Adoption of the Confession of Faith [pp. 669-692]

Adoption of the Confession of Faith.
intelligent and candid, they would all give precisely the same
answer. There is not the slightest doubt or dispute among
disinterested scholars, as to what doctrines do, and what do
not belong to the faith of the Reformed. The Westminster
Confession contains three distinct classes of doctrines. First,
those common to all Christians, which are summed up in the
ancient creeds, the Apostles', the Nicene, and the Athanasian,
which are adopted by all churches. Secondly, those which are
common to all Protestants, and by which they are distinguished
from Romanists. Thirdly, those which are peculiar to the
Reformed churches, by which they are distinguished, on the
one hand, from the Lutherans, and on the other, from the
Remonstrants or Arminians, and other sects of later his torical origin. From the Lutherans the Reformed were
distinguished principally by their doctrine on the sacraments,
and from the Arminians, by the five characteristic points of
Augustinianism, rejected by the Remonstrants, and affirmed at
the Synod of Dort by all the Reformed churches, viz. those
of Switzerland, Germany, France, England, and Scotland, as
well as of Holland. What those points are everybody knows.
First: The doctrine of the imputation of Adam's sin, i. e. that
the sin of Adam is the judicial ground of the condemnation of
his race, so that their being born in sin is the penal consequence of his transgression. Second: The doctrine of the
sinful, innate, depravity of nature, whereby we are indisposed,
disabled, and made opposite to all good. Therefore there can
be no self-conversion, no coiiperation with the grace of God in
regeneration, as the Arminians taught; and no election not to
resist as the Lutherans affirmed. With this doctrine of absolute inability consequently is connected that of efficacious, as
opposed to merely preventing and assisting grace. Thirdly:
The doctrine that as Christ came in the execution of the
covenant of redemption, in which his people were promised to
him as his reward, his work had a special reference to them,
and rendered their salvation certain. Fourth: The doctrine of
gratuitous, personal election to eternal life; and, Fifth: The
doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. It is a matter of
history that these doctrines constitute the distinguishing doctrines of the Reformed churches. And, therefore, any man
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