as an indication of God's special favor. From this it would follow that the majority of the human race will be saved. The very doctrine of election, which is unlimitable and free of all ordinary means, at all events widens the possibility and strengthens the probability of general infant salvation; while those Churches which hold to the necessity of baptismal regeneration must either consistently exclude from heaven all unbaptized infants (even those of Christian Baptists and Quakers), or, yielding to the instinct of Christian charity, they must make exceptions so innumerable that these would become, in fact, the rule, and overthrow the principle altogether.

In the seventeenth century the Arminians resumed the position of Zwingli, and with their mild theory of original sin (which they do not regard as responsible and punishable before and independent of actual transgression), they could consistently teach the general salvation of infants. The Methodists and Baptists adopted the same view. Even in the strictly Calvinistic churches it made steady progress, and is now silently or openly held by nearly all Reformed divines.'

Whether consistent or not, the doctrine of infant damnation is certainly cruel and revolting to every nobler and better feeling of our nature. It can not be charged upon the Bible except by logical inference from a few passages (John iii. 5; Mark xvi. 16; Rom. v. 12), which admit of a different interpretation. On the other hand, the general salvation of infants, though not expressly taught, is far more consistent with the love of God, the genius of Christianity, and the spirit and conduct of him who shed his precious blood for all ages of mankind, who held up little children to his own disciples as models of simplicity and trustfulness, and took them to his bosom, blessing them, and saying (unconditionally and before Christian baptism did exist), 'Of such is the kingdom of heaven,' and 'Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall in nowise enter therein.'

'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.

6. Salvation of adult heathen. This is a still darker problem Before Zwingli it was the universal opinion that there can be no sal vation outside of the visible Church (extra ecclesiam nulla salus). Dante, the poet of medieval Catholicism, assigns even Homer, Aristotle, Virgil, to hell, which bears the terrible inscription

'Let those who enter in dismiss all hope.'

But the Swiss Reformer repeatedly expressed his conviction, to which he adhered to the last, that God had his elect among the Gentiles as well as the Jews, and that, together with the saints of the Old Testament from the redeemed Adam down to John the Baptist, we may expect to find in heaven also such sages as Socrates, Plato, Aristides, Pindar, Numa, Cato, Scipio, Seneca; in short, every good and holy man and faithful soul from the beginning of the world to the end.1

For this liberality he was severely censured. The great and good Luther was horrified at the idea that even 'the godless Numa' (!) should be saved, and thought that it falsified the whole gospel, without which there can be no salvation.2

Zwingli, notwithstanding his abhorrence of heathen idolatry and every relic of paganism in worship, retained, from his classical training in the

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, cætum 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 exordio usque ad eius consummationem, quem non sis isthic cum Deo visurus. Quo spectaculo quid lætius, quid amœnius, quid denique honorificentius vel cogitari poterit? 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.

24

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 PER PETUA MANENT IRA ET DAMNATIONE (darum sie im ewigen Zorn und Verdammniss bleiben).'

school of Erasmus, a great admiration for the wisdom and the manly virtues of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and was somewhat unguarded in his mode of expression. But he had no idea of sending any one to heaven without the atonement, although he does not state when and how it was applied to those who died before the incarnation. In his mind the eternal election was inseparably connected with the plan of the Christian redemption. He probably assumed an unconscious Christianity among the better heathen, and a secret work of grace in their hearts, which enabled them to exercise a general faith in God and to strive after good works (comp. Rom. ii. 7, 10, 14, 15). All truth, he says, proceeds from the Spirit of God. He might have appealed to Justin Martyr and other ancient fathers, who traced all that was true and good among the Greek philosophers and poets to the working of the Logos before his incarnation (John i. 5, 10).1

1

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 yewiss, 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 er schneidet 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. 11. p. 77) fully adopts Zwingli's view: 'Jetzt wird ihm wohl Niemand mehr daraus ein Verbrecnca machen. Wir wissen, dass Röm. ii. 7: “Denen, die in Beharrlickkeit des Gutesthuns nach unvergünglichem 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 zu den oroixɛioic rʊv kóσμov 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.'

During the period of rigorous scholastic orthodoxy which followed the Reformation in the Reformed and Lutheran Churches, Zwingli's view could not be appreciated, and appeared as a dangerous heresy. In the seventeenth century the Romanists excluded the Protestants, the Lutherans the Calvinists, the Calvinists the Arminians, from the kingdom of heaven; how much more all those who never heard of Christ. This wholesale damnation of the vast majority of the human race should have stirred up a burning zeal for their conversion; and yet during that whole period of intense confessionalism and exclusive orthodoxism there was not a single Protestant missionary in the field except among the Indians in the wilderness of North America.'

But in modern times Zwingli's view has been revived and applauded as a noble testimony of his liberality, especially among evangelical divines in Germany, and partly in connection with a new theory of Hades and the middle state.

This is not the place to discuss a point which, in the absence of clear Scripture authority, does not admit of symbolical statement. The future fate of the heathen is wisely involved in mystery, and it is unsafe and useless to speculate without the light of revelation about matters which lie beyond the reach of our observation and experience. But the Bible consigns no one to final damnation except for rejecting Christ in unbelief, and gives us at least a ray of hope by significant examples of faith from Melchizedek and Job down to the wise men from the East, and by a number of passages concerning the working of the Logos among the Gentiles (John i. 5, 10; Rom. i. 19; ii. 14, 15, 18, 19; Acts xvii. 23, 28; 1 Pet. iii. 19; iv. 6). We certainly have no right to confine God's election and saving grace to the limits of the visible Church. We are indeed bound to his ordinances and must submit to his terms of salvation; but God himself is free, and can save whomsoever and howsoever he pleases, and he is infinitely more anxious and ready to save than we can conceive.

age.

6

1 John Eliot, the Apostle of the Indians,' labored among the Indians in that polemical 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.

2 John iii. 18, 36; xii. 48; Mark xvi. 16.

853. THE FIRST CONFESSION OF BASLE. A.D. 1534.

Literature.

JAO. CHRIST. BECK: Dissertatio historico-theologica de Confessione Fidei Basileensis Ecclesiæ, Basil. 1744. MELCH.OR KIRCHHOFER: Oswald Myconius, Antistes der Baslerischen Kirche, Zürich, 1813.

BURCKHARDT: Reformationsgeschichte von Basel, Basel, 1818.

K. R. HAGENBACH: Kritische Geschichte der Entstehung und der Schicksale der ersten Basler Confession und der auf sie gegründeten Kirchenlehre, Basel, 1827 (title ed. 1828).

J. J. HERZOG: Leben Joh. Ekolampads und die Reformation der Kirche von Basel, Basel, 1843, 2 vols. HAGENBACH: Leben Ekolampads und Myconius, Elberfeld, 1859. (Part II. of Väter und Bergründer der reform. Kirche.)

ESCHER, in Ersch und Gruber's Encyklop. Art. Helvet. Confess. Sect. II. Part V.

BECK: Symb. Bücher der ev. reform. Kirche, Vol. I. pp. 28 sqq.

The two Confessions of Basle are published in German and Latin by Niemeyer, Coll. pp. 78-122; in German alone by Beck and Böckel in their collections. The best reprint of the First Confession of Basle, in the Swiss dialect, with the Scripture proofs on the margin, is given by Hagenbach at the close of his biography of Ekolampad und Myconius, pp. 465–470.

The First and Second Confessions of Basle belong to the Zwinglian family, and preceded the age of Calvin, but are a little nearer the German Lutheran type of Protestantism.

The rich and venerable city of Basle, on the frontier of Switzerland, France, and South Germany, since 1501 a member of the Swiss Confederacy, renowned for the reformatory Ecumenical Council of 1430, and the University founded by Pius II., became a centre of liberal learning before the Reformation. Thomas Wyttenbach, the teacher of Zwingli, attacked the indulgences as early as 1502. In 1516 Erasmus of Rotterdam, at that time esteemed as the greatest scholar of Europe, took up his permanent residence in Basle, and published the first edition of the Greek Testament and other important works, though, after the peasant war and Luther's violent attack on him, he became disgusted with the Reformation, which he did not understand. He desired merely a quiet literary illumination within the Catholic Church, and formed a bridge between two ages. He died, like Moses, in the land of Moab (1536). Wolfgang Capito (Köpfli), an Alsacian, labored in Basle as preacher and professor from 1512 to 1520, in friendly intercourse with Erasmus, and was followed by Caspar Hedio (Heid), who continued in the same spirit, and corresponded with Luther. Another preacher in Basle, Wilhelm Röublin, carried on the

1 Erasmus turned his keen wit first against the obscurantism of the monks, but afterwards against the light of the Reformation. He said to Frederick the Wise at Cologne, before the Diet of Worms (within the hearing of Spalatin): 'Lutherus peccavit in duobus, nempe quod tetigit coronam pontificis et ventres monachorum.' But when Luther, Zwingli, Œcolampadius took wives, he called the Reformation a comedy which ended always in a marriage.