than of godly preachers of the Word—we simply cannot understand them. It marks the extreme of Calvinistic development only in the sense that it embodies the cream of Calvinistic thinking. Framed, as Dr. Alexander F. Mitchell so eloquently tells us,[1] "when the Church was still under the happy influence of a marvellous revival, when the Word of God was felt as a living, quickening, transforming power, and preached not as a tradition, but as the very power and wisdom of God"; and "by men of ripe scholarship and devoted piety, who have remained our models of earnest preaching and our guides in practical godliness, even unto this day"; and primarily for the purpose of vindicating the doctrine of the Church of England as in harmony with the consensus of Reformed Christendom, and therefore with a constant effort to make its decisions unanimous[2] and to secure moderation and catholicity;[3] it not only stands to-day as the representative (in Dr. Schaff's words) of "the most vigorous and yet moderate form of Calvinism," as (in Dr. Macgregor's words) "a model of guarded strength in moderation," but also as a document so filled with vital godliness that its every section seems to have been framed in the consciousness of God's presence, and no one can feed on it without feeling that he is in the very temple of the Most High.[4] If men would only study
- ↑ Minutes of the Sessions of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, etc. Introduction: p. lxxv.
- ↑ Ibid., p. xlv.
- ↑ Ibid., pp. liv., lv., lxxiv.
- ↑ Cf. Dr. Candlish (the elder): "I think it worthy of special notice how our Westminster Standards, sometimes held to consist of hard and dry abstractions, place so much stress on personal union to Christ as the explanation of our being made partakers of the benefits of redemption." (The Fatherhood of God, edition 5, p. 196.) The whole passage, pp. 192–197, will repay perusal in this connection.
