1)

Concerning Hardening, Blindness; How God
Is Said to Deceive and Punish Sin with Sin

Hardening, blindness, and deceit is sin because of the cause for which they occur; that which hardens and blinds with regard to men and devils, however, is sin, as is said in Ephesians 4; at other times, however, it is the punishment for sin.

We say in three senses, however, that God hardens and blinds, i.e., punishes by means of evil things former offenses with later ones. First is when He deprives men of His own light, wisdom, grace, and heavenly gifts. When, however, God withdraws from men that which is His own, darkness of necessity follows light, and ignorance, blindness, and

hardening follows wisdom; when the sole cause of punishments remains, the guilt of punishment follows, as it is said in Job 12. He withdraws their hearts and mouths from princes (cf. vv. 20, 24).

Furthermore, He is said to harden when He does not soften; does not enlighten men, but leaves them in their darkness. Thus it is said in Isaiah 6 and 63 (Rom. 6, 7). And thus the Spirit of the Lord left Saul (Lombard, Book 2, Sentences).

Third, by leaving men to themselves, He gives them up to the devil, that author of every error and evil, and gives them into the hands of sin, subjects them to the Law of men (Amos 3; Isa. 45; Matt. 13). When afterwards, men are the slaves of sin, they are inclined only to evil and led by Satan. They are falsely in error, therefore, who say (with Pelagius) that God punishes and hardens permissively.

Because God, like a judge, carries out punishments effectively; He performs His office in giving out the reward or the wages of sin, not permissively but in truth by decreeing and executing [His decree] (Ex. 7, 8; Deut. 2; Ps. 10; Jet. 50). In hardening and giving men over to a reprobate mind, He effectively punishes sins by sins, pays the wages of wandering from the way (therefore, He truly does what it says in Rom. 1, 2 Thess. 2, Eph. 2, 2 Chron. 17, 1 Kings 17, 22). He says to the devil,”Be gone; deceive them:’ He empowers Satan as a judge does the executioner and does not merely permit him to punish.

Concerning Permission

We say that God acts permissively in foul sins or offenses because He is not the author of sin or evil offenses (Acts 14; Ps. 83). He only permits men to commit them, but does not command or perform them. God does not perform anything close by, effectively or directly, but only indirectly, sustaining the ruined mass, its movement, existence; giving life in accordance with His general providence.

But when God punishes sins with later sins, working indirectly in a manner deserving of punishment, He does not sin (2 Sam. 16, 18, 19), The instruments, men and devils, work sinfully close by, committing sin in themselves, with regard to themselves, as Absalom, Ammon, the Chaldeans, Satan (Rom. 7; Eph. 4; 2 Sam. 7, 12, 13; 1 Kings 11, 17, 22; 2 Chron. 25; so teach the Holy Scriptures and the fathers: Augustine, on predestination; Ambrose, on the call of the heathen; 2 Thess. 2; Jerome, Prosper, and others).   “The Hungarian Confessio Catholica (1562)” in Reformed Confessions of the 16th and 17th Centuries in English Translation, ed., James T. Dennison, (Grand Rapids Michigan: Reformation Heritage Books, 2010), 2:480-482.

2)

Concerning the Actions of God

The actions of God are of two kinds: effective or active and passive or permissive. Active actions are those which God performs with His own strength, impulse, indirect or direct power, generally or particularly, in accordance with the wisdom, goodness, good pleasure, and just judgment of His power. He performs effectively those actions which relate to His ordinary office ad extra, i.e., works of mercy and goodness. He performs particularly and indirectly in Christ (in accordance with His presence and predestination in Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of His glory and grace), namely election, calling, justification, regeneration, conversion, giving a new heart, a new spirit, faith, drawing to Himself, and illumination. All these things, He does in Himself for the sake of Christ, without our virtue and merits.

However, the works and deeds of righteousness, wisdom, goodness, omnipotence, and providence, He performs both generally and particularly, i.e., to create, preserve, raise from the dead, punish, judge, and feed all (as is written in Acts 17 and Pss. 36, 106). He raises His sun upon both good and bad, gives food to all flesh, gives rain, clothes, and causes grasses to grow, feeds the birds that fly in the sky (Matt. 5, 6, 10, 12; 1 Cor. 12). By His general goodness, power, and providence, He cares for the wicked also. As He performs effectively the works of mercy, i.e., salvation and election, in Himself, directly and indirectly, ordinarily and extraordinarily, as also faith, repentance and virtues working in the elect, as in Cornelius and others, so too He performs effectively and powerfully the works of righteousness, i.e., punishment, condemnation, delusion, and hardening, as the judge that punishes sins. As punishments are of two kinds, He punishes in two ways–the simple, which are nevertheless punishments, such as hunger, plague, punishment through inanimate creatures, dumb beasts; God works directly simply in these punishments (as is written in the prophets: Deut. 26, 27; Ezek. 9, 14; Jer. 4; Isa. 3, 5; Amos 4, 5). Evils of punishment which are in themselves complex, with regard to the instruments of sinning (i.e., Satan and the wicked), are sins; as when sins are punished with sins, deception, hardening, delusion, destruction, robbery, murder, fornication. These evils with respect to God are just punishments, the wages and rewards of prior sins. In these evils, God acts effectively, powerfully, but indirectly through Satan and the wicked. When He gives us up to a reprobate mind, He makes us mad, deceives us, hardens us, sends the efficacy of error. He gives to Satan and the wicked, as the instruments of wrath, a command to punish through latter sins, sets in motion effectual error, power, guides the instruments of sins. As it is written, “Go, deceive him, you will prevail” (1 Kings 22:22). God releases upon us the efficacy of error (2 Thess. 2; Rom. 9).”I will harden Pharaoh’s heart” (Ex. 7:3; 8). “He deludes the people and hardens their hearts” (Isa. 6:10). “I command that you take booty there and divide it” (Isa. 10:6; 54). “He takes away speech from him that speaks truly” ( Job 12:20). “God has created the wicked for the day of destruction” (Prov. 16:4; 21). There is nothing so bad that God would not perform (Isa. 45:7; Amos 3:6). So teach Augustine (Enchiridion, chap. 99, 100; On Correction and Grace; On Predestination; On Nature and Grace, 3, 4, 7; Book 6, 9; on Genesis; Against Julian, Book 5, chap. 2, 3; Ambrose, Origen, Chrysostom, Bede, Theophylact, Anselm, Jerome, commentaries on Rom. 1; 2 Thess. 2; Eph. 2; Amos, and Isaiah).

However, the actions of God and His instruments are distinguished with regard to purpose, plan, and reason. God punishes sins for general reasons by the mandate of divine justice, as a judge punishes sins punitively, and with other punishments in order to amend and correct His own. Satan and the wicked punish culpably for the purpose of corruption, out of impure reasons, rebellion, and the spirit of sinning. As it is written: “You thought wicked thoughts against me, but God thought to turn it to good” (Gen. 50:20; 48, 49). “His Spirit veers” (Hab. 1:11) and “He will destroy” (Isa. 10:7; Amos 1). “I had been a little angry with my people, but they, although I helped them, rushed into destruction” (Zech. 1:15; so teaches Jerome on Isaiah 10 and the passages indicated, together with Nicholas of Lyra). Therefore, when it is written that God hardens, deludes, deceives, drives mad, ordains the wicked for the day of destruction, does bad things, we are to understand these things punitively concerning punitive evils, for just reasons (Augustine, Book 1, 2). He makes the wicked, i.e., ordains the wicked to punishment, and stirs up Satan. Those who are evil of themselves in their own wickedness, them He stirs up as executioners. He makes punishment in the wicked and not sin, i.e., He does not make us unbelievers and sinful, but the one who in himself through Satan has become sinful and wicked, him He makes for the day of evil, i.e., ordains, initiates, as the judge empowers the executioner for the punishment of the evil one By the testimony of Augustine, they err wickedly who think that God works permissively in these punitive evils. When He blinds, hardens, and turns wills where He wishes, He acts not patiently, but with power (Cyprian also, Against Demetrianus). All things take place in accordance with the will and pleasure of God, and nothing can happen except what He has done or permitted to be done.

The things that God forbids in the Law and that are contrary to the righteousness of God, He does not effect causally, but only permissively; i.e., He only permits all evils, faults, and sins to occur. “In sin, I dismissed your mothers” (Isa. 50:1; Acts 11; Ps. 83; Augustine, Books 4, 7, 8, 9; Enchiridion; On Predestination; On Christian Doctrine; to Petilianus; On Faith, chap. 3; On Marriage and Concupiscence, chap. 23; Book, 3, 6, 7). God is said to work in these evils insofar as He forms and creates them by His general providence, or gives life, movement, and substance to the mass of sins, i.e., to Satan, and the wicked (Acts 16, 17; so say Augustine and Cyprian). God gives power and life to the devil and the wicked.”You would have no power over me were it not given you from above” ( John 19:11; Matt. 26; Luke 22; Ambrose, Origen, Hilary, on the same; Lombard, Book 2, Dist. 44; Gregory, Moralia; Augustine, On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis, chap. 3; Enchiridion, chap. 20, 27; one small work). If God in His own goodness were to cease giving life and vigorous power to the wicked angels and if this governing were withdrawn, all things would collapse (Lombard, Book 1, Dist. 4; Book 2, Dist. 35). For God does not cease to animate and ordain the members of the wicked on account of the similar corrupt nature begotten of the pattern of the race (Pss. 32, 139; Job 7, 10; Jer. 1; Isa. 57; Ecclesiastes). “I gave breath to the people” and created their souls (Isa. 42:5). I have formed you You numbered the days of my formation in the womb (?Jer. 1:5). Who created in them the souls of men. “You have covered me with bones and sinews” ( Job 10:11). “The Hungarian Confessio Catholica (1562)” in Reformed Confessions of the 16th and 17th Centuries in English Translation, ed., James T. Dennison, (Grand Rapids Michigan: Reformation Heritage Books, 2010), 2:587-598.

3)

The Twofold Motive in the Guilt and
Punishment of the Wicked

God’s general providential motivation is His unfailing holiness (Augustine, Enchiridion, chap. 27, 99, 100; Book 6, chap. 18, on Genesis; Against Julian, Book 5, chap. 2, 3). And even to the mass of sinners, God gives motivation s, life, and existence for good and not for evil. God is not present in all good and evil deeds as first cause, in motivation and as prime mover in every action. Even if He moves sinners, upholds, sustains, and preserves them in their sins, God does not sin in agitating and moving His instruments, since He acts from good intentions, without defect and to a good purpose as judge, creator, preserver, and strengthens and sustains the mass created by Him. This motivation is remote, is foremost of God, and good in sins and punishments. For this reason, Augustine says: when God permits those evils to occur which are contrary to His will, He nevertheless does not permit them against His will; therefore, He acts justly in permitting evil things to exist. God is perfect, good and just. Therefore, a good effect springs from a good and just cause. God’s acts are righteous because of His holiness. The motivation of the offenders, i.e., of Satan and men, is different. This motivation is with defect and arises from the corrupt mass, the heart and intentions, and from the substance of Satan and men. The final purpose of this motivation is evil; therefore, its effect too is evil and vicious. The proximate causal act and motivation in sinning is man and Satan, and the punishment of sins by sins; sin exists on account of a sinful cause, namely, man and Satan. Just as the accomplished writer and artist guides the hand and limbs of the imperfect, unlearned and inexperienced, faults and errors are committed in the work and the drawing by the unlearned child. For when he works by himself, the artist draws and works perfectly without defect. “The Hungarian Confessio Catholica (1562)” in Reformed Confessions of the 16th and 17th Centuries in English Translation, ed., James T. Dennison, (Grand Rapids Michigan: Reformation Heritage Books, 2010), 2:590.

[Dennison’s biographical note:

This confession with three names–Debrecen, Catholica, Agrovalliensis–is a lengthy Reformed confession written at the request of the church in Debrecen in 1561 by Peter Mélius Juhász (1536 –1572) and Gregory Szegedi (1511-1569). György Ceglédi/Czeglédi, Protestant pastor at Várad/Nagyvarad, is also regarded as a joint author. The Confessio catholica de praecipuis fidei articulis exhibita was then printed with the title Confessio Agrovalliensis (“Confession of the Eger Valley”) in 1562 because the Reformed church in the Eger Valley (Egervölgyi) had asked the Debrecen church to send them a copy of the Mélius-Szegedi document.

Agrivalliensis or the Eger Valley is a region in northeastern Hungary where a small fort manned by about 2,000 citizens had courageously turned back a long siege by the Ottoman Turks a decade earlier (1552). The Protestant faith took hold of these folk with so much power that the Habsburg emperor, Ferdinand I (1503 –1564), accused the city of treason, i.e., rejection of the Roman Catholic faith as promulgated by the Counter-Reformation Jesuit Council of Nagyszombat (Trnava, Tyrnau) on April 23, 1560. Having learned of Mélius and Szegedi’s confession, the believers in Eger asked that they be permitted to send a copy of the Debrecen Confession to the king. However, they asked that the cover or title page be altered from its original wording, Confessio catholica or Confessio Debreceniensis, to that listed above. The valiant soldiers, nobles, and common citizens gathered to swear their allegiance via this statement of “true and Catholic faith and doctrine:” King Ferdinand had threatened to remove their pastor, but based on this confession, the citizens of Eger refused and declared that they would abandon the fort as a defense against the Turks if they were not permitted to retain their pastor and their confession. This action is the first substantive example of a congregation in Hungary swearing the Reformed faith in concert.

A consequence of the adoption of the confession was a formal separation between the Saxon Hungarians who favored the Lutheran Augustan Confession, and the Reformed Hungarians who favored the Reformed theology of Geneva, Zurich, and Strasbourg. Matthias Hebler (†1571) was the leader of the Lutheran faction which officially separated in 1564 following the Council of Enyed (modern Aiud in Romania).

Muller prints an abridged Latin version of Agrovalliensis as the “Erlauther Bekenntnis” (265 –376) because Erlau is the German name for the town of Eger on the Eger River. He uniformly omits the marginal Scripture proof-texts and the references to councils and church fathers. Commitment to this confession would be renewed at the Debrecen Council of 1567.

Our text has been translated from the Magyar version found in Áron Kiss, Magyar Református Zsinatok (1881), 83-285. We have corrected proof-texts where possible. Frankly, some of the Scripture citations defy identification, and many of them show that the authors were paraphrasing the passages. We have consulted the Latin version in order to clarify the Magyar to English rendering: Confessio catholica de praecipuis fidei articulis exhibita, Sacratissimo & catholic̊ Romanorum Imperatori Ferdinando, & Filio suae I. Maiestatis D. Regi Maximiliano, ab universo exercitu equitum & peditum S. R. M. a Nobilibus item & incolis totius vallis Agrinae, in nomine Sanctae Trinitatis ad foedus Dei custodien, iuramento fidei copulatorum & decertantium pro vera fide & religione, in Christo ex scripturis sacris fundata (Debrecen, 1562); number 176 in the Regi magyarorszcigi nyomtatvcinyok 1473 –1600. This text was painstakingly scanned for us by Fekete Csaba of the Library of Debreceni Kollégium Nagykönyvtára, Hungary.

The reader may also be puzzled by references to the Roman Catholic Council of Trent (1545-1563). These are, on the one hand, apparently polemical, apologetic, and comparative, i.e., citations used to establish a point of contact with the Counter-Reformation by way of antithesis and Reformed self-defense. Frankly, on the other hand, many of these endorsements are contradictory and anomalous, especially in view of the biting condemnation of the Roman Catholic Church unambiguously expressed throughout the document. Did the Hungarian compilers find differences with the Council of Trent (especially in the early Sessions; note the reference to Trent 1546 and 1547 in the section “Concerning Councils”) which engendered their sympathy (Trent was itself the battleground of factions within the Roman communion)? The answer to this question is not apparent; in fact, it leaves this editor puzzled and confused. It demands further investigation, which is beyond the scope of this compilation. However, we have translated the

text as it stands written. And we have compared the Magyar version with the Latin text in order to clarify and present an accurate translation of what stands printed. Awaiting further light on this matter, we are reminded that confessions are not infallible; only the Word of the triune “God-who cannot lie” is infallible and inerrant. (2: 450-452).]