Sacred Dissertations on the Apostles' Creed, 2 Vols.

by Herman Witsius

Excerpt from Sacred Dissertations, on What Is Commonly Called the Apostles' Creed, Vol. 1 of 2

Diligent self-investigation ensues Marks, by which one may know that God has become his own Gd Ito - XII.

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This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Genres: Theology

1132 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1993

About the author

Hermann Witsius (Herman Wits or in Latin Hermannus Witsius) was a Dutch theologian.

Life

He was born at Enkhuizen. He studied at the University of Groningen, Leiden, and Utrecht. He was ordained in the ministry, becoming the pastor of Westwoud in 1656 and afterwards at Wormer, Goes, and Leeuwarden. He became professor of divinity successively at the University of Franeker in 1675 and at the University of Utrecht in 1680. In 1698 he was appointed to the University of Leiden as the successor of the younger Friedrich Spanheim. He died in Leiden.

Views

While in his theology Witsius aimed at a reconciliation between the reigning orthodoxy and Covenant Theology (also known as federalism), he was first of all a Biblical theologian, his principal field being systematic theology. His chief work is entitled The Economy of the Covenants between God and Man (originally published in Latin: De oeconomia foderum Dei cum hominibus, Leeuwarden, 1677). He was induced to publish this work by his grief at the controversies between Voetians and Cocceians. Although himself a member of the federalistic school, he was in no way blind to the value of the scholastically established dogmatic system of the Church. In the end, he did not succeed in pleasing either party.

Reviews

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I know it will throw off the end-of-year stats, I'm going to count each of the two volumes as its own book. Come on, Reformation Heritage Books... is there a shortage of ISBNs or what?
Volume 1 is 500 pages, and volume 2 is 634 and the second volume also starts pagination over again at 1 rather than continuing from page 500. That makes it a different book for my purposes.

Also... I enjoyed the book(s).

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

my first real foray into a reformed scholastic, especially one from the the High Orthodox years. really good. really long (1000+ pages!). but incredibly easy to read and follow. also wonderfully devotional, not just rationalist and cold but very concerned with the heart and love for God.

covenantal, protestant, grounded in the classical tradition, Reformed catholic (small 'c'), very exegetical.

i definitely agree with Sinclair Ferguson: “Witsius on the Apostles’ Creed is a great treasure". And the many other "big names" that have been strongly influenced by him: Jonathan Edwards, John Owen, Cornelius Van Til, BB Warfield, Herman Bavink.

[Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my primary resource as I taught a Sunday School class on the creed, and I benefitted tremendously from it. I find Witsius to be perfectly readable, and always easy to follow. He draws subjects together in such a way that almost (almost) a full theology can be drawn from the creed. His expositions drip with Scripture and consistently aim toward theology's practical ends.

That's not to say he's not a bit eccentric at times. It's sometimes funny to note what he spends his time discussing (e.g., whether extraterrestrials may or may not exist) versus what he glosses over quickly. His historical moment is evident in the matters that occupy his time, and in the matters that don't (e.g., very little interaction with chiliasm). So his work does need to be suplemented by other sources.

I did occasionally demur from his views (e.g., counting love for Christ as one of the principle acts of faith), or from his interpretation of certain passages, but it's typically difficult to avoid the force of his arguments. Even when I disagree, Witsius is a man worth reading.

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Quick asides: I was glad to find this facsimile has a larger font than Economy of the Covenants, and that the Hebrew words aren't consistently misspelled like they were in that other volume.

I also enjoy the feeling of skipping all the editor's endnotes at once.

[Bradley Somers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t read every page of this great book. I did read the majority sections for each of the lines of the creed. I have read several commentary works by Witsius- he doesn’t disappoint to strengthen argument with Biblical text. He doesn’t always express the key truths in a way you might expect a scholar to. His thinking and writing remain very helpful to the modern day preacher who is studying and preaching God’s Word and the Creeds related to that Word. High recommend if you are reading, writing or teaching the Apostles’ Creed.

[Alex]

Only read:

- Dissertation XXII: "On Christ's coming again to Judgment"

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Witsius is always sound and straightforward.

[Michael Bowman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This year Witsius became one of my favorite theologians.