Re: 'only . . . if they were convinced'
You'll be familiar with James Hogg's satirical portrayal of
predestination in The Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824). I once
asked a student who lives in the tradition how you can tell whether you
are elect or not. The reply was stunning simple: 'You know you are
one of the elect. Should the question of whether you are even arise,
you know you are not.'
Bunyan, I take it, would have rotted in hell for his schizophrenic
thinking in Grace Abounding Unto the Chief of Sinners.
>>> [log in to unmask] 09/03/04 11:59:49 >>>
Thanks for the responses.
I was prompted to ask the question by the same thought mentioned by
Carol Kaske, that people like Luther found the doctrine of
predestination to be comforting--but only, I would think, if they were
convinced of their own election.
There was a group convinced that deceased infants of "godly
parents" were of the elect. The following passage is from the Canons of
Dordtrecht--a response in 1616-1618 by the Reformed Church to the
Arminian Heresy. From Article 17 of the Doctrine of Divine
Predestination:
Since we are to judge of the will of God from the word
that testifies that the children of believers are holy, not by
nature, but in virtue of the covenant of grace, in which
they, together with the parents, are
comprehended, godly parents have no reason to doubt of the
election and salvation of their children whom it pleaseth
God to call out of this life in their infancy.
Jim Broaddus
Jim Broaddus
----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Knauss
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Monday, March 08, 2004 4:32 PM
Subject: Re: Predestination
I believe it's in the Stachniewski book whose name eludes me.
On Mon, 8 Mar 2004 09:34:23 -0500 Carol Kaske <[log in to unmask]>
writes:
There is a story recounted in a book on Puritans, I believe it's in
Wallace, Puritans and Predestination, I'll check, of a student at Ox. or
Camb. in our period who committed suicide (hanged himself in his digs I
believe), and left a note saying he did it because he knew he was
predestined to be damned. Could be in somebody more recent like Peter
Lake, Moderate Purs or Anglicans and Puritans? or Nicolas Tyacke,
Anti-Calvinism.The note is suspect, however, says this forgotten
scholar, because it could have been authored after the fact by someone
seeing in the incident an opportunity to discredit Puritans. Is there
anybody else out there who has read this story and remembers where he
read it?
The odd thing is that the mainstream majority, including Luther and
the 39 Articles, treats predestination as a comfort to people worried
about their deeds, as does Una to Red Cross (I.ix.53).At 07:53 AM
3/8/2004 -0500, you wrote:
Did any 16th century English believer in predestination who also
was finally convinced that he or she had been predestined to damnation
leave an account of his or her thoughts on the matter?
I realize that temporary fears, moments of despair, were common.
James W. Broaddus
emeritus, Indiana State University
Route 3 Box 1037
Brodhead, KY 40409
606-758-8073
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