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yet apostolical, even if Saint Paul or Saint Peter taught it; on the other hand, what preaches Christ would be apostolical, even if Judas, Annas, Pilate, and Herod did it."1

The merit of the Calvinistic Reformation is that it so distinctly set forth the means by which God accomplishes human redemption by the divine grace of the Gospel. The divine grace is the sole efficacious instrument of redemption, and this grace becomes itself a test of the true Word of God. The divine grace in the Scriptures gives its witness for the Scriptures, discriminating the true Canon from all other books.

"We know these books to be canonical, and the sure rule of our faith not so much by the common accord and consent of the Church, as by the testimony and inward illumination of the Holy Spirit, which enables us to distinguish them from other ecclesiastical books, upon which, however useful, we cannot found any article of faith." 2

It was the merit of the British Reformation from the beginning that it laid such stress on the Divine Word alone, and it was especially in the British churches that this principle received its fullest statement and development. Thus it was a cardinal principle of the Church of England that:

"The Holy Scripture conteyneth all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite as necessary to salvation." 3

And the Westminster Confession states:

"The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed and obeyed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon God (who is truth itself), the Author thereof; and therefore it is to be received, because it is the word of God."4

Thus the three principles of the Reformation were emphasized variously in the three great branches of the Reformation. The most serious defect was in the failure of the respective

1 Vorred. zu Epist. Jacobus; Walch, XIV. p. 149. 2 French Confession, Art. IV.

4 West. Conf., I. 4.

3 Thirty-Nine Articles, Art. VI.

churches properly to combine these principles, and especially in the neglect to define with sufficient care the relation of the divine grace and human faith to the Word of God. Hence the common error into which the churches of the Reformation soon fell, notwithstanding their symbols of faith, namely, the undue emphasis of the external Word of God over against the internal Word of God.1 The solution of this problem has been prepared for (a) by the exaltation of the Person of Jesus Christ more and more during the last century, as the central principle of theology. He is the Word of God in the Word of God, the eternal Logos. He is the veritable grace of the Gospel in whose person grace concentrates itself for the redemption of mankind. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."2

(b) Another preparation is in the deeper understanding of the work of the Divine Spirit in the individual and in the Church. It is just in these two respects that the venerable mother of churches, the Roman Catholic communion, has its share in so great a work. For the Roman Catholic Church has ever emphasized the real presence of the Divine Spirit and of the Christ in the organism of the Church, and in all the institutions of the Church. The Protestant churches in their zeal against limiting the work of Christ and His Spirit to the operations of the Church, and in their efforts to maintain the independence of the Christ and His Spirit of any and every means of grace, have tended to depreciate the Church and its institutions, and so to lose sight of the real presence of the living, reigning Christ, and of the real presence of His Spirit in the Church and its institutions. The Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Church have each their part to do in the reconciliation of all in a higher divine unity.

II. THE GRACE OF GOD IN HOLY SCRIPTURE

The grace of God is the free, unmerited favour of God in redemption. That grace is bestowed upon men in Jesus Christ

1 See pp. 621 seq.

2 John 316.

the Saviour. That grace is presented to us by the Holy Spirit, and applied by Him to our persons and lives. This application is made in the use of certain external media which are called the means of grace. "The Holy Ghost works faith in our hearts by the preaching of the holy Gospel, and confirms it by the use of the holy sacraments."1 Thus the chief of these means of grace, according to the Reformed churches, is the Word of God, or the holy Gospel as contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.

The

1. In what sense are the Scriptures means of grace? Scriptures are means of grace in that they contain the Gospel of Christ which is the power of God unto salvation. The Word of God is called the sword of the Spirit. For it "is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart." 2 It is the lamp of God. "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path."3 It is the seed of regeneration. For Christians have "been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the Word of God, which liveth and abideth."4 It is the power of God. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel; for it is the power of God unto salvation," 995 says Saint Paul to the Romans; and he reminds his disciple, Timothy, that "from a babe thou hast known the sacred writings, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." These attributes of the Word of God cannot be brought under the category of inspiration. The inspiration of the Word of God is a highly important doctrine, but it must not be so greatly emphasized as to lead us to neglect other and still more important aspects of the Bible. Inspiration has to do with the truthfulness, reliability, accuracy, and authority of the Word of God; the assurance that we have that the instruction contained therein comes from God. But these attributes of the Divine Word that we have just mentioned in biblical terms are deeper and more important than inspiration. They lie at the root of

3 Ps. 119105.

1 Heidelb. Cat., Quest. 65. 4 1 Pet. 123

2 Heb. 412.

5 Rom. 116.

6 2 Tim. 315.

inspiration, as among its strongest evidences. They stand out as the most prominent features of the Gospel, independent of the doctrine of inspiration. They are features shared by the Bible with the Church and the sacraments, which are not inspired and are not infallible. They are those attributes that make the Bible what it is in the life of the people and the faith of the Church without raising the question of inspiration. They ascribe to the Word of God a divine power such as is contained in a seed of life, the movement of the light, the activity of a sword, a power that works redemption, the supreme means of grace. As Robert Boyle well says: 1

"Certainly then, if we consider God as the Creator of our souls, and so likeliest to know the frame and springs and nature of his own workmanship, we shall make but little difficulty to believe that in the books written for and addressed to men, he hath employed very powerful and appropriated means to work upon them. And in effect, there is a strange movingness, and, if the epithet be not too bold, a kind of heavenly magic to be found in some passages of Scripture, which is to be found nowhere else." 2. What, then, is this power of grace contained in the Scriptures? The power of grace contained in the Scriptures is the redemption made known to us, freely offered to us, and effectually applied to us in Jesus Christ the Saviour. It is the holy Gospel in the Scriptures, the Word of God written, presenting as in a mirror of wonderful combinations from so many different points of view, the glorious person, character, life, and achievements of the Word of God incarnate, the eternal Logos. Thus the Scriptures give us not merely the history of Israel, but the history of redemption from its earliest protevangelium to its fruition in Jesus Christ, the Messiah of history and prophecy. They give us not ordinary biography, but the experience of redeemed men, telling us of their faith, repentance, spiritual conflicts, and the victories of grace. They give us the grandest poetry of the world and the most sublime moral precepts; 2 but this poetry is composed of the songs of the redeemed, and these precepts are the lessons of those who are wise in the fear

1 Some Considerations touching the Style of the Holy Scriptures, London, 1661, p. 241. 2 See pp. 355 seq.

The

of God. They give us oratory; but the orations are prophetic, impassioned utterances of warning and comfort in view of the conflicts of the kingdom of grace and its ultimate triumph, and the preaching of the gospel of a risen and glorified Saviour. They give us essays and epistles ; but these are not to enlighten us in the arts and sciences, the speculations of philosophy, and the maxims of commerce, that we may be students in any of the departments of human learning. They set forth Jesus Christ the Saviour, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.3 Redemption is written all over the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. grace of God that bringeth salvation is the one all-pervading influence. This is the holy substance of the Bible to which all else is the human form in which it is enveloped. Hence the two great divisions of the Bible are called Testaments or Covenants, for they are covenants of grace, the great storehouses in which God has treasured up for all time and for all the world the riches of His grace of redemption. This grace of redemption contained in Jesus Christ and conveyed by the Scriptures is redemption from sin to holiness, from death in guilt to life in blessedness; it is a grace of regeneration and a grace of sanctification.

(a) It is a grace of regeneration. Christians are begotten again, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, by the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever. Jesus represents His word as a seed of grain which He Himself plants in the human heart. It springs up in the good soil, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear, and grows to maturity amidst all kinds of difficulties and dangers. It is a germ of life that imparts itself to man's heart and finds therein the prepared ground of its growth. The words of Jesus are spirit and life; they bear in them the regenerating force of the Divine Spirit to quicken the human spirit. The Gospel is no dead letter, it is a living organism; for Christ Jesus is in it, in it all, and in every part of it, and the energy of the Divine Spirit pervades it, so that its words are endowed

6

1 See pp. 338 seq.

4 1 Pet. 123.

2 See pp. 340 seq.
5 Mk. 4.

3 Col. 28.

6 John 668.

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