THE REFORMATION.

In the Middle Ages, Christian thought as to the Holy Spirit was mainly concerned with His Person and relation to the Deity; scarcely anything seemed to be considered with reference to His work in individuals and the Church. It has been pointed out that in the East Christianity was mainly an intellectual system with no practical stress on the Holy Spirit, while the West had become concentrated under the authority of the Papacy, making Christianity little more than a mental and moral discipline. This tendency in the East was only the full flower of what had been dominant for centuries. Almost from the first the Greek Christian mind had superficial ideas of sin, and an exaggerated idea of philosophy, and this two fold tendency affected the entire theology.1 The result was that the Eastern view of sin was essentially Pelagian long before the time of Pelagius.

' The Greek theology is not really Trinitarian, but Dualitarian. It thinks only in terms of God and His Logos; and if the tradition and experience of the Holy Spirit still claim recognition, the system can only admit it as a shadowy repetition of the Logos, with no independent and effective function or principle of its own. The abstract dogma derived from Greek theology must, for its own self-preservation, for ever repress every movement of freedom, independence, and individuality, such as proceeds from a personal spirit; this limitation of the Catholic theology, inherent in the form imposed upon it by Greek philosophy, lies at the root of its inadequacy to give either theoretical or practical expression to the Christian life; and Christian theology has still to seek a synthesis of Spirit and Wisdom that will articulate a rational order, both physical and moral, issuing out of the activity of a free Spirit.'2

In the West, while the influence of Augustine was still at work in relation to the fact of sin and the consequent need of grace, yet the Church as a whole had become quite Semi-Pelagian, and this, together with the increasing sacerdotalism and its consequences, tended to keep the minds of men away from the question of the Holy Spirit of God. But, as we have seen, there were tendencies in Mysticism which went to emphasise the need of the Holy Spirit, and so far to prepare the way for the Reformation. The Reformation upheaval marks an epoch in connection with the Holy Spirit. While the Reformed Churches bore testimony in their formularies to a close adhesion to the doctrine of Chalcedon concerning the Deity, there was an entire change of view in regard to the Work of the Holy Spirit. His Deity was never in question, but the Reformation was revolutionary in regard to His Work.

The first aspect of this is associated with Divine revelation.

' During the long night of the Middle Ages the teaching of the New Testament was obscured by the huge shadow of the Church, a building which, intended to point men heavenwards, gradually blocked out from view the sun in its splendour and the azure of the sky. Reformers before the Reformation and the great leaders in the sixteenth century did much to clear the air and bring men face to face with God in Christ. It was not their fault, nor was it in itself an error, that they pointed chiefly to a Book; for in this was the primitive record to which they appealed from the traditions which had obscured its meaning and stifled its teaching and influence. In reality they were building better than they knew. In vindicating the authority of the Scriptures against the encroachments of the Church they were helping to prepare the way for the complete supremacy of the Spirit.'3

Holy Scripture was no longer regarded as an ecclesiastical law book, needing to be interpreted by the Church and protected by the Hierarchy. It was the Word of God which once again spoke direct to the soul, and was to be received by faith, and illuminated by the Spirit of God. The difference this made in men's conception of the Holy Spirit is profound and far-reaching.

Associated with this was the Reformation truth of peace with God on the basis of the Atoning Sacrifice received direct into the heart by faith. This doctrine, which Luther with true spiritual insight called the articulus aut stantis aut cadentis ecclesiae, at once set aside the need of priestly; mediation, introducing the soul to God and providing the means of the Holy Spirit's presence and blessing. Here, again, the teaching was nothing short of revolutionary.

Not least of all, the controversies concerning Predestination and Freewill bore fruit in the same direction. There is nothing more striking or more characteristic of the Reformation from beginning to end than this emphasis on the Sovereignty of God, a doctrine taught as clearly by Melancthon as by Calvin.

' It is a striking fact that the Protestant theology of the sixteenth century both began and ended in strict theories of Predestination .... The severe doctrine of Calvin on the subject of Predestination is notorious; but it should be remembered that the teaching of Melancthon in the first edition of his work was not less severe.'4

The explanation of this is seen in the fact that it is only by means of such a doctrine that man is brought to realise his own utter sinfulness and weakness, and his absolute and constant need of the grace of God. It was no mere philosophical problem of the Divine sovereignty and man's freedom, but a controversy which went to the heart of moral and religious realities.

' In proportion to the depth of men's moral and spiritual struggle, in proportion to the intensity with which they apprehend the height of the Divine righteousness and the Divine ideal, must there arise in them a sense of the utter feebleness of their own powers, of the weakness and servitude of their wills, and of their absolute dependence on Divine grace and the Divine will.'5

The bearing of all this on the need of the Holy Spirit is clear, and we are not surprised to find that the Reformation doctrine carried the twofold message, ' Without Me ye can do nothing '; 'I can do all things in Him Who strengtheneth me.' The Holy Spirit was seen to be beyond all else ' the Spirit of grace ' to those who were willing to receive Christ through simple faith.

Arising out of these three aspects of Holy Scripture, Justification, and Divine Sovereignty came the vital and fundamental difference in the relation of the individual to the community. Up to the time of the Reformation the characteristic and essential feature of mediaeval theology was 'through the Church to Christ,' but the Reformation reversed this method by a reinsistence on the New Testament principle of '.through Christ to the Church.' This, in some respects, is acknowledged on both sides to be the fundamental difference between Romanism and Protestantism. Protestantism has been truly described by a Roman Catholic authority:

' It took its stand upon a twofold antagonistic principle of its own — first, the principle of the immediate guidance of the soul by the Holy Spirit or private judgment which radically subverted all Church authority, and notably that of the Supreme Pontiff; and secondly, the principle of justification by Faith alone, which practically subverted the whole Sacramental and Sacrificial system and with it the sacerdotium or priestly ministry that it postulates. Both these twin Reformational principles are at root logically one.... In the Catholic mind the order of Salvation stands as one, two, three — Christ, the Church, the Soul: that is to say, Christ living and acting in His Church teaches, saves, and sanctifies the soul. The work of Luther was to alter the order into that of Christ, the Soul, and the Church — or one, three, two. It is thus that in the Protestant mind the Church, falling into the third place, becomes something merely instrumental, instead of being as it is in the Catholic mind, something vital and permanently structural.'6

What has been said as to the precise relation of the individual and the Church does not ignore the obvious fact that our Christian heritage comes to us through the Christian Church, that faith is always mediated to the individual by the community or its members. But this is the work of a medium, not a mediator, and is spiritual not hierarchical. The fundamental difference between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism remains untouched.

It is unnecessary for our present purpose to refer specifically to individual Reformers, but there can be no doubt that both Luther and Calvin stand out supreme among Reformation theologians in their testimony to, and insistence on, the work of the Holy Spirit. Luther by his emphasis on Justification had much to say about the Holy Spirit as the Author of Divine Revelation mediated through faith, while Calvin brought into prominence those aspects of the work of the Spirit which are associated with the Divine Trinity and the operation of the Spirit in the heart and life of believers.

' There are three points in his teaching respecting the Holy Spirit which deserve notice: the Trinity, the work of the Spirit in renewal and sanctification, including His testimony to the sonship of believers, and the testimonium Spiritus Sancti internum, or the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit to the truth of the Scriptures and so to their Divine authority.'7

It has been said that we owe the doctrine of the work of the Holy Spirit more to Calvin than to anyone else.8 This view has been made the subject of qualification, that it is true ' only in a very restricted sense,' namely, that

' Calvin was the first to give formulated expression to a description of the benefits bestowed by the Spirit on the individual believer.'9

But it is admitted that Calvin's 'Outline of New Testament teaching has been largely followed by Protestant Churches since his day.'10

It is also unnecessary to do more than refer to the fact that the various Reformed documents, the Augsburg Confession of 1530, the Anglican Articles of 1553, the Formula Concordiae, the Helvetic Confession, and, later on, the Westminster Confession, all bore testimony to the Deity of the Spirit following Chalcedon in its Western form, including the Filioque, and to the various aspects of the Work of the Spirit which had been brought into prominence by the Reformation. Indeed, we may say that there was not a single vital doctrine connected with the personal life of the believer and the spiritual life of the Church which was not affected by the new and true emphasis on the presence and work of the Holy Spirit, and it is assuredly true that ' The developed doctrine of the work of the Holy Spirit is an exclusively Reformation doctrine.'11

1 Smeaton, The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, pp. 264, 292.

2 Rees, 'The Holy Spirit as Wisdom,' Mansfield College Essays, p. 304.

3 Davison, ' The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit,' London Quarterly Review, April, 1905, p. 211.

4 Wace, Principles of the Reformation, p. 120.

5 Wace, op. cit. p. 145.

6 Moyes, ' The Mass and the Reformation,' Eucharistic Congress, 1908, pp. 37. 38.

7 Denio, The Supreme Leader, p. 74.

8 B. B. Warfield, Introduction to Kuyper's The Work of the Holy Spirit, p. xxxiii.

9 Davison, Article ' The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit,' London Quarterly Review, April, 1905, p. 215.

10 Davison, op. cit. p. 215.

11 B. B. Warfield, op. cit. p. xxxiii.