§ 114. CALVINISM EXAMINED. 581
sins of) the whole world'' (1 John 2 : 2). It is impossible to state the doctrine of a universal atonement more clearly in so few words. ^
To these passages should be added the divine exhortations to repentance, and the lament of Christ over the inhabitants of Jerusalem who "would not" come to him (Matt. 23 : 37). These exhortations are insincere or unmeaning, if God does not want all men to be saved, and if men have not the ability to obey or disobey the voice. The same is implied in the command of Christ to preach the gospel to the whole creation (Mark 16 : 15), and to disciple all nations (Matt. 28 : 19).
It is impossible to restrict these passages to a particular class without doing violence to the grammar and the context.
The only way of escape is by the distinction between a revealed will of God, which declares his willingness to save all men, and a secret will of God which means to save only some men.^ Augustin and Luther made this distinction. Calvin uses it in explaining 2 Pet. 3 : 9, and those passages of the Old Testament which ascribe repentance and changes to the immutable God.
But this distinction overthrows the system which it is intended to support. A contradiction between intention and expression is fatal to veracity, which is the foundation of human morality, and must be an essential attribute of the Deity. A man who says the reverse of what he means is called, in plain English, a hypocrite and a liar. It does not help the matter when Calvin says, repeatedly, that there are not two wills Lii God, but only two ways of speaking adapted
1 Calvin understands "lotus mu)idus" in this passage to mean "tola ecclesia ! " This is as impossible as the confinement of " the world," John 3 : 16, to " the elect." He mentions, however, also a better explanation, that Christ died " sujfficienter pro toto mundo, sed pro electis tantum efficaciter."
^ Various terras for the distinction : voluntas revelata and voluntas arcana ; voluntas signi and voluntas beneplaciti (evSoKias) ; voluntas universalis and voluntas specialis ; verbum externum et verbum internum.. The oft-quoted proof text, Deut. 29 : 29, teaches a distinction, but not a contradiction, between the secret things and the revealed things of God.
582 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
to our weakness. Nor does it remove the difficulty when he warns us to rely on the revealed will of God rather than brood over his secret will.
The greatest, the deepest, the most comforting word in the Bible is the word, " God is love," and the greatest fact in the world's history is the manifestation of that love in the person and the work of Christ. That word and this fact are the sum and substance of the gospel, and the only solid foundation of Christian theology. The sovereignty of God is acknowledged by Jews and Mohammedans as well as by Christians, but the love of God is revealed only in the Christian religion. It is the inmost essence of God, and the key to all his ways and works. It is the central truth which sheds light upon all other truths.
§ 115. Calvhi's Theory of the Sacraments. Inst. bk. IV. chs. XIV.-XIX.
Next to the doctrine of predestination, Calvin paid most attention to the doctrine of the sacraments. And here he was original, and occupied a mediating position between Luther and Zwingli. His sacramental theory passed into all the Reformed Confessions more than his view of predestination.
Calvin accepts Augustin's definition that a sacrament (corresponding to the Greek " mystery ") is " a visible sign of an invisible grace," but he improves it by emphasizing the sealing character of the sacrament, according to Rom. 4 : 11, and the necessity of faith as the condition of receiving the benefit of the ordinance. " It is," he says, " an outward sign by which the Lord seals in our consciences the promises of his good-will towards us, to support the weakness of our faith, or a testimony of his grace towards us, with a reciprocal attestation of our piety towards him." It is even more expressive than the word. It is a divine seal of authentica-