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the living center, and therefore does not exist without it. Where the gospel is not known the
covenant is not realized, but where it is preached God establishes His covenant and glorifies His
grace. Both the preaching of the gospel and the administration of the covenant precede the
saving operations of the Holy Spirit, and the believer’s participation in the salvation wrought by
Christ.
b. Their conception of the relation between the work of Christ and that of the Holy Spirit.
The
Anabaptists failed to do justice to this relation. Christ and His redemptive work are presented to
us in the gospel. And it is from Christ, as the Mediator of God and man and as the meritorious
cause of our salvation, that the Holy Spirit derives everything which He communicates to
sinners. Consequently, He joins His work to the preaching of the gospel and operates in a saving
way only where the divine message of redemption is brought. The Holy Spirit does not work
apart from the Christ presented in the gospel.
c. Their reaction against the mysticism of the Anabaptists.
The Anabaptists proceeded on the
assumption that regeneration effected not merely a renewal of human nature, but an entirely
new creation. And this being so, they regarded it as impossible that anything belonging to this
natural creation as, for instance, the human language in which the Word of God is brought to
man, could in any way be instrumental in communicating the new life to sinners. As they saw it,
regeneration eo ipso excluded the use of the Word as a means, since this was after all only a
dead letter. This mystical tendency was strongly opposed by Reformed theologians.
d. Their experience in connection with the spiritual renewal of adults.
While it was a settled
opinion that covenant children who die in infancy are reborn and therefore saved, there was no
unanimous opinion as to the time when those who grew up became partakers of the grace of
regeneration. Some shared the opinion of Voetius that all elect children are regenerated before
baptism, and that the new life can, even in adults, remain concealed for many years. The great
majority, however, were loath to take that position, and held that the new life, if present,
would reveal itself in some way. Experience taught them that many gave no evidences of the
new life until after they had heard the gospel for many years.
4. REASONS FOR A SEPARATE DISCUSSION OF EXTERNAL CALLING
AS PRECEDING REGENERATION.
a. Clearness of presentation.
External and internal calling are essentially one; yet they can and
should be carefully distinguished. A dispute may arise respecting the one that does not directly
concern the other. It may be doubted, whether internal calling logically precedes regeneration
in the case of adults, while there is no uncertainty whatsoever in this respect concerning the
external calling through the gospel. Hence it may be considered desirable to treat of the