Responsible Man in Reformed Theology: Calvin Versus the Westminster Confession

Holmes Rolston III

doi:10.1017/S0036930600021347

Responsible Man in Reformed Theology: Calvin Versus the Westminster Confession

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009

Holmes Rolston III

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The Confession of 1967 in the United Presbyterian Church marks the official end of the four-century Presbyterian venture into covenant theology. Now past that milestone, perhaps we have reached a vantage point where we can turn dispassionately to survey that curious but historic route. Seen from its concept of responsible man, we here argue, that route has been a prolonged detour away from the insights of the Reformers.

Type: Research Article
Information: Scottish Journal of Theology , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , May 1970 , pp. 129 - 156

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0036930600021347 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1970

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References

^{page 130 note 1} Musculus, Wolfgang, Loci Communes Theologiae Sacrae (Basel, 1560, 1564 and 1599).Google Scholar

^{page 130 note 2} Ursinus, Zacharias, Catechesis, Summa Theologiae in Opera Theologica (Heidelberg, 1612), question 36, p. 15Google Scholar; Cocceius, Johannes, Summa Doctrinal de Foedere et Testamento Dei (1648 and 1654), II, Iff and IV, IffGoogle Scholar; Burman, Francis, Synopsis Theologiae (Amsterdam, 1699)Google Scholar; Witsius, Herman, De Oeconomia Foederum Dei cum hominibus (1677)Google Scholar, often reprinted, with wide circulation in English translation by William Crookshank, 1804, 1837.

^{page 130 note 3} Polanus, Amandus, Syntagma Theologiae Christianae (Hanover, 1625)Google Scholar; Heidegger, J. H., Corpus Theologiae (Zürich, 1700)Google Scholar; and Turretin, Francis (Turrettinius), Institutio Theologiae elencticae (1688Google Scholar, and often reprinted). The translations here of covenant writers are sometimes adapted from existing translations but more often are my own, as frequently no translations or only inadequate translations exist.

^{page 131 note 1} Rollock, Robert, Treatise on Effectual Calling in Select Works (Edinburgh, 1849), I, 25.Google Scholar

^{page 131 note 2} See Trinterud, Leonard J., ‘The Origins of Puritanism” in Church History, xx (March 1951), pp. 48ff.Google Scholar

^{page 131 note 3} Fisher, Edward, The Marrow of Modern Divinity (1645), often reprintedGoogle Scholar. That the work is Fisher's has been disputed. Ames, William, Medulla Theologica (Amsterdam, 1623)Google Scholar; Ball, John, Treatise on the Covenant of Grace (London, 1645).Google Scholar

^{page 131 note 4} Hodge, Charles, Systematic Theology (New York, 1877), II, 117ff.Google Scholar

^{page 131 note 5} For instance: ‘Our own Calvin it is true fails to recall such a covenant (of works) in his eloquence.”—Melchior Leydecker of Utrecht, quoted in Heppe, Heinrich, Reformed Dogmatics (London, 1950), p. 333.Google Scholar

^{page 133 note 1} Westminster Confession, VII, ii.

^{page 133 note 2} Turretin, op. cit., VIII, iii, 4.

^{page 134 note 1} Westminster Confession, VII, i.

^{page 134 note 2} Heppe, op. cit., p. 246.

^{page 134 note 3} Rollock, op. cit., I, 25.

^{page 134 note 4} Macpherson, John, The Westminster Confession of Faith, in the Handbooks for Bible Classes series, ed. Dods, Marcus and Whyte, Alexander (Edinburgh, 1881), p. 66.Google Scholar

^{page 134 note 5} Turretin, op. cit., VIII, iii, 5.

^{page 135 note 1} Heidegger, op. cit., IX, 12.

^{page 135 note 2} Westminster Shorter Catechism, question 12; Larger Catechism, questions 20 and 30; Hodge, op. cit., II, 218.

^{page 136 note 1} Westminster Confession, VII, iii.

^{page 136 note 2} Heppe, op. cit., p. 316.

^{page 137 note 1} I, 3.3; II, 6, 1; I, 2.1; Com. on Gen. 1–8, passim. Translations here from Calvin's better known works follow for the most part the standard translations, e.g. the Allen edition of the Institutes and the Calvin Translation Society series of the commentaries. But I adapt these to the definitive Corpus Reformatorum text. Translations of the sermons are my own.

^{page 138 note 1} Com. on Gen. 1.26; I, 14.22.

^{page 138 note 2} Com. on Ps. 8.6.

^{page 138 note 3} Com. on Gen. 3.22; Com. on Ps. 104.29;

^{page 138 note 4} Com. on Rom. 4.21.

^{page 139 note 1} Ser. on Job 22.23–30.

^{page 139 note 2} Com. on Gen. 2.9.

^{page 139 note 3} Ser. on Job 5.17–18; Com. on Gen. 3.9.

^{page 139 note 4} Ser. on Gal. 3.3–5.

^{page 140 note 1} Com. on Zech. 12.10.

^{page 140 note 2} Ser. on Deut. 4.19–24.

^{page 140 note 3} Ser. on Gal. 3.15–18.

^{page 141 note 1} Ser. on Isa. 53.1–4.

^{page 141 note 2} Argument to the Com. on Gen.

^{page 141 note 3} III, 21.1; cf. ‘legal covenant” in III, 17.15.

^{page 142 note 1} Cocceius, op. cit., III, 63.

^{page 142 note 2} Hodge, A. A., A Commentary on the Confession of Faith (Philadelphia, 1869 and 1923), p. 170.Google Scholar

^{page 142 note 3} Dabney, R. L., Systematic and Polemic Theology (Richmond, 1927), p. 302.Google Scholar

^{page 142 note 4} Fisher, op. cit. (Part 1), I, 4.

^{page 143 note 1} Geneva Catechism, 1541, question 7.

^{page 143 note 2} II, 1.4.

^{page 144 note 1} Com. on Gen. 2.16; cf. on Gen. 2.9.

^{page 144 note 2} Com. on Gen. 2.9.

^{page 144 note 3} II, 1.4.

^{page 144 note 4} Com. on Gen. 2.9.

^{page 145 note 1} Westminster Shorter Catechism, question 12.

^{page 145 note 2} Westminster Confession, XXI, i (originally chapter XIX).

^{page 146 note 1} Turretin, op. cit., XII, iv, 7 and 12; VIII iii, 4.

^{page 146 note 2} Westminster Larger Catechism, questions 91 and 93.

^{page 146 note 3} Witsius, op. cit., I, iii, 25.

^{page 147 note 1} Com. on Gen. 3.6; II, 1.4.

^{page 147 note 2} Com. on Isa. 10.21 and on Isa. 57.13.

^{page 147 note 3} II, 1.4.

^{page 147 note 4} Com. on James 1.15.

^{page 148 note 1} Com. on Exod. 20.17.

^{page 148 note 2} II, 2.10.

^{page 148 note 3} Ser. on Job 3.2–10.

^{page 148 note 4} Ser. on Deut. 28.46–50.

^{page 148 note 5} Com. on I Cor. 6.11.

^{page 149 note 1} Westminster Slwrter Catechism, question 14; cf. Confession, VI, vi.

^{page 149 note 2} Fisher, op. cit. (Part I), I, 2–3.

^{page 149 note 3} Pictet, Benedict, Theologica Christiana (Geneva, 1696), IV, iiiGoogle Scholar. Pictet was professor of theology at Geneva after Turretin, his uncle. Pictet's Christian Theology was reprinted in English in Philadelphia in 1845.

^{page 150 note 1} Turretin, op. cit., IX, vi, Iff, esp. 9.

^{page 151 note 1} Witsius, op. cit., I, i, 15.

^{page 152 note 1} Westminster Confession, VII, ii and XXXV, i.

^{page 152 note 2} Turretin, op. cit., VIII, iii, 4.

^{page 152 note 3} Ser. on Job 33.1–7.

^{page 153 note 1} Ser. on Eph. 1.4–6.

^{page 153 note 2} Ser. on Eph. 1.17–18.

^{page 153 note 3} Ser. on Deut. 6.10–13.

^{page 154 note 1} II, 5.18.

^{page 154 note 2} Westminster Confession, XI, ii f and XXI, i.

^{page 154 note 3} ibid., IV, ii.

^{page 155 note 1} ‘A Brief Statement of Belief’, for years printed and bound with the Presbyterian Church, U.S., edition of the Westminster Confession.

^{page 155 note 2} ‘The Witness of the Reformed Churches”, a paper presented to the 1964 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, U.S., in conversations concerning union with the Reformed Church in America.

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