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Disputation XVI

On the Vocation of Men to Salvation

English only, for now. The translation is James Nichols’s (London, 1828), printed from his edition and checked against its pages. Arminius’s Latin, from the 1629 Opera, is still to be set beside it.
PresidingJacobus Arminius
RespondentJames Bontebal
English printed fromJames Nichols, The Works of James Arminius, vol. 2 (London: Longman, 1828), pp. 230–235
Headnote

Occasion. The sixteenth of the twenty-five Public Disputations printed in the Opera and in Nichols's English, defended under Arminius by the respondent whom Nichols prints as James Bontebal. It follows the disputation on divine predestination and precedes the disputation on repentance. Nichols adds under the heading a pointer to the account of the circumstances of this disputation in his first volume, and, in a long footnote to the first thesis, translates part of a letter of Borrius to Episcopius describing an exchange at the disputation between Arminius and an opponent named Adrian Smetius.

The doctrinal move. Thesis I explains the three terms of the title: Vocation is a total act with all the parts necessary for men to be enabled to answer it; Men are here considered as obnoxious to sin, not as in the state of animal life without sin; and Salvation, by a Synecdoche, includes whatever God has appointed as necessary to obtaining life eternal. Thesis II defines Vocation as a gracious act of God in Christ by which, through his word and Spirit, He calls sinful men from the animal life and the pollutions of this world into the fellowship of Jesus Christ, so that, united to Him as their Head, they may derive life and every spiritual blessing from Him. The next theses run through its causes and parts in order: the Efficient Cause, God the Father in the Son, with the Holy Spirit as the Effector (III); the Inly-moving Cause, God's grace, mercy and love, and the Disposing Cause, His wisdom and justice (IV); the External Cause, Jesus Christ, and the Instrumental Cause, the word of God, administered ordinarily through men and extraordinarily without human assistance (V); the Matter or Subject, mankind in the animal life, unworthy and unfit to answer unless God accounts them worthy and renders them fit (VI); and the Form, the administration of the word and the Spirit, in which God reserves the free power not to employ all possible methods and to bestow unequal grace on equals (VII). Thesis VIII distinguishes the point of Commencement from the point of Termination, and Theses IX and X the Proximate End, that the called answer by faith and obey, from the Remote End, the Salvation of the elect and the Glory of God, with the answer to the call named as the condition requisite for obtaining it. Thesis XI divides Vocation into external and internal, and Thesis XII says that this is a distribution of a whole into its parts, not of a genus into species, and that the Church, likewise distinguished into the visible and the invisible, is the assemblage of those who answer. Thesis XIII cautions against the Mystics and the Enthusiasts who suppose another word or another knowledge given inwardly beyond the word outwardly propounded. Thesis XIV names as the accidental Consequence the rejection of the word of grace, with its cause in the malice and hardness of the human heart and the just judgment of God that follows. Thesis XV says that the vocation is instituted and administered according to God's eternal decree, so that whoever is called in time was predestinated from eternity to be called in that state, time, place, mode and with that efficacy.

Thesis I

English · Nichols, 1828

I. THE Title contains three terms,—Vocation, Men, Salvation. (1.) The word VOCATION denotes a total and entire act, consisting of all its parts whether essential or integral, what parts soever are necessary for the purpose of men being enabled to answer the Divine Vocation. (Prov. i, 24; Matt. xi, 20 21; xxiii, 37.)—(2.) MEN may be considered in a two-fold respect,—either as placed in the state of animal1 life without sin,—or as obnoxious to sin: We consider them here in this last respect.2 (Gen. ii, 16, 17; Matt. ix, 13.)—(3.) SALVATION, by a Synecdoche, in addition to Vocation itself by which we are called to salvation, contains also whatsoever is necessary, through the appointment of God, for obtaining salvation or life eternal. (Luke xix, 9; 2 Cor. vi, 2.)

Nichols's note 1. See page 193 for a definition of animal as employed in this passage.

Nichols's note 2. As this was the last Disputation in the Schools at which Arminius presided, I translate the following account of one part of it, from the letter of Borrius to Episcopius,—not for the sake of any doctrinal elucidation which it contains,—but to give the reader some conception of the ancient mode of holding and conducting these Public Disputations in the foreign Universities.

“After nearly the whole of two hours had been consumed by the two Opponents, who still were not particularly pressing in their objections, about eleven o’clock a certain Papist, whom some persons suppose to have been only a Priest, and others a Jesuit, and who called himself ADRIAN SMETIUS, offered a brief opposition, giving indications that he understood the affair, because he insisted upon the main point of the controversy.

“The Jesuit called the attention of Arminius again to something which had been urged, by the Opponent who had immediately preceded him, from the sixth chapter of St. John’s Gospel, verses 37, 44 & 45. From the words of Christ in those passages about the drawing, the giving and the teaching of the Father, it had been denied, [by Arminius,] that all who are capable of coming to Christ, do actually come. The Jesuit, perceiving sufficient grace to be established by this argument, pressed Arminius with the following dilemma :—‘If not every one who can come to Christ does come, in order that any one may come something beside the capability of coming must be added either on the part of grace, or on the part of man. If it be something on the part of grace, then the man who is destitute of such addition [to his capability of coming] cannot come. If it be something on the part of man, then man determines himself.’

“To this objection Arminius replied: Man determines himself, but not without grace: For free-will is in concurrence with grace, so that, in determining, the one does not act without the other.

“The Jesuit rejoined, in illustration of what he had advanced: Adopting the phraseology of medical writers, grace may be considered according to degrees. If that which is sufficient to perform an act, which is to consist of six degrees, be put into two men, this enquiry arises, ‘If one of these two move himself forward to [the performance of] the act, and if the other do not, is not a degree towards the six added to him who performs the act, in preference to him who does not perform it ?’

“Arminius met this objection by observing, More grace is bestowed on him who performs the act, not in a prevenient form, but only in an accompanying; in which respect it may also without impropriety be said, that more grace is bestowed on him, so far as grace is continued to him and urges his operation to the completion of the act, when its course is cut off by him who rises in rebellion against the Spirit.

“The Jesuit instantly said: In this case, then, no greater physical operation is applied to him who performs the act.

“To this observation Arminius roundly replied: I acknowledge indeed a physical operation in effecting [sensu] the judgment, but not in effecting the consent, because this is elicited by mild and moral suasions.

“Then the Jesuit urged, By this means man can boast or glory.

“Arminius replied: He cannot; because Faith, Hope and Charity are of such a nature as to exclude all boasting: This it is possible to prove from the plainest and most evident testimonies of Scripture.

“Again, the Jesuit said, If the matter stand thus, then a man maketh himself to differ; which is in direct opposition to the express affirmation of the Apostle, For who maketh thee to differ from another? (1 Cor. iv, 7.)

“The answer of Arminius was: In this there is no absurdity whatever, if man be said to use grace, and through grace to make himself to differ so far as to be able to say, that he has not been disobedient to the heavenly call and is not a rebel against Divine Grace, and that he has not so frequently resisted the Holy Spirit, as another man who rejects the grace of God, and who pours contumely on the Spirit of grace. With regard to the passage just cited, (1 Cor. iv, 7,) it has no reference to the present subject; since the apostle is there treating, not upon the grace [gratum faciente] which renders a man accepted, but only upon the graces which are gratuitously bestowed, that is, on the gifts of tongues, of miracles, and on other matters of a similar kind, which had regard to the edification of the church, and which might furnish matter for glorying, according to that expression, Scientia inflat, ‘Knowledge puffeth up.’ (1 Cor. viii, 1.)

“The Jesuit then muttered between his teeth, ‘This is [vulgaris] a very trite reply ;’ and, as he ceased to make any further remarks, the Disputation concluded with honour to Arminius, whom all the company perceived to have been roused, and to answer with vivacity as soon as the Jesuit commenced his remarks.

“I have now briefly related to you the sum of the Disputation with regard to its matter; though, on account of having been delivered in my words, the order of the narrative may be rather confused.”

This additional excitement had a pernicious effect on the languid frame of Arminius; for it produced a violent paroxysm of his bilious complaint, from which he never recovered.—See vol. i, p. 302.

Thesis II

English · Nichols, 1828

II. We define VOCATION, a gracious act of God in Christ, by which, through his word and Spirit, He calls forth sinful men, who are liable to condemnation and placed under the dominion of sin, from the condition of the animal life, and from the pollutions and corruptions of this world, (2 Tim. i, 9; Matt. xi, 28; 1 Pet. ii, 9, 10; Gal. i, 4; 2 Pet. ii, 20; Romans x, 13–15; 1 Pet. iii, 19; Gen. vi, 3,) unto “the fellowship of Jesus Christ,” and of his kingdom and its benefits; that, being united unto Him as their Head, they may derive from Him life, [sensum] sensation, motion, and a plenitude of every spiritual blessing, to the glory of God and their own salvation. (1 Cor. i, 9; Gal. ii, 20; Ephes. i, 3, 6; 2 Thess. ii, 13, 14.)

Thesis III

English · Nichols, 1828

III. The Efficient Cause of this Vocation is God the Father in the Son. The Son himself, as appointed by the Father to be the Mediator and the King of his church, calls men by the Holy Spirit; as He is the Spirit of God given to the Mediator; and as He is the Spirit of Christ the King and the Head of his church, by whom both “the Father and the Son hitherto work.” (1 Thess. ii, 12; Ephes. ii, 17; iv, 11, 12; Rev. iii, 20; John v, 17.) But this Vocation is so administered by the Spirit, that the Holy Spirit is himself its Effector: For He [constituit] appoints Bishops, sends forth teachers, endues them with gifts, grants them his assistance, and obtains authority for the word and bestows efficacy upon it. (Hebrews iii, 7; Acts xiii, 2; xx, 28; 1 Cor. xii, 4, 7, 9, 11; Heb. ii, 4.)

Thesis IV

English · Nichols, 1828

IV. The Inly-moving Cause is the grace, mercy, and (philanthropy) “love of God our Saviour toward man;” (Titus iii, 4, 5;) by which He is inclined to relieve the misery of sinful man, and to impart unto him eternal felicity. (2 Tim. i, 9, 10.) But the Disposing Cause is the wisdom and justice of God; by which He knows how it is proper for this Vocation to be administered, and wills it to be dispensed as it is lawful and befitting; and from which is formed the Decree of his will concerning the administration and its mode. (1 Cor. i, 17, 18.)

Thesis V

English · Nichols, 1828

V. The External Cause, which outwardly moves God, is Jesus Christ by his obedience and intercession. (2 Tim. i, 9.) But the Instrumental Cause is the word of God, administered by means of men, either through preaching or writing, which is the ordinary method; (1 Cor. xii, 28–30; 2 Thess. ii, 14;) or without human assistance, when the word is immediately proposed by God inwardly to the mind and the will, which is extraordinary: And this is in fact both the word of the Law and that of the Gospel, which are subordinate in the operations apportioned to each other.

Thesis VI

English · Nichols, 1828

VI. The Matter or Subject of Vocation is mankind constituted in the animal life; men worldly, natural, animal,3 carnal, sinful, alienated from the life of God, and dead in sins; and therefore UNWORTHY to be called, and [inepti, unapt,] UNFIT to answer to the call, unless by the gracious [dignatione] estimation of God they be accounted worthy, and by his powerful operation they be rendered FIT to comply with the vocation. (Matt. ix, 13; Titus ii, 12; Eph. ii, 11, 12; iv, 17, 18; v, 14; John v, 25; vi, 44; Matt. x, 11–13; Acts xvi, 14.)

Nichols's note 3. See page 193.

Thesis VII

English · Nichols, 1828

VII. The Form of Vocation is placed in the very administration of the word and of the Holy Spirit. God hath instituted this administration so, as He knows to be suitable and becoming to himself, and to his Justice tempered with Mercy in Christ; always reserving to himself the full and free power of not employing, for the conversion of men, all the methods which are possible to himself according to the treasures of his Wisdom and Power, and of bestowing unequal grace on those who are [in every respect] equals, and equal grace on those who are unequal, nay, of employing greater grace on those who are more wicked. (Rom. ix, 24–26; x, 17–21; xi, 25, 29–33; Ezek. iii, 6; Matt. xi, 21, 23.)

Thesis VIII

English · Nichols, 1828

VIII. But in every Vocation [terminus a quo et ad quem] the point of Commencement, and that of Termination, come to be considered. The point of Commencement, whence men are called by Divine Vocation, is not only the state of this animal life, but likewise that of sin and of misery on account of sin, that is, out of guilt and condemnation. (1 Pet. ii, 9; 2 Pet i, 4; Ephes. ii, 1–6; Rom. vi, 17, 18.) The point of Termination is, FIRST, the State of Grace, or a participation of supernatural good and of every spiritual blessing, during the present life, in Christ, in whom resides a plenitude of grace and truth; and, AFTERWARDS, the state of Glory, and [consummatam] the perfect fruition of God himself. (Eph. i, 3, 4; John i, 14, 16; Rom. viii, 28–30.)

Thesis IX

English · Nichols, 1828

IX. The Proximate End of Vocation is, that they who have been called answer by faith to God and to Christ who give the call, and that they thus become [fœderati] the covenanted people of God through Christ the Mediator of the New Covenant; and, after having become believers and parties to the covenant, that they love, fear, honour, and worship God and Christ, render in all things obedience to the Divine precepts “in righteousness and true holiness,” and that by this means they “make their calling and election sure.” (Prov. i, 24; Heb. iii, 7; Rev. iii, 20; Eph. ii, 11–16; Titus iii, 8; Deut. vi, 4, 5; Jer. xxxii, 38, 39; Luke i, 74, 75; 2 Pet. i, 1, 10.)

Thesis X

English · Nichols, 1828

X. The Remote End is the Salvation of the elect and the Glory of God, in regard to which the very vocation to grace is a means ordained by God, yet through the appointment of God it is necessary to the communication of salvation: (Phil. i, 6; Eph. i, 14:) But the Answer by which obedience is yielded to this call, is the condition which, through the appointment of God, is also requisite and necessary for obtaining this end. (Prov. i, 24–26; Acts xiii, 46; Luke vii, 30.) The Glory of God, who is supremely wise, good, merciful, just, and powerful, is so luminously displayed in this communication both of his Grace and Glory, as deservedly to raise into rapturous admiration the minds of angels and men, and to employ their loosened tongues in celebrating the praises of Jehovah. (Rev. iv, 8–11; v, 8–10.)

Thesis XI

English · Nichols, 1828

XI. Vocation is partly external, partly internal. External Vocation is by the ministry of men, who propound the word of the Law and of the Gospel, and who are on this account called “workers together with God, planters, waterers, builders, and ministers by whom the [members of the] church believe.” (1 Cor. i, 5–9; iii, 3–6.) Internal Vocation is by the operation of the Holy Spirit illuminating the mind and affecting the heart, that serious attention may be given to those things which are spoken, and that [fides] faith or credence may be given to the word. The efficacy consists in the concurrence of both the Internal and External Vocation. (Acts xvi, 14; 2 Cor. iii, 3; 1 Pet. i, 22.)

Thesis XII

English · Nichols, 1828

XII. But that distribution is not of a genus into its species, but of a whole into its parts, or of the entire vocation into partial acts which concur to produce one conclusion—which is, obedience yielded to the call: Hence an assemblage, or congregation of those who are called, and of those who answer to the call, is denominated “the Church;” (1 Cor. iii, 5, 6; Rom. i, 5;) which is itself, in the same manner, distinguished into the visible and the invisible—the visible, that “maketh confession with the mouth,” and the invisible, “that believeth with the heart:” (Rom. x, 10:) As man himself is likewise distinguished into “the outward” and “the inward.” (2 Cor. iv, 16.)

Thesis XIII

English · Nichols, 1828

XIII. But we must be cautious, lest with [Spiritualibus] the Mystics and the Enthusiasts, we consider the word which is propounded by the ministry of men as only preparatory; and believe that another word is inwardly employed, which is [consummatorium] perfective: Or, (which is the same thing,) lest we suppose, that the Spirit by his internal act illuminates the mind into another knowledge of God and Christ, than that which is contained in the word outwardly propounded, or that he affects the heart and the soul with other [sensibus] meanings, than those which are proposed from the very same word. (1 Pet. i, 23, 25; Rom. x, 14–17; 2 Cor. iii, 3–6; 1 Cor. xv, 1–4.)

Thesis XIV

English · Nichols, 1828

XIV. The accidental Consequence, and that which is not of itself intended by God, is the rejection of the word of grace, the contemning of the Divine Counsel, the resistance offered to the Holy Spirit: The proper and per se Cause of this Result is, the malice and hardness of the human heart. But this consequence is, not seldom, succeeded by another,—the just judgment of God avenging the contempt shewn to his word and call, and the injury done to his Holy Spirit; and from this judgment arise the blinding of the mind, the hardening of the heart, “the giving over to a reprobate mind,” and “the delivering unto the power of Satan.” (Acts xiii, 46; Luke vii, 30; Acts vii, 51; 2 Thess. iii, 2; 2 Cor. iv, 4; Psalm lxxxi, 11–14: Isai. lxiii, 10; vi, 9, 10; John xii, 37–40.)

Thesis XV

English · Nichols, 1828

XV. But, because “known unto our God are all his works from the beginning of the world,” (Acts xv, 18,) and as God does nothing in time which He has not decreed from all eternity to do, this vocation is likewise instituted and administered according to God’s eternal decree: So that what man soever is called in time, was from all eternity predestinated to be called, and to be called in that state, time, place, mode, and with that efficacy, in and with which he was predestinated. Otherwise, the Execution will vary from the Decree; which charge of mutability and change cannot be preferred against God without [noxam] producing mischievous effects. (Ephes. iii, 5, 6, 9–11; James i, 17, 18; 2 Tim. i, 9.)

Transcription notes
  • London 1828 vol. 2, pp. 230–235 (leaves n241–n246), every page checked against the image. The disputation begins on p. 230, below the end of the quotation from Ecclesiasticus that closes Disputation XV, and ends on p. 235, where Disputation XVII begins. Under the respondent line Nichols prints a pointer to his own first volume ("For an account of some circumstances respecting this Disputation, consult vol. I, p. 30_."; the last digit is smudged in the scan, and the note's closing reference reads p. 302), which is not reproduced here.
  • Fifteen theses (I–XV), no preface, corollaries or printed sub-headings.
  • Nichols's footnotes: three, numbered 1–3. Notes 1 and 3 (pp. 230 and 233) are cross-references to p. 193; note 2 (pp. 230–231, marked †, at the end of the second clause of Thesis I) is his long translation from the letter of Borrius to Episcopius, running onto p. 231. Its inner quotation marks are normalised: the repeated single quotation mark at each line-start of the dilemma is dropped and the quotation opened and closed once. The small-capital name ADRIAN SMETIUS was cropped and checked. Italics in the note restored from the image (Priest, Jesuit, sufficient grace, gratum faciente, Scientia inflat, vulgaris, and the words of Arminius's remark and of 1 Cor. iv, 7).
  • Misprint kept: "Matt. xi, 20 21" (Thesis I), printed without a comma.
  • Reference forms kept as printed: "Romans x" (II), "Hebrews iii, 7" (III), "2 Pet i, 4" with no full stop (VIII), the colon in "Psalm lxxxi, 11–14:" (XIV), and the spaced punctuation ("Church ;", "Rom. x, 10 :").
  • Small capitals written in full capitals: THE, VOCATION, MEN, SALVATION (I); VOCATION (II); UNWORTHY, UNFIT, FIT (VI); FIRST, AFTERWARDS (VIII). In Thesis VI, only inepti is italic within "[inepti, unapt,]". A raised speck before "every" in Thesis VIII ("of every spiritual blessing") is not a note mark; there is no footnote to it.
  • Image-settled readings against the OCR include Hebrews iii, 7, Acts xiii, 2 and Heb. ii, 4 (III); "and of bestowing" for the OCR's "aid of bestowing" (VII); "he was predestinated" in lower case (XV); "Ephes. iii, 5, 6, 9–11" against the OCR's "i, 5, 6" (XV); "gratum faciente" and "since" (note 2); and "The efficacy" (XI).
  • Bracketed glosses kept: [sensum] (II), [constituit] (III), [inepti, unapt,] and [dignatione] (VI), [in every respect] (VII), [terminus a quo et ad quem] and [consummatam] (VIII), [fœderati] (IX), [members of the] and [fides] (XI), [Spiritualibus] and [consummatorium] and [sensibus] (XIII), [noxam] (XV). No Greek or Hebrew occurs; "(philanthropy)" in Thesis IV is printed in roman letters.
  • CCEL differs from London in these places (London followed): it drops all the bracketed Latin glosses above, Nichols's small-capital and capitalised technical terms (Efficient Cause, Inly-moving Cause and the like), and all three footnotes with the Borrius letter; Thesis II "from him" for London's "from Him"; Thesis VII "Rom. ix. 21-26" for London's "ix, 24–26", and "fall and free power" for "full and free power"; Thesis XIII "which is perfective, or, (which is the same thing,) lest" for London's "[consummatorium] perfective: Or, (which is the same thing,) lest"; Thesis XIV "The accidental result of vocation" and "this result is, not seldom, succeeded by another, the just judgment" for London's "The accidental Consequence" and "this consequence is, not seldom, succeeded by another,—the just judgment"; Thesis XV "the execution will vary from the decree" for London's "the Execution will vary from the Decree"; and Thesis X "communication of salvation. (Phil. i. 6; Ephes. i. 14.) But the answer" against London's "communication of salvation: (Phil. i, 6; Eph. i, 14:) But the Answer".