Herman Wits (Latinized as Witsius) was born on February 12, 1636, at Enkhuizen to God-fear­ing parents who dedicated their firstborn to the Lord. His father, Nicholas Wits (1599-1669), was a man of some renown, having been an elder for more than twenty years, a member of Enkhuizen’s city council, and an author of devotional poetry. Witsius’s mother, Johanna, was a daughter of Herman Gerard, pastor for thirty years of the Reformed church in Enkhuizen. Herman was named after his grandfather with the prayer that he might emulate his godly example.

Education⤒🔗

Witsius was an avid learner. He began Latin studies at age five. Three years later his uncle, Peter Gerard, noticing the boy’s gifts, began to tutor him. By the time Witsius took up theological studies in Utrecht at age 15, he could speak Latin fluently. He could read Greek and Hebrew, and had memorized numerous Scriptures in their original languages. At Utrecht, he studied Syriac and Arabic under Johannes Leusden and theology under Johannes Hoornbeeck, whom he called “my teacher of undying memory.” He also studied under Andreas Essenius, whom he honored as “my father in the Lord,” and Gisbertus Voetius, whom he called “the great Voetius.” From Voetius he learned how to wed precise Reformed orthodoxy to heartfelt, experiential piety.

After studying theology and homiletics with Samuel Maresius at Groningen, in 1653 Witsius returned to Utrecht, where he was profoundly influ­enced by the local pastor, Justus van der Bogaerdt. According to Witsius’s later testimony, van der Bogaerdt’s preaching and fellowship brought him experientially to understand the difference between theological knowledge gleaned from study and the heavenly wisdom taught by the Holy Spirit through communion with God, love, prayer, and meditation. Witsius wrote that he was born again in “the bosom of the Utrecht church by the living and eternal Word of God.” Through this godly pastor’s influence, Witsius said, he was preserved “from the pride of science, taught to receive the kingdom of heaven as a little child, led beyond the outer court in which he had pre­viously been inclined to linger, and conducted to the sacred recesses of vital Christianity.”

Already as a teenager, Witsius had demonstrated his gifts in public debate. In 1655 he defeated some of the leading debaters at the University of Utrecht by showing that the doctrine of the Trinity could be proven from the writings of ancient Jews. When Witsius thanked the moderator for his assistance, the moderator replied, “You neither had, nor stood in need of, any assistance from me.”

In 1656 Witsius passed his final examinations and was declared a candidate for the ministry. Due to the abundance of ministers, he had to wait a year before receiving a pastoral call. During that time he applied to the authorities of the French Church in Dort for a license to preach in French-speaking Reformed churches. Witsius often preached in French at Utrecht, Amsterdam, and elsewhere.

Pastorates←⤒🔗

On July 8, 1657, Witsius was ordained into the ministry at Westwoud, where his catechizing of young people bore special fruit. But he also encountered opposition because of the congregation’s ignorance of their Reformed heritage. Medieval customs such as praying for the dead were still evident in the people. These problems convinced Witsius early in his min­istry of the need for further Reformation among the people. It also prompted him to publish his first book, ‘t bedroefde Nederlant (The Sorrowing Netherlands).

In 1660, Witsius married Aletta van Borchorn, daughter of a merchant who was an elder in Witsius’s church. They were blessed with twenty-four years of marriage. Aletta said she could not tell what was greater — her love or her respect for her husband. The couple had five children — two sons, who died young, and three daughters: Martina, Johanna, and Petronella.

In 1661, Witsius was installed in the church at Wormer — one of Holland’s largest churches — where he succeeded in uniting warring factions and training the people in divine knowledge. He and his colleague, Petrus Goddaeus, took turns teaching a doctrinal class on weekday evenings to “defend the truth of our teachings against false doctrines” and to inculcate “the sanctity of our teachings in terms of God-fear­ing conduct.” The class began in private homes, then outgrew that space and moved to the church. Even­tually people had to stand outside the church due to lack of room.

These class lectures were eventually published in a book titled Practycke des Christendoms (The Practice of Christianity), to which Witsius appended Geestelycke Printen van een Onwedergeborenen op syn beste en een Wedergeborenen op syn slechste (A Spiritual Picture of the Unregenerate at His Best and the Regenerate at His Worst).

Practycke des Christendoms explains the primary grounds of godliness, while the appended work applies those grounds by teaching what is laudable in the unregenerate and what is culpable in the regenerate. John Owen said he hoped he could be as con­sistent as Witsius’s unregenerate man at his best and that he would never fall so deeply as Witsius’s regen­erate man at his worst.

In his writings, Witsius demonstrates the convictions of the Nadere Reformatie (Dutch Second Reformation or “Further Reformation”). The Dutch Second Reformation was largely a seventeenth-century movement within the Dutch Reformed churches that zealously strove for the inner experience of Reformed doctrine and personal sanctification as well as the purification of all spheres of life.

Witsius accepted a call to Goes in 1666, where he labored for two years. In the preface to Twist des Heeren met syn Wijngaert (The Lord’s Controversy with His Vineyard), published in Leeuwarden in 1669, he said he had labored with much peace in this congre­gation together with three colleagues, “two of whom were venerated as fathers, and the third was loved as a brother.” Of these four ministers working together in one congregation, Witsius noted: “We walked together in fellowship to God’s house. We did not only attend each other’s services, but also each other’s catechism classes and other public services, so that what one servant of God might have taught yester­day, the others confirmed and recommended to the congregation the next day.” Under the influence of these four ministers, “all sorts of devotional practices blossomed, piety grew, and the unity of God’s people was enhanced,” Witsius wrote.

After serving Goes, Witsius went to his fourth pas­toral charge, Leeuwarden, where he served for seven years (1668-1675). In 1672, called the “year of mir­acles” because the Dutch Republic survived the onslaught of four enemies who had declared war on the Netherlands (France, England, and the German electorates of Cologne and Munster), Witsius gained renown for faithful ministry in the midst of crisis. Johannes à Marck, a future colleague, said of Witsius that he knew of no other minister whose labors were so owned of God.

In 1673 Witsius again teamed up with a renowned colleague — this time, Wilhelmus à Brakel, with whom he served two years. At Leeuwarden, Witsius played a critical role mediating disputes between Voetius and Maresius.

Professorships←⤒🔗

In 1675, Witsius was called to be a professor of the­ology. He served in this capacity for the rest of his life, first at Franeker (1675-1680), then at Utrecht (1680-1698), and finally at Leiden (1698-1707).

Shortly after his arrival at Franeker, the university there awarded Witsius a doctorate in theology. His inaugural address, On the character of a true theologian (1675), which was attended by scholars from all over the province, stressed the difference between a the­ologian who knows his subject only scholastically and a theologian who knows his subject experientially.

Under Witsius’s leadership the university began to flourish as a place to study theology, especially after the arrival of the 21-year-old professor, Johannes à Marck, in 1678. It soon attracted students from all over Europe.

During his professorship at Franeker, tension between the Voetians and the Cocceians escalated. Gis­bertus Voetius (1589-1676), a renowned Reformed scholastic theologian and professor at Utrecht, rep­resents the mature fruit of the Nadere Reformatie, much as John Owen does for English Puritanism. Voetius unceasingly opposed Johannes Cocceius (1603-1669), the Bremen-born theologian who taught at Franeker and Leiden, and whose covenant theology, in Voetius’s opinion, overemphasized the historical and contextual character of specific ages. Voetius believed that Cocceius’s new approach to the Scriptures would undermine both Reformed dogmatics and practical Christianity. For Voetius, Cocceius’s devaluing of practical Christianity culminated in his rejection of the Sabbath as a ceremonial yoke no longer binding on Christians. The Voetian-Cocceian controversy racked the Dutch Reformed Church until long after the death of both divines, splitting theo­logical faculties into factions. Eventually both factions compromised, agreeing in many cities to rotate their pastors between Voetians and Cocceians.

Witsius’s concern about this controversy moved him to publish De Oeconomia Foederum Dei cum Hominibus (1677), first printed in English in 1736 as The Oeconomy of the Covenants between God and Man, comprehending a Complete Body of Divinity. It was reprinted numerous times, most recently in two volumes by the den Dulk Christian Foundation in 1990. In governing his systematic theology by the concept of covenant, Witsius uses Cocceian methods while maintaining essentially Voetian theology.

In his work on the covenants, Witsius argued against Roman Catholicism, Arminianism, Socinianism, and those Dutch Protestant theologians, who, with Hugo Grotius, had exchanged a sola scriptura theology for an institutionalized, sacramental view of the church based on traditions that paved the way back to Rome. Witsius opposed Grotians “who spoke of a ‘law’ which was not the law of Moses, a ‘satisfaction’ which was not through punishment and a ‘substitution’ which was not of necessity and not vicarious.”

Witsius next went to Utrecht, where he labored for eighteen years as professor and pastor. Students from all over the Protestant world attended his lectures; magistrates attended his sermons. On two occasions, his colleagues honored him with the headship of the university (1686, 1697).

In 1685, the Dutch Parliament appointed Witsius as a delegate to represent the Dutch government at the coronation of James II and to serve as chaplain to the Netherlands Embassy in London. While there he met the archbishop of Canterbury as well as several leading theologians. He studied Puritan theology and enhanced his stature in England as a peacemaker. Later, the English church called on him to serve as a mediating figure between antinomians and neonomians — the former accusing the latter of overemphasizing the law, the latter accusing the former of minimizing the law. Out of this came his Conciliatory Animadversions, a treatise on the antinomian controversy in England. In this treatise, Witsius argued that God’s starting point in His eternal decrees did not demean His activity in time. He also helped facilitate the translation into Dutch of some of the works of Thomas Goodwin, William Cave, and Thomas Gataker and wrote prefaces for them.

Witsius’s years at Utrecht were not free from strife. He felt obliged to oppose the theology of Professor Herman A. Roell, who advocated a unique mixture of the biblical theology of Johannes Cocceius and the rationalistic philosophy of René Descartes. Witsius felt that this combination threatened the authority of Scripture. Witsius taught the superiority of faith over rea­son to protect the purity of Scripture. Reason lost its purity in the fall, he said. Though reason is a critical faculty, it remains imperfect, even in the regenerate. It is not an autonomous judge, but a servant of faith.

Clearly Witsius’s understanding of who God is affected his understanding of how we know what we know and that Scripture is the final standard of truth rather than our reason. His knowledge of God through the Scriptures shaped all his thinking. How evident this is in his defense of the penal substitution of Christ against the rationalist Socinus.

Subsequently, Witsius opposed rationalism in the teachings of Balthasar Bekker as well as the popular, separatistic ideas of Jean de Labadie. He admitted that the Reformed churches were seriously flawed, but he strongly opposed separating from the church.

At Utrecht, Witsius published three volumes of Exercitationes Sacrae (Sacred Exercises), two on the Apostles’ Creed (1681) and one on the Lord’s Prayer (1689). Second in importance only to his Economy of the Covenants, these books stress the truths of the gospel in a pure, clear manner. The three works birthed in a seminary setting are known as Witsius’s trilogy.

In the midst of his busy years at Utrecht (1684), Witsius’s wife died. His daughter Petronella, who never married, remained with her father, faithfully caring for him through twenty-four years as a wid­ower.

When he was 62 years old, Witsius accepted a call to serve at the university at Leiden as professor. His inaugural address was on “the modest theologian.” At Leiden he trained men from Europe, Great Britain, and America, including several native Americans who had been converted through the work of John Eliot (1604-90).

Within a year (1699), Holland and West Friesland appointed Witsius inspector of the University’s theo­logical college. It was a position he held until he retired in 1707 because of ill health. In his last six years he suffered painful bouts of gout, dizziness, and memory lapses. After a serious attack in October 1708, he told friends that his homecoming was near. Four days later, he died at the age of 72, after nearly fifty-two years of ministry. During his last hour, he told his close friend, Johannes à Marck, that he was persevering in the faith that he had long enjoyed in Christ.

All his life Witsius was a humble biblical and systematic theologian, dependent on the Scriptures. He was also a faithful preacher. For him, Christ — in the university, on the pulpit, and in daily living — took preeminence. “Free and sovereign grace, reigning through the person and righteousness of the great Immanuel, he cordially regarded at once as the source of all our hope, and the grand incitement to a holy practice,” Fraser wrote of Witsius.

Despite all his learning, Witsius remained concerned about the soundness and piety of the church. All his writing and learning was employed to promote the church’s well-being. After his death, his writings were collected in six volumes. Next month, God will­ing, we will briefly look at Witsius’s most influential books.

Twist des Heeren (The Lord’s Controversy)←⤒🔗

In Twist des Heeren (1669), Witsius calls for “a holy ref­ormation.” Basing his work on Isaiah 5:4, Witsius equates the Netherlands with a second Canaan. Just as God cared for Israel as a vinedresser by providing numerous means of grace, but Israel responded with the wild grapes (Dutch: stinkende druiven, “stinking grapes”) of sinful indulgence rather than the good grapes of gratitude, so God still expends much care upon His people and His church in the Netherlands despite people’s sinful response.

God had led 100,000 Reformed Dutch forebears out of bondage to the tyranny of the papacy and the fury of the Spaniards and planted them as a noble vine. The axe of the Inquisition could not destroy that vine, for God Himself protected the Dutch churches. He granted them peace, edified and multiplied them, and enabled them to walk in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Ghost. The Synod of Dort dethroned heresy and enthroned truth. Preachers “eloquent and mighty in the Scriptures” as Apollos (Acts 18:23-24) were given to the churches, though they were now rare in the land, Witsius said.

Shouldn’t God expect good grapes from the Dutch churches? If not, where could vital, spiritual godliness be found? Only a few clusters of the grapes of Canaan could be seen. Witsius, like Willem Teellinck before him, complained that “the first love” of the Reforma­tion had largely dissipated due to the lack of Spirit-empowered preaching, lack of godliness, and lack of church discipline. Instead, novel, dangerous opinions were beginning to grow on God’s vine, Witsius said. Those opinions included facets of Descartes’ philoso­phy that promoted reason as the interpreter of Scripture, Cocceius’s view of the Lord’s Day, which viewed the fourth commandment as ceremonial for the Israelites rather than moral for all ages, and a host of other erroneous innovations.

Another Reformation was needed, Witsius said. The sixteenth-century Reformation did not go far enough because of the disobedience, worldliness, and hardheartedness of the people. “What a blot it is on the Reformation that we Reformed remain so deformed in our lives,” Witsius wrote. Through natural disasters, wars, and quarrels — even among ministers — God was declaring that a new Reformation must begin.

A second Reformation called for the renewal of genuine piety and the abandoning of unrighteousness. Promoting a kind of theocratic idealism, Witsius said that rulers should lead their subjects by renewing their covenant with the Lord. Ministers in particular should live a God-fearing life. They could not reform people until they had reformed themselves, their consciences, conduct, company, and homes. Everyone must examine themselves, repent of sin, and return to the Lord, using God’s Word as their guide for life. Witsius wrote, “I plead with you, readers, to turn yourselves sincerely to the Lord ... Begin that holy reformation of your unholy life, which has long been urged upon you, but which, until now, you have obstinately postponed. Begin that reformation now, this very hour. Today, if you hear the Lord’s voice, harden not your heart.”

Personal reformation begins with an experiential knowledge of sin, self, and God, Witsius explained. The spiritually-minded will find rest only in Jesus Christ. The truly pious love God more than themselves, His honor more than their own salvation. They yearn to please God and surrender themselves to God. They see their own sinfulness, and, in light of divine holiness, come to view themselves as less than nothing. They seek to hide themselves behind Christ so that God may view them only through Christ. They want grace to live only for God so they can say with Paul, “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2:20).

Such people radiate Christ. The mind in them was also in Christ Jesus (Phil. 2:5). A renewed believer conducts himself like a “little Christ” on earth, Witsius said. He sees Christ in others and loves others in Christ. His life radiates the holiness and glory of God.

Few people in the Netherlands believe such experien­tial truth, Witsius laments. Christianity is far below the norm. Few die to their own righteousness, live to the glory of Christ, and show sincere love to the brethren.

Witsius taught that only a renewed Reformation could keep the faltering state and church from destroying themselves. Only when purity of doctrine was accompanied by purity of life could the state and church expect God’s blessing. Then God would approve the good grapes, and not complain of the wild grapes the Netherlands brought forth.

Economy of the Covenants←⤒🔗

Witsius wrote his major work on the covenants to promote peace among Dutch theologians who were divided on covenant theology. Witsius sought to be a theologian of synthesis, who strove to lessen tension between the Voetians and the Cocceians. He wrote in his introduction that “the enemies of our church ... se­cretly rejoice that there are as many and as warm dis­putes amongst ourselves, as with them. And this, not very secretly neither: for they do not, nor will ever cease to cast this reproach upon us; which, I grieve to say is not so easily wiped away. O! how much better would it be to use our utmost endeavours, to lessen, make up, and, if it could be, put an end to all controversy!”

Economy of the Covenants is not a complete systematic theology, though its title claims that it comprehends “a complete body of divinity.” Several major doctrines not addressed here, such as Trinity, creation, and providence, were dealt with later in Witsius’s exposition of the Apostles’ Creed.

For Witsius, the doctrine of the covenants is the best way of reading Scripture. Witsius’s work is divided into four books:

• Book I: The Covenant of Works (120 pages)
• Book II: The Covenant of Redemption, or The Covenant of Grace from Eternity Between the Father and the Son (118 pages)
• Book III: The Covenant of Grace in Time (295 pages)
• Book IV: Covenant Ordinances Throughout the Scrip­tures (356 pages)

Throughout his exposition of covenant theology, Witsius corrected inadequacies of the Cocceians and infused Voetian content. He treated each topic analytically, drawing from other Reformed and Puritan systematicians to move the reader to clarity of mind, warmth of heart, and godliness of life.

In Book I, Witsius discusses divine covenants in gen­eral, focusing on etymological and exegetical considerations related to them. He notes promise, oath, pledge, and command as well as a mutual pact that combines promise and law. He concludes that covenant, in its proper sense, “signifies a mutual agreement between parties with respect to something.” Then he defined covenant as “an agreement between God and man, about the method of obtaining ultimate blessedness, with the addition of a threat of eternal destruction, against anyone contemptuous of this blessedness.” The essence of the covenant, then, is the relationship of love between God and man.

Covenants between God and man are essentially monopleuric (one-sided) covenants in the sense that they can only be initiated by God and are grounded in “the utmost majesty of the most high God.” Though initiated by God, these covenants call for human consent to the covenant, to exercise the responsibility of obedience within it and to acquiesce in punishment in case of violation. In the covenant of works, that re­sponsibility is partly gracious and partly meritorious, whereas in the covenant of grace, it is wholly gracious in response to God’s election and Christ’s fulfillment of all conditions of the covenant.

Nevertheless, all covenants between God and man are dipleuric (two-sided) in administration. Both aspects are important. Without the monopleuric emphasis on God’s part, covenant initiation and fulfillment would not be by grace alone; without the dipleuric emphasis of divine initiation and human responsibility, man would be passive in covenant administration. The attempt made by contemporary scholars to force seventeenth-century federal theologians into either a monopleuric or dipleuric concept of the covenant misses the mark, both with Witsius as well as his popular, younger contemporary Wilhelmus à Brakel (1635-1711), whose De Redelijke Godsdienst (The Christian’s Reasonable Service) was first printed in Dutch in 1700.

According to Witsius, the covenant of works consists of the contracting parties (God and Adam), the law or condition (perfect obedience), the promises (eternal life in heaven for unqualified veneration to divine law), the penal sanction (death), and the sacraments (Paradise, the tree of life, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the Sabbath). Throughout, Witsius stressed the relationship of the covenant of parties in terms of the Reformed concept of covenant. Denying the covenant of works causes serious Christological and soteriological errors, he said.

For example, the violation of the covenant of works by Adam and Eve rendered the promises of the covenant inaccessible to their descendants. Those promises were abrogated by God, who cannot lower His standard of law by recasting the covenant of works to account for fallen man’s unrighteousness. Divine abrogation, however, does not annul the demand of God for perfect obedience. Rather, because of the stability of God’s promise and His law, the covenant of grace is made effective in Christ, the perfect Law-fulfiller. In fulfilling all the conditions of the covenant of grace, Christ fulfilled all the conditions of the covenant of works. Thus “the covenant of grace is not the abolition, but rather the confirmation of the covenant of works, inasmuch as the Mediator has fulfilled all the conditions of that covenant, so that all believers may be justified and saved according to the covenant of works, to which satisfaction was made by the Mediator,” Witsius wrote.

In his second book Witsius outlined the relationship of the covenant of works to the covenant of grace. He discussed the covenant of grace from eternity, or, the covenant of redemption, in which the Father, from eternity, solicited from the Son acts of obedience for the elect, while pledging ownership of the elect to the Son. This “agreement between God and the Mediator” makes possible the covenant of grace between God and His elect. The covenant of grace in time “presupposes” the covenant of grace from eternity and “is founded upon it,” Witsius said.

The covenant of redemption established God’s remedy for the problem of sin. The covenant of redemption is the answer for the covenant of works abrogated by sin. The Son binds Himself to work out that answer by fulfilling the promises and conditions, and bearing the penalties of the covenant on behalf of the elect. Ratified by the covenant of redemption, “conditions are offered to which eternal salvation is annexed; conditions not to be performed again by us, which might throw the mind into despondency; but by Him, who would not part with His life, before He had truly said, ‘It is fin­ished,’” Witsius explained.

This covenant of grace worked out in time (Book 3) is the core of Witsius’s work, and covers the entire field of soteriology. By treating the order of salvation within the framework of the covenant of grace, Witsius asserted that former presentations of covenant doctrine were superior to newer ones. He showed how covenant theology binds theologians together rather than driving them apart.

Election is the backdrop of the covenant. Election, as the decree or counsel of God, is God’s unilateral, unchangeable resolve that does not depend on human conditions. Here the covenant of grace parts ways with the covenant of works. In the covenant of works, God promised man life on the condition of complete obedience without promising that He would work that obedi­ence in man. In the covenant of grace, God promised to give everything to the elect — eternal life and the means to it: faith, repentance, sanctification, and perseverance. Every condition of salvation is included in God’s promises to His elect. Faith is not, properly speaking, a condition, but the way and means through which believers receive the promises of eternal life.

Effectual calling is the first fruit of election, which in turn works regeneration. Regeneration is the infusion of new life in the spiritually dead person. Thus the incorruptible seed of the Word is made fruitful by the Spirit’s power. Witsius argued that so-called “preparations” to regeneration, such as breaking of the will, serious consideration of the law and conviction of sin, fear of hell, and despairing of salvation, are fruits of regeneration rather than preparations when the Spirit uses them to lead sinners to Christ.

The first act of this new life is faith. Faith, in turn, produces various acts: (1) knowing Christ, (2) assenting to the gospel, (3) loving the truth, (4) hungering and thirsting after Christ, (5) receiving Christ for salvation, (6) reclining upon Christ, (7) receiving Christ as Lord, and (8) appropriating the promises of the gospel. The first three acts Witsius called preceding acts; the next three, essential acts; the last two, following acts.

In the last two acts, the believer promises to live in the obedience of faith and obtains assurance through the reflective act of faith which reasons syllogistically like this: “(Major premise:) Christ offers himself as a full and complete Saviour to all who are weary, hungry, thirsty, to all who receive him, and are ready to give themselves up to him. (Minor premise:) But I am weary, hungry, etc. (Conclusion:) Therefore Christ has offered himself to me, is now become mine, and I his, nor shall anything ever separate me from his love.”

Witsius referred to this conclu­sion of faith, later called the practical or mystical syllogism, whenever he discussed assurance of faith. In this, he followed Puritan and Dutch Second Reformation thinking. Aware of the dangers of relying upon personal sanctification for assurance — particularly the objections of the antinomians that syllogisms can provide no sure comfort and may lead to “free-will” thinking — Witsius took pains to keep the syllogism within the confines of the doctrines of grace. Like the Puritans, he taught that the syllogism is bound to the Scriptures, flows out of Jesus Christ, and is ratified by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit witnesses to the believer’s spirit, not only by direct testimony from the Word, but also by stirring up the believer to observe scriptural marks of grace in his own soul and life. Those marks of grace lead to Jesus Christ. The syllogism is always scriptural, christological, and pneumatological.

For Witsius, assurance by syllogism is more common than assurance by the direct testimony of the Spirit. Consequently, careful self-examination as to whether one is in the faith and Christ in him is critical (2 Cor. 13:5). If justification issues in sanctification, the believer ought to reason syllo­gistically from sanctification back to justification — i.e., from the effect to the cause. That is what the apostle John does in his First Epistle (2:2, 3, 5; 3:14, 19; 5:2).

Witsius is solidly Reformed on justification by faith alone. He speaks of the elect being justified not only in Christ’s death and resurrection, but already in the giving of the first gospel promise in Gen­esis 3:15. Applications of justification to the individual believer occur at his regeneration, in the court of his conscience, in daily communion with God, after death, and on the Judgment Day.

Witsius went on to discuss the immediate results of justification: spiritual peace and the adoption of sonship. These chapters excel in showing the friendship and intimacy between the believer and the Triune God. They place a large measure of responsibility on the believer to be active in preserving spiritual peace and the consciousness of his gracious adoption.

Typical of Puritan and Dutch Second Reformation divines, Witsius devoted the longest chapter in his doctrine of salvation to sancti­fication. Sanctification is the work of God by which the justified sinner is increasingly “transformed from the turpitude of sin, to the purity of the divine image.” Mortification and vivification show the extensiveness of sanctification. Grace, faith, and love are motives for growing in holiness. The goals and means of sanctification are explained in detail. Nevertheless, because believers do not attain perfection in this life, Witsius concluded by examining the doctrine of Perfectionism. God does not grant perfection to us in this life for four reasons: to display the difference between earth and heaven, warfare and triumph, toil and rest; to teach us patience, humility, and sympathy; to teach us that salva­tion is by grace alone; and to demonstrate the wisdom of God in gradually perfecting us.

After explaining the doctrine of perseverance, Witsius ended his third book with a detailed account of glorification. Glorification be­gins in this life with the first fruits of grace: holiness, the vision of God apprehended by faith and an experimental sense of God’s goodness, the gracious enjoyment of God, full assurance of faith, and joy unspeakable. It is consummated in the life to come.

The focus of glorification is the enjoyment of God, Witsius said. For example, the joy in the inter­mediate state is the joy of being with God and Christ, the joy of loving God, and the joy of dwelling in glory.

Book 4 presents covenant theol­ogy from the perspective of biblical theology. Witsius offered some aspects of what would later be called progressive redemption, emphasizing the faith of Abraham, the nature of the Mosaic covenant, the role of the law, the sacraments of the Old Testament, and the blessings and defects of the Old Testament. Some of his most fascinating sections deal with the Decalogue as a national covenant with Israel rather than as a formal covenant of works or cov­enant of grace; his defense of the Old Testament against false charges; and his explanation of the ceremonial law’s abrogation and the relationship between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. He then explained the relationship between the testaments and the sacraments of the New Testament era. He strongly supported the restoration of Israel according to Romans 11:25-27. He set Christian liberty in the context of freedom from the tyranny of the devil, the reigning and condemning power of sin, the rigor of the law, the laws of men, things indifferent, and death itself. By including things indifferent, he dispelled the charge that the precisianism of the Puritans and Dutch Second Reformation divines allowed no room for the adiaphora.

In summary, Witsius was one of the first theologians among Dutch Second Reformation divines who drew close ties between the doctrines of election and covenant. He aimed for reconciliation between orthodoxy and federalism, while stressing biblical theology as a proper study in itself.

Witsius’s work on covenant theology became a standard work in the Netherlands, Scotland, England, and New England. Throughout this work, he stressed that the motto “the Reformed church needs to be ever reforming” (ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda) should be applied to the church’s life and not to doctrine since Reformation doctrine was foundational truth. His stress was on experiencing the reality of the covenant with God by faith and on the need for godly, precise living — often called “precisianism,” somewhat pejoratively, by many historians. Few realize, however, that precisianism avoids the medieval ideal of perfection and the pharisaical ideal of legalism. Witsius’s emphasis on precise living is characterized by the following:

• Precisianism emphasizes what God’s law emphasizes; the law serves as its standard of holiness.
• Precisianism is accompanied by spiritual liberty, rooted in the love of Christ.
• Precisianism treats others mildly but is strict toward one’s self.
• Precisianism focuses primarily on heart motivations and only secondarily on outward actions.
• Precisianism humbles the godly, even as they increase in holiness.
• Precisianism’s goal is God’s glory.
• For Witsius, precisianism was essentially the practice of experi­ential piety, for its core was hid­den, heartfelt communion with the faithful covenant-keeping God. In Witsius, we have theology that is pious in itself rather than theol­ogy to which piety is added.

Witsius emphasized Scripture, faith, experience, and the saving work of the Holy Spirit. Scripture was the norm for all belief. The true believer is a humble student of Scripture, reads Scripture through the glasses of faith, and subjects all his experiences to the touchstone of Scripture for confirmation. True experience flows from the “starlight” of Scripture and the “sunlight” of the Holy Spirit, both of which illumine the soul. These two are inseparable from each other and are both received by faith. Students of Scripture are also students of the Holy Spirit. They experience in the Spirit’s heavenly academy the forgiveness of sin, adoption as sons, intimate communion with God, love of God poured into the soul, hidden manna, the kisses of Jesus’ mouth, and the assurance of blessedness in Christ. The Spirit leads His pupils to feast with God and to know in His banqueting house that His banner over them is love.

The Apostles’ Creed and the Lord’s Prayer←⤒🔗

More than a century after Witsius’s death, two of his most significant works were translated into English: Sacred Dissertations on what is commonly called The Apostles’ Creed, translated by Donald Fraser, 2 vols. (Glasgow, 1823), and Sacred Dissertations on the Lord’s Prayer, translated by Rev. William Pringle (Edinburgh, 1839). Both of these works are judicious, practical, pointed, and edifying. They are meat for the soul.

Witsius’s two-volume work on the Apostles’ Creed, originally published in Latin at Franeker in 1681, grew out of lectures he gave to his students at the University of Franeker on what he called “the principal articles of our religion.” These lectures affirmed Witsius’s maxim: “He alone is a true theologian who adds the practical to the theoretical part of religion.” Like all of Witsius’s writings, these volumes combine profound intellect with spiritual passion.

Witsius’s exposition begins with studies that discuss the title, authorship, and authority of the creed; the role of fundamental articles; and the nature of saving faith. The creed’s authority is great but not supreme, Witsius said. It contains fundamental articles that are limited to those truths “without which neither faith nor repentance can exist” and “to the rejection of which God has annexed a threatening of destructions.” It is scarcely possible to determine the number of fundamental articles. Some are not contained in the creed but are taken up in lengthier doctrinal standards.

Witsius again addressed the acts of saving faith, affirming that the “principal act” of faith is the “receiving of Christ for justification, sanctification, and complete salvation.” He stressed that faith receives “a whole Christ,” and that “he cannot be a Saviour, unless he be also a Lord.” He reasserted the validity of obtaining assurance of faith by syllogistic conclusions and dis­tinguished temporary faith from saving faith. Because temporary faith can remain until the end of a person’s life, Witsius preferred to call it presumptuous faith. These kinds of faith differ in their knowledge of the truth, their application of the gospel, their joy, and their fruits.

The remainder of the work follows a phrase-by-phrase 800-page exposition of the creed, accompanied by more than 200 pages of notes added by the translator. Throughout, Witsius excels in exegesis, remains faithful to Reformed dogmatics without becoming overly scholastic, applies every article of the creed to the believer’s soul, and, when occasion warrants, exposes various heresies. His closing chapter on life everlasting is perhaps the most sublime. His concluding applications summarize his approach:

• From this sublime doctrine, let us learn the divine origin of the gospel
• Let us carefully inquire whether we ourselves have a solid hope of this glorious felicity
• Let us labor diligently, lest we come short of it
• Let us comfort ourselves with the hope of it amidst all our adversities
• Let us walk worthy of it by leading a heavenly life in this world.

Like Witsius’s work on the Apostles’ Creed, Sacred Dissertations on the Lord’s Prayer was based on lectures delivered to his theological students. As such, it is a bit heavy with Hebrew and Greek words; however, Pringle’s translation includes a rendering of most words of the original languages into English.

The Lord’s Prayer contains more than its title reveals. In his preface to a 230-page exposition of the Lord’s Prayer, Witsius devoted 150 pages to the subject of prayer: “First, to explain what is prayer; next, in what our obligation to it consists; and lastly, in what manner it ought to be performed.” Most of this material is practical and insightful. For example, Witsius’s dissertation “On the Preparation of the Mind for Right Prayer” contains valuable guidance on a subject seldom addressed today.

Throughout this introduction, Witsius established that genuine prayer is the pulse of the renewed soul. The constancy of its beat is the test of spiritual life. For Witsius, prayer is rightly deemed, in the words of John Bunyan, “a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge for Satan.”

Witsius stressed the two-part channel of prayer: those who would have God hear them when they pray, must hear Him when He speaks. Prayer and work must both be engaged in. To pray without working is to mock God; to work without praying is to rob Him of His glory.

Witsius’s exposition of the individual petitions of the Lord’s Prayer is a masterpiece. In many instances, the questions receive greater instruction from Witsius’s pen than anyone else to date. For example, where else can such insight be found on whether the infant believer and the unregenerate should use the name Father in addressing God?

Gifts and Influence←⤒🔗

Witsius had many gifts. As an exegete, he exhibited scriptural simplicity and precision, though at times he leaned toward questionable typological and mystical interpretations. As a historian, he measured movements against the ideal, apostolic church, bringing his­tory and theology from numerous sources to bear upon his reasoning. As a theologian, he grounded spir­itual life in regeneration and covenantally applied the entire ordo salutis to practical, experiential living. As an ethicist, he set forth Christ as the perfect example in probing the heart and guiding the believer in his walk of life. As a polemicist, he opposed Cartesianism, Labadism, antinomianism, neonomianism, and the excesses of Cocceianism. As a homiletician, he, like William Perkins, stressed the marks of grace to encour­age believers and convict nominal Christians.

Throughout his life as pastor and professor, Witsius mediated disputes. Formally a Cocceian and materially a Voetian, he managed to remain friends with both sides. His motto was: “In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, prudence and charity.” He was noted for meekness and patience and stressed that, despite the church’s condition, a believer had no right to separate from the church. One biographer wrote of Witsius: “With him it was a fundamental maxim, that Christ ‘in all things must have the preeminence’; and free and sovereign grace, reigning through the person and righteousness of the great Immanuel, he cordially regarded as at once the source of all our hope, and the grand incitement to a holy practice.”

Witsius influenced many theologians in his lifetime: Campegius Vitringa and Bernardus Smytegelt in the Netherlands; Friedrich Lampe in Germany; Thomas Boston and the Erskine brothers (Ralph and Ebenezer) in Scotland. James Hervey commended him as “a most excellent author, all of whose works have such a delicacy of composition, and such a sweet savour of holiness, (like) the golden pot which had manna, and was outwardly bright with burnished gold, inwardly rich with heavenly food.” John Gill described Witsius as “a writer not only eminent for his great talents and par­ticularly solid judgment, rich imagination, and ele­gance of composition, but for a deep, powerful, and evangelical spirituality, and savour of godliness.”

In the nineteenth century, the Free Church of Scot­land translated, published, and distributed 1,000 copies of Witsius’s On the character of a true theologian free of charge to its divinity students. William Cunningham said in a prefatory note to that work, “He (Witsius) has long been regarded by all competent judges as presenting a very fine and remarkable combination of the highest qualities that constitute a ‘true’ and consummate theologian — talent, sound judgment, learning, orthodoxy, piety and unction.”

Witsius’s influence continues today. “Learned, wise, mighty in the Scriptures, practical and ‘experimental,’” J. I. Packer wrote in 1990, “(Witsius) was a man whose work stands comparison for substance and thrust with that of his British contemporary John Owen, and this writer, for one, knows no praise higher than that!” We trust that the influence of Witsius’s writings, facilitated by our analysis, will have a God-glorifying influence upon each of us who “take up and read.”

Using Our Guide←⤒🔗

Our analysis of Economy of the Covenants can be used as:

• A “Cliff’s notes” study guide. A quick read of our outlined analysis will substantially ease the reading of Witsius.
• A group study guide. Bible study groups often evolve into theology study groups. Assisted by this outline, Witsius’s Economy of the Covenants would make a great study for budding theologians.
• A quick reference guide. A.A. Hodge’s Outlines are most helpful for this, but this analysis should be even quicker. For example, it is a handy tool for looking up Witsius’s arguments for limited atonement or his discussion on the contrast between the old and new covenants.

Witsius’s trilogy is the cream of Reformed theology. Sound biblical exegesis and practical doctrinal substance abound. May God bless their reprints, together with this guide on Witsius’s magnum opus, in the lives of many, so that Reformed covenant theology, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer acquire a new depth of meaning. Oh, to be more centered upon our covenant LORD Himself — confessing His truth, hallowing His name, longing for the coming of His kingdom, doing His will!