Calvinism and Arminianism

SOVEREIGNTY, FREEWILL AND SALVATION
PROF. M. M. NINAN
which concern supernatural, heavenly and spiritual things. The former class comprises the
understanding, the affections, and the will, which is free; but the latter, the knowledge of
God and of things divine, righteousness, true holiness, etc.
6. With respect to essence and adequate objects, the faith by which Adam believed in God
is not the same as that by which he believed in God after the promise made concerning the
Blessed Seed, and not the same as that by which we believe the gospel of Christ.
7. Without doing any wrong to God, to Adam, and to the truth itself, it may be said, that in
his primeval state Adam neither received or possessed a Proximate capability of
understanding, believing, or performing any thing whatsoever which could be necessary to
be understood, believed, or performed by him, in any state whatsoever at which it was
possible for him to arrive, either by his own endeavors or by the gift of God, though he
must have had a remote capability, otherwise something essential would still have been to
be created within man himself.
8. The liberty of the will consists in this — when all the requisites for willing or not willing
are laid down, man is still indifferent to will or not to will, to will this rather than that. This
indifference is removed by the previous determination, by which the will is circumscribed
and absolutely determined to the one part or to the other of the contradiction or
contrariety; and this predetermination, therefore, does not consist with the liberty of the
will, which requires not only free capability, but also tree use in the very exercise of it.
9. Internal necessity is as repugnant to liberty as external necessity is; nay, external
necessity does not necessitate to act except by the intervention of that which is internal.
10. Adam either possessed, or had ready and prepared for him, sufficient grace, whether it
were habitual or assisting, to obey the command imposed on him, both that command
which was symbolical and ceremonial, and that which was moral. ………………
10. ON THE CAUSE OF SIN UNIVERSALLY
1. Though sin can be committed by none except by a rational creature, and, therefore,
ceases to be sin by this very circumstance if the cause of it be ascribed to God; yet it seems
possible, by four arguments, to fasten this charge on our divines. "It follows from their
doctrine that God is the author of sin."
2. First reason. — Because they teach that, "without foresight of sin, God absolutely
determined to declare his own glory through punitive justice and mercy, in the salvation of
some men and in the damnation of others."
Or, as others of them assert, "God resolved to illustrate his own glory by the demonstration
of saving grace, wisdom, wrath, ability, and most free power, in the salvation of some
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