Canons of Dort - Chapters III & IV
Article 1: The Effect of the Fall
Man, in the beginning, being made according to God’s image, was adorned in his mind with true and saving knowledge of his Creator, and of things spiritual; in his will and heart with righteousness; in all his affections with purity; and so was in all his parts and faculties holy (Gen 1:26-27
). But he, by the devil’s instigation, and liberty of his own will, revolting from God, bereaved himself of these excellent gifts (Gen 3:1-7), and contrariwise, in lieu of them, gat in his mind horrible darkness, vanity, and crookedness of judgment; in his heart and will, malice, rebellion, and obduration; and in all his affections, impurity (Eph 4:17-19).
Article 2: The Spread of Corruption
And such as man after the fall, such children he begat; namely, a corrupt issue from a corrupt father (Job 14:4; Ps 51:5): this corruption being by the just judgment of God derived from Adam to all his posterity (Rom 5:12) (Christ only excepted (Heb 4:15), and that not by imitation (as of old the Pelagians would have it), but by the propagation of nature with her infection.
Article 3: Man’s Total Inability
All men therefore are conceived in sin, and born the children of wrath, untoward to all good tending to salvation, forward to evil, dead in sins, slaves in sin (Eph 2:1, 3; John 8:34; Rom 6:16-17), and neither will nor can (without grace of the Holy Ghost regenerating them (John 3:3-6; Titus 3:5) set straight their own crooked nature, no nor so much as dispose themselves to the amending of it.
Article 4: The Inadequacy of the Light of Nature
Certes, there are still in lapsed man some remains of the light of nature; by virtue whereof he retaineth some principles concerning God (Rom 1:19-20), and of things natural, and of the difference between good and evil; as also he sheweth some care of virtue, and of outward discipline (Rom 2:14-15): but so far short is he from being enabled by this inbred light, to come to the saving knowledge of God, and to convert himself unto him, that he does not make right use thereof in natural things, and civil affairs; nay, such as it is, he many ways defileth it all, and withholdeth it in unrighteousness; and by so doing becometh unexcusable before God (Rom 1:18, 20).
Article 5: The Inadequacy of the Law
As it is with the light of nature, so it is also touching the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments, delivered to the Jews from God in special manner by the hand of Moses. For, inasmuch as the law doth indeed lay open the grievousness of sin, and more and more deeply attaindeth man at the bar of justice, but neither reacheth forth any remedy, nor affordeth strength to wade out of misery, and so, being weakened through the flesh, leaveth a sinner under the curse; it is not possible that by it a man should obtain saving grace (Rom 3:19-20; 7:10, 13; 8:3; 2 Cor 3:6-7).
Article 6: The Need for the Gospel
That, therefore, which neither the light of nature, nor the law could do, God bringeth to pass by the power of the Holy Ghost, through his word, or the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:18-19) (namely, the gospel concerning the Messiah), whereby it pleased God to save those that believe (1 Cor 1:21), as well under the Old, as New Testament.
Article 7: Why the Gospel Is Sent to Some and Not to Others
Under the Old Testament God disclosed unto but a few this secret of his will; but in the New (the distinction of people being taken away) he manifesteth the same unto many (Eph 1:9; 2:14; Col 3:11). The cause of which his diverse dispensation is not to be imputed to the worthiness of one nation above another, or to the better using of the light of nature by some than by other some, but to God’s most free good pleasure, and undeserved love (Rom 2:11; Matt 11:26). And therefore they, to whom, without any their good desert, nay, notwithstanding their ill desert, so great a favour is vouchsafed, are bound, for their part, to acknowledge the same with all humility and thankfulness (Rom 11:22-23); and as for others, to whom such grace is not afforded, without curious sifting (Deut 29:29), to admire (with the Apostle) the severity and justice of God’s judgments upon them (Rev 16:7).
Article 8: The Earnest Call by the Gospel
Now, as many soever as are called by the Gospel, are called seriously (Isa 55:1; Matt 22:4). For God by his word doth seriously and most truly declare what is acceptable to him; namely, that those that are called, come unto him (Rev 22:17): and moreover doth seriously promise to all such as come to him, and believe in him, rest for their souls, and life eternal (John 6:37; Matt 11:28-29).
Article 9: Why Some Who Are Called Do Not Come
Whereas many, being called by the Gospel, do not come, and are not converted, this default is not in the Gospel, nor in Christ offered by the Gospel, nor in God who calleth them by his Gospel, and moreover bestoweth divers gifts upon them but in themselves, that are called (Matt 11:20-24; 22:1–8; 23:37); of whom some are so careless, that they give no entrance at all to the word; others entertain it, but suffer it not to sink into their hearts, and so, having only a fading smack of joy, bred by a temporary faith, afterward become revolters; others choke the seed of the word with the thorns of worldly cares and fleshly pleasures, and so bring forth no fruit at all; as our Saviour teacheth in the parable of the sower (Matt 13).
Article 10: Why Other Who Are Called Do Come
But whereas others, being called by the ministry of the Gospel, do come, and are converted, this is not to be ascribed unto man, as by his free-will distinguishing himself from others endowed with the like or with sufficient grace for their belief and conversion, (as Pelagius, in the pride of his heresy, would have it;) but must be attributed unto God (Rom 9:16†), who, as he hath from all eternity chosen in Christ those that are his, so in the process of time effectually calleth them, endueth them with the gift of faith and repentance, and, delivering them out of the power of darkness, translateth them into the kingdom of his Son (Col 1:13; Gal 1:4), to the end that they should magnify him who hath so mightily called them out of darkness into this wonderous light (1 Pet 2:9), and that they should not boast in themselves but in the Lord (1 Cor 1:31; 2 Cor 10:17; Eph 2:8-9), as is often avouched by the Apostles in many passages of their Epistles.
Article 11: How God Brings About Conversion
Furthermore, whereas God bringeth to pass this his own good-pleasure in the elect, (namely, when he worketh true conversion in them,) he not only provideth that the Gospel may to be outwardly preached unto them, and powerfully enlighteneth their minds by the Holy Ghost, that they may understand aright, and judge of the things of the Spirit of God (Heb 6:4-5; 1 Cor 2:10-14); but also, by the efficacy of the same regenerating Spirit, he pierceth into the most inward parts of man (Heb 4:12): whose heart being close shut up, he openeth it; being hard, he softeneth it (Acts 16:14); being uncircumcised, he circumciseth it; and as for the will, he infuseth new qualities into it (Deut 30:6), and maketh it of a dead will lively; of an evil, good; of a nilling, willing; of a stubborn, buxom (Ezek 11:19; 36:26); and stirreth it up also, and strengtheneth it, whereby it is enabled, like a good tree, to bring forth the fruits of good works (Matt 7:18).
Article 12: Regeneration Is the Work of God Alone
And this is that regeneration, second creation, raising from the dead, and quickening, (so often incalculated in the holy scriptures (John 3:3; 2 Cor 4:6; 5:17; Eph 5:14; 2:5) which God worketh in us, but not with us: and which is not brought to pass by bare instruction sounding to the outward ear, nor by moral inducements, no, nor by any kind of operation so carried on, that, when God hath done his part, it should remain in man’s choice to be or not to be regenerate; to be or not to be converted: but in a very supernatural, a most powerful, and withal most sweet, a wonderful, hidden, working, being, the mightiness thereof, (according to the scriptures, which are the doubtless word of the very author o this mighty work,) not inferior to the creation of the world, or raising of the dead (John 5:25; Rom 4:17). So that all those, in whose hearts God worketh after this admirable manner, are certainly, infallibly, and effectually regenerated, and actually believe (Phil 2:13). And then the will, being now renewed, is not only drawn and moved by God, but, God having now set it on going, itself also worketh: whereupon a man is rightly said, by this grace received, himself to repent and believe.
Article 13: Regeneration Is Incomprehensible
The faithful cannot in this life attain to the full knowledge of the manner of this working; yet in the mean time they content themselves, and rest in this, namely, that by the same grace of God they know and feel, that in their hearts they believe and love their Saviour (John 3:18; Rom 10:9).
Article 14: How Faith is a Gift of God
So then faith is the gift of God (Eph 2:8): not in that it is proffered by God unto man’s free-will, but because it is really bestowed, inspired, and infused into man: likewise, not as though God did give only a power of believing, and then should wait the leisure of man’s will for consenting, or for the very act of believing; but because both the willingness to believe, and the act itself are wrought in man by him that worketh both the will and the deed (Phil 2:13), and worketh even all in all.
Article 15: The Proper Attitude with Respect to God’s Undeserved Grace
This grace God oweth to no man. For how can God become debtor to him, who hath nothing to give first, that it might be recompensed to him again (Rom 11:35)? Nay, what can God owe him, who hath nought of his own, but sin and untruth? Whosoever therefore is made partaker of this kind of grace, ever oweth, and ever payeth, thanks to God only: and whoso hath it not, he either, framing to himself content in what he findeth himself, regardeth not all these special things, or carnal security vainly boasteth of having that which he hath not (Amos 6:1; Jer 7:4).
Furthermore, as for those that make outward profession of the faith, and amend their lives, we are, by the example of the Apostles, to judge, and speak the best of them (Rom 14:10); the closet of the heart being unsearchable. But as for those, who are not as yet called, we must pray for them to God, who calleth those things that are not, as if they were (Rom 4:17): but in no wise may we wax proud against them (1 Cor 4:7), as if we ourselves had caused that distinction, whereby we are made unlike them.
Article 16: Man’s Will Not Taken Away but Made Alive
On the other side, as, by the fall, man cease not to be man, endued with understanding and will, nor did sin, spreading itself through all mankind, abolish nature in us, but corrupted and spiritually slew it (Rom 8:2; Eph 2:1); in like manner this regenerating grace of God worketh not upon men as if they were stocks and stones, nor doth it abolish the will and properties thereof, or maugre constrain it, but doth spiritually revive it, heal it, rectify it, and powerfully yet gently bend it (Ps 51:12; Phil 2:13): so that where formerly the rebellion of the flesh, and stubbornness, did domineer without controul, now a willing and sincere obedience to the Spirit begins to reign; in which change the true and spiritual rescue and freedom of our will doth consist. And surely, unless the wonderful worker of all goodness should not deal with us in this sort, there were no hope left for man to arise from his lapse by his own free-will, through which, when he stood sound, he threw himself headlong into destruction.
Article 17: The Use of Means
Moreover, as that powerful operation of God, by which he giveth being to this our natural life, and sustaineth the same, doth not exclude, but require, the use of means, by which it pleaseth God, according to his wisdom and goodness, to employ this his own power (Isa 55:10-11; 1 Cor 1:21), even so the aforesaid supernatural working of God, by which he regenerateth us (Jas 1:18), doth in no wise exclude or overthrow the employment of the Gospel, which God, in his great wisdom, hath ordained to be the seed of regeneration, and food of the soul (1 Pet 1:23, 25; 2:2). Wherefore, as the Apostles and their successors did piously deliver unto the people the doctrine of this grace of God, for the advancing of his glory, and beating down of all manner of pride; and yet withal neglected not by holy admonitions, taken out of the Gospel, to keep their Christian flocks within the compass of the word, sacraments, and exercise of discipline (Acts 2:42; 2 Cor 5:11-21; 2 Tim 4:2): so in these days also far be it from either teachers or learners in the Church to presume to tempt God by disjoining those things, which God, according to his good-pleasure, hath appointed to go together inseparably. For by such admonitions grace itself is derived to us (Rom 10:14-17); and the more readily we perform our duty, thereby the good gift of God working in us made more sensible unto us, and his work itself best cometh to perfection. To the which God alone is due for evermore all the glory of these means, and of the saving fruit and efficacy of them (Jude 24-25). Amen.
The Rejection of Errors
The Synod, having laid down the true doctrine, now rejecteth the errors of those:
That teach, That it cannot well be avouched, that original sin of itself is sufficient for condemning of all humankind, or for the deserving of temporal and eternal punishment. For they go against the Apostle, who saith, By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all sinned(Rom 5:12). And, The judgment was by one to condemnation (Rom 5:16). The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23).
That teach: That spiritual gifts, or good qualities and virtues (such as goodness, holiness, and righteousness), could not be seated in the will of man in his first creation, and therefore in his fall the will could not be bereft of them. For this is contrary to the description of the image of God, laid down by the Apostle (Eph 4:24), where he describes it by righteousness and holiness, which doubtless are placed in the will.
That teach, That in spiritual death no spiritual gifts were separated from the will of man; for that the will of itself was never corrupted, but only encumbered by the darkness of the understanding, and unruliness of the affections: which impediments being removed, the will may put in use her own inbred faculty of freedom, (that is, her self-will,) and will and choose, or not to will and refuse, any kind of good set before her. Verily, this is a new-fanged and erroneous piece of doctrine, bent on purpose for the enhancing the forces of the free-will, contrary to that of the prophet Jeremiah, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked (Jer 17:9). And that of the Apostle, Among whom (namely, children of disobedience) all we also had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the wills of the flesh and of the mind (Eph 2:3).
That teach, That an unregenerate man is not properly nor totally dead in sins, nor destitute of all strength tending to spiritual good; but that he is able to hunger and thirst after righteousness, or everlasting life, and to offer the sacrifice of an humble and contrite heart, even such as is acceptable to God. For these assertions march against the direct testimonies of scripture: Ye were in trespasses and sins(Eph 2:1, 5). And, Every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart is only evil continually(Gen 6:5; 8:21). Moreover the hungering and thirsting for deliverance out of misery, and for life eternal, as also the offering to God the sacrifice of a broken heart, is proper to the regenerate, and such as are called blessed (Ps 51:17; Matt 5:6).
That teach, That a corrupt and natural man can so rightly use common grace (by which they mean the light of nature), or those gifts which are left in him after the fall, that, by the good use thereof, he may attain to a greater, namely, evangelical or saving grace, and by degrees at length to salvation itself. And that God, for his part, sheweth himself ready in this manner to reveal Christ to all men: seeing he doth sufficiently and efficaciously afford to every man necessary means for the making Christ known, and for faith and repentance. For this is convinced to false, as by the experience of all ages in the world, so also by the scriptures. He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel; he hath not dealt so with any nation, and as for his judgments, they have not known them (Ps 147:19-20). God, in times past, suffered all nations to walk in their own way (Acts 14:16). Paul and his company were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia: and after they were come to Mysia, they essayed to go into Bithynia; but the Spirit suffered them not (Acts 16:6-7).
That teach, That in the true conversion of a man there cannot be infused by God any new qualities, habits, or gifts into the will; and so that faith, by which we are first converted, and from which we are styled faithful, is not any quality, or gift, infused by God, but only an act of man: and that this faith cannot be called a gift otherwise than in regard of the power or means given us of attaining it. For these strange positions are contradictory to the holy scriptures, which testify unto us that God doth infuse into our hearts new qualities of faith, obedience, and sense of his love towards us, I will put my law into their inward parts, and write it in their hearts (Jer 31:33). I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed (Isa 44:3). The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us (Rom 5:5). They contradict also the continual practice of the Church, which useth to pray after the manner described by the prophet, Convert me, O Lord, and I shall be converted (Jer 31:18).
That teach, That the grace, whereby we are converted unto God, is nothing else but a gentle inducement; or (as others explain it) that the most noble kind of working in man’s conversion, and most suitable to our nature, is that which is performed by suasory motives, or advice: and that no cause can be alleged why even such moral grace alone should not of natural man make spiritual: nay, moreover, that God doth not produce the consent of our will otherwise than by way of moral counseling: and that the efficacy of God’s working, wherein he exceedeth the working of the devil, consisteth in this, that the devil promoteth temporary things, but God things eternal.For this is down-right Pelagianism, and warreth against the whole course of the scriptures, which, besides this suasory kind of moving, acknowledge in the conversion of man another manner of working of God’s Spirit, and that more divine, and of far greater efficacy, I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh, etc. (Ezek 36:26).
That teach, That God, in regenerating a man, doth not employ that omnipotent strength, whereby he may powerfully and infallibly bow and bend his will unto faith and conversion: but that, all the gracious operations works which God useth for our conversion being accomplished, nevertheless man can withstand God and his Holy Spirit intending that man’s conversion, yea, and oftentimes doth make actual resistance, to the utter defeating of his own regeneration: so that it lieth in man’s power to be, or not to be, regenerate. For this amounteth to no less, than the denying all the efficacy to God’s grace in our conversion, and the subjecting the work of the Almighty unto the will of man: which is flat contrary to the doctrine of the Apostles, that we believe according to the working of his mighty power (Eph 1:19). ThatGod fulfilleth all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power (2 Thess 1:11). And that God’s power hath given unto us all things, that pertain unto life and godliness (2 Pet 1:3).
That teach: That grace and free-will are coparcening causes, jointly concurring to the beginning of conversion; and that grace doth not in order of causality go before the action of the will: that is, that God doth not effectually help man’s will unto conversion, before the will of man moveth and determineth, or setteth itself thereunto.For this doctrine was long since condemned by the ancient Church among the Pelagian errors, out of the Apostle’s authority, It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy (Rom 9:16). And, Who maketh thee to differ? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? (1 Cor 4:7). Also, It is God which worketh in you, both to will, and to do, of his good pleasure (Phil 2:13).