7. Various punishments are ordained by God for the diverse quantity or quality of sins, namely, first of condemnation, then of sense, whether temporal or eternal; finally, whether bodily or spiritual, etc. 8. For that twofold power and efficacy of sin of which mention was made above (indeed damnation or eternal death, and the servitude of sin, or captivity under the practice of sin), most clearly appeared long ago, in that God did not plainly and fully reveal His saving grace, destined before the ages for sinners, but revealed it only from afar, obscurely and almost as if through a Lattice, namely, under a general promise of His grace and favor, under the type and shadow of corporal things. For even if in the Old Testament they were not entirely lacking those who believed in God by the assistance of that divine grace and by faith walked blamelessly and sincerely before Him; and by a life ordered according to the will of God, shook off the dominion of sin, and by that living faith also were truly justified or absolved from the guilt of their sins, and granted the reward of eternal life, as is clear in the examples of Abel, Enoch, and Abraham the father of all who believe, etc. Yet most were burdened by sin and overwhelmed with the weight of their misery. For in the beginning, when there was as yet no written law received, still the dictates of natural reason, paternal traditions and some other God-ordained divine and angelic revelations and apparitions did thrive among men. Sin was not only in the world, but also so exerted its power, that all flesh (with few excepted, who were just and by faith walked before God in holiness) corrupted its way, and every imagination of man was only evil from childhood. By this, the guilt of sin was so increased at that time that a universal flood was brought upon the world of the ungodly. Chapter 7, 7 & 8. Arminian Confession of Faith 1621 evangelicalarminians.org/the-arminian-confession-of-1621/
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 01:01:03 +0000
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