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Calvin and Calvinism » 2009 » February

Archive for February, 2009

5
Feb

Nathanael Hardy (1618-1670) on 2 Peter 2:1 and Jude 4

   Posted by: CalvinandCalvinism    in 2 Peter 2:1 (and Jude 4)

Hardy:

The more to enforce this upon us, take notice,

1. Who it is, the Son, and that in a double notion.

(1.) Being the Son, he ‘thinketh it no robbery to be equal with God,’ Philip, iii. 5, inasmuch as, according to the Athanasian creed, he is God of God, light of light, very God of very God. Being the Son, he is heir of all things. Lord of heaven and earth; and shall we in any kind, or for any cause, deny him? This is that which St Jude brings in as an aggravation of the sin of these very antichrists, whom he calls ‘certain men crept in unawares, they denied the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ,’ Jude 4; where, though some take the words disjunctively, applying the first clause to the Father, and the second to the Son, yet since there is no article in the Greek between theon and kurion, God and Lord, to divide them; yea, the word despotes, in that parallel place of St Peter, is evidently used of Christ, and withal the heresies of those times more directly struck at Christ than at God the Father; it is not improbable that St Jude intended here only to set forth Christ in his natures and prerogatives, whom he calls ‘the only Lord God’ (as elsewhere the Father is styled ‘the only true God’), not in exclusion of the other persons, but of all false deities. And now, when we set before us the divinity, majesty, sovereignty, and authority of Christ, the only Lord God, how must the sin of denying him appear beyond measure sinful!

(2.) This glorious and eternal Son of God was pleased to undertake and accomplish the work of our redemption, and it would be no other than a monstrous ingratitude to deny him. Upon this account, St Peter, speaking of these very antichrists under the name of false teachers, 2 Pet. ii. 2, aggravates their denial of Christ, in that it was of ‘the Lord that bought them.’ There cannot be a more execrable villainy, than for a slave to disown his lord that hath ransomed him. Who would not cry shame on that son who should deny his own father? And may I not say of the Son of God, in Moses his language, to every one of us, Deut. xxxii. 6, ‘Is not he thy Father that hath bought thee?’ ‘What is there thou canst be in danger of by acknowledging him, which he did not actually undergo to redeem thee? Is it loss of estate? he was poor; of credit? he was reviled; of liberty? he was bound; of life? he was crucified; and shall any of these dishearten us from honoring, or induce us to deny him? When therefore any temptations shall assault us (as once they did Peter) to deny him, let us remember what he is in himself, and what he hath done for us; let us consider his greatness, and be afraid; his goodness, and be ashamed; for fear, or shame, or any cause whatsoever to deny him.

2. That I may drive the nail to the head, let us often set before our eyes that dismal communication so often denounced in the Gospel by the Son of God himself against those who shall deny him. Mat. x. 33, ‘Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven;’ and again inculcated by St Paul, 2 Tim. ii. 13, ‘If we deny him, he will deny us:’ a threat than which none more just, and yet withal none more terrible. Just it is, in that it is the retaliation of like for like. What more rational than that despisers should be despised, forsakers should be forsaken, and deniers should be denied? And how terrible it is will soon appear, if you consider that the Son of God will then deny us, when he shall appear in his glory, that he will deny us not only before men, but angels, nay, his Father; that if he pronounce upon us an know you not (which is to deny us), we are the cursed of the Father; he will not acknowledge them for his adopted children, who durst not here own his begotten Son, and whom his Son will not then own for brethren; yea, which consummates the misery of such apostates, they must ‘have their portion with hypocrites,’ having denied Christ; and being denied by him, they must depart from him into that fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels, there being no reason that they should be near to Christ hereafter, who follow him afar off, nay, run away from him here.

Nathanael Hardy, The First General Epistle of St John the Apostle, Unfolded and Applied (Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1865), 344.   [Some spelling modernized; underlining mine.] [Note: Of further interest here is that Hardy’s thinking here predates the Granville Sharp rule by about one century.]

4
Feb

Charles Hodge on Common Grace

   Posted by: CalvinandCalvinism    in God is Gracious: Common and Special Grace

C. Hodge:

1) Finally, Mysticism differs from the doctrine of common graces as held by all Augustinians, and that of sufficient grace as held by Arminians. All Christians believe that as God is everywhere present in the material world, guiding the operation of second causes so that they secure the results which He designs; so his Spirit is everywhere present with the minds of men, exciting to good and restraining from evil, effectually controlling human character and conduct, consistently with the laws of rational beings. According to the Arminian theory this “common grace” is sufficient, if properly cultured and obeyed, to lead men to salvation, whether Pagans, Mohammedans, or Christians. There is little analogy, however, between this doctrine of common, or sufficient grace, and Mysticism as it has revealed itself in the history of the Church. The one assumes an influence of the Spirit on all men analogous to the providential efficiency of God in nature, the other an influence analogous to that granted to prophets and apostles, involving both revelation and inspiration.  Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, 1:69.

2) There is a sense in which, as all evangelical Christians believe, the Spirit is given to every man. He is present with every human mind exciting to good and restraining from evil. To this the order, and what there is of morality in the world, are due. Without this “common grace,” or general influence of the Spirit, there would be no difference between our world and hell; for hell is a place or state in which men are finally given up of God. In like manner, there is a general providential efficiency of God by which He cooperates with second causes, in the productions of the wonderful phenomena of the external world. Without that cooperation—the continued guidance of mind—the cosmos would become chaos. But the fact that this providential efficiency of God is universal, is no proof that He everywhere works miracles, that He constantly operates without the intervention of second causes. So, also, the fact that the Spirit is present with every human mind, and constantly enforces the truth present to that mind, is no proof that He makes immediate, supernatural revelations to every human being. The fact is, we cannot see without light. We have the sun to give us light. It is vain to say that every man has an inward light sufficient to guide him without the sun. Facts are against the theory. Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, 1:101.

3) The Spirit not only thus reveals divine truth, having guided infallibly holy men of old in recording it, but He everywhere attends it by his power. All truth is enforced on the heart and conscience with more or less power by the Holy Spirit, wherever that truth is known. To this all-pervading influence we are indebted for all there is of morality and order in the world. But besides this general influence, which is usually called common grace, the Spirit specially illuminates the minds of the children of God, that they may knew the things freely given (or revealed to them) by God. The natural man does not receive them, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. All believers are therefore called (pneumatikoi) spiritual, because thus enlightened and guided by the Spirit. Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, 1:532.

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Sclater:

1)

Beloved of God.] There is a general love of God, whereby he embraces all men; as appears by his beneficence, Matth. 5:45. There is a special love, wherewith he loves his elect in Christ, and of this is the place to be understood.

Wiliam Sclater, A Key to the Key of Scripture, or An Exposition with Notes upon the Epistle to the Romanes. 2nd ed. (London: Printed by T.C. for Nicolas Fussell and Humphrey Mosley, and are to be sold at the Ball in Paus Church yard, near the Great North Doore, 1629), 31.  [Some spelling modernized, underlining mine.]

2)

Now that we may hence observe; The unfaithfulness of ungodly ones in the Church of God, hinders not the accomplishment of God’s promises made to the faithful: see the Lord avowing tis to the Jews Ezek. 18. by reasons; first, all souls are God’s, equally his creatures, equally dear unto him; secondly,  open profession, the soul that sins, and that only dies;’ thirdly, more particular application; handled in comparison of equals; as the rebellious son has no immunity by his father’s righteousness; so neither does the innocent son receive any detriment by the disobedience of the father [Hab. 2:4.]. The Just lives by his own faith [Gal. 6.], every man beares his own burden.

Wiliam Sclater, A Key to the Key of Scripture, or An Exposition with Notes upon the Epistle to the Romanes. 2nd ed. (London: Printed by T.C. for Nicolas Fussell and Humphrey Mosley, and are to be sold at the Ball in Paus Church yard, near the Great North Doore, 1629),  254. [Some spelling modernized, underlining mine.] [Note: Compare Calvin on Eze :18:4.]

3)

Argument of love thus disposed: If I have chosen you and your Fathers, and rejected your Brethren and their Fathers, then I love you; but I have loved Jacob and hated Esau: Ergo. What is meant by his love, Paul best expounds, Rom 9. of Election.

The greatest evidence of God’s love, is Election to Salvation: there is a general love to all Creatures; some token of love to Saul, that he was a King, but nothing that that we are elected: all nothing without Election.

William Sclater, A Brief and Plain Commentary with Notes: Not More Useful, than Seasonable, upon the whole Prophecie of Malachy (London: Printed by J.L. for Christopher Meredith at the sign of the Crane in Pauls Church-yard, 1650), 11. [Note: Compare Calvin and Knox’s like statements on General Love in relation to Malachi 1:2-3.]

[Brief Biography from the Web:

William Sclater (1575 – 1627), Church of England clergyman

William was baptised at Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire on 25th October 1575. He was the son of the rector, Anthony Sclater (1519/20 – 1620) and his wife Margaret Loughborowe. William went to Eton College and in 1593 was admitted to King’s College, Cambridge. Three years later he became a fellow and in 1598 graduated with a BA and in 1601 proceeded MA.

His career was subsequently as follows:

  • 1601 Sclater started preaching in Walsall, Staffordshire. He controversially refused to wear the surplice
  • 1604 presented to the vicarage of Pitminster, near Taunton, Somerset
  • 1606, even though serving as rural dean, he was still in trouble for nonconformity
  • 1608 he proceeded BD
  • 1609 was urging other moderate puritans to conform
  • 1611 published the sermon The Key to the Key of Scripture
  • 1612 published the sermon The Ministers’ Portion
  • 1617 proceeded to DD
  • 1619 made chaplain and prebendary of Bath and Wells by Bishop Arthur Lake
  • 1619 presented with the living of Lympsham, Somerset by Lord Poulett (he also retained Pitminster, which he left in the care of a curate)
  • 1623 published the sermon The Question of Tithes

Sclater was a staunch Calvinist and was highly esteemed by leading west-country puritans such as Sir John Horner and Sir John Bampfield. In 1621 Richard Barnard listed Sclater as one of his thirty-four godly ministers to whom he dedicated his clerical manual, The Faithful Shepherd.

In his personal life: He married his first wife (name unknown) in 1609 and through this marriage he had two sons and five daughters. In the 1620s he married his second wife, Marie or Mary, from Mells, Somerset and the couple had one daughter. His eldest son, William, was responsible for postumously editing many of his works. Sclater died in Pitminster in 1627.]

Kimedoncius:

Bullinger, Gualther, Musculus and others are cited, and the confessions of one or two Churches in Helvetia, out of whom these and like kinds of sayings are diligently drawn: to wit, that “Christ, as [Bulling. ser. 2. de Nativit Chri.] much as in him is a Saviour to all, and came to save all”: [The same upon 1 John 1.] “that he pleased God by sacrifice for all the sins of all times”: [Catech. minore. Eccl. Tigur.] “that his passion ought to satisfy for the sin of all men, and that the whole world is quickened by the same“: [Musc. in locis de remiss. p.q.2.] that the grace of remission of sins is appointed for all mortal men,” and such like.

Unto these, I answer, that how soever, and in what sense soever those writers uttered these and the like kind of speeches, it is certain that they were not of the adversaries opinion, that effectually and in very deed all, without exception of anyone, and without any difference of believers and unbelievers, are received into grace, and made partakers of remission of sins, righteousness and salvation of Christ.

Iacob Kimedoncius, Of The Redemption of Mankind (London: Imprinted by Felix Kingston for Hvmfrey Lownes, 1598), 141-142. [Some reformatting, some spelling modernized, marginal comments cited inline, underlining mine.]

[Notes: Kimedoncius “adversary” here is Huberus. Huberus was a Universalist advocating that all men will be finally saved. Huberus attempted to cite various orthodox Reformed and Lutheran theologians, and confessions, to sustain his argument. Kimedoncius’ intent is to demonstrate that Huberus has taken these men and documents out of context. What interests us here is the reference to Catech. minore. Eccl. Tigur. This was an early non-extant Swiss catechism.  This early Reformed Helvetian catechism advocated an unlimited expiation of Christ. Kimedoncius associates this catechism, theologically, with Bullinger, Musculus and Gualther, whose positions on the extent of the expiation are explicit.  Further, another early Helvetian confession was Bullinger’s Second Helvetic Confession, and it is it likely that this was the other confession Kimedoncius alludes to when he says “confessions of one or two Churches.”]