The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 34

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

xxxh

Reformation movement, or rather they provided its vital breath. But it was Calvin who first gave them anything like systematic or adequate expression and it is through him and from him that they have come to be the assured possession of the Church of Christ. There is no phenomenon in doctrinal history more astonishing than the commonly entertained views as to the contribution made by John Calvin to the development of Christian doctrine. He is thought of currently as the father of doctrines, such as that of predestination and reprobation, of which he was the mere heir, taking them as wholes over from the hands of his great master Augustine. Mean;

—

while his real personal contributions to Christian doctrine are utterly

These are of the richest kind and can not be enumerBut it is germane to our present topic to note that at their head stand three gifts of the first value to the Church's thought and life, which we should by no means allow to pass from our gfrateful memory. It is to John Calvin that we owe that broad conception of the work of Christ which is expressed in the doctrine of His threefold office of Prophet, Priest, and King; he was the first who presented the work of Christ under this schema, and from him it was that it has passed into a Christian commonplace. It is to John Calvin that we owe the whole conception of a science of " Christian Ethics"; he was the first to outline its idea and develop its principles and contents, and it remained a peculium of And it is to John Calvin that we owe his followers for a century. formulation of the doctrine of the work of the Holy Ghost; the first developing it especially gave very rich statement, it a he himself "Regeneration," Grace" departments "Common broad of in the " seen, among we have Witness of the Spirit"; and it is, as and the received any day has this descendants only that it to his spiritual of guard ourselves, We must attention in the churches. adequate when bare facts, the exaggeration matter; in such a from course, put forth without pausing to allow for the unimportant shadings, sound of themselves sufficiently like an exaggeration.* But it is forgotten.

ated here.

simply true that these great topics received their first formulation at the hands of John Calvin and it is from him that the Church has derived them, and to him that it owes its thanks for them. ;

*So, for example, a careless reading of pp. 65-77 of Pannier's "Le the impression of exaggeration, whereas it is merely the suppression of all minor matters to emphasize the salient

T^moignage du Saint-Esprit " gives facts that

is

responsible for this effect.

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