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Calvin and Calvinism
15
Oct

Richard Sibbes (1577-1635) on the Death of Christ

   Posted by: CalvinandCalvinism   in For Whom did Christ Die?

Sibbes:

Limited redemption:

1) First, He redeems us by paying the price, and so he only redeemeth, for he paid the price to divine justice. We are in bondage to the wrath of God under his justice; and so there must be satisfaction to justice before we can be free.

Then, secondly, We are in bondage to Satan, as God’s executioner and jailor. Now from him we are freed by strong hand. So Christ freeth us by his Holy Spirit, working such graces in us as makes us see the loathsomeness of that bondage; working likewise grace in us to be in love with a better condition, that the Spirit discovers to us. So that the Spirit brings us out by discovery and by power. All that Christ freeth by virtue of redemption, paying the price for, all those he frees likewise by his Spirit, discovering to them their bondage, and the blessed condition whereunto they are to be brought to a state of freedom, which freedom he perfects by little and little, till he bring them to a glorious freedom in heaven.

And the reason of this, that where Christ doth free by way of redemption, to die and satisfy God’s justice for any, to those he gives his Spirit, by which Spirit they are set at liberty the reasons are manifold. To name one or two. Sibbes, “Excellency of the Gospel,” in Works, 4:218.

2) Fourth, Again, Christ gave that that was his own, his own body, his own life, for his sheep; and his own endeavour, whatsoever he gave, was his own. So if we will be kind to others, we must do it of our own; we must not do good with that that we have gotten from others by unjust means. For the ‘sacrifice of the wicked,’ in this kind, ‘is an abomination to the Lord,’ Isa. i. 13. Let us have interest in that we give. Christ gave his own life, and God gave his own Son for us. Sibbes, “The Church’s Riches,” in Works, 4:523.

3) “Believed on in the world.” By ‘world,’ especially here in this place, is meant the world taken out of the world, the world of elect. There is a world in the world, as one saith well in unfolding this point; as we see, man is called a little world in the great world. Christ was preached to the world of wicked men, that by preaching, a world might be taken out of the world, which is the world of believers. Hence we may clear our judgments in that point, that when Christ is said to redeem the world, it must not be understood generally of all mankind. We see here, the world is said to believe in Christ. Did all mankind believe in Christ? was there not a world of un believers? Sibbes, “The Fountain Opened,” in Works, 5:516-517.

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10
Oct

Pierre Viret (1511-1571) on the Death of Christ

   Posted by: CalvinandCalvinism   in For Whom did Christ Die?

Sufficient satisfaction:

1)

Of the virtue of the death and passion of
Jesus Christ, and the true purgatory
of the Christians, Chap. 18.

By like reason, the Christian faith doe also hold, that the only blood of Jesus Christ, and the sacrifice that he hath done upon the cross for poor sinners, is so sufficient to satisfy the judgement of God, and to cleanse man of his sin, that there needs none other Purgatory for them: as indeed, there is none other to cleanse them, neither by fire, nor by water, nor by any other means, neither in this world, nor in the other. In like sort, there is no other ransom nor satisfaction toward God, but only his. Therefore he that seeks satisfaction anywhere else, be it in his own works, or those of other men, or in any kind of creature, & that in all, or in part, the same he or she refuses wholly the ransom and satisfaction made by Jesus Christ. Pierre Viret, A Christian Instruction, conteyning the law and the gospel. Also a summarie of the Principall poyntes of the Christian faith and Religion, and of the abuses and errors contrary to the same, translated by I.S. (London: Abraham Veale in Paules Churchyard at the signe of the Lambe, 1573), 17-18.

Satisfaction for man:

1)

Of the true fulfilling of the law of God. Chap. 27.

But even as no man can serve God aright, according to his will, except he be well instructed first in his law, and in his word, even so it is not sufficient to have been well instructed, if it be not put into use. And therefore, the knowledge of the same serves but to greater condemnation, if there be nothing else. And because that man of his nature is so corrupted through sin, that not only he can not of himself accomplish perfectly any one of the commandments of God, but on the contrary, can do nothing else but continually resist his holy will: Therefore he hath need of Jesus Christ, chiefly for two causes. The first to satisfy for man, in that wherein he is not able, to the end that Jesus Christ through his obedience, might recompense the fault that is in man, through his rebellion. The second is, to the end that man being justified through faith in Jesus Christ, as is already said and so forthwith regenerated by his Spirit, and reformed to the very image of GOD, might to the better disposed to obey his holy will, to dedicate and consecrate himself wholly to his service. Pierre Viret, A Christian Instruction, conteyning the law and the gospel. Also a summarie of the Principall poyntes of the Christian faith and Religion, and of the abuses and errors contrary to the same, translated by I.S. (London: Abraham Veale in Paules Churchyard at the signe of the Lambe, 1573), 26-27.

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7
Oct

Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) on the Death of Christ

   Posted by: CalvinandCalvinism   in For Whom did Christ Die?

Edwards:

Particular Redemption:

Miscellanies:

1) 21. Limited Atonement. God did not intend to save those, by the death of Christ, that he knew, from all eternity, he should not save by his death. If he intended to save any, it was those he knew would be saved.

2) 424. Atonement Is Sufficient. Christ did die for all in this sense: that all by his death have an opportunity of being saved. He had that design in dying that they should have that opportunity by it, for it is a thing that God designed that all men should have such an opportunity, or they would not have it, and they have it by the death of Christ. This however is no designing of the atonement but only for the preservation of their being. Paul uses the term in a similar way in 1 Tim. 4:10, “For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe.

3) These earnest prayers and strong cries of Christ to the Father in his agony, show the greatness of his love to sinners. For, as has been shown, these strong cries of Jesus Christ were what he offered up to God as a public person, in the capacity of high priest, and in the behalf of those who priest he was. When he offered up his sacrifice for sinners whom he had loved from eternity, he withal offered up earnest prayers. His strong cries, his tears, and his blood were all offered up together to God, and they were all offered up for the same end, for the glory of God in the salvation of the elect. They were all offered up for the same persons, viz. for his people. For them he shed his blood in that bloody sweat, when it fell down in clotted lumps to the ground. And for them he so earnestly cried to God at the same time. It was that the will of God might be done in the success of his sufferings, in the success of that blood, in the salvation of those for whom that blood was shed, and therefore this strong crying shows his strong love. It shows how greatly he desired the salvation of sinners. He cried to God that he might not sink and fail in that great undertaking, because if he did so, sinners could not be saved, but all must perish. [Banner of Truth, Christ’s Agony, in Works vol, 2, p., 875.]

Redemption of Mankind:

1) Section I. Wonderful things done, by which salvation is procured

We will consider the choice of the person to be our redeemer. When God designed the redemption of mankind, his great wisdom appears in that he pitched upon his own, his only-begotten, Son, to be the person to perform the work. He was a redeemer of God’s own choosing, and therefore he is called in Scripture, God’s elect (Isa. 42:1). The wisdom of choosing this person to be the redeemer, appears in his being every way a fit person for this undertaking. It was necessary that the person that is the redeemer should be a divine person.—None but a divine person was sufficient for this great work. The work is infinitely unequal to any creature. It was requisite that the redeemer of sinners should be himself infinitely holy. None could take away the infinite evil of sin, but one that infinitely far from and contrary to sin himself. Christ is a fit person upon this account. [Jonathan Edwards, “The Wisdom of God, Displayed on the Way of Salvation,” in Works, Banner of Truth, vol, 2, p., 142.]

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Testard, by way of Grohman:

When Testard attempts to explain the difference between universal and particular mercy, he says that although Christ died for all, he did not die equally for all. In Les véritables Sentiments et raisonnements… Testard says:

However, Christ did not die equally for all men…. But he died particularly for those he chose and elected, he gives light particularly to them, he is their Redeemer and Savior of a particular intention, so that he wanted absolutely to obtain them and obtained by his death and his illumination not only the power to be saved by the grace explained previously which is made sufficiently to all, but also even their actual salvation.1

Source: Donald Davis Grohman, Genevan Reactions to the Saumur Doctrine of Hypothetical Universalism: 1635-1685, (Ph.D. dissertation. Knox College, Toronto. 1971), 46.

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1Testard, Les véritables Sentiments et raisonnements….Chap. VIII, p. 21, par. 1: “Neantmoins Christ n’est pas mort également pour tous hommes….Mais il est mort particulierement pour ceux qu’il a choisis & esleuz, il leur esclaire particulierement, il est leur Redempteur & sauveur d’une intention particuliere, entant qu’il a voulu absolument leur obtenir & a obtenu par sa mort & son illumination non seulement la puissance d’estre sauvez par la grace cy devant expliquée qu’il fait suffisamment a tous, mais aussi leur salut actuel mesmes.” See also Testard, Eirenikon….thesis 95, pp. 70-71.

________

[Note: Testard is sometimes referred to as Testardus.]

 

WILLIAM BUCANUS

Served as professor of theology at Lausanne from 1591 to 1603. He was called to teach at the new academy at Samur in 1603 but died before he could accept the post. His major dogmatic work is the Institutiones theologicae su locorum communium christianae religionis (1602):- Source, Richard Muller, Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatcs (first edition).

[Note: Some marginal references from the copy I have cannot be read. I have included the references I can read.]

Love to mankind:

1) “What is Christ?”

He is the only begotten Son of God (Joh. 1:14), who of his mere love towards mankind ((Tit. 3:4-5), did create unto himself of the seed (Heb. 2:16) of the Virgin Mary (Luk. 1:31), being sanctified by the Holy Ghost (Luk. 1:35), and by creating did assume (Heb. 2;16), and did personally and inseparably for ever unite a true human body (Heb. 2:14), endued with a reasonable (Matt. 26:38), soul. And so being true God, became true man like to us in all things (heb. 1:17&c), sin only accepted. William Bucanus, Institutions of Christian Religion, Framed Our of God’s Word, and the Writings of the Best Divines, Methodically Handled by Questions and Answers, Fit For All Such as Desirous to Know, or Practice the Will of God, trans., by Robert Hill (Printed in London by George Snowden, 1606), 14.

2) 2. The infinite mercy of God who would rather have his son to die a most shameful death, then destroy mankind created by himself.

3.. The exceeding humility of the eternal son of God, the Lord of all things who was debased and cast down lower than all creatures, by which humiliation he testified his love toward mankind, in suffering so great things for the redemption thereof. William Bucanus, Institutions of Christian Religion, Framed Our of God’s Word, and the Writings of the Best Divines, Methodically Handled by Questions and Answers, Fit For All Such as Desirous to Know, or Practice the Will of God, trans., by Robert Hill (Printed in London by George Snowden, 1606), 237.

Unlimited Redemption:

1) Whether was neither the Father nor the Holy Ghost incarnate, but the Son?

1.Because it was meet that the world should be redeemed, and all things restored by him, by whom all things were created, or that man should be redeemed from death by him, by whom he was first created, and should have been brought unto life eternal if he had not sinned.

2. It would have been inconvenient, that there should be two sons, one in the divine nature, another in the human nature.

3. It was the eternal decree of the Father, whereby he purposed to save mankind by the Son (Heb. 2:10).

William Bucanus, Institutions of Christian Religion, Framed Our of God’s Word, and the Writings of the Best Divines, Methodically Handled by Questions and Answers, Fit For All Such as Desirous to Know, or Practice the Will of God, trans., by Robert Hill (Printed in London by George Snowden, 1606), 18.

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