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Calvin and Covenant Theology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Everett H. Emerson
Everett H. Emerson
Affiliation:
Lehigh University
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Extract

Within the last twenty years the New England theology of the seventeenth century has been examined far more closely than it had ever been before, and the findings have been that this theology is very different from the simple “Calvinism” which earlier students of the period had labelled it. Professor Perry Miller, the principal worker in the field, concluded that the New England theology was really “Covenant Theology” and has declared that this is a very different thing from “Calvinism.” Others have readily accepted his findings.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , June 1956 , pp. 136 - 144
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1956

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References

1. Examples of the earlier scholarship are Byington, Ezra Hoyt, The Puritan in England and New England (Boston, 1900), pp. 321–323Google Scholar and passim; Foster, F. H., A Genetic History of the New England Theology (Chicago, 1907), p. 15Google Scholar; and Parrington, Vernon Louis, Main. Currents in American Thought (New York, 1930), I, 12–15.Google Scholar

2. Miller's main discussions on the subject are: “The Marrow of Puritan Divinity,” Pubs. Col. Soc. Mass., XXXII (1938), 247–300Google Scholar; The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century (New York, 1939)Google Scholar; The New England Mind: From Colony to Province (Cambridge, Mass., 1953)Google Scholar. See also “The Puritan Theory of the Sacraments in Seventeenth Century New England,” Catholic Historical Review, XXII (1937), 409–425Google Scholar; and “‘Preparation for Salvation’ in Seventeenth-Century New England,” Journal of the History of Ideas, IV (1943), 253–286.Google Scholar

3. For examples, Schneider, Herbert W., A History of American Philosophy (New York, 1946), pp. 4ffGoogle Scholar; Baker, Herschel, The Wars of Truth (Cambridge, Mass., 1952), p. 292CrossRefGoogle Scholar and passim; and Brauer, Jerald C., “Re-flections on the Nature of English Puritanism,” Church History, XXIII (1954), 99–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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5. See Schrenk, Gottlob, Gottesreich und Bund im älteren Protestantismus (Gütersloh, 1923)Google Scholar, passim; Trinterud, Leonard J., “The Origins of Puritanism,” Church History, XX (1951), 37–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar; De Jong, Peter Y., The Covenant Idea in New England Theology (Grand Rapids, 1945), pp. 23–31Google Scholar (unfortunately an unsatisfactory book); and Mitchell, Alexander, “The Theology of the Reformed Church with Special Reference to the Westminster Standards,” in Report of Proceedings, 2nd General Council of Presbyterian Alliance (Philadelphia, 1880), pp. 274–284.Google Scholar

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10. Dogmatics, p. 371.Google Scholar

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12. Coceeius, , Opera (Amsterdam, 1673), VI, 212–214Google Scholar; quoted by Heppe, , Dogmatics, p. 388.Google Scholar

13. Miller, , New England Mind (1939), pp. 96, 190.Google Scholar

14. Wollebius, , Christianae Theologiae Compendium (Basel, 1626), p. 23Google Scholar; quoted by Heppe, , Dogmatics, p. 395.Google Scholar

15. Miller, , New England Mind (1939), p. 377Google Scholar. Miller implies that all covenant theologians regarded Abraham as the first to be within the covenant of grace. This interpretation is clearly a mistake. See Heppe, , Dogmatics, pp. 394–409Google Scholar, for a full presentation of the various views.

16. Dorner, , History, II, 31.Google Scholar

17. Pamp, Frederick E. Jr., “Studies in the Origins of English Arminianism,” unpub. diss. (Harvard, 1950), pp. 160–161.Google Scholar

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19. New England Mind (1939), p. 381Google Scholar. Compare Trinterud's paper on the continuity of covenant theology in England: “Origins of Puritanism,” especially pp. 50–51.Google Scholar

20. See, for example, the sermons of the very popular Henry Smith (c. 1550–1591) in his Works, ed. Smith, Thomas (Edinburgh, 1866–1867)Google Scholar. See also Knappen, M. M., Tudor Puritanism (Chicago, 1939), pp. 341–342.Google Scholar

21. See Christy, Wayne H., “John Cotton: Covenant Theologian,” unpub. M. A. thesis (Duke, 1942), p. 51.Google Scholar

22. New England Mind (1953), p. 53–67.Google Scholar

23. New England Mind (1953), p. 55.Google Scholar

24. Sedgwick, Obadiah, The Bowels of Tender Mercy (London, 1661), p. 6Google Scholar; quoted by Miller, , New England Mind (1953), p. 55.Google Scholar

25. “Marrow,” p. 280Google Scholar, and New England Mind (1953), p. 56.Google Scholar

26. Institutes, trans. Beveridge, Henry (London, 1953), III, 2, xxxiii.Google Scholar

27. The Deity of Christ and Other Sermons, trans. Nixon, Leroy (Grand Rapids, 1950), p. 201.Google Scholar

28. The Mystery of Godliness and Other Selected Sermons (Grand Rapids, 1950), p. 87.Google Scholar

29. Institutes, II, 3, vi.Google Scholar

30. The Gospel According to Isaiah: Seven Sermons on Isaiah 53, trans. Nixon, Leroy (Grand Rapids, 1953), p. 29Google Scholar. See also pp. 22 and 63.

31. Calvin on Common Grace (Goes, Netherlands, and Grand Rapids, 1928), pp. 207–208Google Scholar. See also Taylor, George, “John Calvin, the Teacher,” unpub. diss. (Duke, 1953)Google Scholar; abstract in Church History, XXIV (1955), 67.Google Scholar

32. Compare Institutes, III, 6, vGoogle Scholar, and III, 3, viii–xi. See also Battenhouse, Roy W., “The Doctrines of Man in Calvin and in Renaissance Platonism,” Journal of the History of Ideas, IX (1948), 457Google Scholar and passim, and, for the Reformed view in general, Heppe, , Dogmatics, p. 520.Google Scholar

33. “Preparation for Salvation,” pp. 259, 277.Google Scholar

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37. Deity of Christ, p. 41.Google Scholar

38. Deity of Christ, p. 151.Google Scholar

39. Deity of Christ, pp. 151–152Google Scholar. It is to be noted that Calvin makes no reference here to predestination. Note also Calvin's statement in the Institutes (III, 3, xx ): “… Christ… manifests himself to none but miserable and afflicted sinners, groaning, labouring, burdened, hungry, and thirsty, pining away with grief and wretchedness, so if we would stand in Christ, we must aim at repentance …”

40. Miller, , “Marrow,” p. 274.Google Scholar

41. “Marrow,” pp. 262–263.Google Scholar

42. The Mystery of Godliness, pp. 41–42.Google Scholar

43. Sermons of M. John Calvine, upon the X. Commandements (London, 1579), folio 5.Google Scholar

44. “Preparation for Salvation,” p. 282.Google Scholar

45. Mystery of Godliness, p. 44.Google Scholar