[734] 'Christum credimus vere esse in coena, immo non credimus esse Domini coenam nisi Christus adsit.' Niemeyer, p. 71.

[734] 'Christum credimus vere esse in coena, immo non credimus esse Domini coenam nisi Christus adsit.' Niemeyer, p. 71.

[735] See above, p. 327.

[736] Dr. Hodge, e.g., does not rise above the Zwinglian view. He denies that Christ is present in any other way than spiritually, and that believers receive any other benefit than 'the sacrificial virtue and effects of the death of Christ on the cross,' which he maintains was received already by the saints of the Old Testament and the disciples at the first Supper, before the glorified body of Christ had any existence. 'The efficacy of this sacrament, as a means of grace, is not in the signs, nor in the service, nor in the minister, nor in the word, but in the attending influence of the Holy Spirit.'--System. Theol. Vol. III. pp. 646, 647, 650.

[737] Dorner (in his History of German Theology, p. 287) says that Zwingli retained from his humanistic culture a certain disposition to 'an aesthetic consideration of sin,' i.e., to see in it something disgraceful, unworthy, bestial rather than diabolical.

[738] Defectus naturalis, or, as he often calls it in his Swiss-German, a Brest, i.e. Gebrechen. 'Die Erbsünd,' he says in his book on Baptism,' ist nüts (nichts) anders weder (als) der Brest von Adam her. . . . Wir verstond (verstehen) durch das Wort Brest einen Mangel, den einer ohn sin Schuld von der Geburt her hat oder sust (sonst) von Zufällen.' He distinguishes it from Laster and Frevel, vice and crime. He explains his view more fully in his tract De peccato originali ad Urbanum Regium, 1526, and also in his Confession to Charles V., 1530.

[739] 'Peccatum originale non proprie peccatum est, non enim est facinus contra legem. Morbus igitur est proprie et conditio.' Fidei Ratio ad Carol. V. Cap. IV. (Niemeyer, p. 20).

[740] Fidei Ratio, Cap. V. (Niemeyer, p. 21): 'Hinc constat, si in Christo secundo Adam vitæ restituimur, quemadmodum in primo Adam sumus morti traditi, quod temere damnamus Christianis parentibus natos pueros, imo gentium quoque pueros. Adam enim si perderere universum genus peccando potuit, et Christus moriendo non vivificavit et redemit universum genus a clade per istum data, jam non est par salus reddita per Christum, et perinde (quod absit!) nec verum, "Sicut in Adam omnes moriuntur, ita in Christo omnes vitæ restituuntur." Verum quomodocunque de gentilium infantibus statuendum sit, hoc certe adseveramus, propter virtutem salutis per Christum præstitæ, præter rem pronunciare qui eos æternæ maledictioni addicunt, cum propter dictam reparationis causam, tum propter electionem Dei liberam, quæ non sequitur fidem, sed fides electionem sequitur.' In another passage against the Catabaptists he says: 'Electi eligebantur antequam in utero conciperentur: mox igitur ut sunt, filii Dei sunt, etiamsi moriantur antequam credant aut ad fidem vocentur. Comp. Zeller, 1.c. p. 162.

[741] The limbus infantum is, so to speak, the nursery of hell, on the top floor and away from the fire, as Bellarmin says, in loco inferni altiori, ita ut ad eum ignis non perveniat. In a still higher region was the limbus patrum, the temporary abode of the saints of the Old Testament, but this was vacated at the descent of Christ into Hades, when those saints were freed from prison and translated into Paradise.

[742] 'Parvulos non baptizatos in damnatione omnium lenissima futuros' (Contra Jul. lib. V. c. 11); 'Infantes non baptizati lenissime quidem, sed tamen damnantur. Potest proinde recte dici, parvulos sine baptismo de corpore exeuntes in damnatione omnium mitissima futuros' (De pecc. mer. et rem. cap. 16). Pelagius was more liberal, and assumed a middle state of half-blessedness for unbaptized infants between the heaven of the baptized and the hell of the ungodly. See particulars in my Church History, Vol. III. pp. 835 sqq.

[743] Conf. August. Art. IX.: 'Damnant Anabaptistas qui . . . affirmant pueros sine baptismo salvos fieri.' In the German edition the last clause is omitted.

[744] Calovius (in the consensus repetitus fidei vere Lutheranæ, 1655), in the name of the strict Lutherans, rejected the milder view of a merely privative punishment of unbaptized infants, as held by Calixtus (see Henke, Georg Calixtus, Vol. II. Pt. II. p. 295), but it was defended by others. Fr. Buddæus, one of the most liberal among the orthodox Lutherans, describes the condition of heathen infants as admodum tolerabilis, though they are exclusi a beatitudine (Instit. Theol. dogm. Lips. 1723, p. 631). Others leave the children to the mercy of God. See V. E. Löscher's Auserlesene Sammlung der besten neueren Schriften vom Zustand der Seele nach dem Tode, 1735; republished by Hubert Becker, 1835.

[745] Westminster Conf. chap. x. § 3: 'Elect infants, dying in infancy, are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit, who worketh when and where and how he pleaseth. So also are all other elect persons who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the word.' The last sentence may be fairly interpreted as teaching the election and salvation of a portion of heathen adults.

[746] 'Abhorremus et detestamur . . . crudele judicium contra infantes sine baptismo morientes, bapitismi absolutam quant asserit necessitatem.' Niemeyer, pp. 357, 358.

[747] Dr. Hodge, the most orthodox Calvinistic divine of the age, very positively teaches (Syst. Theol. Vol. I. p. 26) the salvation of all infants dying in infancy, and represents this as the 'common doctrine of evangelical Protestants.' This may be true of the present generation, and we hope it is, though it is evidently inapplicable to the period of scholastic orthodoxy, both Lutheran and Calvinistic. He supports his view by three arguments: 1. The analogy between Adam and Christ (Rom. v. 18, 19, where we have no right to restrict the free gift of Christ upon all more than the Bible itself restricts it); 2. Christ's conduct towards children; 3. The general nature of God to bless and to save, rather than to curse and destroy.

[748] His last and fullest utterance on this subject occurs towards the close of his Expositio Chr. Fidei, where, speaking of eternal life, he thus addresses the French king: 'Deinde sperandum est tibi visurum esse sanctorum, prudentium, fidelium, canstantium, fortium, virtuosorum omnium, quicunque a condito mundo fuerunt, sodalitatem, coetum et contubernium. Hic duos Adam, redemptum ac Redemptorem: hic Abelum, Enochum, Noam, Abrahamum, Isaacum, Jacobum, Judam, Mosen, Josuam, Gedeonem, Samuelem, Pinhen, Heliam, Heliseum, Isaiam, ac deiparam Virginem de qua ille præcinuit, Davidem, Ezekiam, Josiam, Baptistam, Petrum, Paulum: hic Herculem, Theseum, Socratem, Aristidem, Antigonum, Numam, Camillum, Catones, Scipiones: hic Ludovichum pium antecessoresque tuos Ludovicos, Philippos, Pipinnos, et quotquot in fide hinc migrarunt maiores tuos videbis. Et summatim, non fuit vir bonus, non erit mens sancta, non est fidelis anima, ab ipso mundi exordia usque ad eius consummationem, quem non sis isthic cum Deo visurus. Quo spectaculo quid lætius, quid amænius, quid denique honorificentius vel cogitari potent? Aut quo iustius omnes animi vires intendimus quam ad huiuscemodi vitæ lucrum?' See Niemeyer, p. 61. Similar passages occur in his Epistles, Commentaries, and tract on Providence. Comp. Zeller, p. 163.

[749] 'Hoc si verum est, totum evangelium falsum est.' Luther denied the possibility of salvation outside of the Christian Church. In his Catech. Major, Pars II. Art. III. (ed. Rechenb. p. 503, ed. Müller, p. 460), he says: 'Quicunque extra Christianitatem (ausser der Christenheit) sunt, sive Gentiles sive Turcæ sive Judæi aut falsi etiam Christiani et hypocritæ, quanquam unum tantum et verum Deum esse credant et invocent (ob sie gleich nur Einen wahrhaftigen Gott gläuben und anbeten), neque tamen certum habent, quo erga eos animatus sit animo, neque quidquam favoris aut gratiæ de Deo sibi polliceri audent et possunt, quamobrem in perpetua manent ira et damnatione (darum sie im ewigen Zorn und Verdammniss bleiben).'

[750] Dr. Dorner, with his usual fairness and fine discrimination, vindicates Zwingli against misrepresentations (Gesch. d. Prot. Theol. p. 284): 'Man hat daraus eine Gleichgültigkeit gegen den historischen Christus und sein Werk erschliessen wollen, dass er [Zwingli] auch von Heiden sagt: sie seien selig geworden; was die Heiden Weisheit nennen, das nennen die Christen Glauben. Allein er sieht in allem Wahren vor Christo mit manchen Kirchenvätern eine Wirkung und Offenbarung des Logos, ohne jedoch so weit zu gehen, mit Justin die Weisen des Alterthums, welche nach dem Logos gelebt haben, Christen zu nennen. Er sagt nur, sie seien nach dem Tode selig geworden, ähnlich wie auch die Kirche dasselbe von den Vätern des Alten Testaments annimmt. Er konnte dabei wohl diese Seligkeit als durch Christus gewirkt und erworben denken und hat dieselbe jedenfalls nur als in der Gemeinschaft mit Christus bestehend gedacht. Ist ihm doch durch den ewigen Rathschluss der Versöhnung Christus nicht bloss ewig gewiss, sondern auch gegenwärtig für alle Zeiten. So sind ihm jene Heiden doch selig nur durch Christus. Freilich das sagt er nicht, dass sie erst im Jenseits sich bekehren; auch erschneidet mit dem Diesseits die Bekehrung ab. Er lässt ihre im Diesseits bewährte Treue gegen das ihnen vom Logos anvertraute Pfund wahrer Erkentniss die Stelle des Glaubens vertreten. Aber es ist wohl kein Zweifel, dass er sie im Jenseits zur Erkentniss und Gemeinschaft Christi gelangend denkt. Bei den Frommen Alten Testaments fordert auch die Kirche zu ihrem Heil nicht eine bestimmtere Erkenntniss Christi im Diesseits, die sie höchstens den Propheten' zuschreiben könnte.' Ebrard (in his History of the Dogma of the Lord's Supper. Vol. II. p. 77) fully adopts Zwingli's view: 'Jetzt wird ihm wohl Niemand mehr daraus ein Verbrechen machen. Wir wissen, dass Röm. ii. 7: "Denen, die in Beharrlickkeit des Gutesthuns nach unvergänglichem Wesen trachten," ewiges Leben verheissen ist, wir wissen dass nur der positive Unglaube an das angebotene Heil weder hier noch dort vergeben wird, dass nur auf ihn die Strafe des ewigen Todes gesetzt ist; wir wissen, dass auf die erste Auferstehung der in Christo Entschlafenen noch eine zweite der ganzen übrigen Menschheit folgen soll, die alsdann gerichtet werden sollen nach ihren Werken, und dass im neuen Jerusalem selber die Blätter des Lebensbaumes dienen sollen zur Genesung der Heiden (Apok. xxii. 2). Zwingli hat also an der Hand der heiligen Schrift das Heidenthum ebenso wie das Judenthum als an den stoicheiois tou kosmou gehörig (Gal. iv. 1-3) angesehen, und mit vollem Rechte einen Socrates neben einen Abraham gestellt. Ihm besteht die Seligkeit darin, dass das ganze Wunderwerk der göttlichen Weltpädagogik in seinen Früchten klar und herrlich vor den Blicken der erstaunten Seligen da liegt.'

[751] John Eliot, the 'Apostle of the Indians,' labored among the Indians in that polemical age. He died 1690, eighty-six years of age, at Roxbury, Massachusetts. David Brainerd (d. at Northampton, Mass., 1747) likewise labored among the Indians before any missionary zeal was kindled in the Protestant churches of Europe.

[752] John iii. 18, 36; xii. 48; Mark xvi. 16.