The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
94. Cat. Genev., p. 149. Bailey, Praxis pietatis, p. 125: "In life we should act as though no one but Moses had authority over us."
95. "The law appears to the Calvinist as an ideal norm of action. It oppresses the Lutheran because it is for him unattainable." In the Lutheran catechism it stands at the beginning in order to arouse the necessary humility, in the Reformed catechism it generally stands after the Gospel. The Calvinists accused the Lutherans of having a "virtual reluctance to becoming holy" (Möhler), while the Lutherans accused the Calvinists of an "unfree servitude to the law", and of arrogance.
96. Studies and Reflections of the Great Rebellion, pp. 79 f.
97. Among them the Song of Songs is especially noteworthy. It was for the most part simply ignored by the Puritans. Its Oriental eroticism has influenced the development of certain types of religion, such as that of St. Bernard.
98. On the necessity of this self-observation, see the sermon of Charnock, already referred to, on 2 Cor. xiii. 5, Works of the Puritan Divines, pp. 161 ff.
99. Most of the theological moralists recommended it. Thus Baxter, Christian Directory, II, pp. 77 ff., who, however, does not gloss over its dangers.
100. Moral book-keeping has, of course, been widespread elsewhere. But the emphasis which was placed upon it as the sole means of knowledge of the eternal decree of salvation or damnation was lacking, and with it the most important psychological sanction for care and exactitude in this calculation.
101. This was the significant difference from other attitudes which were superficially similar.
102. Baxter (Saints' Everlasting Rest, chap. xii) explains God's invisibility with the remark that just as one can carry on profitable trade with an invisible foreigner through correspondence, so is it possible by means of holy commerce with an invisible God to get possession of the one priceless pearl. These commercial similes rather than the forensic ones customary with the older moralists and the Lutherans are thoroughly characteristic of Puritanism, which in effect makes man buy his own salvation. Compare further the following passage from a sermon: "We reckon the value of a thing by that which a wise man will give for it, who is not ignorant of it nor under necessity. Christ, the Wisdom of God, gave Himself, His own precious blood, to redeem souls, and He knew what they were and had no need of them" (Matthew Henry, The Worth of the Soul, Works of the Puritan Divines, p. 313).
103. In contrast to that, Luther himself said: "Weeping goes before action and suffering excells all accomplishment" (Weinen geht vor Wirken und Leiden übertrifft alles tun).
104. This is also shown most clearly in the development of the ethical theory of Lutheranism. On this see Hoennicke, Studien zur
