John William Baier's
                       _Compendium of Positive Theology_
                          Edited by C. F. W. Walther
                                 Published by:
                  St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1877 


         [Translator's Preface. These are the major loci or topics of        
         John William Baier's _Compendium of Positive Theology_ as ed-
         ited by Dr. C. F. W. Walther. These should be seen as the
         broad outline of Baier-Walther's dogmatics, but please don't
         assume that this is all. Each locus usually includes copious
         explanatory notes and citations from patristics and other
         Lutheran dogmaticians.]


       Part One, Chapter Seven

       On death or eternal damnation.

       1. Damnation is opposed to blessedness partly privately, in so far
       as it leads to the lack of all good, which is included in the
       happiness of the blessedness, partly contrarily in so far as it is
       not said to be a bare absence of blessedness, but it contains
       positive troubles and tortures and the most sharp sense of the bad.

       2. Especially the damned will be without; on the part of the
       intellect, the beatific vision of God, nor will they be given the
       light of glory, by being joined with the divine blessedness.

       3. And thus it is also easily apparent that the love of God, as
       clearly the knowledge of the highest good, and the joy resulting
       from that knowledge, will be absent from the damned.

       4. Also the gifts to the bodies of the blessed, through which they
       are glorified, in this same way, they will be denied to the damned.

       5. Among the positive penalties first happens that knowledge of the
       intellect, through which the damned abstractively are removed from
       God also from punishment, partly as God is of the highest majesty,
       but they are removed from him because of a most grievous offense,
       partly as a just judgement, but this itself is a most bitter
       punishment of their sins, partly that they know God as a most kind
       father, though not to themselves but to others who believe and are
       made blessed.

       6. Similarly they themselves thus will be contemplated, as the
       multitude and gravity of their sins, also of the penalty of those
       sins, by which they are weakened, in the spirit they will recount
       the merits, bitterness and duration of those sins.

       7. Other humans, who are blessed, they will see, as partners of his
       happiness, by which they were destined to him, and having no part
       in the calamities, by which they themselves are pressed.

       8. And thus on the part of the will hatred of God arises, certainly
       hostile and implacable to him; the hatred of him, then, inasmuch as
       he was the cause to them of their misery; jealousy, resulting from
       the sight of that alien blessedness; sorrow and sadness and anxiety
       on account of the vast heap of the present evils and impatience and
       perpetual despair.

       9. However by this same thing the will  of the damned, clearly
       averted from God, will have been bound to evil, that, whatever they
       do, it displeases God, and by their own thoughts, words and deeds,
       unceasingly they sin.

       10. The bodies of the damned will be tortured by infernal and
       inextinguishable fire truly and properly speaking.

       11. But also it is not improbable that the organs of sense and
       sense itself will themselves come to torture by a peculiar
       punishment.  And indeed about touch, it is not possible to be
       doubtful about the present opinion about punishment by fire
       properly speaking.

       12. That there will be grades of infernal punishments is not
       possible to deny.  However, it is not equally easy to define those
       differences because of the diversity of subjects.

       13. The efficient cause of evil things, which the complex of
       damnation implies, is possible to be drawn neither in one, nor in
       the same way. For in so far as damnation implies the privation of
       the beatific vision and the love and joy born from that vision, the
       efficient cause of that privation properly speaking is not given.
       However of the positive acts of the intellect and will pertaining
       to this place the cause is the soul itself forsaken by God. About
       the evil bodies the cause of punishment is partly infernal fire,
       partly evil angels. However in so far as damnation is seen through
       the mode of punishment, it is possible to refer to the triune God
       and to Christ the God-man as a cause of punishment.

       14. The impulsive internal cause of the punishments of the damned
       on the part of God is the punishing justice of God.

       15. The impulsive external cause are the sins of the damned not
       atoned for, especially intentional sins, and greatest of all final
       unbelief.

       16. The subject Which of damnation are impious humans, finally
       unbelieving.

       17. The subject by Which of damnation is equally the soul and body
       of those impious humans.

       18. To be willing so seek or to define in this life the place of
       hell is uselessly inquisitive; however that there is a certain
       place destined for the damned, is not doubtful.

       19. That the penalty of all the damned will be eternal, perpetually
       present, is most certain.

       20. The goal of those damned on the part of God the judge is the
       glory of the avenging justice, truth, and divine power.

       21. The state of the damned is able to be described as a complex of
       many evils, which the triune God by the power of his avenging
       justice sends to impious humans and to the finally unbelieving, and
       on the part of soul and body, on account of sins and their unbelief
       it strikes them into hell, an eternal destroying, to the glory of
       the divine justice, truth, and power.




       _________________________________.__________________________________ 
                                       
       This text was translated by Rev. Theodore Mayes and is copyrighted         
       material, (c)1996, but is free for non-commercial use or distribu-
       tion, and especially for use on Project Wittenberg. Please direct 
       any comments or suggestions to: Rev. Robert E. Smith of the Walther
       Library at Concordia Theological Seminary.

                         E-mail: smithre@mail.ctsfw.edu

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