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ON THE CONTROVERSY,

&c. &c.

ON THE CONTROVERSY

AMONG THE

FRENCH DIVINES OF THE reformed CHURCH,

CONCERNING

@THE GRACIOUS AND SAVING WILL OF GOD TOWARDS
SINFUL MEN.

THERE are some 'who so contend for the particular election in Christ, through the mere good pleasure of God, of some certain persons, and their effectual and irrevocable calling to grace and glory, that at the same time they assert, that, Christ having died for all men individually, with some general intention, God, by his universal grace, founded on his death, which was sufficient in itself, and by a suitable invitation and calling to repentance, although in different ways, gives to all individually that they may be saved if they will; so that it arises. from themselves alone, and the hardness of their heart repelling the means of salvation, if they are not saved. Which was the opinion of D. Cameron,†

• Vide Life of Bishop Davenant, p. xxxix.

+ JOHN CAMERON was an eminent divine among the French Protestants, born at Glasgow about the year 1580. After completing his literary education at his native place, he was in 1600 induced to visit Bourdeux, and

B. M. and as it appears to them of the Deputies from England and the Republic of Bremen at the Synod of Dort.

There are, on the other hand, those who deny that Christ died for all men individually, with the intention of saving them, and that God really wills that all men individually should be saved. They wish that the opinion of the Deputies from England and Bremen on this subject should be rejected by the Synod of Dort, or referred to an opposite Synod: and think the opinion of Cameron and his disciples as pure Arminianism, a hydra of errors, opposed to the Synod of Dort, a subversion of the nature of the Divine law, of the Gospel, of the necessity

by the minister of that city was appointed to teach the learned languages at Bergeron. He was subsequently appointed Professor of Philosophy at Sedan, and after remaining in that capacity two years, returned to Bourdeux, and engaged in the study of Divinity. In 1608 he assumed the of fice of Minister in that town, and then accepted of the Divinity Chair at Saumur, where he continued until the dispersion of that academy in 1621. He then removed to England, and was made by King James Master of the Colleges and Divinity Professor at Glasgow; but found the appointment so disagreeable, that he returned to France, where the disputes between the two religions were now bringing on a civil war. Cameron, whose principles disinclined him to violence, having opposed the emissaries of the Duke de Rohan, who endeavoured to induce the people of Montauban to take arms, was attacked by a zealot of the party in the streets, and severely beaten; and such was the effect upon his mind and body, that he died soon after, aged 46. According to Bayle, he was a man of great parts and learning, but insufferably long-winded and vain. He was the author of an attempt to reconcile the doctrine of predestination with a more consoling notion of the Divine justice and benevolence, a theory which was more fully developed in the "System of Universal Grace," by his disciple Amyraut, but which Mosheim says, after examination, he was persuaded was no more than Arminianism or Pelagianism artfully dressed up, and ingeniously covered with a half-transparent veil of specious, but ambiguous expressions. Cameron's Theological Lectures are printed in three Vols. 4to. Saumur, and in one Vol. folio, Geneva.

of the Christian Religion, to be expelled from the Reformed Churches.

THE OPINION of the Divines of ENGLAND, the most celebrated in the whole Christian world, is requested on this controversy, as it appears that this might conduce not a little towards confirming the peace of the Reformed Church in FRANCE.

THE

JUDGMENT OF BISHOP DAVENANT.

"THE gracious and saving will of God towards sinners is to be considered, as effectually applying to some persons, of his special mercy, the means of saving grace, according to that saying of the Apostle, He hath mercy on whom he will; or, as appointing sufficiently for all, of his common philanthropy, the means of saving grace, applicable to all for salvation, according to the tenor of the covenant of grace, as the Evangelist has said, God so loved the world, &c. Those whom the Divine will or good pleasure embraces under the first description, on them it always confers the means of saving grace in this life, and the end of grace, that is, life eternal, or glory, in the world to come (Rom. viii. 28, 29, &c.; Eph. i. 3-5, &c. Those whom the Divine will embraces only under the latter description, on them it sometimes confers the means of saving grace, and sometimes does not; but it never confers the end of grace, that is, eternal life.

In this opinion, which is said to have been that of D. Cameron, the first member of the sentence is legitimately constructed, if he understands, that particular election, 2 0

VOL. II.

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