The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 37

;

BY PROFESSOR WARFIELD

xxxvii

termination of the doctrine of a vicarious atonement; and only when time had been given for its assimilation, at length men's

minds were able

Then Luther

to take the final step.

claim justification by

faith,

and Calvin

rose to pro-

to set forth with his marvel-

ous balance the whole doctrine of the work of the Spirit in applying In this matter, too, the fulness of the times

salvation to the soul.

needed to be waited for; and when the fulness of the times came the men were ready for their task and the Church was ready for

And

their work. of the

in this collocation

immense upheaval

we

find a portion of the secret

of the Reformation.

Unfortunately, however, the Church was not ready in alike for the

new

course, in the nature of the case

:

for the

all its

parts

This was, of

step in doctrinal development.

development of doctrine

takes place naturally in a matrix of old and hardened partial conceptions,

and can make

its

way only by means

of a conflict of opinion.

All Arians did not disappear immediately after the Council of Nice on the contrary, for an age they seemed destined to rule the Church. The decree of Chalcedon did not at once quiet all Christological deThere were remainbate, or do away with all Christological error.

and indeed that after Synod of Orange began to make headway against the truth. Anselm's construction of the atonement only slowly worked its way into the hearts of men. And so, when Calvin had for the first time formulated the fuller and more precise doctrine of the work of the Spirit, there were antagonistic forces in the world which crowded upon it and curtailed its influence and clogged its advance in the apprehension of men. In general, these may be said to be two the sacerdotal tendency on the one hand and the libertarian tendency on the other. The sacerdotal tendency was entrenched in the old Church from which the Reformers were extruded indeed by the very force of the new leaven of their individualism of spiritual life. That Church was therefore impervious to the newly formulated doctrine of the work of the Spirit. To it the Church was the depository of grace, the sacders of Pelagianism that outlived Augustine

;

the

:

;

raments were

its

indispensable vehicle, and the administration of

lay in the hands of

human

agents.

Wherever

it

this sacramentarian-

ism went, in however small a measure, it tended so far to distract men's attention from the Spirit of God and to focus it on the 7nedia of His working; and wherever it has entrenched itself, there the study of the It is

work

of the Spirit has accordingly

more or

less languished.

easy indeed to say that the Spirit stands behind the sacraments

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