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Calvin and Calvinism

Taylor:

1) This is a main difference between a godly man, and a hypocrite. Many things may affect an evil man for the present hearing of the Word: sometime he may hear a novelty with great affection, but as children delight in a new toy for an hour, but presently contemn and lose it. Sometimes the power of the Word makes a hypocrite tremble, as Felix, and grow to some with himself, and perhaps to some purpose and resolution of amendment: So Israel hearing the Lord speak in so terrible a voice, promise fair, “All that the Lord our God says by thee (if he will no more speak of himself) we will hear it, and do it.” But the Lord saw there was “no such heart in them,” Deut. 5: 27, 29. Sometime some affliction prepares them to hear, and now while the iron is in the fire, and the hammer upon it, it may be wrought to some fashion till it be cold again: so Pharaoh sometime will confess his sin, and acknowledge God’s righteousness, and beg prayers of Moses; but only so long as the plague is upon him. Sometime some natural motion, or some spiritual motion may stir them, as for a flash they are earnestly resolved for Heaven; so the young man comes hastily, and hears gladly, but not purposing to do all that is required, goes away heavily.

The hypocrite in all these motions is like Ephraim, whose goodness was “as the morning dew,” suddenly dried up, Hos. 6:4. The Word comes into a bottomless heart, wherein is a bottomless gulf of guile and deceit, and all is lost at length. But the godly man, by the Words dwelling plentifully in his heart, attains the commendation pronounced upon the church of Thyatira, Rev. 2:19, ‘I know the works, the faith,’ &c., that they be “more at the last than at the first.” He has on him a mark of one that is planted by the Lord in the House of the Lord; he is “more fruitful in his age, more fat and fresh” daily, and exceeds his former times in ferocity,1 and fruitfulness in good works and graces [Psal. 92:14].

In a word, whereas all other things are common to all, the Heavens, the Earth, the Creatures, yea the ministry of the Word, Sacraments, Prayer and many common graces wrought by them; this alone is the special right of believers, incommunicable with hypocrites, to have the Word of God everlastingly fixed in their hearts: Esa. 8:16, “Seal up the Law among my disciples: now a seal is the means of secrecy from them whom the matter concerns not, and of assurance to them whom the business concerns. Thomas Taylor, “The Parable of the Sower and of the Seed,” in The Works of the Judicious and Learned Divine Dr. Thomas Taylor (London: Printed by Tho. Ratcliffe for John Bartlet the Elder, sometimes living at the Gilt Cup inn the Goldsmiths Row in Cheapside, now in the New-Building on South-side of Paul’s neer St. Austins Gate, 1659), 2:66-67. [Some reformatting; some spelling modernized; italics original; marginal references and comments cited inline; and underlining mine.]

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7
Jul

Henry Airay (1560-1616) on the Death of Christ

   Posted by: CalvinandCalvinism   in For Whom did Christ Die?

Airay:

Sins of the Many:

And of himself thus our Savior himself speaks, Mat. v. 17, ‘Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy them, but to fulfill them.’Christ, then, was made subject to the law, and came into the world to fulfill the law. And therefore he was circumcised the eighth day, he was presented to the Lord after the days of Man’s purification, and, as the text says, Luke ii. 39, ‘All things were done for him according to the law of the Lord.’He gave sight to the blind, made the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak, the lame to go, &c, as it was so written of him, Isa. xxxv. 5, 6. He preached the gospel to the poor, bound up the broken-hearted, preached deliverance to the captives, set at liberty them that were bruised, preached the acceptable year of the Lord, &c, as it was so written of him, chap. lxi. 1, 2. He was counted with the transgressors, though he had done no wickedness, neither any deceit was in his mouth; he bare the sins of many, and prayed for the trespassers, as it was so written of him, chap. liii. 12. In a word, whatsoever was written of him in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, all that he fulfilled. And therefore, when John would have put him back from his baptism, he said unto him, Mat. iii. 15, ‘Let he now, for thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness;’ as if he had said, Stay not this act of my baptizing, for we must render perfect obedience unto the Father, in all things which he hath ordained. Henry Airay, Lectures Upon the Whole Epistle of St Paul to the Philippians (Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1864), 119. [Some spelling modernized; italics original; and underlining mine.]

Sins of the chosen:

Again, in that he says, ‘from whence also we look for the Savior,’ he signifies their patient expectation and waiting for the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, when he shall appear the second time, without sin unto salvation; for Christ being then already descended from the bosom of his Father, and having offered up himself without spot unto God, to take away the sins of such his chosen children as, through faith in his blood, have their consciences purged from dead works to serve the living God; now they waited and looked for the promise of his second coming, when he should come in the clouds, to be glorified in his saints, but to render vengeance unto them that know not God, nor obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Henry Airay, Lectures Upon the Whole Epistle of St Paul to the Philippians (Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1864), 310. [Some spelling modernized; italics original; and underlining mine.]

Sin of the world (John 1:29):

The most of the rest of the points I will conclude in one, which is this, that Jesus Christ is God, which we confess when we pray for grace and peace from him; that he is the Savior of the world, which we confess when we call him Jesus; that he is that counselor and great prophet, that King and Prince of Peace, that Lamb of God, slain from the beginning of the world to take away the sin of the world, which we confess when we call him Christ; and that unto him is given all power in heaven and in earth, which we confess when we call him Lord. If he, therefore, be with us, we need not to fear who be against us. For he is our God, our Savior, our Lord, our Master, our King, our everlasting High Priest. I cannot prosecute either these or the rest of the points. By these you will conjecture the rest, and easily see the epitome of Christianity concluded in this short salutation. Henry Airay, Lectures Upon the Whole Epistle of St Paul to the Philippians (Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1864), 14. [Some spelling modernized; italics original; and underlining mine.]

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Leiden Synopsis:

Moreover, the end, object, and “for whom” (? or cui) of satisfaction is only the Elect and true believers of both the Old and the New Testament. For although with respect to the magnitude, dignity, and sufficiency of the price, considered in itself, it may be extended to all people, yet it is particularly a payment for those whom the Father has chosen and given to the Son, who by the gift of God will believe in God and his Son. Wherefore Scripture everywhere says that he spent himself “for his own,” and “for us,” “for the sheep,” and “the Church.” Matthew 20:28, 26:28; 1 John 3:16; Acts 20:28 etc.

Johannes Polyander, Antonius Walaeus, Antonius Thysius, and André Rivet, Synopsis Purioris Theologiae (Leiden, 1642 [1625]). 356. [Some reformatting of the translation; and Underlining mine.]

[Notes: This work was originally published in 1625, and co-written by three Dort delegates; Rivet was invited to Dort but prevented from attending by the King of France. The common English name for this work was the Leidin Synopsis. This was a very popular work in Scotland in the 17th century and among the Continental Reformed.  The Synopsis expresses the revised version of the sufficiency-efficiency formula; while the satisfaction is of infinite value,  the sufficiency of the price may be extended to all people. Thus, it is not actually sufficient for all people, for this sufficiency for all is is properly hypothetical only.]

[Credit to Lee Gatiss for bringing this to my attention, and for the translation. Gatiss also has a blog here.]

5
Jul

John Stoughton (1593?-1639) on the Wrath of God

   Posted by: CalvinandCalvinism   in Divine Hatred

Stoughton:

Now, then man was no sooner made but he rebelled against his maker, he that was right, was fat and kicked against his Lord, and we in him: we were, sons of prevarication, and the sons of perdition, ex illo fluere, from that fountain springs all misery: we have all sinned against the Lord, and therefore his evil is upon us: hence it is that our minds are blind, the crows of the valley have picked our eyes: our will’s lame, to anything that is good, our nature caught a fall, like Mephibosheth, in the cradle of her infancy, and we could never outgrow it: hence it is that our bodies are subject to deformities, infirmities, death, and our souls and bodies to the wrath of God, which lies heavy upon us here, prosecuting us with armies of plagues, and will never leave us till it has brought us (unless his mercy prevents us) to eternal torments, and sunk us into the bottom of hell.

No marvel then, if Plato complain that the soul has broken her wings: if poets tell us of an iron age: if whole volumes be filled with declamations of brevity of man’s life, and the miseries of mankind. No, I marvel not, if the who had but one eye saw these things, even through the clouds of obscurity: I marvel rather, that among Christians, who have both their eyes, the eye of reason, and the eye of faith, and besides, live in the sunshine of the Gospel, so few see this, as they did, or at least the reason of this, which they could not.

I marvel I hear no more cry out with Saint Paul, “O miserable man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?” For if Paul so pathetically cried out, who could so triumphantly give thanks; how much more justly may we, if we cannot add that which follows, reiterate the same again, and say: “O Miserable man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?”

You see now the misery of a natural man, consisting in the conscience of sin, and the consequence of sin, the fault and the guilt, malum cuplæ: this is the misery of man, which estranges him far from the state of happiness: and out of this you may gather what salvation is. For every salve supposes a sore, and the sore is sin and pain, and therefore the salve is that which will free us from this horrible condition: and restore, and reinstate us into the favor of the Lord, and so into our former felicity. This is what I mean by salvation.

John Stoughton, “1 Corinth. 2.2. For I determined to know nothing among you, but Christ Jesus, and him Crucified,” in XV Choice Sermons Preached Vpon Selected Occasions (London: Printed for I. Bellamie, H. Overton, I. Rothwell, R. Royston, D. Frere, and R. Smith, 1640), 22-23. [Some spelling modernized; italics original; marginal reference not included; and underlining mine.]

Harris:

Now what is God’s patience? Though his soul abhor sin infinitely, though he cannot go out of hearing, and shut his eyes, as we may, but must see and hear all, though his name, Law and Children be more to him than all the world, though heaven and earth sweat under these provocations, and God’s own (struck down at his foot) cry for help, yet God bears and bears long, nay does them positive good, treats with them, fees them to be quiet, and his own to be patient, and when he must needs smite, gives them space,1 takes time himself, is long in bending his bow, and drawing forth his weapons. And after all this, if then an Ahab will submit, he is ready to reprieve, but this is a fathomless depth. Were I in another place, I should hold it needful to say something by way of explication. But here it is sufficient to mind, that God’s patience is in no way passive, nay his longest-suffering is his greatest acting, or enjoying of himself, in all serenity, and perfection, and is only grounded upon his most perfect nature.

1. God is Power itself, and therefore can bear long.

2. God is Wisdom itself, and therefore forbearing.

3. Goodness itself, and therefore so longsuffering.

And the longer he suffers, the more he exercises and evidences these his perfections. This is the main ground of the point, whereto you may add, if please, these ensuring particulars:

1. The Wicked, God’s adversaries are some way his own, and that ownership2 works Patience. The Lord is a piece of a Father to them also: For he is

A Common-Father, by office to all.

A Special Father, by Adoption to Saints.

A Singular Father, by nature to Christ.

A Prince, besides his particular relation to his children, is Pater-Patrie, Pater-familias, and is Good to All, though with a difference. So here.

2. Though Christ has purchased a peculiar people to himself to the purpose of salvation, yet other’s taste of this his goodness: The world, you know, was lost in merit, an ipso facto, forfeited, with all its comforts, and appurtenances. The Lord Christ has restored it, and does keep it standing, and in the interim, the worst enjoy it in a common with the best, and so far, bare the better for Christ.

3. God in his most wise dispensation, sees use of patience towards such, so, he works out his own praise and design upon is Church.

In short, at present there may be some use of them, and so he reprieves them, as we do some notorious felon, and hereafter there may be some fruit come from them, and the ill mother is a while forborne for her fruit, and venter sake.

This is all I can stay to speak the point.3

Robert Harris, A Sermon Preached to the Honorable House of Commons assembled in Parliament at a Pub1ike Fast, May 25. 1642,”4 in The Works of Robert Harris, once of Hanwell, Now President of Trinity College in Oxon and Doctor of Divinity (London: Printed by James Flesher, for John Bartlet the elder, and John Bartles the younger, and are to be sold at the Gilt Cup, on the South Side of Pauls neer Austins Gate in the new Buildings, 1645), 2.144-145. [Some reformatting; some spelling modernized; italics original; footnote values and content mine; and underlining mine.]

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1Harris uses a common term of this period: a person was ‘given space to repent.’

2Original has “ownenesse.”

3Harris, in classic Puritans style proceeds to discus the application of this doctrine.

4The text of the sermon is Luke 18:6-8.