Schaff - History of the Christian Church Vol. 8 - Media Sabda Org

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from this rubbish to new life and power. He combines dogmatics and ethics
in organic unity.
He plants himself firmly on the immovable rock of the Word of God, as the
only safe guide in matters of faith and duty. He exhibits on every page a
thorough, well-digested knowledge of Scripture which is truly astonishing.
He does not simply quote from it as a body of proof texts, in a mechanical
way, like the scholastic dogmaticians of the seventeenth century, but he
views it as an organic whole, and weaves it into his system. He bases the
authority of Scripture on its intrinsic excellency and the testimony of the
Holy Spirit speaking through it to the believer. He makes also judicious
and discriminating use of the fathers, especially St. Augustin, not as judges
but as witnesses of the truth, and abstains from those depreciatory remarks
in which Luther occasionally indulged when, instead of his favorite dogma
of justification by faith, he found in them much ascetic monkery and
exaltation of human merit. “They overwhelm us,” says Calvin, in the
dedicatory Preface, “with senseless clamors, as despisers and enemies of
the fathers. But if it were consistent with my present design, I could easily
support by their suffrages most of the sentiments that we now maintain.
Yet while we make use of their writings, we always remember that ‘all
things are ours,’ to serve us, not to have dominion over us, and that ‘we
are Christ’s alone’ (1 Cor. 3:21–23), and owe him universal obedience. He
who neglects this distinction will have nothing certain in religion; since
those holy men were ignorant of many things, frequently at variance with
each other, and sometimes even inconsistent with themselves.” He also
fully recognizes the indispensable use of reason in the apprehension and
defence of truth and the refutation of error, and excels in the power of
severe logical argumentation; while he is free from scholastic dryness and
pedantry. But he subordinates reason and tradition to the supreme
authority of Scripture as he understands it.
The style is luminous and forcible. Calvin had full command of the majesty,
dignity, and elegance of the Latin Ianguage. The discussion flows on
continuously and melodiously like a river of fresh water through green
meadows and sublime mountain scenery. The whole work is well
proportioned. It is pervaded by intense earnestness and fearless consistency
which commands respect even where his arguments fail to carry
conviction, or where we feel offended by the contemptuous tone of his
polemics, or feel a shudder at his decretum horribile.