I.--LUTHERANISM AND CALVINISM.

I.--LUTHERANISM AND CALVINISM.

1. Baptismal Regeneration.

Baptism a means of regeneration (as concurrent with the sacramental act), and hence necessary for salvation;--or only a sign and seal of regeneration (whether concurrent or preceding or succeeding, according to God's free pleasure).

2. The Encharistic presence.

Corporeal real presence (in, with, and under the elements) for all communicants;--or spiritual real (dynamic and effective) presence for believers only.

3. Christological.

The extent of the communicatio idiomatum. [1726] The ubiquity of Christ's body: asserted by the Lutheran Church (as a dogmatic support to its doctrine of the eucharistic multipresence); denied by the Reformed (as inconsistent with the limitations of humanity and the fact of Christ's ascension to heaven).

4. Predestination and the perseverance of saints.

No difference between Luther and Calvin, who were both Augustinians, but between their followers. (Synergism of Melanchthon in his later period. Semi-Augustinianism of the Formula of Concord. Extreme Calvinism of the Synod of Dort.)

II.--CALVINISM AND ARMINIANISM.

1. Election: unconditional;--or conditional.

2. Extent of redemption: limited to the elect;--or unlimited to all men.

3 and 4. Nature of faith and grace: irresistible;--or resistible.

5. Perseverance of saints;--or the possibility of total and final apostasy.

III.--CONGREGATIONALISM.

1. Conception of a Christian congregation or local church: a self-governing body of converted believers voluntarily associated for spiritual ends.

2. Independence of such a church of foreign jurisdiction.

3. Duty of voluntary fellowship with other churches.

IV.--BAPTIST DOCTRINES.

1. Congregationalism as sub III.

2. Baptism.

(a) Its subjects: only responsible converts on the ground of a voluntary profession of their faith.

(b) Its mode: total immersion of the body.

3. Universal liberty of conscience as a sphere over which civil government has no control. ('Soul-liberty.') [1727]

V.--QUAKER DOCTRINES.

1. Universal diffusion of the inner light for the salvation of men.

2. Immediate revelation superior to, though concordant with, the outward testimony of the Scriptures.

3. The ministry of the gospel depending on inspiration, and not confined to a class or sex.

4. The sacraments are spiritual acts, not visible rites and ceremonies, as under the old dispensation.

5. Worship is purely inward, and depends upon the immediate moving of the Holy Spirit.

6. Universal religious liberty.

VI.--METHODIST DOCTRINES.

1. Universal offer of salvation in different dispensations.

2. Witness of the Spirit, or assurance of present acceptance with God.

3. Christian perfection, or perfect sanctification.

F. Orthodox Protestantism and Heterodox Protestantism.

I. Socinianism (Unitarianism). Denies the following oecumenical doctrines:

1. The Trinity.

2. The Incarnation and eternal Divinity of Christ.

3. Original sin and guilt.

4. The vicarious atonement.

II. Universalism departs from the orthodox doctrines of the--

1. Nature and extent of sin and its consequences.

2. Endless punishment. (Difference between Restorationism and Universalism proper).

III. Swedenborgianism asserts:

1. A new revelation and a new Church (the New Jerusalem).

2. Intercourse with the spirit world.

3. It limits the number of the canonical Scriptures.

4. It claims to unlock the deeper inner sense of the Scriptures.

5. It dissents from the evangelical doctrines of the tripersonality of the Godhead, the incarnation, the atonement, justification, the Church, the sacraments, and the resurrection.

[1722] We say as a whole; for the Greek Church does not claim infallibility for any individual patriarch, and has herself condemned, in oecumenical Synods, as heretics not only Pope Honorius, of Rome, but also several of her own patriarchs, e.g., Nestorius, of Constantinople; Dioscurus, of Alexandria; Peter the Fuller, of Antioch; Sallustius, of Jerusalem; Cyril Lucar, of Constantinople.

[1723] The Greek Archbishop Lykurgos, of Syra and Tenos (d. 1876), declared, while in England, in a conference with the Bishop of Ely, Feb. 4, 1870: 'The Orthodox Church considers the immaculate conception to be blasphemous. It destroys the doctrine of the Incarnation.' But in practice the worship of the blessed Virgin is carried as far in the Greek Church as in the Latin.

[1724] In this doctrine the Protestant Confessions side with the Latin Church, or at least they do not oppose it. The eternal procession of the Spirit was no topic of controversy in the period of the Reformation, and may be regarded as an open question subject to further exegetical and theological investigation. A number of Episcopalians in England and America would be willing to expunge the Filioque from the Nicene Creed, or to compromise with the Orientals on the single procession of the Spirit from the Father through the Son. See the Theses of the Bonn Conference of 1875, at the close of Vol. II.

[1725] Gal. v. 6, (pistis di agapes energoumene, is to be explained as the dynamic middle, not as the passive, 'completed in love' (the fides formata of Roman Catholic commentators).

[1726] That is, whether it includes also the genus majestaticum, or the communication of the attributes of the divine nature to the human nature of Christ--affirmed by the Lutheran symbols, denied by the Reformed. See pp.319 sqq.

[1727] President Anderson, of Rochester University (article Baptists in Johnson's Cyclopædia, Vol. I. p. 383), enumerates four distinctive doctrinal principles of the Baptists: (1) immersion; (2) believers only to constitute a visible church; (3) responsible converts only entitled to baptism; (4) separation of Church and State, and independence of each individual church as a body of baptized believers of any other body, whether ecclesiastical or political. But the second article is held also by the Congregationalists, and the fourth can not be called an article of faith.