FEDERAL THEOLOGY. The designation of a type of Dutch Calvinism which developed in the latter part of the seventeenth century. Its chief exponents were Johann Kochi (died 1069). Franz Burmann (died 1679), Hermann Wits (died 1708), and perhaps one should add Vitrin ga (died 1722). The theological system taught by these scholars was in general a system of covenants (ferdera) conceived as being made be tween God and man. whence the name, 'Federal Theology.' Koch (or Cocceius, as he is com monly known), professor at Franeker, and after wards at Leyden, is usually regarded as the founder of the school; but the federal idea did not originate with him. Something similar had been taught by Olevianus, one of the framers the Heidelberg Catechism, by the Swiss theo logian Eglin (in his De Fudere Gratia., 1613), and by William Ames, an English Puritan, who was professor at Franeker in Koch's student days. John Ball's Treatise of the Covenant of Grace proves the early currency in England of a federal system. whose influence is plainly trace able in the Westminster Confession of Faith. It may almost be said that the idea is latent in all Calvinistic theology, although it marks a de parture from Calvin's own method by not mak ing the doctrine of predestination its starting point.
Koch started with the biblical history of redemption, which he arranged under what he called covenants. By the term 'covenant' he meant not so much a mutual agreement between God and man, with reciprocal obligations, as a promise on God's part, conditioned upon obedient acceptance of the promise by man. It is a gift rather than a contract. There can be nothing like a quid pro quo, for God's part is infinite and man's finite. As developed by Burmann, the federal system includes: (I ) The Covenant of made with Adam as the federal head of the race. God would give man eternal felicity, upon condition that man should remain in his first estate of holiness. This covenant was broken by the fall, and was replaced by (2) the Covenant of Grace between God and fallen man. Man was not released from his former obligation to obedience, although, owing to the fall, he was rendered incapable of performing it. Hence
God in His mercy substitutes grace for works. But in order to render this new covenant possible, God is obliged to send His Son, .Jesus Christ, to supply the obedience lacking on the part of fallen man, and to be the full divine sacrifice for sin. This second covenant is arranged in three 'econ omies'—viz. (a) The ante-legal, or the grace promised to the patriarchs; (b) the legal, pre sented in the Mosaic system of laws and cere monies. which are all typical; and (c) the post legal, including the advent of Christ on earth and the whole of Christian history. To complete the scope of the federal theology, its ruling idea was projected back into eternity by the tran scendental conception of a covenant between the Persons of the Trinity, whose aim was the ereation and redemption of man. This gave a series of three covenants. under which all his tory, divine and human, might lie subsumed. it constituted a philosophy of history on a much broader plan than has commonly been attempted. This threefold system is a later development from Koch's teaching.
The ideas of Koch and his school were dis tasteful to the orthodox Calvinists, for they shifted the emphasis away from predestination. Bence the federal theologians were always under suspicion, and sometimes were openly charged with heresy. Koch himself narrowly escaped condemn:11i OIL Their chief service In the ad vancement of Christian thought consists in hav ing broken with scholastic Protestantism. and, in fidelity to the genuine reformation principle, having once more directed men's minds to the Scriptures themselves. They are not improperly represented as leaders in the study of what is now called biblical theology. Wits (Witsius) and Vitringa are justly honored as the foremost Old Testament scholars of their day. Consult: Cocceius. Opera (Jinni(' (Amsterdam, 1673-75! 3d ed. 1701) : Zovhuyi, Geschichte des Cocec janisnvus (Budapest, 1890) ; Fisher, History of Christian Doctrine (New York, 1896).