As is true in such a striking way of the basic atmosphere of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. ↩
This question meant less to the later Lutheran, even apart from the doctrine of predestination, than to the Calvinist. Not because he was less interested in the salvation of his soul, but because, in the form which the Lutheran Church had taken, its character as an institution for salvation (Heilsanstalt) came to the fore. The individual thus felt himself to be an object of its care and dependent on it. The problem was first raised within Lutheranism characteristically enough through the Pietist movement. The question of certitudo salutis itself has, however, for every non-sacramental religion of salvation, whether Buddhism, Jainism, or anything else, been absolutely fundamental; that must not be forgotten. It has been the origin of all psychological drives of a purely religious character. ↩
Thus expressly in the letter to Bucer, Corpus Reformatorum 29, p. 883 f. Compare with that again Scheibe, Calvins Prädestinationslehre (Halle, 1897), p. 30. ↩
The “Westminster Confession” (XVIII, p. 2) also assures the elect of indubitable certainty of grace, although with all our activity we remain useless servants and the struggle against evil lasts one’s whole life long. But even the chosen one often has to struggle long and hard to attain the certitudo which the consciousness of having done his duty gives him and of which a true believer will never entirely be deprived. ↩
The orthodox Calvinistic doctrine referred to faith and the consciousness of community with God in the sacraments, and mentioned the “other fruits of the Spirit” only incidentally. See the passages in Heppe, Dogmatik der evangelisch-reformierten Kirche (Elberfeld, 1861), p. 425. Calvin himself most emphatically denied that works were indications of favour before God, although he, like the Lutherans, considered them the fruits of belief (Institutio Christianae, III, 2, 37, 38). The actual evolution to the proof of faith through works, which is characteristic of asceticism, is parallel to a gradual modification of the doctrines of Calvin. As with Luther, the true Church was first marked off primarily by purity of doctrine and sacraments, but later the disciplina came to be placed on an equal footing with the other two. This evolution may be followed in the passages given by Heppe, op. cit., pp. 194–5, as well as in the manner in which Church members were acquired in the Netherlands by the end of the sixteenth century (express subjection by agreement to Church discipline as the principal prerequisite). ↩
For example, Olevian, De substantia foederis gratuiti inter Deum et electos (1585), p. 257; Heidegger, Corpus Theologiae, XXIV, p. 87; and other passages in Heppe, Dogmatik der evangelisch-reformierten Kirche (1861), p. 425. ↩
On this point see the remarks of Schneckenburger, Vergleichende Darstellung der lutherischen und reformierten Lehrbegriffe, Grüder, Stuttgart, 1855, p. 48. ↩
Thus, for example, in Baxter the distinction between mortal and venial sin reappears in a truly Catholic sense. The former is a sign of the lack of grace which can only be attained by the conversion of one’s whole life. The latter is not incompatible with grace. ↩
As held in many different shades by Baxter, Bailey, Sedgwick, Hoornbeek. Further see examples given by Schneckenburger, Vergleichende Darstellung der lutherischen und reformierten Lehrbegriffe, Grüder, Stuttgart, 1855, p. 262. ↩
The conception of the state of grace as a sort of social estate (somewhat like that of the ascetics of the early Church) is very common.
See for instance Schortinghuis, Het innige Christendom (1740 proscribed by the States-General)! ↩
Thus, as we shall see later, in countless passages, especially the conclusion, of Baxter’s Christian Directory. This recommendation of worldly activity as a means of overcoming one’s own feeling of moral inferiority is reminiscent of Pascal’s psychological interpretation of the impulse of acquisition and ascetic activity as means to deceive oneself about one’s own moral worthlessness. For him the belief in predestination and the conviction of the original sinfulness of everything pertaining to the flesh resulted only in renunciation of the world and the recommendation of contemplation as the sole means of lightening the burden of sin and attaining certainty of salvation. Of the orthodox Catholic and the Jansenist versions of the idea of calling an acute analysis has been made by Dr. Paul Honigsheim in the dissertation cited above (part of a larger study, which it is hoped will be continued). The Jansenists lacked every trace of a connection between certainty of salvation and worldly activity. Their concept of calling has, even more strongly than the Lutheran or even the orthodox Catholic, the sense of acceptance of the situation in life in which one finds oneself, sanctioned not only, as in Catholicism by the social order, but also by the voice of one’s own conscience (Honigsheim, Die Staats- und Soziallehren der französischen Jansenisten im 17ten Jahrhundert, pp. 139 ff.). ↩
The very lucidly written sketch of Lobstein in the Festgabe für H. Holtzmann, which starts from his viewpoint, may also be compared with the following. It has been criticized for too sharp an emphasis on the certitudo salutis. But just at this point Calvin’s theology must be distinguished from Calvinism, the theological system from the needs of religious practice. All the religious movements which have affected large masses have started from the question, “How can I become certain of my salvation?” As we have said, it not only plays a central part in this case but in the history of all religions, even in India. And could it well
