius, the Dutch leaders, identified their creed with their policy. Again, (2) it was a religious rather than an ethical doctrine. Wesley desired life. This he saw must come from the l ioly Spirit, and he con tinued by him. Hence Luther's views of assur
ance and of a union with the Living Christ were constantly proclaimed by the Wesleys in sermon and in hymn. Christian perfection was the re sult of this union ; a result which might be has tened through intenscr faith. Wesley's blending of Luther's earliest views with the doctrine of free-will is frequently decried as illogical. But it is certainly not more illogical than Calvin's ascrib ing a "horrible decree" to a loving God, or than the declaration at Dort, that the Atonement of Christ had "value" for those who could not pos sibly be included in its "infinite" benefits; the other declaration, that grace could be "irresisti ble" without "coercing" the will, Calvinistic writ ers are prone to assert as a logical perfection for their system which is by no means demon strable.
(6) Arminianism and Augustinism. Ar minianism does not differ from Augustinism in affirming the possibility of a free will. For Au gustine accorded this to Adam, although he de nied it finally to Adam's posterity. Nor does it differ from certain forms of Calvinism in assert ing the existence of a human will. And yet here lies its only and its fundamental difficulty. Au gustinism and Calvinism have numerous perplex ities from which Arminianism is entirely free, while sharing with it this great problem. When, however, the freedom of the will is denied, as it is sometimes, in Calvinistic expositions, then such ideas as guilt, sin, responsibility, blame, be come mere superstitions: terrible as ghosts and evil spirits to those that hold them, but delusions nevertheless. For them the proper thing to say is this: Human creatures are defective. Suffer ing is never meant as punishment ; it is the glar ing imperfection of creation. The potter may de plore and destroy his work; but blame it justly, never. Its defects are due to the clay, the wheel or the potter. To all three perhaps, unless the potter made both clay and wheel; in that case to him only. The worship of Calvinism as "the log ical system" seems to the reasoning Arminian the survival of an idolatry. For it unites in the same system ideas that are utterly incompatible; as for instance,divine goodness with "a horrible decree." individual guilt with total inability to do right, personal righteousness with compulsory holiness, a merited eternity of suffering with an irresistible decree of damnation, an enduring mercy with a decree "to pass over," or in plain words, with an obdurate purpose not to save a multitude eas ily within reach of the almighty arm. C. J. L.