[Malleus Anabaptistarum; Een hamer Op dat hoofd aller Weder­döperschen Secten, welke slaat, breekt, en gantschlijk verderft haren kop, en verdedigt de Goddelijke waarheid in vierendertig hoofdstukken der Christelijke leer; (Arnhem: Jan Janssen, 1606)]

Carolus Gallus (Karel de Haan, 1530–1616), born at Arnhem in the year of our Lord 1530, was from his youth set apart by Providence for labors in the vineyard of the Church. Educated first in the principles of the Roman faith, he undertook studies in law and theology, preparing for the priesthood in that communion. Yet, by the secret operation of God’s Spirit and through diligent search of the Scriptures, he was brought to embrace the doctrines of the Reformation. Desiring to learn at the feet of the chiefest lights, he sojourned to Geneva, where he sat under John Calvin and Theodore Beza, imbibing pure doctrine and the method of sound exegesis. Returning to the Netherlands, Gallus was at first compelled to serve as priest in Deventer, whence he was quickly driven for his evangelical convictions. He ministered in the duchy of Cleves, Bremen, and as military chaplain in Gelderland, enduring hardship and opposition for Christ’s sake. In all these posts he faithfully contended for the faith once delivered to the saints, laboring especially to refute the dangerous errors of the Anabaptists, whose spiritual delusions threatened the peace of the Reformed churches. In the year 1587, Gallus was called to the distinguished office of Professor of Theology at the University of Leiden, wherein he trained many in the sacred sciences and polemical divinity. Yet, preferring the pastoral charge, he resigned and spent his latter years ministering at Nijbroek, continuing steadfast in the Word until his death in 1616. Gallus’s writings, especially his Malleus Anabaptistarum and numerous polemical treatises, bear witness to his zeal for pure doctrine, his learning, and his deep concern for the peace and unity of the church. He stands as a vigilant watchman in the midst of an age fraught with schism and heresy.

Carolus Gallus (Karel de Haan, 1530–1616), born at Arnhem in the year of our Lord 1530, was from his youth set apart by Providence for labors in the vineyard of the Church. Educated first in the principles of the Roman faith, he undertook studies in law and theology, preparing for the priesthood in that communion. Yet, by the secret operation of God’s Spirit and through diligent search of the Scriptures, he was brought to embrace the doctrines of the Reformation. Desiring to learn at the feet of the chiefest lights, he sojourned to Geneva, where he sat under John Calvin and Theodore Beza, imbibing pure doctrine and the method of sound exegesis. Returning to the Netherlands, Gallus was at first compelled to serve as priest in Deventer, whence he was quickly driven for his evangelical convictions. He ministered in the duchy of Cleves, Bremen, and as military chaplain in Gelderland, enduring hardship and opposition for Christ’s sake. In all these posts he faithfully contended for the faith once delivered to the saints, laboring especially to refute the dangerous errors of the Anabaptists, whose spiritual delusions threatened the peace of the Reformed churches. In the year 1587, Gallus was called to the distinguished office of Professor of Theology at the University of Leiden, wherein he trained many in the sacred sciences and polemical divinity. Yet, preferring the pastoral charge, he resigned and spent his latter years ministering at Nijbroek, continuing steadfast in the Word until his death in 1616. Gallus’s writings, especially his Malleus Anabaptistarum and numerous polemical treatises, bear witness to his zeal for pure doctrine, his learning, and his deep concern for the peace and unity of the church. He stands as a vigilant watchman in the midst of an age fraught with schism and heresy.

Table of Contents:

<aside>

CONCERNING THE ETERNAL PREDESTINATION OF GOD

</aside>

I. Introduction to Predestination

(I.) Importance of This Doctrine

SINCE the entire holy Scripture stands on the eternal Predestination and Election of God as on its own ground and foundation, and the Anabaptists know very little thereof, so must we now also give a thorough report thereof.

(II.) Errors of the Anabaptists

Some Anabaptists think so little of the eternal Predestination of God, as if nothing thereof were taught in the Scripture, and as if we were also little or nothing concerned therewith.

Others arrive there, that they also ascribe Sin to God, which yet not to God, but only to the Devil, and to Man may be attributed. They say God has Himself worked the sin of Adam, of Cain, Saul, and Judas, etc. He has also hardened Pharaoh’s heart, blinded the Jews, given over the Gentiles into perverted minds, and to the false Christians sent powerful errors, etc. For that they misuse this scripture, Ephesians 2:

Who worketh all things after the counsel of his will.

And 1 Corinthians 12:

There is one God who worketh all things in all.

II. Correction of Errors

(I.) First Refutation: Disregard for Predestination

Those who little esteem the teaching of the eternal Predestination of God, the same are punished hard enough by the Scripture, which we thereafter with God’s help will bring forth richly enough.

(II.) Second Refutation: God Not the Author of Sin

Those however who attribute Sin to God, and for that misuse certain passages of the scripture, to them we answer thus: Testifies indeed Paul rightly, that God works all things in all, according to the counsel of His will, thereby is refuted the error of the Gentiles, who there thought, that many things in the world happen by chance, through power and misfortune, and yet fortune and misfortune, without any Divine governance, therefore they also had made of fortune their own Idol. Against this the holy Scripture teaches in many places, that all things, which may be in Heaven and on Earth, alone through God’s providence, and governance exists, is maintained and governed, also Wars and Peace, Sickness and Health, Death and Life, etc.

But the Almighty God works nothing without all order and distinction. He holds in all His works a very wonderful, incomprehensible, and very fine order, according to His eternal purpose, wisdom, counsel and will, and according to His holy and righteous Judgment, Sometimes in order to show His grace, and sometimes in order to execute His wrath. That Paul clearly teaches Romans 9 with these words:

Therefore when God would show wrath, and make His power known, He has with great patience endured the vessels of wrath which are prepared unto damnation, that He might make known the riches of His glory, on the vessels of mercy, which He has prepared unto glory.