greenbaggins
Puritan Board Doctor
My good friend Wes White has just finished a paper which I have posted on my blog. It is meant to be rather a bombshell in the discussion of Shepherdism. Check it out.
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16 Q What does it mean
to love God with all one’s heart all one’s soul and all one’s strength?
A It means to acknowledge Him alone as God,
that is, as our creator, provider, and savior,
and therefore, before all things, to obey Him perfectly
with both body and soul through our whole life,
so that we would rather deny ourselves
and give up every created thing than offend Him in anything.
I found the article quite helpful especially the point that Ursinus denied the active obedience of Christ but it had no implications on the Heidelberg Catechism because his view was developed years after the Heidelberg was written.
The fact that Norman Shepherd and Piscator have different views as well was very informative.
I have enjoyed reading your blog it is informative & a blessing.
Thanks for all the clarity you provide.
You might want to take a look at the essay on Active obedience in Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry.
That essay takes a slightly different view of Ursinus, though there was not space to argue the point.
Consider several questions in the Summa theologiae (c. 1561):
Q. 16:
Q. 18 has Christ fulfilling the law. The question is whether Ursinus had Christ fulfilling the law only as a qualification for his sacrifice or whether his fulfilling of the law is also imputed to us.
Q. 38 says that "forgiveness of sins, righteousness,
and eternal life" are freely given to believers. That Ursinus says both the privative (remissio peccatorum) and the positive (righteousness; iustitia) are given suggest basic structures in Ursinus' soteriology that work against the thesis that Ursinus denied the IAO.
Then there is Ursinus' use of "merit" in the Summa that also works against the thesis that he supported the denial of IAO. In Ursinus' understanding of Christ's merit, he did not just merit his own righteousness to qualify himself as a sacrifice, but rather his (condign) merit is imputed to us. See ST, 38, 58, 65, 78. In ST 126, merit does function chiefly in a privative manner (to qualify Christ to provide the forgiveness of sins) but ST 134 goes on to add the positive or the second aspect of double imputation (IAO).
I have not checked DeMoor's comments but will do. I have found, in the past, that sometimes the 17th c. fellows get historical claims wrong. Turretin claims that Thoms said "theology teaches God, is taught by God and leads to God." He even gives a place in the Summa where it's supposed to be. It isn't there. His memory tricked him. Olevianus is claimed by some to have held Piscator's views (Piscator was CO's son-in-law) but I find no evidence of this. Some of the 17c fellows, I think, just assumed a connection, that if P held it then CO must have as well.
In fact, I don't find either Olevianus or Ursinus discussing the question explicitly. I'm making inferences. It's interesting that neither, so far as I know, spoke to the question explicitly when both had opportunity to do so.
At any rate, it seems to me that there are at least some reasons not to conclude that Ursinus did in fact teach or imply the denial of IAO. This question needs more research.
I do agree with Wes, however, that whatever the case re Ursinus, it is true that he did not reason as Shepherd does and that Shepherd's denial and other errors are quite outside the pale of confessional orthodoxy. I agree with him that the Reformed churches did tolerate at least some of those who denied IAO, though the French churches (as I show) were quite hard on Piscator and quite insistent that he quit corrupting their students! He replied, as errorists always do, "I'm just following the Bible."
rsc