Scripture of calves, because they were made use of commonly in
sacrifices. The “fatted calf,” mentioned in several places, as in 1 Sam.
xxviii, 24, and Luke xv, 23, was stall fed, with special reference to a
particular festival or extraordinary sacrifice. The “calves of the
lips,” mentioned by Hosea, xiv, 2, signify the sacrifices of praise
which the captives of Babylon addressed to God, being no longer in a
condition to offer sacrifices in his temple. The Septuagint render it
the “fruit of the lips;” and their reading is followed by the Syriac,
and by the Apostle to the Hebrews, xiii, 15. The “golden calf” was an
idol set up and worshipped by the Israelites at the foot of mount Sinai
in their passage through the wilderness to the land of Canaan. Having
been conducted through the wilderness by a pillar of cloud and fire,
which preceded them in their marches, while Moses was receiving the
divine commands that cloud covered the mountain, and they probably
imagined that it would no longer be their guide; and, therefore, applied
to Aaron to make for them a sacred sign or symbol, as other nations had,
which might visibly represent God. With this request, preferred
tumultuously, and in a menacing manner, Aaron in a moment of weakness
complied. The image thus formed is supposed to have been like the
Egyptian deity, Apis, which was an ox, an animal used in agriculture,
and so a symbol of the god who presided over their fields, or of the
productive power of the Deity. The means by which Moses reduced the
golden calf to powder, so that when mixed with water he made the people
drink it, in contempt, has puzzled commentators. Some understand that he
did this by a chymical process, then well known, but now a secret;
others, that he beat it into gold leaf, and then separated this into
parts so fine, as to be easily potable; others, that he reduced it by
filing. The account says, that he took the calf, burned it to powder,
and mixed the powder with water; from which it is probable, as several
Jewish writers have thought, that the calf was not wholly made of gold,
but of wood, covered with a profusion of gold ornaments cast and
fashioned for the occasion. For this reason it obtained the epithet
golden, as afterward some ornaments of the temple were called, which we
know were only overlaid with gold. It would in that case be enough to
reduce the wood to powder in the fire, which would also blacken and
deface the golden ornaments; but there is no need to suppose they were
also reduced to powder. It is plain from Aaron’s proclaiming a fast to
Jehovah, Exod. xxxii, 4, and from the worship of Jeroboam’s calves being
so expressly distinguished from that of Baal, 2 Kings x, 28–31, that
both Aaron and Jeroboam meant the calves they formed and set up for
worship to be emblems of Jehovah. Nevertheless, the inspired Psalmist
speaks of Aaron’s calf with the utmost abhorrence, and declares that, by
worshipping it, they forgat God their Saviour, (see 1 Cor. x, 9,) who
had wrought so many miracles for them, and that for this crime God
threatened to destroy them, Psalm cvi, 19–24; Exod. xxxii, 10; and St.
Stephen calls it plainly εἴδωλον, _an idol_, Acts vii, 41. As for
Jeroboam, after he had, for political reasons, 1 Kings xii, 27, &c, made
a schism in the Jewish church, and set up two calves in Dan and Bethel,
as objects of worship, he is scarcely ever mentioned in Scripture but
with a particular stigma set upon him: “Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who
made Israel to sin.”
CALL, to name a person or thing, Acts xi, 26; Rom. vii, 3. 2. To cry to
another for help; and hence, to pray. The first passage in the Old
Testament in which we meet with this phrase, is Gen. iv, 26, where we
read, “Then began men to call on the name of the Lord,” or Jehovah; the
meaning of which seems to be, that they then first began to worship him
in public assemblies. In both the Old and New Testament, to call upon
the name of the Lord, imports invoking the true God in prayer, with a
confession that he is Jehovah, that is, with an acknowledgment of his
essential and incommunicable attributes. In this view the phrase is
applied to the worship of Christ.
CALLING, a term in theology, which is taken in a different sense by the
advocates and the impugners of the Calvinistic doctrine of grace. By the
former it is thus stated: In the golden chain of spiritual blessings
which the Apostle enumerates in Rom. viii, 30, originating in the divine
predestination, and terminating in the bestowment of eternal glory on
the heirs of salvation, that of calling forms an important link.
“Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he
called, them he also glorified.” Hence we read of “the called according
to his purpose,” Rom. viii, 28. There is indeed a universal call of the
Gospel to all men; for wherever it comes it is the voice of God to those
who hear it, calling them to repent and believe the divine testimony
unto the salvation of their souls; and it leaves them inexcusable in
rejecting it, John iii, 14–19; but this universal call is not
inseparably connected with salvation; for it is in reference to it that
Christ says, “Many are called, but few are chosen,” Matt. xxii, 14. But
the Scripture also speaks of a calling which is effectual, and which
consequently is more than the outward ministry of the word; yea, more
than some of its partial and temporary effects upon many who hear it,
for it is always ascribed to God’s making his word effectual through the
enlightening and sanctifying influences of his Holy Spirit. Thus it is
said, “Paul may plant, and Apollos water, but God giveth the increase,”
1 Cor. iii, 6, 7. Again, he is said to have “opened the heart of Lydia,
that she attended to the doctrine of Paul,” Acts xvi, 14. “No man can
come unto Christ, except the Father draw him,” John vi, 44. Hence faith
is said to be the gift of God, Eph. ii, 8; Phil. i, 29. The Spirit takes
of the things of Christ and shows them to men, John xvi, 14; and thus
opens their eyes, turning them from darkness to light, and from the
power of Satan unto God, Acts xxvi, 18. And so God saves his people, not
by works of righteousness which they have done, but according to his
mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,
Titus iii, 5. Thus they are saved, and called with a holy calling, not
according to their works, but according to the divine purpose and grace
which was given them in Christ Jesus before the world began, 2 Tim. i,
9.
2. To this it is replied, that this whole statement respecting a
believer’s calling is without any support from the Scriptures, and is
either a misunderstanding, or a misapplication of their sense. “To call”
signifies to invite to the blessings of the Gospel, to offer salvation
through Christ, either by God himself, or, under his appointment, by his
servants; and in the parable of the marriage of the king’s son, Matt.
xxii, 1–14, which appears to have given rise, in many instances, to the
use of this term in the Epistles, we have three descriptions of “called”
or invited persons. First, the disobedient, who would not come in at the
call, but made light of it. Second, the class of persons represented by
the man who, when the king came in to see his guests, had not on the
wedding garment; and with respect to whom our Lord makes the general
remark, “For many are called, but few are chosen;” so that the persons
thus represented by this individual culprit were not only “called,” but
actually came into the company. Third, the approved guests; those who
were both called and chosen. As far as the simple calling or invitation
is concerned, all these three classes stood upon equal ground--all were
invited; and it depended upon their choice and conduct whether they
embraced the invitation, and were admitted as guests. We have nothing
here to countenance the notion of what is termed “effectual calling.”
This implies an irresistible influence exerted upon all the approved
guests, but withheld from the disobedient, who could not, therefore, be
otherwise than disobedient; or at most could only come in without that
wedding garment, which it was never put into their power to take out of
the king’s wardrobe; and the want of which would necessarily exclude
them, if not from the church on earth, yet from the church in heaven.
The doctrine of Christ’s parables is in entire contradiction to this
notion of irresistible influence; for they who refused, and they who
complied but partially with the calling, are represented, not merely as
being left without the benefit of the feast, but as incurring additional
guilt and condemnation for refusing the invitation. It is to this offer
of salvation by the Gospel, this invitation to spiritual and eternal
benefits, that St. Peter appears to refer, when he says, “For the
PROMISE is unto you and to your children, and to all that are afar off,
even as many as the Lord our God shall CALL,” Acts ii, 39; a passage
which declares “the promise” to be as extensive as the “calling;” in
other words, as the offer or invitation. To this also St. Paul refers,
Rom. i, 5, 6: “By whom we have received grace and Apostleship, for
obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name;” that is, to
publish his Gospel, in order to bring all nations to the obedience of
faith; “among whom are ye also the CALLED of Jesus Christ;” you at Rome
have heard the Gospel, and have been invited to salvation in consequence
of this design. This promulgation of the Gospel, by the personal
ministry of the Apostle, under the name of _calling_, is also referred
to in Gal. i, 6: “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that
_called you_ into the grace of Christ,” obviously meaning, that it was
he himself who had called them, by his preaching, to embrace the grace
of Christ. So also in chap. v, 13: “For, brethren, ye have been _called_
unto liberty.” Again: 1 Thess. ii, 12: “That ye would walk worthy of
God, who hath CALLED you,” invited you, “to his kingdom and glory.”
3. In our Lord’s parable it will also be observed, that the persons
called are not invited as separate individuals to partake of solitary
blessings; but they are called to “a feast,” into a company or society,
before whom the banquet is spread. The full revelation of the transfer
of the visible church of Christ from Jews by birth, to believers of all
nations, was not, however, then made. When this branch of the evangelic
system was fully revealed to the Apostles, and taught by them to others,
that part of the meaning of our Lord’s parable which was not at first
developed was more particularly discovered to his inspired followers.
The calling of guests to the evangelical feast, we then more fully
learn, was not the mere calling of men to partake of spiritual benefits;
but calling them also to form a spiritual society composed of Jews and
Gentiles, the believing men of all nations; to have a common fellowship
in these blessings, and to be formed into this fellowship for the
purpose of increasing their number, and diffusing the benefits of
salvation among the people or nation to which they respectively
belonged. The invitation, “the calling,” of the first preachers was to
all who heard them in Rome, in Ephesus, in Corinth, and other places;
and those who embraced it, and joined themselves to the church by faith,
baptism, and continued public profession, were named, especially and
eminently, “the called,” because of their obedience to the invitation.
They not only put in their claim to the blessings of Christianity
individually, but became members of the new church, that spiritual
society of believers which God now visibly owned as his people. As they
were thus called into a common fellowship by the Gospel, this is
sometimes termed their “vocation;” as the object of this church state
was to promote “holiness,” it is termed a “holy vocation;” as sanctity
was required of the members, they are said to have been “called to be
saints;” as the final result was, through the mercy of God, to be
eternal life, we hear of “the hope of their calling,” and of their being
“called to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus.”
4. These views will abundantly explain the various passages in which the
term _calling_ occurs in the Epistles: “Even us whom he hath _called_,
not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles,” Rom. ix, 24; that is,
whom he hath made members of his church through faith. “But unto them
which are _called_, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and
the wisdom of God;” the wisdom and efficacy of the Gospel being, of
course, acknowledged in their very profession of Christ, in opposition
to those to whom the preaching of “Christ crucified” was “a stumbling
block,” and “foolishness,” 1 Cor. i, 24. “Is any man _called_,” (brought
to acknowledge Christ, and to become a member of his church,) “being
circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised. Is any _called_ in
uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised,” 1 Cor. vii, 18. “That ye
walk worthy of the _vocation_, wherewith ye are called. There is one
body, and one Spirit, even as ye are _called_ in one hope of your
calling,” Eph. iv, 1, 4. “That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath
_called_ you to his kingdom and glory,” 1 Thess. ii, 12. “Through
sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth, whereunto he
_called_ you by our Gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord
Jesus Christ,” 2 Thess. ii, 13, 14. “Who hath saved us and _called_ us
with a holy calling; not according to our works, but according to his
own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the
world began; but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour
Jesus Christ,” 2 Tim. i, 9, 10. On this passage we may remark, that the
“calling,” and the “purpose” mentioned in it, must of necessity be
interpreted to refer to the establishment of the church on the principle
of faith, so that it might include men of all nations; and not, as
formerly, be restricted to natural descent. For _personal election_, and
a purpose of _effectual personal calling_, could not have been hidden
till manifested by the “appearing of Christ;” since every instance of
true conversion to God in any age prior to the appearing of Christ,
would be as much a manifestation of eternal election, and an instance of
personal effectual calling, according to the Calvinistic scheme, as it
was after the appearance of Christ. The Apostle is speaking of a purpose
of God, which was kept _secret_ till revealed by the Christian system;
and, from various other parallel passages, we learn that this secret,
this “mystery,” as he often calls it, was the union of the Jews and
Gentiles in “one body,” or church, by faith.
5. In none of these passages is the doctrine of the exclusive calling of
a set number of men contained; and the synod of Dort, as though they
felt this, only attempt to _infer_ the doctrine from a text already
quoted; but which we will now more fully notice: “Whom he did
predestinate, them he also _called_; and whom he _called_, them he also
justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified,” Rom. viii,
30. This is the text on which the Calvinists chiefly rest their doctrine
of effectual calling; and tracing it, as they say, through its steps and
links, they conclude, that a set and determinate number of persons
having been predestinated unto salvation, this set number only are
_called effectually_, then justified, and finally glorified. But this
passage was evidently nothing to the purpose, unless it had spoken of a
set and determinate number of men as predestinated and called,
independent of any consideration of their faith and obedience; which
number as being determinate, would, by consequence exclude the rest. The
context declares that those who are foreknown, and predestinated to
eternal glory, are true believers, those who “love God,” as stated in a
subsequent verse; for of such only the Apostle speaks; and when he adds,
“Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he
called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also
glorified;” he shows in particular how the divine purpose to glorify
believers is carried into effect, through all its stages. The great
instrument of bringing men to “love God” is the Gospel; they are,
therefore, _called_, invited by it, to this state and benefit; the
calling being obeyed, they are _justified_; and being justified, and
continuing in that state of grace, they are _glorified_. Nothing,
however, is here said to favour the conclusion, that many others who
were _called_ by the Gospel, but refused, might not have been justified
and glorified as well as they; nothing to distinguish this calling into
common and effectual: and the very guilt which those are every where
represented as contracting who despised the Gospel calling, shows that
they reject a grace which is sufficient, and sincerely intended, to save
them.
CALNEH, a city in the land of Shinar, built by Nimrod, and one of the
cities mentioned Genesis x, 10, as belonging to his kingdom. It is
believed to be the same with Calno, mentioned in Isa. x, 9. It is said
by the Chaldee interpreters, as also by Eusebius and Jerom, to be the
same with Ctesiphon, standing upon the Tigris, about three miles distant
from Seleucia, and that for some time it was the capital city of the
Parthians. Bochart, Wells, and Michaëlis, agree in this opinion.
CALVARY, or, as it is called in Hebrew, _Golgotha_, “a skull,” or “place
of skulls,” supposed to be thus denominated from the similitude it bore
to the figure of a skull or man’s head, or from its being a place of
burial. It was a small eminence or hill to the north of Mount Sion, and
to the west of old Jerusalem, upon which our Lord was crucified. The
ancient summit of Calvary has been much altered, by reducing its level
in some parts, and raising it in others, in order to bring it within the
area of a large and irregular building, called “The Church of the Holy
Sepulchre,” which now occupies its site. But in doing this, care has
been taken that none of the parts connected with the crucifixion should
suffer any alteration. The same building also encloses within its
spacious walls several other places reputed sacred. The places which
claim the chief attraction of the Christian visitant of this church, and
those only perhaps which can be relied on, are, the spot on which the
crucifixion took place, and the sepulchre in which our Lord was
afterward laid. The first has been preserved without mutilation: being a
piece of ground about ten yards square, in its original position; and so
high above the common floor of the church, that there are, according to
Chateaubriand, twenty-one steps to ascend up to it. Mr. Buckingham
describes the present mount as a rock, the summit of which is ascended
by a steep flight of eighteen or twenty steps from the common level of
the church, which is equal with that of the street without; and beside
this, there is a descent of thirty steps, from the level of the church,
into the chapel of St. Helena, and by eleven more to the place where the
cross was said to be found. On this little mount is shown the hole in
which the cross was fixed; and near it the position of the crosses of
the two thieves: one, the penitent, on the north; and the other on the
south. Here, also, is shown a cleft in the rock, said to have been
caused by the earthquake which happened at the crucifixion. The
sepulchre, distant, according to Mr. Jolliffe, forty-three yards from
the cross, presents rather a singular and unexpected appearance to a
stranger; who, for such a place, would naturally expect to find an
excavation in the ground, instead of which, he perceives it altogether
raised, as if artificially, above its level. The truth is, that in the
alterations which were made on Calvary, to bring all the principal
places within the projected church, the earth around the sepulchre was
dug away; so that, what was originally a cave in the earth has now the
appearance of a closet or grotto above ground. The sepulchre itself is
about six feet square and eight high. There is a solid block of the
stone left in excavating the rock, about two feet and a half from the
floor, and running along the whole of the inner side; on which the body
of our Lord is said to have been laid. This, as well as the rest of the
sepulchre, is now faced with marble: partly from the false taste which
prevailed in the early ages of Christianity, in disguising with profuse
and ill-suited embellishments the spots rendered memorable in the
history of its Founder; and partly, perhaps, to preserve it from the
depredations of the visitants. This description of the holy sepulchre
will but ill accord with the notions entertained by some English readers
of a grave; but a cave or grotto, thus excavated in rocky ground, on the
side of a hill, was the common receptacle for the dead among the eastern
nations. Such was the tomb of Christ; such that of Lazarus; and such are
the sepulchres still found in Judea and the east. It may be useful
farther to observe, that it was customary with Jews of property to
provide a sepulchre of this kind on their own ground, as the place of
their interment after death; and it appears that Calvary itself, or the
ground immediately around it, was occupied with gardens; one of which
belonged to Joseph of Arimathea, who had then recently caused a new
sepulchre to be made for himself. It was this sepulchre, so close at
hand, and so appropriate, which he resigned for the use of our Lord;
little thinking perhaps, at the time, how soon it would again be left
vacant for its original purpose by his glorious resurrection.
CALVINISM, that scheme of doctrine on predestination and grace, which
was taught by Calvin, the celebrated reformer, in the early part of the
sixteenth century. His opinions are largely opened in the third book of
his “Institutes:” “Predestination we call the eternal decree of God; by
which he hath determined in himself what he would have to become of
every individual of mankind. For they are not all created with similar
destiny; but eternal life is foreordained for some, and eternal
damnation for others. Every man, therefore, being _created for one or
other of these ends_, we say, he is predestinated, either to life, or to
death.” After having spoken of the election of the race of Abraham, and
then of particular branches of that race, he proceeds: “Though it is
sufficiently clear, that God, in his secret counsel, freely chooses whom
he will, and rejects others, his gratuitous election is but half
displayed till we come to particular individuals, to whom God not only
offers salvation, but _assigns_ it in such a manner that the certainty
of the effect is liable to no suspense or doubt.” He sums up the
chapter, in which he thus generally states the doctrine, in these words:
“In conformity, therefore, to the clear doctrine of the Scripture, we
assert, that, by an eternal and immutable counsel, God hath once for all
determined both whom he would admit to salvation, and whom he would
condemn to destruction. We affirm that this counsel, as far as concerns
the elect, is founded on his gratuitous mercy, totally irrespective of
human merit; but that to those whom he devotes to condemnation, the gate
of life is closed by a just and irreprehensible, but _incomprehensible_,
judgment. In the elect, we consider calling as an evidence of election;
and justification as another token of its manifestation, till they
arrive in glory, which constitutes its completion. As God seals his
elect by vocation and justification, so by _excluding_ the reprobate
from the knowledge of his name, and sanctification of his Spirit, he
affords another indication of the judgment that awaits them,” chap. 21,
book iii.
2. In the commencement of the following chapter he thus rejects the
notion that predestination is to be understood as resulting from God’s
foreknowledge of what would be the conduct of either the elect or the
reprobate: “It is a notion commonly entertained, that God, foreseeing
what would be the respective merits of every individual, makes a
correspondent distinction between different persons; that he adopts as
his children such as he foreknows will be deserving of his grace; and
devotes to the damnation of death others, whose dispositions he sees
will be inclined to wickedness and impiety. Thus they not only obscure
election by covering it with the veil of foreknowledge, but pretend that
it originates in another cause,” book iii, chap. 22. Consistently with
this, he a little farther on asserts, that election does not flow from
holiness, but holiness from election: “For when it is said, that the
faithful are elected that they should be holy, it is fully implied, that
the holiness they were in future to possess had its origin in election.”
He proceeds to quote the example of Jacob and Esau, as loved and hated
before they had done good or evil, to show that the only reason of
election and reprobation is to be placed in God’s “secret counsel.” He
will not allow the future wickedness of the reprobate to have been
considered in the decree of their rejection, any more than the
righteousness of the elect, as influencing their better fate: “‘God hath
mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.’ You
see how he (the Apostle) attributes _both_ to the _mere will_ of God.
If, therefore, we can assign no reason why he grants mercy to his people
but because such is his pleasure, neither shall we find any other cause
but _his will_ for the reprobation of others. For when God is said to
harden, or show mercy to whom he pleases, men are taught, by this
declaration, to seek _no cause beside his will_.” (_Ibid._) “Many,
indeed, as if they wished to avert odium from God, admit election in
such a way as to deny that any one is reprobated. But this is puerile
and absurd; because election itself could not exist, without being
opposed to reprobation;--whom God _passes by he therefore reprobates_;
and _from no other cause_ than his determination to exclude them from
the inheritance which he predestines for his children,” book iii, chap.
xxiii.