By William Burt Pope, D.D.,
THE GOSPEL VOCATION:
The Divine purpose of saving the world, accomplished in Christ, is made known to all men by a proclamation which, as containing the free offer of grace, and the command to accept it on certain conditions, is a Vocation or Call. However profound is the mystery involved in such a thought, that call must needs, in some sense, be as universal as the benefit of atonement, which embraces mankind. But it has had, in the mystery of the Divine will, an historical development. Before the fullness of time it proceeded by a principle of election on which vocation followed; but, under the last dispensation, the call is as wide as the preaching of the Gospel, and election follows vocation. In this meaning of the term, with which alone we now have to do, the Spirit's calling is efficacious, inasmuch as through the Word He renders all men who hear that Word conscious of their responsibility, and capable of obedience; but it is not irresistible. In the case of those who accept the Divine offer, the term is often used to express their Christian state and privileges generally: it gives them one of their designations as The Called The three words kalein to call, kleesis vocation, and kleetos called, refer respectively to the Caller, the act of calling, and the result. The present section has mainly to do with the act and not with the result: the latter belonging rather to the Spirit's work in the preliminaries of salvation. It is obvious, also, that our subject must take no account of some limited applications of the word: for instance, those in which it refers to the Divine power calling those things which be not as though they were;1 those in which it is used as meaning simply designation, as I have even called thee by thy name;2 and, lastly, those in which it signifies a vocation to special office, such as that of St. Paul called to be an Apostle3 of the apostleship. Though the distinction cannot be rigorously observed, we must limit the term as much as possible to the declaration of God concerning His purpose of salvation; and, while we do so, remember that we are dealing with a subject which is at present involved in impenetrable mystery1 Rom. 4:17; 2 Isa. 45:4; 3 Rom. 1:1 VOCATION AND UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION The Divine call is based upon the Divine counsel for the salvation of mankind. This involves two important postulates. It requires, first, that we believe in the universality of the call, whatever difficulties this faith may encounter; and, secondly, it prepares us to expect that the call will, like the purpose of redemption, be gradually made manifest to all men 1. Scripture establishes, as we have seen, the fact that the eternal purpose of redemption embraced the entire body of mankind. God so loved the world,1 that He willeth all men to be saved.2 But there is only a step, and that a necessary one, to the universal declaration of His will in His Son. The Creator loved the world before He declared His love in Christ; He declared His will to save all, and that will is connected with the fundamental truth that as there is one God, so also there is one Mediator between God and man, that Mediator being Jesus Christ, Man, the Representative of mankind. What St. Paul, in his last word on this subject, calls the Philanthropy, or the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man,3 as such, appeared in the Gospel, no less than a catholic love to the entire race: the word philanthropia is the plainest and strongest argument for the universality of the salvation provided. Now, whatever difficulties may arise to baffle our finite faculties, we are bound to believe that the whole world, directly or indirectly, sooner or later, must receive the glad tidings of the Gospel1 John 3:16; 2 1 Tim. 2:4; 3 Tit. 3:4 2. As it has pleased God to make the revelation of His purpose gradual, so we might expect that the proclamation of His mercy in accordance with that purpose would be gradual. In fact the two are one; and they are united in many passages. Its slow and partial and progressive announcement is bound up with the gradual development of the design of salvation itself. Here two things may be noted. The law of the Divine economy, according to which the education of fallen mankind has been conducted by a development of truth, and the orderly unfolding of one great mediatorial system, admits of no exception to it, and no appeal from it. But the gradual and slow progress of the call has reference only to the external proclamation. Known only to God are His internal communications with the spirits of men The Divine Call, keeping pace with the unfolding of the redeeming purpose, is with reference to all mankind, and apart from revelation, general and indirect: in the universal influence of the Spirit upon the fallen spirits of men, and in His providential guidance of the nations. The direct Call through the Word has been twofold: first, during the ages of preparation, it was spoken to the people of the old covenant and of the election; secondly, in Christ Jesus, it is the Gospel Call proper addressed to all mankind, leading to the election of those who believe The Universal Call, Vocatio Catholica, is that by which the Holy Spirit has moved upon the chaos of the nations through a secret influence to which the term call is only improperly applied. Whatever name, however, is applied to it there can be no doubt that the world has been under the secret and mysterious attraction of grace from the beginning, over and above the interior Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.1 1 John 1:91. The influence of the Holy Ghost, the gift of redemption to the fallen race, must not be limited. We have intimations in the early Scriptures that the Spirit strove WITH MAN;1 throughout the Old Testament the rebellious vexed His Holy Spirit;2 and, though this was the special sin of the ancient people, we must assume that it was the secret of the commencing ungodliness of the world at large. In the New Testament we are told that the Gentiles universally had the law of God written in their hearts:3 and certainly there has been no universal sense of truth but as the fruit of the influence of Him who is the Spirit of the truth.4 He in every age HATH SHOWED5 it unto them1 Gen. 6:3; 2 Isa. 63:10; 3 Rom. 2:15; 4 John 16:13;5 Rom. 1:19; 2.
The early revelation which was given to the world before the
first dispersion of its
inhabitants was a sound
that went into all the earth:1
issuing from the household of Adam
and afterwards from that of Noah. And, however perverted became
the traditions of
primeval truth, they were in a certain sense a constant appeal
to the world to remember its
Creator in the days of its youth. In like manner, and this may
be referred to by way of
analogy, the most corrupt presentation of the Gospel in the
darkest ages of Christendom
carried with it the word of life
3. Moreover St. Paul tells us, in one of the few early
discourses to the Gentiles that are
recorded, of God's providential call to all nations.
The history of the Gospel vocation, as direct through the Word,
is in Scripture divided
into two branches. In the Old Testament it was limited to one
race, first elected and then
called; in the New Testament it is universally to all men, first
called arid then elected: a
distinction of great importance
I. The Vocation of Abraham is the central point of Old-Covenant
Election. But this looks
back upon a previous historical development of the principle,
and looks forward to its
consummation and change in the Gospel
1. In the two sons of our first parents the separation of God's
people had its first type; and
in the salvation of one family the Flood was the second. Between
the sons of Noah God
put a difference not altogether dependent upon their several
personal acts; and the special
vocation followed a special election. For, though the dealings
of God with the two classes
respectively had reference to their moral character, especially
as it respects the leading
personages, such as Shem and Noah, yet we cannot but discern a
direct and sovereign
election of the peoples and nations who should carry on His
central design
2. The call of Abraham was the choice of a covenant people. With
him this special
national or race election specifically began. The words of
Jehovah to the children of
Israel,
3. Throughout the development of the Old-Testament Election
there runs the mystery of a
Divine purpose of unfathomable wisdom; in the contemplation of
which, however, two
things must be remembered: first, that this choice was never
altogether without respect to
the moral character of its objects, and, secondly, that it
always was connected with a
prophecy of a universal call in the Gospel. Though the Supreme
God used occasionally
the instrumentality of the ungodly He carried on the great
purposes of His grace by men
who responded to His internal call, and were morally fit agents
of His will. Abel, Noah,
Abraham, are instances of this; nor is Jacob an exception. It is
true that
Moreover, in His government of the people of His special
election God was a jealous
God; and often chastised them by the very heathen whom He passed
by in their favor
Above all, He failed not always to let them know that they were
only the temporary
Election of His counsel, and that His Name should one day
II. The direct call of the Gospel after the coming of Christ, or
rather after the Day of
Pentecost, is distinguished from that of the Old Testament by
not being national, and by
preceding the election. But this leads us onward to the nature
of the vocation itself
The Gospel Call is the universal offer of salvation and command
to submit to its Author;
proclaimed by the Spirit through the Word committed to the
keeping and ministry of the
Christian Church; containing the glad tidings of the earnest
purpose of God towards
every individual of mankind; effectual through the Spirit's
grace to all who yield; but
declared not to be irresistible, and in fact resisted, even
finally resisted, by unbelief
The Call is the
The model of this preaching is found in the Acts of the
Apostles, where St. Peter and St
Paul are the leading examples. The Proclamation and the Offer
and the Command must
be united in every true delivery of the Gospel Call, as they are
invariably united in the
original examples. The first sound of that Vocation ends with
such a note as this:
IN THE CHURCH THROUGH THE WORD
The second proposition contains three points: the Spirit is the
Agent of the Call: it is
connected with the Word; and that Word is ordinarily committed
to the ministry of the
Christian Church. The doctrine of the Gospel Vocation demands a
careful adjustment of
the relations of these three
I. Generally, He Who calleth is God, though not specifically as
the Father.
1 1 Thes. 2:9-12;
2 Mat.
9:13; 3
Rev. 22:17;
4 John
15:26; 5
John 16:15
II. The call of the Gospel is ordinarily through the Word, But
the Word is both the letter
and the substance of the letter: these are united in the
instrument which the Holy Ghost
employs
1. St. Paul says that
1 Rom. 10:17;
2 Eph.
4:21; 3
Rom. 10:14;
4 Rom.
10:18; 5
Isa. 65:1;
6 1
Pet. 3:1
2. Now the call through the Gospel is not limited either to the
oral or to the written
announcement. It is a silent effectual voice accompanying the
truth, wherever the truth is
The Holy Ghost is the Life of the doctrine which is the letter;
and most certainly the letter
is never without the accompanying Spirit. The letter is not only
written; there may be a
spoken letter also. Wherever the truth is declared in the name
of Jesus it is the instrument
of His energy. But the Spirit is not dependent either on the
written or on the spoken letter
as such. It is the truth which He uses as His instrument. He is
III. The relation of the Church to the Spirit's efficiency
through the Word is everywhere
made prominent in the New Testament. The Savior gave His
commission
1. In every age the work of the Spirit in extending the Kingdom
of God has been bound
up with human agency. Individuals in the old economy were
prominent in every
dispensation of it, teaching His will and uttering His prophetic
words and carrying on His
work generally. The history of ancient revelation is bound up
with a series of eminent
men; and not only individuals but the covenant nation itself was
elected and called to
preach in some sense to the outside world His present and coming
Kingdom. The
Christian dispensation has introduced no new law: it has only
widened the application of
the law that operated from the beginning. As Man was taken up
into the Godhead to be
the procurer of redemption, so that Man who is God uses His
brethren for the diffusion of
His grace
2. There is no fact more sure, while there is no mystery more
profound, than the
connection between the fidelity of the Church and the spread of
Christ's kingdom. The
Call is heard where the Church sends it; but where the
messengers are not sent from
among men, there are no angels
3. Nothing is more certain in prophecy than that the Vocation of
the Gospel in its stricter
meaning shall be universal. Both the Old Testament and the New
concur to present a
perspective in which
THE DIVINE INTENTION IN THE CALL
We may pass with more confidence to the third proposition. The
Gospel Call contains the
earnest purpose of God to save every man who hears it
1. Here if anywhere the a priori style of argument is valid.
However the contrary
assertion may be disguised it involves dishonor to the truth and
faithfulness of God
Many mysteries crowd around the subject, beneath which our
reason must bow down; but
the superfluous mystery that makes the Righteous Judge utter the
gracious offers of His
mercy with a secret reserve is one from which every feeling of
our reverence and charity
recoils. The teaching that finds it necessary to distinguish
between an official call for all
men and an efficacious call for the elect is self-condemned
2. We need not defend the honor of God: we have only to
interpret His sayings. Our
Lord's words ought to be enough:
3. Such a genuine call implies that the offer of salvation is
always accompanied by
sufficient grace for its acceptance. This has already been seen
in relation to the Word, and
will again be considered in the next topic of Preliminary Grace.
Meanwhile, there is no
need of argument; nor is any specific text necessary. Every
Divine commandment is
virtually a commandment with promise: with promise not only of
blessing to follow
obedience but of grace to precede it. The Gospel of Christ
1 Rom. 1:16;
2 Isa.
55:11
Those who accept the Divine call through the Word are in the
language of Scripture the
Elect. And both terms, Calling and Election, or the Called and
the Elect, are sometimes
used to designate the Christian Estate as such
1. Of a Vocatio Interna, as distinguished from the Vocatio
Externa, there is no trace in
Scripture:
2. The acceptance of the Call, and the Election that follows it,
are both metonymically
used to designate the state of Christians, presumed according to
their profession to stand
in the grace of God. They are
The Gospel Call may be resisted and finally resisted; even the
Election connected with it
may after obedience be forfeited; and, with regard to both
classes of the disobedient, the
term reprobation is used, though never as the result of a fixed
decree
1.
2. There are some passages of Scripture which indicate that the
blessings of Election
itself may be forfeited: this sacred word is not shielded, nor
is its special grace inviolable
Judas was one of the elect:
1 John 6:70;
2 Mat.
24:24; 3
Mat. 24:4,13;
4 2
Pet. 1:10
3. Lastly, the Word of God speaks of the possible Reprobation of
both these classes, —
the Called and the Chosen—but of the reprobation of no other.
The vocation of the Word
is a mysterious test of their state before God and the truth;
and they have failed to sustain
that test. They are
A few observations may be made on the Polemics of this question:
limited to that branch
of it which concerns Vocation and Election. It is with the
perversion of the Predestination
idea that we have mainly to do
I. Within the New Testament itself there is a remarkable
anticipation of the modern
controversy. The preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles was
resented by the Jewish
Christians, by those of a certain party especially, as an
invasion of the privileges, or
advantages, of the covenant people as the Elect of God. There
was no saying which they
more disapproved than St. Paul's
1 Acts 13:46;
2 Rom.
9:18,22; 3
Jer. 18:6-8;
4 Rom.
9:11; 5
Rom. 10:12,13,21
II. The entire Christian community down to the time of Augustine
knew in its doctrine no
other election and predestination than what was conditional or,
what is the same thing, of
none which do not refer to the ideal Body of Christ as such. The
tendency of the Easterns
especially was to lay too much rather than too little emphasis
on the foreknowledge of
human repentance and faith. Chrysostom says: " Not of love
alone, but of our virtue also
If it sprang from love alone all would have been saved. If from
our virtue alone that
would be little and all would be lost. It was from neither
alone, but from both: for the
Calling was not of necessity or of force." This sentence
represents the sentiment of the
Greek Church from Origen to Athanasius, and even John of
Damascus, the last of the
Oriental Fathers proper. There was a decided leaning to an
exaggeration of the freedom
of the human will: at least their doctrine was not sufficiently
protected by any reference
to the ever-active influence of the Holy Ghost upon our fallen
nature. But, whatever their
theoretical notions were of the universality of the Gospel
vocation, their Missionary zeal
declined after the ninth century, and they have contributed
little to the evangelization of
the world
III. Augustine first laid down the principle that "
Predestination is the preparation of
grace; grace the bestowment itself."
1. The foundation of his whole system is his doctrine of
Original Sin, which regards all
mankind as utterly bereft of capacity for good: a "mass of
perdition," a "condemned
lump." Therefore salvation is absolutely of grace, and without
human co-operation. To
this great principle there can be no objection. Nature cannot
cast out nature; and the
human fall was a fall into utter impotence. But Augustine forgot
that the first benefit of
redemption was co-extensive with the ruin of man. Perhaps,
indeed, he held this; but in a
sense of his own. That benefit was in his teaching a wasted and
useless influence save to
the elect. He taught that the Divine eternal decree determined
the exact number of those
to whom efficacious grace, which includes an irresistible grace
for the beginning and the
grace of perseverance for the close, shall be given. For these
alone the Redeemer may be
said to have died: " Everyone that has been redeemed by the
blood of Christ is a man;
though not everyone that is a man has been redeemed by the blood
of Christ." " The
Savior redeemed the sinners who were to be justified," and " No
one perishes for whom
the Savior died."
2. Some of the difficulties connected with the Gospel Call in
this doctrine were
summarily disposed of by Augustine, but only through renouncing
that principle of an
inextinguishable life of regeneration which his followers now
hold so firmly. All who
hear and receive the Gospel and are baptized receive
regenerating grace, and are placed
in a state of salvation: this explains the universal offer of
the Gospel and the equally
universal administration of the sacrament. But to the Elect only
is the gift of perseverance
imparted, and the objects of the Donum Perseverantiae are known
to God alone: this
protects the doctrine of the eternal decree. " Those who fall
are not to be reckoned in the
number of the elect, even as to the time when they lived
piously. There are sons of God,
not yet such to us but such to God; and there are again some who
are called by us sons of
God on account of grace temporarily received, but not so by
Him." Other difficulties
Augustine does not attempt to solve. He has no more to say
concerning the hidden decree
than that " God divided the light from the darkness; and so
ordered the Fall that He might
first show what the free will of man could do, and then what His
grace could do." Nor has
he any solution of the difficulty that the electing grace of God
should be connected with
sacraments and bound to a system of external ordinances. A
thousand years afterwards
Calvin arose to confront more boldly these and all other
difficulties: not cramped by the
Sacramentarian theory which hampered his great predecessor
IV. During that long interval Predestinarianism, or
Augustinianism, passed through many
vicissitudes. The Semipelagians asserted an election of
believers as foreknown, thus
giving a formula which has been ever since found useful; and the
Synod of Orange (A.D.
529) condemned the dogma of predestination to evil or
reprobation. In the ninth century
Gottschalk carried the doctrine of Augustine to its extremist
limits, limits which it was
not again to reach until the modern representative of the
Predestinarian Father arose. His
teaching was rejected at Mainz (
V. At the Reformation the doctrine of Election and the Limited
Call seemed likely to be
in the ascendant everywhere
1. Zwingli and Calvin united in reviving the Augustinian
doctrine of an individual
vocation determined by a predestinating decree; but Calvin has
given a permanent name
to the system, because in fact he gave it a distinguishing
character. He laid his foundation
deeper than that of his forerunner. Augustine made the Eternal
Decree his central point;
Calvin carried it up to the Absolute Being, or Absolute
Sovereignty, of God, from which
that decree flowed. These are some of his words: Praedestinationem vocamus aeternum
Dei decretum, quo apud se constitutum habuit quid de
Dico Deum non modo primi hominis casum et in eo posterorum
ruinam praevidisse, sed
arbitrio quoque suo dispensasse. " Man falls by the providence
of God so ordaining, but
he falls through his own wickedness." All is of the absolute,
unquestionable, despotic
sovereignty of God. If human, reason suggests a demur,
"Respondendum est: quia
voluit!" The decree was Supralapsarian, that is, it included the
Fall, which Augustine
never asserts formally. It follows from this in the system of
Calvin that the external call
of the Gospel is an unmeaning ceremonial save as to the elect.
The word and the means
of grace are to all others "Signa inania:
2. The Reformed Confessions assert this doctrine, though with
some variations:
variations, however, which introduce qualifying clauses having
no real meaning, and may
be left to the symbolical Volumes. Some are of a more extreme
type, approaching,
though not positively expressing, the Supralapsarian theory,
that the Fall was included in
the decree of God; others are more evidently Infralapsarian,
dating the decree as it were
this side of the Fall. The Synod of Dort, 1618, in opposition to
the Remonstrants,
digested the Calvinistic doctrine in a large number of canons,
which seem to be based on
the latter scheme. It thus speaks concerning the Vocation of the
Gospel: " Though all men
sinned in Adam and were made guilty of malediction and eternal
death, God would have
done injury to no one if He had willed to leave the entire human
race in sin and the curse,
and to condemn it on account of that sin . . .. But that men may
be led to faith God
mercifully sends the heralds of His most joyful tidings to whom
He will and when He
will, by whose ministry men are called to repentance and faith
in Christ . . .. That some
are gifted with faith in time, and others not, springs from His
eternal decree, . . .according
to which He graciously softens the hearts of the elect, however
hard, and bends them to
belief, but in His just judgment leaves the non-elect to the
consequences of their own
wickedness and obduracy." These Articles, nearly a hundred in
number, are generally
received by the Predestinarian Churches as a full statement of
the Christian Faith. The
English version of the same creed is found in the Westminster
Confession, drawn up for
the purpose of reforming the English Church between 1643 and
1648: it is a reflection of
the Dort Canons, and accepted by the Presbyterians of the
British Islands and America
Many of the Reformed Confessions, like that of the English
Church, mitigate the dogma
of predestination, and use such language as may be without much
violence reconciled
with Scripture, especially in their reference to the
universality and sincerity of the Call
Others of them are more predestinarian than they appear to be:
ambiguity of phrase
disguising their meaning
3. Modifications of the Calvinistic creed are as various as the
lands which it has
penetrated. Calvin himself protested unconsciously against all
among his followers who
should soften his system of doctrine: " Many so preach election
as to deny that any man
is reprobated; but very ignorantly and childishly, since
election itself would not stand
unless opposed to reprobation." Thus the modern Father of
Predestination condemned
beforehand the devices of his more generous or less unrelenting
successors: rather their
device, for all the sophistries of palliation may be regarded as
one. In France, towards the
middle of the seventeenth century, Amyraldus taught that
salvation was provided for all
men; that God elected some to whom was given the necessary grace
of repentance and
faith; and that all others are simply left without a special
determining influence which
none have a right to claim. This useless subterfuge was resorted
to in England by Richard
Baxter; and has in more recent times been advocated in Scotland.
It is the
unacknowledged creed of great numbers who are bound to the
general teaching of
predestinariamsm, but feel constrained to preach the Gospel
freely to all: some because
the New Testament exhibits that kind of preaching, and they dare
not contradict its
example; some because they think that the reprobate are
predoomed to reject the Gospel
as well as to perish without atonement; and some because their
ardent charity melts the
fetters of their creed
VI. The Lutheran doctrine passed through stages of fluctuation
1. Both Luther and Melanchthon were at first predestinarian in
their views of the Gospel
Call. They taught Determinism or Fatalism almost in the same
words as Calvin used; but
both gradually modified and finally retracted these views,
induced mainly by the
impossibility of reconciling them with the serious purpose of
God in universally
proffering salvation, and with the evangelical scheme of the
means of grace. It may be
said generally that the followers of Luther are not of the
school of Augustine
2. Hence the Lutheran Formularies are not predestinarian. The
Formula Concordise was
the first public document that dealt at large with the subject.
The following is a
translation of sentences which treat, of Election and Vocation:
" Predestination or the
eternal Divine election pertains only to the good and accepted
sons of God, and it is the
cause of their salvation. It procures their renewal and disposes
of all things which belong
to it . . .. This predestination is not to be scrutinized in the
secret of the Divine counsel,
but is to be sought in the Word of God, which reveals it. The
Word of God leads us to
Christ . . .. But Christ calls all sinners to Himself, and
promises them rest, and seriously
wills that all men should come to Him and yield themselves to be
aided and saved. The
true doctrine of predestination is to be learned from the nature
of the Gospel of Christ
There it is plainly taught that God has concluded all under
unbelief that He might have
mercy on all, and that He wills none to perish, but rather that
all should be converted and
believe the Gospel . . .. When it is said that
3. The later development of Lutheran teaching has been faithful
to these statements, but
has expanded them so as to touch some of the pressing
difficulties which crowd around
the question
(1.) The earlier dogmatic writers laid emphasis on the "voluntas
antecedens," which is the
Divine decree of salvation in Christ expressing His "voluntas
universalis, gratuita et
seria." This counsel when viewed in the light of foreknowledge
is translated into a "
voluntas consequens seu specialis “: not as if there were two
wills in God; but the one
supreme will is determined distributively in regard to the two
classes of believers and unbelievers
Hence the universal will may be regarded as rather that of
mercy, the special
will as rather that of justice. Later Lutheran theologians have
preferred to dwell more on
the election of a new humanity in Christ into the fellowship of
which only those enter
who believe:' the whole emphasis of election rests on the second
race of which the
Second Adam is the Head. The special predestination of
individuals is only the historical
realization of the eternal purpose of love in Christ
(2.) Again, the first Lutheran doctors explained the absolute
universality of the Call by a
reference to the three great historical crises when the
evangelical appeal went forth
without limitation to the nations of the earth: first, when the
universal Promise
concerning the Seed of the woman, the Serpent-Bruiser, passed
out into all the world and
down to all posterity; secondly, when the preaching of Noah
after the Flood again sent its
sound into all the earth to be molded into universal traditions;
and, thirdly, when the
worldwide preaching of the Apostles literally went out without
restriction: " quo non
venit
VII. The Remonstrants of Holland, or Arminians, endeavored to
introduce into the
Reformed Church the Scriptural doctrine. But in vain: the Synod
of Dort (1618, 1619)
rejected their Remonstrance against a limiting of Divine grace,
just as the Council of
Trent in the previous century rejected the remonstrance of
Protestantism against another
and an opposite kind of dishonor done to the grace of God. From
that time the doctrine of
a Universal Atonement, or of a Savior provided for the race and
for sin universally, with
the concomitant doctrine of a free and unreserved offer of grace
to all who hear the
Word, has been connected with the name of Arminianism. But this
is an injustice to these
doctrines themselves, which have a higher parentage. The
Calvinism of modern times
was the Augustinianism of the fifth century: it has no higher
origin. It was Augustine who
first dared so to interpret Scripture as to attach a limited
design to the death of Christ: the
Fathers who preceded him were generally faithful to the catholic
Gospel; or, if they erred,
it was like Origen, in making the mission of Christ too
comprehensive in its benefits
Conversely, Augustinianism may in modern times be called
Calvinism; for it has never
prevailed outside of the Churches of the Reformed or Calvinistic
type: its sporadic existence
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