THE JERUSALEM CHAMBER

Theology

OF

The IVestrninster Symbols.

A COMMENTARY
HISTORICAL, DOCTRINAL, PRACTICAL,
ON THE
CONFESSION OF FAITH AND CATECHISMS AND
THE RELATED FORMULARIES OF THE
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES.

BY

EDWARD D. MORRIS, D, D., LL. D.
Emeritus Professor of Systematic Theology
fn Lane Theological Seminary.

COLUMBUS, OHIO,

©trptjrtght

OtoLumbuGjtAhia

As to what relates to the prefent Treatife, lam not ignorant, that
many eminent and learned Divines, far beyond 'tobate'ber I could
vrofeff, have beatten this path, and travelled round the %>ortd of
Polemicfc Divinity. But their Writings being fo 'Voluminous and
large, that he vjho de fires to have a full fight at one look of the chief
controverfies, can no more have it, than a man from the 'Peak of
Tenerif f, can get a clear fight of the Itohole Globe of the Earth. Which
things, though they be principally l»orth the knowing, nevertheleff,
for fo much as their number, and "bariety are an impediment to them-
f elves, and the multiplicity of matter, makes the mind abruptly flit
from one thing to another. Therefore I have imitated Geographers,
%ho after they have furveyed the %hole Globe of the Earth, draiv
Universal defcriptions thereof, and comprehend the %hole image of
that great Terra-queous Body within a narrovj circumference of
a Card or Mapp. In so doing, I may perhaps contribute fome what
towards the fatisf action of fome, who neither can, nor are able, to
trace the Jpearifome foot fteps, of thofe eminent ^Divines, %ho hate
Written fully*

*From the Epistle Dedicatory to Truth's Victory over Error, the first
Commentary on the Westminster Confession of Faith ; as published by
George Sinclare, 1684, from notes of the Latin lectures of Dr. David Dickson,
Professor of Divinity, delivered in Edinburgh, 1650-1663. Dr. Dickson was
also the chief author of the Sum of Saving Knowledge.

The Seal of the Assembly.

Original preserved in a private collection in England*

PREFACE.

This volume aims to set forth in systematic form the substance
Oi the Theology embodied in the series of confessional documents
drafted and promulgated by the Westminster Assembly. In order
to present that Theology in its completeness, it has been found
essential not only to include the doctrinal teaching of the two
Catechisms as well as that of the Confession of Faith, but also to
introduce, wherever obviously contributory, the theological mate
rial furnished in the Form of Government and the Directory for
Worship. Frequent use has also been made of the Sum of Sav
ing Knowledge, a brief compendium of Christian doctrine which,
although without known ecclesiastical warrant, was early incor
porated with the Symbols in Scotland, and has for two centuries
retained its place among them as an illustrative exposition.
It will be obvious that the comprehensive system of doctrine
contained in these documents can be fully appreciated only as
the Westminster Symbols are placed in their proper historical
setting — in their vital relationship to the antecedent development
and formulation of doctrinal beliefs in Great Britain, and also to
the teachings of preceding Protestant symbolism on the Continent.
The major creeds of both these groups have therefore been freely
utilized by way of illustrative comparison, with respect partly to
their occasional antagonisms, but mainly to their more funda
mental and striking points of agreement. The chief formularies
of the Roman church, those of the Greek church, and also the
three ancient creeds of ecumenical Christendom, have in like
manner been brought into service, so far as they could be made
helpful in the exposition of specific doctrines. Some of the more
or less defective or erratic creeds which sprang into existence
during the agitations and conflicts of the Reformation, have also
been quoted by way of illustration.
The emendations which in more recent times have been made
in the Symbols, especially by American Presbyterianism, and also

It. PREFACE.
the important deliverances and declaratory acts of Scotch and
English Presbyterianism concerning matters of doctrine, and all
suggested revisions of the Symbols, have so far as serviceable been
incorporated or indicated in this exposition. Previous commen
taries on the Confession or Catechisms, and also the theological
writings of the more conspicuous members of the Assembly,' so
far as accessible, and those of later Presbyterian authors, British
and American, have likewise been carefully consulted in its prep
aration. In compressing the studies of many years in a single volume
such as this, the author has been .constrained for the most part
rather to set forth conclusions than to present in detail' the evi
dences and reasonings on which such conclusions are based. Nor
has he deemed it advisable, except in a few conspicuous instances,
to name the various authorities by which these conclusions are in
his judgment sustained or fortified. The most important litera
ture of the subject is not difficult of access to any diligent student.
In addition to the numerous references appearing in the index, a
brief bibliography may be found at the close of the volume.
In such presentation of the Westminster Theology, the author
has hoped first of all to contribute to a more intelligent acquaint
ance with the contents of this important group of confessional
documents, to correct current prejudice and inconsiderate criticism
respecting them, and to secure some just appreciation of their large
historical and theological significance, as among the most conspic
uous formularies of Christendom. He has also desired not merely
to set forth the Presbyterian theology of the seventeenth century
as embodied in these Symbols, but as well to indicate though only
in outline the interesting evolution of that theology from the his
toric germ, to describe its normal growth through the succeeding
ages, and to exhibit as far as practicable its remarkable effect and
fruitage as seen in the beliefs and teachings of living Presbyteri
anism. And it may be added that in this exposition it has been
his constant purpose, not merely to describe the articles of a
creed or the dicta of a church or school, however interesting or
important, but rather by this method to make more manifest in
its comprehensiveness what he believes to be the essential truth
of the common Christianity.
He has also hoped that this excursion in the field of particular

PREFACE. VU
symbolism may both incite to similar excursions in other equally
interesting fields, and serve to direct attention more strongly to
that broader domain of comparative and general symbolism, which
in his judgment constitutes at present the most interesting and
nutritious department in the history of the Christian Church. It
is his firm belief that such symbolic studies, diligently and con
scientiously pursued in an irenic spirit, will tend more and more
helpfully to bring into clearer light, not the small distinctions and
controversies of Protestantism, but rather those grand underlying
unities which constitute its chief strength and excellence, — unities
which must be appreciated in much larger measure before Prot
estantism can accomplish its supreme mission of evangelizing the
world for Christ.
That this commentary may be found to be free from all narrow
partizanship or offensive dogmatism, and at the same time from
all tendency to compromise or disparage any among the essential
elements in evangelical belief, and may therefore tend to stimulate
a like moderation in others, has been the constant and earnest
aspiration of the author. In this spirit and hope he commends
it first of all to those who for a generation have been his pupils
in the department of Christian Doctrine, and to the younger
ministers in the various Presbyterian communions, — trusting that
it may prove a valuable help in the apprehension and the procla
mation of that supreme Truth of God, which it is the solemn voca
tion of their lives to make known to men. Nor is he without
hope that this volume may find its way into our theological sem
inaries, as a helpful manual or book of reference, treating —
though summarily— all or nearly all of the doctrinal topics ordi
narily studied in such institutions.
After half a century of sincere and diligent investigation, the
writer of these pages rests in the matured conviction that Sys
tematic Theology, clearly apprehended, well organized, positive
in essential substance, irenic in temper, and as impregnable as
supreme loyalty to inspired Scripture can make it, is as indis
pensable to the vigor and success, and even to the healthful life
of evangelical Christianity, as the osseous structure is to the
human frame. He is profoundly convinced that all attempts to
decry or compromise or exclude such theology, whether by the
disparaging or ignoring of the venerated creeds of Christendom

Vlll PREFACE.
or otherwise, will end only in disappointment or in irreparable
mischief. Especially does he cherish the hope that the Presby
terian Church in all its branches may continue to be, as for two
centuries and more it has eminently been, the Church of the Doc
trines ; holding forth through all the future in their breadth
and majesty and convincing power those divine truths, that
lofty and substantial system of theology, by which it has been so
singularly nourished and strengthened in the past. And in that
grand sphere of service for the common Christianity, the ven
erable Symbols of Westminster, expanded and improved by widen
ing thought and experience, and held forth in that temper of
sweet reasonableness commended by the Apostle, must always
hold a central and vital place.

***A11 specially important citations from the Symbols are printed in
italics. Quotations from other creeds are indicated by particular reference.
Other references to authorities appear, for the convenience of the student,
in the body of the text rather than at the bottom of the page.

CONTENTS.

LECTURE FIRST. -HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
Symbolism: Nature and Uses of Creeds : The Creeds of Christen
dom : The Symbols of Westminster. 1. Symbolism as a branch of
scientific theology : particular and comparative symbolism : aim of these Lec
tures. 2. The term, doctrine, defined : primary and secondary meanings :
history of doctrine. 3. Creeds, confessions, symbols, as expositions of
doctrine described. 4. The necessity for creeds, exterior, interior : illustra
tions of each class. 5. Formation of creeds : limitations and conditions of
the process : the ideal creed. 6. Imperfection of creeds ; its nature and
necessity : question of emendation. 7. Their degree of authoritativeness :
boundaries to such authority : loyalty to creeds : two a'ntithetic errors.
8. Objections to creeds : sources of objection : the appropriate answer.
9. Historic Creeds : the creed element in Scripture : declarations of faith,
individual and general. 10. The first creed period : the three ancient creeds
described. 11. These creeds studied comparatively : their contents and
limitations. 12. Creedless period ; A. D. 500 to A. D. 1500 : no progress of
doctrine : Scholasticism. 13. Second creed period : creeds of the Reforma
tion grouped into classes ; enumeration. 14. Protestant creeds studied com
paratively : contrast with the ancient symbols : different aim and function.
15. Heretical creeds of this period : Greek and Papal confessions. 16. Sec
ond creedless period, since the Reformation : explanation. 17. Comparative
symbolism illustrated by this historic review : its scope and value. 18. The
Westminster Symbols to be specially examined : general character of the
British Reformation : antecedent confessions. 19. A new creed needful :
political and ecclesiastical occasions. 20. The Westminster Assembly, its
constitution, membership and aims : questions before it. 21. Doctrinal work
of the Assembly : the Confession and Catechisms : process of formulation.
22. Difficulties confronted : temper and value of the work. 23. The West
minster Symbols in Britain: English and Scotch acceptance: their subsequent
position and effect. 24. The Symbols in America : the Adopting Act : con
flicting theories of subscription. 25. Their general position : extensive
influence : sources of their power. 26. Proposed analysis : order of doc
trine : method of inquiry : general object in view. 1-65.
LECTURE SECOND.— THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
Revelation, its Nature and Process ; Contents of Scripture : Its
Authenticity, Authority and Adequacy : Right and Duty of Private
Interpretation. 1. Protestantism and Scripture : the Symbols start from
the point of Revelation. 2. Man capable of receiving a revelation : the

%. CONTENTS.
light and law of nature. 3. Nature and Revelation, how related : natural
theology and religion : Revelation essential. 4. Fact and nature of the Rev
elation given : objections invalid : God the final Judge here. 5. Process of
Revelation : Inspiration, its nature and extent : grades of inspiration. 6.
Alleged errancy of Scripture : the Bible essentially inerrant. 7. This Rev
elation progressive, historic, final : no other revelation requisite. 8. Contents
of Scripture : particular books included : question of the Canon. 9. The
apocryphal books, their position and claim : Protestant reasons for rejecting
them. 10. Canonicity further considered : tests objective and subjective:
state of the question. 11. Preservation, genuineness, translation and dif
fusion of the Scriptures : Providence and the Bible : right of. translation and
circulation. 12. AuThoritativeness and credibility of Scripture : internal
and external evidences : consequent mandatory power. 13. Contrast with
churchly traditions, with decrees of councils : adequacy of the Bible : no
additional revelation needful. 14. Interpretation : right and duty of
private study of Scripture : foundations of this right : grounds of this duty:
Church interpretations, how far authoritative: the Roman assumption con
futed. 15. Interpreting Scripture by Scripture: province of reason in in ter-
pretation : Bible beyond reason. 16. The Spirit interpreting the Word :
natural and saving knowledge contrasted : communion with the Spirit essen
tial. 17. Closing survey: completeness and value of the Symbols on this
doctrine: their permanent authoritativeness. 66-123.
LECTURE THIRD.— GOD IN HIS BEING.
The Divine Existence and Nature : Attributes of God : The
Trinity in God. 1. The divine existence affirmed : qualities of this
affirmation. 2. Arguments incidentally suggested : proofs from nature,
from man : significance of the latter. 3. The unity of God taught : poly
theism in all forms illicit. 4. God a self-existent Spirit; personal, fontal,
creative. 5. God an absolute Spirit : His dominion original and complete.
6. God an infinite, eternal, unchangeable Spirit. 7. Moral Attributes
and Nature : knowledge of these attributes. 8. The divine wisdom :' intel
ligence, knowledge, wisdom distinctively described. 9. The divine power:
God as Cause, and as Will : His original sovereignty. 10. Other moral
attributes : divine justice, goodness, truth : analysis of each. 11. Holiness in
God : His moral perfection : general doctrine of the attributes. 12. Trinity
in the Godhead : divine unity the underlying fact : such unity taught. 13.
The term, Person, its significance : its relations to Being : limitations of the
term. 14. Differentiating properties : likeness and unlikeness in the Divine
Persons. 15. The Trinity interior and exterior : Trinity in the work of
redemption. 16. Proof of the doctrine: Scripture and experience: objec
tions noted. 17. Concluding remarks : characteristic qualities of this gen
eral doctrine of God : its spiritual elevation and influence. 124-1 f f .
LECTURE FOURTH.— GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
Divine Decrees : Creation : Providence : Moral Administration.
1. Relations of this general topic to preceding doctrine and to the doctrinal
scheme consequent : God essentially active. 2. Decree : conception and

CONTENTS. XI
analysis of the term : an eternal, conclusive, effectual purpose. 3. Decree
and decrees : significance of this distinction : debates in the Assembly. 4.
Order of the decrees : supralapsarian and sublapsarian statements : the ques
tion of election. 5. Modes of executing the decrees : second causes efficient:
human agency and the divine decrees. 6. Spirit in which the decrees are
executed : the moral qualities revealed : divine goodness especially charac
teristic. 7. Creation, the first form of divine activity: God as Creator: the
Trinity in creation : false theories of creation. 8. Method of creation: the
word of power : the phrase, of nothing: the six days or eras in creation.
9. Extent of the creation : the universe material and moral : creation of the
angels and of man. 10. Quality of the creation : the existence of evil,
natural and spiritual : divine relations to such evil, and especially to sin.
11. End of God in creation, the manifestation of his glory : harmony with
other related ends : its legitimacy as supreme end. 12. Providence : defi
nition of the term : preserving and governing described : other definitions.
13. Method of God in providence: providence and miracle: providence and
secondary causes. 14. Providence and human freedom: sin a fact occurring
in providence: the fall permitted in providence: God not the author of sin.
15. Providence over saints, and over the Church: providential discipline and
nurture. 16. Prayer a duty and a factor in providence: various theories.
17. Relations of providence to the wicked : discipline and retribution occur
ring providentially. 18. Providence and moral administration: God also a
moral Governor: the doctrine of Moral Government introduced: deficiency
of the Symbols at this point. 1 78-236.
LECTURE FIFTH.— MAN.
His Origin and Nature : His Probation— Covenant of Works :
The Fall and its Issues: Original Sin: Mankind as Depraved : Free
Will: Man under Law. 1. Creation of man: true and false concep
tions. Unity of the race: its relative antiquity. 2. Constitution of man as
created : his physical, mental, moral endowments: the phrase, image of God,
defined : original righteousness. 3. The place of man in nature: dominion
over the creatures : divine estimate of man. 4. Two specific questions :
origin of the soul in man: immortality on the earth. 5. Probation : man
created under moral law: his power to fulfill law: his will and its mutability.
6. The covenant of life, its nature as a transaction under law: its conditions
and objects. 7. Reach of this probation: Adam as a public person : limits
of this representation. 8. The Fall: an event in the divine decree: divers
ities of view in the Assembly. Permission of sin defined : divihe authorship
of sin denied. 9. The Fall as a transaction, its historic quality: the temp
tation, in its nature, incidents and results. 10. The triple curse: its several
elements: death the resultant of sin: the earth and humanity involved. 11.
Original Sin : sinfulness transmitted in the race: theories of transmission:
the essential fact. 12. Depravity, its actual nature: terms and phrases
employed in describing it. 13. Objections to the doctrine : value of morality
recognized : case of infants dying in infancy, and of the heathen. 14. Sin
defined : its essential qualities— transgression, want of conformity, disobedi
ence, selfhood. 15. Strength of this conception: other views of sin com
pared : defective statements. 16. FREE will in man: confessional state
ments: conflicting theories. 17. Man under law: Moral government, its

XI) CONTENTS.
nature and scope. 18. Duty of obedience, personal and perpetual : respon
sibility defined. 19. Failure of man under law: miseries of disobedience :
deliverance possible. ¦"*
LECTURE SIXTH.— CHRIST, THE MEDIATOR.
His Incarnation : His Person, Divine and Human : His Mission-
Mediation : His Mediatorial Offices— Prophet, Priest, King : His
Humiliation and Exaltation. 1. The Christology of the Reformation:
affirmationof ancient doctrine: fullness of statement. 2. Eternal existence
of Christ as Son of God : the phrase, only begotten. 3. The Incarnation:
its necessity, nature and characteristics. Significance of the incarnation in
theology: fundamental in Christianity: the kenosis. 5. The two natures in
Christ: one personality complete in the Immanuel. 6. Perils of error on
either side: composite view indispensable: mystery involved. 7. Media
tion: its nature and necessity, toward both God and man. 8. Christ as
Mediator : his qualities, personal, official : complete adaptation. 9. The
Three Offices : mediation thus distributed : reasons and objections. 10.
Christ as Prophet: supreme teacher: perfect example. 11. Christ as Priest,
and also Sacrifice : source of this conception : its central place in Christian
symbolism. Qualifications of Christ as priest, as sacrifice. 12. Satisfaction :
the term defined : the essential fact. 13. Christ as King : development of
the doctrine: biblical warrant. 14. Nature of his kingship, earthly and
heavenly: its extent and glory. 15. The Two Estates: His estate of hu
miliation : the earthly life: death and descent into the grave. 16. His estate
of exaltation : the resurrection and ascension : his function as Advocate and
Intercessor. 18. Final survey: true doctrine vital in Christianity: personal
faith requisite. 302-351.
LECTURE SEVENTH.— THE PLAN OF SALVATION.
Salvation : The Divine Plan : Covenant of Redemption : The
Gospel : Election : Reprobation. 1. Salvation defined : its need and
nature. 2. Plan of Salvation, the phrase defined : plan formed in sov
ereignty, in grace. 3. Covenant of redemption defined : errors noted.
4. Covenant of works ineffectual : a scheme of deliverance necessary: the
covenant of grace. 5. Historical unfolding of the plan of salvation: types
and promises realized in Christ. 6. The Gospel defined, as a system of
revealed truth concerning salvation. 7. This Gospel contrasted with other
schemes of salvation : its manifest superiority. 8. The Gospel as an offer :
its aim and scope. 9. Later conceptions of the Gospel in both aspects :
improvements noted. 10. Plan of Salvation applied : doctrine of Election
introduced : order of the decrees again considered. 11. Election defined ¦
election in providence, and in grace. 12. Divine motive in election • the
divine purpose formed in love. 13. Ends sought in such election ¦ holiness-
usefulness: false views corrected. 14. Human relations and agency election
in some sense conditioned : human responsibility. 15. Reprobation an
election unto condemnation : fact of reprobation— its ground . Preterition •
teaching of the symbols. 16. Concluding view of the divine Plan : God
justified in the issues of his gracious purpose. 352-404

CONTENTS. xiii
LECTURE EIGHTH— THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
Salvation a Process: The Holy Spirit as Agent: Man asSalvable:
Effectual Calling — Regeneration: Justification: Sanctification.
1. Preliminary suggestions: the process personal throughout: agents en
gaged. 2. The Spirit as a personal agent: his full personality established.
3. Development of doctrine concerning the Spirit: proposed addition to the
Symbols. 4. His special agency in the sphere of salvation: his supremacy
therein. 5. Objections answered: the doctrine fundamental in Christianity.
6. The human person in this process: Man as salvable. 7. Common ope
rations of the Spirit: common grace, its nature and extent. 8. Effectual
calling: regeneration by the Spirit, its nature: Conversion. 9. Revealed
truth as related to regeneration: sacraments and other instrumentalities.
10. Justification defined: its ground in Christ only: justifying faith. 11.
Elements of justification — pardon and acceptance. 12. False theories of
justification: historic sketch of. the doctrine: its vital moment. 13. Adop
tion, its nature: relations to justification. 14. Sanctification, its nature
as a process: the human agent concerned. 15. Specific questions suggested :
the answers given. 16. Concluding summary: Roman and Protestant doc
trine of salvation compared. 405-460.
LECTURE NINTH.— THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
Christianity a Life : Faith : Repentance : Good Works : Perse
verance: Perfection. — 1. The Christian life: Papal and Protestant doc
trine compared: form and spirit. 2. General Conception of the Christian
life: its essential elements: its ideal, motive, law, fruitage. 3. Dependence
on the Spirit: trust, obedience, communion requisite. 4. Saving Faith
defined: creed statements: the Protestant doctrine. 5. Such faith reason
able : its potency in character and life. 6. Repentance defined : its essential
elements: false conceptions. 7. Protestant and Papal doctrines of repent
ance compared : auricular confession and absolution. 8. Good Works,
their nature and worth : Catholic and Protestant statements. 9. Good works,
doctrine of the Symbols analyzed: recent explanations. 10. Perseverance
of the saints: the Christian life permanent: grounds of belief. 11. Assur
ance of salvation, its nature and relations to saving faith. 12. Perfection
in the Christian life: theories of perfection. Final survey of the whole
subject: practical inferences. 461-505.
LECTURE TENTH.— THE LAW OF GOD.
Moral Law: Moral Government: The Ten Commandments: Christ
and Law: Law and Morality: Law and Grace. — 1. Place of law in the
Symbols: prominence of this element. 2. Place of law in the Protestant
symbols generally, and in Protestant thought. 3. Moral Law defined:
distinguished from providential administration : Moral law in nature, in
Scripture. 4. Uses of the moral law: principles of interpretation. 5. The
Ten Commandments: general view: specific features: the two tables. 6.
First table of the law: first three commandments: duties toward God : the
sins forbidden. 7. First table continued: fourth and fifth commandments:
the latter transitional: its special character. 8. Second table, duties toward

xiv CONTENTS.
man murder, adultery, theft, false witness forbidden : influence of the Mosaic
code. 9. The tenth commandment transitional : Law in THE Old Testa
ment: the divine evolution in Scripture. 10. Law in THE NEW TESTA
MENT: three special characteristics: Christ the supreme revealer of law. 11.
Law of God and human morality, affiliations and contrasts: Christian moral
ity supreme. 12. Law and Grace, faith and obedience, their essential
harmony: concluding view. 5U6-
LECTURE ELEVENTH.— CIVIL RELATIONS AND DUTIES.
Christian Liberty— Liberty of Conscience: Civil Magistracy:
Papal Jurisdiction: Lawful Oaths: Vows: Marriage— Polygamy-
Celibacy: Divorce: Christianity in the State.— 1. Christian lib
erty defined— freedom as toward God : its nature and extent. 2. Liberty
of conscience— freedom as toward men: the State and freedom. ¦ 3. Failure
of the Assembly in applying the doctrine: instances and explanations. 4.
Civil Magistrate, his sphere and functions: the State and the Church:
later view. 5. The Pope in the State— denial of civil jurisdiction. 6. Law
ful Oaths— their nature and obligation: limitations noted: Jesuitic errors.
7. Religious Vows— nature and worth: legal limitations: monastic vows.
8. Marriage, divine foundation and warrant: limitations: polygamy: con
cubinage. 9. Celibacy: its historic development: adverse arguments. 10.
Divorce — dissolution of marriage relation: grounds of divorce: adultery —
willful desertion: other grounds: civil divorce. 11. Christianity and
the State, their mutual duties: religion a social force: bearings on living
issues. The Church supreme in human life. 556-600.
LECTURE TWELFTH— THE CHURCH OF GOD.
Church Visible and Invisible: Communion of Saints: Constitution
and Membership : Officers and Government : Denominations :
Church Councils: Headship of Christ: Church Growth. — 1. Prot
estant doctrine of the Church: confessional statements: marks of the true
Church. 2. Westminster doctrine: Church visible and invisible: distinctions
noted. 3. Church in the divine plan; its historic evolution, Patriarchal,
Hebraic, Christian. 4. Communion of Saints, its nature and extent: obli
gations involved. 5. Sects and denominations: how far justifiable. 6. The
particular church: constitution and membership — infant membership.
7. Particular church, its endowments: ministry, oracles, ordinances. 8.
Particular church, its organization and government: officers needful. 9. Par
ticular church: power of the keys— right of discipline: church censures.
10. Ecclesiastical organizations: synods and councils, their constitution
and object. 11. The Presbyterian polity described: its essential qualities:
its special values. 12. Headship of Christ in the Church: the Bible the
supreme law. 13. Purity of the Church: impure churches: papal supremacy
condemned. 14. The Church, its permanence and growth: laws of growth
defined: illicit growth: conditions of success. 601-666.
LECTURE THIRTEENTH.— SACRAMENTS, ORDINANCES,
WORSHIP.
Sacraments, Baptism, The Eucharist: Sabbath, Sanctuary, Means

CONTENTS. XV
of Grace, The Ministry : Worship, Preaching and Hearing, Praise,
Prayer : Ritual and Liturgy.— 1. Christian sacraments defined—
their nature and authority : papal error. 2. Baptism : its nature, design
and mode. 3. Baptism : proper subjects : baptism of infants ; biblical
warrant ; its values. 4. Lord's Supper : its design and uses : Roman and
Protestant doctrine : proper participants : other observances. 5. Chris
tian ordinances defined : the Sabbath, the Santuary. 6. Ordinances :
the Means of grace, Patriarchal, Hebraic, Christian : Protestant usage. 7.
Ordinances : the Ministry an ordinance of God : place and functions in
the church. 8. Christian Worship, nature and grounds : its essential
elements. 9. Worship : reading, preachirg, hearing the divine Word. 10.
Worship : praise, thanksgiving, confession, prayer. 11. Concluding sur
vey : ritual, liturgy, sacred times, the Christian year. 667-720.
LECTURE FOURTEENTH— ESCHATOLOGY.
Millennium : Death : Immortality : Particular Judgment : The
Intermediate Life : Salvation After Death : Final Advent : Res
urrection : General Judgment : The Eternal Estate : The Con
summation. — 1. Eschatology defined : general Protestant doctrine. 2.
Westminster Eschatology : The Millennium : general view. 3. Millen
nium, particular statements : preceding and concurrent events. 4. Death :
nature, its theological significance. 5. Immortality : general evidences :
speculative and biblical : creed statements. 6. Conditional immortality :
annihilationism. 7. The intermediate life : its general characteristics. 8.
Opposite theories : purgatory : restorationism : probation after death. 9.
Particular judgment at death : nature and effects. 10. Final Advent :
occurrence, nature, results. 11. Resurrection of Christ, of the righteous,
of all; evidences. 12. General judgment, necessity and nature : Christ the
Judge. 13. The eternal estate : Hell and Heaven, nature and duration.
14. The ultimate Consummation : the Kingdom surrendered : God over all.
721-788.
LECTURE FIFTEENTH.— THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
Estimates of the Assembly : Its Work Reviewed : Specific Excel
lences and Defects : Authority of the Symbols — Toleration : Con
tinental Relations and Influence : Their Permanency and
Propagation: Rule of Subscription: Revision. 1. Estimates of the
Assembly : its general character. 2. Its work reviewed : worship, govern
ment, doctrine — general quality. 3. Its doctrinal system, characteristic
excellences : extent, order and proportion, moderation, spiritual and
ethical quality. 4. Its defects : rules in estimating these : defects inherent
in Calvinism : some special defects named, explanation. 5. Ecclesiastical
authority of the Symbols : question of toleration. 6. Relation of the Sym
bols to Protestant symbolism : to continental Protestantism. 7. Their
permanence and propagation : rise of hindrances : British Moderatism. 8.
Rule of subscription : loyalty to the Symbols, its nature and demands. 9.
Revision and emendation, when desirable : requisite conditions. 789-840.
Index and References  841-858

THE WESTMINSTER SYMBOLS.

LECTURE FIRST— HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
Symbolism as a Study : Nature and Uses of Creeds :
The Creeds of Christendom : The Symbols of West
minster.
Symbolism may be defined as that branch of general theology
which treats of the history, contents, teaching and influence of
the accepted creeds of the Christian
Church. In such treatment these historic u Symbolism defined :
symbols are to be studied generally with ^^^St^T
respect to their sources, position and
issues, and also specifically with respect to their statements of par
ticular doctrines, and to their special presentations of the Christian
Truth. As each of these creeds or confessions has an individual
history, and exhibits peculiar characteristics in structure, contents
and spirit, the examination of the individual formulary with refer
ence to such elements, may be styled Particular Symbolism. As
the creeds or confessions of the Church, originating at various
periods in its development, sustain many interesting relations to
each other, both in their outer connections ecclesiastically, and in
their interior teaching and tendency, the study of these creeds in
such relations, with special reference to their mutual affiliations
and contrasts, may be styled Comparative Symbolism. The gen
eral aggregate of divine truth obtained by these processes, and
especially the scheme of Christian Doctrine thus derived, is in a
proper sense of the word, Symbolic Theology.
Standing between Biblical Theology on the one side, and Dog
matic or Systematic Theology on the other, the department of
study just defined has uses and values peculiar to itself. Though
it deals with past rather than present beliefs, and with terse form
ularies rather than extended doctrinal systems, it is not on such
account to be regarded as either obsolete or unimportant. A

2 historical introduction.
distinct and positive creed, originating in the deepest experience of
some Christian body, and representing its most fundamental con
victions respecting the essential truths of our holy religion, is in
fact, however remote it may be in date or place, far more significant
than any system of theology can be, however complete in itself
or however eminent in its authorship. And there are many ways
in which the study of such creeds, intelligently and carefully pur
sued, makes special and unique contribution to our knowledge of
the Christian Doctrine. Such study brings into view the various
modes and forms in which particular truths have at different peri
ods been stated and received within the Church. It illustrates the
various methods of combining such truths structurally, according
to their historic or theologic relations. It reveals the ordained
succession and vital interdependency of the Christian symbols,
and exhibits in and through them that sublime evolution of sacred
doctrine from the biblical germ, of which systematic theology is in
every age the culminating expression. The generic progress of
Christian truth and Christian faith through the centuries is often
most happily discerned, as it is thus made manifest in the forma
tion and the bright succession of the Christian creeds. Such study
also illustrates and interprets the external history of the Church
by bringing into just prominence those critical eras, those decisive
movements and struggles, in which such creeds have their origin.
In fact, the story of the genesis, formation, implanting and dif
fusion of creeds is sometimes the most important illustrative
chapter in the history of the period in which they originated.
Further, it is only as we duly estimate their authoritative affirma
tions, that we comprehend or are prepared to refute the errors or
heresies, which in many instances were their originating occasions,
and against which they bear their enduring protest. Still further,
we may note their practical contribution to ministerial culture and
service ; no one can adequately apprehend or expound the accepted
doctrines of his own branch of the Church, unless he understands
the historic evolution of such doctrines, and appreciates their con
fessional as well as their intrinsic meaning and value. Symbolic
studies also broaden the mind of the Christian scholar, expand his
intellectual and moral sympathies, cultivate in him an irenic tem
per, and set him in more practical and loving relations to all phases
of Christian belief, while at the same time they teach him to be
supremely loyal to the truth as revealed in Scripture, and to Him
who is the true light and life of men. For such reasons it is hardly
a mistake to classify symbolic with biblical and dogmatic theology
as an equally important factor in ministerial culture, and an inval-

symbolic theology. 3
uable help in the skillful and effective proclamation of the divine
Truth. The main purpose of the present series of Lectures is to describe
in detail the doctrinal contents of the Symbols of Westminster,
including not only the teachings of the Confession of Faith and
the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, but also such theological
material as appears in the Form of Government, Book of Disci
pline and Directory for Worship. Such doctrinal contents will be
so arranged as to present in full outline and in logical order, the
general system of theology incorporated in these Symbols — a
system which has been widely recognized as among the most
notable theologies of Christendom. Such modifications or emen
dations of that S3Tstem as have secured extensive acceptance within
the Presbyterian communions, as the result of more recent dis
cussions and discoveries, will also be included in this descriptive
survey. It is intended, further, to indicate at all important points
the historic relations of the Symbols of Westminster to Christian
symbolism in general, and especially to the other doctrinal form
ularies originating in the fruitful period of the Reformation.
Through such studies it is hoped on the one hand that broader
and juster views of the doctrinal teachings of the Symbols, as thus
defined and organized, may be attained ; and on the other hand
that a more intelligent appreciation of that comprehensive body
•of sacred doctrine, represented alike by these and other cognate
Protestant symbols, may be gained. It is also hoped more broadly,
that such investigation will result in enlarged conceptions and a
worthier estimate of the saving truth which constitutes the Gospel
in its essence, as accepted and cherished by evangelical Christen
dom universally. As introductory to the studies thus proposed,
some brief consideration of the nature and offices of creeds in
general, and a condensed historical survey of the Christian creeds,
and particularly of the Westminster Symbols as to their origin and
position and influence, will be requisite. These preliminary topics
will be the theme of the present Lecture.
As sacred doctrine constitutes, together with essential fact, the
material or substance of all Christian creeds, some brief reference
to. the meaning of that term, and also to
the history of Christian doctrine seems 2; Doc<rine> Primary
,r .. , rr^i • x j *< and secondary meanings :
needful, by way of further introduction to History Qf Doctrine>
the proposed study. Primarily the term,
doctrine, refers to the didactic element in Scripture itself, and
especially to the body of essential and saving truths revealed in

4 historical introduction.
the Scriptures. The Bible is not indeed a book of doctrine exclu
sively : it is biographic, historic, prophetic, poetical, preceptive
and legislative as well as doctrinal. These various constituents are
for the most part the divinely arranged vehicles by which its dog
matic teachings are conveyed to the mind — the widely diversified,
often picturesque and impressive modes, whereby the truth essen
tial to salvation is transmitted through the intellect to the con
science and the heart. Beneath all varieties of form and aim, the
Bible contains a series of instructive disclosures concerning God
and man and salvation, which are properly described as its. doc
trines, and on which its entire structure as a supernatural com
munication is founded. This doctrinal element is not indeed
formulated in the written Word, but is rather held in solution and
distributed throughout that Word in boundless variety, and with
primal reference to spiritual rather than intellectual effect. The
doctrines of the Bible at no point are articulated, or presented to
view in one systematic construction, for the reason that the moral
and practical ends sought in their disclosure forbid such system-
atization, and require rather that the divine truth should be given
to man in the free, flowing, diffused form in which the Holy Spirit
has in fact chosen to present it. Yet we are not to regard these
doctrines as any less valuable or vital because of this peculiarity in
their form. Doctrine is still the primordial basis on which the
entire scheme of grace reposes ; it is still the explaining, substan
tiating, comprehending element in the great scheme of salvation
revealed in the inspired Word.
In a secondary sense of the term, doctrine may be defined in
general as any human statement or expression of the dogmatic
element thus contained primarily in the Scriptures. In this sub
ordinate sphere, the term may be employed to describe even such
theological results as individual minds may have reached through
personal study of the divine Oracles, — especially if these have
been in some measure accepted by other minds as valuable expo
sitions of the truth of God. It is more frequently used to indicate
such statements of that truth as have commanded the assent of
many minds, or have found more or less authoritative acceptance
in any Christian body. Still more broadly, the term refers to
those statements of biblical truth which have been received by
extensive sections of the Church as containing the more vital or
essential elements in the Gospel, and eminently to those which
have been so regarded and approved by the Church Catholic and
Universal. One of the signal qualities of Christianity, as distinguished

doctrine defined. 5
from the natural faiths of the world, appears in the fact that it is
supremely a doctrinal and indoctrinating religion, — resting pri
marily on the body of profound and saving truth revealed in the
Scriptures respecting God and man, and eminently respecting
salvation as the great need and desire of the race, — resting secon
darily on that body of truth as progressively discerned and evolved
authoritatively by the living church. The study of the history
of such doctrinal discovery and evolution, in all the diversified
aspects which it has assumed in the developing life of Christen
dom, is an indispensable preliminary to the intelligent apprehen
sion of the contents and purpose of the Christian confessions.
The process which Hagenbach describes as the formation, the
deformation, and the reformation of dogma — the first discovery
of sacred truth as set forth in the Bible, the progressive unfolding
of such truth in the presence of error and often in conflict with it,
and the gradual expansion and completion of truth in its more
essential and enduring forms — must of necessity precede any au
thoritative statement of such truth in church formularies. How
much is involved in this study, in all its departments, can be known
only to one who has zealously undertaken and faithfully pursued
it. It includes an extensive acquaintance with the external his
tory of the church, and especially with those significant eras when
questions of doctrine excited universal interest, and vitally influ
enced the life and career of that divine organism. It includes
specific knowledge of the men who became the representatives of
sound doctrine or of heresy respectively, and of the parties which
from time to time arose within the church around such doctrinal
issues. It includes specific knowledge also of the multiplied forms
of opposition and unbelief, which at various periods have assailed
the church, and against which its creeds have been erected as com
manding barriers. It includes also such knowledge of dogmatic
theology as will enable the student not only to locate and estimate
rightly the particular issues involved, but likewise to discern the
relation of such issues to that aggregate of sacred doctrine in which
the specific truths of religion find their legitimate place. Much
more than this, which cannot now be named, is involved in such
historic study. It is important here merely to note the general
fact that it is only as such development of doctrine is known and
appreciated, — as the credenda of the Christian system are thus
properly discerned in their progressive manifestations, that it
becomes practicable to estimate duly the extensive confessional
material which constitutes so unique an element in organic
Christianity.

6 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
Creeds or confessions may be defined as concrete expressions of
sacred doctrine, so far as such doctrine has been comprehended
and determined authoritatively within the ^ creeds, Confessions,
church. They may be limited to the Syint)ols defined.
statement of such main facts, or of such
cardinal principia of faith, as are believed by the church to be
fundamental in the Christian scheme. They may express, in some
accepted form of words, the belief of the church in certain par
ticular truths, or departments of truth, or in the entire series of
truths which lie at the foundation of the Gospel. They may be
so far narrowed in contents and aim as to set forth simply what
is peculiar in the belief of some. branch or division of the church, as
distinguished from other like organizations. In general, the creed
of any body of believers may be described as the joint belief of that
body respecting some doctrine or doctrines taught in Scripture,
expressed in set form, and authoritatively presented by it to the
world. It will be noted that, whatever their scope or their object,
creeds are essentially churchly in their origin and associations :
they emanate from the church, are designed primarily for the
church, and are sealed and sanctioned by church endorsement.
Even the Apostles' Creed and the Symbolum Quicunque are not
exceptions, although individual rather than churchly in their
form, since they have come into authoritativeness only through
their almost universal acceptance in the various organized divisions
of Christendom.
The term, Creed, is sometimes employed in a subordinate sense
to describe the three symbols of the ancient Church, in contrast
with the more elaborate symbols of the period of the Reformation,
which for the sake of distinction are styled Confessions. The
former are brief, simple, chiefly historical : the latter more exten
sive, complex, dogmatic. The former are more private and
personal : the latter more general and churchly, representing
organized rather than individual testimony. The former were
employed chiefly in connection with worship : the latter were theo
logical documents, designed to expound or to sustain some existing
belief. The Creeds originated chiefly during the era when the
church was defining and clarifying its faith in its fundamental
unities : the Confessions were the outgrowth of a period when the
churches were announcing or defending their respective faiths,
amid comparative contrasts and antagonisms. Yet both alike are
summaries of what was believed to be essential truth as revealed
in the divine Word, and are regarded as obligatory upon those
who profess to be guided by that Word in their belief.

CREEDS DEFINED. 7
In modern usage, creeds or confessions are viewed chiefly as
formularies to be assented to in connection with admission into the
church, or with the assumption of official responsibility within
the church. In the first instance they involve a formal expres
sion of personal faith in the doctrines incorporated in the form
ulary ; in the second, a covenant of personal or official loyalty
to these doctrines as thus formulated. In most Protestant com
munions the latter is the chief use, — many of these communions
requiring from private members no declaration of belief beyond
the acceptance of a few primary truths, such as are held in com
mon by all Christians. In a broader sense, a creed or confession
is a declaration of faith on the part of the church itself — a declar
ation made in the presence of other Christian churches, or in
opposition to some current form of heresy, or as an acknowledge
ment of Christian truth in the presence of the unbelieving world.
Regarded as regulative guides of the church or of its officers,
creeds or confessions have been styled Rules of Faith or Rules of
Doctrine or, as in the early church, Canons of Belief. Viewed as
marks or badges of discipleship or as outward testimonies like
banners, creeds have been styled Symbols, as representing sym
bolically, or in concrete and suggestive form, the distinguishing
belief and teaching of the church.
Creeds as thus defined are hardly less essential than are doc
trines to the life and welfare of the church. There are both.
exterior and interior necessities which
„,.',. ^. . ,, . 4. Necessity for creeds,
call for their construction and their pro- £xterior ^ int£rior .
mulgation. One prominent element in tneir vame>
the exterior necessity may be seen in the
relation, whether of likeness or of contrast, which any particular
church may sustain to other Christian churches, or to the whole
body of believers. In many instances, creeds have been the ex
pressions or indices of agreement ; occasionally they have been
expressions and indices of differences more or less extensive, sep
arating the body making such confession from other branches in
the one household of faith. In such cases, they may become
earnest, powerful testimonies to truth which other communions
are failing to regard, or even solemn and effective protests against
errors which have been admitted or harbored in such communions.
For example, the confessions of the Reformation were largely
framed on one side to indicate the special doctrines, or conceptions
of the common doctrine, as held by particular bodies of Protes
tants, and on the other to set forth the truth of the Gospel as held
by all alike, in opposition to the heresies and corruptions of Rome.

8 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
The object of these creeds, as a high authority has well said, was
to give an authentic account of the doctrine which each church
regarded as sanctioned by the Scriptures, and would be understood
as prepared to teach among the people, — and this in order to bring
out clearly the Christian and evangelical character of the Refor
mation teaching in general, and wipe off aspersions and slanders.
Such an object can not cease in any age to be important.
Another form of exterior necessity may be seen in the peculiar
function of creeds with respect to the unbelieving world. The
church of Christ needs always to protect itself against the misrep
resentation of what it believes, and against the imputation to it of
what it does not believe, as well as against all slanderous arraign
ment of its spirit, purposes and character. To defend itself
against such injurious statements of its faith, the church must
make that faith clearly and authoritatively known to all men. It
has indeed many other methods of securing this end ; its ministry,
its sacraments, its constitution and life certify constantly and
effectively to the substance and influence of its cherished belief.
Yet a written, definite, authoritative creed has some special values
in this direction which are easily discerned. Here the Christian
scheme of doctrine takes on its crystalline, its more matured form ;
here what is most central and controlling in Christianity is brought
into vivid prominence ; here error and falsehood receive their most
decisive refutation. And this testimony is the more effective
because it is so permanent, continuing to make itself heard when
other teachers may have ceased to speak, — because it is so faithful,
when other teachers may be led through fear or through defection
to be silent, — because it often convinces and educates where other
teachers are ignored or resisted.
The interior necessity for creeds appears in the important func
tions which they sustain to the inward condition, experience and
growth of the church. In their catechetical form they furnish
invaluable aid in the instruction and training of the young within
the household of faith : it may indeed be questioned whether the
catechisms of Protestantism have not done more to determine the
accepted faith of evangelical Christendom, than the more elaborate
symbols which have more conspicuously represented the doctrines
held by the churches during the Reformation. Creeds serve also
in the indoctrination of the church at large, guiding disciples of
every grade in their apprehension and statement of the common
truth, and aiding them in the defense and the conservation of that
truth. They assist the church in estimating current opinion, in
detecting and eliminating error, in sustaining itself against heresy.

CREEDS — THEIR NECESSITY, 9
They both regulate and test the teaching of the ministry, furnish
a safeguard against false doctrine, aid in unifying the common
faith, and do much both to make the church one, and to inspire
and confirm it in its appointed work. These interior ministries of
creeds are even more valuable than are the exterior services already
named. Whatever objection may be urged against the formation
or use of such symbols, or whatever mischiefs may have resulted
from their perversion or abuse, there can be no real question as to
their priceless worth as elements in the constitution and life of the
church. Nor are these necessities any less real or essential be
cause the influence of such confessions is so largely silent and
unobserved. The simple presence of a strong, massive, propor
tionate, authoritative creed is itself a most potent element in
church life, even though that power be never invoked to put down
error, or to control pernicious tendencies in doctrine. Churches
which have such creeds know their value, and would be slow to
dispense with them : churches which have no creeds, or but slight
or vague creeds, too often find that the liabilities from which they
suppose themselves to be free, are far less significant than the evils
to which their comparatively creedless condition exposes them.
Bannerman (Church of Christ) defines the function of creeds
or confessions as threefold, — holding the truth, teaching the truth,
and witnessing and protesting in behalf of the truth. Within its
own pale, the church holds the truth of Scripture in its creed, —
as he says — as the basis of its union, the formal representative of
its faith, and the assurance of the soundness of its profession.
Within that pale, it also teaches the truth authoritatively by such
public summary of the doctrine it holds, as being in accordance
with the Word of God. Outside of that pale, he adds, the church
by its creed bears important testimony for the truth as against the
error or unbelief of the world. The extent and the purpose of
such formulation and exposition of church belief will vary widely
according to the nature of the inward or outward exigency ; and
also according to the position and prominence of the church on one
hand, and on the other to the accuracy, fullness, and spiritual
effectiveness of the belief thus formulated.
Under the pressure of such necessities, external and internal,
the Christian church has been constrained in every age to mold or
to proclaim its conscious faith in forms
S. Formulation of creeds; sumciently full and definite to meet
limitations and conditions: from tim£ fo time its g^^g needs.
the ideal creed. The question whether it could maintain
its existence without such formularies is practically answered by

10 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
the historic fact that it has never chosen to exist without them,
and by the further fact that the periods in which it has been most
indifferent to creeds, have invariably been periods of decline into
lethargy or into error. The general truth is that the church has
effloresced, into creeds as naturally as a healthful oak expresses
and represents itself in acorns. The process in all its forms and
stages has been one of transcendent interest. The confessions
found in Scripture, brief, concerned with central facts only, suf
fused with spiritual feeling, are chiefly a suggestive series of
declarations of individual faith or trust. In like manner the oldest
Christian creed, especially in its earlier forms, is simply a recital
by the individual believer of the great central facts or verities of
the Christian system. When heresies began to arise within the
church, and these central facts or verities came to be perverted by
speculation or set aside for the sake of theologic theory, the creeds
such as that of Nicaea, framed in order to sustain or preserve vital
doctrine, became more ample, elaborate and didactic. During the
period of the Reformation, the church confessions assumed a still
more elaborate and doctrinal character, growing in some instances
almost to the dimensions of a system of theology. The warm
glow of feeling, the mere clinging to fact, the simplicity of struc
ture, gave way to an unimpassioned statement of truth, to balanced
propositions and comprehensive combinations in structure, and to
a dogmatic quality quite in contrast with the more primitive sym
bols. Among these later formularies a striking law of growth is
also apparent, not only joining each creed by living cords to its
predecessors in the series, but often introducing in each successor
some fresh aspect of doctrine or belief not heretofore distinctly
affirmed. Numerous limitations which can not be named here, must appear
at every stage in a process, so complex and delicate. Brief refer
ence to one or two of these may suffice. The most fundamental
lies in the nature of human language, regarded as the medium for
the expression of spiritual truth. At the best, the language of
man can only incorporate in very inadequate measure the great
verities of the Gospel. In Revelation itself the Holy Spirit ap
pears to struggle with the inadequacies of human speech, and to
seize on a wide variety of phrases, images, similitudes, in order to
set forth through their combination what no words of man seem
able fully to express. And in even the most elaborate compila
tions of doctrine, fashioned on the basis of Scripture, the inade
quacy of words becomes still more apparent. The physical element
in language limits and discolors the spiritual fact, and at the last

CREEDS — THEIR LIMITATIONS. 11
we are obliged to confess that the truth has been rather shadowed
forth than fully expressed. All creeds, like all theological sys
tems, are formed under this limitation of speech, and like the
dogmas they embody or represent, are at best but partial declara
tions of what is really believed.
A kindred limitation is apparent in all human thinking on
divine themes. The mind of man, the mind even of the church,
can never justly claim that it has adequately possessed itself of
the truth of God as revealed in his Word. The embarrassments of
a finite intellect, and of such intellect as affected by sin, are far
deeper than those growing out of human language. These em
barrassments force themselves painfully into view whenever the
attempt is made to formulate any cardinal element in our faith.
The atonement, for illustration, stands out prominently as a cen
tral fact in the Gospel ; and men may succeed in throwing the
great fact into some form of words : they may describe it under
some varieties of imagery or illustration, which will in some
degree enable us to apprehend and hold it as a cardinal tenet of
grace. Yet every thoughtful student realizes that there are mys
teries in the sublime reality of the atonement, peculiar and inex
plicable relations shadowed forth in it, which no human mind has
ever comprehended, — before which the highest thought of man is
forever baffled. And if a truth like this is to be formally stated
in a doctrinal symbol, the fact must be recognized at the outset
that every such statement will carry in it not only evidences of the
inadequacy of language, but also traces of the finiteness and the
imperfectness of the minds that unite in framing it. The claim
of the Roman church that it is so inhabited by the Holy Spirit as
to be lifted above such limitatations — so guided by him that its
confessional declarations are in themselves complete and irreform-
able, is one which is contradicted alike by history and by sound
philosophy. On the other hand the objection of current agnosti
cism, based on the fact that all human knowledge of divine things
is only relative and approximate, can not be regarded as forever
precluding all attempts at creed formulation. The rational and
practical rule in the case lies between these two delusive extremes
of infallibility and impossibility.
Waiving all reference to various limitations in circumstance and
condition, we may pause for a moment to contemplate in outline
the ideal of a perfect Christian creed, — one freed so far as possible
from all such narrowing limitations. As to its material, such a
creed will incorporate, not religious truth in general, but the most
essential truth and doctrine contained in Holy Scripture ; especially

12 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
such elements of sound doctrine as are most cardinal in themselves,
and most vitally tributary to the support and nurture of faith
within the church. In a subordinate sense, it may properly
contain also those more particular aspects of sacred truth, or of
correspondent duty, which are especially held and cherished as
important by any branch or division of the church. As to form
and style, the ideal creed will present such truth in just propor-
portions and in due method and order : it will be neither technical
nor abstract nor highly elaborated, but plain and popular in
structure ; its statements simple rather than complex, its language
largely biblical, and its composition adjusted throughout to the
apprehension of those for whom it is framed. As to extent, it
will be neither so brief as to fail of defining adequately the truth
or doctrine professed, nor so expanded as to become burdensome
or bewildering to those who avow it : terse, positive and compre
hensive in its affirmations, and every way sufficient and com
manding as an exposition of the accepted faith. As to spirit, such a
creed will be neither dogmatic nor partisan, but irenic and winning
in influence : composed in no mood of antagonism toward other
types of evangelical thought ; considerate even in dealing with
heresy or with pernicious error ; carrying in it no undue tone of
assumption, but gentle and peaceable in temper, and contributing
not to warfare but to peace — a crystalized expression of the true
Communion of Saints. As to purpose, such a creed will aim
supremely to express the truth, to commend and defend the truth,
and to attract men toward the truth as it is in Christ : becoming
at once a banner around which the church can gather with loyal
enthusiasm, and a fortress which foes assail in vain ; a light
steadily shining in a dark place, and a steadfast voice of both
counsel and warning; a sacred rule or canon of belief, representing
in enduring form that which differentiates Christianity doctrinally
from all other religions.
In the presence of such an ideal concept, all existing creeds are
easily seen to be marked, in material or form and range, in spirit
, , or purpose, by more or less of incomplete-
c^dsrSfSo? r- Itisob^s that, like all theology,
ment ; problem of emen- they are developed under a law of growth
dation. and progress, and that such development
can never be regarded as finished. All
theology, regarded simply as the human statement or expression
in more or less scientific form of what God has first revealed in
his inspired Word, is constantly varying and widening in both con
tent and structure, as the human mind gains larger views of the

CREEDS — THEIR INCOMPLETENESS. 13
truth, or sees that truth in wider and juster relations. Even
when the constructive principles of theology have been appre
hended, and after the main elements in the system have been
drawn from the Scriptures, new definitions of doctrine and new
combinations of doctrine are still possible. What is seen prepares
the way for a clearer discernment of what at first can not be seen ;
what has been grouped together at one time may by its own imper
fection suggest some better method of grouping ; what seems at
one stage to be perfect, comes to be viewed as imperfect under the
light of further study and experience. Christian theology thus
exists under a law of growth, and can never be said to be com
plete. The affirmation of Macaulay that theology, revealed as
well as natural, is not of the nature of a progressive science, is
clearly unwarranted. For while the cardinal teachings of Scrip
ture can not be altered or improved by human ingenuity, the
volume of teaching in the Bible is found to be steadily expanding,
as the human intelligence increases in capacity ; and both the forms
and the cogency of revealed doctrine are constantly developing
through progressive inquiry and widening knowledge of the Word
itself. Christian theology is thus not a stationary and finished,
but a steadily advancing science ; ever setting the truth of God in
fresh lights and relations, discovering new harmonies in that truth,
and thus building up, century by century, a temple of sacred
doctrine, whose full completion it may not be given to mortal man
to behold. The manifest fact is that no century can frame a
scheme of doctrine which should justly limit the belief and teach
ing of succeeding centuries. Each period, each generation, each
body of believers may and in some sense must make a theology
for itself. To suppose otherwise is to confuse the rudimentary
distinction between theology and revelation : it is to fancy each
and every council, each and every theologian, infallible.
Creeds are developed under a similar law of growth, and partake
of similar incompleteness. A confession adopted as sufficient at
any one period may be too brief and rudimentary to describe the
more comprehensive or more philosophic faith of a later period.
A symbol formed in an era distinctly theological, when the mind
of the church is largely occupied with speculative question or
debate, may have much in it which an era of greater practical
activity, or of comparative indifference to the more recondite
aspects of divine truth, will either reject or regard as of little
practical moment. A creed shaped during some period of intense
controversy, and drafted for the special purpose of contradicting
or of crushing out some rising heresy, will inevitably carry with

14 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
it traces of the conflict in which it arose, and may consequently
fail to command the intelligent and cordial assent of the church
after the period of excitement is over, and the controversy has
come to a decisive close. In like manner, a creed which may be
regarded as the best possible expression of the belief of the church
in any given land or age, will indicate at many points its particular
place and date, and may consequently become inadequate to repre
sent the living convictions of other churches in other lands and
times. And beyond all this, what is illustrated in all theology as
a growth largely personal and provincial, and always limited by
human narrowness, must appear no less really or vividly in all
creeds. In the broadest sense, to affirm that such creeds are
imperfect, is simply to assert that they are human. The Placuit
Spiritui Sancto et Nobis, of the primitive Council at Jerusalem,
though appropriated by the Vatican, can not rightly be employed
to describe the decisions of any subsequent council, whether in
the early church or in more modern times.
It is a just inference from this view of the imperfectness of all
human compilations of belief, that no church, in planting itself on
any given formula, agrees by that act to hold the said formula
unchanged and unrevised through all time. There is indeed, as
we have seen, a certain sacredness attaching to old symbols like
those of the ancient church — symbols that have come to be ac
cepted widely, and are held in common by many different branches
of the one church of Christ — which seems to forbid attempts to
alter or expand or improve them by whatever process. A creed
which has become the heritage in some sense of the common
Christianity, ought not to be torn to pieces, or changed by the
introduction of improvements according to the judgment of this
or that particular denomination, until its historical quality is
destroyed, and the aroma of antiquity in it is altogether exhaled.
The same principle would apply in the case of a confession held
extensively even by any main division of the church, such as the
Lutheran or the Reformed, or in the case of such doctrinal sym
bols as those of Westminster, as now received and held by many
Presbyterian bodies. It would be more in harmony with the fit
ness of things for any such communion to make a new creed or
declaration for itself, presenting in its own chosen words the
accepted scheme of doctrine, than to alter at essential points such
historic symbols so as to suit its own specialties in belief.
.Yet the general right of emendation is one which can not be
denied. This right may be exercised, as in some historic instan
ces, by the adoption of additional definitions or declarations

CREEDS — THEIR AUTHORITATIVENESS. 15
designed to meet objection or to remove obscurity. In any such
case, the original creed is to be received in the light of such explan
atory additions, and is obligatory only so far as these extend.
This right is certainly admissible, even if carried much farther
than this. The Westminster Assembly itself at first undertook
such revision and emendation of an existing symbol, and only
abandoned the effort after discovering that the framing of a new
confession would be an easier and more acceptable task, than so
radical an alteration of that symbol as was judged to be needful
in order to make it a fit exponent of what was then regarded as
the national belief. It is obvious, however, that the justifying
reasons for such emendation must be clear, urgent, decisive. Some
degree of permanence is essential to the usefulness or influence of
any creed. Slight or frequent changes are to be avoided as prac
tically destructive. The frequent agitation of the question of
amendment is certain to unsettle popular confidence in the creed
itself. Errors or defects which are minor may therefore be borne
with ; even serious imperfections in statement or in construction
may be endured, when the alternative is likely to be ecclesiastical
agitation or conflict, or the wide disturbance of popular faith. It
nas been urged that, as in the case of some state constitutions, the
matter of creed amendment should be brought up at stated inter
vals, in order to test the confidence of the church in its accepted
standards, or to furnish an orderly and peaceful mode of improving
them. But the general instinct of the Protestant communions is
adverse to any such provision, and their obvious choice is to hold
their standards in their primitive form as nearly as possible, and
to modify that form only when some serious emergency may
demand it. Whenever such an emergency arises, some churches,
like our own, have provided in their constitution a legitimate
method for making alterations in creed, as in matters of polity or
worship. The degree of authoritativeness attaching to all church symbols
must be measured by the facts as to their origin, contents and
nature. The doctrine of church inf allibil- f> Thejr authoritative.
ity as held by the papacy, whether such n£SS. de?rees ln weignt
infallibility lies in the councils of the an(j claim: loyalty de-
church, or in the pope as spiritual head fined.'
over the church, leads inevitably to the
conclusion that all canons, decrees, doctrines once enunciated by
the church in either way, are beyond all challenge or question.
Additions may be made to such decrees, as the developing con
sciousness of the church may make new discoveries of truth :

16 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
further proclamations of doctrine may be needful, to complete the
system already held, or to meet errors arising in opposition to the
truth. But a creed once proclaimed, resting *>n the Scriptures,
inspired by the Holy Ghost, endorsed by the voice of the church,
must according to Rome be viewed as forever infallible, and should
be received by all with implicit, unquestioning faith. Protestant
ism finds infallibility nowhere but in the inspired Word. It main
tains in the language of the Confession of Westminster not only
that all synods and councils since the days of the Apostles may err,
but that many of them have erred ; and therefore that, while such
synods or- councils may be helpful in the elucidation of divine
truth, their affirmations however entitled to respect are never to
be made the implicit rule of faith or of practice. No other posi
tion than this is consistent with the Protestant doctrine as to the
supreme authority, the perfect truthfulness and the absolute suf
ficiency of the Holy Scriptures. The perils involved in that
position, such as false interpretation or indifference to church
authority or the extreme individualism of reason, are far less seri;
ous than the perils involved in the papal view, or in the absolute
acceptance of any earthly standard, personal or impersonal, as
infallible. The degree of authoritativeness in any particular creed may be
determined by a variety of tests. Among extrinsic sources of such
authoritativeness may be named the number and ability and posi
tion of the persons who framed the symbol, the circumstances and
conditions regulating its formation, the extent to which it has been
received and acknowledged, the degree of its present prominence
and influence as an accepted representative of the faith of the
church. The intrinsic authority of a creed lies in what it is as a
statement of truth, when studied in the light of the Scriptures, and
tested by the best results of exegetical and theological inquiry
The authoritativeness of some creeds obviously wanes with time,
even among those who have vowed allegiance to them ; and not
infrequently they are held up rather as historical insignia of a past
faith, or as representatives of old controversy, than as expressions
of living thought and present experience. Such symbols may still
be insisted upon as strict tests of loyalty to the church, or as
standards of individual teaching in the church; they may be in
vested with an extraneous authority derived from the concentrated
will of the body that avows them ; and yet their claim to accept
ance may be a waning claim, and they may have little real
authoritativeness over the individual mind or conscience. To be
authoritative in the best sense, a creed must be the cherished

LOYALTY TO CREEDS. 17
expression of living belief — the utterance and confession of the
church as it actually is. It must also be so thoroughly biblical,
so saturated throughout with both the teaching and the temper
of Scripture, that those who study it shall be drawn spontaneously
into acceptance of it by the continuous and positive consciousness
that its declarations are substantially the voice and message of the
Holy Ghost.
The general question of loyalty to church creeds is indicated
sufficiently in what has already been said. Viewed simply in their
abstract form as statements of Christian doctrine, made and avowed
by some section of the church of Christ, they are entitled to the
respect of all who receive that doctrine, and have a right to be
accepted and honored as deliberate expressions of the judgment
of the household of faith; Acceptance of them in this sense is
simply a personal endorsement and acceptation of the truths they
contain. But when viewed as doctrinal bases or foundations of
an organized church, creeds assume a different character, and are
entitled to allegiance of another sort. Here they become a coales
cing factor in the organization, a permanent representative of the
distinguishing principles on which the organization is based, a test
of individual teaching and especially of official qualifications, and
a standard around which all who are connected with the organiza
tion may properly be expected to gather. Apart from any abstract
question as to the use of creeds in such connections and ways, there
can be no doubt as to the obligation of all who acquiesce in that
use, and who connect themselves with any church under these
conditions. The acceptance of the creed here assumes in part the
character of a covenant ; the confession is made by the individual
to and before the church ; and loyalty to that church therefore
involves true and honest loyalty to the symbol on which the church
is based.
There are two practical errors to be avoided here. The first
calls for an acceptance of every section and clause of the endorsed
creed — an avowal of personal allegiance to every word or phrase,
and of obligation to maintain and defend the symbol in each par
ticular. This may be carried so far as to include a tacit agreement
not to believe anything that lies outside of the creed or is in
conflict with it ; it may be regarded as involving an obligation to
resist all proposed revisions or emendations ; it may even assume
a more or less conscious veneration of the creed as if it were per
fect, and possibly in some degree inspired. There is a blind
allegiance which goes to such extremes as these, and which would
require similar blindness in all who should seek admission to the

18 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
church, or undertake to represent the church officially. But no
argument is necessary to show that such a theory is not only
contrary to the spirit and teaching of Protestantism, but is alto
gether at variance with supreme loyalty to the Word and Truth
of God. The attempt to enforce any such theory within the
Presbyterian church has always failed, and must always fail, for
the simple reason that it is at variance with the fundamental
position of our Symbols respecting the supremacy of Scripture, the
fallibility of human councils, and the superior obligation of fidelity
to personal conscience in all matters of belief.
The opposite error is a latitudinarian indifference to the specific
teaching of the creed avowed, or to the covenant implied in a true
subscription. While such subscription can obligate no one to be
indifferent to the errors or defects of a creed, or to accept that
creed in any other way than as an expression or exponent of the
doctrine supremely taught in Holy Scripture, as discerned and held
by the church, that subscription honestly made will not permit
indifference to the recognized rights of such creed, or disregard of
its plain and decisive teaching on any essential point of doctrine.
If the authoritativeness of such symbols be earthly and human, it
is still real and is entitled to respect even from those who conscien
tiously differ in belief. Certainly such authoritativeness ought to
be binding on all, and especially on all in official station, who have
once voluntarily accepted any symbol as their own, and have entered
into formal covenant to support and proclaim it. No right mind
can be in sympathy with that loose, reckless, revolutionary temper,
which disregards such obligations, or which uses a position within
any given church to subvert the foundations on which that church
is conscientiously standing. Honest, open, manly loyalty to these
as to all other recognized obligations is a cardinal constituent in
every worthy character.
With these definitions and under such limitations, it would seem
that no just objection could be raised to the formation or adoption
q ftKj.„«„»»„ ^ of church creeds. There is indeed a class
8. Objections to creeds: . ,
these objections answered. of Persons whose opposition to such doc
trinal symbols is only one phase of a
broader opposition to all definite and positive statements of biblical
truth. In some instances the real feeling in the case is doubtless
one of hostility to the truth itself — not merely to the formulated
expression of the truth ; it is the doctrine of the inspired Word
that is opposed, whatever form that doctrine may assume. In others
the objection springs rather from a general impression that the
Bible itself is sufficient as a creed, or from a kindred impression

OBJECTIONS TO CREEDS. 19
that there is danger lest these merely human statements shall crowd
out or impair the supreme force of the Divine Original. It is al
leged that creeds thus tend both to weaken the dominant claim
of Scripture, and to bring the church under subordination to some
human system, to the injury rather than to the nurture of faith.
An adequate answer to such objection may be found in the obvious
fact that the Bible itself is so variously interpreted, and that so
many forms of error are claiming scriptural warrant. In the pres
ence of such error, the just interpretation of Scripture can be
recognized and attained only by careful analysis and condensation
of the truth as revealed, in the exact language of philosophy — in
scientific form and proportions. Viewed simply in this light,
church creeds as systematic statements of the biblical teaching,
are often of immeasurable value : in some periods or conditions of
the church they may be absolutely indispensable, both as a protec
tion against the incursions of unbelief, and as a source of strength
and nutriment to those who believe.
Objection is sometimes based specifically on the recognized im
perfection in all such symbols. It is to be admitted that as human
constructions all creeds are imperfect, — that many of them are
deficient either in their constructive principle, or in their definitions
or their phraseology, — that some are too cumbrous to be available
as practical tests of belief, others too abstract and speculative, and
others too narrow and meager, to meet the ends sought in their
formulation or their use. But some of these criticisms apply with
equal force to all human expositions of the truth of God : some
are illustrations of deficiency such as lies in the nature of all
human products : some give occasion merely for correction and
improvement, and therefore are arguments, not for rejection but
for emendation. Moreover, however defective such symbols are,
they are still useful ; though they fail to express the totality of
truth, they yet express much which is not only truthful but full
of spiritual significance. And while it may be easy to reject them
because of their imperfection, it will be found far more difficult
than is imagined either to do without them or to provide any
worthier substitutes.
Objection is also urged on the further ground that such creeds
are not merely human and in themselves imperfect, but also, even
in their best forms and especially when largely specialized and mi
nute in contents, are fetters upon liberty of thought, and therefore
hindrances to the free and full development of the truth, as con
tained in the Bible. It is alleged that men are unduly hampered
by such confessional declarations, — that they are sometimes held

20 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
back from legitimate investigation, and in others are led to conceal
their real beliefs, or are tempted into an advocacy which is not
entirely sincere. So far as creeds do in fact produce such results,
they may become injurious, rather than beneficial to the church.
But these are by no means necessary, consequences, nor are the
creeds always at fault when they do occur. A true, clear, just
creed is far more likely to be a stimulant than a hindrance to lib
erty of thought ; it is more likely to quicken investigation than
to repress it. Is it not an obvious fact in the history of Protest
antism, that the churches which possess the broadest and strongest
creeds, have been the churches in which the largest freedom of
thought has been not only granted but exercised ?
Still further objection is based upon the wrong use of creeds,
and especially upon the help they may afford to an assuming
dogmatism and to ecclesiastical tyranny. It is admitted that
church symbols have in some instances been so used, — that they
have been put forward and exalted by bigots as if perfect, — that
church authorities have wielded them as scourges to repress free
conviction or punish personal error, — that they have at times
played no small part in that experience of religious tyranny
through which our Christianity has passed, and in some measure
is still passing. But these issues are hardly more attributable to
creeds than to the Bible itself, or to the church of Christ viewed
as a living organism. Like all other divine instrumentalities put
into human hands, such as the holy sacraments, or the ministerial
office, or the keys of the kingdom of heaven, creeds may be thus
misused — may be perverted into instruments of injustice. But it
is against the perversion of creeds that such objections lie. This
possible issue neither destroys their true design nor justifies their
rejection : in their proper place and office, they may still prove an
inestimable help and blessing to the church. Miller (Creeds and
Confessions) argues in defence of creeds as contributing to church
unity, as illustrating the position of the church as a depository
and witness to saving truth, as candid testimonials of belief
addressed to other churches, and as promoting the study of Chris
tian doctrine and the increase of religious knowledge. He argues
also from the experience of the church as to the helpfulness of
creeds, and from the latitudinarian character and tendency of those
who oppose them, and answers effectively various specific objec
tions urged by such opponents.
Historic Creeds : From this general view of the nature and
uses of creeds, and of the conditions under which they are framed

CREED ELEMENT IN SCRIPTURE. 21
and are to be received, we may now turn to glance summarily at
the historical succession of such symbols, enumerating them as
they were evolved in chronologic order from the study and ex
perience of the church, and considering them in some of their
more obvious connections and bearings. Such a brief glance at
the material of what has already been defined as Comparative
Symbolism, will prepare the way for a more specific and intelligent
examination of the Symbols of Westminster in their historic
position and relations.
The creed element in Scripture itself may serve as a proper
introduction to such survey. It has already been suggested that
the Bible is not a book of doctrinal form-
Idas, but presents itself rather as a record ^p^^SSLE
ot iaitn already m exercise, — of beliefs rations of faith.
already cherished in experience, and in
that form regulating human lives. In the spiritual sphere it is
not in the nature of the human mind first to formulate and then
to believe. Divine truth enters into men first as a living power,
subduing the soul into obedience and devotion, and assuming the
shape of objective doctrine only when the soul has contemplated
its own experience reflectively, and has discerned the truth as it
shines forth in personal consciousness. And the Scriptures in
general follow this law, approaching man chiefly on the side of his
spiritual nature, and making their teachings manifest in religious
effects rather than in didactic formulas. The doctrinal element is
indeed everywhere present, but diffusively rather than in concrete
shape — as life rather than proposition.
Yet even in the Old Testament we may discern the antetypes
and germs of much Christian symbolism. Individual confessions,
for example, such as are apparent in the Davidic psalms, ,in the
dedicatory prayer of Solomon, in the profound petition of Daniel,
may be found half formulated in many of the sacred books. More
general declarations, such as the confession of the people at Sinai
or in conjunction with the great miracle of Elijah, occur both in
the historical sections and in the prophetical writings. The entire
Mosaic ceremonial, as observed by the nation, was a continuous
confession of its faith in Him by whom that ceremonial was insti
tuted, and toward whom it was ever pointing the soul of the
worshiper. Advanced Judaism, as it calls itself, has in nothing
more fully betrayed its lack of loyalty to the holy Word than in
its refusal to be bound by that clear and solemn system of doctrine,
which is thus embedded actually though in unelaborated statement
in the Old Testament. — But in the New Testament this creed

22 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
element, as might be anticipated, exists in forms more" distinct
and more precious, as all sacred doctrine centralizes and glorifies
itself in the personal Christ. The Christian church indeed pre
sents itself to our view at first as existing without creeds. The
reasons for this are easily seen. The basis of fact on which the
primitive Christianity rested, was so clearly understood alike by
the church and its enemies, — the simple verities of the Gospel
were so distinctly known and avowed by all believers, that there
was no real necessity for the statement of these in confessional
form, whether for apology or for confirmation. Even during the
latest decades of the apostolic century, though antichrists were
already appearing, this necessity could hardly be said to have had
an existence. The church reposed in its traditional faith, as de
fined in the apostolic writings, until the rising heresies and the
philosophic oppositions of the centuries succeeding constrained it
to the formal expression of its cherished belief.
The creed element in the New Testament consists therefore
chiefly of individual declarations of faith, called out by something
in personal experience, or of ascriptions of trust uttered by the
church, resembling hymns rather than formal creeds. Of the first
class we have illustrations in the avowal of Nathaniel, John i : 49 ;
in the emphatic utterance of Peter, Matthew xvi : 16 ; in the trust
ful declarations of the apostles generally, Matthew xiv : 33 ; John
vi : 68-69 ; in the confession made by the eunuch to Philip, Acts
viii : 37 ; in the declaration of Paul to the jailor, Acts xvi : 31.
Of the second class instances may be seen in several summaries of
apostolic teaching bearing the confessional form, as in Romans
x : 9 ; I. Corinthians xv : 3-8 ; I. John iv : 2. The most elaborate
of these is found in I. Timothy iii : 16 : in which the mystery of
godliness, or the true faith, receives its fullest exposition in a recital
of the main facts respecting the incarnation, life, death and res
urrection of our Lord. Further allusion to such principia or
foundations of belief may be found in Hebrews vi:l-2 ; and Rev
elation ii:13 ; and possibly in the form of sound words referred
to by Paul, II. Timothy, i : 13. Jude also speaks of the faith
once delivered to the saints ; Peter alludes to the present truth, as
in holy contrast with all human errors ; and Paul regards himself
as a steward of certain divine mysteries, I. Corinthians iv : 1 ;
Ephesians iii : 9 ; and as having a dispensation or deposit of truth
committed unto him, I. Corinthians ix:17. The baptismal form
ula also may be regarded as a confession of faith in the funda
mental mystery of the Trinity, on the part of those who submitted
to that ordinance ; and the kindred formula to be used at the

FIRST CREED PERIOD. 23
eucharistic supper according to the instruction of Christ, is in
some sense a like confession of that cardinal truth of grace, which
the bread broken and the wine poured forth so vividly symbolize.
The apostolic benedictions certainly embody the fundamental
doctrine of the Trinity.
But these examples are not to be pressed too far. While such
illustrations indicate clearly the presence in Scripture of what may
properly be called a creed element, it still is true that the Bible
furnishes no complete formula of religious belief ; and that the
church existed during the apostolic era and for nearly a century
afterward, without any such organized confession of its faith.
The tradition that the apostles agreed in preparing the creed which
bears their name, is without historic warrant and is to be set aside
as a tradition merely : Fisher, Hist. Doct. So long as living men
were found who could testify to what the Lord had spoken, — so
long as there were actual witnesses to the great facts as well as
the fundamental teachings of the common Christianity, more
formal creeds than those just mentioned were needless, and the
church, so far as we know, made no effort to supply them. The
suggestion that the apostolic church had no creed because it could
not agree upon any common and acceptable statement of doc
trine — a suggestion based on the alleged disparities between the
Pauline and Petrine and Johannine conceptions of the Gospel — is
clearly without historic warrant.
The first creed period may be regarded as including the third,
fourth and fifth centuries. During the second century and probably
shortly after the decease of John, various .,„,,,
J . ... - ' , . 10. First Creed Period:
forms of antichrist appeared, breaking Th£ ffiree anc,ent Creeds>
in openly upon the doctrinal unity of the
church, and imperiling the common faith. Some allusions by
John, and also by Paul and Peter, ( I. John ii : 18-22; iv : 3; II.
Thess. ii : 3-7; II. Peter ii : 1; see Epistle of Jude) seem to suggest
either the actual rising of such heresies, or at least the subtle
development of tendencies toward heresy even in the first century.
It is matter of history that, shortly after the departure of the
apostolic college, external opposition became more formidable in its
aspects, and much more decisive in its assaults. It was natural
that the first center of conflict should be found in the person of
the Immanuel, and in the associated doctrine of the Trinity. If
Christ could be shown to be something less than he had declared
himself to be as a divine Mediator, — if the churchly conception
of his person could be shaken or overthrown, — if the supernatural
element in the doctrine of the Holy Ghost could be rejected, and

24 HISTORICAL . INTRODUCTION.
the divine Fatherhood in nature and in grace could be proved
unworthy of acceptation, then the entire scheme of Christianity,
resting on these foundations, would crumble into dust. Error
within the church or opposition from without, succeeding at points
so cardinal as these, would subvert and destroy the whole system,
and the church and the Christian religion would inevitably perish
together. The oldest of the three ancient creeds, bearing the name of the
apostles, but not originating with them membratim articulatimque ,
was the first formal attempt by the church to protect herself from
such perils by the definite formulation and proclamation of her
essential belief at these vital points. It can be traced in its earliest
forms to the latter half of the second century. Springing appar
ently from the baptismal formula, following the order of the holy
trinity, confining itself to the main facts of the Gospel, — simple in
structure, suffused with devotional feeling and fitted alike to be a
standard of belief and a song of adoration, — it still remains, as
Augustine described it, a regula of faith both brief and grand,
brief in the number of its words, grand in the weight of its
declarations. Accepted by both the Eastern church and the
Western, and by Romanist and Protestant, incorporated in the
Lutheran confessions, and more widely used than any other symbol
for both testimony and worship, it will probably stand through all
time as alike the primary representative of sacred doctrine, the
germ of succeeding creeds, and the uniting and distinguishing
confession of all in every age who truly believe in Christ.
Associated with this primitive symbol are the Nicene and the
Athanasian creeds ; not including as fully as the preceding the
general field of divine doctrine, but relating especially to Trini-
tarianism and Christology. The first represented eastern more
than western thought; was prepared at Nicaea, A. D. 325;
perfected at Constantinople, A. D. 381; and modified for the
western church at the council of Toledo A. D. 589, by the addition
of the term, Filioque. The second, also oriental in origin, some
times called from its opening words, Symbolum Quicunque, of
uncertain authorship although ascribed to Athanasius, was ac
cepted by no action of the ancient church, yet was widely received,
especially for its elaborate exposition of the deity in Christ and of
the doctrinal decisions of the first four ecumenical councils gen
erally, and is now ranked, aside from its damnatory clauses, with
the other two primitive symbols as expressing still the faith of
extensive sections of the Christian church, both Catholic and
Protestant. To these may be added the explanatory clauses

THE THREE ANCIENT CREEDS. 25
appended to the Nicene creed by the council of Chalcedon, A. D.
451 ; which were designed to exclude still more carefully certain
remaining forms of error, and to define still more exactly the
orthodox belief respecting the union of two natures in one person
in Christ.
Studying these three ancient creeds comparatively, we may note
the following particulars. First: they are alike in resting imme
diately on the words of Scripture, and
more specifically on the baptismal form- J 1 ' Tnese Creeds s™died
ula and the trinitarian benedictions. "^f^; f,Their C°n"
„ . . , tents and limitations.
Recognizing as we have done a certain
confessional element specially in the New Testament, both as
indicated in individual utterances of belief and as expressed in the
forms of sacred devotion, we may readily appreciate this early
upspringing of that seed or germ in these more formal affirmations
of the accepted faith. Had there been no outward exigencies im
pelling to such affirmations, we still might presume that the inward
needs of the household of faith, such as the training of the young
and their entrance into public covenant, and the investiture of per
sons appointed to office, would have led in time to such symbolic
statements of the truth, especially as these were so immediately
suggested though not formally given in the divine Word.
Second : these creeds were, peculiar in adhering mainly to the
historic facts on which the Gospel reposes. In the two latter, we
have indeed the results of the prolonged controversies touch
ing such abstruse and speculative questions as the trinity in the
divine constitution, and the union of divine and human elements
in the composite personality of Christ. Yet even in these state
ments we see a close adherence to the historic method followed so
rigidly in the earliest symbol ; the divine facts however mysterious
are ever kept in the foreground. In reality we find but little in
them after all beyond the simple teaching of Scripture concerning
the Father and the work of creation, concerning the Son in his
incarnation and mission for our redemption, and concerning the
Spirit in his official relations to the church and to the prime
blessings of the Christian life.
Third : compared with the later symbols, these original creeds
are brief, terse, pointed ; stating simply what is most central and
omitting much which subsequent confessions have sought to state
or to expand. This peculiarity is explained by the fact that the
great anthropological and soteriological controversies, and espec
ially the latter, had not yet arisen, — that the grave errors in these
departments of theology which figured so largely in subsequent

26 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
thought and discussion were as yet undeveloped. The great
conflict between Augustinianism and Pelagianism in their several
varieties, near as it was in point of time, is hardly recognizable
in these creeds. Of the momentous issues which subsequently
arose respecting the nature and scope of the work of Christ, and
which have so decisively affected all later symbolism, we discover
nothing. So far as these later issues are concerned, these ancient
creeds are altogether inadequate : they do not define where dis
crimination is now indispensable : they open or leave open avenues
along which the most dangerous error might now enter.
Fourth : they obviously represent simply an existing stage of
doctrinal development ; they only mark the precise point at which
the church had then arrived in its comprehension and exposition
of divine truth. They contain no provision for their own
enlargement and embody no law of growth, such as would make
them by simple expansion the sufficient confessions of the church
for succeeding times. Therefore while they can never be superseded
in their exposition of the truths they affirm, they may and must
make room for other creeds of broader scope and greater complete
ness, whenever the oppositions of unbelief or the expanding
convictions of the people of God may require. They are styled
ecumenical or catholic because they are either formally or tacitly
accepted by nearly every division of nominal Christendom. Greek
and Roman Christianity agree in accepting them with the exception
of the single word, Filioque ; and both are united with the various
Protestant communions in acknowledging them as in all else
authoritative. But while in some sense they thus form a bond of
union between all nominally Christian churches, they betray their
imperfection in the fact that they provide no adequate lines of
distinction for later ages between what is evangelical and much
that is now seen to be formal or even fatally corrupt.
Passing beyond the fifth century, we come upon a vast creedless
period, extending to the sixteenth century, and terminated only
12. Creedless Period, A. D. by the decisive developments of the
S00: A. D. I5oo. No Prog- Reformation. In general, periods of
re«s of Doctrine : Scholasti- theological activity and conflict are nat
urally followed by eras of comparative
quiescence,— the faith of the church reposing in the truths decided,
and religious thought concerning itself rather with the contem
plation or the application of doctrine than with the problem of
further expansion. The history of the dark ages illustrates the
additional truth that this process may degenerate even into
reaction or retrogression,— that such quiescence may change into

CREEDLESS PERIOD — SCHOLASTICISM. 27
indifference, torpor, decadence, worse even than the presence of
heresy or open unbelief. The fact is that from the sixth or sev
enth to the twelfth century, or even later, the church for various
causes hardly retained spiritual vitality enough to use or under
stand the creeds it possessed, — had far too little to undertake any
expansion or improvement of these primitive formularies. It is
especially to be noted that from the age of Leo and the first
Gregory, the thoughts of both teachers and people were turned
mainly toward that composite process of ecclesiastical rather than
doctrinal development, of which the papacy was the immense and
splendid, yet disastrous result. For obvious reasons the influence
of the papacy tended steadily to the repression of vigorous and
especially progressive thought : it held the mind of the church
fixed and moveless in the position in which the ancient creeds had
placed it : it allowed no opportunity for the rise of any semblance
of heresy. The first centuries of this period were also an era of
great external enterprises and outward growth for the church.
The standard of the Cross was carried throughout Europe ; Africa
became the seat of a flourishing, though too formal and conse
quently evanescent Christianity ; the nations of the East heard of
Christ, and received the Gospel at the hand of his messengers.
The rising conflict between the papacy and the patriarchate,
between Rome and Constantinople, also attracted thought and drew
off interest from theological issues : and when the great schism
came, both the Eastern church and the Western felt themselves
under new obligation to adhere tenaciously to the old creeds, and
to shut out whatever might seem like an incipient departure from
that ancient faith to which each clung as its supreme heritage.
Scholasticism, though a vast advance on the sluggishness and
blindness which for five or six centuries had preceded it, yet did
not furnish in itself the basis for any new expression of churchly
belief or experience in confessional form. For scholasticism was
in part simply a revival or restoration of what was best in the
thought and experience of the ancient church. It was an attempt
to state afresh what had long been believed, and what had been em
bodied already in the old creeds and the old theologies. It was also
in part an effort to analyze this ancient belief, — to define its phrases,
state and justify its propositions, and bring out its harmony with
current philosophy. It was rather, in a word, the defender of the
old than an expositor of any new convictions on the part of the
church. It is true that a school of freer thought arose among
the scholastics as a natural, perhaps inevitable, antithesis to
the main tendencies of theological opinion ; and that this freer

28 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
movement became an essential antecedent to that great subsequent
awakening, theological and spiritual, of which the confessions of
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were the outgrowth. It
is also true that in the development of the doctrine of redemption
under Anselm we have the central germ of that new Soteriology,
that larger and better comprehension of Christ and his work, of
which the doctrine of justification by faith as enunciated by
Luther was the final expansion. Yet Scholasticism had hardly
vigor enough in itself to produce a creed : at best it could only
prepare the way for that result in a later and more fruitful age.
These facts illustrate the general truth that the production of
creeds by the church is a process peculiar in itself, and dependent
on a long series of conditions. There must first be meditation,
inquiry, spiritual as well as mental development ; the narrownesses
or imperfections of old formulas must be discovered through an
expanding experience, or possibly through collision with rising
and presumptuous heresies. More extensive study of the sacred
Oracles must lead on to new views of doctrine, new combinations
or adjustments of truth, and in some just sense to new faith. But
such changes can record themselves in creeds only after they have
first indicated their presence and power in such preparatory ways,
or perhaps have justified their right to be accepted through bitter
conflict or through the pangs of glorified martyrdom. Other
agencies such as state influence may sometimes seem to force out
creeds ; but these agencies at best are only secondary and occa
sional. The real creative forces are found only in the expanding
thought, the broadening experience, the more matured faith and
life of the church.
It has been queried why the great anthropological controversy
of the fifth century was not followed, as had occured after the
christological conflict of the preceeding century, by some formu
lated expression of the triumphing Augustinian doctrine. There
are some obvious explanations of this fact. Among these may
be named the dominating interest of the Eastern church in the
trinitarian question in its various aspects, the natural sympathy of
the Greek mind with the psychological and ethical theories of
Pelagius, the developing antagonism between oriental and occi
dental Christianity, the increasing inability to bring together any
truly ecumenical council, and the declining piety and growing
formalism of the period. Had the doctrine of Augustine, triumph
ant for the hour, been thus crystalized in a strong, clear creed before
it began to subside into the modified and weakened forms which it
assumed a century or two later, there can be little doubt that such

SECOND CREED PERIOD. 29
a creed would have proved a great blessing during the long and
blank period which followed. It would have checked the Pelagian
currents which in fact ran everywhere like poison through the
veins of Christendom : it would have quickened into life the vapid
theology of the dark ages ; it would have given Scholasticism a
different sphere and tone, and have saved the church of Rome
from many of those false teachings and tendencies which rendered
necessary the Reformation.
The second great period of creed formation follows the Refor
mation, and extends from the earlier part of the sixteenth to the
middle of the seventeenth century. It
13. Second Creed Period : . , . , . . . . , , , , , .
Creeds of the Reformation: mi^ht be anticipated that such a stu-
Four General Classes. pendous movement as that in which
Protestantism originated, — such an
eruption of intellectual and spiritual forces long pent up by papal
assumption, — such a rapid and unique development of thought and
feeling along the higher planes of religious experience, would not
occur without some manifestations in the form of creeds as well
as of theologies — in new confessions as well as in new modes of
worship, or new varieties of church organization. History
abundantly confirms the anticipation. The great mental as well
as spiritual vigor of the Reformation demonstrated its qualities
almost from the outset by the abundance, by the richness, by the
permanent character of the church symbols that sprang from it.
A brief enumeration of these will justify this statement.
Grouping these symbols into classes, the first to be noticed is
the series of Lutheran creeds, originating at the beginning of the
Reformation in Germany and representing generically the belief
of that group of churches bearing the name of the greatest
among the earlier reformers. This series, incorporated in the
Book of Concord, embraces the Augsburg Confession, with the
Apology or explanation of that Confession, A. D. 1530 : the
Articles of Smalcald, 1537 ; and the Formula of Concord, 1577,
together with the two Catechisms composed by Luther, 1529.
With these are associated in the Book of Concord the three ancient
creeds already mentioned, — the whole constituting the represent
ative expression of the Lutheran, so far as distinguished from the
Reformed belief.
The second class includes the earlier Reformed confessions of the
continent, Swiss, French, Belgic and German. Omitting the
personal declarations of Zwingli, the Swiss symbols are the Con
fession of Basle, A. D. 1534 ; the first Helvetic Confession, 1536;
and the Second Helvetic Confession, 1566. To these may be added

30 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
as of secondary importance the Consensus of Zurich, A. D. 1549,
and that of Geneva, 1552. Outside of Switzerland, the Gallic
Confession, A. D. 1559 ; the Belgic Confession, 1561 ; and the
Heidelberg Catechism, 1563, represent the main lines of opinion
and belief in the Reformed churches of the continent.
The third class embraces the British creeds of the sixteenth
century, especially the Scotch Confession of A. D. 1560, with its
associated Catechisms ; the Thirty-Nine Articles, A. D. 1563 ; and
the Irish Articles which, although prepared at a later date (1615)
yet belong by their connections to the symbolism of the century
preceding. The Ten Articles of 1536, drafted by Convocation
under royal sanction, and the Lambeth Articles, 1595, though
without full ecclesiastical authority, may be added tp the list, —
being appreciated, in the quaint phrase of Fuller, for no more than
they are in weight, yet clearly indicating the received doctrine of
England in their day on the several topics discussed. These insu
lar creeds may properly be separated in the present survey from the
continental symbols of the same period, both because they represent
in addition to the general doctrine some special phases and varieties
of British thought, and because they all stand in close historical
relations to the subsequent Symbols of Westminster.
The fourth class embraces the creeds of the seventeenth century,
within the territory of evangelical Protestantism. We may in
clude in this class especially the Arminian Remonstrance, 1610 ;
the Canons of Dort, 1619 ; and the Catechisms and Confession of
Westminster, A. D. 1647-48. So far as the direct development
of the Reformation doctrinally during that century is concerned,
these symbols and especially the last represent its most elaborate
and matured results. The Formula Consensus Helvetici (compiled
at Zurich, 1675, by the distinguished Heidegger) though justly
characterized as an able and interesting theological statement, never
gained more than local and temporary influence, and therefore can
hardly claim a place in this series. Omitting from this enumera
tion various minor symbols which originated in personal opinion
or had only provincial circulation or a temporary influence, we may
note here the remarkable fecundity, the confessional vigor and
propagativeness, displayed in such a series of confessions. Their
abundance and variety are not traceable, as has been alleged, to
the diversities developed within the common Protestantism : they
are rather the indices of its amazing vitality, the proofs of its
loyalty to the great principle of private interpretation, the beautiful
evidences— when studied comparatively — of the profound and
conscious unity in the entire spiritual movement of which they

PROTESTANT CREEDS — COMPARATIVE VIEW. 31
were the symbolic expression. A hundred ages of papacy could
never have originated so vast and so vigorous a growth of Christian
knowledge and doctrine as is registered in these creeds. *
Comparing together this remarkable series of Confessions, and
considering them in contrast with the creeds of the ancient church,
we may note the following points of interest. First: they were
confessions rather than creeds. They
~» not deseed pnWil, to be «- ^£Z2L°~,
cited at baptism, or used at the reception confessional quallty.
of members, or repeated as a part of
public worship. With the exception of the catechisms, which for
the most part were practical summaries of the truth already
embodied in the associated confessions, they were intended rather
to be authoritative formulas of Christian truth, as received and
held by the various churches, — formulas designed to represent the
true doctrine and testify to it, in the presence alike of other divisions
of the common Protestantism, and of both Romanism and unbelief.
Their main office was thus external rather than internal : they
sprang immediately from, and were especially designed to meet,
exigencies which lay outside of the witnessing church.
Secondly : as a natural consequence, these confessions were more
elaborate and extended than the earlier creeds. They were con
cerned not merely with those primary facts and those fundamental
questions respecting the nature of God as triune and the deity of
Christ, which the earlier symbols had embodied. They were
designed to express also the results of later thought, and especially
of the more earnest and fruitful discussions of the period of the
Reformation, respecting the nature of salvation and the mode of
justification by grace, together with all the related truths. They
were therefore more extensive in content, more philosophic and ex
act in definition, more complex in structure, and more thoroughly
doctrinal throughout. In style and construction as well as in
substance, they reflected at every point the remarkable theological
qualities and conflicts of the period in which they were produced.
Thirdly : these confessions were agreed substantially in the
acceptance of all that was taught in the earlier creeds. They based
their affirmations on the old Apostolic and Nicene foundation ; they
maintained their essential harmony and oneness with the ancient
faith as therein embodied. This unity was distinctly asserted in
*For a full list of these Symbols, major and minoi, see Schaff, Creeds of
Christendom, Vol. I. Also, HasE, Libri Symbolici ; NiEMEYBR, Collectio
Confessionum ; Winer, Confessions of Christendom ; Ham,, Harmony of
Protestant Confessions, and other compilations.

32 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
some of the symbols, as in the Confession of Calvin, prepared for
the French church, 1559 : On all of the articles which have been
decided by ancient councils touching the infinite, spiritual essence
of God, and the distinction of the three Persons, and the union of
two natures in our Lord Jesus Christ, we receive and agree in all
that was therein resolved, as being drawn from the Holy Scrip
tures. The Lutheran Book of Concord also formally incorporated
the three ancient creeds with the distinctive symbols of Lutheran-
ism, as representing the common belief of that division of
Protestantism. On these ancient declarations regarded as a
foundation, the whole Protestant scheme of belief was erected as
a superstructure. The old creeds were the trunk : these numerous
and varied confessions were the branches. It has well been
suggested that this is a fact of very great significance, both as an
illustration of the continued existence and unchanged faith of the
Christian Church through the ages, and also as an evidence of its
substantial unity in belief, notwithstanding its many circumstan
tial diversities.
Fourthly : while the earlier symbols presented the faith of the
Church in its simple unities, these, described that faith in its
complex varieties. Not only did they differ at many points from
the avowed tenets of Romanism ; they differed distinctly at some
points and in some important features from each other. While
the Lutheran and the Reformed creeds were alike in emphasizing
the fundamental doctrines of the common Protestantism, they were
considerably unlike in the law of their construction, in the relative
prominence given to specific elements, and in the completeness of
their execution. The earlier and the later symbols of Lutheranism
and, in a still higher degree, of the Reformed churches differed not
only in the fullness and elaborateness of their contents and struc
ture, but also to some extent in their presentation of the doctrines
themselves. The Reformed symbols especially exhibited a marked
and suggestive progress from the Helvetic Confessions onward to
the Canons of Dort and the Westminster Symbols. In all, the car
dinal truths affirmed w«:re the same for substance, though the
definitions, forms and adjustments were often widely unlike.
In addition to this series of creeds essentially evangelical, the
period is remarkable for the production of other symbols varying
<e „ ... .„ , more or less extensively from the current
IS. Heretical and Greek r>_„. <.  . < ,. r «,
and Reman Creeds of this Protestant bellef • These symbols are on
period. one side latitudinarian and rationalistic,
and on the other Greek and Papal. It
would be improper to describe the Arminian Remonstrance of 1610

GREEK AND ROMAN CREEDS. 33
by the former term, for while the Arminian theology as incorpo
rated in that document was in open antagonism at four or five
important points with the extreme Calvinism current on the con
tinent at the beginning of the seventeenth century, it was at
the same time a direct outgrowth from the common Protestant
stock, — embodying in itself nearly every principle, whether formal
or spiritual, on which the Reformation in general had been based.
It is true that in some minds the primitive Arminianism assumed a
different phase, and became even rationalistic in its conception
and presentation of the biblical truth ; yet at the outset and in
the main it was substantially evangelical, and while rejecting
Calvinism, was yet in no just sense to be described as Pelagian.
In its later developments, especially as accepted by many English
minds during the century following, the theology which the Re
monstrance originally represented certainly deserves an acknowl
edged place among the positive types of acceptable Christian
doctrine. Among the clearly latitudinarian or heretical symbols of the
period may be placed the Anabaptist Confession, 1580 ; the So-
cinian Confession, 1542, expanded in the Racovian Catechism,
1605 ; and also, in a modified degree, the Confession and Cate
chism of Barclay, 1675, representing more fully than any ante
cedent document the belief of the Society of Friends. The first
and last of these resemble each other in their leading tenets and
tendencies. The Socinian symbols define what was by far the
most dangerous departure from orthodox teaching, consequent
upon the Reformation. Of other minor confessions belonging to
the same class, it is hardly needful to speak, as none of these have
become the basis of organized churches under whatever name.
The aversion of heresy or of latitudinarianism to embody itself in
a written creed receives a striking illustration here. Whether
springing from a conscious unwillingness to put its opposition on
record in definite form, or from an interior incapacity to formulate
its own vague or defective conceptions, this aversion is a fact as
universal as it is suggestive. Heresy like sin is often an anomaly
to itself.
The Greek church accepts as the fundamental statement of its
doctrine the decision of the seven ecumenical Councils. Among
its later symbols of minor prominence are the Confession of Gen-
nadius, 1453 ; of Critopulus, 1625 ; of Cyril Lucar, 1631 ; of
Mogilas, 1643 ; and of the Synod of Jerusalem, 1672. The Cate
chism of Philaret, adopted in 1839 by the Holy Synod of the
Russian Church, and approved by the eastern Patriarchs, has

54 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
been pronounced the ablest and clearest summary of modern
Greek orthodoxy. Winer does not quote it, but relies in his
exposition of oriental doctrine on the Confession of Mogilas and the
Decrees of the Jerusalem Council. The chief value of these
formularies to us lies in their illustration both of the immobility
of the Greek communions, and of their wide departure from some
of the cardinal doctrines of Scripture as enunciated by evangelical
Protestantism. The Papal symbols of the period are mainly the Canons and
Decrees of the Council of Trent, 1545-1563, and the Catechism
authorized by this Council and published in 1566 ; and as explana
tory of these, the Tridentine Profession, 1564. To the formulation
of these important symbols the Roman church, while clinging
still to the three ancient creeds, and declaring the immutability
of its belief as the sole church of God on earth, was driven by
the doctrinal as well as practical exigencies of the Reform
ation. The whole may be regarded as an attempt to state the
papal faith in better form at those points where Protestantism
had shown that faith to be weak or erroneous. Romanism main
tained the full sufficiency of the old creeds, yet held to the possibili
ty of additions or accretions springing from the developing spiritual
consciousness of the organized church. As the confessions of the
Protestant churches were successively framed and scattered ev
erywhere through northern Europe, setting forth tersely the great
truths of Protestantism, it became necessary to meet these new
and revolutionary beliefs by fresh, authoritative declarations of
what was believed at Rome. In this necessity originated the
Tridentine Council with its doctrine respecting the Scriptures,
and its definition of sin, of the atonement, of justification and
sanctification, of the sacraments and ordinances, and of the true
church. No creed of the period was more carefully drawn, more
skillful in structure or form, more authoritatively endorsed and
promulgated. After three centuries it still stands as the final
symbol of Roman Catholicism, to which nothing can be added
except by the infallible wisdom of the pontificate, and from which
nothing can ever be taken away. The Dogmatic Decrees of the
Vatican Council of 1870 and the Syllabus Errorum of 1864
superadd little to the canons and decrees of Trent beyond the
affirmation of papal infallibilty, ex cathedra. The special Decree
respecting the immaculacy of the Virgin Mary, 1854, hardly rises
to the dignity of an authoritative doctrine, though widely
influential as a church dogma.

SECOND CREEDLESS PERIOD. 35
Passing beyond the middle of the seventeenth century, we
come upon another creedless period which may, with some small
exceptions, be said to extend to the pres
ent time. It was in the nature of things 16, Sec«nd Creedless
that such a process as that just described, JJ^0* SinCe the Reforma-
extending through considerably more
than a century, and resulting in the production of more than
thirty creeds of distinct importance, as well as many minor declar
ations of faith, should finally come' to a close. Every recognizable
section of Protestantism had stated its belief in some confessional
form. The Roman church had revised its belief, and given it
new and permanent expression. Even the more erratic tenden
cies born of the Reformation, and the heresies that had arisen in
connection with the more legitimate protests of Christian faith
against Rome, had taken formulative shape. Such a process
needed no repetition so long as these various beliefs retained their
primitive character. There might be expositions, commentaries,
theologies, but there could well be no additional confessions. It
is also a familiar fact that the seventeenth century, and in some
divisions of Protestantism the eighteenth also, were devoted
largely to the task of throwing the teaching of the symbols into
the forms of systematic theology. It has been said with justice
that the Protestant .confessions gave birth to as noble a series of
dogmatic writers as Christian literature has ever known — men as
subtle as the schoolmen whose methods they inherited, but bap
tized richly with the spirit of the new evangelical doctrine. The
process of evolution was in several respects analogous to that of
the Scholastic era. Many of these theologies were framed, like
the Institutes of Calvin, on the basis and order of the ancient
creeds: others were expositions, more or less close and complete,
of the symbols of the period just past : others were constructed
around some central principle or doctrine by methods more exactly
philosophic or speculative. Few minds if any wandered far from
the territory occupied by these symbols: few were inclined to
construct a theological system on any other plans than those here
suggested. Such periods are also likely to be followed by eras of practical
activity rather than of speculative or dogmatic progress. The
mind of the church having been put to rest for the time in regard
to what it believes and must teach, the great task of teaching, of
proclamation, becomes prominent: the work of making all men
acquainted with the truth assumes supreme importance. Ques
tions of organization, of government, of activity and growth

36 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
become conspicuous in the thought and regulate largely the actual
life of the church. In the century following the close of the
Reformation, great outward revolutions, wonderful discoveries
and inventions, developments in science, art, philosophy and in
social and civil life, contributed to draw away interest from the
further formulation of belief, and to some extent even from the
explanation and defence of the existing creeds. It may also be
true that, as the heats and excitements of the great conflict of the
sixteenth century passed off, something of reaction came over the
hearts of men, — a reaction growing in some quarters even into a
torpor, a degeneracy, not unlike in type that which we discover
during the dark ages.
It should be said, however, that this period has not been
wholly creedless. As new sects have been formed around specific
issues, — as new varieties of polity, method, worship have arisen,
explanatory declarations or statements have been made from time
to time, often on the basis of some accepted symbol, which in
turn represent later variations of thought and experience. The
Savoy Declaration, 1658, the Baptist Confession of 1688, the
Methodist Articles of Religion, 1784, may be taken as examples
of this fact. The first of these differs from preceding Calvinistic
symbols chiefly in its definition of the church; the second, in its
emphasizing of the dogma of immersion; the third, in its exposi
tion of the differences between the Methodism of Wesley and the
Thirty-Nine Articles of the Anglican church. Later illustrations
of less prominence, such as the Auburn Declaration, the Articles
of Reformed Episcopacy, the Declarations of American Congre
gationalism, or the Old Catholic Creeds, might be noted as
indicative of the multiplied divisions which have arisen among
Protestants around various issues in teaching, polity or worship.
These represent, however, no continuous process of creed-making,
but rather make manifest the fact that this process had practically
come to an end. They also show that no further creed period
can well arise until new and higher conceptions of the Gospel
have been attained, or until the heart of the church has passed
through some new and more profound experience of grace.
This brief survey of the symbols of Christianity with reference
to their number, their chronologic succession, and their doctrinal
,» „ ,. „ relations, may well lead us to a larger
It. Comparative Sym- .• i ^, 8
bolism as a Science illus- concePtlon °f the nature and worth of
trated. comparative symbolism, viewed as a
branch of theological science. The prop
er interpretation of any single specimen among the major

SYMBOLISM — PURPOSE AND SPIRIT. 37
confessions of the Reformation requires not merely careful knowl
edge of the theological terminology of the age, but also minute
acquaintance with the theologies of the period, with the posture
of ecclesiastical parties, with political events and tendencies, and
with the types of spiritual experience prevailing at the time.
Recent history exhibits at many points the evils of failure to
recognize this primary requisition. Instead of taking the words
and phrases of a confession in their plain historical sense, other
meanings have been forced into them, new stress or emphasis has
been laid here or there, and the obligation to receive the symbol
as thus interpreted has been urged in a spirit and to an extent
entirely at variance with the purpose or temper of those who
framed it. The results of such perversion or abuse of creeds are
seen in some of those conflicts and disruptions which have done
so much to distract and dishonor the Protestantism of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. There is surely no wise or
safe rule but to interpret each individual creed in the light of its
own history, and to accept the meaning of the document precisely
as it stands.
But if such exposition of the single creed be so delicate and
difficult, how much greater the task of analyzing in like manner
any group of creeds, or all the creeds of Protestantism or of
Christendom, and presenting them to view comparatively, with
proper reference to their respective contents, their mutual con
nections and relations, and their general worth. It is one of the
felicities of our age that the preparations for this task have
essentially been made. Collections of these symbols, practically
adequate, have been gathered and made available for the student.
Some careful and comprehensive work in this department has
already been done. Yet the field is comparatively new, and much
remains to be accomplished, if not in exploration, still in philo
sophic scrutiny and analysis, in close comparison, in exhaustive
description and summation. To that work the Christian scholar
ship of our time seems by many considerations which need not
here be named, to be especially invited.
The temper — it may be added — in which such a task should be
undertaken must be pure, generous, catholic, devout. The creeds
must be studied for higher purposes than the discovery of words
and phrases with which to fortify personal opinion, or to flagel
late some errorist or confute some doubting inquirer. The polemic
elements displayed in them must be subordinated to what is
irenic: the particular must be merged so far as possible in the
universal. Toleration of all differences that are not absolutely

38 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
fundamental, careful recognition of all essential oneness amid
incidental divergencies, must be cherished and sought. The spirit
of partisan narrowness or bigotry, or even of supreme loyalty to
sect, must give way to the loftier spirit of devotion to the essen
tial truth, and of love for all of whatever name who receive the
truth though in differing form. High regard for the Word of
God as supreme, a corresponding view of all creeds as human
and therefore imperfect, true interest in the thoughts and the
struggles of good men for the truth in other lands and times, a
keen sense of the living laws of growth under which all Christian
thought and experience are developed, and an earnest and pure
desire to use all that may be learned from the past as helps toward
still further advance in the future, — these are among the incen
tives which must regulate such study, and inspire the student at
every stage. On any other basis, comparative symbolism or even
particular symbolism can only prove embarrassing and injurious
alike to faith and to character.
The Westminster Symbols : From this cursory considera
tion of the nature, origin and offices of the Christian creeds, and
of the field and scope of particular and comparative symbolism,
we may now proceed with advantage to take an introductory
survey of the Symbols of Westminster, with reference especially
to their sources, the history of their formation, the extent of their
acceptance, and their relative place among the great historic creeds.
This view must of necessity be brief and cursory ; a more minute
and discriminating estimate will be practicable at the close of the
proposed studies.
It is a familiar fact that the British Reformation, so far as it
was doctrinal, assumed in general the Calvinistic rather than the
18. The British Reforma- ^TJ1 ^f , M*"y of its leaders
tion ; antecedent symbols. esPeclallY m Scotland had received their
theological impress and tendency rather
from Geneva and France and the schools of Holland than from
Germany. Melville had been the disciple of Beza, and John Knox
who stamped' his own convictions so ineffaceably on the Scotch
mind, had sat at the feet of Calvin, and— as his treatise on Pre
destination shows— had embraced his teaching even in its most
positive and uncompromising features. And as Lutheranism and
Calvinism became by degrees more distinct as antithetic types of the
common Protestantism, the British and especially the Scotch mind
grew into stronger sympathy with the latter, and its belief and
teaching were cast more and more in the Calvinistic mold. The

EARLY BRITISH CREEDS. 39
English church indeed felt this doctrinal impress more lightly : ite
impulses and movements were rather ecclesiastical than theolog
ical ; questions of polity and ritual were more prominent than
questions of doctrine or belief. The Augsburg Confession,
which Schaff has extolled as the most churchly, the most catholic
and the most conservative creed of Protestantism, had also at an
early day obtained some special standing in England ; many
Episcopalians were much in sympathy with it, especially in its
mediate theological position and its liturgical trend. It is an
illustrative fact that Melancthon, substantially the author of thai
Confession, was twice invited to England as Professor of Divinity.
Yet the English mind, though never disposed to push its faith out
into every logical extreme or to hold that faith in a positively
dogmatic temper, still by degrees accepted in general the Reformed
rather than the Lutheran system, and affiliated rather with Switz
erland and Holland than with Germany. Of this general fact we
have sufficient illustration in the three British creeds which pre
ceded the Symbols of Westminster, — the Scotch Confession of
1560, the Thirty-Nine Articles, 1563, and the Irish Articles, 1615.
The Scotch Confession, prepared by six theologians with Knox
as chief, appointed by the Parliament of Scotland, was intended
to be a definite declaration of the faith of all within that realm
who adhered to the cause of the Reformation. In general it went
beyond several of the Reformed confessions in its statement of
predestination and election, the utter fall and ruin of man, and
the limited scope of grace, while in its exposition of salvation by
faith and the related truths it fairly maintained the strong position
of the earlier Protestant creeds. It was, however, popular rather
than dogmatic in form, somewhat inexact in language and state
ment, and thus unfitted to become a permanent formulary of belief.
It is remarkable that it contained no distinct Article on the
cardinal doctrine of justification. Such as it was, it became the
standard and basis of the Scotch church, and did much to impart
to Scottish thought that marked Calvinistic cast which it retained
through all the eventful struggles of the succeeding century.
The Thirty-Nine Articles, prepared by Cranmer and Ridley in
1551, and revised under Elizabeth, and made in 1563 the basis of
the established church in England, were also essentially, though
less positively, Calvinistic in their type. Framed as they were to
be a national formulary, and designed as such to satisfy persons
and parties of diverse opinion and tendency, — framed also in the
presence of a papal influence not yet overcome, and under the eye
of a dominating prelacy, it was natural that these Articles should

40 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
content themselves with generic rather than specific statements,
and with affirmations of plain scriptural facts more than with
recondite reasonings and deductions respecting such mysteries as
the divine decrees and the election of grace. Yet in essence this
important symbol was Calvinistic; and under its training the
English mind was led, like the Scotch, to the acceptance at least
in outline of the general system of belief bearing that significant
name. The Irish Articles, though less conspicuous in their authorita
tiveness than either of the preceding symbols, have special im
portance to us on account of their closer connection, as to both
time and form, with the Symbols of Westminster. Drawn up by
the celebrated Ussher, afterwards Archbishop of Armagh and
primate of Ireland, based substantially on the Thirty-nine Articles
of the English church, and recognizing the prelatic mode of gov
ernment and the ecclesiastical primacy of the crown, they still were
in close harmony with the more positive Calvinism of Scotland,
and through that affiliation did much to prepare the British mind
generally for the more notable Confession that followed. It is a
well known fact that in their form, in the order and arrangement
and even in the language used, these Articles were made the basis
of that later formulary, as their doctrine did much to shape the
belief and declarations of the Westminster Assembly itself.
These creeds representing essentially the doctrinal belief of the
British Isles, and sufficiently clear and full in their teaching,
might have met all the necessities of
occasions. conscious, had not other causes, eccle
siastical and political, created a new
and urgent need for some further formulation of the popular faith.
Of these the developing issues between civil assumption on the one
side and religious independence on the other, the related conflict
between diverse theories of church order and worship, and espe
cially the dominance of an arrogant ecclesiasticism, under such
leaders as Laud, may be named as chief in importance. During
the reigns of Elizabeth and James, extending from 1558 down to
1625, Prelacy had not only entrenched itself thoroughly in England
as the state religion, but had sought to make itself such in Ireland
and Scotland. The Scotch people, still animated by the spirit of
Knox, and imbued with his teachings, could only resist such
intrusion of a foreign church and service; and the effort resulted
rather in the firmer establishment pf the Presbyterian faith and
polity and worship. Even in England this enforcement of Epis-

WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY. 41
copacy induced the development of extensive dissent, especially
of the Puritan type ; and there were many, belonging particularly
to the body of positive Calvinists, who strongly preferred the
Presbyterian to the Prelatic form and order. During the unhappy
reign of Charles I. from 1625 to the convening of the Long
Parliament in 1640, this conflict between Episcopacy and Puritan
ism in general, and especially between Episcopacy and Presbyteri-
anism, became more and more intense. The agreement in doctrine
of which both parties were more or less conscious, was not sufficient
to overcome the conscious difference of opinion, and of feeling
also, as to worship and government. Many Presbyterians in
England could without scruple have accepted the Thirty- Nine
Articles as expressing at least the more essential points in their
religious belief, and it is certain that some Prelatists could in like
manner have fallen in with even the Scotch Confession, had not
these ecclesiastical issues, greatly complicated as they were by the
mischievous notion of a state church, stood in the way. But these
issues were too radical, and too many personal elements and party
tendencies were obstructing the path of union ; and in the end,
open and complete rupture became the only possible result.
During the stormy period from 1640 to 1643, that result was
realized in the practical prostration of both the king and the
national church of England at the feet of the Long Parliament,
which for the time represented the strong hostility to both,
current in the popular mind. Early in 1643, the Parliament
conscious of its growing power, and realizing the political neces
sity for such an act, resolved in open defiance of the king upon
a reconstruction of the established church, with a view to the
substitution of some form of ecclesiastical organization more in
harmony with the prevalent sentiment of the nation. It had
indeed practically overthrown Episcopacy during the preceding
autumn; its present aim and purpose were to provide a satisfac
tory substitute. Such had been the degree of intimacy and of
mutual understanding between the popular party dominant in
Parliament and the General Assembly and Lords of Estates in
Scotland, that there was little room for doubt as to what in sub
stance this substitute should be. It was seen that nothing but
positive Calvinism in doctrine and Presbyterianism in polity, with
recognized freedom from liturgical bondage in worship, could meet
the demand of the time. Yet in form the Parliament was seeking
simply, as it affirmed, to settle the government and liturgy of the
church of England, and incidentally to vindicate and clear the
doctrine of the said church from false aspersions and misrepre-

42 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
sentations. And in order to secure these ends, and by the same
process to establish its own supremacy in both church and state,
the Parliament in June, 1643, passed the notable Act, convening
the Westminster Assembly.*
This Assembly of learned and godly divines, to use the descrip
tive language of the Act, was convened on the first day of July,
1643. A brief glance at its composition,
20. The Westminster |ts ma{n elements and tendencies, its cir-
Asscmbly: its consiitu- cumstances and labors, is now requisite.
Hon, membership, aim. ^ membersllip was selected by the same
political power which had called it into existence. It was not,
as Clarendon said, a convocation according to the diocesan way
of government, nor was it called by the votes of the ministers,
according to the Presbyterian way, The Parliament selected all
the members, and selected them merely with a view to have their
opinion and advice for settling the government, liturgy and doc
trine of the church of England. Deliberation was to be strictly
confined to such topics as the Parliament proposed; and the
ordinance creating the body expressly forbad its assuming or
exercising any jurisdiction, power or authority ecclesiastical
whatsoever, or any other power that was not particularly ex
pressed in the ordinance. The presiding officers and the rules
governing the proceedings were also prescribed by the civil
authorities. Parliament also provided for the compensation of
the members at a rate of four shillings daily, with additional
remuneration for losses occasioned by absence from their homes
and parishes. Of the aggregate of one hundred and fifty-one
persons selected, thirty were lords or commoners, appointed as
lay assessors to represent the civil government. One hundred
and twenty were divines of more or less prominence. As it was
the aim of Parliament to bring together, though not in equal
proportion, the representatives of all reputable varieties of opinion
in respect to religious doctrine or church order, about twenty-five
of the clerical deputies were Prelatists : but these with two
*In addition to the secular Histories of the period, ( Clarendon, Hallam,
Froude, Green, Gardiner, and others) and to the general Church Histories,
(Fuller, Burnet, Stoughton and others), see Minutes of the Westminster
Assembly, edited with Introduction by Mitchell ; Hetherington, History of
the Westminster Assembly ; Mitchell, the Westminster Assembly ; Baillie,,
Letters and Journal ; Lightfoot, Journal ; Gillespie, Notes ; Schaff, Creeds of
Christendom, Vol. I. Also McCrie, Annals of English Presbytery ; Neal,
History of the Puritans ; Marsden, Puritans ; Masson, Life of Milton. Also
Reid, Memoirs of the Divines of Westminster; and other biographic sketches.

MEMBERSHIP AND ORGANIZATION. 43
on three exceptions declined to sit in the Assembly. The Inde
pendent party then rising into prominence had but six or eight
representatives; and an equal number were Erastians whose chief
purpose was to maintain in every issue the absolute supremacy of
the state over the church. The great body were Presbyterians,
representing in general that strong and earnest sentiment in
England which, from the organization of the first Presbytery at
Wandsworth, in 1572, had steadily grown into prominence not
withstanding the hostility of both the crown and the established
church. Considerable variety of opinion as to both doctrine and
polity existed among those who represented that general senti
ment; some maintaining vigorously the strict Calvinism of Geneva
and Dort and the divine right of Presbyterianism, others holding
to a more moderate Calvinism, and representing rather what was
termed they'ws humanum as the true basis of ecclesiastical authority.
Five divines and three laymen at first, and subsequently one
additional minister and three elders from Scotland, were also
admitted to the Assembly. Of these Scotch commissioners the
leading mind was Alexander Henderson, who was one of the most
conspicuous divines at home, and to whom as early as 1539, four
years before the Westminster Assembly met, the Scotch church
had intrusted the task of framing a creed which should fill out
the deficiencies of the old Scotch Confession, and give to the
church a formulary adequately expressive of its more matured
faith. Three divines of special prominence from New England,
Cotton and Hooker and Davenport, were selected for membership,
but none of these were able to be present. According to Mitchell
sixteen additional lay members and eighteen divines, chiefly to
fill vacancies occasioned by death or absence, were afterwards at
different times appointed by Parliament. But of the whole num
ber eleven laymen and twenty-nine divines are not on record as
having attended any of the sessions, so that the actual member
ship from first to last, including the Scotch delegation and the two
sen'bes, was — so far as can be ascertained — not far from one
hi idred and fifty. Sixty-nine appeared at the first convocation,
ar the general attendance probably ranged from fifty to eighty.
T names, the general standing, the personal characteristics and
sp ial qualifications of the members have been frequently and
minutely described. Manton, who was probably one of them,
in his striking Preface to the Confession, describes the body
as a synod of as godly, judicious divines as England ever saw.
After alluding to the bitter opprobium and opposition which the
Assembly encountered, he adds : If in the day of old when

44 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
councils were in power and account, they had but had such a
council of bishops as this of presbyters was, the fame of it for
learning and holiness and all ministerial abilities, would with very
great honor have been transmitted to posterity.
The sessions of the Assembly were continued for more than
five years, at the rate of two hundred annually, till February,
1649, after Charles had been dethroned and beheaded. The whole
number of recorded sessions was eleven hundred and sixty- three;
but some of the members continued to meet as a committee for
special purposes for three years longer, when the forcible dissolu
tion of Parliament by Cromwell compelled the Assembly to
disband, even without formal adjournment. While the sittings
began in the main portion of the famous Abbey of Westminster,
the Assembly soon adjourned for comfort to a private room in
the Abbey, historically known as the Jerusalem Chamber. It
is interesting to note everything which history has preserved
respecting even the more incidental events and features of this
remarkable convocation. Baillie has given us a graphic descrip
tion of the historic room, the arrangement of the seats, the length
of the sessions, the order of business, the method of discussion,
the formation and reports of committees, together with other like
details of very great interest. Gillespie in his extensive Notes,
and in his report to the Scotch Assembly at the close of his ser
vice as commissioner, sheds much additional light on the spirit
and methods as well as the work and productions of the body.
Mitchell records the instructions and rules of procedure prescribed
by Parliament and observed by the Assembly for its guidance in
all deliberations. The Minutes contain many illustrations of
the decorous way in which the business was transacted, and also
of the freedom with which discussion was carried on, and the re
markable patience with which even the most extreme and objec
tionable opinions were heard. They also contain many interesting
details, such as the regulations concerning absences and infrequent
or late coming or going away without leave, concerning the private
reading of books and private communication among members,
the moving from place to place in the chamber during the sessions,
and the propriety of being uncovered, the hat off, whenever one
was out of his appointed place. They also record the daily
prayers, the frequent days of fasting and devotion, the dis
courses delivered on various occasions, the funeral services in
the case of Twisse, the Prolocutor, and others who died during
the prolonged sessions, the parliamentary appropriations, and
benevolent contributions received and distributed: and also the

PRELIMINARY PROCEEDINGS. 45
action of the Assembly in licensing candidates, the settlement of
ministers over parishes, the appointment of chaplains, and various
other ecclesiastical affairs of like character. From these and
other sources we may gain a very distinct conception both of the
Assembly and its more prominent members, and may almost see
the venerable body at work as it went on from week to week, from
year to year, in the endeavor to accomplish the great end for
which it had been convened.
The first, though not the most important, task of the Assembly
was ecclesiastical and liturgical rather than doctrinal. The word
ing of the Ordinance of Parliament clearly indicates that this was
the primary design of the convocation, — to determine upon a form
of government and discipline and prescribe a mode of worship;
in a word, to construct a state church with which all classes might
be required to conform, and which should take the place of Prelacy
as the national church, rather than to formulate afresh that system
of belief in which nearly all classes were already sufficiently
agreed. It is clear that doctrinal changes or doctrinal affirmations
would hardly have been deemed desirable, bad not some of these
more urgent issues appeared to turn somewhat on the primal ques
tion of belief. To frame a polity, to determine the form of
worship, to create a state church, was the original endeavor ; and
to this endeavor much the larger part of the time and thought
of the Assembly, especially during the two earlier years, was
given. The Directory of Public Worship was completed and
presented to Parliament late in the summer of 1644, and the Di
rectory (or Form) of Church Government in the summer of 1645.
The latter formulary was modeled largely after the Directory
prepared chiefly by Thomas Cartwright, for the use of the Pres
byterian churches during the reign of Elizabeth.
The doctrinal work of the Assembly began with an examination
of the Thirty-Nine Articles and the first ten weeks of its ses
sions were spent in considering the first fifteen of these Ar
ticles. It has been questioned whether this was intended to
lead finally to an endorsement or to some emendation of that
symbol, or whether it was not rather the purpose of at least
some portion of the Assembly to occupy time in this way until
opportunity should arise to give different direction to the pro
ceedings. Neal expresses the judgment that the main purpose ,
was to render the sense of the Articles more express and deter
minate in favor of Calvinism, and so to strengthen the church
in Britain against the young and vigorous Arminianism of Holland
then rising into prominence. It is certain that after the signing

46 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
of the Solemn League and Covenant in September — a step which
committed all parties to an effort to secure ecclesiastical uniformity
not only in England but throughout the three Kingdoms, and
which was substantially an agreement that such uniformity should
be secured in and through the Presbyterian system — the consider
ation of the Thirty- Nine Articles was abruptly terminated and
never afterward renewed.* From that time onward until the
autumn of 1645, the mind of the Assembly was engrossed almost
exclusively with what may be termed church questions — questions
bearing upon the real nature of the church, the right mode of
*In the Appendix to Neal: History of the Puritans, may be found in
parallel columns the original Articles and the Revised Articles, together with
the passages of Scripture adduced as proofs. Some of the changes made in
the titles and also in the body of certain Articles were verbal merely', and
were made apparently in the interest of order or clearness, fullness or con
densation. In several instances additions were made, either by way of
explanation or for the sake of theological completeness. In Art. II. the
words, most grievous torments in his soul from God, were added to the phrase,
truly suffered. In Art. III. the phrase, he descended into hell, was explained
by the words, he continued in the state of the dead, and under the power
and dominion of death. Art. IV. concerning the resurrection of Christ was
expanded by the affirmation of the general resurrection of the body — thus
harmonizing it with the three ancient creeds. Art. V. was in like manner
expanded by the statement that the Holy Ghost is very and eternal God.
Art. VI. contained the important addition : All which books, (the books of
the Old and New Testaments just named, ) we do receive and acknowledge
to be given by the inspiration of God, and in that regard to be of most certain
credit and highest authority. In Art. VII. after the statement that the moral
law is obligatory upon all men, it was significantly added : By the moral
law we understand all the Ten Commandments taken in their full extent.
Considerable debate occurred in the Assembly respecting Art. VIII. relat
ing to the three ancient Creeds, but no change was finally adopted. In Art.
IX. on Original Sin, a number of changes were made ; one introducing the
dogma of the legal and immediate imputation of the sin of Adam to his pos
terity ; another affirming that original sin deserves the divine wrath and
damnation ; another, declaring that concupisence is also sinful and deserving
of condemnation ; and still another, teaching that this sinful infection
remains in the regenerate. In Art. X. on Free Will, besides one or two
verbal changes, a clause was added in the interest of the sovereignty and
power of divine grace : Working so effectually in us as that it determineth
our will to do that which is good
The chief debate, so far as appears in the Minutes, related to Art XI on
.Justification. The definition of Justification - accounted righteous-was
expanded by the addition of the phrase, the remission of sins ; the ground
of justification was stated negatively, not for or by our own works or deserv-
ings as well as positively; the imputation of the whole obedience and
SSrSTr ^ T, giV6n f thG trUe and °nly Sround; a*d ^ was
added that God doth not forgive the impenitent, who refuse to exercise faith

ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS DISCUSSED. 47
public worship, the scriptural method of church organization,
the authority for discipline, and other kindred matters.
Two of these church questions, in view of their close relation
to the doctrinal teaching of the Symbols, may be briefly men
tioned here. The first of these related to the real nature of the
church. After the withdrawal of the Episcopal representatives,
there were but two classes of opinion upon this point — the
Presbyterian and the Independent. The advocates of the latter
opinion, though few in number, were men of marked ability and
of extensive influence, especially with the Parliament. To con
ciliate this element, and to secure substantial agreement on this
subject, as far as possible, became an important aim of the Pres
byterian majority ; and to this end a vast amount of time was
spent in scholastic discussion of such topics as the different offices
in the church both temporary and permanent, the relations of
particular churches to each other, the right of ordination, the
power and limits of discipline. Though such discussion was in the
main amicable, and though concessions were made on both sides,
the jure divino theory held by most of the Presbyterians, and
indeed by the Independents largely, and also the general tendency
toward extreme positions on all religious issues, prevented any
actual agreement ; and the conflict of opinion ended at last in the
adoption of the Presbyterian view, as defined in the Form of
Church Government, and the Directory for Public Worship.
The other question related to the connection between the church
and the state, and to the right of the church to exercise ecclesi
astical authority apart from the state. It being granted that
in this gracious mediation. The main discussion on this Art. related to the
theological question whether the whole obedience of Christ or only his pas
sive obedience is the specific ground of justification.
In Art. XII. on Good Works, it is said by way of explanation, that such
works done by believers, notwithstanding their imperfection are in the sight
of God pleasing and acceptable in and for Christ: And in Art. XIII. where
in the original it is said that the works done before justification have the na
ture of sin, it is declared more positively that all such works are sinful. The
changes in Articles XIV. and XV. have no theological importance. The
Assembly was proceeding in the consideration of Art. XVI. on Sin after
Baptism, when in October it was instructed by Parliament to enter at once
upon the formulation of a scheme of government and discipline, and also a
directory for worship, to take the place of the Episcopal formularies ; and
from this time on, the plan of reconstructing the Thirty-Nine Articles was
abandoned, — the proposal to frame a new creed taking its place. There are ,
however, several indications in the Symbols that the Assembly, while setting
aside this earlier creed, still sought to preserve its phraseology and to adhere
to the substance of its teaching, wherever this was found to be practicable.

48 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
Presbyterianism was the true and divine form of government for
the Christian church,— it being also agreed that the Presbyterian
church as such should be set up in the three Kingdoms as the one
church of Christ in the British Isles, there remained in the mind
of Parliament and of the Erastian party in the Assembly the
further question as to what degree of authority such an organiza
tion should have, and how far such an imperium in imperio could
be safely admitted within the English realm. The discussion of
these questions was quite as extensive and as absorbing as that
around the preceding issue ; and the result, as in the former
instance, was a triumph of the Presbyterian view, though not
without bringing the Assembly, again and again, as we shall have
occasion to note, into serious conflict with Parliament itself.
Three years, and more, passed away before the final result was
reached. It was not until the summer of 1647, that Presbyteri
anism secured the position it had all the while coveted, and became
— so far as it ever did become — the established church of the
British Isles. The illusive conception of uniformity, to be attained
by means of a state church, and by the repression of all forms of
dissent, constantly attracted and misled the Assembly ; and when
that result was gained through the formal act of Parliament, the
Presbyterian party in both church and state regarded the victory
of Presbyterianism over all other types of Christianity as forever
assured in Britain. But the day of triumph was the beginning of
disaster ; so far as England was concerned, the scheme was a
pitiful failure. No theoretical polity could stand in the presence
of shifting popular sentiment, and of severe political exigency ;
and in a brief period, numbered by months rather than by years,
it became evident that the practical issue, in England at least,
would be either the submission of everything religious and political
to the sway of a loose Independency, under such leaders as Crom
well, or the restoration of the monarchy and the rehabilitation of
Prelacy as the established church. It is a startling illustration of
the changeful and revolutionary temper of the times that, in less
than eighteen years from the memorable day when the Assembly
and the Parliament lifted up their hands to heaven and together
swore allegiance to the principles of the Solemn League and Cov
enant, that noble document was by royal command publicly burned
in the streets of London by the common hangman.
These historical glances at the Westminster Assembly on its
ecclesiastical side, and in its aspirations and struggles toward
civil supremacy, are indispensable to any adequate view of its
theological position and teachings. But we may now turn to

THE SYMBOLS FORMULATED. 49
consider more immediately its doctrinal labors, and note the doc
trinal results attained. It has well been said (Gardiner: Puritan
Revolution) that in all the varieties of
Puritanism the heart was addressed 2U »°ctrinal labors
4.!,,  u i-u : .n 4. it. 4.1. 4.1. . and results: Confession
through the intellect rather than through Mfl Catechisms>
the eye — by means of doctrine rather than
of ceremony, such as Laud and his associates had sought to enforce.
This was eminently characteristic of the type of Puritanism
represented in the Assembly. While the members of that body
were anxious to secure uniformity in worship and also in govern
ment, it was their chief desire after all to secure clearness and
earnestness and harmony of belief around what they conceived to
be the essential doctrines of the Christian religion. After the
examination of the Thirty-nine Articles had ended, the Assembly
felt itself more and more constrained to prepare a new symbol,
which should express at greater length and in better form its
more pronounced Calvinism. Yet under the pressure of the issues
already described, this necessity was postponed for two years or
more. Although a committee had been appointed in August,
1644, to prepare and digest material for such a symbol, it was
not until the summer of 1645, that the work of framing the Con
fession was actually undertaken, — a committee composed of nine
among the ablest and most valued members being appointed at
that time, to whom the delicate and difficult task in its varied
details was intrusted. This committee was subsequently en
larged by the addition of ten members, and of the clerical com
missioners from Scotland as advisory;* and to it as a whole, and
as divided into sections, were committed the general arrangement
of topics, the order and titles of the several chapters, the tentative
defining of particular doctrines, the special matter of language
and expression, and in fact the entire work of formulating the
Confession, — subject at all times to the supervisory authority of
the Assembly itself. The Minutes show that this supervisory
function was faithfully exercised, and that as each chapter was
finished, it was presented to the Assembly for minute and -final
examination. In such examination, though the whole matter
was carefully considered, only a few subjects seem to have elic
ited prolonged debate, — particularly the relation of the headship
of Christ to the civil magistracy, and the doctrines of decrees,
*For more extended accounts of the membership of this committee and
its mode of procedure, see Mitchei,L, Westminster Assembly: HbThemng-
Ton, Hist, inloc: Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, Vol. I: Neal, Fuller,
Reid, Stoughton, Masson, and others.

50 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
predestination, election and reprobation. Concerning the latter
topics, substantial agreement was at last secured, at least in
the form of expression, though not without long and tough
discussion. More than a year was occupied in these theo^
logical deliberations, mingled with much debate concerning
ecclesiastical issues, and requisite attention to various matters of
detail; and it was not until October, 1646, that the Assembly
Submitted to the scrutiny of Parliament the first half of the Con
fession. In the following December, the entire document was
presented to that body under the significant title : The Humble
Advice of the Assembly of Divines now, by authority of Parlia
ment, sitting at Westminster, concerning a Confession of Faith.
Parliament called for scriptural proofs on every point; and the
Assembly reconsidered the whole, annexed such proofs to the
several propositions in each chapter, and reported the document
the second time during the month of April, 1647. Various polit
ical and other exigencies prevented Parliament from giving time
to the consideration of the Confession; and it was not until .March,
1648, that after full conference between the two Houses, the docu
ment was formally approved; the adopting act giving among others
the significant reason, — that this Kingdom and all the Reformed
churches in Christendom may see that the Parliament of England
differ not in doctrine. Exception was taken, however, to certain
particulars in discipline, relating specially to the matter of civil
authority over religious affairs, and to the independent rights of the
church as asserted by the Assembly; and these particulars were
recommitted. Parliament being shortly after dissolved by Crom-
well.the Assembly never reported on these excepted clauses, and the
Confession stands as originally presented. The title was changed
by the civil authorities to, Articles of the "Christian Religion,
agreed upon by both Houses of Parliament, after Advice had with
the Assembly of Divines, — a signal illustration of the mischiefs
in which the prevalent theory of church and state was continually
involving those who maintained it, whether statesmen or divines.
This title has of course disappeared, though the theory indicated
by it in some of its phases still survives.
While the Confession was thus taking form, committees were
also appointed by the Assembly to prepare at first a single Cate
chism, but afterwards two Catechisms, for the instruction of
children and of adult persons ignorant of divine truth. The
theory of church growth then everywhere current, and the
practice of the Protestant churches on the continent, naturally
led to this step. The policy of catechetical indoctrination, first

DOCTRINAL RESULTS ATTAINED. 51
developed by Luther, had become so well established and was so
extensively carried out on the continent, as to give practical point
to the remark attributed to the Council of Trent, that the heretics
have chiefly made use of catechisms to corrupt the minds of
Christians. Such use was common in Great Britain almost from
the first; the number and quality of the antecedent English and
Scotch catechisms are quite remarkable: their name, says Mitchell,
is legion. While following such precedents the Assembly deter
mined, however, to complete the Confession first, in order that
the Catechisms might be modeled after it in method and phrase-
logy; and they wyere therefore not presented to Parliament until
November, 1647, nor with full scriptural proofs, until April,
1648. Nor was it till the September following, seven months
after the adoption of the Confession, that Parliament accepted
the two Catechisms and ordered them to be printed. One of the
leading minds of the Assembly, Dr. Wallis, prepared a brief and
easy explanation of the Shorter Catechism, which was approved
by the Assembly and also submitted to the consideration of Par
liament. Such were the doctrinal results and products of the Westminster
Assembly. It will be seen on closer inspection that these Symbols
taken together constitute a full, definite and valuable statement
of the predominating theological opinion in the British Isles at
the date of their adoption. Prepared with more of deliberation
than any preceding creed of Protestantism, and without much
disruptive controversy, they may be regarded as expressing more
deliberately the final judgment of Protestant scholarship of the
Reformed type, in regard to the vital topics presented. Each
Symbol should be studied in connection with the rest, as each is
exegetical of all ; and all should in like manner be studied in the
light of the strong and peculiar theology of the period. Thus
contemplated, these formularies are certainly worthy of the most
thoughtful consideration of all who would know what the ablest
and purest Calvinism in Europe was, a little more than two cen
turies ago. The editorial Introduction to the treatise of Winer is
hardly extravagant in the statement that no Confession so fully
expresses the doctrine of the Reformed branch of the Reforma
tion, and none has exerted so much influence in Christendom.
It remains to this day the avowed or unavowed directory of the
religious faith of all who, throughout the English-speaking world,
hold to the traditions of Puritan theology.
It may serve to increase our sense of the value of the work,
ecclesiastical and especially doctrinal, accomplished by the Assem-

52 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
bly, if we glance briefly at the grave difficulties amid which
this work was wrought, and the temper with which the Assembly
undertook and carried through its weighty
22. Difficulties con- task The foremost of these difficulties
fronted ; Temper of the strained and indeed
Assembly; value of its / . . ,
worl[> painful relations which by degrees came to
subsist between that body and the Eng
lish Parliament, and which at some later stages seemed almost to
reach the point of open rupture. There is no reason to doubt that
Parliament at first regarded the body which it had created, and
had entrusted with so serious a commission — to which it had given
such implicit instructions, and for whose support it had made pro
vision from the national treasury — with positive friendship, and
even with a high measure of confidence. Many indications of this
occur in the Minutes and in the Parliamentary Records during the
earlier years in the life of the Assembly. Masson tersely describes
the Assembly as at the outset a power or institution in the English
realm, existing side by side with the Parliament, and in constant
conference and co-operation with it. Yet as events progressed,
and new causes of difference and friction arose, the feeling of
Parliament by degrees obviously changed ; the boundary lines of
the respective prerogatives became matters of dispute ; the action
of the Assembly, especially regarding the church and its relation
to the civil state, was seriously challenged ; and the prevalent
temper of Parliament, or at least of many members, grew to be
one of suspicion if not of hostility. The political struggles,
becoming more and more intense, and the new issues arising from
time to time within the civil sphere, helped on the growing alien
ation. One of the most painful illustrations of this developing
estrangement appears in the practical arraignment of the Assem
bly by Parliament in 1646, on the charge of an abuse of privilege
in its petition to that body respecting the supreme right of the
church to determine who should be admitted to the sacrament — an
arraignment in which the Christian dignity and patience of the
Assembly, and its fidelity to sound principle, stand out in marked
contrast with the domineering spirit and imperative language of
Parliament and its representatives. Others are manifested in the
way in which the House of Commons received and treated the first
draft of the Confession, in its imperative call for proof texts, in
its unsympathetic criticism, and the needless postponement of the
final adoption, notwithstanding the earnest pleadings of the
Assembly. It would be impracticable here even to sketch in outline the

DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED. 53
political situation in general, with its many complications and
embarrassments, as that situation seriously disturbed the Assembly
in the endeavor to fulfill its appointed mission. The student of
English history will be at no loss to discern such disturbing influ
ences, or to see how inevitably the popularity and influence of the
Assembly declined in the presence of such civil commotions. The
years were also marked by the spontaneous rise of multitudinous
sects and schools of thought, widely at variance with each other,
but all agreeing in questioning or reviling the strong doctrines
and the high spiritual standard of the Assembly, as well as its
ecclesiastical regimen and its staid order of worship. As the
Savoy Council testified a few years later, the devil in this small
time ran through the whole round and circle of delusions, while
men took the freedom to vent and vend their own vain and accursed
imaginations, contrary to the great and fixed truths of the Gospel.
And there must have been seasons when, in the presence of such
strange developments and tendencies, the Assembly was almost
ready to drop its high task in despair, and to give England over
to the revolutionary forces that seemed to be seeking to corrupt or
destroy both state and church at once. It was not Cromwellian
Independency alone that gave ground for such discouragement,
neither was it an aggressive Prelacy, steadily seeking to return to
power. Antichrists were abroad in the land : more dangerous
forces still seemed to be at work, both in society and within the
religious sphere : and the efforts of the Assembly to resist or
repress these seemed as idle as the enactments of a commonwealth
to stay some onward sweeping pestilence.
Within itself the Assembly had much to bear in the way of em
barrassment and trial. It was a serious matter to call upon so many
men of special prominence to leave their homes, their parishes and
bishoprics, their university engagements ,and studies, in order to
give themselves up for five long years to the work assigned them.
It is not, strange that there were prolonged absences, at home and
elsewhere, and many failures to be present, even when important
action was to be taken. The pecuniary losses involved in such a
prolonged engagement were very great, and the wealthier mem
bers were more than once led to forego their share of the parlia
mentary stipend in order to help out their needier brethren.
Sickness frequently invaded their ranks, and as many as twelve or
fifteen members died during the sessions, — one of whom, Twisse,
the venerable Prolocutor, was buried with special ceremonies in
Westminster Abbey, only to be sacrilegiously exhumed after the
Restoration, and cast with a number of others into one common

54 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
grave, somewhere within the Abbey grounds. The debates were
often so prolonged as to justify the gentle remonstrance of Hen
derson, during the interminable discussion on the power vested
inherently in the particular congregation : We thought we had
been near the harbor, but now we are sailing out into the deep !
Many more loves their own fancies here than I did expect, wrote
Baillie during the progress of one of these long debates. He says
elsewhere that the members harangue long and learnedly, but
their longsomeness is awful, — that they are guilty of prolixity and
infamous slowness, — that they spend time on scabrous (rough;
troublesome) questions, and in velitations on quiddities, — and that
the church business drives on wonderful heavillie. Nor were there
wanting asperities in such debate, followed by dislikes and aliena
tions and by contentious opposition to what was decided, — in one
or two instances so great as to lead almost to the expulsion of con
tumacious members. The references to such differences, suggested
in the Life of Lightfoot and the Letters of Baillie, are both sig
nificant and painful.
How quietly and patiently, amid all such tumult without and
within, the Assembly went on year by year with its allotted task, —
how steadily it adhered to its principles in defiance alike of the as
sumptions of Parliament and the oppositions of sectaries of vari
ous sorts, — how confidently it persisted in the unfolding of its fixed
convictions respecting worship and government, and of its pro
found conceptions in theology, — especially with what moral
earnestness as well as intellectual conviction, what profound and
controlling piety, and what devotedness to God, it went on and on
in the discharge of its recognized duty to him and his great
cause,* can be known only to those who carefully study the
* We shall have occasion to note again and again the religious quality of
the Assembly. One striking illustration recorded in the Minutes of Oct. 8,
1645, may be mentioned here. It had been resolved, on the previous Friday,
that the body should meet to humble themselves before God ; that the ser
vices should extend from 9 A. M. to 4 P. M. ; and that two members
should be appointed to preach, and three to offer prayer. Accordingly Dr.
Burges began with prayer; Mr. Reynolds, after a short prayer, preached
from Matt, xvi : 24; Mr. Whitakers prayed; Mr. Palmer, after a short prayer,
preached from Zach iii: 6, 7; and Mr. Ash closed with prayer,— the services
ending with a collection for the benefit (apparently) of certain members
and their families. Baillie describes another similar occasion in 1644, when
the services lasted eight hours : Mr. Marshall praying large two hours most
divinely, and Vines and Seaman each praying near two hours, while Arrow-
smith and Palmer each preached one hour; — the whole followed by a short,
sweet conference and confession of sins. Men who could thus frequently
spend entire days in such devotional services, certainly believed in the reality

THE SYMBOLS IN BRITAIN. 55
records of its action, and take proper note of the commanding
influence exerted through such action on the thought and experi
ence of that important era in British history. That the Assembly
made mistakes and sometimes fell into error, and was occasionally
too sweeping and severe in its theological dicta and demands, may
be readily admitted. Such incidents are attributable largely to
the times, and parti}- — it may be — to the intrinsic nature of that
type of doctrine which the Assembly sought in all fidelity to erect
in its completeness. Yet these defects are not so numerous or so
serious as to shut out from view the remarkable strength and
proportion of that magnificent temple of sacred truth. An un-
theologic age, in which plain and square doctrine is ignored, and
biblical truths are much confused with human speculation, and
loose generalizations and airy fancies are too often substituted for
the simple Gospel, may not be able to appreciate either the loftier
spirit of the Assembly or the solid grandeur of its work. But the
observant centuries will not fail to estimate rightly either the
moral elevation of its temper and purpose, or the substantial
quaHty and value of its teaching.
Some brief allusion should be made in this introductory survey
to the remarkable career and history of the Symbols in the British
Isles. — Scarcely had the Presbyterian
church been established in England in 22' Tne Westminster
., , c t> 1 i. 4.1. im.- 1 Symbols in Britain: Their
the place of Prelacy, when the political . . . . _
r ¦" F varied career and influence.
scepter passed into the hands of Crom
well, and Charles fell a victim to his own folly and to the popular
hostility. This event rendered impossible the maintenance of
the Presbyterian polity, and a church more in harmony with the
mind and taste of Cromwell and his party naturally took its place.
The Provincial Synod of London indeed continued to meet until
1653 or later, without encouragement from the Protector, yet
without direct opposition. From that time till his death in 1658,
Presbyterianism in England grew weaker and weaker; Presbyte
rians were ejected from their livings upon refusal to support the
Commonwealth; Independents were appointed to fill the vacan
cies; the power of ordination and of appointment was given to a
committee of Triers, of whom a large proportion were Inde
pendents. In 1658, at the Savoy near London, the latter party
were convened by civil mandate to prepare a new formula both of
of religion and the efficacy of prayer. In the presence of such records, it
seems hardly an exaggeration to say (Briggs : Amer. Presbyterianism) that
such a band of preaching and praying ministers as was gathered in the
Westminster Assembly, the world had never seen before.

56 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
faith and of order. This council adopted the Westminster Symbols
substantially, but drafted a Platform of Church Polity of which
the autonomy of the local church was the central feature. Mean
while, the death of Cromwell and the brief reign of his son were
followed in two short years by the elevation of Charles II. to the
throne; and after that event both Independency and Presbyteri
anism retired together, and Prelacy with all its theological as
well as ecclesiastical peculiarities became again the dominant
faith. In Scotland, the Form of Church Government and the Directory
for Worship were adopted by the General Assembly as early as
1645, and in 1647, the same body formally approved the Confes
sion. In the following year the Catechisms were ratified in like
manner; and from that date the Westminster Symbols, taking
the place of the old confession of Knox, became the doctrinal
basis of the Scottish church. The language of the Adopting Act
is full of significance. After describing the Confession as most
agreeable to the Word of God, and as highly conducive to the
desired uniformity of belief and the suppressing of heresy, the
Assembly expressed its thankful acknowledgment of the special
mercy of God in that so excellent a Confession had been prepared
and agreed upon in both Kingdoms, as a great strengthening of
the true Reformed religion against the common enemies thereof.
At the same time the Assembly adopted a series of propositions,
prepared by Baillie, one of the commissioners to the Westminster
Assembly, which were designed to exclude all Erastian interpre
tations of the language of the Symbols respecting the relations
between the civil and the ecclesiastical authorities. To this step
they were doubtless impelled by a reasonable fear that the influ
ence of Parliament might have led their brethren of Westminster
to some possible swerving from the true doctrine respecting the
headship of Christ, and the strict independency of his church
from all political control.
The subsequent history of the symbols in the two Kingdoms
presents a singular and suggestive contrast. In England, Presby
terian Calvinism speedily became a dissenting fragment, possessing
little influence either religious or civil. The glory of its name was
early dimmed ; and the spiritual decline which followed during the
century succeeding, was perhaps a natural consequence. The
English mind preferred to dwell in the flowery plains of Moderat-
ism, rather than to live amid the rugged summits of a positive
Calvinism. Multitudes chose easier and more palatable notions of
biblical truth, and readily counted themselves released from the

ENGLISH AND SCOTCH ACCEPTANCE. 57
stern and searching demands respecting duty made by the Presby
terian formularies. It was, in the quaint language of the Savoy
Declaration, a time of aestuation, fluxes and refluxes of great
varieties of spirits, doctrines, opinions and occurrences . . ac
companied with powerful persuasions and temptations to seduce
men from the truth. Nor was the disappointing struggle for polit
ical supremacy and state patronage calculated to confirm men in
the faith, or to strengthen the religious life within the church.
A relapse, first from the practical demands of such a type of belief
as had been formulated at Westminster, and then from the car
dinal tenets of that formula, might have been expected. Such
a relapse followred ; and within a hundred years from the dissolu
tion of the Assembly, English Presbyterianism had largely become
Unitarian. In Scotland, where the political element was relatively less and
the religious element relatively much more prominent, a very
different result followed. There the doctrinal principles of the
Symbols became the basis of church life as well as of church form;
the Calvinistic theology produced a corresponding type of reli
gion; the truth developed itself in practice; and, with the local
and transient exception of Moderatism, the Presbyterian system of
belief became the controlling power spiritually within the Scottish
realm. Of the potency of these convictions and experiences, the
subsequent struggles of Scotland to maintain the church she had
adopted, her determined and prolonged resistance to the aggression
both of the Monarchy and of English Episcopacy, her sufferings
unto blood for the truth and her heroic triumphs, bear ample
testimony. Even the subsequent conflicts of opinion within the
Presbyterian household, the divisions and subdivisions around
minor issues, the ruptures and disruptions of the past two centu
ries, — needless and painful as most of them appear, — signally
illustrate the strength of the one creed to which all parties still
adhered, and in which all alike gloried. In both the established
and the voluntary forms, and under all varieties, the Presbyte
rianism of Westminster, doctrinal and ecclesiastical, is still the
strength and the glory of the church of Christ in Scotland. In
Ireland also, existing Presbyterianism, transplanted from Scot
land and closely affiliated with it, retains the same strong charac
teristics, and blossoms out under conditions more adverse into the
same practical and spiritual fruitage.
The record of the transplantation of the Westminster Symbols
to America, and of their adoption and position here, deserves

58 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
special notice.* During the closing decades of the seventeenth
century considerable numbers of Presbyterians, especially from
Scotland and Ireland, emigrated to this
24. The Westminster Sym- continent, bringing with them their
bols in America; the Adopt- ecclesiastical standards and usages.,
ing Act,— Theories of sub- M , ; ,,..„.
scription. These colonists settled principally in
New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Vir
ginia; and wherever they went, they carried with them their
ancestral faith. Churches were formed at various points ; and in
1705, or 1706, some of these churches were associated together in
the original Presbytery at Philadelphia. The question of a doc
trinal basis gradually became prominent, especially where the
immigrant from Britain and. the colonist from New England came
to be associated in the one community and church. On and after
the formation of the first Synod in 1717, this question became
still more important, — all indeed accepting the Presbyterian doc
trine as well as order, yet differing as to the principle of subscrip
tion, and the extent of ecclesiastical authority in matters of belief.;
In 1729, the Adopting Act was passed, determining for the time
the nature of the subscription required, and making the Symbols in
their totality the standard of American Presbyterianism. Among
the causes leading to this result may be named especially the
doctrinal defection already becoming apparent in some portions of
Britain, and the rise of some new opinions, diverging somewhat,
from the primitive Calvinism, on the part of those who had;
entered the Presbyterian ministry from New England.
The Adopting Act was not passed unanimously or without
resistance. Some members of the Synod, though personally
sound in the faith, were opposed to all creeds drawn up by uninT
spired men, as involving an assumption of spiritual authority in
matters of belief, not warranted by the Word of God. Others
were simply opposed to such literal and rigid subscription as was
demanded generally by the foreign members, and also to the pro
posal that all who refused to sign on these terms should be excluded
from the organization. The final adoption was consequently a
compromise, recognizing the force of these objections, but calling
for belief in the Symbols simply as being in all the essential and
necessary articles good forms of sound words and systems of
Christian doctrine. The spirit of this compromise was eminently

*Giij,ETT, History of the Presbyterian Church ; Webster, same title ;
Hodge, Constitutional History: Briggs, Amer. Presbyterianism; Thompson,
History of the Presbyterian Churches in America.

ACCEPTANCE IN AMERICA. 59
fraternal ; room was left for differences on all articles not essential
and necessary ; and it was agreed that none should challenge or
criticise another in respect, as was said, to the non-essential and
not-necessary points of doctrine. In the same Act, the Synod
further declared its own divergence from the Symbols in regard to
civil control in matters of religion ; denying all such right of
interference, whether in respect to the exercise of ministerial
authority, or to prosecution by the. state for any departure from
the authorized faith.
In 1736, an attempt was made to compel a more rigid subscrip
tion to the Symbols as thus modified. It was maintained that
they ought to be accepted without the least variation or alteration,
and with no exception in favor of personal scruple or conviction.
Though this view was not sustained, the issue thus raised con
tinued to present itself ; and while all parties adhered to the
Symbols, they differed widely as to the amount of obligation
incurred. On one side, the freer view of subscription opened the
door for serious deviations from sound doctrine, and in some
instances led on to radical departures from the common faith.
On the other side, stress laid on mere doctrinal soundness, mere
conformity to rules and ordinances, mere regard for the letter,
resulted in the neglect of the spirit, and in the decline of piety
itself. In 1741, these differences culminated in an open rupture ;
and American Presbyterianism was for the first time rent asunder,
partly on account of real difference in doctrine, but chiefly for dif
ference in this matter of subscription. Seventeen years afterward,
this rupture was healed, and the church became united substan
tially on the former basis, — though perhaps with some increased
emphasis of the stricter theory.
In 1788, the United Synod carried through an important
alteration in those chapters of the Confession which treat of the
relations between the church and the state, and planted itself
firmly on the voluntary principle, and on the entire independence
of the church from all secular control. Religious liberty became
by this change not only a right to be maintained by the Presby
terian church for itself, but also a privilege to be freely accorded
by it to all other Christian communions, and even to all forms of
error or unbelief. The old theory of subscription remained in force,
however, until the practical and doctrinal diversities, springing
up during the first three decades of the present century, gave
occasion for the introduction again of the old issue. The disrup
tion of 1837, while primarily growing out of questions of organi
zation and method, and partly caused by real differences in respect

60 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
to certain doctrines or statements of doctrine, was also produced
largely by a tendency to extreme positions on both sides in the
matter of subscription. In general, the two separated bodies may
be said to have represented either the more strict and literal or
the more broad and substantial theory on this point. In the
Reunion of 1869, there was cordial agreement around the accept
ance of the Symbols as containing, in the language of the irenic
Synod of 1758, an orthodox and excellent system of doctrine, to
be received in its proper historical sense, and with just liberty of
interpretation, in the true temper of loyalty and of love. Under
this agreement, the leading Presbyterian body in the United
States now exists as a representative on this continent of the
Calvinism of Westminster.
The Symbols were also adopted by the churches of New England,
as the Council of Savoy had already approved them, for substance
of doctrine, at the Synod of Cambridge, 1648 ; the Synod of
Boston, 1680 ; and the Synod of Saybrook, 1708. The Shorter
Catechism especially was long received authoritatively as express
ing the essential faith of these churches, and is still regarded by
many as among the most valuable expositions of the Calvinistic
system. The Declarations of more recent national Councils do
not vary from that system in any essential features ; — though
they possibly lay greater stress on the broad and noble principle,
believed in at Westminster but more fully enunciated at Savoy,
that amongst all Christian States and Churches there ought to be
vouchsafed a forbearance and mutual indulgence unto saints of
all persuasions that keep unto and hold fast the necessary foun
dation of faith and holiness, in all other matters extra funda
mental, whether of Faith or Order.
Other Presbyterian bodies of later origin, and organized espec
ially from representatives of the varieties of Presbyterianism
existing in Scotland, have either modified the original Confession
as to the matter of civil control, and to the nature and scope of
ecclesiastical authority, or have received the Confession in its
original form, appending to it authoritative testimonies, setting
forth their several departures from it. The Cumberland church,
wholly American in origin, has made more extensive alterations!
amounting to a full revision in both the Confession and the
Catechisms,-chiefly for the purpose of eliminating from them
all appearance of fatalism, and of presenting in such revision a
more mediate, less decisive type of Calvinism. In these bodies,
the rule as to subscription ranges from extreme rigidity in some

GENERAL POSITION AND INFLUENCE. 61
to a simple and perhaps inadequate acceptance for substance of
doctrine on the part of others.
The general character, position and influence of the Westmin
ster Symbols will be easily realized in the light of this introductory-
survey, though the subject will be much
more readily appreciated at the close of 2S* General character
the .studies here proposed. What we ^ position of the Sym-
, . . . „ bols : nature of their in-
have already seen justifies the statement nuence.
that, in several particulars, these Symbols
may be regarded as the most significant group of formularies
produced by Protestantism during the remarkable period of the
Reformation :
First: In respect to the amount of time, and the degree of
deliberation in their preparation, they present the nearest Protest
ant parallel to the Canons and Decrees of Trent. Most of the
other Protestant Confessions were framed in a comparatively
brief period of time. The Synod of Dort held but one hundred
and forty-four sessions, and adjourned within six months. The
Confession of Augsburg was prepared at intervals during the
summer of 1530. The Second Helvetic Confession, the most
widely received among the Reformed creeds of the Continent,
was prepared chiefly by the single hand of Bullinger, and adopted
after a few conferences among the representatives of the provinces
and churches interested in its construction. The Heidelberg
Catechism, which approaches most nearly the Westminster form
ularies in the statement of doctrine, though revised and approved
by a general synod held at the place whose name it bears, was
drafted substantially by Ursinus and Olevianus under the appoint
ment of Frederick, Elector of the Palatinate. After the time
spent by the Assembly of Westminster in ecclesiastical debate,
and in the development of its scheme for making Britain Presby
terian, is deducted, it will still be apparent that no creed of the
Reformation, in either the length of time, or the number of
persons concerned, or in the other elements calculated to give
such a formulary prominence as the product of rare deliberation,
can be compared with the Symbols which that Assembly gave to
Protestantism. Secondly: This prominence is no less apparent when we con
sider the extent and heartiness of the acceptance which these
Symbols, together with the form of polity associated with them,
have obtained. Among all varieties of Protestantism, Presbyter
ianism is obviously most widely diffused, and most nearly
ecumenical : and among the Protestant Confessions, none is so

62 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
extensively received, none so widely revered, as that on which
this Presbyterianism rests. It may especially be questioned
whether any takes such strong hold on those who accept it, or so
vigorously regulates the thoughts and convictions of its adherents.
The reverence paid to it sometimes seems like idolatry itself.
The unwillingness to revise it, or even to adopt explanatory
declarations or testimonies respecting it, is significant proof of
its amazing power over the mind and the heart. The Augsburg
Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism are the only Protestant
creeds which could justly be compared with it in these respects.
Thirdly: Much of this prominence is due as well to the struc
ture of these remarkable Symbols, as to the manner of their
preparation and the extent of their diffusion. Prepared after all
the rest, and at a time when many of the issues of earlier Protest
antism had been settled, they betray less of the provincial narrow
ness incident to those earlier struggles,, — less of the merely partisan
feeling and of the intense dogmatism which characterized largely
the preceding century, — less of the mere antagonism to Rome
which in some respects warped all the earlier creeds. Theology,
according to the Protestant conception of it, had been more
thoroughly formulated, and was capable of being more calmly,
more broadly, more conclusively stated. The principle of tolera
tion had at least received its first recognition, and its benign
influence was felt, even amid the sharp diversities which in some
cases agitated the Assembly. Traces of fraternal compromise,
even on points which at first were centers of strenuous discussion,
such as the order of the decrees or the scope of the Gospel or the
divine right of the Presbyterian polity, are frequently apparent.
There are also many indications, as will appear during these
studies, not only of a purpose to incorporate whatever was
worthiest in the antecedent creeds, but of a disposition to harmo
nize in belief, so far as possible, with other Protestant and especially
with the Reformed communions. Compared with the Canons of
Dort, their chief rival, the Symbols are less technical and dogmatic,
less strictly theological ; while compared with the Catechism of
Heidelberg, they reveal a more thorough doctrinal structure, a
more elaborate grouping and union of truth, without the sacrifice
of that fine spiritual tone for which the latter formulary is justly
prized. This combination of theological construction, with prac
tical expression and adaptation — of an organic completeness not
equaled by any preceding creed, with a matured and moderated
Christian temper, must be regarded as one of their peculiar excel
lencies. Traces of the period with its special conflicts are indeed

THE PROPOSED STUDY. 63
apparent, as we shall have frequent occasion to note, both, in the
thought and in the spirit of these Symbols, yet they exhibit much
in both spirit and thought which the common Christianity for all
time will continue to appreciate as the most consummate flower of
historic Protestantism.
Reserving further statements respecting the excellence of the
Symbols until their doctrinal contents shall have passed under
specific review, and the theological system
embodied in them shall have been me- „„„,",, „»?¦,„ c  i.„i„ ."
Method of the Symbols :
thodically defined, we may proceed at method of study : general
once to survey the broad domain to be object.
traversed, and to mark in outline the
contemplated course of investigation. The Confession follows in
general, not the order of the ancient creeds, or the methods of the
earlier Protestant theologians, but rather the more systematic plan
of development exhibited in the best theological treatises of the
latter half of the seventeenth century. It commences with the
Bible as the source and foundation of all belief ; then proceeds
with the doctrine of Scripture concerning God in his being and
attributes, purposes and administration, providential and moral ;
then discusses the creation, character and fall of man, with the
consequences of that fall ; and then presents Christ in his person
and in his mediatorial work in its main aspects and issues. From
these fundamental positions, it proceeds to discuss such saving
truth in its more practical relations, — to set forth the plan of
salvation and the process of salvation as illustrated in the various
phases and experiences of the Christian life, and also to expound
the moral law as the rule of life, and present the duties which natu
rally spring into view on that basis, and are legitimately required
of all who believe in Christ. These discussions are followed by
an exposition of the sacraments and the church, of the relations
of the church to the state, of the authority of councils, and the
right and limits of church discipline; and the whole is concluded
with two chapters, following the order of the Apostolic Creed, on
death and the intermediate life, resurrection and the final judg
ment. Extensive as this list of topics seems, it is justly ques
tioned whether there are not some important factors in Christian
theology, such as the doctrine of the Gospel in its scope, and of
the Holy Spirit in his person and work, which are either omitted
or too incidentally and cursorily treated. Systematic as the con
struction is, and marked and strong as is the method pursued, it
is also questioned with some reason whether this is absolutely the
best grouping possible, — whether the method be not more theo-

64 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
logical than biblical, and whether the great realities of grace might
not be set in connections, articulated into a system, such as would
bring out into more glorious light the grand central facts con
cerning Christ and his Salvation. These are queries which will
frequently recur to view at later stages in the studies proposed.
The method pursued in the Catechisms, while resembling that of
the Confession, is yet simpler and more natural. They were con
structed not for the purpose of presenting a consistent and complete
system of doctrine, but rather — to use the suggestive phrase of
Reynolds — in that way which is most for ingenerating knowledge;
or so as, in the language of Gillespie, to condescend to the capacity
of the common and unlearned. Thus their teaching is divided
easily into the two main sections, belief and duty. The presen
tation of what we are to believe, includes most of the cardinal
elements in the theology of the Confession : what is our duty, as
consequent upon such belief, is set forth in an elaborate exposition
of the Ten Commandments, and of the form of Prayer taught by
Our Lord, and in an associated exposition of saving faith and its
fruits. Though both Catechisms adopt this more simple' divi
sion, the Larger adheres under it more closely to the theological
terminology of the Confession itself. Both are to be regarded as
authoritative as well as the Confession, as. are also the Form of
Government, the Book of Discipline, and the Directory for Wor
ship, so far as they help to explain or emphasize the doctrinal
system incorporated in the distinctively theological formularies.*
In presenting as is proposed, a compendium or summary of this
doctrinal system, it will be desirable to group the chapters of the
Confession together according to the theological scheme followed
by the compilers, rather than to comment on each chapter separ
ately. A study of these chapters as arranged will make it manifest
that they are capable of such grouping, and that what may be
termed a system of theology can be built up without disruption or
confusion from the material thus furnished. By such treatment
the teachings of the Catechisms also may be set in more palpable
*See Mitchell, Westminster Assembly, Lect. XII. and also his collection of
Catechisms of the Second Reformation, and that of Bonar, Catechisms of the
Scottish Reformation. Schaff (Creeds of Christ: Vol. I.) pronounces the
Shorter Catechism one of the three typical catechisms of Protestantism which
are likely to last till the end of time : see his remarks on the Protestant Cate
chisms generally. On the authority of the Catechisms consult Presbyterian
Digest, in loc. See Commentaries on the Catechisms, by Vincent, Fisher,
Green, Boyd and others. The first extensive Body of Divinity published in
America, 1726, by Samuel Willard, President of Harvard, was a series of two
hundred and fifty discourses on the Shorter Catechism.

THE OBJECT SOUGHT. 65
relations to those of the Confession, and the real unity pervading
the entire series may be brought more clearly into view. It will
also be more practicable under this method to compare the doc
trines of these formularies with those of the three ancient creeds
and of the other Protestant confessions, and also with Roman and
Greek symbolism, and with the chief product of more recent inves
tigations in the general field of Christian doctrine. Special attention
will also be paid in this connection to the various Declarations
and Testimonies, and to the actual and proposed Revisions, which
bear directly upon present interpretation of these venerable
Symbols. If the result shall be a clear, just, liberal, comprehen
sive estimate of what is essential in the Presbyterian system of
doctrine, and what is in fact beHeved by those who now accept
these formularies as the standard and index of their faith, the
chief aim of these Lectures will be fully attained. It remains
simply to be added that such aim not only precludes all dogmatic
narrowness and all controversial purpose or temper, but requires
also a broad and cordial sympathy with all varieties of the com
mon Calvinism, and no less truly with all other types of evan
gelical belief. The doctrinal specialties in which intelligent
Calvinists now differ, are of very small moment compared with
those primal and commanding truths in which they are consciously
and profoundly agreed. Nor is it any less true that the surviving
disagreements of evangelical Protestantism are incomparably 'less
important than are those fundamental doctrines of grace, those
saving verities of Scripture, in regard to which all true Protestants
of whatever name are consciously and cordially One.

LECTURE SECOND— THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
revelation, its nature and process : the contents
01? Scripture : Its Authenticity, Authority and Ade
quacy : Right and Duty of Private Interpretation.
Confession of Faith, Chap. I ; XIV, Sec. ii ; XXI, Sec. i ;
Larger Catechism, Answers 2-5 ; 154-160 ; Shorter Cate
chism, 2-3 ; 89-90.
The formal principle of the Reformation was the Supremacy
of Scripture, as distinct from either patristric tradition, or the
decrees of councils, or the imperative
1. Protestantism and teachings of the Church through its papal
r~tJ- j_ «*•.. c™.k„i. head. The Articles of Smalcald spoke
larion in the Symbols. . , „ .
for all Protestantism in tersely affirming
(II.) that the Word of God should frame articles of faith, other
wise no one, not even an angel. It was on this basis only that
Protestantism as a new and more intelligent and "spiritual type of
Christianity could safely rest. The Bible, as supreme' above all
other sources or authorities, — the Bible as an authenticated mess
age from God to each soul of man, to be studied and interpreted
by each in the temper of loyalty to its divine Author, was there
fore seated on the throne as the great arbitrator of doctrine, the
true norm of belief, the regulative factor in both faith and life.
Hence the prominence which is given to the Bible and its claims
in the various symbols of the period : hence the clear, strong,
decisive affirmations concerning its authenticity and authority,
which are found everywhere in both the creeds and the theologies
of primitive Protestantism. See Augsburg Conf.: Conclusion:
Formula Concordiae, Introd. I-II : Zwinglian Articles, 1, 5, 13:
First Helvetic Conf. I-II : Second Helv. Cap. I : Heidelberg Cat.
20-21 : French Conf. II-IV: Belgic Conf. Art. III-VII : First
Scotch XIX-XX : Thirty-Nine Art. VI-VII : and especially the
Irish Articles, 1 to 7; from which the form and language of the
Westminster statements were largely derived.
The Westminster Confession, like most of these formularies,
starts not from the abstract doctrine of the decrees, nor from any
«»ther speculative or philosophic basis, but immediately from the

GENERAL PROTESTANT DOCTRINE. 67
primary and fundamental fact of Revelation. More fully than
any of them it presents to view the vital need of a supernatural
communication from God to man contemplated as a sinner, the
modes in which such a communication was actually made, and
the several writings which combine to make up that communica
tion. As against the Roman theory of tradition in whatever
form, and against the opposite theory of an inner light, whether
derived from reason or from the independent • illumination of the
Holy Spirit, it affirms the completeness and authoritativeness,
and the entire adequacy of this Inspired Word. In contrast with
all other teaching, and all assumption by human authority in
matters of belief, it asserts both the right of private interpreta
tion, and the imperative obligation of every one to study the
Scriptures for himself. In opposition to the conception of an
absolute religion, grounded in the universal reason, in which
historic Christianity with its specific disclosures is to be merged
at last, it declares this written communication from God to be
both sole and final basis of religion, not for any given race
or period, but for humanity universally, — affirming that man can
never outgrow this Revelation, and that salvation must always
flow from faith in this as the perfect and the ultimate message of
God to the race. It is a suggestive fact that the Symbols start
in this way, not from any philosophic principle, or from any
specific doctrine in the Christian scheme, however fundamental,
but directly from the Word of God as the only rule alike of belief
and of practice. It is also suggestive that their affirmations on
this cardinal point are so full, clear, decisive that no important
enlargement or alteration of them has been made requisite by the
investigations and discussions of the past two centuries around
this primal truth.
From the outset of the insular Reformation, the supremacy of
the Bible as the very Word of God, its absolute authoritativeness
within the religious sphere, had been eminently a fundamental
principle of British Protestantism. Abundant illustrations of this
fact appear in the formularies of the sixteenth century in both
England and Scotland. The strong Article (XX) in the Scotch
Confession on the Power and Authority of General Councils, sets
up the Goddis Worde as the final standard of belief and the
ultimate test of all human teachings. The Thirty-Nine Articles
(VI) affirm the entire sufficiency and authoritativeness of the
Holy Scriptures in all things necessary to salvation. Amid all the
religious and ecclesiastical struggles which marked the first dec
ades of the seventeenth century, there was — as the Irish Articles

68 THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
clearly indicate — no appreciable swerving on any side from this
fundamental principle. And the student of the deliberations
and the acts of the Westminster Assembly will not fail to dis
cover such supreme, loving, unflinching loyalty to the Bible
signalizing and controlling the proceedings of that venerable body
throughout. Its members were not only learned in the Scriptures,
but devout believers in all that Scripture taught them, and deter
mined in their purpose — according to the pledge or vow approved
by Parliament and solemnly taken by each member at the first
organization — that whatever they affirmed as doctrine should be
both tested and sustained by the Word of God, and by that
Word only.
The existence of intellectual and spiritual capacities in man,
qualifying him in some sense to receive and appropriate a Reve
lation, is directly declared in the Sym-
2. Man capable of recelv- bols As created, man had, it is said,
ing a Revelation: The light ( U) rmsonable M well ^
and law of Nature. v J , , 7 ,
immortal soul, and was endued with
knowledge as well as true holiness; having the law of God written
on his heart, and possessing both intelligence to apprehend, and
capacity of conscience to feel the claims of that law. Nor are
these high capabilities, though impaired by sin, so far ruined as
to render man incapable as a sinner either of knowing the 'truth
as God may reveal it, or of appreciating the evidences and the
authority by which the truth is endorsed. There is an inward
light of nature (Ch. I : i) to which revelation may and does
directly appeal : there is a native reason, an inborn conscience, a
soul in man, which can and does respond to that appeal. The
phrase, light of nature, makes its appearance again and again;
Conf. I : vi; X : iv; XX : iv; XXI : i; and L. C. 2, 60, 151. We
may note also the parallel phrases, law written in their hearts, gifts
which they had, law of the religion they do profess, works of crea
tion and providence as instructing men concerning God : also, the
striking statement respecting the uses and operation of the moral
law, L- C. 149-151. This light of nature is sometimes repre
sented as simply the action of our natural intelligence in the
sphere of religious truth, — sometimes as a higher intuitional fac
ulty, the reason distinctively, — sometimes as if it were a peculiar
intellectual or moral elevation making such truth more apparent
and impressive. It is, comprehensively, the capacity to perceive
and appreciate certain spiritual verities, even without the aid of
revelation. The kindred phrase, law of nature, is sometimes used

MAN AND REVELATION. 69
to indicate natural illumination, as well as that moral rule and
guidance which nature supplies.
The possession of such endowments is constantly assumed in
the Symbols. They indeed emphasize very strongly the dark
ness and obliquity of mind induced by sin, and the inadequacy of
the human reason to judge rightly of the claim of many specific
truths revealed in the Scriptures; justly affirming (VI : ii) that all
the parts and faculties of soul and body are defiled by transgression —
rendered inefficient and inaccurate in their action concerning
divine things. They also strongly assert the corruption of the
moral sensibilities, and especially of the conscience, in consequence
of such transgression, — the effectual call of the Spirit manifesting
itself as truly in the heart as in the understanding, and carrying
with it the restoration of conscience and the sanctifying of every
ethical capacity. They especially declare and emphasize the dead-
ness of the perverted human will; its indisposition or aversion
to any spiritual good (IX : iii) ; its strong instinctive hostility to all
the Law and all the Word of God. Yet with equal clearness and
strength they insist on such remaining degree of capacity in man
as renders him fully and forever accountable to the divine law, and
which especially makes it sinful in him to turn away from Christ
as the eternal Word and Revealer of divine things. They present
the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as containing what
man is to believe (S. C. 3) and therefore is capable of believing.
They enumerate the truths which human faith is required to
embrace : they declare the universal obligation to hear and heed
the Gospel; they condemn indifference and unbelief, on the ground
that sinners are in some true sense capable of paying attention to
saving truth, and of resting upon it as the Word of God. While
they carefully guard against the inference that sinful men will in
fact exercise these capacities savingly, apart from the influence
of the revealing and convincing Spirit, they never pass over to the
opposite extreme, or deny to man the possession of qualities such
as, would enable him to receive or to apprehend a revelation, if
given. No conception of Revelation can be sound or satisfactory which
does not rest on these cardinal propositions. Waiving here the
question whether man, having such endowments, really needs any
supernatural communication to acquaint him with truth and with
duty, — waiving also the remoter question whether God can hold
communication with man supernaturally, we must plant ourselves
once for all on the fundamental doctrine that man even while sin
ful has faculties and capacities to which such a communication, if

70 THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
made, can successfully appeal. We are to be guarded on one side
against the impression that these capabilities are so far affected
by sin as to be worthless, and on the other against the still worse
impression that they are in no degree so affected. There is in the
sinner, and even in the regenerated soul, a degree of mental ob
scuration and deadness in sensibility, as well as of weakness in
purpose, which renders it certain that left to themselves both
sinner and saint will misapprehend and misuse any revelation when
given ; and which makes necessary some further supernatural
action upon as well as for them, in order to render such divine
communication useful in their spiritual life.
The existence and the moral teaching of an external world,
revealing to man certain preliminary truths, and preparing him to
receive the higher truths of Revelation,
3. Nature and Revela- are also preSupposed in the Symbols.
Hon, how related. Natural ,Tru . . „ f . / „
Theology and Religion; Rev- What ls called m an outward as ™ell
elation necessary. as inward sense the light of nature, dis
closing to his view in all the varied
aspects of the material universe the being and presence and
character of God, and making him acquainted with many of the
primary relations between God and man, must be recognized as
one of the fundamental facts in human experience. What are
styled the works of creation and providence are here represented as
manifesting, even to all men though sinful, the goodness, wis
dom and power of God, (I: i) and we are taught that these
teachings of nature are so definite and so extensive as to leave men
inexcusable for any indulgence of sin against the Being so made
manifest. Natural theology and natural religion are thus presupposed and
affirmed in the Symbols as in Scripture. This natural theology
not only furnishes evidences and proofs of the existence of the
Deity, and suggests at many points his qualities and his character:
it also brings into view the reality and claim of law as regnant in
the universe, the existence of moral as well as natural order and
government, and the dependent and responsible position of man
as a part of this vast system of things. And if to the testimony of
external nature on these points we add the decisive confirmation
to be derived from the study of man himself— from thoughtful
consideration of his constitution and endowments as well as his
physical structure, and especially of his rational and moral facul
ties, and the aspirations and capabilities of which he seems to be
possessor, both the area and the substance of natural theology '
become vastly enlarged. Indeed, the witness to the wisdom and

NATURE AND REVELATION. 71
goodness and power of God, derived from such investigation of
man himself regarded as a creature, is in some respects far more
impressive and conclusive than any derived from external nature,
even in her most glorious forms. The Symbols seem in this respect,
as in some others, to have anticipated largely that change in the
great argument for the existence of God by which the proof de
rived from what man himself is as a rational and spiritual being,
is taking precedence of the older arguments drawn by Paley and
his successors from the study of the external world — the world
of nature.
Of a theology originating in this way, a natural religion is an
essential product and result ; on this basis such a religion becomes ,
not only possible, but in some degree necessary and imperative..
Such disclosures tend to develop that sense of fear of the super
natural, which is the main sentiment in all the lower varieties of
human faith ; they awaken the consciousness of dependence also,
both natural and spiritual, on the superhuman power thus discovr
ered. In their higher forms, they afford room for the sense of
gratitude, for the consciousness of obligation, for the principle
and spirit of duty, and even for the emotions of love and devotion
and the hope of immortality. On this basis religion as a species of
moral sensibility, and even as a practical rule of life, may and
must exist and manifest itself in the human soul. Without the
more elevated teaching of the law of God as given in Scripture,,
men do thus in apostolic phrase become a law unto themselves.
While as yet untaught and unvitalized by the immediate action of
the Holy Spirit, they may and do discern within themselves the
vigorous accusings or excusings of conscience, and may and do
tremble in view of a possible judgment to come. A natural reli
gion as well as a natural theology thus exists ; and all men give
evidence of being in some degree under its quickening and subdu
ing power.
Yet we are to guard ourselves against the inference that man
needs no other revelation than this, and no higher religious life than
that awakened by this process. The Longer Catechism of the
Graeco-Russian church declares in language which evangelical
Protestantism would endorse, that man may have some knowledge
of God by contemplation of those things which he has created, but
this knowledge is imperfect and insufficient, and can serve only as a
preparation for faith, or as a help toward the knowledge of God
from his Revelation. So, while we are taught in the Symbols that
men are left in an inexcusable state on account of their sin against
this light of nature, and while they are justly condemned without

72 THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
the law for their failure to do what natural religion thus requires,
we are also taught that these disclosures though preliminary and
precious are (I: i) not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and
of his will^. which is necessary unto salvation. The Symbols go so
far in this direction as to affirm (X. iv) that even those who are
diMgent to frame their lives according to the light of nature — who
are in fact obedient to the law of the religion they do profess-—
will not be saved, if they also reject when it is made known to
them, the higher law of life revealed in Christ. These natural
revelations may instruct, enlighten, direct ; they may warn against
sin, and summon to duty ; they may call for the exercise of spir
itual sensibilities, and inspire to love and worship. But when
man has failed to yield to their sweet influences, and has become
a sinner against all their warnings, they reveal no way of escape
from the guilt so incurred. They open no door of hope to the
soul thus estranged from God. While therefore we are not to deny
the reality of the theology or the religion of nature, or to indulge in
disparagement of them as if they had but little worth, we are not
on the other hand to assert their sufficiency, or to assume that no
higher revelation is needful. The human reason, however clarified,
cannot be regarded as a source of authority respecting divine
things, in any way co-ordinate with the revealed Word. Butler
wisely says that, though reason is the candle of the Lord within
us,, it can afford no light where it does not shine, nor judge where
it has no principles to judge upon. Deism, in its best varieties,
is to be commended for the exposition it has given of the teach
ings and moral demands of nature. Positivism is valuable so far
as it gathers up these scattered rays, concentrates them in scien
tific unity, and presses them home upon the human conscience.
The contributions which both physical science and metaphysical
philosophy are constantly making to natural theology and natural
religion, are greatly to be prized for what they are ; — but mostly,
perhaps, for the clear evidence they afford of the absolute necessity
for some further, some supernatural knowledge of divine things.
It is indeed one essential part of their mission to prove to the
world, by every new discovery, by every fresh advance, the indis-
pensableness of Revelation.
The fact that such a Revelation has actually been given, is not
only affirmed, but to some extent arguinentatively sustained in
4. Fact and Nature of the Symbols- Postponing all inquiry
Revelation; Objections noted. as to the sPeclfic contents of this Rev
elation, or to the positive evidences, of
its authenticity or authority, we may here note simply the general

REVELATION— FACT AND NATURE. 73
fact thus affirmed, — that God has superadded to all the dis
closures of nature and to the appeals of nature to the religious
element in man, another and higher communication, peculiar in
method and in form, peculiarly certified also, and designed both
to impart a larger knowledge and to stimulate in man a nobler
faith and a worthier type of spiritual life. This is the proper
significance of the term, Revelation, — a supernatural disclosure
and impartation of religious truth rather than ordinary or scien
tific knowledge, conferred by methods which are also mainly
supernatural, for the purpose of bringing about certain super
natural results in the beliefs, experiences and lives of men, both
individually and as organized in human society, and involving
their highest welfare both for time and for eternity. As the
teachings of nature were insufficient, it pleased the Lord (I : i) to
reveal himself and to declare his will; meeting in this way the
great religious exigencies of mankind. While it is said that this
manifestation is made specifically unto his Church or unto his
people, — a statement which illustrates the strong hold of the doc
trine of particularistic election upon the mind of the Assembly,
and which of itself might convey an inadequate conception of the
nature and aim of the Revelation, — we have abundant warrant
elsewhere for affirming that the Bible was held to be for man as
man — for the church and for humanity also. It is given to
all as (S. C. 2) the only rule to direct them how they may glorify
and enjoy God, which is the chief duty, not of the church only,
but of all mankind. It teaches (S. C. 3) what all alike are to
believe concerning God, and what duty God requires alike of all.
This Revelation, is therefore, as described in the Symbols, uni
versal, perpetual, complete.
Objections to such a conception of Revelation have been urged
on the ground that such supernatural communication is both im
possible and needless. It is asserted that God has chosen to limit
himself to what may be classed as natural modes of declaring his
existence and character and will, — that he has given us capacities
for study, and has furnished in ourselves and in the external
universe a vast and adequate field of study respecting religious
things, — and that by this arrangement he has in fact precluded
himself from the need, if not from the possibility of any further
or supra-natural disclosure. It is especially affirmed that there are,
and even that there can be, no supernatural modes of communi
cation between him and men ; and that all claims to such super-
naturalness are on philosophic grounds to be rejected as incredible
and spurious. But surely there can be no philosophic objection

74 THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
to the proposition that such a Being as God cannot be limited
in such a matter except by his own choice ; and that whenever
he chooses, he may use any means, natural or otherwise, which
may appear to him best suited to his sovereign purpose. The
limitation, if there be any, is one which he has imposed upon
himself, and which therefore he may at any time remove, Nor
does his adoption of one mode or of one class of modes habitually,
in any degree prohibit the use of other modes whenever these are
found to be desirable. . Nor again can our inability to comprehend
or to conceive of the mode in which revelation is made, or even
our inability to believe in such a revelation, so far as such ina
bility has a moral rather than a rational basis, militate against the
credibility of the fact, whenever such revelation is actually made.
God 'must also be the supreme judge as well as the sovereign
agent, in the matter of declaring his will to man. It is not ours
to say whether the knowledge received by the light of nature is
adequate, — whether man does or does not need more extensive
and emphatic disclosures of truth and duty. Especially is this
apparent when we remember how far sin has impaired the human
powers, — how imperfectly man conceives and uses what God has
communicated by natural processes, — how little at the best man
can learn from nature respecting the urgent and vital problem of
salvation from sin and its results'. Here God only is a competent
arbiter ; it is his alone to determine what is a sufficient and effectual
Revelation. One reason for such a communication is expressed
in the words (XXI : i), that He may not be worshiped according to
the imaginations or devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan.
That this Revelation is necessary unto salvation is to the Divine
Mind the grand underlying reason for it. The awful fact of sin,
with all its terrific effects upon the mind and heart of the race,
is the essential warrant for its existence, and the Bible justifies
itself forever by its demonstrated adaptations to this great, this
universal need.
Both the possibility and the necessity for some declaration of
the mind and will of God in supernatural as well as in natural
method and form must therefore be recognized. In such a case
a priori reasonings adverse to such revelation are clearly invalid:
in fact, a priori considerations, so far as available, strongly favor
the opposite conclusion. An eminent theologian has justly affirmed
that no insuperable difficulty can be urged logically, metaphysically
or physiologically ; a revelation, he adds, is just as conceivable as
a sun. Such a Being as God is, can use miracles, prophecies, the-
ophanies, voices in the air, wonders in the sky, to show men his

REVELATION NECESSARY. 75
will, just as readily as he can use the familiar facts of nature or
the ordinary witness of the human conscience. If He could
create the physical universe with all its elements and energies, it
is plain that he can produce any changes in that universe, miracu-
ulous or otherwise, which may in any way subserve his own sov
ereign or gracious purposes. How pressing the need of such
added light and guidance is, even man himself in the bewilderment
and terror of his sin, and in the intensity of his longings after
deliverance from both its power and its curse, may in some measure
apprehend, though that necessity must ever be one which God
alone can fully estimate. The disclosure not only of human sin
fulness, but of grace as the antithesis of sin, furnishes the
justifying reason for such supernatural revealment, — just as it
furnishes the ground for the gracious incarnation of Him who was
the divine Word made flesh for us men and for our salvation.
And as the divine resources are boundless, and this human need
universal, it follows that this Revelation, if given, will be designed
not for some chosen portion of the human family specially, but for
humanity as sucb- Though each individual of the race may not be
possessed of it, and though the saving understanding of such things
as are revealed in the Word occurs only where(I: vi) the inward
illumination of the Spirit is enjoyed, yet in the idea of it Revelation
must be regarded as sent comprehensively to the world, and as sus
taining precious relations to the moral state and destiny of every
son and daughter of Adam. This is true although as a matter of
fact the divine communication to man in the Scriptures was given
progressively, through long centuries of time, and given at first
to a selected nation, rather than to mankind universally, to be
through that nation finally transmitted to the race.
Contemplating Revelation at this point as a process rather than
a product, the term must be regarded broadly as including the
entire procedure, whatever be the form
or method, by which God makes known 5- Process of Revelation :
, , , ^ ^ , Nature of Inspiration : gen-
to men such superadded truth or such era, descriptlon>
enlarged conceptions of duty or of grace.
The Symbols describe the divine disclosure as various and com
plex in method as well as universal in scope. We are taught that
in its earlier stages the plan of redemption was manifested by
promises/prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the paschal lamb, and
other types a7id ordina7ices delivered to the people of the Jews, all
fore-signifying Christ to come, (VII. v. ) which were for that time
sufficie?it and efficacious, to instruct or build up the elect in faith.
So within the sphere of physical nature in divers manners, as by

/6 THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
the burning bush, the pillar of cloud and fire, the Shechinah or
the Urim and Thummim, as well as by the mouth of man, did God
make known his mind and will. These remarkable manifestations
in nature seem to culminate in the disincarnate voice three times
heard in the air, (at the baptism, at the transfiguration, and just
before the crucifixion) in attestation of the person and mission of
our Lord. In a far higher sense is Christ himself the incarnate
Revelation, disclosing both before and after his advent, in a man
ner far above all other communications, the truths essential to
salvation. He is himself the Logos, uttering these truths not by
inspiration, but in virtue of his own nature, and of his specific
function in the Godhead as the eternal voice and message of Deity.
The confessional conception of Christ as Prophet (L- C. 43; S. C.
24) implies not merely that his prophecies were higher in quality
and scope than all others, or that he was the historical head of the
prophetic order, but also that he was intrinsically and eternally
the revealer of the divine mind and will, and that in his person and
his words are incorporated all the treasures of spiritual wisdom
and of saving knowledge. In him therefore we see the process
of revelation, not as we behold it in physical demonstrations or
disincarnate voices, in types and emblems, but in the highest
possible form and measure ; God himself directly speaking in and
through the Incarnate Word.
In a more specific sense the term, Revelation, is used to des
cribe the divine agency or action upon particular men chosen of
God in order that they might receive and communicate to the
world his revealed will. The notion of a general revelation merely,
imparted simultaneously to mankind in the aggregate — a cosmic
disclosure in which all men share or may share alike — is inadequate
here. God has in fact chosen rather to impart the knowledge of
his will to elect persons, whom he uses as his agents in the trans
mission of illuminating and saving truth to the world. It is
impossible to describe the methods in which he first makes known to
such men the truths which he afterwards guides them in communi
cating to the race. That there is such a revealing process, which
differs in some essential particulars from all ordinary varieties of
mental activity, from the highest stimulations of religious enthu
siasm, and even from the most exalted forms of spiritual illumina
tion through the action of the Holy Spirit upon regenerated minds,
and which must be referred to God rather than man as its
immediate source, is abundantly suggested in the Symbols as in
Scripture. It pleased the Lord (I : i) at sundry times and in divers
manners to reveal Himself, and to declare His will ; and this

REVELATION AS A PROCESS. 77
process of revealing and declaration is expressly distinguished in
the Confession from the subsequent commitment of the same wholly
¦unto writitig. Some hints in regard to this process are given to
us, as in the dreams and visions of prophets, in the ecstacy of
seers, in the angelic communications, and in the spiritual exalta
tion given, for example, to Paul or to John on the Isle of Patmos.
It is also distinguishable in itself, as well as in its results, from all
movements of the Holy Spirit in grace upon the minds of sinners,
or even of the holiest saints. It is an interior, immediate, active
and infallible disclosing to the recipient of the truth which God
desires him to impart, — truth whose fullness he may not himself
comprehend, but which he receives in order that he may proclaim
and afterwards record it in words which the Holy Ghost teacheth.
Inspiration is to be regarded simply as a superadded supernatural
process, necessitated by the fact and also by the nature of such
antecedent revelation. It may not be true in all cases, though it
must be true in most, that the recipient himself recognizes the
supernatural source and quality of the truth thus given, and dis
tinguishes it by clear lines from the action or product of his own
mind. Such elements are clearly perceptible in such particular
revelation, though beyond this the process must be viewed as
mysterious, and ineffable. That it is in some sense miraculous, is
an obvious fact. It is at least a direct descent of divine potency
into the sphere of the natural for the securing of certain spiritual
ends ; and this is the essential conception of a miracle. God, in a
word, is disclosed in this process of making known to chosen men
his will, in a way and form in which he nowhere makes himself
manifest in ordinary experience.
The term, Inspiration, as distinct from Revelation in either of
the two senses just named, is defined and limited by the language
of the Confession : Afterward, for the better preserving and prop
agating of the truth . . . to commit the same wholly unto writing.
There is indeed an inspiration of utterance, men of God being
moved by the Holy Ghost to speak as well as to record the divine
message. There is also an inspiration of act as well as voice, elect
persons being animated by the Spirit to the performance of some
special work in the interest of the economy of redemption. But
as more generally used, the term implies primarily the accurate
recording of the divine revelations, however given, so far as such
record is deemed by God essential to the spiritual end in view
in these revelations. Secondarily it also implies the accu
rate recording of whatever histories, events, circumstances,
laws, doctrines, derived from natural or human sources, may

78 THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
be regarded by the Divine Spirit as essential in the explanation or
enforcement of these revelations. Inspiration is thus the broader
term: it is applicable not only to those portions of Scripture
which contain direct revelations, but to all the sacred books which
make up holy Scripture, and to all the parts and contents of
these several books. It is nothing less than a movement of the
Holy Spirit upon the minds and wills of the men inspired, by
which they were led to produce a volume that is properly
ascribed in its totality to God as its Author. Postponing for the
moment the speculative problem involved in this proposition, we
may properly pause at this point to note the one remarkable qual
ity, the distinguishing supernaturalness, in this process by which
it is decisively separated from all ordinary activity even of the most
intellectual or most sanctified minds. To regard such inspiration
as only a higher variety of mental power or of poetic or religious
fervor, such as appears elsewhere in human experience, is to dissi
pate altogether' its divine quality, and also to destroy its religious
significance and worth. It is to be specially distinguished from
spiritual illumination, even in the highest forms in which such
illumination may graciously be induced by the Holy Ghost. Inspi
ration is a still higher type of activity, produced by the Spirit for
a broader and loftier purpose, and characterized by more extensive
and more permanent results. In an. eminent degree such as is
discernible in no other human experience, God must be in this pro
cess throughout, supernaturally, immediately, supremely, or it is
in no true sense of the term, inspiration.
The speculative query in the case is concerned chiefly with the
relations of such divine agency to the human activities displayed
in this peculiar process. It is not practicable here to describe the
widely diversified theories which have been propounded in answer
to this speculative query, — theories ranging from the most extreme
dogma of literal or verbal or mechanical dictation, down through
various gradations, to those rationalistic or naturalistic opinions
which reduce inspiration nearly to the level of ordinary human
experience. The Symbols cannot be said to present any distinct
answer to this question : they are limited chiefly to an assertion
of the fact that the Scriptures are, in some adequate and reliable
way, given by inspiration of God. Mitchell justly says that the
Westminster divines were at more special pains than the authors
of any other Confession, ... to leave open all reasonable ques
tions as to the mode and degree of inspiration, which could consist
ently be left open by those who accepted the Scriptures as the
infallible rule of faith and duty. In this they simply followed the

INSPIRATION — FACT AND NATURE. 79
example' of the Divine Word itself , which in various forms and
with adequate authority affirms the fact of inspiration, but nowhere
tells us how or in what methods or measures holy men of God
were moved by the Holy Ghost when they spake or recorded what
he theopneustically led them to reveal. There is in fact no clear evi
dence, at least in the Minutes, that the Assembly held tenaciously
any specific or fixed theory on the subject. Dickson expresses
what was probably the current view at the time in the statement,
(Truth's Victory over Error) that by the Scripture or the Word
of God we do not understand the bare letters or the several words,
. . . which the adversaries may imagine are all the Word of God.
But we do understand thereby the Doctrine or Will of God, re
vealed unto reasonable creatures, teaching them what to do,
believe, or learn wisdom.
Yet it is quite obvious that the Symbols furnish suggestions
which at least are sufficient to rule out certain defective notions,
if not to lead us on to the true and full conception. For illustra
tion, they do not justify the merely mechanical theory — the
theory of verbal dictation — which regards the human instrumen
tality in the case as wholly passive, — the Holy Spirit using inspired
men as if they were so many musical instruments, silent until
touched by his finger, and giving forth literally and without con
scious movement of their own each word or letter of the revelation
he is imparting. It may be possible on such a theory still to
recognize differences among the sacred writers, signs of separate
personality and action among them, just as different instruments of
music sound the same note or strain differently, Yet this theory
fails to explain adequately those strong signs and movements of
human as well as divine personality, which are almost everywhere
apparent in Scripture ; it fails also to furnish any explanation of
differences or variations, at least verbal or formal, which all must
in some sense recognize as existing in the written Word. No
view of inspiration can explain such features, or meet all the
essential tests in the case, which does not admit the existence of a
free, vigorous, flowing and largely conscious human factor in the
holy process. Hodge (Syst. Theol. ) after illustrating the opera
tions of the Spirit in inspiration by his operations in sanctification,
adds the statement, that as the believer seems to himself to act,
and in fact does act, out of his own nature, so the inspired penmen
wrote out of the fullness of their own thoughts and feelings, and
employed the language and modes of expresion which to them
were the most natural and appropriate. It has well been said by
another high authority, that the human is as really blended with

80 THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
the divine in Scripture, as humanity is united with divinity in the
person of Christ.
On the other hand, the Westminster teaching clearly rules out
the antithetic opinion that inspiration relates 'merely to what are
called the essentials, but not to the incidentals of Scripture; or that
it concerns itself with spiritual concepts, but not with the language
in which those concepts are set forth; or that mistakes and errors
of various classes may creep into the record from the human side,
with the consent of the superintending Spirit, — his agency not
preserving the writers from inaccurate or erroneous statement on
matters not vitally related to the main purpose of the revelation.
The Symbols contain no suggestion of any recognizable distinction
between the essential and the incidental, between the concept and
the language ; or of an inspiration which is but partial and vari
able, appearing, and disappearing in the same composition, at one
time strong enough to protect the writer against error, at. another
too weak to save him from those liabilities to inaccuracy to which
human writers elsewhere are subj ect. They recognize thef act that
imperfect experiences are recorded in" the Scriptures, but never
suggest that these experiences are imperfectly recorded. They
also admit incomplete enunciations of doctrine, partial and pro
gressing disclosures of truth and duty, verbal variations in state
ment and quotation, obscuration in language and teaching ; but
they none the less claim infallibility in the record as well as in the
revelation, and an infallibility which is coextensive with the entire
Scripture, and is seen in and through all apparent disagreements.
It is not at variance with this general doctrine to admit the fact
that the relative manifestation, and even the proportionate activ
ity of these two elements, varies in different parts of Scripture.
The divine and the human work together, not always in one way,
still less as if connected together mechanically, wheel within wheel,
but rather in a large variety of ways and in various forms of con
nection; — as is true, for example, in the kindred work of regenera
tion. It is an old and familiar analysis which distributes the divine
factor into three such varieties, — an agency of superintendence,
illustrated in that controlling guidance which secures the accurate
description of biographical or historical events,— an agency of
suggestion and spiritual inbreathing, such as is seen in the teach
ing and temper of the Psalms, or of some among the apostolic
Letters,— an agency of direct and immediate dictation, in which
truths wholly unattainable by man and even impenetrable to him
who utters them, such as the Mosaic code, the higher forms of
prophecy, or the cardinal doctrines of grace, are disclosed to the

VARIETIES IN INSPIRATION. 81
mind, and are transmitted by the recipient in the very words of
God. But it is not to be understood that even in the lowest of
these forms such divine agency is less real or effectual than in the
highest, though the variety in mode and measure is obvious, and
the distinctions resulting are in several aspects important. More
of the human element may consequently be apparent in one por
tion than in another; things which are local or transient, or which
are less vital in their bearings on salvation, may be more frequent
or marked; the infirmities of man may even seem to break in at some
points, as if to mar the perfection of the composite Word. But
on the other hand, there are portions of Scripture where what is
human seems to be awed into almost utter silence, — where the
deep voice of God himself is heard in awful reverberations, and
every word sounds as if it came directly from the Throne.
But however far such distinctions or grades in inspiration may
be admitted, the Christian mind must ever hold that an infallible
revelation requires in order to its acceptance and influence a record
essentially infallible. If the divine disclosure is to be made in
human language, such language must properly embody — so far as
this is possible to human speech — the divine thought to be recorded.
Nor can the Christian mind ever consent to regard the Bible as
being a merely human account, more or less complete, more or less
fallible, of certain divine communications once made. Sacred
Scripture is never to be viewed as a natural transcript merely, even
though it were an accurate transcript, of supernatural revelations
once given historically to mankind. The Bible is something infi
nitely bigher than a collection of religious books, a compilation of
Hebrew literature, containing revelations from God, which have
been preserved for the benefit of mankind. It is in the deepest sense
his word, his message, his book throughout, and therefore an infal
lible rule for men. It may indeed be true, as has been strongly
affirmed, that the supernatural quality and authority of the Scrip
tures could be maintained apart from any doctrine of inspiration, or
of the entire infallibility of Scripture as resulting from inspiration.
But on the other hand it must be maintained that inspiration
includes the form as well as the contents of Scripture, — that the
Bible is a divine construction as really, though by another pro
cess, as the physical universe, — and that this divine communication
can have neither adequate authority nor saving influence, so long
as men are in doubt respecting the accuracy of the records which
report it. The difficulties evaded by any such line of reasoning
are by no means so serious as those which it introduces. If the
record be in any part of it merely human or fallible, we certainly

82 THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
can have no adequate guarantee that the revelation there recorded
is really from God. The mistakes of the writers in recording may
be indices of mistakes much more vital in apprehending what was
revealed ; errors in incidental matters inevitably suggest the pos
sibility of like error in the statement of what is most central and
essential. In a word, the Bible must be something more, in form
as well as in substance, than a transcript by fallible men in inac
curate language of a revelation once made on the earth : it must
itself be that Revelation.
The current discussion whether the Bible is a revelation from
God or only contains such a revelation, is very largely a dispute
about words. The Symbols use both expressions. The Bible is
the Word of God : Conf. I : iv-v, L- C. 157; the Word of God is
contained in the Scriptures, S. C. 2, — evidently from the Irish
Articles, 1, 6. Note the Thirty-Nine Articles, Holy Scripture
containeth; First Helvetic, I, Scriptura canonica verbum Dei . . .
sola perfecte continet; French Conf. V; Belgic Conf. VII. In one
aspect the Bible contains the accurate historic record of a long
series of specific revelations : in another, as being in its totality
a supernatural communication from God to mankind, it may prop
erly be said to be one Revelation. The former statement is objec
tionable only when it seems to imply that these specific revelations
stand in an inexact and fallible setting, — that the historic record
which contains them is not altogether faithful to fact. The general
proposition must be that the Bible both contains revelations, and
is throughout a Revelation. But whether contemplated in the one
aspect or in the other, a real and efficient inspiration must be
recognized in it, not only communicating supernatural and saving
truth, but transmitting that truth in language wholly adequate
and accurate — infallible, so far as the great purpose of the Reve
lation is in any way involved.
That the view here stated was the general doctrine of the Prot
estant churches may be ascertained by careful examination of their
creeds, both continental and insular. The Augsburg Confession
prefaces its Articles with the statement that its doctrines are
derived from the Holy Scriptures and pure Word of God,— re
garded as the infallible and ultimate test of all human opinion and
belief. The Formula of Concord declares in the introduction to
its confessional affirmations, that the only rule and norm accord
ing to which all dogmas and all doctors ought to be esteemed
and judged, is none other whatever than the prophetic and apos
tolic writings of both the Old and New Testaments; this dignity as
judge and rule, norm and touchstone, belonging to Holy Scripture

Ai

INERRANCY OF SCRIPTURE. 83
alone. The First Helvetic Confession affirms that the Scriptures,
having been transmitted by the Holy Ghost and set forth to
the world by prophets and apostles, alone contain perfectly the
most ancient and most complete philosophy, and the supreme rea
son or ground of all life and all religion. In the French Confession
it is said that God has revealed himself not only in his works but
also in his Word, in the beginning made known through holy
oracles, but afterwards committed to writing in the books which
we call the Holy Scriptures. In like manner the Belgic Confession
declares that this Word of God was not sent or delivered by the
will of man, but that holy men of God spoke as they were moved by
the Holy Ghost; and that these Scriptures so fully contain the will
of God that whatsoever man ought to believe unto salvation is suf
ficiently taught therein. Similar declarations might be quoted from
other continental formularies, and from the earlier British Con
fessions also. In view of such declarations, there can be no doubt
that while the Protestantism of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries set forth no specific theory of either revelation or inspira
tion, it held firmly to the doctrine taught by the Westminster
Assembly, after its enumeration of the canonical Books : All
which are given by inspiration of God to be the rule of faith and life.
In accepting this general conception of an inspired, sufficient,
and authoritative Revelation, as presented in the Symbols, and as
thus certified more or less extensively
„ j 4. t, . , ¦ 6. Inerrancy of Scripture :
m all antecedent Protestant symbolism, ffie B,b]e fre£ from feal error_
we may not claim that the doctrine is
cleared from all difficulties. On one side there are deep mysteries
enveloping this divine process which it is not given to man to
solve — mysteries even deeper than those which conceal from us so
largely the divine activities in the field of providence and in the
general field of grace. On another side there are serious perplex
ities discernible by us, which must be duly considered as we study
this recorded Revelation, and endeavor thoughtfully to compre
hend its contents, — perplexities which group themselves chiefly
around the very practical inquiry whether these Scriptures contain
errors such as properly preclude their claim to be an infallible
revelation. Locke defines error in a subjective sense as a mistake of our
own judgment, in giving assent to that which is not true. It
should be added to his definition that error in certain spheres, and
eminently in the sphere of religion, may spring from an ignorance
that is willful, as Paul teaches, or from the action of wrong feel
ing, as well as from mistakes of the judgment. Objectively, an

84 THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
error may be an unintentional falsity in statement made by another,
growing out of his lack of adequate knowledge. If there be an
intention to deceive or mislead, or even to leave the hearer in the
dark as to the real fact, such objective error exhibits a moral
quality, and he who leads others into false views or judgments in
any such method is criminal. In the case before us we cannot
suppose that the Holy Spirit was himself ignorant respecting the
truth which he professed to reveal, or that he fell through over
sight or accident into inaccuracies of whatever sort, or in any
manner conveyed erroneous impressions unintentionally. Still
less can we suppose that he intended to mislead or deceive or to
leave men in the dark respecting the spiritual truth which he was
professing to disclose. In any of these senses error can not be
affirmed of the Scriptures : if they are in truth inspired by the
Holy Ghost, this degree of inerrancy must be one of their cardinal
qualities. This hypothetical view is strongly sustained by several pre
sumptions. For example, if God truly desires to make a revelation
to men concerning things needful to their salvation, it is certainly
to be expected that, however such revelation may be limited in
scope by the end in view, or in form by the mental and moral
condition of its recipients, there will be nothing in it that would
deceive or mislead, or would leave such recipients in the dark as
to even its minuter contents. Again : the great end in view in
such divine disclosure, which is nothing less than human salvation,
certainly justifies the anticipation that not only the truths pre
sented, but also the very language used in expressing them shall
be free from all error in itself, and even from all obscurity or inac
curacy such as would tend to lead the reader astray or to bring the
soul into peril. Again : it may reasonably be presumed that if
such a revelation, designed to meet such a vital end, shall be. given
to the world through human agency, the men selected for such
service would be distinguished from all other men by being lifted
supernaturally above exposures to inaccuracy and errancy such as
are apparent in ordinary human experience. And moreover, if
the Holy Spirit be truly present in and through their execution
of the divine purpose — superintending, animating, inspiring — it
is a just expectation that he will not suffer anything to enter into
such a record whicli would in any degree impair its value as a
faithful and reliable statement of the truth,— exactly as God
desires such truth to be known and diffused among men. Such
suggestions— to speak of no others— make it evident that the
hypothesis of inerrancy is not an a priori affirmation merely, but

THEORY OF ERRANCY EXAMINED. 85
rather justifies itself as not only probable, but reasonable and
even conclusive.
But we are called at this point to contemplate, not an ideal iner
rancy which may on such grounds be justly presumed to have
been an essential quality of the inspired Word, as it came origi
nally from God through the agency of the infallible Spirit, but
rather the practical question, whether that inspired Word as
we now have it, after many centuries of time, is to be received
and cherished by us as truly inerrant — infallible. The noted
ecclesiastical deliverance that the Scripture as it came from God
is without error, is intelligible only on the hypothesis that Scrip
ture is now exactly what it was at the beginning — a hypothesis
which is controverted by some unquestionable facts. And if, more
over, it were ascertained that there are actual errors, properly so
called, in the Bible as we now have it, the speculative question
whether such errors were in this Holy Book as it first came from
God — serious as it is — would be of small import in comparison
with the more immediate question whether, in case such errors are
really discoverable in it now, we may still rest upon it as a veritable
message from the Deity to mankind. There are no traces of
debate upon this question in the Westminster Assembly, nor is it
probable that the hypothesis of errancy found advocates of any
prominence on British soil prior to the rise of English Deism in
the succeeding century. Since that period this destructive
hypothesis has been often and earnestly urged, and is still a center
of strenuous and anxious discussion.
The term, errancy, as employed in such discussion, at least
among Christian scholars, relates not to any essential teachings
of Scripture respecting either doctrine or duty, but only to what
may be denoted as its circumstantial or incidental features. So far
as the great truths, the binding precepts, the glorious promises,
the supreme elements in the scheme of salvation are concerned,
all Christian minds are agreed that the Bible as we now possess it,
is an absolutely inerrant book; all unite in receiving it as being
as truly the very utterance and message of God now as it was
when it came forth in its perfection from his gracious hand. Yet
we must admit that we find in this divine book, as we now have
it, partial or incomplete statements, variant reports of the same
acts or sayings, differing citations of the same passages, circum
stantial diversities in the records of the same events, apparent
discrepancies in various incidental matters which, taken in the
aggregate, seem to furnish considerable warrant for the allegation
of errancy. But here it should be noted at once that the number

86 THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
of these alleged errancies is found on critical examination to be
much smaller than has sometimes been claimed, and is diminish
ing rather than increasing, — that many of these are based on a
specific theory of inspiration, specially that of verbal dictation,
but fade away in the light of a more philosophic and practical
conception of the theopneustic process, — that many exist only in
the erroneous apprehension or inaccurate exegesis of those who
urge them, — and generally, that in fact much more has been made
of such asserted errancies than the actual material in hand justi
fies. It should also be noted that the use of such an abstract or
generic term as errancy is seriously misleading and erroneous,
inasmuch as it seems to imply that such errancy is a pervading
characteristic of the Scriptures, or to suggest that, while the Bible
is reliable in its expositions of truth and duty, it is extensively
unreliable in its historic and circumstantial portions. Those who
have affirmed that Holy Writ is in these particulars marked by
error or even incidental errancy, have not always realized the
depth of the shadows which their affirmations throw upon its
credibility and authoritativeness throughout. For although this
Divine Book is neither history nor biography in the main, still if
its historical or biographic statements were found to be in frequent
conflict with each other or with facts obtained from other reliable
sources, — if variation, difference, diversity, discrepancy, contra
diction were discernible on close investigation as a general
characteristic of its records, very serious doubt would inevitably
be cast upon its instructions and counsels within its own partic
ular field, — the field of religious truth and religious obligation.
In studying the Scriptures as we now find them, with a view
to determining the exact amount and nature of the errancy
alleged, it is incumbent upon us, first of all, to make due account
of the long process of transcription and transmission through
which the sacred Books have passed — a process running on through
many centuries, in different countries and conditions, conducted
by thousands of copyists, each one of whom was liable to mistake,
and many of whom might venture to attempt correction here or
there in the original text. A multitude of such mistakes and
fancied emendations have already been discovered by Christian
scholars ; others may even yet appear as new sources come to
light ; and if the original text were in our hands, some changes
might be detected which are not discernible at this stage. It is
indeed quite probable that much of the supposed discordance in the
historical books of the Old Testament, in the biographies of Christ,
and the records of the labors and career of Paul, embarrasses us only

DEFECTIVE TRANSCRIPTION: OBSCURATION OF TIME. 87
because we are not in possession of the unaltered records. But as
the case now stands, we have large room for rejoicing in the sig
nificant fact that the alleged errancies of whatever class, thus far
discovered and verified, are not found to affect seriously the teach
ing of Scripture in any matter of doctrine or of duty. It is almost
equally significant and gratifying to discover that none of these
circumstantial diversities are of sufficient moment to cast any
disastrous shadow on the essential truthfulness of either the biog
raphies or the histories involved. Nor is it unreasonable to suppose
that, if we were in possession of the original records, a very large
proportion of what is now regarded as errancy would wholly
disappear. It is incumbent upon us, in the second place, to remember that
some things in the Scriptures have become so obscured through
centuries of time and changes that full explanation of them has
now come to be impracticable. Many illustrations of such obscu
ration may be gathered up from the Gospels, from the epistolary
writings and from the Apocalypse ; still others appear in the pro
phetic and historical portions of the Old Testament, And some of
these, which doubtless were entirely plain in the distant ages in
which the sacred books were written, seem to us mysterious, or even
discrepant, simply because we are not in possession of the local data
and conditions which determined their form or their substance.
If we take into account the wide peculiarities in thought, experi
ence, custom prevailing in those oriental lands where the Bible was
written, — the special characteristics of the languages and dialects
employed in their composition, and the unique design and quality
of the sacred writings, — the vast transformations of every type
which so many revolutions and developments have wrought in
human society since the scroll of Revelation was closed, — the con
cealing dimness that has fallen like dust on so much of ancient civ
ilization everywhere, we may easily infer that at least some things
which at this distance seem to us like inaccuracies or contradic
tions, would change into beautiful harmonies, provided we could
only see the facts and events just as the sacred writers saw them.
The marvel indeed is that the Book is so well understood, its ap
parent discrepancies are so largely explained, its grand disclosures
so intelligently apprehended, notwithstanding such chronologic
obscurations. It might even be claimed as one mark of its true
divinity that it has survived so remarkably all such mutations, and
is still in all that is essential to it as a guide to religion and salva
tion, so fully comprehensible not merely in the places where it
originated but throughout the earth and throughout the ages.

88 THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
Eliminating whatever is properly traceable to faulty transcrip
tion or interpolation, or to the obscuration of time, it is still further
incumbent upon us to employ all the available principles of sound
and considerate exegesis in testing whatever of alleged error
remains in the sacred text. Misleading parallelisms, for example,
are to be avoided ; variations arising from differing degrees of
prominence or emphasis merely are to be set aside ; differences in
narrating various parts of the same event are not to be pronounced
contradictory ; varieties of view and statement springing simply
from the distinguishing characteristics of the inspired narrators,
are not to be regarded as discrepancies. It cannot be denied that
the citations quoted with greater or less exactness or with substan
tial accuracy merely, should not be treated as cases of errancy; the
absence of logical or rhetorical precision or of grammatical correct
ness should not be viewed as impugning the infallibility of the
record; scientific statements, or exact harmony with scientific facts,
are not to be demanded in such a book as the Bible. It is not
necessary, says Bishop Burnet, (Thirty-Nine Articles) where dis
courses are reported, that the individual words should be set down
just as they were said; it is enough if the effect of them is
reported. Nor is it necessary that the order of time should be
strictly observed, or that all the conjunctions in such relation
should be understood merely according to their grammatical mean
ing .... The design of revelation, as to this part of the subject
— he adds — is only to give such representations of matters of fact
as may both work upon and guide our belief; but the order of
time and the strict words having no influence that way, the wri
ters might dispose them and express them variously, and yet
all be exactly true. Failure to apply such just exegetical
rules, in the temper of honest loyalty to the divine Word, accounts
for very much of the current allegations of errancy. Still it may
be necessary, after all such explanatory processes, to admit that
there may remain in the Scriptures as we now possess them
what has been well described, (Hodge, Syst. Theol. ) as here or
there a speck of sand-stone showing itself in the marble of the
Parthenon — an occasional variation, difference or even discrepancy
of statement which, so far as we can see, may have been in the
original text as written by holy men moved by the Holy Ghost.
Yet the same revered authority regards it as a most impressive,
even awful fact, that these Scriptures have been so miraculously
kept free from the soiling touch of human fingers, and maintains
that any such instances of errancy would not in the least subvert
the doctrine of a truly plenary inspiration.

A TRULV DIVINE BOOK. 89
As a result of the most careful examination we discern in the
Bible, notwithstanding such possible blemish, a thoroughly
inspired, a truly theopneustic Book, containing both a series of
genuine and precious revelations all bearing on the supreme
problem of human salvation, and a large series of facts and events
which are of transcendent interest in view of their vital relation
ship to such revelations. We have all these recorded accurately,
and without anything that can properly be called error, by the
hands of men who were moved for this purpose by the Holy
Ghost, and who — while each one wrote, in the phrase of Augus
tine, as he remembered it or had it in his heart, ut cuique cordi
erat — were each and all so moved and guided as to be free from
the liabilities consequent upon human ignorance or incapacity,
and free also from those incentives to deceive or mislead by
which other writers are sometimes influenced. We discern the
human factor everywhere present, though under considerable
variety of aspect, for the most part if not always conscious,
and always so acting that the personality, experience, charac
teristic qualities, style, and limitations also, of each writer are
seen to be determining in large degree the form and even the
contents of the inspired communication. Yet we everywhere
discover the divine factor dominating in this peculiar process,
guiding in the language and form as well as in the truth expressed,
guarding against everything that could properly be called errone
ous, — the divine agent dynamically manifesting his presence at
every point, yet in such manner as to leave the human agents
free in uttering the recorded truth in forms and terms best suited
to themselves. In the Holy Book thus prepared, as we now have
it, we may find an occasional trace of what is described as errancy
— an occasional instance of verbal inexactness, or circumstantial
variation, or deficiency or even discrepancy in statement which
we may partly but at this distance of time cannot altogether
explain, and which may in part have been even in che original man
uscripts. Yet we may also note the fact that the Bible as we
now rejoice to possess it, is found on thorough and correct exam
ination to contain no error or blemish which impairs any doctrine,
lessens our sense of any duty, or in any way effects unfavorably
the great issue of salvation. We may therefore rest with confi
dence in the strong and just statement embodied in the proposed
revision of the Confession of Faith :
The Holy Spirit who of old revealed to men in various ways
the mind and will of God, hath fully and authoritatively made
known this mind and will in all things pertaining to life and

90 THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
salvation in the sacred Scriptures, holy men of God speaking
therein as they were moved by the Holy Ghost ; and these Scrip
tures, being so inspired, are the infallible word of God, the
supreme standard of faith and duty.
In conjunction with this specific conception of a positive Revela
tion made to particular men and written by the hand of inspiration,
we may at this point note with advan-
f. Revelation Historic and t the more generic conception of
Written : Written Revelation „ , .. i.- 1 • „
progressive and final. Revelation as a process historically
carried forward in the moral experience
of humanity, and made manifest through a wide variety of agen
cies. Some interesting confirmations of this broader conception
appear in the phraseology of the Symbols. While God on one
hand has revealed his will specifically to certain chosen instru
ments, and has guided them in recording that will accurately for
the benefit of mankind, so that we have as the result a veritable and
sufficient Revelation, registered in adequate and accurate language,
He is also described as conducting age by age a corresponding
process of revealment in the mind and conscience of the race. He
discloses himself to the world in a succession of acts as well as in
words : He makes his presence, his authority,, his truth, his grace
immediately manifest in the revealing light of nature, and through
the works of creation and providence. He also works out histor
ically in the souls of men spiritual results which are revelations
no less real or significant in their degree than the written Scripture
itself. In this generic as well as in the more specific sense, it
pleased the Lord at sundry times and in divers manners to reveal
himself This cosmic revealment commenced centuries before the
inspired record began to be made. It was illustrated in the giving
of the Messianic promises, in the divine dealing with the patri
archs, in the earlier experiences of the nascent church, in the
development and growth of piety in the hearts of his people, long
before the Holy Spirit had begun to record such processes by the
pen of inspiration. Nor is it true that God has put on record
the whole of this antecedent, historic procedure of grace. Only
so much of it as was calculated to be of permanent service to the
race, was thus transcribed by inspired hands. In other words, the
written Revelation follows the historic revelation, and is its endur
ing transcript and representative,— the gracious Word faithfully
preserving and declaring the gracious works of God. Afterwards,
it is said, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the
Church, the disclosures first made directly to men in sundry times
and divers manners, were committed unto writing,— inspiration

EVOLUTION OF SCRIPTURE. 91
taking up the story of grace, and repeating it in written form for
the benefit of humanity in all succeeding ages.
And as this grand historic revelation was progressive, exhibit
ing itself at various periods and in various forms, so the written
Revelation which describes it, is in its nature progressive, — carried
on through a series of stages and methods, until it reaches its
final culmination. There is a beautiful and an impressive evolu
tion of truth and of precept and obligation in the Bible — an or
derly unfolding of doctrine and duty, like the unrolling of some
splendid scroll, — which is enough of itself to show that a Divine
Mind has been present throughout the transcendent process.
The being and will and grace of God come out, in this divine
record, in ever increasing luminousness and beauty, just as they
had already done in the experience and career of his chosen
people. A proper appreciation of this fact is essential to any
adequate understanding of the forms and varieties under which
this Divine Word exists — to any true view of its divisions,
methods, authors, teachings. The historical books, with their
biographic concomitants, may be regarded as the main thread
on which the whole is arranged : these carry with them the
successive disclosures of sin and of character, and the grow
ing series of symbols and promises preparatory to the Advent.
In the person and work of the Immanuel all the past is gathered up,
and from him the apostolic growths and advances in turn receive
their explanation. Christ is the luminous center of the whole ;
and every section, every statement of fact from Genesis to Reve
lation, is set in its proper position with reference to its bearings
on Him and his supreme mission. More than any other book,
the Bible thus reveals a vast, comprehensive, definite plan, both
in its interior organization and in its historic evolution. How
ever diversified in its contents, however multiform in language or
authorship, time or place, it is thus profoundly, indissolubly one
Revelation. Nor is it permissible to say that anything in it, even
its list of things that were not to be eaten, or its genealogical
registrations, are of no significance to us, since each minutest
feature or event is there recorded because it is divinely regarded
as an essential element or factor in the composite structure.
Each stage in the remarkable unfolding is joined on vitally both
with all preceding and with all subsequent stages. The progress
seen in every part is progress toward a definite consummation; and
when this consummation is reached, the product is found to be
divinely complete and perfect.
This Revelation is therefore final as well as progressive : it is

*)2 THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
decisively affirmed that these former zvays of revealing the will of
God are now ceased. The whole counsel of God is said to be expressly
laid down in Scripture, or to be ascertained by proper application of
principles set forth in Scripture. Hence we are told that nothing
is at any time to be added to this Divine Word; no new discover
ies of truth, whether imparted by the Spirit, or obtained from
any other source, are to be co-ordinated with the Bible. The
work of the Spirit both in revelation and in inspiration is viewed as
finished and complete. He graciously illuminates, teaches, edu
cates, edifies, but he no longer reveals — he no longer inspires.
All assumption of prophetic functions or of apostolic authority is
hereby condemned: false communications claiming divine war
rant are cast out : even the inner light of faith, contemplated as
supplying to the believer any further or higher knowledge than
that here contained, is set aside. The Word thus given is put forth
as the only, the universal and perpetual, rule alike of faith and of
obedience, — to which therefore it is the imperative duty of all
men to give credence, instant and entire. — On the subject of
fidelity to this finished and perfect Word, especially as in contrast
with the commandments and traditions of men, or the dicta of
churches, more will be said at a later stage. The finality of this
one and only Revelation is all that needs to be asserted here.
Passing from this study of the nature and scope of Revelation
to the second general topic, the contents of Scripture, we
8. Contents of Scripture: may firSt . observe the authoritative
particular books; The Canon, enumeration of the particular books
which are said to be included in this
one and only Revelation. The Westminster Confession, like
some other Protestant symbols, simply accepts the Canon of
Scripture as it stood at the time, with the exception of the
Apocrypha whose secondary canonicity it decisively rejects.
We have no evidence that the subject was formally considered in
the Assembly ; and it may be inferred that no serious diversity
of opinion existed. It is a suggestive fact that' the Lutheran
symbols contain no list of the canonical books, and pronounce no
decision against the Apocrypha. This fact may be traceable in part
to the prevalent impression that the apocryphal writings had, as the
papacy affirmed, some measure of secondary authority- and
partly to the doubts of Erasmus and Luther, and probably others,
with respect to the canonicity of certain portions of the received
Scriptures. The absence of any such list, though such an emi
nent authority as Dorner regards it as an excellence, is certainly a

CANON OF SCRIPTURE. 93
serious defect. Had Lutheranism from the first affirmed the
proper canonicity of each and all of the books generally received by
Protestantism as rightfully classed among the Holy Scriptures,
much of the heretical tendency in biblical criticism current dur
ing this century in Germany would have at least received a
salutary check. Two of the Reformed creeds, the French Con
fession of 1559 and the Belgic Confession, 1561, contain a list of
the canonical books ; and the same list is found in the Thirty-
Nine Articles, and in the Irish Articles. From the latter it was
evidently transcribed, together with most of the contents of the
chapter, Of the Holy Scripture, into the creed of Westminster.
All of these symbols agree in accepting the Canon as it was pro
gressively made up by the early church, and at last authoritatively
affirmed by the Council of Hippo, 393, and by the Council of
Carthage, 397. These Councils, however, following the general
usage of the early Church, and acting under the influence of
Augustine, regarded the Apocrypha as having a secondary species
of canonicity.
The general question respecting the formation of the Canon,
was not discussed in the Assembly, and can be considered but
incidentially in this connection. Defining the term as descriptive,
not of the sacred literature of the Jews in general, or of books
more or less employed in instruction or worship, but only
of such, writings as came from God through certified inspiration,
and were collected together as the divinely prescribed rule of
belief and duty, the Canon of the Old Testament must be viewed
as a growth, following somewhat closely upon the precedent
growth of revelation itself. We are justified by both the Old and
the New Testament in believing that the several books of the Law
were thus brought together at an early period, and regarded from
the first as having peculiar divine warrant. The structure of
the Pentateuch has recently been a matter of earnest discussion.
The existence of antecedent documents from which Moses derived
in part the material for his narrative, is now freely admitted as
probable. The fact that some additions, both historical and
prophetic, were made after his death, is also generally recognized.
The opinion that the final compilation, especially of the three
Codes, was made in part by others after his death, but within a
comparatively brief period, has distinct evidences in its favor.
But the theory which postpones some books of the Pentateuch to
a period many centuries subsequent to Moses, — which regards
the Law as a development running on traditionally down through
the theocratic and the royal era, and at last finding written

94 THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
expression during the era of the prophets, rests on inadequate
grounds, and is questionable if not destructive in tendency. That
Moses was essentially the author of this division of Scripture, as
he was the chief human agent in the history there recorded,
seems to be established alike by many internal evidences and by
the general witness of Scripture. The historical books were also
preserved and grouped together in like manner, as containing a
divinely authenticated record of both the national and the religious
life of the chosen people. Collections of psalms and proverbs,
probably for purposes of worship primarily, were also made
at an early day. The Book of Psalms, as we now have it, is
unquestionably a final compilation of such antecedent collections,
though the theory that its contents were written not by David
or his contemporaries or immediate successors, but at a much later
period in Jewish history, and chiefly after the Exile, must be re
garded as at least doubtful. Jewish tradition, which has a high
degree of probability in its favor, assigns the final aggregation of
this inspired material into one book to the age of Ezra, and specific
ally to the period of the rebuilding of the temple : B. C. 457.
From and after this period, it is certain that the Old Testament
existed substantially under its present form and arrangement, pre
senting in its unity the divine teaching respecting what man ought
to believe, and what duty God requires, so far as the Jewish people
were concerned. As such it was confirmed in its totality by fre
quent references, and in its separate divisions by numerous quota
tions and allusions made by our Lord and by his apostles. As
such, it was received by the early church universally ; was trans
lated into the Septuagint, was quoted by the Fathers, both Greek
and Latin, as authoritative in each and all of its main divisions ;
and by steadily increasing assent became the accepted revelation
of truth and duty for those, whether Jew or Gentile, who wore the
Christian name.
A like principle of growth or aggregation is apparent in the
formation of the New Testament Canon. For nearly two centu
ries the books comprised in it existed separately, or in collections
which were but partial and provincial. During the third and
. fourth centuries the process of separating the inspired writings
from all affiliated productions went on, — the earlier traditions in
their favor being tested progressively by critical inquiry, until at
length the judgment of the Church was fully formed, and an author
itative decision was reached. During this long process, books
assuming to be sacred if not inspired were examined and rejected;
others which were less generally known, or in regard to which

THE APOCHRYPHAL BOOKS. 95
partial doubt existed at first, made their way into the sacred list;
the conception of inspiration was more fully defined, and the theo
retical standard or test of inspiration raised; copies of the aggre
gated volume were multiplied, and less complete collections were
set aside, until at length entire agreement was attained, and the
New Testament took its place by the side of the Old, as constitut
ing together with it the one sole and perpetual Word of God.
The problem of canonicity is in one sense a problem always
open, — a problem which no section of the church in any given
period can solve authoritatively for all other sections through all
time. It is conceivable that evidences might manifest themselves
which would compel the exclusion of some book now regarded as
canonical; and on the other hand it is conceivable that some new
writing ma}' be discovered even at this late day, which the judg
ment of the church would place among the inspired and authori-
tive Scriptures. Yet these possibilities are possibilities only. A
very strong presumption certainly exists in favor of decisions
reached fifteen centuries ago, and which have stood the tests and
scrutiny of the church universal down to our own time. Questions
have indeed been and still are raised by Christian scholarship as
well as by deistic unbelief, respecting certain books in the New and
also in the Old Testament, and all such questions have within just
limits some claim to candid consideration. Yet the fact that since
the fifth century no book then admitted to the sacred Canon has
subsequently been rejected by any section of the church, Cath
olic or Protestant, seems well-nigh to settle the problem for all
coming time. The decisive probability is that the Bible as we
have it, will be the Bible of the Christian Church so long as the
Church exists.
Before proceeding to consider the principles which underlie this
general process of construction, we should note the corresponding
process of elimination, as illustrated in 9 AD0crvt)h2l Books *
the estimation and treatment of the apoc- The;r posltJon ^ eMm j
ryphal writings. So far as any such writ- Reasons for rejection.
ings were at any time associated with
the New Testament or appended to it, the question is comparatively
unimportant. These writings are in no case older than the second,
and many of them belong to the third or possibly the fourth cen
tury. Their authorship is either uncertain or unknown; their
contents are largely trivial and fictitious, and their spirit and tone
fall entirely below those of the Gospels and the apostolic Letters.
To this should be added the fact that they have never had cur
rency or credence as inspired in any division of the church,

96 THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
Protestant or Catholic. The apocryphal writings belonging to the
Old Testament period, though possessing largely the same charac
teristics, have occasioned more frequent discussion, and given rise
to wider ecclesiastical diversities. Though they never had place
in the Hebrew Canon, as was generally admitted, yet they seem to
have passed gradually during the first three Christian centuries
into the list of sacred if not inspired writings; and as such were
appointed to be read, if not for the purpose of proving from them
any divine doctrine, still for instruction and edification. In the first
catalogue of authoritative Scriptures, drawn up by any representa
tive body in the Church, the Council of Laodicea, some of these
books were directly named as canonical; and in the writings of
Augustine and other Fathers they were recognized as in some tribu
tary sense parts of Holy Scripture. The distinction just suggested,
though urged by'Origen and Jerome, hardly represented the gen
eral conviction. These writings were not only judged to be useful
as illustrative of inspired Scripture; they were also regarded widely
as having a species of secondary canonicity, and were sometimes
accepted even as integral portions of the true Revelation. Wri
ters of the Middle Ages generally so describe and treat them;
and down to the period of the Reformation, they were both used
in worship and quoted doctrinally — especially in support of certain
papal errors, such as the dogma of Purgatory.
The Council of Trent, following Augustine and the early
Church, pronounced the apocryphal books in all their parts, as
they have been accustomed to be read in the Catholic church, and
are found in the ancient editions of the Latin Vulgate, sacred and
canonical; and anathematized all who should refuse so to receive
them. The Council also confirmed its decree by declaring further
that the Vulgate, which by the lengthened use of so many ages,
as they said, has been approved of by the church, should be
regarded and used as the only authoritative translation of the
Scriptures. Some Catholic writers have justified the distinction
between primary and secondary canonicity, and have regarded the
apocryphal books as canonical in the secondary sense only— useful
rather than authoritative. But the decision of Trent makes
these writings fully authoritative,— although since the exaltation
of tradition to a place of co-ordinate authority with Scripture, and
especially since the enunciation of the dogma of papal infallibility,
the doctrinal necessity for such a decision hardly seems urgent.
The Protestant churches were led by doctrinal as well as histori
cal and exegetical considerations to array themselves against the
Roman position. It is urged by Moehler as a criticism (Svmbolism)

REASONS FOR EXCLUSION. 97
that in their decision of the question, regard was had to other
considerations than those of a merely historical and. critical
kind. He probably refers to those doctrinal predilections and
those personal impulses by which Luther was led to reject the
Epistle of James, and to question the comparative worth of other
portions of the canonical Scriptures which did not harmonize, as
he supposed, with the Pauline conception of justification. But
Calvin was equally emphatic with Luther in setting the Apocry
pha aside as unauthoritative, basing his judgment on the specific
ground of the absence in them of the proper signs of inspiration.
The Belgic Confession in the same interest declared that the can
onical books are to be received, not so much because the church
receives and approves them as such, but more especially because
the Holy Ghost witnesseth in our hearts that they are from God,
whereof they carry the evidence in themselves. But with refer
ence to the apocryphal writings the same Confession expresses
the general sentiment of continental Protestantism in the words :
All which the church may read and take instruction from, so far
as they agree with the canonical books; but they are far from hav
ing such power and efficacy as that we may from their testimony
confirm any point of faith or of the Christian religion — much less
to detract from the authority of the older sacred books. In the
Thirty-Nine Articles the same view (VI) is presented : The other
books, as Hierome saith, the Church doth read for example of life
and instruction of manners, but yet doth it not apply to them to
establish any doctrine. This is also the teaching of the Irish Ar
ticles, with the added declaration (3) that these writings did not
proceed from inspiration. In the Westminster Confession we have
a still more decisive rejection; it being affirmed not only that these
books are not of inspiration, and are no part of the canon of the
Scripture, but also that they are of no authority in the Church of
God, and are not to be any otherwise approved or made use of than
any other human writings. Here the Reformed view comes into
most marked and complete contrast with the decree of Trent;
canonicity, even in the most secondary sense, is expressly denied;
the use of the Apocrypha, even for example of life and instruction
in manners, is practically disapproved.
The grounds of this strong judgment are not given, but the
judgment itself stands out in marked opposition to the general
opinion of the ancient Church and to the teaching of Rome. Its
foundation and reason lie doubtless in the words of the Confession:
not being of divine inspiration. The evidences of the absence of
such inspiration here are antithetic to the evidences of the

98 THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
presence of inspiration in the canonical Scriptures. That these
writings make no claim to inspiration, — that we have no evidence
of their having been regarded or received as inspired by the apos
tolic Church, — that the inspired books do not invest them with
such endorsement as they clearly give to each other, — that they
had no place in the Old Testament canon, and were never prized
as inspired by the Hebrews, — and in addition, that they teach no
important doctrine, and impart no special stimulus to faith, while
on the other hand they contain much that is contrary to both the
teaching and spirit of the received canonical books; — these in
general were doubtless the grounds on which these writings were
not only set aside, but practically condemned by the Assembly.
The general principles by which the problem or canonicity is
determined, are easily discerned. The Roman church, in harmony
with its theory of the permanent in-
10. Tests of Canonicity: .... . • , • r .. 0 • ..
False and true tests indicated: dwellm& and ^working of the Spirit
value of the external tests. within that church, may consistently
maintain that its decision in the case is
final: whatever the church affirms to be canonical, is so even if the
Apocrypha be included in the affirmation. But Protestantism
tests the church by the Scriptures, rather than the Scriptures by
the verdict of the church; and therefore, hi theory at least, main
tains the opposite view, that the true test of any book found
among the Sacred Writings is nothing less than the presence of
inspired and authoritative revelation. In the statement and ap
plication of this principle, however, wide variety of practice has
existed and still exists among the Protestant churches. It is the
peculiar glory of the Westminster Symbols that they apply the
principle so clearly and so rigidly, and while rejecting the apoc
ryphal writings, do so earnestly approve and receive the books of
our Canon on the ground of their demonstrated inspiration only.
They aver that the authority of these inspired books dependeth
not upon the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon God:
and that the Bible, as made up, is to be received because it is the
Word of God. This position stands in irreconcilable contrast with
the Roman view, even if we state that view in its mildest form
as maintaining, not indeed the right of the church to make any
book canonical which had never before been so regarded, but sim
ply its right to express a conclusive judgment on the claim of any
book already within the Canon from ancient times.
It may justly be questioned, however, whether the Symbols
do not follow the Belgic and other continental Confessions in
making the test of canonicity too extensively, if not exclusively,

TESTS OF CANONICITY. 99
an internal test. While they teach that we may be moved and
induced by the testimony of the church to an high and reverent esteem ,
they lay the main stress on the inward witness, derived from what
the Scriptures are found to be interiorly, and from the effects
which they produce in the believing soul. The French Conf. for
example, strongly illustrates this tendency in the declaration (IV)
that we know these books to be canonical, not so much by the
common accord and consent of the church, as by the testimony
and inward illumination of the Holy Spirit, which enables us to dis
tinguish them from other ecclesiastical books, — upon which,
however useful, we cannot found any articles of faith; see Scotch
Conf. , XIX. Nothing can be more exquisite than the reference in
the Symbols (I : v) to the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy
of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the
parts, the scope of the whole, (which is to give all glory to God)
the full discovery of the only way of man's salvation, the many
other incomparable excellencies, and the entire perfection thereof.
Yet it may justly be doubted whether all these, though they be so
many precious disclosures and confirmations to the soul that
already bebeves in the Bible, are arguments whereby it doth abund
antly evidence itself to the unbelieving world" to be the Word of
God. Even the inward work of the Spirit, bearing witness by and
with the Word in our hearts, is not to be taken as decisive of the
point of canonicity : that inward work itself needs external,
historical, rational foundation such as a duly authenticated Reve
lation alone can give it.
The question is clearly to be decided primarily on external,
even more than on internal grounds and evidences. The neces
sity for such external testimony is obvious. Though the O. T.
Canon was made up by Ezra, as reliable tradition affirms, we
have no adequate warrant for asserting that Ezra was inspired or
infallibly guided in his holy task, on the internal ground that the
books of the Old Test, commend themselves to our religious taste
or feeling. We are also bound to search diligently for all out
ward indications in Jewish history and elsewhere, which may
serve to justify or strengthen our inward confidence in their
canonicity./ Though the early Church has by progressive inquiry
and by solemn acts of councils declared its judgment respecting
the N. T. Canon, that conclusion is binding only so far as the
reasons on which it is based, are in themselves clear and conclu
sive to us. Though the church of Rome proclaims its final decree,
assuming to act as the divinely appointed arbiter in the case, and
pronouncing its anathema on all who refuse to accept its decision,

100 THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
the question is still open to the adjudication of Christian scholar
ship, and a different answer may be given at any time, if adequate
external or historical warrant should be found. As Protestants
following in the path of Luther and Calvin, and especially as
Presbyterians, accepting the principles of our own Confession
and the example of the divines of Westminster, we assuredly can
take no other position than this. The fact that the Symbols have
declared what books are canonical and what are apocryphal, does
not prohibit any one from inquiring into the subject for himself,
or from holding a different opinion, if on grounds which seem to
him adequate and convincing, he is led to such result. The right
of investigation, as has been already intimated, is one which the
testimony of the church, however earnest and impressive, can
never take away.
The external evidences of the true inspiration of the received
Scripture, and of the proper canonicity of its several parts, can
not be presented in detail in this Lecture. They are foundpartly
in miracles, viewed as proofs of a supernatural presence, working
within the sphere of nature to secure certain moral or gracious
results, and verified as historical facts on purely historical
grounds. They are found.partly in prophecies, regarded as pre
dictions of events hereafter to occur in the field of providence,
and afterward confirmed by facts authentically established.
They are also found in the career and position of the Bible in the
world, and in the marvelous influence of the Book as we now
possess it, on the life and character of mankind wherever it has
been produced. Volumes upon volumes have been written by
the ablest Christian apologists in the elucidation of these external
evidences, and in the exposition of their weight and conclusive
ness whenever candidly apprehended. The point to be specially
noted here is that these proofs present themselves in forms which
skeptical minds can comprehend: they base the claim of the Bible
to acceptance on grounds which skepticism can neither set aside
nor controvert. They furnish in their combination a broad ex
ternal argument for the Word of God, — an argument by which
the judgment and conviction of humanity are first reached, and
first won over to its acceptation. And on the firm basis whicli
they supply, the inward witness of Scripture comes in as an addi
tional confirmation, certifying afresh to the believing soul that
the Bible as we have it in the canonical books is verily the word
not of man, but of God.
In the Revision proposed for our own Church the words, the
truthfulness of the history, the faithful witness of prophecy and

PRESERVATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 101
miracle, were added to the section on the evidences of Scripture
as prefatory to the internal proofs there named, for the purpose of
bringing out more distinctly this external argument for both the
canonicity and the authoritativeness of the Divine Word. It is a
fact worthy of note that the Westminster Assembly at one stage
in the discussions on this subject adopted the fulfilling of the
prophecies as one of the practical evidences in the case. It is also
notable that Gillespie, to whom the construction of the Article
seems to have been largely due, proposed also the phrases, the
irresistible power over the conscience, the stipernatural mysteries
revealed therein, — referring doubtless to the moral effect of the
Bible in human life, and to the confirmatory testimony of miracles
in its support. The external proofs thus suggested have assumed
vastly greater importance since prophecy and miracle, especially
the latter, have become the subjects of so much thoughtful and
valuable discussion, and since the argument from history and
from the moral influence of Scripture has come to be valued at its
proper worth. In view of such developments it is no longer
desirable or wise to rest the claim of the Bible on internal evi
dence only. These more external attestations, whose appeal to
the reason and the conscience is so potent, have become indis
pensable elements in the vast argument by which the world is to
be persuaded into allegiance to spiritual Christianity. It is there
fore a matter of regret that the proposed addition failed to gain
its proper place in the Confession through the endorsement of a
living church, which be37ond a doubt accepts the truth which that
addition was designed to express.
The statements of the Confession respecting the original form
of these canonical writings, their providential preservation, and
the right and duty of translation into
the various languages of men, should , »• Preservation, genu-
, , ,, , . 4., ineness, translation, and dif-
be considered here. Referring to the fusion#
Old Testament as written in the
Hebrew', which was the native language of 'the people of God of 'old, and
to the New Testament as written in the Greek, which at the time
of writing was the tongue most generally known to the nations, it
points to the singular care and providence of God by which these
sacred books have been kept pure in all ages; preserved to be the
light and guide not merely of those familiar with these languages
but of all nations. If God doth uphold, direct, dispose, and
govern all creatures, actions and things, from the greatest even
to the least — as the Confession teaches elsewhere — it may cer
tainly be held that such wise and holy providence would reveal

102 THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
itself in an especial manner, not indeed miraculously or super-
naturally, yet specifically and immediately, in the preservation of
such a book as the Bible. And the history of that Book, of the
vicissitudes through which it passed in its original form, of the
perils to which it has been exposed from various quarters, of the
means and agencies employed in its continuous preservation, and
of the verifications historically furnished even to its minutest
details, might without irreverence be called miraculous. That
history is certainly a remarkable confirmation of its inherent claim
to be the Word of God. Through comparison of many early
manuscripts, through incidental references in early writings,
Christian and pagan, through early translations extending back
even to the first centuries, and in many other ways, we are
enabled to verify the singular care and providence here asserted,
and to recognize in the present Scriptures the genuine and verit
able Word of God as given first to the Hebraic, then to the
Christian Church.
It should be said here that the terms, genuine and authentic,
as applied to any portion of Scripture, refer simply to its historic
quality, — to the fact that it can be traced back satisfactorily, as
to text and substance, to the sources from which it professes to
have originated. The term, canonical, refers rather, as we have
seen, to church opinions and decisions respecting the right of any
such book, when proved to be genuine and authentic, to be placed
in the group of inspired writings. A genuine and authentic book
is one which was in fact written by the person who professes to
write it, and is handed down to us exactly or substantially as
he wrote it. A canonical book is one whose claims to a place in
the grouped Scriptures are justified by adequate testimony, and
confirmed by the judgment of the Christian Church on the basis
of its established authenticity. Our Symbols affirm the verified
genuineness of the several parts of the Bible, on the ground of the
singular providence and care of God, as concerned with their
historic preservation and integrity. They assert in general that
each of the books named is to be viewed as authentic, — leaving to
the investigation of textual critics all specific questions involving
particular passages or individual terms or phrases in the authenti
cated Word.
Mitchell (Introduction) justly observes that, so far from desir
ing to go beyond their predecessors in rigor, the Westminster
divines were at more special pains than the authors of any other
Confession ... to avoid mixing up the question of the canon
icity of particular books with the question of their authorship,

TRANSLATION — DIFFUSION. 103
where any doubt at all existed on the latter point. Yet there are
many indications that they regarded the question of authorship,
and especially of apostolic authorship, as one of very grave, if not,
vital importance. Especially in their long debates on the nature
of the church, the authority of church officials, and the right and
duty of church discipline, we hear them again and again appealing
to apostolic authority as derived from the sacred writings. One
of the cardinal elements in their firm belief that the New Testa
ment books named in the Confession were truly canonical and
inspired, and therefore in the highest sense authoritative, was the,
accepted fact that they were written by Matthew and John, Paul
and Peter, and by other inspired persons under apostolic direction.
In other words, they accepted these books as inspired and authori
tative largely on the ground of their established apostolicity.
Had they been confronted with that current type of naturalizing
criticism which questions or denies this apostolic quality, and
affirms that the Apostles wrote or indited but little, if any, of these.
Scriptures, — that the real authors were various unknown men,
writing we know not when or where or from what motive, and
finally passing off their productions upon the church by prefacing
them with apostolic names, — they would have pronounced such an
hypothesis not only unwarranted and fanciful, but in essence
heretical and destructive to the common faith. It is a fact of.
great significance that not only the Symbols, but also most of the.
Protestant creeds, following the example of Paul, speak with
emphasis of the foundation of the apostles and prophets — of the
basis of faith and acceptance laid in the fact that the sacred writ
ings came directly from the prophets and apostles whose names
they bear. To reject such eminent authorship is a long step
toward the rejection of the writings themselves.
The duty of translating the Scriptures, thus providentially pre
served, into the various languages and dialects of the world is also
enjoined in the Symbols. Protestantism universally arrayed itself
against the decree of the papacy in imposing the Vulgate upon all
as the only proper language or form in which the Divine Word is
to be studied, and in repressing if not forbidding all translations
into the common tongues of Europe. It was one of the primary
desires of Luther, and of the Reformers universally, that this
Divine Book should be in the hands of the people, and that it
should be read by the people in their native tongues. So long as
this Word was concealed within the folds of an unknown lan
guage, so long — as they believed — would the force of its teaching
be lost, and so long would a corrupt church continue to tyrannize

104 THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
over the conscience and the life. Granted full possession of the
Word by each believer, and the unrestricted exercise of the right
and privilege of private study and interpretation, they were
assured that Protestantism could maintain itself triumphantly
against the stupendous assumptions of Rome.
It is the glory of Protestantism, and especially of the Protestant
ism of this century, that in the free spirit of the Reformation it
has thus given the Bible to the world; securing its translation into
almost: every conspicuous tongue, and even into provincial dialects;
creating in many instances written languages for this purpose
where none existed before; and diffusing the Divine Word in these
multiplied forms in every continent, among all nations, and even
in the remotest islands of earth. Nor is this simply a necessity to
Protestantism viewed as an organization: it is a necessity which
lies in the nature of spiritual as distinguished from a formal and
hierarchal type of Christianity. For, true as it. is that Protestant
doctrine, polity, worship, can be maintained only as they are sup
ported by the living Word in the hands of all, it is still more true
that Christianity in its broadest, highest form bases itself immedi
ately and always on an open Bible. The Word of God dwelling
plentifully, in all, — to use the strong phrase of the Confession — is
the source of its best life and of its spiritual power. One interesting
illustration of the loyalty of the Assembly to the Scriptures, and
of their zeal in the circulation of the inspired Word in its purity,
appears in the record of their memorial to Parliament to seize and
destroy two defective or corrupt editions of the Bible published on
the Continent, and their discussion of the matter of furnishing
Britain with true Bibles upon as easy rates as can be afforded. See
also their action (Minutes, 193) petitioning the Houses of Parlia
ment to provide means for the printing of the Septuagint, the
famous Alexandrian Codex, presented to Charles I. by the Patri
arch of Constantinople.
Passing on from these questions respecting the genuineness and
canonicity of the Scriptures, we may turn to note more specifically
,„ . „. the position of the Symbols as to the
12. Authoritativeness and ^^aw^ma. j ^ -. . ¦ ~ .
credibility of Scripture : Ev. cre<Jlblllty and authoritativeness of the
idences internal and exter- Blble> viewed as an inspired and au-
nal: mandatory power. thenticated Book. Granted the suffi
cient integrity of the text, and the
adequate solution of the problem of source and authorship,—
granted also the full significance of the judgment of the Church
on all points of canonicity, on what grounds shall it be asserted
that the Bible thus determined ought to be believed, and on what

BASIS OF CREDIBILITY. 105
basis shall its claim to complete authoritativeness on all points,
whether of faith or of duty be placed? The subject has been already
introduced in connection with the problem of canonicity : it
deserves a more specific consideration at this point.
It is to be admitted that, as already intimated, the Symbols
present no specific array of external evidence by which such
credibility and authoritativeness may be proved. They indeed
make some provision for miracles in the broad statement (V: iii)
that while God ordinarily in his providence makes use of means,
and works through fixed laws, yet he is free to work without, above
and against them at his pleasure. So they recognize the reality
and worth of prophecy (L. C. 44), especially as represented in
the person and the predictions of our Lord, — regarding the latter
as illustrations of his omniscient perception of things to come.
They also suggest both the historical argument and the moral
argument for the Bible in what they say concerning its providential
preservation and its pecubar influence as a prime factor in the
economy of grace and inhuman life. Yet, as we have seen, they
introduce neither miracle nor prophecy nor any other variety of
external evidence in adequate form to prove directly that the Bible
is, not merely an authenticated book, but also an authoritative
revelation from God. But it is noticeable as an illustration both
of their type of religious experience, and of their (ordinary modes
of viewing the truth that, as we have already noted, they press into
special prominence what has been termed the internal ground of
such authoritativeness. Additional evidence on this point may
be quoted here. The Larger Catechism condenses their judgment
in the words : The Scriptures manifest themselves to be the Word of
God by their majesty and purity, by the consent of all the parts and the
scope of the whole, and by their light and power to convince and con
vert sinners, and to comfort and build up believers unto salvation. The
same truth is still further presented and emphasized by the declar
ation, that the action of the Holy Spirit by and with the Scrip
tures in the soul of man, is indispensable fully to persuade him
that they are the very Word of God. To this inward assurance
even the judgment of the Church is subordinated, however we
may be moved by that judgment to an high and reverent esteem.
This statement rests the whole argument in the case on the expe
rience and conviction of those who have already believed : it
would be ineffectual if urged as a primary proof of authoritative
ness upon one who should approach the question from the point of
doubt or unbelief. The general fact is that none of the Protestant
Confessions attempted any description of that strong external

106 THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
evidence on which primarily the whole question of authoritative
ness now rests: they simply appealed even from the judgment of
the Church and the historic Councils to this interior proof, and
were content with the responsive approval of the soul that for
itself has tasted and seen that the Word is precious.
Yet however defective in their statement of the basis on which
such authoritativeness rests, the Symbols are conclusive and most
emphatic as to the fact. One who studies the debates of the
Assembly, so far as they have been preserved, or who examines
the doctrinal products of such discussion, cannot doubt as to the
place which the Word of God occupied in their estimation. The
amount of time spent in their examination of texts of Scripture,
with reference especially to their value as supports of certain
doctrines, and the skill shown in the use of such texts in the phras
eology of the Symbols,* are convincing evidences of their unswerv
ing loyalty to the Bible. Their biblical proofs, appended to each
chapter and section of the Confession and to the Catechisms, though
occasionally faulty in the light of more modern exegesis, clearly
indicate their supreme desire to confirm and verify everything by
the authentic and authoritative Word. In fact it is the presence of
this remarkable scripturalness, and of this unflinching adherence
to whatever the Word of God declares, however profound in its
mystery or perplexing to faith, to which — even more than to the
constant fealty of their doctrinal system to logical rule and phil
osophic principles — the enduring hold and sway of that system
are to be traced. Whatever the grounds of their judgment, they
in fact held it as a fundamental axiom that the Scriptures teach,
and that clearly and decisively as well as principally, what man is
to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of man.
In respect to the kind and measure of the authority thus vested
in the Bible, we find the Symbols most distinct and earnest in
their affirmations. The authority of the Scripture, for which it
ought to be believed and obeyed, dependeth . . . wholly upon
God, the Author thereof: it is to be received because it is the Word
of God. The authoritativeness in the case is divine, and is there
fore forever supreme and final. Without taking up just here
the contrast suggested between this and certain other asserted
sources of authority in matters of religion, we may in brief note,
First: the absolute and unchallengeable claim of the Bible, as
based upon this fact of a divine authorship. So long as there are
doubts respecting this cardinal fact,— so long as the human
agency in revelation is lifted into prominence to the relative
retirement of this divine agency in its production, so long there

ITS AUTHORITATIVENESS. 107
will be room for hesitancy or for unbelief in respect to the biblical
teaching and requirements. But the moment it is shown by
proof sufficient to carry conviction to the intelligent and unpreju
diced mind, that the Bible has come to us not from man but from
God, and is invested with his personal endorsement as its author,
there is no further room for hesitation — no possible ground for
unbelief. Man in such a case has no other recourse than to hear
reverently what God has spoken, to believe implicitly what is
¦spoken on his authority, and promptly and joyously to obey.
What is said of the Moral Law in the Larger Catechism (95) is
true of the entire Word : It is of use to all men, to inform them
of the holy nature and will of God, and of their duty, binding
them to walk accordingly.
Secondly: The absolute and unquestionable nature of the
corresponding duty of faith and obedience. Were such duty
dependent on any opinions or decisions of man, or on the deter
minations of reason or of human authority in whatever form, the
sense of personal obligation would of course be correspondingly
weakened or invalidated. But in this case the obligation ta
believe and obey is imperative and absolute: no question or objec
tion can be raised against it, and no hesitation respecting it can
for an instant be justified. All men are alike held under this
just and solemn responsibility. The claim of the Bible to uni
versal credence and submission is of the same nature as the claim
of God himself; and no human being can for a single moment
stand in any position where he is justified in evading or ignoring
that sovereign claim.
Thirdly: The authoritativeness of Scripture gathers vastly
increased significance if we bear in mind its comprehensive char
acter, both as a compendium of belief and as a law of life. For
no truth concerning God or ourselves, concerning our moral
relations or destinies, concerning salvation in any legitimate aspect
of the term, is omitted from the Bible: it comprehends and
embraces in the fullest sense and measure all that man is to believe
in order to salvation. And in all this comprehensiveness, it
comes to every soul demanding credence, not of here and there a
portion, but of the whole, and of every essential, integral division
of the whole, — credence not as if its statements were probable
merely, or credence mixed with conscious discount or reservation,
but credence absolute and unconditional, both for the present and
for all the future. In like manner, its particular precepts and
injunctions are seen to include every relation of life, to apply
to each soul in all its varied conditions, to reach into the spirit

108 THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
and the intents of the heart, and thus, to rule over man absolutely,
comprehensively, interiorly, eternally, -^showing us all that God
requires of man in order that he may be saved. And in the same
way it demands, and will receive nothing less than the most
entire, unhesitating, cordial submission, not to some portion but
to the whole of its comprehensive law of life. The complete
authority of God stands behind each particular requirement in
the sacred series8: the full potency of his supreme personality
pours itself into the very least of these commandments. He is
himself, in his totality, revealed in every article of belief, and in
each mandatory precept, each gracious promise, each judicial
warning. Hence the force and worth of the remarkably strong
declaration of the Symbols on this vital point, — a declaration
which more fully than any found in any other creed of Protes
tantism, exalts Holy Scripture in both aspects as the rule of faith
and the rule of obedience universal, perpetual and perfect.*
This supreme authoritativeness becomes more apparent, as we
further note the strong contrast here introduced between the Bible
., r. -, * *«. _> *.„ and all Other varieties of authority in
13. Contrast with patristic . :
traditions, with church Coun- the sphere of religion. The force of this
cils : Protestantism against contrast comes "into view only in the
Romanism: adequacy of the light of the antecedent history and posi-
MMe. tjon Qf protestantism in the aggregate.
That position may be indicated by its historic antithesis in the
notable decree of Trent, viewed as an authoritative statement of
the doctrine of the church of Rome. That Council not only, as
we have seen, regarded the Apocrypha as canonical, and set up the
Vulgate as the only authorized translation of Scripture: it also
added to the Scripture itself the traditions of the Christian
fathers, the decisions of the ancient councils, the judgment and
consent of the organized household of faith, in whatever form
expressed. It indeed explained that the ultimate basis of all
patristic or churchly tradition is to be found, obscurely if not

*In affirming thus the sufficiency and completeness of the Bible above all
other books as a law of life and a sure guide to salvation, we shall do well to
remember the wise caution of Howe, (Sermons on Family Worship) that in
declaring the Scripture to be such a rule, we do not mean as severed and cut
off from the law of nature, or in opposition to that, or excluding that; but as
including it, and as excluding only the unnecessary and arbitrary inventions
of men, and the additions that they see fit to subnect to it. Take the
Scripture, adds that eminent divine, in conjunction with the frame of most
unquestionably natural dictates and sentiments, and then we have an entire
discovery of all that is requisite to our acceptable walking with God.

ROMAN AND PROTESTANT VIEW. 10!)
distinctly, in the written Scriptures, yet claimed for such tradi
tion when framed an authoritativeness hardly less potential than
that of the inspired Word itself. And though the final step in
this direction had not then been taken in the adoption of the dictum
of papal infallibility, the Assembly of Westminster was practically
confronted by the same error which has in our time been
expressed in the words: The Roman Pontiff . . . when in dis
charge of the office of pastor and doctor of all Christians, by
virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he defines the doctrine
regarding faith or morals to be held by the universal church, by
the divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, is possessed
of that infallibility with which the Redeemer willed that his
church should be endowed for defining doctrine regarding faith
or morals; and therefore such definitions are irreformable of
themselves, and not from consent of the church: Vatican Council
1870: Dogmatic Constitution, Ch. IV.
Against such assumption as this whether in the earlier or in the
later form, it became Protestantism to make most earnest oppo
sition. That assumption involves a number of errors, which
would have been fatal alike to, free inquiry in matters of religion,
and to the free development of spiritual experience, around the
cardinal doctrine of justification' by faith. It was an error to
suppose that the church was so fully inhabited by the Holy
Ghost, as to be in every case guided infallibly in its perceptions
or statements of divine truth. It was an equal error to suppose
that its opinions once formed, its teachings once expressed, were
incapable of alteration or improvement, and must therefore stand
for ah time as the final and irreversible rule of human belief.
But it was an error still more palpable and gross, to suppose that
the judgments of the early fathers on points of faith — judgments
often mutually contradictory, narrow, sensuous, and at variance
with later conclusions drawn by Christian scholarship from the
Holy Oracles — were to be added to and accepted as co-ordinate
with the teachings of Scripture; or that the decrees of councils,
characterized largely by the same defects, and equally unable to
bear the tests of thorough inquiry, were invested with like
authority. Over against these errors, pernicious in theory but
far more pernicious in their inferences and practical effects, Prot
estantism from the beginning maintained that the Word of God
alone is the infallible rule of belief and life,— that while tradition
might shed light on the teaching of that Word, it could never
become a substitute for or an addition to the Word, — that the
Holy Spirit is not promised to the church as an independent

110 THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
inspirer but rather as a guide in the comprehension of the written
Scripture, and in that work does not guarantee the disciple or
the church from defective or from erroneous views of the truth, —
and consequently that the declarations of councils, Roman of
Protestant, even when ecumenical, are not to be taken as authori
tative in any primal or final sense of that term.
To this general view, the Symbols give full and elaborate ex
pression. They maintain at the outset that the infallible rule of
belief and life is the Scripture itself, — that the whole counsel of
God concerning all things necessary is expressly \ set down in Scrip
ture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from it;
and hence that nothing is at any time to be added thereto, whether by
new revelations of the Spirit, or by the traditions of men. In the
remarkable chapter on Synods and Councils (XXXI) the true
relation of the church to the Bible is concisely and forcibly des
cribed, and the assumptions of the papacy are guarded against in
language to which the experience of succeeding generations has
only given added emphasis. It may be, as has been charged, that
practically the Assembly in some cases assumed for itself some
measure of the authoritativeness which it denied to Rome; and it
has certainly been the case that Presbyterians have sometimes
asserted for their formularies a degree of significance approaching
if not reaching actual infallibilty. Yet it is to be regarded as one
of the peculiar values of the Symbols themselves, that they ex
pressly disavow such assumption, and while defining elaborately
the degree and kind of mandatory power which the Christian
church may justly wield in the sphere of doctrine, guard with
more careful precision than any other Protestant creed the rights
of the individual as against the church, and the rights of the
inspired Word as above both church and disciple.
The perfect adequacy of the Bible as the Word of God is of
course implied in what has been already said. A Revelation hav
ing such qualities must be sufficient to meet every intellectual or
spiritual necessity of man. Hence the Symbols affirm the entire
perfection of the Scriptures viewed as a revelation; asserting that
the whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his
own glory, or for the faith and life "and salvation of men, are
therein contained. To this Word there is therefore nothing to be
added even in the form described as new revelations of the Spirit :
the Bible as it stands is complete in itself, and is adequate to the
needs of humanity universally for all time. The Symbols are
thus at variance with all those notions of spiritual communication
and enlightenment over and above the Holy Scripture, which

SCRIPTURE SUFFICIENT AND FINAL. Ill
have so often possessed the minds of men. Mysticism, resting
on the assumption that the way to knowledge is through holy
feeling, has claimed that the soul may thus attain to the posses
sion of spiritual and even saving truth beyond what the Bible
affords. Inward illumination is supposed to include a wider do
main than Revelation brightens. But all notions of a saving and
spiritual light which comes into the soul in addition to the light
afforded by the Divine Word, and which becomes not only a guide
to what is written, but also a source of information above what
is written, are here decisively excluded. While the Symbols em
phasize the illuminating as well as regenerating work of the
Spirit, they nowhere place the Spirit before us as a complementary
or additional revealer of saving truth. Our knowledge of divine
things, they tell us, has no other boundary than the Bible : be
yond what the Word teaches, no light to guide us as to what
should be believed, is to be expected even from the Holy Ghost.
Still less can reliable instruction be derived from any other con
ceivable form of supernatural communication. Among the sins
specified in the Catechism (L. C. 105) are all compacts and con
sulting with the devil, or harkening to his suggestions; all devis
ing, counseling, commanding, using or anywise approving any
religious worship not instituted by God himself; all prying into
or misapplying of the divine decrees or providences ; all worship
of saints, angels or other creatures; and in general all acts which
imply discontent with the Word, or a desire to know more than the
Word has revealed. Modern spiritualism in all its varieties and
pretensions is thus tacitly condemned as a departure from that
supreme loyalty to the Bible, which must follow upon the recogni
tion of its entire adequacy as a supernatural revelation. The
assumption of prophetic foresight or insight is included in this
condemnation: These former ways of revealing his will being now
ceased. The sundry times are ended; the divers manners have
reached their culmination in Him who executeth the office of a
Prophet in the supreme sense, in revealing to the Church in all
ages . . . the whole will of God in all things concerning their
edification and salvation. The Bible nowhere recognizes the
permanent or even the occasional existence of the prophetic
endowment in the Church : it represents the miraculous function
of believers as ceasing with the apostolic age : it describes the
charismatic gifts as temporary rather than continuous : and thus
by implication it clearly forbids all adding unto the words of the
prophecy of this Book.
In like manner do these propositions stand opposed to the

112 THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
current notion of a great natural religion, so comprehensive as to
include all historic varieties of faith, 'so absolute as 'to meet every
possible demand of humanity in the future : — a religion of which
historical Christianity is indeed to form a part, and among whose
sacred books there is to be a place for the Bible, but which is to be
wider and higher than Christianity, or than any other single form
of> belief, and is therefore to become the universal faith of the
world. Aside from all the objections to such a scheme, growing.
out of its ignoring the divine existence and presence and ad
ministration among men, or of its idealization of humanity and
exaltation of reason, as if man were his own inspirer and the truth
were all to be evolved from within; — aside from these, and other
overwhelming objections to such a scheme, it cannot for a moment
be supposed that the Bible would consent to take any such sub
ordinate position, or that historical Christianity, with its vast
array of miracle and prophecy and experimental confirmation, and
with its demonstrated adaptations to man in every age and clime
and in every spiritual estate, would confess itself a local or provin
cial or temporary faith, destined to exist for a brief period and
within narrow limits only, but finally to be dissolved at last in this
absolute and ultimate religion. The Bible itself claims to be the
absolute and ultimate book for humanity; and the faith which has
sprung in such majestic proportions from that Book, claims to be the
absolute and ultimate faith, in which humanity through; all its
earthly future must rest, and by which alone that humanity can be
rescued, redeemed, and united forever with God.
One further general inquiry remains, — an inquiry respecting the
right and duty of private interpretation of the Scriptures. Res-
14. Right and Duty of ^ing the right of each believer to
private interpretation of read and study the Word of God for
Scripture. himself, the Symbols maintain the po
sition assumed by Protestantism from
the beginning. It is implied in what has already been noted as
to the propriety of translating the Scriptures into the vulgar lan
guage of every nation unto which they come, that the Word of God
may dwell plentifully in all. It is also asserted that not only the
learned but also the unlearned may in a due use of the ordinary
means attain unto a sufficient understanding of the truth. In the
Larger Catechism (156) this, right or privilege is made the basis
of a solemn obligation: .it is affirmed that all sorts of people are
bound to read the Scriptures apart by themselves, and with their
families; Directory for Worship, Chapter XVI. This right and

PRIVATE INTERPRETATION. 113
this duty are in various other ways presented as universal, — in
cluding not merely those who already believe, but also all persons
to whom the inspired message of salvation may come. The Moral
Law, it is said, is of use to all men, to inform them of the holy
nature and will of God, and of their duty, binding them to walk
accordingly. Such was in fact the teaching of Protestantism of
every type. The appeal of the Augsburg Confession, and of most'
of the earlier Protestant symbols was from the decrees and tradi
tions of an usurping church directly to the Divine Word, and to
this as made available for the edification not of the priesthood-
only, but of every disciple. It was to this Word as the final test,
rather than to the tests and impositions of such a church, that
they sought to bring unconverted men as well as believers. By
this standard and this alone were all human professions, acts, lives,
destinies, to be measured and determined.
The grounds of this judgment are easily discerned. It is in the
Divine Word alone, that the truths which make wise unto salva
tion, the vital doctrines of grace, are set forth and made authorita
tive and imperative : it is here alone that the proper conception of
salvation, in its varied aspects, and especially in the aspect of
justification then so prominent and momentous, can be obtained :
it is here that the sinner, burdened with a guilt which no other
proposed instrumentality can remove, is able to find assurance and
peace. This Word both describes the disease of man more faith
fully than all other books, and sets forth more distinctly the divine,
the gracious, the universal cure. So far as duty goes, in either
its general forms or its practical details, the Scripture alone is a
safe ethical and spiritual guide; and only those who walk in the
paths it has pointed out, can be assured that they are conforming
themselves to the Divine Will. The hopes of man as well as his
duties are here distinctly set forth and justified: in this book the
foundations of such hope are uncovered, and the oaths and prom
ises of God in confirmation of his grace are recorded; and here, here
only, life and immortality are brought to Kght. And as all these
are matters in which each soul must be concerned for itself pri
marily, they demand from each the strictest personal fidelity, not
merely to the right to read, but to the supreme duty of reading
and studying this divine message for itself. Right and duty,
obligation and privilege, here flow together in parallel lines.
That such is the teaching of the Scripture itself is obvious.
While some portions of the Word are addressed to those occupying
official positions, or to particular individuals or classes, its messa
ges in general are sent under both the Jewish and the Christian

114 THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
dispensation to the people, without distinction of class or office.
Under the training of Mosaism the people were required to study
this Word, treasuring up its truths and precepts in their hearts;
and to teach them to their children, in order that the youth
from generation to generation might know the will of the Lord.
Under the Gospel the instructions of teachers, and even of
apostles, are said to be submitted to the church as a body, not
merely to be comprehended, but also to be intelhgently estimated
and weighed by it. The universal law is, that personal responsi
bility for personal belief implies a corresponding obligation to
know personally what God has spoken ; and for this personal
acquaintance the Bible suggests no substitute. In this respect,
Protestantism clearly returned immediately to the divine rule
which the papacy had overridden with its assumptions, and to
that return its influence and success during the grave crisis of the
Reformation were primarily due.
It is a just consequence from this position that no church or
council, whether Roman or Protestant, may assume the right to
interpret Scripture decisively, or to enforce its interpretations on
the individual conscience as binding. Zwingli commenced his
famous Articles with the broad proposition, that whosoever
affirms that the Evangel is nothing excepting as the church
indorses it, is in error, and blasphemes God. There is indeed a
regard for the judgment even of individual men in respect to the
teachings of the Word which, especially when such private inter
preters are known to possess high intellectual and moral qualifi
cations, is incumbent upon every student of this Divine Book.
Such regard is not only a privilege but an obhgation, and the
help thus secured is to be devoutly welcomed. Both the privilege
and the duty are magnified as the number and qualifications of
such -instructors are increased; and when such judgment emanates
from an organized church or any large body of disciples, uniting
in the expression of beliefs to which they have together been led
by their common studies of the Scripture, the obligation and the
advantage are proportionally enhanced. And if, according to
the ancient motto of Vincentius, any truth of Scripture is received
alike by all avowed believers, everywhere and at all periods, he
would be a vain and reckless spirit who would lightly cast such a
doctrine aside, or unhesitatingly differ from a result so obtained.
For it is a far stronger presumption that the Church of God is
rightly taught by his Spirit and is holding the truth as he desires,
than that any individual in that church should have become the

RIGHT AND DUTY. 115
sole possessor of such truth while all the rest are still living in
ignorance. But there are certain limitations to this general rule which, in
view of the assumptions of Romanism in this direction, must be
carefully noted. The claim of the Roman church to be the sole
expounder of the Word through her priesthood, was openly made
and zealously maintained. It was a natural inference alike from
her doctrine of the priesthood as a sacred order culminating in
the apostolate, and endowed with gifts and prerogatives above
those of the household of faith; and from the position assumed in
respect to the nature of inspiration, and to the contents and
canonicity of Scripture, as defined in the Decreta of Trent. Of a
Bible so made up and so authenticated and certified, none but
the priestly orders could be legitimate or competent expositors.
That famous Council decreed that no one relying on his own skill
shall, in matters of faith and of morals pertaining to the edifica
tion (or the establishment) of the Christian doctrine — wresting
the Sacred Scripture to his own senses or opinions — presume to
interpret the said Sacred Scripture contrary to that sense which
holy Mother Church, — whose it is to judge of the true sense and
interpretation of the said sacred Scriptures, — hath held and now
holds: nor shall anyone dare to interpret Holy Scripture contrary
even to the unanimous consent of the Fathers, even though such
interpretations may not have been intended to be at any time
brought to light or made public. Those who contravene this
decree — it was added — shall be revealed by those having spiritual
charge over them, and shall be punished with the penalties by law
provided. Additional emphasis was given to this conclusion by
its obvious relations to the Roman conception of salvation, and
to the Roman cultus throughout. Faith according to Rome was
wholly a passive grace, and submission to ecclesiastical authority
was the sum of duty: the church was the channel of all blessings,
and obedience to her teachings as well as her requisitions was
therefore a primary obligation, and practically the only ground of
salvation. Against this monstrous claim with all its destructive conse
quences, Protestantism was bound by every cardinal principle to
protest. Hence the prominence given to such protestation in
most of the creeds, both Lutheran and Reformed, whether conti
nental or insular. The Westminster Symbols, though written
many decades after the rest, represent the same strong conviction;
and the necessity for such representation was probably deepened
in the estimation of the Assembly by the persistent urging of the

116 THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
opposite doctrine in England, both in the papal and in the modi
fied prelatic forms. For while Episcopacy maintained in the
Thirty-Nine Articles that Holy Scripture containeth all things
necessary to salvation, so that whatsoever is not read therein,
nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man,
that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, (VI) yet it
did not array itself so decisively as most of the other formularies
against either tradition or ecclesiastical interpretation and
authority in matters of belief. Room was even left for just such
assumption in respect to the teaching of the Word as characterized
the period when Laud ruled England with nearly regal power,
and the mandates of the church were enforced even with civil
pain and penalty. That the perception of this liability as exist
ing in prelatic circles and not wholly excluded in the Episcopal
symbols, incited the Westminster Assembly to the more earnest
and positive enunciation of the Protestant view, cannot be ques
tioned. Hence their more strong and decisive language with
respect, to the liability of all synods and councils since apostolic
times to err, with respect to the authority of such bodies as given
not for destruction but for edification, with respect to the neces
sity for strict consonance between their decisions and the divine
Word, and with respect also to the primal duty of men of all sorts
to study that Word for themselves without fear of ecclesiastical
domination. While they were not at all times consistent with
their own teachings, and sometimes did what they here con
demned, it is yet to be said for them that they clearly saw and
boldly announced the principle on which not Presbyterianism only,
but evangelical religion under whatever name must always be
based. In accordance with this general position the Assembly further
declared that the Bible must be made its own interpreter, — its
more difficult portions being explained
Reason, statements, and all being regarded and
estimated as parts of one organic and
adequate as well as thoroughly divine Book. The Protestant
principle of the analogy of faith, so termed, is laid down as a
fundamental organon in the interpretation of the inspired Word.
Little recognition is given apparently to the fact that there are
mysteries in Scripture, such as afe discoverable in its doctrine
of decrees, or of the person of Christ or his atoning work in cer
tain aspects; or of obscurities, such as the apocalyptic prophecies,
which seem to us explicable only in the light which the future

SCRIPTURE AND REASON. 117
unfoldings of providence may shed upon them. As was natural
in that age, the Symbols emphasize the plainness, the clearness,
the practical appeal of the Bible to man, rather than its obscurity
or its mystery. This is apparent, for illustration, in their affirma
tion that the sense of the divine Word is not manifold, but o?ie: —
an affirmation which shuts out the entire notion, so current occa
sionally in the church, of a variety of senses, external and
internal, physical and spiritual, single and complex, not one but
manifold. Mysticism in the interpretation of Scripture, in what
ever variety or form, is here directly excluded. What may be
called English common sense protested against all such fancies, —
all ways of covering up the simple truth by fictitious guesses or
hypotheses: it held forth the Word as a divine light, shining in its
own luster, and competent to be the guide of man into all saving
truth. This doctrine of the literal sense, as it was termed, seems to
have been a matter of some debate in the Assembly, (Minutes, 114)
and the answer doubtless indicates what was the confirmed and
final view of the body.
This view is antithetic also to the notion, less current in that
age than subsequently, of antagonism between the Scripture and
human reason, with its natural consequence in the exaltation of
reason as the true and final judge of Scripture. In recognizing
the light of nature both as a light shining into the soul from an
¦external world, and as a capacity of the soul to perceive such
light and rejoice in it, the Assembly did not intend to exalt this
capacity and opportunity as if they could lift man above the need
of revelation, or make him the arbiter of the whole question of
revelation and salvation. While it is said to be the duty of every
one to search and know, the field of such searching and knowledge
is carefully defined; it is within the Scripture, and in due defer
ence to its character as a revelation, that such inquiry is to be
conducted. More than once, as in the chapter on the Eternal
Decree, are we taught to handle these high mysteries with
special prudence and care, attending simply to the will of God as
revealed in his Word. In the Larger Catechism (157) it is said
that the Holy Scriptures are to be read with an high and reverent
•esteem for them, and with a firm persuasion that they are the very
Word of God.
Yet the question whether the Bible is indeed that Word, is
•one which can be determined only upon a rational examination of
the evidences supporting its claim: and it may justly be said that
the Bible ever welcomes such examination, if it be conducted
with the thoroughness and the candor which reason itself and

118 THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
the nature of the question prescribe. So in the consideration of its
particular statements of whatever class, there is always room for the
question whether these statements are confirmed by the verdict of
individual or of general reason: and here again this divine Word
welcomes the most faithful investigation of which the human
mind is capable. Indeed, one of the strongest arguments practi
cally for the Bible is derived from this open submission of itself
and its teachings to the scrutiny of man, and in consequence
from the strong, cordial, combined testimonies of human reason
in its behalf. These testimonies, notwithstanding many tem
porary conflicts around particular issues, such as those arising
within the domain of physical science, or in the broad field of
intellectual or ethical speculation, are steadily increasing in vol
ume and force. The Bible more and more stands before humanity
as a reasonable book, — its claims verified by the understanding as
well as accepted by the heart. This is its glory, — this is the cul
minating proof that it has descended to humanity from God him
self. Yet the authority of its teachings does not, cannot rest on
this human endorsement : it rests rather in Him by whom the
Word is uttered. The Book rises above human reason, and is
supreme over it; it teaches doctrines which reason cannot fully
penetrate, and demands their acceptance because God has spoken
them. Even where its teachings seem at variance with certain
conclusions of reason, it still requires acceptance and receives it.
on the just ground that a book presenting such evidences of
divinity is ten thousand fold likelier to be right than the individual
reason that judges it.
In the interpretation of the divine Word the infallible rule is
affirmed to be the Scripture itself, — one portion being compared
with another, and each part set in harmony with the rest, until
the composite and complete view is gained. In the language of
the Confession, when there is a question about the true and full
sense of any scripture, it must be searched and known by other
places that speak more clearly. Constructed as the Bible is, its
truths held in solution rather than in crystal, and distributed
diffusively through the entire volume, such comparative study of
the Word is obviously indispensable. The doctrines of such a
book can be set in their proper adjustments only through such a
process: its ethical teachings gather their full force only when they
are woven into a system and a law: its psalms and prophecies, its
promises and warnings, sustain and confirm each other: even its
array of facts, historic and biographic, are comparatively without
meaning until they are set in order as parts of the one grand

HOLY SPIRIT IN SCRIPTURE. 119
history of redemption. So the corrective to errors which might
spring from the exclusive study of one portion, lies in the study
of related or antithetic portions; false doctrines derivable from
one view are precluded by another; places that speak more clearly
explain parts which are more obscure. In the aggregate, the
statement of the Confession is clearly justified: All those things
which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for
salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of
Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but also the unlearned,
in a due use of the ordinary means may attain unto a sufficient
understanding of them.
The language of the Confession on this point is obviously
derived from the British creeds which preceded and largely
inspired it. Thus the Thirty- Nine Articles (XX) affirm that the
church hath power to decree rights or ceremonies, and authority
in controversies of faith; yet it is not lawful for the church to
ordain anything that is contrary to God's Word written, neither
may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to
another. The Irish Articles (5) say: Although there be some
hard things in the Scripture . . . yet all things necessary to be
known unto everlasting salvation are clearly delivered therein;
and nothing of that kind is spoken under dark mysteries in one
place, which is not in other places spoken more familiarly and
plainly, to the capacity of both learned and unlearned. Note
also the quaint language of the first Scotch Confession (XVIII):
In the quhilk we affirme that all thingis necessary to be beleeved
for the salvation of mankinde is. sufficiently expressed. The
interpretation quhairof , we confesse, neither appertaines to private
nor publick persone, nether zit to ony kirk for ony preheminence
or prerogative personallie or lbcallie, quhilk ane hes above ane
uther, but appertaines to the Spirite of God by the quhilk also the
Scripture was written.
While the right and duty of private interpretation are thus
affirmed, and church assumptions and prerogatives are clearly
defined, and the supremacy of the Bible
in its own explication is maintained, it 16* Tne Sp,rlt interPret-
. , , . . ., „ r ing the Scripture: Natural
is also strongly taught in the Confes- an* saylnff knowled&e<
sion that the full understanding of the
Word, the saving knowledge thereof, is obtainable only through
the aid of the Spirit of God. The subject was evidently one of
some special interest to the Assembly. It is recorded (Minutes,
111-113) that considerable debate was had about the knowledge
of the divine authority of the Scripture; and that the word,

120 THE HOLY SCRFPTURE.
saving, was added in order to limit the sweep of the declaration
respecting what was described as the necessity of the inward illu
mination of the Spirit for the understanding of such things as are
revealed. Such necessity was acknowledged in the final framing
of the Article, in conjunction with a corresponding recognition of
the proper sphere of Christian prudence in the application, under
the various conditions of human existence, of the general rules
of the Word. This position is strengthened by the strong declar
ation in the concluding section respecting the absolute supremacy,
above all decrees of councils, all opinions of ancient writers, all
doctrines of men, all private spirits, of the Holy Ghost speaking
in the Scripture. In the section on the internal evidence for the
Bible, it is urged as a kindred* conclusion that, while this book
may be seen on general grounds to be divine, and therefore infal
lible and authoritative, yet our full persuasion and assurance of
the infallible truth and divine authority thereof, is from the
inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the
Word in our hearts.
Without considering here the full view of the work of the
Spirit of God in revealing the truth to man, as well as in regener
ating men through the truth, we may well note the general nature
of the relation here indicated. We are practically guarded
against the illusion already mentioned, that this work of the
Spirit is something over and above the written Scriptures — an
additional source of knowledge- concerning divine things. The
illumination here promised is a real illumination, but the object
made luminous by it is the Scripture, and the Scripture^lone.
Beyond this divinely prescribed territory, that peculiar radiance
is not declared to reach. So we are guarded against the error that
the natural mind is capable by itself, without such supernatural
aid, of ascertaining all that is needful unto salvation. There is a
natural, and there is also a saving knowledge, — a knowledge ade
quate in amount, penetrating and potent in effect, from which a
true sense of sin is evolved, and from which true repentance and
faith flow. And while it is said to be the duty of all men to learn
what they can from nature and from revelation concerning their
condition and needs, it is also affirmed to be their duty to submit
themselves to this divine guidance, and to complete all their knowl
edge by coming personally within the range of this divine illumi
nation. In the Larger Catechism (157) we are reminded of our
daty to read the Scriptures with a firm persuasion, not merely that
they are the very Word of God, but also that He only can enable us
to understand them : and in the definition of Effectual Calling

OBLIGATION TO STUDY. 121
(Chap. X) one essential feature in that divine process is said to
be, enlightening the mind spiritually and savingly to understand the
things of God.
Of the ground of the obligation to seek a saving-knowledge of
the Word of God through the aid of the Holy Ghost, there can
be no doubt in any believing breast. If God thus offers by a
process upon the mental faculties, or by a work on the moral nature
of which such action on the mind itself in order to illuminate or
illustrate what is written, is one result, it cannot be a slight thing
in his sight to reject that offer, even though such rejection were
accompanied \~sy a most sincere or resolute purpose to seek such
knowledge by the same methods which are employed in obtaining
knowledge elsewhere. But if this offer is made in order to secure
moral regeneration through such intellectual quickening, — if
divine things are in this way made clearer, so that the soul may
be more easily moved out of its sin unto obedience and holiness
such as the Gospel requires; — or if such help is given for the de
velopment of the work of grace already begun, and in order to
sanctify a soul already in some measure illuminated and purified
by divine influences, then the guilt of such rejection [becomes a
thousand fold greater. Not merely the eternal interests of that
soul, but also the claims and the honor of Him by whom this gra
cious proffer is made, are trampled under foot. Nor does it lessen
the guilt of such a step, that the process proposed is chiefly un
known and impenetrable, and that we see nothing but the issues
or results of this divine work. The illumination, however pro
duced, is a demonstrable reality in human experience: the fact is
just as certain as is the existence in the Bible of the promise and
pledge of such illumination : and. we are therefore simply to re
ceive the saving knowledge thus offered, and reverently to hear
and obey the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture.
One final word: These expositions of the doctrine of the Con
fession and the corroboratory teaching of the Catechisms respect
ing the nature and process of Revelation
as an inspired communication from ir- Closing- Survey: Com-
_. j . , , pleteness and value of the
God, respecting the canon and contents Symm& Qn m& subject#
of Scripture, respecting its authenticity
and authority and entire adequacy as an infallible guide of human
thought and human action concerning divine things, and respect
ing the obligation and privilege of studying the Bible, with the
help of the Spirit and in the light of every available advantage,
yet with supreme loyalty to the Holy Word and to our own res
ponsibility thereto : — these expositions, however cursory, are

122 THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
sufficient to justify the strong statement of an eminent English
divine (Stanley) that the article on Justification in the Decreta of
Trent and the chapter on Holy Scripture in the Westminster
Confession, are the ablest presentations of dogmatic truth in the
whole series of Christian symbols. Of the justness of this state
ment, ample evidence will be found as to the Westminster chapter,
in a careful comparison between its declarations and those of other
Lutheran or Reformed creeds. In fullness, in clearness, in prac
tical quality, it may justly be said to surpass every preceding
Protestant declaration on the same subject. Compared with the
Tridentine decree on Justification, this chapter furnishes a strik
ing illustration of the difference between Protestantism and Ro
manism. That decree is a marvel of dialectic skill, — clear in
distinction, poised in proposition, elaborate in language, and skill
ful in its summation of the doctrine affirmed. It was the last and
best word of Rome in answer to the Reformation; and it was a word
of unparalleled sagacity and weight. In several respects it excels
even the finest Protestant deliverances on the same vital theme. It
crystallizes in the amber of its error some spiritual truth, and so
blends the one with the other that we find it hard to discriminate
between them. It was a fabrication of the finest logic, combined
with the shrewdest sense of adaptation; and for more than two cen
turies it has held its place as a marble pillar in the temple of Roman
belief. But the Presbyterian chapter on the Holy Scripture far
surpasses it, if not in logical acumen or elaborate verbiage, still
in simplicity of statement, in breadth and power of expression, and
above all in true spiritual adaptation. The first was papal and
continental and of Latin stock; the second, though insular, was
thoroughly Protestant, and full of Saxon sense and Saxon blood.
The one was an elaborate construction in defense of .a fatal error:
the other was an earnest proclamation in support of a divine
truth. The aim of the one was to strengthen the power, enlarge
the glory, establish the supremacy of the church and the hier
archy; the aim of the other was to exalt God and his inspired
Word. The adaptation of this exposition to the age and to the succeeding
ages constitutes one of its most remarkable traits. Chillingworth
has well said in language often quoted, that the Bible is the religion
of Protestants ; and British Protestantism, amid the remaining
pleas of papacy and the assumptions of prelacy, needed to be
told once more, as Tyndale and Wiclif had taught it, that the
Word of God is supreme everywhere and evermore. Nothing
but such steadfast emphasizing of the divinity and adequacy of this

THE WESTMINSTER DOCTRINE — ITS VALUE. 123
Word could have saved the reformation in Britain from being
tainted by dangerous error — from dying out through human form
alisms. How valuable this declaration became, let the zeal and
fidelity and martyrdoms of Scotland during the period following
its promulgation bear witness: let the evangelical and fruitful
faith which grew up from this root in many parts of England
amid trial and sacrifice testify : let the powerful and successful
defense of the Bible by the great apologists of England against
the able and persistent assaults of English Deism and of French
Materialism in the following century, show to the world. The Bible
as the very Book of God, high above all opinions of men, high
above the authority or voice of the church, uttering its message
directly to the individual soul, and ruling all the moral life with a
sway only like that which God holds in heaven itself: — this has
been the secret of all that is best in British belief, and in the life,
personal and political and spiritual, of the men and nations that
speak the English tongue.
It cannot well be denied that the teaching of this remarkable
chapter stands to-day as the unchanged and the permanent utter
ance of evangelical Protestantism. Questions of exegesis, ques
tions of canonicity and authorship, questions as to inspiration
itself as well as questions respecting the points of harmony be
tween the Bible and philosophy or science or reason, are arising
and are likely to arise, — disturbing or possibly overthrowing the
faith of some. It is one of the most painful phenomena of the
times that so many issues of this class are being raised, not merely
by speculating and arrogant skepticism, but within the church,
and by those whose standing in the ranks of Christian scholarship
gives dangerous emphasis to their subversive teachings. But all
such questionings and teachings from whatever source are to be
dealt with, not with dogmatic bitterness or in the temper of parti
sanship, or by the invocation of ecclesiastical pains and penalties,
but rather with the most temperate discrimination and fairness,
with a more thorough scholarship, and with appropriate charity
and sympathy toward errorists, yet with supreme fidelity to the
substance and essence of the Truth, and in the serenest confidence
that the Word of God, as here described, will abundantly justify
itself before the judgment and the conscience of mankind.

LECTURE THIRD— GOD IN HIS BEING.
The Divine Existence and Nature : Attributes of
God : The Trinity in God.
C. F. Chap. II: XXI :i: L. C. Answers 2, 7-11, 104-
114: S. C. 4-6, 46-56.
Starting from their broad and lofty conception of the Bible as an
inspired Revelation, the Symbols of Westminster follow the order
of some antecedent Reformed Confessions in proceeding directly
to a discussion of God himself, in his nature, attributes, purposes
and administration. In the ancient creeds the analysis com
menced with the doctrine of the Trinity, and with the description
of God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and of all
things visible and invisible. Protestant symbolism began substan
tially at the same point, yet with a more discriminating statement
respecting the divine nature and works in general, — a fact trace
able largely to the influence of Scholasticism with its analysis of
the elder doctrine, and its array of argument and illustration res
pecting the Godhead genetically. It is especially to be noted that
the three British creeds antecedent began in the same way with
God, taking up and expanding the doctrine of the first in the
series : We confesse and acknowledge ane onelie God to whom
onelie we must cleave, whom onelie we must serve, whom onelie
we must worship, and in whom , onelie we must put our trust:
Scotch Conf. Art. 1.
It cannot be doubted that this was a natural result of the strong
and clear Augustinianism stamped at the outset on the Reforma
tion, and especially dominant wherever the influence of Calvin pre
vailed. To those who had been trained in that system, it was nat
ural to declare that the Scriptures principally teach what man is to
believe concerning God: and furthermore, that it is the main aim of
the Scriptures (L. C. 6) to make known what God is, the persons
in the Godhead, his decrees, and the execution of his decrees,—
as if all knowledge respecting man, his sin and its fruits, could be
apprehended only in the light of this preliminary revelation. Had
the Symbols followed rather the order of some more recent
theological systems, and commenced with the biblical teachings
as to what we are to believe concerning man, approaching from

DIVINE EXISTENCE AFFIRMED. 125
that side the ultimate problem of salvation, the subsequent theol
ogy of Protestant Christendom might have been considerably
varied. If it be objected that in such contemplation of God as
first and primary, we are plunged into great mysteries — confronted
by apparently insoluble problems respecting the divine nature and
purposes and modes of activity, still we are the more likely on the
other side to gain by this process the broadest views of both sov
ereignty and grace, and more readily to apprehend man just as he
was and is, and through grace may become. God is legitimately
first in all theology, since it is only through the true knowledge of
God that man can be made wise unto salvation.
Definitions or descriptions of God, more or less full and elabor
ate, are found in most of the Protestant symbols. The Augsburg
Confession (Art. I) affirms that there u Goddefmed. Divine ex_
is one divine essence which is called istence affirmed: Qualities of
and is God; eternal, without body, this affirmation.
indivisible, of infinite power, wisdom,
goodness, — the Creator and Preserver of all things visible and
invisible: note also the Second Helvetic Conf. Chap. III., and
the Belgic Conf. , Art. I. The language of the French Confession,
Art. I, is especially definite and emphatic: We believe and confess
that there is but one God, who is one sole and simple essence,
spiritual, eternal, invisible, immutable, infinite, incomprehensible,
ineffable, omnipotent: qui est toute sage, toute bonne, toute juste,
et toute misericordieuse. It is interesting to compare with these
declarations of continental Protestantism the extensive and fin
ished decree of the Vatican Council of 1870: The Holy Catholic
Apostolic Roman Church bebeves and confesses that there is one
true and living God, Creator and Lord of heaven and earth, al
mighty, eternal, immense, incomprehensible, infinite in intelli
gence, in will and in all perfection; — who as being one, sole,
absolutely simple and immutable spiritual substance, is to be
declared as really and essentially distinct from the world; — of
supreme beatitude in and from himself, and ineffably exalted above
all things which exist, or are conceivable, except himself. The
first in the Thirty- Nine Articles affirms more briefly, that there
is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts or
passions; of infinite power, wisdom and goodness ; the Maker
and Preserver of all things, both visible and invisible. This lan
guage is transcribed without change in the Irish Articles, and is
evidently the germ of the more expanded declaration of the
Westminster Confession. But the expansion and elaboration of
that germ are so marked as to set that Confession quite above any

126 GOD IN HIS BEING.
preceding creed of Christendom, in respect to the fullness and the
grandeur of its delineation of the Divine Being. The definitions
given in the two Catechisms are equally full and explicit : that in
the Shorter Catechism, (4) has never been surpassed; — God is a
Spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom,
power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.
In taking up the doctrine of the divine existence and nature as
thus presented in the Symbols, we may first note their broad
and strong affirmation of the fact that God exists. It is to be
borne in mind that the questions respecting the divine existence
which have so much agitated men in later times, were hardly
raised during the era of the Reformation. Protestant and
Romanist alike rested not merely on the general fact of the divine
existence as held in the ancient church, but on the several argu
ments for such existence developed or expanded by the Scho
lastics, — regarding the scriptural statements as abundantly
confirmed by such testimonies. Even the more intricate question
of the trinity in God and the associated question respecting the
character of the triune Diety, and the relations of that character
to our salvation, were practically settled beyond question in the
general judgment. It was rather the plan of God in salvation,
the problem of justification, the nature and scope of grace, the
freedom of the will, the ministries of the Spirit, and other
kindred problems, which absorbed special interest, and became
the center of practical conflict, not between Romanist and Prot
estant only, but largely also among those who agreed in wearing
the Protestant name.
The Symbols follow naturally this general tendency, and rest
the fact of the divine existence rather on affirmation than on
reasoning or evidence. The voice of the Divine Word is regarded
as sufficient; and that Word simply declares that there is one, and
but one, only living and true God. Without referring at this
point to any evidences which are introduced incidentally, we may
contemplate here the mingled simplicity and assurance of the
affirmation itself. It may be presumed that the divines of the
Assembly were familiar with both the ancient and the scholastic
demonstrations; and the fact that these are nowhere introduced,
indicates their conviction that the doctrine might be safely left to
make its own way into popular conviction. The question no
more needed formal argumentation, in their judgment, than the
kindred question whether man exists. It may be that they did
not regard the knowledge of God as manifested immediately in
consciousness, as the knowledge of self is; but they certainly

EVIDENCES OF HIS EXISTENCE. 127
viewed it as a knowledge which the moral nature of man readily
receives, to which the human conscience spontaneously pays
reverence, and which even the spirit of unbelief cannot well resist.
Hence their constant and confident suggestion of the truth as if
it were axiomatic: hence their steadfast assumption of the doc
trine, as one which needed no demonstration.
It may be questioned whether their example is not worthy of
consideration if not of imitation, even in an age when unbelief
negative and positive is assailing this, together with almost
every other cardinal truth of the Christian religion. Though it
be queried whether true knowledge of God as the Infinite One
is attainable, or whether scientific or philosophic demonstration
of his existence can be framed, or whether the belief in such
existence is justifiable even as matter of faith, yet the truth is
not likely to be eliminated from the mind or the conscience of
mankind, by whatever form of challenge. There are deep neces
sities in human nature, especially when that nature is made to
realize its condition as sinful, for which this truth alone can fur
nish adequate satisfaction, and which no possible form of specu
lative doubt or unbelief can really supply. It is a suggestive fact,
that the assaults of sin upon the doctrine have been and are more
bitter, more often in a sense successful, than those of philosophic
infidelity, even in its most subtle or winning forms. Yet out of
the soul of the sinner there comes a solemn and forceful protest
against his own unbelief; and the truth that there is a God, comes
back upon him with a resistless power. His reason, his con
science, his heart alike cry out for the living God. With Augus
tine his moral nature finds no rest, till it finds that rest in the one
only living and true Deity. And in fact this deep and universal
experience is itself an evidence largely superseding other evi
dences, rendering argumentation comparatively needless, and
forever justifying the truth, as the divine Word and the Chris
tian creeds set it forth.
Passing to consider briefly such evidences as are incidentally
suggested in the Symbols in support of this doctrine, we may
note especially the allusions to the
argument, cosmological and teleologi- n2- Arg-umeftts incident-
f , . , , . , . ally sug-gested : Proofs from
cal, which physical nature in so many nature> from man.
forms supplies. The opening sentence
in the Confession affirms that the light of nature and the works of
creation and providence manifest the goodness, wisdom and power
of God, and therefore his existence as a personal Being possess
ing such attributes, apart from nature and supreme over it. The

128 GOD IN HIS BEING.
chapter on Religious Worship (XXI) declares that the light of
nature showeth that there is a God who hath lordship and sover
eignty over all; who is good and doeth good unto all; and who
is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in,
and served with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all
the might. Again in the Larger Catechism (2) it is said that
the very light of nature in man, and the works of God, declare
plainly that there is such a Being. So in the chapter on Creation
(IV) it is taught that the final end of all created things — the one
great issue in which created existence finds its explanation, is the
manifestation of the glory of his eternal power, wisdom and
goodness, — the whole being designed to bear testimony not only
to the fact that God exists, but also to his character as thus made
manifest to man. It is a noticeable fact that, beyond merely gen
eral allusions to these teachings of nature, the continental creeds
contain no definite suggestion of evidence or proof as to the
divine existence. This defect may be traced partly to the
absence of speculative opposition to the universal faith, and in
part to the general tendency to appeal to internal rather than
external testimonies respecting the cardinal elements in Christian
belief. Yet it should be said that, if such evidence does not
appear in these formularies, the truth was fully recognized by the
leading minds of the Reformation. Melancthon, for example,
affirmed that the human mind — intuens opificium mundi — per
ceives that there is a God, eternal, potent, sapient, just and good,
punishing the unjust, hearing and assisting the just. Luther held
in like manner that a knowledge of God is thus implanted in the
heart and conviction of men. Calvin taught (Inst. B. I, 3-6)
that the human mind is naturally endued with the knowledge of
God, yet strongly affirmed the need of Revelation in order to
make such knowledge effectual in spiritual experience.
Whatever may be said respecting the inadequacy of the cosmo-
logical and teleological evidences suggested by the language of
the Symbols, there can be no question that the argument is in
fact one which men will not be willing to set aside. As long as
effects and causes are seen, and are discovered to stand in some
natural and potential relation, so long will the human mind con
tinue to pass upward from the world or the universe viewed as
an effect, to the conception of a cause mighty enough to produce
them, — not in the least baffled in its conclusion by the speculative
conception of an eternal series of such causes, beginning nowhere
and explaining nothing. And so long as men see design in
nature, and find proofs at ten thousand points of the existence of

FURTHER EVIDENCES. 129
a mind behind and above nature, stamping these evidences of
design everywhere upon what it has created, so long will men
pass upward to the conclusion that the cause of which all these
are effects, is personal — possesses intellectual and moral qualities
such as are manifested in the things that are made. The affirma
tion of Cicero, in the Tusculan Questions, that God can be appre
hended by us only as a mind pure (or simple) and free, separate
from all mortal (or fleshly) concretion, knowing and controlling
all things, but itself animated by sempiternal energy, is one which
will always commend itself alike to the intelligence and to
the conscience of mankind. So while men look forward to the
outcome and result of nature and of man, and ask for the great
end that can both explain and justify all that is seen in the ongo
ings of nature and in the history of humanity, they will find the
explanation only in the thought of One in whom and to whom
as well as by whom are all things. Though it may be said with
some degree of warrant, that such reasonings fail because they
rest finally on intuitional hypotheses, or because they cannot be
thrown into logical form, or because they prove more than is
proposed, or because they do not relieve the doctrine from
mystery, yet they have real and convincing force; and men will
steadfastly return to them with a deep conviction that they make
clearly manifest to the reason, if they do not absolutely demonstrate
to the understanding, the truth affirmed. Those who give them
any sober thought will spontaneously say with an ancient apolo
gist: Just as when we see a well appointed vessel on the sea, we
conclude that she has a pilot on board, so from the regular course
of the planets, the rich variety of the creation, we infer the
Creator. Or with Gregory of Nazianzus: We infer the existence
of the Creator from his works, just as the sight of a lyre reminds
us of him who made it and of him who plays it. Herbert Spencer
(First Principles) admits that we are obliged to regard every
phenomenon as a manifestation of some Power by which we are
acted upon. Though that eminent author pronounces this Power
incomprehensible, and its omnipresence even unthinkable, yet
the nature of the phenomena to which he refers clearly shows
beyond question that this power is not only infinite or at least
immeasurable in potency, but is no less infinite in wisdom,
righteousness and goodness. And such a power, both resident
in nature and supreme over it, can be none other than our God ,
although the astute philosopher refused to draw this inference
from his own premise.
It is an interesting fact that the Symbols, while thus suggesting

130 GOD IN HIS BEING.
the more external evidence, seem to rest more largely upon the
inward conviction — on the light of nature in the soul, as more con
vincing even than the wondrous testimonies of the material uni
verse. Man in this view becomes himself the greatest argument, —
not merely in the accumulated proof furnished by the biographies
of individuals or the history of the race, but rather in what man
knows himself to be as a rational and moral being, whose supreme
end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. It is a striking fact
that both Catechisms commence with a proposition so abstract,
so broad, so powerful as this, — a proposition not derived immedi
ately from Revelation, but rather drawn avowedly from the light
of nature, the innate conviction of the soul. The aim of the
Assembly seems to have been to start with a statement at once so
simple and so comprehensive that, while all would spontaneously
accept it, it might be made the corner-stone of their entire super
structure. It implies that God exists as well as man; that this
God created man, and created him for an adequate purpose.; that
the glory of God is the end for which man is made, and that man
is such a being that he can find true enjoyment, the highest con
summation and felicity of his being as a creature, only in recog
nizing his relations to God, and in glorifying him, not for time but
forever and ever.
The argument for the existence of God thus derivable from what
man is seen to be, as a creature capable of serving and glorifying
and enjoying such a Being, is one of the highest value in our
time. The general assumption that God exists, derived from other
sources, may be strongly verified by such study of what man is
as to the laws of his being, the fixed elements in his constitution, his
best instincts and aspirations and tendencies. For, taken in his
totality, man is to be accounted for, not simply in the matter of his
©rigin, nor simply in his present manifold life and experience, but
still more in his possible growth, experience, and destiny. To
fancy that such a being sprang from blind protaplasmic germs, or
was developed from a progressive series of creatures having few if
any of these mental and moral characteristics, seems strangely
unphilosophic. It would be much more in harmony with the facts
to think of him as the stray child of some higher parentage, en
dowed with celestial tastes and affinities, but immured in some way
within this earthly prison of flesh. But even this better suppo
sition would fail to explain all the obvious facts in the case: a still
higher parentage is requisite— a still sublimer origin must be
sought. Where is the explanation of man ? From what source did
he come; to what purpose was he formed; whither is he moving,

THE UNITY OF GOD. 131
and where must he finally pause, with every power rightly util
ized, and his felicity forever complete ? There is but one answer
to such questions — but one conclusion to such reasonings. That
answer, that conclusion, is God, — the only living and true God.
Postponing for the present the inquiry as to the method of God in
creation, and specifically in the creation of man, we may note here
the singular felicity with w-hich the Symbols seem to anticipate
much of modern speculation as to the moral nature and to the
spiritual endowments of man, viewed in his relation to the Divine
Being whose existence is thus affirmed. Carlyle was none too
ardent in characterizing the somewhat current hypothesis that
the thoughts of men are but brain secretions, that what we call
reason is oriiy a higher form of animal instinct or intelligence,
and that the conscience, the moral sentiments, the spiritual aspi
rations of mankind are but evolutions of something which appears
in less developed degree in lower orders of existence, as a gospel
of dirt. If man could thus be materialized, and all that makes
him man could be thus generaUzed away and exhaled into mere
matter or energy in the interest of an anti-deistic theory of nature
and its origin, then indeed we might cease to discuss the question
whether there is a God above nature and supreme over nature. As
if in anticipation of such sensuous conceptions, the Symbols grandly
say what both the reason and the heart of humanity affirm: God
hath (II: ii)all life, glory, goodness, blessedness in and of Himself
and is . . . the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom
and to whom are all things.
The conception of God as one, one only, presents itself at this
point for special consideration. The doctrine of the divine unity
is strongly maintained in the chapter
. ., * , . ... £« 3. The unity of God taug-ht:
specially under examination. The Polytneism in all forms illi-
divine Being is described in the clause cit-
just quoted as having all life and glory
in and of himself, and also as alone in and unto himself. Nor is
this underlying truth obscured or nullified by the declaration im
mediately following, that in the unity of the Godhead there be three
Persons. For whatever the conception of the Trinity may include,
it is never to be taken as antagonistic to this fundamental fact of
unity. God as a Being is eternally the one only living and true
God. In the exposition of the first Commandment (L. C. 105-1 10)
it is presented as our primary duty to know and acknowledge God
to be the only true God and our God, and to worship and glorify
him accordingly. What is forbidden in this commandment, is

132 GOD IN HIS BEING.
said to be the denying or not worshiping and glorifying the one true
God as our God, and the giving that worship and glory to any
other which is due to him alone. In various other forms this doc
trine of the divine unity is held forth in the Symbols as one of the
cardinal principles of the Christian faith.
The doctrine thus stated stands opposed to all forms of
polytheism, whether in belief of in worship. Among the sins
especially condemned in the exposition of both the first and the
second commandment is idolatry, with all its concomitant errors, —
its degenerate notions respecting divine things, its multiplied gods,
its total failure to conceive of the one God as he truly is. Polythe
ism and idolatry are nearly identical terms ; idolatry^ may not of
necessity be, but in fact almost always is, polytheistic. The great
natural religions, which some minds in our time are endeavoring
to compare favorably with Christianity, are invariably cor^
rupted by the disposition of the natural heart to multiply deities
for each of its fancied or real needs. Oriental dualism, based on
the apparently conflicting phenomena of good and evil in nature
and in human life, is the simplest form of this tendency. Augus
tine (City of God, B. IV) shows vividly to what fearful extent
polytheism was carried both in the multiplication and in the degen
erate conception of the gods recognized and worshiped in the
Pantheon of Rome. Mohammedanism, which had its root histor
ically in Hebraism, is almost the sole exception to this tendency.
But polytheism even in its simplest forms, is necessarily destruc
tive of the power and substance of true religion. The best sen
timents of the soul cannot be poured out in worship at more than
a single shrine: the regulative principles in the religious nature
lose their potency and become inoperative, if they, be not sustained
by faith in one God only, both single and supreme. It is obvious
that the final election of humanity must be a choice between
monotheism and atheism: polytheism and pantheism are at best
but intermediate and temporary substitutes. One God or none,
must be the ultimate alternative. And this one God must be, not
a deity existing simply as the unifying principle in human thought,
or an ideal sublimation of all excellences developed in human life,
or as an impalpable spiritus pervading nature, but a real Being,
existing above nature and beyond the imaginings or analyses of
men, in the unity of his own supreme and glorious personality.
He who rejects the conception of such a Being, will find rest
nowhere except in the utter ignoring or the utter denying of any
and all supernatural existence.
The doctrine of the absolute unity of God as a Being is an

DOCTRINE OF UNITY FUNDAMENTAL. 133
essential element in the faith of Christendom universally. The
strong statement of the latest Vatican Council has already been
quoted: God is the one, sole, absolutely simple and immutable
spiritual substance. Both the Confession of Mogilas and the
Longer Catechism of the Greek Church affirm the doctrine with
equal emphasis. The Protestant formularies invariably declare
and teach that, in the language of the Second Helvetic Confession,
God is one and one only in essence and nature, subsisting in himself
and in himself sufficient unto all things. And in emphasizing the
subsequent tenet of the trinity in God, they are in every instance
careful to affirm that this trinity in no way antagonizes or sub
verts the underlying and more primal fact of unity. They follow
at both points, as we shall have further occasion to note, the
method of the Scriptures, — guarding carefully on the one hand
against Socinian error, and on the other against what may be
described as tritheistic orthodoxy. It is not needful here to pre
sent the varied and numerous forms in which the unity in God is set
forth in the inspired Word, — in the Mosaic economy, in the
Hebrew psalmody, in the prophetical writings, and equally
in the New Testament. Nor is it important to point out in
detail -the philosophic basis on which the doctrine reposes.
That the mind is so constituted that it cannot conceive of
more than one such being as God is defined in all Christian
symbolism to be, — that the physical universe manifests the exis
tence of one, and but one organizing and controlling Mind, — that
the moral nature and convictions of man can be satisfied with no
other conception, — that personal religion flourishes in the human
soul only as polytheism in whatever variety is thrown aside, and
the one God of Revelation is made the single and absorbing object
of love and adoration: — these more speculative evidences abund
antly justify on rational grounds our faith in the biblical teachings
respecting this fundamental article of Christian belief . We see
in nature or in Scripture but one God: we believe in one God only,
though he be triune in person; and one God only do we trust,
obey, adore.
That this one and only God is a Spirit, and that as such he
exists in and unto himself, deriving his life and glory and blessed
ness from himself alone, is a doctrine „ J „ , , t
, . , . , , ,. 4. God a self-existent
closely associated with the preceding. Splrlt. Personal>f0ntal,cre-
However difficult it may be to conceive ative.
of that primal cause which differs from
all other causes in having no relation to any causal force behind
or above itself, yet the conception of such a cause presents itself

134 GOD IN HIS BEING.
to the reason as the only possible alternative to the absurd hypoth
esis of an endless series of such causes, each potent enough to
create its successor, and all personal and intelligent — running back
forever. In like manner, difficult though it may be to frame a
distinct, intelligible thought of God — incomprehensible as it may
seem to the philosophic mind to fashion any rounded conception
of the infinite, yet the vision of such an infinite One, from whom
all other beings are derived, and in whom they find their consum
mation, is something which philosophy cannot refuse to recognize
as a legitimate tenet of faith, and which the heart of man wel
comes as the just foundation of its holiest experiences — its purest
life. While Hamilton follows Kant and Coleridge in affirming
that the conception of such an absolute Spirit cannot be regarded
as having an adequate philosophic basis, he still recognizes the
conception as having firm foundation in our moral nature, and as
indispensable to the proper development of the religious senti
ment existing in man as man. It is true that self-existence differs
from all created existence in certain vital respects, yet the fact of
created existence seen everywhere else does not disprove the
affirmed fact of self-existence somewhere. Rather is it true that
created existence cannot be accounted for in any of its forms,
except on the hypothesis that there exists somewhere One who
lives in and unto himself.
The doctrine of self-existence carries with it the doctrine of the
divine spiritualty. As God is one, and as the sole cause and
ground of his existence is in himself, so that existence must be
independent of matter, and of all materializing appendages.
Spirituality is not to be conceived of as merely a quality or attri
bute in God; it is rather his nature itself — the fundamental fact
or element in his constitution. In the words of the Larger
Catechism, (4) God is a Spirit essentially, — infinite in being,
glory, blessedness and perfection; and the Confession adds that
he is alone in and unto himself all-sufficient because he is thus
pure Spirit. Among the things said to be forbidden in the sec
ond Commandment is the making any representation of God, of
all or any of the three Persons, either inwardly in our minds, or
outwardly in any image or likeness of any creature whatsoever.
Anthropomorphic and anthropopathic representations of God,
and all kindred delineations of his nature or activities, which
seem to bring him down to the level of human life or experience,
are here clearly interdicted, so far as they go beyond the language
and method of the Scripture itself. The biblical anthropomorph
isms never mislead us or corrupt our spiritual conceptions. In

GOD AS A SPIRIT. J35
the same direction we are taught (L- C. 109) that the acceptable
way of worshiping God is instituted by himself, and is so limited
by his revealed will, that he may not be worshiped according to
the imaginations or devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan,
under any visible representation, or in any other way not prescribed
in the Holy Scriptures. These prohibitions and injunctions rest
specifically on the proposition, that God is a Spirit in and of
himself, and is therefore to be worshiped in spirit and in truth.
The teaching of the Catechism on this point expresses tersely
the intense conviction of Protestantism universally respecting
the veneration of images and pictures, as practiced by the
Roman and partially by the Greek communion. The Council of
Trent emphasizing antecedent usage, declared that images of
Christ, of the Virgin Mary, and of the saints ought to be had
and retained in temples, and that due honor and veneration
should be given them, — not indeed because of any virtue resident
in them, or of any efficiency possessed by them as images; but
because of the honor due to those persons whom they represent.
The Greek Catechism in like manner affirms (518-522) that it is
no violation of the second Commandment to honor icons (pictures)
as sacred representations, using them as helps in the pious remem
brance of the works of God and of his saints. But the Protestant
creeds, from that of Augsburg and the Articles of Smalcald down
to the Scotch Confession and the Thirty-Nine Articles, are united
and most positive in their hostility to such image-worship in
whatever variety. We reject alike, says the Second Helv. Conf.
both the idols of the heathen and the simulacra of Christians:
we affirm that God cannot be expressed by any art or image, and
that all such representations of him are falsity. Calvin denounces
such representations as prodigies of impiety, and argues strenu
ously against them as constituting gross and corrupting departure
from the simplicity of true spiritual worship such as God requires.
British Puritanism was, if possible, even more emphatic in its
condemnation, — becoming at times even fanatical in its iconoclas
tic demonstrations. Rutherford (Soume of Christian Religion),
expresses the general conviction of Scotland in his quaint saying :
Wee ar forbiddin ether to mak or to worship ane image repre
senting God, or to give ether inward or outward worship, ether
with heart or knee or bodie to any creature or image.
This biblical conception of spirituality is to be carefully dis
tinguished from various false or defective notions concerning
God. It differs radically from pantheism in either its ideal or
its more material forms. God as a Spirit is no mere principle,

13S GOD IN HIS BEING.
unifying and centralizing in itself all human thought. He is no
pervasive, impersonal element in material things, — an unconscious
anima mundi, holding all other existence, conscious or uncon
scious, in some species of unity. Nor is he a merely subjective
conception of the human intellect, uniting thought and matter in
one, but having no demonstrable existence objectively and apart
from them. As a Spirit God is truly and forever personal; as
pure Spirit he exists in complete independence alike of all material
existence however etherialized, and of the loftiest dreams or
ideals of the mind of man. Back of all his relations to other
beings or activities or to all knowledge, — behind even his primal
relations to space and time, he is simple Spirit, Spirit only and
altogether, and as such in the highest sense of the term a per
sonal Being. Whatever the term, personality, means as applied
to man, or to those higher varieties of being which are not
associated with flesh and blood as man is, all such meaning is
concentrated and illustrated inimitably in God.
He is therefore the fontal Spirit — the Lord and Giver of all life,
whether physical or spiritual, in the strong phrase of the Belgic
Confession, omnia vivificantem et conservantem. In the chapter on
Creation (IV) it is said that it pleased him to make, or create of
nothing, the world and all things therein; and in the same chapter
his creation of man in his own image is represented as the
summit of his creative efficiency. In the remarkable description
of him in the chapter now specially under consideration he is
represented as the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through
whom, to whom are all things. In the definition of his pro
vidence (S. C. 11) as his most holy, wise and powerful preserv
ing and governing all his creatures and all their actions, it is
implied that the lives thus preserved and governed, originated
with him, and are under his providential guidance in virtue of
that primal origination. This interior vitality in God can indeed
be conceived of only through some form of imagery or compari
son; it cannot be defined intrinsically. It is opposed entirely to
the observed quiescence of matter; it is contrasted equally with
the occasional rest or equilibrium of physical energies; it stands,
over against all possible forms of disintegration or decay. It is
life in the most ethereal form, in the highest degree, in the
supremest perfection. It is as incomprehensible as it is underived :
it is immutable, illimitable, everlasting. All possible activity,
potency, blessedness are in it: it is an ocean of being, past all
measurements and past all comprehension. And from this source
all other beings and activities flow: it ? = •' ^ true and onlv fourtain

GOD AS ABSOLUTE SPIRIT. 137
of all existence. Angels, other orders of moral existence, man,
and even inferior creatures, are but the issue of this countless and
prolific vitality: in Him we live and move and have our being.
The absoluteness of God, based on what he is in his own
spiritual nature, and on his fontal and creative relations to all
other existence, is strongly affirmed
in the Symbols, both as an independ- s- God the Absolute Spirit:
... , , . ., His Dominion original and
ent proposition, and as a basis for the con,Diete
consequent conception of the divine
decrees and administration. He is absolute in the sense of being
all-sufficient in and unto himself, — not standing in need of any
creatures which he hath made, or deriving any glory from them.
He is absolute also in the sense of being himself the final end of all
his activities, — all things being not merely of him and through
him, but also to him and for him. He is absolute likewise in the
sense of complete and unquestionable control; having in himself
most sovereign dominion over all creatures, to do by them, for
them or upon them, whatsoever himself pleaseth. In each and
all of these aspects, it is implied that God is the absolute as well as
creative Spirit, — sovereign dominion in the most complete sense
being of necessity included in the pure and perfect spirituality
from which it flows.
It is sometimes unjustly charged upon the Confession, that it
bases the entire scheme of divine truth on an abstract conception
— the conception of decrees or predestination. That some exposi
tions of the Confession have been open to this charge, — have
started in this way from a philosophic axiom, rather than from
divine verities, and have thus planted the Christian doctrine on
an abstraction, is doubtless true. But every careful student of
the Symbols will discover that the determination of God as to
what he will do — his scheme and plan of things, and his purpose
to carry that plan or scheme into complete execution, as well as
all his consequent actions, are there rested on what God himself
is, especially as the absolute Spirit. His decree or decrees are
not presented as abstract hypotheses, intuitively perceived as true
in and of themselves, but rather as the manifestations of his own
spiritual being — the development even from eternity of his own
fathomless nature and life. God is a being such in himself and
in his relations to all his creatures, that he cannot be true either
to what he is inherently or to their needs as his creation, without
having a scheme, a design, a purpose, which includes them and
which comprehends the whole of what they are or have been, or
ever can become. And for the same reason his supreme and

138 GOD IN HIS BEING.
effectual activities, whether in the lower sphere of physical nature
where absolute necessity rules, or in the moral sphere where he
carries out his will in conjunction with human or angelic freedom,
can be nothing else than the orderly evolution of his eternal pur
pose, — the unfolding in fact and history of his sovereign design.
This is not an abstract notion; it is hardly a logical deduction;
it is but another aspect of the truth that God is a Spirit, pure,
complete, absolute.
Without forestalling here the analysis of the ruling idea of
the divine decrees, as found in the Symbols, we may note the
practical fact just described as one which sheds light on the entire
problem of predestination. That the Bible associates the divine
decrees with the divine nature, and asserts the sovereignty of
God, not as an arbitrary, inexplicable, forbidding assumption,
but rather as the natural and necessary and glorious outgrowth
of what he is as the absolute Spirit, cannot be questioned. It
nowhere separates the two, but rather describes the decree as the
issue and consequence of the nature — a consequence or issue that
must follow from the nature, and that cannot be withheld with
out impairing our conception of the nature, and making God less
than he really is. So in the Confession, the chapter on the
Eternal Decree (III) strong as it is, forbidding in some aspects,
objectionable at least in some of its phraseology, is made much
more clear and persuasive, and unquestionable also, when read in
the light of the chapter preceding, with its impressive and just
and inspiring delineations of the Divine Being, as he is in himself
— the fontal, creative, absolute Spirit. Just as much of the
criticism made upon the doctrine of predestination, as Calvin
presents it, fades away in the judgment of those who carefully
study his antecedent descriptions of the One Divine Essence and
of the True God as distinguished from all false deities, (Inst. B.
1:11-14), so much of the objection' urged -against the Calvinistic
scheme as set forth in the Westminster Confession, vanishes when
it is seen how clearly, how naturally and how inevitably that
scheme in its main features flows directly from the cardinal fact
of the divine spirituality. God as a Being, existing in and of
himself, the source and fount of all other existence— the primal
and eternal and absolute Spirit— must in some true sense, plan,
purpose, decree and execute whatsoever comes to pass. And all
attempts to limit the sweep or the application or execution of the
regulative purpose or decree, by any hypothesis or suggestion
that detracts in the slightest degree from this view of him as

AS AN INFINITE SPIRIT. 139
such a Spirit, must fall to the ground : neither Scripture nor
philosophy can sustain them.
As a Spirit thus underived, personal, fontal, absolute, God is
also infinite, eternal and unchangeable in his being and nature.
These are qualities inherent in the
divine constitution,— essential charac- *• God as Infinite, eternal,
teristics of the divine existence. They JJ^reSsI ^^
differentiate God still further, not only
from all varieties of physical being, but from all created spirits
which are finite in both sphere and capacity, temporal in origin,
and subject in many ways to change. The term, infinite, is
applicable to him both intensively and extensively. On the one
side it is an affirmation that his being is not limited or restrained by
any of those boundaries which confine and narrow human or
angelic existence. Such infinitude is not a merely negative con
ception; it is also a positive intuition, although it transcends the
limits of human reason, and stands before us as a truth too vast
and grand for finite comprehension. It exhibits God to us in his
transcendence, as existing far above the conditioning limitations
which surround all finite being — forever alone and unapproach
able in his sublime infinitude. We cannot say, Luther eloquently
declares in his discussion of the Abendmahl, that God is an out
stretched, long, broad, fixed, high, deep Being: he is a super
natural, incomprehensible, ineffable Being, existing wholly in
every grain of sand, yet at the same time in, above and beyond
all creatures.
The term is also extensive in significance; and in this sense is
synonymous with such terms as immensity and omnipresence.
God is immense in the sense that his greatness is beyond all
debneation and measurement, — not in the pantheistic sense some
times suggested, that he includes the entire creation, physical
and spiritual, within himself. He is in all things though not
included in them; he is without all things but is not excluded
from them. He is also omnipresent in the three-fold sense
ascribed to him by Scholasticism: present as knowing perfectly all
things in all parts of his vast creation, present as exerting his
omnipotent energy immanently through both the physical and
the moral universe, present also in some transcendent sense
essentially in and through as well as over all created things. It
is not implied in this statement that God is diffused through
space, as light or air may be; — as pure Spirit he cannot be thus
distributed. Rather is it true that he is at one and the same
time wholly, or in his totality as a Spirit, in each and every place

140 GOD IN HIS BEING.
throughout this measureless expanse of finite being. As another
has said, diffusion and contraction, extension and circumscription,
are not to be affirmed of God: he is equally near to and equally
far from every point of space and every atom of the universe.
He is universally and immediately present, not as a body but as a
Spirit, — not by motion or penetration or filling, as would be
predicated of a diffused fluid, or in any way as if his infinity were
composed of a countless number of finite parts, but in a way
peculiar to his own spiritual and perfect nature. It is a remark
of Hamilton that while physical action is limited by both space
and time, mental action is not conditioned by space, though it be
limited by time. In an infinitely higher sense is God uncondi
tioned by space, though himself immanent in the physical as in
the spiritual realm, sustaining and directing all its energies, and
making all things subservient to his supreme purpose. To use a
familiar scholastic statement, his centre is everywhere while his
circumference is nowhere — -he is in and through all, yet above all.
And as God is above space while in a sense ever present within
it, so is he above all time — eternal as well as infinite in his being.
As pure and fontal and absolute Spirit, he is entirely beyond those
limitations in duration by which all finite creatures are bounded.
It is an old and familiar definition which describes his eternity as
the perfect possession at once and altogether of interminable or
measureless life. All conceptions of duration are lost in his bound
less infinitude. We are not indeed to regard all ideas of success
ion as excluded from the divine mind. God sees events in nature
or in human life as occurring in chronological as well as in logical
relationships, and himself produces events, such as creation and
the fall, the incarnation and redemption, in a distinct order of
time, — if not by successive acts of creative or providential or gra
cious efficiency. Yet to him the distinctions of past and present
and future exist in a relative measure only. He never forgets the
past or ioses the sense of it as eternally present: to him the future
is no more vague or dim than the passing hour. All succession
proceeds from him and is controlled by him from the high throne
of his eternity. Through all mutations of nature or of human
ity, he remains the same self-existent and absolute Spirit as before
time began to be, and will so remain, the one Eternal Being, yes
terday, to-day and forever.
God is also an unchangeable Being, — existing evermore as the
enduring ground across whose surface all finite mutations pass,
but whose serene depths are never agitated by mortal disturbance.
He is unchangeable in respect to all those constitutional elements

AS AN UNCHANGEABLE SPIRIT. 141
or qualities which have already been ascribed to him as the one
eternal Spirit. He is unchangeable also in respect to all those moral
attributes, wisdom and power, holiness and justice, goodness and
truth, which belong of right to his character, his moral person
alty, rather than to his constitution or nature. As it is impossi
ble for him to be otherwise than an absolute Person, infinite and
eternal, so in a reverent sense of the phrase, it is impossible for
him to be otherwise than just and good and true, either in his
executive administration or in his interior life as a moral being.
Any mutation which should affect either his natural or his moral
attributes in themselves, or which should materially modify his
manifestations of these attributes in his relations to man or to
nature, is simply inconceivable. Change for the better is impos
sible, since he is already perfect: change for the worse is no less
impossible to a perfect being such as he. No such change can
occur from within by his own volition, nor can any power
exist outside of him which is adequate to produce or compel
such change. Such immutability is necessarily involved in
the conception of his eternity: from everlasting to everlast
ing he must be the same. But such unchangeableness does
not imply emotionless passivity in God. The biblical des
criptions of variation in the divine feeling toward man, or of
modifications in the divine administration over man, are to be
taken as representing important and practical truth, though such
truth must ever stand in entire harmony with that underlying
immutability — not immobility — which belongs inherently to him
as the eternal and absolute Spirit. There may indeed be changes
of relation to his moral creatures, or of dispensation or action
toward them, which may be figuratively delineated, as is some
times done in Scripture, in such strong terms as almost to imply
mutability in bis disposition as well as being. The expression of
his love may change, and that love may even assume the aspect
of holy wrath; his justice may reveal itself at one time in the
condemnation of sinners, and at another in their pardon and res
toration to himself through grace; his government may be man
ifested, now in beneficent and sustaining providences, and now in
storm and pestilence and retributive visitation. Lactantius (De
Ira Dei) has justly argued that if God did not abhor, he could
not love; inasmuch as he loves good, he must abhor evil, and must
bestow good upon those he loves, evil upon those he abhors. Yet
these manifestations however varied indicate no change in either
his attributes or his purposes : all his acts of whatever type
spring at last from one and the same deep source in his perfect

142 GOD IN HIS BEING.
nature. Increase and improvement, loss and deterioration, vacil
lation, changeableness in design or act, are to him impossible.
At this point we may fitly gather into one complex conception
all that is known respecting God in his constitution or nature, as
distinguished from what may be known of him as a being possess
ing the supreme endowment of character. Intrinsically or consti
tutionally, God is not a spirit associated with matter or identical
with matter, but is pure and simple Spirit, immeasurably above
all that is natural or material. He is distinguished from all other
spirits as being self -existent, — having no cause or source of exis
tence back of himself. He is also a personal Spirit, and the fontal
and creative source of all other existence. He is also an absolute
Spirit as distinct from all related being, and as such is in every sense
infinite, immeasurable and eternal in his nature, and forever be
yond change or mutation of whatever type. These qualities each
and all belong to him as Spirit; they inhere in his constitution; they
combine to make up his perfect nature, and to differentiate him in
essence inconceivably from even the loftiest of his creatures.
From this general view of the divine constitution and nature
we may now turn to the consideration of the moral attributes of
_ „ , _ „_ , „ , God as described in the Symbols — the
1. Moral attributes in God. , . , . , , ,
Knowledge and classification Perfections which belong to him as a
of these attributes. being possessing character. The dis
tinction between God as a Spirit, pos
sessing the constitutional qualities just described, and God as a
moral Being, having and manifesting character in its highest con
ceivable form, and even in a degree immeasurably beyond our loft
iest conceptions, is as vital in religious experience as it is familiar
in Christian theology. In accordance with it the Shorter Cate
chism (4) teaches not merely that God is infinite and eternal and
unchangeable and therefore perfect in his being, but also that he
is equally infinite, eternal and unchangeable and therefore perfect
in his wisdom, his power, his holiness, justice, goodness and truth.
The Larger Catechism (7) makes the same declaration, in broader
form and even with increased emphasis. And in the Confession
(Chap. II. and elsewhere) the same high view is affirmed as a
necessary inference from what had already been said respecting the
divine nature. — Here arises the fundamental question whether
God can truly be known by man, not merely as a Spirit in the
natural sense, but especially as a moral Being, having in himself
such ethical qualities and virtues as the term, character, suggests
when applied to him. There is indeed a profound sense in which

KNOWLEDGE OF GOD ATTAINABLE. 143
he cannot be known, even by the angels and archangels who dwell
in his immediate presence. The finite can never comprehend the
infinite: God is indeed essentially, as he has been described, the Un
knowable One. Yet, though we can know nothing immediately
of the divine essence, we may still recognize the ultimate fact that
there is in God a substantial ground, an underlying entity or na
ture, by and in which his revealed perfections are sustained, made
coherent, unified. God as a Spirit is something more even than
the sum of all his attributes, whether natural or moral: his per
sonality stands eternally behind each manifested quality and sup
ports it. Nor is this an ideal generalization or inference; it must
be a reality to our conviction, otherwise our confidence in the
actuality of the attributes will inevitably be lost or weakened.
Hence the definition of the Catechism brings in the being of God
as infinite, eternal and unchangeable, before it affirms infinity,
eternity and unchangeableness, as belonging to the particular
attributes of that being, afterwards named.
God as a personal Being is known primarily through the reve
lation to us of his substantial attributes, and especially of his moral
perfections. It may even be admitted that we truly know him
only by this process. What is termed the intuitive perception of
God, the direct beholding of him on the surface of consciousness,
as we see ourselves reflected there, can hardly be regarded as pos
sible. Yet the belief in his existence may safely be classed among
those great primary beliefs, those fundamental convictions of rea
son and conscience, which lie at the base of all our practical
acquaintance with things. We believe spontaneously, primarily,
that God exists, and that the constitutional qualities and the moral
perfections which are discernible in him, are in like manner real
and inherent as well as virtual, although we realize also that as
the infinite and unchangeable and absolute Spirit, he rises im
measurably above our highest thoughts, and at best is seen through
a glass, darkly. In the familiar phrase of Augustine, we may
apprehend though we cannot comprehend him in his nature and in
his character. It has been objected that such knowledge as this
is not scientific knowledge because it is not complete; and it is
urged on philosophic grounds, not only that we do not now know,
but even that as finite beings we never can know God in his real
ity. Yet surely we may apprehend, if we cannot comprehend
him: we may learn of him through his revealed and illustrated
attributes, though we may not penetrate the mystery of his essence
or constitution. If it be said that we cannot even know his attri
butes fully or comprehensively, yet surely we may know that they

144 GOD IN HIS BEING.
belong to him, and that they are real in themselves, though they are
seen to be immeasurably greater than our apprehension of them.
We may certainly perceive that they are not merely forms of
knowledge, or impressions existing in our minds, rather than in
herent and enduring qualities in the divine Being. If we cannot
know them fully, we can know them truly. The fact that God
loves, or that he is just, or is mighty, may be matter of certain
assurance to our minds, though we have no way of measuring
his might, or testing absolutely his sense of justice, or fathoming
the vast, deep sea of his love.
It should be admitted that the modern doctrine of nescience or
agnosticism, whether philosophic or scientific, cannot be met by
direct quotations from the creeds of the Reformation. Yet a suf
ficient answer to these subtle types of false opinion may be found
in what is inferentially contained in these formularies. He who
duly appreciates their practical and spiritual teachings, will not be
likely to be caught in the meshes of such speculative error. The
old scholastic problem on which philosophic nescience is based,
respecting the incapacity of the finite mind to comprehend the infi
nite, is practically answered by the simple distinction already
suggested, between comprehensive knowledge of divine things,
and real knowledge that is not comprehensive. The scientific
objection that God cannot be known, unless he can be known
through the principles and methods of physical research — an
objection to which the creeds give no answer, because it could not
have arisen in the era in which they were framed — may be
answered, not by remanding the whole matter to the sphere of sen
timent or faith, but by broadening the definition of science, and
by showing that the physical sciences themselves rest on certain
philosophic axioms, fundamental verities of the same nature intel
lectually as the conception of God. Further answer to both of
these varieties of skepticism may be found in a careful analysis
of their underlying temper and tendencies, especially within the
sphere of ethical and spiritual experience. And we may justly
conclude that, in whatever form, mere agnosticism can never
command the cordial or the permanent assent of mankind : the
human mind spontaneously shrinks from it, as men draw back
involuntarily from the edge of a precipice.
It should be noted here that the Symbols attempt no philosophic
classification of the divine attributes and perfections: they give
us rather, as in the Shorter Catechism, a simple series in which
there is an obvious gradation in statement, and in which the glo
ries of the divine character rather than the* qualities of the divine

WISDOM IN GOD — HIS INTELLIGENCE. 145
constitution are specially prominent. The transition apparent in
their definition is a gradual transition from what is natural to
what is moral, — infinity, eternity, unchangeableness in being,
furnishing the basis for the consequent declaration of wisdom
and power, and of the still more distinctively moral qualities such
as justice and goodness and truth, which belong to God as a holy
and perfect Person. It should also be noted that they continually
lay the supreme stress on the spiritual perfections in God, —
doubtless for the reason that it is through the disclosure of these
rather than through the manifestation of his constitutional qual
ities, such as personality or infinitude or unchangeableness, that
sinful man is to be brought back to him in penitence and devotion.
If we knew nothing more of God than the fact that he exists, or
than the fact that he exists as pure and fontal and absolute Spirit,
it is probable that such knowledge would only impel us farther
away from him, as our first parents fled from his presence in the
garden which their sin had contaminated. But when we see him in
his glory as a moral Being — when we are enabled to discern his
wisdom, power, hobness, justice, goodness and truth, as he has
graciously chosen to disclose them in the Gospel, we are sponta
neously drawn toward him in humility of spirit, in responsive
belief and trust, in penitential love and consecration.
The attribute of wisdom is presented in the Symbols in two
aspects; as intelligence, shown in perfect knowledge of all things
actual and possible; and as wisdom
distinctively, shown in the adaptation 8- Wisdom in God: intel-
of means to ends, and of all specific 2235^' wWBB'
ends to the one supreme end, the divine
glory. Turning here to the first of these aspects, we find the.
complete, perfect intelligence of God set forth rather as a natural
than a moral endowment, belonging essentially to him as pure
and eternal Spirit. This intelligence is set over against all
pantheistic notions, modern or ancient, of an unconscious imper
sonal entity, either pervading all things as an indwelling force, or
brooding over all things as a sleeping spirit. In the chapter
under special notice, it is affirmed, not merely that God works all
things according to the counsel, and of course the conscious coun
sel of his own will, but also that in his sight all things are open
and manifest, and that his knowledge is infinite, infallible, and
independent upon the creature. In the chapter on the Eternal
Decree (III) it is taught that God knows whatsoever may or can
come to pass upon all supposed conditions. He is again and- again
characterized as most wise, as having infallible foreknowledge , as

146 GOD IN HIS BEING.
knowing all things, as holding secret counsel with himself in. regard
to man; — phrases which are alike descriptive of an intelligence
that includes within its grasp not only all that is, but all that
might possibly come to pass.
The characteristics of such intelligence are sufficiently suggested
in these descriptions. It is,' intuitive, in the sense that it comes
into the divine mind through no prolonged processes of investiga
tion or reflection, but is seen at once, immediately. It is
synchronous, in the sense that the divine mind does not pass
discursively from one truth to another, or know things only in
their chronologic succession and relation, but rather takes in all
truth and things in one comprehensive glance. It is exact and
definite, — corresponding entirely to the reality of things, above
the range of all confusion or vagueness, independent of image or
illustration, crystalline and perfect in the clearness of its vision. It
is complete, in the further sense that nothing escapes or ever can
escape such comprehending survey; nothing is to it contingent or
uncertain; nothing can occur which is not known beforehand
alike in its principle, its origin, and its results immediate and
remote. This intelligence also includes the possible as well as
the actual — the things prevented or not done, as well as the
things permitted or ordained. It embraces the whole universe of
fact, being, principle, doctrine, possibility; it sweeps at once
through the past, the present, the future, and in its light the
remotest ages of eternity appear as immediate. Nor was this
knowledge ever less, nor will it ever be greater than it is now:
being perfect it is incapable of either increase or diminution. Of
its processes, of its intensity or of its scope, man can know little;
it is too wonderful for us; in its presence we can but tremble and
adore. The doctrine of the absolute omniscience of God will present
itself again and again for consideration, especially in its relations
to the divine decrees or purposes, and to the divine administra
tion in providence and in grace. Yet it is important that such
omniscience should be fully recognized at this point, as the under
lying base of the more distinctively moral quality of wisdom.
The fact may be inferred alike from the nature of God as Spirit,
and from the specific fact of the divine eternity and infinity or
omnipresence. It cannot be denied without impugning the divine
perfection at many vital points. It is especially important to note
that from the necessity of the case such knowledge must include
man as-truly as physical nature, and the future as well as past
choices and acts of men, and also the entire development of the

HIS MORAL WISDOM. 147
character and destinies of the race, not merely in this life but
forever. All objects and events, future as well as past or present,
must be included in it. Nor is this a scientia media, subject to
contingencies which are determinable by man: it is direct and
immediate, and wholly above all human contingency in its insight
and its sweep. In the phrase of another, God sees all things in
and through himself; and since he knows himself at once and
completely, it is evident that he knows all things in himself at
once and perfectly: however things are multiplied or lessened,
his knowledge of them is forever complete and unchangeable.
Such is invariably the biblical delineation of the divine omnis
cience; and though it be too wonderful for us or wholly inscrutable
in the perplexing problems it suggests, we are never at liberty to
question it: we can only bow down before it and submit ourselves
in deed and thought to its infallible scrutiny.
The term, wisdom, is more often applied in the Symbols, as in
the Scriptures, specifically to the moral developments and activi
ties of this perfect intelligence. In ordinary life, wisdom is dis
played both in the selection of right or righteous ends, and in
the choice and use of right means for the attaining of such ends.
It involves always the exercise of a judgment which is both
actuated by worthy motives, and determined by sound principles,
in its practical decisions. As applied to God, the term contem
plates both the one final end toward which he is ever moving,
and the particular ends he seeks in given cases, in subordination
to that ultimate purpose. It contemplates also the use of none
but appropriate and just means, and such use or application
of these as shall effect the end contemplated. The sphere of
such wisdom is as comprehensive as the universe. It is seen in
the plan of creation and in the execution of that plan in all of
its details: it is manifested in the complex and manifold develop
ments of providence, frpm the most minute event in the life of
any creature up to the most significant movements of races or of
planets: it is specially manifest in the arranging, unfolding,
progress and completion of the scheme of redemption. These
higher aspects of this attribute are especially emphasized in the
Confession. The u?isearchable wisdom, as well as the power and
goodness of God, is said to manifest itself in his providence, extend
ing to all things and ordering and governing all for his own holy
ends. The wise and holy counsel of God is asserted even in his
permission of sin, and particularly in his having purposed to order
it to his own glory. The plan of salvation is said to originate as
much in the wisdom and purpose of God as in his grace; and the

148 GOD IN HIS BEING.

unfolding of that plan historically is viewed as a manifestation
throughout of the same purpose and wisdom. Even the divine
consent to the existence and ravages of the dire evil of sin is not
regarded as derogating from the cardinal truth that God is most
wise — most wise, first in the permission and then in his most power
ful bounding of sin in a manifold dispensation, so as to secure his
own holy ends therein. The divine sovereignty, as taught in the
Symbols, can have no sufficient basis except in the recognition of
such wisdom as planning, directing, controlling all things. And
it is ever to be remembered that the conception of that sover
eignty, so often misapprehended as it is there presented, is always
set forth in the light of these antecedent and justifying views of
the perfect intelligence, the complete moral wisdom of the Deity.
In expounding the associated conception of power as an
attribute of God, three relative forms of the doctrine seem to have
been present in the minds of the Assem-
9. Power in God: God as bl God as cau God ^u ^
cause and as wills His sover- . „. ' '
eignty< as sovereign. — The doctrine that God
is both the first cause and the final
cause, originating everything by his own interior causative force,
and again utilizing every thing for his own purpose and glory, is
clearly maintained in the Symbols in many ways. Such causal
efficiency is said to lie in his nature as pure and absolute Spirit,—
all power belonging to him inherently. In considering their doc
trine respecting divine providence, we shall have occasion to note
more distinctly the relations of this primary potency to all vari
eties of secondary causation. But even here it should be noted
that all such secondary causation must have originated in and
through the first cause; and that secondary causation cannot act
so as to secure results independently of this first, originating
cause. Whatever theory may be entertained respecting the
nature of this connection, or the manner in which God acts in
and with and through second causes, there can be no question as
to the fact. To deny that secondary causes have any efficiency,
or to affirm that there are no such causes, is to lesolve the whole
universe simply into one grand, progressive, stupendous movement
of the divme will. To suppose that there are such causes in the
universe which God did not institute and which he does not con
trol, is to confess that he has no real government over nature or
TrnmaAand th<at the final °UtC°me °f thinS* m^ be something
wholly different from his original plan or desire. The Confession
(V) teaches rather that he ordereth all things to fall out accord
ing to the nature of second causes; and that back of all these

POWER IN GOD — CAUSE AND WILL. 141)
subsidiary agencies, he himself doth uphold, direct, dispose and
govern all.
The conception of God as will presents the same fact in a broader
form. It lies in his nature as Spirit that he should possess such
power of volition: this power is a central element in the idea of
Spirit. God is cause, first and final, because he is also will, in the
most vital sense. He puts forth his almighty energies, pouring
them into each secondary force, and filling the universe with their
amazing manifestations, because he wills — because he chooses.
His almightiness is the expression of his inward capacity of voli
tion: he is omnipotent, because he is Spirit, pure, free, absolute.
Without entering here into any analysis of the various exercises
of the divine will, as decretive, preceptive or permissive, or inquir
ing as to the secret of its measureless efficiency, we may note the
primary fact that God is will, — his own immutable and most right
eous will being the direct outgrowth and expression of his spiritu
ality. Thus creation occurs because it pleased him: the multiform
developments of providence are referred to the free and immutable
counsel of his will: the plan of salvation, with all implied or con
tained in it, (VII) he hath been pleased to express by way of covenant.
Such language runs almost everywhere through the Symbols,
indicating constantly the strength of the conception as one of the
dominating elements in the system of doctrine there contained.
Without specially considering just here the doctrine of the
divine sovereignty as found in the Symbols, we may simply note
the fact that such sovereignty is constantly assumed in them, as a
consequence of the foregoing view of God as cause and God as
will. Being thus both cause and will, God must be sovereign, and
that in the highest sense conceivable. Granting the possibility
of widely differing notions respecting that sovereignty in its
method and scope; — granting also the existence of great practical
difficulties in respect to the relations of such sovereignty to human
freedom and responsibility, the fact must still be admitted as un
questionable and fundamental. God is the supreme Lord and King
of all the world; — not merely of the world of humanity, as the
phrase implies in the connection in which it is used, but of all
worlds, with all their creatures and contents, forever. Such
supremacy is an ultimate fact. It is everywhere taught in the
Scriptures, as it is everywhere suggested in nature and in the life
of man. How this supremacy is exercised in the material universe,
and especially as related to the free will and consequent accounta
bility of man, is a problem to be carefully considered at a later
stage in our exposition.

150 GOD IN HIS BEING.
While Protestant symboUsm can hardly be said to present any
theory of the divine omnipotence in either of these three aspects, yet
it is strongly unanimous in affirming the essential fact. That God
is the first and the executive and the final cause of all things and
all events, and that his will is everywhere present and everywhere
supreme, and this in such sense as makes him absolute sovereign
over nature and over man, is to some extent affirmed, and is uni
versally assumed in these formularies. Even the Arminian Re- •
monstrance (IV) recognizes this divine potency as the beginning,
continuance and accomplishment of all good in the domain of
grace, and by consequence in the sphere of nature and of provi
dence also. But as in many other directions so here, the West
minster statements are more full and more explicit than any
others — though, adhering carefully to the wise rule of stating the
fact without attempting speculative explanation. The term,
power, as employed in both the Confession and the Catechisms is a
very broad term. We find its closest analogue, not in the forces
of nature, tremendous and resistless as these often are, but rather
in the human will as an energy of a higher order than any force
of nature, and capable of producing results which no natural
force can effect. As applied to God, it signifies not only the abil
ity to will, but the ability to execute whatever he wills to do. It
does not relate to what may be described as natural impossibilities,
but only to what may properly be regarded as legitimate objects
of power. The scholastic speculation whether there are any lim
its to the divine potency, — whether God can undo that which
has been done, — whether he can make anything better than
he has actually made, and other similar queries, need no specific
notice here. Nor does the term refer to moral impossibility in
whatever form. God, it is said, (V: iv) being most holy and
righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin; and
Holy Scripture teaches that he cannot lie, or in any way deceive
the children of men, or deny himself, or abdicate his throne of
glory. But whutever comes within the scope of holy power, con
trolled by infinite wisdom and equity and love, he not only knows
and desires but is able to accomplish. This is the proper concep
tion of omnipotence as an attribute of God both natural and moral.
Such omnipotence is a fact beyond all question. It is implied
in what we know him to be as pure and absolute Spirit : it is proved
and certified by what we know of the actual workings of such power
in the sphere of nature and in human life: it is abundantly declared
and established in the inspired Word. Of the instant and the
vast and the complete and immeasurable sweep of this divine

JUSTICE IN GOD. 151
potency, — of its irresistible efficiency either through means, or
without, above and against mea?is as it pleaseth God, — of its in
exhaustible volume and its ineffable grandeur, as seen alike in
the ordering of the starry heavens and in his moral administra
tion over man and over other rational and moral beings, it is im
possible for us to form more than an approximate conception.
Beside the two primal perfections of God expressed in the
terms, wisdom and power, the Westminster teaching brings prom
inently into view three other moral or
. .. . ...,_. „ , ... 10. Other moral Attri-
spintual qualities in God-justice, ^.^ Justlce> Go0(jnesSf
goodness, truth — which may here be Truth.
considered together. Of those the first
is justice. While there are few indices in the Symbols of those
philosophic distinctions respecting the divine justice, which have
figured so largely in theology during the past two centuries, espec-
ally in connection with theories of the atonement, we may note
the frequent presence in them of the scholastic antithesis between
justitia interna and justitia externa: God being represented habit
ually as both righteous in himself, and righteous throughout his
entire administration. He is first of all righteous in himself or
internally, — controlled in his own interior life as truly as in his
outward activities by the most absolute and unvarying regard for
what he sees to be right. God is not only just — he is justice
itself as truly as, in the terse phrase of John, he is love. He is
represented as most just, and as studying always the claims of ab
solute justice in the purpose to create, and in all his subsequent
plans and determinations. This attribute is never resolved into
simple regard for the welfare of his creatures, or into any other kin
dred characteristic: it is described as an inherent endowment,
resident in him as pure and free and absolute Spirit. In this sense,
it has sometimes been regarded as synonymous with moral excel
lence in general, or with holiness or worthiness, taken as descrip
tive of the complete perfection of Deity. Yet the term more
properly has reference distinctively to the intrinsic equity of God
in his moral relations to his creatures: it describes the state of
mind and will with which he habitually contemplates these rela
tions. His interior desire, his inward and eternal purpose, is to
do right always and everywhere. Nor is it ever to be assumed
that the right is determined in the divine mind by the mere
will of God as an arbitrary matter. While there are instances
in the divine legislation, such as the authoritative setting apart of
exactly one seventh of human life for worship, which seem to
rest directly upon the divine choice alone, yet even such legislation

^52 GOD IN HIS BEING.
is not to be viewed as in any sense arbitrary. The law which
God imposes upon his moral creatures and to which— it may be
reverently said— he is himself eternally and internally obedient,
is the expression of his infinite wisdom, goodness, holiness, justice
and truth, as well as his sovereign p6wer.
Viewed on the other side as an active quality pouring its influ
ence into all forms of the divine agency in these outward relations,
justice is as fully affirmed of God as either power or wisdom. In
his primary decree, in his plan and process of creation, in his
dealing with man both before the fall, in the fall and subse
quently, he is described as most just. His creation and support
of angels, and his establishing them in holiness and happiness,
are in order that (L. C. 19) he may employ them in the adminis
tration of his power, mercy and justice. His dealings with men in
providence, whatever be the nature of such providence specific
ally, are said to be to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power
and justice. In the chapter on Justification, (XI) the exact justice
of God is said to be, equally with his rich grace, glorified in the
justification of sinners. The condemnation of such as have
rejected the Gospel, the dishonor and wrath brought upon them
on account of their sin, are said to redound to the praise of his
glorious justice. And in the chapter on the Judgment, (XXXIII) ,
one of the ends sought in the appointing of that awful day is
declared to be the manifesting of the glory of his justice, both in the
rewarding of the righteous, and in the damnation of those who
are wicked and disobedient. Whatever objections may be raised
at other points against what is said respecting the divine purposes
and dealing, there can be no doubt that the Westminster Assem
bly held strictly, uncompromisingly, to the doctrine that God is
just — just inherently and just in every manifestation. Could it
be shown that their conception of the divine decrees, or of the
scheme of redemption, involved — as has sometimes been said —
an actual infraction of the claims of absolute equity, we must still
give them credit for honest faith in such equity, and regard them
as having failed simply to carry the truth they held, out to its
legitimate results.
The distinction just suggested between internal and external
justice is sometimes expressed by the terms, absolute and rela
tive, — the first referring to the essential rectitude of the divine
character, and the second to the equally essential rectitude of the
divine dealings with the human race. Other terms, such as rec-
toral or legislative, distributive and retributive, governmental or
commutative, are used in later theology — as we shall see — to

GOODNESS IN GOD. 153
describe certain specific relations, general or particular, which God
as Moral Governor sustains toward men,- -the last especially in
conjunction with the scheme of redemption through the mediation
of Christ. At this point it is important only to emphasize the
underlying truth that God is intrinsically and forever just, both
in his disposition toward his moral creatures and in all his admin
istration over them. Some of the questions springing up in the
presence of this doctrine, especially those in connection with the
permitting of sin and the disciplinary and retributive dealing of
God with sinners, can best be considered at a later stage. The
doctrine cannot, however, be too strenuously emphasized in an age
like this, when the attribute of justice is so frequently merged
and lost in the correlative conception of love, — when the divine
Fatherhood is set in unnatural antithesis with the conception of
God as Moral Governor; when it is broadly assumed that he is too
good to punish or even to require faith and obedience from his
sinful and rebellious creatures, and when his holy law with all its
solemn requisitions and warnings is so frequently set aside as if it
were an obsolete or at least an insignificant code and rule of life.
In the presence of such errors far too current, which are not only
blunting and impairing the religious sense, but corrupting the
morals of the age, it is imperative that the voice of Scripture and
the consonant voice of reason and conscience respecting the infinite,
eternal, unchangeable justice of God should be most earnestly
and constantly proclaimed as one of the cardinal elements in our
holy Faith. For a type of Christianity which is not true to the
justice of God, will soon prove itself untrue tohis love, his grace,
his holiness also, and will ultimately cease altogether to be the
Christianity of the inspired Word.
The almost invariable association of the attribute of goodness
with that of justice in the Symbols is a strong confirmation on
this point. The justice there affirmed is a quality which har
monizes intrinsically with the purest benevolence, the completest
mercy and grace in the divine mind. Much of the objection to
the Calvinistic scheme, drawn from views of the divine benevo
lence, although they perchance may be justified partly by what is
found in the writings of representative Calvinists, can hardly lie
against that scheme as presented in the Symbols themselves.
For, while God is always represented as just, working all things
according to the counsel of his own immutable and most right
eous will, he is described in the same connection, (II : ii) as
most loving, gracious, merciful, long suffering , abundant in good
ness and truth: — phrases which are certainly to be taken into full

154 GOD IN HIS BEING.
account in the interpretation of the language just preceding them
in the same chapter. His counsel there, and indeed everywhere
in both Confession and Catechisms, is declared to be most loving;
his will, though most righteous, is also most gracious; his immut
able purpose is one which reveals his abundance in goodness and
truth, as well as his changeless equity.
The term, goodness, as generally employed, refers but incident
ally to the moral excellence inherent in God, though he is always
described as in himself good; it refers rather to his exhibitions of
fatherly feeling toward his moral creatures in their various con
ditions and needs. God is good toward the angels who have not
left their first estate, and to the redeemed who are assembled
with him in glory, — his love complacently viewing them in their
holy condition, and rejoicing over them in the peculiar felicities
of their perfect estate. God is good in his providence; govern
ing all creatures, actions and things by his most wise and holy
methods, in the temper of goodness and mercy — having paternal
regard to every need, and ministering most tenderly even to the
unthankful and the evil. God is eminently good in his gracious
plan of redemption; providing that plan under the impulses of a
love which embraced the world; unfolding and applying it in the
same fatherly interest, and including within its blessed issues all
who could be brought to know and accept it. God is good also in
his dealing, not merely with those who are incapable of being out
wardly called by the word of grace, but even with such as reject
the offered salvation, — bearing long with their indifference,
struggling by his Spirit with their willful opposition, and con
signing them at last, not in the high temper of insulted majesty
alone, but most pitifully, to the fate which their unworthiness and
guilt have merited. While there are phrases in the Confession
which express a severer view of God, and while much in the
theology of the age in which it was compiled, and in that of the
century following, was dictated in the more forbidding method
too characteristic of Calvin himself, yet the broader view of the
divine goodness just suggested will be recognized in all candid
interpretations of the Symbols, not merely as an occasional but
rather as a central, if not predominating characteristic.
It is not out of place to remark in passing, that much of the
criticism of Calvin based on his severities both of view and of
expression, would be essentially modified by a more careful study
of his earnest teaching respecting the benevolence and mercy .of
God, and his correspondent inculcation of the obligation of man
kind to be loving and merciful. The tender nature of the man

GOODNESS AND JUSTICE CONJOINED. 155
whose house was always the hospitable home of persecuted
refugees, and of the widows and orphans of those who had suf
fered in the Protestant cause, and who when dying gave instruc
tion that no monument should be erected over his remains, but
that the few possessions he had should be given rather to the
poor of Geneva.deserves worthier consideration at the hands of
those who denounce him as a narrow and merciless bigot. Even
amid the rigid logic, and the forbidding statements of doctrine,
and the stern and solemn denunciations, one may find in his Insti
tutes many a sentence which breathes forth the most earnest
faith in the divine love and mercy, and the most benevolent
interest in our lost race. Against papal errorists, against vain
and false philosophers, against willful skeptics and unbelievers,
Calvin was always unsparing in his condemnation; but for man
kind as sinful and perishing, his great soul overflowed always
with a compassion born of heaven. It is not strange that the
skeptic Renan, while criticising his theology, should characterize
him as the most Christian man of his generation.
Calvinism itself, viewed broadly and fairly, is like its great
expounder in this regard. It always contemplates justice as a
primal quality in God, and goodness as forever conditioned by
justice. It cannot for a moment consent to the suggestion that
God ever has done or ever can do an unrighteous act toward any
of his creatures. It cannot for an instant presume that the
divine love, perfect and glorious as it is, will ever induce God to
be indifferent to the claims of equity, even in the disciplining or
the condemnation of those who violate his most holy law. It
plants itself upon the impregnable rock of the divine sovereignty,
and declares that in the exercise of that sovereignty, God must
ever be regarded as just, though every man be a liar. Nor does
it hesitate to say that all teaching which exalts the love of God at
the expense of the divine equity, is to be viewed as dangerous, if
it be not blasphemous heresy. Yet certainly no section of Pro
testantism has ever been more constant, more earnest, more
tender or joyous in its exposition of divine mercy toward sinners
or of the wondrous grace that save£. A thousand illustrations of
this fact might be gathered from the writings of conspicuous
Calvinists in other ages, and eminently in our own. That in this
respect valuable melioration of the earlier Calvinism has been
secured in this age, and is still in progress, is an unquestionable
and a happy fact. But such change has involved no departure
from the fundamental truth of the system, that God is forever
just, supremely and altogether just, in the exercise of his rightful

156 GOD IN HIS BEING.
ful sovereignty; nor is to be anticipated that at this fundamental
point Calvinism will ever forswear itself.
Of the truthfulness of God in every aspect, both inherent and
transitive or relative, we find here the strongest possible affirma
tion. He is described as infinitely, eternally and unchangeably
true — the living and true God. The authority of the Scripture is
said (I: iv) to rest, not upon the testimony of any manor church,
but wholly upon God, who is truth itself; and all the teachings of
that revelation have therefore the same quality. It was for the
better preserving and propagating of the truth, that this revela
tion was committed unto writing: and this revelation istherefore
to be read by us with a firm persuasion that it is the very Word of
God, and is consequently an infallible instructor in all things per
taining to duty and to salvation. So God is said to be true in his
providence; the lessons of that providence being faithful witnesses
to the reality of things, and reliable guides to trust and hope in
him. He is especially declared to be true in the disclosures of the
Gospel; — its doctrines being so infinitely worthy of trust, its prom
ises and threatenings so certain to be verified, that it is the imme
diate duty of every sinner to assent to the truth of this Gospel,
and implicitly to receive and rest upon Christ and his righteous
ness. The infallible assurance of faith which believers are
invited to attain, is said to be founded upon the divine truth of the
promises of salvation. In himself, therefore, and in all his deal
ings both providential and gracious, God is the living and true
God; never mistaking in his knowledge, never misled through
any influence, discerning at one glance and completely all things
in every sphere; adhering always to his most holy Word, verify
ing his promises, faithful to his warnings, and forever and forever
the Truth.
It is obvious that this quality sustains the same relation to the
other moral attributes in God, which spirituality sustains to his
natural qualities. It belongs to him as pure Spirit, free and abso
lute, to be truthful in every utterance and act. As intelligent
Spirit, he must know intuitively all things exactly as they are:
to him blindness, mistake, illusion, are forever impossible. As
perfect Spirit, he can never deceive or mislead; however dark his
sayings or impenetrable the mystery of his acts, no error or fraud
can possibly attach to them. As Sovereign over his moral crea
tures, vitally interested in their education and their ultimate
preparation for an eternity of holy companionship and blessedness,
he has the highest motive in leading them into sure, stable, infal
lible knowledge, especially of all spiritual things. And he has

TRUTHFULNESS IN GOD. 157
given the highest evidence of his interest in such training by the
gift of his Spirit whose special mission it is, in part, to lead holy
souls into all the truth. Truthfulness is therefore directly associ
ated with goodness and with justice, as one among the crowning
perfections of the Deity. God makes nothing true through his
simple statement of it by will or by decree; the sources of
truth are to be found rather in the lofty infinitudes of his perfect
moral nature. He utters what is true because first of all in his
omniscience he discerns and knows it to be truth, and in his equity
and his goodness seeks to make it known to his moral creatures.
If God were not thus intrinsically truthful, he could not be
regarded as good; if he were not thus truthful, we could have no
adequate guarantee for reliance on him as just. What faith, hope
and charity are in man as sanctified, truth and justice and mercy
are in God, — the three supreme virtues which mark him as per
fect, and which fully substantiate his claim to universal love, trust,
devotion. The term holiness as applied to God in the Symbols, signifies
not simply inward purity as to specific thoughts or impulses, but
also spiritual excellency in general: it
* . % • ,.. 11. Holiness in God : His
is a consummating term, descriptive mora, perfectlon. General
of what he is in his perfection, and as view.
the appropriate center of all human,
all angelic adoration. It doubtless refers in part to that interior
moral beauty and freedom from all defect or blemish, that un
sullied glory and grace, which are resident in the divine Being,
and which lead angels and archangels in their highest ecstacy to
prostrate themselves in ceaseless worship before the penetrating
radiance of his presence. It refers also in part to that intrinsic
sense of worthiness, that serene contemplation or recognition of
himself as flawless and complete, which must stand behind all his
activities, especially in his moral administration. But compre
hensively, the term includes all personal and spiritual excellence
of whatever type exhibited in God — that combination of infinitude
and eternity and unchangeableness" with wisdom and power, with
justice and goodness and truth, which makes him the glorious as
he is the absolute God, and which lifts him up forever as the su
preme object of all trust and devotion. It is more than a state of
the divine will, as forever fixed upon what is right and good; it is
more than justice and benevolence, regarded as attributes in the
divine character; it is that character itself in all its inconceivable
elevation, and its absolute flawlessness and sanctity. Charnock,
(Divine Attributes) declares that this holiness has an excellency

158 GOD IN HIS BEING.
above all the other perfections of Deity, and refers in proof to the
threefold ascriptions of praise frequently recurring in the Scrip
tures; Holy, Holy, Holy! So God is habitually represented in the
Symbols; — a Being having no sin, and infinitely hostile to all sin,
ever perfect in himself; most holy in all his counsels, in all his works,
and in all his commands; most holy as well as wise and good in
his decrees and in his providences, even when dealing with the
wicked: and most of all, infinitely holy in his plan of grace, and
in his spiritual ministries to men for their salvation. His minis
tering Spirit is called eminently the Holy Spirit, both as being
intrinsically holy, and the source and cause of all holiness in us:
his Word is styled the Holy Word; and all the activities of his
grace, from our effectual calling to our complete sanctification,
are designed to bring us into the practice of that true holiness
without which no man shall see the Lord.
Schleiermacher defines holiness in a special sense as that divine
perfection by which, when it is brought into correlation with the
life and character of man, the conscience is made to feel the ne
cessity of redemption. The statement brings into view the
supreme object of God in the revelation of himself as the Holy
One. That revelation assumes a variety of forms. We see it in
the divine law as designed to bring men into the consciousness of
their guilt as unholy, and of their need of purifying grace. We
see it in the Gospel as a divine scheme fitted to educate and train
and inspire those who receive it in the practice of true holiness.
We see it in the feeling of God toward sin, and in his purpose to
punish sin, wherever his grace is found to be ineffectual in its
removal. We see it shining out in more winning aspects in all
those beauties of nature, flowers and fountains and stars, which
are ever suggesting a type of purity higher than can be found in
man. We also see it reflected in the moral feeling and conviction
of mankind, and in all those aspirations after holiness which have
expressed themselves, sometimes in most painful as well as in beau
tiful forms, in the life and history of the race. But the one end
in all these disclosures is, in the phrase of Schleiermacher, to
bring men to realize their need of redemption, and then to lead
them through the nurture of the Holy Ghost and of the Holy
Word, into a type of moral experience which shall ultimately
make them holy even as God is holy.
It is hardly practicable here to refer to the objections urged
against this conception of the moral excellence, the spiritual
completeness of God,— objections drawn from his decrees or his
providence, or from his dealings with men under the Gospel. The

THE HOLINESS OF GOD, 159
manner in which such objections are met in the Symbols will better
be considered in conjunction with their exposition of these partic
ular doctrines. Yet it is important at this stage to note the philo
sophic breadth and power, the spiritual elevation, the majesty and
persuasiveness of the view of the Deity here brought before us.
Traditional as is the story that the definition of God presented in
the Shorter Catechism was first uttered in prayer, and was spon
taneously appropriated by the Assembly as accurately expressing
the essential truth in the case, there can be no question that this
definition is one of the sublimest and completest ever uttered.
Compared with like definitions in other Protestant creeds it shines
out like some bright planet in the sky, filling the whole firmament
of theology with its luster. Criticism has sometimes seized upon
the strong statements in the Symbols concerning the divine fore
knowledge or power or justice or majesty, as if they conveyed
too cold and forbidding a view of the Almighty. But certainly
they do not go beyond what the Word of God has plainly affirmed:
they rather condense and crystallize its teachings into clear,
imperishable doctrine, such as neither the understanding nor the
heart can well reject. Moreover it should be constantly remem
bered that all the most tender and benignant traits in God, the
most winning aspects of the divine nature and character, are here
blended indissolubly with these sterner qualities, and are to be
received as making up, together with these, the one composite,
harmonious, symmetrical and scriptural conception. Justice has
rarely been done to this side of the Westminster formularies.
The mountain summits of spiritual thought, the deep and dark
abysses, which they bring to view, are in themselves real, and
those who ignore them can never attain the clearest and most
impressive conceptions of Him within whose nature such heights
and depths are surely contained. Yet on these summits and
along the sides of these abysses, the sunlight of divine love is
ever shining, and flowers of tenderness and grace are springing,
and the verdure and beauty of an immaculate holiness are to be
seen. Infinite and eternal and unchangeable as God is declared
to be in his sovereignty and justice, and in the severer aspects -of
his dealing with men, he is declared to be no less infinite and
unchangeable and everlasting in his benevolence, his providence,
his grace — his holiness.
A careful comparison with the other Protestant creeds must
lead the student to a fresh sense of the remarkable comprehen
siveness and dignity of the general conception of God and his
attributes, as thus presented in the Westminster formularies. It

160 GOD IN HIS BEING.
has been urged with some significance that the Lutheran Con
fessions, and some Reformed creeds such as the Heidelberg
Catechism, have succeeded in bringing out into better light the
more benignant and winning aspects of the divine character and
relations to men. It may be true that some other types of
theology have been more successful in setting forth the Christolo-
gical idea, in contrast with the Calvinistic view of paternal
sovereignty as standing behind the incarnation and work of
Christ, and thus have softened somewhat the severe impressions
and experiences which the doctrine of sovereignty, where strongly
held, has sometimes produced. But let it not be forgotten that
the boundless tenderness and grace seen in the Redeemer are only
the incarnate manifestations of the divine power, wisdom, love,
which from the first embraced the world and provided for it the
plan of redemption. Nor let it be forgotten that the great grace
of the Gospel derives its winning appearance, its wondrous beauty
and attractiveness, largely from the darker background of might
and equity and supreme majesty, on whose solemn surface it is
revealed to men. And it is in the skillful and honest blending of
these antithetic views of God that the theology of Westminster
exhibits alike its fine proportions and its peculiar massiveness.
The men who composed it were not insensible to the attractions
of Jesus, to the ineffable tenderness of his mission, or to the
amazing power of his love to win and save the lost. But they
were also men who lived in solemn times, who had great battles
to fight, and to whom it was a measureless comfort to know
always that God is, and that he rules in infinite majesty and with
unfailing purpose over all.
From this survey of the divine attributes and perfections, we
may pass to the consideration of the great doctrine associated
with this conception of God in the
divine Unity : Unity defined. the doctrme of the Holy Trinity. The
sum of the doctrine is contained in the
words: In the unity of the Godhead there be three persons, of one sub
stance, power and eternity; God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Ghost. In the succeeding sentence the properties peculiar
to each of the three persons are described; and in the chapter
on the Covenant with Man (VII) the relations of these per
sons are at least partially indicated. Again in chapter VIII,
on Christ the Mediator, the second person in this holy Trinity
is particularly described with respect to his divine constitution

THE TRINITY IN GOD. 161
and relations, and also to his full and true humanity. The two
Catechisms simply repeat iii briefer form, and with but slight
variation from each other, what is thus set forth in the Confes
sion. Gathering up in addition to these statements such inci
dental references as are scattered elsewhere through the Symbols,
we may easily find material for an accurate construction of the
doctrine as held by the Assembly.
At the outset of such construction, the true, substantial, eter
nal unity of the Godhead must be recognized as the underlying
ground or basis on which the biblical conception of the Trinity
is to be reared. This unity has already been considered in part
as one essential characteristic of God, contemplated as pure and
personal Spirit, but needs further examination at this point. God
is thus one, not in any merely moral or social sense, as if the
three persons in the Godhead were three beings simply agreeing
together in thought or feeling or purpose; nor merely in the sense
of similarity or likeness consequent upon the possession of a com
mon nature, — as the human race becomes a unit by virtue of a
common origin or the heritage of one type of life; but in the
deepest and truest sense possible for us to conceive. In essence or
substance or nature, God is one Being — indivisibly, internally and
eternally one, as absolute perfection must of necessity be. To this
great primary fact, abundantly taught in the earliest periods and
phases of revelation, and everywhere made fundamental in theScrip-
tures.all conceptions of the Trinity must from the nature of the case
be subordinated; — with this fact all descriptions of the threefold-
ness of personality, or the three modes of existence in God, must
harmonize. The biblical and rational grounds on which this primal
truth rests have already been sufficiently stated by way of contrast
with all types of polytheism. The united witness of the Chris
tian creeds, and the firm faith of the church universal on this
point, have also been recited. It is not too much to say that the
truth is indeed axiomatic in the estimate of all who have gained
any adequate conception of God as a Being, and as such is to be
emphasized here and everywhere in Christian theology as funda
mental. Yet it is important to note also that this underlying unity is in
some respects unique: it is not a homeogeneous singleness merely,
but an inconceivable and an immeasurable oneness, as far above
our apprehension as God himself is higher than man. In fact,unity
of being in God as to its nature and qualities, is hardly less mys
terious than are his triune modes of being : Cunningham, Hist.
Theol. : Vol. II. Revealing himself to our vision as the one and

162 GOD IN HIS BEING.
only cause, whether primal or efficient or final; as the one and
only Father and Governor in providence and in moral administra
tion, and as the one and only object of our faith and allegiance
and devotion, his essential unity must still be regarded as some
thing inexpressibly deeper and grander than any merely numerical
oneness would be. Lessing styles it a transcendental unity which
does not exclude plurality. A certain manifoldness is suggested
by the conception, whenever with our feeble insight we seek
to apprehend it. As a flower, to use the illustration of Luther,
is one in nature but distinguishable as triune in form and fra
grance and medicinal value, — as any single object in the physical
world reveals triplicity in shape and magnitude and color, — as the
white light of day is divisible into its three primal or its seven
secondary rays, — as there are three distinct forces, the creative
the preservative and the destructive, in the one system of nature,
— as the one sun displays itself alike in heat, radiance, fructifying
energy and the force of gravitation, — as man himself, though one,
may be contemplated in several distinct relations, or may be ana
lyzed both physically and mentally into a triple series of constitu
ents, separable in thought though not in fact, so we may discern
in the unity of God a manifoldness which is but faintly symbolized
in such illustrations — a certain complexity and multiplicity of
being, existing in conjunction with this primal oneness, such
as it is impossible for any creature to attain or even to conceive.
All such illustrations at the best are but finite and earthly: God
is one in a sense in which oneness cannot be affirmed of any finite
object. It has been tersely said of him, that he is not a natural
but a trinal unit. 'Augustine claims (Civ. Dei. XI.) that, as
being nearer to God in nature than any other of his works, and
destined to be brought still nearer by grace, we may see in our
selves as spiritual existences a blending oneness and threeness of
being which may properly suggest to us the presence in God of
a type of unity, in an infinitely higher degree blended with tri
plicity or multiplicity, such as no mortal or angel can experience
or apprehend. We both are, he says in a remarkable passage
which Hamilton has placed by the side of the famous axiom of
Descartes,— we both are, and we know that we are, and we de
light both in our being, and in our knowledge that we are. And
if, as Augustine thus teaches, we though single and simple in
essence, are thus manifold to our own narrow comprehension,
how much vaster and more multiplex may be the oneness resi
dent in God.
It has been urged against the Symbols that by their use of the

DEFECTIVE CONCEPTIONS. 163
abstract term, Godhead, by their delineation of the personality of
Christ as in marked contrast with the Deity in general, and by their
description of the work of Christ as set over against the position
and claims of God as Sovereign and Father, and in other similar
ways, they make tritheistic impressions on the reader, if indeed
they do not become inconsistent with themselves, and deny in one
connection the unity which they have asserted in another. Such
objections lie, not against the formularies of Westminster only,
but against the Protestant symbolism generally. That views of
the Godhead as in council or covenant, and of the several persons
in the Godhead as in antagonism, representing diverse interests
and dealing with each other as three beings would in like circum
stances, have prevailed too extensively in Protestant theology,
cannot be questioned. There are interpretations of Scripture,
somewhat current even in our time, which have largely affected
the popular mind in the same direction, — leading to essentially
erroneous apprehensions of the Father on one side and of the
Holy Spirit on the other, while separating God in Christ, or
Christ as the Son of God, far too widely from both. To such an
extent has this supposed diversity of interests and activities been
carried, that in the relative exaltation of the Son, the separate
personality of the Spirit has virtually been ignored, while the pur
pose and feebng of God the Father in redemption have been
greatly depreciated. Such tritheism is but a Christian form of
polytheism: it leaves the soul to deal in the matter of its salva
tion with three divine Beings rather than with one: it fails to
maintain the essential unity and consequent power of the biblical
conception, and thus works irreparable mischief practically where
the true doctrine, rightly held, might have brought light and
blessing. Yet the Symbols, following the example of the older Protest
ant formularies, do certainly affirm most positively the unity, not
of the Godhead abstractly, but of God in his being and nature,
and in all his attributes and perfections. He is said to exist in and
of himself- — alone in and unto himself ; he is described as the
one only living and true God; in the threeness of the persons,
there is said to be but one substance, power and eternity. As such,
God is said to plan and decree, to create, to preserve and govern
in his providence. And while the antithesis between God and
the divine Christ as Mediator is pressed out strongly, and in
such ways as to produce in some minds the impression of two
beings working in a species of antagonism, yet the primary
fact of unity clearly flows into and through all these subsequent

164 GOD IN HIS BEING.
expositions of the scheme of grace, and is to be regarded as a
regulative principle in the entire construction. It is especially
important that this underlying unity should be maintained
throughout our analysis of the doctrine of the holy Trinity as
presented in the Symbols. It must never be forgotten that God
is forever one before he is three; and that no view of the three
ness of persons is admissible which does not preserve this oneness
as a clear, unquestionable, regulative postulate.
The meaning of the symbolic term, Person, is not easily defined.
When it is said that in the unity of the Godhead there be three
persons, we can save ourselves from
13. The term, Person ; its contradiction only by limiting at once
relations to Being-: limita- Qr contents of the latter
tions of the term. r . ,
term; asserting at least negatively that
we do not thereby mean, being, or its synonym in such words as
nature, substance, essence. The Greek term, hypostasis, has
sometimes been called into service as a limiting and explaining
word; but it is difficult to fix upon that term a meaning that is
clear of mystery, or that relieves us altogether from this sense of
contradiction. The Latin synonym, subsistence, so often em
ployed by Calvin as a literal translation of hypostasis, deepens
instead of lessening the mental difficulty. Nor is the phrase,
mode, or mode of existence, now occasionally used, quite ade
quate, since we need some further description of these separate
modes of being, in order to adjust them properly to the primary
fact of unity. The more helpful word, person, must however be
used in a sense which is confessed to be exceptional: its exact
relation to the word, being, must be disavowed, and an antithesis
between the two terms be set up, for which there is no close
parallel in ordinary usage. The definition of Locke that a person
'is a thinking, intelligent being that has reason and reflection,
and can consider itself as itself, in different times and places, is
obviously inadmissible here. Similarly, to define each person in
the Trinity as an intelligent subject, or as a distinct individual
existence having the properties of reason and feeling and free
will, must inevitably confuse person with being, substantially as
is done in ordinary speech, and so lead on directly to a species of
tritheism. To define the term as denoting such a threefold dis
tinction in the one divine nature as connects itself with personal
properties and acts and mutual relationships; or, in the phrase of
Calvin, as a subsistence in the divine essence which is related to
the other subsistences in that essence, and yet is distinguished
from them by some incommunicable property, still leaves the

PERSON AS RELATED TO BEING. 165
distinction between person and being in a vague, unimpressive and
insufficient form. Yet we have no other term which expresses
the divine fact any more precisely, nor is there within the scope
of our knowledge any other analogue or resemblance or illustra
tion which is any more helpful to our faith; and we consequently
rest in the statement of all Christian symbolism that in the unity
of the Godhead there be three persons: Hall, Harmony of Prot.
Conf., second section.
At this point the Symbols clearly plant themselves, not merely
on the antecedent symbolism modern and ancient, but ultimately
on the Scripture itself as their justifying ground. The Augsburg
Confession, after indorsing the Nicene declaration, and affirming
the existence of three persons of the same essence and power,
who also are co-eternal, further declares (Art. I.) that the term,
person, is used in that signification in which the ecclesiastical
writers, the Fathers, have used it in this case, to signify not
merely a part or quality in another, but that which properly
(pecuUarly) subsists in or by itself. The Article evidently
attempts to indicate something deeper, more fundamental, than
any specific attribute or perfection in God, — something resident
somewhere between such attributes and the divine essence or sub
stance, as a special and ineffable mode of being. The Second
•Helvetic Confession teaches (Cap III) that there are, not three
Gods, but three persons, consubstantial, co-eternal and co-equal,
— distinct as, or so far as they are, hypostases, and proceeding
each in its own order, but without any inquality. Most of the
other symbols of the Reformation, including the three antecedent
British Confessions, are content with the exposition of the doc
trine in briefer forms, while frequently referring to the ancient
creeds as furnishing satisfactory statements of the essential fact.
The Irish Articles are more full than any other; and their descrip
tion of the differentiating properties in the three persons undoubt
edly furnished the basis of the like explanation in the teachings
of Westminster. The fact that in all these formularies there
is a marked absence of the verbal and speculative distinctions
found in the ancient creeds, especially the Athanasian, probably
indicates the existence of doubt as to the scriptural warrant for
such refinements, or corresponding doubt as to their practical or
spiritual worth. The caution and moderation in statement which
so vigorous and bold a thinker as Calvin does not hesitate both
to exemplify and commend, are apparent generally in the Prot
estant symbolism, though less conspicuous in some of the contro
versial theology of the period.

166 GOD IN HIS BEING.
The proposition of the Westminster Confession is also clearly
characterized by close adherence to the Scripture itself, above all
teachings and commandments of men. It cannot well be ques
tioned that while the Divine Word declares unequivocally the
fundamental truth of the divine unity, it also sets forth with
equal earnestness the consequent conception of a trinity resident
within that unity, and a trinity which is truly personal, — not a
rhetorical representation, or an economic exhibition, with no
permanent basis in the divine constitution, but a trinity which in
some true sense carries with it a profound and enduring three-
foldness of personality, within the boundaries of the one
divine substance or nature. The baptismal formula, the apostolic
benedictions, the frequent references to the three divine persons
as distinct from each other, their asserted union and communion
in purpose, in feeling, in activity; and the positive declarations
as to the existence and attributes and relations of each consid
ered separately, all conspire to force upon the biblical student the
Nicene or Chalcedonian description, reproduced almost literally
in the Confession, (VIII : ii) as the only one which in any ade
quate sense embodies or unifies these varied forms and aspects of
the revelation. To this conclusion the Symbols adhere, not as
explaining everything, but as covering the Bible teaching essen
tially, and including all that is indispensable to the truth regarded
in its practical aspects and relations.
In the associated clause (II: iii), the points of likeness and
unlikeness in these three divine Persons are further described;
— the likeness in the words, of one sub-
14. Differentiating- pro- st powgr and eternit and the
perties: Likeness and unlike- ,., . ,, , J
ness in the Persons. unlikeness in the explanatory sentence,
The Father is of none, neither begotten
nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the
Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son. The
phrase, substance, power and eternity, was doubtless intended to
cover all the divine attributes, and to assert the equal divinity or
deity of the three persons as all possessing such attributes in
equal degree. As the whole of the divine essence is in each
attribute, in such sense that we can never separate the essence
from the attribute, or the attribute from the essence, so the whole
of the essence and all of the divine attributes are in each person,
in such sense that the several persons incorporate and incorporate
alike both every attribute and the sum of the divine essence.
Thus Father, Son and Spirit, are alike eternal: infinitude in
time, or transcendence above time, is an essential quality of the

THE THREE PERSONS DISTINGUISHED. 167
Son and the Spirit as truly as of the Father. It follows that the
subsequent conception of begetting and proceeding are not to be
taken as implying in any sense the beginning of existence on the
part of either Son or Spirit. Again : Father, Son and Spirit are
alike powerful, though working in different spheres or relations,
and sometimes with an economic adjustment or subordination of
activities. Yet the second and third persons are equally omnipo
tent with the first, and their agency is equally original and
underived and adequate. And what is true of eternity and of
power, is by impUcation asserted of intelligence and wisdom, and
of all other moral as well as natural attributes, — holiness, justice,
goodness, truth being resident inherently in each and belonging
alike to all. And the ground of this likeness in duration and in
potency and perfection is further presented in the word, substance,
with its equivalents in the two terms, essence and nature. Such
affirmation, not of simple likeness in substance but of actual iden
tification, is required by the tenet of the divine unity : as one
Being, the three persons must be essentially, substantially unified
— one in their inmost nature. Likeness in attributes and modes
here changes into oneness; and this oneness is fundamental in the
essential Being. The whole is summed up in the words of Stil-
ingfleet: We are assured from Scripture that there are three to
whom the divine nature (substance) and attributes are given,
and we are assured from Scripture and reason that there can be
but one divine essence (substance), and therefore every one of
them must have this divine nature, (substance) and yet that
nature (essence) can be but One.
In distinguishing the three persons, thus unified by the posses
sion of common attributes and substance, we have no other marks
or guides than those revealed in Scripture. What interior dif
ferentiation there may have been, or may now be, — what distri
bution or interchange in thought or consciousness or volition, we
can never know. We recognize primarily the triple order of rev
elation and activity, seen on the one side 'in the divine Word where
the succession of Father and Son and Spirit is so constantly man
ifest chronologically; and seen on the other side in the specific
relations of these persons to the creation, government and salva
tion of man. The underlying basis of this exterior trinity, the
trinity of appearance and administration, is suggested especially
in the two mysterious terms, begetting and proceeding. Whatever
else these terms suggest, they at least imply an interior difference,
— a difference lying in the constitution of the Deity, and therefore
eternal as well as internal. They suggest, in other words, an

168 GOD IN HIS BEING.
immanent and necessary relationship, as well as a relationship of
office and function. That the Father begets and the Son is be
gotten, is a fact so far suggested in the Scriptures that, however
perplexing the statement, we may not fully ignore or reject it.
We may justly assert that this language does not imply a derived
and therefore a dependent existence on the part of the Son: neither
may we regard it as including relative subordination or inferior
ity in nature. This eternal begetting is hardly to be viewed,
either, as a continuous act of will on the part of the Father, but
rather as a profound process in the divine constitution, yet not an
unconscious process but one recognized by the Father and the Son
as making them in the deepest sense one and equal. In the chap
ter on Christ the Mediator, the Son is descrbed as very and eter
nal God, of one substance, and equal with the Father: and the
declaration of the Shorter Catechism (6) that Father and Son
are the same in substance, equal in power and glory, conveys the
same impression of unity, revealing or verifying itself even
through this mysterious process going on within the divine nature,
theologically called generation. The Symbols clearly stand here
not in Arian ground in any of its varieties, nor on the modern
theory of subordinationism, even in its highest form, but on the
ancient and catholic doctrine of an equality between Father and
Son, which is interior, absolute, everlasting.
In respect to the procession of the Spirit, the same explanation
may be made. It is not simply an economic procession, having
reference chiefly to the chronological work of salvation, — but one
that is inherent and permanent in the divine constitution. The
Father, or the Father and the Son, send forth; the Spirit pro
ceeds, and this interiorly, continuously, eternally. Yet the send
ing does not imply inherent or eternal superiority, nor does the
proceeding, or the consenting to go forth in consequence of such
sending, imply inferiority in nature or attribute. Respecting the
addition of the Filioque to the doctrine as originally stated in the
Nicene creed, the Confession simply follows the course of the
Western church, — induced no doubt by apprehensions of the in
fluence of that form of Arianism which first compelled.this addi
tion. Holy Scripture certainly suggests a proceeding from the
Father, and also a being sent by the Son in the interest of re
demption, and these phrases imply no contradiction or suggestion
of two independent sources, but simply illustrate the separate
yet coalescent relations of the Father on one hand and the Son
on the other to the work of salvation as conducted by the Spirit.
In what is said in the Symbols respecting the work of the Spirit

FATHER, SON AND SPIRIT. ilil)
as consequent upon that of the first and second persons, the Son
rather than the Father is apparently the more prominent, especi
ally in giving to the Spirit his great commission. The Holy
Ghost is said to be his Spirit: souls are said to be saved by Christ
through the Spirit: the work of the Spirit everywhere falls in as
a direct consequence and issue of what Christ as Mediator has
done; and the bestowment of the benefits derivable from his
redemption, is said to be especially the work of God, the Holy
Ghost. Such association of the third person with the second
rather than the first, though a departure from the teaching of the
Nicene symbol, is a natural and legitimate result of the funda
mental doctrine of Protestantism, — justification by faith. That
doctrine, bringing out into greater prominence the mission and
offices of the Son, and concentrating thought and faith around
the Cross, naturally led to such associated presentation of Him
whom the Son has sent to be the Comforter of his chosen, and to
guide and edify his church unto the day of his return.
The term proper, as applied to these differentiating features or
characteristics, denotes simply the proprium — the peculiar some
thing in each, by which each is distinguishable to our apprehen
sion from the rest. It is that which, in the phrase of Augsburg,
properly subsists as the ground or basis of each separate person
ality. As such it is exclusive of the error condemned by the
second Helvetic Confession, quasi Filius et Spiritus Sanctus affec-
iiones et proprietates sint unius Dei Patris, since the proprium
belongs to each, not as an attribute of an attribute, but as the dis
tinguishing characteristic of a Person. Such divisibility in the
divine nature is partly expressed in the theological enumeration
of the divine persons as First and Second and Third, and still more
in the explanatory terms of Scripture, Father and Son and Spirit,
viewed not as mere names but as descriptive of both order
and relationship and actual existence. Farther than this, as
Christian symbolism clearly shows, it is hardly possible for human
speech or human thought to reach. The language of the West
minster Confession goes beyond that of most of the continental
symbols in its attempt to define such distinctive properties; yet it
is far more cautious and more safe than that of the Irish Articles:
The essence of the Father doth not beget the essence of the Son,
but the person of the Father begetteth the person of the Son,
by communicating his whole essence to the person, begotten from
eternity. No such statement can be drawn from Scripture, or be
justified by any comprehensive view of the Holy Three, as consti
tuting together the one only and true God.

170 GOD IN HIS BEING.
The Symbols thus emphasize the doctrine of an immanent
Trinity, existing not through the will but in the constitution of
the Deity, and therefore eternal, re-
15. The Trinity interior ded ^ an interior fact. Such em-
and exterior : Trinity in Re- , . . ,. a ¦ . . ...
phasis is chiefly important as excluding
the heretical conception of a modal
and transitive trinity only — an economic manifestation of God in
time in order to redeem men, but having no existence, except as
a divine thought, prior to the introduction of the scheme of sal
vation through Christ. Not only was the thought of such a man
ifestation eternally in the mind of God : He was interiorly triune
before men existed, and even when he dwelt alone in the vastness
of his own eternity. But while this is true as a theologic propo
sition, the Symbols direct our attention much more fully and
frequently to the external trinity, as seen in the divine relations
to human life, and particularly to human salvation.
Viewing here this threefold distribution as practically economic
— having reference to the several functions of the Godhead toward
all external existence, we may observe that, while we are taught
(Ch. IV) that it pleased God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, in
the beginning to create or make of nothing the world and all
things therein, yet elsewhere the doctrine of the divine fatherhood
is pressed out, in connection with creation and providence, into
such prominence as justifies the recognition of the first Person as
specially primal and prominent in these spheres of divine activity.
It is true that the whole Deity is more apparent here, the trinita-
rian distinction being relatively retired; yet even in creation, and
still more plainly in providence, it is clearly the Father who comes
into the foreground of our vision, making the worlds and order
ing all things in the interest of his own benignant and gracious
plans for man. The opinion that the Spirit is the executive agent of
the Godhead in all spheres, and that it is He who created and
gives life to all, and providentially controls all things, is one for
which the Symbols furnish no warrant. They do not even lay stress
upon the agency of the second Person, as the instrumental cause in
creation, or the final cause in providence; but rather refer these pro
cesses to the first Person as representing herein the entire Deity.
Nor do they represent the fatherhood in God as referring simply
to relations established by grace: for while the relation of Creator
and creature is made prominent, as in the chapter on the Covenant,
(VII) it is by no means implied that this is the only relation, or that
man is not by nature a child of God as well as a subject. The
description of man as created after the divine image, and endued

DISTRIBUTION OF FUNCTIONS. 171
with knowledge, righteousness and true holiness, and as existing
in a special spiritual relation to God under the covenant of works,
implies a fatherhood before the fall; and the description of provi
dence, as wisely and tenderly concerning itself in human affairs
after the fall, certainly suggests a continuance of that natural re
lation, even after man had proved unfilial and undeserving. In
like manner, the exposition of the plan of grace as originating,
not in the action of the Son, but in the mind of God viewed
either as triune or as paternal, implies the existence of parental
feeling toward our fallen race, — redemption springing as truly from
that source as from the pitying love of the second Person or
the sympathetic grace of the third Person in the holy Trinity:
Crawford, Fatherhood of God.
This economic distribution of functions in the Godhead becomes
still more apparent and impressive, if we contemplate the person
and activities of the Son in creation, in government, and espec
ially in the work of redemption. On a cursory glance it is seen that
in each of these spheres, but eminently in the last, the exterior
trinity becomes a most conspicuous and most blessed fact. In
like manner, the mission of the Spirit, as originating in some sense
in the direction of the Father and the choice of the Son, brings
out this triune economy of offices and works in most impressive
fight. While we see the Father planning, determining, bringing
the whole scheme of grace to pass, — while we see the Son carry
ing out the paternal decree in his own incarnation, life, teaching
and sacrificial death, we also behold the Spirit taking up the
mighty work, and by his illuminating, regenerating, sanctifying
and organizing power bringing it to its glorious completion. It
is God whom we see, and see alike, in all these ministrations to
man as sinful: but it is God in his tri-unity, the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost.
While this distribution is less distinctly presented in the
Symbols than the fact itself would warrant, we may yet observe
this trinity of functions and office apparent in many incidental
phrases and suggestions. While, for illustration, the interior
nature of our Lord is so fully defined as to exclude all Arian or
Socinian error, it is his work, his active and passive relations to
human sin and salvation, which occupy the foreground of the
picture. In like manner the work of the Spirit is described in
a variety of ways and connections and with great earnestness and
skill, while his interior affiliations in the divine economy are
disposed of with the simple statement that he is a Person of like
nature with, and that he proceedeth eternally from, the Father

172 GOD IN HIS BEING.
and the Son. It is thus clear that the compilers of the Symbols,
whatever may have been their sense of the doctrinal importance
of the conception of an interior trinity, regarded this external
trinity as practically and for all purposes of religion the matter of
highest moment. And in this they were in accord alike with
the general judgment of believers, and with the deepest demands
of sound and pure theology. Hagenbach tells us (Hist, of
Doct. ) that what he styles the trios of revelation was held in
complete form by the early church long before any clear state
ments had been made concerning the essential trios: and his pre
sentation of the subject shows that while certain speculative
minds have in all ages been largely engrossed with the contem
plation of the latter, the former has generally been the trios on
which the faith and the heart of believers have most readily and
joyously reposed. Neander says (Hist. Dogmas,) that the doc
trine of God as the Creator and Redeemer and Sanctifier of
humanity in and through Christ was an essential element in the
Christian consciousness from the beginning, and that in this form
it has therefore always had a place in the faith of the Christian
Church. While studied on its interior and more recondite side,
the trinity is always in danger of becoming a speculation, inter
esting acute understandings and furnishing a field for ideal and
abstract debate, — studied on its exterior side, and especially in
connection with the matter of salvation, it becomes not merely an
intensely practical truth, but the ground and basis of all other
truths which are practical or saving in their influence. On this
side therefore, it is continually expressing itself in the sacred
formula of baptism, in the triple benediction, in the more biblical
confessions and professions of faith, and in the songs and prayers
and purest life of the Church of God.
It is impracticable here to present in any detail the massive argu
ment derivable from Scripture in support of the doctrine of the
Trinity as thus defined. It may be
16. Proof of the doctrine: jvoo1„ 0j„„,-4.4. A ., ,
Scripture and experience! f/edy ^fed that, whatever evi-
objections noted. dences or illustrations may be drawn
from physical nature, from the human
constitution or experience, or from the nature of God as a spir
itual being, or his contemplation of himself in the profound
recesses of his inward experience, the real and conclusive proof
must be obtained from the Bible alone. With the light of the
New Testament as our guide, we may discern words, phrases and
facts, which are suggestions of the trinity in the Old Testament,
and even in the earliest portions of the primitive Scriptures.

SCRIPTURE WITNESS TO THE TRINITY. 173
The triple form of benediction, the triple ascriptions of praise,
the manifestations of the angel of the covenant, the peculiar
revelations of the Jehovah, the special works and ministries
ascribed to the Spirit, the striking personification of wisdom, are
the more prominent illustrations. In the New Testament, gospels
and narratives and epistles alike, direct testimonies are apparent
in such number and such variety as to render it almost impossible
for any one who accepts the several books as canonical and inspired,
to set aside the doctrine. In the baptismal formula, in the apos
tolical benedictions, and in numerous passages which associate
the three persons together as distinct and permanent personalities,
having co-ordinated relations and activities, we are compelled at
least to recognize an external and economic, if not an interior
and perpetual trinity in God. Passages still more numerous
speak of the Father and the Son and the Spirit separately, as each
in an individual sense God, having attributes, filling positions,
performing works, which imply and prove the full divinity of
each. It is a noticeable fact that these evidences grow more
and more distinct, more and more conclusive, as the New Testa
ment advances toward its culmination, and that some of its most
decisive and irresistible affirmations occur in the book with which
the roll of Revelation fitly closes. So extensive and so decisive
are these testimonies, that those who refuse to accept the doctrine
are in many instances driven to the dark alternative of rejecting
as uncanonical those portions of the New Testament, such as the
Gospel and Epistles of John, which most repeatedly and directly
inculcate the truth, or challenging in general the inspiration or
the final authoritativeness of the clear teachings of Holy Writ
on this subject. The fact that the truth is gradually evolved in
the Scriptures, appearing first in occasional phrases and sugges
tions, becoming distinct in the incarnation, steadily increasing in
clearness and cogency during the ministry of Christ, formulating
itself in the apostolic letters, and reaching its completeness only
at the close of the entire process of biblical revelation, is fully
explained by the nature of the doctrine, and by the peculiar office
it subserves as in fact both foundation and capstone in the
Christian system. Had it been revealed at an early stage in that
process, it could not have been apprehensible by the Hebrew
mind, nor could it have been made, as it afterwards became
naturally and readily, a fundamental tenet in religious belief:
Bernard; Progress of Doctrine.
One of the most convincing corroborations to the truth of the
doctrine as thus enunciated in Scripture, is discoverable in its

174 GOD IN HIS BEING.
marked effect upon the spiritual experience, the religious life, of
those who intelligently receive it. Instead of being, as has some
times been alleged, a mystery confusing and injurious to faith,
the doctrine is found to sustain vital relations to practical piety
in many ways; and the argument drawn from Christian experi
ence in its favor, is in itself almost conclusive. It has well been
said that, if there were eliminated from the common Christian
consciousness all those elements which have flowed into it from
the recognition of God as Father and Son and Spirit, Creator and
Preserver, Redeemer and Sanctifier, very little of value would
remain. The best religious experience, as the history of practical
religion clearly manifests, grows out of the soil of trinitarianism,
when such trinitarianism is set forth, not as a dry and perplexing
dogma, but as a blessed spiritual verity and a divinely opened
fountain of rebgious refreshing and life. On the other side, there
are many historical illustrations of the fact that, wherever this
vital truth has been either rejected or regarded as a mere specula
tion, practical religion has declined, the consciousness of relation
ship to God has faded, the sense of duty has relaxed, the spirit of
worship and of service has died away. It is an eloquent state
ment of an eminent English divine (Smith, J. Pye) that believers
in this truth, and in the other doctrines of grace directly associ
ated with it, are in general most distinguished among all classes
of mankind for their personal holiness, their self-denial, their
readiness to take up the cross, to bear hardships, make sacrifices,
and go through difficulties and sorrows for the sake of God and
religion; their seriousness, gravity, humility, temperance; their
patience and meekness, their benevolence and activity, and their
zealous laboring in those works of beneficence to which worldly
motives are the least likely to conduct men.
The objections urged against the doctrine of the Trinity are
to some extent drawn from the Scriptures, but for the most part
are speculative, and in some- cases simply rationalistic. That the
Bible teaches the absolute unity of God, is not merely granted
but affirmed by those who accept its instruction respecting the
trinity in God: nor has it ever been shown that they are involved
thereby in the meshes of a contradiction which, if real, would
constrain them to reject the claim of Scripture to have come down
from God for the enlightenment and salvation of mankind. The
Bible is profoundly consistent with itself in inculcating both the
one truth and the other, and in the manner in which it reveals
and inculcates both, it proves itself to be the production, not
of man or by man, but of and by the Holy Ghost. Nor is it any

OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 175
real objection to this statement that, although the Scriptures are
thus distinct in their teaching, the Christian Church existed and
flourished for the first two centuries or more without any formu
lated statement of the doctrine, and even without making much
spiritual use of it; since it is true, that such doctrines are gener
ally realized in Christian experience before they find expression in
definite creeds, and also that Christian experience is itself a
growth, or a form of spiritual progress, in which what is simplest
in doctrine comes first into practical apprehension, and afterwards
that which is more complex and abstruse.
The speculative objections in the case are chiefly interesting as
illustrating alike the natural incapacity of the human mind to
apprehend profound and complex truth in whatever sphere, its in
ability when unvitalized by grace to perceive and rejoice in spir
itual doctrine, and its pitiful inclination to flee into any available
cave of objection whenever summoned to a life of faith and duty.
It is of course to be admitted that a doctrine which concerns itself
with God rather than with men, and with that transcendent pro
cess of disclosure which, starting in the recesses of the divine
nature, becomes visible to us in the three forms of Fatherhood
and Sonship and the Holy Ghost, would carry in it mysteries
which the intellect of man is unable to solve. It is to be expected
also, that in such a manifestation there would be much against
which the natural heart, misled by its own sinfulness, would revolt.
But it is also true that there are no such intellectual or ethical diffi
culties involved in this doctrine as constrain the human reason to
reject it, while on the other hand there are blessed exhibitions of
Deity in it, precepts and promises carried with it, joys and inspi
rations and hopes justified by it, which make it inexpressibly
welcome to the soul that is truly seeking after God.
Reserving further discussion of the divine nature and attri
butes and the trinity in God until these topics shall again present
themselves in connection with other
-.c 4.1. - 4,-u r^-u ¦ ..- a. *'• Concluding- review:
specific truths m the Christian system, Characteristic qualmes of
we may pause for a moment to note in thiS general presentation.
conclusion the theological comprehen
siveness, the spiritual elevation, and the practical power of the
general doctrine of God thus summarily presented in the Sym
bols. It cannot be questioned that their statements exhibit
marked familiarity on the part of the compilers with the philo
sophic and theologic problems involved, and with the experimental
aspects also of this fundamental doctrine. It is not indeed to be
presumed that they had special foresight of the multiplied errors

176 GOD IN HIS BEING.
and issues which have originated in later times around this group
of sacred truths, and which especially are so current in our own
day. Pantheism in its later varieties was to them an unknown
delusion: Spinoza was a youth as yet unfamiliar with philosophy,
when they were framing their terse expositions. English deism
and French atheism did not then exist except in their ruder germs;
and little could the Westminster divines have realized what on
slaught these enemies of the Gospel were hereafter to make upon
this cardinal section of Christian faith. MateriaUsm with its
doubts and negations, and with its supposititious substitutes for
the one primal, personal force from which all other forces and
potencies flow, had then no recognized existence. Yet it is a
remarkable fact that the clear, direct, strong declarations of the
Symbols just as they stand, are at this hour substantially the re
sponse of the common Christianity to each and all of these later
forms of criticism and unbelief. The arguments here suggested
have indeed been expanded: the field of illustration has widened;
the force of the divine testimony in the Scriptures has been more
clearly apprehended and stated. But there has been no essen
tial advance in the doctrine concerning God in his Being, because
there can be none. The answer of Westminster is in substance
the answer of the Christian church to-day; and that answer is a
barrier against which the waves of error have been vainly dashing
for more than two hundred years, and against which they are vainly
dashing now.. And the answer of to-day will be the answer pf
Christianity through all the future: God is a Spirit, infinite, eter
nal and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness,
justice, goodness and truth. And in the unity of the Godhead
there be three Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost;
yet these three (L- C. 9) are one true, eternal God, the same in
substance, equal in power and glory, although distinguished by
their personal properties.
The spiritual elevation of these statements is as marked as their
theologic comprehensiveness. No one can read the records of the
the Assembly without being convinced that, stern in aspect and
severe in manner as the members were, and shrewd as were some
of them in all affairs of church or state, they were as a body
men of true and deep piety. The evidences on this point, already
mentioned in part, are numerous and convincing. Such high
views of God spring only from genuine acquaintance with him.
If these views sometimes verged on puritanic rigidity or severity,
— if they sometimes led on to conclusions which sound harsh re
specting the divine purposes or administration, they certainly

WORTH OK THE WESTMINSTER DOCTRINE. 177
inspired and exalted in a peculiar degree the men who held them.
It is in no temper of cant, in no blind mood of adoration, that
we pronounce them holy men — men of God. Their exaltation of
God in his being and nature, their reverential mention of his
attributes and perfections, their worship of him in his glory and
eminently as seen in his Gospel, their devout recognition of his
presence and power in all things, and their entire and loving sub
mission to his will, are qualities not in equal measure exhibited
in any earlier formulary — not so forcibly or tenderly manifested
by the framers of any other Christian creed. It will always
stand to their credit that at the very outset of their exposition of
sacred doctrine they not only recognized the supremacy of the
Word of God, but set God himself on the throne, — that they so
heartily believed in him as the only and true God, — that they so
adored his perfections, revered his will, and pronounced it the
highest duty of every soul of man first to glorify him, and then
to enjoy him forever.
Hence the vast practical as well as speculative power of their
teachings. The simple proposition just quoted has beyond a
doubt done as much as any utterance of uninspired man to
influence the purposes, desires, aspirations and daily living of
mankind. Comprehensive and abstruse when viewed as a dog
matic truth, it changes when considered ethically into a great
spiritual principle, reaching all men alike, and comprehending
in its claim the entire Ufe. It is a rule which, like the Sermon
on the Mount, needs no special explanation or enforcement: all,
even the youngest, can see it and feel it at a glance; and wherever
it goes, it leads the heart, not to theology, but to duty and religion.
It is an impressive remark of Carlyle in his later years: The
older I grow — and I now stand on the brink of eternity — the
more comes back to me the first sentence in the Catechism which I
learned when a child, and the fuller and deeper its meaning becomes.
The entire teachings of the Symbols concerning God in his being
partake of the same spiritual and practical character: they are
quite as much religious as theological. Their prime tendency is
to quicken feeling, to stir and arouse the soul to loyalty and devo
tion. Especially do they lead to humiliation in view of sin, to
the honest confession of guilt and spiritual deadness, to cordial
submission to the divine will and working, to the dedication of self
to him whom they represent as the infinite and eternal Spirit, hav
ing all life in and of himself, and in his own being embodying all
possible majesty and perfection.

LECTURE FOURTH— GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
The Divine Decrees : Creation : Providence : Moral
Administration.
C. F. Chap. III-V : L. C. : 12-20. S. C. : 7-12.
The ground thus far traversed in this survey of the Westminster
Symbols, is chiefly ground common to all varieties of evangelical
Protestantism, so far as these formulated their beliefs during the
prolific era of the Reformation. With minor variations as to the
degree of fullness and exactness, as to the order of presentation,
and to the measure of emphasis, all were agreed in holding to
the Scriptures as being, above all opinions of men or churches,
the one absolute and perfect revelation from God, containing all
that man needs to believe in order to salvation, and' all the duty
God requires of man. All were agreed likewise in the general
conception of God himself in respect to his existence and nature,
his attributes and character, and his triune modes of being. Nor
does there appear to have been any important debate on either of
these subjects in the Westminster Assembly. Much as the mem
bers were inclined to differ on points yet to be considered in this
survey, all consented to appeal to the Word of God as the final
arbiter of faith : To the Law and to the Testimony all were ready
alike to pledge allegiance. Nor can we doubt that in the devotions
which were mingled with their earnest discussions — in the days
of fasting and worship which were throughout a significant feature
of their sessions, they cordially bowed together in true loyalty
before the one spiritual Being, infinite and eternal and unchange
able in eaeh attribute and quality, whom — as we have seen — they
so elaborately and powerfully delineated as the one and only God,
forever perfect and supreme.
Still it is true that in this theologic conception of the Godhead,
the Assembly had practically determined the contents, arrange-
, D»i„«„ ?« v. ment and theological character or qual-
l. Relations to subsequent .. . . . , , ,
doctrine: God essentially ^Y of the entire creed which they had
active. undertaken to formulate. From that
conception, the doctrines which they
subsequently enunciated concerning the divine plan of things, and
the divine sovereignty in creation and providence and grace, were

GOD ESSENTIALLY ACTIVE. 179
legitimate and even necessary inferences. It is indeed probable
that the Arminian party whose intense conflict with the strong
Calvinism of Dort had been the great theological event of the
preceding generation, would have held, in form at least, the same
general doctrine of God in his essential being. But it is obvious
that their efforts to work out a modified theory as to the divine
efficiency and purpose, especially in the sphere of grace, perhaps
inevitably reacted, even more decisively than they were themselves
aware, upon their practical apprehension of the more cardinal
truth respecting God himself. In their struggles against what
they regarded as a false view of the divine sovereignty, in their
endeavor to protect the correlative truth of the freedom and respon
sibility of man, in their desire to exalt the universality of grace,
and justify the free and full offer of the Gospel to all mankind,
they were led to put limits upon the knowledge, the regulative
capacity, the absolute right of God over his creatures, which
could not be carried out to their legitimate issues without seri
ously impairing the full biblical view of what God is in his being
and attributes, and in his physical and moral administration.
This may be an inevitable result of all such effort. The history
of the more positive Arminian theology in later times, even in its
most spiritual forms, reveals again and again the presence of such
a tendency. On the other side, it is certain that such a concep
tion of God as is found in the Westminster Symbols will by logical
necessity lead on to just such a group of doctrines as are imme
diately associated with it in the succeeding chapters on the eternal
Decree, Creation, Providence, the Fall, and the original Covenant
with Man. Without raising at this point any question as to the
desirableness of introducing into a church creed everything that is
contained in these chapters, we may recognize at least the theolog
ical necessity for the chapters themselves, in the order in which
they are here presented. And we may now therefore turn from
the contemplation of God in his constitution and character to
consider him in his activities — in those activities which are
generic, and which relate to the world and to man, reserving for
future examination those which especially exhibit his plan and
method in the field of grace.
That God is continuously and essentially active in the general
sphere just described, is everywhere assumed in the Symbols as a
necessary inference from the conception of him as a pure, free,
personal, absolute Spirit. The}' give no countenance to the notion
that, after finishing the initial work of creation, he left the
physical universe to run on by itself without his presence, through

180 GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
the action of the secondary causes which he had introduced into
it in the beginning. Still less do they furnish warrant for the
more injurious notion that, having created man, he has left him
also to the action of such causes, — the human will as an inde
pendent cause being chief among them; while he himself, as in
the Brahminic fable, sleeps in solitary grandeur among the stars.
It is in the very nature of such a Spirit to be eternally active in
all spheres of existence, though he is indeed unchangeable in his
being and nature. There can be no abatement or intermission in
the activities of the divine Spirit, whether arising from any
inward election or from any outward constraint. Nor is such
expression of-energy the result of unconscious instinct or of forces
dwelling in the divine mind, and constraining God to action as
by necessity. That he is thus ever active by virtue of what he
he is in himself as a perfect Being, is abundantly apparent.
His moral perfections also compel us to the conclusion that his
omniscient intelligence sees, and his omnipotent wisdom rules,
and his justice and goodness are ever manifest throughout his
vast creation. The Confession is in harmony with the profound-
est philosophy, and with the deepest convictions of the human
heart, in affirming (V : i) not only that God is the great Creator oi
all things, but also that he doth uphold, direct, dispose and govern
all creatures, actions and things from the greatest even to the least:
and this, not merely by the exertion of his sovereign energies
ab extra or occasionally, but also by an immanent presence and
power. When faith, says Calvin (Inst. B. 1 : 16), has learned
that God is the Creator of all things, it should immediately con
clude that he is also their perpetual governor and preserver; and
that not by a certain universal motion, actuating the whole
machine of the world, but by a particular providence sustaining,
nourishing and providing for everything which he has made. It
is in itself incredible that he should have created either the
physical universe of things or the moral universe of beings in
such a method that they evolve themselves eternally without his
omnipresent aid. Still more incredible is it that he should have
fabricated a creation which is capable of producing results
that are intrinsically at variance with his originating and domin
ating will. It is most of all incredible that he should ever
become indifferent to the movements or the issues of the two
universes which he has made, or should grow weary of his pro
vidential administration over them. Whatever difficulties may
present themselves in the effort to apprehend his activities,
—whatever insoluble problems may confront us in the study

THE ETERNAL DECREE. 181
of his transcendent movements, we can never find explanation
or refuge in the opinion that he is not thus resident as the
supreme energy in the evolution or government of all creatures,
actions and things. The doctrine of the divine immanency and
permanency in nature and in the life of humanity, however
mysterious or even incomprehensible it may seem, is one of the
fundamental principles in Christianity: without its explanatory
radiance both nature and man become alike inexplicable.
In taking up the subject of God in his general activities as thus
introduced, the doctrine of the eternal decree or decrees first
presents itself (Ch. Ill) for careful
scrutiny and exposition. The term, 2- The Eternal Decree. The
decree, is here employed to express the J^sHlS* '' ^^ ",d
generic proposition that God from all
eternity did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely
and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass. Such terms as
predestination, foreordination, election, reprobation, preterition,
relate to the divine decree as manifested within the particular
sphere of grace. In the more generic or comprehensive sense,
covering the entire field of the divine activity, the term, decree,
has its closest synonyms in such words as plan, design, purpose,
scheme, project, ordinance, edict. It is both a thought resident
eternally in the divine mind, and an intention to give expression
to that thought in correspondent action wrought out in time. It
involves both prevision and predetermination — the ability to
devise and the ability to execute what is devised in every sphere.
It does not imply voUtion or action without purpose, or a
merely arbitrary election without regard to conditions, or
activity unregulated by the moral qualities inherent in Deity. It
differs radically from the pagan notion of fate, by the cardinal
fact that it is personal both in the design and in the execution.
It involves a true and proper sovereignty such as a supreme per
son may exercise, but a holy sovereignty which carries in it not
only omnipotence but wisdom and love and righteousness. In
substance it implies, in the words of another, (Smith, H. B.
Christ. Theol.) that the present system of the universe in all its
parts, as it was and is and is to be, was an eternal plan or purpose
in the divine Mind. Postponing inquiry as to the moral qualities
of this divine ordination, or to the methods in which it is accom
plished in whatsoever comes to pass, we may now simply analyze
the conception itself. This conception contains the following
elements, — that God has a plan according to which his activities
are exercised, — that this plan was formed, not in the course of

182 GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
his activities as specific occasions might seem to require, but
rather from the beginning, from all eternity, — that this plan was
not partial or limited, but universal, embracing all beings and all
events in its scope, — that the actual outcome of events, the his
toric order of things as they are, is the consequence of this divine
plan, — and that the power and wisdom and varied perfections of
the Deity are all actively engaged in securing such historic results
according to the original purpose.
First: The conception of God as having such a comprehen
sive and conclusive plan is an inevitable consequence from what
we have already learned concerning him in his nature and per-'
fections. To conceive of him as putting forth such vast, con
stant, measureless energies as are requisite to the creation and
the providential and moral control of the universe, without intel
ligent acquaintance with the immense process in which he is thus
concerned — without wise adaptation of means to ends, and perfect
adjustment of the whole to some appropriate consummation,
would be a fatal impugnment, not merely of his capacity but also
of his character. To suppose that in the outworking of this plan
things may occur of which he was ignorant when he devised the
plan, or that he would set in motion a series of agencies and
forces, the will of man especially, whose working he could not
tell beforehand or chose not to foreknow, would be equivalent
to a denial to him of that wisdom which as a moral quality we
must ever regard as among the chief of his perfections. The
doctrine of God" as the absolute Spirit, endowed as such with all
possible perfections, inevitably carries with it the conception of
such a sovereignty as is here described, in respect both to com
plete prevision and to absolute predetermination. Moreover, the
relations of such a Being to the universe natural and moral, are
such as in a sense constrain him to frame and to execute his own
sovereign plans for that universe. Still further, the utter incom
petency of any creature, though endowed with angelic powers,
to undertake such a task is manifest. And assuredly the rebg-
ious sentiment in man could find rest, amid all the measureless
fluctuations of nature and of life, only in the belief that God,
not man or angel, is thus superintending and controlling all.
Secondly: It is obvious that this plan was formed from all eter
nity—before the execution of it began, and before anything out
side of God himself had an existence. Such is the meaning of
the term, eternity, in this connection. While the Bible often
suggests what seem like temporary schemes or expedients, changes
of design or administration, it furnishes no warrant for the

THE DECREE INCLUSIVE AND CONCLUSIVE. 183
supposition that the general plan of things is itself fragmentary
or indeterminate in the divine mind, — the result of a knowledge
developing through time. There is indeed an important modifica
tion of the doctrine of decrees which comes in at this point, and
which in some degree relieves that doctrine from the taint of fatal
ity, so commonly regarded as attaching to it. But the funda
mental truth must remain, — that the divine plan by its own nature
is eternal. As according to an ancient Confession there never
was a time when the Son was not, so there never was a time when
this plan was not, so far as the conception of it in the mind of
Deity is concerned. And as being eternal, it was also uncondi
tioned, — formed in absolute freedom, above and beyond all con
tingency that could be imagined to arise from the presence or
influence of any creature. The comprehensive decree could have
had no existence except in the divine mind, and it was throughout
simply and solely what the divine wisdom and will determined. It
is therefore unchangeable also — infinitely beyond and above all
temporal mutation. There are indeed modifications here or there
in the chronologic evolution of this sovereign purpose, but the pur
pose itself must be fixed in its unconditioned comprehensiveness
at the outset and forever.
Thirdly: This divine plan, thus formed in eternity, must also
be inclusive of all things and events: in other words, all the agen
cies, forces, principles, elements combined together in it, were
introduced and set in position by him who framed it. Were there
any single agent or principle which had broken into this pre
conceived system of itself, or whose workings were beyond his
cognizance or control, it would be impossible for God to be assured
of the product of this complex arrangement at any point, or confi
dent of the holy and happy outcome of his own scheme, whether
in providence or in grace. Whence could such agent or principle
come, and by what energy could it be supported in its action,
and toward what intelligent end could that action be directed, and
in what way could this end be. fully and forever assured? God
himself is in fact not merely the only possible fountain of all the
intermingling elements in his comprehensive system of things: he
must also sustain, vitalize, control all these elements, fully includ
ing every one of them in his plan, even from the beginning. There
can be nothing in nature or in man, so far as constitutional ele
ments or qualities go, which is not there in consequence of his
knowledge and his determination. Whatever difficulties may be
met in the attempt to account for the presence of any of these,
sin especially, or in apprehending the method in which God mfiy

184 GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
work out his purposes in and through them, especially when
malevolent, such difficulties are certainly not removable by the
supposition that there are elements or forces in the universe with
whose presence there God had nothing to do, or that his plan was
so limited or partial as not to include or control them. All sugges
tions of this sort impugn either the divine capacity or the divine
character, and are therefore to be set aside as inadmissible.
Fourthly: It is also obvious as an important element in the con
ception of the divine decree, that this plan, formed in eternity
and inclusive of everything outside of God, is carried into exe
cution in some real sense by his own supreme will and energy.
Such a plan does not execute itself: He alone must secure its ful
fillment. Raising no question at this point as to the particular
methods in which God secures the realizing in fact of his
own plan, or to the relations of his responsible activity to what
seem like sad malformations or misfortunes under that plan, we
can rest in no other conclusion than that all the forces or princi
ples incorporated practically in the scheme must have come from
him, and must in like manner be in some way sustained and regu
lated by him at every stage of their operation. To hold any
lower view involves either the conclusion that these principles or
forces have somehow become independent of God, or the still
darker conclusion that he has himself consented to the creation
of a universe wherein by his own choice things are moving on
confusedly and conflictingly toward some chaotic catastrophe, in
which he and the universe may perish together. To avoid such
dark hypotheses we must at all hazards rest in the conviction that
what the mind in God conceives, and what his wisdom determines
to accomplish, his omnipotent will and energy will surely bring
about. Here at least the Symbols of Westminster rest : the
Eternal Decree stands back of all created things, as not only con
ceiving but ordaining whatsoever comes to pass.
• Fifthly: Such a comprehensive and controlling plan or purpose
as has now been described must be in itself a sublime and ineffa
ble expression of all the perfections of Deity, and therefore furn
ishes occasion in all its forms, not for questioning or revolt, but
for adoration and rejoicing, for comfort and repose in all believing
souls. Instead of being an abstract dogma, valuable only as a
speculative basis for a theological system, the doctrine is intensely
practical, and to the rightly constituted mind, inexpressibly pre
cious and profitable. It is invariably so described in the Symbols,
in other Protestant creeds, and in Calvinistic or Augustinian
theology generally. The eternal decree is neither an unconscious

WISE, FREE AND HOLY ACTS. 1X5
effloresence from the bosom of God, nor an arbitrary edict, rep
resenting his sovereign will alone. In itself and in all its multiform
evolutions, it is a clear disclosure of all that God is as a perfect
Being, infinitely worthy of love and adoration. These are
postulates which nothing in such evolution, even the dark mystery
of sin or the kindred mystery of condemnation on account of sin,
should ever lead us to question. Neither should any aspect of
such disclosure lead us to question the correlated truth of human
freedom or responsibility, or to suppose that man is living and act
ing under a law of natural necessity as inexplicable as that which
rules the planets in their rotation around the sun. Still less should
it ever incite us to plunge as an alternative into the dark abysses
of a pagan fatalism, or of a pantheistic philosophy which seeks
to explain human life as evolving passively under the resistless
action of some unseen and unconscious power. All such altern
atives can afford neither light nor comfort to the soul. They rather
involve the understanding in perplexities which it can never solve,
and crush the moral nature under a paralyzing weight which it
cannot throw off, but must endure forever.
An interesting discussion seems to have arisen in the Assembly
respecting the use of the singular or the plural term, decree or
decrees, in the exposition of this gen-
i a \ ¦ 4, T ax. rs t ¦ 4.-U 3. Decree and decrees:
eral doctrine. In the Confession, the D1fferent views in the Assem.
singular is employed throughout, — ^jv
the divine determination being viewed
as one in fact, however various its historic manifestations. In the
Catechisms the plural form is used; and the one comprehensive
plan is described, as a series of wise, free and holy acts, issuing
from the eternal counsel of the divine will. These decrees or acts
are further set forth as unchangeably ordaining whatsoever comes
to pass in time ; and a further limitation is indicated in the added
language, especially concerning angels and men. The secret of
this variety in statement is at least partly revealed in the records
of the debate: Minutes: 150-2. In that debate Rutherford sug
gests that all agree in this, that God decrees the end and means,
but whether in one or more decrees ... it is very probable but
one decree: but whether fit to express it in a confession of faith.
Seaman, referring to the then recent conflict in Holland, replies:
All the odious doctrine of the Arminians is from their distinguish
ing of the decrees; but our divines say they are one and the same
decree. To this Reynolds answers: Let us not put disputes and
scholastical things into a confession of faith: I think they are dif
ferent decrees in our manner of conception. And Gillespie, though

186 GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
himself holding that in ordine naturae God ordaining man to glory
goes before his ordaining to permit man to fall, suggests in the same
spirit of liberty: When that word is left out, is it not a truth?
So everyone may enjoy his own sense. And Calamy emphasizes
the pertinent query of Rutherford in the question : Why should
we put it into a confession of faith ?
Yet the singular term, embodying as it did the conception of
the divine plan and purpose as one, both inclusive and conclusive,
and as formed from all eternity, did pass into the Confession,
and is consistently maintained throughout the chapter now under
examination. In the subsequent consideration of the Larger
Catechism, as if in deference to the opinion of the other party,
the plural term was admitted, apparently without much debate;
and the one decree is distributed into a series of decrees,
which are described as the wise, free and holy acts of God, flow
ing from the counsel of his will, and ordaining or bringing into
existence whatsoever comes to pass in time. Questions indeed arose
subsequently as to the order of these divine acts, viewed logically,
and specially as to the matter of permissive decrees, involving
the admission of sin into the world, and of elective decrees
respecting the saved and the lost, severally. Yet those who
insisted on the unity of the conception as indicated in the singu
lar term, probably felt that its introduction in the Conf ession was
a sufficient protection against the Arminian error, and that the
more chronologic plural form might be helpful in forestalling
criticism and in commending the teaching of the Symbols more
readily to popular acceptation.
One is tempted to say with the astute and saintly Rutherford:
If there be any argument to prove a necessity of one and the
same decree, we would be glad to hear it. Had the scholastical
conception of the one divine purpose and activity in the produc
tion of all actual events and issues given way, in the Confession
as in the Catechisms, to the more historic form of the same truth,
as seen in an actual series of such purposes and acts, no small
proportion of the misapprehensions of the doctrine, and of the
criticisms upon it now widely current, would have been avoided.
There can be no question in the mind of any intelligent Calvinist
whether a chapter embodying the general truth be fit to put in a
confession of faith, as Rutherford and Calamy had queried, since
that truth is to all who hold the Calvinistic system, a natural and
necessary consequence of their doctrine respecting God himself.
Yet as God hath been pleased to express by way of convenant, or a
succession of convenants following in chronologic order, his

ORDER OF THE DECREES. 187
scheme of moral administration and grace, so in general he hath
been pleased to reveal his one eternal purpose in a series of wise,
free and holy acts, which are evidently conditioned upon each
other, and are limited in the sphere and measure of their activity,
and which may be studied hoth independently and relatively, in
their proper historic form and connections. As the covenants are
to our apprehension many rather than one, according to the
biblical description of them, so the decrees are to our apprehen
sion rather many than one, — a series of divine acts, each con
taining its own specific revelation of the divine counsel, and all
combining to exhibit in some aspect that one sovereign scheme,
of which in a just sense all created things, all events and issues,
are the ordained result.
In respect to the order of the decrees viewed as chronologic
acts, two views were also manifest in the Assembly. Many held
with Rutherford that in ordine naturae
God ordaining man to glory goes before 4- 0rder of tne Decrees :
.. ... , ., , ., Supralapsarianism and Sub-
his ordaimng to permit man to fall. lapsarlanism.
Some held with Whittaker that in
reference to the element of time, the decrees are all simul and
semel: in eterno there is not prius and posterius. Calamy desired
that nothing may be put in one way or other; and referring to
the logical issue of the strict supralapsarian dogma, described it
as making the fall of man to be medium executionis decreti. Yet
it is evident that there was a strong party in the Assembly who
leaned rather toward the supralapsarian view. According to that
view the salvation of the elect was the final end of God in the
creation of the human race; and the ultimate exhibition of his
own glory, whether in the salvation or in the eternal condem
nation of men, was to be taken as the regulative principle in the
case. To secure this end a scheme of salvation was to be provided
for those who were ordained thereto: as essential conditionally,
the fall of the race must be permitted, and indeed in some sense
produced: as initiatory, the creation of both man and nature was to
be devised and accomplished; and as co-ordinate, the condem
nation of a certain proportion of the race must be predetermined
from eternity. Sin especially was to be admitted, so far as the
divine permission extends, in order that salvation might be intro
duced, and the primal decree of election carried into execution, —
the glory of God being manifested both in the final redemption of
the elect through grace, and in the final condemnation of the
wicked to the praise of his glorious justice .
That the sublapsarian explanation had strong representatives

188 GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
in the Assembly is already apparent. According to this view
the divine decrees, contemplated as a series of sovereign acts,
were to be considered, not in their abstract philosophical quality,
with reference to their final end simply, but rather in the order of
their historic manifestation in the Scriptures. In this light,
creation is seen to be the first, initiating act; followed by the
permissive decree respecting the fall, and the consequent sin
fulness of the race; and the decree or act of election is regarded
as introduced in full view of what mankind through sin have
already become. By most of those who held this view such elec
tion was contemplated as prior in time to the further decree or
act by which the salvation of the elect was provided for; the indi
viduals to be saved being first chosen, and the general scheme
of salvation being then devised in order to secure this result.
It is claimed that this view predominated in the Assembly, and
is indicated in the declaration, (Chap. Ill) that God appointed
the elect unto eternal life, in view of the sinfulness which had
already come upon mankind, while he determined to ordain others
to dishonor and wrath for their sin as actually committed. A
similar indication is supposed to reveal itself in the Shorter
Catechism, (19:20) where God is said out of his mere (or pure)
good pleasure to have elected some — some of those already con
templated as under his wrath and curse — unto everlasting life.
Yet the strong statements of the Confession as to the absoluteness
and the eternity and the' singleness of the divine decree hardly
seem to justify this claim. The noted treatise of Twisse, the first
Prolocutor of the Assembly, in support of the dogma of absolute
reprobation, is suggestive here.
The question whether the Westminster Assembly as a body
inclined to the supralapsarian or to the sublapsarian position,
has been zealously discussed. Hodge (Syst. Theol.) claims that
the great majority of its members were sublapsarian, but admits
that the Symbols were so framed as to avoid offense to those who
adopted the supralapsarian theory. Macpherson quotes the rejec
tion, during the discussion, of the phrase, to bring this to pass
God ordained to permit man to fall, as evidence of the supreme
influence of sublapsarianism in the Assembly. Mitchell refers to
the same action, and to the language of some members during the
debates, as indicative at least of the fact that the positive
supralapsarianism of Twisse and others did not have its own way
altogether in the deliberations. But indications are not wanting
that, if indeed that type of Calvinism did not control the body,
it was so far influential as to prevent the sublapsarian view from

DIVERSITIES OF VIEW. 1N<)
having clear or sufficient expression in the S5~mbols — specially in
the Confession. If a majority were inclined to that view, as
Hodge on what seems to be insufficient ground affirms, they
were not positive or earnest enough to gain any decisive victory
for their own dogma. Several phrases occur in the Confession
which, if they do not absolutely sustain the supralapsarian con
ception, do still give no small support to those who held it. And,
were the Confession ever to be revised so as to bring it into
harmony with the milder and wiser doctrine now current, there
can be little doubt as to the fate of these supralapsarian phrases.
Whether it is in harmony with the doctrine of the Symbols to
go farther in this analytic view of the decrees, as acts in some
sense successively conceived and successively occurring in time,
and to represent the particular election of believers as consequent
upon the general plan of salvation — God devising and determin
ing first the plan, and then choosing those in whose case that
plan should become effectual — has also been matter of earnest
discussion. If the historical conception of the decrees is to be
followed out exactly, according to the sublapsarian method, this
would seem to be the more appropriate mode of arranging them —
the plan first, and the specific election subsequently. Is it neces
sary to regard the particularistic selection of a certain number of
individuals out of the whole race, or out of what has been
described as creatable man, — a selection made from all eternity,
and without any foresight of faith, or any reference to character
in the persons thus chosen — as the necessary antecedent to the
devising and determining upon a plan of salvation for mankind
viewed as fallen ? Is this the legitimate interpretation of those
portions of Scripture which represent the salvation of the elect as
from all eternity; or of those which set forth salvation as having
sole and exclusive reference to the elect? Would it not be just
as much in harmony with the ordinary presentation of the whole
matter in the Word of God, if the divine plan of grace were
placed first in the order of time, and the salvation of the indi
viduals under that plan were viewed as correlative and consequent ?
These inquiries will call for closer consideration when the doc
trine of the Symbols respecting the plan of redemption, its scope
and its working, comes up more immediately for consideration.
It is enough here to note the fact that, whether the letter of the
Symbols may or may not justify it, this view of the historic
order of the decrees is widely held by persons who are true Cal-
vinists in belief, and whose loyalty to the general doctrine can
not be questioned.

190 GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
It is interesting to observe the care and skill with which the
mode of executing the one decree or the several decrees of God,
is stated in the Symbols. It cannot be
5. Modes of executing the doubted that the conception of the
decrees: Second Causes: The diviQe decre£ ag single tendg to bri
human will. . . , . , ., ,. .
m a correlated view of the divine exe
cution of that one decree as single, invariable and absolutely
resistless. And, as the system of nature furnishes the primary
illustration and type of such executive energy, it is natural that
many minds should conceive of a like potency, equally necessary
and resistless and supreme, accomplishing results in the same way
within the higher sphere of character. Some statements of the
Confession give significance or color to this misconception; as the
declaration that God in his providence maketh use of means, yet
is free to work without, above and against them at his pleasure ; or
the strong doctrine of the chapter on God, that he hath most
sovereign dominion over all things, to do by them, for them or upon
them whatsoever himself pleaseth. If his working in whatever
sphere, in the exercise of his most sovereign dominion, were all of
one type, and that type were illustrated simply in the grand move
ments of physical nature, it is hard to see, how such dominion
would fall short of practical fatalism, or how any room would be
left either for human liberty or for human accountability before
him. But it has well been said (Smith, J. Pye), that it is one of
the attributes of the Infinite Being, the First Cause and Supreme
Upholder and Governor of all things — an attribute peculiar to his
own unparalleled and incomprehensible nature — that he brings all
things to effect, in such manner as is becoming to his infinite.
excellence, without any compromise of his own holiness, and with
the full preservation of all true Uberty to rational creatures.
The corrective to all erroneous tendency is found in the clear
proposition of the Confession (V : ii) that, although in relation to
the decree of God, the First Cause, all things come to pass immut
ably and infallibly, yet he ordereth them to fall out according to
the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contin
gently. While therefore it is maintained abstractly that God may
work out his purposes independently of all secondary agencies, as
he certainly did in the primal fiat of creation, yet this declaration
teaches the great correlative truth, that ordinarily he makes use
of such agencies, working in and through them to the accomplish
ment of his own supreme ends. It may be that the affirmation
of his independence upon the creature — his ability to work with
out, above and against means at his pleasure — was intended

THE DECREES, HOW EXECUTED. 191
especially to provide room for the recognition of miracles as events
occurring in the sphere of nature, but produced by a power wholly
above nature. In this view that affirmation is certainly in entire
harmony with the general truth already stated, — that God ordi
narily ordereth all things to fall out according to the nature and
through the activity of what genetically are called second causes.
These causes are instituted by him, receive their causal capacity
from him, work under limitations which he has imposed, toward
ends and issues which in some deep sense he has chosen and pre
determined. He ordereth them so that, while all things fall out
according to them, and in harmony with them, these things also
eventuate as he in his sovereignty determines.
This divine activity in and through such second causes is
described as working necessarily , freely, or contingently ; in other
words, in full accordance with the nature of these causes respect
ively. The active agencies of nature, for example, work under
necessity, — without intelligence or volition of their own, and
without choice or even knowledge of the results toward which
they are working. The entire sphere and operations of physical
creation come under this law of material necessity; in other words,
that creation is a vast mechanism, moving on by forces above itself
toward issues not chosen by itself, under the irresistible guidance
of him who made it. But in the sphere and realm of humanity,
God causeth things to fall out freely rather than necessarily, —
according, in other words, to the constitution of the human will
viewed as a second cause, having an inherent capacity for free
action, and according to the principles incorporated in his moral as
distinct from the material system of things. While the will of man
is itself not a first but a second cause, and as such must be empow
ered even in its freest or wildest activities by God himself as the
first cause, yet he hath endued the will of man with that natural
liberty (IX : i) that it is neither forced nor by any absolute necessity
of nature determined to good or evil. Here a clear distinction is
made between second causes working necessarily in nature, and
the will as a second cause of a peculiar class, working freely in a
region above nature — the region of moral life and action. The
importance of this distinction will further appear when we come
to the consideration of man as a subject under the moral govern
ment of God : it is well here to record the fact that such a
distinction is made, and made so strongly and unequivocally.
The conception of second causes working neither necessarily
nor freely, but contingently, is doubtless brought in to provide
for an explanation of the introduction and permission of sin.

192 GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
While nothing can be viewed as accidental in the divine adminis
tration, — while even sin is said to be on the one side permitted
by God, but on the other side powerfully bounded and held in
check by him, yet the Symbols carefully deny that God either is
or can be the author or approver of sin; the incoming of that dire
calamity being in some true sense contingent in his scheme—
contingent, but not fortuitous or irresistible in his sight. It is
said with justice, that there is no contingent event or issue with
God; yet in his Word he often seems to make events turn on
specified contingencies, and even his decree respecting the irrup
tion of sin into our world must be viewed as dependent upon an
abuse of human liberty and choice which he neither ordained
nor approved, in any full serise of these words. Contingency
clearly implies something more than possibility: it implies both a
foreknowledge of the event contingently introduced, and a cer
tain measure of causal force with respect to it. But this causal
force differs radically from that which regulates the procession
of the seasons, and also from that which directs and aids a soul
in the pathway of holiness, — God seeming in his sovereignty to
stand aside and suffer the human will as a second cause to work
out results which he never created it to produce, and for whose
production he holds it to a strict accountability before him.
As a corrective to certain erroneous tendencies respecting the
exaltation of natural law in the spiritual sphere on one side, and
a fatalistic rationalism on the other, it should be affirmed with
emphasis that in executing his decree or decrees God invariably
adapts his activity to the nature of the specific sphere in which
his particular purposes or determinations are to be accomplished.
In creation his own will acts directly, immediately, in absolute
sovereignty, with no subordinate agency intervening or assisting.
In the sphere of providence he secures his intended results
through second causes, — these causes acting with an efficiency
imparted by him, and in subordination to his own supreme causa
tion. In moral government he executes his purposes through
the human mind as a particular cause or agent, — his specific
designs being accomplished by processes which do no violence to
the constitution of man as a free and responsible creature. In
•the sphere of redemption the divine decree is executed primarily
through the Holy Spirit as an agent, working in and through
both providence and the moral nature of man, — not ignoring or
(jvercoming the human will, but so regenerating and sanctifying
"^at the designed result in grace is certainly effected. In
tjhere, God truly executes his eternal purpose, whether it

MORAL QUALITY OV THE DECREES. 193
be through physical necessity as in creation and providence, or
as in moral government and redemption through a necessity
which is not physical but moral and gracious,— adapted perfectly
to the nature of the soul in man, yet as assured in its results as
any event in the world of nature. These propositions will recur
for closer consideration in conjunction with the doctrine of pro
vidence, and especially with the plan and process of redemption.
One further point in the doctrine under examination remains
to be noted, — the spirit in which the decrees of God are said to
be executed, and the moral qualities
revealed in the forming and accom- 6' sPlrIt in wnlch tlle
... £4.1. j- decrees are executed: Moral
phshment of the divme purposes, quallty of tne decrees.
whether in nature or moral govern
ment, or in the sphere of grace. In the latter sphere we are not
left in doubt as to the impelling motive in the divine mind. God
out of his mere, (pure) free grace and love, and without anything
in the creature as conditions or causes moving him thereunto, devised
the plan of salvation, and poured all the energies of his perfect
nature into its accomplishment. So also the almighty power,
unsearchable wisdom, and eminently the infinite goodness of God,
are said (V:iv) to manifest themselves in his providence. Even
when he doth leave for a season his own children, suffering them
to fall into trial and subjecting them to chastisement, he is said
to be most wise, righteous and gracious in such severer provi
dences, working out not only what equity requires, but also what
the purest love desires for its cherished objects. In these spheres
the paternal quality in God, his boundless interest even in the
natural life and happiness, and still more in the spiritual develop
ment and blessedness of his creatures, is both clearly recognized,
and forcibly stated; and so far as the specific decrees in these
spheres are concerned, we are taught that the love, tenderness,
grace of God are as fully expressed in them as is his justice or his
sovereignty. Here the Father blends with the Creator and the
King; and over the majesty of royalty a smile is ever breaking.
Is it either unphilosophic or unscriptural to carry the same
view into every part or section of the one divine decree on which
everything from creation to salvation turns ? Is not the infinite
goodness of God just as apparent in creation as in providence: —
in that primal determination of fatherhood which produced these
myriads on myriads of creatures, gave them their capacities, and
made them competent to move through all their varied cycles..of
life and enjoyment devised by him, as in those specific Pimis-
trations of interest and care which are so abundantly sees in the

194 GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
actual ongoings of such a creation? Looking at the decree of
God once more as one, — contemplating his single and individual
purpose in all its sublime vastness, may we not as truly say that
all the perfections of the Godhead — goodness and fatherhood, as
truly as wisdom or justice or omnipotence — are combinedtogether
in that stupendous plan, every attribute blended with every other,
abke in its conception and throughout its progressive execution ?
Must we even say that the darkest, most mysterious and painful
aspects of that decree are exhibitions of one class of faculties or
perfections only, rather than the illustration of what God is in
the unity and the glory of his perfect character ? Must we affirm
that the admission of sin, and the enforcement of law, and the
punishment of offenders, and the final condemnation of the lost,
are events which are referable to inscrutable sovereignty or to
vindicatory justice simply, with no trace in them at any point of
that unfathomable goodness which ever dwells in God, and which
must ever be recognized as one in the circle of jewels encrowning
Him as King and Father of us all ?
It is obvious that the Assembly took what must be regarded as
the severer view of the divine character, as exhibited in these
aspects of the one divine decree. Following the general current
of antecedent Calvinism, they referred that decree to the
most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably
ordaining whatsoever comes to pass. In thus emphasizing the
divine will, viewed simply as sovereign volition, they failed to
grasp the cardinal fact that the will of God can be none other
than the expression of all his perfections, — of his complete and
holy personality. They affirmed that God, for the manifestation
of his own glory, — the glory of his righteous and powerful sover
eignty rather than of his fatherly love — predestinated some men
and angels unto everlasting life, and foreordained others to ever
lasting death. They declared in respect to the latter class, that
they were thus ordained to dishonor and wrath, not merely for
their sin, but also for the glory, or glorifying, of his sovereign
power over his creatures, and to the praise of his glorious justice.
Following Calvin, while they referred the decree of salvation
wholly to grace, they thus referred the decree of reprobation
wholly to justice and to an inscrutable sovereignty: they justified
such reprobation on the ground of law and equity, even while
affirming that the persons thus reprobated were from all eternity
chosen and set apart for such a fate. It is not strange that many
whoHcad such statements, have said with Calvin himself: It is
an awful decree. It is not strange that the milder conception of

GOD AS CREATOR. 195
preterition should gradually be substituted, even in the minds of
the most loyal adherents to the Symbols, for the more positive
conception of an eternally foreordained reprobation. Nor is it
strange that the question should so often be raised whether there
be not some method of softening the severity, if we might not
rather say the heartlessness, of these statements, — whether they
might not even be eliminated from the Confession, or at least
radically modified, without impairing any principle essential
either to a just and wise Calvinism or to spiritual Christianity.
Inasmuch as the symbolic teaching of Westminster respecting
the decrees of God will again present itself in connection with the
specific plan of salvation, in the two
aspects of election and reprobation, ?- Creation: false theories
.. , ., .. excluded: God the Creator.
we may with these suggestions respect- Fatherh00d in creatlon.
ing the doctrine, now pass on to the
consideration of the subject of Creation as brought before us in
the Symbols, (Ch. IV), noting successively the creative act, the
divine method in creation, the extent of the creation, its quality,
and the end of God in creation.
False theories of creation, whether existing in the seventeenth
or in the eighteenth or nineteenth century, are met at the outset
by the simple affirmation, so abundantly justified by Scripture:
It pleased God to create. That the earth on which we dwell with
all its creatures and contents, and the vast universe of worlds and
systems of which the earth seems indeed an inconspicuous portion,
can have come into existence without any adequate cause, by some
species of fortuitous accident or fate, is a conclusion not merely alto
gether unphilosophic, but in many aspects monstrous — a hypoth
esis both intellectually and ethically inadmissible. An eminent
scientist has recently affirmed as a conclusion certainly established,
that no fortuitous concourse of atoms, with all eternity for them
to clash and combine in, could compass the fact of the formation
of the first optically organic compound: and the same authority
concludes that such a result is possible only through the agency
of some directive force, intelligent in character. That all this
boundless result has issued from the action or interaction of cer
tain physical causes or energies at work in nature— the final
product of a congeries of processes and evolutions and causal
changes, of whose origination man can know or affirm nothing,
is equally a conclusion in which no mind, truly apprehending the
nature of the problem, can contentedly rest. If any such mind
should set aside as unsatisfactory the teachings of revelation as to

196 GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
the origin of things, it must still ask itself the underlying ques
tion, Whence came these causes, forces, regulative principles; —
where and how did this series of processes, evolutions, develop
ments begin ? It is to be granted that some who hold such theo
ries of creation, while denying the possibility of answering these
questions from scientific data, still find the answer as a matter of
faith in the scriptural teaching : It pleased God to create. If it
be true, as is claimed by some advocates of the hypothesis that all
the existing forms of vegetable and animal life have been pro
duced through the process of successive birth and generation
from original vital germs, — if it be true that this hypothesis may
be held in entire harmony with the Scriptures, still these vital
germs must be accounted for, and the only possible ground for
their existence must be found ultimately in a creative and fontal
Spirit such as God is seen to be. We may justly maintain that a
wise, deep, reverent philosophy may and ought to go beyond
such recognition of whatever is confessedly secondary in the case..
We may justly hold that these secondary causes and forces point
directly to one primal cause, some directive force intelligent in
character, as their only possible antecedent, — that these vast and
sublime movements and processes indicate irresistibly the action
in and upon them of conscious and competent Mind, — that the
only hypothesis which science itself can accept as meeting prop
erly all the conditions of the stupendous problem, is the hypoth
esis of one supreme, glorious and perfect Person from whom
creation has immediately come. To say that this is the explan
ation of Scripture, and that the affirmation is to be received not
only as a truth of faith or of sentiment, but as a fact that can be
scientifically apprehended, as well as maintained on biblical au
thority, is to affirm precisely what the divines of Westminster
taught. To their clear statement the two centuries since have
added nothing: against it all the speculations, doubts, hypoth
eses of man, even in our own age of questioning and conflict, have
brought no effectual refutation.
The work of creation is referred in this chapter to the Holy
Trinity— Father, Son and Holy Ghost. In the comprehensive
sense of the term, God, as including equally the three divine per
sonalities, is the alone fountain of all being — of whom, through
whom, and to whom are all things. The Second Helvetic Con
fession (Cap. VII) declares that the good and omnipotent God
created all things, visible and invisible, through (or by) his co-
eternal Word, and preserves them through his co-eternal Spirit.
The Belgic Confession (Art. VII) teaches that the Father by the

CREATION, AN ACT OF FATHERHOOD. 197
Word— that is, by his Son — created of nothing the heaven, the
earth and all creatures, giving unto every creature its being, shape,
form and several offices to serve its Creator. The Symbols, as
we have seen, bring the entire Deity into view as engaged alike in
the creative act. In the list of biblical references quoted in this
chapter, certain passages (eliminated in the recent revision of proof
texts) are introduced as referring to the Holy Spirit as the special
agent in creation, where clearly it is God viewed as Spirit, or
the spiritual God without regard to the separate personalities, who
is contemplated by the inspired writers as Creator. The work of
the Holy Ghost, so far as described elsewhere in the Symbols, is
wholly a work of grace; and it may justly be questioned whether
there is any clear confessional or biblical description of the Spirit
as concerned primarily with either creation or providence. That
the Spirit is the executive of the Godhead in creation and prov
idence, or that he is in any natural sense the omnium viventium
anima, as Cyprian styles him, is nowhere affirmed. Other pass
ages in this list refer to the Son as an instrumental medium or agent
in creation — all things being made both by him and for him; yet
these texts are always set in such connection with the scheme of
salvation in which the Son is central and chief, as to lead us to
view him as the mediate or the final rather than the originating and
efficient cause in the primal act of producing the universe. Else
where, and much more frequently, that primal act is referred in
the Bible to the Father, as first among the three personalities, and
to him as a special act or manifestation of his fatherhood. Group
ing together, in its totaUty, the teaching of Scripture on this
point, we must not only affirm with our own Confession that it
pleased God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost to create, but also
say with the Nicene symbol: We believe in one God, the Father
Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and
invisible. It is in this act of creation, that the divine fatherhood
has its primal manifestation, so far at least as it refers to man. It
is the Father who creates and who also governs, as it is the Son
who redeems, and the Spirit who regenerates and sanctifies. Pear
son on the Creed: Crawford, Fatherhood of God.
Laying proper emphasis on the word pleased, as an imperial
term, and associating with it the teaching of the Catechisms that
God executeth his decree in this work of creation, and calling to
mind at the same time the biblical conception of God as will, holy
and supreme and resistless, we discover at once how sublime as
well as simple is the doctrine of the Symbols at this point. While
indeed creation is as to its purpose referred to the goodness of God,

198 GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
it is his eternal power and wisdom— the superb majesty of his
decree and his volition, on which the thought of the Assembly
was chiefly fixed. It could say nothing simpler, nothing grander,
than the familiar statement: It pleased Him. When we meditate
on what is implied in the idea of such pleasure, pervading the
divine mind, flowing as a vast river through the divine heart, and
finally expressing itself in the sublime edict which at a word
called into existence a universe such as this, with all the vast and
enduring interests involved in such an exercise of the divine voli
tion, we begin to apprehend in some feeble degree the joyous
love, the immeasurable happiness, the moral felicity in the breast
of Deity, out of which the universe sprang. Such a description
was in beautiful conformity with the delineation of God in his
nature and character and relations, which had preceded it in the
Confession, and it sets before us in its true majesty this strange,
wondrous, exalted Creative Act. Neither the Confession of Augs
burg, nor any other among the earlier creeds of the Reformation,
contains any extended reference to the divine work in creation:
they seem to have rested simply in the declarations, terse and sim
ple, of the apostolic and Nicene symbols. Even the Heidelberg
Catechism contains only what may be regarded as an incidental
reference to the Eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, (26)
who of nothing made heaven and earth, with all that in them is.
In the Thirty-Nine Articles we find only the simple allusion to
God as the Maker and Preserver of all things, both visible and
invisible. Statements somewhat more extended, but of the same
quality, are found in the French and Belgic Confessions. The
fullest account appears in the Irish Articles, where it is said (18)
that in the beginning of time, when no creature had any being,
God by his word alone, in the space of six days, created all things.
It was left to the Assembly of Westminster to set forth the doc
trine of creation in a form which both fully incorporates the
teaching of the divine Word, and most effectually meets, even
down to our own time, the queries and the oppositions of human
unbelief. We are confronted at this point by various antagonistic theories
as to the origin of things. Those who set aside the authority of
Scripture respecting such origin, may simply affirm that it is im
possible for man to solve the problem of creation, and that his
wisest course is to turn away from that problem as altogether
inscrutable. Creation, they say, is in itself a palpable and tre
mendous reality; but whence it came, and whither it is tending,
and where or how it will reach its consummation, it is not given

METHOD OF CREATION. 199
to man to know. Those who cannot rest in this discouraging
proposition may affirm either that matter is eternal, (Mill ) in
such sense as to exclude altogether the theory of a creation of
matter by some power or agent higher than itself; or that matter,
(Huxley) is in some way endowed with an inherent vitality or
energy, in virtue of which it has gradually evolved itself into the
forms which we see it assuming on the earth and in the starry heav
ens above the earth. The solution of the problem, in other words,
is sought in nature rather than in any spiritual agency higher than
nature, by which such vitality is imparted to nature, or through
whose potency matter has been evolved into its present multiform
and marvelous developments. Related to this is the pantheistic
theory of creation as the spontaneous outflow or emanation of an
unconscious deity — an expansion of his infinite substance into
space and time by a process involving neither intelligence nor
volition, but is constitutional and inevitable. It is impracticable
here to enter upon a specific explanation or refutation of the
numerous solutions of the great question respecting the origin of
things, which are included in these general descriptions. The
best refutation of them all may be found in the biblical reference
of creation to the efficient fiat of an absolute, free, wise and holy
Spirit, resident in a sphere infinitely above nature, who simply
spake and it was done — who simply commanded and, in the strong
phrase of David, it stood fast, and is still standing fast through all
its changes as the abiding witness to his existence, to his supreme
power, and to his perpetual presence and domination in and
through the universe which he has made.
Thus recognizing God in his supreme personality as the ultimate
source of all created things, we may turn to consider the methods
or processes of creation, as here de-
f, , . , , , ' , , ,. 8. Method of Creation:
scribed in the phrase, by the word of his The WQrd o( power . The six
power. As God himself is no panthe- Days.
istic spirit, pervading all nature, insep
arable from nature, and unconscious in his manifestations in and
through nature, so the universe is not a mere emanation from his
substance, a mere objective exudation from his interior essence, or
an involuntary evolution of forces contained within his nature
and working themselves out through their own efficiency. The
word which creates is not the dreamy utterance of an abstract
deity asleep among the stars: it is the omnific voice of a personal,
conscious, sovereign God. It is also a word of power — a power
which is in the highest sense causal, and which is centered and
embodied in the divine will. The power of God here referred to

20Q GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
is not the pressure of strong winds, the force of swollen rivers
hasting over cataracts to the sea, the sweep of planets through
the sky; — these are only its external indications and measures.
It is the power that dwells in spirit, — a power apparent even in
the imperfect volitions of men, seen in the activities of the flying
hosts of angels, but resident supremely in the divine personality
alone. It is this power, dependent on no conditions and capable
of producing in itself all actual or conceivable results, which is
here recognized as the true originating cause and fount of all
things. From this all secondary varieties of potency flow: toward
this, they all immediately and alwayspoint as both their true ori
gin and their final end.
The term, power, does not stand in this connection for a single
attribute: wisdom and goodness are associated with it as represent
ing the entire perfection and glory of God as exhibited in the
work of creation. In the general view of sovereignty presented
in the Symbols, it is probably true that mere power, especially in
the form of sovereign control, is too prominently, if not exclu
sively, pressed forward to the comparative retirement of other,
even more attractive qualities in the divine character. Yet it is
easy to see that potency by itself, however irresistible — however
closely resembling a resistless fate, is not the highest or in any sense
the controlling attribute in God. Such potency commands rev
erence, as distinguished from dread or terror, only as it is seen to
be controlled by perfect wisdom, directing it by right channels
toward righteous and adequate ends. The term, goodness, proba
bly refers in this connection less to beneficence — to the exhibition
of tender and gracious fatherhood in God in the act of crea
tion, than to moral excellence in general, — that goodness, or holi
ness, which is the crown and summation of the divine perfections.
Hence the act of creation is one in which all the moral as well as
the natural attributes of Deity are said to find suitable expres
sion: the whole of God, if we except those peculiar manifesta
tions which accompany salvation, is made manifest here. It may
be questioned whether a more definite intermingling of what is
indicated in the term, fatherhood, might not have saved the doc
trine from that aspect of severity or arbitrariness or mere will,
which in some degree characterizes it as presented in the Confes
sion. At least, the word glory, which is the keynote of the whole,
tends to lead our minds toward the conception of sovereignty
rather than to the antithetic truth: it is the glory of the King
rather than the glory of the Father, by which we are awed into
silence as we meditate upon the sublime creative act.

CREATION EX N1HILO. 201
The expression, of nothing, found in both Confession and Cate
chisms has a deep significance, especially in the presence of the
multiplied theories of spontaneous development, evolution, cyclical
growth, so current in our time. Not only is creation declared to
be the issue of supreme will and wisdom: it is described as a
making, and a making from nothing, by an omnipotent word.
While under this statement a theory of progressive stages in
creation, with manifest increase of energy and higher exhibitions
of intelligence at each stage, may possibly stand, no hypothesis
of external matter evolving itself into shape, of primordial germs
existing independently at first and then molded into forms of life
and beauty by the divine, hand, or of laws and processes working
out in some mysterious way their own results, while God merely
interposes at certain points in the vast, blind, natural develop
ment, — no such hypothesis can by any possibility be harmonized
with the phrase, of nothing. As has already been intimated, the
conception of matter as something existing eternally, and inde
pendently of God, with capabilities and functions inherent in
itself, is decisively excluded by such a statement. Given the
existence of a personal, free, primordial Spirit, and the existence
and activities of matter may be explained; but not otherwise,
however earnest or however confident may be the efforts to find
such explanation elsewhere. In the beginning to which the Con*
fession refers, — that beginning which is antecedent to all organ
ized existence outside of God, and even to all matter, though it
were as minute or ethereal as the fabled dust of the stars, God
personally commenced this work of creation. He had no material
to work with or to work upon; he could utilize no principle or
force or law objective to himself; he made all these, and all that
afterwards came into being through their tributary activities; he
made the world and all things therein, whether visible or invisible,
of nothing — of nothing. Such is clearly the biblical as well as the
confessional teaching. Whatever meaning may be attached to
such words as created or made in the original record in Genesis,
there can be no question that the Bible in its totality teaches the
doctrine of an absolute origination of all things by God at a
period when, in the language of the Irish Articles, no creature
had any being. If it be said that such a statement is difficult or
even incomprehensible, it must be admitted also that the
antithetic hypothesis of matter, principles, laws, forces, systems
of things existing independently of God, and having in some
sense creative energy of their own, is far more difficult — far less
conceivable.

202 GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
The declaration as to the time occupied in this work of creation
is simply an index of theological opinion in an age when geologic
investigations were in their infancy. Members of the Assembly
were doubtless acquainted with the suggestion of more extended
periods, found in theological writings even as far back as the age
of Augustine, who declared (Civ. Dei XI : 6) that it is difficult or
perhaps impossible for us to say or even to conceive what kind of
days the six creative days actually were. But the language of the
Confession, in the space of six days, must be interpreted literally,
because this was the exact view pronounced by the Assembly.
Yet there are comparatively few who now adhere to the literal
interpretation of the inspired record in Genesis: a very large pro
portion at least so far modify that interpretation as to regard
creation as produced through six prolonged periods, and by a pro
gressive exercise of divine energy, — each of these periods recording
itself by incontestible evidences in the forming world, and each
directly tributary to the more complex and matured period of
development that succeeded it. Nor is it inconsistent with true
loj'alty to the Symbols to hold such modified views as to the time
spent in the process of creation. Presbyterian theologians in later
days do not affirm such inconsistency, nor do those who adhere to
the literal interpretation, regard such as differ on this point as com
promising the Symbols thereby. One important branch of the
Presbyterian family officially declares that full liberty of opinion is
allowed on such points in the Standards, not entering into the sub
stance of the faith, as the interpretation of the six days in the
Mosaic account of the creation; — the church guarding against the
abuse of this liberty to the injury of its unity and peace: United
Presbyterian Church of Scotland, Declaratory Act. The Articles
(III) of the English Presbyterian Synod in like manner describe
God as fashioning and ordering this world and giving life to every
creature through progressive stages. It should however be main
tained that nothing in such broader interpretations is to be
regarded as detracting at any point from the absoluteness or the
immediateness, or the active wisdom or true glory of the creative
act. Whether in six days or in six geologic epochs, God made the
world and all things therein, and made them of nothing.
Turning to consider this work of creation as to its extent, we
are confronted first with the question whether the entire material
9. ExtentoftheCreation: universe is included in the confessional
Creation of men and angels. Phrase ; the world and all things therein,
whether visible or invisible. The lan
guage of the Nicene creed, referring to God the Father Almighty

EXTENT OF THE CREATION. 203
as Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and
invisible — language which is quoted in some of the earlier
Protestant creeds with small variations — may properly be regarded
as explanatory of this sentence. The expression, heaven and
earth, might be supposed to include our own planetary system, or
the visible firmament only, were there not other allusions, especially
in the chapters on God and his Decree and Providence, which
clearly suggest to our thought the whole universe, material and
moral, as constituting in its entirety the one creative work. The
Scriptures tell us not only of the sun and moon, including our entire
planetary system, as fashioned by the divine hand; but also of the
stars which God has made and counted and holds in his supreme
grasp, — of the ordinances of heaven which he has established,
and of a sovereign control which reaches to the utmost verge of
the material universe. Of the magnitude of that universe it is
impossible for us to frame any conception. The planetary system
of which our earth is a part, is itself but one, and possibly an
inferior one, in the multitude of such systems which the telescope
has already revealed. But beyond what can thus be discovered,
who can tell what other and vaster systems may exist, including
millions on millions of stars within their measureless domain !
And who would venture to say that this sublime material uni
verse, created throughout by the will of God, is all unoccupied
and void of life, — that it is not inhabited by myriads on myriads
of animate existences, and perhaps by rational and moral beings
innumerable, who dwell together with man under the care and the
dominion of the infinite Being who created them ?
Under this view the broader conception of six vast periods,
however unrecognized by the Assembly, assumes special signi
ficance. While omnipotence could have produced the entire uni
verse, both material and moral, in six actual days, or in a single
instant, yet the sublime spectacle of God more slowly and elabo
rately working out even through long ages his one mighty and
eternal plan, is one which more deeply stirs our feeling, and more
strongly constrains us to wonder and adore. If the record in
Genesis be viewed as limiting itself to this terrestrial system, as
the more literal interpretation would require, still it is a wondrous
truth that the same Almighty Hand, which in that brief period
fashioned the world and all things therein, its hidden and unknown
as well as its visible structures, has been at work for measure
less ages elsewhere, bringing into existence system after system,
and gradually giving form and unity and glory to what we call
the universe. Compared with the grandeur of that scriptural

204 GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
conception, how narrow and how trivial seem the guesses and
hypotheses, the loftiest constructions or conclusions of that type
of scientific research, which seeks to account for that immeasur
able universe without such a conception . To meet the criticism
that the chapter on Creation is Hmited in its affirmation to this
particular world and all things therein, and therefore contains no
doctrine of creation in its broader, universal aspects, and also the
further criticism that according to its affirmations, if interpreted
more broadly, the entire universe material and spiritual, must be
regarded as having been made in the space of six days, it was
proposed in the recent Revision to modify the section as follows:
It pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost for the manifes
tation of the glory of his eternal power, wisdom and goodness,
in the beginning, to create of nothing all things, visible and
invisible, and all very good: the heaven and the earth and all that
in them is, being made by him in six days.
Without referring here specifically to the moral constitution of
man as created, we may yet follow the Confession in laying special
stress on this particular exhibition of the divine energy and wisdom
in creation : After God had made all other creatures, he created man.
Have we here simply a chronologic succession, or is there a further
suggestion of the dignity of man, and of his place at the head
of earthly creatures? If we take the latter view, as the subse
quent gift of dominion over the creatures would suggest, we must
bear in mind the creation of angels, which in the Larger Cate
chism (16-17) is said to have occurred before the creation of man
— as an antecedent step in the grand originating and formative
process. Man was created, according to the Scriptures, not only
after but a little lower than the angels, so far as inherent endow
ments go: a being of inferior mold, he yet was made, as the Bible
teaches, to be king on the earth, and destined finally to be asso
ciated with angels and archangels around the throne of God.
The suggestion that there are two records in Scripture, the first
referring to the evolution of the bodily organism of man from
some inferior variety of organic life, or possibly from some crude
protoplasmic germ; the second, referring to the enduing of the
animal man with rational and spiritual powers, and the gift of
immortality, is altogether unknown to either Catechism or Confes
sion. God, it is said, (L. C. 17) formed the body of the man of the
dust of the ground, and the woman of the rib of the man,— by the
same creative process, it is clearly implied. He at the same time
and by the same act endowed them with living, reasonable and im
mortal souls. Both of these simultaneous processes are expressed

CREATION OF MEN AND ANGELS. 205
alike in the comprehensive phrase, He created man, male and
female ; the distinction of sex being indexed not more clearly in
their bodily than in their mental and moral organization. And
so far as the formation of this earth was concerned, the making
of man was clearly the crowning as well as the final step. In
him, with his finer physical organism, with his nobler mental and
moral powers, with his inherent capacity for control, and with his
vested sovereignty over the earth and all its contents, under a
supreme accountability to God as his Maker and King, the work
of creation became finished and complete. — The question whether
the human race as thus created is single or plural in origin, and the
kindred question respecting the relative antiquity of the race, will
be considered in another connection.
That the creation of the angels was antecedent to that of man
is affirmed in the phrase already quoted: After God had made all
other creatures, he created man. In the chapter on the Decree, not
only is the fact of the creation of angels presented as a part of the
one divine plan: their number is said to be very great, and to be so
certain and definite that it cannot be either increased or dimin
ished; and their destinies, whether to everlasting life or to ever
lasting death, are affirmed (L. C. 13) to be fixed in this creative
decree. It is said (L. C. 16) that as thus created they were spir
its, immortal, holy, excellent in knowledge, mighty in power, in
order to execute the commands of God, and to praise his name,
— yet, like man, subject to moral change. It is further said (19)
that God in his providence has permitted some of these angels to
fall wilfully and irrecoverably into sin and damnation, yet limit
ing and ordering such fall and all their sins as fallen to his own
glory ; and on the other hand that he has established the rest in
holiness and happiness, employing them all at his pleasure in the
administration of his power, mercy and justice. Among the sins
forbidden in the first Commandment is the worshiping of angels,
however excellent in character or beneficent in their ministries tc
men. The employments of the holy angels are indicated as
chiefly the adoration of the Deity, and his service in whatever
sphere. The sins of the fallen angels are said (V: iv) to be not
only wisely and powerfully bounded in their influence but also,
like the sin of man, ordered and governed by God in such ways
as shall make these sins, in which the temptation of our first
parents must be specially included, tributary to his own holy ends.
In the chapter on the Fall of Man (VI) that fall is said to have
been caused by the subtlety and temptation of one of these angels,
who must first have fallen himself from his original estate of ex-

206 GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
alted capacity and spiritual holiness. In the chapter on the Last
Judgment (XXXIII) some of these fallen angels are included
with mankind in the solemn adjudication there described, and in the
damnation visited upon the reprobate. Other incidental allusions
in the Symbols illustrate this part of the creative work; exhibiting
not only the plan of God in the production of these orders of intelli
gences, but also his authority over and his use of them, and the final
disposition which he will make of them, as well as the intermediate
race of man. It is a fact worthy of mention in this connection
that those theorists who are attempting to account for the exis
tence of the moral sentiments and aspirations of man by regard
ing them as developments from the altruistic instincts common to
men and other animals, can have no possible way of accounting
for either the existence or the character of the inhabitants of the
angelic world. The ancient Gnostic might suppose them to be
evolutions from the bosom of Deity: the modern theorist cannot
fancy them to be evolutions from the bosom of nature.
The Second Helvetic Conf. represents the general doctrine of
primitive Protestantism in its statement (VII) that angels stand
together with men at the head of all creatures; that some of them,
having continued in obedience, have been deputed to the faithful
service of God and man; and that others having fallen by their own
choice, have been precipitated into their own destruction; and
become the enemies of the faithful and of all good. It is a fact to be
noted here that the entire doctrine respecting angels, both holy and
evil, had greater prominence in Protestant theology, and also in the
theology of Rome during the era of the Reformation, than it has
retained in later times. Such prominence may be illustrated by
the strong affirmation of the Belgic Conf. (XII) that devils and
evil spirits are so depraved that they are enemies of God and every
good thing to the utmost of their power — as murderers ever watch
ing to ruin the church and every member thereof, and by their
wicked stratagems to destroy all. This Conf. expressly con
demns the Sadducean opinion that there are no spirits or angels,
and the Manichean heresy that evil spirits have their origin not in
God but in themselves, and are wicked of their own nature, with
out being corrupted through any external agency. The fact that
the general doctrine on both sides of it, is now less emphasized,
may be in part a revulsion from the marked tendency of the seven
teenth and eighteenth century to an unwarrantable amount of spec
ulation respecting the nature of angels, their powers, their occu
pations, and especially their relations to the natural and moral
life of man. We see this revulsion especially in the relative

CURRENT BELIEF OF CHRISTENDOM. 207
retirement of the conception of Satan as the head of that kingdom
of darkness, concerning which our Lord and his apostles often
spoke in such explicit terms. Such retirement is not without
some undesirable results, and is in part at least to be deplored.
The fact that there is such a confederacy of evil now as in the
age of Christ, and that a vast number of demoniac angels are
associated in it, and that in some significant sense this kingdom of
sin is ruled over and controlled by principalities and powers,
headed by one who is its chief prince and leader, and who is now
as of old arraying his forces against Christ and his religion on the
earth, is an enduring fact which the thoughtful student of the
Scriptures cannot fail to recognize.
The act of creation as here defined, should be regarded as
inclusive of the entire universe, both material and moral. And
the declaration of the Symbols thus lifts us clearly above all those
erratic and unbiblical notions of the origin of the universe which,
in forms more or less philosophic, are so widely circulated in our
time. This declaration decisively separates the Creator from his
work, and sets him above his work, in all the sublimity and the
awfulness of his personal being and power. It shows us God as
he is by showing us so grandly what he has done ; and on the
basis of this primary view it affords us abundant foundation alike
for wonder and for praise. It is not out of place to associate with
this statement of the doctrine of creation — the most full, adequate
and impressive to be found in Protestant symbolism — the kindred
statement of the Vatican Council, 1870; rejoicing meanwhile in
the fact that at this fundamental point Romanist and Protestant
are so essentially one in faith : The Holy Catholic, Apostolic
Roman Church believes and confesses that there is one true and
living God, Creator and Lord of heaven and earth . . . really
and essentially distinct from the world, . . . and ineffably exalted
above all things which exist, or are conceivable, except himself.
This one only true God, of his own goodness and almighty power,
not for the increase or acquirement of his own happiness, but to
manifest his perfection by the blessings he bestows on his creatures,
and with absolute freedom of counsel, created out of nothing, from
the very first beginning of tinie, both the spiritual and the phys
ical creation, the angelic and the mundane, and finally the human
creature, sharing the qualities of both, consisting of both spirit
and body. The symbols of the Greek Church contain descrip
tions hardly less significant : See Conf. of Mogilas, XXII ; and
the Dosithean Conf. IV.
In respect to the quality of this vast product as estimated by

208 GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
the divine mind, we have the teaching of the Confession in the
simple and strong phrase quoted from
10. Quality of the Crea- Scripture: And all very good'. The
Hon : Existence of evil, nat- tition of this hrase in both Cate_
ural and moral. r
chisms shows the firm confidence of the
Assembly in the doctrine it expresses. No like declaration is
found in the three British creeds or indeed, except by incidental
suggestion, in the continental formularies. It is probable that
the language quoted did not slip into the Confession without
special reason: it originated, it may be, in the consciousness that
the excellence of the universe, assumed in antecedent symboUsm,
was in fact subject to serious question, — especially among those
who more or less openly were assailing the entire Calvinistic
scheme. Arminian critics had explained the existence and rav
ages of sin to their own satisfaction, without impugning the
character of God, by referring it wholly to the perversities of the
human will, breaking in disastrously upon an existing order of
things. It was necessary therefore, while maintaining the full
foresight and predetermination of God with respect to sin and his
complete sovereignty in its permission, still to declare that the
universe with all its vast possibilities and perils was very good,
as God looked upon it in that memorable evening when he
ended his work which he had made. The Assembly was not dis
posed to admit even by remote implication or by omission, that
the divine character was unfavorably affected by such a wonderful
demonstration of sovereignty as the creation of the universe, even
though that universe should be marred and tainted forever by the
malignities of sin.
So far as the material universe is concerned, the question
whether it is very good can receive but a single answer. Whether
it be the best possible, is a purely speculative problem which the
human mind is not competent even to state intelligibly, and is
clearly incompetent to solve. We must rest in the simple fact
that God has made it, and pronounced it very good: it is the best,
since he deemed it best. What sudden breaks occur in its com
plex movement, — what agitations, convulsions, apparent disasters
are sometimes seen in it,— what pains and sorrows it inflicts on
man, and what tragic bereavements it sometimes strews in his
path, are explicable only in the light of the moral nature and
position of man himself, viewed as a creature under discipline.
In other words, it is in the character of man as sinful, and in the
exigencies of a moral administration over man, and in the char
acter of God as a moral Sovereign and Judge, that such facts in

THE CREATION — ITS QUALITY. 209
the material universe must find their explanation. The subject
will be more fully apprehended in conjunction with the doctrine
of providence, and still further in its connections with the deeper
problem of sin and salvation. It is a profound doctrine of Paul,
worthy of remembrance here, that the whole creation groaneth
and travaileth together in pain through its relationship to human
sin, and is waiting for its participation in that deliverance from
sin which man is yet to enjoy.
To the deeper problem thus suggested, what fitting answer
shall be given ? If God creates a free moral being, angel or man,
does he of necessity consent to the possible abuse of the capacities
thus given, making such being constitutionally subject to change,
as the Confession declares both men and angels to be, — and still
go forward to the decisive act of creation, even when he knows
that such abuse of freedom will occur, and that his own act will
to this extent make the sin of the creature a dreadful certainty ?
On the same principle more broadly stated, does God determine
in his creative act to introduce on earth a moral system in which
his individual creatures, with all their endowments and liabilities
shall form a part; — being limited to the sad alternative either of
making no such creatures and organizing no such system, or of
allowing all the possible and all the certain consequences of his
act, in the assaults of sin on his holy supremacy, and in the dis
obedience and guilt of myriads of his subjects, even forever? In
a word, is the necessity in the case a natural necessity, in either of
these varieties, — and if God were thus shut in to such an alter
native, could he pause over his finished work in the final hour,
and as he gazed upon it in its immensity and its terrific capabilities,
pronounce it very good ?
Turning in another direction for light, may we say that God
permits this present tainting and marring of his universe for the
sake of securing in the end a higher, grander good, — that sin is
the natural and perhaps the necessary means or condition to tbe
right development of human character, — that in fact such char
acter is in numberless cases evolved immediately from the discipline
and the culture which sin has occasioned? May we go still
farther, and point to the Gospel as a foreseen and predestinated
remedy, to all the blessings involved in a redemptive system, to
Christ himself as a Savior whose coming and mission are made
possible only through sin as antecedent, and in whose salvation
even the worst ravages of sin seem to be more than counter
balanced ? Or must we confess the incompleteness, of all such
explanations, however helpful they may in certain aspects appear;

210 GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
and simply rest in the general conclusion of the Assembly that
God, having chosen for inscrutable reasons to admit sin, hath
joined with such permission a most wise and powerful bounding,
and otherwise ordering and governing of this evil, in a manifold
dispensation, so as to secure through it his own holy ends ? In
the Irish Articles (28) the doctrine is stated in these terms: God
is not the author of sin: howbeit, he doth not only permit it, but
also by his providence govern and order the same, guiding it in
such sort by his infinite wisdom as it turneth to the manifestation
of his own glory, and to the good of his elect. This is clearly
the historic norm of the Westminster statement.
The Symbols are careful to affirm (V : iv) that God himself
neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin: they are careful
to refer sin immediately to the freedom and power to do that which
is good, originally given to man as a moral creature. Yet they
declare the divine relation to the result to be one of sovereign
decree and purpose; abating nothing from the full sweep of the
statement, that God hath from all eternity freely and unchangeably
ordained whatsoever comes to pass, the sins of men and angels
included. In the same chapter they teach that such sins are all
in some way contained in his comprehending scheme; and that
not only his almighty power and unsearchable wisdom, but also
his infinite righteousness and goodness, are manifested in the
ways in which by a manifold dispensation he so orders them as to
secure through them his own holy ends. He is said to be a God
who hates sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty: he is
described (II : ii) as most holy in all his counsels, in all his works,
and in all his commands. And on the basis of this view of what
God is in himself and in his administration, so far as his ways
are known to us, what can we better say than that the same glory
whichis clearly seen in creation, in providence and in redemption,
will finally make itself manifest even in the admission into the
moral universe of such a destructive agent as sin? The subject
will recur to view in a more specific form in conjunction with the
doctrine of the Symbols respecting the nature of man, his original
righteousness, his moral constitution as free, and his voluntary
fall into an estate of sin and spiritual death. It will also make
its appearance practically in connection both with the providen
tial and moral administration of God over the race, and with the
Gospel viewed as a gracious scheme for the spiritual restoration
of sinful and perishing man. It is enough here if we are enabled
to see that God was not unjust in creating such a race of beings,
and fashioning for them such a material and moral sphere.

END OF GOD IN CREATION. 211
Viewing the fact of creation in general, apart from the more
specific question just noted, we may readily recognize the glory of
God as the great end in view within
the divine Mind in the devising and H U' ™.ot God in crea"
. , . . , 6 tion. His Glory supreme.
execution of his creative work. It is
incumbent upon us at this point to bear in mind four fundamental
facts: first, that the design of God in such a work as creation
must from the nature of the case be immeasurably beyond our
capacity for apprehension, — including doubtless specific ends
which are altogether above our present knowledge, and which it
will be one of the special privileges of eternity to study and
comprehend: second, that as is true of the divine activity in other
spheres, this design must be multiform and complex in such
specific purposes and objects as we are now capable of discerning:
third, that all particular ends secured in creation, such as the
happiness or the moral development of men, must converge ulti
mately and reach their consummation in God himself rather than
in man: and fourth, that the divine glory — the manifestation of
the infinite excellence and perfection of the Deity in and through
creation — is an end so high and vast, so sublime and pure, as not
only to justify the creative work, but to illuminate it throughout
with an indescribable and imperishable splendor. Hence the
Symbols justly say: It pleased God (IV : i) for the manifestation
of the glory of his eternal power, wisdom and goodness, in the
beginning to create. The exhibition of the constitutional and
moral endowments of the Godhead, not merely in but also to the
universe so far as intelligent beings are included, is presented in
these words as the supreme object divinely sought in the creation.
Similar references to the manifesting or declaring of the divine
glory as a final end are found in the chapters on Decrees, on
Providence, on the Fall, and on the Judgment, — the same supreme
end being indicated as regulating the divine activity in each of
these specific spheres of action. None of the other Protestant
symbols is so full and emphatic on this point. Surely this
peculiar emphasizing of the glory of God as the end of all things
may be regarded as one of the distinguishing qualities, if not one
of the chief excellencies also, of the Symbolism of Westminster.
Much of the disputation around this doctrine might be avoided
by careful consideration of the terms and modes in which the
doctrine is presented. What is the glory which is here to be made
apparent ? It is not a certain impenetrable blaze of awful sove
reignty : it is not some abstract effulgence emanating as from the
essence of the Deity, prostrating the creature irresistibly in the

212 GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
dust before a present Creator. It is the glory of the divine attri
butes and character — of the power and wisdom, justice and love
of God, as these are respectively made manifest in the creative
work. There is no real conflict between this view and that which
represents the happiness of the creatures, and especially of moral
creatures, as the object divinely sought in the creative work.
When God manifests the glory of his goodness in his numberless
provisions for the happiness or welfare of his creatures, he rightly
contemplates such happiness or welfare as an immediate and a
worthy end. He loves to accumulate joy upon joy for them, and
to crown their life with mercies, in order that in and through all
these manifestations they may the more clearly and cordially learn
that he himself is intrinsically and absolutely good. Nor is there
any conflict between this view and that which points to the moral
culture, the holiness and perfection of his creatures, as an end
sought in creation. For in instituting his moral government to
be the expression of his sense of justice, and to train his children
into conformity of heart and life to what he knows to be right,
God is obviously seeking to make more glorious that equity on
which his own throne is set, and in which his own inherent glory
so largely lies. The antitheses or antagonisms often supposed to
exist at these points, and at others like them, are certainly not
warranted by any proper conception of the phrase — the manifest
ation or declaration of his personal and eternal glory. That the
happiness and the holiness of the creature are real and invaluable
ends, and were so regarded by God in the scheme of creation, .
cannot be questioned. Nor on the other hand can it be questioned
that the ultimate end of God must be found in himself rather than
in the creation viewed as a product. Still this supreme end is to
be realized only in and by the creation regarded as an expression
of his intrinsic glory, — the happiness and the moral excellence
of his creatures being at once the issues of and the witnesses to
the excellence and the perfection of the Being who created all
unto himself.
May not God thus equitably find the end of all his actions in
himself, and in the disclosure of his glory to his rational creatures?
May he not take holy delight in thus making manifest to his moral
universe what he himself is, as to his attributes, purposes, feeHngs,
desires, character? May we not with Edwards accept the dis
tinction between secondary and consequential ends, and that end
which is original, independent, supreme, and which can be dis
cerned only in what God is and what in creation he reveals himself
to be ? May we not recognize here an end which is single and

DIVINE GLORY IN CREATION. 213
sufficient — which has and can have no other end beyond it or
behind it as a condition of its existence ? May we not say that
the highest happiness and the moral perfection of the rational
universe can be secured only in and through its subordinate rela
tions to this ultimate and final good ? As the holiness of man is
infinitely above his happiness, and as his true happiness is con
ditioned upon the possession of true holiness, may we not presume
that both the holiness and the happiness of man are secondary to
and conditioned upon his apprehension of that transcendent holi
ness in God, which it is the divine purpose in creation to make
forever manifest, forever glorious, through all the moral universe ?
How far removed from all conceptions of selfishness such a dispo
sition must be in him is easily seen, since the highest welfare, the
completed excellence, the final flower and consummation of all
created life, can be secured only through such manifestation. If
God had not thus been pleased to show forth the glory of his power
and wisdom and goodness, there could have been no Created exist
ence : if it should please him at any instant to pause in this
declaratory process, all such existence would instantly cease to
be. From this effulgence our being, our happiness, our excellence,
are forever flowing : within its celestial radiance it will be our
supreme Miss and destiny to be forever glorified. Edwards (End
of God in Creation), eloquently compares this manifested glory
of God to the effulgence or emanation of light from a luminary
such as the sun. Light, he says, is the external expression,
exhibition and manifestation of the excellency of the luminary.
It is the abundant, extensive emanation and communication of the
fullness of the sun to innumerable beings that partake of it. It
is by this that the sun itself is seen, and his glory beheld, and all
other things are discovered : it is by a participation of this com
munication from the sun, that surrounding objects receive all their
luster, beauty and brightness. It is by this that all nature is
quickened, and receives life, comfort and joy. . . . Here, he adds,
is both an emanation and remanation. The refulgence shines
Upon and into the creature, and is reflected back to the luminary.
The beams of glory come from God, and are something of God,
and are refunded back again to their original ; so that the whole
is of God, and in God, and through God.
Such in brief was the doctrine of Creation, as to its personal ,
caUse and source, as to the nature and extent of the creative pro
cedure, and as to the worth of the creation as a product and to its
final purpose — as enunciated by the divines of Westminster. In

214 GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
passing from the contemplation of this great theme to the closely
related doctrine of Providence, as presented in the succeeding
chapter (V) in the Confession, we shall
12. Providence : definition find the same Hnes of thought recurring
of: Preserving and govern- same ^ arisi
iag described. J a vTa. as a.
though under somewhat different as
pects. While the act of creation is' in some particulars unique,
and is never to be repeated, yet the continuous work of providence
is one which involves kindred mysteries, and is explicable only on
similar principles. The vital connection between the two doc
trines will be apparent at a glance. If the view of creation just
stated be accepted as sound, the fact of a divine providence over
that which has been created, and the nature and scope of such
providence, will readily follow. The term, providence, which
subjectively signifies simply the divine foreknowledge and super
intending, cognizance of all that is to occur, and assumes the
existence of an antecedent decree or purpose in the mind of Deity,
is happily defined in the Shorter Catechism, objectively (11) as a
¦most holy, wise and powerful preserving and governing , on the part
of God, — a preserving and governing which include all his creatures
and all their actions. This definition is expanded in the Larger
Catechism (18) only so far as was needful to set forth the divine
glory, as the true end of providence as well as creation : ordering
them and all their actions to his own glory. The two words, pre
serve and govern, are expanded in the Confession into uphold,
direct, dispose and govern, — these terms describing still more fully
the divine relation to the support, activity, operation and result
of all creatures, actions and things. A broader or loftier definition
of providence than is contained in these words, can hardly be
framed. Preservation as a composite term indicates, first of all, that
divine upholding on which the planets in their courses and the
soul in man are alike continuously dependent. Created existence
surely can have no power to perpetuate itself in being; nor can we
regard such existence as so constituted that it will run on perpetu
ally, as a clock when wound, without divine interposition at each
instant. We are not at liberty to regard nature either as acting
independently of God, or dividing with him the dominion of the
world, or as administering a species of vice-royalty while God
resides at some infinite distance. Whatever may be said as to the
forms or contents of the world, or to the agency of secondary causes
in determining these, the ultimate causality must be ascribed
to God, and to him as immanent or resident in and throughout

PROVIDENCE DEFINED. 215
nature — the one dominating and supreme origin and power.
The deistic conception of the Deity as being, in the terse phrase of
Carlyle, an absentee God, sitting idle ever since the first Sabbath,
on the outside of the universe, and seeing it go, is one which has no
basis in sound philosophy, and which is contradicted by countless
evidences of the divine presence and power both in nature and in
human life and history. Nor has the assumption of even a tem
porary or partial independence of God on the part of nature or of
man, though often claimed, any rational foundation. However
mysterious the intermingling of the primal power that sustains,
with the specific activities of the creature sustained, philosophy
itself can admit no other hypothesis than that God is at each
instant the upholder, the fundamental support, as he is the orig
inal source and fount, of all creatures, actions and things. Such
support or upholding should, however, be carefully distinguished
from the false hypothesis of a continuous creation, the immediate
production of existing things out of nothing at each and every
moment, — a pantheistic hypothesis which is at variance with our
fundamental conceptions of secondary causes in nature and of the
human will as a real cause, and which inevitably makes God rather
than man the author and the upholder of sin.
Preservation also implies direction, — such an impartation of
impulse or tendency at the outset, and such a regulative main
taining of the impulse or tendency when imparted, as constitute
or involve a real control of every creature and of every act. This
divine determination, as will appear hereafter, is always in har
mony with the nature of the subject directed, whether it be a flow
ing river or a human spirit. We may simply note here that God
not only keeps his creatures filled with life — they living and mov
ing and having their being in him alone: he also imparts to each
its own deteirmining principles, gives each its distinctive bent and
aim, and sends each forth under his own omnipotent impact to
work out its appointed end. Moreover, he disposes as well as
sustains and controls, surrounding each creature with a specific
group of attendant conditions, and setting each in exactly the
sphere where its investiture of capacity may best bring to pass
the determinate result for each. The location of his creatures
also in their connections with one another, in such manner as to
secure his chosen ends through the involved interblending of ten
thousand different agents, often not only separate but apparently
diverse, is one of the most obvious as well as the most amazing
manifestations of divine providence. Man cannot comprehend
such supreme disposing or even know his own place in it; he dare

216 GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
not resist it, for he is overawed with what even he may see of its
ineffable wisdom: he can only rest in the aphorism that while
man proposes, God thus disposes, and bow down in submissive
adoration before him. Respecting the relations of such support,
direction, disposing, to the free acts of moral beings, and especially
to the sinful action of man, much remains to be considered: at
this point it is sufficient to note that nothing contained in such
free or such sinful activity can militate against the doctrine of
providence as here defined.
This conception of providence culminates in the idea of govern
ing, as the correlative to such preservation in the three aspects
named. God governs the universe providentially, in the general
sense that he is forever at the head of this stupendous movement,
and that tinder his guidance' that movement is ever pressing on,
slowly yet surely and gloriously, toward one great issue which he
haschosefi. God governs providentially in the more specific
sense that each part, each fragment, each division of this compre
hensive structure is wholly in his hand, and is made to accompUsh
What he wishes in conjunction with his general design. The nat
uralistic notion of a merely general providence which is concerned
with creatures, actions and things only in the aggregate, and
Which governs them in some generic way only, is at variance alike
with the clear testimonies of Scripture, with what we may discern
ill fact respecting the organic relations of each particular element
in the universe to the vast whole, and with the wisest and deepest
philosophy of nature and of man. He who believes that God
governs genetically or comprehensively, must also believe that he
governs continuously each and every creature, each and every
thing, that he has made. Without such government, specific as
well as comprehensive, providence would not be providence: with
out such a conclusive administration in which all creatures, actions
and things are finally to be embraced, that providence would be at
once an enigma and a terror. A governing as well as sustaining
and directing God, continuously ruling over all that exists, is the
great fact which explains, combines, glorifies the whole.
No definition of providence so exact and so comprehensive as this
can be found elsewhere in Protestant symbolism. The Lutheran
creeds hardly present the subject, except in the Small Cate-
echistti of Luther, which teaches with great minuteness that God
preserves to us body and soul; eyes, ears and all our limbs; rea
son and all our senses; also clothing and shoes, food and drink,
house and home, wife and child, land, cattle and all our property;
—providing us richly and daily with all the necessaries of life,

METHOD OF PROVIDENCE 217
protecting us from all danger, and preserving and guarding us
from all evil; and all this out of pure, paternal, divine goodness and
mercy, without any merit or worthiness of ours. The French
Confession simply affirms (VIII) that God having created all
things, governs and directs them, disposing and ordaining by his
S6vereign will all that happens in this world. The Belgic Con
fession (XIII) teaches that after creating all things, God did not
forsake them, or give them up to fortune or chance, but rules and
governs them according to his holy will, so that nothing happens
in this world without his appointment. The Heidelberg Catechism
presents the doctrine in practical and hortatory rather than exact
form in these words: Providence is the almighty and everywhere
present power of God, whereby as it were by his hand he still
upholds heaven and earth, with all creatures; and so governs
them that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren
years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty,
yea, all things come not by chance, but by his fatherly hand.
The Irish Articles briefly say that God having created all things,
(18) doth continue, propagate, and order them according to his
own will. In the Scotch Confession (Art. I) we have a statement
as cogent as it is quaint, and one from which the more elaborate
dogma of Westminster may well have been in part derived: Be
whom, (the triune Deity previously described) we confesse and
beleve all thingis in hevin and eirth, aswel visible as invisible, to
to have been created, to be reteined in their being, and to be ruled
and guyded be his inscrutable Providence to sik end as Eternall
Wisdonie, Gudnes and Justice hes appoynted them, to the mani-
festatioun of his awin glorie. How far beyond this and beyond all
other confessional statements the definition of Westminster goes,
in both philosophic accuracy and practical force, may easily be
perceived. The Symbols are also singular in their exposition of the method
as well as the fact of providence. On the one side, we are taught
that while God is as truly sovereign in
providence as in creation, working or- 13' Metnod of Providence :
j. ..... , °. ¦ Providence and Miracle:
dinanly by the use of means, yet he is PrOTldence and Second Cau.
free to work without, above, and against ses t
means at his pleasure. We are also
taught that, in relation to his foreknowledge and decree, all things
come to pass infallibly and immutably, whether with or without
such means. In the same connection he is described as the First
Cause, and the Great Creator, — phrases implying that his sover
eignty in providence is the natural and necessary conseqrour"

218 GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
of his causal and creative relation to all creatures and things.
Similar expressions frequently occur elsewhere.
As miracles are nowhere specifically described in the Symbols,
it may be presumed that the Assembly intended to provide a place
for miracle in this high affirmation respecting the ability of God
to work without or above or even against all means, if adequate
occasion for such interposition should arise. They doubtless re
garded miracles as occurrences lying within the general domain of
providence, or at least as events occurring within the sphere of
nature ; but at the same time, as events and occurrences not
attributable in any way to the direct action of secondary causes,
but referable only to the immediate volition and energy of God.
It is probable also that they recognized that attestational func
tion of miracles, by which these become in no sense arbitrary
infractions of the laws of nature, or empty displays of a power
above nature, but rather the significant indices and witnesses
of spiritual truth such as is contained in revelation. So far as
we can see, miracles are justifiable only in the light of such a
function and testimony: in this connection, they seem not only
natural and right but indispensable. For how otherwise could
God verify his own Word than by signs and wonders manifested
within the domain of nature, yet manifestly supernatural in their
origin ? Must not all such attestation occur on the one side in the
sphere of nature with which man is already familiar, and where the
whole process may be accurately noted and measured ? And on the
other hand, must it not be made obvious to the beholder that it is not
nature itself which is producing the result, — that that result is one
which nature is clearly incompetent to produce, and which therefore
must have come into the sphere of nature directly from a super
natural source, intelligent, potential, supreme ? If such a source
exists, spiritual, personal, sovereign, then for adequate ends, and
especially to make known his will to his moral creatures, that
supreme Being may thus enter into nature and use her wondrous
mechanism in any way he pleases, in the execution of his sublimer
purpose. He may, as the Confession teaches, work without the
aid of secondary agencies; he may work altogether above them, yet
in harmony with their natural movements; he may even work
against them, in the sense of arresting their ordinary action, or of
holding them forcibly in abeyance, while he speaks forth his spirit
ual and saving Word in and through them. The only adequate
basis of opposition to such a doctrine of miracles must be found,
not in questioning the fact that man needs a revelation, or insisting
on the invariableness of nature, but in denying openly that there

PROVIDENCE AND MIRACLE. 219
is any such sovereign Deity, above and beyond the universe of
created things.
The argument, atheistic or pantheistic, against the Christian
doctrine of miracles rests simply on the assumption that there
exists no Being, or at least no conscious Being, who is both
capable and desirous of communicating to mankind spiritual or
saving truth beyond what nature and reason supply. Mill,
(Logic) defines a miracle as not so much a contradiction to the
law of nature, as a new effect produced in the realm of nature by
the introduction of a new cause — the will of God. Of the
adequacy of that cause, if it were really present, — he adds — there
can be no doubt, and the only antecedent improbability to be
ascribed to the miracle is the improbability that any such cause
exists. In like manner the speculative authors of the Unseen
Universe admit that, if the invisible was able to produce the
present visible universe with all its energy, it could a fortiori
very easily produce such transmutations of energy within that
universe as would account for the events which took place in
Judea. The deistic argument, accepting the evidence that such
a competent cause exists, rests on the more specific assumption
that God has given to men in nature and in the soul all the
religious truth needful in this life, — that supernatural truth in
whatever form, if not impracticable in the nature of things, is
altogether improbable, — that miracles, regarded as infractions of
the laws of nature, cannot occur in such a providential system as
God has established on earth, — that, should such miracles take
place at any time, their occurrence could never be adequately
proved, — and that if historically proved, the fact of miracle would
be a hindrance rather than an aid to religious faith. This type
of objection has already been considered in part. It may now be
repeated that if such a being as the God revealed in Scripture
really exists, no valid argument, physiological or psychological,
can be urged — as Mill admits — against the presumption that, if
he desires to communicate truth to mankind or to enforce duty
by some other process than through the reason or the light of
external nature, he is entirely capable of making such super
natural communication. It is a wise remark of Leibnitz that in
miracles nothing is changed but natural facts, which in their very
nature are contingent and hence may be changed; and since they
are established by God, they may be modified at any time by an
act of the divine will. He adds that miracles interfere with
nothing but natural necessity, which has in itself no basis in
eternal truth and reality; and that miracles consequently can

220 GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
never be against reason, but only above it. A living God must
certainly be able to reveal himself ,in any way he chooses. Nor
does the fact that man already has some knowledge of God and
his will, prove either that he needs no further knowledge, or that
he could not apprehend it if given in such forms as God might
select. On the other hand, the sin of man, clouding his mind
and dulling his spiritual sensibilities to the religious truth already
possessed, furnishes a strong reason for expecting that a gracious
Being such as God is would bestow upon him such superadded
disclosures. But if God desires to grant such additional revelation, it
becomes a matter of necessity that he should attest his communi
cation in such ways as will verify it beyond question to the
observant mind of man. We have already seen that merely
natural attestations would be insufficient to convince men of the
reality of any revelation made,-«-that God, if we may reverently
speak it, must prove himself to be in and with the revelation,
,by evidences of another class, which are fitted to convince and
sufficient to convince the observer. But we have also seen that
such evidences must lie within the sphere of nature or the kindred
sphere of human history, where the mind may apprehend them'
and appreciate their attestational force. Miracles, and prophecies
also, are evidences of this class, and God has therefore uttered
prophecies or wrought miracles, clear and palpable, wherever hie
has thus revealed himself supernaturally to mankind. On this
fact, thus justified on unchallengeable grounds, Christianity rests
its claim as a supernatural faith, — not indeed oh such external
evidence alone, but on this in conjunction with the inward attest
ation of the Holy Ghost, certifying by a process above all logic
that the authenticated and historical Scriptures are indeed the
living Word of the living God. The question whether the
occurrence of such miracles can be proved, as urged by Hume
and others, is one which cannot here be fully discussed, but which
maybe answered in a word: The proof of such occurrence rests on
the same basis as the proof of any other historical event, and may
as readily be accepted after careful examination by intelligent and
candid minds. The admitted supernaturalness of miracles, instead
of rendering them incapable of proof, as Hume assumes, becomes
in fact an additional evidence in favor of their historic occurrence:
Butler, Analogy: Part II: Ch. 2.
But while proper place is thus provided in the Confession for
miracle as an event in some sense above providence, providence
itself is described as ordinarily making use of means; God ordering

PROVIDENCE AND SECOND CAUSES. 221
all things to fall out according to the ?iature of second causes,
either necessarily, freely or contingently. Providence is thus
presented as one vast scheme in which a multitude of subordinate
forces and activities are apparent, each working out its specific
class of results in harmony with its own nature, while all combine
in the furtherance of the one comprehensive issue preconceived
in the divine mind. The three classes of these secondary causes
have already been described in the discussion of the various ways
in which God executes his eternal and original decrees: those
which belong to the sphere of material things, acting under a
law of necessity which is absolute and unchanging; those which
find their chief representative in the human will, and which
though deriving their efficiency from God are still relatively free
and in some degree independent of his control; and those (really
belonging to the second class) which induce results such as God
could have chosen only in the way of permission, and such as he
must powerfully bound if he does not altogether prevent them.
And the Symbols teach that in each of these three spheres pro
vidence works equally, thongh by diversified methods and
agencies, but always works supremely, and in perfect wisdom and
righteousness as well as with an infinite potency.
Objection is often made to this conception of divine providence
on the ground of both its vastness and its minuteness, as includ
ing alike planetary systems and the tiniest atom, and also on
the further ground of its inconceivable complexity. That noth
ing in nature is either too great or too small to be comprehended
within such providence is obvious, although the mind in what
ever direction it turns is utterly baffled by the consequent mystery
that confronts it. A still greater mystery presents itself when
ever the attempt is made to comprehend a process which embraces
alike the movements of nations and races, and the most trivial act
or voUtion of the individual man whose personal identity seems
totally lost amid the almost innumerable multitude of mankind.
But the inconceivable complexity of such a problem, the marvel
ous blending and interblending of so many agencies in such ways
as to secure through all their interactions one comprehensive
result, one perfect consummation, is perhaps the deepest mystery
of all. What Bishop Butler in his discussion of the government
of God as a scheme imperfectly comprehended, impressively
describes as this little scene of human life, shrinks into utter
nothingness when conceived in its relations to such an inexplicable
process as this. Nor is it strange that such a doctrine should
perplex even the most thoughtful Christian minds, — still less that

222 GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
it should confound the natural man, and lead him even to
bewilderment or despair. Yet in the presence of such vast
mystery there remains a firm foundation for the religious belief
that in and through all such complexity an eternal purpose is
present, and that God at last will transform this mingled web
into a vision of transcendent beauty and glory. One of the most
impressive passages in the great treatise of Jonathan Edwards on
the Work of Redemption, is that in which he compares the pro
vidence of God to a large and long river, having innumerable
branches, beginning in different regions, and at a great distance
one from another, but all conspiring to one common issue. After
their very diverse and contrary courses which they hold for a
while, yet they all gather more and more together, the nearer
they come to their common end, and all at length discharge
themselves at one mouth into the same ocean. The different
streams of this river, he adds, are apt to appear like mere jumble and
confusion to us, because of the limitedness of our sight, whereby
we cannot see from one branch to another, and cannot see the
whole at once, so as to discover how all are united in one. Their
course seems very crooked, and different streams seem to run
for a while different and contrary ways; and if we view things at
a distance, there seem to be innumerable obstacles and impedi
ments in the way to hinder their ever uniting and coming to the
ocean, as rocks and mountains and the like; but yet if we trace
them, they all unite at last, and all come to the same issue, dis
gorging themselves in one mouth into the same great ¦ ocean, —
not one of all the streams failing of coming hither at last.
Of the working of Providence in nature, nothing further need
be said in this connection. That God executes his decrees, in the
. . _ . . > language of the Catechism, in absolute
14. Providence and free- ° . , , '
dom: Providence and sin. sovereignty throughout the vast realm
of nature, is a postulate which not
withstanding the manifold perplexities and mysteries involved in
it, no thoughtful mind can refrain from accepting. It is the doc
trine of the Symbols, as to the providential ordering of all things
in such a way that they fall out according to the nature of second
causes, freely, which specially demands attention here. • What
ever they teach as to the deadness of the human will when sinful,
and whether in fact their statements on the two points of dead
ness and liberty do actually harmonize, it cannot be questioned
that an important distinction is recognized in them between causes
which are necessary and causes which are in some profound sense
and measure free. However strong the emphasis laid on the fact

PROVIDENCE AND FREEDOM : PROVIDENCE AND SIN. 223
that in providence all things come to pass immutably and irifallibly,
as well in human life as in nature, yet the broad antithetic state
ment stands (Ch. IX), that God hath endued the will of man with
that natural liberty that it is neither forced, nor by any necessity
of nature determined to good or evil. It may be admitted that a
strong bias existed in the Assembly toward the laying of supreme
stress on the former part of the composite fact: its members were
too true to their cardinal position respecting the divine sover
eignty, to allow any occasion to pass for the emphatic iteration of
the doctrine, though they must sometimes have been conscious
that they were pushing their teaching into extreme forms. But
they were also too true to Scripture, and to their own deep con
victions, to let their formulated system go' forth to the world with
out some clear, strong, regulating statement respecting the natural
liberty, the true freedom and consequently the proper accounta
bility of man, viewed as a creature acting voluntarily both in
providence and in grace. It is to their credit that, even at the risk
of inconsistency, they taught so clearly that the will of man even
when he is fallen, is never forced or by any natural necessity de
termined either to good or to evil.
Postponing the full exposition of this language until we come
to consider in detail the moral constitution and position of man
under the divine law, we may here note especially what is taught
respecting the general relations of providence to human sin. It
is said that this providence extendeth to the first fall and all other
sins of angels and men, so that these are as truly to be viewed as
parts and developments of it, as are the movements of the stars
or the activities of unfallen spirits in heaven itself. Nor is this
providence limited to a bare permission of this result: joined to
this, and as correlative to it, there is affirmed a most wise and pow
erful bounding of all sin, so that it can never overleap the lines
which God has prescribed for its imprisonment. More than this:
God appears providentially otherwise ordering and governing these
bad developments, and this in a manifold dispensatio?i, in some
complex and diversified methods, in order after all to secure
through them his own holy ends. It may be that the Assembly were
not agreed as to the manner in which the sin, thus both permitted
and bounded, could be made tributary to the holy ends by which
the divine conduct is regulated: traces of differing opinion are
apparent not merely in the debates, but in the Symbols them
selves. Yet they could together see and confess that not merely
the almighty power, but also the unsearchable wisdom and even the
infinite goodness of God are manifest in the handling, ordering,

224 GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
controlling of this vast evil, as well as in its original admission
into the holy order of the universe.
It is interesting to observe in this connection how careful the
Symbols are to protect the divine character from aspersion in view
of this dread mystery of sin, bounded and finally overruled for
good, yet permitted both to come into and to remain in this sub
lime providential scheme. While declaring unequivocally the
supremacy of God according to which all things come to pass
immutably and infallibly — subtracting nothing from the fullness
of their teachings on this point, they still affirm that God neither
is, nor can be, the author or approver of sin, — his direct causal
force sustaining no perceptible relation to either its introduction
or its dreadful growth or progress. On the other hand, they for
tify this position by the added declaration, that the sinfulness of
sin in every case and in all varieties proceedeth only from the crea
ture and not from God. According to these statements, God has
put forth no decree of which sin is the immediate and inevitable
consequence: he has exercised no volition, exerted no energy, to
induce sin or to perpetuate it; while in some sense giving con
sent to its presence, he has never approved or blessed it. Sin
came rather from the creature, and from the creature whether
angel or man as constitutionally free, and from the creature in
the exercise of a liberty divinely given, under a responsibility
such as carries with it everlasting issues and retributions divinely
inflicted. While God neither produces nor approves, he does
bound, limit, govern and order sin, by methods manifold and full
alike of wisdom and of grace, in the determination that at last
every perfect attribute of his character shall be more clearly dis
played, and the righteousness of his administration be made
forever glorious in the eyes of all his creatures.
Comparing the Symbols at this point with other Protestant
confessions we discern a general resemblance, associated with some
marked contrasts in thought and expression. The Augsburg Con
fession teaches (XIX) that although God doth create and pre
serve nature, yet the cause of sin is the will of the wicked . . .
which will, God not aiding, turneth itself from God. And as to
the liberty of will remaining in man as sinful, it affirms (XVIII)
that this will hath some liberty to work a civil righteousness, and
to choose such things as reason can attain unto; but it hath no
power to work a spiritual righteousness without the Spirit of God.
Of the relations of providence to human sinfulness, it says noth
ing except that God doth create and preserve nature even when
that nature is sinful. The Second Helvetic Conf. declares that

SYMBOLIC TESTIMONIES. 225
all things in heaven and earth and all creatures are conserved and
governed by the providence of a wise, eternal and omnipotent
God, — affirms that this providence is in harmony with human
effort, and justifies instead of rendering such effort useless, —
holds that sin originates with man under this providential sys
tem, he declining toward evil, and involving himself in trans
gression and death, — and finally remands the inquiry respecting
the nature of the divine relation to this result, to that category
of questiones curiosae respecting whose discussion God has inter
posed his solemn prohibition. The Catechism of Heidelberg
holds (9-10) that God so made man that he could perform the
law, but that man, through the instigation of the devil, by will
ful disobedience deprived himself of this ability; God on the one
side permitting this lapse into evil, and on the other holding man to
full and just account for all his transgression. The Belgic Con
fession contains the single proposition that God, having created
all things, (XIII) rules and governs them according to his holy
will, so that nothing happens without his appointment: never
theless, God neither is the author of, nor can be charged with,
the sins which are committed. Of the British creeds, the Irish
Articles contain by far the most elaborate and interesting state
ment of the doctrine in the strong declaration (11), that God from
all eternity did by his unchangeable counsel ordain whatsoever in
time should come to pass, yet so as thereby no violence is offered
to the wills of the reasonable creatures, and neither the liberty
nor the contingency of the second causes is taken away, but
estabbshed rather. In addition we are taught (21) that the image
of God, as originally given to man, consisted especially in the
freedom of his mind, and the true holiness of his free will; and
that sin is not a necessity of nature but consists in the willful
departure of the soul from God and from holiness — God permitting
such departure. God, however, is not the author of sin, how-
beit (28) he doth not only permit, but also by his providence
govern and order the same, guiding it in such sort by his infinite
wisdom as it turneth to the manifestation of his own glory. No
continental creed is so full or so clear on this point, and the West
minster Symbols do little more than to repeat what is here so
tersely and strongly stated. — The subject will come up again for
consideration in connection with the study of Man in his moral
constitution, his Hberty of will, his fall, his condition as sinful
yet responsible before God, and the gracious possibilities remain
ing in him.
In connection with these generic relations of providence to man

226 GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
anrt to sin, the Confession introduces two special aspects of the
same theme, of which the first is the
»V«^u«ceOTerSaI,,t8 special relation of this providence to
and the Church. r. _, , T, .
saints and to the Church. It is a
beautiful description which is here given (Sec. v) of the tender
ministries of God by his providence toward his own children by
grace. Sometimes indeed he is said to leave them for a season to
manifold temptations, and the corruption of their own hearts, — his
•object being, it is said, to chastise them for their former sins, or
to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption ' and
deceitfulness of their hearts, so that they may be humbled.
Sometimes they are said to be by his providence raised to a more
close and constant dependence for their support upon himself, and are
taught new lessons of trust in him who thus makes his providen
tial conspire together with his gracious ministries for their highest
good. It is said that sundry other just and holy ends are secured
by these providential ministrations, — God especially contemplat
ing the true welfare of his children even in his control of nature,
and particularly subordinating to their benefit all the general
movements and events of human life. Providence over the mate
rial universe, and providence over the world of humanity in gen
eral, are here regarded as tributary to that more specific and
gracious providence which finds the choicest field of its activity
within the experience and life of those whom God regards as in
the highest spiritual sense his children.
It has been with some justice urged as a criticism upon this
confessional statement, that it emphasizes especially the disciplin
ary aspects of the doctrine, but brings out too slightly its com
forting aspects and relations. The Westminster divines were
apparently more anxious to set forth the sovereignty in providence
even toward the righteous, than to portray the divine fatherhood
as thus ministering in infinite tenderness to every saint, and
ordering all things for good to those who are graciously the
children of God. A chastising, rebuking, humbling, reforming
providence presents itself in the foreground of the picture. There
should be added in our thought the conception of a ministering,
supporting, comforting providence, a solace in all affliction, a
crowning joy in all prosperity, an inward presence and power and
blessing, as well as an external protection against sin and tempt
ation, and a chastening hand in seasons of wandering from duty.
We need as believers to see a divine Father, watching with bound
less tenderness over his elect children, dwelling ever in and with
them for their temporal and their spiritual good, as well as a

PROVIDENCE OVER SAINTS AND THE CHURCH. 227
glorious Sovereign, ruling over them and overcoming all their
enemies by his resistless power. In a word, the doctrine should
always inspire us and all believers, not only to trustful submission,
but to filial and joyous hymns of praise.
And as this conception of the doctrine presents what may be
regarded as the loftiest view of that providence, so the sublimest
phase of this conception is found in such providence as (Sec. vii)
surrounding upholding, protecting the Church. In regard to the
written Scriptures, we are taught elsewhere that as the Book of
God the Bible hath by his singular care and providence been kept
pure in all ages. In like manner we are here taught that the
providence of God after a most special manner taketh care of his
Church, and disposeth all things to the good thereof. It has been
questioned whether the doctrine of such special providence over
saints and over the Church, as here defined, is not somewhat at
variance with the generic teaching of our Lord touching a divine
care which includes alike the evil and the good, and which
sendeth rain equally on the just and on the unjust. We are cer
tainly not to conceive of two schemes of providence, working by
divergent methods, and bringing to pass one result for the wicked,
and another for the holy. But while as our Lord taught, the
plan of God in providence does include all men, it still is true
that this providence is administered in the interest of grace, and
in many ways concerns itself specifically with the welfare and the
culture of those who believe. And as the Church, the spiritual
kingdom of God on earth, is really even above the individual
Christian the supreme object of divine interest and love, it cannot
be otherwise than that God even after a most special manner
does dispose all things to the good thereof. Here we may devoutly
recognize Christ as the Lord of providence as well as redemption,
causing all things to work together for good to his people, and
lifting the welfare and glory of his Church into special prominence
as the transcendent object to be gained through his mediation.
And what a commentary on this teaching do we find in the
remarkable career of that Church, — in the story of its fortunes,
conflicts, advances, influence and attainments among men! If
there be any object on which we have conclusive evidence that
the triune God has lavished supreme providential care — any
any object for whose highest good all other things have mani
festly been disposed — is it not that Holy Church whose existence
has been the marvel of the ages, and whose present position in
the worid is the one problem which unbelief confesses itself
unable to solve ?

228 GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
It is impracticable in this Lecture to enter upon an examination
of the various questions, some of them, speculative and others
more or less distinctly practical, which
16. Providence and Prayer, spontaneously suggest themselves, in
how related: Prayer effec- ... , ., ., . r .. ,
J this survey of the providence of God
toward his saints and toward his
organized Church. Most of these will come within range as we
progress in these confessional studies. We may here pause to
consider, in part at least, one intensely practical question arising
in this connection, — whether prayer has any true place in a pro
per conception of providence, and whether the answers to prayer
are really in some way joined in and made parts of this universal
scheme of administration. Prayer istersely defined ;(L. C: 178,
S. C. 98) as the offering up of our desires unto God for things
agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ; — including indeed
the confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of
mercies already received, as well as such petition for further
good. Does prayer, as thus defined, really avail in the way of
obtaining anything which in the grand scheme of providence
would not otherwise have been given to the petitioner ? Does
God alter or modify that general scheme, putting some new ele
ment or effect into it, as often as the desire of one of his spiritual
children is made known to him in the sweet communion and
mystery of prayer ? Have our petitions any real efficiency to
secure results which would not have transpired otherwise ? Shall
we say with Kant that prayer, philosophically viewed, is only a
slight paroxysm of madness — an exercise of the soul which rests
on no rational basis ? Or on the other hand, with Luthardt,
(Fundamental Truths) that prayer is a real power in the world,.
which it pleaseth God to take up into the mingled web of his
providential government? To these queries the Symbols furnish
a practical rather than a speculative answer. They teach what
is most cardinal and essential in the case, — that God exists in
his personality and supremacy, with full power to sway everyr
thing throughout the created universe as he pleases, — that he is
actually exercising both a providential and a moral government
over men, administering both forms of such government in the
interest of humanity, and especially in the interest of his church
and people,— that he has enjoined prayer (XXI :iii) upon all men
as an imperative duty, to be observed according to his will, in the
name of Christ and by the help of the divine Spirit, with the
confident expectation that suitable answers will be graciously
given,— and that he does in fact regard the desires and pleadings.

PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 229
of his children, and so orders events as to secure in such adminis
tration the blessings, natural and spiritual, which they really
need and for which they truly pray. The spirit in which prayer
should be offered for such blessings is also prescribed, and the
proper subjects of petition are named, including not merely
spiritual blessings, but all things that are truly needful, whether
for ourselves or others or for the Church: L. C. 182-4; Directory
for Worship, Ch. V. The promises of God in his Word are repeat
edly cited as giving unquestionable assurance that all true prayer,
whether for spiritual or for temporal good, shall be heard and
answered. We are certainly guarded by such teaching against
the skeptical suggestion that prayer is valueless, or the kindred
suggestion that it has a subjective value only, and is to be offered
simply as an expression of the feeling and spirit of the offerer.
There is indeed a real value in such subjective effect of sincere
prayer, as a development of faith, a. choice of the highest good,
a sweet sense of dependence, a conscious humility and submis
sion, and an awakened joy and peace in God as a source of all
blessing. But the statements quoted imply much more than this:
a real outward or objective efficiency is clearly assumed in them
— an actual and vital connection of inestimable Significance be
tween prayer and the resultant blessing.
But of the nature of that connection nothing is said. Old as
the problem is in Christian theology, it was not an issue of special
prominence during the period in which the Symbols were written.
That the Assembly heartily and unanimously believed in the ob
jective efficiency of prayer, cannot be doubted by any reader of
the record of their religious convocations and devotions. They
were not deterred in their earnest supplications either by their pro
found conviction that God had foreordained immutably whatso
ever comes to pass, or by their faith in the divine omniscience as
already cognizant of their various needs, or in the fatherly be
nevolence of God whereby he is made willing to grant his children
all needful good even before they ask him. But whether such
efficacy should be explained on the simple theory of the divine
will, working as the sole force in the field of providence, or on
that of an established concursus between the divine will and all
secondary forces or causes tending to produce results in that field,
or on that of an arranged harmony between the two spheres of
providence and grace whereby the issues of the former are eter
nally fitted into the need and unfolding of the latter, the divines
of Westminster did not assume to say. The solution of the prob
lem may lie beyond the range of mortal vision. But we may be

230 GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
assured even on rational grounds that in such an economy as that
which God is administering in providence, prayer becomes in some
way a real power, — that its efficacy is not limited to subjective
results experienced by the offerer, and that not only spiritual but
temporal good is included within its scope. Though it is not a
physical cause or form of energy, whose effects can be measured
as those of physical causes or energies may be, still an immanent
Deity, living himself within nature yet above it, may utilize a
prayer as a real force or power, inducing results which would
not otherwise have been effected in his great providential scheme.
To use the admission of Tyndall, it is no departure from scientific
method to place behind natural phenomena an Universal Father
who, in answer to the prayers of his children, alters the currents
of these phenomena. It is not involved in this that every true
prayer shall be answered in the precise time and way and form
indicated by the petitioner, since all true prayer is willingly con
ditioned by the supreme will of God, and since he may find it for
the highest welfare of the suppliant, either to withhold altogether
the blessing desired, or to bestow instead of it some larger and
better gift. Though such prayer be in fact a movement of the
Holy Spirit within and upon the soul of him who offers it — a gen
uine prayer of faith according to the Bible for some object as wor
thy, for example, as a revival of religion — there may be external
conditions, such as the coldness or worldliness of a church, which
preclude the granting of the request, precious though the answer
would assuredly be.
It is a suggestive fact that the Protestant symbols generally,
while agreed in enforcing the duty and exalting the privilege of
prayer, say nothing speculatively as to the manner in which such '
prayer is answered, in the complex economy of providence.
Luther in his Small Catechism says that Christ affectionately en
courages us to believe that God is our Father, and we are truly
his children, so that we may cheerfully and with all confidence
pray to him as dear children ask their dear father. He adds that,
though the kingdom of God comes indeed of itself, and his good
and gracious will is indeed done of itself without our prayer, and
though even the wicked without any prayer receive their daily
bread, still we ought to pray, as dear children trusting their dear
Father. The Heidelberg Catechism in the same spirit rests in the
simple statement: My prayer is much more certainly heard of God
than I feel in my heart that I desire these things of him ... As
our King, having power over all things, he is both able and willing
to give us all good, and that thereby not we, but his holy name

PROVIDENCE TOWARD THE WICKED. 231
may be glorified forever. This reticence as to the theory of prayer
is the more remarkable, if viewed in contrast with such elaborate
expositions of the Lord's Prayer as are found in conjunction
with so many of these Confessions, and also in the Institutes
and other theologies. It was a necessary step in the restoration
of evangelical faith, that the subject of prayer should be thus
practically expounded and illustrated by the teaching of the Master
himself, both as a marked antithesis to the ritualisms of Rome,
and as a natural outgrowth from the deeper spiritual life realized
in the Reformation. Liddon, (Some Elements of Religion), dis
courses eloquently on prayer as the characteristic act of religion —
an act which, in a sphere above all speculation, justifies itself
whenever the soul becomes convinced of the existence of a Being
such as God, and conscious of its own need and dependence on
him for blessing. Specially is prayer the characteristic act of the
Christian religion, whether exemplified in the Old Testament, or
illustrated in Christ and his discourses and in the apostolic teach
ing. Of its real efficacy in securing both temporal and spiritual
blessing, no Christian, appreciating the injunctions and the prom
ises of Holy Writ, can reasonably doubt, however perplexing or
insoluble the method of divine providence in answering such
prayer may be. Protestantism has ever rested eminently, and in
the most vital sense still rests in the doctrine, that true prayer is
not only heard before God, but becomes in his administration
of things a causal force, actually effecting the order of that
administration, and obtaining results which would not otherwise
have been enjoyed by the suppliant or by others. And this doc
trine is to be accepted as true, however great the diversity in
accounting for such causal efficiency, or even in the absence of
any adequate mode of explanation. In any view the ultimate
ground of prayer lies in the fact that God is free Will and that as
free Will he can and does control both the system of nature and
the course of humanity; and in the further fact that his Will is
capable of being influenced by our desires — by the free will in us as
his subjects and his children: McCosh, Divine Gov. B II: Ch. II;
Hopkins, Prayer and the Prayer Guage.
The other special aspect of the doctrine under consideration
relates to the agency of divine providence with respect to wicked
and ungodly men. Enough has been ^ _.
. , * / . , , , ,. . IT. Providence toward the
said already with regard to the divine w,cke(1 . Provldence and ret-
permission of such sinfulness, and to ribution
the providential ordering and bound
ing of it in such ways as to prevent the impairing of the divine

232 GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
government thereby. It is sufficient at this point simply to
direct attention to the kind and patient action of providence toward
the evil and the unjust, — the forbearance or long suffering of the
Deity in view of continued wickedness and unbelief. While every
sin, even the least, (L. C. 152) being against the sovereignty, good
ness and holiness of God, and against his righteous law, deserveth
his wrath and curse, yet he is described as most loving, gracious,
merciful, (Conf. II : i) long-suffering, abundant in goodness and
truth, and in this temper showing mercy even to the unthankful
and the rebellious. Such, especially under the Gospel, is the
action of providence in the interest of grace, — God bringing all
the resources of his love and care to bear upon every sinner, often
through long periods of time, if haply the sinning soul may thus
be brought to repentance. At this point his providence becomes
a willing handmaid to his scheme of grace. In strict equity the
postponing of punishment justly due on the instant of transgres
sion, the present chastisement mingled with the long delay of
penalty, the bestowment meanwhile of undeserved temporal good,
the winning voices of a vast chorus of blessings hourly sent, are
explicable only on the principle that in all this God is steadily
endeavoring to bring the sinful soul back to himself in penitence
and allegiance. The purpose and the offered possibility of grace
and ultimate salvation, in a word, are the key and the only key
to the wondrous benignities of such providence.
But there is another and very different action of providence, in
the case of those who notwithstanding all divine inducements per
sist in sin. Here, as the chapter declares, (Sec. vi) God sometimes
withholdeth his grace, whereby they might have been enlightened
in their understandings and wrought upon in their hearts. He also
sometimes withdraweth the gifts which they had, when these gifts
are persistently perverted and abused. God also exposeth them,
it is added, to such objects as their corruption makes occasion of sin,
leaving them at liberty to work out the wickedness they have
desired. Nay more: He gives them over to the temptations of the
world and the power of Satan; whereby it comes to pass that they
harden themselves even under those means which he useth for the
softening of others. Terrible as this description is, and severe as
the conviction that dictated it may seem to many minds, the de
lineation is unquestionably true. Providence, in this case, is seen
to be acting in the form, on one side of chastisement, but on
another of just retribution. The same process which is employed
so constantly to encourage and reward the righteous, following
them even in this life with blessings, and verifying the divine

PROVIDENCE AND RETRIBUTION. 233
tenderness toward them in numberless forms of mercy, is now
turned as a sharp sword against the persistent enemies of God,
and made even in this world an instrument, first of discipline,
then of retribution.
The doctrine of a providence which is not only disciplinary but
retributive in this life, as introductory to further retribution hereaf
ter, in the case of those who prove themselves incorrigibly wicked,
receives occasional illustration in the earlier Protestant creeds,
as it is indeed a clear and solemn doctrine of Scripture. Luther
suggests it in his catechetical explanation of the commandments,
where such retribution is said to be specially set forth by the
divine hand, and the Catechism of Heidelberg in like manner
affirms that the just judgments of God in time as well as in eternity
rest upon those who sin against him. The Second Helvetic Con
fession" pronounces its condemnation on those who say that God
concerns himself about celestial things, but neither sees nor cares
what is done by man whether good or evil in this life. The Belgic
Confession represents divine providence as supreme over all alike,
and as working out its sovereign effects in the case of both the
righteous and the ungodly, during this life as well as hereafter.
Other references of Uke character might be quoted. Yet it should
be said that no such comprehensive doctrine of retributive provi
dence in the present life as the Christian Church now generally
maintains, was developed during the century of the Reformation;
and that the thought of Protestantism was then turned chiefly upon
that period beyond this life when all beneficent and gracious provi
dence is forever withdrawn from the wicked, and when discipline
and chastisement change into unmixed and perpetual retribution.
In the Larger Catechism (19) this conception of providence
as disciplinary and retributive is applied, after the manner of some
earlier creeds, such as the French Confession, (VII) the Belgic
(XII) the Irish Articles, (20) to the fallen angels as well as to
wicked and ungodly men. On the one hand, it is affirmed that
God in his majestic providence establishes the holy angels in holi
ness and happiness, and employs them in the administration of his
power, mercy and justice, — so acting upon them and so utilizing
them that they are confirmed in holy character, and made meet for
their blessed estate forever. But on the other hand, under the
same majestic scheme of providence, God is said not only to have
permitted some of the angels wilfully and irrecoverably to fall into
sin and damnation, but also to be limiting and ordering that fall
and all their sins to his own glory in such manner that, while they
are consigned to wrath to be for their sin inflicted, his own

234 GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
supremacy and glory are forever secured in them. There is indi
cated in these statements a doctrine respecting probation as appli
cable to angels as well as to mankind; — possibly a still broader
probation which, with all its solemn alternatives of blessing and
penalty, and as a mode of developing character, is carried on
under diversified conditions, throughout the entire universe of
rational and moral beings. We may at least say that this affirmed
extension of the scope of providence to the angelic world as well
as to humanity, and this action of providence both in rewarding
and in punishing other orders of spiritual being as well as man- "
kind, are fitted both to enlarge our conceptions of such provi
dence, and to inspire us with completer trust in Him by whom it
is in all these impressive forms administered.
The doctrine of providence, as thus set forth in the Symbols,
obviously includes the moral as well as the more material or nat
ural administration of God. That
18. Providential and moral , , ,. - ,.„. n
administrations : Moral gov- broad lme of dlfference between these
ernment introduced. two administrations which Butler drew
in the following century and which has
been so carefully recognized in later times, especially among those
who have realized the need of such distinction in their exposition .
of the scheme of grace, seems hardly to have been apparent to
the divines of Westminster. In their treatment God as providen
tial Ruler and God as moral Governor are practically confused,
obviously to the injury of both conceptions. That such confusion
is a serious defect will probably be admitted by any one who has
fully apprehended the conception of God as moral Governor, en
acting distinctively ethical law and under a special scheme of
probation exercising his sovereignty over spiritual creatures by
peculiar processes, for the subbinest spiritual ends. In treating
all divine administration as included in the single term, provi
dence, as the Assembly did, this important distinction was easily
overlooked. In the Larger Catechism, (20) for example, what
is termed the covenant of life, or the covenant of works, is de
scribed as an event occurring in the general scheme of providence.
God is there represented as not only placing man in Paradise,
appointing him to dress it, giving him liberty to eat of the fruit of
the earth, putting the creatures under his dominion, and ordain
ing marriage for his help, but also as entering into a covenant, of life
with him upon condition of personal, perfect and perpetual obedience,
and.thus instituting a plan or scheme of moral probation, inclose
conjunction with his providential dealing. In the Shorter Cate
chism, (12) this is styled a special act of providence, consequent upon

PROVIDENTIAL AND MORAL ADMINISTRATIONS. 235
that more generic operation of the same providence which sup
plies the physical needs of man, and which powerfully preserves
and governs man and all his actions. In the exposition of the
Law of God (XIX) where the subject presents itself more fully,
we are taught that the same covenant, viewed as a covenant of
works, binds not only our first parents but also their posterity; —
the law continuing after the fall to be a perfect rule of righteous
ness, and as such forever binding all, as well justified persons as
others, to the obedience thereof. And the position of man under
that law is represented as a part of the general scheme not of grace
or redemption but of providence, — a special act of that divine
Agent who under the same economy provides fruitful seasons, and
directs the planets in their courses through the sky.
Butler in his admirable chapter on the Moral Government of
God (Analogy Part I: Ch. 3) emphasizes the distinction thus
overlooked by the Assembly between what he styles the natural
(or providential) government of Deity and the higher form of
administration described as moral, and indicates some of the spe
cific differences between them. These differences have been more
fully noted and elaborated by more recent writers, following out
the lines of analysis which his profound mind had pointed out.
They appear chiefly in the different spheres and scope of the
divine action, in the diversity in the types of law employed and
the appbcation of such law, in the nature of the subjects gov
erned and the agency or motive employed, and in the ends to be
acomplished through each mode of administration.1 — But as the
whole subject will present itself again for more complete inspec
tion in our consideration of man as under moral law, and also of
the law of God itself, viewed as the supreme rule of right, further
reference to it may be omitted at this point in our studies.
The present Lecture may fitly close with a general survey of the
doctrine respecting God in his Activites within the three specific
spheres described, as to its intrinsic grandeur on one side and its
spiritual value on the other. Whatever objection may beraised to
the conception of the divine Decree as now defined, and however
overwhelming the sense of mystery induced, the conception itself,
when seen to include not only man and the earth he inhabits, but
also all worlds and their inhabitants within the one comprehen
sive, imperial, and immutable purpose, becomes so great that our
minds are utterly lost in the effort to measure its sublime immen
sity. Equally great is the conception of the work of Creation,
when contemplated in its vastness, its majesty and its impenetra
ble mystery, — a work whose contemplation at once prostrates the

236 GOD IN HIS ACTIVITIES.
thoughtful mind in humility and compels the soul to adoration.
But the task of Providence seems even greater, and still more
overpowering. So far as we know, the work of creation'is ended,
but the task of providence, including in its scope not merely our
human life and this earth but millions of of her worlds with thdr
immeasurable myriads of creatures, and caring for all these con
tinuously and incessantly, by day and by night through all the
generations, never forgetting the least insect that flutters through
its brief day of being, — this task baffles all description, puts to
silence all philosophy and all human theologies, and permits no
mortal utterance but that of reverential wonder and worship. In
the presence of such truth, revealed alike in nature and in Scrip
ture, and verified by the profoundest convictions Of the sanctified
soul, of what avail are the speculations ahd doubts of men?
It is well that this doctrine of providential administration over
man whether holy or sinful, and over the Church, should have
had such prominence and been so strongly emphasized in the Sym
bols of Westminster, and in the Protestant Confessions generally.
While in form no issue had arisen during the Reformation involv
ing this doctrine especially, yet it was indispensable to the life and
vigor of Protestantism that it should emphasize thus earnestly a
truth on which the first Reformers had occasion so constantly to
rest in their severe conflict with the papal power. It was often
necessary that they should thus recognize practically as well as in
theory the Hand that protected and fed, and the Arm that strength
ened and upheld them as Christian men, in the presence of their
dangerous foes. It was often necessary that they should contem
plate this providence as especially extended toward the true
Church, and as disposing all things to the good thereof. Nor
were the men of Westminster so far beyond such hostile beset-
ments, that their sense of the value of this doctrine had become
dim or impotent. They also were men who had occasion to believe
in providence practically, — in a providence such as they here
described and extolled, so vast as to include all men and creatures
and all their actions, so minute as to minister to the smallest want
not only of the Church but of every part and member thereof,
and so ethical as well as material in its scope as to embrace the
moral rule, the moral life, the moral destinies of all mankind. In
such a providence they believed, not merely as a theory or dogma,
but far more as a blessed spiritual fact: and to that belief they
gave expression in a form which no other creed of Christendom
has surpassed, and which cannot fail to command the permanent
admiration of Christian minds.

LECTURE FIFTH— MAN.
His Origin and Nature : His Probation — Covenant of
Works : The Fall and its Issues : Original Sin : Man
kind as Depraved — Free Will : Man under Law.

C. F. Chap. IV : VI : VII : IX. L. C. 17, 20-29; 91-95.
S. C. 10, 12-19, 82-84.

Following thdr elaborate presentation of the doctrine of Scrip
ture concerning God in his nature and attributes and general
activities, the Westminster Symbols proceed at once to a corre
sponding dehneation of Man as to his original constitution, his
fall into sin, his condition as fallen, and his possible restoration
through grace. The Confession and the Catechisms follow essen
tially the same order here : this is also the general order both of
the preceding Protestant creeds, and of the prevalent theology
of the seventeenth century. Such arrangement also justifies
itself on logical or sdentific grounds, since a thorough knowledge
of man as he was and is, and possibly may be made through grace,
is as essential as a like knowledge of God himself to any adequate
apprehension of the scheme of salvation. Both parties in that
supreme transaction must be thoroughly estimated before the
transaction itself, with all that is logically consequent upon it in
Christian theology, can be sdentifically known or duly appre-
dated. But this dehneation of man is by the necessities of the case
limited or partial rather than exhaustive. The main object of the
Symbols being to set forth the central fact of salvation, it was
hardly needful to enter upon a broad, philosophic analysis of
human nature, with any view to a complete account of what man
is in his rational and ethical constitution. What was required was
rather such a practical description of man as a moral being — such
an account of the manner of his fall into sin and of his condition
when fallen, as would bring out clearly the biblical doctrine
respecting his need of a justifying and regenerating process, a full
and complete method of salvation, such as is set forth in the
Word of God. Such an account is here carefully given ; and
whatever may be said of the underlying philosophy implied in

238 MAN.
it, of its searching severities, or the spiritual effects it induces, it
justly deserves the highest praise for clearness of statement, con
sistency of position, and close adherence to the letter and spirit
of the Scriptures. Standing chronologically at the close of the
long series of anthropological declarations made by evangelical
Protestantism in opposition to Rome on one side and Pelagianism
on the other, it may be placed at the head of the series, as
expressing most comprehensively and with greatest accuracy and
thoroughness the divine truth concerning man as maintained
essentially in all,
Turning first to the teaching of the Symbols respecting the ori
gin and nature of man, we may recall at the outset what has been
said already as to the primal act of cre-
1. Creation of Man : true .. ^,. , . .. r ., „ r
n~* f„i„ ^„„^„„nn„c tt„i*„ ation. The declaration of the Confes-
and false conceptions. Unity
and antiquity of the Race. sion (IV: n) that after God had made all
other creatures he created man, expresses
the universal and impregnable belief of Christendom as to the ori
gin of our race. The same divine fiat which produced the material
universe of nothing, and which had already given existence
and rational endowment to angelic beings, is here said to create
man as the final product of its sovereign activity. The Symbols
rest at this point on the simple testimony of the Bible, taken as an
authentic record of facts. This creative act includes of course both
the soul and the body of man. The sublime language of Scripture
simply assures us that at the divine inbreathing man became a liv
ing soul ; and we may rest upon the inspired declaration, though
the creation of a soul is an act too wonderful, too transcendent, to
be in any sense whatever conceived by finite minds. In respect to
the bodily organism, it is said with biblical simplicity (L. C. 17)
that God formed the body of the man of the dust of the ground, and the
woman of the rib of the man, — a description which must be re
garded as at least essentially true, however metaphorical the lan
guage or inconceivable the divine procedure. We have in these
declarations no suggestion of any process of evolution from prim
itive germs, or of development from antecedent and inferior
orders of creatures. We have no hint of potencies existing in
unorganized matter, or of any process by which out of such mat
ter man might have emerged without the immediate volition of a
personal Deity. The formation of the body of man from the dust
of the ground is not indeed a creation ex nihilo, as was the crea
tion of the earth or of the physical universe; yet it was none the
less a divine, personal, creative process. Shall it be claimed that
this is simply an illustration of the comparative ignorance of the

CREATION OF MAN : UNITY AND ANTIQUITY. 239
period in which the Symbols were produced, and that their state
ments cannot stand the tests of a more scientific age ? The suffi-
dent answer to this claim is that, while the science of our time
has extensively challenged the authentidty of the biblical record,
it has not yet proved that record unreliable. Its theories respect
ing the origination of man from antecedent forms of existence
really give us at the best no account of that primal force, by which
matter became endowed with such creative potencies, or by which
those processes of evolution or development have been instituted
which reach their culmination, as is alleged, in man. It is at least
a present fact that no satisfying verification of such naturalistic
theories of the origin of the human race has as yet been attained;
these hypotheses still stand before us rather as ingenious guesses
or suggestions than as established truths. And so long as matter is
not actually detected in the process of passing from inorganic into
organized forms — so long as the various species of organic life are
not seen to be shifting, one into another, but rather are found to
remain as changdess and unchangeable as the system of nature
itself, so long must the biblical record concerning the origin of
man be accepted as essentially correct. If what is now admitted
to be hypothesis, wholly or chiefly, shall hereafter be transmuted
into sdentific fact, dear and unquestionable, the question whether
this divine record is longer worthy of our trust, will become one
of great practical moment: until then, it is no mark of an unin
telligent or unsdentific mind to receive that record as true.
In like manner does this teaching exdude the theory of several
creations, or of a plurality of species in man. That great dif
ferences now exist in the various tribes or races of mankind, and
that such differences have existed in general with little modifica
tion during so much of the career of humanity as is described in
authentic history, is to be freely granted. It may also be admitted
that great difficulties stand in the way of any natural explanation
of these differences. Yet on the other hand it cannot be ques
tioned that changes have occurred historically in given instances,
which reveal the possibility of still greater changes during the
remoter past. Nor is it an unwarrantable conjecture that such
greater changes may have been providentially wrought, possibly
in conjunction with the developments of human sinfulness, at
some specific period in the primitive history of mankind. It is
also certain that philological and archaeological researches are now
pointing more and more decisively toward a common origin for
the race. And if to these evidences there be added the underlying
elements of unity so decisively manifested in the constitution of

240 MAN.
mankind, however diverse humanity is in respect to certain out
ward characteristics, we may be warranted on scientific grounds
alone in regarding the race as one in origin. Moreover the wit
ness of Scripture to the moral unity of mankind, with the: mutual
relations flowing therefrom, and to the common experience of the
race as sinful, and its common need of one great salvation, must
be regarded by the Christian mind as furnishing a demonstration
still .more definite and complete.
As to the antiquity of this one race, the Symbols say nothing:
questions of chronology, based on Scripture, were not considered
in the Assembly. It may be presumed that the body simply ac
cepted the current view, based on the Hebrew text, rather than
that suggested by the Septuagint. Of this, the fact that the
Annals of Ussher were published but shortly after the adjourn
ment of the Assembly (1650-54) and were adopted in current
editions of the Authorized Version, may be taken as inddental
evidence. But if, in view of the larger figures given in the Sepr
tuagint or suggested by Egyptian or Babylonian or Chinese an
nals, or of the apparent necessity for a longer period in order to
account adequately for the growth of nations, and the spread of
the race since the era of the Flood, more time than this is requisite,
the Symbols do not forbid such supposition. Yet the prolonga
tion of this period to tens of thousands of years, stretching far
< back of even the most extended data obtainable from such sources,
is certainly not as yet demanded by any reliable discoveries
respecting the presence of man upon the earth, nor is it consis
tent with due regard to the historic quality of the Sacred Writ
ings. At least the testimonies of geology, the human remains
authentically reported, the primeval implements found, the lake
dwellings, and other like traces of the earliest known antiquity,
furnish thus far no such array of evidence as justifies a serious
challenging of the biblical account. Here, as in respect to the
question of the origin of man, it is safe to ask for more condusive
proof, before that account is set aside as unhistoric.
The three problems thus named respecting the origin, unity and
antiquity of the human race deserve thoughtful consideration at
the hands of the Christian scholar, — not merely for purposes of
defense against current forms of unbelief, but far more in view of
certain practical relations which they sustain alike to Christian
theology and to religious experience. It is a matter of vital
moment to both doctrine and faith that we should regard man as
the immediate and the glorious product of a divine volition, rather
than the final issue of some primordial process originating we know

HIS CONDITION AND ENDOWMENTS. 241
not when or how, and carried on we know not how or whither.
Still more important is it in many practical aspects to hold to the
essential oneness in nature and the consequent moral brotherhood
of mankind, alike in the estate of sin and in the higher estate and
experience of redemption. Nor are there lacking serious reasons,
espedally in the interpretation of human history, for the strenu
ous maintenance of the doctrine of Scripture respecting the date
of the advent of man upon the earth. And in view of such prac
tical relations of these three current problems, it surely is not
wise for the Christian scholar dther to ignore these problems as
trivial, or to hasten too readily to the acceptance of any merely
hypothetical solution.
The description given by the Symbols (IV : ii) of the consti
tution of man as created is exact, full and practical. As to his
physical nature, he was constituted
male and female,— -not with infantile 2- Constitution of man as
potentialities merdy, but with full and crea|ed X™%^f™}TV'\
r , . . ments : Physical, intellectual
matured capacity for the propagation andmorais m^e of God.
of the spedes according to the divine
command, and for the exerdse of vice-regal control over nature.
This is said to be a divine provision in providence, God ordaining
marriage for his help, and thus sending him forth in every way
physically endowed for his appointed destiny on the earth. This
provision for man as a physical being is further illustrated
(L. C. 20) in the placing him in Paradise and appointing him to
dress it, in order that his bodily organism might receive both supply
and exerdse according to its need. God further recognized the
claims of this physical constitution in man, by giving him liberty
to eat of the fruit of the earth, and by causing nature to supply
with luxuriant fullness his corporeal necessities. Man in his phys
ical structure, with his varied appetites and desires, and with his
capadties for useful activity and for self -perpetuation, was thus
physically a glorious illustration of the divine wisdom and good
ness. Made after the angels and all other creatures, and consti
tuted on different principles by the union in him of the flesh and
the spirit, he was peculiarly fitted even in his corporeal structure
and adaptations to show forth the praises of him by whose hand
and skill he had been formed.
Intellectually, our first, parents were (L. C. 20) endued with
living, reasonable and immortal souls : — this mental quality sepa
rating them decisively from all varieties of merely animal being.
For the term, aoul, here implies more than a merely sentient
existence such as inferior creatures may enjo)'. The soul of man

242 MAN.
was a living thing — a product flowing immediately from the life
of God, breathed into him by a divine communication, and
endowed with forms and measures of intelligence which ally it
with angels rather than with the beasts that perish. And this
soul was reasonable in its constitution and its modes of activity :
it possessed capacities for perception, for judgment, for rational
processes of the loftiest type. It is said in the same connectioii
that God created man after his own image or likeness in knowledge
as well as in holiness, — not indeed as knowing all that God knows,
or acquiring knowledge as God possesses it, but rather as having
capacities which enabled him to perceive divine things, and to
comprehend such truths as God chose to reveal. Such capacity
was indeed indispensable to the exercise of ' those moral endow
ments with which man was also gifted ; but it was likewise
essential to the effectual filling of his physical sphere, and to the
proper care and use of his corporeal structure. The instincts of
an animal, the sentient intelligence manifested sometimes b}r infe
rior orders of being, were not sufficient for a living person filling
such higher and larger relations. It was not essential that man
should have been at creation a philosopher, endowed with exten
sive knowledge concerning the divine purposes or the structure or
government of the universe. Still less are we constrained to think
of him as a child or a savage, intellectually, — growing slowly
through educational processes into such knowledge as was essen
tial alike to his physical and his moral existence. The divine
enduement was immediate, adequate, glorious, — a sublime part of
that process of creation from which all life and being sprang.
The moral endowments of man are specially indicated in the
phrase, after his own image (IV:ii), and in the corresponding
terms, righteousness and true holiness. The Irish Articles (21)
define the image of God in man, as consisting especially in the
wisdom of his mind and the true holiness of his free will,— a
statement including both natural likeness in the matter of person
ality, and moral or spiritual likeness in respect to the essential
elements of character. While this resembfance to God consisted
partly in the rational capacities of man — in the intellectual equip
ment which lifted him altogether above the animal creation, the
main element in that resemblance must be regarded, as these
Articles teach, as moral— lying in the intrinsic holiness of the free
will. The primitive man was specially like God in his distinct
ively ethical and spiritual nature and disposition. The law of God
was written in their hearts, in such a sense and measure that our
first parents were able to comprehend at once the divine claims

IMAGE OF GOD: ORIGINAL RIGHTEOUSNESS. 243
and to appreciate their personal obligation to obedience. Con
science as well as reason was central and supreme in their higher
constitution. They also had power to fulfill what they had
capacity to see and to appreciate. This gift of free will in the.
direction of holiness, — this innate consciousness of ability to do as
well as to perceive and fed the right, — constituted the highest ele
ment in their moral nature, and made them definitely like angels
and like God. It is therefore strongly said (IX : ii) that man in
his state of innocency had freedom and power to will and to do that
which is good and well-pleasing to God. The duplicated expres
sions, freedom and power, to will and to do, good and well-pleasing
(or good inherently and good as acceptable with God) , are indic
ative of the confidence and heartiness with which this declaration
was made. The language differs widely from the Roman dogma
of original righteousness, as being not a native endowment in man
but rather a superadded gift, — a gift whose loss or .forfeiture in
the Fall simply placed him back in the relatively characterless state
in which according to the doctrine of Romanism he was created.
Still more dedsively does it exclude the Pelagian conception of
moral indifferentism — an inchoate condition of soul, having in it
merely the possibilities of character according as the independent
will might determine, in the presence of future opportunities of
choice. However helpful such a conception might at first sight
appear, as an explanation of the moral career of either Adam or
his posterity, it is decisively excluded by the emphatic record of
the Bible : In our image — after our likeness. As created, our first
parents possessed, not the mere possibility of righteousness and
true holiness, but rather such a positive stamp and disposition
spiritually as predisposed them toward righteous and holy living.
The image of God is thus, in the fine phrase of Calvin, the uncor-
rupted excellence of human nature which shone in Adam and Eve
before their defection. The germs of a divine character, with
freedom and power to grow progressively into actual goodness and
into complete likeness to God and acceptance with him, were thus
implanted within them. In other words, so far as nature, consti
tution, tendency were concerned, they were positively holy from
the first moment of their conscious existence.
Such is doubtless the meaning of the theological phrase, origi
nal righteousness. That phrase was derived directly from the
Thirty-Nine Articles, in which (IX) it appears in the antithetic
definition of original sin. Similar descriptions are found in several
of the continental symbols. For illustration, the Heidelberg Cate
chism declares (6) that man was created in real or true righteousness

244 MAN.
or holiness; the Second Helvetic Confession, (Cap. VII) that he was
created good, in the image and similitude of God; the French Con
fession, (IX) that he was created pure and perfect, in the image of
God; the Belgic Confession, (XIV) that God formed man after his
own image, good, righteous and holy. It was not intended by this
phrase to teach that man possessed at the start a righteousness like
that of God or of angels, or even like that attained by sanctified men
under the Gospel. In other words he did not possess a developed
or matured, but rather an inchoate righteousness, yet one contain
ing within itself the germs or beginnings even of such ethical per
fection as dwells in angels or in God himself. It was as truly a
capacity in the primitive man as the capacity to reason, — a strong
and clear capability and tendency of the soul toward God and all
goodness. In this sense it is denominated holiness, as bdng much
more than the absence of sin, — as being a positive principle in the
moral nature, though not an immutable principle above the possi
bility of change. This possibility of transgression is not only
implied in the expression, being left to the liberty of their own will:
it is indicated still more strongly in the phrase, (IX:ii) yet muta
bly, so that they might fall from it, although man had constitu
tional freedom and power to do that which is good. Possessing
indeed the image of God, and affiliated with him in feeling and
nature, it still was possible for our first parents thus to'pervert the
liberty bestowed on them, and to sink into a condition of vol
untary sinfulness, and of consequent spiritual death.
Man as thus constituted and endowed, was placed at the head of
the earthly creation. It is said (L- C. 20) that the providence of
God toward man was exhibited in plac-
3. Place in nature : Do- . . . ,. lL . .. ,. ,
minion over nature : Divine mZ htm m Paradise> appointing him to
estimate of man. dress lt, and giving him liberty to eat
of the fruit of the earth. This earth,
in its primitive beauty and fertility, is thus represented as the
predestined and fit abode of our first parents; and a corresponding
right of occupancy and use was thus divinely vested in them. We
may presume that, when the Creator looked upon the world at the
close of the creative process and pronounced it very good, he was
contemplating it specially as the home of man — a paradise suited
to the nature and needs of the beings whom he had formed out of
the dust to be its occupants, and for whose posterity, even in the
sinfulness that was to come upon them, it constituted a fitting
abode. From what is suggested in Scripture as to the effects of
the curse upon the earth itself, — as to the changes wrought in
the system of nature in order to make the world an appropriate

PLACE IN NATURE : DOMINION OVER NATURE. 245
disdplinary sphere for a race of sinners, we may to some extent
surmise what was the beauty, the adaptation, the divine perfect-
ness of the original Eden. The simple sketch which the Holy
Spirit has given, is intended only to furnish to our faith some
glimpses of that pristine paradise such as would make us more con-
sdous of the correlative sadness of our present estate, and more
ardent in our aspirations after the nobler paradise that is through
grace to be regained.
Into this primitive estate our first parents were introduced, not as
owners but rather as stewards, with unchallenged right of appro
priation, yet under adequate accountability to God for whatever
use they might make of the blessings with which they were
intrusted. It is well to recognize here the universal fact of stew
ardship, not merdy as belonging to the state of grace, or implied
in the position of man as sinful under law, but rather as a fact that
must exist wherever moral bdngs are found. Absolute ownership
of anything is impossible even to angels: God alone is. absolute
owner of all. Hence every moral being is a steward, having par
tial or temporary ownership, but accountable to God at last for
each gift he receives, for each power he wields, for each oppor
tunity or privilege he enjoys. Such was the position of man in
the primitive Eden. He was placed in it by its true owner; he
was appointed to dress and keep it; he was given liberty to apply
to his own needs whatever it contained. This stewardship was
vested in him in the original constitution of nature; nor did his
subsequent sin, and his expulsion from paradise, absolve him from
the duties of such stewardship over the world in which he was
still to dwell. That stewardship follows his descendants univer
sally, however perverted or corrupt their actual administration of
such stewardship may be. It follows them still more impressively
in the estate of grace, and becomes a primal law in their adminis
tration of these natural trusts under the Gospel. It belongs
indeed to man as a moral being, and will hold and control him
always, — the apparent severities of it fading away as his dispo
sition is sanctified, and its value as an element in his spiritual
experience and perfection becoming more and more apparent,
even forever.
It is obvious that the phrase, dominion over the creatures,
should be interpreted in the light of this primal, comprehensive,
inevitable stewardship. The right of appropriation carries with
it the right of control: adequate authority is essential to adequate
use. God has to this extent crowned man with glory and with
honor, as in some true sense his vice-gerent on the earth, ar.d lias

246 MAN.
ordained him to have dominion over the other works of his hand.
All things are put under his feet— are subordinated to his adminis
tration : whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas is
subject unto him. The failure of man to retain this primeval
supremacy, the revolt of nature against his sinful authority, his
present inability to control or even to use the earth now groaning
with him and travailing as in pain and in rebellion together with
its discrowned lord, may in some degree make manifest the mingled
dignity and tenderness of his original dominion. In like manner,
the prophetic hints which are given us in the imagery of deserts
blossoming as roses, and of lions going forth with lambs under the
the gentle leadership of children in the millennial age, show us
graphically what that primitive authority was. We may fitly
regard it as an enthronement and gracious crowning of human
ity, in order to the perfect realization of the divine purpose and
ideal. How glorious a being was man, as thus endowed with rational
faculties, robed in righteousness and true holiness, made the stew
ard of God on earth, and vested with a regency which was lim
ited only by his primary relations to Deity ! Surely it is not wise
to set aside this biblical and confessional view of man as created,
and to substitute for it any of those naturalistic theories which,
in order to subvert the biblical doctrine of a moral fall from this
lofty primeval condition, represent man rather as starting from
some low estate of savagery, gradually accumulating mental ca
pacity and acquiring knowledge of himself and his earthly
environment, and slowly and painfully developing through long
ages into his present estate of comparative maturity. To say
nothing of the radical conflict between such theories and the bib
lical records, many considerations will arise in our further study
of the moral condition and experience of mankind, to show that
these theories are on both philosophic and ethical grounds un
tenable. It is sufficient here to note, first, the low estimate which
is thus put upon man and his moral endowments; secondly, the
evidences afforded by human history of extensive moral lapses in
the career of men and races; and thirdly, the witness of Christian
experience, not to a spiritual development from antecedent germs
of character, but to a moral restoration or renovation such as cer
tifies in consciousness to the dreadful reality of that antecedent
moral fall which the Word of God faithfully describes.
Equally inadmissible is it to regard the primeval man as a char
acterless being in whom only mere possibilities existed, and who
was left to shape a sphere and career for himself under the action

PURE AND HOLY AS CREATED. 247
of interior impulses or outward currents of motive, with no pos
itive tendency to holiness in his nature. The profoundest phil
osophy of human nature leads rather toward some such conception
as is here presented on the authority of the inspired Word. Here
also the Confessions of the Reformation are essentially agreed.
Man, affirms the Formula of Concord, (Art. I) was created of
God in the beginning pure and holy and free from sin. Man,
says the first Helvetic Confession, (VII) was the most perfect
image of God on earth, and was made first among visible crea
tures, sancte a Deo conditus. Now concerning man, declares the
Second Helvetic symbol (VII), Scripture teaches that he was at
the beginning made good, according to the image and similitude
of God, and was placed in paradise, and had all things subjected
to him. God created man, says the Belgic Confession, (XIV) out
of the dust of the earth, and formed him after his own image and
likeness; good, righteous, and holy, capable in all things to will
agreeably to the will of God. The Heidelberg Catechism affirms
(6) that God created man good, and after his own image, — that
is in righteousness and true holiness, that he might rightly know
God his Creator, heartily love him, and live with him in eternal
blessedness to praise and glorify him. We confesse and acknawl-
edge this our God, says the Scotch Confession, (Art. II) to have
created man, to wit, our first father Adam, to his awin image and
similitude, to whome he gave wisdome, lordship, justice, free-wil,
and cleir knawledge of himselfe, sa that in the haill nature of man
there culd be noted no imperfectioun. Against this high and pure
conception of the original state and character and mission of man,
modern skeptidsm has certainly been able to urge no valid argu
ment; it stands as a truth abundantly confirmed in the light of
both reason and Revelation: Argyle, Primeval Man.
Accepting the doctrine of the Symbols as to the original consti
tution of man, physical, intellectual and moral, and to his pecul
iar place and position in nature, we
are led to consider two further inqui- +• Tw° specific questions:
 ,, Origin of the Soul in Man :
nes respecting him which logically Immortallty of Man on tie
present themselves for examination at earth.
this point. — The first of these is the
question respecting the propagation of the race. Ignoring for
the present the inquiry as to the extent to which sin may have
affected the natural law of increase and disturbed its actual opera
tions, we may simply note the universality of that law as seen
in all vegetable and animal life, and specially as divinely ordained
for man in the terse phrase, male and female created He them, and

248 MAN.
in the positive injunction to be fruitful and multiply and replenish
the earth, through the divine benediction upon their marital union.
God did not choose to replenish the earth with inhabitants after
the similitude of our first parents by a continuous series of creative
acts, — as he did not choose to preserve vegetable or animal hfe
on the earth by that process. He chose rather to set up this
special provision in and throughout the realm of nature, by which
the succession of the original species of creatures should be pre
served, so long as he should desire to continue such creatures in
being. And man becomes the crowning illustration of that pro
vision, living on in the organic unity of the race from generation
to generation, while the individual man is continually dropping
off as a withering leaf from the great tree of life. And it may
well be noted here that a proper study and appredation of this
marvelous law and process sheds — as we shall fully see hereafter —
a peculiar light not otherwise discernible upon some of the pro-
foundest doctrines of Holy Writ.
Respecting the origin of the souls of men, subsequent to the
original creative act, three theories have received consideration.
Of these the first affirms the existence of the soul in some state
of being antecedent to the present life, — transferred hither, as
some have held, just as a gardener transplants a flower from an
inferior soil to one more favorable to growth and fruitage, — or
sent here, as others imagine, as criminals are sent to a prison in
punishment for offenses committed in some anterior state of being.
Neither form of this hypothesis contributes anything to the solu
tion of the prime problem of the origin of the soul thus sent or
transplanted; nor does the second aid us, as has been claimed, in
explaining the universal and original sinfulness of mankind.
Neither has any warrant whatever in Scripture or in human con
sciousness: both, and especially the second, involve very serious
questionings as to the divine wisdom and righteousness in such a
mysterious transference : Miiller. Christ. Doct. of Sin. Current
opinion is mainly divided between the two hypotheses of tradu-
cianism and creationism; the first affirming that souls are, as the
term suggests, procreated simultaneously or in conjunction with
the bodily organism; the second holding that souls are continuously
created by God as bodies are fashioned to receive them, and are by
divine volition incorporated individually in their physical habita
tions. A modified form of creationism, basing itself on the trich-
otomic analysis of man, regards the body and the soul as procre
ated physiologically while the spirit (pneuma) is placed in the
developing organism by the direct act of Deity.

ORIGIN OF THE SOVI.. 249
While some considerations, such as the analogies of nature else
where, the general transmission of physical traits from parent to
child, espedally the universal prevalence of sin as a taint in every
procreated life, and also various intimations of Scripture, favor
the former hypothesis, still very serious objections may be urged
against it,— especially on the ground that it almost inevitably makes
sin so much an dement in the physical nature, so much an inher
ent force in the very constitution, as to impair greatly if not to des
troy that consciousness of liberty and of consequent responsibility
for sin, on which the Bible seems to rely fundamentally, alike in
its faithful warnings against all transgression, and in its tender
exhortations to obedience and holiness. That serious objections
maybe urged against the second hypothesis is also obvious, — ob
jections which have led many Calvinistic divines especially in this
age to prefer, notwithstanding all its difficulties, the traducian
explanation. The creation of a soul that is constitutionally with
out sin, and its incorporation into a bodily organism which is
tainted with the corruption of sin, is indeed an inexplicable mys
tery, and one which the wisdom and justice of God would seem
to predude, — yet hardly more inexplicable or startling than that
God would estabUsh an universal law of procreation by which at
his own command souls tainted at their very genesis with sin
constitutionally transmitted, are to be propagated through human
action in conjunction with human bodies during countless genera
tions. It is urged with justice that creationism as a theory tends to
destroy our sense of the unity or solidarity of the race, and especi
ally to impair our conviction of its universal corruption or depravity,
as affirmed in Scripture, — yet this tendency which certainly every
thoughtful mind must guard itself against, is hardly so dangerous as
the opposite liability just named. The strongest argument practi
cally in its favor is derived from the prevalent language of the Bible
respecting each and every soul as immediately a creature and a
child of God, first by nature and then through grace; and from
the innate consciousness and conviction by which each and
every soul is directly certified to itself, not as having been born
through an impact first divinely given to our first parents and
transmitted from them through all the generations, but rather
as having itself been created by an immediate fiat of Deity.
Amid the perplexities arising from these antithetic hypotheses, it
is not strange that Cicero, discussing the same problem in his Tus-
culan Questions, should say at last: Which of these explanations
may be the true one, only some deity is able to discern. Nor is it
strange that Augustine, after leaning at one time toward the

250 MAN-
traducian and at another toward the creationist hypothesis— after
saying that either both soul and body are alike derived in their
corrupt state from man, or the soul being pure is corrupted by the
body, as if in a corrupt vessel where it is placed by the secret (or
inscrutable) justice of the divine law, should add: Which of these
is true I would rather learn than teach, lest I should presume to
teach what I do not truly know. From Jerome on one side and
Tertullian on the other, down to our own age, the problem has
been earnestly discussed, but remains as yet unsolved: Shedd,
Hist, of Doct., Anthropology. Among the Scholastics creationism
evidently found the greatest. measure of favor: Anselm affirming
that the claim that man receives his rational mind through con
ception is unproveable ; Aquinas, that an immaterial substance such
as the soul could only be produced by direct creation; St. Victor
affirming it to be the true Catholic faith that souls are daily cre
ated de nihilo to be associated with living bodies; and Peter Lom
bard tersely adding, Creando enim infundit Deus et infundendo
creat: Hagenbach, Hist. Doct.
Later Lutheran theologians, though the position of Luther
himself is doubtful, generally favored traducianism, although the
Formula of Concord expressly declares (Art. I) that God not only
created the body and soul of Adam and Eve before the fall, but
has also created our bodies and souls since the fall, though these
are now corrupt, and now acknowledges our minds and bodies
to be his creatures and his work. On the other hand many Calvinis
tic theologians of more recent date discredit creationism, although
Calvin himself and his immediate successors such as Beza gave it
the preference. Calvin indeed declines (Inst. B. 1:1) to enter on
what he describes as a tedious question (anxia disputatio) with
which the Fathers were not a little perplexed, whether the soul
of the son proceeds by derivation or transmission from the soul
of the father; but adds that we ought not to regard the contagion
of sin as caused or originating in the substance of either the body
or the soul. He prefers to rest the fact of a corruption springing
from Adam and transfused from parent to children in a perpetual
stream, on a divine ordination whose nature he subsequently de
scribes in part under the head of original sin; and quotes the
striking sentence of Augustine, that neither the guilty unbeliever
nor the justified believer generates innocent but guilty children,
since the generation of both is from corrupted human nature.
The Symbols cannot be quoted authoritatively in favor of either
theory, though their teaching respecting the corruption of human
nature constitutionallv and hereditarily seems more in harmony

TRADUCIANISM AND CREATIONISM. 251
with traducianism, — especially as seen in certain phrases such as
the root of all mankind, and such declarations as that original sin
is conveyed from our first parents unto their posterity by ordinary
or natural generation: L. C. 22. Yet'there are not wanting other
terms and statements respecting the soul as a divine creation, and
the experience of the soul in the state of grace, which give some
measure of countenance to creationism, — a fact which suggests
the query whether there be not some important elements of spir
itual truth in both hypotheses. This survey of opinion may fitly
close with the following statement of Lotze in explication of the
creationistic view: At the place where, and at the moment when,
the germ of an organic bdng is formed, amid the coherent system
of the physical course of nature, this fact furnishes the incite
ment, or the moving reason, which induces the all-comprehending
One Being — present not otherwheres but even here— to beget
from himself besides, as a consistent supplement to such physical
fact, the soul bdonging to this organism.
The second of these spedal topics is the speculative question
whether, had our first parents remained sinless, they would have
enjoyed an immortaUty on the earth. It is positively taught in
the Symbols, that immortality in some form and under some con
ditions is an inherent endowment of the human soul, — God having
created man with the intention that he should live henceforth
forever. The dogma of an immortality secured only as a gift of
grace, bestowed on the righteous alone, is nowhere suggested in
Scripture, except in the special and higher Pauline sense of the
term. It is also implied (L- C. 20) that man would, by rendering
to God perfect and perpetual obedience according to the covenant
of life, have had such immortality not in heaven but on the earth,
of which the tree of life is a pledge; and physical death is directly
represented (28) as one of the temporal consequences of his trans
gression, according to the curse originally pronounced upon him.
To offset the physiological objections to this view, based on the
fact that death was already in the world before the Adamic trans
gression, — that the human body like other animal organisms is in
its own nature perishable, — and that the divine provision for the
propagation of species, both animal and human, presupposes the
death of progenitors in order to make room for their posterity, it
has been held that the fruit of the tree of life standing in the midst
of the garden, which Augustine described as a holy sacrament,
would have been for man a perfect antidote to this general law of
decay, and that his bodily organism by partaking of this preserv
ative fruitage would have enjoyed perpetual vitality and perpetual

252 MAN.
youth in this world. It is also claimed that the divine arrangement
for the continuance of the race through physical propagation
might have worked out quite otherwise if sin had not deranged
and corrupted it, and also that the earth, if not blasted by sin,
might have nourished on its broad surface an innumerable multi
tude of the posterity of Adam. May it not be that what we call
death, whenever occurring, would have been to a holy race simply
a natural and blessed transference from an earthly to some cdes-
tial life — a transference which would carry with it no taint of pain
or trial ? May it not be that death, being in the world as a uni
versal fact, was utilized after the fall as an expression of the divine
feeling toward sin, and was so altered and shadowed by attendant
pains and miseries as to make it a fit emblem or type of the
spiritual death in which sin finds its dreadful consummation, — God
using it in this way just as he used the rainbow, which must
always have been a glorious vision in nature, as a sign of his
gracious promise to mankind after the flood? And is it not in
some degree a confirmation of this view, that under the Gospel
death is again transformed, glorified and gladdened, and made to
the true Christian the very gate of heaven; God leaving the dark
fact, but gradously changing its nature and meaning, as an
element in the new economy of redemption ?
As thus created and endowed, man was by the nature of the
case a being under law. What is more spedfically described as
probation, under the covenant of Hfe
5. Probation: Man under or covenant of works is not to ^
law : His ability and muta- , , .. , , . . . , , ,,
M1jty> regarded as itself initial, but rather as
a spedal exhibition or aspect of a more
broad and fundamental fact — that man from the first instant of his
existence was a being under moral as well as natural law. The
existence of a moral law, with its eternal principles of right and
its divine authoritativeness, — a law adjusted to the nature and
position of man, and capable of guiding him into a state of ma
tured spiritual perfection, — was as indispensable to him as the
existence of a material world suited to his bodily nature and
development. The principles.embodied in that law were as eternal
as God : they had their origin in his own perfect nature. Their
incorporation in the forms of law for the creature were coincident,
so far as man was concerned, with the creation of the being whom
they were to govern. Law existed thus when man began to exist;
from the first instant of his conscious ethical life he was under
law. Duties at once devolved upon him ; a moral stewardship,,

PROBATION : MAN UNDER LAW. 253
consciously exerdsed, laid its claim upon his reason and his con-
sdence; he knew that the Being who made him was also sovereign
over him, and was as such to be implicitly and unreservedly
obeyed. This conception of moral law as primary and fundamental in the
life of our first parents is indispensable to a proper appreciation
of the particular transaction described as the covenant of works.
To regard the spedfic enactment then set up and disobeyed, as
the only moral precept which man knew or could obey, — to con
ceive of him as acting prior to the period of the particular temp
tation and fall, without consciousness of his responsibility to God,
in a spontaneous mood of love and devotion, is unwarranted by
Scripture. The Symbols clearly recognize the important distinc
tion between the primal condition of man as under law, and the
historic transaction which introduced sin into the world. It is
dedared(IV:ii) that our first parents at their creation had the law
of God written in their hearts, as really as they had the power to
fulfill it. In the chapter on the Law of God (XIX) it is further
affirmed that Adam was bound from the first to personal, entire,
exact and perpetual obedience. It is also said that beside this law
written on thdr hearts, they received a command not to eat of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the chapter on the Fall
(VI) it is further intimated that the law preceded the command, and
that the latter was simply one part or section of the former, — the
fundamental duty of obedience being revealed and tested by the
specific requisition, not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil: L. C. 20-21.
The power to fulfill such comprehending law, or to obey it fully,
was a necessary correlative to the law itself. Had no such power
been granted to man — had he been created without the faculty of
moral volition, or set in a position where that faculty could not
be exerdsed, he would have been no more amenable to such ethical
law than the brute creatures over whom he wielded dominion.
Ability and obligation were parallel and commensurate here.
The elements of such ability, then as now, were rational percep
tion of the law enjoined, moral appreciation of it, and the purpose
and choice of obedience to it. The power to fulfill included
the power to perceive and the ability of conscience to . feel the
pressure of ethical claims, as well as the natural capacity to accept
and observe each divine demand. It implied also the existence of
external occasions and conditions requisite to the right and effect
ive exercise of these powers. This faculty or capability is further
defined in the phrase, natural liberty (IX: i) or liberty engrafted

254 MAN.
upon or incorporated in the nature. It is also distinctly set forth
in the chapter on Free Will, in the declaration that man in his
state of innocency had freedom and power to will and to do that
which is good and well-pleasing to God. This affirmation was
indeed a necessary consequence from the Augustinian position
already affirmed respecting the nature and tendency of man
as originally holy: being constituted righteous, and thus set
toward a career of holiness, he must have possessed all the facul
ties requisite to the prosecution of such a career.
It is hardly needful to enter here upon any extended investi
gation of the nature of the primeval man as a moral being. If he
was made in the image of God, after the divine likeness, endowed
with an original bias toward righteousness, and fitted for true
holiness in heart and life, he must have possessed in high degree
all the moral endowments requisite to such an experience. He
must have had clear reason to discern the divine law of right, and
to judge between what is right and what is wrong in action and
disposition. He must have had a conscience which responded
quickly to such discernment with corresponding ethical feeling —
approval and joy in view of the right obeyed, and shame and the
sense of spiritual pain in view of even the possibility of wrong.
He must have had the natural liberty to follow the judgment of
the reason and the pure impulses of conscience, and the power to
choose the right and to act accordingly, in a sphere of experience
far above the compulsions or determinations of external nature.
Whatever speculative questions may arise at this point respecting
the essential nature of the reason or the conscience or the free
will in the primeval man, we may safely accept the statement of
fact here given as entirely conclusive, and as sufficient for all
practical uses in our present investigation.
Yet mutably, so that he might fall from it, is the antithetic dec
laration of the Symbols. This is defined (IV: ii) in the more
ample phrase, yet under a possibility of transgression, being left to
the liberty of their own will, which was subject to change, or (L- C.
17) subject to fall. Such a statement indicates the broad differ
ence between the original righteousness, the true holiness, already
affirmed as having been given to man at his creation, and the
higher type of holiness seen in God himself or in angelic exis
tences. The pure will of God is not subject to change; even the
possibility of transgressing law hardly seems to exist in such a
Being; he cannot lie or deceive or forswear himself. The angels
who have never sinned, in the act of keeping their holy estate
have attained a degree of spiritual perfection from which any

POSSIBILITY OF TRANSGRESSION. 255
large possibility of transgression seems to be excluded. It is said,
however, (L. C. 16) that even the angels though they were spirits,
immortal, holy, excelling in knowledge and mighty in power,
were at their creation subject to change — a statement which appears
to warrant the inference that such exposure to a lapse into trans
gression and sin is an inevitable condition of finite existence. In
the state in which our first parents were placed, this possibility
certainly existed: their will, though holy, was like the angelic will,
subject to change; the shadow of moral mutability hung darkly
over them. The center of this mutability is here located in the will,
yet it doubtless extended through all their moral nature, and was
as vital a fact in the understanding and conscience as in their voli
tional power. In these statements the foundation is laid for the
emphatic teaching of the Symbols at a later stage respecting the
human rather than the divine authorship of sin, and the conse
quent culpabiHty and condemnation of the race on account of
transgression. The abstract question, how can a holy being ever
faU into sin, is here answered by pointing to the mutability of man
as a bdng finite, undeveloped, essentially weak in the presence of
strong temptation. To seek to discover the cause of the first sin
outside of the defection of the human will, says Augustine, is as if
one sought to see darkness or hear silence. To the further question,
why God has chosen to create a race thus mutable and exposed to
fall, the chief suggestions in the Symbols point toward a necessity
lying in the constitution of man as finite and immature, and in
the relations of temptation to the perfecting of holy character
through grace. May it not be that a creature, a race, in whom
such character is finally to be developed, must of necessity start
from this point of mutability, being made subject to change, and
therefore commencing its moral career under the possibility of
transgression ?
Holding in view this general conception of man as in the
nature of things a being under law genetically and comprehen
sively, we may proceed to consider the
specific transaction involving his actual «• Coven™t\ of Llfe,,: "S
e . , „  ° . ., , nature, conditions, and ob.
temptation and faU, which is described .£Cts>
(L. C. 20. S. C. 12) in the phrase,
covenant of life— a. phrase which signifies a life, or a mode of
living, under some ethical regulations divinely prescribed and vol
untarily observed. It has its foundation not so much in a formal
compact in which God and man act as equal parties, and which
man might be at liberty to accept or reject wben proposed to him,
but rather in the enduring nature and relationship of both God and

256 MAN.
man as moral beings, and therefore existing as of necessity. The
phrase, covenant of works, more widely current in later Calvin
istic theology, also occurs repeatedly in the Confession, but carry
ing substantially the same significance, as in Ch. VII: i-iii, and
also Ch. XIX: i, where the law given to Adam is described as a
covenant by which Adam and all his posterity were bound to per
sonal, entire, exact and perpetual obedience. It is noticeable that
the instituting of such a special relation is referred in the Sym
bols, not immediately to the primary demand for moral govern
ment and a moral training for man, but rather to the voluntary
condecension of God toward his earthly subjects, and to the divine
desire to give them ampler fruition of him as their blessedness and
reward. It is said (VII: i) that, so great is the distance between
God and the creature, that although obedience is by the nature of
the case due from the creature to him, the joy and fullness of such
obedience could never be possessed, except through some more
close, explicit, intimate transaction, such as that recorded in the
narrative of the Fall, and theologically described as the covenant
of life or of works. Stated generically, it is certainly true that
the largest appreciation and enjoyment of God become possible,
not through a merely general submission of ourselves to his author
ity, but rather through the cordial doing of his will in the most spe
dfic details. His rewards of obedience are specific as weU as fredy
given; and they become specific only as they are seen to follow
specific acts of loyalty and of love. Yet we are not at liberty to
dissociate the particular transaction here to be considered from its
primordial relations to the comprehending law under which man
was placed, at the outset of his moral existence. Underneath the
particular covenant of works or of life, or the covenant of law, as
the Irish Articles describe it, lay continually the broad fact that,
all human works were also duties, and that the human life was
true life, and especially indefectible Hfe, only as it became through
out in the deepest and most absolute sense a Hfe in God.
We are confronted at this point by the dark problem as to the
divine intention in the instituting of this special covenant — a
problem already suggested, and one which in various forms will
again and again confront us. The statements just quoted repre
sent it as the purpose of God to bestow upon man in this way
larger fruition of himself, and therefore higher blessedness than
man could otherwise have reached. God sought, in other words,
to lessen the distance between man and himself, and to give to man
wider opportunity both to glorify him and to enjoy him forever.
Was this really the divine purpose ? Was this transaction, from

COVENANT OF LIFE : COVENANT OF WORKS. 257
which in fact the fall with all its disastrous consequences resulted,
intended to be a covenant unto life, — a transaction whose legiti
mate issue would have been an enlarged religious experience and
joy as a reward forever? These declarations are certainly not
favorable to the supralapsarian conception of the fall, as a pre
determined event in the same sense as creation itself. They lead
us rather to the difficult alternative of a loving intention of God
frustrated for the time — a divine plan for the higher cultivation of
man, and the closer union of the race with himself in moral fel
lowship and blessedness, brought to naught temporarily by the
mutable will and spiritual weakness of the very creature on whom
he was seeking to bestow these larger benefits. Certainly an
original intention that Adam should fail in carrying out the divine
desire as expressed in this transaction — an original purpose that
he should rather fall, with such consequent adjustment of all the
details as to make the issue sure as the Will that chose it, is a
supposition which seems to do violence to our purest conceptions of
God, and seriously to shake our faith in his moral administration.
The conditions revealed in this transaction are the specific pro
hibition on the one side, and the specific requisition of obedience
on the other. Of the reasons for precisely such a prohibition, the
Symbols say nothing; they simply state the fact — the forbidding
to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The test
was certainly plain, direct, equitable, practical; suited in every
way to the nature and circumstances of those to whom it was to
be applied. It was simply, in the language of an eminent Amer
ican divine (Hodge), an outward and visible test to determine
whether Adam was willing to obey God in all things. In the
strong language of the Welsh Calvinistic communion: The law of
our nature was all contained in this covenant, so that it was
impossible to transgress the special command of the covenant
without transgressing at the same time the entire law of our nature.
Of the character of the obedience required, nothing is said beyond
the fact that it was to be free and cordial and perpetual — such
obedience as was due from such beings to their Creator and their
Sovereign. It is said that as a reward of such obedience life was
promised to Adam so long as the obedience was, personal and perfect.
This pledge of life is synonymous with that fruition of God already
described as the object in view in the instituting of this special
test. It is to be noted that this promise is nowhere stated in
Scripture, though it is doubtless implied, — God in this as in all
other moral disciphne graciously appending assurances of his
approbation wherever true obedience is rendered. While it is not

258 MAN.
the right or privilege of an obedient soul to demand compensation
for duty done — while even angels can urge no claim for reward in
view of their holiest service, it still is inherently just in God to
bestow such reward, and what inherent justice does not forbid,
paternal love and grace rejoice to bestow.
If this probationary transaction be described as a covenant, as
is done in the Symbols and in the later Calvinistic theology largely,
care must be taken to guard against some false impressions which
the term naturally conveys. A covenant, in ordinary language,
is a contract or an agreement or a bargain, in which the parties are
acting essentially on the basis of equality, with mutual arrange
ment of conditions and results. Each agrees to the stipulations
appended : each obligates himself freely, under the terms pro
posed. But here Adam had no choice, either as to the general
administration set up over him as a moral being, or to the partic
ular command imposed upon him; he did not formally and freely
assent to the penalty threatened or select the rewards of obedience.
His part in the transaction included only the specific exerdse of
his personal capacity for choice, in the moral position in which he
found himself placed by the divine sovereignty. It may indeed
be presumed that, finding himself set in the center of such moral
alternatives, Adam did freely acquiesce in the probationary
arrangement thus made, and did cordially yield obedience for a
time to the simple command imposed upon him. Yet the trans
action can be viewed as a covenant only' in a restrictive sense; and
it may justly be questioned whether the use of this conception for
theological purposes has not been extended in later times quite
beyond the boundaries of biblical affirmation or warrant. It was
indeed natural that the revelation of a gracious covenant estab
lished between Christ and the believer, — a covenant in whicli
elements of human assent, free and tender and loyal, are seen to
be primary and fundamental, should lead on to this affirmation of
a covenant of substantially the same nature, exhibiting itself
under an administration of works, — historical redemption in the
form of a covenant between God and man after the fall, suggesting
a similar relation between them under the same form before the
fall. It may also freely be admitted that the Cocceian conception
of the entire dealing of God with man under the aspect of a series
of covenants, was an improvement in some respects upon the more
speculative conception of_ a series of eternal decrees, or of one
comprehensive and fontal decree, of which all events in time were
simply the irresistible growth and fruition. This new presentation
of the subject in an historic light, bearing the name of Cocceius as

PROBATION : ITS REACH AND EFFECT. 259
its chief exponent, but to some extent known and accepted before
his day in both Holland and Scotland, had risen into considerable
prominence as early as the era of the Assembly : Dorner, Hist.
Prot. Theology. And the Westminster divines were obviously
consdous of the relief thus afforded from the fatalistic impression
almost inevitably conveyed by the older Calvinism, through such
philosophic and abstract rather than historic presentation. But
it is probably true that they followed the tendency of the Reformed
theology of their time in elaborating the doctrine of the covenants,
as the federal school had done, to a degree beyond what either the
language or the inferential suggestions of Scripture would warrant.
At least, while stating with marked fullness those elements in this
probationary transaction which liken it to a human covenant, they
cannot be said to have pointed out with equal fullness those broad
differences which separate it radically from all compacts or agree
ments of men : See Ball, Covenant of Grace.
This will be more apparent if we consider in a preliminary way
what is taught in the Symbols respecting the relations of this
transaction to the posterity of Adam.
Without forestalling at this point their 7- Reach of this Proba-
, ^ , . ^ . . , . tlon : Adam how far a Public
general teaching as to original sin, we person. representatlon.
may note their description of Adam as
head of the race, and as covenanting in that capacity for his de
scendants as well as for himself. It is said (XIX) that God bound
him and all his posterity under the obligation of exact and per
petual obedience; and that life spiritual and indefectible was
promised to him, and in him to his posterity, on condition that
such obedience should be rendered. He is described as a public
person (L- C. 22), and as entering into covenant not for himself
only, but for all mankind descending from him by ordinary gener
ation. Our first parents are further represented, (Chap. VI:iii)
as the root of all mankind, and consequently as involving the
entire race in the retributive issues flowing from their personal
failure under the divine testing. Such expressions, while they
suggest the general problem just named, (which will be more
fully considered at a later stage) press upon us at this point the
particular question; In what sense and to what extent did Adam
thus act representatively ? •*
It is granted by those who advocate specially the doctrine of
the covenants, that we have in the biblical record itself no pos
itive intimation that our first parents were conscious of any such
representative relation under the divine law, or that they did in
fact consent to act for their entire posterity, or agree that 4'ieir

260 MAN.
descendants to the end of time should be legally bound to face
the penal issues of their personal failure under the primitive pro
bation. It is admitted (Hodge, Theol. 11:217) that the confes
sional statement that God entered into covenant with Adam, even
in the limited personal rather than the official or representative
sense, does not rest upon any express declaration of Scripture.
There is in fact, (Smith. H. B. Christ. Theol. 378) a lack of his
torical foundation for anything beyond the divine announcement
and pledge in respect to the consequences of obedience and diso
bedience. Yet it is claimed that the covenant of grace implies
such an antecedent and antithetic covenant of works, having like
representative quality. Reference is made to retributive conse
quences that have in fact flowed down upon the posterity of Adam
through the Fall, as implying an agreement on his part to accept
such consequences; and it is inferred that, since in Adam all died,
he willingly consented that his descendants should each and all
die in the event of his failure to keep the law. It is also argued
that this species of federal or representative headship underlies all
the providential dealing with mankind, and that men recognize
it as just by incorporating it extensively in human law. And on
such grounds it is affirmed that Adam acted not in his individual
capacity merely, but as the legal or federal as well as natural head
and representative of the race, — entering thus into direct cove
nant with God for them as fully as for himself.
It is certainly a suggestive response to this claim to say that no
such doctrine appears in the Institutes of Calvin, or in any of the
earlier theological systems accepted in the Reformed churches, and
that when.the Cocceian view was first formulated, it was regarded by
the earlier Calvinists as questionable if not erroneous. The affirm
ation that the headship of Adam, in this sense of that phrase, has
entered into the faith of all Christian churches, and is more or
less clearly presented in all their authorized symbols (Hodge, II:
122) is one which rests on inadequate historical foundations. It
is true that the symbols of the Reformation generally maintain,
in opposition to the false conception of individualism in its vari
ous guises, the moral unity of the race, and the special relationship
of our first parents by virtue of which the race became involved
^organically in the consequences of their transgression. But it is
also true that no confession, prior to that of Westminster, repre
sents this connection as forensic and representative rather than
natural; and that the introduction of the doctrine of legal repre
sentation marks a distinct stage in the development of historical
Calvinism— a stage which certainly brought with it some impor-

THE FALL OF MAN. 261
tant improvements, but which can hardly be regarded as the
consummating step in that development. It is also a noticeable
fact that the conception of a representative and legal covenant,
though incorporated in the Westminster Symbols, has never been
able to win its way to universal acceptance; and that many of
those who hold it are now inclined to rest the legal upon an ante
cedent natural headship, while in some quarters there is a decided
return to the older conception of Calvin and his immediate disci
ples: Shedd. Dogm. Theol.
But, whatever may be said respecting the theological statement
of a federal covenant, no thoughtful mind can be indifferent to
the underlying fact that the probation of our first parents was
intended to reach their posterity, and did in some way involve in
its dark issues the entire race. Though the proof texts appended
to the Confession and Catechisms can hardly be said to establish
the particular propositions with which they are associated, they
dearly justify the broader statement just made, and demonstrate
beyond question the moral unity of the race, and the ordained
community of aU in sin and in condemnation. This is the generic
doctrine common to both the earlier and the later Calvinism, and
those who are not satisfied with the positive teaching of the Sym
bols as to the covenant of works, still receive with utmost cordiality
the great underlying truth. Nor do they reject the clearly biblical
doctrine of a blessed covenant of grace, or question at any point the
spiritual oneness established between Christ and his chosen, though
the)' fail to discover in Scripture adequate evidence of a corre
sponding transaction antecedent to the economy of redemption.
Further discussion of the question may be postponed until we
have occasion to examine current theories of original sin on the
one hand, and corresponding theories
respecting the plan of salvation on the 8- The Fall: the divine
„ ° decree permitting: sin: God
other. We may now turn to contem- not its autflor>
plate the Fall as an event occurring
under the eternal decree, and carrying with it the dark problem
respecting the divine permission of sin. What has already been
said as to the different views presented in the Assembly touching
the divine purpose or purposes, and the various aspects of the
decrees of God as absolute or permissive, need not be repeated here.
Whether the' majority of the members were sublapsarian or
supralapsarian, it is clear that the doctrine of a single decree,
primal in eternity, fontal in relation to all events, and sovereign
and irresistible in its unfolding, had great weight in determining'

262 MAN.
the form in which the fact of the Fall was conceived and de
scribed. Yet it is evident that the Fall itself viewed as a historic
fact was not regarded as included in this one timeless decree, in
the same sense and measure as the antecedent fact of creation, 01
the subsequent fact of salvation. Consequently in approaching
this historic fact it became needful to conceive rather of this
decree as plural — as unfolding itself in a series of wise and holy acts,
wherein the divine relation to the result is seen to be not single
but multiform; not always necessary and absolute, but sometimes
relative and in a sense conditional. While therefore, theoretic
ally, supralapsarianism seemed to become the regulative dogma
in the case, the sublapsarian modification was practically requi
site, in order to defend adequately the divine administration in
the permission of the first sin. Hence it was said as to that orig
inating sin, that God was pleased (VI:i) according to his own wise
and holy counsel to permit it, — having purposed in connection
with such permission to order it to his own glory. In the chapter
on Providence it is in the same way affirmed that this wise, potent,
good providence of God extendeth itself even to the first Fall,, as
well as to all other sins of angels and men. Yet the relation of
the divine volition to the first sin and to all subsequent sin as a
fact must be, in some important aspects, vitally different from its
relation either to inanimate nature or to the holiness of moral
beings. It cannot be said that God provides sin although he fore
sees it — provides it as he makes provision for food or raiment or
for a scheme of salvation. To assert this would be to affirm that
he is both the author and the approver of sin; but this, it is said,
he neither is nor can be. The doctrine of his personal perfection
is to be maintained at whatever cost; and certainly any causal
relation to human sinfulness, wherein God was seen to be in any
direct sense its author, would seem to be grossly inconsistent with
such perfection.
But what constitutes a permissive decree ? What are theexact
relations of the Deity to sin, and how can his permission of sin
be justified ? Certainly not on the ground of ignorance, whether
constitutional or voluntary. It is impossible to conceive of God
as choosing not to know what are to be the free acts of his moral "
creatures, without admitting that he must first know what he de
termines to be ignorant of: otherwise it becomes impossible to
regard his choice of ignorance as wise or righteous. To imagine
him constitutionally ignorant, — setting up a moral system whose
progressive developments he could know only as they were to be
revealed in time, and whose outcome he could therefore n«t have

DIVINE PERMISSION OF SIN. 263
perceived from the beginning or even perceive now, is to fancy him,
in the phrase of the psalmist, altogether such an one as ourselves.
We cannot admit in either form the supposition that God did not
know beforehand whether the Fall would occur, or what conse
quences would follow it through the disordered constitution and
experience of our race. The Symbols therefore, at all hazards,
affirm the full foreknowledge of God respecting sin, and his intelli
gent allowance of it. God knows whatsoever may or can come to
pass upon all supposed conditions, it is said in the chapter on the
Eternal Decree; neither has he decreed anything because he foresaw
it as future — something that would occur independently of his de
termination, or that would turn upon conditions existing or sup
posed, outside of and above himself. It is expressly said (L- C. 19)
that God by his providence permitted some of the angels willfully
and irrecoverably to fall into sin and damnation; and that this
providence (V:iv) extendeth itself even to the first Fall, and all
other sins of angels and men.
These statements dearly imply not merely a foreknowledge of
all events whether evil or good as future, but also a species of
causal relation to them, so that in some sense they occur through
divine determination as well as through simple consent. The
will of God was certainly underneath the will of our first pa
rents, as well when they transgressed as when they obeyed the
divine commands: as a sustaining energy God is underneath the
volitions of the sinner, as well as those of the noblest saint. His
hand did not in that dark hour drop our first parents out of
existence, or abandon its supervisory control over them: it does
not withdraw itself even when the apostate soul is disobeying
and cursing the very power that keeps it in being. God upholds
even the lost; and it may be among the sorest of their pangs
that they know themselves to be kept in existence perpetually by
the Being from whom they have revolted utterly and forever. Sin
is thus not the creation of man as wholly independent of God; a
divine permission underlies it, as the divine power underlies all
things, all events — everything that is human. While God never
creates in man a sinful volition, he creates and sustains man as a
being capable of putting forth such volition. God powerfully
bounds, and in many ways restrains the sinful propensities of men;
but he does not take away these propensities, or set man in cir
cumstances where free action becomes impossible and holiness is
compulsory, or transform him into an irrational creature, wholly
incapable of sinning. He does not prevent sin, as he might, by
destroying the sinner at once and forever: rather for wise and holy

264 MAN.
ends he permits the sin as a dread alternative, though he ndther
is nor can be its author or approver.
Nor can it be said that in such permission God is acting under
a law of necessity, either natural or spiritual. Reference has
already been made to the speculative theory that, on natural
grounds, it seems impracticable to create a moral being, endowed
as Adam was, and to set him in such a probationary sphere as that
of Eden, without making sin somewhere in the unfolding life of
such a being, not only a possibility but even a dreadful certainty.
More broadly it has been maintained that to our finite apprehension
the creation not of a single being, but of a race of moral creatures,
all thus endowed and thus exposed, seems an act involving by nat
ural necessity the probable if not the certain fall of some among
the myriads of such free yet immature existences. Other theorists
have turned their thoughts in the opposite direction, and affirmed
— as we have seen — that sin, though not in itself good, is an essen
tial condition of the highest good for the moral universe; or more
specifically that it was only through the admission of such sin as
an antecedent, that the world could have known Christ, or tasted
the peculiar bliss of salvation through him. Yet the great problem
cannot be fully solved through any such conceptions of necessity,
natural or spiritual, constraining God either to refrain altogether
from the creation of moral beings, or to consent as by a species
of compulsion to the existence of moral evil in the universe which
had emanated, beautiful and pure, from his creative hand. There
surely was freedom in that consent; it was a real permission and
purpose — in some sense a decree. Yet with this permissive decree
involving such sad issues, there was also a supreme determina
tion, as the Symbols strongly affirm, that what was thus allowed
should finally be ordered to his own glory.
To this conclusion, which is little more than a confession of
ignorance on one side and an affirmation of faith on the other, not
only the Westminster teaching but Protestant symbolism generally
leads us. The Augsburg Conf. (XIX) declares that not God but
the will of the wicked is the sole cause of sin; and the Formula
of Concord teaches that, though man by his own choice becomes
a sinner, no power but that of God can control or cure the evil
which sin has wrought. In like manner the Second Helvetic Conf.
(VIII) refers the Fall wholly to the will of man and the tempta
tion of Satan; yet affirms that God will not only justify himsdf
in the permission of it, but will overrule it and make it subservient
to his own glory and the magnifying of his grace in Christ.
Such was the general position of the primitive Protestantism;

THE FAU,: ITS HISTORIC yi/AUTY. 265
and though before the era of the Westminster Assembly, theolo
gians and schools had suggested various solutions of the problem —
as in later times — nothing better could be said then, or has been
said since, than that God on the one hand has not only known
that sin would occur, but has determined that in his providential
scheme of things it shall have a place, while on the other hand
he is still the master over it and all its consequences, and will so
order all that at the end his own glory shall not be tarnished but
rather made more illustrious thereby.
Turning from these more speculative inquiries, we may note
the practical fact that the Fall is treated throughout the Symbols
as neither mythical nor allegorical, but
in a true and proper sense an historic 9- Tne Fal1 : Its historic
event. Had the narrative in Genesis ?Uffty: The Prlmal temP"
,. . tation.
been merely an ancient tradition, treas
ured up in the memory and conviction of mankind, and at last
transmitted orally or through antecedent documents to Moses for
permanent preservation in the pages of inspired Scripture, it
would still possess marked significance as a helpful though unau
thoritative explanation of the most vital and appalling fact in
human experience — the fact of existing sin. Had it been a mere
allegory, sketched by Moses himself or some one else, and prefaced
to the personal and tribal history he was preparing, it would still,
in view of the extensive and profound impression made by it not
only upon the thought but equaUy upon the life of mankind,
stand forever first among possible human explanations of the
evidently lapsed and degenerate condition of the race. But on
either of these hypotheses, it would be impossible to explain the
position and the marked effect of this narrative in the Scriptures.
The constant assumption of its historic quality, the numerous
inferences drawn from it in both the Old Testament and the
New, the testimony of our Lord respecting it, the fundamental
character of the doctrine taught by it, in its relations to the entire
scheme of biblical doctrine, compel us either to accept the record
as real history or to set aside the cardinal hypothesis of its inspi
ration. From this conclusion the diversified, shifting, largely
naturalistic hypotheses of recent criticism have thus far justified
no retrocession.
Assuming on such grounds the historic quality of the record,
we may note briefly the incidents of the temptation and the fall.
That sin came into our world from another, and was induced
through the agency of a malevolent tempter, is directly stated.
Our first parents, being seduced by the subtilty and temptation of

266 MAN.
Satan (VI :i), sinned in eating the forbidden fruit. Although
they existed from the first under a possibility of transgressing, and
were as free beings subject to change, and were divinely placed in
a position where these liabilities might work out disastrous results,
yet the Symbols agree with Scripture in referring these results
primarily to another world, and to preternatural influence emanat
ing from a being other than human. It is said (V : v) , that God
even now doth oftentimes leave for a season his own children to man
ifold temptations ; and, also, in the same connection, that in his
providence he sometimes gives wicked men over, not only to the
innate action of their own lusts, but also to the temptations of the
world, and the power of Satan. All men as fallen are declared
(L. C. 27) to be not only by nature children of wrath, but also
bond-slaves to Satan : and in the commentary on the first com
mandment (L- C. 105) we are warned against all compacts and
consulting with the devil, and hearkening to his suggestions, as
among the sins strictly and solemnly forbidden. And in the
exhortation to remember the Sabbath (L. C. 121), we are taught
that Satan with his instruments do much labor to blot out the glory
and even the memory of it, to bring in all irreligion and impiety.
It is also said in the chapter (XVII) on the Perseverance of the
Saints that Christians may through temptations of Satan and of the
world, fall into grievous sin; and in the chapter (XX) on Christ
ian Liberty, it is said that such liberty consists partly in being
delivered from bondage to Satan as well as from interior sinfulness.
Among the specific humiliations of our Lord himself is named his
conflicting with the temptations of Satan — with the terrors of death
and the powers of darkness (L. C. 48-49); and one dement in
his exaltation is seen in his vanquishing not only death itsdf , but
him that had the power of it : L- C. 52.
These extracts, together with others less conspicuous, bring
into definite form the Westminster conception of Satan, and
especially of his relations to the first sin and to all subsequent sins
of men. The subject has already been introduced under the head
of Creation, but calls for some further consideration here. Con-
corning the angels in general we are taught (L. C. 16) that God
made them spirits immortal, holy, excelling in knowledge, mighty
in power, . . . yet subject to change, — the possibility of falling
away being thus incorporated in their structure as in that of our
first parents. What has been described as a defectibility insepa
rable from finite and dependent nature, appears in their constitu
tion as really as in that of man, though under different laws or
forms of development. The lapse of some among the angels was

SATAN AND HIS AGENCY. 267
an event occurring, like the fall of man, within the providence of
of God, — He by his providence permitting some of them willfully
and irrecoverably to fall into sin and damnation. It is also affirmed
that he limits and orders their fall and all their sins to his own
glory, while he establishes the rest in holiness and happiness, — mean
while at his pleasure employing them all, both good and evil, as
the language implies, in the administration of his power, mercy
and justice. In the chapter on the Eternal Decree the same species
of predestination which is affirmed concerning mankind, is also
affirmed respecting the angels both good and evil : By the decree
of God, for the manifestation of his own glory, some men and
angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others fore
ordained to everlasting death; these angels and men, thus predes
tinated and foreordained, being particularly and unchangeably
designed: See the Irish Articles, 12, 20.
Whether the faU of some among the angels occurred long prior
to the lapse of man, or in immediate conjunction with that lapse,
and as the immediate occasion of the temptation to which man
was subject, is a matter unrevealed; many considerations favor
the latter hypothesis, though the former is more frequently ac
cepted: Hickok, Humanity Immortal. In either case, we must
recognize a fallen angel as the agent, executing in some sense a
divine purpose, though engaged in the gratification of his owh
envious or malidous desires. The Formula of Concord affirms
(1:13) that the devil cannot create any substance, but can only
by way of accident, under the permission of the Lord, deprave a
substance created by God. He brings sin malevolently into our
world, and in that initial act institutes among men a dark and
baleful dominion whose growth and issues constitute in large de
gree the history of humanity. It has been remarked that, as
theological science advances, the place of Satan in theology is
growing less and less prominent. But while this may be true,
especially with reference to the relations of Satan to the atonement
and to justification, no sound theology can be indifferent to the fact
that such a malevolent agency exists, and from the beginning has
been intimately associated with the sin and moral degeneration
of man. To regard the conception as mythical or poetic is simply
impossible: to treat it as trivial, is to ignore the strong and con
clusive Pauline affirmations respecting the principalities and pow
ers of evil who are battling in this world with the advancing
kingdom of Christ. On this point the Protestant creeds are em
phatic in their unanimity. The Confession of Augsburg affirms
(XIX) that although God doth create and preserve nature, yet

268 MAN.
the cause of sin is the will of the wicked; to wit, of the devil and
ungodly men; which will, God not aiding, turneth itself from
God. The Formula of Concord declares that sin springs from the
devil — peccatum enim ex diabolo oritur — and from the depraved
and evil will of man. The Heidelberg Catechism teaches (9)
that God so made man that he could perform the law, but that
man through the instigation of the devil, by willful disobedience
deprived himself and all his posterity of this power : See Second
Helvetic Confession, VIII : sed instinctu serpentis ; Canons of
Dort, diaboliinstinctu . . . a Deo desciscens; First Scotch Conf .
(Ill) slaves to Sathan, and servandis unto sin. It is, however,
to the Westminster Symbols that we turn for the completest dec
larations touching the active relation of the Evil One, not merely
to the primal sin, but to all other sins of men, to the trials and
bufferings of saints, and even to the disciplinary experiences of
our Lord. And in the thrice recorded account of his temptation
at the hands of his arch enemy and ours, we have an analytic
transcript not merely of the primitive trial and testing of our
humanity in Paradise, but equally of all the malevolent workings
of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of Hfe,
in the heart of that humanity from Eden down to the present age.
The first temptation and the first lapse are continually repeating
themselves in history, and will so repeat themselves until Satan
is forever overthrown.
The specific incidents of the primal temptation wherdn our
first parents fell and the race in some deep sense fell with them,
need not be detailed here. There is a simple truthfulness in the
story which at once compels our belief in it, while its tragic
elements constrain us to involuntary tears. The words of the
tempter and his subtle reasonings, the beguiled interest of Eve,
the surrender of Adam, the discovery of their sin and guilt, the-
instinctive fleeing from the divine presence, the summoning voice
of an offended Deity, the confession and expulsion, and the wan
dering forth of the convicted pair to seek their existence hence
forth, not amid the profuse luxuriance of Eden, but on the surface
of an earth condemned and smitten in conjunction with their sin,—
all this is profoundly real to the child and the philosopher alike, and
as touching and tragic as it is real. Without it we could have no
adequate knowledge either of that fallen estate into which human
ity has evidently come, or of that scheme of grace which is revealed
in Christ, and whose realization will be to humanity a paradise
regained. They who deny the fall, or who regard the story as a
poetic allegory simply, or some ancient tradition, can have no

THE FALL : ITS CONSEQUENCES. 2(59
adequate explanation of man as he is — no adequate historic basis
for their hope respecting what man may through grace become.
While our first parents kept the command, they were happy in
their communion with God and had dominion over the creatures.
By their yielding to the temptation
they, it is said, fell from their original 10« Tne consequent curse:
righteousness and communion with God, Si" a"d dclath!1 human»y
* ... . , ' and nature involved.
(VI:u) and became m consequence
dead in sin, and whoUy defiled in all the faculties of soul and body.
They were thus plunged into an estate of sin and misery, — an
estate whose sinfulness lay not merely in the absence of their
original righteousness and in their proper condemnation, but also
in the corruption of their entire spiritual nature, — an estate whose
misery lay not merely in the loss of divine communion, but also
in thdr exposure to punitive sufferings in the present life, to
bodily death, and even to everlasting punishment: S. C. 17-19.
The distinction between the inward and the outward consequences
of sin in this Hfe is emphasized in the Larger Catechism, (28);
the former being enumerated as blindness of mind, a reprobate
sense, strong delusions, hardness of heart, horror of conscience
and vile affections; the latter including antithetically the curse of
God upon the creatures for our sakes, and all other evils that befall
us in our bodies,names, estates, relations and employments, together
with death itsdf . In this enumeration we have not merely an
interpretation of the primitive curse as seen in the expulsion of
the guilty pair from Paradise and their subsequent doom to a ca
reer of labor and pain and sorrow, but also a comprehensive state
ment of the consequences of the Fall, as these have developed
themselves in the life of their descendants through all the subse
quent ages.
The triple or quadruple form of the original curse or condem
nation — upon the man, upon the woman, upon Satan and the
serpent as his instrument, and upon the earth as the changed
abode of a faUen and sinful race — is simply suggested by casual
phraseology in the Symbols. The Assembly may have regarded
these specific matters as unnecessary in a general Confession: they
may have discovered differences of opinion among themselves on
some of these points which rendered a confessional statement
impracticable. In respect to the consummating word, death, it is
obvious that the Assembly contemplated both physical mortality
and spiritual deadness, — the former as symbolic of the latter.
Whether man would have continued in this world unchanged
and immortal, or would have passed at some time into a higher

270 MAN.
condition through some painless and ripening process, in marked
contrast with physical death as we now behold it, they did not
positively determine, though they evidently preferred the former
supposition. But they justly recognized death, in the painful
form in which it now occurs, as being the culminating aspect of
the divine condemnation pronounced upon sin in this life, — all
other ills in body or name, in estate or relation or employment,
being subordinated to this concluding expression of divine wrath.
Hence, following the Scriptures, they employed physical death
as the most solemn emblem in nature of that degeneracy and decay
into which sin plunges the soul: hence the significance of their
impressive grouping of the inward consequences of sin, set over
against those outward and material evils which under the verdict
of God follow evermore both the original lapse and all succeeding
transgression. That sin as a free act of man necessarily brought
such a curse with it, and that this curse, displaying itself both in
spiritual loss and corruption and in external ill, was a just as
well as an inevitable issue of transgression, they were heartily
agreed in affirming.
The fourfold distribution of the curse, though alluded to but
casually in the Symbols, is deserving of particular consideration.
Upon Adam specifically came the curse of labor, in the triple form
of toil, humiliation and sorrow. His original supremacy over
nature and all inferior creatures was now forfeited: his fair home
in Eden was lost; he became a wanderer upon the surface of the
earth, condemned to secure daily food amid its thorns and thistles
by the sweat of his face, and with unceasing sorrow of heart, —
humbled as dust henceforth in the presence of that nature over
which he had heretofore been the divine vice-gerent. Upon Eve
came, in addition to her share in the sentence pronounced upon
Adam, and her prescribed humiliation as henceforth less the com
panion and more the servant of man, the special pain of child-
bearing in forms fitted to remind her through all the future of her
share in the guilt of the first trangression. We are not to sup
pose that^ the natural law of propagation was altered in conse
quence of the Fall, but simply that the process of parturition,
heretofore comparatively painless, now became eminent among
the severest forms of bodily anguish, and as such was selected as
a suitable expression of the divine displeasure. Upon the serpent
as the instrument of Satan in the temptation, came the humiliat
ing mode of locomotion, — not indeed an actual change but simply
a judicial characterization of an existing mode, as in marked con
trast with the erect posture and movement of man, and as symbolic

THE DISTRIBUTED CONDEMNATION. 271
of that greater humiliation and curse which were in the process
of time to come upon the tempter himsdf, in view of his share in
the fatal transaction. We discern also, in connection with this
curse, that first Messianic promise with which the darkness of
that hour of condemnation was illumined, — the divine assurance
that the seed of the woman should yet bruise the head of the se
ducing angd, destroying his baleful influence over humanity and
compdbng him ultimately to crawl as a defeated and hated serpent
in the world which he had sought to rule.
To the curse thus pronounced specifically upon each of the
three parties in the transaction, there should be added the blight
which came upon the earth itself, viewed as henceforth the abode
of a sinful race, changing it from a paradise into a prison, suited
to the effectual disciplining and the ultimate restoration of fallen
man. The world was stiU to be his habitation, but it was to be
so altered in its outward conditions and features as to correspond
with the new type of moral administration and training which sin
had rendered necessary. How extensive that change was in range
or character we have no knowledge, except what is suggested in
the Pauline phrase respecting the physical earth as groaning and
travailing with pain together with sinful man, and the bright pic
tures of prophecy respecting deserts blossoming with roses, and
peace and beauty filling the world in the day of human redemption.
But we are assured that sin created the necessity for a new system of
government over man as fallen, a system less paternal than that
of Paradise, more marked by checks and chastisements and forms
of retribution, yet designed to save from utter destruction and
ultimately to restore to divine favor a race now through transgres
sion estranged from God. Adam was henceforth to be treated as
a faithful father would treat an undutiful son — as a just yet
humane sovereign would treat his rebellious subjects, in order to
bring them back to loyalty. The dignity of violated law must
be maintained; the right of administration must be upheld; chas
tisement and even retribution must be introduced, since herein
lay the only possibility of restoration. The very earth must be
utilized as one instrumentality in this disciplinary and restorative
process: the very ground must be cursed for the sake of man, in
order that it might thus become a schoolmaster to bring him back
to loyalty in Christ. Nor is this provision to be regarded as vindi
catory only. God still loved the hapless pair whom he was
constrained in equity to condemn, and we may well believe that
the earth was no inore wild or sterile or dark than infinite wisdom
and infinite mercy permitted it to become: McCosh, Divine Gov.

272 man.
Here we reach the interesting question, more than once appear
ing in the Assembly, respecting the mode and nature of the trans
mission of the sinfulness and the
11. Original sin: theories condemnation thus incurred, from our
of transmission : theessen- firgt parents to their posterity,— in
tial fact. other words, their theory of original
sin. Calvin adequately defines the phrase (Inst: Book II: Chap.
I) as the depravation of a nature previously good and pure; or
more fully, an hereditary pravity and corruption of our nature,
diffused through all the parts of the soul, rendering us obnoxious
to the divine wrath, and producing in us those works which the
Scripture calls works of the flesh. This pravity or corruption
occurred to our first parents as an immediate consequence, and as
a proper punishment of their transgression. While externally
they were punished with the withdrawal of the divine favor and
feUowship, and by an accumulation of earthly ills in person and
estate, they also became retributively defiled in all the faculties of
soul and body by a process of inward corruption, and thus, in
apostolic phrase, became truly dead in sin. And the Symbols
affirm that this depravation or deadness was in some way trans
mitted to all their posterity, and is to be viewed as an expression
in their case also of the divine disapproval of sin, and an evidence
of the universal liability to the wrath and curse of God. Was
this transmission, in the judgment of the Westminster divines,
natural or forensic; and was this liability regarded by them as
immediate or mediate ?
Many expressions in the Symbols seem to justify the conception
of a natural, or organic and constitutional, transmission of the
original sin or sinfulness, and of a guiltiness, or amenabiHty to
law, directly consequent upon the possession of this corrupted na
ture. This was the form which the doctrine had assumed in the
earlier creeds, both Lutheran and Reformed. It was incorporated
essentially in the Thirty-Nine Articles, and in the Irish Articles,
both of which agree in defining original sin as, in the words of the
latter, the fault and corruption of the nature of every person that
naturally is engendered and propagated from Adam. So, in the
Larger Catechism (25 :26) original sin is described as consisting not
merely in the guilt of the original offense, but also in the want of
righteousness, the corruption of the moral nature, the disability
toward spiritual good, and the dominating inclination of the soul
toward evil. And this depravation of the whole man is further
said to have been conveyed from our first parents unto their posterity
by natural generation. The language of the Shorter Catechism

ORIGINAL SIN : EXPLANATION. 273
(16) presents the same view: — all mankind descending from him
by ordinary generation , sinned in him and fell with him in his first
transgression. With this agrees the Confession (VI) in the dec
laration that our first parents, being the root of all mankind . . .
the same corrupted nature is conveyed to all their posterity de
scending from them by ordinary generation. In all these phrases
it is a natural or constitutional process which is affirmed, rather
than a legal and formal imputation. The language used con
forms almost Hterally to the declaration of Calvin: Adam was not
only the progenitor but the root of mankind, and therefore all
the race were necessarily vitiated in his corruption . . . His trans
gression not only procured misery and ruin for himself, but also
precipitated our nature into similar destruction. . . . From a
putrefied (or corrupted) root have sprung putrid (or corrupt)
branches, which have transmitted their putrescence (pravity) to
remoter generations.
The phrase, the guilt of this sin was imputed, going before the
dause just quoted, respecting the conveyance of a corrupt nature
by natural or ordinary generation, has been interpreted as indi
cating the approval by the Assembly of the doctrine, then com
paratively novel, of a judicial rather than natural transaction — a
procedure in law, in wThich each descendant of Adam is first viewed
as guilty, and is then visited retributively through the infliction
upon him of this vitiated moral nature. This judicial procedure
has been regarded as a necessary accompaniment of the Cocceian
conception of a covenant of works, viewed as antithetic to the
covenant of grace, — a covenant in which Adam literally acted
under law for the race as their appointed representative, and in
which he formally obligated them to meet and share with him
in the retributive issues consequent upon his failure. It has been
supposed that such a judicial transaction better explains the his
toric transmission of sin and corruption that followed the fall, by
thus placing the guilt first as a legal fact, and then regarding the
transmission as a retributive consequence of the guiltiness so
imputed. It has also been claimed that we gain in this way some
rehef from the impression of sinfulness as constitutional, organic,
hereditary, and consequently not properly a matter for which each
individual soul can be held responsible before God, since it is
through his pecuhar organization of the race that such sin has
thus been propagated. Reserving the full analysis of the dogma
of imputation until it appears again in the imputation of our sin
to Christ, and the imputation of his righteousness to us as believ
ers, it may be questioned here whether this forensic theory does

274 MAN.
not in fact bring in difficulties even greater than those it proposes
to remove. At least it forces upon the mind the query whether
imputation of the guilt of one person to another, or of one person
to millions upon millions of others, bound to him by the ties of
natural descent merely, through a procedure so immediate and
apparently so arbitrary, is either consistent with equity, or essen
tial as an element in the general doctrine of sin propounded in the
Symbols. Certainly, the older Protestant theory of natural head
ship, as set forth in the continental as well as the British creeds,
has more distinctive warrant both in their language, and in the
general drift of their teaching : See Conf. Augsburg, Art. II ;
Form. Concord, I ; First Helv. VII-VIII ; Second Helv. VIII ;
Cat. Heidelberg, 10; Belgic Conf. XV.
It may be questioned further whether the thoroughly Calvinistic
conception of a vitiated nature, propense to sin and the root of
all actual transgressions, introduced at this point as an interme
diate or mediating factor, is not as much in harmony as either
preceding view with the spirit if not with the letter of the Sym
bols. The Confession, for example, affirms (VI) that this corrup
tion of nature existing in each descendant of Adam, both itself and
all the motions thereof, is truly and properly sin, — as if our sinfulness
began, not in a judicial imputation to us of the sin of Adam, or
in some organic connection with the first transgression, but simply
in the possession and the developments of this corrupted nature.
To the same purport, it is dedared in the section following, that
original like actual sin — this corruption of nature as well as the
motions thereof — doth in its own nature bring guilt upon the sinner.
Here, in the possession and in the workings of this nature, our
guiltiness or amenableness to punishment most visibly commences.
We cannot share literally in the guilt springing from the wrong
action of another, even though he were our first parent; his act
becomes the cause or occasion of our corruption, but it is in the
corruption itself that our true guiltiness is seen to begin. Edwards
in his treatise on Original Sin seems to suggest this view, in his
statement that the sin of the apostacy of Adam does not rest on
his posterity because God imputes it to them, but it is truly and
properly theirs — theirs because, as he implies, they have the apos
tate nature, and on this ground God imputes it to them. The
strong declaration that we all sinned in him as a person, as if in
the words of Augustine we all were that one person, and fell
with him in his transgression, as if his act were literally our act,
must be interpreted in such manner as to preserve the proper dis
tinction between him and his descendants severally, and also to

IMPUTATION, IMMEDIATE AND MEDIATE. 275
maintain their proper criminality for that sinful nature, and for
those sinful acts which are specifically their own. For, there is
great danger that, in such merging and confusion of separate
personalities and personal acts, we shall either teach men that God
is more responsible than they for their wrongdoing, or lead them
otherwise into low and narrow views both of what God and his
claims are, and of what they themselves are as his free and
accountable creatures.
That the conception of an imputation which is mediate rather
than immediate has some degree of warrant in the Reformed the
ology, is quite apparent. For example, Calvin (B. II : Ch. I),
says that, our nature being so totally vitiated and depraved, we
are on account of this very corruption considered as convicted and
justly condemned in the sight of God. . . . This liableness to
punishment arises not from the delinquency of another, for when
it is said that the sin of Adam renders us obnoxious to the divine
judgment, it is not to be understood as if we, though innocent,
were undeservedly loaded with the guilt of his sin. But he is
said to have involved us in guilt, because we are all subject to a
curse, in consequence of his transgression. See also the French
Confession, prepared largely by Calvin : Toute la lignee d'Adam
est infectee de telle contagion qui est le pech.6 originel, et un vice
hereditaire . . Ce vice est vraiment pecb.6. Other similar illus
trations might be quoted without doing violence to the general
Protestant doctrine on the whole subject. The Auburn Decla
ration, after affirming the fact that, while Adam was created in the
image of God and endued with righteousness and true holiness,
his posterity came into the world not only destitute of such quali
ties but inclined to evil, declines to make any theoretical explan
ation, but simply affirms (Art. Ill) that by a divine constitution
Adam was so (in some way) the head and representative of the
race that, as a consequence of his transgression (by some process),
all mankind became morally corrupt and liable to death temporal
and eternal. And if there be added to this the sound statement
(Hodge, Theol. II : 211), that we have every reason to believe and
hope that no human being ever actually perishes who does not
personally incur the penalty of the law by his own actual trans
gression, the whole subject in its theoretic aspects may, without
any wrong to the Symbols and their doctrine, be left to the adju
dication of the individual judgment, guided by the teaching of
Holy Writ.
But whatever may be the best interpretation of the Symbols as
to the manner in which original sin is transmitted, and made the

276 MAN.
fountain and origin of both actual transgressions and personal
guilt, — whether indeed this is not an instance in which the
divines of Westminster consciously admitted a variety of state
ments somewhat incongruous, in deference to the various opinions
existing among themselves, there can be no question as to the
clearness, the strength and cogency, of their generic teaching
respecting the essential fact. They were not Pelagians, asserting
only a corruption that flows down upon the race through mere
contact and imitation. Nor were they partially Augustinian, rec
ognizing a liability and an infection, but limiting sinfulness or
exposure to retributive results, to personal action only. They held
tenaciously to such unity and solidarity of the race under a divine
constitution, as rendered certain an actual transmission of pravity
in the nature, and the existence in each soul even from birth of
such bias toward evil, such real inclination to sin, as involves
from the first a true culpability and, apart from grace, certain
condemnation. In other words, they affirmed as a fact what is
beyond question a fundamental fact, however explained or inexpli
cable — a fact occurring directly under the divine constitution or
appointment, and therefore to be reverently recognized and affirmed,
in the presence of whatsoever difficulty. Further evidence of this
wiU appear when we come to consider specifically their correlative
conceptions of law and grace, as seen in the complete deliverance
and moral restoration of the race through Christ.
The spiritual condition into which mankind was thus brought
through the Adamic connection, whether natural or forensic,
immediate or mediate, is nowhere de- -
12. Depravity defined: the scribed in the g bols b h theol
essential fact: terms and . , , , . _. ... . b
phrases. lc term> depravity. Familiar as that
term has become to us, in connection
with the Calvinistic theology, there is some just ground for
objection to its technical use; especially as it has now come in cur
rent speech to designate not a moral state common to all mankind,
but a peculiar, special, intense measure of sinfulness in the indi
vidual man, particularly along the lines of sensuous indulgence
or personal viciousness. But the moral state common to all men
which the term was originally employed in theology to designate,
is set forth in the Confession, (VI:iv) in language almost fearful
in its breadth and impressiveness. It is generally styled corruption,
and from it as from a defiled fountain we are all said in our nat
ural estate to be utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to
all good, and wholly inclined to all evil. The Larger Catechism,
(25) adds the intensive phrase, and that continually, but happily

DEPRAVITY DEFINED. 277
modifies the proposition of the Confession by the limiting clause,
all that is spiritually good. The chapter on Free Will (IX),
introduces the same limitation in the declaration that man has lost
all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation — all
power, in other words, to produce in himself any of those graces
such as repentance, faith, regeneration, sanctification, which
accompany salvation or are its proper signs and attendants. If
therefore the term, depravity, is to be used in the exposition of
the doctrine, spedal care must be taken to protect the confessional
statement from perversion by the proper emphasizing of these
modifying clauses, as was doubtless intended by the Assembly.
The Free Church of Scotland in its recent Declaratory Act, seeks
alleviation from the sweep of the confessional terminology by
affirming that, although the whole nature of man is fallen and
corrupt, there remain in him tokens of his greatness as created
in the image of God. One is reminded by this statement of that
impressive passage in one of the sermons of John Howe, in
which he describes fallen man as a temple in ruins — a magnifi
cent temple, though in ruins, on whose lofty front are still
legible the solemn words, — Here God Once Dwelt.
Certain adjective terms in theological use in this connection also
need to be carefully defined. When, e. g. , this depravity is said
to be total (totaHs), it is not to be understood that every sinner is
as bad as he can be, or that no amiable qualities remain in him,
or that all sinners are ahke and equally corrupted and defiled in
sin, but simply that this spiritual corruption is not a matter of the
will or of the conscience or the affections alone, but involves the
whole moral man — he being thereby defiled in all the faculties and
parts of soul and body. The Formula of Concord expresses the
same truth in the statement that original sin is no trivial corrup
tion, but is so profound a corruption of human nature as to leave
nothing sound, nothing uncorrupt in the body or soul of man, or
in his mental or bodily powers. When this depravity is said to
be utter, (outer, .or out and out), what is affirmed is that this
dread disorder has so pervaded the whole man, has so diffused
itself throughout his nature, so suffused his entire moral being
that, left to itself, it will only go on and on like some mortal dis
ease, until at last the uttermost possibility, the outermost margin
of sinfulness possible to the individual, will be reached. And
when the term, universal, is used to indicate the fact that the entire
race is involved in this dreadful corruption, similar discrimination
should be made, such as will guard against certain injurious infer
ences which might easily be derived from an affirmation so

278 MAN.
sweeping. It should always be borne in mind that these, and
such kindred expressions as, dead in sin, wholly defiled, incapable of
life, altogether averse from good, wholly inclined to all evil, and
others scattered through the Symbols, had a technical meaning
in the apprehension of the Westminster divines and among the
theologians of the Reformation generally, which is quite separa
ble in thought from the impressions they now make in the ordinary
speech of men. And certainly the preacher of our time cannot
be too careful, while diminishing nothing from the awful solemnity
of the truth itself, to avoid the use of terms or phrases which by
conveying erroneous impressions may greatly weaken the claim
of that truth on human belief and acceptation.
In the recent Revision several changes were proposed, looking
not toward any abandonment of the essential doctrine, but toward
the correction of false interpretations respecting it, such as the
strong language of the Symbols has sometimes suggested. It
was proposed, for example, to modify the phrase (VI :iv), made
opposite to all good, by introducing the language found elsewhere,
(L- C. 25) all that is spiritually good; by omitting the word all
from the phrase, wholly inclined to all evil, on the ground that no
individual transgressor, however corrupt, is wholly inclined to
every sort of evil; by affirming that the providence and grace of
God do in fact not only restrain unregenerate men from much that is
evil, but also incline them to exercise many social and civil virtues:
and by declaring (IX:iii) that the sinner is indisposed to rather than
averse from all spiritual good, and that this aversion or lack of
moral disposition in no degree impairs his responsibility for per
sonal sinfulness. The value of such modifications in descriptive
phraseology will be readily apprehended: the changes proposed
doubtless express what is at present the general if not universal
view of the doctrine thus defined.
The essential fact which the Confession and the Catechisms are
alike anxious to impress upon human conviction, is the fact that
this depravity, total and utter and universal, this indisposition and
aversion to all spiritual good, this inclination and proneness to
evil, is something from which, left to himself, man will never gain
dehverance. This interior root and spring in the moral nature,
from which do proceed all actual transgressions, is in other words
ineradicable through any energies resident in the soul apart from
grace. It demands the intervention of some higher power, some
divine energy, in order to the thorough correction of the evil, and
to the implanting of a spiritual good which accompanies or indicates
salvation. On this vital point the evangelical creeds of the

OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED : NATURAL GOODNESS. 279
Reformation were substantially agreed. Socinianism might affirm,
as it did, the inherent capability of man to restore and even save
himself. The Roman communion might insist, as it did, on the
presence in man of moral capabilities which, if not coordinate
with the divine Spirit, might still aid in preparing the soul for
salvation, and even in bringing about that salvation. Arminian-
ism might hesitate, as it did, to accept so positive and sweeping
a doctrine of sinfulness, and prefer to describe the fact in more
mediate, less uncompromising terms. Here and there a theologian
like Zwingli or Mdancthon might be inclined to synergistic views
of that great process of spiritual restoration, for which the Gospel
is sent to men. But the Confessions, from that of Augsburg down
to that of Westminster, were agreed in the essential truth which
the language just considered was intended to convey. It is indeed
a fair critidsm that some at least of the terminology employed in
them defeats its own end by its extreme intensity, especially as we
find it in the Reformed symbolism. But respecting the essential
fact all were agreed in declaring this original sin or sinfulness to
be a cardinal tenet in the Gospel scheme; and in affirming the
Spiritual impossibiHty of deliverance and restoration from such
sin except through the gracious ministries of the Spirit of God.
The objections which have been urged against this doctrine in
later times have been in part anticipated in the Symbols. It
is, for example, aUeged that this concep
tion of the corrupted estate of man is at 13- Objections urg-ed:
variance with observed facts, since we Creed statement justified:
, , Case of infants and of the
often see m unrenewed men honesty and heanien.
charity, and a wiUing loyalty to the claims
of righteousness, in the various relations of life. But even the
Confession of Augsburg guarded against this objection by admit
ting on one side (XVIII) that man by nature hath some liberty
to work a civil righteousness, and to choose such things as reason
can reach unto, while on the other side it denied that man has
power to work out a spiritual righteousness, without the aid of the
divine Spirit. So the Thirty-Nine Articles declare (X), that the
condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot
turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and good
works, to faith and calling upon God. The Westminster divines
also were careful to guard their very strong affirmation respecting
the universal depravation of mankind by the statement (XVI :
vii) that unregenerate men may do things which God commands,
and which may be of use to themselves and others ; yet declaring
that, inasmuch as these things are not done in a right manner and

280 MAN.
for the right end, the glory of God, they cannot be in a spiritual
sense pleasing to God, or make the doer meet to receive grace from
God. - In the proposed Revision an improved statement was sug
gested to the effect that, inasmuch as these good works do not
proceed from a heart purified by faith, they do not -meet the full
requirements of the divine law, and therefore cannot be pleaded
as a ground of acceptance with God. Amiable qualities, com
mendable purposes and acts, elements of character which are
attractive in the eyes of men, may thus exist in the same person
in whom such spiritual corruption remains as will render him not
only undeserving of salvation, but deserving rather of the divine
condemnation. The Declaratory Act of the Free Church of Scot
land teaches that, although the natural man is unable without
the aid of the Holy Spirit to return to God, he is yet capable
of affections and actions which in themselves are virtuous and
praiseworthy. The case of infants dying in infancy has often been urged as an
objection, on the ground that depravity in the sense here defined
is not properly affirmable of this class, which comprises so large
a portion of the human race. The history of opinion in regard
to the salvability of infants is one of very great interest. The
Council of Trent, following the general trend of patristic and
mediaeval belief, held that all infants as members of the human race
are under divine condemnation, and consequently, unless they re
ceive the grace of baptism, in fact or at least by intention, are justly
consigned to punishment in some appropriate, possibly merely
negative form. The Augsburg Confession in like manner re
garded baptism as essential to deliverance from such punishment,
inasmuch as the taint of original sin is not otherwise except in
extraordinary cases removable. Dorner (Hist, of Prot. Theol.)
represents Luther as affirming this necessity, but also as saying
with reference to the unbaptized children of Christians: The holy
and merciful God will- think kindly of them; what he will do with
them he has not revealed. The Formula of Concord condemns as
an Anabaptist heresy the opinion that the unbaptized offspring of
believers should be accounted as belonging to the children of God,
but does not positively affirm the opposite. Later Lutheranism
has generally regarded the necessity of baptism in such cases as
relative and ordinary rather than absolute, and has so far forth
modified, though without abandoning, the earlier position. In
respect to the infants of unbelievers and especially to infants born
in paganism, dying in infancy, Lutheran symbolism is entirely
silent: Krauth, Conservative Reformation. Among the Reformed

INFANTS DYING IN INFANCY. 281
theologians, Zwingli is conspicuous in affirming positively not
only that all children of believers baptized or unbaptized, if dying
in infancy, should be regarded as elect, but also that all who die
in infancy outside of the pale of the church, and even in heathen
lands, may through the superabounding mercy of God, be saved, —
their death in infancy being taken as a sure sign of their election.
But no continental Confession presents a distinct or positive doc
trine as to the latter dass. The Saxon Articles, the Helvetic Con
fessions and some others emphasize the obligation to baptize the
offspring of believers, but say nothing respecting the fate of other
infants. The Ten Articles of Henry VIII, affirm that children
dying in infancy shah undoubtedly be saved by virtue of baptism,
but otherwise not; while the Scotch Confession of 1580 rejects
the cruel judgment of Rome against infants departing without the
sacrament, but goes no further. One notable index of the preva
lence of broader views during that century, at least in individual
minds, appears in the striking declaration of the martyr Bishop
Hooper: It is iH done to condemn the infants of Christians who
die without baptism. He would likewise judge well, he said, of
the infants of infidds who have no other sin in them but original.
He held it not wrong, he added, for a Christian man to believe
that the death and passion of Christ extended as far for the salva
tion of innocents as the sin of Adam made all his posterity liable
to condemnation: See Warfield, Development of the Doctrine of
Infant Salvation.
Such was the state of opinion at the beginning of the seven
teenth century. In the controversy which soon arose between the
Calvinists and the Arminians in Holland, we hear the latter party
charging their opponents with holding, or with being obliged in
logic to hold, the offensive tenet of the damnation of all infants,
even the offspring of the elect, on the ground of constitutional
depravity inherited by them as members of the race. Hence we
find the Synod of Dort by way of response protesting vehemently,
in the Conclusion to its Canons, against the unwarranted allega
tion that many children of the faithful are torn, guiltless, from
the breasts of their mothers — ab uberibus matrum innoxies abripi
— and tyranicauy plunged into Gehenna, neither baptism nor the
prayers of the church at all profiting them. Following shortly
after this comes the more positive statement of the Westminster
Confession (X:iii) which directly affirms that elect infants (elect
of infants : Minutes, 162) or the infants of believers, as was
quite certainly meant, are regenerated and saved by Christ through
the Spirit. This was unquestionably a notable advance on lie

282 MAN.
statement of Dort and, on all antecedent symbolism,- indicating
in fact the highest point which the Protestantism of the seven
teenth century reached, in respect to the problem of the salvability
of children dying in infancy, while yet under the shadow and
taint of the universal pravity. The clause admits the deprava
tion, but sets oyer against it the redemptive grace of Christ and
the regenerative efficiency of the Spirit, as a sufficient ground of
faith and hope respecting the salvation of all infants who are elect.
To meet an obvious objection as to the efficiency of the Spirit in
cases where personal or conscious faith could not be exercised,
the Confession taught the broad and grand truth that the Spirit
worketh when and where and how he pleaseth, even in the uncon
scious babe. Their doctrine of infant baptism (Conf. XXVIII:
iv; L. C. 166, 177; S. C. 95: also, Direct, for Worship, Ch.VIII)
is clearly based on this biblical ground, — infants being thus bap
tized, not because they are sinless in nature, but because divine
grace is able to remove such sinfulness, even from the infantile
soul, and therefore to save even the unconsdous offspring of be
lievers. Large advances have been made, especially in this century,
upon the Westminster teaching at this point. All infants, whether
living to become adult or dying in infancy, are indeed to be
regarded — to quote the language of the Auburn Dedaration — as a
part of the human family, and their sufferings and death, when
they occur, are to be accounted for on the ground of their being
involved in the general moral ruin of the race, induced by the
apostacy of our first parents. But on the other hand, the broad
proposition is now generally if not universally admitted, that all
infants dying in infancy, whether children of believers or the off
spring of unregenerate parentage, whether in Christian or in pagan
lands, and whether after the advent of Christ or before, are to be
regarded as included in the election of grace, and therefore as
regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit. This is the
positive proposition of the proposed Revision, and it may be ac
cepted as representing the present doctrine of evangelical Prot
estantism generally. The Declaratory Act of the Free Church of
Scotland, with some caution, affirms that, while the Gospel is the
ordinary means of salvation for those to whom it is made known,
yet it does not follow, nor is the Confession to be held as teaching,
that any who die in infancy are lost. If it be offered as a criticism
upon the divines of Westminster that they did not attain to such a
positive and catholic view, it should also be said to their praise that
the largest confessional statement ever made on this interesting

OTHER ELECT PERSONS : THE HEATHEN. 283
subject came from them. The symbolism of the Reformation will
be searched in vain for any counterpart.
The question whether their associated phrase, other elect per
sons, referred simply to the imbecile or insane, or other persons in
gospel lands who are incapable intellectually of being outwardly
called by the ministry of the Word, or included also the heathen
world outside the geographic range of Christianity, must be an
swered frankly in favor of the former and narrower, though an emi
nent American divine, (Shedd)has maintained the legitimacy of the
wider interpretation. In one view it seems surprising that the ear
ner Protestantism should have done so little, and even thought so
Httle, in regard to the pagan peoples in other continents. The
Confessions, both Lutheran and Reformed, say almost nothing
respecting the spiritual state or fate of the heathen races. The
fact is explained in part by the extensive lack of information as to
the religious condition of the unnumbered millions of heathendom,
but chiefly by the absorbing demands made upon the Protestant
churches in the maintenance and propagation of their doctrine
and poHty, in the presence of an overshadowing papacy on one
side, and of devdoping heresy and unbelief on the other. Their
eyes rested easily on the imbecile, the insane, the mentally incom
petent dwelling among them: the heathen world was too remote
and too obscure to attract largely their thought. It is the glory
of later Protestantism, and especially of the evangelical churches
of this century, that they have come to realize the depraved and
the lost condition of that vast world, and have in some measure
obeyed the summons of the Master to preach his Gospel to every
creature in whatever land or island of earth. Some interesting
evidences of the rise of a broader missionary feeling in some sec
tions of primitive Protestantism, and especially in Britain, will be
mentioned hereafter.
That the heathen as truly as the men and women of Christian
lands, are to be regarded as by nature sinful, corrupt, and under
divine condemnation, was unquestionably the general belief of the
Westminster divines. At least no trace appears in the Symbols
of the opinion now prevalent in some quarters that, inasmuch as
the heathen know not the Gospel, and therefore have not con-
sdously rejected Christ, they are to be accounted innocent before
God. The Confession (I:i.X:iv) teaches that the light of nature
and the works of providence do so far manifest the goodness, wis
dom and power of God, as to leave men inexcusable; and further
that men are not to be saved in any other way than through Christ,
be they never so diligent to frame their lives according to the light of

284 MAN.
nature. This language was undoubtedly intended to apply pri
marily to the adherents of what in the next century became the
formulated and assuming deism of England, with its claim of
salvation attainable through personal righteousness, and its con
temptuous rejection of salvation through personal faith in a
personal and divine Christ. But, in common with Protestantism
generally, the Assembly were ready to apply the principle in the
broadest form, even as inclusive of the whole race descended from
Adam. They indeed recognized the just distinction (L. C. 151:
89) that sin is aggravated by the enjoyment of light and privilege,
and that at the final judgment the heathen are to be condemned
only on clear evidence and full conviction of their own consciences.
This does not imply, as Dorner seems to infer, two separate
standards of character in that final adjudication: the difference in
such moral testing is in degree rather than in kind.
Of the possible salvability of some among the heathen, we find
an occasional expression of hope among the Reformers, as in the
case of Zwingli who, while affirming in his Theses (3) that Christ
is the only way — unica via — for the salvation of all who have been,
are, or may be, still expresses the hope that men like Socrates,
dwelling outside of the Gospel, yet living up to the light they have.
may be saved through the Christ whom they have never personally
known. But no creed of Protestantism incorporates such a hope,
nor has more recent Protestantism taken any other ground than
that the heathen world, without Christ and his redemption, is in
some deep and dreadful sense lost. The recent Revision goes so
far as to affirm that all elect persons who are not outwardly called
by the Word may still be saved, even though they dwell in pagan
lands, — and the hope that there may possibly be many such is not
directly forbidden by the Symbols as they stand. The Dedaratory
Act of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland affirms that,
while the duty of sending the Gospel to the heathen who are sunk
in ignorance, sin and misery, is imperative, and while the outward
and ordinary means of salvation for those capable of being called
by the Word are the ordinances of the Gospel, yet in accepting
the Standards it is not required to be held that God may not ex
tend his grace to any who are without the pale of ordinary means,
as it may seem good in his sight. A similar statement appears
in the Declaratory Act of the Free Church, 1892. Still evangel
ical Christendom can be said to hold no other doctrine than that
the heathen universally need the Gospel in order to their enlight
enment and salvation; and that it is therefore the imperative duty
of the Church of Christ to proclaim that Gospel, age on age, until

SIN : ITS NATURE AND GUILT. 285
the whole earth shall have the opportunity to know and believe
in him, as the one and only Savior of mankind.
From this view of depravity, or sin in the nature, consequent
upon the original transgression and infecting the race universally,
we may now turn to contemplate sin
as a fact in all its baleful manifesta- 14' sln» lts na,ure : lts
tions in human Hfe. No better defini- SuUtlness-
tion of sin has ever been given than that found in the Shorter
Catechism: any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law
of God. Some of the creeds of the Reformation, as the Augs
burg Confession and the Formula of Concord, fail to make the
distinction here so clearly indicated between original sin and that
sin which is personal, conscious, voluntary. The intense descrip
tion of sin found in the Second Helvetic Conf. (VIII) while it
recognizes this distinction, stiH fails to set forth in practical and
comprehensive form this personal sin, with which after all we have
most to do individuaUy. The chapter in the Confession (VI)
admits the distinction in the phrase, both original and actual, and
teaches that both the original sin, and all the motions thereof, are
truly and properly sin; and also affirms that all actual sin, being
a transgression of the righteous law of God and contrary thereto,
involves the sinner in guilt and condemnation in the deepest sense
possible. The Larger Catechism, (24) adds to the definition in
the S. C. the explanatory phrase, given as a rule to the reasonable
creature. But that definition, simple, terse, solemn and convin-
dng, stands by its own light as the best description of sin ever
incorporated in any creed.
Of the two elements, the transgression is the first to attract our
attention. It indudes aU infraction of the divine law, in what
ever form that law may present itself as a rule of life to the rea
sonable creature. Nor is such infraction to be limited to overt
action, as Roman CathoHcism has been inclined to limit it: it is
said (XV: iv) to be the duty of every man to repent of his par
ticular sins, particularly; and in the Direct, for Worship (V), the
minister is instructed in his public prayer to confess sins in
thought, in word and in deed, sins secret and presumptuous, sins
habitual and accidental — in a word, all those motions of sin that
appear in our members or our lives, whether open or secret, and
even that concupiscentia which is the immediate germ or fount of
actual transgression. The Heidelberg Catechism teaches in simi
lar terms (10) that God is terribly displeased with both our inborn
and our actual sins, and will punish them in just judgment in time

286 MAN.
and in eternity, unless we repent of them and find forgiveness in
Him who is described in its opening sentence as our only comfort
in life and in death. The Westminster phrase, any transgression,
involves all and every form of transgression, in deed or word or
thought, whether the law transgressed be the law of outward
nature, the law of conscience, the moral code of the older Scrip
tures, or the supreme law as given and illustrated in Jesus Christ.
The phrase, want of conformity, introduces a still more solemn
and inclusive conception. It points to the failure of man to come
up in act and in feeling to that divine law to which the human soul
is ever and inevitably subject. For that law is not a prohibition
simply; it is also a demand, precept, injunction. It may be dis
obeyed by neglect as truly as by - direct transgression. And
all neglect of it is as truly voluntary, and therefore as truly
a matter of accountability as any overt action. Moreover,
such sinful neglects are far more frequent than sinful acts are;
they constitute in fact a condition or state of the soul, and are
as continuous as they are voluntary. It is especially noticeable
that, while the Old Testament emphasizes and condemns wrong
action, all transgression in deed, the New Testament, (and emi
nently our Lord) dwells rather on this state of the soul, which
expresses itself in such continuous and willing negligence of
divine claims, and pronounces this the greater, deeper, more
damnable form of sin. Such want of conformity is therefore
rightly placed before all overt transgressions, in the terse defini
tion here given. And in the remarkable list of things forbidden
in the exposition of the Ten Commandments (L. C. 104-148) we
have an impressive witness to the intensity of the conviction of
the Westminster divines on this vital point in the doctrine of sin.
No earlier creed recognizes this element of sin so fully, though
nearly all of them refer to the inward sinfulness, the state of will
ful negation as to spiritual things, as one of the primal grounds
of the divine condemnation.
A third element in the Westminster doctrine appears in its rec
ognition of sin, whether overt or negative, as committed not
merely against the law of God, but against God himself as stand
ing behind his law, and by his presence emphasizing it as the utter
ance of his supreme, sovereign, majestic, holy will. It is the law
of God, that law which he has given as a rule of life to the rea
sonable creature, which is thus neglected or trampled under foot.
Sin is therefore disobedience — the disobedience of the creature;
his revolt of will and spirit from the Creator, the Father in provi
dence, the moral Governor. All sin is therefore rebellion, if not

SIN : ITS FOUR MAIN ELEMENTS. 287
open, still actual, — if not expressed in action, still cherished as
the fixed disposition of the soul, — rebellion against God and his
moral administration, involving, were such a thing possible, the
overthrow of his august sovereignty, and the prostration of his
government as a vanquished dominion before the moral universe.
It was natural that the authors of the Confession, even more than
those who had gone before them in the Reformation, should bring
in at this point their exalted estimate of the divine supremacy,
and should stamp all sin with this blackest seal, — that in essence
it is always and evermore a crime against God personally, and trea
son against his hoi}' government. Calvin, more than any other
Reformer, had emphasized this aspect of sin, as many passages
in his Institutes plainly indicate. But even he did not present
the doctrine in such solemn and awful aspect as we find it (Vl.vi)
stated in the Symbols: Every sin, both original and actual, being
a transgression of the righteous law of God, and contrary thereto,
doth in its own nature bring guilt upon the sinner, whereby he
is bound over to the wrath of God, and the curse of the law.
Nor do the Symbols fail to recognize that inward principle
of sdfhood, that deep disposition and purpose of the sinner to
gratify himself and have his own way, even against all divine law,
which is the key to all such disobedience, — the dreadful spring
and fount of aU such rebellion against God and his holy gov
ernment. In the Sum of Saving Knowledge it is quaintly said
that, until God make us deny ourselves, we never look to God in
anything, but fleshly self-interest alone doth rule us, and move all
the wheels of our actions. Many kindred expressions may be found
in the Confession and Catechisms. While on one side we are
taught (II:ii) that to God is due from angels and men, and
every other creature, whatsoever worship, service or obedience he
is pleased to require of them, we are taught on the other, that the
only reason why men do not recognize this supreme claim lies in
that selfish hardness of heart, that love of self and of selfish pleas
ure, which becomes (XIII : i) a dominion of the whole body of sin,
— a counter dominion, established in the very centers of the soul,
which flaunts its godless banner in the air, and bids defiance to
every claim of Deity. Such selfhood dominating in the breast,
by its very nature impels the sinner to ignore all divine claims,
to transgress at wiU any divine command, to reject every ap
pointed standard of duty, and to cast God himself, so far as this
is possible, out of the thoughts and out of the life. Milton has
justly ascribed the fall of the tempter to the indulgence of this
unholy disposition, and inspired Scripture recognizes it as the

288 MAN.
inward and essential root of all actual sin, whether in the form of
transgression, or in that inward want of conformity which is the
antecedent of all transgression. Here human sin culminates: no
broader, deeper, darker view is possible.
The strength of this confessional description of sin in its four
essential aspects, will be at once recognized. While the West
minster divines, following the general
15. Strength of this con- trend o{ the protestant symbols, dwelt
ceptlon: other views of sin, much h reiativeiy too
their deficiency. , , -,-,_ j . •
much, on the more recondite doctrine
of original sin as transmitted in the race, and of pravity or sin
fulness as imbedded in the nature, they — as we have seen — by no
means ignored or minified that sin, personal and voluntary, of
which every man is conscious, and which in every man is the
immediate and the main ground of condemnation. For their sin,
is the expression used again and again to indicate the essential
basis of the divine wrath and curse upon sinners. They well
realized that clear, solemn, convincing views of personal sin were
absolutely prerequisite to that doctrine of redemption from both
the curse and the power of sin through Christ as Mediator, which
they made central and supreme in their confessional system. Nor
have the study and experience of two centuries shown that they
were in any degree too intense, too sweeping, too solemn in their
descriptions of such personal sinfulness. Practical experiment
under widely varying conditions, and long continued, has proved
the essential truthfulness of their teaching. So far as evangelical
belief has adhered to what they taught — so far as the Protestant
pulpit has repeated and emphasized their profound and thoroughly
biblical instructions, just so far has the correlative doctrine of
gracious redemption won its appropriate victories, and gathered
its peculiar fruitage in the hearts and lives of men. And on the
other hand, so far as there has been any deviation from this strong
and impressive conception of sin — so far as men have attempted
to weaken these descriptions and to substitute less scriptural
notions, just so far has the power of the pulpit been impaired,
and the glory of the Gospel as a saving scheme been dimmed.
More recent times have developed many antagonistic theories
of sin as seen in the individual man. It has been said that sin is
only an error, originating in ignorance or in forgetfulness, — men
not so much intending to do wrong as falling into wrong, because
they do not at the moment clearly discern the right. It has been
said that sin is merely such stumbling as naturally occurs to a
finite and limited being like man, — he being but an infant taking

FALSE THEORIES OF SIN. 289
here and there a misstep in the effort to act morally — a misstep
which only prepares him for firmer virtue in the end. It has been
said that sin is only the result of that divine arrangement in human
development by which the sensibilities and desires begin to act
before the judgment is sufficiently matured to control them, — the
wiU yielding to their impulsion because it has not yet come into
the experience of anything higher. It has been said that sin
grows out of the organic relation subsisting between mind and
matter, or out of the peculiar constitution of man as composed of
body and spirit; ever depositing itself upon the soul, to use an old
Gnostic metaphor, as rust does on iron; something springing spon
taneously and inevitably from the eternal antithesis between soul
and body, mind and matter. It has been said that sin results
from the correlation divindy estabhshed between moral good and
moral evil, — men learning what moral good is only through the
experiment of moral evil, and becoming matured in virtue only
through the negations and the disciplines of transgression. To
all such theories one simple, vital, irrefragable objection may be
urged, — that one and aU they ignore the fundamental fact that
men universaHy fed themsdves in conscience accountable for their
personal sin, and are perpetually sensible of guilt corresponding
to such sin. Nor can it be claimed that this witness of conscience
is a matter of education or tradition simply : such conviction of
sin is almost as innate in man as consciousness itself. It is also a
fundamental objection that, while ignoring or under-estimating
this vital matter of personal accountability for personal sin before
God, these theories in fact endeavor to put off the blame of such
sin upon the constitution of man, or upon some peculiarity in his
condition or development in Hfe, or upon the constitution of nature,
or even upon the purpose and arrangement of the Deity.
While such explanations or apologies are to be set aside on
these fundamental grounds, it is equally incumbent on those who
adhere to the Symbols to guard themselves sedulously against
any defective conceptions of sin which may be at any time cur
rent within the drcle of evangelical faith. The early Arminian
party did not dare, as their Remonstrance clearly shows, (Art. Ill)
to impair or lessen in any way the prevailing Protestant doctrine
as to the reahty and dreadfulness of sin, and the full responsibil
ity and guiltiness of the sinner. To have demurred at this point
would have been fatal to their entire attempt to modify or melior
ate that firm though severe Calvinism to whose influence and
tendency they were so strongly opposed. But it is true that in
later times some of their disciples, in their strenuous revulsion

290 ¦ MAN.
from the intense language if not the intense dogmatism of some
Calvinistic theologies, have been led into serious deficiency in both
thought and utterance on this vital point. There is little danger
that such revulsion will lead really evangelical minds to open apol
ogies for sin, or to regard sin as rather a negation than a positive
and universal fact, or even to emphasize unduly the benefits of
which, in an economy of grace, human sin may become the occa
sion, whether to the sinner or to others. Yet it is always danger
ous even to become in the least indifferent or insensible to the
sinfulness of sin, or to ignore in any way that need of solemn and
humbling conviction of sin, without which true repentance and
true faith are not likely to find place in the soul. To protect the
church of Christ against such tendencies, and hold that church up
to the highest and most practical standards at this point, is one of
the noblest offices of the Westminster formularies. Subtracting
all that may justly be charged as to intensity of language or dog
matism in opinion, or to undue assumption of authoritativeness,
apparent in the discussions and deliverances of the Assembly, we
may on fair comparision place their teaching on this subject at
the head of the list as excelling in clearness, in fullness, and in
practical effectiveness. The Reformers from Luther and Calvin
down to the Synod of Dort were indeed by no means indifferent to
the fundamental doctrine of sin in its personal and practical as
pects. The careful student of the creeds wiU come upon many
a striking statement, many a forceful proposition, many an elab
orate exposition of biblical truth, which will convince him not
only of the positive Augustinianism or rather Paulinism of the
Reformers generally, but also of their profound experience of the
essential truthfulness and worth of thdr accepted doctrine. That
the Assembly of Westminster did not fall below them in either
knowledge or experience or depth of conviction, but the rather
led all the rest in the exposition of that doctrine, will not be
questioned by any one who in the light of comparative symbolism
duly estimates their confessional teaching.
It has been urged in more recent times that this strong doc
trine of sin, coupled with the equally strong doctrine of prav-
16. Free will in man : ity, *nd of ori^inal or transmitted
confessional statements: the smfulness, ism fact either positively
doctrine defined ; conflicting subversive of the antithetic doctrine
theories. of free will in man, or at least tends
to the neutralizing of that doctrine
as a cardinal element in the proclamation of the Gospel. There

FREE WILL IN MAN. 291
is little doubt that many of the Reformers were conscious of the
antinomy thus suggested. Men like Melancthon realized the seri
ous dilemma into which men of the type of Luther were bringing
both themselyes and the Protestant cause at this point, and did
what they could to forestall the mischievous antagonism. Logi
cians like Calvin appreciated the difficulty, and endeavored earn
estly to relieve it, though with but indifferent success. It is
especially suggestive of the universal interest in the problem, that
dther an entire chapter or a separate article or distinct section on
this subject is found in the Augsburg Conf. and Formula of Con
cord, in the First and Second Helvetic, in both the Belgic and
French Confessions, and also in the Thirty-Nine Articles and the
Canons of Dort. That the general teaching of these symbols
emphasized strongly the actual deadness of will in the sinner, and
in this way tended to impair the doctrine of responsibility for sin,
will hardly be questioned. It is to the prevalence of such
emphatic and in some instances dogmatic teachings, that we are
to trace the rise of the Synergistic controversy in Germany and
corresponding developments elsewhere, culminating in the Armin-
ianism of HoUand and its resultants in the British Isles. Some
of the creeds were more moderate in statement than others, and in
some we seem to detect indications of a policy to which later the
ology has in some cases been constrained, —the policy of stating
the two antithetic truths, meanwhile leaving as insoluble the prob
lem of their combination. An eminent historian (Schaff) has
daimed that the Westminster Confession itself expressly teaches
freedom of will as well as foreordination, but leaves the solution
of the apparent antinomy to scientific theology.
The Chapter on Free Will (IX) in the Confession is a remark
ably skiUful statement. It consists of five sections, of which the
first is a generic description or definition of the will as one of the
constituent faculties of the soul, while the other four describe this
faculty in action, in the four moral spheres of innocency, of sin,
of grace and of glory. This analysis of the four spheres or states
wherein the will may act, was taken directly from the Formula
of Concord, and is one of very great value in the proper explica
tion of the doctrine. What man was capable of doing before the
fall, what he can or cannot do since the corruption of the fall,
what he may be enabled to do when converted and translated into
a state of grace, and what he will do when made immutably free to
good alone in the estate of glory, are successively described with
signal care. The several sections of the chapter should be contem
plated in their. vital relations to each other, and the entire chapter

292 MAN.
ought never to be interpreted by' itself, but should rather be stud
ied in conjunction with all the other suggestions on the subject
which appear here and there throughout the Symbols. It was
obviously the general plan of the Assembly, wherever differences
of view existed or where such antitheses in doctrine occurred, to
provide place somewhere in the Symbols for the expression of
such differences, or for the recognition of truths which, though
well grounded in themselves, seemed to their apprehension to be
mutually conflicting. Thus in interpreting this chapter, we
should take carefully into account all that had been previously
said in the Confession respecting the liberty of will bestowed
on our first parents, the character of God as preduding the pos
sibility of his being the author or approver of sin, and the crimi
nality of man in the fall, and in all his acts as a fallen and
corrupted being. We should also note with care what is taught
in subsequent chapters, and especially in that (XIX) on the
Moral Law, and also the many expressions in the two Catechisms,
which affirm on one side the deadness of the sinful will, but main
tain on the other the guilt of all transgression and all want of
conformity to the divine law, resulting from the depraved yet
voluntary disposition and purpose.
The first section in this remarkable chapter affirms that the will
of man is endowed of God with natural liberty, and that this lib
erty is of such a character as to preclude the thought that man is
under natural necessity — under any species of outward force, by
which his will is determined, to good or evil. We are reminded at
once of the statement in chapter IV, respecting our first parents
as having the law of God written in their Hearts and power to ful
fill it; and by antithesis, of the statement in chapter VI, that their
descendants are utterly indisposed, disabled and made opposite to all
good, and wholly inclined to all evil. In the third section in this
chapter we find the startling affirmation that man, being in this
state of sin, has wholly lost all ability of will— an affirmation which
would be wholly incongruous with that of the first or opening
section, if the loss affirmed were not limited by the vital phrase,
to any spiritual good accompanying salvation. This phrase clearly
shows that the Westminster divines did not intend to contravene
in the third section what they had affirmed as to natural liberty, or
the power to will and to do, in the first section; but were simply
endeavoring to teach what all evangelical minds agree in believ
ing, that no sinner ever will, ever can, restore himself by mere
volition to a state of holiness in the sight and estimate of God.
To meet the apparent antinomy involved in these sections, the

SYMBOLIC TESTIMONIES. 293
proposed Revision suggested an additional sentence in the first sec
tion: Wherefore man is and remains a free moral agent, retaining
full responsibility for all his acts, in his states alike of innocency,
of sin, of grace and of glory. And for the same reason it was
proposed to substitute for the sweeping and somewhat misleading
phrase all ability of will, the better phrase, all disposition, — a
change which would locate the inability of the sinner where it
mainly if not entirely bdongs, within the moral nature. The f our
states mentioned in the first sentence are those described in the four
following sections of the chapter : these constitute the only four
states in which it is possible for man as a spiritual being to act.
Careful study of the Protestant symbols will reveal the fact that,
notwithstanding varieties in forms of statement and in clearness
and fuUness of expression, they were substantially one in their
general doctrine; and also the further fact that the divines of
Westminster in the language just quoted fairly comprehended that
doctrine and gave it exact and practical expression throughout.
The Augsburg Confession quoted with approval the saying of
Augustine, that there is in aU men a free will which hath the power
of reason, but added (XVIII), that this will hath no power to
work out spiritual righteousness (or true holiness) without the
Spirit of God; and condemned the Pelagian dogma that by the
power of nature alone we are able to love God above all things.
The Formula of Concord, compiled in full view of the Synergistic
controversy, carried the doctrine of the inability of the sinful will
to its fuU length, in antagonism to the affirmation of Melancthon
respecting the consenting will of man as a concurrent cause of
holy action. The French Confession, (IX) tersely said that,
although man has a will that incites him to do this or that, yet this
will is altogether so captive to sin that he has no other liberty (or
ability) to do right that than which God gives him. The Belgic
Confession goes stttl farther along the same line, admitting that
some remains of the original will have survived the fall, but
declaring that man has nothing of himself, and can do nothing of
himself in the direction of holiness, unless it be given him of
heaven. These references sufficiently indicate the concurrent
teaching of Protestantism not only on the continent but in Britain
prior to the Assembly. And the debates in that body, so far as
preserved, show how carefully the antecedent symbolism had been
studied, and how thoroughly it was accepted by most, if not by
all of the members.
It is impracticable here to enter into any analytic investigation
of the doctrine thus presented, with a view to its defense or

294 . I MAN.
confirmation. The question whether the human will is truly free
except as it is empowered and enfranchised by grace, is one which
from the era of the Assembly until now has never ceased to
interest alike the theologian and the philosopher. Theories rang
ing from complete determinism to the most absolute or unlimited
liberty are still, and are likely to be, current among both classes.
It is however admitted by all that the will even of an archangel
is a finite rather than an infinite power, and that there are natural
boundaries beyond which even the quickening force of grace will
not enable the soul of man to pass. It is also admitted by most
thoughtful minds that sin both hereditary and personal has infec
ted not merely the intellect and the moral sensibilities, including
the conscience, but also and in some respects especially the will —
eminently when acting in the spiritual or religious sphere. The
nature and extent of this moral limitation, the relative proportion
of the hereditary and the personal elements in it, the agency of
motives external and internal as affecting volition and determ
ining character, the relation of natural inability to moral ability
and to full accountability before God, are matters respecting which
wide diversity prevails — a diversity which is not likely soon to
pass away. But what the divines of Westminster incorporated in
their astute and balanced statement, embodies fairly all that is
essential now in a churchly confession : and when taken in con
junction with all that since their day has been said in the way of
explanation, by those who adhere cordially to the essence and
substance of their teaching, it well represents in our age as in
theirs the best and safest condusion to which either a thoughtful
philosophy or a broad and calm theology has thus far attained.
At this point it is desirable to recur to the contemplation of man
as a creature living under law, as well as possessing a free and
therefore accountable will, and to con-
if. Man under law: moral sider more distinctl the underlying
government: its nature and . : °
scope# conception ot a moral government over
man, as already suggested under the
doctrine of Providence. The correlated conception of God as
Moral Governor as well as fontal and creative Spirit, ruling by the
necessities of his own infinite nature over his moral creatures, and
in such rule exhibiting all the qualities and endowments of his per
fect character, has likewise been introduced in the general analysis
of God in his essential being. It has been intimated that the West
minster divines seem to have failed to recognize, at least in their
confessional statements, that broad distinction which Bishop Butler
a century later unfolded so well in his incomparable Analogy,

MAN UNDER LAW : MORAL GOVERNMENT. 295
between tlie providential and the moral government of God.
That such a distinction exists, and that in some directions it is a
distinction of great practical importance, may be easily discerned.
Though both forms of government are administered by the same
divine Mind and are interblended at a thousand points, yet they
obviously differ widely as to their subjects, to the types of law
enforced and the form of authority displayed, to the ends sought,
and the motives or forces employed in their administration . Provi
dential government comprehends alike all the creatures of God and
all varieties of physical control over such creatures, while moral
government rdates spedfically to moral beings, and particularly —
as here considered — to men as accountable creatures. The different
types of law are iUustrated, for example, in the law of gravitation
as contrasted with the law of love, — the first type acting under
physical necessity, and the other on the principle of freedom. In
moral government the authority brought to bear is personal, — the
Governor as a person dealing with persons, in a sway- radically
unlike that of nature. The ends sought in providential govern
ment are vital preservation and general control ; in moral gov
ernment the control is purely spiritual, and has its proper issue in
character alone. The final outcome of the one is realized in time;
that of the other only in eternity, as a state of holiness or unholi-
ness, blessing or retribution. So the forces employed are as dis
tinct as the energy that guides a planet through the sky is distinct
from that spiritual power which draws a soul into loving unity
with Deity. Moral government finds its best analogue in human
governments, both parental and civil, where results in conduct are
secured through apprehensible law, and by virtue of intelligent
motives, such as right or wrong, reward or punishment. At each
of these points, and in particular aspects which need not be men
tioned here, the providential and the moral government of God are
to be thus caref uUy distinguished from each other. The latter may
be sufficiently defined for the present purpose, as the exercise of
the divine authority over the human race upon principles and by
methods consistent with the moral nature of man, with supreme
reference to the present development of character, and to the
ultimate distribution of awards and penalties in a future state:
See Taylor, N. W. Moral Government of God ; Harris, God,
Creator and Lord of aU.
The fact of such a distinctive moral government might be
established by simple reference to the correlated fact of physical
or providential government. It might be proved still more con-
dusively from, the obvious nature of man as a moral being, from

296 MAN.
his possession of moral qualities on one hand, fitting him to be thus
governed, while on the other hand he is seen to be incapable of
governing himself, and therefore to be in need of some superior
moral agency to rule over him. The fact is also demonstrable, as
Butler has well shown, from experience, — it being palpable to aU
right reason and conscience that there is a law above man, made
for him, and actually dominating over his moral as truly as his
natural life. And it is also a fact of vital significance that the
providential government of God appears to be everywhere tribu
tary to such moral administration; nature always working in the
interest of morality, as in the inflictions wrought through natural
processes in the form of retribution for sin, and the corresponding
benediction which nature herself pronounces on the obedient and
worthy soul. What Matthew Arnold vaguely defines as a power
in the world, not ourselves, working for righteousness, is thus
continually manifesting itself in human experience, as not merely
a preternatural power, but a supreme and holy Person, swaying
all things and all events in the interest of holiness. God in his
providence seems always to be thus contemplating man as the final
end of both his preservation and his physical control. He is
educating man ethically while he sustains him as a being; he seeks
supremely the development of character, alike in every bountiful
harvest he bestows, and in every privation or sorrow of our life
under his providential administration.
More will be said hereafter respecting the foundations of the
moral government here described, and the principles regarded and
applied in its administration. It is enough at this stage to note
the fact that this government is no arbitrary rule, assumed on the
basis of mere power though the power were omnipotent, but is
grounded rather in the nature of both God and man as moral
beings, and in the indisoluble relationship established between
them in both creation and providence. How far the Westminster
divines recognized the doctrine as now defined, is not clear from
their confessional statements. Traces of such recognition appear
here and there, especially in the Catechisms, and in the Directory
for Worship. But as to the essential fact that God rules over man
ethically as well as physically,— as to the law of God, standing
out in human life as representative of his moral government and
enforcing it, their teachings are all that is needful. When we
come to the study of their exposition of that law, especially as
explained in the Larger Catechism, we shall find abundant evi
dence that they held and affirmed this sovereign administration of
God over men and angels, over all the moral universe, as a

OBEDIENCE, HIS SUPREME DUTY. 297
transcendent fact, far beyond and above all his displays of dom
inating potency in the wide realm of nature. Without limitation
or reserve they strenuously taught the essential truth that man,
though in a sense free, is still under moral law, and is bound to
personal and perpetual obedience to such law, under all conditions
and beyond all escape.
Whether this fundamental truth is best apprehended under the
image of a covenant of works, or a covenant of life, as described
in Chapter VII, or in the simpler way
and form just stated, the essential truth 18- Du^ of °bedlen«,
. ,, . , , . , TTT1 personal and perpetual:
m the case is never to be ignored. When responsibillty defmed.
it is said in that chapter that God was
pleased to express his will and his authority by way of covenant,
and when the first covenant is defined as a divine arrangement
wherein Hfe was promised to Adam, and in him to his posterity
upon condition of perfect and personal obedience, we have in the
phraseology simply a somewhat unique statement of the universal
fact that man is a creature divinely placed under law, not by his
own consent or contract, but because God as his Creator and
Sovereign is pleased so to place him; and of the further fact that
obedience, personal, perfect and perpetual, is his immediate, his
unquestionable duty. He has no choice as to whether such law
shall be enacted, or what shaU be its requisitions, or in what way
it shall be enforced, or what rewards or penalties shall follow
obedience or its opposite. At all these points God is supreme and
alone; man can have no option or alternative; his liberty and his
Hfe are centered in the single word, Obedience.
It is weU to note here, though in a preliminary way, the char
acteristics of that law to which man is thus subject, and the
grounds of its majestic supremacy over him. It has its deep
foundation, not in the individual conviction or conscience, neither in
the coincidences of human conscience or the agreements of human
society, nor in those fixed moral relationships by which the race is
held together in unity. Nor is its ultimate basis to be found in the
nature of right and wrong, viewed as rational principles or intui
tions, but rather in the will of God; — not in that will contem
plated as an imperial dictum, as Calvin seems to suggest, God
making right by simply declaring it such, but rather in that will
viewed as the Logos or expression of the complete and holy nature
of the Deity. As such it becomes the absolute rule of righteous
ness, to which — it is not improper to say — God himself yields per
fect and perpetual obedience. The appeal of this holy law
therefore is not to the fears or superstitions of man, but to their

298 MAN.
reason and their conscience, — becoming thus, in the phrase of the
Confession, a law written on their hearts. Its authority Hes partly
in what it is thus seen by reason and felt by the conscience to be,
but ultimately in Him who enacted it, — the Lawgiver standing
always behind the law for its proper enforcement. Its rewards
and penalties are found, partly in what nature may bring upon
obedience or its opposite, but are chiefly such as involve char
acter whether holy or unholy, and such as God in infinite wisdom
chooses to bring on the obedient soul or on the transgressor. Its
administration is supremely and eternally equitable; each subject
being judged by it according to his ability, — no harsh or cruel
exaction ever made, — no sin ever escaping penalty, and no obedi
ence ever failing of reward. In the exalted phrase of Scripture,
the law of the Lord is perfect, his testimonies are sure, his statutes
right, his commandments pure, his administration clean and
enduring, and his judgments true and righteous altogether.
The supremacy of that law over man is by the nature of the
case absolute: its right to rule over him is both legitimate and irre
sistible. Man cannot alter it; he cannot question it; he cannot
evade it. He can no more throw off its imperatives than he can
dethrone its Maker. It is as far above him as God is, and its
sway is as imperial as that which controls the stars. Both by its
own nature and by the will of him who enacted it, it is ever dom
inant and regal over mankind. In respect to time, it must con
tinue thus to rule from the first creation of finite moral existences
onward to the remotest ages of eternity. In respect to space, it
extends through every realm of moral being from the most central
heavens outward to the farthest orb where thought, feeling, con
scious personality are found. As to contents, it comprehends in its
vast sweep every act, every choice or impulse, or even thought
that springs up within the conscious soul of man. As to applica
tion, it fits every conceivable case that can arise within the myr
iad varieties and manifestations of human experience. In every
aspect it is indeed perfect, whether men obey or resist it: it would
shine out eternally with undiminished splendor, though the entire
universe of, moral beings should conspire for its overthrow.
It is in the contemplation of such a law and of a government
thus administered, that we gain some just conception of the
nature and scope of human responsibility before God. The term,
responsibility, simply implies the intrinsic and inevitable obliga
tion of every soul to render proper obedience — to yield complete,
cordial, perpetual allegiance to this administration in whatever
form it may present itself. It is, in other words, absolute amena-

MISERIES OF DISOBEDIENCE. 299
bility to the divine law, and to him who has enasted it as, in the
language of the Confession, a rule of life for the reasonable creature.
Such responsibility implies the possession of power or ability to
render obedience: it cannot apply to the animal, the child, the
imbecile, who are incapable of recognizing the law as enforced.
It implies the exercise of personal choice in view of the demands
of that law; intdligence, conscience, personal volition, are always
involved in it. Obligation, personal and free, is the universal cor
relative,— the binding of the soul by an indissoluble bond to the
throne of the holy Lawgiver. Thcword , duty , is another term which
signifies what, in the nature of things, is due from us or owed by
us to him who is our Creator and our eternal Sovereign. Still
another term is accountability — the answer of the soul to God,
judidally required, for the manner in which it has regarded his
law, and has Hved and acted under its righteous authority. How
fully the Westminster divines recognized all that is implied in
such terms — how fully they emphasized the cardinal fact repre
sented in them, will appear more in detail when we come to con
sider the second great division of the Symbols— that which treats,
not of what we are to believe concerning God, but of what duty
God requires of man.
One further truth remains to complete our survey of the an
thropology of the Symbols. It is that which describes in such
solemn terms the failure of man to keep
what is called the covenant of life, or 19« Failure of man under
., . e , j 4.1. law : miseries of disobedi-
the covenant of works, and the estate „_„„. „„„„,,.,„ ,,„,. „„
' ence : possible deliverance.
not merely of sin but of misery, into
which by that failure humanity has fallen and is continuously
faffing. It is probably a defect in their presentation, that they
dweU so much relatively on this misery as an entailed or heredi
tary infliction, and too little relatively on it as the immediate con
sequence of that individual probation, that personal choice and
action under the divine law, which is the chief spring and source
of all retributive miseries. It surely involves no denial or mini
fying of the awful fact of transmitted sinfulness and consequent
retributive exposure, if we emphasize also, and even more earn
estly, that personal responsibility under which each soul of man
consciously exists, or lay stress on the miseries that flow in
directly upon the soul as the result of its individual failure in duty
and in obedience. It is the safe position of an eminent American
teacher, (Smith, H. B. Theol.) that the sin common to the race
first shows itself in the individual in the form of personal prefer
ence or consent; and that then, and not till then, are personal

300 MAN.
liabilities and desert incurred. He rightly adds that it is not a
true statement, that each individual of the race is personally
deserving of eternal damnation, as is sometimes said, on account of
the sinful act of Adam.
The Confession (VII) strongly teaches both that death in sin
rests on all the posterity of Adam because they are sinful, and
that all personal sin binds the transgressor as a criminal over to
the wrath of God, and makes him subject to death, with all
miseries temporal and eternal. The Shorter Catechism (19), de
clares in similar terms that all men as fallen are made liable to all
the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell
forever. The [Larger Catechism (27), varies the statement by
affirming further that the sinner has lost the favor of God and is
under his displeasure, — that he is the child of wrath and a bond
slave to Satan, — and that he is justly liable to all punishments in
this world and in that which is to come. It also proceeds (28), to
describe with painful minuteness the punishments of sin in this
world as both inward and outward; inward, as blindness of mind,
a reprobate sense, strong delusions, hardness of heart, horror of
conscience, and vile affections; outward, as the curse of God upon
the creatures for our sake, and all other evils that befall us in our
bodies, names, estates, relations and employments, as well as phys
ical death itself. We have here a marked illustration, not of the
inhuman severity or cold indifference to the miseries of their fel
low men, sometimes charged as characterizing the divines of West
minster, but rather of their unswerving fidelity to truth and to
fact, and to the spiritual and eternal welfare of mankind. There
is nothing in their enumeration which is not essentially true in the
case of every one who refuses to obey God and his government;
and in setting forth to the view of all these earthly miseries of sin,
they were only following the example of Him who faithfully
warned men of the multiplied evils of sin in this life, while he also
spoke with solemn emphasis of the outer darkness, of the worm
that dieth not, and the fire that is never quenched. It is guilty
weakness rather than holy courage, which leads to the ignoring
or concealment of the essential truth on such a matter, and which
beguiles men into the destructive belief that sin is but a slight
evil, an occasional fall, an incidental and superficial taint, which
God is always ready to overlook and to forgive, even though the
indulgence in it g©es on without restraint.
Postponing all reference to the miseries of sin in the life to come,
as these are faithfully set forth in the Symbols, we may close our
survey of the natural man as they describe him, with the question

DELIVERANCE POSSIBLE. 301
of questions whether deliverance from such moral miseries, and
restoration to the favor and image of God, are possible to a being
who has so far fallen from his high estate, and by his refusal to
yield perfect and perpetual obedience, has become involved in such
criminality before that Being to whom, by his moral constitution,
endowments and position, he is made forever responsible. Con
templating man as we thus find him, we may still claim in answer,
that there are gracious possibilities remaining in him and in his
providential environment, which do justify the hope that he may
yet be saved from his sin and its condemnation. He cannot in
deed escape by his own act from either his moral corruption or his
personal guiltiness. The verdict of the law has already been
pronounced upon him; the solemn decision of the Judge is already
uttered. Nor has the sinner any such compensatory or restora
tive power in himself, as justifies the expectation that by his own
energies he may yet come back to duty and to God. But on the
other hand, man is not a devil, and behind the sinning man there
stands a better man, ever summoning the recreant soul to obedi
ence. The moral nature though corrupted is still capable of be
ing regenerated and restored, by divine though not by human
power. And the very discords within the soul, as well as its bet
ter aspirations, the longing of the sinning race for deliverance,
its sacrifices and its prayers and worship, all point to such a pos-
sibiHty. The providence of God toward the sinner, in its tender
constraints and its faithful warnings, also seems to warrant the
expectation that the God of providence will not leave the trans
gressor to perish forever. In like manner, his moral administra
tion strangely mingles delay with penalty, limits the influence of
the evil and stimulates toward the good, and in an thousand multi-
pfied ways of mercy suggests the hope, the expectation, that
sinful man may yet be saved. Such are the natural intimations in
the case, all pointing toward such a happier issue; and the divine
response to all such antidpations and longings, as Christian sym-
boHsm universally declares, is CHRIST.

LECTURE SIXTH— CHRIST THE MEDIATOR.
His Incarnation : His Person, Divine and Human :
His Mission — Mediation : His Mediatorial Offices—
Prophet, Priest, King : His Humiliation and Exalta
tion.
C. F. Ch. VIII. Ch. II, iii. L. C. 36-56, 85-90. S. C.
21-28. Protestantism was in essence a movement for the restoration of
Christ and his Mediation to that supreme place from which Ro
manism by its excessive exaltation of the Church with her sacra
ments and priesthood, had in effect removed them. The Roman
theology, while recognizing in form the work and passion of the
Son of God as the ultimate ground of salvation, had thrust the
Church forward, just as in later times it has thrust forward the
immaculate Mary, between Christ and the believer, — representing
the ministries of the Church as mediatorial, and making salvation
turn primarily on what the Church could do for and upon the soul.
The intrinsic grace of her sacraments, her offidal intercessions,
her absolution and benediction, were dedared to be indispensable:
men could attain and enjoy eternal life only through her. Prot
estantism at a stroke reversed all this by its strong and just
doctrine that salvation turns immediately upon the rdationship
directly established between the believer and Christ, the one and
only Redeemer, through personal faith alone, and without- any
intervening churchly mediation. As Romanism required that the
soul should come to Christ through the Church, Protestantism
held that the soul could come into the Church only through
Christ ; and that her sacraments, her intercessions, her grace and
benediction, were to be granted only to those who had already
consciously embraced the Savior himself, and had entered already
on the Christian life through personal union with him. Christ was
in this way brought directly into the foreground of vision and of
faith; his mediation became at once the primal and the essential
thing; and the mediating ministries of the Church had efficacy
only when that supreme mediation had first wrought out its blessed
result in the justifying of the sinner before God. Everything was
centered finally in Christ. Behind the finished and the glorious

CHRISTOLOGY OF THE REFORMATION. 303
work of grace stood the divine and transcendent Person ; and in
him the Reformers found alike the strong foundation of their per
sonal faith, and their peculiar endowment for the grand work to
which by his Word and Spirit they had been called.
It was therefore natural that the creeds of the Reformation
should contain such extensive and strong articles concerning
Christ and concerning his Mediation.
These two great truths are generally *• Chrlstology of the Ref-
4. r 4.1. 4. i. 4. • 4.1- • ormationi: ancient doctrine
set forth, not as separate, but m their afflrined
sacred correlation. While therefore we
are searching for their doctrine concerning the Savior, we are all
the while brought face to face with that doctrine of justification
through personal faith in him, which has well been called the
essential prindple of the Reformation. So far as his person was
concerned, the Reformers were inclined at first simply to affirm
their loyalty to the three ancient creeds, and it was not until
Sodnianism had become conspicuous at Geneva and elsewhere,
and was threatening to lead many among the Protestant adherents
astray, that it was found needful to emphasize the true and full
divinity of Christ, as a cardinal element in spiritual Christianity.
In the Catechism of Luther, we find only an abbreviation of the
doctrine of Nicsea, and in the Augsburg Confession (III) we have
simply an expanded statement of the Chalcedonian doctrine, fol
lowed immediately by the article (IV) on justification, in which
aU hope of obtaining forgiveness and righteousness before God
through personal powers, merits or works is renounced, and faith
in the death and legal satisfaction of Christ is presented, in dis
tinction from aU confidence in church or priest, as the true key to
acceptance with God. In the Formula of Concord (III) we find
an elaborate article on the righteousness of faith before God, in
which the true and full divinity of our Lord is described as the
ground of our justification, in contrast with certain papal and
other errors which are directly named and condemned. On this
point, as on justification itself, Luther and his immediate success
ors in Germany, Melancthon included, were essentially one.
The Calvinistic symbols, as might be anticipated from their
later date, were stiU more full and decisive in their affirmations.
Thus, the First Helvetic Conf. (XI) declares that Christ is our only
mediator, intercessor, sacrifice and high priest, our Lord also and
King, through whom by true and simple faith we receive
reconciliation, redemption, sanctification, expiation, wisdom, pro
tection and support, — a statement wholly unintelligible except on
the basis of belief in his true and proper divinity. In the Second

304 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR.
Helvetic Conf. we find an elaborate chapter, (XI) De Jesu Christo,
vero Deo et homine, unico mundi Salvatore: and on this unique
and only Savior, far above the priesthood and the church, we are
told to rest entirely for our salvation, all other hopes being spurned
and thrown away. The French Conf. is especially remarkable for
the fidelity and earnestness with which it describes the great
Mediator, the eternal Son of God, through whom we have access
to the Father, and from whom we hold or derive our life, as from
our chief or Head. The Scotch Conf. (VI-VII) expresses in a way
still more quaint and touching the necessity for acknowledging
this one Mediator, the only Son of God, our Head, our Brother,
our Pastor and the great Bishop of our souls. The Thirty-Nine
Articles declare (VIII), that the three ancient creeds ought
thoroughly to be received and believed, for that they may be
proved by certain warrants of holy Scripture; and in three other
articles (II-IV) that historic symbol sets forth the eternal bdng,
the incarnation, the two-fold nature, the life, suffering, death and
resurrection of our Lord in most explicit terms. So finaUy, do
the Irish Articles teach not only what Christ has wrought as our
Mediator, but also what he is as an eternal Person, of one and
the same substance, power and eternity with the Father, and there
fore truly and forever God.
In the Westminster Symbols taken in their entirety, we find a
completer description of Christ in his being, his personaHty human
and divine, his mission and offices and states whether of humilia
tion or of exaltation, than can be found in any of these preceding
creeds. Here the Christology of Protestantism reaches its full
and beautiful consummation. The Assembly had on one hand
the advantage derived from the study of all antecedent symbolism.
They were also stimulated by the presence of that Socinian or
humanitarian error which, having its original center in Geneva,
had spread through different countries on the Continent, and
even infected the British Isles with its malevolent influence. They
were also more familiar with those technical and philosophic modes
of stating Christian doctrine, which had come into vogue^during
the last half of the sixteenth and the earlier part of the seven
teenth century. Hence they present the Trinity in God (Ch. Ill)
with even excessive elaboration; and when in chapter VIII, they
describe the Mediator, they leave nothing unsaid that would help
us to apprehend their doctrine of him whom they set forth as the
second person in the Trinity, being very and eternal God, of one
substance and equal with the Father, the only begotten, the heir
of all things, and judge of the world. It is doubtful whether any

HIS PRE-KXISTENCE : ONLY BEGOTTEN. 305
chapter in the Confession, unless it be the first, Of the Holy Scrip
ture, or the nineteenth, Of the Law of God, equals this in breadth
and daborateness and spiritual impression. The description of
Christin the two Catechisms (L. C. 36-42: S. C. 21-22) empha
sizes what is taught so abundantlvin the Confession: and even in
the Form of Government and the Book of Discipline, the truth is
constantly flashing out either in technical statement or in illustra
tive reference or allusion. The Sum of Saving knowledge contains
much equally full and impressive teaching on this vital doctrine.
What a marvel it is in the psychology of unbelief, that any who
had once inteUigently comprehended and avowed their faith in this
series of symbolic testimonies, should ever have passed over and
downward, as English Presbyterianism did so largely in the eight
eenth century, into an unevangelic and profitless humanitarianism !
The first element in the confessional doctrine concerning Christ
is his eternal existence and eternal sonship. The eternity of God
as a being existing before all time or
.... j ii j • 2. Eternal existence as
space, aU matter, and aU created exis- ^ S(m Qf God. ^ ^^
fences or objects, has already been only begotten.
noted as a fundamental premise in
Christian theology. The eternal existence of God as triune, a
pecufiar mode of being which is internal and everlasting as well as
external, — exhibited especially in its relations to our salvation, —
has also been noted, and on biblical grounds justified, so far as it is
possible for the human mind to conceive of such a profound1 pecu
liarity. Both the helpfulness and the limitation and inadequacy
of the term, Person, to describe such a threefold mode or for m! of
existence, have also been sufficiently considered. It follows how
from what has thus been presented, not merely that Christ existed
in his divine personality before his incarnation, but also that there
was no beginning to his existence, — that as the second Person- in
the Godhead his Hfe before all time was as Hmitless in duration as
that of the Father, and that all that can be affirmed or conceived
respecting the eternity of God the Father, is also to be conceived
and affirmed respecting him. Thus the Confession describes hint
as being very and eternal God and equal with the Father, and living
in ineffable oneness with God the Father from all eternity. It also
represents the Son as engaged together with the Father and with
the Spirit in the primal work of creation, at the very beginning
of time. And the Larger Catechism (36-37) teaches that in the
fullness of time the Son became man, and so was qualified by such
assumption of humanity to become our Savior. The Shorter Cat
echism (20-21) contains language equally explicit.

306 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR.
The terms, begotten and only begotten, employed in the Symbols,
doubtless because of their use in a few instances in both the Old
and the New Testaments, and because they were viewed as correl
ative to the more frequent and more intelligible phrase, Son of
God, have been the subject of earnest discussion, and in some in
stances have given rise to positive error. When we are taught
(II:iii) that the Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceed
ing, while the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; and again
that it is proper, or peculiar, to the Father to beget the Son, and
to the Son to be begotten of the Father, and that this process is
eternal in duration, we are in some danger, first, of inferring with
some divines of the last century that the Son exists only by the
will of the Father, and consequently that, should the Father so
choose, the Son would instantly cease to be, and the trinity would
no longer be a fact in the divine constitution. We are in danger
of inferring, secondly, with ancient Arianism, that, since the Son
exists by the will of the begetting Father, there must have been
a time in the eternal past when this process began, and when the
Son consequently began to be, — a conclusion which would war
rant the inference that he was not truly and absolutely the Son of
God, but rather, as Arius held, the first-born of every creature.
It has also been inferred in other circles that these phrases imply,
if not derivation, at least such a measure of subordination, that
the Son can do only what the Father wills, and is in that sense
and degree inferior — consequently divine, but not complete deity.
It is obvious at a glance that all such interpretations are to be
carefully excluded: begetting and begotten, whatever the terms
signify, are not processes which justify these or any kindred con
clusions. The language does not imply either a creation of the
Son by the Father, or a beginning of existence in some past era
of eternity, or any inferiority of nature or endowment, or any
species of dependence that would be inconsistent with full and
absolute ddty. An illustration drawn as this is from the narrow
realm of human experience, and one in its own nature so incon
ceivable, is always in danger of being pressed beyond its legiti
mate boundaries. It should indeed never be forgotten, that
whatever is expressed concerning the triune God in the terms
of humanity or of nature, either at this point or elsewhere, must
fall immeasurably short of describing the sublime reality.
The confessional statement that the Son is the same in sub
stance with the Father, and equal in power and glory and in every
attribute of his being, contains all that we can know on this
recondite theme. Accepting the statement as final, we may still

THE ETERNAL SON OF GOD. 307
inquire whether the name given him indicates an immanent and
eternal relationship, or only a relation assumed in time, and in the
interest of redemption; — in other words, whether the second per
son in the blessed Trinity, existing from eternity, was always a
Son, or became a Son only in and through his incarnation and his
Messiahship. The Symbols follow the general trend of Scripture
in speaking of Christ as eternally a Son, and the general argument
for an internal and eternal Trinity seems to involve or include
such eternal sonship. If the conception be not pushed too far in
the direction just indicated, it is safer to rest in it than to expose
our faith in the full ddty of the Son to any errors that might
spring from the dogma of a merely temporary sonship. Still,
inasmuch as the procession of the Spirit from the Father, or from
both Father and Son, is to our apprehension a procession in time,
a procession planned indeed from all eternity but becoming a fact
only in time and in conjunction with the great work of human
salvation, we shaH not be seriously astray if with all proper pre
caution we think of the sonship also as chiefly an event of time, —
an event eternaUy contemplated, and thus eternally existent in
the divine Mind, but becoming real and glorious in and through
the historic incarnation.
The grand fact to be noted here is the existence of Christ as the
Son of God before that incarnation — his pre-existence, not as a
creature, but as divine from aU eternity. It was proper for him to
say that he existed before Abraham, and by implication before all
the patriarchs, even Noah or Adam, not as a prophecy or a promise
merely, but as a real person also. The beloved John justly
dedares that he was in the beginning with God and was God, and
that all things were made by or through him as their instrumental
cause. What proportion of the theophanies recorded in the Pen
tateuch and elsewhere were his antetypal revelations of himself,
we are not able absolutely to determine. That some, if not many,
were actual though transient utterances of the eternal Logos,
given by way of preparation for the more durable incarnation that
was to follow, we are led by distinct biblical evidence to believe.
The messianic prophecies in the Old Testament, the shekinah and
cherubim and other preternatural manifestations in connection
with the Mosaic economy, disclose to us not merely a Savior that
was to be, but a Savior who truly was before Abraham, before
Noah, before Adam, and who even during the tragedy of the fall
revealed himself as that seed of the woman who should in time
bruise the head of the serpent. The prophetic order also, with
its remarkable characteristics and career, may properly be regarded

308 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR.
as so many voices in the wilderness, certifying to the existence in
its time of One who was from the days of Moses its appointed
head and crown— an ever present Prophet during that preparatory
dispensation. What we are taught in regard to the decrees of
God as before all time, and to the special decree of salvation as
determined before the foundation of the world, clearly imply that
there was also an eternal Savior, existing not merely as a purpose,
but as a fact as old as these decrees. On such grounds it may safely
be affirmed that the incarnation of that Savior, although it was
the chronologic beginning of his kenosis or humiliation, was only
the more visible and permanent manifestation of a process which
began its sacred evolution in eternity. Such is the clear teaching
of Scripture and of Christian symbolism universally, respecting
the Son as pre-incarnate: and on this impregnable rock all merely
humanitarian views of him must be dashed into fragments.
Turning therefore to the incarnation, we are brought at once face
to face with certain questions of inconceivable moment. The
. _ T ., .t Symbols teach unequivocally (S. C.
3. The Incarnation: its f  . . , „ , „ „
necessity and nature. 21~2) that thls eternal Son of God
became man, and that he became man
by taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul; and; also (L-
C. 36) that this was done in the fullness of time, or in accordance
with an everlasting purpose and provision. And the Confession
(Ch. VIII : ii) expands the statement by saying' that the Son took
upon him mart s nature, with all the essential properties and common
infirmities thereof, yet without sin. The fact thus stated is in
some sense ineffable. There were doubtless interior reasons in
the mind of the triune Deity, justifying and requiring- such an incar
nation, which we are in no degree competent to fathom or concdve::
here as at so many other points, God is his own interpreter. That
a sufficient and even imperative necessity really existed; though
such necessity were altogether unknown to us, may be inferred
from the fact of an incarnation historically realized. It has been
held by some that such is the relation between the infinite and the
finite, that the finite can attain practical cognizance of the infinite
only as God may condescend to take on him the forms and appear
under the limitations of the finite. On this theory it is supposed
that there may be incarnations in other worlds, suited to the
spiritual need of angels and archangels, or of other orders of
moral intelligences differentiated in endowment and condition from
man. By others it is suggested that the necessity for a divine
incarnation lies specifically in what man is, as a being composed of
soul and body, and thus capable of comprehending divine realities.

HIS INCARNATION. 309
only as these are cast into human form and aspect. But the
Scriptures, so far as they explain the incarnation, find the expla
nation rather in what man is, not as man, but as a sinner, — the
ultimate ground and need in the case lying specifically in human
sinfulness and helplessness, and in the divine purpose of deliver
ance. Incarnation and salvation are on this view correlated
terms — the first being an introductory and essential element in
the great redemptive act expressed in the second: Smith, H. B.,
Syst. Theol.
Those who refuse to accept the doctrine of the true and proper
divinity of Christ as the eternal Son of God, are constrained to
affirm that no incarnation of Deity is necessary to the spiritual
renovation or development of man, — in other words, that God is
abundantly able through natural appliances and motives to secure
this great end without himself assuming human form or becom
ing a man — to use the Nicene phrase — for us men and for our salva
tion. But a deeper and more accurate view of human nature as
sinful, and of mankind as both corrupt and condemned before God,
leads spontaneously to the opposite conclusion. Calvin suggests,
(Inst. B 11:12) that even if man had remained immaculately inno
cent, some incarnation might have been needful to bring him into
full communication with God, but affirms that as sinful, man
could not dare to approach God excepting through an incarnated
mediator such as Christ. Whatever may be said as to any meta
physical or speculative necessity existing on the side of either
God or man, there can be no adequate reason for challenging the
moral or spiritual necessity in the case which grows out of what
man is as a sinner, blinded, corrupt, helpless before God. At this
practical point Christian symbolism, Roman and Greek as weU as
Protestant, is absolutely unified.
The Confession (Ch. VIII) simply declares that it pleased God
that such an incarnate Mediator should be provided; and then
points to the reason contained in the fact that no other than an
incarnate Mediator, divine first and then human, could be ade
quate to accomplish the great end in view, namely human salva
tion. The Larger Catechism at this point as at many others is
more explicit than the Confession, giving a series of reasons (38)
why it was requisite that the Mediator should be God; then (39)
further reasons why he should be man; and finally (40) still
further reasons why he should be both God and man in one per
son. We can readily see how such an assumption of humanity
was needful in order to bring God practically within the range of
human thought, and especially to express divine grace in such forms

310 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR.
as man in his sin could apprehend and appreciate. It was only in
this way that God could adequately set forth his abhorrence of
sin, and at the same time his gracious desire to save the sinner; it
was only in this way that the heart of man could be reached, and
the race tenderly drawn back to duty and to God. In no other
way could access to God and filial communion with him be as
sured, and in no other way could man learn so well what moral
perfection is, and how it may be gained. The more we meditate
upon it, the more necessary on many sides such an incarnate
mediation appears, and the more sublime becomes the apostolic
declaration that He who was with God and was God, became flesh
and dwelt among us, that we might in him behold the glory of
the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
There is a certain presumption in favor of the incarnation in the
fact that conceptions of such a descent of deity into the sphere of
humanity for beneficent purposes, have been held, often in grotesque
and sensuous forms, throughout the pagan world. Such concep
tions have revealed themselves so often in the great natural faiths,
oriental and classic, and in the writings of the wisest and best
representatives of heathenism, as to justify the inference that
there is in human nature itself, not only a deeply seated sense of
need, but a half conscious anticipation of some such bright possi
bility. But Christianity alone responds conclusively to this uni
versal desire. The fact of such an incarnation is adequately
certified only in the Bible. On the earthly side of it, the birth
of Jesus Christ, as recorded by the four evangelists and as af
firmed by the early Church, seems as capable of verification as the
birth of any other person in ancient times. Even secular history,
and the writings of those who opposed him and his Gospel, con
firm our belief in the authenticity of the records concerning his
actual entry on our earthly Hfe. Neither is there just ground for
questioning the truthfulness of the evangelic statements respect
ing the supernatural accompaniments of his birth, such as the
star in the east and the songs of the angels, since to one who
believes in a personal Deity, complete in every attribute and sov
ereign over the universe which he has made — in such a personal
Deity, animated by a holy and gracious purpose to save our fallen
race, and ready to manifest that purpose even by an incarnation
of himself in human form and nature, these preternatural manifes
tations must seem not only possible in themselves, but concomi
tants to be expected and looked for, as sure witnesses to the great
process to which they are summoned to certify. Such manifesta
tions in the field of nature and of human experience are certainly

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE INCARNATION. 311
admissible in connection with such a transaction, if indeed they are
not indispensable to its proper completeness. Like miracle and
prophecy, they are true witnesses divinely chosen to testify to the
world that an Immanuel has come to dwell among men.
The question whether God ever reveals or can reveal himself to
mankind by processes above nature, — whether that doctrine of the
supernatural on which Christianity is
-, . ,, , . . ,. , 4. Significance of the in-
fundamentally based, has any rational carnaHosn . ^ Kmos^
warrant, reaches its culmination in the
problem of the incarnated Son of God. If it could be shown that God
cannot avail himsdf of such supernatural modes of communicat
ing truth, or that any such communication if given cannot be his-
toricaUy verified, not only our faith in Christ as a person, but our
confidence in the Christian system throughout, would be fatally
impaired. If on the other hand, the fact of the incarnation can
be not only shown to be possible, but established on reasona
ble grounds, then the doors of the supernatural are thrown open,
and God is indeed with us in aU the forms and measures needful
to our complete restoration to himself. The truth of the incar
nation, Hke the truth of the resurrection, becomes in this aspect
the verifying sign and assurance of every other truth that is pe
culiar to Christianity as a supernatural faith. On the other hand,
if the incarnation were an iUusion, as unbelief in so many forms
has aHeged, Christianity with all it contains would be but a vision
of the night.
It has already been stated thatin the acceptance of this cardinal
doctrine, the various branches of evangelical Protestantism not
only agree together, but are in substantial harmony with both the
Roman CathoHc and the Greek communion. The earliest of the
Christian creeds, with its affirmation concerning the Father,
Maker of heaven and earth, and concerning Jesus Christ, his only
Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of
the Virgin Mary, embodies the common confession of all believ
ers, except the relatively small humanitarian bodies. The Canons
of Trent and the Vatican Decrees presuppose throughout the
eternal existence of him whom one of them describes as our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Redeemer of Mankind. So the
Orthodox Confession of the Catholic and Apostolic Oriental
Church, drafted and published while the Westminster Assembly
was in session, speaks of Christ (Quest. 9) as FiHum a Patre ante
secula genitum, illique consubstantialem; and again (Quest. 38)
repeats and explains the article in the Nicene Creed, — who for
us men and for our salvation descended, became incarnate, and

312 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR.
was made a man. Luther and his followers were unvarying in
their loyalty to this as a truth fundamental in the Christian reli
gion; and Calvin, in the presence of the Genevan Socinianism, was
even more emphatic in the same belief. The French Confession,
prepared under his influence, may be taken as typical of all: We
bdieve that Jesus Christ, being the wisdom of God and his
eternal Son, has put on our flesh so as to be God and man in one
person, — man like unto us, capable of suffering in body and soul,
yet free from the taint of sin.
But while the fact of the incarnation was thus viewed as fun
damental, — while the entire structure of Protestant theology
whether Calvinistic or Lutheran was reared on this as an essential
and impregnable foundation, it was natural that many speculative
questions should arise in regard to this mysterious transaction.
Thus, when we are taught in Scripture that our Lord, being in
the form of God and counting it no prize to be on. an equality with
God, emptied himself in order that he might assume the form
and likeness of men, what was this emptying of himself, this
kenosis, in which his estate of humiliation began ? The biblical
pfirase evidently describes a process which stands chronologically
back of the historic incarnation itself, and is its necessary ground
and condition: what was this process ? Did it involve an actual
depotentiation or renunciation, such that the incarnate Son no
longer possessed the attributes of Deity ? Did he become a man
in any such sense or measure as to lose for the time the conscious
ness of his true and proper divinity ? Did he cease to be very God
of very God, in taking on himself the aspect and the conditions
of our humanity ? Was the abnegation such that he lost in fact
any quality or constituent, that belonged to him essentially in that
eternity from which he came and dwelt among us in order that we
might behold his glory ? There is great danger that such specu
lative questions may be pushed too far, — especially at the point
where they tend to impair on one side or another our sense of the
perfect mediatorship. A mysterious submission of the Son to the
will of the Father, a certain subordination in position and choice
and act, seems to be involved in the very idea of mediation, and
also to be of necessity consequent on his surrendery to the limita
tions of our nature and of our narrow life. In some of his words
and experiences there appears also what we are constrained to
interpret as a partial or occasional'suspension, in the exercise of
those attributes and perfections which belonged to him as divine.
But assuredly we are not permitted to suppose that he gave up such
divine attributes, or surrendered any of his divine perfections.

TWO NATURES IN ONE PERSON. 313
or was any less or any other than God during his Messiahship.
Our Lord could not have laid aside anything that belonged
inherently to his divine personality, or dispossessed himself of any
essential quality in his divine nature, or carried his abnegation of
himself to such extent as to lose his consdous grasp upon his true
and proper divinity. We certainly have no right to extend so far
our analysis of his constitutional peculiarities, as a being at once
divine and human, as to warrant any such conclusions as these.
Dorner (Hist. Prot. Theol.) dedares it a heathenish error, a
blasphemia, to say that the Logos himself was emptied, or that
Jesus had even according to his divinity laid aside his power and
majesty, in order to receive them again in the estate of exaltation.
Strange indeed and on many sides inexplicable was the contrast
between what he was eternally, and what he became when for our
salvation he took upon himself our nature and became a man.
Yet this marvelous kenosis which historically began in Bethlehem,
but was continuous throughout his career, and ended only on
Calvary and in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, is with all its
sacred mystery one of the fundamental truths in our holy faith —
a truth back of the incarnation and all that follows in the earthly
life, yet illustrated throughout that life, even down to its tragic
close. That Christian theology of all schools and names should
agree in emphasizing this cardinal though mysterious fact, how
ever various or even discordant in their measurements and expla
nations of it, is not surprising to any thoughtful student of the
Book wherein it is so emphatically and continuously affirmed.
Taking up now the confessional statements respecting the two
natures in the one person of the Immanuel, we enter at once upon
grave perplexities. The statement of
the Confession (VIII : ii) is the most s- Two natures and one
„ , . _ person, constituting the
elaborate to be found in Protestant sym- i^^^^^^x
bolism. It has been questioned whether
it is not too elaborate, too highly specialized, for practical service
in a general creed. It is noticeable, however, that the Westmin
ster divines did not care to use all the abstract and cumulative
¦language of the Athanasian or even the Nicene symbol in such
description. They seem to have preferred the calmer and more
philosophic statement of the Council of Chalcedon; and some of
the phrases employed, as we shall see, are simply translations of
the terminology of that ancient formula. The Reformation creeds,
while agreed in the distinct enunciation of the doctrine, vary
widely in the extent of their analysis and exposition. Some
follow the Catechism of Luther in the simple affirmation that

314 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR.
Christ was true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and
also true man, born of the virgin Mary. The Formula of Concord
not only declares (Art. Ill), Christ to be true God and true man,
but adds the explanation that in him the divine and human natures
are personally (personaliter) united. The Heidelberg Catechism
(35) affirms that Christ was and continues to be the eternal Son
of God, but took upon him the very nature of man, of the flesh
and blood of the virgin Mary ... so that he might also be the
true seed of David. Similar explanations occur in the First
Helvetic, the French, the Belgic and the Scotch Confessions, while
in the Second Helvetic we find an entire chapter concerning Christ,
Vero Deo et Homine, with a specific condemnation of the various
heresies, all and singular, which up to that time had been broached
on this subject within the Christian Church.
It has already been said that the union of the divine and the
human in the incarnation is, and must forever remain, in some
aspects an ineffable mystery. The term, nature, as here employed
indicates on the one side that which is substantial or constitutional
in God as the absolute Spirit, — that which makes him essentially
what he is, as differentiated from any of his creatures. As ap
plied to man, the term must retain the same or very similar mean
ing, — that which is essential or inherent in man as a being, and
which differentiates him from other orders of existence. And if
we speak, of two natures, the divine and the human, as combined or
blended in Christ, we must hold, not with ancient Eutychianism
that the human nature is simply absorbed or lost in the divine as
a drop of water in the" ocean, nor with some recent kenotists that
the divine nature loses itself, suffers occultation, becomes alto
gether limited and finite, in virtue of its blending with the human;
but rather that the two natures are in some way so conjoined and
unified as to become the unique and single basis for the one pecu
liar Personality. The Confession emphasizes the presence of the
human nature in the strong phrase, with all the essential properties
and common infirmities (or finite limitations) thereof, yet without
sin. But it gives no countenance to the opinion that by its union
with such human nature the divine nature, inherent eternally in
Christ and constituting him what he was as the very Son of God,
was in any way impaired, depotentiated, lost. Rather is it true
that, while the divine condescends to be blended with the human,
and to share in its essential properties and limitations, the human
is also lifted up, glorified, endowed with more than its normal en
ergy and completeness, in virtue of that union. The man Christ
Jesus was certainly more and loftier than any mortal man. As

MYSTERY OF HIS PERSON. 315
Hooker says, the incarnation of the Son of God consisteth merely
in the union of natures, which union doth add perfection to the
weaker, but to the nobler no alteration at all.
The Council of Chalcedon had gone to the outer verge of both
thought and language in the affirmation that the two natures are
to be recognized and acknowledged as existing in Christ inconfus-
edly, unchangeably, indivisibly and inseparably, — the distinction of
natures bdng by no means taken away or obliterated by the union,
but rather the properties of each nature being fully preserved and
manifested within the one personality. And the Westminster
divines foUowed this andent symbol almost literally in their
description, (VIII :ii) of two whole, perfect and distinct natures, the
Godhead and the manhood, inseparably joined together in one
person, without conversion, composition or confusion. They thus
guarded, so far as human language could guard, against certain
errors which have existed in the church from the age of Chalce
don until now, — errors affirming the too wide separation of the
two natures on one side, or the obliteration or ignoring of either
nature on the other. May it not be that in this attempt to go farther
than any preceding Confession of Protestantism had done, and
to supply a complete definition and analysis, they fell into the mis
take of supposing it possible for the mind of man to solve the
mystery, not merely of the incarnation itself as a gracious fact,
but also of the mode in which the Son of God for our salvation
became man, and took upon him the essential qualities of human
ity in the person of the Immanuel ?
That mystery comes back upon us at once with even greater
force whenever we attempt to define the other crucial term, person.
For it was not simply a divine nature assuming a human nature,
but a divine Person who descended and dwelt among us, assuming
in the language of the Catechisms not only a true body but also a
reasonable soul. It was not the body only, but also the reasona
ble or thinking and conscious soul of Jesus of Nazareth, which the
second person in the Holy Trinity thus inhabited. The divine
inteUect resided and expressed itself in and through the human
intellect; the divine sensibility flowed in and through the human
sensibility; the divine will acted in and through the human will,
as truly and really as the divine essence incarnated itself in the
physical organism of our Lord. Yet this combination was not, as
ancient Nestorianism regarded it, a moral union merely, — two
persons, the one divine and the other human, agreeing to dwell
together in holy concord, and to act together in all that concerns
salvation. We have here, in other words, more than a God and a

316 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR.
man in blessed companionship, each moving in his own sphere and
measure independently, but both conjoined in complete harmony in
the common task of human salvation. The divine person did not
take to himself an individual human person simply, but that na
ture which belongs alike to all human persons: the opposite view
involves inevitably a dual personality which would be neither divine
nor human.
Nor can we accept the singular notion so long sporadically
present in the mediaeval church, that Christ was simply a Films
Adoptivus, a man chosen or adopted to be the medium of the divine
manifestation, and endowed to this end with preternatural and
even divine powers and prerogatives, — a certain form of sonship
included. The conception of a man thus endued with divine ca-
padties and prerogatives, and in this way devated into vital union
with God, is radically antagonistic to the biblical view of the Son
of God as robing himself in human nature and, in the phrase of
the Confession, becoming man. Nor was this union such that we
may properly attribute to Christ two intellects, or two wins, or
two separate consciousnesses, or on the ZwingHan theory of
allaosis divide his acts into two antithetic classes, or assign them
exclusively to either of his natures as separate. Against that the
ory the Confession seeks to guard us in the statement (VIII : vii)
that in the work of mediation Christ acteth according to both na
tures, each nature doing in each act what is proper to itself; and
in the further statement that by reason of the unity of the
one person, that which is proper to one nature is sometimes
in Scripture attributed to the person denominated by the other
nature. While this statement is perhaps not all that might
be desired, it is sufficient to protect our minds against any
such analysis of the acts of Christ as might suggest the error
of a double personality as resident in him. The mysterious yet
sublime fact is that the divine Person condescended to put him
self under the limitations, not merely of an actual body, but of a
reasonable soul also, so that we see in all his acts as our Mediator
not man only or mainly, but God with us, Immanuel. Nor can
any inferences be wisely drawn from his eating or sleeping, his ap
parent increase in wisdom, his supposed limitations of knowledge
respecting the future, or even his agony in Gethsemane or his out
cry on the Cross, which would lead us to lose our belief that he
was at each and every moment of his life conscious of the
supreme truth that he was indeed the Son of God, as well as our
one and only Mediator. To this conception of one Person, and that
Person truly divine, inhabiting our human nature physical and

ERRORS TO BE AVOIDED. 317
spiritual, and revealing himself alike in both, we must ever cling
as a truth cardinal in the Christian system.
Protestant symbolism defined its own position on this cardinal
doctrine very largely by its condemnation of this or that specific
error respecting the nature or the per-
r ., T . ^, t. , „ 6. Error on either side to
son of the Immanuel. The French Con- ^ ^^ . Composit£ ylew
fession unites with Calvin himself in essential.
saying : We detest all the heresies
that have of old troubled the church, and especially the diabolical
conceits of Servetus which attribute a fantastical divinity to
the Lord Jesus. The Scotch Confession, after describing our
Lord as the seed of David, the Angel of the great counsel of God,
the very Messias promised, whom we confess and acknowledge
Emmanuel, adds: Be quilk our Confessioun we condemne the
damnable and pestilent heresies of Arius, Marcion, Eutyches,
Nestorius, and sik uthers as either did denie the eternitie of his
God-head, or the veritie of his humaine nature, or confounded
them, or zit divided them. And the Second Belgic Confession
still more elaborately declares: We abominate the impious doc
trine of Arius and the Arians against the Son of God, and espec-
iaUy the blasphemies of Michael Servetus and all his disciples,
which Satan through them has as it were drawn from hell, and
audadously and impiously scattered through the earth: We abom
inate the dogma of the Nestorians which makes two persons of
the one Christ, and especially execrate the insanity (vesania) of
Eutyches and the Monothehtes and Monophysites, which wars
against his true and proper human nature.
The Westminster Symbols indulge in no such damnatory dec
larations, but aim by express terminology and careful discrimina
tion to rule out the particular heresies which the earlier Confessions
had so emphatically condemned. These heresies are easily grouped
into three classes; — the first setting aside, as ancient Monarchian-
ism and certain Gnostic and Docetic schools and Apollinarianism
also did, the complete human element in Christ; — the second
rejecting the divine element in its proper fullness, as Arius and
the Sabellians and their cognate errorists did; — the third, proposing
some superficial and inadequate statement as to the combination
of these two elements in the one Person with his twofold nature,
at once Son of God and Son of man. And contemplating these
three clusters of heresy in the light of Scripture, we at once
discern not only their inadequacy as explanations of the biblical
teaching, but also their dangerous quality and influence when used
to set forth the work as well as the person of our Immanuel. In

318 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR.
that blessed light it seems impossible to question, with modern
Unitarianism, whether Christ was truly God manifest in the flesh,
and no less impossible to question, as some theorists have done,
whether he was an actual, not an apparitional or spectral man,
our veritable brother and thus made our adequate Redeemer.
Nor under the guidance of the revealing Word can we find rest
in the conclusion .that he was a man in part only, having body and
soul but no human spirit, or that he was a duplex being, a divine
person and a human person acting together for our salvation, yet
in an interior sense separate or dependent. In the light of the
inspired Scriptures these opinions each and all appear not only
inadequate and partial, but erroneous and fraught with spiritual
mischiefs. It may safely be admitted, however, that we have here an illus
tration of the fact that it is often much easier to rule out an error
when once fairly understood, than to formulate in sufficient exact
ness the divine truth to which that error stands opposed. We
may protect ourselves against spiritual harm by the elimination
of a perceptible heresy, while at the same time we*may be unable
to define to our own mental satisfaction the antithetic doctrine to
which our souls are earnestly clinging. We have also here a very
graphic and painful illustration of the fact that it is much easier
to interpret the teaching of Scripture on such recondite themes in
a fragmentary way rather than in its totality, and then to frame a
statement based on certain passages or sections of Holy Writ,
meanwhile ignoring other sections or passages whose recognition
is no less indispensable to a full and rounded view of the truth
involved. It is an obvious fact that nearly every heresy which has
ever risen in the Church respecting the person of our Lord, has
sprung from some biblical expression, — as that of Arius sprang
from the Pauline phrase, the first-born of every creature. Our
supreme task and duty therefore, here as elsewhere, is to gather
up the entire teaching of the inspired Word, and to formulate the
truth, if at all, in a statement or canon which the entire Word will
justify. No other course is consistent with true loyalty either to
Scripture or to Him who gave it to be the light as well as life of
men. And if in the interpretation of the Word, or in the use
of such occult terms as nature and person to describe its complete
teaching respecting the Immanuel, we find ourselves confronted
at some points with impenetrable mystery, it is infinitely better to
pause and bow in holy reverence, than to seek relief from the
pressure of that mystery by framing some inadequate and innu-
tritious dogma for ourselves, out of what we may gather from

MEDIATION : NATURE AND NECESSITY. 319
some section or fragment of the Bible. It surely takes away
nothing from the supreme reasonableness of our trust in Christ,
or from our joy in him as our only and adorable Savior, if we do
not comprehend him in all the interior elements and the organic
composition of his sacred Person.
Before proceeding to the study of the Immanuel in his blessed
offices as Mediator, as this chapter (VIII) describes him, it will
be essential to consider briefly the f un-
damental idea of mediation itself. The ?• Mediation: its nature
... , and necessity.
term signifies m general any interven
tion between parties at variance, for the purpose of adjusting
difficulty or effecting reconciliation. This intervention is always
a personal act in one form or another, though varying widely in
its manifestations. It may be undertaken with the consent of both
parties at variance, or of one only, or in some instances where
neither party desires such intervention. It may vary in extent
also, according to the nature and amount of the disagreement to
be adjusted. It may be accomplished in various ways, whether
by personal influence and persuasion, or by acts or measures calcu
lated to satisfy or conciliate one or both of' the alienated parties.
Illustrations frequently occur in common life, in which through
such mediation those who have been averse or hostile, have been
brought together and reconciled. Other illustrations occur from
time to time where nations which have been at variance respecting
certain rights or interests, and perhaps have sought to maintain
their several prerogatives through the test of actual warfare, have
submitted the issue at stake to the arbitrament of other nations,
and by such intervention have become reconciled. In a modified
form, mediation appears in cases where, when a person has com
mitted some offense against law, an intervening person becomes
an advocate, in order to secure acquittal or some melioration
of penalty, or an intercessor to plead for the pardon of one con
victed of crime. Still another modified form appears in cases
where one man becomes a surety or bondsman for another, or
provides for the payment of a debt which the party arraigned is
unable to meet. The Bible in fact employs most of these illus
trations drawn from human life, to set forth that gracious inter
vention which Christ has undertaken. The abundance and variety
of such examples deserve to be carefully noted, since all are
designed and grouped to bring into clearer light that mediating
work of Christ on which all our hopes of salvation rest.
The necessity for such mediation lies, not in what man is as man,

320 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR.
but in what man is as a sinner, alienated from God and in danger
of perishing forever in that alienation, unless some gracious inter
vention shall occur. If man were not sinful, there would be no
such alienation, and therefore no need of a Mediator: it is human
sin which creates that necessity. Viewed as a transgression or
neglect of divine law, as revolt against the divine authority, as an
enthronement of self in the place of God, sin at once impels the
soul away from God and constrains it to a separate, rebellious life.
The sinner, like Adam and Eve, shrinks from contact with Deity,
and instinctively hides himself from the divine presence. He also
passes by an inevitable process from one stage of indulgence and
hostility to another and, if left to himself, would continue — so far
as we can see — in his separation and his alienation forever. Were
God to bestow his providential mercies continually, and to mani
fest in no way his disapproval of the sin, return to the allegiance
and obedience due him would still become less and less probable, —
less and less possible. There might be occasional conviction,
some pangs of remorse, a degree of terror in the contemplation of
such a downward and destructive course, but the alienation would
continue, and the dark and dreadful revolt go on in the sinful
breast eternally.
But such a process also involves of necessity, not a like afiena-
tion or abhorrence on the part of God, but a progressive with
drawal of his countenance and favor, and a gradual separation
from the sinner, such as a just parent would be compelled to mani
fest in the case of a disobedient child. God might not cease to
love the transgressor, but he could not equitably treat him as if
he had never transgressed. He could not regard him with that
love of complacency, as it has been called, with which he con
templates the holy angels, or the sanctified in glory, or the true
saint on earth. He might pity, might exercise true Compassion
and patience, but he could not act as if he were indifferent to the
sin, or treat the sinner as if he were worthy. The paternal face
must be hid in a measure from the offender; the sovereign must
frown upon the rebel; the judge must manifest his purpose to con
vict and condemn. The violated law must utter its voice of re
buke and warning; the alienation on the part of God must
assume a judicial as well as personal aspect. All the relationships
between the parties must of necessity be changed and deranged-
more and more changed and deranged as the process of evil goes
on. And unless some adequate intervention can be brought in,
this derangement of relationship, like the evil inwrpught into the
sinful character, must continue forever.

MEDIATION : ITS TWO-FOLD OBJECT. 321
The mediatorial intervention provided must thus be twofold in
its effect, internal and external: — a change in the temper and pur
pose must be wrought, as well as a change in the relations into
which the sin of man has brought both parties. What is needed
first of all is such a spiritual transformation of the sinner himself
as shall both incline him to return to God in loving devotion, and
justify God in wdcoming him back to the divine embrace and ser
vice. The salvation needed must begin with and in this interior
transformation. The soul must first of all be brought through
grace into the exercise of those emotions, and the willing per
formance of those duties, which God has a right to claim. It
must be admitted that the Symbols dwell more emphatically on the
exterior change which the mediation of Christ seeks to induce, as
the antecedent Protestant creeds had already done. In other
words, they contemplate the objective more than the subjective
side of this mediatorial work, — what Christ does for us in the re
storing of these disordered rdationships, rather than what he does
within us in the restoration of our corrupted nature to a state of love
and hoHness. The Heidelberg Catechism has been regarded with
some justice as an exception to this general tendency in the Protest"
antism of the sixteenth century. But if we turn to the other creeds,
such as the Helvetic, or the French, we shall find many,eviden->
ces of the opposite fact. It was indeed one of the acu test charges
of Romanism against the Protestantism of that century, that it
had separated too widely our justification and our sanctification.
through Christ and, while exalting justification unduly, had lost
sight of that interior work within the soul itself which the term,;
sanctification, describes. In more recent times the same allegation;
in substance has been made, not wholly without warrant, by
Lutheranism against Calvinism, — since the latter type of theology (
foUowing its great leader, has always laid special, perhaps
extreme, stress on what has just been termed the objective side
of salvation.
It wiU be needful to recur again in another connection to this
interesting query. But for the present it is sufficient to note, that
mediation in such a case as this must cover the whole matter in,
issue, — must be such as will secure a radical change, both in the
relationships subsisting between God as Sovereign and Father,
Lawgiver and Judge, and the offending and criminal sinner, and
also in the heart of that sinner and in the feeling with which God
will regard and deal with him. Cudworth forcibly stated the com
plex truth in his declaration, (Sermon before Parliament, ) that
Christ came into the world as well to redeem us from the power

322 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR.
and bondage of our sins as to free us from the guilt of them. The
end of the Gospel, he adds, is life and perfection,— to make us
partakers of the image of God in righteousness and true holiness,
without which salvation itself were but a notion. There must be
no part of the malady introduced by sin which that mediation
wUl not prove itself effectual to cure, no conflict which it cannot
sooth to repose, no alienation which it cannot transform into love
and amity, and an eternal union of the renewed soul with its
reconciled God. So the Confession declares ( VIII :i) that through
Christ sinners are redeemed, called, justified, sanctified and glorified;
and in the list of the benefits of such mediation, given in the
Larger Catechism, (57, et seq) we find all that is requisite subject
ively as well as objectively to complete salvation.
Here we may return to the contemplation of Him whom we have
learned to regard as God with us, in this specific work of mediation.
What he has done in other spheres such
8. Christ as Mediator: his ag creation or providential administra-
<malifications : official ap- . , f. . •, . ,_•
©ointment n' neec^ not here be considered: his
gracious and glorious mediation should
for the time command our entire interest. It is a fine illustration
of the broad intellectual range of the Westminster divines and of
their skill in language, that they styled this chapter, one of the
most remarkable in the entire Confession, not a chapter on Christ
as Son of God or Son of man, neither on Christ the Savior or Re
deemer, Prophet or Priest or King, but on Christ the Mediator, —
the Mediator who, standing between God and man, and recogniz
ing their variance as induced by sin, took upon himself the mighty
task of removing all hindrances, satisfying aU just demands, ex
pressing all needful feeling, showing forth all requisite grace, and
thu&actually securing an instant, a perfect, an everlasting recon
ciliation between God and every truly penitent sinner, not in one
land or age but for all lands and all times.
The term, Mediator, is indeed frequently found, though with
less exact and comprehensive meaning, in several antecedent
creeds. Zwingli in his Articles (19) declares Christ the only Me
diator (ein einiger Mittler) between God and man. The First
Helvetic Conf. describes him as sole mediator, intercessor, surety,
and at the same time priest and lord, and our king. The Second
Helvetic devotes a chapter (V) to the unicum mediatorem: sufficit
nobis Deus et mediator Christus. The Catechism of Heidelberg
confesses (36) that he is our Mediator, who with hisinnocence and
perfect holiness covers (or covers over) in the sight of God the
sins which we have committed. The French Conf. (XIX)

HIS QUALIFICATIONS, INHERENT AND OFFICIAL. 323
declares that we should have no access to the Father except
through this Mediator and advocate; the Belgic Conf. (XXVI)
says that this Mediator whom the Father hath appointed between
him and us, ought in no wise to affright us by his majesty, or
cause us to seek another according to our fancy; and the Scotch
Confession teaches (VIII) that in assuming our nature Christ be
came our Mediator, while the Irish Articles contain the exact
heading, Of Christ the Mediator, which we have found in the
Westminster Confession.
That Christ as Immanuel had all the inherent and all the official
qualifications requisite to the accomplishment of a task so mighty,
so subhme as this mediation between God and man, the Symbols
abundantly teach us. At no point do they appeal more frequently
or carefully to Holy Scripture, realizing both how fundamental
the doctrine must ever be in Christian theology, and how vital the
truth is in all evangelical and saving experience. Their loving
portrayal of him whom they set forth as the one and only Medi
ator is so fuH and exact, so warm and glowing in its tone, so
powerful in its condusiveness, as to leave little more to be desired.
His inherent quaHfications appear in his divine personality, his
true humanity, and his entire sinlessness — the last as essential as
each of the preceding. The quality of absolute sinlessness in
Christ is everywhere in Protestant symbolism insisted upon; — as
in the Thirty-Nine Articles (XV) , where it is said that Christ in
the truth of our nature (veritate) was made like unto us in all
things, sin only except, from which he was clearly void, both in
his flesh and in his spirit. His official qualifications are seen in
his appointment by the Father to this service, in his voluntary
assumption of the mediatorial office, and in his acceptableness on
the part of both God and man, — so far as sinful man consents to
any such gracious intervention. The Confession (VIII : iii) de
scribes his endowments specifically, as one sanctified and anointed,
having all treasures of wisdom and knowledge, all fullness dwelling
in him, holy and harmless and'undefiled, and full of grace and
truth, in order that he might be thoroughly furnished to execute the
office of a Mediator. And it adds the further fact that he took not
this office on himself, but was thereunto called by his Father, who
put all power and judgment into his hand. The Larger Catechism
(38-40) proceeds further to give a series of specific reasons why he
should be both God and man in one person, in order that he might
possess all the qualifications, inherent and official, requisite in this
mediatorship, and affirms that he was fully furnished with all
authority and ability for that transcendent service. The absolute

324 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR.
fitness of Christ at every point for the unique function of media
tion is assumed again and again elsewhere in the Symbols,— as in
the Original Directory for Worship, where prayer is justified and
encouraged specifically on the ground of such mediation.
It is incumbent upon us to pause at this point, and recognize
with distinctness and with reverence the vital significance of this
conception of Christ the Mediator as a central element in the
Christian scheme. As all that is antecedent in evangelical theology
leads on directly to Christ as the theanthropic Person, so all that
relates to him and his mission among men centers in this view of
him as a Mediator, inherently and officially qualified for such a
service, and actually engaged in the task of reconciling God and
man through his gradous intervention. If Christ is not thus a
qualified and anointed Mediator, competent to accompHsh the
reconciliation needful, he can be nothing to us but a sublime and
perplexing mystery forever. Everything in Christianity is con
centered at this point. Systems of religious belief that reject this
mediation cannot be regarded as Christian. The recognition of
Christ in the grandeur of his teaching, in the beauty of his char
acter, in the attractiveness of his example, is wholly insufficient
here. What the sinful world needs is not a teacher only, or a
pattern of holy living or a princely character among men only, but
a Mediator, who reaUy undertakes to meet the needs of. the sinner
both internal and external, and who actually brings about a com
plete and everlasting reconciliation between sinners and God.
Further questions will arise respecting the essential. elements in
such mediation, the way in which such recondliation is effected,
the instruments and forces employed, the steps taken, the condi
tions required, the grace granted; and around some of these
questions, as we shall have occasion to see, Christian minds are
still too much at variance. But here, at this central point, evan
gelical Christendom has been and is and must ever be essentially
agreed : all churches and schools and parties alike recognize both
the necessity of such theanthropic mediation, and the cardinal fact
of facts that there is one and but one such Mediator between God
and man, the man Christ Jesus.
The Catechisms further distribute the mediatorial office into three
main functions, the prophetic, the priestly and the kingly; and
n Tk..!,...!!™. proceed to show how in each of these
9. The three Offices : rea- £ . T , „
son for this analysis : objcc- functlons our Lord executes the office
tlons. of a Mediator; his mediation becoming
complete only when these are harmoni
ously blended into one comprehensive intervention. The Sum of

THE THREE OFFICES. 325
Saving Knowledge happily embodies the confessional doctrine in
the statement that Christ Jesus was clad with the threefold office
of Prophet, Priest and King, — made a Prophet in order to reveal
afl saving knowledge to his people, and to persuade them to believe
and obey the same; - made a Priest to offer up himself a sacrifice
once for them all, and to intercede continually with the Father for
making their persons and services acceptable to him; — and made a
King to subdue them to himself, to feed and rule over them by his
appointed ordinances, and to defend them from their enemies.
Dorner (Christ. Doct.), regards this threefold conception of the
mediatorial work of Christ as having its ultimate ground in the
threefold service of Revelation itself, as indicated in the three
terms, instruction, atonement, obedience. Christ, it has been said
by another European divine, must be a prophet to save us from the
ignorance of sin, a priest to save us from its guilt, and a king to
save us from its dominion in our flesh. Others find the primal
warrant for it in the three offices of the Old Testament — sacerdo
tal, royal, didactic — viewed as antetypes of him in whom these
three offices are conjoined, and on whose head this triple crown of
function and ministry is fitly placed. StiU others have found a
psychological basis for it in the nature of man as composed of in-
tdlect, feeling and wiU, — Christ thus adjusting himself as teacher
and sacrifice and lord to these three primal capabilities in man,
regarded as a moral being. The distinction was recognized in
Christian theology as early as Eusebius who (B. I: Ch. iii),
describes Christ as the divine and heavenly Word, the only high
priest of aU men, the only king of all creation, and the Father's
supreme prophet of prophets. Calvin introduced it into Protestant
thought in the statement (Inst. B 2: 15), that the office assigned to
Christ by the Father consisted of three parts, — he being commis
sioned as at once a prophet, a priest and a king. It was accepted al
most universally in the Reformed churches; and extensively — so far
at least as the priestly and regal offices are concerned — in Lutheran
drcles also. Christ, says Martensen, is the Mediator of the new
covenant, by his testimony, by his propitiatory sacrifice, and by
the founding of the kingdom of which he is Lord and Head.
Vigorous objections have been raised to this distribution by
Ernesti, and by some later German theologians such as Knapp
and Ritschl, — partly on exegetical grounds, as unwarranted by
any adequate indications in Scripture; and partly on the general
ground that it tends to confusion in the conception of the one
comprehensive office of mediation, and introduces into that con
ception some elements which do not properly belong to it. It has

326 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR.
been questioned on one side whether these three terms actually
include the whole of that mediation, — whether in the large num
ber of metaphors, for example, by which Christ is set forth in the
Scriptures, such as Word and Life and Light and many more,
there is not much in the way of gracious interposition in our behalf
which neither the prophetic nor the priestly nor the kingly func
tion, nor all three together, if strictly interpreted, adequately
represent. On the other side it has been queried whether these
three terms, when technically expounded and applied as they have
been in much Calvinistic theology, do not contain some things
which in fact are not involved in the comprehending term, media
tion. It is especially urged that our Lord himself never recog
nized these technical distinctions in his mediatorial work, — that
while he spoke occasionally of himself as king, he hardly referred
to himself distinctively as prophet, and never called himself a
priest, though alluding sometimes to his final sacrifice; and it is
claimed that such a scholastic distribution, which our Lord him
self never distinctly suggested, can have on one hand but doubt
ful value in itself, and on the other is liable to mislead into technical
or theologic rather than scriptural conceptions of his mediatorial
office: Van Oosterzee, Christ. Dogmatics.
In addition to the reply to such objections to be derived, as we
have .seen, from the general trend of Christian theology, it is a fact
of special significance that our Lord is actually, and more or less
elaborately, described in such terms as prophet, teacher, priest,
sacrifice, intercessor, lord and king, in most of the earlier Protestant
creeds, as well as in the Symbols. One of the marked illustra
tions of this may be seen in the answer to the question (31) in the
Heidelberg Catechism, why is Christ called the Anointed or the
Messiah ? Because he is ordained of God the Father, and anointed
with the Holy Ghost, to be our chief prophet and teacher, who
fully reveals to us the secret counsel and will of God concerning
our redemption; and our only high priest, who by the one sacri
fice of his body has redeemed us, and ever Uveth to make inter
cession for us with the Father; and our eternal king, who governs
us by his Word and Spirit, and defends and preserves us in the
redemption obtained for us. Additional illustrations, though
less extensive, may be found in other continental formularies.
The Scotch Confession also declares Christ to be the Messiah
promised, the only head of his church, our just lawgiver, our only
high priest, advocate and mediator, and our sovereign and
supreme governor. Turning from confessional to biblical teaching
we are certainly warranted in the conclusion that this analysis of

MEDIATION THE COMPREHENDING FACT. 327
the mediatorial office is justified substantially, if not in the words of
Christ himself, still in the epistolary Scriptures, written after his
decease had made his prophetic, and especially his priestly and
kingly functions, more palpable to the eye of faith than they
could pre-viously have been. It certainly is biblical truth that as
our Mediator he instructs, reconciles, restores; reveals* and pro
cures and confers salvation, — ministering thus in a threefold way
to the threefold necessity which sin has introduced.
There are, however, some special liabilities to which this analy
sis exposes us, and against which we should be carefully guarded.
In general, it is important to protect ourselves against the suppo
sition that these three terms, or indeed any human terms, can set
forth adequately in all his fullness and glory this one adorable
Mediator. Careful study of the multiplied, strong, luminous, im
pressive images and illustrations employed in Scripture to describe
him and his work, will impress us with the conviction that our
Lord is immeasurably too great to be adequately described by any
analysis or language of man. It is important also to remember
that the three functions are never wholly separable in fact, but are
always interblended in each and every mediatorial act, — the one
Person acting alike and simultaneously in each function. Still
less are we at Hberty to regard them as divisible chronologically;
the prophetic function closing before the priestly begins, the
priestly ended before the kingship is assumed. Christ was in fact
a king as truly as he was a prophet in his first public teaching, —
as truly a prophet as he was a king when he stood before Pilate at
his final trial, — and as truly a priest at the beginning of his medi
ation as when he was nailed, our blessed sacrifice, on the cross of
Calvary. Neither may we set these three functions over against each other
in any aspect of contrast, as if some one were intrinsically more
important than another in its bearings on our salvation. While it
is true that the priestly and sacrificial function seems generally
central in the biblical delineation, yet the prophetic function is no
less apparent and needful though introductory, or the kingly
though consequent: all are parts of like import in the one sublime
transaction. It is an obvious and painful fact that some Calvinis
tic theologies have erroneously ignored both the prophetic and
the kingly function, treating them as only in some secondary sense
mediatorial, and have meanwhile emphasized the priestly function
exclusively, as if our salvation depended on this chiefly or alto
gether. In some instances, the analytic impulse has gone so far
as to locate the salvatory power of the mediation, not merely in the

328 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR.
priestly function as a whole, but in Christ the sacrifice rather than
in Christ the priest; and in some instances it has limited the sacrifice
itselfto what is called the passive, as distinct from the active obe
dience of Christ. We shall have occasion to study these analytic
processes'hereafter: it is sufficient now to note that by such pro
cesses the essential unities of the one great work of mediation are
very largely obscured from view, the real grandeur of the one sub
lime intervention being sadly dissipated through such excessive
analysis and specialization. As one result, the prophetic function
of ourLord as the one perfect teacher and example for our human
ity, has: been suffered to fall too largely into the hands of errorists
who, emphasizing his teachings and his human perfections, have
rejected his sacrificial ministry, and spurned his divine kingship.
As another result, such illusive analyses have led to narrow
views of what salvation truly is, as a gracious process in character
as well as a blessed change in condition; and in some instances to
serious error respecting the real relation to this perfect Redeemer of
a soul saved through his grace. That no small portion of the Cal-
vinistic.theology of the seventeenth and especially the eighteenth
century is open to the charge of such undue specialization, and even
of destructive trituration of the one mediatorial work, will be
apparent to any thoughtful student of the period. It is incum
bent upon us carefully to guard against such delusive misconcep
tions, and ever to hold before our vision the Immanuel, who is at
once and equally our prophet, our priest and our king, and who
in all these functions is evermore our one adorable Mediator.
The first of the three offices or functions just considered rep
resents Christ as the supreme teacher and example for mankind —
the chief and head of the prophetical
10. Christ as Prophet: our order. In the Shorter Catechism (24)
teacher; our supreme exam- it is said that he executeth the office of
pie. a prophet in revealing to us by his Word
and Spirit the will of God for our salvation. This is expanded in
the Larger Catechism (43) in the statement that Christ reveals
that will, not to the individual believer alone, but to the church in
all ages; that this is done in divers ways of administration; and
that the whole will of God in all things is thus made known, so far
as our edification as well as salvation requires. The Confession
(VIII : i) simply styles him prophet as well as priest and king— a
prophet endowed with all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,
and full of grace and truth; but fails to tell us in what ways, and
in what directions,- the prophetical function is exercised, except

CHRIST AS PROPHET. 329
in the statement that he reveals to his elect, in and by the Word,
the mysteries of salvation. This omission may be explained in part
by the fact that in the chapter on Holy Scripture it had been said
already, that it pleased the Lord at sundry times and in divers
manners to reveal himsdf, and to declare his will to his church,
though this indeed seems a generic rather than a specific and per
sonal work of revdation. Further explanation may be found in
expressions scattered here and there through subsequent chapters,
descriptive of the ministries of Christ by his Word and Spirit for
the instruction and edifying of his people. But no such distinct
exposition of the prophetic function appears in the Confession as
we find respecting the priestly or even the kingly function of the
Mediator. In the Sum of Saving Knowledge Christ is said to be
made a prophet, to reveal all saving knowledge to his people, and
to persuade them to believe and obey the same— a divine witness,
preaching the good tidings of the covenant, not only by the holy
prophets, but with his own mouth. Some meagerness of state
ment on this subject is apparent in the Protestant symbolism
generaUy — a meagerness which is explained, at least in large
degree, by the prominence given in the Reformation to the priestly
sacrifice of Christ for the behever, in contrast with the priestly
ceremonials of Rome. Faith in a crucified Savior being set forth
as the basis of the entire doctrine of justification, it was natural
that the eyes of aU should be fixed on the cross, and on the aton
ing Person who hung thereon, rather than on him who came also
to be the great prophet and teacher of mankind.
The conception of Christ as a prophet is purely a biblical con
ception. As the eternal Logos he was a prophet by nature as well
as by appointment. His prophetical function was foretold even
in the pentateuchal era, and still more fully in the prophetic age.
He was regarded as a prophet not only by his disciples, but by
the multitudes who heard him during his ministry. The Apostles
recognized and revered him as the Word of God and the Wisdom
of God, and pronounced him the head and crown of the prophetic
order. This prophetical function was to be carried on partly by
the direct communication and inculcation of saving truth, and
partly by the indirect effect of his personality and his example as
an illustration of such truth. Like the Hebrew prophets, Christ
was a prophet in a twofold sense — in the general sense of religious
teaching, and in the special sense of foretelling the future. As a
teacher he was the divine consummation of the prophetic order,
surpassing all who preceded or followed him, alike in the breadth
and grandeur of his utterances, in the manner in which he

330 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR.
presented and commended truth, and in the majestic authoritative
ness which marked all his instructions. Never man spake like this
man, was the spontaneous outcry of those who heard him while
he was on the earth, and this is the profound conviction of those
who in later times have studied his words, and appreciated the
doctrines which he proclaimed. Other prophets spake as under
commission and under limitations : he taught as on his own
authority, with absolute freedom. He explained and made lum
inous all antecedent teaching; and the later inspired writers aimed
only to publish and illustrate the truth which he had given.
Calvin simply expresses the belief of every true disciple when he
declares in brief, that all the parts and branches of perfect wisdom
are contained in the sum of doctrine which he imparted. And
Bishop Butler affirms (Anal. P. II : Ch. V) that Christ not only
published anew the law of nature which men have corrupted, and
confirmed by the evidence of testimony the truth of the moral
system of nature, but distinctly revealed the manner in which God
should be worshiped, the need and efficacy of repentance, and the
fact of future reward and punishment; thus becoming a prophet
in a sense in which no other ever was — the Prophet that should
come into the world.
As a foreteller of the future, our Lord surpassed aU the sacred
seers who had gone before him in the extent and scope, in the
comprehensiveness and brilliance and the vast moment of his pre
dictions. Others spoke and recorded what was supernaturauy
revealed to them: he uttered his prophecies as one animated by
conscious certainty — as if the future was as truly known to his
mind as the present or the past. Passing by one supposed excep
tion to this transcendent fact, which in reality is no exception, we
see in his predictions the abundant proof of his omnisdence.
They relate not only to the manner and time and drcumstances
of his own death, the subsequent experiences of his disdples, and
the destruction of Jerusalem, — not only to the first diffusion of the
Gospel, the upbuilding and triumphs of. his church, and the
mighty changes which his religion was to effect in human sodety
in coming ages. They include even the millennial era, the end of
the Gospel dispensation, his own second advent, and the time and
manner and meaning of the final judgment of mankind. They
carry our thought onward to eternity, and show us what is to be
the condition of the human race millions of ages hence. All that
had been foretold by other seers, he took up and explained and
expanded; and what it had not been given to them to see of the
things that should be hereafter, he saw, described, and affirmed.

CHRIST AS EXAMPLE. 331
More than he has told us, no holy prophet was ever commissioned
to reveal : more than he has told us, our humanity does not need
in this life to know.
But while our Lord was a prophet directly in this twofold sense
as teacher and foreteller, he was also a prophet indirectly but no
less forcibly, in his exemplification of divine truth in his own per
sonality and life. That personality and life were as truly a part
of his mediatorship as his sacrifice on Calvary. The Bible furn
ishes many illustrations of the fact that teaching is done quite as
efficiently by what men are as by what they say. The personal
qualities and experiences of many of the prophets, major and
minor, their individual peculiarities, their very names in some
instances, are seen to contribute some important elements to their
personal mission and influence as religious teachers. In other
words, their characters became largely the vehicles in which their
messages were conveyed and made effective. And in Christ as the
chief prophet, this interesting fact receives its sublimest illustra
tion. His holy personality was indeed the indispensable concom
itant of such truth as he, being the eternal Logos, came into the
world to reveal. We have already recognized his entire sinless
ness as a fundamental element in Christianity. That sinlessness
had been foretold in the Messianic psalms, and by the evangelic
prophet, Isaiah; it was confessed by Pilate at his trial; it was af
firmed by Peter in his first Epistle, taught by the writer to the
Hebrews, and beheved without questioning by the early church.
And this perfect obedience on the part of Christ was an essential
element in his prophetical work; without it he could never have
taught as he did, or filled the world as he has done, with the
glory and the fruitage of his doctrine. The revelation contained
in what he was, though less direct, is thus no less needful to us
than the revelation contained in his sacred words. His example
is the subHmest ihustration of his message, and his pattern, no
less than his most significant exposition of doctrine and duty, be
comes the supreme law of our lives as his disciples. And while
we must affirm that his sinless life was not the whole of his pro
phetic ministry, and still less the whole of his mediatorship, as
has been erroneously assumed, it is certainly a most serious mis
take to neglect as much as orthodox Protestantism has done
hitherto, the exaltation of that spotless life, in all its ineffable
beauty and power, as one among the things which constitute him
in deed and in truth our mediating Immanuel. Macaulay has
justly as well as eloquently said, with reference to the power of
this unique characteristic of Christ as the exemplar of mankind :

332 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR.
It was before Deity, embodied in a human form, walking among
men, partaking of their infirmities, leaning on their bosoms, weep
ing over their graves, slumbering in the manger, bleeding on the
cross, that the prejudices of the synagogue, and the doubts of the
academy, and the pride of the portico, and the fasces of the'lictor,
and the swords of the thirty legions, were humbled in the dust.
The Westminster teaching, and that of Protestant symbolism
generally, is much more full respecting the priestly function of
the Mediator. This' function has been
1 1 . Christ as Priest and as comprehensively described as inelud-
Sacrifice: His qualities as u ^ ion f the actings and
both priest and sacrifice. % . / . °
sufferings of Christ as our Mediator by
which he has made it congruous with the holiness and the wisdom
of God to deliver sinful men from the penal consequences of their
offenses against his moral government, and to restore them to the
enjoyment of his immortal favor. This priestly function consti
tutes the center and substance of the remarkable chapter (VHI)
now under consideration. In one section (v) it'is said that by his
perfed sacrifice of himself which he ... . once offered up unto
God, he hath fully satisfied the justice of his Father, (or as it is
elsewhere, divine justice') and thus has purchased reconciliation [be
tween God and the sinner. In another section (iv) it is said that,
in order to secure this result, he was not only made under the law
and did perfectly fulfill it, but endured most grievous torments im
mediately in his soul, and most painful sufferings in his body; was
crucified and died; was buried and remained under the power of
death, but saw no corruption. Other sections undertake to ex
plain the manner in which the two natures in Christ, or his duplex
nature, shared in this mediatorial sacrifice. Here as throughout
the work of mediation, he is said to act according to both natures,
each of these natures doing that which is proper (proprium) to
itself. Still other sections show us how the benefits of that sacri
fice were applicable to those who had lived before his advent, but
had exercised faith in a salvation yet to come, and also how cer
tain and effectual the results of this mediation are to every one in
all ages who cherishes true faith in him as the anointed high priest
and the divinely accepted sacrifice for the world. The Shorter
Catechism (25) teaches that Christ executeth the office of a priest
in his once offering up of himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice ,
and reconcile us to God. And the Larger (44)simply expands the
expression by adding the significant words, a sacrifice without spot,
and by defining the reconciliation as a reconciliation not for here
and there a penitent soul, but broadly or generically, for the sins

CHRIST AS PRIEST AND SACRIFICE. 333
of his people or — as elsewhere— -for all those whom the Father hath
given unto him. Numerous expressions found throughout the
Symbols convey the same conception of our Lord as both priest
and sacrifice — the one priest and the one sacrifice, and in both
aspects the one and only Mediator.
It would be needless to quote at length from the other Prot
estant Confessions in order to show how universally this general
view of the priesthood of Christ was held during the Reformation,
and how fundamental they affirmed it to be in its bearings on the
great controverted problem of justification by faith in him. One
can hardly take up a single creed, even the most minor and incom
plete, without finding this doctrine embedded in it as one of the
foundations of evangdical bdief : see the Augsburg Conf. Art IV;
Form, of Concord, Art. Ill; the Bdgic Conf. XXI; the French,
XVII; the Second Helv. XV; Heidelberg Catechism (40) and
others. And it is well to note that even Roman symbolism, while
emphasizing unduly the intermediate functions of the church and
its sacraments and priesthood, was obliged in the Decrees of Trent
(Ch. VII, on Justification) to say that the meritorious cause of our
salvation is our Lord Jesus Christ, who when we were enemies,
for the exceeding charity wherewith he loved us, merited justifi
cation for us by bis most holy passion on the wood of the cross.
(in Hgno cruds) and made satisfaction for us unto God the Father.
And the Orthodox Confession of the Greek church teaches in
like manner (45) that Christ being himself without sin, hath
purged away our sin and its penalty; and quotes in proof the
strong language of Peter that we are thus redeemed, not with
silver or gold, but with the predous blood of Christ (pretioso
sanguine) as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. So
broadly and so powerfully has the doctrine of the priesthood and ,
the priestly sacrifice of our Immanuel, resting upon the clear and
abundant testimonies of Scripture, secured its place among the
fundamental tenets of Christendom.
But Protestantism in later times has gone far beyond Greek or
Roman orthodoxy in defining the qualities of Christ as both priest
and sacrifice, and in describing the manner in which his offering
of himself becomes an acceptable satisfaction to divine justice
and to the sacred claims of the divine law. The official qual
ifications of our Lord for such service were typified in part
in those three requisites of the Mosaic priesthood, — personal
fitness, direct appointment, actual and acceptable ministration. It
should be remembered here that the Mosaic system had through
out on one side an immediate, and on the other a remoter but main

334 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR.
design in the divine plan of redemption. Immediately, it was an
unique religious cultus, divinely adapted to work in the Hebrew
mind obedience, repentance, faith, consecration, hope, as spiritual
experiences. But more remotely yet mainly, it was designed,
as the Confession intimates, (VIII :vi) by promises, types, and
sacrifices, to show forth Christ and his coming salvation. Hence
the official endowments of the Jewish priest became typical of his
official endowments as our Mediator. Still these far surpassed
those of the Hebrew priest, and even those of the high priest, in the
fact that the person of our Lord had greater inherent dignity and
fitness, that his appointment was more conspicuously divine and
glorious, that his term of service was more prolonged, and that
his offering was one of infinitely greater moment. It was doubt
less for this reason that he was also called a priest after the order of
Melchizedek, — that strange antetypal person, whose appearance
and mission constitute one of the minor mysteries of the Penta
teuch. Yet we may never forget that neither the priest in his
ordinary dress and office, nor the high priest in his impressive
sacerdotal robes, nor even the kingly Melchizedek whose place in
Scripture is at once so unique and so honorable, nor all together,
can equal Him who for our salvation condescended as a priest to
offer himself as a sacrifice on Calvary.
Similar qualifications are seen in him as such a sacrifice — the
Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world, but slain his
torically on what was at once a cross and an altar. The Hebrew
victim must in every case be inherently without blemish, must
have adequate value in expression, must be freely offered, and be
formally accepted. In Christ these requisites appear in their
highest form, and in their supreme valuation. He was intrinsic
ally sinless, flawless, perfect as a sacrifice: his worth as such is set
before us in Scripture as infinite; his devotion of himsdf was
complete; he was divinely acceptable, and thus at every point was
competent to secure in our behalf all that sacrifice in any form
could secure in the interest of reconciliation between us and God.
Whatever may be our interpretation of the method in which such
a sacrifice is made available for such an end, the transcendent fact
that the Mediator was thus at once a perfect priest, offering himself
as a perfect sacrifice, and in this act becoming our propitiation be
fore God, stands out before us everywhere on the pages of the Scrip
tures, — transcendent and in certain aspects full of mystery, but on
the other hand replete with a grace and a glory- which are mani
festly divine. It is of vital moment to emphasize here, as the
Symbols do not always seem sufficiently to emphasize, the under-

THE PRIESTLY OFFICE. 335
lying truth that both the priest and the sacrifice just described, are
always one and the same theanthropic person. Augustine in the
Civitas Dd, (X) points out this double aspect of the priestly medi
ation in the pregnant sentence: In this form he offered, in that form
he was offered; because he is our Mediator he is in this our priest,
he is also in that our sacrifice. We are not to suppose, as some of the
creeds almost appear to intimate, that the priest is divine and the
sacrifice human: stiU less may we assign some of these qualifica
tions to the Son of God, offering up the man on the altar of media
tion, and others to the man, Jesus of Nazareth, as if there were two
distinct persons engaged in the great transaction. In other words,
we may not analyse the mediatorial intervention, in this priestly
form of it, in any such measure as to say where the divine and
where the human successively appear, or where either disappears
while its opposite is revealed as separate and alone. It is indeed
justly said in this chapter that Christ, being the eternal Son of
God, became man, and as man as weU as God acted and suffered
in the process of our redemption. But while we adhere to the
doctrine of the two natures thus conjoined in him, we must inva
riably bear in mind the confessional phrase, two distinct natures
and one person forever . It is that one Person who acts as priest, and
that one Person who suffers as our sacrifice — one and the same
mediating Person throughout. And however much it may increase
the mystery of the mediating act, we must always reverently
remember that he who both offers and is sacrificed, is throughout
all his mediatorial work also one in that sacred trinity of Persons
who together constitute the one eternal Deity.
The nature and scope of the satisfaction rendered by the Medi
ator as both priest and sacrifice, can be finaUy considered only in
the two subsequent Lectures, which , „ „ „
.„ , . , , • 4.-, • x- 12. The term, Satisfac-
will bnng before us m their confes- tIon. lts meaning and value.
sional and theological aspects, first the
Plan, then the Process of Salvation — that sublime scheme and
economy of grace, in which the mediatorship of Christ in its three
parts or functions is the central element, and of whose gracious
ministries salvation is the blessed result. But it will be well at
this point to consider the emphatic statement in this chapter, that
by his perfect obedience and sacrifice he hath fully satisfied the
justice of his father — or, more broadly, the divine justice — and
thus has purchased for all who believe on him not only reconcili
ation, but all the further blessings which follow thereupon. In the
Larger Catechism (57) we are taught that by his mediation (which
includes his priestly sacrifice) he hath procured redemption, with

336 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR.
all other benefits of the covenant of grace, — this implying that his
mediation was in whole and in all its parts an actual and a perfect
satisfaction. And in the Sum of Saving Knowledge it is quaintly
said, that God before the world began gave the elect unto his Son,
our Redeemer, upon condition that he would humble himself so
far as to assume the human nature, of a soul and a body, unto
personal union with his divine nature, and submit himself' to the
law as surety for them, and satisfy justice for them by giving obedi
ence in their name, even unto the suffering of the cursed death of
the cross. In like manner the Catechism of Heidelberg (37)
affirms that all the time he lived on earth, but especially at the
end of his life, Christ bore in body and soul the wrath of God
against the sin of the whole human race, in order that by his
passion as the only atoning sacrifice, he might redeem our soul
and body from everlasting condemnation. The Scotch Confession,
after describing in painfully graphic terms the sufferings of the
Mediator, declares that he endured all this in body and soul to
make full satisfaction for the sins of the people. Such, with con
siderable variation at specific points, and often with less of detail,
are the declarations of the Protestant symbols generally.
The term, satisfaction, appearing first as a technical term in
the Cur Deus Homo of Anselm, and adopted throughout the
Symbols, has been almost universally accepted in more modern
theology as expressing in a general way the mediating work of
Christ, but more specifically his priestly sacrifice, viewed as the
special propitiation for sin, and the special ground of our recon
ciliation with God. It has its nearest equivalent in the word,
atonement, which appears nowhere in the' Symbols or in other
kindred formularies, but is universal in Protestant theology, as
descriptive of the sacrificial procedure through which salvation
is secured, and the sinner becomes henceforth at one with God.
Another kindred term is expiation, pointing to. that vicarious sac
rifice wherein Christ, assuming in some sense the place of sinners,
supplies as a substitute an adequate reason for exempting, them
from the penalty due to their transgressions. The term, satisfac:
tion, as here used, designates not merely the complacent feeling
with which the Father regards this atoning or expiatory, work, or
merely the adequacy or sufficiency of that work, contemplated
with respect to the end in view, though both of these elements
doubtless enter into the conception. It designates more centrally
the mediatorial act in itself, and espedally in its sacrificial form, —
that salvatory act or process whereby all claims against the sinner
are met, and an adequate basis for his redemption is provided.

SATISFACTION : NATURE AND VALUE. 337
Viewed as to its contents, the term is employed by some theo
logians comprehensively as including the active as well as passive
obedience of Christ, — his perfect obedience to law as our example,
as weU as his suffident sacrifice under law : others limit it to his
passive obedience or sacrifice alone, and specially to his submission
unto the death of the cross in our behalf. Edwards (Work of
Redemption), following Aquinas, runs a line of distinction between
the satisfaction and the merit of Christ, in the statement that his
satisfaction was designed to free us from misery, as by the pay
ment of the debt we owe as sinners, while his merit purchased
happiness for us on the ground of what he has suffered expiato-
rially in our stead. If we view the satisfaction as including all
that is impHed in the word, merit, we may with the Symbols
regard the expiation in the case as made to divine justice, strictly
speaking, or simply as including full and complete compensation
for aU the demands of the divine law and government, against
which the sinner is in revolt. As to its nature, this satisfaction
is supposed by some to involve an actual endurance by Christ of
the penalty itself which the sinner has incurred, such that the
sinner is discharged as though he were innocent; by others, as
bdng simply an adequate equivalent for that penalty, such as
secures all the moral results which would have been obtainable
through the punishment of the sinner. In its scope, this satis
faction is in the Symbols Hmited in extent to the elect — to those
whom the Father in the covenant of redemption has given to the
Son as the fruits of his sacrifice. Yet there were members of
the Assembly (Minutes, 154-8) who regarded it rather as, in the
language of the Thirty -Nine Articles (XXXI), an oblation ade
quate as a propitiation and redemption from all the sins of the
whole world.
Many of the intricate problems suggested at this point, and
still others closely related to them, will present themselves for
more thorough consideration in our future inquiries into the na
ture and aim of the Gospel viewed as a saving scheme, and into
the true character of justification, regarded as that act of free
grace wherein God pardoneth all our sins and accepteth us
as righteous, in virtue of the satisfaction rendered to him
in the mediation and the sacrifice of our great High Priest
who ever liveth to make intercession for us. In the presence
of such problems respecting the nature, the contents, the
scope and aim of this gracious procedure, it may be well for us to
bear in mind the profound remark of Butler that, as we are not
judges antecedently to revelation whether a Mediator was or was

338 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR.
not necessary, so the Scripture hath left the matter of the sacrifice of
Christ mysterious, somewhat in it unrevealed; and that we ought
not to be too anxious to explain the efficacy of what he has done
and suffered for us, lest we fall into the error of those who, be
cause they could not explain it, have been for taking it away,
and confining his office as Redeemer of the world to his instruc
tion, example, and government of the church: Whereas, he adds,
the doctrine of the Gospel is, not only that Christ taught the effi
cacy of repentance, but that he rendered it of the efficacy of which
it is by what he did and suffered for us, obtaining for us through
such action and suffering the benefit of having our repentance
accepted unto eternal life.
Nor is it surprising that many thoughtful minds, perplexed by
the various theories and explanations current respecting the medi
ation of Christ, are disposed to rest simply in the essential fact, as
set forth in Scripture, however great may be the mystery involved.
They build their faith on the revealed truth that this mediation,
prophetic and priestly and kingly, is adequate and sufficient — in a
word, is satisfactory. To analyse that word, (satis facere) enough
has been done by our great Mediator to make salvation not only
possible but sure, to all who believe in him and his grace. Enough
has been done to meet every demand of justice either in God the
Father, or in the Godhead generally, or in the incarnate Son, who
could neither do nor suffer anything to be undertaken, even to
save the world, which was not consistent with absolute equity.
Enough has been done, (it may not be unprofitable to suggest) to
appease the sentiment of justice in man also, since the sinner could
not accept a salvation, though one were offered him, which did not
conform at every point to his internal sense of righteousness.
Enough has been done to sustain the dignity and sovereignty
of the<divine law, even while sinners on the ground of this medi
ation are freely forgiven for all their offenses; — enough to com
pensate for- all the injury wrought through sin, and to restore and
establish forever the moral order and harmony which sin has im
paired; — enough also to protect every interest of moral govern
ment, and to sustain God in his administration over the moral
universe, even though a world of rebels against that, goverment
are granted amnesty and full restoration to the privileges which
their sin had forfeited. Enough has been done also to express in
fullest form and glory the divine compassion for our fallen race,
and to exhibit to the wondering universe the amazing grace, that
can stoop to save even by so costly a process a creature such as
sinful and corrupted man. Enough has been done : So God has

CHRIST AS KING. 339
declared in his holy Word and though we may never comprehend
why or how this was done as it was, we may with the learned
and profound Bishop of Durham, rest with absolute peace in the
blessed, the sublime, the saving fact.
Postponing the further consideration of the subject until we
come to consider in detail the plan and the process of salvation,
we may now turn to contemplate briefly
the remaining function, the kingly 13, Christ as King: de-
xc .-, ~,  • , . 4-n velopment of the doctrine:
office, which Christ also fills as our ..... .
' _ ^ ,. biblical warrant.
Mediator. In the Shorter Catechism
it is said, (26) that he executes the office of a king, in subduing
us unto himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and
conquering all his and our enemies. The Larger Catechism (45)
adds, that as king he calleth out of the world a people unto him
self, and gives them offices, laws and customs by which he visibly
governs them; and also that he powerfully orders all things for their
good and his own glory, and takes vengeance on all who reject his
authority and obey not his Gospel. Other things are suggested
in the definition, such as the bestowment of all needful grace,
the rewarding of obedience, correction in case of sin, and royal
support under all temptation and suffering. Additional phrases,
defining this kingship at various points, such as instruction by the
authoritative Word and Spirit, and intercession at the throne of
justice, and the final judging of men, are added in' the chap
ter in the Confession : and in the chapters that follow, we
may find many iUustrative statements which show how conclu
sively and how practically the doctrine that our Mediator is also
our king in virtue of his mediatorship, was held and affirmed
by the Assembly.
It was natural that this sole kingship of our Lord should have
become at once both a theoretical and an intensely practical truth,
in the conviction of the Reformers generally. Oppressed' as they
had been by the power of the Roman hierarchy, and restrained
and embarrassed as they often were by the claims of civil rulers
within the sphere not merely of ecclesiastical organization, but of
spiritual belief and worship also, they were spontaneously inclined
to turn away to Him whom holy Scripture describes as king of
kings and lord of lords, as their supreme and ultimate authority
alike in faith and in practice. Zwingli in Switzerland and Luther
in Germany, and the divines of Holland and of the British
Isles, thus became alike strenuous in insisting upon the headship '
of Christ within his church in contrast with all hierarchal
authorities, and upon his absolute sovereignty in the religious

340 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR.
sphere above all the asserted rights of kings or princes, even in
cases when these potentates were at heart friendly to the new
faith. In his Dedication of the Institutes to his Most Christian
Majesty, Francis, Calvin speaks with great emphasis of Christ
whom the Father hath constituted King that he may have domin
ion from sea to sea . . . and that he may rule in such a manner
that the whole earth, with its strength of iron and with its splendor
of gold and silver, smitten by the rod of his mouth, may be
broken to pieces before him. Romanism had affirmed the right of
the church to rule over the civil state, even assuming that no
monarch or emperor could properly exercise civil sway without
churchly benediction. Protestantism made no such claim, but
rather resisted the opposite claim of the state to interfere in church
affairs. It was agreed in holding that, although the state is
obligated to grant secular support and civil protection to the
church, Christ himself is the sole and only ruler and lord within
the household of faith. It is true that, when the Anabaptist fac
tion in Germany undertook to carry the doctrine of the headship of
Christ so far as to refuse to pay taxes or to bear arms in the defense
of the state, Luther and his successors condemned the claim, and
denounced Anabaptism as an erroneous departure from the normal
doctrine of Protestantism. It is also true that the Reformation
was constantly impeded and damaged both on the continent and
in Britain by the problem — unsolved in Europe even in our time
— respecting the true and proper relationship between the Christian
Church and the Christian State. This problem will come up for
special examination at a later stage in these studies.
But we have only to examine the Scotch Confession, and to read
the illustrative history of movements dvil and religious in Scot
land during the period preceding the Assembly, to see how abso
lutely the conception of the kingship of Christ had embedded
itself in the Scottish mind. In Art. XI of that Confession, which
treats of the Ascension, it is said that our Lord has received all
power in heaven and in earth, and sits forever at the right hand of
the Father, inaugurate in his kingdome. In Articles XVI. and
XVIII. which treat of the Kirk and of the notes by which the
Trew Kirk is decernit, this royal place and service are assigned
to Christ alone, as the only mediator and the only head of the
church. And if in Article XXIV, which treats of the Civil Mag
istracy, more than this is granted to state authorities in the way of
jurisdiction in church affairs, the subsequent struggles of Scotch
Presbyterianism for the crown rights of King Jesus have made
ample amends for the apparent inconsistency in the old Confession.

CONFESSIONAL AND BIBLICAL TESTIMONIES. 341
The Second Confession of A. D. 1580, and the Solemn League
and Covenant, 1581, are historic illustrations of this fact. It was
natural that the Thirty-Nine Articles, framed as they were by the
instruction and under the supervision of the English crown,
should say nothing spedally on this point, beyond the recognition
(XXXIV) of common or civil authority as empowered to sus
tain the traditions and ceremonies of the church against open
assailants. But the Westminster Assembly was convened at a
period when the headship of Christ as king over his organized
people was in spedal peril, and when it was indispensable to assert
in its Symbols that He who is our prophet and priest, is also the
divine and everlasting king of saints. The intense struggle grad
ually developed between the Assembly and the Parliament, as
described in the Minutes (434-6), and in English history, graph
ically illustrates this statement. In the introduction and the
earlier portions of the Form of Government also, as they appear
not in the amended American but in the original form, this doctrine
is presented with great cogency, and in language drawn directly
from the Bible. A grander dedaration of the supreme kingship
of our Lord, both in heaven and on earth, eternal in origin, glori
ous in administration and everlasting in results, can hardly be
found elsewhere in religious literature.
AU this is fuUy justified by the plain teaching of Holy Scrip
ture. It had been foretold even in the Pentateuch that he who
should bruise the head of the serpent, should be the Shiloh, Prince
of Peace, unto whom the gathering of the nations should finally be.
Four of the Psalms, recognized as distinctively Messianic, combine
to set forth in glowing terms the glory of Christ as king over
humanity, and the sweep and majesty of his kingdom. In the
prophetical writings we discern again and again that strange
blending of imperial worth and dignity with tragic humiliation
and suffering, which was such an enigma to the devout Hebrew,
but which has become so clear to us in the light of the New Testa
ment story. Our Lord himself on more than one occasion, and
especiaUy in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem and his trial before
Pilate, asserted his own regai authority, and demanded human
recognition as the true king of men. In the apostolic letters it
is hard to say whether the priestly or the kingly function is most
prominent in the delineations of his mediatorial work. And when
we turn to the Apocalypse and there behold him as he appeared
to John on Patmos, and appears again . and again as the central
figure in the series of visions which make up the substance of that
remarkable prophecy, we are led to prostrate ourselves at his feet,

342 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR.
.and with the redeemed and the angelic host to recognize and revere
..him as indeed King of Kings and Lord of Lords forevermore.
This kingship of Christ, in which his mediatorship may be said
to culminate, may profitably be contemplated in two antithetic
aspects, the earthly and the heavenly.
14. Nature of this King- The Symbols direct our attention chiefly
ship: its earthly and heav- thg fo probabiy for the historic
\ enly aspects. . r . *, ¦ c , . ,,
reason just noted. Turning first to the
earthly aspect, we may note that the kingdom of Christ in this
; world is primarily and mainly a kingdom. within the heart of his
.disciples, — a kingdom which, in apostolic phrase, is righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. His chief rule is a rule
; within the soul and life of the believer: there he is absolute law
giver, sovereign, judge. No one truly embraces him and his
.^salvation who does not in the full sense accept him as king, no less
, truly than as priest or prophet. In every genuine disdple, his will
..becomes the supreme rule and law,— as supreme as the will of God
^is in heaven itself. Thy will be done, in us and in all men, on
( earth as in heaven, is the universal prayer and purpose of his
_saints.
..., ; Out of this kingship in the believing soul, emerges his kingship
within the earthly church. Here the Confession is specially em
phatic. In chapter XXV, which treats of the Church, it is said
that the church visible is the kingdom of the Lord fesus Christ, and
„tiie claim of the papacy to assume and exercise jurisdiction in his
name and stead is declared to be antichrist. In chapter XXX, on
.Church Censures, it is said that, being thus the king and head of
.the church, Christ hath appointed a government therein, distinct
from the civil magistrate; and in the next chapter, which treats
of Synods and Councils, it is said that such official bodies may
(properly exercise the power which Christ hath given them for edifi
cation, and none other; and all such synods and coundls are
jwarned that their decisions must ever be consonant with the Word
jof God, and are in no case to be regarded as constituting a rule of
.faith, but rather simply as a help to faith. The same doctrine
^appears in the Larger Catechism (53-4, and elsewhere), and in
sthe Form of Government, Ch. II, where the headship of Christ
in his church is made the sole basis of its authority, and of itf
^ight to exercise discipline. This headship is said to carry with
tit the right to judge of doctrine, to define duty, to prescribe pro
cedure, — in a word to do all that a person may do whose soyer-
jeignty is just, holy, unquestionable, continuous, supreme.
Nor is it within the earthly church alone that Christ exerdses

EARTHLY AND HEAVENLY KINGSHIP. 348
such royal prerogatives. In conjunction with the Father he is
unquestionably the Lord of providence also, ordering all things
in nature and in human life in the interest of his people and his
kingdom. As his earthly miracles show, he was and is supreme
ruler over the physical world, subordinating it at every point to
his own dominating will. He has also inherent right to rule in
human society as well as in the individual soul, and to regulate
all the diversified and often conflicting affairs of society according
to the prindples of his holy religion. He has the authority intrin-,
sicaUy to dictate laws to human governments, to regulate their
polides in the interest of justice and charity, to rebuke all wicked
or mischievous schemes within the state, and to bring all states,
nations, empires, as wdl as individual men under his most holy
sway. His visible church may not indeed attempt to enforce his
daims at any of these points by physical methods, or by processes
that are revolutionary of existing conditions in society. His
sacred empire asks for no armed intervention, no partisan move
ments, no anarchistic devices to sustain it. His sway in human
affairs is to be secured by spiritual processes only, as his Gospel
is to be spread abroad in the earth by spiritual agencies alone.
Yet he rules supremely among men, and must rule more and more,
because he is what he is by both nature and appointment, King
of aU kings and Lord of aU lords in human life.
The heavenly side of this divine kingship begins to appear just
at the point where the estate of humiliation and the estate, of
exaltation, hereafter to be considered, are distinguished. The vic
tory over death, the resurrection from the tomb, the glorious
ascension, the triumphal entry into heaven, the enthronement at
the right hand of the Father, the intercessory function there, and.
the regal regulation from that heavenly throne of all affairs per
taining to his earthly kingdom, — these are the crowning eviden
ces that he who is our Mediator, is king as well as prophet and
priest in that comprehensive mediation. Of all that character
izes the royal experience and activity of Christ in heaven, no
sacred writer has ever been inspired to speak: what Paul saw when
he was caught up into that glorious sphere, only sealed his lips in
silence. What the redeemed know of it as they share in the be-^
nignities of his blessed sway, we may learn only when we shall
join with them in casting our crowns before him. But we know
and are assured that he is still ruling from heaven in his earthly
church, prescribing for it laws and constitutions, subduing his and
its enemies, and directing all human affairs with reference to its
millennial triumphs.

34-4 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR.
At this point we may close our survey of the three functions or
offices exercised by Christ as the theanthropic Mediator. How
vital each of these functions is in its
1 5. The Two Estates : Hu- bearings on the great problem of recon-
miliation of Christ; its vari- ... .. : .. •,.
' cihation, we may m part discern,
OUS ICaTur CS» though no human thought can possi
bly comprehend their indispensableness or their worth. How
sublime that comprehensive mediation is which is represented sub
stantially in them, but which is secondarily described in the Bible
by much other imagery of almost equal significance, it is stiU less
possible for any human mind to appreciate, in all its transcendent
elements and relations. In the light of these propitiatory and sal-
vatory functions, the one and only Mediator between Deity and
our sinful race rises thus before us, as he appeared before the
inspired apostle on Patmos, the Alpha and Omega of. Christianity,
the beginning and ending of all spiritual life and hope. We turn
spontaneously from the office and its sacred functions, from all these
delineations of what he did and suffered, and is still accompHsh-
ing for our reconciliation, to behold the Person himself as disdosed
in the inspired Scriptures, and to find in what he is the assurance
of our real and everlasting salvation through his atoning grace;
we bow before him as our prophet, our priest and king, our one
and only mediator, advocate,, surety, intercessor, who was dead
but is alive forevermore.
The doctrine of the two antithetic estates of Christ in the dis
charge of his mediatorial office, the estates of humiUation and
exaltation respectively, does not appear formally in the Con
fession, but is elaborately defined in the two Catechisms, as a
kind of recapitulation of his theanthropic work and experience.
The terms, humiliation and exaltation, appear in many of the
earlier creeds, and the facts which they are designed to describe, are
found substantially in the Confession, as indeed they are discerni
ble everywhere in Protestant symbolism. But the grouping of
these facts under the head of estates — settled and prolonged condi
tions or modes of existence — is peculiar to the Catechisms, and is
worthy to be carefully noted. It may be that such grouping was
suggested by the marked antithesis in the conditions of the Savior,
as described in the earliest Christian creed, or possibly by that
inspired delineation, the most formal and extended confession in
the New Testament: He who was manifest in the flesh, justified
in the spirit; seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed
on in the world, received up in glory.
As we have already seen, the humiliation of the Mediator began

ESTATE OF HUMILIATION. 345
with the kenosis — with his consenting to assume and wear our
human nature, and his actual entrance at Bethlehem on a real
human life. This was not a beginning of existence, but was a
voluntary passing from an antecedent estate of glory and blessed
ness which he had with the Father eternally, to an inferior mode
of existence, involving we know not what measures of limitation
in his divine prerogatives — what degree of loving abnegation.
The Shorter Catechism simply says of it, (27) that the humilia
tion consisted in his being bom, and that in a humble condition.
The Larger Catechism (47) expands the statement by affirming
that in his conception and birth he consented to become the son
of man, made of a woman of low estate, and born of her, with divers
circumstances of more than ordinary abasement. We have already
noted, in considering the significance of the incarnation, the diffi
cult problems involved in this kenosis or emptying or abasement
of himself. It is needful here only to note again the serious
error involved in the supposition that our Lord surrendered his
divine mode of existence for a human mode, or that he aban
doned his divine attributes in becoming a man, or that he volun
tarily reduced himsdf to a state of dormancy, in which he was
unconscious of his divine nature and qualities. Whatever may
have heen the character or extent of his depotentiation or his
renundation of the right to exercise deific powers, we cannot but
adore the divine condescension involved in such a process, and the
divine love that prompted it, though the transaction itself tran
scends immeasurably aU the boundaries of human thought, — ever
recognizing in that mysterious process in all its phases a truly
single, truly conscious, truly self-consistent person, God as well as
man throughout.
The Larger Catechism (48) describes not only the humiliation
undergone in the conception and birth, but also that prolonged
humiliation which was experienced by Christ throughout his life,
and which found its culmination in the sacrifice on Calvary. He
submitted to the authority of the law and perfectly fulfilled its
demands: he suffered the indignities of the world; he endured
the infirmities of the flesh and the temptations of Satan, and
completed all in the death on the cross. The humiliation under
gone in that death is also described, (49) as including the betrayal
by Judas, the abandonment by the disciples, the scornful rejec
tion by the Jewish people, the trial before Pilate, the torments
inflicted by his persecutors, and the painful, shameful and cursed
death of the cross. There are some expressions in the description,
such as conflict with the terrors of death, and with the powers of

346 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR.
darkness and the endurance of the weight of divine wrath, which,
like some corresponding expressions in the Confession such as,
most grievous torments immediately in his soul, must be interprete'd
with great care, lest in our use of them we dim the intrinsic glory
of the theanthropic Person who for our sake consented thus to
suffer and even to die. Lightfoot in his Journal reports the dis
cussion on the last phrase, and the Minutes record his dissent from
it. As first introduced by the Assembly in its revision of the
Thirty-Nine Articles, the phrase stood, most grievous torments
in his soul from God, — a still more questionable, if not erroneous
proposition. In some of the earlier creeds such language is em
ployed to such an extent, and with such intensity, as to lead us to
surmise that what we see on the cross is not our Mediator in the
totality of his priestly work and sacrifice, but a man and a man
only. The Scotch Conf . (IX), while affirming with other formu
laries that Christ suffered the wrath of his Father, protects itself
by adding that he remained the only well-beloved and blessed Son
of his Father even in the midst of his anguish and torment, which
he suffered in body and soul to make full satisfaction for the sins
of the people.
The Larger Catechism (51) proceeds still further to describe the
humiliation of our Lord after death, in his burial, and his con
tinuing in the state of the dead, and under the power of death
for a time, — a phrase by which the Westminster divines happily
interpreted the ancient and perplexing expression, He descended
into hell. Where the spirit of our Lord was during that period,
or how he was occupied, has never been revealed. Did he actually
go into the world of the lost, there to suffer for a time, as some
have fancied, the tortures of the condemned; or, as others have
held, to show himself there to Satan as after all a victor over his
machinations; or, as still others have surmised, to preach the
Gospel there, and thus to establish an economy of grace and
redemption in the intermediate life for those who perished in the
flood, or for other specific classes, or for all who in all ages may
have died without hearing of his redemption ? Did he go into
heaven, as still others have thought, bearing the dying thief with
him into paradise, and there announcing to the heavenly host
his victory over death, and heralding his appointed coming to his
celestial home in glory ? Did that divine spirit remain in stately
silence in the tomb, in holy anticipation waiting for the hour of
its reunion with the lacerated body which for a brief season it was
still to inhabit on earth ? All that we truly know is that both
body and spirit remained in the condition into which the tragic

ESTATE OF EXALTATION. 347
death had introduced them, and in that sense remained under the
power of death, until the glad moment of the resurrection arrived.
Neither the Catechisms nor the Confession attempt to determine
the speculative controversies respecting the Descensus ad Inferos,
which for centuries have occupied so largely the attention of
Protestant Christendom. The Formula of Concord recognizes the
mystery of the expression, and advises caution, as Luther himself
had done, in any use made of it. The Tridentine Catechism
expresses the faith of the Church of Rome in the statement that
Christ went into the Limbus Patrum where the Hebrew saints
were congregated, in order to give them deliverance. The ortho
dox Confession of the Greek Church (XLIX) impressively says:
Thou, O Christ, as to thy body wert in the sepulcher, as to thy
soul wert as God among the dead; Thou wert in Paradise with the
thief, and Hkewise on the throne of glory with the Father and the
Spirit, since thou fiUest all things, but art circumscribed by none.*
Happily there is much less occasion for question respecting the
antithetic estate of exaltation; which according to the Shorter
Catechism (28), induded the resurrec
tion, the ascension, the enthronement u' Estateof Exaltation:
at the right hand of the Father and the As"nsion,enthronement, in-
. . . ~. , . , , . , tercession and judgeship.
judgment of men, particular and final.
The Larger Catechism (51-55) introduces in addition a variety of
spedfic features or dements, in some cases biblical, in others specu
lative or theological. As to the resurrection, it is averred that the
body of our Lord suffered no corruption in death, inasmuch as it
was not in the power of death to affect that sacred organism. It is
affirmed that he rose with the very same body with which he suffered,
with aU the essential properties thereof, but without mortality
> *In the occasional quotations introduced from the representative symbols
pf Greek Christianity, such as the Orthodox Confession of the Catholic and
Apostolic Oriental Church (Mogilas) and the Longer Catechism of the Rus
sian church, the fact has not been forgotten that the Eastern church in its
various branches is, as it has been strikingly characterized, only a mummy of
Christianity in a praying posture. But these largely petrified communions
still adhere tenaciously to the accepted creeds of ancient Christianity, spurn
all conceptions of development or progress in doctrine, condemn Romanism
and Protestantism alike as heretical and sectarian, and declare that the
Church of Christ as represented in oriental Christianity is the only repository
and guardian of the mysteries of grace and the only authoritative interpreter
of the truth of God. The Synod of Jerusalem, 1672, which closely ap
proaches the Council of Trent in confessional importance, affirms (Art. II)
that the Holy Scriptures must be interpreted not by private judgment but in
accordance with the tradition of the Catholic Church, which cannot err or
deceive or be deceived, and is of equal authority with the Scriptures.

348 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR.
and without the common infirmities belonging to sinful man.
It is alleged that this body was truly united to his soul again, and
that Christ rose in this composite form by his dwn power on the
third day, — thus declaring himself to be the Son of God as well as
Son of man, and by this victory over death manifesting himself
to be the true Lord of quick and dead. And it is comprehensively
added, that all this he did as a public person, the head of his
church, for their justification, their quickening in grace, and their
support against enemies, and to assure them of their resurrection
from the dead at the last day.
Similar details are given as to the ascension and enthronement,
and to the two heavenly and continuous functions of intercession
and judgment. It is said that, having in our nature and as our
head triumphed over aU our enemies, Christ visibly went up into
the highest heavens, there to receive gifts for men, to raise up our
affections hither, and to prepare a place for us where himself is
and shall continue till his second coming at the end of the world.
It is said that in this sublime condition he is not only endowed with
all fullness of joy, glory and power over all things so that he can
defend his church and subdue its enemies, but also is enabled to
furnish gifts and graces for his ministers and people, and to make
continual intercession in their behalf. It is noticeable that the
Catechism sets forth this intercession, not so much as a part of the
priestly function, as is done in most later theology, but rather as
one feature or function of his royal estate — the intercession of a
prince. The nature and efficacy of this princdy intercession are
described (55) in the loftiest terms. The ground of it is stated to
be the merit of his obedience and sacrifice upon earth as applicable
to all believers; in it as a function he answers all accusations
against them in the tribunal of justice, and procures for them
peace of conscience notwithstanding their daily failings; through
it they are said to have access with boldness to the throne of grace,
and to find acceptance in person and service before God.
Christ is also represented in various places in the Symbols as
the proper and only judge of men according to their individual
characters and lives. In the chapter under special examination
(VIII), he is said to be not only heir of all things but judge of the
world, — of both the righteous and the wicked ; and in chapter
XXXII, it is declared that this particular judgment occurs at
death, and is therefore a continuous function consequent upon the
work of mediation. More frequently and fully he is represented
as the final judge of quick and dead at his second coming, which
is to occur at the end of time. It is said (87) that the. bodies of

HIS ASCENSION AND TRIUMPH. 349
the wicked are then to be raised up in dishonor by him as an
offended judge; that angels as well as men (88) shall share in that
final adjudication; and (89) that upon clear evidence and* full con
viction of their own consciences, they shall receive from him the fear
ful but just sentence of condemnation. He is (90) appointed judge
of the righteous as well as the wicked ; and being openly acknowl
edged and acquitted by him, they shall share with him in the
judging of reprobate angels and men, and shall by his grace and
authority enjoy an eternity of holiness and of bliss.
This vision of the Mediator thus exalted and glorified in heaven,
and vested with such transcendent offices there in the interest of
his Church, is one in which the creeds are essentially agreed,
though with variations in form and in fullness of statement.
Thus the Augsburg Conf. (Ill) sets forth specifically the death
and burial, the rising and ascension, the enthronement at the right
hand of the Father, the heavenly dominion over all creatures for
the benefit of his people, and the final judgment. While the
Formula of Concord comments (IX) on the Descensus ad Inferos
as representing a sublime yet mysterious fact, respecting which
we are not to inquire, too curiously in this Hfe, but are rather to
wait for the revelations of the life to come, it affirms with empha
sis the triumphant ascension of the Mediator into heaven, his glory
there, and his final judgment at the end of the world. Zwingli
in his Articles declares that Christ is not only the supreme priest
and unique mediator, but also the only availing intercessor in
heaven for the saints. The first Helvetic Conf. (XI) speaks in
doquent terms of him as victor duxque ac pontifex vere summus,
our mediator and intercessor and Lord, living forever at the right
hand of the Father as the source of all blessing to his people.
Similar statements, more or less complete, may be found in other
continental symbols, — some of them, as the Belgic, specially em
phasizing the kingly advocacy and intercession of Christ, as in
contrast with the Roman dogma of priestly intervention and pro
pitiation before God. The Scotch Conf. devotes three Articles to
the death and sepulture, the resurrection and the ascension
respectively, emphasizing in the last the celestial advocacy and
the final judgment and eternal triumph of the Redeemer. And
the Thirty-Nine Articles tersely affirm (III-IV), not only that he
died and descended into the place of departed spirits, but that he
rose again with flesh, bones and all things appertaining to the
perfection of human nature; wherewith he ascended into heaven,
and there sitteth, until he return to judge all men at the last day.
At this point we may fitly close our study of this remarkable

350 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR.
cbapter, with the cognate teachings found elsewhere in the Sym
bols respecting Christ as our one and
17. Final" summary: mys. only and perfect Mediator. Much
teries involved: faith requi- morS) coyering his redemptive work,
will present itself for earnest consider
ation as we turn to contemplate the great plan of salvation for
which his mediation provides the sufficient and sublime basis, the
processes of grace involved in that plan, and the precious outcome
of this mediation in spiritual experience and Hfe. But we shall
do well to carry with us throughout all our further studies in the
Symbols a devout sense of the regulative and illumining presence
of this theanthropic Person on whose offices and functions we
have been meditating, and without whose gradous and vicarious '
intervention there could be no salvation for our fallen race. In
afl such studies, we shall assuredly fail unless we walk contin
uously in the light, and are guided by the tender hand of Christ
the Mediator. For herein lies the grandest peculiarity of Chris
tianity as distinguished from all the natural faiths of the world, —
that it rests fundamentally, not on ceremonies or dogmas, nor on
professions or organizations, but on just such a Person as Jesus
Christ is seen to be in his salvatory mediatorship, — not on myths
or traditions respecting him, but on the historically verified facts
concerning his incarnation, mission, teaching, suffering, death" and
resurrection, as at once the anointed prophet and priest and king
of mankind. Whatever of value there may be or may not be in '
the current suggestions of a Christocentric theology, as distinct
from other modes of constructing theologic systems, there can be
no question as to the actual concentration in Scripture of every- .
thing else in the form of doctrine, around the person of this divine
Mediator, as being at once the ordained center, the illuminating
principle, the organizing life of the entire Revelation.
In concluding this survey, we may well bear in memory the fact :
that there is ever a solemnizing and subduing mystery of godli-
ness, as Paul describes it, enveloping this conception of Him
Who was thus God manifest in the flesh for human redemption.
We cannot measure the heights and depths of the kenosis, the
grounds and reasons, of the incarnation, the combination of the.
divine personality with the human nature, the strange blending.
of divine energies and capabilities with the limitations common to
mankind, and the other insoluble mysteries which at least in this
life must envelop him who was at one and the same time God and'
man. Nor can we at all estimate at its true value any one of his
sublime offices, or know with any adequate degree of fullness what

SUMMARY VIEW. 351
he was and is and will continue to be as the prophet, priest, king
and judge of mankind. Least of all can we follow him into his
transcendent place at the right hand of the Father, or estimate
adequately the multiplied ways in which, though ascended cor
poreally into heaven, he is still enlightening, empowering, guiding
and ruling his church and people on the earth, and ordering all
things in the majestic sweep of his providence for good to them
that love him. These enveloping mysteries no finite hand can
push aside — no mortal eye can penetrate. Yet they are proper
and inevitable concomitants of just such a gracious disclosure as
the Mediator came to make, — of just such a work as he came to
do in and for our lost world; and the heart of faith can only bow
down in their presence and adore.
It is a memorable fact that as early as A. D. 1555, an English
congregation or church was organized at Geneva, composed chiefly
of persons who had been driven out from Britain by the persecu
tions under Queen Mary; and that John Knox who in the previ
ous year had been prosecuting his studies in Geneva, under the
personal direction of Calvin, was one of its associate pastors. He
had received an urgent caU from a similar congregation of exiles
at Frankfort, and at the commandment of Mr. Calvin, that notable
servant of God, as he says, he had entered on his work as their
minister. But he soon returned to Geneva, and remained there
from A. D. 1555 to 1559, when he went back to Scotland and be
gan his grand work in Britain as a reformer. One among the
most interesting minor creeds of the period is the short and simple
Confession, adopted by this Genevan congregation, and afterwards
received and approved by the Church of Scotland, doubtless through
the influence of Knox. We may well appropriate to ourselves
in dosing this Lecture, the substance of that venerated symbol.
The second and main Article in it is a declaration of belief in Jesus
Christ, the only Savior and Messias, the only Son of God, who
took on him the shape of a servant and became man in all things
like unto us, sin excepted, to assure us of mercy and forgiveness,
. . . who, giving us by grace that which was his by nature, made
us through faith the children of God, . . . who of his free mercy,
without compulsion, offered up himself as the only sacrifice to
purge the sins of all the world, . . . and who, because he would
accomplish all things and take possession for us in his kingdom,
ascended into heaven to enlarge that kingdom by the abundant
power of his Spirit, by whom we are most assured of his contin
ual intercession toward God the Father for us; . . . yet is he
present with us as his members even unto the end of the world.

LECTUEE SEVENTH— THE PLAN OF SALVATION.
Salvation Defined : The Divine Plan : Covenant op
Redemption: Covenant op Grace: The Gospel: Elec
tion : Reprobation.
C. F. Ch. VII : III, v-vii : L. C 12-13, 30-35 ; S. C. l'6-20.
While the supreme purpose of the creeds of the Reformation
was to set forth the redemptive work of Christ the Mediator, in
contrast with the doctrinal errors and sacerdotal superstitions of.
Rome, it was natural that they should commence, as they generally
did, with an exposition of the Mediator himself in his constitu
tion, his qualities inherent and official, and his distinctive functions
or offices as exercised in that redemptive work. The first answer
in the Heidelberg Catechism, setting forth the faithful Savior,
Jesus Christ, as the only comfort of the soul in life and in death,
illustrates the general tendency of spiritual Protestantism, first to
describe and extol Him who saves, and then in the light that
shines from his person to describe and magnify his great salvation.
So the Second Helvetic Confession, the most technical and theo
logical among the continental symbols, brings in the strong
chapter (XI), De Jesu Christo . . . Unico rflundi Salvatore,
before it discusses the great Evangel, with all its blessed expe
riences and results. And though the Westminster Confession
prefaces its remarkable presentation of the Mediator divine and
human, with the chapter (VII) on God's Covenant with Man, it
still postpones the full development of the truths which that title
represents until, as we have seen, it portrays before our deHghted.
eyes the Immanuel himself, who represents God in every cove-
nantal relation, and through whose vicarious intervention God
and man are graciously reconciled. A truly spiritual and quick
ening theology must always follow this order, since the work of
the Mediator can be comprehended only in the illuminating
instructiveness of his Person, and since it is the Person on whom
our faith must really be fixed— the Person in whose hand our
hands must be clasped, before we can comprehend or enjoy exper
imentally the salvatory work which he has wrought out for us and
for mankind.
Following the order quite generally preferred in Protestant

salvation defined. 353
symbolism, we may now pass from the contemplation of Christ as
the one and only Mediator and Savior of men, to examine more
specifically the glorious scheme of salvation which he came into
our world to bring, — considering it with respect to its need and
nature, its formation and historic development, its embodiment in
the Gospd, its adaptation and efficacy in the case of all who truly
accept its gracious provisions, and its effect on those who willfully
reject them. Much that is included in this broad and central
section of Christian doctrine, has already come before us more or
less fully in the consideration of man especially as sinful and
faUen, and of the Savior in his mission and his offices as the
anointed Mediator between God and sinful man. But in contem
plating salvation itself as a divine plan for the deliverance of
mankind from the corruption and guilt of sin, it will be needful
to study with reverent care every essential element in this plan,
and to comprehend so far as we may the principles and the meth
ods and provisions incorporated in it. In a word, we now turn1 to
the contemplation of the Gospel — that Gospel of deliverance from
both the guilt and the power of sin, which Christ came among
men to introduce and proclaim.
It is incumbent here at the outset to note with utmost thoughtr
fulness the human need of salvation, and of just such a plan of
salvation as that which Christianity
sets forth as the only hope of our fal- *• Salvation defined : Its
, „, . , . .. , need and nature.
len race. Channing has happily de
fined salvation on its subjective side as a rescue from moral evil,
from error and sin, from the diseases of the mind, and. a res
toration to inward truth, piety and virtue. But that eminent
representative of humanitarianism sadly failed to recognize the
objective element in the term, as including not only such spiritual
restoration, such recovery from the disease of sin, but also deHv-
erance from the guilt and the condemnation consequent1 upon sin,
and reconciliation with God through appropriate mediation, to
gether with eternal felicity secured through the divine forgive
ness, and based on personal holiness divinely wrought within the
soul. The true biblical salvation in this composite form has its
synonym in the scriptural term, redemption, which is also a com^
posite term, involving not only inward release from the fetters of
sin, but legal ransom and judicial restoration to divine favor
through the vicarious intervention of Christ. Both terms, each
in its subjective and its objective signification combined, are essen
tial to the full description of that great salvatory procedure pro
claimed in Scripture, of which the propitiatory mediation is the

354 THE PLAN OF SALVATION.
ground, and whose result is the complete and eternal reconciliation
and union of the redeemed soul with God.
The radical contrast between this redemptive process and all
other modes of reconciliation proposed or conceivable by man, will
be more readily apprehended after the essential elements in this pro
cess shall have been considered. It is important here simply to
emphasize the necessity for just such a scheme of both inward puri
fication and objective justification as has just been described. That
necessity has already been made apparent in the exposition of the
biblical doctrine of mediation. That significant term presup
poses, as we have seen,- a spiritual alienation induced by sin,
whereby man has become separated from God, and is living in a
condition of both orphanage and legal condemnation. It presup
poses also the withdrawal of God personally and judiciaUy from
the soul that has thus become estranged and rebellious, and the
providential giving over of that soul for the time to the evils which
its sinfulness inevitably induces. Fellowship and communion,
parental regard and favor on one side, filial love and obedience
on the other, become impossible under such moral conditions.
And so long as the sinner thus persists in his sinfulness, so long
must he continue to wander farther and farther in act and temper
from God, and so long must God continue to withdraw himself,
and leave the sinner more and more to the misery and doom con
sequent upon his rebellion. These fundamental facts are indeed
affirmed with utmost solemnity in Scripture, but they do not exist
because the Scripture affirms them. They find their attestation
immediately, as Butler has so forcibly shown, in the consciousness
of every soul which has in any degree discerned the character and
claims of God, or which properly apprehends itself in its relations
to God. The history of the race, the experiences of men in all
lands and times, attest them. They are certified by the testimonies
of the profoundest ethical philosophy, as well as by universal
experience and observation. The Bible describes the dark reality
in all its palpable and awful forms, but the reality could not justly
be questioned, were there no Divine Word to certify to it. Man
knows himself a sinner, perverse and alienated, and also knows that
a radical disparity in character, and consequently a moral and
legal chasm, stretches itself out between him and God because he
is a sinner.
Nor is the witness of Scripture needful to convince us of the
peril, the hopelessness, of such a condition, apart from divine
grace. Whenever we faithfully study ourselves, taking full account
alike of the moral forces and the moral disabilities existing

NEED OF SALVATION. 355
within us, and attempt the experiment of restoring ourselves by
the action of our native capacities to what we may regard as an
acceptable spiritual state before God, we are at once convinced of
the practical impossibility of such restoration. The difficulty is
spontaneously seen to be too extensive and too serious to be
reached through personal resolution or reform or any kindred
procedure, originating in and carried forward by ourselves. Some
other agencj^ than our own evidently must be brought into play
for our complete -and lasting recovery. And on the side of God
also we intuitively perceive that, however much we might imag
ine ourselves able to do in this direction, we could have no assur
ance whatever that God would regard such effort as satisfactory,
or would be reconciled to us on account of what we had thus
done or endeavored to do in the way of restoring ourselves to his
favor. And back of all this, we must further realize the demand
of offended justice, the claims of violated law, and the guilt and
condemnation consequent on such violation; and confess that the
probability of restoration and reconciliation on any natural basis
is wholly unwarranted. Nor is the peril, the hopelessness, of the
case limited to the present life only; for natural theology alone is
sufficient, in what it reveals as to the constitutional development
of character in man and to the relation of character to destiny,
to lead to the condusion that this sad condition, unless divinely
corrected, will be everlasting. Neither here nor in eternity could
the sinful and estranged soul hope by any personal process to
secure reconciliation with God.
It is needful here to affirm this profound necessity afresh, be
cause it furnishes the only adequate basis for the conception of a
divine plan of salvation from the pollution and the condemnation
of sin. That necessity is indeed included in what has been
already ascertained concerning "the moral nature and condition
and needs of man, and also in what has been said respecting the
person and offices of Christ the Mediator. Yet this spiritual need
cannot be too often or earnestly emphasized, not simply as a truth
affirmed in Scripture, but as a fundamental fact written on the con
stitution and verified in the experience of the race. The more pro
found our apprehension of this need, — the more clear and strong our
convictions respecting the desperate condition into which sin has
thus reduced mankind, the more distinct and comprehensive and
effective will be our estimate of the salvation which Christ came to
our earth to confer. Hence the peculiar stress laid upon this neces
sity, internal and external, in the Protestant creeds, both Lutheran
and Reformed. Socinianism with its Pelagian conception of human

356 THE PLAN OF SALVATION.
nature might assert the possibility, or even the actuality, of tfie
restoration of the human soul to holiness, and therefore to renewed
fellowship with God, through the exercise of its own inherent
energies and aspirations. Roman Catholicism might with a cer
tain degree of consistency affirm that such restoration is obtainable
through the intervention of the church — through the mediation
of the priest and the sacrifice. But Protestantism, with its larger
conception of what spiritual holiness is, and its deeper view of
what sin is as both a corrupting and an estranging influence, must:
maintain that the case of humanity is hopeless, unless God him
self shall, as the Scriptures declare, bridge the chasm througit
vicarious mediation, and bring the sinner back to an estate of
recondliation, by bringing him back in penitence and love through
Christ to himself. On this fundamental proposition the Protestant
Symbols earlier and later are alike unequivocally based; without
this foundation the Protestant theory of salvation must be pro
nounced an illusion.
The familiar phrase, Plan of Salvation, current in nearly, all
evangelical schools of thought, is employed to describe somewhat
more specifically the divine purpose to
£.,5£S£ *"*" "*¦*** ^^ w'"ch
erelgn, gracious. should adequately meet at every point
this universal necessity, and should
actually save all who would accept its provisions, not only from
guilt and condemnation but also from the inward corruption of
their sins, and bring them graciously into a state of blessed recon
ciliation with God. The general doctrine respecting the decree or
decrees of GodTalready considered obviously carried with it as one
essential part the conception of such a particular decree of salva
tion, — an eternal purpose which, while it included on the, one side
the permission of sin, also included on the other an adequate pro
vision for human deliverance from sin, and a determination to
secure such deliverance. We have seen in what sense and meas
ure it was purposed that sin should exist as a moral experience.
In like manner was it designed even from eternity, that man
should be saved from the sin into which he had thus been per
mitted to fall. Such a purpose, in a word, was as truly, an de
ment in the universal decree as the creation of the world, or the
divine administration over the material or the moral universe.
Nor is it proper to regard this as an inferior or secondary fea
ture of that generic scheme whereby, in the language of the chap
ter on Decrees, God from all eternity, according to the counsel of
his own will, freely and unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes

THIS PLAN SOVEREIGN AND GRACIOUS. 357
to pass. It is noticeable that in that strong chapter the Westmin
ster divines pass on almost immediately from the conception of
this generic purpose controlling all things alike, to the specific mat
ter of salvation, and affirm therein not only that God from all
eternity has chosen to save some portion of the human race, but also
that eternally he has foreordained and provided all the means there
unto. It is obvious from the form of their statement, that they
contemplated human salvation as in fact the greatest work of God
— greater than creation, or providential or moral administration;
and therefore placed it in the very foreground of their doctrinal
system as the grandest illustration of that comprehensive scheme
of things, which they sought to describe under the title of the
Eternal Decree. In this respect, as in so many others, they sim
ply carried out in more elaborate form what was embedded sub-
stantiaUy even in the eariier Lutheran, and still more fully in the
main Calvinistic symbols. Thus the Formula of Concord, in
describing the foreordination of those who are saved, says: This
predestination or election extends only to the good and beloved
children of God and is the cause of their salvation, for it procures
their salvation, and appoints those things which pertain to it.
The Catechism of Heidelberg, the Second Helvetic, and some
other continental creeds, incorporate the truth in forms still more
definite and complete. In the Canons of Dort the divine predes
tination, as involved in the conception of the plan of salvation, is
put into the front as Primum Doctrinae Caput, and this gracious
plan or purpose is elaborately described, in accordance with the
high Calvinism of HoUand, as the supreme act of Deity. And
in the Thirty -Nine Articles (XVII) predestination to life is said
to be the result of the everlasting purpose of God whereby . . .
he has constantly decreed by his counsel, secret to us, to deliver
from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ
out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting
salvation. It is important further to note that this divine plan, thus formed
from eternity, was in a true and absolute sense sovereign. We
cannot conceive of such a scheme as demanded of right by those
whom it includes in its holy circle, or as conditioned in any way
upon their consent or election. Like the purpose to create, it was
formed antecedently to all time, and above and beyond all conditions
which any creature could interpose. The formation of such a plan
Was an absolutely free procedure, independent of all extraneous
claims or interpositions. God, in other words, was as far beyond
and above all coercing causes in devising this gracious scheme, as

358 THE PLAN OF SALVATION.
he was in the creation of the world or of man. When we shall
come to consider the application of this scheme in the actual
deliverance and restoration of individual sinners, we shall be ena
bled to see where and how and in what measure the will of man
becomes in some subordinate sense a conditioning factor. But
nothing that will come to light in that connection, can affect the
primal fact that God was absolutely free in planning, as he is also
free in bestowing, the salvation provided in the Gospel. Sover
eignty, wise, holy, gracious, supreme, sheds its own golden
radiance on both the purpose and the execution.
And as this plan was eternal in its origin and sovereign in its
formation, so it was perfect throughout, not only as an expression
of all the inherent attributes of Deity, but specifically as a man
ifestation of the divine love for our race, contemplated as fallen.
It was no arbitrary scheme, springing from the autonomy of an abso
lute will simply: every divine perfection shared in its formation.
But most of all is it comforting to regard this plan as the supreme
utterance or manifestation of pure, holy, inextinguishable love.
It has indeed sometimes been represented in a colder, more chilling
light, — as if the sovereignty illustrated in it was the edict of a
monarch, inscrutable in its design, inexplicable in its disposition
and method. The language of the Confession is regarded as in some
degree open to such an imputation. But a wise and just theology
will rather recognize this plan as at the beginning conceived in
love, and as executed under the inspirations of a love which
shrank from no toil or sacrifice requisite to secure the desired recon
ciliation. We shall have occasion again and again, as we progress
in our studies, to recognize this fundamental fact; but it is impor
tant at the very outset of such investigation to emphasize as
'fundamental the truth, that this plan of salvation, while eternal
and sovereign, was also at the beginning, as it is in all its gracious
unfoldings, a plan of love.
Another phrase, current in Calvinistic theology, though not
found in the Symbols or indeed in any conspicuous Protestant
formulary, requires brief explanation at
JnT^fT^ T this Point-the Covenant of Redemp-
phrase defined ; errors to he . ^ ^
avoided. tlon- rne Confession speaks of two
covenants only, the covenant of works
under which Adam was placed, and through whose violation he
fell, and the covenant of grace established between God in Christ
and the believer. But the federal theology seemed to require, in
order to its structural completeness, the additional conception of
a covenant between the persons in the blessed Trinity, antecedent

COVENANT OF REDEMPTION. 359
to both of the preceding, and formed even from eternity, as the
primordial basis on which the entire dealing of God with man in
the interest of salvation might rest. This conception did not
indeed make its way into the Symbols, yet the fact which the
phrase is designed to describe, is clearly suggested in the confes
sional chapter on Christ the Mediator, wherein it is said that the
Son accepted the office to which he was called by the Father, was
appointed and endowed for this office by the Father, and by dis
charging the duties involved in the office secured, as if by con
tract, salvation for sinful man and heavenly rewards for himself.
A half century later, the dogma of a separate covenant of redemp
tion, as anteceding in time the covenants of works and of grace,
became more prominent in the federal theology, especially under
the influence of such divines as the younger Turretin. It has
since then retained its place in Calvinistic theology, and appears,
though less conspicuously, in our own time as an illustrative mode
of setting forth the very practical truth, that not the Son only,
but the Father also, was concerned even from eternity in that gra
dous plan or scheme whereby through their joint activity men
are saved. There is also some warrant in Scripture (Ps. 2; 110;
and Isa. 53) for the presentation of this vital truth under the
form or image of a covenant, in which these divine Persons are
contemplated as making an agreement one with another, giving
mutual promises, prescribing and accepting conditions, specifying
obligations, as is done in human contracts. And although from
the nature of the case such a divine contract lies entirely beyond
our comprehension, and though the biblical representations
respecting it are but slight and largely anthropomorphic, it may
still be accepted under proper limitations as helpful in the effort to
apprehend the interest and the gracious purpose of the entire Deity
in the scheme and process of salvation.
Yet there are two errors respecting this covenant against which
we are to be guarded. The first is the serious error of attempt
ing to analyse this divine transaction too closely, — to specify too
elaborately what each of the parties was to do or suffer under this
contract, and especially to separate these parties so broadly through
such analysis and specialization, as to convey the impression that
they are two divine Beings, rather than two hypostases or subsis
tences within the one holy Godhead. Detailed descriptions of
what the Father agrees to do, and what the Son agrees to do, — of
the promises and pledges made on either side, of the rewards
guaranteed by the Father on condition that the Son shall faithfully
perform his assigned part under this contract, are certainly without

360 THE PLAN OF SALVATION.
proper measure of warrant in the Bible, and are liable to lead
those who follow such analysis too closely into a pernicious form
of tritheism. Such attributing to this celestial transaction the
technicalties of a human compact, is not only unsustained by
Scripture, but is fraught with spiritual peril. A really painful
illustration of this error may be seen in the Sum of Saving Knowl
edge (Head II) where this covenant is described as a bargain
between God the Father and God the Son, with specialized gifts,
promises, stipulations, conditions, pledges, perquisites on the one
side and the other, — the whole becoming a legal or commercial
contract, transacted as between two wholly independent parties.
It is another equally serious error to represent the Father and
the Son as the only parties contracting in this divine covenant.
The Spirit, whose relations to the actual salvation of men are cer
tainly not to be regarded as inferior to those of the first and the
second persons in the Trinity, is rarely if ever recognized as a
distinct party in this divine transaction. Thus, Hodge, (Theol.
11:359) describes the covenant of redemption as a compact between
the Father and the Son only; and Shedd, (11:360) affirms that the
contracting parties here are the first and second persons of the
Trinity; the first of whom, as he says, promises a kingdom, a
glory and a reward, upon condition that the second performs a
work of atonement and redemption. Yet surely the office and
work of the Spirit are no less a part of the great plan of salva
tion than those of either Father or Son, and there appears no
adequate reason why this covenant should not include him as truly
as either of them. If there were terms, promises, conditions,
pledges, distribution of functions and offices, specific rewards
in the case, certainly the Spirit must have been, not merely a
passive spectator of such agreement, but an actual sharer in it,
covenanting to do his part also, his equally essential part, in the
sublime work in whose furtherance the whole Deity is generally
represented in Scripture as engaged. Any other view is inconsis
tent with the universal doctrine of Christendom that these three
persons, being alike God, are equal in power and glory, and that
notwithstanding all economic division of personaUties, they are
and forever remain one Being. Nor does the procession of the
Spirit from the Father, or from Father and Son, imply any such
inferiority in his relation to this sublime work, as would justify
us in excluding him from participation in this primal covenant.
In the purpose and work of human salvation, as in their nature
these Three are One, — one Being whom no theology ought ever so
to separate or analyse as to suggest tritheism in whatever form.

COVENANT OF GRACE. 361
Comprehensively viewed, the two phrases, plan of salvation and
covenant of redemption, represent not two independent transact
ions, but antithetic parts of one and the same transaction
wherein God, Father and Son and Holy Ghost, formed the pur
pose to save fallen man, devised the process and method of salva
tion, provided on every side the divine aids requisite, and as in holy
covenant entered each upon his appointed share and division of that
supreme work. And it adds immeasurably to our sense of the sig
nificance and preciousness of these phrases, if we suffer them thus to
carry us back of our personal birth, back of the incarnation, back
of the first Messianic promise, back of the creation of the earth and
man, back of all recorded time, to that august eternity in which the
Godhead dwelt alone; and if they shall enable us to discern even
in that eternity the blessed Trinity meditating upon the condition
of our sinful race yet to be, and in holy union and infinite grace
devising that scheme of deliverance whose development in time,
spedfically in the incarnation and mediatorship of Jesus Christ,
is the wonder of wonders in human history, as it will be the song
of the redeemed and of angels in glory forever.
It is important to recall at this point what has been said in a
previous Lecture respecting the covenant of life or of works —
styled in the Irish Articles, the cove-
nant of the Law-which stands out in 4- Covenant of Grace : the
, „ , , ,_, ,7TT. . ... necessity of gracious inter
file Symbols (Ch. VII) in vivid con- positlon#
trast with the covenant of grace or of
the Gospel, now to be considered as an element in the plan of
salvation. Mitchell has conclusively shown (Hist. West. Assem
bly) that the theology of the covenants, though it received its
fullest elaboration in Holland, had been known and to some con
siderable extent accepted in Britain, prior to the convening of the
Westminster Assembly. Besides other evidences, he adduces the
remarkable Treatise of the Covenant of Grace by Ball, published
during the sessions of the Assembly, with commendatory notices
from several of its members, in which the whole subject is elabo
rately discussed. It is an additional fact, interesting to us, that
almost simultaneously with this there appeared from the pen of
John Cotton in New England a similar volume, entitled a Treatise
of the Covenant of Grace as it is dispensed to the Elect Church
effectually unto Salvation. • In the volume of Ball the covenant
of works or of Hfe is defined as a mutual contract or agreement
betwixt God and man, wherein God promiseth all good things,
especially eternal happiness, unto man upon just, equal and favor
able conditions, and man doth promise to walk before God in all

362 THE PLAN OF SALVATION.
acceptable, free, willing obedience, expecting all good from God
and all happiness in God. The covenant of grace is defined in
like manner as that free and gracious promise which God of his
mere mercy made in Jesus Christ with man, a miserable and
wretched sinner, promising unto him pardon of sin and eternal
happiness, if he will return from his iniquities,, embrace mercy
reached forth by faith unfeigned, and walk before God in sincere,
faithful and joyous obedience. Ball proceeds to describe minutely
the historic evolution of the latter covenant, from its first revela
tion to Adam down through the patriarchial period and the Mosaic
and Hebraic eras, until it attained its final development in the
new covenant or testament, made with sinners through Christ as
the appointed Mediator in the economy of grace.
This historic reference helps to explain the distinct place which
the Covenant Theology secured for itself in the Symbols. Both of
the covenants, as defined by Ball, are incorporated in them. As
we have seen, it is declared in the Confession (VII : i) that, in
order to bring himself more fully into human consciousness, and
to grant mankind a larger fruition of himself as their true blessed
ness and reward', God was pleased to establish between our first
parents and himself a form of covenant — a more familiar and
winning type of relationship, which should induce in them a live
lier faith and hope, and should stimulate them to higher, nobler
obedience. Having already considered this original covenant as to
its purpose and nature, in connection with the story of the temp
tation and the fall, it is needful here only to emphasize the fact
of the divine tenderness and care for man manifested in such con
descension as is here described. The statement was introduced at
this point doubtless to guard against a possible impression that the
command to refrain from eating the forbidden fruit, and the per
mission of temptation to assail man even in Satanic form, exhibit
God in cold sovereignty rather than in paternal love, determining
that man should be seduced and should fall from his uprighteous-
ness. Hence it is said that God was pleased in his infinite holiness
to express, not his sovereignty, but his tender regard for man in
this special form of covenant, — a covenant of works, wherein life
was promised to Adam and in him to his posterity, upon condition
of perfect and personal obedience. There is certainly no warrant
in the Scriptures for any other view than that, so far as the divine
desire was concerned, such fruition of God as the supreme blessed
ness and reward of our first parents, was the end sought in and
through this covenant, which is therefore fitly styled in the Cate
chisms a covenant of life as well as of works.

LAW AND GRACE IN CONTRAST. 363
The following sections of the same chapter (VII) describe the
failure of man to avail himself of the privileges offered to him in
that covenant, and declare that after this failure and in consequence
of it, God was pleased to make with man a second covenant — the
covenant of grace. The suggestion of such a covenant appears
in the Irish Articles (21, 30), in contrast with the covenant of the
law, and in the Canons of Dort (Second Head, Art. VII), where
it is styled the new covenant; but is not found distinctively in the
creeds of the sixteenth century. In the Symbols it is definitely
described not only in the Confession, but in both Catechisms;
tersely in the Shorter (20) but quite elaborately (30-36) in the
Larger, which not only incorporates but expands the theological
concept of the Confession. The occasion of this gracious covenant
appears in what is said in chapter VI. with regard to the condition
into which the fall plunged man, the loss of original righteousness
and of filial communion with God, the defilement of all the facul
ties and parts of soul and body, the death in sin, and the forfeiture
of all the blessings which a career of holy obedience would have
secured. In the order both of thought and of time, the covenant
of grace must have foUowed, as is said, upon the failure of the
covenant of Hfe. Though the plan of salvation by this process
was eternal as a purpose in the divine thought, its chronologic
manifestation must be consequent upon the historic fact of the fall,
and the justifying reason for it must appear in the awful destruc
tion which the sin of man has brought upon him. This necessity
had indeed been foreseen even from the remotest eternity, and in
eternity the scheme of deliverance had been formed; but there
must have been first a covenant of works, and man must have
failed to live up to that covenant, and consequently have been
plunged into an estate of sin, before this covenant of grace could
be introduced and manifested in time.
The statement of the Larger Catechism (31) that the covenant
of grace was made with Christ as the second Adam, and in him with
all the elect as his seed — a transaction occurring, like the covenant
of redemption, between the Father as representing the Deity, and
the incarnate Son as representing mankind, or the elect among
mankind — should be so interpreted as to harmonize with the
teaching of the Symbols elsewhere. As the parties to the first
covenant were God and man, so the parties to the second must be
regarded as God and the believer, — the covenant being indeed
mediated and secured through Christ as a surety, yet involving in
order to its saving operation the consent and acceptation of the
individual souls for whom Christ has thus mediated. This is the

364 THE PLAN OF .SALVATION.
view suggested in the Shorter Catechism and also in the Confession
(VII), where the covenant of grace is represented simply as a
divine offer of life and salvation through Christ, upon condition
of faith and obedience on the part of the believer, coupled with
a direct promise of the aid of the Holy Spirit in believing and
accepting willingly this gracious offer. In the subsequent sections
of the chapter where the practical administration of the covenant
is described, under both the Old Testament and the New, the same
representation of the human factor in the case is clearly given.
Christ is indeed the procuring and meritorious cause, but the
trustful and obedient assent of the human soul is, though in a
different sense and sphere, a condition no less indispensable. The
covenant is made with believers directly rather than indirectly, but
not with them as independent of Christ, their Redeemer and
surety; it is rather made with them in him.
Such in brief is the plan of salvation as described in this chapter
and elsewhere in the Symbols: a plan formed in eternity yet in
full view of the condition of man as
J\ ,Plan °f ,S^1Vati°°' "S a fallen bdng;— formed also in sov-
historic unfolding:: Types . . . . . . , , ..
and promises realized in erei&nty Y* in infinite love, and with
Christ. Just recognition of every requisite in
the case on both the divine and the hu
man side, — a plan in every feature adequate, including all that is
needful either to the inward cleansing or to the judicial deliver
ance of all who will accept its gracious provisions. The remain
ing sections of the chapter bring before us in an interesting manner
the story of the historic unfolding of this redemptive scheme.
The fourth simply describes the biblical representation of this
covenant as a testament or a will, and explains the usage by
referring to the death of Christ as the testator, and to that ever
lasting inheritance which in dying he bequeathed to those who by
faith in'him and justification through him become his heirs. As
the same Greek word is translated by both terms, and as the latter
had some special significance in view of its use in connection with
the Supper of our Lord, and also of its general use as descriptive
of the older and the newer Scriptures respectively, it seemed to the
Assembly important to associate the two terms together as represen
tations under different images or aspects of one and the same gra
cious transaction. What is in one aspect a covenant is in another
aspect a testament, and both covenant and testament are alike
included in the one scheme of salvation through the one and only
Mediator. In the Revision it was proposed that this section, and
also two phrases occurring elsewhere in the chapter, And is called

ITS HISTORIC UNFOLDING. 365
the Old Testament, And is called the New Testament, be stricken
out as superfluous. As they stand, they are probably misleading
rather than helpful.
The fifth section describes that beautiful evolution of this scheme
historicaUy in the Old Testament, which begins with the earliest
Messianic promise, and ends with the latest prediction concerning
the coming Messiah. That evolution commences with the disclosure
of a deHverance to come, made first to Eve in immediate conjunction
with the curse pronounced on her sin, then to Noah and to Shem
among his sons, afterward to Abraham (repeated to Isaac and
Jacob) , and finally to Judah among the sons of Jacob, in the assur
ance that from him the predestined Shiloh, Prince of Peace, should
spring forth — the attracting Savior of all the nations. It appears
again in the Mosaic ceremonial system, its priesthood and sacrifices
and ordinances, fitted indeed primarily to be a religious cultus,
working into the Jewish mind the principle of obedience and faith
and devotion, yet intended mainly to be typical of a higher dispen
sation to foUow, all fore-signifying Christ to come; — a gradous dis-
dpline, in every part, sufficient and efficadous, through the
operation of the Spirit, to instruct and build up the elect in faith
in the promised Messiah, We see the same evolution in the moral,
even more conspicuously than in the ceremonial law of Hebraism,
as it advances from the. earlier, and simpler and more negative
requisitions, unfolds its sacred daim along more spiritual lines,
grows in the sphere of its jurisdiction and in the solemnity of its
mandates, until at length it becomes a holy, supreme, perfect
mode and rule of Hfe, not for the Hebrews only, but for all man
kind, We see it also in the progressive disclosures of inspired
doctrine, from the more primary and fundamental truths respectr
ing the divine existence an4 attributes and relations to men, on
ward through aU the added and superadded revelations. of God as
the Father and Sovereign of mankind, and the consequent reve
lation of man to himself as disobedient, corrupt, perishing in sin
without a Redeemer. We may see it remarkably manifested in
that succession of prophedes which, starting from the pentateuchal
germ, flowed forth in steadily increasing beauty and fruitfulness
in the psalms and in the prophetical writings, ever approaching
more and more nearly the perfect consummation of all in the pre
dictions respecting the babe of Bethlehem, the Savior of man
kind. How far the Westminster divines carried out this conception
of a fivefold evolution of promise, prophecy . . . and other types
and ordinances, delivered to the people of the Jews in the time of
the law, and constituting — as they said — the old testament or

366 THE PLAN OF SALVATION.
covenant, it is not easy to determine from their formularies. It
certainly is remarkable that in that age they should have dis
cerned so much of that divine method of unfolding truth and
grace and that principle of evolution, which we in later times
have found to be the coalescing law in all the older Scriptures,
binding them into an indissoluble unity from Genesis to Malachi
around the central truth of the Messiahship of Jesus.
From this conception of the divine economy as revealed in the
Old Testament, they passed on in the section following to describe
Christ the substance, of whose person and mission all that had pre
ceded was prophetic and typical. Here they are careful to say
that we are to find herein not two covenants differing in essence,
but one and the same under various dispensations. They teach
us that, although in the higher economy of the Gospel as reaHzed
in Christ these ceremonial and external elements in religion are
fewer in number and have more simplicity and less outward glory,
the plan of salvation is therein held forth in more fullness, evidence
and spiritual efficacy, and that it is presented as such not to the
Hebrews only, but to all nations both fews and Gentiles. They
describe the ordinances, fewer and simpler yet far more effectual,
in which the new covenant was dispensed,' — specifically, the
preaching of the Word and the administration of the two Sacra
ments instituted by our Lord. And here they pronounce the
sacred evolution complete and perfect for all time; affirming else
where that the whole counsel of God in all things needful for his
own glory or for the faith, life and salvation of men are therein
set forth; and] that to this completed revelation nothing is at any
time to be added, whether by the traditions of men or through the
agency of the Holy Spirit.
A proper apprehension of the principles and methods in which
this beautiful evolution, not simply of doctrine and law, but of
every other essential element in the divine scheme of grace mani
fests itself, is indispensable to a right interpretation of either the
earlier or the later Scriptures. It is conceivable that God might
have unfolded at once to the Jewish people as a body, or simulta
neously to all nations, his benign plan for the salvation of the race.
But there are even to our narrow perception some practical rea
sons,— lying partly in the nature of the truths to be made known,
partly in the degree of receptive capacity in men, and partly in
the quality and greatness of the moral ends to be gained,— why
such an unfolding should be made as it was made in fact by a more
gradual process, continued through long periods of time and
marked by a wide variety as well as an extensive series of specific

THE GOSPEL DEFINED. 367
disclosures, until the mind of man, darkened and corrupted
through sin, should be elevated to the point where it could per
ceive and duly appreciate the divine display of grace — the divine
purpose to educate and persuade and save, as finally made known
to the world in the incarnation and mediatorship of the Son of
God. We are accustomed to speak of such successive disclosures
as a series of dispensations, the Patriarchal, the Hebraic, the
Christian, differing somewhat in their contents, their spirit, their
scope. But while such chronologic distribution has for our minds
a certain degree of helpfulness, it will be well for us always to
remember that the divine process was continuous, steadily progres
sive, exhibiting all the while higher and higher elements, larger
and larger manifestations of the divine purpose, until it reached
its final culmination in the Messiah and the Gospel. The proper
key to the Old Testament lies in the fact that it is throughout an
historical record, preserving by inspiration so far as needful for
the spiritual enHghtenment of the race, the story of this gradual
unfolding of the divine plan of redemption; and the proper key
to the New Testament Hes in the corresponding fact that it is an
historical record, similarly preserved, of the completion and con
summation of that prolonged unfolding in the Gospel of life in
Christ Jesus: Oehler, Theol. of the Old Testament; Bernard,
Progress of Doctrine in the New Testament.
Passing on from the examination of these introductory phrases
and statements as they are brought before us in this chapter, we
come at once upon the central and sig-
¦ r ^ , , . . • n A, , 6. The Gospel defined as
mficant term, Gospel, m which the real a Syst£m Qf Truflu
substance of the chapter is chiefly con
tained. The term appears already at two points in the Confes
sion; the first referring simply to the four narratives of the life of
Christ as given in the canonical books of Scripture; and the sec
ond, very incidentally, at the close of the chapter on the Eternal
Decree. But here the word stands out in special prominence as
representing all that characterized the new economy or testament
as distinguished from the old. It appears again in the impressive
chapter (XIX) on the Law of God, where we are taught that
Christ in the Gospel in no way dissolves but rather strengthens
and emphasizes the obligation of men to obey the law, and also
that true obedience to the law is not contrary to the Gospel, but
rather sweetly complies with it. We find it again in the chapters
on Worship and on the Sacraments; and in the subsequent chapter
on Baptism it is said that none but a minister of the Gospel — one

368 THE PLAN OF SALVATION.
duly appointed by the church to proclaim what is recognized as
the Gospel — should administer that churchly sacrament. Several
instances of Hke use may be seen in the Larger Catechism (53, 61 ,
72, 191) as the commission to preach the gospel to all nations, all
that hear the gospel axe not saved, the gospel propagated through
out the world; and in the Shorter Catechism (31, 86) , freely offered
to us in the gospel — a phrase appearing in the definitions of both
effectual calling and saving faith. In the Sum of Saving Knowl
edge it is repeatedly used as a synonym for what is there styled
the covenant of grace and reconciliation.
In the absence of any exact definition of the term, we are left
to gather up from the general teaching of the Symbols a concrete
view of its meaning in the two obvious aspects in which it is
there presented; first, as a revelation of saving truth, or of the
plan of salvation set forth in the Scriptures; and secondly, as a
divine proclamation and offer of salvation based on that reve
lation: Contemplated first as a revelation of religious and. .especially:
saving truth, the term in its most primary sense signifies (god-
spel) the story of God in his being and his relations tp men and
claims upon them; or more specifically, (goodrspell) the story of
the person, messiahship and mediation of God in Christ. It is
the great Evangel, as the Synod of Dort styjed it, — the glad tid
ings told in the four evangelic narratives respecting the incarna
tion, activities, teachings, sufferings, death and resurrection and
ascension of the Immanud, the mediating Redeemer of men. In
other words, it is the story supematurally told and divinely
authoritative respecting the plan of salvation, first, concdved in
eternity but fully revealed in time at the advent, and made known
to men through the personality and the mediatorial ministry, of
Him who from eternity was the predestined prophet and priest and
king of mankind. The frequent use of the term in the New
Testament (nearly ninety instances) may be noted as illustrative
of its meaning: in the majority of these instances it refers simply
to the recorded revelation concerning Christ or concerning the
way of salvation through him. Of the vast array of truth embod
ied in this wonderful term, it is impracticable here to speak in
detail. That truth rises in its scope far above all ordinary knowl
edge; it transcends all human sciences or philosophies;, it relates
directly to what is religious in human thought and experience.
Nor is it religious truth in any general or secondary aspect, but
such religious truth as bears vitally upon the spiritual life in man,
and concerns itself immediately with his immortal nature and

THE GOSPEL : ITS CONTENTS. 369
destinies. It is, in a word, such truth respecting God and man,
their several characters, their vital relations, their fellowship
secured through grace, as is centered in the correlated term, sal
vation. And it is this truth not as revealed in nature but as set
forth in the inspired Scriptures, and especially in so much of these
Scriptures as brings before us the one Mediator between God and
man, in all that he did and suffered, all that he said and was as
our Redeemer, and enables us to see in and through him how we
may be saved alike from sin and from condemnation. Calvin
tersely defines the Gospel as comprehending all those testimonies
which God gave to the fathers concerning his mercy and paternal
favor: but eminently, the proclamation of the grace exhibited in
Christ. The language of the Symbols as to the substance and doctrinal
contents of this Gospel is full of interest. In the chapter spec
ially under notice, it is said that God offers unto sinners life and
salvation by Jesus Christ on condition of faith in him, and prom
ises to give his Holy Spirit to men in order to make them willing
and able so to believe. In the succeeding chapter it is said that by
his perfect obedience and sacrifice Christ has purchased not only
reconciliation for sinners, but also an everlasting inheritance in the
kingdom of heaven; and that for all who believe on him, he has
obtained complete redemption, and has provided all spiritual help
and blessing thereunto, in such manner and ways as are most con
sonant with his wonderful and unsearchable dispensation. So in the
subsequent chapters (X-XV) on Effectual Calling, Justification
and Sanctification, Faith and Repentance, the glad tidings are
described in various aspects as the manifestation of a divine
scheme for the forgiveness and spiritual restoration of sinners in
all these particulars, in and through what Christ has done and
suffered in their behalf. In the Larger Catechism it is said (59)
that this redemption is certainly applied and effectually communi
cated to all those for whom Christ hath purchased it; that (69)
in virtue of his mediation, justification and adoption and sanctifi
cation are guaranteed to all believers; that by this process (7€) all
sins are pardoned, and the person of the sinner is accepted and
counted as righteous in the sight of God; and (75) that all sinners
are through Christ renewed in their whole man after the image of
God, having the seeds of repentance unto life and all other sav
ing graces implanted in them, and nourished and strengthened
within them, until they become dead unto sin and are raised as
from the dead into newness and freshness of spiritual life.
These expressions harmonize well with the descriptions of the

370 THE PLAN OF SALVATION.
Gospel scattered through the earlier creeds. The Catechism of
Luther and the Augsburg Conf. (IV-V) furnish the keynote for
the whole, and the responsive note may be heard, clear and full,
in the Articles of Ulrich Zwingli and in the succeeding Reformed
symbols. The first Helvetic Conf. (XI-XII), speaks of the great
Evangel of Jesus Christ, offering grace and benediction to men in
and through him as a mediating Savior. In the Second Helvetic
Conf. the Gospel is defined as that glad and happy tidings wherein,
first by John Baptist, then by Christ the Lord himself, and after
wards by the Apostles and their successors is preached unto us in
the world, that God hath now performed that which he hath
promised from the beginning of the world, and hath sent, yea,
and given unto us his only Son and in him reconciliation with the
Father, remission of sins, all fullness and everlasting life. The
Heidelberg Catechism (18) describes this Mediator as freely
given to us for our complete redemption and righteousness, and
affirms that this supreme fact becomes known to us (19) through
the holy Gospel, which God himself first revealed in Paradise,
afterward proclaimed by the holy patriarchs and prophets, and
foreshadowed by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law,
and finally fulfilled through his well-beloved Son. In the French
Confession and in some other continental formularies, the term
is used chiefly with reference to the Scriptures as containing the
announcement or the promise of salvation through Christ; while
in others as the Belgic and the Canons of Dort, it points imme
diately — as in the Symbols — to the truth itself, the spiritual and
saving truth imparted in the sacred writings. The Second Scotch
Confession speaks of the blessed Evangel which is received,
believed and defended by many and sundry kirks and realms as
God's eternal Truth, and the only ground of our salvation. And
the Irish Articles in like manner say (83) that the New Testa
ment is full of grace and truth, bringing joyful tidings unto man
kind, that whatsoever formerly was promised of Christ is now
fulfilled, and instead of the ancient types and ceremonies exhib-
iteth the things themselves, with a large and clear declaration of
all the benefits of the Gospel. In general it may be said that in
respect to the essential contents of the Gospel, Lutheran and
Calvinist, the continental and the insular branches of Protestant
ism, were cordially agreed.
From these various yet concordant statements we may gain the
generic proposition that the Gospel regarded as a disclosure or mes
sage is an authoritative revelation of spiritual and saving truth
concerning the eternal plan of salvation realized and made known

CONTRASTED WITH OTHER CONCEPTIONS. 371
to men; namely, that in view of the sin and the apostacy of the
race God has gradously provided, in the incarnation and media
tion of Christ, contemplated in its various aspects, a suitable
scheme for the deliverance of sinners from their sin and from
the guilt incurred by their disobedience, and for their complete
justification and reconciliation through faith and obedience to
himself. The end of the gradous scheme is human salvation;
the agent is the Lord Jesus Christ, and the method is his mediating
work; the conditions are faith in him and submission to his teach
ing and example; and the result is pardon, peace, holiness, and
an eternal union with God through him. Whether the message
be true or false, effectual or otherwise, this in a word is the Gospel
— the central doctrine in the Bible, and the supreme manifesta
tion of the Deity to fallen man.
This definition or description of the Gospel viewed as a divine
message, may be more fuUy estimated in its unique worth and
beauty, if we contrast it for a moment
with other theories respecting salva- r' The GosPel contrasted
... . with other conceptions of
Hon, such as are more or less current salvation. m superlority
among men. If the prehminary ques- an(j efficacy.
tion be raised whether there is really
any need of salvation in any form, the answer must be found in
what we have already learned respecting man as a transgressor of
the divine law, as deficient in cordial conformity with that law,
as in a chronic state of disobedience and rebellion toward God,
and as animated in the substance of his life by a deeply seated
and inordinate principle of selfishness — a dominating purpose to
make self rather than God supreme in all his activities. A
further answer may be found in the historic fact that mankind
generally, of all countries and races, have seemed to be more or
less conscious of this spiritual condition, and of the necessity for
some mode of deliverance from sin, and of reconciliation with
their offended Creator and Sovereign. Every natural religion
that has appeared in history or that now exists in the world, by
its sacrifices and confessions, by its prayers, its penances, its
altars and temples and priesthood, acknowledges that the present
is not the normal or appropriate spiritual state of such a being as
man knows himself to be, and that some way of escape from this
sinful and criminal state ought if possible to be secured. Yet in
fact these natural religions do not meet the profound spiritual end
for which they were instituted: they neither provide the needed
sense of deliverance from guilt, nor renovate the heart, nor sanc
tify character, nor give the worshiper the spiritual peace which

372 THE PLAN OF SALVATION.
would flow from an assured consciousness of holiness attained and
of reconciliation with an offended God. In a word, these natural
faiths, scattered throughout the world, represented by millions
of bewildered' devotees, and often splendid in thdr material dis
plays, have never yet given to a single soul what is embodied
in the Christian concept of salvation, or is actually realized and
enjoyed by every soul that truly accepts the blessing provided in
Christ Jesus.
Again: it may be claimed that if man be indeed sinful in any
such sense or measure as demands a radical change in his state of
heait and his relation toward God, that change is to be found,
not in some superhuman mediation such as Christianity presents,
but in the restorative energies still resident within the human soul
itself, and in the natural and providential conditions that surround
it in life. Sin is affirmed to be at the worst only a slight and occa
sional incident in the moral experience of mankind, and one
which the actor may and will correct as knowledge increases and
sound judgment comes into play, — one also which God contem
plates with parental indulgence, and for which in whatever aspect
no salvation such as the Scriptures propose, is needful. But is it
not obvious that all such conceptions rest on superficial, defective,
and largely erroneous views of what sin is as a nature resident in .
man, and especially of the relations of sin to God, and his esti
mate of its guilt and condemnation ? Is it not obvious also that,
if the soul by some energy remaining within it should thus of
itself correct its evil tendencies, the guilt of previous transgres
sion would remain, and would require in order to divine forgive
ness some expiation which the sinner could not of himself supply?
But still further, is it not obvious as a matter of practical experi
ment that men do not restore themselves, as is suggested, to a state
of obedience and holiness, — that while we see here and there happy
reformations along special lines in individuals, we do not discern
any such renewal in the heart and life of the race as justifies the
belief that our humanity without divine intervention will ever
bring itself back to an estate of holiness, or to any proper and
blessed relationship with Deity? Tried by actual experiment,
tested by wide observation of men, is it not obvious beyond all
question that there is no adequate salvation in man himself— no
such regeneration of thought, of conviction, of conduct,— no such
deliverance from a condition of conscious guilt and consequent
condemnation, as will secure to him what that comprehensive and
profound term suggests ?
It is plainly inadequate either to deny that man needs any

GOD ALONE CAN SAVE. 373
salvation, or to affirm that he can secure the salvation he needs
through any among the natural religions, or by spiritual processes
originating with and completed by himself. It is a profound
remark of Bishop Butler, which is corroborated by the experience
and observation of all thoughtful minds, that there seems in the
nature of the case no probability that anything that man could do
would alone and of itself prevent the evils which sin has brought
upon the race. In fact there never has appeared anywhere in
human sodety, even in the highest developments of civilization in
the world, any dear indication that mankind in the aggregate,
acting simultaneously and together, will ever be able to sweep
away human sin and to restore our fallen race to a state of holiness.
The only possible alternative Hes, therefore, in the intervention of
some divine power, — a divine power impelled by a painful sense
of the actual condition of humanity, and by a merciful desire to
help and save the world. To this alternative all men alike are
driven, as individuals Hke Socrates have been driven, on the
ground of philosophy alone, wherever this moral situation is appre
hended exactly as it is. The case is seen to be one which only
God, and the God against whom the evil has been wrought, can
adequately appredate or make suitable provision to remedy. He
is the only being who can either renovate or forgive, — who can
rectify the purpose, give peace to the conscience, quicken and
hallow the corrupted nature and life, and establish satisfying rela
tions with himself. Waiving just here the vital question whether
God would in fact do this, after all the dishonor which human sin
has brought upon him and his government, it is beyond all ques
tion that, if salvation be possible, it must come from this divine
source as originant and supreme, rather than through any inde
pendent energy or effort of man. And it is also clear beyond
question that in such a gracious undertaking God must bring into
play, not the native powers of the soul alone, but also his own
superadded potency and grace, his own thought and will and
quickening touch, in order to accomplish the spiritual restoration
desired. These are conclusions to which, wholly apart from what
the Scriptures teach, any one must come who thoughtfully, con
scientiously considers what man is spiritually, and what man needs
to be in order to become truly worthy in the sight of God.
It is just here that the Christian scheme presents itself to the
race as the true solution of this great and solemn problem. What
the Christian scheme proposes is just such a divine intervention
to save man, — an intervention in the form of gracious mediation,
adapted to meet the case at every point, and actually effective in

374 THE PLAN OF SALVATION.
securing, not only release from the guilt and the condemnation
incurred by human sin, but also such change of heart and purpose
in man as reconciles God to him and him to God peacefully,
thoroughly, forever. It offers in Christ, the prophet and priest
and king, divine and yet in a true sense human, sinless and com
plete in himself, just the personality needed to bring about such
reconciliation. It offers in the Holy Spirit all the strong help
needful to work the requisite changes in the spiritual constitution
of man, and to bring him into a right state of affectionate and holy
union with his Maker and his Sovereign and Father. And in the
Scriptures it offers all the practical directions, the truths and pre
cepts and encouragements needful to make the way of salvation
plain, and to enable men to walk herein. In all these respects,
Christianity presents itself to the mind and conscience of mankind
as both a thoroughly reasonable scheme, and one which has in it
every element of efficiency, and consequently an immeasurable
wealth of blessing. Instead of being, as the natural man often
fancies, a mysterious and incomprehensible matter, some strange
device whose justifying basis none but God can know, this scheme
is not only in itself in harmony with sound reason, but is the only
scheme which a faithful philosophy of human nature can regard
as at all likely to be effective in such a case as that which by
general confession is actually presented to view in the character
and the moral condition of the human race. If that race is ever
to be saved, in the full sense of that term, reason itself after com
plete examination affirms that the plan revealed in the Gospel is
the only plan yet devised which gives any promise whatever of
meeting the case just as it stands. It is the Christ who saves :
there is, there can be no other.
We may now turn to consider the wonderful Gospel thus
described and justified, with respect to its practical aim and scope
„ __ „ , „„ as a divine offer. We have already
8. The Gospel as an Offer: , .
•*« „i™ „..,» „„„_a seen that the function of Christ as a
its aim and scope. prophet contemplates nothing less than
the education and illumination of the entire race through his
perfect instructions, — that as king he is the predestinated lord and
ruler of men, bearing in his hands all power providential and
gracious, and having supreme authority over all, — and that in
some true sense his priestly function also, his sacrifidal offering
and propitiation, are designed for the whole human family. What
is thus true of him as the Mediator, must by necessary consequence
be true of the Gospel, so far as its inherent capabilities and adapta
tions are concerned. As Christ is a competent Savior for the race,

SALVATION OFFERED TO ALL. 375
so the salvation provided in the Gospel is the only salvation needful
for the race — adequate in itself to restore all mankind to holiness,
and to reconcile all mankind to God. In other words, the heavenly
plan of mercy is intrinsically suited to the intellectual and spiritual
needs, not of any dass or nation or age, but of all men, all nations,
all ages. The truths embodied in it are such as all may under
stand ; its precepts are instinctively felt by all to be mandatory;
its promises and its warnings find an instant response in the soul of
man universaUy. The Gentile as well as the Jew may hear and
believe it: the pagan as truly as the educated mind, the child as
readily as the sage, may apprehend it. Such is the testimony not
merely of Scripture itself, but also of nineteen centuries of actual
experiment; and there appears no warrant for the anticipation
that in any coming century or era the race will outgrow this divine,
this trustworthy and triumphing Gospel. It is the gracious mes
sage of God to our humanity, universal, perpetual, final. Such
universaUty in the offer is a necessary corrolary from the univer
sality of the mediation on which the offer is based.
But we are confronted here by the oppressing fact, that at the
end of nineteen centuries the large majority of the human race
is as yet ignorant of this salvatory proposal. And this fact brings
us face to face with the mysterious truth that, as in the preceding
dispensations, so in this Christian dispensation, God has chosen to
proceed in the task of human restoration, not by one instantaneous
act, but rather by a prolonged historical process. The Synod of
Dort reverently recognized this truth in its statement that God,
after having devised the plan of salvation, sends the messengers
of these most joyful tidings to whom he will and at what time he
pleaseth. The slow advance of this saving knowledge, the con
tinuous obscuration under which so large a proportion of the race
still sits as a very shadow of death, are not attributable solely to
the blindness or obduracy of human nature, or to the sluggishness
or sinful inefficiency of the church, whose great commission it has
been and is to disciple all the nations. As God first chose individual
men such as the patriarchs, and afterwards the elect race of Israel,
to be the recipients and custodians of his grace and truth for a
time, leaving the rest of humanity under the shadow of . sin and
guilt, though from the first contemplating the whole race in his
loving purpose, so he has chosen that his announcement of a sal
vation provided, should not be made known to all mankind in one
cosmic flash of revelation, but rather should be diffused through
providential and human agencies from one section of the globe to
other sections, from the continent and the country where he first

376 THE PLAN OF SALVATION.
sounded it forth to other countries and continents, until in time it
should become known throughout the whole earth. He has never
suffered the gracious message to be lost, even amid such rhoral
darkness as enveloped the Middle Ages, or to be corrupted or
impaired through the vain philosophies and false faiths and super
stitions of men. On the contrary, without hasting and without
resting, he has carried on the process of progressive disclosure,
utilizing the languages and activities and civilizations of men as
the vehicles of the gracious transmission, until already a large pro
portion of mankind has come to know, at least in outline, what his
scheme of salvation is. Standing as we do somewhere near the
center rather than the close of this historic evolution, we are
unable to comprehend this divine process in its strange complexity,
or to explain all the mysterious and painful delays in that evo
lution. Yet we know enough even at this stage in its unfolding,
not only to be assured that the Gospel is not a failure as a saving
scheme, but also to justify the belief and the hope that it shall
yet be heard and appreciated throughout the world.
We are also confronted here by the still more painful fact, that
this divine announcement is misunderstood, despised, rejected by
multitudes of those to whom the gradous message has in fact
come. The doctrine of the Symbols as to the perversity of the
natural heart, the deadness of the soul in sin, the spiritual inability
to receive and the willful disposition to reject not only the author
ity but also the offered grace of God, has already been sufficiently
estimated. Yet we are startled to find that the divine plan of
salvation is apparently so largely thwarted, frustrated, by the
perverse will, the moral blindness and obliquity, of those whom the
Gospel has actually reached. And, painfully slow as the move
ments of providence in the case seem to be, it is more painful still
to see the progress of this saving scheme so strangely arrested by
the wicked choice and resistance of the very race whom it was
designed to reach and save. While the bells of grace sound out
the free and willing offer, the ears of the people, as Esaias is
quoted by our Lord himself as saying, are dull of hearing, and
hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. Nor are there
wanting inspired declarations which would almost seem to imply
that God is willing to have it so, — consenting for the time to a
perverse hardening of the heart which his Spirit might apparently
correct and renew. The dark fact is very strongly stated in the
Confession, in the affirmation (V:vi) that God not only with-
holdeth his grace whereby sinners might have been enlightened in
their understandings and wrought upon in their hearts, but even

SUFFICIENT AND EFFICIENT. 377
withdraweth the gifts that they had . . . and gives them over to
their own lusts, the temptations of the world, and the power of
Satan; whereby it comes to pass that they harden themselves, even
under those means which God useth for the softening of others.
StiU nothing either in the slow processes of providence or in
the unsuccessful struggles of the Gospel with individual sin
ners, should impair our faith in the cosmic adaptations of this
divine scheme, or in its ultimate diffusion everywhere as a proc
lamation of God addressed to our race without exception. That
proclamation is intrinsically worthy of universal credence : its
truths, its spirit, its methods alike commend themselves to the
universal reason, even while the heart of man is in rebellion
against them. The message of grace is a message to the univer
sal conscience, and the Messenger who stands at the door of the
soul and knocks, is seen and felt to be worthy even by those who
most obdurately resist his invitation. The inviting voice of the
evangelic prophet Isaiah and of the forerunner, John Baptist, are
but fitting preludes to the comprehensive invitation of the Savior
himself to the poor, the heavy laden everywhere — to every one
that thirsteth for deHverance from sin and guilt, in whatever land
or age. And the Master, himself its luminous and divine center,
commands his church to preach this everlasting Gospel to every
creature, in the assured belief that, rightly presented, it will prove
its divine efficiency in discipling all the nations, and in saving
through Him aU men who hear and believe the tender proclama
tion. It is important to emphasize this truth just at this stage,
before we come to consider the practical application of this saving
scheme, especially at the point where the universality of design
and application comes into contact with the divine method of elect
ive grace. It may be noted here that as Christ is said to be a
Mediator sufficient in his several offices to meet the needs of the
entire race, yet is efficient in his actual mediation only in the case
of those who accept him in that relation, so his Gospel, while
sufficient as a divine plan to meet the spiritual necessities of the
whole world of mankind, is yet efficient in the actual salvation
only of those who cordially comply with its just provisions.
This generic conception of the Gospel as a disclosure of the
divine plan of salvation and as a gracious announcement and offer
of salvation, universal in nature and
wide as the race in its adaptation »• ™'\ conceptions of
. , r the Gospel: improvements
and purpose, is now extensively recog- noted#
nized as in substantial harmony with
the narrower, stricter doctrine taught in the Symbols, and indeed in

378 THE PLAN OF SALVATION.
the Reformed symbolism generally. There is little doubt that
the divines of Westminster followed Calvin and his theologic suc
cessors closely, in regarding the Gospel as a scheme which from
first to last contemplated the elect only. They thought of the
race as divided into the two widely distinct classes, the elect and
the condemned— those on whom God would bestow mercy, and those
on whom he wonld inflict' justice. They viewed Christ as acting
in his mediatorial capacity for the former class exclusively, and
as sustaining no relationship whatever, except as final judge, to
the latter class. They regarded the divine plan of mercy as
devised and executed in the interest only of those whom God had
from eternity selected to enjoy its beneficent provisions. They
therefore contemplated the divine proclamation as addressed only
to the elect, and interpreted the inspired declaration that God so
loved the world as to give his only begotten Son for its redemp
tion, as referring restrictively to the world of the elect. In a
word, they were particularistic rather than comprehensive in their
apprehension, not only of the application of the plan of grace,
but also of the plan itself as to its aim and its adaptation.
Yet it is manifest from the recorded debates (Minutes, 152-158)
that there were those in the Assembly who interpreted the inspired
declaration in its broader sense as including the entire world of
humanity. Calamy was not alone in holding that there is a double
revelation of divine love, special and general, and that the gen
eral love of God includes even the reprobate, and involves as the
fruit of it a general offer and general grace and the possibiHty of
general reformation. Others, such as Arrowsmith and Marshall,
held that the gracious offer is to be proclaimed to all men alike,
not merely because its ministers do not know who the elect are,
but on the broader ground that this offer is in some true sense
divinely made to all mankind, so far at least as the Gospel has'
become known. There can be, said Marshall, no falsum subesse
in this gracious proposal. It is an unquestionable fact that in our
own day there has been in Calvinistic circles a gradual broaden
ing of view at this point, which has led many to recognize more
distinctly the universal as well as the particularistic aspects of the
plan of salvation,— the Gospel being regarded not only as a mes
sage addressed to the elect, but as an announcement that may
properly be made to all mankind alike, on the basis of a divine
provision adequate and adapted to the salvation of the entire race.
Thus, the Declaratory Act of the United Presbyterian Church of
Scotland, (adopted in 1879) affirms that the love of God to ah
mankind, his gift of his Son to be the propitiation for the sins of

RECENT MODES OF STATEMENT. 379
the whole world, and the free offer of salvation to men without
distinction on the ground of the perfect sacrifice (mediation) of
Christ, are matters which have been and continue to be regarded
by this Church as vital in the system of Gospel truth. The Free
Church has in like manner declared officially (1892), that the rev
elation of grace, springing from the love of the triune Deity, is
made to all mankind as sinful, and therefore all who hear it are
both warranted and required to believe to the saving of their
souls. The recent Artides of the EngUsh Presbyterian Synod,
(1890) affirm in like manner that God was moved by his great
love to man to hold forth a promise of redemption, — that he
desires all men to be saved, and freely offers to all men forgive
ness and eternal life in Christ, — and that he has commissioned
his church to preach unto all nations this Gospel of his grace. A
still more marked illustration appears in the chapter, Of the
Gospel, recently proposed in our own communion as a part of the
revision or emendation of the Confession of Faith, in the follow
ing terms:
I. God, having provided in the covenant of grace, through the
mediation and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, a way of life and
salvation sufficient for and adapted to the whole lost race of man,
doth freely offer this salvation to all men in the Gospel.
II. In the Gospel God declares his love for the world, and his
desire that all men should be saved; reveals fully and clearly the
only way of salvation; promises eternal life to all who truly
repent and behevein Christ; invites and commands all to embrace
the offered mercy; and by his Spirit accompanying the Word
pleads with men to accept his gracious invitation.
III. It is the duty and privilege of every one who hears the
Gospel immediately to accept its merciful provisions; and they
who continue in impenitence and unbelief, incur aggravated guilt
and perish by their own fault.
IV. Since there is no other way of salvation than that revealed
in the Gospel, and since in the divinely established and ordinary
method of grace, faith cometh by hearing the Word of God, Christ
hath commissioned his Church to go into all the world and to
make disciples of all nations. All believers are, therefore, under
obligation to sustain the ordinances of religion where they are
already established, and to contribute by their prayers, gifts and
personal efforts to the extension of the kingdom of Christ through
out the whole earth.
In this carefully defined statement, the ultimate source of the
Gospel is said to be the love of God for the world of mankind, and

380 THE PLAN OF SALVATION.
his gracious desire that all men should be saved from their sinful
ness and their guilt. A covenant of grace to this end is said to be
devised through the mediation and sacrifice of Christ, our Lord
and Redeemer. Under this covenant a way of salvation, suffi
cient for and adapted to the necessities of the entire race, is not
only provided for, but fully and clearly revealed and offered to
all men alike. And this divine way of life is one which all alike
are invited and commanded to embrace as offered, — the offer
being seconded by abundant promises of mercy to all who truly
repent of sin and believe in this salvatory scheme, and also most
tenderly enforced by the Divine Spirit accompanying and illumi
nating the gracious message. As a whole, the statement must
be regarded as a careful, just, safe, thoroughly biblical presenta
tion of the great Evangel in which our Christianity finds both
its meaning and its glory.
The third and fourth sections of this statement are important
additions, as especially setting forth the duties 'of all men in view
of such an offered Gospel, — the duty of every hearer on one hand,
and of all who have believed the message, including the whole
Church of Christ, on the other. It is declared to be obHgatory
upon all who are made acquainted with this plan of salvation, to
accept at once its merciful provisions. In the presence of this
divine announcement it is no longer permissible for any sinner
either to deny his need of salvation or to look for salvation else
where, whether among the natural faiths of the world, or in the
nostrums of human speculation. He is placed under immediate
and imperative obligation to embrace the opportunity thus divinely
presented: no claim of personal righteousness, no apology for sin.
no excuses for delay are admissible. If the sinner refuses to
accept the gracious provision, that refusal is his own voluntary
and wicked act,- in defiance of all divine influence and persuasion,
and it must therefore not only involve him in grosser impenitence,
in darker unbelief henceforth, but also bring upon him by his own
fault a more condign and dreadful condemnation. Such is the
comprehensive teaching of the New Testament, and on the basis
of that teaching it may safely be affirmed that this Gospel thus
presented becomes to all those who reject it a savor, not of life,
but of death unto death.
The consequent duty of all believers, and of the Church, is also
emphasized here. It is said that there is no other way of salva
tion than that thus set forth, and that the race must know and
accept this gracious scheme, or perish in its sin. It is declared
that this Gospel, viewed as a message, must be explained and

THE GOSPEL: ITS SUPREME CLAIM. 381
commended to the world by those who have already proved the
message to be infinitely worthy of belief; and that it is the divine
purpose that this plan of mercy should be made known, not by
supernatural agendes only, or by the immediate inspiration of
each and all alike, but through the combined labor and sacrifice of
believers, divinely commissioned to bear the glad tidings to every
land and to all people. Hence every believer is bound to main
tain' the church as an institution, and the ordinances estab
lished under the Gospd, not only because these are essential to
his own spiritual life, but also because the church thus divinely
ordained, and thus sustained by the adherence and the prayers
and gifts of all beHevers, is the appointed agency and instrument
for the enlightening and salvation of mankind. And this duty
will remain, these practical obligations survive in full force, until
the kingdom of Christ shall actually be extended throughout the
whole earth, — until the great scheme of grace shall have wrought
out its predestined purpose in the restoration and redemption of
the race.
As has already been intimated, there is in these statements a
distinct advance beyond the conception of the mission of Chris
tianity incorporated in the Symbols, and in the other creeds of
primitive Protestantism. This advance does not involve the denial
or rejection of the more Hmited or particularistic doctrine of sal
vation found in these creeds, but simply affirms a broader, wider
application of the great principles recognized in them. It is not
in colHsion at any essential point with the Calvinistic doctrine
of particular and unconditional election, but involves only a freer
and wider conception of such election as the experience not of a
smaH proportion but of vast multitudes of mankind, and a com
prehensive belief that in the elective purpose of God the race as
salvable may be viewed as in some deep sense included. The
churches of the Reformation, continental and insular alike, were
not prepared to grasp so cosmic a doctrine of grace, nor indeed
were their successors in the seventeenth or even the eighteenth
century lifted up to such a level of thought and of conviction
respecting the vast possibilities of the divine plan. But it cer
tainly involves no departure from any vital tenet of Calvinism, to
hold this broader and clearer view of the Gospel as, in the lan
guage of the suggested Revision, presenting a way of life and
salvation sufficient for and adapted to the whole lost race of man.
Such an addition to the Confession would not only have given
authoritative expression to the truth as widely held and taught
within the Presbyterian communion, but would have furnished a

382 THE PLAN OF SALVATION.
decisive answer to some of the most pungent and injurious criti
cisms made upon its teaching and its spiritual mission.
Keeping in mind the Plan of Salvation divinely devised and
provided for our sinful race through the mediation of Jesus Christ;
and also this general conception of the
10. Plan of Salvation ap- GoSpei; viewed as a revelation of spir-
plied : Election defined: Elec- .. . . . ,, ,.,,. , , .,
tion in providence, in grace. ltual and savinS trutn fitted to the
needs of such a race, and as a tender
announcement and offer of salvation addressed to all, and in itself
available and sufficient for all mankind, we may now turn to con
sider the specific application of this gracious scheme in the case of
those who are savingly reached thereby. Here arises again the
speculative question already discussed in part, whether God in his
sovereignty first chose or elected the persons who are actually
reached and saved by this scheme, and then devised the scheme,
and made it known for their benefit; or whether in the series of
wise, free and holy acts, into which the eternal decree is according
to the Larger Catechism resolved in time, the scheme or plan was
first, and the election of the individuals to be benefited thereby
subsequent. It is true that most of those who adhere to the
teachings of Calvin, place the personal election first, and regard
the devising of the plan for the saving of these elect persons as
a subsequent decree. This was obviously the view of the sub
lapsarian as well as the supralapsarian section of the Assembly.
Two thoughts are urged especially in justification of this view;
first, that it seems to make the sovereignty of God in redemption
appear more glorious, since such an election or predestination of
certain persons from all eternity must be an absolutdy uncondi
tioned act on his part; and secondly, because it seems to draw a
spiritual line more broad and profound between the persons thus
foreordained unto salvation before time was, and the remainder of
mankind. It is also urged that Peter and, especially, Paul lay
peculiar stress on such predestination unto life even from eternity,
not merely as a ground of comfort to the believer, or of warning
to those who reject the Gospel, but also as the key which opens
to our view more clearly the entire plan of providence and of grace
toward mankind.
Yet it has justly been questioned whether any essential advan
tage is secured by such a presentation of the divine purposes, and
also whether something of value is not lost or forfeited by that
mode of statement, in its relations especially to the divine offer as
universal. It is indeed in some deep sense forever true, that the

THE PLAN AND THE PERSONS. 383
dection to salvation through the Gospel is an event not only
known to God eternally, but also eternally determined upon in his
mind. But is it not also just as true, that God must have had in
mind from the beginning the plan by which these persons, after
their lapse into sin, were to be restored to holiness and to himself;
and that when he chose them to be saved, he at the same time
chose them to be saved in that way, and that only, which he
had eternally devised and provided for their spiritual restoration ?
As he must have determined to create, before he could determine
to permit the fall with its consequent sin to occur, and as he must
have provided a Mediator before there could be any actual medi
ation exercised or enjoyed, is it not obvious that he must also
have devised a scheme whereby such mediation should become
effectual in time, before he selected the individual souls that should
be reached and saved through the mediatorial procedure ? There
is probably as much ground for such a conception, as for the anti
thetic conception which is more commonly cherished in stricter
Calvinistic circles. The sovereignty of God is certainly as mani
fest and as glorious under the one presentation as under the other:
in either case man can present no plea in character which shall
constrain God to confer salvation, or in any way condition or con
trol the grace that provides the way of recovery from sin and its
doom. On the other hand, such a conception of the divine determ
inations as is here suggested seems to be more in harmony with
the doctrine just discussed respecting Christ as the prophet for
humanity, the priest and sacrifice for humanity, and the king for
humanity, — in each and every office our one and only, our adequate
and efficient Savior, toward whom God in the Gospel invites the
whole lost race of man to turn and look and live. Whether the
Assembly, in the presence of the rising and somewhat arrogant
Arminianism of their day, would as a body have admitted such a
modification of their general position, it is quite sure that some
members, such as Calamy and Marshall, would have found no
serious difficulty in such admission. And though Calvinists of
the stricter school may regard such modification as inconsistent
with the logical completeness of the doctrinal system enunciated
by their great leader, yet surely one may prefer such an arrange
ment of the divine determinations without forfeiting his claim to
be a. disciple of Calvin, so long as he holds to an election which
is particular as well as generic, and which is unconditioned by any
act or merit in man.
The fact of such an election particular and unconditioned is to be
affirmed, not merely on the gronnd that it is an essential element

384 THE PLAN OF SALVATION.
in a properly balanced Calvinism, but far more on the ground
that it is a fact clearly taught and justified by holy Scripture,
and abundantly verified in human experience. It is also affirmed
generally in Protestant symbolism, though not always with exact
and technical meaning. The Augsburg Confession contains no
Article on the subject: but the Formula of Concord introduces
such an Article on the ground that the doctrine, as it alleges,
brings great consolation to pious minds if it be rightly expounded.
It specifically describes this election (XI), as extending to all the
good and beloved children of God, procuring their salvation and
appointing those things that pertain to it. The Second Helv.
Conf. (X) tersely defines election in the statement that God hath
from eternity predestinated or chosen freely and out of his grace,
and with no regard or respect for men, the holy whom he wishes
to save in Christ. The Belgic Conf. (XVI) declares that God in
his mercy delivers and preserves from perdition all whom he in
his eternal and unchangeable counsel, out of simple goodness,,
hath elected and chosen in Christ Jesus, without any respect to
their works. A definition closely resembling this in both sub
stance and phraseology appears in the first Canon of the Synod
of Dort. And the Thirty-Nine Articles, (XVII) define predesti
nation to life as the everlasting purpose of God whereby, before
the foundations of the world were laid, he hath constantly decreed
by his counsel, secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation
those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to
bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation. While varying in
fullness of phraseology, the Protestant formularies are essentially
agreed in defining election, (with its synonyms in such terms as
predestination and foreordination) as the divine purpose to save a
certain proportion of mankind through the provision made in the
Gospel, and an actual choice or selection of the persons on whom
the blessing of salvation should in this way be conferred. Ed
wards in his treatise on the Decrees, states the doctrine in its
most positive and even startling form, in the noted proposition that
God decrees all the good that ever comes to pass; that there cer
tainly will come to pass no more good than he has absolutely decreed
to cause; and that certainly and infallibly no more will believe, no
more be godly, and no more be saved, than God has decreed
that he will cause to believe, and cause to be godly, and will save.
Waiving for the moment all questions, speculative or practical,
that may spring up in the contemplation of the fact thus described,
we may at the outset recognize the fact itself as unquestionable.
And it is helpful just at this point to note, that election in the

ELECTION A FACT IN PROVIDENCE. 385
domain of grace. is not some unique or singular transaction of
Deity, having no parallel or analogue in any other sphere of divine
determination or activity. A certain process of sovereign elec
tion, of the same nature substantially, as Butler has conclusively
shown, is an obvious fact in divine providence and in the general
history of mankind. While the immeasurable varieties in talent
and attainment, in condition and possessions, in geographic loca
tion and position in Hfe, seen among men, are referable in part
to their personal qualities or those of their ancestry, still much
the larger proportion of these differences has obviously been
determined by the hand and wisdom of God. While some of
them may be explicable through the agency of natural and moral
qualities acting in a species of independence, yet over and above
aU we may distinctly see a divine determination which is supreme
and sovereign in such bestowment. To deny that the hand of
God is manifested in such distribution of providential blessing, —
to refer the vast result either to the operation of merely inanimate
laws or forces within the sphere of nature alone, or to the will
and abilities of man only, would be simple atheism. No really
deep philosophy can consent thus to exclude God from the broad
domain of what we fitly term Providence. We discern this type
of dection in the case of nations and races, distributed here and
there through the earth, with multiplex diversities in almost every
element of Hfe; each receiving the largest part of all that it holds
or enjoys, directly through the medium of a providential purpose
and disposing. We discern it no less clearly in the case of indi
vidual men, who are what they are and have what they have
•because God provided for them even before their birth, and
because he makes them specific objects of his sovereign care day
by day, even while they are wholly unconscious of such depen
dence on his electing providence. Nor is the fact of such provi
dential election ever seriously questioned by men, excepting
where their selfishness leads them to be envious of those who pos
sess larger talents or have larger possessions or privileges than
themselves, or where their unfilial unwillingness to surrender
their lives to the divine control, incites them to murmur at the dis-
cipfinary dealings of God in providence, or to rebel against the
thought of his absolute sovereignty over them.
To one who has duly weighed this fact of election, as manifested
everywhere in the general scheme of providence, it cannot seem
strange or unreasonable that some corresponding election should
manifest itself in the special scheme of grace. Viewed generic-
ally, such gracious election is a fact equally obvious and equally

386 THE PLAN. OF SALVATION.
commanding. That God chose the Hebrew race among the many
races or nations of men, not merely to inhabit the promised land,
but to be the recipients of his revealed truth, the privileged possess
ors for the time of his promised salvation, the example and the
leader of surrounding tribes and peoples, is a fact which even sec
ular history abundantly illustrates, and without which the Old
Testament narratives become an inexplicable mystery. That in
like manner he chose individual men and particular families, as the
patriarchs and their households, and the great leaders and pro
phetic teachers of his chosen people, and endowed them severally
with spiritual gifts as well as with adequate opportunities, in con
nection with his unfolding scheme of grace, is also a truth which
it is impossible to gainsay. The Old Testament is in fact a con
tinuous record of such divine elections, national, tribal, domestic,
personal; and of the results, temporal and spiritual, consequent
upon such elections.
Still more signal illustrations of this divine choice and deter
mination within the religious sphere may be found in the New Tes
tament, as in the calling of the apostles and their enduement for
their holy office, and in the planting and training of the church,
and the selection of those who were to be its teachers inwardly,
and its commissioned messengers outwardly, proclaiming in its
name the sublime Evangel to the world. Nor has the fact of such
election and enduement, such supernatural preparation and com
missioning, been any less obvious or commanding as a fact in the
various periods of church history from the apostolic century down
f o our own times. He who reads that history in all its remarka
ble developments, or who studies the current unfolding of events'
in the interest of the Gospel, without discerning, far above the
purposes of men, the movements of parties or the play of human
agents and forces, the sovereign choice of God, supremely ascen
dant over all, reads to very little purpose. Nor can it be said
that this divine choice is at any point generic simply, contemplat
ing men in mass or in classes; facts abundantly manifest the pres
ence of such superintending choice as well in the individual life,
just as the divine wisdom and skill appear as distinctly in each
particular plant, each individual insect, as in the creation of
worlds, or the ordering of planetary systems. Neither can it be
said that such divine choice is controlled or conditioned by the
desires or determinations of men, even where these appear to be
working in holy conjunction with the divine will, since such
human activities are in the nature of things always subordinate
and dependent on the sovereignty that sways alike the general

ELECTION A PROCEDURE IN LOVE. 387
and the particular — the whole race of man and the humblest mem
ber of that race, in their common relations to the great plan of
salvation. Had evangelical Protestantism been content to rest in the
generic fact thus defined and illustrated, — had it been willing to
accept as suffident for practical use the
simple definition of Wesley, that dec- t. U ' , Dlvl"e ™otl™ l* elec"
. r J . tion ; love for the elect.
tion means a divine appointment of
some men to eternal happiness — a statement nearly equivalent to
the confessional phrase, appointed the elect unto glory, — or the medi
ate proposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles, just quoted, not only
would a vast amount of speculative, sometimes acrimonious, dis
cussion have been avoided, but the practical value of the doctrine
as a highly spiritualizing if not saving element in religious expe
rience, would have been vastly enhanced. There can be little
doubt in the mind of any careful observer, that theoretic diversity
on the secondary points involved, and dogmatic discussion around
these points, have wrought incalculable injury to the doctrine itself
as one among the priceless truths of spiritual Christianity. And
one of the most vital problems for the thoughtful student, and for
the earnest preacher also in our time, is to separate the secondary
from the primary and essential elements of the doctrine, and to
use and apply the doctrine itself, thus generically conceived, as the
Holy Spirit doubtless intended it to be used, for the awakening
of sinners and the edifying of those who believe.
One of the most valuable helps to such appreciation and use is
discernible in the declaration, suggested in nearly all the Protestant
creeds, that election on the part of God is always an act of love —
a manifestation of the same eternal and unconquerable love which
made Christ a Mediator for all sinners, and which gave the Gospel
of salvation through him to mankind. If election is, in the phrase
of Wesley, a divine appointment, a determination that some men
should attain eternal happiness, such an appointment cannot be
regarded as an arbitrary and inscrutable act of will, or as the edict
of an impenetrable sovereignty. Still less is this divine predes
tination to be confused with stony fatalism on one hand or with
merely naturalistic determinism on the other. In such an appoint
ment every holy attribute in God is engaged — every perfection of
his being is illustrated. It must not indeed be said that this
determination is one which justice to those who are thus appointed
to spiritual and eternal happiness, constrains God to form. Were
election an act of justice simply, something which was due from
God to his creatures and which they might in equity expect or

388 THE PLAN OF SALVATION.
demand, such election would have no legitimate place in a scheme
of salvation which has its beginning and its ending in free and
abounding grace. The Symbols therefore simply express the
universal view of evangelical Protestantism in declaring that God
out of his mere love and mercy, and for the praise of his glorious
grace, and without being moved thereto by anything in the creature
on any ground of equity or desert, has predestinated or appointed
some men unto everlasting life. Just as he freely provideth and
offereth to sinners a Mediator, and life and salvation by him
(L- C. 32), doing this out of his mere free grace and love, so the
application of this salvatory scheme in the case of the persons
actually saved through it, is to be recognized as in all its elements
an expression of grace and mercy, unconstrained and infinite in
both quality and volume.
Of the intrinsic worthiness and perfection of such elective love,
contemplated as the impelling motive in the divine mind, it is
impossible to speak in sufficiently exalted praise. Like the love
disclosed in the person and mission of the Redeemer, it passeth
knowledge: its breadth and length and depth and height are
simply immeasurable. But we may fitly emphasize two of its.
essential qualities, its equity and its sovereignty. First of all, the
grace of God in election is not an unregulated outflow of feeling,.
without adequate regard for the moral principles involved in
its expression. Not only the innate perfection of his being, but
the requirements of his position as moral governor, demand that
his love for sinners and his purpose to save them shall be con
trolled by a righteousness as firm and moveless as his eternal
throne. Much of the current critidsm of the doctrine is based
on a radical misconception at this point: it involves the unwar
ranted supposition that, since God is intrinsically loving and
gracious, all men alike ought to be and therefore will be elect —
appointed to eternal happiness. But the elective grace, like the
providential mercy of God, must be absolutely equitable in itself
and in all its manifestations. Not only is it true that justice does
not constrain him to choose and appoint any to be saved ; that
justice doubtless may and does constrain him to withhold this
privilege from others, — even from those who to our narrow vision
may seem equally deserving.
The second quality of this elective love is its free and absolute
sovereignty. Such sovereignty is resident as an essential quality
in all love: in all its nobler forms love flows forth as a stream from
its fountain, not through external constraint but rather under the
impulsion of an interior life. There is indeed a sense in which,.

ELECTION EQUITABLE AND SOVEREIGN. 389
as within the family, affection becomes a duty as well as an
impulse; yet even here the highest excellence and beauty of such
affection lie in the fact that it is spontaneous — the outflow not of
the will merely, impelled b}' a sense of outward obligation, but
rather of a deeply seated principle in the moral nature. It is true
that God in giving life to any creature places himself under a spe
cies of obligation to sustain that life during its appointed term of
existence and within its own ordained sphere. His universal prov
idence is in this aspect a providence exercised under the cogency
of appropriate law. But mercy as shown toward sinful man is
love flowing out freely toward those who have forfeited even this
providential claim, and whom equity by itself can only condemn.
Elective grace is the conferring of wholly undeserved favor and
blessing, under the impulse of an interior principle whose mani
festations are as truly and as absolutely sovereign as was the
comprehensive decree wherein God in unlimited freedom ordained
what soever comes to pass. Much of the popular criticism upon
such election rests upon the failure to apprehend suitably this
underlying fact, that God is not only righteous but absolutely
sovereign in his grace, — at Hberty to bestow or withhold such grace
at his own pleasure, and at liberty to bestow just such measures of
his grace and blessing as he may freely choose to grant.
It is obvious consequently that, as the motive in election is to
be found entirely in God rather than in man, so the ultimate
ground and reason for such election must be found, not in what
man is as the recipient, but in the mind and purpose of God alone.
This is the chief significance of the phrases so frequently, in wide
contrast with the Roman dogma of merit, current in Protestant
symboHsm, — with no regard or respect for man, without consid
eration for their works, without any virtue or merit in us, and the
like. The Synod of Dort elaborates these phrases in the general
declaration, that election is not founded upon faith foreseen, or
the obedience of faith, holiness or any other good quality or dis
position in man, as the prerequisite cause or condition upon which
it depends; and in continuation affirms positively that the good
pleasure of God is the sole cause of this gracious procedure, — he
not choosing the elect in view of their antecedent virtue or the
possible qualities of their action, but of his own free and sovereign
will, in order that being elect they may believe and obey and lead
holy lives. The Arminian Remonstrance, though in open antag
onism with the theology of Dort, still held (Art. I) that God by
an eternal, unchangeable purpose determined out of the fallen race
of man to save in Christ, and for the sake of Christ, and through

390 THE PLAN OF SALVATION.
Christ, those who should by the grace of the Holy Ghost beHeve
in Christ, and should persevere in faith and the obedience of faith.
It freely admitted that man has no such saving virtue in himself
as would commend him to God as worthy of salvation, and that
all good deeds or movements that can be conceived must be ascribed
to the prevenient grace of God in Christ.
In connection with this view of the motive and ground of elec
tion as found in God alone, it will be well to note more closely
the end or object divinely sought in
12. End of Election: holi- such eiection. When the intent of
ness and usefulness. „ , . ... . . • .,
God in this gracious procedure is said,
in the phrase of Wesley, to be eternal happiness, or in the lan
guage of the Symbols and of other Protestant formularies, to be
everlasting life or eternal glory , the way is inadvertently left open
for some serious misconceptions of the supreme design in such
election. It is painfully obvious that many persons contemplate
Christianity in general as a divine scheme for securing crowns and
honors and unending felicities in eternity, rather than as a gra
cious process instituted for the development of holy character in
this present world. Multitudes there are who fail to recognize in
any profound sense the fundamental truth, that our Holy Faith
aims to secure, not happiness Hereafter alone, but holiness and use
fulness also in the life that now is, — that it is not designed simply to
confer external privileges or advantages upon its adherents above
others, and so to increase the sum of their happiness as an ulti
mate end, but rather primarily to make them worthy by making
them Christlike, and thus to introduce them both here and here
after to a felicity whose basis is complete and eternal reconciliation
with God through Christ.
For the correction of such false conceptions, far too widely influ
ential in our time, it is indispensable to emphasize constantly the
two primal ends which are said in the Scriptures to be sought of
God in this elective process. The first of these ends is personal
holiness — the renovation of heart and life in conformity with the
teaching of Christ and through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
There are indeed illustrations in the Bible of individuals called
and set apart for certain tasks of grace, or perchance of judg
ment, in whom such personal regeneration was not requisite as a
qualification. But wherever election is described in the spiritual
sense of the term, personal holiness is invariably brought for
ward, both as the purpose divinely sought, and as the infallible
sign that this purpose is being graciously accomplished. Predes
tinated to be conformed to the image of his Son, is the strong

END OF ELECTION : HOLINESS AND USEFULNESS. 391
statement of Paul in that sublime chapter which, more fully than
any other in the New Testament, discusses the tenet of election
as to its source, its motive, its method and its end in the complete
moral restoration and consequent eternal blessedness of the elect.
Whether it be a prophet or an apostle, or even a simple disciple,
who is thus chosen of God, elect according to the divine fore
knowledge, there is no clear exception in the New Testament to
the rule that the sanctification of the elect person, the renewal of
the character and the life according to the pattern of Christ, is one
purpose immediatdy contemplated in the divine mind. That an
elect person should continue in a state of sin is inconceivable;
that one who wiUingly remains in such a state is an elect person,
is in the nature of things impossible. In a word, the elect are
saved invariably not in sin but from sin.
The second primal end is usefulness — usefulness in conjunction
with the spiritual kingdom of God on the earth. We may read
here and there in the Bible of one whose personal usefulness in
such conjunction we may not be able to distinguish: some even
among the apostles left behind them no distinct traces of their
personal efficiency or value as representatives of Christ and his
cause. Yet even the thief on the cross, in whom the divine elec
tion became a palpable reality only in his dying moments, has in
his tremulous prayer to be remembered, rendered a service to the
church which cannot cease down to the end of time. So in the
hfe of the elect of God through all generations this principle of
usefulness, though sometimes indistinguishable to human eyes,
has had and wiU ever have its constant and sublime verification.
The universal and comprehending fact is, that election is in order
to usefulness as well as holiness; that God has always ordained
paths of service for his elect to walk in; and that it is in this way
that he has planned to carry forward, through his elect servants,
the vast task of restoring our fallen humanity to himself. It may
safely be affirmed that God never chose a soul to be his spiritually,
without providing a suitable sphere and work for it, and commis
sioning it to be useful in his name and cause. In every case the
individual election corresponds in spirit and aim with that sublime
plan of salvation, holy and beneficent, in which it becomes a con
stituent part: to suppose otherwise would render such election an
inscrutable and unprofitable mystery.
These glimpses of the divine design in election enable us more
clearly on one side to see the incalculable value of the doc
trine in the case of all who intelligently and cordially accept it,
and on the other side to detect more readily the unworthiness of

392 THE PLAN OF SALVATION.
much of the criticism upon it, current especially in irreligious cir
cles. The Thirty-Nine Articles justly say (XVII), that the con
sideration of our election in Christ is full of sweet, pleasant and
unspeakable comfort to godly persons, ... as well because it doth
greatly establish and confirm their faith of eternal salvation to be
enjoyed through Christ, as because it doth fervently kindle their
love toward God. It has indeed been alleged that the doctrine
inclines those who hold it to an unwarrantable assurance in their
own salvation, and by natural consequence to the neglect of those
Christian duties and services which alone can justify such assur
ance. But the obvious fact rather is, that in the case of the
true saint the hope and the assurance of being thus elect of God
becomes not only an unspeakable comfort, as the Anglican formu
lary affirms, but also a most potent stimulus both to the culture of
spiritual holiness, and to the diligent service of Christ in whatso
ever sphere of religious usefulness. A truly elect person, as Paul
repeatedly teaches, desires that all other persons the world over
should enjoy the same gracious privilege: any selfish satisfaction
or exultation in view of our election, as distinguishing us from
others, would justify the suspidon that we had never attained the
elect condition. The two-fold end of God being thus practically
appreciated, and partially realized in fact, the really dect soul
becomes at once animated by an assurance, fired by a zeal, elevated
and purified by a holy confidence in the grace that not only pre
destinates and calls but also justifies and glorifies, which enable it
to make its calling and election sure by experimental evidences
that permit of no mistake. And the stronger the conviction as to
the truth of the doctrine, the more inspiring and purifying be
comes by gracious necessity its influence on both mind and life.
The Thirty-Nine Articles speak also of the serious errors into
which multitudes of curious and carnal persons, as they are there
styled, fall through their failure to apprehend the divine election
in its true spirit and intent. Many such persons desire on the one
hand, often with intense selfishness, to obtain certain privileges
or honors or pleasures, especially in the life to come, which the
elect are supposed to receive. On the other hand, many are will
ing even to impugn the divine character or administration under
the Gospel, because they suppose themselves excluded unjustly
from the circle of the elect. On one side they profess an anxious
wish to be saved, while on the other they attribute to God and
his elective purpose, rather than to their own will, the fact they
are not among the saved. The plain and sad reality is that they
have no desire whatever to be graciously elected, if the end or aim

HUMAN RELATIONS TO ELKCTION. 393
of such election is to be either holiness or religious usefulness.
They do not wish to be made holy; they refuse to serve God in
his kingdom of grace; they deliberately choose to continue in
their selfish state; they stand out willfully against all invitations
to repent and believe in Christ; they have no wish or intention
to become Christians in heart and life, as all the elect in fact are.
In a word, they desire to obtain the blessings of religion without the
experience of religion, — to enter heaven and share in its blessed
ness and its rewards, without either becoming holy in heart, or
endeavoring to glorify God in their lives. Curious and carnal
persons indeed they are, as that venerable symbol describes them,
— wholly unworthy of the blessing which God graciously confers
on his own elect children.
It has often been questioned whether much of the controversy
within evangelical circles respecting this important tenet in Chris
tian theology, might not be reconciled
through a more distinct recognition on 13' Human relations to
all sides of the true relations of human ...... ' ponsi-
oility.
agency to this divine procedure. To
exclude such agency altogether, as if man had neither choice nor
responsibility in the matter of his personal election, is one extreme:
to exalt such agency unduly, as if the will or worth of man were
in some decisive way conditioning or constraining the divine
choice, is certainly another extreme. Calvinism, in its supreme
desire to exalt the divine sovereignty and magnify the divine glory
in the predestination of those who are called to be saints, has
fallen too largely into the former mistake. It is no less apparent
that evangelical Arminianism, in laying special stress on the
human faith and obedience always associated as requisites with
the divine call and appointment, has fallen into the latter. And
the problem of reducing this antinomy in belief to the smallest
practical dimensions, — the problem of combining in one balanced
and adequate conception those cardinal elements of the doctrine
in which Arminians and Calvinists are substantially agreed, is one
which may well claim the consideration of thoughtful minds of
whatever school of faith.
The Auburn Declaration sought to solve this problem by a dis
tinct affirmation on one side, that election is a sovereign act of the
divine mercy which has its basis, not in the foreseen faith and obe
dience of the elect, but rather in the divine will as a producing
cause; and on the other, that the gracious purpose of God in elec
tion never really takes effect (or becomes a conscious fact in the
experience of any elect person), independently of faith and a holy

394 THE PLAN OF SALVATION.
life. The elective decree is indeed determined from eternity, but
is also continually coming into existence as a fact, and being real
ized and perfected in time; and so far as actual salvation is con
cerned, while the result is evidently determined of God, it is also
in some real sense determinable by and through human choice. It
is clearly inadmissible to claim that the elect are saved without
regard to what they are or what they may do, since no one can
have any assurance whatever that he is one of the elect if he does
not discern in himself the signs of such election in an active faith
and in true holiness and usefulness of Hfe. For the same reason
it becomes no less inadmissible for any to assume that, not being
among the elect, they will not and cannot be saved, whatever
measure of faith they might exercise, or however obedient or holy
or useful they might be in their lives. No one having in himself
these characteristic signs or qualities, can have any just ground
for supposing that he is not an elect person; — as certainly he could
have no desire or disposition to take such a view of himself and
his spiritual prospects. On the other hand, the obvious fact is
that those who take refuge in the hypothesis that they are not
among the elect, and therefore cannot be saved whatever they do,
never in fact do exercise the faith or manifest the obedience requi
site as evidences of election. Their objection to the doctrine
involves the groundless assumption that, although they may pos
sess the qualities which are characteristic of the elect, they are
by the divine decree excluded, however worthy, from the cirde
of the saved. But is it not clear that, so long as they fail to exhibit
in themselves these vital products of electing grace, they cannot
claim that they ought to be counted among the elect ? Ought
they not rather to recognize the alarming probability, that they
are among those whom God has justly determined to pass by in
his distributive application of salvation provided in the Gospel?
On one side it must be recognized as a fundamental truth, that
God not only chooses those whom he would save, and also deter
mines wherein salvation shall consist, but is himself the procur
ing cause of all saving experience. He not only has the right to
require faith and obedience and holiness as essential elements in
such salvation; it is his to take such steps, to bring to bear such
influences, as shall secure these indispensable conditions of elec
tion. But it should never be forgotten on the other side that, in
the weighty phrase of John Howe, God knows how to govern his
creatures according to their nature, and changes the hearts of men
according to that natural way wherein the human faculties are
wont to work. By such processes he not only elects, but renders

HUMAN ACTIVITY IN ELECTION. 395
his election effectual in the individual soul, — often in ways inscru
table to us, yet always in such a manner that, while our faith and
obedience are in a sense his products, they are also as truly ours as
any other acts or experiences of our lives. Our native inability
as sinful to exerdse such saving qualities is supplemented by the
gracious ability he bestows, and we thus become elect individually
in and through him, while at the same time we never can become
elect in fact without our own conscious purpose and concurrence.
There is thus a primal sense in which election, with all that is
involved in it, is a sovereign and unconditioned act of God: there
is also a vital sense in which such election is realized and made
effectual only in and through the free choice of man — a choice
induced and energized through divine grace alone.
Such is universaUy the practical conviction of those who are
saved, whatever name they bear. They agree in referring the
predous result wholly to God as its proper source and author;
they extol his relation to that result as primal, sovereign, effica
cious. Yet they agree in believing that the purpose to save is
never carried out into fact, except where faith and holy living are
manifested as the responsive acts of man. They indeed realize
that these acts are never found in man excepting through the
gracious ministries of the Spirit: they also affirm that such acts,
though thus produced, are never in themselves the meritorious
ground of salvation. They hold with Augustine, as quoted with
approval by Calvin, that the grace of God does not find men fit
to be elected but makes them so. Yet they also hold that vital
faith and loving obedience and holiness of heart and life alone
indicate a renewed and saved nature, — that in fact they are salva
tion, in its most inward essence. Emphasizing on the one hand
the primary and sovereign efficiency of God in the whole matter,
they appreciate also the part which under his requisition they are
to take in working out their own salvation, and with joy and con
fidence devote themselves to this task as the supreme business of
their lives. All of grace, is the glad testimony of Calvinist and
Arminian alike: grace verified in belief and life, is the practical
test which Arminians and Calvinists alike cordially accept.
The doctrine of election as presented in the Symbols finds its
dark antithesis in the dogma of reprobation, as set forth chiefly
in thlTch!ipferi;ni) on the Eternal
Decree. The term is used comprehen- J4- Reprobation-Prefer-
. , , ... . , , itlon: Election unto condem-
sively to describe the entire plan and natjon
dealing of God with that portion of
the human race who are not elected unto everlasting life. In

396 THE PLAN OF SALVATION.
earlier usage it referred especially, as in the third section of th:
chapter, to the eternal counsel and purpose, as predestinating c
foreordaining a certain portion of manMnd-toesZlrlastirig deatl
in illustration of the divine justice. In a modified and Hmite
sense, it refers to the final or ultimate act of judgment in coi
detuning sinners— noTas— the carryringjDUt_of_an_ eternal purpoj
formed irrespectve of character, but simply on accmrntTof the:
sin as actually committed. A furtheFmodification appe^rs-hi tii
milder ternrrpreterition, which signifies either the negative pas;
ing by in fact, or the sovereign determination to pass by, thoj
who refuse to receive the grace of election. Such preterition £
an act presupposes a condition of sin already existing, but is not t
be regarded as in any sense a cause of such sin. As a determ
nation in the divine mind, it is an immanent purpose to leave me
in their sin, contemplated as an event hereafter to occur, — sue
determination in no wise causing the sin which is condemned an
punished. Reprobation in the modified sense also presuppose
the existence of sin deserving condemnaton,but is not tobeviewe
as a cause or occasion of the sin so condemned. Preterition-tht
stands at the beginning and reprobation, in this sense, at the fin;
closing of the divine dealing with this portion of mankind,-
God in the first instance__chQosing'.in_so'yerdgrity_nqt to sayejroi
the commission of sin, and in the second determining as judge t
condemn for or on account of sin committed.
It is noticeable that some of the Protestant Creeds (the Aug:
burg Conf. ; the Heidelberg Cat. ; the Thirty-Nine Articles) sa
nothing except by implication in regard to such predestinatio
unto death. Others among them, especially the French an
Belgic, affirm simply the negative preteritionrwrthQlrtTntrodi*
ing the positive reprobation. We believe, says the former, (XII
that from the corruption and general condemnation in which a
men are plunged, God . . . called those whom he hath chosen . .
to display in them the riches of his mercy, but leaves the rest in th
same corruption and condemnation, to show forthiliTKeln-his ju
tice. The Belgic declares, ^VI)~thaT~ffl'-the^matteTrjf etern
predestination God is both merciful and just; merciful, since 1
delivers from the universal perdition and ruin wrought by sin a
whom . . . he hath elected in Christ Jesus; just, in leaving othe:
in the fall and perdition wherein they have involved themselve
The Synod of Dort presents the fact of preterition more elabo
ately, (1:15) in the statement that, while some are elected, othe:
not elect are passed by, according to the eternal purpose, — God oi
of his most just, irreprehensible and unchangeable good pleasur

REPROBATION, PRETERITION, DEFINED. 397
determining to leave them in the common misery in which they
have willfully plunged themselves, . . . permitting them in his
just judgment to follow on in their own ways, yet purposing
to condemn and punish them finally for their sin. The Synod,
however, pronounced it a calumny to say that the Reformed
Churches taught that God out of his own absolute or arbitrary
will, and without any respect of sin, hath foreordained the greater
part or any part of mankind to be damned.
Other continental formularies employ the more positive term,
reprobation, as induding both the primal passing by and the ulti
mate retributive condemnation, — though chiefly, as in the Second
Helv. Conf. in an incidental rather than elaborate form. It is
interesting to note in that Confession the alleviating declaration
that, although God well knows who are his, and though the num
ber of the elect is said to be but small, yet we oUght to hope kindly
concerning all, nor rashly to count any one among the reprobate.
A similar informal reference to the reprobate as a class appears in
, the Scotch Confession. In the Irish Articles, under the general
head qf_Predestination, we find" the first formal declaration that
God in his eternal and unchangeable counsel hath reprobated unto
death a certain number of mankind, known only to him, which
number- can ndther be increased nor diminished, — a phrase
derived immediately from Augustine, who like Calvin with an
unswerving fidelity to logical coherence, affirmed the existence of
a two-fold predestination, gemina predestinatio, involving all
mankind even from eternity. It was doubtless from this formu
lary that the still more positive statements of the Symbols sprang.
We may trace in both the influence of the startling propositions of
Calvin, (Inst. 111:21) that God from eternity determined in him
self what he would have to become of every individual of the
race; that all mankind were not created by hiin for a similar des
tiny, but eternal life was foreordained for some and eternal dam
nation for others; and that every human being was created for
the one or the other of these ends. It is noticeable, however ,s
that the Symbols nowhere follow Calvin in affirming that the por
tion of mankind who are not elect unto salvation were created to
be damned, but invariably affirm that they are in fact condemned
to punishment for their sins, and for their sins only. The judicial
reprobation is not viewed merely as a purpose formed in eternity,
but also as an event in time, following chronologically as the
sequel of a career of sin. The Symbols endorse the earlier creeds
in declaring that God passes by those who are not elect, leaves
them in their estate of sinfulness, inasmuch as he has the

398 THE PLAN OF SALVATION.
sovereign right to, extend or withhold mercy asjie pleaseth. They
also declare (V:vi) that God sometimes as a righteous~juage with
holds grace, withdraws gifts, exposes to temptation, gives wicked
and ungoldly men over to their own sinfulness, permits a process
of induration and excecation to establish itself in their nature, and
even in his justice ordains them to dishonor and wrath. But they
never affirm that the final condemnation of _the wicked is based on
any other ground or has any other cause than their own willful sin
against him; they nowhere teach,_as has sometimes b^eh alleged,
that God created any portion of mankind in order to exhibit his
justice in their final condemnation.
We may turn from these confessional statements to consider
the essential truth in the case. It is certainly obvious that,
while the plan of salvation is ample enough in its scope and pro
visions to secure the pardon and restoration of all mankind, the
entire race has not even yet heard of it, or been providentially
brought within the range of its benefits. It is obvious also, that
among those who have heard the glad tidings, multitudes almost
innumerable turn away from the gracious offer, and consequently
fail utterly to be saved thereby. And while this sad conclusion
is immediately the result of their personal desire and purpose to
continue in sin, their deliberate choice of evil rather than good,
it is likewise obvious that the will of God sustains some distinct
relation to that result, — even to the extent of acquiescence in their
sinful determination, and of a sovereign purpose to surrender
them, without further provision than that exhibited in the Gospel,
to the legitimate issue of their wicked resistance to his just and
holy claims. Nor is it less obvious that it belongs to God rather
than man, to decide upon the amount of gracious influence which by
his Word and Spirit and through his providence, he shall bring
to bear upon men in order to induce them to turn from their evil
ways and live; and that, for aught we can discover, he may in
.his sovereignty justly leave them, in the phrase of the Canon of
Dort, in the misery in which they have willfully plunged them
selves. Certainly it is obvious that, so long as they are deliber
ately resisting all the influences which in his wondrous scheme
of grace he has determined to bring to bear upon them in order to
their reconciliation with him, they can have no just ground of
complaint if, in the language of the Confession, he passes them
by, or gives them over, to their own lusts, the temptations of the
world, and the power of Satan. There must somewhere be a
point where equity itself forbids the further exercise of mercy —
where God is "constrained to withhold his grace, to withdraw his

PRETERITION A JUST ACT. 399
proper gifts, and to abandon such willful and obdurate subjects
to their chosen career of sinfulness. And is it not clear also
that, as the final outcome of such persistent rejection of his
offered reconciliation, God may at last not only leave them hence
forth to the induration and the corruption and the ruin which sin
by its own nature involves, but in the solemn phrase of the Con
fession, may rightly ordain them to dishonor and wrath for their
sin, to the praise of his glorious justice ?
It is certainly a truth of Scripture, and one which cannot be
too earnestly emphasized, that God may equitably leave, and in
fact does in many instances leave, sinners to the sinfulness to which
they cling in spite of his gracious efforts to deliver them. In
other words, preterition, or the passing by of some among those
who thus resist divine grace, is a fact whose occurrence cannot
be questioned, and whose rightfulness no one is at liberty to chal
lenge. It cannot reasonably be claimed that God is bound in
justice to do more than he is actually doing, or even that it is
possible for him through his appointed scheme of mercy to do more,
for the salvation of-those who are willfully transmuting his blessed
Gospel into a savor of deathjuntq death. ~ Nor is it any less a
truth of ScriptureT^any less a fact of experience, that God may
and does in equity pronounce judicial condemnation at last on
those who thus trifle with and resist his grace, — not only giving
them over finaUy to the sinful corruption in which they have chosen
to abide, but arraigning them at his righteous bar for their persis
tence in evil, and especiaUy for the crowning sin of trifling with
and openly rejecting his gracious offers in the Gospel. In these:
practical conclusions evangelical Christians of all types are essen-
tiaUy agreed. Even the Arminian Remonstrance admits that by
an eternal and unchangeable purpose, God determined ... to
leave the incorrigible and unbelieving in sin and under wrath, and
to condemn them as alienate from Christ — relinquere et con-
demnare. It surely is clear that the solemn and practical truths here indi
cated can never be ignored in Christian theology, or treated as
trivial in their bearings upon human salvation, without incurring
the charge of unfaithfulness to the Gospel, and exposing the souls
of men to dreadful peril. Preterition is a spiritual fact of immeas
urable import, and reprobation, at least in the sense of judicial
condemnation, is a fact of even vaster significance. How far and
in what forms the doctrine may profitably be introduced or empha
sized in an evangelical creed, is a question of serious moment.
We have seen that in some of the Protestant formularies there is

400 THE PLAN OF SALVATION.
hardly a trace of it in either aspect, while in others preterition
only is affirmed, often incidentally rather than in technical form.
It is apparent also, that the doctrine is less prominent in the earlier
than in the later, and less prominent also in the continental,
excepting the noted Canon of Dort, than in British symbolism, —
especially iFwe include inltheTatteFgroup the Lambeth Articles,
which openly declare that those who are not predestmated_unto
Salvation, shall _be necessarilyjia m n erl for their sins. We have
seen that the Confession and Catechisms of Westminster go beyond
all preceding creeds, except the Irish Articles^ in asserting and
defining not only preterition but judicial reprobation, — thus giv
ing to the doctrine of Calvin itscojnpletest confessional expression,
though they do not assert, aj_Calvin didTTplgiTive toreordination
unto damnation, even from eternity. Thatlheir emphatic state-
ments have been subject to very grave misapprehensions, and have
been strenuously urged as objections to the entire Calvinistic
scheme, as incorporated in the Symbols, will be readily admitted.
It is also apparent that, with the advance of larger conceptions of
the nature and scope of the Gospel as a divine offer of mercy made
to the entire race, such misapprehensions have become more and
more injurious — more and more difficult to meet. And it may
be questioned whether many who adhere in good faith to the
teaching of the Symbols concerning the divine sovereignty in
general, have not been influenced by such adverse critidsm even
to the practical ignoring of the solemn truths which these state
ments do after all embody.
The desire to obtain some confessional relief from the severity
of the confessional teaching is natural in itself and has recently
become quite general in Presbyterian circles. The United Church
of Scotland has indicated this desire in its Dedaration, that the
doctrine of the divine decree, including the doctrine of election
unto eternal life, should be held in connection and in harmony with
the truth that God is not willing that any should perish, but has
provided, and in the Gospel has offered, a salvation suffideht for
all men; and also with the truth that every one is responsible to
God for his dealing with this free and unrestricted offer. The
Declaration of the Free Church affirms that the church does not
teach, or regard the Confession as teaching, the foreordination of
men to death irrespective of their sin. The Cumberland Church
in the same spirit, after declaring in general that God has determ
ined to bring to pass whatever should be for his own glory,
condenses the whole subject of the divine decrees in the statement
that God has not decreed anything respecting his creature, man>

PROPOSED EMENDATIONS. 401
contrary to his revealed will or written Word, which Word declares
his sovereignty over all his creatures, the ample provision he has
made for their salvation, and his determination to punish the finally
impenitent with everlasting destruction, and to save the true
believer with an everlasting sah'ation. One of the most valuable
amendments proposed in the recent Revision in our own com
munion, indicates this desire in still more significant form. In
that amendment it was proposed to omit the two sections (iii and
iv), in the chapter on the Eternal Decree, which seem to inculcate
the dogma of an original purpose in the mind of God to consign
some men and angels to eternal death, not simply propter peccatum ,
but from all eternity as an exhibition of penal justice. It was also
proposed to substitute for two other sections (v and vii) in the
chapter, the following statements as embodying all that can use
fully be incorporated in a churchly creed on a matter so abstruse
and so perplexing to faith:
God, before the foundation of the world was laid, according to
his eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and
good pleasure of his will, hath predestinated an innumerable mul
titude of mankind unto Hfe, and hath particularly and unchange
ably chosen them in Christ unto everlasting glory, out of his mere
free grace and love, not on account of any foresight of faith, or
good works, or perseverance in either of them, or any other thing
in the creature, as conditions or causes moving him thereunto;
and all to the praise of his glorious grace.
The rest of mankind God saw fit, according to the unsearchable
counsel of his will, whereby he extendeth or withholdeth mercy
as he pleaseth, not to elect unto everlasting life; and them hath
he ordained to dishonor and wrath for their sin, to the praise of
his glorious justice; yet hath he no pleasure in the death of the
wicked, nor is it his decree, but the wickedness of their own hearts,
which restraineth and hindereth them from accepting the free offer
of his grace made in the Gospel.
Postponing the consideration of Salvation as a gracious Process,
with the agencies engaged in it and the spiritual results secured
thereby, we may here conclude our
study of the divine Plan of Salvation 15' Concliulliiff *ur^:
. ¦ . _ , , . , characteristics of the Plan
with some final observations, suggested f salvation.
by the preceding survey:
First: It is throughout a supernatural plan; originating in God,
revealed by God, and proclaimed by God as his chosen scheme
for the reconciliation and spiritual restoration of our sinful race.
Contrasted with other salvatory devices such as the brain and

402 THE PLAN OF SALVATION.
heart of man have devised, and regarded as a human construc
tion merely, we should still be constrained on fair comparison to
pronounce it immeasurably superior to all other human proposals.
But the careful study of its elements and provisions compels us to
judge that no human mind or combination of minds could ever
have devised such a plan: had we no warrant of inspiration to
rest upon, we should still on the most faithful inspection declare
it to be superhuman. But God has given us ample certification
in inspired Scripture that it is his own scheme, formed even before
the fall of our race, wisely adjusted by him to all the exigencies
which that fall has introduced, stamped in each of its provisions
with his own signature, and in its spirit and all its unfoldings
divine. He who does not reverently recognize this fundamental
element of supernaturalness in this redemptive scheme, — who
does not rest in the conviction that God is its personal author
throughout, and discern in it not only the divine grace but also
the divine authority, rightfully requiring him and all men to
accept it, as the only adequate method of deliverance from sin and
guilt, has attained no suitable conception of it, and can in no wise be
personally saved by it. If this Gospel of grace and holiness be
not thus truly and absolutely divine in origin and spirit and
method, it must be pronounced an impenetrable and intolerable
mystery — the greatest and darkest of all religious delusions.
Second: It is a comprehensive and complete plan; containing in
itself everything that is requisite to the spiritual restoration of
mankind, and perfect in every adjustment to their spiritual con
dition and needs. Prostrate as the race is in its conscious corrup
tion and guilt, it has never ceased to devise schemes for its moral
recovery and its reconciliation with God. It has sought by pen
ance and sacrifices to obtain forgiveness from heaven: it has pro
posed to secure salvation through culture and discipline: it has
traversed the entire range of possibilities in the struggle to shake
off its load of guilt, and to secure spiritual purity and peace.
Human philosophy has sought to solve the universal problem; —
sometimes by doubts or negations, sometimes by dreamy ideals
which prove in the experiment to be painfully void of saving
power. As Plato dreamed of redemption as a release from the
bondage of sense, to be secured through the culture of the true,
the beautiful and the good within the soul, so philosophy in all
ages has endeavored to teach men how to be saved by processes
originating in human methods rather than in God. But Christianity
is the only system that has taken scientific account of the great
disease of humanity in all its manifold phases, or has proposed a

CONCLUDING SURVEY. 403
remedy adjusted at every point to the nature of the universal dis
order, and potent enough to work out in all who submit them
selves to its treatment a perfect cure. Chalmers in his Institutes
has described the disorder with scientific precision and with unhes
itating fidelity, and on the other hand has set forth the -divine
remedy in all its fullness and glory, as containing the assurance of
a complete and an eternal recovery for all who in faith will receive
its gracious mediation. And what he has eloquently said, is
abundantly verified alike by the scientific investigations and by the
experimental tests of myriads who have found in Christianity the
only comprehensive, the only efficacious remedy for sin which
the race has ever known.
Third: This divine plan is by its own nature unchangeable; —
time neither alters its provisions, nor exhausts its effectiveness,
nor impairs its claim on human acceptation. Men have sought
to eliminate some of these provisions as needless, to add other ele
ments as if essential, to introduce new conceptions of it, to present
the divine scheme in novel aspects or reduce it to the terms of
human philosophy. It is indeed a fact of history that with the
ages new forms of stating, new modes of explaining, new varie
ties of reason and argument, have from time to time arisen; and
it may properly be antidpated that further variations in such pre
sentation wiU arise in future ages, as men shall seek to describe
this divine plan in more effective language and measure. But that
plan is now in substance and spirit precisely what it was in the
days of Christ and his apostles, and such it will remain so long as
time lasts. Errorists may pervert it; speculative minds may cor
rupt and distort it; an unsanctified ministry or priesthood may fail
to apprehend, and therefore fail to set it forth; churches may
lose their confidence in its efficacy, and seek after salvation by other
processes, more congenial to the natural man. But the divine
plan stands now as of old, sufficiently described in holy Scripture,
as plain and as commanding as when the Immanuel first pro
claimed it, — the eternal offer of Heaven, clear as the sun and as
unfading, on whose acceptance or rejection the salvation of the
world in all ages alike must turn. God has devised the plan,
clearly and authoritatively proposed it, made all the provisions
needful to its complete efficacy; and while He remains as he is,
his gracious scheme will also remain, fixed and unchangeable.
Fourth: It is an effectual plan; not merely perfect in theory,
but practically successful in all lands and times alike, and in
every soul of man that yields to its saving power. The final
proof of the value of any remedy must lie in the testimony

404 THE PLAN OF SALVATION.
of those who have been cured by it: the remedy that heals, that
heals in all varieties of circumstance, that heals in every case
where it is faithfully applied, needs no further commendation.
And God is willing to submit his saving scheme to this supreme
test: the Bible appeals habitually to the witness of extended,
established, incontrovertible experience. If it were found that
any who sought salvation by this process failed to attain it, — if it
were shown that there were countries or races where this remedy
was found experimentally to be impracticable or ineffective, — even
if there were individual men who, after submitting to this divine
process of redemption, declared themselves unaided and unblest
through it, ominous shadows of doubt would be cast at once upon
the entire scheme. Nay more: such testimony would prove beyond
question that the Gospel was after all a delusive device of man — in
no sense a veritable revelation from God. But on the other hand,
the unanimous testimony of innumerable millions, from the various
races and countries of earth, uttered century after century, in the
face of opposition and unbelief of every conceivable type, is for
all practical purposes a sufficient, an abounding proof that this,
saving scheme has come into the world from God, and, is therefore
infinitely worthy of all human credence and acceptation.
Fifth: This divine plan is in reality unassailable; it has stood,
still stands, will continue through the ages to stand, as the one and
only method of deliverance and regeneration. At this late date
in the history of religious thought, this proposition seems almost
incapable of challenge. In view of the vast array of argument
brought to bear against this Gospel by the speculations, the
doubts, the unbelief of men in former times, — an array which has
been vanquished in successive conflicts lasting through centuries —
it seems well-nigh impossible that any really new assault should
ever be undertaken, or at least should ever be in any large degree
successful. It is freely admitted that if Christianity could be
effectively assailed at this central point, its essential supernatural
ness would be questioned at every other point; its claim to be a
divine faith would be not only impaired, but fundamentally over
thrown. Here is the central citadel of Christian belief and
Christian trust; if this were captured, all would be lost forever.
But is not this citadel impregnable ? Is not this saving Plan a
glorious, an assured, an unassailable reality? And will not the
world, in its conscious sin and guilt and corruption, finally turn
away from all human schemes and devices, to accept this divine
Plan just as it stands in its proportion and beauty and its indisso
luble strength as the one and only Hope for man ?

LECTURE EIGHTH— THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
Salvation a Process : The Holy Spirit as Agent : Man
as Salvable: effectual Calling— Regeneration : Justi
fication : Sanctification.
C. F. : Ch. IX-XIII. L. C. 57-9: 65-75. S. C. 29-35.
The genetic formation and progress of doctrine in the Symbols
deserve most careful consideration. Both the Confession and the
Catechisms start out, as we have seen, with a series of credenda
which are both primal in order and fundamental in importance.
Revelation in its nature and aim and contents; God in his charac
ter, purposes and rdations; creation and providence as divine acts;
Man in his original constitution and relationship to God, and
especiaUy in His sinful condition and need, — these are presented
at the outset as the primordial bases of proper Christian belief.
Then foUows in generic form the doctrine of salvation from sin,
revealed in the aspect of a gracious purpose and covenant — a sal
vation rendered possible through the incarnation and messiahship
of the one Mediator between God and man, and made available to
sinners in and through his several offices as prophet, priest and
king. The first eight chapters of the Confession, constituting one
fourth of the entire Symbol, and a nearly equal proportion of the
two Catechisms, are concerned with these fundamental doctrines.
The obvious reason is that all that was to be affirmed later on
respecting salvation as an actual experience, and respecting the
Christian life established through gracious union with God in
Christ, must of necessity rest on these fundamental propositions.
He who does not accept these primary truths — who does not hold
in substance what the Symbols thus affirm concerning the Scrip
tures, concerning God, concerning man in his sin and need, con
cerning the divine purpose to rescue and save our sinful race, and
concerning the incarnate Son of God and Son of Man as the true
and only Savior of the world, will of course fail to discern or
appreciate the teaching of the ten succeeding chapters in the Con
fession which set forth the actual process of salvation in its various
stages and in its sublime results in human experience. If on the
other hand these preliminary truths are accepted in their full
breadth and significance as stated in the Symbols, both the mind

406 THE process of salvation.
and the heart are prepared thereby to accept in its fullness that
splendid conception of a salvation attained through the mediation
and ministries of Christ alone, which is at once the center and, the
culmination of the Westminster scheme of doctrine, as indeed of
all evangelical theology.
In this stately progression, this philosophic unfolding of sacred
doctrine, the Symbols are equaled by none of the antecedent
Protestant creeds. All sections of Protestantism were indeed
substantially agreed respecting these primary verities, and all
were more or less conscious, as several of the creeds make quite
apparent, of the importance of incorporating them in some meas
ure in their confessional structures. The Augsburg Confession,
the Second Helvetic, and especially the earlier British symbols,
are special illustrations of this fact. Yet the Westminster divines,
standing as they did at a much later point in the theologic evo
lution, and appreciating more fully the value of more thorough
system and greater completeness in an authoritative declaration
of faith, went quite beyond their predecessors — as we have already
had occasion to note — in setting forth in order these principia
of doctrine as the foundations on which an adequate conception
of salvation must ever rest. The earlier reformers from Luther
and Calvin even down to the Synod of Dort, were more singly
and anxiously concerned with the specific inquiry respecting sal
vation as a process and an experience, than with these preliminary
truths. Nor is it strange that, confronted as they directly were
with the false theories and falser practice of Rome, and battling
with intense energy for the central principle of justification by
faith in Christ alone, they should have failed somewhat in the
formal recognition and expression of such fundamental articles
of belief.
In the ten chapters of the Confession, now to be studied as
containing the formulated doctrine of salvation, it is important
to note at the outset the two main divisions of the general sub
ject: the first, in chapters IX-XIII, presenting especially the
saving process, while the five remaining chapters (XIV-XVIII),
describe rather the resulting appropriation and experience on the
part of man. As everywhere else, the Symbols place God in the
foreground, as the source and author, and also the finisher of sal
vation, — bringing in as consequent what man is enabled through
grace to do, and is therefore required to do, in order to be saved
according to the divine plan. The sovereign ministries of the
Spirit, the bestowment of needful grace as a gift, the effec- .
tual calling of the sinner by the divine voices incorporated in

SALVATION A PROCESS. 407
the Gospel, his justification and adoption through the mediation
of Christ, his sanctification through the active energies of the
Holy Ghost; these all antecede the actual realization of the sal
vation offered, and in the order of both time and thought go before
what man does, or is led to do, in the actual attainment of salva
tion. It is important, therefore, in the interest of clearness, that
our thought should for the present be fixed simply on the salva
tory process itself — reserving for further study what we are taught
respecting the full experience and fruition of the saving scheme.
Some preliminary suggestions may profitably be noted here. And
first: Salvation may justly be described as a process — a gracious
operation of God both upon and within
the soul of man, in order to its deliver- u Preliminary suggts-
ance from the guilt and the power of sin, "°f = th* term' process'
& e ' defined : this process per-
and its complete restoration to himself SOnal.
and to eternal life in Him. This divine
operation is said in the Symbols to be in some aspects an act, and in
others a work; — in one sense an instantaneous procedure of grace,
and in another a procedure having successive stages, and requiring
time for" its fuh evolution. It may be helpfully considered in its
totaUty as a gracious process, whose various features and move
ments can be noted by the thoughtful observer, and whose results
are recognizable in the new life — in the regenerated character. It
was dearly the purpose of the Westminster divines to represent
salvation in some such aspect, though they nowhere use the term.
It is probably true that they followed closely, perhaps too closely,
the analytic method of presenting the doctrine, which was charac
teristic of the century following the Reformation, — so widely sepa
rating and dividing the elements in this gracious process as almost
to induce forgetfulness of that organic unity which is its funda
mental exceUence. Yet their presentation of these elements, and
of salvation itself as indicated in them, taken as a whole, is so well
organized, and so clear and strong and complete, as to deserve
the attentive interest of all who desire to know and comprehend
the gracious plan and method of God in salvation.
Second: We should observe the continuous blending of the objec
tive and the subjective elements, — the work of Christ for us, and
work of the Spirit within us, — which characterizes the entire pre
sentation. It had been alleged by the advocates of Rome that the
Protestants had presented salvation as wholly an objective matter,
and had failed correspondingly to appreciate the vital truth that
salvation is also, and indeed chiefly, a subjective experience — a
change of character, as they affirmed, rather than a change of

408 THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
condition or estate. Whatever of truth may have been recogniz
able in such an allegation during the earlier stages of Protestantism,
no such charge could properly be urged against the divines of
Westminster. For, strongly as they held and affirmed the cardinal
doctrine of salvation wrought out by Christ alone — a salva
tion divinely bestowed in our justification and adoption through
the merits of his mediatorial work as distinguished from all
human efforts or acts, they yet emphasized with equal fullness
the subjective side of such salvation, and in the most positive
and commanding form set forth a genuine religious experience,
such as appears in repentance, in faith, in good works, and in
personal perseverance and assurance, as being of the very essence
and in some aspects the supreme substance of salvation. Multi
plied illustrations of this fact will appear at various points in
the proposed investigation.
Third: the language of the Symbols in setting forth the whole
doctrine in both sections of it is mainly, almost entirely, scriptural.
While the current theological distribution of the subject matter
is adopted, the words used in the presentation are drawn for the
most part immediately from the very Word of God. A compar
ison of the language of the Confession with that of the texts
which were profusely adduced to support the doctrines affirmed,
will sfiow how anxious the compilers of that document were to
carry with thern a divine authoritativeness for each and every
statement. Admirable illustrations of this fact may be seen in
the confessional and catechetic ' definitions of justification and
sanctification, and in the entire chapter on adoption. It is of
course possible to frame even an essentially false dogma in biblical
phraseology, — by some careful selection of terms, clauses, sen
tences, and by some adroit grouping of these into a series of propo
sitions, to fabricate a doctrinal statement which in reality is quite
unwarranted by the essential and duly harmonized teachings of
the Bible. How much of this has been done, if not to buttress
positive and dangerous heresy, still to support defective creeds or
bolster up weak or partizan theologies, every student of the his
tory of Christian doctrine too painfully knows. While it would
be too much to say that the Westminster divines were altogether
exempt from such liabilities, yet in the main they were remarkably
free from exposure to any such charge. It is indeed to be
observed that Protestant symbolism in nearly all its earlier varieties
was singularly saturated with scripturalness in the best sense. This
was natural, in view of the fact that its cardinal teachings could
be maintained only on the authority of Holy Scripture, as distinct

THIS PROCESS PERSONAL. 409
from tradition and the dicta of the church. But it may justly
be claimed that no finer strain of scripturalness appears anywhere
among the Protestant creeds than is exhibited in the Westminster'
formularies, and that much of their convincing quality and of
their power to hold those who have once embraced them, lies in
this reverential recognition of the doctrinal supremacy of the
Divine Word itself.
Fourth: It should be carefully borne in mind that this salvatory
process as here described is throughout a process wrought, not by
physical or natural forces, but by persons and upon persons.
The Westminster divines were not indeed exempt from that
temptation to carry natural law into the spiritual sphere, and to
describe the phenomena and workings of grace through images
and iUustrations drawn from the field of nature, which has so
often wrought mischief, not merely to theology, but as well to
practical rdigion in later times. Illustrations of this mischievous
tendency will appear occasionally as we progress in our investiga
tions. But it should never be forgotten that on the divine side
all is strictly and purely personal : — the Father as a person plan
ning and instituting the entire scheme of salvation; the Son as a
person teaching, acting, suffering and dying in the interest of
mediation: the Spirit as a person working in love upon the human
heart, effectually calling the sinner by his grace, inducing repent
ance and faith, teaching the duty of loving obedience, sanctifying
the soul and the life together, and giving to the human recip
ient fuU assurance of faith and the spirit of perseverance unto
the end. AU on the divine side is strictly, purely personal.
It is just as true that the entire process on the side of man
is equally a personal process. The gracious work of God in all its
varied aspects is a work, not on the physical constitution, but on
the moral nature— on the intellect, the spiritual sensibilities, and
eminently on the will as the center of responsibility and the real
seat of character. Granting for the moment all that can be
affirmed as to the efficiency of external motives in determining
human action, or as to the infirmity or deadness of the will itself
as induced by depravity and sin, still the sinner must ever be rec
ognized as a person, and his salvation must be regarded through
out as the experience of a living, active, responsible person — a
real soul. Whether such a conception was legitimately carried
out by the divines of Westminster at every point in the develop
ment of their doctrinal system, may justly be questioned. It is
certain that considerable difference of view prevailed among them,
Calvinists though they were, as to the effect of depravity on the

410 THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
moral constitution and other kindred matters: there were disci
ples of ZwingH and Mdanchthon as well as disciples of Luther and
Calvin among them, as is indicated more than once in the pubHshed
debates. But whether they were consistent or otherwise, or were
able entirely to agree as to the philosophy of the facts, there is
abundant evidence that all alike regarded salvation as a process
wrought, not upon dead but on living souls — in other words, that
it was a process in which persons, the human as well as the
divine, were concerned throughout.
Holding steadily in view this fundamental conception of the
process of salvation as personal at every stage, we may first turn
to consider more specifically, the ac-
2. The Spirit, as a per- tors or agents in this process; and
sonal agent in Salvation: rimaril the Hol s irit as a divine
his full personality. r J' . „ ,
Person, having all the essential attri
butes and vested with all the potencies of Deity, and engaged
no less truly than the Father or the Son in the sublime task of
saving mankind from sin and spiritual destruction. Here it be
comes at once noticeable that the Symbols, while setting forth
with wonderful fullness the various offices and works of the Spirit,
say much less directly about his personality than about that of
either the Son or the Father. We note indeed the fundamental
proposition (Ch. II:iii) that in the unity of the Godhead there be
three persons of one substance, power and eternity: that one of these
persons is God the Holy Ghost, and that this person eternally pro
ceeds from the Father and the Son — as had been affirmed in the
Apostolic and the Nicene creeds, and declared in several of the
antecedent formulas of Protestantism. We also find the general
declaration (Chap. IV: i) that it pleased the Holy Ghost, as well
as the Father and the Son, in the beginning to create, or make of
nothing the world and all things therein, whether visible or invisi
ble, — a declaration which certainly implies his full divinity as
truly as that of the first or the second person in the Godhead.
The attributes, qualities, perfections of this divine person also are
continually suggested in what is said of his operations in the field
of grace, and his vital relations to human salvation. As in the
Scriptures, so in the Symbols, he is repeatedly referred to as the
Spirit of truth, taking of the things of Christ and showing them
unto men; — as the Spirit of love and of grace, tenderly ministering
to all the needs alike of sinner and saint in the interest of redemp
tion; — as the holy Spirit, not only infinitely holy in and of himself,
but the only and the adequate source of all holiness and sanctifica
tion in man. In a word, the entire argument for the Trinity in

THE HOLY SPIRIT A PERSON. 411
God, is available to establish the full personality of the Holy
Spirit as one of the three essential hypostases or personal modes
of existence in the divine Being, interior and absolute as well as
external and economic.
Yet his proper and separate personality seems to be left compara
tively in the shadow, while our attention is fixed rather on his won
derful work, from the initial impacts of his grace onward through
aU the stages of sa-ring experience, until it is consummated in the
exaltation of the believing and trusting soul into glory everlasting.
This was in fact the natural movement of evangelical thought
during the vital crisis of the Reformation, as the earlier creeds
abundantly indicate. The great issue between the Reformers and
Rome related, not to the abstract dogma of the Trinity, or even to
the personality of the Mediator or of the Holy Ghost, but rather
to what the second and third persons in the Godhead were actually
doing in the interest of human salvation. Hence it seemed enough
to affirm their personality indirectly by condemning, as is done in
the Augsburg Confession, (Art. I) the error that the Word sig-
nifieth a vocal word, and the Spirit a motion created in things; and
by pointing to the ancient creeds, in which the essential truth had
been already stated. The second Helvetic Confession, however,
goes farther than the rest, even farther than the Westminster
divines deemed it needful to go, in the remarkable article (III)
wherein it formally condemns as blasphemers of the blessed
Trinity all those who affirm that the Son and the Spirit are God
by appointment or dedaration only, nuncupatione, or that they are
merely attributes or qualities, affectiones et proprietates, of the one
God, the Father. How far such errors existed in Protestant cir
cles, outside of the scant Socinian party, it is not easy to deter
mine; certainly no leading Reformer would have hesitated to
affirm with the creed of Nicaea, that the Holy Ghost as a divine
person is the Lord and Giver of spiritual life, who together with
the Father and the Son is therefore to be worshiped and glorified,
as being equally with them God over all, blessed forever.*

*It is both interesting and instructive to trace the development of the
church doctrine respecting the Holy Spirit during the period before the
Nicene statement. Tertullian, A. D. 200: the Holy Ghost the Paraclete, the
Sanctifier of the faith of those who believe — the Leader into all truth. Another
form: the power of the Holy Ghost, to guide believers. Origen, A. D. 250: We
believe also in the Holy Ghost, promised of old to the church, but granted
in the appointed and fitting time. Novatian, A. D. 230: the Holy Ghost was
associated in honor and dignity with the Father and the Son. Gregory of
Neo-Csesarea, A. D. 270: There is one Holy Ghost, having his existence

412 THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
As to the offices and work of the divine Spirit, the Symbols are
— as might be anticipated — much more full and elaborate than any
of the antecedent Confessions. The compilers had the immense
advantage derived not merely from these more primitive formula
ries which were in their hands, but from the discussions and contro
versies respecting this work which prevailed during the latter half
of the sixteenth and the earlier decades of the seventeenth cen
tury. The Socinian aberration, the Syncretistic controversy in
Germany, the Arminianism of Holland, and other kindred varie
ties in dogma, more 'or less variant from the essential truth, were
all before them as they wrote. The theologies of the period, from
high Turretinianism downward to the developing Moderatism of
their age, were in their hands. Hence, the elaborateness, almost
excessive.which marks their distribution of the general theme, —
the measured order of thought, and the stately progress in state
ment, the careful grouping of elements, and the diligent conserva
tion of everything essential to the complete exposition of the
doctrine. It has indeed been questioned whether in their earnest de
sire to set salvation forth as a work of God rather than of man — to
give all honor and glory to the Spirit as at once the author and fin
isher of human faith regarded as an experience, they did not retire
the human factor in the case too much from view. In this day of
larger light and broadening vision respecting the scope of grace,
we may justly query whether they were not at some points too
narrow in their conceptions, and possibly too rigid and severe in
the manner in which they enforced the doctrine. Yet for their
definition of common grace and effectual calling, for their account
of the relations of the Spirit to all true repentance and all saving
faith, for their broad and sweet doctrine of sanctification and
from God . . . the sacred fount or cause of sanctity and the leader of sanc
tification : in whom is revealed God the Father . . . and God the Son.
Lucian, A. D. 300; We believe in the Holy Ghost, given for consolation and
sanctification and perfection to those who believe. After the Nicene Coun
cil, Cyril of Jerusalem, A. D. 350: I believe in one Holy Ghost, the Advocate,
who spake in the prophets. Epiphanius, A. D. 374: We believe in the Holy
Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father, who
with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified: who spake
by the prophets. A more extended formula is ascribed to Epiphanius: We
believe in the Holy Ghost, who spake in the Law, and preached in the
Prophets, and came down at Jordan: who speaks in apostles, and dwells in
saints: and thus we believe in Him, — that there is a Spirit of God, a perfect
Spirit, a Paraclete Spirit, uncreated, proceeding from the Father, and re
ceived from the Son, and believed. For other similar formularies, earlier and
later, consult Pearson on the Creed, Appendix: also, Smeaton, Doct. of the
Holy Spirit: Div. Third.

DOCTRINE OF THE SPIRIT DEVELOPED. 413
Christian perfection so far as attainable in this life, and for their
sturdy maintenance of the challenged truth of Christian assur
ance and perseverance unto the end, and their strong and lofty
strains of hope for all believers in the life to come, to be realized
at last through the ministries of the Spirit as truly as through the
atoning mediation of the Son of God, — for all this they deserve,
as indeed they have received, the grateful recognition of evangel
ical Christendom for these two centuries, and will doubtless con
tinue more and more to receive it as the centuries increase.
It will involve no subtraction from this just estimate, if at this
point we note the remarkable increase of interest in the general
doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and the
broader and still more inspiring concep- 3* DOCfrme of the Spirit
.. t ,. ... . ... developed: proposed addition
tions of his person and his work, which t .. * . ,
r ' to the Confession.
already are among the most impressive
theological and practical developments of the present age. It has
been said that this cardinal doctrine like the doctrine of the Chris
tian Church, is one among the undeveloped tenets of our holy
faith. It is certainly a fact that, with the possible exception of
the brief articles (XII) in the Scotch and Genevan Confessions,
and the brief er statements in the Belgic Confession (XI) and the
Thirty-Nine Articles (V), no creed of Christendom, Roman or
Protestant, contains what may be regarded as a formal or ade
quate embodiment of this doctrine. We search in vain for any
such statement in the formularies of Lutheranism, or in the
Canons of Trent, or the Decrees of the Vatican. It is remarka
ble that the Confession of the Greek Church (Quest. IX-X: also,
LXXII-LXXXI) contains what is perhaps the most extensive,
if not wholly orthodox, account in Christian symbolism of the
person of the Spirit, the seven gifts bestowed by him on believers,
and the nine special fruits that spring up within the soul under his
nurture. But evangelical Protestantism is coming more and more
to realize that some more formal, adequate, inspiring 'statement
than has thus far been framed, is becoming essential to that
enlarged spiritual life, and that wider and more fruitful religious
activity, which evangelical minds are everywhere recognizing as
the chief desideratum of the church in our time.
It is this developing conviction which has given such signifi
cance to the recent movement to incorporate in the Confession a
separate Chapter, which should bring together in one comprehen
sive statement the essential elements of current Christian belief in
regard to the person of the Spirit, his several spheres and the general
range of his agency, and his vital relations to the life of believers

414 THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
and of the Church. Although this Chapter as proposed failed to
receive that extensive measure of endorsement required under our
Constitution, in order to effect any change in our ecclesiastical
formulas, there is little doubt that it expresses, more fully than
has been done heretofore in confessional form, what is the deep and
growing conviction of a large majority of intelligent and earnest
minds within our branch of the Presbyterian family, if not indeed
in much broader circles. This Chapter may therefore fitly be
incorporated in the present discussion, and is as follows:
I. The Holy Spirit, the third person in the Trinity, being very
and eternal God, the same in substance with the Father and the
Son, and equal in power and glory, is, together with the Father
and the Son, to be believed in, loved, obeyed, and worshiped
throughout all ages.
II. The Holy Spirit who of old revealed- to men in various
ways the mind and will of God, hath fully and authoritatively
made known this mind and will, in all things pertaining to life and
salvation, in the sacred Scriptures, — holy men of God speaking
therein as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, and these Scrip-
tures.being so inspired,are the infallible Word of God, the supreme
rule of faith and duty.
III. The Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, is every
where present among men, confirming the teachings of nature and
the law of God written on the heart, restraining from evil, inciting
to good, and preparing the way for the Gospel. He likewise
accompanies the Gospel with his persuasive energy, and urges its
message upon the reason and conscience of unregenerate men, so
that they who reject its merciful offer are not only without excuse,
but are also guilty of resisting the Holy Spirit.
IV. The Holy Spirit is the only efficient agent in applying and
communicating redemption. He effectually calls sinners to new
life in Christ Jesus, regenerating them by his almighty grace and
persuading* and enabling them to embrace Jesus Christ by faith.
He dwells in all believers as their Comforter and Sanctifier, and
as the Spirit of adoption and of supplication, performing all those
gracious offices by which they are sanctified and sealed unto the
day of redemption.
V. By the indwelling of the Holy Spirit all believers are
vitally united to Christ, who is the head, and are thus united to
one another in the Church, which is his body. He calls and
anoints ministers for their holy office, qualifies all other officers in
the Church for their special work, and imparts various gifts and
graces to its members. He gives efficacy to the Word and to the

. RECENT EMENDATIONS. 415
ordinances of the Gospel. By him the Church will be preserved,
increased and purified, until it shall cover the earth, and at last be
made a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such
thing. The scope and significance of this historic declaration will
appear more fully in our more specific investigations, but we may
here pause to note some characteristic features of the statement.
And first: its full recognition, not only of the true and proper
divinity of the Holy Spirit, but also of his sovereign right to
be believed, loved, obeyed and worshiped, together with the
Father and the Son, by believers and by the Church catholic and
universal. — Second : its closer and clearer analysis of the four
spheres within which the particular work of the Spirit is carried
forward, — the sphere of inspiration, as concerned with Holy Scrip
ture in its supreme relationship to life and salvation, — the sphere
of illumination, as related to the spiritual education of the race, —
the sphere of regeneration, with its precious consequences and
fruitage in the life of saints, — and the sphere of administration, as
seen in the organization, guidance, development and efficiency of
the Church. — Third: the broadened conception especially of his
energy in influencing the moral life of mankind, and the moral
order of the world, even beyond the geographic bounds of Chris
tendom. What is described as common grace, or common opera
tions of the Spirit (X:iv), is here presented as cosmic or universal
among men, working everywhere in conjunction with the natural
reason and conscience of the race. — And fourth: the more full and
detailed account of the several ministries of the Spirit to the indi
vidual soul, ranging from the first effectual call of grace onward
to final and complete sanctification, and also of his varied activities
within the Church, selecting and endowing its officers, giving effi
cacy to its plans and endeavors, vitalizing its ordinances by his
presence, empowering its missionary enterprises, and meanwhile
perfecting the Church inwardly, so that it is graciously qualified
more and more to become, according to the divine purpose, the
dominating Kingdom of God on the earth.
Similar references, especially to the illuminating and regener
ative operations of the Spirit in the world, appear in the recent
Declaratory Acts of both the Free and the United Presbyterian
Churches of Scotland. The English Presbyterian Synod has
incorporated in its recent statement of belief a brief Article on
the Holy Spirit, as follows: We believe in the Holy Spirit, the
Lord, the Giver of life, who worketh freely as he will, with
out whose quickening grace there is no salvation, whom the

416 THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
Father never withholds from any who ask for Him, and we give
thanks that He has in every age moved on the hearts of men;
that He spake by the prophets; that through our exalted Savior
He was sent forth in power to convict the world of sin, to enlighten
the minds of men in the knowledge of Christ, and to persuade
and enable them to obey the call of the Gospel; and that He
abides with the Church, dwelling in every believer as the Spirit
of truth, of holiness, and of comfort.
Such is the Divine Person whose blessed office it is to take up
and complete within the individual soul, within the church, and
in human society, that mighty task of
4. Special Agency in sal- saivation, devised and instituted as a
vation: his activity central . , , ., . , , ,
and dominant here. gracious plan by the wisdom and love
of God the Father, and revealed and
rendered possible through the mediation, the teaching and acts
and atoning sacrifice of God the Son. And this is the subhme
sphere within which the Symbols generally represent him as work
ing. We are not warranted by them in describing the Spirit as
the executive of the Godhead in any generic sense, ruling in cre
ation and providence as in the superior domain of grace: — the
source of all intellectual life and ordinary knowledge in man, and
revealing himself in animal and vegetable structures and growth.
Such misconceptions rest apparently on the hypothesis that wher
ever the word, Spirit, occurs in the Bible as applied to God, it is
the third person in the Trinity rather than the first or second, or
the composite Deity as spiritual, that is indicated. We may cer
tainly find a sufficient corrective to this misconception in the words
of our Lord to the woman of Samaria, God is a Spirit: and in
the many instances in the Old Testament in which the phrase,
Spirit of God, must be interpreted as the spiritual God — the com
plete Deity who is pure Spirit, as distinguished from matter in
whatever form. There is little warrant if any for regarding the
Holy Ghost as the executive of the Godhead in all spheres,
according to the pantheistic phrase of Cyprian, omnium viventium
anima: and there is also great danger in such a representation, if
in any degree it turns our thoughts away from that grand and
distinctive work of applying salvation to men, and actually saving
them according to the divine plan, in which his holy personality
makes itself so gloriously manifest.
But within this, which must ever be recognized as the supreme
sphere of divine activity, so far at least as the human race are con
cerned, the Spirit and his work are always to be regarded as the
culminating features. It was to the specific task of saving men

AGENCY OF THE SPIRIT IN SALVATION. 417
by the process devised by the Father and provided for in the incar
nate Christ, Son of God and Son of man, that the Spirit was in
biblical phrase sent forth from the Father, or — as the Symbols
affirm — from the Father and the Son. They do not indeed enter
at all into the mystery suggested by the term, procession: they
say nothing of an interior and ineffable spiration, as it has been
termed (Shedd, Dogm. Theol.), by which the Spirit flows forth
eternally as a living effluence from the Father — a speculation
analogous to that which is represented in the kindred dogma of an
eternal begetting of the Son. Nor do they discuss the question
whether this procession, or sending forth, was single or double —
from the Father only, or from Father and Son as conjoined in
commissioning the Spirit for his sacred task. But they are careful
to guard against the inference that such commissioning, whether
by one or two divine persons, involves any subordination or infe
riority on the part of the third person who is thus sent and com
missioned : they affirm rather full identity of substance, and
entire equality in power and glory and in every attribute, such
that the Spirit is absolutely and throughout as truly God as either
the Son or the Father. Nor do they permit us to regard this work
of human salvation as inferior, because it is consequent upon
the preceding works of creation or providence, or redemption
through the mediation of Christ. Rather is it true, if it may
reverently be said, that they exhibit the work of the Spirit within
this sphere as highest and grandest as well as last; — the most
glorious and precious revelation which the triune Deity has ever
made, or possibly may ever be able to make, of his nature or his
wiU and love toward our fallen race.
But while in a sense limiting the operations of the Holy Spirit
within this single sphere or department of divine activity, we
shbidd on the other hand recognize, as indeed the Confession does
in large measure, how extensive and varied and sublime these
operations are. We are there taught that the promises, prophecies,
sacrifices and other types and ordinances, given to the chosen
people of God, as foretokenings of a Savior to come, were deliv
ered unto them (VII:5) through the operations of the Spirit.
Scripture also tells us that he inspired artizans like Bezaleel in
the preparation of the tabernacle and the robes of the anointed
priesthood; — that he strengthened and endowed warriors and
judges like Samson and Samuel for their specific tasks in the inter
est of the slowly developing economy of grace; — that he qualified
great kings like David and Solomon, and quickened holy prophets
like Isaiah and Jeremiah and the rest, for their special commissions

418 THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
as the messengers of God to the elect people, and as foretellers of
that future that was to be realized in the advent and mission of
Jesus Christ. We may recognize him also as the source of all holy
living in individual men such as Elijah and David and Daniel,
and as the active agent in those precious revivals of religion which
— as in the age of Nehemiah — shed such peculiar luster on the
spiritual experience and life of the Hebrew nation. And, if we
turn to the New Testament, whatever may be thought of the mys
tical phrase in the most ancient creed, Conceived by the Holy Ghost,
there can be no question that the Spirit descended like the sem
blance of a dove upon the incarnate Immanuel; that he wrought
graciously upon men in conjunction with the ministries of Jesus;
that he came down in mighty power upon the assembled saints
at the Pentecost; and that he anointed, taught, guided, empow
ered the church in and throughout the unique experiences of the
apostolic century. The attempt to interpret that century — the
century of wonders — in a naturalistic way, as a mere conjunction
of human forces and influences, the Holy Spirit not recognized as
the dominating and formative agency, is wholly subversive of
Scripture, as it must also prove destructive to true faith. We rec
ognize him also as in a true sense the author of the Scriptures,
both older and newer, as the safe guide of the Evangelists in their
records of the life of Christ, as the inspirer of Paul and Peter
and James and John, and any others who may have been associ
ated with them under his direction in the preparation of the Book
of books. And proceeding from this sure historic basis, we are
warranted in believing further in a true and proper dispensation
of the Spirit which, beginning with the Ascension and the Pente
cost, has broadened in scope and increased in potency with the
sacceeding centuries, until now it may truly be said that the Spirit
is wide as the world in his presence and working, and as efficient
as he is gracious in his holy activities— in this high sense and
sphere the glorious executive of the Godhead among men.
That such a doctrine of the Holy Spirit is as fundamental in
Christianity as the doctrine of the incarnation or the atonement,
is fully implied, if not formally stated
.L^^Z'"" *.«*BymWl To the Socini.n
notion that the Spirit is merely an im
personal effluence from God or — in the language of the Augsburg
Confession — a motion created in things, within the domain of
religion; and indeed to all naturalistic conceptions concerning him
or his working, they present a plain, positive and conclusive
answer. Later times have indeed brought into view certain forms

ERRONEOUS THEORIES : THE SPIRIT SUPREME. 419
of objection, to which the Symbols furnish no reply except by
implication. It is said, for example, that the doctrine of such a
superhuman personality, descending into the human spirit, and
effecting such moral changes in thought and feeling and purpose
as render him who experiences them essentially a new man — a
saved man, both inwardly and in his relations to God and to eter
nity, has no philosophic basis, and is in fact an illusion of the
Christian imagination. It is alleged that all such transforma
tions as actually occur in life, however extensive or thorough, can
be sufficiently accounted for by the action of the human judgment
and conscience, and of the will inherent in man himself, — that
in a word, the idea of regeneration and conversion, and of pro
gressive sanctification wrought out by the power of God working
immediately and dedsively within the human soul, is entirely
unwarranted, and in fact is pernicious as well as illusive, so far as
it turns the thoughts of men away from that task of self-reno
vation, of moral development and perfection, which from the
nature of the case must be wrought out through personal effort
and culture alone.
It is further urged by way of objection that, since God has
chosen to reveal himself and his will in nature and in the human
mind and consdence, acting upon the human soul ab extra, it
is unreasonable to suppose that the divine Spirit will thus enter
into the inmost recesses of the human spirit, and there by such
interior energy work out such changes as Christianity alleges. It is
said that God cannot do such a work within as well as upon man, —
at least, that he could not exert such sweeping and revolutionary
energy as this, without Hmiting or even destroying that human
freedom, that power of choice, which is not only the supreme pre
rogative of man, but also constitutes an indispensable element in
salvation itself. It is also said that all the presumptions derived
from human experience stand out in opposition to such a theory
of salvation, — that we have no evidence of any analogous action
of Deity in other spheres of human experience, — that the pres
ence of such a supernatural power within the soul has not
been, cannot be, recognized in consciousness, — and that Chris
tianity by its affirmations at this point, its claim of supernatu-
ralness here and elsewhere, shows conclusively that it is not a
reasonable faith, but is rather an unwarrantable and mischievous
delusion. In reply to all such objections it is at once admitted that our holy
religion stands or falls on this doctrine of the Holy Ghost as the
initial and the supreme agent in the process of human salvation:

420 THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
everything in Christianity as an experience and a life hangs in fact
on this cardinal tenet. In support of this claim we may at the out
set as a matter of simple observation adduce the fact that the human
race, left to the action of its own impaired moral powers, does
not spontaneously turn away from sin, or seek successfully that
life of holiness and virtue which still is ever hanging out before
it as a bright and attractive ideal. There is certainly no greater
delusion — no hypothesis more overwhelmingly controverted by
fact, than that in and of himself man will ever work out such
a spiritual renovation as he is conscious of needing. It is
also obvious that no disclosures made by God in nature or in the
mind and conscience of man, no ministries of providence or com
mands or persuasives embodied in his moral government, do in fact
produce, or seem competent in themselves to produce, that spirit
ual renewal, which man knows that he requires in order to be
truly saved. It is even obvious that the revelation of God in the
incarnate Christ, the words and acts and holy example of the
Immanuel, with all the powerful persuasives embodied in them,
are not saving men, and seem even powerless without some further
interposition, to save them from their sin. Before the Gospel and
the Cross humanity still lies corrupt, helpless, unsaved; and this
in spite of all that human philosophy or human culture or even
divine providence has ever been able to say or to do toward its
spiritual restoration.
Just here it is, in the consummating doctrine of the Holy Ghost
as now defined; that Christianity proves alike its divine origin and
its transcendent mission to our fallen race. It claims that there
is no philosophic basis for the affirmation that God cannot work
within the soul as well as upon it from without, or for the assump
tion that he cannot do this without destroying or seriously im
pairing human freedom. It further claims that the fact that God
ordinarily influences men by one class of agencies or one type of
method,does not in the least preclude him from choosing other vari
eties of method or agency, whenever he finds them essential to the
securing of his elect purposes. It claims still further that the fact
of human sinfulness, and moral helplessness instead of forbidding
such change of divine activity, furnishes the strongest reason why
God by his Spirit should enter into the very soul of man, and
should there in the centers of our being work out such a spiritual
transformation as he demands in order to our restoration to har
mony and fellowship with himself. That these claims, with all that
they imply, are reasonable and worthy of human credence, no
sound or deep philosophy will ever deny. Yet the ultimate appeal

MAN AS SALVABLE. 421
of Christianity is not to philosophic speculation but to palpable
and abundant and unquestionable fact. The evidence of con
sciousness, the witness of millions of believers, the sincere and
earnest confession of the Church verified by incidents innumera
ble, all combine to show that what cannot be accomplished
in any other way is actually accomplished through the Holy
Spirit as not only revealed in Scripture, but verified in the lives
of sanctified men. What Socrates dreamed of in his attendant
and guiding daimon, the Christian may and does realize in the
Holy Ghost, as such an indwelling, guiding, purifying energy
descending upon him directly from the skies. He may indeed be
unable to discern the presence of that divine agent in his conscious
ness as a distinguishable power : but he may by indubitable signs
discover the presence and effidency of that supernatural visi
tant, in those radical changes of thought and feeling and purpose,
in those upspringing graces and virtues, in those victories over
sin, in that blessed sense of oneness with God in Christ, and of
pardon and peace and life everlasting, which consciousness and
experience teU him could never have come to him in and of him
self. And what the individual soul thus comes to see and to know,
our degenerate humanity is beginning to apprehend, and in some
vague measure to appreciate, — the Holy Ghost as, in the words
of Nicaea, Lord and Giver of Life to our fallen race. Nor can
any form of human speculation ever prove this culminating truth
of our Holy Faith a falsehood or an illusion: on this supernatural
foundation our Christianity may securely stand.
What has already been said respecting the moral state and moral
capabilities of the human person concerned in this process of sal
vation, need not be repeated here. It
is admitted that the language em- J- The humMan Perso" *n
,.,„,, , . this process : Man as salva-
ployed in the Symbols, and m some w
other Protestant formularies, to de
scribe the moral disability of the sinner, his practical deadness to
spiritual truth and spiritual appeals, has sometimes been carried
so far as well-nigh to obliterate in theory the human factor in that
remarkable process. This HabiUty is also increased by the very
strong terms used to set forth the sovereignty and absolute
supremacy of the Spirit at every stage in that process. That the
sinful person is in a state properly described as one of corruption
or of death,— utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to
all that is spiritually good, — wholly inclined to evil, defiled in
all the faculties and parts of soul and body; and that this pravity,
both original and cultivated through transgression, is total in

•422 THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
the sense that the man left to himself will never throw off this
spiritual deadness, and is universal in the sense that it is an
indwelling characteristic of our humanity — a pravity which noth
ing but an initial and sovereign impact of the Spirit of God can
ever remove; — all this may and must be affirmed in substance by
those who would effectually proclaim the Gospel to our fallen
race. Yet it is to be thoughtfully remembered that the corrup
tion so impressively described in our Symbols in language that
startles us by its intensity, is expressly limited by them to the
things that accompany salvation — to spiritual good, in this special
and supreme significance. These phrases do not imply that the
Sinner does not possess reason and conscience and free will in a true
sense, or that the process of salvation is one in which he is to be
absolutely passive — as passive as the clay whirled into form by the
wheel and hand of the potter. Man though sinful stiU remains
a salvable person; conscious, moral, accountable before God not
merely for his natural estate, but far more for his disposition and
choice under the offers of the Gospel and the ministries of the
Holy Ghost. As it is a person who atones, and a person who
regenerates, it is also a person — a living person, not a dead thing
— for whom atonement is provided, and on whom the Spirit regen-
eratively works.
We find ourselves involved here in the old and sad controversy
which, ever since the earlier stages of the Reformation, has been
waged within the general domain of Protestantism, often with
most disastrous results to religion as well as to theology. The
sweeping affirmations of Luther respecting the corruption and
deadness of the sinner brought out by natural antithesis the
synergistic dogma of Mdanchthon respecting the three con
current causes of good action, the Word and the Spirit of God
and the will of man. In like manner the strenuous argumenta
tion of Calvin brought out its vigorous antithesis in the dogma of
Arminius and his associates as to the ability and consequent res
ponsibility of the sinner in view of the offers made to him in
the inspired Word, and pressed upon him by the Holy Spirit.
Yet Mdanchthon was never willing to affirm that, while the will
of man is a concurrent cause in some degree, it is also in any sense
a primary or a cfiequal cause in securing our salvation. And in
like manner the Remonstrantia could not refrain from admitting
(Art. IV) that the grace of God is the beginning, continuance
and accomplishment of all good, even to this extent that the
regenerate man himself, without prevenient or assisting, awaken
ing, following and cooperative grace, can neither think, will nor do

HUMAN ACTIVITY REQUISITE. 423
good, ... so that all good deeds or movements must be ascribed
to the grace of God in Christ. In other words, the original
Remonstrants confessed the indispensable necessity for such a
work as that of the Spirit in human regeneration and the prima-
riness of his action, and so far forth stood substantially on common
ground with the divines of Dort, while they felt themselves con
strained to resist that exaggerated view of his work which the high
Calvinism of their day had embodied in the old Augustinian phrase,
gratia irresistibilis. And it is noticeable that the Articles of ReH-
gion, drawn up originally by Wesley himself for American Meth
odism, while standing out in contrast with the current Calvinism
of his day at certain points, expressly affirm, (VII) that man is
very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own
nature incHned to evil, and that continually: and further (VIII)
that while in this condition, he cannot turn and prepare himself by
his own natural strength and works to faith and calling upon God,
and needs the grace of God by Christ preventing or going before
him, in order that he may have a good will, and working within
him when he has gained that good will through divine grace.
These historic iUustrations may at least suffice to show us that
evangehcal Protestantism is substantially agreed in recognizing
the grand underlying fact, that the work of the Holy Spirit in the
process of salvation is throughout a work in and upon a person —
a person indeed corrupted and even dead in trespasses and sins,
yet invested with moral faculties, reason and conscience and a free
and responsible power of choice, and by virtue of such invest
ment salvable. It is practically agreed by all divisions of Prot
estantism that the possession of such endowments does not render
the human person worthy of salvation, or that if left to their
natural action he will ever bring himself into a saved state, or so
prepare or qualify himself that the Spirit may recognize in him
a meritorious subject of salvation. It is practically agreed
also that salvation comes by and with the Word, brought home
through the energies of the Holy Spirit, and that together with
the Word he works within the soul as really as upon it, so quick
ening the intellect and vitalizing the conscience and moving upon
the will itself that the man is, in the phrase of the Catechism,
(31) persuaded and enabled to accept Jesus Christ, freely offered
to him in the Gospel. In a word, evangelical Protestantism is
substantially agreed that the sinner is a living person, and that as sin
is always personal, however embedded in the nature, so salvation
is a personal process throughout,— the Holy Ghost enlightening,
convincing, renewing, enabling, with initial love and power, and the

424 THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
man under his influence answering the gracious call, and respon-
sively accepting and embracing the divine offer made to him in
and through the mediation of the Immanuel. And while our
Symbols are among the foremost in their strenuous emphasizing of
the sovereignty as well as the tenderness of the Spirit, his primal
choice and energy everywhere so going before any thought or
purpose of man that salvation is properly ascribed to him as his
work more than that of man, — they cannot justly be charged,
notwithstanding all their strong language respecting the desper
ate state of the sinner, with the denial or even the ignoring of
this great antithetic truth. There may be adherents and defend
ers of the Symbols who go to such lengths as almost to inculcate
a species of Christian fatalism, or at least to minimize disas
trously the fundamental doctrine of freedom and responsibiHty for
the neglect or misuse of the salvation offered to all in the Gospel.
But the formularies themselves, though written under the inspi
ration of an ardent and strenuous Calvinism, cannot] in fairness
be held accountable for such misconception or exaggeration of
their real teaching.
Holding therefore before our minds this generic conception of
salvation as a process wrought by a divine person within and
upon human persons, we find oursdves
J . C.°»m°n operations of confronted further with the interesting
the Spirit : common grace. ,. , ,
question respecting the extent and
scope of this divine operation. It is clear that the churches of the
Reformation were accustomed to contemplate the work of the
Spirit as wrought entirely within the geographic domain of Chris
tendom, and for the most part within the narrower domain of Prot
estantism exclusively. — The creeds furnish hardly a hint of any
gracious activity exerting itself more extensivdy, as if the mis
sion of the Spirit, like that of Christ, was a mission to the race.
We have indeed the wide dedaration (X:iii-iv) that he worketh
when and where and how he pleaseth, as in the case of dect infants,
and of other elect persons who may be incapable of being, as the
phrase is, outwardly called by the ministry of the Word. A sim
ilar expression appears in the Augsburg Confession (Art. V) : By
the Word and Sacraments, as by instruments, the Holy Spirit is
given who worketh faith where and how (ubi et quando), it pleas
eth God. But the subjects of such special and mystical operations
clearly were to be found within the circles of Protestant belief
and organization, and there only: this is indicated by the phrases,
outward call, and ministry of the Word, which could have signifi-

COMMON OR PREVENIENT GRACE. 425
cance only within the domain of Christendom, if not of Protest
antism alone. Concerning the heathen world, or the adherents
of false religions, such as Mohammedanism, or of corrupted Chris
tianity such as appeared in the Greek church or the Romanism of
that era, nothing distinctively was affirmed, either in the Symbols
or any in other Protestant creed. The outward call was the call
of the revealed and published Word: and the only recognized min
istry of that Word was the Protestant ministry, as ordained in the
several communions. The church, according to the definition of
Augsburg (Art. VII) was the congregation of saints, the assem
bly of bdievers, in which the Gospel is rightly taught, and the
sacraments are rightly administered: and outside of that church,
with its holy teaching and ordinances there was, as the Reformers
generally bdieved, Httle more than a possibility of salvation.
Yet, as we have already noted, there were Protestant theolo
gians who cherished the conviction that the educational and puri
fying ministries of the Spirit extended beyond the boundaries of
Christendom, and that there might be what has been termed an
unconscious Christianity among worthier members of the pagan
portion of the race. Augustine had affirmed (Civ. Dei. XVIII)
that before Christian times there were, outside of the Israelite race,
men who Hved according to God and pleased him, and therefore
belonged, as he said, to the fenowship of the heavenly city. Zwingli
held that as the saints of the Hebraic dispensation had been saved
through the efficacious work and sacrifice of a Messiah whom they
had known, only in promises and in shadowy outline, so there
were good and pure men among the heathen, (some of whom he
designated) , who were more likely — as he said — to be saved than
many a pope. Some Protestant divines, such as Zanchins in the
latter part of the sixteenth century and Wittsins in the century
following, maintained that there was a revealing Logos among
men even prior to the incarnation, — that all spiritual truth in
whatever form proceeds from the Spirit of God, and is made
known by him to the world, — and that under his nurture one
might become a true believer and be graciously saved, who had
never known the story of the life and teaching and death of Jesus
Christ. It is possible, though not certain, that the Second Hel
vetic Confession contemplated the case of the heathen in its
affirmation that God may enlighten some men in any way (quos
et quando), he pleases without the outward ministry of the Word,
though his usual method of instruction be through the Word.
Luther, indeed and most of the Reformers, Calvin included,
regarded such a hope as inadmissible and held that it made void the

426 THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
entire Gospel. It is only as we come down to our own century,
that the broader view is found to have any large degree of cur
rency, and by many in Protestant circles that view is still regarded
as a pleasant or a dangerous hypothesis rather than an established
truth. That many a pope, especially such as sat in the seat of
Peter in the days when Zwingli. lived and preached and suffered,
will not be found in heaven, may reasonably be anticipated: that
Socrates and Plato, Cato and Seneca, and others whom ZwingH
named, are among the residents of that blessed abode, we cannot
affirm, neither can we with authority deny.
Still it has come to be a widely cherished belief that whether
there are, in the language of the Swiss divine, elect among the
Gentiles, there assuredly are cosmic energies of the Spirit at
work which reach far beyond the limits of present Christen
dom, restraining mankind from the evil to which by nature they
are prone, working upon the natural reason and conscience in the
interest of truth and virtue, preserving society from moral decay,
sustaining good laws and governments, and everywhere prepar
ing the race, often by prolonged and impressive disciplines, for
the recognition and acceptance of Christ as its Redeemer. The
chapter on the Holy Spirit, proposed as an addition to the Confes
sion, affirms that the Spirit as the Lord and Giver of spiritual
life is thus everywhere present among men, confirming the teach
ings of nature and the law of God written on the heart, and
maintaining, in conjunction with the providential administration
of God the Father, the moral order of the world in the interest ulti
mately of the salvation which the world is to receive through the
Gospel. The Free Church Declaration conveys the same doctrine
in the statement that God may by his Spirit extend his mercy, as
may seem good to him, to those who are beyond the ordinary
means of grace. A similar view is at least suggested by the state
ment of English Presbyterianism in the Article on the Spirit
already quoted.
This generic or cosmic ministry of the Spirit must be viewed,
not simply as another form of divine providence, but rather as a
superadded bestowment— as truly such as the incarnation and
mediation of God the Son, and for the same gracious purpose. It
is indeed hardly scriptural, as we have seen, to set the Spirit forth
as the teacher of men in the ordinary departments of human
knowledge or science, and still more questionable to speak of him
as the intelligent principle in animal life or the vitalizing force in
the vegetable kingdom. Such conceptions inevitably degrade or
impair that sublime view of him as Lord and Giver of spiritual

COSMIC WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 427
life distinctively, which the Scriptures do clearly suggest, and
which constitutes him for all time the glorious Teacher, Com
forter, Paradete of the race. It is within the spiritual sphere
alone that he thus manifests his gracious energies, — as the ancient
creed obviously implied.
In conformity with this belief an interesting statement, once
approved by the Assembly (Minutes, 369) but not incorporated
in the Symbols, dedares that, besides much forbearance and many
supphes which all mankind receive from Christ as Lord of all, they
are by him made capable of recdving salvation tendered to them
by the Gospel, and are under such dispensations of providence
and operations of the Spirit as lead to repentance. Common
grace, gratia communis, is thus to be recognized as one of the
grand underlying facts in the scheme of salvation. These com
mon or generic operations of the Spirit, as described in the Con
fession, constitute an important, even indispensable element in the
Gospd. Augustine styled this the gratia praeveniens, a potency of
the Spirit going before conversion, and experienced even by multi
tudes who, though they have heard the outward call of the Word,
do not yidd to that grace, and therefore are not saved. He indeed
limited that prevenient grace under the Gospel only to those who
had personaUy heard this external call, but we with wider vision,
may justly regard it as going before the Gospel in a much larger
sense, preparing the world to receive Christ in his redemptive effici
ency just as the Father in his providence prepared the world for the
advent of its Redeemer. We may believe that there is in fact no
continent where the Holy Spirit is not thus working, — no tribe or
nation to which he is not now ministering in the interest of its
inumination and ultimate restoration. Nor is there any time, we
are assured, when he ceases in his gradous operations: he is as
tireless in the broad field of grace as the Father is in the field of
nature and providence. His ministry began even before there was a
written Word, and now reaches far beyond the regions where the
printed Word has been carried. Wherever Christ is in all the earth,
there the Spirit is: whatever Christ is doing for our humanity, the
Spirit is also doing; not only reproving or convincing the world—
as our Lord said— of sin and righteousness and judgment, but also
tenderly drawing convicted souls unto Christ as their true and only
Savior. And when we thus discern him in all the glorious com
prehensiveness of his educational and convicting work, we may
weU say with Luther, though with a far broader and loftier view
than he had attained: The grace of God is a kind of thing very
greal and strong, powerful and active: it does not lie down sleeping

428 THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
in the soul, as some of these fanatic preachers dream, nor is it
carried about as a painted board carries its colors. No, by no
means: it is that grace which carries, and drives, and operates
and works everything in man.
Without dwelling upon the operation and effects of such com
mon and prevenient grace in the case of the multitudes in
Christian lands who hear the outward
8. Effectual Calling:: re- Call, and yet willfully reject it. (Hodge,
generation by the Spirit : T t 67Q) wg nQw tum tQ the
Conversion. , . , ,
contemplation of the converting or re
generating work of the Holy Spirit, as described in Chapter X,
under the title of Effectual Calling. A dark problem already
adverted to here again presents itself in the fact that this wide
preparatory ministry of the Spirit is so often ineffectual and fruit
less — ineffectual and fruitless at least so far as those whom it
reaches are not all, or at present even a majority, actually saved
by it. There is indeed a providential mystery here, like that
which comes to view in the wondrous contrast between the profuse
blossoming of springtime and the actual fruitage of autumn — like
that which appears at a thousand other points between what seem
to be the purposes of God in nature or within the sphere of
humanity, and the practical outcome in the world or in human
life. We are confronted with substantially the same mystery
when we contemplate the cosmic capabilities of the mediation of
Christ, the free provisions of the Gospel, the universal offers and
invitations on one hand, and the relatively small number of those
whom God actually justifies and redeems — a number pitifully
small when contrasted with the vast multitude who continue to
walk in the broad roadways of sin and destruction. Nor is the
mystery wholly removed when we turn for an explanation to that
strange blindness and wickedness of the human heart, which lead
it so often to resist alike the atoning love of Christ and the gentle
persuasions of the Holy Ghost, and which sometimes seem to
endow the sinner with a baleful energy more potential even than
the will and purpose of God. The culpability of those who will
fully neglect and reject these common operations of the Spirit,
and who for this cause are justly left in their unbelief, was strongly
maintained in the Assembly: Minutes, 370. But beyond this,
which is the human side of the mystery only, we must recognize
a divine sovereignty such as our Lord himself suggested in the
metaphor of the wind blowing where it Hsteth, so that while we
may hear the sound thereof, we cannot tell whence it conieth or
whither it goeth. Doubtless there are great and solemn ends

EFFECTUAL CALLING- 429
subserved by such generic operations of the Spirit, viewed as one
part or feature in the sublime scheme of redemption, which amply
justify them to the divine Mind, however inexplicable they may be
to ours. The reverent recognition of such sovereignty, exalting
the work of the Spirit like that of the Son or of the Father infi
nitely above our control or even our cognition, and an humble
joy in that work and acceptance of it just as we find it, in the
assurance of its perfect wisdom and righteousness and love, are our
final duty, as well as our blessed privilege in the case.
The phrase, effectual call, set in contrast with the preceding
phrase, common operations, is hardly to be taken as implying that
there are two distinct kinds of grace, since the only distinction of
which we can know anything is that which appears in the result.
The effectual call is simply that operation of the Spirit which
results in conversion and is the beginning of salvation viewed as
an interior process. It is admirably defined in the Shorter Cate
chism (31) as that work of the Spirit whereby, convincing us of
our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of
Christ, and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to
embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the Gospel. The
Larger Catechism further describes this work (67) as a manifest
ation of almighty power and grace; declares that it springs from
the special love of God to his elect, nothing in them moving him
thereunto; points to an accepted time which is divinely determined,
and by various phrases sets forth somewhat more specifically the
process of enHghtenment and renewal and persuasion by which
men are made both wilhng and able to answer the divine call, and
to embrace the grace thus offered. The Confession goes still
farther into details, chiefly for the purpose of emphasizing the
sovereign primacy of the Spirit on one hand and the passivity
and deadness of man on the other — carrying the contrast out so
far as almost to create the impression that the sinner is in a sense
coerced and made willing even against his will, through the
almighty energies of grace. Of the clearness and comprehen
siveness, the philosophic accuracy and the biblical quality of the
definition, taken in the aggregate, too much can hardly be said.
Here again we may recognize the high vantage on which the
Westminster divines stood, in comparison with the compilers of
antecedent symbolism. This effectual call is indeed set forth as a
fundamental article of belief in nearly all the Protestant creeds,
from the Confession of Augsburg and the Catechism of Luther
down to the Canons of Dort, though in general it is comparatively
less prominent than the associated doctrine of an external or legal

430 THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
justification procured for man through the mediation of Christ.
Under the image of regeneration, being born again through the
Spirit, it appears continually in these formularies as one essential
feature in true salvation. It appears also in the exposition of
good works, good works in the scriptural rather than the ecclesi
astical sense, as produced in us by the Spirit, and as signs of our
regeneration and acceptance with God. Zwingli, notwithstanding
his divergent tendency, -agrees in his Articles with Luther in
emphasizing the cardinal truth taught them by Christ and the
Spirit: Ye must be born again. For later illustrations we may
note the Second Helv. Conf. Cap, IX-XIV: the Belgic Conf.
XXIV: the Thirty-Nine Articles (X) on free will and the prevent
ing grace of God; the Canons of Dort, First Head. Art. VII: and
specially the Scotch Conf. Art. XII, Of Faith in the Holy Goste.
In a word, the doctrine of regeneration, or of the effectual call and
movement of the Spirit upon and within the soul, antecedent
to all spiritual life or experience on the part of man runs,
like the kindred doctrine of justification by faith in Christ only,
through Protestant symbolism everywhere as a cardinal feature in
that Gospel of grace which it was the mission of the Reformation
to bring anew into the comprehension and acceptance of men.
But it was the high privilege of the Westminster Assembly
to analyze the doctrine, to indicate and adjust its various elements,
to exhibit it in its biblical comprehensiveness and preciousness,
more completely than had been done by their predecessors, either
Continental or British. The Irish Articles came nearest, and
doubtless furnished here as elsewhere the germs of the complete
statement as given in the Symbols. In this statement we may
note the following steps or stages in the saving process; first, the
conviction of both sin and misery, produced in the mind and en
forced upon the conscience, prostrating the soul, and impelling it
to seek deliverance and purification; second, the disclosure to the
convicted soul of Christ in his mediatorial offices, and of redemp
tion made possible through his grace even to the chief of sin
ners; third, the quickening of the moral nature, the reason and
conscience, so that the soul is enabled to discern and to appreciate
and desire the redemption thus made known; fourth, the vitaliz
ing and energizing of the will, impaired and deadened through
the influence of sin, until its desires are changed into aspirations,
and the man thus vitalized is empowered to choose for himself this
offered salvation : and fifth, the personal persuasion to such a
choice by all those subtle and tender influences which such a
person as the Spirit of God can bring to bear — such advising,

REGENERATION AND CONVERSION. 431
counsdling, entreating, moving, drawing, prevailing upon, as he
may fitly use in his immediate contact and communion with the
convicted, enlightened, quickened and empowered soul, in order
to its spiritual restoration.
Such in brief is the act of the Spirit in human regeneration. It
is a complex, a radical and profound, a revolutionary and recon
structive process, whereby not the will or the purposes alone, but
the whole man in his intellect and moral sensibilities and conscience
as truly as in his power of choice, is transformed and renewed
throughout — is, as to aU the elements of character, made a new
man. It is' not strange that Scripture should describe such a pro
cess as a second birth, a passage from darkness into light, another
life expelling the natural Hfe forever from the breast, a putting
off the old man and putting on the new man or the new man
hood, with consequent changes at every point in life and action.
The abundance and strength of such imagery show how radical
and comprehensive this renewal is, in the estimate of the Spirit
who produces it, and how essential to human salvation such a
change in the moral constitution must be. Such regeneration
penetrates every part and element in our spiritual nature, leaving
nothing in the soul unreached or unchanged by its efficiency: it is
a renovation of the whole man in every feature of character, in
every impulse, desire, choice and act of the life.
Perhaps the most impressive description of regeneration to be
found in Protestant symbolism appears in the Third Canon of Dort,
Art. XI-XII: When God accomplishes his pleasure in the elect,
or works in them true conversion, he not only causes the Gospel
to be externaUy preached to them, and powerfully illuminates
their minds by his Holy Spirit . . . but also by the efficacy of the
same regenerating Spirit pervades the inmost recesses of man,
opens the closed and softens the hardened heart: . . . infuses
new qualities into the will which, though heretofore dead, he
quickens; and from being evil, disobedient and refractory, ren
ders it good, obedient and pliable; and so actuates and strength
ens it that, like a good tree, it is enabled to bring forth the fruits
of good action. This — it is added — is the regeneration so highly
celebrated in Scripture, and denominated a new creation, a resur
rection from the dead, which God without our aid produces in us;
evidently a supernatural work, most powerful and at the same time
most delightful, astonishing, mysterious and ineffable; not less or
inferior in efficacy to creation or the resurrection from the dead.
The human response to this regenerative work of the Holy
Ghost is fitly expressed in the term, Conversion, as employed in

432 THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
this Canon. It is sometimes said that the Spirit converts, or that
one person converts another; but more strictly speaking, conver
sion is the first responsive act of the soul itself, when thus con
vinced, enlightened, energized and persuaded by the Spirit of God.
It is not to be said that the sinner converts himself, by virtue of
any independent energies resident in his spiritual nature: nor are
we to suppose that after the Spirit has done his regenerative work,
the man of his own motion deHberately and without divine help
accepts or embraces Jesus Christ offered to him in the Gospel. It
is nearer the truth to say, with the Larger Catechism, that this
divine agent makes the sinner willing, enables him to take the
decisive step, so that the man acts most freely because he is thus gra
ciously wrought upon in the very instant and act of conversion,
as in the experience that may precede his conversion. While it
is not true that the Spirit makes the decisive choice, elects salva
tion in the stead of the sinner, in any such sense that the conver
sion becomes his act, and the sinner is saved as by some gradous.
constraint and without any concurrent will or election on his own
part, still the Spirit is in and with the soul in utmost graciousness
and power as it is making such election — just as he maketh inter
cession within as well as for the believer, prays in him while he is.
bowed and suppliant in the sacred mystery of prayer. Regener
ation and conversion are thus not two independent acts, one
human; the other divine; the divine preceding and the human
following in a certain chronologic order, and with possible inter
vals of time between them. It is nearer the truth to conceive of
them as one act in which both agents are conjoined; the divine
always primal, competent, efficient, and supreme in sover
eignty as in love and power; the human ever consequent, per
suaded, drawn, enabled, yet ever free in its acceptation of the
offered grace.
It has been charged with some justice that the Symbols in their
supreme purpose to extol the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit in
this salvatory process, have too much ignored the responsibility
and activity of man in the matter of his own conversion. Similar
charges have been made, with even greater force, against some
others among the Protestant creeds, because they assert, in lan
guage transmitted from one to another, that man is altogether
passive in the matter of his effectual calling and his consequent sal
vation. The Scotch Confession (XII) for example, declares that
we are so dead, so blind and so perverse, that neither can we feel
when we are pricked, see the light when it shines, nor assent to
the will of God when it is revealed, until the Spirit of the Lord

TRUTH AS AN INSTRUMENT. 433
Jesus quicken that which is dead, remove the darkness from our
minds, and bow our hearts to the obedience of his blessed will.
The Second Helvetic, the French and the Belgic Confessions, and
the Canons of Dort, (first and third general Heads) might be
quoted in further illustration of the tendency to emphasize, in
opposition to all Pelagian conceptions, the utter passivity of man
in the reception of saving grace. But it should be said in expla
nation that it is regeneration chiefly, rather than conversion, of
which these formularies are speaking in such strong terms, though
they do not in general make sufficient distinction between what
is divine and what is human in the saving process. It is true
forevermore that what the Spirit does, he does in initial and
independent sovereignty, and that so far forth man is altogether
passive, — simpl)' wrought upon by regenerative energy: nothing
that he ever wiU do or can do, left to himself, will regenerate him
or make of him a new man in Christ Jesus. Yet if, in conjunc
tion with this profound and thoroughly biblical affirmation, the
creeds and those who framed them had recognized the antithetic
truth which Melancthon sought to express in his unfortunate
phrase, the concurrent will of man, it is unquestionable that the
doctrine of sovereign as well as gracious regeneration would have
been more readily received, and that the call of the church to aU
men to be converted and saved through the Gospel would have
had larger currency and much more precious effect. The state
ment of Dickson (Truth's Victory over Error) is worthy of con
sideration here: When I say a man is passive in his conversion, I do
not think that he is physically passive, as a stock or a stone when
an artist is about to make a statue of them; but morally, or rather
spirituaUy: — language which locates the deadness where it really
bdongs, in the moral disposition.
One further question remains to be considered in this connection
— the interesting question respecting the relations of the truth,
the sacraments, and other ordained
means of grace to regeneration and 9- The Truth as an instru-
. , ... ment: other instrumentali-
conversion viewed as spiritual experi- t,
ences. It has already been seen that
in the case of infants and youth who have not come into intelli
gent consciousness, and of adults born into imbecility of mind,
the regenerative work must go on independently of truth con
sciously apprehended, and by methods known to the Holy Spirit
only. So in the case of heathen to whom the Gospel has not
been proclaimed, the truth used by the Spirit in regeneration, so
far as regeneration may occur in such cases, must be what the

434 THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
law of nature and the divine law stamped on the heart and con
science have supplied. But beyond these exceptional cases, regen
eration may be regarded as always occurring in conjunction with
what may be termed evangelical or saving truth. In the exigen
cies of theologic controversy it has been affirmed that the Spirit
may and does regenerate adult minds in gospel lands without
using such truth as his instrument, — that such persons may be
born anew while asleep or while engaged in their ordinary avoca
tions, they being at the time wholly unconscious of the saving
process going on within them. But such affirmations are from the
nature of the case incapable of verification, if in fact they ever
occur: it might further be shown that they are quite at variance
with the teachings* both of Scripture and of nearly all evan
gelical symbolism. By the Word and by the Spirit, is the universal
formula of the Protestant creeds. By the Spirit taking the truth
concerning God and man and salvation, and pressing it home
upon the reason and conscience, — by the Spirit enlightening, con
victing, persuading, using the truths of the Gospel as his instru
ment ahd through them working upon the soul from without,
while he is also pouring his own vitalizing energies into it at the
very centers of its moral being, — by the Spirit thus operating in
and with the Word, is the unvarying formula of the Scriptures.
It is not needful to suppose that in every instance the saving truth
thus used is recognizable by the intellect at the moment: cases are
not wanting in which such truth has been flowing into consdous-
ness for long periods, or is recalled to the conscience long after it
had once been seen by the reason, but in some blessed hour is
brought again into the range of the moral vision, convincing and
convicting the sinner, and through the endowing persuasives and
influence of the Spirit as an agent, turning him away from sin to
duty and to God.
There is indeed an intrinsic potency in the cardinal truths of
our holy religion, which enables them of themselves to interest,
to convince, to command and subdue those who candidly hear and
appreciate them, and on which those who proclaim these truths
may "always rely in happy assurance. While they sometimes
appear to the wise and noble as foolishness, and are sometimes
despised by the wisdom of this world and its representatives, they
are still the wisdom of God and the power of God, — intrinsically
mighty to the pulling down of strongholds, and to the awakening
and salvation of men. The blessed doctrines of our faith are not
trivialities, void of power to educate or to persuade. They are,
rather, potential verities which have stood the tests of ages and

OTHER INSTRUMENTALITIES. 435
the severest storms of criticism and unbelief, and are steadily
growing in the acceptation of mankind because of their demon
strated truthfulness and value. As all men know, it was this
intrinsic potency of evangelical truth on which Luther and his
compeers and disciples relied, as really as on the aid of the Holy
Spirit, in their fierce battles with papal error. The Bible as a
true book, a book full of clear, strong, commanding and saving
truth, infinitdy above the testimonies of tradition and the teachings
of the church and her priesthood, — this was the foundation alike
of thdr individual belief, and of their assurance of success in their
severe conflict. A kindred conviction that the truth revealed by
the Spirit in the Scriptures has inherent, if not irresistible, efficacy
in the moral renovation of the race, stood at the basis of all the
teachings of Calvin, and of those who followed him in the Reformed
churches. Our doctrine, he said in the Dedication of his Insti
tutes to his most Christian Majesty, Francis, the French king,
must stand exalted above all the glory and invincible by all the
powers of the world, because it is not ours, but the doctrine of
the Hving God, and of his Christ. The Westminster divines were
possessed by this conviction: they believed past all questioning in
the magnitude, the value, the spiritual potency of the system of
truth which they had derived from the Bible and which they con
fidently presented to the inhabitants of the British Isles, and indeed
to aU Christendom, as the mighty and precious instrument whereby
the regenerating Spirit iUuminates and saves.
But when to such intrinsic potency there is added the personality
of that Spirit, and the inward impact and influence of his inflow
ing and indwelling grace within the soul of the hearer, how much
more mighty and more difficult to resist does that truth become !
It is then indeed the strongest of all conceivable spiritual forces,
more effective in its call than all the deductions of reason or of
human philosophy, and infinitely more competent not only to
convince and persuade, but also to save a blinded, skeptical,
perishing world. Such is the continuous witness of the New
Testament as well as of Protestant symbolism to the power of
Gospel truth when wielded by the Holy Spirit, and they are indeed
incompetent and unworthy representatives of the Gospel or of
Protestantism who fail to appreciate this witness, or to live and
act under its inspirations. But we should add to this the kindred
instrumentality of the sacraments and ordinances of our holy
religion, the agencies of the church and its membership, the power
of prayer and praise and godly living, and also the providential
dealings of God with men in prosperity and in their adversity, —

436 THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
all which the Holy Ghost in boundlessly diversified forms utilizes
in regenerating and converting men. The Symbols are indeed
careful to avoid; for illustration, the dogma of baptismal regen
eration, in the case either of adults or of infants. The Confession
affirms (Chap. XXVIII : v-vi) that grace and salvation are not
inseparably annexed to the sacrament of baptism, — that though in
the case of infants regeneration may occur in conjunction with
that ordinance, yet the two are not tied together, — that the child
may have been regenerate as Samuel was even from birth, or that
regenerative grace may be bestowed upon it long afterward, as a
final reward of parental faith and consecration. It denies that the
reception of the sacrament is essential to salvation, and forbids us
to think that all baptized persons are also regenerate. In a similar
manner the Confession guards, as we shall see hereafter, against
false views of the relation between the sacrament of the Supper
and the regeneration of those partaking of that solemn feast of
commemoration, and also against all notion that the mere hearing
of the word preached, or the public profession of faith, or partici
pation in the activities of the church, or other like external acts,
are any substitute for regeneration, or are decisive signs that those
who thus adhere to Christianity in an outward and formal sense
are reaUy born again.
Yet it is a precious truth often verified in experience, that the
Spirit uses all these Christian institutions and ordinances, and also
in many cases the providences of God both favorable and afflictive,,
as his instruments and helps in bringing sinners to conversion and
the renewed life in Christ. The manner in which he uses and
applies them may vary widely, as the instrumentalities are widely
varied. Nor are we to suppose that the process of salvation is
always the same in its incidents and conditions, though the result
be always one and the same. There is as large a variety of aspect
in converted souls as we see in the natural countenances of men.
The specific products of grace are as various as the instruments
and agencies employed; — these instruments and agendes being in
each case so adjusted and conjoined as to bring about most effect
ually the end sought in the gracious call. But over and above all
we are to discern always the transcendent truth of truths that,
amid this immeasurable diversity of gifts and operations and
result, there is but the one gracious Spirit, dividing to every man
severally as he will.
The chapter in the Confession (XI), following that which has
just been considered, treats of the great truth which was the

JUSTIFICATION DEFINED. 437
watchword on the banners of the Reformation, and which must
ever be esteemed as central in any creed or system that merits the
name of Christian — the truth of fustifi-
cation before God and his law through „ 10' ^"n defined:
. ^, . „., . & its ground in Christ only.
faith in Christ only. This was the
keynote in Protestant symbolism from the beginning ; it has
been the supreme doctrine in all Protestant theology from the Loci
Communes of Melancthon down to our own time. The years of
labor spent by the Roman ecdesiastics at Trent in the fabrication
of their astute exposition of the doctrine, show how fully they
were agreed with Luther as to the vital significance of the ques
tion, How can man be just or justified before God ? The answer
¦of Luther to that question was the point of final rupture between
him and the corrupted church whose false, and delusive answers
were alike destructive to faith and ruinous to the souls of men.
Here the Reformers, notwithstanding all their differences as to the
.sacraments and ecclesiastical organization and the like, stood
together as one man, as Luther had stood even alone at the famous
Diet at Worms. Justification, not in the estimation of the priest
hood or before the church, but before God and in the presence of
his holy law — justification by faith, not through works or sacrifices
ecclesiastically imposed, — justification by faith in Christ directly,
not through the church or the hierarchy as media, — j ustification by
faith in Christ as the divinely appointed Mediator, the only prophet
and priest and king of his believing people, and in what he had
done and suffered from Bethlehem to Calvary and the Mount of
OHves; — this was the truth which all alike held to be fundamental
in the Christian scheme, and to which they committed themselves
for time and for eternity. And it was the happy privilege of the
divines of Westminster to gather up reverently all that Luther and
Calvin and others had formulated and affirmed touching this vital
doctrine, and both to give to that doctrine the completest practi
cable expression, and to set it as they did when thus expressed in
the very center of their noble system.
It seems at first glance like an unmethodical return from the
subject of effectual calling through the Holy Spirit, with its con
sequent regeneration and conversion, to the objective work of
Christ the Son, as already described in the comprehensive chapter
(VIII) on his mediation. But it should be remembered that we
are contemplating still, on the divine side of it, what has been
described as the one and single process of salvation, and that in
that one process both Spirit and Son are ever conjoined ; the Son
furnishing the broad and solid foundation on which alone salvation

438 THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
and reconciliation with God become possible; the Spirit moving
upon the heart of the world, and effectually calling sinners to
accept and enjoy the salvation thus divinely provided. While
in our analysis, and for the purpose of logical exposition, we
may contemplate regeneration by the Spirit and justification
through the Son as separate, yet a deeper unity is apparent
which makes both of these aspects of salvation correlated parts of
the one grand process. For in reality none but regenerate per
sons are justified before God and none but justified persons are
regenerated. Nor can we say that in fact the one perceptibly
precedes the other in time, though in the order of thought we nat
urally follow the method of the Westminster divines in placing the
inward experience of grace before the outward reception of the
blessings which grace bestows. An illustration may be found in
Calvin, (Inst. B. 111:1-10) where not only regeneration but faith
and repentance, and the Christian life are considered, before the
doctrine of justification is introduced. In other words, it is
easier to think of the soul as first regenerated and converted, and
then pardoned and accepted before God as righteous in virtue of
the redemption from guilt and condemnation which the atoning
work of Christ has provided. But whatever the order, the pro
cess is but one: regeneration and justification are the two fod in
the ellipse: salvation fills all the space with its supernal glory.
The Shorter Catechism (33) furnishes an adequate and admirable
definition of justification as an act of God's free grace wherein he
pardoneth all our sins and accepteth us as righteous in his sight,
only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by
faith alone. In the Larger Catechism (70-73) the definition is
considerably expanded; chiefly for the purpose of emphasizing the
freeness of the grace that justifies, and the nature and operation
of the faith which is required of man as a condition. The Con
fession (XI:iii-iv) repeats much that had been already stated in
the chapter on Mediation respecting the proper, real and full satis
faction provided in Christ, and the relation of the whole process
to the eternal decree and purpose to justify all the elect, together
with a statement respecting the relations between justification
and forgiveness. We may profitably distribute these correlated
definitions into the following particulars:
First: justification is as much a divine procedure as regenera
tion: it is God the Father who justifies in virtue of the mediation
of God the Son, as it is God the Spirit who effectually calls the
sinner to the acceptance of such justification, and thus induces,
conversion and the new life in Christ.

ELEMENTS OF JUSTIFICATION. 439
Secondly: justification is an act, single and immediate, while
effectual calHng and sanctification are described as works — works
requiring time. In a word, the soul repentant and believing is
justified instantly, and once for all, — remains in the justified state
henceforth. The justifying act is not conditional, — postponed,
as the Coundl of Trent affirmed, until sanctification is completed
at the end of life, but as a judicial procedure transpires at the very
beginning of that life, and needs no repetition.
Thirdly: justification is an act oi free grace, not an act which
man by virtue of inherent righteousness or goodness can justly
claim, or one which man can deserve as a reward of conversion
or of evangeHcal obedience, but simply an expression of free or
unconstrained and unmerited love on the part of God.
Fourthly: the sole basis of this justifying act is found in what
is termed the righteousness, or as in the Larger Catechism, the per
fect obedience and full satisfaction oi Christ; a satisfaction proper
and real and complete, rendered according to the Confession to
the divine justice — in other words, in the gracious mediation of
the Immanuel, and in this only.
Fifthly: this satisfying act on the part of Christ, which is the
sole ground of justification, is set forth in the Symbols, as in the
Protestant symbolism generaUy, as a judicial procedure, a trans
action at the bar of divine government, as the word, imputation,
implies — an objective and formal act, as distinct from the subjec
tive act or work of regeneration.
Sixthly: the satisfaction to divine justice thus provided by the
mediation of Christ does not of itself justify, but must be appro
priated by the human person under the persuasives of the Holy
Spirit, and be received by faith only — through the trustful and
unreserved commitment of the soul to this as the only and the
perfect ground of its acceptance with God.
When we come to consider the human side of the process of
salvation, it will become needful to define more exactly the nature
and operation of justifying faith, as one of these elements in the
general doctrine of justification. What has been said already
respecting the imputation of the sin of our first parents to the
whole race as being inseparably conjoined with them under a
divine constitution of things; and also respecting the imputation
of the sin of the race, or of the elect, to Christ as their appointed
representative under divine law, sufficiently explains the use of the
term here — the righteousness of Christ imputed to us — as descrip
tive simply of the fact that believers are treated at the bar of
divine justice as they could not be treated in and of themselves.

44 1 THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
in virtue of the relationship and union established through
faith with Christ as their only and sufficient Redeemer. In this
instance it should be noted that the conception of a forensic pro
cedure which the term suggests, is Pauline only, and that in the
Revised Version the less rigid term, reckon, evidently commercial
or social rather than judicial, is used as a more exact translation
of the original word. In the Confession (XI) and in the Larger
Catechism (70) the cognate terms, accounting, accounteth, are used
as nearly synonymous with the word, impute. At the same time
the more positively legal term has figured so largely in the Prot
estant and especially in Calvinistic theologies, and is so promi
nently used in the Symbols, that we may properly avail ourselves
of it as at least a helpful image or illustration in setting forth
that divine act of grace exhibited in the formal justification of aU
believers with God through Christ. It should also be noted at
this point, that while there is substantial unanimity of bdief
among all schools of Protestantism as to the six points or elements
of the doctrine just named, considerable variety of opinion has
been apparent, especially among the later expounders of the doc
trine, as to certain specific problems involved in them; — as for
example, whether the satisfaction rendered by Christ to law and
justice was provided by his passive obedience, his vicarious suf
ferings and death only, or by his comprehensive obedience, active
as well as passive, exhibited throughout his mediatorial career.
Recognizing thus the general doctrine of justification, as to its
nature, its source in divine grace, its ground in the mediatorial
satisfaction of Christ, and the condi-
M. Elements of justifica- tion of its t we now
tion : pardon and acceptance. . , . .;.
pass to consider its two specific ele
ments, as given in the catechetic definitions, pardon of all our sins,
and accepting us, or our persons, as righteous in the sight of God.
The Sec. Helv. Conf. says that according to the apostolic definition,
justification signifies, to remit or pardon sin, to absolve from guilt
and penalty, to receive into favor, and to pronounce just or right
eous. All these elements are properly included in the two terms,
pardon and acceptance. These may now be considered in the
order given:
Pardon and forgiveness are correlated, though not exactly
synonymous terms: forgiveness pointing rather to the inward dis
position or willingness to overlook, the temper of reconciliation, as
we contrast it with the temper of alienation or the desire or pur
pose to inflict penalty due: pardon relating rather to the act of
forgiving or overlooking an offense or transgression. With

PARDON : GROUND AND EXTENT. 441
reference to this inward disposition, the Confession, even amid its
solemn recognition of the justice, the sovereignty, the holy wrath
of Deity against all transgression, describes God, in language
often unnoticed (II : i), as most loving, gracious, merciful ; long-
suffering, abundant in goodness and truth ; forgiving iniquity,
transgression and sin. It is said (VII : iii) that in view of the fall
of man, God was pleased to make a second covenant, in which he
freely offers life and salvation to men — the offer springing directly
from his fatherly desire that sinners should be reconciled with him
on the ground that he is already reconciled toward them. It
should be borne in mind here as in some other connections that
the word, pleasure, and its derivatives, is not used in the Symbols
in the current sense of our time, but in the regal and majestic
sense, as descriptive of the purpose and mandate of a sovereign.
So our Lord in many a parable, and in aphorisms and direct affirm
ations, continually represents God as cherishing this inward tem
per of forgiveness, this parental longing to draw sinful men back
to his embrace, and to grant them a free and abundant salvation.
Surely they greatly misapprehend alike the nature of God and
the character of the Gospel, who fail to recognize this temper of
forgiveness, this holy mood of reconciliation, as underlying the
entire scheme of grace. It is of course a mistake of equal serious
ness to fancy that this scheme is a product of love only,- apart
from what justice demands in such a transaction: God must be
just as weU as merciful in the forgiving of sin.
The act of pardon, which is the outward expression of this
divine feeUng and purpose, is the first step in actual justification.
He pardoneth all our sins : in other words, he obliterates the
record and memory of them, and no longer counts them as offenses
committed against him. It is not the overlooking of some notable
sins, or of this or that overt act, or of minor transgressions only,
or wicked impulses which fail to eventuate in action, but of all
sins that have been or are or ever may be committed: for we are
taught (XI : v) that God doth continue to forgive the sins of those
that are justified. In the analysis of the fifth petition in the
prayer taught us by Christ (L. C. 194: S. C. 105) such complete
and free forgiveness on the part of God is recognized as the fun
damental gift of grace. In a word, the Gospel is throughout a
scheme of pardon, instantly granted in and with regeneration, and
freely bestowed in all its fullness on every one for whom Christ
in his gracious mediation intercedes.
The Symbols are careful to guard against the impression that
good works, even the good works of justified men, are in any

442 THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
way the ground of such abundant pardon: since (XVI:iii) their
ability to do good works is not at all of themselves, but wholly from
the Spirit of Christ. They tell us (XV:iii) that even repentance
is not to be rested in as any satisfaction for sin, or any cause of
the pardon thereof. The cause and ground of forgiveness are the
cause and ground of justification: only for the righteousness of
Christ imputed or reckoned unto us, and received by faith alone.
Such propositions forever preclude the delusive notion that, since'
God is merciful and gracious, ever ready to forgive, men may sim
ply cast themselves upon his grace, without the introdudng me
diation of Christ. Pardon, with implied permission to continue in
sin, or pardon on any other ground than that which he had himself
provided and offered to men in the Gospel, would be an act un
worthy of God. If he could thus overlook human transgression,
and consent to see sinners going on without reformation or
restraint or in the rejection of his published offer, his mercifulness
would be a blemish rather than a perfection; and his administra
tion, having in it no reference to the conversion as well as pardon
of sinners, would become an awful mystery, such as would leave
the sinful race of man without hope.
It has been held by some Protestant theologians that the par
don here contemplated is not the initial part merely, but the whole
of justification. The pardoned sinner, it is said, is a justified
and therefore a saved man. But a much broader and deeper con
ception is conveyed to us in the added phrase of the definition —
accepteth us (or our persons) as righteous in his sight: accepteth
and accounteth, as it is in the Larger Catechism and Confession.
Back of the question, what shall be done concerning the sins, Hes
the far greater question, what shall be done with the sinner?
Back of his particular acts overt and his secret impulses toward
evil, stands the man himself, with the deep roots of evil pene
trating his moral nature throughout, and making him offensive in
the sight even of a forgiving God. The person is behind the
transgression — the sinful man behind his acts: and the certainty is
that, even if he were once pardoned, his proneness to sin would
only lead him on to further evil, and so continually. It is there
fore incumbent upon God, in the application of the scheme of
grace, to provide for the treatment of such a person, — to do what is
needful to save the sinner, as well as to blot out the record of his
offenses. In other words, it becomes necessary to accept the sin
ner personally, corrupt as he still may be, and to regard and treat
him as if he were a righteous person— as if he had never trans
gressed. Without this further step, there could be no adequate

ACCEPTANCE : NATURE AND GROUND. 443
justification, and therefore no sufficient salvation. Pardon must
draw such acceptance after it, in order to be true and effectual
pardon: regeneration must include this, else regeneration would
not save: the converted man must be accepted just as he is, if the
reconciliation is to be complete and sufficient: his salvation must
carry with it the treatment of him henceforth as righteous, all
unworthy though he is; and nothing but his union with Christ
through faith can render him worthy of such cordial acceptation
before the throne of the Father.
This in a word is the doctrine of the Symbols; that God by his
Spirit does not infuse righteousness into regenerate souls in such a
way and measure as to make them instantly and forever holy; —
that he does not treat them as holy by imputing faith to them, or
the act of bdieving, or evangelical obedience in any form: but that
he accounts and treats them as if holy, in virtue of their union with
Christ estabUshed through faith. It is indeed a large and strange
conception that the persons of sinful men, while still animated in
a measure by the impulsions of sin, should be regarded by God as
angds are, and even as Christ himself is — as though they were as
holy, harmless, undefiled as their Redeemer. Yet such is the
doctrine of acceptance, as elaborated by the divines of Westmin
ster, and as held in substance by the Reformers generally. We
turn to the creeds for abundant evidence of this fact. Freely
received with favor, and their sins forgiven, is the terse statement
of the Augsburg Confession. For the sake of the righteousness
and obedience of Christ we are received by God, and accounted
righteous, testifies the Formula of Concord. For his sake, God
is reconciled, and imputes to us not our sins, but the righteous
ness of Christ as our own, affirms the Second Helvetic Confes
sion; and the First agrees with it in substance. It behooves us,
says the old Scotch Confession, to apprehend Jesus Christ with his
justice and satisfaction, which is the end and accomplishment of
the law, by whom we are set at this liberty that the curse
and malediction of God fall not upon us. And the Thirty-Nine
Articles, in language repeated in the Irish Articles, respond
heartily in the declaration: We are accounted righteous before God
only for the merits of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by faith,
and not for our own works or deservings.* Thus throughout

*In the Sum of Saving Knowledge, the doctrine is quaintly presented in
its most objective type not without some doubtful features, in the statement
that it is agreed betwixt God and the Mediator, Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, surety for the redeemed, as parties contractors, that the sins of the

444 THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
the Protestant formularies we find that, while few of them draw
any broad line of distinction between the acts and the person
acting, such as the Symbols show, they are agreed in emphasiz
ing that high and cardinal doctrine of justification by faith in
Christ only through both pardon and acceptance, which Luther
declared to be the articula vel stantis vel cadentis ecclesiae.
Summing up at this point all that has been said, we may discern
in justification, as including both pardon and acceptance as now
defined, a change of estate, of condition and relationship, cor
responding to that interior change wrought in regeneration as the
inducing cause of conversion and of spiritual life within the soul.
The justified man passes decisively from his old estate by nature
into the new estate of grace. His former sins are now as com
pletely blotted out from the divine records as if they had never
occurred, and he is assured that for every future sin into which he
may fall, like forgiveness is assured. He is no longer a convicted
criminal before the divine law, but goes forth from the tribunal
of God, not indeed an innocent, but a forgiven and restored man.
He is not now a rebel, but an accepted and loyal subject of the
divine government. Justice no longer arraigns him, but freely
absolves him for every offense against its holy majesty. In a
word, God is recondled with him, and he is recondled to God :
he is persona grata in the court of heaven, and is not only treated
now as a righteous person, but will be so regarded and treated
henceforth forever. Formally received into the divine favor,
restored to. the place which through sin he had forfeited, he is
invested anew with all the rights and privileges appertaining to
his new relationship. He is now set in an estate of grace as posi
tive and comprehensive as was his original estate of nature, and
in that blessed estate, provided for him through the mediation of
the Son of God, he will abide eternally.
Such briefly outlined is that doctrine of justification on which
Luther and Calvin and the Reformers universally laid such stress
as the most central and vital tenet of
12. Theories of Justlfica- , , ,. , ,, ,TT . .
tion: Historic sketch. Srace' and to wluch the Westminster
divines gave such marked prominence
in their theological system. It might be expected that such a
doctrine would for many reasons meet with intense opposition,
redeemed should be imputed to innocent Christ, and he both condemned and
put to death for them, upon this very condition that whosoever heartily con
sents unto the covenant of reconciliation, offered through Christ, should by
the imputation of his obedience unto them, be justified and holden righteous
before God.

THEORIES OF JUSTIFICATION. 445
not from Rome only, but from unbelief in its various forms; and
that in process of time antagonistic theories would arise within the
boundaries of nominal Christendom, proposing to answer in some
other way the momentous question-, How shall man be justified
before God. A brief glance at these theories may serve to deepen
our conviction that the answer of evangelical Protestantism is the
only answer which either Scripture or sound ethical philosophy
can approve. Such a survey is of special moment just at present,
when in various forms the evangelical statement is not only called
in question, but openly pronounced a theologic fiction unworthy
of inteUigent credence.
The most frequent type of such antagonism is that which rests
on the assumption that mankind are not sinful, or that sin is only
an inddental and trivial dement in human experience; and which
consequently affirms that no formal justification before God and
his law is necessary to the removal of sinfulness or guilt. Close
to this lies the hypothesis that, although mankind may be in a
deeper sense sinful, this sinfulness is more than offset by the
righteousness stiU inherent in human nature and manifested in
human Hfe; and that God may therefore equitably overlook or
condone the former fact in view of the latter as compensatory. It
is further aUeged that, although mankind are thus positively sin
ful, God is too merciful to punish such sinfulness or to require any
expiation for it; and that, if inherent righteousness be not suf-
fident, confession and repentance, and obedience in the future,
will surely satisfy his claim and secure complete pardon. It is also
objected that the entire conception of law and government, admin
istered on the prindples of strict justice, and enforced by retrib
utive sovereignty, is really unwarranted ; and that God deals
with mankind rather on the basis of fatherhood, and as a Father
is carrying forward among men a system of training and culture,
in which even the agency of sin is included, and by which the race
wiH be developed finally into such a state of intrinsic justification
and of true holiness as will be acceptable with him. It is still
further alleged that, if any more formal process of justification is
in fact needed, the method set forth in the Scriptures and embodied
in evangelical symbolism, is open at many points to irresistible
objection, and must be set aside as a theologic abstraction; — the
solution of the problem being either sought elsewhere or pro
nounced unattainable.
Another type of objection may be seen in the affirmation that
atonement or expiation for sin, or the removal by any method of
the penalty due to sin, is in the nature of things impracticable; —

446 THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
that nature itself teaches that he who sins must by an inevitable
law of existence suffer the punitive consequences of his act, —
that the human conscience and sense of right forbid the waiving
of such an issue, whether by laying the guilt of personal wrong
doing upon another, or by any other conceivable process, — and
that God himself cannot equitably attempt to prevent the rightful
application of his own penal law, or in justice to himself or to the
moral universe let the sinner go unpunished. A still darker form
of objection casts the full responsibility for the existence and effect
of sin upon God who, it is said, has set up a system of things in
which, man being such as God has made him, sin is not only
natural but inevitable, and for which therefore man is not account
able, and ought neither to be punished nor required to provide or
acquiesce in any method of expiation: — God being in fact the
author and in some sense the approver of sin, and therefore being
obligated to justify himself to himself, rather than to require any
justification for or from man as his creature. Kindred to this is
the thoroughly agnostic position, which not only sets aside both
the plan of justification proposed in the Scriptures, and all other
schemes whether incorporated in the natural faiths of the world,
or proposed as deductions of the natural reason, but also pro
nounces the great question, How shall man be just with God,
wholly unanswerable in the present life, and therefore an unfit
matter for human speculation or research.
The story of the answer of Christianity to these and all kindred
varieties of doubt or unbelief is one of the most interesting chap
ters in the history of Christian doctrine. It begins with the
witness of the Old Testament to the truth that God, even from
the event of the Fall, was gradually unfolding to the patriarchal
world his method of expiating human sin, and of restoring the
fallen race to a state of pardon and acceptance with him. Pro
vision for the justification of sinners through faith in a promised
Savior — as another (Buchanan) has said — runs through the whole
course of the Jewish dispensation; and the songs of faith fall on
our ears like a chorus of sweet music, as the Jewish Church was
ready to vanish away. The precious truth retained its place even
among the superstitions and ceremonialisms of Hebraism at the
time of the Advent: neither the fancied effect of personal recti
tude, nor the supposed efficacy of repentance, nor the belief in
the divine mercy as sufficient, was able wholly to obliterate it.
How carefully both our Lord and his apostles labored to correct
these tendencies, and to bring out by contrast the conception of a
justification secured vicariously through the expiation of the Cross
and appropriated bv faith alone, is familiar tr» ail c+ndetitc

ANSWER OF CHRISTIANITY TO OBJECTIONS. 447
especially of the Pauline writings. The epistle to the Roman
church, clear as it is profound, positive in its dogmatic utterance
and irresistible in its logic, is the key to the entire New Testament
position. The natural tendency to ceremonialism within the
developing church, the emphasizing of circumcision and other
Mosaic rites, the exaltation of moral law in contrast with grace
as the foundation of hope, the proneness to regard evangelical
obedience as the acceptable condition of divine favor, — all these
were carefully corrected in the apostolic writings; and by con
trast the revealed conception of justification through faith in Christ
as an atoning Savior, was everywhere set forth as the corner-stone
of saving belief. So true and so obvious is this, that one is con
strained either to accept the doctrine on the authority of the
inspired Word, or to cast aside that Word, or at least those sections
of it which contain this doctrine, as of human origin and unworthy
of rational credence.
The formulation of the doctrine in opposition to unbelief began,
though in crude and imperfect ways, in the earliest periods of the
Christian Church. The patristic writings down to the age of
Augustine, not indeed in all cases, nor with adequate fullness and
proper freedom from speculative opinion in any, still indicate the
growing faith and acceptation of the great truth, as one of the
vital elements in the Gospel. The ancient Church believed, not
only in the forgiveness of sin — as the earliest creed affirms — but
in the forgiveness of sin through the mediation of that Son of
God whom the Nicene creed described as not only born and living
among men, but also crucified and buried, for us men and for our
salvation. In the writings of Augustine himself, as Ritschl justly
says, the elements of diverse notions of justification adhere, too
much entangled, too little marked off from each other, to furnish
a complete conception. It is rather the deliverance of man from
the miseries of sin, and his restoration to a condition of blessed
ness (Civ. Dei. B. IX:15), than a forensic change of status before
God, on which Augustine chiefly dwells. It is painful to trace
the slow subsequent development of the great truth in the pres
ence of diversified errors, — including even the grotesque notion
that the expiation of the Cross was made not to God but to Satan,
—down to the Scholastic era. There are times when it seems as
if the doctrine would be altogether stripped of its biblical quality,
and either dried into an unmeaning formula, or wholly lost out
from the belief and heart of the church. In the writings of Anselm
and Abelard and other scholastics, down to the period of Aquinas
and the positive formulation of the papal theory, we note another

448 THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
important stage in the theologic evolution, — a stage far from com
plete in itself, but marking an important advance on all that had
preceded it. In that theory at least three radical defects appear,
— the confusion of justification and sanctification, by which the
former becomes dependent on the later; the infusion of the mis
chievous notion of human merit as a ground of justification; and
the introduction of the priesthood and the church as instrumental
agents in the justifying procedure.
That the Reformers were, as papal writers aUege, introdudng
a novelty into the category of Christian beliefs when, in contrast
with the error of Rome, they proclaimed the full and true doc
trine of justification through Christ, obtained by faith in his
gracious mediation, is not to be credited. They in fact simply
gathered up and stated in completer form all that had been cher
ished by devout minds in forms less complete, from the beginning
of Christianity, and even from the better ages of Hebraism. They
saw the imperfection and the inadequacy of the papal definition,
largely founded as it was on patristic and scholastic tradition, and
in its stead framed a broader, loftier, clearer definition, based on
the biblical teachings only. They saw the fatal error in the
Roman notion of pardon as indicated in the sale of indulgences,
and dedared by contrast that Christ alone can forgive sin.
They saw the error equally fatal lying in the Roman notion of
merit gained through conformity with churchly prescripts and
observances, and declared that the only merit which could secure
acceptance with God — the only righteousness available at the tri
bunal of his justice, is the merit, the righteousness, found in
Christ. As to both the nature and the ground of justification,
and to spiritual faith as the means whereby the soul may
avail itself of the divine offer, and secure pardon and acceptance
with all consequent gifts and graces, they planted themselves
firmly on the teaching of the Bible, and on that teaching alone.
And they crowned their doctrine and glorified it, as had never
been done before in Christian history, by insisting that justifica
tion is a single act, — an act transpiring at the very beginning of
the renewed life, and needing no repetition either on earth or in
heaven,— the soul once justified by Christ through faith, bdng
justified instantly, completely and forever.
All this becomes manifest abundantly in the Confessions of
Protestantism, and in the writings of its leading divines, both
Lutheran and Reformed. Differing and even antagonistic views
on specific points made their appearance in Protestant circles as
the doctrine came to be more thoroughly analyzed, and one feature

CONFESSIONAL STATEMENTS. 449
or another in it received peculiar emphasis through the advocacy
of individual minds. What have been called declensions and
revivals, relapses from the essential truth in some particular,
followed by fresh and more strenuous advocacy, reveal them
selves, sometimes painfully, in the history of Protestant thought in
the sixteenth and the seventeenth century. Illustrations of such
lateral divergency, such minor variation, are quite apparent: it
is needless to refer to them in detail. StiU the general fact
remains in aU its impressiveness, — that, as in contrast with both
Romanism and all Socinian, Pelagian, Antinomian heresy wear
ing the Protestant name, the evangelical communions, both Con
tinental and British, were essentially one in holding the grand
truth expressed by Luther in the phrase, Justification by faith in
Christ and Christ only. Subsequent Protestantism of all evan
gelical types has held to that central truth in its fullness and pre-
ciousness, and is likely to remain steadfast therein, so long as the
Scriptures retain their place in the confidence of men. And here,
in a word, is the enduring answer of Christianity to all the vari
eties of unbeHef just described: Justification before God is both
indispensable and possible, and such justification is secured, not
through the righteousness or the sacrifices of men, but through
the mediation of Christ as an atoning Savior, accepted and appro
priated through personal faith, and through such faith only: See
Owen, Buchanan, Ritschl.
The addition of the short chapter (XII) on Adoption, following
immediately the statement of Effectual Calling and Justifica
tion and preceding that on Sanctifica
tion, is an interesting illustration of "• Adoption: its nature
., , . , .. „r . . ... and value; its relations to
the desire of the Westminster divines iustification
to incorporate in every possible way
spiritual as weU as theological truth in their Symbols. No
chapter or even formal article or affirmation on this subject
appears in any of the earlier creeds. The doctrine of the father
hood of God, and especially of such fatherhood as manifested
toward believers in the ¦field of providence and grace, indeed
appears incidentally in several of them — especially in those which,
like the Heidelberg Catechism, were designed for spiritual cul
ture and profit primarily. Corresponding expressions, describ
ing beHevers as the children of God, his elect children, his good
and beloved children, may also be found here and there. The
Heidelberg Catechism declares (33) that while Christ alone is
the eternal natural Son of God, we also are children of God
by adoption through grace for his sake. In the Thirty-Nine

450 THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
Articles (XVII) it said that the elect in addition to their being
called and freely justified, are also made the sons of God by
adoption, and are thus enabled under the nurture of the Spirit to
attain to everlasting felicity. But in the Confession we have what is
termed the grace of adoption formally set forth as a gift of God
superadded upon the grace of justification, , and the particular
privileges flowing from this gracious bestowment are elaborately
described, chiefly in the very words of Scripture. In the two
Catechisms the doctrine is also introduced as following justifica
tion and preceding sanctification in the series of benefits which
believers partake of in this life; and in the Shorter it is condensed
(34) into the simple statement that the elect being justified are
received into the number and have the right to all the privileges of
the sons of God.
This formal arrangement would lead the student to suppose
that while in all cases those who are justified, and they only, are
thus adopted into the divine family, this privilege of sonship is
an added and a special bestowment — a gracious benefit in which
the divine purpose of salvation, complete and enduring, further
expresses itself. Calvinistic theologians generally have thus
taught that adoption is a new and particular grace in advance
of justification. It has also been held by many that man by na
ture is not a child of God but only a creature and subject, and
that the exaltation of the regenerate man into the relation of son-
ship is one of the most distinguishing and illustrious exhibitions
of saving grace. Some Calvinists, however, have maintained
that the legal transaction which the term suggests — the selection
of one who by birth is an alien, his introduction into a family,
and his investiture with the rights and privileges belonging nat
urally to one born into the home — is only a special and graphic
illustration, drawn from Roman law, to set forth what is presented
in more general form in justification itself. Ussher (Method)
uses the generic term, reconciliation, and treats justification and
adoption as its two branches or parts. Certainly the pardon and
acceptance of a regenerate person as righteous, involving full
reconciliation and restoration to the divine favor in the permanent
estate of grace, imply if they do not directly express ail that is
contained in the more specific term, adoption.
Recognizing adoption therefore as being not so much a separ
ate or added benefit as an integral part or feature of justification
itself— a presentation, in the language of Owen, of the blessings
of justification in new phases and relations; or in the phrase of
Watson, a concomitant of justification — we may still note two

ADOPTION : NATURE AND VALUE. 451
points of particular interest, in the confessional exposition of the
doctrine: First; the thoroughly scriptural quality of the statements made,
and the fullness and beauty of their presentation. The concep
tion belongs to the New Testament rather than the Old: in the
Old the believer is more commonly described as a servant — in the
New he becomes distinctively a son. The adopted soul accord
ing to the Symbols enjoys at once all the liberties and privileges
of the spiritual children of God under the Gospel: it bears the
name of God, as the adopted child under human law bears the
name of those w7ho have assumed toward it the relation of parent;
it may call God its Father, and may have freest access to his pres
ence as in prayer; it is tenderly protected and provided for in his
infinite love and pity; it may be chastened by him when needful,
but will never be cast off, and is the rather sealed and guaranteed
in its estabHshed relationship; it is made heir of all the promises
of the Gospel, and a fellow-heir with Christ in glory everlast
ing. With such inspired language and illustration is the theo
logic conception enriched and beautified; and surely it is not
strange that the devout minds of Westminster should have desired
to incorporate such a concept in the formularies which they were
framing, not merely as a system of doctrine, but also a body of
practical truth brought together for the supreme purpose of
instructing, animating, saving men.
Secondly: we may note the peculiar blending of what is sub
jective with what is objective in this conception; — the Spirit of
God working within the soul, stirring up its responsive feeling,
and teaching it to cry, Abba Father, while the external and legal
process is going on, and the outward relationship is being for
mally instituted. In- justification proper we simply see what is
outward, the pardon bestowed, the person accepted, the righteous
ness of Christ investing the soul as a garment- — a forensic procedure
throughout, though resting on a regenerative work wrought
within. But in adoption the inward experience — the parental
love with all its gracious yearnings on the divine side, and the
fiHal sensibility flowing forth in responsive devotion on the side
of man — seems to stand behind the formal act, and give it what we
recognize as a supernatural attractiveness and power. It is the
holy sentiment of fatherhood dwelling and throbbing in the breast
of Deity, and the glad uplifting of the regenerate soul to God in a
love which the Holy Ghost induces, — it is these subjective features
which give to the formal act its most precious significance. In a
word, it is the spirit of adoption in us as believers, and the paternal

452 THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
spirit in him whom by faith we call our Father, which makes the
legal ceremony all that Paul in his enthusiasm declared it to. be.
It has been objected to the chapter on Adoption, on
one hand that its exposition of the doctrine is too meager
and inexact theologically, and on the other hand that its descrip
tion of the privileges and benefits of adoption is too general, and
diffuse. The matter seems to have excited no debate in the
Assembly, and may have been passed over without critical exam
ination. Yet in that description we may find all, or nearly all,
that is taught on the subject in the Bible. And whatever of inex
actness or theological incompleteness appears in the exposition,.
may be easily explained by reference to the special prominence
given by the earlier Protestantism to justification distinctively^
and by the further fact that an adequate definition of justification
seems to include substantially most that is impHed in the term,
adoption. As it stands, the chapter has at least the merit of draw
ing our thoughts away from the technical and formal aspects of
justification as a forensic act, and fixing them more fully on
that blessed relationship which in and through justification is for
ever established between the justified soul and God in Christ. The
English Presbyterian Articles define the doctrine tersely in the
declaration: We believe that those who receive Christ by faith
are united to him, so that they are partakers in his life, and receive
of his fullness; and they are adopted into the family of God, are
made heirs of Christ, and have his Spirit abiding in them, the
witness to their sonship, and the earnest of their inheritance.
With these suggestions respecting the grace of adoption we
may now proceed to consider what has been recognized as the
final and consummating stage, on the
14. Sanctification defined, divine sid of the ^ of salvation
its nature: human agency ,-j- .. • „ c
in sanctification. — work ot Sanctification: Conf.
Ch. XIII. The term is employed here,
not in the outward sense of consecrating or setting apart to some
religious use, as in the consecration to the priestly office, but in
the interior sense of cleansing, purifying, making holy. In the
two Catechisms, sanctification and effectual calling are described
as works, while justification and adoption are said to be divine
acts. The distinction in terms is designed — as has been already
noted — to suggest that while the two latter are immediate and
instantaneous, occurring once for all and never repeated except in
a secondary sense, the two former are processes which more strictly
speaking require time, and in the case of sanctification are ended

SANCTIFICATION DEFINED. 453
only when the saved soul has passed beyond time into glory. Re
generation is indeed an instant act in such a sense that we cannot
properly regard any person as neither regenerate nor unregenerate,
or as gradually emerging from one condition into the other,
though the enlightening, convincing, persuading and enabling
ministries of the Spirit may be carried on for considerable periods
before the process is ended in actual and conscious conversion.
But in sanctification the term, work, has still larger significance,
since the Spirit having begun the renewal of the soul never pauses
or rests in his holy activities until his gracious task is consum
mated in the entire eradication of sin and the complete establish
ment of holiness as the law and habit of the renewed nature.
The Shorter Catechism (35) describes this work in general,
First, as a renewal not of the wiU or the intellect or moral sensi-
biHties merdy, but of the whole man. We have here the proper
corrdative to the pravitas totalis, the pervasive corruption of the
entire man through sin, emphasized elsewhere in the Symbols. We
are thus guarded at the outset against all narrow or partial concep
tions of this spiritual process: the mind, the conscience, the will,
the entire moral man, are wrought upon by the Holy Ghost.
How far such a conception rises above all notions of reformation
produced in opinion or in particular varieties of action by the
agency of human judgment or human choice or influence merely,
it is easy to discern. This work of grace is as comprehensive as
the whole moral life; it reaches the character at every point; the
entire nature is penetrated, suffused, transmuted by it.
Secondly: the instrumentaHties used are as special as the work.
By the Word and the Spirit dwelling in them, is the language of
the Confession: Through the powerful operation of the Spirit, ap
plying the death and resurrection of Christ unto them, is the some
what mystical declaration (75) of the Larger Catechism. This
powerful operation of the Spirit is graphically set forth in the
Confession. It is said that through him the dominion of the body
of sin is destroyed: it is he who warreth effectually against the
flesh and its lusts; it is he who supplies the strength through
which the saints are enabled to continue the combat with evil, and
it is he who trains and quickens them in the practice of holiness.
This strong language is not intended to suggest that the regen
erate soul has no concurrent power or responsibility in the matter
of its spiritual perfection; but simply to teach that the supreme
forces in the case are the same that reveal themselves in the initial
experience of regeneration. Thirdly : we may note the ideal
toward which this process is ever steadily tending — the image of

454 THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
God within the soul, the image of God revealed in the life of the
believer. We have already had occasion to note this remarkable
phrase as descriptive of the first creation of man : After his own
image. Here it is applied to the new creation — the creation not
into natural life, but unto spiritual life. Nothing less than the
reproduction of God, and especially of God in Christ, within
the breast and in and through the entire man, is implied in the
expression. How immeasurably this also rises above all notions
of improvement in the material environment, or in the social rela
tions, or in the general demeanor or culture of man, or in his out
ward character, may be easily discerned.
Entering more specifically into the analysis of this gracious
work, we find it described (35) in the Shorter Catechism in the
pregnant phrase: more and more to die unto sin, and live unto right
eousness. Two coordinate processes are thus brought into view,
which should be carefully distinguished and described. First : to
die more and more unto sin is paralleled in the Confession by the
expanded phrase, the dominion of the whole body of sin des
troyed, and the several lusts thereof more and more weakened and
mortified. The Larger Catechism (75) adds the explanatory
phrase, having the seeds of repentance unto life put into their
hearts. To die unto anything in the biblical sense, is to lose
interest in it, to cease to feel its attractions, to rise above it into a
sphere where it no longer holds or affects either the sensibilities
or the will, — in a word, to give it up and abandon it as no longer
an end to which the life and powers are to be devoted. A sanc
tified life is thus a life in which the sway and dominion of sin are
forever broken. The specific lusts, appetites, passions, desires,
which the native sinfulness induced, are no longer dominant in
the breast. They may in some measure remain, and in their bale
ful influence may be felt in impulse and in action, but the soul no
longer lives in them or lives for them. As forces affecting char
acter they are more and more weakened and mortified. Such
expulsion of sin as a dominating principle has become the supreme
purpose of the regenerate man : he can no longer consent to evil,
even if he is constrained to feel himself affected by its bad domi
nation : it is his desire and prayer, under the influence of the
Spirit, to be as free from it as He was who did no sin, and in whose
mouth or life no guile, no corrupting taint, was ever found.
Secondly : sanctification implies also living more and more unto
righteousness. The righteousness here contemplated is not the
morality of man, the justitia externa of the older creeds, but
what has just been 'suggested, the image of God, the image of

SANCTIFICATION : TWO ELEMENTS. 455
Christ, produced in the soul and exhibited in the character. It
is reaHzed in the possession of all saving graces, and in having
these graces stirred up, increased and strengthened more and more.
It is the attainment of genuine Christian experience through the
daily nurture of the Spirit and through what is described (XIILi)
as the practice of true holiness. The regenerate and justified man
grows inwardly not toward evil, but toward all moral good: he is
not affiliated with worldly things or worldly minds, but with the
saints on earth, with the sanctified and with angels in glory. The
life of Christ is in him as a gracious and dominating power, and
all his being consents to its purifying sway.
Thirdly: it should be noted that these two processes, dying
unto sin and Hving unto righteousness, radically unlike as in
some aspects they seem, are really two parts of the one compo
site process, and that they are to be carried on together, and as
corrdative experiences. The history of monasticism, and of aU
religious ascetidsms, reveals the immeasurable folly of attempting
to expd sin from body or soul, without introducing into the na
ture the deansing and invigorating forces that are included in the
supreme aspiration after holiness. In Hke manner, the history
of many a true Christian has revealed the almost equal folly of
attempting the practice of holiness, of striving after the image
of God in the soul, while the correlative task of strenuous, con
stant dying unto sin is neglected. It is only as both are con
joined, that we gain real success in either. By dying more and
more unto sin, we are enabled to live unto righteousness, and by
living unto righteousness more and more earnestly, we are enabled
to overcome sin and destroy its dark dominion over us.
The beautiful harmony of the Protestant symbols in respect to
this doctrine as thus described, deserves to be carefully noted.
While speculative theologians are dis-
. *\. . . 4. . ., IS. Specific questions re-
cussing the various abstract problems spectlnff Sanctiflcation.
which come into view in the contempla
tion of this gracious work, Lutheran and Calvinist and Arminian
are agreed in accepting the essential fact, that under the empower
ing and nurturing agency of the Spirit of God the converted soul is
enabled to die more and more unto sin and to live more and more
unto righteousness — in a word, to rise more and more according
to the strong phrase of Paul unto a perfect man, unto the measure
of the stature of the fullness of Christ. But while there is such
generic agreement, certain specific questions rise into notice here,
which deserve brief consideration. And first: the query whether
the human person has anything to do responsively with his own

456 THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
sanctification, must be answered emphatically in the affirmative,
whatever may be thought of the relation of such person to his
own regeneration, Augustine recognized the truth that at this
point there is a divine gratia codperans, and a regenerated human
will cooperating with that divine gratia, in the carrying forward of
this spiritual transformation; and Protestantism has almost uni
versally accepted his doctrine in essence if not in form. There is
much for every saint to do here, by the study of the Word, by
prayer and holy culture, by faithful struggle with all besetting sin,
by steadfast aspiration after the graces and virtues that appear in
Christ and are found in other saints, in order adequately to work
out his own sanctification, while the Spirit works within him to the
same blessed end. The Symbols lay constant and consistent stress
upon this element of personal responsibility as being, not indeed
of coordinate merit, but equally essential and indispensable.
Secondly: the question whether this process of sanctification,
being thus in a measure under the control of the human will, can
be arrested, impaired, frustrated for a time, notwithstanding the
purpose and effort of the Spirit of God, must, also be answered
affirmatively. The life of even the holiest saint reveals at many
a point the malevolent influence which his remaining sinfulness.,
weakness, earthliness of soul, has upon this beautiful develop
ment of grace. The query whether the true Christian not
withstanding such malevolent influence will continue to seek
sanctification, or may finally fall off from the stalk of grace like
a blasted 'flower, and so perish utterly, will be fully considered
later, in connection with the chapter (XVII) on Perseverance.
But here we are constrained to note how weak, how earthly, how
treacherous even the best human will is, though renewed and
already partly sanctified, — its possessor too often living in sin,
and dying unto righteousness, in apparent defiance of the working
of the Holy Ghost within him.
Thirdly : while we may not now anticipate certain inquiries
whjch will present themselves more distinctly when the human
side of this process of salvation comes specially into view, yet we
may note in passing the further question whether this sanctifica
tion continues through life, and is completed before or only in the
hour and article of death. Surely there is a strong presumption
that the divine Agent who has effectually called the soul into
holiness by his enlightening and convicting and enabling energy,
and in and through whom the grace of pardon has been granted,
and the person of the believer accepted once as righteous and
once adopted into the divine household of grace, — there is surely

QUESTIONS RESPECTING SANCTIFICATION. 457
a strong presumption that such a wonderful procedure will not be
suffered to come wholly to naught — the sway of righteousness
arrested, sin again becoming dominant, and all the grace of God
frustrated. Further presumption may be drawn from the nature
of sanctification itsdf as a process in character, affecting all the
powers of the soul, and everywhere contemplating not a transitory
but an enduring result. — Turning to the other aspect of the
problem, there appears a presumption almost equally strong that
a work such as this will not be finished in a day or a year, or
indeed at any stage in this mortal life. As it stands before us, in
the experience of even the holiest saint, it has the aspect of an
unfinished work — a work which cannot be entirely completed
under the constraints and severe oppositions of such a world as
this. The Shorter Catechism expresses (37) the general convic
tion of the Protestant churches, and the teaching of their formu
laries also, in the terse statement that the souls of believers are at
their death — not before death — made perfect and do immediately,
as the outcome of such perfection attained, pass into glory.
Such is the common doctrine of evangelical Protestantism, and
specifically the doctrine of the Westminster Symbols, in regard
to what has been described as the divine side of the process of
salvation. We have seen that in this process, the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit are alike concerned and conjoined. We
have especially contemplated the personality of the Spirit and his
assigned work within this sphere, as it appears in the common
operations of grace and the effectual call, and in all the experiences
that follow upon regeneration, until the soul is completely sanc
tified. We have contemplated also the work of the Son, the one
Mediator between God and man, as exhibited in the pardon and
acceptance — the complete justification of the penitent, believing
soul. And while we have had occasion to note some varieties of
opinion among Protestants, growing largely out of different points
of vision, or of the tendency to emphasize this or that section or
aspect of the composite truth, we have with pleasure discovered
how largely in respect to the really fundamental matters — to regen
eration and conversion, justification and sanctification, the various
Protestant communions are substantially one in belief and one in
experience. And it may well be noted here that the Symbols of
Westminster represent, in respect to all these vital doctrines, not
the discords of Protestant Christendom so much as its essential,
its grand spiritual agreements.
In closing this survey of the composite work of God in human
^alyation, we may profitably compare at several points the Protest-

458 THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
ant doctrine as now stated — especially the doctrine of justification
by faith — with the teaching of that Church of Rome against
which the Reformation was through-
16. Concluding Survey: out a positive an(1 organized protest.
Roman and Protestant doc- «, ,, . . • , - „.•<- „..¦  „
The Roman doctrine of justification, as
trine compared. „ , , , _ ., , « •
formulated by the Council of Trent, m
the sixteen chapters and thirty-three canons of its famous Decree,
has already been referred to as one of the most remarkable theo
logical constructions ever produced by the thought and skiU of
man. As a keen, studied, strategic attempt to protect those cher
ished errors of Roman Catholicism against which Luther had
thundered so loudly, it has no parallel in the whole field of sym
bolism. With much that it contains respecting Christ as the
ultimate ground and faith as the immediate condition of justifica
tion, and respecting good works, keeping the commandments and
perseverance in holy living as conditions, evangelical Protest
antism is in substantial accord. In like manner there is much in
the accompanying canons as to the errors, speculative and practical,
to be avoided, and to certain defective conceptions of the truth,
which Protestants must recognize as just and valuable, though
they repudiate the priestly anathema with which each canon
solemnly closes. But the true and the false, the verity of God
and the speculation of man are so blended in this remarkable
Decree — scriptural warrant, spiritual power, practical effective^
ness, are so lacking in it — that while we may admire the astuteness
of it, the subtle distinctions and the fine balancings of antithetic
propositions and the like, we are constrained, as we apply to it the
simple tests of Scripture, to set it all aside as after all a fabrication
of man more than the saving truth of God.
It was greatly to the advantage of the primitive Protestantism
that, in contrast with all this formal elaboration, it could plant
itself with absolute unanimity on the simple and intelHgent propo
sition of Luther: Justification by faith in Christ only. Subse
quent thought and research amplified and improved the proposition
in various particulars: and one of the most interesting studies in
symbolism may be found in comparing the creed statements of the
doctrine, with their varieties in language and presentation, with
the tributary flowing of the earlier into the later, and the contin
uous expansion and elaboration of the essential truth, until at
length we reach the final form which the doctrine assumed in the
seventeenth century, and which it still substantially retains. The
Protestant statement had the enormous advantage on one hand
that it was seen to be palpably biblical rather than ecclesiastical

ROMAN AND PROTESTANT DOCTRINE COMPARED. 459
or scholastic, and therefore infinitely more authoritative than
any dogma, even of an imperial church: and on the other, that it
could be comprehended by the common mind, appealed directly to
the common heart, touched with an electric throb the common
consdence, and so became at once a mighty spiritual force work
ing efficaciously in common lives. In the earliest forms of it, as
in the Artides of ZwingH and the Apologia of Melancthon, it
commanded at once the conviction and acceptation of awak
ened intelligence wherever it was made known; and the more it
was expanded, as in the Helvetic and the French and Belgic Con
fessions, the greater became its power to convince and to conquer.
Neither German Syncretism nor Dutch Arminianism, though chal
lenging certain elements, — made possibly too prominent in some
of the more elaborate formularies — ever swerved from the cardinal
truth that Christ alone saves, and that faith in him and his com
plete mediation is the sole condition, though in no sense the merit
ing ground, of salvation. And what was thus substantially believed
by aU, the~ divines of Wesminster had the rare privilege of
embodying in its most considerate and comprehensive form; and
from the substance and essence of their formulated tenet, there
is as yet substantially no variation or shadow of turning among
the diversified representatives of evangelical Protestantism.
Moehler (SymboHsm) sets up the claim first affirmed by
Beuarmine, that the Roman statement is far superior to the
Protestant because — as he says — according to the latter, Christ
simply casts his shadow upon the believer and so shelters him that
God does not see his sinfulness, while according to the former,
Christ is embodied in the believer and becomes a part of his
inward self, changing thereby his spiritual condition as well as his
outward estate before God. His proposition painfully illustrates
the confusion and the error into which Romanism fell by failing to
draw the proper Hne of distinction between justification and sanc
tification. That learned and acute critic seems to have lost sight
of the fact that the Christus in Nobis, or the righteousness of
Christ implanted within us and made the germ of an inward life,
is abundantly recognized in the Protestant Confessions under the
head of sanctification. It may be true that some Protestant,
especially Calvinistic, theologians have dwelt too exclusively on
the Christus pro Nobis and his objective work, and have lost
sight comparatively of that correlated work which is wrought
within the regenerated soul by the Spirit and by the Word,
eventuating in true and blessed newness of life. But such a
charge cannot justly be made against the Protestant symbols.

460 , THE PROCESS OF SALVATION.
While they do affirm that the believing soul is justified at once
and once for all, and condemn the papal dogma that justification
depends on what the believer becomes through the progressive
nurture of grace, and is therefore never complete until he is com
pletely sanctified at death, or at the end of his purgatorial state,
they also affirm with a strength of conviction which the divines
of Trent never exhibited, that the new life experienced through
grace is in reality the only available evidence of our justification
before God. It is not true that even the earliest creeds were in
different to this truth, as the Augsburg Confession (Art. IV, VI,
XII, XX) the Formula of Concord (Art. III-IV) the First and
Second Helvetic Confessions, and the more primitive Catechisms,
clearly show. Indeed the Belgic Confession contains an Article
(24) apparently intended specially to meet the papal criticism
just noticed, and similar Articles (21, 22) appear in that French
or Gallic Confession which has such special interest to us at this
point from the fact that it was so largely framed under the direc
tion of Calvin. The Articles on the work of the Holy Ghost in
sanctification in the British symbols are if possible still more ded-
sive: they teach beyond all question tbat wherever Christ justifies
by his mediation, the Spirit not only regenerates but also sancti
fies, and that this subjective work is in every case coordinate and
of equal moment with the objective act.
Careful comparison of the Roman view with the generally
accepted belief of Protestantism as to both justification and sanctifi
cation will show the superior scripturalness, the deeper spirituality,
and the greater practical effectiveness and worth of the latter. The
real test is the test of Scripture and of spiritual experience: the doc
trine that most fully conforms to the Word, and most enlightens,
elevates, spiritualizes, renews the whole man savingly, must be the
true doctrine — the doctrine of God. We are not dealing here with
ecclesiastical dogma or authority, with priests and sacraments as
media, with penances or indulgences imposed or granted by man.
We are not resting in the ordinances of the church or relying on
her mediation as the foundation of our hope, according to the
Roman apothegm, Through the church to Christ. Nor are we
confusing things that differ, or exalting the human factor or human
agency in salvation at the expense of the divine, or making either
the individual or the church the final arbiter of spiritual destinies.
We are simply taking Holy Scripture as it stands, trusting the
Savior who is there revealed, accepting him directly in every
blessed office, and by faith in him living such a life as he requires.

LECTURE NINTH— THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
Christianity a Life : Product of the Spirit : Saving
Faith : Repentance : Good Works : Perseverance : Per
fection. C F. Ch. XIV-XVIII : L- C. 72-81 : S. C. 36, 86-7.
Guizot justly characterizes the Reformation as an intellectual
awakening and revolution, a great insurrection of human intelli
gence, a renascence of the mind of Europe after ages of relative
mental slumber. That great event has also been characterized as
an emancipation of Christianity from the bondage of ecclesiastical
tradition and the assumptions and domination of the Papacy. But
it was all this, because it was also something immeasurably
grander, — the restoration of the true conception of religion, which
had been almost lost to view amid the errors and corruptions of
the age, and the exaltation of the real Hfe in Christ to its proper
eminence both in apprehension and in experience. Here was the
true and final end of this great providential and gracious move
ment, and to this end its intellectual, ecclesiastical, social and
political features were altogether tributary. Guizot himself says
that the Reformation introduced reHgion, which had been the
exclusive domain of the clergy, into the midst of the laity — into
the world of believers. Even its emphasizing of ancient creeds,
its solemn confessions, and its expositions of specific doctrines
concerning God and man, Christ and the plan of salvation through
him, and concerning the Holy Spirit and his regenerative efficien
cies, were all subsidiary to this superior object— the restoration of
the Christian Life to its proper ascendency alike in faith and in
practical consdousness. While here and there other features of
the historic movement seem to emerge into special prominence,
and while sometimes, amid the disputations and strifes and differ
ences of opinion and policy springing up among the Protestants
themselves, this one central purpose seems to disappear from view,
yet closer examination always brings us back to what was supreme
and ultimate in the great movement, genuine and holy living in
Christ and through his grace. The diligent student of the Prot
estant Confessions will find them habitually recurring from

462 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
whatever digression to this fundamental problem, — the problem
of the Christian Life.
This fact finds special illustration in the Symbols of Westmin
ster. Five chapters in the Confession, and corresponding portions
in the two Catechisms — as we have already seen — are devoted to
the fundamental doctrines respecting the sufficiency of Scripture,
the existence and character of God, and the works of creation and
providence : three others present the fall and sinfulness of man,
the person and mediation of Christ, and the scheme of salvation
through him : five more set forth the work of the Spirit in bring
ing the sinner into a state of grace, and describe the specific phases
of that regenerative work in the justifying and sanctifying of the
believer. Now we come upon five other chapters, exhibiting the
human side in this sublime process of salvation, and enabling us
to see in the mirror of the regenerated consciousness what a grand
and blessed thing it is to be saved through these divine instru
mentalities and in this appointed way. Nor is it too much to say
that these five chapters constitute the very center and substance
of the entire system of truth enunciated in the Symbols ; all that
precedes them being in a sense introductory and preparatory, all
that follows — as there will be occasion to note — being but a further
expansion and application of this central and supreme constituent.
The Christian life is after all the central element in all evangelical
theology; all that either precedes or follows in the exposition of
divine doctrine must be centered first in Christ as the divine
source, and then in the Christian life itself as the grand outcome
of his redemptive scheme. To set forth this life in its proper
fullness and in its essential qualities, even more than to provide
an intellectual formulary on whose abstract propositions the relig
ious mind of the British Isles could agree, was the noble purpose
of the Westminster divines: and it may well be judged that it is
to this peculiar feature of that Confession, even more than to its
philosophic and theologic excellence, that its remarkable power
to attract and hold men is due.
That a radical contrast existed between the Roman and the
Protestant conceptions of the Christian life is apparent to every
. ™. , ., ,„ „ , student either of the respective creeds
1. Christian Life : Papal , ,. . . , ^ *\ . ,. . ,
and Protestant conceptions. and theologies, or of the actual living of
their respective adherents. There was,
indeed, in the language of the Council of Trent and in other papal
deliverances, much that sounded well in this regard. The need
of a decisive change in the moral nature of man, the indispens-
ableness of a second birth in Christ in order to justification, the

PAPAL AND PROTESTANT CONCEPTIONS. 463
state of grace as distinct from the state of nature, the necessity
of divine aid in reaching such a state and continuing in it, the
importance of true repentance and of cordial obedience to the
divine commandments, the obligation to perform all good works
imposed by the church, and the privilege of sanctification through
her ministries, are all set forth in the Tridentine Decrees in
terms which at first view might satisfy the Protestant mind and
conscience. So in the later declarations of Rome, such as the
Syllabus Errorum and the Vatican Decrees, one finds phrases and
statements which may be interpreted in such a spiritual sense as
would bring them into harmony with the best convictions, the
highest experiences, of evangelical Protestantism.
Yet doser investigation of these papal formularies will not fail
to bring into Hght certain radical defects which sadly vitiate the
whole. On one side an excessive emphasis is laid on what is
merely external in religion, on form and outward act and cere
mony, to such an extent as almost to hide from sight the inward
and spiritual reality in religion. On another side, the church and
her priestly mediation is thrust into the foreground in such a
manner as almost entirely to obscure that fundamental doctrine of
saving faith, personal faith in a personal Christ, in which Chris
tian Hving truly begins. And still further, the essential things in
religion are so diluted and minified — repentance weakened into
penance, obedience changed into conformity with ecclesiastical
requisitions, devotion reduced to loyalty to the church, and char
ity into contributions to her support and advancement — that as we
read and contemplate, we almost lose the vision of what is central
and essential in practical Christianity. We wonder whether true
religion can flourish or even survive under the suffocating press
ure of such formal and mortiferous conceptions. It would indeed
be a serious error to infer that there are no truly pious souls
among the multitudes who are enrolled as communicants in the
papal church, or to say — as the Confession in substance. declares —
that that church itself is a synagogue of Satan, and no part of
the true Church of God on earth. Protestantism has often erred,
still sometimes errs, in faihng to see the better possibilities in the
case, and to perceive how much of essential religion, both in
belief and in Hfe, actually exists, notwithstanding such defects,
within the fold of Rome.
But against aU these diluted and delusive conceptions of relig
ion, Protestantism was throughout an intelligent, earnest, solemn
protest. Wickliffe and Huss and Savonarola had prepared the way
for such a protest ; and the Ninety-five Theses of Luther and the

464 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
Sixty-seven Articles of Zwingli were only the, expression of the
profoundest convictions as to the weakness and unprofitableness of
the papal concept of religion — convictions which had worked them
selves into the very heart of Christian men in central and northern
Europe. The time had come when even the continued exist
ence and preservation of spiritual Christianity demanded that
clear and broad lines should be drawn between penance and
scriptural repentance, between absolution by the priesthood and
forgiveness with God, between submission to the church and
conformity to her requisitions on one side, and true loyalty to
Christ and loving obedience to his will on the other. But if
the Reformation had been such a protest merely — an exposure of
the weaknesses and errors of the Roman theory of religious Hving,
and a repudiation of the corruptions consequent upon that theory,
it would hardly have survived in the great struggle with papal
power. It was necessary that a larger, loftier, purer conception
of Christian manhood and Christian living should be introduced
as a substitute. This was more important than any formal
restatement of the cardinal doctrines of grace, or any new organ
ization of the church according to the biblical ideal. Hence there
appears even from the earliest periods in the Protestant develop
ment a new theory of living — a far nobler vision of what it is to
be in the scriptural sense a Christian man. Evidences of this are
to be found in almost every Confession, whether Lutheran or
Calvinistic, and in the writings of almost every prominent Re
former. In a word, Protestantism from the first planted itself
on this spiritual concept, not merely as a theory of Hving to be
urged upon the reason and the conscience, but also as a practical
test and measure of its great doctrine of justification by faith in
Christ only — a test and measure of Christianity itself.
It is an exceedingly interesting study to note how this concept
grows, broadens, matures, in the bright- succession of the Protest
ant creeds and theologies. Sometimes, in the stress of the
struggle against the assumptions of Rome, it is retired compara
tively from view ; sometimes, in the conflict with error arising
within the Protestant domain itself, it seems to become relatively
subordinate. In some cases it is stated in terms too brief or too
vague to be easily apprehended ; and in some the true doctrine
is seen to be still enveloped in the web of papal error. Yet it is
one of the grandest evidences of the divine origin of the Reforma
tion, that this fundamental conception was not only rooted deeply
in the conviction of all parties, but continued to grow and unfold
itself like a flower, decade by decade, until at last in the later

GENERAL CONCEPTION. 465
formularies it presents itself iu the largest measure of complete
ness which it was possible for the sanctified mind of that era to
reach. Personal union with Christ, the indwelling of the Spirit,
faith and repentance, the Bible as the rule of obedience, right
eousness and truthfulness and charity and unselfish consecration
to the glory of God and the moral welfare of the world, — these
came by degrees to be not only the very essence of belief, but also
the supreme law of conduct — the vital characteristic of the true
Protestant. And in the five chapters in the Confession just
named, together with the chapters that immediately follow, we
have the consummation of the process, in terms alike of the
loftiest thought and of the purest experience. This is a fact
which those who misconceive and misrepresent the Westminster
Symbols, as if they were mere definitions of dogma, sadly overlook.
The palpable and redeeming fact in the case is that the Confession
and the Catechisms are saturated alike with this practical and
spiritual quahty. One of the finest illustrations of this character
istic may be found in the Sum of Saving Knowledge . . . together
with the Practical Use Thereof, which though without full ecclesi
astical warrant, weU represents the general sentiment of these
formularies. The chief general use of Christian Doctrine, says
that treatise, is to convince a man of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment ; partly by the law or covenant of works, that he
may be humbled and become penitent ; and partly by the gospel
or covenant of grace, that he may become an unfeigned believer
in Jesus Christ, and be strengthened in his faith upon solid
grounds and warrants, and give evidence of the truth of his faith
by good works, and so be saved.
In turning from this introductory survey to study the grand
theme itself, it becomes necessary at once to frame some definite
conception of the Christian Life, not „ , _ ,.
f , . , , ' 2. General Conception
merely as presented m the creeds, but Qf the chrlstian ufc.
also as developed practically within the
domain of Protestantism during the centuries that have inter
vened since these five chapters were wrought into the Confession
of Faith. What is needed at this point, in other words, is a
working definition of the phrase, — one which will enable the mind
to discriminate on one side between this type of living and all
others, and on the other side duly to appreciate this type of life
in its essential qualities and in its superhuman grandeur. Here
it should be noted as a primal fact that the Christian life, contem
plated as an ideal, is neither a speculation evolved by philosophic

486 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
analysis of human nature, nor a dream of poetry originating in
the elevated fancy of man. That life is not to be regarded
as something which has sprung into existence through human
wit or wisdom, or as a product of the developing experience of
the race, however elevated by culture or beautified by esthetic
sentiment or ennobled by natural morality. He who so conceives
of it misses altogether its real significance. In a word, it is fun
damental to all right or helpful apprehensions, that the Christian
Hfe should be regarded as radically and absolutely supernatural:—
as throughout a life, in Pauline phrase, hid with Christ in God.
This is the primal fact which differentiates it decisively from the
life of the unregenerate world.
It is obvious as another primal fact that the only accurate or
adequate description of this type of life must be derived from the
Scriptures. No ancient traditions, no ecclesiastical prescripts, no
ordinances or decrees of the church, no counsels or injunctions of
men, even though they were apostles in zeal or knowledge, can
define this life properly, apart from the Holy Oracles. The same
Spirit who creates the Christian man, has in his own words por
trayed the Christianized manhood, pointed out its inherent graces,
prescribed the virtues essential to it, laid down the laws and
methods of its development, provided the sources of its culture,
and indicated the spiritual end toward which it must ever aspire.
The Bible, in a word, as the inspired message of God to mankind,
is the only authoritative witness to the nature or characteristics
of the Christian life, and from its lessons there can be no legiti
mate departure. The spiritualized consciousness may indeed bear
helpful testimony to the reality and nature of that life, and the
unfolding experience of the multitudo fidelium, the true Church
of God, may abundantly confirm what the individual conscious
ness manifests. But the final authority and test must be found
in the inspired Word alone, and in that Word as illuminated and
applied by the Spirit of God.
The specific elements or characteristics of the Christian life are
easily discerned. We may here briefly note four particular features
of that Hfe: its ideal, its motive, its law, and its vital manifesta
tions. First of all, the one and sole ideal is Christ himself, in the
perfection of his personal qualities and virtues, and in both his
teaching and his example. In his presence, as apprehended by
the true disciple, all standards of natural ethics, all precepts of
earthly policy, all worldly examples however bright or eminent,
fade away. The believer is not governed even by the law of God,
regarded as an abstract rule of action, strict and clear and in some

CHARACTERISTIC ELEMENTS. 467
sense fearful in its impersonal sway. Not even the teachings and
commandments of Christ himself, considered apart from his holy
personality, can be made the supreme canon of Christian living.
It is in the personal Christ alone, in all that constitutes him our
prophet and priest and king, ruling alike by his words and his
illustrative action, and becoming himself the vivid law that regu
lates thought and purpose and activity, — in this personal Christ
alone, as he himself abundantly declared, that the Christian finds
his supreme and suffident ideal. He is both author and finisher
of faith, not merely in the sense of having both begun and com
pleted by himself that scheme of redemption on which faith
reposes, but as bdng in the added sense the one sole object on
which the eye of faith loves to rest for guidance, and in which
the heart of faith more and more rejoices, as the believer moves
on and upward in the regenerate experience.
Secondly : the central motive in Christian living is love, in the
biblical significance of that word. Primarily it is love toward
God in his threefold personaHty, and specially in view of his
gracious manifestation of himself in the Gospel, — that love which
is substantially lacking in the unrenewed nature, but which flows
into the soul whenever quickened by the Holy Spirit, and becomes
a supreme and absorbing sentiment within the breast, — that love to
God which Christ has enjoined upon his followers as the first and
greatest commandment. Consequent upon this is that Christlike
love for all men of whatever class or condition, in whatever degra
dation or misery involved, which the Lord himself inculcated in
many a parable and precept, and of which his whole life, and
specifically his mediatorial mission and his atoning passion were
the bright illustration. It is an aphorism that he who does not
thus love his feUow men and count them as neighbors in the New
Testament sense, cannot rightly claim the name of Christian.
Connected with this generic love of humanity stands that specific
caritas, that special affection toward the whole household of faith
and to each true disciple, by which all who heartily follow Christ
as their ideal, are drawn and held together within the sacred fel
lowship and communion of saints. Such elevated and sanctifying
love, expressing itself in these three directions, is an essential,
indispensable element in the Christianized character, — a virtue
rising in quality and scope far above all the prescripts of human
morality, — a grace superior even, as an apostle testifies, to the
faith that lays hold on Christ as a present Savior, or to the hope
that aspires to everlasting companionship with him in glory.
Thirdly: the sole rule or authority in the Christian life is the

468 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
kingdom of heaven established within the soul in virtue of its vital
union with Christ as its Redeemer and Lord. That spiritual king
dom is introduced in the covenant of loyalty, in the bond of holy
allegiance, which is instituted at the very outset of the Christian
career. Christ himself succinctly describes it in his analysis of
the seven traits which characterize distinctively the renewed soul,
and in his description of the seven beatitudes which those attain
who make it the supreme purpose of their being to possess these
traits, and to make them manifest in action, as his loyal adherents.
In its final development it is a kingdom of heaven realized in
heaven itself, where such allegiance binds the redeemed spirit to
the throne of God in happy service and worship forever. But as
it is experienced in the present life it is a kingdom of heaven also,
as distinguished from all earthly authority or sway — a state of soul
which lifts its possessor above mere human law or influence,
enables it to discard the authorities or requisitions of the world
as controlling motives, helps it to know and acknowledge but one
rule only, and leads it on to an obedience which is ever prompt
and faithful because it springs from love, and which holds the
Christianized man in unswerving loyalty through all time, through
all eternity.
Fourthly : we have in the list of ' the fruits of the Spirit as
furnished by Paul in his letters to the Galatian and the Ephesian
saints, and in the noble list of virtues commended by Peter to the
believers scattered throughout Asia, an exhibition of the spedfic
qualities which differentiate the Christian life from all other
living. These are unselfish qualities, having their origin not in
the selfhood of the natural man, but in the corrective movement
and impress of the Spirit on the soul ; — they are unworldly traits,
having no close affinity with those elements of character which
attract the natural eye, or make their possessor conspicuous in the
world ; — they are distinctively religious traits, never springing up
in minds unaffected by divine truth, but belonging by nature
exclusively within the sphere of true piety ; — they are celestial
qualities, affiliating their possessor not with ordinary humanity,
but with angels and the sanctified. They are, in a word, Christ
like gifts and endowments, graces that spring from union with
him, virtues which he both illustrates and commends to his
disciples as the indispensable and the beautiful marks of their
discipleship. And surely it is a most suggestive fact that the
Holy Spirit speaking in the Scriptures does not content himself
with general statements merely as to the Christianized life, but
again and again — as in the passages referred to — presents these

PRODUCT OF THE SPIRIT. 469
details of it with such minuteness of language and such glow of
coloring as make it impossible for the student of Holy Writ to
mistake as to his practical teaching. If we do not know, know
thoroughly and sdentifically, what the Christian life is in essence
and manifestation, it is because we have not adequately studied
these inspired descriptions.
The Christian Life may therefore be defined as a supernatural
mode of living, induced through the agency of the Holy Spirit
and described in the Scriptures, having
the personal Christ as its ideal and love w *' "1st1" "fc ?"? the
.r . . . „ , , Holy Spirit: their relations.
as its inspiring motive, controlled by
the authority of Christ as its supreme law, and characterized by
specific graces and virtues such as differentiate it essentially from
the natural Hfe of man. Accepting this as a working definition
of the phrase, we shaU now find it important, before proceeding
to consider the spedfic topics involved in the doctrine, to empha
size afresh the vital relations of the Holy Spirit to such a type of
life. It has already been said that such a development in char
acter is to be regarded as thoroughly supernatural : it belongs, in
other words, to a sphere in which God is specifically working
to produce moral results which would be wholly unattainable
without his ministrations. As in conversion and regeneration we
found two persons concerned, the divine and the human ; and as
in the process of sanctification we discovered a gracious coopera
tion between the divine and the human agent, so here the Chris
tian life is the product, not of the divine energy acting upon man
as a passive recipient merely, but of that energy working in and
through the human person as a conscious and willing actor in the
development of this unique spiritual product. That the position
of the Christian in the sweet unfolding of such a life is one of
dependence, is true beyond question : without divine help and
nurture not one in the Hst of holy graces enumerated by Christ
and by Paul and Peter would ever spring into existence. Yet in
and throughout the transcendent process the human person is
himself a Hving agent, ever working with the Spirit, and ever
accountable on his side for those contributing endeavors which
are as truly indispensable as the Holy Ghost is to the beautiful
result. BeHevers in a word are, in the terms of the Confession,
(XVI:ii), to obey the divine commandments, because such
obedience and the good works involved in it are the fruits and evi
dences of a true and lively faith: and in this way, by godly living
after this sort, they are — it is said — to manifest their thankful
ness, strengthen their assurance, edify their brethren, adorn the

470 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
profession of the Gospel, stop the mouths of the adversaries,
and glorify God whose workmanship they are, created in Christ
Jesus thereunto, that, having their fruit unto holiness, they may
have the end, eternal life.
Considering more specifically the relations of the Holy Spirit to
the development of such a type of living, we may note among
the essential conditions on the part of the believer, first, abso
lute Trust in the Spirit. There is a threefold presentation in
Scripture of acceptable religious trust : trust in God the Father
in the broad field of providence and moral administration, as
supremely wise and right and tender in his dealings with men,
and specifically with the believer ; trust in God the Son as
Mediator, the prophet and priest and king, effective in every
gracious office, and able and willing to save unto the uttermost ;
and trust in God the Spirit, within the sphere wherein he spedaHy
works, for the illumination, effectual caU, regeneration and
sanctifying of all those who accept the salvation offered in the
Gospel. What is here to be emphasized is that this third form
of religious trust is just as real, just as essential, just as effica
cious in the matter of Christian living, as either of the preceding.
It is a grave mistake to indulge low or vague conceptions of the
relationship thus existing between the Spirit and the believer :
without the same kind and the same measure of trust which is
requisite to acceptance with Christ, spiritual life could not
begin, nor could it, if begun, reach any worthy consummation.
And such trust must include not merely belief in his personality,
and confidence in his character and word, but also the willingness
to commit the soul to him entirely, as the diseased patient com
mits his case to a wise physician, and an unswerving assurance
that he can and wiU do for the culture of the Christly life aU that
is promised in the Bible. He who falls short at this point can no
more expect to attain such a Hfe, than he who hesitates to trust
the mediating and atoning Savior. As we confide in the Spirit
for the Scriptures and all that they contain, and as we confide in
all the things of Christ which he shows unto us, so and in equal
measure is he himself to be trusted at every stage and in every
experience that goes to make up the renewed life in Christ.
Such confidence in the Holy Ghost as a divine Person working
supematurally both upon the soul and within it in order to induce
holy living, is on the broadest philosophic grounds entirely
reasonable. His character, his infinite capacities and resources, his
actual operation in thus transforming myriads of human lives, his
renewing and sanctifying and perfecting energy as tested by wide

TRUST IN THE SPIRIT. 471'
experiment, warrant the demand that he shall be trusted implic
itly and by all and everywhere. It is said by way of objection
that we do not see him at this interior work as we see the Father
in his unfolding providence ; but surely there is hardly less in
providence which entirdy transcends our apprehension and is just
as full of sacred mystery. It is said that we cannot discern the
Spirit in his work as we can behold the incarnate Son, born
visibly into human life, acting historically before the eyes of men,
and by his acts and mirades compelling us to believe in him. But
doser view reveals the fact that there is a mystery in redemption
as wrought by Christ, no less profound or impressive than that
which is exhibited in providence — a mystery as deep as that which
appears in the production of a godly life by the Holy Spirit. It is
said that the processes of grace are all incomprehensible, — that we
cannot discover the connection between the instruments employed
and the result produced ; and above all that we can neither detect
in our consdousness the presence of the Spirit nor measure the
dectric force he employs in transmuting our dead souls into
newness of Hfe. But certainly the presence of such mystery can
never justify the conclusion that there is no Holy Ghost, or that
the doctrine of a supernatural work wrought by him in human
character is aU an illusion. So long as in conjunction with the
mystery there is made manifest in consciousness and in the devel
opments of personal experience, a result which cannot be explained
except on the hypothesis of such a divine person present and
working within the soul, so long may we cherish the most implicit
faith in that person, and unreservedly intrust our entire spiritual
being to his gradous mediation and culture. Contemplated in the
purest light available, such commitment may be not only justi
fied but regarded as the culminating act of the human spirit — the
last and supreme form of that trust in God which is at once the
greatest necessity, the profoundest impulse, and the highest
glory of man.
Second : Obedience to the Spirit. The Symbols contain many
affirmations of the fundamental doctrine, (L- C. 91. S. C. 39) that
the duty which God requireth of man is all summed up in obedience
to his revealed will. It is said (XIX) that Adam and all his pos
terity are bound, even under the covenant of works, to personal,
entire, exact and perpetual obedience; that the moral law stamped
upon the heart of the race, doth ever bind all, as well justified per
sons as others, to the obedience thereof; and that this obligation
springs not merely from the nature of the law itself, but in
respect of the authority of God the Creator who gave it. It is said

472 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
(VIII : iv) that Christ himself as our Mediator was made under
the law and did perfectly fulfill it; and that this perfect obedience,
active as well as passive, was an essential part of his mediation
and sacrifice. And on this ground, all Christians are called to the
duty of obedience, personal and entire, exact and perpetual, and
such obedience, exhibited in the good works required in the Gos
pel, is declared to be the only adequate fruit and evidence of a
justifying faith. In a word, Christianity is a type of religion
which begins and ends in obedience to the revealed will of God.
What should here be noted is that obedience to the Spirit is one
form, and in certain aspects even the supreme form, of such
generic obedience. The same loyal regard to the divine will
which should be cherished toward God the Father or God the
Son, is also to be manifested in equal measure and with equal
fidelity toward God the Holy Ghost. There is even something
special to be recognized in this third form of obedience, since it is
the Spirit who makes the divine will known to the regenerated
soul, who guides the soul into all duty as really as into all truth,
and who empowers the soul to do whatsoever is laid upon it as a
sacred obligation. As in the mystery of prayer he maketh inter
cession in and for the saint, himself in a true sense inditing each
petition so that it conforms as an inward desire to the will of God
in his comprehensive ordering of the universe, so the Spirit ani
mates the saint in every field of service, guides him to the right
solution of all problems of duty, directs him spedfically what to
do for God, and strengthens him to meet and discharge each divine
requirement. Hence obedience to the Spirit is an indispensable
element and condition in Christian living. He who does not trust
the Spirit sufficiently to obey him, and to obey him in the fuU
sense and degree just described, cannot be said to have the Spirit
abiding in him, to be filled with the Spirit, to walk in and with
the Spirit, according to the apostolic delineations. For the Spirit
is a law as well as an inspiration, a daily guide and teacher as truly
as a regenerating power; and he who does not accept the Spirit as
one would accept an unerring teacher and guide, has hardly
entered upon the beginnings of a fruitful Christian life.
It is true that this conception has often been perverted into
error, and has become at times a fountain of corrupting supersti
tion. The records of Christianity furnish abundant illustrations
of false teaching and false living that have sprung from inadequate
apprehension of this sublime truth. Men have fancied that their
own imaginings or their own dogmas or heresies were the products
of the Holy Ghost working mystically in heart and brain. The

OBEDIENCE TO THE SPIRIT : COMMUNION. 473
inner light, as it has been termed, has been set up as a guide to
truth or to duty, even where the alleged truth is not revealed in
Scripture, and in some instances where the supposed duty is at
variance with the requisitions of the inspired Word. Gross super
stitions, corrupt practices, even deadly sins, have sometimes been
justified on the ground that they were suggested or imposed by
the Spirit of God. The corrective to all such aberrations and
mischiefs is to be found in one simple test — the conformity of all
these, or their lack of conformity, to the written Scriptures. If
we believe that these Scriptures were truly inspired by the Spirit,
so that what we hear in them is, in the strong phrase of the Con
fession, the Spirit speaking in the Word, then his subsequent
speaking immediately to the soul, if indeed he ever speaks except
in conjunction with some biblical truth or precept, must be in har
mony with what he has already made known in the Bible. Our
Confession has anticipated much of modern error and peril at this
point, in its declaration (I : vi) that, while the inward illumination
of the Spirit is necessary for the saving understanding of the Word
revealed, nothing is ever at any time to be added authoritatively
to that Word either by the traditions of men, or by new revelations
of the Spirit : Minutes, 111-113. In a word, the Spirit speak
ing in the Scriptures and the Spirit speaking in the believing
soul is ever one and the same blessed person, and is ever consistent
with himself.
Third : Communion with the Spirit. The student of the teach
ings of our Lord and those of his apostles on this point must be
impressed with the variety, the freshness and the strength of the
imagery employed to describe the peculiar relationship established
through grace between the Holy Ghost and the regenerate soul.
He dwells in the beHever and the believer dwells in him : he
abides with and in a sense inhabits the disciple, as God dwells in
a temple dedicated to his praise. He is a daily teacher, and every
saint is a pupil in his school ; a paraclete, ever ready to hasten to
the Christian at whatever hour of need ; a comforter ever present
with his tender sympathy and care ; a companion and friend
walking ever by the side of those whom Christ loves, and holding
intercourse habituaUy with them, as Christ communed with the
disciples on the way to Emmaus. All true prayer is prayer in the
Spirit in the sense that it is offered in harmony with his will, and
under his guidance : and the believer is even said to pray by the
Spirit, he himself praying in the saint and for him, with such
groaning and intercession as we can never fully comprehend.
Image is thus added to image, illustration is piled upon illustration,

474 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
in order to give increased emphasis to that communion of the
Holy Ghost which Paul associates with the love of God and the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the loftiest benediction that
can be pronounced upon the assemblies of the saints.
How much is implied in such communion we may never be able
in this life to comprehend. It is certain that we are in little danger
of entertaining exaggerated conceptions of this wonderful feUow-.
ship, which stands out so singularly in the Word of God as in
some sense the final and supreme bestowment of divine grace. It
is true that serious errors have arisen at this point also, — that
false doctrines as to such communion have at times corrupted the
church and impaired the life of individual believers, and that false
practices and even gross vices Have had currency in Christendom,
which have justified themselves by appeal to this transcendent
truth — the keystone in some sense in the arch of Christian belief.
In the Larger Catechism (105 : 113) some of these dangerous
issues are detailed, and their variance with the divine Word de
clared. Other Protestant creeds contain similar warnings against
the perversion of this blessed verity. But the truth remains not
withstanding all such error : trust in the Spirit ever leads on to
obedience, and obedience opens the way to communion, and such
communion becomes, as it must, the daily inspiration and the
regulative principle and law of the Christian life. And weU may
all believers in all lands and times recite together the ardent
declaration of Luther in his Catechism: The Holy Ghost has
called me through the Gospel, enlightened me by bis gifts, and
sanctified and preserved me in the true faith, just as he calls,
gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian Church
on earth, and preserves it in union with Jesus Christ in the one
true faith.
Passing from these more generic aspects of the Christian Life,
and contemplating that Life in its beautiful details as set forth in
the Symbols, we are brought at once to
S™,»2?= T^S "» "--He d,apte (XIV) on 5*-
doctrine. m£ ^a"h, with the equally remarkable
definitions and ulustrations found in
the Catechisms: L. C. 72; S. C. 86. It is a significant fact that
the subject of religious faith received such marked prominence in
Protestant symbolism generally. The Augsburg Confession, in
its strong protest against the papal error of justification through
such works as the church imposed, declares (Art. IV) that men
cannot be justified before God by their own powers, merits or

FAITH DEFINED : THE PROTESTANT DOCTRINE. 475
works, but are justified freely as a matter of grace for the sake
of Christ through faith, when they believe that they are received
into favor, and their sins forgiven for his sake only. And in the
Article (XX) on Good Works the faith that saves is more fully
defined : The name of faith doth not only signify a knowledge of
the history, which may be in the wicked and in the devil, but it
also signifieth a faith which believeth not only the history, but also
the effect of the history; to wit, the article of remission of sins, —
that through Christ we receive grace and righteousness and such
remission of all transgressions. In the Formula of Concord, the
doctrine of salvation through faith only is more fully elaborated,
espedally in Art. Ill: De Justitia Fidei. A brief chapter, De
Fide, appears in the First Helvetic, and one much more extensive
in the Second Helvetic Conf. (XVI) in which faith is formally
defined as not a human opinion and persuasion, but a most firm
confidence and clear and steady assent of the mind, a most certain
apprehension of the truth of God, and therefore of God himself
as the highest good, and especiaUy of the divine promise and of
Christ who is the crown of all promises — omnium promissionum
colophon. The Belgic Confession (XXII) declares that the Holy
Ghost kindleth in our hearts an upright .faith, which embraces
Jesus Christ with aU his merits, appropriates him and seeks noth
ing more besides him. . . . Faith is the instrument which holds
us in communion with him in aU his benefits, — which benefits,
when they become ours, are more than sufficient to acquit us of
our sins. Declarations of the same tenor appear in nearly all the
creeds, and most elaborately in those of latest date, such as the
Canons of Dort and the Irish Articles which (37) define justifying
faith as not only the common belief of the tenets of the Christian
religion and persuasion of the truth of the Word of God in gen
eral, but also a particular application of the gracious promises of
the Gospel to the comfort of our own souls, whereby we lay hold
on Christ with all his benefits.
Such statements prepare us to appreciate the terse definition in
the Shorter Catechism: Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace,
whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation as he is
offered to us in the Gospel. The Larger Catechism (72) declares
that this saving grace is wrought in the heart of a sinner by the
Spirit and Word of God, — that it carries with it a profound con
viction of sin and misery, and of spiritual disability and exposure
to eternal loss without Christ, — that it inspires assent to the truth
and promises of the Gospel, and leads the sinner to rest on Christ
and his righteousness for the pardon of sin and for acceptance in

476 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
the sight of God unto salvation. The Confession in the chapter
now under examination commences with a declaration that saving
faith is the work of the Spirit in the heart, and is wrought ordina
rily, and also strengthened when once received, by the ministry
of the Word and by the right use of the sacraments and of prayer.
The principal acts of such faith are admirably enumerated as
accepting, receiving and resting upon Christ alone for justification,
sanctification and eternal life. Elsewhere it is affirmed that the
Christian believeth whatsoever is revealed in the Word, for the author
ity of God himself speaking therein, and acts according to what
ever is there taught. Similar distinctions and definitions appear
at many other points in the Symbols, specially in conjunction with
what is said respecting the mediation of Christ. Grouping all
these statements together, we discern here another illustration of
that elaboration and fullness, and that philosophic exactness in
language and expression, which give the Symbols of Westminster
such marked prominence among the formularies of Protestantism.
Like the phrase, saving understanding, employed to describe
something more and higher than mere natural discernment of
religious truth, the phrase, saving faith, was employed by the
Assembly (Minutes, 276) to distinguish such faith from aU other
and subordinate uses of the term, such as intellectual faith in the
Bible and its teachings, the faith of miracles, the faith of devils
or of angels, false faith, or (in an objective sense) the truth on
which trust is reposed — the faith once delivered to the saints. It
was used by the advocates of Rome in the age of Luther and sub
sequently, to signify rather an implicit reliance on the church, the
sacraments, the priesthood, as the immediate sources of salvation.
The Council of Trent indeed affirms in general (Ch. VIII. in the
Decree on Justification) that faith is the beginning of human
salvation, the foundation and the root of all justification; yet in
the same connection it speaks of the sacrament of baptism as the
instrumental cause of such justification, represents priestly abso
lution as an essential condition, and declares such good works as
the church imposes, to be indispensable signs and evidences that
the soul is justified. The ninth canon under the Decree on the
Sacraments pronounces the anathema of the church upon any one
who shall say that in the three sacraments, baptism and confirma
tion and order or ordination, there is not imprinted on the soul
receiving them a character— that is, a certain spiritual and indel
ible sign of grace and salvation. While that astute Council did
not attempt to justify the particular abuses, such as the sale of
indulgences, which Luther and his associates were so strongly

SAVING FAITH : ITS VALUE. 477
opposing, it still clung to that subtle dogma of justification in and
through the church which stands in dark antithesis over against
the nobler conception of a justification wrought out through Christ
alone, and received and appropriated by faith in him only.
Protestantism agreed in pladng such faith in Christ and his
mediatorial work in the foreground, as distinct from all trust in
church or sacrament or priest on one hand, and from all confidence
in self or in human worth or virtue on the other : — such faith
induding on one side implicit belief in the testimony of the Scrip
tures concerning the Messiah in all his mediating offices and
rdations, and on the other side a final, complete, irrevocable trust
in the salvation thus provided, and an absolute commitment of
the soul to this Savior to be saved in this way and in this way
only. In the terse phrase of Edwards (on Justification) faith in-
dudes the whole act of unition to Christ as a Savior. Christian
faith, says Bushnell, is the faith of a transaction — the trusting
of ourselves as bdngs to a Being, to be by him governed and
possessed forever. On this one condition salvation was made by
aU true Protestants to turn : faith in Christ only, was the article,
not merdy of a standing or a falling church as Luther declared,
but of a redeemed or ruined soul also. The Confession recognizes
the fact that such faith may be strong in one disciple and weak in
another, and that it may be often and many ways assailed or weak
ened: and is careful also to teach that such faith is not in the best
case a meritorious ground of salvation, but is itself a gift of God,
wrought in the believer by the Spirit and the Word, and is a
divinely imposed condition simply — a condition without whose
presence salvation cannot be attained. The Larger Catechism
(73) speciauy guards against error at this point in the statement
that faith does not justify because of those other graces which do
always accompany it, or of good works which are the fruits of it,
nor as if the grace of faith was itself imputed for justification, as
the earlier Arminianism had suggested; but only as it is an instru
ment by which the beHever receiveth and applieth Christ and his
righteousness. Reynolds in one of his sermons before the
Assembly aptly said that faith justifies as a window is said to en
lighten a room, because it is most apt (fitted) to let in that light
which comes from another body. How far such a spiritual con
ception rises above the subtle and misleading decrees and canons
of Trent, or above any doctrine of grace which more recent
Catholidsm has enundated, it is not difficult for the careful
student to see.
Two spedfic topics here demand brief consideration : the

478 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
reasonableness of saving faith, and its peculiar value as an active
force in character and in religious living. In the general sense
of confidence or trust, faith under-
5, Saving faith reason- lies the entire life of man. In its most
able: its power in character subjectiye f it is reliance
and life. , J ,. . . r .
the action of our own rational facub
ties — trust in ourselves as real and thinking persons. Objectively,
it is the assurance we feel respecting what lies beyond our
selves, as the existence of an external world, the laws of nature,
the impersonal forces at work about us. In the Catechism of
Cyril Lucaris, there is a striking statement of the presence and
office of faith in the ordinary life of man : Everything which is
done in the world, even by men who are unconnected with
the Church, is done by faith. Agriculture is founded on faith :
for one who did not believe that he should gather in the increase
of the fruits of the earth, would not undertake the labor of
husbandry. Mariners are guided by faith when the intrust their
fate to a slight plank, and prefer the agitation of the unstable
waters to the more stable element of the earth. They retain for
themselves nothing but faith, to which they trust more than to any
anchor. — Faith in man involves another element, confidence in his
judgment and his voluntary and moral nature, — a confidence
which underlies all human action and fellowship, and without
which human society in its varied forms could not exist. Such
reliance is as natural to man as his own breathing, and in some
variety it flows into and becomes an active principle in all human
life. Religious faith, speaking broadly, is simply this instinctive
and comprehensive trust in that which lies outside of ourselves,
and especially in our fellow men, elevated and applied specificaUy
to God, — the soul resting comprehensively on his character, his
administration, his revealed grace. In its highest, its saving
form, it is such confidence in God in view of sin and condemna
tion, — an assurance that he is able to deliver, and that in Christ he
does deliver those who believe on him from all sinfulness and guilt,
and an unreserved casting of the soul on his plan of mercy as the
only provision for restoration to holiness and to the divine favor
and fellowship. In this aspect saving faith is not a single voli
tion or a transient act, or — as Lessing held — a temporary leaning
on authority until reason is developed, or any merely provisional
stage in the intellectual or moral Hfe ; but rather a permanent
state of the soul — a holy condition or disposition, which hence
forth animates the whole man forever, and determines alike his
acts and his character for all the future.

CHRISTIAN FAITH REASONABLE. * 479
Viewed in the calmest, most philosophic aspect, such trust as
this is the most reasonable action which man, contemplated as
a sinner, can ever perform. There are indeed expressions in the
Symbols and in other Protestant creeds, and there is much in
Protestant theology, earlier and later, which .would imply that
such trust is an act of the soul altogether above and beyond
reason — if indeed it be not even an act against which the natural
reason protests. The language of Paul in his Corinthian letters,
and also some utterances of our Lord himself, are quoted in the
support of such opinions. But the deeper, wiser view compels a
careful correction of such statements and interpretations. It is true
that, in the phrase of Coleridge, reason has its own horizon, while
rdigious faith has another and broader horizon, so that those who
exercise such faith are enabled to discern truth, to perceive and rest
upon divine verities, which the natural man may not discern, or
which to his narrower understanding may seem to be foolishness.
Yet in the largest sense there is nothing either in the objects thus
discerned by an intelligent faith, or in the act of accepting these
objects as real and resting absolutely upon them for time and
for eternity, against which darified and calm reason will ever
protest. The Christian compromises nothing in his rational nature
when he determines to believe in the verities of our holy religion,
and to live on the hypothesis that they are true, true now and
true forever. In this sense he may, in the language of an apostle,
give a reason to every man who asks for a rational justification
of the faith that is in him. Just as we may firmly maintain that
there are no intrinsic contradictions between the teachings of
Scripture and the philosophy or the science of men within the
same departments of knowledge, so we may in the broadest sense
maintain the glorious reasonableness, not merely of the doctrines
we cherish, but of the absolute and happy commitment of our
selves and our destinies to what by the help of the Spirit of God
we thus discern and believe.
That such faith is this, when admitted into the breast, be
comes at once not only a permanent state or disposition of the
soul, but also a powerful operative force in character, and a dom
inating temper in the moral life, is obvious. In the language of
the first Helvetic Conf. such faith doth first send out of itself
charity, and then very excellent fruits of all virtues. There is
indeed a degree of justice in the criticism made upon the Symbols
and on the Protestant formularies generally, to the effect that
they represent faith too much on its passive side, as a simple
receiving and reposing on the promises of God in the Gospel

480 * THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
— an inert and inoperative resting on Christ and his grace,
which leaves nothing for the soul further to do or bear in the
interest of its salvation. But the vital fact is that saving faith is a
voluntary and a moral as well as an intellectual matter, both
explicit and implicit ; that the will and the consdence as truly
as the sentiment of trust become engaged in it ; that in a word,
it involves and possesses the entire man, and animates with new
energy his thoughts, his feelings, his purposes, his entire life. A
holy concord becomes at once apparent between his perceptions,
his emotions, and his will ; and thus converted, the man begins at
once to show the electric energy of such faith in all his actions,
and througboUt his moral living.
History tells us what faith, in the general sense of the term, has
done for men and for the world, — what mighty works it has per
formed, what victories it has won, what vast changes it has
wrought and is continually working in ordinary Hfe. But when
a genuinely religious faith enters into the soul — when that soul
truly believes and rests upon what God has revealed, and in aU
sincerity intrusts itself forevermore to the Savior and the salva
tion made known to it in the Gospel, then there enters into the
mind, the heart, the character, an energy mightier than any which
it is possible for the natural man to experience. The writer to
the Hebrews has presented no exaggerated picture of what such
faith has actually accomplished, pathetic beyond aU compari
son and almost incredible as his statements seem. The sublime
fact is that similar results are actually reached in our age and in
every age as truly as in the periods of which the apostle wrote ;
faith still, as in the stormy era of the Reformation, subdues king
doms, works righteousness, obtains or verifies and experiences
the promises, and in multipHed ways proves its actual and supreme
potency in human life. Such faith is an abiding inspiration in
the soul : it continually works by love, and purifies both the
heart and the conduct ; it is the fount from which all other holy
graces and virtues flow, and the perpetual spring of aU Christian
living. A truly Christian manhood becomes possible only through
the possession and the influence of such faith, as an active force
resident in the very centers of the moral nature. While there
fore we may and should emphasize the passive side of saving faith
— the element of acceptation and repose in the salvation offered,
as if that salvation were a strong vessel sent to convey the soul
through whatever tempestuous seas into the haven of eternal rest,
we are bound to lay equal stress on this faith, regarded as an
active power, penetrating the entire man, and moving him on with

REPENTANCE : ITS ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS. 481
superhuman energy to such Christian living and fruitfulness as
will demonstrate both its reality and its preciousness. It is only
as we contemplate faith on this side of it that we are enabled to
see dearly why it is laid down as a primal and indispensable con
dition of salvation ; thus viewed, it explains away all difficulties,
illuminates the mystery of regeneration, shows what conversion is
and means, and renders the conception of the Christianized Life
the grandest vision vouchsafed to man this side of heaven.
The remarkable chapter on Saving Faith is followed in the Con
fession by an equally important chapter (XV) entitled, Of Re
pentance unto Life. It has been a
.. , • t. 4.1. 6. Repentance defined:
question among theologians whether Its essentlal elemettts.
faith or repentance should be consider
ed first in the order of scientific exposition. Both Catechisms
follow the order preferred in the Confession, and this is the more
general usage. Calvin affirms (Inst. B. Ill : 4) that repentance
not only foUows faith, but is produced by it. But his subsequent
discussion shows that repentance and conversion were regarded
by him as nearly synonymous : it is also apparent that he uses
the term, faith, in a sense so comprehensive as to include that
godly sorrow for sin and that sincere purpose to forsake sin which
constitute evangeHcal repentance. It was natural that the Re
formers, in their ardent struggles against the false conception of
faith held by the papal church, should centralize and exalt faith,
in the nobler sense of the term, as the comprehensive and the
sole condition of salvation. And it may have been feared that
the introduction of repentance as in some sense a coordinate con
dition, might lead to an undue emphasizing, as indeed appeared
in the primitive Arminianism, of the human factor in the scheme
of grace. Later theologians have held that faith is the means
while repentance is the end, and that while faith ever leads on
to repentance, repentance may not lead to or result in saving
faith. It has been held also that the reversal of this order in
volves certain injurious consequences, such as the conceiving of
repentance as a legal act, and the interposing it as such between
the soul and Christ as the object of trust and the foundation of
hope. In fact, it is difficult to estabHsh clearly a chronologic order in
the case, since each experience involves and presupposes the other.
To repent of sin and to believe in Christ as a Savior from sin are
really two aspects of one and the same spiritual transaction. As
Bunyan has taught us in his great allegory, it is only when the

482 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
sinner stands before the cross and discerns the Savior crucified,
that he throws off the burden of his sin, and sees it rolling away.
Some recognition of Christ, and some measure of appropriating
faith must thus be involved in all true repentance. On the other
hand, such recognizing and appropriating faith seems to require
as its condition some deep consciousness of sin and guilt and im
pending doom, such as will impel the convicted soul to look away
unto Jesus for the deliverance it needs. The practical fact is that
no one repents worthily except in the sight and vision of Christ
as a possible Savior from sin ; nor does any one truly attain the
sight and vision of Christ without finding his wicked nature sub
dued within him, and his eyes filled with penitential tears.
Whether, therefore, we place faith first and repentance subsequent,
as the Symbols do, or reverse the order of the two elements, we
should never forget that both are in reality parts of the same
gracious experience, logically set in a certain procession, but
chronologically and spiritually one and inseparable. So we should
ever interpret the tender injunction so often repeated in the New
Testament : Repent and Believe.
The biblical conception of acceptable repentance is well defined
in the language (87) of the Shorter Catechism : — a saving grace
whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension
of the mercy of God in Christ, doth with grief and hatred of his
sin, turn from it unto God with full purpose of and endeavor after
new obedience. The Larger Catechism (76) expands the definition
in terms, but adds nothing except that this saving grace is said
to be wrought in the heart of a sinner by the Spirit and Word of
God. The Confession emphasizes the sense of the filthiness and
odiousness of sin as contrary to the holy nature and righteous law
of God, and defines the scope of repentance in the declaration that
the penitent soul is henceforth resolved to walk with God in all
the ways of his commandments. Other descriptive phrases appear
in the Minutes; 279, and elsewhere. Such an experience is of
course to be radically differentiated from all experiences that
might seem to be in any way related to it ; — from natural regret
arising from some perception of the loss or other harmful conse
quence, providential or retributive, that may be following after
indulgence in transgression ; — from moral remorse, the sting of
outraged conscience, in view not so much of evil results flowing
from a sinful course, but rather of the intrinsic wrong, the sense
of wickedness in the sight of the personal reason and judgment,
that must rise up occasionally in every soul not seared and dead
ened by personal sin ; — also from what may be termed penitence,

CONVICTION AND RENUNCIATION. 483
such as that of Judas, springing up in the form of intense convic
tion, and even of despair, in the contemplation of sin as committed
before God. These experiences doubtless exist in numberless
instances, and in measures more or less marked, even where the
Bible has never gone to convince men of sin and righteousness
and judgment, and stiU more often among the multitudes who
have heard its faithful testimony but have still been unwilling to
turn away from their transgressions. They are never to be con
founded with that biblical repentance which, in the phrase of
Paul, is not to be repented of — the repentance unto life.
Calvin has comprehensively defined acceptable repentance as a
true conversion of our Hfe to God, proceeding from a sincere and
serious fear of God, and consisting in the mortification of our flesh
and of the old man, and in the vivification of the Spirit. The
Augsburg Confession (Art. XII) says: Repentance consisteth
properly of two parts; one is contrition, or terrors stricken into
the consdence through the acknowledgment (or recognition) of
sin; the other is faith, which is conceived by the Gospel, and doth
beHeve that for the sake of Christ sins be forgiven, and comforteth
the conscience and freeth it from terrors. The Catechism of Hei
delberg defines repentance as twofold; the dying of the old man
and the quickening of the new, — heartfelt sorrow for sin on the
one side, causing us to hate it and turn from it always more and
more,— heartfelt joy in God on the other side, causing us to take
delight in Hving according to the wiU of God in aU good works.
The Second Helvetic Conf. teaches that repentance is a change of
heart produced in a sinner by the word of the Gospel and the
Holy Spirit, and includes a knowledge of native and actual
depravity, a godly sorrow and hatred of sin, and a determination
to live hereafter in virtue and holiness. Repentance, say the Irish
Artides (40), is a gift of God whereby godly sorrow is wrought
in the heart of the faithful for offending God, their merciful
Father, through their former transgressions, together with a con
stant resolution for the time to come to cleave unto God and to
lead a new Hfe. One of the Confessions embodies the whole in the
simple dedaration, that true repentance is turning to God and all
good, and turning away from the devil and all evil. Nearly all of
the Protestant creeds contain similar definitions, though with some
confusion in many cases between repentance and faith on one
hand, and repentance and conversion as a consequence of faith
on the other.
Recurring to the Westminster definition, which is more full and
exact than any of its predecessors in the confessional series, we

484 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
find the substance of repentance to consist in the two elements, con
viction and renunciation; — the first implying a deep and adequate
sense of sin, not merely as an offense to the conscience or reason,
but as a transgression of the law of God, and a crime against him
as our Father and our King ; — the second implying the actual
forsaking of all sin as an element in the life, and a solemn purpose
to walk henceforth in the ways of holiness, in obedience full and
cordial to all divine commands. And we are further taught
that this doctrine of repentance is to be preached by every minister
of the Gospel, as well as that of faith in Christ, on the ground that
this evangelical grace, as it is termed, is an essential element
always in true piety : none may expect pardon without it. To
emphasize the obligation, we are told on one side that the smallest
sin unrepented of deserves damnation, and on the other that the
greatest sin may be forgiven to those who truly repent. Still
further, it is enjoined that men should not content themselves
with merely general sorrow for their sinfulness, but should repent
each one for himself of his particular sins, particularly: and this
is to be done, not because the sinner can render any satisfaction
for his sins or purchase pardon by way of merit in consequence of
such repentance, but because God commandeth all men every
where to repent, as it is his supreme right to command. It will
be seen that these statements cover the whole ground, as it had
not been covered by any antecedent symbol ; and it is a suggest
ive fact that the solemn and searching doctrine here enjoined has
not been modified in any particular by more recent investigation.
Now as. in the era of the Assembly, and through all the future,
such repentance must remain in its fullness as one of the indis
pensable elements in the gracious process of salvation.
It may be profitable, before passing to consider other interesting
features of the Christian Life as described in the Symbols, to note
briefly the marked spiritual' contrast
r. Protestant and Papal between this Protestant doctrine of
doctrines contrasted: Con- , , „ „ . ..
fession of Sin. repentance and the Roman Cathohc
conception. The Roman analysis of
repentance presents three elements, attritio cordis, confessio oris,
satisf actio operis. The analysis is worthy of careful study, and
the definition derived from it might, so far as the language goes,
be accepted by Protestants as adequate. The attritio cordis,
or contrition of spirit in view of sin, is an essential element in
evangelical repentance: so also are the confessio oris, the acknowl
edgment of our transgressions before God; and the satisfactio
operis, or the desire to make reparation for any offense against

PAPAL AND PROTESTANT DOCTRINE COMPARED. 485
him or against our fellow men. He in whom these three elements
are found, if the language is interpreted in a proper biblical sense,
may justly be regarded as a penitent soul such as God in the
Gospd has promised to pardon and to save. But we are con
strained to ask whether this contrition of spirit be indeed the
genuine and deep conviction which the Scriptures require, or is
rather the unprofitable penitence of men like Esau or Judas, or
mere remorse of consdence, or natural regret simply, or — what is
still inferior — a sense of shame or humiliation in view of some
departure from the imposed requisitions of the church. We may
properly inquire whether this confession of the mouth is that
hearty and unreserved acknowledgment before God for sins com
mitted against his holy law which he requires, or is merely a
confession to the priesthood, imposed as a condition of receiving
the mass — a confession covering only minor offenses against
ecdesiastical law, or perchance an acknowledgment of some
rdativdy trivial form of wrong-doing. So we may justly ask
whether the satisfaction in act is that cordial disposition to undo
all evil done, to forsake all sin as related to others, to live a truly
holy Hfe in obedience to the divine commands, or is simply some
partial and perfunctory reparation, or submission to some form of
penance in person or purse, required by the church as a condition
of restoration to her favor.
In pressing these questions it would be an obvious departure
from the Protestant doctrine of the communion of saints, to
affirm that evangehcal repentance is an experience unknown
within the papal fold, or to declare that there are but few within
that fold whom God regards as truly penitent before him, and in
his grace accepts exactly as he accepts us. Unquestionably there
are wide differences of penitential experience within the church
of Rome, specially in countries where greater enlightenment has
been enjoyed, and in ages such as our own in which there has
been marked spiritual advance universally, among Romanists as
well as others, in the apprehension and appropriation of saving
truth, and particularly of the covenanted mercy of God in Christ.
Though no formal change in dogma has been made since the
Council of Trent, as indeed none can well be made, constituted
as the Roman organism is, we may strongly hope that the true
doctrine finds its way into many hearts within that communion,
and that many such as Pascal and Madame Guion may fitly kneel
by our side, as we bow before God and with contrition of soul
and confession of guilt cast ourselves at his feet, pleading for
mercy in the name of Christ, our Lord and theirs.

486 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
Yet the painful fact remains that the biblical doctrine on this
vital subject has not received, is not now receiving, just recognition
in the Roman communion. When Luther hurled his theses like
cannon-shot against that corrupt and corrupting scheme of pen
ance and indulgence and absolution represented by men Hke
Tetzel, he assailed an evil against which the intelligent mind and
conscience of Europe had long protested, and which, if it had been
allowed to continue and flourish without rebuke as it did in his
day, would have been fatal ultimately to Christianity itself. A
radical reformation of such unbiblical teaching and practice was
an indispensable prerequisite to the restoration of vital piety with
in the church, and such reformation was possible only through
the enunciation afresh and with utmost force of the inspired
truth that God alone can forgive sin, that forgiveness is attain
able only through faith in Christ and his mediation, and that no
other price is demanded, no other condition acceptable, than such
faith cherished in the soul, apart from all churchly merit or inter
position. The Tridentine Council saw clearly the justice and
wisdom of such a claim, and therefore in form withdrew the
countenance of the church from the gross corruptions which had
shocked the moral sense of Europe, while still affirming the right
of the church to determine wherein true repentance consists', and
the necessary instrumentality of the church in securing forgive
ness and absolution to the truly penitent. One has only to read
the particular decrees and canons relating to this subject, and
especially the chapters on contrition, on confession and absolu
tion, and on the satisfaction requisite in view of sin, to be
impressed on the one side with the astuteness and skill of the
statements, and on the other with the dangerous errors interwoven
with the essential truth in the case. Nor can it be doubted by
the thoughtful student that, in the strenuous endeavor of the
Council to preserve in unimpaired force the prerogatives and
assumed functions of the church in the whole matter of repentance
and forgiveness, irreparable violence was done to the plain, simple,
solemn doctrine as set forth by our Lord and his apostles. Later
teachers such as Moehler (Symbolism, 219, seq.) have taught
that proper contrition involves a profound detestation of sin,
springing out of the awakened love of God, together with the
conscious, deliberate determination never more to sin, but rather
to fulfill the divine law from and in love for God. It has also
been maintained that confession to the priesthood is only a mode
of confessing to God through their official instrumentality, that
the penances imposed by the church are temporal punishments

AURICULAR CONFESSION. 487
only, and that the absolution bestowed by the church is simply
her authoritative testimony that God has granted forgiveness
to the sinner through her mediation. Yet no such melioration
can do away with the dangerous doctrine of Trent, or protect
the church of Rome from the recurrence of those detestable
practices against which the Reformation was such an indignant
protest. Even Moehler daims that the church has the right not
only to pronounce absolution but also to grant indulgences, and
that these, if dispensed with wisdom, are useful.
In connection with the Roman dogma as to auricular confession,
with its consequent ecdesiastical absolution, it is well to notice
espedaUy the important section (vi) on this subject in the chapter
now under examination. That section strongly affirms the obli
gation of every man to confess his sins before God privately, and
assures the true penitent that for all sin thus privately confessed
he shaH receive mercy, and without any intervention of the priest
hood or of the church. But where he has scandalised his brother
or the church of Christ, he ought to be willing — it is said — also to
confess his fault to the brother wronged, or publicly before the
church, and so declare his repentance to those that are offended. In
the Directory for Worship formal provision is made (Ch. XI) for
the recdving of such pubhc confession, and for such action by the
church as a proper acknowledgement of sin may justify— specially
in the interest of reconciHation and restoration. This is as far as
the Reformed communions generally have gone in the matter of
ecdesiastical forgiveness. The language of some of the earlier
creeds, spedally the Catechism of Luther, and the Augsburg
Conf. (Art. IV), seem indeed like an approach to the papal heresy
as to both confession and clerical absolution. Luther is quoted
as saying that a minister preaching the Gospel cannot open his
mouth without constantly remitting sin, for the reason that the
Gospel itself is a proclamation of the sin of all men remitted
through the atonement: and the Apologia affirms that absolution
is the Gospel itself — our sins being truly remitted here on earth,
through the power of the keys intrusted to the church. Zwingli,
however (52—5), declares in his emphatic way that God alone
remits sin, and remits it solely through Christ, — that confession,
if made to a priest, is not for the remission of sins through him
but for consultation only, — that works of satisfaction may not be
imposed by the priesthood as a condition of absolution, — and that
those who demand any pecuniary rewards for such absolution are
followers of Balaam and Simon, and veritable legates of Satan.
Calvin pronounces the papal doctrine of confession and absolution

488 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
a mortal poison, denies that the right to absolve men from sin is
any part of the legitimate power of the keys, and denounces the
imposing of penance and the sale of indulgences as not only pollu
tion and imposture but also rapacity and robbery. Yet he stren
uously enjoins private or personal as distinct from auricular
confession, commends the public acknowledgement of sin before
the church where such sin has been a wrong to others, and in
glowing terms prodaims the readiness of God to forgive all the
sins of all men, in the name of Christ, when these are duly
acknowledged before him and heartily renounced.
The chapter, Of Good Works (XVI) which immediately follows
those on Saving Faith and Repentance unto Life, brings into view
another of those broad and deep lines
8. Good Works: nature which divided Protestantism from the
and worth. Catholic and , . r ^ , L • ,
Protestant statements. church of Rome> and at the same tme
sets before us what is an ultimate sign
and test of the truly Christian life. The radical error in which
Romanism had become entangled through its false doctrine
respecting faith and repentance, bore its legitimate and poisonous
fruitage at this point, in a low and unspiritual conception of what
constitutes the Christian man in action — of the marks and evi
dences by which he may be distinguished experimentaUy and
fundamentally from the merely natural man. Hence it was neces
sary that the Reformers should not only exemplify in themselves
that loftier type of manhood which, as they claimed, the doctrine
of salvation through Christ only would surely induce in aU who
received it, but should also formulate their belief in a definition of
the works, the acts, the practical living which are the proper signs
of such a manhood when shaped and animated by the Holy Ghost.
This was a fundamental necessity, and was so regarded by the
Protestant leaders almost without exception. All were agreed in
repudiating the papal conception of good works as inadequate and
corrupting: all realized that some suitable substitute, which would
stand, the test both of Scripture and of experiment, must be pro
vided. Nor is it too much to say that, if Protestantism had not
furnished such a broad and noble doctrine of Christian man
hood, and if its adherents had not in a remarkable degree illus
trated that doctrine by their personal living, their good works
shining as bright examples in the household and in sodety as well
as within the church, the Protestant movement would have col
lapsed and become a terrible failure. It was indeed the grandest
mission of the Reformers to live out the doctrine of justification

GOOD WORKS : NATURE AND WORTH. 489
by faith as well as to proclaim it in the ears of men: it was, in a
word, their good works quite as much as their profound messages
which attracted, which influenced, which won the peoples of
central and northern Europe to their support. Such holy man
hood, set in living contrast with the degenerate acts and lives of
the majority of those who represented Rome in that fierce conflct
for supremacy in European thought and faith, became an argument
which even the might of the Papacy was powerless to resist.
The Council of Trent was not indifferent to so important an
issue, as its declarations in regard to the nature of good works, and
their merit in connection with justification (Decree on Justif.
Chap. XVI and the corresponding Canons) dearly show. It was
charged upon the Protestants by the Council that in emphasizing
justification by faith they were ignoring and even forbidding good
works, and thus proving recreant to the moral element in Chris
tianity. And it was in view of that charge specifically, that the
framers of the Augsburg Confession introduced the long Article
(XX) into their symbol, in which on one side they condemn the
childish and needless and unprofitable works, ceremonial and
formal, imposed by the Roman priesthood, and on the other side
assert thdr loyalty to the Ten Commandments, and all other
moral obhgations enjoined in the holy Scriptures. They do, in
deed, affirm with emphasis that even such works cannot reconcile
God to us or deserve the remission of sins, and that every one
who trusteth by his works to merit grace, does in effect despise
the merit of Christ, and his plan of salvation. They declare that
while conscience cannot be quieted by any works, but by faith
alone, yet such works are obligatory, because it is the will of God
that we should do them ; and add the important statement that it
is only by faith, dwelling as a living principle in the soul, that
any works acceptable with God can be performed. To quiet the
controversy which subsequently arose in Lutheran circles, one
party affirming that good works in the biblical sense of the term
are necessary, the other maintaining that they are even detri
mental to salvation, the Formula of Concord, nearly fifty years
later, presented another elaborate Article (IV), in which it was
Said that good works, in the best sense of the phrase, must as
certainly follow a true faith as fruits of a good tree, and that all
regenerate persons are debtors to do such good works ; yet that
such obedience is to be rendered, not by the compulsion of law,
but in a 'free and spontaneous spirit ; and such works are said to
be necessary, not because they merit salvation in any way, but
simply because they are a testimony that the Holy Spirit is

490 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
present and dwells in us — a sure sign that we, unworthy though
we may be, are saved already.
It would be impracticable here to speak of the teaching of the
various Reformed symbols, nearly all of which enundate the
same doctrine with less or greater elaboration, and with incidental
shadings and variations. Zwingli had given the keynote in his
terse declaration (22) that our works are good so far as they are
of Christ, but so far as they are ours, they are not truly good.
The Heidelberg Catechism, in a declaration almost equally terse,
responded in the statement that the only good works are those
which are done from true faith, according to the law of God, and
for his glory, and not such as rest on our own opinions or the
commandments of men. In harmony with these declarations are
the First Helvetic (XIV), eminently the Second Helvetic (Cap.
XVI), the French Confession (22-24), in which may be traced
the personal dictation of Calvin, the Belgic (Art. XXIV), and
the Scotch Confession (XIII-XIV), with the quaint titles, Of
the Cause of Gude Warkis, and What Warkis are Reputit Gude
befoir God. The language of the Thirty-nine Artides (XII)
may be quoted here, as representing the maturest British thought
in the latter half of the sixteenth century: Albeit that good works
which are the fruits of faith and follow after justification, cannot
put away our sins and endure the severity of God's judgment, yet
they are pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and do spring
out necessarily of a true and lively faith, insomuch that by them
a lively faith may be as evidently known as a tree discerned by
the fruit. This Article has the greater significance to us from the
fact that it was incorporated almost literally into those Irish Arti
cles, which have already been recognized in other connections as
the germ of the Westminster Symbols, and also into the Articles
of Religion drawn up two centuries later by John Wesley for the
guidance of American Methodism.
Turning now in the light shed by these antecedent creeds to
the teaching of our own Symbols as contained in this chapter, and
o r- /¦ irr i j a , *d tne corresponding statements in the
9. Good Works : doctrine _, , , . r &
of the Symbols: its value. Catechisms, we may note, first, the
definition of good works with which
the discussion commences, — only such as God hath commanded in
his holy Word, and not such as without the warrant of Scripture
are devised by men out of blind zeal, or upon any pretense of good
intention. This definition was evidently designed to rule out,
not merely all papal error, but also certain false opinions which
had found currency in Protestant circles, especially through the

GOOD WORKS : FURTHER ANALYSIS. 491
Arminian defection. In the exposition of the third petition in the
prayer of our Lord, we find an admirable statement of the doctrine
in the proposition (192), that we are to pray that God by his Spirit
and grace would make us able and willing to know, do and submit
to his will in aU things, with the like humility, cheerfulness, faith
fulness, diligence, zeal, sincerity and constancy as the angels do
in heaven.
Secondly: the real nature of such good works as the fruits and
evidences of a true and lively faith ; by which believers may
manifest thdr thankfulness, strengthen their assurance, edify
their brethren, adorn the profession of the Gospel, stop the
mouths of adversaries, and glorify God by their obedience to his
will. It wiU be seen at a glance that such an interpretation shuts
out at once the kind of works, ceremonial and ecclesiastical, which
the Council of Trent had prescribed, and on the other hand proves
the falsity of the papal charge that the Protestant doctrine of
justification by faith was injurious to practical religion, inasmuch
as it tended to turn the thoughts of men away from those duties
which God had enjoined in his holy law. It was a decisive answer
dso to that Antinomianism which affirmed that good works have
no relation to salvation, and to that still more dangerous opinion
developed during the Majoristic controversy, that such works may
even be detrimental to salvation. It was also an answer equally
dedsive to the notion developed during the same controversy and
afterward, that good works are in some degree a coordinate or at
least a subsidiary ground of acceptance with God, since none can
in fact perform such works excepting those who are already
accepted of him.
Thirdly: the source of all good and acceptable works is said to
be the actual influence of the Holy Spirit, — the ability to do such
works lying not in the believer independently, but flowing into
him supematurally in conjunction with his faith in Christ. Ac
cording to one statement proposed in the Assembly, it is the Spirit
of Christ in regenerate persons that enables them to do aU that
good which at any time they do, and they are so far from having
any strength in themselves for holy performances that, notwith
standing the grace they have already received, there is always
required a continued influence from the same holy and blessed
Spirit, to work in them to will and to do: Minutes, 277-8. The
important caution is added, that this must not be regarded as an
excuse for negligence in duty, nor is the believer to wait for some
special motion of the Spirit before entering upon the performance
of any known duty. Supreme dependence on God for aid is not

492 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
to be regarded as inconsistent with the completest devotion, of the
soul to every appointed task: the promise of such supernatural
aid is rather to be viewed as supplying the strongest possible
stimulus and encouragement to the performance of all recognized
obligation. It is implied in these statements that such good
works, wrought in grace, are not occasional acts or temporary
efforts, but constitute rather the great business of life, and are to
be persisted in without ceasing and without questioning while
life lasts.
Fourthly: works done by the believer under the inspiring influ
ence of the Holy Spirit, are acceptable with God; not indeed because
they are always done perfectly or without fault or blemish in his
sight — since this will never be in this life — but in virtue of their
spiritual worth, viewed as signs of personal union with Christ and
of an indwelling disposition to obey him. As the person of the
regenerate man is accepted and counted as righteous in his justi
fication, so his works are regarded as worthy though they be
accompanied — defiled and mixed — with many weaknesses and
imperfections. We bless God, say the Articles of the English
Synod, that the obedience of Christians, though in this life always
imperfect, yet being the fruit of their union with Christ, is
accepted for his sake and well-pleasing to God.
Fifthly: although thus acceptable with God in Christ, such
works can never merit pardon or eternal life, so great is the dis
proportion between thefn even at the best and the daim which
God rightly has upon the powers and services of all, and so glo
rious and precious is that eternal life as seen in contrast with the
holiest living of saints on the earth. At the best the Christian
has but done his duty, and must confess himself an unprofitable
servant, Unworthy of divine favor or of everlasting felidty. It
follows that no Christian can ever do more than his proper duty-
more than God justly requires: works of supererogation, such as
Rome exalted into prominence as constituting a species of claim
upon divine justice or mercy, are declared to be impossible: no man
can do more for God than he ought. The proposition was at one
stage of the discussion adopted by the Assembly (278), that those
who in their obedience attain to the greatest height which is pos
sible in this life, are yet so far from being able to supererogate and
to do more than God requires, as that they are never able to do so
much as in duty they are bound to do.
Sixthly: Works done by unregenerate men, though they may
spring from good moral incentives and may be beneficent or
upright in the estimate of others, can never merit pardon or

WORKS DONE BY UNREGENERATE PERSONS. 493
acceptance with God. Such works, it is said, do not proceed from
a heart purified by faith, nor do they conform to the letter, or the
spirit of Scripture, regarded as the supreme law of human life.
The sound position is taken that all such works, however excellent
in themselves, are in fact sinful and displeasing to God, and there
fore cannot render him who performs them meet to receive grace
from God. Yet it is added, though it be an apparent paradox,
that the neglect of such works is still more sinful, still more dis
pleasing. The teaching of this section has been severely criticised
on the ground that it does injustice to the really worthy deeds of
beneficence or of righteousness which are done by persons as
yet unrenewed in heart. The Declaratory Act of the United
Church affirms that it is not to be held that the natural man
cannot perform actions in any sense good, although actions which
do not spring from a renewed heart are not spiritually good or
holy — such as accompany salvation. In the proposed Revision of
the Confession, the language and structure of the section were
so modified as to escape this criticism, as follows : Works done
by unregenerate men, although they may be things which God
commands, and of good use both to themselves and others, and
although the neglect of such things is sinful and displeasing unto
God, yet because they proceed not from a heart purified by faith,
nor are done in a right manner, according to the Word, nor to a
right end, the glory of God, do not meet the requirements of the
divine law, and hence they cannot be pleaded as a ground of
acceptance with God.
Regarded as a whole, this chapter furnishes a marked example
of that calm discrimination on the one side and that comprehen
sive summarizing of essential truth on the other, of which there
are so many iUustrations in the Symbols. No important element
of the doctrine was forgotten or omitted, and there was no error
current anywhere in the Protestant churches which was not care-
fuUy ehminated. The controversies which had agitated and
divided the earUer Protestantism, especiaUy on the continent,
were wisely quieted, and this was done without compromise or
surrender of anything needful to the biblical doctrine. The
alleged conflict between Paul and James, between the gospel of
faith and the gospel of service, is here shown to have no real
existence. The erroneous teachings and corrupt practices of
Rome are aU faithfully excluded. And surely it is a fine commen
tary on both the substance and the form of the statement, that
after two centuries and a half it still stands out as the clearest,
fullest, wisest declaration that the Christian Church has ever made

494 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
on this vital theme. It brings the Christian life before us in its
proper light, as a type of life in which faith and works, bdief and
duty, piety and service, are blended together in a harmony as
complete as that of a rainbow in the sky.
Two other chapters remain to complete our view of that Life
as furnished by the Symbols : of these the first is that (XVII)
which treats Of the Perseverance of the
10. Perseverance : the „ . , „. . . . ., c .. . ,,
Christian Life permanent. Samts- Stated m anotller form' rt 1S the
intensely practical problem whether the
Christian life, originating in the regenerative and effectual call
of the Holy Spirit, animated not merely by intellectual conviction,
but by a spiritual and saving faith, characterized by true sorrow
for sin and a dominant purpose to renounce and forsake it, and
consecrated to good works in the sense and measure just de
scribed, possesses the quality of permanence ; or may in some
instances give way to the grosser life of sin and death, so that
the soul, once thus endowed and renewed, may fall back into an
estate of guilt and of condemnation. The strong declaration of
the Confession is that no such soul can totally or finally fall away
from the state of grace, but will certainly persevere therein to the
end, and be eternally saved. In the Larger Catechism (79) it is
said that true believers can neither totally nor finaUy fall away
from this gracious estate, but are kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation. And in the Shorter Catechism (36)
such perseverance to the end is named as one of the essential and
assured benefits which flow from or accompany our justification,
adoption and sanctification. In other parts of the Confession
(XI : v, XII : i, XIII : iii) we are taught that true believers are
never cast off, but are sealed unto the day of redemption, — that
although the remaining corruption for a time may much prevail,
yet through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying
Spirit of Christ, the regenerate part doth overcome, — and that
though they may by their sins fall under the fatherly displeasure of
God, and may not have the light of his countenance restored until
they confess their sins, and renew their faith and repentance,
they can never fall from the state of justification. The doctrine is
expanded in a variety of specifications, in the Sum of Saving
Knowledge: and in Truth's Victory Over Error it is said to be
impossible for the elect to be seduced, — impossible not in respect
of the will and power of the elect themselves, but in respect of
the immutability of God's decree concerning them, and of his
purpose to keep them powerfully against seduction!

PERSEVERANCE : CONSERVATION UNTO LIFE. 495
The history of the doctrine thus strong^ stated, is one of deep,
almost tragic interest. It had been charged by papal advocates
that the Protestant dogma of justification by faith in what Christ
had done for the believers, taken in conjunction with its strict
doctrine of election, not only rendered good works useless, but
ensured salvation, whatever sin the believer once justified might
commit. The Council of Trent (Decree on Justif. Ch. XIII)
affirmed in contrast that as regards the gift of perseverance, no one
may herein promise himself anything as certain with an absolute
certain ty, though all ought to place and repose a most firm hope
in the help of God. The Council further warned all believers by
labors, by watchings, by almsdeeds, by prayers and oblations, by
fastings and chastity, to work out their salvation in constant
fear for the combat which }-et remains with the flesh, the world and
the devil, wherein they cannot be victorious but through the
grace of God. This was a legitimate inference from the papal
dogma that justification is not an act but a process, and a process
which is never completed tiU sanctification is perfected in another
life. The general position of Protestantism is informally stated
in the Catechism of Luther: We pray that God would so guard
and preserve us that the devil, the world and our own flesh may
not deceive us, nor lead us into misbelief, despair or any other
great shame or vice ; and that, though we may be thus tempted,
we may nevertheless finaUy prevail and gain the victory. So the
Heidelberg Catechism in its definition of the doctrine of forgive
ness of sins (56), declares that God for the sake of the satisfac
tion of Christ, wiU no more remember our sins, neither the sinful
nature with which we have to struggle all our life long, but will
graciously impart to us the righteousness of Christ, that we may
aevermore come into condemnation. And the French Confession
in the same spirit (XXI) declares that faith is not given to the
elect only to introduce them into the right way, but also to make
them continue in it to the end : as it is God who hath begun the
work, he will also perfect it.
Yet the doctrine as presented in the Symbols can hardly be
regarded as one of the formal tenets of Protestantism prior to the
rise of the Arminian controversy. It was indeed urged by the
original Arminians as an argument against the extreme Calvinism
of their day, that its doctrine of election involved the absolute
certainty that none of the elect would ever fall away, while — as
they cautiously said — it has never been proved from Scripture
( Remonstrance, Art. V) that grace once given can never be lost.
The followers of Arminius thus joined with Catholicism in the

496 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
affirmation made first by Aquinas, that no one could have any cer
tainty of his salvation except by a special revelation from, heaven,
and on what they claimed to be scriptural grounds maintained
that a total and final falling away from grace is always possible.
This position was in harmony with their strong protest against
the Augustinian dogma of irresistible grace, and with their claim
that election and condemnation are conditioned upon the fore
knowledge of God, and are made to depend on the foreseen, behef
or unbelief of men. It was a marked and serious departure from
the general teaching of the antecedent creeds, especially, of the
British Isles. The Thirty-Nine Articles (XVII) had declared
that the godly consideration of predestination and our election in
Christ is full of pleasant, sweet and unspeakable comfort to godly
persons, . . . because it doth greatly establish and confirm their
faith of eternal salvation ; and the Irish Articles, compiled while
the controversy was in progress, taught that the elect of God are
in time inseparably united unto Christ by the effectual and vital
influence of the Holy Ghost. In the fifth Canon of the Synod of
Dort, we have an elaborate, analytic, comprehensive statement
of the doctrine, with full answers to the objections urged against
it, — a statement which gave form to the Westminster declarations,
and which has ever since stood as substantially the final answer
of Calvinism to whatever species of opposition or criticism.
It is important to discriminate carefully between, the inac
curate and the real grounds on which the fact of the permanence
of the Christian life, once possessed, is based. Not upon their <rwn
free will, is the comprehensive caution to be noted in the case. It
is not claimed that the certainty affirmed rests on any indepen
dent capacity or action of the bdiever : his regeneration and
conversion may imply such permanence, but of themselves they
can not ensure it. The renewed will is still a faUible and weak wUl
and, were it left to itself, it would be liable, even certain, to. fall
away from God and duty. Nor is it claimed that present sinless
ness or perfection, were it attained by the Christian in this life,
would be a sufficient guarantee against ultimate apostacy. At
the same time it may justly be held that such a comprehensive
spiritual work as is instituted in regeneration and carried; on in
sanctification, does of itself justify a strong presumption that such
a work will not come to naught, but will rather be maintained so
long as life lasts, even in defiance of all the adverse influences
which from without and from within may be warring against it.
Nor is this presumption fairly offset by the fact that even the best
Christians commit sin, of by the further fact that some Christians

PERSEVERANCE : TRUE GROUND OF HOPE. 497
do fall into damnable sin, and even seem for a time to have lost
wholly the grace that first renewed them. The chapter under
examination admits the existence of such defection, points to the
powerful temptations of Satan and the world, and to the preva-
lency of inward corruption, speaks of the neglect of preservative
grace, dedares that God is often displeased and his Spirit
grieved by the lapse of believers into sin, and details the conse
quences of such lapse in the loss of spiritual graces and comforts,
in the hardening of the heart, the wounding of consdence, the
scandal wrought to the injury of other souls and of the church,
and the judgments temporal as well as spiritual incurred by such
apostacy. Yet the chapter strongly affirms the doctrine of ultimate perse
verance, and bases it where only it can properly be based, on the
threefold divine ground revealed in the Bible. The first form of
this divine assurance is, as the older Calvinism earnestly main
tained, in the immutability of the decree of election, flowing from
the free and unchangeable love of God the Father, — it being
regarded as a blessed certainty that, when God has once chosen a
soul and made it an heir of Hfe eternal, he will not give lip his
holy purpose, or abandon the gradous work which he has once
begun in its behalf. The second form of assurance is found in
the efficacy of the merit and intercession of fesus Christ, and in the
character of that covenant of grace into which he has once entered
with the beHever, — it being judged a certain thing that, the plan
of salvation having thus been applied in any case, and Christ and
his mediation once accepted and enjoyed, he will not permit thebe-
lievingsoultogo away from him whoHy and forever. The third
ground— which indeed the earlier Calvinism did not suffidently
appreciate— \s< the abiding of the Spirit and the seed of God within
the soul, the daily ministrations of the Holy Ghost in thejnterest
of continued holiness,— it being held that, having regenerated
that soul, and begun within it the work of santification, he will
not give up the sacred task which he has once undertaken, but will
carry it on, in defiance of temptations without and of infirmity and
corruption within, until that work is completed in glory. It is
from this threefold divine ground, not from anything in the be
liever, or anything that can be done by the beHever in and of
himself, that, in the phrase of the Confession, ariseth the certainty
of the perseverance and final salvation of all true saints.
It is to be admitted that the Scriptures contain not only exam
ples of saints who have fallen grievously from the faith, but
also counsels and warnings which imply that all saints are liable

498 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
to such defection. It is also to be admitted that in practical life
such defection is sometimes apparent, — professing believers falling
into sin and living in it, and in some instances apparently dying
in a state of entire apostacy. The primitive Arminians urged
such objections to the doctrine with very great force, and the
argument has been expanded and urged with even greater vigor
in more modern times : see Watson, Institutes. Yet while John
Wesley, in the Methodist Articles (XII) affirms that after we
have received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from grace given
and fall into sin, he also quotes the language of the Thirty-Nine
Articles, that by the grace of God we may arise again and amend
our lives. And while he would maintain as an abstract proposi
tion the possibility of an utter and final lapse, or at least say with
Arminius that it has not been proved from Scripture that grace
once given can never be lost, still American Methodism, at least
in our time, would be willing to leave the matter where John
Wesley left it — resting as trustfully as the most ardent Calvinism
in the probability, if not the certainty, that no truly con
verted soul will ever finally pass into a state of condemnation.
The Canon of Dort declares, in language which the intense con
flict of that age alone could warrant, that Satan abhors this
doctrine, that the world ridicules it, and that the ignorant and
hypocrites abuse and heretics oppose it. But we may cordially
appropriate its further statement that the spouse of Christ hath
always most tenderly loved and constantly defended this doctrine
as an inestimable treasure ; and that God against whom neither
counsel nor strength can prevail, will dispose her to continue
this conduct to the end. The EngHsh Artides (Presbyterian)
in the same faith, affirm that if any believers, departing from
God through unwatehfulness and neglect of prayer, lapse into
spiritual languor or fall into grievous sins, yet by the mercy of
God who abideth faithful, they are not cast off, but are chas-
tenedifor their backsliding, and through repentance restored to
his favor so that they perish not.
It is an interesting illustration of the earnest desire of the
Westminster Assembly to make their doctrinal teachings in the
highest measure practical and com-
11. Assurance of Salvation: fortingtothe churchthat) afterhav-
nature and ground : its relation . ° , . , „, . .' T .„ .
to faith . m£ set forth the Christian Life in
all these varied aspects, describing
its origin' in divine grace, its essential quality in faith, its char
acteristic repentance, its efflorescence in good works, and its

ASSURANCE OF FINAL SALVATION. 499
permanence and blessed perpetuity, they should add one chapter
more (XVIII) to the series, under the title, Of Assurance of
Grace and Salvation. Just as in this interest they seemed to
interject the small but stimulating chapter on adoption between
the two grand chapters on justification and sanctification, so here
apparently for the comfort of believers they speak not merely of
perseverance, but of the full, happy, perfect certitude to which
the persevering saint may by grace attain. What is to follow
in their scheme relates to the proper attitude and duty of the
Christian within the sphere of law, his obligations to the civil
power, to the church, and to his fellow men in various partic
ulars. In this chapter we are led to linger a little longer in med
itation on his inward state, as one of assurance of salvation.
Nothing is more remarkable among the Reformers as a class
than their superb assurance not only of the truthfulness of the
doctrines they advocated, but also of their personal salvation in
and through the truth and the strong grace of Christ. History
furnishes no worthier examples in any department of life, or in
any age since the apostolic, of undaunted confidence, of the
unswerving sense of security, of limitless hopefulness, than may
be found among the men who framed the creeds, formulated the
theologies, guided the reHgious life and activity of their day, and
preached as if inspired. The evidence may be read alike in their
sermons, their councils and their acts : it is manifest everywhere
in their career, as if it were a gale of inspiration fresh from
heaven. Yet no definite doctrine on the subject of assurance as
distinct from faith worked its way into their formularies, — doubt
less for the* reason that the spiritual reality must first have been
strongly experienced before it could be expressed in confessional
form. Of faith, strong and joyous and invincible, we read much
in the earlier creeds : the first Helv. Conf. , for example, defining
such faith as the certain and indubitable apprehension as to all those
things that are to be hoped for from the grace of God. But of
the assurance which is defined in the Westminster Symbols as
not of the essence of faith, but rather as a higher and richer experi
ence, a fruit and consummation of faith, which but few relatively
do attain, we find only occasional traces. The elements of the
doctrine are indeed apparent in such devotional creeds as the
Catechism of Heidelberg, and in such trumpet-like declarations
as the Scotch Confession, full of the strong passion of battle and
the sense of victory. But it required a more reflective and dis
criminating age, one further removed from the direct strifes
of the sixteenth century, to produce the doctrine itself in the full

500 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
form in which it appears in the Westminster creed. The debates
on the subject in the Assembly (Minutes, 259, seq), show with
what careful discrimination and what spiritual interest they form
ulated this striking chapter.
It is here dogmatically affirmed that the children of God may be
infallibly assured, not only that they are actually in a state of grace
now, but that they shall persevere therein unto salvation, L- C. 80.
The important caution is added that such assurance, while in one
aspect it is a development of saving faith, is not of the essence
of faith in any such sense that none but those who consciously
possess it may be regarded as true believers. This was the more
important as neither Luther nor Calvin had recognized any broad
distinction between faith and assurance. It is also admitted that
such confidence may be in divers ways shaken, diminished and inter
mitted : and negligence and falling into special sins, and wounding
the conscience by yielding to sudden temptation and manifold
distempers, are named among these ways of impairing such assur
ance. It is even said that God may withdraw the light of his
countenance, and suffer those who truly fear and love him to walk
for a time in spiritual darkness, as if deserted by him. Yet even
in such dread emergency, they are said to be supported by the
operation of the Spirit from utter despair. And since love of
Christ and of the brethren, sincerity of heart and conscience of
duty, never do entirely die out of the Christian breast, such assur
ance may in due time be revived — it is said — so that the beHever,
once more walking in the light, may rest with absolute security in
his hope of ultimate salvation. Nor is this hope, — it is added, —
a bare conjectural and probable persuasion, but a gracious cer
tainty induced in the believing spirit by the Spirit of God, — a
certainty founded partly on the divine promises, partly on the
testimony of the Spirit to the soul, and partly on the inward evi
dence which the possession of spiritual graces and virtues sup
plies. This witness of the Spirit, direct and indirect — to use the
distinction of Wesley— is however to be carefully defined, so
as to distinguish it from dangerous superstition. Nor is the
believer to expect extraordinary revelation in confirmation of his
holy certitude — a statement evidently designed to meet the daim
of Aquinas that nothing short of such revelation could justify our
assurance of personal salvation. The believer must rather find
that certitude in what he has by grace already become, and in the
gracious pledges which God has made in his Word to every saint.
Another practical caution is added here, in the suggestion that
there may be an unwarranted and delusive assurance, a counterfeit

ASSURANCE ATTAINABLE. 501
of the true, such as appears in the false hopes and carnal presump
tions of hypocrites and other unregenerate men — whose hope, it is
said, shall utterly perish.
Early Arminianism denounced the doctrine of assurance as a
pillow for the flesh, hurtful to good manners, godliness, prayer
and other holy courses. But when duly guarded against miscon
struction and abuse, the doctrine as here presented may be joy
fully accepted as a final corollary from the antecedent teachings of
the Symbols respecting saving faith and its fruitage in repentance,
in good works, and in perseverance in the struggle after holiness.
It is a happy song of confidence and expectation which not merely
here and there a Paul or a Luther or a Knox may sing, but as
well a holy strain that may be, ought to be, on the lip and in the
heart of every true disdple. The Larger Catechism justly teaches
(80) that all such as truly believe in Christ and are endeavoring to
walk in all good conscience before him, may properly cherish this
serene, unswerving confidence that their present state of grace
will eventuate in a reahzed and completed salvation amid the
felicities of heaven. An equally impressive statement of the
truth appears in the subsequent declaration (83) that the mem
bers of the invisible Church — all true saints — have communicated
to them in this life the first fruits of glory with Christ, as they are
members of him as their head, and so are interested in that glory
which he is possessed of : and as an earnest thereof, enjoy the
sense of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost,
and the hope of glory. In the same glowing strain, the Sum of
Saving Knowledge, in setting forth the several warrants and
motives for believing in Christ, quaintly says : Whosoever be
lieveth the doctrine delivered by the Son of God, and findeth
himself powerfully drawn to believe in him by the sight of life in
him . . . may be sure of right and interest to life eternal through
him. As we close at this point the study of the Christian Life as pre
sented in this series of chapters in the Confession, with the con
firmatory teaching in the Catechisms, we
should note the fact that, so far as any 12- Perfection in the
t . ^ A , . , 4. Christian Life : Final Re-
rormal statement goes, one important .
question remains unanswered, — the ques
tion whether this Christian life does actually reach what may be
called perfection, or entire completion, in the present world. The
Roman dogma of perfection as consisting simply in conformity
in faith and conduct to the teachings and impositions of the

502 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
church, had indeed been formally, indignantly, repudiated by
the Reformers, as little better than a travesty on what the Bible
requires in order to true spiritual completeness. The mystical
speculations and practical pretensions of the primitive Anabap
tists, and other aberrations of the same class, had also been
rejected as without biblical warrant, and as involving — as the sub
sequent history of such aberrations clearly shows — very wide and
even fatal departure from the biblical idea of entire holiness
in heart and life. Neither the perfectionism of George Fox
in England, nor that of Spener and the Moravian Brethren in
Germany, had as yet made its appearance. The doctrine of
Wesley (Sermons on Christian Perfection) that a certain type of
perfection, not angelic or Adamic or in any sense absolute in
itself, but consisting in evangelical obedience and abstinence from
sinning, in perfect love toward God in Christ, and in entire con
secration to his service, may be and ought to be attained by every
believer, — this doctrine, especially in the various forms which
it has assumed in more recent times, had scarcely an existence
as a dogma prior to the eighteenth century. Hence we find no
distinctly formulated propositions on this subject in the eariier
creeds. In the Westminster formularies, however, we may gather up
various indications that the doctrine of a sanctification completed
in the present life, even in the guarded form of it afterward pre
sented by Wesley, was not regarded by the Assembly as sound.
Thus it is directly said in the Confession (XIII : ii) that while
sanctification is throughout in the whole man, it is yet imperfect
in this life, — some remnants of corruption abiding still in every
part of his nature, with the inevitable consequence in continual
and irreconcilable struggle between the spirit and the flesh. It is
also said (XVI : v) that though our good works are good because
they proceed from the Spirit moving within us, ¦ yet so far as
they are ours, they are always defiled and mixed with many weak
nesses and imperfections. And while growth in grace is enjoined
as a duty upon every regenerate soul, and resistance to all sin
even in its most subtle and secret forms is required of every one
as a sign of discipleship, yet we are warned (L. C. 77) that this
process of sanctification is not in this life perfect in any saint, but
groweth continually up to or toward perfection. And in the
Shorter Catechism (37) it is said that the souls of believers are
at their death — not before — made perfect in holiness, and do imme
diately pass into glory. Other incidental illustrations might
be quoted to show that the Westminster divines regarded the

PERFECTION NOT ATTAINED ON EARTH. 503
construction of the Christian character as a process too great, too
grand to be finished in such a life as this. Its foundations indeed,
as they conceived, are laid here in saving faith and love, and
strenuous struggle with remaining sin, and in such union with
Christ as the Spirit institutes on earth, but the completion of it
is a work which heaven alone can realize in full perfection. Dick
son (Truth's Victory) illustrates the general belief of the age in
his quaint distinction between a perfection of parts and a perfec
tion of degrees : the former apparent when we have a part of any
grace, and are renewed in some measure in any power or faculty
of the whole man, though we be not come to the just and due
measure in any of them : the latter consisting in the complete
measure of our conformity, and our exact correspondence to the
law of God in respect of all whatsoever it requires. Perfection
of degrees he pronounces unattainable in this life : it is one of the
graces of heaven.
In dosing our survey of the Christian Life, as portrayed in the
Symbols, we may well pause, first, to mark the illustration afforded
in this impressive statement, of the profound spiritual experience
and attainments of the men who drafted it. This group of chap
ters shows us not merely what the divines of Westminster
believed, but what they had personally felt — what they had real
ized in their own souls as Christian men. They had themselves
attained the saving faith ; they had been humbled before God in
the true repentance ; they had themselves wrought the good
works which are the signs and fruits of true faith ; they had
cherished the holy temper of perseverance, and had known in
personal consciousness some large measure of the spiritual assur
ance, which they here describe so well. In a word, they had
experienced personally what they set forth in these chapters; and
their reHgion, their godly living and activities, were simply the
efflorescence of their clear, strong, spiritual creed as here defined.
Nor may we doubt that it was not so much their aspiration after
theologic completeness, as their ardent desire to help those who
might accept their formularies into higher religious experience
and a nobler type of life, that led them to sketch with so much
care this striking portraiture of the Christianized man, — a
delineation which might almost be regarded as their greatest
Confessional work.
In this connection we may wisely note also, the essential har
mony of their teaching with all the most thoughtful, most thor
ough and spiritual beliefs cherished in this department of doctrine
by antecedent Protestantism. One of the grandest facts in the

504 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
history of the Reformation is the fact that, while the Reformers
could not always agree in their statements of the Christian
Truth, they were so cordially agreed in their view respecting what
constitutes the Christian man, and in their harmonious endeavors
to rise in actual living up to that lofty standard. Accepting
Christ as their ideal, and love as their supreme motive, and the
kingdom of God as their law, they became in a remarkable
degree one in soul and one in life, notwithstanding all doctrinal
variations. And in the formularies of Westminster we find an
elaborate and beautiful reproduction of all that the antecedent
Protestantism had either taught or experienced at this vital point.
In their portraiture of the Christian life, the living, glowing,
actual piety of the Reformation found its completest expression.
It should be observed further, that the developments, theolog
ical and practical, of the past two centuries have added nothing
of importance to this remarkable portraiture. There have indeed
been great changes in the views and in the experience and practice
of Christians since that historic era. The Christianized man of
the nineteenth century is another, and in some features a larger
and grander product, than the Christian man of the sixteenth or
seventeenth century. But the subsequent experience of evan
gelical Christendom, complex and involved and sometimes revolu
tionary as it has been, has not altered or done away with any
essential element in the spiritual concept here brought before us.
The Christian life is still as of old essentially a supernatural life,
originating in the gracious election of God and the effectual call
of his blessed Spirit. Faith, saving faith, is as indispensable a
factor in that life as ever. No adequate substitute has been found
for evangelical repentance, as the correlative to acceptable faith.
The good works enjoined by Scripture are still required of every
one who aspires to lead the Christian life. Perseverance in believ
ing and trusting, and in godly walk and conversation, are as
indispensable now as they were in the days of Luther and Calvin,
or in the subsequent era of the Westminster divines. Whatever
modifications have since come into religious experience, whatever
changes have occurred in the outward forms of doctrine or the
practical living of Christians, or in the attitude of sects or schools
within the Protestant domain, these essential elements in spiritual
Christianity still stand unchanged, unmodified, unimpaired,— as
. indeed they have stood ever since the days when our Lord taught
and the New Testament was written.
It may be added finally, that whatever of modification the
future shall reveal in the forms which piety may assume, or in

FINAL REVIEW. 505
the duty or conduct of Christians in the world, no essential change,
no radical variation, no real compromise as to these cardinal ele
ments can ever occur. There will never come an age when the
process of salvation will be essentially different from that which
has been affirmed and experienced during these three Protestant
centuries. Regeneration and conversion, pardon and acceptance
with God through the mediation of the Messiah alone, sanctifica
tion through the Spirit, Christ reproduced within us as well as
Christ acting and suffering vicariously in our behalf, will and must
forever remain as the central verities of supernatural Christianity.
And through all the future the true man in Christ Jesus will and
must be a man effectually called and savingly wrought upon by
the Holy Ghost, — a man whose inspiration is faith and whose law
of living is love, — a man who is devoted to holiness and godliness
as the chief end of his existence, and who through grace is enabled
to persevere in such a type of life as these spiritual verities require,
through all time and forever. Analytic theologians may still differ
as to many details in Christian belief and experience, and denom
inations may still divide and conflict around questions of creed
and ordinance and worship. But around these fundamental
elements there never can be any essential diversity among those
who foUow Christ, and who in their hearts believe that the
Christian Hfe as taught and exemplified by him, and as imitated
by his disciples through the ages, is the true and the only true and
worthy life for man. To surrender these cardinal elements would
be to abandon Christianity as a supernatural religion, and ulti
mately to plunge into the abysses of a gross naturalism which
knows no God but Nature, accepts no rule of living higher than
Self, and anticipates no worthy consummation for our race either
here or hereafter.

LECTURE TENTH— THE LAW OP GOD.
Moral Law : Moral Government : The Ten Command
ments : Christ and Law : Morality : Law and Grace.
C F. Ch. XIX: L. C 91-152: S. C. 39-84.
It has been strenuously urged against the Westminster Assem
bly that in formulating its Symbols it gave excessive prominence
to the doctrine of the sovereignty in God, his supreme will and his
dominating and eternal decree, — under the influence of this theo
logic tendency ignoring or minifying other important doctrines,
such as the fatherhood in God, and his immeasurable tenderness
and mercy toward man. A large part of this objection loses its
significance, as soon as the grand correlated doctrine of Law, as
presented in these formularies, is rightly apprehended. The will
of God is seen at once to be not an arbitrary force, mysterious as
it is resistless, but a power animated and controlled in every
manifestation by holy law. The absolute decree is not some dark
and awful purpose, having no recognizable basis, but a determin
ation which is shaped in every part and movement by perfect
law. The sovereignty in God is not an arbitrary rule in which
infinite reason manifests no sway, but is rather a sovereignty
exercised in and through sacred law — a law worthy of him who
not only enacts it as a rule for his creatures, but himself illustrates
and obeys it throughout his holy administration. Law thus, in
the fine phrase of Hooker, hath her seat in the bosom of God,
and her voice is but the expression of his august purpose and
his majestic will. Nor can there be anything in his sublime
scheme of grace and redemption which is at variance with this holy
supremacy of law: the mercy that pities and the grace that saves,
are as truly regulated by law as are the stars in their harmonious
movement through the skies. What Hooker styles the harmony
of the world, or of the material universe which is everywhere and
evermore under law, is even more deep, more melodious, more
winning in the moral universe, and most of all within the special
sphere of salvation.
Hence we discover the significance of such a chapter (XIX) as
that which we are about to examine with its simple title, Of the
Law of God. Having set forth the Plan and the Process of

PLACE OF LAW IN THE SYMBOLS. 507
Salvation, and described the fruits of that gracious scheme as seen
in the Christian Life, the Symbols proceed at once to an exposition
of that divine Law, according to whose
teaching the Christian life must ever be c !* "acf «* law'n the
, &, ,_., , . , . , Symbols : its prominence.
regulated. The logical connection and
necessity are at once apparent. For, though the Christianized man
is now animated and guided by the interior ministries of the Spirit,
and is thus living in some sense within a higher sphere than that
of law, in another sense he is more fully and truly than ever under
obligation to obey every jot, every tittle, of the divine command
ments. Christ came not to abolish, but to fulfill the law, — not to
release his disdples from the duty of obedience, but to spiritualize
and exalt the law, and make it more completely and also more
gradously the supreme rule of their life. Though called, justified
and sanctified inwardly, and though by faith and repentance and
perseverance they were to be assured of their acceptance with
God, they were still to live out their faith, to prove its reality and
power, by lives sweetly submitted to law, just as Christ himself
came under the law, and glorified it by his obedience.
The place of law in the Westminster system is best appre
hended by a study of the proportion and relation of the two ele
ments, beHef and duty, in the Catechisms. The question which
at the outset confronts us in both is the fundamental question re
specting the contents of Holy Scripture, and the answer in
both is in the same terms : The Scriptures principally teach what
man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of
man. And the duty which God requires of man, both agree in
saying (91 and 39) , is obedience to his revealed will — in other words,
to his holy law. The proportion of the two elements is sugges:
tive. While belief in the doctrines of grace, and the effects of
such belief on character and life, are placed in the foreground,
only thirty-five of the one hundred and seven answers in the
Shorter Catechism relate to such belief, while sixty-nine, or about
sixty per cent, of the whole, are concerned with duty, — chiefly as
set forth (in forty-four answers) in the exposition of the Ten
Commandments, and (in eighteen answers) in a commentary on
the Lord's Prayer. This proportion shows that it was the pri
mary aim of the compilers to produce in their Catechism a prac
tical rather than a theological document ; one in which duty
should be the main element, yet duty conditioned upon and em
phasized by the antecedent exposition of saving belief.
The Larger Catechism contains a somewhat greater doctrinal
element, — a feature explained by the fact that, while the Shorter

508 THE LAW OF GOD.
was designed chiefly for the common people, this was drafted
for the benefit rather of those called to office in the Church, — in
the language of the Adopting Act of the Assembly of Scotland,
a directory for catechising such as have made some proficiency
in the knowledge of the grounds of religion. Yet while ninety
of its one hundred and ninety-six answers, or nearly forty-six per
cent, relate to belief and its fruits, one hundred and six, fifty-four
per cent, of the whole, relate to the duties which God requires
of man. And of this second group of answers, fifty-eight, or
more than one-fourth of the whole number in the Catechism,
and more than one-third in space, are occupied with the exposi
tion of the Law of God, as found in the Ten Commandments,
while twenty-eight others are devoted to the exposition of the
Lord's Prayer. We shall have occasion to see in the further study
of the Larger Catechism, that nowhere in confessional literature
can there be found so minute, discriminating, comprehensive a
commentary on the divine law, as the appointed rule of conduct
for every man, and specially for all believers. Its enumeration
of obligations imposed and of sins forbidden, including not only
all overt action, but also all inward thought and feeling, is weU-
nigh overwhelming. So specific and detailed, so penetrating and
inclusive, so solemn and subduing are its statements, that we
spontaneously pronounce it a most remarkable code of ethics,
even more readily than we revere it as an admirable statement of
evangelical truth.
It might be expected that the element of doctrine would be
made more prominent in the Confession, since two such practical
symbols were planned for and prepared in conjunction with that
formulary. It was not needful to say as much relatively about
duty, while the nature and purpose of the document required that
more should be incorporated in it about saving belief. Yet of the
thirty-three chapters in the Confession, at least thirteen are
directly concerned with duty in various aspects, and five more
present doctrine primarily or chiefly in forms which involve the
element of personal obligation. For faith and repentance and
good works, and perseverance in them, are all obligations as well
as privileges,— duties of the highest, most comprehensive and
solemn character, as truly as they are gracious gifts flowing into
the soul through the mediation of Christ. But when in the study
of the Confession we reach this large and commanding chapter
on the Law of God, we pass immediately into a sphere where
duty is the sole, supreme feature. And in the twelve chapters
that follow, constituting in space more than one-third of the

BELIEF AND DUTY : THEIR RELATIVE PROMINENCE. 509
entire Symbol, we read of nothing but law and obligation toward
God and man, toward self and society, toward the state and the
church. The study of these chapters, in their connection with the
introductory exposition of the divine law, will convince the student
that the Confession itself is much more than a mere compilation
of credenda,— that it is also, and even primarily, an admirable
code of morals, wisely fitted in many aspects to guide and regu
late the Christian life.
It is a singular fact that this feature of the Symbols should
have been relatively so much retired from view ; and that the ele
ment of beHef , even of intellectual as distinguished from saving
belief, should have come so generally to be regarded as their dom
inating element. What we know of the men of Westminster
justifies rather the judgment that, great theologians as some of
them were, and tenadous disputants respecting abstractions in
doctrine, as they appear to have sometimes been, they were men
who believed in law, and held themselves strenuously to the
supreme obligation of loyalty to known duty at whatever cost.
While they emphasized and exalted grace, they also exalted and
emphasized the Ten Commandments. They lived, as we know,
in an age when the chief problems to be solved were problems of
duty — when ecclesiastical and civil battles were to be fought in
defense of right or in stern opposition to wrong. What Macaulay
has said of them, and their obedience to conscience and their un
flinching fideHty not merely to abstract truth but still more to
what they beHeved to be duty, is both true and just. As we shall
have occasion hereafter to see, Cromwell and his Ironsides were
not braver, firmer, more loyal to obligation than they, even when
such loyalty cost them place and support and life itself.
Yet it has happened in later times that the Symbols which the}'
labored so long and earnestly to frame, have come to be viewed
largely as a series of merely abstract propositions, over which tech
nical theologians may wrangle, and at which thoughtless minds
may point the finger of scorn or of ridicule. It may indeed be
that formularies so extensive and complex, dealing with so many
profound problems in philosophy as well as religion, do furnish
opportunity for such misapprehension of their main design, or
even for inappreciative criticism or contumely. Perhaps the imme
diate successors of the divines of Westminster found a certain
degree of rehef , amid the troublous times that followed in Britain
during the latter half of that century, in theorizing and disputing
about doctrine rather than battling in behalf of duty. In the
century that foUowed, such misconception of the Symbols became,

510 - THE LAW OF GOD.
as appears in the sad history of British Moderatism, far too gen
eral. So in our own century they have been viewed too often
as a complicated series of dogmatic statements, theological rather
than practical, whose acceptance is hardly essential to our being
Christians, or even contributory to our well-being as Christians.
In this view multitudes who never comprehended or even read
them, point at them in derision or treat them with indifference, as
being merely the creation of divines given overmuch to abstract
speculation, or as the dead and dried shell of old dogmas which
have little or no relation to current life. How far such opinions are
from a correct and appreciative estimate of the Symbols, regarded
especially as a compendium of duty, wiU become apparent in our
further studies.
A cursory survey of the place which the Law of God held in
Protestant symbolism generally, may be of service at this point.
It is a familiar fact that the Cathol-
2. Doctrine of Law in . . , ., . , r ., „ r
Protestant symbolism. lclsm of the Penod of the Reformation
charged Protestantism generally with
indifference to the Ten Commandments, and even with affirming
that obedience to these divine requisitions was inimical to salva
tion. The Council of Trent in its Decree on Justification for
mally condemned, as if it were a Protestant doctrine, the opinion
that the observance of these commandments is unnecessary or is
impossible to one who is justified through grace ; and by contrast
taught that God by commanding them, both admonishes us to do
what we are able, and to pray for help where we are not able,
and gives us grace that we may be able to do whatever he com
mands. In three Canons (XVIII-XX) appended to this Decree,
the Council pronounced the anathema of the church on all who
should say that such obedience is impossible, or that the ten com
mandments do not appertain to Christians, or that nothing but
faith is required by the Gospel, as if the Gospel were a bare and
absolute promise of eternal life without reference to the condi
tion of obeying the law of God. And Romanism from that day
to the age of Bellarmine and our own, has charged Protestants
with holding the errors which are here condemned, as if these
were necessary corollaries from its fundamental doctrine of justi
fication through Jesus Christ and his grace alone.
It is not to be denied that some of the Protestant leaders, even
Luther himself, became at times amenable to such a charge, — at
least to the extent of retiring relatively from their teaching this
element of moral law. Some special exposure to this liability grew
out of their earnest protestations against the Roman perversion

LAW IN PROTESTANT SYMBOLISM. 511
of the doctrine of law, and its false view of good works, with
all the practical corruptions which that view involved. So stren
uous were they in their resistance to the ceremonialism which as
a cerement had wrapped itself around the Roman church, and
so opposed to that ecclesiastidsm which perverted even the Ten
Commandments into so many props to sustain the priestly power
and to oppress true spiritual life, that they sometimes, — it must
be confessed — overlooked that obligation of loyal and loving obe
dience to law, which is as much a part of true religion as justifying
faith itself. It may also be that in declaring the deliverance of
Christians from the requisitions of the ceremonial law, they failed
sometimes to distinguish sufficiently between the ceremonial and
the moral law, and to recognize the fact that the moral law is by its
own nature incapable of abrogation, and must stand in unimpaired
force under the Gospel as before. Yet this was only an occa
sional mistake. The Reformers generally, both Lutheran and Cal
vinistic, held firmly in the main to the sacredness of the divine
law, and unswervingly affirmed the obligation of all believers to
obey it in both letter and spirit. One exception will hereafter
be considered at length, — the fourth commandment, which both
Luther and Calvin were inchned to regard as an ordinance for the
Hebrews during the legal dispensation — a ceremonial regulation
simply, rather than an obligation laid upon the universal Church
through aU lands and ages. In their revolt against the repro
duction of Judaism, with its priestly orders and Old Testament
ritual, within the church of Rome, and in their ardent advocacy
of Christian Hberty, they doubtless at this point, and perhaps at
some others, feU short of that entire, unconditional loyalty to the
divine law in every part of it, which is unquestionably enjoined
in Scripture, and which has been very generally acknowledged
by evangelical minds in later times.
But of their general faithfulness to the doctrine of law as well
as the correlated doctrine of grace, we happily have abundant
proof in the series of Protestant creeds. The Small Catechism
of Luther commences with an exposition of each of the command
ments, declaring that God threatens to punish all who transgress
these commandments, and promises every blessing to all who
gladly keep them. In respect even to the fourth commandment,
this Catechism says by way of exposition that it requires us not
to despise preaching and the Word of God, but to deem that
Word holy, and willingly to hear and learn it. The Augsburg
Confession (Art. VI) declares that men ought to do the good
works commanded of God, because it is his will, though not in

512 THE LAW OF GOD.
the expectation that they shall merit justification before him on
account of such obedience. The Formula of Concord (IV) repels
in terms the papal charge that Protestants held that good works
were not needful and might even be detrimental to salvation; and
in two subsequent Articles (V-VI) discusses fully the true doc
trine, setting forth the nature of the law as a statement of what
is just and acceptable to God, and of whatever is sinful and Oppo
site to his holy will, and pointing out the real uses of the law in
its relation to the scheme of grace revealed in the Gospel. There
are, it is said, three djstinct uses of the law; — to maintain moral
discipline so that wild and intractable men might be restrained by
appointed barriers, — to bring such men also to an acknowledgment
of their sin and guilt before God, — and thirdly, that regenerate
men might have some certain rule whereby they may and ought
to shape their lives. Under the latter head it is added that true
believers, though they regard themselves as freed through Christ
from the constraint and curse of the law, are still to meditate on
it day and night, and continually to exerdse themselves in the
keeping thereof. On this ground, it was enjoined upon all min
isters to preach the law, not merely to the impenitent but also and
equally to those who had been regenerated and by faith justified, —
the law, it is said, being one and the same to aH, naindy, the
Unchangeable will of God; and the fruits of obedience thereto
being substantially those fruits of the Spirit which the Gospel
requires from all who profess to believe in Christ.
This is in substance the doctrine of the subsequent creeds.
The Second Helvetic Confession (Cap. XII), the French Con
fession (XXIII) and the Belgic (XXIV-XXV) contain similar
teachings: and in the Heidelberg Catechism, as in the Small
Catechism of Luther, we find a detailed exposition of the duties
enjoined in the Ten Commandments, and an acknowledtoent of
the obligation of all to live, not according to some but according
to all these divine statutes. The Scotch Confession, with its
customary earnestness, dedares (XIV) that God has given to man
his holy Law, in which not only are forbidden all such works as
displease and offend his holy majesty, but also are commended
all such as please him, and as he has promised to reward : and
(XV) that this Law is most just, most equal, most holy and most
perfect, commanding those things which, if they were wrought
in perfection, are able to give life, and to bring man to eternal
felicity. The Thirty-Nine Articles ( VII ) affirm that, though the
ceremonial law has been abolished under the Gospel, ho Christian
man whatsoever is free from the obedience of the Commandments

LAW DEFINED : VARIETY IN FORM. 513
which are moral: and the Anglican Catechism, like that of Hei
delberg, introduces the Ten Commandments as the basis of its
instruction of children in respect to personal duty. To the Irish
Artides, with their strong meat as to the covenant of works and
the obligation binding man to entire and perfect obedience, and as
to the relation of law and grace in justification under the Gospel,
it is not needful to refer in detail. Current Protestant opinion is
indicated in the Articles of the English Synod which state the doc
trine of Christian obedience in the following terms : We believe
and acknowledge that the Lord Jesus Christ has laid his people
by his grace under new obligation to keep the perfect law of God,
and has by precept and example enlarged our knowledge of that
law, and illustrated the spirit of filial love in which the divine will
is to be obeyed.
What is thus apparent in the creeds of Protestantism is no less
visible in the theologies of the sixteenth and especially of the sev
enteenth century. Calvin, while he emphasizes the differences
between the law and the gospel, as found in the Old and the New
Testaments respectively, yet introduces into the Institutes a long
and elaborate exposition of the Ten Commandments, and quotes
the remark of Augustine that obedience to God in these is some
times the parent and guardian and sometimes the origin and source
of all virtue. Luther, as his Larger Catechism shows us, was no
less earnest than Calvin in maintaining the just and holy suprem
acy of the moral law. Later divines, Lutheran and Reformed,
were essentiaUy agreed at this point. And what was true as to.
the theologies of Protestantism, was no less true in the personal
convictions and practical living of Protestants generally. While
they received the gospel as the only foundation of their hope of
salvation, they also bowed in cordial submission to the law as the
practical test or index of the sincerity and value of such hope.
And it is matter of history that no small measure of the influence
attained by Protestantism over the practical life of northern
Europe was due to such unswerving fidelity to the moral law.
Without adverting further to that important distinction be
tween providential and moral law, between providential and moral
government, which since the era of
Butler and Edwards, has been so prom- M 3' , L™ °\ ^l™™*'
' . . % . Moral Law in Nature, in
inent an element especially in Calvin- scripture,
istic theology, we may here consider
specifically the meaning of the terse title given to this chapter,
the Law of God. Moral law may be defined genetically as the

514 THE LAW OF GOD.
expression of the will of God as our Creator and Sovereign and
Father, through specific statutes and with appropriate authority
over mankind as his creatures and subjects and children, This
law, in the strong phrase of Calvin, is the true and eternal rule of
righteousness, prescribed to men of all ages and nations who
wish to conform their lives to the will of God. He quotes Cicero
as borrowing from Plato the striking statement that human laws
are the souls of states, and himself describes them as the strong
nerves of civil polity. But this divine law, in the wide sweep of
its dominion and in the majesty of its sway, rises as far above all
human laws as the heavens are higher than the earth. It is
indeed the strong nerve of the divine government — the soul
and life of that righteous and holy polity which God is adminis
tering over mankind. This moral law exists in a variety of forms,
and with less or more of comprehensiveness and cogency. It is
sometimes described in the Symbols as a law of nature — a moral
rule, so visibly stamped on the very constitution of material
things that the eye of man may readily read its requisitions, and-
in some degree appreciate its mandatory claim. In this sense it
is represented (Ch. I : i) as the light of nature, flashing out in
the works of creation and providence in such ways as to make man
ifest to men their duty, and to render inexcusable their neglect.
Bishop Butler teaches (Analogy, Parti : Ch. Ill), that there is
a kind of moral government (including law) implied in the natural
government of God : — that the notion of such a government (and
law) is not fictitious but natural, and is suggested to our thought
by the constitution and course of nature.
Moral law is sometimes set forth as a law written on the heart
of man himself, at the very instant of creation, and by an inward
spiritual compulsion inciting him to free and loving obedience.
It is sometimes (VII : i-ii) represented as a covenant or compact in
which God lays specific enactments upon man, and requires perfect
and personal obedience, with implied promises and threatenings
appended. In the chapter now under consideration it is described
not merely as a covenant imposed upon Adam, but as a uni
versal rule of righteousness, adjusted to the moral nature and
condition of mankind even as fallen; and this rule of righteousness
is said to have been in substance delivered by God upon Mount
Sinai in ten commandments. Thenceforward in the Old Testa
ment it is gradually broadened and spiritualized, and is described
by various terms, such as word, testimony, statute, ordinance,
judgment. In the New Testament, under the hand of Christ/it
receives its complete and final form, as a rule of love as well as

LAW IN THE SCRIPTURES. 515
righteousness — a rule induding all men alike, and requiring obe
dience not in overt action only, but in disposition, heart, purpose,
inmost thought and impulse. Yet we are not contemplating
many laws, but only one and the same law, varying indeed accord
ing to the capabilities and moral conditions of those to whom it
is applied, but remaining as God sees it always the one perpetual
rule of life for man. Dickson (Truth's Victory over Error)
affirms the identity of all divine law and its universal claim,
in the statement that all the precepts of the moral law belong to
the law of nature, naturally engraven upon the hearts of men,
which cannot be abrogated, but obliges all men perpetually and
unceasingly from natural reason itself.
We are not concerned in the present discussion with the law
written on the heart of man at his creation, and which undoubt
edly included in its broad sweep every moral act possible to him,
nor with that specific commandment referred to in the doctrine
of the covenant of works, and which was transgressed in the
temptation and the faU. Neither in fact are we concerned with
the law of nature generically — that primal book of the law, which
is written on the stars, stamped on the constitution of the earth,
and exhibited to man in all the myriad forms of order and rule
apparent in physical nature. Nor have we occasion here to con
sider spedaUy the ceremonial law mentioned in the chapter, with
its typical ordinances, — partly of worship, prefiguring Christ, his
graces, actions, sufferings and benefits ; and partly holding forth
divers instructions of moral duties, all which ceremonial laws are
now abrogated under the New Testament. The Confession also
recognizes what is termed judicial law, — enactments imposed
upon the Hebrew nation as a body politic, but expiring together
with the state of that people, and therefore not obligatory upon
other states or nations, any further than the general equity thereof
may require. Our present concern is with that universal moral
law of which the chapter declares that it doth ever bind all, as
well justified persons as others, to the obedience thereof : and of which
it is also said, that as a rule of life it claims such obedience not
only in regard of the matter contained in it, but also in respect
of the authority of God the Creator who gave it — an obligation
which, it is added, Christ in the Gospel doth not any way dissolve
but much strengthen. In the Larger Catechism (93) there is a
remarkable definition of this moral law which is both more
specific and more comprehensive than that in the Confession :
The declaration of the will of God to mankind, directing and
binding every one to personal, perfect and perpetual conformity

516 THE LAW OF GOD.
and obedience thereunto, in the frame and disposition of the whole
man, soul and body, and in performance of all those duties of
holiness and righteousness which he oweth to God and man, —
promising life upon the fulfilling and threatening death upon the
breach of it : Minutes, 400-1. No such definition as this — one
so clear and concise, so broad and impressive, — can be found any
where else in Christian symbolism.
Before proceeding to the examination of this Law of God in
detail, specially as contained in the Ten Commandments, we shall
do well to consider the suggestive
4. Uses of the Moral Law: , . , ., 0 , . .. , .
rules of interpretation. teadhmS oi the Symbols, particularly
the Larger Catechism, respecting the
uses of this law, and the rules which must be observed for the
right understanding of it. The Formula of Concord, as we have
already seen, enumerated three uses which the law subserves in
its application not to a holy, but to a sinful race, — to restrain men
from sin, to convince and convict of sin committed, and to guide
the regenerate in duty and a holy life. The French Confession
declares (Art. XXIII) that we must seek aid from the law and
the prophets for the ruling of our lives, as well as for our
confirmation in the promises of the Gospel : and the Belgic Con
fession (XXV) inculcates the same obligation in kindred terms.
The Second Helvetic Confession, while declaring that Christians
are not sub lege but sub gratia, yet teaches that in the law we
have the revealed formulas of both vice and virtue, and therefore
it is not to be fastidiously rejected, — that asset forth in the gospel
it also brings us to Christ, and is to be regarded as obligatory
through his endorsement, — and consequently that all are to be
condemned who set aside the law as no longer of service to Chris
tians. The chapter we are considering, taken in conjunction
with the teaching of the Larger Catechism (94-97) presents the
subject in greater detail than any previous creed. The analysis
is evidently based on the Institutes of Calvin (B. II : Ch. 8), in
which the various offices of the law, especially as it is applied to the
unregenerate, are very forcibly presented. It is said, first, that
the law, though no man can attain to righteousness and life by it,
is Still of great use to all men alike : and this general or universal
use is said to be to inform them of the nature and will of God, and of
their obligation toward him ; to convince them also of the pollution
of their nature, hearts and lives, as revealed by the law, and of
their disability to obey as they ought ; consequently to make
them humble, and incline them to see their need of Christ as their
deliverer from sin and misery. To the unregenerate as a class,

USES OF THE LAW. 517
the law is said, secondly, to be of direct use in awakening their
consdences, and inciting them to flee from the wrath to come, or
as an alternative to leave them inexcusable, while under the con
demnation which the law pronounces. To the regenerate as a
dass, the law is said, thirdly, to be of special use to restrain them
from the corruptions to which they still are exposed, and by its
promises to encourage them in duty and thankfulness by reveal
ing what blessings they may expect upon the performance thereof.
And these various uses, specially to the regenerate, are further
Said not to be contrary to the grace of the gospel, but to sweetly
comply with it, — there being no antagonism between the law and
the gospel at this point, but both when rightly used working
harmoniously together in the interest of salvation. ' The subject
qf the uses of the law seems to have engrossed largely the interest
of the Assembly in respect both to the unregenerate and to be
lievers; the debate referring, however, more to shades of thought
and of expression than to the essential doctrine : Minutes, pp.
272-4; 400-2.
The concluding section of the chapter contains a truth which
has been too often overlooked, in the statement that the Holy
Spirit enables the will of man to do that freely and cheerfully which the
will of God, revealed in the law, requireth to be done. No doctrine
of law can be either sound or valuable which does not include
this correlated and consummating truth. To the sinner who is
consdous of the poUution and the disability here implied, and at
the same time is convicted in conscience in view of his spiritual
condition, it is a matter of unspeakable moment to discover such
a divine agency as is here described, — one that is able to cleanse
the poUution and help the disability, and to empower him to do
and to do freely and cheerfully what God requires. So to the
Christian who is in Hke manner oppressed with the sense of
infirmity and of failure, and who realizes how inadequate his best
obedience is, the presence of such an agency brings life and
strength and assurance, so that he now runs cheerfully and freely
and joyously in the way of the divine commandments. It was
proposed in the Assembly, in the interest of the high doctrine
respecting the sovereignty of the Spirit, that the words, and is
subordinate to it, should be added, but objection being made, the
proposition was happily withdrawn, leaving the statement as it
now appears. Such a doctrine of the Holy Spirit as an energizing
and guiding power within the soul, is indispensable to any right
conception of the uses of the law in conjunction with the scheme
of grace. It is hardly needful to add that the bestowment of the

518 THE LAW OP GOD.
Spirit upon the sinner in order that he may be enabled to surren
der himself heartily to the claim of law, and upon the believer
that he may render such obedience as the law demands, is not
something separate and apart from the penitential embracing of
Christ as a Savior, or from loyal devotion to him and his cause.
The Spirit in all this complex process works in the interest, not
of a righteousness and a salvation to be secured through perfect
obedience to the law, but rather in the interest of the Gospel as
a scheme of free and unmerited grace.
In respect to the rules to be observed in the understanding and
application of the law, several precepts are laid down in the Larger
Catechism (99), which are worthy of most careful study. They
were doubtless drawn in large degree from the regulative instruc
tions suggested by commentators on preceding creeds: see espec
ially Ursinus on the Heidelberg Catechism. An interesting debate
on these rules is reported in the Minutes of the Assembly: 396-8.
¦As given in the Catechism, they should be considered in conjunc
tion with those more comprehensive rules which are laid down in
the opening chapter of the Confession for our guidance in the
interpretation and use of the Scriptures generally. In condensed
form these precepts are as follows: First, the law is to be regarded
as perfect in itself, and as demanding full conformity and entire
or perfect obedience from all men, — no sin to be allowed in the
least measure, and every duty done in the utmost degree possible.
Second : the law is not to be regarded as relating only to words
and works and outward acts, but as reaching the understanding,
the affections and the will, and demanding supreme control over
all the powers and activities of the soul. Third : the several
commandments are not mutually exdusive, but are rather so inter
woven that one and the same duty is often presented in a variety
of forms or relations. Fourth: a prohibition always implies the
antithetic command, and a positive command implies the antithetic
prohibition, and threatenings and promises in the law also stand
over against each other in a similar way. Fifth : while what is
forbidden once is forbidden always, and what is enjoined once is
enjoined always, every particular duty is not to be done at all
times or in all circumstances. Sixth: the prohibition of one spe
cific sin or the enjoining of one specific duty must be interpreted
as inclusive of all sins or all duties of the same class, together
with all the causes or occasions associated with them. Two other
practical rules are appended to these; that we ought to induce
others to do or to avoid whatever we are ourselves commanded
or forbidden to do, so far as others occupy the same place and

TEN COMMANDMENTS : GENERAL VIEW. 519
condition with' ourselves; and that we are also bound to help others
in doing what is commanded to them, and in like manner to refrain
from partaking with them in doing whatever they are forbidden
to do in any commandment.
That these precepts are just and valuable in the interpretation
of the moral law, in whatever form of it, is quite manifest: it is
also obvious that they are sufficient for our guidance in such inter
pretation. Thoroughly applied, they bring us face to face with
that law as an inclusive and searching rule of life, profoundly
spiritual in its reach, intensely practical in all that it either enjoins
or prohibits; infinitdy just alike in command and prohibition, and
divinely gradous in intention, inasmuch as absolute obedience to
it would be both the supreme glory and highest blessedness of
man. The sweep of this law thus interpreted is as wide as
humanity, and so spedfic as to comprehend within its sway the
most secret act, the inmost thought and impulse of every human
being. Its position is as settled and unchangeable as the stars are
in thdr courses, and its supremacy is none other than the suprem
acy of God.
Holding in mind this generic conception of the moral law, we
may now proceed to consider the specific form of it given in the
Ten Commandments. It has already been
said that man by nature was under moral s- lbt Ten Command-
„ . c . , r . ¦ ments : general view : the
government from the very instant of his t Tables
creation, having the law of God written in
his heart, and power to fulfill it. This was true of him, even
before the special prohibition which resulted in his temptation and
his fall from the primal state of obedience. In like manner law
existed and claimed its legitimate jurisdiction over man during
the long centuries between the creation and the flood, and during
the entire patriarchal period extending to the exodus from Egypt.
The crime of Cain, the corruption of all flesh upon the earth,
the impiety of Babel, were each and all transgressions of this one
divine law. The life of the patriarchs was a life of obligation
throughout, in forms adjusted to their several grades of moral
development. Traces of specific law, such as the institution of
the Sabbath and of sacrifices, appear at various points in the
Hebraic history prior to the formal enactment at Sinai. What we
have therefore in the Decern Verba is not a new law, but rather a
new promulgation in more comprehensive and commanding form/
of legal requisitions which were written in the heart of humanity
from the beginning, but which now needed more fresh and vivid

520 THE LAW OF GOD.
statement,. Warburton (Divine Legation of Moses) has estab
lished this view by unquestionable argumentation. We have in
the Decalogue, as he has shown, a consummation of aH the
obligations, whether toward God or toward man, which in aU
preceding eras had been laid on the conscience of the race. At
the same time that marvelous code was an embodiment under
direct divine dictation of those fundamental principles of right
eousness, those broad legal obligations, which the race is bound
to observe in all lands and ages to the end of the world. The
Decalogue, in other words, is an incorporation of what from the
day of creation and from the exodus was, and has continued ever
since and will continue while the world stands, to be for our
humanity the one perfect and supreme Law of God. This was,
in the language of the Catechism (92) the rule of obedience revealed
to Adam in the estate of innocence, and to all mankind in him,
however far they may have forsworn allegiance to its daims.
We find in the Symbols only a general account of the enact
ment of this ecumenical code, as having been delivered by the voice
of God upon Mount Sinai, and written by him on the two tables of
stone. But it will be noted that this brief statement .openly daims
for the Decalogue a supernatural, a divine origin, and therefore
demands for it universal recognition on the authority not of Moses
but of God himself. In contrast with this affirmation we are con
fronted by the hypothesis of a purely Mosaic authorship, on the
basis of antecedent Egyptian and other legislation. But one who
studies this code in itself, who properly estimates its legal exact
ness and comprehensiveness and its lofty ethical quality, and who
perceives how vitally it has affected legislation in all succeeding
times and among many nations, and how it is still the germ of
the best systems of law established in the most civilized lands,
must set this hypothesis aside as wholly inadequate. However
learned Moses may have been in aU the wisdom of the Egyptians,
there is as yet no clear evidence from either the biblical accounts
or the archeological discoveries of recent date, that the code he
brought to the fleeing children of Israel in the deserts of Arabia
was his own construction simply, fashioned on the basis of what
he had learned in Egypt. Nor can one who properly appreciates
the character and career of this remarkable man, at once the legis
lator and leader, the patriarch and prophet and father of his
people, rest in the conclusion that the transaction at Sinai was
throughout a shrewd and wicked fraud. As the hypothesis that
Christ was a man only is abundantly refuted by what he was and
what he did, as described by the Evangelists, so the hypothesis

DIVINE ORIGIN OF THE DECALOGUE. 521
that the Decalogue was merely a fabrication by Moses, deceitfully
imposed upon the Hebrews as a divine code, fails utterly to main
tain itself in the presence either of the sacred record or of the
subsequent history of the man or the nation.
Nor is it strange that at such a juncture in the career not of
the Israelites only, but of the race as involved with them in the
• development of the plan of salvation a great miracle should have
been wrought, and the voice of God heard, with accompanying
Hghtnings and thunders and trumpet sounds, and the two tables
of stone inscribed and delivered by the divine hand, to the awe-
stricken descendants of Abraham just emerging from their estate
of tribal slavery into national independence. That God could
have wrought such a gigantic miracle, if he saw fit, is of course
unquestionable : that the exigency which had come upon the
Israehtes, and on mankind as a fallen race in need of such a new
enactment and enforcement of moral law, justified such miracle,
seems very dear to those who apprehend in any adequate degree
the divine plan of grace for the Jews, and through them for
humanity. Every step in the unfolding of this gracious plan has
been conditioned upon miracle as the only effectual attestation ;
and in this instance not only a confirmatory miracle, but just
such a miracle as this, so awful in its magnitude and grandeur,
so potent in its impressiveness, was even to human view indis
pensable. Augustine has well said (Civ. Dei. X : 13) that it was
fit that the law which was given not to one man or a few enlight
ened men, but to the whole of a populous nation, should be
accompanied by awe-inspiring signs — great marvels wrought by
the ministry of angels. Yet he adds the suggestive remark, as if
to guard against anthropomorphism, that as the sound which com
municates the thought conceived in the silence of the mind is not
the thought itself, so the form by which God, invisible in his own
nature, became visible in this instance was not God himself. Nor
has it ever been shown, though the objection has often been made,
that the record in the book of the Exodus, as authentically written
by Moses himself, is historically untrue : the writers of subse
quent Scripture rather assume and demonstrate its historic relia
bility, notwithstanding all that recent criticism and unbelief have
urged against it. Though it could be proved that some portions
of the five books which bear the name of Moses, were written by
other hands and at later dates, no evidence has thus far appeared
to. discredit our faith that the story of the Exodus, with all its
remarkable and its supernatural incidents, was written by the
hand of the man who himself led the Israelites forth from the

522 THE LAW OF GOD.
house of bondage, and consolidated them into one strong
nationality. Continuing our general inspection of the Decalogue, we may
at this point briefly note certain introductory facts which should
be carefully borne in mind in the proposed study. First : though
given to the Hebrews as a body, and for the purpose of uniting
them more closely in their political and social life, the command
ments are each and all personal in form, — addressed directly to
the individual conscience, and evidently intended to develop in
each and all the sense of individual responsibility. Second :
while these commandments are in form negative, pointing out to
each person addressed what he must not do, they are also positive
in their scope, enjoining in each instance those personal duties
which stand over against the sins prohibited. Third : while the
negative and positive prescripts of the law relate primarily to out
ward action, they also include by implication the inward purpose
and spirit, and demand from every subject not merely an external
morality, but also an inherent righteousness — an appropriate state
and disposition of the soul in view of these requirements. Fourth :
the motives brought to bear in order to prevent indulgence in sin,
and to encourage fidelity to duty, are chiefly drawn in the first
instance from the present rather than the future life ; promise
and warning relating alike to the present world primarily. Two
reasons may be given for this fact ; — that the degree of develop
ment in the persons first addressed rendered them mainly suscep
tible to this type of appeal ; and further, that to the Hebrews as
a corporate nation none but motives drawn from the present life
could apply.
Fifth : the end in view and the proper tendency of the whole
law was, as Calvin has well said, a perfection of righteousness —
the forming of the entire Hfe of the individual, and of the nation
also, after the example of the divine purity. In other words, its
primary purpose was not to convict and condemn, but to educate,
to direct, to sanctify. Sixth : while the law was thus adjusted
to the moral condition of the individual Hebrew, and to the needs
of the Hebrews as a nation, its precepts are adapted to the neces
sity of mankind universally, and rts right to control is as wide
as humanity under all dispensations alike, and through all time.
The theory that the Jehovah who issued these commands, was
merely the God of the Hebrews as distinct from other nationaH-
ties, — that in this transaction he was acting provinciaUy rather
than as the God of all mankind, is sufficiently confuted by the
obvious applicability and authoritativeness of the Decalogue as a

INTRODUCTORY FACTS : THE TWO TABLES. 523
code of laws designed for the whole world. The race can never out
grow this code, or revolt successfully against its holy supervision.
As Dean Stanley has said, in terms which are true of all Christian
nations as of the EngHsh people : Its precepts are embedded in
the heart of the Christian religion : Side by side with the Prayer
of our Lord they appear, inscribed on our sanctuaries, read from
our altars, and taught to our children as the foundation of all
morality. As Luther well dedared in the preface to his Larger
Catechism, whosoever has thoroughly examined and studied the
Ten Commandments, understands the whole Scripture, and is able
on trying occasions and emergencies, to excel in wisdom, counsel
and consolation.
Two other points should be briefly mentioned, — the differences
between the records in Exodus and Deuteronomy, and the division
into the two tables. These differences are in large degree verbal
only, and are easily expHcable, especially if the record in Exodus
be regarded as primary, and that in Deuteronomy as a somewhat
later rescript. It would involve no questioning of the proper
authoritativeness of the records, or even of the Mosaic authorship,
if with Ewald and others we should regard such verbal changes
as additions made in the form of comment by other hands. The
chief of these differences appears in the reason given for the ob
servance of the law of the Sabbath, — that reason in Exodus being
the fact of the divine cessation from the creative work on that
day, and in Deuteronomy being the providential deliverance of
the chosen people from Egyptian bondage. But these two reasons
are not contradictory or mutually exclusive : the first is generic
while the second is specific, and both may be as they doubtless
were designed to be, conjoined in the incentive they offer for
obedience to the command. In fact, the special reason given in
Deuteronomy is only a repetition in substance of the sentence
with which the Decalogue is introduced alike in both records, and
which to the Hebrew was a strong incentive to obedience to each
and all of the commandments. Under the Gospel, as we know,
a third reason for such observance is found in the mediation of
the risen Lord ; not only creation and providence, but also salva
tion through him, being all united in enforcing the injunction to
remember the' Sabbath day and keep it holy.
The Symbols follow the current Reformed distribution of the
Law into the two tables : the first four commandments containing
our duty to God, and the other six our duty to man. : Luther in his
Smaller Catechism, following the general usage of the Western
Church before the Reformation, which is still the usage of the

524 THE LAW OF GOD.
Roman communion, blends the second and third commands into
one, and sub-divides the tenth, making, the first table to consist of
three only, and the second of seven commandments. The Cate
chism of Heidelberg adopts the distribution approved by Calvin
and the Westminster divines, and by the Reformed churches gen
erally ; and this is doubtless the preferable arrangement. There
are some good reasons, however, for associating the fifth com
mandment closely with those in the first table, since parents, are
the authors of our being, and are endowed de facto with an
intrinsic right to govern us,, and in this way are in some true sense
the representatives of God and his authority and claims ; and
since also the honoring of parents is a lower yet correlated form
of that piety, which has its highest form in the honoring of God
supremely as the Father as well as Sovereign over all. At least,
the fifth commandment may properly be regarded as a transi
tional precept, in and through which we pass easily from the duties
we owe directly to God, to those which we sustain in various
ways toward our fellow men. The tenth and last command may
in a similar way be viewed as transitional also, since the mind is
carried over in it from the contemplation of oyert acts to the
consideration of those moral feeHngs and motives which should
underlie aU our obedience. It is in fact the direct point of con
nection between the Decalogue and the Sermon, on the Mount,
wherein our Lord carries our thought altogether beyond the
sphere of outward action, into that inward sphere of moral pur
pose and sentiment wherein character truly Hes. What he came
to fulfill in the spirit, had already been begun in the letter : Thorn
shalt not covet I
Our Lord groups the duties enjoined in the first table of the
law under the comprehensive concept of love to God, as consti
tuting the first and great command-
6. The First Table: Duties -,„,«. „ 0„„„ A ¦ v r v.
toward God: The sins for- ment>~a sacred requisition far above
bidden: the obligations im- even that second commandment which
posed. *s nke unto it in spirit, love to our
fellow men. Just as in the prayer
which he himself has taught the world to offer, the name and
will and kingdom of God are placed before all desires which
center in ourselves or others, so here God and his claims are
made primal and supreme : duty toward him, in contrast with
the ordinary inclination and habit of men, or the prescripts of sec
ular philosophy, is the first and chief concern. Nor is this order
of obligation to be interpreted as indicating any narrow or selfish

FIRST TABLE : DUTIES TO GOD. 525
desire for supremacy on the part of the divine lawgiver ; it is
in harmony rather with the eternal fitness of things, that God
should be here as everywhere first, and his claim to love and
loydty supreme. That daim is directly emphasized in the pre
liminary sentence, introducing the first commandment, — a sen
tence in which God first declares himself as eminently Lord and
King over the Hebrews in virtue of his own nature and election,
and then points to his deliverance of the chosen people from their
house of bondage as constituting a further ground of obligation
on thdr part to honor and obey him. Yet this claim is not lim
ited in its range to the Israelites, since God is as truly the con
stituted Lord by nature over all men, and by his providential
and preserving care over all has laid them universally under the
same primal obligation. Calvin in commenting on this sentence
has weU said that every man ought to welcome the Lawgiver, to
observe whose commands he is particularly called ; from whose be
nignity he expects an abundance of temporal blessings and a life of
immortaHty and glory ; by whose wonderful power and mercy he
knows himself to be delivered from the jaws of death. The
Larger Catechism (101) has well explained the sentence in its
broadest range, in the declaration that therein God manifesteth his
sovereignty as being Jehovah, the eternal and immutable and
almighty God, having his being in and of himself, and giving
being to aU bis words and works ; that he is also a God in cove
nant, as with Israel of old so with all his people everywhere ;
who, as he brought them out of their bondage in Egypt, so he
delivered us from our spiritual thralldom ; and therefore we
are bound to take him. for our God alone and to keep all his com
mandments. In the first commandment, flowing directly out of this intro
ductory declaration, we find a solemn and authoritative prohibi
tion of what in various forms is the primal sin of our corrupted
race against God, — the sin of atheism, which positively or nega
tively denies his existence, — the sin of agnosticism, which holds
that the fact of his existence and his relationship to man is
incapable of proof, and therefore can neither be affirmed nor
rejected, — the sin of polytheism, which permits belief in many
gods besides Jehovah, all entitled to worship and service,— the sin
of preferring and adoring some other deity before him, the true
and only God. In the Shorter Catechism (47) these sins in their
boundless variety are summed up in the statement that the com
mandment forbiddeth the denying or not- worshiping and glorifying
the true God as God and our God, and the giving of that worship

526 THE LAW OF GOD.
and glory to any other which is due to him alone. In the Larger
Catechism (105) these sins are elaborately specialized into nearly
a hundred particulars, wherein men may offend against the divine
law at this point. A suggestive record of the manner in which
these multiplied specifications for the first four commandments
were furnished, appears in the Minutes of the Assembly, 403-12,
seq. It is also there said (406) that after debate it was resolved
to begin with the affirmative duties enjoined in all the command
ments, though the commandments themselves in all instances but
two begin with the naming of the sins forbidden. Positively, we
are required, according to the Shorter Catechism (46), to know
and acknowledge God to be the only true God and our God, and
to worship and glorify him accordingly ; and this terse statement
is expanded in the Larger into nearly as many specifications,
covering in fact the whole sum and body of our duty toward him.
Such devout recognition of the existence and unique supremacy
of God in himself, and of his relations to man as his creature, is in
a word the grand primary obligation of all mankind — an obliga
tion which no one can any more throw aside than he can shake
off his essential immortality. And by way of emphasis it is added
that the phrase, before me, teaches that this God who seeth aU
things, taketh special notice of, and is much displeased with, the
sin of having any other God : and that this fact should be a pow
erful argument both to dissuade us from this sin in whatever
form or degree, and to incite us to do all that we do as in his sight
and for his glory. In these words, therefore, we have the foun
dation of all true religion, and the corner-stone of all acceptable
belief and service : thus to know God is religion, and thus to
serve and honor him is life, spiritual and everlasting.
As the first commandment demands the cordial recognition of
God in his existence and supremacy and his relationship to man,
so the second requires the like recognition of him as a Spirit, to
be alone worshiped in spirit and in truth, as our Lord explicitly
taught. As Spirit, pure and absolute, invisible, and without body,
parts or passions, God cannot be represented by any image what
soever, whether found on earth or in the air or sea. While we may
in figures of speech represent him in imagery drawn from the
various spheres of human experience or observation, we are ever
to bear in mind the merely rhetorical quality of all such repre
sentations. The conception of God belongs, like that of space
or force or law, to what Hamilton happily describes as the un-
picturable notions of the human intelligence. To worship him
by images, or as in any way incarnated in physical symbols, or

DIVINE WORSHIP : SIN OF IDOLATRY. 527
indeed in any manner not appointed in Scripture, is in a word
that second great sin of the race — the sin of idolatry. The Larger
Catechism affirms (109) that the making any such representation
of God, or of any of the three Persons in the Godhead, either
inwardly in our minds, or outwardly in any likeness of any
creature, with a view to the worship of Deity in or by such image,
is a direct violation of this searching commandment. Among the
scandals exduding from the sacrament the Assembly expressly
named the buying, selling, giving or keeping any images or
pictures of the Trinity or any Person thereof, for the sake of
devotion or out of esteem of the same : Minutes, 183-4. The
Catechism also forbids the making of any representation of the
fdgned deities of heathenism, and all worship of them or service
in their honor. In like manner, all superstitious devices which
corrupt the true worship, by adding to it or taking from it,
whether invented by ourselves or received by tradition from
others under any title of antiquity or custom or devotion, are
dassed with the idolatries of paganism, — a clause intended doubt
less to carry in it a condemnation of the accumulated ceremonials
and mummeries of Rome. It was more than once proposed in
the Assembly to add tolerating a false religion among the sins
condemned by the second commandment ; but the same end was
sufficiently gained by adding a clause of like import to the duties
enjoined in that command. One illustration of the temper of the
Assembly at this point appears in the petition addressed to Parlia
ment at the outset of their deliberations, that all monuments of
idolatry and superstition, but more especially the whole body and
practice of papacy, may be totally abolished by law. Sacrilege and
simony, neglect or contempt of the appointed ordinances of
religion, and all opposition to such forms of worship as God has
prescribed for the promotion of his glory and the culture of true
piety, are also included in that class of sins against the divine
spirituaHty of which the gross idolatries of the heathen world
furnish the most offensive illustration.
Over against the sins thus enumerated and forbidden, are placed
by implication the corresponding duties which all men are bound
to regard, — summed up (108) in the receiving, observing and
keeping pure and entire, all such religious worship and ordinances
as God hath instituted in his Word. Among these are specified
prayer and thanksgiving in the name of Christ, the reading and
hearing and preaching of the truths of Scripture, the adminis
tration of the sacraments, the maintenance of church government
and discipline, and also fasting and the making of religious vows

528 THE LAW OF GOD.
and oaths in the name of God. And it is a suggestive illustration
of the temper of the times that there is added as an important
part of this obligation the disapproving and detesting and oppos
ing of all false worship, in which the ceremonies and ritualof the
papal communion were doubtless included. The primitive Prot
estantism, especially in the Reformed communions, was strongly
opposed to all pictures, even of Christ, in the sanctuaries, as
savoring of superstition, if not of idolatry : see Second Helv.
Conf. Ch. IV. The adoration of such scenic representations, or
of symbols such as the cross, is clearly a violation of the prescribed
rule of spiritual devotion.
The fact that reasons for obedience are appended to three Of the
Ten Commandments, two in the form of solemn warning and one
in the winning aspect of promise, is one of marked significance.
And it has been justly suggested that, though these reasons are
connected directly with only three, they apply as truly in the form
both of promise and of warning to the other seven commands, —
becoming no less really so many incentives to obedience to the
Decalogue in every part. The special reason appended to the sec
ond commandment is worthy of careful notice. Idolatry in all
theSe multiplied forms must be prohibited, and the true worship of
God as a Spirit maintained in its full spirituality and force, because
this Jehovah is, as he here declares, a jealous God, — Jealous in
the sustaining of his rightful authority and claim, — jealous also
in respect to the worship and service properly due to him and to
him alone, — and jealous in the sense of indignation against not
only all idolatry and reverence for the false deities of heathenism,
but also against any and all deviations or failures in the observ
ance of that adoration which is properly his right, though this
should appear even within his own church, or in his own elect.
The question whether it is just to visit judicially the iniquity of
the fathers, in these aspects of it, upon the children even unto the
third and fourth generation, is a part of the more comprehensive
question whether it is wise and just and good in God to bind our
race together in such constitutional and representative unity as
makes each man and each generation an actual and essential factor
in the lives and destinies of the men and the generations that follow
them. That this organic union is a blessing more than a curse
is illustrated in this instance in the corresponding declaration,
that the mercies poured out so benignantly on those who abhor
idolatry and cultivate true spiritual worship, are by the same law
of organic unity carried down to their posterity, not for three or
four, but for a thousand, or an uncounted number of generations.

TAKING HIS NAME IN VAIN. 529
And in view of this correlated fact, are we not forbidden to chal
lenge the sovereign arrangement here illustrated, and encouraged
rather to rejoice in the assurance that grace as well as sin flows
down from parent to child, and from one generation of believers to
another, even through long ages of holy and blessed experience ?
Postponing the further consideration of the matter of divine
worship until it arises again in conjunction with the doctrine of
the Church and its sacraments and ordinances, we may turn to
the third commandment which stands in such living relations
to the two preceding commands as inculcating together with them
the comprehensive and primary obligation, not of the Hebrews
only, but of aU men through all time toward God as the Creator
and Lord and Father of all. The term, name, appears often in
Scripture, and in a variety of assodations and of meanings, as
descriptive not merdy of the titles properly applied to God, but
also of aU those attributes and activities which these titles suggest.
In this commandment it is doubtless used to signify, in the terse
phrase of the Shorter Catechism (55) , anything whereby God maketh
himself known. In the Larger (112), the definition is specialized
to indude titles, attributes, ordinances, the word (or revelation),
sacraments, prayer, oaths, vows, lots, divine works, and whatever
else there is by which God makes himself known to men. And
the duty enjoined is the holy and reverent use of all these in
thought, meditation, word and writing, by an holy profession, and
answerable conversation, to the glory of God and the good of our-
sdves and others. Nor can it be said by any faithful student of
the Bible either that the significant word, name, is here too broadly
denned, or that the corresponding duty is too comprehensively or
strongly enforced. He who justly apprehends the high and
solemn doctrine of the two preceding commands as to the exist
ence and spirituaHty, the relationship and supremacy of God as
Lord over all, will not fail to discover the manifold significance
of every name he bears, or to appreciate the obligation of the
entire race of man to revere such names, and to bow down in
constant and holy reverence before him who condescends through
them to make himself known to the world.
The sin of profanity, of which open blasphemy is the most
awful iUustration, stands out, in close conjunction with the sins of
atheistic unbelief and idolatry, as one of the primal, flagrant and
almost universal crimes of mankind. The prohibition here sol
emnly pronounced does not relate merely to the failure to use the
name of God in the reverent way just described, but to the abuse
of that name (L- C. 113) in an ignorant, vain, irreverent, profane,

530 THE LAW OF GOD.
superstitious, wicked mentioning or otherwise using the divine titles,
attributes, ordinances or works, by blaspheming or perjury; also
all sinful cursing, oaths, vows and lots ; violating of our oaths and
vows if lawful, and fulfilling of them if of things unlawful ; also
all murmuring and quarreling at and curious prying into and mis
applying of the divine decrees and providences; also, the misinter
preting, "misapplying, or any way perverting the Word, or any
part of it, to profane jests, curious and unprofitable questions,
vain janglings, or the maintaining of false doctrines; also, abusing
the Word or the creatures or anything contained under the name
of God, to charms or sinful lusts or practices ; also the malign
ing, scorning, reviling or any wise opposing of the divine truth,
grace and ways ; also, the making profession of religion in hypoc
risy or for sinister ends ; or being ashamed of it or a shame to it,
by uncomfortable, unwise, unfruitful and offensive walking, or
backsliding from it. This remarkable definition is quoted here
in fuU, not merely for its singular comprehensiveness and co
gency, but as a striking illustration of the wide thoughtfulness,
the intense spirituality, and the broad and deep religious experi
ence of the men who framed it. Nor can it be said that the defi
nition is too broad or too deep or penetrating : no one among the '
offences named can properly be thrown out from the category in
our interpretation of the inclusive phrase, taking the name of God
in vain.
Like the second command, a solemn reason is appended to this
comprehensive injunction : The Lord will not hold him guiltless,
who in any form commits this heinous offence against him and
his prerogatives. Many minor forms of this offence may, as the
Catechism (114) intimates, escape the censures and punishment
of men, but he who is the Lord over all will not acquit or spare
those who sin thus grievously against him, and will by no means
suffer them to escape his righteous judgment. God is not only
jealous of -his name and prerogatives, as he may justly be, but
with justice he may and does pronounce his condemnation and
bring condign punishment on those who thus offend. Nor are
we at liberty to limit this punitive visitation altogether, though
at the first it was limited primarily, to the inflictions of the present
life. Although the blasphemer and the profane man should
escape divine judgment here, they must face it hereafter. For
certainly the sin of blasphemy or profanity is no less culpable in
the sight of God than that of idolatry or of atheistic unbelief. It
is indicative of a state of soul as far estranged from him as that
of the skeptic or the idolater, — a state of soul wherein he is not

FIRST TABLE : THE SABBATH. 531
enthroned as he has the intrinsic right to be, and wherein the
true and pure throb of religious love and devotion is never felt.
Even in those minor forms which society easily condones, and
which originate often in thoughtless ignorance or in moments of
exdtement, the taking of the names, titles, attributes, ordinances,
words or works of God in vain , remains an offence against reason
and consdence, and a crime which the Being thus despised and
contemned will not, can not justly, suffer to pass without con
demnation here or hereafter.*
The right of the fourth commandment to an enduring place and
authoritativeness among the other enactments of the Sinaitic code
has often been questioned. Some of
the early Fathers pronounced it a cere- ?- The flrst Table : fourtn
¦ , a u a a a and fifth commandments: the
monial and shadowy command, de- „ . . ..
' Sabbath.
signed for the Hebrews only, and
therefore becoming void under the Gospel, with the other ele
ments of the ceremonial law. Zwingli doubtless referred to it, as
well as to the other holy days observed by Rome, in the sweep
ing dedaration, (25) that time and place are in the power of man
—not man in their power : and that those who bind the pious to
place and time, defraud them and rob them of their Christian
freedom. The position of Luther as to the obligatoriness of
the commandment is weU known. The Augsburg Confession
*lt is a noteworthy fact that this solemn injunction is endorsed by civil
legislation in Christian countries generally. In such countries blasphemy
and profanity are regarded as offences indictable at common law. Blas
phemy is defined in civil procedure as a public denial of the being or attri
butes or relations of God, or contumelious reproaches of Christ, or of the
Holy Ghost, or scoffing at the Scriptures as the Word of God. And as such
it is condemned by law, on the ground that it is a gross violation of decency
and good order, injurious to the essential interests of civil society, and detri
mental to the administration of justice. Profane swearing, loudly uttered
and with repetition, is condemned in like manner because of its tendency to
disturb the peace, corrupt the morals of the community, and undermine the
foundation of Christianity. Hence profanity and blasphemy are punishable
offences in the civil courts,— the aim of such punishment being, not to pre
vent free and sincere discussion even of the fundamental question whether
God exists, or to restrict full liberty of thought or conscience in the matter
of religions belief or expression, but to preserve the public peace and order
by an outward respect for the prevalent religion of the country. It certainly
is not necessary to liberty of thought or conscience that one should be per
mitted without restraint to vilify religion, or to profane the name of God, or
to do or say aught that shall tend to impair in other minds due veneration
for him as the creator and governor and judge of the world : Anderson,
Law Diet.

532 THE LAW OF GOD.
directly affirmed (Part Sec : VII) that the Scripture (the New
Test.) has abrogated the Sabbath, and that the observance of
either the seventh or the first day of the week, is not a necessity,
under the Christian law of liberty. Calvin enjoins observance of
the day, not so much on the ground of its authoritativeness as a
part of the Decalogue, but rather because it is — to use his own
phrase — a remedy necessary to the preservation of the church, and
a help in personal meditation and devotion. It should be added
that Calvin also lays special stress on the Sabbath as an emblem of
the spiritual and eternal rest promised to the people of God, — an
argument in its favor not infrequently urged by the divines of
the seventeenth century. Luther, while questioning the authority
of the commandment, is no less earnest than Calvin— as his Larger
Catechism shows1 — in insisting that the day should be honored,
not merely by cessation from labor, but by attending divine
service, hearing the Word faithfully, and being employed in all
holy words and actions. The chief Helvetic Confession (XXIV)
represents what was probably the highest teaching of the Re
formed churches of that date, in the statement that the Sabbath
should be devoted to the worship of God and to holy rest ; — add
ing, however, the practical remark that the day should be
observed in Christian freedom, not with Jewish superstition, and
that we ought not to believe that one day is in itself really holier
than others. Among the Post- Acta of the Synod of Dort appears
a deliverance, declaring that in the fouf th commandment there is
both a ceremonial and a moral element, and that while the cere
monial element is abolished, the moral element is still obligatory
on all Christians, and the day therefore ought to be consecrated
to divine worship, with cessation from all servile labors excepting
those which spring from charity and present necessity, and also
from all recreations which hinder the worship of God.
A more marked advance beyond the doctrine of the sixteenth
century, whether Reformed or Lutheran, is seen in the chapter on
Religious Worship (XXI) in the Westminster Confession : God
in his Word by a positive, moral and perpetual commandment, bind
ing all men in all ages, hath particularly appointed one day in
seven for a Sabbath to be kept holy unto him .... and this
observance is to be continued unto the end of the world. The same
chapter further teaches that the day is kept holy unto the Lord
when men, after a due preparing of their hearts and ordering
of their common affairs beforehand, do not only observe an holy
rest all the day from their own works, words and thoughts about
their worldly employments and recreations, but also are taken up

THE SABBATH : ITS WARRANT. 533
the whole time in the public and private exercises of his worship,
and in the duties of necessity and mercy. It is hardly necessary
to add to this clear and strong statement the explanatory answers
in the two Catechisms, which harmonize fully with the doctrine
of the Confession, but do not go beyond it in either content
or form.
The holy day thus recognized was instituted primarily at the
creation (L. C. 20), when God rested or ceased from his creative
work, so far at least as the earth and man were included. Traces
of the day as a divine institution appear early in the Scriptures,
in the periods of seven days there frequently mentioned, and
especially in conjunction with the kindred institution of sacrifices.
It is also obvious that the Israelites observed the day before the
Exodus, so that the Sinaitic command, with its suggestive word,
remember, was simply a more formal ordaining of the day as one
of worship, in dose conjunction with the larger development
of worship itself under the Aaronic cultus. This more formal
enactment by no means proves that the Sabbath was made a con
secrated time first through the Decalogue, nor does the celebration
of the day as a commemoration of the deliverance from the Egyp
tian house of bondage, according to Deuteronomy, exclude its
primary use as a commemoration of the sublime creative act. The
numerous references scattered through not only the Mosaic books
but the later historical books also and the psalms and prophecies,
show conclusively that in the Hebrew mind creation and provi
dential preservation as reasons and incentives were habitually
blended in the observance and enjoyment of this consecrated
time. The Confession (XXI : vii) also recognizes the change of sacred
time in the statement that from the beginning of the world to the
resurrection of Christ the seventh or last day of the week was the
appointed Sabbath ; but that from that resurrection, and in com
memoration of that crowning event in the divine scheme of grace,
the first day became the Christian Sabbath, and is to remain
such to the end of the world. A threefold instituting of the day,
to celebrate not merely creation and providence, but also salva
tion through a risen Savior, is here affirmed, — the day conveying
to the Christian not only all that it represented to the Hebrew,
but also the still more glorious fact of the deliverance of the soul
from sin, and the new life and manhood created in Christ Jesus.
The intent and design of the day are thus in the present dispensa
tion immensely broadened, and its uses are more numerous,
exalted and edifying to the soul. The worship and work of the

534 THE LAW OF GOD.
Christian Church, its growth and influence in human life, are
with each new century centering more and more in and around
the Sabbath : and it may well be anticipated that as the Church
develops in character and in capacity for usefulness, the Christian
Sabbath will become more and more precious in its uses and its
blessings even to the end of time. While therefore the change
of day rests on no express direction from our Lord, and seems
rather to have grown up spontaneously in conjunction with his
successive revelations of himself after his resurrection, that change
by no means weakens the obligation of all men to observe the
Sabbath in its threefold significance and beauty, as the sacred
time appointed of God — the blessed Day of days.
The Confession claims (XXI : vii) that it is of the law of
nature as well as a positive institute of Scripture that some
due proportion of time should be set apart for the worship
of Deity ; thus anticipating the broad and strong argument
for the Sabbath on natural grounds which has been urged,
in such effective forms, in more recent periods. The Larger
Catechism teaches (118) that the law of the Sabbath has a
certain basis also in the constitution of the family, — the charge
to keep it being specially directed to governors of households and
other superiors ; they being bound not only to keep the day
themselves, but to see that it is observed by all those who are
under their control. In the original Symbol, as accepted by the
Scotch churches, the civil magistrate also is said (XXIII : iii) to
be empowered to require that all the ordinances of God (the
Sabbath doubtless included) _ be duly settled, administered and
observed .- and in the American Symbol, as modified at the time of
its adoption, 'it is declared to be the duty of every such magis
trate to see that all religious and ecclesiastical assemblies be held
without molestation or disturbance, as well on the Sabbath as at
other times. This is in harmony with the legislation in support
of the Christian Sabbath which from Constantine and Theodosius,
from Charlemagne and Alfred, has been enacted in most civil
ized lands, and which in forms more or less positive now stands
among the imperative statutes not only of the American States,
but also of Britain and the countries of northern and central
Europe. In such legislation works of necessity and mercy, works
to which men are compelled by some unavoidable constraint of cir
cumstances or to which they are moved by motives not of gain
but of kindness and humanity, are allowed. But the carrying on
of ordinary avocations for the pecuniary advantage to be derived
therefrom, what is styled common labor, manual not mental,

THE SABBATH : ITS USES. 535
is directly forbidden : so also are all hunting and sporting, and
all theatrical and other forms of immoral amusement. Such legis
lation is justified by some authorities on the ground that it is
essential as a police regulation simply, in the interest of good order
and the welfare of society ; by other authorities it is justified on
the broader ground that religion, and eminently the Christian
rdigion, may so far forth justly daim the protection of civil law.
In either view sudi legislation is not, in the words of Cooley,
to be regarded as an encroachment on the religious liberty of
the people, even though it be enacted in the interest of the
Christian rdigion.*
The Confession is wisely silent respecting the specific relations
between the dvil and the religious Sabbath, for the reason that the
amount and cogency of such legislation must be determined by
conditions widdy variant in different lands and times. It is also
wisdy silent as to the multitude of specific problems presenting
themsdves at different periods, with respect to the particular priv
ileges and duties of Christians in their use of the holy day, —
following apparently the good rule laid down in the opening
chapter on the Scriptures, that there are some circumstances con
cerning the worship of God and government of the Church, which
are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence, if
only the general rules of the Word are faithfully observed. In
this sense and under these Hmitations, the fourth commandment
is as truly positive, moral and perpetual, binding all men in aU
ages, as any other commandment in the Decalogue ; and while
the Decalogue stands as a divine law for mankind under the Chris
tian as weU as under the Hebraic dispensation, so long will the
Christian Sabbath stand as an obligation resting individually on
*Blackstone (Com. in toe) bears emphatic testimony to the value of the
civil Sabbath in the following words : Besides the notorious indecency and
scandal of permitting any secular business to be publicly transacted on that
day in a country professing Christianity, and the corruption of morals which
usually follows its profanation, the keeping one day in seven holy, as a time
of relaxation and refreshment as well as for public worship, is of admirable
service to the state, considered merely as a civil institution. It humanizes,
by the help of conversation and society, the manners of the lower classes,
which would otherwise degenerate into a sordid ferocity and savage selfish
ness of spirit : it enables the industrious workman to pursue his occupation
in the ensuing week with health and cheerfulness : it imprints on the minds
of the people that sense of their duty to God so necessary to make them good
citizens, but which yet would be worn out and defaced by an unremitted
continuance of labor, without any stated times of recalling them to the wor
ship of their Maker : See Ringgold, Legal Aspects of the First Day of the
Week.

536 THE LAW OF GOD.
all men, but eminently on all who claim to be disciples of Christ.
He indeed taught that the Sabbath was made for man, and is to be
used in the free temper of the Gospel, and himself wrought deeds
of necessity and of mercy on that holy day; yet in no circumstances
did he ever ignore or minify the Sinaitic command to remember
the day and keep it holy. Rather is it due to his teaching and
influence that what was at first a Jewish ordinance, to be
enforced with technical strictness, has now become a glorious
institution, wide as the race in its sweep, and full of vast and
growing benediction to all who loyally accept and observe it.
Regarding the fifth commandment as a transitional ordinance,
setting forth an obligation closely allied to those enforced in the
four commandments preceding, we may embody its teaching
under the comprehensive term, piety, as used by Paul in his first
letter to Timothy — piety toward the parents to whom the life of
the child is due, and by whose provident care and love that life
has throughout infancy and youth been sustained. Their claim
to honor and affection, and to all the responsive ministries of
which the child is capable, is obviously the- highest human ana
logue to that supreme claim which God himself rightly holds.
The term, Father, is the term that he accepts and uses as
expressive of a relationship to man which is antecedent even to
that indicated by the term, Sovereign ; and in like manner the tie
Which binds together the human father and his child is the most
fundamental, the most sacred, the most tender of all the bonds
which exist in human life. In a father, says Calvin (Inst. B. II:
Ch. 8), we ought to recognize something divine ; for it is not
without reason that he bears one of the titles of the Deity. The
Obligations which parents sustain toward their offspring, and the
corresponding duties which children owe to parents, are thus in
their nature not only primary but superior to any which either
class can come under, in any other human relation. As the family
comes before the state, and as the law of the household is the
primal and supreme law while the family exists in its unity, so the
injunction to honor father and mother shines out with a peculiar
lustre, and with a tender solemnity also, such as no other obliga
tion in life can equal. It has its abundant warrant, not only
in the divine declaration, but in the very nature of things,
and its practical necessity as a part of the moral order of the
world. The Larger Catechism (124-126) broadens the command by
including in it not only natural parents, but all superiors in age and
gifts, and especially those who by any divine ordinance are set in

HONORING PARENTS : DUTIES INVOLVED. 537
any place of authority, whether in family, church or common
wealth. It carries the injunction still farther by classifying all
persons as either superiors or inferiors or equals, and by defining
at length the various duties which members of each of these
dasses owe to members of the others — superiors to inferiors as
weU as inferiors to superiors, and equals to equals in whatever
rdation. It also describes in detail the sins or offences which
the members of any one of these classes may commit against the
members of any other. May it not be questioned whether these
very broad generalizations, though interesting and suggestive in
themselves, are really warranted by or were contemplated in the
commandment as originally given : and also whether they do not
tend to draw the mind away from that most sacred duty of hon
oring father and mother supremely, which after all stands out
before us as far above any obligation which men as superiors
or inferiors or equals can sustain toward each other, outside of
the household ? The explanation that the parental claim is here
employed representatively, and that it includes all types of rightful
authority, and is selected because it most easily enforces the gen
eral principle involved, hardly seems consistent with the special
language used. Though it may be true, as Oehler and others have
daimed, that a foundation is laid in this commandment for the
sanctification of all social life, in virtue of the principle of divine
authority recognizable in it, still this is not the primary or chief
aim of the injunction.
If, on the other hand, we confine our range of thought chiefly
if not whoUy within the family, as seems more legitimate, we
shall stiU discern at once a multitude of specific and important
duties on the part of children, which the term, honor and the cor
responding term, piety, so well suggest: affection, -reverence,
obedience, submission to just correction, imitating good ex
ample, fidelity to parental interests, loyalty to parental name and
honor, bearing with infirmity, and dutiful ministrations in the
time of old age. Covering them in love, is the expressive phrase
which the Catechism (127) employs in describing this filial
obligation, and so living as to be an honor to them is a correspond
ing phrase, equaUy comprehensive and expressive. The sins of
which children may be guilty are described (128) with equal
minuteness ; neglect of the services and duties due to parents,
envying at, contempt of, and rebellion against their persons and
places in their lawful commands, counsels and corrections ; curs
ing, mocking, and all such refractory and scandalous carriage or
conduct as becomes a shame and dishonor to them and to their

538 THE LAW OF GOD.
government. The obligations of parents toward their children,
and the sins of which they may be guilty in this relation by both
act and neglect, are set forth with corresponding minuteness and
solemnity. The two chapters in the Directory for Worship, on
the ordinance of baptism (VIII) and family worship (XVI)
may well be studied in this connection : also Larger Catechism,
165-167. As in the second and third commandments we find solemn
warnings against disobedience appended by way of enfordng the
obligations imposed, so here we find a most beautiful promise in
the words, that thy days may be long in the land. In the record in
Deuteronomy two suggestive clauses are added : as the Lord thy
God hath commanded thee ; that it may go well with thee : both
possibly introduced by some later hand, for the purpose of illus^
trating and emphasizing the original command. It is worthy of
note also that, while divine threatenings sound out in conjunction
with the antecedent commands, this is as Paul suggests the first
commandment with promise only — as if God would specially
sanctify the household, and encourage children to obedience, by
special assurance of his fatherly interest and benediction. Pri
marily this promise undoubtedly applied to the wandering He
brews in the desert, and to the goodly land which God had pledged
himself to give to Abraham and his descendants. In this specific
form the divine pledge was abundantly fulfilled in the fair her
itage of Canaan, long held by the Israelites as their own, and never
lost until they had disobeyed the divine commands at a thousand
points, and proved themselves unworthy of the parental love
which God had bestowed upon them. Among the heinous offences
of which as a people they were guilty, our Lord solemnly empha
sized the fact that they had made void the law — this particular
commandment — by their pharisaic traditions : and in that light
the promise, as he implied, changed itself into a warning direct
and terrible.
But the promise is as broad as the obligation to which it is ap
pended : the blessing of heaven in length of days and in temporal
as well as spiritual prosperity is pledged through all time to the
children who in the biblical sense honor their parents, father and
mother, according to the commandment. Such a promise, like
many other promises of Holy Writ, is to be interpreted according
to the spirit rather than by the letter, since loving and obedient
children are sometimes removed from life before their parents,
and since on the other hand disobedient and rebellious children
may live to old age, fattening ungratefully upon the riches which

SECOND TABLE : DUTIES TOWARD MAN. 539
diligent parents have laid up in store for them, but to which in
the eye of God they have no rightful claim. Yet in the interac
tions of the divine administration, such length of days spent in
wicked indulgence may itself become a curse, while God may fully
recompense in other suffident ways those dutiful children who
have been earlier removed from the present life. After all, the
general rule prevails, that obedience to this command brings
blessing, if not in the spedfic form of length of days, still in gen
eral prosperity such as the phrase in Deuteronomy, that it may go
well with thee, certainly indicates, and in spiritual bestowments
also, such as furnish to fiUal children an abundant compensation.
Nor should it be forgotten, on the other hand, that the divine
condemnation rests even in this world on every child that dis
obeys this just injunction. Monsters are they rather than men,
exdaimed the iUustrious sage and teacher of Geneva, in his
exposition of this command. Well said Agur, the son of Jakeh,
in words that thriU us by their solemnity : The eye that mocketh
at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the
valley shah pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.
In turning from the first to the second table of the Decalogue,
we pass over from the domain of piety to the domain of equity —
from the contemplation of the duties
which aU men alike owe to God and to ^ 8; ™e St™Qi Tab)e:
„. Duties toward man : sins
their parents as his representatives, to againstman-
the consideration of those duties which
in the various other relations of life men owe to one another.
Four primal classes of sin are here solemnly prohibited ; murder,
adultery, theft, slander : in other words, sin against the body,
sin against purity, sin against property, and sin against char
acter. We do not need the express comment of our Lord
in the Sermon on the Mount to assure us that in the matter
of murder and adultery, and by implication also in the matter
of theft and slander, the original commandment reaches far
beyond the single crime specified, and includes all minor
varieties of that crime, and even the disposition or desire to
commit such sin in whatever form. The Mosaic code itself
condemns not merely the act of killing, but maiming and
wounding and other injury to the bodily person, and even
prescribes with what seems like excessive severity the penalty
due to such minor offences — an eye for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth ; and the later books of the Old Testament, in both precept
and example, show that the sixth commandment was regarded

,540 THE LAW OF GOD.
by the Hebrews throughout their history as covering all that
class of crimes of which the actual killing of another, except
when directly prescribed by Levitic law, was the most heinous
and awful illustration. In like manner adultery and robbery
and false witnessing were condemned by that code, and by the
prophets and teachers of the Hebraic dispensation, in all their
minor as well as in their chief and most glaring varieties. Our
Lord therefore was simply enforcing in its fullness the Old Testa
ment law, when he declared that he who even looketh on a
woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already
in his heart. So his impressive addition of the words, Defraud
not, to the list of the laws of the second table as quoted to the
young ruler, indicate not another commandment but rather a gen
eral rule of life, applicable not only to theft but also to murder
and adultery and slander — all of which, even in their minor forms,
involve the element of fraudulency.
Accordingly the Shorter Catechism declares (68-69) that the
sixth commandment forbids the taking away of our own Hfe,
or the life of our neighbor unjustly, or whatever tendeth there
unto, and on the other hand enjoins the obligation to make aU
lawful endeavor to preserve our own life, and the life of others.
It is noticeable that in the exposition of this command, and
also in that of the three commandments following, our duty
to ourselves is placed before our duty to others. In this instance
suicide is presented as the first and in Some sense the supreme
form of murder, and care for the preservation of our own Hfe as
even taking precedence of our obligation to preserve the lives
of others. So the seventh is said (71-72) to forbid all unchaste
thoughts, words and actions, and to require the preservation of our
own chastity and that of others in heart, speech and behavior.
The eighth forbids (74-75) whatever doth or may hinder our own
wealth or outward estate or that of our neighbors; and commends
the lawful procuring and furthering the wealth and outward estate
of both ourselves and others. And the ninth, with like compre
hensiveness (77-78) forbids on one hand whatsoever is prejudicial
to truth, or injurious to our own good name or the good name of
others, and on the other hand requires the maintaining and pro
moting of truth between man and man, and of our own good name
and that of our neighbor, — especially, it is added, in witness-
bearing, as in civil or ecclesiastical courts. Such is the broad
scope of these four commands according, not merely to the Cate
chisms of Westminster, but to those of Heidelberg and of Luther,
and to the Protestant symbolism and exposition universally.

MURDER, ADULTERY, THEFT, SLANDER. 541
Though the earlier formularies are less specific and positive, it
is doubtful whether a single expression can be found in any of the
Protestant creeds, that indicates the least degree of swerving from
the high and searching doctrine taught by the Assembly.
The Larger Catechism proceeds to a remarkable specialization
and amplification of these obligations, in such fullness as almost
to overwhelm us. It is inexpedient here to refer to the scores of
particular offences, and the scores of particular duties, descending
even to very small detail, which are named in the answers under
these four heads. One curious illustration, bearing on the ques
tion of temperance or total abstinence, may be mentioned: among
the eighteen or twenty sins said to be forbidden by the sixth
commandment is the immoderate use of meat, drink, labor and recre
ations: and among the twenty -five or thirty duties enjoined is a
sober use of meat, drink, physic, sleep, labor and recreations. The
biblical references also (more than three hundred in number),
appended to these answers by the Assembly on the request of
Parliament, show both how comprehensive their interpretation
of the commandments was, and how thoroughly they planted
their teaching on the authoritative Scriptures. It would be hard
to name any sin or any duty properly included within these four
main divisions, which is not here specified or implied, or for whose
recognition there is not some suitable inspired justification. In
fact, we have in this section of the Larger Catechism what it would
not be improper to describe as a full, if not complete system of
practical ethics, apphcable not to the Hebrews only but to all men,
and efficient in every relation of human life through all time.
Had the Westminster divines done nothing more than to enu
merate this Hst of sins to be avoided and of duties to be done, for
the guidance of their own generation, and of those who should
come after them in the EngHsh-speaking sections of Christendom,
they would have done a work of inestimable value in itself, and
would have been recognized as among the ablest teachers of sound
and high morality, on the foundation of Scripture, which Prot
estantism in any age has produced.
It is a noteworthy fact, demonstrative of the divine origin of
the Decalogue, that its four-fold division of offences has passed
in substance into the criminal legislation of most civilized lands,
and that its elevated ethical teaching and temper have influenced
so widely and permanently the jurisprudence of mankind. That
remarkable code does not indeed treat so much of those crimes
against the state or against the public good which, in one form or
another, occupy so large a place in modern legislation. It lays

542 THE LAW OF GOD.
small stress relatively on the public or general relations of the four
classes of offences which it so strongly condemns : in other words>
it is essentially a personal code, dealing simply with the relations
subsisting between man and man, — civil rather than criminal, in
the technical sense of these terms. We know indeed that the
public good, the welfare of organized society, is involved inex
tricably in the consequences of individual action ; and modern
jurisprudence is justified in ranking these general effects of con
duct even higher than any effects experienced by the individual
who has been injured through any transgression. Yet this
social and public aspect of wrong-doing is much less conspicuous
in such primitive forms of society as that of the Hebrews at the
Exodus : and the Decalogue was wisely adjusted first of all to
such a primitive condition and grade of development. By the
very form of its prohibitions and commands it was peculiarly fitted
to awaken among such a people that sense of personal responsi
bility, that consciousness of personal guilt in view of wrong done
to another person, which is after all fundamental in the applica
tion of law to human conduct, even in the highest forms of civil
ization. The remarkable fact is that, notwithstanding this special
adaptation, it still survives through the ages as at once the norm
and the animating principle in the framing and the administra
tion of law in all Christian lands, and seems destined to hold its
place as an authoritative rule for man and for society so long as
the sovereignty of God is recognized in the earth.
The tenth commandment may properly be regarded, like the
fifth, as transitional in its purpose and scope, — a command de
signed to bring into spedal view the
9. The Tenth Command- truth that God is not content with the
ment : Law in the Old Testa- , ., .„. .
ment prohibition of overt action, or even
with the enjoining of those positive
duties which as acts stand in antithesis with the several forms of
sin condemned expressly in the Decalogue. In the word, covet,
it introduces a deeper and broader view of human obligation, as
including not only outward conduct whether forbidden or re
quired, but also the disposition or state of heart which underlies
all action. It is clearly a mistake, although supported by the
great name of Augustine and by subsequent church usage, to hold
that there are two commands against such coveting : the varia
tion in the order in which the objects coveted are named in
Exodus and Deuteronomy, does not justify such a distinction.
Coveting is essentially the same thing, whether the object coveted
be a wife, a house, a manservant, a maidservant, an ox or ass, or

TENTH COMMANDMENT : COVETING. 543
anything else which rightfully belongs to another. It is the inor
dinate desire to obtain such object in an unlawful way, or without
regard to the rights and claims of its possessor. We are indeed
taught by an apostle to covet or desire earnestly the best gifts,
such as the gift of prophecy or of speaking with tongues, but
such desire involves no inclination to take away from others any
corresponding gifts which they may possess : the same apostle,
not inconsistently, pronounces cove tousness to be akin to idolatry,
and dedares that it ought not to be so much as named among
saints. Both the New Testament and the Old contain abundant
warnings against this wicked wishing for what does not belong
to us, this desire to have what others possess, though the desire
may lie as a secret impulse in the soul, never emerging into voli
tion or overt action. Covetousness as thus defined is like the
love of money, a root of all other evil, — a germinating and insti
gating form of wickedness, which may lead him who indulges it
on to theft or adultery or murder, or — as in the case mentioned
by our Lord — to impiety and ingratitude toward parents. In its
inmost prindple of sdfishness it may not only violate in spirit
every command of the second table, but may even assail the
rights of God and inordinately desire for itself what belongs to
him alone.
In this view of the subject, the commandment, Thou shall not
covet, is fitly placed at the end of the Decalogue as a comprehend
ing and ultimate prohibition, throwing back its solemn warning
over aU the forbidding and the enjoining that had preceded it. The
two Catechisms agree with this view in their definition of the
command as forbidding all discontentment with our own estate,
and all envying and grieving at the good of our neighbor, together
with all inordinate motions or affections to anything that is his ; and
also as requiring from us full contentment with our own condi
tion, and such a charitable frame of the whole soul toward our
neighbor, as that aU our inward motions and affections toward him
tend unto and further all that good which is his . Luther, divid
ing the commandment into two after Augustine, teaches, first,
that we should so fear and love God as not to try to defraud our
neighbor of his inheritance or home, or obtain it under any pre
text of a legal right, but rather should aid and assist him to keep
it ; and secondly, that we must so love and fear God as not to
detach, extort or alienate from our neighbor his wife, servants or
cattle, but rather induce them to stay with him and do their
duty : Larger Catechism, in loc. The Catechism of Heidelberg
more tersely but also more profoundly sums up the whole in

544 THE LAW OF GOD.
the statement, that we must not suffer even the least incHna-
tion or thought against any of the commandments to enter our
hearts, but rather with the whole heart must continually hate all
sin, and take pleasure in all righteousness. Ursinus in his com
mentary on that Catechism teaches that the design and end of
this command is to secure the internal obedience and regulation
of all our affections toward God, and toward all men as our neigh
bors ; and declares that this is by no means a superfluous com
mandment, but one added to the rest, or superinduced upon them,
as a comprehensive rule and interpretation.
The tenth commandment, thus expounded, becomes an mter-
-esting illustration of the general method of God in the evolution
of his moral law during the patriarchal and Hebraic dispensations.
As at Eden, so for many subsequent centuries, Thou shall not,
was the prevalent form assumed by the divine injunctions in the
process of developing and culturing the race ethically,— though
not unmingled with some positive requisitions, such as appear in
the institution of sacrifices and of the Sabbath. At length, as the
infantile race became able to bear it, the more positive dement
came more openly into play, blending with the anteceding pro
hibitions ; Thou shall, standing out not in antagonism but inclose
correlation to the primitive, Thou shall not. In a similar way
the first prohibitions related almost exclusively to outward and
overt acts, but at length it became practicable to extend the divine
sway more distinctly over the volitions, the inward desires and
impulses of men. As on one side the constant movement was
from the negative to the positive, so on another side there was a
continuous movement from the outer to the inner life of man, —
God constantly aiming to include ultimately the entire moral
nature and being within the range of his educational and regu
lative law. Traces of such a twofold movement appear at various.
points even before the flood, and during the long patriarchal era,
and the period of the captivity in Egypt. But in the Decalogue
the disciplinary process becomes still more visible, and in the final
command, Thou shall not covet, we discern a transition which was
to be the beginning of a new stage of moral culture and life for
the Hebrews and through them for mankind.
It would be a serious mistake to suppose that in this evolu
tionary process the prohibitions were retired as the positive
requisitions were introduced, or that overt actions ceased to be
significant when the inner life was thus brought consdously under
the divine jurisdiction. As the river carries on in its broadening
current the waters of the fountain where it originated, and those

LAW IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 545
of every tributary streamlet in its course, so each positive requisi
tion carried the correlative prohibition in its bosom, and each new
statute, laid upon the conscience of the inward man, represented
not with less but with augmented force the law that applied prim
arily to overt conduct only. But as we pass onward through
the era of Joshua and the Judges and Samuel, through the sub
sequent period of the Kings and Chronicles, we discern at a hun
dred points the patient, steady, beautiful unfolding of the divine
law in more spiritual and commanding aspects, — the Mosaic
economy and ceremonials contributing their proportion age after
age to the impressive development. In the Psalms, (xix, cxix,
and others) we see that law constantly increasing in spirituality
and in holy force, — no longer a cluster of negations but an orderly
array and sj^stem of positive precepts, — no longer a rule of out
ward action only, but a penetrating, searching, commanding code
to which the entire moral man, without and within, is forever-
more to be subject. In the prophetical writings, especially in
those which have most to say of the coming Messiah and of his
kingdom, this process is more and more visibly continued : the
law comes out progressively in forms more spiritual and more
glorious : love toward God and holy obedience to his will, and
corresponding love toward man in whatever place or relation,
become more and more the animating principle of life in both
action and feeling. At last the sacred evolution reaches the stage
where, whether it shaU succeed or shall fail to control and inspire
the Jewish mind, it must pause awhile, until He should come
whose mission in part it was not to destroy but to fulfill all divine
law — to interpret the Decalogue in aU its spiritual significance, and
by his example and obedience to establish it more firmly than
ever ^as the supreme rule and guide of human life while the world
shall stand.
It is an easy transition from law in the Old Testament, when
thus rightly estimated, to law in the New Testament as enundated
by our Lord and commended by the „ „.«,-.
., , , „ J 10- Law in the New Test-
apostles under the Gospel. It can „_ , , .
. ,, , , , r . ament: three special char-
hardly be regarded as an exaggeration acter}Stlcs#
in Luther to say, as he does at the close
of his Larger Catechism, that no doctrine or discipline can ever
be produced, which will be equal to the Ten Commandments, since
they propose a type of character so exalted that no one is able
through the powers of man to attain it, and whoever should attain
it would become a heavenly, angelic being, far superior to all the

546 THE LAW OF GOD.
sanctity of the world. Yet in the New Testament, and specially
in the teaching of Christ, these commandments assume a breadth
of application, a dignity of claim, and a glory in fruitage, of which
the devout Hebrew could have had no adequate appreciation or
experience. Three things may here be specially noted : First, the
marked widening of the area of human obligation already adverted
to, especially through the application of the law to the inmost
thoughts and intents of the heart. An inspired writer who well
understood the divine purpose, has happily compared the law in
this respect to a sword with double edge, not only cutting its way
into and through all overt action, but piercing even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit, of the joints and the marrow of char
acter. As in the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord taught in the
three instances of killing, of adultery and of false swearing, and
again in the three religious duties of charitable giving, prayer,
and fasting, so every requisition under the Gospel is first of all
internal — a requisition respecting the state of heart, as something
far deeper than any or all external obligation. Abundant testi
mony appears elsewhere both in his direct precepts and in his
parables that Christ accepted no obedience, no service, but that of
the heart, and that the kingdom which he sought to establish and
enforce was primarily and chiefly a kingdom within the believing
soul. Catholicism at the Reformation and subsequently, in the interest
©f its theory of indulgence and absolution, attempted to draw the
line of human responsibility at a more external point, affirming
that while human acts and even positive volitions, cherished and
carried into execution so far as practicable, are sinful in the light
©f the New Testament law, concupiscentia, or the experiendng of
inward desires or passions which are not thus carried out in pur
pose or conduct, should not be viewed as culpable in the eye of
that law. But Protestantism in its eager resistance to the sophis
tries and the wicked practices appearing in conjunction with this
superficial and destructive teaching, held with the writer to the
Hebrews that the very thoughts as well as intents of the heart are
properly amenable to divine law. The Decree of the Coundl of
Trent states the Roman position guardedly, affirming that in the
case of those born again, concupiscence, while it is of sin and
inclines to sin, is not in the judgment of the church truly and
properly sin, and should not be called sin. But it cannot be
doubted that this delusive dogma has led men in recent times and
in the most highly developed sections of the church, to prac
tical mischiefs of the most dangerous kind, — mischiefs which

LAW IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 547
Protestantism in large degree escaped by affirming that the whole
man in every impulse and movement of his nature, physical as well
as moral, is accountable to God under the Gospel. It is worthy of
note that the Longer Catechism of the Greek Church agrees with
Protestantism in pronouncing all concupiscence sinful, both be
cause it betrays an impure soul and because it is the seed from
which all sinful action springs. The Heidelberg Catechism
expresses the general Protestant teaching in the statement (10)
that God is terribly displeased with our inborn as well as actual
sins and will punish them in just judgment ; and (113) that we
must not permit the least inclination or thought contrary to any
divine command to enter our heart, but must rather with the
whole heart hate all sin and find pleasure in all righteousness.
The Formula of Concord (Art. I) condemned in terms the papal
doctrine that depraved concupiscences are not sin but merely
concreated conditions and essential properties of the corrupted
nature, and hdd that original sin, as being itself sinful, is the foun
tain of evil thoughts and evil discoursings as well as evil deeds.
The Thirty-Nine Articles (IX) directly affirm, in obvious antago
nism to the dogma of Trent, that concupiscence and lust hath of
itself the nature of sin, — a phrase altered by the Westminster
divines in their revision of these Articles, so as to affirm positively
that such concupiscence is always sinful . These illustrations show
that evangehcal Protestantism from the beginning repudiated the
Roman casuistry on this subject, and affirmed that the corruption
of our nature, as our own Confession declares (VI : v) , is both
itself, and all the motions thereof, truly and properly sin.
Secondly : law in the New Testament, as thus spiritualized and
comprehensively applied, is also invested with greater authority,
and thus is pressed home with increased cogency upon the reason
and the conscience. The authoritativeness of the moral law in
the antecedent dispensations was derived in part from what that
law was seen to be in itself as something infinitely worthy of
human obedience, but chiefly from the fact that it emanated from
the Jehovah of the Hebrews — the Lord God who spoke the very
words of the law at Sinai amid thunders and lightnings and super
human voices, and who in the simple and solemn expression,
Thus saith the Lord, made the claims of law forever sacred and
supreme. But Christ came to fulfill the law in a still higher
sense,— not only to spiritualize its precepts, as we have seen, but
also to enforce them by his own word and personality. Law to
the Christian means more than it could possibly mean to the
Jew, because there stands behind it evermore the living Christ,

548 THE LAW OF GOD.
the incarnate Deity, enacting it afresh, not indeed in the manner
of Sinai but in ways still more impressive, as they were more in
harmony with the deepened spirituality of the various precepts.
The Messiah thus came to give new authoritativeness to the law
in two correlated ways, as the Son of Man and as the Son of God.
As Son of Man, he made the law forever glorious by his own com
plete obedience to it, and by the illustration of its worth shining
forth in his own perfect example. As Son of God, he endorsed
the law even more impressively than the Jehovah of the Hebrews
had ever done ; surrounding it with all the splendors of an incar
nated Deity ; himself as God standing behind and above it, and
strengthening it with all the resources of an authority as im
perial, comprehensive, unchallengeable as it was visible. In the
chapter now under review, it is expressly said that the obligation
to obey the moral law is found not only in regard of the matter
contained in it, but also in respect of the authority of God the Creator
who gave it : and it is added in language which is too weak to
convey the full reality, neither doth Christ in the Gospel any way
dissolve, but much strengthen this obligation. During the debate
in the Assembly on this chapter (Minutes, 272-4) it was at first
resolved to add, after the statement respecting the authority of
God the Creator, the words : from whom it should always have
had that binding power though it bad never received any cor
roboration from Christ in the Gospel. We are taught elsewhere
that Christ is King over all, empowered to expand and enforce
the law, and is also the Judge before whom the solemn question
of obedience or disobedience to the law in deed and word and
inmost thought is to be finally adjudicated. In his hands, there
fore, the law assumes an authoritativeness, exhibits a right to
demand implicit, perfect and perpetual obedience, such as it could
not have had in the antecedent dispensations.
Thirdly : the law as thus made authoritative by Christ, is en
forced by superadded sanctions on the side both of reward and of
penalty. From the beginning God was pleased to urge obedience
upon men, not only by the revelation to them of the inherent
righteousness and worth of the law in itself, but also by acquainting
them with the blessings that in his ordained constitution' of things
should follow due regard for its claims, and also with the mis
eries and the curse involved of necessity in all disobedience. In
the terse language of the chapter, God while requiring exact and
perpetual obedience, promised life upon the fulfilling and threatened
death upon the breach of his holy law. Gerizim and Ebal, the
mount of blessing and the ' mount of cursing, stand over against

NEW TESTAMENT LAW : ITS SANCTIONS. 549
each other throughout the Old Testament ; and though at first
the rewards and penalties appear to be temporal only — conse
quences experienced in this life rather than in a future state —
still in the later stages of the revelation eternity is brought in
more and more, as if to enforce the issues of time, and God
encourages obedience by promises and discourages disobedience
by warnings which can be realized only in a Hfe far beyond the
present state of bdng.
It is one of the critidsms of John Stuart Mill (Three Essays)
that such use of sanctions is in itself unjustifiable, and is calcu
lated to diminish in our estimation the superior incentive of the
right as right, discerned by the reason, felt by the conscience. A
wiser Mind than his saw that, whatever might be true of angels
or of a race of perfect men, our weak and corrupted humanity,
in disposition averse to hoHness and ever disobedient in act,
needed even from the experience of Eden onward whatever influ
ence could in this additional way be brought to bear in securing
obedience and in deterring mankind from sin. The fallacious
reasoning of the philosopher is confuted, not only by observation
of the conduct of men generally, but by the punitive legislation
of aU dvilized nations, and by ten thousand illustrations in
domestic and social Hfe. It is a decisive fact that our Lord held
forth the same doctrine of sanctions which the older Scriptures
taught, but in forms and aspects even more impressive. While
on one side he brought into dearer light than ever before the
ineffable beauty of a genuinely holy life, and so commended obe
dience in itself more fully to all who heard his words or beheld
his example, on the other side he brought eternity into human
view as no patriarch or legislator, psalmist or prophet of the older
dispensations had ever done, 'and then utilized the revelation in
every available way as a deterrent from evil and a stimulant to
goodness. No teacher ever set forth as he did the vital, inevitable,
solemn relationship between the deeds of the present life and the
fruitage of the eternal state. No teacher ever so cheered those
who sought to obey the divine law, with sublime disclosures of
that holy HiU where the men of clean hands and pure hearts on
earth are finally to be congregated in everlasting purity and in a
blessedness which nothing but such purity can ever attain. Nor
did any other teacher ever set forth with such honesty and tender
ness and such convincing power the fact, the certainty and the
awfulness of heU as the ultimate estate of all those whom the law in
its majesty and he himself as judge must finally condemn for their
disobedience. And it is in full harmony with his teaching that

550 THE LAW OF GOD.
the Larger Catechism declares (152) that every sin, even the
least, being committed against the sovereignty, goodness and holi
ness of God, and against his righteous law, deserveth his wrath
and curse, both in this life and that which is to come.
Two topics remain to be considered in order to complete the
study of this suggestive and fruitful chapter. The first of these
is concerned with the relationship, by
11. Law of God and hu- fe fa affiliation and contrast between
man morality. , , , '
the moral law thus interpreted as the
supreme rule of life, and all human morality — the justitia civilis or
justitia externa, so often mentioned in the symbolism and the the
ology of early Protestantism. It was natural that the Reformers,
in their strenuous condemnation of those who in the phrase
of Paul were going about to establish their own righteousness,
should sometimes fail to note the true worth of native morality
as seen among men, and should become too severe and sweeping
in their censure of all endeavor to live uprightly on the platform
of natural equity merely. It is to be confessed that in more
recent times there has been too much inconsiderate and injurious
animadversion in the Protestant pulpit upon moralists as a class,
on the assumption that all systems of morals discernible by the
light of nature or through the teachings of providence, are not
only insufficient to secure salvation, but are intrinsically and rad
ically unworthy. But it ought never to be forgotten that there
are many vital points of affiliation between all such systems and
the supreme morality inculcated in holy Scripture, — that the rela
tionship is not altogether one of contrast and antagonism, but
rather that all true morality of whatever grade or type rests in
large degree on one and the same basis, and is entitled so far
forth to just appreciation by Christian minds. As our Lord
beholding the young ruler loved him, even while exposing the
ethical deficiency in his outwardly blamless life, so we may well
recognize the fact that many who have not entered upon the true
Hfe of obedience to the law of God, as set forth in his Word,
may still perform acts which are equitable and charitable, good
in their outward effect and in a certain measure good in the spirit
that prompts them, though such acts may not render the actor
worthy of pardon or acceptance with God. Whatever deeds are
prompted by right reason, whatever action springs from the con
viction and impulsion of conscience, whatever in conduct has its
basis in sound ethical principle as distinguished from immoral
selfishness, whatever contributes in this way to the moral order and

LAW AND MORALITY. 551
true well-being of society, has a valid claim on the recognition
and respect of the Christian Church, — so long at least as this does
not lead to any ignoring of the doctrine of the pravity and disa
bility of man, or that of the need of genuine faith in Christ and
true repose in his mediation as the only ground of salvation.
The Confession of Augsburg, while denouncing as profane the
dream that Christian righteousness is naught else but a civil and
philosophic righteousness, still recognizes the fact that the will
of unregenerate man hath liberty to work a civil righteousness,
and to choose such things as reason can reach unto. And the
Form, of Concord admits that men not regenerate do render to
the law a certain manner and degree of the obedience required by
it, — though it adds, that they do this as by constraint and unwill
ingly because they are carnal.
But while this view should justly be held, it may also with
equal justice be daimed that there are several particulars in which
the morahty enjoined in Scripture, especially in the New Tes
tament — the new obedience, as it was happily termed in several
Protestant creeds — is superior not only to the best and purest
hving of unrenewed men, but to the noblest systems of morals
ever framed by the natural reason. First of all : in its origin
and source. All natural morality, even in its loftiest forms, origi
nates in and with man himself. It comes to him partly through
the action of the natural reason and conscience ; it flows partly
from the recognized agreements of reason and conscience in society
orin the race ; it springs in part from the worthiest philosophies.
But its source is always human and human only ; it never rises
higher than humanity. Biblical morality is truly supernatural in
origin as well as in content. The principles that regulate it, the
motives that rule in it, the spirit that animates it, are all higher
than man. It is not a discovery but a revelation. Its real author
is God : its primal source is in his perfect and holy nature : its
certification is seen in his august signature, and its authority flows
directly as a river of life from his throne.
Secondly : in the quality and range of its requirements. Natural
morality is chiefly relative and external in its demands : it con
cerns itself mainly with outward conduct, and with the relation
ships of men, organic or specific, in practical life. It has indeed
an interior hemisphere of motive and principle, more or less
recognizable, but its developments are limited chiefly to the out
ward—the visible in action. The morality of Scripture, as we
have already had occasion to note, concerns itself primarily with
what is inward, — with purposes, motives, feelings, volitions ; in a

552 THE LAW OF GOD.
word, with character. It thus has an incomparably broader range
of development and influence. Both in the number and scope of
the duties it imposes, and in the generic conception of duty as the
dominating principle in all worthy manhood, it rises immeasur
ably above the loftiest morality ever realized through natural
powers or even conceived by the natural man.
Thirdly : in the kind and measure of authority employed. The
weakness of all natural systems of morals lies not merely in the nar
rowness of their range, but also in the measure of imperativeness
with which their claims are enforced. They may summon to their
aid the calm command of the reason, the urgent pleading of
conscience, the moral bearings of the act proposed, the voice and
judgment of human sodety, and beyond all this the universal and
indestructible mandate of the right and the wrong as necessary
aad eternal elements of action. It may go farther than this and
invoke in behalf of its requisitions the influence of a personal Deity
to whom the soul is amenable, so far as such a Deity is revealed
in nature or in the human reason. But there it must pause,
though the will should remain obdurate against its commands,
and the man refuses to yield it due obedience : in this emergency
it can neither prevent the evil it condemns nor promote the good
it desires, whatever may be the consequences. Biblical morality
introduces another series of influences, higher in kind and more
potential in effect. It reveals the Deity of nature in more dis
tinct and impressive forms as the Creator, the moral Governor,
the final Judge of all mankind. It reveals this Ddty in Christ
as a perfect example of a purely ethical life, and as showing his
obedience to the moral law even in the mystery of the cross. It
reveals this Deity also in the Holy Spirit whose office it is to dis
close the law in higher and broader forms, to commend it to the
heart, and by many gracious ministries to encourage and enable
the soul to obey its requisitions. It also presents a vast series of
promises, invitations, precepts, warnings, drawn not only from the
present life but also from that eternity of which the moral aspira
tions in man, even in his degenerate estate, are a constant fore
tokening and witness. In a word, it concentrates upon the whole
sphere of human obligation the complete force of the divine per
sonality and the divine relations — the force of truth, of duty and
of eternity, and thus transcends immeasurably in its incitements
to obedience all the incentives which the morality of nature in its
noblest forms can bring to bear upon the soul.
It follows of necessity that biblical morality can and does
develop a higher ethical capability and experience in man,— lifts

LAW AND GRACE. 653
him upward into a grander ethical Hfe in both purpose and action,
than is in fact attainable through the ministries of the purest
natural systems of morality. The best moralist, in a word, is
made a better man ethically by becoming a Christian, and surren
dering his Hfe freely to that supernatural guidance and control
which Christianity supplies. He thus obtains broader and deeper
conceptions of what morality is and demands, receives into his
nature more vigorous and effective impulses toward obedience,
attains a stricter discipline of self and a loftier type of purpose
and of action and by such processes grows by degrees into a com
pleter manhood than would otherwise be possible. Admitting into
his soul aU those finer and more spiritual influences that flow off
from the divine law and the divine grace, he finds his whole being
dectrified and energized. He is brought into conscious fellowship
with aU that is true and beautiful and good. God, in a word, now
rules and reigns in his moral Hfe, and the presence and sway of
God in and through his holy law and grace makes that life incom
parably pure, incomparably sublime and blessed.
The other topic remaining to be considered is the relationship
between law and grace, — the relation between this divinely
revealed and divinely energized moral-
¦4- j 4.1. i 4.- 4.1. 4. -4 12. Law and Grace : faith
lty and the salvation that comes into  . „,.„,,,  „
' and obedience.
the soul of man in and through resting
in Jesus Christ, and his gracious mediation. As we have seen,
once and again, it was the peculiar glory of the Reformers and of
the Protestant churches universally, that they exalted faith, sim
ple trust in the promises of God in Christ and simple commitment
of the soul in penitence and love to the Redeemer, to be by him
deansed from sin and freed from guilt, as the basal principle in
the Christian religion — the one essential act on the part of man,
on which the character and the destinies of the soul were to turn
forevermore. The sum of the Gospel, said Zwingli in his opening
Articles, is that Jesus Christ, the true Son of God, has made
known to us the will of the heavenly Father, and by his innocence
has redeemed us from everlasting death and reconciled us to God;
and this Christ therefore is the sole and only way of salvation to
all who ever have been, who now are, or who ever shall be. Fides
sola justificat, was the motto which all alike, Lutheran and
Reformed, were agreed in inscribing on their sanctuaries, pro
claiming in their pulpits, and recording as the central and saving
truth in their various formularies. And it was this cardinal doc
trine which not only enabled Protestantism at the first to make
such marvelous headway against the casuistries and the schemings

554 THE LAW OF GOD.
and the denunciations of Rome, but from the sixteenth century
until now has been the center and core of its teaching, and the
chief secret of its quickening and saving power over men.
It is not strange that, under the influence of such strong con
victions as to the prime value of faith, Luther should have
pronounced the terse and practical letter of James an epistle of
straw, unworthy of a place in the Canon, both because it con
tained, as he viewed it, no doctrine of justification through faith,
and because it seemed to him to inculcate a doctrine of salvation
through works which was, as he regarded it, essentially at vari
ance with the general teaching of the New Testament. Nor is it
strange that in some minds and at some j unctures in the convulsions
and struggles of the period, the gospel of works as enunciated by
James should have failed to receive due recognition, or that a
pernicious antinomianism should have sprung up here and there,
ignoring the authoritative precepts of the law, and in the supposed
interest of grace even declaring the Ten Commandments inopera
tive and void. This erratic and injurious tendency has sometimes
made its appearance in later ages, and where more considerate
adjustment and harmonizing of the kindred doctrines involved
might have been expected. Yet it is noticeable that even in the
earlier periods of the Reformation a more considerate view had
currency. The Augsburg Confession itself had an Article (VI)
on what was called the New Obedience, affirming that faith ought
always to bring forth good fruits, and that men, and especially
Christian men, ought to do the good works commanded of God ;
and a similar Article (IV) appears in the Formula of Concord,
expressly intended to quiet the controversies on this subject which
nascent antinomianism had introduced into the German churches.
The Tetrapolitan Conf. contains an entire chapter entitled the
Duties of a Christian Man, in which the relations between faith and
duty, and the indispensableness of duty as an index and measure
of faith, are happily defined. The Reformed symbolism reveals
in various instances the same significant fact. The whole may be
summed up in the affirmation of the Thirty-Nine Artides (XII),
that although good works, in the form of obedience to the divine
law, cannot put away sin or deliver from the severities of the
divine judgment since they are always imperfect, yet such works
are pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, because they spring
necessarily out of a true and lively faith, insomuch that by them
such faith may be as evidently known as a tree is discerned by its
fruit: see Hall, Harmony of the Prot. Confessions: Ninth Section.
The key and explanation of the whole is found in the recogni-

THE DIVINE LAW GLORIOUS. 555
tion, according to this happily worded Article, of the fact that
justifying or saving faith is essentially an active as well as a pas
sive prindple — an active power within the soul, subduing all
other thoughts and impulses unto itself, determining all actions
according to its own regulative sway, and evermore inciting to
and indudng the performance of every recognized duty. As the
Sum of Saving Knowledge tersely states it, the obedience of the
law must flow from love, and love from a pure heart, and a pure
heart from a good conscience, and a good conscience from faith
unfeigned. Evangelical faith and evangelical obedience, grateful
acceptance of the grace of God and loving conformity in heart
and life to the law of God, are thus in no sense antagonistic, but
are alike essential and indissoluble elements in the one and sole
salvation through the one and only Mediator between God and
man, Christ Jesus. There is no inconsistency or lack of harmony
in the New Testament at this vital point. The works which
James commends are such as no power within the soul but faith
can produce, and the faith which Paul commends is such a power,
produdng by virtue of its own nature such obedience and such
works as God requires in his perfect law.
In concluding these studies, we may fitly derive from them a
new sense of the nature and scope, of the comprehensiveness and
cogency, of the majesty and glory of the Divine Law, instituted at
the creation of man, formulated at Sinai, inculcated in Hebraism,
expanded by Christ and his apostles, and forever exalted before
the eyes of men as the supreme moral code and the regulative
rule of human life in all lands and times. We may well say with
the venerable Hooker : Law hath her seat in the bosom of God ;
not in the narrow reason or the fallible conscience of man, neither
in the dictates of human experience or the deductions of abstract
philosophy, nor even in the divine will viewed merely as the
source of supreme and resistless power, but in the bosom of God, —
in that holy and tender and righteous nature where all perfection
dweUs forever, and whence all good proceeds to all the universe
of being. And well has he also said, that her voice is the harmony
of that universe, and that all created things, the smallest and the
greatest aHke, should do her homage, as the mother of their
peace and joy.

LECTURE ELEVENTH— CIVIL RELATIONS
AND DUTIES.
Christian Liberty— Liberty of Conscience: Civil Mag
istracy : Papal Supremacy : Lawful Oaths : Vows :
Marriage — Polygamy— Celibacy : Divorce : Christianity
in Civil Affairs.
C. F. XX-XXIV. L. C. 105-8 ; 113 ; 127-130, 139. Amer.
Form of Gov. Ch. I. Directory for Worship, Ch. XIJ.
It is difficult to describe under one general title the group of
chapters in the Confession, five in number, which stand between
the comprehensive and magnificent chapter on the Law of God and
those which describe the Christian Church with its sacraments,
institutes and authority. Some of the subjects introduced in this
group hardly seem to be congruous with the prime purpose of a
confession of faith in the essential verities of religion: others, in
the changes which time and circumstances have wrought, appear
to us like anachronisms that might well enough be eliminated,
None of them, excepting those that occur in the chapter on
Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day, make their appearance
in the Shorter, and few, and these but inddentally, in the Larger
Catechism. At first view, consequently, these chapters with thdr
peculiar contents fail, with the exception just noted, to interest
us. Nor is it until they are thoughtfully examined under the
light of the historic period during which they were framed and
wrought into the Confession, that they shine out in their true
and large significance. In general, it may be said that they con
template the Christian man as standing within the State, and as
sustaining civil relations and under obhgation to discharge certain
dvil functions and duties. Though living under the Law of God
primarily and amenable supremely to its behests, he is regarded
as under human law, and as accountable not merely to God bnt
also to the State and to society for the manner in which he meets
the specific requisitions thus imposed. Such earthly citizenship
was regarded justly by the Assembly as a matter of religious as
well as civil obligation, and therefore as worthy of recognition and
enforcement in a Christian creed.
It is noticeable that many of the Protestant symbols discuss.

christian liberty defined. 557
some of them at considerable length, the topics presented in these
chapters: see Hall, Harmony of Protestant Confessions. To com
prehend this more general fact rightly, we must turn to the
illuminating history of the Reformation in both its earliest and
its later periods. It is indispensable that we should know well the
dvil side of that great movement, including the political relations
of both Romanism and Protestantism in the various countries of
Europe, the formation of provindal and state churches, the rise
of erratic tendendes both religious and political such as Anabap-
tism, the conflicts around the complicated issue of civil jurisdiction
in reHgious affairs. Only the light shed by due comprehension of
these dvil movements and events will adequately solve the prob
lem which the presence of such topics in the Protestant creeds
presents. EspedaUy is it important to this end, so far as the
Westminster formularies are concerned, that we should be familiar
with the poHtical history of Great Britain, with the issues civil
and reHgious between England and Scotland, with the desperate
strifes between Parliament and the crown, with the prolonged
struggle to establish, first Catholicism, then Prelacy, and finally
Presbyterianism, as the national Church, and with the long and
painful efforts of various parties to secure religious liberty and
toleration. To those who have studied that history with care,
and reflected upon the diversified causes at work and the profound
principles involved in it, many of the truths and duties set forth
in this cluster of chapters assume a distinctness of meaning, a
peculiar glow and coloring, which are not discernible to the ordi
nary reader. In the light shed by such knowledge let us enter
on their examination.
The double heading in the twentieth chapter, Christian Liberty
and Liberty of Conscience suggests at once the practical distinc
tion between freedom as toward God
and freedom as related to man. The L Christian Liberty: free-
, , . dom as toward God, its na-
two conceptions are separable in mt and extent>
thought, and may weH be considered
apart and successively. The Christian liberty here affirmed is
doubtless that deUverance from the law regarded as a final test of
desert before God, of which Paul speaks so earnestly in his in
structive and tender letter to the Galatian church. The first
section of the chapter defines this liberty in detail as purchased
for believers through the mediation of Christ, and as consisting
of a large number of particulars herein named ; — deliverance, not
from the obligation to obey the moral law, since the claim of
that law remains in unabated1 force under the Gospel, but from

558 civil relations and duties.
the guilt of sin and the curse pronounced by the law on all willful
transgression ; — deliverance also from the natural bondage of the
soul under indwelling sin, under the sway of Satan, and under the
domination of this present evil world ; — deliverance furthermore,
from the sting of death, the victory of the grave, the final damna
tion which a career of sinfulness involves. These are the more
negative aspects of the Christian liberty here described : its more
positive aspects appear in the chapters on Justification and Adop
tion, and those which immediately follow. It was originaUy pro
posed in the Assembly (Minutes : 211) to make a direct reference
to these chapters, as a part of this definition, but the reference
was finally omitted — probably on the ground that it was deemed
to be needless. This liberty is here tersely defined as free access
to God as his sanctified children, and happy obedience to him
with a willing mind and out of love such as prompts a filial child
to regard the wishes of its parents. There is submission, but it is
the submission of love ; there is faithful obedience, but it is the
obedience of affection, pure, sacred, perpetual. It is therefore
in no sense a state of bondage, though it be marked by submis
sion and obedience : it is rather a state of liberty like that which
angels enjoy, sweet and satisfying and complete.
The" same section indicates in brief terms the contrast between
the measure of such liberty granted to believers during the earlier
dispensations, and that granted to Christians under the new
economy of the Gospel. The Jewish church, it is said, was under
the yoke of the ceremonial law, from which the Christian is made
free. The Jewish church was under the yoke of the moral law
also, in a sense and manner which is not true of the Christian,
and its access to God through the Mosaic forms' of worship was
less direct and less inspiring. The difference had already been sug
gested in the chapter on the Covenant with Man, wherdn it is
taught that the covenant was differently administered in the time
of the law and the time of the gospel,— in the first instance by
promises, prophecies, sacrifices and other types and ordinances,
designed to point the devout Hebrew forward to the era when
full remission of sins and full deliverance should be secured
through the Messiah,— in the second instance by the historic
manifestation of such remission and deliverance in Christ who
came as he himself taught, to make his people free indeed.
Hence it is said in this section that Christians have greater
boldness of access to the throne of grace, and enjoy fuller com
munications of the free Spirit of God than believers under the law
did ordinarily partake of. The contrast is both marked and

FREEDOM TOWARD GOD. 559
suggestive: it gives us a grand conception of that holy and
happy liberty wherewith our Lord makes his disciples free.
The third section introduces an important caution at this point,
directed doubtless against those who were inclined to turn this
holy liberty into license, on the hypothesis that believers are not
in any sense under law because they as believers are under an
economy of grace. They who under any pretence of liberty — it
is said — do practise any sin or cherish any lust, do thereby destroy
the end of Christian liberty, which is holiness and righteousness
before God. As the Savoy Declaration states it, they do thereby
pervert the main design of the grace of the Gospel to their own
destruction. As the chief end of every man is to glorify God
and enjoy him forever, this must preeminently be the chief end
of the Christian, and the indulgence of any lust or the practising
of any sin must be intrinsically and absolutely incongruous with
such a supreme purpose. Similar cautions against wicked license
under the name of Christian liberty are found in other Protestant
creeds, and the sad history of some among the minor sects and par
ties daiming the Protestant name, painfully illustrates the peril
to which aU such Hcense leads. The Formula of Concord (XII)
specificaUy condemns the errors of the Anabaptists on the ground
that they involve such perversion of the true biblical doctrine of
fiberty. So also the Belgic Confession (XXXVII), declares
that the Anabaptists by their false views of liberty confound
that decency and good order which God hath established among
men. One hardly knows which to admire most in Calvin, the spacious
ness of his conceptions or the penetrative thoroughness which
marks his discussions. His presentation of the doctrine of Chris
tian Hberty as toward both God and man (Inst. B. Ill : 19) is a
striking illustration of both qualities. It was undoubtedly in
large degree the source from which the present chapter was
derived. He defines Christian liberty as being, first, an elevation
of the beHever above the range of law and its retributive claims ;
secondly, a spirit of voluntary and joyous obedience to the divine
will through the impulsion of faith ; thirdly, deliverance from
obhgation as to things which are external or of indifferent moral
quality. He pronounces Christian liberty in all its branches as
thus defined, a spiritual grace or endowment ; and then earn
estly warns beHevers against any perversion of it through per
sonal indulgence or by disregard of the consciences and claims
of Christian brethren. Yet with characteristic skill he draws
dear and strict Hnes of responsibility at the point where such

560 CIVIL RELATIONS AND DUTIES.
liberty might change into culpable neglect of the rights or the
authority of God as supreme. We must at all times study
charity, he says, and keep in view the edification of our ndghbor ;
but on the other hand we must not offend God for the love of our
neighbor. In the same chapter Calvin discusses also liberty of
conscience as toward men and society, asserting that there are
two kinds of government in the world ; the one spiritual, by
which the conscience is formed to piety and the divine service ;
the other political, by which a man is instructed in the duties of
humanity and civility which are to be observed in intercourse
with mankind.
In the second and fourth sections of this chapter we find a cor
responding discussion of Liberty of Conscience — that kind and
measure of moral freedom which the
2. Liberty of Conscience : _., . .. 11- j
freedom as toward men. Christian may properly daim and ex-
ercise in all matters of belief and duty,
so far as his fellow men are concerned. The Reformation has
been described as a revolution in the interest of liberty, — of Hberty
on one side to inquire and investigate freely without regard to
the restrictions of ecclesiastical authority, and on the other side
to hold and advocate whatever truths within the religious sphere
are conscientiously believed by the individual man, although
such authority might assume to prohibit or enjoin. The Theses
of Luther and the Articles of Ulrich ZwingH are ringing proofs
that the Reformers from the beginning reaHzed the fact that such
liberty was the grand underlying and indispensable condition of
the spiritual movement they were instituting. While justifica
tion by faith was their essential principle, the right to interpret
the Scriptures and to hold whatever the Scriptures clearly taught,
without the fear or the favor of man, was the formal principle —
as it has often been termed — on which thdr entire revolution
rested. Hence came the protests which appeared so often and
sounded out so clearly in thdr creeds against all papal restriction,
against churchly dictation, against ancient tradition and ecdesi
astical law, and civil law also, in whatever repressive forms.
Liberty was their watchword through all the conflicts and trials
to which they were subjected — liberty of thought, liberty of con-
sdence, and Hberty of speech and testimony also. And nowhere
did this characteristic prindple find firmer advocacy than in Scot
land and England from the days of Henry VIII. down to the era
when the Westminster Assembly was convened. One interesting
illustration of the early devdopment of this principle in Britain
appears in the bold utterance of Bishop Hooper — an utterance

LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE DEFINED. 561
made doubly significant and pathetic by his martyrdom at the
stake under Mary, in 1555, for his loyalty to liberty of conscience:
As touching the superior powers of the earth, it is well known to
aU that have readen and marked the Scripture, that it apper-
taineth nothing unto their office to make any law to govern the
conscience of their subjects in religion.
But certainly no stronger or nobler declaration in the interest
of such liberty appeared anywhere than we read in the statement
found in the second section of this chapter : God alone is Lord of
the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and command
ments of men which are in anything contrary to his Word, or beside
it, in matters of faith or worship. There is in the words an
impressive blending of conscious responsibility on the one side and
resolute loyalty to freedom on the other. For the Christian free
man is not whoUy and absolutely free in thought or creeds God
and his Word are the final tests of religious belief, and no opinion
or judgment in an>' matter pertaining to saving faith or to salva
tion may be held by the beHever, which is not conformable to this
supreme standard. The narrownesses of the reason and the falli
bilities of the conscience are to be corrected and completed from
I this divine source, and from this only. In the strong phrase of
Paul, every thought, every opinion, every judgment in the reli
gious sphere is to be brought into willing, entire captivity to the
obedience of Christ. What saith the Scripture, was the-funda-
1 mental question — as Protestantism held — by which the'doctrines
and commandments of the papacy were to be measured : the ap
peal to the Bible was ever the final appeal. And the Reformers
universally recognized the authoritativeness of this rule in the dis
cussion of the differences which from time to time arose among
themselves also, as weU as in regardto the more radical differences
which separated them from Rome. In the same way they tested
the Sodnian and other heresies which crept in upon them at
various points under cover of the Protestant name, and were cor
rupting the beliefs and practices of some among the faithful.
The Westminster divines therefore followed the universal doc
trine of Protestantism antecedent to their day, in affirming that
God is the sole Lord of the conscience, and that his Word is the
unerring standard of beUef and practice for the Christian, — what
ever is contrary to that Word or is beside it or beyond it in what
ever direction, being in no sense obligatory upon him as a disciple.
The section also warns against the sin of professing to accept
any human dogmas or obey any human commandments, when
the reason and the conscience, properly enlightened by Scriptnre,

562 CIVIL RELATIONS AND DUTIES.
are in protest against them. Doubtless the main reference here
was to those who as a matter of policy professed to accept the
teachings and commands of the papacy; but the principle laid down
is universal. To avow or support a belief which we do not truly
hold, or to give credence to what we do not perceive on reasonable
grounds to be true, even in submission to the behests of the or
ganized church, is justly said to betray true liberty of conscience ; and
such betrayal, it is implied, is a sin not only against the truth, but
against him who is the supreme Lord of the conscience. On the
other hand, to require implicit or unreasoning faith as Romanism
did, — to demand blind obedience on any pretext of human right to
control belief, is said to destroy liberty of conscience, and reason also.
In other words, it is as sinful to require such obedience as it is to
yield it, and the authority ecclesiastical or otherwise which
makes such a requisition is guilty of invading that holy freedom
which God has given to every Christian as a part of his spiritual
birthright. We shall have occasion to recall this broad statement
when we come to consider, under the general doctrine of the
Church, the authority which may be granted (XXXI) to Synods
and Councils for her better government and further edification, and
also the limitations which may properly be imposed upon all
such ecclesiastical jurisdiction.
In the final section of the chapter, we are confronted by the
serious problem with which the Protestant communions, both
Lutheran and Reformed, everywhere had to deal during the
progress of the Reformation — the problem of the relationship
subsisting between the Church and the State, and specially of
the rights and responsibilities of the State within the eccles
iastical sphere. As the various questions involved in this
problem will come up more fully in the explication of the
chapter (XXIII) which treats Of the Civil Magistrate, we
may note here only so much as presents itself in a prelimi
nary form. That the State is ordained of God as a perma
nent institution, — that as such it has legitimate powers which
may be exercised in a lawful way, and that the doctrine of Chris
tian liberty or liberty of conscience warrants no believer in
opposing or warring against the State in the rightful exercise of
such powers, is here directly affirmed. It is implied also that it
is the duty of the Christian freeman as well as of the Church
always to uphold civil government in the use of all its legitimate
functions, even though its administration may be marked by
many imperfections. But the section further declares that the
civil magistrate on his part ought in the interest of the Church

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY NOT FULLY GRANTED. 563
and of religion to take authoritative action against whatever is
inimical to the true faith, — such as the publishing of opinions or
indulgence in practices which are contrary to the light of nature
or to the known principles of Christianity . The description of such
possible offences is very broad, including faith and worship and
conversation, and whatever else may be deemed destructive to the
external peace and order which Christ hath established in his Church.
It is implied that the declarative authority and censures of the
Church are not sufficient to crush out such hostile influences, and
therefore that the State in its organic capacity ought to take
action authoritativdy against them. As it appears in the original
record, such deHnquents may be lawfully called to account and
proceeded against by the power of the civil magistrate.
It should be said that the teaching of this section, and the still
more sweeping doctrine of the chapter on the Civil Magistrate,
were not accepted with unanimity in the Assembly. The Minutes
(297, seq. ) show that there were members who believed that the
civil proceeding here described was in whatever form of it con
trary, if not to any direct word of Scripture, still to the nature
and genius of Christianity as the religion of Him who solemnly
declared that his kingdom was not of this world in either spirit
or method. The discussion on the subject was continued for
several days, and at its close at least four prominent members
formaUy recorded their dissent from the view adopted. Still the
statement as it stands undoubtedly represents the judgment of
a large majority of the body. The seriousness of the error
into which the Assembly thus feU, will become apparent as we
shaU come to examine the doctrine of the civil magistracy more
in detail. Mitchell (Introduction) while admitting that the lan
guage used in this section is capable of a harsh construction, and
that it was so construed by stricter English and Scotch Cove
nanters, claims that the words do not necessarily require such a
construction, and were not so interpreted by all who assented to
their admission into the creed. It is a fact to be noted here that
American Presbyterianism, in its first General Assembly in 1788,
in connection with the revision and formal adoption of the Con
fession, struck out entirely the last clause of this section, by the
power of the civil magistrate, — thus rejecting altogether the opinion
that the State may be invoked to protect and assist the Church in
its resistance to any heresy or to any irreligious practice which
may claim protection under the broad segis of liberty of conscience.
That there was serious inconsistency between the exalted doc
trine of liberty stated in the opening and the practical rule laid

564 CIVIL RELATIONS AND DUTIES.
down in the closing section of this chapter, will be apparent to
the unprejudiced student. That a still more serious inconsistency
developed itself in the acts of the As-
3. Failure to carry out semDly, and in its general disposition
toe doctrine : inconsistencies tQward ^ repression of such religious
opinions as were at variance with its
teaching, is known to all who are familiar with the current
history. In extenuation of this inconsistency two general facts
should be considerately borne in mind. The first of these is the
fact of the creation and existence of a series of provindal or state
churches wherever Protestantism extended itself — churches estab
lished by civil enactment and largely dependent on the dvil power
for support and protection, and therefore of necessity in greater
or less degree under civil influence and jurisdiction. It was uni
versally believed by the Reformers that such an adjustment was
indispensable to protect the holy cause they had espoused from
the aggressions of Rome, backed by the armies of papal states
on the one side, and from the disintegrating effects of heresy in
various forms on the other. It was therefore judged, almost
without question, that there should be such an organized Protes
tant church in each city or province or country, supported by the
particular political power within whose domain it was planted,
and that there should be but one such church — all other religious
organizations being undesirable and in a sense illicit. Presbyteri
anism thus became the established church in Scotland, andEpiseo-
pacy supplanted Romanism in England and Ireland, until the brief
and sad hour when Presbyterianism aspired to be and became the
one authorized and politically endorsed church of the three
realms. And so it came to pass that the Assembly of Westmin
ster was, as we have seen, a body created by Parliament, its
members designated, its pecuniary support provided for, its rules
of procedure prescribed, and its commission defined by the civil
power creating it. So it came to pass that the Confession of
Faith and other formularies were submitted to Parliament as being
simply the humble advice of the Assembly, wholly without war
rant or authority until they should be considered and approved by
the civil tribunal. That the temper and acts of the Assembly
should have been largely influenced, so far as liberty of con
science and religious toleration were concerned, by such an anom
alous and pernicious situation will be easily perceived.
The second fact to be noted is the very imperfect development
of the spirit of toleration, either on the Continent or in the
British Isles. The intolerance of Rome, which had shown itself

TOLERATION IMPERFECTLY DEVELOPED. 565
in persecutions and anathemas, in assaults on individual and
national rights, in the burning of Huss and Savonarola, and in
other equally malevolent forms, passed over somewhat into Prot
estantism generally, and in some degree infected alike its teach
ings and its acts. Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Knox, were each and
all dogmatic men : — dogmatic not only toward convicted heretics
but even at times in their temper toward each other. Luther,
disputing violently over the Hoc est Corpus meum of Matthew,
and soundly asserting that those who disagreed with him in in
terpretation must be guided by some other Holy Ghost than his,
is. a typical example. The burning of Servetus was another, and
the list of persecutions and banishments, and even of martyrdoms
at the instigation of Protestant parties or leaders might be indefi
nitely multiplied. The greatest blemish in the Institutes of
Calvin — the defect that from the first impaired and still impairs
largdy its influence as a superb compendium of Christian doc
trine — is its hot temper of antagonism, its bitter invective, its
intolerant treatment and characterization of contrary opinions.
Nor did this spirit die out appreciably during the latter half of the
sixteenth century : it showed itself in the Synod of Dort and in
the doctrinal conflicts in England and Scotland as well as Holland
during the earlier decades of the seventeenth century also. The
Peace of Augsburg, 1555, whose binding force extended even to
the Peace of Westphalia, 1648, guaranteed to Protestants in
Germany freedom of religious worship only upon the condition of
subscription to the Augsburg Confession. It is not strange
therefore that the Westminster Assembly, unhappily conditioned
as it was, should have faUen into the general error of the times —
should haye manifested in some instances a spirit and sometimes
taken action quite at variance with its own grand declaration that
God alone is Lord of the conscience, and his Word the only author
itative guide in beHef and duty. The special fact also, that the
Assembly was expressly instructed by Parliament to do what it
could toward vindicating and clearing the doctrines of the Church
from aU false calumnies and aspersions and misconstructions, as
well as to formulate the received truth ; and the further fact that
Parliament itself sometimes set the example of intolerance, and
even sought to use the Assembly as an agent in repressing her
esies, must be considerately weighed in our judgment of its action.
Bearing these two facts in mind, we may with more of sympa
thetic indulgence note some of the judicial proceedings of the
Assembly, which injhe_gl^rerjnjht of a better age seem to call
fprjfeapproval, and even for open condemnation. The Minutes

566 Civil relations and duties.
contain the record of various acts of this class : two noted
instances will suffice. One Paul Best had written a book on the
doctrine of the Holy Trinity, in which he had maintained, inter
alia, that the godhead of the Son is not eternal in the same sense
and measure as the godhead of the Father. After examination the
teaching of the book was condemned by the Assembly, and its
author was formally arraigned in consequence at the bar of the
House of Commons. The book also was presented before that tri
bunal; what were termed its horrid blasphemies were exposed; and
the author was cast into the Gatehouse prison, Westminster. The
records of the Commons show that the Prolocutor of the Assembly
and the two assessors appeared before the House, described these
blasphemies, and in behalf of the Assembly petitioned that Parlia
ment would use its authority to execute condign punishment upon
an offender of such a type, in order that the world might know
how much it detested such prodigious heresies. The House
thanked the Assembly for its care and desire of suppressing
these erroneous opinions, and declared its purpose to inflict severe
punishment on all persons holding forth such horrid blasphemies.
Committees of Parliament and also of the Assembly were subse
quently sent to Best to convince him of his error, but without
success. While still in prison he wrote another pamphlet in-
defense of his views, entitled Mysteries Discovered, or a Mercurial
Picture pointing out the Way from Babylon to the Holy City.
This pamphlet was ordered by act of Parliament, the Assembly
doubtless concurring, to be burned by the common hangman.
Best was released in 1647, and died in retirement in 1657: Min
utes, 102, 214-215.
Another instance equally significant appears in the case of a
book said to advocate the heretical opinion that God is the author
of sin. The writer of the treatise, John Archer, who is described
as a man of good estimation for learning and piety, was already
dead. The Assembly, however, complained of the treatise before
Parliament and desired its suppression, together with the arraign
ment of the printer and the burning of all copies that could
be found. Parliament concurred in the damning of the book,
and ordered it burned by the public hangman at five places in
London, Westminster being one of them, — the sheriffs of the city
superintending the combustion, in the presence of the Assembly.
Parliament also requested the Assembly to declare its detestation
of the heresy, and such a declaration was at once drafted and
sent to the House with a request that it be printed, and be made
known by some public officer at the time of the burning of the

illustrations of intolerance. 567
book. There is an added record, which seems to have been par
tially erased, in the form of a humble desire that the House
would excuse the Assembly from being present at the time of the
burning : but subsequently twenty members were appointed for
this service, four at each of the five places where the book was to
be burned, — the number being finally reduced to five : Minutes,
112-3:115. Presbyt. Review, April 1885.
Yet, notwithstanding such instances, we may still affirm that
the Assembly were in fact moderate in their proceedings against
heresy, as compared with their predecessors, either British or
Continental. They had the strongest practical reasons for such
moderation, since such a temper and purpose on their part were the
condition sine qua non to their success in carrying out their
grand ecdesiastical scheme. -But the sad fact is that they had
not vet attained^o_such . a measure of toleration in act as-they
had themsdves enunciated in theory. Gillespie declared in the
Assembly, during the discussion on a letter to be sent to the
General Assembly of Scotland, that he regarded it as one of the
greatest merdes he had ever received in this world, to have religious
liberty — Hberty of opinion and liberty of speech, •.snc.h.asJie had
enjoyed during the ses'"'""^ nf the-Assembly. But what he
desired, as he said, was not so much toleration, or forbearance
toward erroneous opinion, as mutual endeavor for a happy ac
commodation among those who were conscious of some differ
ences in judgment, but conscious also of unity in belief and in
ecclesiastical interests. Neither that eminent leader nor any other
was prepared to tolerate heresy as we now endure it, or to consent
even to the existence and circulation of erroneous opinions, as we
now, consent. Their mind and feeling were in what may be
deemed a transitional frame, — an advance on what had gone
before, but an imperfect realization of what in Great Britain and
everywhere was sure to follow in time, as a corollary from the
fundamental principle of Protestantism. In a word, they failed
to apprehend adequately the aphorism of Macaulay that the only
remedy for the evils of liberty is liberty : they accepted the
principle of toleration, but were unable to apply- the principle
thoroughly in the presence of so much that seemed to need firm
and stern repression. One suggestive illustration of their gen
eral position appears in the repressive order passed by the
Assembly at the time of the Best agitation : The liberty of all
opinions and religions under the pretense of liberty of conscience,
maintained in books and otherwise lately published, may be
speedily suppressed. But Mitchell in his admirable Introduction

568 CIVIL RELATIONS AND DUTIES.
to the Minutes (70-74) has shown how truly tolerant some of the
members of the Assembly were, and has justly said respecting the
Assembly generally that it will ever remain *as its unquestioned
honor that it first reclaimed for liberty a large province in which
the civil and ecclesiastical authorities had previously claimed
absolute and arbitrary sway. It is certainly true that at least
within the church, and to a large extent outside of the church,
they granted more, — as he claims — than had ever been granted
in England before. Milton indeed in his Areopagitica denies
them this credit, and in eloquent terms charges them with
tyranny over the thoughts and beliefs of men ; declaring that
though they had renounced the pope, they yet hugged the pope
dom, and shared the authority among themselves. Baxter, while
admitting that the Westminster divines were for the most part
men of eminent learning, godliness, ministerial abilities and fidelity,
agrees in part with Milton, in saying that the more rigid of them
drew too near the way of prelacy, by grasping at a kind of secular
power ; not using it themselves, but binding the magistrate to con
fiscate or imprison men because they were excommunicate, and
so corrupting the true discipline of the church, and turning the
communion of saints into the communion of the multitude. Yet
the eareful student of contemporaneous history, after duly esti
mating the critical conditions amid which the Assembly did its
noble work, and fairly examining all that the body said and de
termined in the interest of Christian catholicity, wiU not consent
to accept as just the bitter line of Milton :
New Presbyter is but old Priest writ large.
Chapter XXI. in the Confession, which treats of Religious
Warship and the Sabbath, was undoubtedly introduced into the
Confession at this point under the con-
4. The Civil Magistrate: yiction that ^ two t ics mi nt be
sphere and functions : State , , , , * „ . .,
and Church. regarded properly as subjects for civil
as well as ecclesiastical legislation.
Enough has been said already, in the consideration of the chapter
on the Law of God, respecting the Sabbath, its triple institution,
its universal character, its change of date, and its right to the
observance of all men and to protection by the State. The subject
of Worship, especially the nature and scope of public worship and
the use of prescribed liturgies in such worship, can best be con
sidered under the general doctrine of the Church, since according
to more recent Presbyterian opinion it belongs to the church rather
than the civil power to give instruction authoritatively respecting

CIVIL MAGISTRACY. 569
the manner of glorifying God in the services of the sanctuary.
Postponing also the specific matter of Lazeful Oaths and Vows
(XXH) which may best be considered later on, we may now
proceed to examine the important chapter (XXIII) which treats
Of the Civil Magistrate. For reasons already stated, the topic
found a place in many of the earlier creeds, though in none of
theni is the subject so carefully and discriminatingly presented.
No less than ten of the sixty-seven Articles of Zwingli treat in
his brief and positive way of the Magistratus Publicus, as estab
lished by the words and acts of Christ, as endowed with a legiti
mate authority under Christ, and as entitled within his own proper
sphere to the aHegiance and obedience of all Christian men. The
Augsburg Confession speaks (XVI) in a general way of civil
affairs, and spedaUy of the duty of obeying all who hold civil
authority, save only when they command any sin : and the
formula of Concord (XII) contains a specialized condemnation
of Anabaptist errors on this subject. The French Confession
doses with two Artides in which the legitimacy of civil authori
ties as the lieutenants and officers of God is maintained, and the
corresponding duties of obeying and paying taxes and bearing
the yoke pf subjection with a good and free will are enjoined. The
First and Second Helvetic Conf. have articles (XXVII and
XXX) and the Belgic also (XXXVI) De Magistratu,— the two
latter discussing the matter at considerable length. Mitchell
suggests that a close resemblance is traceable between the Belgic
and the Westminster statement, and thinks it suggestive that the
Westminster divines should be found turning to Holland for that
doctrine on this subject which, from its history and its conflicts,
Holland among all Protestant countries was best fitted to teach.
But the clearest historic light upon the Westminster doctrine
will be found in the study of antecedent British symbols, — the
Scptch Confession and the Thirty-Nine and the Irish Articles.
The first of these formularies not only affirmed (XXIV) that all
empires, kingdoms, dominions and . cities are destinated and
ordajned of God, — that the authority vested in these is given for
the glory of God and the singular profit and commodity of man
kind,— and that those wielding such authority, being lieutenants
of God, are to be loved, honored, feared, and held in most reverent
estimation; but also declared that their power is given chiefly and
most principally for the conservation and purgation of religion,
and for the suppression of idolatry and all superstition whatso
ever,— and that those who resist them or who refuse to aid them
in the discharge of such duty to religion are guilty of neglecting

570 CIVIL RELATIONS AND DUTIES.
or resisting the very ordinance of God. Tne Introduction to the
Edwardine Articles, 1562, declared the king to be by the ordi
nance of God Defender of the Faith and supreme Governor of the
Church within his dominions,— as such empowered by virtue of
the kingly office to conserve and maintain the Church in the unity
of true religion and in the bond of peace. The Anglican Artides
(XXXVII) while denying to civil rulers the right to minister in
the pulpit or dispense the sacraments, gave them authority to rule
in matters ecclesiastical as well as civil, and practically made them
as supreme within the church as within the state. It should be
said, just here, that American Episcopacy in the revision of 1801,
while counselling respectful obedience to all regular and legitimate
civil authority, directly set aside the older dogma, and affirmed
that the state hath no authority in things purely spiritual. The
Irish Articles, while denying to the king the right to administer
the word and sacraments and the power of the keys, held that it
was his prerogative to contain (or limit), all estates and degrees
committed to his charge by God, whether ecclesiastical or civil,
within their duty, and to restrain- the stubborn and evil-doers by
the power of the sword.
Such was the current doctrine in Scotland and England and Ire
land when the Westminster Assembly began its long and astute
discussions on the subject of the civil magistracy in its rela
tions to the Christian Church. Into the story of the differing
opinions and the earnest debates, of the struggles of the middle
party between the two extremes, of the rise and growth of Eras-
tianism on one side and Independency on the other, of the vari
ous propositions discussed, the compromises proposed, and the
issues finally reached, it is not practicable here to enter. It is prob
ably safe to say that in one form and another this subject occupied
nearly as much time, and absorbed quite as much interest, as the
formulation of the Confession or the Catechisms. With much
that was concluded as to the divine authority for the civil magis
tracy, appointed for the glory of God and the public good ; as to
the lawfulness of accepting and executing such offices in order to
maintain piety and justice and peace according to the laws of the
commonwealth ; as to the obligation to support those holding
such offices, to honor them and pay them just tribute and pray for
them ; and as to the right of civil magistrates to maintain their
own ordained positions even by force of arms or by waging war on
just and necessary occasions, — with all this we are substantially
agreed. But the Assembly, while saying much less than either
of the antecedent creeds and guarding the whole subject more

CHURCH AND STATE. 571
carefully, still declared that the magistrate had inherent power
to preserve order and peace in the church, to keep the truth of
God pure and suppress all blasphemies and heresies, to reform all
corruptions and abuses in worship and discipline, and to see that
all divine ordinances are duly administered. During an earlier
stage of its deliberations it went so far as to adopt a resolution,
(Minutes, 89) dedaring that the civil magistrate hath authority
and it is his duty to provide that the word of God be truly and
duly preached, the sacraments rightly administered, church gov
ernment and disdpHne estabHshed and duly executed according to
the Scriptures — thus committing the whole matter of public wor
ship and administration to the jurisdiction of the civil power.
It was affirmed that in order to secure these ends, the civil magis
trate had authority to caU synods at his discretion, to be present
at them, and to provide that whatever is enacted in them be
according to the mind of God. It was also declared that neither
infideHty nor any difference in reHgion could make void his magis
terial authority, or free the people from the obedience due within
this sphere.
This sweeping statement as to the prerogatives of the ruling
monarch or his representatives in ecclesiastical matters, though
more considerate at some points than the antecedent doctrine both
on the Continent and in the British Isles, was in fact an awful mis
take, — one involving consequences which the Assembly could not
at first apprehend, but which its members were soon to experience
under the severe disciphne of CromweU, and in the generation fol
lowing when Episcopacy became again the lawful religion of the
realm. In the words of their ablest advocate and historian, God
suffered them to be cast into a furnace seven times heated, that
they might learn in adversity the lesson they had not thoroughly
mastered in prosperity, and from bitter experience be led to
redize the full value and extent of the principle enshrined in their
own Confession. It is impracticable here to trace these conse
quences in detail, or to show in how many ways the Presbyteri
anism of Great Britain suffered from the mischievous doctrine
adopted and promulgated by the Assemby. One illustration of
this mischief may be seen in the cutting remark of Hallam
(Consti Hist.) that the Church of Scotland (the Established
Kirk) in her General Assemblies preserves the powers and affects
the language of the sixteenth century, while the Erastianism
against which she inveighs, secretly controls and paralyzes her
vaunted liberties. She cannot but acknowledge— he adds — that
the supremacy of the legislature is, like the collar of the watch

572 CIVIL RELATIONS AND DUTIES.
dog, the price of food and raiment, and the condition on which
alone a religious society can be endowed and established by any
prudent commonwealth.
It is important just here to note the vital changes made first
by the original American Synod in its Adopting Act, and
afterwards more fully made and recorded in this chapter by
the first American General Assembly. The third section in the
American Confession embodies these changes. It indeed affirms
the duty of the civil magistrate to protect the church of our com
mon Lord, to take order that all religious and ecdesiastical assem
blies be held without molestation or disturbance, and to see to it
that no person is suffered upon pretence either of religion or of infi
delity to offer any indignity, violence, abuse or injury to any other
person whatsoever. It also affirms that no denomination of Chris
tians shall receive any preference or favor above another from
the state, but that all ecclesiastical persons shaU enjoy the full,
free and unquestioned liberty of discharging every part of their
sacred functions without violence or danger. But on the other
hand it affirms broadly, not only that civil magistrates are not
empowered to administer the word or the sacraments, or to wield
the power of the keys of the kingdotn of heaven, but also that
they shall not in any way, even the least, interfere in matters of
faith. It is not to be supposed that this decisive change was the result
of abstract investigation merely. Thecentury and a half between
A. D. 1648 and A. D. 1788 had effected a radical revolution qf
opinion on the whole subject, at least in America. Several of the
colonies had made the experiment of a state or provindal church,
but had abandoned it as, if not erroneous in theory, impracticable
in fact. Voluntaryism, or the support of each denomination by the
free gifts of its own adherents, had gradually become the general
rule. Presbyterians, remembering the civil prosecution of Ma-
kemie, and the struggles for equitable footing in New York, the
persecutions encountered in Maryland and Virginia, the diffi
culties which obstructed their denominational development in
Pennsylvania and elsewhere, were among the first to welcome the
change. As early as A. D. 1729, the original Synod in adopting
the ecclesiastical Standards made a formal exception to the clauses
in chapters XXI and XXIII,— declaring that it did not receive
these clauses as giving civil magistrates controlling power over
synods with respect to the exercise of their ministerial authority,
or power of any sort to persecute any for their religion. This
position was affirmed again in 1736, and also in 1786, in a

RECENT CHANGES OF DOCTRINE. 573
communication made to the Dutch church of New York. The
consummating action of the first Assembly, 1788, has just been
quoted. To this should be added the elaborate and strong state
ment of Preliminary Prindples, adopted at the same date and
amended in 1805, as introductory to the Form of Government.
In this statement the whole subject is presented in full, and with
such clearness and emphasis as forbid all misapprehension respect
ing the position of American Presbyterianism : See Presb. Digest,
1898, p. 154 : also Schaff, Church and State in the United States-
It should be said here that a similar change of opinion took
place in Great Britain also. The adoption of the Toleration Act
as early as 1689, is one significant sign of such developing change
in usage as well as in judgment. The principle of toleration,
especiaUy through the advocacy of some prominent English
divines, and stiU more through the progressive mingling of
differing sects in EngHsh sodety, and perhaps to some extent — as
Lecky claims — through the rise and growing influence of skepti-
dsm also, came to be more and more freely recognized. Inter
ference by the state in church affairs, especially in matters of
controversy and heresy, became by degrees less frequent and less
popular. Persecution by the civil power gradually ceased, and
the right to fuH reHgious Hberty was more and more cordially
regarded. Dissent was by degrees granted recognition and privi
lege to an extent which the divines of Westminster would never
have approved. The transition in the present century is especially
marked. The United Church of Scotland now requires no ap
proval of any expression in the creed which teaches, or is supposed
to teach, compulsory or persecuting or intolerant principles in the
domain of rehgion. The Free Church disclaims all intolerant or
persecuting principles, refuses to regard the Confession as favoring
intolerance or persecution, and declares that subscription to it is
not inconsistent with Hberty of consdence and the right of private
judgment. One other branch of Scotch Presbyterianism declares
that the use of dvil coerdon in any form in order to constrain
men to renounce a false creed or to profess a true creed, is incom
patible with the nature of the Christian religion, and must ever
prove ineffectual in practice : Innes: Law of Creeds.
One clause in the fourth section of this chapter should be noted
here, although the subject appears again in another connection, —
the clause which declares that the pope „ ^ , ... _, .
c t, , . , ,. . .... 5. The Pope in the State :
of Rome has no jurisdiction m civil nis clvI1 jurlsdicti0n denied.
affairs, or any power over civil magis
trates or any of their people, within their own proper dominion:

574 CIVIL RELATIONS AND DUTIES.
Minutes, 224. The question raised by this clause is not whether
the pope is the ordained head of the Christian Church or is, as was
declared, the Antichrist mentioned in Scripture, but the sec
ondary question whether the pope, being as Romanism claimed
the true head of the church in all lands, has any right to de
termine, for example, the lawful succession to the throne in any
government, or the authority to crown emperors or to direct
them in the exercise of any civil functions or prerogatives. The
question carries us back through many centuries in European
history, even to the era of Hildebrand or the first Leo. We are
familiar with the civil assumptions of the papacy during the Middle
Ages, and down to the period of the Reformation. We know how
conspicuous a part the issue of supremacy between the ruling
pope and Henry VIII. played in the introduction of Protestant
ism in England, and also in determining the attitude of British
Protestantism subsequently down to the era of the Assembly.
And in the light of such history we may readily see the large
significance of this little clause when first adopted. It was not
merely opposition to Romanism as a more or less degenerate type
of Christianity, or even to the recognition of the church of Rome
as entitled to some footing in English society — though this was
by no means granted — that was here dedared. It was the
asserted right of popes to put themselves above kings, or the
church as represented in them above the state, which the Assem
bly repudiated and condemned. It was not the Presbyterian
party alone that took this position. Beware of the growth of
this Romish Seed, cried Milton in one of his most ardent treatises
in defence of religious liberty. In his discussion of Civil Power
in Ecclesiastical Causes he said with emphasis : Popery is a
double thing to deal with, and claims a twofold power, the ecdes
iastical and the political, both usurped, and one supporting the
other. And he closes his famous tract on Toleration with the
declaration that popery would be to England the worst of super
stitions and the heaviest of all God's judgments.
The matter was one which had agitated Protestant Europe from
the outset of the Reformation. If the claim of the papacy to
supreme control over rulers as well as people was legitimate — if
the reigning pope had power as the legate of God to excommun
icate any prince who should admit Protestantism within his realm,
or should protect Protestant leaders or communions from any
penalties which the papacy might exact,— if the old domination
which from the days of the Gregories had asserted itself in the
various states of Europe, and which had compelled emperors to

PAPAL SUPREMACY CONDEMNED. 575
kiss the papal toe and to receive their insignia of royalty at Rome,
was to be continued as aforetime, there was of course no reason
able ground of hope that Protestantism could survive even for a
single generation. Hence the Reformers in their creeds and else
where were strenuous in denying not only the assumed right of
Rome to control religious beHef and regulate the interior affairs
of the Church of Christ, but also the equaUy dangerous claim of
political supremacy, in whatever form. The Pontiffs, says the
Augsburg Confession, in the Article De Potestate Ecclesiastica,
trusting in the power of the keys, have not only appointed new
kinds of service and burdened the consciences of men, but have
also endeavored to transfer worldly kingdoms from one to another
and to despoil emperors of their power and authority. After
drawing clear lines between the ecclesiastical and the civil spheres,
this venerable symbol enters its earnest protest against such
ecdesiastical usurpation: Let it not by force enter into the office
of another; let it not transfer earthly kingdoms; let it not abro
gate the laws of magistrates; let it not take away from their lawful
obedience; let it not hinder judgments touching any civil ordi
nances or contracts; let it not prescribe laws to the magistrate
touching the form of the republic. This was in harmony with
the terse saying of Luther: The end of the state is temporal peace,
but the end of the church is peace everlasting.
One of the most strenuous of these declarations against the
civil aspirations of Rome may be found in the second Scotch
Confession, or National Covenant of 1580 : We abhor and detest
all contrary ReUgion and Doctrine, but chiefly all kind of Papistrie
in general and particular heads. In special, we detest and refuse
the usurped authority of that Roman Antichrist upon the scrip
tures of God, upon the Kirk, the civil Magistrate and consciences
of men ; all his tyrannous laws made upon indifferent things
against our Christian liberty . . . his worldly monarchy and
wicked hierarchy. The Anglican Articles (XXVII) simply say
in the briefest and sternest terms: The bishop of Rome hath no
jurisdiction in this realm of England. The Irish Articles (59)
are much more specific: The Pope, neither of himself nor by any
authority of the church or see of Rome, or by any other means
with any other, hath any power or authority to depose the king or
dispose of any of his kingdoms or dominions, or to authorize any
other prince to invade or annoy him or his countries, or to dis
charge any of his subjects of their allegiance and obedience to his
majesty, or to give license to any of them to bear arms, raise tumult,
or offer any violence to his royal person, state or government.

576 CIVIL RELATIONS AND DUTIES.
The highly specialized form of this Article, noted in con-'
junction with its date and place, indicates quite clearly the
motives which led the Westminster divines to introduce into then
formulary the prohibitory clause respecting the possible intrusion
of the papal authority into the sphere of the civil magistracy in
Britain. There were practical reasons, such as the Irish Article
suggests, for guarding the English mind against all surrender to
the domination of Rome, in civil as well as in ecclesiastical affairs.'
The caution was heard and was carefully heeded, and the possi
bility of the interference of the papacy with the person or prerog
atives of the sovereigns of Britain was for the time, and probably
for all time, effectively shut out. The question of the succession
to the British crown has not been since the Reformation^ and is
now wholly unlikely ever to be, determined in Rome. Moreover,
the present measure of release from papal influence over civil
affairs in France, in Germany, and even in Austria and Italy, is
such as to preclude the probability of such political interference
through all the future. In view of all that has transpired
in political Europe since Pius IX. issued his famous Syllabus
Errorum in 1864, what is stated with so much emphasis in that
document (VI) respecting civil society and its subordination to
the church, seems like a dead and offensive anachronism. Still
less is the probability that any papal interference wiU ever be
felt potentially in such a country and under such a government as
ours. Yet it may as well stand, as for two centuries and more it
has stood, as one of the tenets of our Protestant faith : Much less
hath the pope any power or jurisdiction over civil magistrates in
their dominions, or over any of their people ; and least of all,
to deprive them of their dominions or lives if he shall judge them
to be heretics, or upon any other pretence whatsoever.
With this general conception of the nature arid functions and
rights of the civil magistracy in hand, we may now turn to con
sider the two chapters in the Confes-
uutw^r^ror. r tich ,apparently best prfesent
•ration. themselves for inspection in the light
of this general doctrine : the chapter
(XXII) on Lawful Oaths and Vows, and the chapter (XXIV)
which treats of Marriage and Divorce. While it is not altogether
easy to determine why these chapters, especially the former,
should be introduced into the creed, or should be introduced at this
point in the progressive evolution of doctrine, and in the particular
form given them, we may with profit study them as they stand,—

LAWFUL OATHS DEFINED. 577
taking up first the subject of the Oath, as presented in the first
four sections of chapter XXII. The general line of distinction
between an oath and a vow appears in the fact that an oath is
taken between man and man in the presence of God as witness,
while a vow is made between man and God as contracting parties.
In taking up the oath distinctively for present consideration, no
notice is necessary of profanity in general, oaths in a looser and
lower sense : what has been said already respecting all such vio
lations of the third Commandment will suffice. The oath, strictly
speaking, may be defined as a statement or promise or covenant
made to man as in the presence of God and under a sense of his
supervision, and of accountability to him, accompanied with an
appeal to him for the sincerity and truthfulness of what is stated
or promised. In other words, an oath is a pledge made to others
that what is uttered is true in itself and is uttered under such a
direct sense of responsibility. Paley (Mor. Phil. ) defines an oath
as a calling upon God to witness or to take notice of what is said,
with an impHed renunciation of his favor or invocation of his
vengeance if what is affirmed is false, or if what is promised is
not performed. The asseveration in the case is thus essentially
a religious act, the party acknowledging that the eye of God is
upon him as he makes his dedaration, and consenting in substance
that the truthfulness of what he declares shall be tested by the
divine adjudication. Belief in the existence of God, in his sov
ereign administration over human affairs, and in the reality of a
future state of award and punishment, is thus implied in the act.
That an element of imprecation enters, according to the view of
Paley, into the transaction is manifest — the person substantially
submitting his act to the divine judgment, with an acknowledg
ment of guilt and of in-desert if the oath be false. This impreca
tory element is often recognized in the form of the oath prescribed
by civil statutes. It is proper, however, to add the corresponding
thought that an oath also rightly involves a prayer that God
would accept the truthful statement or promise, and would bless
with his favor the attesting person.
Several classes of oaths are recognizable. There is an assert
ory or attestational oath, which consists of a simple affirmation
that what is stated is the truth, and the whole truth so far as
known to the person testifying, and nothing that is not true. There
is a promissory oath, which is a pledge to perform or execute
under certain specified conditions a covenant which has been made
between the covenanting party and some other person or persons.
A judicial oath is one taken in the course of justice, imposed by the

578 CIVIL RELATIONS AND DUTIES.
civil authority and under certain appointed forms of law : an extra
judicial oath is one made not under such civil obligation but vol
untarily, and in order to confirm some truth or covenant. There
are also particular oaths, such as the oath of office by those who
enter upon any public position or service, the oath of allegiance
or of conformity or abjuration, the purgatorial oath in which a
person swears that he is innocent of an offense charged. It will
be seen that what is common to all these varieties is a solemn
appeal to God for the truthfulness of what is said or done, and for
the sincerity of the speaker or actor ; — the person, in the language
of the first section, solemnly calling God to witness what he
asserteth or promiseth, and to judge him according to the truth or
falsehood of what he sweareth. The Heidelberg Catechism
(99-101) defines an oath to be a calling upon God as the only
searcher of hearts, to bear witness to the truth, and to punish if
one swears falsely ; authorizes the oath whenever the magis
trate requires it, or it may be needful otherwise to maintain and
promote fidelity and truth ; and declares that we must not by
false swearing, or by unnecessary oaths, or by silence or conniv
ance, violate the third commandment.
The right to make oath, and the corresponding right of civil
government to require oaths in certain appropriate circumstances,
have been recognized in crude form even among pagan nations ;
and such right is justified on both sides by both precept and
usage in the Old Testament, and also by our Lord and his
apostles. The objections to the act, urged by some Christian
minds and apparently sustained by certain sayings of Christ, are
dearly insufficient. What our Lord and the inspired James sought
to correct was the making of oaths for shght reasons or on trivial
occasions,, or in a manner inconsistent with the solemnity due to the
act ; .and perhaps especially, in the case of Christ, the swearing by
any other object than the Deity, however sacred. The name of
God only, it is said in section second of the chapter, is that by which
men ought to swear : to swear vainly or rashly by that name,
or to swear at all by any other thing, is sinful and is to be ab
horred. Under these conditions it is further said that, in matters
of weight and moment, an oath is warranted by the New Testa
ment as well as the Old, — all holy fear and reverence being
exerdsed. The making of oaths is therefore a just obligation on
the part of the Christian as of other men, and the right to require
such oaths may be enforced by lawful authority in state or church :
Digest 1898, p. 672. It is said to be a sin to refuse an oath touch
ing anything that is good and just, when thus imposed. The

OATHS : LIMITATIONS. 579
Augsburg and Second Helvetic Confessions and also the Thirty-
Nine Articles recognize the right of the dvil magistrate to impose
oaths, and the obligation of Christians both to make oath when
thus required and to meet faithfully every obligation thus acknowl
edged. On the other side, perjury— which is defined by Coke as
willful and absolute and false swearing in any matter material to
the issue when a lawful oath has been properly administered in
some judidal proceeding — is not only a crime under human law,
but a dreadful sin against God who is grievously insulted by being
caUed in as a witness to sustain a lie : L. C. 113. Subornation
of perjury, or the hiring or inducing of another to swear falsely,
is also regarded in ah Christian lands as both criminal and sinful.
The third section suggests certain limitations which it is im
portant to note. No dvil authority, for example, can rightly
require any man to bind himself by an oath to anything but what
is good and just, nor can any Christian under any stress of cir
cumstances submit to such ilHcit demand. An oath, it is tersely
said, cannot oblige to sin. The person swearing must himself
judge the requisition to be right, and the matter in question to be
such as he can conscientiously certify. In the case of a promissory
oath or pledge, he is limited by what he is able to perform, and by
what in his heart he is resolved to perform, if such ability con
tinues. For illustration, the oath of allegiance to a certain form
of government, or of conformity with certain prescripts or regu
lations of civil government, cannot rightly be taken by one who
is hostile to the authority imposing the oath, or who has it in his
heart to refuse such conformity : he may decline to take the oath
and suffer the consequences of such refusal, but he may not as a
Christian profess to assume an obligation which he does not in
tend to fulfill. British history, both prior to the Westminster
Assembly and subsequently, furnishes vivid examples both of
men who under the influence of fear or of cupidity or ambition or
some other kindred motive were guilty of duplicity such as this,
and of other and nobler men who refused the submission required
even at the cost of position, of property and support, and of life
itself. The fourth section introduces a new and very practical ques
tion in the proposition that an oath is always to be taken in the
plain and common sense of the words, without equivocation or
mental reservation. The Irish Articles (67) state the principle still
more fully in their declaration that the popish doctrine of equiv
ocation and mental reservation is ungodly, and tendeth plainly to
the subversion of all human society. This is a protest against

580 CIVIL RELATIONS AND DUTIES.
all trifling with the terms of a covenant or promise once made :
what is pledged, if it be a thing not sinful, binds to performance
always, although such performance be to our hurt. Any personal
loss that may follow from the pledge is to be faithfully endured,
since the possibility of such loss was involved or implied in the
original transaction, and since the other party expected that the
covenant would be fulfilled, and has an invincible right to de
mand such fulfillment. And it is added that an oath once taken
is not to be violated, though made to heretics or infidels. In other
words, the character of the opposite party, although it should
prove to be the worst possible, cannot absolve us from the obli
gation to do to them or for them what we have once solemnly
promised them before God, and under conscious accountability to
him, that we will do if the ability remains. Any harm or loSs that
could come from the execution of such a pledge would be incom
parably less important than that which would foUow our swear
ing falsely in the case. But on the other hand, if one has fallen
into the sin of taking an oath to do some wrong thing, such as
joining with others in committing some crime, there can be no
proper obligation to carry out such a wicked pledge : an unlawful
oath is ipso facto void. Subtle questions of casuistry will arise
here, such as the subsequent payment of ransom to a band of
robbers when life would be forfeited by the refusal of a promise to
pay ; and some such questions are, on both sides, very difficult
to solve. Yet the general law here laid down must stand; Nor is
it to be violated although made to heretics or infidels.
Pascal in his Provincial Letters has exposed with unflinching
fidelity, not only the theological errors and false doctrines of the
Jesuit order, but also those pernicious principles and maxims in
the sphere of morals, by which for a time that noted order cor
rupted aHke the minds and the lives of men, and for the inculca
tion and practice of which it has since his day been expelled as
an order from most of the countries of northern and central
Europe. It is the remark of an acute English historian that
casuistry, vibrating between the extremes of impracticable
severity and contemptible indulgence, has been the inevitable
outgrowth of the papal practice of confession and absolution. In
his discussion of the Jesuitic rule of probabilities, of thdr decep
tive teaching respecting intention as distinguished from action,
and of their theory of mental reservation, Pascal has shown how
utterly loose the order were in both opinion and usage, and how
ruinous their teaching must be to all sincere and manly and pure
life within the church. He has made it evident that they would

RELIGIOUS VOWS DESCRIBKD. 581
justify the violation of oaths, treachery to promises and cove
nants, deceit, judicial venality, calumny, falsehood, cheating and
theft, unchastity and even murder, where the avowed end, being
the glory of God and the upbuilding of his church, would seem to
be subserved by such departures from the plain law of Christian
integrity. He exposes in the most fearless and faithful manner
the utterly false prindples of ethics which underlay their cor
rupting counsels and practices, shows how the church must be
injured and vitiated through their teaching, and finally warns
them against the condemnation which must ultimately befall
them, and fuUy justifies himself in his exposure of their errone
ous belief and thdr immoral practice. Never has any organized
departure from sound morality, justifying itself under cover
of loyalty to the cause of religion, been compelled to face such
an exposure ; and well will it be if the Provincial Letters shall
stand as a perpetual warning to Romanist and Protestant alike,
against aU infidelity to oaths and covenants and promises among
Christian men.*
A vow, as distinguished from an oath, is a promise given to
God or a covenant made with God directly. It is said in the
fifth section of this chapter that a vow is
of like nature with a promissory oath; ?- The Reliffious Vow :
, , .. . , , , . Nature and wortn: Monas-
that it is not to be made to any creature tin _,_,
¦* tic vows.
but to God only; and that it ought to
be made with like religious care, and be performed with the like,
or even far greater temper of faithfulness, since in it we are deal
ing immediately with God and with God alone. The conception
of God as in sovereignty endowed with absolute right over us
and ours, of a gracious relation established between him and us
through Christ, of a loving intimacy instituted as within the
household, and of a filial desire on our part to show our regard
for him in this relation and our joyous readiness to give to him
as our Father whatever we can, underlies the entire doctrine of
*Maine (Ancient Law) says that the papal casuistry went on with its
dexterous refinements till it ended in so attenuating the moral features of
actions, and so belying the moral instincts of our being, that at length
the conscience of mankind rose suddenly in revolt against it, and consigned
to a common ruin the system and its doctors. The blow long pending — he
adds— was finally struck in the Provincial Letters of Pascal, and siace the
appearance of these memorable Letters no moralist of the smallest influence
or credit, has ever avowedly conducted his speculations in the footsteps of
the Casuists. — There is pungency as well as truthfulness in the famous epi
gram of that age : Si cum Jesuitis, non cum Jesu itis.

582 CIVIL RELATIONS AND DUTIES.
vows as held by Christians. In an inferior sense engagements,
or pledges solemnly made among men, as in the marriage con
tract, are characterized as vows : acts of special devotion or sac
rifice to some cherished interest, personal or pubHc, are some
times so described. But in the full sense a vow contemplates no
parties but God on the one side and the contracting or pledging
human actor on the other ; and thus viewed, it becomes in the
highest degree an act of reverence and adoration — an act of re
ligion. As such, vows were made specially in the form of votive
offerings to the deities of Greece and Rome, and are still made
almost universally among the special devotees of the various
natural faiths of the world. Frequent instances of vows and of
preceptive enjoining of vows are recorded in the Old Testament,
and occasional though less frequent examples appear in the New
Testament also. In some periods of the Christian church vows
of various classes have been extensively made and observed ; and
in general it may be said that the vow, like the oath, is a perma
nent, though not to all Christians alike or in all ages aHke, an
indispensable feature of practical religion.
The nature and validity of vows have been, espedally among
Protestants, matters of special discussion. Positive vows, such
as the free offering to God of things especiaUy dear or valuable to
us, are ordinarily designed to be expressions of gratitude or de
votion, — particularly in view of some danger averted, such as
recovery from serious illness or deliverance from shipwreck or
immunity in battle, or of some peculiar blessing received, such as
an unexpected inheritance or an unanticipated appointment to
some place of honor or profit. There are also what are termed
negative vows, which are simply pledges to abstain from some
evil courses, with an implied imprecation of divine disfavor in
the event of failure to carry out the promise thus made. The
religious vow is in general a special surrendery and devotion of
self to a religious life or work, in view of the divine claims, and
of the rewards supposed to be divinely pledged to those who make
such voluntary consecration. Interpreted as an offering of some
thing to God which is really not already due to him, the vow was
questioned, if not rejected, by both Luther and Calvin as involv
ing the Roman error of works of supererogation, — the assumption
that the Christian does not already belong altogether, body and
spirit, endowments and possessions, to God in Christ. Chris
tianity, as they maintained, includes the complete consecration
of self to the divine service — a consecration recognized in bap
tism and again in the act of confirmation, which ceremonies they

VOWS : THEIR LIMITATIONS. 583
regarded as comprehensive and ultimate vows. The Reformers
generaUy were led to similar conclusions through their intense
hostiHty to the monasticism, with its multiplied vows and its
flagrant violations of such vows, especially by the religious orders,
which constituted such a scandal in the century just preceding
the Reformation. Zwingli declares that those who make the
vow of chastity or celibacy such as the monastic system required,
are constrained to the act alike by stupid presumption and by
puerile arrogance. Various Confessions, from the Augsburg to
the Scotch, protest against all such vows, — the latter with char
acteristic fervor dedaring that those who take the three chief
Roman vows of continence, obedience and poverty, together with
all shavelings of sundry sorts, ab ecclesia Scoticana damnati sunt.
Yet there is Christian wisdom in the recognition of the doctrine
that vows under proper Hmitations, may be voluntarily made to
God in way of thankfulness for mercies received or for obtaining
what we want, or to bring ourselves thereby into closer relation
to him ; and that whenever thus made, such vows will be
acceptable to him. It is carefully said (sec. vii) that we are not to
vow to do any thing that is forbidden in the Word, or any thing
that would hinder us in the discharge of any duty commanded in the
Word : and further, that what is vowed must be something which
is within our own power, or something respecting which we have a
promise of gracious ability from God. The obligation in the case
is always inward and personal : neither the church nor the state has
the right to compd any one to make or to execute such subjective
pledges. It is also urged (sec. vi) that the vow must be made not
only voluntarily or without inward or outward compulsion, but out
of faith and conscience of duty — as a free expression of Christian
loyalty and love. The Augsburg Confession teaches that vows, if
made, should relate to what is possible, should be voluntary, should
be made sponte et consulto, and should be always in harmony
with divine law. Thus limited, vows may be as warrantable now
as during the Hebraic dispensation or in the first Christian cen
tury. In this sense Calvin, while earnestly protesting against
monastic vows and those who make them, admits (Inst. B.
IV : 13), that particular vows may be made with a biblical war
rant, but counsels that they be such as are sober and of short
duration. Certainly such vows are not precluded altogether by
the fact that all that we are and have belongs already to Christ,
and that we have nothing to give him which is not already his
own — bought with the incalculable price of his mediation and
sacrifice in our behalf. Such a view would detract as well from

584 CIVIL RELATIONS AND DUTIES.
the significance and acceptableness of all forms of sacrifice as
acts of worship, and all direct consecration of powers or time or
possessions to the divine service. The Thirty-nine Articles
(XIV) do indeed declare that voluntary works, over and above
the divine commandments, cannot be taught without arrogance
and impiety, since by them men declare that they do not only
render to God as much as they are bound to do, but that they do
more for his sake than of bounden duty is required. So the West
minster Confession (XVI : iv) teaches that they who in thdr obe
dience attain to the greatest height which is possible in this life,
are so far from being able to supererogate and to do more than
God requires, as that they faU short of much which in duty they
are bound to do. But these statements were clearly aimed, not
at truly pious vows made in the right spirit, such as we are now
contemplating, but at the false and pernicious theory of works
of supererogation — thebonum melius of Thomas Aquinas — which
Romanism has so long and strenuously maintained.
The subject of monastic vows, and particularly the vow of
celibacy and chastity, will come into view more fuUy in connec
tion with the biblical doctrine of marriage. But the wide variety
of sUch vows, including complete separation from the world, the
surrendering of all independent rights of property, the breaking
away from all natural and domestic relationships, devotion to
certain routines of religious observance, abstinence from food and
the endurance of special privations in body and person, conse
cration to some spedal form of religious service such as the care
of the sick, missionary labors and sacrifices in the interest of the
church, — all this wide variety of vows may be tested by the gen
eral principles just defined. It would certainly be a serious error
to pronounce sweeping condemnation on them all as at variance
with the doctrine and temper of spiritual Christianity. It cannot
be doubted that, in the instance of such men as Pascal and his
Port Royalist assodates, of such women as Madame Guyon, of
whom John Wesley said that much pure gold was mixed with
her conventual asceticisms, and that we may search many cen
turies to find a woman who was such a pattern of true holiness, —
in many such instances the vows made, the devotion and conse
cration offered to God, were truly and lovingly accepted of him.
Yet the sad fact remains that though justified by Rome in both
doctrine and practice, the monastic vow was even in the earlier
ages a fruitful source of delusion and spiritual degeneracy, and at
the date of the Reformation was almost chief among the wrongs.
the corruptions, the unspeakable mischiefs, against which Zwingli

MARRIAGE DEFINED : ITS WARRANT. 585
and Luther and Calvin were agreed in their magnificent pro
testations. We indeed need little more than appears in the
Provinda! Letters and in other authentic literature, to convince
us that monasticism with its vows and its violations, was from
first to last in fact, if not in theory, a cancerous excrescence upon
historic Christianity.
In taking up the important chapter (XXIV) which treats of
Marriage and Divorce, we should bear in mind the fact that we
are stiU contemplating matters which,
like the oath, have certain political »• Marriage, its founda-
aswell as ecclesiastical and spiritual JJ^,^™1"5 pol^am*:
rdations. For while marriage is pri
marily and chiefly an ordinance of God, and while the Scriptures
expressly define marriage, and lay down the fundamental law re
specting the divorcement of persons once united in marriage,
such is the constitution of human society that all civilized states
are constrained to recognize the matter, as in various aspects a
legitimate subject of both dvil and criminal legislation. Recog
nizing therefore the propriety of introducing such a chapter into
the Confession just at this point, we may turn first to consider
marriage itsdf as defined in the first four sections of this chapter,
and as more fuUy presented in the original Directory for Worship,
and espedally in the American emendation, Ch. XII. The sub
ject seems to have elicited considerable interest in the Assembly,
particularly in connection with the formulating of the Directory :
whether marriage is a religious or a civil contract, or both, —
whether it should be spoken of as a sacrament or act of worship, —
whether the ceremony should be performed by any other than a
minister, — whether heathen marriages are to be regarded as
true marriages, — whether marriages should always be solemnized
in a church, — whether certain hours or seasons should be desig
nated, — and finally whether it is needful that all these matters
should be specified in a Directory : Minutes, 6-12.
Using the term to describe, not the ceremony or transaction,
but rather the state of matrimony into which the parties are
introduced by such ceremony, whether under ecclesiastical or civil
warrant, marriage may be denned as a voluntary union of one
man and one woman, spirit and body, in a covenant and relation
as enduring as life, in accordance with the law of nature and the
ordinance of God. To use a current legal definition, marriage is
a contract (or relation) in which a man and a woman recipro
cally engage to live with each other during their joint lives, and

586 CIVIL RELATIONS AND DUTIES.
to discharge toward each other the duties imposed by law on the
relation of husband and wife. The basis for such union lies
partly in the sexual constitution and instinct of the contracting
parties, but mainly in their intellectual and social structure and
adaptations each to the other, and in their constitutional capacity
for such mutual affection as can be experienced in no other rela
tionship of life. Marriage is thus an institution founded in the
nature and mutual needs of the parties, God creating them male
and female, not physically alone, but esthetically and ethically
also, in order that such a relation might be established between
them, primarily for their mutual happiness and development, but
also for the continuation of the race through their union. Mar
riage thus contemplates the family and the home prospectively,
the birth Of children through such union and their nurture and
education within the household ; and beyond this the founding of
communities, the organization of tribes and of states, and the evo
lution of humanity along the lines which this domestic relationship
prescribes. Paley describes the design of this institution as being
first of all the comfort and growth and bliss of the persons thus
conjoined, then the production of children and the making of
suitable provision for their development and education within the
home, and finally the peace and security of society and the firmer
establishing of all government and of social and moral order among
men. Kent (Commentaries) declares that marriage has its foun
dation in nature, and is the only lawful relation by which Provi
dence has permitted the continuance of the human race. He
adds that in every age this institution has had a propitious influ
ence on the moral improvement and happiness of mankind, — that
it is one of the chief foundations of social order, and that we may
place to its credit a great share of the blessings which flow from
refinement of manners, the education of children, the sense of
justice, and the cultivation of the liberal arts.
The first section of this chapter affirms in brief terms that mar
riage was divinely ordained for the mutual help of husband and
wife, and for the increase of mankind with a legitimate issue,
and the increase of the church with a holy seed, — what Bushnell
(Christian Nurture) happily described as the outpropagating
power of the Christian stock — and further for the prevention of
such uncleanness and such consequent degeneracy physical and
moral as would exist in human society if there were no such
institution among men. The American Directory for Worship
speaks at length of the particular duties which are incumbent
on those who enter into this relation : — a high esteem and mutual

MARRIAGE : SANCTIONS AND LIMITATIONS. 587
love for one another, bearing with their several infirmities and
weaknesses, encouraging one another under the various ills of life,
comforting each other in sickness, in honesty and industry pro
viding for their mutual support in temporal things, praying for
and encouraging one another in things which pertain to God and
to their immortal souls, and living together as heirs of the grace of
life. The Directory adds also the more general statement that
marriage is not a private matter merely, but is rather of a public
nature ; that God himself has instituted it for the comfort and
happiness of mankind ; that the welfare of civil society, the hap
piness of families, and the credit of religion, are deeply interested
or involved in it ; and therefore that it is proper not only that
the church should sanction it, but that every commonwealth for
the good of society should make laws to regulate marriage — laws
which, it is added, aU citizens are bound to obey. The Directory
expresses the general view of Protestantism in the statement that
although an institution of such special sacredness, marriage is not
to be regarded as a Christian sacrament, belonging exclusively
to the church of Christ, but is a relation into which others than
believers may lawfully enter, and one whose holy obligations rest
alike on aU who agree to such covenant. It is not intended by
this teaching to imply that marriage has lost its religious quality
and is become a civil institution solely ; for among the services
which religion has conferred on the race, there are few of greater
value than the supernatural sanctity with which it has invested
this precious ordinance. In the debate in the Assembly on the
subject, Henderson held that marriage though not a sacrament,
is not to be regarded as a casual contract merely, but rather as a
covenant of God, which may not be dissolved by the mere con
sent of the parties : Minutes, 6-12. The Roman church regards
marriage as one of the five minor sacraments, declaring that the
grace which perfects natural love, which confirms marriage as an
indissoluble union, and sanctifies the married in their actual rela
tion, flows down upon the ordinance directly through the passion
and merit of Christ; and pronounces its anathema on all who say
that marriage is not thus one of the seven sacraments of the evan
gelic law, instituted by Christ the Lord : Syllabus Errorum, 8.
It is agreed by Protestants and Catholics alike that, while the
ceremony of marriage is primarily a religious act, resting for
its ultimate validity on the ordinance of God, and should there
fore whenever practicable be performed under the sanction of the
church, it is also a civil ceremonial, properly regulated by statu
tory legislation, and equally valid when celebrated in due form

588 CIVIL RELATIONS AND DUTIES.
by the civil magistrate. In some countries, where differences of
faith or other special reasons seem to require, a double ceremony,
civil and ecclesiastical, may be celebrated according to the special
prescripts of local law. The limitations as to relationship within
whose boundaries marriage is prohibited, were first defined in the
Levitic code, but these regulations have passed without essential
change into the legislation of nearly all Christian lands, and now
constitute in general the common as well as the biblical law on
the subject. Marriage, it is said in the third, section of this
chapter, ought not to be within the degrees of consanguinity or
affinity forbidden in the Word : it is justly added that no law of
man, nor any consent of the parties, can make such incestuous
marriages lawful. The ultimate warrant for such limitations lies
back of the Levitical law itself, and is found in the nature of the
relationships prohibited, and still more deeply in the constitution
of the family, and in certain physical conditions which are in
their nature and effect prohibitory. The only question under
this head which has arisen in recent times^the question whether
a man may lawfully marry the sister of a wife deceased — has gen
erally been answered in the negative both by church authority
and by civil enactment. In the original Confession, as accepted in
Great Britain, it is expressly stated that neither husband nor wife
may marry any kindred of a wife or husband deceased,; that may
be nearer to them in blood than their own kindred whom they
are forbidden to marry. But this rule has been stricken from the
American Confession (1887) and is no longer prescriptive law
within its domain, although there still exists an extensive senti
ment of disapproval of such marriages, based on certain possibili
ties of domestic and social harm which their recognition as legal
might involve.
Iti should be added here that in addition to the natural limita
tions just noted, the Confession urges a moral limitation in the
advisory declaration that, while it is lawful for all sorts of people
to marry who are able with judgment to give their consent, it is
the duty of Christians to marry only in the Lord ; and the term
Christian, is defined by the phrase, such as are godly, and by the
other phrase, so suggestive of the age in which the Confession
was written, such as profess the true Reformed religion. These
persons are here counselled against being unequally yoked in
marriage, not only with such as are notoriously wicked in their
lives, but also with such as maintain damnable heresies ; and it: is
also characteristic of the times and of the temper of the Assembly,
that the latter class are more specifically described as infidels,

POLYGAMY AND CONCUBINAGE. 589
papists or other idolaters. In the proposed Revision it was sug
gested that the phrase, damnable heresies, be omitted, and that
for the phrase, papists and other idolaters, there should be sub
stituted, adherents of false religions, — a statement at least suffi-
riently strong to secure all the practicable ends sought by such
counsel. Unquestionably the marriage of a believer with one who
does not believe in religion, and especially with one who on any
ground is openly opposed to the faith and church of Christ, is a
questionable step, and may sometimes prove to be a disastrous
mistake. Marriage as thus defined and limited, — a holy vow, covenant,
sacramentum, divinely ordained — is here set over against two
deadly sins, polygamy and concubinage in whatever form. Polyg
amy and its occasional counterpart in polyandry are crimes, not
only against the law of Scripture and the legislation of civilized
countries generally, but also against those laws of nature which
caU for the union, not of one man with several women or of one
woman with several men in a species of marriage, but of one man
with one woman only. We are confronted here by the fact, so fre
quently recorded in the Old Testament, that such unlawful and
unnatural connections existed among the Hebrews, as it also ex
isted and stiU exists extensively in the heathen world. The fact
is often perplexing and painful as it stands, but in the case in
question its darkness is relieved on one side by the obvious and
more and more strenuous commendation of monogamy in the Old
Testament as the only legitimate law for mankind, and on the
other by the clear and mandatory requisitions of the New Testa
ment, and espedally by the teaching of our Lord himself. Uni
versal Christendom will agree in substance, if not in form, with
the canon of the Council of Trent : If any one saith that it is
lawful for Christians to have several wives at the same time, and
that this is not prohibited by any divine law, let him be anathema.
Even among the Hebrews polygamy proved its poisonous qual
ity by its corrupting and degrading effects — effects faithfully
recorded in the earlier Scriptures. Among pagan peoples it has
in aU ages shown itself hostile in essence to all those better
influences which are centered in every home where one man and
one woman dwell together in sweet content amid the sanctities of
domestic life. The common law of nearly all civilized countries
pronounces polygamy not only an offence against public mor-
aHty, but a heinous crime against the state : see decision of
the U. S. Supreme Court. Nor can any one doubt that if the
institution of marriage were abolished, and polygamy were to

590 CIVIL RELATIONS AND DUTIES.
become a general substitute, not only the destruction of home but
the ruin of society itself would follow. It is certain that our
human life in this age has no foe more subtle, no enemy more to
be dreaded, than that socialistic anarchism which would subvert
human government, abolish all present laws and institutions, dis
solve among others the bond of holy wedlock, and thus render
society a burning hell of selfishness and passion and unholy lust.
Concubinage in whatever form is an evil equaUy great — a sin
equally dark and dreadful. Here again we are confronted by
the records of such concubinage among the patriarchs, and in the
later periods of Jewish history. But we are not to infer that God,
even in those infantile eras of moral development, approved what
for the time he did not imperatively prohibit. It may be that he
deemed it best to permit the experiment for a season, in order
that the lesson of abstinence from this evil might be more thor
oughly learned by all mankind. It is not wise to draw im
aginary lines here by way of justification, between polygamy and
concubinage as they existed among the chosen people, and the
same evils as they occurred and are still occurring in the pagan
world. However meliorated these offences may have been by the
presence and influence of a better religion, and however thor
oughly they were by degrees eliminated from Jewish life, they
could never have been anything else than offences in the eyes of
him who had taught Adam to say, Therefore shall a man leave
his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and
they shall be one flesh. Concubinage, even under the most help
ful restrictions of Hebrew or of Roman law, could never be made
a natural, a just, a permanent or a' holy state. It is painful to
be obliged to confess that this offence did not die out wholly under
the influence of early Christianity. As late as the fourth century
(Council of Toledo, A. D. 400) while married believers were ex
communicated for Having concubines, unmarried men were not
condemned for like indulgence. Still the wrong and evil of such
usage cannot be questioned under the Gospel : elements of lust
and degradation, of discord and misery, lie in the relation where
soever found. If marriage, as enjoined and blessed in the Bible,
is right and beneficent and happy, concubinage like polygamy
must be forever wrong, unholy and wretched.
The subject of celibacy, or of unwedded life, especially in the
interest of personal piety or of service within the church, requires
brief consideration at this point. Isaac Taylor (Ancient Chris
tianity) has told the remarkable story of the growth of this
opinion and usage in the early church, especially from the

CELIBACY. 591
third century onward. Abstinence from marriage was at first
supposed to be commended by Christ and afterwards more dis
tinctly by Paul, as an essential condi-
tion of higher and purer life in the »! P"bacy; Papf/ law:
*L Al . , . Protestant condemnation.
bdiever. But there is no historic evi
dence that during the first two or even three centuries it was in any
way enjoined, even upon the official members of the church. It
was at first regarded chiefly as a privilege which here and there a
saint, especially among the clergy, might fitly seek to gain ; but at
length it became, and during the long centuries before the Refor
mation continued to be a requirement and rule, — commended as
the only adequate qualification for service in the priesthood, and
enjoined by papal rescripts as well as by many eminent examples.
Prohibition of marriage as being an unholy state for those who
should minister at the altar, and including by degrees all the
minor dergy as well as the bishops and the higher orders of priest
hood, followed logically until in theory if not in practice celibacy
became for those in such positions, and finally for all monks and
nuns and monastics of whatever sort or grade, the imperative
law. That law was indeed often violated especially in the dark
ages by the marriage of priests, and probably still more fre
quently by the establishment of iUicit domestic relations ; but the
ecclesiastical requirement grew steadily both in the extent of its
reach and in its imperativeness, until it became, as it still is, an
essential condition of acceptable service in the offices of the
church. It was also believed that such abstinence from marriage
was an indispensable requisite to the attainment of special holi
ness, and that even sodal fellowship with persons of the other sex
was incompatible with purity of heart. It is said that for twenty
years Loyola, the founder of the order of Jesuits, never looked
upon the face of woman. Monks and nuns in all the various
monastic organizations of Rome counted it their duty for this
reason to lead in like manner an unwedded life — secluded from
all contact with the opposite sex. And the Council of Trent laid
down what may now be regarded as the indissoluble law of Ro
manism in the Canon : If any one saith that the marriage state is
to be placed above the state of virginity or of celibacy, and that
it is not better and more blessed to remain in virginity or in
celibacy, let him be anathema. Well said the eloquent Jeremy
Taylor : This was no law of God : it was against the rights and
against the necessities of nature : it was unnatural and unreason
able : it was not for the edification of the church : it was no
advantage to spiritual Hfe.

592 CIVIL RELATIONS AND DUTIES.
Against this doctrine, with all the mischiefs and sins involved
in it, which Wyclif as early as the fourteenth century had de
clared against as contrary to the Christian religion, the Reformers
from the first entered most indignant protest. ZwingH cries out,
Pfui der Schande ! I know of no greater scandal than the pro
hibition of lawful marriage to priests, while they are permitted
for money to have concubines. Luther, following the example
of Zwingli, indicated his view by breaking his monastic vow of
continence, and marrying Catherine von Bora,— a step which he
took, not only for his personal comfort amid his multiplied labors
and struggles, but also — he expressly declared — as a testimony
against the papal law. Calvin, while recognizing virginity as a
virtue not to be despised, and even commending it in certain con
ditions on the authority of Christ and of Paul, as he supposed,
affirmed (Inst. B. IV : 12) that the interdiction of marriage to
priests is an act of impious tyranny, not only contrary to the
Word of God, but at variance with every principle of justice ; men
having no right to prohibit what the Lord hath left free, espec
ially when God has provided in his Word, that liberty in this
matter should not be invaded. The Augsburg Confession takes
up the protest in most vigorous form, affirming that God hath
commanded to honor marriage, — that in all good commonwealths
even among the heathen, law hath adorned marriage with very
great honors,— that impure celibacy brings forth very many offen
ces, adulteries and other enormities, — that in the early church,
under the divine command, marriage was allowed and approved
to priests as to others, — that vows to refrain from marriage are
unlawful and void, — and that it is great crudty to enforce upon
priests the obligation of perpetual virginity. The second Helvetic
Confession is more moderate in terms but equally decisive in doc
trine. Marriage, it affirms (XXIX) was instituted by God who
blessed it richly, and indissolubly joined man and woman to live
together in intimate love and harmony . Yet it adds that those who
have the gift of celibacy from heaven, so as to be pure and continent
totoanimo, may serve the Lord in that vocation in simplidtyand
humility, but without exalting themselves above others. The
Saxon Confession, after pronouncing strongly in favor of wed
lock, declares with emphasis that the laws of the popes concern
ing single life, like the Turkish manner (polygamy) have caused
great deformity in this last old age of the world.
Without referring to other continental creeds, we may note the
considerate doctrine of the Thirty-Nine Articles (XXXII) that
bishops, priests and deacons (the three orders of the Anglican

DIVORCE DEFINED. 593
church) are not commanded by the law of God either to vow
the estate of single life or to abstain from marriage : therefore it is
lawful for them, as for all other Christian men, to marry at their
own discretion, as they shall judge the same to serve better to
godliness. The Westminster Confession goes farther (XXII : 7)
and declares that popish monastical vows of perpetual single life,
professed poverty and regular obedience— the three major vows
required of all Roman priests — are so far from being degrees of
higher perfection, that they are superstitious and sinful snares
in which no Christian may entangle himself. — These confes
sional affirmations suffidently indicate what is at present the cur
rent doctrine on this subject among the Protestant churches.
It may be noted here that the Greek communions generally, while
enjoining celibacy upon their bishops, require that all priests
should be married men : Lea, Sacerdotal Celibacy.
Without pausing to consider either the argument for marriage
from Scripture, such as appears in the recorded marriage of both
priests and apostles, and in the gen-
, „ , .. c . 10. Divorce; proper grounds:
end commendation of marriage as a otner all£gcd ;arrants*
divinely ordained condition within
the church ; or the strong natural presumption in favor of the
married state as being in general most conducive to health and
happiness, growth and usefulness ; we may now turn to consider
the second main topic in this very practical chapter — the topic of
Divorce, or the dissolution of the marriage contract and relation
by some competent authority.* What is contemplated here is
not a partial divorce or separation a mensa et toro, but a complete
divorce — a final separation a vinculo. Here it should be ob
served at the outset that no voluntary agreement by the original
parties, or any mere separation one from the other however
deliberate or prolonged, can legitimately effect such dissolution.
There was indeed an arbitrary power exercised in some instan
ces by husbands during the patriarchal period, and an approach
to such personal assumption among the Hebrews, even in the age
of Christ ; but no form of private divorce is admissible in the
Christian dispensation. In the language of the sixth section,
the persons concerned are not left to their own wills and dis
cretion in the case ; and the reason given is that the corruption
of man is so great that, left to himself, he would be apt to study
*It is a fact of some interest that the two sections treating of this sub
ject, and also the clause in the fourth section prescribing the limitations of
marriage, were stricken out by Parliament, when the Confession was for
mally presented to that body for approval, and never received its endorsement.

594 CIVIL RELATIONS AND DUTIES.
arguments to put asunder unduly those whom God hath joined
together in marriage. A public and orderly course of proceeding
is, it is said, to be observed in every case ; the parties cannot be
freed from their union otherwise.
In the absolute sense, God alone can absolve such parties from
their solemn vows or promissory oaths made in his presence, or
determine upon what conditions such absolution may occur. But so
far as the parties are members of the Christian church, that organ
ization by its proper representatives and in its own prescribed mode
of procedure, may act as judge in determining whether sufficient
reasons for divorce exist. And since marriage is a civil contract
also, — a contract in which the interests of government and society
are involved in any proposed abrogation of a covenant which the
state has once assisted in establishing, — the civil magistracy may
also sit in judgment upon the issue joined, and may even become
so far as society is concerned the final arbiter in the case. It
should be observed here that these two courts of adjudication
may not agree in their determinations, and must be in large
degree independent in their action. The church cannot annul the
civil contract : the state alone can dissolve the bond which the
state has established. The church cannot dictate law in the case
to the state, or require the civil authorities to fall in with its
opinions or decisions. Nor can the state compel the church to
accept its conclusions respecting the validity and equity of a civil
divorcement, or require the church to follow the civil verdict with
similar action within its own sphere. The state may grant divorce
on grounds which the church cannot approve or endorse, and the
parties may therefore stand as divorced in the eye of the civil
law, while in the judgment of the church they are still married,
and are sacredly bound to fulfill all the obligations and duties
involved in the married state.
The inquiry as to the legitimate grounds for divorce is there
fore one of most serious moment. A very strong presumption
against such legitimacy on any ground is derived from what we
have already learned respecting the nature and sacredness of the
marriage relation : if any such grounds exist, the evidence in
their favor should be clear, marked, conclusive. The Confession
names one ground on which ecclesiastical and dvil courts are uni
versally agreed— the fact of adultery by either party, not merely
aUeged but duly established. Here the authority of the seventh
commandment, regarded not merely as a Jewish law but as a
mandate of universal obligation — a mandate recognized in essence
even among pagan peoples, and viewed as imperative in all

LAWFUL AND ILLICIT DIVORCE. 595
Christian lands — must be accepted as sufficient and decisive. In
the case of adultery after marriage, it is declared in this chapter to
be lawful for the innocent party to sue out a divorce, before a civil
or an ecclesiastical tribunal, or both, and it is added that after a
divorcement is secured on this ground, the innocent party may
marry another as if the offending party were dead. It is also
said that adultery or fornication committed by one of the parties
after a contract or engagement of marriage has been formed,
when detected before marriage has actually taken place, constitutes
for the same reason suffident ground for annulling such contract
or engagement, — thus releasing altogether the innocent party
from the covenant once made. It should be added that the course
here described as to married persons is not compulsory in such a
sense and degree that the separation must imperatively take place,
or that the court concerned must by some form of coercion com
pel such separation. For it is possible to suppose that, flagrant
as the offence in question must always be, there may still be con
siderations in an3r given case of such importance, such as the
necessities of dependent children, or the penitence of the offender,
or certain extenuating circumstances in the transaction, as would
justify the condoning of the offence, and the forgiveness of the
transgressor. But the reason here named is always sufficient :
adultery as an act is itself an abrogation of the sacred contract
binding the parties together, and therefore de facto and de jure
it works a dissolution of that contract.
A second ground of divorce which is generally recognized by
both ecclesiastical and legal tribunals as sufficient, is described in
section sixth, as such willful desertion as can no way be remedied
by the church or the civil magistrate. Here serious diversities of
judgment exist as to what constitutes willful desertion : statute
laws and court decisions vary widely ; very inadequate emphasis
is sometimes laid upon the phrase ; the absence of one of the
parties may be the result of agreement or connivance, or merely
a shift made in order to secure liberty to form a second matri
monial connection ; and civil tribunals are sometimes grossly
culpable in granting decrees of divorce on this general ground,
when the facts in sight warrant no such decision. At the same
time it is but just, in the light of Scripture and in the judgment
of the Christian church generally, that willful desertion in the
full and weighty sense of that phrase — the voluntary and perma
nent abandonment of one party by the other, involving as it must
the continuous failure to discharge the duties once acknowledged
and assumed in the marriage covenant — should stand by the side

596 CIVIL RELATIONS AND DUTIES.
of adultery itself as a reasonable ground of divorcement. The
Assembly during the discussion on this subject defined its own
view in the specialized proposition that, if either of the married
persons forsake their yoke fellow, and by no means that can be
used by the party forsaken or friends or magistrate will be re
duced, after sufficient time, set down by the magistrate and made
known to the party that so desireth, it is lawful for the innocent
party to marry another : Minutes, 280. Such desertion is now
recognized as in fact a forcible annulling of the covenant by the
absent party, and is even — as it has been described — a species of
constructive adultery, for which the innocent party thus aban
doned has an inherent right to all the relief which human courts
civil or ecclesiastical can equitably give.
Beyond this point civil and ecclesiastical opinion and usage
vary widely. In fact the Christian church admits in general no
other legitimate and adequate grounds for divorce than the two
just named, while human law and court decisions in different
states and countries recognize many other grounds of action, some
of them obviously weak and insufficient: absence for brief periods,
imprisonment for crime, disagreement in domestic policy, diversity
of interest, failure to provide, incompatibility of temper, sudden
quarrel, offensive habits, habitual intemperance, physical impo-
tency, insanity, cruelty of disposition, harsh treatment, rude
language, and a multitude of other relatively trivial and inadequate
reasons or excuses. It is a lamentable fact that in Great Britain
and in other countries of Europe, and especially in some of the
United States, civil divorcement on such illicit grounds has become
prevalent to an extent that is not only unscriptural, but grossly
immoral, and highly injurious in many ways to the good order and
welfare of society. So careful and just an authority as President
Woolsey (Divorce and Divorce Legislation) has shown conclu
sively that the divorce laws in several of these States are shame
fully lax and inadequate, and has made it evident to all candid
minds that these commonwealths are in practical danger of
becoming, as he states it, teachers and propagators of low views
on the whole subject of marriage. In support of this statement
he has cited in brief the downward progress in legislation, the
rapid multiplying of alleged causes for divorce, the startling
increase in the ratio of divorces to marriages, and the extensive
degeneration of morals and the vast domestic and social miseries
consequent upon such mischievous legislation.
While President Woolsey has clearly shown that there is urgent
reason for thorough reform in both law and practice respecting

DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 597
divorce, he has also wisely said that the leadership in such reform
pertains of right to the Christian church. To the honor of Roman
Catholicism it should be admitted that, as a result partly of its
dogma that marriage is one of the appointed sacraments of relig
ion, a positive gift of grace and consequently in its nature indis
soluble, and partly for other reasons, the church of Rome holds
high ground, higher even than some Protestant communions, on
this whole subject. The Anglican communion both in Britain and
in the United States has also taken important action in defense of
the biblical rule, and in protest against miscellaneous divorcement.
Increasing interest in the subject and a growing determination to
resist the loose theories and looser practice current within the civil
Sphere, are becoming apparent in other denominaitons. Amer
ican Presbyterianism has repeatedly expressed through its highest
judicatory (Digest, 1898, p. 99) its opposition to divorce on other
than bibHca! grounds, and its regret at the prevalence in many
parts of the country of unscriptural views of the marriage rela
tion, and at the growing disregard of the obligations imposed by
that relation, and the frequent separations and divorces for slight
and unwarrantable reasons. What is needful everywhere in both
church and state is a more profound and effectual recognition of
the fact that marriage, at least in the Christian sense, is not a
contract merely, but a relationship, founded in the divine ordi
nance and in the human constitution, and sanctified by the deepest
convictions of men in all Christian countries — a relationship
fraught with permanent consequences in respect to temporal inter
ests, especially within the home, and in the care and training of
the offspring of marriage, and therefore dissoluble only when it
has been made void through the adulterous life of one of the par
ties, or in other ways worthy of equal reprobation. The Christian
Church at least can do nothing else than to stand firmly on the
strong foundation of Scripture, approving marriage and pronounc
ing upon it, wherever worthily entered into, its holy benediction;
and protesting against and in every practicable way resisting all
forms of divorcement which are in letter or spirit contrary to the
Word of God.
It is not possible here to enter into the discussion of many
questions which may arise in connection with this subject. It is
apractical inquiry whether separation a mensa et toro, if prolonged
by choice, should be permitted to continue without interposition
by the church, — whether church judicatories should acquiesce in
the decisions of civil courts granting divorce on other than biblical
grounds, — whether ecclesiastical authority should be exercised in

598 CIVIL RELATIONS AND DUTIES.
such cases to compel obedience to the obligations of the marriage
contract or to punish their violation. It is also a practical question
whether a person divorced by the act of the other party, and on
other than biblical grounds, is still entitled as before to church
privileges, — whether such person is at liberty, being blameless, to
marry again, — whether the offending person may marry after
divorce has been granted, and the person sinned against has been
set -free from the marriage vow, — whether a minister may officiate
at marriages of this sort or countenance them. On such specific
queries there is considerable variation of judgment among both
individuals and churches. It is probable that no fixed rule can
be laid down which would equitably meet all the particular cases
occurring, especially in view of the wide variety of opinion and
action in various states and countries. The general principles
involved are sufficiently clear, and the mind and conscience of the
common Christianity may be trusted to make all needful applica
tion. At the close of this survey of the teachings of this chapter,
and of so much in other parts of the Confession and in the subor
dinate Symbols as bears upon the civil
11. Christianity and the . .. , , .. . _/\ i. ,
State : mutual duties. relations and duties of Christians and
of the church, it will be well to empha
size the fact that during the long period since these Symbols were
written, and especially in our own country, such relations and
duties, instead of declining in importance, have assumed even
greater significance and were never more momentous or solemn
than now. Though we are not called to struggle as the divines
of Westminster and the Independent party of Milton and Crom
well struggled, for due recognition of the plain truth that God
alone is Lord of the conscience, yet true liberty of conscience is
still by no means free from peril in new and perhaps equally
dangerous forms, and must therefore be asserted and defended
with an earnestness and courage in no degree less than that
which led some of these men to prison and even to death in its
behalf. Though the state, as we know it and live under its
aegis, is another and very different institution from the England
of the era of the Long Parliament, yet now as then civil gov
ernment is to be regarded as an ordinance of God for his own
glory and the public good, and as such has an unabated right
to the support of all Christian citizens, even when it wields
the power of the sword to maintain its own existence, or for the
defense and encouragement of the good and the punishment

CHRISTIANITY AND THE STATE. 599
of them that do evil within its domain. Though we are in
no apparent danger of suffering from the assumed right of the
state to dictate systems of doctrine or forms of order and worship
for the regulation of the church, or on the other hand from the
effort of any church or sect to exercise jurisdiction in civil affairs,
yet we may neither forget at what great cost the present balance
and adjustment between these two primal institutions of human
society has been won, nor neglect the constant and the inalienable
duty of watchfulness lest what we possess should be disturbed or
impaired on either side. Though the significance of the oath as
a test of loyalty or a protest against tyranny, or as a sign of con
formity to the prescripts of an established church, has passed
measurably away, yet the oath as an attestation in the presence of
God to the truthfulness of our testimony and our word, remains
an observance of inestimable value, and one which ought to be
required and exercised as a reHgious act. The pious vow, though
no longer required in any sacerdotal sense, is still a privilege, if
not a duty, laid upon the heart and conscience of each believer.
So marriage is as sacred a covenant and relation now as when
these Symbols were written, and is even more exposed to the
assaults of wicked men and to corrupt social usages, and must
therefore like the Sabbath and other kindred institutes of our holy
religion, be defended and preserved by every resource within our
reach, — the law of Christ determining alike our view of it and
our opposition to whatever loose principle or practice may seem
to be subverting it. In all such directions it is our duty as
Christian men, and as well the duty of the Christian church of
whatever name, to stand firmly by that inheritance of liberty and
of righteousness within the civil sphere which we have received
from a devout and heroic ancestry.
The general connections of Christianity and the Christian
church, with civil society and with human states, were never so
intimate, so complex, so interesting and vital as now. The limi
tations imposed by these studies permit only the briefest allusion
to this very broad and practical subject. We may see at a glance
that there is much which society and the state may do, and ought
to do, in furtherance of our holy faith. Civil protection and civil
support may justly be granted to the Christian church in all avail
able ways, such as the guardianship of ecclesiastical organizations
in the exercise of their legitimate rights, the exemption from
taxation of property devoted to the cause of religion, the preser
vation of the Sabbath, peaceable assembling for religious worship,
the enforcement of law in the interest of piety and morality,

600 CIVIL RELATIONS AND DUTIES.
the requisition of the oath in civil tribunals, the prohibition
of blasphemy and profanity as injurious to the moral welfare
of society. Civil government in this age of the world cannot
regard Christianity and atheism with equal favor, since Chris
tianity is always the sure and strong ally of just government,
while atheism in all its forms tends always to anarchy and to the
destruction of organized society. Regarded simply as a benefi
cent organization, unselfishly maintained for the inculcation of
sound morals, the enforcement of mutual duties and the preserva
tion of the mutual welfare of men, the Christian church has a
claim to support and protection, privilege and immunity, which
no worthy state can or will refuse to recognize.
On the other hand, we may at a glance discern far greater
services which the church may render to the state and to human
society. Our holy faith is more and more perceived to be the
strongest, most pervasive and enduring factor in the elevation,
the support, the practical direction and inspiration of human gov
ernment. While Christianity has its own sphere and functions
with which the state may not intermeddle — a sacred imperium in
imperio within which no sovereign but Christ may rule — it enters
by divine design and authority into the civil and social sphere at a
thousand points as an exalting and sanctifying power, affecting
legislation, influencing judiciary, animating administration, and
in multiplied ways lifting the state and society into nobler quality
and a worthier and more beneficent experience. So far as the
present world is concerned, the ultimate aim of Christianity as a
religion, and of the church as an institution, is nothing less than
the establishment of the Kingdom of God among men, as the
supreme fact in human life. And in securing that transcendent
end it is the mission of Christianity and the church, not only to
renew the individual man, but to regenerate human society also, —
to bring all governments, states, civilizations, to their highest
possible level by bringing them into due subordination to that
august Kingdom of grace which is the final antecedent and pre
cursor to the Kingdom of glory.

LECTURE TWELFTH— THE CHURCH OF GOD.

Church Visible and Invisible : Communion of Saints :
Constitution and Membership : Officers and Govern
ment : Denominations : Church Councils : Presbyteri
anism : Headship of Christ : Church Growth.
C. F. Ch. XXV : XXVI : XXX : XXXI. L- C. 62-65 ;
190-192. Form of Gov. Ch. I-III, VIII. Book of Disci
pline, Ch. I. Direct, for Worship, Ch. X-XI.
Thus far in these studies we have meditated upon our Holy
Faith as it has revealed itself in the person of Christ the Savior,
and in the process and experience of personal salvation in and
through him. We have contemplated the Christian man as sanc
tified through grace and guided by the Spirit into various spheres
of duty and service, in happy obedience to the divine law. But
Christianity is in its nature a social as well as personal religion;
it has a gracious mission to mankind as associated in the family
and the state: it is a part of its restorative work to regenerate
human society, and to bring the race as well as the individual into
loyal obedience to God in Christ. And the agency through which
chiefly it accomplishes this social mission and work is the
Church, — the Church as an essential constituent in the divine
plan of salvation from the first, and as an institution enduring
as the family, more permanent and more vital to man even
than the state, — an organism supematurally fitted to do a work
which the individual Christian could never do, and to maintain
the honor of God and the perpetuity of revealed religion, as no
other instrumentality could possibly maintain them. Here, in the
possession of such an agency, Christianity manifests its incalcu
lable superiority to all the natural faiths of the world, and here,
in the weighty powers vested in the Church and in the grand
commission given it, may be read the assurance that Christianity
shall yet become the universal religion of mankind.
The prominence which the doctrine of the Church held in the
estimation of the Westminster divines is illustrated, not only by
the fact that a very large proportion of their time was given to
the subject in its various aspects, but by the special fact that no

602 THE CHURCH of god.
less than seven of the thirty- three chapters in the Confession, and
nearly one sixth in bulk of the entire formulary, and a still larger
proportion (if worship be included) in the two Catechisms, are
devoted to its exposition. And if to this there be added the Form
of Government, the Directory for Worship, and the Book of Dis
cipline, which are concerned chiefly with the constitution and
proper administration of the Church, this prominence becomes
still more apparent. What we have already learned respecting
the peculiar position of the Assembly, as the representative agent
of British Presbyterianism in its struggle to become the national
Church of Britain, will sufficiently explain the elaborateness and
the emphasis of its teaching on this subject. — In taking up the
theme thus presented, it will be of advantage to postpone for
future consideration the chapters (XXVII-XXIX, and part of
XXI) which treat of the sacraments and means of grace and wor
ship, and to confine attention to the four chapters (XXV-VI :
XXX-XXXI) which bring into view the Church itself, its
material, organization, and authority as a divine institution.
It will enhance our estimate of the importance of the doctrine
thus extensively presented in the Symbols, if we glance at the
prominence given to the Church, in the
the Churl?3 Papaferrorl several asPectS Just named> in the sym"
Signs of the True Church, bolism of the Reformation generally.
The Council of Trent did not take up
the doctrine of the Church for specific consideration, but con
tented itself with an exposition of the sacraments major and
minor, and of the priestly orders and the hierarchy. Yet there is
assumed throughout its decrees and canons that unbiblical and
corrupting conception of the Church as the one only inspired, infal
lible, authoritative representative through the papacy, of Christ
and his grace among men, against which the Reformers one and all
so earnestly protested. What the papal doctrine was, and still
is, may be seen in the Syllabus Error um, in the extensive para
graphs (V-VI) which treat of the Church and its rights, and of
its relations to civil society. It cannot be said that Protestant
ism, in its opposition to the papal dogma, was always clear or
always consistent in its antithetic teaching. Numerous questions
arose among the Reformers in regard to the type of church
organization which should be substituted for that of Rome, to the
jurisdiction and the proper prerogatives of such organization, to
the kind and measure of authority vested in its officers, and many
other associated matters. These questions could not, in the stress
and struggle of the times, be answered in a moment, and the

PAPAL AND PROTESTANT DOCTRINE. 603
Protestant cause suffered incalculably from this inability. The
criticisms and taunts of the defenders of the papal dogma could
not be fully met by a Protestantism divided and to some extent
discordant at these important points. Nor indeed have divisions
and discord ceased wholly even to this hour. The problem of
the Church is still largely an unsolved problem ; questions of
organization, jurisdiction, authority, are still springing up on
many sides to agitate Protestant churches, and to damage those
supreme interests of spiritual Christianity which these churches
together represent.
Still the creeds of the Reformation, both Lutheran and Re
formed, abound in illustrations of the fact that Protestantism was
from the beginning profoundly interested in the doctrine. The
Augsburg Confession here, as at so many other points, strikes
the note to which the subsequent Confessions respond, in its
affirmation (VII) that there is but one holy Church which is to
continue forever, — that this Church is the congregation of saints
or of believers, — and that it may be known by the fact that the
Gospel is rightly taught or preached in it, and the Christian sacra
ments are rightly administered. Luther in his Catechism sub
stitutes the word, Christian, for the historic word, catholic, as
it appears in the three ancient creeds, but affirms in general
the teaching of Augsburg. The Formula of Concord, without
attempting a direct definition, carries the same general doctrine
throughout its discussion of certain particular truths, such as the
ceremonies of the true religion, in opposition to the papacy on one
side and to anabaptism and kindred heresies on the other. Zwingli
dedares that the truly catholic Church, the spouse of Christ, is
the communion of such as are saints, and with democratic fervor
affirms that all Christians are brethren of Christ, and therefore
brethren among themselves, — meanwhile insisting earnestly that
the hierarchy of Rome has no warrant whatever in holy Scrip
ture. The Theses of Berne, a minor Swiss creed which strongly
illustrates the influence of Zwingli and other Swiss leaders, de
dares that the holy Christian Church is born of the Word of God,
makes no laws or commandments contrary to that Word, sets
aside all merely human traditions, and listens not to the voice of
strangers. The First Helvetic Confession, like the Formula of
Concord, presents no formal definition, but assumes apparently
the correctness of the general Protestant teaching on the subject.
But the Second Helvetic here as often elsewhere is much more
specific in its Article (XVII) on the Catholic and Holy Church
of God : declaring that there always was, is now, and to the end

604 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
of time shall be, a Church or assembly of believers called and
gathered from the world, who know and worship the true God in
Christ, our Savior, and by faith partake of all the benefits freely
offered through him, — that there needs to be but one such Church,
catholic or universal, spread through the whole earth and enduring
through all ages, — that this Church can have no other head than
Christ, all other headship such as that of Rome being a tyran
nical usurpation,— and that this one Church may properly be
divided into particular churches, — parties and divisions that are
destructive of the true unity, being guarded against; God also
overruling these when they occur, for his own glory and for the
illustration of truth.
It is hardly needful to quote the teaching of the later conti
nental symbols ; the French and the Belgic and others bdng in
substantial harmony with the doctrine enunciated in the Second
Helvetic creed, or scarcely going beyond it. The interesting fact
may be mentioned that the first of these, while affirming that
there can be no church where the Word of God is not received and
submitted to, and on this ground condemning the papal assembHes,
as the church of Rome is styled, still admits (XXVIII) that some
trace of the true church is left in the papal communion, inasmuch
as the virtue and substance of baptism have been retained in it.
The Scotch Confession contains two somewhat elaborate articles
(XVI and XVIII) on the Kirk, and on the Notes and Signs by
which the true Kirk may be discerned from the false, — artides in
connection with which the terrific arraignment and condemnation
of the church of Rome in the Second Confession, or National
Covenant, should be read by way of comment. Three of the
Thirty-Nine Articles (XIX-XXI) discuss the doctrine, and with
greater coolness and discrimination : affirming on one side that
the visible church is a congregation of faithful men in the which
the pure Word of God is preached, and the sacraments are duly
ministered, in all those things that are requisite to the same, — this
church having authority to decree other rites and ceremonies: but
on the other side strongly declaring with Saxon positiveness that,
although this church be a witness and a keeper of Holy Writ, it
may not ordain any thing that is contrary to the Word of God
written, or decree anything beside or beyond the same as a mat
ter of belief necessary to salvation — such things having neither
strength nor authority unless it may be declared that they be
taken out of the Holy Scripture.*
*Earclay in his Apology (Prop. X : 3) representing the view of the dis
ciples of George Pox, omits the administration of the sacraments and also

MARKS OF THE TRUE CHURCH. 605
On the general question suggested by this survey of the Prot
estant formularies, as to the signs or marks by which the true
Church may be distinguished from all false or corrupted organiz
ations claiming that name, an interesting discussion arose during
the first decade of the Reformation which continued through the
next century, and which in modified form is still continued. The
papal answer included four visible and essential elements,— apos-
tolicity, or the headship of the Roman pontiff, oneness and in
fallibility in faith, authoritative observance of the sacraments,
and (secondarily) a geographic center and an ecumenical juris
diction. Winer (Comparative View of Creeds) states that the
Romanists define the Church as the fellowship of those baptized
into Christ, — a feUowship founded upon earth by Christ under his
representative, the pope, as its visible head. Bellarmine gives
the three notes, true profession of faith, communion in the sac
raments, and submission to the legitimate pastor, the Roman
pontiff. In this view the Church is regarded as a visible society,
having certain divine attributes and prerogatives, and endowed
with saving grace, with which there must be personal union in
order to salvation. It is therefore externally, visibly, and contin
uously, one and catholic or universal as the world in its dominion.
Protestantism on the other hand was constrained by its ex
tensive distribution into civic, provincial, national churches
throughout northern Europe and in the British Isles to emphasize
the position that the true Church is indeed one but invisible as
one, and that ah these visible communions, separated by many
geographic and poHtical lines, are coequal parts of that one
invisible Church. It was constrained also to substitute for the
notes or signs emphasized by the advocates of Rome three sim
ple but indispensable marks, belief in the Gospel, preaching of
the Word, and due administration of the sacraments. The quo
tations from its symbols already given sufficiently illustrate the
general doctrine in which aU were agreed : wherever these three
signs appeared, there they were ready to recognize a true church
of Christ. The Belgic Confession speaks for all in its statement
the official preaching of the Word, and defines the Church as simply a com
pany of persons who have been led to believe the principles and doctrines of
Christianity, and who being united in love and experience, assemble together
to wait on God and worship him, to bear testimony for the truth, and to in
struct and care for one another, according to their several measures and attain
ments. In wide contrast with this statement is the formal declaration of
Greek Christianity : The Church is a divinely instituted community of men,
united by the orthodox faith, the law of God, the hierarchy and the sacra
ments.

606 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
that the marks by which the true Church is known are these : If
the pure doctrine of the Gospel is preached therein, if it main
tains the pure administration of the sacraments as instituted by
Christ, if church discipline is exercised in punishing of sin : in
short, if all things are managed according to the pure Word of
God, all things contrary thereto rejected, and Jesus Christ ac
knowledged as the only Head of the Church. Though there
were differences among the Reformers as to what belief in the
Gospel signified or implied, and to the real signification of the
sacraments, especially that of the holy supper, they were so con
scious of oneness in spiritual experience and of the substantial
oneness of the great interest for which they were all. battling,
that they were ready to minimize all such differences, and to join
hands in covenant over their broader and deeper agreements.
Such conscious unity was on one side a natural result of their
strong belief in the doctrine of justification by faith, and their
uncompromising acceptance of this truth as the foundation of
their religious hope : on the other side it came from their joint
struggle with their papal adversaries, and from the firm conviction
that, unless they could thus stand together on the basis of their
united connection with the one great Church Invisible, they and
their doctrine must soon perish together.
Augustine had stated the doctrine of the Church of God as
invisible, as comprising the people of God throughout all nations,
all saints being joined and thereunto numbered who lived in this
world even before the coming of Christ, so believing that he would
come, even as we believe that he hath come. But it was Calvin to
whom especially Protestantism owes the distinction between the
Church visible and the Church invisible, with which the West
minster Confession introduces its exposition of the whole subject.
Calvin defined the Church (Inst. B. IV : 1) as the whole multi
tude dispersed all over the world, who profess to worship one
God and Jesus Christ, who are initiated into his faith by baptism,
who testify their unity in true doctrine and charity by a particiT
pation of the sacred supper, who consent to the Word of the Lord,
and preserve the ministry which Christ has instituted for the pur
pose of preaching it. He proceeds to say that in this universal
Church are comprehended particular churches distributed ac
cording to human necessity in various towns and villages, and
that each of these respectively is justly distinguished by the name
and authority of a church. He emphasizes over and over the
two great marks, the faithful preaching of the Word and the
right ministration of the sacraments ; asserts that wherever these

THE WESTMINSTER STATEMENT. 607
are, the fruits of true piety will certainly be produced ; and de
dares, doubtless with reference to the diversities of opinion then
current within Protestant circles, that no society in which these
fruits abound, ought ever to be rejected or even challenged,
though it might be chargeable with many faults. He exhorts to
patience with imperfections and considerateness even toward
error, warns against undue zeal for righteousness and the Dona-
tistic demand for complete holiness within the household of
faith, and avers that each true church will be known everywhere
by its illustration of the gentle and loving temper of Christ and
of Paul, the patient apostle. It is needless to describe further
his position and teaching. Those who are accustomed to regard
that great leader of the Protestant host as a narrow dogmatist,
unwilling to yield his own convictions to any stress of argument or
any pressure of holy charity, might gain a more just view of him
if they would but read with care and candor what he has thus
written. If the lofty conception of the one true Church of Christ,
cathoHc and invisible in form, but evermore one and indivisible
in faith and life, has obtained a firm foothold among Protestants,
the credit is due first of all, to the profound sage of Geneva.
The exposition of the doctrine of the Church in the Westmin
ster Symbols (Chap. XXV) commences with two important defi
nitions. The first is a definition of the
¦ • -t-1 ™_ i , • , - 1 n j 2. Westminster statement:
invisible Church, which is also called CnurchinvislbleanflvlslWe.
the catholic or universal Church, and
which consists of none but elect and regenerate persons, and of
all the regenerate, who through all the past, or at present, or
through all the future, have been, are, or shall be saved through
Christ, and of all these conceived of as gathered into one body,
real though invisible, of which body Christ is the only and the
perpetual head. The material of which this invisible body is
composed, consists of none but those who, in the language of the
Larger Catechism (65-6) enjoy union and communion with Christ
in grace and glory. Their union in grace is said to lie in the fact
that they are spiritually and mystically, yet really and insepara
bly joined to him as their head and husband — a conjunction which
is said to be formed at the time of their effectual calling and con
version. The language carries us almost to the verge of that weird
conception of a mystical union of natures — an organic unity of
will and constitution, which has fascinated a certain class or type
of minds at various periods in the development of spiritual Chris
tianity. But the correction to that error appears in the following
chapter, which affirms that the communion that saints have with

608 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
Christ doth not make them in any wise partakers of the substance of
his Godhead, or to be equal with him in any respect,— a fancy
which is justly pronounced impious and blasphemous. This grac
ious communion lies rather, it is said (69) in their justification
and adoption and sanctification, and in all those selected benefits
which come upon them as sharers in the virtue of his mediation.
Thus defined and limited, the invisible Church presents itself to
our view as the grandest conception of human fellowship in one
holy organism which it is possible for the mind of man to frame —
an organism which though invisible is yet more real and potent
than the strongest earthly empire, and which extends over aU
lands and oceans, and finds its hallowed material on every conti
nent and every island of earth.
The second definition is that of the visible Church, also viewed
as catholic and universal, which is said to consist of all those who
openly profess the true religion, together with their children, —
not a national church like the Hebraic, constituted under the
Mosaic law, but an organization which knows no boundary of race
or country, and which finds its membership wherever men are
ready to affirm their allegiance to Christ, and to enter into organic
union with his avowed followers. The qualification for such
visible membership lies not in any natural endowment or pecul
iarity but in the voluntary profession of the Christian faith, and
the public covenant to live in obedience to the Christian rule. It
is not to be presumed that such connection is always the same
thing as membership in the invisible Church, since the profession
and covenant may not in every case represent, though they may
be presumed generally to represent, such holy and blessed union
with Christ himself. The visible Church, as thus constituted
of professing believers, is further said to be the kingdom of the
Lord Jesus Christ in this world : no other conception of a divine
kingdom established or to be established in the world, apart from
the Church visible and invisible, or consequent upon it, is men
tioned in the Symbols. This Church is also called, in the
phrase of Scripture, the house and family of God on earth — the
brotherhood of believers. As such it is entirely oblivious of aU
those distinctions of capacity, endowment, possessions, position
or influence among men, which reveal themselves more or less
prominently in all the natural fellowships and unions of human
life. Within its sacred circle there is no room for any racial or
political or social or personal differentiations. Barbarian, Scy
thian, bond and free, male and female, make one and the same
profession, and in virtue of that one profession stand together on

THE CHURCH VISIBLE. 609
a common level as to mutual right and privilege. It is also
noticeable that children are here counted as members of the visible
Church in virtue, not of their own personal profession which
they are incompetent to make, but of the profession and cove
nant made by their parents, and of whose privileges they are,
under the law of nature which makes the family organically one,
permitted to share. This feature will come again into view, in
connection with the matter of church membership and of infant
baptism : here it is needful only to note its introduction.
One affirmation in this definition demands special notice, — the
statement that outside of this visible Church there is no ordinary
possibility of salvation. Similar statements, in some cases much
less guarded, appear in several of the earlier symbols. . The Augs
burg Conf. dedares that the promise of salvation is not given to
those who are outside of the church of Christ : the Second Helv.
that, as there was no safety outside of the ark of Noah, so there
is none outside of Christ, and those who wish to have life in him
must not live in separation from his true church : the Belgic,
quoting from Cyprian, extra ecclesiam nulla sit salus : and the
Scotch Conf : Out of the Kirk there is neither life nor eternal
felicity. In the light of such sweeping affirmations the phrase,
no ordinary possibility, seems considerate and mild indeed. How
strictly is such a proposition to be construed? There have
been periods in history, as during the pagan persecutions, when
the visible church, in the sense here defined, could hardly be
said to have had an existence, and when a public profession of
faith in connection with that church, could not be made. It is
also true that there are many in Christian lands who have never
entered the visible church through this appointed gateway, but
whom Christ nevertheless counts among the elect members of the
church invisible. Instances sometimes arise in fact where such
public profession, if not entirely impossible, is at least for a time
impracticable or injudicious ; and others where spiritual ignorance
or some misconception of duty may lead a real believer to the
neglect of that open profession of allegiance which our Lord plainly
requires. Justly construed, the clause in question leaves suffi
cient room for all that is thus extraordinary, without in the least
compromising or lowering the force of the divine command. The
Catechism indeed (113) places making profession of religion in
hypocrisy or for sinister ends, among the sins forbidden in the sec
ond commandment; and also (151) classes vows and promises
and engagements to God, if made presumptuously or willfully,
among the^offences which are especially heinous in his sight.

610 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
Yet on the other hand, the refusal to profess religion, not merely
in the way of formal covenant with the people of God in his
visible household, but no less in all other ways in which we can
show forth our belief in his grace and our desire to obey his law
and be called by his name, is beyond doubt a grievous sin in his
sight — a sin which may be condoned only by the presence of ex
traordinary hindrance or of circumstantial impossibility. Not only
Christ but his organized church has the right to expect such pro
fession, and even in his name to demand it, as a duty, clear, per
sonal and imperative wherever compliance is practicable.
It is not to be inferred from these descriptions that the Church
visible and the Church invisible are two Churches : in many par
ticulars, as in their common headship, their regulative law, their
inward temper, their final end and consummation, they are one
Church manifesting itself in these differing aspects and relations.
Yet neither are the distinctions in the case to be overlooked. The
invisible Church extends to heaven as truly as to the present
world, and reaches through all time past and future as well as
present : the visible Church includes in its scope only the earth
and the present hour. The first is without formal organization,
held together by no bond but the bond of conscious union with
Christ, and having no fellowship except that which is purely
spiritual : the second is an organization, as palpable and distinct
as the family or the state with which it is so often compared in
the Pauline letters. The membership of the first is unknown to
men, and its records are kept in heaven only : the membership
of the second is enrolled in written books, and the names and
characters are more or less fully known to the world. The first
has no ministry or sacrament or ordinance distinctively : to the
second, in the laguage of the third section, Christ hath given the
¦ministry, oracles and ordinances of God, for the gathering and per
fecting of the saints — gifts which are, it is added, to be continued
io the end of the world. The full force of this statement can be
felt only when we come to examine the teaching of the Symbols
respecting the sacraments and means of grace, and the Christian
ministry as a sacred order, created and maintained for the benefit
of the visible, organized church. Yet it is important at this stage
to note the fact that this church is not only an organism but an
institution— an institution permanently established on the earth
. by divine authority, created to fulfill an appointed purpose, and
divinely equipped with all the agencies and provisions needful for
the accomplishment of that sublime purpose.
It should be noted further that, while Protestantism lifted up

ITS MISSION AND EQUIPMENT. 611
in answer to the Roman challenge, the bright conception of the
Church invisible in which all true saints have membership, and
the kindred conception of the Church visible in which all partic
ular organizations of professed disciples have a legitimate place,
it also emphasized as strongly as Rome the truth that the visible
Church, being thus one, has the whole earth for its domain, and
as an institution is fully competent through grace to proclaim the
Gospel to mankind, and to lead the whole race of man into obe
dience to Christ. In other words, the Reformers repudiated the
assumptions of Catholicism as to its superior equipment, whether
in bdief or liturgy or apostolicity, for the accomplishing of these
grand ends, and claimed for themselves the possession of the only
instrumentalities that could succeed in such an undertaking.
They believed in the superior effectiveness of the sincere and in
telligent prodamation of the Gospel of salvation through faith
only : they believed that the administration of the two sacra
ments as instituted by Christ, in the simple and spiritual way he
had appointed, would have greater power over men than all the
gorgeous show of the Roman mass : they believed that the min
istry as appointed by him, seconded by the consecrated service of
all beHevers, under the apostolic rule of brotherhood, would con
stitute a more effective spiritual agency than the Roman hier
archy could be. In a word they believed that the Christian
Church, just as they had been taught to recognize it in the New
Testament, was an organization better equipped in every particular
than that which was represented by popes and cardinals and out
ward ceremonials at Rome. This Church needed no geographic
center ; its circumference was wide as the earth and as compre
hensive as that humanity for whose redemption it had, as they
believed, been instituted of God. And the history of Protestant
ism during these three centuries, notwithstanding all the schisms
that have weakened it, the corruptions that have crept into it,
and the pitiful lack of faith and charity and consecration which
has so largely hindered its progress, — the history of Protestantism
during this long period of testing and development has proved
beyond question that the Reformers, not the Council of Trent,
were right in their conception of the Church — one and catholic
and apostolic — the Hving Church of the living God.
The generic conception of the Church thus presented in Prot
estant symbolism, and especially in the Westminster formularies,
suggests at this point the underlying question whether the church
as thus described is merely a human arrangement devised for

612 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
the furtherance of the cause of religion, or is an original and
essential feature of the divine plan for the salvation of the race
through the Gospel. It suggests also
3. The Church in the di- the fu^er question whether, if the
M* '"S <*»<* •« -- -o^na. and e^-
ian tial part of this divine plan, it was first
established in conjunction with the
advent of Christ and the pentecostal dispensation of the Spirit, or
existed from the earliest ages ; gradually unfolding itself histor
ically in the world as the scheme of redemption was progressively
disclosed from the original promise in Eden, on through the patri
archal and Hebraic dispensations, until it reached its culmination
at the incarnation and Messiahship of our Lord.
No intelligent student of Scripture can suppose that the Church
is a human institution merely — a device of man, or a provision of
the State, as Hobbes affirmed, invented in the interest of religion
and as a help toward the maintenance of good order in human
society. The New Testament, in both its historic and its precep
tive sections, as much affirms the supernatural quality of the
church, its origin in the divine purpose, its superhuman equip
ment and provisions, its celestial authority and its divinely or
dained mission to the race, — as much as it affirms either the divine
authorship of the Scriptures, or the true and proper divinity
of our Lord himself. If the church is not a supernatural crea
tion, Christianity is not a supernatural faith. It may be said
further, that the church though supernatural lies constructively
in the nature of man as a religious being, just as the family lies
constructively in his domestic, or the state in his political nature
and instincts. For it is not more true that the domestic instinct
demands the family as its legitimate sphere of activity, or that
the political instinct requires the state as its appointed arena of
development, than it is that the religious nature needs and must
have the church as the domain within which its spiritual energies
may find appropriate play, and through which its noblest spiritual
growth may be attained. As set forth in the Scriptures, the church
has the appearance of having been divinely devised to meet this
religious need ; it has also justified itself abundantly, by actual
experiment, as an indispensable adjunct to the right development
of holy character both in the individual and within the organized
family of grace.
It may be suggested further, that the diffusion and perpetua
tion of religion in the world, and the adequate^ manifestation of
the divine grace and glory among men, require just such an

CHURCH IN THE DIVINE PLAN. 613
institution and agency. Believers die, and so far as they are con
cerned, apart from the fading memory of their faith and their
works, religion on the earth dies with them. Generations of
beHevers perish from among men, and their religious labors and
influence in Hke manner rapidly fade away. It consequently
becomes indispensable that our holy faith should be embodied in
an enduring institution like the church — an institution which has a
continuous life, and which therefore can maintain permanent, even
indestructible position in the world. While the church thus ex
ists, it may safely be prophesied that religion will survive through
the ages. The church is also by its own nature a propagative as
well as preservative agency, specially qualified and empowered to
spread religion abroad in the world, as individual effort could
never diffuse it. Its ordinances and worship, its creeds and testi
monies, its associated vitality, its capacities for aggressive move
ment, aU fit it peculiarly for such cosmic spread of the Gospel.
And furthermore, God is glorified among men in and by his
church as he could not be through the agency of the individual
disciple, or even of the sanctified family. The testimony of the
organized church to his Word, to his law, to his saving grace is
more diffusive in quality, and more persuasive and potent in
effect. There is an added strength, a reverberating conclusiveness
in the combination of so many concurrent voices within this gra
dous organism, which the world cannot well refrain from hearing.
Thus recognizing the Church as a supernatural institution,
having an indispensable office and service in conjunction with
Christianity as a supernatural religion, we are prepared to con
sider in brief the second question proposed, — whether this insti
tution was first established by Christ during his Messiahship, or
may rather be traced backward to the very beginning of the
scheme of redemption. The latter is unquestionably the biblical
representation. The Second Helvetic Confession justly taught
that, as God wiUed from the beginning that men should be saved,
so from the necessity of the case the church existed from the
beginning — there having been always a more or less visible house
hold of faith among men. The Westminster Symbols bring out
the doctrine more distinctly, though in somewhat scattered and
fragmentary statements. In the chapter (VIII) on Christ as the
Mediator it is affirmed that the church was an essential feature in
the divine plan of grace ; God the Father having made his Son
the Head and Savior of this church, and having given to him from
all eternity a people, to be by him in time redeemed, called, justi
fied; sanctified and glorified. In the chapter now specially under

614 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
notice (XXV) it is said that there shall be always a church on eartk
to worship God according to his will, — a proposition which im
plies that tUere was always such a church, existing from the
earliest hour when that will began to be made known to men.
In the opening sentence of the Confession it is said that it pleased
the Lord at sundry times and in divers manners to reveal him
self, and to declare his will unto his church, and afterwards for the
establishment and comfort of the church to commit the same
wholly unto writing — in other words, to provide the inspired
Scriptures for its guidance. In the chapter on Providence (V)
it is declared that God after a most special manner taketh care of
his church, and disposeth aU things to the good thereof ; and in
the Larger Catechism, (63) that he has protected and preserved
the church in all ages. The church in the Hebraic era is quaintly
described (Ch. XIX) as a church underage — in a state of tutelage,
under ceremonial laws and typical ordinances, all prefiguring
Christ and his matured church. In the Form of Gov. (Ch. II), it
is said that Christ hath erected in this world a kingdom which is his
church, and in the Larger Catechism (54) that he doth at all
times gather and defend his church against all enemies.
Turning to the Bible for light, we discover at once three suc
cessive eras or dispensations in the life of the church, related to
each other as the blade, the ear, and the full corn in the ear, in
the parable of our Lord. Of these the first is the patriarchal
era, ending with the formation of the Hebrew state, but extend
ing backward, not merely to the call of Abraham, as is often
affirmed, but to the ages before Abraham, to the period of the
flood, and further still to the very dawn of the reHgious history
of the race. It is impracticable here to detail the evidences found
in Holy Writ, which justify the conclusion that, as there were
pious households on the earth from the beginning, so the church
in incipient forms lived within the family, generation after gen- .
eration, from Adam to Noah, from Noah to Abraham. During
the Abrahamic period, and down to the exodus from Egyptian
bondage, we find still clearer signs that this supernatural insti
tution was taking firmer and wider root in the earth, though it
existed mostly, so far as the sacred records show us, within the
pious household, — the Sabbath observed, sacrifices consecrated,
divine law honored, prayer and praise offered, God adored in the
families of Isaac and Jacob, and in many a humble home among
their descendants, living as slaves and exiles far from their
ancestral land.
Passing into the second or Hebraic era, we discover at once

PATRIARCHAL, HEBRAIC, CHRISTIAN. 615
various evidences of the existence of that church under age, as the
Confession aptly styles it, which was to be a precursor of the con
summated church afterwards organized by the hand of the incar
nated Mediator. We discern at this point a marked enlargement
in the amount and quality of religious truth possessed, a broader
and more definite conception of divine law as set forth in the Ten
Commandments, a more elaborate and significant ritual, together
with an emphasized obligation to observe the Sabbath and to
count the tabernacle or sanctuary a sacred place, a more fully
regulated and trained priesthood, and further endorsement of the
churchly as well as national seal of circumcision. These vast
changes were suffident of themselves to constitute a new era, a
new dispensation, in the life of the church as well as of the Hebrew
state. There were resemblances enough remaining to make it
obvious that this was not another, but rather an evolved and ex
panded church, — adjusted in its scope and appointments to the
new conditions on which the Jewish nation was about to enter.
The church and the state still remained in vital intimacy, as the
church and the family had previously existed, and God still ruled
theoreticaUy in both, as he had from the beginning ruled within
the pious household. Yet a remarkable transition was intro
duced — a transition which was continued for sixteen centuries,
with many successive stages and developments, through the sev
eral cycles first of the judges, then of the kings, and finally of
the prophets, until the fullness of the time when a still grander
transition should take place.
The Christian Church is never to be contemplated as another
and independent organization : such a conception severs at a
stroke the vital ties which bind the Old Testament and the New
into Hving unity, robs prophecy of all significance, and renders
the divine dealing with mankind prior to the incarnation an inex
plicable mystery. The transition is indeed more marked — the
evolution more broad and impressive. In some respects the
change seems also as silent as the movement from early dawn to
the fuU and perfect day. Neither our Lord nor his apostles were
inclined to hasten its quiet progress, or formally to set it up at
once on that throne of cosmic supremacy which it was destined
to occupy. Yet the comprehensive change came, as an inevitable
consequence of the coming of the Messiah himself. The types
and ceremonies were all consummated in him, and therefore cere
mony and type came to an end. He being the universal priest,
having in himself the power of an endless life, the order of priest
hood was forever abolished. The Commandments became now a

616 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
spiritual law, filling all the life with its presence, and ruling with
holy sway through all the soul. The old national lines were
obliterated, and the church, freed from its connection with the
Jewish state, became the church of humanity, having the whole
earth as its predestined domain. Yet all that rendered either the
Abrahamic or the Mosaic church valuable as modes of holy living
and holy culture remained : the points of identity were still care
fully preserved : and therefore in the new we see the old Hving
again, though with marvelous additions in strength and beauty
and effectiveness.
Such briefly stated is that conception of the Church of God as
originally formed in the divine plan, and as like the Gospel
itself progressively unfolded in history, which the Symbols in
rather fragmentary method commend to our belief. No other
Protestant formulary contains such a doctrine in anything like
equal fullness. The careful study of the conception as thus pre
sented cannot fail to be of unspeakable value to the student ;
revealing to him the true relationship of much that must other
wise seem disjointed or extraneous, giving new meaning to the
older Scriptures at many points, and binding the Old Testament
and the New — the complex aggregate of type and ritual, story and
psalm, prophecy and praise, law and doctrine, hope and realiza
tion — into a superhuman and sublime unity. In these confes
sional studies such a conception is well-nigh indispensable to right
or appreciative views of the Christian Church as we have seen it
described in the Protestant symbolism, and as we shall have occa
sion to contemplate it hereafter more in detail.
Before proceeding to the consideration of the particular church
as a representative form of the comprehensive organism now
described, it will be well to pause for a
4. Communion of Saints: ^ . , . r. ..
its extent and nature. moment m contemplation of the sug
gestive chapter (XXVI) which treats
of the Communion of Saints — the only chapter on the subject in
the whole range of Christian symbolism. Although the Assem
bly, as we have noted, did not rise in fact to the high level of its
own teaching at this point, it may fairly be set down to its credit
that at such a troublous period in Protestant history, especially in
Britain, it should have drafted a chapter so full of the holiest
temper of Christian catholicity. The phrase doubtless flowed over
from the Apostolic Letters into the earliest of the creeds, where it
took its place beside the doctrine of the Holy Ghost and the holy
Catholic Church, and the three important tenets that follow in that

COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 617
creed, as one of the fundamental credenda of our religion. It does
not appear in either the Nicene or the Athanasian symbol, or in
the current form of the earlier creed as recited by the Greek
church. It can hardly be regarded as merely a later expansion
of the antecedent phrase, the holy catholic church; or as pointing
back to the first phrase in the sentence, I believe in the Holy
Ghost; or as an echo of the apostolic benediction, in which com
munion with the Holy Ghost is associated with the love of God,
and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the crowning heritage
and blessing of beHevers. It was doubtless formulated to express
an additional truth, which had gradually made its way into the
consciousness and heart of the church, during its long eras of
fdlowship in trial and persecution, and in conflict with heresy and
unbelief. Since its introduction, probably during the sixth or
seventh century (Schaff, Creeds, 1 : 54) it has been recognized by
Protestants universally, though with variations in interpretation,
as one of the fundamental, and in some aspects specially precious
affirmations of our holy faith.
Moehler (SymboHsm, 342) interprets the phrase as referring to
the union subsisting between the saints on earth and the saints in
glory, and on this ground justifies the dogma of the intercession
of departed saints in our behalf, and affirms the duty and privilege
of venerating or worshiping them, and invoking their aid in our
endeavor to lead Christian lives. Pearson and also Leighton, in
their expositions of the Creed, regard the phrase as affirming, in
the language of the former, that the saints of God living in the
church of Christ on earth are in communion still with all the saints
departed out of this life, and admitted to the presence of God, —
death not interrupting the spiritual fellowship already established
here, in virtue of the mystical unity existing between all believers
and Christ. Leighton goes still further, — declaring that while
the saints on earth enjoy such communion one with another, they
are also one city and one family with all those who have died in the
faith and fear of God, and who in their state of glory still sym
pathize with the faithful below, assisting and comforting and
praying for them. Pearson also regards the phrase as pointing
likewise to the communion of each saint with the Deity, Father
and Son and Holy Ghost, and as representing a species of union
and fellowship maintained also with all the holy angels.
Whether it be or be not true that the saints in glory are still
permitted to maintain in some manner inexplicable to us a species
of communion with the saints on earth, interceding with God in
their behalf, or assisting and comforting them by some form of

618 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
interposition, or in other mysterious ways influencing their lives
in the interest of holiness, such propositions are not justified by
this confessional phrase. The chapter we are considering limits
the communion in question simply to the present life, — saying
nothing as to the possible fellowship of saints on earth with the
sanctified in heaven or with the holy angels or with God or the
blessed Trinity. It simply affirms that in virtue of the mediation
of Christ, and of the personal union established by faith with him
as the Head, all believers are in love united one to another, and have
each a rightful share in the gifts and graces of all the rest, and
that each is therefore under obligation to all the rest, to render
unto them as a matter of spiritual right whatever services may
conduce to their mutual good both in the inward and outward man.
In the Larger Catechism (63) such communion is put down as an
inherent feature of the visible church, and as constituting one of
the special privileges enjoyed by those who are in connection with
the organized household of faith. It is not implied in this defi
nition, as some have claimed, that this communion requires exact
identity of belief, or exact unity in experience, or exact uniformity
in government or worship or sacrament; union in, with and
through Christ as the Head is its true ground and source.
The chapter proceeds to indicate three practical directions in
which such communion within the visible Church may find
expression : first, in community in the worship of God, — such
worship being, according to the best Protestant conception, not
an official performance by the priesthood or the ministry, but a
service in which all believers may share, and to whose highest
usefulness all are bound to contribute. A subsequent chapter
(XXIX) speaks particularly of the sacramental supper, in which
believers share together, as a special bond and pledge of their
communion with Christ, as weU as with each other. Secondly :
in the form of spiritual services, wherein each seeks in all practi
cable ways to assist the rest in their struggles against sin, and their
efforts after holiness, — by counsel, by example, by prayer for and
with them, by sympathy in their griefs and temptations, and by
brotherly encouragement helping them forward as fellow pilgrims
on their way to the common heaven. No Christian can rightly
be indifferent to the spiritual needs of the humblest or weakest of
his brethren in Christ ; passing by them on the other side under
whatever impulse of pride or fear or selfishness, while he pos
sesses the spiritual ability to aid them in the Christian life. And
if, through his neglect of the culture of his own soul, he has
failed to gain such spiritual ability, and has nothing to give to

THIS COMMUNION UNIVERSAL. 619
other saints in their religious need, he so far forth even forfeits his
own claim upon such communion in gifts and graces as they in
turn may become able to confer.
Thirdly : in relieving the needs of the saints in outward things,
according to the abilities and the necessities existing in the case.
It is carefully said, by way of rebuke to a current error, that this
communion doth not take away or infringe the title or property
which each man hath in his own goods and possessions. The re
markable scene recorded in the earlier chapters of the Book of
Acts is not to be taken as a rule for the church in all places and
times : community of goods is not an indispensable condition of
saintly communion, nor is communism in any form a legitimate
feature of Christianity. Macpherson ( Comm . ) says j ustly that the
communism of the Jerusalem church was only temporary ; determ
ined by local circumstances, and suited to the special condition
existing, but never tried again even in the apostolic church.
Yet the obligation of every believer to do all that he is able toward
relieving the necessities of his brethren within the visible house
hold of faith, — to aid them in their rightful undertakings, to
assist them in their losses, to minister to them in their sickness
or their poverty — is one which belongs to the very essence of our
reHgion, and from which no one can claim exemption who is a
true disciple of Him of whom it was prophetically said that He
took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses. While we are in
deed bound to practice charity toward all men, in all the varied
forms which universal brotherhood may require, such charity
presents its highest claim — as Paul taught the Corinthian church
— wherever those who dwell with us in the blessed communion
of saintship need our help, whether in the inward or the outward
man. It is within the household of faith that Christian love finds
its sweetest, noblest manifestations.
One further element in the doctrine presents itself in the decla
ration that this communion is to be extended, so far as God gives
opportunity, unto all those who in every place call upon the name of
the Lordfesus. There can be no doubt that this is a legitimate
expansion, as it is a world-wide application, of the obligation here
defined. Whatever may or may not be realized as yet in fact, it
still is true in principle that this communion of saints, contem
plated as a gracious sentiment, knows no boundaries of creed or
polity or worship — knows no geographic or other outward limita
tions. This is obvious from the nature of the sentiment, and from
its source and ground, as seen in the underlying union of every
genuine saint with Christ himself. Having fellowship with him,

620 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
deriving their common life from him, engaged alike in his
one great vineyard, all saints of necessity have fellowship one
with another — a fellowship as wide as the earth and enduring
as time . This is indeed an ideal conception : we nowhere
see such communion realized in fact. Christian catholidty is
still the exception rather than the practical rule, even within
the most spiritual circles of believers. We are compeUed rather
to confess that we see those whom we regard as alike disciples
and followers of Christ, in a thousand ways breaking away
from that beautiful unity which all profess when they recite the
ancient creed. Presbyterianism itself has never been, is not now,
entirely true to the noble doctrine which it was first among Prot
estant organizations to affirm. It is indeed to the credit of the
Presbyterian Alliance, that it has placed in the preamble of its
Constitution the statement that, in forming such an alUance of
Presbyterian churches, the general principle maintained and
taught in the Reformed Confessions, is still affirmed, — that the
Church of God on earth, though composed of many members, is
one body in the communion of the Holy Ghost, of which body
Christ is the supreme Head and the Scriptures are alone the in
fallible Law. Similar movements among other evangelical com
munions toward confederation if not organic union on the basis
of such recognized spiritual unity, are among the most encour
aging signs of the times. Still there is little immediate prospect
that anywhere in Protestant circles, and certainly not within the
domain of Papacy, the prayer of our common Lord that all who
are his shall be one — one in such impressive sense and measure
that the whole world shall perceive it — will receive its due and
blessed accomplishment.
The question whether sects or denominations may rightfully
exist within the one Church of God on earth presses itself at this
point upon our consideration. It is
5. Sects and denominations: A. ,. , „
how far justified. a <luestlon peculiar to Protestantism,
and one which the advocates of the
Papacy have persistently urged as not merely a problem to be
solved, but also a palpable proof that Protestantism in its numer
ous varieties is a schismatic departure from the biblical ideal. It
is also a question of less significance in Protestant countries where
state churches are established, with consequent uniformity of an
external or formal sort, than in countries like our own where
Protestant sects may be counted by scores, each characterized by
some specific peculiarities, but all having the same legal standing,
and all soliciting adherence, sometimes with manifestations of

SECTS AND DENOMINATIONS. 621
partisan zeal which are quite at variance with the doctrine of the
brotherhood of all believers. As it thus presents itself, the ques
tion is not to be answered by assuming that any one among these
sects alone possesses the biblical doctrine, or represents the
biblical polity, or alone offers acceptable worship, or observes the
sacraments according to the Scriptural rule. The jus divinum
theory in whatever form, by whatever religious body urged, no
longer commands the assent either of Christian scholarship, or of
the popular judgment. And if any such denomination claims
that its variety of worship or order or doctrine conforms more
dosely than those of any other to the teaching and the usages
recorded in the Bible, it still must hold even this claim in due
subordination to the fundamental doctrine of the communion of
saints which all confess together. How then, under such condi
tions, can these denominational segregations be justified?
The Form of Government as drafted by the Assembly, follow
ing the state church theory, affirmed that the ordinary way of
dividing Christians into distinct congregations, and the way most
expedient for edification, is by the respective bounds of their dwell
ings, — this being pronounced most conducive to the convenient
use of the ordinances, and most helpful in the discharge of
those more private duties which Christians as brethren owe to one
another. So far as we can discover, no other rule than that of
such geographic subdivision was recognized in the apostolic
church : there were in fact no Pauline or Petrine or Johannean
churches as has been claimed, distinguishable from each other by
doctrinal or ecclesiastical peculiarities. This geographic law is
set forth in the American Form of Gov. also, in the statement
(Ch. II) that as the immense multitude of professing believers
with their children cannot meet together in one place, to hold com
munion or to worship God, it is reasonable and warranted by
Scripture example that they should be divided into many particular
churches: it being added, however, in accordance with the Presby
terian theory of church polity, that it is expedient and agreeable
to Scripture, and the practice of the primitive Christians, that
these particular churches when formed should be associated
together organicaUy, and be governed not only by congregational,
but also by presbyterial and synodical assemblies.
But a more radical law of distribution reveals itself in many
Protestant lands, and espedaUy in our own, in the wide diversi
ties existing as to polity, to doctrine, and to worship, including
the sacraments. It would be impracticable here to describe these
diversities in detail. There are in general three differing concep-

622 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
tions of church government, democratic and representative and
hierarchal, with many varieties of combination, — three main types
of doctrine, Lutheran and Calvinistic and Arminian, with still
more numerous varieties, and more complex combinations, — and
at least two generic modes of worship, the liturgical and its oppo
site, also with marked variations in tendency and practice. The
advocates of these all agree that there should be government
and doctrine and worship within the Christian church, but as to
the form of government, the type of doctrine, the mode of wor
ship, there are wide, sometimes even radical, diversities in judg
ment and usage. The causes of such variation may be easily
traced. They are not to be found altogether or mainly, as is
sometimes fancied, in unworthy incentives merely, — such as an
inordinate zeal of opinion, or human ambition, or the passion of
party bent on securing supremacy. They lie largely in tempera
ment and taste, in early education, in domestic connections, in
philosophic bias or training, in the usages of surrounding society,
in civil government, and a multitude of other extraneous influ
ences often unconsciously yet decisively affecting judgment, in
clination, preference. Nor is it an error to suppose that there
are complex and antithetic elements in Christianity itself, such
as its mingled democratic and monarchal qualities, which furnish
occasion for such differing conceptions of what the church ought
to be in its organization, its belief, and its devotions. The signifi
cant fact in the case is that for reasons of one kind and another
these variations have existed in all ages, at least since the Refor
mation, and so far as we can see, seem likely to exist for ages
to come. Are they intrinsically schismatic and wrong ?
Milton (True Religion) tersely defines schism as a rent or
division made in the church whenever anybody on insufficient
grounds (such as the name of place or a person) undertakes to
set up a distinct faith or government. As in the epistle of Paul to
the Corinthian saints, the term is generally used as descrip
tive of any movement to produce division in the church without
adequate cause. Whenever Christian men on just grounds are
constrained to withdraw from the communion or jurisdiction of
any church, or are driven out by the action of an unjust or a
bigoted majority, they are not to be regarded as schismatics.
Real schism springs from other sources, and is actuated by a very
different spirit and purpose. The schismatic temper may and
does exist in wide varieties and in many degrees more or less cul
pable,— such as factional jealousy, denominational rivalry, church
pride or bigotry, inordinate claims of supremacy, denying the

SCHISM AND SECTARIANISM. 623
validity of the ministry or sacraments of other Christian churches.
And wherever devotion to a specific doctrine or polity or variety
of worship, or mode of administering the sacraments, brings
about any violation of the cardinal law of spiritual unity — espec
ially where the sectarian spirit, concentrated on minor issues,
leads to the multiplying of congregations or sects without ade
quate reason, there open schism appears in all its deformity, and
in every such manifestation it is obviously an offence against the
Church catholic and a crime against Christ as its Head. Nor
should it ever be forgotten that there is always serious danger,
especially in a country and an age like ours, that denominational
zeal, though it should not reach the point of sinful schism, may,
if not sedulously watched, degenerate into a narrow and aggres
sive sectarianism, which is as truly as positive schism at variance
with the biblical rule and with the confessional conception of the
communion of saints.
On the other hand it should be admitted that the denomina
tional spirit may not only exist in entire harmony with that
fundamental conception, but may even become an efficient incite
ment and help in the upbuilding, through the joint action of many
churches and parties, of the one catholic and apostolic Church.
InteUigent and honest segregation on the basis of recognized dif
ferences in judgment and taste, or even in spiritual sentiment or
experience, may not, often does not, involve any departure from
the great law of Christian unity. It may rather be, sometimes
has been, the case that this primal law receives most impressive
illustration in and through such segregation. Those who are
thus divided on the basis of healthful preference for doctrine or
order or worship, may still be all the more conscious of the blessed
oneness that holds them in unison around all that is vitally char
acteristic of the common Christianity. It is certainly a fact of
history that denominational divisions, with the special activity
and spirit of sacrifice which they tend to awaken, and through
the varieties of adaptation in service which they develop, have
often proved of signal value to the general cause. The popular
comparison of these distributed varieties of organized Christianity
to the divisions of an army moving by diverse processes and under
different array toward a common consummation, is in substance
accurate and just. Especially is this true in an irenic age like
this, when the temper of sect is so obviously dying out, when the
fundamental doctrine of the communion of saints is becoming so
widely received and illustrated in experience, and when spiritual
Protestantism is realizing more and more that interior unity

624 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
which is both the highest evidence of its divine quality, and the
best assurance of its ultimate success in winning the world for
Christ. Descending from this general survey, we may now profitably
turn to consider in several aspects the particular church or con
gregation of avowed believers, — de-
6. The Particular church: nned in the Form of Gov. (Ch. II :
Constitution and membership: . N ... t _, -
... ,.-,., iv) as consisting of a number of
infant membership. , . ,,•,.. ....
professing Christians, with their
offspring, voluntarily associated together for divine worship and
godly living, agreeably to the Scriptures, and submitting to a cer
tain form of government. Such a church is an organized section
or division of that Church Visible which is defined in the Larger
Catechism (62) as a society made up of all such as in all ages
and places of the world do profess the true religion and of their
children. It is always, first, a voluntary association, — its mem
bership being brought together and held together, not by any
external constraint such as the edict of the state, but of their own
free election. It is always, secondly, an association based on
the principle of piety, — the profession of such piety being the
only condition requisite to admission, and the culture of piety, or
godly living, being the prime reason for its existence. It is
always, thirdly, an association or organization rather than a mere
assemblage of believers — a permanent form of fellowship, with
such a degree of government as is essential to its perpetuity and
proper efficiency, so far as the ends of its existence are concerned.
It is always, fourthly, an association based on the Scriptures as
both furnishing its justifying foundation and containing the law
according to which its fellowship and its activities are to be reg
ulated. It is always, fifthly, an association for divine worship as
well as godly living — a holy organism whose central function it
is to bear testimony to the truth and grace of God as made known
in the Gospel, and to adore and glorify him before men. In a
word; it is an organization of those who profess to love God, and
in the Christian dispensation of those who profess to love God as
revealed in Christ, existing permanently under some prescribed
constitution, written or understood, for the purpose of worshiping
him, and of spreading abroad the saving knowledge of him in the
earth. Such was in substance the constitution of the particular
church, even while it existed constructively in the families of the
patriarchs, and still more obviously as it existed within the shel
tering limitations of the Hebrew state : such eminently are its

CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. 625
material, its fundamental principles, its bond and law of union,
and its design or end under the Gospel.
The question of membership in the particular church is one of
the gravest importance. The only admissible qualification for
such membership, according to the general judgment of evan
gelical Protestantism, is personal piety credibly possessed and
avowed. There can be no doubt that the recognized basis of such
membership in the apostohc church was an open and authenti
cated belief in and acceptance of Jesus Christ as the appointed
Messiah, the only Redeemer of men : on this basis Jew and Gen
tile, men and women of all races, classes, conditions, found wel
come within that sacred fold. For some centuries this continued
to be the single and simple qualification, until at length the
severe pressure of persecution on one side and the development
of worldliness and of hierarchal corruption on the other side, led
on to a reduction of the primitive standard. Connection with
the church by degrees became formal rather than spiritual ; sub
mission to priestly rites and regulations took the place of personal
union with Christ ; communicants received their membership
through birth or through proselytic ceremony rather than through
faith. Such was substantially the doctrine, or at least the practice,
of the papal communion at the outbreak of the Reformation.
The spiritual affirmation of Savonarola that the true church is
composed only of those who are united in the bonds of love and
truth by the indwelHng grace of the Spirit, and the kindred teach
ing of Wiclif and Huss and other reformers before the Reforma
tion, found no wide acceptance within its borders. The Professio
Fidei Tridentinae, A. D. 1564, required simply a declaration of
belief in the Nicene creed, in the Scriptures as interpreted by
the holy mother church, in the seven sacraments as administered
by the Roman priesthood, in the teachings of the Council of
Trent concerning original sin and justification, in purgatory, in
the veneration of images, in the supreme authority of the cfiurch,
and a cordial acceptance of whatever else that church may
dedare to be obligatory as a matter of faith. Conversion, in the
Protestant sense of that term, was not at that date neither has it
ever since been a condition of papal church membership ; in fact
such membership, formally established, is regarded as rather a
condition of conversion, and of the attainment and culture of
those graces and virtues which spring up as celestial fruits within
the converted soul.
From the first the Protestant churches, though often affected
Injuriously by the papal practice, and often entangled by their

626 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
alliance with the state, strove to return to the biblical teaching
and the apostolic usage. In the edition of 1540, the Augsburg
Confession (Art. VII) describes the church as a congregation of
the members of Christ, that is, saints who believe and obey him, —
though it meanwhile admits that in this holy congregation there
may be evil men and hypocrites, who are suffered to remain
therein, but are reserved unto the final judgment. The French
Confession (XXVII) defines the church as the company of the
faithful, who agree to follow the Word of God and the pure
religion which it teaches ; who grow in grace all their lives,
believing and becoming more and more confirmed in the fear of
God. It however follows the older symbol in adding the caution
ary statement : Nevertheless we do not deny that among the
faithful there may be hypocrites and reprobates, but their wicked
ness cannot destroy the title (or standing) of the church. Simi
lar language might be quoted from other symbols, both Lutheran
and Reformed, giving conclusive proof of an earnest purpose
among Protestants to set aside the Roman ceremonialism at this
point, and to substitute for it the clear and simple teaching of the
New Testament.
Calvin (Inst. B. IV : Ch. I) regards all those persons as
entitled to church membership who by confession of faith, regu
larity in conduct and participation in the sacraments, do truly
acknowledge God and Jesus Christ. He pronounces it a disgrace
to admit unworthy persons to the communion, and counsels the
expulsion of those who are openly immoral ; yet urges the duty
of large charity in forming judgment in regard to such persons,
and meanwhile laments the infirmity of the times which— as he
confesses — prevents the churches often from due exercise of dis-
dpline, in the case of gross offenders. But while-such views-and
teaching were current in early Protestantism from the first, it
must be confessed that its usage did not altogether conform to its
own doctrine. Connection with the church came too often to
be regarded as a matter of inheritance or residence, or of baptism
or outward conformity or profession, rather than as a matter of
gracious experience, springing from personal faith in a personal
Savior. That this lower conception has widely prevailed in sub
sequent periods, even down to our own age, to the serious detri
ment of spiritual religion, is a painful fact of history. In too
many Protestant communions the. church is still viewed chiefly
as a visible society, whose relationship to the soul is mainly
external and formal, — into whose association one may be intro
duced as a matter of locality or by baptism and a general profession

QUALIFICATIONS FOR MEMBERSHIP. 627
of adherence, and outward conformity to whose prescribed rules
is all that is requisite to acceptable Christian standing.
The nameof Jonathan Edwards will always be associated with
the stricter and loftier doctrine of church membership now widely
accepted by evangelical Protestantism. He maintained (Qualify
cations for Full Communion) that the profession requisite is not
a mere" aeclaration of belief in the Christian religion, but an
acknowledgment of repentance and faith in Christ as a personal
Savior, — that such "acknowledgment should be corroborated by
an experience and life such as true repentance and true faith will
induce, — that the profession made must be~cfedible in the esti
mate of the church or its official representatives, — and that it
should involve on the part of the professing person a full recog
nition of the duties implied in such connection, and an agree
ment to discharge all such duties, and to endeavor in every
practicable way to secure to the church all those spiritual ends
which the organization was established to subserve. This com
prehensive profession is under his view in all ordinary cases to be
made in the presence of the church, — it bdng not only a covenant
with God and" an-act of irrevocable consecration to Christ and his
cause, but also in a subordinate sense a covenant with the church,
in which sacred obligations are impHed on both sides, with cor
responding right and privilege. Among those who hold in gen
eral the Edwardean view, considerable differences of opinion still
exist as to the degree of strictness with which such profession is
to be interpreted and enforced. Some authorities have maintained
that the church or its officers acting for it assume no responsi
bility for the sincerity or the credibility of the act. It is indeed
true that the church can give an applicant for admission no guar
antee that he is a genuine disciple and will therefore assuredly be
saved. But certainly it can give him, and at such a critical junc
ture in his spiritual life ought to give him, all the inspection and
the counsel and the protection possible, in order that he may not
through negligence on its part fall into serious, perhaps irrepara
ble, mistake. It is true that the church cannot in all cases pre
vent such persons from acting while they are ignorant of their
real condition, or exclude from its companionship those who
finally prove to be hypocrites at heart. Yet it certainly is bound
by the tenderest and strongest obligations to protect both itself
and its true membership so far as possible from all such illicit
affiliations. It is matter of regret that so few traces have been preserved of
'(he debate in the Assembly (Minutes, 82-84) on the gathering

628 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
of churches, and especially on the qualifications of those who
should be received into the church. We have only the simple
record of a discussion on positive signs of conversion, and a state
ment that the omission of necessary duties is as truly a bar to
admission as the committing of gross sins. In a subsequent
debate, more prolonged and more fully reported, (121) on the
offences that should exclude a church member from the com
munion, there is evidence that the Assembly took high and safe
ground, — applying practically, it may be, the searching doctrine
of Calvin just quoted, though they admit the impossibility, by
any enumeration of sins, of making a catalogue so sufficient as to
preserve the sacraments pure. Their subsequent conflict with
Parliament respecting disciplinable offences, such as might prop
erly, exclude from church communion, (435 seq. ) clearly shows
the development in their minds of spiritual and searching opin
ions on the whole subject. From their elevated conception of the
Christian character, and their profound view of the experience
through which one must pass in attaining such character, we
may justly infer that their list of positive signs of conversion
would not have fallen far below that which a hundred years later
Edwards so faithfully set forth.
The phrases, their offspring, their children, in the definition of
the particular church, start an interesting query. It is a fact
already mentioned that the primitive Protestantism counted the
children of believing parents as constructively, not through the
right of baptism but by birth, members in the household of faith.
This was not merely a continuance of the dogma which had pre
vailed prior to the Reformation, and which CathoHdsm still
maintained. It sprang rather from the recognition of the pious
family as a unit according to the Abrahamic modd, and from the
popular conception of the church as a larger family in which the
godly household might in its entirety have a welcome place. One
evidence of this appears in the stress laid even in the earliest
creeds, as that of Augsburg (IX), on infant baptism as being an
offering of the child to God, and its reception thereby into
his gracious favor, — it being generally held that such baptism is
even necessary to its salvation. The Saxon Visitation Articles
(1592) charged it upon the Calvinists as one of their false and
erroneous opinions, that the infants of Christians are already
holy- before baptism in the womb of the mother, and even in the
womb of the mother are received into the covenant of eternal
life,— a charge which is justified by the teaching, for example,
of both the Helvetic Confessions, that the kingdom of God

INFANT CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. 629
bdongs to children, and that they are in covenant with God
through parental faith, and therefore ought to be baptized. The
Heiddberg Catechism states the doctrine still more fully, affirming
(74) that children as well as their parents belong to the covenant
and people of God ; that both redemption and the Holy Ghost
who works faith, are through the blood of Christ promised to
them no less than to their parents ; and that they are by baptism
as a sign of the covenant, to be engrafted into the Christian
church, and thereby distinguished from the children of unbe-
Hevers. The Catechisms for children which from the time of
Luther sprang up so abundantly wherever the Reformation
spread, both on the continent and in Britain, show in an inter
esting way how fully the Protestant churches recognized the doc
trine of infant membership, and how carefully they endeavored
to' carry out the doctrine in the training of the children of believ
ing parents for Christ and his service.
Nowhere dse is this doctrine enforced so positive^ or carried
out into such detail, as in the Westminster standards. In addi
tion to the phrases occurring in the definition of the particular
church, it is formaUy taught in the chapter on Baptism (XXVIII)
that not only those that do actuaHy profess faith in and obedi
ence unto Christ, but also the infants of one or both believing
parents are to be baptized ; and such baptism is described as
a sign of a real connection with the visible church. In the
Larger Catechism (166) it is declared that such infants are, on
account of parental faith and obedience, within the covenant from
birth, and therefore are to be baptized. Such children, if dying
in infancy, are said (X : iii) to be regenerated and saved by
Christ through the Spirit, who worketh when and where and how
he pleaseth. In the original Directory for Worship, and in the
amended American Directory also, there may be found a more
extended statement not merely of the sacrament of baptism, but
of the underlying doctrine of the unity of the family in grace as
truly as in nature ; in which it is affirmed that the children of
saints are Christians (omitted in the Amer. Direct.), and are fed
erally holy before baptism, and as such are entitled to receive the
sacrament. In the American Book of Discipline it is said that
such children are not only to be baptized, but to be regarded
as under the care of the church, and subject to its government ;
and that, when they have reached proper age, they are under
bond to perform all the duties of church members. They are to
be taught in childhood the Catechism, the Apostles' creed, and
the Prayer of our Lord ; also to abhor sin and fear God and

630 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
obey the Lord Jesus Christ ; and when they have reached years
of discretion, if sufficiently instructed, and blameless in conduct,
they are after due examination to be told that they ought to par
take of the Christian communion. The membership of such
children and youth must however be regarded at the outset as
constructive and conditional only. It becomes complete in reaHty
only when at suitable age they make public profession of their
faith, and take their places voluntarily within the church. It
needs only to be added that there is some danger that this,very
positive doctrine may lead, as it once did with disastrous conse
quences in New England, to an undervaluation of that personal
experience of religion on which Edwards so earnestly and justly
insisted. Without conversion and the Christian life, no outward
membership can ever be other than an empty and pernicious form.
Section third of this chapter declares that to the Visible Church
in its totality, and therefore to each particular church, Christ
hath given the ministry and oracles and
7. The Particular church: ordinances 0f God. and tte gracious
its endowment: ministry, . ., . , A . . , , ,
oracles, ordinances. purpose in this bestowment is declared
to be the gathering and perfecting of
the saints in this life. It is also said that Christ by his pres
ence and Spirit, according to his promise, doth make effectual
thereunto these supernatural gifts, and further that he will con
tinue them unto the church to the end of the world. The first
of these endowments is the Christian ministry — an endowment in
some respects analogous to the appointment of the priesthood
under the Hebraic dispensation, but manifestly in other aspects
distinct and superior, just as the new dispensation surpassed the
old. The full consideration of the ministry as a consecrated order
may be reserved until we are led to consider the church itself as
an organism ; but it may well be noted here that the Christian
ministry is not a human profession or function merely, but a gift
of Christ to his visible church — a gift which he himself selects,
whose fitness and sphere he determines, and which bears upon it
the imprimatur of his appointment. In the Form of Govern
ment, (Ch. IV.) the office is specifically defined as first in the
church, both for dignity and usefulness : the particular duties
devolving upon him who holds it are carefuUy described, his
spiritual equipment and authority are set forth in the terse dedar-
ration that he is the messenger of God and angel of the church.
The Christian minister as thus described is in every aspect an
official of higher grade than the Aaronic priest, endowed for a
loftier service and ministering at a grander altar. He does not

MINISTRY, ORACLES, ORDINANCES. 631
receive his appointment primarily from any human source: he is
the gift of Christ immediately, and as such bears with him super
natural credentials stamped upon his consecrated personality, and
made manifest in and through the spiritual services he is appointed
to render. The organized church in a secondary sense judges of
his qualifications for the office, and grants him its approval in the
exercise of his ministerial functions within certain prescribed
spheres. But his commission comes primarily not from the
church but from Christ, the Master, whose authorized embassador
he becomes through the inward call of the Spirit and the out
ward caU of providence. This was the lofty conception of Prot
estantism almost universaUy , in contrast with the Roman notion of
a priestly order, whoUy above the church. The Council of Trent
had affirmed that there is in the Christian church a new, visible
and external priesthood, translated from Judaism and instituted
by Christ; and that to the apostles and to their successors in this
priesthood as an independent body, had been delivered the power
of consecrating, offering and administering his body and blood,
and also of forgiving and of retaining sins. Against this dogma
ZwingH protested in the earnest declaration (62:63) that Scrip
ture recognizes no priests or presbyters but such as are conformed
to the Word of God, and that they are the only true ministers
who preach that Word, obey the Scriptures, and serve the church
in necessary things according to the divine order. The First
Helvetic Conf. (XVI : XIX) defines in detail the functions of
the Christian minister, gives him the title of pastor as distin
guished from priest, and repudiates earnestly the papal notion of
a priestly order. Similar declarations appear in other Protestant
formularies. Calvin quotes against the hierarchal theory the
remark of Cyprian, that a priest should be elected publicly in the
presence of all the people, and should be approved as a worthy
and fit person by the public judgment and testimony. He also
devotes an entire chapter in the Institutes (Book IV : 3) to a
description of the Protestant minister as distinct from the papal
priest, setting forth in detail his duties and prerogatives, and elo
quently exalting the office as one of divine appointment and of
very special dignity and worth.
Two correlated gifts bestowed by Christ upon his Visible
Church in all its branches are indicated in this section by the
terms, oracles and ordinances. The subject of the Christian ordi
nances, as distinct from the ceremonials of Mosaism or of Rome,
may best be considered in connection with the sacraments and
worship appointed by our Lord for the edification of his organized

632 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
people. The term, oracle, obviously refers to the inspired Scrip
tures as being or containing that Word of God, which according
to Zwingli it was the primary and chief office of the Christian
minister to proclaim to men. The term, though pagan in origin,
was used by both Paul and Peter, and by the authors of Hebrews
and Acts also, in the loftier sense just described — those Logia of
Deity, which especially constitute the Gospel as a message of
mercy to mankind. These Holy Scriptures manifestly are the
first and in some sense the chief among those precious ordinances
with which every true church is divinely endowed. Two things
should be specially noted here: first, that the Bible is represented
in this chapter, and in many ways throughout the Symbols, as
given not to the priesthood as an exclusive bestowment or trust,
but to the church as a body, to be studied, cherished, believed and
embraced by every member, in the exercise of intelligent and con
scientious judgment, and under a supreme sense of accountability
to God for the use made of this supernatural communication.
This is in harmony with the grand affirmation of the first chapter
that all the people of God have right unto and interest in the Scrip
tures, and are commanded in the fear of God to read and search
them . . . that, the Word of God dwelUng plentifully in all, they
may worship him in an acceptable manner, and through patience
and comfort of the Scriptures'may have hope. In the Directory
for Worship (Chap. Ill) it is further enjoined that the Scriptures
shall be publicly read, from the most approved translation, in the
vulgar tongue, that all may hear and understand.
The Directory brings out, secondly (VII), the correlative truth
already suggested, that the Christian ministry is before and above
aU else a ministry of the Word, — not a priestly function to be
exercised, as the Council of Trent had declared, in administering
the sacraments and in pardoning sin or pronouncing guilt, but a
gracious schoolmastership qualified to explain and commend the
teachings of the Bible, and set apart for this educational and edi
fying service. Christ in fact gives the holy oracles, the divine
Logia, first of all, and then appoints the ministry as his messen
gers to bring these oracles to the knowledge and experience of the
saints and of all who consent to hear the message. And herein
spiritual Christianity both manifests its supernatural quality, and
reveals the secret of its matchless power. A sacred book such
as the Bible, an appointed order of teachers fitted to expound it,
and an appropriate time and place and opportunity for its expo
sition such as the sanctuary and the church afford,— these are
things which forever differentiate spiritual Christianity both from

jU

EFFECTUAL THROUGH THE SPIRIT. 633
papal formalisms and from all false faiths, and conclusively prove
it to be, as the section teaches, a gift of God unto men.
As these endowments are supernatural in origin and quality,
they are also said to be supematurally sustained and empowered,—
the presence of Christ and his Spirit making them effectual, in the
accomplishment of their predestined purpose. There is indeed a
certain degree of power to produce spiritual results resident in the
ordinances and in the ministry, contemplated as persuasive agen-
des, and eminently, as we have had occasion to observe, in the
Hvdy oracles, the inspired and authoritative Word. But what
could the Christian ordinances accomplish, if the divine Spirit did
not reside in them, and through them influence the minds and
Hves of men ? What success could Christian ministers hope to
secure in the line either of converting unregenerate souls or of
edifying the saints, if that Spirit were not dwelling in them as an
flluminating, guiding, energizing agency, and if the present Christ
were not with them according to his gracious promise? And
what saving issues could be expected even from the potent truths
of Scripture, with aU their convincing and convicting power, were
it not for the supernatural influences flowing into and through
them, and rendering them mighty to the pulling down of the
strongholds, the dreadful barriers, of sin and unbelief ? We may
well beHeve that the Christ who gave these agencies, dwells also
in them continuaUy, and that the Spirit who prepared the Word,
and who caUed the ministry to the task of proclaiming it, never
leaves that Word to work out its results independently, or forsakes
his chosen agents when in the name of Christ they proclaim it as a
divine message to man. Supernatural in origin and quality, these
instrumentalities are to be recognized as also supematurally sus
tained and supematurally empowered in all their operations, and
are thus made effectual, as the section teaches, in the great process
of salvation.
The chief end or purpose of this threefold endowment has
already been mentioned. It is first the gathering, and then the
perfecting of those who are united together within the visible
church. The question has been discussed whether a church which
has no minister, is indeed in the biblical sense, a church. Pre
sumably such an organization may exist, at least for a period,
though it could not prosper, without a commissioned minister.
But it is even more obvious that no church can be gathered, can be
organized into visible form, without the ordinances and the holy
oracles which are such characteristic features of spiritual Chris
tianity. The inspired Word is an indispensable instrumentality,

634 THE CHURCH OF GOD. ,
the appointed ordinances are indispensable factors, and it is
through these as well as by the ministry that the saints, in the
language of the section, are gathered, grouped, constituted into
one family of grace, and through these that those who are thus
brought together, are instructed, strengthened, perfected in the
divine life. Even those who reject the doctrine of an ordained
ministry, or of prescribed sacraments, or other kindred observ
ances as constituents of the church, still cling to the Word and to
the ordained means of grace as furnishing not only the justifying
reason for their fellowship, but also the source and spring of their
growth and their perfection in the Christian life.
Another element in the conception of the particular church lies
in the idea of organization. As we have already seen, a church
must be something more than a tem-
8. The particular church, eyen anent associati0n
its organization: church gov- * j v
eminent °^ believers: some appropriate law or
bond of union is requisite as the essen
tial basis of such association. There must be not only piety as the
animating life of the organism ; there must also be constitutional
rules, resting on just foundations and regulating that life in aU its
varied manifestations. This is implied in the two or three re-
, markable metaphors by which the church is described in the New
Testament. Whether it be contemplated as a living body, or as a
family, or as a state, organization always appears as one of its
primal characteristics. A church without constitutional regimen
of some fitting type would be wholly incompetent to perform
those services for the securing of which the church was divinely
established. We are not concerned just now with questions re
specting this or that actual or possible form of such organization :
the generic fact is all that needs to be emphasized. In chapter
XXX, which treats specifically of Church Censures, it is said that
the Lord Jesus as king and head of his church hath therein
appointed a government in the hands of church officers ; and there
is added the phrase, very suggestive of the conflicts of the age,
distinct from the civil magistrate. While the Assembly was will
ing, as we have seen, to invoke the help of the civil magistracy in
the enforcement of church authority, even to the extent of impris
oning or otherwise punishing those whom the chuch condemned as
heretical, it was far from willing that such magistracy should
attempt to administer government within the church itself. It
was led therefore to emphasize the fundamental proposition that
the church should elect its own officers, prescribe their several
spheres, and empower them to exercise adequate authority within

CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 635
its domain. In this view it was led also to define the various
offices that should be instituted in the church, to construct a
spedfic form of administration for the guidance of church officers,
and to provide for a series of ecclesiastical assemblies, above the
particular church, in which supreme power within the religious
sphere should be vested.
The Form of Government, as drafted by the Assembly, affirms
that the officers which Christ hath appointed are, some extraordi
nary, as apostles, evangelists and prophets, which are ceased;
others ordinary and perpetual, as pastors, teachers, and other
church governors, and deacons. In the American Form it is
simply said that, while our Lord at first collected and formed his
church by the mission of men endued with miraculous gifts which
have long since ceased, the ordinary and perpetual officers in the
church are bishops or pastors, the representatives of the people,
usually styled ruHng elders, and deacons. In both drafts we
find the same careful exclusion of the dogma of apostolic succes
sion, and of the prophetical and evangelistic orders. It is
dedared that the reason for the existence of such extraordinary
offices has passed away, and that the supernatural enduement
which qualified certain chosen men at first to hold offices of this
type, has also passed away. The papal claim of a transmissible
apostolate, and the kindred claim of prelatic succession, was thus
absolutely rejected. That claim in whatever form has now come
to be regarded generally as invalid, not merely on the ground
named, that miraculous gifts are no longer conferred upon men,
but on the further ground that none could properly be regarded
as apostles but those who, in the phrase of Luke, had companied
with the Lord Jesus from the beginning to the end of his min
istry, or those who, in the phrase of Paul, had seen the Lord
through some personal manifestation such as had been granted to
him on the road to Damascus. The prophetical office had also, in
the judgment of the Assembly, terminated in like manner, inas
much as this way of revealing the divine will to the church had now
manifestly ceased. The office of the evangelist also, which con
sisted in bearing testimony to Christ and his resurrection, and in
proclaiming to the outlying world the Gospel of salvation through
him, possibly with miraculous attestations or other charismatic
manifestations, had also completed its usefulness — at least in
the form which the term as used in the New Testament suggests.
These, in the language of the original Symbol, were all extraordi
nary : having accomplished their peculiar mission during the
apostolic century, they had ceased to appear, and were never, it

636 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
is implied, to be reproduced. They were no more essential to the
propagation of religion in the earth, or to the proper organization
of the visible church as the divine agent in such propagation,
than would have been the continuous life and teaching and mes-
siahship, century after century, of Him of whom the apostles and
evangelists and prophets were the primitive and the supemat
urally endowed witnesses. The visible church has existed through
the ages without their special aid, and probably is stronger and
broader and more commanding in its influence, than it would have
been, had prophets still foretold the future, or evangelists had
testified preternaturally, or apostles had been preserved alive to
tell the wondrous story of the Savior and the Cross.
Still it is obvious that what are here called ordinary and per
petual offices and officers are necessary, and will continue through
the ages to be necessary to the proper organization of the church,
and to the adequate administration of its affairs, both internal
and external. This necessity is clearly fundamental, whatever
may be the judgment of this or that Christian body as to the best
way of supplying such need. In the original Form of Gov. it is
affirmed that as the apostles exercised government at the first, so
Christ hath continually furnished some in his church with gifts
of government, and with commission to execute the same when
called thereunto ; and it is added, that it is lawful and agreeable
to the Word of God, that such government should assume the
Presbyterian type. In the amended American Form it is said to
be expedient and agreeable to Scripture and the practice of the prim
itive Christians, not only that government should exist in some cer
tain form, but also that this particular type of government should
be established in the church. It is added, however, in terms that
cannot be too strongly emphasized : In full consistency with this
belief, we embrace in the spirit of charity those Christians who
differ from us in opinion or in practice on these subjects. It was
natural and in a degree politic that the Assembly in Westminster,
speaking in the presence of Episcopacy on one side and of a rising
Independency on the other, should claim no more than is con
tained in their adopted Form, though it is certain from the long
and earnest debates that many, probably a large majority of the
members, clung to the tenet of a jure divino Presbyterianism,
and in their hearts rejected all churches otherwise organized. It
is also probable that similar motives influenced the first Ameri
can Assembly when, speaking in the presence of a wide variety
of denominations, organized in ways more or less unlike their
own, they adopted the pacific language just quoted, — affirming

PRACTICAL ENDS TO BE SOUGHT. 637
on one side quite as strongly as the divines of Westminster, that
Presbyterianism was agreeable, even specially agreeable, to Scrip
ture and to the practice of the primitive Christians, while on the
other side recognizing full liberty of opinion and of usage as to
the whole matter, and the obligation of comprehensive charity
toward aU who might differ. Whatever may be true of individual
minds, or of this or that particular organization, American Pres
byterianism has never been committed to the jure divino theory,
or affirmed that churches formed on the Independent or on the
Episcopal model, or on some interblending and modification of
either of these general types, are not true and worthy churches of
Jesus Christ.
Adverting to the generic conception of the church as an organ
ization, we may note the vital fact that, whatever may be the
preferred form of such organization, the practical ends to be sought
are always essentially the same. These practical ends are three
in number, — instruction, government distinctively speaking, and
charitable aclministration. Wherever and however these ends
are secured, through adequate official instrumentalities, all the
chief needs of the church as an organism are substantially met.
While it is to be admitted that extensive differences of judgment
and usage have arisen, and stiU exist, as to the most effectual
way of providing for this threefold necessity, it is yet pleasant to
note that, amid aU such differences, there is much more of prac
tical agreement than is commonly supposed. That the primal
end of instruction can be best secured through the agency of a
duly trained and ordained ministry, is now almost universally
beHeved, however great the variety of opinion respecting the mode
of providing such a ministry, or the proper functions of the min
isterial office. That the church should be duly governed by some
authority, acting in and for the body, is now regarded by all
alike as appropriate and indispensable, whether those who rule
shall bear the name of elder or some other title, or shall hold office
in the Presbyterian mode or some other, — the end in view being
gdned in substance, notwithstanding all variations in name or
method or comparative official responsibility. That the char
itable ministrations of the church to needy saints, and to others
under its care or within its reach, should be carried on through
the diaconate, as in the church at Jerusalem, or through some
corresponding agency qualified and chosen for that delicate task,
is almost universally recognized, although here also we are con
fronted by wide varieties in mode and usage. The broad fact,
underlying all variations, is that when due provision has been

638 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
made, in whatever appropriate way, for adequate religious instruc
tion, for orderly and effective government and discipline, and
for beneficent administration such as Christian charity demands,
any church may regard itself as adequately organized alike for
interior efficiency and for outward activity and growth.
One other feature remains to be considered before we pass from
the study of the particular church to the contemplation of the
various forms of larger ecclesiastical
9. The particular church ; organization : it is what is described
Power of the keys ; Discip- . . , „ , , ,, . , .,
.. in the Symbols as the power of the
keys, involving especially the right to
exercise discipline. The phrase has its origin in the declaration
of our Lord, first to Peter and afterward to all the Apostles col
lectively, as to their authority to bind and to loose, to convict of
sin or to remit sin as his representatives. Hooker (Eccl. Polity)
interprets this declaration as follows : Our Lord and Savior
giveth his apostles regimen in general over his church ; for they
that have the keys of the kingdom of heaven are thereby signi
fied to be stewards of the house of God, under whom they guide,
command, judge and correct his family. This would seem to
imply that such official stewardship was to be in a measure inde
pendent of the church thus guided and commanded. It is a
familiar fact that the entire papal system of government rests on
the more positive assumption that this power of the keys is in no
sense the prerogative of the church, but belongs to the priestly
orders exclusively. It is claimed that this type of authority was
transmissible from the apostles directly to other hands ; that they
did actually choose and ordain successors for this function ; and
especially that Peter transferred this among other prerogatives
to his successors in the Roman see. The church consequently
has no right of itself to determine what terms of admission into
it shall be prescribed, or who shall be connected with it, or what
shall be done with unworthy members within its fold : Council
of Trent, Session XXXII.
It has sometimes been affirmed that the authority to bind and
to loose, thus conferred by our Lord upon the apostles, was a
part of their peculiar investiture as a body of inspired men chosen
to be leaders in his developing church — a qualification therefore
which, like the power to work mirades or to speak in unknown
tongues, was incapable of transmission. But Protestantism gen
erally has held that Peter and afterwards the entire apostolic col
lege were thus addressed by Christ representatively, and that
the authority in the case was in fact conferred not on themselves

Mm

POWER OF THE KEYS. 639
personally, but through them on the church to whose construc
tion and guidance their lives were to be devoted. Protestants
claim this prerogative for the church as an organism, and by con
sequence repudiate absolutely the papal assumption of priestly
supremacy. It is not clear, however, that either the Lutheran
or the Reformed communions at first carried the proposition out
to its full extent : at least, in some of their formularies it seems
to be suggested that the power of the keys was to be held and
wielded, not so much by the church at large, as by those called
to office therdn. The first Helvetic Conf. (XIX) speaks of
pastors and teachers who legitimately use this power within the
visible church ; and the second Helvetic declares that the keys
of the kingdom of heaven, out of which the papists forged swords,
scepters and crowns, are given to all legitimate ministers, together
with the preaching of the Gospel. Yet these Confessions, and
the Belgic and some others, furnish at least a partial corrective
in thdr emphatic statement, that all church officers must be duly
chosen by the membership — a requistion which of necessity would
render their authority representative and official rather than
personal. In the American Form of Gov. this right of the church to
choose those who should rule, is strongly affirmed, — with its
legitimate consequence in their full accountability to the church
electing them, for the manner in which their executive duties
are discharged. In the introductory chapter of this Form it is
expressly stated that our Savior for the edification of his visible
church, hath appointed officers ... to exercise discipline for
the preservation of both truth and duty ; and that it is incum
bent upon these officers, and upon the whole church in whose name
they act, to censure or cast out the erroneous and scandalous. It
is also said (Ch. VIII) that the power vested in such officers by
the church is wholly moral or spiritual as well as delegated, and
is ministerial and declarative only. In the debate on church
government, in the Westminster Assembly, it was strongly
declared (Minutes, 242) that such government is not civil but
spiritual, not original but derivative, not supreme but subordi
nate to Christ, not lordly but ministerial, not arbitrary but lim
ited by Scripture. It is under these limitations, which are seen
at once to be essential to the proper autonomy of the church,
that the sweeping clause of the Confession (Ch. XXX : ii) is to
be interpreted, which declares that to these officers the keys of
the kingdom of heaven are committed, by virtue whereof they
have power respectively to retain and remit sin, to shut that

640 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
kingdom against the impenitent both by the Word and censures,
and to open it unto penitent sinners by the ministry of the Gospel,
and by absolution from censures. Taken by itself, apart from
the meliorating statements just quoted, this section would seem
to confer on church officials as a body much of the jurisdiction,
original and irresponsible, that had been claimed by the Triden
tine Council for the papal hierarchy.
Among the forms in which the power of the keys thus vested
in the particular church may be exercised are, first, the determ
ination under the rule of Scripture of the terms and method of
admission to its fellowship ; secondly, the right to make and en->
force whatever laws and regulations are found to be essential to
its harmony and growth, and to the full discharge of aU its func
tions as a religious organism ; thirdly, the further right to exer
cise discipline upon unfaithful or unworthy members in whatever
ways may be deemed essential and in harmony with Scripture ;
and fourthly, the right to purify itself whenever it is needful, by
the expulsion of errorists or of grossly wicked persons. These
processes, and whatever others may be essential to its develop
ment and efficiency as a branch of the church of Christ, every
organized household of faith may legitimately carry out, by
virtue of the authority divinely conferred upon it. It may in
deed, and under the Presbyterian system does, intrust the exer
cise of this right to men officially chosen as its representatives, in
order to secure more effectively thereby the desired end : under
that system it may also be conjoined with other particular
churches in order to gain this end still more effectively ; but it
may never surrender its divinely conferred autonomy to any
human authority whatsoever, civil or ecclesiastical. The keys of
the kingdom have been placed by the Head of the Church in its
hands, and for the use of the potestas davium in whatever direc
tion it is immediately responsible to him and to him only.
The American Book of Discipline defines church discipline dis
tinctively as the exercise of that authority and the application of
that system of laws which Christ has appointed in his church. It
also describes the ends to be sought in such disdpHne, as the
promotion of the purity and edification of the body, and the
spiritual good of offenders against its authority, and also the vin
dication of the honor of Christ and the Christian rdigion. Milton
in his Treatise on Church Government highly extols such disci
pline, affirming that, when rightly administered, it assumes the
very shape and image of virtue. The scope of church discipline
5s very broad. The Symbol affirms that whatever in the doctrine

CHURCH CENSURES. 641
or principles or practice of any member or officer is contrary to
the Word of God, or whatever may tempt others to sin, or may
mar thdr edification as believers, should be regarded as a disci
plinable offence. Yet on the other hand, it enjoins that such
discipline must in all cases be exercised with special prudence and
discretion, and should assume a judidal and punitive form only
when dearly demanded by Scripture, or by the practice or teach
ing of the church founded on the Scriptures. It is not needful
here to enter into detailed account of the prescribed processes by
which such disdpline is carried out in the Presbyterian mode: see
Digest, 1898, p. 604, seq.
From this general definition of church discipline in its nature
and processes and aims, we naturally pass to consider the
chapter in the Confession (XXX) which treats specifically of
Church Censures. The term signifies some form of penalty pro
nounced on those who have been found guilty under due ecdesi
astical procedure. The right to inflict such censure on just
occasion is a necessary corollary from the right to exercise discip
line. Such right was recognized everywhere in Protestantism,
from the beginning. The Belgic Conf. declared (XXX : XXXII)
that church government is divinely instituted, not only that in
this way the true reHgion may be preserved and the true doctrine
everywhere propagated, but also that transgressors may be pun
ished and restrained by spiritual means. For this purpose even
excommunication is requisite, it is said, with the several cir
cumstances belonging to it, according to the Word of God. The
Irish Articles, in language which applies to private members as
wdl as to ministers, teaches (70) that it appertaineth to the discip
line of the church that inquiry be made of evil ministers, and
that they be accused by those that have knowledge of their
offences, and finaUy, being found, guilty, by just judgment be
deposed. But no antecedent formulary contains so full and prac
tical a statement of the whole subject as the chapter now under
consideration, especiaUy when taken in connection with the prac
tical chapter in the American Directory for Worship (XI) on the
Mode of Inflicting and Removing Censures : Digest, 1898, Ch. XI.
The ends to be sought in the infliction of censures are named
in section second of the chapter, as the reclaiming of the offending
brother, the deterring of others from like offences, the purging
out of the infectious leaven of evil from the church, the vindica
tion of the honor of Christ and of the profession of his Gospel ,
and the prevention of that wrath of God which might justly fall
upon his church, if it should suffer his covenant and the seals

642 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
thereof to be profaned by notorious and obstinate offenders.
Three forms or grades of censure are described in the following
Section, admonition private or public by the church or its repre
sentatives, suspension for a season from the holy communion or
from all church privileges, and finally, formal excommunication
from the household of faith, — the grade of penalty being deter
mined in each case by the nature of the crime and the proved
demerit of the person arraigned. The mode of administering such
punishment is left to the officers of the church acting in its behalf, —
the object in view being edification rather than destruction, the
spirit one of brotherly tenderness and Christian meekness, and
the process marked by great solemnity as well as love, in the
hope that the delinquent may be impressed with a sense of his
sin and haply be brought to repentance. No civil penalties are to
be imposed : fine or imprisonment may not be inflicted : sodal
standing may not be impaired, excepting so far as exclusion from
church fellowship may reach. The entire process, in the lan
guage of the American Form, is ministerial and declarative only.
It may be profitable to add that admonition does not effect the
membership of the admonished party; that suspension from the
communion or other church privileges is designed to be tempo
rary rather than permanent ; and that the Directory makes
provision for the orderly removal even of the sentence of excom
munication, and for the restoration of the offender to fellowship
upon satisfactory evidence of repentance and a purpose to lead a
Christian life,
The particular church having been considered as to its consti
tution and membership, its endowment with an elect ministry and
with the divine oracles and ordinances,
10. Ecclesiastical organi- its government and its right to exerdse
zations: Synods and Coun- ..... , , ,, , . .„ ,
ctls: constitution and oDject. dlsclPlme and to hold for itself the
power of the keys by the authority of
Christ and in full accountability to him only, it is now incumbent to
inquire further whether and how particular churches may be fitly
associated or conjoined in some larger form of ecclesiastical organ
ization. Certainly it is not in harmony with the genius of Chris
tianity, or with the doctrine of the communion of saints, that every
such church should stand altogether by itself, recognizing in no
definite way the sacred relationship which it sustains toward every
other particular church which constitutes together with it an essen
tial part of the one body of Christ. Absolute independency cannot
justify itself in the presence of the plain and tender Pauline

SYNODS AND COUNCILS. 643
teaching as to that body. The same sense of affiliation which
draws individual Christians together within any single household
of faith, and the same divine law which not only commends but
requires such fellowship, are no less applicable or effective in the
case of churches. And it is an interesting illustration of this
truth that the Protestant churches throughout northern Europe
from the beginning sought such affiliation and placed themselves
so far as possible under this comprehensive law. Civic and pro-
vindal and national boundaries, diversities of language and the
prejudice of race and other like influences stood in the way of
that close fellowship, that practical and even organic unity, which
many of the Protestant leaders both continental and insular
Strongly desired. Yet the doctrine of the church invisible as one,
and of aU visible churches as constituent parts of that one invisible
church, was at no time merely a theological tenet : it was also a
Hving conviction and force tending steadily toward the consolida
tion and unifying, so far as this was practicable, of all who rejoiced
together under the Protestant name.
The chapter (XXXI) in the Confession which treats Of Synods
and Councils may be taken as a marked illustration of this ten
dency, though it was by no means the first illustration. The
Second Hdvetic Conf. (XVIII) had declared that proper control
and discipline should be exercised over the doctrine and conduct of
ministers in or by synods ; and also that general or ecumenical
coundls are not to be disapproved, if they are conducted accord
ing to the apostolic example, for the welfare and not for the cor
ruption of the church. The Scotch Conf. also had an extended
Article (XX) on the subject, protesting on one hand against the
assumption that such councils may not err in opinion or be guilty
of grievous wrong in practice, but on the other affirming their
value for the confutation of heresies and the more public profes
sion of the common faith, and also in establishing good policy
and just order within the church. One of the Thirty-Nine
Articles (XXI) which was omitted in the American edition of
1801, but has been restored with some modifications by the
Reformed Episcopal communion, recognized the propriety and
authority of such general councils, but like the Scotch Confession
warned against the abuses to which, as the history of the councils
of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries had shown, such bodies
were always exposed. A cautionary statement of the same tenor
appears in the Irish Articles : 76-79. But the completest teaching
on the subject is fonnd in the chapter just named, in the broad
proposition that for the better government and further edification

644 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
of the church there ought to be such assemblies as are commonly
called synods or councils : and further that it belongeth to the
rulers of the particular churches to appoint such assemblies,
and to convene together in them as often as they shall judge it
expedient for the good of the church. This is the American form of
the section : but in the original form it was declared that civil
magistrates also may lawfully call such synods ; and that, in case
the magistrates are open enemies to the church, the ministers
themselves, with other fit persons delegated by the churches, may
meet in this way. The reason for the original form as adopted
and presented to Parliament by the Assembly, and likewise the
reason for the American modification, precluding the civil magis
tracy from all share in the convening or control of such councils,
will be at once apparent.
The sphere within which such ecclesiastical assemblies are to
act, and the specific duties which may devolve Upon them, are
concisely given in the second section ; — to determine controver
sies of faith and questions of conscience, to give directions for the
better ordering of the worship and government of the churches,
and to correct all wrong in church discipline. A more Specific
account of these duties appears in those chapters (X-Xll) in the
American Form of Gov. which define largely the spheres and
functions of the several judicatories in the Presbyterian organism.
What is just here to be noted is the fact that, whatever may be
the arrangement for such larger assemblages in this or that Chris
tian communion, and whether they are held but occasionally or
are provided for as permanent factors in the organization of any
such communion, their function has always been substantially
the same, even from the earliest ages. Tertullian, writing during
the second century, tells us that in his day councils of all the
churches were held in certain localities throughout Greece (and
doubtless elsewhere) whereat matters of deeper moment were
treated in common, and the presence or representation of all
bearing the Christian name was celebrated with much veneration.
The history of similar assemblages through nearly all the centu
ries succeeding down to the era of Constance and Basle, consti
tutes in fact a large part of the history of Christianity. It has
well been said that such councils have almost always been impor
tant centers of development with respect alike to the doctrine,
the liturgy or worship, and the constitution of the church. Two
practical rules, whose importance had been tested again and
again in the antecedent experience of both Romanism and Protest
antism, were laid down by the Assembly in the subsequent sections

COUNCILS : VALUES AND IAXCKES. 645
of this chapter: first, that such councils should never interfere
in civil affairs except under certain specified conditions, but rather
should confine their attention exclusively to what is ecclesiastical,
or what relates to the government or edification of the church ;
and secondly that, inasmuch as all such councils are liable to
error, as many of them have erred, their decisions are not to be
regarded as final or infallible rules in either faith or practice, but
are simply to be used as helps in personal belief or duty so far as
they are seen to conform to the Word of God. The first of these
practical rules is of spedal significance as having been the occa
sion of various divisions in Britain, and of at least one such disas
trous division in American Presbyterianism. The second contains
a caution emphasized by many instances in Protestant history,
and worthy to be bome always in mind alike by all such denom
inational assemblages and by those who are brought in any
manner under their jurisdiction. For it may well be questioned
whether, valuable as such councils have again and again proved
themselves in thdr relation to the better government and edification
of the church, Christendom has ever contained within its bosom a
more explosive or disintegrating element. Even the venerable
Assembly of Westminster, as we have had occasion more than
once to note, may serve in some degree to illustrate this universal
danger. There is great practical wisdom in the statement of the
Amer. Form of Gov. (Ch. I : vii) that there is much greater
danger from the usurped claim of making laws than from the
right of judging upon laws already made and common to all who
profess the Gospel, — although this right, as necessity requires in
the present state, be lodged with fallible men.
Such ecclesiastical assemblages, by whatever name they are
styled, may be widely varied in their origin, in their constituents,
in their duration, and" their relation to the form and life of the
communions which they represent. It is a familiar fact that the
great ecumenical councils of the fourth and fifth centuries were
convened by imperial authority, and that many of the Protestant
coundls, as the Synod of Dort, had a similar origin. The West
minster Assembly, as we have seen, was a creation of the
EngHsh Parliament primarily. Other conciliar bodies, like the
Council of Trent, have been called into being by papal authority
acting in entire independence of both state and church. Under
the prelatic system such councils or convocations, consisting of
the clergy, may in Hke manner be summoned by episcopal authority
under certain prescribed conditions. Congregationalism provides
for local councils to consider particular issues or transact some

646 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
spedfied business, and to some extent for assemblages of a more
comprehensive or ecumenical character. In the Presbyterian
Form of Gov. provision is made (Ch. VIII) for several classes
of such conciliar bodies, presbyterial and synodical, culminating
in the General Assembly as the supreme judicatory of the church.
It is hardly needful to add that such councils however organized
may differ as to their constituency, either including the clergy,
higher or lower, apart from the membership, or the clergy and laity
united under certain conditions and in some fixed ratio of repre
sentation ; that they may also be convened but once, for certain
special reasons, and then terminate their existence finaUy, or be
permanently organized with a view to the better securing of
results such as only a continuous existence can adequately secure ;
and also, that they may differ widely in the character of their
deliberations, in the significance and authoritativeness of their
actions, and in their relations to the general life of the church or
churches which they represent.
This general survey of Synods and Councils, in their nature and
their relations to the organic life of the church visible, naturally
-,. „ ,. . . „ leads on to a more specific considera-
ll. The Presbyterian Sys- .. £l, . . f .
tern; Its elements and values. tlon of the Presbyterian system of
church organization, as set forth
partly in the Confession, but chiefly in the Form of Government and
in the American Book of Discipline. The essential features of this
mode of organization are, first, that the right of government in the
particular church is vested, not in the ministry as an order above
the church, but in the membership as a body ; secondly, that this
body shall govern itself representatively, through the election of
competent persons chosen by the church to exerdse such govern
ment in conjunction with its elect ministry — such representatives
acting under a fixed code of procedure, and wielding only a dele
gated and declarative authority ; thirdly, that in order to secure
mutual counsel and assistance, to preserve soundness of doctrine
and regularity of discipline, and to enter into common measures
for preventing error and immorality and promoting knowledge
and religion, (Form of Gov. Ch. X) these separate congrega
tions or churches shall be permanently associated together within
a given territory as a presbytery, or within a larger region as a
synod, or more comprehensively still as a general-assembly includ
ing and representing the whole Church in a given province or
country ; and fourthly, that in order to the existence and useful
ness of such a series of judicatories, there must be an established
constitution or code of laws, containing all needful definitions or

THE PRESBYTERIAN POLITY. 647
limitations of respective prerogative and duty, and controlling the
activities of the united body in such ways as shall best protect
the rights of each individual church and member, and at the
same time promote also the prosperity and honor of the entire
Church as thus organized and unified. In an authoritative Note
appended to the Form of Gov. Ch. XII, we learn what were
regarded by the first American Assembly as the radical principles
involved in such organization. These principles, briefly stated,
are, first, that the several different congregations (or particular
churches) taken collectively constitute in reality one Church :
secondly, that a larger part of this Church, or a representation of
it, shafl oversee and govern each smaller part and be empowered
to determine matters of controversy which may arise therein :
thirdly, that a representation of the whole shall within prescribed
Unfits rule and determine in regard to every part and to all the
parts as united : — and fourthly, that all appeals (or other judicial
questions or matters of common interest) may be carried from
the lower to the higher judicatories, until they are decided at last
by the couected wisdom and united voice of the whole Church :
Digest, 1898, p. 259, seq.
In justifying an ecclesiastical organism so elaborate and com
plex as this, it is not needful to claim that this type of church
government in its varied details is defined clearly and exactly in the
New Testament. We may indeed set aside as without adequate
historic support the rationalistic hypothesis of Baur and his
successors, European and American, that no definite form of gov
ernment existed in the primitive church. But it is clear on the
other hand that no exact and exclusive form, adjusted to the needs
of the church in all lands and ages, and divinely prescribed as
such, can be found in Scripture. Such a discovery has often
been daimed in Protestant circles, as it is imperatively affirmed
by Rome. Episcopacy early asserted for itself, still in some
degree asserts, such exclusive biblical warrant. The Cambridge
Platform declared, in the interest of Independency, that all the
parts of church government are so exactly described in the Word
of God, that it is not the province of man to add or diminish or
alter anything in the least measure therein. The Westminster
Assembly, or at least the large majority of its members, affirmed
no less strongly the explidt warrant in Scripture for the Presby
terian system as set forth in its formularies. But this was not the
universal judgment, even in that age. As far back as the Scotch
Confession, another view presents itself in the fraternal (XX)
statement : Not that we think that any policy or order in

648 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
ceremonies can be appointed for all ages, times and places. The
American Synod, from which sprang the first General Assembly,
said expressly : We do not believe that God has been pleased
so to reveal and enjoin every minute circumstance of ecclesi
astical government and discipline, as not to leave room for ortho
dox churches of Christ iu these minutiae to differ with charity
from one another. On this wiser basis, it is simply to be main
tained that Presbyterianism exists by divine right, but not by
sole or exclusive right, as a mode of government agreeable to
Scripture. It would be vain to attempt in these studies a presentation,
even in the most meager outline, of the specific evidences on which
this claim of scripturalness is based. The various proofs adduced
in the American Form of Gov. and still more extensively in the
original Form, are certainly sufficient to establish, if not an ex
clusive jure divino authority, still a substantial warrant for the
Presbyterian system as justified for substance in the New Testa
ment. There is distinct evidence for the belief that many of the
earliest Christian churches were in fact, as Whateley (Kingdom
of Christ) suggests, simply synagogues of converted persons, pro
vided already with a body of officials styled elders, or elders of
the people ; and that in such cases the apostles, as he says,
would merely introduce whatever added regulations might be
requisite in conjunction with the new faith, leaving the machinery
of administration substantially unchanged, — the membership be
ing thus by training Presbyterians before they became Christians.
Starting from this Hebraic germ, it is natural to infer from the
biblical statements that, wherever converts were subsequently
won from Judaism in Western Asia or in Eastern Europe, pro
vision was made for administration of this type by Paul, and by
Timothy and Titus and others engaged primarily in the task of
winning disciples among their Jewish brethren, and of organizing
them when thus converted, into Christian churches. Nor is it
unreasonable to bdieve, on the basis of facts recorded in Scrip
ture, that this mode was accepted and established among Gentile
converts also, wherever the Gospel found footing, as in Corinth
and Rome, — though doubtless modified at some points by the
strong influence of Roman government and Roman usage. That
exact uniformity prevailed, resting on explicit divine authority
and rigorously enforced everywhere as such, cannot be shown
from Scripture, neither can it be justified on rational grounds by
any who take fully into account all the circumstances and condi
tions in the case. But that churches substantially Presbyterian,

PROTESTANT POLITIES : POINTS OF AGREEMENT. 649
and in course of time larger organizations of the same type, did
actually spring into being, first on Jewish then on Gentile soil, is
a fact at least strongly suggested in the inspired records of the
apostoHc century, and certainly justified by ample evidences
during the subsequent century or two, before imperialism in any
form had struck its cancerous roots into the organic body of Christ :
Bannerman, Scripture Doctrine of the Church.
Passing through the long and dark period of papal absolutism,
and ascending to the brighter era of the Reformation, we discover
graduaUy rising into view in Protestant lands and especially in
Great Britain, three general types of church administration, the
Episcopal, the Independent, and the Presbyterian, — all proposing
themselves as legitimate substitutes for that hierarchal despotism
against which all Protestants were earnestly arrayed, and each
daiming for itsdf exdusive biblical warrant, even to the extent
of challenging at times the right of churches otherwise organized
to bear the name of Christian. We are well aware that some of
the most injurious discords of Protestantism originated around
this ecclesiastical issue: while this conflict of polities continued,
it was impossible for the Protestant cause to reach its highest
measure of vigor or to gain the largest success. The various
phases of that intestine conflict need not be portrayed, as it went
on during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and was con
tinued, though with lessening bitterness, into the nineteenth
century. It was only as men came to see at length that in fact
Christian churches could live and prosper and do valuable work
for Christ and his cause under either of these types of adminis
tration in their several varieties, and under all of these in similar
measure, that the dogma of a divine right inhering exclusively in
either, gradually faded away. And it surely is one of the grandest
facts of our time, that the point has now been reached substantially
where each of these types may be regarded and cherished as Chris
tian, and where thdr profound points of agreement, as well as the
dements of difference, may be freely and happily recognized.
All alike hold to the generic doctrine of the church as a divine
institution, appointed of God for a sublime work and career in
the world, and endowed by him with a supernatural, a gracious,
a truly cosmic mission to humanity. All are agreed as to the
essential nature of that mission, as being a proclamation of grace
and salvation through a divine Mediator, and by means of the
supernatural Word concerning him and his mediatorial relations
to our faHen race. All are agreed as to the headship of Christ in
his church, to the supremacy of the divine law, to the obligation

650 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
to observe the sacraments, to the fact of the divine ordinances
such as the Sabbath, and to the duty and privilege of worship,
in whatever variety of mode. It would be needless here to detail
all those forms of agreement in doctrine, in practice and in ex
perience, by which the various branches of Protestantism are in
fact as truly one as if they were, Hke Rome, one outward and
visible organism. It is enough for us now to note that these
agreements, doctrinal, practical and experimental, are infinitely
more fundamental, more weighty and more precious, than are the
ecclesiastical technics in which the Protestant bodies still differ.
It is especially imperative upon us as Presbyterians to note and
study well these important points of agreement as weU as those
of difference between our preferred type of polity and all others
existing side by side with it in the broad Protestant domain.
Presbyterianism agrees, for example, with strict Independency in
affirming the parity of .the ministry, the biblical warrant for the
diaconate as an administrative agency, and the right of each
church to rule itself under the supreme jurisdiction of Christ. It
agrees with modified Independency, or Congregationalism, in
recognizing the proper affiliation of contiguous churches of like
belief, and the importance of practical fellowship in some form
among these several households' of faith. It agrees with Episco
pacy in upholding the doctrine of the unity of the whole church
of Christ, and exalting the ministry as a divine office and order
within that church, though granting to it no independent prerog
ative or power. It agrees still more obviously in both usage and
spirit with that modified Episcopacy which, under the name of
Methodism, has proved itself one of the most effective as well as
popular varieties of church administration in these later times.
It agrees also with Lutheranism in its consistorial organization as
composed of both ministers and laymen, and in its episcopal super-
intendency of ministers and churches, though without the formal
office of the bishopric as existing in some Lutheran communities.
It agrees in general with the democratic or popular rather than
the sacerdotal conception of church government, yet appropriates
and embodies some desirable features which that conception in its
better varieties represents. In general it occupies an intermediate
position between antithetic polities, borrowing from these some
valuable elements, yet possessing some good qualities which, they
do not so well exhibit. While it has some obvious defects and
Habilities, and while it may be so administered as to become an
injury rather than a benefit, and even an instrument of tyranny,
it fairly deserves the encomium pronounced upon it by an

HEADSHIP OF CHRIST. 651
American commentator (Beattie, Presbyterian Standards), as
securing well corporate unity, orderly procedure, individual free
dom and justice to all sacred interests: also as providing for the
harmonious balance and consistent operation of all these factors,
in such ways as to make it the symbol of both law and liberty,
order and organization.
In meditating on the generic conception of the Church Visible
as presented in this interesting chapter, it is important to bear
steadily in mind the two grand facts
which lie at the foundation of all worthy I2* Headship of Christ In
church government, the headship of ^ggSJ."**"" *
Christ and the supreme authority of
the inspired Word — the heavenly Ruler and his sovereign law.
This is not that generic headship which is theologically ascribed
to Christ, in contrast with the headship of Adam — a headship
over our redeemed humanity, but rather that more specific rela
tion which he sustains toward his organized people. In the
chapter on Christ as Mediator, we were taught that God gave
him even from eternity a people to be his seed, and made him to
be the Head and Savior of his church. In the present chapter it
is said that there is no other head of the church but the Lord
Jesus Christ, and in the Larger Catechism (52-54) he is declared
to fiU this high place for the justification of his people, and to
gather and defend his church, subdue its enemies, and accomplish
aU the glorious ends which such headship involves. The Form
of Government affirms that, being now himself exalted above all
prindpaHty and power, he hath erected in this world a kingdom
which is his church, and that as its head he has appointed officers
for the edification of the visible church which is his body. The
American Book of Discipline starts out with the cardinal propo
sition, that Christ as its Lord and King has appointed a system of
laws in and for his church universal ; and then proceeds to unfold
that system as resting in substance, though not in every detail,
on his authority alone.
The doctrine makes its appearance frequently in the earlier
creeds. The Second Helvetic Confession (XVII), the French
Conf. and the Scotch Conf. also, declare the church to be always
the body and spouse of Christ Jesus, who is its divine Head. It
was not only natural but imperative that the Reformers, repudi
ating the claim of the hierarchy to jurisdiction over the household
of faith, should fix their eyes solely on Him who was not only the
iustifier of them that believe, but also King and Lord over them

652 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
both individually and collectively. To him alone could they turn,
not merely for providential protection from their enemies, and
for guidance amid their difficult labors and struggles, but also for
government — for a divine and gracious sovereignty that should
control alike their activities and their lives. And certainly none
among the earlier Reformers had greater occasion to affirm this
truth and to build their faith upon it, than the Westminster Assem
bly, amid all the perplexities political as well as spiritual which
were besetting them in the endeavor to do the work to which, as
they believed, the great Head of the church had appointed them.
As we read the history of that burdened and troubled age, when
the British Isles were agitated from border to border, and the
hearts of many were trembling lest the church and religion should
utterly perish amid the convulsions of the times, we can compre
hend in a measure the peculiar force of their earnest declaration,
which even now sounds like a battle cry: There is no other head
of the church but the Lord Jesus Christ.
Other aspects of his comprehensive sovereignty have already
been considered in the examination of his kingly office, regarded
as a part of his Mediatorship. Contemplating this special sover
eignty, wielded by him within and over his visible church, we
discover that it rests, first of all, on what Christ himself is as the
Son of God and our Immanuel, vested personally with aU the
inherent rights of Deity; secondly, on his possession of all those
qualities and endowments which fit him to exercise such absolute
dominion over his chosen people; thirdly, on the fact that he has
himself created and organized the church, and has set it up before
the world as his constituted representative and his visible king
dom ; fourthly, on his equipment of the church with all the
appointments, ordinances, qualifications requisite to its becoming
such a kingdom, and thus acting representatively for him before
the eyes of men ; and fifthly, on the final fact that the church
could neither accomplish its mission nor even continue to exist,
if Christ had not thus actually seated himself on the throne in the
presence of all his adoring people. On such grounds Protestant
ism has universally held for substance the doctrine of the Symbols
as here presented. In the presence of this sublime headship, all
types of Erastianism, which regard the church as subject to the
civil power, its laws and officers and administration as amenable
to the state, and its membership as made up of those who are sub
jects or citizens within the state, fade away as foggy exhalations
vanish before the rising sun. The fact that there has been among
Presbyterians no swerving from this high conception in recent

BIBLE THE SUPREME LAW. 653
times, is illustrated in the Articles of the English Presbyterian
Synod, which affirm that Christ is the sole head of his church,
that all its powers and prerogatives are derived from him, and that
all its functions, such as worship, teaching, government, are to be
administered according to his will, and subject to his authority
done. In conjunction with this gradous headship there should be
emphasized the other cardinal fact, that the Bible is the only con
stitution, the only authoritative law and rule, within the Christian
church. It is no more manifest that no other Head or Lord is
needed, than that no other book of government is needful to the
existence and efficiency of that spiritual organism. It is true
that in all ages, and perhaps especially in this, the visible church
requires a body of practical precepts, ordinances, statutes, usages,
more or less extended and definite, in order to its proper effective
ness as an organization. Yet it is also true that no regulative
enactment may properly be established in that church which is
not in harmony with the general law laid down in the Scripture
itsdf : whatever rule or custom is found to be contrary to the
teaching of the Divine Word is, ipso facto, null and void. To
the Law and to the Testimony, over against all merely human
injunctions, must the final appeal be always made, on the ground,
first, that the Scriptures are inspired, and are therefore infallible
in their requisitions ; secondly that they constitute in all cases a
dear and adequate guide for the regulation of church life ; thirdly,
that the Head of the church has himself stamped them with his
personal seal as being the one and only constitution for his organ
ized people ; and fourthly, that in no other way can the church
be preserved from the invasion of human ordinances claiming
divine warrant, be protected from internal discords and disrup
tions, and be happily instructed in aU that pertains either to its
inward life or to its outward efficiency and influence.
The Bible is thus not only, as is often said, the religion of
Protestants; it is also the Magna Charta of the church, its
inspired constitution and its only code of laws. Under the
Hebraic dispensation God was wont to reveal his will to his people
by miraculous manifestations, such as theShekinah or the myste
rious Urim and Thumrnim, but in the Christian dispensation
miracles are no longer needful ; the written Word, clear, pure,
divinely endorsed, is suffident. Cunningham (Hist. Theol.)
lays down the broad and unquestionable proposition, that God
fitted and intended his Word to be the full and adequate guide
to his church in the execution of all its functions and in the

654 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
discharge of all its duties. The church may indeed define the
provisions of Scripture, and may indicate specific applications of
its general principles, but it may add nothing thereto by way of
authoritative legislation. In the opening chapter of the Confes
sion it is emphatically said that, while some things may be ordered
by the light of nature and Christian prudence, yet these must be
in harmony with the general rules of Scripture, which are always
to be observed. The Holy Spirit is indeed to be invoked as an
authoritative guide in the understanding of this divine rule, but
the Spirit commends only what the Word has first spoken, and
the utterance of the Word is always the utterance of Christ.
We stand here on the confines of what, from the very begin
nings of Protestantism, has been a region of positive, sometimes
rancorous, intestinal controversy. Around the doctrine of the
headship of Christ arose the issues which led to the outbreak of
the anabaptist heresies, and to the civil wars which deluged Ger
many with fratricidal blood. Around that doctrine, espedally as
related to the asserted authority of the civil magistracy within
the religious sphere, sprang up much of the bitter struggle be
tween ecclesiastical schools and parties in England, and many of
the battles and disruptions in Scottish Presbyterianism. It can
hardly be said that European Protestantism has even yet been
able to draw satisfactory lines of jurisdiction between the king
doms of this world and that kingdom of Christ, which all true
disciples regard and extol as forever supreme in its authority over
the household of faith. The divines of Westminster came nearer
than any of their predecessors to the solution of this complicate
problem, and their high doctrine may be fairly regarded as a dose
approach to the full and pure ideal. Yet we have had occasion
to see how far short they themselves fell in the application of
their doctrine ; and the history of more recent Presbyterianism,
American as well as British, shows too plainly that the ideal which
they portrayed has not even yet been reached in practice. Similar
conflicts which cannot here be named, have arisenin many quar
ters respecting the interpretation of the Bible teaching as to the
church, and especially respecting the manner and extent of the
application of biblical principles to church life. The various
branches of Protestantism are as yet very far from being agreed,
or even thoroughly tolerant with one another, at this point. Still
the fundamental fact remains that, as all recognize the headship
of Christ as the heavenly ruler, so his Word must be accepted
universally as the sufficient and the supreme law. In the more
faithful study and wiser use of that Word, and thus alone, can

PURITY OF THE CHURCH. 655
be found the quieting of all discussions, the solution of every
problem, the end of ecclesiastical conflict.
In the presence of the elevated and spiritual conception of the
Church thus far presented in the Symbols, it seems strange to come
upon the startling proposition in
the fifth section of this chapter that, 13- Purity of the Church:
the purest churches under heaven are !?e chn*cb of*ome : Pa*>al Po1"
,.,,,, . , , ity condemned.
subject both to mixture and error, —
followed by the still more startling statement that some churches
have so degenerated as to become no churches of Christ but syna
gogues of Satan. The first of these clauses carries us back to the
controversies of the early Church, such as the schisms of Felicis-
simus and Novatian, and the long struggle between Augustine
and the Donatists respecting the proper qualifications for church
membership. It recaUs to mind the conflicts of the sixteenth
century between Luther and Calvin on one side, and the Anabap
tists and other similar errorists bearing the Protestant name. It
reminds us also of the struggles between the various ecclesias
tical parties in England, the confused intermingling of theory
and practice respecting church membership, the distraction among
the diverse parties in the Assembly itself. That there was a
strange amount of mixture upon mixture in British Protestantism,
was a fact which the Assembly could not fail to acknowledge :
that there was also something of error incorporated in the doc
trines, and stiU more palpably embodied in the living of the
various sects and denominations in Britain, was a fact even
more obvious to their view. The divines of the Assembly did
not daim exemption from such mixture and such error even
among themselves whether as individuals or as a body, as we
may easily learn from their records. They also knew well what
had been the painful history of the Christian church as to the
commingling of good fish and bad fish in the net, the inextri
cable blending of wheat and tares in the field of grace, even from
the days of Christ and his apostles. They knew how constantly,
although in theory the church was composed of none but saints,
evil men and evil influences had made their way into it, and had
corrupted alike its purity and its efficiency. And therefore in
describing the church visible, as distinct from the church invis
ible, they were constrained in all honesty to say for their own
communion as for others : The purest churches under heaven
are subject both to mixture and error.
But the acknowledged imperfections of the various Protestant
bodies in Europe, serious as some of these were, would not have

656 ' THE CHURCH OF GOD.
justified the further affirmation of the Assembly, that some
churches have so degenerated as to become no churches of Christ but
synagogues of Satan. There could have been but one ecclesias
tical organization to which such language could apply — the
corrupted church of Rome, which not many decades before had
obtained sway in England under Mary, and had then made mani
fest before the eyes of all its dreadful degeneracy, if not its
apostacy from the apostolic model. As they had read the story
of its persecutions, its formalism, and its lack of religious vitality —
as they had traced the records of its ambitious attempts to rule
the British Isles in the interest of the papacy, even by methods
wholly inconsistent with the principles and temper of true Chris
tianity, they had been led to regard it as no church of Christ and
even to pronounce it, in the solemn language of the Apocalypse, a
synagogue of Satan. The earlier Reformers had not hesitated to
employ such language, and even to claim that it was the Roman
church specifically which the ascended Savior had in mind when
addressing his messages to the seven churches of western Asia.
Those who have read the terrible arraignment of that church in
the Institutes of Calvin, or the impetuous and sweeping con
demnation of it in the National Covenant of the Kirk of Scot
land, will cornprehend the full significance of the language here
employed. The question whether the church of Rome is a part of the
visible Church of Christ on earth, or is to be utterly cast out as a
veritable synagogue of Satan, can be best considered in the light
of the following Section (vi) which affirms that the pope of Rome
cannot in any sense be regarded as the head of the church, but is
rather to be condemned as that antichrist, that man of sin and son of
perdition, that exalteth himself in the ehurch against Christ and all
that is called God. If the arraignment of the Roman communion
by Calvin be justly described as terrible, a hundred fold more
terrible is his scholarly, profound and merciless impeachment of
the papacy (Inst. B. IV : 5-11) as a mode of church govern
ment, and of the irreligious men who in the era of the Reforma
tion and before had filled the papal chair. He charges the papacy
with entirely subverting the ancient type of church government,
with asserting a primacy to which it was not entitled, with an
assumption of power which is destructive of Hberty within the
church, with corrupting purity of doctrine and introducing licen
tious perversions of the truth, with tyrannizing over both the
souls and the bodies of men, and with assuming an abusive juris
diction in civil spheres wholly unwarranted by Scripture or by

PAPACY. 657
the rule and usage of ancient Christianity. Luther and Zwingli
had denounced the reigning popes, exposed the priestly orders,
condemned unsparingly the men and parties who upheld the papal
assumptions, pronounced the papal communion corrupt in capite
et membris, and on this side had dealt blows upon the papacy as
a polity which it was well nigh impossible to resist. But it was
left to Calvin, with an invective even more intense, but in more
logical form and with an irresistible force of argument, to attack
the papacy as a system, and to prove at least to all the Protestant
world that, however the Christian church might be governed, it
could never accept the domination of Rome, except at the cost of
spiritud destruction. Two centuries may have led to some modi
fication of his reasonings, but have in no degree impaired the
substance or the energy of his mights' argument. The West
minster divines accepted it as it stood, and formulated their doc
trine accordingly, — doubtless stimulated by the aggressions of
the papacy upon both the civil and the ' religious institutions of
then own country; and therefore while simply suggesting that the
Roman communion was very far corrupted and might possibly
be a synagogue of Satan in the apocalyptic sense, they openly
dedared the pope to be antichrist, and even the man of sin and
son of perdition condemned in Holy Writ.
Protestantism since that day has often applied these fearful
phrases not merely to the papacy as a system, but to the men
who from time to time have filled the papal chair. But as in the
days of John there were many antichrists, so now there are many
forms of error or unbelief, both personal and impersonal, to which
that fearful term might properly be applied. There are also now,
as there have been in aU the Christian centuries, riiany men of
sin, many sons of perdition, such as those to whom Paul referred
when he both warned the Thessalonian brethren against their
influence, and comforted them by the assurance that the sway of
such representatives of evil must be brief. To apply these terms
exclusively to the papacy or to this or that pope personally, as if
such special application was intended by the apostle, must be
regarded as a departure from sound exegesis, and as well from
Christian charity. That there are no other antichrists or men of
sin or sons of perdition than are to be found within the Roman
communion, is incredible : that there have been good, devout,
Christian popes, it is certainly no undue stretch of charity to
affirm. That aU enemies to spiritual Christianity such as the
apostle so tersely describes, will in due time be taken out of the
way and destroyed, all Christian minds v\ ill rejoice to believe.

658 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
Respecting the papacy as a system of church government, there
can be but one judgment among thoughtful Protestants in this
age. Its assumption of the right to mle over the church as the
successor and representative of the apostolic college, its asserted
supremacy as a hierarchal organism, its presumptuous dictation
of doctrine and affirmation of infallibility in judgment respecting'
spiritual truth, its haughty sacerdotalism and pretentious display,
and many other characteristic elements, conspire to prove it rad
ically at variance with the teaching and temper of Christianity.
We have already had occasion to note the emphasis with which
the Westminster divines declared that the pope possessed no
rightful power or jurisdiction over men within the civil sphere.
But it is incomparably more important to reject absolutely his
claim to power or jurisdiction within the religious sphere. The
church is indeed in one sense a sovereignty more imperial than
that of any political state ; but there is no other head, no other
sovereign within that holy dominion, but the Lord Jesus Christ.
While therefore we may set aside the exegesis which appUes to
the pope as a person the strong terms of condemnation just
aUuded to, we may as Protestants adopt without hesitancy the
modified and temperate language of the recently proposed Re
vision of the Confession : The claim of the pope of Rome or of
any other human authority, to be the vicar of Christ and the
head of the Church universal, is without warrant in Scripture or
in fact, and is a usurpation dishonoring to the Lord Jesus Christ.
The question whether the Roman church, though thus un-
scripturally governed, is after aU a -Christian church, must be
answered affirmatively. It has already been mentioned that the
French Confession, written under the influence of Calvin, declared
its belief that some trace of the true Church remained in the
papal communion, inasmuch as the virtue and substance of bap
tism survived in it. Calvin himself went farther than this,
affirming that there are true churches within that communion,
notwithstanding the papal domination over them. The pope has
profaned them, he says, by sacrilegious impiety, afflicted them
by cruel despotism, corrupted and almost terminated their exist
ence by false and pernicious doctrines like poisonous potions. In
such churches, he adds, Christ lies half buried, the Gospel is
suppressed, piety exterminated, and the worship of God almost
abolished. Yet, he concludes, these are churches, inasmuch as
God has wonderfully preserved among them a remnant of his
people, though miserably dispersed and dejected, and as there still
remain some marks of the church, especially those the efficacy of

THE CHURCH OF ROME. 659
which neither the craft of the devil nor the malice of men can
ever destroy. It can hardly be claimed that this wise judgment
of Calvin met universal acceptance in Protestant cirdes. In some
instances at least, the definition of the true church was so shaped
in the creeds as to exdude the church of Rome, if not formally
at least by implication. Yet on the other hand the Thirty-Nine
Artides are 'content with saying (XIX), that the church of
Rome hath erred, not only in their living and manner of ceremo
nies, but also in matters of faith. The Irish Articles (79)
denounce the papal rule as a usurped power, contrary to the
Scriptures and Word of God, and contrary to the example of the
primitive church, but pronounce no condemnation on the Roman
church itsdf .
If we may judge from the tenor of the debates as recorded,
and from the general temper of the Assembly toward Romanism
as it was seeking to become again dominant in England, it seems
natural to infer that the Westminster Assembly, had it spoken,
would have expressed the severer view — would have said explicitly
that the Roman church had so far degenerated as to be no longer
a church of Christ but rather a synagogue of Satan. And prob
ably this opinion stiU extensively prevails among the adherents of
the Confession, as in other Protestant circles. Still the judg
ment of Calvin wiU justify itself on close examination, not merely
on the specific basis named by him or by the French Conf. but
on the stiU broader ground that there is much in the creed of
Rome, and much also in the religious experience of many Roman
ists, which justifies the recognition of that church, though greatly
profaned, afflicted, corrupted, poisoned, dejected and despised —
to use his intense expressions — as a true branch of the one holy,
catholic and apostoHc Church of Christ. Holding to the doctrine
of the three ancient creeds as to God and the Trinity, to Christ
as incarnate Deity, to the Scriptures as a divine revelation and law
for the guidance of men, to the primal facts of sin and guilt, and
the possibility of redemption in and through Christ as the ulti
mate source, and to the two great sacraments on which Chris
tianity is so largely founded, that church may at least claim a
considerable degree of recognition from the representatives of
evangeHcal belief. As we may condemn the papacy as a system
of government without denouncing the ruling pope as antichrist,
so we may condemn the many and serious, almost mortiferous,
errors of Rome, and yet believe that there are churches within
that communion where, though Christ be half buried, the Gospel
suppressed, and the worship of God almost abolished, he has

660 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
still preserved therein a holy seed— a seed that may hereafter
spring up in the bloom of another Reformation, and bring forth
in the ages to come another grand harvest to his eternal glory.
Before we close these studies respecting the Church Visible as
a divine organism, we may fitly pause for a moment to consider
the future of this rema^Pable institu-
14. Future of the Chris- tion Isthe Chrjstian church as here
fan ?f^wI-1w^nenCe: defined, like the Patriarchal or the He-
laws of church growth. ...braic, to give way in time to some other
supernatural organization and, like these preliminary churches,
to live only as a tributary element flowing silently into the com
position and life of some future institution, still grander in endow
ment and more glorious in mission ? Is it ultimately to perish
from among men as light and knowledge are increased,— the race
having outgrown the need of its gracious disciplines and there
fore setting it aside, just as progressing civilization has sup
planted the primitive barbarisms of the world ? Is it not rather
to grow on and upward, retaining all its present qualities but
developing with the ages, until it becomes the central, most dis
tinctive and grandest institution of humanity — the church uni
versal, apostoHc in origin and purpose and doctrine, and catholic
in faith and spirit, in the highest sense and measure described in
the Pauline letters ? And if it is thus to become permanent and
grow into perfection, under what laws and by what processes
shall this sublime result be brought to pass ?
The question respecting a millennium to come to the human
race, as the issue of its long period of experience and develop
ment under the action of grace, and respecting also the second
coming of our Lord in conjunction with such millennium, may
best be considered in full under the general head of Eschatology,
as presented in the two closing chapters of the Confession and
elsewhere. It will be sufficient here to note the fact that the
Symbols nowhere propose any other issue than the continuous
growth of the Christian church during the ages to come, through
the agency of the same divine forces, and essentially by the same
methods which are now employed, until it shall triumph over all
obstacles, put to silence all unbelief, overcome all irrdigion and
aU false rehgions, and become in fact the one enduring institu
tion of our humanity — the one Church of God, including among
its adherents genetically all the tribes and races of men. This
certainly was the conviction and expectation of the Reformers
generally, — narrowed indeed by their very defective conceptions

FUTURE OF THE CHURCH. 661
of the great work of Christian missions, jet held steadfastly
before them as a revealed promise and hope. One interesting illus
tration of this appears where perhaps we might least expect it, in
the canons of the controversial Synod of Dort, in the broad decla
ration that the promise of everlasting life through grace and the
command to repent and believe, ought to be declared and
published to aU nations.
The behef of the divines of Westminster is very clearly indi
cated in the catechetic answers (189-196) appended to the several
petitions in the Lord's Prayer, and especially to the second peti
tion, Thy Kingdom Come. We are taught in this petition to pray
that the kingdom of sin and Satan may be destroyed, and the
Gospd propagated throughout the world, — that the Jews may be
converted as a race, and the fullness of the Gentiles brought in, —
that to this end, the church may be furnished with officers and
ordinances, purged from corruption, qualified to proclaim and dis
pense the true rdigion, and be made effectual both in converting
sinners and edifying the saints, — that Christ may by these means
hasten the time of his second coming, and may be pleased so to
exercise the kingdom of his power in all the world as may best
conduce to these glorious ends. Nor are these strong statements
to be regarded as unique. What is said in the Confession respect
ing the functions of Christ as Mediator and King, respecting the
nature and aim of the Gospel as a scheme of saving truth, respect
ing the influence and work of the Holy Spirit in conjunction
with the Gospel, and respecting also the obligation of believers
to make the plan of salvation known to all men, implies just such
a consummation as is depicted in the Catechism. In the original
Directory for Worship also, we are instructed to pray specifically
for the propagation of the Gospel and Kingdom of Christ among
all nations, for the conversion of the Jews and the fullness of the
Gentiles, and for the fall of antichrist and the hastening of the
second coming of our Lord. In the beneficent provisions of more
recent Presbyterianism, both British and American, for missions
domestic and foreign and for other forms of evangelistic effort,
and in the prayers and gifts and activities of the living churches
bearing that name wherever planted, we have conclusive proof
that the clear doctrine of the Symbols on this general subject has
been neither misapprehended nor ignored. Presbyterianism by
its very nature as well as by its ancestral training is everywhere
a propagative agency, believing heartily in the possible and the
promised conversion of the world to Christ, and consecrating
itse'f freely to this sublime end.

662 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
Accepting this conclusion on confessional as well as biblical
authority, we are led directly to the more specific inquiry respect
ing the processes requisite to this growth toward universality,
the forces to be engaged in it, and the laws and methods by
which it is to be carried on unto the promised consummation. It
is not to be supposed that such growth will occur without regula
tive law or any recognizable process. A tree unfolding into
beauty and maturity, a temple rising to completeness by continu
ous accretions, a human body passing from an infantile to a
matured condition, a household inwardly evolved by progressive
births, a state or kingdom developed by constitutional methods
through the will and efforts of its citizens or subjects,— these are
the illustrations employed in Scripture to describe the growth of
the Christian church, and each and all of them imply a plan
unfolding itself, a procedure according to effective laws. Nor is
this development to come to pass under the action of human rules
and human agencies only ; its holy development and its beautiful
maturing are divinely ordered and divinely produced. Two pri
mary and comprehensive laws of church growth may here be
briefly noted:
First : the interior law of growth by what may be described as
spiritual propagation. Luther said that God has three times intro
duced his scheme of grace through a single family, — as if one
such household, thoroughly sanctified by the indwelling presence
of religion, would become an expanding germ through whose
holy vitalities all the families of the earth should be blessed.
Bushnell (Christian Nurture) describes God as from the first
looking for a godly seed, and inserting such laws of population
that piety itself shall finally overpopulate the world. It is an
obvious fact of history that the pious Household has been richly
blessed of God as the primary agency utilized by him in extend
ing the sphere and the influence of piety among men. But every
Christian church is thus a holy family, a propagative agency in
the interest of religion, first inheriting grace and then in turn by
various processes diffusing and perpetuating that grace in the
world. In other words, every church is divinely set upon the
task of providing for its own permanence and expansion, by the
training within its hallowed circle of generation after generation
of disciples. It was by this process chiefly, that the Abrahamic
was expanded into the Jewish, and this in turn into the Christian
church. It has been largely by this method that the apostoHc
church has become the church of humanity, — already represented
by tens of thousands of particular churches inheriting its mission

CHURCH GROWTH : INTERIOR ENLARGEMENT. 663
and spirit, and continuing the same gracious method of propaga
tion throughout the earth.
We are already familiar with the fact that the church of
Rome has availed itself largely, though in a gross form, of this
cardinal principle of interior development, and has secured its
increase, espedally since the Reformation, not by accessions
from Protestantism or any outward source, but rather by the
careful infolding within its broadening area of each new genera
tion of membership. It has claimed as its own every child born
within its communion and on which its baptismal consecration
has been bestowed, and in this way chiefly has continued the suc
cession of its adherents age after age. We also know as a matter
of history that the churches of the Reformation grew at first
and expected to grow by this interior process chiefly, — increasing
not so much by captures from Romanism or from the unbelieving
world, as by the training of successive generations of children in
the experience and inheritance of grace. The numerous Cate
chisms, from those of Luther and Heidelberg down to those of
Westminster, and the almost universal practice of catechetical
instruction both in the family and in the congregation, are striking
evidences of this general fact. One of the most interesting debates
in the Assembly (Minutes, 91-95) related to the best mode of
what Reynolds happily described as ingenerating knowledge in the
young through catechetic discipline. It is also obvious histor
ically that those branches of Protestantism which have adhered
closely to this method of increase, have attained the largest growth
and secured the broadest religious influence. It must be con
fessed, however, that in some Protestant communions, as in the
the church of Rome, this interior law has wrought injurious as
weU as benefidal results, — specially through the ignoring of the
fundamental truth, that complete or absolute connection with the
church of Christ is possible only through actual, personal repent
ance and faith in Christ himself. To increase the church by
outward processes only, such as baptism or confirmation, or to
require only compliance with certain external conditions or pro
fessions, will inevitably weaken rather than strengthen it. Just
at this point a Judaising formalism has worked and is still work
ing serious injury to Protestant Christianity. It should ever be
counted a fundamental proposition, that saving faith in Christ is
after all the sole, universal, essential and perpetual condition of
complete church membership, — as truly for the child nurtured
within the household of faith, as for the adult transgressor brought
m, convicted and penitent, as a capture from the sinful world.

664 ' THE CHURCH OF GOD.
Second : The exterior law of growth by spiritual conquest.
Here we contemplate the church, not as a divine household devel
oping and multiplying from within, but rather as a grand mis
sionary agency, sent forth to win and possess the entire world of
mankind for Christ. We have already .noted the fact that such
a conception of its mission was cherished though dimly in the
earlier days of Protestantism. It is known, for illustration, that
Erasmus and some others advocated openly the sending of the
Gospel to the Mohammedans and to the heathen world generally.
Luther and his immediate disciples evinced, so far as we know,
but little practical interest in such missionary effort. As early
as 1556, Calvin and the Genevan church undertook, in conjunc
tion with Admiral Coligny, to establish a mission on the coast of
Brazil ; and three years later Gustavus Vasa sent missionaries to
Lapland. Yet, when we remember that Ignatius Loyola, the
founder of the order of Jesuits, was a contemporary of Luther, and
that the scheme of church propagandism which he introduced had
been carried out by Francis Xavier as a missionary to southern
India and to China and far Japan twelve years before Calvin died,
it seems strange that the Protestant organizations should have
thought and done so little during the sixteenth century toward
the carrying, not of a formalized church and a ceremonial Chris
tianity, but of the gospel of faith in Christ alone, to the outlying
heathen world. It was doubtless their vital struggle for life
against papal aggressions, their strenuous effort for support and
extension of territory through the civil power, their disputations
over doctrine and polity, their lack of anything resembling the
organized unity of Rome, and other like causes, that kept them
from being as much as their fundamental principles would natu
rally have led them to be, missionary organizations, praying and
laboring and making sacrifices for the conversion of the whole
race of mankind.*
^Tt is a noteworthy fact that positive and practical interest in foreign
missions began to be felt in Britain as early at least as the beginning of the
seventeenth century. The Charter granted by James I. to the Virginia
Colony in 1606, and also that conferred by Charles I. twenty years later on
the Massachusetts Colony, contained explicit instructions in respect to mis
sionary labor among the Indian tribes. It is a specially interesting fact,
that one among the reasons urged for the convening of the Westminster
Assembly was, that the means of propagating the Gospel and kingdom of
Christ toward those that are yet in darkness might be agreed upon. During
the year preceding the convocation of the Assembly, a petition was presented
to Parliament, signed by a large number of English and Scotch divines,
praying that steps might be taken for the propagation of the Christian faith

CHURCH GROWTH: GROWTH BY CONQUEST. 665
Nearly aU branches of Protestantism are now agreed that every
Christian church is, by virtue of its distinctive faith and structure
as Protestant, a missionary agency no less than a regenerate
family, — designed and fitted as such to grow by drawing into its
circle those that are without, as well as by training unto holiness
those who are within its sacred enclosure. And in like manner,
every division of Protestantism has learned or is learning to
regard itself as a missionary organization, qualified and commis
sioned for the same holy object on a more extensive scale. The
world is, in the stirring phrase of Wesley, its parish, and the
entire race of all conditions or classes or types are the proper
subjects of its beneficent thoughts and efforts. This obligation is
expressly laid upon the Christian church by its exalted Head,
and is wrought into its very constitution in a sense so vital that, if
it should cease to engage itself in this work, it would inevitably
pass into a condition of collapse or of death. Romanism may devote
itsdf to the upbuilding of a hierarchal organism and a formalized
semblance of Christianity : Liberalism may in its pride assume a
lofty indifference to the claims of degraded heathendom : Unbelief
may scoff at the dream of bringing our fallen race back to purity
and to God through such an instrumentality as the Gospel. But
in America and the West Indies. There is no record in the Minutes of any
direct action by the Assembly in the matter, but there are many evidences
of its profound faith and interest in the conversion of the world to Chris
tianity. It is suggestive that the earliest missionary society in Britain was
established by act of the Long Parliament in 1649, while the Assembly was
still in session, for the avowed purpose of preaching the Gospel among the
Indian tribes of New England, and for the maintenance of schools for the
education of Indian children ; — collections to be taken by authority of Parlia
ment throughout England and Wales for the proper founding, as was said,
of so pious and great an undertaking.
Perhaps the earliest recorded instance of ecclesiastical action among Prot
estants on the continent, in the interest of missions to the pagan world,
appears in the Post-Acta of the Synod of Dort, addressed in 1619, to the
Lords, the States General of the Provinces of the United Netherlands, in
these terms :
Seeing that all true Christians are assuredly bound by the loving desire
which they ought to feel for the salvation of their neighbor, and by zeal for
the extension of the glory of God amongst mankind, to use all available
means for accomplishing this end ; and seeing that God has opened up a
way for us in these lands to various distant lands in India and elsewhere,
which are utterly destitute of the knowledge of the true God, the said
Synod humbly petitions that your High Mightinesses would be pleased with
Christian zeal to recall to mind this sacred obligation, and to give it your
earnest and practical consideration, and for this end to order and arrange
such means as shall be useful and most suitable for the propagation of the
Holy Gospel in the lands in question.

666 THE CHURCH OF GOD.
evangelical Protestantism universally cherishes a higher aim — is
conscious of a grander mission to the race. Growth by spiritual
conquest is its constant and universal law. And certainly it may
be anticipated that growth by this process as well as by inward
expansion will become more and more marked, more and more
effectual, as the world moves on toward the consummation pre
dicted for it in Scripture and in the Symbols. No other instru
mentality or influence can rival or supersede the Christian church
in this cosmic mission. If religion is indeed to be propagated
throughout the world now pagan, — if the Jews now so averse are
to be brought into obedience to Christ, — if the fullness of the
Gentiles are to flock unto him as doves to their windows, — if the
kingdom of sin and Satan is indeed to be destroyed and the kingdom
of God advanced and made supreme on the earth, it is the Church
of Christ with its dauntless faith, its consecrated zeal, its wining
and generous effort and sacrifice, — the Church of Christ, as dis
tinguished from all social or civil agencies, and from all that
merely secular civilization can accomphsh, that must bring to
pass these glorious results. And on the other hand it is safe to
prophesy that when evangelical Protestantism learns to recog
nize cordially those things which all Protestants hold as really
essential in doctrine and polity and worship, — when not only
toleration but loving consent is granted to whatever is not thus
essential, — when all selfish or schismatic rivalry and faction are
put away, and charity in its broadest form is cherished alike by
all, — and when all are engaged together in the holy task of pro-
daiming the one Christ to all the world, the redemption of our
lost race will surdy foUow.

LECTURE THIRTEENTH— SACRAMENTS, ORDI
NANCES, WORSHIP.
Sacraments : Baptism, Lord's Supper : Ordinances :
Sabbath, Sanctuary, Means of Grace, Ministry : Wor
ship : Preaching and Hearing, Praise, Prayer : Ritual
and Liturgy.
C. F. Ch. XXI : XXVII-XXIX. L. C. 154-196. S. C.
88-107. Form of Gov. Ch. IV : XIV-XV. Direct, for Wor
ship, Ch. III-X : XII-XV.
In the presentation of the dear and strong doctrine of the
Symbols respecting the Church of God on earth, it has seemed
expedient to reserve for separate consideration certain elements or
features by which that Church is still more decisively differen
tiated from aU other organizations, — its peculiar sacraments, its
associated ordinances, and its characteristic worship. For several
reasons these three subjects in their various ramifications com
mand at once the special attention and interest of the student of
Christian symbolism. It was within this department of doctrine
and duty that some of the earliest questions at issue between the
Roman communion and the primitive Reformers originated. It
was within this territory that the Reformers came upon those pri
mary disagreements among themselves which in their development
led to the division of Protestantism into parties and sections, more
or less diverse if not antagonistic. It is within this specific domain
that the Protestant churches both Lutheran and Reformed have
had since the Reformation, and are stiU having, some of their most
exdting and injurious issues, and it is within this ecclesiastical
area that some of the most important adjustments must be
secured, some of the most profound harmonies be sounded, if
Protestantism is ever so far unified as to be duly prepared and
endowed for its signal mission to the race. One impressive illus
tration of the significance of the topics thus introduced appears — as
we shall have frequent occasion to note — in the prominence given
to them in the various Protestant formularies, from the creed
of Augsburg and the Catechism of Luther down to the Catechisms
and Confession of Westminster. Four entire chapters in the Con
fession, and an equal proportion in both Catechisms, and nine

668 SACRAMENTS, ORDINANCES, WORSHIP.
chapters in the Directory for Worship, with numerous references
elsewhere, show how special was the emphasis laid on these topics
by the Assembly.
Taking up the first of the three general subjects named, the
Christian Sacraments, we turn at once to the elaborate chapter
(XXVII) in the Confession, setting
1 The Christian Sacra- ^ doctrin£ in detail afld ^
ments : their nature and au- . , . . T
thority: the papal error. marked precision. In successive sec
tions this chapter defines these sacra
ments, indicates with fullness their nature and warrant, describes
their spiritual efficacy and values, names the proper agency in
their administration, and defines their number and their historic
relation to the kindred sacraments appointed under the Hebrdc
dispensation. Similar definitions of the sacraments, more or less
full, are found in most of the earlier creeds : not only the
Lutheran but also the two Helvetic, the French and Belgic, and
the Scotch Confessions. The Heidelberg Catechism (66) affirms
in practical terms that the sacraments are visible, holy signs and
seals appointed of God for this end, that by the use thereof he
may the more fully declare and seal unto us the promise of the
Gospel. The Thirty-Nine Articles (XXV) say that the sacra
ments ordained of Christ be not only tokens and badges of the
Christian profession, but are sure witnesses and effectual signs of
grace and of the good will of God toward us, by the which he
doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken but also
strengthen and confirm our faith in him. It will be evident to
the student of these antecedent formularies that the Westminster
divines compiled their doctrine from them all, selecting what was
best in each and omitting what seemed doubtful or unimportant.
Their own admirable definition . appears first more fully in the
Confession, but in briefer form in both of the Catechisms : Sacra
ments are holy signs and seals of the covenant of grace, immediately
instituted by God to represent Christ and his benefits, and to con
firm our interest in him ; as also to put a visible difference
between those that belong unto the church, and the rest of the
world ; and solemnly to engage them to the service of God in
Christ, according to his Word. In the Catechisms it is said that
the sacraments are instituted by Christ himself, and the objects
sought in them are described, particularly in the Larger Catechism,
somewhat more specifically, though with no essential variation.
Taken together, these statements present the most full and elabo
rate and at the same time the least challengeable definition which
Protestantism even down to our own time has furnished.

SACRAMENTS : NATURE AND AUTHORITY. 669
The underlying ground and reason for the Christian sacraments
must be found in their unique relation to the redemptive scheme.
They were not instituted simply in view of the fact that we
naturally discern spiritual things most easily through the medium
of such visible representations. They have their occasion and
need in human sinfulness, and in the spiritual blindness which
such sinfulness induces. They rest, in a word, on the same basis
as the incarnation. Their great primary purpose is to exhibit in
visible and significant form the blessings bestowed through the
mediation of Christ upon all who truly believe in him. And this
exhibition is made in order to confirm the faith of believers, to
give them greater assurance respecting their personal salvation,
and to strengthen them in their Christian graces and in the dis
charge of aU their duties toward the Savior and toward one
another as members together of his spiritual household. On this
ground these ordinances are directly associated with the Word
and the Holy Spirit and with the other ordained means of grace,
as important if not indispensable helps in the Christian life. In
connection with this primary purpose several others are here sug
gested, such as the pledge or covenant of consecration to the
divine service which the recipient is supposed to make in the
sacrament, the bond of union thus established between those who
share together in these benefits, and the closer unification of the
church as an organism in and through the gracious discipline
herein afforded. It is also an important service rendered by the
sacraments as being, in the language of the Thirty-Nine Articles,
tokens and badges of the Christian profession, — visibly distin
guishing Christians from those that are without, and making more
broad and distinct the Hnes that separate the church from the
world. Augustine has weU saidthat men cannot be united in any
profession of reHgion, whether true or false, unless they are con
nected by some communion of visible signs or sacraments.
The declaration that the sacraments are immediately instituted
by God to represent Christ, as stated in the Confession, or are
instituted by Christ in his Church, as the Catechism states it, is
intended to bring out the radical difference between the Protes
tant and the Roman view of these sacred ordinances. Protes
tantism and Romanism are substantially agreed on certain
points,— that the sacraments belong by divine appointment not
to the individual beHever but to the church, and to the Christian
church as distinct from the Jewish,— that they are in some sense
symbolic, designed to be visible signs of certain spiritual truths,—
and that there is a divinely instituted connection between the

670 sacraments, ordinances, worship.
outward sign and the invisible reality of grace which it was
appointed to represent. But according to Protestantism there
must always be direct instruction from the Head of the church —
a formal institution or establishment by God in Christ for the
authoritative guidance of his people. According to the Roman
view, whatever has a general warrant in the New Testament is a
sacrament, though Christ may not have immediately or directly
designated it as such. Under the former statement, there can be
but two sacraments in the Christian church, baptism and the
eucharist — both of which have the immediate seal of Christ upon
them as they are enjoined in the New Testament : the supper
being arranged by him. personally even in detail in order to com
memorate his death, and baptism being contained explicitly in
his final injunction to preach the Gospel to every creature.
Lutheranism was at first disposed to regard absolution as a
third sacrament (Apologia) , but in the maturer Lutheran teaching
it was recognized as a legitimate usage only. Under the Roman
definition, which is also (Longer Cat. 285) that of the Greek
communion, five other sacraments are discernible in the New Tes
tament ; confirmation, penance, ordination, matrimony and
extreme unction, — minor indeed as . compared with baptism and
the supper, yet in their nature sacramental, and therefore obliga
tory, so far as they are needful or practicable, by the mandate of
the church. At some periods in medieval Christianity a still
larger number of such minor sacraments were ecclesiastically im
posed. In the creed of the Old Catholic Union (Art. VIII)
while the five sacraments are recognized as in some sense obliga
tory, it is admitted that they rest their claim, not on the Scrip
tures or even on holy tradition coming down from the apostles or
from the earliest times, but simply on theological speculation :
in other words, they are ecclesiastical inferences rather than
biblical requisitions. Two essential elements are seen to be lacking
in these minor sacraments, the divine institution on one hand and
the symbolic quality on the other. Confirmation and ordination
are simply modes of admission to the church or of official investi
ture within it : matrimony is a religious as well as a civil cere
mony, but has in it no sacramental element : churchly penance
as distinct from evangelical repentance has no claim whatever
as sacramental ; and extreme unction is equally void of divine
authoritativeness. To regard any of these usages as sacraments
is to degrade the biblical conception, and to impose on the
believer obligations which the New Testament nowhere enjoins.
As sacred symbols they have no significance such as we discern

SACRAMENTS : EFFICACY AND VALUE. 671
in baptism and the supper ; as churchly impositions they may
be perverted, as history has abundantly shown, into occasions of
error and mischief.
It will be apparent that under the Protestant definition the
real value of the Christian sacraments lies, not in what they are
in themselves as visible signs merely, but in the saving truths
which they symbolize, and in the appropriation of these truths by
faith. In the second and third sections of this chapter it is
expressly stated that there is a spiritual relation between the sign
and the thing signified — the truths set forth in it ; and that the
grace which is exhibited in or by the sacraments is not con
ferred by any power in them, but simply through the truth received
and the ministry of the Spirit therewith. It is said that there is
a promise of benefit to worthy receivers, rightly using these sacred
ordinances in obedience to the divine precept authorizing such
use ; and in the Catechisms these spiritual benefits are fully
described. There is also in the second section a direct reference
to the Roman error respecting efficacy inherent in the ordinances
themselves as channds or vehicles of grace : the names and effects
of the truths signified being, it is said, sometimes attributed to the
sign, as if that were of itself efficacious. The Greek church illus
trates this error in the statement (Longer Cat. 284) that a sacra
ment is a holy act through which grace — or, in other words, the
saving power of God, — works mysteriously upon man. This
formulary proceeds to an explanation of the way in which the seven
sacraments thus work immediately upon the recipients; affirming
that in baptism they are mysteriously born into a spiritual life, —
that in confirmation (or unction with chrism) the baptized person
receives in and through the holy oil the gift of the Holy Ghost, —
that in the communion he is spiritually fed, as if with or by the
sacred elements, — that in penance he is healed of spiritual diseases,
or of sin, — that in ordination he receives grace spiritually to
regenerate, feed and nurture others, — and in general that the
receiver is operated upon graciously by the materials of the sacra
ments as if they were themselves spiritual agencies, sacred medi
cines, mysteriously imparting healing and life and salvation.
The Roman dogma closely resembles this in essence, though
not in form. According to the Tridentine Catechism, as defined
by Moehler, the outward sign by a divine ordinance not only
typifies but works holiness and justice into the soul, — the sacra
ments, by reason of their character as institutions prepared by
Christ for our salvation, themselves becoming so many vehicles
by which grace is carried into the moral nature, first to renew and

672 SACRAMENTS, ORDINANCES, WORSHIP.
then to sanctify and strengthen. In the language of the Council
of Trent (Session Seventh) , through these holy sacraments all jus
tice (or righteousness) either begins, or being begun is increased,
or being lost is repaired. The Council also decreed in its accom
panying canons that, if any one should say that grace is not thus
conferred by the sacraments ex opere operato, but that faith in
the divine promise alone is sufficient to procure such grace ; or if
any one should say that in baptism and confirmation and ordina
tion there is not imprinted in the soul an indelible character, which
needs never to be repeated ; or if any one should say that the sacra
ments are merely outward signs of grace received by faith — visible
marks of the Christian profession by which believers are distin
guished from others, let him be anathema.
It is thought that we may discern some approach toward this false
doctrine showing itself in the clause already quoted from the
Thirty-Nine Articles : By which God doth invisibly work in us,
and doth not only quicken but also strengthen and confirm our
faith. This impression is doubtless deepened by those expressions
in the Anglican liturgy which suggest the hypothesis of regenera
tive baptism. The early Lutheranism also was insensibly drawn
in the same direction by its theory of a corporeal residence of
Christ in, with and under the elements in the holy communion ;
with its natural consequence in some mysterious transfusion of
Christ himself into the soul, as the believer receives the bread and
the wine, — these being not indeed transubstantiated, as Rome
affirmed, yet mystically inhabited by the ubiquitous Savior. But
such views, so far as they have at any time been held, have
given way substantially to the general doctrine of evangelical
Protestantism, as defined in the Symbols and elsewhere. All
Protestant churches would at the present time unite in reciting
the temperate declaration of the Belgic Confession : We believe
that our gracious God, on account of our weakness and infirmi
ties, hath ordained the sacraments for us, thereby to seal unto us
his promises, and to be pledges of the good will and grace of
God towards us, and also to nourish and strengthen our faith
which he hath joined to the word of the Gospel, the better to pre
sent to our senses both that which he signifies to us by bis Word,
and that which he works inwardly in our hearts ; thereby assur
ing and confirming in us the salvation which he imparts to us.
Accepting this confessional declaration as to the positive insti
tuting and divine warrant, and also as to the representative char
acter and spiritual quality and uses of the Christian sacraments,
we may briefly note the four remaining topics presented in this

SACRAMENTS : SPECIAL FEATURES. 673
chapter : First, the essential identity, as to the spiritual things
signified and exhibited, between the two sacraments instituted by
our Lord and the two preparatory sacraments, circumcision and
the paschal supper, enjoined in the Old Testament. This identity
will become more manifest as we pass on to the specific study of
baptism and the eucharist, but the general resemblance should be
noted even at this stage. The obvious fact in the case of the
eucharist is that it sprang like a flower directly out of the soil
suppUed by that impressive observance which commemorated the
deliverance from Egyptian bondage ; and there are good reasons
for dewing Christian baptism, regarded as an ordinance fitted to
the need of humanity universally, as a happy substitute for that
older observance which included in its range none but the Jewish
race. Second: the obvious fact that the sacraments were designed
by Christ to be not private but churchly ordinances. They are,
in other words, essential constituents of his church, and their
observance is perhaps the most characteristic act of the organized
household of faith . It may be too much to say that a church which
does not regard these ordinances is not a church of Christ : yet
the fact that they have been recognized through all the centuries,
and even by the most degenerate sections of Christendom as
obligatory, shows dearly their proper claim, and their high value
also, as true constituents of the Christian church according to
the divine ideal.
Third : the important fact emphatically stated in the third
section, that the efficacy of a sacrament doth not depend upon the
piety or intention of him that doth administer it, but only — as the
Larger Catechism teaches, in harmony with the Reformed creeds
generaUy — on the working of the Holy Ghost and the blessing
of Christ by whom it is instituted. There were various reasons
for such a statement. It was in part a reply to the papal assump
tion that none but the priesthood of Rome were legitimately
empowered to administer the sacraments. It was undoubtedly
designed also as a comfort to those who were in doubt as to the
validity of their baptism, as having been administered by men
whom they could no longer regard as true priests and ministrants
under the Gospel. A more extended statement to the same effect
appears in the Thirty-Nine Articles (XXVI), affirming that
there are evil ministers within the church visible, but that these
fill their office by the commission and authority of Christ ; that
therefore we may use their ministry in the assurance that the
effect of the ordinances is not taken away by their wickedness ;
but rather that the sacraments become effectual through the

674 SACRAMENTS, ORDINANCES, WORSHIP.
promise of Christ, even though they be administered by evil men.
Fourth : the sacraments, being thus of divine origin and
authority, may not be neglected or ignored without culpability.
Having such design and warrant, and being in themselves the
ordained channels of such large blessing to all worthy recipients,
the neglect or rejection of them cannot be otherwise than sinful.
The two chapters (VIII-IX) in the American Directory, on the
administration of Baptism and of the Supper, enforce this obli
gation in very practical and impressive ways; and among the sins
against God named in the Catechisms, the neglect of these sacred
ordinances occupies a prominent place. Protestantism does not
affirm that the observance of them is in every case indispensable
to salvation; even the Roman communion, according to Moehler,
does not affirm this, since there are cases in which what he
describes as invincible outward obstacles prevent such observance.
In the case of evangelical bodies such as the orthodox Friends,
who regard the duty as spiritual rather than formal, or of indi
vidual believers who may be deterred by defective views of these
ordinances, or by the sense of personal unworthiness or other
kindred cause, Christian charity must forbid our judgment or
condemnation. Yet the warning of Moehler may fitly be uttered
in the hearing of all: It is not for man to reject, according to his
caprice, the salvation offered to him by Christ, or to prefer some
other path of grace, since this must argue very gross presumption,
and most culpable contempt of the divine ordinances.
The comprehensive chapter on the Sacraments is followed in
the Confession by an equally elaborate chapter (XXVIII) Of
„ „ „ 14 Baptism, presenting a full definition of
2. Baptism : its nature, . , . .
design and mode. sacrament as to its nature and
purpose, indicating the proper mode of
its observance and the classes of persons to whom the ordinance
may be applied, and describing to some extent its efficacy and
value. Some of these topics are discussed with greater fullness
in the two Catechisms, especially the Larger; and practical sug
gestions of similar tenor appear in the two Directories for Worship,
British and American. Questions are suggested by these confes
sional representations which it would require volumes to discuss
effectively: the condensed statement of the doctrine in its essential
points is all that is practicable in this connection :
Baptism is declared to be a sacrament, according to the defini
tion given in the chapter just considered,— an observance ordained
by Christ for the benefit of his church, and therefore to be continued

BAPTISM : NATURE AND SIGNIFICANCE. 675
in his church until the end of the world, — an ordinance designed
first of all to signify the admission of the party baptized into the
visible church, and therefore in its nature a public and churchly
rather than a private observance. The Larger Catechism teaches
(166) that baptism is not to be administered to any that are out
of the visible church, and so are strangers to the covenant of
promise, till they profess their faith in Christ and obedience to
him. It is also appointed as an authoritative sign and seal of the
covenant of grace,— oi ingrafting into Christ, and personal regen
eration by his Spirit, and of the remission of sins and resurrection
unto everlasting life. It also involves a covenant on the part of
the recipient to give himself up wholly and openly to God in the
service of Christ, to be faithful to his membership in the visible
church, and to walk henceforth in newness of life as a cleansed
and sanctified person. In other words, there is expressed in it on
one side the fact of spiritual pollution, and of the need of regen
erative grace, and on the other side the cordial acceptance of Christ
as the only Redeemer of the soul. Comprehensively the sacra
ment represents both the interior depravation and the need of
spiritual cleansing and recovery, and also the exterior forfeiture
of divine favor and loss of the estate of acceptance with God ;
and at the same time graphicaUy shadows forth both the restora
tion of the soul to a state of holiness through grace, and its
introduction through the mediation of Christ into a new estate
of justification and adoption.
All sections of evangelical Protestantism are substantially
agreed in the definition thus given in the Symbols, though with
varying emphasis upon this or that clause in the general state
ment. Baptism is said, in the Catechism of Luther, to work
forgiveness of sins, to deliver from death and the devil, and to
give everlasting salvation to all who believe, as the word and
promise of God declare. The Catechism of Heidelberg teaches
(69-70) that Christ hath appointed this outward washing with
water and hath joined therewith this precious promise, that we
are washed with his blood and Spirit from the pollution of our
souls, — that we have forgiveness for sins from God through
grace, and are also renewed by the Holy Ghost, and sanctified to
be members of Christ. By baptism, say the Saxon Articles (III)
as a bath of the regeneration and renovation of the Holy Ghost,
God saves us and works in us such justice and purgation from our
sins that he who perseveres to the end in that covenant and hope,
does not perish but has eternal life. More full and accurate defi
nitions may be found in the Helvetic Confessions, and in most of

676 SACRAMENTS, ORDINANCES, WORSHIP.
the other formularies, Lutheran and Reformed. The Thirty-Nine
Articles say, (XXVII) that baptism is not only a sign of profes
sion and mark of difference whereby Christian men are discerned
from others that be not christened, but is also a sign of regenera
tion or new birth, whereby as by an instrument they that receive
baptism rightly are grafted into the church ; the promises of the
forgiveness of sin, and of our adoption to be the sons of God by
the Holy Ghost are visibly signed and sealed ; faith is confirmed
and grace increased by virtue of prayer unto God. Compared
with the statements of these antecedent creeds, we may readily
discern in the Symbols a marked advance in both fullness and
accuracy — an advance which is explained by the rise of the
immersionist issue in Britain, and by the special study which we
know to have been given to the doctrine by some of the West
minster divines, and by their immediate predecessors and contem
poraries. Several of these earlier creeds show traces, like the Saxon Arti
cles just quoted — lavacrum regenerationis — of that false view of
baptism as carrying with it regeneration and the new life, which
Rome received from the middle ages, and which it still retains
in substance. The Tridentine Council declared in its canons that
grace is conferred always and to all men through the sacramental
act performed, and specially that in baptism a character, a cer
tain spiritual and indelible sign of such grace, is iwprintetl in the
soul, and also that such baptism, conferred by the Roman church
as the mother and mistress of all churches, is necesary to salva
tion. In the case of the baptized infant all stains of original sin
are said to be regeneratively removed through the sacrament, and
in the case of adults all sin original and actual is cleansed away,
so that the recipient, in the words of Moehler, becomes a member
of Christ, and being interiorly quickened by the divine Spirit
showeth Himself a new man. We are not indeed to understand
that on this view it is the sacrament by itself that regenerates,
but rather that wherever the sacrament is thus observed, the grace
of God works in vital conjunction with it, so as produce the
spiritual result described. But it is easy to see how Such a view
would readily degenerate into the grossest sacramehtarianism, —
how the outward form would come to be the prominent feature,
and the names and effects of the tmth or grace — to quote again
the significant warning of the Confession— would he attributed to
the sign which simply typifies them. At the outset of the Refor
mation such gross and corrupting formalism had actually taken
possession of the Roman church : and it was against this mode

BAPTISM : QUESTION OF MODE. 677
of attributing grace to the sacraments themselves, and setting up
the outward rite as if that, received and submitted to, could save
the soul, that Luther and Zwingli thundered and Calvin and
Knox reasoned, until northern Europe saw the destructive error
and earnestly arrayed itself against it. It was against this error
within the Roman communion, and as it existed in modified form
in the earlier Lutheranism (Augsburg Conf. IX) and in Anglican
Episcopacy also, that the Confession affirmed in the fifth section
of this chapter that grace and salvation are not so inseparably
annexed unto baptism as that no person can be regenerated or
saved without baptism, or that all that are baptized are undoubt
edly regenerated. It has been questioned, however, whether in
the sixth section, the Westminster divines did not themselves
attribute more efficacy to the ordinance than their Presbyterian
descendants have done, and more than the Scriptures warrant.
While on one side they said that the efficacy of the sacrament
is not tied to that Tttoment of time in which it is administered, they
yet taught that the grace promised is not only offered but really
exhibited and conferred by the Holy Ghost in his appointed time
to such as that grace belongeth unto by election — a statement
not easUy understood except on the hypothesis that even in the
case of infants what is called baptismal grace is often, perhaps
generaUy, received.
The position of the Assembly in respect to the mode of
observing the sacrament is clearly indicated in the second section.
Three things are there described as essential, the use of water
applied to the person — water as distinguished from other liquids
such as oil or milk, sometimes used in oriental communions ; the
administration by a minister of the Gospel lawfully called there
unto ; and the consecration of the recipient in the name of
the Holy Trinity. In the American Directory it is directly
prescribed that there shall be no other ceremony, — such as
as Rome has introduced into the observance. The omission of
the name of the Trinity would in the general judgment of Prot
estantism fataUy invalidate the observance. Unitarian baptism
or baptism by other unevangelical or heretical bodies (if such a
ceremony should occur) cannot be regarded as a proper compli
ance with the command of Christ. Roman baptism is regarded
as valid, except by those who refuse to recognize the Roman
communion as an integral part of the church of Christ, inasmuch
as it is trinitarian. The official character of the administrator
is also generally regarded by Protestants as indispensable,
though the Roman church,— holding that baptism is necessary to

678 SACRAMENTS, ORDINANCES, WORSHIP.
salvation, recognizes lay baptism as valid in certain extreme cases.
Respecting the use of water as an element, it is a striking illus
tration of the state of the question of mode at the time, and per
haps also of the liberality of the Assembly on matters regarded
as comparatively indifferent, that all three modes of applying
water to the person, known in the early Church, sprinkling
and pouring and dipping or immersing, were alike recognized by
that body as valid. In the third section it is stated that baptism
is rightly administered either by pouring or by sprinkling water
upon the person, and that the dipping of the person into the water
is not necessary. In the original Directory (Chap. VIII) it is
said that infants may be baptized by pouring or sprinkling water
on their faces : which for the manner of doing it, is not only
lawful but sufficient and most expedient to be. An interesting illus
tration of the disposition of the Assembly appears in the Life of
Lightfoot (Preface to his Works) , in the following record : When
they came to the vote whether the Directory should run thus,
The minister shall take water and sprinkle or pour it with his
hand upon the face or forehead of the child, some were unwilling
to have dipping excluded ; so that the vote came to an equality
within one, for the one side there being twenty-four and for the
other twenty-five. The business was therefore recommitted and
resumed the day following, when Lightfoot demanded of them
who insisted upon the recognition of dipping, that they would
state the reason of their opinion, and would give in their proofs.
Hereupon it was thus worded, That pouring on of water or sprink
ling in the administration of baptism is lawful and sufficient.
Whereupon Lightfoot excepted against the word lawful, it being
unfit to vote that as lawful which every one grants it to be, and
moved that it might be expressed thus, It is not only lawful but
also sufficient : and it was so done accordingly. To this settle
ment of the question of mode in the case of adults as well as
infants, the Presbyterian churches have adhered almost without
exception, and still adhere. The preference for pouring or
sprinkling, the two terms being apparently very nearly synony
mous, as being sufficient and most expedient to be, does not exdude
dipping or immersion if Christian expedience should so suggest ;
and this latter mode is regarded by all Presbyterians as entirely
valid. It is not practicable in these confessional studies to enter into
any discussion of the vexed question here presented. That there
is a considerable group of texts in the New Testament which
suggest immersion as a probable mode of administration in the

BAPTISM : VARIETIES OF MODE. 679
apostolic church, may be freely admitted. That there is another
group of texts equally extensive, which point to pouring or
sprinkling as the more probable mode, and still another which
seem to preclude the possibility or at least the probability of
immersion, is an equally palpable fact. That the germs of the
sacrament found in the lustrations and baptisms of the Old
Testament, representing ceremonial defilement and ceremonial
purification chiefly, suggest a similar variety in the Christian
ordinance is quite apparent. And in view of such biblical pre
sentations, taken in their totalit37, it seems a just conclusion that
our Lord intentionally left the incidental question of administra
tion to the judgment of the church in the very diversified condi
tions in which, as he foresaw, it was to be placed on the earth.
So long as the essential truths represented in the sacrament are
spirituaUy hdd, and the sacrament is spiritually observed in cor-
did obedience to his command, the subordinate question of mode
cannot properly be regarded as vital. Tenacious adherence to
any particular mode, to the condemnation of all others, is certainly
not essential in itself, neither is it in harmony with the cardinal
law of spiritual brotherhood in Christ. Nor is it an unimportant
fact in the case that uniformity in administration in all countries
and in aU the endless variety of circumstance, is in the nature of
things weU-nigh impossible. Neither is the witness of history
even in the earliest ages, as found in the Didache and other like
testimonies, at all conclusive as showing that immersion was the
only, though it may have been a frequent mode of administration
in apostoHc or post-apostolic times. And in view of all the
evidence that can be gathered from all quarters it is doubtful
whether any wiser conclusion can be reached on the whole matter,
than that so happily enundated by Calvin in terms which un
doubtedly suggested the declaration of the Assembly: Whether
the person who is baptized be wholly immersed, or whether water
be only poured or sprinkled upon him, is of no importance :
churches ought to be left at liberty in this respect to act accord
ing to the difference of countries : Inst. B. IV : 15.
Some subsidiary matters of administration present themselves at
this point. The seventh section of this chapter teaches that
baptism is but once to be administered to any person ; and the
Directory requires that, being a churchly ordinance, it shall take
place in the presence of the congregation, though it is not invalid if
administered in private houses. The Directory also advises that
it be not unnecessarily delayed, evidently with reference to the
tendency occasionally manifest in church history, to postpone

680 SACRAMENTS, ORDINANCES, WORSHIP.
baptism to a certain age or to the closing period of life. The
Confession declares it a great sin to contemn or neglect the ordi
nance, though grace and salvation are not inseparably annexed
unto it : and the Directory counsels the minister to instruct
the people whenever occasion offers as to the appointment, nature
use and ends of the sacrament. In the administration it is not
needful that the water be three times sprinkled or poured on the
person as the three names in the Trinity are pronounced, nor has
the naming of the baptized person any essential relation to the
ordinance. It is advised also that the biblical usage and prece
dent as to form be preserved in their simplicity, and that no addi
tional features beyond exhortation and prayer be introduced.
The baptizing of sanctuaries or altars or bells, or other impersonal
objects as a species of benediction, is evidently contrary to scrip
tural teaching and to Protestant usage : other kindred practices
introduced or observed by Rome, are to be rejected as unwar
rantable superstitions.
A second question which has divided and still divides Protes
tantism to a serious extent, but which can only be briefly adverted
to here, relates to the classes of per-
3. Baptism : proper sub- , . , , , 5
jects: baptism of infants. sons to whom the wate? of baPtlsm
may be applied. Nearly all Protes
tants are substantially agreed that adults should be baptized only
upon personal profession of faith, and as an introductory step
toward voluntary union with some Christian church. They agree
in holding that the church is something more than a visible
society to whose privileges baptism in infancy conveys a formal
title, and whose adult membership is made up of those who have
entered its communion through, or in virtue of such baptism,
without regard to their spiritual state before God. While differ
ing somewhat in respect to the nature and amount of the personal
experience of religion requisite to such connection, they are
agreed that there should be in every case some credible profession
of piety as a personal experience. They regard baptism when
applied to adults as being far more than a sign of ecclesiastical
place or privilege, — as signifying rather a personal ingrafting into
Christ, with regeneration and the remission of sins through his
grace and mediation. Nor do they consent that any adult should
be admitted to the church in the hope that through its culture he
may be led to repentance and faith according to the Gospel.
They therefore refuse to baptize any adult except upon the single
and simple condition of personal acceptance of Christ, and the
willingness sincerely manifested to serve him faithfully and

BAPTISM :. PROPER SUBJECTS. 681
always, as a member of his visible household of faith. During
the discussions in the Assembly it was resolved (Minutes, 394)
that the duty of 'improving our baptism is to be performed by us
all our life long, by serious and thankful consideration of the
nature of it, and of the ends for which Christ instituted it, the
privileges and benefits conferred and sealed thereby, and our
solemn vow made therein ; and by being humbled for our sinful
defilement, our falling short of and walking contrary to the grace
of baptism.
The question now to be considered in brief relates to the appli
cation of the water of baptism to infants, who are incapable of
any such experience as has just been described. The church of
Rome baptizes all infants, as well as all consenting adults, on the
ground that none but baptized infants are regenerate and saved.
The Tridentine Council, following Irenaeus and Origen and other
patristic authorities, affirmed in explicit terms that little children
should be baptized in order to their regeneration, — that, having
received baptism, they are to be counted among the faithful
though they have not actual faith, — that baptism ought never to
be postponed until such children are able to believe for them
selves, — that being baptized in infancy they are not to be bap
tized again upon any avowal of such faith, — that their ratification
in adult years of the baptism applied in childhood is not essen
tial, — that they are therefore within the church even against their
maturer wiU, and are not to be expelled from it or subjected to
any penalty as members of it, except exclusion from the holy
Eucharist : and the Council concluded its very positive canons
by pronouncing its formal anathema on all who reject its teach
ings on this subject. Nor is it too much to say that the strict
enforcement and steadfast use Of the doctrine put forth in these
canons have had much to do, from the days of that memorable
Council until now, with the maintenance of the firm hold of
Romanism upon the people of southern Europe, and with its
success in the propagation of the faith in other lands. To bap
tise an infant and thus give it an enduring place within the
church, to educate it wholly under the nurture of the church, to
habituate it to the conviction that the church holds it by an
indissoluble bond, and during its maturer years to enforce upon
it the claim of membership as an investiture which cannot be
thrown off and which it is death to the soul to question, is a
process that can result only in establishing a domination which the
individual feels utterly unable to oppose, and which gives the
church an irresistible control over his belief and his life.

682 SACRAMENTS, ORDINANCES, WORSHIP.
It is a familiar fact that the earlier Reformers, notwithstanding
their opposition to Rome, remained largely under the influence of
this illusive conception. The Apologia declares it most certain
that the promise of salvation belongs even to infants, and that
they ought therefore to be baptised inasmuch as salvation is offered
in or with baptism. Similar expressions appear in the Smalcald
Articles, and in the Helvetic Confessions. Luther in his Larger
Catechism tersely says that the virtue, work, use, fruit, end of
baptism is to save, and affirms that infants are saved in baptism —
but on the singular hypothesis that they do in some way or sense
personally believe. They were led into this position partly by
the state church theory which made all persons, adult or infant,
members of some geographic ecclesiastical organization ; partly
by the lingering influence, as these quotations show, of the
notion of baptismal regeneration : and partly, we may hope,
through their recognition of the Old Testament doctrine of the
unity of the pious household. But it is evident also, that almost
from the beginning many of them realized that the theory of
regenerative baptism and of geographic church membership would
only fill their churches with multitudes who had never believed
in Christ or been justified through his mediation, unless some
spiritual expedients or agencies should be introduced as correc
tives. Hence arose the series of Catechisms, beginning with those
of Luther, which were even more potent than the authorized
creeds in educating the people in spiritual and practical religion.
It is another interesting fact that as early as 1524 Luther, with
this great need in mind, set about the establishment of Christian
schools in the cities of Germany, declaring in his own strong
language that it is a grave and serious thing, affecting the inter
ests of the kingdom of Christ and of all the world, that we apply
ourselves to the instruction of the young. Two years later, in
a letter to the Elector of Saxony, he broached the broad principle
on which all modern systems of popular education are based, that
i inasmuch as such instruction is necessary to the well-being of
| the state, it should be supplied by those wielding authority over
| the state ; and on that basis principally the common school,
j imparting positive religion as well as ordinary knowledge, was
I established during that century not only in Germany but in Swit-
I zerland and Holland and elsewhere in northern Europe, including
"the British Isles. In 1558, John Knox, writing from Geneva,
f declared it most expedient for the preservation of religion, that
schools be immediately erected in all cities and chief towns . . .
that of the youth godly instructed in them a seed may be preserved

BAPTISM OF INFANTS. 683
and continued for the profit of the church in all ages. Protes
tantism has always needed the Christian school as well as the
Christian home as an adjunct to the church in diffusing and per
petuating the true faith: without their helpful ministrations
and influence infant baptism has always degenerated into a super
stitious form, and infant church connection has always been
superficial and unfruitful.
Guarded against such perversions, the doctrine of child mem
bership, — a membership established at birth and certified in the
rite of baptism- — is, as we have already had occasion to see, a
tenet dearly sustained by Scripture, and palpably confirmed in
the experience of Christendom. But we must go back of such
experimental evidence to the Old Testament teachings respecting
the spiritual as well as the natural unity of the pious family,
respecting the divine covenant with the heads of such holy house
holds, respecting the religious significance of circumcision
regarded as an outward sign and seal of said covenant, respect
ing the transmission of piety through the sanctified home from
generation to generation, respecting the relation of the home to
the church and the ordained perpetuity of the church through
the appointed ordinances of grace, — we must turn back to these
primal teachings to find the initial warrant for the application of
the water of baptism to the children of believing parents. We
must turn also to the example of our Lord in blessing little chil
dren and proclaiming them heirs of heaven, — to his tender
instruction concerning them, even as lambs in his earthly flock, —
to the teaching of the apostles respecting the godly family, and
espedaUy the Pauline instruction as to the federal holiness of the
offspring of pious parentage, and the illustrations of household as
well as individual baptism recorded in the New Testament. We
must also recognize the essential oneness of the Church in all
dispensations, the practical identity between the faith of Abra
ham and Christian faith, the transmission of other ordinances
such as the paschal supper, and the close relation between cir
cumcision as a type under the old and infant baptism as a type
under the new economy of grace. It is important also to note in
dose conjunction the recorded usage of the early church, if not
in aU instances still in many, and the historic growth of such
usage, avowedly on biblical rather than traditional authority,
until it came to be the general practice of the church in both its
western and its oriental divisions. To all this may be added the
manifest values of this sacramental observance to the Christian
parent as a guide and stimulant to the training of his children for

681 SACRAMENTS, ORDINANCES, WORSHIP.
Christ ;— to the child thus consecrated even from infancy to the
divine service and nurtured from the outset into holy manhood
or womanhood ; and to the church as an encouragement to supply
so far as possible all needful help in such nurture, and as an assur
ance that, in the instructive words of Knox, a holy seed shall be
preserved and continued through all the ages.
If Romanism can justify itself in the baptizing of infants and
incorporating them by that sign within its ecclesiastical fold, a
thousand times more may evangelical Protestantism, counting its
youth even from their birth as members in its holy family, and
devoting itself to their training for complete membership in after
life, set this seal upon them and by that act openly acknowledge
its relationship to them, and its purpose and faith with respect to
their spiritual relationship to Christ. That on the various grounds
here noted there has grown up in the Protestant communions as
well as in the Greek and Roman churches, a general verdict in
favor of this ordinance cannot be questioned : that there is a
growing appreciation of its values, especially in those commun
ions where it has been most thoroughly tested, is a maniifest fact.
Nor is evidence of its decline in favor anywhere apparent: Paren
tal faith and the parental covenant, enfolding the infant, are as
real now as in the age of Abraham; should these disappear, one of
the peculiar glories of the Christian religion would be lost. And
certainly it is a fact of great significance and comfort, that those
sections of Protestantism which refuse to regard infant baptism
as an ordinance warranted by Scripture and historic experience,
do still recognize the great underlying truths in the case, and do
probably as earnestly as others endeavor to train up their youth
in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
The spiritual quality of the sacrament, and also of the cove
nant into which the parents enter in connection with it, cannot
be too strongly emphasized. That covenant puts the parents
under obligations as tender and sacred as can ever rest on any
human being. The American Directory (Ch. VIII) declares
that they ought to teach the child to read the Word of God and
instruct it in the principles of our holy religion, to pray with and
for it, to set it an example of piety and godliness, and by all the
means of divine appointment to train it up for Christ and for
heaven. In the presence of such obligations all duties relating to
the temporal welfare of children, such as provision for food and
clothing or for their education and their comfort and happiness in
maturer life — though in themselves primary and indispensable —
grow relatively secondary and unimportant. To feed and robe

THE LORD'S SUPPER. 685
and shelter and instruct and ripen the child for Christian useful
ness and for heaven, must after all be the supreme obligation.
The original Directory contains a form of prayer to be offered in
connection with the ordinance, which might well be treasured in
the memory of all pious parents, and be offered up from day
to day so long as their children remain within the sanctuary of
the home.
The second Christian sacrament, the sacrament of the Lord's
Supper, is set before us exhaustively in one of the most extended
chapters (XXIX) in the Confes
sion, and with corresponding dabo- +¦ The Lord's Supper: itsde-
rateness in the Larger Catechism, sig^i and uses. Roman and Prot-
and in both the original and the "*£' fd0f ^ :t Pf tlcipantS :
° . mode of administration.
American Directory for Worship.
Cunningham justly remarks (Hist. Theol.) that the papal doc
trine concerning this sacrament forms the very heart and marrow
of the papal system of beHef ; and adds that the Roman church
has embodied in its teaching and practice on this subject its
prindpal provisions for crushing the exercise of all mental inde
pendence and freedom of thought, and for subjecting the under
standings, consciences and purses of men to the control of the
priesthood. It is not surprising, therefore, that every prominent
creed of the Reformation which aims at a comprehensive state
ment of Christian doctrine, should contain extensive articles or
chapters on this subject. Nor is it surprising that, although all
were agreed in condemning the papal teaching as unscriptural
and pernicious, the Reformers should have failed at various points
to agree among themselves as to certain purposes and features of
the sacrament, — such failure developing, as we know in some
instances, into suspidon and open antagonism. It must be con
fessed that the Protestant belief was far from being a unit during
the sixteenth century, and that later Protestanism even down to
our own day has not been able to attain such unity as to specific
elements in the doctrine, though even more firm than the earlier
in condemnation of the Roman view.
There are indeed some elements of the doctrine in which Roman
ism and Protestantism are substantially agreed. Both regard the
sacrament as imposed authoritatively by Christ, and as appointed
for his Church and for the instruction and nutriment of his dis-
dples to the end of the world. Both regard the sacrament as a
continuation under the Gospel of that paschal supper through
which the devout people of Israel celebrated their deliverance from

686 SACRAMENTS, ORDINANCES, WORSHIP.
Egyptian bondage. Both condemn the Socinian affirmation that
the sacrament was designed as a temporary expedient, suited to
the needs of the apostolic church, but intended to pass away
with time : and the kindred notion that it is a mere ceremony of
thanksgiving and profession , or a mode of good fellowship, which
may be observed or omitted according to taste or convenience.
Both regard the observance as something more than a spiritual
or inward commemoration of Christ and his sacrifice, — as rather a
formal ordinance of the church, to be observed visibly as our Lord
commanded, and with the use of the elements which he selected.
But beyond these points there is wide and indeed irreconcile-
able disagreement. Romanism affirms that these two dements,
bread and wine, are so transubstantiated or transformed by
what is in the nature of a miracle that, without changing their
outward appearance, they do actually become the veritable body
and blood of the crucified Redeemer. According to the Council
of Trent this ordinance, in virtue of such transubstantiation,
becomes something more than a simple sacrament ; it is a visible
sacrifice also, whereby the original sacrifice on the cross is not
only typified but in a sense repeated, and its salutary virtue
directly applied to the remission of sins. Our Lord, in other words,
is immolated again under visible signs by the church through the
priestly ministration, and the mass thus becomes a propitiation
through which the grace and gift of penitence are granted, and
heinous sins and crimes are forgiven, if the sacrament be received,
in this sense of it, with a sincere heart and with godly reverence.
Like baptism it carries grace in itself, and is to be administered
as an opus operatum, — the participant actually receiving Christ
corporeally as well as spiritually, though in an incomprehensible
manner. It is held further, that this sacrifice may be offered in
the interest of the dead as truly as of the living, both for the
honoring of departed saints already in heaven, and for the benefit
of those who, though departed in Christ, are not as yet fully
purified. And the mass may be observed in certain cases by the
priesthood only, acting therein for the whole church, and in all
cases the wine duly mixed with water must be taken by none but
the priest, since the whole Christ is received under either species
alone. Nor is the sacrament ever to be celebrated in the vulgar
tongue, or in any other than a low tone, since the priest is speak
ing therein to God only. It is also claimed that the church may
rightly employ additional ceremonies at her discretion, such as
mystic benedictions, lights, incense, vestments, if derived from
apostolical discipline and tradition, whereby — it is said — the

ROMAN AND PROTESTANT DOCTRINE. 687
majesty of so great a sacrifice may be commended, and the
minds of the faithful may be excited by such visible signs of
religion and piety to the contemplation of those most sublime
things which are hidden in this sacrifice.
The Reformers were cordially agreed in rejecting the dogma of
miraculous transubstantiation, and of an actual repetition in the
sacrament, in any form whatever, of the original oblation of
Christ on the cross. The}- were agreed in rejecting the fiction
that there is grace hidden in the elements when thus transformed,
which is communicated corporeaUy to the participant, as if the
elements had efficacy in themselves ; or that the sacrament can
be beneficial to any one otherwise than through the exercise of
faith in and personal appropriation of the crucified Redeemer,
whose dying for us men and for our salvation the ordinance was
designed to typify. They were agreed that the sacrament could
not be of value to the dead whether for honor or for purgation,
and that it is valuable to the living, not because the church pro
vides it or the priesthood administers it, but only so far as it
represents a spiritual union established between the believing
recipient and Christ. They were agreed also in rejecting the
usage of private mass, the exclusion of the laity from sharing in
the wine, the administration in language unknown to the people,
and the introduction of ceremonials superadded upon the original
ordinance as instituted by our Lord. In a word, they were agreed
in repudiating the notion of the sacrament as a ritual and a sacri
fice, and held it rather as a spiritual ordinance full of grace and
blessing if its divine intent was observed, and Christ himself
was present to hallow the observance. In the language of the
Second Helvetic Conf.: As the sun in heaven is efficaciously
present with us, so much more is Christ, the sun of righteous
ness, with us not indeed corporeally, but spiritually, by his enliv
ening and vivifying operation, even as he in the Last Supper
explained that he would himself be present with his people.
In the more specific interpretation of this ordinance, three vari
eties of opinion existed among the primitive Protestants. At
one extreme stood Zwinglianism, maintaining the widest contrast
with the papal dogma at every point, and affirming that the holy
supper, is historical and commemorative only — a picturesque cere
monial designed to bring to mind the tragic scene on Calvary, and
so to impress us more vividly with the reality and preciousness
of the atoning sacrifice there once for all offered in behalf of sin.
At the other extreme stood Lutheranism, repudiating the error of
transubstantiation, yet affirming that in some transcendental way

688 SACRAMENTS, ORDINANCES, WORSHIP.
Christ is really present with and in the elements employed, so
that the sacrament becomes, not merely a commemoration of the
crucifixion as a past event, but also an actual participation of the
Savior as present in some sense corporeally, — the real presence
and oral communication of the body and blood of Christ becom
ing, in the language of another (Sprecher, Evang. Luth. Theol.),
a most gracious pledge of the forgiveness of sins : see Krauth,
Conservative Reformation.
Between these extremes stood the profound doctrine of
Calvin, which has been incorporated in substance in all of the
Reformed Confessions, and which has become the generally
accepted doctrine of Protestant communions, outside of the circles
\ / of sacramentarian Lutheranism. Calvin defines a sacrament
' briefly (Inst. B. IV : 14) after the manner of Augustine, as a
testimony of the grace of God toward us, confirmed by an out
ward sign as a ring or pledge, with a reciprocal attestation of our
faith in Christ ; but more broadly, as an outward sign by which
the Lord seals in our consciences the promises of his good will
towards us, to support the weakness of our faith, while we on
our part testify our piety towards him in his presence and that of
angels as well as before men. He justifies his general definition
by a careful process of reasoning both from Scripture and from
the nature of the Christian sacraments : and then applies it
specifically to the sacrament of the supper, which he describes as
a spiritual banquet in which Christ testifies himself to be the
bread of life, to feed our souls for a true and blessed immortality.
It is, he says elsewhere, a token and pledge of our secret union
through faith with him who is the fountain and origin of all
spiritual life, by whose flesh and blood our souls are fed, just as
our corporeal life is preserved and sustained by bread and wine.
Against the dogma of transubstantiation, and all the errors and
mischief s that have grown out of it, Calvin utters his most earnest
protestations : between Zwinglianism and Lutheranism he stands
in the attitude of mediation, recognizing what is good in the teach
ing of each, but criticising their respective deficiencies, especially
the Lutheran conception of the corporeal ubiquity of Christ on
earth, and adding what he regards, and what later Protestantism
generally has come to regard with him, as essential to the com
pleteness and spiritual value of the sacrament.
The elaborate chapter in the Confession presents in detail and
with great discrimination the Reformed or Calvinistic view. In
the first section, it affirms the appointment of this holy ordinance
by Christ himself as an institution of his church, to be observed

CALVINISTIC STATEMENT. 689
until the end of the world, and points out the five uses of the ordi
nance: first, as commemorative, — a perpetual remembrance and
acknowledgment of the atoning sacrifice itself; second, as a guar
antee to each true believer of all the benefits accruing from that
sacrifice; third, as furnishing present nutrition and strengthening
the worthy recipient in godly living; fourth, as consecratory,
or in the specific sense of the term, sacramental — a solemn cove
nant or pledge on the part of the receiver to be faithful to all
Christian duty; and fifth, as a sign of union and communion among
the partidpants, in the feUowship of the Christian church — as
members together in the mystical body of Christ : L. C. 168.
Viewed more broadly, the sacrament may fitly be described as at
once a sermon setting forth in picturesque form the central doc
trines of grace; a creed prof essed and confessed before the world;
a law prescribing for the believer his most vital duties; a holy
hymn of praise and gratitude to Christ; a sacred oath of allegi
ance placing the soul under the most impressive obligations to the
Redeemer; a wiUing covenant whereby he is conjoined for time
and for eternity with those who are associated with him within
the household of faith.
The second section condemns the papaltenet that the sacrament
is in any sense a sacrifice or an oblation offered to God in order to
secure the remission of sins, whether for the living or for the dead;
and dedares that the popish sacrifice of the mass (Revised form :
the Roman Catholic doctrine of the sacrifice of the mass) is most
injurious to the one and only sacrifice of Christ. In the third sec
tion the requisite elements are named, the form of observance is
prescribed, foUowing closely the original institution; the giving
of the wine as weU as the bread to the laity is required; and in the
next section private masses by the priesthood, the worshiping of
the elements, as if Christ were present in them, the elevation or
carrying about of the host, and other papal observances, are stren
uously condemned as contrary to the nature of the sacrament and to
the institution of Christ. John Knox represented the general senti
ment of Protestantism in the declaration (Lorimer, Life of Knox)
that the plain rule of Scripture is to be observed in the adminis
tration of both sacraments, without addition or diminution, and
that all attempts to impose additional ceremonies or to introduce
any additional meanings or significations is a heinous sin. The
fifth and sixth sections describe the relation of the elements as
outward signs or emblems to the spiritual truths typified by them;
affirm that they are the body and blood of Christ only in a sacra
mental sense, while in substance and nature they still remain truly

SACRAMENTS, ORDINANCES, WORSHIP.
and only bread and wine, as they were before their consecration;
condemn the dogma of transubstantiation as repugnant not to
Scripture alone but even to common sense and reason ; and declare
that this dogma not only overthroweth the nature of the sacra
ment, but is the cause of manifold superstitions and even of gross
idolatries. In the seventh and eighth sections the recipients worthy and
unworthy are described, and the proper limits are put upon the
observance as a religious act. As in baptism so here, the qualifi
cation for participation is a gracious state already secured — indi
cated by an open membership in some branch of the visible church.
Every such worthy receiver, partaking of the visible elements, is
said to feed by faith, not carnally or corporally but spiritually, upon
Christ crucified and all benefits of his death: Christ being present
as really to the faith of believers in and with the ordinance, as the
elements themselves are to their outward senses. In the language
of the Shorter Catechism (96), they are made partakers of his.
body ahd blood, with all his benefits, to their spiritual nourishment
and growth in grace. Proper preparation for the sacraineiit is
particularly described in the Larger Catechism (171) in language
which may well be studied with solemn care by every one who
desires to participate worthily in the observance. Wise counsel
is also given (172) to those who anxiously doubt as to their per
sonal interest in Christ, and both warning and encouragement are
offered according to their individual condition and need. The
spedal thoughts and feelings which should be experienced by the
participants during the administration are mentioned — holy rev
erence ahd attention, affectionate meditation on the crucified
Savior, sincere sorrow for all sins and departures from duty,
thanksgiving for grace and a renewed consecration to the divine
service. So also the duties consequent upon the communion are
set forth with like particularity, the proper utilizing of the privi
lege in such ways as to increase growth in grace and holiness, and
the renewed purpose to render effective service to Christ and his
cause. On the other hand, all ignorant and ungodly persons are
said to be unworthy to sit at the table of Christ so long as they
remain such, and must not be admitted thereunto, since they by
such outward participation only eat and drink not to any spiritual
benefit but to their own damnation.
To these catechetical instructions must be added the further
\ counsels and teachings contained in the two Directories for Wor
ship. The original Directory advises that the communion shall
be observed frequently.— that sufficient notice be given and due

QUALIFICATIONS FOR COMMUNION. 691
preparation of heart be made,— that the table be so placed that
the communicants may sit at or about it, — that the bread be in
comely and convenient vessels and the wine in large cups: also
that an exhortation be given beforehand to worthy communicants,
and a solemn warning to the ignorant, scandalous, profane, and
them that are living in any sin or offence against their knowledge
and conscience: also that the record of the first institution be read,
and the same order be observed throughout, with prayer and
thanksgiving, and the blessing of the bread and the wine. Out
lines of exhortation, warning, petition and thanksgiving suitable
to the service are added for the guidance of the minister in the
administration, and a collection for the poor at the close of the V
service is ordered. The American Directory makes no additional
suggestion of moment, except that the communion service may
fitly be preceded or foUowed by special services, as the needs
of the people may seem to require. Subordinate questions, such
as the number partaking, the posture of the communicants, the
persons distributing, the quality of the bread or the wine, are
wisely left to the discretion of the individual church or its official
representatives. The Larger Catechism contains two extended answers (176-
177) presenting successively the points of agreement and the
points of difference between the two Christian sacraments. They
are sdd to agree in the fact that the author of both is God, — that
both on their spiritual side represent Christ and his benefits, —
that both are seals of the same gracious covenant, — that both are
to be dispensed by ministers of the Gospel and none other, — and
that both are to be continued and maintained in the church until
the second coming of the Lord. They differ in the fact that bap
tism is to be administered but once, while the supper is to be
administered often, — that baptism is obseived with water, and
the supper with bread and wine, — that the water of baptism is
designed to be a sign and seal of our ingrafting into Christ, while
the bread and wine represent and exhibit Christ as spiritual nour
ishment to the soul and. as an assurance of continuance and
growth in him, — and that baptism may be administered to infants,
but the supper only to those who are of years and ability to
examine themselves. The Council of Trent gave as a reason for
the exclusion of children from the eucharist that, inasmuch as
they have not attained to the use of reason, they are not obligated
to participate ; and further that, forasmuch as they have been
regenerated by the laver of baptism and are thus incorporated with
Christ already, they cannot during that age lose the grace which

V

692 SACRAMENTS, ORDINANCES, WORSHIP.
they have already acquired of being the sons of God. The Amer
ican Directory simply follows the Protestant usage in counseling
that the duty and the privilege of such participation shall be urged
upon the young as soon as they are able to discern the true mean
ing of the observance and exercise personal faith in the dying
Savior whom the observance sets before them, — the officers of the
particular church being judges of their spiritual qualification.
It should be noted finally that in the language of the Larger
Catechism (164), Christ under the New Testament hath insti
tuted in his church only two sacraments. This statement rules
out not only the five minor sacraments of Rome, but also certain
other usages more or less current in the primitive church, and
possessing some measure of religious value, such as the agape or
love-feast, the imposition of hands, anointing with oil, the wash
ing of feet, the kiss of peace or of charity, the casting of lots.
Such observances, though more or less recognizable in the
New Testament, obviously do not carry the proper marks of a
sacrament, nor are they enjoined upon the church as universal
or perpetual, though some of them were at the outset regarded
as appropriate and valuable appendages to the developing Chris
tianity. Church history shows plainly that these observances
not only originated in literalistic interpretations of Scripture and
were generally associated with crass conceptions of Christianity,
but have tended wherever observed to impair the authoritative
ness and the spiritual values of the two unquestioned sacraments
of our holy faith.
In addition to the two Christian sacraments just considered, a
series of adjunctive Ordinances — positive institutes or appoint
ments resting on divine authority,
S. The Christian Ordinances: , , . , . .. ...
The Sabbath. The Sanctuary. and sustaining special relations both
to individual piety and to the Hfe
and growth of the church — present themselves at this point for
careful consideration. The term, ordinance, is sometimes used
more specifically as the synonym of sacrament merdy, and some
times so broadly as to include all the parts or elements of Christian
worship. In the Larger Catechism (154) it is said that the out
ward and ordinary means by which Christ communicates to his
church the benefits of his mediation, are all his ordinances —
especially the word, sacraments and prayer. Similar use of the
term appears in two sections of the confessional chapter (VII)
on the Covenants. What is now contemplated is that group of
fixed institutes or prescripts of divine origin and authority, which,

THE CHRISTIAN ORDINANCES DEFINED. 69"
dthough not so directly enforced as the sacraments were by any
positive command of Christ, are still closely related to the sacra
ments as conditions of Christian culture and as tributary aids in
the life of the organized church. Even in the Hebraic dispensa
tion there were such adjunctive institutes, divinely ordained as
helps in rdigious living for both the individual and the nation.
The altar, the tabernacle and the temple, the holy feasts and sab
baths, the ordained modes of worship, the prescribed ceremo
nies and the priestly office, taken together, constituted a sacred
cdtus through whose gracious disciplines the Hebrews were led
into larger and richer experience of religion than they could
otherwise have gained. While these, so far as they were typical
merely, have ceased to be obligatory under the Gospel, yet Chris
tianity as wdl as Hebraism stands in need of similar tributary
appointments, as hdps aHke to the best culture and to the most
effective labors of those who love and serve Christ. The ordi
nances divinely provided in the present dispensation to meet this
obvious need are four in number ; the Sabbath a sacred time, the
Sanctuary a sacred place, the Means of Grace constituting a sacred
cultus, and the Ministry as a sacred order and form of service in
the interest of believers and of the church.
The Sabbath as a sacred time, instituted at the creation, invested
with new significance at Sinai, and lifted into its supreme place
under the Gospel as commemorative of the resurrection of Christ
and of salvation through his messiahship, has already been suffi
ciently considered in general, in the study of the Ten Command
ments. We may now simply note that it is to be cherished and
observed by the church through all ages as a holy ordinance,
appointed by God in order that spiritual religion might thus have
set seasons and opportunities for its largest development. Both
for private instruction and devotion, and for public convocation
and worship, the Sabbath as an institute, consecrated by divine
sanction, seems hardly less essential than are the two Christian
sacraments, — a blessed day of grace which the church of Christ
can never spare.
The Sanctuary as a sacred place stands by the side of the Chris
tian Sabbath as a second institute, almost equally essential alike
to the believer and to the church. Both in Scripture and in fact
religion presents itself to our view first of all as an inward experi
ence, and the closet or its equivalent is the first temple. Enoch
walking alone with God, Isaac worshiping at eventide, Daniel
praying in his chamber, are types of an experience, hidden
and apart from the world, which is in fact universal among saints.

694 SACRAMENTS, ORDINANCES, WORSHIP.
But from the beginning, community of faith when realized found
its natural expression in community of worship, first around
the crude altars which were the primitive centers of religious
assembling, afterwards in the Mosaic tabernacle, and then in
the temple and the local synagogue. The conception of a fixed
place in which God should especially dwell and be specially
adored, was thus inwrought from the beginning in the con
victions of the chosen people ; and in the later eras of their
national life, the splendid temple of Solomon became the material
embodiment of such convictions — a suitable place for the residence
of the national church.
That profound religious instinct which thus expressed itself in
Hebraism, rises to its culmination in Christianity. Though
religion under the Gospel as under the law is primarily a personal
matter — an experience of the closet, it is also an associative experi
ence, and the sanctuary like the church is one of its practical
and universal needs. . The followers of Christ indeed worshiped
privately at first, and in whatever places of convocation might be
found available : but the Christian sanctuary soon began to appear
by the side of the Jewish synagogue and the pagan temple, wher
ever the developing church could provide itself with such a spir
itual home. And wherever in later ages Christianity in whatever
variety has gone, such consecrated homes have invariably sprung
up as indispensable adjuncts. It is not needful here to discuss the
many specific uses which the Christian sanctuary subserves. The
glad strains of the psalmist, as he sings of the gates of Zion, loved
of Jehovah, are representative of the happy emotions with which
every true saint contemplates the house of God, as the holy place
where he has received his most precious instruction touching divine
things, where his soul has been lifted up into its loftiest spiritual
experiences, and where his hope of dwelling finally in the house
of the Lord forever has reached its firmest assurance. The sanc
tuary also brings such saints together as one happy family, and
becomes the scene of their sweetest communion and of their most
productive activities. It also stands forth before the eyes of all
men as an enduring invitation to come in and partake of the feast
of grace, and a silent but most effective witness to the reality and
power and permanence of the Christian faith. Were there no
such consecrated places, in which the company of the faithful
might meet for mutual culture, for soda! worship, for organ
ized endeavor in the interest of religion, it is almost certain that
religion itself, deprived of its legitimate home and support, would
languish and dedine from the earth.

THE CHRISTIAN SANCTUARY. 695
It follows as an imperative obligation that every household of
faith should, wherever possible, provide itself with such a spiritual
home, and should make whatever sacrifices and undergo whatever
labors may be requisite to gain so great a privilege. It seems at
first sight singular that this obligation should have had almost no
recognition in the creeds of the Reformation. This omission is
explained in part by the supreme absorption of the Reformers in
the more pressing matters relating to the church itself, its faith
and constitution and order. It is also to be remembered that the
places of worship already erected under the papacy became
available for use, and were sufficient, wherever Protestantism
established itself geographically. The cathedrals of Germany,
Switzerland, Holland, in which the Roman mass had been cele
brated for centuries, became the homes of Protestant churches,
and resounded with the sermons and the hymns and prayers of
of those who had accepted the new faith. Westminster Abbey,
as we know, was first a Papal, then an Episcopal, and for a little
time a Presbyterian and also an Independent sanctuary. But }n
general the obligation just named is as universal as evangelical
Christianity. The example of the Jewish nation, in its readiness
to contribute to the erection of the tabernacle and the temple,
and in its generous maintenance of the sacrificial and the tithing
system divinely imposed upon it, becomes an impressive enforce
ment of this duty. Similar incentive might be drawn from the
vast expenditure for temples, sacrifices, priestly service, among
the devotees of the great natural religions. But a thousand fold
more imperative is the obligation of every Christian church to
provide itself with an appropriate sanctuary, as a home for the
the disdple, a school for the young, a pulpit for the public proc
lamation of the truth, a fountain of gracious life and influence
that may refresh and fertiHze the world.
The phrase, Means of Grace, is frequently employed to describe
in general aU those instrumentalities which God is pleased to use
for the spiritual edification of his ^ The ^.^ 0rdJnances .
people, and also those special insti- Means of Grace> distinctively.
tutes or appointments which he has
ordained to be the channels of grace, — what are styled in the Larger
Catechism (161), the means of salvation. These means are
described in the Symbols as three in number; the Word, the sacra
ments and prayer. In the two Catechisms these three are classed
together as the outward and ordinary means whereby Christ com
municates the benefits of his redemption. The Augsburg Conf.
(V) says that it is by the word and sacraments as instruments,

696 SACRAMENTS, ORDINANCES, WORSHIP.
that the Holy Spirit worketh faith when and where it pleaseth
God in those that hear the Gospel : so the Heidelberg Catechism
declares that the Holy Ghost teaches us in the Gospel and by the
holy sacraments. But later formularies add prayer, as in the
Confession (VII), and also fasting and devout meditation and
other religious exercises, and in some cases the providences of
God both favorable and adverse, as tributary helps in gracious
experience. In a more specific sense, the means of grace are
simply the various parts or branches of private, but especially of
public worship — the ordained cultus wherein God is adored and
his religion advanced within the sanctuary ; what are described
in the Amer. Form of Gov. distinctively as the ordinances.
In their most elementary type, as during the patriarchal period,
these ordinances consisted simply of sacrifice and adoration, in
connection especially with the Sabbath, — the adoration doubtless
assuming the form of praise and prayer. At least we find no
clear traces during this period, extending as far as the Exodus,
of any other variety of worship. After that event, the reading
of the Sinaitic law was added, in conjunction with a more extended
system of sacrifices ; and still later came in the exposition of the
law as a regular feature in the sabbatic service. As the sacred
books increased in number, especially during the royal and pro
phetic eras, the reading of history and prophecy as well as law
was introduced. Vocal praise also grew into prominence, partic
ularly in the age of David and his successors. The simpler ritual
of the tabernacle gave way by degrees to the gorgeous ceremo
nial of the temple, with its robed priests and its costlier offerings.
The three great annual feasts, and the crowning festival of the
sabbatic year, gave occasion for still further elaboration of the
national worship. Yet the essential elements of that worship,
sacrifice and offering, prayer and praise, the reading and expo
sition of the law and of the other inspired literature, remained
without important change, and were observed alike in the second
temple and in the local synagogue down to the Christian era — as
indeed they still survive essentially wherever the Hebrew race
come together for purposes of devotion.
Under the. Gospel this divinely prescribed cultus survived in
substance, though with some important modifications on one
side and some essential additions on the other. The one great
sacrifice having been offered once for all, the altar and the formal
sacrifice were no longer needful, yet the presentation of suitable
offerings as expressions of gratitude to Christ and of loyalty to
his cause, are as incumbent on the Christian, as the burning of

THE MEANS OF GRACE. 697
consecrated animals was on the Hebrew. The great high priest
having ascended into the heavens, there to intercede for his
church, the priestly orders were all abolished as no longer need
ful ; yet the Christian minister is also an intercessor for the sins
of the people, and every Christian is in a profound and blessed
sense a priest unto God. The Sinaitic law has not lost its claim
to devout recognition in public service, nor are the Jewish history
and prophecy to be set aside as no longer important ; yet the story
of Christ and his teaching, and the records and communications
of his disdples, constitute a still more vital message to be rever
ently read in the sanctuary through all the ages. Prayer and
praise remain, but the basis and scope of prayer and both the
substance and the tone of praise have assumed more spiritual
quality and far loftier significance. Christian worship in all its
varieties thus sprang directly out of the old Hebrew cultus as
God had prescribed it, just as the Christian Church sprang from
the Church Hebraic, yet both the Church of Christ and its wor
ship assumed from the first a much broadened form, a higher
character, a more spiritual meaning. Romanism has indeed made
the fearful mistake of following too closely the Hebraic antetype,
and has consequently ceremonialized and corrupted disastrously
the true Christian cultus. It is the glory of evangelical Protes
tantism that, whfle it has shaken off the Jewish husk, it has faith-
fuUy preserved all that wTas vital in that primitive worship, and
has glorified it all through the new significance and power of the
Christian faith.
According to the original Form of Government, drafted by the
Assembly, the means of grace or ordinances consisted of prayer,
thanksgiving, singing of psalms, the Scriptures read and ex
pounded and applied, catechising, the sacraments administered,
collections received for the poor, and dismissing the people with
the apostolic benediction. The American Form (VII) varies the
language in several places, adds public fasting and the exercise
of discipline, provides for contributions for other pious purposes,
but makes no really important change. The American Directory
proceeds on this basis to give practical instruction as to each of
these parts or departments of public worship, but also introduces
an important series of chapters designed to instruct the minister
:n the discharge of certain other functions officially devolving
upon him. What thus appears in Presbyterian usage, however,
is by no means peculiar to the Presbyterian churches : neither
Lutheranism nor Anglicanism or Methodism provides any essen
tially different religious cultus. There are some wide variations

698 SACRAMENTS, ORDINANCES, WORSHIP.
among Protestants with respect to the method and the propor
tion and style of these various elements of worship ; yet the Prot
estant cultus is as truly one in essence as is the formal ritual of
Rome. Adoration in the form of prayer and praise, the reading
and exposition of holy Scripture, the administration of the sacra
ments, with the adjunctive acts just named, are universally its
distinctive characteristics.
What has been said already respecting the Christian minister
as an official servant within the church, — his call and appoint
ment, his sphere and" functions, and
T. The Christian Ordinances: ,. , . . , ., ..
The Ministry as an office. hls deleSated authority as an or-
-darned teacher and ruler in the
household of faith, need not be repeated here. That the Min
istry, no less truly than the Sabbath or the Sanctuary or the
Means of Grace just described, is an ordinance of God, instituted
in the interest of religion and of the church, is a proposition
justified alike by Scripture and by wide and prolonged experience.
The apostolic church had beyond question such a ministry, set
apart by divine warrant and officially recognized and vested with
due authority in the church. In the centuries succeeding we are
obliged to recognize, first, the undue multiplication of such official
teachers and rulers, and later on, the rise of that hierarchal sacer
dotalism of which the papacy became finally the disastrous con
summation. The divine ordinance was gradually subverted and
overruled through the pride and ambition and selfishness of man,
and the primitive ministry which Christ appointed, slowly relapsed
into a priesthood scarcely worthier than that of Judaism. But
it is greatly to the credit of the primitive Protestantism that, in
the presence of the dominating and persecuting hierarchy of
Rome, it did not swing over to the opposite extreme, and cast the
ministerial office aside as being no essential part or element of
the Christian church. There were iconoclasts like Carlstadt and
his disciples, who were inclined at least to undervalue, if not to
cast off, not only the ministry as an order, but also the sacra
ments and almost every other constituent of the visible church.
But it was a mark of the sound conservatism of Luther, or rather
of his profound Christian wisdom, that he desired no changes
within the church which did not result spontaneously from clear
insight into the true principles and demands of Scripture.
Zwingli also affirmed the full legitimacy of the New. Testa
ment ministry, but drew sharp lines between that holy office, and
the Roman priesthood. Calvin followed both, not only in a
deeper detestation of the papacy in all its gradations, but in an

THE MINISTRY AN ORDINANCE. 699
elaborate and irresistible argument in favor of a divinely war
ranted and adequately endowed ministry ; and it was from him
chiefly that subsequent Protestantism derived the solid doctrine
to which in most of its branches it has ever since in substance
adhered. It is true that during the long period of discussion, and of
division also, which intervened between the age of Calvin and
that of the Westminster Assembly, the Protestant communions
both on the Continent and in Great Britain, found themselves
more and more inclined to disagree respecting the nature of ordi
nation and the number and classifying and qualification of those
who should fill the ministry. On the one side in England arose
a considerable body who, if they did not fully accept the doctrine
of Carlstadt, were inclined with him to regard the minister as
little more than a private member, appointed not so much to an
indeHble office with corresponding prerogatives as to a simple
function more or less permanent — more or less authoritative: —
the essence of the caU to such service being the election by the
particular church, his acceptance of such election, and his
separation to that service by the official representatives of that
church : Savoy Ded. in loc. On the other side arose the pre
latic dogma of three orders in the ministry, whose members were
Hf ted quite out of the ranks of the laity and set apart to the task of
exerdsing certain holy functions within the church, and to whom
there was transmitted through the episcopate a special grace, a
spiritual and ineffaceable character, supematurally endowing its
recipients for their sacred office. Between these two extremes
the divines of Westminster, after long debate especially with the
eminent and learned representatives of Independency in the As
sembly, took a mediate position ; rejecting on one side with
marked emphasis the dogma of three orders and of the need of
episcopal ordination, with its claim of transmitted grace ; on the
other side affirming the indelibility of the ministerial office, the
special gifts received by those divinely chosen to fill it, the authority
and dignity vested consequently in them, and the jurisdiction
granted to them within the church. Gathering their doctrine
from various references in the Confession and Catechisms, and
especially from the Form of Gov. where the qualifications of the
office and the manner of receiving it are described in detail, we
have no difficulty in discovering how poised and considerate, how
strong and how thoroughly biblical their position was. The fact
that their doctrine has stood without change for more than two
centuries among the numerous Presbyterian communions now

700 SACRAMENTS, ORDINANCES, WORSHIP.
planted throughout the world, may be regarded as presumptive
proof of its scripturalness and its practical worth.
Recognizing the ministerial office as being thus, as truly as the
Sabbath or the Sanctuary or the Means of Grace, an ordinance
of divine appointment for the benefit of the church, we may now
easily discern its peculiar relation to these associated ordinances
or institutes of Christianity. The Sabbath and the Sanctuary
clearly presuppose such a ministry as definitely as they presup
pose a congregation assembled for worship on the holy day. The
Means of Grace in like manner require such a ministry for their
proper utilization : it is not easy to see how they could be made
effectual or valuable otherwise. The conception of such a
divinely appointed series of gracious disciplines certainly carries
with it the conception of an ordained leadership whereby the
church may be aided in these forms of social devotion. It is quite
obvious that the divine appointment of Aaron and his sons, and
of the Levitical order for service in the Hebrew church, rested
on such a necessity. Much more apparent is that need in the
church of the New Testament, with its more extended system of
worship, and its broadened experience of divine things. Without
such ordained helps Judaism would inevitably have fallen into de
cadence: the Sabbath and Sanctuary, and the Mosaic ceremonials,
would have lost their hold on the popular mind and conscience.
Still more certain is it that the Christian ministry has an essen
tial place as an instrumental and tributary ordinance, indispens
able to the proper carrying into effect of these kindred institutes.
And the argument in its favor is greatly enhanced, if we take
into account also the helpful relation of a duly authorized min
istry to the right administration of the two holy sacraments which
are associated with these institutes as constituent features of the
Church of Christ. The ministerial office is to be regarded as in all
these ways essential, if not to the existence of the church, at least
to the proper maintenance both of its interior life, and of its exter
nal activities as a divine agency and representative in the world.
This elevated conception of the ministry explains the marked
emphasis laid by the Assembly on the possession of large endow
ments and of special equipment for the holy office. There are
very broad differences between the Romanist and the Protes
tant opinion as to the kind and amount of mental culture
requisite in the minister. These differences made themselves
apparent even in the earlier decades of the Reformation. But
Calvin and Knox were still more strenuous than Luther and
Zwingli had been, in insisting on high qualifications, intellectual

MINISTRY : QUALIFICATIONS REQUISITE. 701
as well as moral, to be possessed by those who should proclaim
the new doctrines or guide the young churches in their wor
ship and their organized activities. Romanism, depending largely
on the spectacular dement in religion, exalting the church as the
channel of salvation, glorifying the sacraments as the only or
chief means of grace, and enrobing the priesthood with crimson
and gilded authorities, might dispense in large measure with both
learning and character. But no variety of Protestantism could
hope to prosper by any such process. Even in its crudest forms
the primitive Protestantism realized its need of a body of leaders,
such as Luther and Calvin and their learned associates and suc
cessors, who were competent to instruct, to educate and elevate
inteUectually, the people and churches committed to their eccles
iastical care. A minister, said the Helvetic Conf. representing
dosdy the view of Calvin, and indeed of the Reformers generally,
should not only be lawfully called and chosen by the church, but
should excd in sacred learning, pious eloquence, prudence and
unblemished character. Such a ministry was from the first an
indispensable condition of success and growth, and as time pro
gressed, that condition became more and more indispensable :
without such a ministry Protestantism could never have passed
so successfuUy as it did through aU the conflicts and perils of
the sixteenth century, or have entered on the first decades
of the seventeenth with such firmness of position or strength
of influence.
But among the Protestant communions Presbyterianism was
foremost from the beginning in insisting on these high qualifica
tions. The duties which are laid upon the pastor in the Form of
Government (Chap. IV) are such as none but a person thoroughly
trained for such service can discharge. The original Directory
describes these duties in detail, and lays special stress on their
being so discharged as to perfect the saints and edify the church.
In its minute instructions respecting ordination to the ministerial
office, the Directory required that the person be duly qualified both
for life and ministerial abilities according to the biblical rule, and
that he be duly examined and approved by the Presbytery as an
ordaining body. The rules and the standard for such examina
tion are carefully laid down, with an amount of specified learning
and a degree of stringency in the testing which is hardly equaled,
certainly not surpassed, even in these later times. It is doubtful
whether so great qualifications were required by any other Prot
estant communion in that age; and the records of the Assembly
show that it was as faithful in practice as in theory on this vital

702 SACRAMENTS, ORDINANCES, WORSHIP.
matter.* This was in harmony with the nature and spirit of the
Westminster Presbyterianism, both as a type of doctrine and as
a system of church order; it was also in harmony with the intel
lectual temper and the elaborate scholarship and culture of that
period in Britain. The American Form and Directory maintained
the same high standard from the first; and American Presbyteri
anism has not failed, even at the cost of schism, to insist on sub
stantially the same measure of preparation and equipment for the
sacred office.
It remains only to be added here, that the Assembly laid down
with emphasis what has been the doctrine of the Presbyterian
churches ever since, as to the absolute parity or equality of those
who by proper ordination hold the ministerial office. All ministers,
said the Second Helvetic Conf. following the view of Calvin, are
equal in power and commission: bishops and presbyters were orig
inally the same in office. The Belgic Confession taught that all
ministers have equal power and authority wheresoever they are, as
they are all ministers of Christ, the only universal Bishop and the
only Head of the Church. Outside of prelatic circles, this was the
universal doctrine of the Reformation, even where bishops were
assigned, as in some portions of northern Europe, to special super
vision of the churches: See debates in the Assembly: also Savoy
Declaration. This parity of the clergy is also freely accorded to
all those of whatever denominational connection, who have been
duly ordained by their respective communions, even though the
intellectual standard of qualification be less extensive. Nor does
existing Presbyterianism recognize any other mode of receiving
ordination, even from episcopal hands, as superior to its own, or
consent that its ministers should be regarded as inferior in official
rank to those connected with any other ecclesiastical organization.
What has been said respecting the Christian Ordinances, and
especially the Means of Grace, prepares the way for a more specific
„ „r . , consideration of Christian Worship, as
8. Worship: its nature, , •¦,-,. ...
grounds, elements. to lts Seneral nature and design, its
particular parts or elements, and its
relation to the life and growth of the visible church. The subject
*It is a fact not generally known that the Assembly acted, under instruc
tion of Parliament, as a Board of Triers, and in that capacity approved some
candidates and set aside others as incompetent or unworthy; appointed some
ordained ministers to particular parishes, and refused to grant such appoint
ment to others on the ground of inadequate qualification or of moral defi
ciency; and as a court deposed other ministers for unministerial conduct or
for heresy or schism.

WORSHIP: ITS NATURE AND GROUND. 703
is brought before us in the Confession, Ch. XXI; in many state
ments and suggestions in the two Catechisms, and in seven detailed
chapters in the Directory. The presence of so much judicious
instruction and counsel is another illustration of the fact that the
Westminster divines were after all less concerned with the grave
matters of doctrine which they expounded than with those prac
tical matters of duty and spiritual experience which in a sense rise
far above all merely doctrinal issues, because they more directly
affect the Christian life at its very centers. The fundamental
element in worship as here described is adoration — the devout
recognition of God as a Being infinitely worthy in himself, and
worthy also in view of his relations to man, of the utmost vene
ration that man can pay. In other words, it is the offering up to
God of true spiritual homage, involving not only that reverential
regard which is due. from all his moral creatures, but also supreme
fealty, love, devotion. In still other words, it is the approach of
the soul to him in the way of his own appointment in such a frame
of holy fear and filial affection as is becoming to one whom he has
created, is sustaining by his providence, and has owned as his
subject and his child, — an approach like that which is seen in the
angelic host and in the redeemed in heaven, as they cast their
crowns at his feet, and with veiled faces forever cry, Holy, Holy,
Holy, Lord God Almighty.
In indicating the specific grounds on which this supreme duty
rests, the chapter begins with the declaration that even the light
of nature shows us that there is such a Being; that he hath lord
ship and sovereignty over all his creatures; that he is good and
doeth good unto all; and that he is therefore to be feared, loved,
praised, caUed upon, trusted in, and served with all the heart and
with all the soul. In the second chapter, after an extensive state
ment of his perfections and of his infinite exaltation above all that
he has made, it is said that to God is due from angels and men,
and every other creature, whatsoever worship, service, or obedi
ence he is pleased to require of them. It is added, however, in
the present chapter that the acceptable way of worshiping God
has been instituted by himself and is clearly defined in his revealed
will, and that he may not be worshiped in any other way, — no
human imagination or device, or any visible representation, or
suggestion of Satan, being allowed, —the only sure key and guide
to acceptable worship being the Holy Scriptures. It is also said
that worship is to be given not to any one person in the holy
Trinity, but alike to God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,
and to this holy Trinity only: the adoration of angels or saints or

704 SACRAMENTS, ORDINANCES, WORSHIP.
any other creature is declared to be an offence and insult to him
to whom alone the veneration of the soul is due: see Larger
Catechism, 194-199. The important fact is added that since the
fall God cannot be rightly approached or adored by sinful man
except through some form of mediation; and further, that the
only acceptable mediator is the Lord Jesus Christ, who as an inter
cessor presents our praises and supplications before the throne.
It was doubtless the intent of this clause to rule out the Roman
heresy of the interposition either of the earthly church through
its priesthood or of martyrs and glorified saints in heaven, — a
heresy which has reached its ultimate point in the papal dogma
of the mediation of Mary, the mother of Christ. The Augsburg
Confession sums up the general position of Protestantism in the
statement (XXI) that Scripture teacheth not to invocate saints
or to ask help of saints, because it propoundeth unto us one Christ,
the mediator, propitiatory, high priest and intercessor, who is to
be invocated and who hath promised that he will hear our prayers.
The Second Helvetic Conf. says: We neither adore nor invoke the
departed saints, and give no one else the glory which belongs to
God alone: much less do we believe that the relics of saints should
be worshiped. The Thirty-Nine Articles declare that the wor
shiping and adoration of images or of relics, and also the invocation
of saints, is a fond thing vainly invented — grounded upon no
warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God.
The conditions requisite to acceptable worship have already
revealed themselves in these confessional statements. Briefly pre
sented they are, first, intelligent belief in the existence of God as
a being eternal in duration, infinite in nature, and robed in incon
ceivable majesty and glory; second, the recognition of those attri
butes, qualities, perfections, which belong to God as a being, and
which give him inherent and supreme claim to our adoration;
third, apprehension of all those relationships which he sustains
toward us as our Father and Sovereign, and as our Preserver and
bountiful Benefactor, by his tender care and love establishing stijl
further in countless forms his inherent right to our filial venera
tion; fourth, the cordial acceptance of those ways of approaching
him in adoration which are pointed out in the inspired Word, and
conforming to his direction in each and every prescript there
enjoined; fifth, the sense of dependence upon him as the true and
only source of life, instinctively impelling us to seek his presence,
and to find in him the end and consummation of our existence;
sixth, the conscious possession of such a moral disposition, such a
frame of soul, such holy desires and aspirations towards him as are

WORSHIP : WHERE AND HOW OFFERED. 705
befitting in view of his tender and gracious revelations of himself;
and seventh, the commitment of ourselves, with all our needs and
our aspirations to the intercessory ministrations of Christ and to
the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who alone can enable us either
to pray or to praise and adore as we ought. It is obvious that
these verities constitute the foundations of an obligation to wor
ship which rests inevitably on every human being, and which is
by its own nature imperative and supreme — an obligation which
rises immeasurably above any and every duty which we can owe
to our fellow men, and which is the broad basis of every specific
duty toward God himself. And here we discern in a measure both
the awful sin of idolatrous adoration of false deities, and the
equaUy hdnous sin of Hving in the neglect of this great primal
obligation. God assuredly has the right to claim our worship,
and to require that he be worshiped in spirit and in truth; and
they who in Gospel lands live in chronic indifference to this ,
supreme duty, are even more guilty in his sight than those who
in pagan lands bow blindly down to idols which their hands
have made.
The sixth section of the chapter relates to the place where
worship is to be paid. To rebuke the disposition to venerate places
as spedaUy sacred, as the Hebrews revered the temple at Jerusa
lem, or as Rome has taught its adherents, it is said with emphasis
that worship is under the Gospel neither tied unto nor made more
acceptable by any place in which it is performed or toward which
it is directed. This is also said in part to emphasize the duty of
household and of secret or personal as well as public devotions,
since God is as truly present to receive our adoration in the home
or in the private chamber as in the sanctuary. Yet it is added
that a special solemnity attaches to such worship in the very house
of God and in the assemblies of his saints ; and therefore that the
careless or willful neglect or forsaking of such assemblies is a sin
against him. PubHc worship on the Sabbath and at other fitting
times is thus incumbent upon the church as indeed its first and
chief obligation. Toward men the mission of the church is one
of testimony — testimony to the existence and attributes of God, to
his character and relations, his providence and his grace. There
is a peculiar strength, a potent efficiency, in such organized wit
nessing which goes far beyond whatever evidence the individual
Christian may be able to offer. But a still greater, loftier task is
that of adoration, in which the face of the church is turned toward
God, and in which its deepest feelings are poured out as incense
before his throne. He doubtless loves the pious home where his

706 SACRAMENTS, ORDINANCES, WORSHIP.
name is honored, and pours down upon its members his tender
benediction : but there is something in the worship of the sanct
uary, in the joint adoration of the assembled church, which is
even more precious in his sight. The spectacle of the household
of faith throughout the world thus turned toward him and ex
pressing its veneration and love and trust in the ways which he
has appointed, is the sublimest vision which our earth contains:
it is a fit emblem and representative here of that unending adora
tion which is offered before him by angels and saints in glory.
In this chapter (sections iii-v) the divinely prescribed parts or
elements of such worship are enumerated as prayer, the reading
and exposition of the Scriptures, psalmody, and the administra
tion of the sacraments. These have already been mentioned
under the confessional title of the ordinances, or the means of
grace, with the addition of catechising and the gathering of con
tributions for benevolent uses. To all these there are added
here as incidental, oaths and vows, and also solemn fastings, and
thanksgivings upon special occasions,— all which, it is said, are
in their several times and seasons to be used in an holy and
reHgious manner. The subject of vows and oaths regarded as
religious acts has already been sufficiently noted. Both fasting and
thanksgiving by the Church as well as by the individual believer
are alike warranted by Scripture, and upon special occasions may
have marked significance as acts or forms of adoration. Cate-
ehization, which was specially enjoined also in the Sec. Helvetic
Conf. XXV, and some others, and which was widely current in
the Protestant communions, has ceased for the most part to be an
element in church worship, though still a discipline of very great
value in its relations to the instruction and nurture of the young
within both the home and the church. American Presbyterian
ism has incorporated in its Directory a special chapter (VI) 011
the Worship of God by Offerings, in which the duty of benevolent
giving in the sanctuary is enforced, the method of giving is pre
scribed, the uses of such gifts are designated, and the obligation
of the minister to cultivate the grace of benevolence is enjoined.
The chapter lays special stress upon the reading of the Scrip
tures with godly fear, and the sound preaching and conscionable
9. Worship: reading, ^"^ of the Word in obedience unto
preaching, and hearing God' Wlth understanding, faith and rev-
the Word. erence, as main or central elements in
Christian worship. What has been said
in general respecting the inspiration and authoritativeness and
sufficiency of the Bible as a Revelation from God for the enlight-

READING THE WORD. 707
enment and salvation of men ; and what has also been said more
specifically respecting the Gospel as a gracious message divinely
addressed to the race, and respecting the Law of God revealed
in the Scriptures as the comprehensive and universal rule of life
for man, obviates the necessity for any present discussion respect
ing the Word which is to be read, expounded and reverently
heard, as chief among the ordained means of grace. The term
indicates every divine utterance given in Scripture in whatever
form, and most of all the teaching of Him who in the beginning
was the Word, and who became the Word, the Logos incarnate, in
order to instruct and save men. The Bible is said to contain or
to be that Word, and as such is to be placed in the hands of all
in the vulgar or common tongue ; they having inherent right unto
and interest in the Scriptures, and being commanded individually
to read and search them, in order that all may worship God in an
acceptable manner. This Word is also (Direct. Chap. I : XVI)
to be read in the family, and to be gravely attended to as an essen
tial part of the household devotions. The spirit in which the
Scriptures are to be read privately and in the family is described
in the Larger Cat. (157), as including a high and reverent esteem
for them, — a firm persuasion that they are the very Word of God,
and that he alone can enable us to understand them, — a desire to
know, beHeve and obey the will of God as revealed in them, —
diligence and attention to their matter and scope, accompanied
With meditation, application, self-denial and prayer. But such
reading in the congregation is declared to be of still graver
moment (Direct. Ch. Ill) ; and this duty, regarded as one of
the regular ordinances of the sanctuary, is not to be intrusted to
private or unordained persons, but is to be attended to by the
appointed pastors and teachers. The proportion and amount of
Scripture to be read in each service, with the current exposition
of the same, is left to their discretion : and in the original Direc
tory various practical instructions are given to such pastors as to
the selection of particular portions, such as the Psalms ; to the
reading of the whole Bible in course, excluding the Apocrypha ;
and especially to the distinct and careful reading so that all may
hear and understand.
The expounding and application of the doctrines and duties con
tained in the Bible, and of whatever else in Revelation bears upon
the Christian life whether in the individual disciple or in the
church, have in all ages been regarded as essential features of
spiritual Christianity. Provision for such instruction and edifica
tion of the church has very clear warrant in the New Testament,

708 SACRAMENTS, ORDINANCES, WORSHIP.
as the Epistles to Timothy and Titus as well as other references
abundantly show, and is fully justified also by the known
usage of the apostolic church. Justin Martyr tells us that in his
day discourses on the truths of religion and exhortations to holy
living were delivered by the presiding bishop, in conjunction with
the reading of the Scriptures and the observance of the sacra
ment of the Supper, on each recurring Sabbath. Such preach
ing, sometimes simple and crude and hortatory, sometimes more
elaborate and ornate, as in the case of men like Origen and Am
brose, Chrysostom and Augustine, continued to be a conspicuous
part of public worship, until it was by degrees supplanted, and
in some centuries almost wholly excluded, by the ceremonials
and sacerdotalisms of both the Greek and the Roman commun
ions. The restoration of preaching to its true place among the
Christian ordinances was one of the first and one of the greatest
achievements of the primitive Protestantism. It was to that
restoration as a practical measure that the rapid diffusion of
gospel truth, the deepened convictions respecting the essential
doctrines of grace, and the broader experience of vital religion in
central and northern Europe were very largely due. The Ref
ormation not only placed a free Bible in the hands of all men in
languages with which they were familiar, but also produced a
noble race of preachers with whom the less educated and less
spiritual clergy of Rome were powerless to compete. The creeds
of the Reformation show what supreme emphasis was everywhere
laid upon this function of preaching, and the biographies of its
great leaders and preachers show how thoroughly such teaching
was believed and put into practice. Nor has there been any
period since that age when, with some incidental exceptions, this
function has not retained the conspicuous place thus assigned to
it. Even when the preaching has become dogmatic and fossil
ized, or crude and shallow in its exposition of divine truth, or
has degenerated into rhetorical show or mere speculative moral
izing about divine things, it yet has retained a singular hold upon
the church almost universally as being, amid all its defects and
aberrations, still a permanent ordinance of God.
AU those qualifications, personal, intellectual, spiritual, which
are said in the Form of Gov. , Chap. IV, and elsewhere, to be
requisite in the minister of Christ, are essential in a spedal sense in
this central task of preaching, — more and more essential as each
new period in the history of the church develops wider ranges of
sacred truth, deeper necessities in man and in human life, and
vaster opportunities for the promulgation of the Gospel to the

PREACHING THE WORD. 709
race. These qualifications pertain in part to what the preacher
must be as a Christian man, — a subject of sanctifying influence,
living in communion with Christ, possessing in special measure
those spiritual virtues which belong alike to all believers, and
animated by peculiar impartations of grace in view of his sacred
calling. They are also in part such as pertain to his office and
his personal endowment for its special duties. It is presupposed,
says the original Directory, that the minister of Christ is in some
good measure gifted for so weighty a service as preaching by his
skiU in the original languages and in such arts and sciences as
are handmaids to divinity, — by his knowledge in the whole body
of theology, but first of aU in the Holy Scriptures, having his
senses and heart exerdsed in them above the common sort of be
lievers, — and by the illumination of God's Spirit and other gifts of
edification which (together with reading and studying the Word)
he ought to seek by prayer and an humble heart, resolving to
admit and receive any truth not yet attained, whenever God shall
make it known unto him. It is not needful to attempt any other
description of the inteUectual and spiritual requisites to the suc
cessful preaching of the Gospel, than is contained in these preg
nant sentences. And the fidelity with which the Westminster
divines applied these searching tests, first to themselves, and then
to those who through them sought ordination to tbe ministerial
office, must ever be counted among their special, even distin
guishing, quahties as Christian men. The American Directory
sums up the whole in the statement that preaching requires much
study, meditation and prayer ; and that they who preach ought
also by their lives to adorn the doctrine which they preach. The
Amer. Form of Gov. (XIV-XV) also warns against degrading
the ministerial office by committing it to weak or unworthy men,
requires that all candidates for that office shall be carefully
examined respecting their experimental acquaintance with religion,
and' prescribes with no less care than the original Directory all
those intellectual attainments which are essential to efficiency in
the proclamation of the Word.
The method and spirit of Christian preaching are also presented
with special fullness in the Symbols. The Amer. Directory
teaches that great attention should be paid to the manner as well
as matter of preaching, and that diligent application at all points
is indispensable to the right discharge of a service which involves
the salvation of men. It also says that ministers ought to pre
pare their sermons with care, never indulging in loose, extempo
rary harangues, or serving God with that which cost them naught :

710 SACRAMENTS, ORDINANCES, WORSHIP.
and that they ought to keep to the simplicity of the Gospel, making
their language conformable to the Scriptures, and level to the
apprehension of the meanest of their hearers, and carefully avoid
ing ostentation whether of parts or learning : — as stated in the
original Directory, — shunning all such gesture, voice and expres
sions as may occasion the corruption of men to despise them and
their ministry. The subject of the sermon, it is further said,
should be some verse or verses of Scripture, selected with a view
to the explaining, defending or applying some part of the system
of divine truth, or to pointing out the nature and stating the
bounds and application of some duty. It also advised that, in
order to instruct the people in the meaning and use of the sacred
oracles, larger portions of Scripture may sometimes be expounded
for spiritual improvement ; and finally that the sermon in what
ever form should never be so long as to interfere with or exclude
the more important duties of prayer and praise.* ¦ The Larger Cate-
*The original Directory contains what the special needs of the age prob
ably required, a much more full and detailed accoiint of the qualities essential
in the sermon, and of the manner and temper in which the sermon should be
presented to the congregation : in fact, one finds in it the substance of an
excellent treatise on practical homiletics. In illustration the following extracts
may be introduced here under the several heads suggested in the Directory :
Subject : Ordinarily the subject of his sermon is to be some text of Scrip
ture, holding forth some principle or head of religion, as suitable to some
special occasion emergent.
Introduction : Let the introduction to his text be brief and perspicuous,
drawn from the text itself or context, or some parallel place or general sen
tence of Scripture.
Text : If the text be long, let him give a brief sum of it ; if short, a para
phrase thereof, if need be; in both, looking diligently at the scope of the text.
Division : In analysing and dividing his text, he is to regard more the
order of matter than of words ; neither burdening the memory of his hearers
with too many members of division, nor troubling their minds with obscure
terms of art.
Proposition : In raising doctrines from the text his care ought t6 be,
first, that the matter be the truth of God ; secondly, that it be a truth
grounded on that text ; and thirdly, that he insist on those doctrines which
are principally intended and make most for the edification of the hearers.
Statement of Doctrine : The doctrine is to be expressed in plain
terms ; if anything in it need explication, it is to be opened and the conse
quence from the text cleared. Parallel passages of Scripture confirming the
doctrine, plain and pertinent, rather than many, are to be applied.
Arguments : The arguments or reasons are to be solid and, as much as
may be, convincing. The illustrations, of what kind soever, ought to be full of
light, and such as may convey the truth to the hearer with spiritual delight.
Objections Met : If any doubt obvious from Scripture, reason, or preju
dice of the hearer, seem to arise, it is very requisite to remove it by

HEARING THE WORD. 711
chism adds the crowning feature to the entire description in the
dedaration (159) that they that are called to labor in the min
istry of the Word are to preach sound (free from error and spir
itually healthful) doctrine, diligently, in season and out of season ;
plainly, not in enticing words of man's wisdom but in demonstra
tion of the Spirit and of power ; faithfully, making known the
whole counsel of God ; wisely, applying themselves to the neces
sities and capacities of the hearers ; zealously, with fervent love to
God and to the souls of his people ; sincerely, aiming at his glory
and their conversion, edification and salvation.
It is not needful to emphasize here the immeasurable solemnity,
the peculiar dignity, or the recompense, temporal and eternal,
involved in such faithful preaching of the divine Word. Con
scionable hearing is the antithetic duty enjoined not only in the
Symbols but in other Protestant Catechisms and Confessions.
We should so fear and love God, taught Luther in his Short
Catechism, as not to despise preaching and his Word, but deem it
holy and willingly hear and learn it: and in the Larger Catechism
reconciling the seeming difficulties, answering the reasons, and discovering
and taking away the causes of error or mistake.
Application : He is not to rest in general doctrine, although never so
much cleared and confirmed, but to bring it home to special use : which
albeit it prove a work of great difficulty to himself, yet he is to endeavor to
perform it in such a manner that his auditors may feel the Word of God to
be quick and powerful.
Practicai, Suggestions : In the use of instruction or information given,
he may confirm it by a few firm arguments from the text in hand and other
places of Scripture, or from the nature of some common-place in divinity
whereof that truth is a part.
In confuting false doctrines, he is neither to raise an old heresy from the
grave, nor to mention a blasphemous opinion unnecessarily : but if the
people be in danger of an error, he is to confute it soundly.
In exhorting to duties, he is, as he seeth cause, to teach also the means that
lielp to the performance of them. In dehortation, reprehension and public
admonition, let him as there shall be cause not only discover the nature and
greatness of the sin, but also show the danger his hearers are in to be over
taken by it.
In applying comfort, whether general or particular, he is carefully to
answer such objections as a troubled heart and afflicted spirit may suggest
to the contrary. It is sometimes necessary to give notes of trial whereby
the hearers may be able to examine themselves, whether they have attained
those graces and performed those duties to which he exhorteth.
As he needeth not always to prosecute every doctrine which lies in his text,
so is he wisely to make choice of such uses as, by his residence and con
versing with his flock, he findeth most needful and reasonable : amongst
these, such as may most draw their souls to Christ, the fountain of light,
holiness and comfort.

712 SACRAMENTS, ORDINANCES, WORSHIP.
he teaches that the Word of God is the sanctuary above all sanc
tuaries—the treasure which makes all things holy and by which
the saints are sanctified,— and that whatever hour or place the
Word is taught, preached, heard, read or considered, the person
and day and place and work are thereby hallowed. The Heidel
berg Catechism (83) pronounces the preaching of the holy
Gospel one of the two keys, by which the kingdom of heaven is
opened to believers, and shut against unbelievers. The church
cannot exist, said the French Confession (XXV) without pastors
for instruction, whom we should respect and reverently listen to,
when they are properly called and exercise their office faithfully.
And the Synod of Dort affirmed (Fifth Head : 14) that as it hath
pleased God by the preaching of the Gospel to begin the work of
grace in us, so he preserves, continues and perfects that work by
the hearing and reading of his Word, by meditation thereon, and
by the exhortations, threatenings and promises thereof. Protes
tantism thus enjoined universally the duty of hearing as correla
tive to the duty of preaching, — not only calling upon all to be
habitually in the sanctuary when the Word was preached, but
sometimes even compelling such attendance by civil enactments
and civil penalties.
Conscionable hearing is repeatedly set forth in the Symbols,
specially in the Directory and the two Catechisms, as an impera
tive obligation. The qualities of acceptable hearing are also given
in detail. The Larger Catechism sums up the whole in the dis
criminating statement (160) that those who hear the Word
preached should attend upon it with diligence, preparation and
prayer, — that they should examine what they hear by the Scrip
tures, — that they should receive the truth with faith, love, meekness
and readiness of mind as the Word of God, — that they should
meditate and confer upon it, hide it in their hearts, and bring
forth the fruit of it in their lives. The peril of neglect of the ordi
nance of preaching, the sin of disregarding the Sabbath and the
sanctuary in their relation to the preaching of the Word, the guilt
of hardening the heart against the gracious proclamation, and of
blunting religious appeal through worldly indulgence or engross
ment, are all set forth with corresponding distinctness and solem
nity in the extended comments on the Ten Commandments,
(L- Cat. 104-153) and elsewhere. And the final condemnation
of the wicked is said to turn generically upon their neglect of the
light of nature, revealing to them a God worthy to be loved,
praised, called upon and trusted in, and specially on their disobe
dience to the call of grace sounding forth from the revealed

PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING. 713
Word — hardening their hearts under those means which God useth
for the softening of others.
Another main element in public worship, named in the Symbols,
is prayer, — induding under that term praise and thanksgiving
on one side and sincere confession on
the other. Prayer is admirably defined /o. Worship: praise, con-
. ,, A r-mn^ , rr . fession, supplication.
in the Larger Cat. (178) as the offering
up of our desires unto God in the name of Christ, by the help of
his Spirit, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledg
ment of his mercies. The Shorter Cat. (98) adds the important
dause, for things agreeable to his will. We may properly reverse
the order of these spedfica tions, and consider, first, the offering
of praise, together with thanksgiving in view of the divine mer
ries. Praise distinctively speaking is defined by Edwards in his
Treatise on the Will (Part III : 1) as the exercise or testimony
of some sort of esteem, respect and honorable regard. He argues
that such exercise and testimony are due to God as a Being in
whom is aU possible virtue, and every virtue in the most abso
lute purity and perfection, and in infinitely greater brightness
and amiableness than appear in any creature — the most perfect
pattern of virtue, and the fountain from whom all the virtue of
others flows as beams from the sun : and who on account of his
virtue and holiness is infinitely more worthy -to be esteemed,
loved, honored, admired, commended, extolled and praised than
any creature. Edwards further argues that the fact that God as
a Being is under a species of moral necessity to be what he is
here described, does not diminish but rather increases our obliga
tion to praise him, — adoring him as the possessor of such supreme
exceUence, and testifying in all possible ways to our appreciative
estimate of his character and perfections. The duty of thus
praising God for what he is, may properly be brought into the
foreground as the supreme task of his church, when assembled
together in his earthly sanctuaries. Such holy fear, humble ven
eration, filial love, adoration in this most primary sense, are ever
due to him from his redeemed people, and most of all when they
are convened in the holy place.
Thanksgiving involves another element, — the recognition of
this supreme Being as the source of all the numberless blessings
and privileges of life, and the expression of appropriate gratitude
for all his bestowments. True gratitude is always a reflexive
emotion : it carries the soul beyond the gift, and fixes the thought
upon the giver and upon the motives animating him in the con
ferring of favor. As exercised toward God, it involves kindly

714 SACRAMENTS, ORDINANCES, WORSHIP.
feeling, tender appreciation, the sense of indebtedness, the con
sequent desire to respond to his beneficence by every practicable
expression of loyalty to him and of readiness to serve as well as
adore him. The Catechism of Luther, after a lengthy enumera
tion of the blessings bestowed on us by providence, adds: AU
this out of pure, paternal divine goodness and mercy, without
any merit or worthiness of mine : for all which I am in duty
bound to thank, praise, serve and obey him : see also Heid. Cat.
86, 116. Such gratitude, measured by the more or less impressive
consciousness of the divine kindness and mercy, is a sentiment
inherent in every true Christian : and when it is awakened by
the proper apprehension of the grace of God in Christ and in
redemption conferred through him, it rises to the loftiest point
which such a holy emotion can attain in this life, — an experience
introductory to the grateful casting of the crowns of the redeemed
before the throne in heaven. Such thanksgiving to God should
be an abiding state of soul in the believer, ever expressing itself
in the secret chamber, at the family altar and elsewhere as oppor
tunity may occur. But most fitting is such thanksgiving when
believers are assembled in the house of God, to praise and adore
him in the great congregation. Here most of all should their
gratitude pour forth its holy fragrance in his presence, and their
responsive sacrifices be offered on his altar.
The American Directory contains in the chapter (V) on Prayer,
express instruction that thanks be thus given to God in the
sanctuary for all his mercies of every kind, general and partic
ular, spiritual and temporal, common and special ; and above all,
for Jesus Christ, his unspeakable gift, and for the hope of eternal
life through him. It contains also a suggestive chapter (IV) on
the singing of psalms or hymns as a mode of praising God and
expressing gratitude toward him in the sanctuary, — such singing
to be, it is said, with both spirit and understanding and with
true melody of heart, becoming in manner, and with some knowl
edge of the rules of music, — the entire exercise having its due
place and proportion in the public worship. In the original
Directory, in connection with the appointment of special seasons
of thanksgiving, it is explicitly said : Because the singing of
psalms is of all other the most proper ordinance for expressing
of joy and thanksgiving, let some pertinent psalm or psalms be
sung for that purpose : and the minister at such seasons is coun
selled to enlarge himself in due and solemn thanksgiving for
former mercies and deliverances, with humble petition for the
continuance of such mercies as need shall be, and for sanctifying

CONFESSION AND SUPPLICATION. 715
grace to make a right use thereof. It is a fact of interest in this
connection that the Assembly, acting upon an order of the House
of Commons, took up the version of the Psalms by Francis Rous—
who was himself a member of the Assembly, and also of Parlia
ment — carefully perused them, made some alterations and amend
ments, approved them by formal vote, and commended them to
be publicly sung in the churches as being useful and profitable :
Minutes, 131, 163, 221*
The other elements to be considered under the general title of
prayer, are petition and confession — the offering up our desires
unto God for things agreeable to his will, and the acknowledg
ment of our sins before him. Such acknowledgment has already
been considered, so far as the individual Christian is concerned,
as one feature of true repentance. If we recall for a moment the
sublime description of Edwards, and in any intelligent measure
discern what a being God is, we realize at once the fundamental
truth that no human soul can ever approach him otherwise than
with sincere and poignant confession — confession not alone in
view of specific acts or desires or thoughts of evil, but still more
on account of that sinfulness which is resident in the nature, and
which compels us to veil our faces, and cry, Unclean, Unclean, in
his holy presence. But the church needs also to come before
God in this attitude of acknowledgment and contrition : it
cannot fitly worship him in any other attitude : it must ever
bow and kneel, as with tears, before his throne. In the Direc
tory, (Ch. V) the assembled company of believers are called upon
to make humble confession of sin, both original and actual, with a
deep sense of the evU of all sin, — to acknowledge particular sins
in thought, word and deed, secret and presumptuous, accidental
or habitual, whether committed against God, against our neigh
bors or ourselves, — to realize the aggravations of sin, arising
*Gillespie, in his report to the Scotch General Assembly, 1647, said of the
version of Rous : This new Paraphrase was done by a Gentleman verie able
for the purpose, but it was afterwards revised by a Committee of the Assem
bly, and was approven by the whole Assembly. Baillie in his Journal pro
nounced this version the best beyond all doubt that ever yet was extant ;
and declared his belief that these lines are likely to go up to God from many
millions of tongues for many generations. Another version by Barton,
though recommended by the House of Lords, was set aside by the Assembly,
chiefly on the ground that the introduction of various paraphrases would be
a great distraction and hindrance to edification. The Appendix to the third
volume of the Journal contains an extensive and very valuable Note by
David Laing, on the history of the various British versions of the Psalms,
from Sternhold to Rous. See also the Gude and Godlie Ballatis, edited with
an introduction, by Prof. Mitchell.

716 SACRAMENTS, ORDINANCES, WORSHIP.
from knowledge, from distinguishing mercies, and from valuable
privilege, — and to make most earnest supplication for the pardon
of sin and peace with God through Christ, and for support and
comfort in the endeavor to overcome all sin in the future. That
such confession as this is due from the church as truly as from
the individual, and that none can approach God successfuUy in the
offering up of desires personal or pubHc for things agreeable to
divine will, on any other basis, is assumed constantly in the Sym
bols, and is everywhere recognized by the household of faith.
Prayer, in the special sense of supplication, has been well
described as the characteristic act of religion, and eminently —
when coupled with praise and confession — the characteristic act
of the Christian religion. The natural faiths of the world indeed
make some provision for the plaintive outcry of the soul, when
burdened with the consciousness of dependence upon some super
human power or agency, from whose hands the needed blessing
may be solicited. But Christianity alone carefully defines prayer,
indicates the scope and range of acceptable petition, describes the
method in which our supplications may be presented, reveals a
gracious and effectual mediation which assures to us the hearing
of our desires, gives encouragement and spiritual help to the peti
tioner, and justifies prayer by multiplied promises of accceptance
and of adequate answer. Evangelical Protestantism from the
first, while rejecting with vehemence the papal formalisms in
prayer, with their consequence in the dogma of priestly interces
sion and absolution through the church, joyously accepted the
more biblical view, justified it by earnest argument, wrought it
into its confessions, and day by day lived upon it in unswerving
confidence and hope. The Reformers were one and all prayerful
men, believing with Zwingli that they alone are the true wor
shipers who call upon God in spirit and in truth, praying from
the heart, not with clamor in the presence of men. They agreed
with the more elaborate discussion of Calvin, (Inst. B. Ill : 20)
respecting prayer as the principal exercise of faith and the medium
through which we receive divine blessings, — a doctrine which he
applied to the church as well as to individual believers, enjoining
prayer upon the church as one of its great primal duties and chief
privileges also. By prayer, he says, we penetrate to those riches
which are reserved by our heavenly Father for our use : the only
fortress of salvation consists in the invocation of his name. . . .
The duty of prayer is a principal part of his worship, and
the sanctuary has been erected as a standard for believers, in
order that they might engage in prayer with one consent. The

PRAYER : ITS EFFICACY AND SCOPE. 717
Protestant communions both Lutheran and Reformed, while dif
fering as to this or that form or method of public prayer, were
fuHy agreed from the first in the conviction that such prayer,
worthily offered, is a real power in both the sphere of providence
and the sphere of grace.
How thoroughly the divines of Westminster believed in prayer,
we have many and diversified evidences in the Symbols. It is
needful only to refer to some of these in brief terms in order to
obtain a full conception of this primal duty, and to note the safe
guards suggested against serious mistakes in prayer. It is notice
able at once that we are never at liberty to offer up our desires to
God for anything concerning which we have not just ground for
hoping that the granting of the answer will be agreeable to his will
and for his glory. At least, all supplication is to be offered con-
ditionaUy — with cordial acquiescence in the decision of the divine
will, whether it be to grant or to withhold. Again : it should be
noted that all acceptable prayer must be offered in the name of
Christ, — in virtue of his mediation and intercession, and of his
merits graciously reflected upon us. The renunciation of all
other merit as the basis of a claim or right to be answered,
whether it be our own or that of others, or that of the priesthood
or the church, or that of glorified saints in Paradise, is an indis
pensable condition. Again : acceptable prayer can be offered
only by the help of the Spirit, who knows what petitions are agree
able to the divine wiU, and what are worthy of a hearing in the
name of Christ, and who therefore is competent to show us what
we ought to pray for, and is himself ready in a sense to pray
within us, — malting prayer in fact a gracious mystery wherein
God and man are joined together, as in conversion or sanctifi
cation. PubHc as weU as private prayer — we are taught again and
again — is always subject to these three primal conditions : agree-
ableness to the divine will and glory, the mediatorial interces
sion of Christ, the inward guidance and superintending efficiency
of the Holy Ghost.
It is further said (section iv) that prayer may be made, not only
for things that are lawful, and desirable for us personally, but also
for the whole church of Christ on earth, for magistrates and min
isters, for our brethren and even for our enemies, and generally for
all sorts of men living, and even for those that may live hereafter.
But prayer for the dead, such as Romanism encouraged and justi
fied, is expressly forbidden, — doubtless on the. ground that their
eternal state is not to be changed through the intercessions of the
sarthly church. There is no warrant whatever in Scripture for

718 SACRAMENTS, ORDINANCES, WORSHIP.
the opinion that such intercessions can be of benefit to the sainted
dead, either in any improvement in their beatific condition or in
hastening on their progressive sanctification. Still less is there
biblical warrant for the hope that such intercessions can raise the
unsanctified dead into any better condition, or be effectual in secur
ing their salvation in the intermediate life through belief in
Christ. It is also said that prayer is not to be offered for those
persons of whom it may be known that they have sinned the sin
unto death, — a clause that was omitted in the recent Revision, on
the ground that it is not given to man to know assuredly that any
particular person has been guilty of that unpardonable Offence
against divine grace, and that it might be dangerous for the church
to assume for itself the possession of such knowledge. The fur
ther fact is emphasized that prayer is not to be confined to any one
place or time or form, since God may be appealed to by his children
in any time or place, and will hear their cry for help in whatever
form it may be presented. Public prayer in a foreign tongue is
forbidden, it being— in the language of the Thirty-Nine Articles —
plainly repugnant to the Word of God, and the custom of the
primitive church, to have prayer in the church in a tongue not
understanded of the people: Sec. Helvetic, XXIII. It is also
enjoined upon the minister that by study of the Scriptures, by
meditation, and by a life of communion with God in secret, he
diligently prepare himself in a general way, and specifically also,
for this part of the public service; and he is pertinently warned
against making excessively long prayers, or disgracing that service
by mean, irregular or extravagant effusions. Other kindred
injunctions are introduced in the two Directories, and in the
original Directory an extended formula is given for each of the
three prayers commonly offered in public worship.
It is impracticable to refer here to the somewhat minute
instructions furnished in the two Directories with regard to
, M, „ other forms of ministry, such as the
11. Concluding Survey: ... , . . ,
Ritual, Liturgies; Sacred religious solemnization of marriage, the
times. pastoral visitation of the sick, and the
public burial of the dead. The chap
ters on these subjects, taken together with those already referred
to constitute, if not an informal ritual, still a practical manual for
the guidance of ministers in fulfilling their office in these several
directions. The Preface to the original Directory contains a very
earnest protest against the Book of Common Prayer, as prepared
and used by English Episcopacy, declaring among other things
that it had proved an offence, not only to many of the godly at

RITUAE : EITURGY. 719
aome, but also to the Reformed churches abroad; that it had
debarred many able and faithful ministers from the exercise of
cheir office, and been injurious in its effects upon the laity; and that
it tended toward the restoration of the papal liturgy, with all its
formalisms and idolatries. Some members of the Assembly, the
eminent Lightfoot among them, strongly advocated set forms of
prayer, but failed to secure general assent to their opinions. But
while thus putting itself on record against all liturgical imposi
tions, and in favor of full liberty in public devotions, the Assembly
recognized the importance of supplying the churches with some
Uniform method of divine service, and also of giving to the min
isters some help and furniture — to quote the phrase of the Direc
tory—as a corrective to sloth or negligence and a stimulant to
the highest measure of spiritual efficiency.
It will be remembered that in the preparation of such a manual
of worship, the Assembly was acting in accordance with the direct
instruction of Parliament, — that body being desirous of sweeping
away the liturgy of Episcopacy as well as all other forms of
Episcopal rule. Yet it was regarded by both Parliament and
Assembly as important that some regular order of public devo
tions, as being an indispensable adjunct in the constitution of a
national church, should not only be commended, but in a measure
enforced by legislative action. From such a mixed political and
ecclesiastical condition arose the primitive Directory— issued even
before the preparation of the Confession and Catechisms had been
fairly begun, — which for a brief time became the authoritative
manual of public worship, not only in England but also in Scot
land and throughout the British Isles. The General Assembly
of Scotland, shortly after its publication in 1645, unanimously
approved it in all the heads thereof, ordered that it be carefully
and uniformly observed and practiced by all the ministers of the
kingdom, and with much joy and thankfulness welcomed the
uniformity in religion thus secured. The Scotch Parliament also
without a contrary voice approved and ratified the Directory, —
thus interposing and adding the authority of the civil power to
the act of the General Assembly. In its general structure and in
many of its specific instructions, this Directory illustrates the
mediate position which the Assembly sought to maintain. There
are in it some surviving traces of the ritualistic spirit and tendency
which had held sway so largely in England from the earliest days
of the Reformation; yet in the main it was probably as well fitted
to secure not only uniformity but also liberty in worship, as
any such mandatory document could have been. American

720 SACRAMENTS, ORDINANCES, WORSHIP.
Presbyterianism early discovered the necessity for modification in
the further interest of liberty ; and therefore, in 1729, simply
recommended that the Directory be used in the churches as near
as circumstances will allow and Christian prudence direct. The first
Assembly, following the Synod of 1786, also recommended it as
in substance agreeable to the instructions of the New Testament,
but affirmed in the same connection that God has not been pleased
to reveal and enjoin every circumstance of church government or
administration. Later on, various emendations were from time
to time introduced, until now the Directory presents itself in a
form which, though full of valuable instruction as a general
guide, allows all needful freedom and variety in public devotions.
The general question whether a fixed liturgy is desirable in
church worship, is one which cannot be answered positively or
negatively in the abstract, whether the proof be sought from
Scripture, from the usage of the early church, or from practical
experiment. In the Roman Catholic communion such a liturgy
easily correlates itself to the papal conception of the priesthood,
and has indeed been regarded as obligatory by biblical authority,
and even as one of the essential marks or signs of the true
church. It may be admitted also that a mode of worship so
formal and spectacular, having in it so much to attract the senses
of the worshiper, has been at times an element of great power
among the nations and races where the church of Rome has been
most successful in gathering adherents. That the more mod
erate and spiritual liturgies established in some Protestant com
munions, have proved themselves valuable as helps in public
devotion, and that there are classes of persons who find themselves
greatly aided through such liturgical ministrations, may be
admitted with equal freedom. The Augsburg Conf. teaches that
those ecclesiastical rites are to be observed which can be observed
without sin, and are profitable for tranquility and good order in
the Church. We may note also that Luther prepared a brief
ritual, as early as 1526, and Calvin framed a liturgy in 1541,
though without excluding free prayer ; and that John Knox
twelve years later proposed a form of public worship based on
that which he had fouud in use at Geneva — measures doubtless
required by the necessities of the Protestant churches, just emerg
ing from the picturesque discipline of Rome. Nor is it too much
to confess that what are called in our Directory mean, irregular
and extravagant effusions in prayer, like the loose, extemporary
harangues in the pulpit rebuked by the same document, have too
often impaired and even disgraced — to use the strong phrase of

SACRED TIMES. 721
¦the Directory — the worship of communions where liturgies are
rejected and condemned. Yet it is an obvious fact that Protes
tantism has in the main pronounced against fixed liturgical
forms, and has strongly preferred freer, less rigid and less cere
monious modes of offering divine worship. The reasons for such
preference need not be discussed here. Perhaps the Protestant
spirit in its profound love of liberty and its spontaneous hostility
to all that binds thought or emotion no less than action in the
rdigious sphere, furnishes all needful explanation. It is certain
that the positive judgment of Presbyterianism, and especially of
the Presbyterian churches in America, is habitually adverse by tra
dition and by instinct to ritualism in whatever variety. A free
worship, guided by Christian intelligence and stimulated in every
part by active piety in both minister and people, has been, now
is, and is likely to be, one of its cardinal characteristics.
The Assembly in the same spirit resolved after considerable
debate that the Sabbath is the only holy day enjoined in the New
Testament to be kept by all the churches of Christ, expressed
itseHas opposed to all other holy days excepting fasts and thanks
givings when duly ordered, and condemned all parish feasts and
the hke, under the garb of religion, as profane and superstitious.
One record teUs us, however (Minutes, 3, 21), that the Assembly
conferred with Parliament on the observance of Christmas as a
fast to be kept in all the churches. Canonical hours, such as
are observed according to the Roman Breviary, were condemned
by one of the Helvetic Confessions as unwarranted by tradition,
and in themselves unprofitable ; and the observance of such hours
was disregarded by early Protestantism almost universally. No
traces of the Christian or Ecclesiastical Year, so prominent a
feature in Roman ritualism, appear in the Symbols. One of the
continental creeds, however, approves of the annual observance of
the times of the nativity, drcumcision, passion, resurrection and
ascension of Christ, and the descent of the Spirit upon the early
church. Episcopacy and Lutheranism have extensively followed
such observance, but the Reformed churches have generally set
it aside, with the possible exception of Christmas and Easter, as
without biblical warrant and of doubtful propriety.

UBOTUEE FOURTEENTH— ESCHATOLOGY.
Millennium: Death: Immortality: Judgment: the In
termediate Life : Future Salvation : Final Advent :
"Resurrection : General Judgment: the Eternal Estate.
C. F. Ch. XXXII-XXXIII. L. C. 82-90 : 190-2. S. C. 19,
87-8, 102.
While the Scriptures principally teach what man is now to
oelieve concerning God and what duty God now requires of man,
the Bible is also both history and prophecy. On one hand it pre
sents in an accurate and faithful form the moral record of our race
from the instant of creation, through the era of the fall, and
through the long and dark career of our humanity as sinful, down
to the advent of Christ and the introduction of the plan of salva
tion through his mediatorial work and sacrifice. On the other
hand it foretells with equal fidelity, and doubtless with equal
accuracy, the moral career of our race, not through some brief
intervening periods or ages in the future, but down to the last
instant of earthly time, — describing with singular clearness and
pathos all that is to transpire to the church or to the world until the
final consummation of earthly things. Its revelations reach even
beyond all time, and include in their sweep the life to come, both
for the individual and for mankind, — prophesying what eternity
shaU be, and what shall be the character and experience and des
tiny of men forever and forever. It was therefore most fitting
that the Westminster Assembly should condude its methodical
and profound exposition of Christian doctrine and Christian duty
with two brief but most impressive chapters concerning the Things
which shall be Hereafter. Having set forth the teachings of Scrip
ture concerning the creation and the fall, providence and sin and
law, Christ and. his redemptive grace, the Christian life in its
various phases, the Church of God on earth with all that is com
prised within that holy organism, — having traversed thus the
broad domain of revealed truth, and having so far as they were
able crystalized into enduring form the contents of Revelation on
all these subjects, the men of Westminster realized that the Bible,
as one vast and sublime prophecy including all the future, needed

ESCHATOLOGY : CONTENTS AND IMPORTANCE. 723
also to be formulated in Hke manner, specially for the enlightening
and comfort of the people of God.
Asa department or section of Christian doctrine, what is termed
Eschatology covers a very extensive area. It embraces all that
the Word of God, and also the illustra-
tive providence of God, discloses con- *\ Eschatology defined ;
.,,,,_ , , , Early creed statements :
cermng the future of our world as a protestant eschatology.
material structure, concerning the hu
man race in its moral developments on earth, and especially con
cerning the future condition and career of the church and
kingdom of Christ in this world. It includes the transition of
mankind individually and collectively from the scenes and ex
periences of the present life to an eternal state ; — death in both
its natural and moral aspects ; the problem of immortality, with
respect to both the righteous and the wicked; the counter theory
of annihilation; the nature of the intermediate life; the dogma of
purgatory, the theory of a probation for man after death, the
hypothesis of final restoration. It includes also the general
conception of eternity as a state, not of probationary discipline,
but of award and retribution according to the deeds done in the
body ; the particular judgment in the case of each soul at death,
and the ultimate judgment pronounced upon the race ; and as
involved in this, the second coming of Christ as the Judge of all
men, the resurrection of the body, and the end of the world. It
embraces also a survey of the final character and condition of the
wicked, and also of the character and condition of the godly amid
the employments and felicities of heaven, together with the ques
tion of the endlessness of this future estate. And finally it
embraces a view of the ultimate consummation of all things, when
the process of Messiahship shall cease, and the kingdom shall be
surrendered to the Father, and when the work of human redemp
tion shall be unfolded in its fuU intent and effect throughout the
cycles of Eternity.
It is not surprising that such a department of Christian doc
trine, springing directly from the disclosures of Scripture, should
be in many ways pressed upon the attention of devout men in all
ages. There is in the human mind a native desire to know the
future and the end of things, — the future of religion and of the
Church in this world, and the effect of Christianity upon the
moral life and character of the human race, — the future of the
Christian man, evidently imperfect now, but plainly having within
himself the beginnings of a moral experience, far outreaching
his present state of being, and apparently rising toward some

724 ESCHATOLOGY.
ultimate perfection of immeasurable beauty and glory, — the
future also of the providential and moral administration of God
over the human race, now evidently in a state of progress, and
in its present developments apparently incomplete, yet clearly
moving on toward some appropriate and sublime consummation
at last. But this natural desire to know the future of things is
vastly enhanced by the consciousness that we are ourselves to
share in this complex and tremendous future, both as to our
personal work and career in this world, and to our individual
experiences in and after death, and also as to our unending
life and condition thereafter. There are also many unfulfilled
prophecies in Scripture, intimations of events to come, which
apparently involve the destiny of the whole world and all its
inhabitants, and which therefore are of absorbing interest to the
Christian mind, — predictions in both the Old Testament and the
New, concerning the glqrious progress of the Church in some
coming millennial age, the downfall of Babylon and of Antichrist,
the final conflicts with the Gogs and Magogs of unbelief, the
victory of the Christian Truth, and finally the second coming of
Christ unto judgment. It is obvious further that Christian faith
finds within this department of doctrine one of its highest stimu
lants, not merely in the form of trust or resignation in view of
the fact that God is carrying forward such a process as this
in human history, but also in the form of encouragement to
intense activity in view of such an assured and blessed outcome
of all Christian service and sacrifice. Nor is it a slight stimulus to
such believing and loving interest, that so many strenuous con
troversies have arisen in the church respecting many of these
eschatological revelations, or that current skepticism has found
within this field so many points of attack, and has claimed for
itself such positive victories over the biblical doctrine. For all
these reasons, and for still others kindred to these, Christian
Eschatology has often commanded in the past, and now is specially
commanding the deepest interest, the most thoughtful and earnest
study, of those who believe in that sure word of prophecy on
which our hopes and the hope of humanity are resting.
It is impracticable to speak at any length of the sources from
which knowledge may be obtained and Christian faith be nour
ished within this broad department, — of the Scriptures above all,
notwithstanding the difficult problems of interpretation involved,
and the evident obscuration divinely allowed at many points
where wider knowledge might seem desirable,— of the concur
rent and converging providences of God, often impenetrable or

TEACHING OF THE ANCIENT CREEDS. 725
but partly comprehended, yet in the main shedding a clear and
ever growing light upon the teachings of the inspired Word,— of
the tributary value also of the deepest and wisest philosophy,
with its helpful analogies from nature and its profound endorse
ment of much that the Bible teaches respecting the moral consti-
Stitution of man, the nature of sin, the possibilities of grace, and
the natural issues of conduct both here and hereafter, — or of the
aid which spiritual insight and spiritual experience afford, in
confirming the essential reasonableness of the divine revelations,
and in enabling the soul to appreciate them, and build them intelli
gently into the solid structure of its faith. That these sources
of knowledge are sufficient to meet, or were divinely intended to
answer, all the questionings which a speculative intellect may
propose, is not to be daimed ; nor is it desirable that such ques
tionings, often springing from mental curiosity or from subtle
hostility to the truth as revealed, should receive complete present
solution. But that much, if not all that might be desired or all
that may hereafter be learned, may from these sources be already
known, bdieved, cherished, and made part of the firm faith and
doctrine of the Church is abundantly manifest.
It is a most suggestive fact that the three ancient creeds,
accepted almost from the beginning, held in reverence through all
the centuries preceding the Reformation, and now received not
merely by the Greek and Roman communions but by all sections of
evangelical Protestantism, — the Te Deum of the ages — contain so
much of positive teaching respecting the things that are to be.
These creeds agree in declaring, first, that our ascended Lord, of
whom they aU speak as now sitting at the right hand of God the
Father, shaU come again to this earth with glory, to be the judge
of the quick (or living) and the dead ; secondly, that at his coming
unto judgment aU the dead shall rise again with their bodies ;
thirdly, that all shall give account of their works and their
lives before his tribunal ; fourthly, that there is a life everlasting,
into which aU shall finally pass at his adjudication ; fifthly, that
they that have done good shall go into life everlasting, and they
that have done evil into a life of everlasting condemnation ; and
sixthly, that the kingdom of righteousness, and of authority
which is thus established, shall never end. It will be noticed
that these six declarations are statements, not of theory or specu
lation, but of facts or events to come, — as clear and positive as
those which precede them in these ancient symbols concerning
the first advent and life, the passion and resurrection of our Lord ;
and further that they are affirmed on the direct authority of

'/2b ESCHATOLOGY.
Scripture, and largely in the very words of Holy Writ. It is also
noticeable that, though these clear affirmations have often been
challenged, and have sometimes been rejected by individuals or
by nominally Christian sects, yet such opposition has rarely if
ever attempted to sustain itself by counter biblical warrant ; and
further that, notwithstanding such opposition, the Church uni
versal has clung to them through all the centuries, and with hardly
any exception still clings, as not only containing what the Bible
teaches but also what that Church now profoundly believes.
Descending from the ancient to more recent symbolism, it may
be remarked that one cannot appreciate at its full value the
eschatology of the Confession and Catechisms of Westminster,
unless he is familiar in some degree with the teaching of the Prot
estant creeds in general, and also with the prevalent theology of
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in this department. It
is clear that the Westminster divines inherited a definite scheme
of doctrine on the topics embraced in this department, to a large
extent as we have seen, from the church antecedent to the
Reformation, but still more decisively from the professed faith of
the various churches which bore the Protestant name. The
Augsburg Confession, for example, teaches (Art. XVII) that in
the consummation of the world Christ shall appear to judge, and
shall raise up all the dead, and shall give unto the godly and
elect eternal life and everlasting joys ; but ungodly men and the
devils shall he condemn unto endless torments. It also enters a
solemn protest against those who imagine that there shall be an
end of such torments, and formally condemns those who scatter
abroad Jewish notions (Judaicas opiniones) to the effect that
before the resurrection of the dead, the godly or the saints shall,
for a time, occupy the kingdom of this world — shall set up and
enjoy an earthly dominion, the wicked everywhere being sup
pressed or exterminated. The Second Helvetic Conf. in the same
strain condemns (XI) the Jewish dreams (Judaica somnia) to the
effect that before the day of judgment there shall be a golden age
on the earth when the pious shaU hold all authority and their
impious enemies shall be under their feet.
The Confession of Edward VI, from which the Thirty-Nine
Articles sprang, declares that they who attempt to reproduce the
fable of the millennarians, are adverse to holy Scripture, and pre-
dpitate themselves into Judaic phantasies. The Scotch Conf. (XI)
affirms that Christ sitteth at the right hand of the Father, inaug
urate in his kingdom, till all his enemies be made His footstool,
as undoubtedly they shall be at the final judgment, when he shall

TEACHING OF PROTESTANT CONFESSIONS. 727
visibly return, as that he was seen to ascend. The Belgic Conf.
(XXXVII) proclaims its belief that according to the Word of
God, at the time appointed, our Lord Jesus Christ will come from
heaven corporeally and visibly, as he ascended with great glory
and majesty, to dedare himself Judge of the quick and the dead-
burning this old world with fire and flame to cleanse it : — and then
all men will appear personally before this great Judge, both men
and women and children, from the beginning of the world to the
end thereof, being summoned by the voice of the archangel and
by the sound of the trumpet of God. This Conf. proceeds to
describe further the manner and form of the general judgment, and
the eternal issues that shall foUow it to both the wicked and the
righteous. With these comprehensive declarations it may safely
be said that all of the subsequent creeds of the sixteenth century,
British as well as Continental, so far as they contained eschato-
logical matter, were in substantial agreement.
FoUowing chronologically this prolonged series of creeds, yet
still within the range of their immediate influence, the Westmin
ster Symbols incorporate afresh their almost unanimous teaching
on these grave topics, but with a degree of distinctness and
emphasis before unattained. They agree entirely both with the
affirmations of the ancient symbolism, and with the more extended
teaching of both the continental and the antecedent British creeds.
More fuU, more exact, and more practical, their very form indi
cates both the historic sources from which they sprang, and also
the matured condition of the Protestant mind in Great Britain as
weU as on the Continent, with respect to the solemn doctrines
presented. Simple and direct in diction, comprehensive and
unequivocal in their statements, incorporating with happy skill
the dearest utterances of the inspired Word, they may be said to
present in one view the best thoughts of Protestantism on these
topics from the time of Luther and Calvin, down to the middle
of the seventeenth century.
Turning to consider more specificaUy the eschatology of the
Symbols, we may first note their answer to the interesting ques
tion respecting the future of the earth
, , . .. .. (•„„, 2. Westminster Eschatol-
and of humanity on earth, the final *.„*»„»»*. tu*
J ' ogy: general statement: the
triumph of the Gospel throughout the Millennium.
world, and the ascendancy of Jesus
Christ over the human race. Respecting the earth itself as a
material structure, they follow — if we may judge from their bib
lical quotations— the general belief of earlier Christendom in the
ultimate combustion of the world, together with all its contents,

728 ESCHATOLOGY.
at the close, of the career of our race on its surface. That
Delief undoubtedly had its origin in certain biblical suggestions,
especially in the teaching of Christ and in some apostolic let
ters. Nor is this, though it is sometimes ridiculed by unbelief
as a gross fancy, an unreasonable antidpation. Van Oosterzee
(Christ. Dogmatics) suggests that there are natural forces enough,
present in the bowels of the earth, to bring about such a result; and
affirms that the belief that God will at some time set these forces
free in order to consume and purify the planet, has solid warrant
in the word of prophets and apostles. Fixed and immutable as
nature with its laws ahd forces is seen at present to be, it is still
a scientific hypothesis, quite in harmony with the weird imagery
of Holy Writ, that the material earth is itself passing through a
cosmic process — a process which in its silent progression through
the ages may result in such change as will render the world unin
habitable to man, and possibly transform it finally into a flaming
planet blazing with strange glories, or a consumed and dead orb
bidden away somewhere in the great night of space. This is not
inconsistent with the other suggestion of Scripture that, as man
rises under the nurture of grace to the perfection of the millen
nial state, the earth itself, now groaning and travaiHng as if in
pain on account of human sin, will assume a corresponding phys
ical improvement, becoming once more graciously subject to
man — its very deserts blossoming responsively into roses in his
holy presence. The latter will be a beneficent provision in the
interest of the millennial age: the former may be a sovereign and
judicial procedure, — He who created the earth for man burning it
out of existence when it has fully subserved its purpose for
humanity. But all this is very inddental to the question respecting the race
of beings, intelligent and immortal, who now constitute the inhab
itants of this physical world. Various theories are current as to
the future career of humanity on the earth: — the theory of an
unending round of evolution and decay, of rising and falling dv-
ilizations, of progress followed by decline and return to primitive
conditions perpetually; — the theory of advancement slowly secured
through the victories of man over nature, and the development of
the capabilities and energies of the race, until at length a material
millennium, wrought out by man for himself apart from any super
natural agencies, shall bless theworld:— the theory that no such
advance or even any stationary condition is possible, but rather
that our humanity is slowly perishing like a decaying tree whose
season of fruitage is already past, whose leaves are even now

FUTURE OF THE WORLD : THE MILLENNIAL AGE. 729
withering, and whose predestined end is a catastrophe from which
there wiU be no possible restoration. In contrast with all such
theories; it is the dear and cheering prophecy of Scripture that
the race is neither to perish nor to live on perpetually without
essential improvement, nor even to advance toward maturity
through the agency of physical, mental, social forces resident in
the bosom of humanity, — but is rather to come to its maturing
through the instrumentality of supernatural powers flowing into
our human nature in such ways as to arrest its corrupting sinful
ness, convert its disposition and aims, transform it into a diviner
manliness, and so bring it out and up to some worthy consumma
tion. In other words, it is the teaching of Scripture that by the
Word of God preached and believed, the Christ of God accepted
and enthroned in the soul, the Spirit of God energizing and puri
fying the moral nature, the Church of God standing out in human
society as a great supernatural organism by its peculiar agencies
discipHning the race for a grand future; — thus and not otherwise
the career of humanity is to come to its predestined transfigura
tion. And by actual experiment in this direction thus far, two
things seem already weU assured: first, that spiritual Christianity
is inherently able to work out this cosmic miracle of healing; and
secondly, that no other agency now known to man can produce
any such result. So far as we can judge from either Scripture
or experience, the alternative of the race must lie between such
Christian progress and development and some remediless failure
and decay.
It is a fact of deep significance that the Christian Church
through aU the ages, and never more strongly than now, has been
animated by an unswerving conviction that such a grand future
is yet to come to our race, and that this result is to be secured
through the Gospel, and the tributary agencies which are work
ing together in its advancement. The expectation of such a
miUennium, to be brought about by human powers or devices
apart from vital Christianity, is held by no intelligent Christian.
Nor does the kindred expectation that God will finally introduce
some new instrumentalities, as if this Gospel were proving itself
a failure — some displays of majestic and subduing power, able to
crush out the sin which the Gospel could not eradicate — find
more than slight and occasional acceptance within the church. The
grounds on which the Christian hope is based can only be stated
here without expansion or argument. They are, first, the abun
dant and significant promises of both the Old and the New Testa
ments, given in a wide variety of forms, and under very diverse

730 ESCHATOLOGY.
conditions, yet in full harmony with each other, and together con
centrating their radiance upon such a future age of spiritual
triumph as has just been sketched. Secondly : the hope of such.
a future is justified by what we know of the intrinsic energies of
the revealed truths of Scripture, and of their ability to convince
the reason, to affect the conscience, and to stir the human will
into holier aspirations and holier living. Thirdly : it is justified
further by the pledge of the Holy Spirit who comes specifically
to convince the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment in
conjunction with such truth, and whose potent influences are able
not only to convince, but also to convict and subdue even the
hardest heart, and to bring even the entire race into loving
obedience to Christ. Fourthly : the Christian Church must be
recognized as a vast and effective agency, divinely endowed and
working toward the same end, — by its teachings and creeds, its
sacraments and ordinances and organized activities, and through
the godly living of its membership, ever striving and growing
toward such millennial perfection and splendor. Fifthly : so far
as the great plan of God in providence can now be discerned, we
find abundant evidence that divine providences are more and more
clearly revealing their subordinate relation to the superior economy
of grace, and are working more and more directly in the interest
of the salvation of the entire race. And sixthly : there is much
in human experience, and especially in the experience of Chris
tians, which justifies their anticipation, not that the religion they
have embraced will finally come to naught, or at best work out
only some partial and insufficient results in the heart and life of
humanity, but rather that what Revelation foretells will yet
actually come to pass in its fullness — the kingdoms of this
world becoming the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ :
Edwards, Work of Redemption.
While Scripture and experience abundantly justify the faith of
the Church that Christianity will • finally evenuate in such a
glorious issue, it is to be carefully noted that they furnish no clue
to the time when this age of Holiness and peace shall begin. All
attempts arithmetical or otherwise to determine such a date have
failed and must always fail ; on this point the sacred Oracles are
silent. Yet we may note their frequent suggestions respecting
three events which must take place before the coming of such an
age, and whose occurrence will be the clear precursor of the great
consummation. The first of these is the conversion of the Jewish
people, and the restoration of their relationship as a race to the
Messiah and to his Gospel,— involving not so much their return to

EVENTS PRECEDING AND FOLLOWING. 731
Palestine or their organization again in any national form, but
thdr spiritual enlightenment respecting the mission and claims
of Christ, and their cordial submission to him as the true and
only Redeemer of men. The second of these precurrent events
is the final overthrow of Antichrist, or of all antichristian powers
or influences whether personal or general, social or political or
reHgious in their nature or pretensions, and the visible supremacy
of the Gospel among men as the true and only religion for the
race. The third is the universal spread of that religion through
the divine and the human agendes now employed in its implanta
tion and diffusion in the earth, until it shall be literally true, not
merdy that the human race shall have heard the story of Christ
testified unto by his church, but shall have received that story
and beHeved on him whom God has sent to be the Savior of the
world. It is impracticable here to quote the biblical assurances
that these three events are actually to occur, or that their occur
rence wiU be the clear sign of a miUennial era just dawning upon
the earth : but the careful student of Holy Writ will not fail to
be convinced dther of their future transpiring or of their precur-
sive or anticipatory relations. That a millennial age cannot
occur before these events is evident, since they are each and all
conditions essential to such an issue : that such an age is not
now near at hand, however ardently desired or labored for by the
church, is also evident to any one who sees how far off these
antidpatory events apparently are.
On the other hand, there are three events which are plainly
revealed in Scripture as occurring only after this millenial age
shaU have first been experienced by the world in all its sub
lime fuUness. The first of these is the resurrection of the
dead. The biblical passages sometimes quoted in support of the
opinion that there are to be two resurrections, one preceding and
the other following this millennial era, are offset decisively by
the numerous and unquestionable declarations that there will be
but one such resurrection, — a resurrection in which human beings
of all types of character are to be alike included, and which is to
occur at the end of the world, and in immediate conjunction with
the final judgment. The second of these events is the final judg
ment itself, as distinguished from the notion of two judgments
taking place respectively at the beginning and close of the millen
nial era, and also from the conception of a continuous judgment
carried on progressively throughout that era. Against both of
these hypotheses, though they be dimly suggested by some
bibHcal references, the main current of Scripture teaching is

732 ESCHATOLOGY.
entirely decisive. The third event which is to occur, not prior
to this age of Gospel triumph but at its close, is that second
advent of Christ unto judgment which is so plainly set forth in
the Bible as the final step in the great process of human proba
tion. There is certainly no clear biblical proof in favor of the
counter hypothesis of two such advents, — the first in order to
establish the kingdom of our Lord in visible and materid
supremacy over all other kingdoms whether of men or of Satan, —
the other for the purpose of final adjudication only. Summa
rizing what has been said, — just as from the nature of the case
there must occur the three events named, the conversion of the
Jews, the overthrow of all antichrists and the effectual calHng of
the Gentile races, before there can be a truly millennial era on
earth, so these three solemn events, the general resurrection of the
dead, the general judgment of mankind, and the glorious advent
of Christ as Judge of the race, are all to occur, not before or
during but at the close of that culminating era in the earthly
career of humanity.
That the future age here contemplated will be a period of
triumph for the Christian faith, of great glory to the Church,
of peace and prosperity among the nations, of virtue and holi
ness and brotherhood in human society, and of wonderful
development among Christians in all that pertains to personal
religion and to those graces of character that exist in the truly
sanctified soul, will be abundantly apparent. All that has yet
appeared in human history or human experience will then be
seen to be but the early dawnings of that more holy, more beau
tiful, more splendid age. The question respecting the duration
of this millennial era is one of absorbing interest. The thousand
years named in the Apocalypse are not to be interpreted as exact
chronologically : the phrase obviously indicates a period which
has a definite beginning and close, and which compared with ordi
nary events is one of vast extent — a period which may continue
through tens of thousands of our calendar years. Edwards, in
his remarkable plea for Union in Prayer for the early coming of
this millennial era, enters into a very suggestive calculation as to
the probable number of inhabitants on the earth, and especially the
probable number of Christians during this period, particularly if it
be thus prolonged ; and concludes that there will be, at a very
moderate estimate, an hundred thousand times as many souls
redeemed by Christ during the millennium as will have been thus
redeemed from the beginning of the world to that time. His
calculation has a large moral and spiritual, if not an exact arith-

THE MILLENNIAL AGE : DURATION AND GI.ORY. 733
metical basis. There is good reason to hope and believe that at
the end of this era the number of the saved will be immeasurably
greater than the number of all that have been or shall be lost
among the sons of men. And it may well be anticipated that in
the glorious light shed by this millennial age on the entire admin
istration of God over the race, much that now seems dark in his
providence — 'much that now perplexes us as we study the slow
evolutions of his grace — much that now oppresses us as we think
of the countless milHons of mankind who have never heard the
Gospd or are now in ignorance of it or rejecting it, will be fully
and gloriously explained.
With this general summary, the Symbols as we shall see on close
inspection are in full accord. They contain no trace of sympathy
with the materiaHstic notions which the earlier Confessions
condemned in such vigorous terms, respecting a coming of Christ
upon earth before the resurrection, and his residence among men
for a prolonged period, in order to establish a temporal kingdom
marked by displays of imperial splendor and by supernatural
exhibitions of energy, before which his enemies whom the Gospel
cannot reach, are to be prostrated and utterly overthrown. Nor
do they ever suggest some prolonged era of judgment, or a special
resurrection of some specified portion of mankind, or any other
of the hypotheses now current in premillenarian circles. They
affirm rather that the present kingdom of Christ among men, the
kingdom of grace, is to be developed more and more until it shall
become a spiritual millennium ; and that the dominion of Christ
over humanity is to be a growing dominion of truth and love and
hoHness in the souls of men and in the heart of human society, until
at last the whole earth shaU become submissive to his spiritual
sway. They teach that the power of Satan over mankind, the
domination of evil in organized and malevolent form in the world,
Antichrist of whatever type, is but temporary, and is in the
coming ages to be overthrown in the only way possible — the
implantation of Christianity and the cosmic development of the
Christian Church, not merely in grace and experience, but also in
influence and control throughout the earth. They do not indeed
answer all the spedfic questions which have since their era excited
the interest of the church, — doubtless for the reason that escha-
tological doctrine held no conspicuous place in the deliberations
or controversies of that "period. Yet their general teaching is
remarkably clear and convincing, and their statements — as has
already been said — comprise the fullest exposition of the Protes
tant beHef up to their time. And it certainly is a strong testimony

734 ESCHATOLOGY.
to the intellectual wisdom and spiritual insight of their framers,
that these old Symbols contain for the most part not only the
clearest doctrine, but also the best antidote to much of the heresy
in this later age when unhistoric speculation is so rife, and the
minds of many are so much confused or misled as to the real
truth of God.
It may be well to confirm this general claim by a more specific
study of the Symbols in detail. It is said at the beginning of
the Confession (I : i) that the Holy
3. Westminster Eschatology: « . . , . ¦, c
particular declarations. Scriptures have been prepared for
the better preserving and propa
gating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and com
fort of the church against the malice of Satan and of the world :
and that they are to be translated into the vulgar language of
every nation, in order that the divine Word may dwell plentif uUy
in all. It is said (V : vii) that the providence of God after a most
special manner taketh care of his church, and dispose th all things
to the good thereof . It is said (VII: vi), that the covenant of
grace, or offer of life and salvation to sinners through Christ is,
although with more simplicity and less outward glory than in the
Hebraic dispensation, held forth under the Gospel in more fuU-
ness, evidence and spiritual efficacy to all nations, both Jews
and Gentiles. It is said (VIII) that God hath put all power into
the hand of Christ as our Mediator ; that in this capacity he is to
bruise the head of the serpent of evil ; that by his almighty power
and wisdom he will in his own manner and way overcome all the
enemies of his people ; and will, after sitting at the right hand
of the Father to make intercession for the saints, return at
the end of the world to be the judge of men and angels.
In the Larger Catechism (53-4) it is added that, acting thus
as Mediator, Christ gave his apostles commission to preach the
Gospel to all nations, — that he ascended into the highest heavens
there to receive gifts for men, — that in his ascended state he has
all fullness of joy, glory and power over all things in heaven and
earth, and doth both gather and defend his church and subdue all
its enemies. It is said (XXI : iv) that prayer is to be made for
all things lawful, and for all sorts of men living, or shall live
hereafter : which is specialized in the Larger Cat. (183-4) as
including all things tending to the glory of God and the welfare
of the whole church of Christ on the garth. In the subsequent
exposition of the prayer taught us by Christ, we are still more
particularly instructed to pray that God would prevent and
remove all atheism, ignorance, idolatry, and by his overruling

MILLENNIUM : WESTMINSTER TEACHING. 735
providence direct and dispose all things to his own glory : specif
ically that the kingdom of sin and Satan may be destroyed, —
that the Gospel may be propagated throughout the world, — that
the Jews may be called, and the fullness of the Gentiles brought
in,-— that the church may be furnished with all that is essential
to the discharge of her great commission to convert and save
men, — that Christ would hasten the time of his second coming
and our reigning with him forever, — and finally that he would
be pleased so to exercise the kingdom of his power, or his gracious
sovereignty, in all the world as may best conduce to these ends.
And in the original Directory for Worship ministers are enjoined
spedfically to pray for the propagation of the Gospel and king
dom of Christ to all nations, for the conversion of the Jews, for
the fullness of the Gentiles, for the fall of Antichrist, and for the
hastening of the second coming of our Lord : Minutes, 387.
It will be seen that the three events just named as antecedent
and essential conditions to the establishment of Christianity in
the miUennial form, are here specified as objects of supplication,
and that the propagation of the Gospel as a saving message
among all nations was directly contemplated by the Westminster
divines as a matter of hope and of holy desire. It may, however,
be admitted that their strict doctrine of election and predestina
tion stood in the way of their full dogmatic apprehension of the
objects for which they themselves prayed, and enjoined the min
istry and the churches under their care continually to pray. Hold
ing as many of them did to the doctrine of Calvin, that God has
determined in himself what he would have to become of every
individual of mankind, and that eternal life is foreordained for
some and eternal damnation for others, even from eternity, they
could not well rise in their theology up to the high level of their
prayers, and their prayers in turn were doubtless limited in sweep
and fervency by the restrictions imposed by their theological
belief. Yet it is obvious that they were in fact among the fore
most representatives in their day of a large and free Gospel, able
in its provisions to supply the needs of the world. It is also a
predous fact that later Presbyterianism has attained to still
broader conceptions, and is animated by a still larger hope con
cerning that Gospel and its adaptations to the spiritual necessities
of all men, whether in nominally Christian or in pagan lands.
The United Presbyterian Church of Scotland has well expressed
this better view in its clear declaration that the doctrine of the
divine decrees, including the doctrine of election to eternal life, is to
be held in connection and harmony with the truth that God is not

736 ESCHATOLOGY.
willing that any should perish but that all should come to repen
tance, and that he has provided a salvation suffident for all, adapted
to all, and offered to all in the Gospel. Statements no less
emphatic appear in the Declaration of the Free Church of Scot
land, and in the Articles of the English Synod.
American Presbyterianism, at least in this age, has with com
paratively small exception planted itself on this broader concep
tion. Its Directory, although abbreviated from the original,
inculcates no less fully the duty of public intercession for others,
including the whole world of mankind, for the kingdom of Christ
or his church universal, and for the interests of human society in
general. The chapter recently inserted in it calls upon aU Chris
tians by their gifts to promote the preaching of the Gospel in all the
world and to every creature, according to the command of Christ.
The chapter on the Gospel, proposed in the Revision, which
doubtless represents the belief of a large majority of the Church,
declares expressly that God has provided a way of life and salva
tion sufficient for and adapted to the whole lost race of man ; that
this way of salvation promises eternal life to all who truly repent
and believe, and invites all to accept the offered mercy ; that
Christ has commissioned his church to go into all the world and
to make disciples of all nations ; and that all believers are there
fore bound to contribute by their prayers, gifts and personal
efforts to the extension of the kingdom of Christ throughout the
world. The chapter on the Holy Spirit, proposed in the same
Revision, also represents the larger view in the declaration that
the Spirit is everywhere present among men, preparing the way
for the Gospel ; that he accompanies the Gospel with his persua
sive energies and urges its message upon the reason and the
conscience ; that he gives efficacy to the Word and the ordi
nances, and calls and endows aU ministers for their holy office ;
and finally that by him the church will be preserved, increased
and purified, until it shall cover the earth. Another proof may
be added to these unofficial declarations in the fact that in its vast
missionary enterprises, domestic and foreign, American Presby
terianism has acted steadily — not on the theory that the mere
task of testifying to the nations concerning Christ and his grace
is sufficient, and that the number of the elect, called from among
the nations, may even now be complete, and Christ may accord
ingly come at any time and set up an imperial throne among
men, the work of the Gospel and the church being ended,— but
rather or. the broader belief that the Jewish people are to be con
verted, the Gentile races brought into the fold, Antichrist finally

PHYSICAL DEATH. 737
jvercome by Christian agencies, and the Gospel of grace every
where triumphant among men.*
Turning from this interesting branch of eschatological doctrine,
we may next note the teaching of the Westminster divines respect
ing the artide of Death, viewed in
its theological aspects and relations. 4- Physical Death, its theo-
The term, death, is often used in ^ ****»**'. Creed
, _ ' . , _ . statements.
the Symbols as m the Scriptures to
describe deadness in sin, that corruption of the spiritual nature
which is said to be conveyed through Adam to all his posterity,
and which has its counterpart in the intense phrase, defiled in all
the faculties and parts of soul and body. But we contemplate
here only physical death, which is represented as coming into the
ivorld as a direct punitive result of human sin. Man is made
subject to death in this physical sense in consequence, first, of his
origind sin with its corruption of the moral nature, and then of
that actual transgression which specially binds him over to the
curse of the lawT and the wrath of God. Physical death is directly
enumerated (L- C, 28, 84 ; S. C, 19) among the punishments
of sin in this world, and as the appointed wages or outcome of
personal transgression. The Symbols make no reference to the
*So far as the language of reports adopted by the General Assembly may
be quoted as authoritative illustrations of the accredited faith of the living
Church, the following quotation from the report of the Committee on For
eign Missions to the Assembly of 1878 furnishes an interesting confirmation
of the view here presented :
The Presbyterian Church in this country has planted itself from the begin
ning on the clear and broad doctrine of Scripture, that this world is yet to
be converted to Christ, and that the forces already brought into requisition
in the divine economy are all that are needful to the securing of that grand
result. The Presbyterian Church believes, that in his written Word God
has revealed all the truth that is essential to the enlightenment and salva
tion of our humanity. The Presbyterian Church believes that the Spirit of
God is potent enough and gracious enough to justify the largest anticipa
tions in respect to the regeneration of mankind. The Presbyterian Church
believes that the living Church, as established by Christ, contains within
itself, under the divine guidance and quickening, all the agencies and
resources requisite to the evangelization of the whole earth. And on these
cardinal verities of Scripture the Presbyterian Church, discouraged by no
outward obstacles, daunted by no burdens, now and always plants itself in
this great missionary work ; by these it justifies the offering up of its means
and the sacrifice of its beloved sons and daughters on this altar : in them it
hopes and acts and prays, and in them it will ever hope and act and pray,
for the coming of a kingdom that shall be righteousness and joy and peace
in the Holy Ghost, and that shall increase and extend until it has filled the
earth.

738 ESCHATOLOGY.
fact that the vegetable and animal worlds, so far as they existed
prior to the creation of man, were subject to a law of material
decay analogous to physical death in him. The more natural
interpretation of their teaching is that man, had he remained
sinless, would have been lifted above the range of this general
law of decay, and so would have existed on the earth from age
to age without any wasting of his native powers, and without the
dark experience of death. Yet it is not inconsistent with their
teaching to hold that, though, death would have come in the
course of time upon his bodily organism, as upon all other material
organisms, such death would have been only a serene and happy
translation, void of all painful elements, from these earthly to
some celestial scenes.
Certainly death as we now behold it, with all the elements and
concomitants that make it so solemn and so dreadful an event, has
been utilized by God as the sign and emblem of his feeling towards
sin, and of his purpose to punish the sinner. As such it has come
upon the entire race, and remains as an inexorable decree through
all the generations. We have here a most impressive illustration
of the organic unity of the race, and of that solemn law of repre
sentation, according to which,' under the divine constitution of
things, the effects of action flow down from the actor upon others,
even from generation to generation. Even infants and imbecile
persons who have never sinned personally, are represented as
amenable to this dread law, passing under the universal condem
nation in consequence of their sharing in the Adamic taint, and
therefore capable of being saved only through Christ, and by the
gracious ministrations of the Holy Spirit alone. Though the
Symbols say but little about the heathen world, yet their clear
implication is that the heathen, old and young, die because they
also are sinful in the sight of God, and are included by him in his
comprehensive judgment upon the race. So far as his solemn
mandate as to death is concerned, no distinction is found to exist
between Jew and Gentile, between the dweller in Christian lands
and the pagan. In the case of those who are living under the
clear light of Revelation, and who yet refuse to obey the divine
commands or to accept the grace offered to them in Christ, death
has a peculiarly solemn significance. It is not alone the fact that
they belong to a sinful race and are by nature exposed to its stroke:
God solemnly testifies in this way to what they have personally
done as being evil in his sight, and in inflicting physical death
upon them gives assurance also of that further punishment which
their personal sin has justly incurred.

DEATH : ITS THEOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE. 739
In the case of Christians, physical death is not to be viewed as
penal, though it may assume the aspect of chastisement or perhaps
the aspect of disciplinary culture. Christ has pardoned the
believer and redeemed him in this sense from the curse of violated
law. But he may still need divine correction or divine chastise
ment while in his earthly condition, and death itself may have for
him some disciplinary or perchance retributive mission. God does
not save even the saint from the action of the universal law; or
even from as severe and dreadful pangs in death as befall the
greatest unbeliever. But we are taught that he does so far change
the nature of death in the case of the righteous, that they are
(L- C, 85) delivered from the sting and curse of it; and that,
though they must die as men, the event has its source and explan
ation, not so much in the wrath of God as in his love, to free them
perfectly and forever from sin and misery, and to make them
capable of further and better communion with Christ in glory.
To the saint, therefore, the event becomes not a curse, but rather
a predous, crowning benediction — a divine decree, having in it
the twofold object just stated, and being therefore a final seal of
the blessed covenant into which he has, through Christ, been
permitted to enter with God.
The doctrine of the Confession and Catechisms on this subject
is the general doctrine of the Protestant creeds, and the universal
beHef of evangelical Protestantism in our time. It is true that
comparatively little is said in these formularies respecting physical
as distinguished from spiritual and eternal death : it was on the
latter that stress was naturally laid, as a sequence from the strong
and solemn doctrine held by the Reformers almost universally
touching sin and its moral issues. The Belgic Conf. (XIV) states
their general view in the proposition that man, being by creation
in honor understood it not, neither knew his excellency, but will
fully subjected himself to sin, and consequently to death and the
curse; and that by sin he separated himself from God who was
his true Hfe, having corrupted his whole nature, whereby he made
himself liable to corporeal and spiritual death. The Scotch Conf.
teaches that Christ by rising again for our justification has
destroyed him who was the author of death, and has brought life
again to us who were subject to death and to the bondage of the
same; and the Irish Articles declare in biblical phrase that death
went over all men forasmuch as all have sinned. Respecting the
righteous, the Heidelberg Cat. affirms (42) that death is not a sat
isfaction for their sin, but only a dying unto sins and entering into
eternal life. It is noticeable that the Council of Trent maintains

740 ESCHATOLOGY.
substantially the same doctrine as these Protestant formularies,
affirming that through his offense Adam incurred the wrath of
God, and consequently death, with which God had previously
threatened him; and that he, being defiled by that sin of disobe
dience, has transfused death and the pains of the body into the
whole human race.
Such is plainly the generic doctrine of Scripture on this solemn
theme; nor can those who believe in its teachings as conclusive
accept any other, and least of all any merely naturalistic explan
ations or hypotheses on a matter so vital. We cannot rest in the
rationalistic conception that physical death in man is nothing more
or less than the application to him of a law which is stamped upon
the system of nature everywhere, and from which it is, therefore,
as impossible for him to escape as it would be to raise himself by
mere volition or by physical endeavor above the atmosphere that
surrounds the earth. Nor can we accept the cold dogma of specu
lative science, which excludes God and his will from this dark
experience of man, and refers the experience to the mere action
of impersonal and inexorable forces. Neither can we shut out the
doctrine of an individualizing or particularistic action of Provi
dence in determining for every human being the time, the manner,
the condition of his transition through this narrow gateway into
the life beyond. Nor can we consent to dissociate death and sin,
or to deny that the latter is in some true and deep sense the cause
of the former; death having passed upon all men, as we are assured,
for that all have sinned. Evangelical Protestants can hold no.
other belief than that, at least in its present painful form, death
is the divinely ordained outgrowth of transgression — an outgrowth
so broad and so effectual that not adult transgressors in Christian
lands alone, but even the heathen in their low blindness and cor
ruption cannot escape it; an outgrowth that reaches even infants
in its wide sweep, and from which even the holiest disciple is not
exempt, since he also is of mortal parentage, though for him the
nature of death is graciously changed, and its gateway becomes to
him the wide door to a purity that is complete, and a blessedness
that is everlasting.
Associated with this thoroughly biblical view of death stands
the confessional doctrine of Immortality as an original endow
ment of the soul in man. The ques-
5. ^mortality s evidences tion whether there . for man m
natural and biblical: West- , , . . 
minster teaching : other creeds. be7°nd the present into which death
will immediately introduce him,
and the further question whether that life will be temporary

IMMORTALITY: EVIDENCES. 741
Hke our present existence or unending and eternal, have inter
ested thoughtful minds in all lands and ages. Apart from the
conception of such a future life, religion in its natural varieties, and
eminently in its Christian form, would be — as has well been said
—an arch resting on one pillar, a bridge ending in an abyss. Phil
osophy, especially ethical philosophy, apart from this conception
not only loses one of its chief charms, but misses one of its most
substantial supports. Hence Socrates earnestly argues for immor
tality in the Phaedo and elsewhere, maintaining that the soul,
being the immaterial part of man and far superior to the body,
cannot possibly, when separated from the body, be dissipated into
nothingness. Cicero discourses eloquently, De Immortalitate,
on the foundations of the universal hope that man shall survive
the dissolution of his bodily organization. And in all subsequent
ages thoughtful men, both pagan and Christian, have brooded
over the answer which nature and reason combine to give to the
old query of Job whether if a man die, he shall live again and
Hve forever.
The speculative arguments for such futurity and immortality
of existence may be briefly stated. They lie partly in the con
ception of the soul itself as being, so far as it can be discerned in
consciousness, a simple and uncompounded essence which such
an event as death cannot possibly destroy, — mere change of form
or activity, however radical, involving no necessary change in
substance. They are found partly in the natural experiences of
the soul, such as that law or principle of vital continuity, and also
of conscious supremacy, which belongs essentially to our person
ality, and which survives within us through all the changes and
diversities of the present life. Kindred evidence is derived from
the obvious survival of mental and moral powers in undiminished
vigor, even while the body is just sinking into decay. The sense
of responsibUity also, and the witness of conscience, and the antici
pation of award or retribution not merely in this life but hereafter,
are rightly adduced in further confirmation. The instinctive
yearnings of the soul, its innate aspirations after kno wedge, its
irrepressible desire to Hve, its visions of future activity and future
feUowship, greatly increase the force of such natural argument.
The teleological reasonings based on the divine purpose and the
divine goodness in the present creation, preservation, equipment
and discipHne of man, point strongly toward some other and
higher life than the present : and the moral constitution of the
race as a race, taken in conjunction with the moral govern
ment evidently administered now over the race in ways which

742 ESCHATOLOGY.
constantly suggest futurition, certainly confirms that conclusion.
it is also argued that the perfection of human society, which like
the perfection of the individual man is clearly unattainable in
this present state of being, furnishes a strong presumption in
favor of the belief that such a perfected condition for society as
well as for man individually will be attained hereafter. The
argument of Cicero from the consensus of human belief in immor
tality in various countries and ages may well be added to the list
of such reasonings. There are also some analogies in physical
nature, such as the apparent permanence of life in the midst of
continuous mutations and convulsions, which make some illus
trative contribution to the speculative argument.
It is to be admitted, however, that shadows of doubt rest more
or less heavily on all such reasonings, even in the minds of those
who present them, — as Cicero confessed after reading the Phaedo.
The proposition that the soul is simple rather than compound
cannot be positively established, nor does the existence of human
desires or aspirations prove conclusively that such desires or
aspirations will be gratified, — since many right and good wishes in
this life bear no fruitage . If mental and moral powers in some cases
survive while the process of physical decay is going on, there are
other instances in which consciousness is lost, the sense of person
ality fades away, and all the higher powers seem to be engulfed
in the wreck which dashes to pieces the bodily organism. Inas
much as justice seems not to be secured always in this life, it must
be admitted speculatively that justice may sometimes fail here
after, and that it is possible that the sinner may escape the
consequences of his sin in the future — as he sometimes seems to
escape them here. The argument from consensus of belief cannot
be viewed as conclusive, since a contrary consensus, or at least
doubt, and in many cases indifference as to a coming life, exist
widely among men. All analogies drawn from the field of phys
ical existence are at best but illustrative, and cannot justify a
positive conclusion. And after all, the objector may say with
some force that all the reasonings in favor of the doctrine can
create nothing more than a presumption of its truth, — a presump
tion which leaves room for reasonable and serious questioning on
the whole matter.
In view of such doubts and questionings, we must turn to the
Bible if anywhere for really decisive proof. Here all doubts are
solved— all unbelief is divinely answered. The doctrine of immor
tality as an original endowment of the soul is indeed one of the
fundamental elements of Christianity. It is based immediately

IMMORTALITY : BIBLICAL PROOFS. 743
on the teachings of Scripture, and especially of the New Testa
ment, and centrally on the words of Him whose mission it was to'
bring life and immortality to light. Whatever may be said
respecting the inevitable incompleteness of the great argument
from nature, there can be no question concerning the truth in the
minds of any who have once recognized and received Jesus Christ
as their teacher concerning eternal things. The Old Testament
contains a variety of evidences which indicate that the doctrine of
future if not of perpetual existence was divinely made known to
the Hebrew race, and was accepted among them as an unques
tionable artide of belief. Although most of the divine stimulants
brought to bear upon them in restraining from sin and inciting
to virtue and godliness, were drawn from the present life, there
is much more than recent criticism admits, to show that the incen
tives drawn from a life to come did reach and powerfully control
them both as individuals and as a people. But the testimony of
Christ as to both futurity of existence and perpetuity of existence
is dear and dedsive : more than all other teachers, Gentile or He
brew, he brought life and immortality to light in conjunction with
his Gospel, and used the revelation as a mighty incentive both to
fdth and to holy living. At one time he declares that all the right
eous who are joined to him as his disciples shall live forever : at
another he solemnly affirms that the wicked shall not be blotted
out of being but shall have an eternal existence : at another he
announces that aU that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and
shall come forth to an eternity of life, either blessed or retribu
tive. His own resurrection is itself a conclusive proof of the
general doctrine : death cannot mean annihilation since he
actuaUy Hved after dying, and thereby proved that in him we
may Hve also. His apostles took up his teaching and unswerv
ingly repeated and emphasized it, as if the doctrine were past all
possibility of challenge. It is impracticable to introduce specific
iUustrations here : all will admit that whether its testimony be
true or false, the Bible is as clear and decisive on this doctrine as
language can make it. A plain and solemn alternative thus con
fronts us. If that testimony be true, then the beliefs and the
hopes of the soul are resting on impregnable foundations : if
it be false, then nothing remains but either such probable con
jectures as nature and reason may supply, or the impenetrable
shadows of intellectual and moral despair.
On these biblical grounds, the doctrine was incorporated in the
first of the Christian creeds in the concluding phrase, the Life
Everlasting. We see it also in the vitam venturi seculi of the

744 ESCHATOLOGY.
Nicene, and the vitam seternam and ignem aeternum of the Atha-
nasian symbol. The confessions of the Reformation may be
said universally to affirm the doctrine, though for the most
part in the form of general allusion rather than direct state
ment. It is assumed, as in the passages already quoted from
the Augsburg and Belgic Confessions, wherever the associ
ated doctrine of the Judgment is introduced. The First Hel
vetic expressly declares that man was made in the perfect image
of God spiritually, but was composed of two parts, body and
spirit, of which the first was mortal and the second immor
tal, according to the divine arrangement. The Heidelberg
Catechism asserts the doctrine of immortal existence for both the
righteous and the wicked in its terse statement that God created
man good, and after his own image, that he might rightly know
God his Creator, heartily love him, and live with him in eternal
blessedness. Then it adds that his justice requires that sin, which
is committed against the most high majesty of God, be also pun
ished with extreme, that is, with everlasting punishment. The
Roman and the Greek creeds also teach the doctrine, at least by
implication, as in their injunctions respecting the offering of
prayers and the giving of alms for the benefit of the dead.
Immortality is asserted in the Westminster Symbols in various
ways. It is clearly implied in the description of the nature of
man at his creation, as a being made in the image of God. It is
directly taught elsewhere, as in the phrase, having an immortal
subsistence, and in the associated declaration as to the resurrection
of the body and its subsequent union with the soul forever. It
is also taught in the statement concerning the issues of the final
judgment : the righteous, it is said, going into an everlasting life,
and there receiving the fullness of joy and refreshing that shall
come from the presence of the Lord for evermore ; while the
wicked who know not God, and obey not the Gospel, are said to
be cast into eternal torments, and to be punished with an ever
lasting destruction : L- C, 89, 90; S. C, 19. Such passages
show beyond question that the writers of the Symbols regarded
man as having an immortal subsistence, not as a gift of grace,
but as a constitutional endowment distinguishing him from all
other earthly creatures, and allying him in nature and essence
with God forever. They do not, indeed, suggest any of those
interesting considerations by which men have endeavored to prove
the fact of human immortality from the light and teachings of
nature. But their appeal to the Word of God is very distinct
and conclusive, and the fact that they rather assume the doctrine

CONDITIONAL IMMORTALITY. 745
than undertake to set it forth in logical form, is itself a strong
evidence as to their belief.
At this point we are confronted by the counter hypothesis of
an immortality not inherent but conditioned upon character — the
dogma of annihilationism. This
dogma, somewhat current in more . 6'Ih!i0"T0nal Immortallty:
° . , . Annihilationism.
recent times, and in some aspects
specially injurious to faith, affirms in general that immortality,
or endlessness of existence, is the peculiar heritage of the right
eous, communicated by the Holy Spirit through grace, as the
final reward of their faith and obedience; and that the souls of the
unholy perish judicially as their bodies perish, either at death, or
after some assigned period of penalty, or at the last judgment.
The doctrine that endless existence is an original endowment of
the soul is thus set aside, and immortality is made a conditional
and also a gradous experience. The arguments urged in favor
of this beHef are derived from various sources, natural and
biblical. It is claimed in general that the strong language of the
Bible respecting the destruction of the wicked, their being swept
away before the whirlwind of divine vengeance, their being cast
off into outer darkness and there lost forever, justifies this con
clusion ; and further, that on many grounds it is more consonant
with what we know of the character of God and of his admin
istration over men, and with the essential equities of the case, to
believe that he will finally annihilate the wicked rather than
preserve them in an unending estate of misery.
More specificaUy, it is maintained that there is no positive war
rant in nature for the affirmation that the soul whether material
or immaterial is intrinsically immortal : it may live for a period
more or less prolonged after death, and yet become ultimately
altogether unconscious of existence. It is said that the soul
must depend for its immortality and for the continuance of its
consciousness on the upholding power of God, and that he may
at his option and for adequate reason at any time withdraw that
sustaining power, and suffer the sinful soul to drop into oblivion.
It is also held that sin is a disorder of such nature that, having
no permanent ground of existence in itself, it may finally destroy
the soul that is possessed by it, and may thus itself become
extinct. It is urged that the penalty of sin is not positive inflic
tion of suffering but rather the privation of good, and that the
extreme of penalty is to make such privation absolute and endless.
It is argued that the goodness and mercy of God will constrain
Mm finally by some beneficent process to blot out forever those

746 ESCHATOLOGY.
whom he finds to be incorrigibly sinful. It is further argued
that the welfare and the final triumph and glory of the divine
government would be enhanced even by the judicial destruction
eternally of those who oppose it. It is also maintained that this
hypothesis relieves us from the dark alternative of eternal sin
and eternal damnation. And finally it is held that immortality
and fullness of life would thus be seen to be the proper reward
of the good through divine grace, and would continue to be their
reward and their joy forevermore. It is admitted by some advo
cates that some degree of future penalty may be requisite to
vindicate the divine government and character, and that conse
quently such annihilation may not occur at death or in any brief
period thereafter, but may be deferred even until the general
judgment when, as one part of that transcendent event, the
wicked may one and all be swept out of existence forever. ' Cer
tain passages of Scripture, from both the Old Testament and the
New, in some instances suggesting utter death and destruction to
the evil and in others pledging glory and honor and an immortality
of blessedness to the holy, are quoted in support of these more
general considerations : White, Life in Christ.
It might be urged as a sufficient reply to the biblical argument,
that the deep silence of Scripture as to such an event as is thus
described, must of itself be conclusive. If the wicked were all to
be destroyed at the final judgement, for example, it is reasonable
to expect that in the repeated and specific and intensely real
descriptions of that great transaction, there would be some hint
of an immortality that hinged upon its solemn testing. But
further : there is certainly no adequate ground for interpret
ing such biblical terms as destruction and death, and such
startling metaphors as are sometimes found in the Bible, as if
they signified the actual cessation of conscious existence ; since
it is obvious that such language often refers, as in the instance
of the destruction of Jerusalem, to a state of failure or loss or
desolation which is not final or irremediable : Plumptre, Spirits in
Prison. In reply to the more general argumentation it is sufficient
to note, first, that this hypothesis is entirely at variance with the
clear and positive doctrine of universal immortality suggested by
so many speculative presumptions, and abundantly verified in the
inspired Word : secondly, that the fact of present sin suggests
the possibility of the continuance of sin, and consequently of
sinners, even eternally ; and in like manner, the fact of present
punishment and of punishment after death, justifies the presump
tion that punishment, like sin, may continue forever : thirdly,

ANNIHILATION. 747
that such a catastrophe as annihilation would seem to frustrate
the very purpose of God in the creation of the multitudes who are
thus to be swept as worthless chaff out of being : fourthly that
this dogma involves a serious impugning of the divine government
and administration, and also a dark reflection upon the divine
goodness and mercy, since God is compelled at last to accept such
a dreadful alternative : fifthly, that it implies a subversion of the
idea of penalty, an abrogation of the solemn law of retribution
and the escape of the sinner from a doom such as his guilt
deserves : and finally, that there is nothing in such a hypothesis
which removes or even lightens the pain which the righteous
suffer in contemplating the fact of eternal sin, followed under a
law of moral necessity by eternal condemnation.*
There are no dear traces of the existence of this erroneous
dogma in Protestant circles during the long period in which the
Protestant creeds were recdving their form, and we therefore find
in them no direct reference to it. But what they do affirm
respecting the Hfe to come and its issues, both before the general
judgment and after, is entirely inconsistent with any such doc
trine. They proceed invariably on the basis of the continued
existence of the wicked as truly as of the righteous: they
nowhere intimate that the penalties of sin are to be removed in
eternity, and stiU less that there is a time to come when the sin
and the sinner wiU be extinguished together. That the Symbols
follow the general trend of the Protestant Confessions in exclud
ing this error cannot be doubted, though the exclusion be
impHed rather than formal. Their uniform teachings respecting
the general judgment, the life to come, the eternal condition of
mankind, are wholly inconsistent with any other interpretation,
and their bibHcal references are decisive. They nowhere recognize
the view that death and destruction and other kindred terms in
the New Testament always or even generally imply extinction of
being. These terms are often used in Scipture, as we have seen,
to describe varieties of loss, failure, desolation, both temporal
and spiritual, which are not in their nature remediless, and which
*Edwards in his solemn discourse on the Eternity of Hell Torments argues
against the theory of annihilation on the ground that a state of annihilation
is not a state of suffering or of punishment, — that consciousness is an essen
tial condition in such punishment, — that this theory nullifies the conception
of degrees in penalty, — that the second death described in Scripture must be
something different from the mere cessation of being, — and that there are
stringent reasons in the divine administration why positive punishment
should be eternal — even the goodness of God toward the moral universe as
well as his justice demanding such endlessness of penalty.

748 ESCHATOLOGY.
fall in many instances very far short of utter annihilation. In like
manner the term death, as applied in the Bible to the present
condition of the sinful soul, by no means implies that the soul
has perished or is to perish and be blotted out eternally, even
though that condition of sin should become characteristic of it
forever. And the manner in which the Westminster divines
employ such terms shows beyond question that this theory had
no place whatever in their convictions ; — shows rather that they
regarded all men as alike inherently immortal, and believed in
an eternity of being for the sinful, as truly as for those who have
received salvation through Christ. The fact that they sometimes
used the term, immortality, as the Bible itself does, in a special
sense to describe not merely endlessness of being, but also an end
less and ineffable felicity of being in the immediate presence of
God, in no way affects their general teaching.
Holding therefore to the doctrine of an immortal life for the
holy and the unholy alike, when death shall have wrought its work
in the dissolution of the ties which
T. The intermediate Life : its bind bod and irit t ther in this
general characteristics. , r ° .
mortal state, we are at once interested
in the further question respecting the nature and qualities of that
condition of being into which the soul is thus ushered. It is
styled theologically the Intermediate State or Life, as lying
between death and that remote resurrection in which the vital ties,
for a time dissolved, shall be again restored in an indissoluble and
eternal form. It will be obvious at once that this is a prolonged
state of being, extending from the beginning of history through
all the ages of the world down to the hour when the last
members of the race shall, without passing through death, be
changed as in a moment at the dawning of the day of judgment.
It is obvious also that those who already dwell in this universe of
the dead outnumber incalculably all who are now living on the
earth, and that this innumerable multitude may be, probably will
be, increased many fold before the end of human history. The
further fact that many of our friends and associates have already
entered that shadowy realm, and that within a brief period we our
selves shall become members of this vast concourse of disembodied
spirits, deepens beyond all power of expression our sense of the
significance of the inquiry respecting the nature and general char
acteristics of the Intermediate Life.
The primary question to be considered here is the question
whether the soul during the period of its separation from the body

THE INTERMEDIATE LIFE. 749
onward to the resurrection remains in a state of quiescence or
torpor, or is conscious and active, having true and proper exercise
of its rational and spiritual powers. The Symbols say nothing
that would favor the notion of quiescence or slumber during this
long interval. They directly declare (XXXII : 1) that the souls
of all men neither die nor sleep after death, but do immediately
return as in true consdousness to Him who gave them. They
dso describe in explicit terms the two estates into which these
souls pass respectively at death, and their description invariably
impHes a consdous and active existence, whether it be one of
fdidty in the immediate presence of God, or of absence from him
and of retributive torment. In the Smaller Catechism (37) it is
explicitly taught that the souls of believers are at their death
made perfect in holiness and do immediately pass into glory, — a
statement which is absolutely exclusive of the theory of an inter
mediate condition of torpor. More fully still, the righteous soul
is said (L. C. , 86) to be received immediately after death into the
highest heavens, there to behold the face of God in light and
glory, and there to wait for the redemption of its body, and for
the wonderful union that shall follow. Like affirmations, though
less full, are made respecting the soul that has passed under the
experience of death while-in a state of wickedness and unbelief.
And it is added, that besides these two places or conditions, both
of which are seen to involve consciousness and activity, the
Scripture acknowledgeth none.
These dedarations will be better understood, if we call to mind
the antecedent symboHsm on this subject. It is well known that
the dogma that the soul sleeps in entire unconsciousness during
the period intermediate between death and the resurrection has
found occasional advocates in both the ancient and the medieval
church, — sometimes in the form here stated, sometimes in the
grosser form of an absolute death of the soul in conjunction with
the decease of the body, to be followed by a resurrection of both
body and soul and their union again at the general judgment.
It is also a familiar fact that the dogma obtained some degree of
currency in Protestant circles, especially among the Anabaptists,
at the very outset of the Reformation. There are expressions in
the writings of Luther which would seem to imply that he at one
time favored it. The first theological treatise of Calvin, De Psy-
chopannychia, was written to confute it. The continental creeds
without exception imply the contrary, though the dogma is
nowhere formally stigmatized in them as heretical. The British
symbols are more explicit, opposition to the heresy evidently hav-

750 ESCHATOLOGY.
ing grown up in Britain during the period immediately following
the Reformation. The most distinct and positive declaration is that
of the Scotch Confession (Art. XVII), which doubtless furnishes
the key to the Westminster statements. The language of the
Scotch Confession is so strong and so quaint that it deserves quo
tation here: The Elect departed are in peace, and rest fra their
labours: Not that they sleep, and come to a certaine oblivion, as
some Phantastickes do affirm: bot that they are delivered fra all
feare and torment, and all temptatioun, to quhilk we and aU
Goddis Elect are subject in this life. ... As contrariwise, the
reprobate and unfaithfull departed haue anguish, torment and
paine, that cannot be expressed. So that nouther are the ane nor
the uther in sik sleep that they feel not joy or torment.
In view of certain tendencies of our time, it is important to
emphasize this doctrine. The argument of Whately (Future
State), from passages which speak of death as a sleep, and of the
resurrection as an awakening from sleep, and also from the final
judgment as being the first divine adjudication upon the character
and deserts of the soul, does not satisfy his own mind, and is
practically set aside in the very volume that presents it. Isaac
Taylor, in his Physical Theory of Another Life, urges a similar
argument, wholly speculative, based on the notion that corporeity
and locality are essential to conscious activity on the part of the
human soul. But the fact that God exists above locality and cor
poreity, and that angels, so far as we know, are as conscious and
active, though disembodied, as we are in the present life, seems a
sufficient answer to this argument. That the intermediate life
within whose vast domain such countless millions are already
dwelling, is not a long sleep but rather a conscious and an active
life, may be positively affirmed. This affirmation rests primarily
on the numerous and cumulative statements of both the Old
Testament and the New, — specifically on the words of our Lord
touching the patriarchs as still in conscious existence, his parables
such as that of Dives and Lazarus, his promise to the crucified
thief; and on the repeated declarations of Paul and Peter and
John, and the sublime representations of the Apocalypse. Such
consciousness involves the knowledge by the soul of itself as
existing, and as being itself and not another. It implies the
exercise of intellect and emotion and purpose, and the ability to
apprehend such exercise in others. It includes not only the power
to will, but the putting forth of volitions— perhaps with far wider
range than was possible to the- actor while in the flesh. There
can be no valid objection to this suggestion, drawn from the fact

THE SOUL CONSCIOUS, ACTIVE, MORAL. 751
that the soul is disembodied, and is therefore without the physical
media which are requisite to such exercises in the present life.
Such consciousness and such activity belong of right to the con
ception of pure spirit as distinguished from man. Moreover, the
same divine power which now enables a human soul to live and
act in and through its corporeal frame, may qualify it to live and
act, perhaps in much greater efficiency, when freed from such
physical limitations. The speculations of Whately and Taylor
are dearly invalid : a deeper philosophy certifies that the soul can
be and is both conscious and active after death as before.
Further : this intermediate life is also a moral life — a condi
tion in which conscience is as truly exercised as reason or feeling,
in which the will may be set as here upon right or wrong forms of
activity, and in which character is as truly exhibited and devel
oped as amid the scenes and experiences of time. Whatever
reasons there are for beHeving that the soul will exist in a disem
bodied condition, and will in that condition have all its innate
powers in conscious play, constitute so many reasons for believing
equdly in its ethical endowment and ethical experience also.
Death, whatever else it may take away, does not, cannot, disrobe
the soul of character : the man in all his moral faculties and
capabuities survives its shock and its strange transmutations. It
follows that the intermediate life must also in the nature of the
case be retributive — a life of awards or punishments which are
directly consequent upon the earthly career. Without antici
pating two or three questions which will arise a little later, we
may simply note here the obvious fact that, as death ushers the soul
into the more immediate presence of God, in full consciousness
and in the exercise of all its faculties, wearing the robe of char
acter which has been woven by it amid the experiences and tests
of time, that soul must meet either the divine approval or the
divine condemnation in view of what God as judge sees it in that
decisive hour to be. It is also obviously the teaching of. Scrip
ture that in that solemn adjudication the character, however
mutable in this life, assumes its final form, — that the moral
status of the soul is then and there determined, and that the
experiences which follow thereafter are in the nature either
of reward or of penalty for the deeds done in the body. And
it may also be suggested at this point that this biblical teaching-
is corroborated by the spontaneous, the intense, the solemn
convictions of mankind ; the righteous dying not in the expec
tation of sleeping in unconsciousness until the resurrection, but
rather in the anticipation of immediate benediction and blessing;

752 ESCHATOLOGY.
the unholy dying in similar anticipation of some distinct and
dread disapproval of their worldly lives, their unworthy charac
ters before God.
It is also important to note still further, that this intermediate
life is not, like the present, a condition of intermingling and com
panionship on the part of the righteous and the wicked, but is
rather a life of separation between those two classes — a separa
tion complete and perpetual. So far as we can conceive of place
as applicable to the conception of disembodied spirit, the Scrip
tures sometimes present to us the thought of one vast universe in
which all the dead are congregated ; but more often we derive
from them the impression of two such universes, as far apart from
each other as are the characters of those who respectively inhabit
them. The Hebrew Sheol and the Greek Hades in some instances
suggest simply the grave where the dead are sleeping together,
and in others the great world where the dead are congregated in
consciousness, without special recognition of any division or
separation based on character. Yet these, like the more specific
terms, Paradise and Gehenna, not infrequently convey the added
thought that the intermediate life is not a place of indiscriminate
fellowship, but rather a condition of separation, provided for
even by the natural repulsion between good and evil, but directly
prescribed by divine ordination. It is therefore in full harmony
with inspired teaching to speak of two universes rather than
one — two moral conditions as widely divided as the most radical
diversities in character can make them. The papal dogma of
other subordinate distinctions of place, such as purgatory, the
limbus patrum or the abode of the souls of the devout who died
before the advent of Christ, and the limbus infantum where those
who die before they have reached the age of moral responsibility
are gathered, may be dismissed without discussion as a mere
speculation wholly void of biblical warrant. The antithetic con
ceptions of heaven and hell, and no others, lie as truly in the
biblical picture of the intermediate life as in its disclosure of what
transpires after the last judgment.
Over against the general doctrine of the Intermediate Life
thus sketched in outline stand three opposite theories, the purga-
_ „ ,4 ™ . torial, the naturalistic, and the pro-
8 Opposite Theories: pur- , ,.. . , \ ¦ , ¦
gatorlal, naturalistic, proba- bationary, each of which requires
tionary. some passing examination. — The
purgatorial dogma, as held by the
Roman Catholic church since the age of Gregory, relates not to
tne great multitude of disembodied spirits, but simply to those

INTERMEDIATE LIFE : FALSE THEORIES. 753
members of that communion who are not at death sufficiently
sanctified to be worthy of admission to heaven itself — that middle
dass, to use the phrase of Augustine, who are neither too good
to need such purification nor too bad to have it granted to them.
The Decrees of Trent and the Tridentine Profession simply
assert the existence of such a place of disciplinary and purifying
preparation, in which souls of this class are for a smaller or
greater period detained until the process of grace is completed ;
and further say that this sanctifying process may be hastened and
the door of heaven earlier opened through the suffrages of the
faithful on earth, and principally through the acceptable sacri
fice of the altar, and the saying of masses for the dead. The
Greek Church in like manner declares (L. Cat. 376), that those
who have departed this life in the faith but without having time
to bring forth fruits meet for repentance, may be aided toward a
blessed resurrection (or restoration) by prayers offered in their
behalf, especiaUy prayers offered in union with the oblation of
the sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ, and by works of
mercy done in faith for their memory. Moehler maintains that
the hypothesis of such a purgatorium is an indispensable adjunct
of the Roman doctrine of justification, — that it is inconceivable
that by some violent mechanical process sin should be altogether
purged out of the sinful spirit at the instant when the body
dies, — and that the opposite theory, as Protestants hold it, is
incompatible with the whole moral government of the world.
To this papal dogma which was proving to be such a source of
profit and influence to the priesthood, and of bewilderment
and superstition among the people at the dawn of the Reforma
tion, Protestantism from the outset proclaimed its earnest antago
nism, — everywhere affirming with Zwingli that sacred Scripture
knows and reveals no purgatorium after this life. The Augsburg
Conf. describes the Roman mass as a work which is supposed to
take away the sins of the living and of the dead also, and declares
that on this basis justification for both the living and the dead
becomes a work of masses rather than an act of faith in Christ.
It is needless to refer specifically to the strong condemnation of
the Roman doctrine and usage, found in the subsequent conti
nental creeds. The earlier British formularies are still more
intense in their repudiation ; the Thirty-Nine Articles speaking
for aU in its terse statement (XXII) that the Romish doctrine
concerning purgatory is a fond thing, vainly invented, and
grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to
the Word of God. The Symbols, after speaking of heaven and

754 ESCHATOLOGY.
hell, (XXXII : i) declare that besides these two places for souls
separated from their bodies, the Scripture acknowledgeth none :
and in the chapter on Worship, and also in the Larger Cat.
(183), directly prohibit all prayer or intercession for the dead.
The Tridentine Council affirmed the dogma on the ground that
it is warranted by the voice of ancient councils and the tradition
of the fathers, and also by the authority of the sacred writings.
But, aside from the fact that neither the ancient councils nor the
patristic teachings are at all unanimous in its favor, the dogma
is entirely without distinct support in the Bible. The purifica
tion which our Lord and the apostles describe, is a purification
antecedent to death : nothing in their delineations of the inter
mediate life carries with it any positive suggestion that, whether
by fire or discipline or in any other way, the souls of believers
are essentially changed during that state or form of existence.
On the other hand, this dogma is in direct antagonism with much
that is taught in the Scriptures respecting the fixed estate of the
soul in eternity, and the necessity for preparation for the future
Hfe while we are in the flesh. Other errors, such as the notion
of human merit in the sphere of grace, and of works of supere
rogation, are inextricably involved in this dogma. It is also a
false assumption that the priesthood or the church can have any
real influence with God in the way of affecting the condition of
the dead. The power to bind and loose, conferred by our Lord
on the apostles and through them on his earthly church, cannot
justly be regarded as extending to or being truly instrumental
in the binding or loosing of souls beyond the grave. And if we
add to all this the historical fact that this dogma has for centu
ries been and still is a fountain of both corruption and supersti
tion within the Roman communion, we are justified in setting it
aside as, in the language of the Anglican Article, a fond thing,
vainly invented, without warrant in Scripture and repugnant to
the Word of God.
The naturalistic theory of radical changes in character and
consequently in destiny occurring during the intermediate life
includes, not like the papal dogma just considered a single class
of persons, but all of every class and condition who pass into that
Hfe as sinful. It affirms that such moral changes may be expected
to occur hereafter as well as here through the action of capacities
native to the soul itself, — that the personal forces which are seen
to be producing great spiritual transformations among men in
this world, may induce similar transformations in numberless
cases, and possibly in all, after death, — and that the universe of

NATURALISTIC THEORY. 755
the evil may thus by degrees be depopulated, and all the vast
multitude of disembodied spirits be brought finally by this
process into fellowship with the multitude of the good in one
blessed concourse of holiness and bliss forevermore. What Mar
tensen (Dogmatics) calls the inextinguishable capability of good
within man, and whidi may in the life to come assert its restora
tive power even more effectually than in this world, will — it is
thought — work out such spiritual results perhaps universally in
the realm of disembodied spirits. It is sometimes suggested that
the environments of the intermediate life will be much more
likdy than those which now surround men, to excite the better
nature, to lead to calm reflection on the great problem of char
acter, apart from the entangling influence of bodily temptations,
to encourage -virtuous purposes and aspirations, and so to assist
vitaUy in renovating and purifying the soul. It is urged that by
these natural methods the heathen and infants dying in infancy,
and thoughtless sinners in Christian lands, and even the most
wicked and obdurate transgressors, may be lifted out of their
sinfulness, and progressively elevated into a higher experience of
truth, of duty, of unselfish and holy love.
It is impracticable here to trace this theory through its various
ramifications, or to state in detail the several arguments adduced
to sustain it. If we turn to the Bible for light, we at once dis
cover that, aside from here or there a phrase or passage taken
out of its connections, and infused with a meaning or color never
contemplated by the inspired writers, there is in fact nothing in
Scripture to suggest or sustain such an expectation, but on the
contrary very much, especiaUy in the New Testament, which is
radically at variance with it. If such a vast process as this,
carrying in it the eternal destinies of uncounted millions, is
actually going on now, and has been in progress from the first,
and wiU continue while the intermediate state of being lasts, it is
inconceivable that there should be no hint of such a sublime
transaction in a book which professes to foretell thejuture desti
nies of mankind, — especially when the disclosure Of such a
tremendous verity would be not only a matter of vital interest
but one of vast practical moment to our sinful and prostrate race.
But, waiving the fact that the Word of God furnishes no
adequate foundation for this specious theory, we may on rational
grounds alone declare the anticipation vain. The moral develop
ments occurring in this world are such as to justify no such
expectation touching the life to come. We nowhere see pagan
races becoming virtuous and holy through any innate energy ;

756 ESCHATOLOGY.
we nowhere see the sinful and the reprobate as a class pausing
in their evil courses, revolutionizing their moral experiences,
cleansing themselves from the taints of evil, and of their own
accord coming into loving affiliation with saints and angels and
with God. Nor can we find any sufficient warrant in what we
know of the native tendencies of the heathen mind, or of like
predispositions among adult transgressors in Christian lands, to
sustain the anticipation that the sin which is so natural and so
dominant in this life, will be resisted and eradicated when this
Hfe shall be exchanged for another. If sin were a physical
product simply — if it sprang entirely from the animal organism
and tendencies of man, such a result might possibly be hoped for
hereafter. But so long as sin is seen to be a matter in which
the soul even more than the body is involved — a matter which
death therefore has no power to extirpate, the dream of ultimate
restoration through energies resident in the sinful soul itself
becomes little better than an unwarrantable illusion. And further,
it is not to be forgotten that sin seems to exist in man under a
law of growth, — that this law of growth becomes apparently more
and more potential in men even down to the last hour of life, —
and that so far as we can see, its potency will continue to increase,
unless some exterior power interferes, age after age, forever.
But, without dwelling upon other considerations, drawn from
the study of man as a sinner, which are manifestly at variance
with the hypothesis of naturalistic transmutations from sin to
holiness in any coming form of existence, we may note, first, the
hurtful influence of this dogma in deterring men from prompt
attention to the claims and the opportunities of grace in this life ;
and secondly, the significant fact that no evangelical creed or
church has ever recognized it as valid. The Westminster divines
certainly knew nothing of a restoration of the soul to holiness
through any innate experiences or powers — a restoration whereby
the sinner not only remembers and confesses his sins to himself,
but by an interior energy still resident within him, and under
the new conditions entered upon in the future state, comes back,
as of himself, to duty and to God. Their strong doctrine respect
ing the depravity and helplessness of the sinner in this life, his
loss of all ability of will towards spiritual good, and his entire
dependence on divine grace for recovery from this condition, is
wholly inconsistent with the anticipation that at some time here
after he will of himself, and without any gracious aid, rectify his
corrupted moral nature and become a fit companion for saints
and angels before the throne of God.

PROBATIONARY THEORY. 757
What has been termed the probationary theory affirms, like
the preceding, the possibility or probability of the spiritual resto
ration of multitudes in the intermediate life, but bases this antic
ipation, not on the ground of the inherent capabilities of the soul
itself or of some favorable effect of environment, but simply on
the extension of divine grace to sinners in that life, and the
utilizing of the remedial agencies incorporated in the Gospel to
induce conviction, conversion and ultimate salvation. Some
advocates present such salvation as a possible or probable hypoth
esis only: others urge it, with great confidence as actual,—
sometimes as actual in some individuals or some classes, such as
infants or the heathen, or the unevangelized masses in Christian
lands ; and sometimes as certain to result ultimately in the
redemption of every sinner, and the blotting out of sin and its
consequences from the entire moral universe.
This theory is supposed to be warranted by the Scriptures, and
the following dasses of passages are adduced in its support, either
directly or by inference : first, passages setting forth the fullness
and freeness of the grace offered in the Gospel, and in their form
justifying the inference that this full and free salvation may be
extended in its range beyond the present life ; second, passages
exhibiting in comprehensive ways the readiness of God to forgive
sin, and suggesting by clear inference his readiness to grant such
forgiveness in the intermediate world as in this ; third, passages
intimating the gracious limitation and the possible termination of
punishment for sin, if not in the present life, still in the life to
come — with the marked exception of the sin against the Holy
Ghost: fourth, passages suggesting that judgment upon personal
character may not occur before the end of the world, with the
impHcation that at any time prior to that general judgment, even
many ages after death, the soul may be saved through penitence
and faith in Christ : fifth, passages affirming or at least strongly
implying the formal proclamation of the Gospel to the dead — as
in the descent of our Lord to the spirits in prison : sixth, passages
directly suggesting by illustration or example the doctrine of a
second probation, to be granted to mankind after death : and
seventh, passages which set forth unbelief, or the rejection of
Christ and his Gospel, as the only ground of human condemna
tion — with their implication that those who have never had the
opportunity of receiving him in this life shall be granted such
opportunity hereafter. It is impracticable here to present the
particular texts adduced; these seven classes include every passage
that has ever been urged in support of this theory.

758 ESCHATOLOGY.
Certain general considerations are also presented in connection
with these -biblical evidences. One of these is based on the
known character of God, as too righteous on the one hand and
too benevolent on the other to make no provision for at least the
opportunity to be saved after death, in the case of all those who
have had no adequate opportunity in this life. Another is based
on the universal headship of Christ — a headship not over believers
only but over the entire race of mankind as the second Adam, and
including consequently all those members of the race who have
died, no less than those who still remain on the earth. Another
rests on the inherent capabilities of the Christian scheme as in fact
inexhaustible — the one absolute religion, — no less truly fitted to
meet the moral needs of a disembodied spirit than to help and save
the sinner in this world. Still another is found in the surviving
elements of good, such as the capacity to understand and appre
ciate saving truth, and to repent of sin and turn tq Christ for
salvation, — elements which death cannot destroy, but may rather
greatly stimulate into effective action. Another rests on the
testimony of the Christianized consciousness, which refuses to
accept the doctrine that death terminates probation, but demands
that provision such as the Gospel furnishes, be made for the
extension of the possibility of grace into the intermediate life :
see Farrar, Eternal Hope.
The answer to the biblical evidences adduced lies in such incon
trovertible propositions as the following : first, that the offer of
salvation through Christ is invariably presented in Scripture as
an offer to be accepted or rejected during the present life ; second,'
that sinful men are solemnly warned against postponement of such
acceptance, even during this life, and specifically on the ground
that this and this only is the day of salvation ; third, that the
converting and sanctifying agency of the Holy Spirit, which is
everywhere set forth as an indispensable condition of salvation, is
always represented as efficient in the present life, and is in no
case promised to men after death ; fourth, that the church, and
all the helpful instrumentalities associated with it in the interest
of salvation, are in like manner invariably described as operative
in this world only ; fifth, that such passages as that respecting
the sin against the Holy Ghost and that concerning the preaching
of Christ to the spirits in prison, must be so interpreted as to
preserve the divine harmony between them and the more generic
teachings of the Word as to the forgiveness of sin and to the medi
atorial mission of our Lord; sixth, that reward and retribution after
death are without exception represented as being the outcome

NO SALVATION AFTER DEATH. 759
of our stewardship whether faithful or unfaithful during the
present life, and as determined judicially as soon as that steward
ship is ended ; seventh, that the clear doctrine of the eternity of
punishment shows that at least in some cases, and we know not
how many, the offer of salvation, if made in the intermediate life,
is unavailing — the soul still willfully abiding in its sinfulness.
These are simply the more familiar and available forms of the
incontrovertible argument to be drawn from the Divine Word
against the probationary theory in whatever aspect presented.
In respect to the more general considerations named, it is per
haps sufficient to say that they involve obvious and serious
misconceptions of God and of his moral government over men, — of
Christ and his rdation as the head over all his chosen people, —
and of the Gospel, as to its real nature and scope and adaptations.
They involve also kindred misconceptions of man on one side as a
bdng capable of salvation, and of the intermediate life on the
other as a retributive state, wherein the evil and the good are judi-
daUy and finally separate. Nor can the witness of Christian
consciousness be urged in favor of this hypothetic view of that
Hfe, so long as that consciousness is not uniform in such support,
but in the breast of the vast majority of believers is positively
opposed to that hypothesis.
Although some of the Fathers, such as Clement of Alexandria,
and Origen, taught that the redemptive mission of Christ ex
tended beyond this life and was available not only for the dead but
for faUen angels also until the day of judgment, the witness of
Christian symbohsm against this theory is unanimous and decisive.
So far as the three ancient creeds may be quoted, it is quite obvious
that the forgiveness of sins mentioned in them is as much an
experience of time as the gift of the Holy Ghost, the organiza
tion of the Catholic church, or the communion of saints. The
symbolic books of both the Greek and the Roman communions,
while affirming the kindred dogma of purgatory, recognize no
such intermediate estate of grace and restoration. It is even more
certain that this theory finds no support in Protestant symbolism.
One searches in vain for it in the confessional books of Luther
anism, in the creeds of the Reformed churches on the Continent,
or in those of the British Isles. One searches for it in vain in
the doctrinal declarations of the seventeenth or eighteenth centu
ries, or in the professed faith of any evangelical body of our own
time. Least of all .does it find any shadow of support in the
Presbyterian formularies. These Symbols are as silent as the
Bible itself respecting any transplantation of the Gospel with its

760 ESCHATOLOGY.
peculiar agencies and instrumentalities, any ministrations of the
Spirit, any gracious work or kingdom of Christ, in the interme
diate life. There is not a single sentence or phrase or casual
word or hint in Confession or Catechisms on which such a claim
could by any ingenuity of reasoning be based. Their invariable
teaching is that death terminates the present estate of probation,
and brings in the consequent estate of reward and retribution.
They invariably represent the Gospel with its various elements
and factors as a matter of earth and time. Their account of the
operations of the Holy Spirit limits these operations entirely to
this world. Their doctrine of the Covenants suggests no other
fellowship with God than that into which the sinner may through
grace enter while his earthly day of opportunity is passing.
Their vivid descriptions of the free will in man, and of his effect
ual calling through grace, of justification and adoption and sanc
tification, of saving faith and repentance and good works, and of
the perseverance of saints and their assurance of salvation, are
based entirely on the assumption that this life is the period in
which such experiences are to be realized. What they affirm on
aU these points is absolutely exclusive of any other view than
that salvation through Christ is a consummation to be attained
or lost before death.
It is especially to be noticed that the Symbols allow no distinc
tion to be made at this point in favor of infants or imbecile
persons, or even the pagan world, so far as that world came
within their range of vision. Elect infants and, according to
current belief , all infants, being thus elect, are redeemed by Christ,
not hereafter, but in this world, and are regenerated and saved
through the operation of the Holy Spirit, not in the future state,
but before or at their death. The declaration that the Spirit
worketh when and where and how he pleaseth, was never
intended to include his gracious working in some coming life,
but only within the range of earth and time. Imbecile persons
who are unable to heed the outward- calls of grace, are said in
like manner to be graciously cared for, not after death but before
or in death. In the condemnation which is pronounced upon the
heathen world, not for the rejection of a Gospel which that world
has never heard, but for its neglect of the law of God written on
the heart, for its refusal to follow the revealing and guiding light
of nature, nothing is said about any solution of the great problem
of character after this life is over. It is -the sin of the pagan
races that they are now rejecting the tender call of God to repen
tance and submission to him, now following rather the devices

PARTICULAR JUDGMENT. 761
of thdr own heart, without regard to what God commands ; and
it is this sin which, under the divine government, constitutes the
ground of their condemnation as they pass from this world into
another. The solemn chapter on the Law of God must make it
abundantly dear to every candid reader that the Symbols are-
consistent with themselves and are unequivocal in their teachings
here, and that whatever pious hope may be indulged by any at
this point must find its support and justification elsewhere.
The doctrine of a Particular Judgment, taking place in the case
of each and every soul, in immediate conjunction with its admis
sion to the intermediate life, has already
, .. , , TT . 9. Particular Judgment at
been more than once suggested. Yet d£ath. natur£ anfl £ffects>
its practical importance, especially in
its bearings upon much that has been said heretofore, is such as
to command for it separate and special consideration. Viewed on
rational grounds alone, it seems a natural and necessary conse
quence that a separation of souls into two great classes, on the basis
of character, should occur, not at some remote period in the future
Hfe, but at the time of death. Such a separation is, in the nature
of things, inevitable: it is the only possible outcome of the present
state and experience of probation. A continuous commingling
of the holy and the wicked, substantially such as occurs in this
life, and that for an indefinite period, and possibly even till the
final judgment at the end of the world, would be an experience
to be dreaded rather than desired. And such a separation can be
grounded on nothing but some essential difference in character;
it must be based in the last resort on the final relation of the soul
to an accepted or rejected Christ. And this final relation, with all
its solemn outcome, must be fixed at the hour of death; it cannot
be postponed to some remote era in the eternal state. Such is the
dear witness of Scripture. The promise of our Lord to the dying
thief, the vision of the expiring Stephen, the ecstatic declarations
of Paul, the triumphal song of Peter in his first Epistle, and other
biblical Ulustrations, show abundantly that death for the righteous
is the gateway, not to such a mixed condition as the present life
presents, but to a condition separate, special, everlasting, such as
holy character alone can determine. And what is thus seen to be
true respecting the righteous, can be shown on equal warrant from
Scripture to be true concerning the wicked also.
That this separation is judicial becomes apparent at a glance.
It is not merely the result of certain natural laws or tendencies
whereby men of themselves seek their own companionship,

762 ESCHATOLOGY.
whether it be good or evil. Nor is it an historic process simply,
carried on through ages, and finally reaching its culmination in
hell or heaven. It occurs in the immediate presence of Christ as
judge; it involves a conviction of sin and guilt in view of the Law
and the Gospel of God ; it necessitates a decision on his part at
the very threshold of eternity. There is, indeed, a sense in which
the wicked are condemned already, even before that solemn hour
of adjudication dawns upon them, but all antecedent condemna
tion must become secondary in the presence of such an hour and
such a judgment. The supposition that Christ begins to exercise
his judicial functions only at the end of the world, is obviously
at variance with many declarations of Scripture, distinctly affirm
ing that the estate of the righteous is judicially settled at their
death; and also that the wicked are already undergoing judicial
punishment. Nor is there any conflict between the two concep
tions. One eminent American theologian (Smith, H. B., Syst.
Theol. ) has rightly said that what is called the general or last is
not the first passing of judgment, but the final manifestation of
it. The position that at the general judgment the first passing
of judgment will occur, uproots the Scriptural doctrine of sin, and
of the penalty of death which has already begun to be inflicted upon
men. And another equally eminent teacher (Shedd, Dogm.
Theol.), has also said that the private judgment at death and the
public judgment at the last day coincide, because in the inter
mediate state there is no alteration of moral character, and con
sequently no alteration of the sentence passed at death.
It is a most impressive picture which Isaac Taylor, in his
remarkable essay on the Dissolution of Human Nature, has drawn
of the condition of a soul thus ushered at death into the hall of
judgment, — those experiences which originate in the union of soul
and body fading away, — all forms of external excitation ceasing, —
the soul thrown back upon its own moral experiences, whether
good or depraved, — only the individual life remaining, and the
moral person poised and resting on his own center. As that
graphic writer suggests, the good and the wicked are thus sepa
rated by an interior process antecedent to all judicial inquiry;
each person becoming intuitively his own judge, and of himself
determining what his place and destiny should be. But above all
this, is the conscious coming of the soul, wearing no robe but the
character it has woven for itself in this life, into the very presence
of its Maker who is also its Judge, and by whom its worth and its
eternity are to be formally decided. It is of course impossible for
us to frame any adequate picture of such a scene, or to conceive

JUDGMENT BASED ON CHARACTER. 763
of the thoughts and the emotions which at such a moment must
fill and thrill the breast. The Bible attempts no such description :
it simply states the fact and gives full assurance of the occurrence
of the solemn event, but leaves place and time and incident in an
impenetrable shadow.
The importance of emphasizing this doctrine is manifest,
especially just at this juncture when the entire teaching of the
inspired Word concerning the intermediate life is so widely chal
lenged. The fact that Christ is to judge mankind at the end of
the world is explidtly affirmed in each of the ancient creeds; but
both the Greek and the Roman symbolism affirms or implies the
further fact that he is ever and always the Judge as well as the
Savior of men. The dogma of purgatory presents no exception,
inasmuch as those who pass through that experience are not
condemned but saved persons, — the purgatorial fires being not
punitive but disciplinary and purifying in their purpose. The
importance of recognizing this truth in their doctrinal system was
very apparent to the men who framed the creeds of Protestantism
from the beginning. It is true that the general judgment at the
end of the world was more conspicuous in their thought; yet their
invariable doctrine was that death terminates the state of proba
tion, settles the question of character, and determines the eternal
destiny by a judicial process. Thus the Irish Articles declare in
explicit terms, that after this life is ended the souls of God's
children shaU be presently received into heaven, there to enjoy
unspeakable comforts, and the souls of the wicked are cast into
heU, there to endure endless torments; and such a separation must,
from the nature of the case, assume the character of a judgment
pronounced by Christ presently, or as soon as the soul shall have
closed its earthly existence. But the doctrine of the Westminster
divines is still more fuU and explicit. Their generic teaching is
that man, having sinned and come short of the glory of God, is
in a state of condemnation judicially even in this life; that there
is no sin of man so small but it deserves such condemnation ; that
there is no way of escape from this condemnation except through
coming unto Christ under an existing covenant of grace; and that
for those who refuse the offer of salvation as presented in this life,
there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but only retributive
judgment as the proper outcome of their earthly unbelief. Both
Catechisms, and especially the Larger, confirm this teaching in
the strong declaration (L. C, 25-27) that men by nature are the
children of wrath, slaves to Satan, under the divine displeasure,
and justly Hable to divine punishment. They also teach that

764 ESCHATOLOGY.
redemption from this condition occurs in time only (L. C, 59, 60),
and that those who do not receive that redemption in time cannot
be saved, but are under the wrath of God forever.
More specifically, the Symbols affirm (L- C, 85) that the right
eous even in death are delivered from all remaining sting and
curse of sin, and that they enter at once upon the blessed estate
of communion with Christ, for which they have been preparing
in the present life. They assure us that this communion is
enjoyed immediately after death, on the ground that the right
eous are then at once perfected in holiness, and so made meet for
such celestial fellowship. As to the wicked, they in like manner
assure us (L- C, 86) that death judicially determines their eternal
condition ; and their description of the punishments of sin in the
world to come (L- C, 29) leaves upon the mind no other impres
sion than that such punishment begins at once when the present
probationary experience is ended. The impressive declaration of
the Confession already quoted, that the souls of men at death
immediately return to God who gave them, and are at once sepa
rated by him into two great dasses on the basis of character as
determined during this life, seems to put the question entirely at
rest for all who acknowledge its authority. Nothing can be more
emphatic than the decisive statement at the close of this section :
Between these two places for souls separated from their bodies,
the Scripture acknowledgeth none. How is it possible for any
one, in view of such statements, to affirm that the conception of
such a judgment has no proper place in the Christian scheme,
but is merely a crude importation from ethnic sources, without
any right to claim our acceptance ? It would be as easy to claim
that the idea of God, or of the incarnation, or the conception of a
supernatural revelation, or the belief in a personal immortality,
had flowed from such foreign sources into Christianity, because
traces of these fundamental truths are found in crude forms in
certain natural religions, or in the speculations of certain heathen
sages. The Intermediate Life whose characteristics and special experi
ences and events have now been considered, is not the ultimate
or everlasting life of either the right-
10. The Final Advent: its eous or the sinful. The biblical phrase,
occurrence: its nature and , , . ,. .
results. a thousand years, indicates a long
period in the history of our race, if
taken literally, but probably suggests a much longer though
definite period during which the Gospel shall be universally

THE FINAL ADVENT. 765
known and received, and Christ shall be universally recognized
as the Savior and Lord over mankind. But this period, before
whose holy splendors all the antecedent history of the race will
pale into insignificance, and in whose light the dark problem of
sin and condemnation will probably receive a signal solution, will
not be perpetual. The career of humanity on the earth, and the
experience of the innumerable myriads of disembodied spirits
dwelling in the intermediate state, will at last be brought by
divine decree to a dedsive close, — a termination final and trans
cendent coming in that appointed hour alike to the universe of
the Hving and to the two universes of the dead. And the event
which will signalize this wondrous change in state and experience
for the human race, and which will throw wide open the door for
the entrance of the entire race on its true and ultimate eternity, is
the second or rather final advent of our Lord Jesus Christ on the
earth. It has already been said that neither the formularies of West
minster nor any other Protestant symbols recognize any coming
of Christ antecedent to the millennial era, except in the spiritual
sense in which he is always coming in grace to believers and to
his church, or in chastisement or retribution to those who live
and die in impenitence. It has been shown that the conception
of a physical appearance and a material reign, with an universal
empire estabHshed over all nations and wielded from Jerusalem
as a royal center — an empire exhibiting its majesty by sup
pressing human sin through resistless power and by exalting the
righteous to thrones of judidal supremacy over the race, is directly
condemned by Christian symbolism as being unwarranted b}-
Holy Scripture, and as dishonoring to the Gospel. It needs only
to be added here that, while the sacred writers naturally gather
from the Jewish State, and especially from the palmy era of David
and Solomon, the imagery with which to describe more graphically
the events and phenomena of the millennium, they do not allow
the mind to rest in any merely physical or sensuous visions of
that sublime age. Nor can any portions of either the Old Testa
ment or the New be interpreted in a literalistic way, in the
interest of such conceptions, without plunging the mind into
endless confusion or filling it with small and illusive views of
Christ and his redemptive work.
Another kindred error of even greater seriousness is the error
of regarding Christ, now ascended into the heavens and acting
there as our intercessor, as in fact wholly absent from this world
and from his earthly church. His corporeal absence, so far as

766 ESCHATOLOGY.
corporeity may. be affirmed of him in his celestial exaltation, by
no means warrants the inference of a spiritual and personal
absence. It is explained that he is present here in the sense that
he knows whatever is transpiring in the interest of his church,
and present also in the further sense that from his heavenly
throne he wields all the providential and gracious power needful
to protect his church from its enemies, and to propagate and
establish it in the world. It is suggested that he is present
vicariously through the Holy Spirit as his agent, who is fully
empowered to complete the work left by him at his ascension, and
in whose activities and products we see Christ spiritually, though
he is really far away from us in heaven. It has been said that he
is present because his truth, his ordinances, his organized church,
his believing and faithful disciples are here carrying out his great
commission, given them at his departure, to disciple the nations
in his name. But it is held that in himself he is absent and will
be absent throughout the present dispensation, and will personally
visit our earth again but once, and that either at the beginning
or at the close of the millennial age.
This view involves at the outset a serious departure from the
biblical doctrine of Christ as divine — as God. It is said in the
Confession, that in the unity of the Godhead there be three Persons
of one substance, power and eternity : as stated in the Larger
Catechism, these three Persons are one true, eternal God, equal
in power and glory. Whatever attributes belonged to Christ as
the Son of God prior to his incarnation, therefore belong to him
now : whatever of limitation or depotentiation occurred to him
while incarnate in the flesh, must have ended at his exaltation
to glory at the right hand of the Father. His original deity
must have enrobed him again in, the hour of ascension : every
perfection that inhered in God the Father resided at that hour
in him also. And if God is, in the old scholastic phrase, a Being
whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere,
it must be true that he who was Immanuel, God with us, while
he dwelt in the flesh, is Immanuel still — present everywhere and
at all times, and specially present on this earth and with his
people. We can no more affirm space of the glorified Son than
of the glorious Father, yet in a sense above all conceptions of
space our Lord is truly and essentially present on the earth, as
well as in heaven : — present to individual believers living and
dying, present in every assemblage of his saints, present with his
apostles and with his church, in every age, in every land.
Calvin quotes Augustine as teaching the spiritual presence of

CONTINUOUS PRESENCE OF CHRIST. 767
Christ with his people in conjunction with the fact of his corporeal
absence ; and himself adds that, while his bod}' was elevated above
all heavens, Christ was ever truly present with his church according
to his promise — his power and energy being diffused and extended
beyond all the limits of heaven and earth. No other view can
adequately interpret either his own direct declarations 'or the
teaching of the later Scriptures. The signs of that presence are
not physical, nor are they revealed in the ordinary experience of
man ; they are spiritual in essence and in their effects : yet they
are very real to the apprehension of faith. Wherever the Word
is effectually preached, Christ is there ; wherever his ordained
sacraments are administered, Christ is there ; wherever his saints
are assembled for worship or for service in his cause, he is there ;
wherever providences in the interest of religion are transpiring,
or missions or other great enterprises are carried forward, or his
gracious kingdom is amid conflict and sacrifice ascending toward
its predestined triumph in the earth, he is there — our glorious
Immanuel still, God ever with us.
Such presence of Christ is doubtless to be in its full measure
one of the peculiar features of the millennial era, — a personal
presence, so clear, so tender, so glorious, that the church and the
world will no more question it, than did the Jewish priesthood
and the people question his presence, when they saw Christ
visibly in the flesh. And the just presumption is that the con
sciousness of such an ineffable divine presence, diffusing itself
everywhere as if it were incense in the atmosphere of life, will
become more and more distinct in human belief while the millen
nial years roll on — until men shall doubt it much less than they
now doubt the immanent presence of God, the Father, in the vast
domain of nature or in the events of our ordinary life. And this
conviction will abide in the world more and more potentially,
even amid that mysterious outbreak of unbelief which the Apoc
alypse dimly hints at as to occur near the close of the thousand
years of holiness and peace, until those years are ended at last in
the final, visible, sublime coming of the Son of Man not for the
advancement of grace but as a King unto judgment.
That there is to be such a manifestation at that period— other
wise styled the end of the world— is a doctrine in which universal
Christendom, Greek and Roman as well as Protestant, is fully
agreed. The belief in it rests primarily on the direct declarations
of our Lord himself ,— from whose positive and repeated state
ments the church has derived its faith. It was asserted by the
Apostles speaking in his name, and was believed by the apostolic

768 ESCHATOLOGY.
church, in all its developing sections. We know historically that
such an advent was ardently expected as an immediate event, by
many of the earlier Fathers, and that the anticipation of it even
as near at hand was extensively current in the church of the first
three centuries. It made its way into the most ancient creeds,
standing by the side of the story of the incarnation and life, the
death and resurrection and ascension of the Lord, as an unchal
lengeable article of belief. The Protestant Confessions, so far as
they aim to present a comprehensive synopsis of the Christian
doctrine, invariably incorporate that article, with more or less of
elaboration. The Westminster Symbols are specially full in their
affirmations. In the Larger Cat. (56) it is declared that Christ
is to be exalted in his coming again to judge the world ; that he
shall come at the last day in great power, and in the full manifesta
tion of his glory ; that all his holy angels will be with him in that
sublime advent, which shall be heralded with the voice of the
archangel, and with the trumpet of God ; and that he will then,
by virtue of an authority vested in him from all eternity, judge
the world in righteousness. These descriptions of attendant
pomp and glory are not framed by the imagination of man, but
are set forth literally by our Lord himself and by his inspired
apostles. No details of time or circumstance, or any hints
respecting the decisive event whereby it may be exactly foreseen,
are anywhere given : the event itself stands out in all its solem
nity, He shall come, He shall come, to judge the world !
Certain events are clearly indicated as concurrent with this
final advent. The church will in that solemn hour reach its com
pletion ; the institutions and ordinances of our holy religion will
cease ; the proclamation of grace through repentance and faith
will be ended ; the efforts and sacrifices of saints for the promul
gation of the Gospel will be required no longer ; the Sabbath and
the sanctuary will have accomplished their peaceful and haUowing
mission. In a word, the mediatorial work of Christ, carried on
so patiently, will then be finished as completely as his atoning
sacrifice was finished on the cross. In the world of disembodied
spirits also all activity, all experience, all possibilities of good
or evil, will then cease ; as a separate sphere of being, the inter
mediate life will have reached its close. The voice of the arch
angel will command instant pause, instant silence, throughout
the moral universe : the trumpet of God will arouse all men to
immediate, intense, and thrilling anticipation of that which is to
be. The advent itself will be the one absorbing transaction
through all the realms of moral existence. And with that advent

THE RESURRECTION. 769
two events of supreme interest will transpire : the resurrection
of the body and the general or final judgment.
The first of these events is the Resurrection, — the restoration
to vitality of the bodies of all who have died from the beginning
of time down to the final advent,
, ... • • -4.1.4.1. 1 U. Resurrection of Christ:
and thar union again with the souls „, „ ... A . .. 1,
, . , ,°. , , „, . of all the dead: the resurrection
which once inhabited them. This b0<iy.
process involves not a single class
as to character, or those who lived under some specific dispensa
tion, but, in the language of our Lord himself, all that are in the
graves. The time when this stupendous event will occur is also
indicated by the Lord : They shall hear his voice — his voice at the
last great day — and shall come forth to life. The single passage
in the Apocalypse which suggests the resurrection of certain
persons at the beginning of the thousand millennial years, if inter
preted literally, may have an explanation in the impressive fact
recorded by Matthew, that in conjunction with the crucifixion
graves were opened and bodies of saints which slept arose, and
went into the holy dty and appeared unto many. It is at least
not incredible that at the dawning of the millennium a similar phe
nomenon should take place, — the souls of martyrs or eminent
witnesses for Christ, appearing again in mortal form, for some
special iriinistry of grace in conjunction with that great event.
Whether this be or be not a just interpretation of that somewhat
perplexing passage, and of one or two others which speak of the
resurrection of the just as if it were an event distinct in time,
there can be no doubt that the New Testament teaches broadly
the doctrine of one comprehensive resurrection — a resurrection
concurrent with and induced by the final advent of Christ unto
judgment. It may freely be admitted that such an event is to our view
simply incomprehensible — a mystery too vast and profound to be
measured by any human experience. But it should be noted
that this mystery belongs to a large class of mysteries, of which
not one is penetrable by the intellect of man. The mystery of
creation from nothing, or of the transmutation of unorganized
into vital matter, — the mystery of growing plants and flowers, of
the unfolding of the oak from the acorn, of animal instincts and
movements, of the intelligence discernible in the inferior ani
mals, — the mystery of the combination of body and spirit in man,
or of the action of the spirit upon the bodily organism in our daily
life,— the mystery of miracles, such as were wrought under a

770 ESCHATOLOGY.
wide variety of conditions and reliably reported in the Scriptures, —
the mystery of the moral change induced in regeneration and sanc
tification, — the mystery of death, and of the intermediate life as
experienced by disembodied spirits, are each and all entirely
beyond human comprehension. Yet in all these cases the facts
involved are intelligently believed, though human experience and
human investigation shed no light on the deep veil of mystery that
envelops them. In like manner we simply accept the fact here
affirmed, on the authority of Christ and of the Scriptures gen
erally, although the fact lies wholly outside of our personal cogni
zance, and is one which to our dim vision seems incredible.
Yet the doctrine is so wrought into the warp and woof of the
later Scriptures, that it could not be torn out without working
irreparable damage to the entire structure. It is even set forth,
especially in connection with the resurrection of Christ, as a kind
of test and certification of many related truths. If duly recog
nized, it sheds a remarkable radiance on much else that is taught
respecting eternity : once admitted, it explains, confirms, glori
fies nearly all other doctrines within the same section of Reve
lation. It is also a doctrine of vast spiritual value, though it has
been challenged as being not only incomprehensible, but also
undesirable and mischievous. He alone, says Calvin, has made
solid proficiency in the Gospel who has been accustomed to con
tinual meditation on the blessed resurrection. He adds elsewhere,
that there are two sufficient grounds of faith, the omnipotence of
God and the similitude of Christ. It is not too much to say that
the heart of humanity instinctively responds to it, even while the
intellect questions or objects. In some deep sense, it is a crown
ing truth in the Christian scheme, — especially when viewed in
conjunction with the doctrine of the final judgment, and of eternal
retribution and reward.
Some presumptive proofs are urged in favor of the doctrine.
Nature furnishes several suggestive illustrations, in which exist
ence — as in the case of the buried seed — seems to be perpetuated
by a continuous death and resurrection. On a broader scale,
nature seems to prophesy — as in the development of spring after
the long and dark winter — some better future for the decaying
body of man. There are also instincts and aspirations in the soul
which lead us to desire the rehabilitation of the spirit in such
bodily organism : at least, the thought of such restoration and
union is to most minds much more natural and welcome than the
opposite. There is also something in our conception of the judg
ment as a process, which suggests that the body itself should

RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 771
share with the spirit in experiencing the fruitage of the deeds
done in the body, — the physical pictures of bliss or woe presented
in the Scriptures being in a sense justified by our innate feeling
and conviction. But there are also opposite presumptions drawn
from what we know of the decay of the physical organism, of the
manner in which the materials of the perished body pass into
other forms of life, of the fact that the earth itself is already one
vast cemetery, and that the dust of untold millions is yet to be
borne upon the winds, or swept downward to the ocean, or con
sumed to nothingness in great conflagrations, — there are so many
and such serious presumptions against the doctrine that on natural
grounds it could never be established, if indeed the natural intel
lect could ever have conceived it.
But the witness of Holy Writ is decisive. That testimony
is centered in the fact that Christ has risen from the dead, and
thus has become, in the Pauline phrase, the first-fruits of them
that sleep in the silence of the grave. Our faith in the resurrec
tion of Christ is the vital condition of faith in the general
resurrection. The proof as to this fact is historical , and may there
fore be measured by the human understanding. The elements in
that proof are, first of all, that our Lord prophesied his own
resurrection, and staked upon its occurrence his claim to human
credence ; secondly, the testimony of the four evangelists to the
fact — testimony which possesses the reliable qualities of intelli
gence and honesty and harmoniousness ; thirdly, the miracles
wrought by Christ, especially the three miracles of restoration
to life, may be taken as strongly evidential ; fourthly, the entire
Messiahship of Christ becomes a failure and a deception, if indeed
he did not rise from the dead according to his promise in confirma
tion of his claim ; fifthly, this historic event becomes a convincing
witness in favor of the entire Gospel concerning him, and was so
accepted by the church of the apostolic century ; sixthly, the
resurrection of Christ is continually introduced in the epistolary
Scriptures, not merely as an unquestionable fact, but as a stimu
lant to duty and as an assurance that all who believe on him shall
rise also— that even the wicked shall rise into new life at his
summons. Still further : much of the doctrine, precept, promise,
warning, urged upon Jew and Gentile by the apostles and their
helpers, rested on this foundation. The wide historic acceptance
of the truth by the Christian Church from the beginning, and on
the basis of evidence more extensive, doubtless, than has come
down to us ; its incorporation in the three ancient creeds ; its full
aid unvarying affirmation in the confessions of the Reformation ;

772 ESCHATOLOGY.
its unchallenged place among the cardinal verities of our holy faith
at this day, all combine yet further to prove that the Lord has risen
indeed, and has made his rising clear by sufficient and incontro
vertible evidences.
On the basis of this fact, the resurrection of believers, and
indeed of all mankind, securely rests. In thus ascending from the
abyss of the grave, Christ not only proved his own power over
death, and showed that although he might be corporeally absent
he was still present continually with his earthly disciples : he
also gave them thereby a conclusive proof of his power to give
life to them, and even to raise them with him from the tomb,
though they might sleep for ages within its narrow walls. Hence
the doctrine of a general resurrection became a sure and glorious
corollary from the assured fact that Christ himself had risen from
the dead. There are many allusions in the Old Testament —
especially in the Psalms and the prophetical writings — which,
when considered in the clearer light of the New, go to show that
the devout Hebrews contemplated such resurrection as at least
possible — just as they regarded the doctrine of an immortal exist
ence as partly if not entirely sustained by ancient revelations.
In the New Testament, as might be anticipated after the full
disclosures by our Lord, the resurrection is distinctly affirmed,
¦ sometimes with reference to the righteous, at others with reference
to the wicked, and often with respect to all men without regard
to character. The effort to explain such testimonies as referring
wholly to spiritual resurrection — to the restoration to newness of
moral life through grace, is altogether insufficient. Questions of
time, condition, manner are often raised on the bads of these
biblical testimonies — questions whiph the inspired Word refuses
to answer, doubtless for the reason that such answer would be of
no spiritual benefit, and might become an element of spiritual mis
chief. It is enough for us during this life to be assured of the
transcendent fact.
One question often discussed may be briefly noted here, — that
which relates to the nature of the resurrection body, and to its
identity with the present body. Reference is sometimes made for
illustration to the transfigured body, or to the raised body of our
Lord, or to that body perhaps still further sublimated, which was
conveyed by him into heaven. There is ground for the belief
that the bodies of the saints will in some mysterious way be
fashioned like unto his glorious body, whatever that may have
been. We are also warranted in believing that the resurrection
body will be real — will be spiritual and immortal — will be free

THE RESURRECTION BODY. 773
from the taint of flesh and blood — will not retain the particular
accidents or merely phenomenal qualities of the earthly organism;
—also that it will be fitted to the nature and uses of the soul,
ahd will, it may be presumed, be recognizable. Respecting the
nature of this identity with our present corporeal organism, it
can only be said that it will not be an identity of atoms or of
material substance, but rather of the principle of life, or of or
ganization. There certainly is in man such a vital principle,
lodged in the body at its very formation, and which maintains
the identity of that body through all the changes that occur in
the animal structure during the present life, — a vital principle
which death does not destroy, and which may out of material at
command shape for itself a new physical organism, that is iden
tical with the grosser physical organism which perished at death.
The essential fact is the identification, whatever may be the
pecuhar characteristics or incidents of that identification. That
the body of the resurrection will correspond to the individuality
of the earthly person in every essential quality, is all Scripture
warrants us in affirming.
As a corollary from the fact of the resurrection of Christ, belief
in the general resurrection just described found its way readily
into the earliest Christian creeds, and became one of the funda
mental doctrines of the universal church. The Longer Catechism
of the Greek church (366-367) defines this resurrection as an act
of the almighty power of God, and declares in answer to all
objection that, since God formed the body from the ground orig
inally, he can equally restore it after it has perished in the
ground. The CouncU of Trent, in arguing for the veneration of
saints and martyrs, affirms that their holy bodies as the living
members of Christ shall be by Him raised unto an eternal and
glorious life. The declarations of Protestant symbolism are too
numerous and too familiar to be adduced here : see Augsburg
Conf., XVII; Second Helvetic, XXVI; Heidelberg Cat., 45 ;
Belgic Conf., XXXVII; Scotch Conf., X, XVII ; Thirty-Nine
Articles, IV. The Symbols give no countenance to the theory
of two resurrections, separated by a long interval of time and
having widely different designs. The time of the general or
universal resurrection is specified (ch. XXXII; L- C, 87) as
the last day ; and then not any special class but all the dead, it
is said, shall be raised up together. This time is 'further fixed
by the declaration (L. C, 88) that immediately after the resur
rection shall follow the general and final judgment of angels and
men, The full identity or oneness of the resurrection body with

774 ESCHATOLOGY.
the present body is strongly affirmed, though no explanation of
the nature of that oneness is attempted ; they are to be the self
same body and none other. It is beautifully said that the earthly
bodies of the saints are even in death somehow united to Christ, and
that they rest in their graves as in their beds (L. C. 86) till at the
last day they shall be raised up again and united to their souls by
his mighty power and by virtue of his resurrection as their Head.
It is also said, with an impressive antithesis, that the bodies of the
wicked are kept in their graves as in their prisons, until the resur
rection and judgment of the last great day. In the same connec
tion it is intimated that the bodies of the just (L- C, 87), being
raised by the Spirit of Christ, shall be endued with new qualities,
raised in power and beauty and made spiritual and incorruptible
Hke the glorious body of the Saviour Himself, while those of the
wicked are raised up in dishonor, as by the authority of an offended
judge who summons them into his presence for final condemna
tion. For the just that will be a day of welcome deliverance and
of consummated glory ; , to the wicked it must be a day of wrath
and of unspeakable humiliation.
The other great event which is to occur in connection with the
second advent of Christ, and which is revealed as the object of
that transcendent coming, is the General
12. General Judgment: TT . , T , . ° _. , . ,
necessity and nature: Christ or Universal Judgment. It has already
the judge. been said that the probation of men closes
with the present life, and that after death
there comes a judgment, individual and particular, which deter
mines the character and destiny of each soul forever. But it has
also been said that the condition of award or retribution into which
the disembodied spirit enters at death is a temporary and prelimi
nary condition, though it should be prolonged to multitudes
through many ages. The particular j udgment is thus introductory
to that final adjudication of the race as a race of which our Lord
in the gospel of Matthew speaks so impressively, and in which
he declares himself to be the universal Judge. The particular
judgment is not intended to usurp the functions or to preclude the
necessity of that ultimate adjudication. This has its own specific
and loftier and more comprehensive uses. It is indeed designed
in part as a confirmation and final sealing of the judicial decision
made on the entrance of the soul upon its disembodied life; but it
contemplates .mainly the moral condition and deserts of the race
in its totality. It is in a word, that solemn transaction which
terminates the career of humanity on earth, and settles judicially
its eternal future.

THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 775
It is indeed impossible for any finite mind to fathom all the
reasons for such a transaction: many of these must lie in the divine
mind alone, as far beyond human ken as the reasons for the first
creation of the race, or the permission of sin, or the providential
administration of the world, or the incarnation in the interest of
redemption. But we may reverently discern, or discern in part,
some of the reasons for this consummating- event. As the Sover-
dgn and Father of mankind, God evidently desires to make
manifest to all souls the grounds on which his laws, his plans and
methods, his actual dealings with the race have been based:— both
to convict forever those who have rebelled against his authority
and spumed his parental love, and to attach those who have been
submissive and dutiful to himself in closer love eternally. God
as the Savior of men especially desires that both sinners and saints
should more fully comprehend his dispensation of grace, and
should thereby be forever either convicted and condemned for
their rejection of the Gospel, or more firmly fixed in faith and
devotion, world without end. God as the Spirit desires that his
modes and measures of gracious influence, his pentecostal out
pourings of power, his tender and patient strivings, his final
withdrawing from the obdurate soul should be comprehended, so
that while those who have yielded to him and been transformed
spirituaUy through his ministries, should become his friends in an
eternal covenant of trust and affection, those who have sinned
against him and have died in such sin, should see why there is no
forgiveness for them either in this world or in the world to come.
Comprehensively, the final judgment is intended to be a full review
of aU the deahngs of God with the race, both providential and
gradous, from the beginning to the end of the career of humanity
on the earth, — to justify him in his administration, and to test the
race, individually and collectively, in full view of such manifest
ation. That such a comprehensive review and adjudication is
necessary becomes obvious as soon as the relations of the trans
action to the present life as a state of probation are clearly seen.
That it is desirable, at least to the righteous, is very manifest;
that it will be sublime and momentous beyond all possible concep
tions of the human mind — the day for which all other days were
made, and on whose action an endless eternity is dependent — our
Lord himself has abundantly assured us.
There are some obvious presumptions in favor of the belief that
such an adjudication as this will occur. One of these lies, as has
already been suggested, in the fact that a state of probation such
as that through which both individual men and the race are

T76 ESCHATOLOGY.
passing, requires some definite conclusion, since an unending
probation is an absurdity in itself; and also some conclusive
explanation of its nature, and the application of that prindple of
award which the idea of a probation carries within it as an impli
cation. Another lies in the fact that so far as we now are able
to discern them, the divine methods in both providence and grace
seem to our dim vision but partial and incomplete — calling appa
rently for some more full and consummating explanation. Neither
can there be any satisfactory conception of a moral government
over man in which right ultimately triumphs and wrong is ulti
mately punished, except on the hypothesis of some final rectifying
and completing judgment. In a word, both the inherent justice of
God as a holy Being, and the nature of his moral relations to man,
agree in calling for such a final result as is here contemplated.
There are also in the rational mind and conscience what seem like
premonitions of such an explaining and consummating transaction,
not merely for the individual but for the race — a final day when
all spirits shall be confronted with some solemn testing, and shall
receive some ultimate destination. But such presumptions alone
could not sufficiently confirm and emphasize the truth: what they
suggest, the inspired Word decisively affirms. The Old Testa
ment contains many a reference which, studied in the clearer light
of the New, corroborates the saying of Daniel that those who sleep
in the dust of the earth shall arise, some to everlasting life, and
some to shame and everlasting contempt. The witness of the
New Testament is too full and clear to need explanation. The
fact is assumed, on the authority of Christ, throughout the later
Scriptures, and is in many ways wrought inextricably, as if by a
divine hand and purpose, into the very texture of the Christian
doctrine. In the presence of such inspired teaching all objections
— such as that such a comprehensive adjudication is needless, or
that it is undesirable, or that it may be painful even to the saint,
inasmuch as it involves an exposure of his earthly weakness and
sins — vanish away. In that great day there will be no questioning
of the right of God to judge the world, or of the wisdom or the
equity or the loye that will mark that solemn transaction.
That Christ will be the final Judge, is determined by his own
declaration. This is not an expedient devised subsequently to
his incarnation and life : he is said in the Conf. to be from aU
eternity the judge, this being the crowning element in his
Messiahship. Nor is he a judge by divine appointment merely :
he is also a judge by nature and inherently as divine. There is
also a fitness in his sitting thus in judgment, since the supreme

CHRIST THE FINAL JUDGE. 777
test in the case at least of every soul that has heard the offer of
sdvation through him, will be its treatment of that gracious offer.
As judge he is to wear not the robes of his earthly humiliation,
but rather the insignia of his heavenly majesty : he is to be
seated on the throne of his sovereignty, and the angels who sang
hymns of peace and good will to men at his first advent, are to
accompany him in his glorious descent, as in the clouds of heaven,
to perform this final act in his Messianic office. His own descrip
tion of that advent and of the scene of adjudication simply
overpowers us : human thought could by no possibility supply
anything to such a delineation. The concept is dearly super
natural : man could never have imagined it. It should be added
that this divine dedaration shuts out decisively the rationalistic
notion of the judgment as merely an historic procedure in time,
continuous and evolutionary ; and also the dogma of two judg
ments, one at the beginning and the other at the closing of
the miUennial era. The day may not be a literal day, but it can
be neither an indefinitely prolonged period, nor two days many
centuries apart.
The persons judged are to be the entire human race : before
Him shall be gathered all the nations. The world with all its
inhabitants, past or present or future to the end of time, is to
face that solemn adjudication. In the language of the Confes
sion (Ch. XXXIII) all that have lived upon earth shall appear
before the tribunal of Christ. It is also said in this chapter that
the apostate angels shall be judged, in conjunction with the judg
ment of humanity, — a statement based on biblical warrant, and
implying that the angelic apostacy was not, according to the
Miltonic conception, some revolt in heaven long antecedent to
the creation of man, but rather a lapse into sin in immediate con
junction with the temptation and fall of our first parents. Rep
robate angels and men are significantly associated, in the statement
(90) of the Larger Catechism. The first reprobate or apostate
angel of whom we have any knowledge was that Satan who led
our humanity astray in the primeval Paradise, and his share in
that revolt against the divine commands, and the share of all
other angels associated with him in the corruption of our race,
would make it eminently fitting that he and they, together with
the human race, should be arraigned at the tribunal of Christ.
The ground of their condemnation is nowhere stated, but it may
be presumed that it will be the same in kind as that by which
humanity are judged. In each and every case, the adjudication
wiU have its basis in character as illustrated in action. The

778 ESCHATOLOGY.
books, it is said in solemn imagery, will then be opened ; the
book of divine omniscience and remembrance, the book of provi
dence, the book of the law or the Scriptures, the book of con
science, the book of life or of death ; and their several contents wiU
furnish the basis of the adjudication. This adjudication will be
equitably conducted, with full recognition of the native capaci
ties, the moral opportunity, the particular light and privilege, in
the case of each and every arraigned person. They that have
sinned without law, shall be judged without law — according to
the measure of their violation of the light and the moral incen
tives of nature ; while as many as have continued in sin notwith
standing their enjoyment of the light and counsel of the Gospel,
shall receive, as they will deserve, the greater condemnation.
The millions of the heathen world will be treated justly, and with
infinite compassion ; the greater millions of infancy and childhood
will meet with like tenderness ; while they who have sinned
against larger light and knowledge shall be beaten with many
stripes. The formal issue of this adjudication is revealed to us in unmis
takable language by Him who is to act as Judge in that awful
day. Angustine intimates (Civ. Dei. XX) that in that hour
each soul will spontaneously sit in, judgment on itself, and in the
presence of Christ will, if it be sinful, pronounce its own doom.
But that decision will lie rather in the hand of Christ, and it will
be from his lips that the verdict whether of reward or of retribu
tion will be pronounced. And the issue of that solemn assize
will be the final separation of the good and the evil — as if angels
passed through the vast concourse, assigning to each soul its just
place, and executing upon the race as a whole the imperative
decree of the righteous judge. The great gulf fixed, which our
Lord described in the parable of Dives and Lazarus, is a faint
type or suggestion of that ultimate division and separation, im
measurably broader and deeper. All earthly imagery shrinks
into nothingness when the attempt is made to utilize it in the
delineation of that august hour when the multitudes in that great
concourse shall move away from this celestial tribunal, each soul
to seek it own place and enter either in joy or in unutterable
anguish on the destiny which the Judge of all the earth has
assigned it.
The universal teaching of Christian symbolism on this impres
sive theme is embodied in the language of the earliest creed ; He
ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the
Father Almighty ; from thence he shall come to judge the quick

THE ETERNAL STATE. 779
and the dead. The Protestant formularies are well represented
in the quaint statement of the Scotch Conf. XXV : In the general
judgment there shall be given to every man and woman resur
rection in the flesh : For the Sea shall give up her dead : the
Earth they that therein be inclosed : yea, the Eternal our God
shall stretch out his hand on the dust, and the dead shall arise
incorruptible and that in the substance of the self-same flesh that
every man now beareth, to receive according to their works glory
or punishment. The doctrine is in like manner explicitly taught
in the Symbols, in conjunction with the revealed fact of an
universal resurrection. The incidents of the solemn event are
(Ch. XXXIII) vividly depicted. Christ is there to appear in
the full and final exercise of his delegated authority as Judge.
Apostate angels are then to be judged. All persons that have
ever lived on the earth are to present themselves before the great
tribunal. AU are to give account before the Judge of their
thoughts, words and deeds. All are to hear the final decision,
and to receive according to what they have done in the body,
whether good or evil ; the earthly life — not any experience in
the intermediate state — determining their character and their
destiny. The righteous are said (L- C, 90) to be caught up to
Christ in the douds ; to be set on his right hand ; to be openly
acknowledged and acquitted; and finally to be joined with him in
the judgment of reprobate men and angels. On the other hand,
the wicked (L- C, 89) are said upon clear evidence, and with full
conviction of their own consciences, to be justly convicted and sen
tenced, and cast out forever from the favorable presence of God and
the glorious feUowship of Christ and his saints. And the end of
this solemn procedure is said to be the full manifestation of the
glory of the divine mercy in the salvation of the righteous, and
the antithetic manifestation of the divine justice in the condemna
tion of them that obey not God.
Beyond the transcendent vision of the final judgment, and of
the judicial decision which there formally divides the human race
on the basis of character and desert
into two races fundamentally diverse, "• ™e ^"^IJ^l
. , „ . , . Hell and Heaven, nature and
inspired Scripture reveals to our view, ^uration,
at least to some extent, the eternal
state of both the unholy and the godly, as thus judicially and
completely separate. It tells us that the rehabilitation of both
dasses, having taken place at the resurrection, is the beginning
of a new form of existence, which is to be everlasting in dura-

780 ESCHATOLOGY.
tion, and unfathomable to mortals in its manifold experiences.
It tells us that the unholy are not blotted out of life, but rather
survive in full consciousness, and probably with powers greatly
quickened, although they dwell in an estate of condemnation.
It tells us also that the godly are to live on, in the more imme
diate presence of Deity, and in the enjoyment of most blessed
fellowship with one another, with continuous expansion of their
finite capacities and spheres of holy activity throughout eternity.
Its revelations are indeed clothed, as they must be, in imagery
drawn from our earthly life, whether they be descriptive of
woe or of blessedness, — yet this imagery, it should be noted, is
the strongest, the most vivid and impressive, which that life can
supply. And the manner in which such symbolic representations
are introduced and used always suggests the momentous truth,
that the realities which they seek to represent are in themselves
incomparably greater. Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither
hath the heart of man conceived the indescribable verity.
The doctrine that there will finally be a universe of human
beings that have passed at the day of judgment into an estate of
authoritative and righteous condemnation as a consequence of
sinful living on the earth, has been held, painful beyond expres
sion as such a thought must ever be, by the Christian church
universally, on the basis of Holy Scripture. It is true, as Bishop
Butler has conclusively shown, that belief in some future punish
ment is a lesson which natural theology clearly teaches, with a
strong if not conclusive implication that such punishment may
be unending. That distinguished divine maintained that this
proposition is a necessary corollary from the unquestionable fact
that God is now administering a moral government over man,
and over man as sinful — a government which would cease to be
government if it contained no provision for punishing transgress
ors against its holy laws. He explained the present delay in the
administration of the penalty which sin as a present fact deserves,
by reference to the associated fact that sinners are now living
under an economy of grace, with its possibility of repentance and
restoration; but held that where this gracious interposition fails
in this world, government and equity will have their way in the
future life, and will punish righteously so long as the sinfulness
lasts— even though it be forever : see also Jackson on Eternal
Retribution a Doctrineof Natural Theology.
The argument is intensely solemn in its sweep and conclusive
ness. It starts with the unchallengeable premise that sin is not
destroyed by the incident of death, but continues to occur in the

HELL AND HEAVEN. 781
intermediate life, and will continue till the judgment. Well says
Socrates in the Phaedo : Death is not the end of all, and the
wicked is not released from his evil by death ; but every one
carries with him into the world below that which he is and that
which he becomes, and that only. The argument affirms more
spedfically, that there is a self-perpetuating capacity in sinful as
well as in sanctified character, having its baleful laws of growth
and its ever-widening aspirations ; and that such development in
evil may go on, even eternally. It points also to the nature and
operations of consdence as a punitive power in the soul during
this Hfe — a power which cannot cease with death, but must
continue to inflict its chastisement upon the sinner so long as he
continues in his sin. It emphasizes the nature and claims of
equity as forbidding any compromise with sin, but demanding
in the interest of righteousness that all sinfulness shall be pun
ished so long as it exists, even forevermore. It also exalts the
mord government of God, with its eternal claim to the loving
dlegiance of aU moral beings, and its just and resistless sentence
on aU willful transgression, in whatever world or age. It
emphasizes the nature of retribution as something imperatively
needful as a restraint upon sin, and as becoming more and more
necessary as sin increases in volume and malevolence. It points
dso to the social relations and influence of sin in a vast commun
ity where individual sinfulness abounds, and where every ten
dency may be more and more averse to holiness as the periods
of eternity roU on. And finally it rests on the fact that, since
dl restorative forces fail during this life to arrest sinfulness and
make men holy, there is no vaHd reason to hope that such forces,
if they were brought to bear on sinners in another life, would be
effective in checking aU eyU. And the rational inference to be
drawn from all these considerations is that, were there no Scrip
ture to reveal the awful fact, sin and its penalty will remaiu as
realities in the moral universe, even forever, — the Bible honestly
stating that fact, but in no sense giving it existence.
Yet the witness of Scripture is as clear, earnest, conclusive as
language can make it, in the form of both direct affirmations and
negative or indirect declarations, and also of general statements
and inferences — all so numerous and expHcit that it seems almost
impossible to interpose candid question or challenge. It is a just
remark (Shedd, Hist. Doct.) that in proportion as the inspiration
and infallibility of Revelation have been conceded, the doctrine
of an absolute and therefore endless punishment of sin has main
tained itself in the Christian church, — it being impossible, as the

782 ESCHATOLOGY.
author says, to eliminate the tenet from the Scriptures, except
by some mutilation of the Canon or some violently capricious
exegesis. In multiplied ways the Bible describes, first, the ground
of future punishment as seen in the sin of the race : secondly, the
nature of that punishment as adapted to the constitution of the
sinner, and both privative and positive in its aspects : thirdly,
the laws that control its administration, in the application of
penalty to the various grades and measures of sinfulness mani
fest : fourthly, its severity as an expression of the feeling of
God in view of such sin in whatever form, and specifically in the
crowning form of willful rejection of his grace in Christ : and
fifthly, its duration as" endless in time — complete and everlasting.
These are the spontaneous conclusions of those who study the
sacred writings on this subject with candid mind, and without
preconceived theories. It may be added that those who hold to
such conclusions would rejoice as heartily as any if the Word of
God were found on fair investigation to disclose any other or
brighter view ; but they reverently accept the doctrine, with all
the mystery and awfulness of it, simply because that Word so un
questionably teaches it. And they further regard it as one of
the evidences that the Scriptures have come to us from God, that
they speak so clearly and faithfully on this solemn theme, on the
authority of a Being who knows the exact truth in the case, and
who loves our sinful humanity too well to conceal it.
Turning away from this painful vision, we are confronted at
once on the authority of the same Scriptures with glimpses of
the reality and the splendor and. the holiness of that vast uni
verse of human beings whom Christ has in his final adjudication
pronounced worthy, and assigned a place with himself in the
heavenly Kingdom of God. Some noticeable differences become
at once apparent. The ground of that assignment is made even
more clear : the nature of its awards is more distinctly revealed :
the laws that rule in its gracious administration are set forth in
more glorious coloring ; its blessedness is more fully defined, and
its duration is declared to be as endless as the existence of God.
The inspired Word says almost nothing respecting the associa
tions experienced in the universe of evil, but dwells with tender
interest on the communion of the saints in glory. It says almost
nothing about the occupations of the lost, but recounts with
enthusiasm the employments of the saved— their ceaseless praises
before the throne, their ministries to one another, their eager
discharge of whatever services God may require. It says almost
nothing about the evolution of sin within the breast of the con-

BIBLE DOCTRINE. 783
demned sinner, or the dark developments of evil in the society of
the condemned ; but celebrates in advance the growth of the
redeemed in knowledge, their increase in holiness, their moral
development into equality with the angels that have never sinned.
The same faithful Word which brings to us the revelation of the
universe of evil and requires us to accept that revelation on the
authority of him who inspired that Word, brings to us also this
sublime vision of the universe of good, and permits us to receive
and welcome it, not simply as an article of faith, but as a blessed
verity of grace, given to us and to all men as an inspiration to a
ufe of obedience and holiness on earth. We have in fact no more
reason for believing in the fact of heaven than for believing in
the fact of hell ; the same Scriptures which reveal the one, reveal
dso the other ; both facts rest on the same foundation ; yet over
the abyss of hell there rest eternal shadows, while on the sum
mits of heaven eternal sunshine, everlasting glory, abides.
It is not within the scope of this Lecture to discuss these solemn
:opics at length, or to present the proofs of these antithetic truths
as fuUy as they deserve. Both doctrines are alike incorporated
¦n the very structure of Christianity, and neither of them can be
torn out without impairing and endangering that structure
throughout. To set aside the biblical teaching respecting hell
involves the subversion of a large proportion of what is taught
;.n the Scriptures on one hand in respect to sin and law and
government, and on the other respecting Christ and the redemp
tion which he came into our world to offer to mankind.
Even the inspiration and infallibility of the Divine Word are
caned in question by such a procedure, — as is evident from the
fact that the rejection of this doctrine has quite generally been
accompanied by characteristic indifference, or at least by lack of
positive loyalty, to the Bible viewed as an authoritative and final
message from God to onr lost race. It is the just remark of an
eminent authority that though this be a solemn, alarming, fearful
truth, yet to hold it is essential to the integrity of the whole
system of faith, and to the taking Scripture as the supreme rule
of faith. To set aside the scriptural teaching respecting hell
requires that one should set aside the corresponding teaching
respecting heaven, and the immortal life of purity and blessedness
there centered, — in that process sweeping out of sight some of the
strongest incentives to a life of holy obedience on earth . This has
in all ages been apparent to the Christian church ; and it is sig
nificant that after eighteen centuries of investigation that church
°u aU its best types, and even in its more degenerate types also,

784 ESCHATOLOGY.
is now substantially agreed as to the reality and the nature and
the duration of both hell and heaven, and also as to the divinely
established relation between these two antithetic universes and
the kind of life which men are living in this preparatory world.
The Protestant creeds are entirely one in their affirmations
touching these truths, from the Confession of Augsburg down to
the Symbols of Westminster. It will be sufficient to note here
the strong and solemn language of these Symbols. Their de
scriptions of the permanent estate into which the righteous and
the wicked are respectively assigned by Christ as their Judge,
are both positive and impressive in the highest degree. Appro
priating the awful language of the Bible itself, they affirm that
the souls of the wicked are cast into hell, where they remain in tor
ments and utter darkness, reserved to the judgment of the great
day. This fate is declared to be an inevitable consequence of
sin, whereby the sinner is bound over.to the wrath of God, and
made subject not only to death, but to unspeakable miseries,
spiritual, temporal and eternal. The same solemn truth is em
phasized in the chapter on the law of God as a rule of life.
In the Larger Catechism, it is said (29, 86) that sin is punished
in the world to come by everlasting separation from the comfort
able presence of God, and by the judicial imposition of grievous
torments in soul and body, and that without intermission. Ter
rible as such language seems, the Symbols simply repeat here
the utterances of Scripture, and especially of the Savior himself,
from whose faithful lips these declarations have fallen as a solemn
warning against all sin. And when they add that such punish
ment is without end, and so pronounce the estate of the wicked
a fixed and changeless estate, they are only repeating again the
teaching of him wHo said : Their worm dieth not, and their fire
is not quenched.
Concerning the righteous the Symbols in graphic and glowing
language declare that the condition into which they are judicially
introduced at death, is one of corresponding fehdty, instant,
complete, eternal. They tell us (L. C, 86) in words already
quoted, that this condition is one of communion with Christ in
glory ; that the righteous enter on the enjoyment of such com
munion immediately after death ; that their souls are at once
made perfect in holiness, and are received into the highest
heavens, and that they are permitted there to behold the face of
God in light and glory, while they wait for the full redemption
of their bodies at the resurrection. The same terms are employed
in the Confession, with an additional emphasis upon the im-

CONFESSIONAL TEACHING. 785
mediateness of this wonderful transition. While it is intimated
that after the resurrection and the final judgment there will come
to the righteous a certain fullness of joy and refreshing from the
presence of the Lord, not before attainable even in heaven, it is
dedared that true perfection in holiness is attained when death
relieves the soul from the last taint and trace of evil. In this
Ufe the will of the saint is said to act but imperfectly, but in
that estate of glory that will is said to be made at once perfectly
and immutably free to good — as immutably and perfectly free as
it can be after the resurrection and the final judgment.
The specific descriptions of HeU and Heaven in the Symbols
are remarkable, among all the symbolic statements of Protestant
ism, on one side for thdr strict scripturalness in form, and on the
other for their earnest emphasizing of unholiness as constituting
the basis of all the misery of the lost, and of holiness as the basis
of all the feHcity of the saved. While the strong physical
or materid imagery of the Bible is retained in both directions,
the element of character as evil or good, undeserving or worthy,
is made the central element in their vivid delineations. The
ground of all that is affirmed respecting the awful estate of the
wicked is said to He in the fact that they know not God, that
they obey not the Gospel, that they are reprobate toward both
love and grace ; their sin, in a word, is their ruin, not only dur
ing the intermediate state, but in the final judgment and forever.
So the felicity of the righteous is said to He not merely in their
being received into the highest heavens, but in their completed
sanctification and perfection, and in their being permitted like
the angels that have never sinned, to behold the face of God in
fight and glory. The language is transcendently beautiful. The
redeemed are (L. C, 90) fuUy and forever freed from all sin and
misery ; they are filled with inconceivable joys ; they are made
perfectly holy and happy in both soul and body, in the company
of innumerable saints and angels, but especially in the immediate
vision and fruition of God the Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and of the Holy Spirit, to all eternity. The conception of char
acter runs through the entire representation. The saints in glory
are happy in this ineffable degree because they are holy. Char
acter rather than condition is primal, and their condition is what
it is because they are what they are. This fact is worthy of just
recognition, especially by those who incline to criticise the severi
ties of speech manifest in the Symbols, when they describe the
torments of the lost. Like Christ himself, they rest every affirma
tion on the basis of character as tested at the judgment.

786 ESCHATOLOGY.
The Confession is closed (XXXIII : iii) with an impressive
injunction that we ought to be persuaded that there shall be a
day of judgment, both to deter all
14. The Ultimate Consumma- menfrom sin and aiso for the greater
tion: the Kingdom surrendered: ... ,., „ . ., . ° ,
God sunreme consolation of the godly in their adver
sity. It further teaches that Christ
wiU have that day unknown to men, that they may shake off all
carnal security and be always watchful, because they know not at
what hour the Lord may come ; and may ever be prepared to
say, Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. This sentence was
designed simply to confirm our faith in the certainty of a day of
judgment, and to urge us to thoughtfulness and fidelity in view
of the fact that to any one of us judgment may come at any hour.
It is by no means to be regarded as teaching dogmatically that
the final coming of Christ to be the Judge of mankind is immi
nent, and is therefore to be constantly watched and waited for.
It is rather a personal exhortation furnishing a fitting close to the
entire creed, than a doctrinal affirmation framed to sustain some
type of millennarian belief. The sentence has its counterpart in
the closing words of the Belgic Conf : We expect that great day
with a most ardent desire, to the end that all may fully enjoy the
promises of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.
But have we in the Symbols, or in other Protestant formula
ries, any statement respecting what may lie beyond the resurrec
tion and judgment, and the entrance of our race on an immortal
life such as has just been described ? Calvin regards the judgment
as the final act of Christ as the incarnate God — his Messiahship,
which began with the first, culminating in the second advent, with
its concomitant events. Melancthon somewhere says that Christ
will at the judgment finish finally his work as Mediator, but will
continue to reign as God, revealing the Deity to the universe
immediately and eternally. The Scotch Conf. (XXV) declares
that after Christ shall have completed the judgment, he shall
render up the kingdom to God his Father, who then shall be, and
ever shall remain in all things, God blessed forever. The Irish
Articles (104) say that when the last judgment is finished, Christ
shall deliver up the kingdom to his Father, and God shall be all
in all. These statements simply reproduce in substance the
remarkable declaration of Paul in that sublime chapter wherein he
endeavors to describe through earthly imagery the mystery of
the resurrection, — the declaration not only that Christ wfll then
deliver up the kingdom to God the Father, but that he himself
wiU also be subject (or subject himself) to him that put all things

THE ULTIMATE CONSUMMATION. 787
under him, even death as the last enemy, in order that God may
be all in all— the All in all things. We are not to infer from this
mysterious statement that the Son as the second person in the
holy Trinity becomes henceforth subordinate to the Father as the
first person : but rather that, as the Son of man, our Lord closes
up at this point his glorious Messiahship— not as by compulsion,
but with an ineffable willingness and joy, while the multitude of
the heavenly host sing hosannas over the glorious consummation
of the kingdom of grace.
Neither are we to understand that God the Father now assumes
done the government of the spiritual universe, — the Son, and the
Holy Spirit also, being henceforth retired from active connection
with the future experiences of either the saved or the lost, or of
the angeHc world. Obviously it is the complete Deity who is
henceforth to become the all in all throughout that universe, yet
not in any such sense as retires or terminates thereafter the
Trinity in the divine constitution. The Messiah finishes his
mediatorial work, and is no longer to act in that capacity ; he has
at this point established the kingdom — the divine sovereignty —
on eternal foundations, and ceases therefore to wield that special
authority which was vested in him as our Mediator. The great
transaction in which the human race has been involved through
sin terminates with the final judgment ; the vast experiment of
grace and of atoning and redeeming love has been successfully
made ; the career of humanity is finished ; and God, Father and
Son and Spirit, is now seen, as the curtain slowly falls, to be the
supreme and absolute Deity, ruling in indescribable majesty and
glory over the entire universe of spiritual being.
One other event already alluded to, mysterious and perhaps
inexplicable to mortals, is that which is described in the Belgic
Conf. (XXXVII) as burning this old world with fire and flame
to cleanse it. We recall at once the graphic and terrifying decla
ration of Peter, that the heavens and the earth are kept in -store,
reserved unto fire against the day of judgment, — that in that day
the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and pass away, — that
the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up, —
that the very elements (or heavenly bodies) shall melt away with
fervent heat. And with this startling description we at once asso
ciate the statement of the Apostle, derived from David and Isaiah
and seconded in the closing portion of the Apocalypse, respect
ing new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness,
to follow after this sweeping and dissolving conflagration. Dorner
suggests (Syst. Doct.) that such a conflagration does not imply

788 ESCHATOLOGY.
annihilation but rather purification — the erasing of all traces of
sin in the form and material of the world. He adds the striking
surmise that without any loss of substantiality matter may in this
process exchange its darkness, hardness, heaviness, immobility
and impenetrableness for clearness, radiance, elasticity and trans
parency. It certainly is not strange that in view of the biblical
statements, it should be held, more as a hope than as an assured
belief, that there will come through this fiery process, such a trans
formation and rehabilitation of the earth as shall make it a worthy
abode for the multitude of the righteous, now themselves purged
so as by the fires of the judgment, and dwelling again in
such bodies as would befit such a purified world. It is said that
there would be eminent appropriateness in making what had been
the scene of sin and of redemption, the scene also of triumph and of
endless bliss for the redeemed race. It is said that the fact of
. the resurrection and restoration of a bodily life, and the natural
aptitudes of the purified body for such a form of life as this
cleansed earth would provide, furnishes a distinct presumption in
favor of such a hope. In the phrase of Augustine, (Civ. Dei. XX)
as the world itself is renewed through conflagration to some better
thing, it is fitly accommodated to men, themselves renewed in
their flesh to some better thing. It is urged that such an arrange
ment would, in various ways, be peculiarly grateful to righteous
humanity, and that God may thus create for that humanity a
Paradise on this earth far more glorious than the first Eden —
which would become a heaven through transcendent disclosures
to the redeemed of his abounding love, his immeasurable perfec
tions. Yet such presumptions are to be entertained with caution,
— especially in view of the opposite opinion, sometimes held, that
this flaming orb may become the abode of the lost, (Edwards,
Hist, of Redemption) or of the third hypothesis, more frequently
received, that after having subserved its purpose as the temporary
home of the human race, it may become henceforth forever unin
habitable — a consumed planet swinging in silence through the
the sky forever. It is enough for us to know that God has all
spheres, places, conditions throughout the universe at his com
mand, and that he will be sure to locate the redeemed in that
abode, wherever it be, which will be best fitted to secure their
perpetual holiness and their everlasting bliss.

LECTURE FIFTEENTH— THE WESTMINSTER
ASSEMBLY: CHARACTER, WORK,
INFLUENCE.
Estimates of the Assembly : Its Work Reviewed :
Specific Excellences and Defects : Authority of the
Symbols — Toleration : Continental Relations and In
fluence : Their Permanency and Propagation : Rule of
Subscription : Revision : Final Word.

Clarendon in his History of the Rebellion speaks of the West
minster Assembly and its work in terms of partisan bitterness,
saying among other things that, with
^^.^mn™ ~t „ f j 1. Estimates of the Assem.
tfae exception ot a few very reverend . . , ,_
, ... , bly : its general character.
and learned men appointed by author
ity of the House of Lords, there were not twenty members of the
body who were not declared and avowed enemies of the Church
of England ; many of them infamous in their lives and conver
sations, and most of them of very mean parts in learning, if not
of scandalous ignorance, and of no other reputation than of malice
to the Church of England ; — so that, as he affirms, that conven
tion hath not produced anything that might not have been
reasonably expected from it. Hallam in his Constitutional His
tory of England, while denouncing what he describes as the
remorseless and indiscriminate bigotry of Presbyterianism during
the brief period of its exaltation in Britain, speaks more accurately
of the manner in which the Assembly was appointed by Parlia
ment, and more kindly of the abilities if not of the temper of the
body. Though this Assembly, he remarks, showed abundance
of bigotry and narrowness, they were by no means so contemptible
as Clarendon represents them ; and perhaps were equal in learn
ing, goodness and other merits to any lower House of Convocation
that ever made a figure in England. Masson (Life of Milton)
affirms that Parliament made the most suitable selection in its
power, from the most popular Puritan divines it could hear of
throughout England, and with an endeavor to distribute the selec
tion so far as possible among the several counties ; — and the name
and residence and known standing of a large proportion of the

790 THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
members, so far as recorded, certainly justify his statement. The
arrogant criticisms of Milton have already been noted in part.
He speaks contemptuously of the Assembly as not chosen by
any rule or custom ecclesiastical, nor eminent for any zeal or
knowledge above those left out ; and in unmeasured language
condemns them because of the fact that, after they had cried
down with great zeal the avarice and pluralities of bishops and
prelates, they — as he alleges — showed even greater boldness in
grasping after places of profit and influence. The bitterness of his
criticism is largely explained by the fact that Palmer, one of the
leading divines of the Assembly, while preaching before Parlia
ment, had denounced the unfortunate treatise of Milton on
Divorce as a wicked book, abroad and uncensured, though deserv
ing to be burnt ; and by the further fact that Milton himself,
undoubtedly through the influence of the Assembly, had been
brought to account for this treatise before the House of Com
mons, and had narrowly escaped public censure.
More favorable estimates are abundant. The Dissenting Breth
ren, as they were kindly termed, — members of the Assembly who
disagreed in matters of polity rather than doctrine, — while
emphasizing and justifying their differences, spoke publicly (Apol-
ogetical Narration) of the body as comprising many able, learned
and grave divines, — 'an assembly, as they said, where much of the
piety, wisdom and learning of two kingdoms were met in one.
Baxter, who knew well the leading minds in the Assembly, while
speaking frankly of his dissent in judgment as to matters of
church government and to certain clauses in the doctrinal Sym
bols, praised the divines of Westminster as men of eminent
learning and ability and of godliness also, and declared that in his
opinion the Christian world since the days of the Apostles had
never a synod of more excellent divines, taking one thing with
another, than this and the Synod of Dort were.* Hetherington,
*On the base of the statue erected recently at Kidderminster in honor of
Baxter are recorded the words: In a stormy and divided age he advocated
unity and comprehension. At its dedication Dean Stanley spoke of the real
greatness of his character as a lover of peace and unity, and of the noble
memories of him as such that have survived through the ages. The key to
his mediate and conciliating theological position is vtell illustrated in the
quaint title page to his chief theological treatise :
Catholick Theologie : Plain, Pure, Peaceable : for Pacification of the Dog
matical Word-Warriors  Written chiefly for posterity, when sad
experience hath taught me to hate Theological Logical Wars, and to love,
and seek, and call for Peace. This treatise consists of three books : I. Paci
fying Principles ; n. A Pacifying Praxis, or Dialogue ; in. Pacifying Dispu
tations against some Real Errors. Its fitting motto is Ex Bello Pax.

ESTIMATES FAVORABLE AND UNFAVORABLE. 791
who ranks as the first elaborate historian of the Assembly, claims
with some exaggeration that it was composed of the great master
minds of the age, — that its theological and ecclesiastical products
were of the highest value to Christianity,— and that it has
exerted and will continue to exert a very wide influence upon the
dvil and religious history of mankind. Stoughton (Ecclesias-
ticd History of England) testifies that the members of the Assem
bly had learning enough and to spare, — all solid, substantial and
ready for use ; and adds a laudatory estimate of their remarkable
perception and advocacy of what is most characteristic and fun
damental in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The unique encomium
of Thomas Manton in his striking Preface to the Confession
has dready been quoted. Later historians such as Schaff and
MitcheU are more discriminating in their estimates ; but while
unhesitating in the recognition of faults and failures, are equally
condusive in their general commendation. The comparison
between the Assembly and the Synod of Dort, suggested by
Baxter, must give the advantage to the former, whether either
the numbers in attendance, the time given to deliberationj the
scope of the inquiries and results, or the impression made upon
the age and on succeeding ages, be taken into account. That
Synod was indeed more general, more ecumenical in a sense, as
mcluding representatives from most of the Reformed, though
of course none from the Lutheran communions ; it may also
have been, as Schaff claims, equal to that of Westminster in
learning and moral weight ; but in the aggregate of what was
accomplished and in the results attained, it was obviously inferior.
It is certain that no continental synod of the sixteenth century,
or antecedent assembly of divines in Great Britain, equaled either
in importance ; nor has any subsequent synod or council been
held within the limits of Protestantism, whose products and
whose influence have been so extensive or so valuable.
It is not needful to repeat here what was said in the opening
Lecture respecting the individual members of the assembly, the
manner of their appointment and their support, their organization
and method of procedure, their rules and requisitions, the illus
trious Jerusalem Chamber in which they met, or the number of
their sessions and the long stretch of time during which they sat
so patiently and labored so earnestly in putting into form the
lofty yet impracticable scheme of establishing one natiCTijjcjrurch
for the Britishrealm,— a church with a distinct system of doc-
trineTlTrixed 'polity , and a definite mode of worship, such as in
their earnest judgment the land and the age required. Nor is it

792 THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
necessary to refer further to the specific difficulties which con
fronted them in their arduous task, — the struggle with the illicit
assumptions of Parliament, the obstructions interposed by the
Independent party, the rise of numerous sects and heresies, the
internal embarrassments of various sorts, which during their pro
tracted period of service stood more and more in their way.
If it were practicable, it would be interesting to contemplate
the Assembly more at length in its historical setting and relations;
— to pass in review its vital connections with the antecedent devel
opments of British Protestantism from the age of Henry VIII, and
also with much of the civil history of Britain during the hundred
years preceding its convocation; — to call to mind also the diver
sified movements of the developing Protestantism of the continent
during this period, and study the amazing revolution in belief
and experience which occurred throughout northern Europe
betweeu the age of Luther and Calvin and the memorable day
when the Assembly held its opening session in the beautiful
Chapel of Henry VII. It would also be interesting, if we could
contemplate the Assembly in its living connections with the other
great Christian Councils from the era of Nicaea and Constanti
nople down to the memorable Council of Trent, — if we could
compare its doctrinal products more specifically with those of
others in that illustrious series, and estimate comprehensively its
rdative bearings upon the subsequent theology and faith of
Christendom. Such comparative studies, if they did not stir us
to special and reverent admiration, would at least make manifest
to us the emptiness of much of the derogatory criticism which in
earlier and in later times has been heaped upon that memorable
body. It would also demonstrate the fact that, if indeed the
Westminster divines were not individually notable, as unfriendly
critics have alleged, the Assembly itself was great, — great in the
magnitude and elevation of its aims, great in the specific work
which it accomplished, and great in the influence it has exerted,
and is still exerting, alike upon the religious beliefs and upon the
moral activities of millions who in various lands speak the Eng
lish tongue.
Turning from the Assembly itself to a general estimate of the
work done by it, we may properly confine our attention substan-
2. Work of the Assembly: ^ to *f ^^ products.-Its
general review. Directory tor Worship was not im
posed as a strict liturgy or formal
rule in public devotions, whose observance in all particulars was

ITS WORK REVIEWED. 793
to be required thereafter from the Presbyterian ministry. That
formulary was intended, like the Directory of Henderson from
which it was largely derived, to instruct and guide rather than
to govern, and as such it has proved its value by the salutary
effect it has had, and still has, in securing both spiritual uni
formity and spiritual liberty in the worship of the sanctuary.
Departures from its wise and moderate counsels have been rare in
any age, and have been followed generally by willing return to
its faithful guidance. Substantial obedience to it has preserved
the Presbyterian ministry and churches from the tendency to
ritualism, with its despiritualizing formalities, and as well from
the antithetic tendency to excessive enthusiasm and lack of due
form in devotion, which have characterized some other Protestant
communions. It has been urged, with some force indeed, that
the Presbyterian mode of worship is too sedate, too cold, too
uninspiring or uplifting to meet the real needs of the soul ; and
it may be true that Presbyterian churches have at times lost,
through such characteristic features in .their devotions, some
proportion of the power they might have exerted upon the pop
ular mind. Yet to the vast majority of thoughtful and devout
persons, the Presbyterian mode is quite as acceptable as either
those modes which are more strictly liturgical or ritualistic, or
those which are more demonstrative and impassioned in expres
sion. It has stood for more than two centuries, and still stands,
as an acceptable medium between forms of worship more or
less extreme, and which are severally marked by obvious defects
as weU as by special excellencies. And it may be added as
a closing suggestion on this point that, if Presbyterian minis
ters feel the need of improvement or of increased power in their
conduct of public devotions, they will probably find the help they
desire, not so much in the imitation of any more enthusiastic
usages, or in the restoration of some strict ritual, but rather in
the more careful study and observance of the instructions given
by the Assembly — instructions almost as well fitted to our time
as to the age and country in which they were first promulgated.
Nor is it needful to consider again the excellences or the
defects of that Form of Government and Discipline which the
Assembly after long deliberation prepared for the British churches.
We may regret the strong tendency of the body to a jure divino
daim for the polity which it framed : we may admit the defic
iency apparent in that polity, and emphasize the changes which
especially on this continent have been made in it : we may also
-freely acknowledge the existence of some dangerous elements,

794 THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
such as the tendency to severe ecclesiasticism or to undue cen
tralization of power, which seem indeed inherent in the system,
and which are always to be guarded against in the interest of
spiritual liberty. It may also be true that the Presbyterianism
of this age or of coming ages will discover by experiment the
need of still further improvement or modification in order to
protect the church from perils of this class — perils which nothing
but practical experiment can either bring into light or indicate a
way for safe correction. And he is the wisest and truest friend,
not merely of those who are governed under this polity but of
the polity itself, who is ever on the watch against the liability to
such perversions. Still, after two centuries and a half of exper
ience in various countries and under widely diverse conditions,
the Presbyterian mode of government, generically considered,
has proved itself worthy of cordial acceptance and of loyal sup
port as, if not the best, at least one among the best types of church
administration which the wisdom of Christian men, guided by
the fundamental prindples of the New Testament, and by the
usages of the Apostolic church, so far as these are known, have
been able thus far to devise. That polity harmonizes well with
the Presbyterian system of doctrine and with the prevailing type
of religious experience among Presbyterians; it also harmonizes
well with what we regard as the best forms of political govern
ment through elect representation; and in practice it is found
to harmonize well with individual rights on the one hand, and
with the highest welfare of the general organism on the other.
As such it meets with public favor now, and seems likely to meet
with public favor through coming centuries. And it may properly
be added here that much of the current criticism upon it, and
much of the disposition to revolt against even the just and
gracious administration of it, is little better than a revolt against
all right regulations within the sphere of doctrine and order, if
it be not indeed a sub-conscious rebellion against any and all
modes of organized government within the household of faith.
Without dwelling further upon either the worship or the polity
of Presbyterianism as they were formulated at Westminster, or
as they now exist in the various Presbyterian communions, we
may direct our thoughts exclusively to the theological hjbrjrs and
the doctrinal products of the Assembly. Here careful account
should be taken once more of the men themselves, — specially
with reference to their qualifications for their great task. It is
not needful to claim with some eulogists that they were men of
unparalleled genius, divinely equipped with something like

QUALIFICATIONS FOR ITS TASK. 795
inspiration for their high service,— men too profound and vast
in their knowledge to be contradicted or even to be comprehended
Dy the intellect of later ages. Nor is it wise or just to join with
Clarendon and Milton in decrying them as unscholarly, ignorant,
or intellectually narrow and incompetent, — below even the highest
level of their own era and country, and quite unfit therefore to influ
ence largely the theological opinions of subsequent times. The lat
ter view certainly cannot be held by any one who considerately
reads the story of their labors, and fairly measures what they actu-
dly did in the way of expressing clearly and forcibly the best
doctrinal beliefs, the best spiritual experiences, of their own age.
Milton himself at one time spoke of them as a venerable body in
which piety, learning and prudence — as he said — were housed.
As to general qualifications and equipment, they were obviously
up to the best standards of their time : Protestantism in that age
certainly had nowhere, either in Britain or on the Continent,
abler or worthier representatives. It has been alleged that they
were mere echoes of continental thought — mere copyists of con
tinental symboHsm. But their debates show beyond all doubt
that they were independent students of the Bible and of Christian
doctrine ; and were much more anxious to know the truth than
to conform to any human standards of belief. It is not to be
denied that they were subject to the limitations of their times, —
limitations of various sorts, which often embarrassed both their
thinking and their speech. The atmosphere they breathed was
far from favorable: clouds and darkness sometimes overshadowed
both their mental and their spiritual vision. The record in the
Minutes of the sermons of Reynolds and of gracious little Palmer,
as he was caUed by Baillie, delivered on a solemn day of fasting
in the critical autumn of 1645, show how oppressive their con
sdousness of the difficulties besetting them at times became.
Yet it is clear that by force of character and purpose they rose to
the fuU level of their occasion, and did their work at least as
well as any body of men in Protestant Christendom in that age
could have done it.
One special advantage which they possessed above any who
had labored before them in the task of castingjhe faith pf .Prot
estantism into symbolic form, may once more be mentioned,
thou^hritlias been a matter of occasional reference heretofore.
That advantage lay in the fact that they had in their hands, not
only all the antecedent creeds in Britain from the first Scotch
Confession down to the Articles of Ussher and the Irish Synod,
but also most if not every one of the continental formularies

796 THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
which could be in any way helpful to them in shaping their own
Symbols. As early as 1577, the question of a new creed to be
adopted by all branches of Protestantism, as an authorized
representative of the common faith, was earnestly discussed on
the continent, and in this interest a number of prominent divines
compiled the important volume entitled the Harmony of the
Confessions of Faith of the Christian and Reformed Churches.
This volume contained, under appropriate heads of doctrine,
quotations from eleven of the most conspicuous creeds, Lutheran
as well as Reformed. An English translation was immediately
made and published at Cambridge, 1586 ; and a second edition
was printed in London in 1643. This edition was doubtless in
the hands of the Assembly at the outset of its deliberations, and
unquestionably stimulated its members in the desire to compile
not merely a British but an ecumenical creed, in whose teachings
Protestantism universally might rest. And there are numerous
evidences that, animated by this desire, they were inclined to
adhere as closely as possible to the doctrine, and to adopt sub
stantially the language of these earlier creeds, wherever this was
found practicable.
They were of course familiar with the writings of English
martyrs like Hooper and Cranmer and Latimer, and of British
divines like Knox and Melville, Cartwright and Ussher. They
also had in their possession the writings, not only of Luther and
Melancthon, Calvin and Beza,hut also of those who had followed
these great leaders in the construction or the development of
either the Lutheran or the Reformed theology on the continent.
The literature which Socinianism and other heresies had produced,
was likewise at their command. They had doubtless studied the
decrees and canons of the famous Council of Trent, and were
familiar with the current doctrine of Rome. At least one of
their number had been a member of the Synod of Dort, and the
clear and strong statements of that Synod on the five points of
Calvinism had been well studied, as the phraseology of the Sym
bols plainly shows. It should be specially remembered that,
notwithstanding the prominence given by many English divines
to the Augsburg Confession and to Lutheranism generally, as
being more closely allied to the Episcopal creed and mode, the
influence of Calvin was evidently predominant above all others.
His occasional letters to the ecclesiastical and the civil authorities
respecting Protestant interests in England, though resented by
some as an improper interference, were widely regarded as
weighty and valuable contributions to the general cause of the

ITS SPIRIT AND PURPOSE. 797
Reformation. His Institutes had long been in use in the univer
sities, and some of his Commentaries had been translated for
English readers. His masterful personality had thus made itself
fdt almost as much across the channel as in the States of northern
Europe, and the Assembly had learned to recognize the cogency
and worth of his theological system. How great was the advan
tage of possessing such a mass of helpful material, and how
diligently and thoughtfully that material was studied and utilized,
it is easy for us even at this distance to discern. At no date prior
to the fifth decade of the seventeenth century could any body of
men, though equally large in number or great in ability, have had
such resources or such an opportunity to formulate a creed fitted
to command interest and secure approval wherever Protestantism
prevailed. Nor indeed was there ever any subsequent hour in
the history of the Christian church of various names and tenden-
des in Britain, when the necessity for such a creed could have
arisen, or when such a creed, however desired, could have been
framed. The one preponderant moment came, and the Symbols
had thdr birth by a conjunction which was nothing less than
providential. That the Assembly realized that such a critical moment had
come, and girded itself to meet the exigency in a spirit befitting
such a conjunction, is apparent to any student of the Minutes or
of contemporaneous records, so far as these were written in any
mood of consideration or of candor. There are those, even at
this late day, who denounce the Assembly as a band of shrewd
and energetic men who saw or thought they saw an opportunity
to push both their doctrine and themselves into ecclesiastical and
political ascendency, and who were animated by partisan or selfish
or dogmatic incentives in all that they did. It is not indeed to be
questioned that earthly influences of various sorts crept occa
sionally into their minds, and in some degree affected their
conduct in the peculiar emergency in which they were placed.
Even inspired men are described in Holy Writ as at times wrought
upon by such lower incentives, while engaged in discharging some
holy trust for God or his church. But there are many evidences,
not merely in their formal avowals before the English people, but
in their daily feUowship and discussions, in their prayers and dis
courses, and in their solemn days of fasting and devotion, to show
that the Westminster divines sincerely believed themselves to be
called of God to a task of transcendent importance, and were
conscious of working directly under the divine eye, and under
supreme responsibility to the great Head of the church, and to

798 THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
him only, for what they should endeavor to do in his name. The
impressive covenant with which each one of them commenced
his share in that work, binding himself to maintain nothing in
point of doctrine but what he believed to be most agreeable to
the Word of God, or in point of discipline but what might make
most for his glory and the peace and good of his church, was not
an empty form, but the expression of sincere conviction and of
honest and unswerving purpose. Nor is it too much to believe
that the Holy Spirit not only moved them individually to make
such a sacred pledge, but guided and strengthened them collec
tively in the endeavor to keep it. We may fitly recognize in their
experience, if not a special movement of Providence or of the
Spirit in a form resembling miracle, still a signal illustration of
that divine superintendence which is ever hovering over and
graciously guiding the earthly church. And in the largest and
best sense their work, having been thus divinely regulated and
sanctified, follows and will follow them in spite of all detraction
through the ages.
More specific examination of their work in the department of
doctrine will bring before us some characteristics of it which
should command especial attention in
3. Characteristic excellences this closi review And first its
of their work; extent, order, , , . ~.
proportion.moderatlon; spir- extent and comprehensiveness. The
itual and ethical quality. Second Helvetic Confession, first pre
pared by Bullinger as a personal dec
laration of faith, but subsequently more widely adopted than any
among the Symbols of the Reformed churches, and which bears,
as has been said, the character of a theological treatise rather
than a formulary of belief, is by far the most lengthy of the Prot
estant creeds. It is in fact about twice as long as the Confes
sion of Westminster, though not longer than that Confession
with the two Catechisms added. The Formula of Concord is also
a little longer than the Confession ; but all the other continental
creeds are shorter, — the Belgic Conf. and the Heidelberg Cate
chism about two-thirds, and the French Conf. and Thirty-
Nine Articles less than half its length. Several of these formu
laries, like the Symbols, include more or less fully the three
divisions of doctrine and polity and worship ; but no one of them
supplies any such exposition of Christian ethics as is contained
in the Larger Catechism, nor can we find in any of them so elab-.
orate an exposition of saving faith, of acceptable prayer, of the
Christian life in general, or even of the church. Schaff pro-

COMPREHENSIVENESS OF THE SYMBOLS. 799
nounc'es the Second Helvetic Conf. the first among the Reformed
in respect to theological quaHty, as indeed it excels all the Luth
eran symbols in this particular ; but he further admits that in
logical clearness and precision it is surpassed (indeed greatly
surpassed) by the Confession of Westminster. The latter is not
only more exact and clear ; it is far more comprehensive and
more practical than its Swiss rival : it includes more topics, and
more tersely and fully defines the topics of which it treats. It
also represents not only the broadened and clarified vision of the
Saxon mind and of the seventeenth century, but in a remarkable
degree anticipates the evolution of Christian doctrine in subse
quent periods, even down to our own times, — occasionally reaching
out beforehand by a species of prescience, and giving expression to
divine truth in forms which meet with wonderful fitness the issues
and questions, the heresies and the unbeliefs of more recent ages.
It has been objected, with some force, that the Symbols are
too extensive and too elaborate to subserve well the proper uses
of a church creed. There would be grave weight in the objec
tion if these S}*mbols were in any way imposed upon private
persons as a condition of church membership, or if they were
imposed on the ministry of the church in every particular and in
each sentence and expresssion. But it should be remembered
that private members of Presb3'terian churches are not required
to avow or accept these doctrinal formularies, but simply to assent
to the fundamental facts and tenets of the common Christianity.
And as to official acceptation, American Presbyterianism, as early
as 1729, drew a broad line of distinction between the essen
tial and necessary articles in the Confession — those which give
character and quality to it as both an evangelical and a Calvin
istic document, — and other articles which are not necessary or
essential, and which may be held or not held, without impairing the
integrity of the general system of doctrine. On the basis of this
distinction, American Presbyterianism has usually granted just
and sufficient liberty to its ministry and eldership as official per
sons. It ought not to be inferred, however, that those articles
which are neither primary nor fundamental, are therefore of no
value in the system of which they form a part. In these studies
we have again and again had occasion to note the worth of such
secondary elements, both in excluding minor error, and in enforc
ing instruction respecting specific truth and duty. It is hard to
teU just where a statement apparently secondary or incidental
may assume an unexpected prominence in its bearings on belief ¦
or action. And if the effort were made, as has been proposed, to

800 THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
eliminate all such subordinate elements, and to reduce the Con
fession to what is deemed essential or necessary only, the proce
dure would probably be unsuccessful : it might even occur that,
in tearing out these more delicate nerves and ganglia, the whole
creed would be disintegrated or destroyed.
A second special characteristic appears in the elaborate order
and the fine proportion of doctrine exhibited in the Symbols.
Attention has been frequently directed in these studies to the
stately advance from one topic to another, and from one class or
group of topics to another, until the conclusion of the whole is
reached in the two chapters which treat of the eschatological
doctrines. This order is in general that of the antecedent creeds,
and especially those among them which are theological, Hke the
Second Helvetic Conf. rather than religious and practical, like the
Catechism of Heidelberg. It is also the order observed in most
theological treatises of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
though some authorities followed rather the example of Calvin
in constructing their systems on the basis of the three ancient
creeds — especially the first. In the Confession, as we have
already observed, a solid foundation is first laid in the doctrine
respecting the Scriptures, respecting God in his being and activi
ties, and respecting man in his original constitution, his fall, and
his corruption in sin. On this broad basis, the great central
doctrine concerning Christ and his mediation, with all that is
involved in the conception of salvation through him, is reared.
Then follows logically, as we have seen, the experience of salva
tion in all the phases of it made apparent in the Christian life ;
and this is succeeded by the exposition of the divine law, set
forth as the rule of godly living, and applied in certain relation
ships of the believer to others and to human society. This in
turn is followed by the comprehensive doctrine respecting the
Christian church, its nature and organization and officers, its
sacraments and ordinances and authority as the representative
household and kingdom of Christ on earth ; and the whole is
concluded with the particular doctrines grouped under the head
of eschatology. Such is the order, quiet and firm and impressive,
in the Confession ; and in the Catechisms we may discern a
similar order, though somewhat differently stated in view of
their more immediate aim as practical and educational exposi
tions. It may be added that while this, as has been said, is the
order of several of the antecedent creeds, in none of them is this
order so elaborately and skillfully followed.
The Minutes show that special consideration was given to the

ORDER, PROPORTION, STYLE. 801
matter of proportion as well as order,— involving the amount of
space to be given to each topic or group of topics presented, and
involving also the relation and adjustment of each part and sec
tion to all the rest. If there be disproportion or Superfluity any
where, it wiU be found in the large chapter on the eternal Decree,
or that on the Covenants, or in those which treat of Oaths and
Vows and Marriage, and the Civil Magistracy. The statements
respecting Christ and Salvation, in the various aspects of these
central and most vital themes, could hardly be condensed into
smaller space, nor could much be done to reduce the chapters on
the Church and its institutions and ordinances, without doing
serious damage to the essential doctrine. It would indeed be
hard to find a reaUy superfluous sentence or clause anywhere in
dther the Confession or the Shorter. Catechism, although Blunt
(Diet, of Sects) with hardly pardonable asperity styles the Con
fession a most voluminous and verbose document, and on this
ground among others passes it by as of small significance. The
Larger Catechism, for reasons growing out of its intended use,
is more expanded, — probably to a point which is undesirable at
this date, especiaUy so far as such expansion may lead to the
neglect of that careful study which the formulary, in some re
spects preferable to the Confession itself, really deserves.
There should be added to this statement of the order and pro
portion of the Symbols a proper recognition of the clearness of
their definitions and their propositions, the logical exactness of
the reasoning, and the dignity and commanding force of the
language employed. Marsden (History of the Later Puritans)
after speaking of the Confession as in many respects an admirable
summary of Christian doctrine, adds that the style is pure and
good, the truths are selected with admirable skill, the arguments
are always dear, the subjects well distributed, and sufficiently
comprehensive to form at least the outlines of a perfect system
of divinity. If we bear these features well in mind, we shall
attain some adequate estimate of the strength and worth of these
formularies as exponents of that general scheme of doctrine,
which proved to be such a support and bulwark to the Reformed
churches throughout Europe amid the turbulence developing
during the later stages of the Reformation. Documents con
structed as these were, and so well adapted to educate the young,
to enlighten the ignorant, to direct and control the teachings of
the pulpit, to supply solid foundations of belief to the church,
and to meet and overcome the multitudinous notions and heresies
of the age, were simply invaluable.

802 THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
A third characteristic is the Christian moderation, which in a
high degree marks the Symbols. It is to be admitted that the
Assembly were strongly prone to that strictness and rigidity in
thinking, and that positiveness in conviction and speech, which
were marked characteristics of their age. They were stern men
because the times were stern : they had also inherited some
measure of the intolerance that had prevailed in Britain in ante
cedent generations. Yet, tried by just standards they were truly,
genuinely moderate men. Some of the historical reasons for such
moderation have already been named. It was absolutely vital to
the success of the scheme for the establishment of one national
church in Britain, that in the exposition of doctrine as well as
polity, the Assembly should so far as possible conciliate both
Episcopacy and Independency. One index of the earnest desire
of all parties to secure uniformity or at least tacit concurrence in
these matters, appears in the communication addressed at an
early day by Parliament to the Assembly, counseling it to take
into consideration all differences of opinion respecting church
government, and to endeavor an union if it be possible, and in
case that cannot be done, to endeavor the finding out some way
how tender consciences, who cannot in all things submit to the
common rule which shall be established, may be borne with ac
cording to the Word and as may stand with the public peace.
This was as indispensable in doctrine as in government. If
the Assembly had emphasized the five points of Calvinism as
sharply as the Synod of Dort had done a quarter of a century
earlier, it is certain that they could have carried with them
neither the Parliament nor the English people. They also in
dulged, as we have seen, the hope that the formularies they were
preparing would find acceptance on the continent, and possibly
become a doctrinal basis so temperate and catholic that on it all
varieties of Calvinism could stand together. Nor is it too much
to. say that, positive and stringent Calvinists as most of them
were, the Assembly were in the main moderate and considerate
in their feeling toward representatives of other types of belief, —
as we know them to have been remarkably conciliatory toward
one another. Of the latter fact the Minutes, brief as they are,
furnish interesting evidence. What Gillespie described as mutual
endeavors for accommodation, and Reynolds as the mutual con
descensions of brethren, habitually characterized alike the de
bates and the fellowship. Tenacious as Baillie was of high
Augustinianism, he declares in one of his letters, that it shall be
his endeavor that the Assembly meddle not with subtle questions,

CHRISTIAN MODERATION. 803
but leave them to the schools. Gillespie himself in one of his
discourses before Parliament said with great earnestness : Let
that day be darkness ; let not God regard it from above, neither
let the light shine upon it, in which it shall be said that the
children of God in Britain are enemies and persecutors of each
other. One illustration of the prevalent temper appears in the signifi
cant fact, that there is not a single reference in the Confession or
Catechisms from first to last to any antagonistic opinions found
in Protestant creeds. The true doctrine of the sacraments and
espedally of the holy Supper, for example, is clearly and fully
stated, and what is styled the popish sacrifice of the mass, with
its correlated theory of transubstantiation and of grace corpor-
edly recdved, is positively condemned ; but no distinct allusion
to the Lutheran view appears anywhere, except it be in the
statement that Christ is not corporeally or carnally but spiritually
present in that sacred observance. In like manner the doctrines
of the deadness of the wiU in the sinner, and of the absolute
necessity for the initial or prevenient grace of the Spirit in order
to his restoration to spiritual life, are forcibly stated, but with
no visible allusion to the great Arminian controversy in Holland
whose tumultuous noises were still breaking like mad waves on
the English shores. So the theologic conception of the Cove
nants is unfolded in simple phrase, and in the form chiefly of
practical appHcation as explanatory of the doctrine of salvation,
yet wholly without reference to those disputations respecting the
legitimacy and scope of that conception, which were still raging
on the continent. It is also noticeable that while the continental
formularies not infrequently name the errorists whom their doc
trines condemned, (as in the Second Helvetic Conf. where, in
addition to much general condemnation of heretical opinion, no
less than thirty heretical persons or classes are held up specifically
for execration, ) no such instance, appears in the Symbols, except
in the references to the church and polity of Rome. The state
ment that the opinion that men can be saved by following the
Hght of nature, as distinguished from the light of the Gospel, is
very pernicious and to be detested, is hardly an exception ; and the
same may be said of the statement respecting the works done by
unregenerate men, which was designed to be condemnatory of
the erroneous teachings of the nascent English deism.
The Assembly followed the wise rule of presenting the true
doctrines, as they conceived them, as clearly and fully as the limi
tations of a confessional declaration permitted, and then leaving

804 THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
these doctrines to make their way for themselves in silent majesty
against all erroneous or pernicious opinion. They had seen and
known enough respecting the issues of the opposite course, as
exhibited not only in the creeds but in the bitter controversies of
Protestants on the continent, to make them in general both mod
erate and irenic in their doctrinal affirmations. It is also to be
noticed that they repeatedly waived expressions of opinion on
secondary points or issues such as had excited exasperating and
alienating debates in other quarters, and contented themselves
, with the presentation of what they agreed in regarding as funda
mental, or at least as of special importance. Reynolds in his
discourse delivered on a day devoted to fasting and prayer,
exhorted the Assembly in all matters merely problematical and of
private persuasion wherein godly men may be differently minded
without breach of love or hazard of salvation, to set aside their
personal judgmeut and opinions rather than by them to hinder
the peace of the church. This was evidently the general desire
and purpose. Golden silence was often more precious in their
estimation than a hundred silvern expositions.
A fourth characteristic of the Symbols to which occasional
reference has already been made, but which deserves to be men
tioned again in this concluding survey, is their spiritual and
practical quality. Mitchell justly says that the Assembly aimed,
not only to set forth the whole scheme of Reformed doctrine
comprehensively in harmonious development, in a form of which
their country should have no reason to be ashamed in the pres
ence of any of the sister churches on the continent, but also and
above all to present it in a form which would conduce greatly to
the fostering of Christian knowledge and Christian life. One
illustration, already suggested, must suffice. No such descrip
tion of genuine Christian experience in its various stages, can be
found elsewhere in Protestant symbolism as appears in the group
of nine chapters, beginning with Effectual Calling and ending
with the Assurance of Grace and Salvation. These chapters pre
sent the great theme in most tender and impressive style, with a
measure of fullness which leaves no important element untouched,
with a remarkable profoundness of insight into the nature of
man and the operations of the Spirit upon and within man,
yet with a crystalline plainness that renders them intelli
gible even to a child, — illustrating strikingly the aphorism of
Milton, that in matters of religion he is learnedest who is plainest.
These chapters might be read together as a discourse in any
Christian pulpit, with the expectation not only that they would

SPIRITUAL AND ETHICAL QUALITY. 805
De understood, but that they would instruct and convince, con
vict and save. They constitute in fact what is the substance of
the best evangdical preaching of this age as of preceding ages, not
merely in Presbyterian circles, but within all kindred Protestant
communions. There may be differences here or there in minor
interpretation, but in the main, evangelical Christendom today
holds the substance of these nine chapters as expressing the
essence, if not the form, of its belief respecting the great realities
therein set forth — the true doctrine of the Christian Life.
Fifthly : the practical ethics of the Symbols, — their clear enun-
dation of the broad prindples on which all acceptable morality is
based, and their enforcement of these principles, as seen in the
exposition of the Ten Commandments, may fitly be placed by the
side of the description of Christian experience just named. It is
a fact not suffidently noted, that it was their elevated ethical
teaching almost as much as their doctrine or polity, which gave
the Reformed churches throughout Europe their marked influ
ence and their great success. And it may fairly be questioned
whether it was not the system of ethics enunciated by the
Assembly as much as its theology, which gave the Presbyterian
ism of the age such commanding power over the English mind
and consdence. What has been said already respecting the West
minster doctrine of law in its nature, scope and supremacy, and
respecting the place of law in the divine economy of grace, in
both the Old Testament and the New, need not be repeated here.
There is no swerving in the Symbols from the fundamental truth
which natural theology as well as Scripture enforces, that God is
a moral governor over mankind ; that he is administering that
government in infinite equity and infinite grace ; that his holy
law is a reaHty covering the entire life and being of every man,
and that all who live, are and must forever be accountable to him
for their obedience or their disobedience thereto. As has already
been said, there is certainly in all Christian symbolism no such
unfolding of the particular claims of this law as is found in the
two Catechisms, nor is there any chapter or article in any ante
cedent creed which equals that on the law itself in the Confes
sion. While these remain in the Symbols, it can never be said
with justice that they are the dried and dead expressions of a
dead and dried theology — expressions in which the Christianity of
our time need feel no special interest. There may be for the
hour a swinging away in apparent indifference from the cardinal
proposition of the Confession, that God is the alone fountain of
dl being, of whom, through whom, and to whom, are all things ;

806 THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
and that as such he hath most sovereign dominion over them, to
do by them, for them, and upon them, whatsoever himself
pleaseth. But this proposition is as eternal as Deity ; and the
pendulum of theological thought and interest will again swing
toward it with full and reverent recognition. And in that day, if
not in this, the Westminster doctrine of the divine government
and sway as absolutely supreme in human life, will be seen to be
among the most glorious and potential truths taught in these
venerable formularies.
In enumerating these characteristic excellences of the Symbols,
it is neither necessary nor legitimate to hesitate in noting their
correspondent defects. No wise ex-
4. Defects in the Symbols: ponent or defender may close his
Rules of interpretation : special . ., , . ... „„ „„„„,j.„„
, . , . , ,. eyes to the fact that, as according
points of objection. , „ , . ..,.,. ..
to the Confession itself all councils
may err and many have erred, so the Assembly made mistakes at
various points in its exposition of the Christian faith. No doc
trinal temple, constructed by the hand of man, is to be pro
nounced complete or perfect, however substantial its material or
beautiful its proportions. But in examining such defects in the
Symbols, care must be taken to deal justly with them, and to test
them by none but fair and wise considerations. First of all, it is
an obvious rule of interpretation that the terms and phrases
employed in them should be apprehended, not according to the
current usage of this age, but in the exact sense in which they
were understood by the authors, when used in their definitions
of doctrine. Such expressions as mere love, mere grace, mere
good pleasure, for example, are not in any degree depreciative,
but imply simply that the divine love or grace or pleasure referred
to are pure, unmixed with other elements, — crystalline and per
fect. Such words as utterly and wholly, when used to describe
the entirety of sin in the nature, should in like manner be inter
preted, not as expressing what is often signified by the uncon-
fessional though theological phrase, total depravity — a natural
deadness of the sinful soul, often with an implication that such
deadness renders the sinner as bad as he could possibly be, — but
simply as affirming that sin has taken supreme possession not of
the will only, or the affections only, but of the whole or total man.
The word, pleasure, so often understood as indicating an arbitrary
or inexplicable delight or some willful caprice on the part of God,
is in fact a term borrowed from royal courts to indicate the behest
or decision of an absolute sovereign. As applied to the disposi-

THE SYMBOLS DEFICIENT. 807
tion or action of God, it designates a moral quality— not happi
ness merely, but happiness regulated by infinite holiness.
In like manner the terms, power and sovereignty, imply not only
inherent ability to produce or to control results, but such ability
coupled with infinite righteousness and goodness,— the sovereign
power which bdongs to God as the supreme Being, and is wielded
by him in all spheres with absolute equity and love. In a similar
way such representative terms as will, counsel, decree, covenant,
have unquestionably become largely specialized, in some cases
broadened and in others much narrowed, and in various ways
diverted in significance, since they were employed by the divines
of Westminster to describe their philosophical and theological
bdiefs. The various divisions and subdivisions of the word,
justice, introduced by later theologians, and especially as used in
their recondite rdations to the atoning sacrifice of Christ, furnish
a very practical illustration of the same fact. We may note also
such terms as estate, as signifying a general condition rather than
a legal status ; guilt, not as in all cases indicating penal culpa
bility, but rather some exposure to retributive consequences
flowing from the acts of others ; and good works, as pointing not
to deeds induced by natural morality; but to such deeds as the
Holy Spirit leads the soul to perform — works that accompany
sdvation. All of these terms have occasionally been employed
by dogmatizing expositors in senses which the Assembly would
have hesitated to accept, or possibly would have openly rejected.
A similar rule of interpretation ought in fairness to be recog
nized in the consideration of many minor statements and declara
tions in the Symbols. Obviously, these should always be inter
preted, not by the standards of theological opinion or of doctrinal
development in some subsequent era like our own, but in full
view of the times when and the circumstances amid which these
formularies were written, and also of all that had preceded them
along either confessional or theological lines during the stirring
era of the Reformation. When, for illustration, we read their
statements respecting the civil magistracy, the authority of the
dvil power within the church, the obligation of magistrates to
enforce church discipline by civil pains and penalties, wejare
bound to interpret these declarations in full view, not of our own
times or country, but of Britain in the seventeenth century, and
of the special conditions which led to and in a degree justified
such teachings. Again, when the pope of Rome is said in the
Confession to be the man of sin and son of perdition, or the church
of Rome is contemned as a synagogue of Satan, or its adherents

808 THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
are classed with infidels and idolaters, it is but just to bear in
mind the strongly hostile relations of Protestantism and Roman
ism throughout Europe in the age when these declarations were
written, and also the equally condemnatory teachings of nearly
all the antecedent Protestant creeds. These are but two out of
many illustrations that might be named. The justice of the
general rule suggested — the injustice of any other mode of treat
ment, will be readily acknowledged. To estimate such incidental
teachings by the light which the succeeding centuries have shed
on the subjects discussed, would be equivalent to demanding
that the Assembly should have known in advance all that has
been revealed by Providence or by the Holy Spirit to subse
quent ages.
It is an obvious fact that no small proportion of the criticism
made upon the Symbols relates to such matters, of language.
modes of expression, minor statements and declarations, — criti
cism which careful and candid consideration will do very much to
correct. Defects in essential doctrine, wherever they become
manifest, are of course much more serious. So far as any such
defects are attributable to the Calvinistic system in general, little
need be said respecting them at this point ; they have already come
sufficiently under our review. From the days of John Calvin
until now, that system has been sordy assailed on many sides :
to detail such assaults even in mere outline would require vol
umes. Its five points have each and all been resisted by argument,
beclouded through misrepresentation, held up to aspersion and
ridicule. Its central truth, the divine sovereignty dominant in
grace as in nature, has been condemned as radicaUy inconsistent
with the correlated truth of human freedom, and as substantially
resolving all human experience within the religious sphere into
fatalism. Its interpretation of the Gjospel^as a scheme of elective
grace, and its affirmation of the sovereignty of the Spirit in the
exercise of his regenerating and sanctifying power, are said to
obliterate all responsibility on the part of man, and to make
salvation a matter of destiny merely. Its attempts to harmonize
divergent elements in doctrine, and to bring antithetic truths
into coherence and unity around its central principle, have been
declared to be failures. The effort to sustain such a doctrinal
system has been pronounced hopeless, and the prophecy has been
made that in some future era not very far distant Calvinism will
cease to exist except as an offensive memory. Such adverse
criticism has also been much excited and stimulated, if not in
some degree justified, by the course of those advocates of the

ALLEGED DEFECTS IN CALVINISM. 809
system who have ignored its many vital relations to other types
of evangelical doctrine, and have found their chief occupation in
emphasizing differences, and pressing into the foreground its
extremer elements, in violent antagonism with all other Chris
tian systems. Indeed it has been questioned whether such advo
cates, in their excess of zeal and their sweeping and exclusive
daims in its favor, have not been at times almost as injurious to
it as its avowed opponents. Yet, notwithstanding all observable
defects in generic Calvinism, and all exterior antagonisms and
unfortuaate- or misguided advocacy, such has been the inherent
vitality of the system, and such its impregnable foundation and
warrant in Holy Writ, that it has been able for nearly three
centuries to sustain itself successfully against opposition and hin
drance of whatever variety. And the supreme fact of present
moment is, that it stiU lives as an acceptable form of evangelical
doctrine, notwithstanding all real or supposed blemishes attaching
to it, — that it was never stronger or more commanding than it is
now, — and that it bids fair to abide in vigor and influence, though
doubtless with further development and improvement, through
the coming centuries.
It must be confessed, however, that the Symbols have excited
special objections above most other Calvinistic creeds, by the
peculiarly strong and tenacious mode in which they set forth the
generic doctrine concerning man, concerning the divine decree or
decrees, and concerning the plan and process of grace, including
both election and reprobation. It has already been admitted that
their dehneation of man as a sinner, and of his moral helplessness
apart from divine grace, is too sweeping and forbidding, not only
in phraseology but also in substance. They do not recognize
with sufficient fuUness those better elements in fallen human
nature, those rational and ethical capabilities surviving in the
soul, which may and do coexist with a spiritual pravitas such as
no power less than divine can remedy. And it is unquestionably
one of the delicate but indispensable offices of living Calvinism to
adjust these antithetic conceptions more exactly and more in
harmony with the underlying verities in the case. But even here
it is hard for a reaUy considerate, honest, conscientious mind, after
careful scrutiny of human nature just as it reveals itself in the life
of humanity, to say how much subtraction should be made from
the confessional statements, or just what addition is requisite to
secure exact, absolute correspondence between these affirmations
and the profound and sad reality. The more deeply one reflects
in aU soberness on things as they are, the more will he probably

810 THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
be inclined to conclude that, however open to criticism the lan
guage employed may be, the substantial doctrine affirmed is not
so very far astray either from the solemn teachings of Scripture
or from the equally solemn revelations of actual life.
What has been said already respecting the eternal decree, in its
nature and scope and historic evolution, renders needless in this
final review more than a brief word of explanation. We are
familiar with the long and earnest debates on this subject in the
Assembly, — ending in the use, by obvious compromise, of the
singular term, decree, or the one eternal and comprehending
counsel and purpose, free and omniscient and immutable, as
defined in the Confession ; and of the plural term, decrees, or the
wise, free and holy acts emanating from that eternal purpose,
but executed successively in time, as set forth in the Larger
Catechism. The speculative conception of one such comprehen
sive decree or determination, formed before the existence of any
creature or object, and slowly unfolding itself through the ages,
with infinite wisdom and infinite power, must always retain a
place in Christian theology, — partly because it furnishes the
necessary basis for philosophic thought respecting God and his
acts, but chiefly because it is so frequently suggested by the
phraseology of Scripture. Yet this conception, broadly stated,
does seem to include both the natural or physical universe and
the psychical or moral universe in one and the same process of
evolution in time, and thus to subject the movements of winds
or planets, and the spiritual experiences of men and angels alike,
to the same fixed and immutable method, determined fundamen
tally by the eternal will. And in the presence of such a tremen
dous verity, it seems hard to find proper room for the antithetic
truth that, living and acting in the very center of such an evolu
tion, man is really free, and is consequently responsible for the
part he takes in the vast and complex process. Nor is it strange
that the doctrine of the one eternal decree is simply cast aside by
some on the ground of its supposed antagonism with the doctrine
of freedom, or that other thoughtful minds, entangled in the per
plexities of such a conception, should doubt whether man is truly
free, and should even lapse into what has been described as a
Christian fatalism, more depressing even than Islam.
Later Calvinism has found relief in large degree from both liabil
ities by describing the eternal counsel and purpose of God as
executing itself according to Scripture in an historic series of
decrees, or of wise, and free and holy acts, occurring in chrono
logic succession, always in vital relation to each other as ante-

EXPLANATION OF THE SYMBOLS. 811
cedent and consequent, but always executed in harmony with
human freedom as well as with the divine purpose. The creation
of man, the covenant of works, the fall, the plan of salvation, the
giving of the law, the incarnation of the Son of God as the
Messiah, the redemptive mission of Christ, are all events or acts,
taking their eternally predestinated place in time, yet in their
historic occurrence involving always the activity of the free will in
man as truly as the comprehending and dominating will of God.
And it is pleasant to note that this associated fact is distinctly
set before us, even more fully than in any other Protestant creed, in
the strong statement of the Confession that God has so endowed
the human will with natural liberty — has so far created man in
his own image, that he is not forced or by any absolute or con
trolling energy of nature determined toward good or toward evil.
Moral liberty is thus recognized as being as truly a fundamental
principle in the world of humanity, as necessity is the funda
mental prindple in the world of nature. While God executes his
great purposes in the physical universe by one series of laws,
adjusted to the constitution and design of that material organism,
he executes his greater purposes in the moral universe wherein
man lives and acts, by quite another series of laws, — laws no less
wisely adjusted to the spiritual constitution of man, yet no less
fixed and definite in their working, even amid all the perplexities
induced by the fact of human liberty and of human sin. This is
a truth clearly emphasized in the Symbols, and one which must
be admitted by every thoughtful student either of Scripture or
of the acts and experiences of our humanity. The one decree
thus inevitably divides itself to our apprehension into two decrees,
inasmuch as there are two such universes, radically different in
their constitution, and as much unlike in experiment as the
unfolding of a lily or rose is unlike the process of regeneration,
or the unfolding of character, blessedness, aspiration, worship in
the Christianized soul. .That the Symbols, while they recognize
both of those modes of divine activity, lay the chief stress on the
agency of God in the moral sphere, and that within this sphere
they always count the divine efficiency first and supreme, and
regard the human activity involved as secondary and subordinate,
is very obvious. And possibly it is true that too much stress is
laid relatively on what God does, and too little stress relatively
on what man does or ought to do, in the matter of his own salva
tion. Yet such a defect is after all less perilous to religion and
to the interests of the soul, than that which regards man as
equaUy with God the arbiter of his own spiritual destinies.

812 THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
Further objections under this head relate to the confessional
teachings respecting the plan of salvation in its design and scope,
the sufficiency and efficacy of the atonement and mediation of
Christ, the particular and unconditional election and salvation of
those who are embraced in that plan, and the reprobation and
condemnation of the rest of mankind. These objections have
already come repeatedly into view in the progress of these studies,
and may now be passed with the single suggestion that they very
largely lose their force, when contemplated in the light of the
important modifications and meliorations of the earlier Calvinistic
teaching which have been extensively accepted in more recent
times. The design and scope of the plan of salvation, for example,
have come to be appreciated by living Calvinism as they could not
have been by the divines of the sixteenth and seventeenth centu
ries. The current view of the range and possible efficiency of
the atonement and mediation of Christ, has certainly been greatly
broadened, though without any sacrifice of the essential doctrine
as held by the primitive Calvinism. The scope of election also
has been vastly widened, with respect at least to infants and
imbeciles and to the heathen races. The divine sovereignty in
grace has come to be held at various points in closer conjunction
with the antithetic truth that God so loved the world as to give
his Son for its redemption. Such broad views were not unknown
even in the Assembly. Arrowsmith in his noted discourse on
Christ as the Sun of Righteousness, declared that there is no
man but partakes of his light, his goodness, in one kind or other,
though with much variety in the success. Ever since his day
there have been Calvinists who have held similar convictions as
to the extensive scope of divine grace and the cosmic possibilities
inherent in the plan of salvation. Such meliorations of the earlier
doctrine were never so widely affirmed or so freely admitted as
now ; nor was Calvinism ever so conscious as now of its spiritual
affinities with other types of evangelical theology on these points-
points where once the . fiercest antagonism prevailed. Neither
does such affiliation involve any abandonment of what is really
fundamental in the Calvinistic as distinct from other theological
systems : essential Calvinism is in fact becoming all the stronger,
loftier and more comprehensive and influential through this
meliorating and irenic process.
In their severe statements respecting reprobation, or the final
condemnation of the wicked as determined in the eternal decree
or purpose of God, the Symbols are indeed peculiar. No other
Reformed creed, unless it be the Synod of Dort or the Lambeth

REPROBATION— PRETERITION. 813
Articles, (which have rather an historical than a confessional
value, ) contains any dedaration so positive. The Synod defined
what was called the decree of reprobation, (Head I : Art. 15) as
the sovereign determination of God to leave some men in the
common misery into which they have willfully plunged them
selves, withholding from them the grace of conversion, and in
his just judgment permitting them to follow their own way, even
down to condemnation and punishment. But this final result
was represented as turning, not on an eternal purpose to create
men in order that God might exhibit his justice in their ultimate
condemnation — as Calvin had held — but on their free choice of
sin and evil, with its consequence in misery, temporal and eternal.
It is noticeable that the Remonstrant or Arminian party against
whom this Canon was framed, while affirming that Christ died
for aU men, and that by his cross he has actually obtained redemp
tion and the forgiveness of sins for all who will believe on him,
stiU admitted that the incorrigible and unbelieving are left in
their sin, and are under divine wrath as alienate from Christ.
And the Westminster Symbols go no further than the Synod of
Dort in their statement respecting the cause and the ground of
the condemnation of men : they nowhere proceed to the extreme
position of Calvin, that in the eternal purpose wicked men were
made in order to be damned, in iUustration of the divine justice.
The Assembly evidently shrank from the severities of such
an affirmation, and fdl back upon the more negative con
ception of preterition, as a substitute for the positive dogma of
reprobation. Some of the members held with Calamy (Minutes,
153) that by virtue of the death of Christ there is an adminis
tration of grace even to the reprobate, so that they in rejecting
such grace do wiUfuUy damn themselves as a massa corrupta.
It is a fact of considerable significance that, in deference to this
opinion, it was proposed and somewhat debated in the Assembly
to omit any statement respecting reprobation. This would have
been in harmony with the course pursued in the framing of most
of the continental symbols, which are quite silent respecting the
relation of the divine decree to those who reject the divine grace.
The statement in the Confession finally agreed upon, (Ch. Ill : vii)
simply declares that God, in the exercise of his sovereign power
or dominion over his creatures passes by the wicked and trnbe-
Heving, and ordains them to dishonor and wrath for their sins, to
the praise of his glorious justice. Wherever reference is made
dsewhere to such final condemnation, the divine decree is repre
sented as, not absolute Hke the decree of creation, but relative

814 THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
and conditioned on the antecedent fact of sin: It may be added
that the modification proposed in the recent Revision, though not
wholly satisfactory, is a manifest improvement on the original
section, since it affirms that God hath no pleasure in the death of
the wicked, nor is it his decree, but the wickedness of their own
hearts, which restraineth and hindereth them from accepting the
free offer of his grace made in the Gospel.
It surely involves no disparagement of generic Calvinism if we
admit the existence of such deficiencies as have now been named :
we may rather glory in the fact that in its historic evolution it has
shown such capacity to correct its earlier defects, and to grow
with the ages into larger and finer proportions. A striking illus
tration of this healthful capability may be seen in the Essay of
the younger Edwards on the Improvements in Theology made,
as he claims, by his illustrious father. It may fairly be questioned
whether his filial interpretation is in every instance accurate, yet
his claim is in substance just and valid. These Improvements
include many of the most central and vital topics in Christian
theology, such as the end of God in creation, the origin of
moral evil, the nature of virtue, liberty and necessity, the basis of
atonement, imputation, regeneration and. conversion, and experi
mental religion. It cannot be questioned that ever since the day
of Edwards the term, Calvinism, has had a broader, loftier, more
spiritual meaning than it had possessed in any previous age.
That further improvements have been made since that day is
manifest to every careful student of Calvinistic Hterature : that
still other improvements are possible, and will in due time be
gained, is not less manifest to one who studies well the current
trends and tendencies in theologic thought. It lies in the very
nature of Calvinism, perhaps above any other system of doctrine,
to be thus unfolding itself continuously — developing and maturing
through the centuries from its Pauline stock : were it to pause in
such evolution, it would soon becorne as dry and dead a thing as
the metaphysical dogmatism of the Scholastic ages. And surely
Calvin himself would have been the first to repudiate the notion
that his system was finished and complete as it came from his
master hand.
Passing from this final survey of the excellences and the de-
ficiences discernible in the Symbols, we naturally turn to consider
the closely related question involved in the effort to impose
them as authoritative formularies, as the only legitimate exposi
tions of religious doctrine and duty, throughout the British Isles.

AUTHORITY OF THE SYMBOLS. 815
We are not concerned here with the inherent right of such system
atic and condensed statements of Christian truth to be received
in virtue of what they are in them-
selves-an authoritative claim that *' Authority «T the Sym-
, . , bols: Question of toleration.
is of course primal and fundamental.
We contemplate rather the type of authoritativeness resident in
the church as the organized exponent and representative of such
truth, and the right of the church to require acceptance of its
confessional teaching — the matter, in other words, of ecclesias
tical jurisdiction and ecdesiastical toleration in matters of faith.
Attention has already been directed to this practical problem in
the discussion of the doctrine of the Civil Magistracy, and the
supposed obligation of the magistrate to sustain the church in
the enforcement of faith and duty by the hand and authority of
the state. But in the instance now in question there are some
other aspects of the problem which call for further consideration
at this point.
It may be legitimately claimed at the outset, though it is often
denied, that the doctrine and polity and worship prescribed by
the Assembly were in reality framed in the interest of religious
Hberty. The members of that body knew well the dark story of
those days when Romanism, under the patronage of Mary, en
forced its sovereignty in England through persecutions and even
by martyrdoms. They remembered the days, nearer at hand,
when Episcopacy under Laud had asserted its supremacy, not
indeed in aspects so dreadful yet with marked severities. Some
of them had suffered in standing, in property and in person, at
the hands of prelatist rulers. While they were not seriously
burdened by the imposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles regarded
as a scheme of doctrine, they had been sorely oppressed by the
demand for uniformity in order and worship, enforced by both
the ecclesiastical and the civil power. And since the opportunity
long desired had now come, to "frame a polity which should con
form to their deep convictions of human rights in the sphere of
religion, and to devise a mode of worship which would give them
freedom from galling liturgical bondage, they gladly welcomed
that opportunity. That they were wholly free from the influence
of other and less exalted considerations, cannot be claimed.
They were men of like passions with others,- and some measure
of personal pride and desire to rule, of partisan narrowness and
severity also, and of a sentiment of hostility if not of vengeance
toward those who had dominated so haughtily over them , doubt
less mingled more or less with their better purposes. Yet they

816 THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
consciously wrought in the interest of liberty, civil as well as
religious. Their enunciation of the sublime truth that God alone
is Lord of the conscience, and that the conscience is therefore
free from the obligation to submit to any doctrines or command
ments of men that are contrary to his Word or beside it, was a sub
lime step in advance of anything that England or Europe had ever
known. It was a declaration which applied to the State as well as
the Church, and which if faithfully put into practice, would
secure to every man in the civil as well as in the ecclesiastical
sphere, all those rights and prerogatives in belief and in act which
belong to man as man. That declaration carries with it by
inevitable inference, not only a mutual recognition of liberty on
the part of all believers, but also the living sentiment of brother
hood, binding and uniting all men by the closest spiritual
ties. Toleration, forbearance, confidence, the sense of unity
amid diversities not fundamental, all flow spontaneously from
this fountain. To have proclaimed such a declaration, and to
have framed their doctrine and polity and worship so largely in
harmony with it, is an honor of which the divines of Westminster
can never be justly deprived.
It may also be fairly affirmed that, when they had accomplished
their task so far as practicable, and when through their agency
Presbyterianism had been in a sense established in Britain as the
lawful religion of the realm, they were not extreme in the spirit
and method with which they pressed the claim of uniformity.
Toward Romanism they were indeed unflinchingly severe: toward
those whom they regarded as in a positive sense errorists, such
as Socinians or Quakers or Antinomians, they were disposed to
enforce that claim with much persistence, and even by the arm
of civil power. We have seen how strenuous they became — more
and more strenuous as such errorists of various kinds sprang up
around them in increasing swarms — in endeavoring to suppress
open heresy even by the imprisonment of heretics, and the burn
ing of heretical books and other kindred proceedings. But
toward Episcopalians on one side and the rising Independents on
the other side, they were habitually considerate, at least according
to the standard and habit of their times. The debates in the
Assembly repeatedly show how conciliatory and how patient and
generous they were toward the latter party, which was so soon
to be put in the same civil position, and be subjected to the same
moral tests, — quite as conciliatory and as patient and generous
as Cromwell and his allies proved to be in the brief day of thdr
power. For it is an unquestionable fact that the Independents

QUESTION OF TOLERATION. 817
drew the same lines of distinction against errorists which the
Assembly had drawn, and enforced them just as rigorously.
The sixteen doctrines named as fundamental by John Owen,
their most celebrated divine, present a standard of orthodoxy
hardly less rigid, if any, than that of Westminster ; and the
record of their brief supremacy in England shows how earnest
they were in the maintenance of these doctrines, even by severe
dvil processes. Cromwell himself at an early stage in his career
declared that Presbyterians, Independents, all have the same
spirit of faith and prayer, ... all have the real unity, the
most glorious, being the inward and spiritual, in the body and in
the Head. In things of the mind, he once added, we look for
no compulsion but that of light and reason. Yet as the conflict
of opinion and purpose and of political interest went on, Crom-
weU became as dogmatic and bitter against opposition as any,
and the Presbyterians became at last his special aversion.
Prof. Mitchdl has justly daimed for the Assembly, that they
reddmed for Hberty much which had before them been kept
under subjection to authority, both ecclesiastical and dvil; and
that in various ways, as by limiting lawful commands in matters
of faith and worship to things enjoined in the Word of God,
they helped forward the cause of freedom in both church and
state, and planted the seed from which, as the divine Word was
better studied and understood, a fuUy developed system of toler
ation could not fail to grow. He also claims that, besides the
Hberty thus secured within the church, the Assembly granted or
at least acquiesced in a larger amount of freedom and of toleration
outside of the church, than had ever been enjoyed in Britain
before. Masson says that there were three types or grades of
toleration in England at this period ; absolute liberty of con
science, with no national church or interference with religion by
the state ; unlimited toleration in and around an established
national church ; and limited toleration within such a church; —
all alike opposed by the dogma of no toleration, and of absolute
and coerced conformity within the one religious establishment.
It is quite apparent, though each of these four views had repre
sentatives in the Assembly, that the majority, although Masson
thinks otherwise, after long discussion accepted the mediate
doctrine of an established church, with limited toleration of
conflicting beliefs and policies. It may be that, had the doctrinal
system of the Assembly been less extended and elaborate, and
had the polity been less rigidly wrought out, the area of true
Hberty for themselves and for others would have been considerably

818 THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
broader, and practical toleration would have been more fully
realized. But on the other hand it should be remembered that a
great multitude of sects and parties had sprung up on English
soil during that eventful period, and that among them there were
some who had wholly lost sight of the broad distinction between
liberty and license, and who if they had been suffered to have
their own way, would have plunged both church and state, and
the Christian faith with them, into remediless confusion. It was
as necessary therefore, to guard against destructive license —
against loose doctrines and loose theories, clamoring on every
side for recognition, as against the tyranny, civil and ecclesias
tical, which in the name of religion had in fact been driving
rehgion from the land. This is the historic explanation of the
emphatic clauses in chapter XX, declaring that those who upon
pretense of Christian liberty do practice any sin or cherish any
lust, and those who upon the same pretense publish opinions
that are contrary to the light of nature or to the known principles
of Christianity, or destructive to the peace and order of the
church, shall be called to account and proceeded against through
ecclesiastical and also civil censures. The position of Luther
between the priesthood of Rome on one hand and the Anabaptist
insurrectionists on the other, was substantially like that of the
Assembly, and their policy like his was one of mediate wisdom,
cautiously steering clear of two equally destructive extremes.
It would certainly be requiring too much to demand in their
case a temper and habit of toleration such as our own age can
hardly be said to have attained. It was necessary that there
sheuld be some long and sharp experiences, some severe testing
of the broad principle that God alone is Lord of the conscience,
before its real nature and its proper scope and authoritativeness
could be seen. That principle had been in some degree affirmed
even from the age of Luther, in the specific form of the right of
private judgment ; and in that form had been recognized as an
essential basis both of Protestant doctrine and of Protestant life.
Yet that just rule had been perverted by the Sodnians and others
on the continent as a justification of destructive license in thought
and belief, especially in the interpretation of the divine Word.
Similar peril accompanied the principle as enunciated by the
Assembly in their noble chapter on Christian Liberty and Liberty
of Conscience. They presented it in positive and mandatory
form, and faithfully warned all men against betraying such liberty
of conscience, and betraying reason also, by believing any dogma
or yielding to any practice upon human authority only. Yet, as

TRUE CATHOLICITY SHOWN. 819
we have already had occasion to note, they knew not how to
apply their own rule in all cases, and especially in the very trying
circumstances that environed them, and in various ways fell
short of their own noble declaration. But surely we who, with
larger light and the benefits of much recorded experience, some
times fail in such application, are hardly at liberty to regard them
and their mistakes with severity. Toleration is a plant of slow
and difficult growth in the human soul ; as an experience it
requires time and patience for its evolution. The idea of tolera
tion, says Masson, was bom out of pain, out of suffering, out of
persecution ; not pain inflicted constantly on one and the same
section of men, but pain revolving, pain circulated, pain distribu
ted, tiU the whole round of the concourse of sects had felt it in
turn ; and it was not till then that the only principle of its
prevention gradually dawned on the common consciousness.
Forty additional years of such experience were requisite in Britain
before the Toleration Act of 1688 could be passed; and the
passage of that celebrated Act was only one of the early steps in
a process which it has required generations, even centuries, to
bring to its present stage of development.
One marked iUustration of the truly Christian moderation and
cathoHdty prevalent at least in some Presbyterian circles, may
be seen in the Vindication of The Presbyterial Government and
Ministry, a pamphlet issued by the Provincial Assembly of Lon
don, shortly after the Westminster Assembly had completed its
doctrinal work, but before its final adjournment.* This little
treatise argues against the urging of uniformity in circumstantial
things, on the ground that the parts, gifts, and graces of men
differ, and that if there be no forbearance in inferior matters,
there must be perpetual conflict within the church. It enjoins
upon aU Christians the duty of studying whatever may tend to
unity, on the ground that unity is as essential in religion as
purity ; and the further duty of abiding in communion within
*The Provincial Assembly was an ecclesiastical body created by ordinance
of Parliament to supervise for the province of London the interests of the
Presbyterian church within that province. It was composed of represent
atives from the twelve minor assemblies (presbyterial bodies) organized
within the same territory. Its first meeting was held in May 1647, and it
continued to hold regular sessions twice annually until the death of Cromwell,
and the accession of Charles II to the throne ; after which event English
Presbyterianism became a vanishing shadow. One of its most significant
acts was its strenuous Testimony, in 1647, against the Errours, Heresies and
Blasphemies of these Times, and the Toleration of them : Pres. Review,
Jan. 1881.

820 THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
the one church organization, in the temper of tolerance with
antithetic beliefs. It forbids all needless ruptures within the
church, protests against divisions among churches, or setting up
one church against another, and all schismatic gathering of
churches out of true churches because of difference in small
matters. It declares that such divisive processes will not only
disturb, but in time will destroy the purity and power of religion,
ruin the peace of Christians and Christendom, and open a wide
gap for the entrance of atheism and heresy and all manner of
wickedness. And finally the members of the body, some of whom
were members of the Assembly also, solemnly pledged themselves
to preach up and to practice mutual forbearance and toleration
in all things that may consist with the fundamentals of religion,
with the power of godliness, and with that peace which Christ
hath established in his church. Certainly the men who could
enunciate such a statement as this were not the narrow, bigoted,.
intolerant men whom Hallam and others decry them as being ;
and so far as they represented the sentiment of current Presby
terianism at that painful juncture in English history, those who
ecclesiastically are their descendants have no occasion to blush
on their behalf. The boastful catholicity of this age has said or
done nothing that is worthier of commendation.
In conjunction with this brief survey of the position and author
ity of the Symbols on British soil, it will be well to glance once more
at their relations to Protestant symbol-
6. Relation of the Symbols ism on the continent, and their marked
toother Protestant creeds: to . „ . , ., , . ,
continental Protestantism. »* ™n« *P°n continental thought and
life. These relations have already
been suggested at various points in this series of studies, but
deserve some further notice in this final Lecture. It has been
again and again apparent, not merely that the differences between
the Symbols and preceding Protestant creeds of continental origin
are far less extensive or important than the resemblances, but
further, that as to all the essential elements of Christian doctrine,
we may discern in them, not merdy similarities, but a broad and
grand unity. Respecting the cardinal truths of revelation, of God
in his being and activities, of man in his moral constitution and
his lost condition through sin, of Christ in his person and his
offices as the Savior of the world, of the nature of salvation and
its conditions and manifestations, and of the church with its holy
ordinances and worship and mission, these creeds are essentially
one — one and indivisible in the substance if not in the form of their

CONTINENTAL RELATIONS OF THE SYMBOLS. 821
teaching. We indeed discover in them varieties in phraseology
and statement, and in order and grouping and fullness, and these
varieties are sometimes so marked as to distinguish them sharply
one from another. We also discover actual differences here and
there in the proportion or the emphasis with which certain
doctrines are held, or occasionally in the very matter of these
doctrines. One of the most obvious illustrations appears in the
antithetic and to some extent mutually exclusive teachings of the
Lutheran and the Reformed creeds respectively touching the
nature of the presence of Christ in the eucharistic feast. Yet the
supreme fact, manifest above all such variations, is the funda
mental unity which binds all these formularies together in what
may in the largest sense be styled a Book of Holy Concord. And
it is the pecuhar glory of the Symbols of Westminster that, more
than any other single creed, they represent and incorporate this
doctrinal unity : for it is hardly an exaggeration to say that
in them as in a mirror we may almost see the entire doctrinal
process of Protestantism making itself confessionally manifest.
It was this fact that led the Assembly, or at least some propor
tion of its members, to entertain the hope already adverted to, that
the Confession they were framing might win its way to general
favor and possibly to formal acceptance in the continental churches.
There are evidences that this hope was entertained by many in
England, outside of the Assembly. In the Act of the House of
Lords, approving the first nineteen chapters of the Confession, it
was declared (Minutes, 291) that this action is taken in order
that the Protestant churches abroad, as well as the people of the
kingdom at home, may know that the Parliament did never
intend to innovate matters of faith, — doubtless, in other words,
did not intend to depart in anything essential, from the general
beHef of continental Protestantism. Such a hope must indeed
have been less strongly indulged with respect to the Lutheran
communions. The marked differences in the conception of the
sacraments, and especially the eucharist, as set forth in the
Lutheran creeds, and also the obvious distinction between the
positive and strong Augustinianism maintained by the Assembly,
and the mediate Augustinianism with which the influence of
Melancthon had infected Germany, stood in the way. The affili
ations between Lutheranism and the type of Episcopacy which
had prevailed in England for one or two generations, proved a
still stronger barrier.* But no such hindrance prevented the free
*An amusing yet painful illustration of the separation which had grown
up between the Lutheran and the Reformed parties in general, and especially

822 THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
outflow of feeling and concord toward the Reformed bodies. One
notable manifestation of the degree of intimacy and of mutual
confidence existing, appears in the Circular Letter prepared by
the Assembly at the suggestion of Parliament in November, 1643,
and addressed to the Belgic, French, Helvetian and other Re
formed churches — a communication to which some at least of
these churches responded with strong assurances of agreement
and sympathy.
The primal reason for the hope entertained respecting the
possible acceptance and diffusion of the Symbols on the continent
appears in the fact just suggested, that there were really no
extensive or serious differences between them and the best Re
formed formularies. Almost everything of any moment in any of
these had been recognized and in some way incorporated, though
not always with the same degree of emphasis, in the Symbols.
The adherent of each creed could find there, often iri brighter
coloring, substantially all that had made his own church state
ment precious to him. Macpherson affirms that the second
Helvetic Confession was so far the doctrinal equivalent, not only
of the Scotch Confession, but of the Westminster Confession
also, that those who honestly accepted the one could not reason
ably decline to receive the other. It must also have been obvious
that there was much more in them, like the doctrine of the
Covenants, which although it had not found expression in any
earlier symbol, had been set forth positively in some of the
theologies of the period, and was widely accepted as valuable
doctrine, quite worthy of such confessional incorporation. As
we now view them, the Symbols were not indeed complete as to
contents or perfect as to form, but in both respects they excelled
all preceding creeds, and must have been so regarded by those
continental divines who studied them with care and candor.
Their precision of statement, their special exactness in definition,
their logical order and movement, and their extensive range and
between continental Lutheranism and the British Presbyterians, appears
in the Minutes of the Assembly. One of the members who had been
appointed to examine what are described as the last works of Luther
(last words, as suggested by Mitchell, or possibly, latest publications, )
reported that there was little good in them, that many things would not
advantage the work of reformation, and that they were not fit for publica
tion. Another member found some good things in them, but some of the
oddest conceits he had ever met with ; and the Prolocutor with several
others agreed that there was nothing in them of use to be published. This
was in marked contrast with the deference almost universally paid to the
writings of Calvin.

CONTINENTAL INFLUENCE OF THE ASSEMBLY. 823.
comprehension, must have impressed such divines with a special
sense of respect. The fine spiritual tone, the deep religious
experience manifest in them must have deepened greatly the
impression made by the other qualities just named. AU in all,
it would seem that if any Protestant creed had merit and potency
enough to bear transplantation, or could take root healthfully on
any other than its native soil, the Westminster Symbols might
be expected to attain such distinction.
To the attractive qualities inherent in the Symbols themselves,
there were added other inducements to such acceptance, springing
from the marked character and position of the Assembly itself.
The Synod of Dort bore, as we have seen, more of the aspect of
a general or ecumenical council, and as being continental rather
than insular, would naturally exert a more potent influence upon
the Reformed communions, many of which had been actually
represented in its conferences. But in respect to numbers and
the prominence of its membership, and especially in respect to
the variety and range of the topics considered, that Synod clearly
feU behind, even in the estimate of the other Reformed bodies
outside of HoUand, the venerable council which had sat for five
long years in the Jerusalem Chamber, and during that time had
considered and acted upon, not merely the five points of Calvinism
but almost every other doctrine that stands in any vital connection
with the fundamental belief of the Church of Christ on earth.
The supremacy of Presbyterianism in Scotland, and its ascend
ancy for the hour in England, doubtless added much to the
significance of the Assembly as a national representative of general
Calvinism. In Hke manner, the desire for unity which had grown
up in nearly all circles of evangelical Protestantism, and espec-
iaUy in the Reformed communions, and the increasing conscious
ness that no successful headway could be made against Rome
except through closer confederation and more distinct doctrinal
if not ecclesiastical agreement, tended strongly in the same
direction. The devoted labors of John Durie, a member of the
Assembly who gave a large part of his life to the task of unifying
Protestantism throughout Europe, and the kindred labors of
other men of like spirit, such as Henderson, also contributed to
give the Symbols very high authority as confessional documents
wherever Calvinism had been able to root itself. The endeavor
of Durie is described in his treatise, published eight years after
the adjournment of the Assembly and entitled, Negotiations for
the procuring of true Gospel Peace, with Christian Moderation
and charitable Unity among the Protestant Churches and Acad-

824 THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
emies. In that treatise he urges all parties to forbear discussion
of trifling differences, and to seek for universal concord, and
with respect to the symbolical books to make all practicable
concessions in order to secure deeper unity in faith and fellow
ship : Historical Note, Presbyt. Rev. April, 1887. Had such
unity been secured, if not ecclesiastically — which was hardly
possible under the existing geographic and political conditions —
yet doctrinally and spiritually, around the Westminster formu-
ularies as constituting a common creed sufficient for all the
Reformed communions, there is little doubt that the history of
European Protestantism would have recorded many a brighter
page than we are now permitted to read.
But the hindrances in the case were many — too many. The
suggestion of Durie and Henderson, like the scheme of the
Assembly for the unification of Protestantism in Britain, was far
ahead of the age: the times were not ripe for either consummation.
These hindrances are easily discerned : some of them may be
mentioned here. The very extent and copiousness of the Sym-
bols, required by that effort after completeness which led Dean
Stanley to say that the Confession approached more nearly than.
any other creed to the full proportions of a theological treatise,
doubtless stood in the way of its general acceptation. It was too
extensive, too elaborate, too closely articulated logically, to be
easily apprehensible to or appreciated by the continental mind.
It was also distinctively British, distinctively Saxon, in its
terminology, and in the form though not the substance of its
doctrines ; and on this account was the less acceptable outside of
Britain. Differences of language and usage, differences in minor
elements of church order and in public worship, differences in
the modes of handling and presenting sacred truth in the pulpit
and elsewhere, also obstructed the path that led toward doctrinal
unification. The vast distances between Britain and the Protes
tant kingdoms such as Switzerland and even Holland,— distances
now so easily traversed, also prevented any large measure of
fellowship or of general affiliation. But the most serious hind
rance of all lay in the sad fact that Presbyterianism could not
sustain itself at home, either as a polity or as a representative of
Calvinistic doctrine. After the brief triumph and supremacy of
English Independency, and especially after the restoration of
Episcopacy as the national church in England, the influence of
the Symbols on the continent necessarily and rapidly declined,
and the possible unification of the Reformed churches on them
as a doctrinal standard became a vanishing dream.

UNION OF PROTESTANTISM IN EUROPE. 825
One other interesting fact may properly be mentioned in this
connection. Hetherington in his History of the Westminster
Assembly refers to the idea of an organized Protestant union or
confederation throughout Christendom, to be established, not
merely for the purpose of counterbalancing popery, but — as he
says— to purify, strengthen and unite all true Christian churches
in the effort of proclaiming the Gospel among all nations. He
teUs us that this grand idea originated in the mind of Henderson,
and was suggested by him to the Scotch commissioners. The
suggestion was afterward presented to the English Parliament,
and that body in response directed the Assembly to send the
Letter of Greeting already mentioned to the various Reformed
churches. The Assembly not only sent the Letter, but forwarded
with it the Solemn League and Covenant, as supplying a suitable
basis for such organic confederation. The leading divines of the
Netherlands not only responded cordially to this Letter, but
expressed their willingness to unite with the Presbyterianism of
Britain on that basis. How far other Reformed churches re
sponded to this proposal, the subsequent Minutes of the Assembly
do not indicate. The disposition of Calvin with respect to such
unification of Protestantism was forcibly expressed in his memor
able letter to Cranmer, eighty years earlier. One of the marked
events of the times, he says, is that the churches are so widely
separated from each other that there is not even a temporal or
human intercourse carried on between them. . . . The body
of Christ is torn asunder because the members are thus separated.
When, he adds, our purpose is to unite the sentiments of all good
and learned men, and so according to the rule of Scripture to
bring the separated churches into one, neither labor nor trouble
of any kind ought to be spared. The noble dream of Calvin
was not to be realized, even in the seventeenth century. It is
probable that the long debates respecting church government,
the delay in the formulation of the doctrinal standards, the
prolonged struggle with Parliament, and the political agitations
and civil wars of the period — not to speak of other causes— ren
dered difficult if not impracticable any and every scheme for
Protestant unification. And when Presbyterianism itself went
down in the intestine conflict in Britain, and its representatives
were deposed from authority and driven into obscurity or into
exile, the possibility of such confederation disappeared altogether.
Nor has there ever been an hour in the succeeding centuries,
when the hope of Henderson respecting a Protestant Union
throughout Europe, mighty in its resistance to Romanism and

826 THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
unbelief, and mightier still in its missionary efficiency as an agent
in bringing the world to Christ, could even approach realization.
Passing out beyond the century in which the Symbols were
written, and beyond the question of their authority and influence
in Britain and on the continent of
7. Permanence and prop- Europe during that eventful century,
agation: ecumenical quality ..„ , , ,
and adaptation. we come upon a still broader and more
intensely practical inquiry, — the in
quiry whether these Symbols contain in themselves the elements
and potencies requisite to an enduring life and to continuous and
cosmic propagation. The permanent vitality and ecumenical
influence of the three ancient creeds, and especially of the earliest
among them, have often been noted as remarkable. To this day
they are not merely monumental records of the Christian faith
in the early ages : they are the testimony and paean of the living
church, and are likely to be such through the ages to come.
But all creeds do not possess such vitality or wield similar influ
ence. Some of the Protestant Confessions have largely ceased
to represent living churches, and are valuable chiefly as mementos
of the eras and the conflicts which produced them. Even the
Second Helvetic Confession, which Hagenbach describes as truly
a theological masterpiece, can hardly be regarded now as a
living or potential formulary. Some of these creeds, though stiU
living, have remained within their own provincial domain, and
have had little appreciable effect on the developing thought of
other lands or times. The Lutheran creeds, as incorporated in
the Book of Concord, still retain a measure of authoritative
influence, notwithstanding widely variant interpretations and
much indifferentism, but are in a degree anachronistic in con
tents, and make comparatively slight impression beyond the
limits of the single nationality that produced them. Gieseler is
indeed quoted by Krauth (Conservative Reformation) asdaiming
that among all the Protestant formularies the Augsburg Confes
sion is the one best fitted to become the theological foundation
for union or confederation among the Protestant churches. That
claim might have significance if Protestantism were always to
remain a mere Protest against the errors of Rome ; but the
Protestantism of this age, especially as represented in the Re
formed communions, with its marked enlargement in experience
and activity, and its newer and fresher conceptions of the Gospel,
could no more readily accept the Augsburg basis than it could
stand on the narrow foundation supplied by the earliest Christian

PERMANENCE OF THE SYMBOLS. 827
creed, with its simple recitation of a few essential facts only.
Practically useful as the Heidelberg Catechism still is, and win
ning in its presentations of dogmatic truth, it was framed for a
comparatively small sphere, has never traveled except in America
far beyond its primitive boundaries, and in its present form could
hardly gain more than a limited acceptance anywhere. Surveying
the whole field, we are almost led to conclude that — the Symbols
of Westminster excepted — the Thirty-Nine Articles, in their
Episcopal and eminently in their Wesley an form, are the only
creed which has stood exceptionally the tests of time, which is
yet a living and influential exponent of Christian belief, or which
seems Hkdy to retain in the future the position it now holds in
the land of its origin and in other lands whither it has been
transplanted. These references emphasize the strong statement of Dean Stanley
(Memorials of Westminster) that, in spite of what he describes
as its sternness and narrowness, the Confession of Westminster
alone of aU Protestant formularies still retains a firm hold on the
minds of its adherents, — a hold to which, he adds, its fervor and
its logical coherence in some measure entitle it. It is surprising
that so catholic a scholar should not have noted those other
qualities which have combined with logical coherence and relig
ious fervor to give the Confession, even above his own ecclesias
tical symbol, the peculiar eminence which he assigns to it, —
especiaUy that depth of theological insight in which, as he says in
another connection, the Confession is far in advance of every
other Protestant creed. It cannot, however, be claimed that,
tenacious as the hold of the Confession has generally been on
those who have once cordially received it as an adequate expres
sion of their personal faith, such eminence has been everywhere
and invariably maintained. We are obliged to confess that there
was a time in the history of British Presbyterianism when that
hold was sadly relaxed, and when even the most distinctive and
essential articles in the Confession were rejected, or at least
ignored, by men who still called themselves Presbyterian. The
history of Christian doctrine has repeatedly shown that funda
mental articles of faith which are held at first as glowing veri
ties, warm and invigorating, may harden by degrees through
intellectual familiarity or continuous use until they change at
length into merely scholastic dogmas, dry and impotent— dogmas
which may still elicit a certain formal, perhaps litigious, species
of loyalty though they are no longer the living, glorious, poten
tial realities they were when originally discerned and embraced.

828 THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
Even the central article of justification by faith in Christ only,
which all Protestants agreed at first in accepting as Luther and
as Calvin stated it, afterwards became in some minds a technical
dogma merely, to others a flaunting banner around which zealots
shouted — in some cases a matter of disputation rather than faith,
and in others an empty sound, of scarcely more significance
spiritually than the papal error which that grand truth had sup
planted. The rise of Moderatism in Scotland, originating largely in the
Marrow Controversy respecting the place and function of law in
Christianity, is a painful illustration of such retrogressive ten
dencies. The very ardor and positiveness of some in the advo^
cacy of the strong Westminster doctrine espedally at this point,
by degrees led others to hesitate and question : enthusiastic
repetition in some quarters induced satiety and dislike in others ;
spiritual indifference degenerated into opposition, and loyalty to
the truth gradually declined and died away, until within less than
a hundred years from the time when the Symbols were unani
mously adopted in Scotland as representing the national faith, a
considerable body of men had appeared who have been justly
described as latitudinarian in doctrine, Erastian in pohcy, and
worldly in life — preachers not of saving truth but of the very
morality against which the divines of Westminster had spoken
so strenuously. A similar phenomenon appeared in England,
but in a form still more painful. Some important doctrines of
the Symbols came by degrees to be widely ignored, and others
were openly rejected : questioning and speculation led on gradu
ally to positive heresy in matters of most vital moment, until at
length — as was said by an ancient historian concerning the early
church just prior to the Council of Nicsea — English Presbyter
ianism woke up during the eighteenth century to find itself in
substance Arian, though still retaining its ancestral name. It is
difficult to account for such lapses from the intellectual and
spiritual vigor which characterized alike the framers of the
Symbols and their times. Yet certainly the development of
Scotch Moderatism in the presence of a theological system so
strong and so animating, was no accident. Nor can such a phe
nomenon as the cold and dry Arianism that came like a blight
upon so many of the churches of England — churches which the
members of the Assembly and their associates had planted and
nourished into fruitfulness — be regarded as accidental. These
results have been explained by some by reference to the very
strength, firmness, cogency of the Symbols, or perhaps the rigid

DEVELOPMENT OF MODERATISM. 829
rule of adherence required, as inducing strong aversion to sub
scription and leading on to positive neglect of it. They have
been interpreted by others as simply a revolt of sinful human
nature, under cover of a Christian profession, against a type of
doctrine which exalted God and made him awful in his decretive
sovereignity, while it humbled man, the sinner, in the very dust.
Possibly we discern here only a vivid illustration of that general
dedension in religion, of that worldliness and formalism and low
indifference to God and duty and the interests of the soul, which
made their appearance in the British Isles during the first part
of the dghteenth century, and against which the uprising of
Methodism was such a magnificent spiritual protest. However
explained, the pitiable fact must be confessed that British Pres
byterianism did suffer such a lapse within a single century after
its grand formulation, doctrinal and ecdesiastical, in Westminster
Abbey. But on the other hand, no more signal evidence of the in
herent vitaHty and recuperative energy of the doctrinal system
there enundated, can be named than appears in the fact that it
not only survived through all the trials that came upon its
representatives during the latter half of the seventeenth century,
but Hved and Hved on through the retrogressive tendencies and
developments just described. It was a grave disaster to be hurled
so suddenly from the throne on which Presbyterianism had hoped
to sit as the lawful church of the three realms, and to be cast
down and trodden under foot, first by Cromwell and his followers,
then by the restored Episcopacy in England. But it was a far
graver disaster to find its own adherents becoming indifferent to
its name and claims, in some instances lukewarm in its defense,
in others abandoning its essential principles, — to see some among
them even forsaking the Lord that bought them, and becoming
recreant to the cardinal doctrines of sin and depravity by nature,
and of redemption through the grace and mediation of a Divine
Christ. Yet in Scotland at least the lapse was not to be contin
uous or total : the heart of the Scotch people still rested on the
old Symbols, as it had once rested on the Solemn League and
Covenant. Moderatism could not flourish long or extensively in
an atmosphere which stiU was redolent with the fragrance of the
names of Knox and Melville, Henderson and Rutherford. Cal
vinistic Presbyterianism, though suffering from such deteriorating
influences, has never been cast down from its high seats of power
in Scotland, and now seems likely never to be thus deposed.
The firm hold of which Stanley spoke, is a firm hold still ; and

830 THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
notwithstanding the enormous losses which have followed from
division after division around issues subordinate if not unimport
ant, there is small reason to fear that the doctrine and polity
which have been supreme so long, will ever be supplanted by
Moderatism or by any kindred defection from the ancestral faith.
Nor is it an unwarrantable expectation that in England also the
Presbyterianism of Westminster, now substantially restored to
its original quality, and already strong through the adhesion of
a multitude of intelligent and conscientious supporters, may yet
become in fact, though never through ecclesiastical supremacy,
as great a spiritual and uplifting force as it was at the hour when
a blinded Parliament proclaimed it the lawful religion of the
British Isles.
The historic transplantation of Presbyterian Calvinism to
America, and its development here in various types, was briefly
sketched in the introduction to these studies. No more marked
illustration of the propagative potency of that system can be
imagined than is contained in the wonderful story of that trans
plantation. The fact of present interest is that Presbyterianism
has never lost the hold thus secured. It rather has increased
steadily with the national growth, has proved itself capable of
continuous and continental diffusion, has become in form and
temper native to the soil, has multiplied rapidly in spite of suc
cessive schisms and of debilitating separations, has been capable
of adjusting its belief and teachings to the demands of its
environment, has outrun in its vigorous movement the progress
of the country and the age, until it has become, if not in numbers
still in standing and influence, one of the most important elements
in the religious life of this young continent. The explanation
of such a development would require the enumeration of a con
siderable number of causes, personal, sodal, political as well as
religious, which have been combined providentially in producing
the result. It is enough in this connection to advert, In a word,
to the power inherent in the adopted Symbols, as one of these
efficient causes, — to the system of doctrine as held substantially
from the beginning onward, though with degrees of variation
and with some measure of conflict. American Presbyterianism
has always been essentially Calvinistic rather than Lutheran or
Arminian: its prevalent type of Calvinism has always been
British more than Continental. Yet while receiving the original
Symbols as containing the essential substance of its belief, it has
from the first assumed the right to adjust or modify their state
ments according to its own convictions, and to express these

THE SYMBOLS IN AMERICA. 831
convictions in its own tongue. It has cherished and emphasized
whatever in the ancestral system could be made available in its
practical mission, and has freely set aside whatever was not
found experimentally to be of value. Its relations to other
branches of evangelical Christendom, and also to that great work
of continental evangelization in which with other denominations
it has been engaged, have compelled it to hold none but a preached
and a preachable Calvinism — a Calvinism always supremely con
cerned with spiritual rather than ecclesiastical interests, ever
addressing itself directly to the intellect and heart and conscience
of men, and applying the truths embodied in it to the one grand
end of human salvation. But its ancestral Symbols have always
been its glory, and one of the chief sources of its remarkable
influence. Without such a scheme of doctrine, intelligently set
forth and earnestly commended, it could never have gained that
influence, or won to its banner such a concourse of thoughtful
and earnest minds. And certainly it is to its credit that, what
ever else may have befallen it, it has never thus far suffered
appreciably from the dry rot of Moderatism, or been poisoned by
the influx of Arian or humanitarian corruptions. It has been
true always and still is true to the substance of its Confession,
and herein in a word has lain the central secret of its growth and
power. But Presbyterianism has not been British and American merely :
it is in a special degree catholic and ecumenical. Notwithstand
ing the frequent asseverations and prophecies as to its decadence,
and notwithstanding the historic fact that it has not retained the
position it once held in certain sections of central Europe, it still
is true that no other type of Protestantism has been more widely
diffused, has become rooted and prevalent in more countries, or
is more nearly cosmopolitan in its movements and conquests. It
has been the boast of Rome, that, as the last Vatican Council
declared, it is the only type of Christianity which has circum
navigated the globe, and established itself in all the lands and
continents of earth— the universal Mother and Teacher of the
nations. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that Presbyterian
Calvinism is but little less ecumenical than Romanism in the
range of its activities. This is not due simply to the fact that,
in the order of time, it was the first in the triad of polities, and
first in the three types of doctrine, which emerged during the
Reformation. It is due rather to the intellectual and moral
vitality inherent in the system, and to its quickening effect upon
the beliefs and lives of men in many lands. Unquestionably

832 THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
there are propagative forces in it, not only doctrinal and ecclesi
astical but spiritual, which specially empower and qualify it for
wide transplantation and for cosmic effectiveness. There is both
truth and force in the admission of Dorner, (in his Letter to the
Presbyterian Council of 1875) that the Presbyterian churches
represent the muscular system in the great body of evangehcal
Christendom — the principle of powerful movement and initiative.
Surely, prophecies that such a type of doctrine and order, ani
mated by such a spirit and purpose, will decline and die out as the
Church of Christ moves on toward its millennial maturity, cannot
be entertained by intelligent and candid minds.
As we approach the close of these studies in the Symbols of
Westminster, and take this final survey of their remarkable
„ „ . , „ ., . career and capabilities, we may well
8. Subscription and Loy- , . ,
ally: their nature and claim. Pause for a moment to consider two
practical questions — the question of
subscription and loyalty to these historic Symbols, and the ques
tion of revision and emendation. In the introduction to these
Lectures these two questions were briefly discussed with reference
to the claims of creeds in general : at this point they justly
demand closer consideration in their special relation to these
venerable formularies, as constituting the broad and firm basis
of doctrine on which Presbyterianism in all its varieties is con-
sdously founded.
The general nature of confessional subscription, as required
not from the private membership, but from those who hold
official position within the church and are its recognized repre
sentatives, is easily seen to be a significant and serious matter.
There is implied in it a personal acceptation of the essential truth
expressed in the Symbols, and also a voluntary pledge to teach
and inculcate that form of truth, so far as the official position of
the person subscribing may afford opportunity. It also involves
an obligation to stand by the doctrine thus avowed, in positive
loyalty, as against both assault from without and heresy and
treachery within the church. The covenant is in the nature of
an oath or vow, and like other oaths or vows is to be taken  to
quote the language of the Confession— in the plain and common
sense of the words, without equivocation or mental reservation; and
being thus taken, it binds to performance, and is to be observed
with like religious care and faithfulness. Such is the general
nature of the subscription required from those who accept office
in any Presbyterian communion. It is of course to be granted

RULE OF SUBSCRIPTION. 833
that such covenant, though formal in character and binding in
force, does not require that the allegiance pledged shall manifest
itself in partizanship or sectarian zeal, or in any other way that
is inconsistent with that spiritual comity which binds all Christian
churches in loving union, however widely they may vary in their
expositions of the essential doctrines embodied in the Gospel.
It is dso obvious that this covenant cannot invade the proper
domain of conscience, or involve control over personal liberty or
conviction in matters of faith. Confessional subscription is never
compulsory, but is always the free act of a willing mind — a mind
which has first of all cordially believed what it professes, and
then truly pledges itself to uphold and promulgate what it has
professed : Innes, Law of Creeds.
The right of the Presbyterian church to require such subscrip
tion to its avowed creed from those who seek to become teachers
or governors within its domain, is a just corollary from its right
and its obligation to formulate openly and before all men its
cherished beliefs. An an organized witness for God and his
saving Truth — appointed under the commission of Christ to teach
all nations in his name, it is not only justified in bearing but is
sacredly bound to bear its testimony to the truth in all available
forms. What was said in the outset of these studies respecting
the nature, functions and values of church creeds has especial
significance here. Nor is it to be claimed that this function and
duty should be limited to the expression of only such biblical
doctrines as are held substantially by all evangelical communions
alike. Presbyterianism owes it not only to itself as a matter of
interior conviction, but also and eminently to the common Chris
tianity, to hold forth openly, without fear or question, that
special system of Calvinistic or Augustinian doctrine to which it
adheres as being in its judgment the best human expression yet
discovered of the essential teachings of Holy Writ. It cannot
pursue any other policy without proving both false to its cherished
helief, and unfaithful to the best development, the broadest cul
ture, of the whole Church of Christ. And it may therefore justly
demand that those who minister at its altars or bear rule within
its fold, shaU be true and loyal in their acceptance of that system,
and shall so far as they are able become its messengers in both
proclamation and defence. This right is in fact very rarely
challenged except by persons who, while desirous of enjoying
the position or advantages which official station within the church
may bestow, are more or less conscious of lack of adequate, loving
faith in the doctrines which they have formally covenanted to

834 THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
Uphold. The church assuredly has the right not only to inscribe
its cherished belief over the door of admission to its administra
tive fellowship, but also by that sign to test the loyalty of all who
wish to become its teachers or its representatives in government.
It is not to be assumed that there are no limits to the exercise of
such a prerogative ; due regard to circumstance, occasion, indi
vidual claims and convictions, is of course requisite. But the
general right and duty are beyond question. And in their
enforcement the church puts no constraint upon the individual —
compels no one to serve it officially ; the entire transaction on
both sides is a transaction in liberty. And he who is unwilling
to submit to the just condition imposed, is free to go forth in
peace, and find elsewhere some other formulary of faith to which
he can in good conscience subscribe.
Granted the general right to impose such subscription, it may
be further noted that considerable variety exists in the various
Presbyterian communions, with respect to the degree of strict
ness with which this ecclesiastical requisition is enforced. The
Appendix to the Proceedings of the Second Presbyterian Alliance
(1880) contains an extensive and valuable account of the form
ulas of subscription adopted by the various churches represented
in that organization. In some of the smaller and imperfectly
constituted churches, especially on the continent of Europe,
where Calvinism itself is but inadequately received and cherished,
such subscription seems little more than a ceremonial act. In the
Reformed Church of Geneva, for example, ministers sitting in
the very chair of Calvin are required only to pledge themselves
to teach and preach conscientiously, according to their light and
faith, the Christian truth contained in the Scriptures. Other
communions might be named which, taking the opposite extreme,
maintain that the Symbols should be received and held — as the
reactionary Synod of Philadelphia affirmed in 1736 — without the
least variation or alteration. But, to hold so comprehensive and
complex a Confession as that of Westminster in this way, has
been found to be- wholly impracticable, and the ipsissima verba
rule has given way therefore, for the most part, to the require
ment that the system of doctrine contained in the Confession —
its essential Calvinism — shall be honestly and cordially received
as expressing the substance of sacred doctrine derived from Holy
Scripture. Two special facts should be thoughtfully noted here :
first, that the spirit of the present age, in Presbyterian circles as
dsewhere, as contrasted with the temper of the seventeenth or even
the dghteenth century, is irreconcilably adverse to all narrow or

HONEST LOYALTY REQUISITE. 835
dogmatic domination by the church, as well in subscription as in
belief. And secondly, that some broadening of the rule becomes
more and more needful as any branch of the church like our own
grows in numbers and area, comprises a wider variety of material
and machinery, becomes continental rather than insular or provin-
dal in its activities.
Yet honest loyalty to the Symbols is no less requisite now than
in the era of the Assembly, and in the larger as well as the smaller
Presbyterian communions. Such loyalty while it does not call
for blind devotion or morbid reverence for the Symbols, or justify
a disposition to enforce their claim to the letter, even with the
power of the ke3's, obviously excludes on the other hand all incli
nation to regard subscription with indifference as a mere form, all
disposition to treat the covenant of allegiance with levity, all
readiness to criticize or oppose, and all exaltation of personal
opinion or personal prerogatives in any temper of egotism. True
loyalty not only embraces and appropriates the doctrine accepted,
but commends it by argument and influence, defends it against
both heresy and outward assault, and upholds it, as the soldier
carries high his banner, without fear and without shame. And
surely it is no discredit to the Presbyterianism of this age that,
foUowing the example of the faithful divines of Westminster, it
is animated, perhaps appreciably more than any other section of
Protestantism, by this believing, loving, loyal temper toward its
revered Symbols, — even though that temper should sometimes
show itself in excessive or even offensive form. There is force
at this point as at many others in the counsel of the Apostle to
the Galatian church : It is good to be zealously affected always
in a good thing — zealously sought in a good matter.
The second practical question waiting for consideration relates
to the revision or emendation of these cherished Symbols, together
with the justifying grounds for such ?> ^^ ^ ^ Symms ;
revision, and the regulative princi- grounds_ and limitations.
pies involved in it. Amendments
to the three ancient creeds of Christendom, notwithstanding their
intrinsic incompleteness and their obvious inadequacy as expres
sions of the belief of living churches in this age, is manifestly
impossible for the reason that no authority competent to enact
amendments now exists. Explanations, such as those appended
to the clause, He descended into hell, may be supplied by any
ecclesiastical body that feels the need of such comment ; but the
nature of these primitive creeds and their ecumenical relations
forbid aU attempts at structural change, whether by omission or

836 THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
addition. The symbols of Rome are also irreformable, excepting
through the superaddition of such affirmations as, for example,
the immaculacy of Mary, for the reason that the papal church is
by its own traditions forever disqualified to change any dogma
once enunciated by its supreme authorities, acting, as is claimed,
under the direct guidance of the Holy Ghost. Protestantism has
in some instances, as in early Lutheranism, explained one creed
by the formulation of another, designed for the definition or the
expansion of the doctrines contained in the first symbol. In
other instances, as in the United and the Free churches of Scot
land, the desired end has been secured through the introduction
of interpretative declarations, modifying or expanding the original
formulary. For the most part, the Protestant churches, while
recognizing somewhat the need of emendation in some form, have
preferred to let their creeds, lustrous still with the glories of the
Reformation, stand as originally framed, — tacitly allowing modi
fications or divergences to exist without challenge so long as
these were not subversive of their cherished formularies as at
first received.
It will be remembered that the Westminster Assembly itself
began its doctrinal procedure by an attempt to reconstruct the
Thirty-Nine Articles, and gave up the task only when it became
apparent that the formulating of a new creed was preferable.
American Presbyterianism assumed from the first the right to
revise the original Symbols, and in the Adopting Act of 1729
did change materially so much of the Confession as affirmed the
right or duty of civil magistrates to exercise control in ecclesias
tical affairs, and also so much of the Larger Catechism as related
to the toleration of false religions. The Synod of 1758 endorsed
this action, and the first General Assembly formally incorporated
these amendments in the revised Symbols. Extensive alterations
were also made in the Form of Government and the Directory
for Worship, in the interest of greater equity in ecclesiastical
administration, and of liberty in public devotions. It was also
made a constitutional rule that further revision might be made
at any time thereafter under certain prescribed conditions ; and
various instances of emendation, in pursuance of this prerogative,
appear in the subsequent records of the church.
The right of the Presbyterian communions to modify or alter,
or even to expunge, their doctrinal formularies is, like the right
to interpret the Scriptures, a cardinal prerogative — a right inher
ent and unchallengeable. It is like the right to form an entirely
new creed, whenever in the judgment of the church such a creed

REVISION OF THE SYMBOLS. 837
should become necessary as a formal declaration of existing
belief. Rainy (Development of Christ. Doctrine) justly maintains
that revision ought not to be regarded as a singular and revolu
tionary step, but rather as something belonging to the ordinary and
recognized responsibilities of the church. But on the other
hand he emphasizes the obvious truth, that tenderness and rever
ence are justly due to the Symbols in themselves,— due also to the
feelings with which they are regarded on account of the interests
connected with them, and due to the sacred verities which they
have been the mouthpiece to express. He further admits that the
proposal to revise the Symbols would be regarded by most of the
Presbyterian bodies in Britain as a revolutionary measure, opening
the way — as he says — to unimaginable possibilities. It will
readily be granted that the right of revision is one which from
the nature of the case cannot be exercised frequently, or for
slight reasons. Casual or miscellaneous changes could not fail
to weaken the hold of the Symbols, both on those who publicly
adhere to them, and on those who from the outside are disposed
to regard them with favor. Reckless and persistent agitation in
the interest of emendation, even where such improvement is
confessed to be desirable, could result only in disorder and dis
loyalty, and might end even in denominational disintegration.
Yet the dangers of revision cannot annul the inherent right of
the church to determine just when and how, and to what extent
it wiU investigate, supervise, modify, reconstruct, or even cast
aside, its creed.
Respecting the extent, conditions and temper of such revision,
no universal rule or principle can be prescribed. Revision may
be limited simply to the alteration or elimination of language
which in the process of time has assumed an equivocal or illusory
meaning, or is suggestive of some speculative or practical error.
It may extend to the striking out of particular statements which
in their substance or in their confessional form are not in fact
held or taught by the living church. It may include such new
combinations or adjustments of the received truth as shall be
fitted to produce other and better impressions on the popular
mind. It may involve additions less or more extensive, which
shall modify or broaden that creed, and make it a more influential
exponent of the doctrines held by the church. And further,
whatever the form or reach of such revision, success in it
must in any given instance depend largely on a variety of special
conditions. The church may, for example, be so circumstanced
that discussion in the interest of change might precipitate mis-

838 THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
chiefs more serious than any which the recognized confessional
imperfections may involve. Just as there are many men who see
and deplore evils personal or social which they still feel themselves
incompetent to correct, so the church though admitting the
deficiencies of its creed, may yet be conscious of incompetency to
face the extraordinary task of emendation. It is not given to
every age to improve upon the ages that have preceded it, even
though it be able to discern their imperfections or to lament them.
There must also be such a measure of conscious agreement
beforehand in respect to the amendments suggested as shall render
it probable, if not certain, that unity, strength, fresh inspiration
rather than disagreement, conflict, ultimate rupture, shall follow
upon the effort. And it may well be added that so delicate and
difficult a task as the amending of a venerated creed requires in
those who make the attempt, not only large philosophic ability,
adequate theological and historical knowledge, and thoughtful
appreciation of the nature of the work imposed, but also such
depth of spiritual experience, such a degree of maturity in the
Christian life, such a sense of special communion with God, and
such intimacy with his Word, as shall qualify them personally to
perform that task with success to the edifying and enlargement
of the church.
An interesting illustration of these statements comes into view
in the recent attempt at revision within our own communion.
This attempt is the more notable as being, aside from certain
Declaratory Acts previously adopted in Scotland, the first effort
of any section of Protestantism since the Reformation to scrutinize
throughout its venerable creed, with a view to improvement at
all points where improvement might seem to be demanded. The
motives and intentions of parties interested in the effort were
somewhat varied. It may be that there were some among the
advocates of that revision, who were animated by more or less
conscious hostility in general to the Calvinism so strongly im
bedded in the Symbols. There were some who regarded the
Confession in its present elaborate and dogmatic form as repressive
of free thought, and as a ready instrument of ecclesiastical
tyranny, and on such grounds sought its emendation. Others
preferred a less extensive and complex creed, and desired simply
such omissions and abbreviations as would both reduce the Con
fession in bulk and increase its practical usefulness as represen
tative of the present belief. Many sought emendation in order
to secure thereby the correction of objectionable language or
expression, or the elimination of certain parts or aspects of tiie

FUTURE EMENDATION. 839
system of doctrine to which they were in conscience opposed.
Many more desired the revision for the purpose of adding to the
Confession important truths not sufficiently recognized in it, and
of such improvement at all needful points as would bring it into
more manifest harmony with the actual faith and teaching of the
church. The story of the process, profoundly interesting as it is, cannot
be recited here. Under the rigid constitutional rule imposed, by
which even a distinct majority of the judicatories of the church
are unable to secure confessional change, the effort was unsuc
cessful, and the Symbols therefore remain as aforetime. Yet it is
clear that the interpretations given to them in that revision, and
the additions suggested, and the fresh and generous temper
which diffused itself throughout the revised statement, have
much more than compensated the denomination for the agitation
and the labor which the movement involved. Our beloved church
wiU always be broader and freer, more practical and earnest and
spiritual, more irenic in its teaching and more friendly in its
rdations to all other evangelical sections of Protestantism, for
the experience and the lessons which that noteworthy effort taught
it. Other divisions of the Presbyterian family in America and
on other continents cannot fail to be aided and stimulated by the
new conceptions of the essential Calvinism, embodied in the revision
proposed. And it may even be anticipated that this introductory
effort, though for the time a formal failure, may become the
precursor of an ecumenical emendation on the part of universal
Presbyterianism, which shall remove existing defects in the Sym
bols, and shall present them to coming ages as a Holy Confession
in which evangelical Christendom of whatever name shall in spirit
if not in exact form be heartily conjoined.
A final word : For those who bear office in any Presbyterian
communion, and especially for the ministry, the only wise and
just attitude toward the Symbols and the system of doctrine con
tained in them, is one of considerate, mediated, comprehend
ing loyalty and service. Their course must be marked by
thoughtful, scholarly, just conservatism on one hand, and by
cordial and free, though careful movement along the true historic
line of progress on the other. On one side they are bound to be
in loving sympathy with the noble heritage they have received —
firmly to hold the truths established, diligently to study and pro
claim them,— free alike from blind devotion and from presumptu
ous conceit and an ambitious desire for innovation— veering and
swerving with no transient gusts of popular opinion, but ever

840 THE WESTMINSTER SYMBOLS.
standing firm and strong on the solid foundation of the ages.
On another side they are bound to be quick always in discerning
the truth in fresh lights and in larger relations, to welcome new
truth in whatsoever aspect, to be diligent in studying all possi
ble adjustments or improvements of sacred doctrine, and in
giving to such doctrine nobler form, completer expression, — ever
remembering that the Truth of God is too great to be fully com
prehended in any creed or by any human mind, and that the
worthiest attitude of Christian wisdom is the attitude of thought
ful reverence, of adoring faith. The original Directory for Wor
ship, springing from the heart as well as brain of the Assembly,
happily describes that attitude in language which might well be
written in letters of gold for the guidance of the Presbyterian
ministry in all lands and times :
It is presupposed that the minister of Christ is in some good meas
ure gifted for so "weighty a service, by his skill in the original
languages, and in such arts and sciences as are handmaids unto divin
ity / by his knowledge in the whole body of theology, but most of
all in the holy Scriptures ; having his senses and heart exercised in
them above the common sort of believers ; and by the illumination
of the Spirit of God, and other gifts of edification which (together
•with reading and studying of the Word) he ought still to seek by
prayer and an humble heart, — resolving to admit and receive any
truth not yet attained, whenever God shall make it known unto
him.

INDEX.

Abh-itt of will, natural, 243, 290; moral,
292 ; mutable 254 ; gracious, 379 ; gift of the
Spirit, 423, 472.
Absolution, priestly, forbidden, 487 ; Zwin
gli, Calvin, Luther on, 487 ; not a sacra
ment, 670.
Acceptance, how distinct from pardon, 412 ;
person as well as acts involved, 442 ; medi
ation of Christ imputed, 443 ; evangelical
obedience not the ground, 443; creed state
ments respecting, 443 ; Sum of Saving
Knowledge on, 443.
Adam, public or representative person, 259 ;
the Adamic headship, 260.
Adopting Act, 58 ; subsequent division re
specting, 59 ; final basis, 60, 836.
Adoption defined, sonship through grace,
449 ; relations to justification, 450 ; privi
leges and spirit of, 451 ; Owen, Watson on,
450.
Adoptionism, on person of Christ, 316.
Adultery, prime ground of divorce, 594.
Advent Second, see Christ, final Advent.
Agape, not a biblical ordinance, 692.
Agnosticism defined ; varieties of, 144 ; an
unwarrantable hypothesis, 144.
Alkeosis, Zwinglian theory, 316.
Amending church creeds, when justified, 14 ;
amending the Symbols, 835.
American Presbyterianism. its implantation,
58 ; doctrinal basis, 58 ; conflicts respecting
subscription, 59; alterations in the Sym
bols, 59, 572 ; divisions, varieties, 60 ; re
markable growth, 830; present position
and influence, 831.
Anabaptist errors, respecting kingship of
Christ, 340 ; Uberty, 559.
Angels, their creation, number, endow
ments, 205 ; fall of angels, 205 ; employ
ment of holy, 206; reprobate, 777; arraigned
at final judgment 777 ; their condemnation,
778 ; see Satan.
Annihilationism, 745 ; error shown, 746 ; Ed
wards on, 747.
Anselm, on the origin of souls, 250 ; Cur Deus
Homo, satisfaction of Christ, 336.
Anselm, Abelard, Aquinas, on justification,
447 ; defects in their conception, 448.
Anthropology, Lecture Fifth, 237-301.
Anthropomorphism, Anthropopathism, bibli
cal, 141.
Antichrist, biblical allusions to, 23 ; the papa

cy as antichrist, 656 ; other antichrists, 657;
overthrow of, 731.
Antinomian error, 554.
Antiquity of the human race, 240; biblical
chronology, how estimated, 240 ; signs of
antiquity considered, 240 ; present state of
the question, 241.
Apocryphal books, their claim, 95 ; Roman
view of, 96"; Protestant rejection, reasons,
97 ; confessional teaching, 97 ; Augustine
on, 95.
Apollinarianism, doctrine respecting Christ,
317.
Apostles, their office ; temporary, 635 ; apos
tolical succession, 635.
Apostles' Creed, 24 ; Augustine on, 24 ; its
Christology, 311 ; unchangeable, 835.
Apostolicity, a test of Scripture, 103.
Aquinas, on the origin of souls,, 250 ; on cer
tainty of salvation, 496.
Archer, John, his book burned, 536.
Argyle, on primeval man, 247.
Arius and Arianism, person of Christ, 306;
English Presbyterianism once Arian, 828.
Arminianism, 30 ; its developments, 179 ; on
moral state of infants, 281 ; divine ground
of election, 389 ; perseverance unto life,
495; assurance of salvation, 501: see Re
monstrance.
Arnold, Matthew, on power working for
righteousness, 296.
Arrowsmith, on the extent of grace, 812.
Ascension of Christ, 347; his entrance into
heaven ; estate of exaltation, 349.
Assurance of final salvation, 498 ; false views
guarded against, 500 ; not obtained by reve
lation, 500 ; true and sufficient grounds, 501.
Athanasian Creed, (Quicunque) 24.
Atheism, incredible, 127 ; condemned in first
commandment, 525.
Atonement, not a confessional term; see Sat
isfaction.
Attributes of God defined, constitutional,
142; moral, 142 ; may be known, 143.
Auburn Declaration, 36 ; on original sin, 275;
infants as sinful, 282 ; election tested by
fruits, 393.
Augsburg Confession, 29 ; general character
and value, 39, 826 ; influence in England,
796 ; Gieseler on, 826 ; on the Scriptures, 82;
God defined in, 125 ; freedom and sin, 224 ;
origin of sin, 264; the fall, 267; civil right
eousness, 279 ; infants dying in infancy,

842

INDEX.

280 ; free will, 293 ; Christology, 303 ; Holy
Spirit, 411 ; saving faith, 474 ; repentance,
483 ; good works, 489 ; obedience to the law,
511 ; civil rule of popes, 575 ; celibacy, 593 ;
marks of the true church, 603; church
membership, 626; prayers to saints, 704;
millennarianism condemned, 726 ; final
consummation, 726 ; purgatory, 753.
Augustine, on the Apostles' Creed, 24; inspir
ation, 89 ; polytheism, 132 ; our knowledge
of God, 143 ; the trinity in man, 162 ; the
six creative days, 202 ; origin of souls, 250 ;
origin of sin, 255 ; original sin, 274 ; repro
bation, 335 ; salvability of heathen, 425 ;
justification, 447 ; the commandments, 521 ;
church invisible, 606; sacraments, 669 ; pur
gatory, 753 ; spiritual presence of Christ,
766 ; self-condemnation at the final judg
ment, 778 ; the earth purified by fire for the
holy, 788.
Authenticity defined, 102.
Authoritativeness of Scripture, 104 ; divinely
ordained rule of life, 106 ; contrasted with
churchly tradition, 108 ; Roman and Prot
estant doctrine contrasted, 109.
Baillie, Letters, on the Jerusalem Cham
ber, 44 ; on the debates, 54 ; religious char
acter of the Assembly, 54 ; version of Rous,
715 ; personal temper in discussion, 802.
Ball, covenant of grace, 259, 361.
Bannerman, on uses of creeds, 9 ; scriptural
doctrine of the church, 649.
Baptism, definition of the sacrament, 674 ; its
significance, inward and outward, 675 ; con
fessional statements, 675; its spiritual
nature, 676 ; how related to regeneration,
677.
Baptism, question of mode, 677; what is
essential in mode, 677 ; superadded forms
forbidden, 677; baptism by heretics invalid,
677 ; Roman baptism valid, 677 ; varieties
of mode legitimate,— position of the As
sembly, 678 ; biblical argument as to mode,
679 ; primitive church usage, 679 ; historic
testimonies ; Protestant usage, 679 ; Calvin
on, 679 ; administered but once, 679; church
ly observance, 679 ; may not be neglected,
680.
Baptism, subjects, 680 ; in adults, personal
faith requisite, 680 ; ingrafting into Christ,
680 ; applicable to infants of believers, 681 ;
not because of saving efficacy, 681 ; Ro
man and earlier Protestant error, 682 ;
parental faith essential, 683 ; the sanctified
family recognized, 683; Abrahamic cove
nant,— illustrated in circumcision, 683;
Christ blessing little children, 683 ; Paul on
federal holiness, 683 ; general Protestant
doctrine. 684 ; values of the observance, 684.
Baptismal regeneration, 436 ; Roman and
other error, 676.
Barclay, on the church, 604.
Baxter, his estimate of the Assembly, 790 ; his

theological position, 790 ; Stanley, tribute
to, 790.
Beattie, values of Presbyterianism, 651.
Begotten, meaning of the term, 167 ; applied
to Christ, 306.
Being of God, 130 ; being, distinguished from
attributes, 143.
Belgic Confession, 30 ; on the Scriptures, 83 ;
the Apocrypha, 97 ; creation, 197 ; fallen
angels, 206 ; man as created, 247 ; two
natures in Christ, 317 ; election, 384 ; pre
terition, 396 ; saving faith, 475 ; uses of the
moral law, 516 ; marks of the true church,
605 ; sacraments, 672 ; final consummation,
727 ; the earth purified by fire, 788.
Belief, see Faith, Saving Faith.
Bellarmine, on justification, 459 ; marks of
the church, 605.
Bernard, progress of doctrine in the N. T. 367.
Best, Paul, trial for heresy, 536.
Bible, Protestant estimate of, 66; British
Prot., 67 ; a truly divine book, 89 ; a book
for humanity, 104 ; its own interpreter, 110;
Bible and the church, 114 ; Holy Spirit in
terprets, 119 ; both history and prophecy,
722 ; all past and all future included, 722.
See, Scripture Holy.
Blackstone, on the civil Sabbath, 535.
Briggs, religious character of the Assembly,
55.
British Confessions, 39 ; their general char
acter, 41.
Burnet, on the inerrancy of Scripture, 88.
Bushnell, on union with Christ through faith,
477 ; Christian nurture, 662.
Butler, on the limits of reason, 72 ; possibility
of miracle, 220 ; divine providence, 221 ;
moral government, 235, 294, 514 ; Christ as a
teacher, 330 ; necessity for mediation, 337 ;
providential election, 385; future punish
ment, 780.
Calamy, provisions of grace universal, 378;
reprobate contemplated, 813.
Call, external, 424 ; effectual call, 428 ; call to
the ministry, 631, 698.
Calvin, his character, 155, 851, 607; gener
osity, 155 ; interest in sinners, 155 ; loyalty
to truth, 435; catholicity, 825; influence,
607; in Britain, 796; his theological system,
155, 559, 565, 808.
Calvin, on the divine benevolence, 154 ; the
persons in the Trinity, 164 ; God as provi
dential ruler, 180 ; the eternal decree, 194 ;
image of God in man, 243 ; origin of souls,
250; original sin, 272; sin as rebellion
against God, 287; the incarnation, 309;
three offices of Christ, 325; Christ as supreme
teacher, 330 ; his kingship, 340 ; aim of the
Gospel, 369 ; election, 895 ; reprobation,
397 ; potency of Gospel truth, 435 ; accept
able repentance, 483 ; auricular confession,
487 ; law of God defined, 514 ; uses of the
moral law, 516 ; law of the Eabbath, 532 ;

INDEX.

843

reverence to parents, 538 ; Christian liberty,
559 ; liberty of conscience, 660 ; religious
vows, 583 ; priesUy celibacy, 592 ; church
visible and invisible, catholic. 606 ; church
membership, 626 ; Christian ministry, 6S1,
698 ; apostacy of Rome, 657 missions, 664 ;
baptism, mode, 679; definitfoaof a sacra
ment, 688 ; eucharist, its meaning, 688 ; lit
urgy, 720; psychopannychism 719; spirit
ual presence of Christ, 767; resurrection,
770 ; final Messianic act, 786 ; ^ n the unifi
cation of Protestantism, S25.
Calvinism, as a system, S23 ; its strength, 808 ;
development, 814 ; diffusion, 831 ; its future,
809.
Cambridge Platform, basis of church govern
ment, 647.
Canon of Scripture, 92; O. T. canon, 93; N.
T. canon. 94 ; Councils of Hippo and Car
thage on, 93 ; canonical books of Protes
tantism, 93 ; question still in a sense open,
93.
Canonicity, tests of, 98 ; external and inter
nal, 99 ; Roman assumption, 98 ; definition,
102.
Canons of belief, 7 ; see Creeds.
Carlstadt, on the ministry, 698.
Carlyle, on evolution, 131 ; value of Shorter
Catechism, 177; immanence of God, 210.
Catechisms of the Reformation, 629, 663 ; of
Britain, Bonar, 64 ; Longer and Shorter, 50;
Mitchell, Schaff on, 64 ; their scope and
value, 177, 663.
Catholicity illustrated, 819 ; of Calvin, 825.
Cause and Causes, 148 ; second causes, nature,
190, 221 ; variety, 191 ; human will, as cause,
191, 811.
Celibacy, abstinence from marriage, 590;
origin in false views of marriage, 591 ; sup
posed religious privilege, 591 ; imposed as
a duty, Roman dogma, 591 ; Protestant con
demnation, confessional testimony, 592.
Ceremonial law prefiguring Christ, 515 ; ab
rogated under the Gospel, 515.
Chalcedon, Council of, on the two natures in
Christ, 315 ; reproduced in the Confession,
315.
Chalmers, on sin as a disease, and its cure,
403.
Charming, on the nature of salvation, 353.
Charnock, on the divine holiness, 157.
Children, fifth commandment, 536 ; duties to
parents, 537.
Christ the Mediator, Lecture Sixth, 302-
351.
Christ, Son of God, eternal existence of, 305 ;
eternal sonship, 307 ; proofs of full deity,
307 ; two natures in Christ incarnate, 308;
one person only, 313; creeds on, 314; vari
ous errors, Arianism, 306 ; Eutychianism,
314 ; Nestorianism, 315 ; Adoptionism, 316.
Christ, as Mediator, 322 ; prophet, 328 ; priest
and sacrifice, 332; king, 337; his humilia

tion, 344 ; exaltation, 347 ; as intercessor,
349 ; his resurrection, evidences of, 771.
Christ, final advent, 764; always present
spiritually, 766; always coming to believ
ers and the church, 766 ; a final coming in
visible form, 767 ; at the end of the world,
768 ; as judge, 348, 768 ; surrendery of the
kingdom, 786.
Christian doctrine, a mighty power, 434!
teaching of the Reformers, Calvin, 435.
Christianity and the State, 598 ; mutual rela
tions and duties, 599 ; compared with natu
ral faiths, 371 ; mission to and in society,
665 ; its ultimate triumph in the world, 729.
Christianized manhood, 503 ; same in all
ages, 504 ; coronation of humanity, 553.
Christian Liberty, liberty toward God, 557 ;
secured in and through Christ, 557; enlarged
under the Gospel, 558 ; not license, ana
baptist error, 559 ; Calvin on, 559.
Christian Worship, its elements, 702 ; adora
tion, nature and duty, 703 ; Trinity to be
adored, 703 ; conditions of acceptable adora
tion, 704 ; adoration of saints and angels
forbidden, 704 ; where offered, social wor
ship enjoined, 705 ; elements of worship ;
fasting, thanksgiving, offerings, 706 ; read
ing of Scripture, preaching, 707 ; right
hearing of the Word, Luther on, 711 ; con
fessional injunctions, 712 ; prayer in wor
ship, its elements, 713 ; confession of sin,
713 ; giving of thanks, 713 ; singing in wor
ship, 714 ; Rous, version, 715 ; adopted in
Scotland, 715.
Christian Year, 721.
Christocentric theology ; person of Christ,
central and regulative fact, 350.
Christology of the Reformation, 303 ; ancient
doctrine affirmed, 303 ; Protestant formu
laries on, 303; Socinian and other aberra
tions, 304.
Christus pro nobis, 407, 459 ; in nobis, 459.
Chronology of the Bible, 240.
Church of God, Lecture Twelfth, 601-666.
Church, definition of, 602 ; Roman and Prot
estant conceptions, 602 ; signs or marks
of the true, according to Rome, 605; to
Protestantism, 605 ; catholic or universal,
606 ; Luther, Calvin, on, 606 ; visible and
invisible, Augustine and Calvin, 607; marks
of the church invisible, 607 ; of the visible
church, 607 ; not two churches, but one, 610.
Church, historic development, 612 ; a super
natural institution, 612 ; constructively in
human nature, 612 ; essential to preserva
tion and diffusion of religion, 613; God
glorified in and through the church, 613 ;
church founded at creation, 613 ; three eras
in its history ; Patriarchal, 614 ; Hebraic,
615; Christian, 615; one and the same
organism throughout, 615; providential
care of, in all ages, 227.
Church administration, its warrant, 636;

844

INDEX.

three general ends in, 637.
Church Censures, defined, 641 ; right to in
flict, ends to be sought in, 641 ; grades in
penalty ; suspension, excommunication,
642 ; restoration to church privileges, 642.
Church Councils, Protestant teaching, 643 ;
their proper sphere, 644 ; how appointed,
645 ; uses and dangers of, 645.
Church growth, promise of, 660 ; specific
features of, 661 ; forces and agencies in,
662; two laws of growth ; interior, spiritual
propagation, 662 ; Roman and Protestant
methods, 663 ; exterior law, spiritual con
quest, 664; Roman error; Protestant effi
ciency, 664 ; church a missionary agency.
Church membership, 624; in the early church,
625 ; in the Roman communion, 625 ;
Protestant churches, 626 ; Calvin, Edwards,
on, 627 ; membership of baptized children,
627 ; based not on baptism, but on family
relation, 628; constructive and prepara
tory, 629 ; right and duty of the church
toward, 629 ; conversion requisite to full
communion, 630.
Church and state, 47, 568 ; early Protestant
view, 569 ; discussion and action in Britain,
569 ; conflicts in the Assembly, 570 ; Amer-
can Presbyterianism, 572 ; mutual duties of
church and state, 599.
Cicero, on the origin of souls, 249 ; laws as
the nerves of stal es, 514 ; immortality, 741.
Civil Magistracy, 567 ; nature and scope of
the authority, 569 ; confessional statements,
569 ; American doctrine, 572.
Civil Relations and Duties, Lecture
Eleventh, 556-600.
Clarendon, estimate of the Assembly, 789.
Coke, on false swearing, 579.
Coleridge, on faith and reason, 479.
Common Grace ; the outward call, 424; its
range, 425 ; why not effectual, 428 ; human
treatment of, 428 : see Grace.
Communion of Saints, 616 ; Pearson, Leigh
ton on, 617 ; limited to fellowship in this
life, 618 ; mutual privileges and duties, 618 ;
community of goods not required, 619 ; ex
tent of communion, universal, 619.
Communion with the Spirit, 473 ; liability to
error, 474.
Comparative symbolism, its value, 2, 36; com
parisons of creeds, 25, 31, 799, 826.
Concubinage in whatever form sinful, 590 ;
corrupting influence of, 590.
Concupiscentia, Roman and Protestant view,
546 ; Greek church on, 547.
Conditional Immortality ; soul not intrins
ically immortal, 745 ; immortality for the
righteous only, 745; the wicked annihi
lated, 745 ; false interpretations of Scrip
ture, 746 ; philosophic objections to, 746 ;
no warrant in the creeds, 747.
Confession of sin, 484 ; Roman dogma,
auricular confession, 487; confessional un

warranted, 486 ; Moehler, Calvin on, 487 ;
Protestant doctrine of confession, 487, 713;
confession an element in worship, 715.
Confessions of the Reformation defined, see
Creeds. Lutheran, 29 ; Reformed, 29 ; Brit
ish, 30; later, 30; compared with ancient
creeds, 25 ; compared with one another, 81,
799.
Congregationalism, Amer.; adoption of the
Symbols, 60 ; recent declarations of faith,
36 ; agreements with Presbyterianism, 650.
Conscience, liberty of, 560 ; fundamental in
Protestantism, 560 ; God alone Lord of, 561 ;
involves responsibility, 561 ; never to be
compromised, 562; conscience and the
state, 562.
Conversion described, 431 ; correlative to re-
generation, 432 ; man not passive in, 433 ;
truth an instrument, 433 ; other instrumen
talities, 435 ; fancied substitutes for con
version, 371.
Consummation, the ultimate, 786 ; surren-
dery of the kingdom, 787.
Conviction of sin, nature and signs, 482 ; false
conviction, Judas, 483.
Cotton, John, Covenant of grace, 361.
Councils, see Synods, 642.
Covenant, meaning of the term, 255 ; Coc-
ceian doctrine of the covenants, 258.
Covenant of works, or life, 253 ; its purpose,
256 ; its condition, — the test imposed, 257 ;
relations to the race, 259.
Covenant of grace, 361 ; origin of the doctrine,
361 ; Ball, John Cotton, on, 361 ; made with
believers, in Christ, 364.
Covenant of redemption, 358 ; Father and
Son, in the interest of salvation, 358 ; error
of excessive analysis, 359 ; deficiency in the
conception, 360.
Coveting forbidden in all varieties, 543.
Creation, false views respecting, 195; re
ferred to the triune God, 170, 196 ; father
hood specially revealed in, 197 ; confes
sional statements, 198; process of, 199;
word of power, 199 ; from nothing, 200 ; six
creative days, 202 ; extent of creation, 203 ;
its quality, 208 ; end of God in creation, 211.
Creation of man, 204 ; of angels, 205 ; of both
the material and the moral universe, 207 ;
divine glory revealed in all, 212.
Creationism defined, 248; its claim exam
ined, 249.
Credibility of Scripture, its basis, 105.
Creeds defined, 6 ; necessity for, exterior, in
terior, 7 ; formulation of, 9 ; limitations
involved, 9 ; imperfections in, 12 ; emen
dation, 14; authoritativeness, 15 ; law of
loyalty, 17 ; objections to, 18 ; tyranny of,
20. Also, right of Presbyterian church to
frame its Symbols, 833 ; to require loyalty
to, 834; to amend, 835.
Creeds, historic, 20 ; creed element in Scrip
ture, 21 ; first creed period, 23 ; second, 29 ;
creedless period, first ; causes, 26 ; second ;

INDEX.

S45

explanation, 35 ; the three ancient creeds,
24 ; contents and limitations, 25 ; creeds of
the Reformation, four groups, 29 ; their
confessional value, 31 ; hierarchal creeds,
Greek, Roman, 33; erratic and heretical
creeds, 33 ; see Confessions.
Cudworth, on mediation of Christ, 321.
Cumberland church, on the divine decree.
400 ; election and preterition, 401.
Cunningham, on the unity in God, 161 ;
supremacy of Scripture in the church, 653 ;
Roman error as to the eucharist, 6S5.
Curse, the,— genetically, death, 269; four
fold aspect, 269 ; on Adam, on Eve, on
Satan and the serpent, 270 ; on the earth
271.
Cyril Lucaris, faith universal in man, 478.
Cyprian, sphere of the Spirit, 416 ; salvation
through the church only, 609 ; the Chris
tian ministry, 631.

Death, bodily, 269 ; spiritual, 270 ; physical
death, its features, 737 ; relations to sinful
ness, 269, 737; universal, 738; death of
infants, of the heathen, of the impenitent,
738 ; of Christians, 739 ; naturalistic views
of, 740.
Decalogue, 519 ; see Ten Commandments.
Decree and.Decrees, defined, 181 ; synonyms,
181 ; the decree eternal, 182 ; unconditioned
and unchangeable, 183 ; all-inclusive, su
preme, 184; expresses the divine perfec
tions, 185.
Decrees, plural, defined, 185; order of the.
187; supralapsarian, sublapsarian, state
ment, 187; various modes of executing,
190 ; divine purpose and temper in execut
ing, 193 ; moral quality of the decrees, 193 ;
permissive decree respecting sin, 192 ; re
marks on the doctrine, 810.
Deism defined ; values and defects, 72.
Depravity, not a confessional term, 276 ;
caution needful in denning, 277 ; in what
sense total, utter, universal, 277 ; Roman
dogma, confessional teaching, 279 ; objec
tions considered, 279.
Descensus ad Inferos, various interpreta
tions, 346 ; perplexity and mystery of the
phrase, 347 ; close of the humiliation of
Christ, 547.
Dickson, see Truth's Victory Over Error.
Digest, Presb., 1898, on religious liberty,
573 ; making oath, 578 ; divorce, 597 ; dis
cipline, 641 ; removing censures, 641 ; Pres
byterian polity, 647.
Design, the argument from, 128.
Directory for Worship, formulation, 47, 66 ;
instructions on sacraments, 674 ; elements
of worship, 706 ; reading of Scripture, 707 ;
preaching 710 ; prayer, 229, 714 ; praise, 714 ;
general value, 793.
Discipline, nature, 638; ends sought in, scope
of, 640; proper spirit in, 641; censures,
nature and extent, 641. I

367; dispensation

Dispensations, the three,
of the Spirit, 416.
Divine truth, in conversion, 433; its intrinsic
potency, 434 ; Spirit in and with, 435.
Divorce, defined, 593; not private; both
church and state involved, 593 ; legitimate
grounds of, 594 ; adultery, willful deser
tion, 595 ; other grounds recognized in civil
law, 596; flagrant errors, 696; duty of the
church, 597 ; Woolsey on, 594.
Doctrine defined, 3 ; primary and secondary
meanings, 4 ; History of, to be studied, 5 ;
its relations to symbolic theology, 5.
Dominion of God absolute, 137 ; its founda
tions, 138 ; dominion of man over nature
244.
Dorner, on the canonical books, 92 ; the cov
enant theology, 259 ; infants dying in in
fancy, 280; the kenosis, 313; the three
offices, 825 ; future of the earth, 788 ; on the
efficiency of Presbyterianism, 832.
Dort, Synod of, 30 ; character and influence,
791, 823 ; Baxter, on, 791 ; on salvation of
infants, 281 ; predestination unto life, 357 ;
sovereignty in election, 389; preterition,
396 ; regeneration, 431 ; perseverance of
saints, 496 ; Sabbath observance, 532 ; spread
of the Gospel, 661 ; right hearing of the
Word, 712 ; preterition, 812.
Dualism, simplest form of polytheism, 132.
Durie, treatise on the unity of Protestant
ism, 823 ; his active efforts toward, 824.
Duty, obligation, defined, 299 ; supremacy of
the law of, 519.

Earth, future of the, 728, 787 ; Van Ooster
zee, Dorner, Edwards on, 788.
Edwards, on end of God in creation, 212
divine providence, 222 ; original sin, 274
satisfaction of Christ, 337 ; election, 384
qualifications for church membership, 627
acceptable praise, 713 ; conversion of the
world, 730; duration of the millennium,
732 ; annihilation of the wicked, 747 ; future
of the earth, 788.
Edwards, Jr., on Improvements in Theology,
made by his father, 814.
Effectual Calling, defined, 428 ; its elements,
429 ; work of the Spirit, 429 ; Protestant
creeds, 430 ; Irish Articles, 431 : see Regen
eration.
Election, its place in the divine decree, 382 ;
predestination, foreordination, 384 ; a fact
in providence, 385 ; in the religious sphere.
385 ; biblical teaching respecting, 386 ; its
motive in God alone, 387 ; originating in
love, 387 ; its equity and sovereignty, 388 ;
not conditioned on foreseen faith, 389 ; its
end or object in holiness, 390 ; in useful
ness, 391 ; value of the doctrine, 391 ; per
versions of it, 392 ; human relations to, 393.
Elect infants dying in infancy, 280 ; Synod of
Dort on, 281 ; how saved, 282 ; all infants

846

INDEX.

dying in infancy elect, 282; other elect
persons, 283.
English Synod, (Presbyt.) on the Holy Spirit,
415; adoption, 452; good works, 492; per
severance, 498; obedience to divine law, 513;
scope of the Gospel, 379, 736.
Errancy of Scripture defined, 85 ; the phrase
misleading, 86 ; Scriptures, essentially iner
rant, 89.
Eschatology, Lecture Fourteenth, 722-788.
Eschatology, defined ; sources of interest in,
723 ; sources of the doctrine, 724 ; Protes
tant teaching, 725 ; Confessions on, 726.
Eternal State, 779 ; form of existence for
all, 780 ; separation in, 780 ; hell, a state of
punishment, 781 ; heaven, state of reward,
782 ; everlasting in duration, 783.
Eternity of God, 139.
Ethical quality of the Symbols, 805; their
ethical influence.
Eutychianism, on the person of Christ, 314.
Eusebius, three offices of Christ, 325.
Evangelists, how far authorized, 635.
Evidences of inspiration, external, 99, 105 ;
internal, 99, 105; Revision, on the external,
100.
Evil, existence of, 208 ; elements of the prob
lem, 209 ; theories of natural and moral
necessity, 209; glory of God manifest
through, 210.
Evil angels, 206 ; their doom, 778 ; see Satan,
266.
Evolution of doctrine in the Scriptures, 91 ;
of the plan of salvation, in O. T.,365; in
the N. Test., 365 ; complete in Christ, 366 ;
evolution of law in, 544.
Exaltation, the estate of, 347 ; its glories.
Excommunication, when called for, 642.
Expiation, see Satisfaction.
Faith, trust, defined ; Saving faith 174 ; defi
nitions, 475 ; how distinguished, 476 ; natu
ral to man, 478 ; saving faith reasonable,
478 ; its power in character, 479.
FaU of Man, 261 ; the record historic, 265 ;
the original temptation, 266 ; Incidents of,
268 ; the consequent curse, 269.
Falling away from grace, 497 ; supposed bib
lical examples, 497; Arminian, Wesleyan
view, 498 : see Perseverance.
False swearing, see Oath, 576.
Farrar, on eternal hope, 758.
Fatherhood of God, in creation and provi
dence, 170 ; in redemption, 171 ; Pearson,
Crawford on, 197.
Fifth commandment, reverence to parents,
536 ; various duties involved, 537 ; rever
ence toward all superiors, 537 ; the promise
appended, 538.
Federal theology, see Covenants, 255.
Filioque in Nicene Creed, 168.
First Table of the Law, duties toward God,
524 ; its comprehensiveness, 525 ; three pri

mal sins forbidden, 526; three obligations
enforced, 527 ; reasons for obedience a im
pended, 528.
Fisher, on Apostles' Creed, 23.
Foreknowledge of God, 146.
Foreordination unto salvation, 384.
Form of Government, orignal, 47, 56 ; Amer
ican changes, 572, 836 : value of, 793.
Formnla of Concord, 29 ; on supremacy of
Scripture, 82 ; man as created, 247 ; the
origin of souls, 250 ; fall of man, 268 ; in
fants dying in infancy, 280 ; free will, 293 ;
Christology, 303 ; two natures in Christ,
314 ; predestination unto life, 357 ; accep
tance through Christ, 443; good works, 489:
obeying the commandments, 512 ; concu
piscence, 547.
Fourth commandment, law of the Sabbath,
531 ; not an O. T. ordinance merely, 532 ;
Luther, Calvin, on, 532; obligation univer
sal and perpetual, 533.
Free agency, see Ability, Free Will.
Free Church, Scotland, on depravity, 277 ;
natural virtue, 280; salvation of infants,
282; of the heathen, 284; universality of
the Gospel, 379 ; reprobation, 400 ; religious
liberty, 573.
Free grace in justification, 339.
Free Will, defined, 290; four moral spheres,
290 ; Confessions on, 290 ; Augustine on,
293 ; effect of sin on freedom, 292.
French Confession, 30; on the Scriptures,
83 ; God defined in, 125 ; original sin, 275 ;
free will, 293 ; Christology, 303 ; the incar
nation, 312 ; preterition, 396 ; on the use of
the moral law, 516 ; on civil magistracy,
569 ; on church membership, 626.
Future punishment and reward, see Hell,
Heaven.
Gardner, intellectual quality of Puritan
ism, 49.
Genesis, two records of creation, 204.
Genuineness of. the Scriptures, 102.
Genevan Confession, 351.
Gentiles brought in, 781.
Geology and Scripture, 202.
Gieseler, on Augsburg Conf. 826.
Gillespie, evidences of Scripture, 101 ; mutual
accommodation, 567 ; Christian liberty and
toleration, 803.
God in His Activities, Lecture Fourth,
178-236.
God in His Being, Lecture Third, 124-177.
God, definitions of, 125; existence, 126;
proofs of, 127 ; from nature, 128 ; from man,
180 ; unity of, 131. Can God be known, 143.
God a Spirit, 133 ; characteristics as Spirit,
134; life of God as Spirit, 136; absolute
Spirit, 137 ; infinite, eternal, unchangeable
Spirit, 139 ; constitutional and moral quali
ties, 142 ; see Attributes.

INDEX.

847

Sod as cause, first and final, 148 ; as will,
supreme and absolute, 149; consequent
sovereignty, 149 ; as essentially active, 178 ;
relation to second causes, see Providence.
Good Works, 483 ; Roman doctrine of. 488 ;
Protestant, 489; commended, 490; evidences
Df living faith, 491 ; supernatural agency
in producing, 491 ; acceptable, but not sal
vatory, 492 ; works done by unregenerate
men, 493.
Goodness of God, 153 ; his fatherhood, 154.
Gospel, defined, 367 ; system of saving truth,
368 ; contents and worth, 368 ; also a divine
offer, 874 ; its universal adaptation. S74 ;
progressive unfolding, 376; confessional
declarations as to scope, 378 ; Calamy,
Marshall on, 37S ; proposed chapter on, 379
Gospel, compared with other schemes of
salvation, 371 ; human energy inadequate
to save, 371 ; divine love and help requisite.
373 ; this scheme reasonable and effectual,
374 ; duty of all men to receive, 380 ; of the
church to proclaim, 380.
Government of God in providence, 216 ; prov
idential and moral distinguished, 235 ;
moral government described, 295.
Grace prevenient, its extent, 425; spiritual
significance, 426 ; Augustine, Luther on,
427 ; sovereignty of the Spirit in, 428 ; see
Common Grace.
Grace efficacious. -£>3 ; eventuates in conver
sion, 453 ; in sanctification, 456; in what
sense irresistible. 457.
Grace and law, how related, 553 ; faith and
obedience conjoined, inseparable, 553; anti-
nomian error, 554 ; James and Paul in har
mony, 554.
Greek (oriental) Creeds, 33 ; God defined in,
133 : Christology, 311 ; priesthood and sac
rifice of Christ, 333 ; the descensus ad in
feros, 347 ; the authority of tradition, 347 ;
the Holy Spirit, 413 ; faith, 478 ; concupis
cence, 547 ; marks of the true church, 605.
Gregory Nazianzen, existence of God proved
from nature, 129.
Guizot, on the Reformation, 461.
Guilt, various meanings of the term, 273, 807.
Guyon, Madame, 485 ; Wesley on, 584.
Hades, meanings of the term, 752 ; its ana
logue in Sheol.
Hagenbach, on the formation of dogma, 5 ;
the trias of Revelation, 172 ; origin of souls,
250 ; on the Sec. Helv. Conf., 826.
pall, Harmony of Protestant Confessions,
557, 796.
Hallam, on Erastianism in the Church of
Scotland, 571 ; estimate of the Assembly,
789.
Hamilton, on the argument for God, 134;
mental action not limited by space, 140 ;
on an axiom of Augustine, 162 ; our un-
pictureable notions, 526.
Harris, on the moral government of God, 295.

Harmony of the Reformed Confessions, vol
ume on, 796.
Headship of Adam, natural, 272; federal,
273; Calvin, Hodge on, 275.
Headship of Christ in his church, 651 ; Prot
estant emphasis on, 652 ; nature and ex
tent, 653 ; his word the supreme law, 653;
controversies respecting this headship, 654 :
see Kingdom.
Hearing, duty of conscionable, 711 ; quali
ties of acceptable, 712 ; results in spiritual
fruitage, 712; neglect of, 714.
Heathen, moral condition of, 283 ; salvability
of, 284, 425 ; attitude of early Protestantism,
283 ; Zwingli, on salvability, 284 ; recent
declarations, 284 ; Augustine on, 425.
Heaven, the universe of reward, 782 ; employ
ments of, 782 ; elements of blessedness, 783 ;
faith of the universal church in, 784 ; sym
bolic descripti< >ns, 785.
Heidelberg Catechism, 30 ; its quality and
value, 827 ; on providence, 217 ; providence
and sin, 225 ; prayer, 230 ; man as created,
247 ; the fall of man, 268 ; inborn and actual
sins, 285 ; the two natures in Christ, 314 ;
the three offices, 326 ; the Gospel, 370 ; re
pentance 483 ; good works, 493 ; obeying
the commandments, 512 ; concupiscence,
547 ; infant church membership, 629 ; defi
nition of the sacraments, 668 ; of baptism,
675 ; on immortality, 744.
Hell, the universe of punishment,780 ; natu
ral theology teaching its existence, 780;
Butler, Jackson on, 780 ; punishment must
follow sin, even eternally, 781 ; fact and
duration revealed in Scripture, 782 ; creed
affirmations, 784.
Helvetic Confession, First, 29 ; on the Scrip
tures, 83; man as created, 247; Christology,
303 ; the ministry, 631 ; immortality, 744.
Helvetic Confession, Second, 30; its theo
logical value, 798, 826 ; on the trinity, 169 ;
the creation, 196 ; angels, good and evil,
206 ; providence and sin, 225 ; man as cre
ated, 247 ; the origin of sin, 264 ; the fall of
man, 268 ; Christology, 303 ; the Gospel,
370 ; the Holy Spirit, 411 ; saving faith, 475 ;
repentance, 483* observance of the Sab
bath, 532; the civil magistracy, 569; the
church, 603; infant church membership,
628 ; church councils, 643 ; eschatology, 726.
Hetherington, estimate of the Assembly,
790 ; on possible union of Protestantism,
825 ; Assembly action respecting, 826.
Hickok, on the fall of angels, 267.
Historical Introduction, Lecture First,
1-65.
Hobbes, church in the state, 612.
Hodge, Ch. on.inspiration, 79; alleged erran
cies in Scripture, 79 ; sublapsarianism in
Symbols, 188; primitive temptation, 257;
headship of Adam, 260 ; original sin, 275 ;
covenant of redemption, 360.

848

INDEX.

Holiness in God, 157 ; intrinsic worthiness,
157; moral completeness, 158; Charnock,
Schliermacher on, 158; holiness in man
through grace, 390.
Holy days, except fasts and thanksgivings'
forbidden ; also, canonical hours, 721 ;
Christmas recognized, 721 ; Christian year,
721.
Holy Scripture, Lecture Second, 66-123.
Holy Spirit, a divine person ; proof of, 410 ;
ancient and confessional statements, 411 ;
recent developments of the doctrine, 413 ;
proposed chapter in Revision on, 414; its
values, 415 ; his claim to worship, 415 ;
equality with Father and Son, 417 ; erro
neous views of, Socinian, 418 ; objections
answered ; the doctrine cardinal, 419 ;
proves Christianity divine, 420.
Holy Spirit in his activities, 282, 415 ; au
thor of Scripture, 78, 418 ; makes no new
revelations, 110 ; supreme interpreter of,
119 ; active in the spiritual sphere, 416 ; be
fore the advent, and after, 417; in the
church and the world, 418.
Holy Spirit and the Christian life, 469 ; its
author, 469 ; its conditions, trust in, 470 ;
obedience to, 471 ; communion with, 473 ;
helping to obey law, 517 ; rendering church
agencies effectual, 633.
Hooker, on incarnation, 315 ; majesty of law,
506 ; power of the keys, 638.
Hooper, on salvation of infants, 281 ; liberty
of conscience, 560.
Howe, on Bible as a rule of life, 108 ; man as
fallen, 277 ; method of divine government,
394.
Hume, argument against miracles, 220.
Hnmiliation of Christ, estate of, 344 ; its ele
ments, 345 ; its close with death, 346.
Huxley, theory of creation, 199.
Idolatry, forbidden, 132; first command
ment on, 526.
Image of God in man ; natural, in person
ality, 242 ; moral, in character, 243 ; power
to obey law, 243 ; Calvin on, 248.
Images, worship of, 135 ; Greek and Roman
error, 135 ; Protestant teaching, 134 ; for
bidden, S27.
Imbecile and insane salvable, 283.
Immanence of God in the universe, 140, 214.
Immersion not necessary, 678.
Immortality, defined, 740; speculative evi
dences, 741 ; biblical proofs, O. T., 742 ; N.
Test., 743 ; creeds, ancient, 743 ; Protes
tant, 744.
Immortality on earth, 251 ; tree of life, 251 ;
death in the world before sin, 252.
Immutability of God, 140 ; anthropomorphic
descriptions.
Imputation, general definition ; cognate
terms, — reckon, account, 440 ; of Adamic

sin, immediate, 273 ; mediate, 274 ; of right
eousness of Christ, justification, 439.
Inability, see Ability, natural, moral, Sin.
Incarnation, an inexplicable fact, 308 ; neces
sity for, nature of, 309 ; biblical proofs of,
310 ; supernatural concomitants, 310 ; spir
itual significance of, 311 ; historic verifica
tion, creed statements, 311 ; two natures
revealed in, 314.
Inerrancy of Scripture, 83 ; term, error, de
fined, 83; hypothesis of errancy considered,
85 ; mistakes in transcription, 86 ; obscura
tions of time, 87; sound exegesis requisite, 88.
Infallibility, papal claim, 14, 109.
Infants corrupted by original sin, 282 ; dying
in infancy, 282 ; elect infants saved, all
dying infants, 282 ; gracious work wrought
in them.
Infinitude in God, 139.
Inner light insufficient, 120.
Innes, on creed subscription, 573, 833.
Inspiration, general description, 77 ; distin
guished from revelation and illumination,
77 ; Symbols affirm only the fact, 78 ; theo
ries of ; certain errors excluded, 79 ; divine
and human agencies in, 80 ; involves lan
guage, 80 ; varieties of, 80 ; Revision on, 89.
Intercession of Christ, nature and scope, 348.
Intermediate Life, 748: no sleep of the soul,
749 ; life conscious, active, 750 ; moral, retri
butive, 751 ; separation of righteous and
wicked in, 752 ; no limbus patrum, or infan
tum, 752 ; three false theories respecting,
753.
Intermediate life; purgatorial dogma ground
less, 753 ; Protestant testimonies against,
753 ; naturalistic theory unwarranted, 754 ;
its mischievous influence, 756.
Intermediate life ; theory of salvation after
death, 757 ; various forms, 757 ; evidences
adduced, 758 ; Scripture conclusive against,
758 ; also, symbolism and theology, 759 ;
and Christian consciousness, 760.
Interpretation of Scripture by Scripture, 110;
right and duty of private, 112 ; church in
terpretation, 114; Roman ojfaim, 115; rules
of interpretation, 118 ; Spirit interpreting
Scripture, 119.
Intuitive knowledge of God, 143 ; its insuffi
ciency.
Irish Articles, 30; close relations to the
Symbols, 40 ; on the trinity, 169 ; creation,
198; providence, 217; providence and sin, 225;
the Gospel, 370 ; reprobation, 397 ; saving
faith, 475 ; the civil magistrate, 569 ; civil
rule of popes, 575 ; the paparcy, 659 ; particu
lar judgment, 768.
Jesuits, their moral delinquency, 580.
Jews, conversion of, 780 ; restoration to Holy
Land, 731 ; relation to spread of the Gospel,
781.
Judaic opinions, millennarian, condemned,
726.

INDEX.

849

Judge, Christ as final, 348, 777.
Judgment, Particular, of souls at death, 761 ;
the separation judicial, 762 ; impressiveness
of, 763.
Judgment, General, of the race, at the end of
the world, 774 ; evidences of, reasons for,
775 ; biblical teaching decisive, 776 ; Christ
as judge ; circumstances of, 777 ; persons
judged, men and angels, 777 ; basis and
grade of judgment, 778 ; formal issue ; two
universes of souls, 778 ; confessional teach
ing, 779.
Jus divinum theory of the church, 47, 636, 647.
Justice of God, 151 ; internal and external,
152 ; varieties in manifestation, 153.
Justification defined 437 ; ground in Christ
only, 438 ; his grace imputed, 439 ; Roman
error, 439 ; main elements of, pardon and
acceptance, 440 ; biblical proofs, 446 ; doc
trine final in Christianity, 446 ; historic evo
lution of, 447 , Owen, Buchanan, Ritschl
on, 447.
Justin Martyr, preaching in the early church,
708.
Kant, on prayer, 228.
Kenosis, biblical term, 312 ; the kenotic
process, 312 ; no depotentiation involved,
313 ; Christ truly divine therein, 313 ; Dor
ner on, 313.
Kent, on marriage, 586.
Keys, see Power of the.
King, Christ as, Protestant doctrine, 339 ;
biblical testimonies to, 341 ; earthly and
heavenly aspects of his kingship, 342.
Kingdom over nature, 343 ; over humanity,
343 ; over the believer, 342 ; over the church
visible, 342, 651 ; his authority supreme and
final, 654 ; the kingdom surrendered, 786.
Knox, pastor in Geneva, 351 ; on value of
schools, 682; observance of sacraments, 689.
Krauth, salvation of infants, 280 ; Augsburg
Conf. 826.
Lactantius, on the divine nature, 141.
Lambeth Articles on reprobation, 400.
Law of God, Lecture Tenth, 506-555.
Law written on the heart, 68; law and
light of nature, 68, 514; place of law in
Christianity, 506 ; the Sinaitic law, 519 ;
evolution of, in the O. T., 544 ; in the N.
Test., 545; area of duty widened, 546;
greater authority, 547; added sanctions,
548; Christ, the supreme revealer of law,
548; law and morality, 550; law and grace,
553; see Moral Law.
Laws of Nature, 221.
Leibnitz, on miracle, 219.
Leighton, on communion of saints, 617.
Lessing, on the unity in God, 162 ; the nature
of faith, 478.
Liherty of Conscience, 1560 ; conscience re
sponsible to God only, 561 ; submission to

man forbidden, 562 ; Symbols on, 664 ; state
church theory, 564 ; see Toleration.
Liddon, prayer the characteristic act of relig
ion, 231.
Life, The Christian, Lecture Ninth, 461-
505.
Life, the Christian, prominence in Protestant
ism, 462; deficiencies in Roman doctrine,
463; general conception of, 465; super
natural in origin, 466 ; its ideal, Christ ; its
motive, love, 467 ; its authority and fruitage,
468.
Life, the Christian ; relations of the Spirit
to, 469 ; dependence and trust, 470 ; obedi
ence and communion, 471 ; manifestations
of this life, see Faith, Repentance, Good
Works, Perseverance.
Life of God, its nature, 136.
Light of nature, defined, 68 ; its insufficiency,
71, 573.
Lightfoot, on mode of baptism, 677 ; on set
forms of prayer, 719.
Liturgy, Assembly protest against, 718; its
manual of worship, 719 ; liberty in use of,
720; its value, 793; general question re
specting liturgies, 720; Luther, Calvin,
prepared, 720; free worship preferable,
721.
Locke, definition of error, 83 ; definition of
person, 164.
Lord's Day, see Sabbath.
Lord's Sapper, Roman and Protestant doc
trine contrasted, 686 ; error of transubstan
tiation, 687; of opus operatum; other
errors, 687 ; Protestant interpretation of
the sacrament, 687 ; Zwinglian view, 687 ;
Lutheran consubstantiation, 688 ; general
Reformed view, 688; analysis, 689; papal
mass condemned, 689 ; spiritual benefits
derived, 690; duty of, qualifications for,
observance, 690 ; minor details, 691.
Lotze, on the origin of the soul, 251.
Love, its central place in religion, 467.
Loyalty to avowed creeds, 17 ; proper limi
tations, 17 ; loyalty to the Symbols, obliga
tions involved, 832.
Luthardt, on prayer, 228.
Luther, foremost place in the Reformation,
29, 406 ; English estimate of, 822 ; on the
apocrypha, 97 ; the divine omnipresence,
139 ; providence, 216 ; efficacy of prayer,
230 ; prevenient grace, 427 ; ministries of
the Spirit, 474 ; on absolution, 487 ; obey
ing the commandments, 613 ; command
ments to be valued, 523 ; regarding the
Sabbath, 531 ; the tenth commandment,
543 ; religious vows, 582 ; priestly celibacy,
592 ; baptism, 675 ; need of schools, 682 ;
thanksgiving, 714.
Lutheran Confessions, 29.
Lutheranism, general character and tenden
cy. 667, 826 ; affinities with Episcopacy, 39,
821.

850

INDEX.

Macaulay, on theology a finished product,
13 ; the personality of Christ, 331 ; fidelity
of Puritans to duty, 509 ; religious liberty,
567.
Macpherson, on sublapsarianism in the As
sembly, 188 ; on community of goods, 619 ;
agreement of the Protestant creeds, 822.
Maine, on Jesuit casuistry, 581.
Man, Lecture Fifth, 237-301.
Man, biblical record of creation, 238 ; a single
act, by divine fiat, 239 ; theory of evolution
excluded, 239 ; unity of the race, 239 ; ques
tion of antiquity, 240 ; original endow
ments, physical, intellectual, moral, 241 ;
image of God, 243.
Man under law, 294 ; this law defined, 297 ;
responsible for his acts, 299 ; his failure,
299 ; still a salvable being, 421 ; corrupt, yet
conscious and accountable, 422 ; needing
gracious aid, 422.
Manton, estimate of the Assembly, 43.
Marriage, defined, 585 ; ordained of God, 686;
not a sacrament, — Roman view, 587 ; duties
involved, 587 ; legal regulation requisite,
588 ; limitations, as to blood relationship,
588 ; recent declarations respecting 588 ;
marrying in the Lord enjoined, 589.
Martensen, the three offices of Christ, 325 ;
inextinguishable capability of good, 755.
Mary, worship of, forbidden, 704 ; her im
maculacy, 836.
Materialism, 130 ; Carlyle on, 131.
McCosh, on the efficacy of prayer, 231 ; prov
idential discipline of man, 271.
Means of Grace, means of salvation, 695 ;
the word, the .sacraments and prayer, 696 ;
religious feasts, also, 696 ; fasting as a
means of grace, 697 ; enlarged conception
under the Gospel, 697 ; variations in Prot
estant usage, 698.
Mediation, defined; illustrations, 319; its
necessity and ground, 320; both internal
and external, 321 ; full conception of, 322 ;
Cudworth on, 828.
Mediator, Christ as, generic view, 322 ; con
fessional use of the term, 322 ; his qualifi
cations, "" personal, official, 323 ; doctrine
vital in Christianity, 324 ; Christ the only
mediator, 324 ; his three offices, 325.
Melancthon, invited to England, 39 ; on the
argument for God, 128 ; synergistic teach
ing, 279; free will in man, 291 ; close of
Messiahship, 787.
Melchizedek, type of Christ, 334.
Membership in the particular church, 624 ;
proper tests and conditions ; conversion
requisite, 625 ; credible evidence needful,
627 ; low views pernicious, 628.
Messianic promises ; the first, 271 ; the four
primary, 365 ; in the Psalms and prophet
ical books, 365 ; Messiahship fully, clearly
disclosed, 366.

Methodist Articles of Religion, 36 ; on the
need of grace, 423.
Mill, on creation, 199 ; miracle, 219 ; use of
reward and penalty in moral government,
549.
Millennarianism, 729 ; creeds against, Judaic
opinions, 726 ; church testimony, 737 ; no
premillen nial advent revealed, 765.
MiUenninm, general view, 727 ; theories as
to the future of humanity, 728 ; endless
movement without progress, 728 ; advance
through . natural agencies, 728 ; ultimate
decline and ruin, 728 ; biblical doctrine, in
contrast, 729 ; humanity complete through
the Gospel, 729.
Millennium, time when, not revealed, 730 ;
three events antecedent, 730 ; conversion of
the Jews, 730 ; overthrow of Antichrist, 731;
universal spread of the Gospel, 732 ; three
events to follow, 731 ; the resurrection, 731;
the general judgment, 731 ; final coming of
Christ, 732 ; duration of the millennial era,
732; Edwards on, 732; Symbols on, 734;
current Presbyterian opinion, 736.
Miller, argument for church creeds, 20.
Milton, on selfhood as the sin of Satan, 287 ;
the intolerance of the Assembly, 568; papal
claim to civil authority, 574; on schism,
622 ; church discipline, 640 ; estimates of
the Assembly, 790.
Ministry, an ordinance of God, 698 ; papal
corruption, Protestant restoration, 698;
Westminster position, 699 ; the three or
ders set aside, 699 ; how related to other
ordinances, 700 ; relation to the sacraments,
700 ; qualifications for the office, 701; special
demand of Presbyterianism, 701 ; parity of,
702 ; Assembly as a Board of Triers, 702.
Minutes of the Westminster Assembly;
Introduction by Mitchell, 42, 44.
Miracle, defined, 77; occurring in providence,
218 ; necessity of, 218 ; attestational value,
100, 219; Butler, Mill, Hume on, 220; miracle
at Sinai, Augustine on, 521.
Missions, Roman under Loyola, 654 ; early
English, Continental, 654 ; Synod of Dort
on missions, 655 ; church a missionary
agency, 664.
Mitchell, on the Assembly, 43, 791 ; on the
Catechisms, 64; Westminster view of in
spiration, 78 ; canonicity, 102 ; sublapsa
rianism in the Assembly, 188 ; doctrine of
the covenants, 861 ; liberty of conscience,
568, 817.
Moderatism in Scotland, in England, 828.
Moehler, on the Apocrypha, 96 ; Roman doc
trine of justification, 444 ; confession and
absolution, 486 ; communion of saints, 617 ;
the intercession of the saints, 617 ; purga-
. tory, 753.
Monarchianism on the person of Christ, 317.
Monasticism, 584 ; Roman rule, 591 ; con
demned by Protestantism, 592 ; Jeremy

INDEX.

851

Taylor, Zwingli, Luther, Calvin on, 592.
Moral inability, in the disposition, 278 ; see
Ability, Sin.
Moral Government, defined, 234 ; distinction
between providential and moral, 235, 295 ;
God as moral Governor, 295 ; principles in
volved, 296 ; Butler, Taylor, Harris on, 295.
Moral Law, existence of, 252 ; source in God,
297 ; characteristics, 298 ; supremacy of,
298 ; penalties of disobedience, 300 ; varie
ties of ; law of nature, written on the heart,
in Scripture, 514 ; uses of the revealed law,
516 ; how interpreted, 518 ; Calvin, Dickson
on, 514.
Moral nature in man as created, 241 ; capac
ity for righteousness, 243 ; innate or con-
created holiness, 243 ; image of God in man,
243.
Moral responsibility of man, 297 ; his obliga
tion to law inevitable, 29S; duty his supreme
rule, 297 ; personal disobedience, ground of
condemnation, 300.
Morality and law, how related, 550 ; law re
quires morality, 550 ; natural and biblical
compared, 551 ; highest type of morality in
Christianity, 552.
Mosaism, its twofold mission, 333 ; purpose
and uses in redemption, 365.
Muller, on pre-existence, 248.
Mysticism, interpretations of Scripture, 117.
Mystery in revelation and inspiration, 76 ;
the being of God, 134; the trinity in God, 175;
providence, 221 ; person of Christ, 314 ; his
mediation, 350 ; regeneration, 428 ; resur
rection, 769.
Name of God, significance of, 529 ; how dis
honored, 530.
Natural liberty, defined, 292.
Nature and Revelation, how related, 70 ; tes
timony of nature to God, 128.
Natural Theology, sphere and contents, 70.
Natural Religion, possible, 71 ; contents and
nature, 71 ; its insufficiency. 71, 112.
Neal, revision of the Thirty-Nine Articles, 46.
Neander, on the Trinity in the early church,
172.
Necessity the ruling law iii nature, 811.
Need of creeds, exterior, 7 ; interior, 8.
Nescience, see Agnosticism.
Nestorianism, on the person of Christ, 315.
nicene Creed, 2i ; Filioque in, 168 ; on the
Father in creation, 197 ; extent of creation,
293; communion of saints, 616; resurrec
tion, 773.
Oaths, 576 ; oath and vow how distinguished,
577 ; making oath a religious act ; impreca
tory element involved, 577 ; various classes
of, 577 ; right to require, obligation to make,
578; limitations, cannot oblige to sin, 579 ;
mental reservation forbidden, 580; not to
be violated, 580; Pascal, on Jesuit casuistry ;
Maine on, 581.

Obedience, required of Adam and Eve, its
qualities, 253 ; required of all, personally,
perpetually, 297, 471 ; responsibility for dis
obedience, 297 ; miseries involved, in this
life, 299 ; obedience to the Spirit, 472.
Obligation, moral, see Duty, Law.
Oehler, on progress of doctrine in O. Test.,
367 ; on the fifth commandment, 637.
Old Catholic creed, 86 ; the minor sacra
ments, 670.
Omnipotence of God, 148 ; working through
secondary causes, 149 , working without or
above means, 150 ; possibility of miracle
implied, 218.
Omnipresence of God, three-fold sense, 139.
Omniscience of God, 145 ; qualities of his1
knowledge, 146 ; comprehends all things
actual or possible, 147 ; complete wisdom
implied, 147.
Oracles of God, the Scriptures, 632.
Ordinances, Christian, 692 ; how related to
sacraments, 693 ; their number and value,
694 ; the Sabbath, the sanctuary, 694 ; means
of grace, 695.
Ordination to the ministry prescribed, 700 ;
Assembly, an ordaining Board, 702.
Origin of souls, 247 ; Cicero, Augustine on,
249 ; scholastic opinion, Anselm, Aquinas,
250 ; Calvin, Lotze on, 251.
Original righteousness, 243; Pelagian, Ro
man view unsound, 243 ; true holiness in
volved, confessional statements, 244.
Original Sin, transmission of sin, 272 ; Cal
vin, definition of the phrase, 272 ; natural
headship, 272 ; federal, 273 ; immediate im
putation, 274 ; mediate imputation, 275 ;
confessional teaching, Hodge on, 275.
Owen, on justification, 449; adoption, 450;
sixteen standard doctrines, 817.
Paley, definition of an oath, 577 ; on mar
riage, 586.
Pantheism, defined, 135 ; its deficiencies.
Papacy arraigned by Calvin, 656 ; an anti-
biblical system, 658 ; injurious and corrupt
ing, 659 ; Pope not a vicar of Christ, 658 ;
has no civil authority, 673.
Paradise, the original, 244 ; vocation of man
in, 245 ; paradise forfeited, 272 ; regained
through grace, 402.
Pardon, under the Gospel, 440 ; how related
to forgiveness, 440 ; divine disposition in,
441 ; its extent and permanence, 441 ; not
based on human merit ; its ground in
Christ and his work, 441 ; not the whole of
justification, 442.
Parents, duties of, 538 ; see Membership, Bap
tism.
Particular Church, its constituents, 624;
membership, true and defective views, 625;
general Protestant usage, 626 ; Calvin, Ed
wards on, 626.
Particular church, its endowments, 630 ; min
istry as an, 630; oracles and ordinances,

852

INDEX.

631 ; ministry and the Word, 632 ; endow
ments made effectual through the Spirit,
633; ends secured through endowments,
633.
Particular church, its organization and gov
ernment, 634 ; officers extraordinary, now
ceased, 635 ; ordinary and perpetual, 636 ;
need of such officers; Presbyterian pro
vision, 636 ; ends to be sought in [organiza
tion, 637.
Particular Judgment, at death ; distinguished
from final judgment, 761 ; involves separa
tion of good and evil, 761 ; this separation
judicial, based on character ; Christ the
judge, 762 ; permanent in its results, 763 ;
testimony of the creeds.
Particular Symbolism defined, 1, 37.
Pascal, on Jesuitic casuistry, 580.
Pearson on doctrine of the Spirit, 412 ; com
munion of saints, 617.
Pelagianism on the primitive character of
man, 243 ; on the corruption induced by sin,
276 ; on divine grace,(433.
Penance, Roman doctrine of, 485 ; no substi
tute for repentance, 486.
Perfection in God, 157 ; the divine character
complete, 159.
Perfection in man, whether possible on earth,
601 ; different conceptions of, 502 ; Roman
view ; Wesley on, J502,; sanctification com
pleted only at death, 502.
Permission of sin, 261 ; the permissive de
cree, 262 ; sin not independent of God, 263 ;
confessional statements, 264; theories re
specting, 264.
Perseverance, permanence of the Christian
life, 494; Roman perversion, Arminian
error, 495 ; not dependent on the renewed
will, 496 ; but on divine election, mediation
of Christ, work of the Spirit, 497 ; saints
falling away, 498.
Person, the term defined, 164 ; its theologic
limitations, 164 ; Locke on, Calvin on, 164 ;
differentiating properties in the divine per
sons, 166 ; confessional definitions, 169.
Personality in Christ single ; two natures in,
313 ; neither divine nor human nature to
be excluded, 316.
Place of man in nature, 244 ; his dominion
over, his moral stewardship, 245.
Plan of Salvation, Lecture Seventh, 352-
404.
Plan of Salvation, decree from eternity,
356, 401 ; sovereign, free, unchangeable,
857,403; perfect and complete; creed state
ments, 358, 402 ; historically unfolded, 382 ;
effectual in application, 403.
Plato, on redemption, 402 ; laws the souls of
states, 514.
Plumptre, on biblical term, destruction, 746.
Polity, how far defined in Scripture, 647 :
diversities at the Reformation, 648 ; three

types of polity developed, 649 ; resulting
conflicts ; how far agreed, 650.
Polygamy, patriarchal usage noted, 589 ;
Council of Trent onj Protestant condem
nation of, 589.
Polytheism in all varieties forbidden, 132, 525.
Pope, civil rule of, 573 ; Protestant opposi
tion, Milton on, 574 ; creed statements, 575 ;
Syllabus Errorum on, 576; claim wholly
invalid, 576 ; see Papacy.
Positivism, valuable, yet inadequate, 72;
Christianity the universal religion, 404.
Power of God, in creation, 199 ; in grace, 373,
omnipotent.
Power of the Keys, right of discipline, 638,
hierarchal usurpation of, 638 ; vested in
the church ; Protestant view, 639 ; elements
of, 640 ; see Discipline.
Praise to God, iits nature ; Edwards on, 713 ;
elements of public praise, 713 ; Directory
on, 714.
Prayer, its constituents, 228 ; Kant, Luthardt,
Tyndall on, 228 ; answered in providence ;
theories, 229 ; Lord's Prayer, exposition of,
231 ; confessional definitions, 231.
Prayer in worship, elements of, 713 ; Protes
tant belief in prayer, 716 ; constituents and
range of, 717 ; prayer for the dead forbid
den, 717 ; in foreign tongues ; carelessness
in prayer rebuked, 718.
Preaching, part of public worship, 707 ; from
the earliest ages, Justin Martyr on, 708 ; re
stored at the Reformation, 708 ; qualifica
tions requisite ; method and spirit in, 709 ;
Directory, rules to be regarded, 710.
Predestination, defined, involved in the idea
of God as Spirit, 137 ; unto life, 357.
Pre-existence of man, theory of ; Muller on,
248.
Presbyterian Alliance, on communion of
saints, 619 ; Letter of Dorner to, 832.
Presbyterian polity, 646 ; constitutional ele
ments and features, 647 ; general warrant
in Scripture, 648 ; reasons in its favor, 648 ;
its development at the Reformation, 649;
agreements with other polities, 650 ; its
proved value, 793 ; its diffusion, 831.
Presbyt. Review, case of Best, 536; John
Durie and his work, 824.
Preservation, see Providence.
Preservation of Scripture providential, 101.
Preterition, 194, 395 ; confessional statements,
396, 813 ; Calvin on, 396 ; later Calvinism,
812.
Priest and Sacrifice, Christ as, 332 ; uni
versal Protestant recognition ; Roman and
Greek belief in, 333 ; qualities of Christ as
priest, 333 ; qualities as our sacrifice, 334 ;
Christ both priest and sacrifice, 335.
Primeval man, erroneous theories, 246 ; his
glorious place in nature, 246 ; Argyle on,
247.
Private interpretation, right and duty, 112.
Probation, man under law ; its nature, 252 ;

INDEX.

853

involving the race in effect, 259 ; all men
under probation, 297.
Probation, after death, 757 ; in what form,
for what classes, 757 ; arguments urged in
support, 758 ; witness of Scripture against,
768 ; theology and symbolism against, 759.
Process of Salvation, Lecture Eighth, 405-
460.
Process of Salvation, complex, personal,
407 ; various conceptions, 410 ; variety in
aspect, 436.
Procession of the Spirit, 168, 416; from the
Father, from the Son, 417; not secondary
to either, 860, 417.
Profanity in all forms forbidden, 529 ; civil
legislation ; offense against society, 531.
Profession of faith required, 625 ; qualities
of, 626 ; false profession, 627.
Progress of doctrine in the Bible, 366 ; Oehler
on, in O. T., Bernard on, in N. T., 367.
Progress in the Symbols, 405.
Property, crimes against, in all varieties for
bidden, 540.
Properties, differentiating in the trinity, 167;
begotten and proceeding, 167, 169 ; Christ,
only begotten, 306.
Prophecy, defined ; evidential uses of, 100 ;
ceased under the Gospel, 635.
Prophet, Christ as ; biblical conception, 328 ;
as the Logos, prophet by nature, 329 ;
supreme teacher, supreme foreteller, 330 ;
value of his teachings, his prophecies, 331 ;
his example as prophet, 331.
Protestant Confessions, comparative view, 31,
798, 826 ; confessional value, 32.
Providence, defined ; preservation included
in, 214 ; also government, 216 ; method of
God in, 217 ; providence and miracle, 218 ;
relation to second causes, 221 ; vastness,
minuteness, complexity of, 222 ; how re
lated to freedom, to human sin, 222.
Providence over saints, 226 ; over the church,
227; over the Scriptures, 227; providence
and prayer, 228 ; over the wicked, 231 ;
divine tenderness and patience in, 232 ;
chastising the incorrigible, 232; sometimes
retributive, 233 ; dealing with fallen angels,
233.
Punishments of sin in this life ; inward, ex
ternal, 300 ; future punishment certain, 780;
Butler, Jackson on, 780 ; see Hell.
Purgatory, Council of Trent on, 752 ; practi
cal mischiefs of the dogma, 753 ; Protes
tant creeds against ; no biblical foundation
for, 754.
Purity of the church, 655 ; church exposed to
error, to corruption, 655 ; churches may de
generate, 656 ; church of Rome styled a
synagogue of Satan, 656 ; better estimate
possible ; Calvin on, 659.
Race Human : origin of, 238 ; unity, 239 ;
antiauitv 240,

Rainy, on revision of the Symbols, 837,
Rationalism, 72; see Reason.
Reason, an insufficient guide, 71 ; Butler on,
72; reason and Scripture, 117; reason not
an ultimate authority, 118.
Reconciliation between God and man, why
needful, 319, 354 ; how secured, 373 ; com
plete in Christ, 324, 374.
Redeemer, redemption, see Mediator, Salva
tion, 353 ; covenant of redemption defined,
358.
Reformation, The, its formal principle, 64; its
complex character; Guizot on, 461; its
contribution to the Christian life, 462.
Reformation in Britain, its general charac
ter, 38 ; earlier British creeds, 38 ; develop
ments prior to the Assembly, 40.
Reformed Churches, their pronounced Cal
vinism ; their substantial unity, 822.
Reformed Confessions, 29.
Reformed Episcopacy, Articles of, 36.
Regeneration, defined, Holy Spirit its author,
430 ; biblical descriptions ; Synod of Dort
on, 431 ; relations to conversion, 432 ; to
sanctification, 438.
Regula Fidei, Rule of Faith, 7.
Religious usages not enjoined in the New
Test.; agape, anointing, kiss of peace,
washing of feet, 692.
Remonstrance, Arminian, 30 ; on the divine
potency, 150 ; on the status of infants, 281 ;
the eternal purpose to save, 389 ; persever
ance, 495 ; assurance, 505 ;J just condemna
tion on account of sin, 813.
Repentance, 481 ; how related to faith, 481
distinguished from regret, from remorse,
482 ; from false conviction, penitence, 483
Calvin on ; creed statements, 483 ; two ele
ments in ; contrition, renunciation, 484
Roman definition, its serious defects, 484
doctrine of repentance to be faithfully
preached, 484.
Reprobation, defined, 194,395; preterition, a
cognate, meliorating term, 396 ; creed state
ments, 397 ; severities of the doctrine miti
gated, 399, 813 ; later Calvinistic statements,
400, 813 ; recent Revision on, 401, 814.
Responsibility, nature and extent, 298, 514.
Restorationism, see Probation after death.
Resurrection, universal fact yet to occur,
769 ; at the final advent, other views un
warranted, 769 ; mysterious, yet not incred
ible, 770; presumptions for and against, 770 ;
belief fully warranted by Scripture ; im
portance of the doctrine, 771.
Resurrection of Christ, evidences in proof,
77 l; sustains belief in universal resurrec
tion, 772 ; the raised body, nature of iden
tity, 772; testimony of the Christian creeds,
773 ; relation of resurrection to the final
judgment, 773.
Revelation, defined, 72 ; objections, 73 ; God
determines the question of need ; also of
contents and modes, 74 ; sin and grace

854

INDEX.

necessitate, 74 ; process of, 75 ; universal in
scope and aim, 75 ; progressive, complete,
final, 91 ; false revelations to be rejected,
111.
Revelations of Christ before the incarnation,
307.
Reverence to parents enjoined, 538.
Revision of creeds, right and duty ; condi
tions of, 14 ; revision of the Symbols ; his
toric illustrations, 836; extent, conditions,
spirit of, 837.
Revision, The Proposed, on inspiration of
the Scriptures, 89 ; external evidences of,
100 ; creation, 204 ; modifying definition of
depravity, 278; unrenewed persons, their
works, 280, 493 ; salvability of infants dy
ing in infancy, 282 ; of other elect persons,
of the heathen 284 ; natural liberty, free
dom of the will, 293; chapter on the Gos
pel, 379 ; analysis, 380 ; reprobation and
preterition, 401; chapter on the Holy Spirit,
analysis, 413 ; extensiveness of common
grace, 426; marriage with unbelievers,
589 ; the pope not the vicar of Christ, 658.
Omissions proposed ; the term, testament,
364 ; the eternal decree, in part, 401 ; anti
christ as applied to the pope, 658 ; the sin
unto death, prayer respecting, 718 ; melior
ating influence of the Revision, 810, 839.
Reward, and penalty in moral government,
647; Mill on, 549; Christ on, 549.
Reynolds, on ingenerating religious knowl
edge, 663.
Righteousness in God, 151 ; not impugned by
sin, 153, 399 ; righteousness of Christ, 489 ;
how imputed, 442.
Ritual, see Liturgy.
Rome, church [of, how to be viewed, 659 ;
Calvin on, 658.
Roman Creeds, 34; see Trent, Council of,
Vatican Decrees, Syllabus Errorum.
Rous, version of the Psalms, 716.
Sabbath, threefold enactment ; at creation,
at Sinai, at the resurrection of Christ, 533 ;
change of day justified, 534 ; foundation in
nature, 534 ; works of necessity and mercy
permitted, 534 ; civil legislation respecting,
535 ; particular questions, 535.
Sabellian doctrine of Christ, 317.
Sacraments, Ordinances. Worship ; Lec
ture Thirteenth, 667-721.
Sacraments, definitions of, 668 ; divinely in
stituted, primary and secondary design,
669; Roman, Greek, Protestant doctrine
respecting, 670 ; Protestantism accepts two
only, reasons, 670 ; real meaning and value
of, 671 ; the five minor sacraments unwar
ranted, 671 ; Tridentine dogma, Moehler,
in defense of, 672 ; origin of the sacraments
in Hebraism, 672; churchly ordinances, 673 ;
efficacy not dependent on officials, 678;

duty of faithful observance, 435, 674 ; yet
not necessary to salvation, 674.
Sacred times, canonical hours, 721.
Sacrifice, its primal design, 333, 365 ; Christ
as sacrifice ; his perfection, 334.
Salvation, described, 353 ; need of, 354 ; its
comprehensive nature, 355 ; Roman, Prot
estant doctrine, 356; Socinian, humanita
rian error, Channing on, 355.
Salvation a process ; objective and subjective
elements, 407; biblical language used to
describe, 408 ; the Spirit supreme in, 410 ;
his special activities, 416 ; human soul en
gaged throughout, 421 ; how far obtained
in and through the church, 609.
Salvation after death, see Intermediate Life.
Sanctification, defined, 462 ; the whole man
involved ; a divine, human work, 453 ; the
image of God reproduced in, 454 ; progres
sive dying unto sin, living unto righteous
ness, 454 ; the two processes simultaneous ;
human responsibility for, 455 ; may be ar
rested or impaired, 456; completed only
at death, 456 ; Protestantism substantially
agreed, 457.
Sanctuary, Christian ; its value to religion,
694.
Satan, a real being, the original tempter, 205;
symbolic testimonies respecting, 206 ; earl
ier and later theology on, 206 ; confederacy
of fallen angels, 207 ; Satan, his nature and
fall, 266 ; his agency in the first temptation,
267 ; confessional affirmations, 268 ; ar
raigned at the judgment, 777 ; condemned
with reprobate men, 778 ; see Angels.
Satisfaction of Christ, 335 ; equivalent terms;
atonement, expiation, substitution, merit,
336; elements of this satisfaction, 337;
Anselm, Edwards, Butler, on, 337; pro
found mystery involved ; the essential fact
clear, 337 ; extent of application ; its com
pleteness, 338.
Saving Faith, confessional definitions, 474 ;
other varieties of faith, 476 ; saving faith
reasonable, 478 ; an active grace, 479 ; pow
erful in effect, 480 ; essential to Christian
manhood, 480 ; Edwards, Bushnell on, 477 ;
see Faith.
Saving Knowledge, how gained, 119 ; obli
gation to seek it, 121.
Savonarola, on the true church, 625.
Savoy, Council of, 55 ; doctrinal and ecclesi
astical basis, 66 ; testimony to the times, 53.
Savoy Declaration, on Christian Hberty,
559 ; on the ministry, 699 ; standard of or
thodoxy, 817.
Saxon Articles on baptism, 675.
Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, 31 ; on Augs
burg Confession, 39 ; on Shorter Catechism,
64 ; on Westminster doctrine of the will,
291 ; church and state, 573 ; communion of
saints, 617 ; Synod of Dort, 791 ; Second
Helvetic Conf., 799.

INDEX.

855

Schism, forbidden, 622 ; wherein it consists,
623.
Schleiermacher, on the holiness of God, 158.
Scholasticism, as related to creeds, 27 ; its
function and weakness, 28.
Schools, Luther on, 682 ; Knox on, 682 ; Prot
estantism on, 683.
Scotch Confession, 30, 39 ; on the authority
of Scripture, 67 ; its sufficiency, 119 ; unity
of God, 124 ; providence, 217 ; man as cre
ated, 247 ; the fall, 268 ; salvation of infants,
281 ; Christology, 304 ; two natures in Christ,
317 ; his three offices, 826 ; the kingship of
Christ, 840; the Gospel, 370; deadness of
the sinner, 432 ; acceptance through Christ
only, 443 ; good works, 499 ; obeying the
commandments, 512 ; the civil magistrate,
569 ; civil rule of popes, 575 ; church coun
cils, 643 ; eschatology, 726 ; psychopanny-
chism, 750 ; resurrection, 779 ; universal
judgment, 779.
Scripture, The Holy, Lecture Second,
66-123.
Scripture, supremacy of, 66 ; place in the
Symbols, 68; inerrancy of, 83 ; transmission,
86; obscuration of time, 87; errors in in
terpreting, 88; alleged errors considered, 89.
Scripture, contents of, 92 ; Canon, par
ticular books, 93 ; completeness of, 99 ;
preservation, 101 ; duty of translating and
diffusing, 102.
Scripture, creed elements in, 21 ; Bible the
supreme law within the church, 658 ; the
end of all controversies, 654.
Second Advent, see Christ, final Advent.
Second Causes, as necessary, 190 ; as free,
191 ; as contingent, 192.
Second Table of the Law, duties toward man,
539 ; four primal sins forbidden, 539 ; four
obligations enjoined, 540 ; comprehensive
ness of these commands, 541 ; biblical ref
erences appended, 541 ; dvil legislation
correspondent, 542.
Sects, how far justified, 620 ; geographic dis
tribution of churches, 621 ; other principles
of distribution, 621 ; sectarianism and
schism forbidden 622 ; uses of denomina
tions, 623; spiritual communion funda
mental, 623.
Selfhood, the root of all sin, 287.
Sermon on the Mount, an exposition of
moral law, 546.
Servetus, his humanitarian view of Christ,
315 ; his fate, 565.
Shedd, theories as to the origin of souls, 250 ;
the headship of Adam, 261 ; on the phrase,
other elect persons, 283; covenant of re
demption, 360; procession of the Holy
Spirit, 417 ; particular judgment, 762 ; on
the doctrine of future punishment, 781.
Sheol, see Hades, 752.
Sin, origin of, 210, 262; divine permission;
overruled for good, 210, 261 ; its existence

no reflection on God ; Confe*slons on, 224 ;
problem of, 263 ; not a natural necessity,
265 ; see Original Sin.
Sin personal, four aspects, 285 ; transgres-
• sion, 285; want of conformity; rebellion
against God, 286; selfhood, 287; in all
forms voluntary, invariable guilt of, 288 ;
defective and false conceptions, 289.
Sinner, spiritual deadness of, 421 ; nature
and extent of, 422 ; diverse views respect
ing, 422, 432 ; liabilities to error, 424.
Singing, as an ordinance in worship, 714 ;
Rous, version of Psalms, 715.
Sinlessness of Christ, 331.
Six days of creation, 202 ; Augustine on ; re
cent ecclesiastical declarations, 202.
Slander in all forms condemned, 540.
Sleep of the soul, see Psychopannychism.
Smalcald Articles, 29 ; on supremacy of
Scripture, 66.
Smeaton, on doctrine of the Spirit, 412.
Smith, H. B., definition of decree, 181 ; on
the covenant of works, 260 ; responsibility
for sin, 299 ; the incarnation, 309 ; the par
ticular judgment, 762.
Smith, J. Pye, on spiritual influence of trini
tarianism, 176 ; execution of the divine de
crees, 190.
Socinianism, 317 ; see Christology.
Socrates, on need of divine help, 373, 421 ;
immortality, 741 ; future judgment, 781.
Solemn League and Covenant, adopted by
Parliament and Assembly, 46 ; proposed as
basis of Protestant union, 825 ; at the Res
toration burned by public hangman, 48 ;
its denunciation of papacy and church of
Rome, 595.
Son of God, 305 ; only begotten, 306 ; Arian
and humanitarian error, 306 ; sonship an
eternal fact, 307.
Soul, not pre-existent, 248; in man as cre
ated, 241 ; origin of souls, 247.
Sovereignty of God, 137 ; basis in his nature,
138 ; and in his relations to his creatures,
149 ; shown in providence, 216 ; in grace
357.
Spencer, Herbert, proof of God, 129.
Spirit, God a spirit, 133; his attributes as
spirit, 139 ; spirituality a fundamental fact
142.
Spirit, Holy, «ee Holy Spirit.
Spiritualism, condemned, 111 ; all alleged
revelations to be rejected, 111.
Sprecher, on Lutheran view of the Supper
688.
Stanley, on Westminster Article on Scrip
ture, 122 ; Ten Commandments, 623 ; on
Baxter, 790 ; on the Symbols, their texture.
logical quality ; their firm hold, 827.
State and Church, see Civil Magistrate ;
Christianity in the state, 598.
Stillingfleet, on the trinity, 167.
Sublapsarianism, in the Assembly, 187;
Macpherson, Mitchell, Hodge on, 188.

856

INDEX.

Subordinationism in the Trinity, 168, 360.
Subscription to creeds, rule of, 58 ; conflicts
respecting, 59 ; subscription to the Sym
bols, its nature, 832 ; true loyalty involved,
835.
Suffering, as related to sin, 252, 737.
Sum of Saving Knowledge, on sin as self
hood, 287; Christology, 305; the three
offices, 325 • Christ as prophet, 329 ; accep
tance, 443; faith and obedience, 555; on
the use of Christian doctrine, 465.
Supererogation, works of, 583.
Supralapsarianism in the Assembly, 187.
Suspension from church privileges, 642.
Syllabus Errorum, on the church and the
the state 576, 602; marriage a sacrament,
587.
Symbolism, defined, generic and particular,
1 ; symbolic theology, sphere and relations,
1 ; values of symbolic study, 2, 36 ; spirit to
be cherished, 37.
Synagogue of Satan, Roman church so de
scribed, 659,
Synergistic Controversy, 291. •
Synods and Councils, desirable, 642 ; sphere
of synodical action, 644; liability to error,
645 ; variety in composition and aim, 645 ;
authority of, 646 ; Tertullian, * on early
Councils, 644.
Tables, The Two, of the Law ; earlier and
later divisions ; Roman, Reformed, 523.
Taylor, Isaac, on growth of celibacy in the
early church, 690 ; the intermediate life,
750 ; experience after death, 762.
Taylor, Jeremy, on the evils of celibacy, 591 .
Taylor, N. W., on Moral Government, 295.
Teleological argument for God, 128.
Temptation, the original, 265; Satan the
tempter, 266 ; his nature and fall ; tempta
tion universal, 268 ; temptation of our
Lord, 268.
Ten Commandments, 519 ; relation to moral
law in general, 519 ; when and how en
acted, 520 ; supernatural origin and quality,
520 ; miracle at their announcement, 521 ;
the record historically true, 621 ; certain
special characteristics, 522 ; variations in
language of records, 523; division into
two tables, 523; obligatory on all men, 525;
warnings against disobedience, 527; corres
ponding promises, 538.
Tenth Commandment, its unity, 542 ; its
transitional nature, 542; its spiritual test
ing, 543 ; Luther on, 543; introductory to the
law of Christ, 544 ; Ursinus on, 544.
Tertullian, on the early Councils, 644.
Testaments, (covenants) Old and New, 364.
Thanksgiving, public, enjoined, 713 ; nature
and extent of, 714.
Theology, progressive, 12 ; exists under lim
itations, 18 ; error of Macaulay, 13 ; theol
ogy never complete.
Thirty-Nine Articles, 30 ; in substance Cal

vinistic, 89; revised by -Westminster
Assembly, 46 ; their enduring quality and
influence. 827 ; on supremacy of Scripture,
67, 116 ; the apocrypha, 97 ; God defined in,
125 ; the depravation of the race, 279 ; Chris
tology, 303 ; sinlessness of Christ, 323 ; elec
tion, 384 ; spiritual value of this doctrine,
392 ; acceptance through Christ, 443 ; good
works, 493 ; perseverance, 496 ; obedience
to divine law, 512 ; concupiscence, 547 ; the
civil magistrate, 570 ; civil rule of popes,
575; celibacy, 593; the church, 604; the
church of Rome, 659 ; definition of the sac
raments, 688; purgatory, 753; American
revision of, 643.
Three Offices of Christ as mediator, 324;
•grounds of this distribution, 325 ; history
of the analysis, 325; Eusebius on, Calvin
on, 325 ; objections to, 326 ; all analytic de
scriptions inadequate, 327.
Toleration, imperfectly apprehended, 564;
the Westminster doctrine of, 561, 815 ; two
instances of intolerance, 666; toleration
gradually developed ; Mitchell, Masson
on, 817 ; plea of the Provincial Assembly,
819 ; Toleration Act of 1689, 573 ; further
improvement ; present doctrine, 574.
Tradition rejected by Protestantism, 115.
Traducianism defined, 248; its claim con
sidered, 249.
Transubstantiation, 686.
Trent, Council of, its Canons, 34, 122, 458 ;
on the apocrypha, 96 ; church interpreta
tion of Scripture, 115 ; the salvation of
infants, 280 ; Christology, 311 ; the priest
hood and sacrifice of Christ, 333 ; the des
census ad inferos, 347 ; justification, 439,
458 ; saving faith, 476 ; churchly absolution,
486 ; good works, 489 ; obedience to the
commandments, 510 ; the priesthood, 631 ;
the power of the keys, 638 ; purgatory, 753.
Tridentine Catechism; Tridentine Profes
sion, 34, 625.
Trinity in God defined, 160; internal, 166;
external, 170 ; proofs adduced, 172 ; objec
tions noted, 174 ; spiritual effect of the doc
trine, 174; Confessions on, Chalcedonian
statement, 166.
Trinity in salvation, 171 ; functions of the
divine Persons, 172, 360, 410,
Tritheistic tendency among trinitarians. 163.
Trust in God ; Father, Son and Spirit, 470 ;
trust in the Spirit, its basis, 471.
Truthfulness of God, its nature, 156 ; mani
fest in providence, in Scripture, in the Gos
pel, 156.
Truth's Victory Over Error, (Dickson) on
the inspiration of the Scriptures, 79; human
activity in conversion, 433 ; perseverance
of the saints, 494 ; Christian perfection, 503;
moral law identical in all forms, 515.
Two Estates of Christ, humiliation and ex
altation, 344 ; humiliation beginning in the
kenosis, continued through life, culminat-

INDEX.

837

ing in death, 345; the descensus, the point of
transition, 346 ; exaltation, in resurrection
and ascension, 347 ; ruler over his people,
earthly and heavenly, 348; judge over all,
individual and general, 348.
Tyndall, prayer answered in providence. 2;S0.
Types and promises realized in Christ, 36-1.
Ultimate Consummation, following resur
rection and judgment, 786; kingdom of
redemption ended, 786 ; combustion of the
earth, 7S7.
Unitarian conception of Christ, 31S ; sec
Christ.
United Church, Scotland, on salvability of
the heathen, 284 ; universality of the Gos
pel, 378; reprobation, 400; works of the
unregenerate, 493 ; religious liberty, 573.
Unity of the race, natural evidences, 289 ;
moral unity described, 240 ; biblical proofs,
239.
Universalism, restorationism, unwarranted,
353, 374, 751, 757, 780.
Universe, material, its magnitude, 203.
Urim and Thummim, Shechinah, pre-Chris
tian forms of revelation, 76.
Ursulas, on interpreting the commandments,
518 ; on tenth commandment, 544.
Uses of the moral law, 512 ; to all, 516 ; to the
unregenerate, 516 ; to Christians, 517.
Ussher, on justification and adoption, 450.
Van Oostbrzee, on the three offices of
Christ, 326 ; the future of the earth, 728.
Vatican Council, on papal infallibity, 109 ;
definition of God, 125 ; creation, 207.
Virtue, nature of, see Duty, Law, Morality.
Voluntaryism in America, 572.
Vow defined, 581 ; inferior senses, 582 ; mon
astic vows, Protestant Confessions on, 583 ;
limitations of vows ; must be voluntary,
in conscience, with biblical warrant, 583 ;
not works of supererogation, 584 ; Luther,
Calvin on, 582.
Vulgate, Roman estimate, 96; Protestant, 103.
Warburton, development of law in Scrip
ture, 520.
Warfield, on salvation of infants, 281.
Watson, on falling from grace, 498.
Wesley, on election, 387 ; on the corrupt state
of man, 423 ; falling away, 498 ; Christian
perfection, 502; estimate of Madame Guyon,
584.
Westminster Assembly, The ; Lecture
Fifteenth, 789-840.
Whateley, on the constitution of primitive
churches, 6«8 ; slumber in the intermediate
state, 750.
White, on conditional immortality, 746.

Westminster Assembly ; producing caiw ,
and origin, 40 ; composition and organi/;i
Hon, 42 ; character and qualifications of its
membership, 48, 795 ; its sessions and pro
cedure, 44; its ecclesiastical and liturgical
labors, 45; its doctrinal work ami products,
49, 797 ; difficulties, political and religions,
encountered, 62, 795 ; its consecration, re
ligious temper and purpose, 54, 797 ; its
final dissolution, 55.
Westminster Assembly, estimates of it and
its work ; Man ton, 43 ; Winer, 51 ; Briggs,
55 ; Milton, 568, 790, 795 ; Clarendon, Hal
lam, Masson, 789; Baxter, Hetherington,
790; Stoughton, Schaff, Mitchell, 791;
Blunt, Marsden, 801 ; Stanley, 824, 827.
Westminster Symbols, when and how
framed, 49 ; general quality, 61, 797 ; ac
ceptance, in England, in Scotland, 56 ; in
America ; the Adopting Act, 58 ; approved
in New England, 60 ; subsequent career in
Britain, 827 ; prized by continental Protes
tantism, 822 ; their cosmic diffusion and in
fluence, 831.
Westminster Symbols, their general struc
ture, 62, 237, 405, 556 ; system and order,
352, 462, 800 ; theological completeness, 799 ;
spiritual quality, 804 ; compared with other
Protestant creeds, 61, 798, 826.
Will, theories respecting freedom, 294 ; see
Ability, Freewill.
Will of God supreme, resistless, 149 ; its
nature, 150.
Willful absence as ground of divorce, 595.
Winer, on value of Westminster Symbols, 51 ;
notes of the church, Roman, Protestant,
605.
Wisdom of God, its nature, 145 ; its charac
teristics as intelligence, 146 ; as wisdom in
the moral sense, 147.
Wittsius, on the revealing Logos, 425.
Woolsey, divorce and divorce legislation, 594.
Word, The, Scriptures; reading, 706; preach
ing, 707 ; hearing, 711.
Works of'creation and providence revealing
God, 70 ; works of man, see Good Works.
Worship enjoined, second commandment,
526 ; worship of false gods forbidden, 527 ;
worship of images and pictures, 527, 704 ;
nature of true adoration, 703 ; grounds of
worship, 704 ; duty of social, 705 ; elements
of true, 706 ; see Ordinances, Praise, Prayer.
Zwingli, on salvation of infants, 281; of some
heathen, 284, 425; the allffiosis, 316; good
works, 490 ; civil magistracy, 569 ; celibacy,
592 ; the church, 603 ; true ministry, 631 ;
the papacy, 657 ; purgatory, 753.

ADDITIONAL REFERENCES.

•eaeral Histories : Hume, Hallam, Claren
don, Macaulay (Introduction) Froude,
Green, Gardner.
Church Histories: Fuller, Burnet, Strype,
Heylin, Stoughton, Hardwick, Schaff,
Fisher.
Special Histories : Neal, History of the Pu
ritans ; Marsden, Early and Later Puritans;
McCrie, Annals of English Presbytery ;
Masson, Life of Milton.
Histories of Doctrine : Smith, H. B., Histor
ical Tables ; Hagenbach, edited by Smith ;
Cunningham ; Shedd ; Fisher ; Dorner,
Hist, of Protestant Theol. ; Moehler, Sym
bolism.
Creeds, Collections of: Dunlop, Hase,
Niemeyer, Winer, Swainson ; Hall, Har
mony of Protestant Confessions; Schaff,
Creeds of Christendom.
Westminster Assembly: Minutes, edited
with Introduction by Mitchell ; Baillie,
Letters and Journal ; Lightfoot, Journal ;
Gillespie, Notes; Hetherington, History
of the Assembly; Mitchell, Westminster
Assembly ; Reid, Memoirs ; Briggs, Docu
mentary History, (Presbyt. Review); Ter
centenary Vol. 1843 ; Memorial Vol. 1897 ;
Anniversary Addresses, (General Assem

bly) 1898; Stanley, Memorials of Westmin
ster Abbey.
Commentaries on the Confession of Faith ;
¦Dickson, (Truth's Victory Over Error);
Shaw, Hodge, A. A., Macpherson, Beattie.
Commentaries on the Catechisms : Willard,
(Body of Divinity); Ridgley, (Body of Di
vinity) ; Watson, (Body of Practical Divin
ity), Vincent, Fisher, Paterson, Green,
Hall, Boyd, Whyte.
Authors of the Period, illustrative ; Cart-
wright, Ussher, Henderson; Twisse, Palm
er, Arrowsmith, Marshall, Gillespie, Cala
my, Rutherford, Goodwin ; Leighton, Bax
ter, Owen, Howe, Charnock , Episcopius
Cocceius, Ursinus, F. Turretin.
Later Authorities, for special reference:
British, Butler, Warburton, Pearson, Wes
ley, Hill, Dick, Wardlaw, Watson, Chal
mers, Smith, J. Pye.
American, Edwards, Dwight, Richards, I..
Beecher, Hodge, Ch., Smith, H. B., Breck-
enridge, Shedd, Ilickok, Dabney.
American Presbyterianism: Gillett, His
tory of the Presbyterian Church ; Webster,
same title ; Hodge, Ch., Const. History ;
Briggs, Amer. Presbyterianism ; Thomp
son, Hist, of the Presbyt. Churches ; Pres
byterian Digest, 1898.

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